in Private and in Public His Behaviour was always exceeding Grave and Composed and when-ever present at the Public Service of the Church he had not only a Habit of Seriousness visibly dwelt upon his Mind and Spirit but a Reverend and Profound Humility which appeared in the great Devotion of his Heart In a Word he had all the Virtue and Qualification both of a Great and of a Good Man he was a Wise Prelate a most Learned Divine an Universal Scholar a Just Man a Faithful Friend an Excellent Councellor a Kind and Tender Master to his Servants a great Benefactor to others a Thankful Beneficiary where he was obliged himself a Zealous Asserter of his Religion against Popery on the one side and Fanaticism on the other and in short all the single Perfections that make many Men Eminent were United in this Primate and render'd him Illustrious Thus I have ventur'd in hast to give you my Thoughts of this most Reverend Prelate while he lived and I am confident you earnestly expect at the same Time I should say something how he Died. All that I shall observe is that his Retirement into the Country was wholly in order thereunto that he might lay his Remains in the very same Soyl where he first received his Being His Time was spent most in Preparation for his great Change which he expected with the same Joy and Pleasure of Mind as others are wont to do their Advancements to Honour and Greatness The World was what he never Loved but only for those Opportunities it gave him of doing Good He parted with his Life with the same Submission to Divine Providence as the Christians of Old did with an humble Chearfulness and Resignation of Spirit He spent most of his Time in Private Devotion and Charity in daily Prayers to God for Himself and the whole World in Reading and Meditations and whatever Duties are necessary for a Good Man and a Dying Christian. He was some Months before he Dyed seized with a Fit of an Ague which confined him to his Bed for many Weeks The third Fit proved so exceeding violent that it was in great Likelihood to have Mastered his Nature and Constitution and Carryed him off every one about him thinking and His Grace likewise finding His Strength so far gone that it seemed impossible for him to have Grappled with another However it was diverted though against his Inclinations by the Cortex Peruvianus being more desirous to Dye than Live He was for many Days in Prospect of Death which he saw as it approached and felt it come on by Degrees and to the very last Minute of his Expiring Breath having placed Himself in a posture of Dying and Ordering the Recommendatory Prayer in the Service of the Visitation of the Sick to be read to him He immediately Resigned his Spirit to Almighty God and thereby gave all that were about him great Cause to Admire his Faith towards GOD his Zeal to his Church his Constancy of Mind his Contempt of the World his Universal Charity to all Mankind and his Chearful Hopes of Eternity He Dyed on the Twenty Fourth of November between Twelve and One of the Clock and was Buried on the Twenty Seventh between Eight and Nine very Privately as He himself Ordered it in Fresingfield Church-Yard on the South-side as near the Wall as they could Lay Him A Place indeed of his Own Chusing Sixteen Years Since at which Time he was Nominated to the See of CANTERBVRY But before his Instalment he took a Journey down into SVFFOLK to see his Relations and his Native Place and then told his Friends they should Bury Him There in Case He should Dye in that Country Though afterwards he Changed his Intentions and made a Place for his Interment in his own Palace at LAMBETH But upon his Deprivation and Return to the Place of his Nativity he Re-assumed his former Resolutions and Disposed of his Body as above mentioned and his SOVL into the Arms of his Dearest SAVIOUR What then Remains for Us but to Preserve the Memory of his Great Virtue always fresh in our Minds and Express as far as we are able the Copy of them in our Practice for this will be the best Way of Remembring the Dead which brings in most Advantage to the Living and the truest Way to Honour Him is to Imitate what was so good and highly Commendable in Him When the Piety and Humility the Justice and Charity and all the other Excellent Endearments of this Great Person are kept Alive and shewn in the Conversation of those that Survive Him It is only these Virtues which have Carried those that have gone before Us and which can Carry Us too in the End to a joyful Resurrection Thus Worthy Sir I have at your Request ventured to give you a brief Account of this most Excellent Prelate and am very Conscious to my self the Character I have given you of Him is Infinitely short of his Extraordinary Merit I might have insisted upon many Peculiar Passages of the Life and Actions of this Great Man which would have been more Honourable to him there being no VVay so Advantagious of drawing out Excellent Persons as by shewing the Draught which they have made of themselves their own most Commendable Actions making them more truly Illustrious than all the Paint and Varnish of an abstracted Eloquence Especially because this is of more Use and a better Help to Imitation But I have chosen rather to give you my Thoughts of Him in the General not doubting but some more Perfect and Larger Account will in due Time be Published concerning Him However I have this Satisfaction that you will I am sure Accept of my poor Endeavours herein having obeyed your Command with the same Chearfulness and Readiness wherewith you are wont to Oblige Sir Your Most Humble and Obedient Servant M. M. A SERMON PREACHED In S. Peter's Westminster on the first Sunday in Advent at the Consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God JOHN Lord Bishop of Durham WILLIAM Lord B. of S. Davids BENJAMIN Lord Bishop of Peterb HUGH Lord Bishop of Landaff RICHARD Lord Bishop of Carslile BRIAN Lord Bish. of Chester and JOHN Lord Bishop of Exeter By the Most Reverend Father in God William Sancroft Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Apoc. 1. 