of Genua who promised to deliver Constantinople into the Emperours hands so he would make him King of such a place that he desired And Mahomet yielded and assured him that he would do it and so he did Pet. Primanday c. 39. pag. 423. for as soone as ever the said Justinian had betrayed the City into his hands he presently made him King for that good service which he had done unto him but for a reward of his treachery to his Lord and Master Augustulus he cut off his head within three dayes after And so all the wise men that I have read of do conceive that no good service done to succeeding Kings can merit the blotting out of the perjury and perfidiousness of Traytors to their former Kings and Masters but that after they be rewarded for their good turns done to the latter they should likewise receive the merit of their perfidiousness to the former Theodorus in Collect. l. 2. The reasons why perfidiousness should not be pardoned And the reason is rendred by the foresaid Sages 1. Because that as Theodoric the Arian said when he cut off the head of an Orthodox Deacon whom he loved because he revolted to please Theodoric as he thought to Arianism they that keep not their oaths and faith to God can never be faithful to any mortal man Flav. Vopisc in vita Aurelian 2. Because that as Aurelian said when he suffered Heraclemon which had done him so good service to be slain he could not believe that he which would betray his Countrey and prove faithless to his own Prince could ever continue faithful unto him but that upon the like discontent or hope of a greater gain such Traytors as will turn the leaf and saile with every winde will become as treacherous to their latter benefactors as they have been unto their former Masters And therefore though we should forgive them as Christians yet it is neither wisdome nor pollicy to believe them as friends because not onely the Fable of the Snake but the Son of Syrach also teacheth us what little credit is to be given to reconciled friends Eccles 10.12 And the wise heathen bids us semper diffidere to suspect such faithless men continually Object But what if the Kings and Princes have promised Pardons unto the Traytors for some special service done unto them Can they afterward punish them for their precedent offences unto others I answer that as Cicero saith Sol. every man is bound and much more it is for the honour of a Prince to keep his word and promises inviolable though upon some exigent necessity he may be constrained to make the same to his prejudice and against his will and it was well said that the bare word of a Prince should be of as great force as the oath of a private man But though Kings and Princes should inviolably observe their words in their Pardon 's granted unto Rebels and Traytors and other Malefactors Not to countenance and favour those that have been Traytors and why yet as Philip King of Macedon answered Lasthenes that betrayed the City of Olynthum and Augustus Caesar said to Rymetalces King of Thracia that had forsaken Antonius to joyn with him that he loved the treason that did him good but he could not endure the Traytor that betrayed his Master And Alexander Severus was of the same minde but that he joyned cruelty with his hatred unto the Traytors for when he had inticed many Captains of Piscennius Niger his Competitor of the Empire to disclose their Masters secrets and had served his turn of them and settled his affairs he made all those Traytors Herod l. 3 and their children also to be put to death as Herodian writeth So the wisest men conceived that they ought not to countenance and favour those that had been Traytors unto other Princes though they had done good service unto them and that for these three reasons 1. For that he which hath turned one leaf can turn another and he that hath betrayed my Father may upon the like hopes and surmises betray me likewise and he that hath been a Rebel knows the way to become a Rebel 2. For that this honouring and magnifying of Rebels and Traytors to former Princes for their good service done to latter Masters may prove to be an encouragement for others to become Rebels and Traytors in like manner against their Kings For when amongst many thousands of Rebels they see but few punished the rest pardoned and many of them favoured and preferred why may not the seditions think that they shall either prevail or if miss of their enterprise they may escape the fortune of those few that shall be punished and be magnified like those that they do see thus rewarded 3. For that this favouring and countenancing of those that have been Rebels and false is a great offence and discouragement to those that have ever continued faithful and loyal especially if they see themselves postponed and neglected And therefore the Kings and Princes that I told you of thought it neither wisdom nor policy to regard and favour those whom they pardoned for their treachery to their former Princes though they had done never so good service unto themselves and if all Kings did so I believe fewer Traytors would spring up among the people And this appeareth plainly by our new Plotters of Rebellions and Treasons now amongst us in this Kingdom of Ireland for who and what are they that doe thus murmur and mutter against both God and his Anointed the King and his Lieutenant the Church and Common-wealth But those that have been members of the Beast and limbs of the great Anti-Christ the Rebels and Traytors that rose and warr'd and some no doubt but had their hands or fingers dipped deep in the bloud of that blessed Saint and glorious Martyr our late most gracious King Charles the First and having escaped their just deserved shame and death and being so highly rewarded by their Grand Masters for their great wickedness with the lands of the Irish without distinction whether they were bloudy Murderers and Rebels against their King or innocent Papists that were both loyal unto their King and succourers of the Protestants and now seeing the touchstone of truth and justice rendring to every one his own according to his merit either of nocency or innocency they stamp and stare and being moved with madness like boyes at blinde manbuâ—â— they let fly their Arrows even bitter words nay false scandalous rebellious and treacherous words against the King against his Lieutenant and against the peace and happiness of this whole Kingdom they care not whom they traduce so they may stir up the coals of contention and move the discontented to a new Rebellion And what wayes do they take for this but the very same which they had learned and practised before in England under the Long-Parliament 1. To tax and to traduce the good King for doing that they know
est una quantum tres simul sunt in the holy Trinity one is as much as are all the three Persons nec plus aliquid sunt duae quam una res in se infinita sunt neither are two any thing more then one thing and in themselves are infinite Ita singuli sunt in singulis etiam omnia in singulis singula in omnibus omnia in omnibus unum omnia and so each of them are in each one and also all in each of them and each of them in all and all in all of them and one is all and again de verbis Domini he saith Videmus Solem in Coelo currentem fulgentem calentem We see the Sun in Heaven running shining and warming us and so in like manner the Fire saith he hath three things in it motum lucem fervorem motion light and heat Divide ergo si potes Arriane Solem vel ignem tunc divide Trinitatem and therefore if thou canst O thou Arrian divide the Sun or the fire then at length divide the Trinity And S. Gregory saith Tunc aperte videbimus quomodo unum indivisibiliter tria sunt indivisibiliter tria unum When we shall be so happy as to attain to the kingdom of Heaven we shall then plainly see what we now believe how the one that is Essence is indivisibly three that is Persons and the three that is Persons is indivisibly one that is Essence And as for the eternity of these three Persons That the three Persons are coetenal none is be before nor after the other but all are coeternal for seeing the Son is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. John calls him the Word and Speech of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wisdom of God Luke 2.49 as S. Luke calleth him it followeth that aut Pater fuit absque Sapientiâ aut nunquam fuit absque Filio either the Father was sometimes without his Speech or without his Wisdom or he was never without his Son and seeing the Holy Ghost is amor nexus unitas Patris Filii the love connexion and unity of the Father and the Son it must needs follow that either the Father and the Son were without love and unity betwixt them or else they were never without the Holy Ghost That the three Persons are co-equal And so for the equality of these Persons there is none greater nor lesser then the other but as they are coeternal so they are co-equal And therefore they are deceived that think the Father is greater then the Son ratione nominis in that he is called the Father because the name of the Son in the blessed Trinity signifieth not a subjection but a relation and not such a relation as it signifieth among men but for our better notion and apprehension of these holy Persons that in regard of our weak understanding were so graciously pleased to condescend to make themseves known unto us by those Names Titles and Epithetes as we could best understand when as otherwise both the Essence and the Persons in themselves are every other ways incomprehensible And thus much of the Mysterie of the blessed Trinity Now followeth some special Attributes of the divine Essence and here are five of them Certain Rules to be observed concerning the divine attributes But touching these and the other Attributes of God before we proceed any further to treat of the particulars some certain Rules are to be observed For An Attribute is the Propriety of the Divine Nature which cannot be separated from the same because it is of the Essence of God when as Quicquid in Deo est Deus est Whatsoever is in God is God and therefore the Divines say 1 That we must consider Eas proprietates non esse qualitates 1. Rule and Observation Gods attributes are no qualities in him James 1.17 sed ipsam Essentiam Dei Those properties not to be any qualities in God but the very Essence of God because the nature of God is most simple and admitteth nothing of the predicaments when as nothing can be added unto it nothing can be taken from it but as S. James saith With him there is no mutation no change nor shadow of turning for in God there is nothing either by way of composition or by way of accident or by way of matter and form and therefore God is not called holy and just as a man is so called for holiness and justice in a man are qualities but in God they are his Essence from whence it cometh to pass that God is holy just and good without quality and he is infinite and immeasureable without quantity but neither Man nor Angel can be said to be holy just good or great without quality and quantity Even so God is present every where without moving Et sempiternus sine tempore and he is everlasting and eternal without time as being from all eternity before all times and so continuing for ever ever when there shall be no time He that would see more of this point let him look into S. Bernard Serm. 80. in Cant. and S. Augustin lib. 5. c. 1. de Trinit 2. We must consider that all the proprieties of God are in him most perfectly most equally and most incommutable 2. Rule and Observation Gods attributes are all perfect and equal in him but in Men and Angels they are inchoated measured and comprehended within certain bounds and degrees and they are mutable and imperfect so that to the holiness purity and justice of God the blessed Angels are neither holy nor pure nor just and to the goodness of God neither men nor Angels are good as both Job and our Saviour sheweth when he saith There is none good but God that is perfectly simply and absolutely good the Angels being not pure in his sight Job 15.15 Job 4.18 From hence it cometh to pass that these proprieties in God cannot suscipere magis aut minus Matth. 19 16. Vide S. Aug. Enchirid. that is grow greater or lesser or be augmented which they may do and do in any and every man And as these proprieties are most perfectly in God so they are most equally in him for neither is his mercy greater then his justice nor his justice any less then his mercy because he maketh not the wicked innocent Exod. 34.7 Ezek. 18.24 nor calleth evil good nor good evil so neither is his wisdom greater then his power nor his power any less then his wisdom because his power can do whatsoever his wisdom thinks fit and good to be done Yet I say that we by reason of our infirmities cannot perceive them to be equally in him but we perceive his mercy to be far greater then his justice though in God the one is neither greater nor lesser or better then the other And therefore the Lord is called Very mercifull Exod. 34.6 Ephes 2.4 and abundant in goodness
