what he perform'd in St. Maries in Cambridg rather than in a sorry Vicarage I can tell them among others that were present that he publisht himself a most rare Preacher in a Sermon made before the University anno 1610. upon this Text Luc. 16.22 It came to pass That the Beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams Bosom He handled the points of the Souls Immortality of the present Blessed â—ss of them that dye in Gods Mercy of their Reception into Heaven of the Ministry of Angels whether particularly Guardian or rather in general to all Christians there he discours'd with that depth of Learning yet liquidating that depth with such facility of opening it beside with that Energy and Vigour of Voice and Sides that his Auditory granted him to be a loud Cymbal and a well-Tuned Cymbal About Eight Mouths after being Listed into the Combination of the choicest Preachers He was call'd to do that Duty before K. James and Prince Henry at Royston whereupon the King spake much good of him but the Prince taking great notice of him as an Honour to Wales was not satisfied to give him encouragement of praise but gave him his Princely Word that He would Reward him after the weight of his Worth But the Father bestowed that preferment on him which the Prince taken away by early Death for our Sins intended I heard of this Sermon Six Weeks after and by a merry Token for having occasion to come to that hunting Court at Royston I received Hospitality at a Table full of good Company where I was askt over and over especially by the old Brittains what Place and Dignity Mr. Williams had in Cambridge every one of them could tell me he made a most Excellent Sermon before the King but for their parts they had been such attentive Hearers that among them all I could not Learn the Text. The Fame of our accomplisht Preacher who had taken the University and the Court so far with his Merits as none more spread far And he wanted not Friends in the Lord Chancellour Egertons Family to acquaint his Lordship with it who instantly preferr'd him before all Competitors and said no more but Send for him and let me have him This was at Midsummer anno 16â—1 That Lord Chancellour was a great Patron to Divines but then they must be of many degrees above Mediocrity and those whom he pickt out for the Service of his House were of the first and as it were Seraphical Order And such indeed were Dr. Richard Feild Dr. King Bishop of London Dr. Carew Bp. of Exon and as one of that stamp he was pleased to entertain Mr. Williams But when he came to London to be Approved for that Service after great and humble acknowledgment of his Thankfulness he prayed the Lord Chancellour he might continue a year or the greatest part of it at Cambridg before he came to wait constantly in his Lordships Honourable Family because at Michaelmass following he was to enter upon the Proctor-ship of his University a place of Credit and some Emolument And may you not fulfil that place by a Deputy says the Chancellor My Lord says the Chaplain I must take an Oath upon my admission into that Office to oversee the Government entrusted to me not in general Terms only of Faith and Diligence but for the due Provision of many particular Branches of the Statutes and I dare not trust my Oath with another mans Conscience To so fair a Plea he got a gentle concession where I must shew him in his Honour of Proctorship before he return again to my Lord Egerton I have more to say than to tell the World he was Junior Proctor of Cambridge So have many been who did nothing but that which deserves to be forgotten like Consuls that acted nothing and were useful for nothing but to have the Fasti known by their Names His was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a a procuration indeed so it is Translated out of Xenophon which he filled up with as much real Worth and Value with as much Profit and Dignity to the University as could be dispatcht in the Orb of that Government The first place wherein Epaminondas appear'd publickly among the Citizens of Thebes was the Surveyorship of the High-ways and no better Et muneri Dignitatem addidit says Valerius lib. 3. c. 4. He gave Lustre by his management to that petty Function It holds as right as possibly an Example can match a thing in this instance It is well known our Proctor came into this Magistracy burthened with great expectation which measure he filled up and exceeded it He rose with great Light and set with more Brightness than he rose Happy were those times that heard his Plinian Orations for his Style had that Savour that heard his Aristotelian disputations that enjoyed the Fruit to hear him moderate at the Morning Exercises between a Master and a Batchelor Methinks yet I do hear him inveighing as I did once against the Sloth of the Batchelors for degenerating from themselves and the Ancient Customs of the Schools as of a fearful Metamorphâ—is with those Words Nam vos mutastis illas He was an assiduous Overseer and Interlocutor at the Afternoon Disputations of the Under Graduates Some of the most hopeful he enflamed with his Praise Not a few Tasted of his Bounty and in no meaner Mettle than Gold I know a man whom he took Notice of at those Acts who is the better for his good liking to this day It was greatly commendable in him that he disdain'd not to be President himself at these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but attended at them and acted in them vivâ voce and did not put off the Work to Journey-men The Night-watches indeed he committed sometimes to Deputies as the manner is to compel the Looser sort from their Haunts of Inns and Taverns and Houses of ill Fame But when he held the Staff in his own hand he perceiv'd he prevail'd most And it was sensible to the Eye That he reclaimed many from disorder not that in all the year he damnified any one by censure that I could hear of Neither did he use to make a crackling Noise with contumelies and Threatnings But won Regard to his Place by Sweetness by Affableness by Perswasions as dealing with Scholars not with Peasants with Freemen and not with Servants This I am sure of by his Prudence and Vigilancy Scandals of corrupted behaviour abated but increased not And what any of his Successors of the sowrest Rigor could do more I know not 27. In this Procuratorian year it is as due as any thing to be Remembred how he behaved himself in three weighty occurrencies Soon after Christmass the Kings Majesty Commanded the Heads of the University to give entertainment such as might be prepared of a sudden to a German Prince and his Train It was the Duke of Wittenberg I cannot err in that I suppose for we of the younger fort were
Richardson's Argument taken from the Excommunication or Abstension which St. Ambrose exercised by his Episcopal Power over the Emperor Theodosius for commanding a great Slaughter to be made upon the People of Thessalonica in an hasty distemper of Anger before their Cause was heard To which Dr. Williams said That what St. Ambrose said was neither Juridical Abstension nor Excommunication It was a private Act of St. Ambrose's directed by the motion of his proper Piety and not a Censure issuing from a Court or Authority Ecclesiastical And if at the same time another bishop is of Rome Aquileia or Ravenna had communicated with the Emperor and received him to Prayers and the Holy Sacrament he might have done it without the violation of any Canon A particular Presbyter may do the like at this day and with a good Conscience withdraw himself from doing Sacred Offices if a King after often and humble Admonition continue Impenitent in great Sins which the Day light hath detected Therefore this was no Precedent for the Excommunication of the Supreme Magistrate which was but a particular forbearance of St. Ambrose's in Sacred Duties not to impact them for his share to so great an Offender whom he left at liberty to all the World beside to partake with him But he that is justly Excommunicated from one Congregation in â—rict Discipline is excluded from all This Answer was it which afforded most Matter of Discourse and spread far even to King James's Ear who heard of it and approved it Much was not said to the Second Question a Bush that had been often beaten Yet there was some grappling about the new Clause That the Subduction or Denial of the Cup to the People maimed the very Priesthood But the Doctor maintain'd it thus That the Order of Priesthood is a Sacrament in the Roman Church the Matter of which Sacrament by a wretched shift some of their Controversial Writers say is the Bible laid upon the Neck of the Ordain'd to furnish him to teach Christ's Mystical Body together with the Paten and the Chalice put into his hand to authorize him to make Christ's Natural Body If a Priest so Ordain'd were consin'd to Pray and not to Preach to the People it were a Mutilation of his Office So if he be stinted to distribute the Consecrated Bread and not the Cup it is a cutting of one half of his Priesthood This was the God-speed and the Good-speed of his Disputation It were no Sin to forget the Feasts he made at this Solemnity They were bounteous nay excessive after the usual Trespass of the superfluity of our Nation Such as Plutarch says Lucullus made in his Dining-Room which he calls Apollo One thing deserves a Smile That the Doctor was at no little Cost to send to the Italian Ordinaries at London and to ransack the Merchants Stores for such Viands as might please Arch-Bishop Spalato out of his own Country To which accates he was observ'd that he never put his Hand towards them but lik'd our Venison and English Dishes a great deal better he Thank'd him But enough of this for many do not love the smell of a Kitchin 40. Presently after he had shewn himself such a Man in this Field of Honour Veianius armis Herculis ad postem fixis latet abditus agro Horat. Ep. 1. He never went more chearful to any place then to his private Home the Rectory of Walgrave as if then he had been call'd from the Custom-house of the World to follow Christ or as if he had been one of David's Mariners landed at a quiet Shore Psal 107.30 Then they are glad because they be at rest so he bringeth to the Haven of their desire His Cost was over before he came thither For there he had built and garden'd and planted and made it a Dwelling sit for all the changeable Seasons of the Year as much when Warmth as when Pleasure was intended Here he became his own Master for a while here he could solace himself in private Retirements here he was attended by Mutes like the Monarchs of the East by so many Volumes of a well replenish'd Library As Vatia said in Seneca when he went out of Rome to live in his little Villa three Year before he died Fuit Vatia multos annos vixit tantùra tres So this Doctor might have written that in three Years or not fully four that he kept for the most part in this Bower of Tranquility he lived the Comforts of twenty The harmless Country Cottages bred more Saints who are only seen unto the Eyes of God then would fill a thousand Calenders Why may not the Speech of Christ to his Church look this way Cant. 7.11 Come my Beloved let us go forth into the Field let us lodge in the Villageâ— To track him a little in this shady Life He hazarded to lose his Health by excessive Study at all the Hours of the Clock but preserv'd it by Temperance For though he were greatly Hospital the Cloth that cover'd his Table being always cover'd with Dishes yet with Carving and Discoursing he gave his own Appetite but a short Bait. Velleius says that great Caesar discern'd that none but a temperate Man could do mighty things Qui somno cibo in vitam non in voluptatem uteretur Through Temperance he had strength to be Industrious and gave a good Example to the Divines his Neighbours who had need to have such prick'd in here and there among them For a Country Minister hath master'd a great Tentation that hath overcome Sloth a Mischief that will fear upon the Soul with too much craft and sweetness Idleness is commonly the English Gentleman's Disease and the Rural Curate's Scandal Let the first learn from as good a Gentleman as the best of them Marc. Antoninus the Emperor lib. 9. who writes thus Rise early leave the Bed of Sluggishness to them that are sick in Body or Mind And being up it were as good you were laid down again as not to be guilty of so much Reason to know you rose to do the Work of a Man which is not to waste all the day in sporting with Beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Why should I be loth to be put to the Employment of some Work for I was made for that use and I came for that end into the World Let others learn from a greater then Antoninus that Labour and Watching Pureness and Knowledge are the Gifts that commend them to be the Ministers of God 2 Cor. 6.4 They are Master-Builders and must not loiter who should set all to work Or to pass a sharper Sentence It is certain that the worst of Superstition is an Idol and the worst of Idols is an Idle Shepheard that is Who hath a Mouth and speaks not Zech. 11.17 This Doctor that walk'd as a burning Light before his Brethren did the whole Office that belong'd unto him as Reading the Liturgy of Divine Service Wednnesdays and Fridays before such as
