sin And it were well if this sin reached no farther than the children of Israel for indeed such is the nature of all men apt and prone to devise services unto God as they list every one will be independent and serve God as he pleaseth and all such devised ervice is nothing else but Idolatry saith the Apostle Col. 2.23 1 Joh. 5.21 and thereore St. John writing unto Christians concludes his Epistle with little children keep your selves from Idols which is worth our observation because they might as many do make an Idol of many things of their Pulpit of their Preachers of their Altars and of the most consecrated bread in the Eucharist when as the Church of Rome doth it to this very day they transubstantiate the same to become Corpus Domini and do orally eat that with their teeth which the Scripture teacheth us to eat sacramentally by faith which very doctrine of transubstantiation and thereupon the adoration of their host and the asportation of it as the Israelites did their Moloc I fear if it be rightly discussed will prove to be little less than Idolatry for as I will not reject that truth which the Devil uttered Mat 5.7 Thou art Jesus the Son of the most high God nor refuse the four Gospels and the three Creeds of the Apostles the Nicen and Athanasian because the Pope useth them but will believe all the truth that the Church of Rome believeth and therein joyn with them the right hand of fellowship so I will hate the errours and detest the Idolatry of any Church that committeth it And therefore How the Primitive Christians were slandered though as the Christians of the Primitive Church were most falsly traduced and charged to be the causes of all the calamities dearths wars sedition and all the other evils that happened unto the Heathens which indeed themselves were the sole causes of because they would not become Christians and therefore persecuted the Church of Christ and in all their Counsels had none other Conclusions but Christianos ad leones let us throw away these Christians to the Lyons to the fires and to the Waters so now the Enemies of the truth say we are Papists and Idolatrous and the causes of all these calamities that are fallen upon this Land How we are now slandered and therefore let them be deprived degraded and destroyed yet in very deed we are so far from those points which Jewel Cranmer Latimer and the rest of those holy Martyrs and godly Reformers concluded to be Popish and Idolatrous that as we have hitherto most learnedly refuted them so we are most constantly resolved to oppugn them while we live and rather to lose our lives than to depart from the true protestant faith and to embrace the Idolatry of any Church in the World and you must know that as the Philosopher saith Non quia affirmatur aut negatur res erit vel non erit things are not so and so because they are reported to be such as Gold is not Copper because an ignorant Artist affirmeth it nor Copper Gold because the like Ignoramus avoucheth it so a wicked man is not good nor Rebels loyal because flatterers commend them neither is a good man wicked nor faithful Subjects malignants nor true Protestants Popish because the slanderers traduce them as Christ was neither a drunkard Mat. 11.19 nor a glutton though the Jews accused him of both and we are neither Papists nor Popish though as the Apostle saith in the like case Rom. 3.8 we are slanderously reported to be such but things ought to be affirmed to be as they are indeed and men ought to judge righteous judgements and then you might see and so be assured we are so far from Popery that as I said before we lay on them little less crime than Idolatry And seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 video we see it may be derived farther and brought nearer to our selves then the Church of Rome Hier. in Jer. c. 32. Aug. l. de vera religione Col. 3 5. for so men may as St. Hierom saith erect an Idoll in their own brains as the worldling makes his Gold to be his god the Heretiques and Separatists make an Idoll of their false Religion the precise Hypocrite makes an Idoll of his dissembled purity and the very Rebels make an Idol of their seducers and leaders and their own most obstinate opinions and all these and the like do offer up Idolatrous sacrifices upon the Altar of their own folly and therefore well might St. John say Keep your selves from Idols because the children of the Church when they leave their true Leaders and take blind guides may soon fall and be filled with Idolatry And seeing we have so many such rebellious Idolaters amongst us if there be any Idolaters in the world is it any wonder that God should so abundantly poure out his indignation upon us or that he should not visit for these things Jer. 5 9. and be avenged on such a nation as this 2. Injustice was the other sin whereby the Israelites lost the Lord when as the Prophet saith Ver. 7. The second sin of the Israelites Injustice they turned judgment into wormwood and left off righteousness in the earth wherein you may observe two things in the iniquity of this people 1. Generally among all the Vulgar sort 2. Jer. 5.1 Particularly among the very Judges and Princes of the Land 1. The common people left off righteousness 1 Generally and dealt most unjustly one with another oppressing the poor afflicting the just and filling themselves with thefts robberies and all other kinds of unrighteousness sins able to overthrow the whole earth The praise of Justice Pro. 25.5 Pro. 14.34 Theog p. 431. and to destroy all the Society of mankind for justice establisheth the thrones of Kings it exalteth a nation it is the sister of peace the mother of prosperity the preserver of amity and as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And on the other side injury and oppression as Solomon saith Eccles 7.7 is able to make a wise man mad and injustice is the destroyer of peace the producer of War and the bringer of whole Cities Kingdoms and Nations to confusion for as St. Aug. saith Quid sunt regna remota justitia nisi magna latrocinia What are Kingdoms if you take away justice but as our Cities are now in most parts of our Land the Dens of Thieves that enrich themselves with the treasures of wickedness Mica 6.13 and are clad with the spoiles of the poor and how is it possible that men should live one by another cum vivitur ex rapto when Pillaging and Plundering shall become our common trade and the great mens strength shall become the Law of justice and yet this is not all for 2. As the Prophet Esay saith their Princes that is 2 Particularly
all But though it be not amiss to make known the injustice and the faults of Great men that there may be a redress of them yet who dares complain and speak of the Vices of their Superiours An tutum est scribere in eos qui possunt proscribere I have read how the Mice held a Consultation The Fable of the Mice how they might escape the fury of the Cat and one wiser than the rest said it might easily be done if there were but a Bell tied about the Cats neck for so they might heare her coming and they might get away and all liked well and applauded the device but to this day they could never agree which of them should tie the Bell about the Cats neck So all the poor and inferiour Clergy all sigh and groan and complain of their Taxes and Pressures and Oppressions by the Bishops and Archbishops and Archdeacons and their Suffragans and all that come to Censure them but not one of them all dares tie the Bell about the Cats neck and complain of these Great Powers unto the Higher Powers to have their abuses redressed for fear of a worser consequence no less than to be crusht and torn all to pieces Yet I remember what Seneca saith that he which is careless of his own life may when he will be Master of another mans life so he that is careless of his own state or promotion and regards not the confluence of wealth and worldly things may without fear do things that other timorous men dare not venter to do The manifold deliverances of the Author And truly I must confess that since the great Jehovah my continual deliverer hath delivered me from that multitude of those malicious Enemies that sought after my life when I was scarce budded in the world and ever since hath preserved me so many times from such great and so unimaginable dangers as from Captain Flaxen when I was carried Prisoner to North-hampton from Captain Beech when I was taken prisoner at Sea from the drunken Captain that would have delivered me to the Power of the Parliament hard by Aber-ystwith from Sir John Carter and Courtney that would have clapt me in prison when I preached for his now Majesty at Conway from the wicked Committee of plundered Ministers that said I deserved rather to have my head cut off than to have any Articles performed with me from so many desperate Sea-voyages and Land journeys that I passed through and from Captain Wood when I was under his hands in the Parliament Ship from the Great Antichrist the Long Parliament and especially from the devil himself when he threw me down at West-Wickham and God said unto him as he did of Job He is in thy hand but save his life I never feared what man could do unto me but as the Prophet David said the Lord delivered me from the mouth of the bear and of the Lion and he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine So I say the Lord that preserved me so many times from so many dangers will still preserve me while with a sincere heart I endeavour to discharge my duty especially seeing the Lord saith I even I am he that comforteth you and who art thou that art affraid of a man and of the son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth and hast feared every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy Therefore as I have been alwaies resolute and in a manner desperate in the judgment of the timorous as it appeareth by the three Books that in the behalf of our late King I printed in Oxford and the three Books that I writ of the Great Antichrist while the Long Parliament and the false Prophet were in their greatest prevalency and by the Sermons that I preached at St. Nicholas and other Churches in Dublin at Conwey before the Judges at Llaâ— Sannan and in all places So now in mine old age when I am so near my grave I have less reason to fear and more cause to be resolute to say the truth to discharge my duty and to implore my most honourable Friends my Lords Grace of Canterbury my Lord of London and my old familiar Acquaintance my Lord of Winchester whom