them although for the most part silently by reason of the expence of his spirits and much rejoyce that he had once more imployed his Masters talent and enjoyed the pretious society of Saints in whom was all his delight To his friends at such times rejoycing with him and blessing God for him he would often say I am nothing but a voyce as troubled at the growing decays of nature more and more disabling him from serving his still active soul unlesse with an enfeebled tongue no longer able to speak out and so often as he would have it What he shunned in his Ministery In his Ministery he never flew at vain glory nor of men sought he praise disdaining to stoop at the lure of popular applause Therefore he ever shunned those more gay and lighter flourishes of a luxuriant wit which like glorious weeds good for shew at a distance stink neerer hand wherewith the emptyest Cells affect to be most fraught as they who for want of wares in their shops set up painted blocks to fill up vacant shelves He fed not his flock with airy dews of effeminate Rhetorick which a masculine Orator would shake off from his lips and pen as Paul the Viper from his hand nor yet with the jerkes and quibbles of a light spirit which he ever abhorred as the excrementitious superfluities of frothy braines and unhallowed hearts but he ever led them out into the green pastures of solid and favoury Truths as their necessities and capacities did require He had administred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rational unadulterated milk for babes in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong meat for men What foundation he laid and what points he handled He was a wise Master builder who intending to raise a beautifull and stately Fabrick laid a solid foundation sufficient to bear and strengthen all his superstructures Therefore he began his Ministery with a nervous and perspicuous handling of such Texts as might discover to his people the divine authority sufficiency purity and energy of the holy Scriptures the Decalogue Articles of Faith Lords Prayer Sacraments God in Trinity His Decrees Creation Providence the Fall Sinne Christ the New Covenant the Mediator the Gospel Faith Calling Regeneration Justification Adoption Sanctification Glorification the Church the last judgement the Christian Warfare and such like all which in tract of time he opened and applyed sometimes more largely sometimes more succinctly but always profitably and sweetly as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed but rightly dividing the word of truth in a practicall way His Guide and lesser Catechism extracted out of them Out of all which in his more mature years greatest strength of parts and depth of judgement he after many serious reviews compiled that excellently compacted Systeme of Divinity in a Catecheticall way which he deservedly intituled The Guide to true Blessednesse mentioned before And out of it he again extracted that Lesser Catechism which he often used with very profitable and delightfull explanations both in his Church and Family a most profitable course of teaching and learning the true knowledge of Christ Entire Scriptures handled by him He went also through many intire Scriptures which is both a good trying and great improving of a Divine and the more obscure any place was the greater his diligence with happy successe to bring light unto it Difficulties which are Lions in the way of the sluggard became spurres to his industry He handled all the 1.2.4.6.10.14.19.22.45.50.122.127 Psalmes the twelve first chapters of Isaiah Lam. 3. Hab. 3. the Prophesie of Malachi Mat. 5.6.7 All the examples both of good and bad men in the Scriptures for imitation of those detestation of these all the Miracles and Parables of Christ all Johns Gospel an admirable Commentary Rom. 12. Ephes 2. Col. 2. and 3. 2 Thess 2. Heb. 11. Rev. 2 3. chapters with many more befides very many Texts De tempore on every occasion being exceeding happy in the choyce and prosecution of them His humility Whensoever his preaching day happened upon Jan. 17. which was his birth-day he still noted his years complete with this penitential Epiphonema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God be mercifull to me a sinner a memorable evidence of his pious sense of his own unworthinesse in the sight of God how much soever cryed up and esteemed by men No excellency of naturall abilities no eminency of spirituall endowments no acceptation of his labours ever puffed him up but he still walked in all lowlinesse and humility towards all in his greatest exaltations in the hearts of men His Catechising Much might be said of his long continued course of Catechising that most profitable and speedy way of implanting knowledge by which he hath set up so great and clear a light in his Congregation as will not onely discover the excellency of the workman and guide their feet in the ways of truth and holinesse who have been illightned thereby but much facilitate the further dolation and polishing of those living stones by succeeding builders His prayers His divine spirit of prayer see med to excell all other his excellencies I appeal to the hearts of all that heard him in publick or