but commendable and imitable in parallel occasions when they are real unwonted and wonderful in whch Good men do not deserve blame if they seem to forget themselves while they remember God a great and terrible Majesty it is meet for us to hear the voyce or rod of God and who hath appointed it Secondly 2 The matter or words of Elisha But passions alone and their expressions by crying out or any outward emotion disorder which signifie no more than interjections or broken and inarticulate sounds but as the leaves of the barren figtree without fruit Of rational and religious exstasies or as clouds without water these are neither the intents nor usual effects of divine manifestations and extraordinary impressions for however they may give some exstatick terror and amazement at first by the newness suddenness and wonder of them so as to discompose a while both Reason and Religions clearness yet they are not considerable further than God is discernable in them and glorified by them as that vision of Moses and Elias on the mount with Christ at his transfiguration Luke 9.8 9 10 which gave St. Peter such a present shake and astonishment that though he spake of making three Tabernacles and staying there yet he knew not what he said that is he did not well consider the unseasonableness and unreasonableness of his proposals yet afterward upon composed reflections and calmer thoughts 2 Pet. 1.17 he makes a very holy and excellent use of that vision to confirm the faith of Christians in Christ as in the beloved Son of God which voyce we heard saith he in the holy mount coming from the excellent glory of God the Father § Why Elisha thus cryed after Eliab Elisha's cry is not vox praeterea nihil a bare clamor insignificant as one scared and forehared but his wisdom remained with him he cries out as still importune and eager for the blessing of the doubled spirit that Eliah might see he saw him crying now at the instant of his departing which was the compact and agreement and he now laid claim to the accomplishment using this potent Charm of My Father my Father as begging his last blessing that he might be heir of his spirit Here we may observe Observ That divine manifestations or extasies in whatever way they are applied to our discomposure Oâ— holy transports and impressions still preserve the good man as to grace and the man as to right reason they do not speak either evilly or uncivilly or senselesly or unadvisedly with their lips whilst heart and senses divine Creeds or impulses do affect either they pray or praise God either they fear or rejoyce before him either they admire or adore and set forth the glory of God as Balaam himself did when he was in his Prophetick trances and was over-byassed by Gods Spirit against his own covetousness and ambition So the poor Shepherds at the Angelick Quire and Hymn Luke 2.9 10 11 12. visibly appearing and speaking audibly to them of Christs birth went away believing and rejoycing wondering and reporting the truth they first heard of and then found true in the birth of Christ It is an opinion worthy of the Mahometan blindness to fancy that mad men are inspired and see Angels when they rave and talk wildely Insani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes They are the madder of the two that do think these harsh strings to be touched with Gods holy Spirit § Of fanatick and frantick deliâ—ancies Certainly all extasies of delirancy and dotage that bring men first to strange fancies or to fits of quaking and convulsion then to vent either nonsense or blasphemous and scurrillous extravagancies these must be imputed as learned Dr. Merick Causabon observes either to natural distempers of disease and melancholy or to jugling affectations or to Diabolical delusions and possessions to which some of the Montanists Maniches Circumcellians and others of the Energumeni of old and of late have pretended who made first popular ostentations of special inspirations and correptions or raptures of the Spirit of God but afterwards the leaves and trash the toys and impertinencies they vented by words together with the pernicious extravagancies of their actions proclaimed as loud as the Devil of Mascon to all hearers and spectators that their troubles or tempests with the following dirt and mud arose not from the flowings or emanations of the pure spring of Gods Spirit but either from the Devils filthy injections or from the foul puddle of their own perturbed fancy and corrupt hearts or over-heated brains possibly intoxicated with the fumes of some new opinions and the gallant advantages they fancy to make by them § Of demoniac correptions It is an observation which St. Chrysostom makes that Demoniac correptions as those of the Sybils and other Oracles of old were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with such shakings and transports as dispossessed the possessed for a time of themselves both as to their reason and senses but divine Oracles and inspirations greater or lesse like loud or still musick preserve the harmony of the soul though they make for a time quick and smart strokes upon the strings of holy mens constitutions understandings passions and affections The words of Eliah are as St. Godâ— Spirit suggests and utters only words of soberness and truth Acts 26.24 Acts 2.4 Paul refuted Festus his supposal of his madness words of soberness and truth they that should then have heard them as now we read them must confess that God was in him of a truth 1 Pet. 1.2 he spake which St. Peter gives as the character of a true Prophet and Apostle as the Spirit gave him utterance and guidance as intentive to the last object the fatal signal token of his obtaining the desired Spirit and blessing This affected him so highly as the ingemination imports twice crying out My Father My Father § Expressing first a genuine and great sense of his private love respect duty and honor to Eliah whose relation and merit was to him as a father so he had found him so he valued him so he shall misse him remaining without him as an Orphan in minority desolate and exposed to injuries as well as indiscretions We may observe the great ingenuity and humility of Elisha Observ 1 The filial respects of Elisha to Eliah as his Father though anointed a Prophet and thought meet to succeed Eliah though now of the same order yet he doth not disdain to count and call Eliah his father because first his elder secondly his better and ordainer thirdly his superiour in merits graces no less than in degree and authority in his power or place in the Church Thus the antient Christian people yea and the antient Christian Presbyters owned their Bishops as Fathers The father of the Christian Churches in a precedency and presidency of place degree dignity and authority Ecclesiastical Thus did St. Jerom write with
Councils of Bishops to the Courts of Princes § Ei birth But to avoid all envy and offence in a touchy and captious age where all people will be Preachers and all Presbyters will be Bishops and all Bishops must be extirpated be pleased to know that the spring or original of this so fair so deep so clear so noble a stream of learning piety and wisdom was at Ipswich a Town of good note in Suffolk where he was born Anno 1592. His Parents of Merchantly condition of worthy reputation and of very Christian conversation When he was not many weeks old God took away his earthly Father that himself might have the more tender and fatherly care of this now Orphan but most hopeful Infant § His youth and education By the prudence of his pious Mother his youth and first years of reason were not lost or cast away as the first broachings of a vessel but being hardly repaired if once neglected they were carefully improved for his breeding in all good learning of which he was to a wonder in all ages of his life not only capable but so comprehensive that he drank in learning not as narrow-mouthed bottles to which young learners are compared by drops but as a sponge by great draughts even in his puerice or minority § Indeed His minority when I would search for his minority or the first source and fountain of that large fluency of eloquent and pious literature with which he alway abounded they are like the fontes Nili springs of Nilus hardly to be found he scarce had any Minority comparatively to others except in growth and stature for he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul says of himself Gal. 1.4 above his equals or coetaneans superior or major in abilities when inferior or minor in years Thus as he grew in age and stature so he grew also in wisdom and favour both with God and man Luk. 2.52 He was as the sons of Giants giantly infants giantly children giantly boyes giantly youths and gyantly men or like the Sun still the Sun at morning noon and night in its rise height and decline he never suffered any lessening or eclipse in himself § He suffered no diminutions but by the darknings of the times That fatal one upon this Church and State which befell him as a Bishop and his whole Order by the bold interposing of popular and headless Presbytery which in its due order not only preserved as Ignatius observes an holy harmony with Episcopacy but ever had as the Moon its light of holy Ordination and spiritval power from its aspect and respect to primitive and Catholick Episcopacy as the Sun But this sad diminution of him and other worthy Bishops was more a publick than a private disaster which even Presbytery it self hath found while the populacy or vulgar people like the earth do revenge even on that envious Moon the eclipse and injury it did to the Sun and to it self for as Episcopacy was turned into the sackcloth of mourning so Presbytery into the blood of war of fury of popular and endless factions for how can Presbyters keep their union lustre and honor but in conjunction with and subordination to Episcopacy as St. Cyprian long ago urged against some heady Presbyters in his days who lived in the second Century § The best method to take the exaltations and dimensions of this bright star which was one of the first magnitude is to observe his motions from his ascending to his decline and the several eradiations of his imitable worth When the Nurse of the Grammer-School had fitted him for his Mother the Vniversity His comming to the Vniversity he was sent in his fourteenth year to Pembrook-hall in Cambridge there his modesty pregnancy and piety soon invited preferment He was made first Schollar of the House and after Fellow a little sooner than either his years or standing in rigor of Statute permitted but the Colledge was impatient not to make sure of him by grafting him firmly into that Society which had been famous for many excellent men but for none more than for Ralph Brounrig when Batchelor of Arts when Master in Arts when Batchelor of Divinity when Doctor of Divinity and when Bp. of Exceter for as he fairly ascended every step or degree so he was ever thought no less to adorn than to deserve his advancements § His florid and fruitfull wit when first he appeared in publique to give testimony of his abilities and proficiency it is not to be expressed how sweet and welcome the very first productions of his most florid and fertile soul were which had the fragrant blossoms of a most facetious and inoffensive wit the fair leaves or ample ornaments of his most eloquent tongue the most pleasant fruits of Philosophy History Poetry and all sorts of ingenuous Arts and Sciences well digested accurately fitted to all occasions these at length raised to Divinity well grounded on Scripture and adorned by the study of antiquity the Fathers Councils and histories of the Church made him appear as one of the goodliest trees in the Paradise or garden of God the Vniversity and Church of England § His memory and eâ—oquence assisting his wit and parts He had always cum fideli memoria uberrimum ingenium beatam facundiam with an happy memory wit and words that were ful free without pumping or hesitancy set forth with an elocution or tone which was grandiloquent dictatorian and imperial he was at once profitably pleasant as Jothams vine and figtree to God and man His great wit was not forced frothy or affected but native apt and free muchless had it any thing muddy in it of prophaness scurrility or immodesty but chast ingenuous and innocent still tempered with such serious learned and pious mixtures or such grave retreates and closes that it seemed no other than beauty well dressed or goodness appearing in a fair and chearful Summers day having nothing of those melancholy clouds or winter dejections of more gloomy tempers He made the proof and experiment good That wit which is a kind of gaiety of fancy and luxuriancy of a ready invention is to be reckoned as beauty and handsomness among the good gifts of God when well used a jewel too bright and precious to be cast before swine or troden under the foul feet of wanton Poets of prophane and ridiculous Atheists who fancy they can out-wit God while yet non tam credunt quam cupiunt non esse Deum they rather wish there were not than believe there is no God being most sadly to be pitied when they seek to make themselves merry and the Devil to laugh by their grieving and mocking God or playing with the Scriptures and holy things which they disbelieve Quia malunt extingui quà m ad supplicia reparari as Minut. Felix speaks of the resurrection because they chuse annihilation rather than penal reparation § But here wit was consecrated to the
