prudentia senex sanctitate Angelus As a child for harmlesness as a young-man for vigor as a son in his obedience to superiors as a Brother in his charity as a Father for his gravity as aged for his wisdom and as an Angel for his sanctity § His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great renown and publique fame But the evidence pregnancy and general renown of his great endowments and worth for learning and prudence for gifts and graces save me a great part of my labor for these were so well known to all the English world in Vniversities in Cities in Countries that in speaking of Bishop Brounrig I may fear to be as tedious and superfluous to you of this present age as if I should hold a candle to shew you the Sun which is sufficiently known by its own light if therefore I may seem to offend any of you by my prolixity be pleased to impute it to the charity and zeal I have for posterity that they may not be ignorant of what many are loth to know and own in this age the great worth of our late English Prelates and Reformed Bishops nor of the injustice of that late Sarcasm which joyns Prelacy and Popery together § He was for prelacy but for from Popery Here was much of a Primitive Prelate nothing of some modern Popes here was the learned industry and humble piety of antient Christan Bishops nothing of that Antichristian pride empty formality and impious hypocrisie which in the black and blind centuries many Popes who were but diseased hydropick over-grown and unsound Bishops have been guilty of by the confession of Baronius Platina and others of the Romish adhesion from which also I am far remote though a great vindicator of good Bishops § As Nazianzen speaks of his commending Hieron the Philosopher He was willing to appear so much a Philosopher as to commend and admire such a Philosopher So I cannot but appear so much Episcopal as to commend the excellencies of an excellent Bishop which some were as loth to see as willing to smother § Bishop Brounrig was a person of that soundness of judgement of that conspicuity for an unspotted life of that unsuspected integrity that his life was virtutum norma as St. Jerom of Nepotian It a in singulis virtutibus eminebat quasi coeteras non habuisset so eminent in every good and perfect gift as if he had had but one only This made him loved and admired most by those who had most experience of him He was not like those rough pictures and unpolished Statues which at a distance make a pretty shew Near hand minuit praesentia famam their commendation and comliness shrinks almost to nothing but either courtship and formality or the meer noise and vapor of vulgar credulity which is as prone to worship a gay Idol as a true Diety yea people are more taken with complemental froth than with the most accomplished worth § His openness and sincerity of life In this Coloss or Heroe of learned and real worth there was nothing dubious or dark nothing various or inconstant nothing formal or affected nothing that needs palliation or apology He lived always as at noon day never using or wanting any twilight or shadow I never heard of any thing said or done by him which a wise and good man would have wished unsaid or undone yet I had the happiness to know him above thirty years He always appeared as Isidor Pelus speaks of Timotheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sanctuary of sobriety a magazein of humanity a treasury of all vertue and a superlative object of just commendations no less than imitation § He was indeed an Evangelical Eliah potent and fervent in spirit yet not with a heat predatorious but propitious He was apt and able to every good word and work having great parts but little passions As little subject to the usual infirmities and transports incident to men of high and rare abilities as could be few cedars of so noble a procerity ever suffered less tempests or enjoyed more tranquillity within themselves The reason was this he had no leaven of pride at least not so turgent and predominant as either to sowre or swell his passions above his gracious perfections he had the gentleness of a Father the potency of a Prophet the wisdom of a Counsellor the gravity of a Bishop the majesty of a Prince the courage of a Champion he was like Sampson an Army in himself he was as a Troop of Chariots and horsemen strong and resolute for the defence of the true Christian and Reformed Religion with which this Church of England was once blessed both against the great Baals of Popery and the less Baalims of Popularity § So that if I had chosen this Text possibly you would have commended my discretion but as Jacobs venison it offered it self unhunted no other was thought on by me as I told you at first nor could any Jewel in the cabinet of Scripture have better born the characters or gravings of this excellent person and the occasion than this Text which I have wrought off before your eyes my work now is to set the signet of the Text thus graven not upon that dead wax or cold clay which is in that coffin but on that great spirit and that gracious soul whose goodly shrine and temple that body lately was I presume Iust and general Elogies of him I may without the envy or frown of any worthy person here present to honor this solemnity use the words of David at Abners funeral 2 Sam. 3.38 Know you not that this day there is a Prince so St. Jerom and others interpret that Psa 45.16 whom thou mayst make Princes in all lands of Bishops in all Churches I am sure a great man is faln this day in our Israel a Prophet yea more than an ordinary Prophet for as Christ said of John Baptist Among those that were born of women few have in all points equalled this worthy Bishop this reverend Father this gracious Lord who in that true Nobility of wisdom vertue grace and goodness had not many his Peers even among those who were so impatient to have such venerable persons full of prudence learning and piety sit with them or have any influence in the great Councils of Church and State whose presence one would think by the way of former ages was esteemed not only comely but necessary in a Christian Commonwealth to see as Representatives of the Church and Fathers of the Clergy Ne quid detrimenti patiantur aut Ecclesia aut Ecclesiastici for if Religion and Church-interests be left to Laymen only if they do not make a prey of it while it is worth a groat yet they are prone to finde other business and pursue designs of more pleasure profit or honor than Religion seems to most of them and many times as St. Ambrose observed to make mad work of Religion as the Arrians did when they appealed from
no mans reproach or shame so kept at a most severe and sacred distance from the Mountain of holiness the name of God and true Religion which if petulant wit like a beast presume to touch it is to be stoned to death Afterward His taking degâ—ees in the Vniversity when he first deserved and then took higher degrees he made all men believe that he was more an honour to the degrees he took than they were to him and the University thought it self did then commence when Mr. or Dr. Brounrig was invested with any degree of honor So great an expectation all good men had of him and so great satisfaction in him for this he had above most men Et felix eximium bonorum omnium votis doctorum expectationi satisfacere great expectation is commonly querulous and injurious as a coy Epicure or squeemish Glutton that can only feed on curious dainties but toward him it was civil and modest like a good stomack or honest appetite it set off and commended the good chear he always provided for it he had so great ingenuity and candor with his great abilities that envy it self as on a smooth and polished globe could not fasten its teeth on him § I cannot but observe among his other learned and accurate performances in publick that the subject and Text Phil. 1.29 was prophetick and prepatory to his after-sufferings upon which he chose to preach his Latin Sermon when he took the degree of Batchelour in Divinity Vobis autem datum c. To you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake which incomparably learned eloquent and pious Sermon he afterwards was to fulful indeed by suffering with Christian magnanimity patience and charity as well as he had accomplished it by preaching most excellently on it thus quod docuit verbo firmavit exemplo he was to make his doctrine good by his practice taking up the cross of Christ as his crown and following him § His preferment in the Church He was afterward preferred to be Prebend of the Collegiate Church of Eli now so horridly desolate and ruined that it may well add to its name the other words of our Saviours passion Lamma sabacthani crying out to the Nation why have you forsaken me and other Cathedrals which were your glory and your Saviours honor even in the sight of Infidels This Dignity he obtained by the favour and love of the