Parts wherein was certified of them ducentis abhinc annis ex regione Pedemontanâ profectos in provinciae partemillam commigrasse c. as may be seen in Crispin lib. 3 o Actionum Moniment Martyrum Thuanus hath here 300 Years but 200 of these times they were persecuted under the Name of the Beghardi I alledge the Testimony of Matthias Parisiensis who lived in Bohemia about the year 1390. Qui alienant se strenuè saith he in lib. de Sacerdotum Monachorum spiritualium abominatione Cap. 30. ab exercitio tulium à contubernio propter Domini Jesu timorem amorem mox à vulgo Christiano hujus mundi conviciantur confunduntur nota pessima singularitatum vel Hoeresum criminantur propter quod tales homines devoti qui similia vulgo profano non agunt Bechardi vel Turspinii lego Turebipini aut aliis nominibus blasphemis communiter jam nominantur quod figuratum est in illis primis in Babylone quibus alia nomina impofuerunt quà m habuerunt in terra Israel There cometh also unto my mind another place which is not common touching the Beghardi and Fratricelli out of the Book de squaloribus Romanae Curiae written by Matthew de Cracovia who was Bishop of Worms ab anno 1405 ad 1410. Thus he there complaineth Vadunt Beckardi Fratricelli Sectuarii suspectissimi de hoerefi clero infestissimi erectis capitibus absque ullo timore in urbe et seducunt liberè quotquot possunt And mark that this fell upon the time of Pope Gregory the XII who usually did send his Letters to the Princes and Bishops of Christendom per Lollardos seu Beguardos ad quos semper videbatur ejus affectio specialitèr inclinari As is affirmed by Theodoricus à Niem lib. 3. de Schism cap. 6. Whereby we see what Rest and Boldness the same Professors got by the great Schism in the Papacy agreeable to that which Wickliff writeth lib. 3. de Sermone Domini in monte You see when I begin I know not how to make an end and therefore that I prove not too tedious I will abruptly break off desiring you to remember in prayers Your most Assured Loving Friend and Brother James Usher Dublin Aug. 16. 1619. LETTER XXXIX A Letter of Dr. James Usher 's afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh Sir YOU hear I doubt not ere this of the lamentable news out of Bohemia how it pleased God on the 29th of October last to give victory to the Emperor's Army against the King of Bohemia His whole Army was routed 3000 flain on the ground others taken Prisoners who have yielded to save their lives to serve against him Himself and the chief Commanders fled with 2000 Horse came to Prague took away the poor Queen being with Child and some of his Councellors with such things as in that hast could be carried away and so left that Town it not being to be held and withdrew himself into Silesia where he hath another Army as also in Moravia though not without an Enemy there invading also How those of the Religion in Bohemia are like to be dealt with you may imagine and what other evil effects will follow God knoweth if he in mercy stay not the fury of the Enemy who in all likelihood intendeth to prosecute the Victory to the uttermost Spinola also prevaileth still in the Palatinate one Town or two more with two or three little Castles he hath gained and now we hear that a Cessation of Arms is on either side agreed upon for the space of five months The Spaniard hath made himself Master of the Passage betwixt Italy and Germany by getting Voltelina where he hath put down five Protestant Churches and Erected Idolatry in their places He hath so corrupted many among the Switzers as they cannot resolve on any good course how to help the mischief or how to prevent the further increasing of it The French that should protect them are Hispaniolized The Germans have their hands full at home And the Venetians that would dare not alone enter into the business And now newly while I am writing this addition we are certified here that the King of Bohemia hath quit Moravia and Silesia seeing all things there desperate and hath withdrawn himself unto Brandenburgh God grant we may lay this seriously to heart otherwise I fear the judgment that hath begun there will end heavily upon us and if all things deceive me not it is even now marching toward us with a swift pace And so much touching the Affairs of Germany which you desired me to impart unto you whether they were good or evil Concerning Mr. Southwick's departure although not only you but divers others also have advertised me yet I cannot as yet be perswaded that it is intended by him for both himself in his last Letter unto me and his Wife here no longer than yesterday hath signified unto me the plain contrary Your Son Downing wisheth the place unto Mr. Ward your neighbour Mr. Johnson unto Mr. Cook of Gawran and others unto one Mr. Neyle who hath lately preached there with good liking as I hear The last of these I know not with the first I have dealt and am able to draw him over into Ireland Your assured loving Friend James Usher 1619. LETTER XL. A Letter from Mr. Edward Browncker to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath SIR I Marvel much at the Deputy's exceptions he discovers a great deal of unworthy suspicion What answer I have made unto him you may here see I doubt not but he will rest satisfied with it unless he hath resolved to do me open wrong You may seal it up with any but your own Seal I pray you lend me your best furtherance it shall not go unacknowledged howsoever I speed As for the Manuscripts you desire to hear of neither one nor the other is to be found It is true according unto Dr. James his Catalogue there was one Gildas in Merton Colledge Library but he was Gildas Sapiens not Gildas Albanius whom Pitts says was the Author of the Book entituled De Victoria Aurelii Ambrosii neither is that Gildas Sapiens now to be seen in Merton Colledge he hath been cut out of the Book whereunto he was annexed Yet there is one in our Publick Library who writes a story De Gestis Britannorum in whom I find mention of King Lucius his Baptism His words be these Post 164 annos post adventum Christi Lucius Britannicus Rex cum Universis Regulis totius Britaniae Baptismum susceperunt missa legatione ab Imperatore Papa Romano Evaristo As for the Orations of Richard Fleming there be no such to be heard of in Lincoln Colledge Library Neither can I find or learn that the Junior Proctor's Book relates any passage of the Conversion of the Britains If you have any thing else to be search'd for I pray make no scruple of using me further So wishing you comfort in your
6 am Propositiones nee denique cujuscunque limae Versiones nostrae sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conscriptae ut patet ex 3 a appendice libri primi Ergo Sola Hebraica Veteris Instrumenti editio sicut Graeca Novi authentica est pura Vides methodum quam mihi proposui In animo etiam fuit difficultates quasdam tibi doctissime vir proposuisse in quibus exactissimum tuum judicium cognoscerem Sed sentio me jam modum epistolae excessisse vereor ne interpellem te nimis nugis meis à gravioribus negotiis Ignoscas quaeso Guilielmo tuo qui prolixè cordatè potiùs quam eleganter suaviter te compellare maluit Nactus jam tandem Tabellarii opportunitatem remisi ad te manu fidâ ejusdem Postelli Grammaticam unâ cum libello altero quem tibi benevolentiae ergô dicavi majorem daturus si Anglia nostra aliquid librorum non-vulgarium ad antiquitatem eruendam suppeditaret Nondum aliquid efficere potui in Arabicis quod dignum sit operâ forsan si Christmanno muto Magistro aut Bedwello Londinensi vel potiùs Ambrosio tuo Dubliniensi vivâ voce praeceptore uti liceret aliquid efficerem Sed non licet Velit jubeat clementissimus pater qui in coelis est ut Ecclesiae suae pomoeria dilatet nostras Ecclesias in verâ pace conservet tibÃque frater doctissime tuis omnibus in Christo benedicat Vale è Musaeo m Collegio Emmanuelis Cantabrigiae 9 o Kalendas Aprilis juxta veteres Fastos anno Domini 1607 juxta computum Ecclesiae Anglicanae Tuus in communi fide ac Ministerio Evangelii frater Amantissimus GUIL EYRE LETTER IV. A Letter from Mr. H. Briggs to Mr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. Good Mr. Usher PArdon me I pray you that I have not written unto you of late nor gotten the Book you gave me printed for now I cannot think it yours I received your Letter the other day and did the same day twice seek Mr. Rimay and your Books mentioned in the end of your Letter of all which Abraham could get none save one Catalogue of the last Mart which I have sent you within a Book of the Shires of England Ireland and Scotland which at length I send to Mr. D. Chaloner to whom I pray you commend me very kindly with many thanks and excuses for my long deferring my promise Abraham hath taken all the names of your Books and promiseth to get them for you at the next Mart. I was likewise with Mr. Crawshaw he hath not gotten nor cannot find Confes. Ambrosianam of whom I have now received your Book again because he saith it is impossible to get it printed here without the Author's name or without their Index Expurgatorius if any thing in it do sound suspiciously He hath not read it over himself and he is had in some Jealousie with some of our Bishops by reason of some points that have fallen from his Pen and his Tongue in the Pulpit I will keep your Book till you please to send me word what I shall do with it I think Sir J. Fullerton or Sir J. Hamilton may with one word speaking have it pass without name but I am now determined not to mention it to them until you give me some better Warrant Concerning Eclypses you see by your own experience that good purposes may in two years be honestly crossed and therefore till you send me your Tractate you promised the last year do not look for much from me for if another business may excuse it will serve me too Yet am I not idle in that kind for Kepler hath troubled all and erected a new frame for the Motions of all the Seven upon a new foundation making scarce any use of any former Hypotheses yet dare I not much blame him save that he is tedious and obscure and at length coming to the point he hath left out the principal Verb I mean his Tables both of Middle-motion and Prosthaphaereseων reserving all as it seemeth to his Tab. Rudolpheas setting down only a lame pattern in Mars But I think I shall scarce with patience expect his next Books unless he speed himself quickly I pray you salute from me your Brother Mr. Lydyat Mr. Kinge Mr. Martin Mr. Bourchier Mr. Lee. Macte Virtute Do not cease to help the building of Sion and the ruinating of Babel yet look to your health ut diu valide concutias hostium turres The Lord ever bless you and your labours and all that most worthy Society Farewel Tuus in Christo H. Briggs Aug. 1610. Concerning Sir R. Cotton's Letter I must crave pardon at this time for I am but very lately come home and full of business going out of the Town again I think to morrow and now if perhaps I find him I shall hardly get it copied But I pray you to what question of sound Divinity doth this appertain Yet do not think me so censorious but I can like you should sometimes descend to Toys for your Recreation My opinion is He that doth most good is the honestest man whosoever have precedence but if harm the less the better Pray for us The Lord ever bless his Church and us all in particular Mr. Bedwell is not well and keepeth altogether at his t'other Living at Totenham Farewel Yours ever in the Lord Henry Briggs LETTER V. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydyat to Mr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Mr. Usher I Received your Letter this Friday the 13th of March for which I thank you It had been broken open by Chester Searchers before it came to him but I thank God I have not lost any thing of moment for ought I find as yet The East-Indian Fleet is gone about six weeks since but I remain at London still a suiter unto you that the School of Armagh be not disposed of otherwise than I have hitherto requested you until I speak with you in Ireland or rather here in London where I shall be glad to see you The night before I received your Letter Mr. Crashaw acquainted me with a Letter from Mr. Cook wherein he seemed to doubt of divers things in Mr. James his English Book whereof you write signifying withal that he purposeth to be at London this Spring where I hope to see you all three meet to the better performing of that business Mr. Provost told me that he had sent you a Minister for Warberies Mr. I have forgot his name Mr. Provost being now out of Town with my Lord Arch-Bishop his Letters commendatory to my Lord Chancellor I think he is come to you ere this time Printing of Books especially Latin goeth hard here mine is not yet printed nevertheless I thank God mine honourable friends whom I have acquainted with the matter shew me still a friendly countenance with which I rest comforting my self with that pro captu lector is habent sua
fata libelli I have sent you the King's Book in Latin against Vorstius yet scant dry from the Press which Mr. Norton who hath the matter wholly in his own hands swore to me he would not print unless he might have money to print it a sufficient argument to make me content with my Manuscript lying still unprinted unless he Equivocated but see how the World is changed time was when the best Book-printers and sellers would have been glad to be beholding to the meanest Book-makers Now Mr. Norton not long since the meanest of many Book-Printers and sellers so talks and deals as if he would make the Noble King James I may well say the best Book-maker of this his own or any Kingdom under the Sun be glad to be beholding to him any marvel therefore if he think to make such a one as I am his Vassal but I had rather betake my self to another occupation therefore again I request you that my possibility be not frustrate for the School of Armagh Thus hoping to see you in London ere long with my very hearty thanks unto you and commendations to Mr. D. Chaloner Mr. Richardson and all the residue of our good friends with you I commit you to God's gracious preservation Yours as his own Thomas Lydiat Inner Temple Aug. 22. 