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
59. l. 11. r. Elisha p. 62. l. 3. r. coveted p. 71. l. 1. r. autedate p. 105. r. Antisignani p. 155. l. 9. f. warp for worship p. 177. l. 1. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 184. l. 7. r. principles p. 245. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Epitaphio p. 3. l. 4. r. Bonorum A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of Ralph Brounrig D.D. LATE L. BP of EXCESTER 2 KING 2.12 And Elisha saw it and he cried My Father my Father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof and he saw him no more and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces § ALthough no man is more ambitious then my self to pay all due respects to that Reverend and justly honored Prelate whose Funerals we this day celebrate yet I should discover too much ignorance of my own disproportion to so grand a Personage to so sad an occasion and so ample an expectation as I know possesseth you right Honorable Worthie and Christian Auditors if I had ambitiously obtruded my self upon this so important a Province for which many others might have been found much more apt and adequate than my self § But being unexpectedly called to this performance by those worthy Friends of the deceased to whom he had chiefly committed the care of his decent Interment I durst not be either so ingrateful to the merits and favour of this excellent Bishop of which I had great experience for many years while he lived or so diffident of Gods gracious assistance and your ingenuous acceptance of my endeavors as to refuse so noble an imployment What is objectable either by my self or others as to my defects may possibly be supplied either by those great respects of love and honor which I ever had and still have to this Venerable Bishop or by your Christian candor or by the Divine grace which is the fountain of all holy sufficiency which as I humbly beg of God so I less despair of it considering my work and design is not to adorn a Roman but a Christian Funeral I am to speak non ad plausum sed ad planctum non ad pompam sed ad pietatem not for pomp but piety not to gain your applause but to amend your and my own lives as discoursing of a dead man to such as are daily dying and decaying with my self § He speaks best of the deserving dead who leaves the living better than he found them which might be your happy improvement honored and beloved if as you have an Eliah now departed so you had an Elisha deploring his departure you have indeed seen or heard the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil speaks the migration and assumption of this great Prophet you may be most probable to enjoy the second if you joyn with me in Elisha's prayer Vers 9. not that a double portion of this Eliah's spirit may be upon me no I have not so immodest an ambition to excel a decimation will be a great addition the Tenth part of the Wisdom Learning Judgement Eloquence Zeal Courage Constancy Gravity and Majesty of this excellent Bishop will make not onely a competent but as the world is now shrunk a very compleat Minister I may tell you the gleanings of this worthy Prelate would be beyond most Presbyters harvests and his racemation or after-gatherings beyond their proudest Vintages However since Eliah's work is not to be done without some portion of Eliahs spirit this is the onely favour next your patience wherein I crave your concurrence § But I must not detain you long in the porch or preface when I have two ample edifices with many fair rooms in them through which I am to lead you § The first is in this read Text which I have set before your eyes which was indeed the first that came into my mind as soon as I had a summons to preach on this occasion The second in that dead Text which is now hidden from your eyes In both of them there is as Christ saith of his Fathers house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Mansions but I must not tarry long in any one that I may give you some prospect of them all § I begin at the first And Elisha saw it c. The words set forth to us First An eminent person Elisha Secondly His emphatick actions which are many 1. His Vision as to that strange appearance and transaction of Eliah's rapture He saw it 2. His exclamation or vociferation he cried out 3. His expressions 1. As to his private relation and affection My Father my Father 2. As to the publick concern and importance The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof 4. The cessation or period of the Vision He saw him no more 5. His solemn lamentation set forth by rending his own cloaths in two pieces 1. In this eminent person Elisha though many other things be very considerable 1 The person Elisha considered in his succession to Eliah yet I shall chiefly fix upon him as the person specially designed to be Eliahs Successor in the Prophetick Office both as to ordinary and extraordinary duties for the service of God and the Church yet remaining in Israel although now among much rubbish and ruine sullied with Idolatry and great Apostacy yet the things that remain are not to be neglected even those few that had not yet bowed the knee to Baal Churches must not be cast off nor Christians left without Prophets Pastors and Bishops because of great disorders and degenerations that may by Heresie Schism or persecution befal them those few sheep must not be left in the wilderness without some shepherds to