then excellent Bishop of that Seat Dr. Felton a very holy and good man he had also a good Living at Barlow not far from Cambridge where in a Country village this good Scribe well-instructed for the Kingdom of heaven brought forth out of the good treasury of his heart things both old and new the ancient mysteries and fundamental truths of Christian Religion in the modern and more accurate method of revived and reformed learning condescending in his Preaching and catechizing to ordinary capacities and fitting his net to the fish he was to catch He oft deplored the disuse and want of Catechizing as if there were no babes in the Church for milk but all must be fed with strong meat which they cannot digest or with bones which they cannot pick. § In the Vniversity Master of Catharine hal After this he was chosen Master of Catharine Hall a small basis or pedestal for so great a Statue and Coloss of learning piety and prudence to stand upon yet then and there this great Lamp began to be set and to shine in a sphere more proper for his parts and proportionate to his lustre who had a soul not fitted for a cottage but a Colledge Nor only for a Colledge but for a Palace nor for a Palace so much as for a Kingdom § God saw him at present more worthy to preside in the Schools of the Prophets than to rusticate as Elisha sometimes did among plain people that follow the Plough not that their souls are less precious but plainer and blunter tools will do their work § Nor was this change of his Province an effect of his own ambitious stickling or seeking as I have heard him tell it but an influence of Gods providence upon the minds of some worthy men who were ashamed in behalf of the University and the age not to see Dr. Brounrig preferred and imployed in some way most proper and proportionate to his well-known abilities And however this offer met at first with some clouds and oppositions from above yet at last the good hand of God upon so good and deserving a person cleared the heavens and dispersed all the prejudices that some then in great place had mis-conceived against him When he had quiet possession of that Mastership it was wonderful to see how the Buildings the Revenues the Students and the studiousness of that place increased by the care counsel prudence diligence and fame of Dr. Brounrig who had such an eye to all that he over-saw none frequenting the studies and examining even younger Schollars that they might be encouraged both in learning and piety § Fixed now and rarely fitted for that Academick way of life his Mother the University seemed even proud of such a Son his very presence and speech had a venerable and lovely majesty with them his looks were a Law of modesty and gravity He did oft bear and discharged most usefully and acceptably to strangers and others the highest Offices and honors of the University both politick as a Magistrate or Justice of Peace in his being Vice-Chancellor and litterate as a Schollar Hemade the Comitia Convivia Commencement Acts to be banquets and feasts in which he as Gamaliel presided a Father and Maderator He kept up very much His temper in point of conformity to the Church of England as good learning and good manners so the honor of Orthodox Divinity and orderly conformity he kept to the Doctrine Worship Devotion and Government in the Chuch of England which he would say he liked better and better as he grew elder and then best of all when he saw the vipers of factions seising upon her out of the fire of her tribulation but not able to do her any harm either as to confute her doctrines or to condemn her constitutions with any shew of reason § Neither in her prosperity nor in her adversity did he indure that any man great or small out of faction pride popularity or novelty should worship or recede from its excellent orders If any out of scruple and tenderness of conscience was less satisfied with some things no man had a more tender heart or a gentler hand either to heal any little scratches or to supple any wonted obstinacy or to win any minds to the peace of the Church who were capable ingenious and honest he drew all by the filken cords of humanity and humility Reason and Religion not by the cart-ropes of rigor and imperiousness he would convince though he did
not convert gain-sayers and if he could not perswade them yet he would pitty and pray for them His Judgment as to the foundations and solemn administration of the Reformed Religion His fixedness in there formed Religion settled in the Church of England and so in other Reformed Churches which were for the main consonant to it was such that he was unmoveable even to a martyrdom Never more offended as I have sometimes heard him express his displeasure than with those men that affected to be Hybridae Religionis Mungrils or Mephibosheths in Religion and halters in opinion a kinde of ambiguous and dough-baked Protestants that are afraid to own their discommunion and distance from the Church politick or Court of Rome even so far as they see by Scripture and antiquity that it hath evidently divorced from communion with the word of God and Institutions of Jesus Christ walking contrary to the judgement and practice of the Primitive Churches To both which he always appealed in the grand concerns of Religion not allowing that pollicy which incroached upon truth and piety though in matters of outward Rites and Ceremonies he allowed latitudes and liberty without breach of charity It was a maxime I have heard him use That nothing was less to be stickled for or against than matters of reremony which were as shadows not substances of Religion As they did not build so they could not burthen if kept within their bounds as was done in Englands Reformation § Yea he had so far both pity and charity for those plain and honest-hearted people of the Roman communion as either their errors presumed by them to be truths or their ignorance in some things not fundamental did not betray them either to unbelief or self-presumption or to final impenitence or to immorality or uncharitableness If there were hope to close the â—ad breaches of these Western Churches no man was more able and willing to have poured balme into them But he feared the gangreen of Jesuitism had festred and inflamed things to an uncurableness which he oft deplored § His temper is latter dispute among reformed Divines As for the differences of other parties in some opinions which then began to grow very quick and warm in England as well as the Netherlands he seemed always most conformed to and satisfied with the judgement of his learned and reverend friends Bishop Vsher Bishop Davenant and Dr. Ward who were great Disciples of St. Austin and Prosper in their contests against the Pelagians Not that he could indure no difference among learned and godly men in opinions especially sublime and obscure without dissentions and distance in affection but he wished all men to look well to the humility and sincerity of their hearts whose heads were most prone and able to manage points of controversie the heat of which is ready to make the fullest souls to boil over to some immoderation and study of sides He thought that Scripture it self was in some points left us less clear and positive as to mysterious not necessary verities that Christians might have wherewith to exercise both humility in themselves and charity towards others § He very much venerated the first worthy Reformers of Religion at home and abroad yet was he not so addicted to any one Master as not freely to use that great and mature judgement which he had so as to sift and separate between their easie opinions and native passions as men and their solider probations and sober practices as great and good Divines He suffered not prejudices against any mans person or opinion to heighten animosities in him against either He hoped every good man had his retractations either actual or intentional that died in true faith and repentance however all had not time to write their retractations as St. Austin did § If against any thing next sin and gross errors he had an antipathy and impatience it was against those unquiet and pragmatick spirits which affect endless controversies varieties and novelties in Religion that hereby they may carry on that study of sides and parties in which they glory and under which skreen they hope to advance their private interests and politick designs This he saw by experience was commonly the Scorpions tail and sting of those opinions which at their first broaching and variating from the pristine and Catholick Doctrine might seem to have the face of women modest and harmless but in time grew very pernicious to Church and State When the clouds of nonconformity which was formerly reduced to an hand breadth in the Church of England began now His constancy in the late vertigious times partly by a spirit or breath of super-conformity and chiefly by