A SERMON At the Funeral of the Right Reverend Father in GOD, JOHN Late Lord Bishop, and Count Palatine of Durham.

THE EPITAPH OF THE DECEASED, Prescribed by himself in his WILL, was this;

Rev. xiv. 13.
Beati Mortui, qui moriuntur in Domino, requiescunt enim à Laboribus suis.

The dead Mans real Speech. A FUNERAL SERMON Preached on Hebr. xi. 4. Upon the 29 th day of April, 1672 TOGETHER WITH A brief of the Life, Dignities, Benefactions, Principal Actions, and Sufferings; and of the death of the said late Lord Bishop of DƲRHAM.

Published (upon earnest Request) By Isaac Basire D. D. CHAPLAIN in ORDINARY to his MAJESTY, and ARCH-DEACON of NORTHUMBERLAND.

LONDON, Printed by E. T. and R. H. for James Collins; at the Kings Arms in Ludgate-street, 1673.

TO THE Christian Reader.

THis untimely Conception might have proved an Abortive, or if born, Gen. 35. 18. a Benoni, to the Pa­rent then in sore Travel, through sick­ness, both in the Preparation depro­perated, as also in the present Produ­ction; being at the earnest intreaty of the Noble Relations of our Lord Bi­shop deceased, now pressed unto the Press. When this was delivered, vivâ voce, out of a due Regard to the So­lemn Confluence of so many Worthy Persons, (for some of them came from far) as also out of a respect to the day, then far spent, I did purposely contract my Meditations, and ex­press them then, under the Ancient [Page] Canonical measure of an [...]. S. Basil. Ho­mil. xxiii. [...]— [...]—Idem S. Basil Homil▪ 2. in Psalm. xiv. Non adhaerendum rebus secularibus (**) Conctonator non ultra Horam, ne fastidium pariat auditoribus; Canon Hunga­ricus, &c. Hour: Esteeming it a point of Commendable Prudence, and also of plausible Thrift to boote, on such Solemn Occasions, to shorten the double pains both of the Speaker, and of the Hearers.

But since the delivery, being desi­red, as by sundry Worthy Relations of the deceased, so at the request of my Friend, the Honest and Industrious Book-seller, I have been perswaded to enlarge the Sermon, with the Addi­tion of a Brief of the Life of the de­ceased Prelate; and so my Brooke is become a River, Eccles. 24. 31. I wish it may not prove a Sea, to deterr the Reader from launching out into it: For the mat­ter of Right done to the dead in General, I refer my self to Gods Word: For the matter of Fact in particular concerning the Person of the deceased, I Report my self to their Report, whose [Page] Information I have diligently, and se­verally desired, and faithfully deliver­ed here, relying upon their verity, confirmed by the Authority of our late Lord Bishops Last Will in English, which should be Sacred. My honest Request to the Christian Reader is only for the same Candour in the Reading, as was intended by me in the Writing.

All which commending to God for a Blessing, I take leave, Praying in K. Davids words; That God would spare me a little, Psal. 39. 15. that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen.

AMEN.

Imprimatur,

Tho. Tomkins R. R. mo in Christo Patri ac Domino D no Gil­berto Divinâ Providentiâ Archi-Episc. Cant. à Sacris Domesticis.
Ex Aedibus Lambethanis Feb. 10. 1672.

ERRATA.

PAg. 6. lin. 1. deest but before upon. & l. 2. an bef. uniform. & 1. 14. in comparison of eternity, after span long. & l. ult. and felicity, after innocence. p. 8. l. 12. for how read which way. p. 9. l. 5. dele comma after Statute. p. 24. l. 25. r. the Holy— p. 37. l. 4. phrase it in— p. 42. Marg. for Covar­rus r. Covarruvius. p. 43. l. 4. r. Calligraphy. p. 50. l. 11. r. domestical. p. 54. Marg. ad lin. 11. r. Constantinopol. p. 57. l. 2. add he before much. p. 59. l. 29. after teaching add them. p. 70. l. 12. after thrive add the. p. 71. l. 16. r. Proprietary. p. 85. l. 15. after Character add Conscience. p. 92. l. 13. r. Br [...]n [...]. p. 93. l. 22. for with r. of. p. 97. Marg. r. Switzerland. p. 110. l. ult. for still r. yet. p. 118. after the Latin Will dele Vid. J. Will. &c. p. 119. before Our help, insert, The Translation of the Latin Will. p. 121. l. 13. for shading r. shadowing.

THE Dead Man's REAL …

THE Dead Man's REAL SPEECH.

Hebr. 11. 4. ‘—By it, he, being dead, yet speaketh.’

KNow you not that a great man is faln in Israel? 2 Sam. 3. 38. This was David's noble Epi­taph over Abner, though his Rebel: and how much more may this be our Just Pre­face to this solemn Funeral (to be sure) over a better Man than was Abner? Therefore in King David's [Page 2] words I may truly say again, Know you not that a great Man is now faln in our Israel? A great Man indeed, as shall appear before we take our Final Leave of him: We may be sure greater than Abner, not only in his State, but, which is the crown of all true greatness, in his Graces and Be­neficence; in this indeed, and in truth, greater than Abner: yet Abner was a great man, for he was a Gene­ral in the Field; (but on the wrong side, the Rebels side:) Our great man a General not only in the Field The Lord Bi­shop of Durham is Lieute­nant Ge­neral of this County, as ab Anti­quo ex Offi­cio, so, ex abundan­ti per Manda­tum, by the Kings gracious Commission, cumulativè and so still under the King, who is always the Sovereign of all Estates in his Realms., but, which is much more, a General in this Church, I mean, his Diocess (a great one) and in both these great Capacities constantly Loyal, ad Ex­emplum: And yet, as high as this great man was so lately, behold how low he is laid down now, who yet must be laid down lower, as you shall see by and by. Such Spectacles of Mortality ought to be to us Sur­vivours tot Specula, so many true [Page 3] Looking-glasses, wherein whatever our Artificial Looking-glasses may flatter us, with what our living faces seem to be now, this Natural Looking­glass tells us plainly, to our faces, what all our dead faces shall be, must be then (God knows how soon:) He being Dead, yet speaketh out Mor­tality to us all; so many Funerals, so many Warning-pieces to us all to prepare for our last and greatest Issue. This, Eccles. 70. 2. in the Judgment of the wise man, is the best use we can make of our Access to the House of Mourning, such as this house is at present; therefore the Living should lay it to his Heart, which that we may all do:

Let us pray with the Spirit, and in the words of King David:

Psal. 90. 12.
O teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Can. 55.
Ye shall further pray for Christ's Holy Catholick Church, &c.
Hebr. 11. 4.

THe Scope of this Text (which must be the Aim of the Ser­mon) is this, to stir up all the faith­ful living to imitate the faithful that are dead; Hebr. 11. whereof this Chap­ter is the sacred Roll upon the Di­vine Records, down from Abel unto the Patriarchs, the Judges, the Kings, the Prophets, Hebr. 6. 12. &c. that is, that we should endeavour to become the followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

The Text is short, but the Lesson is long (that is) to live so now, as we may die well at last, and, by our good works, speak when we are dead.

The Parts are two, which do ex­press two States of Man.

1. The state of Death, [He being dead] which is the privation of the life of nature common to all men, (on which frail life most men doat so much, because they have no care for, nor hope of a better life.)

2. The state of a Life after Death, [Page 5] that is, the Life of Glory, implied in these words [He speaketh] for Speech is the evidence of a living man: Er­go Abel though dead in the Body, yet is still alive in the Spirit.

The first is a Corrosive to the state of Nature, but the

Second comes in as a Cordial to all those who are in the state of Grace.

This Text appears much like the Israelites Guide in the Wilderness; 'twas a Cloud, Exod. 14. 20. with Hebr. 12. E. and that no ordinary Cloud, but such a Cloud as was Dark on the one side, and Light on the o­ther side, dark towards the Egypti­ans, but Light towards the Israelites: Even so is Death, dark and sad to the Unbelievers and Impenitent, but lightsome and welcome to all true Penitents and Believers.

1. To begin with the first, The state of Death; Man in the state of Innocency was created capable of three Lives; the Life Corporal, Life Spiritual, and Life Eternal.

The first is the Life of Nature, a Transitory Life.

The second is the Life of Grace, a [Page 6] Life permanent upon condition of perseverance in uniform obedience to God.

The third is Life Eternal, the Life of Glory, the Life of the Saints Tri­umphant, of the Elect Angels, yea the Life of God himself, Ephes. 4. 18. and there­fore a Life immutable, interminable:

2. Two of these three Lives [the Life natural and spiritual] man had then in present possession, and the third in a sure reversion after the expiration of but one Life, and that a short one too, but a span long; this present life is no more, by King David's just measure: Psal. 39. 5. Behold thou hast made my days, as it were a span long.

3. Man by his Apostasie from God, through the first original sin of will­ful incogitancy, and through pride, did soon deprive himself of all these three Lives at once, and so according to the just sentence of God, pro­nounced upon man aforehand (for a fair warning) Morte moriêris, Gen. 2. 17. Thou shalt die the Death, man was justly precipitated from that high state of Innocence into the base and damna­ble [Page 7] state of sin and misery, whereby every man, none excepted, (but the God and man Christ Jesus) is now by original sin become subject to a three­fold Death, First, Corporal, Second­ly, Spiritual, and thirdly (without Repentance) Eternal.

The first is Death Corporal, which is a total (but not final) separation of the Soul from the Body [the sad Real Text before our Eyes.]

The second is Death Spiritual, a far worse kind of death, a state of sin, which is a separation of the soul from the Grace and Favour of God which is life it self, Psal. 30. 5. without which we are all by nature, Ephes. 2. 1. dead in trespasses and sins, Children of wrath, no better.

The third and worst of all, is Death Eternal, and therefore called in Holy Scripture, Revel. 20. 6. The great Death, the second Death; because it is a fi­nal, total and eternal separation of both Soul and Body, from the Glori­ous Presence, Beatifical Vision, and admirable and unspeakable Fruition of God himself; whom as to serve here on Earth is the Life of Grace, so [Page 8] to enjoy in Heaven is the Life of Glo­ry, which is life everlasting.

4. The first of these three [Death Temporal] none of us can avoid; die we must, die we shall, God prepare us all for it: But as the thing, Death, is certain for the matter, so for the manner, how we shall die, in, or out of our wits, as in Frenzies, &c. where we shall die, amongst Friends or a­mongst Foes; when we shall die, whe­ther in youth or in old Age; how we shall die, whether by a suddain, violent, or painful Death (which God in mercy avert from us all) none of us all knows: and therefore our best course is, while we may (by a lively faith, timely repentance, and real amendment of life) to prepare for Death; St. Aug. and then come Death in what shape it will, de Discipl. and welcome, we shall not die unprepared. cap. 2. non potest malè mori qui benè vixe­rit, Audeo dicere, non potest ma­lè mori qui benè vixe­rit. Yet it concerns us all frequently and seri­ously to think of these great Quatuor novissima [Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.] 'Tis Moses his passionate wish; O that they were wise, that they understood this, Deut. 32. 29. that they would consi­der [Page 9] their latter end: Hebr. 9. 27. Since 'tis ap­pointed for all men once to die, and after that comes Judgment. The Vul­gar Translation renders it statutum est, Death is an universal Statute, Law to all mankind; and so it is both for authority of coaction, and cer­tainty of execution, for it is ground­ed upon two of the greatest Attri­butes of God, which are,

First, God's infallible Truth; for the Commination was directed unto man, and that also in mercy, to forwarn him that he might not sin.

Secondly, God's exact Justice, which requires the execution of the Divine Sentence, to be done upon the same nature that had sinned. Man did sin, therefore man must suf­fer, that is, man must die; and be­cause the first man Adam was the O­riginal Root, and General Repre­sentative of all mankind (Adam's off­spring) therefore all men must die (pray God we all may die well) or if they live to the end of the world, yet they must suffer a Change at the least, 1 Cor. 15. 51. at the last, which Change what­ever [Page 10] ever it be, (for 'tis a Mystery) will be equivalent to a Death, so that there lies an universal necessity to undergo a Death, some kind of Death. Gen. 5. 5. In the Antient Register of the Macrobii, those long liv'd Patriarchs, Adam liv'd 930 years, and he died; Methu­selah, the longest liver of all Man­kind, lived 969 years, and he died, &c. that is the burthen song of them all: Neither Methuselah the antien­test, nor Sampson the strongest, nor Solomon the wisest of men, could ex­empt themselves from the fatal ne­cessity of Death. Seneca himself, though but a Heathen Philosopher, being ignorant of the original cause of Death; yet observing the gene­rality of the event of Death, drew his Topick of Consolation to his Friend Polybius, sad for the Death of his Brother, from this necessity of Death: But God be thanked, we Christians have better Topicks of Comfort for the Death of our Chri­stian Friends, past, or our own Death a coming, by opposing, through Faith, against the terrour of our Dissoluti­on [Page 11] by Death, the consideration of our admirable and comfortable con­junction with Christ our Head after Death. This glorious state is by St. Rom. 8. 19. Paul styled the manifestation of the Sons of God, for which, by a na­tural instinct, the whole Creation groan­eth with an earnest expectation of the accomplishment: The word in the Original is very significant [ [...]] which betokens the looking for some Person or thing with lifting up of the Head, or stretching out their Necks with earnest intention and ob­servation to see when the person or thing looked for shall appear; as a poor Prisoner condemned looks out at the Grates for a gracious Pardon: And if the Creatures inanimate, &c. do so earnestly pant for the Final Re­demption of the Sons of God, how much more we being the Parties prin­cipally concerned? This made St. Paul as it were with hoised-up sails of Hope and Desire (the Affections of his Soul) to long to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Phil. 1. 21. [...] The Original im­ports to loosen, or to launch forth, as [Page 12] a Ship from a Forreign Port for a hap­py voyage towards her wished for Haven at home.