feed and guide them § Here I cannot but observe 1 King 19.16 19. not onely the care of the Prophet Eliah but of God himself by whose special mandate Eliah was to nominate and annoint such an one as might be meet to succeed him in his holy function as a Prophet yea as the Father or chief President and Master for so the sons of the Prophets call Eliah of all the other sons who were brought up in the ordinary Schools and Nurseries of the Prophets As nothing is more necessary for mankind The blessing and necessity of an holy succession of Ministers in the Church than to have some to teach them the will of God and the way of true Religion which differenceth them from beasts and leads them to eternal happiness so nothing is more an evidence of Gods indulgence and mercy to any people than to furnish them from among their brethren with such an holy succession of Prophets and Pastors of Priests and Ministers of Bishops and Fresbyters of Teachers and Rulers in things sacred and spiritual as may least expose the profession of Religion to any doubt disorder division defect interruption or uncertainty When true Religion and the acceptable service of God was first planted in the single families of the Patriarchs as rare flowers are in their severall
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
these Jesuited enemies of the Reformed Religion and the true Interests of this Church and Nation whose work this hath been many years to make that vile saying of Campian good in his Decem Rationes Clero Anglicano nihil putidius Doubtless The necessaâ—y use of able and orderly Ministers a Church may better in the worst of times want any thing than good Bishops and orderly Ministers for these in the midst of persecution made Religion good against all the powers of men and Devils all the Armies of vain Philosophers Atheists Epicures Hereticks and Schismaticks Heathenish Princes and barbarous people when they made no more to baite Christians and their Ministers or Bishops to death than to kill Bears and other beasts in their Theaters yet being killed they conquered because united and orderly Christianity like a wedg the more driven home the more it splits all Idolatry and it self continued entire But when Pastors and people Bishops and Presbyters are divided when the whole order and Militia or Army is once disbanded or abased starved and despised the very soul is gone from the body the Sun from the firmament the maenia propugnacula forces and defences are taken away from the Frontiers and Garisons we may write Ichabod on all foreheads the glory is departed from our Israel for every good Bishop is as the spiritual Colonel of his Diocesan Regiment and every good Presbyter under him is as a Captain of his Parochial Company the first without the second will be weak and without assistance and the second without the first will be unruly for want of government together they are compleat § What wise and sober Christian doth not see by woful experience that since this late rout and disorder hath been made upon the chariots and horsemen of our Israel we have seen and heard and felt nothing but wars and rumors of wars scarce one good day of secure serenity without black and terrible clouds hanging over us as death full of blood faction fury discontent and mutual destruction little of peace nothing of charity as far from unity as uniformity in doctrine discipline and government § Nor have those mens chariots kept their own wheels very well on their axes but either driven very heavily or some of them into the read sea of blood who were most active to destroy or disband or disorder our spiritual Militia or Hierarchy and Ministry which was the most-able compleat well-appointed goodliest and gallantest in the Christian reformed world I might say without vain glory in the whole world Some defects and defaults some halts and extravagancies might be in particular persons but the order and the march and the ammunition and the maintenance were as to the main very worthy of the honor and wisdom and bounty and piety of this Nation and Church having as much of ability and courage and more of publique honor and encouragement than any where § Love must not yet despaire of this Church Nor do I yet despair of the wisdom honor piety and gratitude of this Church and State but they may in time return to see the prejudices mischiefs and miseries either felt or feared by the daily incursions as of all manner of errors and confusions in Religion so in civil and secular concernments which easily drive God knows whither to a thousand shipwracking and desperate dangers when once not only the anchors and cables of Religion are broken but the Pilots and Masters either cast over-board or kept under hatches and lost Nothing holds mens hearts so together even in a National peace and harmony as when they all meet in the same center of Religion and can all say Amen to the same prayers and praises of God Nor will any civil cautions coercions keep the publick peace or patch and soder it up when once the hearts and heads of men are cracked and broken in pieces as earthen pitchers by the mutual dashings against one another in differences of Religion where though men get no conquest or booty yet they are strangely pleased with a liberty and animosity only to contest just as Soldiers do in mutinies when they turn the reverence due to Commanders into impudence and insolency § But I have done with this Consideration