20. Septem Stellae Angeli sunt Septem Ecclesiarum LONDON Printed by T. B. 1694. REVERENDO IN CHRISTO PATRI AC DOMINO D no. JOHANNI EPISCOPO DUNEâ—MENSI EOQUE NOMINE JURA HABENTI COMITIS PALATINI SACRAE THEOLOGIAE PROFESSORI VETERIS SCRIPTURARUM CANONIS ADSERTORI ET VINDICI ECCLESIAE PETROBURGENSIS EX DECANO DVNELMENSIS DECANO DESIGNATO DIU CANONICO JAM ETIAM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ANGLIC ET FILIO ET PATRI OPTIMâ— ROMANAE HODIERNAE ET NUPRAE OPPUGNATORI STRENVO VETERIS ET PRIMITIVE UT CATHOLICAE DMIRATORI PERPETUO CVLTORI DEVOTISSIMO 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VIRO Qvl INUTRIUSQUE FORTUNAE SEU DURIS SEU LUBRICIS EODEM
Honoured with those Rewards in the Church that might make them Public Benefits and Examples to the World quickly took Notice of Him as a Person who was growing into Greatness and whose Extraordinary Parts and Abilities would soon Ripen him for the Greatest Employments his Profession could Entitle him too He was intimately Known to all the Learned Bishops of that Age and particularly to the Most Reverend Doctor Iohn Cosens Lord Bishop of Durham who had singled him out to be his Chaplain and which was a far greater Honour to him His Friend and Confident He was most entirely Beloved by all the Great Ones both in Church and State and so might have commanded whatever he could have desired in the Church from those who had so many excellent Preferments in their Donations But Privacy and a retired Life was the only thing he Coveted and preferred to all the greatest Employments they could bestow upon Him Because this did best Improve his Mind as it gave him the largest Opportunities of laying in the greatest Stock and Treasure of Knowledge and Wisdom Which he esteemed above all the Honours and Wealth in the Kingdom He never did desire either to be Rich or Great but to be as Knowing as he could be which he thought could never be obtained but by Ease and Quietness and by Pains and Study which are very much Interrupted by Public Business and Employments And being therefore blessed with admirable natural Parts and Qualifications of Mind he resolved to take this Course to obtain the End he Aim'd at of gaining as much Learning as he could to render him every way Serviceable to his Profession and to the World He had an Understanding that was extended to all the Parts of useful Knowledge and this improv'd by Travel and Foreign Conversation He spent some Years in France and Italy amongst the most Learned Personages that those Countries could boast of Here he prosecuted his Studies with an Indefatigable Industry Courted and Beloved by every one for the singular Modesty and Affability of his Mind and Temper and for his great Attainments in all manner of Knowledge that could render him not only an Honour to his Country and Profession but highly Acceptable to all Learned and Ingenious Persons Some time before the Restauration of our Government he returned to his Native Soyl and lived in that Privacy and Retirement which was so suitable to his Temper till the Place of his Education in the Vniversity became the Scene of his Government Wherein that College may justly boast of it's Happiness by reason of the great Prudence and Wisdom which was Visible to every one of the Fellows by his Careful Management of their Affairs giving every day Instances of his great Understanding and clear Insight in the Nature of Business and in his most Obliging Deportment to every Member of that Society Who were encouraged by his great Example to Laborious Study and to the Prosecution of the Greatest Attempts in Learning Here he staid not long but was by that Wise and Discerning Prince King Charles the Second Recommended to the Deanary of St. Pauls St. Pauls being through Length of Time and a Barbarous Rebellion become very much Decay'd and Ruin'd it was necessary that so Charitable a Person should be fix'd in that Post in order to contrive VVays for the Repairing of her Breaches and the Decays She then lay under None I am sure had a larger Heart for such an Undertaking and a more eager Inclination to endeavour all he could to Restore her to her former Beauty And in Order hereunto while he sate in this Chair no one could have Husbanded her Revenues with a more frugal and yet decent Oeconomy in order to Advance her to her Greatness wherein She appeared in former Ages But while he was carrying on this Noble Design it fell a Sacrifice to that dismal Conflagration and had Burning instead of Beauty However this fatal Judgment which befel this Renowned City and Noble Structure which had been the Honour of our Nation and the Admiration of all the World for many Ages did not lessen his