5. I have so much Christian chari­ty for the surviving noble Relations of the Great man deceased, as to be­lieve that, if they could, with their wishes and tears, waft him over back from Heaven to labour again on Earth, they would not do it, if they loved him indeed, and not rather themselves. 'Tis an excellent obser­vation of Isidore Pelusiota (he lived above 1200. years ago) who com­menting on these words of our Savi­our's compassion for Lazarus expres­sed by his tears, that it was not at the Death of Lazarus, John 11. 35. but that it was at his Resurrection that Jesus wept, a re­al demonstration of his Humanity both natural and moral: This Fa­ther's note upon that difference is this, That our Saviour Christ's Love towards Lazarus was a Rational Love, yea, a Divine Love, not as Ours to­wards our dead Friends too too oft, too carnal or natural, or at the best a humane love, if not a self-love, we [Page 13] wish them alive for our own ends. True it is, that 'tis very lawful, and also very fit to pay our deceased Friends their due Tribute of Grief, and to let Nature have her course, Rom. 1. 31. lest we should seem or appear without na­tural affection; [...] but provided always that the Current of Nature do not overflow the Banks of Reason, much more the Banks of Religion settled by St. Paul, who would not have Christians to be sorry for their de­ceased Friends, as others who have no hope: 1 Thes. 4. 13. For there is a lively hope of a joyful meeting again in the state of Glory, if we in the state of Grace do follow the Saints deceased. Up­on this consideration is worth the ob­serving the different manner of mourning of Joseph for his Father Jacob, his dear and near Relation, for Joseph mourned seven days only, Genes. 50. 3. 10. and of the Egyptians mourning seven­ty days for the same Jacob, a stranger to them. The reason of the diffe­rence is, because the Egyptians were unbelievers, but Joseph was a Believ­er of the Resurrection, and of a [Page 14] glorious meeting once again with his deceased Father, from thenceforth never to be separated. This Posie of sacred Meditations I do now pre­sent to the Noble Relations of the deceased; desiring them to accept this offer, and to use it as a Spiritual Handkercheif, to wipe off, if not drain the Spring of Tears for this their deceased support.

6. Mean-while our main care must be not to forfeit that glorious meet­ing by a course of life contrary to the good example of the Saints depart­ed, but instantly to resolve, earnestly to study, constantly to endeavour to live well, that is to say, To make the Will of God the Rule of our Life, and the Honour of God the End of our Life: Rom. 14. 7, 8. This is to live unto the Lord, that is, in Subjection unto him; and then we may be sure to die in the Lord, that is, under his Protection, both of Body and Soul for evermore.

7. You may be pleased to remem­ber that our Text was two faced, and therefore we compared it to the Is­raelites Guide through the Wilder­ness, [Page 15] a Cloud: we are now past the dark side of it, Death, [He being Dead] we must now face about and chearfully behold the bright side of the cloud, wherein the Dead speaketh; and here we have

  • 1. The Speaker, He
  • 2. The Speech implied, He speaketh
  • 3. The time expressed, Yet, that is, after Death: [He being Dead yet speaketh]

8. First, the Speaker is Abel [...], whose name bears mankinds universal Motto in the Holy Tongue, Eccles. 1. [...]. that is, Vanity: for when all is done, Vanity of Vani­ties, Eccles. 12. 7. all is Vanity: until the Spirit of man return to God who gave it: till then, whatever Pride may prompt vain man, Psal. 39. 7. verily every man living, in his best estate, is altogether vanity, Selah!

Secondly, For his Trade, he was an Heardsman, for he offered to God the best of his Flock, in due Homage, and as a Figure of that Lamb of God, [Page 10] [...] [Page 11] [...] [Page 12] [...] [Page 13] [...] [Page 14] [...] [Page 15] [...] [Page 16] which was to come to take away the sins of the World: John 1. 29. no doubt he was well instructed by his Parents Adam and Eve, of whose Conversion and Salva­tion to doubt, (since the promise of the Blessed Seed preached unto them by Almighty God himself after their fall, Gen. 3 15. and which we must in reason suppose was apprehended and ap­plyed by them to themselves through Faith, lest God's preaching should prove vain: such a suspicion, or doubt of their eternal state) were in us their Posterity an odious want of charity, Iren. E­piph. Chry­sost. Augu­stin. &c. and against the Current of the Antient Fathers, who give for it this probable reason, That God did expresly curse the Serpent and the Earth, but God did not at all curse either Adam or Eve; but contrary­wise God in mercy did bestow upon Adam and Eve the original and fun­damental blessing of the Promised Seed, the Messiah which is Christ Je­sus our Lord and Saviour, in whom all Adam and Eve's Posterity should be blessed; and therefore they are not to be concluded within the num­ber [Page 17] of the damned crew, upon whom shall be pronounced that dreadful final sentence of Ite male­dicti: Mat. 25. 41. Go ye cursed. As a clear evi­dence of Adam and Eve's Faith, we produce their Works, namely the Godly Education of their Children, Cain and Abel, in God's true Religi­on, to offer corporal sacrifices, &c. with a spiritual reference, and there­fore with faith in the only expiatory and satisfactory sacrifice to be per­formed in the fulness of time by the person of the Messiah, Galat. 4. 4. the second Adam, for the saving of mankind, as the first Adam was in the damning of man­kind; both the Adams being publick Representatives of all mankind, as the first in the Fall, so the second in the Resurrection.

9. This just Apology for our first Parents, Adam & Eve, I thought it my filial duty to offer unto all mankind, Adam's off-spring, once for all to stop the mouths of censorious Children unmindful of their original duty, and of the Rule Parentum Mores non sunt Arguendi: Genes. 9. 22, 23. Shem and Japhet were [Page 18] blessed for turning away their faces from their Father's nakedness, but wicked Cham was, for outfacing it, cursed with a grievous curse This Curse sticks to this day (above 4000 years) as a foul brand upon Cham in his cursed Posterity, for the Egyptians and Ethiopians or Blackamoors are the Descendants of cursed Cham [Lexic. Geographic. Ferrarii ad vocem Aethiopiam. Sam. Bochart. geogra­phia saera parte 1. lib. 4. cap. 1.] A People of all Nations most inconvertible, even to a Prophets Proverb [Jerem. 13. 23.] Can the Ethiopian change his skin &c. A standing dreadful Monument, and a thundering Warning piece to all such young Chams, as dare to disgrace their Parents privately, or rebel against them publickly..

10. 'Tis very observable that God had respect unto Abel first, and then to his sacrifice, to intimate that God first accepts the Person, and then his service, Vers. 4. for Abel offered by Faith, but Cain without Faith, for want of which God rejected the person of Cain (though the Elder Brother) and consequently his sacrifice.

Hence observe, that two men may come and worship God with the same kind of outward worship; and yet dif­fer much in the inward manner, and success of their service to God: Wit­ness Cain and Abel in the Old Testa­ment, Luke 18. and the Publican and the Pha­risee [Page 19] in the New. For the true Reli­gion is chiefly inward for the sub­stance, and not only outward for the circumstance and ceremony; the Religion of too many, I had almost said, of most formal Professors now a days; an Artificial Religion, as being moved chiefly, if not only, by out­ward Respects and Objects, without any inward Life, the want of which did make a wide difference betwixt Cain and Abel, the Speaker here, from whom to pass unto his Speech, we shall interpret it by a three fold Exposition.

  • 1. Grammatical.
  • 2. Doctrinal.
  • 3. Moral.

11. As to the Grammatical Expo­sition, I am not ignorant that the word [ [...]] in the Original may be verbum medium, and so may be trans­lated either in the passive sence [he is spoken of] as some few Interpreters have rendred it, or in the active sence, to which I am rather carried by the [Page 20] clear and strong current of almost all Interpreters. Syriack, Vulgar, Aethio­pick, Arabick, French, English, Germain, Italian., and the Harmony of eight Translations both Antient and Modern, who all render it actively, He speaketh. This Translation is con­firmed by a clear Parallel (Hebr. 12. 24.) where comparison being made betwixt the precious blood of Jesus Christ and that of Abel, Clem. Alex. Chrysest. Vatablus, Zege [...]us, Grotiu [...], Tena. 'tis expressed in the active sence [ [...]] Not in the passive, that the blood of sprinkling is better spoken of, but in the active that it speaketh better things than that of Abel. Ergo, Abel being dead, yet speaketh, quod erat demonstrandum: Enough of the Grammatical Expo­sition.

12. We pass now to the Doctrinal Exposition. The Doctrine is this, That for the godly there is a life after this life, for Abel being dead yet speaketh, but we know that dead men are speechless, and that speech is both a sign and an action of life, Abel is not absolutely dead, though dead in part, he still lives. We inlarge the in­stance from righteous Abel unto all the faithful; the total summ is this, [Page 21] That though good men die, yet their good deeds die not; but they survive, and that in both Worlds.

First, Prov. 31. 31. In this world to their due praise (for their own good works praise them in the gates.)

Secondly, They live in the next world by their Reward and Corona­tion, Revel. 14. 13. for their works do follow them: So many good works, so many living Tongues of good men after Death; who are therefore styled in the Holy Gospel, Luke 20. 38. The Children of the Resurrecti­on: and again, Abel still lives unto men, in the memory of all good men, for to such the memory of the just shall be bles­sed, Prov. 10. 7. and the memory of their vertues calls for both our Commemoration and Imitation of them, which leads me to the third point propounded, which was the Moral Exposition.

13. For I suppose none that hear this, are so gross of understanding, as to imagine a Vocal Speech of the Dead, which would be a miracle, but a Speech Analogical, by such a Figure as the Heavens speak when they de­clare the Glory of God. Psalm. 19. 1. The parallel [Page 22] of St. Chrysostom upon the Speech of Abel, our speaker in the Text: the Father, after his wonted Rhetorick, amplifies it thus; If Abel had a thou­sand voyces when he was alive, he hath many more, now he is dead, speaking to our admiration and imitation. But though the Dead Man's Speech be no vocal speech, yet it is and will be a real speech for our conversion or condemnation to the end of the world: for Abel being dead, yet speaketh.

First, He speaketh by his Repentance implied in his sacrifice, not only for Homage, due by all rational creatures, whether Angels or men, unto God their Creator, but also as a tacit con­fession of sin to be expiated by the All-sufficient sacrifice of the promi­sed blessed seed, the Messiah to come, and so Abel being dead, yet speaketh, and was by his typical sacrifice the first Prophet of the Old Testament. The good examples of holy men are standing real Sermons: For there are two wavs of preaching, by word, or deed: The first is good, the latter [Page 23] is better, but both are best.

Secondly, Abel being dead, yet speaketh by his faith expressed here in the Text, which faith is a never­dying Preacher to all Ages of the Church, because it assureth all the faithful (such as was Abel) of both God's regard and reward of all his true Servants, Hebr. 11. 6. who follow Abel's faith.

Thirdly, Abel being dead yet speaketh by his works of Righteous­ness, James 11. 18. the necessary and best evidences of a lively faith, Hebr. 11. 4. for which Abel stands canonized by God's own appro­bation and acceptance, First of his person, that he was righteous, and then of his performance, his sacrifice: Therefore Abel is inrolled with E­noch (vers. 5.) for his Communion of Faith, Godliness, and Happiness, by which both Enoch and Abel pleased God. Theodoti­an. Theo­phyl. & A­lii. The Jewish Rabbins, and sundry Christian Interpreters offer as a tradition this sign of God's accept­ance of the sacrifice of Abel, Lev. 9. 24. 2 Chron. 7. 1. to wit, Kings 8., 8. by sending Fire from Heaven (as upon Aaron's and upon Solomon's and up­on Eliah's sacrifice) which kindled the [Page 24] sacrifice of Abel the younger Brother, and not that of Cain, who was the elder Brother. Cornel. B [...]rtram. Some Interpreters think that this acceptation of Abel's sacrifice was a designation of Abel, the younger Brother, to the Priest­hood before Cain the elder Brother, and that these were the occasion of Cain's envy, and his envy the cause of Abel's murther. By the way, 'tis worthy our observation that all that come to worship God are either Abels or Cains, that is, they come with faith or without faith, and they speed ac­cordingly.

Fourthly and lastly, Abel being dead yet speaketh, as in his Life by his Actions, so at his Death by his pati­ence and passion; for as St. Stephen was the Proto-Martyr of the New Te­stament, so was Abel the Proto-Martyr of the Old Testament, for he died for righteousness sake: Hence some Inter­preters derive his name from [...], which in Holy Tongue signifies to mourn, because he was the first man that did taste of Death, for which, and for whom his (and our first) [Page 25] Parents Adam and Eve did begin to mourn.

As it is certain that sin, though but a beast, hath a voyce, and which is more strange in a beast, sin hath an articulate voice, and by a counter-passi­on, which is lex talionis, sin doth not only indite the sinner, but also indor­seth upon the sinners bill the parallel punishment for time or place, person or action, so that many times the pu­nishment becomes the Anagram of the sin: This even natural men do con­fess, Judges 1. 7. witness Adonibezeck, As I have done, so God hath requited me: which was also King David's case, 2 Sam. 12. 10. Blood for Blood; such was the voice of sin, and of their own Consciences. Sin hath a voice indeed, and that a loud voice, for it reacheth as high as Heaven, to God's ear, and from thence rebounds with an eccho upon a man's own con­science. Gen. 18. 20. We read of the cry of Sodom, James 5. 4. and of the cry of the hireling's wa­ges, kept from him, and here Abel's blood hath a voice that cries aloud for Justice in God's eares, and as it were, prefers a Bill of Indictment, upon [Page 26] which God, the just Judge, immedi­ately arraigneth Cain, passeth Judg­ment and doth Execution upon Cain the Fratricide, stamping a curse both upon his person and estate, saying, What hast thou done? Gen. 4. 10, 11. the voice of thy brothers blood cries unto me from the Ground, and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thine hand: When thou tillest the Ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vaga­bond shalt thou be in the earth. Now, as sin hath a voice so grace hath a voice also, calling upon us as for our Imitation of the vertues of the Saints departed, Revel. 14. 13. so calling upon God for a gracious compensation of their works which follow them after death: not at all by way of merit, but of God's free mercy; for what proportion betwixt man's works which are but temporary and there­fore finite (all our best works are no more, Rom. 8. 18. and besides imperfect all) and God's high reward which is Infinite both for weight and for duration to [Page 27] all eternity? Some Interpreters add a fifth way, by which Abel being dead, yet speaketh, to wit, as a Type, by his blood shed by Cain his Brother, pre­figuring the blood of Christ shed by his brethren the Jews. And thus ma­ny ways, Abel being dead, yet speaketh; And so all good men, though dead, yet speak by their good works of Faith and Patience: In which blessed number, this dead man before our eyes was through God's grace listed, and so speaketh by his good deeds to his Generation, and seems by his ex­ample to preach unto us all St. Paul's Apostolical Admonition, Galat. 6. 9. Not to be weary of well doing, for in due season we shall reap [a reward] if we faint not, as our Christian hope is, the deceased Prelate findeth it now to his ever­lasting comfort.