God hath placed so near his Majesty and hath raised to that eminency of dignity pre consortibus above their brethren not so much for their own sakes as for his honour and service and the good of his Church and like so many religous Josephs to relieve their distressed Brethren to joyn in mine assistance most earnestly to beseech and most humbly to petition to his Sacred Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to relieve and help the Church of Ireland in those threefold grievances that I have foreshewed as that 1. Seeing the Lands and Revenues of the Church were I am sure in many places of my Diocess given for their reward that fought against his late Majesty and that by reason of their wealth and great friends to uphold them therein they do possess them and we that would erect our Churches therewith are disinabled to do it without our means that are so forcibly with strong hands and by such friends detained from us his Majesty would be pleased to cause them or some others some waies and by some means to have the Churches of God for the service of Jesus Christ to be erected and repaired * Especially the Bishops Cathedral Church in Kilkenny and not to the scandal of our Religion which the Jews Turks and Gentiles would not do to suffer our very Cathedrals and so many other Parish Churches to lie so ruinous and so rooted up as they are 2. That seeing so many great and goodly Impropriations are taken away from the Church of Christ and from the service of God and are held in the hands of such great persons and powerful men that will not part with them as I shewed to you before and the poor Vicars of such Rectories impropriate have scarce so much means belonging to the Vicaredges as will put bread into their mouths whereby they are constrained for the relief of their Families to take Farms and other Lands to occupy like Lay men and to neglect their duties and the service of Gods Church and to suffer the poor people either to be instructed and to have their children baptized married and buried by the Popish Priests or to have no Priests at all and we that are the Diocessans by reason of the small values of those Vicaredges can find no men that are worthy and able Ministers that will come and accept of those slender maintenances and those that do accept them we cannot make them by reason of their smalness to discharge them And seeing as I said the Churches are down and the Lands Livings and Revenues of the Church are thus as I
and rooted out his whole off spring And I could spend my whole hour in examples of this kinde but I will content my self with two or three As 1. Of Ferdinando the fourth King of Castiâ—e Ferdinando who did most unjustly condemn two Knights to death and one of them cryed O thou unjust Judge we do cite thee to appear within thirty dayes before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ to receive judgement for thine injustice and so upon the last of those days he dyed to receive his sentence according to his summons And one Lapparel a Provost of Paris Lapparel caused a poor man that was prisoner in the Chastilet to be executed by giving him the name of a rich man who being guilty and condemned was set at liberty in the place of the poor man but the just judgment of God discovered his injustice and being accused and condemned he was hanged for his labour and so Philip King of Macedon was killed by Pausanias a mean Gentleman Philip Macedo Demetrius because he denied to do him justice against Antipater that had wronged him and Demetrius for throwing the petitions of his subjects into the River and denying to do them justice they all forsook him and Pyrrhus took away his Kingdome And many other men I could name to you that their injustice hath undone them And therefore all men should take heed of committing this horrible sin of injustice either by doing wrong or denying right unto others The injustice of some Judges And yet I am ashamed to speak it though I shall not be affraid to write it how gravely some Judges have sate upon the seat of judgment to pronounce unrighteous judgments and think to cover all their iniquity with the fig-leaves of the formalities of their Lawes to overthrow the reality of justice Oh beloved Monstrum horrendum ingens est it is a most horrible thing to have injustice done from the seat and from the Ministers of justice when a man is apparently wronged oppressed and expulsed out of house and home and shall with a deale of travel and a great deale of expences come to a Court of justice to be righted and instead of being redressed he shall see there scelus sceleribus tectum his former wrongs finely handled and loaded with far greater wrongs Do you think that this is well pleasing unto God or that such injustice shall escape unpunished no no for they shall finde that there is a God which judgeth the earth and that his judgment will be according to truth without partiality either to Jew or Gentile which here among men I see is not so But as I read that Diogenes seeing some petty thieves led to the place of execution laughed exceedingly and being demanded why he laughed he answered to see the great thieves lead the little thieves to the Gallowes so if he should see men forcibly expelled out of their possessions and the forcible entrers legally acquitted or if he should see the poor Irish Catholicks driven out of house and home either because they were Irish rebels which justly deserved it or because they were Romish Catholicks which should not therefore be destroyed and should see the great English Sectaries that had been greater rebels countenanced and magnified and to injoy the others Lands and Livings would he not laugh at this justice which is just like that which we read of in l. 1. of Philip Commines when Charelois lost the Feild and his Captains and their Troopers fled away he gave the offices and places of them that fled ten leagues to those that had fled twenty leagues beyond them Therefore I say to you whom God and the King have made Judges of these things for the settlement of this Kingdome As you have done hitherto so still ride on with your honour and have no respect of Persons nor of Nation nor of Religion but do that which is just and righteous in the sight of God and as God hath blest you and preserved you hitherto so he will still bless you and preserve you for evermore And for the preservation of better justice then I see in many places I shall speak more of it in another place and after another manner for you may be sure that Kingdome shall never be happy where oppression is frequently used and iniquity protected by injustice and especially by the Courts of Justice And therefore to the end that true justice might be truly observed I could wish the Parliament would make some Acts Lawes against many abuses practised by some cunning Lawyers in the very Courts of Justice The abuse of some cunning Lawyers in quashing of Indictments and especially against the frequent and abusive quashing of Indictments which is a sin of no slender malignity â—or when a poor man far from the fountain is by violence oppressed and he indicts his oppressors then presently comes a Certiorari and removes it to the Kings Bench and there the Lawyers are so skilfull in the tricks and quiddities of the Law and the Cases of John A-Nokes and John A-Stiles that they say there can hardly be any indictment framed but they are able to finde a flaw to quash it which I was told by great Lawyers And what a wrong is this to his Majesty in his fines what an injury to the poor men that are oppressed and what incouragement to all those wicked men that are so ready to offer all violence unto their neighbours which are not able to indict the same offendors three or four times over till they shall finde a man able to draw a faultless indictment And if this be not a greivous greivance worthy to be redressed if you desire the preservation of justice judge you And therefore it were good that some better way were devised for the framing of Indictments or the not quashing of them so easily and so frequently as they are reported to be 4. Sacriledge 4. The last frequent sin that I shall at this time desire you to cast your eyes behinde you to behold Gods detestation of it and his punishments that he poureth out upon the offenders is sacriledge which is the taking away and with-holding of those Revenues which God hath appointed and godly men have dedicated for the maintenance of Gods service and the religion of Jesus Christ and so the robbing of God himself both of his honour and service a sin so general that the custome of it hath quite taken away the sense of it and men think it to be no sin at all But I know what some may here say that now I plead mine own cause 1 Sam. 12.3 I will briefly answer as Samuel did unto the people and I say that I sued indeed for the Church right but I testifie before the Lord and your Grace and you All that I did it not to inrich my self for I thank God I have enough both for my self and my relation wife children and friends but I did it for the
