A Pillar of Gratitude HUMBLY DEDICATED To the GLORY of GOD The HONOUR Of His MAJESTY The RENOWN of this Present Legal Loyal Full and Free PARLIAMENT Upon Their Restoring the CHURCH of ENGLAND To the Primitive Government of EPISCOPACY And Re-investing Bishops Into Their Pristine Honour and Authority Anno 1661. Aarons Rod. BLESSED and FLORID Num. 17. 8. Barren Fig-Tree CURSED and WITHERED Mat. â—1 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 17. 14. Giving Thanks always for all things Ephes 5. 20. Nemo gratus malus Nemo malus gratus Perditissimum censuerunt Veteres quem ingratum dixerunt London Printed by J. M. for Andrew Crook at the Green-Dragon in St Pauls Church-yard 1661. To the Right Honorable and most Noble Princes Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Lords Barons and Peers of the Parliament of England Together with the other honorable Gentlemen Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons THere shall need no other Apology for the erecting and thus dedicating this PILLAR of GRATITUDE than that which all Justice and Ingenuity do make for the Archbishops and Bishops with all the Orderly Clergy of the Church of England Who must cease to be Christians and Men Religious and Rational just and ingenuous if we should not be highly sensible how much we are commanded by all the Laws of Gratitude to God and Man to express in some publique and solemn manner the humble sense of our thankful Hearts for that great Mercy signal Honor and eminent Favor which the good Providence of God by the Graciousness of the Kings Majesty by the Nobleness of the House of Peers and by the Generosity of the present House of Commons yea we hope by the desire and consent of all wise sober and just men in this Church and Kingdom hath restored as the other dignified Clergy to their respective Dignities so us the Archbishops and Bishops not onely to the exercise of our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but also to the ancient Honor when his Majesty shall please to call us of sitting consulting and voting in the House of Peers Senatus quo Sol augustiorem in orbe non vidit as the most learned Bishop Andrews writes in his Tortura Torti A Court and Council in its full and free Constitution not to be exceeded hardly equalled in all the World for number and for grandeur for the conspicuity of its Wisdom for the majesty of its Presence and for the Eminency no less than Antiquity of its Authority Agreeable to that of Fortescue cited by Sir Edward Coke in his Institutes l. 4. c. 1. Si Antiquitatem spectes est vetustissima si Dignitatem est honoratissima si Jurisdictionem est capacissima Nor do We the Bishops with all our Brethren of the Clergy more congratulate our own Reception to our pristine station after fifteen years absence than your LORDSHIPS safe Return after twelve years Banishment to the enjoyment of your native Right and hereditary Honor of sitting in Parliament as Barons and Peers And no less do we celebrate with joy the renewed priviledge of the free-born Commons of England to sit and suffragate in their honorable House by their chosen Deputies the Knights and Burgesses after they had for many years been baffled with Tumults broken by Factions bastinadoed with Truncheons and beaten with Swords in order forsooth to preserve the Liberty of the Subject the Priviledges of Parliament and the Reformed Religion Above all for in that one all your Honors all our civil Freedoms and temporal Happinesses are included we of the Clergy beyond all men have cause anew to solemnize this Day with Faelix faustúmque a peculiar joy and jubile to Gods glory the Churches peace and the Kingdoms prosperity the happy Return of his SACRED MAJESTY to his rightful Throne as the Sun to his proper Orb or Sphere after the dreadful Overthrow of our late Phaetons Who having set this English World on fire and quenched the other two British Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland with their blood ashes and ruines had this onely honor for their Epitaph Magnis excidere ausis That they justly fell from most audacious adventures arrogant usurpations and impudent impieties smitten at length as with the Conscience of their own enormious wickednesses so with the Thunder and Lightning the terror and consternation of that divine vengeance which when they least dreamed of did wonderfully overtake them after they had a long time flattered themselves in Providences and by the delusion of Successes had blasphemed the most high holy and righteous God as if he were such an one as themselves a lover of perfidy perjury and hypocrisie Which vengeance was also on the sudden executed upon them as by the loyal Prayers and pious Impatiences of all his Majesties good Subjects so chiefly by the honest Policies and prudent Conduct of one wise and valiant General who as Samson caught those subtile Foxes and tied them tail to tail but without any other firebrands than themselves taking the crafty in their own devices and pulling down the proud from their seats of scorn and Tyranny May his heroick name be written in the Book of Life as it is in that of worldly Honor with an indeleble Character because he did not pervert to private ambition as others had foolishly and falsly done the rare opportunity of doing Actions of incomparable Loyalty to his Prince and of Love to his Country Those Scandals and Reproaches to all true Honor and Religion those pests and shame to all good Government being once gone with Judas to their own places after they had filled the three Kingdoms with blood barbarity and confusion and the measure of their iniquity up to the brim by a wanton superfluity of folly and madness wickedness and hypocrisie at last this grand Theater of Wisdom and Honor the Parliament of England was left free for the joyful Reception of its ancient Inhabitants King Lords and Commons there to sit with Freedom and Honor never again we hope and pray to be divided scattered confounded and destroyed Whose Piety and Justice not satisfied with their own Return to this Throne of Majesty this sanctuary of Religion this seat of Honor this Citadel of all legal and ingenuous Liberties are pleased still to express a sense of solitude until they had compleated More majorum after the ancient patern of English Parliaments their honorable society with the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Wales That so in this as in all other instances of true Honor they might not come short of the Piety and Prudence of their noble Ancestors who thought that a Parliament of England without Bishops was as a City without a Temple or as a Temple without an Altar or as an Altar without a Sacrifice or as all these without a duly consecrated Priest or as he and they too would be without the true Worship of the true God And thus have we lived to see by merciful and miraculous Revolutions a plenary Restauration of the Majesty Honor Piety and
