respect which is to be had to the young branches of the whole Kingdom and the weight will be very ponderous All men are not born Elder-brothers and all Elder-brothers are not born to be Inheritors of Lands Divers of low degree have generous spirits in them and would be glad to make themselves a fortune as the phrase is What hopes have they to atchieve this in a more ready way than to propose unto themselves to lead a virtuous and industrious life that they may attain to a share of the endowment of Collegiate and Cathedral Churches they only are the common possession of the Realm lying open to all that will qualifie themselves to get a part in them They are not inclosed in private mens Estates but they are the Commons of the Kingdom With all humble leave Mr. Speaker now let us proceed to speak a little for our selves in behalf of the Clergy We hear it by such as are travel'd in parts beyond the Seas most of this Honourable House know it to be true that I shall alledg in their own experience that this Kingdom of England God be praised affords better livelihood to most degrees and ranks than the neighbour Kingdoms do The Knights and Esquires live more plentifully than theirs our Yeomanry far more fashionably than their Peasants Then we trust it will not be thought unreasonable that the Clergy may in some sort have a better maintenance than in the neighbour Reformed Churches Otherwise we shall become the most vile and contemptible part of the State because of our poverty and we shall degenerate into such Priests as Jeroboam appointed the refuse and most base of the people from whom nothing can be expected but Ignorance Superstition and Idolatry Neither is our estate better than all other Reformed Churches in this case for I have heard it from them that have diligently travel'd over all the Reformed Churches in Germany that the Clergy among the Swedes have such Collegiate Chapters with means endowed to the use of the Government of the Church as we have And the Reformed in France and the Low-Countries do sufficiently testify how much they desire that they were Partners of the like prosperity because many of their rarest Scholars have found great relief and comfort by being installed Prebendaries in our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches I will speak but of a few whom my self hath known In the Reign of Blessed Queen Elizabeth Dr. Saravia was maintained in these Foundations in the Reign of the most learned King James Casaubon Father and Son O the renowned Casaubon the Father what a miracle of learning add unto these Dr. Primrose Mr. Vossius and the great honour of the Reformed Churches the most learned Dr. Peter Moulin Concerning whom let me add with your leave Mr. Speaker what he wrote lately to an Honourable person out of France that by reason of great preparations of war in France he feared it would be dangerous for him to live any longer in Sedan if troubles increased he would come for England but if the Entrates of his Prebend and what else he enjoyed in this Church were cut off the whole livelyhood of himself his Wife and Children should be taken from him A pittiful moaning and to be regarded But the testimony of an Adversary is that which may most lawfully be used to advantage The greatest enemy and foul-tongued reviler of the Reformed Church of England was Sanders in his Book of the English Schism as he terms it Consult him in the 163. page as it is in my Edition how he envies us and snarles at us for our prosperity of those forenamed Churches he says that the Royal Queen did judg it fit for the glory of her Praelacy for the splendor of her Kingdom for the firmness of her Sect so he calls our Religion that in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches she would have Provosts Deans Prebendaries Canons This was it that troubled him that he saw these Foundations conduced to the stability of Religion So that I judg by his words a fatter Sacrifice could not be offered up to such as himself than the extirpation of them I go forward now to that benefit which the King and Commonwealth taking them in uno aggregato do reap by them They that think themselves cunning in the Kings Revenue do inform us that we do pay greater summs to the Exchequer by First-fruits Tents and Subsidies according to the proportions which we enjoy by them than any other Estates or Corporations in the Kingdom Beside Horse and Arms which we find for the defence of the Realm against all Enemies and Invasions And this we issue forth with most free and contented hearts Neither would we stop here We are not ignorant with what continual diligence and study this Honourable House doth forecast to provide great summs of money for two Armies and sundry other great occasions God forbid but we should have publick spirits as well as other men And if we be call'd upon to contribute in an extraordinary manner to this great charge of the Kingdom which now lies upon it we shall be ready to do it to the utmost of our ability yea and beyond our ability and if we fail in it let us be branded with your anger and censures for our sordid covetousness Now we shall come to an high pitch imploring the ancient and most Honourable Justice of this House and for the sake of that famous and ever renowned Justice we hope to find grace in your eyes We are now by the admittance of Your Honours favour under that roof where your worthy Progenitors gave unto the Clergy many Charters Privileges Immunities and enacted those Statutes by which we have the free right and liberty in all that we have We read it in Records that in the beginnings of many Parliaments in the first place divers favours were confer'd upon us and we believe the subsequent consultations fared the better for it Indeed we meet with stories likewise that the Prior aliens are vanished out of England that the Orders of St. John of Jerusalem and the Knight Templars were dissolved It is true Mr. Speaker and they deserv'd it their crimes proved manifestly against them were most flagitious and some of them no less than High Treason God be praised we are not charged much less convicted of any scandalous faults And therefore we trust we shall not suffer the like fate who have not committed the like offences And after our casting our selves upon your Honourable Justice I will lead you to the highest degree of all considerations to the Honour of God The Fabricks that I speak of were erected to his glory the lands bequeathed to them were dedicated to his Worship and Service And to that end I beseech you to let them continue for ever and to the maintenance of such persons whom their liberality did expresly destine to be relieved by them and withall I must inform you and I dare not conceal it from you it is tremenda
And though I am likely to do all this with very small Acumen and judgment yet I hope with true zeal and sincere affection to the glory of God and honour of the Church of England The Members of which Church have been reputed of all others the slackest to celebrate their own Worthies partly I conceive from the humility and modesty of their Principles and Education partly from the great multitude of incomparable Scholars therein to be commemorated that such labours would be almost infinite For which reason the Dypticks of the Ancient Church were likewise laid aside when Religion was setled and Christians grew numerous But yet if the Divines of the Church of England lived elsewhere we may well conjecture what Books the World should have had of their learning and piety For who sees not the many Volumes of Lives daily published by others wherein ample Commendations are given to idleness popularity and very ordinary deservings After an impartial reading thereof I cannot but think that our Own Church has far better Subjects and matter to write upon if we that survive wanted not ability or affection to maintain our own Cause and publish the Merits of our departed Worthies to the World Therefore out of Emulation partly and shame from a foolish Nation as St. Paul says but much more out of a profound sense of the Duty I owe to the Memory of this renowned Prelate and most of all out of hope of stimulating posterity to the imitation of the vertues of better times I have taken care to give the World this Account of our Author and not to permit his Books to be buried as it were in the Grave with his Body mortal and immortal to descend together into the same Land of oblivion Though it be no real Prerogative but an accidental and contingent thing How we are born after the flesh yet it is commendable to search into the Beginning and Causes of such things as we would throughly know and therefore the Extract and Parentage of learned and great men is usually enquired after in the first place John Hacket was born in the Parish of St. Martins in the Strand near Exeter House upon September 1. Anno Domini 1592. in the happy Reign of Queen Elizabeth of honest and virtuous Parents and of good reputation in that place his Father being then a Senior Burgess of Westminster and afterwards belonging to the Robes of Prince Henry descended from an antient Family in Scotland which reteins the Name to this day His Father and Mother were