those vehement winds which blew from the North to cover the whole English heaven with blackness and to threaten a great storm of blood which after followed yet did this excellent person then hold to his former principles and practice not because he was a Bishop but because he was a judicious and consciencious man where he saw Scripture and Law bound him to duty and to that constancy of his judgement in matters of Religion both essential and circumstantial substantial and ornamental which became a wise and honest man He was too ponderous a person to be tossed too and fro with every wind of doctrine or discipline nor was he ever either so scared or in so merry and frolick a sit as to dance after the Scottish pipe he had learned another and a better tune as from the Catholick Church in general so particularly from this Church and State the Princes and Prelates the Parliments and Convocations of the Reformed Church of England now too old to affect any new jigg after an hundred years most flourishing State the wisdom gravity and majesty of which he thought was not now either to be either disciplined or reformed or chastened by the pedantique authority pretended necessity or obtruded insolency of any Church or Nation under heaven much less by any party in it self which was less than the authority of a full and free Parliament consisting of King Lords and Commons counselled as to matters of Religion by a full and free Convocation or Synod which he thought the most laudable way of managing Religion and most probable by doing good impartially to be blest of God and approved by good men He saw the Church and State of England had been sufficient every way for it self heretofore while united and was then happiest when it enjoyed its own peaceable and Parliamentary Counsels and results without any others partial dictates which were as improsperous as importune and impertinent § For the Liturgie His esteem of the liturgy of the Church of England or publick form of Prayer and solemn Administration in the Church of England though he needed a set form as little as any yet he had a particular great esteem of it 1. For the honor and piety of its Martyrly Composers who enduring such a fiery trial
Bishop who together with many others his reverend Brethren of the last edition and perdition now with God as Usher Hall Morton Davenant Prideaux Winniffe Westfeild Potter and others were as far from being drones and idle bellys Tyrants and oppressors Popish or antichristian as those are who are the most unjust calumniators of them and their Episcopal dignity which hath been so antient and universal in the Church of Christ and is so necessary for the polity and well being of any Church and was by themselves so abundantly deserved yea and worthily managed § I well know how provoking a thing it is to some mens eyes and eares to read or hear the praise of any man who is not of their party and faction There are many who have no patience to behold a Bishop carried to his grave in peace and laid in the bed of honour It is their Hell to see a pious Prelate conveyed to Heaven as it was Dives his regret to behold Lazarus in Abrahams bosom Some have sought to make the very name of Bishop a crime and to render the order degree and honor of it odious when the first is Scriptural and given to Christ first next to the Apostles and their cheif Successors the second is Ecclesiastical of Primitive Catholick and Apostolick use § There are that wish all Bishops out of the world with all their hearts but withal they would have them buried in silence and obscurity For they are scared to see them walk after they are dead as much as Herod was least John Baptist whom he had beheaded in a most wanton and frolick cruelty had been revived in Christ Some are afraid least while the names and merits of our excellent English Bishops remaine they might recover damages for all the losses they have sustained but in this I can secure their Excexcutors and Administrators that if they can give God and their own consciences a good account none of these good Bishops who are now departed in peace and have seen the Salvation of God will ever trouble them being got above the affronts injuries indignities and indigencies of this world § I know the formation of such a Statue as must resemble Bishop Brounrig so burning and shining a light must needs dash the unwelcome sparks and strictures of his well known worth in all Antiepiscopal faces just as an iron flaming from the forge doth when wrought on a firme anvel by a strong arm It is the miserie of many virtutem videant intabita bescantque relicta first to want worth in themselves next not to be able to bear it in another If envie against worthy Bishops is to be burst in pieces this piece will do it if sober moderate minds are reconcilable to venerable Episcopacy as I believe many nay most ministers and people now are this will further invite and confirm them to study the Churches peace and the honor of the Reformed Religion no less than the comfort of their own calling by returning to such temperament and patterns of Episcopal presidency as were to be seen in Bishop Brounrig and in many others of his order in England in which were as worthy Presbyters and as excellent Bishops as ever blest any Church since the Apostles daies for whom we have cause ever to bless the Divine benignity and mercy to this unworthy Nation § I have otherwhere erected Trophies and inscribed them to several Bishops of holy honorable and happy memory in England yea and I have demonstrated by a familiar and plain emblem the vast disproportions that are in all histories and successions of the Church to be seen between the goodly floridness and fruitful procerity of Christianity in all times when it was preserved protected and prospered by Episcopal eminency authority and unity which kept Bishops Presbyters and people in a blessed harmony compared to the modern shrubs of novelty variety discord which later ages have produced § Nor could I forbear upon this occasion to set forth the industry learning eloquence gravitie wisdom moderation patience unspottedness and holy perseverance of this excellent Bishop by way of pleniary opposition and full confutation of that Idleness illiterateness barrenness levity imprudence riggidness passionateness deformity and inconstancy with which some men have been overgrown as with a Manage or Leprosie in this age by their too great itching and scratching against all Episcopacy even till they fetched blood and brought such a festring tetter and sore upon us as is not easily healed § Wherein I have come short of Bishop Brounrigs worth your unanimous pleadings and potent eloquence full of reason and justice of learning and religion of order and policy may best supply my many defects indeed there was need of another Brounrig to have described him § Wherefore knowing my own disproportions I thought it the best way I could take to releive them first by seriously studying of this great pattern next by flying to your protection whose honor is now inseparable from this worthy Bishops no less than his ashes are from your antient Temple which since its first consecrating by Heraclius Patriarch of Jerusalem Anno Christ 1185. in the 31. of Hen. the 2. to this day had never any deposite of greater learning then your famous Selden or of greater piety and veneration than your and our reverend Brounrig who as little needs any Apology to be made for him as the age greatly needs repentance for treating him so much below his worth and myself a great Apology for my adventuring on so great a work § If it be necessary for me further to disarm or lessen that envy which possibly may befall me for the honour of this service which I have done to the name memory and merit of this worthy Bishop and in him to all good Bishops I am willing to conclude as St. Bernard doth in his modest and humble oratory upon a like occasion Dignus sane ille qui laudaretur sed indignus ego qui laudem if the fire of Antiepiscopal anger must still be fed with some fewel Parcite defunctis in me convertite ferrum let them spare the dead and fix their talons or teeth on me who am yet living who am content not to be commended by them or any malevolent Reader yet I am sure this reverend Bishop was most worthy to be commended by me and all good men which is then most effectually done by your selves O worthy Gentlemen and all equanimous Readers when his piety prudence zeal courage humility charity and judicious constancy in Church and State are most exactly imitated by your selves and others which is the just and serious ambition of Your very humble servant in Christ IOHN GAUDEN Ian. 1. 1659. ERRATA PAge 5. Line 8. read are for is p. 8 l.13.r audible p. 33. l. 12. add when yet p. 24. l. 4. by for lie p. 45. l. 1. r. Moenis p. 56. l. 20. Oracles for creeds p. 58. l. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p.
