to worry him who had as much relation to the place as himself where these good Deeds were done But there is a Writer and not one year scapes him but that he publisheth somewhat to bespatter the Bishop of Lincoln's good Name Odimus accipitrem quia semper vivit in armis Ovid. Art Amand. he it is that would cover all the Monuments of his Bounty with one Blot if he could find Readers such as he wish't that would take all that he vents without examination Mr. Fuller in his Church History of Britain after he had given some unhandsome Scratches to this Bishop parts with him thus Envy it self could not deny but that whit hersoever he went he might be traced by the foot-steps of his Benefaction That he expended much in the repair of the Abby-Church of Westminster and that the Library was the effect of his Bounty This is truth and praise-worthy in the Historian and yet I say not the Bishop is beholding to him for it because it is truth That 's Politian's judgment in an Epistle to Baptista p. 197. Pro vâ—ris laudibus hoc est pro suis nemo cuiquam debet Quis enim pro suo debeat But what says one of the Swallows to it that built under the roof of the Abby Just like a Swallow carried all the filth he could pick up to his Nest But worse then a miry Swallow he resembles those obscene Birds that use to flutter about the Sepulchres of the Dead and insults extreamly over the Grave of the Deceased in his Animadversions upon the Church History p. 273. That Lincoln received so much out of the Rents of the Colledge in the time when he was Lord Keeper four years and more that the Surplusage of all that he paid out in several sums respectively amounted to more then he laid out upon the Church and Library 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Demost orat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the end The very Enemies of the dead cease to hate them when they are dead But as Anabaptists and Quakers say they are above Ordinances so it seems the Conscience of some Divines is above moral Niceties As to the Calumny squeeze it and in round Russian Language you shall wring out a great lye First before the Dean was Lord Keeper or dreamt of that honour that is before the Chapter had committed the Rents to his management he had repaired the great Ruins of the south side of the Church abutting upon the stately Chappel of Henry the Seventh If the Animadverter knew this why did he not separate it from that which was expended in those four years wherein he lays his Challengeâ— If he did not know it for it was done ten years before he was hatcht into a Prebend then when blind men throw stones whose head is not like to be broken For that which was laid out by the Lord Keeper to strengthen and beautifie the north side of the Abby to the end that the right Pay-master may be known and the mouth of all Detraction stopt the Chapter shall testifie in their Act as followeth Whereas there hath lately been divulged as we have heard an unjust report that the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God the Lord-Bishop of Lincoln our Dean should have repair'd and new-built our Church on the north side of the same and south side of the Chappels belonging to it out of the Diet and Bellies of the Prebendaries and Revenues of our said Church and not out of his own Revenues We therefore the Prebendaries of the same with one consent do affirm That we verily believe the same to be a false and injurious Report And for our selves we do testifie every man under his own Protestation that we are neither the Authors nor Abettors of any such injurious Report untruly uttered by any mean man with intention to reflect upon his Lordship And this we do voluntarily record and witness by our Chapter Act dated this present Chapter Decemb. 8. 1628. Theo. Price Sub-Deacon Christopher Sutton George Darrel Gabriel Grant Jo. King Rob. Newell John Hâ—lt Gr. Williams Whether will we believe eight men in their right minds or one in his rage To slight the Bishops erecting such a beautiful Pile the Library of St. John's Colledge and put that of Westminster with it he is as froward as a Child that hath worms in his Stomach and tells us that it possibly cost him more Wit than Money many Books being daily sent unto him Vis dicam tibi veriora veris Martial It was not only possible but very true For what Library no not the Bodleian the choicest of England but grew up and doth grow by contributory Oblations as Athenaeus says Lib. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Symbols or Portions that many Friends bring in to furnish a publick work have good influence into it but the Founder is the Lord of the Ascendant A great deal of the like the Author hath crowded into a few Leaves I do not accuse it for want of Salt it is a whole Hogshead of Brine Wisely and mildly Melanchthou was wont to say Answer not Slanders but let them vanish Et si quid adhuc in hujus saeculi levitate quasi innat at brevi interiturum est cum autorum nominibus Camer p. 79. The worthy Works of the Bishop's excessive cost at Westminster and in both Universities will stand when Pamphlets shall be consum'd with moths The liberal deviseth liberal things and by liberal things he shall stand Isai 32.8 A fair walnut-Walnut-tree the more it bears the more it is beaten as it complains in