injoyned to both parts in those other collaterall and needlesse disquisitions which if they might befit the Schools of Academicall disputants could not certainly sound well from the Pulpits of popular Auditories Those reconciliatory papers fell under the eyes of some Grave Divines on both parts Mr. Montague professed that he had seen them and would subscribe to them very willingly others that were contrarily minded both English Scotish and French Divines profered their hands to a no less ready subscription So as much peace promised to result out of that weak and poor enterprise had not the confused noise of the misconstructions of those who never saw the work crying it down for the very Names sake meeting with the royall edict of a general Inhibition buryed it in a secure Silence I was scorched a little with this flame which I desired to Quench yet this could not stay my hand from thrusting it self into an hotter fire Some insolent Romanists Jesuites especially in their bold disputations which in the time of the treaty of the Spanish Match and the calme of that Relaxation were very frequent pressed nothing so much as a Catalogue of the Professors of our Religion to be deduced from the primitive times and with the peremptory challenge of the impossibility of this Pedigree dazeled the eyes of the simple whiles some of our learned men undertaking to satisfy so needless and unjust a demand gave as I conceived great advantage to the Adversary In a just Indignation to see us thus wrong'd by misâ—stateing the Question betwixt us as if we yielding our selves of an other Church Originally and fundamentally different should make good our own erection upon the Ruines yea the Nullity of theirs and well considering the Infinite and great inconveniences that must needs follow upon this defence I adventured to set my pen on work desiring to rectifie the Opinions of those men whom an ignorant zeal had transported to the prejudice of our holy Cause laying forth the Damnable corruptions of the Roman Church yet making our game of the outward visibility thereof and by this means putting them to the probation of those newly obtruded corruptions which are truly guilty of the breach betwixt us The drift whereof being not well conceived by some spirits that were not so wise as fervent I was suddenly exposed to the rash censures of many well affected and zealous Protestants as if I had in a Remission to my wonted zeal to the Truth attributed too much to the Roman Church and strengthned the adversaries hands and weakned our own This envy I was fain to take off by my speedy Apologeticall advertisment and after that by my Reconciler B. Morton B. Davenant Dr. Prideaux D. Primrose seconded with the unaminous Letters of such Reverend Learned sound Divines both Bishops and Doctors as whose undoubtable authority was able to bear down calumny it self which done I did by a seasonable moderation provide for the Peace of the Church in silencing both my defendants and challengers in this unkind and ill-raised quarrell Immediately before the Publishing of this Tractate which did not a little aggravate the envy and suspicion I was by his Majesty raised to the Bishoprick of Exceter having formerly with much humble Deprecation refused the See of Glocester earnestly proffered unto me How beyond all expectation it pleased God to place me in that Western charge which if the Duke of Buckinghams Letters he being then in France had arived but some hours sooner I had been defeated of and by what strange means it pleased God to make up the Competency of that provision by the unthought of addition of the Rectory of St. Breok within that Diocess if I should fully relate the Circumstances would force the Confession of an extraordinary hand of God in the disposing of those events I entred upon that place not without much prejudice and suspicion on some hands for some that sate at the sterne of the Church had me in great Jelousie for too much favour of Puritanisme I soon had intelligence who were set over me for espialls my ways were Curiously observed and scanned However I took the resolution to follow those courses which might most conduce to the Peace and happiness of my New and weighty charge finding therefore some factious spirits very busie in that Diocess I used all fair and gentle means to win them to good order and therein so happily prevailed that saving two of that numerous Clergy who continuing in their refractoriness fled away from censure they were all perfitly reclaimed so as I had not one Minister professedly opposite to the anciently received orders for I was never guilty of urging any new Impositions of the Church in that large Diocess Thus we went on comfortably together till some persons of note in the Clergy being guilty of their own negligence and disorderly courses began to envy our success and finding me ever ready to encourage those whom I found conscionably forward and painfull in their places and willingly giving way to Orthodox and peaceable Lectures in severall parts of my Diocess opened their mouths against me both obliquely in the Pulpit and directly at the Court complaining of my too much Indulgence to persons disaffected and my too much liberty of frequent Lecturings within my charge The billowes went so high that I was three severall times upon my knee to his Majesty to answer these great Criminations and what Contestation I had with some great Lords concerning these particulars it would be too long to report only this under how dark a Cloud I was hereupon I was so sensible that I plainly told the Lord Archbishop of Canter that rather then I would be obnoxious to those slanderous tongues of his misinformers I would cast up my Rochet I knew I went right wayes and would not endure to live under undeserâ—â—piâ—â—ons what messages of caution I had from 〈◊〉 of my â—â—ry Brethren and what expostulatory Letters I had from above I need not relate Sure I am I had Peace and comfort at home in the happy sense of that generall unanimity and loving correspondence of my Clergy till in the last year of my presiding there after the Synodicall oath was set on foot which yet I did never tender to any one Minister of my Diocess by the incitation of some busie interlopeâ—s of the neighbour County some of them began to enter into an unkind contestation with me about the election of Clerks of the convocaâ—ion whom they secretly without ever acquainting me with their desire or purpose as driving to that end which we see now accomplished would needs nominate and set up in Competition to those whom I had after the usuall form recommended to them That they had a right to free voices in that choice I denyed not only I had reason to take it unkindly that they would work underhand without me and against me professing that if they had before hand made their desires known to me I should willingly have
at once both make an end of my maintenance and in respect of standing give me a capacity of further preferment in that house were it not that my Country excluded me for our Statute allowed but one of a shire to be fellow there and my Tutor being of the same Town with me must therefore necessarily hold me out But O my God how strangely did thy gracious Providence fetch this business about I was now entertaining motions of remove A place was offered me in the Island of Garnsey which I had in Speech and Chase It fell out that the Father of my loving Chamberfellow Mr. Cholmley a Gentleman that had likewise dependance upon the most Noble Henry Earl of Huntingdon having occasion to go to York unto that his Honourable Lord fell into some mention of me That good Earl who well esteemed my Fathers Service having belikely heard some better words of me then I could deserve made earnest enquiry after me what were my Courses what my Hopes and hearing of the likelyhood of my removal professed muoh dislike of it not without some vehemence demanding why I was not chosen Fellow of that Colledge wherein by report I received such approbation answer was returned that my Countrey debarred me which being filled with my Tutor whom his Lordship well knew could not by the Statute admit a second the Earl presently replyed that if that were the hinderance he would soon take order to remove it whereupon his Lordship presently sends for my Tutor Mr. Gilby unto York and with proffer of large conditions of the Chaplainship in his house and assured promises of better provisions drew him to relinquish his place in the Colledge to a free Election No sooner was his assent signified then the dayes were set for the publick and indeed exquisite examination of the Competitors By that time two dayes of the three allotted to this Tryal were past certain Newes came to us of the inexpected Death of that incomparably Religious and Noble Earl of Huntingdon by whose loss my then disappointed Tutor must necessarily be left to the wide world unprovided for upon notice thereof I presently repaired to the Master of the Colledge Mr. Dr. Chaderton and besought him to tender that hard condition to which my good Tutor must needs be driven if the Election proceeded to stay any farther progress in that business and to leave me to my own good hopes wheresoever whose Youth exposed me both to less needs and more opportunities of Provision Answer was made me that the place was pronounced void however and therefore that my Tutor was devested of all possibility of remedy and must wait upon the Providence of God for his disposing elsewhere and the Election must necessarily proceed the day following then was I with a cheerful unanimity chosen into that Society which if it had any equals I dare say had none beyond it for good order studious carriage strickt government austere Piety in which I spent six or seven years more with such contentment as the rest of my life hath in vain striven to yield Now was I called to publick Disputations often with no ill Success for never durst I appear in any of those Exercises of Scholarship till I had from my Knees lookt up to Heaven for a blessing and renewed my actual dependance upon that Divine Hand In this while two years together was I chosen to the Rhetorick Lecture in the publick Schools where I was encouraged with a sufficient frequence of Auditors but finding that well applauded work somewhat out of my way not without a secret blame of my self for so much excursion I fairly gave up that task in the midst of those poor Acclamations to a worthy Successor Mr. Dr. Dod and betook my self to those serious studies which might fit me for that High Calling whereunto I was destined wherein after I had carefully bestowed my self for a time I took the boldness to enter into Sacred Orders the Honour whereof having once attained I was no Niggard of that Talent which my God had entrusted to me preaching often as occasion was offered both in Country Villages abroad and at home in the most awful Auditory of the University And now I did but wait where and how it would please my God to employ me There was at that time a famous School erected at Tiverton in Devon and endowed with a very large Pension whose goodly Fabrick was answerable to the reported Maintenance the care whereof was by the rich and bountiful Founder Mr. Blundel cast principally upon the then Lord chief Justice Popham That faithful Observer having great interest in the Master of our House Dr. Chaderton moved him earnestly to commend some Able Learned and discreet Governour to that weighty charge whose Action should not need to be so much as his Oversight It pleased our Master out of his good Opinion to tender this condition unto me assuring me of no small advantages and no great toyl since it was intended the main load of the work should lye upon other shoulders I apprehended the motion worth the entertaining In that severe Society our times were stinted neither was it wise or safe to refuse good Offers Mr. Dr. Chaderton carried me to London and there presented me to the Lord chief Justice with much testimony of Approbation the Judge seemed well apay'd with the choice I promised Acceptance He the Strength of his Favour No sooner had I parted from the Judge then in the Street a Messinger presented me with a Letter from the right Vertuous and VVorthy Lady of dear and happy Memory the Lady Drury of Suffolk tendring the Rectory of her Halsted then newly void and very earnestly desiring me to accept of it Dr. Chaderton observing in me some change of Countenance askt me what the matter might be I told him the Errand and delivered him the Letter beseeching his advice which when he had read Sir quoth I me thinks God pulls me by the Sleeve and tells me it is his will I should rather go to the East then to the VVest Nay he answered I should rather think that God would have you go Westward for that he hath contrived your engagement before the tender of this Letter which therefore coming too late may receive a fair and easy Answer to this I besought him to pardon my dissent adding that I well knew that Divinity was the end whereto I was destin'd by my Parents which I had so constantly proposed to my self that I never meant other then to pass through this VVestern School to it but I saw that God who found me ready to go the farther way about now called me the nearest and directest way to that sacred end The Good man could no further oppose but only pleaded the distaste which would hereupon be justly taken by the Lord chief Justice whom I undertook fully to satisfie which I did with no great difficulty commending to his Lordship in my room my old Friend and Chamber-fellow Mr. Cholmley
of â—asures and interpolations and misdates of unjustifiable evidences that after many years suit the wise and honourable Lord Chancellor Ellesmere upon a full hearing adjudged these two sued for Prebends clearly to be return'd to the Church untill by common law they could if possibly be revicted Our great adversary Sr. Walter Leveson finding it but loss and trouble to struggle for litigious sheaves came off to a peaceable composition with me of 40 l. per annum for my part whereof ten should be to the discharge of my stall in that Church till the suit should by course of Common law be determined we agreed upon fair VVars The cause was heard at the Kings Bench Barr where a speciall verdict was given for us Upon the death of my partner in the suit in whose name it had now been brought it was renewed a Jury empannelled in the County the Foreman who had vowed he would carry it for Sr. VValter Leveson howsoever was before the day stricken mad and so continued we proceeded with the same success we formerly had whiles we were thus striving a word fell from my adversary that gave me intimation that a third dog would perhaps come in and take the bone from us both which I finding to drive at a supposed concealment happily prevented for I presently addressed my self to his Majesty with a Petition for the renewing the charter of that Church and the full establishment of the Lands Rights Liberties thereto belonging which I easily obtained from those Gracious hands Now Sr. Walter Leveson seeing the patrimony of the Church so fast and safely setled and misdoubting what issue those his crasie evidences would find at the Common law began to incline to offers of peace and at last drew him so farr as that he yielded to those two many condicions not particularly for my self but for the whole body of all those Prebends which pertained to the Church First that he would be content to cast up that Fee-farm which he had of all the Patrimony of that Church and disclaming it receive that which he held of the said Church by lease from us the severall Prebendaries for term whether of years or which he rather desired of Lives Secondly that he would raise the maintenance of every Prebend whereof some were but forty shillings others three pounds others four c. to the yearly value of thirty pounds to each man during the said terme of his Lease only for a monument of my labour and success herein I required that my Prebend might have the addition of ten pounds per annum above the fellowes VVe were busily treating of this happy match for that poor Church Sr. Walter Leveson was not only willing but forward The then Dean Mr. Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalata gave both way and furtherance to the dispatch all had been most happily ended had not the scrupulousness of one or two of the Number differed so advantageous a conclusion In the mean while Sr. VValter Leveson dyes leaves his young Orphan Ward to the King all our hopes were now blown up An office was found of all those Lands the very wonted payments were denyed and I call'd into the Court of VVards in fair likelyhood to forgoe my former hold and yielded possession but there it was justly awarded by the Lord Treasurer then Master of the VVards that the Orphan could have no more no other right then the Father I was therefore left in my former state only upon publick complaint of the hard condicion wherein the Orphan was left I suffered my self to be over-intreated to abate somewhat of that evicted composition which work having once firmely setled in a just pitty of the mean provision if not the Destitution of so many thousand souls and a desire and care to have them comfortably provided for in the future I resigned up the said Prebend to a worthy Preacher Mr. Lee who should constantly reside there and painfully Instruct that great and long neglected people which he hath hitherto performed with great mutuall contentment and happy success Now during this 22 years which I spent at VValtham thrice was I commanded and employed abroad by his Majesty in publick service First in the attendance of the Right Honourable Earl of Carlile then Lord Viscount Doncaster who was sent upon a Noble Embassy with a gallant retinue into France whose enterment there the Annalls of that Nation will tell to posterity In the midst of that service was I surprized with a miserable Distemper of body which ended in a Diarrhaea Biliosa not without some beginnings and further threats of a Dysentery wherewith I was brought so low that there seemed small hope of my recovery Mr. Peter Moulin to whom I was beholden for his frequent visitations being sent by my Lord Embassador to inform him of my estate brought him so sad Newes thereof as that he was much afflicted therewith well supposing his welcom to VValtham could not but wont much of the heart without me Now the time of his returne drew on Dr. Moulin kindly offered to remove me upon his Loâ—dships departure to his own house promising me all carefull tendance I thankt him but resolv'd if I could but creep homewards to put my self upon the Journey A Litter was provided but of so little ease that Simeons penitentiall lodging or a malefactors stocks had been less penaâ—l I crawled down from my close Chamber into that carriage In qua videbaris mihi efferri tanquam in sandapila as Mr. Moulin wrote to me afterward that Misery had I endured in all the long passage from Paris to Deep being left alone to the surly Muleters had not the providence of my good God brought me to St. Germans upon the very minute of the setting out of those Coaches which had stay'd there upon that mornings entertainment of my Lord Ambassador How glad was I that I might change my seat and my company in the way beyond all expectation I began to gather some strength whether the fresh Air or the desires of my home revived me so much and so sudden reparation ensued as was sensible to my self and seemed strange to others Being shipped at Deep the Sea used us hardly and after a Night and a great part of the Day following sent us back well wind-beaten to that bleak haven whence we set forth forcing us to a more pleasing land-passage through the Coasts of Normandy and Picardy towards the end whereof my former complaint returned upon me and Landing with me accompanied me to and at my long Desired home In this my absence it pleased his Majesty graciously to conferr upon me the Deanry of VVorcester which being promised to me before my Departure was deeply hazarded whiles I was out of sight by the Importunity and underhand working of some great ones Dr. Field the learned and worthy Dean of Glocester was by his potent Friends put into such assurances of it that I heard where he took care for the furnishing that ample
gone along with them in their election It came to the Poll Those of my Nomination carried it The Parliament begun After some hard tugging there returning home upon a recess I was met on the way and cheerfully wellcom'd with some hundreds In no worse terms I left that my once dear Diocess when returning to Westminister I was soon call'd by his Majesty who was then in the North to a remove to Norwich but how I took the Tower in my way and how I have been dealt with since my repair hither I could be Lavish in the sad report ever desiring my Good God to enlarge my heart in Thankfulness to him for the sensible experience I have had of his fatherly hand over me in the deepest of all my Afflictions and to strengthen me for whatsoever other tryalls he shall be pleased to call me unto That being found faithfull unto the Death I may obtain that Crown of life which he hath Ordained for all those that Overcome Bishop HALL'S HARD MEASURE NOthing could be more plain then that upon the Call of this Parliament and before there was a general Plot and Resolution of the Faction to alter the Government of the Church especially the height and insolency of some Church-governours as was conceived and the ungrounded imposition of some Innovations upon the Churches both of Scotland and England gave a fit Hint to the Project In the vacancy therefore before the Summons and immediately after it there was great working secretly for the Designation and Election as of Knights and Burgesses so especially beyond all former use of the Clerks of Convocation when now the Clergy were stirred up to contest with and oppose their Diocesans for the choice of such men as were most inclined to the favour of an Alteration The Parliament was no sooner sate then many vehement Speeches were made against established Church-government and enforcement of extirpation both root and branch And because it was not fit to set upon all at once the resolution was to begin with those Bishops which had subscribed to the Canons then lately published upon the shutting up of the former Parliament whom they would first have had accused of Treason but that not appearing feisible they thought best to indite them of very high crimes and offences against the King the Parliament and Kingdom which was prosecuted with great earnestness by some prime Lawyers in the House of Commons and entertained with like fervency by some zealous Lords in the House of Peers every of those particular Canons being pressed to the most envious and dangerous height that was possible The Arch-bishop of York was designed for the report aggravating Mr. Maynards criminations to the utmost not without some Interspersions of his own The Counsel of the accused Bishops gave in such a demurring Answer as stopt the mouth of that heinous Indictment when this prevailed not it was contrived to draw Petitions accusatory from many parts of the Kingdom against Episcopal Government and the Promoters of the petitions were entertained with great respects whereas the many petitions of the opposite part though subscribed with many thousand hands were sleighted and disregarded VVithall the Rabble of London after their petitions cunningly and upon other pretences procured were stirred up to come to the Houses personally to crave justice both against the Earl of Strafford first and then against the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and lastly against the whole Order of Bishops which coming at first unarm'd were checked by some well-willers and easily perswaded to gird on their rusty Swords and so accoutred came by thousands to the Houses filling all the outer rooms offering soul abuses to the Bishops as they passed crying out No Bishops No Bishops and at last after divers dayes assembling grown to that height of fury that many of them whereof Sir Richard Wiseman professed though to his cost to be Captain came with resolution of some violent courses in so much that many Swords were drawn hereupon at Westminster and the Rout did not stick openly to profess that they would pull the Bishops in pieces Messages were sent down to them from the Lords they still held firm both to the place and their bloody resolutions It now grew to be Torch-light one of the Lords the Marquesse of Hartford came up to the Bishops Form told us that we were in great danger advised us to take some course for our own safety being desired to tell us what he thought was the best way counselled us to continue in the Parliament House all that night for saith he these people Vow they will watch you at your going out and will search every Coach for you with Torches so as you cannot escape Hereupon the House of Lords was moved for some Order for the preventing their mutinous and riotous meetings Messages were sent down to the House of Commons to this purpose more then once nothing was effected but for the present for so much as all the danger was at the â—iâ—ising of the House it was earnestly desired of the Lords that some care might be taken of our safety The motion was received by some Lords with a smile some other Lords as the Earl of Manchester undertook the protection of the Arch-bishop of York and his company whose shelter I went under to their lodgings the rest some of them by their long stay others by secret and far-fetch't passages escaped home It was not for us to venture any more to the House without some better assurance upon our resolved forbearance therefore the Arch-bishop of York sent for us to his lodging at Westminster layes before us the perillous condition we were in advises for remedy except we meant utterly to abandon our Right and to desert our Station in Parliament to petition both his Majesty and the Parliament that since we were legally call'd by his Majesties writ to give our Attendance in Parliament we might be secured in the performance of our Duty and Service against those Dangers that threatned us and withall to protest against any such Acts as should be made during the time of our forced Absence for which he assured us there were many Presidents in former Parliaments and which if we did not we should betray the Trust committed to us by his Majestie and shamefully betray and abdicate the due right both of our selves and Successours To this purpose in our presence he drew up the said petition and protestation avowing it to be legall just and Agreeable to all former Proceedings and being fair written sent it to our severall Lodgings for our Hands which we accordingly subscribed intending yet to have had some further Consultation concerning the delivering and whole carriage of it But ere we could suppose it to be in any hand but his own the first Newes we heard was that there were Messingers addressed to fetch us in to the Parliament upon an Accusation of high Treason For whereas this Paper was to have been delivered first to his Majesties
were by them called for and taken from me neither was there any course at all taken for my maintenance I therefore addressed my self to the Committee sitting here at Norwich and desired them to give order for some means out of that large Patrimony of the Church to be allowed me They all thought it very just and there being present Sr. Tho. VVoodhouse and Sr. John Potts Parliament men it was moved and held fit by them and the rest that the Proportion which the Votes of the Paliament had pitcht upon viz. 400 l. per annum should be allowed to me My Lord of Manchester who was then conceived to have great power in matter of these Sequestrations was moved herewith He apprehended it very just and reasonable and wrote to the Committee here to set out so many of the Mannors belonging to this Bishoprick as should amount to the said summe of 400 l. annually which was answerably done under the hands of the whole Table And now I well hoped I should yet have a good Competency of maintenance out of that plentifull Estate which I might have had But those hopes were no sooner conceived then dasht for before I could gather up one Quarters Rent there comes down an Order from the Committee for Sequestrations above under the hand of Sergeant Wild the Chair-man procured by Mr. Miles Corbet to inhibit any such allowance and telling our Committee here that neither They nor any other had Power to allow me any thing at all But if my Wife found her self to need a Maintenance upon her Sute to the Committee of Lords and Commons it might be granted that She should have a fifth part according to the Ordinance allowed for the sustentation of her self and her Family Hereupon she sends a Petition up to that Committee which after a long delay was admitted to be read and an Order granted for the fifth part But still the Rents and Revinues both of my Spirituall and Temporall Lands were taken up by the Sequestrators both in Norfolke and Suffolke and Essex and we kept off from either allowance or accompt At last upon much pressing Beadle the Solicitor and Rust the Collector brought in an Account to the Committee such as it was but so Confused and Perplexed and so utterly unperfect that we could never come to know what a fifth part meant But they were content that I should eat my books by setting off the Sum engaged for them out of the fifth part Mean time the Synodalls both in Norfolke and Suffolke and all the Spirituall profits of the Diocess were also kept back only Ordinations and Institutions continued a while But after the Covenant was appointed to be taken and was generally swallowed of both Clergy and Layety my power of ordination was with some strange violence restrained For when I was going on in my wonted course which no Law or Ordinance had inhibited certain forward Voluntiers in the Citty banding together stir up the Mayor and Aldermen and Sheriffs to call me to an account for an open violation of their Covenant To this purpose divers of them came to my Gates at a very unseasonable time and knocking very vehemently required to speak with the Bishop Messages were sent to them to know their business nothing would satisfie them but the Bishops presence at last I came down to them and demanded what the matter was they would have the gate opened then they would tell me I answered that I would know them better first If they had any thing to say to me I was ready to hear them they told me they had a writing to me from Mr. Mayor some other of their Magistrates the paper contained both a challenge of me for breaking the Covenant in ordaining Ministers and withal required me to give in the Names of those which were ordained by me both then and formerly since the Covenant My answer was that Mr. Mayor was much abused by those who had misinform'd him drawn that paper from him that I would the next day give a ful answer to the writing they moved that my answer might be by my personal appearance at the Guild-hall I askt them when they ever heard of a Bishop of Norwich appearing before a Mayor I knew mine own place would take that way of answer which I thought sit and so dismissed them who had given out that day that had they known before of mine ordaining they would have pull'd me those whom I ordained out of the Chappell by the Ears VVhiles I received nothing yet something was required of me they were not ashamed after they had taken away and sold all my Goods and personall estate to come to me for assesments and monethly payments for that estate which they had taken and took Distresses from me upon my most just denyall and vehemently required me to finde the wonted Armes of my Predecessors when they had left me nothing Many insolencies and affronts were in all this time put upon us One while a whole rabble of Voluntiers come to my Gates late when they were locked up and called for the porter to give them entrance which being not yielded they threatned to make by force and had not the said gates been very strong they had done it Others of them clambred over the walls and would come into mine house their errand they said was to search for Delinquents what they would have done I know not had not we by a secret way sent to raise the Officers for our Rescue Another while the Sheriff Toftes and Alderman Linsey attended with many Zealous followers came into my Chappell to look for Superstitious Pictures and Reliques of Idolatry and send for me to let me know they found those VVindowes full of Images which were very offensive and must be demolished I told them they were the Pictures of some antient and worthy Bishops as St. Ambrose Austin c. It was answered me that they were so many Popes and one younger man amongst the rest Townsend as I perceived afterwards would take upon him to defend that every Diocesan Bishop was Pope I answered him with some scorn and obtained leave that I might with the least loss and defacing of the windows give order for taking off that offence which I did by causing the heads of those Pictures to be taken off since I knew the Bodies could not offend There was not that care and moderation used in reforming the Cathedrall Church bordering upon my Palace It is no other then Tragical to relate the carriage of that furious Sacrilidge whereof our eyes and ears were the sad witnesses under the Authority and presence of Linsey Tofts the Sheriffe and Greenwood Lord what work was here what clattering of Glasses what beating down of VValls what tearing up of Monuments what pulling down of Seates what wresting out of Irons and Brass from the Windowes and Graves what defacing of Armes what demolishing of curious Stone-work that had not any representation in the VVorld
