had almost buried in oblivion were revived again by you to the infamy and damage of your Pastors as if they were not men compassed about with infirmity as well as others or your selves free from all iniquity not needing the mercy of him who is the common Redeemer of you both and though ye need it how can ye with confidence expect it if that be true as ye finde Jam. 2.13 Jam. 2.13 For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy For neither your words nor deeds have been such toward them as doe become men that shall be judged by the law of Liberty Vers 12. because ye have used rigour and extremity in them both not advising in the least measure with the Law of Christ For otherwise ye would not have aggravated after this manner every small matter which might any wayes tend to their prejudice but rather have passed by such as these and either concealed the greatest where there was hope of repentance and amendment or followed the same with all meckness and moderation considering the persons whom ye did pursue and the sad calamities which were likely to befall them and their families if judgement should proceed against them And surely it is strange that the painfull industry of many years in the work of the Ministry could not prevail either with you who did partake thereof to conceal or with those that were their Judges and without doubt knew as much to pardon one or a few errours of their life upon promise of more strict conversation for the time to come Ye did pretend indeed that zeal for the Truth onely and love of Gods people did set you thus in opposition against the scandalous Ministers or those whom ye were pleased to term so but I fear your own conscience will one day tell you plainly and I pray God not too late that private quarrels personal interests and self ends carried you all along in these unwarrantable courses of mischief and persecution for some of you to our knowledge who have been most forward to thrust forth of the Lords inheritance them that for many years together had ministred unto you in holy things have been the first that fell into dislike of their owne new choice and refused to give them maintenance according to the Law So weak and unstable is your judgement so sickle your affection so immoderate your desire of novelty so blinde your conscience in discerning your own hearts so squeamish your mindes to receive truth if it doth any wise make against your worldly advantage or touch upon your sins the which though never so grievous and manifest Hos 4.4 no man must strive or repove another for thy people are as they that strive with the Priest Neither are ye offended onely with the Minister for open but also for secret rebukes yea and for private admonitions and correptions sometimes be they never so necessary and gentle withall as I have seen it by often experience verified in many one more especially a very lewd person indeed who being mildly reproved by a Minister in my hearing for some scandalous sin replyed again It were better for us if ye Ministers held your peace because then we might sin with the lesse guilt and punishment To whom then shall I speak and give warning that they may hear Behold Jer. 6.10 their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hearken behold the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach they have no delight in it Wherefore he that doth not please your humour or advance your faction or gratifie you in your beloved corruptions or sparing you strikes at your adversaries in a word will not be partakers of your sins by connivence or practise straight ways grows out of request with you as an unprofitable teacher or rather one not fit for your purpose however he be accomplished in all other respects and thus he is by little and little abandoned of you and another sought out more agreeable to your fancy and mind for a short season untill the date or time of pleasing you be expired also Insomuch as one Parish not many miles distant from the University of Oxford hath been known since these Times of trouble and distraction to have disliked and changed their Ministers as often if not more often then there be seasons in the year and yet scarce afford maintenance for a single man to live with them It is past belief what foolish exceptions they have had against those men who have upon triall or other occasions preached before them besides many against severall Ministers this they had against one not unknown to my self if I am not misinformed that he preached too long upon the same Text. I pray God this spirituall delicacy doth not presage a spirituall famine in the end whereby men may hunger and thirst after that Word which they despise and loath now because of the plenty and fulnesse thereof And here I may not passe by in silence a common but very dangerous errour that possesseth your mindes whereby ye fondly and falsely imagine that the successe of the Ministry doth depend upon the personall gifts of the Minister and not wholly upon the ordinance of Christ for which cause yee magnifie some above measure and despise others in comparison of them calling the first powerfull Preachers and not acknowledging the last for such because not men so well qualified for the work of the Lord as they The which conceit if I mistake not is not the least cause of your non-prosiciency by the meanes of grace For how can ye reap benefit from the Ordinance if ye come not duely prepared to it and how can ye come duly prepared to it if ye have not a just esteem of it that ye may answerably submit unto it For 1 Cor. 3.7 neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the encrease Let men therefore learn to have greater respect to the blessing from above