private and ever knew what a prayer of faith elevated to the highest by the holy Ghost meaneth whether they ever found any to excell him or many to come neer him O! those penitent unbowelling confessions earnest deprecations petitions panting longings and sighings after God and his grace those mighty Arguments whereby he set all home feeling thanksgivings and divine raptures carrying up his soul to heaven in the sacred flames of his own sacrifices sweetly perfumed with the incense of Him who presenteth all the prayers of his Saints on the Altar of Grace Conceived prayer He first brought conceived Prayer into use in those parts wherein he was so happy so free from impertinent expressions vain repetitions so rich in piercing supplications patheticall thanksgivings and gratious wrestlings with the Almighty so dextrous to apply himself to preferre all suits and to fit every occasion like an exquisite Archer able to shoot at an hayr 's breadth and so prompt and full in expressing the very hearts of those that indeed joyned with him in whatsoever they desired for themselves or others as if by a kind of transmigration their soules had entred into his and spake the very bottome of their hearts by his tongue which their own could not utter And this was such an opening and warming of his hearers hearts before his Sermons and such a sweet closing up of all after his preaching as added much to the power and profit of all his labours and was to him a transcendent advantage in his whole Ministery And verily his pattern took so well with all godly Ministers that heard him that they accounted it their great happines and honour to imitate him with whom very few could keep pace in that most important part of a Ministers office whereby they might be more
not farre from Cambridge and in some other places thereabout where beside the prosecution of other studies and performance of sundry exercises in the College he had preached 28 Sermons within the space of eleven Moneths A rare thing then in Fellows of Houses who were more commonly hinderers then furtherers of so good a work if undertaken by younger men His thankfulnesse After he was transplanted from that Nursery and setled in a Pastorall imployment many miles distant from that University to shew his thankfull acknowledgement of the honorary supports of his breeding received from those famous Seminaries he gave to Pembroke-Hall Library Great Basils works Graeco-Lat 2 vol. in fol. with these verses which tanquam ex ungue Leonem discover a specimen of his happy strayn and genius of purer Poetry as well as thankfulnesse Quae mihi formasti teneros impuberis annos Grandaeva at gravida ingeniis foelicibus Aula Penbrochiae Fas sit minimo veneranda tuorum Ingentis tenuem officii deponere partem And to Emmanuel College Library he gave all the Councels Graeco-Lat Edit Bin. Fol. five volumes with these Verses Sacra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 studiis domus hospita sacris Emmanuel mihi quae juvenilibus arbitracoeptis Culturam comites victum gratissima Musis Otia porrexti sic te nascentia porrò Foecundam claris mirentur saecula natis Donato ut liceat tantillum reddere tantis And to the University Library he gave all Greg. Naz. and Greg. Niss works Graeco-Lat fol. 4 Vol. with these Verses Accipe parva tui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mater alumni Sic te perpetuâ florentem pube Nepotum Sera manus sophiae lumen morúmque Magistram Artis praesidium Britonum decus orbis amorem Delicias Regum fidei venerentur Asylum His calling to Wrington Having thus traced his ways and procedure in the University I shall now follow him into the Country In Sept. 1602. he was by the cleer providence of God without concurrence of the plottings or contrivances of cunning or infinuating friends fairly and freely called to a Pastorall charge of a great Flock at Wrington a market Town in the County of Sommerset being presented thereunto by that Honourable and famous Knight Sir Arthur Capel of Little Hadham in Herdford shire Great Grandfather to the Lord Capel now living His setling there There did he in obedience to this Call forhwith settle himself and immediately set upon the work for which he was sent to instruct and turn unto righteousnesse that great people who had never before tasted the blessing of a preaching Minister or ministery among them which therefore required the greater skill and industry of the spirituall Husbandman to manure and manage such an uncultured plot So that he was to them if not to the whole Country adjacent the first that by preaching of the Gospel brought religion into notice and credit and discovered the heavenly Canaan before to most of them a Terra incognita and thereby left them much richer both in spirituals and temporals in so much that he might at length in a proportion say of that place as once Augustus of Rome Lateritiam reperi marmoream reliqui His Moderation Having thus pitched fixed his Pastorall staffe as he never sought higher or other earthly preferments though his capacity and credit to attain greater things were well known to be great so he never accepted of any additions or accessions of maintenance or honour although honourably proffered by