but endeavour to be good in all things think well of themselves because they have some good things in them as a good wit great learning fair speeches some charity and it may be some justice and the like for so the Devils have some good things in them likewise and if thou hadst no good things in thee thou wert worse then the very Devils But if thou wouldest be deemed a good man thou must be ex omni parte bonus good in every way or at least endeavouring to be good in all things such as Job and Zacharias were that walked in all the Commandments of God without reproof 2. You must note that there is none of those good things Point 2 that are in them but as wicked Judges abuse their Authority to pervert Justice and corrupt Lawyers abuse their knowledg to wrest the Law and covetous worldlings do abuse their wealth and their power to oppress the poor so do these wicked spirits corrupt and abuse all the good things that are in them by making them means of effecting the greater evils as by their knowledge and subtilty to deceive us as they deceived Evah by their might and power to torment us as they tormented Job and those poor possessed men that we read of in the Gospel and by their agility to be every where in every corner ready to entrap us And therefore how wary and how watchfull should we be to escape their wiles and to prevent them for the more powerfull our enemies are the more preparation we ought to make against them But to the end we may the better see how farr and how many ways they pervert and turn all these good things that God hath given them to work our destruction and to shew their rebellion against God let us proceed unto the second point and so consider the names and titles whereby they are named and made known unto us because as the Poet saith Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis The names do often agree with the natures 2. Of the names and titles of the Devils 2. Touching their names and titles you must understand that all the names which we find given unto them are either In respect 1. Of their Nature and being or 2. Of their Practice and desire to do mischief 3. Of the Forms wherein they appeared 4. Of their Knowledg and Understanding 5. Of their Might and Power to effect what they intend to do Respect 1 1. In respect of their Nature they are sometimes called simply Spirits as in Matth. 4.1 Mar. 1.12 Luke 10.20 and sometimes they are called Angels as in 1 Cor. 6.3 and in 2 Pet. 2.4 But this is rather a name of office than of nature whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Nuncius a Messenger Respect 2 2. In respect of their Practice and desire to work mischief as the same is diverse so in that respect they have divers names As 1. Spiritus malus an evil Spirit and the unclean Spirit and that not onely because he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 1.16 Matth. 13.19 and 39. Zach 13.2 Matth 12.43 1 Pet. 5.8 Zach. 3.1 Evil in himself but also endavoureth by all means to make all others evil and unclean 2. Adversarius an adversary for so S. Peter saith Your adversary the Devil goeth about like a roaring Lion and he is stiled our adversary because he is always against us and is continually an accuser of the brethren in which respect he is likewise stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Devil that is Calumniator Dei hominum the reviler or slanderer both of God and Men. 3. Spiritus fornicationum the spirit of Fornications for so the Prophet Hoseas saith Hos 4.12 The spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to erre and he is so called not onely because he pricketh our flesh to carnal and unlawfull lusts and uncleanness but especially because he instigateth all men unto spiritual fornication to run a whoring after strange Gods to commit idolatry with the Idols of the Gentiles and by their covetousness and greedy hunting after riches and the wealth of this world which is Idolatry as the Apostle affirmeth when we make a god of our gold and neglect the service of the everliving God 4. Spiritus mendacii a lying Spirit and the Father of lyes for so he saith himself 1 Reg. 22.22 I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the Prophets of Ahab and our Saviour faith he hath been a lyer from the beginning and he is a lyer John 8. not onely because he doth always use to lye as he did to Evah when he said Ye shall be like Gods and yet made them like Devils but also because he suggesteth nothing else but lyes to every one of us and perswadeth us by all means to turn the truth of God into a lye as S. Augustine sheweth August contra Jud Pagan Arian c. 2. That the Devil sometimes speaketh truth But though he be a lying Spirit and the father of lyes yet this proveth not but that as Maldonate very accurately sheweth the Devil may sometimes speak a truth for he spake the truth when he said I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets for so he was And he spake the truth when he alledged the Scriptures to Christ in the Desart and when he confessed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God even as S. Peter did though as S. Augustine well observeth Saint Peter was commended and the Devil reproved because as the Proverb is Non pulchrum est laus in ore peccatoris I desire not the praise of a lewd and dissolute fellow so truth loseth of his lustre when it proceeds from a common lyar whom men do suspect when he speaks the truth and besides this whensoever the Devil speaketh truth he alwayes levelleth at an evil end But alwayes to an evil end as when he spake the truth of Ahabs prophets it was to deceive them and to destroy Ahab and when he alledged the truth of the Scriptures unto Christ it was to see if he could perswade Christ to offend and when he confessed Christ to be the Son of God it was not to perswade us to believe it but to make us not to believe it because the Devil spake it And therefore whensoever lyars or the Father of lyes do speak the truth we should take heed of them and believe the truth not because they have spoken it but because the Scripture saith it or that we have other far better reasons to perswade us to it then their saying of it for that a lyars truth if there were no other reason to believe it is alwayes to be suspected 5. Satanas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Tempter because the Devil doth alwayes provoke us unto sin and attempteth by all means to bring our sins unto perfection But here you must observe in what sense he is called a Tempter because there is a twofold temptation
some Service that he had done as I am informed the Commissioners should allot him so much Lands as they thought worth 200 li. and they out of favour to him and getting Lands so cheap as they did gave him this Bishops Court and so much more other Lands as are now far better worth than 200 li. per annum his Counsel said never a word touching his Title and Interest for he injoyed it not peaceably and quietly but only during the time of the Rebellion and Usurpation which I conceive to be no true Possession for as soon as ever his Majesty was so happily restored before one year had gone about I sent to enter upon it and to distrain for my Rent and Captain Burges Sir George Ayskues prime Tenant gave me a Writing which I have to shew under his hand to become answerable unto me for the whole Rent of this Bishops Court and Freshfoord when I should be peaceably setled in it So when these six Counsellours had spent their spirits in tyring the worthy Judges and beating the soft air to no purpose but only like those Fanatick Preachers that read their Text and never touch it after to amaze the simple and Jury which I may justly term for that I am confident the most of them were resolved what to do before ever they heard the Evidence My Counsel that were Sir William Dunvil the Kings Atturney Sir Audley Mervin * The Speaker of the House of Commons Sir John Temple the Kings Sollicitor Sergeant Gruffith and Mr. Rian all very worthy men and worthy to be named thinking it no wisdom in them as one of themselves told me nor any waies beneficial either to the King for his Fine or to me for the Possession to follow those extravagant Counsellours in their devious waies and to answer their needless discourses so far from the point in question as being only about Sheas Title and no waies touching nor contradicting the forcible entry were very silent and said never a word to all that the adverse Counsellours had said but left the Evidence to be explained to the Jury by the Judges who had so exactly examined them and so patiently heard what both sides could say for which some of the adverse Counsellours and some of my friends blamed them very much for making no manner of replication at all to Sir George Ayskues Counsel But truly I do conceive that digitus dei erat hic that as he openeth the mouth of babes and sucklings to shew forth his praise so he shuts the mouths of the Wise and Learned when it pleaseth him as here he did for the trial of this Jury whether they would be true and honest that being found * Like Belshazzar weighed in the balance and found too light as I conceive they are they might be made an example which he knew I would do to the uttermost of my power for all other Juries to terrifie them from falshood and wrong to the great benefit of the whole Kingdom which without some severe censures upon such high Offenders would rather prove to be a Den of thieves than a seat of safety for honest men that were best if Juries may still do what they list to obey the voice which cried in the air at the Siege of Hierusalem Migremus hinc Then my Lord of Santry that is my Lord Chief Justice seeing my Counsel silent began most nobly rightly and truly as a most upright Judge and like himself in all his judgements told the Jury that for the title and matter of Law and the Interest of either in this Bishops Court it was not in their charge to inquire of it but they that were the Judges of the Law and of the right interest were to do it and would do the same when my Counsel should move for the possession but they were for the King to enquire only of the matter of fact and force whether after possession was given to the Bishop by the Sheriff by vertue of an Order of the house of Lords and the Bishop continued his possession from April to the eighth of October The which saâ—d he a Disscisor should not forcibly be put out though he should be a Disseisor yet was he not forcibly put out and kept out of the same This was their only charge to inquire after and for this said my Lord Chief Justice you see what is proved a multitude of persons ten or twelve at the least when as one may make a forcible entry you heard also said he what weapons they had Gun Pike Sword and Staves and you heard what threatning words they used that they would make the Bishop to repent his coming there that they would knock down his Servants and beat out their brains if they attempted to come in and you heard likewise how they had beaten and wounded those Servants that sought to hinder them to impound their Cattle and all this said my Lord Chief Justice makes the forcible entry plain so that you need not stand upon it So justly and so fairly did my Lord of Santry deal herein without either fearing or favouring the one or the other So the Jury was dismist and all that heard the evidence Sure if I had not been a Bishop they would never have given such a Verdict and what my Lord Chief Justice said would have laid some twenty to one some forty to one and some a hundred to one that the Jury would not stand upon it but presently find the Verdict for the King Yet they brought their Verdict for the Defendants And as I am informed all the Grave and Reverend Judges wondred and were discontented at their Verdict And who will prosecute for the King if Juries be suffered to do thus and whereas some would have the Jury fined and imprisoned for the wrong they had done to the King my Lord Chief Justice answered there was a fitter place to punish them meaning as I conceive the Star-Chamber And if such men that formerly most of them were against their King be thus permitted to drive men out of house and home and forcibly to enter into their possession though they should be Peeres of the Realm which is a violence offered unto the Law and a peâ—ty Rebellion the next degree and fore-runner of rebellion against their King himself and when any oppressed and expulsed man shall with a great deal of pains and labour and with a vast expence of money and an indictment upon indictment thrice over bring the same to a travers and they the Jury without any Conscience contrary to all justice and contrary to all their evidence and the plain Declaration and Judgement of the Lords the Judges of the Court and of the whole Court shall do what they please and say Quod volâ—â—us id sanctum est what we do is Law without any speedy remedy against them to the utter undoing of many poor oppressed men who had better suffer any the greatest wrong than
