nay though the times we sie Were bleeding forth their soul yet durst not cry Thou pick'st the Diamonds from the Diademe T' adorn the Mitre and t' exalt the name Of Prelacy'bove power Secular Which shines beside your Moon but like a Star Dread Prelat Lambethan thou shalt be known Where ere the Roman Eagle yet has flown Nor Becket Wolsey nor the hot-braind Crew Who did the harmlesse Truth so sore pursue Gregorian Kalendar have beautified So nobly as thou in Rubricks deified 'T is true enraged times may sacrifice Thee for thy zeale laugh forth thine Elegies And make thee a Proverb yet the Lady of lands Which doth embrace the World amazed stands And weeps thy losse the Consistoriall train His Holinesse himself do much complain And sweare th' have loos'd th' Arch-feather of their wings By which they used to soare above the Kings Therefore about each Altar shall they Bayes Throng most solemnly incense of thy prayse Shall stream through every grieved Cathedrall While all the bels tole forth thy funerall Thus am I tossed and made the scorne of time they hold it good service to the present age and posterity to limne me in an hideous hue and contend whose pen shal be most pungent and victorious in the Pasquill These same Palmes are springing and ripening for you if yee continue to incense the impetuous people now in a dangerous agitation which though oftentimes undistinguishing yet nothing mistaken in me I desire therefore to entreat you and conjure you all in the power of passion to be no more heires of my institutions and designes but rather be astonished putting on wonder and pitie for I must tell you some think that Prophesie thirteene Revel. at the last about the beast comming out of the earth which spoke as a Dragon even now to be fulfilled and the mystery thereof revealed in my name the numerall letters whereof being thus written WILL LAVD make directly the number of the Beast I am the Beast count it that can This is the number I am the Man If this cōmentary be not accurate yet sure the envy is exact which should beget remorse and feare in mee and wisdome in you for it will not forbear you when your cup shall be full O the revolution of times o the hopes of man How happy is hee who is prepared for all the turnings of the World I must be shortly dissolved brethren and have faithfully as becomes one in the last Article of his tim◠cast open to you the inner cabinet of my heart where you may see the very fountain and root of all my woes and learn to correct the perversnes of your own souls come out of Babell as you would flie from a falling Towre Let my words be precious to you my condition terrible and this my lamentation which I have Bathed in dearest teares of bitter grief That ever sought to language for relief Unmaske your eyes and reclaime you from that spirituall adultery whereby yee have so grievously prophaned the chastity of Religion and given offence to the Reformed Churches O with what exact humility would I cast my self in the bosome of that truth which I have wounded if I thought my return would be gracious to the World I know of what spirit yee be and in the days of my labour did swell with that happinesse which yee all promise to your selves But take knowledge from me who has bought it at so deare a rate and assure your selves that the hopes of the Righteous shal be gladnes when the expectation of the wicked shall perish Truth must triumph What shall I doe to enforce this great Resolution which concernes you as the life of your souls Even to quit that your darling which you have hug'd so dearly To lay by your Rochets renounce your Episcopacie which has ever been the very root of all these Ceremonies which this day doe infest the world have of old produced the mystery of iniquity Once begin to entertain this thought that you are fighting against the heavens and forsake those things which do so evidently soment the combustions of the Christian world How many Rites and Orders and Ceremonies and Comick follies novations which are not confined to number but still springing up after the vanity of the imagination of the heart of man doe attend that Antichristian Prelacie as the tail of the Comet doth follow the imperfect mistion of the evanishing body which must all be drowned in the clouds of shame when the Sun comes forth in Majesty like a valiant Champion to chase ungracious darknesse from the face of heaven and earth O be ashamed for all that is deare to you in heaven or in earth be ashamed for the peace of your minde for the worlds reputation and the welfare of your deare Primitive Mother the Church be ashamed of these Lordly dignities that abhorred preheminence No wonder wee have so long troubled the calme of Church and Common-wealth because being lift up to the unnaturall places of preferment we are out of our Element and so cannot give rest to our selves nor the world 'T is no time to stand out any more multitude of days may teach you wisdome God is thundring from above and in a veine of working miracles The