to it I am ashamed that my Authority should consecrate their Extravagancies and that what I looked upon as the misery of late times should be allowed in this that I should countenance vain men that run from that Calling wherein they are called and usurp the Office Honour and Authority of that sacred Priesthood and Evangelical Ministry instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ as sent of God the Father a mischief that greatly threatneth the Church and State Faith and good Manners all things Civil as well as Sacred O what wise and honest-hearted Protestant that hath any care of Posterity or prospect for the future finds not a sad dispondency with an holy impatience arising in his soul while he seeth so many weak shoulders such unwashen hands such unprepared feet such rash heads such empty souls publickly intruding themselves upon all holy Duties all sacred Offices all solemn Mysteries all divine Ministrations with equal insolency and insufficiency being for the most part so much the more impudent by how much they are grosly ignorant in whom you cannot discern any either rational or religious orderly or honest expressions in any degree proportionable to what was observable in my most solid Ministers my most acute Schollars and most profound Divines who have been hitherto my support and Ornament Certainly Reverend Fathers you will not so debase and undervalue the Evangelical Offices of Christ as to admit every self flatterer and Obtruder presently to officiate without any due examination or approbation from those with whom that commission and power hath been ever deposited in a regular and visible succession from Christ the great Examplar or Original although duly considering the diversities of gifts from the same Spirit you are not to exclude any modest person though of meaner parts and less improved education if he be of ingenious education of pious affections and an orderly life from a place in Christs Ministry where one may sow another may reap according to the several dispensations and gifts of the same God who worketh all in all SECT 4. The Church of England's resentment of the thirteen hundred forty and two factious Ministers that have been lately ordained YEt I will justifie you O ye my reverend Sons in this that though you were surprized to ordain young men yet you hoped that years might improve them and debauched yet you may hope that Discipline may reform them and unlearned men yet you may hope that time with Gods blessing upon their private industry and studious piety may instruct them but I cannot with patience see your hands laid upon their heads so suddenly for their Ordination who laid their hands lately upon you for your ruine O that mine head were waters that mine eyes were a fountain of Tears to weep for the unhappiness of the daughter of my people that must needs unadvisedly authorize men principled against its Government prejudiced against its Order prepossessed against its Liturgy and privately practising against its peace and happiness In vain doth Authority silence your old adversaries if you consecrate new ones in vain do they suppress the former race of Non conformists if you raise up a new Generation a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters Shall we perpetuate our miseries and keep up our unhappiness Must a sad race of Dissenters run paralel with the Orthodox succession to the end of the world whereby I must languish and die my reformed Religion must decay my piety and charity must be weakned and my Authority and discipline languish What eye will pity me when I have raised those men that shall ruine me when I have commissioned those men that shall oppose me and given them an opportunity for popular applause who shall use it against me without my leave no Ordination no Ordination no pretence to preach no preaching no publick opportunity to seduce whole multitudes against Doctrine and Discipline against Order and Government My safety is now in mine own hands If I take care whom I prefer I need not care whom I may fear If I carefully chuse my Ministers I need not offensively suspend them If I took care whom I ordained I might without any noise put an end to all my trouble Mortality would silence those Ministers that now disturb my peace and my care may prevent any more How ominously do some men discourse how popularly do they endeavour to preach what dangerous intimations do they make how untowardly do they confirm how auckwardly do they use my Ceremonies and read my Liturgy when I consider the general approbation and submission to my Government and Discipline before the Wars by all the Clergy Layty of these Kingdoms and withal remember how contrary to true Learning and honest Integrity as if they understood not what they did or that they did conform contrary to their conscience contrary to their former oaths and practises against their obedience to the Laws in being before the points in controversie had any free and impartial debate these men cryed down the established Government and Religion and approved and encouraged the violent and most illegal Extravagancies tending to the utter ruine of Religion and Government Indeed I must confesse that most of all sides who have thought or done amisse have done so not out of malice or wilfulness but out of mis-information or mis apprehension of things and therefore I charitably think none will be more faithful then those persons who upon mature deliberation being made sensible of their errours do feel in their hearts most vehement motives of repentance and earnest desires to make some reparations for former defects Yet such sincere Converts are they who are not so much frighted with the sudden miscarriages as convinced of the continued errour of their ways who are rather perswaded by the truth and reason I always urged then awed by the authority and power I now enjoy and so are not blindly carried on by that Providence that advanceth me now as it did and may again overturn me but are rationally wrought upon by the pregnant evidence of the Word the clear practice of the Catholick Church the best Comment upon that Word and the irresistable strength of Reason for Order and obedience upon which I was alwayes Established which they have not rashly complyed with untill they had examined all Allegations impartially surveyed the merit of the Cause leasurely waited upon God by prayer humbly searched the will of God and the constant practise of good men diligently and sincerely conversed with good and knowing men profitably and satisfactorily and denyed themselves in all worldly respects most Christianly The Lapsed were not formerly admitted to the communion of Christians much less to the honour of Ministers without that discreet delay wherein they might have time to satisfie themselves in the reason and others in the sincerity of their repentance and conversion With that caution was the Jewish Proselyte received to the synagogue with what care ought a Christian be brought to the