fair pots then was God their more immediate Prophet and Instructer The Patriarchal succession in families in dreams and night-visions in ocular and sensible apparitions by day in audable and articular expressions or in mental illuminations So to Enoch and Noah and Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet so as the holy Fathers of those families were at once as successive Princes Priests and Prophets to their families taking care to teach their posterity children and servants the true fear and worship of God Gen. 18.19 which the Lord promiseth himself from Abraham Iosh 24.15 and Joshua promiseth to God for himself and his house Afterward After successioning eater Polities when the Church of God multiplied from a family to a grand Polity or community which required those Laws and constitutions both Civil and Ecclesiastical together with the execution of them by Princes Priests and prophets which might best preserve humane society within those bounds of honesty and holiness and within the enjoyment of those blessings which might answer all just and good desires either as to the enjoyment of their lives estates and liberties in peace or as to the serving of God and keeping communion with him in those holy ways of his worship and service which he required of them for their good as well as his own glory then was it that the Lord either by special designation or by setled succession furnished his Church with such Princes Judges Priests and Prophets as he saw necessary for them Yea Ecclesiastical order and succeâ—â—â—on most necessary whatever scambling and confusion in Civil and Regular Magistracy mens ambition brought on the state of the Jews yet the Church order and polity of Religion was so fixed in Aarons family as to the constant Primacy of the Priesthood and in the Tribe of Levi as to the inferior offices and services that it continued many hundred of years after their Kings and after their Captivity inviolated among the Jews nor was that sacred Order and Succession quite depraved in Israel till a most unreasonable and detestable reason of state policy laying aside all true sense and conscience of piety 1 King 12.31 set up golden calves for gods to the silly people and consecrated the meanest of the people to serve them Meet Priests indeed for such bruitish gods When the great Prophet Moses was to leave the world Moses his care for succession yet he leaves the Church this legacy of comfort as to the divine care and providence for a succession The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him you shall hearken which as it was most eminently and consummatively fulfilled in our blessed Saviour as Philip tells Nathanael Iohn 1.45 Acts 3.22 Acts 7.37 and as St. Peter with St. Stephen convince the Jewes who was the great inspirer and compleater of the Prophets and their Prophesies so it was also fulfilled in those intermediate Prophets which followed Moses even to John Baptist whom God sent successively to preserve reform and restore true Religion in the Church The Priestly Prophetick Ministerial successive authority as necessary as magistratick and Ministerial Office is not less necessary in the Church than the Princely and Magistratick power is in the State unless men judge their souls eternal interests less precious than those of their bodies and estates Yea for the most part Gods Providence hath so distinguished them that when there were the best Princes yet there were added to them eminent Prophets besides the constant Priests as in Davids time where Samuel Gad and Nathan were imployed And here in the great revolt and sad Apostacy of Israel from Gods and Davids house yet the Lord is not wanting to send an Eliah and when he is to be gone order is taken for the appointing Elisha to succeed him the Ordinances of heaven 1 Kings 16 1â—.1â— of night and day summer and winter of Spring and Harvest Gen. 8 22. are not more necessary by the successive motions of Sun and Moon and Stars than those Ministers and Ministrations are by which true Religion and an autoritative order in the Church are maintained in present and duly derived to posterity Hence our blessed Saviour Our blessed Saviours care of succession in the Church Iohn 20.20 the great Minister and Fulfiller of all righteousness before his ascention took care for the Apostolick confirmation Consecration Mission and Commission as Stewards and Ambassadors in his stead to be sent by him as he was by his Father The Apostles also before their departure had the like care as is evident in the history of the Acts and in the charge that St. Paul gives to Timothy and Titus within their respective Provinces and Diocesses to commit the Evangelical spiritual power and Ministry as a sacred depositum to faithful and able men that may as Bishops and Pastors 2 Tim. 2.2 as Presbyters and Teachers both instruct and rule the Church or flock of Christ committed to their charge according to the several proportions and combinations of those Ecclesiastical Societies over which not only many Teachers were ordained but also some one Father or Angel was constituted and owned by the Spirit of Christ as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 2 3 chap. chief President over them the head or centre of order and union the principal Conservator and Dispenser of all Ecclesiastical power and authority which Irenaeus Tertullian St. Cyprian Origen and all the Antients counted Successiones successores Apostolorum having the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gift and character in ordinary which the Apostles had either as Presbyters or Presidents in the Church § Succession signalised by some visible ceremony That this might be done the more signally and conspicuously so as all might take notice of the solemn trausaction in a business of so sacred and great importance to the Church there was not onely due trial to be made of mens abilities inward and outward for such undertakings but they were to be invested with the Ecclesiastical power and admitted to the exercise of those sacred Ministrations by some evident ceremonies as tokens of Gods Ordination the Clergies approbation and the peoples acceptance of them So little is God an enemy as some have strongly fancied to all decent ceremonies in Religion which are shadows indeed of good things with whose substance they well agree We see that not only Sacramental mysteries even in the Gospel as well as under the Law are set forth by them and cloathed all over with them as to the outside or sign but also the Ordination of Priests Prophets and all Church Ministers ordinary and extraordinary have been adorned by them Elisha is first annointed by Eliah â— Kings 19.19 after this Eliah casts his mantle upon him even that mantle which afterward fell from Eliah ascending and was as an emblem of his spirit with which Elisha was
to be cloathed So our Saviour breathed on the Apostles Ioh. 20.21 22. when he said Receive the Holy Ghost So the Apostles used imposition of hands to denote their ordained Successors 1 Tim. 5.22 and 4.14 Heb. 6.6 which ceremony the Church of Christ in all ages hath observed in the successive Ordinations of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as one of the fundamentals of the Churches polity order and power Not that these outward Rites and Ceremonies are of the essence of the duty of the divine power but for the evidence of that order and authority which is necessary that there may be nothing dubious or doubtful or confused or upon bare presumptions and conjectures in the Churches sacred Ministry but such an authority as is both powerful in its efficacy and pregnant and signal in its derivation and execution that none might undertake the work who is not constituted to be a Workman nor any withdraw from it who is rightly furnished for so worthy a Work as the Apostle calls the work of a Bishop either the minores Episcopi which are orderly Presbyters or the majores Presbyteri which are the paternal Bishops We see Eliahs spirit falls on none but his annointed Successor The spirit and power follows the lawful succession nor was any so fit for the appointment and succession as Elisha a man indeed of plain breeding of a country yet honest way of living which is no prejudice or impediment when God intended to furnish him with Eliahs spirit 1 Kings 19.19 with extraordinary gifts and endowments with the power from on high as Christ did his fishermen when he made them fishers of men Luk. 5.10 This was in one hour more to their improvement than all Schools and Vniversities all literature and education all languages arts sciences and Scriptures But when these special gifts which were miraculous are not given nor needful in the ordinary ministration propagation and preservation of Religion there reading and study and diligence and education and Schools of the Prophets are the conduits of Gods good and perfect gifts conveyed by holy industry and prayer to those that study to shew themselves workmen that need not to be ashamed 2 Tim 2 15. when once they are sanctified or set apart by God and the Church as here Elisha was In whom doubtless God and Eliah had seen something that expressed a very gracious and sincere heart by an humble holy Elisha's fitness to succeed Eliah and unblameable life We never finde that men of leud or scandalous lives are called to be Prophets of God or allowed to be made Preachers and Bishops of the Church wherein the antient Canons of the Affrican and other Churches were very strict and circumspect whom when and how they were ordained Bishops Presbyters or Deacons St. Paul requires that they should be not only unblameable but of good report even among the Heathens and unbeleivers as to matters of Justice Morality and common honesty as well as sound and orthodox in the Christian faith § Elisha discovers an excellent spirit and fit for a Prophet of God 2 Kings 2.2 4 6 not only by his individual adherency to Eliah three times piously disobeying his commands when he bade him leave him As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee The love of good company is a good sign of a good conscience a very good way to a good life and a ready means to make us partakers of spiritual gifts but further Elisha shews a most devout and divine soul in him fit to make a Prophet to succeed Eliah when first he doth not preposterously and presumptuously obtrude himself upon the holy Office and Succession but attends Gods call and the Prophets appointment of him Secondly When he sees it is the will of God and his father Eliah he doth not morosely refuse or deprecate and wave the imployment as some had done Moses and Jeremiah after though he knew it would be heavy and hot service in so bad times but submits to that onus no less than honos burthen as well as honor God imposeth on him Thirdly In order to his support and encouragement in the work he doth not covetously or ambitiously look to the preferment or honor or profit which might easily follow such an imployment especially if merchandise might be made of miracles as Gehazi designed and of the Gospel if Ministers turned Sucklers and Hucksters of the word of God as the Apostle taxeth some who were greedy of filthy lucre no but his earnest and only desire is for a double portion of Eliahs spirit to be upon him not that he might have more glory but be able to do more good 1 Kings 9. â—4 Iames 17 with more courage and constancy with less dejection and melancholy despondency than Eliah who was a man subject to like human passions and sometimes prone to fall not only into despiciencies and weariness of life but even to despair as to the cause of God and true Religion It is as Chrysologus calls it a commendable emulation to imitate the best men and a pious ambition to desire to excel them in spiritual gifts and graces which the Apostle St. Paul excites all to covet in their places which the more bright and excelling they are like the light of the sun the more they dispel all the vapors mists and fogs of humane passions or pride which by fits darken the souls of holy men I cannot here but own my desires The defective and dubious succession of Evangelical Ministers very deplorable and deplore the state of our times which forbids me almost to hope their accomplishment as to any orderly and meet succession of Evangelical Prophets and Pastors Bishops and Presbyters in this Church our Eliah's dayly drop away I do not see any care taken for Elisha's to suceed them in such compleat clear and indisputable ways of holy Ordination and Succession as may most avoid any shew of faction novelty and schism and be most uniform to the Antient Catholick primitive Apostolick and uniform pattern which never wanted in any setled Church either Presbyters to chuse and assist the Bishops or Bishops after the Apostles to try ordain oversee and govern with the Counsel of Presbyters and all other degrees and orders in the Church Darkness disputes divisions distractions dissatisfactions and confusions must needs follow that Army or City that knows not who are its Commission officers or lawful and authorised Magistrates so must it needs be in the Church when Christians know not who are their Fathers their Stewards their Shepherds their Bishops or their Presbyters There is nothing next the fundamentals of faith in which the Church should be more clear and confidently ascertained than in this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 10.15 Ordination and succession of their Evangelical Prophets for how shall they preach or rule unless they be lawfully sent and set over the houshold of faith Christs
respect to St. Austin as a Bishop and his junior in age yet so far his superiour although St. Austins humility indeed so far Complements with and cools the others heat as to say that although Bishop Austins precedency before Presbyter Jerom was by Ecclesiastical use and custom very old Apostolical and universal yet as to the truth of personal worth and eminency of merit Presbyter Jerom was above Bishop Austin Had Bishops and Presbyters in our days carried this equanimity to each other it had been happyer for both § But if Presbyters were clearly of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adequate in their holy Orders and Ecclesiastical Power as to the main which is not easily proved nor was of old so judged by the Fathers for even St. Jerom excepts Ordination as a peculiar belonging to Bishops both in fact and in right for ought appears as Successors to the twelve Apostles who were above the Seventy in point of precedency inspection power and jurisdiction yet the fancy of equality as to Bishops and Presbyters was chiefly fomented by some latter Schoolmen who urged this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Bishops and Presbyters to advance the Popes throne and Soveraignty above Bishops from whose authority Monks and Friars coverted exemption as immediately under the Popes visitation who commonly were old men far off and had dim eyes to see the Monastick disorders Besides the Parasites of the Pope were also to magnifie the later device of Transubstantiating and that Mass power of all Presbyters so high as none might or could exceed it if true yet still the eminent degree and exercise of Bishops as to the Polity and government of the Church both for general inspection and chief jurisdiction for Ordination and Discipline for presidency as well as precedency authority as order was never of old questioned much less denied as Antichristian being as rational and suitable to Religious Order yea and as Christian or Evangelical as for one to be Provost or Master of a Colledge over many Fellows possibly as good men and Schollars as himself or for some Commanders to be over fellow-Souldiers or for some Citizens to be Magistrates over other Freemen or for Parents to own their authority or superiority over their children when they are men and women of the same nature and stature with themselves The levelling of mankinde throughout in State and Church Of levellings in Church and State in Civil Military and Ecclesiastical power