of Grace where he reduceth the whole practice of Christianity unto three Heads of living Soberly justly and Godly This last directing our carriage towards God the midle most towards our Neighbour and the foremost towards our Selves Now since this is a direction for our whole Life it seems to me that we have no more to do at any time but to conn this Lesson more perfectly with some particular application of such parts of it as are most suitable to the present occasions And as to Sobriety first under which the Vertues of Humility Modesty Temperance Chastity and Contentedness are contained since this is a time wherein as the Prophet saith The Lord of Hosts calleth to weeping and mourning and pulling off the Hair and girding with Sack-cloth you shall by my advice conform your self to those that by the Hand of God suffer such things Let your apparel and Dress be mournful as I doubt not but that your Mind is your Dyet sparing and course rather than full and liberal frame your self to the indifferency whereof the Apostle speaketh In whatsoever state you shall be therewith to be content to be full and to be hungry to abound and to want Remember now that which is the Lot of others you know not how soon it may be your own Learn to despise and defie the vain and falsly called wealth of this World whereof you now see we have so casual and uncertain a possession This for Sobriety the first part of the Lesson pertaining to your self Now for Iustice which respects others and containeth the Vertues of Honour to Superiors discreet and equal government of Inferiors peaceableness to all Meekness Mercy just dealing in matters of getting and spending Gratitude Liberality just Speech and desires God's Judgments being in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World should learn Righteousness as the Prophet speaketh Call to mind therefore and bethink you if in any of these you have failed and turn your Feet to God's Testimonies certainly these times are such wherein you may be afflicted and say with the Psalmist Horrour hath taken hold of me and Rivers of Tears run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Laws Rebelling against Superiors Misleading not only by Example but by Compulsion Inferiors laying their Hand to them that were at peace with them unjustly spoiling and unthankfully requiting those that had shewed them kindness no Faith nor Truth in their Promises Judge by the way of the School that teacheth Christ thus are these his doings as for those that suffer I am well assured I shall not need to inform you or stir you up to mercy and compassion That which is done in this kind is done to Christ himself and shall be put upon account in your reckoning and rewarded accordingly at his glorious appearance The last and principal part of our Lesson remains which teacheth how to behave our selves Godly or religiously to this belong First the Duties of Gods inward Worship as Fear Love and Faith in God then outward as Invocation the holy use of his Word and Sacraments Name and Sabbaths The Apostle makes it the whole End and Work for which we were set in this World to seek the Lord yet in publick affliction we are specially invited thereto as it is written of Iehoshaphat when a great multitude came to invade him He set his Face to seek the Lord and called the people to a solemn fast So the Church professeth in the Prophet Isaiah In the way of thy Iudgments Lord we have waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee With my Soul have I desired thee in the Night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early In this publick Calamity therefore it is our duty to turn to him that smiteth us and to humble our selves under his mighty Hand to conceive a reverend and Religious fear towards him that only by turning away his countenance can thus trouble us against that of Man which can do no more but kill the Body Again to renew our love to our heavenly Father that now offereth himself to us as to Children and to give a proof of that Love that we bear to our Saviour in the keeping of his Sayings hating in comparison of him and competition with him Father Mother Children Goods and Life it self which is the condition and proof of his Disciples and above all to receive and to re-inforce our Faith and Affiance which is now brought unto the tryal of the fiery Furnace and of the Lions Den O that it might be found to our honour praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. In the mean space even now let us be partakers of Christ's Sufferings and hear him from Heaven encouraging us Be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Touching Prayer we have this gracious invitation Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee the example of all Gods Saints and of our Saviour in his agony to this belong the humble confession of our Sins with earnest request of Pardon the complaint of our Misery and danger with request of succour and protection we have besides the intercession of our Advocate with the Father the cry of the innocent Blood that hath been cruelly shed and the Lords own interesting himself in the cause so as we may say with the Psalmist Arise O God plead thine own cause remember how the foolish Man yea the Man of Sin reproacheth thee daily Forget not the voice of thine Enemies the tumult of those that rise against thee encreaseth continually That Psalm and many others as the 6 13 35 43 71 74 79 80 88 92 94 102 115 123 130 140 142. do give Precedents of Prayers in such times as these and the Prayer of Daniel and Ezra 9. of Asa and Iehoshaphat 2 Chron. 14. and 26.12 The Stories of David's flight before Absolom and Iehoshaphat's behaviour when the Enemies came against him of Hezekiah's in Sennacherib's Invasion Isa. 37. and the whole book of Esther are fit Scriptures now to be read that through the patience and comfort of them we might have hope Now because we know not how soon we may be called to sanctifie God's name by making profession thereof you may perhaps desire to know what to say in that day You may openly profess your not doubting of any Article of the Catholick Faith shortly laid down in the Creed or more largely laid down in the Holy Scriptures but that you consent not to certain Opinions which are no points of Faith which have been brought into common belief without warrant of Scriptures or pure Antiquity as Namely That it is of necessity to Salvation to be under the Pope That the Scriptures ought not to be read of the common people That the Doctrine of Holy Scripture is not sufficient to Salvation That the Service of God ought to be in a Language not understood of the people That
endanger both their own Souls and the Souls of their Flocks And to let them see that he would not lay a heavy Burthen on them in which he would not bear his own share he resolved to part with one of his Bishopricks For though Ardagh was considered as a ruined See and had long gone as an accessory to Kilmore and continues to be so still yet since they were really two different Sees he thought he could not decently oblige his Clergy to renounce their Pluralities unless he set them an example and renounced his own even after he had been at a considerable charge in recovering the Patrimony of Ardagh and though he was sufficiently able to discharge the duty of both these Sees they being contiguous and small and though the Revenue of both did not exceed a competency yet he would not seem to be guilty of that which he so severely condemned in others And therefore he resigned Ardagh to Dr. Richardson and so was now only Bishop of Kilmore The Authority of this example and the efficacy of his Discourse made such an impression on his Clergy that they all relinquished their Pluralities The Arguments that arise out of interest are generally much stronger than those of mere speculation how well soever it be made out and therefore this concurrence that he met with from his Clergy in so sensible a point was a great encouragement to him to go on in his other designs There seemed to be a Finger of God in it for he had no authority to compel them to it and he had managed the minds of his Clergy so gently in this matter that their compliance was not extorted