out and adored for the true crosse of Christ yet the bulk is nothing to the vertue ascribed to it The very wood which is a shame to speak is by them Sainted and deifyed who knowes not that stale hymne and unreasonable rime of Ara crucis lampas lucis sola salus hominum Nobis pronum fac patronum quem tulisti dominum Wherein the very tree is made a mediator to him whom it bore as very a Saviour as he that dy'd upon it And who knowes not that by these Bigots an active vertue is attributed not only to the very wood of the cross but to the Airie and transient form and representation of it A vertue of sanctifying the creature of expelling Divells of healing diseases conceits crossely superstitious which the Church of England ever abhorred never either practised or countenanced whose cross was only commemorative and commonitive never pretended to be any way efficacious and therefore as far different from the Romish cross as the fatall tree of Christ from that of Judas Away then with this gross and sinfull foppery of our Romanists which proves them not the friends but the flatterers of the Cross flatterers up to the very pitch of Idolatry and can there be a worse enemy then a flatterer Fie on this fawning and crouching hostility to the crosse of Christ such friendship to the altar is a defiance to the sacrifice For these Philippian Pseudapostles Two wayes were they enemies to the Cross of Christ in their doctrines in their practise In Doctrine whiles they joyned circumcision and other legalities with the cross of Christ so by a pretended partnership detracting from the vertue and power of Christs death Thus they were enemies to Christs death as this In practise following a loose and voluptuous course pampering themselves and shifting off persecution for the Gospell Thus they were enemies to the cross of Christ as theirs Truth hath ever one face There are still two sorts of enemies to the cross The erroneous the licentious The erroneous in judgment that will be inter-commoning with Christ in the vertue and efficacy of his passion The licentious in life that despise and annihilate it In the first how palpable enemies are they to the cross of Christ that hold Christs satisfaction upon the cross imperfect without ours Thus the Romish Doctors profess to do Their Cardinall passes a flat non expiat upon it boldly Temporalem poenam totam nisi propria satisfactione cooperante non expiat lib. 4. de paenit c. 14. § Neque vero Our penall works saith Suarez are properly a payment for the punishment of our sin And which of the Tridentine faction sayes otherwise What foul Hypocrisie is this to creep and crouch to the very image of the cross and in the mean time to frustrate the vertue of it Away with these hollow and hostile complements how happy were it for them if the crosse of Christ might have lesse of theâ—r knees and more of their hearts without which all their adorations are but mockery certainly the partnership of legall observations was never more enemy to Christs cross then that of humane satisfactions For us God forbid that we should rejoyce in any thing but in the cross of Christ with St. Paul Our profession roundly is The cross is our full redemption let them that show more say so much else for all their ducking and cringeing they shall never quit themselves of this just charge that they are the enemies of the crosse of Christ The licentious secondly are enemies to the cross of Christ and those of two sorts whether carnall revolters or loose-livers The first in shifting off persecution by conforming themselves to the present world they will do any thing rather then suffer caring more for a whole skin then a sound soul Meere slaves of the season whose poesie is that of Optatus Omnia pro tempore nihil pro veritate All for the time nothing for the Truth Either ditty will serve Hosanna or Crucifige Such was that infamous Ecebotius such was Spira such those in the primitive times that with Marcellinus would cast grains of incense into the Idols fire to shun the fire of a Tyrants futy such as will bow their knees to a breaden God for fear of an inquisitors flie and kiss the toe of a living Idol rather then hazard a suspicion the world is full of such shufflers Do ye ask how we know I do not send you to the Spanish trade or Italian travails or Spa-waters The tentative Edict of Constantius descryed many false hearts And the late relaxation of penall laws for religion discovered many a turn-coat God keep our great men upright if they should swerve it is to be feared the truth would find but a few friends Blessed be God the times professe to patronize true religion If the winde should turn how many with that noted time-server would be ready to say Cantemus domino c. let us sing unto the Lord a new song There is no Church lightly without his wethercock For us my beloved we know not what we are reserved for let us sit down and count what it may cost us and as those who would carry some great weight upon a wager will be every day heaving at it to inure themselves to the burden before they come to their utmost tryall so let us do to the cross of Christ let us be every day lifting at it in our thoughts that when the time comes we may comfortably go away with it It was a good purpose of Peter though I should dye with thee I will not deny thee but it was a better grounded resolution of St. Paul I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus Act. 21.13 Let us in an humble confidence of Gods mercy in upholding us fix upon the same holy determination not counting our life dear unto us so as we may finish our course with joy Thus we shall not be more friends to the crosse of Christ then the crosse will be to us for if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him Besides carnall revolters loose livers powre shame upon the crosse Christs crosse is our redemption Redemption is from sin and death whiles therefore we do wilfully sin we do what in us lies frustrate the cross and make a mock of our redemption every true Christian is with St. Paul crucified together with Christ 2. Galat. 20. his sins are fastned upon that tree of shame and curse with his Saviour the mis-living Christian therefore crucifies Christ again each of his willing sins is a plain despight to his Redeemer The false tongue of a professour gives in evidence against the Son of God the hypocrite condemns Christ and washes his hands the proud man strips him and robes him with purple the distrustfull plats thornes for the head of his Saviour the drunkard gives him vineger and gall to drink the oppressor drives nailes into his hands
God so marvelous that it is able and worthy to take up all our thoughts but we may not suffer our hearts to dwell in any one work of his but inlarge them to more we may not rest in the contemplation of his mercy only but we must look to his judgments else we shall grow secure we may not rest in the view of his judgments only without meet glances at his mercy els we shall grow to an heartlesse distrust and despair As we say in our philosophy Composita nutriunt only compounds nourish those things which are merely simple can give no nutriment at all so it is in spirituall matters there must be a composition in those objects of contemplation whereby we would feed and benefit our soules our resolution for our thoughts must be the same that the Psalmists were for his song Of mercy and judgment will I sing Now that we may descend to the particularities the Psalmist begins at judgment What desolations c. This is the right method as in the very being of both judgment leads the way to mercy so in the meditation and view of both As it was in the Creation The Evening and the Morning were the first day The darknesse of the night led in the brightness of the morning and as the Prophets word was post tenebras lucem when we are humbled and astonished with the consideration of Gods vengeance upon sinners then and not till then are we meet for the apprehensions of his wonderfull mercies In this regard it is truly verified that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and his judgments are they that make him feared It is the thunder and rain that prepares the hearts of Israel for Samuels good counsel 1 Sam. 12. It is with the hearts of men as with the Earth and the seasons of the fruits thereof If there be too much ease in the winter and the Sun send forth gleames of heat towards the entrance of the spring it brings forth the blossoms hastily which after by later frosts are nipped in the head and miscarry but if there be kindly frosts and colds at the first that hold in the juice of the plants they are in due time drawn forth by seasonable heates and prosper First therefore let us be wrought upon by the meditation of judgments and then we shall be fit for the beneficiall applicatications of mercy We are then here first invited to a Tragicall sight we are carried into the Camera dimorte to see the gastly visage of deaths and desolations all the World over then which nothing can be more horrible and dreadfull you are called out to see piles of dead carcasses to see whole basket fulls of heads as was presented to Jehu a wofull spectacle but a necessary one See therefore what desolations the Lord hath wrought in all the Earth Desolations by warrs how many fields have been drencht with blood One would wonder that so many should have had a bâ—ing upon Earth Our Florignes tells us that in the year 665. there was so great a mortality in this Island that men run up by troups to the tops of the rocks and cast themselves into the Sea and composted with carcasses how many Millions of men have been cut off in all ages by the edge of the sword Desolations by famine wherein men have been forced to make their bodies one anothers Sepulchers and mothers to devoure their children of a span long Desolotions by plague and pestilence which hath swept away as our story tells us 800000. in one City Desolations by inundations of Waters which have covered the faces of many Regions and rinsed the Earth of her unclean inhabitants Desolations by Earth quakes which have swallowed up whole Cityes and those great and populous Desolations wrought by the hand of his Angels as in Egypt in the tents of the Assyrians 185000. in one night in the camp of Israel in Davids pestilence Desolations wrought by the hands of men in Battails and massacres Desolations by Wild-beasts as in the Colonyes of Ashur planted in Samaria Desolations by the swarms of obnoxious and noysome creatures as in Egypt and since in Africk He spake the word and the Grashoppers came and Caterpillers innumerable Ps 105.34 Insomuch as in the consulship of M. Fulvius Flaccus after the bloody warrs of Africk followed infinite numbers of Locusts which after devouring of all herbs and fruit were by a suddain wind hoysed into the African sea infection followed upon their putrefection and thereupon a generall mortality in number fourscore thousand dyed upon the Sea coast see twixt Carthage and Utica above 200000. Desolations every way and by what variety of means soever yet all wrought by the divine hand What desolations he hath wrought whoever be the instrument he is the Author This is that which God challengeth to himself neither will he lose the glory of these great executions We men have a rule in the course of publick administations and we think a politick one that all matters of favour Princes should derive from themselves but all acts of harshnesse and severity they should put off from their persons to subordinate agents God will not stand upon such points he rather professes to lay claim to all the memorable acts of vengeance upon sinfull Nations and People Israels revolt under Jeroboam is owned by him in his message to Rehoboams Captains Ashur is the rod of his wrath He slew great Kings and overthrew mighty Kings He hisseth for the Fly of Egypt and for the Bee of Assyria I say 7.13 Thou hast scattered thine enemies abroad with thy mighty arme Ps 89.11 Good reason that God should claim the propriety of these Acts For they are the noble effects and proofs of his vindicative justice Justice renders to all their own Publick Desolations are due to publick wickednesses And if this should not be done how would it appear that God took notice of the notorious sins of a people or were sensible of their provocations As in outward Government if there were no Assizes or Sessions to judg and punish malefactors how could we think other but that all were turned lawlesse and that no respect is given to law or justice the Wiseman could observe that because judgment is not speedily executed upon wicked men the hearts of men are set in them to do evil But surely if it were not executed at all men would turne Divells But now that God calls sinfull Nations to account for their iniquity by exemplary judgments men are ready to say with the Psalmist Doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the Earth Ps 58.18 God will be glorified even for hell it self Topheth is ordained of old Isa 30.33 2. Even these desolatory judgments are a notable improvement of his mercy There cannot easily be a greater proof of his respects to his own then in sweeping away their enemies Which smote Egypt with their first born for his mercy indureth for ever which overthrew Pharaoh