O how gladly would I make an end here, and so come down! Sorry I am that I must now pass and descend from the Literal Text to this our Real Text lying before us; But 'tis a Rule of Christian practice, that when God hath been pleased to reveal his will [Page 28] by the event, our humble resignati­on of our selves and friends, and all, with submission of our will to God's will is our duty, and the best reme­dy to allay all our sorrows, and to say in the words, and with the spirit of Holy Job, Job 1. 21. The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord, (which is part of our office for burial) in all this Job sinned not, no more should we if we would be followers of Job's faith and patience, which God grant us all, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed from Angels, from us, and from all men, all praise, power, Majesty and Dominion, now and for ever. Amen.

A BRIEF OF THE Life …

A BRIEF OF THE Life and Dignities, OF THE BENEFACTIONS AND Principal Actions, &c. OF The Right Reverend Fa­ther in God, JOHN Lord Bi­shop and Count Palatine of Durham, &c.

LONDON, Printed for James Collins, at the Sign of the Kings-Arms in Ludgate-street. 1673.

THE Dead Man's REAL SPEECH.

BUt before we enter into this due Office of Comme­moration, (for to preach or pray over the dead, is Justa persolvere) we must by way of prevention enter this solemn Protestation against this our censorious Age, That we do abjure all manner of flattery, passive, or active, being, God be thanked, settled above all slavish fear or base hope from the living, much more from the dead. Was King David a Flatterer for composing and publishing those [Page 32] goodly Epitaphs upon Saul and Ab­ner, 2 Sam. 1. 3. who yet were no very good men? Acts 9. 39. or were the godly widows, flatterers for shewing the Coats and Garments which Dorcas made whilst she was alive? In the ensuing rehear­sal our intention is, and our endea­vour shall be to publish nothing but vera & utilia. As for the verity, as I am confident of the Ingenuity of my In­structors (Persons of Quality and of good credit;) so (as I said before) I am convinced and confirmed of the verity of the matter, by the last will (a sacred thing in Law) of our late Lord Bishop. And as for the utility of this due office of Commemoration, we commit our Meditations to Gods direction; and commend them to your attention. If there be any Adder that dare hiss against this dead Prelate, or the live­ing for giving the dead his due, or shall object, Was this man one in quo Adam non peccavit? Was he a man all made of Vertues? Had he no faults? Our answer is that Pro­verb of Charity; De mortuis nil nisi benè 'tis an honest old say; as [...], [Page 33] to gnaw on dead mens bones, is an inhumane, brutish, unnatural hu­mour: Such Cannibals as do delight to feed on dead mans flesh, by tearing of their Fame, do take the Devils Of­fice out of his hand: Yet, the Devil, if one may say so, was more a Gentle­man, more civil to Job, for the Devil slander'd him indeed, but 'twas when he was alive, and so might and did answer for himself. Job 1. & seq. Far be it from me to usurp the Office of a Coroner, over the state of the Dead; the Rule of Charity, and practice of our Church, in the Office for the dead have taught me better Divinity. I know by ex­perience, that an evil eye looking up­on the Dead, through the wrong end of the perspective, I mean Envy, will not only spear out, but also espy, and that with aggravation the infirmities or faults of the dead; I wish all such seriously to consider themselves, and well to weigh St. James James 5. 17. his Obser­vation; Was not Elias a man subject to the like passions as we are? and yet by the Pens of the Prophets and Apo­stles dipt in Charity we read nothing [Page 34] but commendations of Elias; nor of Job, James 5. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Job: not a word of his impatience, Job 42. 3, 5, 6. tho' confessed by himself (whom some think to be the Authour of the most part of that Book.)

When I have done with the due praises of this Great Man, Ecclus. 44. 1. some Shi­mei with his Serpents tongue may still hiss at, Let us now praise famous men, and our Fa­thers that begat us. though he can never hurt, this dead man: To stop all such foul mouths I wish them to reflect upon themselves, and let them know that there must be faults as long as there are men; and with a serious reflexion upon themselves, let them fore-know that after him who lies here before us, we must all, every one of us, be weighed in the ballance at last; and for my own part I must confess I am perpetually afraid to have my share in that Article against Belshazzar; I dread his Tekel, Dan. 5. 27. that final doom, Thou art weighed in the ballance and found wanting. The best of us all at Dooms­day would be glad to have their grains of allowance, and why should we grudge them to our betters? [Page 35] Therefore now to draw the curtain over all humane infirmities and im­perfections, which may God cover in mercy, and clear us all by his free pardon through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And so to proceed:

It is certain that no man is born a Saint; but 'tis as certain that every good man that dies in the exercise of Repentance, Faith and Charity dies a Saint; such as our Hope is, this our Brother died.

First, his Name.

His Name was John, which in the Holy Tongue signifies the Grace of God. Here, by the way, Parents and Godfathers may take out this good Lesson, not to put upon their Chil­dren fantastical, much less profane and superstitious Names, but prudently to chuse such Names as may be con­tinual Memorials of some good duties to the parties so named, as oft as they shall hear, read or write their own Names, that they may endeavour by [Page 36] their lives to become as good as their names.

Secondly, His Sirname.

His Sirname was Cosin, in Latine Cognatus, quasi à Con & Natus, which (as the famous Civilian Modestinus expoundeth it) signifies a Cosin in primo gradu in his own Family. This Sirname of Cosin is become famous by diverse learned men of that Name. I saw once in our Prelates hand Cognati Opera; and we have in our hands that excellent Apology for the Ec­clesiastical Lawes by Dr. Richard Co­sin that Renowned Civilian; and now our Church enjoyeth that solid work Intituled,

A Scholastical History of the Canon of the Holy Scripture; brought forth in his banishment, by this our deceased Lord.

Thirdly, His Birth.

His Temporal Birth was on St. An­drews day, 1594. His birth to Glory, [Page 37] (I mean the day of his death) was Jan. 15. 1671-72. his Age 78. current, Psal. 90. 10. greater by so much than King David's first measure 70. So that, to phrase in Jobs words, Job 5. 26. He came to his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season. Length of dayes is by Gods favour annexed to the fifth Commandment [Honour thy Father, &c.] which the Apostle maketh the first Commandment with promise; Eph. 6. 1, 2. and 'tis a Glory: For the hoary head is a Crown of Glory, Prov. 16. 31. if it be found in the way of Righteousness: A good evi­dence of Gods acceptance upon his obedience to his Superiours, Spiritual, Political and Natural Parents, for want of which due obedience to Parents, God many times shortens the dayes of the Sons of Belial, Rebellious Children.

Fourthly, His Person.

God and Nature did frame his earthly Tabernacle of a goodly stru­cture, for he was both tall and erect; a fit presage aforehand of the stature [Page 38] of his future preferments and digni­ties; [...], Eurip. he had a Prelatical presence, which he over-topped with his libe­ral beneficence. This I am sure of, he was no Dwarf, neither in Stature, Dignity nor Bounty, as will appear by the ensuing discourse.

Fifthly, His Family.

1. Paternal, his Fathers Name was Giles Cosin of Fox-hearth; Acts 21. 39. a Citizen of no mean City (to use St. Pauls phrase, who did glory in Tarsus his birth-place.)

His City was Norwich, of which more anon, when we come to his Countrey. He was a good Citizen, a man of substance, witness his liberal education of this his great Son.

2. By his Maternal descent, he was Son to Mrs. Elizabeth Remington, of Remington-Castle, an antient Family, and which is worth all the rest, both his Parents were of the Household of faith, Gal. 6. 10. both born and bred in the true, antient, Apostolick and Catholick Religion of the Church of England, [Page 39] which this their Son did so early im­bibe, that he lived and died a con­stant Professor, and Patron of the same: Thus was his Family in Lineâ rectâ.

As for his Collateral Line, he took a Wife out of an antient Noble Fa­mily in this Countrey, Frances, the Daughter of Mr. Marmaduke Blaki­ston (a Dignitary both in the Metro­political Church of York, and in this of Durham) Marmaduke was Son to John Blak [...]ston of Blakiston Esq; whose other Son was Sir William Blakiston Father to Sir Thomas. His Wife was a prudent Wife, and there­fore from the Lord: To my know­ledge a true yoke-fellow, Prov. 19. 14. not only in Prosperis, (as too many worldly-mind­ed Wives) but chiefly in Adversis, which is the tryal of a good Wife, and of a true friend indeed; and these are blessings! For to have the Burthen of a Wife, and not the bles­sing of a good wife is a great cross, if not a curse.

And here I stop from attending the rest of his Family any further; per­haps [Page 40] I have gone too far already in presuming to blazon a Pedigree, be­ing no Herald.

Sixthly, His Countrey.

To pass from his Family to his Countrey, he was born a Britain and an English Man. A Nation so famous for situation, [...] Cambd. Brit. &c. Vegetius a­bove 1200 ago wit­nesseth that the climate of Britain is of that tempera­ture, out of which 'tis fittest to chuse valiant Souldiers. plenty and victories. If Plato did thank the Gods that he was born a Grecian and bred a Philosopher, but still a Heathen: how much more ought every true English-Man to be thankful unto God for his birth un­der a Christian Monarchy? Christian indeed, if, as the current of Historians do report, it received the Christian Religion from one of the Apostles, or one of their Apostolical Disciples; some say Simon Zelotes, others Joseph of Arimathea: and if England (as they say) was the first Kingdome in all the world that first received the Gospel, with the countenance of Su­preme Authority under King Lucius a Britain (whom Historians do place Anno Christi 170, and 'tis no small ad­dition [Page 41] of honour for this Kingdome, that the first Christian Emperour, even Constantine Sabelli­cus R. Ar­chiep. usher Praefat. ad Britan. the Great was born in England. Thus our deceased Prelate was blessed in the place of his birth, Eccles. but much more blessed for the state of his New Birth in such a Chri­stian Church, the most Apostolical and the purest of all Christian Churches; Primond. ex Euseb. Theodoret. Expertus loquor, for in 15 years Ecclesiastical Pilgrimage (du­ring my voluntary banishment for my Religion and Loyalty) I have sur­veyed with an impartial eye of ob­servation most Christian Churches both Eastern and Western; and I dare pronounce of the Church of England, what David said of Goliahs Sword, There is none like it, 1 Sam. 21. 9. both for Primi­tive Doctrine, Casaub. Worship, Epist. ad Salmasi­um. Discipline and Government, Episcopal Hierarchy, the most moderate and regular: For it was a singular providence of God to inspire the first Reformers of the Church of England with the Spirit of wisdome, to conjoyn the zeal for ve­rity with due reverence to Antiquity: for by Cardinal Baronius his own [Page 42] Confession, Baron. ad an. Christi 35. & ad an. Tib. Imp. 10. where he affirms that Bri­tain was converted by Joseph of Arima­thea. The like is af­firmed by Gildas Co­varrus and others. the Church of England is for her Christendome acknowledged antienter than Rome it self by nine years; and 'tis strange in reason, and more strange in nature, that the pre­tended Mother should be younger than the Daughter, but that any thing which is rational is rejected by such as only relie upon a Magisterial pre­tence of Ipsa dixit, which false prin­ciple smells rank of wilfull schism, and also wrongful in causa propria. And here without suspicion of ingra­titude, I cannot but bless God, that by his providence he was pleased to ingraft me into this Holy Church, wherein I have had the honour to bear the office of an unworthy Priest, above 43 years. To pass on from England, the general Countrey of the deceased, to his particular Countrey; He was born in Norwich, Cambd. an Ancient, Great, Brit. Famous and Opulent City, and the more opulent now by his late liberal Gifts and Legacies to that City, expressed in his English Will.

Seventhly, His Education.

To pass from his Countrey to his Education: He was planted in the Free School of Norwich, watered by that famous Fountain of this Land, the University of Cambridge; 1 Cor. 3. 5. and God gave the increase both of solid Piety and sound Learning, first in Caius Colledge, whereof he was Fel­low, and afterwards he had the ho­nour to be brought up at the feet of that great Gamaliel Dr. John Overall, an Apostolical Bishop first of Litch­field, after of Norwich, whose Secre­tary he was for his Learning and Coe­ligraphy; Psal. 45. 2. for he had the Pen of a ready Writer in a singular way, and so might deserve the praise of the Tribe of Zabulon; Judg. 5. 14. so well could he handle the Pen of the Writer. Bishop Overal (who sent him from time to time to the University to keep his Acts) ad­vised him to direct his studies in or­der to Divinity. His Elias being ta­ken from his head, he was preferred to be Domestical Chaplain to that great [Page 44] Patron of the Church, Dr. Richard Neile, who having passed thorow five Bishopricks, ascended at last to the Archiepiscopal Throne of York; and this gives me a fair hint to pass from his Education to

Eighthly, His Dignities.

