Liberty of this so renowned Church and Kingdom both in their grand Epitomes of Parliament and Convocation also in their greater latitudes or diffusions to all Estates and degrees of Men as to their just Concerns and Interests to which in Law or Religion in Prudence or Conscience they can pretend Which are all bound up in the Kings gracious free and royal Consent ratifying the joynt counsels and humble desires of the Nobility of the Clergy and of the Commonalty unanimously represented to him as by the Lords Temporal and Commons so by the Lords Spiritual or Bishops now restored to their ancient Place and Honor in the Parliament of England May this signal Mercy of God never be forgotten by us may this happy Union never be dissolved among us may this great Blessing never be forfeited by us An high honor indeed yet withal a very heavy burden put upon us Bishops not onely as to the great Service and publique Duty which is on all hands expected from us And for that great account which will be required of us according to the Talents Advantages and Opportunities given us to serve God the King and the Church to which nothing can sufficiently enable us but the same Grace and Favor both divine and humane which hath thus prevented us But also as to that envy which must necessarily by this eminency be contracted from all those evil men who have evil eyes and evil wills and evil hearts not onely against Bishops and Episcopacy but also against the Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom no less than against the pristine Renown and Flourishing of this Reformed Church of England which was famous heretofore in all the Christian World abroad and no less reverenced at home by People Peers and sovereign Princes while its Diocesan Bishops were dignified with this publique and Parliamentary honor Which is not like that sad OTHER HOUSE a mushroom or gourd of Yesterday springing out of O. P. and withering with R. C. but it began with the first Originals of Parliaments and for many hundred of years continued without any violent interruption until these late Antimonarchical and Antiepiscopal Chasms and Concussions which shook Heaven and Earth yea and Hell it self to destroy both Kings and Bishops the Kingdom and Church of ENGLAND In which horrid conflicts of Innovation Schism Rebellion and Confusion with our well reformed Church our ancient Laws our setled Religion and our excellent Government the tail of the Dragon strove to cast down to the earth many Stars of the highest Spheres the greatest magnitude and divinest influence in this Church and Kingdom And among them the most reverend and learned Bishops of this Church even one and all at one sweeping Stroke who with their famous Predecessors for many Centuries of years had both sat in Parliaments as Peers and presided in the Church as Prelates that is chief Fathers Stewards and Overseers in Christs Family or the Houshold of Faith Principal Governors or Presidents in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Prime Members in all Synods and Convocations The main Cisterns and Conduits of holy Orders The grand Conservators of Ministerial Power and Ecclesiastical Authority very ample and able Defenders under God and the King of Religion as Christian and Reformed in Truth and Faith in Peace and Holiness in good Government decent Order and legal Uniformity By which publique influences of their judicious Preaching solid writing sober living grave counselling and prudent governing set off with such eminent Honors fair Revenues and due Authority as they were by the munificence of Princes legally vested in the Bishops of ENGLAND have by Gods blessing been in all Ages according to the analogy and capacity of Times as the fairest so the strongest Pillars in this Churches Fabrick Like the goodly Cedar beams and costly stones which were laid in Solomons Temple like the fruitfullest Figtrees Vines and Olives planted in the Garden of God flourishing and bearing fruits that were pleasing to God and good men until that wilde-fire came forth out of the thistles and brambles of the Wilderness which sought to devour them root and branch and with them all things civil and sacred Your valiant and noble Ancestors not more honorable for their being Peers or Members in Parliament than for their being generous Sons of the Church of ENGLAND Patrons of Learning and true Religion These were ever so impatient to carry on or conclude any publique Counsels or Determinations that were not sanguinary Deo inconsulto without first taking Counsel of God by his Priests Prophets and Seers as David and the best Kings of Judah were wont to do in all great concerns Civil and Ecclesiastical for War and Peace that They thought nothing could be prudent which was not pious nor likely to be prosperous in the State which did not correspond with the Church They esteemed the Temple of Jerusalem and the Priests of the Lord to be as the Ark was and the Bearers of it in the midst of the Camp not onely the center but the sanctuary and glory of both Court City and Country That as the Body is without the Soul so are publique Counsels and Transactions in Christian States and Kingdoms without due regard to God his Ministers his Church and true Religion With whose holy will minde and counsels no men can in any reason be supposed to be better acquainted or more sincerely conform to them or more readily communicative of them than grave and learned Divines and among them those venerable Bishops and Fathers to whom the