both true Protestants great lovers of the Church of England constant repairers to the Divine Prayers and Service thereof and would often bewail to their young Son after the coming in of their Countrymen with King James the seed of Fanaticism then laid in the scandalous neglect of the Publick Liturgy which all the Queens time was exceedingly frequented the people then resorting as devoutly to Prayers as they would afterwards to hear any famous Preacher about the Town And his aged Parents often observed to him that Religion towards God justice and love amongst Neighbours gradually declined with the disuse of our Publick Prayer In our Bishops opinion Parentage alone added little to any man no more than if we should commend the Stock of a Tree when we cannot commend the Fruit Mirari in trunco quod in fructu non teneas who held that the glory of our Forefathers reflected upon us was but Color intentionalis like the sparkling colour of wine upon fair Linnen or as the Sea-green and Purple in the Rainbow which are not real colours but meer shadows and reflections And that never was Pedegree so well set out as that of Noah These are the Generations of Noah Noah was a just man c. And in like manner our Blessed Saviour commends his Forerunner John Baptist not so much for his Honourable Descent and Miraculous Conception as for his pious and laborious Ministry in turning many to Righteousness This was agreeable to our Bishop's mind in comparison whereof he little valued all other Titles of Honour But in his discourse he would often give God thanks for the place he was born in viz. that he was born an Englishman and especially in the City of London He was indeed a great lover of his own Nation little England as he would term it the sweetest spot of all the Earth and say that the City of London was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very England of England Vrbs Vrbium and wish the Country were a little more sprinkled with her Flour for in his Travels he had discerned in places remote a Northern rigour and churlishness among our Villagers wanting that Southern sleekness that was usually found in Cities and great Towns the Metropolis especially And though there is no place but has in some Age been enlightned with some famous Luminary The Prophet Jonas was born in Galilee out of which said the Pharisees there arises no Prophet Yet withal it was observed in Scythia there was never born but one Philosopher but in Athens all were such So in all parts of England there have been learned men born but in London innumerable and therefore once in a pleasant discourse between Him and a learned Friend who were reckoning up the Country where many Scholars were born and could not presently tell what Countryman Mr. L. was the Bishop merrily said As the Rabbins believed when ever any great Prophet was named in Scripture and the place of his Birth not named that it was in Jerusalem so he would take it for granted by the like parity of reason since Mr. L's Country was unknown he must needs be born in London Yet in his judgment it was but a small lustre likewise that the Place where any Man was Teem'd could cast upon him but he ought rather to give Lustre to it for Places did not conciliate Honour to Men but Men to Places and that little Hippo was more ennobled by great St. Austin than great St. Austin by little Hippo. And therefore he never rejoyced so much for the City or Country wherein he was born as for the Churches sake wherein he was baptized and born again which of all others to his dying day he most loved and admired and accordingly he would often render hearty thanks to God that his Birth and Breeding was in a Reformed Church and of all others the most prudent and exact according to the Doctrine of holy Scripture and the Primitive Pattern that would neither continue in the Fulsom Superstitions of the Roman Church nor in Reforming be born down with the violent Torrent as some others were But from these lesser Circumstances of his Birth let us therefore proceed to those of his Education and Breeding which are far greater and do especially make the difference between one man and another For whereas all by Nature are born alike of the same corrupt Materials Education only like the Hand or Wheel of
England One Month in the long Vacation retiring with his Pupil afterwards Lord Byron into Nottingham-shire for fresh air there in absence from all Books and having no other more serious studies he made Loyola which needs no other Commendation than to remember that it was twice acted before King James and what an ingenious Pen says in a Prologue You must not here expect to day Leander Labyrinth or Loyola After his return to the Colledge from this Diversion he began to set himself wholly to the study of Divinity being egregiously skilled in the preparatory learning of Logick Physick Metaphysicks and Ethicks with which he had most largely informed his mind and adorned his soul and then as Diers having dipt their Silks in colours of less value do afterwards give them the last Tincture of Crimson in grain So our young Scholar having given his mind a large dip of Secular Arts and Sciences became more fit for Divine Speculations therefore though but a very young man his first Sermons at St. Maries and at the Vicarage of Trumpington which he held with his Fellowship were so singular and like himself that as the learned Bishop Creighton told me the eyes of the whole Vniversity were cast upon him as a Star that would be as bright as any in the Constellation beside He received his holy Orders by the hands of John King Bishop of London in December Anno 1618. This good Bishop had a singular affection and kindness for him which he expressed upon all occasions once by accident his Lordship passed through St. Pauls Cathedral where old Mr. Hacket was walking as the custom then was his Gentleman who attended him whispered to his Lordship that the goodly old man who was walking there was young Mr. Hackets Father of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge The Bishop thereupon beckoned him to come to him and gave him joy of his hopeful Son at Trinity Colledge and bid him when he wrote commend him likewise to him and let him know in due time he would be a means to bring them two together again So the matchless Andrews that great Rewarder of all learning and worth would oftentimes send him Commendations and Counsel and Money to buy Books sometimes ten Pieces at a time But above all others he was taken notice of by that Renowned Prelate John Williams Dean of Westminster and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England Anno 1621. a Prelate of incomparable learning and knowledge not only in Divinity and the Tongues but in all Laws Civil Canon and Common who presently upon his receiving the Seal sent for Mr. Hacket of Trinity Colledge and admitted him to be his Chaplain whom of all his Chaplains he ever most loved and esteemed And on the other side our Bishop would to his last breath acknowledg the Bishop of Lincoln to be the most happy Instrument of Divine Providence that made him known to the world and to his death bore a most grateful memory to his great deserts and dignity notwithstanding all his eclipses and slanders cast upon him When Mr. Hacket was now a great Tutor and the very Darling of the Colledge generally beloved and so contented as like to have long there continued my Lord Keeper would have him to his Service saying withal As his Majesty King James had been blamed by many for making so young a Keeper so he expected to be Censured for chusing so young a Chaplain but his Lordship knew his abilities very well and would trust no body with the choice of his Servants but himself Two years he spent in the Keepers Service before his time was come to Commence Batchelor in Divinity but then begg'd leave to go down to Cambridge to keep the Publick Act Anno 1623. upon the two following questions Judicio Romanae Ecclesiae in Sanctis canonizandis non est standum Vota Monasticae perfectionis quae dicuntur sunt illicita The former question was given very seasonably for the year before Anno 1622. Pope Gregory XV. had Canonized Ignatius Loyola the Father of the Jesuits Franciscus Xavier the Indian Apostle Philip Nereus the General of the Jesuits and Madam Teresia a Spanish Virtuosa who had built twenty five Monasteries for men and seventeen for women He cast his Position into three parts 1. Because the holy Scripture saith The memory of the Just shall be blessed that all Canonization of Saints is not to be accounted superstitious but by Canonization he meant only a publick testimony of the Christian Church of any eximious Members sanctity and glory after death 2. That this testimony ought to be given by General or Provincial Councils at least of their own Members 3. By no means to be left to the breast of the Roman Pontiff and Colledge of Cardinals 1. Because they especially attended to false qualifications which they made undoubted signs of Saintship which were not such 2. Consequently had already Canonized unworthy persons not beatified in Heaven but rather damned in Hell 3. For perverse and impious ends which they ever thought to establish by their