mystery of inquity is now perfectly revealed and the world begins to be weary of that tyranny and Iron rod which so cruelly has bruised the powers of the earth and twiched with repentance shall shortly swell with the spirit of revenge Joyne therefore cheerfully hand in hand to this Reformation Behold the voice of the Turtle is heard in the Land Night is gone the day is come even the day of his power the beauty of his holinesse for now hee will make knowne the strength of his Kingdome and his Subjects shall bee multiplied as the dew from the wombe of the morning Can yee restraine the influence of his will Or make his eternall purpose of no effect O remember that yee magnifie this great worke which men behold The Nations that knew no God shall rejoyce at it The noyse thereof shall goe to the ends of the World Enquire of the dayes of old and aske the Generations past since this Island was blessed with the prerogative of the Gospell whereat the rest of the World may stand jealous and amazed if ever the Revelation of the Glory of God was working more powerfully Nay certainly it must be confessed if wee believe the Scriptures that as the great Bishop of Bishops That Man of Sin that has so long deluded the Kings of the Earth making them worship vain imaginations must be swept out of the Church and be destroyed So now even now the disenchanted World thrusts at his very soule through our sides And those who are more inward with the Spirit of discerning and observe the advancing of the Prophesies and long after the riches of the Gospell to be powred forth upon the fulnesse of Nations have joyfully found in these times a very
THE RECANTATION Of the Prelate of CANTERBURY Being his last Advice to his Brethren the Bishops of ENGLAND To consider his Fall observe the Times forsake their Wayes and to joyne in this good work of REFORMATION Remember that yee magnifie this great worke which men behold The Nations that knew not God shall rejoyce at it The noyse thereof shall go to the ends of the world Psal. London Printed 1641. To his ever much esteemed and most deserving Friend the Authour of this Palinodia WHilst thou un-mytr'st Prelats lo we bow To gather gracious Garlands for thy brow And 'cause thou wound'st them with so sweet a grace They cannot grudge but smiling on thy face Must humbly kisse the Rod So make thy way Through glories aire untill the vulgar eie Forget thee and aethereall thou appeare Vnto the sons of wisdome like a cleere And select Star which cannot deigne to bow And court the empty vapours here below P. A. Palinodia Cantuariensis THough the wicked hath settled his habitation with the Eagle among the Starres and say in his minde I shall not be changed I shall not taste of affliction neither shall the dayes of Adversity lay hold on me yet there is an appointed time for all things And the Almighty who hath disposed the whole world and hath charge over the Earth will not pervert Judgement His Eyes are upon the wayes of Man He seeth all his goings There is no darknesse nor shaddow of Death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves but in end the fulnesse of destruction will come upon them as the wide breaking in of Waters Terrors will persue their souls as the Winde and their welfair shall passe away as a Cloud To these great Verities do I now humble my self and in the sense of that convincing power my reverend Brethren who should be to your times the Beauty of Integrity that shakes my minde as an Earthquake do I pronounce the children of Wisedome blessed and that no State is so good so sure so happy as the State of a good conscience But alas the immoderate desire of a foolish glory and the passion to raise my condition to an height as unlawfull as unbeseeming and the want of an humble affection to truth and hatred of error hath now produced me an example to after ages and a beaken to preserve you from Ship wrack since therefore my angry Starres will that I forfeit my reputation to shame and my life tâ— Justice Suffer me ye that have had a Communion of Fortune with me and on whom the door of Favour is not yet altogether shat Suffer me to pour further my Soul in the bosome of your compassion Resigne all your tears to me that I may weep for this day this day of indignation which hath swallowed me up as a prey and wherein destruction hath come upon me like an armed man Receive these my words my last words I bequeath to you the Counsels of Truth which if ye treasure up in your minde will be a Cordiall to make you live and not die for now I am upon the borders of Time The Vail is removed and I must enter Eternity T is no more time to dally with the Gospell and the World Ye have been my Fellow-Labourers in a strange Work which we must now confesse is not of God and therfore wonder not if it tumble down We have miserably prostituted our souls to the Imagination of a Miter whose Glory cannot save us in the day of shame And all our endeavours have been to erect an Hierarchy upon the Ruines of Religion and Common-wealths