then to the means below to the grace and gift of God then to the abilities and endowments of men in the great busmesse of their conversion and edification Again ye English people are generally indifferent or luke warm in Religion and so ye may enjoy the worlds good care not what doth become of the Truth of God the which ye hear indeed but learn and know not like those of whom we read 2 Tim. 3.7 ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth or if ye know it receive it not neither beleeving it with your hearts nor obeying it in your lives for although ye all professe faith and pretend to it as the main ground and pillar of your hope in God yet it is but a bare profess on and meer ostentation of that which ye have not in truth a few excepted who testifie the same by their innocent and holy conversation Jac 2.26 without which faith is dead being alone The rest
in many of your habitations where we may finde no small diminution of that luxuriant plenty and aboundance which ye formerly had but abused to the dishonour of him who gave it partly through your riot and excesse whereby ye have viciously and shamefully wasted those godly estates which the industrious care and travail of your forefathers transmitted unto you their unworthy progenie and sometimes purchased for themselves and you at much a dearer rate even with the desperate adventure and hazard of their precious lives or through the iniquity of the present times whereby God hath already in a very great measure scourged you for the superfluity of naughtinesse the which he saw in you and will yet punish you more even to utter extirpation if ye doe not timely meet him in the way of his judgements and make your peace with him by the humble acknowledgement of your sins and speedy turning from them unto him who smiteth you for this cause that ye may repent and be healed To this wee may adde your wantonnesse or unlawfull lust the true and proper daughter of riot and excesse In which how far ye have transgressed within the compasse of a few years past let your owne actions and behaviour visible enough God knoweth and manifest in this particular witnesse against you besides the testimony of your own conscience Are not your meetings at the Park and Garden by the great City knowne to all the world To omit your mixed and loose Dancings Table-communications Cup-discourse and such like what meaneth I pray you the effeminate delicacy attire and garb of the masculine sex The fashion dresse gate painting and patches of the Female Doth not the shew of their countenance testifie against them although the men also have of late been so vain as to borrow this uncivill fashion from the women I mean the wearing of patches on their faces which are indeed but so many blemishes to the reputation of both and markes of dishonesty not as they take them to be garnishing spots of comelinesse and beauty And yet with how great care and expence are some of these procured for you I am ashamed to mention what hath hath been reported to me for a certainty concerning this thing Oh strange and unheard of luxury to those who are gone before us how many empty howels might charity refresh how many naked bodies clothe with this waste and altogether needlesse cost As for your Ladies former Ball-conventicles wherewith they have been publiquely upbraided on the Theatre and your famed compositions in secret with the lascivious Courts for liberty and allowance in lust with your unsonable banquettings and novel irritations invented or used by you for this unclean purpose let them never be remembred any more or made known to those who shall come after neither list I to stir any farther in this puddle or sink of corruption I shall not speak much of your oppressing and racking your poor Tenants occasioned no doubt many times as well by your luxury and costly manner of living as by your covetousnesse and immoderate desire of enlarging your possessions Forasmuch as that doth often cast you upon those necessities which ye cannot relieve but by this unjust way whereunto ye have compelled your selves by your foregoing sin Now as ye have by this means generally lost the good opinion and affection of the people according to late and sorrowfull experience thereof towards your persons and proceedings so have ye highly provoked the wrath of God against your selves and families and as much if not more by your unsatiate covetousnesse whereby many of you indeed and who not in desire join house to house Isai 5.8 lay field to field till there be no place that ye may be planted alone in the midst of the earth Not fearing nor minding the curse of the Almighty which he hath denounced against you in the next v. by the Prophet notwithstanding it hath already entred into many of your habitations for of a truth even to this day many houses are desolate and though great and fair without inhabitant But to what purpose is all this care and much adoe Surely to make your families great mighty upon the earth to leave your children vast inheritances of land and treasure which knows no bottome But oh that ye could have a prospect now in your life of two or three generations to come would you not then condemn your present folly and perceive a great deal of improvidence in this your providence and solicitous care for them for then might you see according to the common course of the world one descended from you prodigally spending that substance which your diligence and paines thriftily got for him another desperately running himself out of all through carelesnesse and dissolutenesse of living and now become more miserable in his want then the poorest man that breaths because of that plenty and prosperity which he injoyed