Temples that belonged to these no Gods Delicta majorum immeritus lues Romane donec templa refeceris Horat l. 3. Ode 6. Aedesque labentes deorum fada nigro Simulachra fumo The which Ode that worthy and learned Imitator of this best Lyrick Poet thus excellently translateth in this elegant Lyrick Verse Roman resolve thou shalt desertless tast Sins scourge for vice of Predecessors past Untill thou dost again repair Decayed Temples and make fair The falling houses of the gods disgrac'd And cleanse their Images with smoak defac'd To think thee less than gods thy power commends Hence take beginnings hither aime thy ends The gods neglected did impose On sad Hesperia many woes Twice Pacorus and twice Manaeses hand Our inanspicious forces did disband Who with a plentious prey made glad To little chains new links did add And if by the judgment of this learned man they shall suffer for all the sins and offences of their Fathers and Fore-fathers untill they re-edifie the Temples and raise the flat-fallen houses of these gods and beautifie the defiled Monuments and Sepulchres of their Heroes and other noble persons that were dead What shame and what punishment do we deserve for suffering the Tombs and Sepulchres of our heroick Fathers and the Temples Houses and Altars of our good God and our Redeemer Jesus Christ to lye so waste so ruined and so defiled as they are here in this Kingdom of Ireland for I do believe that of about 100 Churches that our fore-fathers built and sufficiently endowed in the Diocess of Ossory there are not 20 standing nor 10 well repaired at this day Truly I have done my best beyond my ability let Demas and the detractors say what they please to repair the Quire of St. Kenny and I have privately vowed and publickly protested often and engaged my self to God to His Majesty and to the People and I am contented to be bound in a bond of one thousand pounds that if the Bishops Court and Freshford that were given to the Church and dedicated to God for the service of Jesus Christ shall be restored to the Church there shall not one penny or penniworth of all the rents and profits thereof be retained or transferred to me or any of mine but it shall wholly and fully be imployed and laid out for the raising and reparation of that Cathedral Church which the Lord hath now committed to my charge But if I shall still see as I have seen hitherto that Rebels and Traytors that have been if such as have fought under the Standard of the beast and Great Antichrist against their own King to bring him to be murdered may be so stiled shall be countenanced furthered and upheld to carry away and enjoy the Lands and Houses of the Church and so little regard had of that justice we owe to render unto God what belongs to God and less respect to the servants of Jesus Christ than to the followers of the Antichrist then seeing as the Prophet saith in vacuum laboravi I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength my time my means and my money for nought in seeking to bring to God what is Gods and to the Church what of right belongs unto the Church Liberavi animam meam and I hope I may freely turn the leaf and as God said of the house of Eli I said indeed that the house of Eli 1 Sam. 2.30 and the house of his Fathers should walk before me for ever but now saith the Lord be it far from me And seeing they had so far dishonoured him and so much prophaned his service it was just with God so to do And so I said indeed I would do my best and I would bestow as much as I was able and perhaps more than many would imagine to repair the Cathedral Church of St. Kenny yet now being disappointed of my hope and finding men preferring flesh and bloud before the dictate of the Spirit of God favouring those that have been rebels before such as are religious Seeing I cannot build the Church of Christ I have resolved to the uttermost of my power to overthrow the Synagogue of Satan that is to punish perjurers and such others high transgressors of Gods Laws and to leave the houses of God as finding my self unable to prevail to do therein any good wasted and ruined as they are And if this I cannot do but that Scelera sceleribus tuebuntur one false and perjured Jury shall be defended and protected and justified by another false Jury and one wicked oppressor excused by another the like oppressor or that the fear of great men will not suffer poor spirited Lawyers to afford us Law for any money then ad te domine clamabo that we can have neither truth nor justice in the earth But to proceed to shew the miseries of the Church of Ireland though it be a very lamentable thing and an unanswerable argument of the decay of Piety and of small Religion in the noblest persons to suffer the houses of God to lie as they do for hogs and other beasts to dig up the bones of holy Saints it may be the Fathers or Mothers of the now great Lords and Ladies of the Kingdom Yet as the Lord said unto his Prophet Ezekiel Turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations Ezek. 8.6 so I say to my Reader For 2. The great want of able Ministers in this Kingdom and why they are so scant 2. As God is without Churches for his people to meet in to serve him so he is without servants enabled to do him service to praise his name and to teach his people and to have Churches and no Churchmen is to no purpose But why have we not such Churchmen as are able to instruct Gods people I say it is easily answered that it is not so easie to get able worthy and sufficient Churchmen unless there were sufficient means and livings to maintain them for as Seneca truly saith Sublatis studiorum premiis ipsa studia pereunt where there is no reward for learning there will be want of learned men as one demanding why there were no Physitians in Lacedemon answer was made because there was no stipend nor allowance set forth for the Professours of that faculty but as Martial saith to Flaccus Sint Maecenates non decrunt Flacce marones Virgiliumque tibi vel tua rura dabunt But here in Ireland since Hen. 8. Why we want learned and painful Preachers here in Ireland overthrew the Abbies and Monasteries that were as Universities to breed Schollars and to send them forth to feed the flock of Christ and gave the Revenues thereof which were the Ecclesiastical Livings of the Church unto his Nobility and lay Gentry that spend the same in many places in hawking and hunting and perhaps in some other worser employments the Church of Christ wanteth Schollars and which is worse wanteth means to maintain those Schollars that otherwise would supply
of them and do you think that this value is sufficient to maintain an able Ministery to supply all these Churches and Parishes as they ought to be or that Popery shall be supprest and the true Protestant Religion planted amongst the people by the unition of Parishes and the diminution of Churches without any augmentation of their means Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Object But you will say his Majesty hath most graciously provided and it is confirmed by the Act of Settlement that a very ample augmentation is added to all the meanest Bishopricks of Ireland and he hath most royally and religiously bestowed all the Impropriations forfeited to his Crown upon the several Incumbents unto whose Churches they did belong Answ I answer That when God placed man in Paradice the devil was ready to cast him out and when God maketh our paths straight and easie Satan will straight put rubbs and blocks in our way to stumble us so though I gave above fifty pounds for Agents money to follow the Churches cause and spent above thirty pounds to procure a Commission to gain that augmentation which his Majesty was so graciously pleased to add unto the Bishop of Ossory yet presently there comes a Supersedeas to stop the proceeding of my Commission How the devil hindereth all intended good and I am not the better either by Augmentation or Agents so much as one penny to this very day and some devil hath put some great rub for a stumbling block in my way untill God removes the same and throws it where blocks deserve to be And though his Majestie hath been pleased to bestow his Impropriations upon the Incumbents yet my Lord Lieutenant and the Council thought it fit to take forty pounds per annum out of those Impropriations for the better provision of the Quire in Dublin and so by that means the Clergy of Ossory are not the better by one penny that the Clergy might be like unto their Bishop for I find but four impropriations forfeited to his Majesty and bestowed upon the Church in all the Diocess and these being set by Mr. Archdeacon Teate to the uttermost pitch that he could they did not reach to forty pounds the last year And to say the truth without fear of any man we are not only deprived of the Vicarial Tythes and offerings by the Farmers of the great Lords Impropriate Rectories but our Lands and Glebes are clipped and pared to become as thin as Banbury Cheese by the Commissioners and Counsel of those illustrious Lords for though his Grace our most excellent Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond is I say it without flattery a man of such worth so noble so honourable and so religious as is beyond compare and for his fidelity and Piety and other incomparable parts scarce to be equalized by any Subject of any King and so many other great Lords are in themselves very noble and religious yet as Rehoboam in himself considered was not so very a bad King but had very bad Counsellours that did him a great deal of dishonour and damage so this most honourable Duke And thus as Christ was crucified betwixt the good thief and the bad so are we betwixt the good Lords and their bad Agents But let them fear least by making their Lords great here on earth they do make themselves little in heaven and other great Lords may have as I fear some of them have such Commissioners and Counsel that as well to make themselves a fortune as to enlarge their Lords revenues will pinch the Parsons side and part the Garments of Christ betwixt themselves and their Lords as my Lord Dukes Agents have distrained and driven away my Tenants Cattel for divers great sums of Chieferies and challenged some Lands that as I am informed were never paid nor challenged within the memory of man And who dares oppose these men or say unto them Why did you so Not I though they should take away my whole estate for as Naboth had better have yielded up his Vineyard than to have lost his life so I conceive it better to yield to their desires quietly than to lose both my Lands and my labour by such a Jury as will give it away though never so Unjustly whereof I have had experience and a sad proof non sine meo magno malo Yet The Civility and Piety of the 49 men I confess the 49. men have been very civil and shewed themselves very fairly conditioned and religious both to my self and as I understand to all other Clergymen and I wish that all Noblemens Commissioners and Agents would be so likewise that their doings may bring a blessing and not a curse upon them and perhaps upon their Lords and Masters Lords and Masters shall answer to God for the oppressions that their servants do under their power that must give an account to God for the ill carriages and the oppressions of the poor by their servants who dishonour their Lords and make them liable to Gods wrath for the wrongs that they do to make them the greater and so receive the greater condemnation for great men must not only do no wrong themselves but they ought also to see that none under their wings and through the colour of their power and authority do any wrong unto the poore But to deal plainly and to shew what respect favour and justice we the poor Bishops and Clergymen have from the great Lords and Courts of justice in this Kingdom I will instance but in the example of my self who after I had exposed my self to the dayly and continual hazard of my life by my preaching and publishing so many Books against the Rebels and Long Parliament which I have unanswerably proved to be the Great Antichrist and had for all their Reign served duram servitutem and suffered more hardship than any Bishop and upon my restitution to my Bishopprick by the happy restauration of our most gracious King having spent above four hundred pounds to gain the Bishops Mansion house where Bishop Bale saw five of his Servants kill'd before his face and himself driven to flee to save his life and which was given to Sir George Askue by Cromwel for his service to the Long Parliament I have fully shewed the favour and the justice that I had at the Kings Bench though I must ingeniously confess my Lord Chief Justice dealt as fairly and as justly as any Judge in the world could do And I do pray to God that both Judges and Jury and all the pleaders may have better at the Bar of the King of Kings Then letting pass the proceeding of the Court of Claim that gave away the Lands and Houses that were in my possession while I was in London though a chief Member of that Court promised that nothing should be done against the Church untill I returned home and acknowledging the civility and fair respect that was shewed me by my Lord Chief Baron and the other
