gained divers Beneficed Men to conform who had stumbled at that Straw that the Lord Keeper could do no less then compound the Troubles of so Learned and Industrious a Divine And I aver it upon the Faith of a good Witness that after this Bishop Harsnet acknowledged that he was as useful a man to assist him in his Government as was in all his Diocese Another Rank for whose sake the Lord Keeper suffer'd were scarce an handful not above three or four in all the wide Bishoprick of Lincoln who did not oppose but by ill Education seldom used the appointed Ceremonies Of whom when he was certified by his Commissaries and Officials he sent for them and confer'd with them with much Meekness sometime remitted them to argue with his Chaplain If all this stirred them not he commended them to his Old Collegiate Dr. Sibbs or Dr. Gouch Who knew the scruples of these mens Hearts and how to bring them about the best of any about the City of London If all these labour'd in vain he protracted the hearing of their Causes de die in diem that time might mollisie their refractory Apprehensions But had it not been better said some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stop the mouth of the unruly Tit. 1.11 I Answer Their mouth was slept in St. Paul's meaning Estius hath begun the distinction and it is easily made up Alind est silontium indicere quod est imperamis Alind ad metas saciturnitatis reduccre quod est docte redarguentis They were not imperiously commanded to be silent but enough was spoken wifely to their Face to put their Folly to silence Men that are found in their Morals and in Minutes imperfect in their Intellectuals are best reclaimed when they are mignarized and strok'd gently Seldom any thing but severity will make them Anti-practise For then they grow desperate Facundus Dominus quosdam aâ—fugam cogit quosdam ad mortem says Seneca And they are like to convert more with their sufferings then with their Doctrine He that is openly punish'd whatsoever he hath done he shall find Condolement But I will spend no more Words to wipe away this stur of Puritanism it needs not a laborious Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Proverb is in Athenaeus Let Lubbars Talk of it over a Winter Fire when they Droll out Tales 107. Yet I want not matter how to wash out this spot of Jealousie by great Actions In this year 1622 he began to expend a great Sum upon St. John's College the Nurse of his hopeful breeding A right stampt Puritan is not a Founder but a Demolisher of good Works He laid the platform of his Beneficence on this Wife Four Scholars he Added to the 40 Alumni in the College of Westminster For their Advancement he provided and endowed four Scholarships in St. John's College upon their Maturity and Vacancy of those places to be Translated to them Two Fellowships he Newly Erected in that House into which only out of those four the best were to be chosen Withal he purchas'd the Patronage of four Rich Benefices to receive those Scholars and Fellows of his Foundation upon the Death or other Cessation of the Incumbents But the Chief Minerval which he bestowed upon that Society was the Structure of a most goodly Library the best in that kind in all Cambridge And as he had pick'd up the best Authors in all Learning and in all plenty for his own use so he bequeathed them all to this fair Repository This was Episcopal indeed to issue out his Wealth as the Lord brought it in in such ways This is the Purse that Mr. H. L. says he Ran away withal after he had departed with the Great Seal wherein we see how far the Portion of over-flowing wast which 〈◊〉 from Great Ones and is spilt if it were sav'd and well bestow'd would 〈◊〉 the Land with all sort of Monumental Bravery What a good Steward he was for his Master Christ Jesus's Houshold and how provident to put none into part of the Care but such as were Obedient to Civil and Sacred Rulers appears most in his happy choice of those upon whom he confer'd the livings that fell into his Patronage They were ever pick'd out of the best Learned the best Qualified the most Cordially affected to our most Godly Liturgy and to the Government of the Prelates Within these Apostatizing times wherein so many have departed from them without Cause I cannot remember any of his preferring but kept their Traces and to their best Power never run out of the Ring I have a short Story to tell and then I leave this Subject Among the poor distressed Protestants in Bohemia many of them were Braziers by their Occupation These sent sent some messengers from them with a Petition to his Majesty that they might Transplant a Colony into England London especially Men Wives Children and their full Families Signifying that they would bring with them to the Value of two hundred Thousand Pounds in Coin and Materials of their Trade That their Substance and Labour should be subject to all Customs and Taxes for the King's profit They desired to live in a Body of their own Nation and to serve Christ Jesus in that Church Discipline which they brought with them from Bohemia Though they had inclin'd his Majesty to admit them being a great Swarm of People and bringing Wax and Honey along yet the Lord Keeper diverted it from the Example of the Dutch and French that were setled among us These brought commodious Manufacture into the Realm but they brought a Discipline with it according to the Allowance of their Patent which was a Suffocation to the Temperate Crisis of our own Church Government Which Peril of Distemper would be increased by the Access of the Bohemick Congregation A great Forecast to keep our Hierarchy found from the Contagion of Foreigners and he was more Religious to keep the Church of England in its Sabbath and Holy Rest than to help out the Neighbours Ox that was fallen into the Pit Yet I have somewhat to alledge in the Behalf of the Bohemians I have in my little Library a Book printed 1633 eleven years after the Lord Keeper appear'd against their Petition called Ratio Disciplinae ordinisque Ecclesiastici in unitate sratrum Bohemorum Their Platform in that Piece comes so near to the old Protestant Church of England above all the Reformed that for my part I wish we had had their Company This is sufficient I am sure against those Opposite and Self-overthrowing Aspersions Let them do their worst there is one Metal that will never be the worse for them of whose Property this Lord partak'd It is Gold of which Pliny writes Lib. 33. N. H. c. 3. that nothing makes it more precious Quam contra salis aceti succos domitores rerum constantia The Spirits of Salt and Vinegar the most biting and sowrest Reproaches cannot hurt it with their Tartness That which corrodes all
hath given encouragement to the Metropolitan and Bishops and other Ordinaries to require the like in all Churches committed to them The Bishop says He hath left all to the Law to the communion-Communion-book to the Canons and Diocesan p. 59. And which is much they two should agree the Doctor says so too Ant. p. 64. That it is left to the Judgment of the Ordinary for the thing for the time N. B. when and how long he may find cause The Bishop says more That after this Order he had heard of no Bishop that had exacted of his Diocess the placing of the Holy Table Altar-wise p. 69. And in the year following 1634. the Archbishop holding a Metropolitical Visitation keeps him to the ancient form in this Interrogatory Doth the Table stand in a convenient place of Chancel or Church If one Prelate was singular in his Visitation of Norwich Diocess which the Dr. would seem not to speak out but to intimate our Bishop hath a Passage to meet it p. 85. out of Archbishop Whitgift There is no manner of reason that the Orders of the Church should depend upon one or two mens liking or disliking Where now appears I say not the Command but the Encouragement that the Order made for St. Gregory's Church should be observed in all Parishes It will conduce to this Cause to borrow one Quotation out of the Bishop and two out of the Doctor the Bishop's is taken from an Act of Council made for reformation 1 Edw. 6. That the form of a Table shall never move the simple from the superstitious Opinions of the Popish Mass and that this superstitious Opinion is more held in the minds of the simple and ignorant by the form of an Altar than of a Table The Dr. p. 105. out of a Sermon of Bishop Hooper's preach'd before K. Edward It were well it might please the Magistrates to turn the Altars into Tables according to the first Institution of Christ to take away the false Perswasion of the People which they have of Sacrifices to be done upon the Altars for as long as the Altars remain both the ignorant People and the ignorant evil-perswaded Priest will dream always of Sacrifice Then p. 129. Bishop Ridley took down Altars and appointed the form of a right Table to be used in all his Diocess Duo Scipiadae These two Bishops were very learned and very Martyrs A little remains to shut up this Controversie or rather to shut it out For to set the Table under the East Window of the Chancel the ends running North and South is this to set it Altar-wise Verily it is a meer English Phrase or rather an English Error because Altars beyond the Seas are placed promiscuously either at the top or in the midst of the Chancel as the Bishop notes p. 218. and commonly so far from the Wall that the Priests and Deacons might stand round about them As in Cardinal Borromaeo's Reformation a space of eight cubits was to be left between the Altar and the Wall Altare in medio Ecclesiae situm says Baron anno 451. p. 62. Josephus Vicecomes a skilful man in these punctilio's Altaria in medio Ecclesiae allocata fuisse But to fasten it sure I refer it to Marcellus Corcyrensis lib. 3. Sacr. Cerem p. 215. he says The Pope never preacheth but when he celebrates the Mass himself he goes not up into a Pulpit but sits in his Chair Sedet ante altare super faldistorium si altare est apud Parietem Si autem sedes Papae non infra sed supra altare est ut in Ecclesiâ S. Petri similibus tune Papa vertit faciem ad chorum sedens in praedictâ sede Here 's the Altar in the chief mother-Mother-Church of Rome in the midst of the Quire which falls into this conclusion that these local Differences among us about the Holy Table are not in imitation of any Church but forms taken up at home so that upon the final Sentence Maxima de nihilo nascitur historia as Propertius says fitly 106. Here you have the Book of the Holy Table epitomiz'd and you see the Bishop broke not the Peace of the Church but was upon the defence His Adversary tells us lately that it was a Book cried up every where with great applause when it came first to light What would it have been if it had been studied any long time and lick'd over with a second or third examination But one month in the Autumn began it and ended it as not only the Author but the Amanuensis testified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is when one is swift in doing a good thing God and he were joyn'd together But this Praise belongs to the Dr. as well as to him who is a swift Dromedary traversing her ways Jer. 2.23 There are Passages between them with some bitterness on both sides I like it in neither they that spit upon one another are both defiled I cite nothing faln in that kind for every Dunghill smells ill but not till you stir it To excuse such things Non contumelias sed argutias vocamus says Seneca It may be sharpness of Wit but it is bluntness of Wisdom One thing the Criticks noted beside That in some Passages the Holy Table is too light and merry and no Merriment is worse than the Laughter of Anger Subridens mistâ Mezentius irâ Virg. It was not publish'd in the person of a Bishop And to me it seems that a joculary Style was not amiss for a frivolous Cause Nor would the Author seem to be damp'd or troubled but full of sanguine Alacrity for all the Provocation And if Mirth keep decorum it is a good Rule of Theages the Pythagorean Laert. p. 847. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the office of Virtue to act with pleasure and not with sadness Or as Solomon much better A merry heart doth good like a medicine Prov. 17.22 But if any the least thing were amiss he heard of it on both Ears in the Antidotum Lincolniense which I pass over because no Reply was made unto it Not that the Author had won the Field but as Livy said Dec. 1. lib. 3. when the People of Rome retired to the Aventine Mountain for the Injury done to Virginia and the Senators ask'd them what they would have Non defuit quid responderetur defuit qui responsum daret The Bishop I know was making his Notes ready to vindicate his Book and was resolved as the Italian Proverb runs to give his Adversary Cake for Bread for he was like to Bishop Fisher in Erasmus's Character of him Ep. p. 396. Roffensis vir pius cum primis ac eruditus sed eo ingenio ut non facilè desinat ubi semel incaluit in certamine He was prevented by his Cause in Star-chamber which was brought to hearing in the same month that the Antidotum came abroad a Censure pass'd upon him which was executed with that rigour that all that he