in times past a third made a prey to them who are more potent and powerfull then himself for the rich patrimony which ye have lesâ— him and in the same day perchance discharged from his estate and life together But which is most considerable in it self though least of all thought upon by you their wealth through the secret yet just judgement of the Almighty for your unjust acquiring thereof like their table is made a spirituall snare Rom 11 9. and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompence unto them for nothing is more pernicious to the soul then outward prosperity in this world without grace to use it aright And yet notwithstanding this your inward thought is that your houses shall continue for ever and your dwelling places to all generations ye call your lands after your own names neverthelesse man being in honour abideth not Psa 49 11.12 13. he is like the beasts that perish This your way is your folly yet your posterity approve your sayings And I pray God that may not be your own portion which the Prophet foretelleth should be theirs of whom he speaketh v. 14. v. 14. after ye are gone from hence and be no more seen I have but one word of reproof more and I am sure it will be unexpected of you the Lord grant that it be not unwelcome also It is concerning your Domestick Chaplaines whom partly your own pride partly the evill custome of the Times hath taught you to entertain in no better fashion then as honorary servants in your houses whereby the worthy calling of the Ministry is much debased from the dignity thereof and no small contempt drawn upon it from the vulgar sort of people especially those that depend upon your greatnesse which are very many For this is far from receiving a Prophet in the name of a Prophet or the Messenger of Christ with that honour which is due to Christ to place him in the rank of those who continually expect your commands and are at your devotion Besides this it is a
as being overswayed by them whose creatures you are who think it reasonable that as ye have served your selves of their power when time was so you should by way of compensation now serve their will and obey their commands and surely however the case standeth thus much they do expect and require at your hands as might appear by severall instances But enough of this I have but one word to say more and it is by way of admonition to the ingenuous and well minded among you who have been carryed away by errour of the times an errour discernible by the fewest of men that live in them unto those practises which they would loath and detest if they saw the true shape of them which is ugly and deformed and were not deluded by false glasses and counterfeit representations of them in the disguises of justice and honesty but as yet allow because they are not conscious to themselves of any malice or evill intention in what they do that they would devoutly implore the grace of the Almighty for illumination to see and direction to follow those things which make for their peace lest otherwise they live and die in their sin and what will be the sequell thereof they cannot be ignorant who know the truth and terrour of God In the mean time let them and all take heed how they manage their present fortune lest they also become a prey to others as others have been made a prey to them For it is to be seared that your gaudy prosperity is an eye-sore unto them who have power over your estates and lives and will finde matter enough of quarrell against you if there be not a change of manners and this wrought with discretion and speed Neither will this happily serve the turn to prevent those designes which as we hear are now on foot to alienate the Colledge-lands from publick use for the maintenance of learning to the propriety of private men the dangerous effects whereof both to Church and State not in this present age only but also in the generations to come I tremble to imagine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the Judges Lawyers c. I Have but little to say to you being altogether unacquainted with your profession and your wayes For I never as yet sued any man at the Law and was never sued by any for trespasse or wrong done unto them wherefore experience cannot teach me what to speak of you Neverthelesse there hath been a generall complaint of the people in the land for some years past and as lowd as it durst break forth against the iniquity and oppression of your Courts of Judicature as if might or favour or money could more prevail in them then equity or law neither is it silent unto this day Whether your sin were according to the clamour of the people or no I cannot tell But of this I am assured that God will require much at your hands in the last and generall day of Judgment there being no men alive who have more frequent and signal remembrances of their duty or alarms of their account before the Almighty then you besides the speciall Obligations of solemn Oaths and common ties upon your conscience to doe the thing which is lawfull and right Happy is it for you now and for the State in which ye live and much more happy will it be for you hereafter if ye lay these things to heart and practise as you learn and know Judgement and Truth on which as on the the basis the Peace and safety of every Common-wealth doe rest and thrust aside war calamity and ruine doe ensue without remedy Your proceedings are many times intricate and dark not to be traced by popular and ordinary sent There be many windings and turnings in the Law which few can finde out mazes and almost inexplicable labyrinths to those who are not guided by your clew But still remember who standeth in the midst of you even a God that seeth in