And one thing more we cannot forget , the print of our shackles puts us in mind of it , to make it a time of restoring too in regard of our liberty and freedom from our former slavery . How did we groan under the cruel usage of those tyrannical Usurpers , by whom we were not so much governed as destroyed ? by whom we were not sufferd so much liberty as to grieve for our slavery , but were dealt withal as theives deal with them they rob , bound and gagg'd , that we might neither stir to help our selves , nor cry out for the help of others . But blessed be God , who remembred us in our low estate , and by the valour and prudence of a renowned GENERAL restored us to our lost liberty ; Of which , as we have a high share , so let us have a deep sence , never forgetting those blessings with which God hath crowned his undertakings , but ever acknowledging the settlement of our state both Civil and Ecclesiastical , to be ascribed , next under God , to that unparallell'd Instrument . And may it be th' vote of all true English hearts , that that noble Duke , qui nobis hac otia fecit , may for ever be the darling both of Prince and people . But as for those discontented spirits , whose fingers yet itch to be ringing the changes , may the ropes so gall them , as may make them at last beshrew their own fingers .

And we cannot for shame but take in our own COURTS here , and make it a time of Restoring for them too : O how was the poor Clergy stung by swarmes of Committee-men in every Town , City , and County : Committee-men a greater pest to the Gentry and Clergy of this Land , than ever was the Inquisition to the Moores in Spain . Men that professed Divinity , but never shewed the least humanity . Men that cried down all forms , but a form of godliness , which onely they had , and denied the power thereof . Men that used the Word of God , as some say of Benedicts Rule , onely to profess , but not to perform . Men that pretended to serve God , when they intended to serve themselves of him . Men that made much ado about setting Christ upon his Throne , but it was that they might be his Deputies . Men that would have been thought Angels , though it were but for troubling the water , that they might have the better fishing . Men that tore the Churches garments , to make their own whole ; and pull'd down the wall of Sion , to build their Babel : and , to borrow the words of that Right Reverend and Learned Bishop in his Coronation Sermon , Men that sacrificed the publick Interest to their particular concernments , and engaged the whole Nation to fight against it self , and to cut one anothers throats , to gratifie their malice and ambition . Men that imbroyled all to enrich themselves , and set other mens houses on fire , that by the help of the light they might see the better to run away with the goods . Men that had neither conscience to awe them , nor shame to restrain them from doing any thing ; Every thing that might speak shame or sorrow to the Gentry and the Clergy . These were then our Taskmasters , who had usurped upon the managing of these Courts , and to these were we to render the tale of our Brick , whose meaness and baseness , in many places was such , that it added much to the pressures of our slavery ; for , Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum ; and flies bred from the dunghill , they say , have the sharpest sting . O how was Aarons Rod most miserably devoured and swallowed up by these Committee-mens Ox-goads and Cartwhips ! How were our Lamps snuffed , not by the golden snuffers of the Sanctuary , but by Demetrius the Silver-smith , and Alexander the Copper-smith , and men of such mettal ? How was the Ark of the Church , which was wont to be carried by Levites , now carried by these beasts of the uncircumcised Philistins , shaken , and tottered , and overturned ? How did these Churches Vergers sweep our Church , not with the besome of Reformation , as they pretended , but with the besome of destruction ? Such like sweepers as the Romish Vulgar makes the woman in the Gospel to be , which in stead of domum everrit , reads domum evertit ; who in stead of sweeping it , turned it upside down , and cast , not only the Clergy out of the Church , but the Church out of the windows ! O how were our souls filled with the scornful reproofs of the wealthy , and with the despitefulness of the proud ! But blessed be God who hath taken down our harps from the willows , hath brought our Courts into their former current , restor'd our Jurisdiction to its pristine beauty , and turn'd our captivity from under Committee men , into the milde and sweet government of Episcopal jurisdiction ! And let our submission to their Laws and Censures never seem irksom , or burdensom to us , seeing the want of the due execution of these was the main cause of all our miseries ; for had those Currs been muzled by Ecclesiastical censures , they had never by their bauling so disturbed our peace and quiet : But Eli begat Phineas , and Phineas begat Ichabod ; remissness in Governours , begat prophane and seditious Priests , and these begat Ichabod , shame and ruine , and confusion to our Church and Kingdom . And thus you see that in all these respects we may very fitly call these times , as S. PETER calls those other times , Acts 3.21 . {αβγδ} , the times of restitution , or the times of restoring all things .

