A Memorial Offered to John Williams
45. The Seam of a slight Objection is sowed up; but will unrip again: because the Bishop is now to be brought into his Court of Jurisdiction. He that had the common Laws and Statutes at his Fingers end: he that was a great Canonist: a learned Civilian: a Master of Reason: a dextrous Wit at dispatch: that knew the fair and foul Dealings of the Spiritual Courts, was as sit a Man, as ever our Church had, to be President of a Consistory. In that Circle he was like Onias the High Priest, as a morning Star in the midst of a Cloud, Ecclus. 50.6. For Clouds there were, and dark ones; as no place of Judicature is without them. The Bishop loved the Profession of the Civil Laws, as Valentine to Divinity: and pitied the Advocates, that were shut up to meddle with so few Causes, that they could neither show their Learning, nor thrive by their Studies. Yet he did often tell them (all are not dead that heard him) that unless they proceeded in their Courts with Incorruption and Integrity: with Impartiality in Causes, and making choice of such Quarrels to come before them, as virtuous Men thought fittest to be redressed, a little would come to nothing. Himself would not let Church-wardens be cited, for the placing of the Holy Table: nor the People for not coming to the Rail, at the receiving of the Elements of the Lord's Supper. It is a good Proviso which an Heathen gave Symm. Ep. p. 14. Si adjiciantur insolita, forsan consueta cessabunt. By thrusting in new Ordinances, old Obedience might be shaken. Nor indeed are they, or the like, among those notorious things in the 109 Canon, for which Offenders should not be admitted to the Communion, till they were reformed. And such Injunctions are so obscurely, and deducted so far off out of our known and established Rules, that they were to be offered, and persuaded, rather than commanded. Constraint, and Violence are not means to bring such things to uniformity. More often by Sufferance, Obedience will break in between their Wishes. Likewise it was Vox populi, and therefore not to be contemned, that Officers Ecclesiastical did prosecute Presentments, rather against Non-conformitancy of Ministers and People, than for Debaucheries of an evil Life, mentioned in the 109 Canon. Wherein the Bishop did not commend the Proceedings of his deputed Judges. Though it might be said in favor of them, that Human Laws are strictest against them that act contrary to public Peace. Or that Crimes are punishable by Statutes, and are fitter for Trial at a Quarter Sessions. Some spied into another Reason, that Proctors and Registers wanted not those Scandals themselves, for which, in the Eye of the World, they were fit to be presented. Yet when all is said, it were more laudable in Courts Christian, to be more severe against Evils which the Light of Nature had made Evils, than against Evils, which were made Evils by the Laws of Holy Church. Both were to be corrected: but rather Works of Commission against known Light, than Trespasses of Omission for want of Light of Understanding. The hardest Task which the Bishop had, was to persuade his Officers to live by honest Gains: to moderate their Fees: to wash their Hands from bribes, and filthy Lucre: the only way to live in clear Fame, that Men might speak well of them, and of their Authority. Covetousness is not a Branch, but a Root of Evil, says St. Paul: all that grows may be seen in a Plant, but not the Root. Whose Example is more fit to show it than Tribonius, who digested the Code of the Civil Law? of whom Soudas says, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : He was most subtle to shadow and cover the Disease of Covetousness. From thence proceed the Delays, that consume the Substance of Appellant, and Defendant, and make them curse such expectative Proceedings. Whose Clamors incited the Bishop to Passion sometimes, and to call upon them instantly for dispatch. For how long will an Horse-leach suck, if it be not pulled off? A little is taken to enter a Cause: but the Price increaseth at every turn, when it is brought to Examination. Like German Toss-pots, that drink small Cups at first: and quaff down great Bowls when they are drunk. Similer says of the Cantons, where he lived, that the People liked Expedition in their Causes, as much as Justice. Quod si in judiciis nostris error aliquis committitur,—in causis implicicis, & obscuris; nequaquam tantum damni inde datur, quantum ex litium diuturna prorogatione accipitur, Res. •• el. p. 140.
46. If a Curse were of moment, as when a whole Parish were in a Broil about it, the bishop appointed a Consistory to rule it with his own Presence, and Judgment. He trusted not his Chancellor and Commissaries upon old Experience, but, like a wise Governor, he looked upon them with a new Probation in every great Cause, as if he had never known them. What greater Praise could Symmachus have given to Theodosius in point of using his Counselors than this? Solenne est ei singulos ut novos semper expendere, nec consuetudini condonare judicium, Ep. p. 124. A Magistrate that will not research his Deputies, but leaves them to their Work, with an indefinite Confidence in their Honesties, doth as absurdly, as Tanner the Jesuit, spake absurdly in the Colloquy at Reinsberg, That the Pope might err, unless he did use all due, and ordinary means, but without all doubt and question he did ever use those means. The Bishop had a deeper insight into Man: and never failed to be Rector Chori, in Causes that required a more special Audience. Wherein he spared himself so little, and gave so much ease to the People, that he did often ride to the parts of his Diocese remotest from his ordinary home, as Leicester, Buckinghamshire, Wellen in Hartfordshire, &c. and kept his Courts, where all the Complainants were at hand to attend them. A way of great content, and much neglected. Yet the 125 Canon provides, That all Officials should appoint meet places for the keeping of their Courts, as should be expedient for entertainment of those that made their appearance, and most indifferent for their Travail,—and that they may return homewards in as due season as may be. But these Courts, which kept Peace among the Sons of the Church, and super-intended over Delinquents are quite ex-authorized: taken in pieces as musty Vessels, wherein nothing kept sweet, that was put into them. The Fault was in the Demolishers, that had no better Scent: they had Noses and smelt not. For whereas the Grievance pretended was, that they had too much Power; the Truth is on the contrary, that they could not do their work as they ought, to satisfy the People, and to beat down Sin, because they had too little. Take their highest, and in a manner their only censure, Excommunication (terrible in itself) What doth a profane Person care for it? Prosecute them with Writs de Excommunicatis capiendis, and all the Grist that came to their Mill would not pay the cost of it. What a Coil hath been made, to set up Consistories of Ministers, and ruling Elders, that should proceed against Scandals with rebukes, suspension from the Sacrament, open penance, and lastly, as they expound it, let him be unto thee as an Heathen, and a Publican? Make the Sinner liable to Imprisonment, to destraining, to a Forfeiture, to some loss in his profit, and he will be sure to feel it, and sly from the occasion. Confess the Truth: will not many look better to outward Honesty, if you discipline them in their Purse? Bucer fell upon this in an Epistle to Luther. Scrip. Anglic. p. 657. Excommunicationis loco egregiam in multis civitatibus disciplinam, & poenas sceleribus dignas sancitas esse. And Erastus writes like a wise Man, that noted other ways, than Presbyterian Censures, to rectify the common Disorders of Christians: as to straiten them in Privileges of Reputation, and Matters of Gain, which none should communicate in, but the obedient. Simler says, Helv. Hist. p. 148. There was not a Minister admitted into the Consistory of Scaphuse; but the most Judicious of the Laity exercised that Authority; because their Punishments did chiefly extend against the Body, or the Fortunes of the Peccant. What little good hath the Stool of Repentance wrought, among the fierce natured Scots? They have sat so long upon it, that they know not how to blush at it. We should be shame-faced: Nay, which is better, we should be innocent: but we are neither. Plato says in his Protagoras, that, lest Men should fall into the Confusion of all Sin, God had given them two Blessings to restrain them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Shame, and Justice. But since we have lost Shame, Justice must take another course, and let us blood in that Vein, which may most probably cure us. Ploratur lacrymis amissa pecunia veris, Juven. Sat. 13. Set a Fine upon their Heads that deserve it; and it will vex their Hearts. But no more of Jurisdiction dissolved. Rosa hyeme non est rosa. It was yet to be remembered for his sake, that was the Honor of it, whilst it stood.
47. For it was murmur'd a good while, before the Authority of the Pastoral Staff was broken, that the Tribunals of Bishops stretched themselves beyond their measure: that many were troubled for not obeying new Articles. In the Third Parliament of King, Charles, in a Petition of Grievances two Bishops were named for offering at Innovations: and others escaped the Imputation by Luck. But all, that loved not Asperity, took it well, that none of this blustering was heard of in the Diocese of Lincoln. Which was malign'd then, and observed lately to disparage the Bishop, by such as feed on him, and his corrupt part like Worms now he is dead. It was never in his Thoughts to sooth the Humour of the People, but to please them for their good. He had no word more common in his Mouth, That it was not sit for a Subject, but only for a King to be popular. That was not the Reason why he gave no countenance to the new Wine, which other Prelates broach'd: or call it their Pregnancy to revive old things, which had long lain still. But because he saw, that Bancrost, Abbot, Matthew, King, Bilson, Andrew's, Morton, Overal, Lake, Felton, Davenant, and many such, gave great content, and received great content from their Colleges and Bishoprics, which they governed respectively, by keeping them in that Obedience, wherein they found them. Says Augustus in Dion, Things that have continued well, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . That which is settled by Custom, though it be not so good, it is fitter than that which would alter it into another mode: and to try experience upon the Body of a Church, which was crazy, was Mala 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a dangerous Endeavor. For the rest of the Charge the Bill is confessed, the Bishop was a very slack Punisher, using the Power which God had given him to edification, and not to destruction, 2 Cor. 13.10. God says his Covenant with Levi was to walk in Peace and Equity, and to turn many from iniquity, Mal. 2.6. And every High Priest must 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Hebr. 5.2. Be moderately affected toward the ignorant, and them that are out of the way. So did this worthy Person, who would chide aloud like Thunder against Malefactors, but without the Bolt of Censure, which tears the Tree, and rends the Stock in pieces. The Spirit of Humanity hath its angry Sallies and Emotions, and he was, to his dispraise, in that very obnoxious to them. Huic uni forsan poterat succumbere culpae, Aen. Lib. 4. But Heat, and a great Wit were never parted. And though Man have most reason of any living thing, yet Choler abounds in him, because he hath most Fancy, and most Will. Water is a common Element to all Beasts, none strike fire, and use it, but Man: That's a Privilege belonging to the noblest Creature. Herein the Bishop's Anger was as pardonable, as anger could be, that it left no more impression, against the Person that moved him, than if he had never been angry. As Budaeus says of Guido Rochfort, Chancellor of France, Lib. 3. de as. Fol. 105. Minime omnium iracundorum malitiosam habuit iracundiam. Cursed be their Wrath which is cruel, Gen. 49.7. Cursed be the Anger that is malicious. For Anger is a Mote, Malice is a Beam in the Eye. They are the Plagues of Mankind, who, once heated with Displeasure, will never cool, neither with the sweet Air fanned out of the Lord's Prayer, engaging them so deeply to forgive: nor with the Blood in his Sacrament; which quencheth not the Fire of a revengeful Mind, and yet is able to quench the Fire of Hell. What shall be given them but hot Coals of Juniper? Psal. 120.4. Prunae juniperi per annum integrum ignem servant, modo cinere cooperiantur, says Pliny, Lib. 13. c. 22. Juniper Coals will keep Fire a Year, if they be covered with Ashes. Therefore they that cover Wrath, and keep it warm with long and profound dissembling, shall be rewarded with Fire, like Coals of Juniper, that never goes out. Clemens in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . 5. hath divinely resolved one of the Riddles of Pythagoras, That when a Pot is taken off the Fire, no print of it must be seen in the Ashes. So meaning, says Clemens, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : To let no print of Anger remain; to blot out the Characters of it, that Revenge may never read them. So the Bishop's Anger would sometimes break out too fast: but Words were Wind, and Clemency blew away his Threatenings beyond the River of Oblivion. If one of the Extreams should be laid to his charge, it must be that of too much Mercy. Which Camerarius could not deny to be in Melanchthon, p. 109. Facility, Remisness in correction of Faults, a Spirit promiscuously indifferent to gratify deserving, and undeserving. But as St. Chrysos. says upon that of the High Priest, Hebr. 5. apt to pass over the Ignorance, and Errors of others, Non ne satius est propter misericordiam rationem reddere, quàm propter severitatem? Is it not more comfortable to the Conscience, to answer unto God for a dram too much of Mercy, than for a Stone weight too much of Rigour, and Severity? Yet I have heard it said, and read it, If Discipline had been observed by all the Bishops as strictly, and without connivance to any, as it was by some, the Contumacy of that Faction had not got the Head, which oppressed us all. The smart of the Wound may incline them to that Judgment: Yet others have considered, that the Opposition of the disorderly part was in an appearance so little, that their Contradiction was rather in their Heart, than in their Practice: suspected for no fast Friends to our Weal, and Ceremonies, but not declared for Enemies. Who should understand them better than King Charles, in his last, and heavenly Letter to the Prince? The Presbyterian Faction was great neither in Church or State to Men's Judgments, says he. There was enough beheld in them to make our Rulers vigilant, but not violent. For nothing is worse than to take too high a strain, to trample upon that, which is not yet exalted. The Lord is angry at Priests that are too hard, and imperious, Ezek. 34.4. With force and cruelty have ye ruled them. And St. Jerome applied it to some rigid Overseers of his own Age, by this Note upon it, Quod proprie ad supercilium Episcoporum pertinet. Charity suffereth long, and is kind, 1 Cor. 13.4. Suffering of those that err is but a part of Duty: the disaffected must be won with kindness. To suffer is praise-worthy before Men: to be kind also is praise-worthy before God. It is a Point that may be argued plausibly on both sides. Justice will say, Dum immoderate custoditur virtus humanitatis, solvuntur jura regiminis, Greg. Past. Cu. Lib. 2. c. 6. A Bit must be put into the Mouth of the Head-strong. Superiors shall have less trouble with Schismatics, if they hold a strait hand over them. And he that showeth them too much Favor, teacheth Innocents to offend. Mildness will say, Woe to them that turn aside the way of the Meek, Amos 2.7. They that are compel'd may cease to be contumacious, and will begin to be Hypocrites. Terror may make them stoop, but gentleness will sooner make them yield. Says Seneca, Iracundus Dominus quosdam ad fugam cogit, quosdam ad mortem. A cruel Lord makes them desperate that are under him: but another shall gain their Persons, if not their Consciences, by the benefit of Facility. Certainly God directs the Magistrate that keeps the golden Mean. Qualem nequeo monstare & sentio tantùm, Juven. Sat. 7.
48. Episcopal vigilance hath the Object best before it in Visitations. Which were chargeable indeed to the poor Parsons and Vicars, in Linwood 's days, as appears in his Provincial, by such a sweeping Train as quartered upon them for Hospitality. But our Bishops in their Triennials, taking but a slight and inconsiderable Procuration for Homage, eased them of the Burthen, and continued the Benefit. They came to visit, and to water the Earth, Psal. 65.9. not to dry up, but to moisten the Furrows with the River of God: or as Symmachus translates it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to bring all to Maturity, which was sown by the Labors of their Brethren. The like unto it was very ancient. For such were the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the oldest Canons; as the Word is taken for Circumspection, not for Circumvention: Such as were commissioned to perambulate the Countries, where Churches were gathered together, to behold their Order and stedfastness of Faith, Coloss. 2.5. Upon that Head I will give account what Bishop Williams did in particular Cases, two, and no more: Then his Discharge in the general Meetings shall bound, and shut it up. The former was the Discovery of a Mischief; and the killing of it in the Birth, in April, 1629. with which Jane Hawkins teemed, a Prophetess (for she would go for no less) in the Parish of St. Ives in Hunting donshire: Who took her Bed for a Sickness, and was in perfect Health: and in that sickness had her Extasies, as it was bruited: and in those Extasies uttered Verses in Rythm, full of Detraction and Injury to the Authority of the Bishops, to the Church-way of England in the Liturgy, and not sparing some Occurrences of the Civil Government. This was a Cheat, like that of Mr. R. Hadocks in Oxford, in the beginning of King James 's Reign Who was a learned Impostor, preaching Latin Sermons of a very elegant Style in his sleep, as the cunning Man would have it believed, as if those Enthusiasms were vented by his Tongue, but he had no Sense of them in his Mind. And this tended to make his Auditors conceive, that God caused him, like Balaam 's dumb Beast, to teach another Discipline, than that which was established. But this Woman, though taught her Lesson by some more knowing than herself, uttered such Brainless Verses, as might justify the common Ballads of the City; and was as bad at an English Verse, as the old Monks were at a Latin, stufft with such frigid Jests, as were able to cool the Bath. Ut propriùs spectes lacrymosa poemata Puppi, Horat. Ep. 1. Yet the more vile and plain, they liked the better with the rural Hobs: and would have spread into Fairs, and Markets, and been sung by Fiddlers Boys, if it had not been prevented. The Extasie, or Inspiration, believed by some, was the offense like to do harm. Which the Bishop perceiving to be a devised Villany, disguised himself in his Face, and Habit, and obtained to thrust in, with two more, among the Crew, at such a time, as they came to watch for Oracles from the Mouth of this Poetress. Blind Guides are fittest for them that would wander. When the Fit was upon her, one of her Intimates took her Vapourings, as they came from her, Et jungere carmina curat, Virgil. Aen. lest they should be lost like those of Virgil 's Beldame. Which the Bishop taking out of his Hand, found them altered for the better, and at that juncture revealed himself to their Amazement, and made it evident to them, that were present, that all their Feats were stark Juggling: that they took God's Name in vain, as if those Notions came from God, which came from Fraud, and from Satan: false, in much bitter without Charity: bold and rude, not savouring of the Style of God, nor of any wise Man, but Mr. Wise the Curate. And although their Conditions would excuse all that could be done to them in Severity, yet the Bishop required no more, but that Mr. Tooky the Vicar, upon pain of Suspension should read the Contents of a Paper sent to him, the next Sunday, April 29. after the first Lesson in the Parish Church; then his Suspension to be staid, otherwise to be declared. Which Contents are these: In those Sayings uttered by Jane Hawkins of this Parish, either of late, or heretofore in her Sickness, which seemed for the Manner strange and extraordinary, and expressed in Verse or Rhyme, I do not conceive any Miracle at all: or for that manner in Verse or Rhyme any Inspiration of the Holy Ghost, added over and above the Gifts, and Parts of Nature: Nor would I have any Man or Woman of this Parish, to have a higher Opinion, or Conceit of any Saying so uttered by the said Jane Hawkins. And whereas myself, Mr. Wise my Curate, and my Son have taken and excerpted many of these Sayings in Verse from the Mouth of the said Jane, in the Presence of many Men, and Women in this Parish, and put the same in Writing, which is conceived to be an Act that may prove scandalous to the Church, and State, I do promise not to do so again, and am truly sorry that this Act of mine is any way liable to such Construction, and will be grieved at the Heart, if by occasion of the same the least Scandal, or Aspersion may fall upon this flourishing Church or State, wherein I live: which I voluntarily profess in this open Assembly. This was read, and the Offence was past over with this gentleness. But the Vicar fell either into this Error again, or some other Contumacy. For in fine he was deprived, as I find it in the Bishop's Papers. Their own tattling, and venting their Malice by a talkative Woman, brought all this shame upon them. They might have been as wise as the wild Geese that fly over the Mountain Taurus, who carry a Stone in their Bills, to keep them from gaggling, lest the Eagle should hear them, and seize upon them.