any Parents It was stoning to death Deut. 21.20 by which God would have the honor of the meanest Parents though poor and old weak and simple asserted against their sturdy and proud children while yet under their roof and discipline § Next these Princes and Magistrates have the name as of Gods and Lords so of Fathers Patres Patriae and of nursing Mothers after these the Priests and Prophets of old were called Fathers So the King of Israel returns the very same compellation to Elisha dying which he gives here to Eliah thus in the Gospel St. 1 Cor 4.15 Paul owns his merit so far though you have had many teachers or instructers yet not many Fathers for he had first begotten them to the faith by his preaching the Gospel to them so in the antient Christian-Churches though they had many Presbyters as Instructers or Consecrators yet the Bishops were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a special honor as Successors to the Apostles in paternal inspection and authority as begetting Sons to the Church by instruction and patres minores lesser Fathers or Presbyters by Ordination called Patres then also Patriarchs were Patres patrum which by way of gemination brought in the two first syllables Pa Pa not from the Syriack Abba transposed but from the first syllables of Pater and Patriarcha or Pater Patrum into the Church as before into the Imperial State from Pater Patriae to make up Papa which title the Bishop of Rome hath monopolized when of old it was given to other Patriarchs and Bishops § This is certain The duty as well as dâ—gnity implyed in the name Father God that communicates the name of Father to Magistrates in State or Pastors or Bishops in the Church doth withal teach and exact the duties imported in the name Father First Father in Magâ—stracy Both Governors in Church and State should delight rather in that exercise which is Paternal than despotical fatherly than imperious or Lordly much less tyrannick to remember they govern sons not slaves and for Gods glory not for their own profit pomp and pleasure their design and work must be to glorifie God and by doing good with a fatherly freedom and indulgence to deserve the love of others Although they cannot have it from ingrate and ungracious children yet they shall finde God a Father to them when they have carried themselves as Fathers to others Specially Church Governors which were of old in England Fathers in the ministry of the Church and in all Christian Churches Bishops as chief Fathers chosen by the Presbyters approved by the people and endowed with estate and civil honor by Christian Princes these as such must not in their greatest eminency affect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.3 to exercise dominion after the way of the secular sword and severity over Ministers or people but only as Fathers and Spiritual Lords for edification not destruction with gravity not austerity with meekness of wisdom not rigidness of passion yea and as to that civil Dominion which is consistent with spiritual jurisdiction when any are both Bishops and Soveraign Princes which may very well meet in one man for what hinders a Prince as George of Anhalt to be a Bishop or Preacher of his Gospel who is Prince and Priest of his Church here they must the more make the world to see they bear the double name of Father to their people such paternal Bishops we had heretofore in England and such indeed was this worthy Prelate and such Fathers we might have had still if that had not been fulfilled among us Filius ante diem c. some Sons are impatient not to antidate their Fathers death and destinies or longer to expect the reversion of their estates § It is true that double honor which the piety and munificence of Christian Princes and States had bestowed on Bishops as Fathers in chief and other Ministers of the same relation though a lower station in the Church both as to ample revenues and some secular jurisdiction or dignity to give them greater advantages to improve their spiritual and paternal authority more to the glory of God and the good of Christian people as to instruction protection and relief these ought not in any sort to leaven or overlay those condescending Graces and paternal tendernessse which are the greatest eminencies of any Church-man and which may with all pious industry humility charity and hospitality be maintained and exercised by them without any diminution of their civil dignity or ecclesiastical authority as was frequently evidenced by our learned religious hospitable charitable and honorable Bishops in England when they lived both as Lords and as Fathers governing and doing good § Of civil honour added the Fathers the Church So that it cannot be other than a most partial and sinister perverseness in men of evil eyes and envious hearts to fancy that no learning study devotion diligence and prudence in any Minister or Clergyman is capable to merit or enjoy either such honorable estates and salaries or such eminent places and dignities as Counsellors and Senators as Lords and Peers in Parliament to which we see many mens meer riches and worthless money or their lower abilities and industries in legal and civil affairs or their military hardiness and prowess may actually advance them yea and this in a civil intestine War where victory it self is sad and untriumphant yet we have lived to see many short-lived Gourd-Lords created in a chaos of times from very small principles or preexistency of birth estates breeding or worth and this in one day by a kinde of superfetation of honor and these to sit as right honorable ones in another House and to supply the vacant Seats of the antient Barons of England which were Peers in Parliament and consisted of Lords Spiritual and Temporal who had not either forfeited their honor or deserted their places and duties but were driven out by such power as they could not withstand § But not to touch that harsh string too hard we see the Bishops of England have had no great cause to envy those that cast them out as to that honor of having a place in Parliaments since from that time the Nation hath scarce enjoyed one good day nor themselves that fulness and freedom that honor and happiness which of old belonged to the majesty of English Parliaments § This is certain that the name of Lord did not as it ought not to make a venerable Bishop of the Church forget his former name and softer relation of a Father the first is now confined much to denote civil order and secular dignity but the second implies not only natural temporal and humane but spiritual divine and eternal endearments importing that plentitude of paternal love and goodness as is never to be exhausted scarce obstructed for what such unworthiness was ever in children which the benignity and bowels of a Father is not ready to forgive and
Councils of Bishops to the Courts of Princes § Ei birth But to avoid all envy and offence in a touchy and captious age where all people will be Preachers and all Presbyters will be Bishops and all Bishops must be extirpated be pleased to know that the spring or original of this so fair so deep so clear so noble a stream of learning piety and wisdom was at Ipswich a Town of good note in Suffolk where he was born Anno 1592. His Parents of Merchantly condition of worthy reputation and of very Christian conversation When he was not many weeks old God took away his earthly Father that himself might have the more tender and fatherly care of this now Orphan but most hopeful Infant § His youth and education By the prudence of his pious Mother his youth and first years of reason were not lost or cast away as the first broachings of a vessel but being hardly repaired if once neglected they were carefully improved for his breeding in all good learning of which he was to a wonder in all ages of his life not only capable but so comprehensive that he drank in learning not as narrow-mouthed bottles to which young learners are compared by drops but as a sponge by great draughts even in his puerice or minority § Indeed His minority when I would search for his minority or the first source and fountain of that large fluency of eloquent and pious literature with which he alway abounded they are like the fontes Nili springs of Nilus hardly to be found he scarce had any Minority comparatively to others except in growth and stature for he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul says of himself Gal. 1.4 above his equals or coetaneans superior or major in abilities when inferior or minor in years Thus as he grew in age and stature so he grew also in wisdom and favour both with God and man Luk. 2.52 He was as the sons of Giants giantly infants giantly children giantly boyes giantly youths and gyantly men or like the Sun still the Sun at morning noon and night in its rise height and decline he never suffered any lessening or eclipse in himself § He suffered no diminutions but by the darknings of the times That fatal one upon this Church and State which befell him as a Bishop and his whole Order by the bold interposing of popular and headless Presbytery which in its due order not only preserved as Ignatius observes an holy harmony with Episcopacy but ever had as the Moon its light of holy Ordination and spiritval power from its aspect and respect to primitive and Catholick Episcopacy as the Sun But this sad diminution of him and other worthy Bishops was more a publick than a private disaster