ANd now since God hath done so much for us , let us not be wanting to our selves , but do what we can on our own parts , to make it a time of restoring too .

And in the first place , Let us make it a time of restoring for the reading of the COMMON PRAYER BOOK in our Churches . S. John wept when there was not one found to open the Book : And what a lamentable thing is it , that many should be so peevish as not to open this Book ; the very reading of which , caused our forefathers the Martyrs to weep for joy . But I need not press this upon you ; you 'l say , you do read it : I , but how readest thou ? You read it as Jehoiakim did Jeremiahs roll , three or four leaves of it , and then cast it away : Nor will your pretence of infirmity of body , or shortness of breath serve for an excuse ; for how then come you to be such long winded Preachers ? How is it that you can bestow three or four hours in eager and violent discourse to justifie your inability , when as the third part of that breath sufficiently testifies your ability : But the truth is , you want cordialness , and not cordials ; and a heart to it , rather then pectorals . The Athenians banished Terpander , for adding one string to his Harp ; what then do you deserve who have taken away so many , that you have quite marred the Churches Musick , and have turned all into jarrs and discords ? For by this mangling and curtailing of the Common-prayers , as your selves please , what do you else but make your selves Bishops in your own Parishes ? You revive that Puritan Tenet , That nothing must be injoyned , but all left to your own liberty ; You call in question the wisdome of the State ; you flatly disobey an Act of Parliament ; you bring the Common Prayer into disgrace and dislike with the people , as a frivolous , unnecessary , super fluous piece of service , and so bid fair for the ushering in that Goddess of the Presbyterians , the Directory , and the Covenant . When the daily Sacrifice was taken away , then was set up the abomination of desolation ; and when this daily Sacrifice , the Prayers and Service of our Church shall be suffered to be thus scorned , curtailed and abused ; we may well fear that abomination of Desolation to be introduced and set up again amongst us : Nor would I have you scrupulous to read it , as you are injoyned , in your Surplice and Formalities ; though Michol scorned the linnen Ephod , yet David did not leave it off for all that . The Text says , That Michol was barren ; I wonder how she comes to have so many children amongst us , that scorn the Holy habit and Exercises ? but however your resolution must be that of Davids , I will still do it , It is before the Lord who hath chosen me before all thy fathers house .

ANd secondly , Let us make it a time of restoring too for CATECHISING in our Churches . Julian the Apostate , that subtile enemy of the Church , that he might the more easily root out Religion , suppressed all Christian Schools and places of Catechizing as the onely way to do it ; and since this exercise of Catechising hath been neglected amongst us , how hath our Kingdom been overspread with ignorance , violence , perjuries , murthers , Sects , Heresies , Seditions , Rebellions , and all kinds of mischief that can bee named or thought on . In Proverbs 22.6 . Solomon saith , Train up a child , Gnal pi darcho , secundum os viae , according to his capacity , according to the mouth of his way ; a Metaphor taken from narrow-mouth'd vessels , which must have water often , and by little and little poured into them ; so to those who have narrow and weak apprehensions , Precept must be upon precept , precept upon precept , line upon line , line upon line , here a little and there a little , as it is , Isai . 28.10 .