49. It is a slight occasion, yet an occasion to consider in a little the Sibylls, and their Predictions from hence, because I have started a Feminine Versifier, and a Prophetess (yea, what else?) among her Copes-mates. To come to a short Trial, I lay nothing forth of the Fatidical Books, which Tarquin bought of his resolute Chap-woman. They were consumed to Ashes in the Social War, and not a Fragment saved. Nor of those Pieces which Tully quotes, Lib. 2. de Divin. and Virgil, Ecl. 4. the two great Masters of the Roman Learning. It is not certain whither they be extant in the Remains that are published, and to be seen at this day. I meddle with nothing which their Messengers collected in Asia and Greece, to furnish their Capitol with new Oracles. I look on no other than those eight Books of Sibylline Prophesies, with the Fragments annexed, set out by Opsopaeus, and others, and stand first in the Third Volume of the Greek Bibliotheca Patrum. I look I say upon no more: and move no more than one Question upon them. Whether all that is in them, nay whether any part of them, was penned by Prophetesses living among the Gentiles, and living before the coming of Christ Jesus in the Flesh? What I resolve in it I branch into seven Conclusions. First, That some part of these Oracles, which we have in our Use and Possession, were endited before the Incarnation of our Lord; and in some Verses where Christ is foretold, that he should come, and reign upon the Earth, together with the Dissipation of Idolatry, and other Heathenish Rites. For albeit in those Passages they had not Credit with some in Eusebius 's time: and in St. Austin 's time, the Prophesies of others, that were not Jews, concerning Christ, were thought to be forged by Christians, Ci. Dei, Lib. 18. c. 47. Yet I cannot incline to that Diffidence for this reason. Eusebius says they were quoted by Clemens, known to Peter and Paul, either in an Epistle lost, or lost out of that Epistle which is now come to light: Likewise by Justin Martyr, bordering upon the Times of the Apostles. And they quoted them, as attesting to the Honor of our Christian Cause. Therefore somewhat of the Evangelical relish was in them, ante-nated, and in being before the Gospels were written. Secondly, Antiquity hath voiced it, that Women were the Authors of them; which none hath contradicted: The Wits of that Sex have excel'd in Odes and Madrigals. In holy Hymns also. As Deborah and Barac are named, Jud. 5. but first Deborah, for chanting that Triumphal Song, which hath as much Art, and Dithyrambical Loftiness in it, as is in any Syrick Poetry, Greek or Latin. And if we had more of Miriam 's Song, Exod. 15.21. it would not come behind them. And God did open great Secrets by such Instruments, as his Hand-maids; whoever did his wonders by weakest means: and provoked the World to attend to such Conveyance, as was strange, and to which they were not wonted. Thirdly, They were Gentiles: the Jews never owned them; and it is already proved, that they lived before the Disciples were called Christians at Antioch. The very learned Bishop Montague should have looked to it in his 3 Cap. of Acts and Monuments, how he disputed, that they were all Gentiles; and casts about that the first and chief lived in the Days of Abraham, to have received her Instructions from Sem, when as there was no distinction of Jew and Gentile. I would bring them nearer to the times of Grace, upon this thought; that as some note of the Jews, that after their return from Babylon, about Five Hundred Years before Christ's Nativity, they were in Limine Ecclesiae, as it were in the Porch of the Church, and saw into the Mystery of Salvation, more clearly for the generality of the People, than before: yet no Prophet was among them: So the nearer the time drew, that the day spring from on high did visit us, the more did Divinations abound among the Heathens, to prepare them for that Blessing: as it may be enlarged from the Magi of the East, that came to visit our Savior. Fourthly, I leave these Prophetesses to God that knows the Heart, whether they had the Spirit of Belief, and of the Knowledge of that they uttered; That is, whether they were impulled like Balaam, Saul, and Caiaphas to vent that which they could not keep in; or whether they were inspired like Isaiah, and the Prophets of the Lord. There is no History how she, or more shees lived, or what end they made, which were the means, and none else, to decide it. Fifthly, Take the Sibylline Oracles in a lump, so as now they are delivered to us, and they have a great of deal of Addition, and Fraudulency in them: The Interlinings of a Christian Pen are as manifest as the Sun at Noon-day. Quo apertiora sunt, co mihi suspectiora, I consent to Casaubon, Num. 17. Exercit. Is this Prophetical, or the Paraphrase of the Gospel, that Christ should be baptized in Jordan, and a Dove descend upon him? that he should feed Five Thousand with Five Loaves and Two Fishes, and Twelve Baskets of the Fragments should remain? The very Words of St. John put into Hexameters. What Prophet in the O.T. did ever collate Types, and Antitypes together? Yet in these Poems ye may find that Moses lifting up his Hands; when the People fought with Amalek, did figure the Arms of Christ stretched out upon the Cross. What a World of open, and direct Passages? Gabriel by name saluting the Blessed Virgin: the Star appearing: the Shepherds greeted by Angels, as they kept watch over their Flocks by Night. A very Breviate of some Chapters in the N.T. Nor could they be of any other Profession than Christian, that betray themselves, that Nero would persecute 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , our part, which contends with the Heathen. But in the Fragments all is discovered, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; We of the holy, and heavenly Off-spring of Christ. The learned Bishop thinks to bear this down with a fieri Potest. God might make one, or more of these, speak clearer than Moses, or any Prophet. But, with favor, he hath not done his Work, that makes a Conjecture possible, but that makes it probable. Which the best Wit alive is not able to do in this case. Sixthly, The time when these additional Verses were thrust into the Sibylline writings, appears to me to be about the Year 170. For Lib. 5. Everyone of the Caesar's is described by a Numeral Letter, the first of his Name, from Julius the Dictator to Adrian, whose Name is opened from the Adriatic Sea. Some small Intimation of each, Antoninus follows. But then all that comes after, is shuffled up, nothing clear, nothing particular, not a glance made at a succeeding Emperor, I have heard good Antiquaries discourse, that our British Prophecies ascribed to Merlin, were the Fruit of some Writer in the Days of Henry the Second. Merlin the Fay, supposed to be a Wizard contemporary to King Arthur, lived Seven Hundred Years before. But this Pseudo-Merlin handles many great Occurrences punctually, and explicitly to the days of Henry the Second. In all that follows are Tragelaphi, Satyrs and Griffins, Cocks and Bulls. The Fortune-teller casts Figures; but names no Person in the Sequel. So these interloping Verses discover themselves to be the … e of some that crowded them in about the Reign of an Antoninus, where he had spent his Powder, and vented all that he had seen with the Fore-face of Janus: but Posticâ caecus: he was no Prophet, and could not see behind him. Seventhly, Far be it from my thoughts, to have a Jealousy of the Holy Fathers, that lived about that time, for dressing up the Sibylline Oracles with new Ornaments of their own patching. They were full of Faith, and never feared, that Christ's Kingdom did need a Lye to advance it. I have read of Stratagems military, and political: but Martyrs, and Saints would never give countenance to Stratagems Theological. But who looks most suspiciously, of all that lived in that Age, to bear the blame of such a Forgery? It is an hard thing to find a Father for a Bastard. But, Reader, What think you of Montanus, and his Baggages about him, Maximilla, Prisca, Quintilla, called Cata-Phrygians from the place of their wont? These put forth to be known, says Eusebius in his Chronicle, under M. Antoninus, Anno. 1 •• . That's well for the time. Though Heretics, they were Christians, and which is more, divulged for Prophetesses: and which is more than that, famed for being great dablers in Verse. They bemoan the Phrygians thrice in Sixteen Verses, Lib. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The Phrygians will miserably perish. And further they have not revealed themselves, that I find, in anything that favor'd of Montanus his Paraclete, or the Cata-Phrygian Heresy. I am only dubious therefore in this last Conclusion. Perhaps I have not the Door by the Ring. He that likes it not, let him bite a Bay-leaf, and make a better Divination. I am not peremptory, that I have found out such Sibyls, as I looked for in Phrygia. But I am sure our prudent Bishop discovered that Sibyl, that he looked for in St. Ives.
50. His second and particular Visitation made amends for the former, at Little Giding in the same County: where he found a Congregation of Saints, not walking after the Flesh, but after the Spirit. Let this History give Glory to God in their behalf: showing in a Touch, o • what religious Grounds their Polity was sounded: and how uncharitably suspected, and how unhappily dissolved. A Family of the Farrars, the Mother, with Sons and Daughters of both Sexes in the plural Number, other Branches of the Kindred, with Servants fit to be about them, were collected into a House of their own at Giding aforesaid, purposing, and covenanting between themselves to live in as strict a way, according to the Gospel of Christ, as good Rules could chalk out, and human Infirmity undergo. This pious Design was proposed, and persuaded to them by the eldest Son, in Holy Orders, bred in Clare Hall in Cambridge, an humble, diligent, devout Servant of God, learned in the Theory, more in the Practice of Divinity. Their House, fit for their Contemplation, stood alone. All were single Persons in it, to the best I could learn. The Church was so near, that it was next to the Pale of their Yard: the easier for them that frequented it so often. The whole Village of Giding had been depopulated: or I am misinform'd: the House which contained them remaining for an whole Parish. The Tythes had been impropriated: but were restored back again by the Mother, to the use of the Rector then, her own Son; and to the succeeding Rectors, by a firm Deed, as Law could make, which in its time shall be declared. They kept much at home: their turns of Prayer, and Watching, which they observed, required it. Yet Visits, perhaps once a Month, they made abroad: but shunning such Diversions, as much as they could, which rob us of a great part of the Employment of our Life. Non horam tecum esse potes: non otia recte—Ponere: as an Heathen complained, Horat. Serm. 7. Strangers that came to them were fairly received: all the Tribe was meek and courteous, and did let none depart, before they gave them an account of their Conversation, if they asked it. And withal offered to read to them, what was written in a Table hanging up in their Parlour, as followeth:
He that by report of our Endeavors, will remonstrate that which is more perfect, and seek to make us better, is welcome as an Angel of God. He that by cheerful participating, and approbation of that which is good, confirms us in the same, is welcome as a Christian friend. He that any way goes about to divert, or disturb us in that which is, as it ought to be among Christians (though it be not usual in the World) is a Burthen while he stays, and shall bear his Judgment whosoever he be. He that faults us in absence, for that which in presence he made show to approve, shall by a double guilt of Flattery and Slander, violate the Bands both of Friendship, and Christianity.
Subscribed,
Mary Farrar,
Widow, Mother of this Family, aged about Fourscore Years: who bids adieu to all Hopes and Fears of this World, and only desires to serve God.
51. The Fame of the Dispensations of this worthy Family, the further it was heard abroad, the more it sounded like Popery. Envy or Ignorance could guess no better at it, but that it was a Casa Professa, a Convent packed together of some Superstitious Order beyond Seas, or a Nunnery, and that the Sufferance of it looked towards a change in Religion. After the Sentence of Salust, Boni quàm mali sus • ectiores sunt: semperque aliena virtus formidolosa est. A Crew of Bawds, and Gamesters might have set up a Standing with less prejudice than these Devotionaries. But God help us, if the best Protestants (for these may be called so) do look like Papists. Had they been hired with Gold, that so mistook them, they could not have done more Credit, and Honor to our Adversaries. Speak Sir Cenjur • r, we the true Children of the Church of England, were we not, without departing from our own Station, capable of Mortification? of vowing ourselves to God? of renouncing the World? of Fasting? of Vigils? of Prayer limited to Canons, and Hours, as any that say, and do not, that call themselves from St. Basil, St. Bennet, or such other Institution? Not our Reformation, but our Slothfulness doth indispose us, that we let others run faster than we, in Temperance, in Chastity, in Scleragogy, as it was called. The Diocesan, and their Neighbor to this Family in a few Miles, was ashamed at these Scandals, which he knew to be spiteful and temerarious. He knew the Occurrences of his Precinct; as Apelles was wont to fit behind the Pictures hung up in his Shop, to hear what Passengers that went to and fro did approve, or discommend. These were known to the Bishop by right Information, from the time that they sealed a Charter among themselves, as it were, to be constant and regular in their Spiritual Discipline. But their Heavenly mindedness was best discovered to him, when two Sons of Mrs. Farrar, the Mother and Matron of the Household, treated with the Bishop, to endow the Church with the Tythes, which had been impropriated: this was in Sept. 1633. as appears by a Smack of that which fell from the Pen of the Donor, as followeth:
Right Reverend Father in God,
THE Expectation of Opportunities, having some Years whealed me off from the Performance of this Business, I now think it necessary to break through all Impediments, and humbly to present to your Lordship the Desires, and the Intentions of my Heart. Beseeching you on God's behalf, to take them into your Fatherly Consideration, and to give a speedy Accomplishment to them, by the Direction of your Wisdom, and the Assistance of your Authority.
The rest is too much to be rehearsed, save a little of her Prayer to God in the end of the Papers.
The Bishop prayed to God that many such Customers might come to him: so commended her free-will Offering to God, and confirmed it. To make them some amends for their Liberality to the Church, he devised how to give them Reputation, against ad Detraction. Therefore in the Spring that came after, he gave them warning on what Sunday he would Preach in their Church: whither an extreme Press of People resorted from all the Towns that heard of it. In his Sermon he insisted most, what it was to die unto the World: that the Righteous should scarce be saved: that our right Eye, and our right Hand, and all our fleshly Contentments must be cut off, that we may enter into Life. All tended to approve the dutiful, and severe Life of the Farrars, and of the Church that was in their House. After Sermon the Bishop took their Invitation to Dine with them. But they were so strict to keep that day holy, that they left not a Servant at home to provide for the Table. Yet it was handsomely furnished with that which was boiled, and back'd, that required no Attendance, to stay any one from Church to look to it. By this visit the Bishop had the Means to see their way of serving God; to know the Soundness of Doctrine which they maintained, to read their Rules which they had drawn up for Fasts, and Vigils, and large Distributions of Alms: In which he bad them proceed in the Name of God, and gave them his Blessing at his departing. From thenceforth these faithful ones flourish'd in good opinion. For it is certain what Quintilian hath stated in Gratory, Lib. 5. Nulla sunt firmiora, quàm quae ex dubiis facta sunt corta. The more a Case was doubted, the clearer it is, when the Doubt is resolved.
52. Yet nothing is so sound, but in time it will run into Corruption. For I must not hold it in, that some Persons in Little Giding had run into excess, and incur'd offense, if the Bishop had not broken the Snare, which they were preparing for their own feet. For after he had spoken well of the Family in the Pulpit, and privately to divers, some of them could not see when they were well, but aspir'd to be Transcendants above their measure. For two Daughters of the Stock came to the Bishop, and offered themselves to be veiled Virgins, to take upon them the Vow of perpetual Chastity, with the Solemnity of the Episcopal Blessing, and Ratification. Whom he admonished very Fatherly, that they knew not what they went about. That they had no promise to confirm that Grace unto them; that this readiness, which they had in the present, should be in their will, without Repentance, to their Lifes end. Let the younger Women marry, was the best Advice, that they might not be led into Temptation And that they might not forget what he taught them, he drew up his Judgment in Three Sheets of Paper, and sent it them home, that they might dress themselves by that Glass, and learn not to think of Human Nature, above that which it is, a Sea of Flowings, and Ebbings, and of all manner of Inconstancy. The Direction of God was in this Council: For one of the Gentlewomen afterwards took a liking to a good Husband, and was well bestowed. Nothing is more suiting to this Passage, than a Story out of Gregory the Great, concerning his Three Ants, Homil. 38. Uno omnes ardore, côdemque tempore Sacratae—In domo propriâ socialem vitam ducebant; and a little after he reports, that after this admission into State of Virginity, one of them became a Wife. There are some says Christ, that have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake, Mat. 19.12. with caution as they are able to receive it. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Eusebius hath it: Virginity with free, and voluntary Destination, and Continuation. A single Life, and grant it with a State of Prosession, is a noble Course to serve God in: but limited to that time, as it serves for a Help, and not turns to a Wound in the Conscience. God will not be cheated with a Vow, to let one of his great Commandments be broken for it. St. Ambrose, who knew the Heathen Customs of the Romans, writes to Valentinian. Vestales habuerunt praescripta pudicu •• e tempora. The Vestals attended in their Maiden Service but to a prescribed time. Baronius Appar. An. Par. 10. testifies for the Pharisees, out of Epiphanius, Pharisaei determinatum castitatus, aut continentiae tempus habebant. They devoted themselves to Chastity, or Continency, not forever, but to a determinate day. Grotius, in voto Pacis, tells me more than I knew before. Optimum mihi viderur institutum patrum Oratorii, & quorundam caetuum virginalium, ut libertas ducendi maneat. Grant them but that liberty; or as the Council of Gangra calls it, Humanity from their Governors, and the Scandal ceaseth. Sir Roger Twisd • n, a noble Scholar, goes further in his Apology against the Imputation of Schism, p. 97. That the Kings of England reserved to themselves to dispense with Nuns, that they might marry. They that yield to that Dispensation are on our side. As old as the Widow Anna was, who departed not from the Temple, but served God with Fastings and Prayers night and day, Luk. 2.37. She was no Votary, that appears. Non clare indicat sequesirationem, says Bishop Montague, Orig. Eccl. P. 2. pag. 163. But she left the World: that is, she used it, as if she used it not. Here let the Danghters of Giding stay: and so they did. But nor they, nor the rest staid many Years after, in that Godly repose. Otia bona frustra disseruntur, ubi quiescere non licet, says Grotius, Belg. Hist. p. 314. It was out of season to confine themselves to Holy rest, when Civil Dissensions began to flame, and there was no rest in the Land. In those days there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Countries, 2 Chron. 15.5. Religion, and Loyalty were such Eye-sores, that all the Farrars fled away, and dispersed, and tock joyfully the spotling of their goods, Hebr. 10.34. All that they had restored to the Church, all that they had bestowed upon sacred Comeliness, all that they had gathered for their own Livelihood, and for Alms, was seized upon as a lawful Prey, taken from superstitious Persons. Procrin habe, dixit. Quod si mihi provida men's est, Non habuisse voles, Metamor. Lib. 7. What will the Cruel, and the Covetous say, when God shall require it at their hands?
53. With these Businesses at St. Ives, and at Little Giding; the Relation of two particular Visitations is dispatched. Others were of things nothing strange, nor of such moment and use. And for the Visitations general to the whole Diocese, held according to triennial Spaces, a Collation, made by the Bishop at one sitting, shall supply enough for all the rest. It was delivered at Bedford, in the end of the Year, 1634. Which is so wise, and weighty, so learned and pious, that the Maker himself could searce have mended it. No excuse is offered that there is so much of it, because it is so good. The City, which Ascanius built in Latium, was called Alba longa, says Livy, Lib. 1. So this Speech is long, but so pure and white, that the beauty will plead for the Bigness: or rather Bigness, and Beauty will make two several Praises: So he begins. I must not tax the learned Preacher, as Alexander did his Father Philip, that his Father had conquered and engrossed so much, that he had left him but little to do. But I do really and heartily thank him for it. And conceiving that part of our Duty, concerning the Preaching of God's Word, to be gravely and sufficiently discharged by him, I must frame my Speech upon other Heads, which would hardly, without much forcing be bidden, or invited into one Text, and yet have been seldom omitted by Prelates of former times, when they have held their Visitations. Not that I mean to trouble you with the Bead-roll of Particulars cognizable by Bishops on such an occasion: for this is the Work of Chancellors and Commissaries, who are also wearied with these Recitations. But as the ancient Aristotelians were want to keep off their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , their Singularities from the Knowledge of the Understanding, and to leave them wholly to the Survey of the Senses: So it is the Fashion of modern Visitors to digest their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or Singularities into a Book of Articles, to be perused by the Eyes and Ears of such, as may be concerned so to do, without drawing these particular Points to any further Discourse, or settled Oration. What therefore I shall insist upon, shall be some few Generals, which reflect either upon the Visitation itself (the Act we have in hand) or the Persons visited, and subjected to this Visitation. And those are either my Brethren of the Clergy, or my good Friends, and Neighbors of the Laity. When I have spoken somewhat to either of these in general, and recommended to the Clergy a particular I have in charge, I shall trouble you no longer, but go on to the business of the day.
