A Pillar of Gratitude HUMBLY DEDICATED To the GLORY of GOD The HONOUR Of His MAJESTY The RENOWN of this Present Legal Loyal Full and Free PARLIAMENT Upon Their Restoring the CHURCH of ENGLAND To the Primitive Government of EPISCOPACY And Re-investing Bishops Into Their Pristine Honour and Authority Anno 1661. Aarons Rod. BLESSED and FLORID Num. 17. 8. Barren Fig-Tree CURSED and WITHERED Mat. â—1 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 17. 14. Giving Thanks always for all things Ephes 5. 20. Nemo gratus malus Nemo malus gratus Perditissimum censuerunt Veteres quem ingratum dixerunt London Printed by J. M. for Andrew Crook at the Green-Dragon in St Pauls Church-yard 1661. To the Right Honorable and most Noble Princes Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Lords Barons and Peers of the Parliament of England Together with the other honorable Gentlemen Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons THere shall need no other Apology for the erecting and thus dedicating this PILLAR of GRATITUDE than that which all Justice and Ingenuity do make for the Archbishops and Bishops with all the Orderly Clergy of the Church of England Who must cease to be Christians and Men Religious and Rational just and ingenuous if we should not be highly sensible how much we are commanded by all the Laws of Gratitude to God and Man to express in some publique and solemn manner the humble sense of our thankful Hearts for that great Mercy signal Honor and eminent Favor which the good Providence of God by the Graciousness of the Kings Majesty by the Nobleness of the House of Peers and by the Generosity of the present House of Commons yea we hope by the desire and consent of all wise sober and just men in this Church and Kingdom hath restored as the other dignified Clergy to their respective Dignities so us the Archbishops and Bishops not onely to the exercise of our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but also to the ancient Honor when his Majesty shall please to call us of sitting consulting and voting in the House of Peers Senatus quo Sol augustiorem in orbe non vidit as the most learned Bishop Andrews writes in his Tortura Torti A Court and Council in its full and free Constitution not to be exceeded hardly equalled in all the World for number and for grandeur for the conspicuity of its Wisdom for the majesty of its Presence and for the Eminency no less than Antiquity of its Authority Agreeable to that of Fortescue cited by Sir Edward Coke in his Institutes l. 4. c. 1. Si Antiquitatem spectes est vetustissima si Dignitatem est honoratissima si Jurisdictionem est capacissima Nor do We the Bishops with all our Brethren of the Clergy more congratulate our own Reception to our pristine station after fifteen years absence than your LORDSHIPS safe Return after twelve years Banishment to the enjoyment of your native Right and hereditary Honor of sitting in Parliament as Barons and Peers And no less do we celebrate with joy the renewed priviledge of the free-born Commons of England to sit and suffragate in their honorable House by their chosen Deputies the Knights and Burgesses after they had for many years been baffled with Tumults broken by Factions bastinadoed with Truncheons and beaten with Swords in order forsooth to preserve the Liberty of the Subject the Priviledges of Parliament and the Reformed Religion Above all for in that one all your Honors all our civil Freedoms and temporal Happinesses are included we of the Clergy beyond all men have cause anew to solemnize this Day with Faelix faustúmque a peculiar joy and jubile to Gods glory the Churches peace and the Kingdoms prosperity the happy Return of his SACRED MAJESTY to his rightful Throne as the Sun to his proper Orb or Sphere after the dreadful Overthrow of our late Phaetons Who having set this English World on fire and quenched the other two British Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland with their blood ashes and ruines had this onely honor for their Epitaph Magnis excidere ausis That they justly fell from most audacious adventures arrogant usurpations and impudent impieties smitten at length as with the Conscience of their own enormious wickednesses so with the Thunder and Lightning the terror and consternation of that divine vengeance which when they least dreamed of did wonderfully overtake them after they had a long time flattered themselves in Providences and by the delusion of Successes had blasphemed the most high holy and righteous God as if he were such an one as themselves a lover of perfidy perjury and hypocrisie Which vengeance was also on the sudden executed upon them as by the loyal Prayers and pious Impatiences of all his Majesties good Subjects so chiefly by the honest Policies and prudent Conduct of one wise and valiant General who as Samson caught those subtile Foxes and tied them tail to tail but without any other firebrands than themselves taking the crafty in their own devices and pulling down the proud from their seats of scorn and Tyranny May his heroick name be written in the Book of Life as it is in that of worldly Honor with an indeleble Character because he did not pervert to private ambition as others had foolishly and falsly done the rare opportunity of doing Actions of incomparable Loyalty to his Prince and of Love to his Country Those Scandals and Reproaches to all true Honor and Religion those pests and shame to all good Government being once gone with Judas to their own places after they had filled the three Kingdoms with blood barbarity and confusion and the measure of their iniquity up to the brim by a wanton superfluity of folly and madness wickedness and hypocrisie at last this grand Theater of Wisdom and