but both free and unanimous For one only excepted they all submitted to it and he being Dean exchanged his Deanery with another for he was ashamed to live in the Diocess where he would not submit to such terms after both the Bishop himself and all his Clergy had agreed to them But the opposition that was given him by the Dean and both his sense of that matter and his carriage in it will appear from the following Letter which he writ concerning it to the Primate which though it be long and particular yet it seemed to me too important to be either stifled or abridged Most reverend Father my honourable good Lord I Cannot easily express what contentment I received at my late being with your Grace at Termonseckin There had nothing hapned to me I will not say since I came into Ireland but as far as I can call to remembrance in my whole life which did so much affect me in this kind as the hazzard of your good opinion For loving and honouring you in Truth for the truths sake which is in us and shall abide with us for ever without any private interest and receiving so unlookt for a blow from your own Hand which I expected should have tenderly applyed some remedy to me being smitten by others I had not present the defences of Reason and Grace And although I knew it to be a fault in my self since in the performance of our duties the Iudgment of our Master even alone ought to suffice us yet I could not be so much Master of mine Affections as to cast out this weakness But blessed be God who as I began to say at my being with you refreshed my Spirit by your kind renewing and confirming your love to me and all humble thanks to you that gave me place to make my Defence and took upon you the cognisance of mine innocency And as for mine Accuser whose hatred I have incurred only by not giving way to his covetous desire of heaping Living upon Living to the evident damage not only of other Souls committed to him but of his own truly I am glad and do give God Thanks that this malignity which a while masked it self in the pretence of friendship hath at last discovered it self by publick opposition It hath not and I hope it shall not be in his power to hurt me at all he hath rather shamed himself and although his high Heart cannot give his Tongue leave to acknowledge his folly his Vnderstanding is not so weak and blind as not to see it Whom I could be very well content to leave to tast the Fruit of it also without being further troublesome to your Grace save that I do not despair but your Grace's Authority will pull him out of the snare of Satan whose instrument he hath been to cross the Work of God and give me more occasion of joy by his amendment than I had grief by his perversion and opposition Your Grace's Letters of Aug. 23. were not delivered to me till the 29th In the mean space what effect those that accompanied them had with Mr. Dean you shall perceive by the inclosed which were sent me the 28th the Evening before our Communion I answered them the next Morning as is here annexed As I was at the Lord's Table beginning the service of the Communion before the Sermon he came in and after the Sermon was done those that communicated not being departed he stood forth and spake to this purpose That whereas the Book of Common Prayer requires That before the Lord's Supper if there be any variance or breach of charity there should be reconciliation this was much more requisite between Ministers And because they all knew that there had been some difference between me and him he did profess That he bare me no malice nor hatred and if he had offended me in any thing he was sorry I answered That he had good reason to be sorry considering how he had behaved himself For my part I bare him no malice and if it were in my power would not make so much as his Finger ake Grieved I had been that he in whom I knew there were many good Parts would become an instrument to oppose the Work of God which I was assured he had called me to This was all that passed He offered himself to the Lord's Board and I gave him the Communion After Dinner he preached out of 1 Joh. 4.10 And this Commandment have we from him that he that loveth God c. When we came out of the Church Dr. Sheriden delivered me your Grace's Letters And thus Mr. Dean thinks he hath healed all as you may perceive by his next Letters of August 30. Only he labours about Kildromfarten Whereabouts I purposed to have spoken with your Grace at my being with you but I know not how it came not to my mind whether it be that the Soul as well as the body after some travel easily falleth to rest or else God would have it reserved perhaps to a more seasonable time It is now above a Twelvemonth the Day in many respects I may well wish that it may not be reckoned with the dayes of the year that your Grace as it were delivered to me with your own Hands Mr. Crian a converted Fryer To whom I offered my self as largely as
God to your Grace's Censure ready to make him satisfaction if in any things in word or deed I have wronged him For conclusion of this business wherein I am sorry to be so troublesome to your Grace let him surcease this his greedy and impudent pretence to this Benefice let Mr. Nugent be admitted to it or Mr. Crian if he be not yet provided for To whom I will hope ere long to add Mr. Nugent for a Neighbour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If these second questionless better thoughts have any place in him as in his last Letters he gives some hope let my complaints against him be cast into the Fire God make him an humble and modest Man But if Mr. Dean will needs persist I beseech your Grace to view my Reply to the which I will add no more As touching his traducing me in your Pulpit at Cavan I have sent your Grace the Testimonies of Mr. Robinson and Mr. Teate although he had been with them before and denied what they formerly conceived And if your Grace will be pleased to enquire of Mr. Cape by a line or two with whom I never spake Word about the matter or compare the Heads of his Sermon which he saith were general with his former Reports made of me I doubt not but you will soon find the truth I have sent also his Protestation against my Visitation wherein I desire your Grace to observe the blindness of Malice He pretends that I may not visit but at or after Michaelmas every Year As if the Month of July wherein I visited were not after Michaelmas For before the last Michaelmas I visited not I omit that he calls himself the Head of the Chapter The Canon Law calls the Bishop so he will have the Bishop visit the whole Diocess together directly contrary to that Form which the Canons prescribe But this Protestation having neither Latin nor Law nor common Sense doth declare the skill of him that drew it and the Wit of him that uses it which if your Grace injoyn him not to revoke it I shall be inforced to put remedy unto otherwise in respect of the evil example and prejudice it might bring to posterity And now to leave this unpleasing subject Since my being with you here was with me Mr. Brady bringing with him the resignation of the Benefice of Mullagh which I had conferred upon Mr. Dunsterville and united to his former of Moybolke He brought with him Letters from my Lord of Cork and Sir William Parsons to whom he is allied But examining him I found him besides a very raw Divine unable to read the Irish and therefore excused my self to the Lords for admitting him A few Dayes after viz. the 10th of this Month here was with me Mr. Dunsterville himself and signified unto me that he had revoked his former Resignation Thus he playes fast and loose and most unconscionably neglects his duty Omnes quae sua sunt quaerunt Indeed I doubted his Resignation was not good in as much as he retained still the former Benefice whereunto this was united Now I see clearly there was a compact between him and Mr Brady that if the second could not be admitted he should resume his Benefice again I have received Letters from Mr. Dr. Warde of the Date of May 28. in which he mentions again the point of the justification of Infants by Baptism To whom I have written an answer but not yet sent it I send herewith a Copy thereof to your Grace humbly requiring your