Our great Prelate did not, as some more ambitious than worthy, a­scend to the Episcopal Throne per Saltum, but by the Canonical De­grees: As first, he was lawfully Or­dained Priest, and afterwards was in­stalled Prebendary of this Church of Duresme, wherein he was not slack to search, and study the Rights and An­tiquities of the same, and among o­thers to promote one of the Honours of it by his constant Residences, both Ordinary and Extraordinary with lau­dable Hospitality, according to the Statutes (Salvis Canonibus) sealed with a Sacred Oath, and therefore to be observed; for he was so far from pressing upon his Majesty for (impor­tunate) Dispensations, (which are al­wayes [Page 45] the Soveraigns most just Pre­rogative, in cases of real and legal ne­cessity) that upon search of our Churches Register, I find not one dis­pensation for him in all the time he continued Prebend, which was about 36 Years. And I knew a man, who in two cases of invincible necessity, had the Royal favour of two dispensati­ons (the one unsought for by him) who yet preferring the publick good and honour of the Church, to his own private interest, did voluntarily wave both. The first for the Peace of the Church, then but newly resto­red; the other for the honour of the Church, then for sundry months de­stitute of Residentiaries, which also proved an effectual Precedent to re­strain some from troubling the King for Dispensations intended otherwise. After he became Bishop of the same Church, he was so careful to preserve this honour of Hospitable residence, that at his last personal visitation of the Dean and Chapter, An. 1668. among other Injunctions this was one; That such Prebends as do not keep due Re­sidences, [Page 46] according to the Statutes, shall be deprived of their Quotidians and Dividends, grounding also this his in­junction upon right reason, viz. Qui enim Emolumentum alicujus loci perci­piunt, Injunct. onera etiam ejusdem loci sentire, Quint. & ferre debent; which practice is conformable to good Conscience and Equity, and worthy the imitation of his Colleagues, whether Incumbents or Successors; for 'tis a Rule in Law, Beneficium propter Officium, and there­fore for causeless habitual Non-Resi­dents, chiefly in Cathedrals or Mo­ther Churches, (which admit not such Deputies or Coadjutors in their Cha­pters, as by the Laws are allowed in particular cures) for Non-residents (without real necessity) to claim or to enjoy equal profits with the Resi­dents, who do bear the burdens both real and personal, seems to be against the Rule of Proportion, which forbids, Dare aequalia inaequalibus; Lev. 19. 15. and comes near also to a kind of [...], Prov. 18. 5. a partial respect of persons, Rom. 11. 11. which God so frequently forbids (I would I could say, Gal. 11. 5. &c. God forbid; and also that [Page 47] I may prove a false Prophet, for un­less things be amended I fear parti­ality and non-residence may prove the ruine of the Church.) But there is an­other Rule in Equity, That though some Dispensations, in case of manifest necessity, may pass as lawful in foro soli; yet (if without that necessity) they may prove unlawful ad hominem, in foro poli, where he may appear in the shape of the austere man in the Gospel, Luk. 19. 21. if he reap there where he does not sow in proportion; for in every Society every good man should bear his own burthen. Gal. 6. 5. And it may further be offered to common prudence, nay, as a case of Conscience; whether such Dispensees who presume upon the Grace of the Royal Dispensor (only upon pretence, or chiefly out of co­vetousness) ought not to make resti­tution to the extent of their Power; Bishop Bramhals Vindicati­on, &c. for what sentence is justly left upon Record by a grave Prelate against the old Sequestrators, may, sub modo, be applyed also to the case of the new wilful Non-residents: An. 1672. pag. 16. His Sen­tence is this, That of all the Command­ments [Page 48] the eighth is most dangerous; for the breach of other Commandments obligeth to Repentance, but the breach of the eighth Commandment obligeth both to Repentance and Restitution; according to St. Austins Rule of good Conscience, Non remittetur peccatum, nisi restituatur ablatum. And certain­ly there is appointed a great day of account for both, at which day Lord have mercy upon us all, and pardon our sins of Omission, from which in this particular our Bishop was clear.

2. He was Arch-deacon of the East-riding in the Diocess of York.

3. He was Master of Peter-house.

4. He was Vice-Chancellour of that University Anno 1640. when he had the honour to send the publick Plate to the King, then in his Recess, to supply in part his Princes necessity for the present; and then also I had the honour to be admitted Doctor of Divinity between his hands, and with his Benediction.

5. He came to be Dean of Peter­borough, from whence he had the ho­nour to be preferred to the Order of [Page 49] Confessors, that is, for his Religion and Allegiance, to become a Seque­stred Man for near upon 20 years. Here by the way, I may insert an Ob­servation (it may be called a Predi­ction) that as I am informed, Doctor Easedale in the year 1636. gave him some small thing upon condition he should pay a greater summ when he were made a Bishop: Such was the expectation men of understanding had then of his future greatness. For,

6. Upon the Kings wonderful Re­stauration, He was by His Majesty first designed Dean of Durham; but upon the Kings Gracious Reflection on his constant Attendance and Ser­vices beyond the Seas, he was decla­red by the King, of a Dean intend­ed, to be the Actual Bishop of Dur­ham. His immediate Predecessour was that great Luminary of our Church, Blessed Thomas Morton, famous for his Holy Life, solid Learning, and boun­tiful works of Charity and Hospita­lity; and for his manifold learned Works against the Adversaries of the Church of England on the right hand [Page 50] and on the left; as for the Doctrine against Hereticks, so for the Disci­pline, against the Schismaticks of his time, beyond any satisfactory Answer to any of his Works unto this day: To whose Memory I should be un­thankful, if I should not acknowledge (for which I do still bless God's Pro­vidence) that I had for above an Apprenticeship the happiness to be brought up as Domestick Chaplain at the feet of such an Eminent Gama­liel.

To be Bishop of Durham is no ordi­nary State, but an high Dignity; for besides the Spiritual Dignity of a Bi­shop it includes the Temporal Power of Count Palatine of Durham and Sad­berge; a singular Synastria, as I may say, or Constellation, is this concur­rence of two great Dignities, the Spi­ritual with the Temporal: For, what­ever Envy may object to the contra­ry, yet these two are not in reason in­compatible. Such was the State un­der the Patriarchs, &c. the Eldest Son being both Prince and Priest. Neither in practice unusual in this no­ble [Page 51] Kingdome, but that the same per­son may be both a good Minister and also a good Magistrate: Provided al­wayes, that the Clergy-man do not affect it out of Ambition. Wise men see no cause why he may not lawful­ly accept the Commission in due sub­mission to Supreme Authority, under which the same person may be, with­out offence, both a Bishop and Count Palatine; for which respect, of two Arch-Bishops, and twenty four Bishops in England and Wales, 31 H. 8. c. 10. the Bishop of Durham is by Act of Parliament rank­ed in the fourth place, next to the Bi­shop of London. And here 'tis worth the observing, that God, the immense Geometer of all the World, Plato. was plea­sed by his providence to proportion the height of this great Prelate's Ex­altation to the depth of his Humilia­tion for Loyalty, 'O [...], &c. under Seque­stration and Banishment, in that he was by the Royal Bounty promoted from the Order of a Priest, immedi­ately to be a Bishop, and that, Bishop of Durham. Luk. 14. 11. To fulfill the Rule in the Gospel, Whosoever exalteth him­self [Page 52] shall be abased, and he that hum­bleth himself shall be exalted.

He was the 68 Bishop of this Dio­cess from Aidanus the first Bishop of Lindisfarne, Anno 637. (St. Cuthbert's renowned Cathedral in the Holy Island) the Mother of this Church of Durham, of Great Antiquity; for from the first foundation of this Church Anno 637. unto this present year 1672. the succession of this Church hath out-lasted above 1000 years, and so still may it last unto the Worlds end. But now to con­sider a Bishop in general.

A Bishop.

A Bishop is the most eminent office in the Order of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, for though the Lords Arch-Bishops be Superiours to the Bishops in their Degree, yet in re­spect of Order, the Bishops, quatenus Bishops, are equal, de Jure, and there­fore need, de facto, no new Con­secration when they are made Arch­bishops.

[Page 53] A Bishop is by the judgement of Antiquity, and by the major part of sound and sober Modern Divines, deemed an Apostolical Office, because derived from the Apostles themselves, who after they had planted Christian Churches, as Oecumenical Ministers of Christ, were setled in particular Dio­cesses, where they were to exercise both the Episcopal Powers of Ordina­tion and Jurisdiction; (this none but Aerian Hereticks will or can deny;) for 'tis clear both from Holy Scri­pture, the Epistles of St. 1 Tim. 5. 22. Paul to Ti­mothy and Titus, Titus 1. 5. and the strong cur­rent of Ecclesiastical History. Euseb. A high Office again in respect of Christ, eve­ry Priest under Christ, the Supreme Everlasting Priest, bears a part in Christ his Priest-hood; so every Bi­shop being a Successour lawfully de­scended from the Apostles of Christ, bears a part of Christs Apostleship, for Christ is styled an Apostle, Heb. 3. 1. and therefore the Glorious Martyr [...]. S. Ignatius, Epist. ad T [...]al­lianos, princ. The Father grounds his Injunction upon the Apostles Canon, Heb. 13. 17. St. [Page 54] Ignatius, who was St. John the Apo­stle's Disciple, gives this Rule to the Christian Churches of his time; Ignat. Ep. That we ought to be subject to the Bishop as unto the Lord. However this high Office, by furious Fanaticks hath been, by a prodigious pride of late, in these Rebellious Times, much slan­der-beaten, disgraced, yea degraded; which Crime, Coucil. General Councils have made the stigma or brand of down­right Hereticks in a larger sence. Constant.

And here, God be thanked, that of all the Reformed Churches, Hooker Ec­cles. Polit. the Bishops of the Church of England can clearly derive their Succession from the Apostles themselves, Mason de Minist. as hath been made good abundantly by the worthy Champions of our Church. Anglic. Dr. Bram­hall, &c.

And now upon the consideration of the Antiquity, Eminency and Uti­lity of a Bishop in this Diocess, which is now in the state of an Ecclesiastical Widow-hood, or to phrase it with St. Greg. Naz. [...], Shepheardless; since the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, Prov. 21. 1. as the rivers of water, and he turneth it whithersoever he will; [Page 55] We pray, and hope that it may please God to incline the heart of the King in his Royal wisdome, to bless us in due season with a Successour, worthy of his Predecessours; a Godly, Learn­ed, laborious and vigilant Bishop, the more necessary both for Spiritual and Temporal Government in these Nor­thern parts, being so far remote from the Sun of Justice and Honour, the King, and too near to some ill affect­ed neighbours only blinded by pre­judice or ignorance; and so much the rather, because of the conjuncti­on of this Bishoprick, the Spiritual Dignity with the Temporal Power of the County Palatine perpetual.

County Palatine.

1. For Antiquity, as old at least as William the Conquerour, Cambden. Selden, Titles of Honour, part. 2. cap. 5. who observes that the Bishop of Durhams style, in his Patents, &c. runs thus, Dei Gratiâ Episcopus Dunelm. &c. And I have observed for this forty years, that at the General Assizes and Sessions, the Publick Cryer concludes in this usual form, God save the King and my Lord of Durham. as we are in­formed by our Learned Antiquaries; [Page 56] and that, not by Creation, or by Act of Parliament (as other Counties Pa­latine) but by long Prescription, 11 H. 6. & Pasch. con­firmed afterwards by several Acts of Parliament, 21 Eliz. 1. and by the Protection of our Gracious Kings from time to time.

2. For Authority, the Bishops of Durham freely enjoying (alwayes un­der the King as Supreme) Jura Rega­lia, within this County, insomuch that 'tis a maxime in Law, that, Quic­quid Rex potest extra Episcopatum, po­test Episcopus intrà: Salvo semper Do­mino Regi supremo jure vitae & necis, &c. In regard whereof, by way of compensation for the Court of Wards belonging of old to this County Pa­latine, but for the exigence of the bad Times, taken away of late by Act of Parliament, His present Majesty our Gracious King Charles II. (whom God long preserve) out of his wont­ed Royal Equity, was graciously plea­sed to Grant unto our late Lord Bi­shop an Exemption from the Annuity of eight hundred eighty pound per Ann. belonging to the late Queen Mother, [Page 57] in Reversion after her death unto this our Bishop and his Successours (much elder than the Queen Mother, and so in the course of nature not likely to enjoy it in his own time, but in his intention to procure it for the good of his Successours.) A special Royal Bounty, for which no doubt God will reward the King and his Royal Successours.

Ninthly, His Actions.

They are so intermixed with his Passions or Sufferings, that in our Dis­course we can hardly sever them, but must sometimes coincide; for in­stance, when he was in Exile in France, he did with much magnani­mity, do aforehand some of the Of­fices of a Bishop, one part whereof is to stop the mouths of the gain-sayers to sound doctrine, Tit. 1. 9, 10, 11. and that in a time of great necessity, when both the Church and the King of England were dispersed, and the members dissipa­ted; Rev. 13. 10. here is the patience and faith of the Saints. One signal instance of his [Page 58] constancy and courage for the Litur­gy of the Church of England, may not be omitted, that is, Anno 1645. He did, with the consent of the Ministers of the Reformed Church of Charen­ton near Paris, solemnly in his Priest­ly Habit, with his Surplice, and with the Office of Burial, used in the Church of England, Interr there the body of Sir William Carnaby, a No­ble and Loyal Knight; not without the troublesome contradiction and contention of the Romish Curate there.

At that time, many that were pore­blind, and not able to see the then less visible face of the Church of Eng­land then in the wain; a Church in the wilderness, because under perse­cution, when sundry were wavering from the true Religion; Our Bishop did then confirm some Eminent Per­sons against many Imminent and Im­portunate Seducers; This truth is confessed by some body, (otherwise a good man) who yet seems no great friend to our Bishop, but being convinced by the reality of these his Actions, especially abroad, hath these words: This must be re­ported to the due commendation of Dr. Cosin, that when he was in France, he neither joyned with the Church of French Protestants at Charenton nigh Paris, [False] nor kept any Communion with the Papists therein; but confined himself to the Church of Old English Protestants therein, where, by his pious living, and constant pray­ing and preaching, he reduced some Recusants to, and confirmed more doubters in the Protestant Religion. Many were his Incoun­ters with Jesuites and Priests, defeating the suspicions of his Foes, and exceeding the expectation of his friends in the success of such Disputes. Church-History by Mr. Tho. Fuller, Cent. 17. Book 11. Sect. 38. pag. 173. His many mistakes about Mr. Peter Smart his Prosecutions (or rather Persecutions) of our Bishop are confuted by the Bishops own express Letter to Mr. Waring and Dr. Reves, April 6. 1658. in which Letter also our Bishop censures at large Mr. Fullers Calumny, wherein he affirms, that Dr. Cosin did not joyn with the French Protestants at Charen­ton, against which Assertion the Dr. declares to all the world, that he never refused to joyn with the Prot [...]stants there, or any where else, in all things wherein they joyn'd with the Church of England. And that our Dr. was constant in this his judge­ment, may further appear by a former full Letter of his from Paris, Feb. 7. 1650. written to one Mr. Cordel then at Bloys, who seemed shy to communicate with the Protestants there up­on this very scruple of their inorderly Ordination, &c. as Dr. Co­sin styled it, who there and then determined the Question in the Affirmative for our Communion with them; Salvo semper jure Ecclesiae Anglicana. (another Epi­scopal [Page 59] Office) which is in such ambi­guous times especially, Tit. 1. 11. to confirm the Souls of the Disciples, exhorting them to continue in the Faith; Acts 14. 22. teaching, That we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God.

One notable instance of this our Bi­shops Constancy and Zeal in this kind we may not omit which was a solemn conference [...] by word and writing [Page 60] betwixt him and the Prior of the En­glish Benedictines at Paris, supposed to be Robinson. The Argu­ment was concerning the validity of the Ordination of our Priests, &c. in the Church of England. The Issue was, our Doctor had the better so far, that he could never get from the Prior any Reply to his last Answer. This Conference was undertaken to fix a person of Honour, then wavering a­bout that point: The summ of which Conference (as I am imformed) was written by Doctor Cosin to Doctor Morley, the now Right Reverend Lord Bishop of Winchester, in two Letters bearing date

  • June 11.
  • July 11.