and for ever to damne as much as in them lay you and your posterity Other Kings and Princes of this Renowned Kingdome as also many pious Lords and Gentlemen have consecrated many things to God and his Church but his present Majesty hath at once restored all thereby shewing himself to be both Charles le bon le grand A great and good Christian King If I or We for I still presume to set forth the grateful and similary sense of my Reverend Fathers and Brethren the Archbishops Bishops and other Worthy Clergy-men if I say We may with your patience speak any more or indeed were able to say any thing suitable to this so rare so religious and so transcendent a subject his Majesties free and speedy restoring to the Bishops and other Church-men their ancient Honours Dignities and Revenues by your Lordships advice and assent with the Honourable House of Commons It must be in the words of the Psalmist Quid retribuemus Domino Yea Dominis What shall We the Bishops and Clergy of ENGLAND return to the LORD our God and to our Lord the King and to your Lordships and to the Gentry of England or the House of the Commons now assembled in Parliament Give me leave to tell your Lordships and those other Gentlemen not what we would say but what we would do I am sure we should do yea and we resolve to do if we may be assisted with Gods graces and favoured with your Christian Prayers 1. First As to God We do wholly devote our selves and all the advantages we have by his renewed mercies to advance his Glory and the Honour of our Blessed Saviour in the faithful discharge of our duties to the Service of this Church by preaching praying writing living and governing our selves we mean no less than others so as becomes Primitive and Apostolick Bishops so as is on all hands highly deserved of us and justly expected from us according to our places and abilities As it will be easier for us at the great day of account to have wanted these honourable Priviledges than to have abused them so we had much rather not enjoy them at all than not have hearts to use them aright as prime Professors and Patterns of Christianity that is Followers of Jesus Christ and his blessed Apostles in all Piety Prudence Sanctity Charity Sincerity It argued some greatness of mind in some of our Bishops for these many years to have lived contentedly without these temporal and secular advantages not to have sunk and desponded under so long and importune adversities but it will be more of Christian Magnanimity to enjoy them wisely and worthily to overcome the temptation of prosperity to use them not to pride and luxury but to humble and holy industry to discreet hospitality to cheerful charity to the good of the Church and to Gods glory who hath promised to honour those that honour him and to adde all these things to those that first seek his Kingdome and the righteousness thereof Doubtless nothing will be wanting to us if we be not wanting to God his Church our selves and our Brethren of the Clergy who are sober men void of depraved opinions and debauched practices Secondly In reference to his gracious Majesty our resolutions are That none of his Subjects shall more imitate and if your Lordships give us leave cheerfully emulate your and their Loyalty Love and Fidelity to his Majesties safety peace and happiness temporal and eternal than we his Bishops who of all men may least be traytors to his Honour Conscience or Soul who having dealt so bountifully with us cannot but expect from us those honest and faithful things which are most worthy of his Munificence and our Integrity So as may most conduce to his Majesties welfare and the publick peace The first we should basely betray together with our own Souls if we should cease daily to pray for his Majesties happiness if we should fail to set forth the whole truth of God to him and his Subjects Lastly if we should serve sooth or silently flatter any known sin in our selves or any others whatsoever and least of all in those whose sins must needs be as most conspicuous and exemplary so most contagious and dangerous The second of publick peace we shall best serve and secure by well and wisely ordering as Spiritual Captains and Colonels of the Ecclesiastical Militia that Army of Ministers or great company of Preachers in England and Wales which cannot be less then ten thousand men effectivè whose number is great and their influence with their activity much greater being mustred and in spiritual armes at least once every week where getting upon the higher ground and being as in Christs stead they cannot but have a very great stroke on mens and more on womens ears hearts and purses These had need be well disciplined and governed under Christ and his Majesty according to Gods Word the Laws of this Kingdom and the Constitutions of this Church which must be their and all our rules by which they and we must serve God and the King as with truth and holiness so with decency order and uniformity Neither excentrick nor erratick from our proper Spheres nor yet defective or deformed in them The managing of which great Concern being by his Majesty and the Laws chiefly committed to us Bishops it will be most our sin and shame to be wanting in our duty If any man blame us for doing what is lawful and just yea necessary for the publick peace they must withal blame the Laws and by a most egregious folly think themselves wiser than the publick wisdom the Laws and Laws-makers in which their own consent is included and from which no man may lightly be a Renegado Thirdly As to your Nobleness no men shall more study your Lordships true honour and eternal happiness the only sufficient requital of your meritorious love and favour to us who have accepted yea restored us Bishops to be Partakers of your honour Auditors of your wisdom and Spectators of your noblest Conversation in that place where every one studies to put on the best appearance We and our Successors must for ever be faithful Counsellors Friends and Servants to your Lordships and your Noble Posterity who possibly will bear from our age place and quality with greater patience civility and acceptance than from other Ministers those discreet monitions seasonable intimations and wholsome counsels which may be sometimes most necessary for you and them It will always best become us rather to offend you by telling you the truth in a decent manner than to betray you to those sinful infirmities or passions which are your greatest enemies next to your flatterers No men shall be more ashamed than we to see our selves sit in Parliament that is in the Congregation of Princes or mortal Gods if we should not behave our selves in all respects answerable to your Illustrious Society and to your great merits towards us As we are
Liberty of this so renowned Church and Kingdom both in their grand Epitomes of Parliament and Convocation also in their greater latitudes or diffusions to all Estates and degrees of Men as to their just Concerns and Interests to which in Law or Religion in Prudence or Conscience they can pretend Which are all bound up in the Kings gracious free and royal Consent ratifying the joynt counsels and humble desires of the Nobility of the Clergy and of the Commonalty unanimously represented to him as by the Lords Temporal and Commons so by the Lords Spiritual or Bishops now restored to their ancient Place and Honor in the Parliament of England May this signal Mercy of God never be forgotten by us may this happy Union never be dissolved among us may this great Blessing never be forfeited by us An high honor indeed yet withal a very heavy burden put upon us Bishops not onely as to the great Service and publique Duty which is on all hands expected from us And for that great account which will be required of us according to the Talents Advantages and Opportunities given us to serve God the King and the Church to which nothing can sufficiently enable us but the same Grace and Favor both divine and humane which hath thus prevented us But also as to that envy which must necessarily by this eminency be contracted from all those evil men who have evil eyes and evil wills and evil hearts not onely against Bishops and Episcopacy but also against the Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom no less than against the pristine Renown and Flourishing of this Reformed Church of England which was famous heretofore in all the Christian World abroad and no less reverenced at home by People Peers and sovereign Princes while its Diocesan Bishops were dignified with this publique and