Church under the Persian and Macedonjan Monarchies together with the Seleuctan and Ptolemaeâ—n Princes he had it at his Fingers ends But after that the Barren brought forth more Children then the Fruitful since the propagation of the Christian Faith among the Nations the Books are infinite which have compiled Occurrences of Evangelical Memorials yet our indefatigable Undertaker was not disheartned to read over all that was preserv'd but ransack'd Rolls and Libraries for all that was hid or lost Of such as faithful Custody had brought to light none escap'd him They are not the Divines of Magdepurg nor Baronius Annals though twice read over by him which furnished him with the Title of his Skill He knew more then they had observ'd from the Originals out of which they had digged their Ore Especially he was cunning in all Transactions done in the old Asian Churches and no less in the Greek even to the time of their Decay or Ruine rather under the Turkish Tyranny And because General and Provincial Councils the most Pure of them having been Celebrated in the East were the brightest Lanthorns of this kind of History he had observ'd in them as much as his Wit could penetrate into I say as much as he could for none was more ingenuous then he to confess his Defects And he did deplore when discourse of that Learning was on foot that the meaning of the Greek Canons nay nor of the Latin likewise was not opened to the World by an Artifice that was able to try their Metal That all Glossators hitherto had mistaken the Phraseologies and Terms of Imperial Laws and quaint Words having allusion to popular Speech in those days which are couched in them And since he minded me of such abstruseness in the Contexture of those Canons I have accused mine own oversight to my self that I thought I had known more of the true sense of those Canons then now I perceive I do There wants a Scholar like an Hound of a sure Nose that would not miss a true Scent nor run upon a false one to trace those old Bishops in their fuse A Divine he ought to be of the first Magnitude a Critic that should be an Hercules in the Greek Tongue a rare Canonist a most Learned Civilian mightily acquainted with all Pristine Ceremonies of a strong and inquisitive Judgment And since the matchless Salmasius is lately dead the Man whom I would have trusted with such a Work before all others who is sufficient for such a Task 19. The Histories of the Occidental Churches of great Bulk but little Credit he knew were both Partial and Adulterated many of them no better Authors then Luit prandus though it was his ill hap more then his Fellows to confess his Knavery for he says in his third Book that he set himself to write Ut de inimicis sumat vindictam landibus extollat eos qui se multis 〈◊〉 affâ—erant Such as this plain-dealing Fellow and all after him that struggled to raise up the Grandeur of the Româ—n Court Mr. Williams had read them and had hanged them all upon the File of his Memory and could vouch each or them to King James when a Question was ask'd about any of their Contents as if it had been the freshest thing in his Mind which he had perused but an hour before I think bonâ side there was no Man born more like to Eumâ—es in our Divine Poet Mr. Spencer's Description Recording all Things which this World doth weld laying them up in his Immortal Scrine where they for ever Incorrupted dwelt Let the Reader if he be not struck enough into Wonder already be advertized further that he could as readily and as dextrously recite Things which had been done in our British and English Churches from the first Infancy of them to his own days as if it had been written in the Palm of his Hand He carried in his Mind an Universal Idea of all Synods and Convocations that were ever held in our Land of all our Cathedrals their Foundations Conditions of Alteration Statutes Revenues c. As he had spared for no Travel to purchase this Skill so to fill his Vessel brim full he received all that Sir Harry Spelman Sir Robert Cotton and Mr. Selden his dear Friends could pour into him Some will say his Mind was set upon this Church and every particular of it might in some occasion concern him I will satisfie him that so proposes it that there was not a corner of an History Sacred or Secular in any Kingdom or State in Europe which he had not pried into and wherein he could not suddenly enlarge himself whether they were their Wars or Leagues of Amity whether their Laws Inheritances of their Crowns and Dignities their Lineages Marriages or what not The Chronicles of the Empire and German Princes the great Partidas of Spain all the Pieces of Antiquity he could rake out of French Abbies he was expert in them all as if he had got them by heart The issue of his Life bewrayed his End therein for he made this Study pay him Wages for all his Labour For he discerned his own Abuities to be fit for Publick Employment therefore he search'd into the notable Particularities of all Kingdoms Republicks and their Churches with all the Importances that hung upon them And he guessed right that King James would give all he could ask for such a Minister 20. The Tertia of his Industry and happy Studies and the Top-sail of them was the reading of the Fathers Greek and Latin Great was his Diligence in them marvellous was his Devotion to their Volumes These were the casting Counters with whom he reckoned all the Items of Christian Truth The least stood for a Pound the best for an hundred These were the Champions that first took the Field to fight the Lord's Battel all of them the Worthies of David whereof the stoutest had lifted up his Spear against 800 2 Sam. â— 23. and chased them These were after the Apostles the first-born Sons of the New-Jerusalem to whom by the Blessing of Primogeniture God had given the double Portion of Wisdom and his Spirit Mr. Williams remembred and would remember others of it when they needed such Advice that a Disciple of the Church of England must be their Disciple and would often cite out of the Canons concluded in Convocation an 1571. That Preachers should teach nothing in their Preaching which they would have the People Religiously to observe but that which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old Testament and the New and that which the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that Doctrine This is our Directory Let our Adversaries make the best of it to their advantage as the Funambulatory Jesuit Câ—mpian presumes Ad patres si 〈…〉 ctum est praeliuns Let him crow over Capons we have long laugh'd at his Arrogancy 21. I have here a Passage to insert as well for the Good of others
Liturgy and Canons of this â—â—tion but I sent him back again with the frivâ—lous Draught he had drawn It seems I remembred St. Austin ' s Rule better then he Ipsa mutatio consuetudinis ctiam quae adjuvat utilitate novitate perturbat Ep. 118. For all this he feared not mine Anger but assaulted me again with another illfangled Platform to make that slubborn Kirk stoop more to the English Pattern But I durst not play fast and loose with my Word He knows not the Stomach of that People but I ken the Story of my Grandmother the Queen Regent That after she was inveigled to break her Promise made to some Mutineers at a Perth Meeting she never saw good day but 〈◊〉 thence being much beloved before was despised of all the People And now your 〈◊〉 hath compel'd me to shrive my self thus unto you I think you are at your furthest and have no more to say for your Client May it please you Sir says the Lord-Keeper I will speak but this once You have indeed convicted your Chaplain of an Attempt very Audacious and very Unbeseeming my Judgment goes quite against his C. Gracâ—â—hus mended nothing but lost himself in his Tribuneship Qui nihil 〈◊〉 nihil tranquillum nihil quietum nihil denique in côdom staturelinquebat I am assured he that makes new work in a Church begets new Quarrels for Scriblers and new Jealousies in tender Consciences Yet I submit this to Your Sacred Judgment That Dr Laud is of a great and a tractable Wit He did not well see how he came into this Error but he will presently see the way how to come out of it Some Diseases which are very acute are quickly cured And is there no whee but you musl carry it says the King Then take him to you but on my Soul you will repent it And so went away in Anger using other fierce and ominous Words which were divulged in the Court and are too tart to be repeated So the Lord-Keeper procured to Dr. Laud his first Rochet and retained him in his Prebend of 〈◊〉 a Kindness which then he mightily valued and gave him about a year after a Living of about 120 l. per annum in the Diocese of St. David's to help his Revenue Which being unsought and brought to him at Durham-House by Mr. William Winn his Expression was Mr. Winn my Life will be too short to require your Lord's Goodness But how those Scores were paid is known at home and abroad Which he that will excuse hath no way but to shift it upon an Adagie Unum arbustum nen capit erithecos duos He that would be Great alone cares not whom he depresseth that would be as Great as himself 76. More cannot be required to shew how great the Lord-Keeper's Credit was with the King then that four Bishopricks were bestowed at once to three others with himself for which he interposed All three did then observe him with Congratulation as their Raiser Salisbury and Exeter were Men of faithful Acknowledgment in all their Life Est tanti ut gratum invenias experiri vel ingratos says Seneca He that finds two faithful Men among three is well requited Our Saviour found but one among Ten Luke 17.15 This Quaternion making ready for their Consecration a Calamity fell out which put them all to their Studies that they knew not which way to turn The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury making a Summer Journey into Hampshire was welcom'd by the Lord Zeâ—nch and invited to some Hunting-Sports in Bramshill-Park about St. James-tide The Arch-Bishop pretending to be a Wood-man took a Cross-bow to make a shot at a Buck. One of the Keepers did his Office to wind-less up the Deer to his stand who too suddenly shot at a fair-headed Buck in the Herd But his Arrow meeting with a small Bought in the way was cast a little from the mark and by an unhappy Glance wounded the Keeper in the Arm. It was but a Flesh-wound and a slight one yet being under the Cure of an heedless Surgeon the Fellow died of it the next day The like had never happen'd in our Church nor in any other in the Person of a Bishop and a Metropolitan which made work for Learned Men to turn over their Books Councils and Canon-Laws and Proviso's of Casuists were ransack'd whose Resolutions were unfavourable and greatly to the prejudice of the Fact It was clear in our Common-Law that his Personal Estate was forfeited to the King though it were Homicidium involuntarium But he was quickly comforted that he should not Suffer in that For upon the first Tidings His Majesty who had the Bowels of a Lamb censured the Mischance with these words of melting Clemency That an Angel might have miscarried in that sort The Arch-Bishop was an happy man in this Unhappiness that many Hearts condoled with him and many precious Stones were in the Breast-Plate which he wore that Pleaded for him He was Painful Stout Severe against bad Manners of a Grave and a Voluble Eloquence very Hospital Fervent against the Roman Church and no less against the Arminians which in those days was very Popular he had built and endowed a beautiful Eleemosynary Mansion at Guilford where he was born he sent all the Succors he could spare to the Queen of Bohemia the King 's only Daughter was a most stirring Counsellor for the Defence of the Palatinate was very acceptable to the Nobility and to the People both of this Realm and of Scotland where he had preach'd often 14 years before when he was in the Train of the Earl of Dunbar All those Flowers in his Garland were considered severally and mixtly when this gloomy day of Misfortune bedarken'd him And you may be sure our Sovereign Lord thought it the more Pardonable because it was an Hunting Casualty and was very Humane to those Harms beyond prevention which fell out in that Sport wherein he greatly delighted Therefore His Majesty Resolved and gave it him in a Consolatory Letter under his Hand That He would not add Affliction to his Sorrow nor take one Farthing from his Chattels and Moveables which were Confiscated by our Civil Penalties 77. But it cost more Labour to get out of the Ecclesiastical Brias for many of our best advised Churchmen took it sore to heart and lamented for it not without bitter Tears for the Scandal which was fallen upon our Church in his Person who in the Eye of General Councils and Canon-Laws was wonderfully Tainted and made Uncapable to all Sacred Functions performing Therefore to come home to the case they said God forbid those Hands should Consecrate Biships and Ordain Priests or Administer the Sacraments of Christ which God out of his secret Judgments had thus permitted to be embrued in Human Blood And some of the Prelacy profess'd If they had fallen into the like mischance they would never have despaired of God's Mercy for the other Life but from this World they would have retired and besoughts
foolish in their several Extreams of Years I prostrate at the Feet of your Princely Clemency Which was granted as soon as the Paradox was unridled to pitch upon them Another Gust that blew from the same Cape I mean from the Pulpit began to be so boisterous that it came very cross to his Majesty's Content Our Unity among our selves was troubled in Point of Doctrine which was not wont The Synod of Dort in the Netherlands having lately determined some great Controversies awakned the Opposition of divers Scholars in our Kingdom who lay still before Learned and Unlearned did begin to conflict every Sunday about God's Eternal Election Efficacy of Grace in our Conversion and Perseverance in it with much Noise and little Profit to the People The King who lov'd not to have these Dogmatizers at Variance us'd all speed to take up the Quarrel early that our Variances might not reproach us to them that were without For there was that in him which Pope Leo applauded in Marcian the Emperor Ep. 70. In Christianissimo Principe sacerdotalis affectus He was a mixt Person indeed a King in Civil Power a Bishop in Ecclesiastical Affections After he had struggled with the Contentious Parties a while and interposed like Moses Sirs ye are Brethren Acts 7.26 and that this rebated not the keen Edge of Discord he commanded Silence to both Sides or such a Moderation as was next to Silence First Because of the Sublimity of the Points The most of Men and Women are but Children in Knowledge and strong Meat belongs to them only that are of full Age Hebr. 5.14 St. Austin subscribed to that Prudence Lib. 2. de porsev c. 16. Unile est ut taceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Secondly Because the ticklish Doctrine of Predestination is frequently marr'd in the handling either by such as press the naked Decree of Election standing alone by it self and do not couple the Means unto it without which Salvation can never be attained or by those that hold out God's peremptory Decrees concerning those whom especially he hath given to Christ and do not as much or more enforce the Truth of Evangelical Promises made to all and to every Man that whosoever believeth in the Son of God shall not be confounded Now let the Reader consider all the Premises and he shall find how the Instructions that follow depend upon them Which in Form and Stile were the Lord Keepers in the Matter his Majesty's Command and were called Directions concerning Preachers 101. Forasmuch as the Abuses and Extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have been in all Ages repressed in this Realm by some Act of Council or State with the Advice and Resolution of Grave and Learned Prelates insomuch as the very Licencing of Preachers had his Beginning by an Order of the Star-Chamber 〈◊〉 July 〈◊〉 Hen. 8. And that at this present young Students by Reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines do broach Doctrines many times unprofitable unfound Seditious and Dangerous to the Scandal of this Church and Disquieting of the State and present Government His Majesty hath been humbly entreated to settle for the present either by Proclamation Act of Council or