giving unto them which by continuance in well doing seek glory and honour and immortality eternal life he sheweth himself most gracious and merciful in bestowing upon them what they could not challenge from him and in rendring vengeance to them that obey not God and in plaguing them both in this life and in the life to come he doth but what is most just and upright and therefore the Prophet Esay after he had set down many of Gods Judgements against the wicked addeth That the Lord of Hosts should be exalted in judgment Esay 5.16 and the holy God should be sanctified in justice that is that he should be acknowledged by all men to be most pure and holy and commended for his justice in punishing the wicked according to their deserts And this doctrine of Gods holiness and purity should put us in mind of our duty to be not as the Devil corrupt and unjust but as God commandeth us to be holy as he is holy and to be as he is if we desire to be where he is where no impure thing shall ever come And so much for the first Attribute here expressed 2. Attribute is Gods rule and authority 2. The next Attribute is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord and he is said to be the lord of any thing Qui jus autoritatem dominium habet in aliquam rem which hath right authority and rule over any thing and whose own proper thing is that of which he is said to be lord for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Authority Zanc. de nasura dei l. 1. c. 17. saith Pasor and the Latine word Dominus dicitur à domo saith Zanchius because the Master of the house was wont to be called the Lord of it And this name Lord saith he in the Writings of the Apostles is ascribed to Christ idque millies about a thousand times because he ruleth and governeth not only the little house of his Church Heb. 1.2 3. but also the great house of this whole World as the Apostle sheweth Reason 1 Why the Father is stiled God and the Son Lord. And the reason why the name of God is usually attributed to the Father and the name of Lord commonly ascribed to the Son is twofold 1. Because the Father is the fountain of the whole Deity therefore is he usually termed God and the Son is termed Lord because he is appointed of his Father to be Lord of all things John 17.2 and all power is given unto him over all flesh Reason 2 2. The Father is called God most usually because that in the mystery of our redemption the Father remained still in his Majesty and gave his Son only to be our Redeemer and the Son though he was in the form of God yet was he content not to remain with his Father in that equal Majesty Phil. 2.7 which he had with him from all eternity but He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and so with the laying down of his Glory he laid down also the Name of God and by taking unto him the form of a servant he took also the name of a servant that is in respect of his Father to whom as a servant be became obedient in all things unto death and therefore the Father calleth him his Servant saying Ecce servus meus Behold my servant Esay 42.1 Matth. 12.18 Whom I have chosen whom I uphold which is interpreted of Christ But in respect of us the Son is said to be our Lord and so he is called every where because we are given unto him for his inheritance that we should serve him and acknowledge him for our Lord and Master and so as he is made our Lord the name of Lord is given unto him of his Father And therefore though Christ indeed remained alwayes God and in the form of God wherein he was from all eternity yet because he was appointed by the Father Christ laid aside the Name of God and took two other names The first in respect of his Father and contented himself to be the Saviour of all mankind he humbled himself unto death and unto death he laid down the Name of God and took unto himself two other names As 1. The name of a Servant in regard of his Father to whom he was made obedient as a servant and for which cause he alwayes calleth upon him as a servant calleth upon his Master and referreth all things unto him as to his Lord and Master 2. He took upon him the name of Lord The second in respect of us in regard of us and that is due unto him in a foursold respect that is By right 1. Of Inheritance Christ is our Lord in four respects 2. Of Redemption 3. Of Wedlock 4. Of Creation For 1. He is the Lord our God 1. By right of Inheritance and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands and the Father said unto him Psal 2.8 Dabo tibi gentes in haereditatem tuam I will give the Gentiles for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And therefore St. Peter saith Let all the house of Israel know for certain or assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus Act. 2.36 whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ And in this respect also he is Lord of the wicked Reprobates though they will not obey him for the Prophet David saith Psal 8.5 6. Heb. 2.8 Omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ejus Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet and the Apostle saith this was spoken of Christ And again the same Prophet speaking of him Psal 110.1 saith that the Lord said unto him Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool Yea more then this he is the Lord of all things whatsoever for Him hath God appointed and made heir of all things Heb. 1. as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews teacheth and our Saviour himself saith Matth. 28 18. John 18.15 All power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth And again All things that the Father hath are mine Whereby you may see that Jure haereditario by right of inheritance as his Fathers Heir he is the Lord 1. Of the Elect. 2. Of the Reprobates And 3. Of all the things in the world 2. By right of purchase 1 Cor. 6.19 20. 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 2. He is our Lord by right of redemption or of purchase for so the Apostle saith You are not your own because you are bought with a price And St. Peter sheweth what price it was that redeemed us and was paid for us No corruptible thing as silver and gold but the pretious bloud of Jesus Christ And therefore seeing Christ hath bought us and redeemed us out of the hands of our enemies he may
for his service they should be snatched out of his hands and transferred to Lay and prophane uses but that like those Censers they should ever continue for the service of his Altar and so St. Augustine sheweth as much in his 154 Epistle to Publicola And thus you see how God is robbed his Service neglected and his Servants deprived of their means and maintenance so that they can neither discharge their duties to God nor feed the flock of Chrâ—st and instruct the people committed to their charge as they ought to do and would no doubt do the same if they were enabled to do it which is a lamentable thing and yet I can shew you a greater abomination Ezek. 8.6 even in the Visitations of these poor and pillaged Clergy-men I remember God hath a twofold visitation the one in mercy to relieve the oppressed to deliver the Captives out of their Captivity as he visited the Israelites in Egypt and the like the other in justice to punish the malefactors and the transgressors of his Laws as he visiteth the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him but whether the Visitations of our Clergy-men be in mercy or in justice or whether it be pro correctione morum or collectione pecuniarum and refectione corporum or both I will not determine I believe their first institution aimed at our good for the praise of them that do well and the punishment of the refractory and evil-doers but time and craft corrupteth the best things and as the wicked turn the graces of God into wantonness so covetous men and corrupt minds do abuse all the good institutions of our Ancestors so the service of the true God was in time translated to become the service of the Idols of the Gentiles and so I fear me these Visitations of the Clergy that at first aimed at their good and for their reliefe are now become in many places an oppression and a heavy yoak upon their necks and a burden scarce portable upon their shoulders As 1. In the multiplicity of them 1. The multiplicity of Visitations three or four that may be in one year as first the Archdeacon he visits and gathers up his Procurations perhaps all the money that the poor Clergy can procure then comes the Bishop and he visits and the Clergy must now double their file his Procurations being twice as much as the Archdeacons then every third year the Archbishop comes about in his triennial visitation and if in either the Bishop or the Archbishops visitation the Clergy fail either in the payment of their Procurations or making such refections as shall be to the satisfaction of their Visitors their Livings may be sequestred and let them live as they list and after all this the Lord Primate if he please may come in the same year to make a regal Visitation and he being so good a man and coming from so good and so gracious a King deserves no less than the best and the best entertainment that can be made for his Grace is fit to be made for him And can these many visits think you be for the profit of the poor Clergy But 2. 2. The Refections The refections seem to be more burthensome than the Procurations especially because the Procurations are certain what every man must pay but the Refections contrary to the mind of our Saviour that saith unto his Disciples Into what house soever ye enter eat what shall be set before you Luk. 10.7 must be to the satisfaction of the delicate and delicious company of the visitors and not according to the power of the poor Clergy when they remember not the old Proverb That the full dog knoweth not how or what the empty dog doth bark and if they be discontented with their entertainment their Censures must be as they please and none dares say that it is unjust or how can it be so from the men of God Yet as all powerful great men can easily find a staffe to beat a dog so the superiour Bishop or Archbishop can if they please soon find a fault in a poor inferiour Clergy man Now I will set down for I fear no man living what information I have by Letters from the last Visitation of the Archbishop of Dublin that was held in my Diocess of Ossory by his Surrogate Mr. Archdeacon Bulkley and these be the very words of the Letters that the World may thereby see and the Judge of all the World may judge in what case the poor Clergy do stand My Lord IT pleased God a little after your journey to Dublin to take out of this life your Grandchild Mrs. Cull who discovered much Religion on her death bed and as she wanted not attendance in her sickness so neither decency nor solemnity at her Funeral Since your Lordships departure your Maid did unknown to me marry Mr. Barry the Smiths man whom she brought to lye in your Lordships house whereupon there arose some quarrels between Thomas and her insomuch that Thomas sate up a whole night with Candle-light for fear of the men as he complained unto me whereupon I charged the man not to lye at night time in your Lordships house till your Lordship did return which hath prevented the like inconvenience since As to the triennial Visitation I shall give your Lordship this brief account The Lord Archbishop did not come in person but sent Mr. Bulkley whom we waited on three miles to bring him into Town he told us what noble refections he met with in the Diocess of Kildare Leighlin but that here he was resolved to lodge at his Daughters house he asked what Provision we had made for his Register we told him Mr. Connels house when his Register came to Town though his men some of them and his Portmantle were in Mr. Connels house he did not like his lodging and complained to the Vicar General On Monday after the Commission was read he told us that in regard the refection for the Archbishop was neglected he suspended the Jurisdiction for six months and whereas he thought to behave himself as a loving brother he would prove a severe Judge and that we should expect nothing but utmost justice we invited him that day to dine at Whitles where we bespoke a Dinner for his refection which cost six or seven pounds but he refused and every day we invited him but could not prevail on Tuesday and Wednesday he seemed very mild and respective and earnestly desired to be an happy Instrument in the reconciliation of Mr. Dean and my self Mr. Cull and Mr. Drisdale upon which importunity that we might not discover our selves to be litigious I was willing to be reconciled to him whom I had no visible quarrell with so was Mr. Drisdale but Mr. Bulkleys awe upon Mr. Cull made him condescend to a great submission and aske him forgiveness flexis genibus the next day the Archdeacon told me that if we