advice and censure if it be not too much to your Grace's trouble before I send it I have also written an answer to Dr. Richardson in the question touching the root of Efficacy or Efficiency of Grace but it is long and consists of 5. or 6. sheets of Paper so as I cannot now send it I shall hereafter submit it as all other my endeavours to your Grace's censure and correction I have received also a large answer from my Lord of Derry touching justifying Faith whereto I have not yet had time to reply nor do I know if it be worth the labour the difference being but in the manner of teaching As whether justifying Faith be an assent working affiance or else an affiance following Assent I wrote presently upon my return from your Grace to my Lords Iustices desiring to be excused from going in person to take possession of the Mass-House and a Certificate that my suit with Mr. Cook is depending before them I have not as yet received answer by reason as Sir William Usher signified to my Son the Lord Chancellor's indisposition did not permit his hand to be gotten I do scarce hope to receive any Certificate from them for the respect they will have not to seem to infringe your Grace's Iurisdiction Whereupon I shall be inforced to entertain a Proctor for me at your Grace's Court when I am next to appear it being the very time when my Court in the County of Leatrym was set before I was with you Ashamed I am to be thus tedious But I hope you will pardon me sith you required and I promised to write often and having now had opportunity to convey my Letters this must serve in stead of many Concluding with mine and my Wives humble service to your Grace and Mrs. Usher and thanks for my kind entertainment I desire the blessing of your Prayers and remain alwayes Your Grace's humble Servant Will. Kilmore Ardagh Kilmore Sept. 18. 1630. The condemning Pluralities was but the half of his Project The next part of it was to oblige his Clergy to reside in their Parishes but in this he met with a great difficulty King Iames upon the last reduction of Vlster after Tyrone's Rebellion had ordered Glebe-lands to be assigned to all the Clergy And they were obliged to build Houses upon them within a limited time but in assigning those Glebe-lands the Commissioners that were appointed to execute the Kings Orders had taken no care of the conveniences of the Clergy For in many places these Lands were not within the Parish and often they lay not all together but were divided in parcells So he found his Clergy were in a strait For if they built Houses upon these Glebe-lands they would be thereby forced to live out of their Parishes and it was very inconvenient for them to have their Houses remote from their Lands In order to a remedy to this the Bishop that had Lands in every Parish assigned him resolved to make an exchange with them and to take their Glebe-lands into his own hands for more convenient portions of equal value that he assigned them and that the exchange might be made upon a just estimate so that neither the Bishop nor the inferiour Clergy might suffer by it he procured a Commission from the Lord Lieutenant for some to examine and settle that matter which was at last brought to a conclusion with so universal a satisfaction to his whole Diocess that since the thing
could not be finally determined without a Great Seal from the King confirming all that was done there was One sent over in all their names to obtain it but this was a work of time and so could not be finished in several Years and the Rebellion broke out before it was fully concluded The Lord Lieutenant at this time was Sir Thomas Wentworth afterwards Earl of Strafford a name too great to need any enlargement or explanation for his Character is well known At his first coming over to Ireland he was possessed with prejudices against the Bishop upon the account of a Petition sent up by the County of Cavan to which the Bishop had set his hand in which some complaints were made and some regulations were proposed for the Army Which was thought an insolent attempt and a matter of ill example So that Strafford who was severe in his administration was highly displeased with him And when any Commission or Order was brought to him in which he found his name he dashed it out with his own Pen and expressed great indignation against him When the Bishop understood this he was not much moved at it knowing his own innocence but he took prudent methods to overcome his displeasure He did not go to Dublin upon his coming over as all the other Bishops did to congratulate his coming to the Government but he writ a full account of that matter to his constant Friend Sir Thomas Iermin who managed it with so much zeal that Letters were sent to the Deputy from the Court by which he was so much mollified towards the Bishop that he going to congratulate was well received and was ever afterwards treated by him with a very particular kindness So this Storm went over which many thought would have ended in imprisonment if not in deprivation Yet how much soever that Petition was mistaken he made it appear very plain that he did not design the putting down of the Army For he saw too evidently the danger they were in from Popery to think they could be long safe without it But a Letter that contains his vindication from that aspersion carries in it likewise such a representation of the state of the Popish interest then in Ireland and of their numbers their tempers and their principles that I will set it down It was written to the Archbishop of Canterbury and is taken from the printed copy of it that Mr. Prynne has given us Right Honourable my very good Lord IN the midst of these thoughts I have been advertized from an honourable Friend in England that I am accused to his Majesty to have opposed his service and that my hand with two other Bishops only was to a Writing touching the Money to be levied on the Papists for maintenance of the Men of War Indeed if I should have had such an intention this had been not only to oppose the service of his Majesty but to expose with the publick peace mine own Neck to the Skeans of the Romish Cut-throats I that know that in this Kingdom of his Majesties the Pope hath another Kingdom far greater in number and as I have heretofore signified to the Lord Iustices and Council which is also since justified by themselves in Print constantly guided and directed by the Orders of the new Congregation De propaganda Fide lately erected at Rome transmitted by the means of the Popes Nuntio's residing at Brussells or Paris that the Pope hath here a Clergy if I may guess by my own Diocess double in number to us the heads whereof are by corporal Oath bound to him to maintain him and his regalities contra omnem hominem and to execute his Mandates to the uttermost of their Forces which accordingly they do stiling themselves in Print Ego N. Dei Apostolicae Sedis gratia Episcopus Fermien Ossorien I that knâ—w there is in the Kingdom for the moulding of the people to the Popes obedience a rabble of irregular Regulars commonly younger Brothers of good Houses who are grown to that insolency as to advance themselves to be members of he Ecclesiastical Hierarchy in better ranks than Priests in so much that the censure of the Sorbon is fain to be implored to curb them which yet is called in again so tender is the Pope of his own Creatures I that know that his Holiness hath erected a new Vniversity in Dublin to confront his Majesties Colledge there and to breed the youth of the Kingdom to his Devotion of which Vniversity one Paul Harris the Author of that infamous libel which was put forth in Print against my Lord Armach's Wansted Sermon stileth himself in Print to be Dean I that know and have given advertisements to the State that these Regulars dare erect new Fryeries in the Countrey since the dissolving of those in the City that they have brought the people to such a sottish senselesness as they care not to learn the Commandments as God himself spake and writ them but they flock in great numbers to the preaching of new superstitioâ—s and detestable Doctrines such as their own Priests are ashamed of and at all those they levy Collections Three Four Five or Six