hope to comprehend all that I shall say or any man else can materially touch upon in this Bill The first is the Rise or Motive of this Bill which is the Duty of men in Holy Orders for the words are Persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle c. And this Duty of Ministers may be taken in this place two several ways either for their Duty in point of Divinity or for their Duty in point of Convenience which we commonly call Policy In regard of either of these Duties it may be conceived that men in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle in Sacred Affairs c. and this is the Motive Rise and Ground of this Bill The second point are the persons concerned in the Bill which are Archbishops Bishops Parsons Vicars and all other in Holy Orders The third point contains the things inhibited from this time forward to such persons by this Bill and they are of several sorts and natures First Freeholds and Rights of such persons as their Suffrages Votes and Legislative Power in Parliament Secondly Matters of Princely Favours as to sit in Star-chamber to be call'd to the Council-board to be Justices of the Peace c. Thirdly Matters of a mixt and concrete nature that seem to be both Freeholds and Favours of former Princes as the Charters of some of the Bishops and some of the ancient Cathedrals are conceived to be And these are all the matters or things inhibited from those persons in Holy Orders by this present Bill The fourth point is the manner of this Inhibition which is of a double nature first of a severe Penalty and secondly under Cain's Mark an eternalkind of Disability and Incapacity laid upon them from enjoying hereafter any of those Freeholds Rights Favours or Charters of former Princes and that which is the heaviest point of all without killing of Abel or any Crime laid to their Charge more than that in the beginning of the Bill it is said roundly and in the style of Lacedaemon That they ought not to intermeddle in Secular Affairs The fifth point is a Salvo for the two Universities but none for the Bishop of Durham nor for the Bishop of Ely not for the Dean of Westminster their next Neighbour who is establish'd in his Government by an especial Act of Parliament that of the 27 of Queen Elizabeth The sixth and last point is a Salvo for Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons or Peers of this Kingdom that either may be or are such by Descent Which Clause I hope in God will prove not only a Salvo to those honourable persons whereof if we of the Clergy were but so happy as to have any competent number of our Coat Quot Thebarum portae vel divit is ostia Nili this Bill surely had perish'd in the Womb and never come to the Birth but I hope that this Clause will prove this Bill a felo de se and a Murtherer of it self and intended for a Salvo to noble Ministers only prove a Salvo for all other Ministers that be not so happy as to be nobly born because the very poor Minister for ought we find in Scripture or common Reason is no more tyed to serve God in his Vocationâ— than these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and nobly-born Ministers are And therefore I hope those noble Ministers will deal so nobly as to pull their Brethren the poor Ministers out of the Thorns and Bryars of this Bill And these are all the true Heads and Contents of this Bill And among these six Heads your Lordships shall be sure to find me and I shall expect to sind your Lordships in the whole Tract of this Committee And now with your Lordships honourable Leave and Patience I will run them over almost as briefly as I have pointed and pricked them down 160. For the first the Rise and Motive of this Bill which is the Duty of Men in Holy Orders not to intermeddle with Secular Affairs must either rise from a point of Divinity or from a point of Conveniency or Policy And I hope in God it will not appear to your Lordships that there is any Ground either of Divinity or Policy to inhibit men in Orders so modestly to intermeddle with Secular Affairs as that the measure of intermeddling in such Affairs shall not hinder nor obstruct the Duties of their Calling They ought not so to intermeddle in Secular Affairs as to neglect their Ministry no more ought Lay-men neither for they have a Calling and Vocation wherein they are to walk as Ministers have they have Wife and Children and Families to care for and they are not to neglect these to live upon Warrants and Recognizances to become a kind of Sir Francis Michel or a Justus nimis as Solomon calls it Eccles 7.16 That place 2 Tim. 2.4 No man that warrs entangles himself with the affairs of this life will be found to be applied by all good Interpreters to Lay-men as well as Church-men and under favour nothing at all to this purpose Besides that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth point at a man that is so wholly taken up with the Affairs of this Life that he utterly neglects the Offices and Duties of a Christian man And so I leave that place as uncapable of any other Exposition nor ever otherwise interpreted but by Popes Legates and Canonists that make a Nose or Wax of every place of Scripture they touch upon But that men in Holy Orders ought not in a moderate manner together with the Duties of their Calling to help and assist in the Government of the Common-wealth if they be thereunto lawfully called by the Soveraign Prince can never be proved by any good Divinity for in the Law of Natâ—e before the Deluge and a long time after it is a point that no man will deny me That the Eldest of the Family was both the Priest and the Magistrate Then the People were taken out of Aegypt by Moses and Aaron Moses and Aaron among his Priests as it is in the Psalm Then there was a Form of a Common-wealth setch'd from Heaven indeed and planted upon the Earth and judiciary Laws dictated for the regulating of the same Nor do I much care though some men shall say That persons in Holy Orders ought not to intermeddle in Secular Affairs when that Great God of Heaven and Earth doth appoint them to intermeddle with all the principal Affairs of that estate witness the exorbitant Power of the High-Priest in Secular Matters the Sanhedrim the 23 the Judges of the Gate which were most of them Priests and Levites And the Church-men of that Estate were not all Butchers and Slaughter-men for they had their Tabernacle their Synagogues their Prayers Preaching and other Exercises of Piety In a word we have Divinius but they had operosius ministerium as St Austin speaketh Our Ministry takes up more of our Thoughts but theirs took up more of their Labour and Industry Nor is it any matter that
subject to the higher Powers Put them together for you cannot put them asunder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let it be the Power in the abstract the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for st Peter was not mistaken puts it into the concrete and the Duty required is That every Power be subject to that Power which is higher than it self This distinction which I have erased being too learned for every Shop-keeper and Headborough to understand they fell to this plain Expression That they were in danger of the King's Forces and gathered such Souldiers as they ' could make ready to defend themselves And they that suffer more than Nature can bear will be compelled to do more than Duty can justifie It is the word of the Hellenists Ecclus 4.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when a capricious man thinks all his Imaginations to be Certainties These that fly to the excuse of a Defensive War are such For can this be perswaded to any man when all England did see so many Brigades provided for the Service of the Earl of Essex when the King had not Two hundred about him and those disposed in no Military Titles or Orders And says his Majesty at the hour of his Death Read the dates of their Proclamations and mine they are in print and let every eye be judge from whom the first Alarum unto War proceeded A Defence is to avoid Blows not to give them and is it a Defence to parsue another from place to place Then a Falcon is upon the Defence that 〈◊〉 after a Pheasant But they never spoke truer than when this Conseâ—â— came out That they made themselves strong to bring the King under their power for they were beaâ—y afraid and durst not trust him They were safe for the present not secure for the future having a Conscience of Guilt which trembled in them knowing that their Manners were the just occasion of all the Evil that could be done unto them Yet who brought them into this strait Says Porc. Latro in Salust Serae sunt hominum lamentationes quae suo vitio desidiâque contigerunt The style of good Christians was wont to be Let them that have failed in the first duty of Innocency lay hold of the next duty of Repentance If they have offended let them crave Mercy through Christ and not command it with the violence of the Devil If they will not trust the King's Mercy because they have provoked him so far whose Fault is it but their own if they become Rebels He that dares not trust the Sea and will not traffick whose fault is it but his own if he prove a Beggar O they dealt with a King that knew it was no time for Vengeance but for Pardon Howsoever the gate of his heart was wide open for Penitents at all times If Cicero had said more to Caesar it would not have transcended King Charles his Clemency Nemo nunquam te placavit inimicus qui ullas residisse in te simultatis reliquias senserit Pro Deiot. I have sifted the dreadful War advanced by this Parliament with truth impartial there needs no falshood to make their Practices seem worse than they were The Van of their Army was Treason their Main Body Rebellion their Rear Murder So I found them and so I leave them 181. Sufficient is delivered to silence the Excuse of the Parliament that a just Fear put Swords into their hands to defend themselves An Ethnick must