54. The Visitation of Bishops is no Jonas gourd, no filia noct • s, started up in a Night of Popery: but a Tree set by the Apostles themselves, and watered from time to time by the Canons of general Councils, in the fairest Springs of the Primitive Church. For so I find Protestants of no mean Esteem, to wit, the Four Writers of the Centuries, to retrieve the Root hereof from Acts, cap. 14. And if you will observe the Place, there is scarce one particular prescribed by the Canon Law, as essential to a Visitation, but you shall find it put in Execution in that Chapter, you have them first 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 22. they that confirmed the Souls of all the Disciples, must among them confirm Children. Secondly, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , laying hands on Priests and Deacons, v. 23. Thirdly, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 24. Peragrantes, saith Beza, a Word used for a Bishop's Visitation in the Council of Chalons, under Charles the Great. Fourthly, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , v. 25. making their Sermons, or Collations. And Lastly, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , returning back to Antioch from whence they came, v. 26. Nor are we now forced to such a leap, as Dr. Mocket out of Gratian would put upon us, for the Visitations of Bishops: To wit, from these Acts of the Apostles, to the Synodus Tarraconensis, or the fourth Council of Toledo, which is a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a huge wide Gulf of more than Five Hundred Years, but are able to trace them all along in that interim of time, in most Authentical Authors, and Histories. For, to say nothing of those Books of Clemons Romanus, called by the Ancients 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Circuits of St. Peter, because they were abused by old Heretics, as Epiphanius, and Athanasius often tell us, that is most certain, that many Years after the Epocha of the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (where you have the Word of art used to this day) did often visit Pontus and Bithynia, says Epiphan. in his 27 Heresy, which is that of the Carpocratians. And about the Year One hundred, after the Death of the Emperor Domitian, Eusebius reports out of Clemens Romanus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Tale and no Tale, but an unquestion'd History, that St. John leaving Patmos, went up and down Asia, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , setting Churches in order, Lib. 3. Hist. c. 23. From hence indeed I must transport you to the 57 Canon of the 3 Counc. of Carthage, that you may hear Aurelius, and his Brethren excuse themselves, for not visiting Mauritania, and those other Provinces. But you must not dwell upon this Council, being by the Canon itself turned back again for four, or five Years, to that famous Council of Hippo, which opened to St. Austin, as yet a Priest, Famae januam, the first Gate, and Entrance, as it were, to his Fame, and Glory. For in this great Council at Hippo, saith that other Council of Carthage, it had been expressly determined, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that every Province, or Diocese should be visited, in the very time of holding the Synod. Which Words are to be well observed: For the Canon doth not say, they were to be visited at the Synod, or the Synod sitting. For the Law doth not admit of that. Quia multùm operatur persona —The Person of the Prelate bears a special part in this kind of Visitation. But a general Synod was first called, and therein the manner of the Reformation was settled, and agreed upon. Presently after that the Fathers did 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , sever themselves (as Zonaras writes upon that Canon) and fall in hand with their peculiar Visitations. And here I have brought you, without all question, to the Fountain and Well head of our Canon Law, which requires according to this Revisement of the Council of Hippo, that a Synod of the Diocese, or Province be first called before they begin the Episcopal Visitation. And however the Synods themselves be much out of use (in this Kingdom especially, where none can be held, but by leave of the Prince) yet may you still find upon your Accompts some few Splinters, and Remainders of the same, when you do not pay your Procurations only, but your Cathedraticals, and Synodals also. From this Third Council of Carthage, the righting of these Visitation, was taken up by the Synodus Tarraconensis, by the Council of Bracara, by the Fourth Council of Toledo, and divers others in their Ages. From these Councils they were fetched by Gratian into his Decrees: from the Decrees by the Popes into their Epistles, and Decretals; and so continue to this day our Jus Commune, our ordinary Law in that behalf. Nor were these Visitations of Bishops sooner enjoin'd by the several Popes in their Laws, and Decretals, but as things of sovereign, and principal use, they were taken up, and incorporated into the Municipal Laws, of all our chief and best ordered Monarchies. Hence we find them commanded the Prelates of Spain in the first Partida of King of Alfonso 's Laws, Title 22. Hence likewise enjoin'd the Bishops of France, by Charles the Ninth, Henry the Third, and Fourth, in those general Estates of Orleans, Bloise, and Paris. Hence also Visitations were to have been erected here in England, by our Statute Laws, if those Thirty two Persons had ever met, as appears by those preparations made by Arch-bishop Cranmer, and others, Titulo de Visitationibus. Lastly, Upon the beginning of the Reformation in Saxony, they kept a Visitation by the Super-intendents, An. 1527. much approved of by the Lutherans of those times Osiander, and Bucholzerus. And therefore we may not conceive of these Visitations, as of some imperfect and equivocal Creatures, begotten but the other day ex fimo & limo, out of the Dregs and Corruptions of the Church of Rome: but as of things of a more noble, and ancient Descent, begun by Paul and Barnabas when they were Apostles, continued by St. Peter and St. John as great Bishops: settled and righted in the Council at Hippo, Anno. 393. From thence transcribed into the Third Council of Carthage, Anno. 397. From thence revived at Tarraco under Hormisda, An. 517 From thence received into the Council of Braccara, Anno. 602. From thence into the Fourth of Toledo, Anno. 633. From those Councils they were taken in by Gratian into his Decrees. So into the Decretals: and from the Decretals, and their Glosses, infused into the municipal, or common Laws of all the chiefest Christian Monarchies. So much of a Visitation in general.
55. In the second place I am to make a short Exhortation unto you, my Brethren of the Clergy. The Effect whereof shall be no more than what St. Jerome wrote long ago in his Epistle to Nepotian, Qui servit ecclesiae, interpretetur primo nomen suum. We that are received into any Place of Office in God's Church, must before all other Lessons, be sure to understand aright the Titles of those Offices, whereunto we are received. And that being once apprehended, Niti esse quod dicimur: To endeavor with all might and main to be no other than we are said to be. We Bishops are said to be Visitatores, the Temporary Visitors: You, the Incumbents of Churches, to be Visores, the perpetual Seers of Christ's Flock. Our Visitation is a frequentative Word. Frequentatio autem non est unius actus continuatio, sed actus intercisi multiplicata repetitio, saith Grosthead, (once a famous Bishop of this See) in one of his Epistles. Frequentation doth not import any whole frame, or thread as it were of a continued Act, but the Repetition, and often taking up of a broken, and interrupted Act. And therefore in this spiritual Flock of Christ, being in their nature individua vaga, Cattle of a scattering, and wandering Condition, there must be some to have an eye upon them continually, some to attend from day today, beside those Over-lookers from year to year: Or where the Sheep are many, and the Pastures of a large extent, from three years to three years, there must be Visitores, saith Grosthead, as well as Visitatores; continual Seers, as well as triennial Overseers. And these are you, my Brethren of the Clergy, as by your Institutions, Inductions, and Licenses may appear. Remember therefore in the Fear of God, the Titles of your Offices, that you are those Videntes in Israele, those continual, and immediate Seers of Israel. You are those that are to see to the praying, to see to the Hearing, to see to the reverend and awful Receiving, to see to the Manners and Living, to see to the Peace, and good Agreeing, and, if you would see the Comfort of anything you set, to see thoroughly to the catechizing of your People.
56. Primùm omnium fieri orationes, saith St. Paul, Above all other Duties of a Christian Man, bring your People as much as you can, to delight in praying. When all is well, and thoroughly weighed, you shall find it the only Duty, whereby a Christian doth most resemble an Angel on Earth, and most ascertain himself of being hereafter a Saint in Heaven. Say what you can (and you cannot over-reach or say too much) in the Commendations of Faith; yet must you confess it is the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And behold Christ tells you plainly the Holy Ghost itself is the Gift of Devotion, and Praying. And when we have read, and studied, and heard never so much, yet tantum scimus, quantum oramus (as Luther was wont to say) we may have more Notions, and Ginglings in the Head: but we have no more, true feeling, and pricking Divinity at the Heart, than we have Inclination to Devotion, and Prayer. And of all Prayers none so fit for Devotion, as the Prayers of the Liturgy, understood by all, and known of all, and therefore putting the poor People to no straining of the Understanding, but to an intuitive Discourse, as it were of their Wills and Affections to Almighty God. Whereas the long and tedious Prayer of a Preacher (especially where it is crude and extemporary) sets the Mind of a Country-man on hunting so fast after the unconth Words, which are the Body, that it loseth all the Mellowness, as it were the Ardency, and Devotion, which is the Spirit and Soul of true Prayer. And the Laws do call upon us, to call upon you, to cause your Parishioners to conn by heart these Prayers of the Liturgy, especially the Confession, and Collects. That when they are assembled in the Church militant, a Type and Representation of the Church Triumphant, they may not be musing, and studying (for you do not read that the Saints and Angels do so in Heaven) but sympathizing, and uniting their best Affections, with the Devotion of their Minister. Secondly, You that are daily Seers of Christ's Flock must see to their Pasture, that is their Hearing. For it is a fond and novel Conceit, to cry up Praying, and with the same breath to cry down Preaching. That most excellent Form of Prayer, How was it taught but in an excellent Sermon? Lord teach us to pray: teaching is a necessary Fore-runner of Praying. It is a kind of new Monster, not heard of in former times, that Preachers should preach against Preaching. And yet I must correct this Assertion. I confess it was heard of long ago in the middle Ages, in the time of ignorant and stupid Popery. Jo. Gerson preaching a Visitation Sermon before the Arch-bishop of Reims, in the Year, 1408. saith, that the Clergy of his times bent all their Studies to enable themselves for Ruling, and Governing, leaving the Mendicants, and the Curates only to supply their Preaching. But, as I told you before, this was in the time of the gross and dull, not of the refined, and quintessential Popery. The Dominicans of Spain, the Minors of Italy, the Oratorions of France, and the Jesuits over all the World are more than sufficient Preachers: So that this is no Age for us to preach against Preaching. I will conclude this Point with a Saying, not out of Calvin, or Beza, who may be thought partial, but out of a Prosne or Homily, made on purpose to be read before the Clergy and Laity in all Visitations, as I find it in a Book of this Subject written by one Jo. Franciscus Pavinus two hundred Years ago. Saith he, Fides sine operibus vana, sine verbis nulla. Faith without doing will prove little: but without Preaching it will prove nothing at all. Thirdly, You that are the Seers of God's People must see to their due, and awful receiving of the high Mysteries. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Damascene calls them, those pure and hallowed things of God. Especially that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as St. Chrysost. terms it, that Super-coelestial Food in the Lord's Supper, which a Christian ought not once to think of, without a sacred kind of Horror, and Reverence. Here is an Action, I confess, wherein you can hardly exceed, either by expressing in yourselves, or by exacting from others, any Circumstance of Awe and Reverence. I know it is safest for a Child of the Church, to hold him still to the Canons of the Church. But if in any one thing, surely in this, the Canons are rather to be out-bidden, and exceeded, than any way neglected or abated. The Fear, or rather the Experience, of the Peoples falling from extremity to extremity in this case, from an extremity of Superstition (which the six Articles had bred in the Hearts, or at leastwise in the outward Gestures of Men) to an extremity of Profanation, did much trouble the Magistrates in the beginning of the Reformation: You may see it clearly in the Letters of the Lord Protector, and the rest of the Council, which are printed in the Book of Martyrs: In the Injunctions of King Edward: in the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth: And especially in that Act of Parliament still in force, which enables the King from time to time, to add what Ceremonies, and Decencies he shall hold sitting, for the awful and reverend, as well administering, as receiving of this heavenly Sacrament. And be not afraid to be accounted herein too too diligent and ceremonious. For we know, that in Mysteries of this high Nature, Ceremonies wait close upon the Substances. They may as well say (and peradventure will ere long) that an Action of this kind may be done without a Priest, as without a troublesome solemn Ceremony. Gerson in his Sermon de Coenâ Domini saith, Spiritualia sine temporalibus diu esse non posse, that things Spiritual would wax cold without things temporal, was a Proverb cried up by the worst of the Prelates: but I am sure that in these high Mysteries, Spiritualia sine temporalibus esse non posse: that the Spiritual Graces (not essentially for want of any Virtue in them, but accidentally, by reason of such Weakness, and Imperfection in us) will fail of their Operations, without temporal Ceremonies, is the Doctrine, not of the worst, but of the best both of the Greek, and Latin Fathers.
57. Fourthly, You that are the Seers of Israel must see into the Lives, and Manners of your People. Which is the sooner done, if you look well to your own. For it is most true on this case, what Gerson saith, Vox operum fortiùs sonat, quàm vox verborum: the sound of your Sermon strikes nothing so shrill in the Ears of your Parish, as the sound of your Life and Conversation. Take heed therefore you do not Linguâ struere, & manu destruere, as St. Bern. speaks, build with the Tongue, and pull down with the Hand. For the Woman's Frump, which Gerson, often cited, writes of, runs as well in English, as in other Languages; who being demanded, Si sermo factus esset, if the Sermon was done, answered, the Sermon was ended, but it was not done. Dictus quidem est sermo, sed non factus, It was said by rote, but it was not done. Dicunt emm hic sacerdotes, & non faciunt: For the Priests with them used only to say, but seldom to do, or to perform their Sermons. Fifthly, If you be those Seers the Canons require, you must see to your Peoples peace, quietness, and good agreeing: That your Neighbors do not spend their Bodies, their Minds, their Estates, and Children's Bread in brabbles, quarrelling, and Law-suiting. Truly I am afraid, that Church-men in England have much to answer, for the Calamities of the Laity in this kind. Yet have you one by one, by the Pole as it were, in the Presence of God, and your Mother the Church, promised the Bishop better things at your Ordinations, to wit, that you would, as much as lay in you maintain Peace, and Quietness among all Christian People, and especially among those, that were committed to your Charge, your Friends and Neighbors of the Parish. And I shall not need to strain my Logic to let you see, how properly and essentially this civil part of a Justice of Peace, is woven into the Duty of every Pastor, and Minister. For without this Peace-making, you may preach indeed, but in effect to no Parish, or Congregation. Because Country-men, distracted with Law-suits, receive little good by you. And being sometime in the midst of the Church, are as though they were not there. Let them say what they will, it is too true, that in saying the Lord's Prayer after you, they pray for Forgiveness without forgiving: and too often, God knows, hear your Sermons with little heed, or listening. For the poor Souls, all that while the Hourglass runs, have Manum in Aetolis, animum in Cleopidis, as it is said of one in Plutarch: they have their Eye, it may be, upon the Preacher, but their Mind upon their Attorney, Proctor, or Solicitor. Yea but you are most of you learned Men, and can undeceive your People from these Phantasies. You can show them out of School-men, Quodlibets, and Casuists, that Men may go to Law, and yet be in charity. And I must be bold to tell you back again, that People will be People for all your distinctions, and unless you can persuade them to be in Charity without Law, for all your School-men, Quodlibets, and Casuists, the poor Swains will be as they were, in Law without charity. To conclude this Point, where Brother goes to Law with Brother, and Neighbor with Neighbor about Matters of small moment, I dare not say as St. Paul doth, that there is not a wise Man, but I will be so bold as to suspect, that in that unhappy Town, there is scarce a wise and conscientious Minister. Lastly, If you be Seers of Christ's Flock, do as Jacob did, that thriving Shepherd, look well to your Sheep, when they are in conceiving. What Colour and Tincture you give them in that hint, you shall know them by it for many Years after. Never look that that Man should profit at a Sermon, whom you never seasoned in his Principles of Christianity. A Sermon (saith St. Cyril ) is a good thing, but not so condition'd as a Catechism. Some Lessons, forgotten in the one, are but loose Stones in a Wall, which may be fastened again upon a second opportunity: but Ignorance in those Principles is a certain great Stone mis-laid in the Foundation, which hazards the ruin of the whole Building. And again says that Father, the erecting of a Christian, is like the planting of a Tree; if you give it not Earth, and rooting at the first, you can never repair it with watering, and pruning. Catechism, as St. Basil calls it, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the preparing Colours, wherein you must dip the People, without the which, for all your Sermons, you shall never find them Purple in grain: but pale and wan as long as they live: as ill-grounded Colours use to do, ever and anon staining, fading, and decaying I will conclude this Point with an Observation of that grave Divine Jo. Gerson, in a Sermon of his, which I find also in a little Book of Peter de Aliaco, De reformatione ecclesiae. Ecclesiae reformatio debet inchoari à parvulis: If ever you will reform this Church of Men, you must begin with that Church of Children. And this is all that I shall say unto you in general, my good Brethren of the Clergy.
58. For you my honest Friends and Neighbors of the Laity, I shall say nothing to you of any Particulars, whereunto you are to answer by reason of your Offices, but transfer you wholly in that respect to those Articles, which you have already received. But by way of general Exhortation, I am by the ancient Forms of Visitations in this kind, to recommend unto you, for your Souls good, two principal Instructions, the one in point of Belief, the other in point of Practice. In point of Belief, I must require your assent, without wavering or hesitation, and to continue the remembrance of that Article of your Creed, the Resurrection to Judgment at the last day. And for your Practice, I shall desire you for your own great good, as well in this, as in the Life to come, to meditate day and night upon that Sentence of our Savior's, Mat. 7.12. All things whatsoever you would that Men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For the Resurrection to Judgment, it was an Article decried by the Heathen, from the first hour it came to be preached: it was mocked at in St. Paul 's time; Risus gentium, the Flout of the Nations in Tertullian 's time; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an universal Laughter in St. Basil 's time: and the Point of Christianity least brooked in St. Austin 's time. And therefore, peradventure, enjoined the Bishops to be inculcated thus into the People, ever since the Braccaran Council. But however you may conceive it, perhaps, unnecessary at this time, or in this Auditory. For, God be praised, you are all good Christians, can say your Creed, and use to repeat it orderly after your Minister. That's well done. Yet must you know further, that it is not enough to say this Article with the Priest, unless you remember to practice it with all the People. This is an Article, not penned for the Tongue alone, but for the Hands also of a true Christian. It is not enough to say it in Confession, if you act it not in Life and Conversation. Do you therefore continually mind that dismal sound, that St. Jerome speaks of, Arise you Dead, be changed you Living, and come to Judgment. If you all do so, I shall confess my Exhortation needless, and shall believe, that you believe indeed the Resurrection to Judgment. But on the other side, if upon every slight Motion and Temptation, you surrender up the Members of those Bodies of yours, that shall rise to Judgment, as Servants to Sin, your Tongues for Lying, your Hands for Stealing, your Brains for Cheating, your Hearts for Malicing, your Feet for running to shed Blood: if you make the Members of Christ the Members of an Harlot: if you have all the reason in the World, upon the sounding of that Trump, to call for the Mountains to fall upon you, and the Hills to cover you, that you may not come to Judgment, I must tell you, that showing your Faith no better by your Works (as St. James bids you) I may believe that you can rehearse; but I cannot believe, that you do mind or believe (at leastwise while you are in flagranti crimine, in the heighth, and meridian of your Sins) the Resurrection to Judgment. It is not enough for you to believe, but also with all your might and power to live the Resurrection to Judgment.
59. And were you but once past this first, you would quickly take out your second Lesson, whatsoever you would that Men should do unto you, so to do unto them, it being impossible for a Christian Soul to do otherwise, that were actually and thoroughly seasoned, with a practical Belief of the Resurrection to Judgment. This Sentence, and Rule of Justice, and Charity, found out of purpose by our Savior Christ for plain and simple Men, that are able to bear away no longer discourse, to direct them to live peaceably in this Life, and happily in that to come, if you can remember, and put in use that one Sentence, it is enough, Do as you would be done unto. Why then, will some say to me, you are come to this Visitation to bring us nothing, or almost nothing, a short Sentence to make a Posy in a Ring. O for all that do not disrespect the Littleness. It is Sententia bracteata, a Sentence to be written in Plates of Gold. And heretofore it hath been written in the Palaces of Kings and Emperors. It is a Sentence that procured ease with Anton. Pius, and respect to the Christians with the Emperor Severus, as Historians report. Julius Capitolinus indeed makes some question, whether that Emperor learned this Sentence from the Jews, or from the Christians. But we make no question at all, but he sucked it with his Milk from his Mother Mammaea, the Scholar of that great Origen, as Casaubon notes upon that Author. I tell you (dearly Beloved ) Do as you would be done unto, is a Sentence, which once put in practice, would make an end of a World of Sentences: nay of all the Sentence; in this World, and peradventure of those we fear in the World to come. You are many of you afraid of the Ecclesiastical, and many more (as you have more reason) of the Temporal Courts. Your Purses may suffer in the one: and your Persons, beside your Purses in the other. And yet do all the bitter Sentences of either Court issue from this Spring, from this only Spring, that either the Plaintiff, or the Defendant, or the Witness, or the Advocate, or the Proctor, or at the furthest the Judge himself hath quite forgotten this little Sentence, to do as he would be done unto. Yea, but is not this University Learning, and above the apprehension of a plain Man? No; St. Chrys. says you need not repair to any Man to learn it. You have it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , at home in your own breast. It is a Flower that grows in your own Garden. It is a Notion, or Apprehension planted by the Finger of Nature in your own Bosom. As for Example, Would you know whether you may not, parle droict de bien-seance, as the Trench Masters use to say, by a certain Point of Law, which I may call your better fitting and accommodation, make bold with your Neighbors Goods in such a case, with his Lands in such a case, his Fame in such a case, his Wise in such a case, or anything that is his, as you will make the case? And yet do all these Feats cleanly and handsomely, with a color at the least of some Law, or Equity? You need not study Ulpian, Bartolus, or Baldus in this Point. You need not turn over the Reports of the Law; or the Year-books of the Judges. Unclasp only the Book in your own Bosom, in your own Conscience, and mark well what is written therein. You have your Demurrer argued there without Judge, or Counselor. Do you find it there registered, that upon the putting of the like case, yourself would be content to have your own Goods, your own Lands, your own Fame, your own Wise, or anything that is yours taken from you? and withal to make the Matter a little worse, and more picquant, to have a flourish of Law or Equity cast upon the Case, to bereave you of that poor, and last Comfort, the Pity, and Compassion of the Beholders? If you find there no such case reported from yourselves, moot it not upon any other: but listen unto Christ's little Sentence, and do as you would be done to. Yea, but perhaps I would be done to in my Temptations, what you will not admit, I should do to another as in the Case of Fornication, or Adultery; shall I do in that case, what I desire to be done to me? And therefore the Rule is not so safe as it is represented. Yea, but then if you will anything, as this Rule would have you to will, you must will voluntate rationali & discretà, saith Alexander Ales, with a rational and discreet will, and then you shall not miscarry. Or you must do as you would have Men do, homines, non bruta, as you would have Men, and not Beasts do unto you, saith Albertus magnus. But those that will do unto you any such filthiness, as you speak of, are as St. Paul calls them, Men after the manner of Beasts. And therefore in all your Actions whatsoever, remember still this little Sentence, as you desire to avoid those other Sentences, some in this Life, and some in the Life to come. Which is all I shall say unto you my good Friends, and Neighbors of the Laity.