things of this world in our judgements rightly informed which now seem so precious in our imaginations being corrupted What the spiritual men that are like the noble Eagle should doe And therefore if we would be like the noble Eagles mounting up to Heaven then as Moses builded his tent without the hoste and far from the hoste so should we build our habitation out of this world and far above the world and as Elias when he journeyed towards Heaven in his fiery Chariot and was flying up in a whirlwinde bestript himself of his mantle and threw it down to the earth lest the weight of it should presse him downward and so hinder his ascent to Heaven even so if we desire to ascend to Heaven we must bestrip our selves of all worldly impediments that are as heavy as a talent of lead and do not onely hinder us from ascending upwards but do press many men down to the bottomless pit And as the Prophet David in all distresses comforted himself with that pious meditation saying Whom have I in heaven but thee and what is there on earth that I desire in comparison of thee so do all those that make their unum necessarium their chiefest purpose and design to go to Christ to have an everlasting house and lands satisfie themselves with the hope of obtaining their desire And this is the reason that seeing God hath given them all that they have they weigh not a straw if they be driven to spend all that they have for the benefit and good of the Church of Christ and to promote the service of God And if the wise men of the world laugh at our folly and say we shall spend ten times more then we shall ever get We may answer that for our losses and expences they are but as feathers and that shall never trouble us but our hope is that we shall attain unto our desire which is to mount up with the rest of God's Eagles unto the Kingdom of Heaven and that will countervail all our losses And so much for the peculiar and proper Description of these Beasts THE SECOND SERMON REVEL 4.8 And the four Beasts had each of them six wings about him c. 2. FOR their general and common description 2. Their general and common description it is said they had each one of them six wings about him and they were all full of eyes Touching which you must observe 1. Some things about their wings 2. Some things about their eyes And 1. Of their wings 1. About their wings These two things are to be noted 1. What are these six wings 2. To what end they had these wings or what use they made of them 1. What they are 1. Rupertus and others say these six wings are the six works of mercy visito poto cibo redimo tego colligo fratres that is as our Saviour sets them down to give meat unto the hâ—ngry Matth. 25.35 drink unto the thirsty lodging to the stranger cloathe to the naked and to visit the sick and those that are in prison others understand hereby the six spiritual works of piety and mercy which are to correct the offendor to instruct and consell the ignorant to comfort the afflicted to bear patiently all injuries to forgive all trespasses and to pray for our enemies and persecutors but Balaeus and Lambert say that these six wings are faith hâ—pe charity justice mercy and truth and I think they come nearest unto the truth for by those six we shall be able to shun and flie away from all the mischeifs of the world and these six wings are able to mount us up unto our father in Heaven And they that have not these six wings are rightly said to be like the Ostrich which often spreads her wings but seldome flieth But they that have these six wings are most happy and need not fear the greatest dangers nor the malice of their greatest enemies For 1. Faith is radix omnium virtutum the root of all virtues and you know what mightie things Saint Paul setteth down to have been done through faith 2. Spes alit afflictos hope preserveth the afflicted and maketh not ashamed saith the Apostle 3. Charity covereth a multitude of sins and of all the three divine graces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of them all is charity 4. Justice is such a cardinal virtue that Theognis a Heathen saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice comprehends all virtues 5. Our Saviour saith blessed are the mercifull for that they are sure to obtain mercy And 6. Truth as Zorob proveth is so great that it will prevaile against all oppositions for though that by the tricks and delayes of sutle heads it may be clouded for a time yet at last it will bud forth and appear But I fear the Lord hath a controversie with the Inhabitants of this Land because as the Prophet saith there is no truth nor mercy I may add nor justice nor knowledge of God in the Land or if these be then I am sure you will not build up Zion with bloud and Jerusalem with iniquity because the Lord loves neither House nor Lands that are unjustly obtained I cannot stand to examine it or to handle the particulars that might be said concerning these six points for that might require six houres to do it at least but I will proceed and say 2. If you would know to what end they had these wings 2. What use they made of their wings or what use they made of them the Prophet Esay tells you in the practice of the Seraphims that it was for these three special ends That is 1. To cover their faces 2. To cover their feet 3. To flie about For he saith that with two of their wings they cover'd their faces and with two they covered their feet Esay 6.2 and with two they did flie And this they did for these three ends That is 1. To check our curiosity 2. To shew our misery 3. To teach us industry 1. It is the nature and the foolish disposition of man to be alwayes prying and searching into every thing the secrets of God the mysteries of state and the obscurities of nature And yet the Seraphims that stand in the presence of God are fain to cover their faces not to hide their sins which they had not but because they are not able to behold the brightness of Gods glorious Majesty and if the Angels hid their faces from the brightness of Gods Glory how dares sinfull man prie into it because as the Apostle saith he dwels in the light light that no man can attain unto it 1 Tim. 6.16 Exod. 34.20 and the Lord saith himself that no man could see his face and live for though we walk in the chearfull light of the Sun yet we are not able fully and directly to look upon the Sun when he shineth in his full strength and brightness but it will dazle our eyes and
all things aright one eye will scarce serve the turn but they must be like these beasts full of eyes one eye to look to the Complainants charge another to mark the Defendants answer and another to observe the quircks and subtleties of the Pleaders and all this they must behold and see not without a great deal of patience and a great deal of circumspection for as Seneca saith Qui parte judicat inaudita altera aequum licet statuerit ipse haud aequas est And therefore though the crie of Sodom and Gomorrha was great and their sin very grievous yet the Lord would not destroy them but he saith I will go down now and see whether they have done according to the cry of it and if not I will know Gen. 18.21 So there is another cry amongst us that the power and priviledge of Parliament doth many ways wrong men and against many poor men stop the current of justice It were well to do as God did to see whether it be altogether according to the cry of it for you may be sure that priviledge is accursed and woe be to that power that maintains wrong and stops justice and it will be a great deal more for your honour to lay aside that power and to suppress such a priviledge then to support it And I think few but such as never were in power afore would use it So when the report came that the men of any City became Idolatrous and the seducers of the people to idolatry as now our Anabaptists and Quakers withdraw their neighbours to their faction and rebellion the Lord saith Deut. 13.14 then shalt thou enquire and make search ask diligently and behold if it be truth and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought Then for the second point If thou findest it true V. 15 that thou seest they have done it thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that City with the edge of the sword and destroy it utterly For 2 The eye of doing justice that offences should not be suffered to go unpunished Aug. Epist 182. ad Bonifac 2 when with these eyes they do see the offence they should not let the offender escape quia impunitas delicti inuitat homines ad malignandum because the leaving of sin unpunished is the chiefest encouragement to invite other men to sin for by favouring one you hearten many and as Saint Augustine saith Illicita non prohibere consensus erroris est not to restrain sin when you see it is to maintain sin in them that do it and he that suffereth it which should hinder it is as culpable as he that commits it And Solomon saith He that justifieth the wicked or saith unto him thou art righteous and so let him go unpunished and quasheth all that shall be proved against him him shall the people curse and Nations shall abhor him and such a Judge deserveth very well to be accursed Prov. 24.24 And it is most certain that the suffering of oppressors intruders and the like malefactors to pass away unpunished will bring the curse of God upon any Nation and especially upon them that should hinder it and will not do it For nil doctores nisi ductores the Ministers of mercy can do no good though we preach never so well except the Ministers of Justice will maintain that good because we can but forbid the corruption of the heart and they must prohibit the wickedness of the hand when as we onely have the words of exhortation and they onely have the sword of correction And therefore seeing the eye of Justice should not wink and connive with the transgressors the false-hearted subjects and traytors the oppressours and plunderers of their brethren be they of what Nation you will Jew or Gentile and of what condition you will high or low which might think it favour enough to have their wickedness pardoned though they be not honoured and magnified when the same deserves rather to be severely punished then any wages to be connived at but I will pass from this point that is too hot to be held long in my hand And yet I must tell you that this should no ways countenance the condemning of any man that is innocent for the Scripture is very plain that justum innocentem non condemnabis neither is it any justice to punish Mephibosheth for Ziba's fault but as every horse should bear his own burthen so should every man suffer for his own faults so let the rebels that were murderers and traytours suffer and spare them not but let the innocent go free 2. I say that as the Magistrates and Judges should be like these Beasts full of eyes so should the Ministers and Preachers of Gods word be likewise full of eyes For otherwise it were to no purpose either for the Judge and the Magistrate or for the Preacher and Minister to be like Lions full of courage unless they were also full of eyes and their eyes should be sharp and quick-sighted like the Eagles eyes for the blind Lion may soon fall into the snare or ditch and then his strength and courage will availe him nothing And therefore as well the Minister as the Magistrate should be like unto these Beasts full of eyes and especially to have two eyes at the least 1. The one of famous learning and knowledg And 2. The other of a blameless life and conversation 2. That the Ministers and Preachers should be full of eyes And if the Minister wanteth either of these he is but monoculus an one-ey'd Priest not fit by the Law of God to serve at Gods Altar that would have his Priests without blemish 1. The Priests lips should preserve knowledge 1. The eye of Learning The eye often signifies the understanding and the eye by the idiome and customary phrase of the Hebrewes is often put for the whole minde and understanding of a man quia oculi sunt pracipui mentis indices because the eye is the most principal index and declarer of the minde so impudicus ocolus impudici cordis est nuntius an unchast eye is the witness of an unchast heart saith St. Hierom and a pitifull eye is the testimony of a good mercifull man Therefore the eye put for the minde and signifying the understanding the Ministers that ought to be full of eyes ought to be full of knowledge and understanding for if they want knowledge how shall the people get the knowledge of Gods Lawes from them that know nothing themselves The people must needs perish and they shall be liable for their destruction for when they perish through the Preachers fault I will require their bloud at the Preachers hand saith the Lord. Ezech. 3.20 And therefore those Ministers that have taken upon them the charge of souls and do either want the eye of learning and the light of understanding or else keep it in themselves like the fire that is in the flint stone