singular Zeal for the House of God His Labours and Solicitations in order to the Re-building of it were unwearied and he was as diligent to raise this Reverent Pyle out of its Ashes as he had been before to support it in it's Ruin Here he continued for many Years Adorning the Post he was in by Re-building the Deanary and Improving its Revenue and carrying on his great Resolution of doing all the Good he could to the Church in General and to his Own in Particular While this was the daily Object of his Thoughts and Actions he was unexpectedly and without the least Inclination in Himself Advanced to the See of Canterbury This Promotion as it was an Act of Grace which flow'd from the Great Benignity of his Prince so it was the Effect of that Judgment in his Majesty which all the World acknowledged to be remarkable in him And indeed it was not possible for him to lie long hid though He Industriously sought it and seemed rather to be earnestly compelled to the Acceptance of it than through any natural Desire after Greatness disposed towards it No sooner that the World knew of his Nomination to the See but his Advancement thither met with an Universal Joy and Satisfaction Every one were sensible of what happy Days this truly Primitive and Apostolical Church of England would enjoy under his Zealous Patronage and how much Learning would flourish in these Kingdoms under his Auspicious Influence and Protection And so indeed it hath He being generally known to be a hearty and faithful Friend to all that had any Merit to expect his Favour or desire it He carefully sought out such Persons for the Service of the Church in those Preferments that fell within his Gift as were of approved Abilities of great Learning and of Exemplary Lives and Conversations He had a Heart enlarged to the greatest Hospitality that could be and his Charity was Diffusive to all manner of Objects relating thereunto He was a constant Friend to Learning to Religion and to our Established Church and designed to wear away the Remains of his Life his Estate and his Interest for the Encouragement and Preservation of them He had for many Years been Collecting a Useful Library of the best Books in every Science but Particularly Philology History and Divinity and all these of the best Editions which he at first Designed for the Public Library at Lambeth but afterwards he altered his Intentions and sent this Noble Present to his own College where they Design an Honourable Apartment to their Library in Commemoration of so useful and generous a Benefaction He was a great Admirer of the Excellency of our Liturgy in the last Alterations of which just after the Restitution of our Government in Church and State as he was very much concerned so he was a constant Attender upon the Public Worship of GOD both
OCCASIONAL SERMONS Preached by the Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM SANCROFT Late Lord Arch-BISHOP OF CANTERBURY With some Remarks of his Life and Conversation in a LETTER to a FRIEND LONDON Printed by T. B. for Thomas Bassett at the George near St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street MDCXCIV To my Honoured Friend R. T. SIR I Have received your Letter and am extreamly well pleased with your Intentions of Publishing the Sermons of that most Reverend Prelate Dr. William Sancroft Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury which he long since Preached and made Public to the VVorld Each of them in the Front of the Title signifie to the View of the Reader the remarkable Occasions upon which they were Preached and being through Length of Time become very scarce and difficult to be obtained the Impression of each of them being worn out I do not doubt but it will be an Acceptable Service to all who not only Love Learning in general but likewise the Memory of that Great Prelate who had so great a share of it himself and daily Encouraged and Promoted it in others The first of these Discourses was Preached at St. Peter's Westminster on the first Sunday in Advent 1660. just after the Restitution of our Government in Church and State wherein the Honour of our Church and of Episcopacy is most Learnedly asserted against all the unreasonable and weak Pretences and Arguments of the Adversaries of Both and this at the Consecration of Six Right Reverend Bishops who very well deserved the Honours were bestowed upon them by that Excellent Prince King Charles the Second not only for the Eminency of their Lives and Conversations but of their Writings and other Public Services they did for the Preserving and Defending our Established Church and Monarchy in these Realms in that Long Rebellion which had endeavoured the utter Ruin and Extirpation of Both. And whoever peruses this Sermon will find he hath handled it as the Argument of it requires and the Greatness of the Auditory then expected from him And herein he gave an Early Taste not only of his Abilities and Learning on this Subject but of what he even then deserved and afterwards arrived to the Greatest our Church could give him and his Prince bestow upon him The second was a Sermon which he Preached before the King at Whitehall October 10. 