overcome yea and to deplore the justest miseries which fall upon them 2 Sam. 18.33 as David did his Son Absoloms death when by a most popular and prodigious rebellion he sought to take away both his Kingdom and his life Of Bishops as Fathers if not Lords § If we may not enjoy Bishops as Lords in the State I wish we might enjoy them as Fathers in the Church if they be truly venerable for their vertues and graces they will not much want honorable Titles nor that real love and value which all good Christians and ingenuous persons are more ambitious to pay to real worth and useful merits for Quis tam perditus ut dubitet Senecam praeferre Neroni Si libera dentur suffragia than to supercilious vanity empty formality and an idle kind of pompous luxury which are but the rust and excrements of hydropick and sick estates or of diseased and dwindling honors The eased and dwindling honors The name of Lord hath more of vulgar and secular pomp but the name of Father more of spiritual power and divine authority the first hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Gods name or in Christs stead for the good of the Church § To wind up the thread of this discourse no doubt Elisha's humility and obsequiousness to Eliah was such as he would willingly have called him his Lord and Master as the Sons of the Prophets call him but he rather chose the name of My Father as more suitable to Eliahs comportment both to him and to all the Church of God First Because in this one name Magistrates and Ministers Princes Bishops Priests and Prophets were as in the fairest letter or print to read or learn their duty in their dignity and so to be more sollicitous to do what becomes them than to exact the respects of others which best follow where they are best deserved as water flows easiest when the channel is clearest and a little descendent or falling Paternum est docendi munus The Officers of Fathers c. the duty of Fathers is to teach and educate their children that they may be Fathers of souls as well as of bodies to feed and provide for to defend and protect to be bountiful and munificent to give good counsel and example which are the best pillars to bear up authority to reprove and correct yet with love and moderation having always an intercessor in their own brests Gen. 27.4 Lastly Father are to bless their children in the name of the Lord and to transmit or deliver that by their hands and mouths to their children which is truly Gods act and deed but these are to God as the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal is to the King the King grants but the other legally conveys or passeth the blessing § Secondly The duty of Sons Such Sons and Subjects in Church and State as well as nature that hope with Elisha to be the inheritors of their Fathers blessing and Gods by that means will from this name see their happiness in that divine indulgence which hath set over them in Church or State not Pharoahs and Nero's hard Masters and severe Lords but tender and compasvionate Fathers whose power and authority they will justly value rejoycing in the Fathers superiority and their own subjection humbly desiring and defending their paternal care benediction and comprecation for them and also dreading their sad imprecations or deserved curses for oft as Plato observes the divine hand sets to the seal and says fiat to Parental curses as well as blessings § As the lives of all Fathers natural civil and spiritual ought to be a Commentary on the name and a compendium of the divine goodness that every thing they do or say may have a relish and tincture or politure and guilding of this sacred sweet and divine name so ought inferiors to learn their duty also by it to reverence those for Gods sake who bear the Name and Office of Fathers in Church and State to love and honor them if worthy to pray for them and bear with them if bad and froward Vt parentum sic principum ferenda sunt ingenia saith Tacitus Parents are forbidden to provoke causelesly their children to wrath Eph. 6.4 much more ought children to avoid provoking their Parents rather wink at hide conceal excuse palliate and cover as Noah's more pious and blessed Sons did Cen. 9.23 a Fathers nakedness and infirmity as Constantine the Great professed he was ready to do the failing of any Bishop or Churchman Be not curious to be conscious to their faults nor forward to complain of them never reproach them rudely but intimate thy sense to them with respect and reverence We read of some parents by a barbarous superstition making their children pass through the fire to Moloch but we never read of children casting their parents alive into the fire as an acceptable sacrifice to any gods Had we all done our duties in England on all hands we had had I believe better dayes and not onely our tranquillity civil peace and plenty but our religious piety order and charity which are the life of our lives and the honor of all honors had been prolonged in the land of the living where now our neglect of duty as Fathers and Sons hath divided and destroyed us so far that like wretched children we cannot see the things which belong to our peace unless it be to avoid them much less can we peaceably and chearfully enjoy them they are for our sins and by our undutiful doings Luke 19.42 so hidden from our eyes § Of a Fatherly condition in Church and State How this penal and sad providence of God hath deprived us of our nursing Fathers in Church and State exposing us either to be Orphans and