submit to this Rule which I will quote the second time Nulla necessitas excusat quae potest non esse necessit as Tertul. exhort ad castitatem c. 24. and a Christian hath learnt this Rule That nothing is more formidable than to fear any thing more than God They provoked a King to his face in a Civil War than whom no Prince did better deserve the Purse the Prowess the Persons of his Subjects to help him on both to Safeguard and Victory He failed in both through that which Budaeus in one word calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum populus Imperatori infensus vincere nolit Lib. 2. Pand. fol. 10. The common Peoples love to him I conses was cold and lazy They had not studied him and the great Graces of his unspotted Life Qui exemplo potuit esse his quos nos habemus in exemplo I borrow it for him out of Sidonius He might have been an Example to those who were held the best Examples of the Times he lived in But they fretted at some improsperous Expeditions which his Ministers had made into Spain France and Germany and look't downward upon those dishonourable Actions not upward upon his Vertues So he lost them For evil Successes are not ordinarily forgotten though prosperous ones vanish in the warmth of their fruition No doubt but he had framed his Imagination to things of great entertainment for the good of his Nephew in the Palatinate and the Protestants at Rochel But who can foresee what Chance the Dye of War will cast Centum doctum hominum consilia sola baec devincit Dea Fortuna Plaut in Pseud An Heathen could go no further but we understand more And though foreign Enterprizes miscarried there was great Prosperity at home Wealth Trade Peace Plenty all Professions floarithing But did he follow Polybius his Counsel to Scipio AEmilianus never to go abroad but to oblige some before he return'd it being the chief happines of a Prince to get Frineds Truly he did many Acts of Liberality with a look that did not take much and with a blind hand He was not made to set his Face cheerfully nor to attract with delightful Expressions Whereas Heyward nicks it right in his Hen. 4. That the Multitude are more strongly drawn by unprositable Courtesies than by churlish Benefits But our King's Motto might have been drawn from Illustrius the Pythagoraean in Laertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act great things but promise little which was the right temper of this dispassionate Philosophical Man who cared not for Opinion but would please himself in that which was just though it were displeasing to others and delighted to live much to himself and his own thoughts As if says a late Pen he had rather been guest at than known You shall read nothing more apt to excuse him than that of Cicero to Cato Ep. l. 15. Ea studiosè secutus sum ete quibus vera gloria nasci possit ipsam quidem gloriam per se nunquam putavi expetendam 182. The same Parliament did for a while so much acknowledge his Vertues that they would have praised him into a Fool. For these were their words That they know him to be good of himself and therefore did strive per force to fetch him from a debauched Army and evil Counsellors Wo be to him whose Head is bucketed with Waters of a scalding Bath These Flowers of Flattery that would wither before to morrow were they worth the prince of a Crown The King's Army consisted of as valiant and
for it is a State-Rule Raro eminentes viri non magnis adjutoribus ad gubernandam fortunam suam usi sunt Yet this latter Favour the Nature of the Lord Chancellor considered was greater then the former For though he was as good a Master to his Followers as ever was serv'd yet he was of an austere Gravity and rather Bountiful then Affable Now though it be as clear as any Ocular Demonstration that the Chaplains full and absolute Parts did introduct him to this Love and Likeing yet I will not say but that which brought it to this Growth and Excess was a sympathy of Souls which is a knitting of Souls by secret Ligaments that transcend Reason Our Genetlâ—iacal Writers perhaps would call it Synastrta which is a wrong Word for a right Meaning 36. By this opportunity he interceded that divers Benefices which fell to the Lord Chancellor's Presentation should be devolved upon deserving Scholars and quickly became a great Patron before he was a Bishop They were Godly Men whom he oblig'd and such as had waited long in the Universities and fit to be called forth to use their Talents If he displeased any in the use of this Power they wey were such as presumed upon ancient Acquaintance more then upon their Merit Pity and Power meeting equally in him swarms of Scholars flock'd about him Those whose Backs were bowed down with tedious and chargeable Suits he was the Sanctuary to which they sled and he refused none This diffused Humanity to so many that stood in need of help is that which Marc. Antonius the Emperor calls Natural Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It suits with the Nature of a Man to take all Men into their Compassion and Care I have heard some of those distressed ones that were Strangers to him before with whom he had never chang'd a word when they return'd back to Cambridge with Peace and quiet Possession of their own speak of his Goodness to Admiration that he would teach them either the validity or weakness of their Cause commend them to faithful Attorneys and able Counsel work the Officers and Clerks of the Courts to abatement of Fees thrust Money into their hands that wanted it the Nerves of Law as well as of War Especially if the Cause concern'd the Title of their Living or the Right of their Tithes he would sweat and bestir him for his poor Brethren and never forsake them till Sacrilege and Oppression were charm'd with the golden Meet wand of Justice The way that some use in the manner of their doing a thing makes them to be rumour'd for their Courtesie above many others though they do not affect it So the Chaplain's readiness and Felicity in assisting the Clergy was in a little while â—lked among Church-men in all places so that not a few of the Bishops and Chapters of Cathedral Churches who were encumbred about their Leases and Priviledges In foro Litigioso thought it their best way to send their Messengers and to shew their Condition to him who was easily entreated to be their Servant and Solicitor and he was like one that lay Lieger at London for their Dispatches But being of a most tender and dutiful Regard to such Reverend Persons he did always acquaint his Lord and Master with a Breviate of their Grievances and humbly besought his Judgment for Support and Remedy and steering by that Oraculous Wisdom he never put forth into the troubled Waters for those Dignities and Foundations but they came merrily to the Haven with Bon-adventure 37. His own Share follows For by coming to that pitch of Interest with so great and good a Lord as he befriended many so in the space of about 5 years that he lived with him he compass'd a plentiful Fortune to himself from that Bounty which denied him nothing and commonly prevented him before he ask'd Methinks it was that sweet Patron 's Speech which Pliny makes the fruitful Earth to speak to us all Lib. 23. in Prooem Ex me parata omnia sese porrigentia ultro si pigeat attingere etiam cadentia I have provided all things for us I offer them to you voluntarily if you will not gather them they shall fall down at your Feet of their own accord To be particular he confer'd the Parsonage of Walgrave in Northamptonshire upon him and no other Cure of Souls by direct Presentation For the Lord Chancellor had declar'd in the Conference at Hampton-Court before King James pag. 58. That he did not dislike the Liberty of our Church in granting two Benefices to one Man But out of his own private Purpose and Practise he disposed such Livings as he gave that some might have single Coats that wanted them before others had Doublets But by his furtherance the Chaplain had likewise the Rectory of Grafton-Underwood in the same County lying in a very small distance from Walgrave gratifying the Patron with as good or better in some other Shire Divers Cathedral Churches offered their Preferments to him because they needed such a Collegue and some to make amends for his former Civilities In the Church of Lincoln he was a Prebendary and Resident with the Chantorship of the same He had a Choral Place in the Minster of Peterborough and in the Churches of Hereford and St. David's Neither the Canons of our Church nor the Statutes of our Realm have provided an Incapacity for holding Plurality of Prebends I find indeed among the Decretals of the Popes a Constitution of Urban the Second an 1087. running thus Licet Episcopi dispositione unus diversis praeesse possit Ecclesiis Canonicus tamen Praebendarius nisi unius Ecclesiae in quà conscriptus est esse non debet An Order which they keep till any Man that hath occasion to transgress it brings enough in his hand to pay for a Dispensation These Stalls therefore he possess'd in Cathedral Foundations for which the Lord Chancellor was well pleased by exchange of some of his own Preferments to make amends to those who had confer'd their Kindness upon his faithful Servant Nay yet further Mantissae loco he gave him a Donative called Sine curâ in Wales which was equal in Profit to any Endowment that he held Here was a glut of Preferment indeed will some say Be it so it was the Liberality of a large and a loving-hearted Master that would let him do no less and it is as true that the Chaplain desired no less Aristotle lived in the most flourishing times of Greece and perceiving that the valiantest Heroes that attended Alexander grew very rich he framed this Axiom Lib. 3. ad Nicom That great Spirits are willing to be wealthy to reward and gratifie others Doubtless such as are of an high-flown Animosity affect Fortunas Laciniosas as one calls it a Fortune that sits not strait and close to the Body but like a loose and a flowing Garment They would spend to be belov'd and to oblige as far as they can and that cannot be