Parliamentary honor Which is not like that sad OTHER HOUSE a mushroom or gourd of Yesterday springing out of O. P. and withering with R. C. but it began with the first Originals of Parliaments and for many hundred of years continued without any violent interruption until these late Antimonarchical and Antiepiscopal Chasms and Concussions which shook Heaven and Earth yea and Hell it self to destroy both Kings and Bishops the Kingdom and Church of ENGLAND In which horrid conflicts of Innovation Schism Rebellion and Confusion with our well reformed Church our ancient Laws our setled Religion and our excellent Government the tail of the Dragon strove to cast down to the earth many Stars of the highest Spheres the greatest magnitude and divinest influence in this Church and Kingdom And among them the most reverend and learned Bishops of this Church even one and all at one sweeping Stroke who with their famous Predecessors for many Centuries of years had both sat in Parliaments as Peers and presided in the Church as Prelates that is chief Fathers Stewards and Overseers in Christs Family or the Houshold of Faith Principal Governors or Presidents in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Prime Members in all Synods and Convocations The main Cisterns and Conduits of holy Orders The grand Conservators of Ministerial Power and Ecclesiastical Authority very ample and able Defenders under God and the King of Religion as Christian and Reformed in Truth and Faith in Peace and Holiness in good Government decent Order and legal Uniformity By which publique influences of their judicious Preaching solid writing sober living grave counselling and prudent governing set off with such eminent Honors fair Revenues and due Authority as they were by the munificence of Princes legally vested in the Bishops of ENGLAND have by Gods blessing been in all Ages according to the analogy and capacity of Times as the fairest so the strongest Pillars in this Churches Fabrick Like the goodly Cedar beams and costly stones which were laid in Solomons Temple like the fruitfullest Figtrees Vines and Olives planted in the Garden of God flourishing and bearing fruits that were pleasing to God and good men until that wilde-fire came forth out of the thistles and brambles of the Wilderness which sought to devour them root and branch and with them all things civil and sacred Your valiant and noble Ancestors not more honorable for their being Peers or Members in Parliament than for their being generous Sons of the Church of ENGLAND Patrons of Learning and true Religion These were ever so impatient to carry on or conclude any publique Counsels or Determinations that were not sanguinary Deo inconsulto without first taking Counsel of God by his Priests Prophets and Seers as David and the best Kings of Judah were wont to do in all great concerns Civil and Ecclesiastical for War and Peace that They thought nothing could be prudent which was not pious nor likely to be prosperous in the State which did not correspond with the Church They esteemed the Temple of Jerusalem and the Priests of the Lord to be as the Ark was and the Bearers of it in the midst of the Camp not onely the center but the sanctuary and glory of both Court City and Country That as the Body is without the Soul so are publique Counsels and Transactions in Christian States and Kingdoms without due regard to God his Ministers his Church and true Religion With whose holy will minde and counsels no men can in any reason be supposed to be better acquainted or more sincerely conform to them or more readily communicative of them than grave and learned Divines and among them those venerable Bishops and Fathers to whom the Oracles of God and Power Evangelical are specially committed as to Gods chief Embassadors Christs eminent Deputies the Clergies principal Trustees and in some sort the whole Churches general Representatives whose learned Gifts and Endowments are presumed to be most matured by Age subdued by Experience sanctified by Grace and intirely devoted to the Service of God the Church the King and their Country upon whose respective Favors they wholly depend To the Glory of the one and the Welfare of the other they cannot in prudence and conscience be less faithfully and constantly engaged than any other men And in whose Interests doubtless they are much more to be believed than any of those Democratick spirits or Pragmatick Sticklers among the Clergy or Laity who being of less years abilities and experience yea and possibly less contented are apter to be either covetously or ambitiously or enviously discomposed and so more subject to toss to and fro to move from one side to the other as those weary men do who lie on hard beds Easily as we have seen revolting from Kings and Bishops to Presbyterian and Independent Projects to popular and Plebeian Adherencies yea to Papal Arts and Ends That by such Complacencies they may advance their own Estate or Reputation though with the ruine of Monarchy and Episcopacy which are the great Defensatives and Bulwarks against Sedition and Faction against Anarchy and Confusion How much the Tumultuary Mutinies of some impetuous malecontents against Kings and
Bishops have been to the detriment and dishonor both of this Church and Kingdom the recent memory of your and our late Troubles and Miseries will sufficiently tell your Lordships and those other Gentlemen As a just History of their Tragical Counsels and Tyrannical effects will for ever warn your amazed and almost incredulous Posterity when they shall see the different yea destructive Fortunes of our Laws and Religion of our Kings Lords and Commons of the sober Clergy all degrees of honest men in these three Kingdoms under an affected Novelty and Parity of Usurping Presbyters with some presumptuous People whose dominion in Church or State neither your Lordships nor your Forefathers ever knew in ENGLAND nor can ever bear compared with that Paternal Government of learned godly and venerable Bishops counselled and assisted by their reverend Brethren of the Clergy in a way and form of Ecclesiastical Government now happily restored by his Majesty as most conform to the Catholick Church ever approved by our Parliaments established by all our ancient Laws and duly subordinate to our Kings as Sovereign Lords who are owned by us Bishops and all the Orthodox Clergy of ENGLAND to be under God the onely supreme Dispensers of all Juridical or Executive Power in Church and State No way subject either to the Papal Triple Crown or to the hundred Eyes of any Presbyterian Class nor yet to the hundred Hands of any Independent Junto By the Christian Care and Courage Piety and Charity of which Bishops next after and ever since the Apostles and Apostolique men Christianity it self was first planted in Britany as in all other Countries when the Crown of King Lucius above 1500. years ago first of any King in all the World did wear the Cross as the noblest Gem and highest Ornament of his Royal Diadem Accordingly we read of our British Bishops present at ancient Councils as that of Arles in France where Restitutus Bishop of London and Eboracus Bishop of Yorksate So in the Council of Arminium about the year 350. as Sulpicius Severus and others tell us By a like Succession of holy Bishops and their subordinate Clergy was Christian Religion and its orderly Ministry preserved in Wales after many barbarous Invasions and Persecutions had almost desolated those first planted Churches of our Britany as venerable Bede and Guildas the wise tell us By godly Bishops were the Saxons and Angles themselves at length converted both Kings and Subjects to that Christian Faith which as Saul they formerly persecuted and made such havock