Command the several Diocesans of the Kingdom these Limitations and Cautions following untill by a general Convocation or otherwise some more mature Injunctions might be prepared and enacted in that behalf First That no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church do take occasion by the Expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any Discourse or common Place otherwise than by opening the Coherence and Division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in Essence Substance Effect or natural Inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562 or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority in the Church of England not only for a Help to the Non-preaching but withal for a Pattern and a Boundary as it were for the Preaching Ministers And for their further Instruction for the Performance hereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies Secondly That no Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation upon Sundays and Holy Days hereafter in the Afternoon in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout the Kingdom but upon some Part of the Catechism or some Text taken out of the Ten Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons only excepted And that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend this Afternoon's Exercise in the Examining of the Children in their Catechisms and in the Expounding the several Heads and Substance of the same which is the most ancient and laudable Custom of Teaching in the Church of England Thirdly That no Preacher of what Title soever under the Degree of a Batchelor of Divinity at the least do henceforth presume to Preach in any Popular Auditory the deep Points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacy Resistibility or Irresistibility of Gods Grace but leave those Themes to be handled by Learned Men and that moderately and modestly by way of Use and Application rather than by way of positive Docttine as being Points fitter for the Schools and Universitles than for simple Auditories Fourthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to Declare Limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Sermon or Lecture the Power Prerogative Jurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or to meddle with Matters of State and the References between Princes and the People otherwise than as they are Instructed and Precedented in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to those two Heads of Faith and good Life which are all the Subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies Fifthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall causelesly and without any Invitation from the Text fall into any bitter Invectives and undecent raising Speeches or Scoslings against the Persons of either Papists or Puritans but modestly and gravely when they are occasion'd thereunto by the Texts of Scripture free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the Aspersions of either Adversary especially where the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other Infection Lastly That the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath just Cause to blame for former Remisness be more wary and choice in Licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licenses in this kind And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new Body severed from the ancient
he had dazled the World with that false Light he never pleas'd his Judges that had secretly tried the Constitution of his Conscience Sir Edward Sackvile who shortly succeeded his Brother Richard in the Earldom of Dorset was at Rome Ann. 1624. and had Welcom given him with much Civility in the English College so far that he presum'd to ask rather out of Curiosity than Love to see this Prisoner de Dominis Mr. T. Fitz-herbert the Rector did him the Observance to go with him to the Jayl He found him shut up in a Ground-Chamber narrow and dark for it look'd upon a great Wall which was as near unto it as the breadth of three spaces Some slight forms being pass'd over which use to be in all Visits says Sir Edward My Lord of Spalato you have a dark Lodging It was not so with you in England There you had at Windsor as good a Prospect by Land as was in all the Country And at the Savoy you had the best Prospect upon the Water that was in all the City I have forgot those things says the Bishop here I can best Contemplate the Kingdom of Heav'n Sir Edward taking Mr. Fitz-Herbert aside into the next Room Sir says he tell me honestly Do you think this Man is employ'd in the Contemplation of Heav'n Says the Father Rector I think nothing less for he was a Male-content Knave when he fled from us a Railing Knave while he liv'd with you and a Motley parti-colour'd Knave now he is come again This is the Relation which that Honourable Person made Ann. 1625. which I heard him utter in the hearing of no mean Ones 113. But by this time Spalat was dead either by his fair Death or by private strangling Gallo-Belgicus that first sent the News abroad knew not whither But he knew what became of his Body that it was burnt at the same place in Rome where Hereticks do end their Pain It is a Process of Justice which is usual with their Inquisition to shew such abhorrence to Hereticks that were so in their sense to call them to account though they be dead and rotten First They are so Histrionical in their Ceremonies as if they made a Sport of Barbarousness that they cite the dead Men three several Days to appear or any that will answer for them but happy they if they do not appear then their Carkasses or Bones are brought forth and burnt in the common Market with a Ban of Execration The latest that were used so among us were Reverend Bucer and Fagius at Cambridge Anno 1556. And Dr. Scot Bishop of Chester one of Cardinal Pole's Visitors defended it before the University Haud mirum videri debeat si in mortem quoque ista inquisitis extendatur Bucer Scrip. Angl. p. 925. Sic postulare sacros Canones p. 923. This is their Soverity from which the Dead are not free Now by the Blaze of that Bonfire in which De Dominis his Trunk was consum'd we may read an Heretick in Fiery Characters I mean as he was entred into the black Book of the Roman Slaughter-House He lived and died with General Councils in his Pate with Wind-Mills of Union to concord Rome and England England and Rome Germany with them both and all other Sister-Churches with the rest without asking leave of the Tridentine Council This was his Piaculary Heresie For as Aâ—orius writes Tom. 1. Moral Lib. 8. Cap. 9. Not only he that denies an Article of the Roman Creed but he that doubts of any such Article is an Heretick and so to be presented to Criminal Judgment Si quem in foro exteriori l gitime allegata proâ—ata probaverint in rebus Fidci scienter voluntarie dubitasse arbitrer cum ut v re propriè haeretiâ—um puniendum Therefore if Spalat had return'd a Penitent in their Construction and imbodied himself into that Church as only true and Apostolical he could not have suffered in his Offals and Carkass as an Heretick So the same Azorius confesseth Lib. 8. Cap. 14. And Alphonsus à Castro is angry with Bernard of Lutzenburg for holding the contrary Lib. 1. Cap. 9. Quis unquam docuit eum esse dicendum haereticum qui errorem sic tenuit ut monitus conviclus non crubuerit palinodiam cantare This was the success of the variable Behaviour of M. Antonius de Dominis De Domims in the plural says Dr. Crakanthorp for he could serve two Masters or twenty if they would all pay him Wages He had an Hearing as it is mention'd before in our High Commission To countenance the Audience of so great a Cause the Lord Keeper gave attendance at it I began at that end of his Troubles and having footed all the Maze am come out at the other 114. Johosaphat distinguisheth between the Lord's Matters and the King's Affairs 2 Chron. 19.12 So do I in the Subject before me I have given some Says of his Church-Wisdom in the former Paragraph I go on to set the Sublimity of his State-Wisdom in the latter I must look back to a small Service which he did perform in Michaelmas-Term 1621. for as much as the Conjunction of some things which rais'd a Dust in the Year following are sit to go together Upon the solemn Day when the Lord Cranfield then Master of the Wards and immediately created Earl of Middlesex took his Place as Lord Treasurer in the Exchequer-Chamber the Lord Keeper gave him his Oath and saluted his Admission with a short Speech following My Lord You are called to serve his Majesty in the Place of a Lord Treasurer by the most Honourable and most Ancient Call in this Realm the delivery of a Staff to let you know that you are now become one of the surest Staffs or Stays that our great Master relies upon in all this Kingdom And these Staffs Princes must lean upon being such Gods as die like Mon and such Masters as are neither omni-sufficient nor independent For St. Austin writing upon that place of the Psalm I have said unto the Lord Thou art my God my Goâ—ds are nothing unto thee observes that God only is the Master that needs no reference to his Servant All other Masters and Servants are proper Relatives and have a mutual Reciprocation and Dependence Eges tu Domino tuo ut det panem Eget te Dominus tuus ut adjuves labore As the Servant wants a Master to maintain him so the Master wants a Servant to assist him For the present supplying of this want in his Majesty I will say as the Historian did of the Election of Tiberius Non quaerendus quem eligeret sed eligendus qui emineret The King was not now to think of one whom he should choose but to choose one who was most eminent For as Claudian said of Ruffinus Taciti suffragia vulgi Vel jam contulerant quicquid mox addidit Aula You were stated in this Place by the Votes of the People before you understood the Pleasure
and ever owing Thanks to your Grace The Dispensation is come and with it good Tidings that your Carriage hitherto hath been so discreet and the Event so fortunate that our Master is wonderfully pleas'd But we were formerly never so desirous to see that Box that carries this Dispensation than we are now to open it and to know by reading the same what God hath sent us We all wonder at his Majesties Reservedness for it came hither on Saturday last this Day sevennight But his Majesty hath enjoyned Mr. Secretary Calvert silence therein And I believe for my part at the least that Mr. Secretary hath perform'd his Commandment We all think and the Town speak and talk of the worst and of very difficult Conditions My dear Lord You have so lock'd up all things in your own Breast and sealed up his Majesties that now our very Conjectures for more they were not are altogether prevented If things succeed well this course is best if otherwise I conceive it very dangerous But it were a great Folly to offer any Advice unto you who only know what you transact in your own Cabinet How then shall I fill up this Letter To certifie this only that all Discontents are well appeased and will so remain without doubt as long as Businesses continue successful But if they should decline I am afraid the former Disgusts of your appropriating this Service will soon be resumed And then how dangerous it is to leave your Friends ignorant of your Affairs and disabled to serve you I refer to your Graces Wisdom and Consideration I do believe none of us all would keep your Counsel without a Charge to do so this keeping Counsel is a thing so out of fashion nor reveal it if it be otherwise required c. The Lord Keeper in this Letter miss'd the true Cause why his Majesty did not yet impart a sight of the Dispensation to any of his Counsellors The reason was because it came to him in a private Packet And he expected it to be deliver'd to him as it ought by Publick Ministers the Ambassadors of the King of Spain who kept it dormant about a Fortnight in their Hands whether it proceeded from their Native Gravida to retein that long in their Stomach which needed no Concoction or to listen what the many-headed Multitude would say in London or out of some other State-juggling As I have laid forth in this what was mistaken by the L. Keeper out of his own Memorials preserv'd So in another Line he hazarded his Love to be ill taken representing to the Duke the Truth That the King did somewhat disgust his appropriating the whole Service to himself that is repulsing the Earl of Bristol or restreining him to silence where their Counsels were held I know not whether the Duke did so soon regret at this for it is the first time and 't is well plaister'd over with mild Counsel So Statuaries says Plutarch do not only hew and peck the Alabaster upon which they work but smooth it likewise which is the neatest part of their Cunning. By another Letter from the same Hand dated near to the former May 11. I perceive that the Duke our Lord Admiral demanded the Navy Royal to be made ready and to be sent to the Coast of Spain to conduct the Prince and his Followers Home Which the King gave order to be done But the Lord Keeper wrote to his Grace if it were not with the soonest the main Matter not grown yet to any colour of ripeness That the Charge would be very heavy to the Exchequer Such a Fleet must be costly to be set forth but far more costly to be kept long abroad As for Cost it was the least thing that was thought upon It was no time for Frugality The Stratagem was to have the Navy lie ready at Anchor in some safe distance from the Spanish Havens That if the Prince could recover no Satisfaction to reasonable Demands from stiff Olivarez and other Grandees Or if they persisted to burden the Match with insupportable Conditions his Highness after a short Complement might take his leave and have all things prepar'd at a Days warning if the Wind serv'd for his Reduction into England With this Fleet some precious Ware never seen no nor heard of in Spain before at least among the Laicks was transported thither the Liturgy of our Church translated into the Spanish Tongue and fairly printed by the Procurement and Cost of the Lord Keeper The Translator was John Taxeda the Author of the Treatise call'd Hispanus Conversus a good Scholar once a Dominican whom his Patron that set him on work secured to our Church with a Benefice and good Prebend He studied this Translation Day and Night till it was ended He that writes this was often at his Elbow to communicate with him when he put Questions how to proceed But the Lord Keeper himself with other Overseers that had perfectly learn'd the Castilian Language perus'd it faithfully and if there were not aptness in any phrase corrected it With his Majesties Privity and great Approbation two Copies of it were carried Religious Tokens the one to his Highness the other to my Lord Duke as the best and most undeniable Certificate that a particular Church can shew to vindicate the right Profession of their Faith from all Scandals and to declare their Piety in all Christ's Ordinances squared and practis'd by a publick Rule after the Beauty of Holiness A Book of Common-Prayer which all call a Liturgie is suitable to the Form of good Churches in all Ages reduceth us to good Notions from wandring Extravagancies preserves Harmonious Conformity between all the Daughter-Churches that are called from one Mother in one Realm or State It is our Witness to assoil us when we are spitefully charg'd with Errours so Chamieras Gerardus Camero Spanhemius Amyraldus and divers more the best of Modern Writers in defence of the Reformed way draw their second Rank of Arguments next to the Sacred Scriptures out of their Liturgies to justifie their Tenents Finally with this Office of Divine Worship he that celebrates Gods Service is ready at all times to offer up to God the Sacrifice of Prayer when some perhaps at some times are affected with Languor of Health and then not so sit to speak suddenly to God in the behalf of the People and when the most have Infirmity of Judgment and are unsit at all times Beshrew the Tettar of Pride that runs over many Wits and makes them care for nothing that 's made ready to their Hand and puts them in love with nothing but their own Conceptions What have we lost Nay What hath God lost in the Honour due unto him How is his Truth How is his Name How is his Glory dis-reverenced over all this Land since our Liturgie hath been Mortgag'd to the Directory 139. It would be remembred that this comes in upon the mention of the Fleet call'd for and hastned to weigh Anchor