1645.

His Noble contempt of great pre­ferment on the right hand and on the left, if he would comply with, or but connive at the erroneous positions and practices of the Seducers; to all whom his real and resolute answer was that of St. Peter to Simon Magus, Act. 8. 20. Thy money perish with thee [ [...].] [Page 61] So far was this Great Spirit from tottering, much more from turn­ing aside from the right way.

Great was his Communion of Cha­rity towards all Christian Churches, if agreeing in the fundamental Arti­cles of Salvation, though different in form of Discipline and outward Ce­remonies; which demonstrateth that he wore in his breast Animum Catho­lieum, that is, ready to communicate with all Christians, Salvâ veritate: if Dissenters would not do so recipro­cally, for want of Charity, he by his Christian moderation would leave the Schism at their doors; so far was he from the unseasonable, that I say not, unreasonable severity of some that presume to Non-Church whole Churches for such circumstantial dif­ferences, as long as they hold the substance of Christian Doctrine and Worship: And in this he did follow happily the wise Example of that Great Prelate Bishop Andrews, Nec ta­men si no­stra [Poli­teia] divini juris sit, inde sequitur, vel quod siue ea salus non sit, vel quod stare non possit Ecclesia. Caecus sit, qui non videat stantes fine ea Ecclesias. Ferreus sit, qui salutem eis neget. Nos non sumus illi Ferrei: latum inter ista discrimen ponimus. Potest abesse ali­quid, quod Divini Juris sit (in exteriore quidem Regimine) ut ta­men substet salus. so [Page 62] eminent for Primitive Piety, Item Epist. tertia. Quaeris tum peccéntue in Jus Divinum Ec­clesiae vestrae, non dixi. Id tantum dixi, abesse ab Ecclesiis vestris, aliquid quod de Jure Divino sit, Culpâ autem vestrâ non abesse, sed Injuriâ Temporum. Non enim tam propitios habuisse Reges Gal­liam vestram in Ecclesiâ reformandâ, quam habuit Britannia no­stra. Interim, ut dabit meliora Deus, & hoc quoqùe quod jam ab­est, per Del Gratiam suppletum iri. Opuscula posthuma D. Ep. Andrews, in Epist. secunda ad V. L. D. Peter Molin. See more at large the Reasons of this our Christian Moderation towards those forreign Churches, in the learned Bishop Bramhal's vin­dication of the Episcopal Clergy, &c. against Mr. Baxter, Printed Anno 1672. p. 30, 31, &c. Chri­stian Prudence, and Universal Learn­ing: For wise men do not think it safe to multiply Adversaries (of whom we have enough already (God knows;) we must be very wary to avoid the mischief of an unnecessary Schisme, which may harden the worse Adversaries in Heresie.

This his Christian condescension towards the Reformed It is an express Article in our Bishops last Will (we might call it his Spiritual Will) written in Latine, which because of the Excellency of it, both for mat­ter and form, hath been thought fit by his Executors to be an­nexed to this Brief of his Life, which contains a full Confes­sion of his Faith and Religion, the first occasion and chief mat­ter, as of the Patriarch's, Gen. 49. so of the Primitive Chri­stians Testaments. In this also a worthy imitator of his Pre­decessour learned Bishop Morton, who hath left the like free full Confession in his Last Will. Churches [Page 63] was afterwards requited by a singular respect from the Chief Doctors of those Reformed Churches, Amyrald. whom to ccondemn rashly is to storm whole Churches against Charity. For our moderate connivance at their inordi­nate Ordination, does not at all legi­timate it, but only declareth our Christian Charity, to pity them for want of Episcopal Ordination, be­cause they cannot help themselves: So long as they have Episcopatum in voto See Dr. Durel' s learned and labo­rious Work. Entituled, Of the Go­vernment, &c. in the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas, p. 13. See Dr. Steward at Paris, Anno 1647. when this was put to the Question. (their words and writings te­stifie this ingenuously) though to their grief they cannot have Episco­patum in Facto through Political ne­cessity, which rather deserves our compassion, as blessed Bishop Morton did often bewail their infelicity for the want of Bishops, they being Sub­jects living under a Great Monarch of a different Religion, who for Rea­sons of State, will not suffer in his Kingdome two several Bishops of two several Religions in one Diocess, to preserve publick Peace, and to pre­vent 1 [Page 64] Contention, and clashing of Ju­risdictions, to the disquiet of his Loy­al Subjects; much less would such a King suffer his Native Subjects of the Reformed Religion to go out of his Kingdome to a forreign Kingdome, there to receive Episcopal Ordinati­on from Protestant Bishops, depend­ing upon a forreign Prince, to whom every person that is to be Ordained a Deacon, Priest or Bishop, must by the Statute Laws and Canons of that Land and Church, and by the form of Ordination, before he be Ordain­ed swear Allegiance. This that King or Prince will not permit, neither in point of prudence to prevent defe­ction, or the falling away of his Sub­jects to a forreign Power.

His Works.

We pass now from our late Lord Bishops Actions transient, to his Works more permanent; his Scholastical Works, whereof some are Printed, and some yet unprinted: for he ob­served the golden maxime, of that [Page 65] modest and wise man of Greece, Py­thagoras, who gave this very mystical but wise advice unto his Scholars, [ [...]] By no means to eat their own brains; intending there­by (as 'tis conceived) that they should not keep their Reason and Learning (of which the brains are an immediate instrument) unto them­selves, but still employ them for the advantage of others, for whose be­nefit this our Learned Prelate did publish these following Tracts, viz.

Printed,

1. Many years agoe he did pub­lish a Book Entituled, A Collection of Private Devotions, extracted out of the publick Liturgies of the Churches both Ancient and Modern; very use­ful for good Christians well disposed, and which may teach them how to offer unto God a reasonable Service every way. Rom. 12. 1. That work at first was looked upon with an evil eye, and hissed at by some serpentine Tongues and Pens to suppress it; (they were [Page 66] none but Schismaticks) but yet to this present time it hath had the blessing to out-live a fifth publick Edition.

2. During his Sequestration and Banishment, when through the ini­quity of the Times he was not suffer­ed to preach in England, he did in France compose an excellent Book, Entituled, A Scholastical History of the Canon of the Holy Scripture, drawn out from the Judaical Church to the Sixteenth Century of years. A funda­mental work, which proves him to have been a perfect Herald of the true Pedigree of the Holy Scripture. This Work was first Printed, 1657. when still Sequestred and in Exile, and since reprinted Anno 1672. but to this day unanswered, for the space of fifteen years and more; we may suppose the reason is, because the Evidences therein are unanswer­able.

3. By the same method he did compose a Book against Transubstan­tiation, part whereof is already printed.

Ʋnprinted.

1. The other part is unprinted, but ready for the Press, written twen­ty four years ago; Entituled, Histo­ria Transubstantiationis Papalis.

2. An Answer to a Popish Pam­phlet, pretending that St. Cyprian was a Papist.

3. An Answer to a Paper delivered by a Popish Bishop to the Lord In­chequin.

4. An Answer to four Queries of a Roman Catholick about Protestant Religion.

5. Annales Eccl. Opus Imperfect.

6. Dr. Cosin's Answer to Father Robinson's Papers concerning the va­lidity of the Ordinations in the Church of England.

7. Summarium Doctrinae Ecclesiae Anglicanae.

8. The differences and agreement of the Church of England from and with the Church of Rome.

9. Historia Conciliorum, opus im­perfect.

[Page 68] 10. Against the forsakers of the Church of England, and their Sedu­cers, in this time of her Tryal.

11. Chronologia sacra, opus imper­fectum.

12. A Treatise concerning the a­buse of Auricular Confession against the Church of Rome. For though the Church of England both by grave Exhortation and Godly practice in her Holy Offices, doth allow of pri­vate Confession to the Priest as Gods Deputy by express Commission [who­soever's sins you remit they are remit­ted] in the cases of a troubled con­science: St. John 20. 21, 22, 23. And that her Children may come to the Holy Communion with full trust in God's Mercy: See in the Book of Common Prayer, the first Exhorta­tion be­fore the Commu­nion. Our Church doth admonish them that such a Con­fession may then be very Medicinal: Yet, our Church guided by the Word of God, and by good Antiquity, just­ly denies Auricular Confession to be absolutely necessary to the Remission of sins, provided the party be truly penitent. With much more reason doth our Church deny private Con­fession to God's Priest to be Sacra­mental, [Page 69] as the Church of Rome doth affirm without any solid ground of Verity, or from Antiquity. These re­mains are earnestly recommended to his Pious Executor's care for publi­cation; for by these Fruits of his, we may charitably conclude, He ob­tained the character of the blessed Man, Psal. 1. 4. whose leaf shall not wither: and by these his excellent Works our dead Prelate, being dead, yet speaketh.

His Benefactions.

To pass now from his forreign Acti­ons abroad to his Countrey-Benefacti­ons at home. That great Prelate had this blessing from God to enjoy a large heart, 1 Kings 4. 29. that is, an heart capable, not only to know, but also to do great things (for his time) both to his Chruch and Country. He was indowed with an Active Spirit to de­sign, and with an able Body to per­form his designs; as God gave him Wealth, so he gave him Artem fruen­di; for it is one thing to have wealth, and another thing to enjoy [Page 70] and use it well, by maintaining good works for necessary uses, Tit. 3. 14. chiefly Pub­lick and Pious Works, for he was mindful of the Apostles precept; Heb. 13. 16. To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well plea­sed; and therefore he was both more careful of, and also chearful in the distribution of his Munificence for these pious uses; and his Posterity may from thence raise up their hope to thrive better for it; for after God in the Poor, and God's Church, out of the Chruches Patrimony is well serv­ed, a little well gotten, and left by an honest Clergy-man, may stretch much further, and stick much longer in his Godly Posterity, than a Church-Estate ill-gotten by some Lay-Nim­rod, who seldom out-lives, much less transmits his Sacrilegious Estate to the third Generation, which com­monly and visibly verifies the old Proverb, De malè quaesitis vix gaudet tertius Haeres:

And here I must crave leave for a very material digression concerning the Clergy's Spiritual or Ecclesiastical [Page 71] Estates; for although, as I hope, I have else-where See my Book of sacri­ledge, pag. 45. 49. &c. sufficiently pro­ved, that by the Law of God and Man, the Clergy of England have as good and as legal (that I say not a better) Title to their Benefices and Dignities pro tempore, as any Lay-Subject of England to their temporal Inheritances, and so may justly call their Estates their own, in foro externo; yet indeed and in truth (and by sad experience to Clergy-mens Widows and Chil­dren, not so well provided for here, as beyond the Seas) we Clergy-men are but Ʋsufructuaries, God is the great Proprietor Paramount of all that Clergy-men enjoy, which gives them an high Title to what they enjoy under God, to whom at last they all must one day give a strict account, when they must hear of a Redde Ra­tionem, Luk. 16. 2. (God knows how soon!) and then we must be no longer Stewards here; for it is evident by the forms of the antient Donations, to, and Do­tations of the Church, that God him­self is the Chief Treasurer of the Churches Estate: The antient forms [Page 72] run thus, Concedimus Deo, & Ecclesiae, &c. V. Capi­tula Caroli M. item Miraeum de Donat. Belgi [...]. So that God himself is Enti­tuled the Chief Lord and Proprie­tary to all Clergy-men's Estates, to whom all their Church-Lands under God are granted.

1. To provide for God's Moral Houses.

2. God's Material Houses.

1. Mat. 25. Gods Moral Houses are chiefly the Poor, to bestow upon the truly poor and impotent through Age, or made so by Providence, through fire or o­ther involun [...]ary mischances, or to such who though they labour by their industry, to maintain their own Families, yet being over-burthened by their Wives and many Children, are not able to relieve them all; these are the best poor, and therefore most worthy to be relieved V. Speed's Chron. p. in the eye of prudent Charity. As for Vagrants or common wandring Beggars, whereof this Kingdome swarms, to the con­tempt of so many good Laws, and to the great scandal of our Christian Re­ligion; Correction is the best Cha­rity for such.

[Page 73] Wise men say that two things, ge­neral Experience and Memory, make up a wise man: Modesty will not suffer me to pretend to that wisdom, but if I may declare my observation, I have lived some years in Holland and never saw a Beggar there; I have lived some other years in Turkey and never saw a Beggar there.

The reason is plain, because to the Authority of their good Laws, they add the severity of due Execution: We have as good and as wise Laws in England as any Nation under Hea­ven; but Execution is the life of the Law, which is but a dead Letter, yea deadly, if some do make a conscience of observing the good Laws and o­thers neglect it. The lawful remedy of this too publick mischief is wholly and humbly represented and submit­ted to God, and to the King under God.

2. Clergy-men are obliged to be­stow part of their Ecclesiastical estates upon Gods Material Houses, Churches and Chancels, and Ecclesiastical Houses to repair or preserve them [Page 74] from ruine, which would defraud their Successours, and oppress their miserable Relicts and Relations upon the account of just dilapidations.

3. The Premisses being well pro­vided for (which is left to the Chan­cery in his breast, that is, to the Cler­gy-mans conscience and prudence) out of the just remainder of his Ec­clesiastical Estate, the honest Clergy­man may lawfully provide for him­self and Family; for by the Apostle's Canon, 1 Tim. 5. 8. he is worse than an infidel that provideth not for his own, especially those of his own house. Herein our Sa­viour's Rule is the best guide; Mat. 23. 23. these things you ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

But if contrary to the pious inten­tions of the Religious Founders and Donors Clergy-men do intervert the spiritual estate of the Chruch, chiefly or only to raise up or enrich their pri­vate temporal Families, with the neg­lect of the publick God's Houses, whe­ther moral or material: They may (as too many) leave their Children beg­gars, besides (which I am afraid of) [Page 75] a strict Audit at the great day of ac­count, that they may clear themselves from Ecclesiastical Sacriledge, from which now, and at Dooms-day▪ good Lord deliver us all. For my part I do here profess, and protest with thankfulness to God, that out of my signal experience of God's eminent providence over me (though unwor­thy) this hath been my honest in­tention and constant endeavour in this world to make friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness in hope of God's word, Luk. 16. 9. That when we fail they may receive us and ours into everlast­ing habitations; and I am confident, that neither I nor mine shall fare the worse for it; what ever Carnal Rela­tions may murmur against this just and honest course, objecting the worlds false maxime, (contrary to God's true maxime, Phip. 11. 4. look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others,) That every man must make much of his own Time, to which this may be a full reply, That we all must make much more of Eternity.