like a goodly Oake or the Cedar of Lebanon was cut down with all his boughes and branches of Magistracy and 2. all the Seers that were the eyes the light Those were the 2 witnesses and the reverend Governours of Gods Church and instead of them to bring in the wild-bore out of the wood the great Vsurper to destroy the vineyard of Christ and Gebal and Ammon and Amalec the Philistims with them that dwell at Tyre Ps 83.7 the whole rable of Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists Quakers and other sects which are the false Prophet to devour the revenues of the Church and to destroy all the houses of God in the land and so to corrupt the whole Service of that good God that had so graciously done such great things for us as I have fully shewed it heretofore and will hereafter be manifested for truth every day more and more And if these things be a good requital or a just thankfulness to God for all the benefits that he hath done unto us judge you What God hath done for every one of us in particular 1 What good things he hath bestowed on 〈◊〉 But to leave these monsters of men for their imparalell'd ingratitude let us return to our selves here present and see what God hath done for every one of us for he made thee a man or a woman when he might have made thee a beast and he gave thee all thy limbs thy sight and thy senses when thou mightest have been born like him that was so blind from his mothers womb I am sure thou wouldst be very thankful to that Chirurgion that would but preserve thy finger and what thanks owest thou to him that gave thee all thy members and whatsoever else thou hast good wit larg memory strong body comely proportion loving wife sweet children riches honour favour preferment and all that thou hast all is from God And that which is far better then all these for herein Dedit te tibi Deus He did but onely give thee unto thy self and those temporal blessings that are momentary but he redeemed thee from the pit wherein there is no water and in this thy redemption Dedit se tibi Deus God gave himself unto thee and his onely Son to die for thee he sends his servants to teach thee and his Holy Spirit to work all the good gifts that are in thee to make thee a good Christian here that thou maiest be for ever blessed hereafter And 2 From how many evils he hath preserved us 2. If thou hadst these eyes to look behind thee thou mightest see not only how much good the Lord God hath bestowed upon thee but also from how many evils he hath preserved thee for Satan like a roaring Lion would have devoured thee thine enemies that rose up against thee would have undone thee if the Lord himself had not been on thy side Ps 124.1 2. and as the Psalmist saith they would have swallowed thee up quick when they were so wrathfully displeased at thee yea thine own self many times by thy desperate riding running jumping or the like mightest perhaps have broken thy bones thy limbs or thy neck if thy good God had not reached his hand to save thee from falling as he did to Saint Peter to preserve him from sinking And are not these things blessings worthy to be remembred O that we would therefore prayse the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men And that we would sometimes cast our eyes behinde us to see what requital we have rendred unto God for all those benefits that he hath done for us and especially for bringing our Gracious King unto us and restoring both the Church to her purity to her rights and service of God and the Common-Wealth to its peace and tranquillity For as the Prophet David saith I called mine own wayes to remembrance So should every one doe call his wayes to remembrance that if he findes he hath been carefull in God's service and a faithful Steward in God's house it may be a comfort unto his Conscience Quia immensa est laetitia de memoria transactae virtutis because the remembrance of former virtues and of our Service and thankfulnesse unto God will bring a great deale of joy and comfort unto our selves or if he hath blasphemed Gods Name neglected his Word robbed his Church and offended his Majesty he may repent and as Job saith abhorr himself in dust and ashes But that I may the better and the sooner perswade you to fear God and to serve him Two things to be considered to move us to serve God and to doe that which is just and honest in his sight I shall with Moses desire you to remember the days of old and consider the years of many generations and therein to observe but these two things First How God blessed those that walked in his wayes Secondly How he plagued those that neglected his service and transgressed his commands 1. How God blessed those that served him 1. Enoch walked with God and God took him to himself Noah was a just man and God preserved him from the deluge Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph feared the Lord and the Lord blessed them in all that they took in hand and the Prophet David generally saith Psal 112.1 2 3. blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that hath great delight in his commandments his seed shall be mighty upon earth riches and plenteousness shall be in his house Proverb 10.7 c. 20.7 and his righteousness endureth for ever and Solomon saith the like that the memorial of the just is blessed and his children are blessed after him And therefore if thou lovest thy children and wouldest have them to grow great and to prosper in the world be just in all that thou doest and neither rob God of his right nor oppresse cozen or defraud thy poor neighbour which not done are the chiefest if not the onely things that will bring the curse of God upon thee and thy Posterity For 2. How God plagued those that transgressed his commandments and neglected his service 2. Do but cast thine eyes behind thee and consider how God plagued the unrighteous Generations and you shall finde that when the old world corrupted their wayes the Lord swept them all away with the deluge when the cry of Sodom and Gomorrha came to the eares of God God destroyed them with fire and brimstone so when the cry of the innocent servants of Christ shall not be heard to have justice done unto them because of the great friends and power of their oppressours then as the Psalmist saith The Lord will hear their cry and will help them And here to terrifie offenders from their wickedness I could willingly enlarge my discourse to shew the fearful examples of Gods judgement against many sorts of Malefactors but my short allowance of time will scarce permit me to give you
and rooted out his whole off spring And I could spend my whole hour in examples of this kinde but I will content my self with two or three As 1. Of Ferdinando the fourth King of Castiâ—e Ferdinando who did most unjustly condemn two Knights to death and one of them cryed O thou unjust Judge we do cite thee to appear within thirty dayes before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ to receive judgement for thine injustice and so upon the last of those days he dyed to receive his sentence according to his summons And one Lapparel a Provost of Paris Lapparel caused a poor man that was prisoner in the Chastilet to be executed by giving him the name of a rich man who being guilty and condemned was set at liberty in the place of the poor man but the just judgment of God discovered his injustice and being accused and condemned he was hanged for his labour and so Philip King of Macedon was killed by Pausanias a mean Gentleman Philip Macedo Demetrius because he denied to do him justice against Antipater that had wronged him and Demetrius for throwing the petitions of his subjects into the River and denying to do them justice they all forsook him and Pyrrhus took away his Kingdome And many other men I could name to you that their injustice hath undone them And therefore all men should take heed of committing this horrible sin of injustice either by doing wrong or denying right unto others The injustice of some Judges And yet I am ashamed to speak it though I shall not be affraid to write it how gravely some Judges have sate upon the seat of judgment to pronounce unrighteous judgments and think to cover all their iniquity with the fig-leaves of the formalities of their Lawes to overthrow the reality of justice Oh beloved Monstrum horrendum ingens est it is a most horrible thing to have injustice done from the seat and from the Ministers of justice when a man is apparently wronged oppressed and expulsed out of house and home and shall with a deale of travel and a great deale of expences come to a Court of justice to be righted and instead of being redressed he shall see there scelus sceleribus tectum his former wrongs finely handled and loaded with far greater wrongs Do you think that this is well pleasing unto God or that such injustice shall escape unpunished no no for they shall finde that there is a God which judgeth the earth and that his judgment will be according to truth without partiality either to Jew or Gentile which here among men I see is not so But as I read that Diogenes seeing some petty thieves led to the place of execution laughed exceedingly and being demanded why he laughed he answered to see the great thieves lead the little thieves to the Gallowes so if he should see men forcibly expelled out of their possessions and the forcible entrers legally acquitted or if he should see the poor Irish Catholicks driven out of house and home either because they were Irish rebels which justly deserved it or because they were Romish Catholicks which should not therefore be destroyed and should see the great English Sectaries that had been greater rebels countenanced and magnified and to injoy the others Lands and Livings would he not laugh at this justice which is just like that which we read of in l. 1. of Philip Commines when Charelois lost the Feild and his Captains and their Troopers fled away he gave the offices and places of them that fled ten leagues to those that had fled twenty leagues beyond them Therefore I say to you whom God and the King have made Judges of these things for the settlement of this Kingdome As you have done hitherto so still ride on with your honour and have no respect of Persons nor of Nation nor of Religion but do that which is just and righteous in the sight of God and as God hath blest you and preserved you hitherto so he will still bless you and preserve you for evermore And for the preservation of better justice then I see in many places I shall speak more of it in another place and after another manner for you may be sure that Kingdome shall never be happy where oppression is frequently used and iniquity protected by injustice and especially by the Courts of Justice And therefore to the end that true justice might be truly observed I could wish the Parliament would make some Acts Lawes against many abuses practised by some cunning Lawyers in the very Courts of Justice The abuse of some cunning Lawyers in quashing of Indictments and especially against the frequent and abusive quashing of Indictments which is a sin of no slender malignity â—or when a poor man far from the fountain is by violence oppressed and he indicts his oppressors then presently comes a Certiorari and removes it to the Kings Bench and there the Lawyers are so skilfull in the tricks and quiddities of the Law and the Cases of John A-Nokes and John A-Stiles that they say there can hardly be any indictment framed but they are able to finde a flaw to quash it which I was told by great Lawyers And what a wrong is this to his Majesty in his fines what an injury to the poor men that are oppressed and what incouragement to all those wicked men that are so ready to offer all violence unto their neighbours which are not able to indict the same offendors three or four times over till they shall finde a man able to draw a faultless indictment And if this be not a greivous greivance worthy to be redressed if you desire the preservation of justice judge you And therefore it were good that some better way were devised for the framing of Indictments or the not quashing of them so easily and so frequently as they are reported to be 4. Sacriledge 4. The last frequent sin that I shall at this time desire you to cast your eyes behinde you to behold Gods detestation of it and his punishments that he poureth out upon the offenders is sacriledge which is the taking away and with-holding of those Revenues which God hath appointed and godly men have dedicated for the maintenance of Gods service and the religion of Jesus Christ and so the robbing of God himself both of his honour and service a sin so general that the custome of it hath quite taken away the sense of it and men think it to be no sin at all But I know what some may here say that now I plead mine own cause 1 Sam. 12.3 I will briefly answer as Samuel did unto the people and I say that I sued indeed for the Church right but I testifie before the Lord and your Grace and you All that I did it not to inrich my self for I thank God I have enough both for my self and my relation wife children and friends but I did it for the
