neglected them, shall have their portion with goats for ever and ever, in everlasting burnings, in which it is impossible for a man to dwell.

Can any thing be beyond this? beyond damnation? Surely a man would think not: and yet I remember a severe saying of St. Gregory, "Scire debent prælati, quod tot mortibus digni sunt, quot perditionis exempla ad subditos extenderunt;One damnation is not enough for an evil shepherd: but for every soul who dies by his evil example or pernicious carelessness, he deserves a new death, a new damnation."-Let us therefore, be wise and faithful, walk warily, and watch carefully, and rule diligently, and pray assiduously; for God is more propense to rewards than to punishments; and the good steward, that is wise and faithful in his dispensation, shall be greatly blessed. But how? "He shall be made ruler over the household." What is that? for he is so already. True: but he shall be much more; 'Ex dispensatore faciet procuratorem ;' God will treat him, as Joseph was treated by his master; ‘he was first a steward, and then a procurator;' one that ruled his goods without account, and without restraint. Our ministry shall pass into empire, our labour into rest, our watchfulness into fruition, and our bishoprick to a kingdom. In the meantime, our bishopricks are a great and weighty care, and, in a spiritual sense, our dominion is founded in grace, and our rule is in the hearts of the people, and our strengths are the powers of the Holy Ghost, and the weapons of our warfare are spiritual; and the eye of God watches over us curiously, to see if we watch over our flocks by day and by night. And though the Primitive Church, as the ecclesiastic histories observe, when they deposed a bishop from his office, ever concealed his crime, and made no record of it, yet remember this, that God does and will call us to a strict and severe account. Take heed that you may never hear that fearful sentence, "I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat." If you suffer Christ's little ones to starve, it will be required severely at your hands. And know this, that the time will quickly come, in which God shall say unto thee, in the words of the prophet, "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee?"b

b Jer. xiii. 20, 21.

God, of his mercy, grant unto us all to be so faithful and so wise as to convert souls, and to be so blessed and so assisted, that we may give an account of our charges with joy, to the glory of God, to the edification and security of our flocks, and the salvation of our own souls, in that day when the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls shall come to judgment, even our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, love and obedience, now and for evermore, Amen.

Α

SERMON

PREACHED AT THE OPENING

OF THE

PARLIAMENT OF IRELAND,

May 8, 1661,

BEFORE THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS JUSTICES, AND THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL, AND THE COMMONS.

ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL,

AND COMMONS OF IRELAND,

ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT.

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

I OUGHT not to dispute your commands for the printing my Sermon of Obedience, lest my sermon should be protestatio contra factum.' Here I know my example would be the best use to this doctrine; and I am sure to find no inconveniency so great as that of disobedience; neither can I be confident that I am wise in any thing, but when I obey; for then I have the wisdom of my superior for my warrant, or my excuse. I remember the saying of Aurelius the emperor, " Equius est me tot et talium amicorum consilium, quam tot tales meam unius voluntatem sequi." I could easily have pretended excuses; but that day I had taught others the contrary, and I would not shed that chalice which my own hands had newly filled with waters issuing from the fountains of salvation.