be but that many and many great men will frett and chafe and be discontented at your doings though you do never so justly but it is your duty to do that which is just and in doubtful cases when evidences on both sides are in aequilibrio to encline to that which tendeth to the service of God's Church and the honour of the King's Majesty Sap. 1.1 and you ought always to remember what the Wiseman saith Love righteousness yee that be Judges of the Earth for righteousness exalteth a Nation Proverb And this righteousness you cannot preserve unless you be like Lions without fear either of threatnings or of dangers And as the Magistrates so the Ministers and Preachers of God's word should be like Lions to do their duties without fear for so the Lord saith unto Ezechiel I send thee to a rebellious Nation but thou son of man Ezech. 2.6 be not afraid of them neither be afraid of their words nor dismayed at their looks Quia timiditas Predicantis est calamitas Audientis Because the fear of the Preacher is the calamity of the Hearer when the fear of reproving mens sins hardeneth them in their sins and encourageth them to sin more and more And therefore I say that we should remember what the Lord commandeth us Cry aloud and spare not Esay 57.1 lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins And if the great men of the world threaten us to rob us of our lands or deprive us of our liberties let us look what the Lord saith I Esay 51.12 13. even I am he that comforteth you and who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye and of the son of man which shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor as if he were ready to destroy And it is well that he saith I even I am he that comforteth you seeing it is with us as it was with Ezechiel Ezech. 2.3 4. that Bryars and thorns are with us and we dwell among scorpions a rebellious Nation that are impudent and stiff-hearted for I must humbly crave leave to tell you a story of truth and no fiction When I came first to lie in the Bishops house in Kilkeny I dreamed that the Bishops Court was full of people Citizens Souldiers and Gentlemen with Drumms Swords and Muskets and being affrighted with the sight of them before they had entred the house or done any hurt I presently awaked and looking out at the window for them I saw none then for many dayes I often mused what this meant at last I sound that the Citizens of Kilkeny on the one side the Souldiers on the other side and the Knights and Gentlemen round about came about me like Bees to rob God of his honour and the Church of her right by dividing her Revenues amongst themselves as the Souldiers did the Garments of Christ And I neither fear nor care what any man thinks of what I say my duty telling me what I should say But though they threaten to be my ruine and to cause me to spend what I intended to the repair of the flat-fallen Church to preserve the Revenues of the Bishoprick yet seeing the Lord saith I even I am he that comforteth thee and that have delivered thee from so many dangers and so many times from the hands of most mercyless Rebels and bids me not to fear I must not be dismayed but as Elias told Ahab and J. Baptist told Herod of their faults without fear so I and all others that are God's Ministers ought to be bold as Lions to reprove the sins of the people and especially those sins that are most frequently committed and are most prejudicial to the service of God and most pernicious to their souls least as Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by escaping the smoak of mans anger we shall fall into the fire of God's fury when we fear men more then God And therefore my dear brethren I had rather you should blame me for my boldness then that God should punish me for my fearfulness and I know that as the Drunkard cannot endure to be told of his drunkeness or the proud man of his pride or the Rebel of his rebellion so no more can these sacrilegious persons abide to hear of their sacriledge And must we therefore hold our peace for fear of their sayings jeeres or threats By no means 2. As we should be bold as Lions without fear so we should be diligent and painful in our places like the Oxen without laziness to pray continually and to preach constantly and as the Apostle saith in season and out of season that is not so frequently as our late Fanatiques would have us to preach Sermons full of words without substance but as St. Augustine expounds it Volentibus nolentibus For to the willing hearers it comes in season and to the unwilling it comes out of season whensoever it cometh And when we do this then 2. That the Magistrates and Minist should be like the Ox painful and diligent to doe their duties as the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the corn should not be muzzled so ought not we to be molested nor detained and held with vexatious suits to hinder us to discharge our necessary duties lest the punishment of our neglect should fall upon the heads of them that cause it For we are sure that our God is so just that he will not punish any one for not doing that which he is not suffered to doe as for not going into his Church when the wayes are so stopt that he cannot possibly pass it 3. We should be not like the horse and mule 3. The Magistrates should be like men sober and rational and not voluptuous like Beasts that have no understanding and whose mouths must be holden with bitt and bridle lest they fall upon thee but we should be endued with reason like unto rational men that as Cicero saith Agere quicquam nunquam debent cujus non possunt rationem probabilem reddere ought never to do any thing whereof they could not yield a very probable reason And God knows how many things we do for which we can yield no reason at all For what reason had we to wax weary of our peace and of our happiness and to rebel against a most gracious King to destroy our selves And what reason have we to expect God's blessing and yet to continue sacrilegious to rob God of his dues Or is there any reason that any Common-wealth should keep Souldiers to protect them and not regard them nor countenance them nor pay them their wages Surely they are very necessary to preserve our peace and they ought not to be slighted and John Baptist saith
forged to destroy their own most Pious King and all their Spiritual Fathers so that all the Kings Declarations all the Protestations of his friends and Councel and all the Preaching of the most faithful and Orthodox Preachers could not undeceive the seduced giddie-headed people And 2. For their impiety it is most certain and beyond comparison that there was not ever a greater wickedness committed then the crucifying of the Son of God but besides the many parallels betwixt those Jews and these Rebels exceeding all impiety the malicious prosecution and the violent persecution of these rebels against our late King and the hellish manner of compassing his death and killing him went beyond all the wickedness of those wicked Jews For. 1. The Jews knew him not 1 Resp Act. 13.27.17 nor yet the voices of the Prophets as the Apostles testifie in many places and Christ himself saith Father forgive them for they know not what they do and they knew him not to be their King for the Romans had long reigned over them and he had refused to be made King but the long Parliament knew Charles the first and knew him well enough to be their own indubitable just and lawful King And therefore they fought for the King and Parliament such a cheat and such a riddle as you never read the like and yet a very true one as true as Samsons riddle if you understand it right for they fought for the King to destroy him that iâ— for the Kings destruction and they fought for the Parliament to make them absolute Lords to reign and rule as Kings The Jews never had such wit 2. 2. Resp The Jews put Christ to death more for fear then for hate for Venient Romani was the spur that pricked them forward to destroy Christ lest the Romans should come and take away their rule and destroy their religion but not the fear of any strange Nations coming to reign and rule over them but inveterate malice to the King and the height of ambition to rule and to become as Kings themselves made the late Rebels to destroy the Vice-Roy of Christ 3. The Jews dismembred not our Saviour for 3 Resp not a bone of him was broken not the least limb of him was taken away but those Butchers brake and cut off the head of him that was their head and the head of us all and they did so many other such tragick-acts that while I was writing the great Antichrist I often conceived that if Beelzebub out of all the choisest Varlets and most transcendent Villains that from the beginning of the World he had collected to be his own cabinet-companions he had picked out a pack of rebels and had sent them unto us they would have become short of those bloody murderers of our late gracious King because that as Satan himself so the Instruments of Satan by experience and the length of time do grow subtler and subtler and are still better and better inabled to commit the greater wickedness And how a greater wickedness could be committed then that so good so pious and so excellent a Prince as King Charles the first should be withstood rebelled against betrayed deserted by his English Scottish and Irish subjects excepting a few noble Lords and others that stuck unto him and so cruelly bemangled him to death it makes me silent and dumb that I know not what to say but to pray to God that this great wickedness be not yet laid to our charge And Secondly For the Irish Rebellion it was beyond example I say that in many particulars their ingratitude was beyond all parallel for other Nations as the subjects of the King of Pontus and the like that rebelled and murdered all the Romans in their dominions and those Irish that rooted out the Danes had some kind of colour to do the same because their domineering Lords were aliens and oppressed them beyond measure as the Philistins did the Israelites and kept them as slaves under them but the late Irish Rebels were Peers and as the chief Lords of the kingdom and such interchange of marriages betwixt the English British and Irish and such mutual pledges of love amity and familiarity betwixt them that there could not be the least suspicion of the least distast amongst them And besides all this though there were some penal Statutes made against them yet they were for the most part suffered to lie asleep and covered over with many kindnesses and they themselves permitted as God said of Adam to become as one of us and as Q. Dido said of the Trojans Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur We made no difference of any priviledge amongst us And therefore What a horrible ingratitude was it then for such men to rise and to rebel and so maliciously to intend so inhumanely so barbarously and so cruelly to root out and to destroy their Neighbours Friends and Allies And especially to plot such a mischievous act as they intended so subtly so secretly and so universally as they did For what created power under heaven is able to dissolve that villany and to evade that mischief which subtlety power and cruelty have combined and confederated to bring to pass Surely we may most justly take up the words of the Psalmist and say If the Lord himself had not been on our side now may England say Ps 124.1 If the Lord himself had not been on our side when these men rose up against us it had not failed but that they had swallowed us up quick and we had been utterly destroyed when they were so wrathfully displeased at us And this his being on our side is not to be understood of an ordinary manner and common providence which ruleth and disposeth all things wisely but of a special providence in an extraordinary manner and a signal favour towards us which the Lord hath shewed three special times in our days and to our people As 1. In the reveiling of the Gunpowder-plot when as flos medulla regni the King and all his Peers the flower and marrow of the kingdom should have been blown up and all destroyed uno ictu in one twinckling of an eye 2. In the discovery of this Irish machination and desperate intention of these Rebels which had got into this City and had gotten their ends had not our good God set a hook in their nostrils and said unto them as he saith unto the Sea Hitherto shalt thou go and no further here shalt thou stay thy proud waves and out of his special providence sent one in a strange manner out of themselves to discover them unto our Governours 3. In the dividing and scattering both of the English and the Irish Rebels and the bringing in of our most gratious King unto us so peaceably so quietly and in a manner so miraculously sine sanguine sine strepitu to the joy and comfort of us all For these things above all the rest of Gods mercies are
justly challenge us to be his servants and himself to be our Lord and Master for so the men of Israel said unto Gideon Judg. 8.22 Rule thou over us and so be our Lord and Governour for that thou hast delivered us out of the hand of Midian 3. By right of marriage 3. He is our Lord by right of marriage because he is the Husband of his Church and the Church is the Spouse of Christ for so the Lord professeth Hosea 2.19 20. I will betroth thee to me in faithfulness and I will betroth thee to me for ever and the Husband is the head of the Wife and so is Christ of his Church saith the Apostle and therefore Ephes 5.23 as Sarah obeyed her Husband and called him her Lord so Christ being our Head and the Husband of every faithful Soul we acknowledge him for our Lord and be subject unto him as to our Lord and Master 4. He is our Lord by right of creation 4 By right of Creation John 1.2 because all things were made by him as St John testifieth And he hath made us and not we our selves saith the Prophet David and therefore he must needs be our Lord. And no man can deny it for the Prophet saith The earth is the Lords and all that therein is Psal 24.1 the whole world and they that dwell therein And why so He answereth immediately Because he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods And so St. Paul saith God that made the world and all things therein Acts 17.24 he is Lord of heaven and earth And this point of doctrine The former Doctrine teaches us a threefold lesson 1 Lesson in respect of the godly that Christ in all these respects is our Lord and Lord of the godly and of the wicked and of all things else it should teach us this threefold Lesson 1. In regard of the godly it should teach them humility obedience and comfort 1. Humility because they are but servants and the Comique saith Non decet hominem servulum esse superbum It is a very unseemly thing to see a proud servant of an humble master 2. Obedience because the servant ought to be obedient to his Lord and Master and to be afraid to offend him for A son honoureth his father Mal. 1.6 and a servant his master saith the Prophet If Christ then be our Lord and Master where is our reverence our fear and our obedience to him May not he say to us as he doth unto the Jews Why call you me Lord Lord and do not what I say Luk. 6.46 For to say that Christ is our Lord and not to do what he commands us is but meer hypocrisie and with the Jews to say Hayl King and spit in his face 3. Comfort because they serve such a gracious Lord as taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants and will case them when they cry unto him that they are weary and heavy laden Matth. 