O consider this ye that figure to your self a happinesse where there is none and look what pleasure I have of those things whereof I am now ashamed No nothing but the comfortlesse stings of a restlesse remembrance of by gone unanswerable deeds wâ—â— I speak with horror and professe with a bleeding heart I have embraced that Shaddow which ye so hotly court I have been lift up to the Pinacle of the Temple whereat ye so zealously aspire and was gazed upon as a Starre which gave life and motion to you all I have trode these same paths wherein ye contend and liberally tasted these empty pleasures of preferments And of all my labours have reaped nothing but hatred and ruine to my self misery and reproach to the Church And it is in vain to put the day of evill and Justice far from me for it He that lately did swim in his Princes smiles on vvhom Nature had bestowed her great abilities with a liberall hand and Fortune had bountifully opened her Brest could finde no eloquence to be with the sword of Justice nor to mollifie the cruelty of the times but behoved to drink the unavoidable Cup presented to him What can I expect when the Appetite of revenge is set on edge And if Wrath has so easily travelled over Mountains how shall it not strike flat the Molehils If the angry thunder made the noble Cedars shrink how shall not the silly shrubs lately crept from the mud of the Valleys be drowned in their Primitive basenesse I will not harbour the least hopes of escape or think that my Surplice stained with the adulterous spots of the great whore can plead favour when the purple richly dy'd with the rayes of His Majesties Countenance could not meet with pardon Though I have hitherto deckt my self with a kinde of Majesty and Grace in my Prelaticall pride arrayed with Splendor and taught the gazing times to hide my faults giving my Plots good Fortune yet behold an ungratious light sudden as a Tempest at Sea hath discovered my nakednesse and publisht my shame I am vile and abased trode down and hid in the dust Judgement and Justice take hold on me and cast abroad the rage of their wrath which will certainly extend their terrours to you and grinde you to powder if ye forsake not these wayes whose going down are to the chambers of death And therefore while my Oyl is yet lasting and my Taper weakly burning I will disclose the true causes of this great misery and help you with an upright confession of my wayes as a Sacrifice for my self if it were possible to expiat the stain of my dishonour and appease the Worlds displeasure Universall as the Sunne-Beams and hot consuming flames and a Testimony against you O children of defection in the day of your accompt That I might appear a great Church-man of vast desires and designes being radically resolved to set up a Tyrannicall Power in the Persons of Prelates over the worship of God over the consciences liberties and goods of the People It cannot be denyed but I have negotiated most eagerly and strained all Possibilities and Stratagems of State to erect an Hierarchy forgetting the directions of the Gospel and the bonds of Monarchy and the cryes of the oppressed leaving nothing undone to promote my intentions and atchieve my ends to which I had emancipated all thepowers of my mind
with so strong a Passion as if I had been sent into the world for no other purpose or as if the glory of God had been interessed the honor of the King wounded and all Religion had consisted in Episcopacy This I thought to effectuate two manner of wayes especially first by establishing my self at home in England in the power of Sole and universall Jurisdiction and that I might attain to be a Patriarch for which ye know I have not stuck to plead contentiously 2. By bringing the neighbour Nations of His Majesties Dominions but most particularly that Kingdom of Scotland to me so fatall under my verge and to the obedience of these novations and alternations wherein my Grandeur and this change did essentially consist With what excrbitancy of overdaring pride and what insolency I have swayed all in the Church of England How impudently I laid by the pastorall duty and a care to approve my self to the eternall and secular Powers how I have neglected all fear of Laws of censure and shame since I obtained the chair of Canterbury and begun my Antichristian raign imposing absolute Tyranny on the souls and wils of people shall the after-age be hardly induced to beleeve O bâ—t behold your poor Primitive mother the distressed Church of this Iland if you be the children concerned in her bleeding miseries and look how wofully she is torn how we have opened her tender sides pulled her Crown from her head and trode her under foot Nay she lyes breathlesses all covered with wounds with sores all defiled And those glorious twins Religion and Peace who loved to triumph here sweetly kissing each other spreading over us the beauty of their halcyonian dayes how have we alas so shreudly so undeservedly banished and given place to the unquiet furies of ugly