20

THE LIFE OF

In the Year 1635, this Man was created Bishop of Norwich ; he is nosooner there, but he marcheth furiously. •

In the Creation of the World, Light was one of the first Productions jthe first visible Action of this Bishop, after his Creation into this See, was toput out many burning and staining Lights, to suspend divers able, learned,and conscientious Ministers; he that should have been the golden Snuffer ofthese Lights, became the Extinguisher; and when these are taken away, wherewill poor Men light their Candles

My Lords, this was not all.

He put out Lights, and sets up Fire-brands in their Places; suspends pain-ful Ministers, and sets up idle, factious, and superstitious, Priests (to use theirown Language) in their Places; yet it is the Fortune of these Men at thisTime, like Rivers in the Ocean, to be buried in the extreme Activity of theirDiocesan.

He made a Scourge not of small Cords, but of new Injunctions and nume-rous Articles, tied about with a strong Twist of a most dangerous Oath, andwith this he whips not out Buyers and Sellers, but the faithful Dispensers ofthe Word out of their Churches, out of their Estates, out of their dearCountry.

This Noah, (if I may so call him without Offence) as soon as he enter’dinto the Ark of this Diocese, he lends, nay, forces Doves to fly out of thisArk, and when they return unto him, with Olive Branches in their Mouths,of peaceable and humble Submissions, he will not receive them into thisArk again, unless like Ravens they will feed upon the Carrion of his newInventions, they must not have any Footing there, he stands like a flamingSword to keep such out of his Diocese.

My Lords, unless he had done this, he could never have hoped to havebrought that great Work, he undoubtedly aim’d at, to any Perfection.

Whilst the Palladium of Troy stood, that City was impregnable, the Greekshad no sooner stolen that away but they instantly won the City; so then, hefirst put out the Candles, then was the Opportunity to shuffle in his Works ofDarkness: He first beats off the Watchmen and Seers, then was likely to followthat which the Impiety of some was pleased to stile the Piety of the Times.

This being done, he then begins to dress out God’s Worship according tohis own Fancy : this he exprefleth in Injunctions and Directions, the Miner-va's of his own Train ; we find them stiled regales injunfttoncs Do?ntm Eptfi-copi: A Stile too sacred to baptize his Brats withal : I shall be bold to callthem, tyrannicas injunSliones Domini EpiJ’copi: Stories afford not a more bar-barous Cruelty than to join a dead and a living Body together, the one ismiserably kill’d with the Stench of the other. This Bishop, who like Aaronshould have stood between the living and the dead, hath join’d to lively Or-dinances, many dead and venemous Ceremonies, which have no other Lifethan what they received from the Breath of his Injunctions, and these arepressed upon the Consistencies; even these must be observ’d, as Moral Laws.

An arbitrary Government in the Church, is more dangerous, more grievous,than that in the State; this is exercised upon Men’s Consciences the mosttender Part, and is the very Pinnacle of Tyranny, and of all other mostintolerable ; that Blow which will hardly be felt by the Arm, will put outthe Eye.

My Lords, in the Time of King Richard I. one of this Man’s Predecessors,a valiant Bishop, went unto the Holy IVar ; this Bishop hath raised a Warat Home, in his own Diocese; a War not against Saracens, BarbariansTurks , or Infidels , but against good and well disposed People ; I know not

what