Oracles of God and Power Evangelical are specially committed as to Gods chief Embassadors Christs eminent Deputies the Clergies principal Trustees and in some sort the whole Churches general Representatives whose learned Gifts and Endowments are presumed to be most matured by Age subdued by Experience sanctified by Grace and intirely devoted to the Service of God the Church the King and their Country upon whose respective Favors they wholly depend To the Glory of the one and the Welfare of the other they cannot in prudence and conscience be less faithfully and constantly engaged than any other men And in whose Interests doubtless they are much more to be believed than any of those Democratick spirits or Pragmatick Sticklers among the Clergy or Laity who being of less years abilities and experience yea and possibly less contented are apter to be either covetously or ambitiously or enviously discomposed and so more subject to toss to and fro to move from one side to the other as those weary men do who lie on hard beds Easily as we have seen revolting from Kings and Bishops to Presbyterian and Independent Projects to popular and Plebeian Adherencies yea to Papal Arts and Ends That by such Complacencies they may advance their own Estate or Reputation though with the ruine of Monarchy and Episcopacy which are the great Defensatives and Bulwarks against Sedition and Faction against Anarchy and Confusion How much the Tumultuary Mutinies of some impetuous malecontents against Kings and
A Pillar of Gratitude HUMBLY DEDICATED To the GLORY of GOD The HONOUR Of His MAJESTY The RENOWN of this Present Legal Loyal Full and Free PARLIAMENT Upon Their Restoring the CHURCH of ENGLAND To the Primitive Government of EPISCOPACY And Re-investing Bishops Into Their Pristine Honour and Authority Anno 1661. Aarons Rod. BLESSED and FLORID Num. 17. 8. Barren Fig-Tree CURSED and WITHERED Mat. â—1 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 17. 14. Giving Thanks always for all things Ephes 5. 20. Nemo gratus malus Nemo malus gratus Perditissimum censuerunt Veteres quem ingratum dixerunt London Printed by J. M. for Andrew Crook at the Green-Dragon in St Pauls Church-yard 1661. To the Right Honorable and most Noble Princes Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Lords Barons and Peers of the Parliament of England Together with the other honorable Gentlemen Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons THere shall need no other Apology for the erecting and thus dedicating this PILLAR of GRATITUDE than that which all Justice and Ingenuity do make for the Archbishops and Bishops with all the Orderly Clergy of the Church of England Who must cease to be Christians and Men Religious and Rational just and ingenuous if we should not be highly sensible how much we are commanded by all the Laws of Gratitude to God and Man to express in some publique and solemn manner the humble sense of our thankful Hearts for that great Mercy signal Honor and eminent Favor which the good Providence of God by the Graciousness of the Kings Majesty by the Nobleness of the House of Peers and by the Generosity of the present House of Commons yea we hope by the desire and consent of all wise sober and just men in this Church and Kingdom hath restored as the other dignified Clergy to their respective Dignities so us the Archbishops and Bishops not onely to the exercise of our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but also to the ancient Honor when his Majesty shall please to call us of sitting consulting and voting in the House of Peers Senatus quo Sol augustiorem in orbe non vidit as the most learned Bishop Andrews writes in his Tortura Torti A Court and Council in its full and free Constitution not to be exceeded hardly equalled in all the World for number and for grandeur for the conspicuity of its Wisdom for the majesty of its Presence and for the Eminency no less than Antiquity of its Authority Agreeable to that of Fortescue cited by Sir Edward Coke in his Institutes l. 4. c. 1. Si Antiquitatem spectes est vetustissima si Dignitatem est honoratissima si Jurisdictionem est capacissima Nor do We the Bishops with all our Brethren of the Clergy more congratulate our own Reception to our pristine station after fifteen years absence than your LORDSHIPS safe Return after twelve years Banishment to the enjoyment of your native Right and hereditary Honor of sitting in Parliament as Barons and Peers And no less do we celebrate with joy the renewed priviledge of the free-born Commons of England to sit and suffragate in their honorable House by their chosen Deputies the Knights and Burgesses after they had for many years been baffled with Tumults broken by Factions bastinadoed with Truncheons and beaten with Swords in order forsooth to preserve the Liberty of the Subject the Priviledges of Parliament and the Reformed Religion Above all for in that one all your Honors all our civil Freedoms and temporal Happinesses are included we of the Clergy beyond all men have cause anew to solemnize this Day with Faelix faustúmque a peculiar joy and jubile to Gods glory the Churches peace and the Kingdoms prosperity the happy Return of his SACRED MAJESTY to his rightful Throne as the Sun to his proper Orb or Sphere after the dreadful Overthrow of our late Phaetons Who having set this English World on fire and quenched the other two British Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland with their blood ashes and ruines had this onely