because in some things they are equal is but a policy and project of the great author of confusion 1 Cor. 14.33 the God of order appointed of old and approves for ever different degrees ranks and stations in his Church according as men are fitted by him with gifts for government in such ways of meet superiority and subordination as preserves order and deserves respect Exod. 6.25 as the Priests of Aarons family so of the whole Tribe of Levi had their ranks and orders their duties degrees and distances there were Heads and Fathers and chief Fathers of their Tribes and Families as well as of others which the Septuagint render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dâ—â— â— 15 Bishops or Overseers of them and this not onely in age and primogeniture by nature and years but officio praelatura by office and authoritative power so to oversee not as a bare Spectator but as Shepherds or Masters of Assemblies 1 Tim. 5.19 Tit. 2.15 who did rebuke with all Authority yea and reject in cases of demerit And then was it also by St Pauls example and prescription to Timothy and others among the Christian Churches who in the worst times never wanted their good Bishops nor in good time that love honor and obedient regard to them as to their Fathers in the Lord when they were worthy of that name and office The name Father is sanctum suave nomen Of the Name Father its highest sense belongs to God in comparison of whom none is to be called or counted a Father as Christ spake Nemo tam pater Mat. 3.23 nemo tam pius as Tertullian Ambitiosius Patris nomen quam Domini heri exigit God hath an ambition rather to be called Father by us and so treated than Lord and Master Therefore our Saviour begins his and our prayer with Our Father This venerable Name breatheth all comforts this mindeth us of and bindeth us to all filial love this racks us from the sowre dregs of servile fear 1 Iohn 4.18 he that can say this proem or first word Our Father with true faith to God and charity to man need not doubt to go on in that perfect prayer Since men lost their charity to others and their filial regard to God and their reverence to their parents they have avoided to use the saying or praying of the Lords prayer as afraid and ashamed of it because it binds them at the very first word to their good behaviour by the bands of piety to God in Father and of charity to men in Our which no factions or schisms no sinister interests and ends no Pharisaick pride or singularity can endure no more than Witches can the Creed or the unruly Demoniack the presence of Christ § Yet no man is or can be further happy than he hath and owns God for his Father 1. in creation and providence Father of the whole Family in heaven and earth Eph. 5.3 2. In Christ as sending his Son into the world a Redeemer for all men without exception in the value merit and offer of his sufferings and in that conditionate capacity into which every one is by Christ put upon his faith and repentance to be saved and owned as the brother of Christ and Son of God 3. And lastly God is a Father by those special effects of regeneration and grace which follow that immortal seed of his Word and motions of his Spirit where they fall upon broken and contrite spirits not upon hard hearts Mat. 13.5 or fallow and stony ground which refuse the reception and damp the operation of those holy means that are both able and apt to work the life of faith repentance and love in a reasonable soul This highest account of the name Father is only to shew how much it imports of honor love merit and duty being a branch rooted in God and from his goodness springing to his creatures § Why God communicates to men the name of Father But this relative name of Father is none of the incommunicable ones God is pleased to lend the graving or character of it to mankinde and to stamp this paternal honor and Majesty upon some men in natural civil and ecclesiastical respects Hence the first command of the Second Table or the last of the first is that caution to honor father and mother a duty of piety and religion as well as of morality civility humanity and polity God is concerned as despised and injured in any indignities offered to
overcome yea and to deplore the justest miseries which fall upon them 2 Sam. 18.33 as David did his Son Absoloms death when by a most popular and prodigious rebellion he sought to take away both his Kingdom and his life Of Bishops as Fathers if not Lords § If we may not enjoy Bishops as Lords in the State I wish we might enjoy them as Fathers in the Church if they be truly venerable for their vertues and graces they will not much want honorable Titles nor that real love and value which all good Christians and ingenuous persons are more ambitious to pay to real worth and useful merits for Quis tam perditus ut dubitet Senecam praeferre Neroni Si libera dentur suffragia than to supercilious vanity empty formality and an idle kind of pompous luxury which are but the rust and excrements of hydropick and sick estates or of diseased and dwindling honors The eased and dwindling honors The name of Lord hath more of vulgar and secular pomp but the name of Father more of spiritual power and divine authority the first hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Gods name or in Christs stead for the good of the Church § To wind up the thread of this discourse no doubt Elisha's humility and obsequiousness to Eliah was such as he would willingly have called him his Lord and Master as the Sons of the Prophets call him but he rather chose the name of My Father as more suitable to Eliahs comportment both to him and to all the Church of God First Because in this one name Magistrates and Ministers Princes Bishops Priests and Prophets were as in the fairest letter or print to read or learn their duty in their dignity and so to be more sollicitous to do what becomes them than to exact the respects of others which best follow where they are best deserved as water flows easiest when the channel is clearest and a little descendent or falling Paternum est docendi munus The Officers of Fathers c. the duty of Fathers is to teach and educate their children that they may be Fathers of souls as well as of bodies to feed and provide for to defend and protect to be bountiful and munificent to give good counsel and example which are the best pillars to bear up authority to reprove and correct yet with love and moderation having always an intercessor in their own brests Gen. 27.4 Lastly Father are to bless their children in the name of the Lord and to transmit or deliver that by their hands and mouths to their children which is truly Gods act and deed but these are to God as the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal is to the King the King grants but the other legally conveys or passeth the blessing § Secondly The duty of Sons Such Sons and Subjects in Church and State as well as nature that hope with Elisha to be the inheritors of their Fathers blessing and Gods by that means will from this name see their happiness in that divine indulgence which hath set over them in Church or State not Pharoahs and Nero's hard Masters and severe Lords but tender and compasvionate Fathers whose power and authority they will justly value rejoycing in the Fathers superiority and their own subjection humbly desiring and defending their paternal care benediction and comprecation for them and also dreading their sad imprecations or deserved curses for oft as Plato observes the divine hand sets to the seal and says fiat to Parental curses as well as blessings § As the lives of all Fathers natural civil and spiritual ought to be a Commentary on the name and a compendium of the divine goodness that every thing they do or say may have a relish and tincture or politure and guilding of this sacred sweet and divine name so ought inferiors to learn their duty also by it to reverence those for Gods sake who bear the Name and Office of Fathers in Church and State to love and honor them if worthy to pray for them and bear with them if bad and froward Vt parentum sic principum ferenda sunt ingenia saith Tacitus Parents are forbidden to provoke causelesly their children to wrath Eph. 6.4 much more ought children to avoid provoking their Parents rather wink at hide conceal excuse palliate and cover as Noah's more pious and blessed Sons did Cen. 9.23 a Fathers nakedness and infirmity as Constantine the Great professed he was ready to do the failing of any Bishop or Churchman Be not curious to be conscious to their faults nor forward to complain of them never reproach them rudely but intimate thy sense to them with respect and reverence We read of some parents by a barbarous superstition making their children pass through the fire to Moloch but we never read of children casting their parents alive into the fire as an acceptable sacrifice to any gods Had we all done our duties in England on all hands we had had I believe better dayes and not onely our tranquillity civil peace and plenty but our religious piety order and charity which are the life of our lives and the honor of all honors had been prolonged in the land of the living where now our neglect of duty as Fathers and Sons hath divided and destroyed us so far that like wretched children we cannot see the things which belong to our peace unless it be to avoid them much less can we peaceably and chearfully enjoy them they are for our sins and by our undutiful doings Luke 19.42 so hidden from our eyes § Of a Fatherly condition in Church and State How this penal and sad providence of God hath deprived us of our nursing Fathers in Church and State exposing us either to be Orphans and Fatherless vagabonds under no setled Orders or safe protection or else betraying us to such various strange and numerous Step-Fathers not fathers in Law but without all Law as have more of Lordly tyranny and Soldierly insolency by meer power than fatherly benignity or authority by any relation I leave it to wise men to judge and to God in time to teach us our errors and defects when our eyes are more open by another twenty years mutations miseries burdens exactions Wars terrors and confusions possibly we may with the Prodigal so arise from our husks and go to our Father and return to the duty we owe to God and man § If God had taken away the Fathers or Prophets of any people as Eliah to himself they had been excusable but for Sons to destroy and extirpate their deserving Fathers this seems to be not Turbo de coelo a whirlwind or fire from heaven but rather the effect of Turba gravis paci c. a fire and tempest from a lower region § I fear the end of our fatherless condition in Church and State will only turn at
it That nothing is more true than that Maxime both of piety and true policy Plus debet ecclesia Respublica Christiana ministris Ecclesiasticis quam militibus secularibus Soldiers may and oft do the work of Mahomet and Antichrist but good Preachers do always the work of Christ and of mens souls as to their inward and eternal interest yea as to outward and secular things of peace safety prosperity and victory over enemies Plus profuit Moses orans quam Josua pugnans Exod. 17.20 Moses did avail more by his praying than Joshua by his fighting Yea when the wrath of God is kindled and the fire of famine plague or war is broken out against any people these chariots and horsemen of Israel such as are powerful in prayer sober in their counsel exemplary in their lives are beyond imagination effectual to moderate remedy and remove divine vengeance When Noah Daniel and Job stand in the gap when Jacob wrestles with God Ezek. 14.14 when Moses holds his hands when Aaron and Phineas intervene between the living and the dead exciting the spirits of people to repentance and amendment to fasting and prayer when the Priests and Ministers of the Lord cry mightily to heaven Ioel. 2.17 and give the Lord no rest then is it that God spares and heals and returns to be gracious to the land § If men thought this they could not easily be so partial and unjust as to turn Tythes into Taxes to grudge the first as the Ministers portion and augment the second as the Souldiers pay good Ministers make a Nation need no Soldiery they are the murus aheneus brasen wall the fortification and ammunition that destroys sin the great enemy and traytor to all our happiness It is as true in the body Politique Qui militariter vivit misere vivit as that qui medice vivit misere vivit It is a sad life to live always medicinally and so to live always in a military necessity and danger besides the vaste charge that this Physick and these legions of Chyrurgeons stand any Nation in but grave godly peaceable and able Ministers are so far from being the lancets and leeches or the phlebotomists the exhausting pills and dispiriting purges that they are indeed the best cordials and restorative of the safety honors beauty strength peace health and happiness of any Church and State these help to put things into that posture of charity and peace that men may beat their swords into pruning-hooks Isai 2.4 Math. 4.3 and their armour into plowshears Once destroy or disband your able and orderly your learned and wel-armed Ministers Bishops and Presbyters or take away their order and good Government as such in united Councils and Synods withdraw their maintenance and support you will soon want their help and shall never want wars and enemies in Church and State as our own sad experience tells us both the Wars of disputation and of digladiation Nor are the Peditatus The Infantry or foot forces of the Church the Infantry or foot-soldiery of this spiritual Militia to be despised as useless I mean the meanest of the people that truly fear God and humbly keep their ranks and orders both in Church and State these also do stand in the gap these as Tertullian speaks quasi agmine facto ambiunt gratam Deo vim inferunt these besiege God as it were with great squadrons or companies offering an acceptable force to the Divine majesty both to disarm his Justice and to obtain his Mercy Ministers Magistrates and godly people together of one heart and of one mind in the Lord do make a royal and heavenly host a compleat Army both of horse and foot being under the same Generalissimo the Lord Jesus Christ who loves to see his Soldiers not stragling and freebooting in broken parties and scattered Conventicles but united and combined in great Congregations as the Assemblies of his Saints and Soldiers not of Sectaries and Schismaticks under such Commanders both greater and less as he hath ordained and commissioned § If these be the merits use and publick influence both as to Church and State of Gods Prophets and Christs Ministers in their several degrees and stations I wonder whence those principles of State policy arose and prevailed so far in this Nation as for some men with equal ignorance and injustice to endeavor to rout and cashier all these settled and reformed forces of the Ministry of England either stoping their pay or taking away the Antisignani principal Rulers and Leaders the Ecclesiastical colours and Commanders with the cheif Standerd-bearers of the Church for learning and prudence which practices and attempts have already put all the regiments of horse and foot to very great routs and disorders irrecoverable without a miracle of mercy Yea some by a strange kinde of fatuity and cruelty strive to gratifie the Papists Jesuits and others our enemies on all sides 2 Sam. 8.4 1 Chron. 