11. as himself doth promise 2. Lesson in respect of the wicked 2. In regard of the wicked it should teach them to be ashamed of their pride and arrogancy to neglect their obedience and to flight the Rule and Authority of this their Lord and Master For as of old when Moses came unto Pharaoh in the name of the Lord he proudly answered Who is the Lord that I should hear his voice And Nebuchadnezzar when the three children were brought before him did most arrogantly demand Exod. 5.2 Who is that God which can deliver you out of my hands So now we have too many that in words profess to be the servants of this Lord Dan. 3.15 Titus 1.16 sed factis negant but as the Apostle saith they deny him by their deeds which they ought to be ashamed to do 3 Lesson in respect of Gods creatures 1 Cor. 4.7 3. In regard of the creatures seeing he is Lord of all things and as the Apostle demandeth What hast thou that thou hast not received from him 1. We ought to be thankfull for what we have and be contented with whatsoever we have be the same little or much for Is it not lawfull for him to do what he will with his own and to dispose of them at his pleasure to give what he will to whom he will but thine eye must be evil because he is good 3. We ought to imploy all that we have for the honour and service of this our Lord and Master for we are but his Stewards and we must give an account how we expend our Masters goods he allows us food rayment and having that the Apostle saith we should be therewith contented And truly for mine own part I do here on this good Day and in this holy Place prosess before you all I am sufficiently contented and fully satisfied and very thankfull to this my Lord and Master for what I have having farr more then I deserve or could expect and therefore whatsoever I sue for to recover from any other it is not to enrich my self or any of my relations wise children or friends but I do it for the service of this my Lord and Master and I will wholly and fully bestow whatsoever I recover for the repairing of this Church so that recovering it I shall be not one peny the richer but this Church shall be the better and not recovering it I shall not be the poorer but the Church shall want so much as I should recover and this is my resolution and if I fail in one tittle of what I say Let these my words be a witness against me in the last Day 3. The next Attribute is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and Damascen saith The third attribute is Gods knowledge and providence Three significations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Signification there be two principal Names of God that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is or I am as he saith unto Moses and God and he giveth three special significations or Etymologies of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Curro ambio of running and compassing about the world to order and to dispose of all the things that are therein and this declareth the providence of God over all even the least things of this world whereof not any thing not the lighting of a Sparrow upon the ground happeneth as our Saviour sheweth Matth. 10.29 without the providence of God and the Wise man saith the Wisdom of God Attingit à fine usque ad finem disponit omnia suaviter Sap. 8.1 reacheth from one end of the world to another mightily and ordereth all things sweetly and so the Apostle saith that God Portat omnia verbo virtutis ejus beareth up all things with his mighty word or the word of his power which is Jesus Christ and in this sense both Proclus and Plato do interpret the word 〈◊〉
the wilderness where there is no bread neither is there any water Which a man might think was but very reasonable for men over-wearied with long travel and most tedious journeys and destitute of their necessary food to demand such a question without any great offence yet you see how highly God is displeased with them and how severely he doth punish them for their murmuring and the demanding of this question of him that was their Governour And if murmuring against Moses be thus punished what punishment deserves the murdering of our King And if this I say that seems to be so light an offence be so severely punished with no less then death what punishment think you do they deserve that not only speak words even bitter words and demand questions beyond loyalty and without reason without honesty but also rebel take armes and fight and most barbarously murder their own lawful just and most excellent Prince Shall this people be thus punished for words and shall these men escape for their horrible deeds or shall we pardon them whom God saith He will not pardon For when King Manasseh shed the innocent bloud but of his Subjects the Lord saith which I do not remember be saith of any other sin in any place that He would not pardon it 2 Reg. 2â— 4 Truly if we do suffer these that rebelled against their King and murdered the Lords Anointed to live and to flourish as men guiltless of all fault and not do our best to bring them legally to their just deserved punishment then certainly we are as culpable as if we shed innocent bloud for he that justifieth the wicked or pardoneth a Rebel and a Murderer Prov. 17.15 and he that condemneth the just or killeth an innocent man even they both are equally abomination to the Lord because the Lord professeth that He will not justifie the wicked Exod. 23.7 Gen. 9.5 6. or spare him that sheds innocent bloud And therefore of all other men I do profess that I cannot endure that any one that hath born Armes to fight against his King should be rewarded with any part or parcel of the Revenues of the Church of Christ and the inheritance of God for their great wickedness against God and if they must needs be rewarded for any good service that they have done since let them be rewarded otherwise and as the Jews would not put the price of bloud into their Treasury so let not the Treasury of Gods Church be given for the reward of any man that had his hand in shedding bloud So I have done with the punishment of this people but not with the fruits of their punishment For 3. Their punishment puts them in mind of their sins 3. Their Repentance and confession and brings them to repentance for their sins and to say unto Moses We have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and against thee And so the Brethren of Joseph when they were afflicted said one to another We are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul Gen. 42.21 when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us And this is the reason why God doth punish us The reason why God punisheth his children not because he delighteth in the afflictions of his Creatures but that his punishments might bring us to repentance Quia plagae dant animum and as Saint Gregory saith Oculos quos culpa claudit paena aperit The eyes which sin hath shut stripes will open as here it hath opened the eyes of these murmurers And I would they would do so to the Rebels and the Murderers of our King But Saint Augustine hath observed that the more you stir filthy puddles the more they will stink so the more God punisheth the wicked the more they will blaspheme God and like unto Pharaoh and Saul grow worse and worse And therefore the Prophet Jeremy complaineth Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved Jer. 5.11 thou hast consumed them but they have refused to receive correction And God himself demandeth Esay 1.5 Why should you be stricken any more seeing my correction doth not amend you but that you revolt more and more So the Rebels and the Murdererâ— of our King were so far from repentance that they proceeded to rob God himself to throw down his Churches and to commit most horrible Sacriledge But as the same Father Saint Augustine saith If you stir a precious oyntment the more you stir it the more fragrantly it smelleth so the more God afflicteth his children the more humble and the more penitent they will be and they willl say with David Psal 119. Psalm 119. It is good for me that I have been in trouble that I may learn thy statutes and it is good indeed for them to be punished for their sins because their punishment worketh repentance and their repentance gaineth pardon and mercy at the hands of God for so 4. The great mercy of God to the penitent 4. When God heard the peoples confession and saw their repentance the Lord said unto Moses Make thee a fiery Serpent and set it on a pole for a sign that as many as are bitten and stung may look on it and live so Moses made a Serpent of Brass and set it upon a pole and as many as looked up to the same recovered but they that refused to look up to it died where 1. You may observe how mercifull the Lord is to the penitent sinner and how ready he is to provide a salve for the sorrowfull soul for though he that hideth his sins shall not prosper yet he that confesseth and forsaketh the same shall find mercy as here this people findeth the same by looking up unto the brazen Serpent but 2. You must understand that as the Wise man truly saith He that turned towards it Sap. 16.7 was not healed by the thing he saw but by thee O God that art the Saviour of all for the Brass had not the virtue or power actually to cure and to convey health to the stinged people but it was the ordinance of God obeyed and believed that restored them to their health and so it is in many other things As Numb 5.27 28. 1. The cursed water drunk by the suspected wife shall cause the thigh of the guilty woman to rot and her belly to swell and should free the guiltless woman and cause her to bear children the which power to distinguish the chaste wife from the unchaste could not be in the Water but in the Ordinance of God that appointed the water so used as it is there expressed to produce those effects 2. The Water in Baptism and the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper have not of themselves the power to wash us from our sins and to feed our souls to eternal life they are but poor things and feeble means too
2.4 The bloud-thirsty how detestable Which sheweth how detestable beyond my ability of expression are those bloud-thirsty men that so maliciously and wickedly do hunt after the life of man and do shed the bloud of so many Innocents no waies like that good God which made not Death nor desireth the Death of any sinner much lesse the destruction of the Righteous nor yet like Alexander that knew not God yet knew this that when his Mother Olympias that was a bloudy woman lay hard upon him to kill a certain innocent person and to that end said often to him that she carried him Nine Moneths in her Womb therefore he had no reason to deny her answered her most wisely Good Mother ask for that some other reward and recompence because the life of man is so dear Am. Marcellin l. 14. c. 10. that no benefit can countervail it and the unjust taking of it away is so hainous that it is impossible for any mortal man to make satisfaction for so great an offence Matth. 3.7 What shall we say then to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when their own most gracious King doth so often sollicite for peace do still make them ready for battel and have taken away the lives of so many thousands of men 2 Thes 2.3 truly if they are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet certainly they are the sons of Apollyon the children of the Destroyer Death how terrible that without speedy repentance can receive no better reward then damnation But as life is the sweetest and the most excellent of all things that are in this world Aristot. Ethic. l. 3. c. 6. so death saith the Philosopher est omnium terribilium terribilissimum because this bringeth our years to an end finisheth our daies and puts a period to all our joyes and though there is but one way of life for all men and that one alike to all to come naked out of their Mothers womb yet Job 1.21 as the Poet saith Mille modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat Statius Thebaid l. 9. There are a thousand waies to bring any one of us unto his death And here the Prophet threatneth death unto the people of Israel many waies The Israelites how threatned Quocunque aspiciunt nihil est nisi pontus aether Ovid de Trist. For the City that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred and that which went out by an hundred shall leave ten to the house of Israel that is as Remigius and Hugo say Vers 3. the Israelites shall be so plagued by the Assyrians 2 Reg. 18.10 as well in the three years siege of Samaria as also before and after the same by the Sword Famine and the Pestilence which Sicut unda sequitur undam do ever follow like Jobs Messengers one in the heel of another the sword alwaies bringing famine and the famine producing pestilence so that almost all shall be consumed and scarce ten of an hundred shall be left And as the Spirit of God saith unto Esayas Go tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not Esay 6.10 Then said the Prophet Lord how long and he answered until the Cities be wasted without Inhabitant and the houses without man and the Land be utterly desolate So now this distressed England how threatned and how miserable we are though formerly most happy Kingdom is threatned to be scourged in like manner with the worst of wars famines and pestilences Praesentémque viris intendunt o nonia mortem And as the Poet saith all that we do see say we are appointed to be destroyed and destined unto death when as S. Bernard saith Quos fugere scimus ad quos nescimus we know whom we would shun but we scarce know where or to whom we may flee to be safe and secured of our Lives for as Jeremie saith Servants have ruled over us Lam. 5.8 9. and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand We get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the Sword of the Wilderness And therefore as our Prophet saith Wailing is in all streets they say in all high-waies Amos 5.16 alas alas and they call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing Esay 34.5 6. 2 Reg. 8.1 Amos 4.10 Yet seeing the sword is the sword of the Lord and it is the Lord that calleth for Famine and the Pestilence is the scourge of God which he sendeth amongst us as our Prophet saith and that God never draweth his sword How God dealeth with his people and throweth away the Scabberd as if he never meant to put it up again never sends a famine but in that famine he can feed the young Ravens that call upon him and satisfie the hungry with good things and never powreth out any plague but that in the greatest infection he can preserve his servants that although a thousand should fall besides them and ten thousand at their right hand Psal 91 7. yet it shall not come nigh them and never sendeth any temptation but if the fault be not our own 1 Cor. 10.13 he doth with the temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it because he being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort to them that fear him as well as the God of Justice to render vengeance to them that offend him hath the suppling Oyl of Mercy as well as the sharp Wine of Justice to powre into the wounds of every penitent sinner therefore our Prophet here joyneth to the Lamentation for Israel an Exhortation to repentance and though he threatneth Death for our sins yet he setteth down an Antidote whereby we might if we would preserve our life and though I confess the Physitians are very useful Physitians how useful and to be honoured as the Scripture speaketh to be sought after especially in the times of sickness and Mortality yet I am sure that neither Hippocrates nor Galen nor all the School of Salerne the whole Colledge of Physitians shall ever be able to prescribe a Potion so precious and so powerful to pâ—eserve your Life as I shall declare unto you for God which is truth it self hath said it Seek the Lord and you shall live wherein I desire you to observe Two parts of the Text. 1. A Precept the best work that you can do Seek the Lord. 2. A Promise the best reward that you can desire And you shall live 1. The Precept twofold 1. In the Precept you may see there are two words and so two parts 1. Seek which is the Act that all men do 2. The Lord which is the Object of our seeking wherein most men fail 1. The word seek doth presuppose that we have lost or be without the Lord and so we have indeed we lost Paradise