darknesse to whom the darknesse and light are both alike secret and hidden things are open and manifest Heb. 4.13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom they have to doe Let therefore the eighty second Psalm be your mirror wherein to behold what you are what ye should be if amisse and not upright according to the minde and will of God And not hear only but obey also his commands in the Ministry of the Word A time there was when the sober admonition and milder reproof of the Preacher would not goe down with some of you but were distasted by your corrupt palates And therefore a Minister was warned of his Diocesan being then to preach before the Judges not to touch upon this string it liked them not forsooth to hear that which did pertain to their office and duty or rather did tacitly check their omission and transgression thereof so often repeated in their eares Who were most faulty in this particular the Judges that did refuse to be admonished the Bishop who advised the Minister to gratifie them in their desire or the Minister if he did obey the will of his superiour in this thing let God judge But I presume it was not after this manner every where nor with all persons neither did it as I suppose continue thus long And God forbid this usefull and necessary liberty should be diminished or restrained in any part thereof For can men too often hear of that which they are to doe at all times and which is of everlasting concernment to them Bee instructed therefore ye Judges of the earth Psal 2.10 11. serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling Now these are the things that ye shall doe Zech. 8.16.17 speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour execute the judgement of Truth and Peace in your gates And let none of you imagine evill in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false Oath for all these are things that I hate saith the Lord. To the City of London I Am to speak now to a very great body of people yea the greatest in this Nation considering the narrow compasse of your abode and would to God I were able to speak unto you all at once by the vocal sound of my mouth that I might the better testifie the inward affection of my minde towards you and not be constrained to bespeak you severally by the whispering language of my pen. But what voice can be sufficient for the audience of so vast a multitude wherefore accept my reproof and counsel as it is tendred unto thee Thou art the largest City in this Island for the extent of bounds the fairest for magnificence of structure more populous rich and mighty by far then any of thy other sisters But according to the usuall and unhappy sate of great Gities and famous Empories thou hast not more abounded with people then
it by experience in my self more difficult to struggle with it and to strive against it with successe then to bear the crosse or to suffer reproach and persecution from men for the Name of Christ Jesus For I am by nature very prone to impatiency especially at certain seasons and this I look upon as my worst enemy here on earth against which I pray and fight continually As for those that have any way done me wrong either in goods or in good name or any way else besides Psal 59 3. not for my transgression nor for my sin O Lord I freely forgive them in the presence of the Almighty and daily pour forth a supplication for them before the throne of grace In the mean while comforting my self in this 2 Cor. 7.1 that I have wronged no man corrupted no man defrauded no man and waiting for the appearance of that day wherein every mans work shall be made manifest 1 Cor. 3.13 and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is And surely I might much more comfortably endure mine own afflictions did not the thought of present publick calamities and of those that are likely to follow upon the head of these perplex my minde and adde a great weight to the burden of the former For God hath apparently declared his displeasure against the nation by altering the naturall course of things in the seasons of the year in our bodies and in what not besides these It is hard to tell whether the like immoderate drought as of late hath ever been known in the land before the most aged are silent and wonder at it with cause enough of admiration and astonishment Now that both this and our many sicknesses are the sure effects of Gods wrath and curse upon us appeareth from Dent. 28.22.23 Neither may we hope for better things but are still to expect worse then these which have already befallen us because our sin like that of Judah is written with a pen of iron Jer. 17.1 and with the point of a diamond it is graven upon the table of our heart The Lord take not his peace from us as he did from them even loving kindnesse and mercies Some indeed glory much in the successe of the Army hitherto very great and strange and promise as much or rather much more from them for the future as also from the Navie In like manner they count much upon the prudence and policy of those who sit at the stern but sin neverthelesse unrepented of by the people and unreformed by the magistrate doth still threaten us with wrath and vengeance from the Almighty And what safeguard can a Navie at Sea though never so well set forth or an Army on foot in the land how numerous and resolute soever afford us from the Lord of sea and land Job 9. 