18.4 by houghing all the best horses and burning or breaking in pieces all the best chariots of our Israel and the nurseries or chief conservatories of them the Universities just as David did those of the Amonites or the chariots and horses of the Sun that in after ages the Reformed Religion in England might have none but pittiful unarmed Pygmies to encounter with armed Goliahs of Rome Of routing and disbanding the Ministry § Many fear we are undermined and betrayed by the secret and sinister plottings of our Romish Adversaries who have so many Pioneers and Ingineers at work and are glad beyond measure to see the havoke made of Protestant Preachers of reformed Bishops and Churches which uniform and united are strong scattered are of no great efficacy though perhaps good Christians as a single Soldier signifies not much though valiant It may be good yarn or thread that is spun but t is not cloth till it be well woven together in one web it is not an Army but a rabble without Officers and Order nor is it a Church once take these Pastoral staves of beauty and bands away or deprive both Pastors and people of due order unity and government or rob the Rulers and Laborers of their setled pay and due enterainment 1 Cor. 9.7 that either they must go to war at their own charge for nought or live by forrage and free-quarter or depend upon the arbitrary contributions of people which is but a kind of gentle plundering or living upon not free-quarter but alms rather in a way very uncomfortable to ingenuous and able men no less than unacceptable to common people who set no great rate on their souls Certainly this new modelling of our spiritual Militia or Ministry being once effected what can be expected but a petty company of mendicant Preachers a black guard and forlorn-hope of ignorant and contemptible Freebooters men of little learning less estate no respect and least worth to deserve it to the great triumph joy and jubilee of all
false in their lives love not to be brought to the touchstone at their deaths Indeed some mens lives actions and memories are like their carkasses best when least stirred and most hidden from the sight of others Psal 112.6 But the just shall be had in everlasting remembrance and enjoy this reward even among men to have their name as a precious ointment poured out Eccles 7.1 Cant. 1.3 Mat. 26.12 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not preparatory to but contemporary with their interment or burial that so the sweet odor of it may not only accompany as the spices which Mary bought for Christ their coffin and corps but fill the whole house the place the Parish the Church or the Temple where they either lived or are buried FINIS MEMORIALS OF THE Life and Death OF BP. Brounrig I Have done right honorable and worthy with the Text read unto you I know your piety and civility now expect that I should if not largely comment yet fairly paraphrase or gloss upon that Text which lies dead before you the corps or earthly remains of that reverend Father in God Dr. Ralph Brounrig late Lord Bishop of Excester It were too great an injury to you at once to lose the honor of his presence and the happiness of his example § Of the honour of Bishops as Fathers and Lords I call him stilo veteri a Bishop a Father and a Lord without offence I hope to those old and new Lords Temporal who less able to endure the honor and society of Bishops as Lords Spiritual have by depluming these very much moulted their own feathers nor do I use these Titles by an arrogancy but a justice being due to him by the Laws of England as well as by ancient Ecclesiastick customs nor any way that I know forfeited by him or by other worthy Bishops who however hated and despised by the supercilious and popular spirits of some men whose neither mind nor manners exceeded such Bishops in any point of true nobleness and worth yet God forbid that one hair of their venerable heads should fall to the ground by my neglect of paying that filial love respect and honor which I have learned from the Apostles canon and pious antiquity as due to the Fathers of my Ministerial power and Ordination who have ruled well and labored too in the Word and Doctrine § Which tribute of double honor hath ever been willingly paid to learned grave and venerable Bishops of the Church not only by all humble and orderly Presbyters but by all sorts of Christian people great and small and most by the best even by Gentlemen Noblemen Princes Kings and Emperors who so soon as the Church had rest not only endowed many Bishops with ample revenues but added to them those civil honors which made them Peers to the Senatorian order or Patrician dignity ever since Constantine the great 's time which is now one thousand three hundred years A very long prescription and valid prejudice against modern levellings of the Clergie and Episcopacy § Not that I think it the part of a grave Divine or a reverend Bishop to affect secular honors and civil titles but rather to deserve them and to live above them as the primitive persecuted Bishops did who wanted not real honors among good Christians when they had no favour from Civil Laws and Secular Powers § But in a Nation professing to honor the Lord Jesus Christ I see no cause they should deny that double honor to the chiefest of his Servants Stewards Messengers Ministers and Embassadors which by the rule of Christ is due to them as in his stead Nor is it a great matter if those partake of mens civil and temporary honors who impart to them the way of true and eternal honor especially in a land of plenty and so of vulgar petulancy where no Authority in Church or State is to be preserved unless it be adorned with such ensigns of visible honor and estate as may not only keep off contempt and insolency but conciliate respect and reverence § I confess I cannot to this day understand by what partial policy and unreasonable reason of State in a Christian and civilised Nation the gate of Honor should be open to Gentlemen to Lawyers to Soldiers to Merchants to meer Mecanicks who by valour or industry or money or meer favour without any signal merit may ascend to the honor of Lords and of sitting in Parliament as Counsellors of publick and grand affairs of whom one day adventured to bring forth a whole house full and yet this gate of honor must be shut against all Divines and Church men only even then when they were worthy to be made Pastors and Bishops of the Church whose learning vertue wisdom and every way useful merit is no less contributive to the publick happiness than any other order of men yea perhaps more on which merit that Apostolical Canon for double honor is undoubtedly grounded which includes such Estates as may make them hospitable and such respect as owns them venerable as persons that are stiled Angels by the Spirit of God Rev. 2 and 3. being in a degree of heavenly service and holy office above ordinary mortals § But I shall not need further to assert the honor of this and such like Bishops against the vapor and vanity of some men who seeing Bishops lightned of their estates will it may be with more patience endure the empty title of Lords to be given them Certainly all just and ingenuous persons will abhor injurious indignities offered to deserving Bishops as a most undutiful sacriledge when they are satisfied of the many meritorious claims which they had to true honor by that eminency of worth which is in them whereof I could not have had in any age a more convincing and notable instance capable to to split in sunder as Daniel did Bel and the Dragon of Antiepiscopal envy than this excellent Bishop whose Funerals we this day celebrate § His publique conspicuiâ—ie and eminency A person of those ample and cubical dimensions for height of learning and Understanding for depth of Humility and Devotion for length of all Morality and Vertue and for breadth of all Humanity and Charity that it is hard for me to contract or epitomize him One cannot tell as Nazianzen speaks of Cyprian Or. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether the variety in allor the excellency in every vertue was most to be admired in him He is like an excellent Book full of remarkable sentences that hath nothing in it which is not worth noting He is as a fair large and fruitful field affording both freedom to expatiate and plenty to gather He is as a solid mass of gold pure precious and ponderous malleable also to a great extent as well as of great weight and worth Being always as Chrysostom speaks Innocentia infans virtute juvenis obedientia filius charitate frater gravitate pater
reputation He was beyond any new feculent and intoxicating Must of yesterdays tunning like an excellent piece of sound good old wine always ripe and ready for all commers and tasters fully prepared for all essays and to all business of import § If he had once had any moderamen guidance of the chariots and horsemen of Israel the Clergy and Ministers of England it is not imaginable what his gravity goodness sincerity moderation oratory and piety would have done He would have been far enough from Phaethons fact and fate to have overthrown or set all on a light fire but this was a blessing that this Nation was not worthy of being ripe for wrath fitter for Soldiers to mow down than Schollars to plant or water it Other mens judgment of Bishop Brounrig before they plaid a new Presbyterian game § As to the esteem he had on all hands I my self have oft heard as others so Mr. John Pint who was of some kindred to this Bishop not only highly commend him but even glory and boast of him so did M. Marshal and those of his Juncto while conformity kept them warm till growing wanton planetary and excentrick from their former judgement and practice for many years they turned the Tables and withdrew their stakes these indeed for reasons of State playing against Bishops and Episcopacy while the other always like himself and as became Bp Brounrig for conscience sake stood constant to assert it as I know this reverend Prelate did ever to his last nor from any vain glory pertinacy pride or humor of revenge he was far remote from any such poisons but from eternal and immutable principles of Reason and Religion of order polity and peace in Church and State also from experience of the blessings by and under Episcopacy which this and other Churches had enjoyed and the either defects or miseries for want of it He hath sometime said to me That he held other reformed Churches which had not Bishops to have verum esse a true being of Ministers and other Christians but it was esse defectivum They had as wandering people esse naturale but not esse civile they might be Christs sheep but not so folded and under such shepherds as the Church had ever used from the Apostles days much insisting on that due veneration which posterity and particular Churches owe to the piety prudence and fidelity of the Catholick Church in Primitive times where Churches no more thrived or lived without Bishops as Presidents authoritative among and above Presbyters than Christians lived without their heads or hearts Yet was he out of love to his native Country His moderation in the matter of Episcapacy and pity for the Church of England passionately inclined to any fair and fraternal accommodations that humble orderly and worthy Presbyters whom he loved and treated as brethren might have all their due and Bishops no more than was their due by Scripture by primitive customs by the Laws of the land and by principles of order and true polity among all fraternities of men He had so great regard to the judgment Catholick custom of this and all Churches of Christ in all ages that he did not like some modern Sampsons think fit to break those cords or bands asunder at the pleasure of any men whatsoever meerly upon secular and civil designs for however he well knew that the Church depends on the Civil State for its secular peace and support yet he thought it but meet that a Christian State should in things Ecclesiastical conform to the primitive and Catholick customs of the Church Certainly he had been an admirable center for union His desire of an happy union between Bishops and Presbyters having a strong majestick attractiveness to win even adversaries to the love or reverence of him his demonstrations were so potent his perswasions so pathetick his designs so upright and just his deportment so fatherly and friendly that he was capable to rectifie even crooked pieces and to mollifie even stubborn perverss and peevish tempers if they did not with an high hand run quite counter and cross-grained to antiquity and reason either toward Rome or Amsterdam or Geneva to superstition to confusion or to popular and prevalent factions which he thought no less pernicious than novel to England by which some men not only seek to dictate very magisterially to this and all present Churches and States Christian but they dare to despise and condemn all antiquity even to the Primitive and Apostolical times as if no Christian Churches were ever well and rightly governed till after fifteen hundred years in all which times either long Anarchy it seems or sore Tyranny prevailed until the people of Geneva listing to reject their Prince and Bishop could not be composed to any order or polity Ecclesiastick but by the prudence of Mr. Calvin who t is evident did not constitute what Ecclesiastical polity he best liked but what the temper of the giddy people and distractions of times would bear for Mr. Calvin was known sufficientiy to be no enemy to Episcopal Presidency where Bishops would conform to the Doctrine and life of Christ § His great accomplishment for great affaires This reverend Bishop was indeed every way a most apt ample and accomplished person for great and publick affairs nor was he ever cut out for small work having so great and good a soul he was an excellent Schollar an admirahle Orator an acute Disputant a pathetick Preacher an unspotted Liver a prudent Governour full of judgment courage constancy and impartiality an useful good man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grave and great Divine a gracious and sincere Christian as well as venerable Bishop consciencious in all he did and humble with all his indowments not less full of eminent graces than excellent gifts indeed every way such a man and such a Bishop as no Christian Church in any age but ours nor ours in any age but this would have laid aside being a Preacher and Professor of the same reformed Faith and Confession of Doctrine nor would any times but ours have forced by popular storms and tempests a goodly ship fraught with such rich treasures of worth and wisdom which are seldom embarked or laden in one bottom to come aground and to lie still in some obscure yet scarce safe corners and creeks either for fear of Plebean and Military Hericano's or for want of fit sails and fair winds or tides to bring it forth to the commerce and enriching of the world in Learning Religion and a most imitable example Not that this grave and grand Personage His usefulness in his retirement and private life when thus forced to retire was useless to those that were worthy of him and knew how to value and use him either as a Bishop or as a Divine or a counsellor or a comforter or a Friend nor were any people more to be envied in my judgement than those that were happy as Solomons