This the word Catechism intimates ( which signifies , the repetition of the same sound ) that the office of the Catechist is to go often over with the same thing ; to which agrees that word which is used Deut. 6.7 . Thou shalt teach these words unto thy Children ; or , thou shalt whet or sharpen thy children with them . Shenanti . As the knife goes often over the whetstone before it be sharpened , so these words must be often repeated , till the people have made them their own . In Gen. 14.14 . it is said of Abraham , that he armed his trained servants , Hhanican , his catechised and initiated servants , not onely trained in the discipline of War , but also catechised in the Principles of Religion . And Gen. 12.5 . it is said , That Abraham took Sarah , and Lot , and all the souls which they had gotten in Haran ; it is in the Hebrew , which they had made , Gnashu ; and so ●ynsworth reads it ; they had not onely gotten them into their possession and service , but also had won them to the faith of God ; or as the Caldee paraphrase hath it , had subdued them to the Law ; and the Hebrews say , that Abraham did teach the men , and Sarah the women : Abraham and Sarah made souls , made them new by instructing and catechising them . After Abraham we have David saying , Psal . 34. Come ye children hearken unto me , I will teach you the fear of the Lord ; that is , the first Principles ; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom : and that Psalm is composed according to the order of the Hebrew Alphabet , the verses of it beginning with the letters thereof , in their vulgar and usual order , that so children and learners , together with the first elements of other learning , might have an alphabet of piety and godliness taught them ; and St. Paul sets it down as a thing well known , and as one of the priviledges of the Jewes , Rom. 2.17 . that he was , {αβγδ} , catechised out of the Law .

In the new Testament we have our Saviour catechising of his Disciples , Whom do you say that I am ? and Simon Peter answering the question , in the name of the rest , Thou art Christ the Son of God the living ; and Mat . 22.41 . we have him catechising the Pharisees , He asked them , saying , What think ye of Christ , whose son is he ? they say unto him , the Son of David ; then he propounds another question unto them , How can he be both the Son of David , and the Lord of David , for David calls him Lord ? St. Luke writes to Theophilus a large Declaration of those things wherein he had formerly been catechised {αβγδ} , Luke 1.4 . Apollos was catechised {αβγδ} , in the way of the Lord , Acts 18.25 . and saith St. Paul , Gal. 6.6 . Let him that is taught in the words , communicate to him that teacheth in all good things , so we render it , but in the Greek it is {αβγδ} . And in the first chapter to the Hebrews , the Apostle sets down the chief points of the Catechism then used : After the Apostles , the first we have Mark the Evangelist catechist at Alexandria , and after him Pantenus , Clemens , Origen , who ( such was either the necessity of the times , or the abilities of the man ) at 18 years of age , took upon him that office , and was eminent in it .

Canisius the Jesuite will tell us more in those times ; saith he , Nos hoc munus suscipimus , we Jesuites make catechising our profession ; This they glory in , that they are catechizers ; and in that profession , saith he , we have S. Basil , S. Austine , St. Ambrose , St. Cyril in our society ; and truly as Catechizers they have , and in the conclusion of his Epistle to his Catechism , he saith , If nothing else , yet this alone should provoke us to greater diligence in Catechising , the Improbus labor , and Indefessa cura of the Protestants in this exercise : So it was then , and upon the Protestants diligence this way , was occasioned that order of Trent , that upon Sundayes and Holy dayes they should preach in the forenoon , and catechise in the afternoon . And let the Improbus labor and indefessa cura , of the Jesuits provoke us now at last , to restore again that exercise . Let us bow and stoop to the meanest capacity , That the simple one may receive wisdom , and the young man knowledg and discretion . Because we must give an account of all the souls that are under us , therefore it behoves us with St. Paul , to chuse rather to speak five words with understnnding , {αβγδ} , 1 Cor . 14.19 . then ten thousand otherwise . As Rabsekah said in another case to Eliakim , Hezekias Messenger , Am I sent to thy Master and thee , onely to speak these words , and not to the people also that are on the wall ? So you are not sent onely to two or three Intellectualists in a Congregation , but to all the Lords people be they never so mean , never so ignorant . It is meeter that they which know , should be wearied with often repetitions , then that they that are unskilfull should be sent away empty for want of instruction ; nay men , you know , may be nourished with milk , though infants cannot live with stronger meat ; Even they who think themselves some body , may have somewhat in these Principles to chew upon . Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven ; Except , ye the people , be content at first to feed on the milk of the word , and not presently fall to gnawing of bones of Controversies , and unrevealed Misteries ; and except you the Ministers descend and apply your selves to the capacity of little children , and become as they , you lose your own way , you stop theirs to the Kingdom of Heaven : Except you become as little children you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven . Jacob had a care that the tender flocks might not be over-driven , Gen. 33.13 . And it is the care and the charge too ( Let me acquaint you with that ) of our Right Reverend , and vigilant , and tender Diocesan , that young Christians that are not able to hold pace , or go along with others , be not left behind ; but be led on Jacobs pace , led on softly as they are able to endure , till you have brought them into the fold of Christ : and for this purpose you are enjoyned to turn your after noon Sermons into an exposition and explanation of the Church Catechism .