Canonization In all these respects the Pope of Rome who is their Virtual Church was apparently a most partial and unmeet Judg very apt to be imposed upon himself and likewise to impose upon others After his return to the Keepers service he preferr'd him to the Court to be Chaplain to King James before whom he preached several times to the great good liking of that most learned King and once upon the Gowries Conspiracy for which a Thanksgiving was continued all that Kings Reign upon August 5. and though some people have denied the Treason yet our good Bishop was assured that the most Religious Bishop Andrews once fell down upon his knees before King James and besought his Majesty to spare his customary pains upon that day that he might not mock God unless the thing were true the King replied Those people were much too blame who would never believe a Treason unless their Prince were actually murdered but did assure him in the Faith of a Christian and upon the Word of a King their Treasonable attempt against him was too true Anno 24. he was prefer'd by the Lord Keeper to be Parson of St. Andrews Holbourn About 12 at night the Keeper sent to speak with him when he came his Lordship told him he was not then watching for his own study but for his The Living of St. Andrews Holbourn was fallen and in the Kings disposal by reason of the minority of Thomas Earl of Southampton to which upon the mediation of the Bishop he was presented the next morning by King James The same year his Lordship procured for him the Parsonage of Cheam in Surrey fallen likewise into the Kings gift by the promotion of Dr. Senhouse to the Bishoprick of Carlisle the Keeper telling him that he intended him Holbourn for wealth and Cheam for health these two Livings being within a small distance of ten miles he held till the Troubles came and though he
in the beauty of holiness few or none would break the publick Order and decent Customs of his Church but the whole Congregation generally rose and sate fell down or kneel'd and were uncovered together He liked Ceremony no where so well as in Gods House as little as you would in your own was his phrase but could by no means endure to see in this Complemental Age men ruder with God than with Men bow lowly and often to one another but never kneel to God He thought Superstition a less sin than Irreverence and Profaneness and held the want of Reverence in Religious Assemblies amongst the greatest sins of England and would prove it from many Histories that a careless and profane discharge of Gods Worship was a most sure Prognostick of Gods anger and that Peoples ruin When a Stranger Preached for him upon a Sunday he would often read the Prayers himself and with that reverence and devotion that was very moving to all his Auditors And upon Wednesdays and Fridays he would frequently do the like and thereby engaged many to resort better to them always assuring them God would soonest hear our Prayers in the Communion of Saints Sometimes when he had occasion to go into the City and saw slender Congregations at Prayer he would much wonder at his Countrymen that had so little love to holy Prayer but when he heard of any that would not go to Church to Prayer unless it were accompanied with a Sermon he would nor scruple to say he scarce thought them Christians and never deemed any Divine to be really famous and successful in his Preaching who could not prevail with his People to come frequently to Sacraments and Prayers He was a great lover of Psalmody and above all a great admirer of Davids Psalms so full of Divine Praises and of all Religious Mysteries great helps to Contemplation apt to beget a Divine Charity being a perfect supply for all our wants joyful to Angels grievous to Devils filling the heart with spiritual delights and a kind of representation of the Celestial felicity That he constantly call'd upon his People to be present at them and at all parts of the Churches Prayers remembring them that after our Blessed Saviour had cast our the Sheep and Oxen yet he still called His House the House of Prayer to shew that though those Sacrifices were at an end yet this should never end and therefore the Apostles themselves after his death resorted to the Temple at the Hours of Prayer He ever took great care to procure a grave and able Curate a Master of Arts at least for the instruction of the younger sort in the Church Catechism Visiting of the Sick Burial of the Dead Preaching of Funeral Sermons Christnings and Marriages These he generally left to the Curate for his Perquisits and better encouragement and would often complain that in great Parishes there was not competent maintenance to keep many Curats under the Parish Priest that might be able to live at the Altar and better discharge all private and domestick duties of piety sorrowing that herein Popish Countries were better provided for who had ten for one that wait at the Altar there more than we have among us and therefore though he would much recommend daily visiting of the Flock from house to house yet found it was impossible for one Minister to perform the Publick and Private Duties both Private Baptisms he would never countenance unless in Cases of necessity or some great convenience as being expresly contrary to the Constitutions of our Church and greatly derogatory to the dignity of the Sacrament to be dispensed in a Parlour or a Chamber and not with that Solemnity that our initiation into Gods Church required and therefore greatly commended the Lutherans who baptized none at home but the sick and the spurious Funeral Sermons though he rarely preached himself yet he defended them to be no Novelty brought in with the Reformation for John Fisher Bishop of Rochester hath one in Print for Henry the Seventh and in Edward the Sixth his time an Herse was set up in St. Pauls Church for King Francis the First of France and a Funeral Sermon likewise preached for him by Dr. Ridly Bishop of Rochester While he lived in this Parish he would give God thanks he got a good Temporal Estate Parishioners of all sorts were very kind and free to him divers Lords and Gentlemen several Judges and Lawyers of eminent quality were his constant Auditors whom he found like Zenas honest Lawyers conscientious to God and lovers of the Church of England and very friendly and bountiful to their Minister Sir Julius Caesar never heard him preach but he would send him a broad Piece and he did the like to others and he would often send a Dean or a Bishop a pair of Gloves because he would not hear Gods Word gratis Judge Jones never went to the Bench at the beginning of a Term but he fasted and prayed the day before and oftentimes got Dr. Hacket to come and pray with him This strict Judge condemned one for stealing a Common-Prayer Book out of his Church whom he could not save the Judge would by no means forgive him because of the sacredness of the place but accepted well of his Intercession and said he should prevail in another matter and when the Doctor saw he could not succeed he thanked the Judge for his severity Anno 1631 the Bishop of Lincoln made him Archdeacon of Bedford whither he ever after went once a year commonly the Week after Easter and made the Clergy a Speech upon some Controversial Head seasonable to those Times exhorting them to keep strictly to the Orders of the Church to all regular conformity to the Doctrine and Discipline by Law established without under or over doing asserting in his opinion that Puritanism lay on both sides whosoever did more than the Church commanded as well as less were guilty of it And that he only was a true Son of the Church that broke not the boundals of it either way About this time of King Charles the First 's Reign it was justly said Stupor mundi Clerus Anglicanus and whereas in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reformation Siquis's had been set up in St. Pauls If any man could understand Greek there was a Deanry for him if Latine a good Living but in the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James the Clergy of the Reformed Church of England grew the most learned of the World for by the restlessnes of the Roman Priests they were trained up to Arms from their youth and by the Wisdom and Example of King James had wrote so many learned Tractates as had almost quite driven their Adversaries out of the Pit and forced them to yield the Field So that now we were only unhappy in our own differences at home But above all the Bishop admired that People should complain in those days for want of Preaching wherein lived