13. If God will not withdraw his anger the proud helpers do stoop under him What wisdome understanding or counsell against him that disappointeth the devices of the crafty Ch. 5.12 13 14. so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise who taketh the wise in their own craftinesse and the counsell of the froward is carried headlong They meet with darknesse in the day time and grope in the noone-day as in the night Job 9.4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered What confidence in any thing before him who hath cursed all confidence but that which is reposed in him Ch. 8.13 14. So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a spiders web and their hope as the giving up of the ghost Ch. 11.20 or a puffe of breath He that duely considereth the state of things in this land immediately preceding the severall devastations by forain invasion and shall compare the same with our present times may finde that correspondency between them which will justly make him fear lest the time of our desolation be at hand also but I forbear and God forbid I have but one word more to speak unto thee and it is by way of request that if thou be learned thou wilt not be offended with the rudenesse of the stile and vulgar plainness of the expression which thou findest in this book remembring that the major part whom it doth concern are either the ignorant and more simple sort of people or not so knowing as those who have diligent education and training up in the schooles of Philosophy or of more polite literature And whosoever thou be that dost peruse this little treatise if by reflexion thou chance to see those spots and blemishes in thy selfe of which thou tookest no knowledge before or in case thou didst perceive them passe them by unregarded never seeking to wipe them off from thee doe not with brutish fury or childdish indignation break the glass in pieces for being true unto thee but rather imitate in this particular him who doth present and hold the same before thee that is reform what is uncomely purifie what is unclean rectifie what is a misse by the Image or shape which it doth represent unto thy view Who so loveth instruction Prov. 12. â— loveth knowledge but he that hateth reproof is brutish It is an hard matter as the case now generally standeth with us either to speak or to hear Truth as wee ought so great and common is mens prejudice against it And what Salvian complained of in his time may justly give occasion of complaint to us concerning the present times wherein we live Tam imbecilla sunt judicia hujus temporis ac penè tam nulla ut qui legunt non tam considerant quid legant quam cujus legant nec tam dictionis vim atque virtutem quam dictatoris cogitent dignitatem Praefat. ad Salom. Finally if thou receive any benefit by what thou readest herein give glory to God and pray for the Author as he prayeth for thee and for those who have reviled and despitefully used him without a cause Now the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit 2 Tim. 4.22 Grace be with you Amen Deo Gloria A Catalogue of some Books lately extant and Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane London A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Testament by Henry Hammond D. D. in fol. The Practical Catechisme with all other English Treatises of Henry Hammond D. D. in two volumes in 40. Dissertationes quator quibus Episcopatus Jura ex S. Scripturis Primaeva Antiquitate adstruuntur contrasententiam D. Blondelli aliorum Authore Henrico Hammond in 40. A Letter of Resolution of six Quaere's in 120. The names of severall Treatises and Sermons written by Jeremy Taylor D. D. viz. 1. The Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life according to the Christian Institution described in the History of the Life and Death of the ever blessed Jesus Christ â—â—
as a friendly Remembrancer unto you of what ye already know but minde not and therefore know not as ye ought I speak as unto men corrupted in judgement and blinded with passion whereby ye are unable to see the light that shines about you like the Athenians of whom Tully giveth this testimony Cat. Maj. Athenienses seire quae recta essent sed facere nolle or like them in the Gospell Mat. 23.3 which did say and do not your light of knowledge resembling that which men carry with them in a dark lanâ—horn when it is upon occasion turned from them which served only to enlighten others so that while they did or at least might have walked in your light your selves went stumbling in the dark Your lines through the mercifull Providence of the Almighty were faln unto you in pleasant places Psal 16.6 yea you had a goodly heritage as it is Ps 16.6 But ye soon forgot his great goodnesse towards you and turned the same into wantonnesse Therefore did his wrath wax hot against you and his hand is heavie upon you as it is this day And though he gave you timely warning before of the approaching evill ye were not admonished thereby that ye might repent and so meet the Lord in his judgements for reconciliation and peace But idlenesse and fulnesse of bread excesse of wine and of strong drink profanenesse and dissolute living publick and private faction with emulation and strife perjury and corruption with such like practises filled up the measure of your sins before God untill the time of judgement and recompense was fully come For how many of you thought an University life to consist in vacancy from all employment even that of the minde as well as that of the body and in the pleasure of recreation and sport to say no worse abstracted from study and contemplation I am ashamed to mention and would to God it were in my power to conceal the sloth and Epicurisme of others who divided their whole life to those naturall actions of eating drinking and sleeping as naturall brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed 2 Pet. 2 12. Corrupting themselves in those things which they knew after their manner Jude 10. being so many spots and reproaches of