of By grave Bishops as good Physitians was Christian Religion in its Fundamentals of Faith and good Manners kept alive to some degree of saving health and holy Order amidst the many distempers corruptions and deformities of those dark times which went before and followed after the Norman Conquest by reason of the Roman Superstructures Usurpations and Apostacies By excellent Bishops were the Decays of this Church and Deformity of Religion now above one hundred years past duly repaired and orderly reformed from those Romish Dregs of Superstition which had spread upon the face of these Western Churches and sowred the Sanctity as well as sullied the Serenity of Christian purity and simplicity both in Faith and Manners By worthy Bishops was our English Liturgy fitly composed our Bibles well translated our Reformation soberly compleated our Religion by Law and due Authority peaceably established yea and at last all was sealed and confirmed by many of those godly Bishops bonds and banishments by their Bloods and Martyrdoms By our English Bishops how many rare Books have been written in all kinds of good Learning and especially in Divinity Dogmatical Polemical and Practical How hath the Orthodox Faith of the Reformed Church of ENGLAND yea of the true Catholick Church been by our admirable Bishops and other Episcopal Divines valiantly maintained against all kinds of Heretical Novelties and Schismatical Machinations both forreign and domestick They have neither feared Rome nor flattered Geneva nor courted Amsterdam securing this Church at once against all Papal Policies Disciplinarian Devices and Popular Impostures How many great and good Works of pious Munificence of durable Hospitality and useful Charity to Colledges Cathedrals and other Churches to Free-Schools to Hospitals and Alms-Houses have by our English Bishops been founded at their own Charges and many more by their grave Counsels and good Examples as our English Histories fully inform us By some of our learned Bishops as Anselm Bradwardine and others the Glory of Gods Grace was notably maintained against the Pelagian pride and presumption So was the Liberty of this Church and Kingdom by the great head and greater heart of Robert Bishop of Lincoln and others against the Papal Arrogancy By the loyal and resolute Bishop of Carlile was the Sovereignty and Life of Richard the second King of ENGLAND in open Parliament vindicated by Scripture Law and Reason against the potent Usurpation of Henry the fourth By a wise Bishop of Ely was that Counsel first given which united the two Roses and composed our long Civil Wars Lastly by a worthy Bishop was that foundation of Union laid in a Marriage with a Daughter of Henry the seventh which in time brought both Kingdoms of ENGLAND and SCOTLAND under one Scepter and Monarch as they are at this day I do not mention these few of many instances of worthy and most deserving Bishops of the Church of ENGLAND for I omit Cranmer Hooper Ridley Latimer Matthews Whitguift Bancroft Jewel Bilson Andrews King both the Abbots Davenant White Morton Babington Carlton Hall and others nor yet do I reckon up the many late great Sufferers with much Christian patience courage and constancy some of whom remain to this day I say I do not so mention those former as I might with a particular emphasis to each nor yet these later Bishops as if I here meant to plead the merits of Bishops or Episcopacy either before God or Man I know the best Bishops were sensible that they did but their Duty to God their Kings this Church and their Country of whom as of Parents none can merit few requite them Nor is it for me to blazon their wel-known worth by any pomp of words when their greatest worth consisted in their modesty and humility as their greatest merit in their thinking they had none though their Works do at once praise them in the gates and follow them to Glory Onely thus far I have with equal truth and modesty yea and without any offence I hope touched upon the wel-known Deserts of some of our English Bishops In the first place to justifie this Honor and Favor which his gracious Majesty by the Advice of the House of Peers and the generous Piety of the House of Commons hath now done to us Bishops and in US to all the Clergy and in them to this whole Church and in this to all Christendom and in that to all the World After the famous Examples of the first Christian
his Estate and to restore the Majesty of his Kingdoms When not more his own than his Friends Exigencies pressed him as sharp hunger doth mighty Eagles or Lions to fall upon any prey that comes next to hand When there wanted not some back Friends to the Church of ENGLAND who wrapping up Sacriledge like Goliah's Sword in the linen cloth in the soft covering and shew of Loyalty were ready enough to make a Royal Present to his Majesty of John Baptists Head in a Silver Charger perswading him to fill his Exchequer by robbing the Church When his Martyr'd Father and Family his own Person and the Crown of ENGLAND had suffered so much upon no account more than that of their Christian Piety and Justice Courage and Constancy to defend as nursing Fathers the Church and Clergy of ENGLAND in their just Rights Endowments and Enjoyments When there was indeed such a grateful Compensation due to his Majesty and the Crown of ENGLAND as was almost capable to Christen even Sacriledge it self and to wash to some degree of Whiteness that Borborites or Blackmore about which some have spent so much labor in vain Yet then even then after so many merits of the Royal Family both active and passive toward the Church and Clergy of ENGLAND amidst such streights and exigents of his Person Family Relations Crowns and Kingdoms How hath his Majesty by a most Princely Piety abhorred to make necessity any plea or excuse for Sacriledge He had rather still hunger with David and his Men than take the Shew-bread of Gods House without the Priests consent and free gift He chose rather still to want than to be supplied out of Gods Exchequer or the Churches Treasury by any sacrilegious Rapine or other sine Projects of the Devil which more than once did offer to his Majesty a Sacrifice out of their Rapine and a burnt-offering out of their Church-Robbery even a Present of five hundred thousand Pounds to confirm the late illegal Sales of Church Lands for ninety nine Years and yet that you may see what good Bargains they had the Purchasers mean while to pay the old Rents to the Bishops and Clergy But his Majesty abhorred to taste of any fruit which came from so evil bitter and accursed a root as Sacriledge Thus thus hath his Majesty of his own pious and Princely Disposition conform to his Fathers Christian Resolution and encouraged by your Lordships and other noble Persons high Comprobation of his so just and holy Restitutions to God and the Church kept his Person and Conscience his Name and Family his Crown and Kingdom unspotted from this great offence from this giantly and impudent sin of Sacriledge which at once fights against God and Man against the Charity of the dead and the Equity of the living robbing God and Man while it pretends to reform Religion just as those Cheats who pick Mens Pockets or cut Mens Purses while they smile in their Faces To the Wonder of the Christian World and to his Majesties eternal Honor as a Son worthy in this glory of such a glorious Father do we owe the plenary Restitution full Collation and free Fruition of the Churches Dignities Honors and Revenues which are seldom retrograde when once alienated by any way from the Church Vestigia nulla retrorsum It is a rare sight to see Restitution made but as welcom certainly to God good Angels and good Men as the Return of a true Penitent such as Zacheus