Honor the Parliament of England was left free for the joyful Reception of its ancient Inhabitants King Lords and Commons there to sit with Freedom and Honor never again we hope and pray to be divided scattered confounded and destroyed Whose Piety and Justice not satisfied with their own Return to this Throne of Majesty this sanctuary of Religion this seat of Honor this Citadel of all legal and ingenuous Liberties are pleased still to express a sense of solitude until they had compleated More majorum after the ancient patern of English Parliaments their honorable society with the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Wales That so in this as in all other instances of true Honor they might not come short of the Piety and Prudence of their noble Ancestors who thought that a Parliament of England without Bishops was as a City without a Temple or as a Temple without an Altar or as an Altar without a Sacrifice or as all these without a duly consecrated Priest or as he and they too would be without the true Worship of the true God And thus have we lived to see by merciful and miraculous Revolutions a plenary Restauration of the Majesty Honor Piety and
Clergy-men who a long time stood in the breach till there was no remedy but Sin and Judgement brake in upon them and all Estates as a mighty Torrent In which many of them lost more then all they had for the contagion of their calamities reached even to their Children Friends and Acquaintance the envy and fury of their Enemies seeking to exhaust all their Relations lest there should be any to relieve them with any thing but empty-handed pity I knew some Bishops and those of the first three whom I cannot mention without Honor nor remember their Enemies Cruelty without Horror who were in their old age reduced to live in great part as the Clergy did in Primitive Persecutions ex Donis Oblationibus by Alms and charitable Contributions So did the incomparable Lord Primate of Armagh Bishop Ussher and the most accomplished Bishop Brownrig Nor was the excellently learned and very aged Bishop of Durham Doctor Morton far from being an Object of meer Charity I am sure equal shame and grief mixed with just indignation affects me when I read expressed in his own words the churlish Cainish and contemptuous Carriage of some men to the late venerable Bishop of Norâ—â—ch Doctor Hall whose admired eloquence and meekness was capable like Orpheus his Harp to have charmed all wilde Beasts except bipedes Lupos two-legged Wolves I need not add to this Catalogue the acurate Doctor Prideaux late Bishop of Worcester verus librorum helluo who having first by indefatigable studies digested his excellent Library into his Minde was after forced again to devour all his Books with his Teeth turning them by a miraculous Faith and Patience into Bread for himself and his Children to whom he left no Legacy but pious Poverty Gods Blessing and a Fathers Prayers as appears in his last Will and Testament Blessed God! Who will not learn yea covet to want as well as to abound from these great Examples which are capable to render Indigence it self venerable Poverty desirable and Affliction lovely Since God never takes the good things of this World from so good men but as an indulgent Father he intends to give them better Physick for a time in stead of Food as he did to Job at last he repairs them with Pearls for Pebbles and with eternal Treasures for temporary trash How justly these Afflictions befel very worthy Bishops and other excellent Ministers then flourishing to a great number in the Church of ENGLAND as from the Hand of God their own Humility and Charity their Patience and Silence commands me neither to doubt nor dispute It befits us all to give glory to God to take shame to our selves to say it is of the Lords mercy that we are not utterly consumed that there is yet a Remnant that hath escaped But how unjustly as to the Hand of Man all these burdens of disgrace and indigence were cast upon such venerable Persons in their old age and infirmity I leave to the sober and equanimous World to judge when much evil was for many years inflicted upon them all and no malicious evil of fact was ever proved against one of ten of them They were all condemned but never tried deprived of their Ecclesiastical Rights in Law but not according to any known Law of God or Man Their great offence was that they did not think themselves wiser than the Laws of the Land and Canons of the Church That they would not divide what God had joined together Religion and Loyalty to fear God and honor the King That they chose suffering rather than sinning That they were not willing to have themselves with all the Clergy and the Gentry the Nobility and the Majesty of the Kings of ENGLAND forced to truckle under the Iron Bedstead of Presbytery or to tremble under the Wooden Ferula of Ruling Lay-Elders either Dependents or Independents whose insolency was more intolerable than that of an handmaid which was become heir to her Mistriss The unpardonable sin of those Reverend Fathers was that they chose rather to obey God and the King according to known Laws than to flatter or humor any Popular Faction how potent or prevalent soever still esteeming true piety and virtue in the midst of adversity to be more amiable than the most prosperous Impiety or triumphant Hypocrisie As the three innocent persons were less hurt by the Fire than those who cast them into the Furnace these were consumed the other not singed As no doubt those great Sufferers the Bishops of this Church willingly forgave their Persecutors and committed their Cause to Gods Pleading having no other care but this not to suffer as evil doers or as busie bodies or as perturbers of Church or State So they