which even Presbytery it self hath found while the populacy or vulgar people like the earth do revenge even on that envious Moon the eclipse and injury it did to the Sun and to it self for as Episcopacy was turned into the sackcloth of mourning so Presbytery into the blood of war of fury of popular and endless factions for how can Presbyters keep their union lustre and honor but in conjunction with and subordination to Episcopacy as St. Cyprian long ago urged against some heady Presbyters in his days who lived in the second Century § The best method to take the exaltations and dimensions of this bright star which was one of the first magnitude is to observe his motions from his ascending to his decline and the several eradiations of his imitable worth When the Nurse of the Grammer-School had fitted him for his Mother the Vniversity His comming to the Vniversity he was sent in his fourteenth year to Pembrook-hall in Cambridge there his modesty pregnancy and piety soon invited preferment He was made first Schollar of the House and after Fellow a little sooner than either his years or standing in rigor of Statute permitted but the Colledge was impatient not to make sure of him by grafting him firmly into that Society which had been famous for many excellent men but for none more than for Ralph Brounrig when Batchelor of Arts when Master in Arts when Batchelor of Divinity when Doctor of Divinity and when Bp. of Exceter for as he fairly ascended every step or degree so he was ever thought no less to adorn than to deserve his advancements § His florid and fruitfull wit when first he appeared in publique to give testimony of his abilities and proficiency it is not to be expressed how sweet and welcome the very first productions of his most florid and fertile soul were which had the fragrant blossoms of a most facetious and inoffensive wit the fair leaves or ample ornaments of his most eloquent tongue the most pleasant fruits of Philosophy History Poetry and all sorts of ingenuous Arts and Sciences well digested accurately fitted to all occasions these at length raised to Divinity well grounded on Scripture and adorned by the study of antiquity the Fathers Councils and histories of the Church made him appear as one of the goodliest trees in the Paradise or garden of God the Vniversity and Church of England § His memory and eâ—oquence assisting his wit and parts He had always cum fideli memoria uberrimum ingenium beatam facundiam with an happy memory wit and words that were ful free without pumping or hesitancy set forth with an elocution or tone which was grandiloquent dictatorian and imperial he was at once profitably pleasant as Jothams vine and figtree to God and man His great wit was not forced frothy or affected but native apt and free muchless had it any thing muddy in it of prophaness scurrility or immodesty but chast ingenuous and innocent still tempered with such serious learned and pious mixtures or such grave retreates and closes that it seemed no other than beauty well dressed or goodness appearing in a fair and chearful Summers day having nothing of those melancholy clouds or winter dejections of more gloomy tempers He made the proof and experiment good That wit which is a kind of gaiety of fancy and luxuriancy of a ready invention is to be reckoned as beauty and handsomness among the good gifts of God when well used a jewel too bright and precious to be cast before swine or troden under the foul feet of wanton Poets of prophane and ridiculous Atheists who fancy they can out-wit God while yet non tam credunt quam cupiunt non esse Deum they rather wish there were not than believe there is no God being most sadly to be pitied when they seek to make themselves merry and the Devil to laugh by their grieving and mocking God or playing with the Scriptures and holy things which they disbelieve Quia malunt extingui quà m ad supplicia reparari as Minut. Felix speaks of the resurrection because they chuse annihilation rather than penal reparation § But here wit was consecrated to the
were not likely to have made a Liturgy of straw and stubble 2. For its excellent matter which is divine sound and holy besides its method which is prudent and good 3. For the very great good he saw it did as to all sober Christians so to the common sort of plain people who what ever other provision they had of their Ministers private abilities yet they were sure every Lords Day at least to have a wholesom and compleat form not only of Prayers but of all other necessaries to salvavation set before them for faith holy life and devotion in the Creeds Commandments Lords Prayer with Confessions and Supplications admirably linked together and fitted to the meanest capacities the want of which he saw was not supplied by any Ministers private way of praying or preaching which in very deed are but small pittances of piety or fragments compared to the latitude of religious fundamentals and varieties contained in the Liturgie the want of which he judged would induce a great ignorance as he saw and said to me a little before his death it had done already among the ordinary sort of people in Countrey and City whose souls are as precious to God as others of greater parts and capacities whose appetites were not to be flattered and deceived with novelties but fitted and fed with wonted solidities by which they would thrive look better as by the use of plain and repeated food which is as their daily bread than those that delight in greater varieties and dainties which may seem more toothsom to wanton palates but are not more wholesom or nourishing to honest hearts who are commonly less licorous in Religion and best content with what is best for them § Not that he was such a Formalist Verbalist and Sententiolist as could not endure any alteration of words or phrases or method or manner of expressions in the Liturgie to which either change of times or of language or things may invite he well knew there had been variety of Liturgies in Churches and variations in the same Church he made very much but not too much of the English Liturgie not as the Scriptures unalterable but yet he judged that all alterations in such publick and settled concerns of Religion ought to be done by the publick spirit counsel and consent of the Prophets Prince and People However this was a concluded Maxim with him That the solemnity and sacredness of consecrating those Christian mysteries of the blessed Sacraments were not to be adventured upon Ministers private abilities tenuities or distempers but by a publick and uniform spirit among Preachers and people all should say Amen to the same Prayers and receive the same mysteries under one form of consecration in which nothing should be defective or superfluous § His personal and occasional abilities for prayer were answerable to his other gifts and graces both for matter method utterance discretion and devotion full fervent and pathetick upon his own and others spirits not coldly formal and stark nor yet wildly rambling loose and broken but judicious apt grave and of so moderate an extent as suited the weight of the occasion the capacity of the auditors and the intensiveness of his own heart his prayers were not the labor and product only of lips lungs and tongue but of his spirit and understanding he minded not the glory but grace of prayer As to the Government of the Church by Episcopal Presidency His judgment of Church government by Episcopacy to which Prince and Presbyters agree he was too learned a man to doubt and too honest to deny the universal custom and practice of the Church of Christ in all ages and places for Fifteen hundred years according to the pattern at least received from the Apostles who without doubt followed as they best knew the mind of Christ This Catholick prescription he he thought so sacred that as it did sufficiently prejudge all novel presumptions so nothing but importune and grand necessities put upon any Church could excuse much less justifie the cutting off those pipes or the turning of that primitive and perpetual course of Ecclesiastical Ordination subordination and Government into another channel Nor did he understand the method of those new Vitruviusses who would seem Master-builders though they are yet but destroyers when they affect to have all timber and stones in the Churches building of the same shape size and bigness when the Church of Christ is compared to a body which hath members of different forms use and honor 1 Cor. 12. § Yet this worthy man had nothing of secular pomp or vain ambition in his thoughts meerly to bear up or bolster out a formal and titular Episcopacy with Goats hair like Michols image No he exacted worth and work And where true Bishops did the duties and good works belonging to the principal Pastors of the flock he thought they deserved double honor as Fathers and Governors among good Christians both of revenue and reverence § Yet he did not judge the principal dignity or authority of Episcopacy to depend upon its Secular advantages but on its Ecclesiastical custom and Apostolick institution and however no man was more ready to condescend to any external diminutions and comely moderations that might stand with a good conscience and prudence as tending to the peace and unity of the Church yet no man was more firm resolute and immovable from gratifying any Sacrilegious Projectors or proud Factionists or peevish Novellers to the