60. Now that particular thing, which I am to recommend to you, my Brethren of the Clergy, not falling properly within the Limits of a Visitation, but put off by myself for a Year or two, in hope of this, or the like opportunity, is Subsidium charitativum: which, so as it tend to a public, and no private end, Bishops by Law may move unto their Clergy. It is a charitable Benevolence, or Contribution for St. Paul 's Cathedral Church, seated in London, which, as you know, is our 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as he said he of Athens, our England of England, and our Landskip and Representation of the whole Island. For here strangers no sooner arrive, but they first take unto themselves, and then vent abroad unto others, a Scantling and Platform of the British Government, as well in Matters concerning the Church, as in those that touch upon the State, and Commonwealth. Here if God's worship be decently performed, his Word learnedly Preach'd, his Sacraments reverently administered, his material Houses polished, and repaired, especially this great and huge Fabric, the City, as it were of the City itself, and a place of continual resort both to our own and other Nations, then presently omnes omnia bona dicere, the Mouth of Detraction is quite stopped, the Priests and Jesuits are blank and silenced, the Government in Church and State is generally approved: And (which is more considerable than all the rest) God himself is magnified and glorified, for giving a Nation Eighty years of Peace and Plenty, which had the Heart to return some little Share, somewhat at the least, unto him again. But should this Minster still remain (as of late it did) a great heap of mouldering Stones, or rather a little Mountain of Dust and Rubbish; were our Churches in the inner places of this Isle never so repaired, as I doubt it much, yet would Strangers, out of Error, and Seminaries, out of Rancour, possess the World, That since the Reformation God's Houses in England are become the Habitations of Dragons, and a Court for Owls; that Satyrs do dance in them, and Beasts of the Field do roar in them. Lastly, That when Pater Noster had reared them up to touch the Heavens, Our Father hath pulled them down to the Dust of the Earth. And is it nothing thus to become a Reproach and Proverb in all places? Nothing that God's Glory should be thus impaired? Nothing that his Gospel should be thus blasphemed? God forbid, but we should all be sensible of it. And thus it must needs be, unless these great Fabrics, reared at the first, for the main of the Work, by Indulgences and Superstition, be repaired again by the bountiful Devotion of King and People. But the Misery of it is this; that People in all Ages are sound to be People, that is far more easily noosed and cheated, than taught, enlightened, or persuaded. Whereas the Case, God be thanked, is otherwise, with you, my Brethren of the Clergy, whose advantage of Breeding makes you better understand a Motion from your King, so vigilant and attentive to any Motion of yours, especially when it comes upon you as this doth, backed and accompanied with all the Reasons and Demonstrations of Piety and Policy. Beside that, the Care of our Metropolitan hath been such, that your Contribution may, without offense, be so minced and distributed to Years and Half-years, as that it shall become very easy and portable, doing good abroad, without hurting at home, or impairing in any sensible measure your private States or Fortunes. I will leave it thus unto your own Considerations, without accumulating more Reasons or Motives, left I might seem to doubt of your Affections to any reasonable Proposition, whom I have found for these Fourteen years, as loving a Clergy to any Motion of mine, as I have been unto you, by reason of some Misfortunes, an unuseful and unprofitable, yet a most affectionate, Bishop.
61. Thus he ended; and thus was the Visitation perfumed with the sweet Gums of his Eloquence: Perhaps the Smell is too strong for them that loved him not, and whose contumelious Writings and bitter Words eat into his Credit like Quicksilver. They will be wiser when Truth and Charity meet together in them, which Graces they had need to pray for. Envy, like a Kite, sits upon the top of the tallest Tree in the Wood. A drowsy Bishop, that had bestirred himself in nothing to be known to Posterity, no better than a silly Consul, that served for nothing but to know the Fasti by his Name, this man should have scaped the Lash, it may be, had the good word of our common Jeerers; but offer another unto them that hath lived in Action and Renown, as our Prelate did, they will pull him out of his Grave, as one Pope served another, to censure him. How ready have they been either to raise or take up Reports to wound him? Reports spread far and wide by the King's unfortunate Regiments, that reveli'd it with all kind of Insolency round about him in Wales, whose ungovern'd looseness the Bishop could not endure, but opposed them stiffly; wherein, it may be, he lost his Judgment, considering their Strength and Rudeness. He loved the King's Cause, but not his Army, whose debauched Carriage and little Hope of Success, methinks I read in Tully 's Epistles, lib. 7. epist. 3. to M. Marius, concerning Pompey 's Sword-men, Extra Ducem, paucos{que} praeterea (de Principibus loquor) reliqui primùm in bello rapaces: deinde in oratione it a crudeles, ut ipsam victoriam horrerem. Maximum aes alienum amplissimorum virorum: Quid quaeris? nihil boni praeter causam. These are they that brought up Tales and Tidings of the Bishop in their Knapsacks, to London; and on such Stuff our History-men, Ecclesiastical and Civil, are pleased to insist. Why did they pretermit the noble parts of his Episcopal Government, digested in this Work in so many Paragraphs? which are so unquestionable, that they were seen and known to Thousands. Nam lux altissima fati-occultum nihil essesinit, Claud. Paneg. 4. Honor. What Spight is this, to be silent in that which was certainly so, and to engrave with a Pen of Steel that which was ignominous, uncertain, nay, a falsity which hath travelled hither out of the Mountains, 200 Miles? So Jos. Scaliger revealed his Disdain against some Critics, in his Notes upon Manil. p. 175. Ubi reprehendendi sumus, tunc nominis nostri frequens mentio; aliàs mirum silentium. I need no Pardon, that I could not hold in to leave this Admonition behind, at the last Stage of his Episcopal Work, his general Visitation, which was applauded much by all, except two sorts of men. Some that had not done their Duty, and were mulcted, Quid tristes querimoniae, si non supplicio culpa reciditur, Horat. Od. 24. lib. 3. such could not escape Censure, who suffered with moderation, by one that appeared in his temperate Judicature rather to be above the Faults than above the Men. Two others, and of the Ministry, were sullen, because they did not speed in their Presentments according to their mind; the reason was, the Complainants were found to be rugged and contentious, not giving good Example of Yielding and Peace.
62. Let me cast in a small handful of other things fit to be remark'd: In adject is mensura non quaeritur. The Bishop of Lincoln is a Visitor of some Colleges by their local Statutes in both Universities: This Bishop visited Kings-College in Cambridge, upon the Petition of the Fellows thereof, anno 1628. when he showed himself to be a great Civilian and Canonist, before those learned Hearers; but the Cause went for the right worthy Provost Dr. Collins, in whose Government the Bishop could perceive neither Carelessness nor Covetousness. The most that appeared was, That the Doctor had pelted some of the active Fellows with Slings of Wit: At which the Visitor laughed heartily, and past them by, knowing that the Provost's Tongue could never be worm'd to spare his Jests, who was the readiest alive to gird whom he would with innocent and facetious Urbanity. The Provost of Orial-College in Oxford, Dr. T • lson, with others of his Society, visited the Bishop at his Palace of Bugd • , with a Signification to the Bishop, that they might eject one of the Members of their Foundation, Mr. Tailor. The Bishop saw there was small reason to raise such a Dust out of a few indiscreet words; yet he satisfied Dr. Tol • on, that Mr. Ta • our should depart, so it were with a farewell of Credit; and he liked Mr. Tadour so well, that he took him into his own House, till he had provided the Living of Hempsted for him. As 〈◊〉 said of his own Brother in Erasm. Epist. p. 417. Illius mores tales sunt, ut omnibus possint congruere. A benevolent Nature will agree with all men, and please the Adversaries of both sides. Those of young and tender years were much in his Care, as appeared, that he seldom travelled, but Notice being given before, he staid at some Town or Village, to confirm such as were but even past children, to lay his Hands on them, and to bless them, and did it ostener than the 60 Canon requires: An ancient and an admirable Order, when such were presented as were before made ready by being exactly catechized. And for Children's sakes he listen'd much, what good Schoolmasters he had in his Diocese, that bare the irksome and tedious Burden, to rear up a good Seminary for Church and State; such he valued, and thought their Place was better than is usually given them in the World. They are the tertia that make up a happy Corporation, as Charles the Fifth thought, who entering into any Imperial City or Burough, was wont to ask the Recorder that did congraturate him, Have you a good Magistrate? Have you a good Pastor? Have you a good Schoolmaster? If he said Yes; Then all must be well among you, said the Emperor. Our Bishop had the opportunity to consecrate Churches new re-edisied, and Chapels erected, which he performed with much Magnificence and Ceremony, that the Houses of God, his Houses of Prayer, might be had in a venerable regard. Nothing was more observed in that Performance, than that at the hallowing of a Chapel, belonging to the Mansion-place of Sir Gostwick in Bedfordshire, the Knight's Son and Heir being born deaf and dumb, and continuing in that defect, no sooner did the Bishop alight, and come into the House, but the young Gentleman kneeled down, and made signs to the Bishop, that he craved his Blessing, and had it with a passionate Embrace of Love. A sweet Creature he was, and is, of rare Perspicacity of Nature, rather of rare Illumination from God, whose Behaviour, Gestures, and zealous Signs have procured and allowed him admittance to Sermons, to Prayers, to the Lord's Supper, and to the Marriage of a Lady of a great and prudent Family, his Understanding speaking as much in all his motions, as if his Tongue could articulately deliver his Mind. Nor was any of the Prelacy of England more frequented than this Lord, for two things: First, by such as made Suit unto him, to compound their Differences, that they might not come to the chargeable and irksome attendance of the Courts of Law. Aversos solitus componere amicos, Horat. Serm. 5. And so many Causes were referred to him, and by no mean ones, that he continued, like a petty Chancellor, to arbitrate Contentions. Secondly, Sundry did appeal to his Judgment for Resolution of Cases of Consciences (and most in Matrimonial Scruples) and of intricate Points of Faith, as about Justisication and Predestination; in which, when he thought the doubting Person would not be contented with Discourse, he gave them his Resolutions very long and laborious, in Writing; which gathered together, and as I have seen them digested, would have made an handsome Tractate, but the worst Visitor that ever came to a Bishop's House seized on them, and never restored them. This was Kilvert, a vexatious Prosecutor of many in the Court of Star-chamber, for the King, whose Lineaments are drawn out in the Ninth Book of Apul. Metam. Omnia prorsus, ut in quandam comorum latrinam, in ejus animum vitia consluxerunt. Every Beast hath some ill Property; this Beastly Fellow had all. He stands too near so good a Subject as is in hand, for this is the lively Image of a renowned Bishop, the Image but of one, though the good Parts of many may be concentred in this one; as the Agrigentine Painter made Juno, by the Pattern of five well-favor'd Virgins. All that I have drawn up of his Pastoral Behaviour was seen in the Day-light; therefore, as St. Paul said of the Corinthians, whom he had commended, so I may with Modesty apply it to my Subject; If I have boasted anything of him to you, I am not ashamed, 2 Cor. 7.14. Nor is this all of him in that Holy Charge, not by a great deal, but so much as is preserved in Script and Memory after the ransacking of his Papers: Therefore, as Tully writes, lib. 3. de Orat. Majus quiddam de Socrate quàm quantum Platonis libri prae se ferunt, cog • andum: That Socrates was a braver man than Plato had made him in his Dialogues. So I have not made Dr. Williams so complete a Bishop as he was; he was more than I have described him, and would have been far more than himself had attained to, if the Messenger of Satan had not been sent to busset him in many Troubles and Trials, lest he should have been exalted above measure.
63. After much that hath been dilated in this Book, pleasing for Peace and Honor, Praise-worthy for Merit and Virtue, I must make room for Grief; it will thrust in into every Registry and Chronicle, into the remembrance of any man's Life, which is continued from the beginning to the end. Says • lato in his Phaedon (after his way of a Fable-frame of Philosophy) when Jupiter could not make Joy and Sorrow agree, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . He yoked their Heads together, that they could never be parted: Therefore those things which God's Providence hath join'd inseparably, no Pen can put asunder; so that the Current of this History, hitherto clear, must fall into a dead Sea-like Jordan. The Good which this famous Bishop did, must be continued with the Evil which he suffered: As Polusiote writes of Jeremias, that he was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the most passive, the most persecuted of all the Prophets: So of all that this Church had prefer'd to the like Dignity, (except them that resisted to Blood) none was wounded with so many Darts of Despight as this man, or aviled with so many Censures, or stood so long in chase before his Enemies. Having delivered up the Great Seal, from the first day that he removed to Bugden, all Promises were broken, which gave him Assurance of Countenance and Safety; and the place to which he was bidden to go, as to a Sanctuary, assorded him no more shelter, than an Arbour in the Winter against a Shower of Rain. Therefore to keep off Mistakes, be it noted, as to the time, it was the same, wherein he lived so like a Bishop, and wherein he suffered so like a Confessor. But Method distinguisheth those Troubles by themselves, like Tares gathered from the good Wheat, and bound in their own Bundles. Some are greater, practice'd upon no Subject before, nor fit to be done hereafter. Some are lesser matters, yet not unworthy my Hand: When they are disposed Limb by Limb, and in order as they were done, there will be much of them (I would they had been less) and be known to be enforced, without Shame of the World) with so much Wrong and Rancour that an indifferent Reader will depose, there needs no Fiction nor Colour, to make them worse than they were. Those that were outdone in the first place, were outgone by them that came after: Quid prima querar? Quid summa gemam? Pariter cuncla deslere juvat. Sene. Her. Oet. What the last and greatest should have been is unknown, because they came not to that Birth: It was decreed by Men, but undecreed by GOD, who sent his Judgments upon all, and brought both Actors and Sufferers to utter Ruin by that Parliament, which held us as long as the issue of Blood held the Woman in the Gospel, Twelve years, Mat. 9.20. It was no thanks to his Foes to give over then: It was strange they would not give over till then, when one black day, like a Dooms-day, blended the whole Hierarchy, and (with their Lordships Leave) the Nobility in one mass of Destruction. Those underfatigable Enemies that pursued him, knew that he could never fall so low while he was alive, but that there was Worth, which was like to get up, and rise again: He had never felt such Sorrow if he had been contemned. It was his ill luck to be feared, because of the great Powers of his Mind, whom none had cause to fear, since he never fought Revenge. Then they saw he would stand upright, and never stoop, after they had loaded his Back with so many Burthens, which made them obstinate to proceed, and labor in vain to crush out that which was not Wind, but Spirit. The Mountainous Country of Wales, wherein he was born, breeds hardy men, but sew his Equals, which Courage is no more to be forgotten, than the twelve Labors of Hercules. Let Xenophon speak for Socrates, so must I for this Hero: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Apolog. in sine. Observing the Wisdom and Generosity of the Man, I cannot but remember him; and when I remember him. I cannot but praise him. Neither were it useful (I will subscribe to it) to bring up his Sufferings from the Dead, now he is gone, unless the People that come after may be made the wiser and the stronger by them, if they fall into the like: But noble Examples are like the best Porcellan Dishes of China, which are made in one Age, laid up in the Earth, and are brought forth to be used in another. That's the Goal I drive to: And those Circuitions which are brought in for those Applications sake, will make that, which might be shut up in a little, swell into a Volume. Casaubon gives us this Warning of Polybius, in his rare Preface before him: Ita narrat ut moneat: Personam historici cum assumpsit Polybius, non in totum exuit philosophi. Folybius was a Philosopher in his History; so would I be, and more, a Teacher of Christ, and the Laws of his Church, as I am by Ordination.
64. For an entrance, I take my method from a wise Artist, concerning the long and dangerous Adventures of his Aeneas, to search into the Cause, Quo numine laeso, which way it came about, since there was no man living, whose Harm this Bishop wished, that he could never find his Peace and Prosperity again, when once he had lost them? Why, principally I cast it upon his Sins; What Man is without them? And his were not many, but those some were great ones; a lofty Spirit, whose motion tended upward, restless to climb to Fower and Honor; And not one among an hundred of great Aspirers that live to see quiet days. And this was join'd with too much Fire in the passion of his Anger, in which Mood indeed, which is strange, he would reason excellently, and continue it in the very Euro-clydon of his Choler; as the Low Germans are most cunning at a Bargain, when they are more than half tippled. But in such an evil ecstacy of the Mind, words would fall from him, or from any, which pleased not Men, and were hateful to GOD: Let these stand for the Fore-singer, that points to the cause of his bitter Encounters. Every man's evil Genius, that haunts him, is his own Sin, which wipes not out any paat of the Good which hath been written of him before. The same man appears not the same, but another in some miscarriages. Polybius, lib. 16. commends Philip the Son of Demetrius very much, and anon dispraises him, but reconciles it thus: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . It is necessary for a true Reporter, one while to extol, in another case to discommend the same person. Take one Advice beside; No man that hath read God's own Judgment upon the Trial of Job, will censure him for the greatest Sinner, that hath been the greatest Sufferer. To take up the Cross had not been an inseparable Accident with receiving the Faith of the Gospel, unless it were rather a Badge of Favor than of Punishment. He is happy, if he knows it, whose Faults enter their Action against him in this Life; he is a Prisoner of Hope, Zech. 9.11. and his Heart is blind, if he do not seek Mercy, and sinned it: Afflictions are Fetters for a Fool, and Bracelets for them that know how to wear them. And it is finely said in the Essay, That the good things belonging to Prosperity are to be wished, but the good things belonging to Adversity are to be admired. This being a true and a divine Sentence, That Sin, and nothing else, makes the Stock of every man's Comfort to die in the Ground, as Job loves to speak, it hangs well together, that God knows best in what manner to punish every man's Sin; who gave this Prelate great Favor with King James, but took King Charles 's Affection from him. The Lord H. Howard, in his Book against Judicious Astrology, turns these Turnings into this use: Change of Princes breeds change of Favorites; but they that are once dear to God, are ever dear to him. I protest to the Reader, that Bishop Williams could not be brought to believe, that the King bad any Willingness in his own Heart to afflict and bruise him, but that such things came from the Infusion of those that had too much of His Majesty's Ear, and by Importunity transported him from the lenity of his own Judgment. And when the greatest Sorrows compassed him about, he desired only to be brought to the King, with the advantage of half an hour, to declare his Injuries and Innocency, so much he persuaded himself that he was right in his gracious Opinion. He knew him to be a Prince Pious and Just: He presumed his Noble Soul would never forget with what Success his Counsel and Contrivance removed all Obstructions, to bring him as safe out of Spain as he desired: He had received a Promise of everlasting Love and Kindness, for tracing the Jugglings of Inoihosa, and bringing them to light, whereby the dangerous Jealousies of the old King were removed, and His Highness received sweetly into his Father's Bosom. An honest man could not be suspicious, that the memory of such faithful Service was lost. But standers-by thought they saw more than the Bishop did, who might soonest be mistaken in the Crisis of his own Disease, because flattering Hope is but a waking Dream. If the King had not been pleased in his Sufferings, why did he let them swell so far? As his Royal Name was used in all, so his Good liking went to all, or after so many Bruisings, Gentleness had not been forgotten. The Instruments next to be named were most guilty of the Violence; yet the highest Power did more than permit and look on. As it is the Sun that scorcheth in July, and not the Dog-Star; it is a popular Error, which conceives as if that Star, when it rose, did cause the heat of the Weather: Yet still the Bishop would not think his Case was in that extremity, that the King's Anger was in it: For as it is spoken of Padre-Paulo, in his Life, That he was less sensible of Fear than ordinarily men use to be; so this man would affright himself with nothing, least of all, with that which was close and uncertain, and would often say in a Frolick, That Miseries are like the Plague, if you fear them, you draw them to you. But, which will give great light to the Subject now handled, once he was startled at a word which fell suddenly from the King, in a few weeks after the death of his Father; one told him, that came from the French Court, as it is in the Cabal, p. 203. That the Spanish Ambassador spake openly there, when the Marriage with the Princess Mary was to be finished, That he could not have two Wives, for their Infanta was surely his: To which the King replied, There are some English, as well as Spaniards, that are of that Opinion. Which being carried from the King's Mouth to this Bishop, he said with a low Voice, I know no such; but if he mean me, it will be the worse for me while I live. From which let a wise man find out what he can, so he find no more than he should. Either this, or some such hard Conceit, lay hid in the King's Stomach, against a most deserving Church-man. And every Age had some such Example, at which it was astonished. No History speaks any ill of the Empress Eudoxia, but that she could not agree with Chrysostom. Harry the Seventh, one of our best Kings, was very iniquous to Lord Stanly, one of his best Subjects: Not a better Lady than Q. Elizabeth, nor a better Peer than the Duke of Norfolk, yet Statesmen thought that neither were safe while the other lived. The Hand of the Just may be heavy against the Just, by woeful Experience: The greatest Claw-backs of the Pope confess, Though he cannot err, say they, in an Opinion of Faith, he may err in the mistake of a Person; as to canonize a wrong Saint, and excommunicate a right one. Which shows, that my Conscience is in no such straight, to derogate from the Glory of a most blessed King, because his Displeasure, darkened by human Error, lighted upon a Mephibosheth, a faultless person.