vox which I shall bring forth that they have barr'd all alienation with many curses and imprecations It is Gods own sentence upon the Censers which Core and his Complices used in their Schism with pretence to do God's service Numb 16.38 They offered them before the Lord therefore they are hallowed This is not spoken after the way of a Levitical form and nicety for the using of those Censers was anti-Levitical but this is an absolute Theological Rule out of the mouth of the Lord that which is offered unto the Lord is hallowed Again Prov. 20.25 It is a snare to the man that devoureth that which is holy This is Proverbial Divinity every mans notion and in every mans mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theology preached in every Street of the City and every High-way of the Field Let me only add that smart question of St. Paul Rom. 2.22 Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacrilege I have done Mr. Speaker if you will let me add this Epiphonema Upon the ruins of the rewards of learning no Structure can be raised up but ignorance and upon the Chaos of ignorance no Structure can be built but profaneness and confusion In the Afternoon it was put to the Question and carried by many Votes that their Revenues should not be taken away yet not long after in the same Session after a most Unparliamentary manner they put it to a second Vote and without a second hearing Voted the contrary And now all things tending to violence it was no longer safe to debate these things publickly therefore at his House were held constant meetings of the Loyal Clergy Bishops often and others Morton Brownrig Holdsworth Jefferies and many more who from thence wrote Letters all over England to all Divines of learning and reputation especially of the Vniversity of Cambridge to know how they stood affected Quae vobis mentes rectè quae stare solebant And to engage them to stand fast in the cause of the King and Church Amongst others Dr. Brownrig having been formerly acquainted sent to old Mr. Dod the Decalogist for his opinion who answered That he had been scandalized with the proud and tyrannical practices of the Marian Bishops but now after more than sixty years experience of many Protestant Bishops that had been worthy Preachers learned and Orthodox Writers great Champions for the Protestant Cause he wished all his friends not to be any impediment to them and exhorted all men not to take up Arms against the King which was his Doctrine he said upon the Fifth Commandment and he would never depart from it Likewise Letters were written by them to many Forreign Divines to try their affection in that day of need Blondel Vossius Hornbeck and whom he most condoled Salmasius were sent to in vain though afterwards that great Scholar came off from his rigour and made ample amends for his error Vossius contain'd himself for fear of the Parliament and of losing his Prebend at Canterbury in their possession which King Charles the First conferred upon him with great liberality Deodat wrote firm for Episcopal Government from Geneva and accused the Presbyterians of Schism Hugo Grotius said nothing hapned but what the wise King James had foretold and he now beheld with great horrors Episcopius much pitied the sufferings of the Kings Divines and particularly of Dr. Ward whom he accounted the most learned member of the Synod of Dort Monsieur Amyrald declared himself a friend to Episcopacy in a Select Tractate sent hither which one of that Party borrowed and would never restore and so it could not be Printed He who was thus zealous both in and out of his Pulpit in the King 's and Churches Cause could not be long permitted to Officiate in the City of London one Sunday while he was reading the Common Prayer in his Church a Souldier of the Earl of Essex came and clapt a Pistol to his breast and commanded him to read no further the Doctor smiled at his insolency in that sacred place and not at all terrified said he would do what became a Divine and he might do what became a Souldier so the Tumult for that time was quieted and the Doctor permitted to proceed But the War being begun and all things in confusion the Orthodox and Loyal Clergie were every where Articled against and ejected committed to Prisons without accommodations but upon unreasonable Payments such as they were unable to make In the City of London and Parishes adjacent one hundred and fifteen Parochial Ministers were turned out besides many hundreds in all Countries more than ever had been in all Queen Mary's Queen Elizabeth's and King James's or King Charles's Reigns by the Bishops of all sorts Some few factious Parishioners Articled against him at the Committee of Plunderers and he was advised by Mr. Selden that it was in vain to make defences they would never permit him to preach in that publick Theatre but he must retire to Cheam and he would endeavour to keep him quiet there but thither also the storm followed him for the Earl of Essex his Army being upon their March against the King took him Prisoner away with them till after some time he was brought before Essex himself and others who knew him and had often heard him preach at Whitehall who made him great proffers if he would turn to their side which he disdained to accept They kept on their March and as he would say at length the Princes of the people let him go free From that time he lay hid in his little Villa as Gregory the Great in his little Sazimus which he would pleasantly call Senectutis suae nidulum There he constantly preached every Sunday Morning expounded the Church Catechism every Afternoon read the Common Prayer all Sundays and Holy days continued his wonted Charity to all poor people that resorted to it upon the Week days in money besides other relief out of his Kitchin till the Committee of Surrey enjoyned him to forbear the use of it by Order of Parliament at any time and his Catechising out of it upon Sunday in the Afternoon Yet after this Order he ever still kept up the use of it in most parts never omitting the Creed Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments Confession and Absolution and many other particular Collects and always as soon as the Church Service was done absolved the rest at home with most earnest Prayers for the good success of his Majesties Armies of which he was ever in great hope till the Tidings came of the most unfortunate Battel at Nazby He was that Morning at an especial Friends house ready to sit down to Dinner but when the news came he desired leave to retire went to his Chamber and would not Dine but fasted and prayed all that day and then was afraid that excellent King and Cause was lost using to say of Cromwel as the Historian of Marius He lead the Army and Ambition lead him and therefore lookt far
nothing but the ruine that came He was naturally of a very pleasant and chearful temper but sad news made his soul retire a great way further into him and quite of another humour Indeed no man was more troubled and angustiated in mind for the miseries and distresses of this Church and Kingdom I have often heard his deep Sighs and his great Complaints when he did profess he did only breath but not live I have seen the heaviness of his eyes when he spake nothing his grave and ripe wisdom made him apprehend Fears more deeply than other people did But when his Majesties sufferings in Person came no man could conjecture the load of sorrow that was upon him He would say he felt his old heart wither within him and could not but sigh away his spirit he would often repent He had done no more by Preaching and Writing to prevent it and after the Kings Death frequently desired nothing else but to depart from this world of sin and suffering crying out Satur sum omnium quae video aut audio But next to the Death of his Royal Majesty he would bewail the cutting up the pleasant Vine of the Church of England and alienating the Churches Patrimony together with those of the King Queen Loyal Nobility and Gentry whereby the whole Kingdom of England was then in the hands of unjust Possessors For the Citie 's abetting this bloudy War He was now grown to a strong aversation toward London the place where he was born baptized bred and nothing could ever move him to go thither more until the Earls of Holland and Norwich both requested his Assistance at their expected deaths The Earl of Holland was very penitent for that he had deserted so good a Master in the beginning of the Wars Norwich was very chearful in the comforts of a good Conscience He would much admire how God sometimes gives secret admonition of things contrary to all humane expectations for the Earl of Holland had many Messengers came and told him they had Votes enough and to spare for his life yet nothing would perswade him but he should die within a few days and so he did The Earl of Norwich that knew of no friends yet would not believe but he should escape and so he did After this he return'd to his Rural retirement to end his Old Age in continual Prayer and Study omitting all exercise of body whereupon he fell into a great fit of sickness and upon his recovery the famous Dr. Harvy enjoyned him two things to renew his chearful conversation and take moderate walks for exercise assuring him that in his practise of Physick since these times he observed more people died of grief of mind than of any other disease and that his studious and sedentary life would contract him frequent sickness unless he used seasonable exercise Whereupon afterwards for his healths sake he would every Morning before he setled to his study take large walks very early to make him expectorate phlegm and other cloudy and fuliginous vapours whereby he afterwards continued Vegete and healthful to the last At this time he did much good in the Country by keeping many Gentlemen firm to the Protestant