it was not set off with much Ceremony to quicken Devotition yet it wanted neither a stamp of Reverence nor the metal of Godliness Yet he would be careful in Launching out so far in Curiosity to give no Scandal to Catholicks whose Jealousie might perhaps suspect him as if he thought it lawful to use both ours and the Church of Rome's Communion Therefore he made suit to be placed where none could perceive him and that an Interpreter of the Liturgy might assist him to turn the Book and to make right Answers to such Questions as fell by the way into his Animadversions None more forward then the Lord Keper to meet the Abbat in this Request Veritas oculatos testes non refermidat The Abbat kept his hour to come to Church upon that High Feast and a Place was well fancied aloft with a Latice and Curtains to conceal him Mr. William Beswell like Philip Riding with the Treasurer of Queen Candace in the same Chariot sate with him directing him in the Process of all the Sacred Offices perform'd and made clear Explanation to all his scruples The Church Work of that ever Blessed day fell to the Lord Keeper to perform it but in the place of the Dean of that Collegiate Church He sung the Service Preach'd the Sermon Consecrated the Lords Table and being assisted with some of the Prebendaries distributed the Elements of the Holy Communion to a great multitude meekly kneeling upon their knees Four hours and better were spent that morning before the Congregation was dismiss'd with the Episcopal Blessing The Abbat was entreated to be a Guest at the Dinner provided in the College-Hall where all the Members of that Incorporation Feasted together even to the Eleemosynaries call'd the Beads-men of the Foundation no distinction being made but high and low Eating their Meat with gladness together upon the occasion of our Saviours Nativity that it might not be forgotten that the poor Shepherds were admitted to Worship the Babe in the Manger as well as the Potentates of the East who brought Rich Presents to offer up at the shrine of his Cradle All having had their comfort both in Spiritual and Bodily Repast the Master of the Feast and the Abbat with some few beside retired into a Gallery The good Abbat presently shew'd that he was Bred up in the Franco-Gallican Liberty of Speech and without further Proem defies the English that were Roasted in the Abbies of France for lying Varlets above all others that ever he met We have none of their good word I am sure says the Keeper but what is it that doth empassion you for the present against them That I shall calmly tell your Lordship says the Abbat I have been long inquisitive what outward Face of God's Worship was retein'd in your Church of England What Decorums were kept in the external Communion of your Assemblies St. Paul did Rejoyce to behold good Order among the Colossians as well as to hear of the stedfastness of their Faith cap. 2.5 Therefore waving Polemical Points of Doctrine I demanded after those things that lay open to the view and pertain'd to the Exterior Visage of the House of God And that my Intelligence might not return by broken Merchants but through the best Hands I consulted with none but English in the Affairs of their own home and with none but such as had taken the Scapular or Habit of some Sacred Order upon them in Affairs of Religion But Jesu how they have deceiv'd me What an Idea of Deformity Limm'd in their own Brain have they hung up before me They told me of no composed Office of Prayer used in all these Churches by Authority as I have found it this day but of extemporary Bablings They traduc'd your Pulpits as if they were not possest by Men that be Ordein'd by imposition of Hands but that Shop-keepers and the Scum of the people Usurp that Place in course one after another as they presum'd themselves to be Gifted Above all they turn'd their Reproaches against your behaviour at the Sacrament describing it as a prodigious Monster of Profaneness That your Tables being furnish'd with Meats and Drinks you took the Scraps and Rellicks of your Bread and Cups and call upon one another to remember the Passion of our Lord Jesus All this I perceive is infernally false And though I deplore your Schism from the Catholick Church yet I should bear false Witness if I did not confess that your Decency which I discern'd at that Holy Duty was very allowable in the Consecrator and Receivers 218. My Brother Abbat says the Lord Keeper with a Smile I hope you will think the better of the Religion since on Christ's good Day your own Eyes have made this Observation among us The better of the Religion says the Abbat taking the Words to relate to the Reformed of France nay taking all together which I have seen among you and he brought it out with Acrimony of Voice and Gesture I will lose my Head if you and our Hugenots are of one Religion I protest Sir says the Keeper you divide us without Cause For the Harmony of Protestant Confessions divulg'd to all the World do manifest our Consonancy in Faith and Doctrine And for diversity in outward Administrations it is a Note as Old as Irenaeus which will justifie us from a Rupture that variety of Ceremonies in several Churches the Foundation being preserv'd doth commend the Unity of Faith I allow what Irenaeus writes says the Abbat for we our selves use not the same Offices and Breviares in all Places But why do not the Hugonots at Charenton and in other Districts follow your Example Because says the Lord Keeper no part of your Kingdom but is under the Jurisdiction of a Diocesan Bishop and I know you will not suffer them to set up another Bishop in the Precincts of that Territory where one is establish'd before that would savour of Schism in earnest And where they have no means to maintain Gods Worship with costly Charge and where they want the Authority of a Bishop among them the people will arrogate the greatest share in Government so that in many things you must excuse them because the Hand of constraint is upon them But what constreins them says the Abbat that they do not Solemnize the Anniversary Feast of Christ's Nativity as you do Nay as we do for it is for no better Reason then because they would be unlike to us in every thing Do you say this upon certainty says the Keeper or call me Poultron if I feign it says the other In good troth says the Keeper you tell me News I was ever as Tully writes of himself to Atticus in Curiositate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to search narrowly into Foreign Churches and I did never suspect that our Brethren that live with you were deficient in that Duty For the Churches of the Low-Countries of Heidelberg Helvetia Flassia Breme and others do observe a yearly Day to the
the whole Bible Are there some that will not believe it stay and take the Proof and it will be the better it was not believ'd As St. Austin says de Vit. Cler. Serm. 2. Beatus homo qui tam bonum opus fecit ut non crederetur Happy is the Man that did so good a Work that the World would not imagine it And wherefore should it be thought that he would not go in hand with a Work of so great Learning and Labour Even for that reason which Tully gives Hoc usu plerumque venit ut in rebus diversis eundem praecellere nolint homines It is the Malignancy of Men that will not conceive it possible for one Man to excel in many Endowments because themselves fall short of all But for satisfaction not to be controul'd he did not only discourse sometimes that he would dedicate his Industry and his Wealth to compile so excellent and voluminous a Piece but he left much of the Materials behind him Much of the Wool was ready yet not spun out for the Garment intended because his Loom was broken To speak it out distinctly Mr. Richard Gouland Keeper of the Library of the College of Westminster till Men of good Parts in all kinds himself not the least were deprived he hath in his Custody the Bible in three Parts in a large Folio with the Translation of Jun. and Tremell bound together wherein are Notes upon all the Scriptures except the Apocaclyps which is untouch'd written with the Bishop's own Hand in which are drawn out of all kind of Authors of the first middle and chiefly the latter Age and out of all Languages as the prime of Hebrew Greek and Latin with the modern of Italian Spanish and French whatsoever is the Choice and Flower of their Commentations All this I have seen and turn'd over and observ'd so much Judgment in the Extraction so much Industry in the Mass of it that I admir'd one Man could compass so much but more astonish'd that he could find leisure for any business or time for any Study beside All is not barren Land that lies fallow Nor all Scholars idle that have not discover'd their precious Treasures in Print But the increase of this Knowledge increas'd his Sorrow with the great Declension of his Health As the Poet says Attenuant juvenum vigilatae corpora noctes Ovid. His Lamp burnt many Nights till Morning the constant time of his Study before he had gather'd in this rich Harvest Yet neither Colick nor Catarrhs nor the Stone the sharpest of Pains could stay him from his main purpose The Count Mirandulan in Politian writes of Marianus a Divine whom he valued above all Corpus habet invictum infatigabile ut non aliunde magis reparare vires quà m de laboribus ipsis videatur So the more feeble the Bishop was the more he toil'd as if he thought to repair his Strength by Watching and assiduity of Labour Yet he knew that to expound the whole Scripture learnedly was above the Powers and Parts of one Man Therefore he reserv'd both the filling and finishing of it to the assistance of Twelve or more of the ablest Scholars in the Land whom he had in his Eye and Thoughts and purpos'd the Recompence of a great Stipend For he hath said it to his Friends that he would not stick at the Sum of Twelve no nor of Twenty thousand Pounds to perfect that Master-piece of Divinity But this young Feature like an imperfect Embryo was mortified in the Womb by Star-Chamber Vexations A Letter from King Ataxerxes caused Ezra and the Builders with him to cease from working Yet so much of the Stuff as was made ready with his own Pen in Three Volumes if it be not deposited in the Library at Westminster the Author will be wrong'd in his Fame and Posterity in the Profit His invincible Mind was not satisfied with this Task alone But as Pliny spake to Trajan Paneg. p. 57. Inter refectiones existimas mutationem laboris So to pass from one Study to another was not a new Labour but the Bishop's Recreation Therefore he laid out for the Works of his Predecessor Robert Grost head made Scrutiny for them in all Libraries of England and in France where he had Credit and his Friends could furnish him Bishop Grost head living in the Reign of Henry the Third was a good Linguist a famous Philosopher a Divinity reader an assiduous Preacher a painful Writer of Two Hundred Books says Bale wherein the Ambition and Covetousness of the Church of Rome were his chief Subject These being in Manuscript and many obscur'd in blind Corners this Bishop collected digested them had wrote Arguments upon divers parts of them which others have read as well as my self expected daily more and more of the same Author that all that could be got might be printed fairly together And as Symmachus writes Lib. 2. Ep. Quodam modo societatem laudis affectat qui aliena benè gesta primus enuntiat He that is the first that publisheth the worthy Acts of another Man is a Sharer in his Praise But by his Eclipse Bishop Grost head 's Works remain'd in darkness The Success was unfortunate but he that set it on had a publick Soul and a studious Head There is not a better Pattern of a noble and industrious Spirit or of worse proof in the Up-shot Fortunam ex aliis says Aeneas in Virgil. Whose Fault was that 43. Such of whom as a Bishop he had most right to say they were his Work in the Lord 1 Cor. 9.1 were they upon whom he conferr'd Holy Orders by Imposition of Hands Those blessed days did not last long when the Apostles themselves appointed some over the Houshold of Christ to give them their Portion of Meat in due season They could discern by the Gifts of the Spirit who were sit for that high Calling Such as Timothy that was set apart according to the prophesies that went before upon him 1 Tim. 1.18 And Mich. Syncellus follow'd the Tradition that Dionysius was made Bishop of Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lookt into by the Eyes of St. Paul who could see him through and through After which tryal by Illumination it was fit that the want of that Spirit should be supplied by the testimony of many and by as much heed and diligence as could reasonably be taken by those that laid their Hands upon them that were vouchsafed to be Stewards of the manifold Graces of Christ Wherein I rejoyce in the truth he that is before us was as strict an examiner of Novices as any of his Order Some that were not admitted by him in his first Ordinations because they were found Light upon the Weight saved him much work afterward Divinity is a deep and a copious Science wherein he that fear'd he could not answer his expectation would not venture upon his repulse For he was so constant and regular that they knew what to trust to before they