that it 's no more I but the sins and the sinners that dwell in me 4. It 's you it 's you whom I have nourished and brought up as children whom I have encouraged as Ministers whom I have promoted as Governours it 's you that have brought this reproach and danger upon me When I had with heroick patience endured the oppression of adversaries by a Christian prudence defeated the attempts of Schismaticks by an exemplary humility and piety turned the hearts of enemies and by a miracle of Restauration silenced the mouths of all men you my Sons opened the mouth of scandal strengthned the cry of reproach raised the clamours of the envious Oh if an enemy had done this I could with the same Christian courage I have suffered these twenty years have born it but it`s you of my own bosom family and profession O you my Clergy whom I expected more glorious more esteemed more reverenced before all the world after your constant sufferings who coming out of this fiery furnace might shine brighter then ever you did with the love of Christ and of me his Church both as to the care of those private charges and publick inspections committed to you in excellent order and by due authority and I expected that neither pride nor envy pomp nor popularity neither covetousness nor ambition should distract the thoughts divide the hearts exasperate the humours or provoke the reproach of an incensed people against my Order and Government and the good of all sorts of Christians Whosoever of you notwithstanding the miracles both of your sufferings and relief at such a time as this when the mouth of Hell is open against me shall open any other mouth to joyn in the cry against the Church give life or tongue to any scandalous sin and set that to its clamans de terra crying from the ground that by luxury or sloth by covetousness or griping by insolence or pride by carelesness or looseness by disorder and irregularity shall justifie mens malice against me and by that means perswade credulous and easie people that is true that hath been said of me all is just that hath been inflicted upon me I know not what Wo is heavy enough for him O alas my Brother O it had been better for him he had never been born 5. My Doctrine I can maintain my discipline I can assert my constitution I can vindicate You you O my Sons I cannot justifie wo is me that I must hear your reproach and cannot gain say it Five things there are that tend equally to mine and your own ruine which I must charge you before the world Five things that will insensibly undermine my famous Fabrick which hath been the care and labour of so many years when erected and the miracle of this last year when restored These five sad Particulars are 1. Vndue Ordination 2. An unconscionable Simony 3. Careless Non-residence 4. Loose Prophaneness 5. Encroaching Pluralities CHAP. II. The Church of England's resentment of Vndue Ordination ALthough I am well satisfied whatever the Romanists and others have of late suggested that my Ordination is Authentick Primitive and proper in the form of it is valid in the Author being by men ordained in an uninterrupted succession by the primitive Bishops as they were by the Apostles and the Apostles by Christ and Jesus Christ by God himself and is regular and legal in the circumstances of it being agreeable to the established Laws of the Realm yet not without much regret must I confess that solemn investiture of men to the great calling of Ministers fallen much below its native glory much shrunk in its Primitive sacredness and reverence and extreamly decayed in its first esteem and honour because my reverend Bishops in the great intricacies of late alterations are surprized to bestow the honour of that high calling 1. upon the Young 2. upon the Unlearned 3. upon the Debauched and 4. upon the Factious SECT 1. Of Young Ministers whereof I have a Call of above 3000. WO is me when I have those that teach before they have learned that I have those that would instruct others and have need themselves be instructed which are the first principles of the Doctrine of Christ Instead of the ancient Fathers we have children who are made Priests in all Lands Former times honoured my excellent Clergy for their age and gravity reverenced them for their learning and austerity and esteemed them as the wonder of the World and said Ask the Father and he will shew thee thine ancients and they shall tell thee this age slights them for their youth and weakness for their ignorance and unexperience as persons that are but of yesterday and know nothing We have understanding saith the common people to the young men as well as you we are not inferiour to you yea who knoweth not such things as these As the Patriarchs separated their first-born for the Priest-hood and Moses and Aaron reserved themselves many years for their Ministries and the Law prepared men thirty years for the sacred service and the blessed Jesus the Preacher of Righteousness entred not untill the thirtieth year of his Age upon the great work of Ministry so my Bishops knowing how to behave themselves in the work of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth took heed to themselves and the flocks over which the holy Ghost had made them overseers that they laid hands suddenly on no man neither were partakers of other mens sins but keep themselves pure taking care that men be first proved and then use the Office of a Deacon being found blameless and then when they had used the Office of a Deacon well and purchased to themselves a good degree of a Priest or Bishop then they took care that they should be blameless vigilant sober of good behaviour given to hospitality apt to teach not Novices lest being lifted up with pride they fall into the condemnation of the Devil Moreover they took care they might have a good report of them that are without lest they fall to reproach and condemnation of the Devil But now since the looseness of these late times there are admitted to the Priesthood of the meanest of the people who are not the sons of Levi as in Jeroboam's days every one that will is made a Priest that he may have bread to eat Those Pulpits that were filled with ancient Fathers are now Desks for young children those solemn Assemblies that were rapt up into the third Heaven with pious Sermons and devout Prayers hear the late pedantique Herangues and juvenile Orations with scorn and laughter those people that thronged to hear the wisdom of God delivered in the demonstration of the Spirit and with power are quite weary of that true foolishness of Preaching that consists only in the childish wisdom of words and in the trifling enticing words of mans wisdom I had reverend men that shewed themselves a pattern of good works
to heart alledging that they saw no more Religion in the world then Interest and Gain they knew not what to do to be saved Alas you are not sensible that there may be hundreds in Hell that you looked not after cursing the day that ever you were born that ever you were sent into the World that there should be so many Wretches that lived only to damn men If it be a Charge you desire why do you not attend unto that flock over which the holy Ghost made you overseers Why do you not in that calling wherein you are called abide with God Is it possible for you to serve two Cures you will hold to the one and despise or neglect the other and is it possible for you to be saved Lord what if you gained the World at the rate of undoing souls Do you consider that the bread you eat is the price of souls How can you eat with comfort and think Oh some of my charge may be now going to Eternity and I prepared them not How can you sleep securely and think Some of my charge may awake to morrow in another World whether of Wo or Well I know not How can you die peaceably and think Where shall we meet the many souls that have gone before us