Persons able to advance him The course of his Ministery Touching the course of his Ministery and carriage his proceedings were correspondent to his beginnings yea his workes most and best at last For as he preached so he practised His whole life being but one continued Commentary upon his Doctrine and an exemplary Sermon consisting of living words or of words translated into works as I shall further shew in due place Few men ever came into a place with greater expectation which yet he not only satisfied but exceeded Few men could draw after them that affection and admiration which yet were deservedly increased rather then diminished even to his last among all that had learned Christ in humility and truth His behaviour to the seduced And as for those few silly seduced ones that being carryed away by a Spirit of giddinesse through the secret and subtile insinuations and whisperings of false Teachers in corners who with as much ignorance as confidence lowbell the simple by portentous words and phrases abhorrent from christian religion sobriety truth and which wise men lament while fools ignorant of the depths and methods of Satan applaud and admire towards his last endeavoured in their vertiginous fits to eclipse his splendor yet his pious and affectionate Essays to reclaim them with the spirit of meeknesse and his fervent prayers and yearning bowels for their reducing turned all their revilings to his greater lustre and glory among all that were able to discern of things that differ and willing to approve the things that are excellent His Marriage Not long after his first setling in his charge he happily married a wife of his own Tribe heart the eldest daughter of that Reverend M. Walsh a holy Minister in Suffolke a great and rare Light in his time and famous for his ministeriall labours his fervent zeal and abundant charity She was a very prudent and gratious woman a most loyall loving and tender wife zealous and active for his incouragement credit comfort in all things especially in his ministery to which she constantly and cordially bore so much respect and reverence as did much quicken and inlarge him in the work of the Lord and was continually studious and carefull to ease and free him of all emergent avocations and businesses of ordinary concernment that he might more freely follow what his soul most delighted in his diviner imployments and himself and friends in his necessary relaxations In a word her behaviour was and still is such as becometh holiness a teacher of good things to the younger women and to her family a worthy pattern and a great promoter of godlinesse in all that conversed with her and to her husband a meet helper indeed all the days of their conjugall relation Children he left none beside those spiritually begotten unto Christ by the Gospel His printed works The issues of his brain and heart made publick were onely these first that exquisite and accurate Guide to true blessedness so often re-printed and so highly esteemed by all that read it through with understanding and care Then at severall times he gave way to the printing of four occasional and select Sermons viz. The Waking Sleeper The Ministeriall husbandry The discovery of the Heart and Death subdued His Characters never finished That wherein he had taken most pains which yet never saw the light was an excellent Treatise wherein his main design in very apposite and acutely distinguishing Characters was to lay open not those more
apparent and obvious contrarieties of virtues in holy and vices in wicked men evident to ordinary capacities upon the first aspect but the more hidden and lesse discerned differences between the plausiblyseeming virtues of evil men and the reall graces of the truly godly as likewise between the raigning sins of hypocrites and the dayly infirmities of the Saints which many times even by quick-sighted spectators are both mistaken His course held therein In prosecution whereof he first brings forth the hypocrite in his best dresse and attire and then sets by him aregenerate man living up to his Rule adding the differences between them thereby to unmask the hypocrite and to detect his incroachments upon the name and privileges of the Saints Secondly he setteth out a true child of God labouring under infirmities and an hypocrite under the power of sin which cannot consist with saving grace notwithstanding all his flourishes that so he may clearly distinguish a Christian in black from a counterfeit in white and between the bewailed weaknesses of the Saints and the wilfull wanderings of the wicked Causes of not publishing it A work no lesse needfull to all then gratefull to the soulsound self-searching Christian that labours after sincerity and the assurance of it But the iniquity of the times full of hypocrisie and Atheism hating and hindring such discoveries and by all means discouraging those that would make them together with the Authors constant imployment even unto the impairing of his strength and spirits in feeding his Flock disabled him from finishing and disappointed the Church from enjoying the benefit of that admirable piece For the Eagle eyed Author quickly discerning what obstructions way-laid the publication not