off his earthly Tabernacle those exuviae mortalitatis which are due to the grave It was inter novissima vota one of his last desires that as this mantle of Eliah's soul was likely to fall among you so it might be deposited in your Temple or Sanctuary as an expectant of a blessed Resurrection § This request you not onely ambitiously entertained but honorable accomplished being loth that so great a Prophet should be buried among the graves of the meaner people though living he was almost levelled to them by some men I fear of more preposterous than pious spirits who seemed most impatient to own the vast differences which God and nature education and grace age and experience learning and industry besides our Lawes and the universal custome of the Churches of Christ had made among the Ministers of Christ for the good order and welfare both of Presbyters and people grudging that any civil respect or reward should be proportioned to their worth and usefulness in the Church § It became your learning Justice and wisdom to descern and own the advantages and discriminations that were so evident in this excellent Bishop who are not only Trustees and Guardians of his Urne and ashes but Conservators of his better self living Monuments of his excellent soul Admirers of his rare endowments Imitators of his worthy example All which were by him and now by me devoted to you above all men among whom he had his last hospitable and honorable reception You by a generous civility in an age pittifully and plebeianly Antiepiscopal durst invite own and entertain with publique respect such a Bishop whose eminent and unspotted worth every way made him so much more the object of some mens envy and despite as the highest Towers and trees are of the rage of tempests § For many have more patience towards Bishops and Ministers of his degree and perswasion who are less commendable or more culpable than to those whose eminency in goodness becoming Bishops and Divines makes their injurious malice wholy inexcusable Some spirits are most eager to cast that Episcopal salt on the ground which hath best savour in it and least of popish or popular fatuity that greater esteem may be had of their inspired arrogancy which by parity tends to Ataxy division and confusion as it is at this day Sunt tempora inquibus maximis virtutibus certissimum est exitium Tacitus observes that the worst times can least bear the best laws and worthiest persons whose exemplary vertues are the daily Satyrs and Sarcasmes of unreasonable men and manners § Some School-men think that the presence of a good Angel is an augment to the torture of Divels exasperating the regret and sense of their hell deformity and misery by the others beauty glory and felicity it is certaine Mat. 8.29 that the evil and unclean spirits could not smother the great terror even to torment which they had seising on them when the holy Majesty of the Messias though vailed under the cloud of humane nature and infirmities gave check to their Demoniac malice and mischeif Thus are the best ministers either Bishops or Presbyters men of the greatest learning piety and constancy most unwelcome as Micaiah to Ahab to men of high minds of heady passions of giddy spirits of impotent prejudices of popular principles and of licencious Practises who affect things of vulgar ambition and plebeian arbitrariness being unpatient of any thing authoritative and setled either by civil or ecclesiastick constitutions and customes in Church or State § Hence then is the Crown of your Honour more ponderous and illustrious That you so far owned and expressed your esteem of this learned and religious Bishop who as much deserved and enjoyed the applause of all good men as he patiently endured the envy and injuries of others Him you kindly invited Him you civilly received Him you highly honoured Him you greatly endeared to you notwithstanding the long and many diminutions yea disgraces he had suffered as a Bishop more to the detriment and dishonour of the publique than of his private comforts For it is certaine that every Christian Church and State in all ages hath wanted and ever will such excellent Bishops as wise and exemplary Goverours more than they can want publique rewards and incouragements but as it was said of Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Italy Aequiori animo sua pertulit damna quam alii sua lucra No man deplored the publique distractions more and his own depressions less than this wise and worthy Bishop he still enjoyed himself in an holy and happy tranquility as much nay much more than any of his destroyers whom he lived to see driven as chaffe too and fro with every wind till they were hurried to Democracy to Stratocracy to Anarchy both in Church and State § After many Tragedies which he had seen and suffered it was a great reviving to his age to find the noble respects of your honourable Society shining upon him and in him upon all worthy Bishops and Episcopal Divines You were desirous to be his Diocess to own him as a Father in God And as you deserved so I know he intended you the best recompences he was able to give you out of the rich treasury of his learned and pious soul if God had spared him life and health As you have the honour to be the eminent orbe and publique Sphear in which this great Star of learning and religion of Episcopal desert and dignity last moved both in and out of this world The Mount Nebo to which this Moses was to ascend and there to dye So it is but just you should have this Monument of singular honour and renown so long as the name and memory of Bishop Brounrig survives which I presume will be very long For he had omnia victura et sempiterna praeter corpusculum all things living and lasting to eternity except his body especially if I have in this work which is thus Dedicated to you done him and you the present and after age that right which I intended and of which I have thus given the world some account as to your particular merit towards him which was my second undertaking § My last work in this Epistle is to crave your patrociny for my vindication both against Romish partiality whose designe and interest is to decry and destroy all Reformed Bishops and also against those immoderate Antypathies which others have taken up against all presidential Episcopacy and Diocesan Bishops though never so reformed in Doctrine and Manners Yea and circumscribed by good Laws of Church and State Not that I fear the wit which is not overgreat or the spite which is not very small of those unreasonable Episcopomastix whose malice is as blind as it is bold against all Bishops good and bad precious and vile Popish and Primitive Episcopacy They shall do well to try their Teeth on this file to confute any one particular which I have averred of this excellent
Bishop who together with many others his reverend Brethren of the last edition and perdition now with God as Usher Hall Morton Davenant Prideaux Winniffe Westfeild Potter and others were as far from being drones and idle bellys Tyrants and oppressors Popish or antichristian as those are who are the most unjust calumniators of them and their Episcopal dignity which hath been so antient and universal in the Church of Christ and is so necessary for the polity and well being of any Church and was by themselves so abundantly deserved yea and worthily managed § I well know how provoking a thing it is to some mens eyes and eares to read or hear the praise of any man who is not of their party and faction There are many who have no patience to behold a Bishop carried to his grave in peace and laid in the bed of honour It is their Hell to see a pious Prelate conveyed to Heaven as it was Dives his regret to behold Lazarus in Abrahams bosom Some have sought to make the very name of Bishop a crime and to render the order degree and honor of it odious when the first is Scriptural and given to Christ first next to the Apostles and their cheif Successors the second is Ecclesiastical of Primitive Catholick and Apostolick use § There are that wish all Bishops out of the world with all their hearts but withal they would have them buried in silence and obscurity For they are scared to see them walk after they are dead as much as Herod was least John Baptist whom he had beheaded in a most wanton and frolick cruelty had been revived in Christ Some are afraid least while the names and merits of our excellent English Bishops remaine they might recover damages for all the losses they have sustained but in this I can secure their Excexcutors and Administrators that if they can give God and their own consciences a good account none of these good Bishops who are now departed in peace and have seen the Salvation of God will ever trouble them being got above the affronts injuries indignities and indigencies of this world § I know the formation of such a Statue as must resemble Bishop Brounrig so burning and shining a light must needs dash the unwelcome sparks and strictures of his well known worth in all Antiepiscopal faces just as an iron flaming from the forge doth when wrought on a firme anvel by a strong arm It is the miserie of many virtutem videant intabita bescantque relicta first to want worth in themselves next not to be able to bear it in another If envie against worthy Bishops is to be burst in pieces this piece will do it if sober moderate minds are reconcilable to venerable Episcopacy as I believe many nay most ministers and people now are this will further invite and confirm them to study the Churches peace and the honor of the Reformed Religion no less than the comfort of their own calling by returning to such temperament and patterns of Episcopal presidency as were to be seen in Bishop Brounrig and in many others of his order in England in which were as worthy Presbyters and as excellent Bishops as ever blest any Church since the Apostles daies for whom we have cause ever to bless the Divine benignity and mercy to this unworthy Nation § I have otherwhere erected Trophies and inscribed them to several Bishops of holy honorable and happy memory in England yea and I have demonstrated by a familiar and plain emblem the vast disproportions that are in all histories and successions of the Church to be seen between the goodly floridness and fruitful procerity of Christianity in all times when it was preserved protected and prospered by Episcopal eminency authority and unity which kept Bishops Presbyters and people in a blessed harmony compared to the modern shrubs of novelty variety discord which later ages have produced § Nor could I forbear upon this occasion to set forth the industry learning eloquence gravitie wisdom moderation patience unspottedness and holy perseverance of this excellent Bishop by way of pleniary opposition and full confutation of that Idleness illiterateness barrenness levity imprudence riggidness passionateness deformity and inconstancy with which some men have been overgrown as with a Manage or Leprosie in this age by their too great itching and scratching against all Episcopacy even till they fetched blood and brought such a festring tetter and sore upon us as is not easily healed § Wherein I have come short of Bishop Brounrigs worth your unanimous pleadings and potent eloquence full of reason and justice of learning and religion of order and policy may best supply my many defects indeed there was need of another Brounrig to have described him § Wherefore knowing my own disproportions I thought it the best way I could take to releive them first by seriously studying of this great pattern next by flying to your protection whose honor is now inseparable from this worthy Bishops no less than his ashes are from your antient Temple which since its first consecrating by Heraclius Patriarch of Jerusalem Anno Christ 1185. in the 31. of Hen. the 2. to this day had never any deposite of greater learning then your famous Selden or of greater piety and veneration than your and our reverend Brounrig who as little needs any Apology to be made for him as the age greatly needs repentance for treating him so much below his worth and myself a great Apology for my adventuring on so great a work § If it be necessary for me further to disarm or lessen that envy which possibly may befall me for the honour of this service which I have done to the name memory and merit of this worthy Bishop and in him to all good Bishops I am willing to conclude as St. Bernard doth in his modest and humble oratory upon a like occasion Dignus sane ille qui laudaretur sed indignus ego qui laudem if the fire of Antiepiscopal anger must still be fed with some fewel Parcite defunctis in me convertite ferrum let them spare the dead and fix their talons or teeth on me who am yet living who am content not to be commended by them or any malevolent Reader yet I am sure this reverend Bishop was most worthy to be commended by me and all good men which is then most effectually done by your selves O worthy Gentlemen and all equanimous Readers when his piety prudence zeal courage humility charity and judicious constancy in Church and State are most exactly imitated by your selves and others which is the just and serious ambition of Your very humble servant in Christ IOHN GAUDEN Ian. 1. 1659. ERRATA PAge 5. Line 8. read are for is p. 8 l.13.r audible p. 33. l. 12. add when yet p. 24. l. 4. by for lie p. 45. l. 1. r. Moenis p. 56. l. 20. Oracles for creeds p. 58. l. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p.