Pounds at a Sermon Shortly I that knâ—w that those Regulars and this Clergy have at a general meeting like to a Synod as themselves stile it decreed That it is not lawful to take the Oath of Allegiance and if they be constant to their own Doctrine do account his Majesty in their Hearts to be King but at the Popes discretion In this estate of this Kingdom to think the Bridle of the Army may be taken away should be the thought not of a brain-sick but of a brainless Man The day of our deliverance from the Popish Powder Plot Anno 1633. Your Lordsship's in all Duty Will. Kilmore By his cutting off Pluralities there fell to be many Vacancies in his Diocess so the care he took to fill these comes to be considered in the next place He was very strict in his Examinations before he gave Orders to any He went over the Articles of the Church of Ireland so particularly and exactly that one who was present at the Ordination of him that was afterwards his Arch-Deacon Mr. Thomas Price reported that though he was one of the Senior Fellows of the Colledge of Dublin when the Bishop was Provost yet his Examination held two full Hours And when he had ended any examination which was alwayes done in the presence of his Clergy he desired every Clergy-Man that was present to examine the person further if they thought that any material thing was omitted by him by which a fuller discovery of his temper and sufficiency might be made When all was ended he made all his Clergy give their approbation before he would proceed to Ordination For he would never assume that singly to himself nor take the Load of it wholly on his own Soul He took also great care to be well informed of the moral and
more a grievâ—nce to the Countrey none were now grieved by it but the Chancellour and the other Officers of the Court who saw their Trade was sunk and their Profits were falling and were already displeased with the Bishop for writing the Titles to Benefices himself taking that part of their Gain out of their Hands Therefore the Lay Chancellour brought a Suit against the Bishop into Chancery for invading his Office The matter was now a common Cause the other Bishops were glad at this step our Bishop had made and encouraged him to go on resolutely in it and assured him they would stand by him and they confessed they were but half Bishops till they could recover their authority out of the hands of their Chancellours But on the other hand all the Chancellours and Registers of Ireland combined together they saw this struck at those Places which they had bought valuing them according to the Profits that they could make by them and it cannot be denyed but they had reason to move That if their places were regulated the Money by which they had purchased that right to squeeze the Countrey ought to have been restored The Bishop desired that he might be suffered to plead his own Cause himself but that was denyed him which he took ill But he drew the Argument that his Council made for him for it being the first Suit that ever was of that sort he was more capable of composing his Defence than his Councel could be He went upon these Grounds That one of the most essential parts of a Bishop's duty was to govern his Flock and to inflict the Spiritual Censures on obstinate Offenders That a Bishop could no more delegate this power to a Lay-man than he could delegate a power to Baptize or Ordain since Excommunication and other Censures were a suspending the Rights of Baptism and Orders and therefore the judging of these things could only belong to him that had the power to give them and that the delegating that power was a thing null of it self He shewed That feeding the Flock was inherent and inseparable from a Bishop and that no Delegation he could make could take that power from himself since all the effect it could have was to make another his Officer and Deputy in his absence From this he went to shew how it had been ever lookt on as a necessary part of the Bishop's Duty to Examine and Censure the Scandals of his Clergy and Laity in Ancient and Modern times That the Roman Emperours had by many Laws supported the Credit and Authority of these Courts that since the practices of the Court of Rome had brought in such a variety of Rules for covering the corruptions which they intended to support then that which is in it self a plain and simple thing was made very intricate So that the Canon Law was become a great study and upon this account Bishops had taken Civilians and Canonists to be their Assistants in those Courts but this could be for no other end but only to inform them in points of Law or to hear and prepare matters for them For the giving Sentence as it is done in the Bishops name so it is really his Office and is that for which he is accountable both to God and Man and since the Law made those to be the Bishops Courts and since the King had by Patent confirmed that Authority which was lodged in him by his Office of governing those Courts he thought all Delegations that were absolute and exclusive of the Bishop ought to be declared void The Reader will perhaps judge better of the force of this Argument than the Lord Chancellour of Ireland Bolton did who confirmed the Chancellours right and gave him an hundred Pound Costs of the Bishop But when the Bishop asked him How he came to make so unjust a Decree he answered That all that his Father had left him was a Register's place so he thought he was bound to support those Courts which he saw would be ruined if the way he took had not been checkt This my Author had from the Bishop's own mouth But as this matter was a leading Case so great pains were taken to possess the Primate against the Bishop but his Letters will best discover the Grounds on which he went and that noble temper of mind that supported him in so great an undertaking The one is long but I will not shorten it Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord I Have receiv'd your Grace's Letters concerning Mr. Cook and I do acknowledge all that your Grace writes to be true concerning his sufficiency and experience to the execution of the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction neither did I forbear to do him right in giving him that Testimony when before the Chapter I did declare and shew the nullity of his Patent I have heard of my Lord of attempt and I do believe That if this Patent had due form I could not overthrow it how unequal soever it be But failing in the essential parts besides sundry other defects I do not think any reasonable creature can adjudge it to be good I shall more at large certifie your Grace of the whole matter and the reasons of my Councel herein I shall desire herein to be tryed by your Grace's own Iudgment and not by your Chancellors or as I think in such a case I ought to be by the Synod of the Province I have resolved to see the end of this matter and do desire your Grace's favour herein no farther than the equity of the Cause and the good as far as I can judge of our Church in a high degree do require So with my humble Service to your Grace and respectful commendations to Mrs. Usher I rest Kilmore Octob. 28. 1629. Your Grace's in all duty Will. Kilmore Most reverend Father my honourable good Lord THe report of your Grace's indisposition how sorrowful it was to me the Lord knows Albeit the same was somewhat mitigated by other News of your better estate In that fluctuation of my mind perhaps like that of your health the Saying of the Apostle served me for an Anchor That none of us liveth to himself neither doth any dye to himself For whether we live we live to the Lord or whether we dye we dye to the Lord. Whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords Thereupon from the bottom of my Heart commending your estate and that of the Church here which how much it needs you He knows best to our common Master though I had written large Letters to you which have lain by me sundry Weeks fearing in your sickness to be troublesome I thought not to send them but to attend some other opportunity after your present recovery to send or perhaps bring them When I understood by Mr. Dean of his journey or at least sending an express Messenger to you with other Letters putting me also in mind That perhaps it would not be unwelcome to you to hear from me though