it was not set off with much Ceremony to quicken Devotition yet it wanted neither a stamp of Reverence nor the metal of Godliness Yet he would be careful in Launching out so far in Curiosity to give no Scandal to Catholicks whose Jealousie might perhaps suspect him as if he thought it lawful to use both ours and the Church of Rome's Communion Therefore he made suit to be placed where none could perceive him and that an Interpreter of the Liturgy might assist him to turn the Book and to make right Answers to such Questions as fell by the way into his Animadversions None more forward then the Lord Keper to meet the Abbat in this Request Veritas oculatos testes non refermidat The Abbat kept his hour to come to Church upon that High Feast and a Place was well fancied aloft with a Latice and Curtains to conceal him Mr. William Beswell like Philip Riding with the Treasurer of Queen Candace in the same Chariot sate with him directing him in the Process of all the Sacred Offices perform'd and made clear Explanation to all his scruples The Church Work of that ever Blessed day fell to the Lord Keeper to perform it but in the place of the Dean of that Collegiate Church He sung the Service Preach'd the Sermon Consecrated the Lords Table and being assisted with some of the Prebendaries distributed the Elements of the Holy Communion to a great multitude meekly kneeling upon their knees Four hours and better were spent that morning before the Congregation was dismiss'd with the Episcopal Blessing The Abbat was entreated to be a Guest at the Dinner provided in the College-Hall where all the Members of that Incorporation Feasted together even to the Eleemosynaries call'd the Beads-men of the Foundation no distinction being made but high and low Eating their Meat with gladness together upon the occasion of our Saviours Nativity that it might not be forgotten that the poor Shepherds were admitted to Worship the Babe in the Manger as well as the Potentates of the East who brought Rich Presents to offer up at the shrine of his Cradle All having had their comfort both in Spiritual and Bodily Repast the Master of the Feast and the Abbat with some few beside retired into a Gallery The good Abbat presently shew'd that he was Bred up in the Franco-Gallican Liberty of Speech and without further Proem defies the English that were Roasted in the Abbies of France for lying Varlets above all others that ever he met We have none of their good word I am sure says the Keeper but what is it that doth empassion you for the present against them That I shall calmly tell your Lordship says the Abbat I have been long inquisitive what outward Face of God's Worship was retein'd in your Church of England What Decorums were kept in the external Communion of your Assemblies St. Paul did Rejoyce to behold good Order among the Colossians as well as to hear of the stedfastness of their Faith cap. 2.5 Therefore waving Polemical Points of Doctrine I demanded after those things that lay open to the view and pertain'd to the Exterior Visage of the House of God And that my Intelligence might not return by broken Merchants but through the best Hands I consulted with none but English in the Affairs of their own home and with none but such as had taken the Scapular or Habit of some Sacred Order upon them in Affairs of Religion But Jesu how they have deceiv'd me What an Idea of Deformity Limm'd in their own Brain have they hung up before me They told me of no composed Office of Prayer used in all these Churches by Authority as I have found it this day but of extemporary Bablings They traduc'd your Pulpits as if they were not possest by Men that be Ordein'd by imposition of Hands but that Shop-keepers and the Scum of the people Usurp that Place in course one after another as they presum'd themselves to be Gifted Above all they turn'd their Reproaches against your behaviour at the Sacrament describing it as a prodigious Monster of Profaneness That your Tables being furnish'd with Meats and Drinks you took the Scraps and Rellicks of your Bread and Cups and call upon one another to remember the Passion of our Lord Jesus All this I perceive is infernally false And though I deplore your Schism from the Catholick Church yet I should bear false Witness if I did not confess that your Decency which I discern'd at that Holy Duty was very allowable in the Consecrator and Receivers 218. My Brother Abbat says the Lord Keeper with a Smile I hope you will think the better of the Religion since on Christ's good Day your own Eyes have made this Observation among us The better of the Religion says the Abbat taking the Words to relate to the Reformed of France nay taking all together which I have seen among you and he brought it out with Acrimony of Voice and Gesture I will lose my Head if you and our Hugenots are of one Religion I protest Sir says the Keeper you divide us without Cause For the Harmony of Protestant Confessions divulg'd to all the World do manifest our Consonancy in Faith and Doctrine And for diversity in outward Administrations it is a Note as Old as Irenaeus which will justifie us from a Rupture that variety of Ceremonies in several Churches the Foundation being preserv'd doth commend the Unity of Faith I allow what Irenaeus writes says the Abbat for we our selves use not the same Offices and Breviares in all Places But why do not the Hugonots at Charenton and in other Districts follow your Example Because says the Lord Keeper no part of your Kingdom but is under the Jurisdiction of a Diocesan Bishop and I know you will not suffer them to set up another Bishop in the Precincts of that Territory where one is establish'd before that would savour of Schism in earnest And where they have no means to maintain Gods Worship with costly Charge and where they want the Authority of a Bishop among them the people will arrogate the greatest share in Government so that in many things you must excuse them because the Hand of constraint is upon them But what constreins them says the Abbat that they do not Solemnize the Anniversary Feast of Christ's Nativity as you do Nay as we do for it is for no better Reason then because they would be unlike to us in every thing Do you say this upon certainty says the Keeper or call me Poultron if I feign it says the other In good troth says the Keeper you tell me News I was ever as Tully writes of himself to Atticus in Curiositate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to search narrowly into Foreign Churches and I did never suspect that our Brethren that live with you were deficient in that Duty For the Churches of the Low-Countries of Heidelberg Helvetia Flassia Breme and others do observe a yearly Day to the
in Psychom upon the Persecuted Church Yet though nothing was alter'd in him to appearance when he was doom'd to resign his Office with such a plausible Dismission pruning away the Circumstances of it I cannot see how the substance of the Act could choose but displease him For whether it come from a white or a black Whip the Wound will be blew The Transactions with which all that remain'd were wound up were first between the Lord Conway and the Lord-Keeper Lastly with his Majesty if they belong let him skip them that doth not like them He that would satisfie Posterity knows not how to leave them out And it will be worth the noting to learn from a wise Man how to manage a broken Fortune One of the first things that Comines praises in King Lewis his Master is Optimòrationem tenebat ex adversis rebus eluctandi To be fallen into great disfavour and yet to come off with no blot of Credit proves him that could do it a great Master in State-wisdom A Boat-swain will tell you That a rotten Ship had need of a good Pilot. On the 15th of October the Lord Conway came to the Lord-Keeper's Lodgings in Salisbury and began thus My Lord His Majesty some four days ago gave me a Command to deliver a Message unto you the which because it was sharp and there might be occasion for change of Councils I forbore to deliver till this Morning That is That his Majesty understanding that his Father who is with God had taken a Resolution that the Keepers of the Great-Seal of England should continue but from three Years to three Years and approving very well thereof and resolved to observe the Order during his own Reign he expects that you should surrender up the Seal by Allhallowtide next alledging no other cause thereof And that withal that having so done you should retire your self to your Bishoprick of Lincoln Answer I am his Majesty's most humble Servant and Vassal to be commanded by him in all things whatsoever The Great-Seal is his Majesty's And I will be ready to deliver up the same to any Man that his Majesty shall send with his Warrant to require it And do heartily thank God and his Majesty that his calling for the Seal is upon no other ground No indeed said Mr. Secretary no other ground that I know Only this last Clause seemeth strange unto me that I should be restrained to my Bishoprick or any place else And I humbly appeal to his Majesty's Grace and Favour therein Because it is no fault in me that his Majesty or his Father hath made such a Resolution Nor do I dispute against it although the King that dead is continued me in the Place after the three Years ended and the King that now is deliver'd me the Seal without any Condition or limitation of Time And therefore deserving no restraint I humbly desire to be left to my discretion which I will so use as shall be no way offensive to his Majesty Lord Conway I conceive it not to be a restraint but to mount in effect that his Majesty intends not to employ you at the Table but leaves you free to go to your Bishoprick Answer My Lord I desire your favourable Intercession for an Explanation of that Point And I beseech your Lordship to move his Majesty that I may attend upon him considering there is no offence laid to my charge to present unto his Majesty two humble Petitions nothing concerning this business in hand but in general the one concerning my Reputation and the other my maintenance Lord Conway I shall move his Majesty in the best Fashion I can for your content therein Answer I thank your Lordship and I doubt not of it and the rather because I vow before God I am not guilty of the least Offence against his Majesty and am ready to make it good upon my Life And I make the like Protestation for any unworthiness done against the Duke whose Hand peradventure may be in this Business Lord Conway I am ever ready to do good Offices and if my Lord of Middlesex had been perswaded by me I believe I had saved him I am the Duke's Servant but no Instrument of his to destroy Men. My Lord I being latly demanded by a great Personage if it were true that your Lord was guilty of such unworthy Practices towards the Duke I answer'd plainly I knew of no such things For which my Lord Conway having receiv'd due Thanks from me he repeated my Answers and my Petition to the King in few words that he might not be mistaken At the parting my Lord Conway spake about the time of Resignation I said it was all one to me if it were before Christmas as good soon as late Then I ask'd his Lordship if I was restrained from the Board before the delivering of the Seal His Lordship answer'd He knew of no such Intent 25. October 16. Waiting on his Majesty by my Duty and Place to go to Church my Lord Conway told me He was now for me I thank'd him and past on to the Church heard the Sermon and at the Anthem after Sermon desir'd him to tell me my Answer He said Well do you long for it And so we went on to the upper-end of the Quire and said to this effect This Morning entring into our dispatches with his Majesty I desir'd him to stay a while that I might relate your Answer to him I told his Majesty that you yielded to his Command with all possible Obedience that you said the King remanded but his own which you were very willing and ready to restore That for the Condition of three Years you would not dispute against it being a way that once you had your self recommended to the late King his Father But for the Clause of retiring to your Bishoprick which seemed to be a restraint and no cause of Offence exprest it wounded you much and you sent it back to his Majesty's Consideration Then I acquainted his Majesty with your Lordship's desire to wait upon him and to present his Majesty without touching upon things settled and resolv'd two Petitions the one concerning your Reputation the other concerning your Estate His Majesty said for the first which is your retiring he meant no restraint of Place but for some Questions that might be renewed and for some Considerations known to himself he intended not to use your Service at the Council-Table for a while until his Pleasure should be further known And for your Estate you had no Wife and Children You had a Bishoprick and his Father to help you to bear the Dignity of your Office gave you leave to hold the Deanry His Majesty intended not to debar you of any of these until he should provide you of a better But he was content to admit you to speak with him when you pleas'd so as you endeavour'd not to unsettle the former Resolutions I gave his Lordship hearty thanks for his friendly and faithful