of Eliahs publique eminency and influence which made him worthy of these appellations of honor and strength of safety and defence to Church and State The chariots and horsemen of Israel being only sorry that so many of my Countrymen seem also to have done with their spiritual Militia seeking so to reduce it as to make it a kinde of Nehustan to bring all Bishops and Ministers as wounded and maimed antiquated and exautorated Soldiers to their almes-houses and Hospitals of publick charity § Of Voluntiers Preachers and Souldiers that will serve gratis If we could maintain our secular Militia at the same rate as some propound for Ministers that every Soldier and Commander would be content with what men will give them it would very much ease the charge of the Nation But some will say there are that will preach gratis for nothing which is no more credible than that any Soldiers will watch and ward and attend their duty and fight for nothing they may do it for a fit of novelty as Voluntiers of a few days standing but they will not long stay by their colours either as Soldiers or Ministers if they must do it for nothing And if they will needs have the Ministerial order and spiritual Militia quite disbanded as chargeable and superfluous that every one may preach and officiate freely that list let them withal try the experiment in the secular Militia lay down their Arms and let every man fight that lists if they will not hearken in reason of State to this motion nor ought they in Religion to the other since men are naturally more prone to defend their Civil than Religious interests These Projectors know well enough that nothing publique is well done which is done occasionally and arbitrarily not as a duty of necessity and conscience but of variety and essay to which neither Ministers nor Soldiers work must be left unless we list to leave all things to Atheism and confusion The Apostle saith expresly 1 Cor. 9.16 A necessity is laid upon him and wo to him if he preach not the Gospel being appointed thereunto by God Acts 20.28 1 Pet. 1.3 and the order of the Church As Ministers are to take heed to the flock over which the Lord by the Church hath set them so others are to take heed what they do to these men so as to hinder or discourage them in so great a work on which the eternal safety and good of souls depends which none but Satan will hinder none but unbelieving Jews or false brethren deceitful workers and evil doers will oppose and seek to oppress Acts 19.24 by a mechanick kind of malice like that of Demetrius or Alexander 2 Tim 4.14 the one a
not convert gain-sayers and if he could not perswade them yet he would pitty and pray for them His Judgment as to the foundations and solemn administration of the Reformed Religion His fixedness in there formed Religion settled in the Church of England and so in other Reformed Churches which were for the main consonant to it was such that he was unmoveable even to a martyrdom Never more offended as I have sometimes heard him express his displeasure than with those men that affected to be Hybridae Religionis Mungrils or Mephibosheths in Religion and halters in opinion a kinde of ambiguous and dough-baked Protestants that are afraid to own their discommunion and distance from the Church politick or Court of Rome even so far as they see by Scripture and antiquity that it hath evidently divorced from communion with the word of God and Institutions of Jesus Christ walking contrary to the judgement and practice of the Primitive Churches To both which he always appealed in the grand concerns of Religion not allowing that pollicy which incroached upon truth and piety though in matters of outward Rites and Ceremonies he allowed latitudes and liberty without breach of charity It was a maxime I have heard him use That nothing was less to be stickled for or against than matters of reremony which were as shadows not substances of Religion As they did not build so they could not burthen if kept within their bounds as was done in Englands Reformation § Yea he had so far both pity and charity for those plain and honest-hearted people of the Roman communion as either their errors presumed by them to be truths or their ignorance in some things not fundamental did not betray them either to unbelief or self-presumption or to final impenitence or to immorality or uncharitableness If there were hope to close the â—ad breaches of these Western Churches no man was more able and willing to have poured balme into them But he feared the gangreen of Jesuitism had festred and inflamed things to an uncurableness which he oft deplored § His temper is latter dispute among reformed Divines As for the differences of other parties in some opinions which then began to grow very quick and warm in England as well as the Netherlands he seemed always most conformed to and satisfied with the judgement of his learned and reverend friends Bishop Vsher Bishop Davenant and Dr. Ward who were great Disciples of St. Austin and Prosper in their contests against the Pelagians Not that he could indure no difference among learned and godly men in opinions especially sublime and obscure without dissentions and distance in affection but he wished all men to look well to the humility and sincerity of their hearts whose heads were most prone and able to manage points of controversie the heat of which is ready to make the fullest souls to boil over to some