or Constitutions differing from the alledg'd or did vary in their Judgment that they would send their Reasons and they should be kindly and thankfully accepted How could a Prelate carry himself with more Moderation or a Scholar write with more Modesty or a Variance be more suddenly composed as it was with more Indifferency Did this Letter deserve to be ript up nine years after and torn into Raggs by an angry Censure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss w. It will be a dishonour to the Times that Posterity should hear of it I see if the Dr. had been in the place of the Bishop he would have led the Parish of Grantham another Dance to their cost and vexation Many that are in low condition are best where they are As Livy says lib. 1. dec 5. Quidnam illi Consules Dictatoresve facturi erant qui proconsularem imaginem tam trucem saevÃmque fecerint If such had been the Consuls and Dictators of the Church what would they have done who flew so high when they had no Authority 99. Scan this now both for the Form and Matter before equal Judges in some Moral and Prudential Rules The Letter or private Monition as he calls it that drew it up Hol. Tab. p. 82. was written nine years before and in all that time had gained this Praise that it savour'd of Fatherly Sweetness to satisfie the Scrupulous by Learning in matter of Ceremony rather than to strike the case dead with Will and Command The Contents of it had been quoted in a Parliament with well done good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful in a little A Divinity-Professor in his Chair Dr. Pr. had spoken reverendly of it by the relation of many it was punctually read or opened fully to the King at the hearing of the Cause of St. Gregory's Church Ho. Tab. p. 58. and no Counsellor did inform that it was disparaged A Litter of blind Whelps will see by that time they are nine days old and was the Answerer blind that could not see the reputation this Paper had got by that time it was nine years old Let a Presbyter for me dispute the truth with him that is of the greatest Order in the Church yet what Canons will suffer him to taunt and revile a Bishop whose whole Book was but a Libel against a Diocesan p. 58. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Const lib. 2. c. 31. Which Canon will not allow a Clerk of a lower degree to raise an evil Murmur against a Bishop Much of the like is an Antiquity from Ignatius downward Their supereminent Order is not to be exposed to petulant Scoffings by their own Tribe Sed servanda est uniuscujusque Episcopi reverentia says Gregory Ep. 65. Ind. 2. since the Age grew learned and Knowledge puffed men up Ministers are more malapart among us and in every state with the Fathers of the Church but from the beginning it was not so If the like to this had been done upon the Person of another Bishop he would have been taught better Manners that had presum'd it The Example is the same wheresoever it lighted and might have taught them that where Reverence is forgotten to any of the chief Order that he that abuseth one doth threaten many It is a sad Presage to my Heart to apply that of Baronius to them that did not maintain the Honour of their Brother Quod Praesides ecclesiarum alter alterius vires infringebant Deus tranquilla tempora in persecutiones convertebat an 312. p. 6. These Annals prevent me not to forget that for a better colour to make licentious Invectives the Respondent takes no notice that a Bishop wrote the Letter For why not rather some Minorite among the Clergy Indeed it had not the Name but the Style tells him all the way that it could come from none but the Diocesan of Grantham Therefore I will give him his Match out of Baronius anno 520. p. 22. Maxentius contra epistolam Hormisdae scripsit sed ut liberam sibi dicendi compararet facultatem Hormisdae esse negavit sed ab adversariis ejus nomine scriptam esse affirmans This is a stale Trick to bait a Pope or a Prelate in the name of one that was much beneath them Sternitur infoelix alieno vulnere Aen. lib. 10. but he that wilfully makes these mistakes I take him for what he is I pass to the main Question What did this Letter prescribe that it should be torn with the Thorns of the Wilderness It pared away no Ceremony enjoyned O none further from it but it moderated a doubtful case upon the Mode and Practice of a Ceremony how the Communion-Board should stand and how the Vicar in that Church should pray and read at it for best edification of his Flock He must give me time to study upon it that would demand me to start him a Question belonging to God's Service of less moment Had the Gensdarmery of our great Writers no other Enemy to fight with Nothing to grind in their Brain-mill but Orts This the Colleges of Rome would have to see us warm in petty Wranglings and remiss in great Causes as Laertius says of one Xenophon of the Privy-Purse to Alexander the Great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 632 He would quiver for cold in the hot Sun and sweat in the Shade It was a Task most laudably perform'd by Whitgift Bridges Hooker Morton Burgess to maintain the use of innocent Ceremonies with whom Bishop Williams did ever jump and as Fulgentius says in P. Paulo's Life would defend and observe all Ordinances the least considerable and no whit essential But this was a great deal below it to litigate not about the continuance but about the placing of a Ceremony an evil beginning to distract Conformists who were at unity before and to make them sight like Cocks which are all of a Feather and yet never at peace with themselves Wo be to the Authors of such Cadmaean Wars Quibus semper praelia clade pari Propertius A most unnecessary Gap made in the Vine yard through which both the wild Boar our foreign Enemy and the little Foxes at home may enter in to spoil the Grapes Plutarch lib. de Is Osyr tells me of a Contention between the Oxyndrites and Cynopolites who went to War for the killing of a Fish which one of the Factions accounted to be a sacred Creature and when they were weaken'd with slaughter on both sides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in sine the Romans over-run them and made them their Slaves Let the Story be to them that hates us and the Interpretation fall upon our Enemies 100. Yet will some of the stiffer Faction say it was time to clip the Wings of this Letter or if it could be done to make it odious abroad for the Mctropolitan intending one common decency in all Churches of his Province about the Table of Christ's Holy Supper this Paper six years older than his translation to the See of Canterbury
ex asseribus compositè junctam This is irrefragable unless one be refractory that he will not learn as Erasmus says of Poggius in his Epistles p. 262. Poggius hôc erat animo ut doctissimus haberi mallet quà m reddi doctior For if these were only Orders of Sufferance they were nothing but Canons are Church-Laws Convocations meet not to make Permissions but binding Canons to be obeyed by the Subjects and by all the Ordinaries of the Kingdom Hol. Tab. p. 205. Yet it was so forgotten by some that while this Bishop was in the Tower one of his own Clergy in Bedford-shire Dr. Jas Fisher a fair Marble Stone being digged up in his Chancel he set Workmen to smooth it and to erect it for an Altar till Troubles marr'd the Work and Impeachments of Articles broke the Heart of a modest able man He and the Vicar that would be Altar-builders might have spared their Stone for the Altar of Incense was made of Shittim-wood Exod. 30.1 or of Cedar 1 Kin. 6.20 and over-laid with Gold that the Wood might not catch Fire Or what if a Stone were set up It were not the further for that from being a Table H. T. p. 115. cites out of learned Gerard Cessante sacrificio altaria illa nihil sunt aliud quà m mensae lapideae Allowing no Sacrifice those Altars are nothing but Stone Tables Of Judea I can say nothing but in Rome about Christ's days on Earth the People did eat upon Tables not only of Limon and Maple wood but of Stone We have added and Decency commends it a fair white Linnen-Cloth to cover God's Board and our own at Meal-times which was not in use when our Saviour instituted the Sacrament as far as I can see into the convival Customs of those days for since the Waiters did wipe away at the end of Supper the Liquors which were spilt from Cups or Dishes with Sponges it will not hold that they had a Cloth spread upon the Table What will Novelists say to this that think we break the Second Command if we vary from Christ in any circumstance in the ordaining of the Holy Supper Some of them may perhaps be ready hereupon to take away the Linnen Cloth Why not since one Faction of them hath taken away the Table For says Bayly in his Disswasive of Errors p. 121. The Brownists at this day at Amsterdam have no Table at all but send the Elements from the Pulpit where the Minister preacheth and celebrateth the Sacrament by the Hands of the Deacon and adds that some Independents at London affect the like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing so dangerous to do all kind of Evil as an ignorant Rabble They that will not grant a Table to Christ's Servants to come to his Feast will not if they can prevail grant a Church or Chancel to place it in From which Madness and Sacrilege God deliver us Manil. lib. 5. Si forte accesser it impetus ausis Improbitas fiet virtus 102. From the matter of Stone the Dispute leads us into a Strise about the Name In the first Liturgy of Edw. 6. Altar is most in use In the second and from that day forward the word Table is altogether read In a year or two after the first of King Charles the word Altar per postliminium was much in the mouth of many Divines when it had been laid aside Observe Peace and Truth and call it either or both and it is all one But charge them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit says St. Paul 2 Tim. 2.4 For vanity and things wherein there is no profit are all one Jer. 2.23 Scholars will understand me by this Instance Altar for Table or Table put for Altar make no change in the sence with knowing men the Council at Syrmium turn'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Nicene Creed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with no small Injury to our Lord Christ But a Bishop in Nicephorus instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Couch as it is Jo. c. 4. read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Synonymum yet Spiridion a morose man rose up and spake against the Novelty Vitiosum est propter nominum mutationem contentionem intendere says the Author to Herennius They are as near as can be to be Friends that have nothing but two words of the same signification to part them Yet two things were to be cleared to stop mistakings First It must be yielded that our Mother-language our Church-canonical word is Table Altar is arbitrary at large Secondly for the right insight into the nature of the Sacrament Table is the proper word and Altar metaphorical The Bishop comprehends them both very well in these words H. T. p. 75 He doth not deny but the name Altar hath been long in the Church in a metaphorical usurpation nor would he have blamed the Vicar if he had in a Quotation from the Fathers or a Discourse in the Pulpit named it an Altar in this borrowed sence but to give the usual call of an Altar he says usual unto the Utensil which the Law that always speaks properly never calls otherwise than by the name of a Table is justly by him disliked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again in that Page Where we have a Law and Canon to direct us how to call a thing we ought not to hunt after Reasons and Conceits to give it another Appellation It is apparent how the Liturgy confirmed Anno 1549. chooseth the word Altar which Liturgy is agreeable to God's Word and the Primitive Church yet since the alteration came in by the next Liturgy three years after the first Book doth not allow you to call it an Altar for the present your Tongue ought to speak as the present Book and Law speaks it to you and when men in their nomination of things do vary from the Law which is the quintessence of Reason they do it in a Humor which is the quintessence of Fancy Thus far he again p. 142. And it is truly said in Antid Lin. p. 96. Another Liturgy confirm'd by Act of Parliament made void the old Neither is it pretended out of any Law or Canon to be called Altar more than once Statute 1 Ed. 6. c. 1. The most comfortable Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ commonly called the Sacrament of the Altar and in Scripture the Supper and Table of the Lord the Communion and Partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ Says the Bishop to this H. T. p. 94. The holy Scripture should carry it quite away for the Name and Sacrament of the Altar is not the Name but the Nick-name and a Penal Statute as this is was to take notice of every Appellation it was at that time known by and discerned The last Reformation which is orderly as ours was is the best As St. Ambrose writing how Christianity came in after other Religions discourseth thus Ep. 32. Quis