now greatly rejoyce in their past afflictions not onely for the good which they and others may have gained by them and for the gracious end which the LORD hath as we hope now put to them but also for those great and glorious Advantages which their former many long and sore calamities do now give to the present conspicuity of his Majesties goodness to the splendor of your Lordships noble favors and to the generosity of the House of Commons Thus by a most magnificent and illustrious Opportunity to express His Munificence and Your Kindness to the dejected Bishops to the oppressed Clergy and to the almost desolated Church of ENGLAND suitable to and in some respect far exceeding the pristine Examples of his Majesties Royal your Lordships and other Gentlemens loyal and religious Ancestors who were so far from casting the Bishops or chief Pilots of the Church over-board that they never thought themselves safer from shipwrack than when they were embarqued in the same Ship with Saint Paul and his pious Companions Your Lordships and the other worthy Gentlemen well know as I touched that Bishops in England have ever been contemporary with Parliaments time out of minde as they have been in all Christian Empires and Kingdoms Germany France Spain Sweden Denmark Hungary and others present and assistant in all their Diets and National Conventions So that our former Kings according to their Coronation Oaths and Parliaments according to Law did constantly indeed preserve Bishops in those ancient places and priviledges Immunities and Honors where they found them But You the present Lords and Commons concurrent with his Majesties Goodness have the singular Glory and Happiness to restore them to those ancient Dignities which they never forfeited and so were never before deprived of till their legal and deserved Honor was become their Sin and Crime till their good Manors made them guilty and their Revenues were counted their Delinquency lastly till their having of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was ground enough to devest them of all Authority and the Church of all Order and Government It is the singular Honor of this compleat Parliament which sits as it began with all that fulness of Authority and Liberty which is the life and soul the crown and glory of such august
and for ever to damne as much as in them lay you and your posterity Other Kings and Princes of this Renowned Kingdome as also many pious Lords and Gentlemen have consecrated many things to God and his Church but his present Majesty hath at once restored all thereby shewing himself to be both Charles le bon le grand A great and good Christian King If I or We for I still presume to set forth the grateful and similary sense of my Reverend Fathers and Brethren the Archbishops Bishops and other Worthy Clergy-men if I say We may with your patience speak any more or indeed were able to say any thing suitable to this so rare so religious and so transcendent a subject his Majesties free and speedy restoring to the Bishops and other Church-men their ancient Honours Dignities and Revenues by your Lordships advice and assent with the Honourable House of Commons It must be in the words of the Psalmist Quid retribuemus Domino Yea Dominis What shall We the Bishops and Clergy of ENGLAND return to the LORD our God and to our Lord the King and to your Lordships and to the Gentry of England or the House of the Commons now assembled in Parliament Give me leave to tell your Lordships and those other Gentlemen not what we would say but what we would do I am sure we should do yea and we resolve to do if we may be assisted with Gods graces and favoured with your Christian Prayers 1. First As to God We do wholly devote our selves and all the advantages we have by his renewed mercies to advance his Glory and the Honour of our Blessed Saviour in the faithful discharge of our duties to the Service of this Church by preaching praying writing living and governing our selves we mean no less than others so as becomes Primitive and Apostolick Bishops so as is on all hands highly deserved of us and justly expected from us according to our places and abilities As it will be easier for us at the great day of account to have wanted these honourable Priviledges than to have abused them so we had much rather not enjoy them at all than not have hearts to use them aright as prime Professors and Patterns of Christianity that is Followers of Jesus Christ and his blessed Apostles in all Piety Prudence Sanctity Charity Sincerity It argued some greatness of mind in some of our Bishops for these many years to have lived contentedly without these temporal and secular advantages not to have sunk and desponded under so long and importune adversities but it will be more of Christian Magnanimity to enjoy them wisely and worthily to overcome the temptation of prosperity to use them not to pride and luxury but to humble and holy industry to discreet hospitality to cheerful charity to the good of the Church and to Gods glory who hath promised to honour those that honour him and to adde all these things to those that first seek his Kingdome and the righteousness thereof Doubtless nothing will be wanting to us if we be not wanting to God his Church our selves and our Brethren of the Clergy who are sober men void of depraved opinions and debauched practices Secondly In reference to his gracious Majesty our resolutions are That none of his Subjects shall more imitate and if your Lordships give us leave cheerfully emulate your and their Loyalty Love and Fidelity to his Majesties safety peace and happiness temporal and eternal than we his Bishops who of all men may least be traytors to his Honour Conscience or Soul who having dealt so