that all my brethren the Bishops and Prelates will say with Jonas If we alone be the cause of all this storm and if our persons by any thing that could be done to us could appease these distractions and procure the peace of the Church and State do what you will to us Non multum nos movebit Si propter nos haec tempestas if you see just cause cast us all into the sea so you save the Ship of Christ preserve the Church rent not the garment of Christ devour not the revenues of the Clergy and destroy not the government that was established by the Apostles and continued to Gods glory and the gaining of so many thousand souls to Christ from his being on earth to this very day because the dishonour that must infallibly redound to God and the detriment that must fall to the Church of Christ by the abolishing of Episcopacy troubleth us a great deal more than any loss that can happen unto our selves for did we see the same government with the same power as it ought to be setled on any other persons though our selves were degraded how justly we would leave the censure unto God you should never hear me speak much thereof So you see what it is to seek the Lord not his Essence which is incomprehensible but to do his will and to obey his Commandments which is most acceptable unto him as to love him to pray unto him to rely upon him and to do towards all men that which is just and righteous in his sight What we ought to do to live Or to set down all in a word do as the Lord directs you and you shall live and that is 1. To do your own best endeavours to preserve your lives And yet 2. Refer the preservation of your lives only unto God 1. In the time of peace and prosperity 1. To do our best to preserve our own lives 1. In the time of peace Psal 55.23 the best way for us to preserve our life is to serve God for if you honour your father and mother your daies shall be long in the Land saith the Lord himself and so the keeping of his other Precepts is the preservation of our lives But the bloud-thirsty and deceitful man shall not live out half his daies and so the drunkâ—rd the luxurious and the malicious shall by their sins diminish their years because sin is that sharp Atropos which cutteth off the thread of mans life and the great Epitomiser which abbreviates all things unto us as it wasteth our wealth it destroyeth our health it confineth our liberty it shortneth our daies and to sum all in one Catastrophe it brings us all into our graves Niceph. l. 11. c. 3. when as Trajan said unto Valens it sends victory unto our enemies and destroyeth us sooner than our enemies and therefore as you love your life so you must hate your sin and as the Heathens clipped the wings of victory lest it should fly away from them unto their enemies So we must clip our sins or else victory will fly unto our enemies 2. In the time of dangers wars plagues 2. In the time of dangers or any other distress we are commanded by God to do our best to preserve our lives for it is not enough for us to say the Lord will save us but we must do our best to save our selves So the Mariners that carried Jonas prayed unto their Gods and yet rowed their best to preserve their lives So Jehosaphat Ezechias and Josias when the Armies of their enemies came against them did put their whole trust in Gods assistance and rely upon his help for their deliverance yet they prepared the instruments of War they fortified their Cities and gathered all the strength of men that they could make to withstand the violence of their Foes and we must do the like when we are in the like danger for though the Scripture bids us cast our care upon God yet it bids us not to cast away our care or to be without care but to have a care and the best care that we can take to preserve our lives from the danger of the enemy to raise men and money and as Solomon saith 2. To rely wholly upon God to prepare the horse for the day of battel And then 2. When the horse is prepâ—red and we have endeavoured our best we must refer our lives only unto God it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but as the Prophet saith salvation belongeth unto the Lord for it is he that giveth victory in the battel and it is he that saveth our life from destruction for as his help will not preserve us without our care so all our care cannot save us without his help but when both these go together then we may be sure that our care and indeavour with his favour and assistance will so preserve us that we shall live Therefore when we lose and are put to the worst we should not be dejected which is the fault of too many of us but we should say with King David I will yet trust in God which is the help of my countenance and my God and when we gain and get the better of our enemies we should not be puffed up with pride and diminish the praise of God who gave us the better which is the fault of as many more that ascribe too much unto themselves and too little to Gods goodness but as the Poet saith of Pompey so much more should we say that are Christians Non me videre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt Or as Menivensis saith of King Alfred Si modo victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modo victus erat ad crastina bella parabat So should we do in all fortunes go on eodem vultus tenori and in all our actions rely on God and refer our selves wholly unto him and doing so we shall be sure to live 1. Because he hath promised us that if we thus seek him according to his will we shall live according as we desire and he is not as man that he should lye nor as the Son of man that he should change his mind but he is Yea and Amen he is truth it self and therefore sicut verus est in retributione malorum ita verà x est in promissione bonorum as he is most certain in the punishment of the wicked so he is as certain in his promise to the godly Reason 2 2. Because he is willing to save us and therefore cryeth unto us Why will ye dye why will ye dye O ye house of Israel For as I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner and it is worth our observation to consider how pathetically and how feelingly he speaketh to this purpose Psal 81.14 15 16. O that my people would have hearkened unto me for if Israel had walked in my waies I should
Aug. Epist 146. ad Consentium 1. Alia probationis The one of trial 2. Alia deceptionis The other of deceit By the first we are tried Whether we be good or bad right or counterfeit that if we be found faithful we may be approved and so crowned and thus as the Goldsmith trieth his mettal whether it be Gold or Copper so God and not the Devil tempteth or trieth us by crosses and afflictions whether we will cleave close to him as Job did or start aside like a broken bow as Demas and all Apostata's do Ambrose de Abraham l. 1. c. 8. and thus God is said to have tempted Abraham when he commanded him to sacrifice his Son Isaac By the second kind of temptation we are deceived that we might be damned and thus as Saint James truly affirmeth God tempteth no man James 1.13 but the Devil is the chief author of all such temptations and is therefore rightly called Satan the Tempter 3 In respect of the forms wherein they appeared they are Respect 3 called by the very same names of the things in whose shapes and formes they have appeared as the Serpent when he appeared unto Eve under the shape of a Serpent which had as some write the countenance of a fair Maid that Evah might the sooner be perswaded to listen to her suggestions And I read it cited out of Saint Augustine that it is not permitted unto the Devil to invest himself with what form or shape he will or naturally he can take upon him but he is limitted to such semblances as God is pleased to permit unto him or otherwise there is no question but he would have taken a goodlier and a more specious resemblance upon him then the form of a Serpent if God would have suffered him so to do when he appeared unto Evah And though he often appears in the form and shape of a man yet because Christ by reason of the hypostatical union of God and man that are so fast and so indissolubly linked together that both the Natures do make but one Person is worshipped and adored under the form of man God never permits the Devil to assume that form when he appears and requires to be worshipped and served of his Vassals that forsake their God and give themselves as Witches and Sorcerers do unto the Devil but he appears either in the shape of an ugly Centaure or a shaggy Goat or some such like ill-favoured beast And therefore Saint John in his Revelation saith That they worship the beast which may as well signifie Satan as the Antichrist that worshippeth Satan The Devil commonly appears in the shape of ugly creatures and alwayes so when he requires to be worshipped And the Divines do observe divers passages of Scripture which intimate that the Devil when he would be worshipped doth often present himself in the form of a Goat and that therefore the Hebrew word Sehir signifieth both a Goat and a Devil As both Saint Jerome and the Chaldee Translator do render the word in the seventeenth of Leviticus and the seventh where the Lord saith Nequaquam hostias tuas immolabis Sehir to signifie the Devil and so our Translation reads it Thou shalt not any more offer thy sacrifices to the Devil And Rabbi Quimhi the best interpreter of the Hebrew words sheweth the reason why the Devil should be called by Sehir which is the name of a Goat is because he appeareth to them that give themselves to him in the shape and form of a shaggy Goat Tho. 12. q. 102. art 3. Lyran in Exod. 12 1 Reg. 30. And so Aquinas and Lyra and Sanctes Pagninus interpreting the four and thirtieth of Esay where he saith Schirims or pilosi saltabunt ibi the shaggie beasts shall leap and dance in the wilderness do say it signifieth the Devils shall play and leap and dance there And to make this yet more plain the two chiefest Oracles of the Devil Hammonium that is derived of Ham the son of Noah Gen. 10. and Dodonaeum of whom we read amongst the grand-children of Noah were figured the first in the form of a Goat and the second in the shape of a great horned-Ram Whereby you may perceive that the Devil hath appeared and doth often appear unto the Sorcerers and Witches and other wicked men in the shape and form of other creatures from whom he is denominated according to the names of the creatures whose forms he doth assume Respect 4 4. In respect of their great knowledge they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their knowledge is great in two respects Scienâ—es knowing creatures which we translate Devils and so they are called here in my Text and they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a twofold respect Respect 1 1. In regard of that knowledge and understanding which they have from their creation Zanch. de operib Dei l. 4. c. 1. Et qua adhuc praediâ—â— sunt ex parts and with which in part they are as yet indued saith Zanchius 2. In regard of their acquisite knowledge which by their Respect 2 long experience and diligent observation of things they have gotten since their fall both by what they have heard and seen For 1. They hear and have heard very much 1. They hear much Job 1.6 as they hear God himself when they stand before him they hear the good Angels when they come among them they hear much from the Word of God when we preach it and I believe far more attentively then many of us do hear it though they believe it not and look for no benefit by it and they hear all the words of men and they can tell how to make use of all that they hear And 2. As they hear very much so they see very much more 2. They see much And that 1. 1. In respect of their residency Ephes 1.2 Partly by that eminency of place wherein many of them are seated which is the Air as the Apostle speaketh not that the Air is the proper place and seat of their habitation where they shall be punished but where now as from a Watch-tower they look down round about them to behold all the actions of men 2. Partly by their wandring up and down and 2. In respect of their celerity Job 1.7 as he saith himself By going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it and that with such great celerity as no winged Fowl is able for to match them Quia omnis spiritus ales est hoc Angeli Daemones sunt saith Tertullian All spirits both Angels and Devils are like a flying bird and therefore saith he they are here and there and every where in a moment Et totus orbis illis locus unus est and all the world to them is but as it were one certain place not by their ubiquity as filling all places at once which is only proper unto God but by their