Fatherless vagabonds under no setled Orders or safe protection or else betraying us to such various strange and numerous Step-Fathers not fathers in Law but without all Law as have more of Lordly tyranny and Soldierly insolency by meer power than fatherly benignity or authority by any relation I leave it to wise men to judge and to God in time to teach us our errors and defects when our eyes are more open by another twenty years mutations miseries burdens exactions Wars terrors and confusions possibly we may with the Prodigal so arise from our husks and go to our Father and return to the duty we owe to God and man § If God had taken away the Fathers or Prophets of any people as Eliah to himself they had been excusable but for Sons to destroy and extirpate their deserving Fathers this seems to be not Turbo de coelo a whirlwind or fire from heaven but rather the effect of Turba gravis paci c. a fire and tempest from a lower region § I fear the end of our fatherless condition in Church and State will only turn at
but commendable and imitable in parallel occasions when they are real unwonted and wonderful in whch Good men do not deserve blame if they seem to forget themselves while they remember God a great and terrible Majesty it is meet for us to hear the voyce or rod of God and who hath appointed it Secondly 2 The matter or words of Elisha But passions alone and their expressions by crying out or any outward emotion disorder which signifie no more than interjections or broken and inarticulate sounds but as the leaves of the barren figtree without fruit Of rational and religious exstasies or as clouds without water these are neither the intents nor usual effects of divine manifestations and extraordinary impressions for however they may give some exstatick terror and amazement at first by the newness suddenness and wonder of them so as to discompose a while both Reason and Religions clearness yet they are not considerable further than God is discernable in them and glorified by them as that vision of Moses and Elias on the mount with Christ at his transfiguration Luke 9.8 9 10 which gave St. Peter such a present shake and astonishment that though he spake of making three Tabernacles and staying there yet he knew not what he said that is he did not well consider the unseasonableness and unreasonableness of his proposals yet afterward upon composed reflections and calmer thoughts 2 Pet. 1.17 he makes a very holy and excellent use of that vision to confirm the faith of Christians in Christ as in the beloved Son of God which voyce we heard saith he in the holy mount coming from the excellent glory of God the Father § Why Elisha thus cryed after Eliab Elisha's cry is not vox praeterea nihil a bare clamor insignificant as one scared and forehared but his wisdom remained with him he cries out as still importune and eager for the blessing of the doubled spirit that Eliah might see he saw him crying now at the instant of his departing which was the compact and agreement and he now laid claim to the accomplishment using this potent Charm of My Father my Father as begging his last blessing that he might be heir of his spirit Here we may observe Observ That divine manifestations or extasies in whatever way they are applied to our discomposure Oâ— holy transports and impressions still preserve the good man as to grace and the man as to right reason they do not speak either evilly or uncivilly or senselesly or unadvisedly with their lips whilst heart and senses divine Creeds or impulses do affect either they pray or praise God either they fear or rejoyce before him either they admire or adore and set forth the glory of God as Balaam himself did when he was in his Prophetick trances and was over-byassed by Gods Spirit against his own covetousness and ambition So the poor Shepherds at the Angelick Quire and Hymn Luke 2.9 10 11 12. visibly appearing and speaking audibly to them of Christs birth went away believing and rejoycing wondering and reporting the truth they first heard of and then found true in the birth of Christ It is an opinion worthy of the Mahometan blindness to fancy that mad men are inspired and see Angels when they rave and talk wildely Insani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes They are the madder of the two that do think these harsh strings to be touched with Gods holy Spirit § Of fanatick and frantick deliâ—ancies Certainly all extasies of delirancy and dotage that bring men first to strange fancies or to fits of quaking and convulsion then to vent either nonsense or blasphemous and scurrillous extravagancies these must be imputed as learned Dr. Merick Causabon observes either to natural distempers of disease and melancholy or to jugling affectations or to Diabolical delusions and possessions to which some of the Montanists Maniches Circumcellians and others of the Energumeni of old and of late have pretended who made first popular ostentations of special inspirations and correptions or raptures of the Spirit of God but afterwards the leaves and trash the toys and impertinencies they vented by words together with the pernicious extravagancies of their actions proclaimed as loud as the Devil of Mascon to all hearers and spectators that their troubles or tempests with the following dirt and mud arose not from the flowings or emanations of the pure spring of Gods Spirit but either from the Devils filthy injections or from the foul puddle of their own perturbed fancy and