Religion who were much assaulted by lurking Priests who sought to perswade them that it was then necessary to joyn with the Roman Church or else they could be of none for they saw as the others said the Protestant Church quite destroyed But the good Doctor advised them better that the Church of England was still in being and not destroyed rather refined by her sufferings God then tried us as Silver is tried in the hot fire of persecution which purifies but wastes not Then especially our Church resembled the Primitive which grew up in persecutions and as the Earth is said to be the Lords in all its Fulness so the Church of England was the Lords in all its penury and emptiness And in these lowest of times he was full of faith and courage that himself should still live to see a better world one day and would greatly blame any of the Kings Friends who despaired of seeing the time of the restitution of all things His opinion was the Youths at Westminster spun a Spiders Web that could not last long and therefore was very confident of his Majesties return and would instance in Josephs case who was sometime sold for a slave imprisoned as a Malefactor yet afterwards advanced to be Governour of the Kingdom and in David who was hunted over all the Mountains of Israel yea and forced to fly his Country too and yet after brought to the Throne and also in Caius Marius who was forced to hide himself in the Flags of a Fenny ditch from the pursuers of Sylla so that the Historian asks Quis eum fuisse Consulem aut futurum crederet Who would ever have thought him to have been Consul or should live to be Consul again And therefore when any would say There was but little hope he would answer Tum votorum locus est cum nullus est spei They ought to pray the more and Prayer was a good reserve at the last cast Accordingly he would acknowledge that his many cares for the welfare of the King and Church of England did often send him to his Prayers but gave God thanks that his Prayers did always expel his cares After a day spent in Prayer he would tell an especial Friend he found in himself a marvelous illumination and chearfulness in the Evening and that as usually thick clouds in Winter cause dark weather till they were dissolved in rain or snow but then the Sun would shew himself and the air grow pleasant again So sorrows and cares cloud the mind and soul till we are able to dissolve them into devotion and holy Prayers and then post nubila Phoebus and professed nothing more contributed to his divine joys than his often reading and meditation upon Davids Psalms which he conceived they had done very wisely who set them in the midst of the Bible as the Fourth Commandment for Religious Assemblies was by God himself in the midst of the Decalogue In those doleful days that was done in St. Paul's London which Selymus threatned to St. Peter's at Rome to Stable his horses in the Church and feed them at the High Altar whereupon our Doctor was very confident their ruine grew ripe apace and not long after hapned the death of Oliver of which being suddenly told and the manner of it he only said as Tully of a Villain Mortem quam non potuit optare obiit and that we should see within a little while all the world would stink of him and disdain his Arbitrary and bloudy usurpations and accordingly in a very short time we saw all things incline to work about the happy revolution towards the accomplishment whereof no man was more active in stirring up the Nobility Gentry Clergy and People to desire a free Parliament and Petition General Monk
had often heard from credible Witnesses it was too usual with the discontented at their Meetings to charge the Church of England with those consequences which they did terminis terminantibus deny as the making of indifferent Ceremonies to be Sacraments and in kneeling at Sacrament to worship the Bread and thereupon be so furious against that reverend posture as though Kneeling were Popery and Sitting Protestancy when the Pope himself ever Communicates sitting These things were only spoken to make our Church odious to ignorant people and being permitted must needs in time destroy our Foundations again and therefore he wished that as of old all Kings and other Christians subscribed to the Conciliary Decrees so now a Law might pass that all Justices of Peace should do so in England and then they would be more careful to punish the depravers of Church Orders In matter of Doctrine he embraced no private and singular opinions as many great men delight to do in vetere viâ novam semitam quaerentes says the Father but was in all points a perfect Protestant according to the Articles of the Church of England always accounting it a spice of pride and vanity to affect singularity in any opinions or Expositions of Scripture without great cause and withal very dangerous to affect precipices as Goats use when they may walk in plain paths In the Quinquarticular Controversie he was ever very moderate but being bred under Bishop Davenant and Dr. Ward in Cambridge was addicted to their Sentiments Bishop Vsher would say Davenant understood those Controversies better than ever any man did since St. Austin but He used to say he was sure he had three excellent men of his mind in this Controversie 1. Padre Paulo whose Letter is extant to Heinsius Anno 1604. 2. Thomas Aquinas 3. St. Austin but besides and above them all he believed in his conscience St. Paul was of the same mind likewise yet would profess withal he disliked no Arminian but such a one as reviled and defamed every one that was not so and would often commend Arminius himself for his excellent wit and parts but only tax his want of reading and knowledg in Antiquity and ever held it was the foolishest thing in the world to say the Arminians were Papists when so many Dominicans and Jansenists were no Arminians and so again to say the Anti-Arminians were Puritans or Presbyterians when Ward and Davenant and Prideaux and Brownrig were Anti-Arminians and also stout Champions for Episcopacy and Arminius himself was ever a Presbyterian and therefore much commended the moderation of our Church which made not any of these nice and doubtful Opinions the resolved Doctrin of the Church this he judg'd was the great fault of the Tridentine and late Westminster Assemblies But our Church was more ingenuous and left these dark and curious points to the several apprehensions of learned men and extended equal Communion to both There is another Controversie that hath been much vexed in our times concerning the case of Divorce and Marriage afterwards in which it is confessed our Bishop did dislike all those Churches or Polities that were facile to allow separation in Marriage and much more Marriage after yet allowed the question was intricate and such a one as the Pharisees sought to entangle our Saviour withal and that the Church of England had doctrinally determined neither way but for practice only judg'd it better that neither party should marry again after Divorce while the other liv'd and therefore in the Canons of Queen Elizabeth Anno 97 and in 107 Canon of King James Anno 1604. required Caution by sufficient Sureties to that purpose He condemned not other Churches that allowed it otherwise but prefer'd our own Caution before them and for this he wanted not many more reasons than were wrot in a hasty Letter to a Gentleman his Neighbour and published without leave after his death together with his own Answer but it is no credit to conquer the dead says the old Proverb While living He would urge for the indissolubleness of Wedlock the Authority of Divine Institution how God was pleased to make them Male and Female and first one and then two out of one and then again two to become one by a Divine Institution saying Whom God hath once joyned let no man put asunder 2. The Dignity of Marriage which represents the mystical Union that is betwixt Christ and his Church and His Union with our humane nature both which are indissoluble and perpetual 3. The excellency of that love that one ought to bear to the other in Marriage For this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife therefore it is a stronger relation then between Father and Son but the Son while his Father lives can never cease to be a Son much more while the Wife lives can the Husband cease to be an Husband 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall cleave to his Wife signifying a glutinous conjunction that will sooner break any where than be parted there 4. The manner of the conjunction one flesh that is according to the Hebrew Idiom one Man which supposes the Woman to be the Body and the Man to be the Soul so that none can part these but He alone that can part Soul and Body 5. And therefore though he conceived Eve did Adam a far greater injury than when a loathed Strumpet does defile the Bed of Marriage yet God nor Adam thought of no rupture in the case but God only pronounced her future sorrow in Conception indeed Paludanus and Navar Roman Casuists maintain if one party be indangered to be drawn into mortal sin by the other it is sufficient occasion to separate and therefore probably would have cited Eve into their Courts and proceeded accordingly against her but from the beginning it was not so 6. In the New Testament he observ'd our Saviour's answer seem'd strange to his own Disciples insomuch that they replied If the case were so it were better not marry at all which shews how they understood him 7. To be sure St. Paul would not allow it in a Bishop but strictly required him to be the Husband of one Wife that is having repudiated one to take no other without exception of any case 8. He was sure he had in the New Testament six places of his side to one against him one only carrying an outward face for it Matth. 19.9 Whosoever shall put away his Wife except it be for fornication and marrieth another committeth adultery But Matth. 5. 32. Mark 10.11 Luke 16.18 all sound another way Whosoever putteth away his Wife and marrieth another committeth adultery Rom. 7.2 The Woman that hath an Husband is bound as long as her Husband lives 1 Cor. 7.10 Let not the Wife depart from her Husband and if she depart let her remain unmarried and again the 27. verse Art thou bound to a Wife seek not to be loosed he held it safer