honor for their Epitaph Magnis excidere ausis That they justly fell from most audacious adventures arrogant usurpations and impudent impieties smitten at length as with the Conscience of their own enormious wickednesses so with the Thunder and Lightning the terror and consternation of that divine vengeance which when they least dreamed of did wonderfully overtake them after they had a long time flattered themselves in Providences and by the delusion of Successes had blasphemed the most high holy and righteous God as if he were such an one as themselves a lover of perfidy perjury and hypocrisie Which vengeance was also on the sudden executed upon them as by the loyal Prayers and pious Impatiences of all his Majesties good Subjects so chiefly by the honest Policies and prudent Conduct of one wise and valiant General who as Samson caught those subtile Foxes and tied them tail to tail but without any other firebrands than themselves taking the crafty in their own devices and pulling down the proud from their seats of scorn and Tyranny May his heroick name be written in the Book of Life as it is in that of worldly Honor with an indeleble Character because he did not pervert to private ambition as others had foolishly and falsly done the rare opportunity of doing Actions of incomparable Loyalty to his Prince and of Love to his Country Those Scandals and Reproaches to all true Honor and Religion those pests and shame to all good Government being once gone with Judas to their own places after they had filled the three Kingdoms with blood barbarity and confusion and the measure of their iniquity up to the brim by a wanton superfluity of folly and madness wickedness and hypocrisie at last this grand Theater of Wisdom and Honor the Parliament of England was left free for the joyful Reception of its ancient Inhabitants King Lords and Commons there to sit with Freedom and Honor never again we hope and pray to be divided scattered confounded and destroyed Whose Piety and Justice not satisfied with their own Return to this Throne of Majesty this sanctuary of Religion this seat of Honor this Citadel of all legal and ingenuous Liberties are pleased still to express a sense of solitude until they had compleated More majorum after the ancient patern of English Parliaments their honorable society with the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Wales That so in this as in all other instances of true Honor they might not come short of the Piety and Prudence of their noble Ancestors who thought that a Parliament of England without Bishops was as a City without a Temple or as a Temple without an Altar or as an Altar without a Sacrifice or as all these without a duly consecrated Priest or as he and they too would be without the true Worship of the true God And thus have we lived to see by merciful and miraculous Revolutions a plenary Restauration of the Majesty Honor Piety and
Assemblies to repair those breaches which were made by the free Votes as it seems of but a few Lords and Commons compared to the integral numbers of either House and that in very tumultuating broken and boisterous Times whose imperious and impetuous Fury would not be satiated or stayed till they had destroyed in new ways of Judicature without any former president or future parallel we hope first a prime Counsellor of State next the chief Bishop of this Church and lastly the best of Kings in the World So fatal and unhappy it is for men either to neglect Gods ends or to vary from his means to use the Devils engines for Gods edifice doing real evil that imaginary good may come thereby Indeed the blessed God hath in the midst of his Judgements remembred Mercy HE HE hath commanded the Whales which had devoured our Jonah's the Bishops and other dignified Clergy of England with all their Cathedral Churches Honors and Revenues to cast them up again upon dry Land HE HE hath sent his good Angels even the King and his faithful Forerunner who are in this respect as Angels or Messengers of God to stop those Lions mouths who thought they had us all alive between their Teeth breaking our bones that they might more securely eat our flesh He he hath stirred up the Heart of our gracious Sovereign with this loyal Parliament as he did the Hearts of Cyrus and Darius Kings of the East to turn the Captivity of the Church of the Clergy and of the Bishops of England to make our latter end better than our beginning no less for inward Graces which we hope and pray than for outward Mercies as he did to holy and patient Job Indeed the Mercy of God is so miraculous and the Favor of King and Parliament is so remarkable to us That many of those ambiguous friends to the Church of England to Bishops and to Episcopacy who formerly stood as Jobs miserable Comforters afar off amazed to see that amidst Christians and Protestants and zealous Pretenders to Reformation such eminent Learning such powerful Eloquence such venerable Years such admirable Piety such oracular Prudence such splendid Virtues such useful Abilities and such deserved Honors as were to be seen in the late Learned and Reformed Bishops and Clergy of ENGLAND should be forced to embrace the Dunghil to be trampled upon terrified scorned and cast out as the off-scouring of all things by men some of them viler than the earth who certainly would not have used Christ and his Apostles much better had they appeared among them such as indeed they were Bishops or chief Pastors and Shepherds of the Churches Even those dubious