corrupt hearts or over-heated brains possibly intoxicated with the fumes of some new opinions and the gallant advantages they fancy to make by them § Of demoniac correptions It is an observation which St. Chrysostom makes that Demoniac correptions as those of the Sybils and other Oracles of old were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with such shakings and transports as dispossessed the possessed for a time of themselves both as to their reason and senses but divine Oracles and inspirations greater or lesse like loud or still musick preserve the harmony of the soul though they make for a time quick and smart strokes upon the strings of holy mens constitutions understandings passions and affections The words of Eliah are as St. Godâ— Spirit suggests and utters only words of soberness and truth Acts 26.24 Acts 2.4 Paul refuted Festus his supposal of his madness words of soberness and truth they that should then have heard them as now we read them must confess that God was in him of a truth 1 Pet. 1.2 he spake which St. Peter gives as the character of a true Prophet and Apostle as the Spirit gave him utterance and guidance as intentive to the last object the fatal signal token of his obtaining the desired Spirit and blessing This affected him so highly as the ingemination imports twice crying out My Father My Father § Expressing first a genuine and great sense of his private love respect duty and honor to Eliah whose relation and merit was to him as a father so he had found him so he valued him so he shall misse him remaining without him as an Orphan in minority desolate and exposed to injuries as well as indiscretions We may observe the great ingenuity and humility of Elisha Observ 1 The filial respects of Elisha to Eliah as his Father though anointed a Prophet and thought meet to succeed Eliah though now of the same order yet he doth not disdain to count and call Eliah his father because first his elder secondly his better and ordainer thirdly his superiour in merits graces no less than in degree and authority in his power or place in the Church Thus the antient Christian people yea and the antient Christian Presbyters owned their Bishops as Fathers The father of the Christian Churches in a precedency and presidency of place degree dignity and authority Ecclesiastical Thus did St. Jerom write with
reflections written either as to Gods Providences to himself or gracious motions and operations in his heart or as to the more large and publick dispensations to former and latter ages which afford an ocean of matter and meditation to such a studious and judicious soul as his was from writers things and events they could not but be very excellent collections in themselves and of great use to others for his spirit was like a refiners fire what passed through it was the better by his taking notice of it and thereby recommending it to others He was always when in health as chearful as far as the Tragedies of the times gave leave as one that had the continual feast of a good conscience and as content His chearfulness in all estates as if he had had a Lords or Bishops estate no less than a Princely mind All diminutions and indignities which some mens pragmatick effronteries were not ashamed to put upon so worthy and venerable a person he digested into patience and prayers Such as were not worthy to stand under his shadow yet sought sometimes to stand in his light yea and to put out so burning and shining a light at least to put it under a bushel that their farthing candles might make the better shew but he out-shined them all like the Sun nothing could put a total eclipse upon Bishop Brounrig yea and he buried all personal injuries done to him in the grave of Christian charity when he considered the indignities and affronts which his blessed Redeemer suffered from people wantonly wicked who made a sport to buffet strip spit upon and crucifie the Son of God and Lord of glory Thus he was in some degree to be conform to Primitive Bishops which were poor and persecuted yea to the great Bishop of our souls who for our sakes made himself of no reputation This excellent Bishop in his latter years when motion was tedious His oft changing his aboad and noxious to him by reason of his calculary infirmity and corpulency yet was put upon various tossings and removes too and fro sometimes times at London at Bury at Highgate at Sunning and other places to which he was driven either in order to repair his crazy health by change of air Where at least unwonted objects entertaining the fancy with novelty seem to give some ease either by the pleasure of variety or by a diversion from thinking of our disorders and pains or out of an equanimous civility to his many worthy friends that he might so dispense his much desired company among them that no one might be thought to have monopolized such a magazine of worth to the envy of others And sometimes it may be he changed his quarters out of an ingenuous tenderness of being or seeming any burthen to those that were most civil to him knowing that there is prone to arise in us a satiety even of the best things that want doth quichen our appetites and absence give a fresh edge to our welcomes These or the like prudential motives suffered him not to fix very long or constant in any one place willing to appear as he thought himself and was treated in this world a Pilgrim and stranger never at home nor owning any home till he came to Heaven which was his fathers house