1666. on that Solemn Fast which the Government had appointed to bewail the Astonishing Judgment of Almighty God upon the City of London by that Prodigious Fire which laid it in Dust and Ashes Wherein he shews himself to be a great Master of Devotion and Piety by exciting the same in others and Encouraging the whole Nation to a real Sense of those Evils they had suffered and to a serious and timely Repentance of all their Sins least a worse thing fell upon them The third Discourse was Delivered likewise before the House of Peers on the 13th of November 1678. being the Fast Day appointed by His Majesty to implore the Mercies of Almighty God in the Protection of his Majesties Sacred Person and his Kingdoms from the Attempts and Machinations that were then on Foot by the several Partisans of the Church of Rome All of which Discourses were extorted from him and made Public by the Request and Authority of those before whom he Preached contrary to the Inclination of his Mind and singular Modesty which was indeed Peculiar to him having ever affected a great Privacy in his Thoughts and Writings being resolved never to appear in Print if he could with any Decency avoid the Importunity or Commands of those who requested the Publishing of them But I shall say nothing more concerning these Discourses but leave them to the Perusal of the Judicious Reader as you desire All that I have now to do is only to give you a short Character of this Excellent Person Though I am very Conscious to my self that my Abilities are not equal to this Attempt which I have at your request undertaken and therefore I have rather chosen to Sacrifice my little Reputation to your kind Importunity and the Public Censure then that this little Volum of Sermons should go unpraefac'd to the World I am exceeding sensible of the Boldness herein of the most ingenious Designer to draw his Picture as it ought to be and the most skilful Hand would be at a Loss for the true Features and Lineaments of this Great Man but the best though the most difficult Enterprize ought not to meet with any Discouragement when it is designed well and not only for a Private but a Public Good too His Life was the Transcript of those excellent Endowments and Virtues which usually Adorned the Lives of the Primitive Bishops and as no one could know more what belonged to the Character of a true Prelate so no one Practised it better He Gradually Arrived to his Greatness by early Notices in the World And while a Youth and under the Government of his Parents he was always addicted through the Pregnancy of his Genius to a great Sense of Piety and Goodness and out-striped the great Care and Education of his Masters by the large Steps and Progress he daily made in Learning and Religion Cambridge was the Place he came to when he at first appeared in the World and so became the happy Mother of this Renowned Prelate in the very Bloom of his Years Which is a just Honour to that great Seat of Learning and which any other Vniversity I am sure would justly boast of He was settled in Emmanuel College and no sooner there but he gave the World those Early Hopes of him as he made good presently after in many of the great Actions of his Life His Accomplishments in Human Literature were very surprising and within a very little while after his being there he became Master of the whole Circle of it Which upon all Occasions in Public as well as in Private shewed it self very remarkably In this he had a peculiar Talent being an admirable Critic in all the Antient and Classic Knowledge both among the Greeks and Romans He had throughly digested all their Learning in Poetry and History and this without the least Affectation of Vanity or Ostentation of Learning He attained to that Perfection in it that as it was his Divertion so he made it an Advancement to his other Studies He made it subservient to the carrying on his unwearied Labours in Theology In this he spent the greatest part of his Time and cultivated the Soyl in which it was planted to so great a height that it became exceeding Fruitful and I do not doubt within a short space of Time but that the Learned World will be the better for many Noble Fruits and Productions of it Were there only these which we now Present you with it would be sufficient to Demonstrate the Greatness of the Person and the Excellency of his Learning The Great Men of that Time who were justly Celebrated for Learning and
the King ' s most Excellent Majesty our Sovereign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and Supream Governor in these His Realms and in all other his Dominions and Countries over all Persons in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal That God would Establish His Throne in Righteousness and His Seed to all Generations Also for our gracious Lady Mary the Queen-Mother for the most Illustrious Prince James Duke of York and for the whole Royal Family That God would take them all into His Care and make them the Instruments of His Glory and the good and welfare of these Nations Further let us pray for the Ministers of God ' s Holy Word and Sacraments as well arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops as other Pastors and Curates for the Lords and others of his Majesties most Honourable Council and for all the Nobility and Magistrates of the Realm That All and every of these in their several Callings may serve truly and painfully to the Glory of God and the edifying and well governing of his People remembring the account that they must make Let us also pray for the Universities of this Land