reproach of the Church of England yea and of the Catholick Church in all the world which had its Bishops every where before it had its Bible or its Scriptures compleated In the matter of Episcopacy he differed little from Bishop Vshers moddel of the ancient Synodical Government only he thought the petulancy of mens spirit in these times beyond the primitive simplicity did require all prudent advantages of Order and authority which might consist with piety and true policy as antidotes ought to be heightned to the measure of the poison they are to encounter § He approved not a leveling party among Ministers Only he could never be induced so far to forsake the principle of all Reason Order and Government in humane societies or to disown the remarkable differences which God and Nature age and education experience and studies industry and grace did make between Ministers no less than other men as to think that neither work nor rewards of honor and estate may be proportioned to their different worths but that the youngest Schollar yea the meanest Schoolmaster if they can but now and then appear in a Pulpit and take Orders as they best fancy shall presently in all things of publick honor and Ecclesiastick authority run parallel to the greatest Schollars and gravest Divines so that either a beardless and juvenile petulancy or more aged but empty gravity shall in all points be level and justle with the most venerable worth and accomplished learning of those that are capable to
than others according as they were settled by civil compacts and politick agreements or constitutions of State where the Laws of the Land give any stop restraint or limit to Princes power and proceedings by putting some co-ordinate and cautionary power into some orderly way and legal procedure whereby to vindicate or assert the rights of Subjects there he judged the great Arbitrator of just and unjust lawful and unlawful was the Law of the Nation as Mans and Gods Ordinance which who so brake Prince or People was a transgressor against God and Man who so pursued was unblameable in which case the Lawyer was to go before and the Divine to follow as to resolution of conscience § But for Subjects who were once by publick consent of Laws and many oaths bound to the limits and inclosures of obedience and legal subjection for these to affect a liberty under pretence of Religion as Christians or of any common priciples and natural freedoms as men beyond the established rules and boundaries of the Laws this he thought such a fanatick fetch as would undo and overthrow all Government for where is there any Christian State so setled in which some men will not quarrel with the Laws as too strait-laced for their either spiritual or natural liberties their consciences or conveniencies that is for their lusts and licenciousness their ambition or covetousness or their revenge and discontents § People ungoverned their own greatest oppressors He found by reading and experience that no Tyrannies and Oppressions of any lawful Prince were ever so heavy upon any Nation as when it turns its own Tyrant and fals under a popular self-oppression by inordinate and immoderate affectations of liberty and oppositions to legal and setled Soveraignty as was evident in the passionate Apostacy of the Ten Tribes from Davids house pretending Solomons exactions when it is better to be oppressed by one wise Prince than to be left to popular liberties which ruine Church and State § He judged as one true God is beyond ten thousand Idols so was one Lawful Soveraign with a wise Council and a settled Law beyond all the many headed and many handed Hydra's of any popular parity or other forms of Government whatsoever § For he had observed that warlike and populous Nations are much more crushed and bruised with their own weight like heavy bodies when they fall from an higher station or posture then when they are only bastonadoed with a cudgel or not mortally wounded with a sword which blows have as far less pain and expence of blood or spirits so greater possibility and speed of recovery § Though he was a very learned and well-read Schollar yet he had not studied Marianas or other Jesuitish Catechisms as to those reserves in point of civil subjection and obedience by which they allow either one great Pope or many little ones to dominier over Soveraign Princes or chief Magistrates upon any account of Christs Kingdom and spiritual power § He was more versed in the Bible of the Bishops translation than in any Papal glosses or others Annotations § However being a Father of the Church he thought it became him to be a very dutiful and obedient Son to the King as Father of his Country in England who was under God Grandfather of Church and State by a Law that invested him in a Soveraignty or Monarchy subject to no power on earth § This he judged the safest way as to inward and outward peace in conscience and prudence for men and Christians for Church and State Accordingly when O. P. with some shew of respect to him demanded his judgment in some publick affairs then at a nonplus his Lordship with his wonted gravity and freedom replied My Lord The best counsel I can give you is that of our Saviour Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods with which free answer O. P. rested rather silenced than satisfied When he had accepted to be a Bishop I think he had sinned if he refused Gods call to that Office and honor being so able so worthy What damps and distances he found from some Ministers after they saw he was an eclipsed Bishop and so willing to have done good as in all times so in such a time as that was the Amphibian Ministers who could live in Presbytery or Episcopacy as their interest led them when they saw the Northern tempest strong the tide to turn and this good Bishop with others not likely to enjoy the estates and honors of their Bishopricks Then O then began some of those Preachers whose Darling Crown and Triumph whose almost adoration and Idol Dr. Brounrig had sometimes been now they began to withdraw from him to keep a loof and at distance to look as strangers on him and to be either afraid or ashamed to appear before him such a reproach and maul his very presence constancy and gravity were to their popular and time-serving inconstancies that many became his enemies because he persevered in the truth they once asserted and had now deserted by the confutation and conversion which tumults and arms had made on their spirits more than any new reasons and arguments § Others were so peevish and spiteful against him not as Dr. Brounrig but as an unfortunate Bishops that to revenge their own sin and folly on their betters they after the Lystrian levity Act. 14.18 19. endeavored to stone him and other Bishops whom they once had reverenced as Gods consenting to and applauding his expulsion out of the House of Lords out of the Colledge and University yea and to his deposition as much as humane power and malice could from his Episcopal Office and Authority which yet he failed not while he lived as he had power and opportunity to discharge § If he had as a Bishop met with better times as to Christianity or worse as to Heathenish barbarity so as to have shined fully and steadily in one of those golden Candlesticks of the Church for which he was fitted I make no doubt but the most benign influence of so able so affable so amiable so consciencious so compleat a Bishop would have wrought as great effects in any Diocess where he lived as Gregorius Thaumaturgus is said to have done in his Scythian Bishoprick where when he came first to them he found but fifteen Christians when he left them he left but so many Heathens or Infidels amonst them Bishop Brounrig was as likely as any man to have been a Thaumaturgus to have wrought miracles in this age if they had been so just moderate and wise as to have made use of his oracular wisdom in grand and publick concerns or to have trusted to the counsels of such Schollars as much as of Soldiers § His publick prudential ability Possibly other men and Bishops might have as much learning but few that ever I knew had his incomparable clearness candor solidness sweetness dexterity eloquence and great