whose Repentance was evidenced by his Restitution of what he had unjustly gotten To his Royal Bounty next under God we Bishops are obliged for our Spiritualties and Temporalties That we are at the Honorable Motion and Desire of the Houses of Parliament admitted again to put on the Robes of Bishops ancient Honors and enabled to sit when his Majesty pleaseth to summon us in that place which is the Palace of Wisdom the Source and Center of all our Laws and Civil Justice That we may there appear among your Lordships not pilled and stripped of our Churches remaining Patrimonies not confined to arbitrary Pensions and uncertain Stipends which Eleemosynary Dependances are weak and narrow foundations of Episcopal Honor yea and of any Ministerial Dignity or Authority nothing being more uncomely and inconsistent than teaching and begging than craving and reproving as the Cynick Philosophers were wont to make themselves ridiculously severe and supercilious Beggars But we are restored in solidum ex asse to the full and free Possession of the Churches ancient Patrimony and Inheritance which is Gods Portion And this in a way so far from any Simonaical Compact that the very thought of so sordid a way of Merchandizing I am confident never presumed to knock at the Door of his Majesties Royal Brest or Heart Thus thus hath our great and gracious King as those famous Eastern Emperors not onely commanded to rebuild the Temple of the Lord but to restore the Vessels and what else belonged to the Sanctuary Thus hath our David redeemed out of the jaw of the Lyon and paw of the Bear that Kid and Lamb which they had ravished from Christs Fold from this Church yea from Christ himself the great Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls to whom we owe our selves and all that we have to whose Service and Honour no grateful Consecrations and pious Retributions can be too much or can seem so to any men but to Judasses covetous traitors and ingrateful wretches Doubtless so great a justice and so generous a charity cannot go unrewarded of God as it will be eternally admired by all good men and true Christians The shewing so great mercy to the poor Church and Clergy of ENGLAND which is indeed done to Christ will be a means to cover many insirmities and to lengthen we hope and pray the Tranquility of the King and his Kingdomes Nor can any loyal Subjects let that King want what is necessary for the publick Peace and comely for his Majesty who hath so large an heart and so liberal hand toward God and his Church We have Right Honourable and Worthy Senators nothing so much to say in this Essay of Gratitude to God to the Kings Majesty and to Your Selves as to be abruptly silent and to stand still a while filled with admiration and astonishment What King or Emperour since Constantine the Great and Charles the Great I mean the last who laid down his Life for the Liberties of his Church and Kingdoms ever did the like act of Honour Piety Charity Justice and Munisicence to the Bishops to the Clergie to the whole Church and if I may so say to God himself to whom nothing can be given but of his own Munificence as David modestly and truely expresseth his and the Princes liberality to the Temple Thus to redeem the Nobility Gentry Clergy and whole Nation from that ugly sin and shame of sacriledge wherewith some cruel and covetous men by their violent illegal and unreasonable courses had sought to engage yea
and cruel revenge to which a military fierceness and just disdain of Nabal's Ingratitude and Indignity had transported him and them Or as Theodosius the Emperour did kindly and thankfully entertain the religious and resolute but respective reproofs of St Ambrose Bishop of Millain whom he reverenced as a Father and highly commended for that his freedom and fidelity to him which he said best became the Bishops or Prelates of the Church of Christ who are so to fear God as not to flatter any man The great work of your Lordships Honour and Wisdom with the Honourable House of Commons properly is to see Nè Leges Angliae temerè mutentur Nè Coronae Majestas minuatur Nè virtuti desit honoris praemium That the good old Laws Customes and Constitutions of England be not lightly changed That the Majesty of the King and Kingdom be not diminished for in uno Caesare res est publica we can have no Common weal but common woe if we have not a King clothed with that sacred and inviolable Majesty which is necessary for the publick welfare and safety Lastly It is among your Lordships and the Parliaments noblest cares and designs That no deserving vertue or ingenuous faculty which serves the publick welfare should despair of publick rewards and least of all learned Piety or the most noble and sacred Study of Divinity which is as the Sun or the greater light the author of that day which shines on our Souls to shew us the way to heaven and eternity whereas all other arts and sciences are but as the Moon and Stars to guide us in the momentary affairs of this world which is but the twilight state of a Christian Lest while the judicious Lawyers honest skill and commendable practice in our Common or Civil Laws or while the discreet valour of good Souldiers or the wholesome study of Physick or meer riches by any honest trade accumulated while I say any or all these are admitted not only to knock at the door but also to enter into the porch yea and to repose themselves in the Temple of Honour only the Learning and Religion of the Clergy the desert and industry of Divines who are the great Studiers and Interpreters of Gods Law the faithful dispensers of heavenly things these I say should to the shame and reproach of this Church and Kingdom be excluded from all temporal rewards and Honorary Encouragements After the method of the Apostate Julians envy and mockery who said the rewards of the world to come might serve their turns when he took from the Christian Orthodox Bishops and Clergy those large donations immunities and dignities which Constantine the great and other godly Emperours had endowed them and the Church of Christ withal The Justice and Nobleness of this Parliament hath sufficiently shewed to all the world how far your Honours are from the Schism and Sacriledge of either depriving this Church and Kingdom of Bishops which it enjoyed in all ages since it was Christian or of denying Bishops those Honours which the piety of your Progenitors was more ambitious to confer on them than they were to receive them The modest humility of ancient Bishops when most worthy thought themselves as we have cause to do less worthy of such high honour walking as Ammianus Marcellian tells us with grave steps modest looks and mortified behaviour But the generous piety of this as other Christian Nations thought that they then honoured God and their Saviour Jesus Christ when as Cornelius to St Peter they expressed their high respect and honour to the Bishops of the Church as to spiritual Fathers whose paternal benediction and peace in Christs Name as they oft desired with great devotion and respect so they ever judged Episcopal Presidency and Authority to be most suitable to the plethorick and sturdy temper of the people of England whose high spirits abhorre all levelling and are as impatient to be governed by their equalls or inferiours as water is to be kept within its own bounds And even now the wisdom of your Lordships and the Honourable House of Commons concurrent with his Majesties goodness in the restitution of Episcopacy and Bishops to their pristine honour and Jurisdiction must not in any reason be looked upon by us or any wise men as any partiality of favour to so few and to so inconsiderable persons as we are No doubtless your great and publick designs are in order to