giving unto them which by continuance in well doing seek glory and honour and immortality eternal life he sheweth himself most gracious and merciful in bestowing upon them what they could not challenge from him and in rendring vengeance to them that obey not God and in plaguing them both in this life and in the life to come he doth but what is most just and upright and therefore the Prophet Esay after he had set down many of Gods Judgements against the wicked addeth That the Lord of Hosts should be exalted in judgment Esay 5.16 and the holy God should be sanctified in justice that is that he should be acknowledged by all men to be most pure and holy and commended for his justice in punishing the wicked according to their deserts And this doctrine of Gods holiness and purity should put us in mind of our duty to be not as the Devil corrupt and unjust but as God commandeth us to be holy as he is holy and to be as he is if we desire to be where he is where no impure thing shall ever come And so much for the first Attribute here expressed 2. Attribute is Gods rule and authority 2. The next Attribute is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord and he is said to be the lord of any thing Qui jus autoritatem dominium habet in aliquam rem which hath right authority and rule over any thing and whose own proper thing is that of which he is said to be lord for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth Authority Zanc. de nasura dei l. 1. c. 17. saith Pasor and the Latine word Dominus dicitur à domo saith Zanchius because the Master of the house was wont to be called the Lord of it And this name Lord saith he in the Writings of the Apostles is ascribed to Christ idque millies about a thousand times because he ruleth and governeth not only the little house of his Church Heb. 1.2 3. but also the great house of this whole World as the Apostle sheweth Reason 1 Why the Father is stiled God and the Son Lord. And the reason why the name of God is usually attributed to the Father and the name of Lord commonly ascribed to the Son is twofold 1. Because the Father is the fountain of the whole Deity therefore is he usually termed God and the Son is termed Lord because he is appointed of his Father to be Lord of all things John 17.2 and all power is given unto him over all flesh Reason 2 2. The Father is called God most usually because that in the mystery of our redemption the Father remained still in his Majesty and gave his Son only to be our Redeemer and the Son though he was in the form of God yet was he content not to remain with his Father in that equal Majesty Phil. 2.7 which he had with him from all eternity but He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and so with the laying down of his Glory he laid down also the Name of God and by taking unto him the form of a servant he took also the name of a servant that is in respect of his Father to whom as a servant be became obedient in all things unto death and therefore the Father calleth him his Servant saying Ecce servus meus Behold my servant Esay 42.1 Matth. 12.18 Whom I have chosen whom I uphold which is interpreted of Christ But in respect of us the Son is said to be our Lord and so he is called every where because we are given unto him for his inheritance that we should serve him and acknowledge him for our Lord and Master and so as he is made our Lord the name of Lord is given unto him of his Father And therefore though Christ indeed remained alwayes God and in the form of God wherein he was from all eternity yet because he was appointed by the Father Christ laid aside the Name of God and took two other names The first in respect of his Father and contented himself to be the Saviour of all mankind he humbled himself unto death and unto death he laid down the Name of God and took unto himself two other names As 1. The name of a Servant in regard of his Father to whom he was made obedient as a servant and for which cause he alwayes calleth upon him as a servant calleth upon his Master and referreth all things unto him as to his Lord and Master 2. He took upon him the name of Lord The second in respect of us in regard of us and that is due unto him in a foursold respect that is By right 1. Of Inheritance Christ is our Lord in four respects 2. Of Redemption 3. Of Wedlock 4. Of Creation For 1. He is the Lord our God 1. By right of Inheritance and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands and the Father said unto him Psal 2.8 Dabo tibi gentes in haereditatem tuam I will give the Gentiles for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession And therefore St. Peter saith Let all the house of Israel know for certain or assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus Act. 2.36 whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ And in this respect also he is Lord of the wicked Reprobates though they will not obey him for the Prophet David saith Psal 8.5 6. Heb. 2.8 Omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ejus Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet and the Apostle saith this was spoken of Christ And again the same Prophet speaking of him Psal 110.1 saith that the Lord said unto him Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool Yea more then this he is the Lord of all things whatsoever for Him hath God appointed and made heir of all things Heb. 1. as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews teacheth and our Saviour himself saith Matth. 28 18. John 18.15 All power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth And again All things that the Father hath are mine Whereby you may see that Jure haereditario by right of inheritance as his Fathers Heir he is the Lord 1. Of the Elect. 2. Of the Reprobates And 3. Of all the things in the world 2. By right of purchase 1 Cor. 6.19 20. 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 2. He is our Lord by right of redemption or of purchase for so the Apostle saith You are not your own because you are bought with a price And St. Peter sheweth what price it was that redeemed us and was paid for us No corruptible thing as silver and gold but the pretious bloud of Jesus Christ And therefore seeing Christ hath bought us and redeemed us out of the hands of our enemies he may
1. The Act. we lost God we lost our selves and our own Souls and are become like lost sheep without a Shepherd and therefore we have great reason to seek and to seek diligently till we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 19.10 what we lost And The loss of God is nothing else but the withdrawing of his Love The loss of God what it is and the withholding of the influences of his favour from us like the parting of the Sun from our Horizon whereby darkness followeth and so all miseries and mischiefs fire and brimstone storm and tempest wars famines plagues and all evils Two things considerable must be the lot of them that lost the love of God but then you must consider 1. The cause for which the Lord departeth from us 2. The means whereby we suffer him to be detained from us 1. The cause why the Lord departeth from us is sin 1. The cause that driveth away God from us is sin for by this Adam lost him and as the Prophet sheweth this makes the separation betwixt God and all the children of Adam for your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear saith Esayas Cap. 59.2 And you may see this truth further cleared and proved in * Lam. 3.39 Psal 5.5 Ezek. 18 4. Rom. 6.23 Jam. 1.15 Lev. 11.44 And it is no marvel that sin should make such a separation betwixt God and us if we consider the nature of God and of sin for God testifieth of himself that he is holy and there is as much difference betwixt holiness and sin as is betwixt the clearest light and the blackness of darkness for holiness is of such a resplendent Excellency that the very Enemies of it the prophanest Atheists that neither fear God nor regard men Why sin separates us from God The nature of holiness how excellent yet will they nill they they cannot chuse but approve it in others though they reject it froâ— themselves because as Seneca saith Virtus in omnium animos lumen suum immittit ut qui non sequuntur eam videant tamen vertue and goodness do so shine among all men that they which use it not which love it not yet cannot chuse but see it yea and confess it too to be most admirable and excellent in it self for what adulterer is so impure but that his conscience will tell him especially at some time or other that chastity is better then his sensuality What drunkard is so besotteâ— but that his heart will tell him especially when he is sober that sobriety is better then surfetting and drunkenness or what swearer is so far past all grace that his own soul will not tell him and sometimes compel his tongue to confess it that to say indeed is far better then by his hideous oaths to lose that God which made him The nature of sin how execrable and heaped his blessings upon him On the other side sin and filthiness are such ugly monsters that the very followers and practisers thereof cannot chuse but condemn them and hate them in others though they do love and follow the same in themselves yea as St. Aug. saith they that are filthy themselves Aug. de Civit. l. 14. c. 18. Chrys in Eph. c. 4. will call their own lewdness filthiness and though they love it yet they will not dare to profess it And all this St. Chrysostom expresseth most elegantly saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in effect is that holiness is such a thing that the very Enemies thereof canchuse but admire it and wickedness is such a thing that the very Lovers thereof cannot chuse but condemn it therefore it is no wonder that God which is holiness it self in abstractâ— should hate all those that work wickedness All sins not alike Yet you must observe that as every offence divorceth not man and wife so all sins do not alike separate the love of God from us for there be some sins that do but anger him so that he only chides us or most gently corrects us not in his indignation nor as the Prophet saith in his heavy displeasure but in love for the amendment of the sinner and there be other sins that do so highly provoke him that he doth utterly forsake us to execute his wrath and vengeance upon the sinner for the honour of himself and the destruction of the other as the Lord saith I will get me honour upon Pharaoh that is in his destruction And therefore though we ought to take heed of all sins yet more especially of these because they are more odious unto God and more pernicious unto our selves And here I find three sins set down of this kind whereby these Israelites lost the Lord and they are 1. Idolatry against God v. 5. 26. 2. Injustice towards men v. 7. 11. 3. Contempt of the Priest whereby they became hateful both to God and man v. 10. Which were 3 deadly sins â—s I shal shew â—ou in their order 1. Idolatry is a sin most hainous and most odious unto God I know few or none so pestiferous for though Atheism is a fearful sin to be without a God in the World without him without whom we cannot live we cannot move we cannot have our being Yet Atheism seemeth not so ugly a Monster Exod. 14.17 and so detestable unto God as Idolatry is and though the prophanation of Gods Holy Name is a transcendent sin yet this seems but to ascend so high into Gods displeasure as Idolatry doth For in the first precept which is against Atheism The three fearful sins of the Israelites 1. Their Idolatry he doth not say without any threatning thou shalt have none other Gods but me and in the third precept which forbiddeth all vain swearing he doth but say I will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh my name in vain but in the second precept where he prohibiteth Idolatry he seems to search for words and to coyn phrases to express his hatred to this sin against which he expandeth his fury to a mighty reach saying I am a jealous God that do visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me Idolatry how hateful to God as if Idolaters only were the chiefest haters and the greatest enemies of Almighty God and therefore most justly hated by God and no marvel for as Plutarch saith he had rather men should think there was never such a man in the world as Plutarch than to say he was so savage and so cruel as to kill and eat his dearest friends and children ita satius est nullos Deos credere quam Deos noxios So it is better to think there are no Gods than to believe them to be such as thy self art as the Prophet speaketh or like Jupiter Saturn and the rest of the Gentile Gods that were
visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this Yes saith our Prophet and for these things the Israelites lost the Lord and we may fear he hath left us for the same faults 2. 2. The waies whereby God is lost from us The means or waies by which we depart from God and so lose the Lord are very many I will only name unto you these three whereby Joseph lost our Saviour in Jerusalem And they are 1. Negligent security 2. Ignorant blindness 3. Obstinate opinion 1. Joseph went with Christ into the Temple but through negligence Way 1 to look after him he went homewards without him so the neglect to seek God is the only way to lose God becâ—use as Saint Gregory saith Quem tentationis certamen superare non valuit saepe securitas deterius stravit 2. Joseph knew not that Christ was left behind him and Way 2 so many men know not that they are without the Lord being like the Inhabitants of Egypt that reap the benefits of Nilus but are ignorant of the fountain from whence it springs because they are ignorant of their faith and of their own most desperate condition while they have moâ—e care of the Evidence of their Lands than they have of the assurance of their Salvation Way 3 3. Joseph thought that Christ was gone before with their friends and thereby he was deceived so many men lose the Lord by their false perswasions for Arius thought he found Christ when he denied his Deity Saint Paul thought he did God good service when he persecuted the Saints of God and so many men as those seditious Preachers and Brownists about London and many other parts of this Kingdom do think perhaps they teach the truth of God when as God knoweth they teach the people nothing else but the most desperate and damnable doctrine of devils when they perswade them to resist the ordinance of God Rom. 13. which commandeth every soul to submit it self unto the higher powers and that is the King as Saint Peter testifieth 1 Pet. 2.13 and so by these false thoughts they do uterly lose the true God and shall finally lose themselves unless they do speedily change their minds and therefore as the Emperour Antoninus was wont to say in another case so I say in this ejice opinionem si vis salvus esse cast away such false opinions and believe the truth relie not on your selves nor on your lying Leaders but as our Prophet saith Seek the Lord and you shall live And so much for the causes and the waies by which we lose the Lord. What we ought to do when we have lost God Gen. 2. Now when the Lord is lost the only remedy that we have is to seek him but alas beloved is it in our power to find him or have we any ability to seek him Can the lost sheep find her shepherd or could Adam ever seek after God if God had not sought after him and called him Adam where art thou I must answer like Athanaeus riddle a man and no man with a stone and no stone kill'd a bird and no bird that sate upon a tree and no tree that is an Eunuch with a pummy killed a bat upon a fennel so I say it is and it is not for if you speak of a man unregenerate and as yet destitute of Gods grace he can no more seek for grace than dead Lazarus could raise himself out of his grave because the Apostle affirmeth all to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 1.2 dead in trespasses and sins and our Saviour saith Without me you can do nothing Joh. 15.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prosper de lib. arbit and Prosper calleth the grace of God Creatricem bonorum in nobis the Creator of all the good that is in us according to that saying of the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are his workmanship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 created in Christ Jesus and you know that a creation is from nothing But when the Lord hath quickned our dead spirits and mollified our hard hearts then he looketh that we should not be quasi dormientes quasi non volentes as men asleep and negligent of our own good but that we should diligently seek the way and finding the same to walk therein Eph. 2 10â— for this exhortation to seek the Lord and our Saviours invitation to come unto him and the like do sufficiently evince Mat. 11.28 that in all Christians God worketh not sicut in lapidibus insensatis as in senseless stones or in creatures that have no reason as Saint Augustine speaketh but in men that have a freedom of will to follow after those things which do pertain unto salvation Aug in Epist 89. quaest 2. Quia liberum arbitrium non ideo tollitur quia juvatur sed ideo juvatur quia non tollitur because our free-will is not taken away because it is helped but it is therefore helped because it is not taken away as the same St. Augustine speaketh And Fulgentius hath the like saying l. 2. De veritate praedest And therefore seeing the Devil can neither forcibly compel us to any evil nor violently detain us from any good How the devil inticeth us and cannot compel us to sin but only by the proposal of seducing objects and by the subtle obscuring the beauty of the perfect good to allure us unto the one and to withdraw us from the other we ought to arm our selves with a resolution to follow the counsel of the Prophet to Seek the Lord that we might live and not die for Why will you die O ye Inhabitants of England But in this our inquisition and search after God Four things to be considered in our search for God we ought carefully to consider of these four particulars 1. To find out the cause why he left us 2. To go to the place where he resideth 3. To know the time when he may be found 4. To understand the manner how we are to seek him For 1. To know the cause why God left us Psal 147.14 1. God was amongst us as in the holy place of Sinai and then Kings with their Armies did flee and were discomfited and we of his houshold divided the spoyl and then God sent a gracious rain upon his Inheritance and refreshed it when it was weary and poured his benefits upon us he made peace in all our borders and filled us with the flower of wheat and he blessed us so that we were even envied for our happiness Job 19.11 but now he hath forsaken us and hideth his face from us and goeth not forth with our Armies but he hath kindled his wrath against us and counted us as one of his enemies Cap. 6.4 he hath made his arrows drunk in our bloud and his terrours do set themselves in array against us so that now we are a
by-word among the Heathens and our enemies laugh us to scorn Therefore as the good Physitian first seâ—rcheth out the cause of the disease and then prepareth a potion for the cure and as Joshuah when God turned away from the children of Israel and delivered them up into the hands of their Enemies never left searching Josh 7.18 2 Sam 21.1 till he had found out the accursed thing that was the cause of their destruction and David also when there was a famine three years year after year inquired of the Lord what should be the cause thereof so we must inquire and search out the cause why the Lord hath overthrown all our hedges and given us as a spoyle unto our Neighbours And herein as Demodacus said of the Milesians We have committed the same sins and more sins and more hainously than the Israelites did they were no fools but they did the same things that fools did So I say we are no Israelites but I fear we have committed the same sins as the Israelites did Idolatry injustice and contempt of our Teachers nay have we not added unto these Sacriledge Perjury Drunkenness Luxury and all kind of uncleanness Yea have we not made injustice and perjury and sacriledge and contempt of the Ministers and rebellion against the Ordinance of God and many other sins that formerly were but personal sins now to become national when they are committed continued and maintained by the Representatives of the whole Kingdom And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this saith the Lord Vers 19. Yes saith our Prophet wee shall be to them that desire the day of the Lord for it is darkness and not light and it shall be as if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him that is to escape the least and to fall into the greater punishment because the Lion is a more noble enemy than the Bear when as the Poet saith Parcere prostratis scit nobilis ira Leonis But the Bear is a most ravenous raging Beast Hos 5.12.14 that will tear us all to pieces so it is to escape the Sword and to die by Famine to provide against Famine and to be destroyed by the Pestilence which shall follow one another so long as we continue in our sins and the wrath of the Lord shall not be turned away but his hand will be stretched out still As in Levit. 