65. The Duke of Buck. (Who knows it not?) was the Bishop's strong and protested Enemy, who vowed, that of all he had given him, (but with as much good liking of K. James as of his Lordship) he would leave him nothing; who when he threatened an ill turn, had Power to do it, and did not often forget it: Which made the Bishop shelter himself under the King's Grace and Benevolence, of which he did never cease to have a strong Perswasion, begging, as it is Cabal. p. 109, for God's sake, and for his blessed Father's sake, that His Majesty would allay the Duke's causeless Displeasure, who was so little satisfied with anything that he could do or suffer, that he had no means left to appease his Anger, but Prayers to God, and his Sacred Majesty. In the mean time that one Foe made the distressed Party get many Friends; like Rabirius 's Fortune in Tully, Nihil aeque ac judicis accrbitas profurt; who had nothing to help him so much, as that Caesar did hunt after his Ruin with so much violence. Now that which made the Duke's Defiances grow fiercer day by day, was not the Bishop's stoutness, (to which he was sufficiently prone) for he had sought him with all Submission, which was on this side of despicable Baseness: But because being sent to for his Opinion, both by his Grace's Mother, and his mostsollicitous Friends, he had faithfully express, That he did not like the ways wherein he magnified himself to serve the King: Who did not foresee the Envy that his Magniloquence bred, ranting it sometimes, That he would make His Majesty the greatest Monarch in Europe. I doubt not but his Head did work about it, and was so noble, that he would have died to effect it: And some that fawned upon him with all obsequiousness, did seem to admire him in it; as the Earl of Holland, among others; such are the Contents of his Letters, Cab. p. 297. I hope nothing shall light upon your Lordship, but what you deserve, the which, to my knowledge, is of more Value and Esteem, than any man in the World could, or ever can merit from this Kingdom. The Bishop, that would not concur to destroy him, by misguidance of Flattery, who had been Copartner with King James in his Preferments, sung quite to another Tune: He liked not his Preparations against Cales, but presaged a dishonorable Return; and pressed that Maxim home to divert him from it, That a King must make himself sure in the Love of his own People at home, before he bid War abroad to such a rich and mighty Nation. Next, the second Parliament being summoned, and this Bishop demanded what was best for the Duke's abearing in it, he resolved it to those Friends that asked it, His best way will be, not to come near it; for it will be impossible for him to close with this Parliament, who, contrary to my Advice, offended the former, and broke it up: Let him remove himself, by some great Embassage, till the first Session be ended, into Germany if he will, as far as Vienna, if he dare trust the King of Spain's greatest Friend and nearest Ally. This was disrelish'd, for they of E. Buck. Counsel, rather than send him so far from the King, would hazard him in the Parliament, in which they thought they were strong enough, by the Party they had made, to keep him from all Offence, as well in his Honor as in his Person. The Bishop persisted to remove them from their Confidence; for nothing is more fallacious than such Expectation. Many that are bespoken, and promise fair, are quite altered when they are mingled with their fellow-Judges in the House. As Matchiavel says it was a Florentine Proverb, Populus alurm animum in foro, alium in Senatu habet, De Rep. lib. 1. c. 47. All that he said followed as right as ever Lucas Guaricus drew up a Scheme of Predictions; for, that Parliament discharged such a Volley of Complaints against his Lordship, that the Votes of the Declinators could not be heard for the noise. And his Grace plucked hard for Peace and Popularity with the Commons, but could not encounter them. But, what a struggling he kept with his hard Destiny, to be enflamed the more against the much abused Bishop, because his Predictions were so prophetical! A good Chaplain would have told him, that God's Wisdom is seen by his Fore-warnings, and his Goodness in giving them. Nor was it Justice to account him a Foe, because he was wiser than an ordinary Friend: But, who had the worst of it in the end? Or rather, who had the worst of it from the very beginning? Miserior est qui suscipit in se scelus, quàm qui alterius facinus subire cogitur, Tul. Phil. II. He is more miserable that doth a Wrong, than he that suffers it. Yet, by the Mediation of wise men, the Duke continued not full two years more in this Uncharitableness; for he promised, at a secret Meeting, two months before he died, to repossess the Bishop in Favor, and designed a time for the open profession of it; so that the Sun of his Life did not go down in Wrath: And God did appear in it, who will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever, Psal. 103. v 9.
66. Of all men, Bishop Laud was the Party whose Enmity was most tedious, and most spiteful against his great Benefactor Lincoln. He battered him with old and new Contrivances fifteen years: His very Dreams were not without them, as they are enrolled in his Memorials, drawn out with his own Hand: I will touch that Fault, that great Fault, with a gentle Hand, because of that Good which was in him; because in other things, I believe, for my part, he was better than he was commonly thought; because his Death did extinguish a great deal of Envy. I meet with him in his worst Action that ever he did, and cannot shun it: If I should draw him in purposely to defame him, now he is at rest, I were more sacrilegious than if I robbed his Tomb. Qui cineres at{que} ossa perempti insequitur, Virg. Let it be the Character of a Miscreant: But his Part is in every Act and Scene of a Tragical Persecution of 15 years: Hoc etiam ipsi culpabunt mali, Plautus in Bacchid. Perhaps it began from an Emulation to keep him back, who was only like to be Bishop Laud 's Competitor, for the greatest Place of our Church. Had it gone no further, it might be cenfur'd moderately, for a common Temptation. No wonder if the Seal and the Sword-fish never swim quietly in the same Channel. But, to discontinue Brotherly Love upon that score, to throw it aside, to further all pernicious means, tending to the Infamy and Ruin of his imagined Rival, it is past Excuse, and can bear no Apology. O how many are in Safety of Conscience, that should not be so! For he that loveth not his Brother, much more he that hateth him, abideth in death, 1 Joh. 3.14. That opinion which myself and many have of his Sincerity, appearing not in a little, and the Proofs of his Bitterness being so evident in this Cause, it deserves a little Direction, to take away suspense of Judgment. Experience, one of the plainest Teachers, doth demonstrate, that some Drift, or Delight, may creep so far into the Heart of him that fears God, that he will not look upon the Deformity of it as he should, to think it a Sin: Which I take to be the reason of Polygamy in the Patriarchs, and the best Kings of Judah. Most of all, an evil thing may soon be attempted, when we think we may do it without hazarding our Salvation; and we dare yet do more, when we have no Fear to be answerable to the Justice of Men. Spalat. says, lib. 4. Ecc. Reip, c. 7. par. 13. That John Bishop of Constantinople, that assumed to himself the Title of Universal Bishop, or Patriarch, was a good man, given greatly to Alms, and Fasting, but too much addicted to advance the Title of his See; which made a plausible Prelate seem to be Antichrist to Gregory the Great. Pick out of this to the present Subject, what a Provocation it was to the ambitious Spirit of Bishop Laud, a man of many Good Works, to blow out his Light, that in common Opinion did outshine him: Which I may allude to, in way of Parody, from the Apostle, 2 Cor. 3.10. He that was made glorious, had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. And what a Temptation it was to follow his Thrust, when he was persuaded, that the removing of one suspected would be the bottom of his Safety? Therefore according to the Prudence and Charity that God hath given me, I will neither altogether shake off the good Esteem I had of him, nor think too highly and absolutely of human Infirmity. And this is inserted, to do him Justice, who was the chiefest cause, under God's Providence and Permission, of all the Injustice and Troubles that did light upon Lincoln. It is an old Rule in Gregorius Thaumat. in Orat. Paneg. ad Originem, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . I think it not fit to praise one man, with the reproach of others; for it implies a Contradiction, to think to do Right to one, by doing Wrong to another: Which is enough to bring off the mention of the Causes, that dealt not well with an innocent man: And though, for all he suffered, he had no reason to thank his Enemies, I may cheerfully write it, he had reason to thank God for his Enemies.
67. The Particulars at which the person aggrieved took Unkindness, are now to be remembered, keeping near to the Shore at first, before we launch into the Deep: And had the Bishop's humble Petition been heard, which he made to His Majesty, Cabal. p. 118. that deep had never been sounded.
It was time for him to supplicate for this Justice, for he knew that his Name was abused in the King's Bed-chamber, with continual Scandals; Lyes that were untraceable in their ground and original. And he had reason to suspect, that of such Stuff there was more than came to his Knowledge: But Jealousies had better sigh themselves away, than crave Redress from Princes; against such secret Stingings there's no prevention, but great Fear; for they that go a Batt-fowling in the dark, to seek matter of Crimination, and inject mistrustful and uncharitable Reports day by day, to undermine the man they aim at, fetch that about by many Fly-blowings, which they cannot do at once: As a little Sand gathers into a body by many Tydes, and in time becomes a Shelf, and at last a Bar, or Quick-sand, able to drown the best Frigat. It is fit that Kings should have Intelligence, but upon the Peril of him that brings not a Truth. It is fit they should know their Subjects, but not in a false Glass. He that abuseth a Kings Ears, robs not from the Sheaf, or from the Stack, but from the Seed-corn, which is treble Thievery. A man that spreads Libels corrupts the People: A Delator that whispers invented Tales into his Sovereign, is worse, for he corrupts him that is worth Ten thousand of the People. Bishop Hall 's sweet Passage is worth the learning; That it is good to be Led, not to be Carried by the Ears: That is, it is good to use the Ear, not to trust to it. These Blob-tales, when they could find no other News to keep their Tongues in motion, laid open our Bishop for a Malignant, because he gave Entertainment at his Board, to such as carried a Grudge to the Lord Duke's Prosperity; who, if such, came in their course to his House upon old acquaintance, but upon no factious design, that ever was proved. Hard was the Condition of Archbishop Abbot, as he complains in his Manuscript, That he was accused for Sir Tho. Wentworth 's resorting to him, who had been with him but once in three quarters of a Year, and then to consult about Sir George Savile 's Son and Heir, to whom jointly they were both Guardians. This Superintendency to watch every man that goes in and out in a great Family, is too mean for the Care, and too base for the Fear of a Generous Ruler. Listen to Caesar 's Mind, as Mutius reports it to Cicero, in the familiar Epistles; Caesar nunquam interpellavit, quin quibus vellem, at{que} etiam quos ipse non diligebat, tamen uterer. Admit there was no Harm, for there was none, in the Society that this Bishop kept, yet the Case is altered when a man is despighted, and when Grievances are blown out to their utmost wideness, by the Hatred carried against him. Yet well-fare Circumspection, and Innocency, that these privy Suggestions went out one by one, like Sparks that fall upon dank and unprepared matter. More Harm was expected to come from a Commission of Thirteen, who had Order from the Duke to meet together, to sift into every part and passage of the Bishop's Transactions, and to collect what was culpable, and would bear Censure in the Kings-bench, Star-chamber, or High Court of Parliament. The chiefest of the Thirteen in Place, was Sir Rob. Heath Attorny-General, but an honest man, and a fair dealer. This was carried with that little noise, that for a good space the vigilant Bishop was not awaked with it, till some of his old Officers broke it to him, who were called, and interrogated upon some of his Decrees and Dispatches. Sir Anth. Welden (I borrow the Testimony of an Enemy) expresseth it thus, p. 174. His Rum was determined, not upon any known Crime, but upon Circumstances and Examinations, to pick out Faults committed in his whole Life-time. And, as it were to confront the Tribunal of this unusual Inquisition, the Bishop writes to His Majesty, just at the time when it sat, That no use might be made of his Sacred Name, to wound him; but that he craved no Protection against any other Accuser or Accusation whatsoever, Cab. p. 118. See the stoutness of a clear Conscience: He knew how the Bushes were beaten, and how the Beagle ranged the Field for Game. He heard the Cry of the Blood-hounds, that nosed the Ground where he trod. Qui si non cecidit, potuit cecidisse videri, Metam. lib. 2. But all was well; that Commission ended at Labor in vain; not as the old Emblem is, to go about to make a Black-moor white, but to make him that was White to appear like a Black-moor. That Inquisition could find no Fault in him, but it is easy to find Fault with that Inquisition. A Magistrate must try him that is accused for a Delinquent, because he is a Judge; but he must not try how he may make a Delinquent, because he is a Father. There was nothing good in that privy Search, but that the Patient was no Patient; and, that his Enemies looked far into him, and found nothing which they fought for. Like them that delve into the bottom of the Sea, and fetch up Sponges; so The Righteous shall hold on his way; and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger, Job 17.9.
68. Neither did it deject the Bishop to be made a Gazing-stock by Disparagements. The King's Coronation, and his second Parliament, began together at Candlemas; and he was warned by Letter to serve at neither. A Coronation being usually accompanied with a General Pardon, should have cast a Frown upon none: Yet his Place was not granted him, to do his Homage among the Spiritual Lord's, nor to assist the Archbishop, at the Sacred Parts of that high Solemnity, as Dean of Westminster. It is arbitrary, and at the King's Pleasure, to range that Royal Ceremony as he likes best; to follow former Presidents, or wave them; to intrust what Ministers he likes, in the Management, except some Tenure or old Charter give admittance to some persons without exception. Otherwise in the very principal performance, says venerable Saravia, De Christ. Obed. p. 139. Ab Episcopo traditur corona, quod potest furi à proceribus. But the Dean of the Collegiate Church of Westminster did attend, as a specal Officer at the Coronation of K. James, after the manner of Deacon to the Archbishop of Canterbury, (it was Dr. Andrew's ) which could not be granted him by Prescription; for there was no Dean, nor any such Dignity in the Church, at the Coronation of Q. Elizabeth. But upon the new Foundation, Anno 3. of that Queen, the Dean was entrusted with the Custody of K. Edward 's Crown, and the other Regalia, and Decorum was kept thereupon, to give him a great Employment of Assistance on that day. Yet the Regalia were kept in a strong place of that Church long before: For, I find in Baron. anno 1060. par. II. That Pope Nicholas the Second gave a Charter to that Abby, Ut sit repositorium regalium insignium. What a busy Fisher was this, that would have an Oar, or a Net rather, in every Boat? Could not the Kings of England, without him, appoint the fittest place for the Custody of the Ornaments of their Imperial Majesty's? He that was so kind to dispose who should keep the Crown, did mean, That the King should not wear it without his Leave and Courtesie. And let it be his Fault to be impertinent, and to meddle with the keeping of Royal Treasure, that did not concern him: What is their Crime, that have carried them quite away, both Crown, and Scepter, and Robes, from their ancient Sacrary? (I would that had been all.) This was wont to be the Mark of him that opposeth and exalts himself above all that is called GOD, Dixi Dii est is, 2 Thess. 2.4. But, what's the matter that I have almost lost myself in this Loss? I was about to tell, that Bishop Williams must not wait in the Honorable Place of the Dean, at the Coronation, but in a Complement he was sent to Name one of the Twelve Prebendaries, to serve in his room. This was devised to fret him, and to catch a Wasp in a Water-trap. Bishop Laud was a Prebendary at this time, and the Substitute intended at Court, to act in the Coronation. If Lincoln should Name him, he had been laughed at, for preferring the man that thrust himself by;—And if he did not Name him, and no other, he had been checked for inscribing one of a lesser Order in the Church, before a Bishop, to so great a Service. But his Wit saved him from either Inconvenience: He sent the Names of his Twelve Brethren to the King, resigning it up to His Majesty to elect whom he pleased. A Submission which Climacus would call Sepulchrum voluntatis, a dead Obedience, without a sensible Concurrence. And he stirred no more, either by Challenge or Petition, to do that eminent Office of the Deanery in his own Person, but says in his Letter to the King, That he submitted to that Sequestration; for so he calls it. It is wise to sit down when a man can trouble no Body but himself, if he moves. Especially I affect the Lesson which Erasmus gives in an Epistle, p. 222. Pulchrius est aliquando modestia, quam cansâ superare. It is handsomer sometimes to excel in Modesty, than to win a Cause.
69. Other Reasons swayed this circumspect man, to carry it with no such Indifferency, that he was not called to the Parliament: But to do Honor to the King, and to save his own Right (nay, the common Right of Peers) he took a middle way between Crouching and Contumacy. He called it His Majesty's Gracious Pleasure, (and was in earnest, that he esteemed it so) to spare his Presence at the Parliament; but he expostulated to have a Writ of Summons (denied to no Prisoners, no, nor condemned Peers, in the late Reign of his blessed Father, Cab. p. 118.) that accordingly he might make a Proxy; which he could not do, the Writ not received. And he struggled, till he had it in his own way, and entrusted it with the Lord Andrew's, Bishop of Winchester, it being the last Parliament wherein that famous Servant of God sat, and the last year of his Life. But the — Mr. W. Sanders tells us, p. 143. of his Annals of King Charles, That Lincoln, at this time, continued not a Peer, but a Prelate in Parliament. Res memoranda novis Annalibus, at{que} recenti—historiâ, Juven. Sat. 2. This is a pitiful matter; for, what Bishop of Lincoln could be a Prelate in those days, and not a Peer? Is it his meaning, that he did not sit among the Peers? Nor did he sit among the Prelates in Convocation; but by Proxy he sat in both places as Peer and Prelate. A Letter sent from him to the King, and dated March 12. will clear this matter, and greater things, or else it had not been published. 'It is large and confident, searing the Duke's Greatness no more than the Statuary Work of a vast Colossus. But as Portius Latro says in Sallust, Gravissimi sunt morsus irritatae necessitat is; 'It is no marvel if Necessity break good Manners; which will break through Stone Walls, says the Proverb: And much Provocations attends not much whom it displeaseth. The Letter follows.
Most Mighty and Dread Sovereign,
IT becometh me, of all the rest of your Subjects, having been so infinitely obliged to Your Majesty, to cast myself down at your Feet, and oppose no Interpretation Your Majesty shall be pleased to make of any of my Actions whatsoever: Howbeit, before the receipt of my Lord Keeper's Letter, that I had carried my absence from the Parliament with as much Humility and Respect to Your Majesty, as ever Subject of England did towards his Sovereign. The delivery of my Proxy to the first Bishop Your Majesty named, I excused mannerly to Your Majesty, but with a private Reason to my Lord Keeper, not to be replied against. The second Lord Bishop is directly uncapable of that part of my Proxy, which concerneth the House of Convocation. These two Lord's, now named by Your Majesty, are without exception: Were it not divulged in the Upper House, that I am to have a Proctor thrust upon me, against all Presidents; and that I dare not refuse him, because I am guilty of (I know not what) Crimes? When I wrote unto Your Majesty humbly, as became me, my Letter, delivered by Your Majesty to the Duke, was published by him, as an Effect of a dejected and guilty Conscience. When I shall obey your Majesty in the disposal of my Proxy, my L. Duke may use that Act also, not only to serve himself (which I desire he should with all my Heart) but principally to wound and deprave me. Displeasures of Favorites, which are without Ground, are also without End. Hoc habent animi magnâ fortunâ insolentes, quos laeserunt, & oderunt. His Grace hath told Your Majesty, that I called the Chapter at Westminster, against the12 th of May, to have a Colour to come to the Parliament; whereas the Chapter is appointed to be held at that day, by the Statutes of the College. He hath told Your Majesty, that I held correspondence with the Earl of Bristol; from whom I have received neither Letter or Message these two years, as I will answer it with my Head. He hath told Your Majesty (and all the World beside) that I stirred the Lower House at Oxford, and have my secret Instruments against his Grace even in this Parliament. If he be able to prove either of these Charges, I will lose not only my Bishopric (which his Grace hath threatened, against the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, to take away from me) but withal my Life also. My Case ( Dread Sovereign ) is miserable, and the more, because it is not mine alone. Your Commands come immediately in your own Name, and therefore must be readily obeyed. Your Graces are streined through the Hands of another, and therefore are either not at all, (as in my Case) or not so purely, and sincerely received. And when Your Majesty punisheth, (pardon a Truth plainly delivered, which you were wont to love, Dread Sovereign) you do it not like yourself, because you do it not yourself. A King, be he never so severe, when he chasteneth his Subjects, doth punish them with Justice, because they are his Subjects; but yet with Mercy, because they are his own. An angry Lord, that makes bold with the King's Authority, lays on Load, as upon Men, and that without Mercy, as upon the Subjects of another. It was a Complaint of Vinius Galba's Favorite, and it is most worthy Your Majesty's remembrance, Minore licentiâ grassatus esset T. Vinius, si ipse imperasset: Nunc & subjectos nos habuit, tanquam suos; & viles, ut alienos. And in my case for the present, if I should stand upon my Right, and refuse Your Majesty, I must expect all Severity, because another hath your Rod. If I shall yield and obey, I must hope for no acceptation, because another holds the Garland. And for this other, if I seek him, my Letters are showed, and I am made foul and guilty: If I let him alone, I am deprived of the Sun and the Rain, the ordinary Graces and Influences of Your Majesty. Lastly, When I know, and all the World beside, that I sink only under the causeless Malice of a Subject, yet doth that great man wash his Hands, and publish (to the vexation of my honest Soul) That I lie buried under the immediate Hatred of my Sovereign. And therefore, with an humble Protestation against Fear of Punishment, which cannot fall upon my Innocency, or Hope of Favor, sure to be kept back by the Greatness of my Adversary; I do, out of religious Duty, and mere Obedience to Your Sacred Majesty, and no other Respect whatsoever, send this Proxy for my L. of Winchester, which I humbly beseech Your Sacred Majesty to direct not to be sent to his Lordship, until such time as there shall be Use thereof, &c.