immoderation and study of sides He thought that Scripture it self was in some points left us less clear and positive as to mysterious not necessary verities that Christians might have wherewith to exercise both humility in themselves and charity towards others § He very much venerated the first worthy Reformers of Religion at home and abroad yet was he not so addicted to any one Master as not freely to use that great and mature judgement which he had so as to sift and separate between their easie opinions and native passions as men and their solider probations and sober practices as great and good Divines He suffered not prejudices against any mans person or opinion to heighten animosities in him against either He hoped every good man had his retractations either actual or intentional that died in true faith and repentance however all had not time to write their retractations as St. Austin did § If against any thing next sin and gross errors he had an antipathy and impatience it was against those unquiet and pragmatick spirits which affect endless controversies varieties and novelties in Religion that hereby they may carry on that study of sides and parties in which they glory and under which skreen they hope to advance their private interests and politick designs This he saw by experience was commonly the Scorpions tail and sting of those opinions which at their first broaching and variating from the pristine and Catholick Doctrine might seem to have the face of women modest and harmless but in time grew very pernicious to Church and State When the clouds of nonconformity which was formerly reduced to an hand breadth in the Church of England began now His constancy in the late vertigious times partly by a spirit or breath of super-conformity and chiefly by those vehement winds which blew from the North to cover the whole English heaven with blackness and to threaten a great storm of blood which after followed yet did this excellent person then hold to his former principles and practice not because he was a Bishop but because he was a judicious and consciencious man where he saw Scripture and Law bound him to duty and to that constancy of his judgement in matters of Religion both essential and circumstantial substantial and ornamental which became a wise and honest man He was too ponderous a person to be tossed too and fro with every wind of doctrine or discipline nor was he ever either so scared or in so merry and frolick a sit as to dance after the Scottish pipe he had learned another and a better tune as from the Catholick Church in general so particularly from this Church and State the Princes and Prelates the Parliments and Convocations of the Reformed Church of England now too old to affect any new jigg after an hundred years most flourishing State the wisdom gravity and majesty of which he thought was not now either to be either disciplined or reformed or chastened by the pedantique authority pretended necessity or obtruded insolency of any Church or Nation under heaven much less by any party in it self which was less than the authority of a full and free Parliament consisting of King Lords and Commons counselled as to matters of Religion by a full and free Convocation or Synod which he thought the most laudable way of managing Religion and most probable by doing good impartially to be blest of God and approved by good men He saw the Church and State of England had been sufficient every way for it self heretofore while united and was then happiest when it enjoyed its own peaceable and Parliamentary Counsels and results without any others partial dictates which were as improsperous as importune and impertinent § For the Liturgie His esteem of the liturgy of the Church of England or publick form of Prayer and solemn Administration in the Church of England though he needed a set form as little as any yet he had a particular great esteem of it 1. For the honor and piety of its Martyrly Composers who enduring such a fiery trial
were not likely to have made a Liturgy of straw and stubble 2. For its excellent matter which is divine sound and holy besides its method which is prudent and good 3. For the very great good he saw it did as to all sober Christians so to the common sort of plain people who what ever other provision they had of their Ministers private abilities yet they were sure every Lords Day at least to have a wholesom and compleat form not only of Prayers but of all other necessaries to salvavation set before them for faith holy life and devotion in the Creeds Commandments Lords Prayer with Confessions and Supplications admirably linked together and fitted to the meanest capacities the want of which he saw was not supplied by any Ministers private way of praying or preaching which in very deed are but small pittances of piety or fragments compared to the latitude of religious fundamentals and varieties contained in the Liturgie the want of which he judged would induce a great ignorance as he saw and said to me a little before his death it had done already among the ordinary sort of people in Countrey and City whose souls are as precious to God as others of greater parts and capacities whose appetites were not to be flattered and deceived with novelties but fitted and fed with wonted solidities by which they would thrive look better as by the use of plain and repeated food which is as their daily bread than those that delight in