had run into excess and incurr'd offence if the Bishop had not broken the Snare which they were preparing for their own feet For after he had spoken well of the Family in the Pulpit and privately to divers some of them could not see when they were well but aspir'd to be Transcendants above their measure For two Daughters of the Stock came to the Bishop and offer'd themselves to be vailed Virgins to take upon them the Vow of perpetual Chastity with the Solemnity of the Episcopal Blessing and Ratification Whom he admonish'd very Fatherly that they knew not what they went about That they had no promise to confirm that Grace unto them that this readiness which they had in the present should be in their will without Repentance to their Lifes end Let the younger Women marry was the best Advice that they might not be led into Temptation And that they might not forget what he taught them he drew up his Judgment in Three Sheets of Paper and sent it them home that they might dress themselves by that Glass and learn not to think of Humane Nature above that which it is a Sea of Flowings and Ebbings and of all manner of Inconstancy The Direction of God was in this Council For one of the Gentlewomen afterwards took a liking to a good Husband and was well bestowed Nothing is more suiting to this Passage than a Story out of Gregory the Great concerning his Three Ants Homil. 38. Uno omnes ardore côdemque tempore Sacratae In domo propriâ socialem vitam ducebant and a little after he reports that after this admission into State of Virginity one of them became a Wife There are some says Christ that have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake Mat. 19.12 with caution as they are able to receive it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius hath it Virginity with free and voluntary Destination and Continuation A single Life and grant it with a State of Prosession is a noble Course to serve God in but limited to that time as it serves for a Help and not turns to a Wound in the Conscience God will not be cheated with a Vow to let one of his great Commandements be broken for it St. Ambrose who knew the Heathen Customs of the Romans writes to Valentinian Vestales habuerunt praescripta pudicuâ—â—e tempora The Vestals attended in their Maiden Service but to a prescribed time Baronius Appar An. Par. 10. testifies for the Pharisees out of Epiphanius Pharisaei determinatum castitatus aut continentiae tempus habebant They devoted themselves to Chastity or Continency not for ever but to a determinate day Grotius in voto Pacis tells me more than I knew before Optimum mihi viderur institutum patrum Oratorii quorundam caetuum virginalium ut libertas ducendi maneat Grant them but that liberty or as the Council of Gangra calls it Humanity from their Governors and the Scandal ceaseth Sir Roger Twisdâ—n a noble Scholar goes further in his Apology against the Imputation of Schism p. 97. That the Kings of England reserved to themselves to dispense with Nuns that they might marry They that yield to that Dispensation are on our side As old as the Widow Anna was who departed not from the Temple but served God with Fastings and Prayers night and day Luk. 2.37 She was no Votary that appears Non clarè indicat sequesirationem says Bishop Montague Orig. Eccl. P. 2. pag. 163. But she left the World that is she used it as if she used it not Here let the Danghters of Giding stay and so they did But nor they nor the rest staid many Years after in that Godly repose Otia bona frustra disseruntur ubi quiescere non licet says Grotius Belg. Hist p. 314. It was out of season to confine themselves to Holy rest when Civil Dissentions began to flame and there was no rest in the Land In those days there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Countries 2 Chron. 15.5 Religion and Loyalty were such Eye-sores that all the Farrars fled away and dispers'd and tock joyfully the spotling of their goods Hebr. 10.34 All that they had restored to the Church all that they had bestowed upon sacred Comeliness all that they had gather'd for their own Livelihood and for Alms was seized upon as a lawful Prey taken from superstitious Persons Procrin habe dixit Quod si mihi provida mens est Non habuisse voles Metamor Lib. 7. What will the Cruel and the Covetous say when God shall require it at their hands 53. With these Businesses at St. Ives and at Little Giding the Relation of two particular Visitations is dispatch'd Others were of things nothing strange nor of such moment and use And for the Visitations general to the whole Diocess held according to triennial Spaces a Collation made by the Bishop at one sitting shall supply enough for all the rest It was deliver'd at Bedford in the end of the Year 1634. Which is so wise and weighty so learned and pious that the Maker himself could searce have mended it No excuse is offer'd that there is so much of it because it is so good The City which Ascanius built in Latium was call'd Alba longa says Livy Lib. 1. So this Speech is long but so pure and white that the beauty will plead for the Bigness or rather Bigness and Beauty will make two several Praises So he begins I must not tax the learned Preacher as Alexander did his Father Philip that his Father had conquer'd and engrossed so much that he had left him but little to do But I do really and heartily thank him for it And conceiving that part of our Duty concerning the Preaching of God's Word to be gravely and sufficiently discharged by him I must frame my Speech upon other Heads which would hardly without much forcing be bidden or invited into one Text and yet have been seldom omitted by Prelates of former times when they have held their Visitations Not that I mean to trouble you with the Bead-roul of Particulars cognizable by Bishops on such an occasion for this is the Work of Chancellors and Commissaries who are also wearied with these Recitations But as the ancient Aristotelians were want to keep off their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Singularities from the Knowledge of the Understanding and to leave them wholly to the Survey of the Senses So it is the Fashion of modern Visitors to digest their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Singularities into a Book of Articles to be perused by the Eyes and Ears of such as may be concerned so to do without drawing these particular Points to any further Discourse or settled Oration What therefore I shall insist upon shall be some few Generals which reflect either upon the Visitation it self the Act we have in hand or the Persons visited and subjected
no more than what St. Hierom wrote long ago in his Epistle to Nepotian Qui servit ecclesiae interpretetur primò nomen suum We that are received into any Place of Office in God's Church must before all other Lessons be sure to understand aright the Titles of those Offices whereunto we are received And that being once apprehended Niti esse quod dicimur To endeavour with all might and main to be no other than we are said to be We Bishops are said to be Visitatores the Temporary Visitors You the Incumbents of Churches to be Visores the perpetual Seers of Christ's Flock Our Visitation is a frequentative Word Frequentatio autem non est unius actus continuatio sed actus intercisi multiplicata repetitio saith Grosthead once a famous Bishop of this See in one of his Epistles Frequentation doth not import any whole frame or thread as it were of a continued Act but the Repetition and often taking up of a broken and interrupted Act. And therefore in this spiritual Flock of Christ being in their nature individua vaga Cattle of a scattering and wandring Condition there must be some to have an eye upon them continually some to attend from day to day beside those Over-lookers from year to year Or where the Sheep are many and the Pastures of a large extent from three years to three years there must be Visitores saith Grosthead as well as Visitatores continual Seers as well as triennial Overseers And these are you my Brethren of the Clergy as by your Institutions Inductions and Licenses may appear Remember therefore in the Fear of God the Titles of your Offices that you are those Videntes in Israele those continual and immediate Seers of Israel You are those that are to see to the praying to see to the Hearing to see to the reverend and awful Receiving to see to the Manners and Living to see to the Peace and good Agreeing and if you would see the Comfort of any thing you set to see throughly to the catechising of your People 56. Primùm omnium fieri orationes saith St. Paul Above all other Duties of a Christian Man bring your People as much as you can to delight in praying When all is well and throughly weighed you shall find it the only Duty whereby a Christian doth most resemble an Angel on Earth and most ascertain himself of being hereafter a Saint in Heav'n Say what you can and you cannot over-reach or say too much in the Commendations of Faith yet must you confess it is the Gift of the Holy Ghost And behold Christ tells you plainly the Holy Ghost it self is the Gift of Devotion and Praying And when we have read and studied and heard never so much yet tantum scimus quantum oramus as Luther was wont to say we may have more Notions and Ginglings in the Head but we have no more true feeling and pricking Divinity at the Heart than we have Inclination to Devotion and Prayer And of all Prayers none so fit for Devotion as the Prayers of the Liturgy understood by all and known of all and therefore putting the poor People to no straining of the Understanding but to an intuitive Discourse as it were of their Wills and Affections to Almighty God Whereas the long and tedious Prayer of a Preacher especially where it is crude and extemporary sets the Mind of a Country-man on hunting so fast after the unconth Words which are the Body that it loseth all the Mellowness as it were the Ardency and Devotion which is the Spirit and Soul of true Prayer And the Laws do call upon us to call upon you to cause your Parishioners to conn by heart these Prayers of the Liturgy especially the Confession and Collects That when they are assembled in the Church militant a Type and Representation of the Church Triumphant they may not be musing and studying for you do not read that the Saints and Angels do so in Heaven but sympathizing and uniting their best Affections with the Devotion of their Minister Secondly You that are daily Seers of Christ's Flock must see to their Pasture that is their Hearing For it is a fond and novel Conceit to cry up Praying and with the same breath to cry down Preaching That most excellent Form of Prayer How was it taught but in an excellent Sermon Lord teach us to pray teaching is a necessary Fore-runner of Praying It is a kind of new Monster not heard of in former times that Preachers should preach against Preaching And yet I must correct this Assertion I confess it was heard of long ago in the middle Ages in the time of ignorant and stupid Popery Jo. Gerson preaching a Visitation Sermon before the Arch-bishop of Rhemes in the Year 1408. saith that the Clergy of his times bent all their Studies to enable themselves for Ruling and Governing leaving the Mendicants and the Curates only to supply their Preaching But as I told you before this was in the time of the gross and dull not of the refined and quintessential Popery The Dominicans of Spain the Minors of Italy the Oratorions of France and the Jesuites over all the World are more than sufficient Preachers So that this is no Age for us to preach against Preaching I will conclude this Point with a Saying not out of Calvin or Beza who may be thought partial but out of a Prosne or Homily made on purpose to be read before the Clergy and Laity in all Visitations as I find it in a Book of this Subject written by one Jo. Franciscus Pavinus two hundred Years ago Saith he Fides sine operibus vana sine verbis nulla Faith without doing will prove little but without Preaching it will prove nothing at all Thirdly You that are the Seers of God's People must see to their due and awful receiving of the high Mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Damascen calls them those pure and hallowed things of God Especially that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysost terms it that Super-coelestial Food in the Lord's Supper which a Christian ought not once to think of without a sacred kind of Horror and Reverence Here is an Action I confess wherein you can hardly exceed either by expressing in your selves or by exacting from others any Circumstance of Awe and Reverence I know it is safest for a Child of the Church to hold him still to the Canons of the Church But if in any one thing surely in this the Canons are rather to be out-bidden and exceeded than any way neglected or abated The Fear or rather the Experience of the Peoples falling from extremity to extremity in this case from an extremity of Superstition which the six Articles had bred in the Hearts or at leastwise in the outward Gestures of Men to an extremity of Profanation did much trouble the Magistrates in the beginning of the Reformation You may see it clearly in the Letters of the