70. Such as knew the Duke of Buck. Metal, will say, that this was like to be answered with a Mischief. But it may be his Grace gave the other the more Liberty to write what he would, because he had stopped his Mouth from speaking in Parliament. Which was a Benefit: For Athenagoras was not deprived of Athens, but Athens was deprived of Athenagoras. There is much Weight in the worth of one man: And much might have been expected from one that was so active, and well versed to stop the Breaches of Contentions, if he had been used and sought to. The Duke was ill advised, to keep them out of the House by threes and fours, of whose Opposition he was jealous, and could not tie up their Tongues, that fell upon him by hundreds. Sir Edward Cook, Sir T. Wentworth, Sir Robert Philip's, were pricked to be High-Sheriffs of Buckingham, York, Somerset Shires, to put them into Incapacity to be Members of the Commons-House. What said our Bishop to it, being in a merry Pin, when one told him, For certain he should be restrained from his Place in the House of Peers? What then? Am I made High-Sheriff of Huntingdon-shire? Such minute Policies are frivolous, and may serve among Huntsmen, to save the life of a Hare, when a sew of the old Dogs are tied up, and not brought into the Field. But were there now enow able men in both Houses, though half a score were spared, to follow their Game without changing? This was that Parliament, that spent the best part of 18 Weeks in drawing up a Charge, and prosecuting it against the L. Duke. What should this Bishop have done there, being neither fit for the offensive nor defensive part? How far he was from intending to offend, he expressed in a Passage about his Proxy, that he desired the Duke should serve himself by it with all his Heart. And I heard him myself dispute it with one of the sharpest Antagonists of his Grace, in the time of the Session, and stagger him, That it was the safest way for the Public Good, to desist from that vexatious Charge with this subtle Similitude; That if a Beast were got into a Field of Wheat, if the Neighbors ran in, and hunted it about with their Dogs, they would tread down more Corn than five Beasts could devour, if they were let alone. So, to spend so much Time and Pains upon a Charge against one Peer, did let Opportunity run by, wherein many good Laws might be made, and lost the Common-wealth more than it could gain by this Impeachment. Neither would he displease the King, to appear against a Lord that was unto him in a manner his whole Court. Una fuit nemus arbor, Ovid. And as Illustrius the Pythagorean records it, that Tiberius the Emperor wrote his Letter thus for Polemo the Philosopher, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . He that will do Polemo wrong, let him consider if he can give me Battle. So His Majesty had wrapped up the Lord Duke, as it were, in his own Royal Robe, to preserve him: Yet if the Bishop had been in the Parliament, and had stood up to defend him, where there was openly such defiance of Enmity between them, he had been censured by all Judgment for double-mindedness, or sawning. And as Lanfrank charged one of his Predecessors, Remigius Bishop of Lincoln, Quod officio emerat Episcopatum: So the World would have censured this Prelate, that he kept his Place by Service; Simony, as Mr. Fuller calls it. And with what Safety and Liberty he could appear, let one Passage demonstrate: The Duke demanded, that the Attorney-General might plead for him, in the House of Peers, against the Charge transmitted by the Commons; which was opposed, because the Attorney was one of the King's Learned Council, and sworn to plead in Causes concerning the King, and not against them: And the King is supposed to be ever present in the noble Senate of the Lord's. It was rejoin'd, That His Majesty would dispense with the Attorney's Oath: It came to be a Case of Conscience, and was refer'd to the Bishop's Learning. Some of them judged for the Duke, that this was not an Assertory-Oath, which admits no alteration, but a Promissory-Oath, from which Promise the King, if he pleased, might release his Learned Counsel. Bishop Felton, a devout man, and one that feared God, very learned, and a most Apostolical Overseer of the Clergy whom he governed, argued, That some Promissory-Oaths indeed might be relaxed, if great cause did occur; yet not without great cause, lest the Obligation of so sacred a thing as an Oath should be wantonly slighted. And in this Oath, which the Attorney had taken, it was dangerous to absolve him from it, lest bad Example should be given to dispense with any Subject, that had sworn faithful Service to the Crown; for which plain Honesty he was wounded with a sharp Rebuke: And the reverend Author told me this with Tears: Yet the Archb. Abbot said as much, and went farther, for whom Budaeus would stand up, a great Scholar, and a Statesman, De Ass lib. 3. fol. 102. Ne{que} turpe esse credo cos homines observare, quibus apud Principem gratiâ slagrare contigit, si non cosdem apud populum & ordines infamiâ & invidiâ slagrare videamus: As who would say, it is Duty to love a Favorite for the King's sake; and, it is Duty to desert him when he becomes a public Scandal; For, no man will be happy to stick to him, who is so unhappy to become a common Hatred. All that Parliament was a long Discontent of eighteen weeks, and brought forth nothing but a Tympany of swelling Faction, and abrupt Dissolution; whereby the King saved that great Lord, who lost His Majesty in some expeditions Honor abroad, and the love of his People at home. This was another Fire-brand kindled, after the former at Oxford, to burn down the Royal House, and the most piously composed Church of England. For a wife Orator says, it is Isocr. Orat. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . p. 243. The cause of an Evil must not be ascribed to things that concur just at the breaking out, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; but to the forerunning Mischiefs, which were soaking long to ripen the Distempers. Well was it for Lincoln that he had no hand in this Fray; for as the Voyagers to Greenland say, When the Whale-fishing begins, it is better to be on the Shore, and look on. E terrâ magnum alterius spectare laborem, than to be employed in the Ships to strike them, and hale them to Land.
71. Say then, that he neither did harm, nor receive any, by being shut out of this turbulent Parliament: Yet his Advice had been worth the asking, because of the Plunges that His Majesty was put to upon the Dissolution; but he heard of no Call to such a purpose: For no man looks on a Dial in a cloudy day, when the Sun shines not on it. God's Mercy was in it; for he sat safer at home, than he could have done at the Council-Board at this time, where much Wisdom was tried, to help the King's Necessities out of the Peoples Purses, by a Commandatory Loan, and with the least Scandal that might be; for not to run into some Offence was unavoidable. Pindar the Poet was called out of his House, to speak with some Friend in the Street, ( Castor and Pollux, says the Taleteller) searce was his Foot over the Threshold when the Building sunk, and all that were within perished. Thus, upon a time, the least Shelter gave the most Safety; as did the lesser Honor procure this man the more Peace. But as Camillus in Livy thrust out of Rome, and retired to Ardea, prayed that they that had cashier'd him might have no need of him, so this forlorn Statesman would have been satisfied to have his place at the Council-Table supplied by others, if the King's Affairs had not wanted him at this instant, when he suddenly slid down from his former value in the love of this People. The Bishops (most likely it came from them) advised His Majesty first to fly to God, and to bid a public Fast first at Court, then over all the Land about the fifth of July. Bish. Laud, whose Sermon was printed, preached before the King upon the 21st Verse of the 17th Chapter of St. Matthew, This kind goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting. The Preface of the Book, and the Exhortation published to the observing that solemn Fast, stirred up all good Christians to entreat God, not to take Vengeance on the Murmurings of the People; to keep their Spirits in Unity; to divert the plague of immoderate Rain, like to corrupt the Fruits of the Harvest; and chiefly, to preserve us from the Bloody Wars that Spain intended against us. Intended, says the Book; for depredation of Merchants Ships was the worst they had done us. Let the Reader gather this by the way, That a public Fast had not been indicted before by the Supreme Authority, upon the Alarums of our Enemies Preparations. In Eighty eight an Order came out, called, A Form of Prayer, necessary for the present Time and State, to be used on Wednesdays and Fridays; that is, certain Collects to be added to the Common Prayer. Yet no Fast was bidden, saving thus far, That Preachers, in their Sermons and Exhortations, should move the People to Abstinence, and Moderation in their Dyet, to the end they might be more able to relieve the Poor, &c. The first Form to be used in Common Prayer, with an Order of public Fast for every Wednesday in the week, for a time, was set out by Queen Elizabeth's special Command, in Aug. 1563. when the Plague, called The Plague of New-haven, was rise in London. In which Book is a passage to illustrate our Common-Prayer-Book, for the first Rubric prefixed to the Order for the Holy Communion; That so many as intend to be Partakers of the Holy Communion, should signify their Names to the Curate over night, or else in the morning, either before the beginning of Common Prayer, or immediately after. That ( immediately after ) means, that in the first settling of our Church in the Queens days, Morning Prayer stopped at the end of the three Collects after the Apostle's Creed; then the People had leisure, before the Litany began, either to retire, or to betake them to private Prayers. In this Interspace some Communicants had time to give in their Names to the Curate; this is plain in that first Order for a public Fast, anno 5 Eliz. the words are,
Now, after the pause of scarce a minute, made by this digression, let the main scope of the King's Fast, indicted in July, be remembered, that great Humiliation, with Fasting and extraordinary Prayer, should be join'd together, to avert the Peril of a Spanish Invasion; therefore, that we, on the defensive, should be ready, with our Bodies and Purses, to avert the Fury of our Enemies. Though the Land was admonished of this in a religious way, yet they condescended to part with Money very hardly. They did only hear of an Enemy, but they saw their Coyn collected from them. Well did Tully write, lib. 3. Ep. 24. Nulla remedia tam saciunt dolorem, quae vulneribus adhibentur, quàm quae maxim salutarta. Say it was a Wound to our great Charter to call for Contribution without a Parliamentary way; yet it was not the worse for the Wound, that the Injection was sharp that cured it. What we lost in the Privilege of Liberty, it was presumed we got in Safety.
72. But the most did want that charitable Presumption, and paid the irregular Levy with their Hand, and not with their Heart. A Prince that grieves his Subjects with a sconcing Tribute, takes up Moneys at a dear Interest; who should not live extempore, but upon premeditation to act today what shall be safe and honorable forever. Grotius is very political in a Passage to be found in his Proleg. De jure belli & pacis. Qui jus civile pervertit utilitatis praesentis causâ, id convellit, quo ipsius, & posteritatis suae perpetuae utilitates continentur. The People are unpleas'd upon this Levy, and the Ink of a Remonstrance could not kill the Tettar. A third Parliament is called, to justify the King's Act from Necessity, in the face of the Kingdom. It was determined by some about His Majesty, that our Bishop should not sit in it: The great Favorite knew his Discontents were increased; the Bishopric of Winchester had been void, and confer'd upon another. Archbishop Abbot, removed for some months to Ford in Kent, is brought to Lambeth, to the Court, to the Parliament. Lincoln not only wanted these Sweetnings, but was tired with defailance of Promises, and defied with Threatenings; so it was thought best to keep him out of the Parliament, against all Right, rather than suffer one, with the Powers of his Parts, to argue and vote against exorbitant Persons and Causes. The Bishop stood upon his Place as a Spiritual Lord, and resolved to let his Right be infring'd no longer. Utrumne est tempus aliquod, quo in Senatum venire turpe sit? says Cicero, pro domo ad Pontif. It can be no shame to come into the Senate; it is a Disgrace to be kept out. Therefore yielding all Obedience to Sovereignty, unto the utmost of that which was due, he disputed the Right of his Order so stoutly, that he came to the House and continued in it to the last; which he obtained the more resolutely, because he looked upon the King's Affairs with a desire to help him. The L. K. Coventry had order to stop him by a Letter, if he could, which the other answered in these words.
R. H. and my very good Lord,
I Have received your Lordships Letter of the 17. of February but this day, being the 25. of the same; and although I could not desire more comfortable News from your Lordship, than Leave of Absence from that Parliament, in which my presence may be suspecled, either by the King (which my Innocency will not suffer me to believe) or by any other near unto His Majesty; yet being the Right of a Peer in this Kingdom, that never convicled, imprisoned, or questioned for any Offence, is not withstanding now, against a second Parliament, kept from his lawful and indubitable Right of sitting in that House, and may be (for any Comfort he doth receive from your Lordship) intended to be debar'd forever from the same. I must crave some time to resolve, by the best Counsels God shall give me, whether I shall obey your Lordship's Letter, though mentioning His Majesty's Pleasure, before mine own Right, which, by the Law of GOD and Man, I may in all Humility maintain. Especially His Majesty's Writ and Royal Proclamation of a far later date, do either of them imply, as your Lordship best knoweth, an authentical Command. I do know that of my Obedience to my Gracious Sovereign, as of late I have found small acceptance, so could I never find any limit or bottom: And therefore I beseech your Lordship to make this no Question of the Act, but of this Object only of my Duty and Submission: But if I find I may without prejudice absent myself, I will deal clearly with you, my noble Lord, in the second point, I do refuse, with all humble Duty and Vassalage unto His Majesty reserved, to appoint for my Proctor the Bishop proposed. And so I humbly take my leave.
The Courtiers knew not what would follow upon this Answer; but a Course was followed by the Bishop, as in the like Case before, to cut a way between two Extreams; Inter abruptam contumaciam, & deform obsequium: For the Parliament newly sitting, the L. Keeper being demanded by John Earl of Clare, whether this Bishop had a Writ sent to him, and that being affirmed, the Peers called for his Assistance, and without more ado, the Parliament beginning March 17. he came to it before the end of that Month, breaking the Restraint upon him, not by attempt of his own Will, but because it was the Pleasure of the Lord's; and as soon as he came, he was quickly set a work; for the upper House appointing to meet together at the Holy Communion, Apr. 6. 1628. he preached the Sermon at that Solemn Occasion, the Text being Gal. 6.14. and at the next Session he preached again, by their Lordship's order, at a Fast kept on Ash-Wednesday, Feb. 18. 1628. in the same Church, upon Job 42.12. entitled, Perseverantia Sanctorum. Both these Sermons were printed by their Lordships direction; two pieces so full of Learning and Piety, that they were fitter for a longer perusal, than for the short time wherein they were uttered.
73. At this great and high Assembly our Bishop is censured for over-doing his part in Popularity, yet only by such as will calumniate all, that act not according to their mind. Some things were offered at him, which might have transported him to that excess; for, the Van-curriers of my L. Duke's Militia had prepared Petitions to disorder him in a light Skirmish, but were never prefer'd. Since no Fault could be charged upon him, when he delivered up the Seal to the King, Malignants had small encouragement to slander his Footsteps before a Parliament. To borrow Pliny 's Similitude, lib. 28. c. 2. A scorpione aliquando percussi, nunquam postea à crabronibus, vespis, apibus{que} feriuntur. He that happens to be stung of a Scorpion, and escapes it, the smaller Insecta of Hornets, Wasps, and Bees will never trouble him. Beside, in Equity they could not have blamed him to be sure to himself, since that Lord that prefer'd him, and that Bishop whom himself had prefer'd, did push with all their Violence against him: Yet his Good bearing between the King's Power and the Subjects Rights (the great Transaction of the high Court at this time) needed no such Answers. Though he was earnest, yet he was advised in all his Actions, and constant, as any man living, to his general Maxims. Tua omnia gest a inter se congruunt, omnia sunt uná forma percussa, says Casaubon to K. Henry the Fourth, before his Edition of Polybius. So the Bishop never varied, whether in favor, or out of favor, in his Counsels to the King, to hang the Quarrel even upon the Beam of Justice between him and the Common-wealth: As it was his Saying to K. James, so he went on with the like to K. Charles; Rule by your Laws, and you are a Compleat Monarch; your People are both sensibly and willingly beneath you: If you start aside from your Laws, they will be as saucy with your Actions, as if they were above you. The Fence of the great Charter was lately thrown down, by taking a Loan by Commissioners, without a Statute to authorize it. And says the Remonstrance of Decemb. 15, 1641. Divers Gentlemen were imprisoned, for refusing to pay it, whereby many of them contracted such Sicknesses, as cost them their Lives, p. 10. When the Body of the Lord's and Commons were at work, to redintegrate the empailment of the Laws, if the Bishop had not appeared, that the King would return, to walk upon the known and trodden Cawsey of the Laws, he had forsaken himself, and left the nearest way to do him Service. His care was, that no Dishonor should be cast upon His Majesty's Government, nor Censure upon the Commissioners of the Loan, his Ministers, and yet to remove the public Evils of the State: To mend them, would bring a Reformation to be blush'd at; not to mend them, a continued Confusion to be grieved at. The Bishop had the Praise from the Wisest that his Dexterity was eminent above any of the Peers, to please all parties that would be pleased with Reason. He distinguished the Marches of the two great Claims, the Prerogatives of the Crown, and the Liberties of the People; and pleaded for the King, to make him gracious to all; as it is in his Sermon on the Fast, p. 55. That he was a man as like Virtue itself, as could be pattern'd in Flesh and Blood; and justified him for good Intentions in all his Proceedings. The Errors that were to come to pass, he named them to be Errors; for what Government was ever so straight, that had no crookedness? With this Cunning Demetrius appeared for his Father Philip of Macedon, before the Roman Senate, Justin. lib. 32. The Senate accused his Father for violation of the last Articles of Peace; to which Demetrius said nothing, but blush'd. Et veniam patri Philippo, non jure defensionis, sed patrocinio pudoris obtinuit. And how unreasonable was it, that the emulous Bishop, who did upon all occasions derogate from this man, blamed this person to the King, for doing no more good to his Cause, whereas himself did him no good at all? Like to Critias in Xenophon, and his Dealings against Theramenes, lib. 2. Hist. says Theramenes, I labor to reconcile divided Factions, and he calls me a Slipper to fit the right Foot, and the left, because I set myself to please all sides. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : What shall I call him that pleaseth no side, that can do a pleasure to no side? They that were present at all Debates, did discern, that no Service could be done to the Crown, without a mixture of Moderation. A dram of such Wisdom was worth a pound of Flattery: For, as one says wittily, A besmeared Dog doth but dirty him upon whom he fawns.