Mr. King's silliness which it concerns me the more to clear him of that I be not accounted silly my self I beseech your Lordship to take information not by them which never saw him till yesterday but by the ancient either Church or Statesmen of this Kingdom in whose eyes he hath lived these many Years as are the Lord Primate The Bishop of Meath the Lord Dillon Sir James Ware and the like I doubt not but your Lordship shall understand that there is no such danger that the Translation should be unworthy because he did it being a Man of that known sufficiency for the Irish especially either in Prose or Verse as few are his matches in the Kingdom And shortly not to argue by conjecture and divination Let the Work it self speak yea let it be examined rigoroso examine If it be found approveable let it not suffer disgrace from the small boast of the Workman but let him rather as old Sophocles accused of dotage be absolved for the sufficiency of the Work Touching his being obnoxious it is true that there is a scandalous Information put in against him in the High Commission Court by his despoiler Mr. Baily as my Lord of Derry told him in my hearing he was and by an excommunicate despoiler as my self before the Execution of any sentence declar'd him in the Court to be And Mr. King being cited to answer and not appearing as by Law he was not bound was taken pro confesso deprived of his Ministry and Living Fined an hundred Pound Decreed to be attached and imprisoned His Adversary Mr. Baily before he was sentenced purchased a new Dispensation to hold his Benefice and was the very next day after as appears by the date of the Institution both presented in the King's Title although the Benefice be of my Collation and instituted by my Lord Primate's Vicar Shortly after inducted by an Archdeacon of another Diocess and a few dayes after he brought down an Attachment and delivered Mr. King to the Pursevant He was haled by the Head and Feet to Horseback and brought to Dublin where he hath been kept and continued under Arrest these four or five Months and hath not been suffered to purge his supposed Contempt by Oath and Witnesses that by reason of his sickness he was hindered whereby he was brought to Death's Door and could not appear and prosecute his defence And that by the cunning of his Adversary he was circumvented intreating that he might be restored to liberty and his cause into the former estate But it hath not availed him my Reverend Colleagues of the High Commission do some of them pity his Case others say the Sentence past cannot be reversed lest the credit of the Court be attached They bid him simply submit himself and acknowledge his Sentence just Whereas the Bishops of Rome themselves after most formal proceedings do grant restitution in integrum and acknowledge That Sententia Romanae Sedis potest in melius commutari My Lord if I understand what is Right Divine or humane these be wrongs upon wrongs which if they reached only to Mr. King's person were of less consideration but when through his side That great Work the Translation of God's Book so necessary for both his Majesty's Kingdoms is mortally wounded pardon me I beseech your Lordship if I be sensible of it I omit to consider what feast our adversaries make of our rewarding him thus for that service or what this example will avail to the alluring of others to conformity What should your Lordship have gained if he had dyed as it was almost a miracle he did not under Arrest and had been at once deprived of Living Liberty and Life God hath reprieved him and given your Lordship means upon right information to remedy with one word all inconveniencies For conclusion good my Lord give me leave a little to apply the Parable of Nathan to King David to this purpose If the way-faring man that is come to us for such he is having never yet been settled in one place have so sharp a Stomach that he must be provided for with Pluralities sith there are Herds and Flocks plenty suffer him not I beseech you under the colour of the King's name to take the coset Ewe of a poor Man to satisfie his ravenous appetite So I beseech the Heavenly Physician to give your Lordship health of Soul and Body I rest My Lord Your Lordship 's most humble servant in Christ Jesus Will. Kilmore Decemb. 1. 1638. By these practices was the printing of the Bible in Irish stopt at that time but if the Rebellion had not prevented our Bishop he was resolved to have had it done in his own House and at his own charge and as preparatory to that he made some of Chrysostome's Homilies the three first upon the parable of the rich Man and Lazarus together with some of Leo's all which tended chiefly to commend the Scriptures in the highest strains of Eloquence that were possible to be translated both into English and Irish and reprinting his Catechism he added these to it in both Languages and these were very well received even by the Priests and Friers themselves He lived not to finish this great design yet notwithstanding the Rebellion and confusion that followed in Ireland the Manuscript of the Translation of the Bible escaped the storm and falling into good Hands it is at this time under the Press and is carried on chiefly by the zeal and at the charge of that Noble Christian Philosopher Mr. Boyle who as he reprinted upon his own charge the new Testament so he very cheerfully went into a Proposition for reprinting the Old But this is only one of many instances by which he has expressed as well his great and active zeal for carrying on the true interest of Religion as by his other publick labours he has advanced and improved Philosophy But to go on with the concerns of our Bishop as he had great zeal for the purity of the Christian Religion in opposition to the corruptions of the Church of Rome so he was very moderate in all other matters that were not of such importance He was a great supporter of Mr. Dury's design of reconciling the Lutherans and the Calvinists and as he directed him by many learned and prudent Letters that he wrote to him on that subject so he allowed him 20 l. a year in order to the discharging the expence of that negotiation which he payed punctually to his Correspondent at London And it appeared by his managing of a business that fell out in Ireland That if all that were concerned in that matter had been blest with such an understanding and such a temper as he had there had been no reason to have despaired of it There came a company of Lutherans to Dublin who were afraid of joyning in Communion with the Church of Ireland and when they were cited to answer for it to the Archbishop's Consistory they desired some time might be
print and was published by Dr. Bernard the Text is that of the Revelation 18.4 Come out of her Babylon my people And the design of it is to prove that the See of Rome is the Babylon meant in that Text but in this he mixes an Apology for some that were in that Communion and I doubt not but he had his Friend P. Paulo in his thoughts when he spoke it The passage is remarkable and therefore I will set it down WHerein observe first he calls his people to come out of Babylon a plain Argument that there are many not only good Moral and Civil honest Men there but good Christians not redeemed only but in the possession of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which may be confirmed by these reasons First There is amongst these that are under the tyranny of the Romish Babylon the Sacrament of entrance into the Covenant of Grace Baptism by which those that are partakers thereof are made Members of Christ the Children of God and Heirs of Eternal Life And these that have but this Seal of God's Covenant viz. Infants are no small and contemptible part of God's people though as yet they cannot hear this Voice of Christ calling out of Babylon besides this there is a publication of the tenure of the Covenant of Grace to such as are of Years though not so openly and purely as it might and ought yet so as the grounds of the Catechisme are preached sin is shewed Christ's redemption or the Story of it is known Faith in him is called