and truth and again rich in mercy rather then in justice onely in regard of us and not in regard of God himself because now we perceive and find more effect◠of his mercy and goodness and of his love favour and benignity then we do of his severity and justice which notwithstanding are equally in God as they shall find that abuse his mercy and despise his patience and long-sufferance 3. Rule and observation Gods attributes and proprieties are not contrary one to another Ambrose de obitu Theodosii August de tempore Ser. 102. James 1.17 3. We must observe that the proprieties of God are not contrary in God that is that there are no contrary proprieties in God for his mercie doth no wayes hinder or oppose his justice and his justice hindereth not his mercie but his mercie is justice in him and his justice is to shew mercie as St. Ambrose sheweth because as St. Augustine saith Serm. 102. de tempore There are nothing of those things in the Divine nature which are capable of contrarieties lest God should seem to be changeable who is ever the same without any shadow of turning and therefore all the proprieties of God being of the Essence of God and the Essence of God being not contrary to it self nor any wayes capable of contrarieties it must needs follow that these proprieties of God cannot be contrary the one to the other Yet these proprieties may be diversly considered quoad nos in regard of the creatures because they tend to divers ends as his mercy tendeth to another end then his justice doth for Basilius Contra Eunomium as St. Basil saith among moral virtues frugality is different from liberality for frugality doth honestly keep those things that are necessary and doth not wastfully spend them and liberality doth honestly bestow those things that necessity requireth to be given and not niggardly deny them yet frugality is not contrary to liberality Virtues do preserve and not destroy one another and so do the attributes of God but may well stand together in the same subject when the same man may be and is both frugal and liberal so no more is Gods mercy contrary to his justice for in contraries the one doth take away and destroy the other as prodigality destroyeth frugality and ebriety destroyeth sobriety but virtues do preserve and mutually keep each other as frugality giveth place to liberality and is the means to preserve it so the justice of God is the cause that there is a place for Gods mercies for if God were not just to punish us we should have no need of mercie to spare us And therefore these proprieties of God are not contraries though in regard of us they are as they seem diverse and to be diversly considered Again it is manifest Contraries cannot be in the self-same subject at the self-same time without destroying one annother that two contraries cannot be in the self-same subject at one and the self-same time but that the one of them will destroy the other as heat will destroy the cold or the cold suppress the heat but in the one and the self-same good man and his works both frugality and liberality may well stand and be together without any prejudice of the one by the other even so in the one and the self-same God both Justice and Mercie at one and the self-same time and at all times are and do stand together without any the least prejudice of the one to the other and therefore we do find that in the self-same place and at the self-same time the self-same God is called both punitor salvator the punisher and the saviour for I kill and give life Deut. 32.39 I wound and I make whole and as Hannah speaketh 1 Sam. 2.7 he bringeth down to the ground and raiseth up he maketh poor and maketh rich he bringeth low and exalteth And therefore contrary to the opinion and sentence of Marcion that affirmed the Justice of God to be contrary to Mercy you see that one propriety of God cannot be contrary to another because all and every one of his proprieties do at all times and at the self-same time reside and subsist in him together 4. 4. Rule and observation We must observe that between the Attributes and properties of God there is no real distinction but only notionis rationis in respect of notion and our apprehension Basilius l. 1. contra Eunomium 5. Rule and observation Some Attributes may and others may not be communicated to the creature as St. Basil teacheth 5. And lastly we are to observe that some certain of Gods Attributes may be and are communicated to the creatures and certain others cannot be communicated to any creature as in that he is called Holy Just Merciful and Good and the like these Attributes are and may in some respects be com communicated to the creatures but in that he is styled and said to be Infinite Eternal and Almighty and the like these cannot be communicated to any creature no not to the very Angels of God And here you must further note that these Attributes of God which are communicated to the creatures are not really communicated to any of his creatures Nota that not the very Attributes but the effects of Gods Attributes are communicated to the creatures but only the effects of these Attributes for as I said before the Goodness Holyness and Justice of God is God but the Goodness Sanctity Justice and the like that are either in Men or Angels are but the effects of those Attributes of God and are wrought in the creatures by the power and goodness of God And now to speak of these particular Attributes here expressed 1. Attribute is Gods holyness The 1. is the Sanctity and Purity of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy and this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived of the privative article α and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the Earth as if it were a separation from all earthly things and so it signifieth that which is Pure and Clean and free from the least stain of iniquity or the least shadow of injustice And thus God only is of himself and of his own Nature simply and absolutely Holy and so our Church in her highest strain of Devotion immediately after the receiving of the Blessed Sacrament sings unto God Thou only art Holy that is simply and in all respects Essentially Holy And so the Blessed Virgin speaking of God saith Holy is his name and therefore in that Golden Plate which was to adorn Aaron's Fore-head Moses commanded there should be Ingraven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint translates it that is Sanctitas Jehovae as Tremelius or Sanctum Domino as the Vulgar Latine hath it all Holyness or Sanctity is to be ascribed to the Lord and doth only proceed from the Lord and the glorious Seraphims which Esaias saw and
these wonderful Beasts in my Text repeat this Attribute three several times saying Holy holy holy Lord God almighty which we do not read of any other Attribute of God the Spirit of God to whom this Attribute is specially appropriated by the name of the Holy Ghost having a special regard to preserve this Attribute of all his Attributes inviolable because he foresaw that through the malice of Satan against God and the froward disposition of corrupt men this Attribute of all Gods Attributes should be most of all contradicted murmured against and traduced as if God were not so pure just upright and holy Especially 1. In the election of his Servants 2. In the distribution of his Graces 3. In the remuneration of our Deserts For 1. If he hath created the wicked for the day of wrath Proverb 16 4. Job 21.30 and for this cause hath raised up Pharaoh and hardened his heart to make his power known and hath from all eternity by his irrespective Decree before the Children had done either good or evil loved Jacob and hated Esau and determined the preterition of those whom he reprobateth How can the Reprobates otherwise choose but walk in the paths that leads them to destruction when the Apostle tells us plainly It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy and God by his unchangeable purpose to pass by them and to deny that mercy unto them whereby they should will to answer when he calleth and to lay hold of his Grace when he offereth it How can he be so holy so pure and so free from accepting of persons and of being some wayes the Author of the damnation of all Reprobates that as he saith of Pharaoh both his Justice and his power might be known To those rigid Presbyterians that make this indirect Objection to the great dishonour of God and the wounding of his chiefest Attribute we say That although God hath Jus absolutum in Creaturas an absolute power over all his Creatures so that he may do with them what he will Rom. 9.13 Even as the Potter hath power over the clay to make a vessel either to honour or dishonour as the Apostle speaketh Yet because it seemeth to be cruelty to make a Creature purposely for his own pleasure to be miserable and especially eternally miserable God doth not use this his power nor Preparare filios ad patibulum Sap. 1.13 14.6 for he made not Death neither temporal nor eternal but he made all things that they might have their Being and he takes no pleasure in the destruction of the living but through the malice of the Devil and mans own wilful frowardness death and damnation came upon us And Gods Decree of Preterition is but the just punishment of our transgression for God that had decreed our creation foresaw our transgression and the frowardness of the one and the readiness of the other that is of the elect and reprobate to recede from that condition and both of them being alike wrapped in the mass of corruption which came so by Adams transgression and neither of them could challenge any thing at the hand of God from whom both of them had alike receded God sheweth mercy upon whom he will and whom he will he leaveth still in that state wherein he was not created by him nor intruded by his means but most miserably fallen in the loyns of Adam and this he doth most justly too because he foreseeth that when he calleth he will not answer and though he should stretch forth his hand all the day long yet this froward wilful man will not regard it And therefore certainly Culpa non est vocantis sed renuentis there cannot be laid the least blame on God that in the election of the one whom he foreseeth will answer when he calleth he sheweth Indebitam misericordiam more then deserved mercy and in the preterition of the other whom he foreseeth will refuse his mercy he doth nothing else but render unto him debitam justitiam what he most justly deserveth And whereas the Scripture saith That God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and that it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth and that the vessels of wrath are fitted for destruction and the like some of them are not rightly understood when they are spoken in one sense and are applyed by our Presbyterians to another sense as those that are fitted or prepared for destruction are not so fitted and made up by God for that end but by their own sins that do fit them for their damnation some other speeches are spoken of God ad captum nostrum not properly to be understood as they are spoken but in that sense which the holy Ghost meaneth as God sware in his wrath when as God saith In me non est furor and he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye when as God hath neither feet nor hands nor eyes So when it is said Whom he will he hardeneth it is not meant that he hardeneth any man Efficiendo duritiem by working any hardness or stubbornness in him but Non molliendo per gratiam by not softening it by his Grace which he justly denyeth unto him when like Pharaoh he doth stubbornly refuse to obey his Voice And therefore seeing that in the proper sense God hardeneth no man and rejecteth or reprobateth no man but for his sins and wickedness but professeth As I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner And again Perditio tua ex te Thy destruction is from thy self and not from me If men will rob God kill their Brethren oppress their Neighbours and so damn themselves let them thank themselves and not lay the blame on God who is most just in all his wayes and holy in all his works 2. For the unequal distributing of his Graces we say that this inequality as of glory in the Stars and the Orders of Angels and so of all other Creatures maketh the better harmony and sheweth more of the Wisdom and Power of God then if all of them were equal Matth. 25.15 and though he giveth to one five Talents to others but one and to some none at all and that he exalteth some and make them rich and Lords and pulleth down others to make them poor and Beggars and so distributes all his gifts and graces diversly yet herein we say there is no ataxie no disorder nor injustice in Gods doing nor any wrong done to him that hath but one gift or to him that hath none at all Quia non tenetur Creator creaturae because God is debter to none and he is not bound to give any thing to any one and therefore he may lawfully and justly do what he will with his own as our Saviour sheweth most excellently in the Parable of the Labourers Matth. 20.15 hired into his Vineyard 3. For the remuneration of deserts we say that in