out of our Congregations Oh where are ye O immortal souls with God or for ever departed from the presence of the Lord Oh did you ever read that of St. Bernard Qui non unus sed plures in beneficiis non unus sed plures in suppliâ—iis If you pity not me once again by these courses decaying if you pity not poor souls by this means perishing Oh pity your selves and have mercy upon your own fouls Alas that men should be educated chargeably should study diligently should be ordained solemnly to delude souls to mock God to deceive the world and undoe men for two or three or four hundred pounds yearly during a short life that you should appear in a Pulpit if yet you do appear in a Pulpit for a little Maintenance that you should appear very solemnly every Sunday only to put a trick upon God and men I hope better things of you and things that accompany salvation though thus I speak In the Primitive times every Church of so many souls as are of your Parishes had many Ministers whereof the ablest speakers did most in publick and the rest did the more of the less publick work which some mistake for ruling Elders but now one of you takes the care of many Churches The Popish times I mean years 632. could divide England into Parishes for the better discharging of the cure of souls our times unite those Parishes again for the better maintenance of pride and vanity Is it for this that we are reformed is it for this we are Protestants then each Parish had their Ministers to pray with them ferventlie to teach them faithfully to comfort them seasonablie to converse with them usefully Ah! in quae nos reservamur tempora Now now my people are neglected my buildings are ruined my hospitality is lost my authority is shrunk and faln and the Church of England is thought to be nothing else but the interest of a few crafty Clergymen ordering all things to their best advantage Though Envy may know and Prejudice it self may consider I am a Church made up of godly and religious men Princes Nobles Gentry Bishops Ministers and people maintaing an Orthodox Doctrine a Primitive Government a pure and orderly Worship a severe Discipline and a Christian Communion in Word and Sacrament who have forbid these extravagancies by wholsome Laws checked them by severe Canons and disallowed them by fair and just means imaginable In the darkest and most superstitious times I ordered That no Monks i. e. idle persons should take Livings of Bishops or appropriate the Revenues of them to themselves but that the Priests serving those Cures and the Churches might be provided with necessaries Do you know why Monks were pulled down in H. 8. time Lay it to heart I beseech you for many look for your fall too 1. They were accused for engrossing Wealth and trade and do you hear what the world saith of you 2. They were accused for impoverishing Parish-Priests and decrying Preaching as ministring Matter of Schism and Disputes and magnifying their own performances of Prayer and Devotion by which and other Artifices they undermined the poor Priests and procured that many Churches presentative with their Glebes and Tyths were appropriated to their Covents leaving but a poor pittance for the Parish-Vicar This was the occasion of the first Impropriations I pray God your carelesness doth not occasion another Oh remember Robert Whitgifts the Abbot of Wellow's speech who was wont to say That they and their Religion could not long continue because said he I have read the whole Scripture over and over and never found that Monasteries and I may add pluralities were founded by God for said the honest Abbot every planting which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Do you remember that Lay-parliament in King H. 8. his time wherein the Nobles and Commons assembled signified to the King that the Temporal profession of Abbots Priors c. vainly spent would suffice to find 150 Earls 1500 Knights 6200 Esquires 100 Hospitals do you remember those Mock-Parliaments that often considered how many 1000 men your Tythes ill bestowed upon you as they thought would maintain You were once undone now are you made whole I beseech you my sons sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you Bishop Jewel on 1 Thes p. 71. Forasmuch brethren as we were kept from you for a season concerning sight but not in heart we are enforced the more to see your face with great desire Therefore we would have come unto you I Paul at least once or twice but Satan hindred us Such a zeal and care had he over the people of God. Oh in what case then are they that are careless and have no regard of the people of God! which hunt after Livings and bend not themselves to do good which serve their own belly and seek to be rich and eat up the people of God as if they were bread they cannot say they have a desire to see the face of their flock and that their heart is with them howsoever they find time for other matters they can never take time to know their sheep and they do the work of the Ministry among them they care not for them they think not of them they plant not they water not they watch not they give no warning of the dangers at hand they teach them not to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world It were happy if all such were removed out of the Church of God they destroy the souls and lead them to destruction by their negligence What account shall they give unto God for the souls
Lacrymae Ecclesiae ANGLICANAE OR A serious and Passionate ADDRESS of the Church of England To her SONS especially those of the CLERGY Printed in the Year 1689. TO THE READER THe Church of England ever since its Recovery from the Darkness of Popish ignorance and Superstition has been no less the envy of Rome then the Honour and Glory of all other Reformed Churches for its Constitutions are Holy and Primitive its Liturgy pious and devout all her Doctrines consonant and agreeable to the word of God. She retains the Ancient Creeds She Rejects all novel and superstitious Doctrines that are neither to be found in nor warranted by the Word of God She retains the two Sacraments instituted by our Saviour and rightly and duely administers them and that whole and entire according to Primitive Institution and that too neither Superstitiously advancing them above the nature of Sacraments nor yet prophanely or irreverently detracting from the Greatness and Holiness of their Mystical and invisible significance Marvel not therefore Brethren if the World hate you for even our dear Redeemer was hated and scorned and shamefully put to Death and shall the Disciple be above his Master 'T is what our Saviour himself foretold they hate me they will hate you also Now altho' it may be objected that there are several scandalous and loose Livers among the Clergy of the Church of England what then does not the Church reprove such Does it not correct such And if they prove obstinate and incorrigible does she not disown such And 't is no wonder that among such a numerous Clergy there should be some ill persons Our Saviour when present upon Earth in his humanity was not withcut a Judas among twelve and no doubt it will be so in all numerous Assemblies while the world endures But this is matter of Compassion not of scorn they are Personal Blots but does not injure the Constitutions or Doctrines of the Church All these things are more amply and fully handled in the following Book which was first Printed in 1663. and then