Apostolical Bishops from others according to the old Story of Austin the Monk who came into England in the time of King Ethelred 600 years after Christ and prest the West Britains of this Island to receive him as their Master and Governour because he was sent by the Bishop of Rome A learned Abbot of Bangor having no fancy to his Message consulted with an Hermit what they should think of this man and his Message from Rome hearken says the Hermit the next time you and your Brethren meet to attend this Austin in Synod observe if he shew any reverence or carry himself humbly when he comes before you but if he salute not and bear himself disdainfully receive him not for he is no Apostle of Christ At the next Synod the jolly Prelat entred among the Monks with a braving courage never stoopt nor vail'd his head but usurped the highest place in the Congregation as the Roman Legate at this the Britains disliked his Arrogancy and would not receive his Message Yet our good Bishop's humility appeared not only in his outward demeanour and verbal salutation which he knew were often forced and more then was required and that Rivers were not deepest where they overflow but in their own Channels but in paying all due respect to the deserts of others without reflecting upon his own perfections therefore it was not his fashion to undervalue other mens learning or magnify his own Upon frequent occasions he would confess his want of Eastern Languages but in such studies wherein he was conversant would by private letters give great help to many writers of books who have confessed in their returns to him that the books were not theirs but his and thereupon would have had him to have own'd them or at least to have suffered an honorable mention of himself in those books which he would in no sort permit that as Camerarius said of Melanchton he was like a Nightingale that with his singing sweetly affected all others but would not endure to hear of it himself Notwithstanding this great civility and sweetness of temper towards all people generally we must acknowledg a vanity and defect in all humane accomplishments and perfections it being not possible that almost 80 years should be spent in this Age of humane infirmity and that any mans actions should be all fine flour without mixture of coarser Meal and Bran to say so were not to commend but to flatter not truly to represent but to dawb our Bishop would often severely censure himself and said he best knew his own heart to be of sinners the chief most unthankful to God for many Divine Talents confer'd upon Him and most wanting especially in many grains of meekness and forbearance to his Neighbours Indeed he was by nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as most great wits are irritable and subject to great eruptions of anger oftentimes especially if he had met with bold and arrogant but slow parts St. Hierom acknowledges the like harsh disposition in himself and compares himself to an angry horn'd Beast and says that all the strict Discipline of Bethlehem and Watchings of Arabia could not mortifie this indecent passion in him God Almighty permitting these most holy and learned men sometimes to betray themselves in such palpable weaknesses does sufficiently convince us that humane infirmity cleaves to humane nature and absolute perfection belongs only to the Divine Yet I will add that as he was very irritable and apt to be offended so he was exceeding placable and ready to be appeased too generous he was to be vindicative and therefore though he would chide earnestly yet he ever censur'd mildly like the Apostles who had fiery tongues but gentle hands besides it was his judgment that if any man asked unreasonable things it was much better to chide him away from his house for his fault than give him good words and afterwards not do it minus negatur qui negatur celeriter and would alwayes advise other people if any thing troubled them to speak it out and never to retain a dry discontent and for the most part made his passion subservient to virtuous ends by his great natural inclination to anger becoming far more active and zealous in the carrying on his great projectments for piety and charity For any other censures of being illiberal and covetous which are so frequently and unduely cast upon Divines examin his life and few men will appear more incontaminat and free In bad times when he had lost his best Incoms and like the Widow of Sarepta had but an handful of Meal and a Cruze of Oyl left for himself and his Family yet he then thought Elias was worthy of one Cake out of it and accordingly has given a distressed friend twenty pounds at a time and would always argue that Times of persecution were the most proper seasons of charity and that charity was oftentimes the happy means to preserve us from suffering for Tyrants more commonly oppress the rich than their inopious Enemies as the Historian observed in the days of Nero Alium Thermae alium Horti trucidarunt many men might have fared better but for delicious Gardens and sweet Baths no man was safe that had a sumptuous Building or an envied Possession and therefore he believed it a prudent as well as a religious act in the Primitive Church at Jerusalem to surrender their Estates to the holy Apostles for pious uses rather than to leave them to a violent extension of prophane persons in a short time afterwards When he was made a Bishop no man was less lucripetous he desired to hold nothing in Commendam he renewed all his Leases for years and not for lives and upon very moderate Fines and spent a very considerable share thereof upon the repairs of his Cathedral often applying to the Church what the Orator said of the Common-wealth Non minori mihi est curae qualis futura sit Respublica quam qualis est hodie while he lived besides his constant charity to the poor of Lichfield City he enquired out distressed Cavaliers in his Diocess and lent them 50 or 100 l. for a year or two upon their own Bill or Bond and afterwards frequently gave it to them And thus he did sometimes to persons of a differing Religion with whom he held no Christian Communion but in this one thing of giving and never looking to receive again He reckoned that charitable Expences left to the power and managment of Executors were more theirs than the Founders and therefore was resolved to dispense his own in his life time and not be like the Whale that affords no Oyl till she die and must disgorge it To several Colledges in Cambridge he gave liberal summs of money to Clare-Hall fifty pounds to St. John's fifty pounds to Trinity Colledge he added a peculiar building call'd Bishops Hostle which cost him 1200 l. and appointed that with the yearly Rents of those Chambers Books should be