1611. LETTER VI. A Letter from Mr. James Usher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Mr. Thomas Lydyat Good Mr. Lydyat HOwsoever I intended not to have written unto you before I had first heard from you which I long since expected yet having the opportunity of this Bearer offered I could not pretermit that occasion of saluting you and making known that you are not out of remembrance with your friends here for in truth that was the special cause of my writing at this time You will not believe how I long to be informed from you of the state of things there both of our own private and of our Respublica literaria in general Now I pray you be not slack in satisfying my desire and let me hear among other things how matters go with Mr. Casaubon and how he is imployed If hereafter you shall have occasion to enter into conference with him learn whether he can bring any light to the clearing of the Albigenses and Waldenses from those imputations wherewith they are charged by their Adversaries Ludovicus Camerarius reporteth That many of their Writings in the Ancient Occitanical Language Langue d' Oc were to be seen in Joseph Scaliger's Library Poplinier in the 28th Book of his History to prove that their Religion little differed from ours alledgeth the Acts of a Disputation between the Bishop of Pammiers and Arnoltot Minister of Lombres written in a Language savouring much of the Catalan Tongue Yea sundry persons saith he have assured me that they have seen the Articles of their Faith engraved in certain old Tables which are yet to be seen in Alby in all things conformable to those of the Protestants At my last being in London Mr. Fountayn the Minister of the French Church dwelling in the Black-Fryars told me That in his time there was found a Confession of the Albigenses which being exhibited to a Synod of the Reformed Churches in France was by them approved as Orthodox He promised me to write to the Ministers of Paris for the Copy of the Articles of that Confession I pray you put him in mind of it And get from Mr. Casaubon and him what information you can in those particulars for you know how greatly they make for my purpose You remember that Dr. Chaloner wished you to deal for some Minister to come hither for St. Warburghs I would willingly understand what you have done therein if Mr. Ayre be about London you may do well to acquaint him with it and try whether he can find in his heart once again to visit poor Ireland Dr. Chaloner hath written to Mr. Provost to this purpose You may do us a very great pleasure if you can help us to a faithful Minister to undertake that Charge and Letters commendatory from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury I would willingly hear what is done with Mr. Justice Sibthorp's Book the Preface whereof I sent over by you If Mr. Briggs cannot get it printed I pray you let it be safely sent unto me again and that with as convenient speed as may be If it will pass there intreat Mr. Crashaw for my sake to take some pains in perusing the same and altering therein what he thinketh fit for that hath the Author wholly referred to his discretion If you can come any where to the sight of Sanders De Schismate Anglicano write me out what he noteth concerning Ireland in the year 1542. Sir Robert Cotton promised me the Copy of certain Letters which concerned the Consecrating of the Bishops of Dublin by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury they are at the end of his great Manuscript Book of the Pope's Epistles I pray you call to him for it and likewise intreat Mr. Camden to send me the Copy of those Letters which he alledgeth to that purpose in his Hiberniâ pag. 765. of the last Edition I will trouble you no more at this time but expect to hear from you after so long silence in the mean time committing you and your labours to God's good Blessing and Wishing unto you as unto mine own self James Usher Septemb. 9. 1611. LETTER VII A Letter from Mr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Mr. Thomas Lydyat at London I Received your Letter of the 22 of August together with the Books specified therein for which I give you great thanks And as you have not been unmindful of my businesses so have not I been altogether of yours I have dealt since with my Uncle the Primate both for the annual stipend in the Proportion of Land lying about the School and do find him constant in his Promise Whereby I resolve you may well make account of your Fifty Pounds per annum at the least His Register hath been very forward in furthering the matter and will take care that the utmost benefit be made of the Land to your behoof I have caused him to write unto you of the state thereof for your better information Make I pray you as convenient hast unto us as you can and in the mean time let us hear once more at least of your Affairs and send unto me in your next Letter in what forwardness Justice Sibthorp's Book is as you have signified delivered unto a Stationer in the Church-yard and whether Mr. Crashaw hath taken any pains in running it over And at your coming forget not to bring for me a Bible in Octavo of the new Translation well bound for my ordinary use together with Mr. James and Mr. Cook 's Books you wrote me of I would hear also willingly whether you have proceeded further with Mr. Web and what hope we may conceive of his coming Because you met not with himself and we had no certainty
from you to pitch upon Dr. Chaloner thought good at Mr. Bernard's departure to try whether Mr. Storer a worthy Preacher might be drawn over to the place We look for answer very speedily of which we will not fail to certifie you with the first for if we speed not this way the care must lie upon Mr. Provost or your self to see us otherwise provided for wherein you shall not only do us a great pleasure but also procure a great blessing to this whole City I pray you remember me in all kindness to Mr. Provost and the rest of our friends there but especially remember me to God in your Prayers to whose good blessing I commend you and your Labours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jac. Usserius October the 4 th 1611. LETTER VIII Another Letter from Mr. James Usher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Doctor Chaloner Dear Sir I Know you greatly wonder at my long silence and much blame my negligence in that behalf But the truth is your Letters sent so long since by Mr. Cubbiche came not unto mine hands before the 26th of March neither could I have full time to sollicite my Lord of Canterbury in those businesses before the 5th of April What then after two or three hours serious conference had with me he resolved upon you may understand by his Letters written to my Lord Chancellor and to the Visitors Divers defects he observed in our Statutes as in that of the Election of Fellows though an order be taken therein for others to have a voice in that business yet it is said Electio sit penes magistrum which he said was absurd He observed that there was no order taken that the Scholars should come into the Chappel Clericaliter vestiti and took great exception against the Statute for the ordering of Common-placing which he affirmed to be flat Puritanical The Statutes had been sufficiently confirmed if the Visitors there had subscribed unto them without whose consent they could not afterwards have been altered by the Provost and Fellows who as the Arch-bishop our Chancellor saith have by the Charter of Foundation power to make Statutes but not to alter them after they be made Your Project for the general was well liked by the Arch-bishop but he excepted against it in divers particulars We should not look so much he said for a great number as to give some competency of maintenance unto those whom we did entertain That Batchelors of Art should have no more allowance than those that came newly into the House he misliked And for Masters of Art if every year there be a new Commencement of twenty of them according to your project then said he the twenty whom you would have to stay in the House to be ready to answer the Church Livings and Schools abroad must of force be dismissed at every years end to give place unto the new supply Therefore would he have a competent number of Fellows who might have a more setled abode in the Colledge and read Lectures by turns counting it a great inconvenience that there should be but about six Fellows constantly resident in the House and they so taken up with Lectures that they can have no time for themselves to grow up in further learning And you must look saith he to have some eminent men among you which may be deeply grounded in all manner of knowledge and not content your self with sending out a number of such as are but superficial Likewise for the proportion of Accates set down by you he said it was in vain to look that there should be in times to come the same prices of them which are at this present or have been heretofore And therefore if we would build upon any certainty we should take care that all our payments should not be brought in money but a certain reservation should be made for Provisions When my Lord Chancellor hath imparted unto you how far my Lord of Canterbury hath proceeded what you see remaineth fit to be further sollicited signifie unto me by the first that cometh from thence that I may move my Lord of Canterbury therein And I pray you withal send me a note of the most general and gross Defects or Abuses in our Church of Ireland with the means whereby they may be redressed if easily they may be redressed for in such matters I have good hope that my Lord of Canterbury may be wrought withal to do us good But I pray you be not too forward to have Statutes sent you from hence Dictum sapienti According to your direction I dealt with Mr. Cook to come over unto St. Warburghs and now that Mr. Hill is placed there I know not what to do or say You write unto me of an allowance of 30 l. which he might have from the Colledge let me know upon what consideration it shall be for he would understand what his imployment shall be before he resolve to leave his own Country The Provost hath sent me a Bill for 20 l. to discharge my Credit with the Stationers for the Books which Mr. Martin brought over You may do well to have a care that the English Popish Books be kept in a place by themselves and not placed among the rest in the Library for they may prove dangerous Purchase hath done nothing yet for the Religions of divers Churches having hitherto written not a word more in that intended work of his than you see printed Speed's Chronicle is at 3 l. 10. s. price Sir Henry Savil's Chrysostom in eight Volumes at 9 l. which prices are too great for me to deal withal unless I might put them upon Sir James Carol his score as you would have me put Pradus upon Ezekiel which is now discharged by Mr. Temple About the end of May I purpose God willing to see you I am now earnestly attending the Press and as much of my Book as is at this present printed I send unto you together with two small Treatises lately published here of some importance which also I would have you deliver unto my Lord Chancellor if he hath not already seen them That against Paulus V. is supposed to be written by Marta and one thing therein I think special worthy of observation what the intendment may be of those great sums of money which the Pope is said there daily to lay up The Parsonage of Trim for as much as I can learn here by the Common-Lawyers is like to fall to the King's Presentation And otherwise I suppose Sir James Carol hath lost his turn if he have not presented within the compass of his six months Mr. Briggs would willingly hear from you what Scholars you would entertain of his sending over Mr. Sherwood hath written to the Provost for one Increase Nowel of the Age of 19 years of good sufficiency in Learning and Religious he looketh to have your furtherance also in his admitting Mr. Hildersham remembreth himself unto you To morrow the Prince Palatine and the Lady Elizabeth
my Absence from thence to have heard from you but your greater Imployments and the Burthen of a higher Duty that lyeth upon you do speak sufficiently in your behalf If you can steal any time from your Pastoral Function to give Perfection and Life to many of your exquisite Labours there liveth no man who would more rejoyce at the News thereof than my self I hear by common Fame That there is somewhat published against you this Mart but the Catalogue is now come over and proves Fame a Lyar. The Arch-Bishop of Spal his great promised Work is in the Press here at London and will come abroad before the End of the Term. It will be as large as Bellarmin's Work Laurentius Beyerlinke who stiles himself Archipresbyter Antuerpiensis hath begun the Fight against the Arch-Bishop I know not whether you have seen his Book or no. There came but a few over I only saw it but could not buy it for Money He is much threatned by the Jesuits in all Countries of Christendom I doubt not but you have heard of the Ambassage of Sir John Bennet to Bruxels to question the Arch-Duke in the Behalf of the King our Master concerning the late Book of Patianus who neither apprehended the Author nor suppressed the Book until he was sollicited by the Kings Agent and only interdicted the Book and suffered the Author to fly his Dominions On Munday the 13th of April in the King's Chamber of Presence at the tower in Paris the Marquess d' Ancre a Man of no obscure Fame was murthered with a Pistol by the Hands of Mouns de Vitri his old professed Enemy whose death will give a great assistance to the much desired Peace in France A Synod of the Reformed Churches began at Rochel the 28th of the last Month wherein will be handled the Cause of the Princes in the late Stirres Sir John Digby makes Preparation for his Journey into Spain to treat of a Marriage which to give you my Opinion I think is unfeignedly intended on our Part but whether by them or no the Doctors doubt as the Saying is Sir Walter Raleigh is now at Southampton and the Ships of his Fleet follow him daily from hence and other parts The action is most distastful to the Spaniards beyond any that we have undertaken these many years and hath received strong Opposition from the Spanish Ambassador and some of our own who have sucked in too much Spanish Air. We hear that two Scottish Earls Angus and Morton both of the Family of Douglas have lately withdrawn themselves out of their Country and are gone into France This place is now grown somewhat solitary and therefore if my Advertisements be somewhat trivial I hope you will afford them a favourable Interpretation I desire to be esteemed a Servant to your Love and will ever be ready I make profession to declare my self Your true affectionate Friend while I am Henry Bourgchier London the 31th of May 1617. LETTER XXV A Letter from Mr. William Crashaw Preacher at the Temple to Dr. James Usher Salutem in Christo. Sir THese be some of the Points I would have conferred with you in 1. Whereas the Oath for the Clergy in the Council of Trent it runs thus Credo c. Sanctam Cath. Ap. Romanam Ecclesiam c. Our Men say Luther and others were not perjured For that Romana was then put in and not in afore when they took it I pray shew me where any such Oath or Creed is extant of theirs that hath it not in 2. What Credit is to be given to the Life of St. George extant in Lipomanus printed at Rome 1558. translated he saith out of Metaphrastes and what Evidence in Story you find of Alexandra an Empress Wife to Dioclesian 3. What found Evidence have you of Cyril the Monk his Evangelium Aeternum and whether it is extant more than in Gul. de S. Amore 4. Who was the Author of that Hellish Libel De tribus Mundi Impostoribus and whether you ever saw it 5. What Author have you more than Scaliger that Mysterium in Greek was written within on the fore-part of the Pope's Crown And what certainty of Proof conceive you to be in that Testimony of Scaliger 6. What Evidence have you that the 4 Book of Esdras refused both by Us and the Church of Rome was written before Christ if it were Why then is it refused as non-Canonical seeing such plain and pregnant Prophecies are in it and such as no Power but Divine could foretel especially that of the 12 Caesars cap. 11 Of these things I pray consider and when you have leisure write me what you conceive that so I may not lose it I lent you Josseline de Vitis Archiep. Cant. in Fol. which you said you lent Dr. Mocket and I believe it yet I could never get it and now I find my Book at Mr. Edwards his Shop near Duke-Lane and he saith he bought it with Dr. Mocket's Library but I cannot have it Happily you might by your Testimony prevail to get it me for I charged him not to fell it I pray think of it as you go that way Thus longing to see you and till you send me Word what day you will be here I commend us to God and am Yours in Christ William Crashaw LETTER XXVI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch Bishop of Armagh Health in Christ. Worthy Sir I Esteem my self much beholden unto you as for your former love so for this your late kindness in vouchsafeing me so large a Letter with so full instructions concerning this business that I was bold to break unto you though the same as by your information appeareth were wholly superfluous True it is that though not fully purposed to do ought therein my self willing rather to have afforded mine endeavours and furtherance to some others I supposed that those two treatises viz. that Oration of the Bishops and that of Wilhelm of S. Amore. his might be not unworthy the publishing had the one been perfect and the other not yet published for as for that of Parisiensis de prebendis I had heard to be already abroad and Gesner in his Bibliotheca hath tractatus 2. Argentin impress 1507 de collatione pluralitate Eccles. beneficiorum which may seem the same one of them with this As it is said to be gemma pretiosior in that Manuscript you speak of so to be auro pret in mine But I perceive now by your instructions that the one is out already and the other perfect and fit for the Press in the hands of one better furnished and fitter for the performance of such a work than my self whom I would therefore rather incite to send what he hath perfect abroad than by his perfect Copy having pieced out mine imperfect one to take his Labours out of his hand I have heard since I Wrote to you by Mr. Bill that Sir Henry Savil is about to publish Bishop