the Greek Epigram 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But such as yield the fruits of good works in this world shall become Trees of Life hereafter as I have read it from some good Pen He is well that is the better for others but he shall be happy for whom others are the better 91. Method hath digested the troubles about the Deanry altogether which is the reason why this Paragraph recoils five years back that is to 1630 to make a transition into the next disturbance A Commission was directed this year to very honourable and knowing persons the Lord Privy Seal Earl of Arundel Vicount Wimbleton Lord Wentworth Sir Hugh Middleton Sir W. Slingsby Sir Hen. Spelman Ed. Ascough Th. Brett Th. Bridgman to question the oppression of exacted Fees in all Courts and Offices Civil and Ecclesiastical throughout all England A noble Examination and full of Justice if due and convenient Fees thereupon had been straitned and appointed which was frustrated two ways First by indigent and craving Courtiers who enquired after such as were suspected for Delinquency and of great Wealth with whom they compounded to get them Indempnity though not a Doit of a Fee were abated Secondly By vexatious Prosecutions of abundance that were Innocent before Sub-committees where Promoters got a great livelyhood to themselves to redeem them from chargeable Attendance which deserves such a Complaint as Budaeus
For read him what he was indeed out of the Description which Tacitus gives lib. 16. Annal. circa finem to P. Egnatius Client to Soranus the famous Senator Cliens hic Sorani autoritatem Stoicae sectae praeferebat habitu ore ad exprimendam imaginem honesti exercitus caeterùm animo perfidiosus subdolus Yet this Stoical Gravity did not long conceal him but that his needless Vexations of harmless People his cutting Fees his Briberies and other Muck of the same Dunghil made an out-cry and put the King 's good People to seek a Remedy by preferring Articles against him at the Assizes where he was charg'd home with an Alphabet of Misdemeanors He pleaded to the general that he was so much despited because he had look'd more narrowly into the Disobedience of the Paritans then formerly had been used My Opinion is that such Physicians of no value Job 13.4 may cast the Water of such sick Distempers but will never heal them Infamous Judges may correct them they will never rectifie them For he that is fallen into a Moral Turpitude is soon convinc'd in his own Mind but he that is misguided by darkness of Understanding thinks that he doth right to his own Conscience by going wrong and is never so well reclaim'd as when he is mildly rebuk'd by them whose open Integrity and Pity justifie them that they walk as Children of the Light But for the Particulars which laid down so many Oppressions at the Official's door they were not Dust which would be brush'd away with the Fox Tail but Dirt that stuck to him till the Dean his Mediator obtain'd from the Judges a Reference to himself and some others for further Examination By which sly Diversion some of his Charges were laid aside by Composition all of them by delay and delusion After this what should be the End of it I know not without it were to make him look big and superciliously upon his Prosecutors the Dean engaged his Friends at Cambridge my self was one that was solicited from him to sublimate the Official with the Degree of a Doctor wherein he had one Repulse in the Regent-House such an ill relish his Name had but he was carried out in a second day's Scrutiny But for all his Doctorship he was not out of the Brakes he was but Tapisht as Hunters call it The stirring Spirits of the the subtle Air of Northamptonshire prefer'd their Articles afresh against him to the House of Commons assembled in Parliament an 1620. Wedges enough to cleave a bigger Log then Dr. Lamb and yet he was no little one but Saginati corporis bellua as Curtius says of Dioxippus the Pugil Well nay indeed ill his Friend that was too sure to such a branded Man now become the Dean of a College near to the Parliament finds the Articles in the hand of the Chair-man of the Committee appointed to sift the Complaints it was Sir Edward Sackvil afterward the brave-spoken Earl of Dorset with whom he wrought to abortive the Bill before it came to the Birth and so he set Dagon upon his Feet again who was fallen with his face upon the ground 1 Sam. 5.4 but the palms of his Hands were never cut off for so long as he lived he could take a Bribe I blush to remember that the Dean did not only set him up again as well as ever he stood before but raised him higher For he wrote to a great Lord in Court the Letter is among my Papers to procure him the Honour of Knighthood which was obtained And when his Enemies laboured to cut his Comb he got the Spurs 'T was pleasantly spoken by Sir Ed. Montagu since that Pious and Loyal Lord Montagu of Boughton when a cluster came about him to ask Counsel and Assistance for a third Petition against Sir John Lamb says Sir Edward If we tamper the third time his great Friend that hath already made him a Doctor and a Knight I fear will make him a Baron I have thus much to say for the Dean his friend whose very Entrails I knew that he was strongly espoused to love where he had loved and 't was hard to remove his