And when we have made it a time for the restoring of Catechising ; then in the next Place and Order , we may make it a time for the restoring of the LORDS SUPPER : An Office so strangely vanished out of our Churches , as that we may as well be taken for Jewes , or Turks , or Quakers , as for Christians , having cast off that Badge and Cognizance of our Religion . It goes against your Conscience some of you to say , Lord have mercy upon us , Christ have mercy upon us . I , but it goes not against your Conscience to with-hold from your people the precious body and blood of Christ , to keep them from their pardon , from hell , and their assurance of heaven , to debar them of the life of their souls , and all the sweet fruits and comforts of that Holy Sacrament : Sure if it were but for this one thing , your whole lives exercise ought to be nothing else but the repetition of these Petitions , Lord have mercy upon us , Christ have mercy upon us ; You should put up all your suits in the Court of Requests in no other form but this of mercy ; you should send this word as a winged Messenger every moment to the Throne of Grace ; mercy should be both the Introduction , the Substance , and close of all our prayers , and no words or accents should be heard from you but these Obtestations and Obsecrations , and importunate intreaties of Lord have mercy upon us , Christ have mercy upon us , and all too little to expiate this horrid impiety . Alas , how will you answer it either to God or your own selves , to have required from your people their dues , when you have not done your duty ? with what face have you eaten the bread of their Tables , and have denied them the bread of the Lords Table ? How could you drink wine in bouls upon the sweat of their labours , and yet with-hold from them the wine of the Sacrament , which cost you no labour ? With what Conscience could you thus fat up your own bodies , and thus starve your peoples souls ? and receive their temporals , when you have not made them partakers of your spirituals ? I have compassion on the multitude , for they have now stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat , give ye them to eat , least they faint by the way . But your people have stayed with you , and hung upon you , not three days , but three years ; nay , thrice three years and upward , and yet you never set before them any of this heavenly food to keep their souls from fainting . Where are your bowels ? what is become of your compassions ? Have you cast off all humanity ? Was the fear of God , the love of your neighbours , and the care of your own souls utterly abandoned ? O horrible impiety ! O monstrous cruelty ! Nay , worse then monstrous ! for even the Sea-monsters draw out their breasts , they give suck to their yong ones , but the daughter of my people is become cruel , like the Ostridge in the Wilderness : The tongue of the child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst , the children ask bread , and no man breaks it unto them . Well fare that late bloody Tyrant in this particular , that when he was resolved to murther our late gracious Soveraign , yet he had this care of his soul , not to forbid him the ghostly comfort of this blessed Sacrament .