for and this Faith is by the Grace of God wrought in some For the Word of God and his Calling is not fruitless but like the rain returneth not in vain and where true Faith is Men are translated from death to life he that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life Some Men perhaps may object the Faith which they describe and call by this name of Catholick Faith is none other but such as the Devils may have I answer Religion is not Logick He that cannot give a true definition of the Soul is not for that without a Soul so he that defines not Faith truly yet may have true Faith Learned Divines are not all of accord touching the definition of it But if as by the whole stream of the Scripture it should seem it be a trust and cleaving unto God this Faith many there have the Love of our Lord Iesus Christ is wrought in many there now he that loveth Christ is loved of him and of the Father also and because the proof of true love to Christ is the keeping of his Sayings there are good Works and according to the measure of knowledg great conscience of obedience Yea will some Man say But that which marreth all is the Opinion of merit and satisfaction Indeed that is the School Doctrine but the Conscience enlightned to know it self will easily act that part of the Publican who smote his Breast and said God be merciful to me a sinner I remember a good advice of one of that side Let others saith he that have committed few sins and done many good works satisfie for their sins But whatsoever thou dost refer it to the Honour of God so as whatsoever good come from thee thou resolve to do it to please God accounting thy works too little to satisfie for thy sins For as for thy sins thou must offer Christ's Works his Pains and Wounds and his death it self to him together with that love of his out of which he endured these things for thee These are available for the satisfaction for thy sins But thou whatsoever thou dost or sufferest offer it not for thy sins to God for but his love and good pleasure wishing to find the more grace with him whereby thou mayest do more greater and more acceptable Works to him let the love of God then be to thee the cause of well-living and the hope of well-working Thus he and I doubt not but many there be on that side that follow this counsel herewith I shall relate the Speech of a wise and discreet Gentleman my neighbour in England who lived and dyed a Recusant he demanded one time What was the worst Opinion that we could impute to the Church of Rome It was said There was none more than this of our merits And that Cardinal Bellarmine not only doth uphold them but saith we may trust in them so it be done soberly and saith they deserve Eternal life not only in respect of God's Promises and Covenant but also in regard of the Work it self Whereupon he answered Bellarmine was a learned Man and could perhaps defend what he wrote by learning But for his part he trusted to be saved only by the merits of his Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ and as for good Works he would do all that he could Et valeant quantum valere possint To proceed In or under the Obedience of Rome there is Persecution and that is a better mark of Christ's people then Bellarmine's Temporal felicity All that will live godly in Christ Iesus saith the Apostle shall suffer persecution ye shall be hated of all Men for my Names sake saith our Saviour and so are all they on that side that are less superstitious than others or dare speak of redress of abuses yea there is Martyrdome for a free opposing Mens Traditions Image-worshippers Purgatory and the like Add That in obedience to this call of Christ there do some come daily from thence and in truth how could our Saviour call his people from thence if he had none there How could the Apostles say that Antichrist from whose captivity they are called shall sit in the Temple of God since that Ierusalem is finally and utterly desolated unless the same Apostle otherwhere declaring himself had shewed us his meaning that the Church is the House of God and again ye are the Temple of the living God and the Temple of God is Holy which are ye It will be said that there are on that side many gross errors many open Idolatries and Superstitions so as those which live there must needs be either partakers of them and like minded or else very Hypocrites But many errours and much ignorance so it be not affected may stand with true Faith in Christ and when there is true Contrition for one sin that is because it displeaseth God there is a general and implicite repentance for all unknown sins God's Providence in the general revolt of the ten Tribes when Elias thought himself left alone had reserved seven thousand that had not bowed to the Image of Baal and the like may be conceived here since especially the Idolatry practised under the obedience of Mystical Babylon is rather in false and will-worship of the true God and rather commended as profitable than enjoyned as absolutely necessary and the corruptions there maintained are rather in a superfluous addition than retraction in any thing necessary
fearfulest Blindness of Mind and strong delusions to believe Lyes that they may be damned that believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness But you hope better things of them accompanying Salvation and this Message of our Lord Jesus Christ if you will be pleased to deliver accompanying it with those General and common goods of Charity and Meekness Integrity good Example and the special furtherance which your Callings and Places in State Church or Family can give it doubtless to Christs people it will not be uneffectual Blessed be God that hath long ago stirred up the Spirits of our Princes like Cyrus to give liberty to God's People to go out of Babylon and to give large Patents with Darius and Artaxerxes for the building of the Temple and establishing the Service of God And blessed be God and his Majesty that hath sent us another Nehemiah to build up the Walls of Jerusalem and to procure that the Portion of the Levites should be given them Give me leave Right Honourable to put you in mind That this also belongeth to your Care to cooperate with Christ in bringing his People out of the Romish Captivity And if to help away a poor Captive out of Turky hath been Honourable to some Publick Ministers What shall it be to help to the enlarging of so many thousand Souls out of the bondage of Mens Traditions and gaining to his Majesty so many entire Subjects Your wisdom my Lord is such as it needeth not to be advised and your Zeal as it needeth not to to be stired up yet pardon me one Word for the purpose of helping Christ's People out of Babylon They are called by himself often in Scripture His Sheep and verily as in many other so in this they are like to Sheep which being cooped up in a narrow Pent though they find some pressure and the Passage be set open are not forward to come out unless they be put on but strain Courtesie which should begin yet when they are once out with a joyful frisk they exult in their Freedome yea and when a few of the foremost lead the rest follow I shall not need to make Application Do according to your wisdom in your place and Christ whose Work it is shall be with you and further your endeavours The like I say unto you the rest of my Lords Fathers and Brethren help your Friends Followers and Tenants out of Babylon what you may in your places you have the Examples of Abraham Ioshua Cornelius praised in Scripture for propagating the Knowledge and Fear of God in their Families and Commands with the report of God's accepting it and rewarding it and this to the use of others But shall you not carry away something for your selves also yes verily take to your selves this Voyce of our Saviour Come out of Babylon you will say we have done it already God be thanked we are good Christians good Protestants some of us Preachers and that call upon others to come out of Babylon But if S. Paul prayed the converted Corinthians to be reconciled to God And S. Iohn writing to Believers sets down the Record of God touching his Son That they might believe in the Name of the Son of God Why may not I exhort in Christ's Name