promote Gods glory to advance his Majesties service and to secure most effectually the peace of Church and State by adorning them with such Bishops and these with such authority as is most consonant to our ancient Laws and Constitutions to Catholick and Primitive Patterns to the Apostolick that is Christs Institution and to the Word of God who is the God of Order Besides most agreeable to the true Principles and those necessary proportions which must be observed in all political order and publick government for superiority and subordination all which are only to be perfectly seen used and enjoyed in this Episcopal Eminency or Autoritative Presidency That so the Church of ENGLAND may still enjoy as it hath by Gods blessing equal with any Church in any age since the Apostles dayes Its Ignatiusses Its Polycarps Its Polycratesses Its Irenaeusses Its Cyprians Its Ambroses It s Austins Its Chrysostomes Its Epiphaniusses Its Basils It s Gregories That is an holy succession of Evangelical Bishops of the same spirits and proportions with those elder and our later ones for learning piety prudence eloquence industry courage and constancy in the true faith of Jesus Christ That neither the Romanists on one side may quarrel with nor the Schismaticks on the other side invade and prostrate the honour of the Church of ENGLAND upon the oft but in vain objected account of Schismatical interrupting or intercluding the Apostolick succession of Bishops and therein varying in point of Episcopacy from it self as much as from all ancient and Catholick Churches to the infinite scandal of all good Christians and learned men both at home and abroad Many of whom do doubt and upon greater grounds than most of those vulgar scruples with which many please themselves to sight against and scratch at least the Church of England of the real validity of all Ministerial power and Ecclesiastical Authority and so of all mysterious dispensations and sacramental Consecrations where Bishops are wanting not by unavoidable necessity which is its own Apology but by a Presbyterian petulancy Schismatical Envy and Democratical Insolency which is so ambitious to ordain and rule in common that it giddily runs upon the rocks of Anarchy and Confusion Although we and all the soberly learned world must highly commend his Majesties Piety and Wisdom together with this Parliaments for their restoring Catholick Episcopacy and in that the great support of this Churches and Kingdoms peace And although we do justly esteem the honour and favour by God and man herein conferred on us yet we so much
preferre the publick good before any personal enjoyments or private interests as freely to declare to your Lordships and all the English world That we are so little devoted to the meer Honour or Profit of our places and see so little cause to be greatly delighted in this burthen full of business envy and importunity That if any men of other Principles or any other Forms of Church-Government according to their several new models and inventions which as Childrens Babies are almost as soon broken and defaced as they are made and adorned be able to do this Church and Kingdome better service than the Episcopal Order Presidency and Authority with which we are now invested Or if the wisdom of his Majesty and his two Houses of Parliament by any good experience have ever found them and accordingly should judge them more proper to attain His Majesties and Your great designs for Gods glory and the common good in Gods Name let these new Masters and their new Models take our places and share our Bishopricks once again among them Let them by some new and better experiments of their art and office expiate the former prodigies of their rude actions and desperate essays which had almost destroyed all that was sacred and civil among us Let not our personal and private Concerns be put into the Balance against the publick interest We willingly recede we disrobe we degrade our selves we will as far as we can by the ancient Canons of the Church submit to those new Presbyterian and Independent Projects and Projectors if his Majesty upon due advice with his Parliament shall discern them to have a better Call from God and man better skill or will to do Gods work and the Kings service in reference to the publick welfare if there be any thing in them more conform to Gods Word to principles of right reason to perfect rules of Politie to the necessary grounds of Government to the harmony of good order to the universal practice of the Church of Christ to the ancient Laws of this Kingdom or to the temper and constitution of the English people All which are highly and justly prejudiced against any novelty and wholly conformed to Episcopal Antiquity Unanimously confirming his Majesties and this Parliaments Wisdom in re-establishing of that to which no new form is to be compared much less preferred Your Lordships and all the English world have already tryed for some years full sore against the wills of the most and best men what the rigid Presbyterian or Aërian designs are what the plebeian practices of some Ministers and people are You have found and felt of what metal those new Masters and their Lay-Elders are who as Acephalists or Polycephalists headless or many-headed creatures affect to rule all first without Bishops next without Kings at length without Parliaments at last without people by a meer stratocracy of Military Myrmydons or Mamelukes when indeed they are in all their forms and figures found not more unfit for government than most unwelcome under that notion to the Commons Gentry and Nobility of England besides most unsafe for this or any Monarchy and wholly inconsistent with this Churches National Unity which as St Jerome observes will soon run into as many Schisms as there are Parishes and Preachers Out of the spawne of Schism fedition will soon rise and out of those egges such Crocodiles will grow as will swallow up Kings and Kingdomes Not that any men more highly esteem sober Presbyters or good Ministers yea and other Church-Officers such as the Law hath appointed in a due subordination to and orderly conjunction with Bishops than we do We shall ever advise with them as with friends tender them as sons and love them as brethren But we cannot allow nor can either the King or people of England bear that malipertness of Antiepiscopal Presbytery which hath of late like Reuben by a most inordinate lust ascended to its Fathers bed and against all Law usurped all Episcopal Authority in Ordination Censures and Jurisdictions Whose strength we see was soon powred out like water not to be gathered up exposing as it self to contempt so the whole Church to confusion Antiepiscopal or Headless Presbytery had indeed at first such a great belly or tympany in some mens high pretensions and rare expectations as if it would bring forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Magnum Jovis incrementum some prodigie of piety Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto some rare and heavenly off-spring was coming No less than Christs Kingdom Throne Scepter and Discipline was voted resolved and expected It was further attended when it drew neer the time of its travel and all our pains with a strange and new Nurse-keeper the Solemn League and Covenant sent for so many hundred miles out of Scotland which brought with it such swadling clothes as were thought fitter for that lusty babe than all the sacred bands of Baptism and Confirmation which Leaguer bands certainly could bind no man that is in his wits beyond or against his duty to God the King this Church and his Country any more than the green withes could bind Sampson to his hurt For fear of miscarrying in the birth for its Dam had