[Page 76] By these Godly methods, our late Lord Bishop did proceed in provi­ding, as for the Poor (Gods moral Houses) so for Gods material Houses; in both which regards we may truly say our Bishop held his See ad Aedifi­cationem, yet not neglecting those of his own Houshold; and for a reward of those his Pious Works, God gave him leave to live so long, as not to leave his Relations unprovided for, God be thanked.

And now should I launch out into the deep of his great Benefactions, I fear the particulars will overflow both your attention and my expres­sion; you may see them at large in his Temporal Will written in English, where you may read so many Items, so many good Works.

1. To the Quire of Durham.

2. To the Preacher at his Funeral.

3. Tokens to the Dean and Pre­bends for memorials of their morta­lity.

4. To the vicar of St. Andrews Auckland, an addition of sixteen pound per annum.

[Page 77] 5. To his Almes-men of Durham and Auckland.

6. After his Burial to the Countrey-Poor.

7. For the magnificent repairing of the Episcopal Chappels of Durham and Auckland, and for Furniture, Plate, Books, and other Ornaments, &c. in the said Chappels, freely left to the Bishops his Successours. And in this he was a good imitator of his great Patron Bishop Neile, who in less than ten years did bestow upon the same (as I am informed) about seven thousand pound, for indeed he was Vir Architectonicus.

8. He did erect a goodly Chappel in the Castle of Auckland, consecrated by himself on St. Peters day, 1665. Two goodly Chappels formerly ere­cted there (in which I have also offi­ciated for some years of peace) being blown up by Sir Arthu Hasterig in the Gunpowder-plot of the late Rebel­lion. Luk. 7. 5. Now if the Centurion, who built only a Synagogue, wherein Christ was never worshipped, deserv­ed praise, how much more he who [Page 78] built such a house of God, wherein Christ is constantly worshipped Si Cen­turio com­mendatur Domino qui aedificavit Synagogam, quanto est com­mendatior qui aedificavit Ecclesiam? & si is▪ meretur gratiam qui Iimpietati Receptaculum praestitit▪ quanto majorem meretur Gratiam qui Religioni Domicilium praeparavit? Et si ille Coelesti miseri­cordiâ visitatur, qui construxit locum ubi Christus semper negatur, quanto magis visitandus est, qui fabricari fecit Tabernaculum ubi Christus quotidiè praedicatur? St. Ambro. Serm. 89. de Dedic. Basilic.?

9. For several other Publick Works, as the repairing the boyster­ous Banks of Howden-shire belonging to this Bishoprick.

10. To two Schools at Durham.

11. For five Scholars places in St. Peter's Colledge in Cambridge, ten pound a piece per annum.

For Three Scholars in Gonvile and Caius Colledge twenty Nobles a piece per annum.

Eight pounds yearly for the Com­mon Chest of those Colledges respe­ctively.

But for the particulars of his Bene­factions and Legacies, I have referred my self to the Bishops Will it self, writ­ten in English; in which the Bishop modestly declares, that He mentions [Page 79] these as works of Duty, and not for Ostentation.

12. The next is, for the Redempti­on of Christian Captives.

13. For the Relief of the distressed Loyal Party.

14. For a great Publick Library in Durham.

15. To the poor Prisoners of all places where he had relation by birth or preferment.

16. To the poor the like.

17. For the re-building of St. Paul's Church London, &c.

And what shall I say more, Heb. 11. 32. for the time will fail me to tell of his mani­fold Legacies to his Friends dead and living (as monuments of his grati­tude) to his Domestical Relations, Kindred and Servants, all which par­ticulars (as I am still informed) do amount to above twenty five thou­sand pound.

'Tis to be observed that his Lord­ship was Consecrated, Anno 1660. and was translated from Earth to Heaven Anno 1671. so that he enjoyed his Bishoprick but Eleven years, and so [Page 80] computing his premised Benefactions, he spent above two thousand pound a year in these pious uses. A worthy Example of Episcopal Magnificence and Christian Charity. Upon a seri­ous search of the whole Line of the Bishops of Durham from the first of Lindisfarm to this our late Bishop, sixty eight in number, there are found upon the Ecclesiastical Records but Those Bishops Benefa­ctors in the See of Durham were eight. [Isaack­son's Chrono­logy,] eight Bishops (in 1034. years) that may seem to have equalled, but not exceeded this our Bishop in the noble vertues of Magnificence and Benefi­cence; and 'tis worthy the considera­tion of our Age, that the valuation of workmen, and materials, &c. was far less in those antient times than in ours, now much dearer every way. 2

[Page 81] We have been the longer in set­ting forth this notable Example of Episcopal bounty in the Church of Eng­land, that it may burst with envy such of the Church of Rome; Master Knox the Jesuite. (for all amongst them are not alike, some be­ing more ingenuous) till they vomit out their false, foul and rotten say, That Pater Noster built Churches, but Our Father pulleth them down. (The Devils Proverb! none of Solomon's Proverbs to be sure.) This great Man here lying before us may be a stand­ing Monument for a real confutation, and may rise up in judgment against all such base slanderers of our Church and Religion.

Behold! how great and goodly works one single English Prelate hath done in so short a time, and that af­ter twenty years long Sequestration, and voluntary Banishment, only for his Religion and Allegiance.

Neither doth this our Bishop want his Peers even in this present age, our great Arch-Bishops Dr. Laud that glo­rious Martyr, Dr. Juxon, Dr. Shelden, Bishop Warner, those constant Con­fessors, [Page 82] and how many more whose eminent magnificence may on the o­ther hand choak the mouth of that English Bel and the Dragon, and of all such Rabshakehs, who out of their Bu­limia or the greedy worm, do eat much, but as it is observed thrive lit­tle, are still gaping after the sweet morsel of Sacriledge, though in the digestion it will prove first or last a bitter Pill in the maw of their con­science. They, I say, looking upon the Bishops and Clergy with the squint eyes of envy and malice, shoot out their venemous tongues against these good men, and their whole order, inhancing by a false rule of hyperbolical multiplication, the Bishops revenues in Fines, &c. never talking the ingenuous pains to ballance in the account their Incomes with their just deductions in their vast publick and pious expences, but through a diabolical detraction and malignant subtraction, they do wilfully suppress the great Out-lets of these great Re­venues. This Example may restrain a third sort of censorious men, who [Page 83] being more jealous than zealous of good works, object the suspicion of vain Glory in the case, wresting to their own damnation that passage of our Lord, Mat. 6. 3. Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth; though this Caution be expresly restrained by our Lord to secret Alms; far dif­ferent from the case of publick works of Charity, concerning which our Lord gives an express command to the contrary; else what mean these words; Mat. 5. 16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven—That they may see your good works; not as though the sight of them should be intentio operantis, but conditio operandi, thereby to pro­voke others to a Godly imitation, to the Glory of God, 1 Cor. 10. 31. which must be the ultimate end of all our actions: for whilst we praise the Instruments, such worthy men as in life and death have endeavonred to be beneficial unto their Generations; We must not for­get the Principal, which is God the Father of lights, Jam. 1. 17. from whom cometh [Page 84] down every good giving, and every per­fect gift.

Enough, once for all, to gagg those evil men, who being out of charity with Charity it self, want that Chri­stian Charity which thinketh no evil. 1 Cor. 13. 5.

His Passions or Sufferings.

For, Multa fecit tulit (que)—

1. Publick, and that first at home Annis 1640, and 1641. when he was both Sequestred and Angariated be­fore a Sacrilegious and Rebellious Assembly of Lay-men, which the se­duced Crew did nick-name A grand Committee for Religion, his Magnani­mity and Constancy in maintaining the truly Apostolick and Catholick Do­ctrine and Religion of our Holy Mo­ther the Church of England was such, that he came off clear from all calum­nies laid to his charge in base Arti­cles and Pamphlets, to the notorious amazement, disappointment and shame, at last, of his malicious, false and furious Adversaries: And this I can the better depose, for that I had [Page 85] the honour then and there to be a fellow-sufferer, not only by Sympathy with him and for him, but also by my own Idiopathy, yet God deliver­ed him and my self out of all these troubles.

2. His sufferings abroad; as in France where he underwent another Tryal, only for upholding (under the King then in the French Court) the Publick Liturgy or Common-Prayer-Book of the Church of England; for wherever he was, he retained still, and exerted a publick spirit: And his Constancy (the Character of sincerity) was so much the greater, that for all those his Tryals, both at home and abroad, he was never moved, much less removed from his stedfast Belief, and Uniform Practice of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of Eng­land; when at home swarms of un­stable men were carried away with the terrible torrent of the Times, both from the True Religion, and their due Allegiance: For this great Man was resolved and resolute to be one of those (not too many) who [Page 86] would never defile his Holy Garment, Rev. 3. 4. neither his Surplice when a Priest, nor his Rochet (if he could then have been a Bishop) with any Sacrilegious Covenant or Rebellious Engagement; and I thank God so was I; whereby he saved himself the labour of a sad Repentance, and requisite Recantation before God and Men, for those great sins of Perjury, Rebellion and Sacri­ledge; and so he did wisely prevent that scruple, or singultum cordis, the hiccough of Conscience (for so some do translate it) which they of the Cler­gy, who against their multiplyed Oaths to God, the Church and the King have committed, may be put upon here or hereafter, 1 Sam. 25. [...]1. which is the best way to clear themselves from shame and reproach.

3. His Personal Sufferings, which were by his frequent Sicknesses.

1. By Nature, acute, as the Stone It is ob­served of that Civil Lawyer Mathaeus W [...]sembecius, that for his sharp Diseases, in his latter Age▪ he did change his Sir-name, and would be called Mathaeus de Afflictis., &c. which usually he called his roar­ing Pains, whereby he was at last [Page 87] overcome, together with a Pectoral Dropsie.

2. The length of his Disease; for two years before his death he was much crazed by many furious fits, and so he did bend his chief care to prepare for his latter end, fore-feeled in himself, and fore-told by himself to his private Friends, and fore­spoken in his Last Will.

'Tis the Observation both of Di­vines and Philosophers, That when the Soul of Man is near its final (though not total) separation from the Body, it withdraws it self, and so becomes receptible of a kind of Pro­phetical or Prognostick Inspiration con­cerning its departure. It was his bles­sing from God to give him such fore­warnings, and so to hear his prayer in the Letany, to deliver him from suddain death, which though to a Godly Man it may prove suddain, in respect of expectation, for the manner or circumstance concerning time and place; Eccles. 9. 11. (for all things come alike to all) yet in point of preparation, for the matter and substance it's never [Page 88] suddain: This fore-sight of his de­parture at hand, made him often in his sicknesses to ingeminate in the Royal Prophets words; Psalm 55. 6. O that I had wings like a Dove, for then would I fly away, and be at rest!

His Death.

And thereat his last Actions, as,

1. His Benedictions to his Chil­dren, and at their desires, his bles­sing also upon the Divines then pre­sent, and upon God's Church chiefly for Purity and Peace.

2. His Solemn Invitation to God's Priest for his last Viaticum; and then the Priest about him asking him whe­ther (by reason of his weakness) he would have the Bread only dipt, he answered No; but he would receive it in both kinds, according to Christ's Institution; and being through weakness lifted up into his Chair, and having a violent pain in his head, for the ease whereof it was fast bound, he would needs have it all undone and sit bare-headed, and so [Page 89] he received it, an hour and a half be­fore his death, from the hands of Mr. William Flower his Lordships Do­mestical Chaplain.

3. And when being so near unto death he could not kneel, he then devoutly repeated often that part of the penitent Prayer of King Manasses, Lord, Manasses Prayer. I bow the knee of my heart.

4. Having often reiterated his In­vitation of Christ in the words of the Spirit, and of the Church, Lord Jesus come quickly. His last act was the Ele­vation of his hand, with this his last Ejaculation, Lord! wherewith he ex­pired without pain, according to his frequent prayer to God, That he might not dye of a suddain, or painful death; such was his [...] (Augustus his wish) and I pray God for every one of us, that from heart and mouth our last breath may prove like that of our late Bishop, Amen.

His Burial.

The Ecclesiastical Office was solemnly Celebrated by the Right Reverend Fa­ther [Page 90] in God Guy Lord Bishop of Bri­stol: The Political Offices were per­formed decently and in order, which was in all publick actions the method of our late Lord Bishop when living, and the same he enjoyed at and af­ter his death: the particular Narration of which I do civilly recommend to those Dunmviri the worthy Heralds (for the Funeral pomp was very so­lemn) who did constantly attend his late Lordship's state at London, and all the way to Durham, and there, and at Auckland, the place of his Rest, where requiescat in pace, and from thence God send him a joyful Resur­rection: at which prayer none but ignorant or malicious men will take offence; for the meaning is no more, but that the dead may enjoy a happy Re-union of the Soul with the body at the general Resurrection, and a final and full consummation of both in bliss; (and after the utter abolition of sin by death) a blessed conjunction of us that survive with them that are dead, which is the Orthodox sence of our Office at Burials (the ancient sence [Page 91] of the Primitive Church) when we pray over the dead, whose Souls in Christian Charity we hope are past the necessity of our Prayers for their Re­lief or Release from any imaginary (first Pagan, Virg. after Popish) Purgatory.

The Summ of all.

The Text and Sermon is a dead mans real speech: Heb. 8. 1. To hear a dead man speak now were such a Prodigy as would certainly both stir up atten­tion, and strike amazement into us, and all the hearers; yet that Great Chancellour of Paris, John Gerson, re­lates a strange History which hap­pened about the year 1060. at the Funeral of a Grave Doctor there, a man otherwise reputed for the strict­ness of his life; at the interring of whom, when the Priest came to the then used form R [...]sponde mihi, or an­swer me, the Corps sat upright in the Biere, and to the amazement of all there present, the first day cryed out, Justo Dei judicio accusatus sum, At the Just Tribunal of God I am ac­cused, [Page 92] and so laid immediately down in its first posture; the astonished Company deferring the burial till the next day, when the dead man with a hideous noise cryed out again, Ju­sto Dei judicio judicatus sum, By the just judgement of God I am judged; where­upon the burial was deferred a day longer, and the dead man rose up the third time and cryed out his last, Justo Dci judicio condemnatus sum, By the Just judgement of God I am con­demned; whereat, as the whole com­pany was sadly affrighted, so Brimo, then an Eminent Doctor in the same University being effectually affected calling his Scholars together, retired from the world, and as the manner of those Times was then, became the Founder of the Order of the Carthu­sians. A strange Prodigy! and a loud warning-piece to us all living, to ad­monish us not to confide, much less presume upon our outward Righteous­ness; for I dare not deny Historical Credit to this premised Relation from John Gerson.