learning and not of Christian only but of humane society also These were the men that scoffed on their Ale and Wine benches at the painfull industry of their fellow Members as if it had been a sin at least a shame to be studious arrogating in the mean while to themselves that of which God knowes they were not guilty eminency of parts above their diligent brethren for which they would be beholding to nature only and to their sottish company But enough and too much of these As for faction how closely did it lurk every where in the Colledges And yet how openly did it declare and publish it self in the University The Arminian against the Calvinian the Calvinian against the Arminian declaiming publickly upon all occasions in the pulpit and as â—ar as the reverence of the place would give leave odiously exagitaâ—ing the positions and tenents one of another and in the Schools fiercely bandying each against his adversary and all striving for mastery not for truth In the mean while what libellous defamations were secretly composed and subtilly spread abroad sometimes by this and other whiles by that party tending to the infamy and disgrace both of the cause and of the persons that maintained the same As for the Arminian faction it was undoubtedly upheld and encouraged by the superiour power though under pretence of silencing both as it did appear by an injunction from supreme Authority inhibiting these disputes and contentions which had so much disquieted the peace of this grand seminary of the Church But the partiality that was ever shewn towards them which did transgresse on the higher ground the countenance and favour with preferment cast upon them by those who sate at the stern together with the rigour and severity used in censuring the opposite delinquent party gave sufficient evidence to the world what their meaning was who imposed cessation and silence upon the pens and tongues of these eager and bitter adversaries For notwithstanding this specious prohibition that party which did most pretend to obedience did say and do as before without check or controll from their superiours knowing full well what their minde was concerning this thing and finding by experience oft-times that it did smooth a by-way for them to the end of their ambitious desires And here it seemeth strange to me that they who did recede from their former principles grounds of doctrine to joyn with the Arminian faction became for the most part more loose in their life and dissolute in their manners then before confuting and destroying their newly received opinion of free will by the licentious courses of their conversation which they did assert by argument and discourse of reason against them which did oppose the same like men destitute of that grace the which they endeavoured to weaken in the force and operation thereof upon the soul of a sinner And some we have known in times past most zealous advocates for the Arminian doctrine since quite fallen away from the reformed Church to the superstition and idolatry of Rome being perchance the more easily induced thereunto by the progresse which they had made in the way before the causes and motives whereof one at least hath divulged to the world for the justifying of his Apostasie as for his intentions these are known to God only and to his own conscience to whom we leave him For it was a wonder to hear what virulent speeches were uttered by men of this stamp against the first reformers of the Church Perfecto odio odi Calvinum was reported to be the expression of one famed for other parts as well as for those of learning among you But I had rather omit then recite passages of this nature for divers reasons not to be mentioned at this present time As for the other faction their late proceedings have given in sufficient evidence against them of their treachery and falshood and represented a full but foul character of their persons to all wise and discerning men however many through ignorance or affection or self-interest entertain an honourable conceit of their way and actions unto this day And now we shall proceed to the consideration of your perjury an Academicall surely if any other sin which though an offence of high nature before God was common with the major part of your society that I may not say generally slighted by all because of the ordinary and customary practise of men herein For it was very frequent and indeed a matter of course with them to attest upon oath the sufficiency or ability of any person to receive a graduall promotion in the University how illiterate and otherwise unworthy soever he was of that favour Aâ—scio was tendred
and accepted in his behalf where a credo had been too much a nescio was due or in truth a nego rather And what a congregationvote for the same purpose was I need not to explain Surely such men had either a very low esteem of the religious tye of any oath or scarce thought these of their corporation obligatory in point of conscience but rather ceremonies of meer formality or custome Although I have often heard it reported of a very learned and pious Bishop now with the Lord that in his confessions to God he usually craved pardon of him for his University oathes the which probably he had readily taken but slackly performed as well as the rest of his brethren Neither did this sin reign in publick only but also in private societies as your corrupt Elections did evidently shew In which the fear or favour of great persons in hope to rise by them especially of one who could do all in his time respect of birth or love of money and what besides I list not now to name were more prevalent with you then conscience of oath or duty Desert being for the most part laid