it self For he that is a just man wrongeth no man And Solomon saith Prov. 16.12 The Kings throne is established by righteousness And again he saith Prov. 14 34. That Righteousness exalteth a Nation so that both King and Kingdom shall prosper through righteousness And he saith further That although evil pursueth sinners yet to the righteous good shall be repaid Prov. 13.21 And when the house of the wicked shall be overthrown Prov. 14.11 Chap. 3.33 the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish because God blesseth the habitation of the just And therefore the very Heathens erected a Temple unto Justice and ascribed divine worship unto Astraea which they termed the Goddess of Justice How just and righteous the Heathens were to the shame of our Fanatick and Cromwellian Christians in Ireland and many of them were very just most singular observers of justice for Homer saith That Sarpedon preserved the Kingdom of Licia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through justice and fortitude And Herodian saith of Pertinax That he was both loved and feared of the Barbarians as well for the remembrance of his vertues in former battels as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because wittingly or willingly he never did wrong or injustice to any man Plutarch ascribeth the like vertues to Lucullus Cicero to Pompey Ovid to Erictthaeus Virgil to Aeneas Suetonius to Octavius Augustus his Father and many others of the Heathens are recorded to have been like Aristides exceeding just And I would to God all those that say they are Christians were as just aâ— these Heathens were or as righteous as the Scribes and Pharisees for they were so strict in their lives especially in shew and made so great account of justice that they would tythe Mynt and Rue and the rest of the very smallest things and therefore S. Paul saith that they were the strictest Sect of all the Jewish Religion and yet our Saviour saith Except your righteousness doth exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So you see the way that leads you to the Kingdom of God is to be just and righteous and so honest men without which it is in vain to pray to God it is in vain to believe in Christ and in vain to rely on him because as the Prophet David saith you must offer to God the sacrifice of Righteousnes Psal 4.5 and then you may trust in the Lord. But wherein doth the sacrifice of Righteousness consist Q. or how shall we become just or righteous men Rsep and so acceptable in the sight of God I answer that to be just and righteous and to offer the sacrifice of righteousness is reddere unicunque quod suum est That is to render 1. To God 2. To our King 3. To our Neighbours 4. To our selves what belongs to each of these 1 Branch of Righteousness and these are like the four Rivers of Paradise watering the whole Garden of God that being well observed will make it a Paradise indeed 1. What belongs to God Our Fanatique Enthusiasts and Sectaries think that as God is a Spirit so he requires no more but to be served in Spirit and truth for as the Prophet saith If he be hungry he will not tell thee because all the Beasts of the Forrest are his and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills And therefore the Lord saith my Son give me thy heart and so worship me with Faith Hope Love and the like spiritual affections which are most correspondent to me that am a Spirit That God will be worshipped with all that we have But you must know that they are very much deceived for as God hath made both Body and Soul and hath given us all that we have Houses Lands Riches and whatsoever else we do possess so he will be served and worshipped by all that we have with our Hearts to love him with our Tongues to praise him with our Eys lifted up to behold his wonders with our Knees bowed down to submit unto him with our Hands to do the work that he requireth and with our Wealth and Riches to honour him as the Wise man commandeth Honour God with thy riches And so our Saviour when he biddeth us to render unto Caesar what was Caesars and to God what is Gods meaneth it of our Wealth and Riches that we ought to render unto God and not of these internal services and spiritual worship that we do likewise owe to God for here the question was of the Tribute and Mony that the Jews were to pay to Caesar and therefore the true sense of our Saviours answer was secundum materiam subjectam according to their question give that part of your Wealth and Riches to Caesar which belongs to Caesar and that part of it to God which is due to God that Caesar himself may not have that which belongs to God Q But then you will demand what is that part and portion which belongs to God out of that All which God gives unto us Resp Levit. 27.30 I answer that they are first the Tythes which God requireth to be payd unto him and secondly the Donations which his people do freely offer unto him and God doth most graciously accept them which is an unspeakable favour that the great God and creator of all things the giver of all things that owns all things and wants nothing should so graciously accept the small gifts of us his poor creatures far beyond the Clemency of Xerxes that did so curteously accept a little cold water that was presented unto him by a poor subject that had nothing else to offer him But when any Lands Houses or Monies or any other part of our Goods is offered unto God let us not be so unjust as to rob God thereof for you may see what the Prophet saith will a man rob his God yet you have robbed me Mal. 3.8 in Tythes and Offerings that is in converting the Tythes to your own uses which I commanded to be paid to uphold my services and taking those Lands and Houses into your own possessions which most pious men had offeâ—ed to maintain my Religion Or if we do this as I see it commonly don in Ireland and in too many places in England then let us take heed lest that quorum flagitium imitamur eorum exitum inveniamus we find not the like success as they found that had don this before us And what is that I will shew you some examples of good note And I will not insist upon the punishment inflicted upon Achan Gehezi Shisake King of Egypt Johas King of Israel Sennacherib King of Assyria and Belshazzar King of Babylon and others for their Sacriledg and Injustice against God because you may read the same at your leasure in the holy Scripture But I shall desire you to remember what Seneca Sen. de Benefic l. 5. c. 12. a man that
sin And it were well if this sin reached no farther than the children of Israel for indeed such is the nature of all men apt and prone to devise services unto God as they list every one will be independent and serve God as he pleaseth and all such devised ervice is nothing else but Idolatry saith the Apostle Col. 2.23 1 Joh. 5.21 and thereore St. John writing unto Christians concludes his Epistle with little children keep your selves from Idols which is worth our observation because they might as many do make an Idol of many things of their Pulpit of their Preachers of their Altars and of the most consecrated bread in the Eucharist when as the Church of Rome doth it to this very day they transubstantiate the same to become Corpus Domini and do orally eat that with their teeth which the Scripture teacheth us to eat sacramentally by faith which very doctrine of transubstantiation and thereupon the adoration of their host and the asportation of it as the Israelites did their Moloc I fear if it be rightly discussed will prove to be little less than Idolatry for as I will not reject that truth which the Devil uttered Mat 5.7 Thou art Jesus the Son of the most high God nor refuse the four Gospels and the three Creeds of the Apostles the Nicen and Athanasian because the Pope useth them but will believe all the truth that the Church of Rome believeth and therein joyn with them the right hand of fellowship so I will hate the errours and detest the Idolatry of any Church that committeth it And therefore How the Primitive Christians were slandered though as the Christians of the Primitive Church were most falsly traduced and charged to be the causes of all the calamities dearths wars sedition and all the other evils that happened unto the Heathens which indeed themselves were the sole causes of because they would not become Christians and therefore persecuted the Church of Christ and in all their Counsels had none other Conclusions but Christianos ad leones let us throw away these Christians to the Lyons to the fires and to the Waters so now the Enemies of the truth say we are Papists and Idolatrous and the causes of all these calamities that are fallen upon this Land How we are now slandered and therefore let them be deprived degraded and destroyed yet in very deed we are so far from those points which Jewel Cranmer Latimer and the rest of those holy Martyrs and godly Reformers concluded to be Popish and Idolatrous that as we have hitherto most learnedly refuted them so we are most constantly resolved to oppugn them while we live and rather to lose our lives than to depart from the true protestant faith and to embrace the Idolatry of any Church in the World and you must know that as the Philosopher saith Non quia affirmatur aut negatur res erit vel non erit things are not so and so because they are reported to be such as Gold is not Copper because an ignorant Artist affirmeth it nor Copper Gold because the like Ignoramus avoucheth it so a wicked man is not good nor Rebels loyal because flatterers commend them neither is a good man wicked nor faithful Subjects malignants nor true Protestants Popish because the slanderers traduce them as Christ was neither a drunkard Mat. 11.19 nor a glutton though the Jews accused him of both and we are neither Papists nor Popish though as the Apostle saith in the like case Rom. 3.8 we are slanderously reported to be such but things ought to be affirmed to be as they are indeed and men ought to judge righteous judgements and then you might see and so be assured we are so far from Popery that as I said before we lay on them little less crime than Idolatry And seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 video we see it may be derived farther and brought nearer to our selves then the Church of Rome Hier. in Jer. c. 32. Aug. l. de vera religione Col. 3 5. for so men may as St. Hierom saith erect an Idoll in their own brains as the worldling makes his Gold to be his god the Heretiques and Separatists make an Idoll of their false Religion the precise Hypocrite makes an Idoll of his dissembled purity and the very Rebels make an Idol of their seducers and leaders and their own most obstinate opinions and all these and the like do offer up Idolatrous sacrifices upon the Altar of their own folly and therefore well might St. John say Keep your selves from Idols because the children of the Church when they leave their true Leaders and take blind guides may soon fall and be filled with Idolatry And seeing we have so many such rebellious Idolaters amongst us if there be any Idolaters in the world is it any wonder that God should so abundantly poure out his indignation upon us or that he should not visit for these things Jer. 5 9. and be avenged on such a nation as this 2. Injustice was the other sin whereby the Israelites lost the Lord when as the Prophet saith Ver. 7. The second sin of the Israelites Injustice they turned judgment into wormwood and left off righteousness in the earth wherein you may observe two things in the iniquity of this people 1. Generally among all the Vulgar sort 2. Jer. 5.1 Particularly among the very Judges and Princes of the Land 1. The common people left off righteousness 1 Generally and dealt most unjustly one with another oppressing the poor afflicting the just and filling themselves with thefts robberies and all other kinds of unrighteousness sins able to overthrow the whole earth The praise of Justice Pro. 25.5 Pro. 14.34 Theog p. 431. and to destroy all the Society of mankind for justice establisheth the thrones of Kings it exalteth a nation it is the sister of peace the mother of prosperity the preserver of amity and as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And on the other side injury and oppression as Solomon saith Eccles 7.7 is able to make a wise man mad and injustice is the destroyer of peace the producer of War and the bringer of whole Cities Kingdoms and Nations to confusion for as St. Aug. saith Quid sunt regna remota justitia nisi magna latrocinia What are Kingdoms if you take away justice but as our Cities are now in most parts of our Land the Dens of Thieves that enrich themselves with the treasures of wickedness Mica 6.13 and are clad with the spoiles of the poor and how is it possible that men should live one by another cum vivitur ex rapto when Pillaging and Plundering shall become our common trade and the great mens strength shall become the Law of justice and yet this is not all for 2. As the Prophet Esay saith their Princes that is 2 Particularly