Marcus the Emperour going through Palestine towards Alexandria , and observing the tumultuousness of the Jews , cryed out , O Marcomanni ! O Quadi ! O Sarmatae ! tandem vobis inquietiores inveni : And in like manner may we cry out , O ye Anabaptists , and Katabaptists ! O ye Ranters and Seekers ! O ye Familists and Quakers ! I have found now men and that amongst the Clergy , more bloudy , more inhumane , more cruel then the most barbarous wretch amongst that cursed crue of Phanaticks ! O ye merciless hard-hearted Nurses , thus to starve sorded poor creatures committed to your charge , especially since you were so well paid for their nursing . Before the Israelites were to enter into Canaan , they were to eat the Passeover , Josh . 5.10 . As ever you hope , you or your people , to enter into the heavenly Canaan , you must be receivers of the blessed Sacrament ; for they who will not drink the Cup of blessing , shall drink the Cup of trembling ; and they who refuse the Supper of the Lord , shall be for ever kept from the Supper of the Lamb .

But receiving is not sufficient , if carriage be not Christian . Better be absent than rudely present ; for that s but a neglect of God , this a scorn of him . I shall therefore in the next place put you in mind of making this time a time of restoring too , in respect of due reverence in GODS HOUSE and SERVICE . That the Patriarchs had set houses and places of Gods Worship , appears not onely by the set Altars and Groves ; but by the speech of Jacob , This place is no other than the House of God , and the gate of Heaven . If there had not been set Houses , Jacob would not have compared this place to the House of God ; neither would he have dedicated it by erecting a Statue and pouring oyl , had there not been solemn dedications of such Houses . And what reverence was done in such holy places , appears , both by the words of Jacob , How fearfull and dreadfull is this place ; and by the command of God to Moses and Joshua , to put off their shoes ; and by Davids speech , I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies , and in thy fear will I worship towards this holy temple ; and O come let us worship , &c. And all this they did without any command from God , but from the light of nature , , and by the received rule and tradition of the Church in all ages . And the same after them did the ancient Christians : Salvian relates the manner of their ingress into the Church ; We rush to the House of God , we prostrate our selves upon the ground ; and he reprehends them that did enter into the House of God sine ulla penitus reverentia sacri honoris ; and in the same place complains , that less honour was shewed to the House of God , than to the house of a petty Judg : and Chrysostome saith , they enterd the Church {αβγδ} , bowing their heads : and Isiodore Hispalensis layes down this rule , That if any came late after Prayers were begun , adoret prius postea attendat . And it was the constant practise of the Christians to bow towards the East , for which they were calumniated as Adoratores Orientis , as worshippers of the East ; And such as resorted to the Church of St. Peter , and St. Paul , are said , Adorare ad limina Apostolorum . And with the same reverence did they go out of the Church , {αβγδ} , as it is in the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom in the very conclusion of it ; after the same manner that the Jewes did at their departure out of the Temple , as appears 2 Chron . 29.28 . and Ezek . 46.2 . whose incurvation was the space saith Maymonides , while a man might say , O give thanks unto the Lord , for he is good , for his mercy endureth for ever . And certainly , as it is a great condiscention in God , to accept of the same expression of reverence which we give unto men , so it is a great neglect and contempt of God in us , if we will not give that unto him which we do give to our betters .

Tertullian saith , We pray manibus expansis quia innocuis , capite nudo quia non erubescemus ; and S. Basil gives this Testimony of Gregory Thaumaturgus , That he never covered his head in the Church ; Why so ? Because he was ( saith he ) a true Scholler of the Apostle , who tells us , that every MAN PRAYING OR PROPHESYING having his head covered , dishonoureth his head : And the man ought not to cover his head , inasmuch as he is the image and glory of God . But how different is this from our practise ? How do men rush into Gods House without any reverence , and are almost at the upper end , before they think of their Hats ? How do they sit like Quakers with their Hats nailed to their heads , while the Preacher is delivering to them Gods Message with his head uncovered : So that should a Turk or an Infidel come into our Churches , he would by our behaviour take this place for a Theater , where the poor Parson is brought in like Sampson , to make the Lords of the Philistins with their Hats on , some sport and pastime . Sure I am , most of our people carry themselves in the Church as if it were not Gods House , or as if the Master of the House , were from home , and come with boldness sufficient to the Throne of Grace : And no marvel , if they be so rude , when as the Minister himself hath no more respect of that sacred Table , then of a Dresser-board , but lets it be exposed to the Prophanation of Boyes , and the pollution of Dogs : But let all such Clergy men lay to heart the saying of an Italian Bishop ; God in that holy Table which he finds full of dust , doth write down the faults of the careless Churchman . I shall conclude this with the eighteenth Canon of our Church ; to which I refer you , and of which I expect an account from you .