humbly Dedicated to the King and his great Council the Parliament of England and it having fallen into my hands of late after a careful and delightful perusal of it I thought it not improper to Reprint in these times and therefore recommended it to the Bookseller as a useful piece and so I do to thee Reader Farewel Lacrymae Ecclesiae ANGLICANAE CHAP. I. O All you that pass by me stand and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow if it hath been done to any Reformed or Protestant Church under Heaven as it is done unto me O now my wounds were ready to be closed my Ruines to be repaired my Desolations and Wastes to be finished when the Barbarous was checked the Licentious was restrained the usurpers were removed the professed Enemies of different Interests and Religion which persecuted me were subdued and I ready to settle upon the Eternal Foundations of sound Doctrine of Primitive Government of an holy and pure Worship of a decent and comely order to the amazement of the World to the honour of Religion to the glory of God to the peace of the whole Earth and for good will among men behold my Children are discontent my Government is complained of my Ordinances are neglected my Ministers are despised my peace is disturbed and my safety endangered Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth What could I have done that I have not done Have I not taught the truth of God sincerelie giving Milk to babes and stronger meat to them that were able to bear it and the Oracles of God to all in a Language they best understood Have I concealed any part of Gods sacred Counsel from you Have I not set forth with all plainness and freedom the blessed fulness and excellencies of my Lord Jesus Christ in such a manner and measure as I received from the Word and Spirit Have I not administred all the Ordinances of God faithfully have I not enjoyned and taught all vertue and all grace carefully recommending to my Children whatsoever things are good whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report every holy Duty every necessary Rule and every imitable Example with all the Advantages of sound Knowledge powerful Preaching which at once was able to inform the weak to reclaim the most erroneous to reform the most debauched to satisfie the most curious and to silence the most refractory Have I not prepared with much study and industry with many prayers and tears with long education and diligent care Reverend Bishops Orderly Presbyters able Ministers workmen that need not be ashamed duly ordained and called after an uninterrupted and Catholick succession through all Ages agreeable to that original institution which was from Jesus Christ the great High Priest the true Prophet the soveraign King of the Church the chief preacher of righteousnesse and Bishop of our Souls Have I not I say taken an holy care of a succession of Ministers about holy things who might divide the Word aright by solid preaching might wait upon God solemnly by a devout and discreet Praying might convince Gain-sayers by acute Disputing might instruct the world by exact Writing might maintain peace and order by wise Governing might reform the world by holy living Hath it not been my care and endeavour to keep up the soundness power and life of Christian Religion Have not I laboured that my good people might every where have what is necessary and wholesome for their souls good in devout Prayers in holy Sacraments in powerful Sermons whereby I desired God knoweth to preserve wholsome and saving truth to promote true holiness to set up an holy decency to maintain the wholsome form and power of godliness in truth peace order and unity Have not I held forth an holy Light Rule and Life in the plain parts of Scripture every where read in the Articles every where acknowledged in the Creeds and Catechism every year explained in the Liturgy constantly used whereby poor souls had a plain easie and sure way to Heaven through an unfeigned Faith sincere Repentance a Catholick Charity a devout humility a good conscience and an holy obedience to God and man according to the will of God unto all well pleasing Do not I take care to instruct the ignorant diligently to comfort the weak hearted tenderly to raise up them that fall compassionately to visit those that are sick charitably to relieve those that want mercifully to bury my dead that sleep in Jesus solemnly to punish those that do amisse severely to restore them that have gone astray pitifully to instruct them that oppose themselves meekly to frame a way of Peace Order and Cummunion in which Brethren might happily dwell together in unity prudently rationally and discreetly O what failings of mine then have occasioned these impatient
murmers which I hear What faults of mine have raised those bitter reproaches which I bear What enormities of mine have provoked those imminent dangers which I fear O why is it that ye who own my Saviour who have submitted to my Doctrine as your Rule who have partaked of my Sacrament as your refreshment and comfort O why is it that ye hate and dispise me that ye strip and wound me that ye tear and mangle me that ye impoverish and debase me that ye make me a scorn an abomination an hissing and astonishment to all that see me a derision and a mocking to my enemies round about me Alas all men of weight and worth for parts and piety for judgement and ingenuity for conscience and integrity for grace learning and renown know my innocency thus far that as to the foundation of Faith and Rule of holiness I have only adhered to Gods blessed Word as for the Circumstances and Ceremonies of Religion I use in them prudently and charitably that liberty and power which I suppose is allowed here for peace order and decency by that blessed God who is not the Author of Confusion but of peace as in all the Churches of the Saints If we may believe the integrity of those Reformers that setled this Church whose learning worth and piety hath been confirmed by the Testimony of so many wise and religious Princes by the approbation of so many learned and reverend Convocations by the applauses of so many other reformd Churches if we may believe the preaching living and dying of so many hundred excellent Bishops and Ministers or the Prayers and proficiencies of so many thousand of godly Christians or if we may believe the wonderful blessings and special graces of a merciful God attesting the verity integrity and sanctity of my Christian Constitution for many happy years or if you will believe all men in England who have by oaths and subscriptions by Vows and Protestations resolved to maintain the Protestant Religion as it was established in the Church of England who dispair any where to find the way of truth and peace of holiness and happiness but in the use of those holy means and in the exercise of those divine graces which accompany salvation within me professed and enjoyed I know nothing excellent in any Church for outward policy inward tranquilitie and eternal felicity nothing that was pious or peaceable moral or vertuous ritual or spiritual orderly or comely or any way conducing to truth and holiness to grace or vertue to the souls edification and comfort which was not by me entertained with competent Maintenance noble Encouragements ingenuous Honours peaceable Serenity and munificent plenty In which I flourished so many years by Gods goodness and mans indulgence Alas whatever