corrigere est nefas and as our Saviour saith If any man sue thee for thy Coat let him have thy Cloak also So I say if any great man that hath a great Place or great Friends take away thy Lands let him take away thy House also rather then spend thy Money and lose that with thy Lands for as Christ saith If these things be done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry So if these Proceedings pass against me that can both speak and follow my businesse to the uttermost and I thank God have ability to go through with it what shall become of thee and thy Cause that art a poor man when thou swimmest against the stream and kickest against the pricks Therefore I advise thee rather in such a case to cry to God than complain to any Judge lest that as the Poet saith Excessit medicina modum thy remedy will prove worse than thy disease For thou seest how I am served put our of my House and spend above 60 li. and have no redress 2. If this proceeding and dealing with me be as I conceive it not so fair and so just as it should be both for the King and my self that am ejected out of my House and Lands then I conceive His Majesty and the Parliament should to prevent the like Oppression and wrongs to poor men provide an easier and plainer way to relieve the oppressed and to set down an usual Form of Indictment or to cause that the Indictments should not be so easily and so frequently upon every Lawyers motion quasht as they are reported to be Especially when the matter of Force is plain and evidently proved And this redress of Injuries I petition and move for for these four special reasons 1. Because the difficulty of framing the Indictments so that a cunning Lawyer cannot easily find a fault and a flaw in it and then the frequent quashing of such Indictments as are found faulty is a great wrong to his Majesty in depriving him of those Fines that otherwise are due and should be rendered unto him 2. It is a great Abuse and injury unto the poor Subject that shall be driven out of his Possession and for want of a sufficient Clerke or Counsellour to draw the right form of his Indictment which as I see few can do he shall both spend his Money and lose his labour and perhaps he is not able to do as I did three or four times to draw Indictments till he finds one that may stand good 3. This frequent quashing of Indictments is a great encouragement for Oppressors and wicked men to wrong their neighbours more and more for say they I will enter upon him and thrust him out and if he doth indite me I will remove it to the Kings Bench and I shall find a Lawyer that will quash his Indictment by and by 4. This very practise and proceeding may be feared to prove the very bane and destruction of whole Nations and Kingdoms For if Righteousness exalteth a Nation and a Kingdom is translated from one Nation to another People because of unrighteousness as Solomon saith and as we may read it in all Histories Then you may see how requisite it is for Kings and Princes to look to those things and not to suffer unrighteous Judges either for favour to one or hatred to another to do what they list and to make their Laws like a Nose of Wax to bend which way they please or like a Spiders Web that catcheth the small Flies but is broken by the great humble Bees all to pieces but to be like the Chancellour Steel that although he hated my person yet he said though I deserved it not I should have Justice and so he did me Justice presently and I love to do right to my Adversary and to say the truth of mine enemy But for my self I thank God for it as I lived many years very quietly and contentedly with far less means then 20 li. a year and with far less pains and troubles then I have now so I doubt not but I could live so still and I resolved and vowed as I have attested in my Epistle to his Majesty that if I should recover this Bishops Court unto the Church I would wholly and fully bestow the same for the repairing of the Cathedral Church of Kilkenny So that recovering it I should not be one Penny the richer or not recovering it not a Penny the poorer and so the wrong done by this Proceeding whosoever did it is as I conceive more against the King and the Church than against my self And if the Proviso for Sir George Ayskue carrieth this Bishops Court to him from the Church which in my understanding is clean contrary to the very words of the Act pag. 72. Let him pray that he hath it not with that Sauce which God prescribeth in Psal 83. And so I end and so be it as God pleaseth Amen And after I had delivered this same Relation unto his Majesty and shewed the Effect and sum thereof by the next day I gave him this Petition To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of Gruffith Lord Bishop of Ossory Sheweth THat your Petitioner hath caused five of the Tenants of Sir George Ayskew to be twice Indited for a forcible Entry upon the House and Lands of the Bishop of Ossory and yet your Petitioner with the Expence of above 60 l. could not prevail to have them punished as the Law requireth whereby your Majesty is wronged in not receiving the Fines that should be imposed upon them for that offence and your Petitioner is abused in being still kept out of his Possession to about 300 l. Damages May it therefore please your Majesty to write to the Duke of Ormond or to the Parliament to see that the former Proceedings may be reviewed and that your Petitioner may be relieved according to Justice And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. And my Lords Grace of Canterbury very graciously and like a most Religious Father and Countenancer of the Fathers of the Church going with me to deliver it to his Majesty and to let him understand the substance of it said here is the good Bishop of Ossory so his Grace was pleased beyond my Desarts to stile me that hath a very reasonable Petition to your Majesty and telling him the sum of it his Majesty like a most Pious King most graciously answered I will do it with all my heart and my Lords Grace sent for Secretary Benet and he drew me this his Majesties Answer the next day Whitehal July 16th 1663. HIs Majesty is graciously pleased effectually to recommend the Consideration of this Petition to his Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to the end his Grace may forthwith take care to settle and establish the Petitioner in his Right and that such who disturb him may be punished according to Law I know not what more I could have desired his
for his service they should be snatched out of his hands and transferred to Lay and prophane uses but that like those Censers they should ever continue for the service of his Altar and so St. Augustine sheweth as much in his 154 Epistle to Publicola And thus you see how God is robbed his Service neglected and his Servants deprived of their means and maintenance so that they can neither discharge their duties to God nor feed the flock of Chrâ—st and instruct the people committed to their charge as they ought to do and would no doubt do the same if they were enabled to do it which is a lamentable thing and yet I can shew you a greater abomination Ezek. 8.6 even in the Visitations of these poor and pillaged Clergy-men I remember God hath a twofold visitation the one in mercy to relieve the oppressed to deliver the Captives out of their Captivity as he visited the Israelites in Egypt and the like the other in justice to punish the malefactors and the transgressors of his Laws as he visiteth the sins of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him but whether the Visitations of our Clergy-men be in mercy or in justice or whether it be pro correctione morum or collectione pecuniarum and refectione corporum or both I will not determine I believe their first institution aimed at our good for the praise of them that do well and the punishment of the refractory and evil-doers but time and craft corrupteth the best things and as the wicked turn the graces of God into wantonness so covetous men and corrupt minds do abuse all the good institutions of our Ancestors so the service of the true God was in time translated to become the service of the Idols of the Gentiles and so I fear me these Visitations of the Clergy that at first aimed at their good and for their reliefe are now become in many places an oppression and a heavy yoak upon their necks and a burden scarce portable upon their shoulders As 1. In the multiplicity of them 1. The multiplicity of Visitations three or four that may be in one year as first the Archdeacon he visits and gathers up his Procurations perhaps all the money that the poor Clergy can procure then comes the Bishop and he visits and the Clergy must now double their file his Procurations being twice as much as the Archdeacons then every third year the Archbishop comes about in his triennial visitation and if in either the Bishop or the Archbishops visitation the Clergy fail either in the payment of their Procurations or making such refections as shall be to the satisfaction of their Visitors their Livings may be sequestred and let them live as they list and after all this the Lord Primate if he please may come in the same year to make a regal Visitation and he being so good a man and coming from so good and so gracious a King deserves no less than the best and the best entertainment that can be made for his Grace is fit to be made for him And can these many visits think you be for the profit of the poor Clergy But 2. 2. The Refections The refections seem to be more burthensome than the Procurations especially because the Procurations are certain what every man must pay but the Refections contrary to the mind of our Saviour that saith unto his Disciples Into what house soever ye enter eat what shall be set before you Luk. 10.7 must be to the satisfaction of the delicate and delicious company of the visitors and not according to the power of the poor Clergy when they remember not the old Proverb That the full dog knoweth not how or what the empty dog doth bark and if they be discontented with their entertainment their Censures must be as they please and none dares say that it is unjust or how can it be so from the men of God Yet as all powerful great men can easily find a staffe to beat a dog so the superiour Bishop or Archbishop can if they please soon find a fault in a poor inferiour Clergy man Now I will set down for I fear no man living what information I have by Letters from the last Visitation of the Archbishop of Dublin that was held in my Diocess of Ossory by his Surrogate Mr. Archdeacon Bulkley and these be the very words of the Letters that the World may thereby see and the Judge of all the World may judge in what case the poor Clergy do stand My Lord IT pleased God a little after your journey to Dublin to take out of this life your Grandchild Mrs. Cull who discovered much Religion on her death bed and as she wanted not attendance in her sickness so neither decency nor solemnity at her Funeral Since your Lordships departure your Maid did unknown to me marry Mr. Barry the Smiths man whom she brought to lye in your Lordships house whereupon there arose some quarrels between Thomas and her insomuch that Thomas sate up a whole night with Candle-light for fear of the men as he complained unto me whereupon I charged the man not to lye at night time in your Lordships house till your Lordship did return which hath prevented the like inconvenience since As to the triennial Visitation I shall give your Lordship this brief account The Lord Archbishop did not come in person but sent Mr. Bulkley whom we waited on three miles to bring him into Town he told us what noble refections he met with in the Diocess of Kildare Leighlin but that here he was resolved to lodge at his Daughters house he asked what Provision we had made for his Register we told him Mr. Connels house when his Register came to Town though his men some of them and his Portmantle were in Mr. Connels house he did not like his lodging and complained to the Vicar General On Monday after the Commission was read he told us that in regard the refection for the Archbishop was neglected he suspended the Jurisdiction for six months and whereas he thought to behave himself as a loving brother he would prove a severe Judge and that we should expect nothing but utmost justice we invited him that day to dine at Whitles where we bespoke a Dinner for his refection which cost six or seven pounds but he refused and every day we invited him but could not prevail on Tuesday and Wednesday he seemed very mild and respective and earnestly desired to be an happy Instrument in the reconciliation of Mr. Dean and my self Mr. Cull and Mr. Drisdale upon which importunity that we might not discover our selves to be litigious I was willing to be reconciled to him whom I had no visible quarrell with so was Mr. Drisdale but Mr. Bulkleys awe upon Mr. Cull made him condescend to a great submission and aske him forgiveness flexis genibus the next day the Archdeacon told me that if we