Midensis Dublin Oct. 16. 1622. LETTER LII A Letter from the Most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem in Christo. My Lord IN the exceptions taken by Recusants against your Sermon I cannot be affected as Gallio was at the beating of Sosthenes to care nothing for them I am sensible of that which my Brethren suffer And if my advice had been required I should have counselled your Lordship to give lenitives of your own accord for all which was conceived over harsh or sharp the inquisition whether an offence were given or taken may add to the flame already kindled and provoke further displeasure it is not like to pacifie anger But let your case be as good as Peter's was when the Brethren charged him injuriously for preaching to the uncircumcised the great Apostle was content to give them a fair publick satisfaction Act. 11. and it wrought good effects for the Text saith His auditis quieverunt glorificaverunt Deum it brought peace to the Congregation and glory to God My Noble Lord Deputy hath propounded a way of pacification that your Lordship should here satisfie such of the Lords as would be present wherein my poor endeavours shall not be wanting howbeit to say ingenuously as I think that is not like to have success for the Lord of Kilkenny and your other friends trying their strengths in that kind at Trim prevailed not but can tell your Lordship what is expected And if my wishes may take place seeing so many men of Quality have something against you tary not till they complain but prevent it by a voluntary retractation and milder interpretation of the points offensive and especially of drawing the Sword of which spirit we are not nor ought to be for our Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Withal it will not be amiss in mine opinion for you Lordship to withdraw your self from those Parts and to spend more time in your own Diocess that such as will not hear your Doctrine may be drawn to love and reverence your Lordship for your hospitality and conversation Bear with the Plaines of an Old mans Pen and leave nothing undone to recover the Intercourse of Amitie between you and the People of your Charge Were it but one that is alienated you would put on the Bowels of the Evangelical Shepherd you would seek him and support his Infirmities with your own Shoulders how much more is it to be done when so many are in danger to be lost But they are generous and noble and many of them near unto you in Blood or Alliance which will plead effectually and conclude the matter fully whensoever you shew your self ready to give them Satisfaction In the mean time I will not fail to pray God for his Blessings unto the Business and so do rest Your Lordships very loving Brother Armagh Tredagh October 17. 1622. LETTER LIII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward Master of Sidney Sussex Colledge Cambridge Worthy Sir I Was heartily glad when I heard that upon my Lord of Sarum's Promotion you were chosen to succeed him in Reading the Lady Margaret's Lecture and do very well approve the Judgment of them who advised you to handle the Controversies mentioned in that Chapter of Cardinal Perron's Book which Bertius pretendeth to have been the principal Motive of verifying in himself the Title of his old Book Hymenoeus Desertor His Oration of the Motives to his Perversion I saw before I left England than which I never yet did see a more silly and miserable Discourse proceed from the Hands of a learned Man The Epistle that Chrysostom wrote unto Caesarius against the Heresie of Apollinarius and others that confounded the Deity and Humanity in Chirist is not cited by Leontius but by the Author of the Collections against the Severians who is thought to have lived about the time of Damascen In the 8th Tome Bibliothecae patrum Edit Colon. An. 1618. pag. 336. you shall find these words alledged by him ex Chrysostomo ad Caesarium Monachum Hoc est absurdum dogma Apollinarii amentis haec est hoeresis impiissima introducentium mixtionem et compositionem Sir Henry Savil was of your mind that Pet. Martyr met with this Treatise only in Latine but I shewed him the contrary by the Controversie that was betwixt Gardiner and Him Respons ad Object 201 concerning the Interpretation of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Martyr mistaking it as if it had been derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so translating it in that Sentence Sic et divinâ mundante corporis naturâ and Gardiner on the other side contending it should be rendred Firmante corporis naturâ and the righter of the three peradventure being that which I follow divinâ naturâ in corpore insidente I am at this present in hand with such a Work as you are imployed in being drawn thereunto by a Challenge made by a Jesuit in this Country concerning the Fathers Doctrine in the Point of Traditions Real Presence Auricular Confession Priest's Power to forgive Sins Purgatory Prayer for the Dead Limbus Patrum Prayer to Saints Images Free-will and Merits I handle therein only the positive Doctrine of the Fathers and the Original of the contrary Error leaving the Vindication of the Places of Antiquity abused by the Adversary until I be urged thereunto hereafter by my Challenger The better part of the Work I have gone through already As soon as the whole is finished I will not forget to send it unto you or else deliver it with mine own hands In the mean time I send you a Treatise written by one of our Judges here touching these Controversies with a Discourse of mine own added thereunto concerning the Religion professed by the Ancient Irish And so leaving you and all your painful Endeavours unto the Blessing of our good God I rest Your own in all Christian Love and Affection Jac. Midensis Tinglass March 18 1622. LETTER LIV. A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Salutem à fonte Salutis Most Reverend in Christ I Cannot hope to send you any Portion of our London News which common Fame will not bring sooner to you I notwithstanding fail in my Duty if I adventure not The same day of your departure hence the Houses of Parliament presented their Petition concerning Recusants to the King to which they received a large and very satisfactory Answer and a Proclamation to that purpose is expected within a few days On Saturday the day following the Spanish Ambassador I mean the Marquess desiring Audience acquainted the King with a Practice of Treason namely That the Prince and my Lord of Buckingham had conspired That if they could not draw the King to their Desires this Parliament by the Authority thereof they would confine him to some place of Pleasure and transfer the Government to
credited of your Grace or any Man clse But to the well-doing and perfecting of this Work two things are requisite First That the Fathers Works in Latin be reprinted the Vindiciae will not serve wherein I desire to have three or four able Doctors or Batchelors of Divinity to be my Assistants in framing the Annotations Secondly That there be provision either in Parliament or out that the Copies may be sent from any Cathedral Church or Colledg upon a sufficient Caution non obstante statuto both these being granted as at your Lordships instance they may be I doubt not of a most happy success of the whole Business Which that I may not be too troublesome to your Grace I commend unto the protection of the Almighty praying for your Lordships health and happiness and resting as I am in all Bands of Duty and Service Your Grace's in all Duty Tho. James Oxon 27 Feb. 1625. I have a Pseudo-Cyprian Arnaldus Bonavillacensis Work collated and restored by the MS. and printed here under your Graces Name of Authors falsified it is the greatest instance that can be given the whole Treatise fairly written forth is at your Grace's dispose your mind being signified It hath sundry foul Additions and Diminutions in many Points of Controversy LETTER LXXXVIII A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Was glad to have occasion to send to your Lordship that I might so hear of the good Estate of your Self and your Family to which certainly all good Men wish happiness I was the last week with Sir Robert Cotton at Connington at my parting from him when he was with his Son to go to Oxford to the Parliament he gave me leave to send to your Lordship to spare me the two Saxon Chronicles you have of his which I beseech you to do and to send them me by this Bearer together with my Matthew Paris Baronius his Martyrologie and Balaeus I exceedingly want these five Books here and if you command it they shall be sent you again in reasonable time I presume too my Lord that by this time you have noted the Differences between the Texts of the received Original and that of the Samaritan I beseech you to be pleased to permit me the sight of those Differences if they may with manners be desired especially those of Times I shall desire nothing more than upon all opportunity to be most ready to appear and that with all forwardness of performance in whatsoever I were able Your Lordships most Affectionate Servant J. Selden Wrest in Bedfordshire August 4. 1625. LETTER LXXXIX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward Salutem in Christo Jesu SIR Robert Cotton did assure me that the Psalterium Gallicum Romanum Hebraicum was in Trinity-Colledg in an extraordinary large Folio but hereby you must not understand any Text written either in the French or in the Hebrew Language but by Hebraicum the Latin Psalter translated by St. Hierom out of the Hebrew and by Gallicum the Latin Psalter translated by him out of the Greek which is the very same with our Vulgar Latin Edition so called because it was first received in the French Church as the other Romanum because it was used in the Church of Rome which if our last Translators had considered they would not have alleaged as they do in their Epistle to the Reader for confirmation of the translating of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue the Testimony of Trithemius that Efnarde Einardus they mean about the Year 800 did abridg the French Psalter as Beda had done the Hebrew If this Book cannot be had as I much desire it may I pray fail not to send me the other two Manuscript Psalters which you write unto me are in the same Library viz. the Greek thought to be Theodori Cantuar. and the Hebrew that is interlin'd with a Latin Translation for Aug. Justiniani Psalterium Octaplum I have of mine own When you remove to Munden if it be not troublesome unto you I wish you did bring with you your Greek Ganons Manuscript I understand that Mr. Boyse hath gotten lately into his hands a Greek Manuscript of the Acts of the first Council of Nice I should be glad to hear how it differeth from that of Gelasius Cyzicenus which we have and whether he can help me with any old Greek Copy of the Psalms or any Commentary upon them So ceasing to trouble you any further at this time I commend you and all yours to God's blessed direction and protection ever resting Your own in Christ Jesus Ja. Armachanus Much-Haddam Aug. 9. 1625. LETTER XC A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord IReceived your Lordship's Letter and according as you will me have borrowed the two Books you mention Dr. Maw would intreat you to set down some limited time for which you would borrow them and to signify the receipt of them in some Note under your hand There is as I remember a part of the Psalter in King's-Colledg Library Manuscript in a great Folio which was brought from Cales I will look into it When I come to Munden I will bring the Books you mention Mr. Boyse his Manuscript of the Acts of the Nicene Council is surely the Collection made by Gelasius He came to me to borrow the printed Copies I lent him two of them and withal told him there is another Manuscript of Gelasius in Trinity-Colledg Library The next time I speak with Mr. Boyse I will know whether he have any Greek Copy or Commentary upon the Psalms Thus hoping to see you e're long if God will with my best Service remembred I commend you and all yours to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty in these dangerous Times resting Your Lordships in what he may Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. Aug. 11. 1625. LETTER XCI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend my very good Lord I Received your Letter and the enclosed which I will deliver to Dr. Maw This day I met with one of King's-Colledg and he tells me the great Volume they have in Manuscript of the Psalms in Latin which was brought from Cales is but half of the Psalter I willed him to compare it with the Vulgar Edition and to tell me whether they differ He promised me he would I received not the Letter â—ill six a Clock this Night and this Bearer is to be gone early in the Morning so that I cannot compare it with the Vulgar now but I verily think it is no other but the Vulgar Edition it is the greatest Folio that ever I saw Yesterday after I sent you the two Books I hit upon the Book you desired Psalterium Gallic Roman Hebraicum at one of our Stationers set out by Jacobus Stapulensis with his Commentary which I here send you