Spectators of the late Trials and cruel Mockings put upon the Bishops and Clergy of ENGLAND do now many of them turn their Amazement of Horror to an Extasie and Jubile of Joy while they see what a Wonderful Change God hath made commanding dry bones to live giving beauty for ashes and the oyl of gladness for the garment of Heaviness rebuking at once the Raging of the Sea and the madness of the People which nothing but Omnipotent Goodness can tame or set bounds unto as he hath now done among us Many of those wary Christians and superpolitick Professors who heretosore were afraid lest by their compassionate and kinde Aspect they should adopt the unjust Calamities of godly Bishops and other Worthy Church-men These now begin to look serenely and without sqinting on the Episcopal Dignity they speak reverently of and kindly to the venerable Bishops and the other industrious Episcopal Clergy They behave themselves with filial Respects to their Mother the Church of ENGLAND speaking comfortably to her and telling her That her Warfare is accomplished assuring us Bishops and all other Worthy Ministers of the Church That our Troubles are finished if our Hearts be refined our Lusts mortified our Passions conquered and our Lives amended That the former Terrors Afllictions and sad Desolations shall be requited with double Honor if we all unanimously return with double Diligence to do our Duties to God and Man That those vast Ruines which Schism Sacriledge Rebellion and other crying sins have made shall be abundantly repaired by the Justice Piety and Munificence of the King the Parliament and People of ENGLAND who have lived to see all the Vizars and Masks of Angels of Light now quite taken off from the Faces of those Satans who under the clamors of violent Non-conformity and under the colours of illegal unreasonable and deforming Reformations are found the greatest Adversaries to Law and Justice to true Reason and sober Religion to necessary Order and good Government which are the solid Foundations and onely Pillars of publique Peace of sober and lasting Reformation God himself I say hath at last pleaded by the seasonable Intervention of the King and Parliament the Cause of this Church against all its cruel Calumniators and causless Adversaries whose late sacrilegious Depredations dreadful Oppressions and endless Vastations sprang first from the root of scrupulous or sullen or scandalous Non-conformity to the Laws At length they all nestled themselves under the popular Shadow or in the spreading Branches of an Anti-episcopal novel illegal and Headless Presbytery At last they brought forth those bitter fruits and sowre Grapes which set all our teeth on edge by the Anarchy and Confusion the Waste and Ruine of this Church and Kingdom This Royal Munificence and Favor of his present Majesty is by the former Insolencies and Calamities that befel this Church and Clergy as by so many black foils and dark shadows the more set off to be as indeed it is so great so unwonted so wonderful so kingly so christian so divine so proportionable in this point for gratitude and munificence to Gods extraordinary Providences oft preserving and at last restoring his Majesty to his Kingdoms That no instance in any Age or History can parallel it nor can any thing be said worthy of it but this It is an act of magnificent Piety worthy of such a King and the Son of such a Father The Father chose to lose all his Crowns Estate and Life rather than rob God and the Church The Son when God had restored all to him as to our lawful Cesar takes care to restore all to God that is his and his Churches Give me leave to take a more leasurely and exact view of his Majesties Bounty and Justice to the Church and Clergy of ENGLAND For its Dimensions like those of the Pyramids and Colosses which were among the Wonders of the World merit more than a transient Aspect When his Majesties own Royal Estate by long Usurpation and Banishment had been wholly detained from him and much exhausted when he was now under the necessity of many and great Expences publique and private for the Payment of his Royal Navy and for the Disbanding of his Armies now His by a most happy Revolt and loyal Apostacy When He had Power as He pleased to recruit
his Estate and to restore the Majesty of his Kingdoms When not more his own than his Friends Exigencies pressed him as sharp hunger doth mighty Eagles or Lions to fall upon any prey that comes next to hand When there wanted not some back Friends to the Church of ENGLAND who wrapping up Sacriledge like Goliah's Sword in the linen cloth in the soft covering and shew of Loyalty were ready enough to make a Royal Present to his Majesty of John Baptists Head in a Silver Charger perswading him to fill his Exchequer by robbing the Church When his Martyr'd Father and Family his own Person and the Crown of ENGLAND had suffered so much upon no account more than that of their Christian Piety and Justice Courage and Constancy to defend as nursing Fathers the Church and Clergy of ENGLAND in their just Rights Endowments and Enjoyments When there was indeed such a grateful Compensation due to his Majesty and the Crown of ENGLAND as was almost capable to Christen even Sacriledge it self and to wash to some degree of Whiteness that Borborites or Blackmore about which some have spent so much labor in vain Yet then even then after so many merits of the Royal Family both active and passive toward the Church and Clergy of ENGLAND amidst such streights and exigents