that afterwards came to be Lord Chancellour Coventrie Sic me servavit Apollo So that Jehova saved me to whom I have committed my self ever since and vowed I would praise him and thank him and do him the best service that I could while I lived as I shewed in an Epistle before the seven golden Candlesticks Then immediately after this being then about twenty seven years old I went to Cambridge and though my former troubles wasted my means being by reason of the former accusations of mine enemies suspended by the Bishop of London and driven to be released by an appeal to the Prerogative Court yet I took my degree Bachelour of Divinity and returning to London I presently petitioned to my Lord of Canterbury Abbats whom ever after I found my very gracious Lord and to my Lord Chancellour Egerton whom I found so likewise and shewed them the great wrongs and abuses to my utter ruine that I had suffered from the Bishop of London and those bloudy persecutors without any shadow or colour of truth in any of all their Accusations and they presently pitying my case gave me the Parsonage of Llan-Llechyd worth to me a 100 li. per annum a better Rectory than that which mine enemies caused the Bishop of London to take from me that was rightly presented to it by the Earl of South-hampton But sicut unda sequitur undam so one affliction comes in the neck of another for I was no sooner arrived in Llan-Llechyd but the Bishop of Bangor because I refused to take another living for this that he saw was so commodious for him began to persecute me afresh and devised certain Articles which ex officio he prosecuted against me and I was fain again to appeal unto the Arches and my Lord of Bangor being in London my Lord of Canterbury sent for him and me and checked him exceedingly for his prosecution and gave me a Licence to preach throughout divers Diocesses of his Province and a Protection from being molested by my Lord of Bangor yet still I found that busie Bishop would not be quiet but as the Poet saith Manet alta mente repostum judicium paridis so my complaint against him to my Lord of Canterbury stuck in his mind as I had but a little respect or joy in his Diocess especially from his Lordship therefore after I had continued there four years about 32 years old I went to Cambridge again and took my degree Doctor of Divinity and then returning to London I became a domestical Chaplain to the Earl of Montgomery afterwards Earl of Pembroke and Lord Chamberlain to his Majesty to whom I had been Chaplain at large for many years before And then blessed be God I had a little rest from my persecution and began to study hard to Print Books of no small Volumes nor of mean Subjects as the seven Golden Candlesticks and many other Sermons now termed The best Religion and The true Church divided in six several Books And to be promoted to some eminent places to be his Majesties Chaplain a Prebend of Westminster and Dean of Bangor and before I was full forty years old in Election and very like to have been made Bishop of St. Asaph But when the Sun shineth brightest it continueth not long without Clouds and often times follow stormes and tempest so after I had spent these halsion daies and lived many years in the Kings Court I found some rubs and obstacles of my desires by reason of some discontent and difference betwixt me and the then Archbish of Canterbury * About my seeking to be Bishop of Asaph that clouded the brightness of my hopes for some while yet at last when the Long Parliament began to struggle and not only to chop off the head of the wise and stout Earl of Strafford but also to clap up the Bishop of Canterbury in Prison and to clip the wings of all the rest of the Bishops his Majesty of his own gracious mind and accord without any motion of any man made unto him when the Lord Primate of Ireland delivered him a Petition from the Bishops of Ireland to desire his Majesty to nominate a very worthy man Doctor Sybâ—horp that was Bishop of the poor Bishoprick of Kilfanora unto the Bishoprick of Ossory answered the Primate that he had reserved the same for Doctor Williams Dean of Bangor To whom the Primate replied Your Majesty bids him to his loss to use the Primates own words as he told me and his Majesty answered He could make him a saver and therefore let him have the refusal of it and when I heard of this passage from my Lord Primate I thought I were a very unworthy man if I refused so gracious an offer of so gracious a Master and considering that as my Predecessor and a man of my spirit Bishop Bale was called by the sole free motion of that pious King Edw. 6. so I was called by the sole free motion of the most religious King Charles I. I thought my self rightly called by God unto it and I accepted the same and yielded unto the divine calling with all thankefulness unto his gracious Majesty And now the storms and tempest begin to darken the Sunshine of my prosperity for I was no sooner arrived in Ireland seen Kilkenny and preached once in that Cathedral and consecrated in Dublin about Michaelmas but the Rebellion there brake out the October following after I had spent well-nigh 300 li. and had received not one penny then was I forced to fly towards his Majesty and the next Summer after having occasion to go to Dublin after I had setled my Wife and Family in a house that I had by Tocester and the first night that I came to my house after my return from Ireland the Rebels in North-hampton having heard how zealously I had preached for his Majesty and that now I was returned to my house by Tocester again sent a Troope of horse under the command of Captain Flaxon and so he carried me a prisoner to North-hampton where at my first entrance into the Town I saw a whole troop of Boys and Girls and other Apprentices that expected my coming and as the boys cried to Elizeus come up thou bald pate come up so they cried along the street a Bishop a Bishop and with this Io paean was I carried to the Commissioners Lodging where I was clapt up close in a Chamber and one of the Commissioners Sir John North I believe the civillest of them all came to me with a Satchel of Writings that Captain Flaxon found in my house and opening the same the first writings that came into his hand was the Treatise that I had written and had intituled it The Grand Rebellion and had written those words on the outward leaf thereof and as soon as ever he took it out of the bag I made bold And if I had not done so I had been undone before he had cast his eye upon the Title to take it
prevent the recovery of the said Lordship as it is conceived in his own house After that came Bishop Deane and he vigorously prosecutes the recovery of the said Lordship and he had not done much more then begun but he dieth Then came Bishop Wheeler and he petitioneth to my Lord of Strafford for the said Lordship of Bishops Court and by the great care and desire of the now most Reverend Primate of all Ireland to benefit the Church of Christ Bishop Wheeler had the Lordship of Frenis-Town that was one of the pretended Fee-farms made by Tonery and formerly yielded the Bishop but 4 li. yearly and doth now yield 50 li. every year yielded up unto him so that Shea might still continue in the Bishops Court and when Wheeler died my gracious King and good Master Charles the First commended me to the Bishoprick of Ossory then came the Rebellion and I was driven to flee before I had received one Penny from my Bishoprick or had continued two Moneths therein but blessed be God for it I was restored by our now most gracious King and having an Order from the most Honourable House of Lords to be put into the possession of all the Houses and Lands of the Bishop of Ossory that the last Bishop died seized of the Sheriffe of the County of Kilkenny did put me among divers other places into the possession of the said Bishops Court and the Tenants attourned Tenants unto me and continued from the _____ dâ—y of April until the 8th day of October following 1662. at which time one Captain Burges and divers others Anabaptists and Sectaries the Tenants of Sir George Ayskue that never come into the Church yet came into the Bishops House and thence expelled the Bishop and his Tenants from his possession And I the Bishop hearing of it went thither my self with two men and my Chaplain Mr. Thomas Bulkley and finding the door open I and my Chaplain went in and one of them that kept the possession affronted and justled me at the door of the Loft to hinder my entrance in and yet I got in and then more and more came into the Room to the number of 9 or 10 persons And some of them especially Captain Burges vilified and threatned me to the fear of my Life and some did shut the Iron Grate and locked it as I conceived to keep me there for their Prisoner and to hinder my two servants that I had sent with my horses to Freshfoord to come in and when they demanded if they meant to murder their Lord and desired to come in one of them that had a Cudgel in his hand said that if he offered to come in there he would knock him in the head and my man answered him with the like menaces and I hearing of their high threats and fearing what mischief might fall out there sent a peremptory command to my men to go home and let what death soever pleased God come to me but after that I got liberty to go unto mine own house I called a private Sessions and Indicted Will. Portis Tho. Collins Jo. Rayman Josias Scot Will. Burges for their forcible entry but the Indictment being removed by a Certiorari to the Kings Bench though I had retained two Counsellors and gave them twenty shillings for their Fee to do things right and according to Law yet through the errour of the Clerke there were some faults found in the Indictment and so the same was quasht by the Judges of the Kings Bench Then I got the best Attourney that I thought was in Dublin and is so reputed by all my friends to draw me another Indictment against the foresaid forcible enterers and being drawn I carried it to Sir William Donvil the Kings Atturney and gave him his Fee to review it and mend it if any thing was amiss in it and make it so as it might stand good in Law the which thing he very carefully did and amended some things with his own hands And I knew not what I could or should do more to draw a good Indictment Then I desired the Justices of the Peace to send a precipe to the Sheriffe to summon a Jury to examine the force which they did upon the said place where the force was committed And though Sir George Ayskue had for his Atturney Mr. Smith the now High Sheriffe of the County of the City of Kilkenny and Mr. Johnson the Recorder of the City of Kilkenny for his Counsellour to plead against the finding of the Indictment true as much as ever they could and another Counsellour stood against it as much or more than either of them both and I had neither Atturney nor Counsellour to say any thing for it but what the Witnesses proved yet the Jury did presently find it Billa Vera. Then I desired the Justices of the Peace to restore me to my Possession but to prevent the same Mr. Smith Sir George Ayskues Atturney having a Certiorari ready in his Pocket did immediately as soon as ever the Jury had brought in their Verdict deliver the same into the hands of the Justices of the Peace and they delivered it to the Clerk of the Peace and the Justices said that now they could not restore me to my Possession because that their hands were stopt and all the proceedings must be transmitted to the Kings Bench by Octab. Hillarii And when I came to Kilkenny I went to the Clerk of the Peace and examined the same Indictment which the Jury found and which I had done before ad amussim very diligently with that Copy which the Kings Atturney had amended and averred to be sufficient and I prayed the Clerke of the Peace to give me a Copy of that Indictment which the Jury found the which he did under his hand and I examined all again and found them in all things to be verbatim word for word agreeable one to another Then by Octab. Hillarii the time set to return the proceedings to the Kings Bench I went to Dublin But there was no Indictment returned still I expected but still in vain At last I complained to the Lords Justices but they answered that they could not help it for they knew not whether the Certiorari was delivered or not At last seeing it was neither returned nor like to be returned I was advised to make Affidavit that I had seen it delivered into the hands of the Justices of the Peace and that I heard it read and then saw it delivered to the Clerke of the Peace and then upon the reading of my Affidavit and a motion made by my Counsel thereupon there was an Order set down that there should be 20 li. fine set upon the Clerke of the Peace if the proceedings and the Indictment came not in by such a day So at last it came in but it was the last day of the Term that it came into the Court and then the Kings Sergeant moved for my possession but the Counsel on the other side
pleaded that there was an errour in the said Indictment and being somewhat long in alledging the Cases of A. and B. and of John an Oakes and John a Stile the Lord Chief Justice told him it was the last day of the Term and Motions were to be heard Therefore seeing they could not hear out the Matter now they should shew cause by the second day of the next Term why possession should not be restored Then I thought this was to keep me long enough out of my Possession and to let Sir George Ayskue have one half years rent more to the two half years Rent that he had already since I was driven out of my Possession and to let his Counsel have time e ough added to what they had already to pick as many holes as they could find or could make in mine Indictment but considering that as the Poet saith Levius fit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas I went away and said nothing But upon the second day of the next Term which was appointed for the hearing of it the Kings Atturney moved for possession and the Counsel of the other side began to plead the errours of the Indictment but the pleading was presently put off and it was prosecuted the next day The Kings Atturney being not there and the main errour that was of any moment and which was neither seen nor toucht the Term before by Sir George his Counsel for all other things alledged as my Counsel said were but trifles could easily be answered was that in the Indictment it was said Per Sacramentum quindecem virorum whereas it should be Per Sacramentum proborum legalium hominum comitatus Kilken predict extitit presentat which words were all left out of the Indictment and the other words put in the room of them Then I stood up and said I was certain the words quindecim virorum were not in the Indictment that was found by the Jury and that all the other words were in it because that my self had examined it and read it and had likewise a Copy of it under the hand of the Clerk of the Peace which was examined with the Original by my self And I offered in open Court to make Oath of all this but the Lords Justices answered that they could not proceed but according to the Record that was returned to the Court which they must conceive to be the true Record And I answered That I hoped they would not judge according to that Record which I would swear was