Creator and the Creature the next between Husband and Wife the third between Parents and Children the fourth between Lord and Servants From all which forenamed respects there did arise that most high sacred and transcendent Relation between King and Subjects A strange Expression which calls the last a transcendent Relation arising out of all the former when the first of the four was between the Creator and the Creature God is a great God a King above all Gods A good King indeed is a petty God as a Tyrant is a great Devil but far be it from us to call the King's relation to his People transcendental the Maker of all things and his Workmanship being brought in before Yet let that go not for a wilful Fault but for an unwary Expression In the 19th Page he breaks out thus into a transcendent Error If any King shall command that which stands not in opposition to the Original Laws of God Nature Nations and the Gospel though it be not correspondent in every Circumstance to Laws National and Municipal no Subject may without hazard of his own Damnation in rebelling against God question or disobey the Will and Pleasure of his Soveraign for as a Father of the Country he commands what his Pleasure is and out of Counsel and Judgment So on to the end of that Leaf The first words If any King have a great failance as if all Kings all alike had the same Command over their Subjects without distinction of Government meer and absolute from mixt and restrained The body of the Doctrin is worst of all that it concerns us upon our Loyalty nay upon our Salvation for else Damnation is threatned to yield not only Passive Obedience which is due but Active also if the King's Will and Pleasure be notified in any thing not opposite to the Law of God and Nature Wherein if he had insisted upon those same things that do not appear to be yet determin'd and have no evil Sequel it might be allow'd him But that we are bound to act whatsoever a King requires where the Law and his Will are diametrically opposite and be damn'd if we draw back or question it is as corrupt as it 〈◊〉 ble Under the same Monarchy in Spain an Arragonian will not believe that he is obliged to those Edicts of his King which are directed to a Castilian the Laws have differenc'd them in the mode of their Duties What Privilege is it to be born Free and not a Bond-man but that the Free-man knows how far he is to serve and a Bond-man doth not If Subjection is due as much to the King's Pleasure as to his Laws there is no bottom in Obedience Says Stamford the learned Lawyer Misera servitus est ubi jus est vagum incognitum And is it but a Complement that a King swears at his Coronation to govern by his Laws Nay sure if Contracts and Promises bind GOD to Man much more they bind the King to his People The Anchor at which Obedience rides is the Law it is good Divinity Where there is no Law there is no Transgression And it is good Morality Vir bonus est quis Qui consulta patrum qui leges juraque servat This Dr. tells us again pag. 26. That this Sacred and Honourable Assembly is not ordain'd to contribute any Right to Kings to receive Tribute which is due to them by natural and original Law and Justice That our meeting is only for the more equal imposing and exacting of Subsidies If the supreme Magistrate upon Necessity extream and urgent require Levies of Moneys beside the Circumstances which the Municipal Laws require he that doth not satisfie such Demands resists the Ordinance of God and receives Damnation to himself The Foundation is well laid but his Superstructure is crazy for where it were Sin to say that Reliess and Aids were not due to some persons it is no Sin to say they should not be their own Carvers Testatus a great Bishop a great Counsellor a great Scholar writes upon the noted place De jure regio 1 Sam. c. 8. That Tribute is due to a Prince by his original Right but with moderation for the quantity and with the Consent of the Subjects for the manner time and other circumstances Says St. Paul Who goes a warfare at his own charges 1 Cor. 9.7 yet as well the General as the Rout of the Army must not prescribe their Pay but be contented with their Wages as John Baptist told them Luk. 3.14 A Son doth not honour his Father if he do not succour him in his Poverty but the Son is not bound to let him take what he will in purveyance for himself The Author whom this Dr. quotes Saravia hath instanc'd in Samoisius in the Poets Iliads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was slain a young man and liv'd not long because he did not cherish his Parents A Passage to make us think that Homer had read the first Command of the second Table Those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fostering Allowances were due to Parents because they were Parents yet by free apportionating them according to the Duty and Wisdom of the Children as they might provide for their own Posterity 75. More of this is ingeminated in the second Sermon from pag. 24 to 26. as in these words Religion doth often associate God and the King First from the communion of Names Secondly from the near bordering of Offences that reflect upon God and the King Thirdly from the parity of Beneficence which men enjoy from God and sacred Kings Upon this last he doth expatiate in three points 1. That as Men cannot in way of Justice recompence God nor Children their Parents so nor Subjects their Kings for legal Providence 2. Justice so properly call'd intercedes not between GOD and Man nor between the Prince being a Father and the People as Children It cannot be a Rule or Medium to give God and the King his Right 3. Justice is only between Equals To begin at the last this Position Justice is only between Equals is a mistaking of Arist lib. 5. Eth. c. 6. Who there makes them Equals which are not under one man for that he denieth totidem verbis but under one Law to the which he doth subject the Magistrate as all the School-men do the King that is to the direction of it not to the penal coaction And if Justice be not but between Equals how can there be any Justice at the Kings-bench Exchequer Star-chamber Court of Wards c To go back now to his other two Positions mingling them together observe two things First All that he speaks of God and his being unrecompensable by ordinary way of Justice he borrows it out of Suarez as his Margin confesseth lib. 3. de Relig. c. 4. and of his own Head applieth to the King without Suarez or any other Writer Nor can Suarez Reason be applied to the King which is this Man for his weak Condition in comparison
that prosecutes for the King and so it was appointed to be taken out When this expunging was confirm'd and the Attorney General had made his Replication upon the Demur the Bishop knowing not how to wear the Yoke of a base Spirit any longer and full of the Courage that God had inspired into him Appeals from these intolerable Grievances to the High Court of Parliament in this Rejoynder That the Defendant doth and will 〈◊〉 maintain and justifie his Answers and all the matters and things therein contained to be true and certain and sufficient in the Law And that nothing thereof ought to be expunged which is necessary and pertinent to his Defence And in case any part so pertinent and necessary for his Defence under colour of scandal to a third person who may clear his Credit if he be innocent and be repaired with Costs be expunged and he and all others in the like case be left remediless in the Law The Defendant having no other Remedy left in a Defence against a Suit commenced against him in the King's Name doth humbly Appeal unto the High Court of Parliament when it shall be next Assembled humbly protesting against any Sentence as void and null which shall pass against him in the mean time for and because of the want of his just and necessary defence so taken away and expunged Much was added in this Appeal to defie Kilvert who had boasted to prosecute the Bishop to his degradation and the Bishop in the said Appeal disavows that the Court of Star-chamber had ever degraded or appointed to be degraded or ever will degrade or appoint to be degraded any Bishop or other Lord and Peer of the Parliament or take away their Freehold in point of Means Profit or Honour c. This Appeal was filed in the Office enter'd in the Clerks Books and Copies thereof were signed by the usual Officer although Sir William Pennyman Clerk of the Star-chamber took it off the File and blotted it out of the Books Sir William was ever of a laudable behaviour but durst not say them nay that thrust him upon this Rashness Who did not gaze at this Appeal as if it had been a Blazing-star Who did not discourse of it How did they who club together for News and trial of their Wits spend their Judgments upon it Some thought that excess of Wrongs done to the Bishop had distemper'd him to fall upon a course of Confusion to himself In plain words being bitten by so many mad Dogs they thought he bit again as if he had been mad Whereas he never did any thing with a more sober mind Insanire me â—iunt ultro cum ipsi insaniant Plaut in Menaech Some replied Let the danger be what it will the President tended to a Publick Good Audendum est aliquid singulis aut pereundum universis For are we not all Passengers as well as he in the same bottom And may we not be swallowed up in the same Shipwrack if our Pilots look no better to their Duty They that were acquainted with the best Pleaders thought to have most Light from them and askt if the Act did not exceed the Duty of a Subject And would it not leave the Author to the fury of the Court to be torn in pieces with a Censure Nay surely said the Gown-men there is no violation of Duty to His Majesty in appealing to his Parliament for he submits to the King who is the Head of the Body Or at the most it is Provocatio à Philippo dormiente ad Philippum vigilantem from