And if Holiness become Gods House , much more doth it those living Temples , the PRIESTS themselves : Let me therefore call upon you to make it a time of restoring for that too ; namely HOLINESS , and blamelesness in your lives and conversations : This should be wrirten in our foreheads , Be ye pure , ye that bear the vessels of the Lord : And why doest thou take my word into thy mouth ( saith God ) seeing thou hatest to be reformed . Disorderliness is a spot in any coat , but a stain in the linnen Ephod ; Nugae in ore sacerdotum sunt blasphemiae , Such as are but vain words in another mans mouth , are blasphemies in a Ministers : Praesulis vitium non quam optimum esse , It s vice enough in a Clergyman , not to excell others in vertue , let us therefore labour to be such as Gerhard the Monk , of whom S. Bernard speaks , Non in maximis tantum sed in minimis maximus erat : Let us make good the proceeding of that old Argument , Sacerdos est , non fallet ; and let every Minister be like Jonah the son of Amittui , the sons of truth , as some are called the Sons of thunder : And if any faults be objected against us , it will be some part of satisfaction , if in humility we can answer as S. Austin did the Donatists , Possunt haec veraciter dici & nostra & vestra , quae si utrisque nostrum disputent , neque nostra , neque vestra sunt .

And one particular let me warn you of , not so to busie your selves about farming and grazing , and such worldly imployments ; for though in the late hard and miserable times , the Clergy might be excused for making use of those thrifty sayings of the Jewish Rabbies ; Quis legem aut discit , aut docet , si farina desit ? and bona est doctrina legis cum via terrae : yet now that the Churches maintenance is restored , let them bid adieu to their Farms and Oxen , their oves & boves , and addict themselves wholly to feed the flock of God committed to their charge ; Your title in Greek implys a contradiction to earthliness ; {αβγδ} in that Language is all one as unearthly . And your name of Seers , intimates , that you are not to intangle your selves with worldly affairs and imployments ; for though the hands and the feet may without any great inconveniency be dealing in the dust , and padling in the dirt , yet the eye cannot without damage or danger admit ought of either . And indeed , if you consider that great weight and charge laid upon you , you will find but little time for such Parerga and impertinencies : If God think it work enough for an Angel to keep one soul , how vigilant ought they to be , who have the charge of many . You are Intelligencers , your Parish is the Orbe wherein you should continually move ; you are the Sentinels , your Parish is the Watch-tower , where you are constantly to stand upon your duty ; you are Candles , your Parish is the Candlestick wherein you are to shine as lights in the world ; You are the Shepherds , your Parish is the Flock whom you are to feed , for whom you are to provide , of whom you are to take the oversight , to whom you ought to be an example , which you cannot well be unless you visit your people , {αβγδ} from house to house , and though the Church be your Center , yet your Parish is to be your circumference .

And now in the last place , If you would make the times of Restoring compleat ; add one thing more , and that is the restoring of your PROCURATIONS : Though thus long you have detained them , and none said , Restore , yet now I hope you will not stick at them any longer , considering that , Non remittitur , nisi restituatur ; and that if you had sooner furnisht me with those necessary supplies , I had been restored to you the sooner .