hard labour it had the help of a Man-midwife who looked like a Mahometan a military and armed hand a means never used God knows in the true Church of Christ or in the Concerns of his Kingdom which is not of this world nor after its gladiatory methods the Gospel being first planted by Fishermen and watered by the blood of its prime Preachers and Professors Yet after all this Parado Presbytery proved a kind of untimely birth a most unblest abortive and although it was not still-born but cryed aloud for a while with a strong and terrible voice yet it was by a merciful providence as Monsters commonly are short-lived sucking blood instead of milk for its infant nourishment Neither the English soil nor air nor geny was for this upstart pert and presumptuous Presbytery which instead of the venerable gray head of primitive and paternal Episcopacy had got a new long tail of popular ruling Lay-Elders but it soon gave up the Ghost and being never Christned for it naturally abhorred Creed Ten Commandments and Lords Prayer it was over-laid as was thought and almost smothered to death by its Puny Independency that is the nurse was oppressed by its nursling by a sate as new and unheard of as it self was in England This stripling also even Independency was another by-blow of Church-Government a new but illegitimate brood begotten between fancy and faction schism and rebellion seeking to reduce Church-Government from its toga virilis manly magistratick and politick Constitution besitting well-grown great and National Churches to its hanging sleeves or swadling clouts again But these two spurious Progenies having neither lawful father nor honest mother neither the advice of a National Synod nor any Royal Assent and so neither Civil nor Ecclesiastical Authority to
which would make even Christianity it self not only unwelcome but most unlawful namely to bring it in by fraud and force or to present it to Soveraign Kings and Kingdomes on the Swords point as the Spaniards do Baptisme to the poor West-Indians with their poyniards in one hand and water on the other For although Non-conformity which is still made the Ball of difference and badge of dissention even among those who agree in Doctrine and Morals yea in Devotionals and Politicals in Liturgy and Episcopacy for the main sometime affected the voice of a Lamb when it durst not roare as a Lyon yet we see it hath the teeth tail and sting of a Dragon it seemed indeed at first to appear in sheeps clothing but it hath too much of the ravening wolf in it So ill it becomes warlike or Martial Non-conformity which hath shewed such horns and hoofs wherewith it hath sorely pushed goared and wounded this Church and Kingdom now to boast of its dove like innocency or to pretend to great tenderness or nicity of conscience and to demand any unsafe and illegal Liberty when the English and Christian world sees that all the beasts in Daniels visions were not more fell haughty cruel insolent and outragious then that rustical Non-conformity hath been to all sorts of sober Christians dissenting from it from the King that sate on the Throne to the meanest Subject that ground at the Mill who is there that did not flatter its folly but hath felt its imperious rigor Nor did it ever excercise that tenderness to others consciences which it so clamourously importuned for it self How much better then were it for the popular patrons of and pleaders for such factious seditious and unsafe Non-conformity who still resolve to be great but weak sticklers against any sober and legal conformity in the Church of ENGLAND How much more I say becoming of them were it now at last to humble themselves before God the King and the Laws to deprecate the just jealousie and heavy displeasure of God and man which some of that Sect have deserved and suffered to expiate their former menaces and later extravagances by some publick recantation and ingenuous repentance which may undeceive the poor people who have been so long scared and deluded with I know not what bugg-bears of their own and other mens fancies How much better were it for men of Learning and Conscience to make a narrower search into their own stale scruples and vulgar misapprehensions to compare the Churches honest declarations and injunctions with their sinister suspicions and probable delusions to dread as much as they pretend to do any other mens positive their own negative superstition which tends to Disobedience and ends in Rebellion against lawfull authority making by a great fatuity or arrogancy those things sin which God hath not made so who is a God of Order a friend to decency and no enemy either to ceremony uniformity or conformity consistent with truth and holiness but hath left all free to the wisdom choice and authority of every Church agreeable to the general tenor of his word Lastly how much more becoming them were it to give God the Glory of his justice which hath thus at last discovered defeated and confuted even by their own practices their wild and wicked principles yea and punished the violent and inordinate practices of some railing and ranting Non-conformists from whose inordinate fury if God had not at last by a wonderful providence redeemed this Church and Kingdom we had been as Sodom and Gomorah a continued Akeldama or field of Blood Tyranny Anarchy and Oppression under either Presbyterian Dictators who would set up a petty Bishop in every Parish and binde them up in the bundles or fagots of their Classes that so united they might be better redeemed from their own infirmities and other mens contempt or under Independant-Tryers who set the people above the Priest or under self and all confounding Phanaticks who do all things both irrationally and ex tempore or rashly But God hath pleaded the Cause of the Church of ENGLAND as to the soundness of its Faith and Doctrine as to the Sanctity of its Morals as to the Solemnity of its Devotionals and as to the unblamable decency of its rituals and innocency of its Ceremonials so stated enjoyned and used as they were in the Church of England not according to every mans fancy and humor but according to the judgment of the Law which best sets forth the publick mind and meaning of this Reformed Church which hath ever so declared publickly against and so effectually cleared it self of and absolved all its Members from all Error Profaneness and Superstition justly challenging and modestly using the Liberty Prudence and Authority which God hath given it for order peace and edification not for oppression destruction and confusion and this only over its own polity or communion that in earnest it is now a great shame for men of Piety and Learning still to vex as Peninnah did Hannah and agitate the Church of ENGLAND with the repetition of their needless Cavils and endless Objections which have been an hundred times fully answered and wherein themselves being satisfied they might with more ease and peace satisfie those whom they keep still raw and scrupulous by their own irresolutions After all is said designed and done by us that can become good men sober Christians and worthy Bishops in point of Reason and Religion Conscience and Subjection Charity and Discretion as to things of this nature which have of themselves so little to say for or against them being but relatively good or evil as the end is to which and the authority by which they are enjoyned yet we know our selves to be still severely warned and sharply alarmed by our own and the Churches enemies on all sides to be as most sincerely pious and constantly prudent in the main matters of Religion so to do all things as with good Conscience Courage and Authority so with all Christian candor and paternal charity to all men especially toward such for Christs sake as are truly conscientious in all Moralities and in some lesser matters peaceably scrupulous and honestly unsatisfied yet are willing to be informed and for the main are conformed to the example of Christ whose Kingdom consists not in meat and drink not in petty opinions and mutable shadows but in righteousness peace and holiness Other things of Form and Ceremony we do not weigh by any private fancies for or against them but by publick authority commanding Gods Word permitting and the Churches peace requiring them As to the point of tender Consciences so much pleaded we shall esteem none truly tender conscienced who live in any open sin or immorality or who approve and defend any prosaneness or impiety in ordinary speech much more in preaching and praying or who deny the authority of the Word of God or who despise the practice and custom of the Universal Church Or who