any Parents It was stoning to death Deut. 21.20 by which God would have the honor of the meanest Parents though poor and old weak and simple asserted against their sturdy and proud children while yet under their roof and discipline § Next these Princes and Magistrates have the name as of Gods and Lords so of Fathers Patres Patriae and of nursing Mothers after these the Priests and Prophets of old were called Fathers So the King of Israel returns the very same compellation to Elisha dying which he gives here to Eliah thus in the Gospel St. 1 Cor 4.15 Paul owns his merit so far though you have had many teachers or instructers yet not many Fathers for he had first begotten them to the faith by his preaching the Gospel to them so in the antient Christian-Churches though they had many Presbyters as Instructers or Consecrators yet the Bishops were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a special honor as Successors to the Apostles in paternal inspection and authority as begetting Sons to the Church by instruction and patres minores lesser Fathers or Presbyters by Ordination called Patres then also Patriarchs were Patres patrum which by way of gemination brought in the two first syllables Pa Pa not from the Syriack Abba transposed but from the first syllables of Pater and Patriarcha or Pater Patrum into the Church as before into the Imperial State from Pater Patriae to make up Papa which title the Bishop of Rome hath monopolized when of old it was given to other Patriarchs and Bishops § This is certain The duty as well as dâ—gnity implyed in the name Father God that communicates the name of Father to Magistrates in State or Pastors or Bishops in the Church doth withal teach and exact the duties imported in the name Father First Father in Magâ—stracy Both Governors in Church and State should delight rather in that exercise which is Paternal than despotical fatherly than imperious or Lordly much less tyrannick to remember they govern sons not slaves and for Gods glory not for their own profit pomp and pleasure their design and work must be to glorifie God and by doing good with a fatherly freedom and indulgence to deserve the love of others Although they cannot have it from ingrate and ungracious children yet they shall finde God a Father to them when they have carried themselves as Fathers to others Specially Church Governors which were of old in England Fathers in the ministry of the Church and in all Christian Churches Bishops as chief Fathers chosen by the Presbyters approved by the people and endowed with estate and civil honor by Christian Princes these as such must not in their greatest eminency affect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.3 to exercise dominion after the way of the secular sword and severity over Ministers or people but only as Fathers and Spiritual Lords for edification not destruction with gravity not austerity with meekness of wisdom not rigidness of passion yea and as to that civil Dominion which is consistent with spiritual jurisdiction when any are both Bishops and Soveraign Princes which may very well meet in one man for what hinders a Prince as George of Anhalt to be a Bishop or Preacher of his Gospel who is Prince and Priest of his Church here they must the more make the world to see they bear the double name of Father to their people such paternal Bishops we had heretofore in England and such indeed was this worthy Prelate and such Fathers we might have had still if that had not been fulfilled among us Filius ante diem c. some Sons are impatient not to antidate their Fathers death and destinies or longer to expect the reversion of their estates § It is true that double honor which the piety and munificence of Christian Princes and States had bestowed on Bishops as Fathers in chief and other Ministers of the same relation though a lower station in the Church both as to ample revenues and some secular jurisdiction or dignity to give them greater advantages to improve their spiritual and paternal authority more to the glory of God and the good of Christian people as to instruction protection and relief these ought not in any sort to leaven or overlay those condescending Graces and paternal tendernessse which are the greatest eminencies of any Church-man and which may with all pious industry humility charity and hospitality be maintained and exercised by them without any diminution of their civil dignity or ecclesiastical authority as was frequently evidenced by our learned religious hospitable charitable and honorable Bishops in England when they lived both as Lords and as Fathers governing and doing good § Of civil honour added the Fathers the Church So that it cannot be other than a most partial and sinister perverseness in men of evil eyes and envious hearts to fancy that no learning study devotion diligence and prudence in any Minister or Clergyman is capable to merit or enjoy either such honorable estates and salaries or such eminent places and dignities as Counsellors and Senators as Lords and Peers in Parliament to which we see many mens meer riches and worthless money or their lower abilities and industries in legal and civil affairs or their military hardiness and prowess may actually advance them yea and this in a civil intestine War where victory it self is sad and untriumphant yet we have lived to see many short-lived Gourd-Lords created in a chaos of times from very small principles or preexistency of birth estates breeding or worth and this in one day by a kinde of superfetation of honor and these to sit as right honorable ones in another House and to supply the vacant Seats of the antient Barons of England which were Peers in Parliament and consisted of Lords Spiritual and Temporal who had not either forfeited their honor or deserted their places and duties but were driven out by such power as they could not withstand § But not to touch that harsh string too hard we see the Bishops of England have had no great cause to envy those that cast them out as to that honor of having a place in Parliaments since from that time the Nation hath scarce enjoyed one good day nor themselves that fulness and freedom that honor and happiness which of old belonged to the majesty of English Parliaments § This is certain that the name of Lord did not as it ought not to make a venerable Bishop of the Church forget his former name and softer relation of a Father the first is now confined much to denote civil order and secular dignity but the second implies not only natural temporal and humane but spiritual divine and eternal endearments importing that plentitude of paternal love and goodness as is never to be exhausted scarce obstructed for what such unworthiness was ever in children which the benignity and bowels of a Father is not ready to forgive and
those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horsemen and Charioteers these were but in lanienam for spoil and prey for slaughter and captivity till after-ages from the Roman stoutness and Arms learned to fight more like men on foot trusting more to their own strength of which they were more Masters and could better manage it than to the fierceness of horses who take up half the man to rule them and is a vain thing to save by his much strength Psalm 33.17 as the Psalmist tells us The Scripture gives us many historical instances The weakness of secular Chariots and horses alone what great Expeditions and executions were begun and carried on by multitudes of chariots and horsemen what great defeats the Lord of hosts had given them Exod. 1â— 7 9. as Paroah with his Chariots and Horses which pursued the Israelites into the red Sea by a most presumptuous malice which no miracle could moderate or humble So Sisera with his nine hundred iron chariots â—ud 4.3 that is falcati currus armed with iron sithes and instruments of execution no less than with plates or shields of iron for defence were scattered and destroyed at the blasting of Gods displeasure both the horses and riders did fall Hence David a great and good Souldier ever great when good and prosperous while pious who received more wounds and detriment by one woman and his own wanton lust than by all the Gyants and Armies the horse and chariots he ever encountred he by long experience tells us how far the pride and confidence of the world was from true safety Some put their trust in horses and some in chariots Psalm 25.7 but we in the name of the Lord our God It is better to trust in the Lord Psalm 118.8 than in Princes and their Armies which easily are discomfited when God ariseth against them one of his heavenly Militia an Angel Isa 37.36 can smite in one night an Hundred fourscore and five thousand to the ground stark dead of Senacheribs insolent Souldiery yea and one of his earthly spiritual Militia his Prophets and Ministers as Eliah and after him this Elisha so Micaiah and others by lifting up their hands and prayers as Moses and Jehosaphat to heaven were able to strike terror and confusion to an host of men chariots and horses 2 Chron. 20.22 when they were a million of men and horses For these fight in virtute Dei altissimi in the power and name of the most High and Almighty God these Angels both in heaven and earth God useth as he did Elisha afterwards to give check to the counsels and powers of Kings 2 Kings 18.14 as the King of Assyria confessed and the King of Israel found it true while he had mountains full of Horses and chariots of fire attending of Elisha 2 King 26.17 and under his command so that the King gives him this same honor dying sensible what a loss it was to Church and State to lose such a Prophet more than to have lost all his chariots and horsemen § God that is on the side of his true Prophets and faithful servants as the visible Fathers and Guardians of his Church and Family hath his great Militia and thus sets it forth to humane capacity Psalm 68.17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai when he appeared in terror to give the Law even so will he execute it and avenge the breaches of it by the Ministry of Angels at the last day And our Lord Jesus Christ who is trumphantly ascended on high is now Lieutenant General of all power in heaven and earth Psalm 8.18 Heb. 2.10 for the good of his Church the Captain of whose salvation he is who hath conquered and is still to conquier till all enemies are subdued to him even he takes care to furnish his Church in all ages with some that are as the chariots and horsemen of Israel either such Christian Kings and Princes or such Bishops and Ministers or such religious Noblemen and learned Gentlemen or such honest yeomen and humble Pesants yet good Christians that they are as the Soldiers and Armies of God in their several ranks and orders some as the chariots and horsemen others as the infantry or footmen The highest honor in the Churches Militia is given to the Prophets and Ministers because they have most power with God they open and shut heaven they bind and loose souls by Gods command and commission As every good Christian so those of the Clergy above others are either publicum lucrum or damnum as they live or die As it was said of St. Ambrose Bishop of Millan he was both ornamentum munimentum urbis orbis O what gallant chariots and horsemen were those Primitive Bishops and other eminent both Preachers and Writers such as Iraeneus Cyprian Athanasius Austin the Cyrils Basils Gregories Chrysostom Epiphanius Origen Clemens Jerom and others innumerable who did so stoutly incounter and rout those Amalekites of Heathen Idolaters and Philosophers of Hereticks and Schismaticks which pestred the Church as Grashopers and Locusts or oppressed it as Tyrants and Persecutors Two things from these honorable names which Elisha gives to Eliah we may observe First What the Prophets and Ministers of the Church ought to be according to their eminency in parts or place Secondly how they ought to be esteemed and treated First 1 What Warriers the Prophets and Ministers ought to be in the Church 1 Their courage What they ought to be to the Church and to their Country fortes animosi pugnaces ordinati bold as Lyons in Gods cause valiant couragious ready and orderly to fight the battels of the Lord the good fight of faith but bello incruento sanctis non sanguineis praeliis by an holy but harmless war saintly not sanguinary unbloody unless their own blood be to be shed they must make no wounds but on mens consciences They must be undaunted by any greatness policy or power that opposeth it self against God as St. Stephen was so was Apollos Act. 6. and 7 so St. Paul so Timothy and others who as good Soldiers sought to please not themselves or men by ease and idleness by flattery and chmpliance but him that had called them to his Ensign and Standard Their armature and weapons were that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evangelical harness 2 Their Armour which the Apostle prescrbes of the helmet of salvation Eph. 6.12 13 14 15 16. the sword of the Spirit and Word of God the shield of Faith and the brestplate of righteousness their fighting must be by preaching convincing praying reproving by doing good and suffering evill Their Enemies are to be not only flesh and blood that is 3 Their Enemies not the persons of men but the ignorances errors malice policy pride and prophaness of the evil world yea of Principalities and Powers of Devils and evil Angels