bountifully with us cannot but expect from us those honest and faithful things which are most worthy of his Munificence and our Integrity So as may most conduce to his Majesties welfare and the publick peace The first we should basely betray together with our own Souls if we should cease daily to pray for his Majesties happiness if we should fail to set forth the whole truth of God to him and his Subjects Lastly if we should serve sooth or silently flatter any known sin in our selves or any others whatsoever and least of all in those whose sins must needs be as most conspicuous and exemplary so most contagious and dangerous The second of publick peace we shall best serve and secure by well and wisely ordering as Spiritual Captains and Colonels of the Ecclesiastical Militia that Army of Ministers or great company of Preachers in England and Wales which cannot be less then ten thousand men effectivè whose number is great and their influence with their activity much greater being mustred and in spiritual armes at least once every week where getting upon the higher ground and being as in Christs stead they cannot but have a very great stroke on mens and more on womens ears hearts and purses These had need be well disciplined and governed under Christ and his Majesty according to Gods Word the Laws of this Kingdom and the Constitutions of this Church which must be their and all our rules by which they and we must serve God and the King as with truth and holiness so with decency order and uniformity Neither excentrick nor erratick from our proper Spheres nor yet defective or deformed in them The managing of which great Concern being by his Majesty and the Laws chiefly committed to us Bishops it will be most our sin and shame to be wanting in our duty If any man blame us for doing what is lawful and just yea necessary for the publick peace they must withal blame the Laws and by a most egregious folly think themselves wiser than the publick wisdom the Laws and Laws-makers in which their own consent is included and from which no man may lightly be a Renegado Thirdly As to your Nobleness no men shall more study your Lordships true honour and eternal happiness the only sufficient requital of your meritorious love and favour to us who have accepted yea restored us Bishops to be Partakers of your honour Auditors of your wisdom and Spectators of your noblest Conversation in that place where every one studies to put on the best appearance We and our Successors must for ever be faithful Counsellors Friends and Servants to your Lordships and your Noble Posterity who possibly will bear from our age place and quality with greater patience civility and acceptance than from other Ministers those discreet monitions seasonable intimations and wholsome counsels which may be sometimes most necessary for you and them It will always best become us rather to offend you by telling you the truth in a decent manner than to betray you to those sinful infirmities or passions which are your greatest enemies next to your flatterers No men shall be more ashamed than we to see our selves sit in Parliament that is in the Congregation of Princes or mortal Gods if we should not behave our selves in all respects answerable to your Illustrious Society and to your great merits towards us As we are
due respects this one Christian request to your Honours in the behalf of many poor Ministers yea and of the souls of many poor people nay in the Name of your and our Saviour whose work the poorest Minister of the Gospel if able and honest doth perform and so for Christs sake is worthy of his wages and leaving it as a matter of great and publick importance to your pious and wise consideration in due time I cannot conclude better than as I began that so I may compleat the circle of our grateful and just acknowledgments with that eternal veneration praise honour and thanke which from my self and all my Reverend Brethren the Bishops and all the sober Clergy are duly and humbly returned first to the most blessed God whose judgments are unsearchable and whose mercies are everlasting Next To His most Gracoius Majesty for His munisicent and matchless goodness to the Bishops Clergy and Church of ENGLAND Lastly To Your most Noble Selves the Lords and Commons of this present Parliament who have thus taken away the sin reproach and scandal of Sacriledge Schism and Confusion which were by some unhappy men brought upon this sometime so famous Kingdom and flourishing Church of ENGLAND For whose vindication and comfort as the Author was not wanting in her greatest agonies and blackest afflictions publickly to compassionate her sighs and tears so he thought it his duty upon a publick more than private sense seriously to rejoyce and heartily to congratulate with her in this happy restauration which he hath oft prayed for and now lived to see because he is perswaded in his conscience if rightly managed with piety and charity that it highly tends to Gods glory to the honour of our blessed Saviour to the asserting of our true Religion as Christian and Reformed to the establishment of the publick peace in Church and State and lastly to that just and ingenious compensation of good for long endured evil which is highly deserved and justly expected by this Church of England from all its genuine Children not only because it was once well reformed and most flourishing but also because it hath been so grievously and as to man most unjustly afflicted and deformed For without doubt the pious Intentions and prudent Constitutions of the Church of England were such That nothing was or now is wanting in it to make a good Christian perfect to salvation if he be not wanting in himself and to the grace of God offered to him in