refuse the obedience due to Civil Magistracy or who oppose the liberty and authority of this particular Church to regulate and govern its own politie agreeable to Gods Word and the practice of all other Churches Our care shall be as not to spend much precious time in things that do not edifie nor to adde the weight of substance to feathers which are but ornaments so nor to expose Religion rude and bare naked and ridiculous to the world much less to sacrifice the publick peace honour and wisdom to private petulancy and pertinacy Yet still we shall make a great difference between the weak and the willful the superstitious and supercilious the scrupulous and scornful doubters and dissenters between the humble Professors and constant Practisers of true Religion in the main of Morals and Fiducials and the turbulent Praters or pragmatick agitators who love to swim against the stream of Authority against right Reason and true Religion established Laws and good Order setled Government and due Subjection We shall first endeavour with meekness of wisdom to satisfie all sober and good men next we shall do as the Law commands against the malipert and obstinate wranglers who make no conscience to deny common Principles to swallow absurdities and reconcile contradictions between their own liberties challenged to themselves and their rigid severities imposed by them upon others There is no reason for them to complain if the same measure be measured to them which they have meted to others every way their equals and in many their betters Nor shall they ever have so much cause to cry out of what they suffer as of what they have done We are not averse from any discrect indulgence which his Majesty and the Law shall see sit to grant to some persons for some time till better instructed and brought off from their prejudices we shall not envy or grudge or deny any honest man those dispensations and forbearances so far as our Charity to private Christians may not be prejudicial to the Churches peace and publick good to which we and all men owe the greatest charity and which may not under any flourishes of zealous praying and preaching or under any pretensions of private conscience be either undermined or overthrown what ever colours of Non-conformity or thorough Reformation men carry before them We know there are many envious eyes upon us and bitter tongues sharpned against us some quarrel that we are no better though themselves be not very good others are grieved that we are not worse This impotent malice of unreasonable or uncharitable men is best silenced and confuted by our just and gentle demeanour toward all And although we are not to be encouraged or over-awed with the weak words of men yet our care shall be that nothing be spoken of us bad but it shall be false The rough tongues of our enemies shall be but as siles and whetstones to our Virtues as their rude hands have been the touchstone of our patience This is the worst and only revenge we intend to take of all our causeless Adversaries either to perswade and win them to sobriety or to overcome and disarm them by our being or doing better then they deserve or desire The injuries and indignities cast upon some of us heretofore and all of us now by the pride improbity or petulancy of any shall but give greater fervour to our industry prayers and charity The former rigors used by some Tyrants Tryers and Inquisitors against Bishops and the Episcopal Clergy shall not carry us beyond the sober bounds of Gods and mans Law nor beyond that Law of Christian charity which is the bond of perfection and which commands us to let our Christian moderation be known to all men and our love even to our enemies We will not less encourage true piety sanctity and sincerity because of the scandal and cruelty of some mens hypocrisie We have not so learned Christ in whose holy footsteps we shall endeavour to tread as the surest evidence that we succeed in his Ministry and exercise his Authority Those Ministers or people whose hearts most misgive them as fearing the return of hard measure from Bishops because of the great evil they have as Pseudo-Presbyters and Apostates done or designed against all Bishops and the whole Church of England We cannot better Answer for their security than as Joseph did to his Brethren when he was now advanced and it was in the power of his hand to hurt them as their own jealous souls justly told them when he replied to their astonishment I am Joseph whom ye sold into Aegypt Be not afraid I fear God c. Thereby implying That he could not meditate or act any revenge but that of Love against his brethren who professed to own and serve the same God and whose mercy had now turned their intended mischief into good Let our greatest enemies heretofore now repent of the evil they have done and designed against this Church and Kingdom no less than against Bishops let them shew their repentance by living so as becomes good Christians and good Subjects As the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of their head fall to the ground by our means We meditate the good of all men and most of those that have been our deluded yea their own enemies and who will now be our friends and their own on any reasonable terms As good Physitians we shall have special care of those who most need our help and cure As Fathers we shall readily embrace those penitent prodigal Sons which return to us We know that nothing will sooner end all unkind unjust and uncomfortable quarrels than the holy and unblamable lives of Us Bishops which as the presence of Christ and the shadows of the Apostles will either cast out the evil spirits that yet remain in some men after all the miracles of Gods providences or else more torment them Our Virtues and Graces shall be the only Revengers as they will be the sharpest Satyrs and severest reproaches yea and the most assured Victors of mens evil speeches and insolent carriages In this holy integrity while we justifie his Majesties Wisdom with Your Honors Counsels and comprobation we shall have none to fear or flatter whose evil designs under any popular and threed-bare quarrels against all Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies are to overthrow both Law and Gospel Church and State bringing all into Anarchy and confusion We shall indeed highly urge conformity especially in our selves and all true Ministers Conformity I say first to the Word of God to the Examples of Jesus Christ and his holy Apostles with all true Saints Next to those Canons and Laws of the Church and State which bind Us and them most to loyalty and duty Lastly We shall so far urge an external conformity in circumstantials and Ceremonies as shall be required of them and Us by Law in order to preserve decency reverence uniformity and solemnity in holy Duties also peace and unity