false and corrupted and not the true Record nor according to the Record that was found by the Jury yet I could not prevail to have the Clerke of the Peace sent for and to bring the original Record to be shewed in the Court therefore by the next day I brought this Affidavit in writing THe Right Reverend Father in God Griffith Lord Bishop of Ossory this day made oath before me that he had sundry times perused the original Indictment and Record of Forcible Entry found by a Jury of the County of Kilkenny upon the 18th day of December last past against the said Defendants in the Custody of one Nicholas Halpenny who as is alledged is either Clerk or Deputy Clerk of the Peace for the said County and that the said Indictment and Record being removed into this Court Pursuant to his Majesties Writ of Certiorari this Deponent did peruse the said Record so transmitted by the said Halpenny and doth find upon view and examination thereof that there are sundry Circumstantial and substantial words which are in the said original Indictment found by the Grand Jury omitted to be returned and as this Deponent believes and remembers other words are inserted therein by the Clerk that returned or drew up the same He further deposed That before the Record was returned into this Court he had a Copy of the said Original attested under the hand of the said Halpenny which he doth find upon examination to be different from the Record now lodged in this Court by vertue of the said Certiorari and that as this Deponent is credibly informed and verily believeth the said Certiorari and Record now returned was for the space of one month or thereabouts in Dublin detained in the hands of Mr. Patrick Lambert who is said to be Atturney for Sir George Ayscue Knight the pretended Proprietor of the premises in the Indictment contained before such time as he returned the same and that this Deponent could not have the said Record returned ere that he had by the Court a conditional fine imposed upon the Clerk of the Peace or his Deputy for his neglect in not returning thereof And then my Counsel moved that it might be read and so it was And I shewed to their Lordships what great wrong and abuse this was to me and an injury to his Majesty to have the Record falsified and corrupted and protested in the open Court that so long as I could either speak or go I would not suffer this abuse to pass unexamined and at last with much ado I got the Lords Justices to grant their Writ to enjoyn the Clerke of the Peace to appear upon the Saturday following to answer such things as should be objected against him sub paena c. librarum at which time he came and I went with him to my Lord Chief Justice his house to shew him the original Record and how it was falsely transcribed and not according to that which was brought into the Court but my Lord Chief Justice seeming as I conceived somewhat angry said he would hear nothing nor see any thing but what should be shewed in Court and then the Clerke of the Peace came with me to the Court and when he was called he confessed the truth that the Record transmitted to the Court was not according to the original Record but was falsely written by his Clerke that he trusted to write it altogether unknown to him then my Counsel moved that the Record might be amended according to the original Record but the Lords Justices answered that they could not alter the Record brought into the Court And the Kingâ— Sollicitor Mr. Temple very honestly replied they might if they pleased have it amended for that in such a case some errour or mistake was found in an Indictment in the time of one Clerke of the Peace and it was ordered to be amended pro rege in the time of another Clerke of the Peace the Lord Chief Justice answered this Indictment was brought into the Court the last Term and therefore it could not be amended this Term. Then I replied It should have been brought in in the beginning of the last Term but it was concealed till the last day of the last Term and this errour then was neither seen nor spoken of and how could we move then to have it amended before we knew the falshood and corrupting of it which was no waies perceived till this time Yet for all that I could
Majesty herein doing more then I desired And when I was very willing to have given 5 l. in Gold for Sir Henry Bennets Fee that most Courteous Gentleman Mr. Quod-dolphin said I should not pay one penny but Sir Henry would lay that upon the Church and my Lord of Canterburies score So fairly and so friendly was I used at his Majesties Court The Lord bless them and reward them for it and grant them alwaies the like Favour a I found with them And when I came with his Majesties Reference to my Lord Duke of Ormond I found his Grace as honourable and very gracious in his Answer and Direction to me but when his Grace referred the Petition that I drew to his Grace to do as his Majesty directed and his Majesties Reference to the Council-Table I must acknowledge that I feared the success and so it happened according to my fear for when I was called before the Council his Grace said he was no Lawyer but he left the Matter to them to inform me what was to be done according to Law and my Lord Chancellour said that both my self in my Relation and my Lawyers and Counsel confest that the Judges did act and their Proceedings were according to Law and therefore I must even begin again and it was my best course to proceed according to Law and I answered if all this in my Proceedings were Law I pray God send us a better Law for I shewed the whole Proceedings to his Majesty and to divers of the Judges of England and they said this was a fair proceeding indeed to set up a man of straw and then shoot at him to bring a false Indictment to the Court and then quash it for I proved it in the open Court by the Confession of the Clerke of the Peace that brought the true Indictment with him to the Court and acknowledged that the other was falsified either by the Clerke that he trusted to write it or by some other he knew not who that the Indictment brought to the Court was not the true Indictment that was found by the Jury and so without any more words my Lords Grace seemed to me very graciously to smile and so I was dismist But I fear that the favour which Sir Geo. Ayskue finds in every place against me may produce no good effect And then I called to mind the cause that moved me to fear the success I should have at the Council-Table not Injustice that I mean not I know that they are just but that the Justice I should have would not be to my advantage and the favour that I desired For when I still indâ—ed the forcible Enterers and still proceeded against Sir George Ayskues Tenants he preferred a Petition to the Council-Table about this Lordship of Bishops Court and I hearing of it conceived that before any thing should be done thereupon I should have the favour to be made acquainted with the same Petition that I might answer it but I could hear nothing of it until a little while after some of the Bishops by reason of the power to my L. Lieutenant and Counsel given by the last Proviso in the Act of settlement fearing that they would alter and retrench some of his Majesties Favours and Additionals granted unto them by the said Act petitioned that they would not do so but leave all things that concerned the Bishops statu quo as they are expressed in the Act without Alteration or retrenchment and my Lord Lieutenant and Counsel granted their Petition but with this only Proviso that Sir George Ayskues right might be preserved that is as I conceive against all the Bishops for that none is named and this Proviso of all the men in Ireland is but only for Sir George Ayskue and of all the Bishops in Ireland it seems by all likelihood only prejudicial to the Bishop of Ossory Which notwithstanding if the last Proviso in the Act of Settlement be well understood and rightly followed can be no prejudice to him at all as I conceive it for that the Power given to my Lord Lieutenant and Counsel by that Proviso is as I understand it a power to alter and retrench any thing in part or in whole which they shall find either contrary to his Majesties Declaration or inconsistent with Which are the very words in the Proviso or to the general settlement of the Kingdom and I conceive that the suffering of the Bishop of Ossory to enjoy his own House and Lands where the Bishops used to live and reside cannot be contrary to his Majesties Declaration not inconsistent with the general settlement of the Kingdom And therefore I humbly conceive that my Lord Lieutenant and Counsel have no power by that Proviso granted unto them to take away his Majesties Grant and Favour to the Bishop of Ossory and to settle the same upon Sir George Ayskue especially if his Majesty was deceived in his Grant to Sir George Ayskue as I verily believe he was for his Majesty grants him the Lands setled upon him for his Service in Ireland and I have searched and examined the Matter as much as ever I could and yet could never find nor understand what Service he had done in Ireland that deserved to carry away the House and Lands of the Bishop of Ossory or indeed of any Service that he did in Ireland at all either for King or Parliament And if for all this he carries the Bishops House away I will sing Mopso Nisa datur and seeing how many of the Bishops Houses and Lands that were by an Order of the House of Lords delivered to my possession by the Sheriffe of the County and were peaceably in my Tenants possession and paid me Rent ever since his Majesties happy coming in were given away while I was in London Petitioning about this Cause and could not be at Dublin to answer them that sued for them nor dreamed of any Suites against me and being not able in mine old Age especially seeing what Pains Charge and Success I have hitherto had with Sir Geo. Ayskue to follow so many Suits against so many men so powerful as they are in the Courts of Justice at the Council-Table and in all places I will like Balaams Asse so unjustly beaten lie down under my burden too heavy for me to bear and call and cry to God to arise and maintain his own Cause and the Cause of his own Son Jesus Christ Yet in this Suit betwixt me and Sir Geo. Ayskue because I have taken so much paines and spent so much Money and specially because I do hate and abhor that any man * I mean not Sir G. Ayskue but whosoever he be which hath fought under the Standard of the Beast and Long Parliament against that Most Pious King and my Most Gracious Master Charles the First should carry away the Houses and Lands that Religious Princes have dedicated for the Honoâ—r and Service of Jesus Christ for the Reward of that wickedness
I resolved once more to enter into the List to follow my alwaies very honourable Friend my Lord Chancellours Advice and try the Success with him by the Verdict of an honest Jury and Lindired 6 of the Tenants and Servants of Sir Geo. Ayskue for a forcible Entry and 5 of them now the third time and I had six Counsellours help to draw and compose the Indictment and so to review it and correct it if any thing was amiss therein that being found Billa Vera by the Jury it might so stand good and not be quashed as my two former Indictments were by the Judges of the Kings Bench. And the 6 forcible Enterers being indited for fear lest the Record should be falsified and corrupted as the former indirement of them had been I got the Clerke of the Peace to send it inclosed in a Letter sealed up by my man to his Agent in Dublin to be â—elivered into the Office which mine Adversaries presently told to my Lord of Santree and was objected as a Piaculum Meaning as I conceived by the Relation that I had printed of the former Proceedings and when the Record came to the Court my Lord Chief Justice said upon the Bench that my Lord Bishop had abused the Court to whom I replied that I had not abused the Court for that I had set down nothing but the Truth and was as Ioah as any man to offer the least Abuse to any of his Majesties Courts or Judges of his Courts And after my Lord Chief Justice and my self had conferred together I found him my very honourable Friend and I retained three of the Kings Counsel to follow the said Cause for his Majesty and the Counsellours of the Fanaticks failing to quash the Indictment my Lord Chief Justice told them they must either submit or be bound to prosecute their Traverse and they became bound in 200 l. to prosecute the same upon the 10th day of Easter Term which was the sixth day of May. And when upon that day the Jury were sworn That their children and their childrens children may understand from what I will not say Canaanites but Catharisâ—s they are sprung Who and what my Witnesses proved viz. William Baker of Ballytobin John Pursel of Lismore William Baxter of Earlstown Isaac Jackson of Kâ—lamery John Jones of Ri _____ Robert Hawford of Ballyneboly Nicholas Pharoe Thomas Tomlins of Lismoteag Chrystopher Render of Fadenarah John Nixon of Brawnebarn William Cheshire of _____ and Thomas Huswife of Gowran good men and true or neither good men nor true 1. I brought in evidence Mr. Sheriff Reigly who was the Sheriff that gave me possession and Mr. Connel and Hugh Linon that was thought needless to prove my possession given by the Sheriffe of the County of Kilkenny by vertue of an Order of the House of Lords of this Lordship of Bish Court the Lands thereto belonging and of the Tenements in Freshfoord as it was expressed in a Shedule annexed to the Order of the Lords upon the 29th day of April 1662. and that the Tenants did atturne Tenants and gave pieces of money in earnest of their rents and promised to keep the possession and to continue Tenants unto me during my pleasure 2. Mr. Thomas Bulkley Mr. William Williams Thomas Davies and my self proved the multitude of persons to the number of ten or twelve that upon the 8th day of October 1662. were entred into the said Bishops Court and there forcibly kept the possession against the Bishop and some one with a sword by his side and a staff or Cane in his hand and another with a long staff in his hand threatned that they would make him repent his doings and coming there and that Sir George Ayskue would spend 500 li. before he would leese this Bishops Court and that Captain Burges said he would keep and uphold the possession for Sir George Ayskue with his life and fortune and others having shut the Iron Grate to hinder the Bishop to go out or his Servants to come in when his Servants demanded what they meant to murder