But blessed be God, dead Abel in [Page 93] the Text, and the dead Bishop on this Hearse speak better things. This Hearse is now our Bishop's Throne or his Pulpit, and so our Bier must be the last Pulpit of us all of the Clergy; high and low all must come to this, God knows how soon; (I may be the next:) God send us all an happy Nunc dimittis, of which we may live and dye assured if we imitate them, for they being dead yet speak, and as you have heard at large do preach unto us all Faith, Hope and Charity (the only strait way to Heaven) all evidenced by their works of Piety, which if not imitated by us, Mat. 12. 42. may justly rise up in judgement against us.

To Recapitulate and summ up our Bishops Vertues under three Heads, I will remind you with,

  • 1. His Intellectual,
  • 2. His Moral,
  • 3. His Theological

Vertues.

1. As to his Intellectual Vertues, his Natural understanding, he was en­dowed with a sound understanding, [Page 94] which he enjoyed to the last; a great blessing▪ Eccl. 9. 2. for though for the outward manner of death all things come alike to all, and there may be one event to good and bad, both may lose their understanding at their latter end, through the malignity or vehemency of some acute sicknesses (which should teach us all in health to make good use of our understandings;) yet for a man to dye, sanâ mente, or in his right wits, is a great comfort both to the dying party, and to the surviving friends.

2. His acquired learning, witness his writings fore-mentioned, and his diligent researches into the magazine of the best Antiquity. I may truly say, Here lies now dead before us one of our Chief Ritualists.

3. He was punctual in his Methods, for to my knowledge he loved Order in his Studies and Functions, and he often repeated, and generally ob­served the Apostles Canon, 1 Cor. 14. 40. Let all things be done decently and in order. He was so exact in putting in practice the Discipline of our Church, that [Page 95] he strictly enjoyned, according to the Rubrick, the daily Publick Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer within the Churches of his Diocess, which since the decay of the Primitive De­votion of daily Communions in the old Christianity, is instead of the Juge Sacrificium of the Jews, the daily sa­crifice of a Lamb Morning and Even­ing: Exod. 29. 39. And 'tis both our sin and shame, that since God is graciously pleased (under the Gospel) to spare our lambs, we Christians should in requital grudge our good God (except in case of real necessity) the Calves of our lips; Hos. 14. 2. to praise him daily in the publick Congregations. Without va­nity. I have (through Gods provi­dence) travelled and taken an im­partial survey of both the Eastern and Western Churches, and can assert upon mine own experience, that in the Eastern Churches, the Greeks and Ar­menians, &c. constantly observe their daily publick Service of God; and in the Western Churches, I passing through Germany (to take the like survey) did with comfort behold the [Page 96] same daily publick Offices with full Congregations in those they call the Lutherans and Calvinists, (I do hate, but through the iniquity of the times, I cannot avoid those Schismatical names expressed only for distinctions sake) nay to give Rome her due, they in their way (though erroneous) ob­serve the same daily practice strictly. And truly when the Laity doth daily plow, sow, work and provide for the Clergy, 'tis but Christian Equity that the Clergy should daily offer publick Prayers and Praises for the Laborious Laity.

Item, Our late Bishop did much re­form and regulate the good Behavi­our, and Canonical Habit of the Clergy under his Government. He did also regulate their Office in bidding prayer before their Sermons, according to the common sence of our Churches Canon LV. and confin'd their con­ceived prayers too much abused and groundless in our Liturgy, and also contrary to the ancient practice of our Church, Bishop Latimer, Bishop Hooper, (both Martyrs) Bishop Jewel, Bishop Andrews, &c. used no other: Our Litur­gy being so Comprehensive there needs no other. See this at large made good, both for Antiquity and Conformity in the practice of the form of Bidding Prayer, in that excellent work in Latine of the Learned and Laborious Dr. Durel, Entitu­led, S. Eccles. Anglic. Vindic. Cap. 9. p. 66. where he proves clearly that the practice of the Reformed Churches in Poland, Lithuania, and Zurick in Switherland, is the same with ours in England. Nay the same Author further affirms, that Calvin him­self did use such a form; See Calvin's Sermons upon Job▪ tran­slated into English, Printed at London Anno 1580▪ where [...] the latter end you have a plain form of Bidding of [...]ayer by way of Allocution of the people, and not of d [...]rect Invocation of God, saying, Let us pray; and alway concluding with the Lords Prayer as we do. See further, The Alliance of Divine Offices, &c. by Hamon L' Estrange Esq; chap. 6. p. 180. and other Reformed [Page 97] Churches; and I who have lived in this Diocess of Durham forty years, and have been an unworthy Arch-Deacon of Northumberland, as also a Prebend of this Church for the space of thirty years, never saw it more Re­gular, (since the sad twenty years of Schism and War, and so of Confu­sion) whereby his Successour, who­ever he be, may enjoy the comfort of a Regular Diocess.

2. His Moral Vertues.

1. And first His liberal Hospitality at his Table, according to the Apo­stolical Canon, 1 Tim. 3. 2. That a Bishop must be [Page 98] given to Hospitality, which to main­tain honestly, he must in all reason and equity be allowed proportion­able Revenues, according to that Proverb, Ne sit Promus fortior Condo. This once again may strangle Bel and the Dragon.

2. We have already mentioned his Princely Magnificence in his build­ings.

3. His Christian Magnanimity in his undertakings and sufferings, we pur­posely omit some of them, whereby he did prevent Innovations within his County Palatine, because we would prevent malice and envy at the recital of them: But we must needs express again the Royal Favour procured by him, to exempt this See from the great burthen of eight hun­dred and eighty pounds per An. paid for many years by the Bishops of Dur­ham to the Queens of England.

3. His Theological Vertues.

Which were his Faith, Hope and Charity:

[Page 99] 1. His Faith, evidenced by his faith­ful constancy in the True Religion, and by his full Confession of that Holy Faith in his Last Will (the antient way of the Holy Fathers in their Te­staments.)

2. His Hope, expressed by his Pa­tience under his sufferings, knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience, and Patience experience, Rom. [...]. 3, 4, 5. and experience Hope, and Hope maketh not ashamed. His sore fits of sickness, especially for the two last years of his life, often did break his crazed body, but ne­ver did break his Christian patience.

3. His Charity apparent by his pi­ous Dedications to God, and bounti­full Donations to men, so that I wish, that in his Epitaph that character of Gods Servant might be stamped, Psal. 112. 9. He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the Poor, 2 Cor. 9. 9. his Righteousness remain­eth for ever, his born shall be exalted with honour; a consequent blessing upon such Benefactors; for this God­ly Seed is a Metaphor, taken from a Husbandman, who by scattering of his Seed into the ground in due sea­son, [Page 100] reapeth a plentiful increase in due time. And now here lies before us the remains of a great man indeed.

1. Great by his Dignities lawfully obtained. He was,

1. A Fellow of Caius Colledge in Cambridge.

2. A Priest in God's Church.

3. Master of Peter-house in Cam­bridge.

4. A Prebendary here.

5. Arch-Deacon.

6. Deane.

7. At last, by these orderly de­grees he was, through the providence of God, and under God by the Roy­al Favour of our most Gracious King, in Reward of his Constant and Loyal Services and Sufferings at Home and Abroad, exalted to the Throne of a Bishop, and such a Bishop as was a Count Palatine in England, and so as I may say a petty King, as having the Royalties in this County belonging to him, but still with due Subordina­tion to a Great King Transcendent a­bove him, and all Subjects within this Kingdome; but still a [...] [Page 101] in our Translation, a Noble Man; in the vulgar Latine, John 4. 46. a Regulus; in St. Hie­rome, Palatinus; Hier. in Isa. 65. Princ. By the Sages of the Law, he is styled Dominus Regalis, who hath thus long enjoyed the Jura Regalia. See Rotul. Parl. & Pasch. 21 Eliz. Rotul. quint. which the Lord Cook calls a nota­ble Record of the Liberties of the Bishop of Durham, and is therefore allowed for such in the Kings Courts. a parallel Title to that part of our Bishops Dignity.

But now he is dead, and who knows but that God took him away from the evil to come? Isa. 57. 1. And as great as he was you may see now, that a small plat of ground must contain and confine him, Omnia mors aequat. Sic transit gloria mundi. He can carry none of all those Dig­nities to his grave, Claudian. onely his Faith and good Works do attend him to his grave, and beyond his grave, Rev. 14. 13. for his Works do follow him, and that as high as Heaven where he now rests from his labours; but without Faith and good works, when a man is dead, vanity of vanities all is vanity. Eccl. 1. 2.

2. This great man was Greater yet by his Actions and great Benefactions, concerning which, when in the pro­secution of his Great Buildings, he [Page 102] was interpelled by some, with the mention of his Children, his usual answer was, The Church is my first­born; a Noble Speech, yea, a Divine Sentence, worthy of a King, who may envy it out of a Bishops mouth. In­deed the Church is the Kings first­born, and the best of his Titles is to be the Defender of it. I am confident that his Noble Relations will Erect unto him a more lasting Monument than this our transient Speech or wi­thering pen, or failing Press can fully express. Indeed for his time he did great things, and he lived and died also with good intentions of doing greater things; for he was pregnant of generous designs.

3. He was greatest of all by his constant sufferings; in which sence St. Luke 1. 15. John Baptist is styled, magnus co­ram Domino: not so much for his doings (though they were great) for John did no Miracles, John 10. 41. as for his sufferings, in which Sence our late Bishop was greatest, for he was a constant Confessor for Christ and his True Religion, and so but one de­gree [Page 103] removed from the Noble Army of Martyrs, Heb. 12. 22. to 24. into whose blessed Society our hope is that he is now gathered: to which blessed state of Glory he bring us all at last, who hath both by his precious blood purchased, and by his Free Grace prepared it for us, even Jesus Christ the Righteous. To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, three Persons and one God, be ascribed again from Angels, from us, and from all men; all Praise, Power, Majesty, Dominion and Glory for ever and ever, Amen.

AN APPENDIX Of the l …

AN APPENDIX Of the late Lord Bishop OF DƲRESME's PROFESSION and PRACTICE; And of his Last Will concerning RELIGION.

The State of us that adhere to the Church of England.

The Roman Catholicks

1. SAy and believe (as by the Arti­cles of their new Creed they are bound to be­lieve) that we are all damned, and accursed persons.

2. They call us He­reticks.

3. They excommu­nicate us, and abhorr to joyn with us in any Sacred action, either of Prayer or Sacra­ments.

[Page 108] 4. Not long since they burnt us (both a­live and dead) at their stakes; and where the Edicts of Princes re­strain them not, they do so still, as by their own Laws they have obliged themselves to do; which Laws (if civil respects suspend them not for the time) they can put in ex­ecution at an hours warning when they please.

5. They will allow us no other burial of our dead, than the bu­rial of a dog; account­ing their Churches, and their Church­yards [Page 109] to be polluted if any of our people be there put into a Grave; and whoever it is among them (be it a Son that shall bury his Father, or a Wife her Husband that dye in our Reli­gion) if they venture to make a Grave there, and put the dead Corps either of a Father, or a Hus­band, or other the like into it, they are bound to scrape up that Corps again with their own fingers, and carry it away to be buried in a ditch or a dunghill, or where else they can finde roome for it: Prince or Peasant are here­ni alike, if they be [Page 110] not Roman Catho­licks, they shall be u­sed no better.

The reformed Churches

1. SAy and believe (as we do) that we profess and believe whatsoever is necessa­ry to salvation; and that it is an accursed belief which the Ro­man Catholicks have of us.

2. These acknow­ledge us to be true Catholicks.

3. They do most willingly receive us into their Churches, and frequently repair to ours, joyning with us both in Prayers and Sacraments.

[Page 108] 4. These men (whose Predecessors were burnt up and martyr'd as ours have been) be­ing in such times of persecution received, and harbour'd in our Churches, gave us the like Relief in theirs, both in Germany and France, where when at any time we come, they have obtained freedom for us from this kind of persecuti­on, under which we might otherwise suffer and be in continual danger to lose our lives.

5. They allow us, not onely to bury our dead among theirs, in the Church-yards which they have pur­chased, [Page 109] and peculiar­ly set apart for that purpose; but they give us leave also to use our own Office, and Order of Burial, (at least they hinder us not to do it, if the Roman-Catho­licks permit it) and to set up our Monu­ments and Inscripti­ons over the Graves, hereby professing Ʋ ­nity with us both a­live and dead.

In all which Re­gards we ought no lesse to ac­knowledge them, and to make no Schisme between our Churches and theirs; however we approve not [Page 110] some defects that may be seen a­mong them.

This remains written by the Bishop's own hand when he was in France.

Adjutorium nostrum in No­mine Domini, qui fecit Caelum & Terram.
In Nomine & Honore ejusdem Domini Dei nostri, Patris, & Filii & Spiritus Sancti, Sum­mae ac individuae Trinitatis.

QƲoniam Statutum est omnibus semel mori, & Corpus unius­eujusque dissolutum iri, tem­pus verò dissolutionis meae cùm incer­tum sit, de qua tamen quasi in propin­quo esset, assiduâ animi meditatione sollicitus, & frequenti Corporis infir­mitate pulsatus, subinde cogito; Ego Johannes Cosinus, humilis Ecclesiae Dei Administer, & modò permissione altissimi Episcopus Dunelm. non ponens spem meam in praesenti hac vitâ, sed ad alteram (quae futura est) in Caelis aeternam, ex divina tandem miseri­cordiâ, [Page 112] adipiscendam semper anhelans, & humiliter orans pro salute animae meae, ut per merita Jesu Christi Filii Dei vivi, & Redemptoris ac Media­toris nostri unici, omnia mea mihi re­mittantur delicta; hoc Testamentum, continens ultimam voluntatem meam, sanâ mente & puro corde condo, or­dino, & facio, in hac formâ quae se­quitur.