teach the others simplicity or even in years might be their Fathers § He saw no cause to affect among Ministers above all Fraternities this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inverting of all order that the first should be last and the last first though he subscribed to the rule of Christ that the greatest among his Ministers even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very chiefest of the Apostles should in humility and charity condescend and demean themselves so as if they were servants to all and the least of all Mat. 13.11 yet he saw this precept was vain and impertinent as not practicable if none were greater or more eminent than others as in age gifts and graces so in spiritual power and Ecclesiastical authority not tyrannously usurped but by the consent of all conferred § Those novel interpretations he saw were but wresting Scripture from primitive sense to bring in the postern chaos of popular parity among Ministers which never was in Christs or the Apostles or after days nor can be ever without great disadvantages to both Ministers and people while Presbyters having no order or subordination among themselves must either have no fraternal communion living like stragling sheep without fold flock or shepherd or meeting arbitrarily and occasionally they must be all Sons and all Fathers without centre or circumference ference having no principle to convene or move them no power coercive to containe or restrain them and no regular authority to reprove or repress their extravagancies in doctrine or manners Nor was it his ambition but his conscience and judgement that thus commanded him to assert Episcopacy Not ambition but conscience made him Episcopall even long before he was or possibly thought to be a Bishop upon which account when I once told his Lordship after he was made Bishop by the King and unmade by the people that a person equestris ordinis but parum aequae mentis had in discourse told me That he wondered Dr. Brounrig would be made a Bishop whom he had heard sometime declare his judgement against Episcopacy which report as I no way believed so relating it soon after and the authors name to him he with some passion and emotion as full of a just defiance and contradiction to such a fable and falshood professed he lied notoriously for saith he I never thought much less said as that lewd person hath falsly averred I thank God I took the Office of a Bishop with a good conscience and so I hope by his mercy I shall both maintain and discharge it He was by the favour of King Charles His being made Bishop◠An◠1641. and to the great liking of all good men made Bishop of Exeter anno 1641. But as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one born out of due time when that storm was beginning to rise which afterward shipwracked the Sovereign and many other gallant ships the wall was too far swoln out and threatning to fall before this potent pillar or shore was applied to support it if any single Puissance could have done good his shoulders were most probable to have done it for his counsel and prudence his aequanimity and moderation were equal to his other vast abilities for he had not only the verdure and spring of wit also the summer of much learning and reading but he had the harvest of a mature understanding and a mellow judgement in all matters Politick and prudential both Ecclesiastical and Civil If his excellent temper had sooner been added as an allay to some other mens hotter spirits His aequanimous temper possibly Troja nostra stetisset we had not seen such deplorable ruines of a flourishing and Reformed Church But upon this and other worthy Bishops heads was this great breach and ruine of ancient and venerable Episcopacy to tumble by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impetuosity and exorbitancy of the times which at length grew to so popular a prevalency that some men would not endure the best Bishops nor any moderation short of total extirpation that way might be made for confiscation For Episcopacy was with modest approaches first undermined by some plausible Pioners and Ingineers who pretended that it did not stand upright but leaned toward the Court and Prerogative too much that they would only set it right and so support it but afterward it was quite blown up much over-doing their first pretentions which were only to reform some exorbitancies in the use and practices of times or men to which all wise and good Bishops easily and chearfully together with this worthy Prelate would have condescended and submitted provided it were done not by tumultuous impressions of faction and violence but by that Parliamentary fulness and freedom which became the honor piety wisdom and majesty of this Church and Nation but instead of snuffing some Bishops all were extinguished since which time we have been at blindmansbuff and in the dark scuffling about Church Government § His loyalty in all times And however this excellent Bishop enjoyed not the benefit of the Kings favour and munificence as to his Bishoprick or any other preferment after the troubles of the times yet he was ever most unmoveable in his loyal respects of sidelity gratitude love and obedience which he thought were absolutely due to Soveraign Princes from their Subjects as Christians a point which I heard him notably discourse and prove the last Sermon he ever lived to preach which was on the last fifth of November 1659 at the Temple on that Text Dan. 6.21.22 O King live for ever His judgment of Soverainty and subjection c. Proving out of the Scriptures and the both judgement and practice of the Primitive Christians in their sorest persecutions that they venerated their Superiors Kings or Emperors for an Emperor was but as an overgrown King that either had many Kings in his belly or had devoured their Kingdoms as Tertullian in his Apology says Tertul. Apol. c. 33. Temperans majestatem Caesaris infra Deum magis illum commen do Deo cui soli sublicio So cap. 39. in the next place to God as only less then and subject to the Divine Majesty as safest for both the Emperors and their people too Upon any pretext of religious liberty he denied any capacity in Christian Subjects as such to resist their Soveraign Princes for which they had neither Christs precept nor any good Christians practice There was left them only the choice to obey actively or passively to do or to suffer and rather to suffer than to sin by doing or resisting in any unlawful way which Doctrine he had formerly declared in a Sermon at Cambridge for which he was immediately proscribed and outed of his places in the Vniversity and deprived of his liberty Where first visiting his Lordship in prison he acquainted me with his Sermon and his sense of proceedings § Not but that he well understood that some Subjects not as Christians but as cives men and Citizens might enjoy greater freedom
in the arrears of his Bishoprick which were due to him before the direption and depraedation which arrears he said were now in those private mens hands who he thought had less right to them and less need of them than himself But he found the predominant Genius of the times was such that instead of letting Bishops live in a capacity to be given to Hospitality they reduced them to the necessity of getting into some Hospitals for their relief Thus while the Secular Militia while Colonels and Captains ride triumphantly on horses and in chariots The partiality of times as to the spiritual Militia of the Church compared to the pomp and glory of the Secular get great Salaries and good Lands this eminent Bishop who was worthy to be among the Chieftains and prime Rulers or Leaders of the Church was with all other of his order reduced from his chariot and horses to go on foot as far as his legs would carry him or to borrow conveniences of his friends who were better provided for easie conveyance of him T is true those great Commanders and these great Schollars enjoy very different estates and esteem now in this English world which we must leave all at last the great question will be Who hath the best and surest estate in another world where it will not be enquired what a man got here but how and with what justice nor what he lost but upon what account and with what patience or tranquillity of spirit He had no charge for many years before he died but himself and a Servant who was worthy to wait on such a Master His present fingle life and former marriage Childe he never had any though the Husband of one Wife once married for a little while to a worthy Gentlewoman chusing rather chaste and honorable marriage at those years that to affect such a celebacy as was less consistent with sanctity from which chastity is in no condition of life single or social to be separated His great grief for the loss of such a blessing at those years when about forty shewed his great value of it I have heard it from his constant friend and long associate Dr. Edward Young which relation is character enough of his worth that it was a great part of his friendly employment at that time flagrante dolore to be as an Angel to comfort Dr. Brounrig in that solitude and sadness For great and generous souls though gracious yet are apt to conceive vehement sorrows being as ships of burthen they lanch not but in seas of some depth that is they love not but where extraordinary merit and vertue engageth them which being exposed to the common storms of mortality must needs toss them with the greater waves nor can they always either cast anchor or suddenly make their port as they would § I have heard from good hands a passage not unworthy of such a pair which I think not a miss to relate His wife brought him a very handsom estate in mony and being consumptionary and so likely to die without child she desired him to give her leave to give away by will as she pleased to her friends some part of that estate she brought him he most chearfully granted her desire if she would to the half or all her estate she having made this essay of his noble mind told him with thanks and tears That she gave all she had to him as her best friend and one that deserved much more than she could give him soon after she left him and all sublunary comforts § After times shewed him what a providence it was by so ingenuous a way to have something of estate cast in to defend himself against the after-injuries and pressures of life besides learning and merit for that estate I think was his best reserve though the distress of times had shrewdly wire-drawn that also before he died § His reception and welcome to friends Being loosed from those silken cords and golden chains of a good wife and married no more adding an honor to celebacy as well as to marriage he carried with him no train beyond one servant this made his motions more expedite and his receptions more easie for many headed guests like Hydra's either scare away or soon eat up their own welcom especially if they be only as caterpillars are fruges consumere nati only to eat to chat and to play but this worthy person was so venerable and useful that he was ever most welcom to those who well understood that to entertain him was indeed to entertain au Angel in flesh and blood a grand Intelligence a Cherubick spirit a Seraphick soul a true Saint both as a Bishop of the Church and as a very holy man § Indeed none could be hospitable to him gratis he always paid largely for his entertainments not only requiting but over-meriting them His domestick discourses by the many excellent discourses his elegant and useful reparties on all occasions hence it was as St. Jerom speaks of Nepotian Ita eum mirabantur colebant amici quasi novum quotidie cernerent he was every day as welcome to Friends as if but newly come There was no string in the great Theorbo of Learning but he would strike it so fully so harmoniously and so gracefully as nothing was beyond the rational melody of his speech for History Philosophy Divinity Morality for all points and parts of Religion Dogmatick Polemick Practick Casuistick Hermetick or interpretative of Scriptures The marrow and true sense of the Fathers the subtilty of the Schoolmen the solidity of Neotericks he had so ready so clear and so percolated from either the authors obscurity or tedious prolixity that his Epitomes or Quintessences and Distillations of them by his discourses were more spiritful and perspicuous than the Originals or the first mass in which they were diffused And although he had this Magazine of classick and authentick learning His elaborateness in preaching which readily furnished him to speak on the sudden of all things apté ornaté copiosé amply and handsomly yet as to his sacred Oratory or publick preaching He was very elaborate and exact not only in reading and meditating but in compleat writing of his Sermons even to his last So loth was he to do that work of God negligently I hope the world may be happy to see those accurate pieces which passed his own polishing and perfective hand though these printed must needs lose of the life they had when spoken by him who taught as one having authority and not as popular parasites or plebeian Scribes I mean not those grave Ministers who preach worthily to the plebes or common people but those that take their aim and directory from vulgar humors This diligence he used notwithstanding that his very extemporary discourses set off with the emphasis of his oratorious voyce with the majesty of his goodly presence and with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power and warmth of