their Lord And desired to come in to wait upon their Master they threatned them and said that if they offered to come in there they would beat them down and knock out their Brains 3. Mr. Richard Marshal Mr. George Farre Mr. John Murphey and Ed. Dalton that proved how he was thrust out of the house by head and shoulders proved the forcible entry with arms and weapons a Gun and a Pike and Staves into some of the Tenements in Freshford and that for nine daies they kept the same with such a company of Fanaticks Anabaptists and other Sectaries that they seemed rather to be a Garrison than the keeping of the possession of any house And after nine daies they bound George Farre and others in a bond of a thousand pounds that they should continue true Tenants to Sir George Ayskue and keep the possession for him against the Bishop of Ossory And because the said George Farre proved this point so fully and so plain that nothing could be said against it one of the Fanaticks Counsellours said what I conceive was very unfit to be spoken in so publick a place and before such honourable Judges of any of the Kings Witnesses that this man the principal of the Witnesses was a parricide which I dare justifie to be most untrue 4. For impounding the Cattle and beating and wounding them that sought to hinder it the said George Farre proved the same so fully and that one of the women that was beaten lay long sick after her beating that Sir Audley Mervin and Serjeant Gruffith would not suffer three other Witnesses that I had there at the Bar that is John Duran Barbara Marshal and another Wench to be sworn and examined and so to trouble the Court any further because said they you see the Lords Justices and the whole Court are sufficiently satisfied that I had more than abundantly proved the forcible entry and detaining of this Bishops Court but they gave way to six of the Intruders Counsel to say what they could for their Clients And when each one of them had made his Oration and spent much time and my Lord Chief Justice heard them with a great deal of patience to prove what I never denied but was ready to confess all that they said touching the large Writings and Evidences that they produced to prove the Title and Interest of Mr. Robert Shea to this Bishops Court which at this time when the question was only of the forcible entry I had no reason to contradict and which perhaps might be good and perhaps not before he forfeited the same unto his Majesty But for Sir George Ayskue that for his Service How S. George Ayskue came to have this Bishops Court. you know to whom which makes me believe it will never prosper with him had a Commission from the Usurper Crummel that for 200 li. which was due unto him for
Barons of the Exchequer in doing right both to the King and to my self by putting the Bishops Lands out of charge His Mâ—jesty having most graciously conferred four hundred pounds per annum â—o me and my Successors out of the fee Farmes forfeited to his Mâ—jesty and the Parliament confirming the same by the Act of settlement I took a Commission of enquiry and when all my Witnesses came together and were ready to proceed there comes a Supersedeas to stop our way but his Majesties Atturney Sir William Dunvil and Sir Audley Mervin and the rest of the Kings Sergeants and Sollicitors did so faithfully so learnedly and so religiously plead on his Majesties behalf and the Church for which the God of heaven will reward them that they had the Supersedeas superseded and vâ—cated by our most honourable and most religious Lord Chancellour and then I proceeded and the Jury found this Bishops house and Freshford forfeited to the King and worth a hundred pounds per annum then coming to Dublin to have my Commission put upon the file and to get a Pattent according to the Act and the Kings Grant to enjoy the same after I had spent above a hundred pounds to bring the matter to this pass I received this answer that my Lord Deputy and Council were resolved to do nothing unless they received the Kings Letter and Command to do it and though I was sorry for the vaste expence of money that I laid out to no benefit yet I am glad to see men so observant of the Kings Word and Command I would to God they and all others the Kings Subjects would have obeyed Solomons Counsel to observe the words and commands of our late most gracious King Charles the First I should not have needed to suffer so much as I have done and so often to have troubled our now most gracious King and to have spent near sixty pounds for Agents money for the good of the Church and above four hundred pounds to repair the Chancel of S. Keney and in all above five hundred pounds to recover the Bishops Mansion house and Freshford from Captain Burges and Sir George Ayskue and to be not one jot the nearer nor one penny the richer for all this money that I have spent nor have any more by one penny-worth than what my most gracious King and late loving Master gave me to this very day and I conceive this to be nothing else but But then after I received this answer I presently went to London and presented this Petition to his Majesty To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of Gruffith Lord Bishop of Ossory Sheweth THat your Petitioner hath suffered the loss of all that he had and the continual hazard of his life during all the time of Cromwel and the Long Parliament for his service and faithfulness to your Majesty and your Royal Father of most blessed memory That your Majesty hath been most graciously pleased to grant four hundred pounds per annum out of the forfeited Fee-farmes for an augmentation to his poor Bishopprick of Ossory and that your Petitioner being by the Sheriff put into the possession of the former Bishops Mansion house called Bishops Court by vertue of an Order from the House of Lords and being forcibly driven out by the Tenants of Sir George Askue whom your Petitioner hath therefore indicted three several times by three several Juries yet after the expence of above four hundred pounds could not be righted And your Petitioner having got a Commission of inquiry what Fee-farmes were forfeited to your Majesty and when the same Commission was superseded having with a great expâ—nce superseded that supersedeas and had by the fourth Jury found the said Bishops Court to be a Fee-farme held from the Bishop of Ossory worth by improvement a hundred pounds per annum and forfeited to your Majesty yet after the expence of above a hundred pounds to bring the Commission to this pass your Petitioner received this answer from the Lord Deputy and Counsel that they were resolved to pass no Pattent of any Lands granted by your Majesty and the Act of Settlement unto the Bishops but to such as had your Majesties special Letters to do the same And forasmuch as it had been better for your Petitioner to have had nothing granted unto him than after such a vaste expence above five hundred pounds to miss of gaining one hundred pounds per annum Your Petitioner humbly prayeth that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to write your Letters to the Lord Deputy to pass a Pattent according to what the Jury found and according to your Majesties former Grant and the Act of Settlement And your Petitioner doth oblige himself to lay it out all for the repair of the now ruinous Cathedral Church of S. Keney and he shall ever pray c. And his Majesty did most graciously read it every word himself and then said I will speak to my Lord of Ormond to do it So whether I recover it or not Non hujus facio I weigh it not a rush for I hope my Saviour Jesus Christ whose Sollicitor I am only in this suit will not impute the loss of this to me seeing I have done my very best to regain it for his service yet could not do it by reason of the great Friends of Sir George Askue who made me like Ixion that embraced a Cloud for Juno to spend five hundred pounds to hunt after a shadow and to lose the substance and to have his Majesties gracious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but let him take heed of Moses Emphatical Prayer for Levi and of Davids Prophetical Prediction what shall become of them that keep the Revenues of the Church and the Houses of God in their possessions and let his great Friends and his Jury pray to God that they may have more favour from Jesus Christ than they have shewed for his honour and if this be the reward that Sir George Askue and the Bishop of Ossory shall receive for their service to King Charles the first I will say no more but pray to God as I do both day and night to be a just Judge betwixt me and them that have opposed me in this the Churches right Amen So you have seen some part of the miseries of the Church of Ireland and all the Livings in my Diocess of Ossory and who holds them and what they are deemed to be worth communibus annis unto the Incumbents and this together with the state and condition of the Bishoppricks in Ireland which are now like Anthropophagites eating up and devouring one another excepting the poor Bishopprick of Ossory that standeth yet alone like the trunke of a goodly Oake without boughs without leaves without beauty when as many Bishops here in Ireland have two or three Bishoppricks apiece As the Bishop of Cork hath also Rosse and Cloyne the Bishop of Limricke hath also the Bishopprick of
would discharge his Servants quarters he would take off the Inhibition upon the Jurisdiction whereupon Mr. Connel and my self engaged to discharge the Reckoning and so we thought that all things had been ended in a fair correspondence but upon his departure he did privately sequester all the Livings of Mr. Cull Junior the Vicaredge of Aghaboe into the hands of one Manby the Archbishops Chaplain he sequestered out of my own poor means Donnoghmore and Rosconnel and two Livings more of Mr. Cull Senior and there were many other Sequestrations that I could not get an account of which they carried to Dublin Thus praying for your Lordships speedy return to countenance and support the Clergy I rest Kilkenny July 23. 1664. Your Lordships most obliged Servant Joseph Teate And now having set down this Letter I would have my Reader to understand that whatsoever I set down here touching my Lords Grace his Visitation I say it not to accuse any of his Officers of the least fault or to lay the least blame on them for any unjust proceeding therein The things acted by Mr. Archdeacon Bulkley in my Lords Grace his Visitation which the Bishop of Ossory understands not as 1. The suspension of the Bishops jurisdiction Canon 24. But I only set down rem gestam to shew how heavy the Censure was and how burthensome which a just judgement may be unto the poor Clergy whose neglect or fault I excuse not if they committed any but only pitty their case under their Censure and likewise to shew how far beyond my understanding which notwithstanding might be most just many things were acted therein As 1. The Suspension or inhibition of the Jurisdiction I know not for how many months together nor for what cause if as Mr. Teates Letter saith for the neglect of the Archbishops Refection I find the Canons say that neither the Archbishops in their Visitation shall charge their Suffragans nor the Bishops their Clergy with any noctials or refections over and above their ordinary Procurations reserving notwithstanding unto the Archbishops the refections heretofore usually received in those Diocess where the same Procurations are not received by them which are yearly paid by the Clergy unto their Bishops But the Archbishops do receive from the Clergy of the Diocess of Ossory all the Procurations that they do yearly pay unto their Bishops And yet notwithstanding this exemption of Refections by the Canon I am sure I paid seventeen pound for the Archdeacons refection in the Archbishops last Visitation which is a great deal more than the Subsidy and twentieth part that I pay unto his Majesty any year and it may be more than ever was bestowed upon a Dinner for the blessed Apostles S. Paul But you see in the Letter how highly they do extoll the Bishop of Kildare which is the prime Bishop in the Kingdom for the noble entertainment that he made at this Visitation spending as some say forty pounds at least for their Refection and the Bishop of Lachlin and Fernes in like manner that was not much behind the former to shew his love and respect to his Metrâ—politan my Lords Grace of Dublin Truly I do honour respect and reverence and do heartily love my Lords Grace of Dublin as a most noble Gentleman and a most reverend and a worthy Father of the Church and as much and it may be more than any of them and have suffered somewhat for the love I bare him though my large expence for the rights of the Church darkened the expression thereof in the Archdeacons Refection as the Archdeacon represented it to his Grace Or it may be as some say my Jurisdiction for the Jurisdiction is mine and not my Archdeacons nor Register was suspended because I appeared not at the Visitation but went to England without my Lords Grace his leave especially after I had notice of his Visitation Indeed I must confess I went after I had notice of the Visitation but my only business was the business of the Church and I had my Lord Lieutenants leave under his hand and seal to go without any prejudice unto me neither was I so forgetful of my duty or of civil respect as to neglect my Lords Grace but I went unto his Grace to excuse my absence from his Visitation and to desire his leave to go on my journey and he very graciously yielded unto me And why after such leaves obtained my Jurisdiction which is half my Episcopal Function should be inhibited I understand not If Mr. Bulkley saith quomodo constat that you had my Lords Grace leave to be absent I answer quomodo constabat how did I know that Mr. Archdeacon Bulkley should visite me and would think me so uncivil and so ill bred as to forget my respect and duty to my Lords Grace as to go away without his leave I but why did not you saith the Archdeacon send a Certificate under the Archbishops hand that you had his Grace his leave 1. Because I did not understand that if I were at Corke or Kerry or some other such remote place from Dublin it is absolutely necessary by any Canon or Law that I must either go or send to Dublin to get my Lords Grace his leave to go about my most unavoidable occasions of what consequence soever they be or else to be sequestred from my means or to be suspended from my jurisdiction 2. Because that having his leave ore tenus by word of mouth I did not believe that Mr. Archdeacon would imagine that a man should not trust the Archbishops words except he had it under his hand and seal when as I never doubted of any honest mans word and much less of the words of my Lords Grace of Dublin Yet the Jurisdiction was suspended as they say for six months till all the harvest and the profit of the year should be past over and what a grievance this is to all those parties that have suits depending in the Bishops Court to have justice retarded all this while and to those also that would sue for their Tythes or for any other right within the cognizance of the Ecclesiastical Court I do not understand it but am sorry for it and let others judge of it 2. The taking of the Articles exhibited against the Dean out of the Bishops Court 2. When as Articles were exhibited unto me of high nature against the Dean of S. Kenny and I calling him into my Court to answer them and giving him his own time that he desired to have to make his answer that he might not be surprized and this long before any inhibition of my Jurisdiction came into my hands I do not understand how the same suit depending in my Court could be taken off but by an appeal and transmitted by a due Course of Law or otherwise all the suits and causes depending in my Court might be cancelled and taken off as well as this and what a grievance is this to the prosecutors of any suit