you love to hear the noise of it and which is more to hear them taxt And here is the difference between the Usurer and the Preacher Every Usurer would have no more such sinners as himself and the Preacher would have none at all But if Riches be your blessing O turn not your blessing to a curse And what greater curse than to build a house and not possess it to plant a Vineyard and not eat of the fruit of it To provide Cloathing for the body and never wear it Thus Haman cast about to put the Kings Robes on his shoulders but the Gallows prevented him Gehazi was furnished with two change of Raiments but his body was made unfit to wear one by Leprosie And Achan had provided a Babylonish Garment but it proved as fatal as his winding sheet Faithless sinner could not God provide for him except he stole a Rayment Why the Gibeonites came to him in pieced cloaths rent and thread-bare from the next Villages and his Apparel decayed not but he came to the Gibeonites in new furniture from beyond the Red Sea and the vaste Wilderness Why should he covet more change of Raiment if one Attire were so constant that no use could consume it no Moth could fret it What glory were it to be like a Peacock says Tertullian Toties mutando quoties movendo as often as she moves her self her feathers cast a new beauty and apparition The Fowls of the Air renew but certain feathers the Trees do not cast their bark only the accursed Serpent changeth his skin at appointed revolutions Jam positis novus exuviis nitidâque juventâ c. And this holy people the Children of Israel wore their Garments forty years like their skin and bone and Achan loathed it for continuance which some devotion would have kept as a Relique for the strangeness Is there any of the Israel of God among us that hath enticed strange fashions and Babylonish Garments to be brought into our Land What a question is that They do not hide it in their Tent like Achan they dare profess their names it is their boasting to have brought comliness into the Kingdom the Court admires it and yet I could adjudge with King Artaxerxes his Gardener to be the better Common-wealths man that had the Art to make Pomgranates fairer What Suetonius spake of Caligula in high disdain is become a decency in our Land Neque civili habitu neque patrio neque virili neque humano vestitus est First not modest apparel that is worn out of use nor according to his own Country fashion Who knows what that is in England Nor in the Attire of his own Sex we are come to that one Sex changes into the fashion of another Nay he went not like a reasonable man but like a beast This only remains from Gods judgment that like King Nebuchadonosor at last we should be cloathed like beasts and Eagles Anacharses a Scythian reproved for his blunt language despised the Elegancies of Athens with that Elogy Anacharses speaks Solaecisms in Athens and the Athenians speak Solaecisms in Scythia Such a Critick as he was in the Tongues such an esteem ought we to have of Rayment Every Fashion is an ornament in its own soil Achans Babylonish Garment had been unseemly and exotick in the Land of Jury And since cloathing is but the covering of our shame to be so curious and divers to hide our shame is silken hypocrisie Our Saviour put forth a Parable that Solomon in all his Royalty was not cloathed like a Lilly of the field The comparison will not enter into the eye of man that the wild Flower to day sprouting and to morrow in the Furnace was of such Orient colours as the Kings Robes But do you mark it Modest Nature had arrayed the one and Luxury the other it is Solomon not on worky days but in all his Royalty not Elias or John Baptist in their rough skins no our very bodies are comlier than the souls of beasts but the King of Israel sumptuous Cap-a-pe that was not cloathed like a Lilly of the field Give me leave to step aside into one question and I will return again Though Achan should have burnt his golden fleece in the flames of Jericho may nothing be preserved for the use of God out of the dens of pollution May not a comly Garment be put on at our Liturgy yea though it were worn in Babylon Quomodo scriptum est Shall we put it to that and so make a Canon Saul disgraced himself as basely as if he had sought Asses again because he preserved Agag and the fattest of the sheep of Amalech for a sacrifice and Achan was a common mischief that gathered up the goods of Canaan all this is true but it was done by an especial word of God and that will make no rule as the School confesseth Again Moses employed the Censors of Core and Dathan to make golden Plates for the Ark the Instruments of the rebellious for the use of Sanctity This also is too slender to make a rule for it was done by the appointment of the Lord. But when no particular revelation dream or vision is sent from God must we needs do as the Roman Army did when it won Tarentum Infaelices Divos populo Tarentino relinquamus touch none of the Gods that kept their Enemies City Or may not the Church be judge May it not spare or destroy Yes I will prove it by the Book In the first of Ezra Cyrus brought forth the Vessels of the Lord which Nebuchadonosor had put in the house of his Gods even those did he restore to Shezbazzar and Shezbazzar brought them for the service of the Lord to Jerusalem The wearing of our Surpless and other holy Robes is the thing I aim at for the comliness I call heaven to witness Such white Robes the Saints wear Apoc. xv Such our Saviour seemed to wear at his Transfiguration Mat. xvii And such alone and not the Bells and Ephod the High Priest put on to go into the Sanctum Sanctorum Lev. xvi 4. And all this the Fathers approved in the Primitive Church some of whom came so near our Saviour that almost they touched the hem of his Garment None of this is gainsaid by the Learned but the blame is that they have been polluted in a strange Land like sweet roots steep'd in Wormwood pleasant enough of themselves but they have lost their rellish Well I told you the Church of God entertain'd their holy Vessels again when the Heathen had quaffed in them to their Idols and such a Church it was that depended nicely upon Ceremonies and bodily defilings The Devil used the Scripture is the Scripture the worse for that Parrats and chattering birds are taught sometime to speak our Language shall I like speaking the worse and turn silenced Minister What shall become of all the rich endowments which the Church received in Popery Shall Superstition be bountiful and Reformation
Wound consists in five degrees of humiliation 1. He sat down 2. He wept 3. He mourned certain dayes 4. He fasted 5. He played before the God of Heaven That God that gives many Medicines to heal the sickness of the Body hath provided these sacred Remedies to heal the troubles of the Soul I rise up now from the first step Nehemiah was sore perplexed to hear what the Land had suffered Upon which I begin with this Observation that he was in great anguish not for any evil which he saw but with bad tidings and grievous reports as it is just before my Text The Remnant of Israel were in great affliction and reproach the Wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the Gates burnt with fire This is short and sowr yet far short of the total of their tribulation Howsoever Nehemiah saw none of this he was at Babylon when these Tragedies were acted at Jerusalem he heard of their distress but was not upon the place to behold it yet the noise that came to his ears did strike his heart that he sat down and wept So open your bowels and condole like Christians when you hear of one anothers miseries though they be far from you else God will draw them nearer I will name the remotest to you the mournful condition of the Servants of Christ in Hungary Dalmatia Greece and Candia under the Mahumetan cruelty though these are a thousand leagues from you yet joyn them close to you in your Prayers and Compassion Let me come home we are not upon the Seas to day with our illustrious Duke and valiant Country-men we are not in peril of Wracks and Storms and roaring Canons as they are but let our Prayers walk upon the Seas unto them as Peter assayed to go to Christ that as they hazard their lives for us we offer up our Souls to God for them To descend to lower Objects you do not see the hard food of the Poor his sorry Table his dry Morsels you do not see the comfortless Lodging and Dungeon of the Captive These are the Blessings of Wealth and Liberty Yea but do you not consider it sometimes and bewail and extend your hand to relieve it if not some of us may know what hunger and captivity mean if the report of those things in others do not cause you to melt in charity Nehemiah did not see much evil yet the report toucht him near and he sat down and wept My next Observation is that as he did not see the evil of the Land of Judah so he could not feel it If all Jerusalem had been burnt to ashes it had not broke him in his fortune nor eclipsed him in his honour He was a Courtier in the Palace of Artaxerxes his Cup-bearer a dignified Officer no weeping news could diminish his greatness Had he been a self-lover like too many of these dayes a cunning Courtier that had no end but to provide for himself then he would have measured all fortune by his own Last and unless his own person had been toucht the Shoo should not have wrung him But here was one reteining to the holy Court indeed to the Court of Heaven his own prosperity did disrelish with him because Gods anger was upon the Land to which he owed his life He did like a good man to involve himself in the publick fortune And what joy could he take in his Honours with Artaxerxes when reproach had spread upon the Country that bred him and upon the Church of God in which he lookt for salvation He that makes light of common danger with tush they are on the Seas I am on the Land I shall shift for one that man is the fairest mark at whom God will suddenly shoot with a swift arrow because he is in love with his own security Nehemiah could have shifted for one but that did not content him When it is best with our selves then it is safest to fear then to seek the Lord and to beseech him for the welfare of our selves and others Health and plenty and ease have not yet forsaken us yet the blasts of bad rumours and presages are about us When you hear such words it is time to mourn and fast and pray before the God of Heaven Hitherto I have treated that Nehemiah bewailed the sufferings past my next observation is upon another matter that when by Gods hand the repair was