I have done in the settlements of the Rites Circumstances and Decencies of Religion I have observed that modesty wisdom and humility that became a Church of Christ in discreetly and ingeniously complying with sober primitive and venerable Antiquity in the Church as far as it observed the Rules of Gods Word and went not beyond the liberty allowed it in point of Order and Decency O you are too knowing to be ignorant and too ingenious to be insensible of your duty to God and your respect to me who was heretofore so much loved by my Children applauded by my Friends reverenced by my Neighbours seared and envyed by mine Enemies for those spiritual Gifts Ministerial Devotional and Practical which were evidently seen in me those heavenly influences which people received from me those gracious examples and frequent good works set forth by me the blessed experiences men enjoyed with me the charitable simplicities exercised by my members the numerous Assemblies the frequent Devotions the reverent Attentions the unanimous Communions the well-grounded hopes and unspeakable comforts which thousands enjoyed both living and dying in obedience to and communion with me which to impartial men were most impregnant evidences and valid demonstrations of true Religion and a true Church setled by the joynt consent and publick piety of a Christian Nation He was a wise holy and reverend Son of my bosome who said That in the greatest maturity of his Judgement and integrity of his Conscience when most redeemed from juvenile Fervours popular Fallacies vulgar Partialities and secular Flatteries he declared to the present Age and posterity that since he was capable to move in so serious a search and weighty a disquisition as that of Religion is as his greatest design was through Gods grace to find out and persevere in such a profession of Christian Religion as hath most of truth and order of power and peace of holiness and solemnity of divine verity and Catholick antiquity of true charity and holy constancy so he could not apart from all prejudices and prepossessions find in any other Church or Church-way ancient or modern either more of the good he desired or less of the evil he would avoid then he had a long time discerned and upon a stricter scrutiny more and more in the frame and form in the Constitution and Dispensation of the Church of England No where saith he diviner Mysteries no where sounder Doctrinals bolier Morals warmer Devotionals apter Rituals or comlier Ceremonials All which together by a meet and happy concurrence of piety and prudence brought forth such Spirituals and Graces both in their Habits Exercises and Comforts as are the Quintessence and Life the Soul and Seal of true Religion those more immediate and special Influences of Gods holy Spirit upon the Soul those joynt Operations of the blessed Trinity for the Justification Sanctification and Salvation of a Sinner 1. Can you blame my Government that ancient and Catholick Government of godly Bishops which is so agreeable to Right Reason so suitable to the Principles of due Order and Policy among men so consonant to Scripture-wisdom both in Rules and Patterns so conforme to the Catholick and Primitive way of all Christian Churches throughout all Ages and in all places of the world Would you have me against all charity modesty humility or equity to fall away from the Apostolical way of all Famous Churches and religious Christians to cast off the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec conciliis institutum sed semper retentum non nisi authoritate Apostolica institutum the Apostolici seminis traduces Episcopos that universam successionem Episcoporum those successiones ab initio decurrentium Episcoporum that ordinem Episcoporum qui in Johannem stat Authorem that toto orbe decretum Shall I not enquire of the former Age and prepare my self to the search of my Fathers for I am but of Yesterday and nothing Shall not they teach me and tell me and utter words out of their hearts Shall not I stand in the way and ask for the old way which is the good way and walk therein Would you have me give offence to the
wrong or to manifest unto them the necessity of making such a change CHAP. III. The Church of England's resentment of scandalous Profaneness OH you my Sons why do you these things for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people Oh Sirs my God above looks upon you and is provoked the blessed Angels see you their fellow-servants for you area spectacle to God Angels are grieved wicked men observe you blaspheme God good men behold you are ashamed Is it for this that you are delivered that you may work wickedness Hath God punished you and will you yet sin more and more Will not twelve years sufferings reform you will not twenty years reproaches awake you will not miracles of judgement deter you from evil will not miracles of mercy oblige you to good Oh despise you the riches of Gods goodness towards you not knowing that the goodness of God should lead you to repentance But after your hardness and impenitency of heart will you treasure up more wrath against another day of wrath Is this the return you make to a gracious God to dishonour him Is this your kindnesse to me to undoe me Is this you gratitude for the publick favours of King and Parliament to be utterly unworthy Religion hath honoured you with a high Calling you betray it your Prince vouchsafed you Royal Favours you shame him honest people afford you their pity and compassion you deceive them Is this your kindness to your friends I saw indeed the late scandalous Centuries but I neglected them as slanders and calumnies I heard the late complaints and outcries but slighted them as I do envy malice and hatred Dreadful things were daily suggested against you great things were daily offered for you the Faction reviled the Orthodox maintained you sober men writ for you but now you consute them holy men excused you but you contradict them good and great men spoke for you but who will now believe them Must you needs justifie Malice it self Must you needs justifie what Uncharitableness it self durst not suggest against you Do you hear what they say There there go your Ministers If you hear not what they say see what you are You are the salt of the earth if the salt now loose its savour wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men You are the salt yet how unsavoury you are the light of the world and do you walk as children of light are you burning are you shining lights Oh your carelesness Oh your indifferency in matter of Religion Oh how negligently you do the work of the Lord while you know God is serious in the Word he speaks in the Judgements he aflicts in the Mercies he bestows when you know Christ is serious in redeeming souls the holy Spirit is serious in sanctifying them the Devil is serious in undoing them the whole Creation is serious round about you How you Triffle with immortal souls how you play with the great and terrible work of the Ministry how formally you do pray how nnconcernedly you do preach how vain and unprofitably do you discourse how unevenly do you walk What do you speak for Eternity do you preach for Immortality Are you sent of God Are you here to save souls and yet Gallio-like care for none of those things Wo is me to see you walk in the counsel of the ungodly stand in the way of sinners and sit in the seat of the scornful whose delight should be