JACOBUS USSERIUS ARCHIEPISCOPUS ARMACHANUS TOTIUS HIBERNIAE PRIMAS London Printed for Nath Ranew and Ionat Robinson at the Kings Armes in S. Pauls church yard 1676 THE LIFE Of the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop OF ARMAGH Primate and Metropolitan of all IRELAND With a Collection of Three Hundred LETTERS between the said Lord Primate and most of the Eminentest Persons for Piety and Learning in his time both in England and beyond the Seas Collected and published from Original Copies under their own hands by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Chaplain at the time of his Death with whom the care of all his Papers were intrusted by his Lordship LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the Kings-Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard MDCL XXXVI THE PREFACE WHEN the Son of Syrach undertook to recount the Famous Men of Old and record their Worth and Renown he says of them That they were Men of Knowledge Wise and Eloquent in their Instructions that of these there are who have left behind them a Name beloved of God and good Men whose Memorials are Blessed honoured in their Generation being the Glory of their times whose Righteousness shall not be forgotten and although their Bodies be buried yet their Names shall live for Ever And as in the former so likewise in these latter Days there have been many Men of excellent Endowments for Wisdom and Learning for Piety and all other eminent Vertues whose Memorials are with us in Church and State Among these of the first Rank this admirable Primate James Usher whose Life we are about to relate ought to be reckoned whether we consider him as he was indeed a profound Scholar exactly skilled in all sorts of Learning Divine and Humane or as a Person of unfeigned Piety and exemplary Vertue and Conversation or as a Subject of steady and unmoveable Loyalty to his Sovereign Prince or as a Clergy Man in all his Capacity from a Presbyter to a Bishop and Primate So that I think of him it may be as truly said as of St. Augustine with a kind of Admiration O Virum ad totius Ecclesiae publicam utilitatem natum factum datúmque divinitùs This Character his Writings have justly purchased him among the best and most Learned whether of these or other Nations whose Encomiums of him are too many and large for this Place let me therefore include all in that of a memorable Bishop of our Church who upon the Receipt of the Primates Book de Primordiis thus writes of him I may truly say that the Church hereafter will owe as much Reverence to his Memory as we of this present Age ought to pay to his Person And therefore when we have before us a subject of so Eminent Dignity we shall no need Apology for reviving the Memory of this incomparable Prelate and collecting such materials from his Life his Papers and the Informations of Wise and Knowing Men as may render him as well useful to future Ages in his Example as a Person truly Illustrious in himself 1. But perhaps it may be a needless attempt to write again the Life and Actions of this incomparable Primate seeing it hath been performed already by several Persons 2. And likewise it may be demanded how it comes to my share and what were the enducements to undertake this Province 1. To the first I say that though Dr. Bernard in the Sermon be Preached at the Funerals of the Lord Primate hath said many worthy things of him truly which we have reason to believe having the joynt Testimonies from Persons of Worth and unquestionable Credit who had been acquainted with this great and good Man for many years both in England and Ireland and must go along with the Dr. a good way in reciting many material passages contained in the said Sermon yet I take leave to say that he hath omitted very many remarkable things which perhaps either slipt his Memory or came not at all under his observation or because that those then in Power would not indure that any thing should be said of the Primate which might reflect upon that Usurpation Therefore we thought it needful to make up those defects by adding such Remarks as are wanting in that Description and likewise to rectifie the mistakes of those Writers of the Lord Primates Life who Writing after Dr. Bernard's Copy are deficient also in their Accounts and lyable to Question in some instances 2. If it be demanded how it comes to my share to revive the Memory of this great Man and to undertake the Task To this I say that I waited and heartily wished to see if any Person better Qualified than my self being sensible of my own weakness would engage himself in this Affair to whom I would most readily have Communicated those Materials and Observations which I had gathered together and lay by me for a long time but at length perceiving it not likely to be undertaken I was perswaded by those who have a prevailing Power with me to take upon me this Task and to acquaint the World with my own Observations touching this most Reverend Primate Usher whom I had the Advantage of any Man now living to know for I had the Blessing of an intimate Acquaintance with his Person and Affairs by my Attendance on him during the last thirteen years of his Life So that I may be thought capable to give a considerable Account not only of the Lord Primates particular Disposition and heavenly Conversation but likewise of those Passages and Performances of which I was an Eye Witness and may confidently relate upon mine own Knowledge This is the thing I undertake to perform especially in that part of the History of his Life and Actions from the year 1642 to the time of his Death 1655. But not withstanding my long experience of this excellent Person and what I had collected from several passages in Letters and by conference with those who made Observations yet I had not the confidence to attempt this work by my own strength or skill without Counsel and Help therefore when I had drawn together the Memorials I consulted with Persons of better understandign than my self with request to correct and amend what was misplaced or not well expressed and to remind me of any remarkable passage that had escaped my Memory And the assistance I had in this kind was administred by that Learned and Judicious Gentleman James Tyrrell Esq Grandson to the Lord Primate one as deeply concerned for the honour of his Grandfather as can be he became helpful to me in hinting many passages touching his Grandfather which he tho then young had himself observed and had heard from Persons of great Worth and Credit and of the Primates familiar Acquaintance We also owe unto him the account given of the Lord Primates Printed Works both of the time and occasion of Writing them and subject matter treated on as the Reader will perceive in the following History
in their proper places In the next place it is requisite to mind the Reader touching the following Collection of Letters herewith published being for the most part Originals written by the Lord Primate to learned Men of our own and foreign Nations or of those written to him relating mostly to matters of Learning These Epistles I gathered together with what care I could and when I had selected those out of a far greater number that I thought might prove most fit for publick view and useful both in respect of the Learning contained in them and the various subjects whereof they consisted I would not presume to publish the Collection until they had passed the Inspection and Censure of those Learned Men to whom they were first shown being Persons of great Judgment and Integrity and who retain a very high Esteem and Veneration for the Primate's Memory Perhaps the Reader will expect to meet with if not all yet many more of the Primate's Letters in this Collection than may be found but by all our Industry and search they cannot yet be retrieved partly because the Primate himself seldom kept Copies of his Lettes and many of those he had reserved met with the same fate which many others of his loose Papers and Manuscripts which were either lost in his often forced removals or fell into the hands of the Men of those spoiling times who had no regard to things of that Nature There are other Epistles not numbred with the former at the end of this Collection written by Men of great Names found among my Lord Primate's Papers which are thought worthy to be inserted and Printed Before I dismiss the Reader I have one thing more to advertise touching two Letters in the Collection one written by Dr. Bedell then Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland to the Primate Usher then Arch-Bishop of Armagh and his answer to it as you will find Numb 142. and 143. importing an accidental difference between those two Eminent Bishops and most intire Friends touching the Administration and Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Courts as then exercised in the Kingdom of Ireland which Letters however otherwise Worthy of perusal yet are now more especially published for the doing right to the Arch-Bishops Character which might else have suffered by some injurious Reflections upon him in the Life of that Bishop lately Written taken up partly from some uncertain Reports and partly upon the Bishops Letter to him upon that occasion But how little Reason there was to say the Primate was not made for the Governing part of his Function as that Author affirms besides his known abilities that way his Answer to the Bishops Letter and other Composures of his upon those kind of Arguments will sufficiently testifie Of which inadvertency as the Composer of that Life is already made sensible so we hope that he will do him Right according as he hath promised when time shall serve The order observed in disposing these Letters in the following Volume is according to their several Dates that being concluded fittest beth for the use and delight of the Reader only some of them through mistake are transposed and others that were brought in late are Printed at the latter end of which the Reader may consult the Advertisment at the end of the Book Farewell THE LIFE Of the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop OF ARMAGH Primate and Metropolitan of all IRELAND Collected and Written by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Domestick Chaplain Psalm CXII v. 6. The Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance Proverbs X. v. 7. The Memory of the Just is blessed but the Name of the Wicked shall rot LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the Kings-Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard MDCLXXXVI THE LIFE OF The Most Reverend Father in God JAMES USHER SOMETIME Arch-Bishop of Armagh PRIMATE of all IRELAND THIS great Person whose Life we now write was Born in the City of Dublin the Metropolis of Ireland upon the fourth day of January Anno Domini 1580. His Father Mr. Arnold Usher one of the Six Clerks of Chancery and of good repute for his prudence and integrity was of the Ancient Family of the Ushers aliàs Nevils whose Ancestor Usher to King John coming over with him into Ireland and setling there changed the name of his Family into that of his Office as was usual in that Age his descendants having since brancht into several Families about Dublin and for divers Ages bore the most considerable Offices in and about that City His Mother was Margaret Daughter of James Stanihurst who was of considerable note in his time being chosen Speaker of the Honourable House of Commons in three Parliaments and was Recorder of the City of Dublin and one of the Mastres of Chancery and that which ought always to be mention'd for his honour he was the first mover in the last of the three Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth for the Founding and Endowing of a Colledge and University at Dublin which was soon after consented to by Her Majesty and being perfected hath ever since continued a famous Nursery for learning and good manners blessing both the Church and State with many admirable men eminently useful in their several Stations His Uncle by the Fathers side was Henry Usher sometime Arch-Bishop of Armagh a wise and learned Prelate one who industriously promoted the founding of that University and by his Zeal and Interest procured of the said Queen an established Revenue for the maintainance of a Provost and Fellows Students and Officers as may be seen by the Charter and Statutes of that Foundation and so it has flourished ever since with ample improvement A happy Foundation and great honour to that Kingdom having in the space of somewhat more than 90 years sent out divers Persons very considerable both in Church and State and yielded more than fifty Bishops besides others of inferiour Dignities who were many of them of great parts and excellent learning His Uncle by the Mother side was Richard Stanihurst a Learned man of the Romish Perswasion an excellent Historian Philosopher and Poet as appears by several of his Works still extant though some of them for that reason written against his Nephew yet notwithstanding their difference in Judgment they had frequent correspondencies by Letters some of which you will see hereafter in this following Collection He often mentioned two of his Aunts who were blind from their Cradle and so continued to their deaths and yet were blessed with admirable understanding and inspection in matters of Religion and of such tenacious Memories that whatever they heard read out of the Scriptures or was preached to them they always retained and became such proficients that they were able to repeat much of the Bible by heart and as their Nephew told me were the first that taught him to read English He had but one Brother Ambrose Usher who though he died young yet attained to great skill and perfection in the Oriental
Tongues and did render much of the Old Testament from the Original Hebrew into English before King James's Translation was made which I have seen and is now in Manuscript with his Nephew Sir Theophilus Jones Knight one of his Majesties Privy-Council in Ireland He also Translated out of Latin into English that Book written by his Brother James Usher De Ecclesiarum Christianarum successione statu which Translation is yet only in Manuscript And of this Ambrose being a very young man the Learned Mr. William Eyre in a Letter to Dr. James Usher writes thus Interea vero agnosco me valde obaeratum esse tibi doctissimo juveni fratri tuo Ambrosio qui peritissima manu sua quaedam in meum usum ex Alcorano Arabice excripsit which knowledge in the Arabick Tongue in those days was very rare especially in that Country But our James Usher as God had furnisht him with excellent endowments of Nature a treatable Disposition a strong Memory and a ready Invention so by God's blessing on his improvement of them by his Learning and Industry he arrived to that admirable perfection that gave him a reputation superiour to all that he could derive from his Family and rendred his name famous beyond the narrow bounds of his own Country even throughout the Christian World wherever true Piety and useful Learning were had in any esteem and veneration After he had learnt to read from his Aunts he entered on the Bible that Book of Books as he ever called it in which he made a happy beginning and a more happy progress like Timothy of whom it is recorded That from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make a man wise to Salvation According to which excellent Rule he always governed his life and conversation He began early to have a deep sense of Religion and to consider the great concernment of his Soul how he might serve God aright Remembring his Creator in the days of his Youth even but in the tenth year of his Age When he became fit for a Grammar-School it happened that two eminent Persons of the Scottish Nation though their business and quality were then unknown came to Dublin being sent over thither by King James then King of Scotland to keep a correspondence with the English Protestant Nobility and Gentry about Dublin in order to secure his interest in that Kingdom when Queen Elizabeth should happen to die these for a colour undertook the imployment of School-Masters to instruct and discipline Youth in Learning and good Education for the want of such was very great there at that time The one was James Fullerton afterward Knighted and of the Bed-chamber to King James the other was James Hamilton afterward also Knighted and created by the King Viscount Clandebois To their Instruction and Tuition was our James Usher committed by his Parents with whom he made so great a proficiency in a short time that he became the best Scholar of the School for Latin Poetry and Rhetorick all this being within the space of five years He would usually say when he recounted the Providences of God towards him That he took this for one remarkable instance of it That he had the opportunity and advantage of his Education from those men who came thither by Chance and yet proved so happily useful to himself and others He told me That in this first Scene of his life he was extreamly addicted to Poetry and was much delighted with it but afterward growing to more maturity and consideration he shook it off as not suitable to the great end of his more resolved serious and profitable Studies and then set himself industriously to pursue Learning of a higher Nature Yet he always loved a good Poem that was well and chastly writ And lighting once upon a passage in Tully viz. Nescire quid antea quam natus sis acciderit id est semper esse Puerum and also reading Sleidan's History of the four Empires he presently resolved on the study and search of Antiquity and all sorts of Learning and how he might contribute to the advancement thereof this was a brave and a manly attempt for a Lad but of 12 or 13 years of age yet as he attempted so he conquered all the difficulties which he met with in the search after and bringing to light those many things which ignorance had corrupted and time well-nigh buried in oblivion especially in a Country where there was then so great a scarcity of good Books and learned Men. I mention these things so much above his years for a remembrance of God's special Providence over this Person in endowing him with such admirable gifts of Nature to dispose him so vigorously to Learning and to fit and qualifie him for such highly serviceable Undertakings so that he seem'd designed by God by his Doctrine and Example to teach men how to live and by his deep Learning and strong Reason to confute the clamorous Cavils of the greatest adversaries of our Religion year 1593 In the year 1593 was Trinity Colledge in Dublin finished and James Usher then in the thirteenth year of his age adjudged by his School-Masters sufficiently qualified for an admittance into that University and so was entered accordingly Dr. Loftus sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge afterwards Arch-Bishop of Dublin being the first Provost of that College and Mr. Hamilton one of this our Usher's School-Masters and Senior Fellow was Tutor to this early ripe Youth whose name as the first Scholar there stands to this day in the first line of the Roll not without a future presage that he might prove an honour and ornament to that Colledge and Nation as he afterwards did And being thus fixed he sets himself in good earnest to the study of the Languages and Liberal Arts not neglecting Ecclesiastical History and Antiquity in all which he improved to admiration for between fifteen and sixteen years of age he had made such a proficiency in Chronology that he had drawn up in Latin an exact Chronicle of the Bible as far as the book of Kings not much differing from the method of his late Annals excepting the enlargements in some more accurate Observations and Synchronisms of Heathen Stories Sometime after this before he was Batchelor of Arts he had read Stapleton's Fortress of the Faith and finding his confidence in asserting Antiquity for the Tenents of Popery and taxing of our Church with Novelty in what it dissented from theirs he was in a great dispute with himself where the truth lay not then knowing but that those quotations he made use of might be true but this he took for an undeniable truth That the ancientest must needs be the right as the nearer the Fountain the purer the Streams and that Errours sprang up as the Ages succeeded according to that known Speech of Tertullian Verum quodcunque primum adulterum quodcunque posterius He suspected that Stapleton might misquote the Fathers or