74. When the Commons fell roundly to sist the exacting of the Loan, the Illwill gotten by it touched none so near as the Clergy: So ill was it taken, that their Pulpits had advanced it, and that some had preached a great deal of Crown Divinity, as they called it: And they were not long to seek for one that should be made an Example for it. But to make that, which was like to be by consequent less offensive, they unanimously voted a Gist of five Subsidies, before the King's Servants had spoke a word unto it. A Taste of Loyalty and Generosity, that willing Supplies should rather come from a sense of the King's Wants, than be begged. Straitway they called Dr. Maynwaring the King's Chaplain before them, for preaching (but rather for printing) two Sermons delivered before the King, the one at Oatland 's, the other at Alderton, in the Progress in July; neither of them at St. Giles in the Fields, as Mr. W. S. might have found in the Title Page of them both. These being in print, no Witnesses needed to be deposed, the Doctrine was above the Deck, sufficiently discovered. The Sermons both preached upon one Text, Eccles. 8.2. are confessedly learned, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , wherein Art and Wit have gone about to make true Principles beget false Conclusions. It was not well done, to hazard the dangerous Doctrine in them, for the Learning sake, to the view of the World; for not the Seeds of a good Melon, but the good Seeds of a Melon should be preserved to be planted. No notice was taken of the King's Special Command to publish these Tractates, but severing the Author by himself, he is designed to be censured; as Keepers beat Whelps before their Lions, to make them gentler: And the Charge is brought up to the Lord's, That the Sermons were scandalous, feditious, and against the good Government of this Kingdom. The Reverend Bishops, one and all, left him undefended. Yet that was not enough to correct the Envy which the Clergy did undergo upon it; so the Bishop of Lincoln stood up, and gave reprehension to some Points of both his Sermons, in this manner: In the former of these Sermons, pag. 2. Dr. Maynwaring begins his Work upon the Loom with these Threads;
75. More of this is ingeminated in the second Sermon, from pag. 24, to 26. as in these words: Religion doth often associate God and the King; First, from the communion of Names; Secondly, from the near bordering of Offences that reflect upon God and the King; Thirdly, from the parity of Beneficence, which men enjoy from God and sacred Kings. Upon this last he doth expatiate in three points: 1. That as Men cannot, in way of Justice, recompense God, nor Children their Parents, so nor Subjects their Kings for legal Providence. 2. Justice, so properly called, intercedes not between GOD and Man, nor between the Prince, being a Father, and the People as Children: It cannot be a Rule or Medium to give God and the King his Right. 3. Justice is only between Equals. To begin at the last, this Position, Justice is only between Equals, is a mistaking of Arist. lib. 5. Eth. c. 6. Who there makes them Equals, which are not under one man, for that he denieth totidem verbis, but under one Law, to the which he doth subject the Magistrate, as all the School-men do the King; that is, to the direction of it, not to the penal coaction. And if Justice be not, but between Equals, how can there be any Justice at the Kings-bench, Exchequer, Starchamber, Court of Wards, &c? To go back now to his other two Positions, mingling them together, observe two things; First, All that he speaks of God, and his being unrecompensable by ordinary way of Justice, he borrows it out of Suarez, as his Margin confesseth, lib. 3. de Relig. c. 4. and of his own Head applieth to the King without Suarez, or any other Writer. Nor can Suarez Reason be applied to the King, which is this:
76. No man else suffering for so common a Grievance, it made a glad Court at Whitehall. The Parliament used their best Counsels and Discretions at the same time to secure their Lives, Livelihoods, and Liberties from such arbitrary Thraldom thereafter, Nunquam fida est potentia ubi nimia est. We must live under the Powers which God hath set over us, but are loath that any man should have too much Power. Sir Ed. Coke made the motion (which will keep his noble Memory alive) to sue to the King by Petition, the most ancient and humble Address of Parliaments, that His Majesty would give his People Assurance of their Rights by Assent in Parliament, as he useth to pass other Acts, viz. That none should be compel'd to any charge of Tax or Benevolence, without agreement of Lord's and Commons; nor any Freeman be imprisoned, but by the Law of the Land; with some such other-like, which are entered into many Authors. The Duke of Buck. was forward to stop this Petition in the House where he sat; for which the Commons, having not yet meddled with him, resolved to give him an ill Farewell before their parting. Neither did he recover his old Luster, nor carry any great sway among the Peers, since his dishonorable Expedition to Rhe; for evil Successes are not easily forgotten, though prosperous ones vanish in the warmth of their Fruition. And not only that Duke, and the Lord Privy-Seal, with other great and able Officers, did repulse this motion with all main, but the King's learned Council were admitted to plead their Exceptions against it. Six weeks were spent in these Delays, and Hope deserred made their hearts sick, Prov. 13.12. and their Heads jealous, who followed the cause, that there was no good meaning to relieve their Oppressions. At last the difficulty was overcome; the Petitioners had one Answer from the King, and looked for a fuller, and had it in the end: So much sooner had been so much better; as our Poet Johnson writes to Sir E. Sackvile, of some men's Good-turns, They are so long a coming, and so hard. When any Deed is forced, the Grace is mar'd. The Subjects asked for nothing now which was not their own, but for Assurance to keep their own; which had it been done with a Smile, benignly and cheerfully, and without any casting about to evade it, it had been done Princely. It is not impossible to find an honest Rule in Matchiavel, for this is his: Beneficia illa, quibus conciliatur plebis animus co us{que} ne differantur, donec ea praestare cogi videantur. Passing right is Sir J. Haward 's Hist. of H. IV. p. 4. says he, The Multitude are more strongly drawn by unprofitable Courtesies than by churlish Benefits. Among those that argued for this Petition de Droit, I shall remember what past from two eminent Prelates: Archbishop Abbot offered his own Case to be considered, banished from his own Houses of Croydon and Lambeth, confined to a moorish Mansion-place of Foord, to kill him, debar'd from the management of his Jurisdiction, and no cause given for it to that time; harder measure than ever was done to him in his Pedagogy, for no Scholar was ever corrected till his Fault was told him. But he had fuller'd the Lash in a Message brought by the Secretary, and no cause pretended for it: And what Light of Safety could be seen under such dark Justice? The Bishop of Lincoln likewise promoted the Petition, but he was a great Stickler for an Addition, that it might come to the King's Hands with a mannerly Clause, That as they desired to preserve their own Liberties, so they had regard to leave entire that Power wherewith His Majesty was entrusted for the Protection of his People (which the Commons disrelish'd, and caused to be cancel'd). This caused the Bishop to be suspected at first, as if he had been sprinkled with some Court-holy-water, which was nothing so, but a due Consideration, flowing from his own Breast, that somewhat might be inserted, to bear witness to the Grandeur of Majesty. A Passage in Xenophon commends such unbespoken Service, lib. 8. Cyrip. says he, Hystaspus would do all that Cyrus bade, but Chrysantus would do all which he thought was good for Cyrus before he bade him.
77. In the Debate of this great matter among the Lord's, this Bishop hath left under his own Pen what he delivered; partly in glossing upon a Letter which His Majesty under the Signet sent to the House May the 12th, partly in contesting with the chief Speakers, that quarrelled at the Petition. As to the former; First the King says, That his Predecessors had never given Leave to the free Debates of the highest Points of Prerogative Royal. The Bishop answered, The Prerogative Royal should not be debated at all, otherwise than it is every Term in Westminster-hall. Secondly, the Letter objects, What if some Discovery nearly concerning Matters of State and Government, be made? May not the King and his Council commit the Party in question, without cause shewn? For then Detection will dangerously come forth before due time. Resp. No matter of State or Government would be destroyed or defeated, if the Cause be expressed in general terms: And no danger can likely ensue, if in three Terms the Matter be prepared to be brought to Trial. Ob. 3. May not some Cause be such as the Judges have no Capacity of Judicature, or Rules of Law to direct or guide their Judgment? Resp. What can those things be, which neither the Kings-bench nor Star-chamber can meet them? Obj. 4. Is it not enough, that we declare our Royal Will and Resolution to be (which, God willing, we will constantly keep) not to go beyond a just Rule and Moderation in anything, which shall be contrary to our Laws and Customs? And that neither we nor our Council shall, or will, at any time hereafter, commit or command to Prison, for any other cause than doth concern the State, the Public Good, and Safety of our People? Resp. Not the Council-Table, but the appointed Judges, must determine what are Laws and Customs, and what is contrary to them. And this gracious Concession is too indefinite, to make us depend upon that broad Expression of Just Rule and Moderation. Especially be it marked, That all the Causes in the Kingdom may be said to concern either the State, the Public Good, or the Safety of the King and People. This, under Favor, is abundantly irresolute, and signifies nothing obtained. Obj. 5. In all Causes hereafter of this nature, which shall happen, we shall, upon the humble Petition of the Party, or Signification of our Judges unto us, readily and really express the true cause of the Commitment, so as with Conveniency and Safety it be fit to be disolosed: And that in all Causes of ordinary Jurisdiction, our Judges shall proceed to the delivery or bailment of the Prisoner, according to the known and ordinary Rules of this Land, and according to the Statutes of Magna Charta, and those six Statutes insisted on, which we intend not to abrogate or weaken, according to the true intention thereof. Resp. To disclose the cause of Imprisonment, except Conveniency and Safety do hinder, are ambiguous words, and may suffice to hold a man fast for coming forth. And if all Causes be not of ordinary Jurisdiction, (as I hope they are) who shall judge which be the extraordinary Causes? We are lost again in that Uncertainty. So likewise for the Intention of Magna Charta, and the six Statutes, who shall judge of the true Intention of them? That being arbitrary, we are still in nubibus for any assurance of legal Liberty. So the Concessions of His Majesty's Letter were waved as unsatisfactory.
78. And the Bishop went on to show, that the Contents of the Petition were suitable to the ancient Laws of the Realm, ever claimed and pleaded, expedient for the Subject, and no less honorable for the King, which made him a King of Men, and not of Beasts; of brave-spirited Freemen, and not of brokenhearted Peasants. The Statute in 28 Edw. 3. is as clear for it, as the day at Noon-tide; That no man, of what state or condition soever, shall be put out of his Lands or Tenements, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, nor put to death, without being brought to answer by due process of Law. I know one Lord replied to this lately, That the Law was wholesome, for the good of private men, and sometime it might be as wholesome for the Public Weal, that the Sovereign Power should commit to Custody some private man, the cause not being showed in Law, upon more beneficial occasion than a private man's legal Liberty: And though the Hand of Power should seem to be hard upon that one person, a Benefit might redound to many. First, be it considered, if no Law shall be fixed and inviolable, but that which will prevent all Inconveniencies, we must take Laws from God alone, and not from men. Then be it observed, that to bring the exception of a Sovereign Power beside the Laws, in Cases determined in the Laws, takes away all Laws, when the King is pleased to use and put forth this Sovereign Power, wherewith he is trusted, and makes the Government purely arbitrary, and at the Will of the King: So shall this Reason of State eat up and devour the Reason of Laws. Shew me, he that can, how the affirmation of a Sovereign Power, working beside the Law insisted upon, shall not bring our Goods and our Lives to be liable and disposable by this Sovereign Power, and not turn England into the case of Turkey. And if you affirm, that a man may be taken and imprisoned by a Sovereign Power, wherewith a King is trusted, beside the Law expressed in the Statute; why should you not grant as well, the Law being one and the same, that a man may be put out of his Lands and Tenements, disinherited, and put to death by this Sovereign Power, without being brought to answer by due process of Law? I conceive this Reason may be more fortified, but will never be answered and satisfied: Bore one hole into this Law, and all the good thereof will run out of it. Next I show, that nothing was ever attempted against the Magna Charta, without great Envy and Grudging. Now, since a man's Liberty is a thing that Nature most desires, and which the Law doth exceedingly favor, the 29th Chapter of that Charter says, Nullus liber homo imprisonetur nisi per legem terrae. What word can there be against these words? Why, it was said here with Resolution and Confidence, That Lex terrae is to be expounded of Actions of the King's Privy Council, done at the Council-Table without further Process of Law. But did ever any Judge of this Land give that interpretation of Lex terrae in Magnâ Chartâ? Indeed, a great learned Lord in this House did openly say, That all Courts of Jurisdiction in this Land established, and authorised by the King, may be said to be Lex terrae. Which is granted by me, although it was denied by implication, by the resolution of the House of Commons. But then the Question still remains, whether the Council-Table at Whitehall be a forum contentiosum, a Court of Jurisdiction? I ever granted, they may commit to Prison juxta legem terrae, as they are Justices of Peace, and of other legal Capacities. And I grant it also, that they may do it praeter legem terrae, as they are great Counselors of State, and so to provide where the Laws are defective, ne quid detrimenti respub. capiat. Secondly, It was much pressed, that my L. Egerton did expound this Lex terrae to be Lex regis, which must mean somewhat, in his Post-nati, pag. 33. I have read the Book, and it is palpably mistaken: That great Lord saith only this; That the Common-Law hath many Names secundùm subjectam materiam, according to the variety of Objects it handles. When it respects the Church, it is called, Lex Ecclesiae Anglicanae: When it respects the Crown, Lex Coronae, and sometime Lex Regia: When it respects the common Subject, it is called Lex Terrae. Is not this his plain meaning? It must be so, by his instance p. 36. That the cases of the Crown are, the Female to inherit, the eldest Son to be prefer'd, no respect of Half-blood, no disability of the King's Person by Infancy. If his Lordship should mean otherwise, his Authorities would fail him. Regist. fol. 61. the word Lex Regia is not named, that's my Lord's Inference, but the Title is, Ad jura Regia; that is, certain Briefs concerning the King's Kights, opposite to Jura Papalia, or Canonica, all of them in matters ecclesiastical, as Advousons, Presentations, Quare-impedits, &c. all pleaded in Westminster-hall, things never heard of in the King's dwelling Court, since the fixing of the Courts of Justice. Thus much for the Authorities. Now the reason offered out of them, which will never be answered, is this: By the Lex Terrae in Magna Charta, a man may be not only imprisoned, but withal outlaw'd, destroyed, tried, and condemned; but a man cannot be outlaw'd, destroyed, tried, and condemned by any Order of the Lord's of the Council; therefore the Orders of the Lord's of the Council are not Lex Terrae. At this, and upon other occasions the Bishop spake to this matter, (till the Petition was most graciously consented to by the King in all the Branches of it) and was more attended to upon the Experience of his Knowledge and Wisdom, than at least any of his Order. And as Theocritus says of his principal Shepherd, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . From that day Daphnis was accounted the Chief of his Calling, which filled the Court with the Report. But some men are in danger to be traduced with too much Praise.
79. One thing struck in unhappily, which made this Session rise without a good close in the shutting up; it was a Remonstrance presented to the King by the House of Commons, of many Complaints; the most offensive being those that were personal, against two Bishops that were about the King, and against the L. Duke, That his excessive Power, and abuse of that Power, was the cause of all Evils and Dangers among us. Though this came very cross to the King's Affections, yet the worst word that he gave to the Remonstrance was, That no wise man would justify it. How many Kings of England had treated both Houses more sharply upon less provocation? Yet now the chief Tribunes spake their Discontents aloud, That they had given a bountiful Levy of five Subsidies, and were called Fools for their labor. The Gift was large, the Manner, the Allegiance, the Willingness were better than the Gift; yet might not His Majesty touch mildly upon a Fault, without such a scandalous Paraphrase? The Galatians would have pulled out their own Eyes to do Paul good, yet he spared them not for it, but upon Errors crept into the Doctrine of their Faith, he called them foolish Galatians. The sourest Leaven, not seen in the Remonstrance, but hid in the House, was, That some seditious Tongues did blab their meaning, to cut off the payment of Tonnage and Poundage, by the concession of the Petition of Right; against which His Majesty spake, and declared, That his Predecessors had quietly enjoyed those Payments by the Royal Prerogative, which both Houses did protest to leave inviolable; That the Grant of the Petition did meet with Grievances, said to entrench upon the Liberty and Property of the People, to give them assurance of quiet from paying Taxes or Loans without Order of Parliament. To go further it was not his Meaning nor their Demand. The Bishop of Lincoln appeared very much to concur with the King's Interpretation, and was very zealous to have had an Act past for it before the Parliament was prorogued: Nay, he forbore not to chide his Friends in the lower House, whose Metal he found to be churlish, and hard to be wrought upon. Ut erat generosae indolis nihil frigide, nihil languide agebat; as Clementius says of renowned Salmasius, in his Life, p. 61. But the Bishop's Motion was laid by, and with no good meaning: Yet since it was seen, that his Endeavors were real, to have wound up the Bottom at that time, without that scurvy knot in it, he had the Favor to kiss the King's Hand, and to have Words both with His Majesty and with the Duke in private. O hard Destiny! this he had long sought, and now the Words which past between the King and him in Conference, were the Seed of all his Troubles in the Star-Chamber; for the King conjuring him to deliver his Opinion, how he might win the Love of the Commons, and be popular among them, the Bishop answered readily, That the Puritans were many, and main Sticklers; if His Majesty would please to direct his Ministers, by his secret Appointment, to show some Connivance and Indulgence to their Party, he might possibly mollify them, and bend their Stubbornness; though he did not promise that they would be trusty very long to any Government. The King said. He must needs like the Counsel, for he had thought of it before, and would use it. Two months after the Bishop regulated his own Courts at Leicester, with some such Condescentions, and told Sir J. Lamb and Dr. Sibthorp the reason, that it was not only his own, but the Royal Pleasure. These two Pick-thanks carried these words to Bishop Laud, and he to the King, being then at Bisham. The Resolution was, That upon the Depositions of these two, (no Saints in my Almanac) a Bill should be drawn up in the Star-chamber, against the Bishop, for revealing the King's Counsels, being a sworn Counselor. But that he was sentenced, because his Tongue betrayed him into Speeches that entrencht upon Loyalty, as the Historian H. L. says, p. 152. (upon whose Trust W. S. writes the same) is utterly mistaken, upon the word of Holy Faith; and let all Ear-witnesses of the Cause, and Eye-witnesses of the Records, judge between us. Nor do I say, that the Bill of disclosing the King's Counsels held Water, for it was laid aside: There the Troubles began, and did run through Motions, Meanders, and Alterations, till ending at last in tampering with Witnesses, as will be shewn in due place.
80. To make this seem a Jubilee to our Bishop, wherein all Bonds of Malevolence should be cancel'd, he had a very courteous Interview with the L. Duke, nothing of Unkindness repeated between them, his Grace had the Bishop's Consent with a little asking, that he would be his Grace's faithful Servant in the next Session of Parliament, and was allowed to hold up a seeming Enmity, and his own Popular Estimation, that he might the sooner do the Work. Blessed be God, that they parted then in perfect Charity, for they never met again; the horrid Assassine J. Felton, frustrated whatever might have followed; a mean, despicable, unsuspected Enemy: Sed nihil tam firmum est, cui non sit periculum ab invalido, says Curtius, lib. 7. What Strength is there in a Cedar, since every weak Arm can cut it down? And though I am persuaded none but the Devil and this melancholy Miscreant were in the Plot, yet in foro Dei, many were guilty of this Blood, that rejoiced it was spilled. Tully confessed of himself, that he was as much a Murderer of Caesar as Brutus and Cassius, 2 Philip. Quid interest utrum voluerim fieri, an gaudeam factum? So did God see that Thousands were guilty of this Sin, which made the whole Land Nocent, for the violent death of an Innocent; for everyone is innocent in right of his Life, till the Law hath tried him. Felton 's Impulsive was impious, from the allegation of the late Remonstrance, that the Duke was the principal cause of our Evils and Dangers. As the Commons had no power to take his life away, so they never intended it, but to remove him from the King, if it were possible. I will be bold to censure the Romans, that many things were uncivil in their Laws, barbarous in their Valour, and odious in their Justice. Let this be the Instance out of Budaeus, lib. 2. Pandec. c. 28. Si quis eum qui plebiscito sacer sit occiderit, homicida non est. As if every man had the power of a Magistrate, to cut off him whom the People had devoved: A Maxim for the Sons of Cadmus, or for the Sons of Romulus, not for the Sons of God. Be they Jesuits, Anabaptists, or of whatsoever Race of new Zealots, they have not learnt so much good Divinity as is in Aristotle, 3 Erh. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . No Pretence can justify Manslaughter, no End or Intention can excuse it. Was it so lately enacted in Parliament, that no Freeman should be imprisoned without due course of Law, and did Hell break loose at the other end, to make it meritorious, or popular, to kill without Law? For such another Outrage had passed but two months before, upon the Body of one Lamb, in the day-light, and in the Skirts of the City beaten cruelly to Death by a scum of Vagabonds, being no Conjurer for certain, (though the Fry fell upon him for that suspicion) but a notorious Impostor, a Fortune-teller, and an employed Bawd, (two Qualities that commonly make up one pair of Scissors to cut Purses) as was evident by his Books, Papers, Schemes, Pictures, Figures, Glasses, the Utensils of his Trade, found in his Lodgings near the Horse-ferry in Westminster: But, that he was a Creature of the Duke's, and commended to him by Bishop Williams, the Historian is strangely out again. It is possible an Ear-dropper might hear such things talked at Cock-pits and Dancing-schools, miserable Intelligence to thrust into an History. This Lamb living in the Verge of the Deanry, was once admitted to speak with this Bishop, and as soon as he began to impeach some of the Bishop's Acquaintance for Falsehood, he was bidden be gone, for a meddling Knave, and a Sower of Dissensions, and had Warning to come near him no more. And for the Duke, his domestic Creatures have avowed to me, that Lamb was so little their Lord's Creature, that they were ready to take an Oath of Credulity, that the Duke never saw him. I would all the Tales that got his Grace Ill will had been as false as this: That which did undo him, was chiefly that which made him, the immoderate Favor of two Kings, and not moderately used; as many a Ship is lost, that's overset with too much Sail. After Thirteen years triumphing in Grace and Gallantry, one Stab dispatched him. So Symmachus speaks of the sad Catastrophe of such a mighty man, Fortunae diu lenocinantis perfidus finis, quem ultimâ sui parte ut scorpius percussit, lib. 2. ep. 13. Great Felicities not seldom go out suddenly in a Flash, like a Silk-worm, that dies in three months after it is quickened. God would have us look after better things, when we behold the sudden and prodigious Eclipses of Human Glory, and brought to pass, like Buckingham 's, by vile and wicked Instruments. A foreign Writer gives very hard words to our whole Nation upon it, that we are savage and frentick in our Fury: And will he say as ill of the Kingdom of Israel, for Joab 's sake, that murdered Abner? It might be replied to him, That the Loyalty of his Nation is besmeared with the Blood of two Kings of France, deadly wounded with a Knife. But that we have worse to answer for, I will depart with this mournful matter, adding only, that the Duke being taken away, our Bishop never desisted to do Observance, and such Help as he could, to his desolate Kindred and Family; which the Countess of Denby his Sister would often confess to me, and speak of it to his great honor. At this time, presently upon the dismal Tydings, he dispatched a most melting Letter to the Countess, his Grace's Mother, whose Answer to his begins thus:
My Lord,
IT is true Nobleness that makes you remember so distressed a Creature as I am, and to continue a true Friend in harder Fortunes. You give me many Reasons of Comfort, for which I kindly thank you, for I have need of them all.