forgiveness upon his knees and truly to this day I could not learn for what unless it were for complaining that the Dean dealt with him as the Wolfe did with the Lamb. And not only so but the report goeth that the poor man who spends what he hath to maintain his two Sons in Oxford was awed as the word of my Letter is that is threatned and terrified that if he did not do as Archdeacon Bulklâ—y enjoyned him he should be deprived of all the means he had and should not be suffered to serve in all Ireland which if true as I easily believe it is the readiest way to encrease the oppressions and wickedness of men to the great dishonour of God and not to further the reformation of those offences that ought most severely to be reproved especially in those men that by the dignity of their places should be the light and good example unto others yet will be indeed the very scandal shame and reproach of their Calling I say no more but that such proceedings do seem very strange to me that never saw the like in the Kingdom of Ingland nor ever read the like done in any Ecclesiastical Court 3. For the Sequestration And for the Sequestrations I can say little or nothing to them because I know not well the causes for which they were sequestred but I pity the poverty and the loss and want that must thereby follow to the sequestred parties to disinable them for a while to do that good which otherwise they might do to themselves and their Families Yet as the old Axiom is that Corruptio unius est generatio alterius so their loss is a gain to the Officers and friends of the Sequestor though perhaps they have not so much need of it as those that are sequestred because Mr. Archdeacon Bulkley as I am informed wrote his Letters to the Dean and to his Cosin Mr. Lloyd who notwithstanding his Letters dealt like a Gentleman with the sequestred parties to make the best agreement they could with the Sequestred Clergy for their own profit and advantage before they should have their relaxation which I believe was never so intended when Sequestrations were first ordered to be extended But for Jonathan Cull that is said to be sequestred for not going to his Grace to aske leave to go to Oxford before he went which was indeed a fault in Cull and no man will excuse him unless he can yield a very good reason for his neglect But for his Non-residency from his Livings I think that the Statuâ—e doth allow him to be absent from his Living and to live in the University studendi gratia untill he be forty years old and I having sent him word from the Rector of Lincoln Colledge where he is a student that he must make haste to come before the Act and his new-married Wife being lately dead he might be thereby so troubled and in such an extasie as to forget his duty and obedience to my Lords Grace not so much out of contempt or neglect of his Grace as out of ignorance bashfulness or forgetfulness that might well excuse him before any mild and no severe Judges à tanto licet non à toto and therefore consideratis considerandis the fault which might be accounted venial might be conceived not to deserve so heavy a Censure as to be deprived of all his means whereby he is disinabled to continue his study in the University which makes me believe the Sequestrator conceived some greater cause to sequester him either against him or against some other of his relation which is probable as I conceive it to be against my sâ—â—f whom some thought to wound through the side of Jonathan Cull because I know the man to be so civil and of so fair a carriage as to give no just offence to any one or in any place I would the accuser of his brethren were so blameless but many times Aristides is punished for being just and Clodius applauded for his wickedness Or if he or any other of my Clergy hath justly deserved punishment I will not be their Advocate to justifie or to excuse any hainous crime And for the Visitations themselves The Visi ations of this Kingdom the Bishops Visitation seems to be clipped here in this Kingdom of Ireland more than seems convenient for the chief parts and duties of this Office of Episcopacy different from Presbytery do consist in these two special things 1. Ordination of the Priests and Deacons to be the Teachers and Pastors of the Church to feed the flock of Christ 2. Jurisdiction to rule and govern all the members of the Church Clergy and Layty according to the Laws Canons and Constitutions of the Church And if in this Triennial Visitation of the Archbishop he inhibits the Bishop Jurisdiction for two or three months before he visits and then when he visits suspends the Jurisdiction for six months more as here you see he doth or for more than that if he please and this every third year and in any part of the year when he will hath not the Archbishop swallowed up almost all the Jurisdiction of the Bishop And then as the Pope sends his Legatos a latere to do only what the Pope directs him so the Bishop shall stand by the Archbishops side and shall be set aside as oft as he pleaseth which seems to me to be a Jurisdiction ad placitum and so little better than a Cypher that standing by himself signifieth nothing and so is worthy of a Presbyterial correction But as Monarchy is the best kind of Government in the World when the same is well ordered and rightly used as I have most amply shewed in my Book of the Right of Kings so the multiplication of powers into one hand being abused hath produced Tyranny among the Tyrants of the Gentiles and as Presbyterians say iâ— the Popes of Rome Therefore our Saviour Christ seeing how ambitious and how greedy his Disciples were to usurp authority forbiddeth them not to use their authority and the jurisdiction that he gives them but he forbiddeth them to abuse it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to domineer one over another as the heathen Tyrants did 1 Pet. 5.3 and to that end the most Divines say and I think all except the Popes Parasites I am sure all the Presbyterians affirm it that Christ equally distributed the power and authority that he gave to the Governours of his Church See Bishop Howsons Sermons that proves this Point at large which were the twelve Apostles amongst them all and therefore they had all equal jurisdiction though S. Peter had the priority of nomination in respect of order which must be observed in all the actions and the works of God which is the God of order Yet I that am and will be as observant respective and obedient to my Archbishop as any Bishop in Ireland shall be to his Metropolitan say not
shewed in the hands of the great and powerful men and rich Cities and we can as easily pluck the club out of Hercules hands as get any of them out of their fingers when the poor men dare not scarce aske their dues of them or if they sue for them the remedy will prove far worse than the disease to go to Law with Corporations or with mighty men to spend their money and commonly to go without their right as they have a plain-example in my proceedings with Sir George Ayskuâ— and the detention of all my Procurations which as Bishop Bale saith in the Page of his Book was almost half the Revenue of the Bishopprick of Ossory by the foresaid great men and Cities ever since his Majesties restauration and I know not how to get them it is no wonder to me that Popeâ—â— should not only continue but encrease more and more and the Service of God decay more and more and injustice Idolatry and wickedness abound in this Kingdom more and more and I tell you herein the plain truth let who will be angry and let others think what they please And further seeing that beside the payments and taxes that they are bound to pay to his Majesty by the hand of their Bishop and to their Bishop and Archbishop and all other payments for their Churches they are frequently contrary to the Acts of Parliament exceedingly molested taxed and distrained for the same taxes which they have formerly paid by the Lay Collectors and the trouble to be discharged from those unjust Taxations is worse then the repayment of them again when as excessit medicina modum the remedy is worse than the disease Therefore that it would please his Majesty for the honour of God and the good of the poor people and the poor Clergy likewise to cause the Churches to be built * Especially the Bishops Cathedral Church at Kilkenny and some competent means and sum to be deducted out of those Impropriations and to be added for the augmentation and better support of the poor Vicars and some fairer and easier way to be devised for the poor Clergy to recover their right and a prohibition of the Layty under a Subpaena to recharge them for those payments which they are charged with and enjoyned by the Act of Parliament to pay to their Diocessans 3. That seeing three or four Visitations that may be of the Archdeacon Bishop Archbishop and Primate in one year cannot choose but be a grievance and a great burthen unto the poor Clergy that are poor enough without the charge of so many Visitations added unto the rest of their taxes That it would please his Majesty to cause the Government of the Church of Ireland to be brought to the same form manner and fashion that is used in the Church of Ingland that is for the Archdeacon to Visit for two years and the Bishop to visit every third year and then the Archdeacons Visitation to cease for that year the Bishop visits and the Archbishop to visit once in his time and both the Archdeacons and the Bishops Visitations to cease when the Archbishop shall visit And thus the Clergy and the Church-Officers shall have but one Visitation quot annis in every one year which I think is very sufficient for the rectifying of all abuses and for the far greater ease both of the Clergy and Layty and which I believe none should be against the same unless it be such as are too miserably covetous for a small matter unto themselves to bring a heavy grievance to very many which for my part the Lord knoweth that I never liked it and I suppose it should be for the honour and praise of the Chief Governours and Fathers of the Church as we are stiled to deal with our Clergy as with our Children to ease them what we can and not to make them fast for our feasting And I find great reason that we should in all things here in Ireland conform our selves to the Church of Ingland for as Polydor Virgil wriâ—e h that Pope Adrian Polyd. Virg. l. 13. Hist Angl. and after him Alexander moved S. Christian the famous Bishop of Lismore their Legate to call a Synod at Cashel wherein they defined eight Articles whereof the last was That forasmuch as God hath Universally delivered the Irish into the government of the English they should in all Points Rights and Ceremonies accord with the Church of Ingland and Gelasius Campians hist of Ireland l. 2. c. 1. Primate of Ardmagh in the presence of King Hen. 2. gave his consent to those Articles And therefore I wonder what hath altered or hindered this our conformity with the Church of Ingland unless it be pride covetousness or ambition aviditas dominandi which are weeds fitter to be rooted out of Churchmens hearts than to be cherished in the Primates of Gods Church and which I verily believe are now far enough from the thoughts of our most grave and most religious Archbishops who as I hope will most easily yield to this conformity that neither the Bishops be so abridged in their Jurisdictions nor their Clergy so much oppressed in their Visitations as they have been Yet here I would not have my Reader to imagine that I speak for the ease or remittance of the Procurations Taxes or other Impositions of them that hold the Abbies Priories and Impropriate Rectories which they have for nothing and as it appears to me contrary to all divine right and therefore should pay the same continually every year to them that do the Service of God but I speak it only for the ease and benefit of the poor incumbent Rectors and Vicars that labour and take pains for the good of Gods people and for the saving of their souls that hold their means from them And if this may not be done to reduce the Government of the Church of Ireland to the same form and after the same manner as the Church of Ingland is governed yet that the Archbishops and Bishops should take special care to see that their Surrogates Chancellours and Deputies should not any waies to enrich their Friends Officers and Servants and to feast themselves oppress the poor Clergy and others the poor Servants and Officers of the Church of Christ I doubt not but the Bishops and the Archbishops are all just and merciful and tender-hearted towards all their inferiour Clergy and can no waies be justly blamed for the faults of their subordinate Officers or Deputies which they are ignorant of And I do profess without flattery and in the word of a Christian that my Lords Grace of Dublin in all that he did or said was so noble just and gracious towards those honest Clergy men whom his Archdeacon so severely trounced that the least shadow of the least blame cannot be laid upon him And I believe Archdeacon Bulkley would never have done what he did but to satisfie the mind and desire of a most unworthy person