wrest them to his own sense which made him take up a firm resolution That in due time if God gave him life he would himself read the Fathers all over and trust none but his own Eyes in the search of them and this was the occasion of his undertaking that great work which he afterwards began at twenty years of age and finished at thirty eight strictly observing to read such a proportion each day from which no occasions whatsoever should divert him the fruits of which labour as the World hath already tasted in his learned Writings so had he lived to finish that great work of his Bibliotheca Theologica which he intended as the sum of all his Studies on that important subject whereof we shall give you a further account hereafter yet before he was Master of Arts he had read here and there divers Books of the Fathers and most of our best Authors who had writ in confutation of the Errors of the Papists with many of their Writers also by which he had so well acquainted himself with the state of each Controversie that he was able to dispute with any of the Popish Priests as he often did with the chiefest of them year 1598 The Earl of Essex being newly come over Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Chancellor of the university of Dublin there was a solemn Act for his entertainment Our Usher being then Batchelor of Arts answered the Philosophy Act with great approbation But while he was busily imploying himself in these studies and great designs to fit himself for the Divine Calling of the Ministry when he should be qualified for so high and great imployment his Father recommended to him the study of the Common Law designing to send him shortly over to the Inns of Court in England but to this his Son was very averse it no ways suiting with his natural Temper and Complexion yet dutifully would have submitted if his Father could not be brought to alter his mind in that matter But soon after he died and the paternal Estate descended to this his eldest Son being of a considerable value but this young Heir was so far from being transported by such an accession of Fortune that it did not in the least shake him from his design for he finding it somewhat incumbred with Law Suits and Sisters Portions and fearing those might prove an hinderance to the course of his Studies which he still resolved to pursue he chose rather to commit himself to the Providence of God anew and so very frankly gave his Inheritance to his Brother and his several Sisters for their Portions only reserving so much of it as might enable him to buy some Books and afford him a competent maintenance in the College This act of his perhaps by some may be censured for indiscretion yet so much may be allowed him in his vindication that it shews how little he valued Earthly things in comparison of true Wisdom and Learning And besides to let you see that he very well understood what he did in this matter There is to be seen an exact Terrier of his own hand writing of all the Estate and Leases left him by his Father And that it might not be thought he did any thing rashly and with precipitation he drew up an exact state of all the Suits and Incumbrances that lay upon it with directions what to do in them which he committed to his Uncle as Guardian for his Brother and Sisters to be managed for their advantage which he so well performed that most of his Sisters being seven in all were afterwards very well married and some of them to Persons that proved eminently considerable both in Church and State And now being setled in the Colledge and freed of his worldly cares and left to his own choice he devotes himself entirely to the pursuit of all literature both Humane and Divine for the service of God's Church and the good of Mankind which he chiefly aimed at next the Salvation of his own Soul and in these noble subjects he constantly exercised himself and did so much increase in all sorts of knowledge that his Fame thô he sought it not went abroad and he soon became an Example of Piety Modesty and Learning But that which administred greatest cause of admiration was That so much fruit should be found upon a Plant but newly set and scarcely ripe for blossoms so that in this short space from the thirteenth year of his age to the twentieth he gave most ample proofs of his learning and abilities in all publick Exercises which he performed About the eighteenth or nineteenth year of his age he being but Batchelor of Arts was thought the fittest person to enter the lists of disputation with a daring and learned Jesuite one Henry Fitz-Symonds then prisoner in the Castle of Dublin who sent out a challenge Defying the greatest Champion and best Learned to dispute with him about those points in controversie between the Roman and Reformed Churches Our Usher accepts the challenge and accordingly they met the Jesuite made slight of him at first as but a boy and thinking it an easie task to baffle him the Priest admits a publick Disputation the subject of which was Bellarmine's Controversies and because the several matters in debate could not be dispatched at one or two meetings they appointed to meet once a week to argue the chief Points in Controversie But it seems that after one or two Conferences the Jesuite had enough of it for though he despised him at first yet he did not care to have any more to do with him for after the second Conference this boasting Goliah declined the Combate with this stripling and not without cause for he had felt the quickness of his Wit the strength of his Arguments and skill in Disputation so that this Jesuite quickly left the Field as will appear by this modest Letter which Mr. Usher then writ to him I Was not purposed Mr. Fitz-Symonds to write unto you before you had first written to me concerning some chief points of your Religion as at our last meeting you promised but seeing you have deferred the same for reasons best known to your self I thought it not amiss to enquire further of your mind concerning the continuation of the Conference began betwixt us And to this I am the rather moved because I am credibly informed of certain reports which I could hardly be perswaded should proceed from him who in my presence pretended so great love and affection unto me If I am a boy as it hath pleased you very contemptuously to name me I give thanks to the Lord that my carriage toward you hath been such as could minister unto you no just occasion to despise my Youth your Spear belike is in your own conceit a Weavers Beam and your abilities such that you desire to encounter with the stoutest Champion in the Host of Israel and therefore like the Philistine you contemn me as being a boy yet this
of Christ are inabled to govern well to speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authority to loose such as are Penitent to commit others unto the Lord's Prison until their amendment or to bind them over unto the Judgment of the Great Day if they shall persist in their wilfulness and obstinacy By the other Princes have an imperious power assigned by God unto them for the defence of such as do well and executing revenge and wrath upon such as do evil whether by death or banishment or confiscation of goods or imprisonment according to the quality of the offence When St. Peter that had the Keys committed unto him made bold to draw the Sword he was commanded to put it up as a weapon that he had no authority to meddle withal And on the other side when Uzziah the King would venture upon the execution of the Priest's Office it was said unto him It pertaineth not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the Sons of Aaron that are Consecrated to burn incense Let this therefore be our second Conclusion That the power of the Sword and of the Keys are two distinct Ordinances of God and that the Prince hath no more Authority to enter upon the execution of any part of the Priest's Function than the Priest hath to intrude upon any part of the Office of the Prince In the third place we are to observe That the power of the Civil Sword the supreme managing whereof belongeth to the King alone is not to be restrained unto Temporal Causes only but is by Gods Ordinance to be extended likewise unto all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes That as the spiritual Rulers of the Church do exercise their kind of Government in bringing men unto obedience not of the duties of the first Table alone which concerneth Piety and the Religious Service which man is bound to perform unto his Creator but also of the second which respecteth moral honesty and the Offices that man doth owe unto man so the Civil Magistrate is to use his Authority also in redressing the abuses committed against the first Table as well as against the second that is to say as well in punishing of an Heretick or an Idolater or a Blasphemer as of a Thief or a Murtherer or a Traytor and in providing by all good means that such as live under his Government may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and honesty And howsoever by this means we make both Prince and Priest to be in their several places Custodes utriusque Tabulae Keepers of both God's Tables yet do we not hereby any way confound both of their Offices together For though the matter wherein their Government is exercised may be the same yet is the form and manner of governing therein always different the one reaching to the outward man only the other to the inward the one binding or loosing the Soul the other laying hold on the Body and the things belonging thereunto the one having special reference to the Judgment of the World to come the other respecting the present retaining or losing of some of the comforts of this life That there is such a Civil Government as this in Causes Spiritual or Ecclesiastical no man of judgment can deny For must not Heresie for example be acknowledged to be a cause meerly Spiritual or Ecclesiastical And yet by what power is an Heretick put to death The Officers of the Church have no Authority to take away the life of any man it must be done therefore per brachium saeculare and consequently it must be yielded without contradiction that the temporal Magistrate doth exercise therein a part of his Civil Government in punishing a Crime that is of its own nature Spiritual or Ecclesiastical But here it will be said the words of the Oath being general That the King is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness's Dominions and Countries How may it appear that the power of the Civil Sword only is meant by that Government and that the power of the Keys is not comprehended therein I answer First That where a Civil Magistrate is affirmed to be the Governor of his own Dominions and Countries by common intendment this must needs be understood of a Civil Government and may in no reason be extended to that which is meerly of another kind Secondly I say That where an ambiguity is conceived to be in any part of an Oath it ought to be taken according to the understanding of him for whose satisfaction the Oath was ministred Now in this case it hath been sufficiently declared by publick Authority That no other thing is meant by the Government here mentioned but that of the Civil Sword only For in the Book of Articles agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. thus we read Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injuctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers If it be here objected that the Authority of the Convocation is not a sufficient ground for the exposition of that which was enacted in Parliament I answer That these Articles stand confirmed not only by the Royal assent of the Prince for the establishing of whose Supremacy the Oath was framed but also by a special Act of Parliament which is to be found among the Statutes in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth chap. 12. Seeing therefore the makers of the Law have full Authority to expound the Law and they have sufficiently manifested That by the supreme Government given to the Prince they understand that kind of Government only which is exercised with the Civil Sword I conclude that nothing can be more plain than this That without all scruple of Conscience the King's Majesty may be acknowledged in this sense to be the only Supreme Governor of all his Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And so have I cleared the first main branch of the Oath I come now unto the Second which is propounded Negatively That no foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm The foreigner that challengeth this Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Jurisdiction over us