reflections written either as to Gods Providences to himself or gracious motions and operations in his heart or as to the more large and publick dispensations to former and latter ages which afford an ocean of matter and meditation to such a studious and judicious soul as his was from writers things and events they could not but be very excellent collections in themselves and of great use to others for his spirit was like a refiners fire what passed through it was the better by his taking notice of it and thereby recommending it to others He was always when in health as chearful as far as the Tragedies of the times gave leave as one that had the continual feast of a good conscience and as content His chearfulness in all estates as if he had had a Lords or Bishops estate no less than a Princely mind All diminutions and indignities which some mens pragmatick effronteries were not ashamed to put upon so worthy and venerable a person he digested into patience and prayers Such as were not worthy to stand under his shadow yet sought sometimes to stand in his light yea and to put out so burning and shining a light at least to put it under a bushel that their farthing candles might make the better shew but he out-shined them all like the Sun nothing could put a total eclipse upon Bishop Brounrig yea and he buried all personal injuries done to him in the grave of Christian charity when he considered the indignities and affronts which his blessed Redeemer suffered from people wantonly wicked who made a sport to buffet strip spit upon and crucifie the Son of God and Lord of glory Thus he was in some degree to be conform to Primitive Bishops which were poor and persecuted yea to the great Bishop of our souls who for our sakes made himself of no reputation This excellent Bishop in his latter years when motion was tedious His oft changing his aboad and noxious to him by reason of his calculary infirmity and corpulency yet was put upon various tossings and removes too and fro sometimes times at London at Bury at Highgate at Sunning and other places to which he was driven either in order to repair his crazy health by change of air Where at least unwonted objects entertaining the fancy with novelty seem to give some ease either by the pleasure of variety or by a diversion from thinking of our disorders and pains or out of an equanimous civility to his many worthy friends that he might so dispense his much desired company among them that no one might be thought to have monopolized such a magazine of worth to the envy of others And sometimes it may be he changed his quarters out of an ingenuous tenderness of being or seeming any burthen to those that were most civil to him knowing that there is prone to arise in us a satiety even of the best things that want doth quichen our appetites and absence give a fresh edge to our welcomes These or the like prudential motives suffered him not to fix very long or constant in any one place willing to appear as he thought himself and was treated in this world a Pilgrim and stranger never at home nor owning any home till he came to Heaven which was his fathers house where he should find better natured and more loving brethren than those that as Joseph's had without cause stript him and cast him into a pit of narrowness and obscurity to dye there Yet before he left this world His last residence in the Temple God would have him as Moses to get up into a mount to be set in some such place of prospect and conspicuity which might make the English world see that all mens eyes were not so asquint on Bishops or so blind or blood-shotten as not to see the eminent worth of Bishop Brounrig which could not be buried in darkness or extinguished in silence without a great addition to the other sins of the Nation and shame of the times And since some men had taken from him and others their estates and lands as Bishops unforfeited by Law only to defray the charges of War and to ease the taxes it was thought by others a better part of good husbandry to make use of those excellent gifts they had and were more willing to communicate than to have parted so with their estates § Hence the Providence of God so ordered affairs that he was about a year before he died invited with much respect and civility to the Honorable Societies of both Temples to bless them as with his constant residence so when his health would permit with some of his fatherly instructions and prayers To shew the reality of their love and value to his Lordship they not only allowed an annual Honorary recompence to express their thanks but they provided handsom lodgings and furnished them with all things necessary convenient and comely for a person of his worth § It was some little beam of joy to his great soul to see that all sparks of English generosity were not raked up or quite buried by the rubbish of faction when no Nation heretofore either more reverenced or better provided for their Bishops and Clergy than England He was glad to see so much courage in persons of that quality as to dare to own and employ a Bishop it being as bold an adventure as to some mens esteem to hear a Bishop preach as for a Bishop to preach in so publick a place And indeed the nobleness of the Templers carriage toward his Lordship had a great resentment of honor among all pious and generous minds both in City and Country who had either known the worth or heard of the renown of Bishop Brounrig § T is true the Antiepiscopal leaven and sowreness liked not well the motion or transaction but being then much crest-fallen confounded and dis-spirited by reason of their ragged successes in all things civil and sacred not able to wind up into any scain or bottom of good order and setled government the knotty threads or broken ends they had been spinning for many years they would not shew their teeth where they could not bite nor seem much concerned to oppose what they had no cause and no great power to hinder § The last Easter Term 1659. The good Bishop came to his Lodgings in the Temple and applied himself to answer the expectations and desires of his hospitable Gainsses who were so much satisfied both with his paines and presence that such as could hear him preach rejoyced at the gracious words and fatherly instructions which he gave them prepared with elaborate diligence and expressed with affectionate eloquence such as for the crowd could not come nigh enough to hear him yet had not only patience but pleasure to stay and behold him conceiving they saw a Sermon in his looks and were bettered by the venerable aspect of so virtuous grave and worthy a person which at once
frowned on sin and smiled on goodness § This affliction only that noble Society had that having tasted a little of that Manna and honey 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some seven or eight times they were not permitted longer to enjoy the full and durable blessings of so sweet so plenteous and so heavenly repast In which he so dispenced his divine store and provision as St. John wrote to youngmen and Fathers to children and old men in his first Epistle so this Apostolick Bishop and Preacher at one Sermon both pleased the young Gentlemen and profited the Antients teaching the first there to know their duty and the second to do it preparing the one to live holily the other to dye happily § But this rich banquet was not to last long a little of Bishop Brounrig was a great deal for any one congregation to have In Michaelmas Term next following his bodily infirmities began to prevail against the strength and willingness of his mind not permitting him to preach in publick save only on the fifth of November which was his last though he did preach in private almost to all that came to him and were capable of his converse even till he was much spent and weary as I have heard him complain God was pleased to exercise him with bodily pains His bodily paines and infirmities indispositions and distempers sometimes with sharp fits of the stone and hydropick inclinations which made the chariot of his body which was somewhat plethorick and corpulent drive heavily though those fiery horses his fervent spirits were still agile and able But under all these God supported him with his grace and a spirit as always humble devout and pious so for the most part sociable serene and chearful till he had lived to his Sixty seventh year Then with age sickness increased with great failings of spirit The Will he made which gave him the alarms of approaching death but before this while he was yet in competent health of body and serenity of mind he made his Will which bears date as Mr. Thomas Buck his Executor told me two years before his departure A Will much like that of St. Austin or other Primitive Bishops not loaden with great and pompous Legacies of money but rather with testimonies of a pious grateful and charitable soul That little he had of estate was distributed either as tokens of respect love and gratitude to his ancient friends or as agnitions of his nearest deserving kindred and relations or as requitals to a well-deserving Servant or as charitable reliefs to the poor he was pauperior opibus but opulentior moribus as Chysologus speaks of St. Lanrence § If any man quarrel that he gave away no more by Will The reason is he had no more He wanted not a large heart or liberal hand no man was further from covetousness which is never so unseasonable as when a man is dying Nor was he wanting to be his own Executor chusing rather in secret to give much while he lived than to leave more when he died If this be his defect that he gave not great sums as the renowned Bishop Andrews or other Bishops and Clergymen sometime did to pious and charitable uses to Colledges Libraries Hospitals when Bishops and other Churchmen injoyed those rewards and revenues which the piety and Laws of the Nation had proportioned to their places and merit truly it must be imputed to the injuries and privations of the times for no tree would have born more or fairer fruit as in other so in this kind than this fair and fruitful figtree if he had not been blasted not by Christs word as a Bishop or as barren but by the fatal curse of the times No Christian would have done more good works of this nature or more advisedly than this wise and venerable Bishop Si res ampla domi similisque affectibus esset if his estate had been answerable to his mind And yet he had discouragements enough as to such works and charitable donations wherein the Sacrilegious sauciness of some mens spirits who dare make bold to take from God and never ask his leave is such that liberal souls are even nonplust how to place any durable and great charity in so safe a way as the Cormorant and Vulture of avarice or publick necessity and State frugality will not in time seise on it as a prey sic rapitur fisco quod dabatur debetur Christo One would have thought that no times would have made a prey and spoil of those Ecclesiastial revenues which Henry the Eighth's luxury and avaricious prodigality had spared but we see Joel 1.4 the catterpillar will devour what the canker-worm and locust and palmer-worm have left The pious improvement of his interals of health In all his vacancies from pains and bodily infirmities he was frequent in preaching in celebrating and receiving the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper in his private retirements much in reading cheifly the Scriptures of later years in meditating and in prayer besides his social joyning with others in family duties in which as he willingly and devoutly used the Liturgy of the Church so far as it was fitted to publick and private necessities so he either added of his own or admitted from others those pious and prudent prayers which more nearly suited with the private devotions and condition of those that were present § His willingness to dy in these distracted times He had more frequent infirmities as gentle Monitors a little before his death of which he would speak to my self and others in a kind of familiar sort as one that by dying daily was well acquainted with death He would say That it was a very cheap time now to die there being so little temptation to desire life and so many to welcome death since he had lived to see no King in the State no Bishop in the Church no Peer in Parliament no Judge in the Land yea and no Parliament in any freedom honor power or being worthy that name Omnia miles all power was contracted to the pummel of their sword or the barrel of their guns the Soldier was all in all in that black interregnum or horrid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which had neither form nor power of any legal government in England in that dark day departed this great light All Church and State being reduced to military arbitration and presumption he saw nothing remained of order or honor love or Law Reason and Religion in any publick and social correspondency yea new feuds and quarrels like boils from unsound bodies were daily breaking out and continuing the fires of civil Wars like those of hell and Tophet to be everlasting and unquenchable There being no thought of the way of peace but to avoid it § This made him willingly gird as St. Peter did his coat to him that he might be ready to lanch into that dead sea when Christ should bid him come to him He only hoped