and his Host in the sea for his mercy indureth for ever which smote great Kings and slew mighty Kings for his mercy indureth for ever Sihon King of the Amorites and Og the King of Basan for his mercy indureth for ever Ps 139. Neither is there a greater demonstration of his mercy in his strokes then in his warnings for surely God intends by these examples of his just vengeance to deterr all others from following the footsteps of those wicked men whom he thus plagues as good Princes and Magistrates do so order their executions that paena ad paucos terror ad multos some may smart all may fear It is excellent and pregnant which the Apostle hath 1 Cor. 10.11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come See I beseech you God hath further drifts in his executions of judgments then we can imagine he intends them not only for acts but patterns he means not so much to punish as to teach every judgment 't is a new lesson and to teach not the next successions but all generations of men to the end of the World and if we do not make this use of his terrible proceedings we shall be much wanting both to him and our selves and no marvell if we be whipt for dull non-proficients in Gods School if we be not taught fear and obedience by his so many judgments We need not cast our eyes much back to the view of former ages though there we may meet with worlds of examples let us but look at the present estate of our miserable neighbourhood of the wofull ruines of Germany once and in our time one of the most rich and flourishing countreys of the Christian world famous for goodly Cities for a plentifull soyl for frequence of trafique for the seat of the Empire now wasted with the miseries of a long and cruell warr wallowing in blood buried in rubbidge and dust Oh see the desolations that God hath wrought in this part of the earth and pick out of them as we well may pitty fear thankfulness Pitty and just commiseration of the grievous sufferings of that desolate Nation fear of that just hand of God which hath thus humbled them and might no less deservedly have fal'n as heavily upon us thankfulness for those gracious immunities which he hath given us hitherto from their evills and mercifull respites of repentance for those sins which have called down these judgments upon them And this is the former particular object which the Psalmist calls our eyes unto worthy of our view but yet not the main and intended subject of this dayes discourse rather the other that now followes the cessation of armes and the blessing of peace He makes Wars to cease in all the World c. however the sight and due meditation of the miseries of war and the vastations that follow upon it may be a good preparative to us for setting a true value upon the benefit of peace For us Alas we had rather a threatning then a sense of war our neighbours entred into our borders not with a publick denunciation of an offensive war but with a profession of defence And if some blood were mutually shed in the passage it was not out of a professedly hostile intention on either part which had it been might easily have proceeded to a far greater slaughter but out of the suddain apprehensions of the intervening crosses of each others purposes And if the long abode in those our quarters have been not a little chargeable to us yet it hath been without any violent and bloody prosecution on either part and now thanks be to God they are passed away in peace But even this little glimpse of a dry war is enough to show us the wofull misery of a war denounced prosecuted executed to the height of cruelty where there are nothing but intentions of killing spoiling desolation The anguish of this very touch is sufficient to make us sensible of the torment of the full shock of a destructive war Out of the sense whereof let us look at this great work of contrary mercy which is here set forth unto us He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth Wherein we have an intimation no lâ—sse of the wonder then the benefit of peace It is a work of power mixed with mercy that he so restraines the spirits of men that they are composed to peace Desolation is not a work of so much power as peacemaking is naturally every man hath the seeds of war and quâ—rrell sown in his heart and they are apt to come up on every occasion Through pride men make contention saith Wise Solomon From whence are wars among you come they not from hence even of your Lusts that war in your Members saith St. James 4.1 Lo the outward wars come from the inward The unquiet thoughts of the heart arising from ambition from malice and envy and desire of revenge are those which are guilty of these generall affrayes and bloodsheds of the World and what heart is free from these Every man naturally hath a tyrant in his bosome We are all by nature thornes or nettles and cannot be touched without some stinging or pricking when there were but two Brothers in the World one of them rises up against the other and dashes his brains out Surely as we do all partake of Adam our Grandfather so we have too much of our great Uncle his Eldest Son Cain naturally affected to violence slaughter Hence in the next age after the deluge Nimrod was a mighty hunter Gen. 10. pursuing men doubtlesse no lesse in his tyranny then beasts in his game And ever since Lord how hath the World been over-run with battails and murder Here one Prince findes his Territories too straight and hath a minde to enlarge himself with the Elbow-room of the neighbouring Region There another scornes to be incroached upon by an injurious usurpation and repells a lesse violence with a greater Here one pretends to the title of a Crown wherein he hath no more interest then he can hew out with the sword There another under colour of ayd thrusts himself into that throne which he pretended to succour here one picks quarrells with the defect of justice done to his subjects and makes sudden embargoes and unwarned inroads into the adjoyning Country There another takes advantage of the violation of leagues and coulours his ambition with the fair name of a just Vindication Here one if he can have no other ground will make religion a stalking horse to his covetous and ambitious intrusion it is bellum Domini a sacred war that he manages for the reducing of Hereticks to the unity of the Church or punishing their perfidiousnesse There another will plant the Gospell with the sword-point amongst Infidels and massacres millions of Indians to make room for Christianity It is a rare thing if where great Spirits and
great power are met in any Prince he can be content to fit still and not break forth into some notable breaches of publick peace And where once the fire of war is kindled it is not easily quenched yea it runs as in a trayn and feeds it self with all the combustable matter it meets withall on every side and therefore t is a marveilous work of the power and mercy of God that he makes war to cease And this he doth either by an over-powering victory as in the case of Hezekiah Sennacherib which should seem to be the drift of this Psalme whereof every passage imports such a victory and triumph as the conquered adversary should never be able to recover Or by tempering and composing the hearts of men restraining them in their most furious carriere and taming their wild heats of revenge and inclining them to termes of peace This is a thing which none but he can do the heart of man is an unruly and head strong thing it is not more close then violent as none can know it so none can over-rule it but he that made it It is a rough sea he only can say here shalt thou stay thy proud waves Shortly then publick peace is the proper work of an Almighty and mercifull God His very title is Deus pacis the God of peace Rom. 15.33 and 16.20 Heb. 13.20 so as this is his peculium yea it is not only his for he owes it but his for he makes it I make peace and create evill I the Lord do all these things Esa 45.7 That malignant Spirit is in this his profest opposite that he is the great make-bate of the World Labouring to set all together by the ears sowing discord betwixt Heaven and Earth betwixt one peece of Earth against another Man against Man Nation against Nation hence he hath the name of Satan of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Diabolus of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as whose whole indeavour is enmity and destruction Contrarily the good God of Heaven whose work it is to destroy the works of the Devill is all for peace he loves peace he commands it he effects it He maketh wars to cease This is his work in the kinde and so much more his work in the extent To the ends of the Earth by how much more good any work is by so much more it is his and by how much more common any good is by so much better it is Even the pax pectoris the private and bosome peace of every man with himself is his great and good work for the heart of every man is naturally as an unquiet sea ever tossing and restlesse troubled with variety of boistrous passions he only can calme it the peace of the family is his he maketh men to be of one minde in an house without whose work there is nothing but jarres and discord betwixt husband and wife parents and children masters and servants servants and children with each other so as the house is made if not an hell for the time yet a purgatory at the least the peace of the neighbourhood is his without whom there is nothing but scolding brawling bloodsheds lawing that a City is at unity in it self not divided into sides and factions it is the Lords doing for many men many mindes and every man is naturally addicted to his own opinion hence grow daily destractions in populous bodies That a Country that a Nation is so is so much more his work as there are more heads and hearts to governe But that one Nation should be at unity with another yea that all Nations should agree upon an universall cessation of armes and embrace peace A domino factum est hoc est mirabile it must needs be the Lords doing so much more eminently and it is marveilous in our eyes Faciam eos in gentem unam was a word fit only for the mouth of God who only can restrain hands and conjoyne hearts as here He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the Earth Now wherefore serves all this but for the direction of our recourse for the excitation of our duty and immitation for the challenge of our thankfulnesse In the first place are we troubled with the fears or rumours of wars are we grieved with the quarrells and dissensions that we finde within the bosome of our own Nation or Church would we earnestly desire to finde all differences composed and a constant peace setled amongst us we see whether to make our addresse even to that omnipotent God who maketh warrs to cease unto the ends of the earth who breaketh the bow and snappeth the spear in sunder And surely if ever any Nation had cause to complain in the midst of a publick peace of the danger of private destractions and factious divisions ours is it wherein I know not how many uncouch Sects are lately risen out of Hell to the disturbance of our wonted peace all of them eagerly pursuing their own various fancies and opposing our formerly received truth what should we do then but be take our selves in our earnest supplications to the God of peace with an Help Lord never ceasing to solicit him with our prayers that he would be pleased so to order the hearts of men that they might encline to an happy agreement at least to a meek cessation of those unkinde quarrels wherewith the Church is thus miserably afflicted But secondly in vain shall we pray if we do nothing Our prayers serve only to testifie the truth of our desires and to what purpose shall we pretend a desire of that which we indeavour not to effect That God who makes wars and quarrels to cease useth means to accomplish that peace which he decrees And what are those means but the inclinations projects labors of all the well-willers to peace It must be our care therefore to immitate yea to second God in this great work of peace-making The phrase is a strange but an emphaticall one that Deborah uses in her song Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to help the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5.23 Lo what a word here is To help the Lord what help needs the Almighty or what help can our weaknesse afford to his omnipotence Yet when we put our hands to his and do that as instruments which he as the authour requires of us and works by us we help that Lord which gives us all the motions both of our wills and actions so must we do in the promoting of peace and the allaying of quarrells when an house is on fire we must every one cast in his pail-full to the quenching of the flames It is not enough that we look on harmlesly with our hands in our bosomes No we add to that burning which we indeavour not to quench We must contribute our utmost to the cessation of these spirituall and intellectuall wars which shall be
strike and case wound and heal again which is the next and must be for fear of your over-tiring the last subject of our discourse heal thou the sores or breaches thereof That great and ineffable name of God consisting of four letters which we now call Jehovah no man knowes what it was or how pronounced but being abridged to Jah the Grecians have been wont to expresse it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to heal the sense whereof is answered by that name which the Heathens gave him Jupiter as juvans pater This healing then is a proper kindly and naturall act of God whereas the other as dividing striking wounding commoving are a◠it were forced upon him by men Surely else he that is essentiall unity would not divide he that is stability it self would not move he that is salus ipsa would not wound he that is all mercy would not strike we do as it were put this upon him and therefore he cries out Why will ye die O house of Israel but when we shall returne to our selves and him and be once capable of mercy and cure how doth he hasten to our redresse The Son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 Lo here is healing for his act and wings for his haste Those breaches which are made in the earth by the shaking of it are as so many wounds gashes or sores in a vast body and both of these resemble those either divisions or calamities which fall out in the bodies of Churches or States the hand that made them must can will only heal them Heal thou the breaches And how doth he heal them in matter of calamity First by removing the grounds of it Surely the great and true sores of the Land are the sins of the Land which till it please him to heal by working us to a serious repentance in vain shall we complain of our breaches which follow them These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a noysome sore and grievous Rev. 16.2 Not only in the Knees Leggs Deut. 28. but in the very bowels vitallest parts as Jeroboams was 2 Chro. 21. Wo is me how full we are of these sores Longae pacis mala we are what an Ulcerous body are we grown like to that great pattern of misery that was totus ulcus all but one botch I would not be querulous but I must say so What shall I say of our blasphemies prophanesses uncleanesses drunkennesses oppressions sacriledges lawlesse disobediences contempt of Gods messengers and all that rabble of hellish enormities enough to shame Heaven and confound Earth These are sores with a witnesse Alas these like to Davids run and cease not they are besides their noysomnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sure and old sores But yet stay my brethren we are not come to that passe that Jehoram was that the Wound is incurable or to the State of the Sareptans Son that there was no breath left in him but like Eutichus rather bruised but yet breathing And still still there is balme in Gilead let our Wounds be never so deep repentance may can will recure them let not us think onwards to heal Gods people with good words this is the way to fester them within No let us who are Gods Chirurgions make use of the probe of Wise Austere judgment let us gage the sore to the botome and tent it home with the applications of the Law let us take off the proud flesh with the corrosiving denunciations of vengeance to the impenitent sinners and then when it is thoroughly drawn let us lay on the soveraign emplaisters of the most precious and meritorious mercy of our blessed Redeemer Thus thus must all our spirituall sores be healed and oh that we could obtain of our own hearts to addresse our selves to a saving use of these sure remedies how happy were both for our soules and for our Land whose sores yet lye dangerously open how soon would our justly provoked God take off his heavy judgments Is it an Enemy that would afflict us He can put a hook into the Nostrils and a bridle into the Lips of the proudest Assyrian at pleasure Is it a Pestilence He can call in the destroying Angel and bid him Smite no more Is it Famine He can restore to us the years that the Locust hath eaten the Canker-worme and the Caterpiller The Floores shall be full of Wheat and the Fat 's overflow with Wine and Oyle In matter of division secondly the way to his cure must be by composing all unkind differences and uniting the hearts of men one to another the hearts even of Kings much more of Subjects are in his hand as the Rivers of Waters and he turnes them which way soever he pleases sometimes dreadfully forward to a right down opposition sometimes side-ways to a fair accomodation sometimes circularly bringing them about to a full condescent and accordance But as we commonly say the Chirurgion heals the wound and yet that the Plaister heals it too the Chirurgion by the plaister so may we justly here it is God that heals and the means heal God by the means and the means by and under God and surely when we pray or expect that God should heal either of these breaches we do not mean to sue to him to work miracles this were as St. Austin said truely in the like case to tempt God but we beseech God to give and bless those means whereby those breaches may be made up As for the calamitous breaches those we wish may be healed so far as the arme of flesh can reach by the vigilance and ower of Soveraignity by the prudence of wise Statesmen by the sage Councell of the State and Kingdome by wholsome provisions of good Lawes by carefull and just executions As for quarrellous and discontented breaches there are other Remedies to heal them the Remedies must be as the causes of them from within Let the first be a resolution of confining our desires within the due bounds not affecting mutuall incroachments or unnecessary innovations Not Incroachments first Good Lord what a stir these two great wranglers Meum and Tuum make in the World were it not for them all would be quiet Justice must do her part betwixt them both holding the balance even with a suum cuique and sayes with the Master of the vineyard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take that which is thine own and go thy way Mat. 20.14 remembring in all states that heavy word of the Apostle But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done and there is no respect of persons Colos 3. ult It is but right that wrong should receive a payment in whose hands soever it be found and if this retribution fail sometimes with you men of might whom earthly greatnesse may perhaps for a time bear out in hard measures to your impotent inferiours yet there is no respect of persons above except this be it potentes potenter