in the Law of the Lord in whose law you should meditate day and night What the same man laugh at Religion and preach it the same soul Droll upon serious Holiness in company and yet urge it in the great Congregation What perswade men to vertue in the Pulpit and laugh men out of it in the Parlour Where is that serious Holiness that crowned that solemn Gravity that adorned that severe Vertue that advanced my sober Ministers my Reverend Pastors and holy men Where is thy pious Spirit devout HALL where is thy gracious Temper excellent VSHER where is thy even and setled Frame serious HAMMOND where is thy vertuous deportment Famous MORTON where is thy rational well-weighed and stayed soul O venerable SANDERSON In England as in Rama there is a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning I as Rachel weeping for my excellent children but they are not Wo is me for your Covetousness O ye my sons that you instruct men for another world yet look not beyond this that you who are sent to teach men to live by faith should yet live by sense that you who teach faith the evidence of things not seen should yet eye only the things which are seen O shame self-denial is the great duty you enjoyn self-seeking is the great sin you are guilty of Love not the world is one of the most remarkable Axiomes of our Religion Love the world is the considerablest rule of your lives I have coveted no mans silver or gold saith the Apostle Oh what say you I seek not yours but you saith he I seek not you but yours saith you Neither at any time used I a cloak for covetousness God is my witness saith the Apostle Oh what you have done God and men are witness Give me the souls saith Abraham take thou the goods give us the goods say you take you the souls Is to live to Christ in this sense thy gain is to die to him thy advantage Alas Alas Oh your debauched courses you vile and sordid souls An holy Calling and an unholy Life Spiritual persons and yet live after the flesh a clean Garment and an unclean heart servants of God and yet servants of sin reverend in your Function and yet shamefully in your Lives a Minister and yet given to Wine a Priest and yet wanton in holy Orders and yet in riotous Disorder walk circumspectly and yet reel a man devoted to the Study and the Closet in chambering and wantonness conversation in heaven and in Ale-houses and Taverns study Eternity and yet trifle away time stand at the Communion of Saints yet sit down in the company of scorners Oh these things ought not to be Thus vile you are and yet you are proud thus dishonouring your selves and yet ambitious Learne of me said Christ for I am meek and lowly Look upon you you are proud and Lordly I made you Ministers for the service of souls you advance your selves to be Rulers I taught every soul of you to be subject you are impatient of subjection Humility and meekness was the glory of my Ministers haughtiness and pride is your shame Were you raised by the favour of God and men lately to be high now God remembred and man pitied you in your low estate God will remember and man will punish you in your high estate You humbled your selves and you were exalted you exalt your selves and you may be made low Oh
wayes please God as you hope God will bless your wayes If not for your own yet for other mens souls sake take heed to your selves speak from your hearts to their hearts be not intangled by sin that you may be able to speak against sin Oh do as you preach that the world may see you mean as you preach Oh reverend Fathers enjoyn my wholesome Canons severelie visit mens lives and carriges exactly oversee the flocks over which the holy Ghost have made you overseers carefullie Pittie Religion that is a dying pittie me that am decaying pittie your selves that are again falling Reform my Clergy and you are safe neglect them and you perish keep up the â—â—â—e and practise of Religion and that will keep you if the power of Religion be lost the profession of it will your Calling will fail your Order will fail and God knows what will be the end thereof I fear nothing but sin I want nothing but true grace eminent in all my Ministers whereby they may please God adorn the Gospel convince Gainsayers and reform the world Have you not enjoined That no Ecclesiastical persons shall at any time other then for their honest necessities resort to any Taverns or Ale-houses neither shall they Bord or Lodge in any such place Furthermore they shall not give themselves to any base or servile labour or to Drinking or Riotting spending their time idly by day or night playing at Dice Cards or Tables or any other unlawful Game but at all times convenient they shall hear or read somewhat of the holy Scriptures or shall occupy themselves with some other honest Study or exercise alwayes doing the things which shall appertain to honesty and endeavouring to profit the Church of God having alwayes in mind that they ought to excel all others in purity of life and should be examples of the people to live well and Christianly under pain of Ecclesiastical censures to be inflicted with severity according to the qualities of their offences CHAP. IV. The Church of England's Complaint against Vnconscionable Simony IN your other courses O ye my Sons fear of Authoritie may deter you Conscience may check you strict Laws may restrain you a severe over-sight may reform you in this strange in this sad miscarriage of Symony I have made Laws yet you transgresse them I have enacted 31 of Q. E. 6. That if any persons bodies Politick or Corporate shall or do at any time for any sum of money reward gift profit or benefit directlie or indirectlie or for or by reason of any Promise Grant Bond Covenant or other assurance of or for any sum of monie reward gift profit or benefit whatsoever directlie or indirectlie present or collate any person to any Benefice with cure of souls Dignitie Prebend or Living Ecclesiastical or give or bestow the same for or in respect of any such corrupt cause or consideration that then every such Presentation Collation Gift c. should be utterly void and of none effect in Law and that any person accepting of any Ecclesiastical promotion upon such sordid accounts shall be judged a disabled person in Law to have or enjoy any Benefice Dignity Prebend or Living Ecclesiastical Yet still you truck for Livings you market for Benefices still you buy and sell in the Temple this abomination is still forbidden and yet still allowed my Cannons tie from it by an Oath yet you venture You swear thus I N. N. do swear that I have made no Simonical payment contract or promise directly or indirectly by my self or by any other to my knowledge or with my consent to any person or persons whatsoever for or concerning the procuring and obtaining of this Ecclesiastical Dignity place preferment Office or Living nor will at any time hereafter perform or satisfie any such kind of payment contract or promise made by any other without my knowledge or consent So help me God through Jesus Christ Yet you do it Oh you men of God can you forswear this abominable sin and yet commit it Will you publickly disown it before God and the Church and yet own it between your selves and your Patrons Shall not God search out this These things you do and God keeps silence you think he is altogether such a one as your selves Ah he will reprove you he will set your sins in order before you Oh consider this ye that in this forget God! Oh be sure your sins shall find you out Shall a man take the name of God in vain and be guiltless Shall a man break his solemn Oath and be delivered Shall he escape that doth such things Shall he prosper How will you look that God in the face in Prayer whom you have blasphemed in your Oath How can you behold that Congregation that knows you are forsworn What Preach the Word of God and regard not the Oath of God! What gain a Parsonage and loose thy soul to attain to a Preferment shall you hazard more then the whole world 1. Have you never read that in Acts 8. 