Affections when good Pretences had gained them Chiefly he was of a most compassionate Tenderness and could not endure to see any Man's Ruine if he could help it And though Offences were as legible as a Dominical Letter he would excuse any thing that was capable of an Excuse as far as Wit and Mercy could contrive it But if a little Confession were wrung out it cut down many Faults to make him see as it were a Glade of Repentance in a Grove of Sins and did ever hope for better Fruits upon easie and formal Promises Let Quintilian help me out a little more in his sixth Declam Si angustus saltem detur accessus per quem intrare humanit as possit vera clementia occasione contenta est Yet David's Rule is better then all this Be not merciful to them that offend of malicious wickedness Psal 59.5 And our God is so merciful that whosoever adds a dram beyond his Pattern it must be reckoned for foolish and hurtful Lenity Certainly God was not pleased that the Dean would save a Man whom He meant to destroy 1 King 20.42 And though it slept Unpunished about 12 Years yet in the end the Lord awaken'd it with a Mischief through the treachery of that Man whom himself had protected 45. That which I have hitherto pass'd over was but his low and shrubbish Fortune compared with that Access which the Providence of God in short time after did cast upon him Which Providence is Religiously appeal'd to in all things yet without any check to Reason and Experience to trace it in its Manifestations The Omni-regency of Divine Providence is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden of the World the Strings of whose Root are secretly interwoven with all Works and Motions But the Sons of Adam are not content unless they taste of the Tree of Knowledge and have a Lust as far as Curiosity can pry to learn how God doth put the Issue of his Wisdom into outward and Instrumental Causes I am ready therefore to shew what Men will seek the Occasions which were in the way and who was Lord of the Ascendant when God did raise up this his Servant that he might set him with Princes even with the Princes of his People Psal 113.8 His Abilities were worthy of a great Place none so Emulous or so Envious that denied it Neither was there any Church-man in his time so likely to purchase a great Place with those Abilities He that will will read Budaeus his Epistle to his Notations upon the Pandects shall find this Character of Mons Peganay Chancellor of France Cujus ea vis fuisse ingenii at que animi cernitur ut quocunque loco natus esset in quodcunque tempus incidisset fortunam ipse sibi facturus videretur A Word as fit
4. the two great Masters of the Roman Learning It is not certain whither they be extant in the Remains that are publish'd and to be seen at this day I meddle with nothing which their Messengers collected in Asia and Greece to furnish their Capitol with new Oracles I look on no other than those eight Books of Sibylline Prophesies with the Fragments annexed set out by Opsopaeus and others and stand first in the Third Volume of the Greek Bibliotheca Patrum I look I say upon no more and move no more than one Question upon them Whether all that is in them nay whether any part of them was penned by Prophetesses living among the Gentiles and living before the coming of Christ Jesus in the Flesh What I resolve in it I branch into seven Conclusions First That some part of these Oracles which we have in our Use and Possession were endited before the Incarnation of our Lord and in some Verses where Christ is foretold that he should come and reign upon the Earth together with the Dissipation of Idolatry and other Heathenish Rites For albeit in those Passages they had not Credit with some in Eusebius's time and in St. Austin's time the Prophesies of others that were not Jews concerning Christ were thought to be forg'd by Christians Ci. Dei Lib. 18. c. 47. Yet I cannot incline to that Diffidence for this reason Eusebius says they were quoted by Clemens known to Peter and Paul either in an Epistle lost or lost out of that Epistle which is now come to light Likewise by Justin Martyr bordering upon the Times of the Apostles And they quoted them as attesting to the Honour of our Christian Cause Therefore somewhat of the Evangelical relish was in them ante-nated and in being before the Gospels were written Secondly Antiquity hath voiced it that Women were the Authors of them which none hath contradicted The Wits of that Sex have excell'd in Odes and Madrigals In holy Hymns also As Deborah and Barac are named Jud. 5. but first Deborah for chanting that Triumphal Song which hath as much Art and Dithyrambical Loftiness in it as is in any Syrick Poetry Greek or Latin And if we had more of Miriam's Song Exod. 15.21 it would not come behind them And God did open great Secrets by such Instruments as his Hand-maids who ever did his wonders by weakest means and provok'd the World to attend to such Conveyance as was strange and to which they were not wonted Thirdly They were Gentiles the Jews never owned them and it is already proved that they lived before the Disciples were call'd Christians at Antioch The very learned Bishop Montague should have look'd to it in his 3 Cap. of Acts and Monuments how he disputed that they were all Gentiles and casts about that the first