claim to eternal glory For what is that but the inheritance of the Saints Colos 1. Who should have your Lands but your heirs and Lo these are the heirs of God and none but they Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you saith our Saviour Matth. 25.34 Many a one here is borne to a fair estate and is strip't of it whether by the just disherson of his offended Father or else by the power or circumvention of an adversary or by his own mis-government and unthriftiness here is no danger of any of these On our Fathers part none For whom he loves he loves to the end On our Adversaries part none None shall take them out of my hand saith our Saviour The gates of Hell shall not prevaile against his On our part none For whereby can we lavish out our estate but by our sins and he that is borne of God sinneth not sinneth not so as to incurr a forfeit he may so sin as to be frowned on for the time to be chid yea perhaps to be well whipped of his Father not so as to be unsonned or dis-herited For the seed of God remains in him Lo whiles he hath the Divine seed in him he is the Son of God and whiles he is a Son he cannot but be an heir Oh then the comfortable and blessed priviledges of the Sons of God! enough to attract and ravish any heart for who doth not effect the honour of the highest parentage not under Heaven but in it who can be but eagerly ambitious of the title of the Lord of the world so closely yea to be interessed in the great God of Heaven and Earth by an inseparable relation to be attended on by those mighty and majesticall Spirits and lastly to be feoffed in the all-glorious Kingdome of Heaven and immortal crown of glory None of you can be now so dull as not desire to be thus happy and to ask as the blessed Virgin when she was told of her miraculous conception Quomodo fiet istud How shall this be How may I attain to this blessed condition This is a question worth asking Oh the poor and base thoughts of men How may I raise my house how may I settle my estate How may I get a good bargain how may I save or gain how may I be revenged of mine enemy whiles in the mean time we care not to demand what most concerns us which way should I become the child of God But would we know this to which all the World is but trifles surely it is not so hard as useful whose Sons we are by nature we soon know too well It is not enough to say our Father was an Amorite and our Mother an Hittite or to say we are the children of this world Luke 16.8 or a seed of falsehood Esay 57.4 or yet worse the children of the night and darknesse 1 Thess 5.5 worse yet we are filii contumaciae the sons of wilfull disobedience as the original runs Ephes 2.3 and thereby yet worse the sons of wrath Ephes 2.2 and which is the height of all miseries the Sons of death and eternal damnation how then how come we to be the Sons of God It is the Almighty power of Grace that only can make this change A double Grace the Grace of Adoption the Grace of Regeneration Adoption God hath predestinated us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ Ephes 1.5 Regeneration So many as received him he gave them this power or right to be made the Sons of God those which are borne not of blood or the lust of the flesh but borne of God John 1.12 13. and that which referrs to both Ye are all the Children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Galat. 3.26 Shortly then if we would be Sons and Daughters of God for the case is one in both the soul hath no sexes and in Christ there is neither male nor female we must see that we be borne again not of water only so we are all sacramentally Regenerated but of the Holy Ghost If any man be in Christ he is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 we must not be the men we were and how shall that be effected In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospell saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.15 He hath begotten us by the word of Truth Jam. 1.18 This word is that immortal seed whereby we are begotten to God let this word therefore have it's perfect work in us let it renew us in the inner man mortifying all our evill and corrupt affections and raising us up to a new life of Grace and obedience then God will not shame to own us for his and we shall not presume in claiming this glorious title of the Sons of God But if we be still our old selves no changlings at all the same men that we came into the World without defalcation of our corruptions without addition of Grace and Sanctification Surely we must seek us another Father we are not yet the Sons of God But me thinks ere I was aware I am falling to anticipate my discourse and whiles I am teaching how we come to be the Sons of God am showing how we may know that we are so which is the drift of this Scripture in the qualification here mentioned So many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God It is not enough for us my beloved to be the Sons and Daughters of God unlesse we know our selves to be so for certainly he cannot be truely happy that doth not know himself happy How shall we therefore know our selves to be the Sons of God surely there may be many signes and proofes of it besides this mentioned in my Text or rather many specialties under this general As first Every Child of God is like his Father It is not so in carnall Generation we have seen many Children that have not so much as one lineament of their Parents and as contrary to their dispositions as if they had been strangers to their loines and womb In the spiritual son-ship it is not so every Child of God carries the true resemblance of his Heavenly Father as he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Well then my Brethren trie your selves by this rule our Heavenly Father is merciful are we cruel Our Father is righteous in all his wayes are we unjust Our Heavenly Father is slow to anger are we furious upon every sleight occasion Our Heavenly Father abhors all manner of evill do we take pleasure in any kind of wickednesse certainly we have nothing of God in us neither can we claim any kindred with Heaven Secondly every Child that is not utterly degenerate bears a filial love to his Parents answering in some measure that naturall affection which the parent bears towards him we cannot but know that the love of
colour is most proper for sad occasions for as white comes nearest to light and black to darkness so we know that light and joy darknesse and sorrow are commonly used to resemble and expresse each other Well may we then outwardly profess our inward mourning for the dead but yet not beyond a due moderation It is not for us to mourn as men without hope as the Apostle holily adviseth his Thessalonians Our sorrow must walk in a mid-way betwixt neglect and excess Sarah was the first that we find mourn'd for in Scripture and Abraham the first mourner now the Hebrew Doctors observe that in Genesis 23.2 where Abrahams mourning is specified the letter which is in the midst of that original word that signifies his weeping is in all their Bibles written lesse then all his fellowes which they who find mountains in every tittle of Moses interpret to imply the moderate mourning of that holy Patriark surely he who was the Father of the faithful did by the power of his faith mitigate the sorrow for the loss of so dear a partner Thus much for the manner of our mourning Now for as much as it is the mourner in Sion not in Babylon whom we look after In the fourth place the inseparable concomitant of his mourning must be his holy devotion whether it be in matter of suffering or of sin in both which our sorrow is ill-bestowed if it do not send us so much the more eagerly to seek after our God Thus hath the mourning of all holy souls ever been accompanied the greatest mourner that we can read of was Job who can say My skin is black upon me and my bones are burnt with heat Job 30.30 How doth he lift up his eyes from his dunghill to Heaven and say I have sinned what shall I do to thee O thou Preserver of men Job 6.20 The distresses of David and the depth of his sorrowes cannot be unknown to any man that hath but looked into the book of God and what are his divine ditties but the zealous expressions of his faithfull recourses to the throne of grace good Ezra tells you what he did when he heard of the generall infection of his people with their Heathen matches Having rent my garments and my mantle I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God and said O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee O my God for our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespass is grown up to the Heavens Ezra 9.5.6 And Daniel a no lesse devour mourner then he layes forth himself in as holy a passion I set my face unto the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes and I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said O Lord the great and dreadfull God keeping the covenant and mercie to them that love him and to them that keep his commandements we have sinned and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments c. Hereupon it is that praier is ever joyned with fasting in all our humiliations without which the emptinesse of our mawes were but a vain and purposeless ceremony as that which was onely taken up to whet our devotions and to give a sharper appetite to pious duties So as he that mourneth and fasteth without praying is as he that takes the preparative but refuses the medicine that might bring him health or as he that toiles all day in the vineyard and neglects to call for his wages This for the companion of our mourning Fifthly and Lastly The attendant of our mourning is the good use that must be made of it for the bettering of the Soul for surely affliction never leaves us as it findes us if we be not better for our mourning we are the worse He is an unprofitable mourner that improves not all his sorrow to repentance and amendment of life whether his sin be the immediate object of his griefe or his affliction and this is both the intention of our Heavenly Father in whipping us and the best issue of our teares Thus it was with his Israel Their dayes saith the Psalmist did he consume in vanity and their years in trouble when he slew them then they sought him and they returned and inquired early after God vs 35. And they remembred that God was their rock and the high God their Redeemer To the same purpose is that of Jeremiah In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the children of Israel shall come they and the children of Judah together going and weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward saying Come let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall covenant that shall not be forgotten Jerem. 50.4.5 Surely as he were an unnaturall parent that would scourge his child with any other purpose then to correct and amend somewhat amiss in him so is he no better then an ungracious child that makes a noise under the rod but amends not his fault Here then let mine eyes run down with tears night and day and let them not cease for the obstinate unproficiency of the sons of my mother under the heavy hand of my God O Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth thou hast stricken them but they have not grived thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction they have made their faces harder then a rock they have refused to return Jerem. 5.3 how sadly dost thou complain of us under the person of thine Israel In vain have I smitten your children they received no correction Jerem. 2.30 Notwithstanding all the fair warnings that thou hast given us We run on resolutely in the course of our wickedness as if those pathes were both safe and pleasing giving thee just cause to renew thine old complaint against the men of Judah and Jerusalem Thus saith the Lord Behold I frame evill against you and devise a devise against you Returne ye now every one from his evill wayes and make your wayes and your doings good And they said There is no hope but we will walk after our own devises and we will every one do the imagination of his evill heart Jerem. 18.11.12 wo is me who sees not that after all the blood that thou hast let out of our vaines we are still full of the deadly inflammations of pride and maliciousnesse that after we have drunk so deep of the cup of thy fury even to the dregs we cease not to be drunk with the intemperate cups of our beastly excess and after strict professions of holynesse have run out into horrible blasphemies of thy sacred name So as we have too just cause to fear lest thou have decreed to make good upon us that wofull word which thy Prophet denounced against thy once-no-less-dear people I will
Here is disorder and sin there perfection of order and holinesse Here we live with men yea beasts yea if on some hands I should say with incarnate Devils I should not be uncharitable there with God and his blessed Angels and the souls of righteous men made perfect Here are continuall changes and successions of sorrow there an eternity of unintermitted and unconceivable joyes Ps 42.1 Oh then how can we choose but say with David as the Hart panteth after the water-brooks Philip. 1. so doth my soul pant after thee O God and with the chosen vessel I desire to depart hence and to be with Christ This for our sojourning here Now for the time of our sojourning Time is the common measure of all things the Universal metwand of the Almighty Eccles 3.1 There is a time for all things saith wise Solomon and but a time for the motions of time are quick and irrevocable ye cannot think of it but with wings It is but a short word a monosyllable yet whiles we are speaking of it it is gone As for the Time of our sojourning Moses reckons it by years Job by moneths and those of vanity old Jacob and David by dayes the Apostle shuts it up closer and cals the very age of the World hora novissima the last hour all imply a quicknesse of passage It is a true observation of Seneca Velocitas temporis saith he the quick speed of time is best discerned when we look at it past and gone and this I can confirm to you by experience It hath pleased the providence of my God so to contrive it that this day this very morning fourscore years ago I was born into the World a great time since ye are ready to say and so indeed it seems to you that look at it forward but to me that look at it as past it seems so short that it is gone like a tale that is told or a dream by night and looks but like yesterday It can be no offence for me to say that many of you who hear me this day are not like to see so many Suns walk over your heads as I have done yea what speak I of this there is not one of us that can assure himself of his continuance here one day we are all Tenants at will and for ought we know may be turned out of these clay cottages at an hours warning oh then what should we do but as wise Farmers who know the time of their lease is expiring and cannot be renewd carefully and seasonably provide our selves of a surer and more during tenure I remember our witty Countryman Bromiard tels us of a Lord in his time that had a fool in his house as many great men in those dayes had for their pleasure to whom this Lord gave a staffe and charged him to keep it till he should meet with one that were more fool then himself and if he met with such a one to deliver it over to him Not many years after this Lord fell sick and indeed was sick unto death His fool came to see him and was told by his sick Lord that he must now shortly leave him And whither wilt thou go said the fool Into another World said his Lord and when wilt thou come again within a moneth No within a year No when then Never Never and what provision hast thou made for thy intertainment