18 19 20 21 22 23. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the Apostles hands the holy Ghost was given he offered them MONEY saying Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the holy Ghost But Peter said unto him Thy money perish with thee because that thou hast thought that the gift of God may he purchased with money Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity You will say Object You buy not any gift of grace as Simon would have done but some encouragement to exercise your gifts and your graces Sol. Alas is it not the gift of God you buy are Tythes of God or are they not if they are not why do you challenge them If they are of God why do ye buy them of men Shall a man rob God yet ye have robbed me even this whole Nation They say wherein have we robbed God in Tyths and Offerings The Lay-patron takes from God and you take from him he steals from God you receive from him Is it his why do you say Tythe belong only to Ministers Is it the Ministers why do you pay him for it why do you justifie his encroachment betray Gods right wrong me and undoe your selves Who goeth to warfare at his own charge You do it Doe ye not know that they who minister about holy things live of the things of the Temple and that so the Lord hath ordained that they that preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel Object I deal not with the Patron himself you will say Sol. Oh be not deceived God is not mocked what you do by others you do your selves Simon himself went not to God
discouraged they divert their studies another way I know your Grace heareth not of these matters and I hope God will work in your gracious heart some remedies against them for otherwise the Schools will be forsaken the Church desolate the People wild and dismayed the Gospel discredited and this noble Realm which ever was famous for the name of Learning likely to come to such ignorance and barbary as hath not been heard of many memory before our time Poor souls are destitute without a Guide the afflicted in conscience have none to quiet them they grow wild and savage as a people that hath no God they are commanded to change their Religion and for lack of instruction they know not whither to turn them Oh if the Kingdom of God be not worthy to be promoted yet the Kingdom of Satan is worthy to be overthrown Oh our Posterity shall rue that ever such Fathers went before them and Chronicles will report this miscarriage they shall leave it written in whose time and in whose reign this was done Or if we grow so barbarous that we consider not this or be not able to draw it into Chronicle yet forreign Nations will not spare to write this and publish it to our everlasting reproach and shame By these means forreign power which by Gods mercy this Realm is delivered from shall be brought upon us the truth of God shall be taken away the holy Scripture burnt and consumed in fire a marvellous darkness and calamity must néeds ensue Oh that your Grace might behold the miserable disorder of Gods Church or that you might see the calamities that will ensue It is a part of your Kingdom and such a part as is a prop and stay to the rest I will say to your Majesty as Cyrillus sometimes said to the godly Emperours Theodorus and Valentinian Ab ea quae erg◠Deum est pietate reip vestrae status pendet You are our Governour you are the Nurse of Gods Church We must open this grief before you and God knoweth whether it may be redressed it is let grown so long it is gone so far but if it may be redressed there is no other but your Highness that can redress it The Definition of Simonie SYmonie is an intentive desire or purpose to buy or sell a spiritual Living or any Corporal thing annexed to the Church Grat. dist 1. p. 2. 91. Zanch. de inter cultu Concil compl Sect. 43. dec cont Nic. can 8. 96. CHAP. V. The Church of Englands Complaint against Encroaching Pluralities IS your portion oh my Sons in this life or is it in another Is the satisfaction your immortal souls look for in the emptie vain low and perishing contents of this world or in the full high and everlasting enjoyments of the other world If in this life you have hope only you are of all men the most miserable the most contemptible and most deceitful if in another why so many Imperial Laws so many Ecclesiastical Canons so many Decrees of Councils so mans severe Reproofs from Fathers and Casuists so many Complaints and Reproaches so many Laws and Injunctions so many Attempts and Endeavours in Parliament these sixtie years against your Monopolie of Livings and Pluralities of Benefices Why do you heap upon your selves this envie why do you provoke these Reproaches I provided for you liberally I checked those that opposed your maintenance seasonablie I encouraged your Industrie and Merit carefully beyond any reformed Church in the world I restored you to your Rights handsomly I secured your Rights legallie will not this satisfie you will not this content you 1. It 's but lately that you were thought uncapable of one Living and now three four five cannot suffice you It 's not long since you wanted necessaries and do you now heap up superfluities Lately you could not provide for your Families Wants and do you now provide for their Excess and Pride have you forgot how lately you grasped all and you lost all Alas Alas 2. And will you eat bread out of your Brethrens mouths and will you starve your fellow-servants Are you Ministers so are they Are you Orthodox so are they Are you Loyal so are they Have you been constant so have they Are you serviceable to the Church they more in labours more abundant Oh how many excellent men who out-lived the late miseries Articles Committees Sequestrations Protestations Covenants Engagements lingring out their lives laden and almost oppressed worn out and quite tired with the burthen of years cares fears labours necessities and afflictions are now fain to die in obscurity want and contempt as if the Sons of the Church of England wanted only this to make up the measure of their sufferings That they should be undone when the Church is restored How many hundreds sober and able men are laid aside and contemned by some as Orthodox and despised by others as poor whom the people would relieve but that they are faithful to me whom I would relieve but that I am swallowed up by you When you look big with your abundance and superfluity and glory in your preferments how many hundred able and sober men are ashamed of their Order and Function are wrapped up in poverty and discontent and lost in poor employments whose faithful labours I want whose sober conversations might honour me whose diligence and care might restore me whose reason and learning might uphold me whose powerful preaching might establish me whose self-denial and devotedness to publick good might save me Alas Sirs let none of you think of