26. after many plagues he addeth I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins And therefore if you would turn away the wrath of God you must turn away from these sins that have provoked him to wrath Quia sublata causa tollitur effectus And then 2. If you would find the Lord 2. The place where God may be found you must go to the place where he resideth for though Enter praesenter Deus est ubique poten or in respect of his omnipotent Essence the spirit of the Lord filleth all places If we climb up into Heaven he is there if we go down to Hell he is there also and as the Schools say he is Supra coelos non elatus subter terram non depressus intra mundum non inclusus extra mundum non exclusus yet in respect of his favourable presence he is not to be found in every place How God filleth all places for if you seek the righteous God among unrighteous men the faithful God among lying perjurers as the Grecians sought for Helen in Troy when she was with Proteus in Egypt we shall be sure to miss him because the holy spirit of discipline fleeth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin and therefore the place is to be considered where we must seek him and that is principally 1. The Church of Christ among the faithful And God is found 1. In the Church among the faithful 2. The holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles 1. As Joseph and Mary when they lost Christ found him not in the waies among their friends and acquaintance but in the Temple among the Doctors so we shall find him not in the factious confederacies of private Conventicles but in the publique assemblies of Gods holy Church Psal 26.8 which is the place where his honour dwelleth not among Perjurers Lyers Rebels and the like but among the faithful and among those that fear the Lord for The Lord is with them that fear him and put their trust in his mercy and with such he may be found And therefore if you would find the Lord you must not walk in the counsel of the ungodly Psal 1.1 nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornful you must have nothing to do with the stool or seat of wickedness which imagineth mischief and doth countenance their wickedness by a Law but where you see the righteous gathering themselves in the name of Christ and joyning their forces in the fear of God there is the Lord in the midst of them Lev. 26.12 even as himself hath promised I will dwell in them and walk in them and will be their God and they shall be my people 2 In the holy Scriptures 2. As we may find the Lord in the Church of the righteous so we may find him in the holy Scriptures not in the Turks Alcoron nor in the Popes Canon nor in mans Tradition nor in any like unwritten verities which are the muddy inventions of distracted brains and the idle vanities of seduced souls we send you to no such places to seek the Lord whatsoever the malice of our adversaries saith of us but we direct you to the pure Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thy Word is truth and the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 17.17 John 5.39 Aug. Confes l. 11. c. 2. 2 Tim. 3.13 Hieron in ep ad demetriad testifie of me saith our Saviour and therefore Deliciae meae scripturae tuae thy Scriptures are my delights saith S. Augustine and the reason is rendered by S. Hierom because they are able as the Apostle sâ—ith to make us wise unto salvation and all wisdom without this is but meet foolishness for Quid prodest esse peritum periturum what will it boot a man to be wise unto perdition to be subtle to play the Rebel to be a crafty Traytor and to go to Hell with a great deal of wit and learning Aug. quo sup as St. Augustine speaketh Psal 120.4.5 Therefore though you should be constrained to dwell with Meshec and to have your habitation among the tents of Kedar among the Egyptians or Babylonians among them that are enemies unto peace as God knows how soon any of us may be taken by such enemies yet if we leave them and take the holy Scriptures there we shall have the Lord to be our companion though we should be shut up with Jeremy in the dungeon But 3. For the
that all my brethren the Bishops and Prelates will say with Jonas If we alone be the cause of all this storm and if our persons by any thing that could be done to us could appease these distractions and procure the peace of the Church and State do what you will to us Non multum nos movebit Si propter nos haec tempestas if you see just cause cast us all into the sea so you save the Ship of Christ preserve the Church rent not the garment of Christ devour not the revenues of the Clergy and destroy not the government that was established by the Apostles and continued to Gods glory and the gaining of so many thousand souls to Christ from his being on earth to this very day because the dishonour that must infallibly redound to God and the detriment that must fall to the Church of Christ by the abolishing of Episcopacy troubleth us a great deal more than any loss that can happen unto our selves for did we see the same government with the same power as it ought to be setled on any other persons though our selves were degraded how justly we would leave the censure unto God you should never hear me speak much thereof So you see what it is to seek the Lord not his Essence which is incomprehensible but to do his will and to obey his Commandments which is most acceptable unto him as to love him to pray unto him to rely upon him and to do towards all men that which is just and righteous in his sight What we ought to do to live Or to set down all in a word do as the Lord directs you and you shall live and that is 1. To do your own best endeavours to preserve your lives And yet 2. Refer the preservation of your lives only unto God 1. In the time of peace and prosperity 1. To do our best to preserve our own lives 1. In the time of peace Psal 55.23 the best way for us to preserve our life is to serve God for if you honour your father and mother your daies shall be long in the Land saith the Lord himself and so the keeping of his other Precepts is the preservation of our lives But the bloud-thirsty and deceitful man shall not live out half his daies and so the drunkâ—rd the luxurious and the malicious shall by their sins diminish their years because sin is that sharp Atropos which cutteth off the thread of mans life and the great Epitomiser which abbreviates all things unto us as it wasteth our wealth it destroyeth our health it confineth our liberty it shortneth our daies and to sum all in one Catastrophe it brings us all into our graves Niceph. l. 11. c. 3. when as Trajan said unto Valens it sends victory unto our enemies and destroyeth us sooner than our enemies and therefore as you love your life so you must hate your sin and as the Heathens clipped the wings of victory lest it should fly away from them unto their enemies So we must clip our sins or else victory will fly unto our enemies 2. In the time of dangers wars plagues 2. In the time of dangers or any other distress we are commanded by God to do our best to preserve our lives for it is not enough for us to say the Lord will save us but we must do our best to save our selves So the Mariners that carried Jonas prayed unto their Gods and yet rowed their best to preserve their lives So Jehosaphat Ezechias and Josias when the Armies of their enemies came against them did put their whole trust in Gods assistance and rely upon his help for their deliverance yet they prepared the instruments of War they fortified their Cities and gathered all the strength of men that they could make to withstand the violence of their Foes and we must do the like when we are in the like danger for though the Scripture bids us cast our care upon God yet it bids us not to cast away our care or to be without care but to have a care and the best care that we can take to preserve our lives from the danger of the enemy to raise men and money and as Solomon saith 2. To rely wholly upon God to prepare the horse for the day of battel And then 2. When the horse is prepâ—red and we have endeavoured our best we must refer our lives only unto God it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but as the Prophet saith salvation belongeth unto the Lord for it is he that giveth victory in the battel and it is he that saveth our life from destruction for as his help will not preserve us without our care so all our care cannot save us without his help but when both these go together then we may be sure that our care and indeavour with his favour and assistance will so preserve us that we shall live Therefore when we lose and are put to the worst we should not be dejected which is the fault of too many of us but we should say with King David I will yet trust in God which is the help of my countenance and my God and when we gain and get the better of our enemies we should not be puffed up with pride and diminish the praise of God who gave us the better which is the fault of as many more that ascribe too much unto themselves and too little to Gods goodness but as the Poet saith of Pompey so much more should we say that are Christians Non me videre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt Or as Menivensis saith of King Alfred Si modo victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modo victus erat ad crastina bella parabat So should we do in all fortunes go on eodem vultus tenori and in all our actions rely on God and refer our selves wholly unto him and doing so we shall be sure to live 1. Because he hath promised us that if we thus seek him according to his will we shall live according as we desire and he is not as man that he should lye nor as the Son of man that he should change his mind but he is Yea and Amen he is truth it self and therefore sicut verus est in retributione malorum ita verà x est in promissione bonorum as he is most certain in the punishment of the wicked so he is as certain in his promise to the godly Reason 2 2. Because he is willing to save us and therefore cryeth unto us Why will ye dye why will ye dye O ye house of Israel For as I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner and it is worth our observation to consider how pathetically and how feelingly he speaketh to this purpose Psal 81.14 15 16. O that my people would have hearkened unto me for if Israel had walked in my waies I should