and chief lived in the Days of Abraham It could not be Satan that provok'd them to utter such â—olywords for then his Kingdom had been divided against It self to have received her Instructions from Sem when as there was no distinction of Jew and Gentile I would bring them nearer to the times of Grace upon this thought that as some note of the Jews that after their return from Babylon about Five Hundred Years before Christ's Nativity they were in Limine Ecclesiae as it were in the Porch of the Church and saw into the Mystery of Salvation more clearly for the generality of the People than before yet no Prophet was among them So the nearer the time drew that the day spring from on high did visit us the more did Divinations abound among the Heathens to prepare them for that Blessing as it may be enlarged from the Magi of the East that came to visit our Saviour Fourthly I leave these Prophetesses to God that knows the Heart whether they had the Spirit of Belief and of the Knowledge of that they utter'd That is whether they were impulled like Balaam Saul and Caiaphas to vent that which they could not keep in or whether they were inspired like Esaias and the Prophets of the Lord. There is no History how she or more shee s lived or what end they made which were the means and none else to decide it Fifthly Take the Sibylline Oracles in a lump so as now they are deliver'd to us and they have a great of deal of Addition and Fraudulency in them The Interlinings of a Christian Pen are as manifest as the Sun at Noon-day Quò apertiora sunt cò mihi suspectiora I consent to Casaubon Num. 17. Exercit. Is this Prophetical or the Paraphrase of the Gospel that Christ should be baptized in Jordan and a Dove descend upon him that he should feed Five Thousand with Five Loaves and Two Fishes and Twelve Baskets of the Fragments should remain The very Words of St. John put into Hexameters What Prophet in the O.T. did ever collate Types and Antitypes together Yet in these Poems ye may find that Moses lifting up his Hands when the People fought with Amaleck did figure the Arms of Christ stretch'd out upon the Cross What a World of open and direct Passages Gabriel by name saluting the Blessed Virgin the Star appearing the Shepherds greeted by Angels as they kept watch over their Flocks by Night A very Breviate of some Chapters in the N.T. Nor could they be of any other Profession than Christian that betray themselves that Nero would persecute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our part which contends with the Heathen But in the Fragments all is discover'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We of the holy and heavenly Off-spring of Christ The learned Bishop thinks to bear this down with a fieri Potest God might make one or more of these speak clearer than Moses or any Prophet But with favour he hath not done his Work that makes a Conjecture possible but that makes it probable Which the best Wit alive is not able to do in this case Sixthly The time when these additional Verses were thrust into the Sibylline writings appears to me to be about the Year 170. For Lib. 5. Every one of the Caesars is describ'd by a Numeral Letter the first of his Name from Julius the Dictator to Adrian whose Name is opened from the Adriatick Sea Some small Intimation of each Antoninus follows But then all that comes after is shuffled up nothing clear nothing particular not a glance made at a succeeding Emperor I have heard good Antiquaries discourse that our British Prophecies ascribed to Merlin were the Fruit of some Writer in the Days of Henry the Second Merlin the Fay supposed to be a Wizard contemporary to King Arthur lived Seven Hundred Years before But this Pseudo-Merlin handles many great Occurrences punctually and explicitely to the days of Henry the Second In all that follows are Tragelaphi Satyrs and Griffins Cocks and Bulls The Fortune-teller casts Figures but names no Person in the Sequel So these interloping Verses discover themselves to be the … e of some that
to decline that Extremity the most of the Lords who endeavour'd to do all the Favour that they durst shew concluded upon a Fine of 10000 l. Imprisonment in the Tower during Pleasure which had been but short as they were assured before if the King had been but left to his own gracious Gentleness and to be suspended during Pleasure in the High-Commission-Court from all his Jurisdiction Which Suspension pass'd in that Commission July 23. And it would not be pass'd over that Sir Ed. Littleton then L. Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas Anno 1640. in the Month of July brought Lincoln to Lambeth face to face with the L. of Canterbury when Lincoln told his Grace That the Commission under the Great Seal had not a word in it to enable him to suspend either Bishop or Priest by direction from a Sentence of Star-chamber but only for Offences specified in the Commission and that the Fact which His Grace had done had brought him and the Commissioners into a Praemunire To which the Archbishop answered That he had never read the Commission A learned Satisfaction Was it not when he had censur'd so many by the Power of that Commission which he confest he had never read But consider now as Isocrates pleaded it well ad Plat. p. 456. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether it be right to inflict such unjust and grievous Penalties upon such petty pretended Misdemeanors Or did not the Latin Orator provide better against it Cic. 1. de Off. Cavendum ne major poena quà m culpa sit ne iisdem de causis alii plectantur alii ne appellentur quidem And let those who meet with this Narration be acquainted that albeit the Compact was in the Inner Chamber that the Lords should speak all the same in their Judgment yet a little Vanity slipt from some few to ease their Stomach The L. Finch said That if it had liked others he would have laid some Ignominy on the Bishop's person Promptum ad asperura ingenium Tac. An. lib. 1. So this Lord look'd on the Bishop's Cause not only with a blear'd but with a blood-shotten Eye for it was conceived he meant the cutting off his Ears who had never sate a Judge in all likelihood if this Bishop being then L. Keeper had not prevented him from leaving his Calling and travelling beyond Seas from which courses he kept him by fair Promises to provide for him and he made them good I will name the time and place Aug. 1621 and the Earl of Exeter's House in St. John's Close Mr. Secretary Winnebanke said It was his desire if it might have seemed good to others to have the Bishop degraded Hold Sir Francis and learn the Canons of the Church it is not in the Power of Laymen to degrade Bishops at their discretion and as little can a Knight depose a Peer of the upper House of Parliament for he that can thrust a Bishop out of that House why not as well an Earl or a Duke But Sir Francis shewed his Good will as the Athenians did to Philip the Son of Demetrius in Livy Additum est decreto ut si quid postea quod ad noxam ignominiamque Philippi pertineret adderetur id omne populum Atheniensium jussurum Dec. 4. lib. 1. Then comes in the Archbishop with a Trick to hoise up the Bishop with some Praise that it might push him in pieces with a greater Censure That when he thought upon this Delinquent's Learning Wisdom Agility in Dispatch Memory and Experience that accompanied him with all these Endowments he wondred at his Follies and Sins in this Cause O Sins by all means for by dioptrical Glasses some find Blemishes in the Sun Telescopia fabri facimus ut in sole maculas quaeramus says Alex. More in his Preface to Strangius's learned Book So upon this matter his Grace took up no less than a full Hour to declaim against the horrid Sin of Perjury and in this Cause he might as well have spoken against the horrid Sin of Piracy So he lays all his Censure upon that Charge Spirat inexhaustum flagranti pectore sulphur as Claudian of Enceladus The Auditors thought he would never have made an end till at last he pleaded for more Right to be done Sir J. Mounson The Lords let me say it freely and truly had overshot themselves to fine the Bishop to pay Sir John a Thousand Marks for saying that his Charge against Pregion was a Pocket-Order It is confess'd the Bishop said so and said the Truth But beside the Bishop pleaded that he heard it of T. Lund Lund stands to it that he told it the Bishop yet the Bishop is censur'd and Lund that took it upon himself is not question'd But the L. of Canterbury who did ever mount highest in all Censures said He was sorry the Fine was not a Thousand pounds 120. This is the shutting up of the Censure grievous to the Bishop's Purse and Liberty but not a whit to his Honour and Good Name which was so esteem'd by almost all that heard the actings of that day and shook their Heads at them As Cicero says in pro Plancio Opimii calamitas turpitudo Po. Ro. non judicium putandum est I that write this was chosen to bring the relation of this Censure to the Bishop then hard at his Study which he received with no change at all of his Countenance or Voice but only said Now the Work is over my Heart is at rest so is not many of theirs that have censured me And here began the way to Episcopal Disgrace and Declension It was his turn now it was Canterbury's not long after Howl fir-Fir-tree for the Cedar is fallen Zech. 11.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Salmasius of the Elephant and Dragon in Solinum p. 307. The Vanquish'd was cast down and the Conqueror fell likewise When such a Pillar of the Church was demolish'd with Prosecutions so uncover'd to every Eye so transparent that you might see the Blush of Injustice quite through them how ominous was it to the higher and lower Dignities of the Clergy As Mr. Morice says in his Coena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 354. Perhaps it may be with them as with Staddels in a Wood which scarce ever prosper when their fellows are cut down and themselves left naked And what became in three years or little more of that Honourable Court of Star-chamber of which the L. Coke says That in the right institution and the ancient Orders of it being observ'd it keeps all England in quiet But in some late Causes it grew distasteful even to wonder as in that of the Soap-boilers and that of London Derry that of Mr. Osbolston nay in that of Prynn Bastwick and Burton men not to be favour'd in the matter of their seditious Writings but for their Qualities and Places sake to be pitied for the Indignity done to their Persons which I receive from a wise Hand Bodin de Rep. l. 6. c. 6. Legibus