though upon a sad occasion of his Majesty's excellent conversation in the same House who received him with his wonted kindness and favour Whilst he was here the Lord Primate preached before him in the Castle and when his Majesty went away and that the Lord Primate had taken his leave of him I heard him declare that nothing came nearer to his heart than the imminent danger of the King and Church with the effusion of so much Christian Blood His Majesty's necessities now not permitting him to leave many men in Garrisons he was now forced to unfurnish this as well as others of its Souldiers and Ammunition so that Sir Timothy Tyrrel was forced to quit that Government by reason of which the Arch-Bishop being forced to remove was in a great strait whether to go the ways from thence to Oxford being all cut off by the Enemy so that he had some thoughts being near the Sea of going over into France or Holland to both which places he had been formerly invited as hath been already mentioned But whilst he was in this perplexity the Lady Dowager Stradling sent him a kind invitation to come to her Castle of St. Donates as soon as he pleased which he accepted as a great favour But by that time he was ready to go with his Daughter the Lady Tyrrel the Country thereabouts was up in Arms in a tumultuous manner to the number of Ten Thousand as was supposed who chose themselves Officers to form them into a Body pretending for the King but yet would not be governed by English Commanders or suffer any English Garrisons in the Country this gave the Lord Primate a fresh disturbance the Welch-men lying upon the ways between that place and St. Donates but there were some at that time in Caerdiffe who would needs undertake to convey the Lord Primate and his company through by ways so that they might avoid this tumultuous Rabble which though it might be well advised by the then Governor of Caerdiffe and was faithfully enough executed by them that undertook it yet happened very ill for my Lord and those that were with him for going by some private ways near the Mountains they fell into a stragling Party that were scouting thereabouts who soon led them to their main Body where it was Crime enough that they were English so that they immediately fell to plundering and breaking open my Lord Brimate's Chests of Books and other things which he then had with him ransacking all his Manuscripts and Papers many of them of his own hand writing which were quickly dispersed among a thousand hands and not content with this they pulled the Lord Primate and his Daughter and other Ladies from their Horses all which the Lord Primate bore with his wonted patience and a seeming unconcernedness But now some of their Officers coming in who were of the Gentry of the Country seemed very much ashamed of this barbarous treatment and by force or fair means caused their Horses and other things which were taken from them to be restored but as for the Books and Papers they were got into too many hands to be then retrieved nor were these Gentlemen satisfied with this but some of them very civilly conducted him through the rest of this tumultuous Rabble to Sir John Aubery's House not far off where he was civilly received and lodged that Night When he came thither and had retired himself I must confess that I never saw him so much troubled in my life and those that were with him before my self said That he seemed not more sensibly concerned for all his losses in Ireland than for this saying to his Daughter and those that endeavoured to comfort him I know that it is God's hand and I must endeavour to bear it patiently though I have too much humane frailty not to be extremely concerned for I am touched in a very tender place and He has thought â—it to take from me at once all that I have been gathering together above these twenty years and which I intended to publish for the advancement of Learning and the good of the Church The next day divers of the neighbouring Gentry and Clergy came to Visit him and to Condole this irreparable loss promising to do their utmost endeavours that what Books or Papers were not burnt or torn should be restored and so very civilly waited on him to St. Donates And to let you see that these Gentlemen and Ministers did not only promise but were also able to perform it they so used their power with the people that publishing in the Churches all over those parts That all that had any such Books or Papers should bring them to their Ministers or Landlords which they accordingly did so that in the space of two or three Months there were brought in to him by parcels all his Books and Papers so fully that being put altogether we found not many wanting those most remarkable that I or others can call to mind were two Manuscripts concerning the VValdenses which he much valued and which he had obtained toward the continuing of his Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione As also another Manuscript Catalogue of the Persian Kings communicated by Elikmannus and one Volume of Manuscripts Variae Lectiones of the New Testament And of Printed Books only Tully's Works and some others of less concernment Whilst the Lord Primate was at St. Donates till he could get his own Books and Papers again he spent his time chiefly in looking over the Books and Manuscripts in the Library in that Castle and which had been collected by Sir Edward Stradling a great Antiquary and friend of Mr. Cambden's and out of some of these Manuscripts the L. Primate made many choice Collections of the British or Welch Antiquity which I have now in my Custody Within a little more than a Month after my Lord Primate's coming hither he was taken with a sharp and dangerous illness which began at first with the Strangury and suppression of Urine with extremity of torture which at last caused a violent bleeding at the Nose for near forty hours together without any considerable intermission no means applied could stop it so that the Physicians and all about him dispaired of his life till at last when we apprehended he was expiring it stanched of it self for he lay a good while in a trance but God had some farther work for him to perform and was pleased by degrees to restore him to his former health and strength but it is worth the remembering that whilst he was in the midst of his pain as also his bleeding he was still patient praising God and resigning up himself to his Will and giving all those about him or that came to visit him excellent Heavenly advice to a Holy Life and due preparation for death e're its Agonies seized them saying It is a dangerous thing to leave all undone till our last sickness I fear a Death-bed Repentance will avail us little if we have lived
in the accounts of Time Names or Numbers of men difference of some Words and Phrases c. whilst they still agree in all the main points both of the History and Doctrine which I think ought to satisfie any sincere considering Person that God's Providence has taken sufficient care to convey these Sacred Records and Foundations of our Faith clear and uncorrupted to us a reasonable allowance being still given to the Mistakes and Errours of the Copiers or Translators which were not Divinely Inspired so as to secure us from all mistakes in a Book which has been so often transcribed in so many hundreds of years and that out of a Language which is thought by divers of the learned to have been written without any of those Points which in most of these Eastern Languages stand for Vowels But to other of the Learned of the contrary Opinion and what our Primate thought of this and some beside him skill'd in this point we may understand among the Collections hereafter unto which I refer the Reader and to return from whence we have digressed The Lord Primate being once importuned by a Learned man to give some directions in Writing for the advancement of solid and useful learning as well Sacred as Prophane he said it might be thus performed 1. By learned Notes and Illustrations on the Bible 2. By censuring and inquiring into the Ancient Councils and Works of the Fathers 3. By the orderly Writing and Digesting of Ecclesiastical History 4. By gathering together whatsoever may concern the State of the Jews from the destruction of Jerusalem to this present Age. 5. By Collecting of all the Greek and Roman Histories and disting them into a Body And to effect all this he proposed That the most ingenious and studious men of both Universities being preferred to Prebends in Cathedral Churches should be enjoyned and amply encouraged to prosecute this design for the advancement of this most profitable Learning And how much the Lord Primate desired the performance of these so useful works appears by what he had long since recommended to the University of Oxford touching the revising the Works of the Ancient Fathers of the Church What his design was in this kind the Reader may best judge by this passage in a Letter written 1626. recommending this design to the University of Oxford which I shall here insert The business of Revising the Ancient Fathers works in Latin so long projected and so many years followed by Dr. James I do greatly approve and judge it to be as the times now are and the Books now printed at Cologne and else where most necessary tending to the great honour of this famous University the benefit of them that shall be imployed therein and the great good of the Church And if the Heads of the University would be pleased or might be intreated to incourage and imploy some of their Younger Divines herein whereof I see so great store and some I have found very painful in another kind I shall think my self greatly honoured by this University as I confess I have been very much already if by my means they may be the rather encouraged to the performance of this great work And indeed he had so great an esteem of the Ancient Authors for the acquiring any solid learning whether Sacred or Prophane that his advice to young Students either in Divinity or Antiquity was not to spend too much time in Epitomes but to set themselves to read the Ancient Authors themselves as to begin with the Fathers and to read them according to the Ages in which they lived which was the Method he had taken himself and together with them carefully to peruse the Church Historians that treated of that Age in which those Fathers lived by which means the Student would be better able to perceive the reason and meaning of divers Passages in their Writings which otherwise would be obscure when he knew the Original and Growth of those Heresies and Heterodox Opinions they wrote against and may also better judge what Doctrines Ceremonies and Opinions prevailed in the Church in every Age and by what means introduced So likewise for Prophane Authors his advice was to begin with the most Ancient and so to read them in the order of time of which they writ which was the Method he used in the composing of his Annals Nor did he advise Students in Divinity to spend more time than was necessary in the subtilties of the School-men only so far as might serve for the understanding and answering the Controversies between those of the Church of Rome and us saying That they were good to puzzle mens heads with unnecessary doubts but bunglers in resolving them and that their Writings had done more mischief to the Church than brought advantage either to Learning or Religion That they might serve for Controversial Disputes in the Schools but were very improper for the Pulpit and altogether useless for the Functions of a Civil Life And whom one would think Prudentius had on purpose thus described Solvunt ligantque quaestionum vincula per Syllogismos plectiles fidem minutis diffecant ambagibus c. As for the Heathen moral Philosophers he advised young Divines not to spend too much time in them for they were much mistaken in many great points of Morality and true happiness the best rules of life c. and the shortest and plainest for all moral Duties being delivered by God in the Holy Scriptures In Theological Treatises and Discourses he was displeased with new wording of old Truths and changing the Terms used by the Ancients to express the things they meant he would have the old form of sound words retained for Qui nova facit verba nova gignit Dogmata and ever suspected that those who purposely used new coined words had no very good meaning or else affected too great singularity But I think I need say no more to prove the Lord Primate's great knowledge in all parts of useful Learning since besides the Suffrages of the most knowing men of this Age his many and learned works of which I have given you a short account in this Treatise sufficiently declare it to the World but let us look back a little and survey at once those various parts of Learning he was skilled in First his Sermons Treatises Theological and Writings against the Papists do sufficiently shew how great a Doctor he was in Theology as well Practical as Polemical his Theological Bibliotheke as imperfect as it is together with the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp which he put forth with learned dissertations concerning their Writings as also his Treatise of the Ancient Apostolical Symbol of the Roman Church declare how well he was versed in all the Ancient Monuments of the Church as his works of the Succession and state of the Christian Churches and of the Antiquities of the British Church do his knowledge in Ecclesiastical History and Antiquity his Syntagma of the Version of the Septuagint
and his Epistle to Lud. Capellus concerning the various readings of the Hebrew Text speak him a great Critick in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues and his Annals of the Old and New Testament do shew how great a Master he was in all the Ancient Authors both Sacred and Prophane besides several other smaller Treatises as well in Latin as English viz. Of the Macedonian Year the Geographical Description of the lesser Asia c. each of which shew his great skill either in Astronomy ancient Geography or the Civil Laws of the Roman Empire besides divers other smaller Works of his too many to be here particularly inserted and therefore I shall refer the Reader to the Catalogue added at the end of this Account Yet must I not omit particularly to take notice of two excellent Posthumous Treatises of his which have not been yet mentioned as being published since his death the first is that of the Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject which was written by the King's Command during the late Wars but forborn then to be published because the corruption of those Times still growing worse and worse would not bear this sound Doctrine nor did he think it proper to do it in the short time of that Usurper lest he or others might have interpreted it to his advantage but not long after his late Majesty's happy Restauration it was Published and Dedicated to him by the Lord Primate's Grandson James Tyrrel with an excellent Preface written by that learned and good Bishop Sanderson in which he has given as true a Character of the Author as of the work it self in which he says with a great deal of truth That there is nothing which can be brought either from the Holy Scriptures Fathers Philosophers common Reason and the Laws and Statutes of this Realm to prove it altogether unlawful for Subjects to take up Arms against their Sovereign Prince but is there made use of with the greatest advantage The other Treatise is written in Latin entitled Chronologia Sacra which the Lord Primate never lived to finish but was as much of it as could be found though somewhat imperfectly published by the Learned and Reverend Dr. Barlow now Lord Bishop of Lincoln The occasion and design of this Treatise was to prove the Foundations of the accounts of time in his Annals and that his Chronological Calculations made use of in that work agreed with the accounts laid down in the Scriptures and Prophane Authors which could not be done in the Annals themselves without interrupting the Series of the Work In this he hath solved several difficulties relating to the History and Chronology of the Bible he began with the Creation though the first Chapter is lost being not to be found among his Papers yet in the next he gives an exact account of the differences between the Jewish Samaritan and Greek Calculations from the Creation to the Birth of Abraham which he carried on as far as the time of the Judges but was then interrupted by death Yet he had before happily perfected the account of the Reigns and Synchronisms of the Kings of Judah and Israel from Saul to the Babylonish Captivity which being more perfect than the other part was thought fit by the Printer or Publisher to be set before it though it be indeed contrary to the order of time It was great pity that my Lord did not live to finish this work which would have been of excellent use for the clearing of many difficulties and reconciling the differences between the Sacred and Prophane Chronology and History I may here likewise take notice of those many Volumes of his Collections and several of them all of his own hand on particular subjects both Theological Philological and Historical most of them extracted out of several Manuscripts in the Libraries of the Universities Cathedrals and private mens Studies there being scarce a choice Book or Manuscript in any of them but was known to him nor was he conversant in the Libraries of our own Nation