Ante omnia, Domino nostro Deo Omnipotenti gratias ago quas possum maximas, quòd me ex Fidelibus, & bonis Parentibus in hanc vitam nasci, atque in Ecclesiâ suâ, per Sanctum Ba­ptismi Lavacrum ab ipso institutum, ad vitam aeternam renasci voluerit, me (que) à juventute meâ in doctrinâ sanâ erudi­verit & sanctorum suorum participem effecerit, fidem (que) non fictam vel mor­tuam, sed veram & vivam in animo meo impresserit, unà cum adjunct â spe firmâ fore posthac ut perducar ad vi­tam sempiternam. Quae quidem fides in co consistit ut adoremus & venere­mur deum, in eum (que) credamus, &, in quem misit, filium ejus dilectissimum, verbum aeternum ante secula genitum, [Page 113] Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum, qui propter nos nostram (que) salutem, ex bea­tissimâ Virgine Mariâ, superveniente in eam spiritu sancto, carnem in saeculo sumpsit & homo factus est; deinde na­tus, passus, crucifixus, mortuus ac sepul­tus, & postquam ad inferos descendisset, ex sepulchro suo resurrexit, & captivam ducens captivitatem, adscendit in Coe­los, ubi ad dexteram Dei Patris sedet, & regnat in aeternum; inde verò, spi­ritum sanctum (in quem pariter nobis credendum est) misit, a Patre Filio (que) procedentem, per quem largissimè dona distribuit hominibus, & Ecclesiam suam Catholicam in communione sanctorum, in Divinis Sacramentis, in verâ fide, in doctrinâ sanâ, ac moribus Christi­anis instituit; unà cum remissione pec­catorum piis omnibus, & dignos in eadem Ecclesiâ paenitentiae fructus pro­ferentibus, impertiendâ; quibus etiam quum in supremo saeculi die de Coelis re­diturus ut mortuos resuscitet, & om­nes judicet, collaturus est aeternam bea­titudinem; reliquis verò infidelibus, aut qui secundum carnem vixerint, & con­verti, sive paenitentiam agere nolenti­bus [Page 114] aeternum supplicium irrogaturus. In hac Fide, quae totius sacrae Scriptur ae summa est, & absolutissimum compen­dium, sanctis (Judae vers. 3.) semel tradita, & ab Apostolis, eorum (que) suc­cessoribus propagatâ, at (que) ad nos us (que) derivata vivere me profiteor, & ut in ea ad▪ ultimum vitae spiritum constan­ter ac sine haesitatione perseverem & moriar, assiduis quantum possum pre­cibus à Deo contendo; unitaetem in­tereà colens & servans vinculum pacis ac charitatis cum omnibus ubi (que) Chri­stianis, qui inter tanta Ecclesiae mala, distractiones & calamitates (quibus equidem non possum non illachrymari) hanc fidem integrè admittunt, nullam (que) ejus partem in dubium vocant. Spero etiam, quae est Dei Christi (que) [...], Servatoris nostri benignitas omnes eos, qui haec à Deo revelante tradita simpli­citer nobiscum crediderint & piè vi­xerint, in magno illo die Domini salvos fore, etiamsi singulorum rationem red­dere, vel modum exponere, vel quae­stiones circa ea exortas solvere, vel dum fortè satagunt Hallucinationes aliquot effugere, & penitùs ab errore immunes esse nequiverint.

[Page 115] Sed quàscun (que) olim Haereses & quae­cun (que) etiam Schismata, quibuscun (que) tan­dem nominibus appellentur, prisca & universalis sive Catholica Christi Ec­clesia, unanimi consensu rejecit & con­demnavit, ego pariter condemno & re­jicio; unà cum omnibus earundem Hae­resium fautoribus hodiernis, Secta­riis & Fanaticis, qui spiritu malo acti mentiuntur sese spiritu Dei afflari. Ho­rum omnium, inquam, Haereses & Schis­mata, Ego quo (que) Ecclesiae nostrae Angli­canae, imò Catholicae, Symbolis, Syno­dis & Confessionibus addictissimus pa­riter improbo constanter (que) rejicio, at (que) repudio. In quorum numero pono non tantùm segreges Anabaptistas & eorum sequaces (proh dolor!) nimiùm multos, sed etiam novos nostrates Independen­tes & Presbyterianos, genus hominum malitiae, inobedientiae & seditionis spi­ritu abreptum, qui inauditâ à seculis audaciâ & perfidia, tanta nuper per­petrarunt facinora, in contemptum & opprobrium omnis Religionis & Fidei Christianae, quanta quidem non sine horrore dici aut commemorari queant: Quinetiam à corruptelis & ineptis [Page 116] nuper (que) natis sive Papisticis (quas vo­cant) superstitionibus, doctrinis, & assumentis novis in Avitam ac Primae­vam laudatissimae olim tam Orthodoxae & Catholicae Ecclesiae Religionem ac fi­dem jamdudum contra sacram Scriptu­ram, veterum (que) Patrum Regulas ac mores introductis, me prorsus jam alie­num esse, at (que) adeò à Juventute mea semper fuisse, sanctè, & animitùs ad­severo.

Ʋbicun (que) verò Terrarum Ecclesiae, Christiano nomine censae veram, Pris­cam & Catholicam Religionem Fi­demque profitentur, ut Deum Patrem, Filium & spiritum sanctum uno ore & mente invocant ac colunt, eis, si me us­piam actu jam nunc jungi prohibet vel distantia Regionum, vel dissidia ho­minum, vel aliud quodcun (que) obstaculum, semper tamen animo, mente & affectu conjungor ac coalesco; id quod de Pro­testantibus praesertim, & benè refor­matis Ecclesiis intelligi volo: Funda­mentis enim salvis, diversitatem, ut opinionum, ita quo (que) rituum circa res juxta adnatas, & minùs necessarias, nec universali veteris Ecclesiae praxi [Page 117] repugnantes in aliis Ecclesiis (quibus nobis praesidendum non est) amicè, pla­cidè & pacificè ferre possumus, atque adeo perferre debemus. Eis verò om­nibus qui malè consulti quoquo modo me iniquis calumniis insectati sunt, vel adhuc insectari non desinunt, ego qui­dem ignosco, & deum seriò precor, ut ipse quo (que) ignoscere, & meliorem eis mentem inspirare velit. Operam inte­rim & mihi, & aliis omnibus fratri­bus, praesertim Episcopis, & Ministris Ecclesiae Dei, quantum ex illius gratiâ possumus, dandam & conferendam esse existimo, ut tandem sopiantur, vel sal­tem minuantur, Religionis dissidia, at (que) ut pacem sectemur, cum omnibus, & sanctimoniam. Quod ut fiat quàm ocyssimè, faxit Deus Pacis Autor & Amator concordiae. Cujus immensam misericordiam oro & obtestor, ut me in peccatis & iniquitatibus conceptum ab omni humanae infirmitatis labe & cor­ruptela repurget, dignum (que) ex indigno per magnam clementiam suam faciat, mihi (que) passionem & immensa merita dilectissimi sui filii Domini nostri Jesu. Christi, ad delictorum meorum omnium [Page 118] expiationem applicet: ut quum novis­sima vitae hora non improvisa venerit, ab Angelis suis in sinum Abrahae rap­tus, & in societate sanctorum & ele­ctorum suorum collocatus, aeternâ foeli­citate perfruar.

Haec praefatus quae ad Religionem & Animae meae statum ac salutem spe­ctant, quae (que) Latino Sermone à me dictata at (que) exarata sunt, reliqua, quae ad sepulturam corporis, & bo­norum meorum temporalium disposi­tionem attinent, sermone patrio per­scribi faciam, ac perorabo.

Vid. J. Will. &c.

Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth.
In the Name and Honour of the same Lord our God, the Fa­ther, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost the most High and un­divided Trinity.

FOrasmuch as it is appointed for all men once to die, and that every mans body shall be dis­solved, but the time of my dissoluti­on is uncertain; of which notwith­standing, as if it were nigh at hand, being mindful in my daily Meditati­ons, and shaken with the frequent in­firmities of my body I ever and anon think thereof.

I John Cosin, an humble Minister in the Church of God, and by the per­mission [Page 120] of the most High now Bishop of Durham, not putting my hope in this present life, but ever aspiring to that other (which is to come) eter­nal in the Heavens, and which by the mercy of God ere long I hope to obtain, and humbly praying for the salvation of my own Soul, that through the merits of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, our only Redeemer and Mediator, all mine offences be forgiven me; being of a sound mind, out of a sincere heart, do make, ordain and constitute this Te­stament, containing my Last Will, in this form as followeth.

First of all, I heartily thank our Lord God Almighty, that he hath vouchsafed me to be born in this life of faithful and vertuous Parents; and that it hath pleased him that I should be Regenerate (and born a new in his Church) unto Life Eternal by the holy Laver of Baptism, which he hath instituted; and that he hath instruct­ed me from my Youth in sound do­ctrine, and hath made me partaker of his Saints, that he hath imprinted [Page 121] in my mind a Faith not feigned nor dead, but true and living, together with a firm confidence, that hereafter I shall be brought unto eternal life; which Faith doubtless consists in this, That we adore and worship one God, and believe in him, and in him whom he hath sent, his most beloved Son the Eternal Word, begotten before all Ages, Jesus Christ our Lord; who for us and for our Salvation took flesh of the most blessed Virgin Mary (the Holy Ghost over-shading her) in this life, and was made man, afterward was born, suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, and after he had descended into Hell, rose again from his Grave, and leading captivity cap­tive, ascended into Heaven, where sitting at the right hand of God, he reigneth for ever; but sent from thence the Holy Ghost (in whom we ought equally to believe) proceed­ing from the Father and the Son, by whom he most bountifully gave gifts unto men, and founded his Catholick Church in the Communion of Saints, in the Divine Sacraments, in true [Page 122] Faith, sound Doctrine, and Christian Manners; together with the remis­sion of Sins, to be conferred on all the Godly, and that in the same Church bring forth fruits meet for Repentance; to whom also when in the last day of the world he shall come from Heaven to raise the dead and judge all, he will give eternal happiness; but to the rest that are In­fidels, or that have lived according to the flesh, and would not repent or be converted, he will inflict eternal punishment. In this Faith, which is the summary and most absolute A­bridgement of all the Holy Scripture (Jude vers. 3.) once delivered to the Saints, and which the Apostles and their Successors have spread abroad and derived down even to us, I pro­fess my self to live, and that I may persevere in it constantly without doubting unto my last breath is my daily prayer; in the mean time seek­ing after Unity by preserving the bond of Peace and Love with all Christians every where, who among the great Evils, Distractions and Ca­lamities [Page 123] of the Church (which truly I cannot but heartily bewail) entire­ly receive this Faith, and call no one part of it in question. I hope also through the goodness of God and Christ, God and Man our Saviour, that all they that have together with us sincerely believed these things that are revealed and delivered from God, and have lived a Godly life, shall be saved in the great day of the Lord: who although they are not able to give an account, or explain the manner of every of them, nor re­solve the questions raised about them, and though perhaps when they en­deavour it they cannot avoid some mistakes, and be altogether free from errour.

But whatsoever Heresies or Schisms heretofore, by what names soever they be called, the antient Catholick and Universal Church of Christ with an unanimous consent hath rejected and condemned, I do in like manner condemn and reject; together with all the modern Fautors of the same Heresies, Sectaries and Phanaticks, [Page 124] who being carried on with an evil Spirit do falsely give out they are in­spired of God: The Heresies and Schismes, I say of all these, I also as most addicted to the Symbols, Synods and Confessions of the Church of England, or rather the Catholick Church, do constantly renounce, con­demn and reject. Among whom I rank not only the Separatists, the Anabaptists and their Followers, (Alas) too too many, but also the New Independents and Presbyterians of our Countrey, a kind of men hur­ried away with the spirit of Malice, Disobedience and Sedition, who by a disloyal attempt (the like whereof was never heard since the world be­gan) have of late committed so many great and execrable Crimes, to the contempt and despite of Religion, and the Christian Faith, which how great they were without horrour cannot be spoken or mentioned.

Moreover I do profess, with holy asseveration and from my very heart, that I am now, and have ever been from my youth altogether free and [Page 125] averse from the corruptions and im­pertinent new-fangled or papistical (so commonly called) superstitions and doctrines, and new superadditi­ons to the Ancient and Primitive Re­ligion, and Faith of the most com­mended, so Orthodox and Catholick Church, long since introduced, con­trary to the Holy Scripture, and the Rules and Customes of the ancient Fathers.

But in what part of the World so­ever any Churches are extant, bear­ing the name of Christ, and professing the true Catholick Faith and Religi­on, worshipping and calling upon God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost with one heart and voice, if any where I be now hindred actu­ally to be joyned with them, either by distance of Countries, or variance amongst men, or by any other let whatsoever; yet alwayes in my mind and affection I joyn and unite with them; which I desire to be chiefly understood of Protestants, and the best Reformed Churches; for where the foundations are safe, we may al­low, [Page 126] and therefore most friendly, qui­etly and peaceably suffer, in those Churches where we have not Autho­rity, a diversity as of Opinion so of Ceremonies about things which do but adhere to the Foundations, and are neither necessary or repugnant to the practice of the Universal Church. As for all them who through Evil Counsel have any way inveighed against, or calumniated me, and even yet do not forbear their invectives, I freely pardon them, and earnestly pray to God, that he also would be pleased to forgive them, and inspire them with a better mind. In the mean while, I take it to be my duty, and of all my Brethren, especially the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of God, to do our utmost endeavours, according to the measure of Grace which is given to every one of us, that at last an end may be put to the differences of Re­ligion, or at least that they may be lessened, and that we may follow Peace with all men and Holiness; which that it may be accomplished [Page 127] very speedily, God the Author of Peace and Concord grant, whose infinite Mercy I humbly beseech, that he would cleanse me, who was conceived in Sin and Iniquity, from every spot and corruption of hu­mane frailty; and that through his great clemency he would make me who am unworthy to become wor­thy, and that he would apply to me the Passion and infinite Merits of his most beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord, to the expiating of all mine Offences; that at the last hour of my Life, which I daily look for, I may be carried by his Holy Angels into Abrahams bosome, and being placed in the fellowship of his Saints and Elect, may fully enjoy Eternal Felicity.

Having now declared what be­longs to my Religion, and the State and Salvation of my Soul, which I have now delivered here in Latine: The rest that belongs to my Burial, and the disposal of my Temporal Estate, [Page 128] I shall cause to be written in my Native Language, and so conclude.

Durham Jan. 18. 1672.
Vera Copia Examinata per me William Stagg Not. Publicum.
FINIS.

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