81. The Duke being now at rest in his Grave, it was conceived this Good at least would come of it, that the next Session of Parliament would be very quiet, which began on the 20th of January: Yet they that thought the Ship was lightened of Jonas, saw the Storm increased: Let them that will know the occasion of a wide Breach, read it in the Histories and Life of King Charles, especially in His Majesty's Declaration to all his loving Subjects, printed 1628. wherein the intelligent shall find, that the Commons were rather stubborn than stiff, rather violent than eager against the King's Affairs; and that the King was so provoked with the heat of one morning, that he would not allow a day, nor an hour, to let them cool again, but dismissed them with Menaces, and thrust them away from him with such displeasure, that in twelve years he sent out no Writs to call another Parliament. It is too late to wish it had been better then, it is not too late to give Warning that it may be better hereafter. Who did best or worst many will take the liberty to determine, as their addictions carry them to loyal Duty or popular Liberty. I judge neither so high above me in their potential Orbs, but relate what the Prudent did observe upon their Passages: This was the Bishop of Lincoln 's Opinion, who wept the ruin of the State, and was able to see through the present to the future, that it was ill in the People to offend so good a King, and unhappy for the King to close again no sooner with a bad People. The open face of both these shall be seen. The Commons were no sooner come together, but like Ajax 's Rhetoric in the Poet, Proh Jupiter inquit, they were as hot as an Oven in their exordium, and spake loudly, That the Petition of Right was not maintained, because Tonnage and Poundage were taken, and Merchants Goods distrein'd for non-payment, a Revenue not due to the Crown till passed by Bill. The King's Council showed Presidents, that it had been taken in a provisional way before the Parliament had granted it; but that His Majesty did desire to receive it by the Grant of his People, and prayed a Bill might confirm it, to remove this Block out of the way, in which all Controversies would be sopited. Hereupon it was promised it should be considered, and the framing of a Bill be refer'd to a Committee; yet they drew back their Hand, till they had gathered a Particular of things distasted in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government: An Affectation which Appius Claudius discovered in the Tribunes, Liv. dec. 1. lib. 5. Qui semper aegri aliquid in Rep. esse volunt, ut sit ad cujus curationem à vobis adhibeantur: Which the King hath put into English, Declar. p. 25. Like Empericks, that strive to make new Work, and to have some Diseases on foot, to keep themselves in request. Their Inspections about Religion were not only troublesome, to make the Bill stick in the Committee, the only means to keep all quiet, but so inauspicious, that I fear God was not near. Arminianism was complained of, that it was openly maintained, not suiting with the Articles of the Churches of England and Ireland: A strange Spell, which raised up the Spirit that it would conjure down. As they that mark the increase of Nile can tell at what day it will begin to overflow, so they that watched the increase of Arminianism, say considently, that from this year the Tide of it began to come in. Then they complained, that the Bishops of London and Winton, prevailed to advance those to great Preferments that spread those Errors, while the orthodox part was deprest, and under inglorious disdain. Never was this verified by a clear and notorious distinction, till this Challenge was made, That all Preferments were cast on that side. Then it began to be palpable, that there was no other way to fly over other men's Heads in the Church, but with those Wings: And here the forlorn part might say to the Parliament as Balak said to Balaam, What hast then done unto me? I took thee to curse mine Enemies, and behold, thou hast blest them all together, Numb. 23.11. Thirdly, They did regret at the obtruding of some Ceremonies, which waxed in more request and authority upon that opposition; as some Flowers open the more, when the Wind blows strongest upon them. I believe such Remorse as was in Joseph 's Brethren would make some of them say, We saw the arguish of the King, when he besought us, and would not hear, therefore this Distress is come upon us, that all our Counsels are improsperous. The prosecution of Civil Grievances miscarried as much, and as wise men guessed, because Sir John Ellict stood up to manage them. Few lead on to remove the public Evils of a State, without some special feelings and ends of their own. Nor was it any better now, so far as an action may be known by vulgar passes, and everybody's Discourse. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says Menander. High Probability is the second degree of Truth. Sir J. Elliot of the West, and Sir Tho. Wentworth of the North, both in the prime of their Age and Wits, both conspicuous for able Speakers, clasht so often in the House, and cudgel'd one another with such strong Contradictions, that it grew from an Emulation between them to an Enmity. The L. Treasurer Weston picked out the Northern Cock Sir Thomas, to make him the King's Creature, and set him upon the first step of his rising; which was Wormwood in the taste of Elliot, who revenged himself upon the King in the Bill of Tonnage, and then fell upon the Treasurer, and declaimed against him, That he was the Author of all the Evils under which the Kingdom was oppressed. Some body must bear that Burden as the Duke had done; yet this Lord was not like to be the man, who had been in his great Place but about six months, unless he could conjure, and work Miracles in a trice. The Bishop of Lincoln, who had Spies abroad in many private Conferences, informed the L. Weston before, who was his Adversary, what Coals he was blowing at the Forge, and proffered himself to bring Sir J. Elliot to him, to be reconciled, and to be his Servant; for which Sir T. Wentworth spleen'd the Bishop, for offering to bring his Rival into favor; but L. Weston took it as a Courtesie as long as he lived, and bade the Bishop look for more Favor from the King than it was his luck to find; for the Treasurer was noted to be a Servant to his Master of great use and diligence, but a Friend to his Friends of small assistance. Now, when great Affairs did run upon the Wheels of these private Grudges, what was like to become of the Public Weal? To be overturned in the hurry.
82. For such a Dust was raised about the Bill of Tonnage, &c. that the way could not be seen for that Cloud, to come to a quiet end. Long Speeches, full of hydropical swellings, took up the time to delay it. Of which Aristotle gives warning to all Political Governments, Polit. lib. 5. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that nothing overthrows them so soon, as the petulancy of their Orators. Let impartial Posterity sit in the Chair of Judgment, and examine these things. The Lord's unanimously dissented from the Commons: looked sadly at the slowing of the Bill, at the quarrels against the Accountants of the Custom-house. Insomuch that the King told their Lordships, That he took as much content in their dutiful demeanour, as he was justly distasted with the proceeding of the others. And what bred all this Anger? was it a new Project? alas no; but an ancient Supply of some hundred years old, never grudge'd at, but cheerfully granted for the Safety of the narrow Seas. Quod à principio beneficium suit, usu atque aetate fit debitum, says Sym. ep. p. 58. That which was free Gift at first, being constantly given, Custom makes it a Debt. The King's Actions were strongly warranted with the wisdom of former Ages: for the Subsidy of Tonnage and Poundage was not granted to Edward the Fourth by Parliament, till the end of the third year of his Reign, yet answered to him from the first year. And, to say more, all Kings and Queens enjoyed it from the day of the precedent Princes Death, before ever a Parliament sat: and the legitimate receiving it was never questioned. And yet now the Commons pleaded, That until the King would put himself out of all the Right of it, the Subject stood not in sit case to grant it; Decl. p. 28. That is, shut himself out of Doors, and stay till, God knows when, they let him in again. And wherefore was the Petition objected? which was granted to secure all men in their Property for the Subject's Right, not for the King's wrong. They that were reasonable and thankful men will allow him to interpret his own meaning, which was not to take from his Liege people what he should not, but not to give from himself what he would not. As eloquent Lysias says, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The mind of them that judge by a Law, must be the same with his mind that made the Law. 'It is all the right in the World. His Majesty was willing to take this Payment as the Gift of the Parliament, would thankfully embrace it with that Formality. But it were folly to let them polish his Revenue, and file away the best part of it. They knew he could not want this Stock, as well to guard the Kingdom, as to support his own Dignity. Take heed they thrust not upon that Necessity, which loving Compliance might avoid. Omnia quae reipub. salutaria sunt, legitima & justa habentur, Tull. Philip. 12. To render good for evil, and to bring them all within one Circle of Love and Clemency, a gracious and general Pardon was appointed by the King to be drawn up, which past the House of Lord's; but the Gentlemen beneath did not so much as read it. Yet no Innocency is so safe, which may not desire to be looked upon with the Eye of Mercy. Some of the Members did want it after their Dissolution. Which straightway followed upon shutting their Door against the King's Messengers, and holding the Speaker by violence from obeying his Majesty's Order to leave the House. So dying Lamps expire with enlarged Flames. This was unwonted, and no honor to so wise a Senate, if the Rule of the Orators be true: Quae potest esse homini major poena à Diis immortalibus furore & dementiâ? Dehosparus. Our Bishop was wont to say, That Queen Elizabeth 's Parliaments were most tractable, which sat but a short time, ended before they were acquainted with one another Interests, and had not learned to Combine. Which makes me allude it to Theophrastus Date Tree, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The young Trees bare Dates without Stones, but the older they grow, so much the harder is the Stone that is in them. Woe is to us, this Rupture was not a Date-stone, but a Mill-stone, whose Consequences have grounded us to Dust. Which the King's troubled Spirit did divine. Will you hear the Swan sing his own Dirge, Cantator funeris ipse su • ? Declar. p. 41. All this is done to abate the powers of our Crown, and to bring our Government to obloquy, that in the end all things may be over-whelmed with Anarchy and Confusion. Prophetical, or rather Oraculous, for Miseries are sometimes foreseen, never prevented by the Dictates of Oracles.
83. Look now in the procedure upon the way that the King chose to go in, with an Eye of Reverence, but with an Eye of Reason. The Bishop of Lincoln moved the Lord Weston to carry his mind to the King, much after this sort: That the Parliament might meet again for all this, and that there might be a Conference between them and the Lord's, to debate upon Differences. He hoped that their own House would give a check, if not a censure to some that had exceeded in such a rude and unparliamentary uproar: that they would in no long space of time be ashamed of their own work, and make amends with submission. Neat that run about, as if they were mad in the Pastures, stroke them, and they will come of themselves to the Milk pale. Fury wasteth as Patience lasteth. He would not pray for them if their sin were a sin unto death, whereof they could not repent. Pliny can tell us of an Image in Chios, Cuyus vultum intrantes tristem, exeuntes exhilaratum vident, Lib. 3. Nat. Hist. cap. 5. It seemed to frown on those that came in to behold it, and to smile upon them when they departed. To show what variety may fall out in the first and last Experiment of Human Affairs. God alone knows what the event of this Counsel might have been. The King would not know it, for he would not use it. Kings have another Sentiment of Wrongs then common People. Yet one Rulo is as good for them, as for their Vassals, to let Counsels mellow, and to grow unto a taste by leisure: waiting for time and opportunity are such advantages, as tire out the spirits of others, till we have melted their metal. As every sweet thing mixed with Oil will keep its odour the longer, so Deliberations, the longer they are compounded with Patience, in the end they will be the sweeter. The King says for himself, Declar. p. 40. He would have expected longer, if there had been any hope in them to return to their duty. It is as the Spanish Proverb says, A crooked Cucumber will never grow straight. But are all crooked? What was in his heroic Mind to think, that no Parliament would be right forever after? which appeared because he summoned none in twelve years; nor then, but when extremity forced him. When did he expect a better Generation, that despaired of all for so many years? This was to fall out with a whole Nation. But says Cyrus to Cyaxares in the Cipher of an absolute King, Lib. 5. Cyr. P. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . It is a great fault in a Ruler to be at odds with all his Subjects. He may have his will by taking all Empire into his own hands, but with no good will of others. The last Tarquin robbed the Senate of their power: omnia in domo regiâ privatim tractabantur, Mach. Resp. lib. 3. cap. 5. for which Brutus and his party take up Arms, till they prospered in their sin. In more recent memory H. Grotius writes, Hist. Belg. lib. 1. p. 7. That the disusing of the Assemblies of the States by Philip the Second, was the beginning of the Revolt of the Netherlands. Discontents that fell in should not abolish Courts fundamental for the Maintainance of Justice. We have had most corrupt general Councils for some Ages in the Church; therefore shall we never hope to obtain a good one? Well did Warsovius speak in his Oration to Stephen King of Polonia, Millies licet homo defraudetur ab homine, utique hominem cum homine vivere debere: Though we have been cheated over and over, we must trade again with men. It is to be praised and admired that while Parliaments were laid asleep so long, we could not say that we wanted Justice, Peace, and Plenty, much less the true worship of God. But for want of that politick Court, the People thought they were under a new shaped Monarchy, like to an Arbitrary Government, which lost the King their Affections, more then he could lose them by a seditious Parliament. For better to endure frowardness then hatred. As Suetotonius says of Caesar, De ampliando imperio plura & majora indies cogitabat: so great Ones, both Male and Female, carried such Tales out of the Bed-chamber, that a more absolute Empire was intended then England had known since the Norman Line. All that the King's incomparable Virtues could plead for him, would not satisfy for that Suspicion. Men love themselves, and like a good Governor better then a Godly. Our Bolton writes, That not a year of Nero' s Reign but was stained with some foul fact of manners; but the Senators finding content in his Government, he was redeemed into their sufferance, and the tolerable Opinion of the People. Faults of an impious Life oppress not the Subjects, but oblique ways of Government gall them. Holy King Charles was full of constant and great Virtues, all of them Pearls of a clear water, but he did not study to oblige the Generality, to gratify, to insinuate, nay to go down so low as to slatter them: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Arist. Eth. lib. 5. cap. 3. That is, some are of rare worth, take them single and alone, that fall short of that persection in those things which they do, that relate to others. Our King would not buy Applause so cheap, as with Blandishments and Courtesie. He would not dissemble with the Nobles that had offended him, and win them in with Art to recover them. He would not purchase the People with fineness of words, but purposed a more real satisfaction. Yea, a few drops of water infused into Wine makes it not cease to be Wine, nor do a few drops of Cunning •• er the Essence of Honesty. A King of a most nice Conscience shall still •••• in the Servant of God, and yet, by the verdict of wise men, he should be the Servant of the People. The Duke of Milan, the King of Naples about our Grandfathers days, lost their Principalities for not wooing their Citizens, and espousing their hearts strongly to them. The Scepter of the old Latin Princes was a Lituus, an Ensign of Majesty crooked at the stronger end, because a little bending Policy is necessary in a Magistrate. Which Xenophon makes to be the Opinion of his exact Cyrus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , lib. 8. That sometime he must couzin the Multitude into good frame, and quiet obedience. So might our Josiah have done with good success, and sincerity of heart preserved. Such as saw to what he was inclined, made him abhorrent the more from Parliaments, by remembering them with all disadvantage of flirts and contumelies. And what did they in it, but piss into the common Well, from whence all the Neighbourhood drew water? John Major pleading for the Authority of a General Council breaks off, and says, he knew that many more would plead very stiffly for the Pope, Quia Concilium raro congregatur, nec dat dignitates Ecclesiasticas: Councils met seldom, and gave no Preferments as the Pope did. So Flatterers and Ambitious Persons stuck to the surer side, and desired the King would forget Parliaments, and act all himself: for the King could promote them, so could not a Parliament. But in fine, to say a very little upon the whole case; as St. Austin is quoted by Gratian for this Sentence, That it is too great an attempt for Church Discipline to excommunicate a Nation of People; so it was no fit Punishment to exterminate, or lay aside the Parliaments of a Nation. No Parliament for twelve years, and too much Parliament for twelve years put all out of order.
84. Which Court, formidable to Opposers, being like a Bow so long unbent, some eminent ones, that abused the greatness of their power, and some ignoble ones that lived upon the impurity of secure Times, seared not the Arrows of its Jurisdiction, nor to come under account for their Actions at that Tribunal. Says Quintilian lib 12. Quaedam animalia, in angustiis mobilia, in campo deprehenduntur: Some Creatures can shift in their own holes, but are snapped up easily in the open Fields. So such as could do mischief in their Court, had no hope to escape in so public Examination. The Bishop of Lincoln felt it, who fell into troubles, not for want of Innocence, but for want of a Parliament to keep him from Malef;icence. The cause of his uncessant Molestations for twelve years would discover himself, though I should conceal him, by an open affectation to be known his Enemy, I mean Bishop Laud. Could he so soon forget him that first made him a Bishop? and in twelve years could he not forget an Injury (I know of none) if the other had trespass'd against him? The undoing of his Brother and Colleague in dignity did so run in his mind, that it was never out of his dreams, to be seen in the Notes drawn with his own hand in Mr. Prinn 's Breviate. He dreamed the Lord Keeper was dead Octob. 23. 1623. that is, being interpreted, in the Duke's Affections. June 14. 1626. He dreamed the Bishop of Lincoln came, he knew not with whom, with Iron Chains, but, returning freed from them, he leapt upon an Horse, and departed, neither could he overtake him. March 17. 1627. Sir G. Wright whisper'd in his Ear in his sleep, that he was the cause that Lincoln was not admitted again into Favor in the Court. Jul. 13. 1633. He dreamt at Anderwick that this Bishop came and offered to sit above him at the Council Table, (Quae Deus in melius • rudelia somnia vertat) that the Earl of Holland came and placed him there. Some hearken to Dreams which themselves caused to be dreamed, says the Prophet Jeremiah, cap. 29. v. 8. Sabini quod volunt solent somntare, says the Adagy: The Sabines dream what they would have. But for this Vision at Anwick, it was not what my Lord wishit, but what he feared. Let Babie; be frighted with such Visors, Ecquid, ait, vani terremur imagine visus? says the Preacher Eccl. 5.3. A Dream cometh through the multitude of Business. That which the Fancy is troubled with most in the Day, it rencounters in the Night, yet without any deliberation of Reason; and therefore must be most groundless to collect an observation from it, of any act that hath an intellectual touch in it. I except the infusions of Prophetical Inspiration, which commonly who can suppose he hath attained without Enthusiastical Presumption? Juggling Astrologers, that will fly at any game for profit and credit, held the People in a Dream, how they could interpret Dreams, which would hit, and which not by the Planet; as Salm • sius says Clymact. p. 789. that it was Hephestions profession to unfold, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in what nights of every Moon they will happen to be true. But he that records his Dreams, as if he weighed a thing so light in the Balance of Observation, his Wits are built upon Fairy Ground, and needs no other Astrology to deceive him, but his own Superstition. Isaiah says, That which shall come to nothing, shall be as the dream of a night vision, c. 29.7. Ens siclum, a Toy of no Entity, that hath no place in a Predicament. The greater is their Sin, that make it some part of a Quarrel, if they dream that another was ominous to their Life or Honor: As Plutarch relates in Dion 's Life, how Dionysius the elder dreamt, that one Marsyas had killed him, which made him take opportunity to kill Marsyas to prevent it. I am certain it was for no Good-will, that the Bishop of Lincoln was notch'd so often upon the Tally of ill-boding Dreams: God did promise, that old men should dream Dreams of holy revelation, Act. 2.17. But these came from the old man, which is corrupt, Eph. 4.22. who had Art and Part, as the Scottish Indictment runs, in all our Bishops Persecutions. After my L. Bishop Laud had begun to go a sharer with the Duke to suppress him, he knew not how to sound a Retreat and desist; like to Pope Julius the Second in his Character, Nunquam ab eo, ad quod ingenio feroci impellebatur, recedendum putavit, Match. Prin. c. 26. Whatsoever he set himself about, though unpleasing and dangerous, he never looked back to Repentance; and it was beyond his Sufferance to let a parallel Line side with him, but he saw, if he did not cut this man down, he was like to grow to as much heighth of Glory as himself: Beside, being dazzled with too much Light of Royal Favor, he did not see that he needed to make Friends, least of all to fear an Enemy. Whether he had little or sufficient insight into Government, is disputable, but he knew how to govern the King: Like Anaximander the Soothsayer to Alexander the Great, Cui credulitatem suam rex addixerat. Alexander believed anything that Anaximander told him, Curt. lib. 7. Mediators were not wanting, that endeavor'd a renewing of Friendship between these two Prelates; which the Haughtiness, or perhaps the Dissidence, of Bishop Laud would not accept; a Symptom of Policy more than of Christian Grace, not to trust a reconciled Enemy: Which is not approved by a good Heathen, Tul. Ep. lib. 3. Ep. 37. Si quis est qui neminem in gratiam putat redire posse, non is nostram persidiam arguit, sed indicat suam. He that will not trust, is not to be trusted.
85. Many did suspect that there was small hope to unite these, because the one was hard Wax, the other soft: Bishop Laud would not connive at the Puritans, nor seek them with fair Entreaties, but went on to suppress the Ringleaders, or to make them fly the Kingdom. Bishop Williams perceived that this made the Faction grow more violent, to triumph against Justice, as if it were Persecution, that the cutting of some great Boughs made the Under woods grow the faster. His way to mitigate them, was to turn them about with the fallacy of Meekness: If they came to him, they had courteous Hospitality; if they asked his Counsel in Suits of Law, he gave them all assistance; if some Ceremonies would go down with them, he waited till their queasy Stomachs would digest the rest; he thought it no dishonest thing, if he might win his weak Brethren, to shift a Point of the Compass, when the Winds blew overthwart, and to fetch them in, not always by a straight course, but sometimes by Obliquity. Another Disunison was this: Bishop Laud was not only a great Patron of them that maintain Arminius, or, as they would have it, Melancthon 's Doctrine, but a great discountenancer of the opposite part. And since he shook the Box, they were but Duices and Trays in all Church-Preferments. The Indraught of this Partiality wax'd into a new Faction, never known before he sat at the Stern: The King's Declaration, pag. 21. speaks not a little to it, that Bishop Montague 's Book did open the way to those Schisms and Divisions, which since have ensued in the Church. Some, both then and at this day, are so alien'd from the Followers of Calvin, as they call them, that the Samaritans were not more strange to the Jews; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . They will not shake Hands with a dissenting Dogmatist. This our prudent Bishop did both dislike and despise, as a very causeless Breach maintained by them, Qui eruditionem discordiâ metiuntur, as Aventine says of the Schoolmen, Annal. lib. 6. And therefore he says in his Sermon at the Fast, p.