reputation He was beyond any new feculent and intoxicating Must of yesterdays tunning like an excellent piece of sound good old wine always ripe and ready for all commers and tasters fully prepared for all essays and to all business of import § If he had once had any moderamen guidance of the chariots and horsemen of Israel the Clergy and Ministers of England it is not imaginable what his gravity goodness sincerity moderation oratory and piety would have done He would have been far enough from Phaethons fact and fate to have overthrown or set all on a light fire but this was a blessing that this Nation was not worthy of being ripe for wrath fitter for Soldiers to mow down than Schollars to plant or water it Other mens judgment of Bishop Brounrig before they plaid a new Presbyterian game § As to the esteem he had on all hands I my self have oft heard as others so Mr. John Pint who was of some kindred to this Bishop not only highly commend him but even glory and boast of him so did M. Marshal and those of his Juncto while conformity kept them warm till growing wanton planetary and excentrick from their former judgement and practice for many years they turned the Tables and withdrew their stakes these indeed for reasons of State playing against Bishops and Episcopacy while the other always like himself and as became Bp Brounrig for conscience sake stood constant to assert it as I know this reverend Prelate did ever to his last nor from any vain glory pertinacy pride or humor of revenge he was far remote from any such poisons but from eternal and immutable principles of Reason and Religion of order polity and peace in Church and State also from experience of the blessings by and under Episcopacy which this and other Churches had enjoyed and the either defects or miseries for want of it He hath sometime said to me That he held other reformed Churches which had not Bishops to have verum esse a true being of Ministers and other Christians but it was esse defectivum They had as wandering people esse naturale but not esse civile they might be Christs sheep but not so folded and under such shepherds as the Church had ever used from the Apostles days much insisting on that due veneration which posterity and particular Churches owe to the piety prudence and fidelity of the Catholick Church in Primitive times where Churches no more thrived or lived without Bishops as Presidents authoritative among and above Presbyters than Christians lived without their heads or hearts Yet was he out of love to his native Country His moderation in the matter of Episcapacy and pity for the Church of England passionately inclined to any fair and fraternal accommodations that humble orderly and worthy Presbyters whom he loved and treated as brethren might have all their due and Bishops no more than was their due by Scripture by primitive customs by the Laws of the land and by principles of order and true polity among all fraternities of men He had so great regard to the judgment Catholick custom of this and all Churches of Christ in all ages that he did not like some modern Sampsons think fit to break those cords or bands asunder at the pleasure of any men whatsoever meerly upon secular and civil designs for however he well knew that the Church depends on the Civil State for its secular peace and support yet he thought it but meet that a Christian State should in things Ecclesiastical conform to the primitive and Catholick customs of the Church Certainly he had been an admirable center for union His desire of an happy union between Bishops and Presbyters having a strong majestick attractiveness to win even adversaries to the love or reverence of him his demonstrations were so potent his perswasions so pathetick his designs so upright and just his deportment so fatherly and friendly that he was capable to rectifie even crooked pieces and to mollifie even stubborn perverss and peevish tempers if they did not with an high hand run quite counter and cross-grained to antiquity and reason either toward Rome or Amsterdam or Geneva to superstition to confusion or to popular and prevalent factions which he thought no less pernicious than novel to England by which some men not only seek to dictate very magisterially to this and all present Churches and States Christian but they dare to despise and condemn all antiquity even to the Primitive and Apostolical times as if no Christian Churches were ever well and rightly governed till after fifteen hundred years in all which times either long Anarchy it seems or sore Tyranny prevailed until the people of Geneva listing to reject their Prince and Bishop could not be composed to any order or polity Ecclesiastick but by the prudence of Mr. Calvin who t is evident did not constitute what Ecclesiastical polity he best liked but what the temper of the giddy people and distractions of times would bear for Mr. Calvin was known sufficientiy to be no enemy to Episcopal Presidency where Bishops would conform to the Doctrine and life of Christ § His great accomplishment for great affaires This reverend Bishop was indeed every way a most apt ample and accomplished person for great and publick affairs nor was he ever cut out for small work having so great and good a soul he was an excellent Schollar an admirahle Orator an acute Disputant a pathetick Preacher an unspotted Liver a prudent Governour full of judgment courage constancy and impartiality an useful good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grave and great Divine a gracious and sincere Christian as well as venerable Bishop consciencious in all he did and humble with all his indowments not less full of eminent graces than excellent gifts indeed every way such a man and such a Bishop as no Christian Church in any age but ours nor ours in any age but this would have laid aside being a Preacher and Professor of the same reformed Faith and Confession of Doctrine nor would any times but ours have forced by popular storms and tempests a goodly ship fraught with such rich treasures of worth and wisdom which are seldom embarked or laden in one bottom to come aground and to lie still in some obscure yet scarce safe corners and creeks either for fear of Plebean and Military Hericano's or for want of fit sails and fair winds or tides to bring it forth to the commerce and enriching of the world in Learning Religion and a most imitable example Not that this grave and grand Personage His usefulness in his retirement and private life when thus forced to retire was useless to those that were worthy of him and knew how to value and use him either as a Bishop or as a Divine or a counsellor or a comforter or a Friend nor were any people more to be envied in my judgement than those that were happy as Solomons
and prayed that God would favour him so far with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to let him dye without much pain as indeed he did For after his spirits were in ten days decayed and wasted he slumbred much yet had vigilant intervals at which times he was intent to his long home and his better reception by the holy Angels by a gracious Saviour and a good God giving himself to such Prayers meditations and discourses as his own strength could bear or others kindness would seasonably afford him thus as Chrysologus speaks of Elias Anima defaecata mortis victrix evolavit ad coelum being full of the grace and peace of God and confirmed in it by the absolution of the Church which belongs to all that dye in the true faith and blessed hope of penitent sinners he placidly rendred his holy devout and precious soul to God that gave it on the seventh of December in the year of our Lord 1659. in that vertiginous year which after three overturns so reformed the Church and State of England that there was no form of legal civil and settled Government in England But from fighting at first for King and Parliament both King and Parliament were quite driven out by those that having power over the purse by the sword of the Nation thought they deserved to have the Soveraign power also and could manage it better than those Masters to whom they formerly had devoted their service as Souldiers And thus have I made my observations of this great and good star or this constellation rather of many excellencies natural intellectual civil and spiritual from its first rise to its descent Of all whose inward accomplishments and outward lustre his very bodily presence His outward presence figure and aspect and visible aspect was a kind of pledge and earnest He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Nazian speaks of the Ecclesiastick and majestick looks of St. Basil and Caesarius The whole frame of his person had something of grandeur goodliness and loveliness in it his looks were venerable in vultu omnium virtutum signa he had all the good omens and lineaments of great vertues in his countenance and truly his life made good his looks His body for stature and figure was somewhat athletick puissant paulo procerius somewhat taller and bigger than ordinary yet very comely decorae animae vestis as Tertul. calls it no man ever became the Preachers Pulpit or the Doctors Chair or the Episcopal Seat it was called of old Thronus Episcopalis better than he did Carrying before him such an unaffected state and grandeur such a benign gravity and a kind of smiling severity that one might see much in him to be reverenced and more to be loved yet what was venerable in him was very amiable and what was amiable was very venerable § The majesty of his presence was so allayed with meekness candor and humility that no man was further from any thing morose or supercilious or savouring of self-fulness and conceit he was as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of so affable a compliance and supple a condescention that although he never forgat himself as to any indecorum yet he seemed never to remember himself much in point of reserve and distance as to those excellencies which he had above most men he was like Gideons fleece into which the liberal dew of heaven had distilled insensibly which filled it but not swelled it it was more ponderous not more proud with its celestial pregnancy and fluency § Of mens aspects and looks indicating their minds and manners The veracity of this great and good mans aspect or the harmony of his genius life and manners to his looks and presence much verifies what I have oft observed that most men are as they look after once they are so fixed by their habituated desires and designes that they are come to a conformity with themselves vultus animi index was of old and still most true That one may very much see how the wheels of the soul