aside by you and learning not regarded when it did enterfeer with the former And yet how strictly were you bound by your Collegiate oathes to austerity of life gravity of carriage brotherly love and accord one with another especially to incorrupt dealing as in other matters so chiefly in relinquishing your places and electing others into vacant rooms The thought whereof as I have been informed by many gave courage and confidence to the governour of a Colledge in Q. Elizabeths daies after receiving a Mandate from her Majesty to proceed unto an unstatutable election of one into the house who was uncapable thereof to call for a pair of ballances and to lay the Queens letters in one scale the statute-book in the other demanding withall of those who were then present which of the two weighed down the other and replying that the command of a Prince ought to give place in any thing where our obedience is due to God before How far different your practise hath been on like occasions from this worthy example I am ashamed to speak and let one for all testifie who having not long before an Election encouraged a young youth of meet capacity for the place in all respects and as I remember promised him his vote against another competitor much inferiour to him every way age only excepted upon an unexpected receit of a letter in the behalf of the latter from a person very opportune for his advantage and powerfull with the highest suddenly changed his minde not blushing to say that the former was indeed the more deserving scholar but he might not by any means displease them which had commended the latter to his choice although he could not be ignorant what he was bound to do by oath and conscience in this case But this was the generall carriage of things at that time partly through mens own inclinations and partly through the remisse and corrupt government of their Praepositi or heads who for ought as could be discerned by them made the least conscience of any of keeping their oathes and acting according to the tenour of them whether in reference to themselves or unto others committed to their charge for they freely tolerated or at least connived at your manners how vicious soever and contrary to the locall statutes that ye might be as in seemeth the more obnoxious to their unjust will after Court-example in another case In the mean time suspecting and hating vertuous and sober men who conscionably opposed or disliked their proceedings which for the generality tended to this how they might serve their superiors in what they did command without disputing the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse thereof and so make way for their own advancement And therefore would they sometimes as well by their authority as by their example draw others into the snare and make them guilty with themselves of this grand delinquency against the Almighty And indeed they wanted not at any time enow or more then enow who stifly adhered to the factions and readily followed their pernicious counsels and courses without contradiction or demur for their own vile and base ends Thus would they both as occasion served break at pleasure those religious bonds of conscience I mean their more then penall oathes as Samson did his green wit hs or new ropes Judg. 16. though many times perchance no fewer then these Now such was the devotion of these poor creatures to their unworthy masters as well in other respects as in the former that they must undergoe the heat and burden of the day for them in their Academicall turns of preaching and likewise in their countrey charges on the weekly solemnities not far distant from the University For whether it were idlenesse or for prelaticall state or for both these I cannot tell your governours began now generally to neglect if not to desert this necessary work of the ministery as not pertaining to their office and though they were well content to receive the profits of many livings year by year it was done without any noise or benefit to the people Forasmuch as they seldome or never discharged their duty in one of those samished congregations for whom they are to answer and give an exact account to Christ at the last day The Lord lay not this sin to their charge Not inferiour as I conceive to your perjury was your falshood in giving forth the same Letters testimoniall for all men without exception that requested the same at your hands but of far more dangerous consequence to the Church of Christ which by this means no doubt became worse provided of pastours in the nation then any of the reformed Churches throughout the Christian world Sed mulus mulum scabit Wherefore God gave you up as a prey and spoil to those men whom he did in times past more despise then any living upon the earth To mercilesse enemies who did confound the innocent with the guilty in censure and punishment no ingennity of parts no eminency of learning or piety no true pretence of conscience could serve the turn and be admitted to plead for them Every information was accepted from the false brethren any one how uncapable soever of the faction was preferred to what place he best liked Neither as I am informed did one of them noted for his intemperate zeal stick to say that they must not leave one of the old brood remaining in the University a speech most inhumane as wel as unchristian especially considering the tendency thereof which was as time hath since made manifest to make way for the introducing in their stead a new generation of creatures not much unlike those of whom we read Mat. Hab. 1.12 13. 3.7 O Lord thou hast ordained them for judgement and oh mighty God thou hast established them for correction Thou art of purer eyes