greater varieties and dainties which may seem more toothsom to wanton palates but are not more wholesom or nourishing to honest hearts who are commonly less licorous in Religion and best content with what is best for them § Not that he was such a Formalist Verbalist and Sententiolist as could not endure any alteration of words or phrases or method or manner of expressions in the Liturgie to which either change of times or of language or things may invite he well knew there had been variety of Liturgies in Churches and variations in the same Church he made very much but not too much of the English Liturgie not as the Scriptures unalterable but yet he judged that all alterations in such publick and settled concerns of Religion ought to be done by the publick spirit counsel and consent of the Prophets Prince and People However this was a concluded Maxim with him That the solemnity and sacredness of consecrating those Christian mysteries of the blessed Sacraments were not to be adventured upon Ministers private abilities tenuities or distempers but by a publick and uniform spirit among Preachers and people all should say Amen to the same Prayers and receive the same mysteries under one form of consecration in which nothing should be defective or superfluous § His personal and occasional abilities for prayer were answerable to his other gifts and graces both for matter method utterance discretion and devotion full fervent and pathetick upon his own and others spirits not coldly formal and stark nor yet wildly rambling loose and broken but judicious apt grave and of so moderate an extent as suited the weight of the occasion the capacity of the auditors and the intensiveness of his own heart his prayers were not the labor and product only of lips lungs and tongue but of his spirit and understanding he minded not the glory but grace of prayer As to the Government of the Church by Episcopal Presidency His judgment of Church government by Episcopacy to which Prince and Presbyters agree he was too learned a man to doubt and too honest to deny the universal custom and practice of the Church of Christ in all ages and places for Fifteen hundred years according to the pattern at least received from the Apostles who without doubt followed as they best knew the mind of Christ This Catholick prescription he he thought so sacred that as it did sufficiently prejudge all novel presumptions so nothing but importune and grand necessities put upon any Church could excuse much less justifie the cutting off those pipes or the turning of that primitive and perpetual course of Ecclesiastical Ordination subordination and Government into another channel Nor did he understand the method of those new Vitruviusses who would seem Master-builders though they are yet but destroyers when they affect to have all timber and stones in the Churches building of the same shape size and bigness when the Church of Christ is compared to a body which hath members of different forms use and honor 1 Cor. 12. § Yet this worthy man had nothing of secular pomp or vain ambition in his thoughts meerly to bear up or bolster out a formal and titular Episcopacy with Goats hair like Michols image No he exacted worth and work And where true Bishops did the duties and good works belonging to the principal Pastors of the flock he thought they deserved double honor as Fathers and Governors among good Christians both of revenue and reverence § Yet he did not judge the principal dignity or authority of Episcopacy to depend upon its Secular advantages but on its Ecclesiastical custom and Apostolick institution and however no man was more ready to condescend to any external diminutions and comely moderations that might stand with a good conscience and prudence as tending to the peace and unity of the Church yet no man was more firm resolute and immovable from gratifying any Sacrilegious Projectors or proud Factionists or peevish Novellers to the reproach of the Church of England yea and of the Catholick Church in all the world which had its Bishops every where before it had its Bible or its Scriptures compleated In the matter of Episcopacy he differed little from Bishop Vshers moddel of the ancient Synodical Government only he thought the petulancy of mens spirit in these times beyond the primitive simplicity did require all prudent advantages of Order and authority which might consist with piety and true policy as antidotes ought to be heightned to the measure of the poison they are to encounter § He approved not a leveling party among Ministers Only he could never be induced so far to forsake the principle of all Reason Order and Government in humane societies or to disown the remarkable differences which God and Nature age and education experience and studies industry and grace did make between Ministers no less than other men as to think that neither work nor rewards of honor and estate may be proportioned to their different worths but that the youngest Schollar yea the meanest Schoolmaster if they can but now and then appear in a Pulpit and take Orders as they best fancy shall presently in all things of publick honor and Ecclesiastick authority run parallel to the greatest Schollars and gravest Divines so that either a beardless and juvenile petulancy or more aged but empty gravity shall in all points be level and justle with the most venerable worth and accomplished learning of those that are capable to