there whither thou goest None at all No said the fool none at all Here take my staffe Art thou going away for ever and hast taken no order nor care how thou shalt speed in that other World whence thou shalt never return take my staffe for I am not guilty of any such folly as this and indeed there cannot be a greater folly or madness rather then to be so wholly taken up with an eager regard of these earthly vanities which we cannot hold as to utterly neglect the care of that eternity which we can never forego and consider well of it upon this moment of our life depends that eternity either way My dear Brethren it is a great way to Heaven and we have but a little time to get thither God sayes to us as the Angel said to Elijah Up for thou hast a great journy to go and if as I fear we have loytered in the way and trifled away any part of the time in vain impertinencies we have so much more need to gird up our loynes and to hasten our pace our hearts our false hearts are ready like the Levites servant to show us the World and to say as he did of Jebus Come I pray you let us turn in to the City of the Jebusites and lodge there Jud. 19.12 Oh let us have his Masters resolute answer ready in our mouthes We will not turn aside into a City of strangers neither wâ—ll we leave till we have got the gates of Gods City upon our backs Time is that whereof many of us are wont to be too prodigall we take care how to be rid of it and if we cannot otherwise we cast it away and this we call Pass-time wherein we do dangerously mistake our selves and must know that time is as the first so one of the most precious things that are Insomuch as there are but two things which we are charged to redeem Time and Truth I find that in our old saxon language a Gentleman was called an Idle-man perhaps because those who are born to fair estates are free from those toils and hard labours which others are forced to undergo I wish the name were not too proper to over-many in these dayes wherein it is commonly seen that those of the better rank who are born to a fair inheritance so carry themselves as if they thought themselves priviledged to do nothing and made for mere disport and pleasure But alas can they hope that the great God when he shall call them to give account of the dispensation of their time and estate will take this for a good reckoning Item so many hours spent in dressing and trimming so many in Idle visitings so many in gaming so many in hunting and hawking so many in the play-house so many in the Tavern so many in vain chat so many in wanton dalliance No no my dear Brethren our hearts cannot but tell us how ill an Audit we shall make upon such a wofull computation and how sure we are to hear of a Serve nequam Thou evill Servant and unfaithfull and to feele a retribution accordingly Let us therefore in the fear of God be exhorted to recollect our selves and since we find our selves guilty of the sinfull mispense of our good hours let us whiles we have space obtain of our selves to be carefull of redeeming that precious time we have lost as the Widow of Sarepta when she had but a little oyle left in her cruse and a little meale in her barrell was carefull of spending that to the best advantage so let us considering that
therefore putting both together we must rejoyce in him with trembling Droop not despair not O Man thou hast a Father in Heaven all the bowels of mortall and Earthly parents are straight to his If Fathers if Mothers may prove unnaturall there is no fear that God should cast off his mercy for it is himself Presume not O Man for this Father is a most just Judge It is for sinfull flesh and blood to be partiall Fond parents are apt so to doat upon the persons of their children that they are willing to connive at their sins either they will not see them or not hate them or not censure them or not punish them thus many a son may according to the Apologue bite his Mothers ear when he is climbing up to the gallowes but the infinite justice of the great and holy God cannot be either accessary or indulgent to the least sin of his dearest darling upon Earth it is a mad conceit of our Antinomian Hereticks That God sees no sin in his elect whereas he notes and takes more tenderly their offences then any other Hear what he saith to his Israel Thee onely have I chosen of all the families upon Earth therefore will I punish thee for all thine iniquities Amos. 3.2 But let this be enough to be spoken of the conjuncture of these two titles of God A Father and a Judge we cannot hope in the remainder of our hour to prosecute both of them severally let us onely touch at the former it is a dear name this of a Father and no less familiar It is the first word of our Lords prayer and in the first clause of our Creed that which is there the title of his personality in Divine relation is the same here in his gracious relation to us Our Father so he is in the right of Creation He made us not we our selves in the right of adoption we have received the adoption of sons Galat. 4.5 In the right of regeneration In that we are made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 I could here lose my self and yet be happily bestowed in the setting forth of those infinite priviledges that we receive from the hands of our God by vertue of this happy son-ship but I shall balk this theme for the present as that we not long since largely prosecuted in your ears and shall as my Text invites me rather put you in mind how vainly we shall pretend a right to this Father unless we own him for the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If ye call him Father as Beza and our former translation turnes it or as it is being a compound word more properly rendred in our present version If ye call upon the Father where you have a short but true Character of a faithfull Christian laid forth to you He is one that calls upon the Father he saith not upon God absolutely in the relation to that infinite power which made and governes the World so Jewes and Turks pretend to do but in the relation to his blessed paternity as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and in him ours Thus he that calls upon the Father professes himself a true Christian so St. Paul makes this one of the mottoes of Gods great Sâ—al Let every one that calls upon the name of the Lord depart from iniquity and David makes this the pitch-brand as it were of wicked wretches they call not upon God surely there is no act we can do argues more grace then holy invocation or that equally procures it There are three motives of our calling upon the Father Our duty our need and our benefit Our duty for that God injoyns it and accounts it an especiall part of his worship They shall call upon me in the day of their trouble and I will hear them saith God Our need for as we are of our selves destitute of all good things so they are onely to be derived to us from Heaven by our prayers Our benefit for we are assured of all blessings for suing for Ask and have In these regards I may truly say that man hath no grace nor goodness in him that prayes not both by himself and with his family let him never plead his disability to express himself in his devotion I never knew begger yet that wanted words to express his wants were we equallly sensible of our spirituall defects we should find language enough to bemoan them this indevotion plainly bewraies a Godless heart careless of his duty insensible of his need regardless of his benefit and wholly yielded up to an atheous stupidity On the contrary to pray well and frequently is an argument of a pious and graciously disposed soul Others may talk to God and complement with him perhaps in Scripture termes which they have packt together and this may be the phrase of their memory and elocution but to pour out our souls in our fervent prayers with a due apprehension of the majesty to whom we speak and a lively sense of our necessity with a faithfull expectation of their supplies from Heaven is for none but godly and well affected suppliants these cannot call upon the Father without a blessing It is a notable and patheticall expostulation which the holy Psalmist uses to the Almighty How long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth intimating clearly that it were strange and uncouth that a praying people should lie long under any judgment and should not find speedie mercy at the hands of God Oh then that we could be stirred up to a serious and effectual performance of this duty for our selves for our Brethren for the whole Church of God certainly we could not have been thus miserable if we could have heartily called upon the Father of mercies and if we could yet ply Heaven fervently and importunately with our faithfull devotions we should not fail of an happy evasion out of all our miseries and find cause to praise him for his gracious deliverance and his fatherly compassion renewed upon us and continued to our posterity after us which our good God for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous vouchsafe to grant unto us Amen THE WOMENS VAIL OR A DISCOURSE Concerning the NECESSITY or EXPEDIENCE OF THE CLOSE-COVERING OF THE Heads of Women Intended to have been Preach't in the Cathedral at Exceter upon 1 Cor. 11.10 Occasioned by an offence unjustly taken at a Modest Dresse 1 COR. 11.10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the Angels AS the Sacred Councels of the Church had wont to have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 substantial canons and rituall constitutions so hath our blessed Apostle as in all his Epistles so in this and as in other parts of it so in this Chapter here are main Canons for the essence of Gods service in the matter of the Eucharist here are Rules of order for the outward fashion of praying and
Angels present and the people shout out their Amen and shall our piety this way be lesse than theirs Surely the Angels of God are inseparably with us yea whole cohorts yea whole Legions of those heavenly soldiery are now viewing guarding us in these holy meetings and we acknowledg them not we yeild not to them such reverent and awful respects as even flesh and blood like our own will expect from us Did we think the Angels of God were with us here durst those of us which dare not be covered at home as if the freedom of this holy place gave them priviledge of a loose and wild licentiousness affect all saucy postures and strive to be more unmannerly then their Masters Did we consider that the Angels of God are witnesses of our demeanour in Gods house durst we stumble in here with no other reverence then we would do into our Barne or Stable and sit down with no other care then we would in an ale-house or Theater Did we finde our selves in an assembly of Angels durst we give our eyes leave to rove abroad in wanton glances our tongues to walk in idle and unseasonable chat our ears to be taken up with frivolous discourse Durst we set our selves to take those naps here whereof we failed on our pillow at home certainly my beloved all these do manifestly convince us of a palpable unrespect to the blessed Angels of God our invisible consorts in these holy services However then it hath been with us hitherto let us now begin to take up other resolutions and settle in our hearts an holy aw of that presence wherein we are Even at thy home address thy self for the Church prepare to come before a dreadful Majesty of God and his powerful Angels thou seest them not no more did Elishaes servant till his eyes were opened It is thine ignorant and grosse infidelity that hath filmed up thine eyes that thou canst discerne no spiritual object were they but anointed with the eye-salve of faith thou shouldest see Gods house full of heavenly glory and shouldest check thy self with holy Jacob when he awaked from his divine vision Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not how dreadfull is this place this is no other but the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven Gen. 28.16 17. Oh then when thou settest thy foot over the threshold of Gods Temple tremble to think who is there lift up thine awfull eyes and bow thine humble knees and raise up thy devout and faithful soul to a religious reverence and fear of those mighty and Majestical Spirits that are there and of that great God of Spirits whose both they and thou art and study in all thy carriage to be approved of so glorious witnesses and overseeres That so at the last those blessed Spirits with whom we have had an invisible conversation here may carry up our departing soules into the heaven of heavens into the presence of that infinite and incomprehensibly-glorious God both theirs and ours there to live and raign with them in the participation of their unconceivable blisse and glory To the fruition whereof he that hath ordained us graciously bring us by the mediation and for the sake of his blessed Son Jesus To whom with thee O Father of Heaven and thy co-eternall Spirit three persons in one God be given all praise honor immortality now and for ever HOLY DECENCY IN THE WORSHIP of GOD. By J. H. B. N. I Know that a clean heart and a right spirit is that which God mainly regards For as he is a Spirit so he will be served in Spirit but withall John 4.24 as he hath made the body and hath made it a partner with the Soul so he justly expects that it should be also wholly devoted to him so as the Apostle upon good reason prayes for his Thessalonians that their whole Spirit and Soul 1 Thes 5.23 and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and beseeches his Romans by the mercies of God that they present their bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God Rom. 12.1 Now as the body is capable of a double uncleanness the one morall when it is made an instrument and agent in sin the other naturall when it is polluted with outward filthiness so both of these are fit to be avoided in our addresses to the pure and holy God the former out of Gods absolute command who hath charged us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of the flesh and Spirit the latter out of the just grounds of Decency 2 Cor. 7.1 and expedience for though there be no sinfull turpitude in those bodily uncleanenesses wherein we offer our selves to appear before the Lord our God yet there is so deep an unbeseemingness in them as places them in the next door to sin Perhaps Gods ancient people the Jewes were too superstitiously scrupulous in these externall observations whos 's Talmud tells us of one of their great Rabbies that would rather suffer under extremity of hunger and thirst then tast of ought with unwashen hands as counting that neglect equall to lying with an harlot and who have raised a great question whether if any of their poultry have but dipped their beak in the bowle the water may be allowed to wash in forbidding to void the urine standing except it be upon a descent of ground lest any drop should recoyle upon the feet and in case of the other evacuation beside the paddle-staffe and other ceremonies in uncovering the feet injoyning to turn the face to the South not to the East or West because those coasts had their faces directed towards them in their devotions what should I speak of their extreme curiosity in their outward observances concerning the Law which no man might be allowed to read whiles he was but walking towards the unloading of nature or to the Bathe or near to any place of annoyance no Man might so much as spit in the Temple or before that sacred Volumn or stretch forth his feet towards it or turn his back upon it or receive it with the left hand no Man might presume to write it but upon the parchment made of the skin of a clean beast nor to write or give a bill of divorce but by the side of a running stream yea the very Turks as they have borrowed our circumcision so also religious niceties from these Jewes not allowing their Alcoran to be touched by a person that is unclean But surely I fear these men are not more faulty in the one extreme then many Christians are in the other who place a kinde of holinesse in a slovenly neglect and so order themselves as if they thought a nasty carelessenesse in Gods services were most acceptable to him Hence it is that they affect homely places for his worship abandoning all magnificence and cost in all the acts and apendances of their devotion clay and sticks please