K. Charles misinformed in Star-chamber to K. Charles among his best Assistants the three States of the Nation And for the minacy of a Censure do if they dare A Parliament will repair him when it sits and canonize their own Martyr Both they that lik'd and dislik'd the Appeal confest that the corruption of his Judges compell'd him to it Should Kilvert notoriously detected be suffer'd to escape by cancelling all that brought his Conspiracies to light Infixo aculeo fugere in the Adagy Strike in his Sting and fly away like a Wasp Suffer this and at this one dealing of the Game the Bishop's whole state had been lost of Fortunes Liberty and Honour Neque enim levia aut ludicra petuntur Praemia sed Turni de vitâ sanguine certant Discretion was to give place to Courage in this case Baronius tells us of Theodoret. ann 446. n. 27. That being incensed at the Tyranny of a Shark in Office that had seized upon all he had Uranius Bishop of Emesa advised him to make no words of it but to sit still by the loss Theodoret answers him bravely Non solùm prudentia sed fortitudo virtus est Fortitude is a Virtue as well as Prudence and is as laudable in her own turn and occasion Put the case to a Physician when he thinks there is no hope of a Patient what will he do The ancient Rule was Nescio an in extremis aliquid tentare medicina sit certè nihil tentare perditio est To give the sick man Physic is against Art but to give him nothing is to cast him away wilfully Here is Lincoln's condition who being denied the Justice of that Court had nothing to fly to in that Extremity but this Appeal with which he did so hough the Sinews of the Bill that from that day forward it never hopt after him 128. Because some did not stick to say that the Bishop might thank himself for his incessant Troubles that he did not take Conditions of Peace that were offered to him it must be presented here that Conditions indeed were tender'd such as Naash offer'd the Israelites to thrust out their right Eyes 1 Sam. 11.2 or as the Samnites released Sp. Posthumious and a Roman Legion overthrown at Caudis with slavish Ignominy But these were worse Ultra Caudinas speravit vulnera furcas Luca. lib. 2. The Bishop lying in Prison and sustaining the heavy weight of the first Censure July 11. 1637. he press'd the L. Coventry to move His Majesty for some mitigation of the Fine and to stop the violent levying of it since it stood in no proportion with the Charges of the Bill or the Presidents of the Court. Hereupon His Majesty tells the L. Keeper he would admit of no such motion but by the Mediation of the Queen The Bishop is glad of the News and could call to mind that in greater matters than this Princely Ladies had the Honour to make the Accord which the greatest Statesmen had attempted in vain as Madam Lovise Mother of K. Francis the First and Madam Margaret Aunt to Charles the Fifth Regent of the Low Countries made up that Peace between the Emperor and the King which other Mediators had given over for desperate Our Queen endeavour'd a Message of Clemency but that Honour was denied her The Earl of Dorset writes in her Name to the Bishop That all she could obtain of the King
the Scottish Army Hami angulares quà m directi mucrones tenaciùs infiguntur Macrob. lib. 7. c. 3. A Sword cuts deep but a Hook sticks in the Flesh when it hath made a Wound He replies That any Government undisturb'd and enjoying Eighty years of Peace cannot but contract accidental Abuses remaining sound in its Essentials The Sun doth win certain Minutes and Seconds in the year which in long tract of time breed great Alterations The longer the Body hath been in Health the harder to be cured when a Disease overtakes it But whether they were Insolencies or Grievances that did distaste them they should be remedied The King was ready to lance every Sore and to let out the Corruption only keep up the Places of the Bishops Deans and other Dignitaries among which themselves men of great Godliness and Learning did deserve a share and should be remembred They need not be taught that the Church the Building of Christ must not be built like a Barn all upon one Floor but must be framed with gradual Subordinations There is a Babel in plucking down as well as in raising up And for the Revenues bestowed upon our Maintenance painful Preachers deserv'd them as well as the best Practisers in other Professions and knew how to use them There were plenty of such Blame not all for the Sloth or Errors of a few Cur omnium fit culpa paucorum scelus Sen. Hippol. This part brought on a Proposition for a regulated Episcopacy I cannot vaunt that the Bishop made his Party good with them in that for the meaning of the Proponent spread out at the breadth was to joyn the Presbytery with the Bishop in all acts of Ordination and Jurisdiction to give him the first Room and the first Voice but no more his Suffragans and Coadjutors in the Consistory being more in number and every of them equal in Power should leave him for a Cypher Then regulate Episcopacy is the same with demolish it for turn a Light downward and it will extinguish it self Take such a Bishop and measure him not with an Ell but a Span and he is Paterculus non Pater a titular Chairman Beza's Moderator for life Cartwright's President How often hath this Mockery of Government been obtruded and rejected But the Mortar will still favour of the Garlick that was stampt in it before 137. The power of the Presbyterians was so great in Tumults and concourse of base People that their Conclusions were strong though their Premisses were weak to blunt the power of ancient Episcopacy Nam quae est ista nova stulta sapientia novitatem quaerere in visceribus antiquitatis Optat. lib. 6. Yet in all this Lincoln was their Days-man and gave them considerate Answers but he did wind them off and would spin the Webb no further with them when he perceived they aimed more at a regulated Crown than a regulated Mitre Just as Pausanius says of the Messenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they would change their Kings into Regents of a new name subject to the People and answerable for their Faults So these would make our King as subject to their Elderships as a Stadt-holder in the Netherlands as to have no Government in Church-Affairs as their King I mean their Christian King to be liable to their Censures to execute their Verdicts without disputing the Justice of them Their politick Aphorisms are far more dangerous That His Majesty is not the highest Power in his Realms That he hath not absolute Soveraignty That a Parliament sitting is co-ordinate with him in it He may have the Title of only Supreme yet a Senate have an essential part without the Name The Soveraignty was mixt and distributed into the Hands of King Lords and Commons Though a Nation war against a King and they on the Merit of the Cause have the worser side yet may he not war against the Publick Good on that account nor any help him in such a War When a man's Possession of the Crown doth cease to be the means of the Publick Good it is then his Duty to resign and no Injury to be deprived of it Though the Power of the Militia be expresly given to the King it shall not be his alone unless it be exprest it shall not be in others Do not these Aphorisms suit horribly well with the 13th to the Romans How could God have sealed the King's Safety and Commission with a plainer Text and a stronger Warrant Shall these crooked Rules obliquate those loyal Maxims which are so strait in St. Paul These are Junius Brutus's Theorems or worse which are top-heavy and will fall with their own weight into Hell Worthy Lincoln heard the Presbyterian Encroachments upon all other points with a civil welcome but when such Divinity not fit for English Subjects was pieced unto them he would brook no more Addresses The Cony-skin is easily pluckt off from the Body but it slicks at the Head O what a Flood-gate have they drawn up with these disloyal Tenents through which a Deluge of War and Mischief hath burst out Should I tell them that they have boasted that their Discipline did never prevail in a State but in spight of the Princes of the place They know it is true and that Parsons Fisher and other Jesuites have told them of it Saepius olim religio peperit scelerosa atque impia facta quoth Lucretius This was Olim a good while since But Grotius says of the modern sort of these Ministers and some Popish Priests Per quos communis hujus seculi pest is in utrasque partes vulgata est Hist p. 57. Which made a Marshal of France desirous of his Countrys Peace wish That every Minister had a Priests Head in his Belly that they might be rid of them both The Devil wanted not the cunning to jostle Heathen Princes out of their Rights by Stratagems of Religion Cleomenes taught the Delphick Oracle how to cast Demaratus out of his Kingdom So Pausan in Lacon It was an easier thing than for Savanarola a Preacher of Christ to preach the Florentines out of an Optimacy into a Popular Government The Citizens burnt him afterwards at a Stake in their Streets they should have fir'd him in his Pulpit I must charge it on our Presbyterians that their Thunder-clapps of Rebellious Doctrine hurried our three Kingdoms into a most bloody War 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demosth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Plant comes from him that sowed the Seed With which Similitude Cicero arrests M. Anton. Ut in seminibus causa est stirpium arborum sic hujus luctuosissimi belli causa Tu Fuisti Phil. 2. But what care these men to plead guilty to this Bill For a Bell-weather of their Flock writes I dare not repent of it nor forbear the same if it were to do again in the same state of things Holy Commonw p. 486. What hope have we of Good from such Zealots What Comfort ever to have Peace when the greatest
Vote of all the People in the Representatives of your Forefathers and you are obliged as good and honest men to maintain what your selves have done It is not possible that all your Disagreements blown abroad should incorporate then either you will devour your selves with Despight at last or Strangers will deâ— us all Dumque esse putamus Nos facimus miseros Grot. Poem Lock back from the beginning of Q Elizabeths Reign to this day Can you wish the Gespel to frand better against the Church of Rome than it hath done so long under the Bishop 〈◊〉 and Canons That flattering word Liberty puts our whole frame out of joyur Non dominari instar servitutis est Many of the lowest fortune are so proud that they complain of Servitude if they may not govern nay if they may not domineer Out of this Idol of imaginary Liberty which you worship you will make so many Masters to your selves that we shall be all Slaves It is a popular word but in the abusive sonce of it like Homer 's Moly black in the Root though white in the Flower They that live in the lower Orb of Obedience please God as much as their Rulers and shall be blessed alike if they quietly follow the motion of the higher Sphere of Authority Our Doctrine is consonant to the Consessions of all Reformed Churches and every Nation enjoy their own Ceremonies without opposition only we excepted They are wiser than we who consider duly that they are the greater things of Faith and a Holy Life for which we shall be tryed before the Judgment of Christ and not for a sew unvaluable Rites of Circumstance and Comeliness which yet cannot well be spared My Brethren I here can tell you out of Naz. Orat. 23. that Hero a peaceable Bishop said often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that piety consisted not in small things If you require more Justice from Christian Counts or that scandalous and dumb Ministers should be displaced it may be done without Sedition But because you think you do not find so much Good as you look'd for in the old way you would set up a new one not foreseeing how much evil you shall find in that Non quod habet numerat tantum quod non habet optat Manil. lib. 4. But let me tell you you will quickly love the Winding-sheet of the old Wedlock better than the Marriage-sheets of the new Enjoy that real Blessing which you possess rather than an Utopia found no where but in the Distempers of the Brain A little small Meney in the Purse is better than a dream of Gold and a Cottage to live in is better than a Castle in the Air. First seek for Piety to God Loyalty to the King and Peace with all men and all things else will be added unto you These were the Lenitives with which the Bishop prevailed more than could have been done with Censures and Menaces As in the Old Testament a Cake of unleaven'd Bread was better made ready with Ashes than with Fire Beside the more hurt they could do the less to be forced to Extremity And marvel not if a man of so losty a Spirit could humble himself so far as to speak so correctedly in such Auditories full of ignoble Sectaries and high-shone Clowns For even Alexander taking the Kingdom upon him after the murther of his Father Philip Diodor. lib. 17. p. 487. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was fain to collogue with the People to get their Benevolence with fair words And he that gets a good Bargain with Courtly Language buys it with Money which is soon paid and quickly told 157. No sooner had our Bishop dispatch'd his Visitation and was come again to sit in the face of the Parliament but he heard of a muttering against him from the Lower House not only for visiting his Diocess in such a time of unsettlement but because he had said in divers places That no Power could protect them against Statutes still in force that sell into Disorders and Deviations against them So he took his opportunity at a Conserence that was between the two Houses in the Painted Chamber as well to justifie the labour he had undergone to uphold the Rights of holy Government as to silence them that were unlicens'd Preachers and presumed to say and do what they would as if all Government were dissolved Non minùs turpe est sua relinquere quà m in aliena invadere injust um ambitiosum Salust Bel. Jug He maintained he had done God good Service to unmask them to their shame that were ignorant Laicks yet preach'd privately and publickly to the corruption and dishonour of the Gospel Nay all would be Teachers in the gatherings of the Sectaries scarce a Mute in the Alphabet of these new Christians but all Vowels Every one puts Hand to Christ's Plough that neither know Seed Soil nor Season Souldiers as the Heathen feign may come up like Cadmus Teeth Seed in the Morning and grow Men by Noon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes Dio. Sativos Theologos nulla hactenus fabula prodigiosè finxit Nay these Praedicants were never so much as potentially Seed but Mushrooms Christ is brought in Luk. 2.46 being but Twelve years old sitting in the midst of the Doctors hearing and asking Questions Ne infirmus quis docere audeat si ille puer doceri interrogando voluit Montag Orig. par 2. p. 299. Christ could learn nothing of them but we learn of him that ignorant men must not presume to teach since he that knew all things conformed himself to our Weakness as if being young he would be taught by Questions It is a lame Excuse to say in the behalf of some of these Upstarts that they are gifted men Who reports this but such as are as blind as themselves They have bold Foreheads strong Lungs and talk loud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. 8. Sympos An empty Cask will make a great sound if you knock upon it They have sounded it sweetly when their Disciples are Anabaptists Familists Brownists Antinomians Socinians Adamites any thing but Orthodox Christians yet a world of these unstable People flock after these Coachmen-preachers Watchmaking-preachers Barber-preachers and such addle headed Companions Pliny says of Dates taken just at their ripeness lib. 13. c. 4. Tanta est musteis suavitas ut fims mandendi non nisi periculo fiat So â—entices and Country-folk hunt after these Teachers and are ready to burst their Bellies with new Dates But worst of all these silly Bawleâ—s qualifying themselves for the Peoples Favour vent such Politicks as are by odds the most dangerous part of their Discourses encroaching so far upon Allegiance that they cut off all Duty which St. Paul would have given to the higher Powers But what if they were guilty of such Gists as some would seem to observe in them Is there nothing else that goes to the making of a Minister of God's Word The Woman that reckoned the Charge of her Brewing forgat the
that saving unto themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in the House at other times they dare not Sit or Vote in the House of Peers until your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Dangers in the Premisses Lastly Whereas their Fears are not built upon Phantasies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie men of good Resolutions and much Constancy They do in all duty and humility protest before your Majesty and the Peers of the most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as in themselves null and of none effect which in their absence since the 27th of this Instant-month of Decemb. 1641 have already passed As likewise against all such as shall hereafter pass in that most Honourable House during the time of their forced and violent absence from the said most Honourable House Not denying but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and voluntary that most Honourable House might proceed in all the Premisses their Absence or this Protestation notwithstanding And humbly beseeching your most Excellent Majesty to command the Clerk of that House of Peers to enter this Petition and Protestation amongst his Records They will ever pray to God to bless and preserve c. Subscribed by Joh. Eborac Tho. Dunelm Ro. Cov. and Lich. Jos Norwicen Joh. Asaphensis Gul. Bath Wellen. Geo. Hereford Rob. Oxen. Matth. Elien Godfr Glocestr Job Petroburg Maur. Landoven 169. Hear and admire ye Ages to come what became of this Protestation drawn up by as many Bishops as have often made a whole Provincial Council They were all call'd by the Temporal Lords to the Bar and from the Bar sent away to the Tower Nonne fuit satius tristes formidinis iras Atque superba pati fastidia A rude World when it was safer to do a Wrong than to complain of it The People commit the Trespass and the Sufferers are punish'd for their Fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. lib. 9. A Proverb agreeing to the drunken Feasts of the Greeks If the Cook dress the Meat ill the Minstrils are beaten That day it broke forth that the largest part of the Lords were fermentated with an Anti-episcopal Sourness If they had loved that Order they would never have doomed them to a Prison and late at night in bitter Frost and Snow upon no other Charge but that they presented their Mind in a most humble Paper to go abroad in safety Ubi amor condimentum inerit quidvis placiturum spero Plaut in Casin Love hath a most gentle hand when it comes to touch where it loves Here was no sign of any silial respect to their Spiritual Fathers Nothing was offer'd to the Peers but the Substance was Reason the Style lowly the Practice ancient yet upon their pleasure without debate of the Cause the Bishops are pack'd away the same night to keep their Christmas in Durance and Sorrow And when this was blown abroad O how the Trunch-men of the Uproar did fleer and make merry with it But the Disciples of the Church of England took it very heavily not for any thing the good Bishops had done but for that they suffer'd for a Prisoner is not a Name of Infamy but Calamity Poena damnati non peccati Cic. pro Dom. Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minùs Ovid. lib. 1. de Pont. Nothing can be more equal than to lay the Objections the Lords made and York's Answers for the Protestation together as they go from Hand to Hand to this day in Town and City And let the Children judge what their Fathers did if they read this hereafter Obj. 1. That the Petition is false the Lords did not sit in Fear as my Lord of Worcester Winchester London Nor was it the Petition of all the Bishops about London and Westminster not of Winchester London Rochester Worcester 〈◊〉 If this were true yet were it not Treason against any Canon or Statute-Law but the Fact is otherwise First the Fear complained against is not for the time of their Sitting in the House but for the time of their coming unto and going from the said House and it is easie to prove they were then in Fear Secondly They know best whether they were in Fear or no who subscribed or agreed to the Petition And my Lord of Winchester agreed in it as much as the rest and instanced in the cause of his Fear his chasing to Lambeth Thirdly For the other part of the Objection the Bishop of London was then at Fulham Rochester in Kent Worcester at Oxford nor doth the Title of the Petition comprehend them as not being about London and Westminster Winchester did agree thereunto and came thither to subscribe and it was resolved his Name should have been called for ere ever it was to be solemnly preferred to the King which was never intended to be but when the King sate in the Upper House of the Lords which the Bishops intended to pray His Majesty to do And this appears by the Superscription of the Petition Obj. 2. The nulling of all Laws to be made at this time that the Kingdom of Ireland was in jeopardy was a conspiring with the Rebels to destroy that Kingdom and so amounted to Treason or a high Misdemeanour 〈◊〉 1. A Protestation annulleth no Law but so far as the Law shall extend to the Parties protesting Nor so far but in case that the Parties protesting shall afterward judicially prove their right to annull that Law So that it was impossible any Protestation of the Bishops should actually intend to hinder the Relief of Ireland 2 The Relief of Ireland by 10000 Scots and 10000 English was voted and concluded long before this Protestation and all the Particulars of that great business referr'd to a Committee of both Houses and the Bishops unanimously assented thereto So that the Relief of Ireland comes not within the Date and Circumscription of this Protestation And the Bishops call God to witness they never conceived one Thought that way 3. The Bishops protested against no Laws or Orders at all to be annulled absolutely and for all the time of this Session of Parliament simply but for that space of time only wherein they should be forcibly and violently kept from the said Parliament by those rude and unruly People So that as soon as the King and the Lords did quiet their passage unto Parliament which the Lords did do before this Petition was read in Parliament and that any of the Bishops were present there the Protestation was directly null and of none effect so as indeed the Protestation was void and dead in Law before the L. Keeper brought the Petition in question into the House because the Bishop of Winchester and some others had even then quiet access unto that Honourable House And the Bishops conceived the Protestation void in such a case and do most humbly wave and revoke the same and humbly desire both