incommoda si cui dolor major accesserit as Sidonius setcheth it out of Hippocrates p. 163. When such Wounds are made in our Body little Scratches should be insensible 104. The same Author hath listed up the Quarrel again which was fallen about the Place of the Holy Table I would it stood in any place of the House of God so it might be used but it is extreamly disused Was there ever such a negligence among Christians before Sometimes the Pope hath interdicted the Churches of a Nation for a year or more the greater was his Sin But I will make Affidavit that some Parishes among us have been interdicted from the Lord's Supper by the Hirelings that teach them from anno 1642. to anno 1659. and this Famine of the holy Bread is like to continue among them Is this a Season to renew what past anno 1637. between the Bishop and him how the Table should stand Deficilis est exitus veterum jurgiorum Sym. Ep. p. 17. I speak as well assured that the Dr. hath been often since that time prostrate at that sacred Banquet why then doth he break out into old Grudges for their Quidlibets First the Bishop did desire to satisfie his Reader where the holy Table should stand when the Communion Service was celebrated Secondly where it should continue when that pious work was over For the first he durst not decide it but as the Liturgy hath it To stand in the body of the Church or Chancel in the Communion-time where Morning and Evening-Prayer be appointed to be said And as the Advertisements state it That Common-Prayer the Communion being the supereminent part be said or sung decently and distinctly in such place as the Ordinary shall think meet for the largeness and straightness of the Church and Quire so that the People may be most edisied And as Canon 82 doth enjoyn When the Holy Communion is to be administred it shall be placed in so good sort within the Church or Chancel as thereby the Minister may be more conveniently heard of the Communicants in his Prayer and Ministration and that they may conveniently and in more number communicate with the Minister And therefore the Bishop sums it up Ep. p. 59. That this Liberty for a convenient place of Church or Chancel is left to the Judgment of the Ordinary and that the King in his Princely Order about St. Gregory's Church did leave it to the Law to the Communion book to the Canon and Diocesan The Law refers to Salus populi to the edifying of the People which was never respected under Popery for their Mass was mutter'd at high Altars far remote from the Auditory Which Harding maintains H. T. p. 204. That they never meant the People should understand any more than what they could guess by dumb Shews and outward Ceremonies In old Liturgies it appears that not only the Clerks but where a Church had no more than one Clerk to officiate the People made answer in Versicles and Suffrages an excellent way to keep them in godly action of which Privilege and Comfort they have been robb'd in corrupt times Erasmus says p. 216. of his Ep. That King Harry 8. defended that no Prayer was to be expected from the People Praeteream quae ment is cogitatione Deum alloquitur And that is it which is intended in Cardinal Pool's Articles of his Visitation anno 1556. Whether the People be contemplative in holy Prayer But we have not so learned Christ whose Communion is so order'd that all that are present may hear and be edisied every one say the Confession of Sins after him that pronounceth it every one professes as he is invited to lift up his Heart unto the Lord. Let the Table stand so commodiously for the benesit of Receivers when it is employ'd and it is not here or there whether the Minister stand at the North side as the Church in terminis directs it or at the North end as Altar-contrivers contend for it So we are told that the Table stands and unremovably under the East Window in the King's Chappel And says the Doctor Antid p. 41. That which is wisely and religiously done in the Chappel-Royal why should it not give Law to Parish-Churches The King's Chappel I should say was but my Heart will not let me is a sacred Oratory of great regard and ancient mention Constantine the Great had one portable with him in his Camp In Charles the Great 's time the Chappel of his Palace is samous Luitprandus King of the Lombards had one in his Palace Baron anno 744. p. 23. And in the Reign of our William Conquestor we read out of his Mouth Mea Dominica Capella Selden Eadm p. 165. Such Chapels if like to our King 's in all his Courts were of no great dimension the holy Board could not stand no where inconveniently in them but that all might hear therefore one constant site was most decent for it where it deserv'd the highest Room it being the Fabrick on which the principal Service Evangelical is solemniz'd The Bishop p. 182. remembers out of Suarez that Altars in Oratories and Chappels among them who are the Mint-masters of Ceremonies are not agreeable in situation to the Altars in Churches Therefore private Chappels nay even the Kings cannot be the Directories for all places because very often Parish Chancels being but a few strides broad and long cannot contain the multitude of all the People that come to take the Holy Mysteries And when the Belfrey is between the Chancel and the Nave of the Church as at Carshalton in Surrey the Minister can neither be heard nor seen unless he officiate in the Church where all may enjoy the Exhortations behold the Consecration and joyn in Prayer Therefore the Bishop answers prudently H. T. p. 34. It is not His Majesty's Chappel but his Laws Rubricks Canons Proclamations which we are to follow in outward Ceremonies 105. Neither can the Opponent appeal to Rubrick and Canons but he betakes him to an Order wherein the King's Majesty was present at the Council-Table Nov. 3. 1633. This is quoted at length Antid p. 62. and in some of his latter Works for approving the Table to be removed from the middle of the Chancel to the upper end and there to be placed Altar-wise If the King had intended that the like should be observed in all Parochial Churches the Question had been decided against the Bishop's Letter Nec turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere esset nefas as Tigranes says of Pompey Velle lib. 1. The Bishop subscribes p. 163. That the addition of any more Ceremonies than are prescribed in our Book is referred to the person of the King by Act of Parliament The Contention remains whether that Order of His Majesty with his Council hath influence upon other places beside the particular of St. Gregory which occasion'd it The Dr. himself says no such matter directly but Antid p. 36. The King did not command but
had even his Books were seized and he deprived of his Library He could not fight without his Arms or how could the Bell ring out when they had stoln away the Clapper Baronius pitties Photius whom he could not abide for sustaining that hard usage an 871. p. 14. and brings him in complaining to his unkind Lord Basilius of whom he had deserved better Libris privati sumus novâ in nos excogitatâ poenâ librorum amissio non est poena in corpus sed in animam But hear himself speak Epist 97. of Bishop Montague's Edition that Constantine had censur'd some Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet he spoiled them not of their Goods nor deprived them of their Books But the Bishop of Lincoln found not that mercy because he might be indefensible and bear the Reproaches that fell thick upon him Even sorry Clerks came into the Lists when they knew they should not meet the Champion Children talk most when they can speak least sence Among these was a Doctor like Theophrastus's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ardelio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that will be a Guide to Travellers when he knew not a foot of the way He thrust out his Altare Christianum to revile his Master and his Patron for the Bishop in his great Office had protected him against a Justice of Peace who had served this Doctor with a Warrant for some Misdemeanors the then L. Keeper put the Justice out of Commission for it and made this Doctor a Justice in his place took him to be his Chaplain kept him often by some months together in his House bestowed on him a Prebend in Lincoln Church commended him to the L. Chamberlain to swear him the King's Chaplain in ordinary and prevailed Indeed the Dr. lost some favour with the Bishop at last because he was a Tell-tale and made needless Complaints against his Brethren In those black days when the Bishop was over-clouded this man strikes at him with all the force of his no-great Learning Want makes men busie and industrious the man wanted Preferment for he would not have been so fierce if he had been full The Puritans might sit still and look on when the King 's Chaplains were allowed and preferred for their forwardness to do disgrace against a Bishop There was a time when those factious Romans were most extolled that cried down their honourable Patricians Quae res Marii potentiam peperit reip ruinam Match Resp lib. 1. c. 5. Now if these two Doctors think they got the Garland because no Answer was made to their Books let them wear it if they desired work to write more and to get Mony by the Press like the diurnal Scribler they were disappointed And well did Camerarius content himself not to defend Melancthon against the Flaccians because it was in vain to meddle with them they had no Forehead to be ashamed if they were convicted Et ad unum probrum statim erant quae adjicerentur decem So far if not too far upon the Bishop's Letter and his Book The Holy Table to set some Ceremonies in order in the Church of Grantham and I will listen to Sidonius lib. 8. c. 1. Post mortem non opuscula sed opeea pensanda We are to consider after a good man's Death his Works of Bounty and Mercy rather than his Books of Controversie 107. It was not Art but Power it was not a Book but a Bill that crush'd our stout Prelate All other Billows even to the Rage of his Enemies lifted him up but this sunk him Now I must bring his Boat to the Tower-wharf the worst landing-place in all the River 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Court and Court-luck for Company from that day forward farewel he never more lookt for good from you Here 's as much occasion to open a wide Gate to let in Complaint and Sorrow as any case will afford upon the oppression and downfal of the most compleat Bishop that the Age afforded take him in the latitude of all his Abilities Yet Thankfulness was not sensible of the Good-turns he had done nor Honour of his Affronts nor Justice of his Wrongs nor Wrath of his Sufferings nor Charity of his Undoing If the Prosecution against him were fair and the Sentence righteous let him not be pitied nor the Blot wiped out from his Memory Se quisque ut vivit effert As he lived so let him hear well or ill being dead But he was so secure so ready to represent his Cause to the Judgment of the whole Kingdom that against a Parliament was call'd in April 1640. he drew up the whole matter of his Suits and Troubles in twenty sheets of Paper to offer it to that Honourable House for their severest Review And if his Remonstrance were a Clamour and not a just Complaint he invited his Judges to lay a new and a severer Censure upon him And it is fit that every Complainant should be devoved to that Court of Justice wherein he begins a Quarrel to suffer as much Penalty if he make not good his Bill as he would have those to undergo whom he challenged for his pretended Injuries Which was Roman Law in Symmachus's days Ep. p. 67. Provisum est ne quis temerè in alieni capitis crimen irrueret nisi se idem priùs poenae sponsione vinciret But it came not to that dint for this Parliament was bespoken four months before and was dissolved when it had met but three weeks A Duck could not hatch an Egg if she had sate no longer The opportunity therefore was prevented for the Plaintiff to make use of his Papers which were prepared for this Parliament Fortune had mock'd him if he had tryed her Courtesie at that time who is a true Handmaid to no Mistriss but Good-occasion Yet this Memorial of his Case which came not to their Hands but to mine so large so exact so fairly copied without expunction of a word without interlining or the least correction in the Margin is fortunately kept till now when so many noble Registries have been torn and embezzled in these consuming times to content both itching Curiosities and staid Judgments that would know the Truth out of which I will glean up faithfully a few handfuls and no more for these reasons First For the length it may pass for a Book and I affect not to make this Book swell with the incorporation of another Secondly The Press at London by hook or crook lights upon every man's Papers and doth license it self to publish them the more shame for them that are in power and do not mend it And to save me the pains Lincoln's Star-chamber-Trial will come ere long into the Fingers of some sharking Broker of Stationers-hall and be entred in there for his own Chattel as well as the Author's Prayers and Meditations made Anno 1621. for the use of L. M. B. which I glanced at in their due place which a bold fellow hath filed up in his
same Building Where should we look for kindness but in the Rulers of the Church the noblest part of Christ's Family And kindness is nobleness says St. Chrysostom and mercy is a generous thing The Beraeans were more noble than the Thessalonians Acts 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he It doth not signifie nobleness of blood but gentleness of pity Now for the Book the Stone of Scandal at which his Grace stumbled so much it was known unto him that some things got into practice in the Church under his Government and by his Authority were disrelisht by a considerable part in his Province and they of the best conformity whose averseness he thought would be the stiffer by the contents of that Book His remedy was to bring the Author into question and to crush all that sided with him in his Person as the State Maxim goes Compendium est victoriae devincendorum hostium duces sustulisse Paneg. to Constantine p. 339. But which way shall the Book be brought into Disgrace with bad Interpretations It will do no good Forced Earth in time will fall to its own level First then besides some Answers publisht to decry it he incensed his Majesty with a relation of it in whose Ecclesiastical Rights it was mainly written for what he had collected and offered in a Paper to his Majesty Lincoln got a sight of it by the Duke of Lennox and proved that all the Matters of Fact set down against him were false and not to be found in the Book but that it strongly maintain'd the contrary Positions which when his Majesty saw he seem'd to take it ill from the Informer So these flitting Clouds were blown over before they could pour down the Storm they were big with His Grace sent the Book to the Attorney Generâ— to thrust it into an Information who return'd it back that it would not bear it Here again was Tencer's luck in Homer Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had a good will to hit Hector with an Arrow but he mist him Then in his Speech made against Burton Prin and Bastwick which he printed with a Dedication to the King he fell upon this Book reading out of his Notes that he that gave allowance to thrust it at that time into the Press did countenance thosethâ—ee Libellers and did as much as in him lay to fire the Church and State Now under colour to Censure others to fall upon a man that was neither Plaintiff Defendant nor Witness in their Cause would amount to a Libel in anothers mouth against whom Justice had been open But as Demosthenes says against Aristogiton 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Sword is useless if it have not an edg to cut so this bitter flam was but a leaden Dagger and did not wound What remained next but take him Bull-begger fetch him into the High-Commission Court where his Grace was President Judge and might be Advocate Proctor Promotor or what he would And he was so hot upon it that three Letters were written by Secretary Windebank in his Majesties Name to hasten the Cause Whereas honest and learned Dr. Rive the King's Advocate knew not where to act his part upon it Lincoln is now in his Coup in the Tower whither four Bishops and three Doctors of the Civil Laws came to take his Answer to a Book of Articles of four and twenty sheets of Paper on both sides The Defendant refuseth to take an Oath on the Bible claiming the Priviledge of a Peer but his Exception was not admitted He stood upon it that himself was a Commissioner that they had no power over him more than he had over them which did not suffice him Then they come to the Articles whose Proem in usual form was That he must acknowledge and submit to the power of that high Court which he did grant no otherwise than in such things and over such persons as were specified in their Commission The second Article contain'd That all Books licensed by his Grace's Chaplains are presumed to be Orthodox and agreeable to sound and true Religion which he denied and wondred at the Impudency that had put such an Article upon him The third That he had licensed a Book when none but the Archbishops and Bishop of London had such power Nay says Lincoln my self and all Bishops as learned as they have as much power as they not only by the Council of Lateran under Leo the Tenth and the Reformatio Cleri under Cardinal Pool but by Queen Elizabeth ' s Injunctions and a Decree in Star-Chamber The fourth That he named a Book called A Coal from the Altar a Pamphlet The fifth That he said all Flesh in England had corrupted their ways The sixth That in a jear he said he had heard of a Mother Church but never of a Mother Chappel The seventh That again in a scoff he derived the word Chappel from St. Martin 's Hood The eighth That he said the people were not to be lasht by every mans whip The ninth That he maintain'd the people were God's people and the King's people but not the Priest's People The tenth That be flouted at the prety of the Times and the good work in hand The rest of the Cluster were like these and these as sharp as any of the seven and twenty Articles and one and thirty Additionals This was the untemper'd Mortar that crumbled away or as the Vulgar Latin reads it Ezech. 