of his Person Family Relations Crowns and Kingdoms How hath his Majesty by a most Princely Piety abhorred to make necessity any plea or excuse for Sacriledge He had rather still hunger with David and his Men than take the Shew-bread of Gods House without the Priests consent and free gift He chose rather still to want than to be supplied out of Gods Exchequer or the Churches Treasury by any sacrilegious Rapine or other sine Projects of the Devil which more than once did offer to his Majesty a Sacrifice out of their Rapine and a burnt-offering out of their Church-Robbery even a Present of five hundred thousand Pounds to confirm the late illegal Sales of Church Lands for ninety nine Years and yet that you may see what good Bargains they had the Purchasers mean while to pay the old Rents to the Bishops and Clergy But his Majesty abhorred to taste of any fruit which came from so evil bitter and accursed a root as Sacriledge Thus thus hath his Majesty of his own pious and Princely Disposition conform to his Fathers Christian Resolution and encouraged by your Lordships and other noble Persons high Comprobation of his so just and holy Restitutions to God and the Church kept his Person and Conscience his Name and Family his Crown and Kingdom unspotted from this great offence from this giantly and impudent sin of Sacriledge which at once fights against God and Man against the Charity of the dead and the Equity of the living robbing God and Man while it pretends to reform Religion just as those Cheats who pick Mens Pockets or cut Mens Purses while they smile in their Faces To the Wonder of the Christian World and to his Majesties eternal Honor as a Son worthy in this glory of such a glorious Father do we owe the plenary Restitution full Collation and free Fruition of the Churches Dignities Honors and Revenues which are seldom retrograde when once alienated by any way from the Church Vestigia nulla retrorsum It is a rare sight to see Restitution made but as welcom certainly to God good Angels and good Men as the Return of a true Penitent such as Zacheus whose Repentance was evidenced by his Restitution of what he had unjustly gotten To his Royal Bounty next under God we Bishops are obliged for our Spiritualties and Temporalties That we are at the Honorable Motion and Desire of the Houses of Parliament admitted again to put on the Robes of Bishops ancient Honors and enabled to sit when his Majesty pleaseth to summon us in that place which is the Palace of Wisdom the Source and Center of all our Laws and Civil Justice That we may there appear among your Lordships not pilled and stripped of our Churches remaining Patrimonies not confined to arbitrary Pensions and uncertain Stipends which Eleemosynary Dependances are weak and narrow foundations of Episcopal Honor yea and of any Ministerial Dignity or Authority nothing being more uncomely and inconsistent than teaching and begging than craving and reproving as the Cynick Philosophers were wont to make themselves ridiculously severe and supercilious Beggars But we are restored in solidum ex asse to the full and free Possession of the Churches ancient Patrimony and Inheritance which is Gods Portion And this in a way so far from any Simonaical Compact that the very thought of so sordid a way of Merchandizing I am confident never presumed to knock at the Door of his Majesties Royal Brest or Heart Thus thus hath our great and gracious King as those famous Eastern Emperors not onely commanded to rebuild the Temple of the Lord but to restore the Vessels and what else belonged to the Sanctuary Thus hath our David redeemed out of the jaw of the Lyon and paw of the Bear that Kid and Lamb which they had ravished from Christs Fold from this Church yea from Christ himself the great Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls to whom we owe our selves and all that we have to whose Service and Honour no grateful Consecrations and pious Retributions can be too much or can seem so to any men but to Judasses covetous traitors and ingrateful wretches Doubtless so great a justice and so generous a charity cannot go unrewarded of God as it will be eternally admired by all good men and true Christians The shewing so great mercy to the poor Church and Clergy of ENGLAND which is indeed done to Christ will be a means to cover many insirmities and to lengthen we hope and pray the Tranquility of the King and his Kingdomes Nor can any loyal Subjects let that King want what is necessary for the publick Peace and comely for his Majesty who hath so large an heart and so liberal hand toward God and his Church We have Right Honourable and Worthy Senators nothing so much to say in this Essay of Gratitude to God to the Kings Majesty and to Your Selves as to be abruptly silent and to stand still a while filled with admiration and astonishment What King or Emperour since Constantine the Great and Charles the Great I mean the last who laid down his Life for the Liberties of his Church and Kingdoms ever did the like act of Honour Piety Charity Justice and Munisicence to the Bishops to the Clergie to the whole Church and if I may so say to God himself to whom nothing can be given but of his own Munificence as David modestly and truely expresseth his and the Princes liberality to the Temple Thus to redeem the Nobility Gentry Clergy and whole Nation from that ugly sin and shame of sacriledge wherewith some cruel and covetous men by their violent illegal and unreasonable courses had sought to engage yea