very hopeful it grieved him that the mischievous attempts of envious unlucky Neighbours did all that they could to stop the remedy which is just our case God sent this Tirshata this mighty man to build up the holy City again out of the ruines under which it was covered but it grieved their Neighbours over the next River Chap. ii 9. as ours are over the next Seas that there came a man to seek the welfare of Israel Ver. 10. Mark their conditions who they were Sanballat of Samaria and Samaria had long been the nest of Rebellion Tobiah the servant an Ammonite a man servile low born of base extraction Geshem the Arabian and the Arabians were great Thieves by Land as our Foes are Arabians upon the waters These Samaritans Ammonites Arabians Rebels and Thieves basely descended maligned the prosperity of Jerusalem when it began to flourish again under Nehemiah And note their shifts and half witted devices to oppose him First They fell to mocking and scoffing Chap. iv 1. Scurrility is to be expected from such as are bred up in the rudeness of a populacy Secondly At the eighth verse of the fourth Chapter they made ready to fight him but hearing his preparations shewed their teeth and never proceeded Thirdly Chap. vi 8. they raised scandalous reports against the Ruler and the People and how our Maligners would desame us with broaching lies Europe and all the world are witness Fourthly At the thirteenth verse of that Chapter they hired Prophets to Prophesie against Nehemiah to put him in fear and if we would be discouraged by such fictions they have not been wanting These were troubles which fell upon the noble heart of Nehemiah to see that blessing which God had begun by his industry cross'd and check'd by an ignoble and servile Generation So may our renowned Prince and General say in disdain at this upstart bog of men whose Noble Person is of more value than all their Provinces estimated at a rackt value Et mecum certasse ferentur Unless England had given them being and a power to resist they had not been able this day to have resisted the meanest of the Captains of my Lord the King To dispatch this Point though our Kingdom hath no resemblance to Pharaoh and the Egyptians God be praised yet our Plagues and those of Egypt have some parallel in their order Their first Plague was the Plague of bloud so was ours but God hath delivered us from the continual slaughters of a most impious and rebellious War Pass from the end of the seventh Chapter of Exodus to the beginning
produce in Europe When their Wonders are done so far from home it is a sign they would be trusted but not hazard examination 4. Where the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven it was fit that the Soil just under that Zenith should be the Cradle of the Church to receive its infancy Christ commanded his Disciples to tarry at Jerusalem till they were endued with power from above Act. i. 4. He would not send his Souldiers abroad unarm'd to fight his Battels the Spirit of Grace is medulla Ecclesiae the Pith the Marrow of it Our strength without it is but like that of dead bones where it descends plentifully there riseth up a Church to Christ And here the Apostles had it not inchoativè but cumulativè they were abundantly filled with it because they were to empty it out to all Nations Out of these Premises I proceed to the Conclusion Jerusalem was Ecclesia Primitivorum The Church of the First-born the Apostles the eldest Sons of their Mother did teach the first Alphabet of Christianity there and therefore by way of gratitude to so great a Benefactress the Catholick Church by way of Metonymy Causa pro causato will never be ashamed to be called Jerusalem Every Kingdom upon due right must bear a reverend respect to them from whom they received their happy conversion Some had the first knowledge of Salvation from Rome some from Constantinople some from Antioch some from France some from England but all from Jerusalem And yet none of these are to domineer over the faith of their Brethren They that have begotten us in Christ may teach another Gospel in the revolution of Ages than the Gospel of Christ and then are we bound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to labour to reduce them into the right way above all others who were the Parents of Religion It is a blessing sorted out to some whereof David speaks Thou hast made me wiser than my Teachers Jerusalem that drank the luke-warm bloud from Christs side and had the Prerogative of pure Doctrine without all mixture of insincerity it had a Bishop in the whirl of times John the Predecessor of Prailius who was an Origenist and a suspected Pelagian another of its Pastors was Gerontius a confessed Eutychian and divers others it had that were leavened with heretical contagion None would concur with these unless they would put out their eyes to wander for company because they were the chief Fathers of the City of God Imagine therefore that Alcasar the Jesuit had all tâ—at he could ask that the new Jerusalem that came from heaven prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband was the Church of Rome yet his Reader must be very courteous that will admit that Exposition give them this moreover that Isaiah meant it Chap. lx 3. The Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising No proper name is specified there But what if it were Rome Although the seventy two and their own Vulgar Latine have added the word Jerusalem unto it Above all suppose it were possible to consist with my Text that it were the Roman Church which was opposed to Hagar the Bond-woman that these were her Epithets to be above and free and the Mother of us all which had it been Tu es Petrus had never been planted in the fore-front of their argument nor had it been their Dromedary ridden and jaded upon all Controversies this had been their Achilles in which they had boasted themselves invincible But if all this garnish had been the true beauty of that Church it would afford us no more than to meditate upon the Prophets question with wonder and commiseration How is the faithful City become an harlot The true Church upon earth is a Tabernacle portable hither and thither easily devolved from place to place When Abraham looked for a City that had foundations he expected it in heaven and not in earth Heb. xi I know what is ready to be caught hold of from hence by some and much good do them with it that the Church is compared here to no ignoble handful of people which a man must grope for in the dark but to an illustrious Commonweal famously known and conspicuous in a glorious manner to all the world Yet with their leave this Jerusalem which St. Paul prefers was in those days like a Pearl in the shell orient in it self but hidden from the world overspread with a multitude of gainsayers ten thousand Adversaries and ten thousand more to one Orthodox believer As the Historian says of C. Marius brought so low in his fortune that he hid himself from pursuers of Sylla in the flags of a fenny ditch Quis eum fuisse tum consulem aut futurum credere Who would have thought he had been Consul or should ever live to be Consul again So when the Apostles and a few persons more met in an upper Chamber at the feast of Pentecost who would have took them to be the Kingdom of God upon earth and none but they Or who would have divined that such as they begot in the truth should spread into all quarters as the Stars for multitude It is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes The Mountain of the Lord hath been notorious and a clear object unto innumerous eyes upon the top of the Mountains But is there any such promise that her outward splendour should be constant and her felicity perpetual Nay rather are we not threatned with such times when it shall be rare to find faith upon the earth with large Apostacies with flying away into the Wilderness with the Saints dispersed into private Corners Grant that this should be for one hard brunt and no more Dato non concesso yet if the small number of right Believers may be compelled at any time to exercise their Religion in private the reason falls which some do pertinaciously allege that the Church must be always well known over the greatest part of the Earth because her Doctrines and Traditions must be fair and open to all them that will come unto her to seek salvation or else such as continue in ignorance are excusable if sometimes it may be obscured by misery their mouth is stopt for making that objection and we are assured that the conversion of Unbelievers is not so plentifully brought to pass by the populous association of men professing faith and godliness as by the inward impulsion of the spirit where the Labourers pains do hit successfully by the hidden will of God But if the quarrel went no further than that the Church is a Jerusalem always well known and visible in some measure of manifestation it might quickly be compounded a Congregation there hath been ever since the Apostles whose report might come to the ears of natural men though their profession of supernatural verities was known only to spiritual men in this latitude we may believe upon historical faith that the City upon an hill was never