the Ministery of this Church Every saving truth being maintained by Her Nothing added to or diminished from the word of God as saving or necessary Every holy Duty every divine Institution every sacred Mystery every necessary part of Gods Worship every moral Vertue every Christian Grace every usefully-good Work is either celebrated or enjoined or taught or recommended to every Christian both in private and publique according to their station Nor may any Christian justly blame the Church for any defect but rather their own hearts for want of humility devotion and gratitude to God and men There is holy sap and sweetness in all its Liturgical appointments if men were not surfeited with their own fancies prejudices and pride All things being set forth by the Church without the least tincture of any known Error in Doctrine or Superstition in the substance of Religious Duties and Devotion The outward Form also or publique Reverence and Solemnity of Duties is no other than what without question is left by God to the Liberty Prudence and Authority of every Church and Christian Politie as most consonant First To the Civility and Custome of the Nation Secondly To that outward Veneration which is accordingly due to the Divine Majesty Thirdly To the publick Solemnity and Decency of holy Duties in the Church Fourthly To the ancient Use and Custome of the primitive and best Churches Fiftly No where forbidden by Gods word or by any rule of right Reason Sixthly But chosen used and imposed by this Church within its own Precincts and Politie only under no other Notion than that which is lawful and true 1. In the nature of things circumstantial as still necessary in their general adherency to all outward Actions of need 2dly Yet as free and indifferent still in their nature although cast by authority in to meet Regulations as instances of our outward obedience in them to man for the Lords sake while they continue so appointed 3dly Lawful in the divine Permission Commission and clear Approbation of the Churches Liberty and Authority in such things for publique order and decency 4thly In the necessity of such visible Order Decency and Uniformity fixed by Supreme Wisdom and Authority as most conducing to the Churches outward peace to avoid Faction Schisms Sedition Fury Confusion fires that easily kindle from small sparks if left to vulgar spirits 5thly And lastly all this pious and prudent Politie of the Church of England managed by such apt Overseers and proper Governours as this and all ancient Churches ever used from the Apostles daies under the Titles of Bishops Presidents and Fathers who are according to our Law chosen by the Clergy approved by the Church confirmed by the King as Supreme Governour inabled by Learning Matured by Experience Sanctified by Grace Consecrated by Prayer Devoted by Diligence Assisted by their Brethren of the Clergy Regulated by setled Laws and Canons to do their duty so as God their Consciences and all good men require of them in order to those great and eternal ends of saving their own and others souls besides the temporary blessings of the Churches unity and harmony as in Faith and Love so in Orderliness and Decency without which all Religion runs to Irreverence Faction and Confusion The angry eager and obstinate Quarrels then which some waspish men have long maintained and still do against some mutable words and Phrases in the Liturgy or against some little Rites and innocent yet few Ceremonies used by the Church of England are I fear much more deserved by and due to their own distempered hearts and should in all justice now be turned against the factions proud and pertinacious humours and opinions of those men who had rather quite ruine such an Ancient Famous Reformed and sometime Flourishing Church than rightly understand Her words and meaning or give Her leave to interpret them or than deny themselves in those petty Points of Reputation Opinion and Prejudice to which they may be popularly advanced as beyond a convenient retreat so beyond that humility diseretion meekness peaceableness modesty and charity which best becomes those Presbyters and people who are afraid to contest with their Princes their Bishops and their Countries united Wisdom and Authority lest they be found fighters against the God of order and peace who ought not to take courage from the Kings patience or turn his Indulgence into wantonness Nor have they any cause to be angry that they are not thought wiser than this whole Church and State or because they are not made Dictators to all Convocations Parliaments and Kings Nor should they be so ashamed to come at last from fighting and domineering to petitioning and deprecating or from sinning against God and man to return to their duty to repent and recant the evils the errors and excesses of their ways which God hath wonderfully convinced and confuted by his former blessings on this Church and his present blasting of their new Projects which have froth in their head and blood in their bottom as the water of those men who labour with the stone and Strangury and have their wounds from within What now remains but the Authors particular craving and Your Lordships with the other Gentlemens vouchsafing pardon for the great presumption of such an Orator who conscious to his many defects hath adventured by this grateful Excess to put Your Lordships and them upon the Exercise of Your and Their Noble Patience thereby to give the world a further great experiment of that Gentleness and Candor which adds Lustre to all Your other Honourable and Heroick Virtues of which no men are more witnesses than the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England not only as wondring Spectators but as thankfull Enjoyers FINIS