13.10 Liniebant parietem luto absque paleis So here was dirt enough but not so much as a little straw or chaff to make it stick together But such as they were the Bishop had the favour to read them all over once before he was examined a favour indeed not shew'n to every body After the Examination past over he required a Copy of it which the three Civilians voted to be granted but his Grace and Sir J. Lamb would first have him re-examined again upon the same Interrogatories to try the steadiness of his memory and to catch him in a Snare if he did vary An Error that may easily be slipt into by the tediousness of the Matter and the intricate Forms of the Clerk's Pen wherein an aged or illiterate man will scarce avoid the danger of Perjury But the Bishop being of a prodigious memory had every word by heart which he had deposed before against two subsequent Examinations which laid this Cause asleep till God shall awaken it and hear it on both sides at the last day 124. No worse could be lookt for than that their frivolous Articles should go out as they did in a Cracker And less was expected from that which followed whose steam when it came abroad was laught at in good Company but it cost the unfortunate Bishop some thousands in good earnest for Cyphers for Riddles for Quibbles for Nothing It made a third Information in Star-Chamber for like Herulus in Virgil Aen. 8. Ter letho sternendus erat The driver on and the dealer in it was the
was that if he would be bandied no more in Star-chamber 1. He must leave his Bishoprick and Deanry and all his Commendams and take a Bishoprick in Ireland or Wales as His Majesty pleased 2. He must recant his Book 3. Secure all his Fine 4. Never question any that had been employed by His Majesty against him Strange Physick as ever was prescribed for it was a Pill as big as a Pumpion and whose Throat could swallow it down Non est pax sed servitutis pactio Tul. Philip. 12. The worst that all the Courts in England could do could not impose such Terms upon him Beside to yield thus far were to fly the Field and to receive an inglorious wound in his Back Then he falls upon other Thoughts that he would please the King by making an unparallel'd Submission to him And were it not best to be content with half a Ruine to prevent a whole He must be a loser yet a man spends nothing that buys that he hath need of So he wrote back to the same Earl that he would lay his Bishoprick and Deanry at His Majesty's Feet but excused his going into Ireland To the second That he could not recant his Book which contain'd no Doctrine that he was not ready to justifie To the third He would pay his Fine as he was able To the fourth he submitted Not this not all this was accepted The very L. Drusus in Paterculus Meliore in omnia ingenio animoque quà m fortunà usus His noble Wit and good Parts were still destituted by Fortune He received this Return from the Earl That His Majesty was not contented to receive his Bishoprick and Deanry from him his Residency in Lincoln and Rectory of Walgrave are requir'd to be voided and to Ireland or no Peace To the second No Doctrin should be recanted but Matters of Fact c. The Bishop wonders at this who look'd for Praise that he had stoop'd so low yet rather than contest with his Soveraign he resolves with David Adhuc ero vilior And the common Rule of Polybius was observ'd by all men lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of two good things chuse the greatest of two Evils chuse the least He offers to resign all he hath in the Church of England but still will live in England for the Book he pleaded so well for it that the King was satisfied with a conditional submission as If any thing contained in it offended His Majesty he was sorry But to the third about the Fine he found very imperfect and unsolid Proposals and No Ground that 's good is hollow Since he must be stript of all that he had in the Church he would know how much should be left him of his Lands and Leases to live upon that the King 's Fine-gatherers might not snatch up all And he craves an Answer whether that Pension of 2000 Marks per ann bought of the E. of Banbury by His Majesty's Direction and for his Service and Profit being then Prince of Wales and 24000 l. in Arâ—ears for the same should be consider'd towards the King's Payment The Rejoynder began at the latter Clause That Pensions are not paid to men in disfavour the E. of Bristol being the Example for it For the Proportion what he should have to live upon rising out of his own Estate he must know nothing till he had wholly submitted From that hour the false Glass wherein the Bishop saw a shadow of Peace was broken And he writes to the Earl in the Stile of a man That it were a tempting of God to part with all he had willingly and leave himself no assurance of a Livelihood That his Debts if he came out of the Prison of the Tower would cast him into another Prison no better provision being made for them than he saw appearance for That he would never hazard himself into a condition to beg his Bread Truly he had cause to look for better Offers and since they came not he would lay his Head upon the Pillow of Hope till he had slept his last He had not suffer'd as an Evil man his Conscience bore him witness whereby he was not obnoxious to Infamy Majore poenâ affectus quà m legibus statutum est non est infamis a Maxim of Reason and of Law in our Kingdom To surrender up all he had were to suffer as a Fool. Plato is made the Author of the Saying That he had rather leave somewhat to his Enemies when he died than stand in need of his Friends who might prove no Friends while he lived But this is surely Plato's in Apol. pro Socr. That when Socrates was ask'd how he felt himself affected when he was wrongfully condemn'd he said he could give no Answer till he met with Palamedes and Ajax 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he had ask'd them how they took the Sentence of unrighteous Judges he was not fully provided to satisfie them Our bishop consulted day and night at his Study with Histories of Saints in by-past Ages and knew they had suffer'd more than he had done and was sorry for his human frailty if they could bear it better Now I am confident that the Prudent will collect that this Bishop was never deaf to Conditions of Agreement and that no man living could offer a greater Sacrifice than he did for a Peace-Offering unless he would have stript himself of all and not have left off his own two Mites in all the World to cast into the Corban 129. But if the Parly for Peace were nothing but Thunder and Thunder-bolt how will the Bishop endure it when it comes to strokes God be praised his Warfare in these Causes was at an end Flebile principium melior fortuna secuta est Metam lib. 7. The Chamber of Horror and its Star did not shine malignantly upon him again A time and times and half a time had pass'd over and these things were finisht Dan. 12.7 For three year and half he continued in the Tower and in that space lived as if he had drank of Homer's Cup Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had represented and not felt the part he acted For except that so many Suits interrupted his Studies he lack'd nothing that could be perceived of Health Solace and Alacrity Benè dormit qui non sentit quà m malè dormiat a Fragment of Publius Mimus He wanted not good Society for I must ever praise his constant Friend Dr. Alabaster who took up a Lodging in one of the Mint-master's Houses to be with him continually While he was so many months shut up from the action of the World he began to hear of some Occurrences abroad which made him not dread his chief Enemy at Lambeth at all The Archbishop had entangled himself in his own Webb nay the King and all England and Scotland with him In illa liturgiâ infelicissimè ad Scotos missâ says wise Mr. Selden de Syn. Jud. par 2. His Majesty's Expedition into the
to Practice and Use in our own Country Why it was in use in this Island before the Romans entred the same when the Druids gave all the Sentences in Causes of Blood Si coedes facâ—e pâ—as constituunt Caesar Bel. Gai. li. 6. And see Mr. Selden's Epinomis c. 2. Nor is it like that the Romans when they were our Masters should forbid it in Priests whose Pontifical College after they had entertain'd the twelve Tables meddled in all matters of this kind Strabo Geogr. lib. 4. And it is as unlike that the Christian Religion excluded Bishops in this Island from Secular Judicatures since King Lucius is directed to take out his Laws for the regulating of his Kingdom by the Advice of his Council ex utráque pagina the Old and New Testament which could not be done in that Age without the help of his Bishops See Sir H. Spelman's Councils p. 34. Ann. Dom. 185. And how the great Prelates among the ancient Britains were wholly employ'd in these kind of secular agitations you may see in the Ecclesiastical Laws of Howel Dha set forth by Sir H. Spelman pag. 408. anno 940. And a little before this Howel Dha lived K. Aetheljtan in the second Chapter of whose Ecclesiastical Laws we have it peremptorily set down Hinc debent Episcopi cum Saeculi Judicibus interesse judiciis and particularly in all Judgments of the Ordeals which no man that understands the word can make any doubt to have been extended to Mutilation and Death Sir H. S. Counc p. 405. ann 928. And that the Bishops joyned alwaies with the secular Lords in all Judicatory Laws and Acts under the whole reign of the Saxons and Danes in this Island we may see by those Saxon-Danish Laws or rather Capitularies which among the French and Germans do signifie a mixture of Laws made by the Prince the Bishops and the Barons to rule both Church and Common-wealth set forth by Mr. Lambert anno 1568. See particularly the ninth Chapter of St. Edward's Laws De his qui ad judicium sorri vel aquae judicati sunt fol. 128. And thus it continued in this Kingdom long after the Conquest to wit in Henry Beu-clerk's time after whose Reign it began to be a little limited and restrained for at Clarendon anno 1164 8 Calend. Febr. 11 Henr. 21 a general Record is agreed upon by that King 's Special Command of all the Customs and Liberties of this Kingdom ever since Hen. the First the King's Grandfather as you may see in Matth. Paris p. 96 of the first Edition where among other Customs agreed upon this is one Archbishops and Bishops and all other persons of this Kingdom which hold of the King in capite are to enjoy their Possessions of the King as a Barony and by reason thereof are to answer before the Judges and Officers of the King and to observe and perform all the King's Customs And just as the rest of the Barons ought for it was a Duty required of them as the King now by his Summons doth from us to be present in the Judgments of the King's Courts together with the rest of the Barons until such time as they shall there proceed to the mangling of Members or Sentence of Death 147. Observe that there is a diversity of reading in the last words for Matth. Paris a young Monk that lived long after reads this Custom thus Quousque perveniatur ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem Which may be wrested to the first agitation of any Charge tending that way but Quadrilogus a Book written in that very Age and the original Copy of the Articles of Clarendon which Becket sent to Rome extant at this day in the Vatican Library and out of which Baronius in his Annals anno 1164 transcribes it reads the Custom thus Usque perveniatur in judicio ad diminutionem membrorum c. which leaves the Bishops to sit there until the Judgment come to be pronounced amounting to Death or Mutilation of Members And as this was agreed to be the Custom so was it the Practice also after that 11th year to wit in the 15th year of Henry the Second at what time the Lay-Peers are so far from requiring the Bishops to withdraw that they endeavour to force them alone to hear and determine a matter of Treason in the person of Becket Stephanides is my Author for this who was a Chaplain and Follower of that Archbishop The Barons say saith that Author You Bishops ought to pronounce Sentence upon your selves we are Laicks you are Church-men as Becket is you are his fellow-Priests and fellow-Bishops To whom some one of the Bishops replied This belongs to you my Lords rather than to us for this is no ecclesiastical but a secular Judicature We sit not here as Bishops but as Barons Nos Barones vos Barones hic Pares sumus And in vain it is that you should labour to find any difference at all in our Order or Calling See this Manuscript cited by Mr. Selden Titles of Honour 2 Edit p. 705. And thus the Custom continued till the 21st year of the same King Henry II. at what time that Provincial Synod was kept at Westminster by the Archbishop of Canterbury and some few of his Suffragans which Roger Hoveden mentions in his History p. 543. And it seems Gervasius Dorobernensis which is a Manuscript I have not seen The quoting of this Monk in the Margin of that Collection of Privileges which Mr. Selden by command had made for the Upper House of Parliament is the only ground of stirring up this Question against the Bishops at this present intended by Mr. Selden for a Privilege to the Bishops not for a Privilege to the Lay Peers to be pressed against the Bishops The Canon runs thus It is not lawful for such as are constituted in Holy Orders Judicium sanguinis agitare to put in execution Judgment of Blood and therefore we forbid that they shall either in their own persons execute any such mutilation of Members or sentence them to be so acted by others And if any such person shall do any such thing he shall be deprived of the Office and Place of his Order and Function We do likewise sorbid under the peril of Excommunication that no Priest be a secular Sheriff or Provost Now this is no Canon made in England much less confirmed by Common Law or assented to by all the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury or by any one of the Province of York but transcribed as appears by Hovenden's Margin out of a Council of Toledo which in the time that Council is supposed to be held was the least Kingdom in Spain and not so big as York-shire and consequently improper to regulate all the World and especially this remote Kingdom of England Beside as this poor Monk sets it down it doth inhibit Church-men from being Hang-men rather than from being Judges to condemn men to be thus mutilated and mangled in their