alone but also knew most of the choice pieces in the Vatican Escurial and Imperial Library at Vienna as likewise in that of the King of France of Thuanus at Paris and Erpenius in Holland as still appears by the Catalogues he had procured of them divers of which I have now in my Custody and out of which Libraries he at his great cost procured divers Copies for his own use which made the most considerable Ornament of his Study But to return to his own Collections above mentioned which were the Store-Houses and Repositories from whence he furnished himself with materials for the writing of so many learned Treatises and out of which might be gathered matter towards the performing much more in the same kind though divers Volumes of them were borrowed by Dr. Bernard and never restored by him as I have already said Yet those that remain are thought very considerable by the several Learned men who have perused them and in particular the late judicious Lord Chief Justice Hale having borrowed several of them did out of them Transcribe those four Volumes which he bequeaths in his Will to the Library at Lincolns-Inn among divers other Manuscripts of his by the name of His Extracts out of the Lord Primate's Collections And for the satisfaction of the Reader I shall give you the Heads and Subjects of some of the most considerable of them at the end of this account So that the Lord Primate was like the wise Housholder in the Gospel who brought out of his Treasure things New and Old And a Learned man of this Nation compared the Arch-Bishop of Armagh not only to a careful Surveyor who collects all sorts of materials for his building before he begins his work but also to a skilful Architect who knew Artificially how to frame and put together the materials before Collected till they became one strong entire and uniform Structure Nor does any thing more express the great strength of the Lord Primate's memory than those Collections which though promiscuously gathered by way of Adversaria according as those Subjects offered themselves yet could he as readily call to mind and find out any particular in them which he had occasion to make use of as if they had been digested in the more exact method of a common-place-Common-place-Book So that he certainly deserved a much higher Character than that Dr. Heylin Sarcastically puts upon him Of a walking Concordance and living Library as if he had been only an Index for such wise men as himself to make use of but greater Scholars than he had far higher and more Reverend thoughts of him there being scarce a Learned Writer of this present Age who does not mention his great Piety Learning and Judgment with honour and veneration I had once collected a great many Elogies of this kind from the Writings of divers considerable Authors but since I find that done already by others and that it would swell this work
stood in the Church of England at the time of the making this Homily and therefore he has put down the Proem of an Act of Parliament of the fifth and sixth years of Edward the 6th concerning Holy-days by which he would have the Lord's day to stand on no other ground but the Authority of the Church not as enjoyned by Christ or ordained by any of his Apostles Which Statute whosoever shall be pleased to peruse may easily see that this Proem he mentions relates only to Holy days and not to Sundays as you may observe from this passage viz. which holy Works as they may be called God's Service so the times especially appointed for the same are called Holy-days not for the matter or nature either of the time or day c. which title of Holy-days was never applied to Sundays either in a vulgar or legal acceptation And tho the Doctor fancied this Act was in force at the time when this Homily was made and therefore must by no means contradict so sacred an Authority as that of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament because this Act tho repealed by Queen Mary he would have to be revived again the first year of Queen Elizabeth and so to stand in force at the time of making this Homily whereas whoever consults our Statute-Book will find that this Statute of King Edward the 6th was not revived nor in force till the first of King James when the Repeal of this Statute was again repealed tho certainly the reviving of that or any other Statute does not make their Proems which are often very carelesly drawn to be in every clause either good Law or Gospel But tho the Doctor in other things abhors the Temporal Powers having any thing to do in matters of Religion yet if it make for his Opinion then the Authority of a Parliament shall be as good as that of a Convocation But I have dwelt too long upon this Head which I could not well contract if I spoke any thing at all to justifie the Lord Primat's Judgment in this so material a Doctrine The next Point that the Doctor lays to the Lord Primat's charge as not according to the Church of England is a passage in a Letter to Dr. Bernard and by him published in the Book intituled The Judgment of the late Primat of Ireland c. viz. That he ever declared his Opinion to be that Episcopus Presbyter gradu tantum differunt non ordine and consequently that in places where Bishops cannot be had the Ordination by Presbyters standeth valid And however saith he I must needs think that the Churches in France who living under a Popish Power and cannot do what they would are more excusable in that defect than those of the Low-Countries that live under a Free-State yet for the testifying my communion with these Churches which I do love and honour as true members of the Church Universal I do profess that with like affection I should receive the blessed Sacrament at the hands of the Dutch Ministers if I were in Holland as I should do at the hands of the French Ministers if I were at Charenton Which Opinion as I cannot deny to have been my Lord Primat's since I find the same written almost verbatim with his own hand dated Nov. 26. 1655 in a private Note-Book not many months before his death with the addition of this clause at the beginning viz. Yet on the other side holding as I do That a Bishop hath Superiority in degree above Presbyters you may easily judg that the Ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from their Bishops cannot possibly by me be excused from being schismatical And concluding with another clause viz. for the agreement or disagreement in radical and fundamental Doctrines not the consonancy or dissonancy in the particular points of Ecclesiastical Government is with me and I hope with every man that mindeth Peace the rule of adhering to or receding from the Communion of any Church And that the Lord Primate was always of this Opinion I find by another Note of his own hand written in another Book many years before this in these words viz. The intrinsecal power of Ordaining proceedeth not from Jurisdiction but only from Order But a Presbyter hath the same Order in specie with a Bishop Ergo A Presbyter hath equally an intrinsecal power to give Orders and is equal to him in the power of Order the Bishop having no higher degree in respect of intension or extention of the character of Order tho he hath an higher degree i. e. a more eminent place in respect of Authority and Jurisdiction in Spiritual Regiment Again The Papists teach that the confirmation of the Baptized is proper to a Bishop as proceeding from the Episcopal Character as well as Ordination and yet in some cases may be communicated to a Presbyter and much more therefore in regard of the over-ruling Commands of invincible necessity although the right of Baptising was given by Christ's own Commission to the Apostles and their Successors and yet in case of Necessity allowed to Lay-men even so Ordination might be devolved to Presbyters in case of Necessity These passages perhaps may seem to some Men inconsistent with what the Lord Primate hath written in some of his printed Treatises and particularly that of the Original of Episcopacy wherein he proves from Rev. 2. 1. that the Stars there described in our blessed Saviour's right hand to be the Angels of the seven Churches 2. That these Angels were the several Bishops of those Churches and not the whole Colledg of Presbyters as Mr. Brightman would have it 3. Nor has he proved Archbishops less ancient each of these seven Churches being at that time a Metropolis which had several Bishops under it and 4 that these Bishops and Archbishops were ordained by the Apostles as constant permanent Officers in the Church and so in some sort Jure Divino that is in St. Hierom's sence were ordained by the Apostles for the better conferring of Orders and for preventing of Schisms which would otherwise arise among Presbyters if they had been all left equal and independent to each other And that this may very well consist with their being in some cases of Necessity not absolutely necessary in some Churches is proved by the Learned Mr. Mason in his defence of the Ordination of Ministers beyond the Seas where there are no Bishops in which he proves at large against the Papists that make this Objection from their own Schoolmen and Canonists and that tho a Bishop receives a Sacred Office Eminency in Degree and a larger Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than a Presbyter yet that all these do not confer an absolute distinct Order and yet that Bishops are still Jure Divino that is by the Ordinance of God since they were ordained by the Apostles and whereunto they were directed by God's Holy Spirit and in that sence are the Ordinance of
in very deed by God's faithful People By which it seems it is agreed on both sides that is to say the Church of England and the Church of Rome that there is a true and real Presence of Christ in the holy Eucharist the disagreement being only in the modus Praesentiae But on the contrary the Ld Primat in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge hath written one whole Chapter against the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament In which tho he would seem to aim at the Church of Rome tho by that Church not only the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but the corporal eating of his Body is maintained and taught yet doth he strike obliquely and on the by on the Church of England All that he doth allow concerning the real Presence is no more than this viz. That in the receiving of the blessed Sacrament we are to distinguish between the outward and the inward action of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouth we receive really the visible Elements of Bread and Wine in the inward we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord that is to say we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man Which is no more than any Calvinist will stick to say But now after all these hard words the Doctor has here bestowed upon my Lord Primat part of which I omit I think I can without much difficulty make it appear that all this grievous Accusation of the Doctor 's is nothing but a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strife about words and that the Lord Primat held and believed this Doctrine in the same sence with the Church of England 1. Then the 29th Article of our Church disavows all Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord. The second asserts that the Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner and that the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith And now I will leave it to the unprejudiced Reader to judge whether the Lord Primat's way of explaining this Sacrament according to the passage before cited by the Doctor does differ in sence from these Articles however it may somewhat in words as coming nearer the Articles in Ireland which the Bishop when he writ this Book had alone subscribed to and was bound to maintain for I think no true Son of the Church of England will deny that in this Sacrament they still really receive the visible Elements of Bread and Wine 2. That in the inward and spiritual action we really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord as the Lord Primat has before laid down But perhaps it will be said That the Lord Primat goes further in this Article than the Church of England does and takes upon him to explain in what sence we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and that otherwise than the Church of England does he explaining it thus that is to say We are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man whereas the Church of England declares that the Body of Christ is eaten only after a heavenly and spiritual manner yet still maintains the Body of Christ to be eaten whereas the Lord Primat only says that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified but does not say as the Article of our Church does that we are therein partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ. But I desire the Objector to consider whether the Explanation of our Church does not amount to the same thing in effect that saying that the Body of Christ is eaten in the Supper after a heavenly and spiritual manner and the Lord Primat that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified viz. after a spiritual and not a carnal manner But perhaps the Doctor 's Friends may still object that the Lord Primat does not express this Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament as Bp. Bilson and Bp. Morton assert the former saying that Christ's Flesh and Blood are truly present and truly received by the Faithful in the Sacrament and the latter expresly owning a real Presence therein And Bp. Andrews in his Apology to Cardinal Bellarmine thus declares himself viz. Praesentiam credimus non minus quam vos veram de modo praesentiae nil timerè definimus Which the Doctor renders thus We acknowledg saith he a presence as true and real as you do but we determine nothing rashly of the manner of it And the Church Catechism above cited as also the Latin Catechism of Mr. Noel confess the Body and Blood of our Lord are truly and indeed or as the Latin Translation renders it verè realiter taken and received in the Lord's Supper Which the Lord Primat does not affirm I know not what such Men would have The Lord Primat asserts that we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of Christ and that in the same sence with Mr. Noel's Catechism and the Article of the Church viz. that Christ's Body is received after a spiritual and heavenly manner Which was added to exclude any real presence as taken in a carnal or bodily sence So that our Church does in this Article explain the manner of the Presence notwithstanding what Bp. Andrews says to the contrary Nor know I what they can here further mean by a real Presence unless a carnal one which indeed the Church of England at the first Reformation thought to be all one with the real as appears by these words in the first Articles of Religion agreed on in the Convocation 1552 Anno 5. Edw. 6. It becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporal Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the holy Eucharist And that our Church did likewise at the first passing the 39 Articles in Convocation Anno 1562 likewise disallow any Real Presence taken in a carnal sence Christ's Body being always in Heaven at the right hand of God and therefore cannot be in more places than one appears by the original of those Articles to be seen in the Library of Corpus Christi Colledg in Cambridg where tho this passage against a Real or Corporal Presence which they then thought to be all one are dash'd over with red Ink yet so as it is still legible therefore it may not be amiss to give you Dr. Burnet's Reasons in his 2d part of the History of the Reformation p. 406 for the doing of it The secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alledged that such an express Definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of