and Words even those that are come out of Babylon to come out of her Qui monet ut fâ—â—ias c. He that perswades another to that which he doth already in perswading incourageth him and puts him on in his performance but if there be any yet unresolved and halting or hanging between two as the people did in Elias time that present their bodies at such meetings as this is when their hearts are perhaps at Rome or no where If any are in some points rightly informed and cleared and in others doubtful to such Christ speaks Come out of her my people press on by Prayer Conference Reading if Christ's Voyce be to be heard If Rome be Babylon Come out of her And let it be spoken with as little offence as it is delight we that seem to be the forwardest in Reformation are not yet so come out of Babylon as that we have not many shameful badges of her Captivity witness her Impropriations being indeed plain Church-robberies devised to maintain her Colonies of idle and irregular Regulars idle to the Church and State zealous and pragmatical to support and defend her power pomp and pride by whom they subsisted witness her Dispensations or dissipations rather of all Canonical Orders bearing down all with her Non obstante her Symoniacal and Sacrilegious Venality of holy things her manifold Extortions in the exercise of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction which we have not wholly banished Let each of us therefore account it as spoken to himself Come out of her my people In this Journey let us not trouble and cast stumbling blocks before God's people that are ready to come out or hinder one another with Dissentions in matters either inexplicable or unprofitable Let it have some pardon if some be even so forward in flying from Babylon as they fear to go back to take their own goods for haste and let it not be blamed or uncharitably censured if some come in the Rear and would leave none of Christ's people behind them No man reacheth his hand to another whom he would lift out of a Ditch but he stoops to him Our ends immediate are not the same but yet they meet in one final intention The one hates Babylon and the other loves and pities Christ's people The one believes the Angel that cast the Milstone into the Sea in the end of this Chapter with that Word so shall Babylon rise no more The other fears the threatning of our Saviour against such as scandalize any of the little ones believing in him that it is better for such a one to have a Milstone hanged upon his neck and be cast into the Sea himself Finally let us all beseech our Lord Iesus Christ to give us Wisdom and opportunity to further his work and to give success unto the same himself to hasten the judgment of Babylon to bring his people out of this bondage that we with them and all his Saints in the Church Triumphant may thereupon sing a joyful Hallelujah as is expressed in the next Chapter Salvation and Honour and Glory and Power be unto the LORD our GOD Amen Hallelujah He preached very often in his Episcopal habit but not alwayes and used it seldome in the Afternoon nor did he love the pomp of a Quire nor Instrumental Musick which he thought filled the ear with too much pleasure and carried away the mind from the serious attention to the matter which is indeed the singing with grace in the Heart and the inward melody with which God is chiefly pleased And when another Bishop justified these things because they served much to raise the affections he answered That in order to the raising
the Communion should not be adminstred to them in both kinds That the Bread in the Lord's Supper is transubstantiated into his Body That he is there sacrificed for the quick and the dead That there is any Purgatory besides Christ's Blood That our good Words can merit Heaven That the Saints hear our Prayers and know our Hearts That Images are to be worshipped That the Pope is Infallible and can command Angels That we ought to pray to the Dead and for the Dead In all these notwithstanding you may profess your teachableness if by sound Reasons out of God's Word you shall be convinced of the truth of them And because we know not how far it will please God to call us to make resistance against sin whether unto Blood it self or no it shall be Wisdom for us to prepare our selves to the last care of a godly life which is to dye Godly This the Apostle Paul calleth Sleeping in Iesus implying thereby our Faith in him our being found in his Work and our committing our Souls into his Hands with peace such a sweet and Heavenly Sleep was that of S. Stephen whose last Words for himself were Lord Iesus receive my Spirit and for his Tormentors Lord lay not this sin to their charge wherewith I will end this Writing and wish to end my life when the will of God shall be to whose gracious protection dear Sister I do heartily commit you November 23. 1641. These Advices shew in what temper that holy Man was in this his extremity They had a very good effect on the Lady for as by reading them over very often she got to be able to say them all without Book so she did that which was much more she lodged them in her heart as well as in her memory While this good Man was now every day waiting fâ—r his Crown the Rebells sent to him desiring him to dismiss the company that was about him but he refused to obey their cruel order and he resolved to live and dye with them and would much more willingly have offered himself to have dyed for them than have accepted of any favour for himself from which they should be shut out And when they sent him word That though they loved and honoured him beyond all the English that ever came into Ireland because he had never done wrong to any but good to many yet they had received orders from the Council of State at Kilkenny that had assumed the government of the Rebells that if he would not put away the people that had gathered about him they should take him from them he said no more but in the Words of David and S. Paul Here I am the Lord do unto me as seems good to him the will of the Lord be done So on the eighteenth of December they came and seized on him and on all that belonged to him and carried him and his two Sons and Mr. Clogy prisoners to the Castle of Lochwater the only place of strength in the whole County It was a little Tower in the midst of a Lake about a Musquet shot from any Shoar And though there had bâ—â—n a little Island about it anciently yet the Water had so gained on it that there was not a foot of Ground above Water but only the Tower it self They suffered the Prisoners to carry nothing with them for the Titular Bishop took possession of all that belonged to the Bishop and said Mass the next Lords day in the Church They set the Bishop on Horseback and made the other Prisoners go on foot by him And thus he was lodged in this Castle that was a most miserable dwelling The Castle had been in the hands of one Mr. Cullum who as he had the keeping of the Fort trusted to him so he had a good allowance for a Magazine to be laid up in it for the defence of the Country But he had not a pound of Powder nor one fixt Musquet in it and he fell under the just punishment of the neglect of his trust for he was taken the first day of the Rebellion and was himself made a prisoner here All but the Bishop were at first clapt into Irons for the Irish that were perpetually drunk were afraid lest they should seise both on them and on the Castle Yet it pleased God so far to abate their fury that they took off their Irons and gave them no disturbance in the Worship of God which was now all the comfort that was left them The House was extreamly open to the weather and ruinous and as the place was bare and exposed so that Winter was very severe which was a great addition to the misery of those that the Rebels had stript naked leaving to many not so much as a Garment to cover their nakedness But it pleased God to bring another Prisoner to the same Dungeon that was of great use to them one Richard Castledine who had come over a poor Carpenter to Ireland with nothing but his Tools on his back and was first imployed by one Sir Richard Waldron in the carpentry work of a Castle that he was building in the Parish of Cavan But Sir Richard