the body v. 20. but now are they many Members yet but one Body v. 21. And the eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee nor again the head unto the feet I have no need of you So far our brave Speaker and all this is exscribed faithfully out of his own Copy Let another take his room and let him that is wisest perform it better The Success was that he laid the Bill asleep for five months for I confess that by over-sight I have not kept the just order of time for it should have been referred to the middle of May before the King went into Scotland and was in a trance by the charm of this Eloquence till November after which shews how like he was to Athanasius Nazian in Orat. pro codem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius was an Adamant not to be broken with violent blows and a Load-stone to draw them to him that were of a contrary Opinion Now mark the Partiality upon which the Speaker much insisted That the Lords would grant Interest to noble Persons in Holy Orders to act in Secular Affairs but to none beside As Grotius fits it with a passage Annal. p. 5. Castellani quantumcunque usurpent ipsi libertatem in aliis non serunt The Castilians are great encroachers upon liberty for themselves but will not tollerate it in any beside To the main Cause I yield that that was easie to be defended on the Clergies part as learned Saravia shews de Christian Obed. p. 169. not only from Moses's Law but from the Custom general of the most orderly among the Heathen Gaulish Druids Persian Magi Egyptian Heirophants and so forth by induction from all places to make it amount even to a natural Law that Priests were no where excluded from honourable Imployments in Secular Affairs I will appose two Quotations for it and very remarkable The first from the Judgment of the Scottish Presbytery R. Spotswood Hist p. 299. 449. That they contended for that Priviledge that some Ministers should give Voice in Parliament in the behalf of the Church And some to assist the King in Parliament in Council and out of Council Doth the Wind blow so from the North The other taken from Ludo. Molin Paraen c 4. And he no well-willer to our Hierarchy in that Book least of all to their Consistories Deus Pastori Evangelico non detrahit jus potestatem Magistraturae nec magistratum prohibet ministerio si ad utrumque factus comparatus est But this Bill that went no further when it was first set on foot in May began to enlarge its strides and mend its Pace in the end of Autumn Either because this fiery Parliament saw that Confusion begun must be carried on with acting greater or because the King was suspected that he tamper'd with the Scots and they framed an Injury from his Neglect to leave them so long or how it was that their thoughts were whiâ—'d about with the Wheel of swift Perswasions themselves knew best but their Spleen began to shew it self with stronger fits than ever against the Clergy who were never safe so long as the Bill we have heard of was not cancell'd For the Spanish Proverb tells us That Apple is in great danger that sticks upon the prickles of an Hedge-hogg But if the Sum of the Bill had been right cast the now most noble Marquess of Dorchester and more noble because most learned told his Peers May 21. Which of your Lordships can say he shall continue a Member of this House when at one blow six and twenty are cut off This was sooth nay Sooth-saying and Prophesying but it was not attended 167. When all ways had been tried to pass this Bill of Dishonour upon the Clergy chiefly the Bishops and it hung in the House of the Lords the event methinks is like that which we read I Kings 22. v. 21. There came forth a Spirit and stood before the Lord and said I will perswade them And the Lord said Wherewith And he said I will go forth and I will be a Spirit of clamour and tumult in the mouth of all the People And the Lord said Thou shalt perswade them and prevail also Go forth and do so There had been an unruly and obsteperous concourse of the People in the Earl of Strafford's Case But a Sedition broke forth about Christmas that was ten times more mad Ludum jocumque dices fuisse illum alterum prout hujus rabies quae dabit Terent. Eunuch which took heat upon this occasion The King came to the House of Commons to demand five of their Members to Justice upon impeachment of Treason His Majesty it seems was too forward to threaten such persons with the Sword of Justice when he wanted the Buckler of Safety How far those five were guilty I have nothing to say because plain Force would not let them come to a Tryal But if they were innocent why did they not suffer their Practices to see the Light It had been more to their Honour to be cleared by the Law than to be protected against the Law And that Cause must needs be suspected which could not put on a good outside I am sure the King suffer'd extreamly for their sakes All Sectaries and desperate Varlets in City and Suburbs flock'd by thousands to the Parliament Diogenes was ask'd What was to be seen at the Olympick Sports where he had been Says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Laert. in Vit. Much People but few Men. But here were no Men but all Beasts who promised one another Impunity by their full body of Rebels and where there is no fear of Revenge there is little Conscience of Offence Quicquid multis peccatur inultum est Lucan The Rake-hells were chaffed to so high a degree of Acrimony that they pressed through the Court-gates and their Tongues were so lavish that they talk'd Treason so loud that the King and Queen did hear them Let the five Members be as honest as they would make them I am certain these were Traytors that begirt the King's House where his Person was with Hostility by Land and Water He that speaks of them without detestation allows them and makes way for the like Sometimes they called out for Religion sometimes for Justice Ex isto ore religionis verbum excidere aut clabi potest as Tully of Clodius pro Dom. Was the sacred term of Religion sit to come out of their Mouths Did it become them to speak of Justice Sarah cried out to Abraham The Lord judge between me and thee when her self was in the fault Gen. 16.5 Every Tinker and Tapster call'd for Justice and would let the King have none who is the Fountain of it What did the great Parliament in the mean while Give Freedom to their Rage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Friends in their ragged rows were too many to be childden they were more afraid of them than of the
Dureque ad miseros veniebas exulis annos says the banish'd Poet at Tomes upon his Nativity-day lib. 3. de Trist El. 13. Pompey was slain as near as could be to his Birth-day Pridie Natalium in the Observation of Plutarch William Earl of Penbrook died suddenly upon his very Birth-day Sanders Hist p. 141. Macrobius tells a Wonder Saturn lib. 1. that Antipater Sidonius had ever a Feaver upon his Birth-day and in his Old-age died of a great Fit the same day This Holy Father had compleated the just number of 68 years Satietas vitae maturum tempus mortis assert Cic. de Sen. He was weary of Life in those hateful Times therefore Death came welcome to him and the more welcome because he lamented his own Condition that he could contribute nothing to raise up the Ruins of the Church and Kingdom Tum cecidit cum lugere rempub potiùs possit quà m servare says the same Eloquent of Hortensius in his Brutus When Satiety of Years was come about a Body wasted a Mind oppress'd with Desolation of the Publick-weal it had been a Punishment not to dye after that neat Similitude of Epictetus lib. 2. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is an Injury or in his word a Curse upon Corn when it is Summer-ripe not to be cut down with the Sickle So this worthy Father of the Church died in his Maturity of Age at Glocketh in the Parish of Eglowaysrose in the County of Carnarvan his Body was interred where his House of Pentrin stands in Llangeday the Heriot which every Son of Adam must pay to the Lord of the Mannor of the whole Earth If you look for more of him it is in another and a better World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Says the Epigram Anthol l. 3. If you look for Menender it is â—all one if I said Archbishop Williams look for him with GOD and the Saints above Or if a little more will suffice read this Inscription upon his Tomb in the Chancel of llangeday-Llangeday-Church Plato in the Twelfth Book of his Laws would have no Epitaph exceed the length of four Verses this shall not hold you four minutes 211. HOspes lege relege Quod in hoc Sacello paucis noto haud expectares Hic situs est Johannes Wilhelmus omnium Praesulum celeberrimus A paternis natalibus è familia Wilhelmorum de Coghwhillin ortus A maternis è Griffithis de Pentrin Cujus summum ingenium in omni genere literarum praestantia Meruit ut Regis Jacobi gratiâ ad Decanatum Sarum Post Westmonasterii eveheretur Ut simul atque uno munere tanto Regi esset à consiliis secretis deliciis Magni Sigilli Custos Sedis Lincolniensis Episcopus Quem Carolus primus infula Episcop Eboracen decoraret Omnes scientias valdè edoctus novem linguarum thesaurus Theologiae purae illibatae medulla prudentiae politicae cortina Sacrae canonicae civilis municipalis sapientiae apex ornamentum Dulciloquii cymbalum memoriae tenacissimae plusquà m humanae Historiarum omnis generis myrothecium Magnorum operum usque ad sumtum viginti mille librarum structor Munificentiae liberalitatis hospitalis lautitri Misericordiae erga pauperes insigne exemplum Postquà m inter tempora luctuosissima Satur esset omnium quae videret audiret Nec Regi aut Patriae per rabiem perduellium ampliùs servire potuit Anno aetatis 68º expleto Martis 25º qui fuit ei natalis Summâ fide in Christum inconcussâ erga Regem fidelitate Animam anginâ extinctus piissimè Deo reddidit Nec refert quod tantillum monumentum in occulto angulo positum Tanti viri memoriam servat Cujus virtutes omnium aetatum tempora celebrabunt Abi viator sat tuis oculis debes 212. That which my Prayers and Studies have long endeavoured the dispatch of this Labour is come to pass by the good Hand of God this Seventeenth of February 1657. which is some hearts-ease but with respect that I wait the Consolation of the Lord in better times Which Benefit not I perhaps but such as are younger may live to see as the old Father said to his Son in Plaut Trin. Mihi quidem aetas acta fermè est Tuâ isthuc refert maximè I need not admonish my Readers for they find it all the way that my Scope is not so much to insist upon the memorable things of one Man's Life as to furnish them with reading out of my small store that are well-willers to Learning in Theological Political and Moral Knowledge Yet in those Observations I have not set down a Cyrus a feigned Subject but wrought them into the true Image of this Prelate So Nazianzen informs us that when Athanasius drew out the Life of Anthony the Hermite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He drew out the Instructions of a Rural Hermetical Lise in his Behaviour Some are cheated with Wit now-a-days after the French fashion and had rather Men should be commended in Romances of Persons that were never extant than in such as lived among us truly deserved Glory and did us good My Subject is real and not umbratick a Man of as deep and large wisdom as I did ever speak with and I fear not to say of him as Laelius doth of Cato major Aut enim nemo quod quidem magis credo aut si quis usquam ille sapiens fuit He was constant to that Religion wherein he was catechized and instructed in it more perfectly in Cambridge A punctual observer of the ancient Church Orders whereof he was a Governour and a great decliner of innovations holding to it that what was long in use if it were not best it was fittest for the People He tasted equally of great Prosperity and Adversity and was a rare Example in both like Lollius in Horace Secundis rebus dubiisque rectus not elevated with Honour nor in the contrary state cast down His Enemies lik't nothing worse in him than his Courage and he pleased himself in nothing more Of a stately Presence and a Mind suitable to it Some call'd it Pride and Haughtiness a Scandal laid upon St. Basil says Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They twisted him that he was lofty and supercilious Underlings will never forbear to object it to Men in places of Preheminence when there is more of it in themselves Well said Petrus Blesensis Melior est purpurata humilitas quà m pannosa superbia Yet I concur with others who knew this Lord that Choler and a high Stomach were his Faults and the only Defects in him And it had been better for him if he had known a meek temper and how to be resisted Otherwise his Vertues were super-excellent A great Devotee to publick and private Prayer There did not live that Christian that hated Revenge more than he or that would forgive an Injury sooner Most Munificent Liberal Charitable above his Means for he died in a Debt of 8000 l. though