Cambridge and Oxford That God would water them with his Grace and still continue them the Nurseries of Religion and Learning to the whole Land Let us pray for the whole Commons of this Realm That remembring at last from whence they are faln they may repent and do the first works living henceforth in Faith and Fear of God in humble Obedience to their King and in Brotherly Charity one to another Finally let us praise God for all those that are already departed out of this Life in the Faith of Christ and pray unto God we may have Grace to direct our Lives after their good Examples that this Life ended we may be made partakers with them of the glorious Resurrection in the Life Everlasting For which and for all other needful Blessings let us say together the Prayer of our Lord who hath taught us to say Our Father c. For this Cause left I thee in Creet c. The Erecting of the Power that 's the first I left thee in Creet Where we have these Particulars The Original of this Power in Ego the subject of it in Te Ego Te the Conveyance in Ego Reliqui and the Extent in Reliqui Cretae or in Creta I. I left thee I the Apostle of Iesus Christ vers 1. left thee Mine There 's the Source and the Stream the Original and the Derivation of All 't was from our Lord by his Apostle I did it his Commissioner 1. And therefore First Not a Suffragan of St. Peter as some of the Romish Partizans would fain have it Who to serve the over-high pretences of that Court are not content to Dogmatize That St. Peter was the Prince and Sovereign of the Apostles and his very Successors superior to the Apostles that survived Him and That they being once All Dead there was never since any Power in the Church but in Succession to him and by Derivation from him dare yet higher and with strange confidence pronounce That the Apostles themselves were all ordained by St. Peter and He alone by Christ And That when the Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them they were thereupon sent up to Ierusalem to be ordained by St. Peter Affirmations so very strange that I know not what can be more unless this be that they should think them passable with us upon the Authority of Petrus Comestor the Scholastic Historian and those suspected Decretals of the false Merchant I mention'd at the beginning Whereas for the Imposition of Hands upon Barnabas and Saul were it a Blessing or were it an Ordination 't is plainly inferred verse 3. to have been perform'd upon the Place by the Persons mention'd verse 1. And St. Paul for his particular in the Front of every Epistle enters his Protestation against all this as if he had foreseen it still qualifying himself an Apostle of Iesus Christ by the will of God an Apostle not of Men nor by Man but by the Commandment of God our Saviour and accordingly you may see him contesting it to the height both against Peter and the rest Gal. 1. and 2. Chapters throughout That the Gospel he Preached was not of Man the Apostleship he exercis'd was not from Man but the one by immediate Revelation the other by Assignation from Heaven it self So that having receiv'd his Mission thence and his Instructions too he thought it unnecessary to confer with Flesh and Blood to apply himself to any Mortal Man for the enhancing of either He went up indeed to Ierusalem to visit Peter three Years after his Conversion and yet once again fourteen Years after he returned thither and had Conference with Iames and Cephas and Iohn but these Pillars added nothing to him neither established his Aâ—thority nor advanced his Knowledge And Titus himself was present at the enterview and so an Eye-witness that in nothing he came behind the very chiefest Apostles for they all gave him the right-hand of Fellowship far from exacting the right-hand of Preheminence And so Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ not a Deputy of the Apostolical College much less a Suffragan of St. Peter or his Legate a latere as was pretended But 2. Not a Disciple of Gamaliel For there is a Disputer of this World who having laid it down for a Principle with himself indeed his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That all pretence of Ecclesiastical Power as from Christ is but an Imposture is thereupon obliged to give such an accompt of the Appearances of it in the New Testament as may suit with this Postulatum And accordingly for the particular of Imposition of Hands for Ordination of Elders will have it only the pursuance of a Iewish Custom which St. Paul learned at the Feet of his Master Gamaliel under whom he Commenc'd Elder before he was Christian and thereupon after thought good to create his own Disciples to the same Dignity according to the Law of those Schools and Titus amongst the rest whom he left in Creet to do the like and to Constitute his Scholars Elders too in all the Cities where he should Preach A Discourse so loose and incoherent that 't is not worth your while to stand by and see it fall in pieces which it would quickly do were it not already done to our hands upon a gentle Examination I shall only remind you of what was said before upon the former Particular and so leave it in Compromise to any Indifferent Whether St. Paul the Apostle of Iesus Christ who so stoutly refuseth to Releve of St. Peter himself or the rest of the Apostles as owing his whole Commission to Heaven alone would yet acknowledge to hold it of