error and bloudy warre so that whiles she lyes labouring like a disgraced Virgin under the throwes of her thick coming sorrows in all the corners of the land may it justly be complained Postquam interna furor discerpere viscera caepit Omnia membra labant soluto defecta vigore Tabescunt tota penitus compage soluta A capite ad calcem vestigia nulla salutis Quippe ubi cor languct vitalia cuncta laborant Quis miserae queat Ecclesiae memorare dolores Vulnera deflere lachrimis mala dicere verbis Nec mihi si centum linguae totidem ora sonarent Nec si Mconii Vatis torrente redundem Nec si mellâ—flâ—i contingat Musa Maronis Haec satis enumerem subsint aut verba volenti But now her cryes have peirced the Clouds and he that said he would come does come full of vengeance with phials of wrath in his hand to poure upon those who have so sore oppressed her I did voluntary forego her wo and Sacrificing to the lusts of my own minde I lul'd the world a sleep that the throne which I was building for the greatnesse of my name might rise more safely I had erected a kinde of Inquisition through the whole Land and none dared so much to look stern upon the face of Episcopacy though they had been most eminent in all the graces of the Spirit but presently behoved to be crushed I had so cunningly interlaced the Image of the Beast with His Majesties Pourtrait that none durst inveyagainst the one but presently behoved to injure the other thus caught within the compasse of Treason by a strange Divinity assuring the world that the Crown could not flourish on the Kings head without the Fellowship of a Miter All my pretentions were deeply guilded with the Beams of Authority which through Inadvertencie and fashion of Times I made Usher in such strangers as deflored the Church abused the State and dishonoured the whole Dominion When the seeds of Arminianisme Superstition and Popery by my Episcopall law more tendering the honour of Hierarchy then the Gospels integritie simplicity had been very Luxuriant and over-run the whole Vineyard I knew that as Rome was now filled with joy for the fair hopes of our return to her so was England and all the Churches reformed choakt with fear and sorrow For alas even as the Earth looks sad and sullen at the Sunnes departure and every Tree every flower puts forth a tear when he renews his comfort Why do not we conceive the lovers of the Spirit of truth must be dismayed wounded in heart and cloathed in sorrow when truth is banisht from out the face of the Earth Yet would I never make scruple out of zeal to that Spirituall Monarchy to tread down all those who were bold to speak against the calamities of Times iniquities of the Times and the injuiries done to the Gospel though we must all confesse the Spirit of Truth did powerfully dwell in them I suppressed them removed them and send them in banishment beyond Sea thereby depriving Church and Common-wealth of their Christian help both in Religion and Policy But my own Creatures willing Instruments to promote my Counsells and Projects were most solemnly advanced to the places in Church and State Thus We went on kept our correspondence and ordored our game by such a strange cunning and violence that there remains a black History for our deeds which will hardly meet with belief in other Churches By the whole Current of my carriage by my practises wayes motions and intelligence ye knew alas that I was about that great work of the Whore of Rome in such sort that some of the Pasquils of the time have Charactered me Her laborious Pander to make the possession of World Hers and derogate from the glory of the Gospel and honour of Kings O be ashamed for so miserably prostituting your selves and your souls to the domineering pride of my humor in fomenting my Popish intentions constantly followed by you as if we had joyntly conspired to the overthrow of Truth and Religion And because the Printers Presse did often speake the times and tell the world the mystery of my Episcopising therefore did I arrogate to my selfe the keys thereof and making the power of Printing depend on me did shut and open the same at my pleasure Neither durst any booke though never so richly embellisht with the treasures of piety and wisdome once appeare untill by a supercillious license my Canonicke Secretaries had first found it relish deeply of the Romish and Arminian poyson And as I was the rule of doctrine intending and remitting the qualities of Sermons as the conditions of times required So were many Pulpits prophaned with Heresies Revilings and Scurrilous reproches Nay wherein have I restrained my insolent and unbridled minde in the pursuit of my superstitious follies What Statute Civill or Ecclesiasticall cannot rise up against mee and argue guilty To shew how I have framed new Constitutions Ceremonies without number which infest the world daily more and more Canons and Articles and Oaths printed published and forced upon the people How wee have dared to grant Licenses and make presumptuous Dispensations