I resolved once more to enter into the List to follow my alwaies very honourable Friend my Lord Chancellours Advice and try the Success with him by the Verdict of an honest Jury and Lindired 6 of the Tenants and Servants of Sir Geo. Ayskue for a forcible Entry and 5 of them now the third time and I had six Counsellours help to draw and compose the Indictment and so to review it and correct it if any thing was amiss therein that being found Billa Vera by the Jury it might so stand good and not be quashed as my two former Indictments were by the Judges of the Kings Bench. And the 6 forcible Enterers being indited for fear lest the Record should be falsified and corrupted as the former indirement of them had been I got the Clerke of the Peace to send it inclosed in a Letter sealed up by my man to his Agent in Dublin to be â—elivered into the Office which mine Adversaries presently told to my Lord of Santree and was objected as a Piaculum Meaning as I conceived by the Relation that I had printed of the former Proceedings and when the Record came to the Court my Lord Chief Justice said upon the Bench that my Lord Bishop had abused the Court to whom I replied that I had not abused the Court for that I had set down nothing but the Truth and was as Ioah as any man to offer the least Abuse to any of his Majesties Courts or Judges of his Courts And after my Lord Chief Justice and my self had conferred together I found him my very honourable Friend and I retained three of the Kings Counsel to follow the said Cause for his Majesty and the Counsellours of the Fanaticks failing to quash the Indictment my Lord Chief Justice told them they must either submit or be bound to prosecute their Traverse and they became bound in 200 l. to prosecute the same upon the 10th day of Easter Term which was the sixth day of May. And when upon that day the Jury were sworn That their children and their childrens children may understand from what I will not say Canaanites but Catharisâ—s they are sprung Who and what my Witnesses proved viz. William Baker of Ballytobin John Pursel of Lismore William Baxter of Earlstown Isaac Jackson of Kâ—lamery John Jones of Ri _____ Robert Hawford of Ballyneboly Nicholas Pharoe Thomas Tomlins of Lismoteag Chrystopher Render of Fadenarah John Nixon of Brawnebarn William Cheshire of _____ and Thomas Huswife of Gowran good men and true or neither good men nor true 1. I brought in evidence Mr. Sheriff Reigly who was the Sheriff that gave me possession and Mr. Connel and Hugh Linon that was thought needless to prove my possession given by the Sheriffe of the County of Kilkenny by vertue of an Order of the House of Lords of this Lordship of Bish Court the Lands thereto belonging and of the Tenements in Freshfoord as it was expressed in a Shedule annexed to the Order of the Lords upon the 29th day of April 1662. and that the Tenants did atturne Tenants and gave pieces of money in earnest of their rents and promised to keep the possession and to continue Tenants unto me during my pleasure 2. Mr. Thomas Bulkley Mr. William Williams Thomas Davies and my self proved the multitude of persons to the number of ten or twelve that upon the 8th day of October 1662. were entred into the said Bishops Court and there forcibly kept the possession against the Bishop and some one with a sword by his side and a staff or Cane in his hand and another with a long staff in his hand threatned that they would make him repent his doings and coming there and that Sir George Ayskue would spend 500 li. before he would leese this Bishops Court and that Captain Burges said he would keep and uphold the possession for Sir George Ayskue with his life and fortune and others having shut the Iron Grate to hinder the Bishop to go out or his Servants to come in when his Servants demanded what they meant to murder their Lord And desired to come in to wait upon their Master they threatned them and said that if they offered to come in there they would beat them down and knock out their Brains 3. Mr. Richard Marshal Mr. George Farre Mr. John Murphey and Ed. Dalton that proved how he was thrust out of the house by head and shoulders proved the forcible entry with arms and weapons a Gun and a Pike and Staves into some of the Tenements in Freshford and that for nine daies they kept the same with such a company of Fanaticks Anabaptists and other Sectaries that they seemed rather to be a Garrison than the keeping of the possession of any house And after nine daies they bound George Farre and others in a bond of a thousand pounds that they should continue true Tenants to Sir George Ayskue and keep the possession for him against the Bishop of Ossory And because the said George Farre proved this point so fully and so plain that nothing could be said against it one of the Fanaticks Counsellours said what I conceive was very unfit to be spoken in so publick a place and before such honourable Judges of any of the Kings Witnesses that this man the principal of the Witnesses was a parricide which I dare justifie to be most untrue 4. For impounding the Cattle and beating and wounding them that sought to hinder it the said George Farre proved the same so fully and that one of the women that was beaten lay long sick after her beating that Sir Audley Mervin and Serjeant Gruffith would not suffer three other Witnesses that I had there at the Bar that is John Duran Barbara Marshal and another Wench to be sworn and examined and so to trouble the Court any further because said they you see the Lords Justices and the whole Court are sufficiently satisfied that I had more than abundantly proved the forcible entry and detaining of this Bishops Court but they gave way to six of the Intruders Counsel to say what they could for their Clients And when each one of them had made his Oration and spent much time and my Lord Chief Justice heard them with a great deal of patience to prove what I never denied but was ready to confess all that they said touching the large Writings and Evidences that they produced to prove the Title and Interest of Mr. Robert Shea to this Bishops Court which at this time when the question was only of the forcible entry I had no reason to contradict and which perhaps might be good and perhaps not before he forfeited the same unto his Majesty But for Sir George Ayskue that for his Service How S. George Ayskue came to have this Bishops Court. you know to whom which makes me believe it will never prosper with him had a Commission from the Usurper Crummel that for 200 li. which was due unto him for
Church I had rather live a poor Curate in my own Country than a Bishop among such a company of Crumwellian Anabaptists Quakers and other worser Sectaries that do live in these parts and the wind of his Majesties happy Government and the prudent care of my Lord Lieutenant hath driven them As by their actions and hatred I do perfectly discern them like the Church Papists in Queen Elizabeths daies to come within the Pales of our Church and yet are as false-hearted if the same might be seen both to the King and the Church of Christ as ever they were in Crumwells daies as I conceive it to appear by the oath of one of my Witnesses that swore he heard the Captain of these forcible Enterers that I indicted incouraging his followers to keep the possession for Sir George Ayskue and to assure themselves things should never be quiet untill they returned and come again as they were before which was a strange saying as I understood it Yet I would not have my Reader here to think but that as the Scripture distinguisheth betwixt the seed of the woman and the seed of the Serpent the Children of God and the Sons of Belial so I do here in no waies prejudice nor think the least evil of the true-hearted English and true Protestants the worthy Gentlemen the Officers Captains and Commanders of the Army that are likewise many in these parts but I make a great deal of difference betwixt them so much as that I do as much love and honour the one as I do hate and abhor the doings and wickedness of the other So you may see what it is to live in Ireland For here now the Poet may well say that Terras Astraeâ— reliquit among Anabaptists and other Sectaries worse than Pagans and how it is my Fortune to feel the brunt and taste the poyson of their Malice to publish the same to all posterities God deliver his Servants from them Amen ANd now untill I shall see whether the Star-Chamber will think it Justice as I do that this Jury should bear all the damage that I sustain by their Verdict and which I should have recovered upon the forcible Enterers if they had gone according to their Evidence I thought good to prefer this Petition to His Majesty To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of Gruffith Lord Bishop of Ossory Sheweth THat Justice is a vertue and grace most acceptable with God yet your Petitioner hath been infinity injured and your Majesty likewise wronged 1. By forcible Enterers that drove your Petitioner out of his house of Bishops Court and Freshfoord 2. By a wicked forgerer of the Indictment of those persons that were indicted for that entry 3. By a packt Jury that when the forcible Enterers were three times indicted by three several Juries quitted them contrary to their evidence and the mind of all the Judges May it therefore please your Majesty to cause that Justice may be done to your Petitioner and that you would write to the Sheriff of the County of Kilkenny that as formerly he hath setled your Petitioner in this Bishops Court and Freshfoord by vertue of an Order of the House of Lords so he would now settle him in his right and possession of the same by vertue of an Order from your Majesty And your Petitioner doth here promise and ingage himself to God and to your Majesty that as he bestowed about four hundred pounds already so having the four hundred pounds per annum that your Majesty granted setled upon him according to the Act of settlement pag. 71 72. he will lay out a thousand pounds more to repair the flat fallen formerly fair Cathedral Church of St. Keny And shall ever pray for your Majesty c. The sad condition of the Church and Clergy in the Diocess of Ossory and I fear not much better in all Ireland THE Church of Ireland in former times was very famous and glorious for many things especially for Piety and neighbourly Charity and bounty of the people one towards another as it appeareth by the rare and many many Edifices of Churches and Monasteries endowed with ample means and revenues dedicated for the honour of God and the service of Jesus Christ all to be seen at this very day for which cause it was wont to be admired and applauded and by the bordering Nations that observed their sedulity in pious works and neglect of worldly pomp when as the holy Patriarchs lived in Tents so most of them were contented to lie in Booths and poor earthly Cabins or houses made of Earth that they might build to God houses of Marble most sumptuous and glorious and that they might be the better able to bestow the more to adorn and beautifie the houses and Temples of God it was called and not amiss Ecclesia Sanctorum the glorious Church of holy Saints that aimed only to go to heaven But now since the unhappy time of that potent K. H. 8. when Sacriledge through his discontent with the Pope about his divorce with Queen Katherine Ut fama vagatur began to get the upper hand and to throw away Piety from the Church and trample it under-foot and cover it over with the Cloak of hypocrisie and the vain shadow of no Religion instead of the true service of God you may see reliquias danaum the ruines of Troy and in all places the carkass of Religion lodged in the thrown down walls of all the Abbies and Monasteries and most of the Cathedrals and the other Churches of Ireland that are now as the Prophet saith defiled and made heaps of stones Psal 79.1 For if you walk through Ireland as I rode from Carlingford to Dublin and from Dublin to Kilkenny and in my Visitation thrice over the Diocess of Ossory I believe that throughout all your travel you shall find it as I found it in all the waies that I went scarce one Church standing and sufficiently repaired for seven I speak within compass that are ruined and have only walls without ornaments and most of them without roofs without doors without windows but the holes to receive the winds to entertain the Congregation And what a lamentable thing and a miserable-fight is this If you say that in the time of blindness the people were over zealous in building too many Churches and thinking to merit much thereby I say that now in the fulness of knowledge and the Sun-shine of the Gospel they are too riotous to pull them down and too negligent of Gods honour and of the Peoples good to waste and ruinate so many Churches and to let the people want them to meet together to serve God which will merit a worse reward for them than they shall have that built them You may remember that when Moses was to erect the Tabernacle in the wilderness within a desart place of no trade or traffick and therefore not easie to get any wealth in it Yet Moses requiring their