where he should find better natured and more loving brethren than those that as Joseph's had without cause stript him and cast him into a pit of narrowness and obscurity to dye there Yet before he left this world His last residence in the Temple God would have him as Moses to get up into a mount to be set in some such place of prospect and conspicuity which might make the English world see that all mens eyes were not so asquint on Bishops or so blind or blood-shotten as not to see the eminent worth of Bishop Brounrig which could not be buried in darkness or extinguished in silence without a great addition to the other sins of the Nation and shame of the times And since some men had taken from him and others their estates and lands as Bishops unforfeited by Law only to defray the charges of War and to ease the taxes it was thought by others a better part of good husbandry to make use of those excellent gifts they had and were more willing to communicate than to have parted so with their estates § Hence the Providence of God so ordered affairs that he was about a year before he died invited with much respect and civility to the Honorable Societies of both Temples to bless them as with his constant residence so when his health would permit with some of his fatherly instructions and prayers To shew the reality of their love and value to his Lordship they not only allowed an annual Honorary recompence to express their thanks but they provided handsom lodgings and furnished them with all things necessary convenient and comely for a person of his worth § It was some little beam of joy to his great soul to see that all sparks of English generosity were not raked up or quite buried by the rubbish of faction when no Nation heretofore either more reverenced or better provided for their Bishops and Clergy than England He was glad to see so much courage in persons of that quality as to dare to own and employ a Bishop it being as bold an adventure as to some mens esteem to hear a Bishop preach as for a Bishop to preach in so publick a place And indeed the nobleness of the Templers carriage toward his Lordship had a great resentment of honor among all pious and generous minds both in City and Country who had either known the worth or heard of the renown of Bishop Brounrig § T is true the Antiepiscopal leaven and sowreness liked not well the motion or transaction but being then much crest-fallen confounded and dis-spirited by reason of their ragged successes in all things civil and sacred not able to wind up into any scain or bottom of good order and setled government the knotty threads or broken ends they had been spinning for many years they would not shew their teeth where they could not bite nor seem much concerned to oppose what they had no cause and no great power to hinder § The last Easter Term 1659. The good Bishop came to his Lodgings in the Temple and applied himself to answer the expectations and desires of his hospitable Gainsses who were so much satisfied both with his paines and presence that such as could hear him preach rejoyced at the gracious words and fatherly instructions which he gave them prepared with elaborate diligence and expressed with affectionate eloquence such as for the crowd could not come nigh enough to hear him yet had not only patience but pleasure to stay and behold him conceiving they saw a Sermon in his looks and were bettered by the venerable aspect of so virtuous grave and worthy a person which at once
Lastly in the name of the blessed God and the Son of God whose servant Minister and prophet this holy and learned Bishop was I am I say in the name of all these to return you deserved thanks that in the darkness and terror of these last and perillous times you were pleased to express the esteem and respect you had to the worth of this reverend person and the dignity of his Episcopall function Inviting him to such a kind and hospitable reception as was very acceptable and welcome to him because from persons of your worth And although considering his merit and quality you are so ingenuous as to think it was a kind condescention in him to be your honorary preacher yet he esteemed it as an honour and preferment to him And the more because super omnia vultus accessere boni he thought he saw in the serenity of all your countenances the propensity of your generous hearts and unfeined affections to him May you never want a Prophets reward Peroration and Comprecation may your love and respect to him be inscribed on the lasting monument of his great and pretious Name may his renowned memory outlast his mortal remaines which he desired to deposite among you in this Temple May his excellent example be to you and posterity as his presence was while yet alive a sacred charm against all sinful rude unchristian and unmanly debauchery also an incentive to piety learning vertue and true honour So will you never repent of the honour you did him at the last act of his life and in him you did it to your selves and your worthy Societies and in that to the whole Nation Expiating for your part the diminutions and indignities undeservedly cast upon this and other good Bishops by those that knew not how to use or value him and them not understanding at what distance themselves stood from the learned sacred and useful worth of such venerable men § If you please to add to your former favours while he lived among you this last of giving order and leave to adorn your Chappel with any Monument for