the mind and spirits the passions and affections move by the Index or hand of the eyes and aspect The souls of men looking out and taking air as it were at these Belconies and Porticoes which are so near the grand Camera the Court and presence Chamber of the soul the brain § I have read of St. Ambrose Bishop of Millan that he refused to ordain two young men Presbyters Propter periculosos et patrantes vultus because they had such committing and scandalous looks They proved afterward as they did portend and he prophesie profligate wretches § I know where the volatile fluidness of youth like Euripus is yet unsettled or riper years grow so cunning in hypocrisie as to put on vizards and act a part there may be oft mistakes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the most part take men in the native and unaffected forms choler and meekness simpleness and subtilty sowreness and sweetness levity or gravity craft plain-heartedness gentlenss and cruelty petulancy and seriousness modesty and wantonness parsimony and liberality cowardilness and courage haughtiness and humility anger and favour falsity and honesty as they are qualities infused or acquired and fixed in the inward man so by a conformity of the fancy spirit blood and constitution to those habits they have like the black and yellow Jaundise a notable tincture and diffusion in the eye and aspect Some men threaten others invite by their looks the first aspect of some as the sight of a Wolf puts men on their guard others command a confidence and give assurance from the letters of credence and testimonials they carry in their countenances § As the face of Moses shined in his converse with God and St. Stephens when he drew nearer to God so the countenance of Cain was cast down when his soul had the black tincture of his brothers blood Jacob saw Labans envy and ill will to him in his averse and morose looks Thus the predominant habits of mens minds ofttimes leave such a signature on their looks that vappa aut vinum respondet hederae the liquor within answers to the ivy or bush without T is true education custom company religion and grace as Socrates said of morality will much sweeten and alter as mens manners and minds so their aspects and bring them from that which in their Physiognomy is canine vulpine caprine porcine lupine or leonine for so we read some men had lionly looks to what is humane angelick and divine by an happy metamorphosis yet still I find much is to be read feared and hoped in mens very countenances which I cannot but observe as a venial digression I hope from this venerable person who quod vultu promisit optimum vita praestitit by his life performed what his looks promised being as Formae decentissimus so Ingenio florentissimus proposito sanctissimus vita inncentissimus But how goodly a person soever he
was The publique loss in his death and worthy to be beheld and enjoyed by us longer in the land of the living yet now he is as the flower goodliness of all flesh cut down withered and vanished hidden from all mortal eyes you are now to look upon him only by reflection backward for forward he is invisible Another potent Eliah taken out of your sight another reverend Father that hath left this Orphane and divided Church another wise man and faithful Counsellor withdrawn from a foolish nation and distracted people from whom God hath taken away his peace Another righteous man taken from the evil to come another great Prophet who could not but foresee and foretel the evils that would as St. Paul speaks follow a sinful generation after his departure § This is another of the prime chariots and horsemen of our Israel of our excellent Schollars Divines Preachers and Bishops which God hath taken out of an evil world after Bishop Vsher Bishop Hall Bishop Morton and others of later years who are sufficient to make an everlasting divorce between Prelacy and Popery that odious and unjust conjunction of modern calumny put upon the reformed Bishops of England all these died as in the true faith so in the foresight and fear of much future miseries impending over us for though we have drank deep of the cup of the wrath of God yet they justly feared we were not yet at the dregs If God heretofore punished the sins of King Lords and Bishops doubtless he hath a quarrel with Parliaments Presbyters and People For his wrath is not yet turned away but his hand is stretched out still against the Nation If fire break forth to consume the green trees what shall become of those that are dry and sear twice dead and thrice plucked up by the root from their Kings from their Parliaments and from their Reformed Religion to all which they were more than once solemnly engaged And how can we be sit for the peace of God or men This holy Bishop went not as the envious and evil world designed with sorrow to his grave upon his own account but rather with joy and blessed hope he knew the world was bad enough at best but now he thought it stark naught and mad without sense or shame for sin even at its worst Novissima pessima tempora His only fear and grief was least the Ark of the Reformed Religion once well settled in England should at length be taken captive again by the stratagems of the enemies and carried either to Babylon or the house of Dagon to popular and fanatick confusion or to Romish Idolatry and superstition this hope yet he had in the bottom of his fears next Gods mercy that fince the most crying and scarlet sins were not the vote fact or after-assent of either the most or the best people of the Nation that perhaps the Lord would yet return to England in his favour and require the vengeance due to his justice and to the scandal of the Christian and Reformed Religion from those who were the chief in evil counsels and actions violently obtruded upon the Nation to its great trouble and misery § The mourning due to his Funeral If tears were venial in any prviate funeral when Church and State lie a dying they might be allowed in this before us but not for his sake who is at rest and of whom we may say Non illi vita erepta sed mors donata as Tully of Crassus slain before the civil wars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Naz. he is a great gainer by death but for our selves as Christ told the weeping women both as to those evils that are continuing and encreasing upon us and for these publick losses of so worthy a person in whom as Nazianzen says of St. Basil the great Every man good and bad receives damage the first of the good example they love the second of that good example they need § And if as in other things some men are pleased to shew themselves Jews that is faithless and cruel to fellow-Christians so in this you as the better Israel of God list so to imitate that Judaick custom of rending your garments truly no ceremony is more agreable to Symbolize or to set forth our sad condition The sad rents in England religious and civil at his death whose rents and breaches are not in two peices but as many as the Prophet Ahiah tore Jeroboams new garment into and if onely our civil and outward garments were rent as to secular liberties estates peace and laws it were tolerable But our inward garment that should be nearer and dearer to us than our skins even Christs coat yea his skin nay his mystical body his Church this is torn into more than a dozen peices even our religion yea our very reformation is rent into rags nay our rags pretend to be our reformations and our Schismaticks would seem our Seamsters and our renders will needs be our reformers and repairers A condition of Church and State so deplorable that it requires rending of our hearts from sin more than of our garments and weeping with tears of blood as Nazianzen speaks § In the civil wars of England hererofore yet this comfort there was that they had the same religion They could say Amen to the same prayers though the bodies fought their souls did not The misery of our miseries is that our best medicine which should heal our civil wounds is become our greatest malady Our Oyl is turned to vinegar and our Balme of Gilead into aqua fortis or the water of jealousy Civil scratches and wounds will in time heal but religious divisions fester and grow ulcerous every one being ambitious in this to be constant in their zealous cruelty to the adverse party the truth is our wounds are so deep so rankerous and incurable that nothing but a miracle of mercy can help or recover us many have essayed to heal the hurt of the daughter of my people but slightly partially and superficially as Physitians of no value the more we trusted to them as King Asa or spent our estates upon them as the woman in the Gospel the worse we are O great Physitian of souls do thou undertake our cure to whose omnipotent mercy nothing is impossible § In the last place Conclusion of gratitude to the Societies of the Temples in the Bishops behalf I am to close this sad obsequie and Christian Solemnity with return of many thanks to these honorable Societies First in the Name of the departed this great Prophet this good Eliah this venerable Bishop Next in the name of all his reverend Brethren Coepiscopi yet surviving reliquiae Danaum atque immitis Achillis Thirdly in the name of all worthy Ministers that are not Acephalists and rudely Autepiscopal walking Antipodes to all Antiquity and themselves heretofore Fourthly in the name of all learned and ingenuous men in both the Vniversities and all the Nation