of them and do you think that this value is sufficient to maintain an able Ministery to supply all these Churches and Parishes as they ought to be or that Popery shall be supprest and the true Protestant Religion planted amongst the people by the unition of Parishes and the diminution of Churches without any augmentation of their means Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Object But you will say his Majesty hath most graciously provided and it is confirmed by the Act of Settlement that a very ample augmentation is added to all the meanest Bishopricks of Ireland and he hath most royally and religiously bestowed all the Impropriations forfeited to his Crown upon the several Incumbents unto whose Churches they did belong Answ I answer That when God placed man in Paradice the devil was ready to cast him out and when God maketh our paths straight and easie Satan will straight put rubbs and blocks in our way to stumble us so though I gave above fifty pounds for Agents money to follow the Churches cause and spent above thirty pounds to procure a Commission to gain that augmentation which his Majesty was so graciously pleased to add unto the Bishop of Ossory yet presently there comes a Supersedeas to stop the proceeding of my Commission How the devil hindereth all intended good and I am not the better either by Augmentation or Agents so much as one penny to this very day and some devil hath put some great rub for a stumbling block in my way untill God removes the same and throws it where blocks deserve to be And though his Majestie hath been pleased to bestow his Impropriations upon the Incumbents yet my Lord Lieutenant and the Council thought it fit to take forty pounds per annum out of those Impropriations for the better provision of the Quire in Dublin and so by that means the Clergy of Ossory are not the better by one penny that the Clergy might be like unto their Bishop for I find but four impropriations forfeited to his Majesty and bestowed upon the Church in all the Diocess and these being set by Mr. Archdeacon Teate to the uttermost pitch that he could they did not reach to forty pounds the last year And to say the truth without fear of any man we are not only deprived of the Vicarial Tythes and offerings by the Farmers of the great Lords Impropriate Rectories but our Lands and Glebes are clipped and pared to become as thin as Banbury Cheese by the Commissioners and Counsel of those illustrious Lords for though his Grace our most excellent Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond is I say it without flattery a man of such worth so noble so honourable and so religious as is beyond compare and for his fidelity and Piety and other incomparable parts scarce to be equalized by any Subject of any King and so many other great Lords are in themselves very noble and religious yet as Rehoboam in himself considered was not so very a bad King but had very bad Counsellours that did him a great deal of dishonour and damage so this most honourable Duke And thus as Christ was crucified betwixt the good thief and the bad so are we betwixt the good Lords and their bad Agents But let them fear least by making their Lords great here on earth they do make themselves little in heaven and other great Lords may have as I fear some of them have such Commissioners and Counsel that as well to make themselves a fortune as to enlarge their Lords revenues will pinch the Parsons side and part the Garments of Christ betwixt themselves and their Lords as my Lord Dukes Agents have distrained and driven away my Tenants Cattel for divers great sums of Chieferies and challenged some Lands that as I am informed were never paid nor challenged within the memory of man And who dares oppose these men or say unto them Why did you so Not I though they should take away my whole estate for as Naboth had better have yielded up his Vineyard than to have lost his life so I conceive it better to yield to their desires quietly than to lose both my Lands and my labour by such a Jury as will give it away though never so Unjustly whereof I have had experience and a sad proof non sine meo magno malo Yet The Civility and Piety of the 49 men I confess the 49. men have been very civil and shewed themselves very fairly conditioned and religious both to my self and as I understand to all other Clergymen and I wish that all Noblemens Commissioners and Agents would be so likewise that their doings may bring a blessing and not a curse upon them and perhaps upon their Lords and Masters Lords and Masters shall answer to God for the oppressions that their servants do under their power that must give an account to God for the ill carriages and the oppressions of the poor by their servants who dishonour their Lords and make them liable to Gods wrath for the wrongs that they do to make them the greater and so receive the greater condemnation for great men must not only do no wrong themselves but they ought also to see that none under their wings and through the colour of their power and authority do any wrong unto the poore But to deal plainly and to shew what respect favour and justice we the poor Bishops and Clergymen have from the great Lords and Courts of justice in this Kingdom I will instance but in the example of my self who after I had exposed my self to the dayly and continual hazard of my life by my preaching and publishing so many Books against the Rebels and Long Parliament which I have unanswerably proved to be the Great Antichrist and had for all their Reign served duram servitutem and suffered more hardship than any Bishop and upon my restitution to my Bishopprick by the happy restauration of our most gracious King having spent above four hundred pounds to gain the Bishops Mansion house where Bishop Bale saw five of his Servants kill'd before his face and himself driven to flee to save his life and which was given to Sir George Askue by Cromwel for his service to the Long Parliament I have fully shewed the favour and the justice that I had at the Kings Bench though I must ingeniously confess my Lord Chief Justice dealt as fairly and as justly as any Judge in the world could do And I do pray to God that both Judges and Jury and all the pleaders may have better at the Bar of the King of Kings Then letting pass the proceeding of the Court of Claim that gave away the Lands and Houses that were in my possession while I was in London though a chief Member of that Court promised that nothing should be done against the Church untill I returned home and acknowledging the civility and fair respect that was shewed me by my Lord Chief Baron and the other
this as finding any fault or laying the least blame upon the Canons and Constitutions of the Church and the Laws of these Kingdoms for all must confess that the Office and Calling of an Archbishop was not so from the beginning nor is jure divine of Christs institution that ordered and appointed the same to be governed and guided by the Bishops subordinate to their Archbishops that are to have the oversight of them which is a most excellent way that all things may be done right in the rule and government of Gods Church So it be done with that temper and moderation that it ought to be done But I say this to the same end as our Saviour said it to his Disciples that all things might be done Leni spiritu non dura manu rather by an inward sweet influence than an outward extream violence and that all the Bishops and the Archbishops in their Visitations and in all their actions should study and strive to be like Moses that in the Government of Gods people was the gentlest and the meekest man upon earth and endeavoured as he saith himself to carry them in his bosome which is the greatest commendation and the best quality that can be in any Bishop of whom it is a shame to say Non pater est Aeacui thou art not the son of Moses sed te genuere ferae but thou art more like the savage beasts when thou art so cruel so unmerciful and so severe in the censure of thy brethren of thine own Coat For as I said long ago so I say now and will say it still One of the chiefest causes of the late distractions in our Church that the rigid carriage of some severe Bishops and their undiscreet Surrogates on the one side and the high stomacks and proud behaviour of the Presbyters on the other side when the Governours ruled and domineered like Tyrants and the Presbyters like stubborn Children refused to be obedient hath been one of the chiefest causes of the late distraction and miseries that we have felt in this our Church But I will demand of the Lay men whether that Censure be commendable when for a fault that deserves a penny fine the offender shall be punished with a pound And that delinquency which springs through ignorance or forgetfulness and not of obstinacy shall be equally punished with the highest transgressours which is in my judgment like Draco that wrote his Laws in bloud Yet may you see the like Draco's sometimes in the Sequestrations and Censures of some Clergy-men Poor souls I can but pity them And I will not be the Judge but let the Reader consider it A young man is newly instituted into a little Living and becomes bound to his Majesty for his first fruits then goeth to his study to the University that he may be the better enabled to do God service in the Church of Christ yet because that either through bashfulness to go to so great a Prelate that he never was acquainted with or through ignorance of his duty or forgetfulness or perhaps for haste to save his passage by Sea when as time and tide stay for no man or some other excusable cause he goeth to Oxford without his Archbishops being acquainted therwith though his own Bishop sent for him in all haste to come up before the Act yet for this hainous crime and great piccadillo fault he is sequestred from all the means he hath before he receives the first harvest fruits or perhaps one penny from the same whereby he is disinabled to pay the Kings first fruits and to maintain himself in the University and so undone and if this Censure be equivalent and not exceeding the fault judge you And as dislike and disaffection produce sometimes heavy Sentences upon the poor Clergy for light faults so I have often seen great oppressions and much baseness used by some great dignified Clergy-men that I could name and yet they were so far from Censure that others were upheld and applauded in their wickedness and so Juven 1. Satyr 13. as the Poet saith Multi Eademcommittunt diverso crimina fato Ille crucem pretium sceleris tulit hic diadema One man is applauded and crowned for the same fact for which another man is condemned and hanged The last Visitation of the Archbishop in this Diocess of Ossory But for the last Visitation of the Archbishop in this Diocess of Ossory I shall besides what I have said already of the Inhibition and Suspension of the Jurisdiction say somewhat more than I said of the Sequestrations of the Clergy And 1. Of the Number of those persons that were sequestred 2. Of the Causes for which they were sequestred 3. Of the Consequents of their Sequestrations 1. You must understand that in all my Diocess of Ossory I have but twenty two beneficed Clergy-men and of them twelve are non-resident and eight of the twenty two were sequestred viz. 1. Mr. Barry 2. Mr. Cull Senior 3. Mr. Cull Junior 4. Mr. Drisdall 5. Mr. Moor. 6. Mr. Spencer 7. Mr. Teate 8. Mr. Kerny Whereof fix were continually resident and in my judgment the most learned and most frequent constant Preachers that have any Ecclesiastical preferment in my Diocess 2. For the Causes why their Livings were sequestred I cannot and I do not say but that they may be very just either for not rendering to Caesar what belongs unto Caesar as the twentieth part Subsidies and the like payments due unto his Majesty or for not rendering to God what is Gods as the due and diligent serving of their Churches and the payment of their Procurations and the discharging of all other dues and accustomed duties unto his Grace or to them whom he sent to visit them or for holding their Livings contrary either to the Civil or the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Land or for the unworthiness of the persons uncapable of them or some other just and lawful cause My Registers Letter informs me that Mr. Cull Juniors Livings were sequestred for going to the University without his Grace his leave whereof I have spoken before and others for distance of miles if they were above six miles one from another though they say that for the tenuity of their Livings they had the Kings Pattent under the Broad Seal to hold them some thirty and others twenty miles distant in which case I say no more but if they shall not keep them above six miles distant they might live better and grow richer here in Ireland by keeping Sheep than by feeding of Christ his flock or if the Law prohibits them to keep them beyond that distance I wonder why they are admitted by the Relaxations of the Sequestrations to keep them still if they were sequestred to get Fees for the Relaxation to Mr. Proby my Lords Grace his Register and not to deprive them of either Living my Lords Grace dealt more graciously and like himself in granting the Relaxation of them than his Surrogate did
find out the deepest Mysteries of Gods secrets in his absolute decrees and unsearchable waies of Election and Reprobation and the like but of those lighter heads that bestow their search about things of nothing as the Graecians did beat their brains to find out how many rowers Ulysses ship had and whether the Iliads or the Odysses were first written so we must know whether the ancient Monks wore their Cloaks short like the French or down to the heels like the Spaniards or whether Saint Augustine wore a white garment upon his black cloaths or a black cheimer upon a lawn surplice and a thousand such like points and ceremonies that are like the spiders web which will make no garment for them or like the banquet of a sick mans dream that will not satisfie their hungry souls and are raised up by the Devil to this only end that while we seek after these fruitless things that may hurt us much but avail us little that may best be spared and ought least to be disputed we might leave off to seek the Lord and those things that do necessarily pertain unto salvation But in universalibus later error What it is to seek the Lord general things are often dark and every one saith that he seeks the Lord but that either he mâ—keth darkness his secret place Ver. 14. his pavilion round about him with dark waters and thick clouds to cover him or else dwelleth in the light that no man can attain unto it Psal 37 27. otherwise God forbid that you should imagine saith every man that we do not seek the Lord. Therefore to take away this curtain to unvail this glorious face and to let you see that few of us do seek the Lord whatsoever we say the Prophet tells us plainly that to seek the Lord is to seek good and not evil or as he explaine h it further in the immediate Verse 15. it is to hate the evil and love the good and to establish judgement in the gate and this the Prophet David said long before eschew evil and do good and dwell for evermore Besides God is truth and God is justice therefore you must seek the truth and you must do justice for When truth shall flourish out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven Psa 85.11 12. then the Lord will shew loving kindness he will speak peace unto his people and our Land shall give her increase but while our Land flows with Lies and the father of lies rewards the Liers and spreads them abroad to uphold robberies oppressions and rebellions the Lord will not speak peace unto us because righteousness and peace have kissed each other and therefore though we should be never so desirous of peace and to procure peace be contented it should be done upon unrighteous terms it may be with the ruine of the Church yet it cannot be None can make peace but God Jer. 25.29 Psal 46.9 because it is not in the power of any man no not of the King himself to conclude a peace when God proclaimeth war for as he calleth for a sword upon the Inhabitants of a Land so it is he and he alone that maketh wars to cease in all the world he breaketh the bow and knappeth the spear in sunder and burneth the Chariots in the fire and without him it cannot be done as you may see in Ier. 47.6 And I fear and I pray God it be but my fear that as the wrath of God was never appeased for the innocent bloud of the Gibeonites that Saul most unjustly spilt untill it was revenged by bloud upon the house of Saul so the innocent bloud that hath been spilt in this Kingdom can never be expiated untill an attonement be made by bloud because that without bloud there is no remission that is of bloud unless they do with Manasses wipe away the streams of bloud with the streams of most penitent tears for he that sheddeth mans bloud that is illegally by man shall his bloud be shed that is judiciarily by the Magistrate saith God in the Old Testament and all they that take the sword that is without due authority shall perish by the sword that is by just authority saith our Saviour Christ in the New Testament and therefore if your peace may not be had with truth and according unto Justice gird you with your swords upon your thighs O you mighty men of valour and let the right hand of the most highest teach you terrible things untill as our Prophet speaketh Ver. 24. judgement shall run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream that is smoothly without any manner of opposition as Montanus and Vatablus render it Set God and his truth alwaies before your eyes and labour for that peace which may stand with the peace of Conscience and with your peace with God or otherwise you may purchase a worldly peace at too dear a rate it may be with the loss of your souls when God shall say unto you as he doth unto the Jews Shall not I visit for these things as if he said you indeed for your peace and prosperities sake for fear of danger and in hope of rest may be contented to wink at all these sins that have provoked me to wrath and perhaps to sell my truth and suffer my service to be abused and my servants to be destroyed that you may live in peace but do you think that I am such an one as your selves or that I will suffer all these things to go unrevenged No no saith the Prophet The Lord is known to execute judgement and he will be Judge himself he will kindle the fire and none shall quench it And therefore noble and religious Gentlemen that love your God better than the World and his eternal honour better than your own temporal happiness love peace and ensue it but let it be with the truth and with justice let the story of the worthy Maccabees be set before your eyes that rather than they would change their Religion or suffer the service of God any waies to be impaired and their Ecclesiastical government to be in any thing changed they sold their peace with the loss of their lives which is their everlasting praise and here I do profess I do most heartily wish for peace and would think my self most happy to see peace established as of old but rather than I should see it with the ruine of the Church with a Presbyterian Discipline that new-sprung out-landish weed of mans invention and no plant of Gods plantation I beseech Almighty God that I may beg my bread and seâ—k it in desolate places that my bloud may be poured like water upon the ground and the remainder of my years may be cut off from the Land of the Living so much do I desire to imbrace mine own misery rather than to see the Churches infelicity and the service of God so much vilified And I am confident