himself more highly then he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith for as you have many members in one body and all members have not the same Office so I being made of many am one body in Christ and every one in me is a member one of another You my Sons having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given you whether Prophesie c. why shall not they that prophesie be encouraged according to the proportion of Faith or Ministrie why should not all be encouraged that wait on the Ministrie or they that teach on teaching or they that exhort on exhortation The body is not one member but many now hath God set the members in the bodie as it pleaseth him and if they were all one member where were the bodie the eye cannot say to the head I have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you Nay much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessarie and those less honourable upon these we ought to bestow more abundant honour And our uncomely parts have a more abundant comeliness for our comely parts have no need but God hath tempered the body together having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the
of their Brethren Where shall they stand or what will they say when he shall bid them make a strait account this is the practice of Satan he useth all means to snare us and withdraw us from that blessed hope sometimes he letteth the encrease of the Gospel by raising up tumults and disquieting the Church of God and stirring the heart of such as are in Authority to persecute by all means the teachers of the Gospel of Christ Again when God gives peace and quietness to his Church he leadeth the Overseers of the people to a forgetfulness of their duty to seek the pleasures and delight of this life and to have no regard of the work of the Lord such occasion the Devil seeketh to hinder our salvation and to withstand the truth and glory of God. CHAP. VI. The Church of England's resentment of Non-residence OH my Sons I have no pleasure in exposing you yet have I no power to excuse you you know that I have charity for you that suffereth long that is kind that is not easily provoked thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Alas what shall I do now my people complain my adversaries reproach my Soveraign is displeased my Nobility and Gentry are incensed and where-ever I turn my self Complaints are made Petitions are drawn up Jealousies are whispered and Fears are murmured If I should hold my peace I should be thought altogether such a one as you are if I should speak my tongue fails me I am in a great strait yet you had better hear your miscarriages faithfully reproved by me to your reformation then maliciously aggravated by others to your destruction My words may be smart yet they are wholsome severe they may be yet kind you hear me with sorrow but not with more then I speak to you with 1. It 's sad that after so many Councils Decrees as Carth. 6. Tol. 6. Chalc. 7. Nic. 15. Sardic 14. after so many Fathers charge as Hier. com 2. p. 111. Aug. 7. 4. in B. 16. Athan. in Jo. 7. Naz. apol p. 16. Cy. Ep. 8. Greg. de cura pastorali passim after so many provisions of Parliaments as 30 H. 8. 4. 32. El. 6. so many complaints from friends and foes as 31 Q. El. 3 K. J. 12. K. Ch. a sin so dishonourable to your profession so dangerous to Church and State so clearly repugnant to your Callings as Nonresidence is should yet be named amongst you As 1. Do you read that in Act. 20. 25. Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud c. Take heed be not absent neglect not Do you consider where you are what you have taken upon you Over which the holy Ghost hath the holy Ghost set you over your flocks and do you forsake them hath Heaven intrusted them to you and do you neglect them Overseers and yet come not neer your flock Bishops and never visit them To feed the Church of God that Church for whose sake the world is upheld Oh what a charge have you undertaken will you be unfaithful to this charge are you Stewards of Gods own Family Oh it 's required of a Steward that he be found faithful 1 Cor. 4. 2. Have you the conduct of those Saints that must live for ever with God in glory and will you neglect them Are the souls of men thought meet to see his face in Glory and are they not worthy of your utmost care and pains Oh if you keep beasts you might say they are scarce worth looking after but do you think so of the souls of men of the Church of God the peculiar people the holy Nation Which he hath purchased with his blood God the Son hath purchased the Church with his bloud and will not you look to it What Sirs will ye dispise the bloud of Christ Shall the price of his bloud be lost Hath Christ died for souls and shall I not sweat Are my people they which Christ came from Heaven to save and shall not I go from the City from the Court c. to save them Oh what do I hear may you say when it may be one of my poor flock perisheth for whom Christ died After my departing saith the Text grievous Wolves shall enter in among you not sparing the flock Oh Sirs do you not know that the Jesuite is busie that the Seducers are many Why do you forsake the flocks are you resolved to ruine me First you displease the people then you leave them open to any seditious or factious persons that will improve their prejudice discontents and weakness to their own advantage It 's true you substitute your Curates but alas poor men they are hardly able to live much less to dispute they are hardly able to furnish themselves for Sermons much less for Controversies besides that they are so contemptible that I may here very pertinently alledge that of Eccles 9. 13. Oh that you should betray his Majesties interest and my cause and leave his subjects and my people to the temptations of those men who with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple with feigned words making merchandize of them Can you stay in Court or City and leave poor Neighbours perverted honest men deluded good subjects debauched and a Kingdom almost overturned As Augustus said to Quint. Varus Quintili Vare redde Legiones so his Majesty so I if yet you will hear me say unto you Oh restore us the many souls which by your neglect we have lost Oh restore that peace which by your carelesness we want Oh restore us that purity of Doctrine and Worship which by publick and private diligence you might have secured while you are asleep the enemy soweth his tares while you sleep your ruine slumbers not while you ride to and fro seeking that preferment your ambition may pitch upon your adversary the Devil and his Emissaries goes to fro seeking whom he may devour You compass Sea and Land for Wealth your adversaries compass Sea and Land for Proselites And did not the late times slander you and are you Hirelings indeed He that is an Hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth and the wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep The Hireling fleeth because he is an Hireling and careth not for the sheep Joh. 10. Oh of your own selves do men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Therefore watch and remember that in the Primitive times for the space of many years the Ministers ceased not to warne every one night and day with tears and they could say to their Congregations We take you to record that we are pure from the blood of all men for we have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of