him you need be at no more cost then to inscribe on a plain stone the name of BISHOP BROUNRIG This will make that stone Marble enough and your Chappel a Mausoleum It onely now remaines that we beg of God Supplictaion to God whose providence sets before us by such great examples of virtue and piety the possibility of being really and eminently good That he would please to give us grace to value and to follow them with high esteem chearful love and constant imitation that at length we may attaine to that crown of glory whither this holy man and others are gone before us non amissi sed praemissi as Cyprian speaks not lost but outstriping us as St. John did St. Peter to the Sepulcher of our Lord Jesus Christ who by dying for us hath suffered sanctified and sweetned death to all true beleivers To this blessed Saviour with the eternal Father and holy Spirit be everlasting glory Amen A good name is better then pretious ointment and the day of death then the day of ones birth Pro. 7.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. 23. Ille and Deum honoratus satis ille opulentus satis adveniet cui adstabunt continentia misericordia patientia charitas fides super omnia Christus Lactant. l. 5. Inst ΕΠΙΤΑΦΙΟΠP. M. S. Augustius solito Virtutum exemplar Sitibi tuisque imitandum velis Mox Moriture Lector Subtus positas ne pigeat contemplari EXVVIAS RADOLPHI BRUNRICI S.T.D. IPSWICI peramaeni Icenorum oppidi Parentibus honestis Tantoque Filiobeatis orti Infantulum terrestri orbum coelestis teneriùs fovit Pater Piaque literaturâ penè ad miraculum imbutum Per omnes Academiarum gradus eductum Ad Aulae Catharinae praefecturam Ad saepius repetitam Procan Cantab. dignitatem Ad Exoniensis Episcopatus Honorem CAROLI Regis favore evexit Quem afflictissimum fidelitate inconoussa coluit Vir undique egregius Doctior an melior dubites Famâ per omnem aetatem immaculatâ immo splendida magnificâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 olim per biennium at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec conjugii spretor nec coelibatui impar Severus ubique castitatis exactor Tam vultus quà m vitae majestate venerandus Quod enim vultu promisit optimum vitâ praestitit Tacita Sermonum urbana morum sanctitate non jucundus minus quà m utilis Supercilii non ficti non elati non efferi Humillima granditate cuncta gerens Credas nec conscio tantas cumulasse dotes Naturam prodigam benignamque gratiam Adeo omne tulit punctum idque levissima invidia In Concionibus sacris frequens dominator In disputationibus scholasticis semper Triumphator Barnabas idem Boanerges Tam pugno quà m palma nobilis Suavi terrore venerando amore ubique pollens Beatâ uberrimi ingenii facundiâ Honorum omnium votis expectationi nunquam non satisfecit Quadratus undique Deo Ecclesiae Sibi constans A mobili rotundâ aevi figurâ penitus abhorrens Scienter sapienter semper bonus Reformarae olim in Anglia Religionis priseae doctrinae Liturgiae Regiminis Ecclesiae integrae Contra Veteratores Novatores omnes aequanimus at acerrimus vindex Serò nimis pro temporum morbis remediis Episcopali sublimitate meritissimè auctum Bellorum et Schismatum late flagrantium incendia Optimum Antistitem una cum Coepiscopis omnibus viris ut plurimùm innoxiis eximiis Totâ ecclesiâ Rege Repub. mox deturbarunt Deturbatum facultatibus penè omnibus spoliârunt Jacturam ingenti ut decuit animo tulit de Sacrilegis non spoliis sollicitus Queis non minus carere quà m rectè uti didicerat Tandem ipsa obscuritate illustrior factus Generosae Templariorum Societatis amore allectus Concionatoris Honorarii munus ibidem suscepit Nec diu proh dolor sustinuit Quum enim Testamentum condiderat Quale primaevi solebant Episcopi Gratiarum in Deum Benignitatis in amicos Charitatis in omnes copia refertum Anno Aetatis Sexagesimo septimo Iniqui inquieti ingrati seculi mores Jamque merito recrudescentis belli minas Laetus fefellit Et ad meliorem Dominum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christiana plenus Optata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beatus Libens migravit Decemb. 7. 1659. Haec verò venerandi Praesulis ramenta aurea Amplissmique viri parva compendia L. M. C. J. G. S. T. D. Magnalia ejus quae nec marmor breve Nec Tabula prolixa nec mens mortalis capiet Beatae Aeternitati Silentio consecranda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΕΠΙÎΙΚΙΟΠITe nunc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vestros recensete greges Multis Sectarum maculis variegata pecora Si quos inter vostros Gigantum fraterculos Vilis plebeculae vilia mancipia Pares similesve invenistis Heroas Primaevis nuperisque nostris Episcopis Usserium volo Mortonium Potterum Davenantium Hallum Prideaxium Westfeildium Winneffum Brunricum Alios meliori seculo fato dignos Extra irae invidiaeque vestrae aleam nunc positos Heu tandem pudibundi vobiscum recolite Aurea quae in ferrum mutastis seculaâ— quando Nec merita praemiis deerant nec praemia meritis Quantum à bellis à mendicitate à miseriis A rixis ab hodiernis vulgi ludibriis Tranquilla beata ista distabant tempora Quae molles nimis nec ferre nec frui potuistis Icti afflicti prostrati Phryges tandem sapite Deumque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authorem Moribus Catholicis antiquis colite Ut quantum à Papae tyrannide plebis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differat Primaeva paterna Episcoporum Praelatura Sine fuco sciant fruanturque posteri BRVNRICI memores Praesulis Angelici FINIS