onely of that Treatise but of what ever else tended to the power of godlinesse whereunto his sanctified Genius chiefly led him he not without deep grief and losse to us all laid it and all thoughts of publishing that or ought else aside and applyed himself wholly to that most Apostolicall work of preaching and prayer leaving onely some draughts imperfect for the Presse of those rare conceptions of his excellent spirit wherein he so far transcended that it is very hard if not impossible to draw a line parallel to his And should any undertake it he is not likely to receive other guerdon then they who have assayed to piece up Virgils verses which himself left unfinished Sundry oother things prepared by him I mention not here more then the names sundry other issues of his fertile and excellent wit and curious invention never published viz. divers choyce and sacred Aphorisms Anatomica Nosognostica Pathologica Therapeutica Physiologica Prophylactica as also divers divine Emblems similitudes all eminent demonstrations of his exquisite abilities profitable improvements of them And shall God vouchsafe to restore peace to his afflicted Churches and thereby more comfort and incouragement to her mourners some things of his although orba parente suo may perhaps be sent abroad to quiet if not satisfie those who loved the Author and what ever was his and knew both his labours and intentions therein His frequent and elaborate preaching His great delight and indefatigable pains in preaching so many years was almost beyond all example He constantly preached if in health thrice a week besides his extraordinary labours on many emergent occasions which he cheerfully embraced as joying in all opportunities of doing good abroad as well as at home In all his Sermons which were many thousands his expressions were choice grave solid weighty savory and seasonable his applications home and pertinent strongly set on from divine authority by a sweet and moving elocution a masculine eloquence fervent zeal and strength of love to the souls of his hearers His excellent method sutable to the subject He very well knew how to set forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abstruse points plainly and how to manage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plain truths elegantly not in the words of mans wisdome but which the Holy Ghost teacheth always speaking in Christ as of God in the sight of God He was not like one that makes a feast once a moneth or quarter letting his family beg or starve in the intervalls nor like him that visits the Pulpit twice every Sabbath yet brings no new matter with him scarse once a moneth but still setting on the same dishes with a little new garnish even unto nauseousnesse But he as he was rich in laying in so was he plentifull and wise in laying out like a ready Scribe instructed to the Kingdome of God or a good housholder bringing forth of his Treasury things both new and old And albeit he could by his quick invention profound judgement and faithfull memory things rarely meeting in the same man dextrously dispatch that with little labor which costs other men much yet he seriously professed with rejoycing that he never durst to serve God with that which cost him nothing knowing that diligence addes weight and respect both to the matter and speaker whereby his words became goads and nayls fastened by that great Master of the Assembly which are given from one shepheard His Motto His Motto was Impendam Expendar I will spend and be spent which he cheerfully verified For he counted not his life dear in comparison of preaching the Gospel and of finishing his course with joy and the Ministery he had received from the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God Being told by his Physitian desirous to preserve him that he might live longer if he preached lesse Alas said he If I may not labour I cannot live what good will life do me if I be hindred from the end of living Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causam His perseverance in his work When age and weaknesse denyed him strength to travell abroad any more to perfume other Congregations with the sweet odours of his pretious ointment and when for his years and infirmities he might well as an emeritus miles sue out even in the Court of Heaven it self his Writ of Ease and passe the rest of his days in rejoycing over his Trophees and Triumphes yet would he never give over studying and preaching till all strength of body gave over him Yea he often preached even when his legs almost refused to carry him any more to the Church with much spirit and unexpected vivacity as a mighty man refreshed with the wine of the Spirit of God And being some years before his departure sensible of the dayly approaches of death which he long expected to his spent and decayed body ready to be deserted of his divine soul he hath severall times preached his own Funerall Sermon as supposing he should preach no more not without the sorrow and tears of his loving and beloved hearers And when after such preaching and rejoycing in it he invited as his constant manner was such Ministers and friends as came to hear him to his Table he would force himself to sit with