wasting his Estate before he had finished his House and afterwards leaving Ireland God had so blest the industry of this Castledine during Thirty years labour that he bought this Estate and having only Daughters he married one of them out of gratitude to Sir Richard's youngest Son to whom he intended to have given the Estate that was his Fathers He was a Man of great vertue and abounded in good Works as well as in exemplary Piety he was so good a Husband that the Irish believed he was very rich so they preserved him hoping to draw a great deal of Money from him He being brought to this miserable Prison got some Tools and old Boards and fitted them up as well as was possible to keep out the Weather The Keepers of the Prison brought their Prisoners abundance of Provision but left them to dress it for themselves which they that knew little what belonged to Cookery were glad to do in such a manner as might preserve their lives and were all of them much supported in their Spirits They did not suffer as evil doers and they were not ashamed of the Cross of Christ but rejoyced in God in the midst of all their afflictions and the old Bishop took joyfully the spoiling of his Goods and the restraint of his person comforting himself in this That these light afflictions would quickly work for him a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The day after his imprisonment being the Lord's day he preached to his little flock on the Epistle for the day which set before them the pattern of the humility and sufferings of Christ and on Christmas day he preached on Gal. 4.4 5. and administred the Sacrament to the small Congregation about him their Keepers having been so charitable as to furnish them with Bread and Wine And
on the 26 th of December Mr. William Bedell the Bishop's eldest Son preached on S. Stephen's last Words which afforded proper matter for their meditation who were every day in expectation when they should be put to give such a testimony of their Faith as that first Martyr had done And on the second of Ianuary which was the last Sunday of their imprisonment Mr. Clogy preached on S. Luke 2.32 33 34. During all their religious exercises their keepers never gave them any disturbance and indeed they carried so gently towards them that their natures seemed to be so much changed that it lookt like a second stopping the mouths of Lions They often told the Bishop that they had no personal quarrel to him and no other cause to be so severe to him but because he was an Englishman But while he was in this dismal Prison some of the Scots of that County that had retired to two Houses that were strong enough to resist any thing but Cannon and were commanded by Sir Iames Craig Sir Francis Hamilton and Sir Arthur Forker now Lord Grenard finding themselves like to suffer more by hunger than by the Siege that was laid to them made so resolute a Sally upon the Irâ—sh that they killed several took some Prisoners and dispersed the rest so that many Months passed before they offered to besiege them any more Among their Prisoners four were Men of considerable interest so they treated an exchange of them for the Bishop with his two Sons and Mr. Clogy which was concluded and the Prisoners were delivered on both sides on the 7 th of Ianuary but though the Irish promised to suffer the Bishop with the other three to go safe to Dublin yet they would not let them go out of the Country but intended to make further advantage by having them still among them and so they were suffered to go to the House of an Irish Minister Denis O Shereden to whom some respect was shewed by reason of his extraction though he had forsaken their Religion and had married an English Woman he continued firm in his Religion and relieved many in their extremity Here the Bishop spent the few remaining dayes of his Pilgrimage having his latter end so full in view that he seemed dead to the World and every thing in it and to be hasting for the coming of the Day of God During the last Sabbaths of his life though there were three Ministers present he read all the Prayers and Lessons himself and likewise preached on all those days On the 9 th of Ianuary he preached on the whole 44 th Psalm being the first of the Psalms appointed for that day and very suitable to the miseries the English were then in who were killed all day long as Sheep appointed for Meat Next Sabbath which was the 16 th he preached on the 79. Psalm the first Psalm for the day which runs much on the like Argument when the Temple was defiled and Ierusalem was laid on heaps and the dead Bodies of God's servants were given to be meat to the Fouls of Heaven and their Flesh to the Beasts of the Earth and their blood vvas shed like Water and there vvas none to bury them Their condition being so like one another it vvas very proper to put up that Prayer O remember not against us former iniquities Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low Together with the other Let the sighing of the Prisoner come before thee according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to dye On the 23 d. he preached on the last ten Verses of the 71. Psalm observing the great fitness that was in them to express his present condition especially in these Words O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto have I declared thy wonderous works now also when I am old and gray headed forsake me not And on the 30 th which was the last Lord's day in which he had strength enough to preach he preached on the 144. Psalm the first appointed for that day and when he came to the Words in the seventh Verse which are also repeated in the eleventh Verse Send thine hand from above rid me and deliver me out of great Waters from the hand of strange Children whose mouth speaketh vanity and whose right-hand is a right hand of falshood He repeated them again and again with so much zeal and affection that it appeared how much he was hasting to the day of God and that his Heart was crying out Come Lord Iesus come quickly how long how long and he dwelt so long upon them with so many sighs that all the little assembly about him melted into Tears and lookt on this as a presage of his approaching dissolution And it proved too true for the day after he sickned which on the second day after appeared to be an Ague and on the fourth day he apprehending his speedy change called for his Sons and his Sons Wives and spake to them at several times as near in these Words as their memories could serve them to write them down soon after I am going the way of all flesh I am now ready to be offered up and the time of my departure is at hand knowing therefore that shortly I must put off this Tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me I know also that if this my earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved I have a building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens a fair Mansion in the New Ierusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from my God Therefore to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain which encreaseth my desire even now to depart and to be with Christ which is far better than to continue here in all the transitory vain and false pleasures of this world of which I have seen an end Hearken therefore unto the last Words of your dying Father I am no more in this World but ye are in the World I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God through the all-sufficient merits of Jesus Christ my Redeemer who ever lives to make intercession for me who is a propitiation for all my sins and washed me from them all in his own Blood who is worthy to receive Glory and Honour and Power who hath created all things and for whose pleasure they are and were created My witness is in Heaven and my record on high That I have endeavoured to glorifie God on Earth and in the Ministry of the Gospel of his dear Son which was committed to my trust I have finished the Work which he gave me to do as a faithful Embassadour of Christ and Steward of the mysteries of God I have preached Righteousness in the great Congregation lo I have not refrained my Lips O Lord thou knowest I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy