himself was fain to call both Houses before him within two daies after there to Explain or rather to Retract so harsh a Title calling them afterwards by the name of his Subjects of Scotland as he used to do which gave the Commons such a sense of their Power and of his Compliance that they resolved to husband both to their best advantage and not so easily to part with their Friends of Scotland as his Majesty first hoped they would The differences might have been agreed at York or Rippon if the Commissioners of the Scots had been as forward as the English but the Scots so delayed them as his Majesty noted in that Speech that it was not possible to end it there The Scots had other work to do besides their own and must be kept in pay at the charge of the English till they had brought his Majesty into such a condition that it was not safe for him to deny them any thing which they had the confidence to require Such a beginning had this long and unhappy Parliament unhappy to the King and to all that loved his Power or Person most men who looked on his Affairs with the eye of Judgment presaging that this thrifâ—y omission of the Publick Pomp in the present Conjunctures would prove as inauspicious to him as the like neglect had done at his Coronation and that this Parliament which began without solemnity would prove a Parliament of sorrows unto him and his With little better Fortune did the Convocation take beginning at S. Pauls Church on the morrow after handselled at their first meeting by the sad news of the Decease of Dr. Neile Archbishop of York which had been brought unto the Town the day before A man he was who had past through all Degrees and Orders in the Church of England and thereby made acquainted with the conveniencies or distresses incident to all conditions He had served the Church as Schoolmaster Curate Vicar Parson Master of the Savoy Dean of Westminster Clerk of the Closet to both Kings successively Bishop of Rochester Lichfield Lincoln Durham and Winchester and finally Archbishop of York in which place he died Many good Offices he had done to the Church and Church-men in his attendance at the Court crossing the Scots in most of their suits their Ecclesiastical Preferments which greedily and ambitiously they hunted after and thereby drawing on himself the general hatred not only of the Scots but Scotizing English But of this Prelate we have spoke so much upon other occasions that we may save the labour of any further addition than that he died as full of years as he was of honours an affectionate Subject to his Prince an indulgent Father to his Clergy a bountiful Patron to his Chaplains and a true friend to all which relied upon him more fortunate in the time of his death than the course of his life in being prevented by that blessed opportunity from seeing those calamities which afterwards fell upon the King the Church and all that wish well to either of them which must have been more grievous to him than a thousand deaths But this bad news retarded not the Convocation from proceeding forwards the Prelates and Clergy attending the Archbishop from the Chapter-house into the Choire where they heard the Sermon Preached at that time by Bargrave then Dean of Canterbury which done the Clergy settled to the choice of a Prolocutor electing the same man who had before discharged the Place with so much dexterity Adjourned to Westminster and Protestation made by the Sub-Dean and Prebends according to the usual custome the Prolocutor was presented to the Archbishop and Bishops in the Chappel of King Henry vii at what time the Archbishop in an eloquent but sad Oration bemoaned the infelicities which he saw hanging over the Church advising every one there present to perform their Duties and not to be wanting to themselves or the cause of Religion as far forth as they were concerned in their several places Nothing more done of any moment in this Convocation but that a motion was made by Warmistre one of the Clerks for the Diocess of Worcester to this effect viz. That they should endeavour according to the Levitical Laws to cover the Pit which they had opened and to prevent their Adversaries intention by condemning such offensive Canons as were made in the last Convocation He had before offered at many things in that Convocation but such was his ill-luck that the Vote was for the most part passed before he spake nor had he better fortune in his motion now than his offers then the Members of that House not being willing to condemn themselves till they were accused So that not having any other way to obtain his purpose he caused a long Speech which he had made upon this occasion to be put in Print bitter enough against some Canons and Proceedings in the former Session but such as could not save him from a Sequestration when the rest of the Clergy were brought under the same condition Whilst these things were acting on the Stage of Westminster the Earl of Strafford was not Idle in acting his part at York amongst the Souldiers whose affections he had gained so far that he was generally beheld with esteem and veneration He had before sufficient proof how strongly the Scots aimed at his destruction expressed in their Remonstrance and the Intentions of their Army as they called the Pamphlet but more especially by the refusal of the Scots Commissioners to hold the Treaty at York and the reasons given for their refusal for in a Paper of theirs presented on October 8. They had insisted on the danger apprehended by them in going to York and casting themselves and others who might be joyned with them into the hands of an Army commanded by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland against whom as a chief Incendiary according to their demands which was the subject of the Treaty it self they resolved to proceed They complained also in that Paper That in the Parliament of Ireland he had proceeded against them as Traitors and Rebels That he honoured them in his common talk with no better Titles That his Commission was to destroy them And that by all means and by all occasions he had hindred all Propositions tending to a Pacification for fear himself might be excluded from the benefit of it He was not without a strong presumption that the Scots were animated unto these Demands and incouraged to invade the Kingdom by some of those which were of greatest Prevalency in both Houses of Parliament And lying so near the Scots in the head of his Army he had not only gained assurance as he conceived in many particulars to confirm it but that there was a Confederacy made between the Heads of the Covenanters and some of the leading Members of both Houses his most Capital Enemies to subject the Government of the Church and innovate in that of the Civil State which Intelligence being digested
God for it I am for it at St. Paul's word Acts 25.11 If I have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to die For I thank God I have so lived that I am neither afraid to die nor ashamed to live But seeing the Malignity which hath been raised against me by some men I have carried 〈◊〉 Life in my hands these divers years past I may not in this Case and at this Bar appeal unto Caesar yet to your Lordships Justice and Integrity I both may and do not doubting but that God of his Goodness will preserve my Innocency And as Job in the midst of his afflictious said to his mistaken Friends so shall I to my Accusers God forbid I should justifie you till I die I will not remove my Integrity from me I will hold it fast and not let it go my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live Iob. 27.5 6. My Lords the Charge against me is brought up in Ten Articles but the main Heads are two An Endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and the Religion Estaâ—liâ—â—ed Six Articles the five first and the last concern the 〈◊〉 and the other four Religion For the Laws first I think I may safely say I have been to my understanding as strict an Observer of them so far as they concern me as any man hath and since I came into the Place I have followed them and have been as much guided by them as any man that sate where I had the honour to sit And of this I am sorry I have lost the Testimony of the Lord Keeper Coventry and other Persons of Honour since dead And the Counsellors which attended thâ— Council-Board can witness some of them here present That in all References to the Bord or Debates arising at it I was for that part oâ— the Cause where I found Law to be and if the Counsel desired to have the Cause left to the Law well might I move in some Cases Charity or Conscience to them but I left them to the Law if thither they would go And how such a Carriage as this through the whole course of my Life in private and publick can stand with an intention to overthrow the Laws I cannot see Nay more I have ever been of opinion That Laws bind the Conscience And have accordingly made conscience in observing of them and this Doctrine I have constantly Preached as occasion hath been offered me and how is it possible I should seek to overthrow those Laws which I held my self bound in conscience to keep and observe As for Religion I was born and bred up under the Church of England as it stands established by Law I have by Gods Blessing growâ— up in it to the years which are now upon me and the Place of Preferment which I now bear I have ever since I understood ought of my Proâ—eâ—â—ion kept one constant Tenor in this my Profession without variation or shifting from one Opinion to another for any worldly ends And if my conscience would have suffered me to do so I could easily have slid through all the difficulties which have been prest upon me in this kind But of all Diseases I ever held a Palsie in Religion most dangerous well knowing and ever remembring That that Disease often ends in a Dead Palsie Ever since I came in place I have laboured nothing more than that the External Publick Wâ—rship of God so much slighted in divers parts of this Kingdom might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Vniformity as might be For I evidently saw That the publick neglect of Gods Service in the outward face of it and the nasty lying of many Places dedicated to that Service had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward Worship of God which while we live in the body needs external helps and all little enough to keep it in any vigour And this I did to the utmost of my knowledge according both to Law and Canon and with the consent and liking of the People Nor did any Command issue out from me against the one nor without the other Further my Lords give me leave I beseech you to acquaint you with this also That I have as little acquaintance with Recusants as I believe any mâ—n of my place in England hath or eveâ— had since the Reformation And for my Kindred no one of them was ever a Recusant but Sir William Webb Grandchild to my Vncle Sir William Webb sometimes Lord Mayor of London and since which sâ—me of his Children I reduced back again to the Church of England On this I humbly desire one thing more may be thought on That I am fallen into a great deal of Obloquy in matter of Religion and that so far as appears by the Articles against me that I have endeavoured to advance and bring in Popery Perhaps my Lords I am not ignorant what Party of men have raised these Scandals upon me nor for what end nor perhaps by whom set on but howsoever I would fain have a good Reasâ—n given me if my Conscience stood that way and that with my Conscience I could subscribe to the Church of Rome what should have kept me here before my Imprisonment to endure the Libelling and the Slander and the base Vsage that hath been put upon me and these to end in this Question for my Life I say I would know a good Reason for this â—irst my Lords Is it because of any Pledges I have in this World to sway me against my Conscience No sure for I had neither Wife nor Children to cry out upon me to stay with them And if I had I hope the calling of my Conscience should be heard above them Is it because I was both to lose the Honour and Profit of the Place I was risen to Surâ—ly no For I desire your Lordships and all the World should knâ—w I do much scorn the one and the other in comparison of my Conscience Besides it cannot be imagined by any man but that if I should 〈◊〉 gone over to them I should not have wanted both Honour and 〈◊〉 and suppose not so great as this I have here yet sure would 〈…〉 have served my self of either less with my Conscience 〈◊〉 have prevailed with me more then greater against my Consci 〈…〉 because I lived here at Ease and was loth to venture the 〈…〉 that Not so neither For whatsoever the World may be pleased to think of me I have led a very painful Life and such as I would 〈◊〉 been content to change had I well known how And would my Conscience have served me that way I am sure I might have lived at far more ease and either have avoided the barbarous Libelling and â—â—her bitter grievous Scorns which have been put upon me or at least been â—ut of the hearing of them Not to trouble your Lordships too long I am so innocent in the Business of Religion so free from all Practice or so much
greatest Battel with Darius the Persian he fell into so â—ound asleep 〈◊〉 his Princes â—ardly could awake him when the morning came And it was likewise certified of this Great Prelate That on the Evening before his Passover the night before the dismal Combate betwixt him and Death after he had refreshed his Spirits with a moderate Supper he betook himself unto his Rest and slept very soundly till the time came in which his Servants were appointed to attend his Rising A most assured sign of a Soul prepared The fatal morning being come he first applied himself to his private Prayers and so continued till Pennington and others of their Publick Officers came to conduct him to the Scaffold which he ascended with so brave a Courage such a chearful Countenance as if he had mounted rather to behold a Triumph than be made a Sacrifice and came not there to Die but to be Translated And though some rude and uncivil People reviled him as he pass'd along with opprobrious Language as loth to let him go to the Grave in Peace yet it never discomposed his Thoughts nor disturb'd his Patience For he had profited so well in the School of Christ that when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously And as he did not fear the Frowns so neither did he covet the Applause of the Vulgar Herd and therefore rather chose to read what he had to speak unto the People than to affect the ostentation either of Memory or Wit in that dreadful Agony whether with greater Magnanimity than Prudence I can hardly say As for the matter of his Speech besides what did concern himself and his own Purgation his great care was to cleer his Majesty and the Church of England from any inclination to Popery with a perswasion of the which the Authors of the then present Miseries had abused the People and made them take up Arms against their Sovereign A faithful Servant to the last By means whereof as it is said of Samson in the Book of Iudges That the men which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life So may it be affirmed of this famous Prelate That he gave a greater blow unto the Enemies of the Church and the King at the hour of his death than he had given them in his whole life before But this you will more clearly see by the Speech it self which followeth here according to the best and most perfect Copy delivered by his own hands unto one of his Chaplains and in his name presented to the King by the Lord Iohn Bellasis at the Court in Oxon. The Speech of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury spoken at his Death upon the Scaffold on the Tower Hill Ian. 10. 1644. Good People THis is an uncomfortable time to preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Heb. 12.2 Let us run with Patience the Race which is set before us looking unto JESUS the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him enâ—dured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God I have been long in my Race and how I have looked to JESUS the Author and finisher of my faith he best knows I am now to come to the end of my Race and here I find the Cross a death of shame but the shame must be despised or no coming to the right hand of God JESUS despised the shame for me and God forbid but that I should despise the shame for him I am going apace as you see towards the Red Sea and my feet are now upon the very brinke of it anâ— Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of Promise for that was the way through which he led his people But before they came to it he instituted a Passeover for them a Lamb it was but it must be eaten with soure herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the soure herbs as well as the Lamb. And I shall remember it is the Lords Passeover I shall not think of the Herbs nor be angry with the hand which gathereth them but look up only to him who instituted that and governs these for men can have no more power over me than what is given them from above I am not in love with this passage through the Red Sea for I have the weakness and infirmities of flesh and bloud plentifully in me And I have prayed with my Saviour Ut transirâ—t Calix iste that this Cup of red wine might pass from me but if not Gods will not mine be done and I shall most willing drink of this Cup as deep as he pleases and enter in this Sea yea and pass through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred Good People That when Gâ—â—â— Servants were in this boysterous Sea and Aaron amongst them the Egyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same Waters while they were in pursuit of them I know my God whom I serve is as able to deliver me from the sea of bloud as he was to deliver the three Children from the Furnace and I humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then They would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the Imaginations which the People are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the truth of God to follow the bleating of Jeroboams Calves in Dan and Bethel And as for this People they are at this day miserably misled God of his mercy open their â—â—es that they may see the right way for at this day the blind lead the blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the ditch For my self I am and I acknowledge it in all humility a most grievous sinâ—â— many waies by thought word and deed I cannot doubt but that 〈◊〉 hath mercy in store for me a poor Penitent as well as for other sinners I have now and upon this sad occasion ransacked every corner of my 〈◊〉 and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any 〈◊〉 sin which deserves death by any known Law of this Kingdom and yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Iudges for if they proceed upon proof by valuable witnesses I or any other innocent may be justly condemned And I thank God though the weight of my Sentence he heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Archbishop but the first man that ever 〈◊〉 by an Ordinance in Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tiler and his Fellows Before
Suffrage of the Right Learned Bishop Bilson who lived the greatest part of his time with the said Mr. Nowel by whom we are told in his Book of True Subject c. p. 779. And he tells it with a God forbid that we deny not That the Flesh and Blood of Christ are truly present and truly received of the faithful at the Lords Table 26. A clear explication of which Doctrine was made in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames by whose appointment with the consent of the Metropolitan some of the Bishops and other learned men of the Clergy it was ordered in the Conference at Hampton Court that the Doctrine of the Sacraments should be added to the Authorized Catechism of the Church where before it was not in which addition to the Catechism it is said expresly That the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken of the Faithful in the Lords Supper Verily and indeed saith the English Book Vere reipsa or Vere realiter saith the Latine Translations by which the Church doth teach us to understand that Christ is truly and really present though after a spiritual manner in that Blessed Sacrament And that this was the Churches meaning will be made apparent by the Testimony of some of the most learned men which have written since two of which I shall here produce that out of the mouths of two such Witnesses the truth hereof may be established The first of these shall be the most eminent Bishop Andrews a contemporary of the said Bishop Bilson who in his answer unto Cardinal Bellarmine thus declares himself Presentiam credimus non minus quam vos veram deinde presentiae nil temere definimus We acknowledge saith he a presence as true and real as you do but we determine nothing rashly of the manner of it The second shall be Bishop Morton as great an enemy to the Errors and Superstitions of the Church of Rome as any that ever wrote against it who could not but be sixty years of age at the death of Bishop Andrews and he affirms expresly That the question betwixt us and the Papists is not concerning a Real Presence which the Protestants as their own Jesuites witness do also profess Fortunatus a Protestant holding that Christ is in the Sacrament most Really Verissime Realissime as his words are By which it seems it is agreed on on both sides that is to say the Church of England and the Church of Rome that there is a true and real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist the disagreement being only in the modus presentiae 27. The like Dispute is also raised de modo descensus touching the manner and extent of Christs Descending into Hell which the Papists will have to be only partial and to extend no farther then to the upper Region of that infernal Habitation called by them commonly Limbus Patrum The Calvinists will have it to be only figurative no descent at all and they are sub-divided into three opinions Calvin himself interprets it of our Saviours Sufferings on the Cross in which he underwent all those torments even to Desperation which the damned do endure in Hell Many of the Calvinian party understand nothing by Christs Descent into Hell but his Descending into the Grave and then his descending into Hell will be the same with his being buried Which Tautology in such a short summary of the Christian Faith cannot be easily admitted And therefore the late Lord Primate of Ireland not liking either of their opinions will finde a new way by himself in which I cannot say what leaders he had but I am sure he hath had many followers And he by Christs descending into Hell will haue nothing else to be understood but his continuing in the State of Separation between the Body and the Soul his remaining under the power of death during the time that he lay buried in the Grave which is no more in effect though it differ somewhat in the terms then to say he dyed and was buried and rose not again till the third day as the Creed instructs us and then we are but where we were with the other Calvinists But on the contrary the Church of England doth maintain a Local Descent that is to say That the Soul of Christ at such time as his Body lay in the Grave did Locally Descend into the neathermost parts in which the Devil and his Angels are reserved in everlasting Chains of Darkness unto the Judgment of the great and terrible Day And this appears to be the meaning of the first Reformers by giving this Article a distinct place by its self both in the Book of Articles published in the time of King Edward vi Anno 1552. and in the Book agreed upon in the Convocation of the 5. of Queen Elizabeth 1564. in both which it is said expresly in the self-same words viz. As Christ dyed for us and was buried so also is it to be believed that he went down into Hell which is either to be understood of a Local Descent or else we are tyed to believe nothing by it but what explicitely or implicitely is comprehended in the former Article in which there is particular mention of Christs Sufferings Crucifying Death and Burial Now that this is the Churches meaning cannot be better manifested then in the words of Mr. Alexander Nowel before-mentioned who for the reasons before remembred cannot in reason be supposed to be ignorant of the true sense and meaning of the Church in that particular and he accordingly in his Catechism publickly allowed of with reference to a Local Descent doth declare it thus viz. Vt Christus corpore in terrae viscera ita anima corpore separata ad inferos descendit c. that is As Christ descended in his Body into the bowels of the earth so in his Soul separated from that Body he descended also into Hell by means whereof the power and efficacy of his Death was not made known only to the dead but to the Devils themselves insomuch that both the souls of the unbelievers did sensibly perceive that condemnation which was most justly due to them for their incredulity and Satan himself the Prince of Devils did as plainly see that his tyranny and all the powers of darkness were opprest ruined and destroyed Which Doctrine when it began to be decryed and the Calvinian Gloss to get ground upon it was learnedly asserted by Dr. Thomas Bilson then Bishop of Winchester in his Book entituled A Survey of Christs Sufferings in which he hath amassed together whatsoever the Fathers Greek and Latine or any of the ancient Writers have affirmed of this Article with all the points and branches which depend upon it 28. The Sufferings of Christ represented in the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper with some of the effects thereof by his descending into Hell being thus dispatched we shall next look into that of Baptisme in which we shall consider the necessity
Patience perforce as the Proverb hath it For much they feared that Abbot would unravel all the Web which Bancroft with such pains had weaved and that he was as the same Author well observes better qualified with Merit for the Dignity than with a spirit answering the Function Follow his Character to the end and you shall be told That in the exercising of his Function he was conceived too facil and yielding His extraordinary Remisness in not exacting strict Conformity to the prescribed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremonie seemed to resolve those Legal Determinations to their first Principle of Indifferency and led in such an habit of Inconformity as the future Reduction of those tender Conscienced men to long discontinued Obedience was at the last interpreted an Innovation If Andrews had succeeded Bancroft and Laud followed Andrews the Church would have been setled to sure on a Foundation that it could not easily have been shaken to the preventing of those deplorable Miseries which the Remiss Government of that Popular Prelate did so unfortunately bring both on the Church and State But to go forward where we left Laud was no sooner setled in the Presidentship of his Colledge but he conceived himself advanced one step at the least towards a Precedency in the Church and therefore thought it was high time to cast an eye upon the Court His good Friend and Patron Bishop Neile then being of Rochester had procured him a Turn before the King at Theobalds on the 17th of September 1609. and by the power and favour of the same man being then translated unto Litchfield he was sworn one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary on the third of November Anno 1611. yet so that he continued his dependencies on his former Lord to whom he was as dear and necessary as before he was injoying freely all the accomodations of his House whensoever his occasions brought him to London Having thus set foot within the Court he promised himself great hopes of some present preferment but those hopes deceived him Nothing is more uncertain than Court Preferments Some have them suddenly at the first and then continue at a stand without farther Additions as in the case of Doctor Young Dean of Winchester Some attend long and get nothing as in the case of Mr. Arthur Terringham and many others and some are in the same case with the Apostles in St. Iohn when they went a fishing of whom it is said That having caught nothing all the night they cast their net the next morning on the right side of the Ship and then they were not able to draw it for the multitude of Fishes And so it was with this new Chaplain many Preserments fell but none fell to him For whensoever any opportunity was offered for his Advancement Archbishop Abbot who had before defamed him to the Lord Chancellor Egerton and by his mouth unto the King would be sure to cast somewhat in his dish sometimes inculcating to him all his actings at Oxon. and sometimes rubbing up the old sore of his unfortunate business with the Earl of Devonshire These Artifices so estranged the Kings Countenance from him that having waited four years and seeing his hopes more desperate than at the first he was upon the point of leaving the Court and retiring wholly into his Colledge But first he thought it not amiss to acquaint his dear Friend and Patron Bishop Neile both with his resolution and the reasons of it But Neile was not to be told what he knew before and therefore answered That he was very sensible of those many neglects which were put upon him and saw too clearly that he had been too long under a cloud but howsoever advised him to stay one year longer and that if he had no better encouragement within that year he would consent to his retirement In the mean time to keep him up in heart and spirit as he had given him the Prebendary of Bugden belonging to the Church of Lincoln to which See he had been translated Anno 1613. but the year before so in the year of his complaint which was 1615. he conferred upon him also the Archdeaconry of Huntington It had pleased God so to dispose of his Affairs that before the year of expectation was fully ended his Majesty began to take him into his better thoughts and for a testimony thereof bestowed upon him the Deanry of Glocester void by the death of the Reverend Right Learned Doctor Feild whose excellent Works will keep his Name alive to succeeding Ages A Deanry of no very great value but such as kept him up in reputation and made men see he was not so contemptible in the eyes of the King as it was generally imagined But before we follow him to Glocester we must take Oxon. in our way in which had hapned no small alteration since we left it laâ—t Doctor Henry Holland Rector of Exceter Colledge and his Majesties Professor for Divinity having left this Life in the end of the year 1611. it seemed good to Archbishop Abbot to make use of his Power and Favour with King Iames for preferring to that place his elder Brother Doctor Robert Abbot being then Master of Baliol Colledge and Rector of Bingham in the County of Nottingham He had before been Fellow of it and Doctor Lilly dying so opportunely for the furtherance of his Preferment in the University he succeeded Master in his place March 9. 1609. being the next Month after his Brother had been advanced to the See of London A man he was of eminent Learning as his Works declare and a more moderate Calvinian than either of his Predecessors which he expressed by countenancing the Sublapsarian way of Predestination by means whereof he incurred the high displeasure of the Supralapsarians who until then had carried all before them without gaining any thing on those who liked well of neither But depending altogether on the will of his Brother he thought he could not gratifie and oblige him more than in pursuing his old quarrels against Laud and others whom he knew to be disrellished by him which he thus pursued It hapned that Laud preaching on Shrove-Sundar Anno. 1614. insisted on some points which might indifferently be imputed either to Popery or Arminianism as about that time they began to call it though in themselves they were no other than the true and genuine Doctrines of the Church of England And having occasion in that Sermon to touch upon the Presbyterians and their Proceedings he used some words to this effect viz. That the Presbyterians were as bad as the Papists Which being so directly contrary to the Judgment and Opinion of this Doctor Abbot and knowing how much Laud had been distasted by his Brother when he lived in Oxon. conceived he could not better satisfie himself and oblige his Brother the Archbishop than by exposing him on the next occasion both to shame and censure which he did accordingly For being Vice-chancellor
as Barwick and from thence visiting the West parts of Scotland came at last to Edenburgh where he soon found that he might have saved himself a great part of his care and taken such of his Chaplains with him as came next to hand the Presbyterian Scots not being to be gained by Reason as he had supposed For he was scarce setled in that City when the Presbyters conceiving that his coming was upon design to work an Uniformity between the Churches of both Kingdoms set up one Struthers to preach against it who laid so lustily about him in the chief Church of Edenburgh that he not only condemned the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England but prayed God to save Scotland from the same Laud and the rest of the Chaplains who had heard the Sermon acquainted his Majesty with those passages but there was no remedy The Scots were Scots and resolved to go their own way whatsoever came of it For though the Archbishop of St. Andrews had forewarned them that they should not irritate his Majesty whom they should finde a gracious Prince and one that would hear Reason and give way unto it yet this prevailed nothing with them they were resolved neither to give Reason to him nor take any from him but only to gain time by delays and artifices For they knew well that his Majesty had no resolution to stay long amongst them and that when he was gone they might do what they listed And therefore when his Majesty in a Speech made to them at St. Andrews had told them That it was a Power belonging to all Christian Princes to order matters in the Church and that he would never regard what they approved or disapproved except they brought him a Reason which he could not answer all that they did was to require a little time of Consultation which being granted they returned with this Resolution That if his Majesty would grant them a free Assembly they would therein satisfie his Majesty in all the Points he had propounded Patrick Galloway one of the chiefest amongst them passing his word for the performance But when the King was gone and the day of the Assembly come those promises vanished in the smoak so that the King gained nothing by that chargeable Journey but the neglect of his Commands and a contempt of his Authority His Majesty therefore took a better course than to put the point to Argument and Disputation which was to beat them by the Belly and to withdraw those Augmentations which he had formerly allowed them out of his Exchâ—quer Which Pill so wrought upon this indigent and obstinate People that the next year in an Assembly held at Perth they pass'd an Act for admitting the five Articles for which his Majesty had been courting them for two years together But whatsoever the King lost by the Journey I am sure the Bishop of Lincoln got well by it For Iames the Bishop of Durham dying during the Kings abode in Scotland his Majesty bestowed upon him that wealthy Bishoprick one of the wealthiest in Revenues but Absolutely the greatest in Power and Priviledges Into this Bishoprick being canonically confirmed on the ninth of October he presently set himself on work to repair the Palaces and Houses belonging to it which he had found in great decay but he so adorned and beautified them in a very short space that they that saw them could not think that they were the same Three thousand pounds he is affirmed by Bishop Godwin to have disbursed only upon this account having laid out before no less than a thousand Marks on the Episcopal Houses of the See of Lincoln besides a good round Sum on the House of Bromley the Habitation and Retreat of the Bishops of Rochester But that which gave him most content was his Palace of Durham-house in the Strand not only because it afforded him convenient Room for his own Retinue but because it was large enough to allow sufficient Quarters for Buckridge Bishop of Rochester and Laud Dean of Glocester which he enjoyed when he was Bishop of St. Davids also some other Quarters were reserved for his old servant Doctor Linsell and others for such Learned men of his Acquaintance as came from time to time to attend upon him insomuch as it passed commonly by the name of Durham Colledge A man of such a strange composition that whether he were of a larger and more publick Soul or of a more uncourtly Conversation it were hard to say But to return again to Laud Finding his Majesty resolved to pass thorow Lancashire and other Counties of the North-west of England in his way to London he obtained leave to go directly unto Oxon. and on the second of August was inducted into the Rectory of Ibstock in the County of Leicester a Rectory belonging to the Patronage of the Bishop of Rochester of whom he had it in exchange for his Kentish Benefices At his return unto the Colledge he was joyfully welcomed by his Friends and chearfully received after so long an absence by the greatest part of that Society But that which seemed most agreeable to him at his coming home was the good News he heard from Glocester how all things had been quieted there and that there was no fear or danger of any further opposition to be made against him for the Rabble being terrified by the severe proceedings of Alderman Iones and more affrighted at the noise of being brought into the Court of High-Commission began to grow more sensible of the error which they had committed the â—ury of their first heats being abated and Reason beginning by degrees as it is ordinary in such cases to take place of Passion Nothing else memorable in this year as in relation to his Story but some misfortunes which befel the Archbishop his perpetual enemy the greatest whereof though perhaps not took most to heart was the death of his Brother the Bishop of Salisbury which produced great sorrow to his Friends the rather in regard of the manner and occasion of it For after his advancement to the See of Sarum being then neer sixty years of Age he married the Widdow of one Doctor Cheynell a Physician who had been one of his Contemporaries in Baliol Colledge the news whereof being presented with some circumstances to his disadvantage to his Brother the Archbishop of Canterbury he received from him such a sharp and bitter Letter so full of Reproaches and Revilings that not being able to bear the burthen of so great an insolency he presently took thought upon it and as presently died leaving this life on the second of March the year almost expiring with him The Archbishop had been off the hooks ever since the affront as he conceived was put upon him in burning his Chaplain Doctor Mockett's Book entituled De Politia Ecclesiae Anglicanae which had given no small Reputation to the Church of England beyond the Seas for which severity though many just Reasons were
dies though his Munificence survive him It was then Midlent-Sunday and the Court-Sermon at Whitehall according to the ancient Custom in the after-noon At what time the sad News passing through London began to be rumored in the Court as Laud was going into the Pulpit to preach before the Lords of the Council the Officers of the Houshold and the rest of that great Concourse of all sorts of People which usually repaired thither at those Solemn Sermons Before he was come to the middle of it the certainty of the Kings death more generally known amongst them the confusion which he saw in the faces of all the Company his own griefs and the dolorous complaints made by the Duke of Buckingham occasioned him to leave the Pulpit and to bestow his pains and comforts where there was more need He did not think as I believe few wise men do that the carrying on of one particular Sermon was such a necessary part of Gods business as is not to be intermitted upon any occasion nor was this ever charged upon him amongst his crimes The sense of this great loss being somewhat abated he was requested by the Duke to draw up some Remembrances of the Life Reign and Government of the King Deceased which he accordingly performed and presented to him But they are but Remembrances or Memorials only like the first lines of a design or Picture which being polished and perfected by a skilâ—ul Workman might have presented us with the true and lively Pourtraiture of that gracious Prince But who will undertake to finish what Laud began I must therefore leave the deceased King to those Memorials and those Memorials to be found in his Breviate p. 5. But there was another Pourtraiture provided for that King before his Funeral His Body being brought from Theobalds unto Sommerset-house where a Royal and Magnificent Hearse was erected for him visited and resorted to by infinite multitudes of people for some Weeks together From Sommerset-house his Body was carried in great State on Saturday the seventh of May to St. Peters Church in Westminster where it was solemnly interred The Funeral Sermon preached by the Lord Keeper Williams and printed not long after by the name of Great Britains Solomon which afterwards administred the occasion of some discourse which otherwise might have been spared Thus is Iames dead and buried but the King survives his only Son Prince Charles being immediately proclaimed King of Great Britain France and Ireland first at the Court Gates by Sir Edward Zouch Knight Marshal most solemnly the next day at London and afterwards by degrees in all the Cities and Market Towns of the Kingdom At his first entrance on the Crown he found himself ingaged in a war with the K. of Spain the mightiest Monarch of the West for which he was to raise great Forces both by Sea and Land He was also at the Point of Marriage with the Daughter of France and some proportionable preparations must be made for that Nor was King Iames to be interred without a solemn and magnificent Funeral answerable in the full height to so great a Prince All which must needs exact great Sums of money and money was not to be had without the help of a Parliament which he therefore gave order to be called in the usual manner But in the middest of these many and great preparations he forgets not the great business of the Church He had observed the multitudinousness of his Fathers Chaplains and the disorder of their waitings which puts him on a Resolution of reducing them to a lesser number and limiting them to a more certain time of attendance than before they were He knew well also what an influence the Court had alwaies on the Country by consequence how much it did concern him in his future Government that his Officers and Servants should be rightly principled according to the Doctrine Government and Forms of Worship established in the Church of England And therefore that he might be served with Orthodox and Regular men Laud is commanded to prepare a Catalogue of the most eminent Divines and to distinguish them by the two Letters of O and P. according to their several perswasions and affections And that being done he is directed by the Duke and the Kings appointment to have recourse to the most learned Bishop Andrews to know of him what he thought fitting to be done in the Cause of Religion Especially in reference to the five Articles condemned not long since in the Synod at Dort and to report his answer with convenient speed A Convocation was of course to accompany the ensuing Parliament And it was fit not only that the Prelates should resolve before-hand what Points they meant to treat on when they were assembled but that his Majesty also might have time to consider of them These seasonable cares being thus passed over he hastens both his own marriage and his Fathers Funeral The first he sollemnized by Proxie in the Church of Nostre Dame in Paris on Sunday the first of May according to the Style of England The news whereof being brought to the Court on the Wednesday following was celebrated in the Streets of London the Liberties and out-parts of it with more than ordinary Expressions of Joy and Gladness The Proxie made to Claud. de Lorain Duke of Chevereux one of the younger Sons of the Duke of Guise from which House his Majesty derived himself by his great Grand-Mother Mary of Lorain Wife of Iames the Fifth The Funeral he attended in his own Person as the principal Mourner Which though it were contrary to the Custome of his Predecessors yet he chose rather to express his Piety in attending the dead Body of his Father to the Funeral Pile than to stand upon any such old niceties and points of State This was the third Funeral which he had attended as the principal Mourner which gave some occasion to presage that he would prove a man of sorrows and that his end would carry some proportion to those mournful beginnings The Intervall before the coming of his Queen he spent in looking to his Navy and drawing his Land Forces together for that Summers service But hearing that his Queen was advancing toward him he went to Canterbury and rested there on Trinity Sunday the twelfth of Iune That night he heard the news of her safe arrival at the Port of Dover whom he welcomed the next morning into England with the most chearful signs of a true aâ—fection From thence he brought her unto Canterbury and from thence by easie Stages to Gravesend where entring in their Royal Barge attended by infinite companies of all sorts of People and entertained by a continual peal of Ordnance all the way they passed he brought her safely and contentedly unto his Palace at Westminster The Lords and Ladies of the Court having presented to her the acknowledgement of their humble duties such Bishops as were about the Town as most of them were in regard of
goes a little further and tells us of him That the World wanted Learning to know how Learned he was so skilled in all especially Oriental Languages that some conceive he might if then living almost have served as an Interpreter-General at the Confusion of Tongues In his life time he only published two Books in Latin viz. His Apologie against Cardinal Bellarmine and that which he called Tortura Torti in behalf of King Iames and a small Tract entituled Determinatio Theologica de jure-jurando exigendo quarto Printed at London 1593. And in English nothing but a small Volume of Sermons which he acknowledged for his own The Book of Catechetical Doctrine published in his life by others but without his privity and consent he always professedly disavowed as containing only some imperfect Collections which had been taken from his mouth by some ignorant hand when he was Reader of the Catechism Lecture in Pembroke Hall But after his decease ninety six of his Sermons were collected with great care and industry published in Print and Dedicated to his Sacred Majesty by Laud then Bishop of London and Buckeridge at that time Bishop of Ely 1628. For Felton of Ely dying the year before Buckeridge had been translated thither by the Power and Favour of that his dear Friend and quondam Pupil Curle Dean of Litchfield and one of the Residentiaries of Salisbury succeeding after his Translation in the See of Rochester By the same hands some other Pieces of his both in English and Latin were very carefully drawn together and published with the like Dedication to his Sacred Majesty Anno 1629. He that desires to hear more of him let him first consult the Funeral Sermon before mentioned extant at the end of the great Volume of his Sermons and afterwards peruse his Epitaph in the Church of St. Maries Over-rhe transcribed in Stows Survey of London of the last Edition After his death the See of Winton was kept vacant till the latter end of the year next following the profits of it being in the mean time taken up for his Majesties use and answered into the Exchequer according to an ancient Custom but more old than commendable used frequently by the Kings of England since the time of William sirnamed Rufus from whom it is said to have took beginning But the Deanry of the Chappel had not been void above nine days when Laud was nominated to it and was actually admitted into that Office on the sixth day of October following by Philip Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold before whom he took the usual and appointed Oath He had before observed a Custom as ill though not so old as the other used in the Court since the first entrance of King Iames. The Custom was That at what part soever of the Publick Prayers the King came into his Closet which looked into the Chappel to hear the Sermon the Divine Service was cut off and the Anthem sung that the Preacher might go into the Pulpit This the new Dean disliked as he had good reason and thereupon humbly moved his Majesty that he would be present at the Liturgie as well as the Sermon every Lords day and that at whatsoever part of Prayers he came the Priest who Ministred should proceed to the end of the Service To which his Majesty most readily and religiously condescended and gave him thanks for that his seasonable and pious Motion As for the Deanry of the Chappel it was of long standing in the Court but had been discontinued from the death of Dr. George Carew Dean of Windsor the Father of George Lord Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totness Anno 1572. till King Iames his coming to this Crown at what time Bancroft then Bishop of London conceiving into what dangers the Church was like to run by the multitude of Scots about him thought it expedient that some Clergy-men of Note and Eminence should be attendant always in and about the Court And thereupon it was advised that to the Bishop Almoner and the Clerk of the Closet a Dean of the Chappel should be added to look unto the diligent and due performance of Gods Publick Service and order matters of the Quire According to which resolution Dr. Iames Mountague was recommended to the King for the first Dean of the Chappel in his time succeeded in that place by Andrews and he now by Laud. But to proceed Whilest matters went on thus smoothly about the Court they met with many Rubbs in the Country some of the Preachers did their parts according as they were required by the said Instructions amongst whom Sibthorp Vicar of Brackly in Northampton-shire advanced the Service in a Sermon preached by him at the Assizes for that County The scope of which Sermon was to justifie the Lawfulness of the general Loane and of the Kings imposing Taxes by his own Regal Power without consent in Parliament and to prove that the people in point of Conscience and Religion ought chearfully to submit to such Loans and Taxes without any opposition The Licencing of which Sermon when it was offered to the Press being refused by Archbishop Abbot and some exceptions made against it the perusing of it was referred to Laud April 24. 1627 by whom after some qualifications and corrections it was approved and after published by the Author under the name of Apostolical Obedience About the same time Manwaring Doctor in Divinity one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary and Vicar of the Parish Church of St. Giles in the Fields published two Sermons of his preaching on the same occasion the one before the King the other in the hearing of his own Parishioners These Sermons he entituled by the name of Religion and Allegiance both of them tending to the justification of the lawfulness of the Kings imposing Loans and Taxes on his people without consent in Parliament and that the imposition of such Loans and Taxes did so far bind the Consciences of the Subjects of this Kingdom that they could not refuse the payment of them without peril of eternal damnation But neither the Doctrine of these Preachers or of any other to that purpose nor the distress of the King of Denmark nor the miserable estate of Rochel did so far prevail amongst the people but that the Commissioners for the Loane found greater opposition in it than they did expect Many who had been Members in the two former Parliaments opposed it with their utmost power and drew a great part of the Subjects in all Countries some to the like refusal For which refusal some Lords and many of the choice Gentry of the Kingdom and others of inferiour sort were committed unto several Prisons where they remained till the approach of the following Parliament Insomuch that the Court was put upon the necessity of some further Project The Papists would have raised a Provision for the setting forth both of Ships and Men for the defence of the Narrow Seas and working
to such corruptions as had been used too frequently in the Court about Church Preferments which made him the less acceptable to many which were near the King in Place and Service who formerly had been on the taking hand and made a market of the Church as they had occasion Goodman of Glocester having staid in that Diocess long enough to be as weary of them as they were of him affected a remove to the See of Hereford and had so far prevailed with some great Officer of State that his Money was taken his Conge d' esâ—ire issued out his Election passed But the Archbishop coming opportunely to the knowledge of it and being ashamed of so much baseness in the man who could pretend no other merit than his money so laboured the business with the King and the King so rattled up the Bishop that he was glad to make his peace not only with the Resignation of his Election but the loss of his Bribe At last that Church a third time vacant that is to say by the death of Godwin the promotion of Iuxon and the Resignation of Goodman was recommended to the Government of Dr. Augustine Lindsel not long before made Bishop of Peterborough and now succeeded in that See by Francis Dee Doctor in Divinity and Dean of Chichester Now begins Wren to come in play Chaplain to his Majesty when Prince of Wales and chosen by King Iames to be one of the two which were to follow him into Spain amongst the rest of his Retinue as before was said He had seen Maw who went Chaplain with him into Spain to be preferred first to the Mastership of Trinity Colledge and afterwards to the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells Anno 1628. himself remaining in his place in Peterhouse as his highest dignity In the year 1628. he was at the laâ—t made Dean of Windsor and Register of the most noble Order of the Garter in the place of Beaumont And on that place he dwelt so long that his well-willers gave it out that Laud was afraid of his abilities and would not suffer him to rise for fear that he might rise too high both in power and favour and overtop him in the Court But these surmises proved as groundless as they were unjust For this year he was made Successor unto Iuxon as Clerk of the Closet a place of great nearness to the King and being once on the Ascendent he went up apace succeeding Lindsel in the See of Hereford Anno 1634. and Corbet in the Church of Norwich Anno 1635. When Iuxon was advanced to the Treasurers Staff he was made Dean of the Chappel in his place Anno 1636. Successor unto White in the See of Ely Anno 1638. and questionless had mounted higher had the times been favourable Nor was he less fortunate in his Successors leaving the Deanry of Windsor to Dr. Christopher Wren his younger brother his Clerkship of the Closet to Dr. Richard Steward Dean of Chichester and the Mastership of Peterhouse to Iohn Cosens of Durham We must conclude this year and begin the next with some proceedings against Prynne the Preparations to whose censure we have heard before Candlemas Term brings him at last unto his tryal in the Court of Star-Chamber being first pre-condemned by the Gentlemen of his own Profession and afterwards sentenced by that Court The Gentlemen of the four Societies presented their Majesties with a Pompous and Magnificent Masque to let them see that Prynnes leaven had not sowred them all and that they were not poysoned with the same infection In which as they all joyned together to perform that Service so gave they such contentment to his Sacred Majesty that he desired them to make a Representation of it to the City of London Which they accordingly performed with no less honour to themselves and delight to the People than shame and sorrow unto him who had given the occasion But greater shame and sorrow fell upon him when he came to his Censure Richardson Chief Justice of his Majesties Bench highly extolled his Majesties mercy in bringing him rather unto his triall in a Criminal than a Capital way declaring openly that if he had been turned over to his Tribunal he must have put himself upon a Iury of whom no mercy could be hoped for so great an Offendor The Earl of Dorset being Lord Chamberlain to the Queen aggravated his offence in aspersing with such foul reproaches a Lady of such eminent Vertue and exemplary Piety that her very dreams were more in heaven than most womens Prayers The Archbishop having been bred in St. Iohns Colledge in Oxon. where the younger Students used yearly to present some shew or other Dramatick Exercise to the Vniversity spake much in commendation of Academical Enterludes and the great benefit which redounded to the Actors in them by training them in an Art of speaking a modest confidence of Behaviour the strengthening of the Memory in the repeating of their parts and the enriching them with a stock of Latine Verses out of one approved Author or other which were their own for ever after In fine they generally concurred in this Censure of him viz. To be fined five thousand pound to the King expelled the University of Oxon. and Lincolns-Inn degraded and disabled from his Profession in the Laws to stand in the Pillory first in the Palace yard in Westminster and three daies after in Cheapside and in each place to lose an Ear though this last part of his Censure was much moderated in the execution to have his Book called Histrio-Mastyx publickly burnt before his face by the hand of the Hangman and remain prisoner during life But all this was so far from working any remorse in him that it rather hardened him in his waies For in Iune following as soon as he could provide himself of Pen Ink and Paper he writes a most sharp and Libellous Letter to the Lord Archbishop touching his Censure in that Court and that which the Archbishop in particular had declared against him With this Letter the Archbishop acquaints his Majesty and his Majesty commands him to refer it to Atturney Noy Noy sends for Prynne and demands of him whether the Letter were of his own hand-writing or not to which Prynne cunningly replied That he could make no answer to that demand unless he saw the Letter and might read the same No sooner was the Letter put into his hands and Noys back turned a little toward him but presently he tore it all to pieces and flung the pieces out of the window to the end it might not rise in judgment against him if the Atturney should proceed to an Ore tenus as he meant to do With this affront and the principal passages of the Letter the Atturney acquaints their Lordships in open Court but there was no remedy For being there was no proof of the misdemeanour but the Letter it self and that the Letter could not be brought in evidence as it should have been
depriving the Bishops of their Vote and the Churches Birth-right And this was it which helped them in that time of need And yet not thinking this Device sufficient to fright their Lordships to a present compliance Stroud was sent up with a Message from the House of Commons to let them know That the Londoners would shortly bring a Petition with 20000 Hands to obtain that Ordinance By which stale and common Stratagem they wrought so far on some weak Spirits the rest withdrawing themselves as formerly in the case of the Earl of Strafford that in a thin and slender House not above six or seven in number it was pass'd at last The day before they pass'd the Ordinance for establishing their new Directory which in effect was nothing but a total abolition of the Common-Prayer-Book and thereby shewed unto the World how little hopes they had of settling their new Form of Worship if the foundation of it were not laid in the blood of this famous Prelate who had so stoutly stood up for it against all Novellism and Faction in the whole course of his Life â—e was certified by some Letters to Oxon. and so reported in the Mercurius Aulicus of the following week That the Lord Bruce 〈◊〉 better known by the name of the Earl of Elgin was one of the number of those few Lords which had Voted to the Sentence of his Condâ—mnation The others which concurred in that fatal Sentence being the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook together with the Lord North and the Lord Gray of Wark But whatsoever may be said of the other six I have been advertised lately from a very good hand That the said Lord Bruce hath frequently disclaimed that Action and solemnly professed his detestation of the whole Proceedings as most abhorrent from his nature and contrary to his known aâ—fections as well unto his Majesties Service as the Peace and Preservation of the Church of England This Ordinance was no sooner passed but it revived many of those Discourses which had before been made on the like occasion in the Business of the Earl of Strafford For hereupon it was observed That as the predominant Party in the Vnited Provinces to bring about their ends in the death of Barnevelt subverted all those Fundamental Laws of the Belgick Liberty for maintenance whereof they took up Arms against Philip ii So the Contrivers of this Mischief had violated all the Fundamental Laws of the English Government for maintenance whereof they had pretended to take up Arms against the King It was said they a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article in the Magna Charta That the Church of England shall be free and shall have all her whole Rights and Priviledges inviolable Yet to make way unto the Condemnation of this Innocent Man the Bishops must be Voted out of their Place in Parliament which most of them have held far longer in their Predecessors than any of our Noble Families in their Progenitors and if the Lords refuse to give way unto it as at first they did the People must come down to the House in multitudes and cry No Bishops no Bishâ—ps at the Parliament doors till by the terrour of their Tumults 〈◊〉 extort it from them It is a Fundamental Law of the English 〈◊〉 That no Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned without cause 〈◊〉 or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due form of Law Yet here we see a Freeman imprisoned ten whole weeks together before any Charge was brought against him and kept in Prison three whole years more before his General Accusation was by them reduced unto Particulars and for a year almost detained close Prisoner without being brought unto his Answer as the Law requires It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government 〈…〉 be disserzâ—â— of his Freehold or Liberties but by the known Laws of the Land Yet here we see a man disseized of his Rents and Lands spoiled of his Goods deprived of his Iurisdiction devested of his Right of Patronage and all this done when he was so far from being convicted by the Laws of the Land that no particular Charge was so much as thought of It is a Fundamental Law of the English Liberty That no man shall be condemned or put to death bâ—â— by the Lawful Iudgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land that is in the ordinary way of Legal Tryal And sure an Ordinance of both Houses without the Royal Assent is no part of the Law of England nor held an ordinary way of Tryal for the English Subject or ever reckoned to be such in former times And finally It is a Fundamental Law in the English Government That if any other cause than those recited in the Statute of King Edward iii. which is supposed to be Treason do happen before any of his Majesties Juâ—tices the Justices shall tarry without giving Iudgment till the Cause be shâ—wn and declared before the King and his Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or not Yet here we have a new found Treason never known before nor declared such by any of his Majesties Iustices nor ever brought to be considered of by the King and his Parliament but only Voted to be such by some of those Members which â—are at Westminster who were resolved to have it so for their private Ends. The first Example of this kind the first thaâ— ever suffered death by the shot of an Ordinance as himself very well observed in his dying Speech upon the Scaffold though purposely omitted in Hind's Printed Copy to which now he hasteneth For the passing of the Ordinance being signified to him by the then Lieutenant of the Tower he neither entertained the news with a Stâ—ical Apathy nor waâ—led his fate with weak and womanish Lamentations to which Extremes most men are carried in this case but 〈◊〉 it with so even and so smooth a Temper as shewed he neither was ashamed to live nor afraid to die The time between the Sentence and Execution he spent in Prayers and Applications to the Lord his God having obtained though not without some diâ—lâ—â—nâ—ty a Chaplain of his own to attend upon him and to assist him in the Work of his Preparation though little Preparation â—â—â—ded to receive that blow which could not but be welcome because long expected For so well was he studied in the Art of Dying especially in the last and strictest part of his Imprisonment that by continual Fastings Watchings Prayers and such like Acts of Christiaâ— Humiliation his Flesh was rarified into Spirit and the whole maâ— so fitted for Eternal Glories that he was more than half in Heaven before Death brought his bloody but Triumphant 〈◊〉 to convey him thither He that had so long been a Confessâ—â—â—ould â—ould not but think it a Release of Miseries to be made a 〈◊〉 It is Recorded of Alexander the Great That the night before his last and
Place of Scripture whereupon such Assurance might be truly founded He used some words to this effect That it was the Word of God concerning Christ and his dying for us But then finding that there was like to be no end of the troublesome Gentleman he turned away from him applying himself directly to the Executioner as the gentler and discreeter person Putting some mony into his hand he said unto him without the least distemper or change of countenance Here honest friend God forgive thee and I do and do thy Office upon me with mercy and having given him a sign when the blow should come he kneeled down upon his knees and prayed as followeth viz. Lord I am coming as fast I can I know I must pass thorough the shadow of death before I can come to see thee But it is but Umbra Mortis a meer shadow of death a little darkness upon nature but thou by thy Merits and Passion hast broke thorough the jaws of death the Lord receive my Soul and have mercy upon me and bless this Kingdom with peace and plenty and with brotherly love and charity that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them for Iesus Christ his sake if it be thy will Then laying his head upon the Block and Praying silently to himself he said aloud Lord receive my Soul which was the Signal given to the Executioner who very dexterously did his Office and took of his head at a blow his Soul ascending on the wings of Angels into Abrahams bosom and leaving his body on the Scaffold to the care of men This blow thus given his life-less body remained a spectacle so unpleasing unto most of them who had desired his death with much heat and passion that many who came with greedy eyes to see him suffer went back with weeping eyes when they saw him dead their own Consciences perhaps bearing witness to them God knows whose did that they had sinned in being guilty of such Innocent blood Of those whom only Curiosity and desire of Novelty brought thither to behold that unusual sight many had not the Patience to attend the Issue but went away assoon as the Speech was ended others returned much altered in the opinion which before they had of him and bettered in their Resolutions toward the King and the Church whose Honour and Religious Purposes they saw so clearly vindicated in his dying but never dying words And for the Rest the most considerable though perhaps the smallest part of that Great Assembly as they came thither with no other intention then to assist him with their Prayers to embalm his body with their tears and to lay up his last Speeches in their hearts and memories so when they had performed those Offices of Christian duty they comforted themselves with this that as his life was honourable so his death was glorious the pains whereof were short and momentary to himself the benefit like to be perpetual unto them and others who were resolved to live and die in the Communion of the Church of England And if the Bodies oâ— us men be capable of any happiness in the Grave he had as great a share therein as he could desire his Body being accompanied to the Earth with great multitudes of People whom love or curiosity or remorse of Conscience had drawn together purposely to perform that Office and decently interred in the Church of Alhallows Barking a Church of his own Patronage and Jurisdiction according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England In which it may be noted as a thing remarkable That being whilst he lived the greatest Champion of the Common-Prayer-Bookâ—ere â—ere by Law establiâ—â—ed he had the honour being dead to be buried in the form therein prescribed after it had been long disused and almost reprobated in most Churches of London Nor need Posterity take care to provide his Monument he built one for himself whilst he was alive It bâ—eing well observed by Deering one of his most malicious Enemies and he that threw the first stone at him in the beginning of this Parliament that St. Paul's Church will be his perpetual Monument and his own Book against the Iesuite his lasting Epitaph Thus â—ell Laud and St. Paulsâ—ell â—ell with him The yearly Contribution toward whose Repair Anno 1641. when he was plunged into his Troubles fell from the sum of 15000 l. and upward to somewhat less than 1500. and afterwards by degrees to nothing No less than 17138 l. 13 s. 4 d. ob q. which remained in the Chamber of London toward the carrying on of the Work is seised on by an Order of both Houses of Parliament for the beginning of their War against the King that so they might not only encounter him with his own Arms and Ammunition which he had bought with his own Money but with that Money too which he alone had raised by his own Care and Piety Most of the Materials intended for finishing the Work were turned into Money and the rest bestowed on the Parish of St. Gregories for the Rebuilding of that Church And all the Scaffolding of the Tower or Steeple allotted to the payment of Iephson's Regiment who challenged an Arrear of 1746 l. 15 s. 8 d. for their Service in that cruel and unnatural War The Paâ—ement of the Church digged up and sold to the wealthier Citizens for beautifying their Country-Houses The Floor converted into Saw-pits in many places for cutting out such Timber as was turned into Money The Lead torn off in some places also the Timber and Arches of the Roof being thereby exposed to Wind and Weather Part of the Stone-work which supported the Tower or Steeple fallen down and threatning the like Ruine unto all the rest The gallant Portico at the West-end thereof obscured first by 〈◊〉 House looking towards Ludgate and afterward turned into an Exchange for Haberdashers of small Wares Hosiers and such Petit Chapmen And finally the whole Body of it converted to a Stable or Horse-Garrison for the better awing of that City whose Pride and Faction raised the Fire and whose Purse added Fewel to it for the enflaming of the Kingdom Thus Laud fell and the Church fell with him The Liturgy whereof was Voted down about the same time in which the Ordinance was pass'd for his Condemnation The Presbyterian Directory authorised for the Press by Ordinance of March 13. next following Episcopacy Root and Branch which had before been precondemned suppressed by Ordinance in like manner on October 9. 1646. The Lands of all Cathedrals sold to the exposing of those stately and magnificent Fabricks to an inevitable Ruine The Bishops dispossest of their Lands and Rents without the Charity of a small Annual Pension toward their Support The Regular and Conformable Clergy sequestred ejected and turned out of all to the utter undoing of themselves their Wives and Children A wide gap opened for letting in of all Sects and Heresies many of which had been exploded and
of their Tithes and procured the Repealing of the Irish Articles and those of England to be approved and received in the placâ— thereof And what said they could be more unadvisedly and unâ—politickly done then to draw upon himself at once the 〈…〉 pleasure of three Kingdoms in the several Concernments of each Nation as also all the Genevian Churches abroad in their Propâ— Interesses Fomented by the Pride and Purse of the City of 〈◊〉 and prosecuted by the Malice and Activity of the Puritanâ—â—ction â—â—ction in them all united in the Common quarrel or the Lords day Sabbath They added that King Edward the first began not with the Conquest of Wales before he had well settled his affairs in England and that he undertook not the following War against the Scots whom afterwards he brought under his obedience till some years after he had finished the Conquest of Wales that as all Supâ—râ—â—tations are dangerous to the Product of the Births of Nature and nothing more Repugnant to a Regular Diet than to fill the 〈◊〉 with fresh viands before it is Emptied of the Former so notâ—ing 〈◊〉 iâ— more destructive to the Body Politick than to try two many Expâ—riments at once upon it which cannot possibly work well together to tâ—e publick health and therefore that he should have practised upon one Kingdom after another as best became so able a Physician and so exact a Maâ—ter in the Art of a Christian Warfare that one of them might have followed the good Example of the other and not all joyn together like so many ill humours to the common disturbance of the work Such were the Censures and Discourses which were passed upon him betwixt his Imprisonment and his Death and for some years after In which how much or little there is of truth is left unto the â—udgment of those who are more thoroughly acquainted with his disposition and aâ—â—ections his secret Counsels and the Reasons which directed him in the conduct of them than I can honestly pretend to All I can say is that which may be said by any other which â—ad no more access to him than my self Of Stature he was low but of strong Composition so short a Trunck never contained so much excellent Treasure which therefore was to be the stronger by reason of the wealth which was lodged within it His Countenance chearful and well-bloudied more fleshy as I have often heard him say than any other part of his body which chearfulness and vivacity he carried with him to the very Block notwithstanding the Afflictions of four years Imprisonment and the infelicity of the times For at his first Commitment he besought God as is observed in the Breviate to give him full patience proportionable comfort and contentment with whatsoever he should send and he was heard in what he prayed for for notwithstanding that he had fed long on the bread of carefulness and drank the water of affliction yet as the Scripture telleth us of the four Hebrew Children His Countenance appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than any of those who eat their portion of the Kings Meat and drank of his Wine A gallant Spirit being for the most part like the Sun which shews the greater at his setting But to proceed in that weak Character which my Pen is able to afford him Of Apprehension he was quick and sudden of a very sociable Wit and a pleasant Humour and one that knew as well how to put off the Gravity of his Place and Person when he saw occasion as any man living whatsoâ—ver Accessible enough at all times but when he was tired out with multiplicity and vexation of business which some who did not understand him ascribed unto the natural ruggedness of his Disposition Zealous he was in the Religion here established as hath been made apparent in the course of this History Constant not only to the Publick Prayers in his Chappel but to his private Devotions in his Closet A special Benefactor to the Town of Reading where he had his Birth and to the University of Oxon. where he had his Breeding so much the more to this last as he preferred his Well 〈…〉 〈◊〉 his Bâ—â—â—iâ— Happy in this that he accomplished those good works in the time of his Life which otherwise must have â—hrunk to nothing in the hands of Executors To speak of the Integrity of so great a Person would be an injury to his Vertues One Argument whereof may be if there were no other That in so long a time of Power and Greatness wherein he had the principal managing of Affairs both in Church and State he made himself the Master of so small a Fortune that it was totally exhausted in his Benefactions unto Oxon. and Reading before remembred The rest I shall refer to the Breviate of his Life and Action though published of purpose to defame him and render him more odious to the Common People In which it will appear to an equal and impartial Reader That he was a man of such eminent Vertues such an exemplary Piety towards God such an unwearied Fidelity to his Gracious Sovereign of such a publick Soul towards Church and State so fixt a Constancy in Friendship and one so little byassed by his private Interesses that Plutarch if he were alive would be much troubled to find a sufficient Parallel wherewith to match him in all the Lineaments of perfect Vertue Thus lived this most Reverend Renowned and Religious Prelate and thus he died when he had lived seventy one years thirteen Weeks and four daies if at the least he may be properly said to die the great Example of whose Vertue shall continue alway not only in the Minds of Men but in the Annals of succeeding Ages with Renown and Fame His Death the more remarkable in falling on St. Williams day as if it did design him to an equal place in the English Calendar with that which William Archbishop of Bourgeois had obtained in the French Who being as great a Zealot in his time against the spreading and increase of the Albigenses as Laud was thought to be against those of the Puritan Faction and the Scottish Covenanters hath ever since been honoured as a Saint in the Gallican Church the tenth of Ianuary being destined for the solemnities of his Commemoration on which day our Laud ascended from the Scaffold to a Throne of Glory The End of the Second Part. ERRATA PAge 12. l. 33. read accâ—rding to p. 14. l. 4. r. out of l. 5. r. that it is p 31. l. 32. r. Pâ—â—seâ—â—nce p. 35. l. 13. r. there be no. p. 47. l. 30. r. Lord â—ip p. 59. l. 43. for 〈◊〉 Colledge r. Pâ—rnâ—â—â—ke Hall p. 66 l 41. r. redounded p. 68. l. 42. â— Chair 〈◊〉 14. r. â—â—â—sances l. 30. r. divuâ—ged it over r. also The City was p. 74. l. 21. ◠〈…〉 smâ—â—â— p. 91. l. 38. r. commends and propounds p. 108. l. 40. r. Pâ—pe p. 〈◊〉 l. 25. r. Church of p. 112. l. 39