not better have been spared Surely had those Godly Emperours Kings Princes Peers Gentry been of the minde of many moderne Christians they had forborne this care and cost and turned their magnificence into another channel But if this bounty of theirs were holy and commendable as it hath been justly celebrated by all Christians till this present age how are those of ours shamefully degenerated who affect nothing but homlinesse and beggery in all that is devoted to the Almighty and are ready to say contrary to the man after Gods own heart 2 Sam. 24.24 I will offer to the Lord my God of that which shall cost me nothing With what great state and deep expence God was served under the Law no man can be ignorant for who knowes not the costly furniture of the Tabernacle the rich habiliments of the Priest the precious vessels for the sacrifices and after that the invaluable sumptuouâ—ness of the Temple both without and within In the marbles cedars almuggim trees brasse silver gold in the curious celatures and artificial textures in regard of all which for matter and forme what was this other then the glory of the whole earth and as for the very altar alone Gods Ariel that which went up there from in smoke both in the daily sacrifices and the solemn Hecatombs upon special occasions what man could value Besides the treble tithes first fruites oblations which were perpetually presented to God for the maintenance of his Priesthood O the costly services of God under the Law And do we think the same God is now of a quite other diet then formerly Is all this meer ceremony Is there not so much morality in it as that it is meet the great God who is the possessour of Heaven and Earth should be served of the best that it is not for us to affect too much cheapnesse and neglective homeliness in our evangelical devotions Surely nature it self calls to us for this respect to a deity even the very savage Indians may teach us this point of religion amongst whom we find the Mexicans a people that had never had any intercourse with the other three parts of the World Eminent in this kinde what sumptuous and stately Temples had they erected to their Devils How did they enrich their mis-called Gods with Magazins of their treasure And even still the most barbarous and brutish of all those people that bear the shape of men have this principle bred in them that if they have ought better then other it is for their God a principle so much advanced by imperfect Christianity that the Abassins hold it piacular to build their own houses of the same matter which is reserved for their Churches Jo. Pories descript of Africk to the very fabrick and use whereof they yield so much reverence as that their greatest Peer alights from his horse when he comes but within view of those sacred piles And if from those remote parts of the world we shall think fit to look homewards how just cause shall we finde to wonder at the munificent piety of our predecessors who so freely poured out themselves into bountiful expence for raising of the houses of God in our Island and endowing them with rich patrimony that the prime honor of this Nation all the world over hath ever been the beauty of our Churches Neither was it otherwise in all those parts of the World where Christianity had obtained How frequent was it for a wealthy matron with Vestina and for a great Nobleman with the Roman Tertullus Regna potius quam coenobia vir sanctis posteris reliquit c. Volaterran to make God their heir Ex lâ—bro Portifie Innocent 1. and to enrich his houses and services with the legacies of their jewels and possessions Whereupon it came to passe that those structures and vessels which at the first were but of mud and meaner mettals according to the poverty of the donors soon after exchanged their homeliness for so glorious a magnificence as bleared the eyes of the heathen beholders See saith that enemy of Christ in what vessels Maries son is served and Ammianus is ready to burst with spight at the liberal provision of Gods ministers in comparison of their neglective Paganisme Ut ditenter oblationibus matronarum c. There may have been some in all ages that out of a misgrounded humility and pretended mortification have affected a willing disrespect of all outward accommodations both in their own domestick provisions and in the publick services of God such were St. Gallus of old and in later Times the two famous Franceses of Assise and of St. Paul The first whereof Gallus Wolafrid Strab. c. 18. as the history reports when a great Duke out of a reverent opinion of his sanctity had given him a rich and curiously carved peece of plate Magnoaldus his Disciple who had the carriage of that pretious vessel moving that it might be reserved for the sacred use of Gods table received this answer from him Son remember what Peter said Gold and Silver have I none let this plate which thou bearest be distributed to the poor for my blessed master Saint Colomb was wont to offer that holy Sacrifice in chalices of brasse because they say our Saviour was with brazen nailes fastned to his cross thus he in more humility then wisdome Lep rosis ulcerosarum plagarum ruebat in Oscula lib. Confor Fructu Separatur And for the other two never man more affected bravery and pride then they did beggery and nastiness placing a kind of merit in sticks and clay in rags and patches and slovenry S. Franciscus circa mortem suam in testamento suo scribi voluit quod omnes cellae domus fratrum de lignis luto essent tantum ad conservandam melius humilitatem paupertatem Libr. Conform p. 218. lib. 2. Fructu 4. Conform 16. Let these and their ill-advised followers pass for Cynicks in Christianity although now what ever the original rule of their sordid founder was even those of that order can in their buildings and furnitures emulate the magnificence of Princes as if they affected no less excess in the one extreme then their patron did in the other Fratres omnes vilibus vestibus induantur possunt earepeciare de saccis aliis peciis cum benedictione Dei. Conform l. 1. Fructu 9. p. 116. Wise Christians sit down in the mean now under the Gospel avoyding a carelesse or parcimonious neglect on the one side and a superstitious lavishnesse on the other As for this Church of ours there is at this time especially little fear of too much and if we be not more in the ablative then our Ancestors were in the dative case yet we are generally more apt to higgle with the Almighty and in a base niggardliness to pinch him in the allowances to his service wherein we do not so much wrong our God as our selves for there is not in all the World so sure
both 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us Lo the promise was past before vers 20. and then yet more confirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 21. and now past under seale 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 22. Yea but the present possession is yet more and that is given us in part by our received earnest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earnest is a binder wherefore is it given but by a little to assure all In our transactions with Men when we have an honest Mans word for a bargain we think it safe but when his hand and seale infallible but when we have part in hand already the contract is past and now we hold our selves stated in the commodity what ever it be And have we the promise hand seale earnest of Gods Spirit and not see it not feel it not know it Shortly whom will we believe if not God and our selves No Man knowes what is in Man but the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Man that is in him as St. Paul to his Corinthians Ye have heard Gods Spirit hear our own out of our own mouth Doth not every Christian say I believe in God c. I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in the holy Ghost I believe the Communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins and life Everlasting And doth he say he believes when he believes not or when he knows not whether he believe or no what a mockery were this of our Christian profession Or as the Jesuitical evasion commonly is is this only meant of an assent to these general truthes that there is a God a Saviour a sanctifyer Saints remission salvation not a special application of these several articles to the soul of him whose tongue professeth it Surely then the devil might say the creed no less confidently then the greatest Saint upon Earth There is no Devil in hel but believes not without regret that there is a God that made the World a Saviour that redeemed it a blessed Spirit that renewes it a remission of sins an eternal Salvation to those that are thus redeemed and regenerate and if in the profession of our faith we go no further then Devils how is this Symbolum Christianorum To what purpose do we say our creed But if we know that we believe for the present how know we what we shall do what may not alter in time we know our own frailty and ficklenesse what hold is there of us weak wretches what assurance for the future Surely on our part none at all If we be left never so little to our selves we are gone on Gods part enough there is a double hand mutually imployed in our hold-fast Gods and ours we lay hand on God God laies hand on us if our feeble hand fail him yet his gracious and omnipotent hand will not fail us even when we are lost in our selves yet in him we are safe he hath graciously said and will make it good I will not leave thee nor forsake thee The seed of God saith the beloved disciple Joh. 3. remaines in him that is born of God so as he cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trade in sin as an unregenerate not lose himself in sinning so as contrary to Card. Bellarmines desperate Logick even an act of infidelity cannot marr his habit of faith and though he be in himself and in his sin guilty of death yet through the mercy of his God he is preserved from being swallowed up of death whiles he hath the seed of God he is the Son of God and the seed of God remaines in him alwayes That of the great Doctor of the Gentiles is sweet and cordiall and in stead of all to this purpose Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am fully perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ â—esus our Lord. Rom. 8.39 O divine oratory of the great Apostle Oh the heavenly and irrefragable Logick of Gods Pen-man it is the very question that we have now in hand which he there discusses and falls upon this happy conclusion That nothing can separate Gods elect from his everlasting love he proves it by induction of the most powerfull agents and triumphes in the impoâ—ence and imprevalency of them all and whiles he names the principalities and powers of darkness what doth he but imply those sins also by which they work And this he saies not for himself only least any with Pererius and some other Jesuites should harp upon a particular Revelation but who shall separate us he takes us in with him and if he seem to pitch upon his own person in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet the subject of this perswasion reacheth to all true believers That nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Us not as it is over-stretched by Bellarmine and Vasquez indefinitely for those that predestinate in generall but with an implyed application of it to himself and the believing Christians to whom he wrote The place is so clear and full that all the miserable and strained Evasions of the Jesuiticall gainsayers cannot elude it but that it will carry any free and unprejudiced heart along with it and evince this comfortable truth That as for the present so for the future we may attain to be safe for our spirituall condition What speak I of a safety that may be when the true believer is saved already already past from death to Life already therefore over the threshold of Heaven Shortly then our faith may make our calling sure our calling may make sure our election and we may therefore confidently build upon this truth that our calling and election may be made sure Now many things may be done that yet need not yea that ought not to be done This both ought and must be indeavored for the necessity and benefit of it This charge here as it implies the possibility so it signifies the convenience use profit necessity of this assecuration for sure if it were not beneficiall to us it would never be thus forceably urged upon us And certainly there needs no great proof of this For nature and our self-love grounded thereupon easily invites us to the indeavour of feoffing our selves in any thing that is good this being then the highest good that the Soul of Man can be possibly capable of to be ascertained of Salvation it will soon follow that since it may be done we shall resolve it ought it must be indeavored to be done Indifferent things and such as without which we may well subsist are left arbitrary to us but those things wherein our spirituall well-being consisteth must be mainly laboured for neither can any contention be too much to attain them such is this we have
only hold it fit out of our obedience to the lawes both of our church and kingdome to continue a joyful celebration of a memorial day to the honour of our blessed Saviour But that other authority which you tell me was urged to this purpose I confesse doth not a little amaze me it was you say of King James our learned Soveraigne of late and blessed Memory whose testimony was brought in before the credulous people not without the just applause of a Solomon-like wisdome as crying down these festivals and in a certain speech of his applauding the purity of the church of Scotland above that of Geneva for that it observed not the common feasts of Christs Nativity and Resurrection c. Is it possible that any mouth could name that wise and good King in such a cause whom all the world knowes to have been as zealous a patron of those festivals as any lived upon earth and if he did let fall any such speech before he had any Downe upon his chin whilst he was under the serule what candor is it to produce it now to the contradiction of his better experience and ripest judgment Nay is it not famously known that it was one of the main errands of his journy into his native Kingdome of Scotland to reduce that church unto a conformity to the rest of the Churches of Christendom in the observation of these solemn dayes One of the five Articles of Perth and to this purpose was it not one of the main businesses which he set on work in the Assembly at Perth and wherein he employed the service of his worthy Chaplain Doctor Young Dean of Winchester to recall and re-establish these festivalls And accordingly in pursuance of his Majesties earnest desire this way was it not enacted in that Assembly that the said feasts should be duely kept Doubtlesse it was and that not without much wise care and holy caution which act because it cannot be had every where and is well worthy of your notice and that which clears the point in hand I have thought good here to insert the tenor of it therefore is this As we abhorr the superstitious observation of Festival dayes by the Papists and detest all licentious and profane abuse thereof by the common sort of professors so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost was commendably and godly remembred at certain particular dayes and times by the whole church of the World and may be also now Therefore the Assembly ordaines that every Minister shall upon these dayes have the commemoration of the foresaid inestimable benefits and make choice of several and pertinent texts of Scripture and frame their doctrine and exhortation there to and rebuke all superstitious observation and licentious profanation thereof I could if it were needful give you other proofes of King James his zeal for these dayes but what should I spend time in proving there is a sun in the Heaven and sight in that Sun The name of that great King suffereth for his excesse this way Shortly then the Church of God his anointed law antiquity reason are for us in this point and I doubt not but you will gladly be on their side away with all innovations and frivolous quarrels we were divided enough before and little needed any new rents The God of peace quiet all these distempers and unite our hearts one to another and all to himself Farwell in the Lord. TO My Reverend and worthily Dear Friend M r. WILLIAM STRUTHERS One of the Preachers of EDINBOURGH THe hast of your Letters my reverend and worthy Mr. Struthers was not so great as their welcome which they might well challenge for your name but more for that love and confidence which they imported thus must our Friendship be fed that it may neither feel death nor age The substance of your Letter was partly Relation and partly Request For the first Rumour had in part prevented you and brought to my ears those Stirs which happened after my departure and namely together with that impetuous Protestation some rude deportment of ill-governed Spirits towards his Majesty Alas my dear Brother this is not an usage for Kings they are the nurses of the Church if the child shall fall to scratching and biting the brest what can it expect but stripes and hunger your Letter professes that his Majesty sent you away in peace and joy and why would any of those rough-hewn Zelots send him away in discontentment But this was I know much against your heart whose often protestations assured me of your wise moderation in these things How earnestly have you professed to me that if you were in the Church of England such was your indifferency in these indifferent matters you would make no scruple of your ceremonies yea how sharp hath your censure been of those refractaries amongst us that would forgo their stations rather then yield to these harmeless impositions So much the more therefore do I marvell how any delator could get any ground from you whereon to place an accusation in this kind But this and the rest of those historicall passages being only concerning things past have their end in my notice Let me rather turn my pen to that part which calleth for my advise which for your sake I could well wish were worthy to be held such as that your self and your collegues might find cause to rest in it howsoever it shall be honest and hearty and no other then I would in the presence of God give to my own soul Matters you think will not stand long at this point but will come on further and press you to a resolution What is to be done will you hear me counselling as a friend as a Brother Since you foresee this meet them in the way with a resolution to intertain them and perswade others There are five points in question The solemn festivities The private use of either Sacrament Geniculation at the Eucharist Confirmation by Bishops For these there may be a double Plea insinuated by way of comparison in your Letters Expedience in the things themselves Authority in the commander some things are therefore to be done because they are commanded some others are therefore commanded because they are to be done obedience pleads for the one justice for the other If I shall leave these in the first rank I shall satisfie but if in the second I shall supererogate which if I do not I shall fail of my hopes Let me profess to you seriously I did never so busily and intentively study these rituall matters as I have done since your Letters called me unto this task Since which time I speak boldly I made no spare either of hours or papers Neque enim magna exiliter nec seria perfunctorie as I have learned of our Nazianzen and besides this under one name seemed a common cause and
four Bishops have dependence upon two Archbishops When was it otherwise Is it not so in all subordinations of government If this be a just inconvenience let all be levelled to an equality and that shall end in a certain confusion but they swear to them Canonicall obedience True but it is only in omnibus licitis honestis mandatis The supposition implyed must needs savour of uncharitableness that the Metropolitans will be still apt to require unlawfull things and the Bishops will ever basely stoop to a servile humoring of them 5. But they have their places only for their lives and therefore not fit to have a legislative power over the honors liberties proprieties of the subject 1. If they have their Bishopricks but for their lives yet there are scarce any of them that have not so much temporall estate in fee as may make them no less capable of a legislative power then many of the house of Commons who claim this right Secondly is the case other now then it hath been all this while yet for so many hundred years there have been good laws and just sentences given by their concurrence notwithstanding this their tenure for Life 3ly If they be honest and conscionable though they had their places but for a year or a day they would not yield to determine ought unjustly And if dishonest and conscienceless it is not the perpetuall inheritance of our places that can make our determinations just 6. If dependencies and expectations of further preferment lie in our way why not equally in many Temporall Lords who are interessed in offices and places in court why should we be more mis-carriageable by such possibilities or hopes then others Especially when our age is commonly such and the charges of removes so great that there is small likelyhood of an equall gaining by he change 7. If severall and particular Bishops have much incroched upon the consciences of his Majesties subjects in matter of their propriety and liberty what reason is there to impute this unto all why should the innocent be punished for the wrongs of the guilty Let those who can be convinced of an offence this way undergo a condigne censure Let not an unjust prejudice be cast upon the whole calling for the errors of a few 8. It is not to be expected but the whole number of 26. should be interessed in the maintenance of that their Jurisdiction which both the laws of Men and Apostolicall institution hath feoffed them in why should they not defend their own lawfull and holy calling against all unjust opposition of gainsayers If their hearts did not assure them their station were warrantable and good they were beasts if they would hold them and if their hearts do assure them so they were beasts if they would not defend them But there are numbers in all the three Kingdomes that crye them down True but there are greater numbers for them perhaps an hundred for one and if some busie factionists of the meaner sort here about a body compounded of Separatists Anabaptists Familists and such like stuffe make some show and noise yet what are these to the whole Kingdom Neither do these men more oppugne our votes in Parliament then our stations in the Church so as this argument will no less hold for no bishops then for no votes as likewise that instance in the practise of Scotland Scotland hath abolisht Episcopacy they say The more pity let them look quo jure and what answer to make unto that God whose ordinance it is But I had thought it should have been a stronger argument England retains Episcopacy therefore Scotland should then Scotland hath abolisht Episcopacy therefore England should do so too Let there be any other Church named in the whole Christian World that hath voluntarily abandoned Episcopacy when it might have continued it and if their practise be herein singular why should not they rather conforme to all the rest of Christendom then we to them 9. But the core of all is that it sets too great a distance between us and our Brethren of the Clergy and so nourishes pride in us discontentment in them and disquietness in the Church An argument that fights equally against all our superiority over our Brethren and against our votes here By this reason we must be all equall none subordinate and what order can there be where none is above other What is this but old Korahs challenge Ye take too much upon you wherefore lift ye up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Now I beseech you whether was there more pride in Moses and Aaron that governed or in Corah and Dathan that murmured and repined It is pride then that causeth contention but where is this pride whether in those that moderately manage a lawfull superiority or in those that scorn and hate to be under goverment Were those Brethren so affected as they ought they should rather rejoyce that any of their own tribe are advanced to those places wherein they might be capable of doing good offices to them and the Church of God in stead of swelling with envy against their just exaltation and would feel this honor done to their profession and not to the persons Lastly what a mean opinion doth this imply to be conceived of us by the suggesters that we who are old Men Christian Philososophers and Divines should have so little government of our selves as to be puffed up with those poor accessions of titular respects which those who are really and hereditarily possessed of can weild without any such taint or suspicion of transportedness Shortly in all these Nine reasons there is nothing that may induce an indifferent Man to think there is any just ground to exclude Bishops from sitting and voting in Parliament FOR EPISCOPACY AND LITURGY WE cannot be too wary of or too opposite to Popery Antichristianism But let me admonish you in the fear of God to take heed that we do not dilate the name and imputation of these too farr for I speak it with just sorrow and compassion there are some well meaning and seduced souls that are by Erroneous teachers brought into the opinion that the sacred form of the Goverment of the Church and the holy forms of the publick devotions and prayers of the Church and all the favorers of them are worthy to be branded with the title of Popery and Antichristianism For the first my heart bleeds in me to think that that calling which was instituted by the Apostles themselves and hath ever since continued in the universall Church of Christ without interruption to this day should now come under the name of Popery I speak of the calling if the persons of any in this station have been faulty let them bear their own burden but that the calling it self should receive this construction in the opinion of well-minded and conscionable Christians is justly most lamentable I beseech you look back upon the histories of former times look but
but know hath been and is miserably infested on both sides with Papists on the one side and Schismaticks on the other The Psalmist hath of old distinguisht the enemies of it into wild Boars out of the Wood and little Foxes out of the Burroughs The one whereof goes about to root up the very foundation of Religion the other to crop the branches and blossomes and clusters thereof both of them conspire the utter ruine devastation of it As for the former of them I do perceive a great deal of good zeal for the remedy and suppression of them and I do heartily congratulate it and blesse God for it and beseech him to prosper it in those hands that shall undertake and prosecute it but for the other give me leave to say I do not finde many that are sensible of the danger of it which yet in my apprehension is very great and apparent Alas my Lords I beseech you to consider what it is that there should be in London and the Suburbs and Liberties no fewer then fourscore Congregations of several Sectaries as I have been too credibly informed instructed by Guides fit for them Coblers Taylors Feltmakers and such like trash which all are taught to spit in the face of their Mother the Church of England and to defye and revile her government From hence have issued those dangerous assaults of our Church Governours From hence that inundation of base and scurrilous libels and pamphlets wherewith we have been of late overborne in which Papists and Prelates like Oxen in a yoke are still matched together O my Lords I beseech you that you will be sensible of this great indignity Do but look upon these reverend persons Do not your Lordships see here sitting upon these benches those that have spent their time their strength their bodies and lives in preaching down in writing down Popery and which would be ready if occasion were offred to sacrifice all their old blood that remains to the maintenance of that truth of God which they have taught and written and shall we be thus despightfully ranged with them whom we do thus professedly oppose but alas this is but one of those many scandalous aspersions and intolerable affronts that are daily cast upon us Now whither should we in this case have recourse for a needful and seasonable redresse The arme of the Church is alas now short and sinewless it is the interposing of your authority that must rescue us You are the Eldest sons of your dear Mother the Church and therefore most fit most able to vindicate her wrongs you are amici Sponsae give me leave therefore in the bowels of Christ humbly to beseech your Lordships to be tenderly sensible of these woful and dangerous conditions of the times And if the government of the Church of England be unlawful and unfit abandon and disclaim it but if otherwise uphold and maintain it Otherwise if these lawless outrages be yet suffred to gather head who knowes where they will end My Lords if these men may with impunity and freedom thus bear down Ecclesiastical authority it is to be feared they will not rest there but will be ready to affront civil power too Your Lordships know that the Jack Straws and Cades and Watt Tylers of former times did not more cry down Learning then Nobility and those of your Lordships that have read the history of the Anabaptistical tumults at Munster will need no other Item let it be enough to say that many of these Sectaries are of the same profession Shortly therefore let me humbly move your Lordships to take these dangers and miseries of this poor Church deeply to heart and upon this occasion to give order for the speedy redressing of these horrible insolencies and for the stopping of that deluge of libellous invectives wherewith we are thus impetuously overflown Which in all due submission I humbly present to your Lordships wise and religious consideration A SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT In Defence of the CANONS MADE IN CONVOCATION My Lords I cannot choose but know that whosoever rises up in this cause must speak with the disadvantage of much prejudice and therefore I do humbly crave your Lordships best construction were it my Lords that some few doubting persons were to be satisfied in some scruples about matter of the Canons there might have been some life in the hope of prevailing but now that we are borne down with such a torrent of generall and resolute contradiction we yield but yet give us leave I beseech you so to yield that posterity may not say we have willingly betraid our own innocence First therefore let us plead to your Lordships and the World that to abate the edge of that illegality which is objected to us it was our obedience that both assembled and kept us together for the making of Synodicall acts We had the great Seal of England for it seconded by the judgments of the oracles of law and justice and upon these the command of our superiour to whom we have sworn and owe canonical obedience Now in this case what should we do Was it for us to judg of the great seal of England or to judg of our Judges alas we are not for the law but for the Gospell or to disobey that authority which was to be ever sacred to us I beseech your Lordships put your selves a while in to our condition had the case been yours what would you have done If we obey not we are rebels to authority if we obey we are censured for illegall procedures Where are we now my Lords It is an old rule of Casuists nemo tenetur esse perplexus Free us one way or other and shew us whether we must rather hazard censure or incurr disobedience In the next place give us leave to plead our good intentions since we must make new Canons I perswade my self we all came I am sure I can speak for one with honest and zealous desires to do God and his Church good service and expected to have received great thanks both of Church and Common-wealth for your Lordships see that the main drift of those Canons was to repress and confine the indiscreet and lawless discourses of some either ignorant or parasiticall I am sure offensive Preachers to suppress the growth of Socinianism Popery Separatism to redress some abuses of Ecclesiastical courts and officers In all which I dare say your Lordships do heartily concurr with them And if in the manner of expression there have been any failings I shall humbly beseech your Lordships that those may not be too much stood upon where the main substance is well meant and in it self profitable In the third place give me leave to put your Lordships in mind of the continuall practise of the Christian Church since the first Synod of the Apostles Act. 15. to this present day wherein I suppose it can never be showed that ever any Ecclesiasticall Canons made by the Bishops and Clergy in Synods