Lindanus Dionysius his Translation is extant in Monasterio S. Vedasti Atrebati where the Canons of the Council of Nice and of Sardica are joyned together as if they were but one Council But they may believe him who list The Words of Dionysius which I have already alledged put the Matter out of all question that in his Edition the Canons of the Council of Nice and Sardica were placed for enough asunder But where this Edition of Dionysius is to be had is not so easie to be told This only I conjecture That whereas Crab setteth down two old Editions of the Canons that which is different from Codex Moguntinus is likely for the most part to be that of Dionysius So Baronius testifieth ad an 314. § 81. 87. that the first Edition of the Ancyrane Council in Crab is of Dionysius his Translation but ad an 325. § 156. he sheweth That the first Edition of the Nicene Canons is not of Dionysius nor the second neither if we may give credit to his Relation But this I leave to your own Judgment who have better means to search out this Matter than I can possibly have in this Country After this cometh Codex Romanus to be considered which had nothing of Dionysius his Translation but only the Canons of the Apostles the rest being either of the old Translation which was before Dionysius or of some other done after his time For that there were many appeareth by the Preface of the counterfeit Isidorus to his Collection And Hincmarus Rhemensis Archiepisc. in libro de variis capitulis Ecclesiasticis cap. 27. De Translatione è Graeco Concilior Canonum where among other things he writeth thus of Isidorus his Collection Et beatus Isidorus in Collectario suo de Canonibus quatuor editiones Nicaeni Concilii compaginavit Although in the printed Collection of Isidorus we have but one Edition left unto us This Codex Romanus contained no more Councils than that of Dionysius but had in the end adjoyned the Epistles of some Bishops of Rome first of six viz. Siricius Innocentius Zosimus Celestinus Leo and Gelasius as is manifest by the Collection of Cresconius by some thought to be Corippus Grammaticus who using this Codex about 700 years after Christ alledgeth the Decrees of no other Bishops of Rome than these Then in the Roman Book were added the Constitutions of Bishops from Gelasius to Hormisda And afterwards to the time of Vigilius as I gather by Gregory lib. 7. epist. 53. From Gelasius to Gregorius junior the Decrees of five Popes you have in Codice Moguntino the true copy of Codex Romanus Quod volumen postea recognitum est Romae cohoerere cum aliis antiquis fideliter saith Possevinus And just so many are mentioned by Leo IV. in Gratian Distinct. 20 C. de libellis but that Silvester is by Error added of whose Decrees none were extant in the Body of the Canons according to the last Roman Edition for in the former Editions of Gratian I find the name of Symmachus written with great Letters Iste Codex est scriptus de illo authentico quem dominus Adrianus Apostolicus dedit gloriosissimo Carolo regi Francorum Longobardorum ac Patricio Romanorum quando fuit Romae And in this Book Eckius writeth were contained the Decrees of XV Bishops of Rome lib. 1. de primatu Petri cap. 20. But in other Copies which P. Pithoeus had of the same sort there appear to be no more than the Epistles of XI Popes as in Codice Moguntino I have great want of this Codex Moguntinus which I am very glad you have lighted upon I doubt not but it is wholly inserted into Crab his Edition but I know not how to distinguish it from the other Collections there I would intreat you therefore to send me a transcript of the Title of the Book and if any thing be worthy the noting in the Preface of him that set out the Book as also of the several Councils and Epistles with a direction in what page we may read the same in Crab or Nicolinus his Edition that so I might learn which of the two old Editions in Crab is that which is found in Codice Moguntino As also whether the subscriptions be the same And here especially desire I to be satisfied in the Sardican and African Councils The like would I now do unto you for Isidorus his Collection directing you how you might read it entirely in Crab if I had thought the Book were not to be found with you there And if you could spare for a time your Book hither which I would not willingly desire considering the great distance betwixt our dwellings I would send it back with all speed and send together with it Tilius his Edition of the Greek Canons if I might understand you wanted it at Cambridge But if by your good direction I may find it fully in Crab it shall suffice Now a word of that Collection which falsly is attributed unto Isidorus being compiled sometime betwixt the years 683. and 783. as in my Bibliotheca Theologicâ God willing I shall fully declare The Author of this Collection taking pattern by the Epistles fathered upon Clement coyned a number more of the same stamp giving them the superscription of The Names of the ancient Popes And not content by this means to advance only the Pope's Spiritual Jurisdiction for the enlarging of his Temporalties he counterfeiteth in the name of Constantine that ridiculous Donation which before this time was never heard of This forgery being first hammered in Spain was first of all uttered in France by Riculfus Bishop of Mentz viro erga S. sedem Romanam valdè devoto as a certain Author beareth witness of him produced by P. Pithoeus in his Testimonies prefixed before Ansegisus where what entertainment it had shall in his place be declared This Collection was first published in Print by Jacobus Merlinus Paris 1530. 80. and it is to be found in a manner wholly but enlarged with some Additions of Popes Epistles at the end in your Corpus Canonum of Benett Colledge § 361 and in the two great Volumes of the Popes Epistles in the Publick Library of your University § 235. in the beginning whereof are to be seen Provinciarum Regionum nomina which are wanting in the Printed Books but not in the Manuscripts as appeareth by Pithoeus lib. 11. Adversariorum Cap. 1. I would willingly understand whether it hath more or less than Provinciarum Imperii Romani Libellus set out by Ant. Sconhovius with Eutropius and Andr. Schottus with Antoninus his Itinerary Colon 1600. 80. In the Printed Copy of Isidorus there is 1. Origo Conciliorum generalium as in Crab taken in a manner verbatim out of the true Isidorus lib. 6. Orig. Cap. 16. and by him out of some former Council-Book as appeareth by those Words Sed siqua sunt Concilia quae Sancti Patres spiritu Dei pleni
A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Clarissimo Viro ac amico suo singulari Dom. Jacobo Usher sacrae Theologiae Professori eximio Guil. Eyre salutem in Christo. Cùm multis aliis nominibus clarissime charissiméque Usher metibi oboeratum esse lubens agnoscam tum postremùm pro libro quem superiore anno abs te dono accepi intelligo historicam tuam explicationem gravissimae questionis cujus tertiam partem multi sat scio avide desiderant expectant certe omnes qui Orthodoxam fidem amplexantur pro utilissimo hoc opere tuo multùm tibi debent Beasti me hoc munere ut non dicam quanti aestimo atque praeterea animum addidisti ad antiquitatis studia intermissa in quibus infantiam meam agnosco jam hospes plane fui in iisdem praesertim perquinquennium quo hic Colestriae assiduis ad populum concionibus distentus fuerim Gratulor tibi purpuram si verus sit rumor nobis etiam ipsis Vitam Valetudinem tuam gratulari debeo propter tristem rumorem de morte tua apud nos sparsum cura quaeso Valetudinem ac si me audies minùs frequens eris post reditum tuum in Angliam quem expectamus quà m olim fueris Londini concionibus ne ardor tuus citiùs quà m cupimus languescat Tu quidem ipsissimos antiquitatis fontes reconditos thesauros apperuisti limatissimo judicio Veritatem collegisti quam scioli nonnulli ex Foxii Martyrologio aliisque id genus rivulis tantum derivatum à te affirmare non dubitârunt Hoc forsan in proxima operis editione vel saltem in ejusdem proxima parte praeoccupare juvabit Sed in tanta re minimè opus esse consilio existimo Atque de his rebus si nobis tam liceat esse fortunatis in Angliâ reverentiam vestram alloqui speramus Aliquoties Domino nostro Domino Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi Academiae vestrae Cancellario officium meum praesentare soleo quod si aliquid sit vobis negotii apud illum quod mea tenuitas expedire possit nec mihi nec meis parcere decrevi sed facilè intelligo paratissimos vos habere Londini quorum opera uti liceat hoc tantum amoris Officii mei erga vos Collegium vestrum Gratiâ calamo incidebat Deus opt max. clementissimus in Christo Pater vos omnes omni benedictionum genere cumulatissimos reddat per Dominum nostrum Jesum Amen Guil. Eyre Colcestriae 29. die Aprilis 1615. LETTER XVI A Letter from Mr. H. Briggs professor of Astronomy at Gresham College to Mr. James Usher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. Good Sir MR. Carew shewed me your Letter written to Mr. Smith of Lincolns-Inn whose Death I perceive even we which did not know him have much cause to lament wherein you mention me and a Letter which formerly you Writ to me which never came to my hands But to the point which here you repeat I cannot tell how to meet with that part of Theon his Commentary upon Ptolomoeus his magna constructio I have it in Greek but there I have no hope to find that thing either explained or recorded There is in Christman upon Alfraganus which I suppose you have in his Treatise de connexione annorum pag. 306. and in other places mention of oera Philippica which Kabasilla maketh the same with à morte Alexandri but the Arabs ignorantly confound Philip and Alexander and Alexander and Nicanor making oeram Alexandrinam Seleucidarum 12 years and 325 days later than oera Philippica But I am out of mine element and I do not doubt but you have these things better known than I can But I shall most gladly do any thing I can according to your direction Concerning Eclipses which my Coufien Midgeley putteth me in mind of from you for whom I heartily thank you and for all your other kindnesses Mullerus in his Phris Tabulis hath mightily discouraged me for he hath weakned the Prutenicks my Foundation in three places of his Book at least yet hath not either helped it or shewed the fault in particular that others might seek remedy I have seriously set upon it but these difficulties and other straitness of time and weight of other easier and more proper business have sore against my will forced me to lay it aside as yet till I can find better leisure and then I hope still to do somewhat Napper Lord of Markinston hath set my Head and Hands a Work with his new and admirable Logarithms I hope to see him this Summer if it please God for I never saw Book which pleased me better or made me more wonder I purpose to discourse with him concerning Eclipses for what is there which we may not hope for at his hands Paulus Middleb is at pawn as I hear and the other Book likewise but I have somuch as I can in Mr. Crawshaw's absence had care to have them kept I pray you if you see Mr. Widdows commend me heartily to him We have here long expected him Thus desiring the Almighty ever to bless and prosper you referring all news c. to Mr. Egerton's report I take my leave from Gresham House this 10th of March 1615. Yours ever to his Power in the Lord H. Briggs Let me I pray put you in mind de pres numero Officio I set it here that you may the more seriously remember it LETTER XVII A Letter from the most Reverend Tobias Mathews Arch-Bishop of York to James Usher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo Jesu HAving oftentimes wished occasion to Write unto you since the publication of that your Learned Work de continuâ Successione Statu Christianarum Ecclesiarum c. God now at last though long first sending so good opportunity by this honest Religious Gentleman Mr. Peregrine Towthby I can do no less than both wish and advise you to Proceed in the full performance of the same by addition of the third part according to the project of your whole Design Which last shall I hope be no less useful and beneficial to all Christian and truly Catholick Professors than the former have been and are like to be for ever And as I doubt not but you may contain the rest within the compass of no more at the most than the Volume already extant doth comprehend So do I verily perswade my self you shall therein glorifie God and edifie his People exceedingly Especially if you will but interlace or adjoyn some rather judicious than large or copious discourse of this punctual question or objection Quid de Salute Patrum Majorum nostrum c. fit statuendum whereof albeit some other good Authors have well and worthily delivered their Opinions yet you shall be sure not to lose your farther labour endeavour and determination therein For assure your self that in the Controversie de Ecclesiâ our adversaries
due time the Clouds and Mists of errors being dispersed and vanished it will shine forth as bright as the clear Sun at Noontyde As touching the Books you wrote for I told this Messenger that I meant to send them and therefore I appointed him to call for them together with my Letter this Day But since I have altered my purpose not envying you the sight of them but expecting your coming into England ere long as of custom once within three or four years at which time I shall be glad to shew you them and to confer them together with your Ptolemy's Canons In the mean time if you have any more urgent occasion of desiring to be resolved of any thing in them do but acquaint me with your purpose what you would prove out of them and I will truly give my best diligence to â—â—â— what may be found in them for the same and so save you that Labour on seeking which I suppose you may better bestow otherwise and so I trust I shall deserve better of you than if I sent you the Books Thus desiring your daily Prayers as you have mine for Gods blessing to bend our Studies to the best ends and make them most profitable to the setting forth of his glory and the good of his Church and of our Countries I take leave of you for this time resting Yours to be commanded in all Christian duties Thomas Lydyan 〈◊〉 July 8 1617. LETTER XXVIII Mr. William Eyres Letter to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Eximio Doctori Domino Jacobo Usserio Guilielmus Eyre S. P. D. Praestantissime Domine FAteor me tibi plus debere quà m verbis exprimere possim etiamsi centiès ad te quotannis literas darem idque non solùm propter privatae benevolentiae erga me tuae fructus uberrimos sed etiam ob magnitudinem tuorum erga nos omnes qui Theologiae studiosi sumus meritorum Macte virtute tua faxitque Christus Opt. Max. cujus sub vexillo militamus ut Scripta tua polemica cedant in nominis sui gloriam Antichristi interitum quo de in Sibyllinus memini me legisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod de scriptis doctissimorum Virorum quidam interpretantur Nos hic plerique omnes ut opinor preces fundimus dum vos sive gubernatores sive nautae vel clavum tenetis vel per foros cursitatis c. navali praelio dimicatis preces lachrymae arma nunquam magis necessaria fuerunt quà m in hac in exulceratissima tempestate omnium pessimâ morum corruptelâ Serenissimus Rex noster Jacobus jam denuò collegium illud Chelseiense prope Londinum Theologorum Gratia qui controversiis dent operam adornare locupletare coepit Matthaeus Sutlivius ea in re nullum lapidem immotum relinquit Quid fiet nescio Res agitur per Regias literas ad Episcopos apud Clerum eorum operâ apud subditos ditiores ut opus tandem perficiatur Forsan majora adhuc à vobis in Dubliniensi Collegio quà m ab illis Chelseiensibus expectare possumus quamdiù vivit acviget amicus ille meus de quo Draxus quidam nostras in libello nuper edito lumen illud Irlandiae in Academia Dubliniensi Professor regius Theologus tam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut sive scripta sive disputationem requiras idoneus est qui cum tota Papistarum natione concertet Sed quid ego haec autem ne quicquam ingrata revolvo Me quod atinet ita nuper praesertim per integrum annum novissime elapsum eo plus secularibus negotiis quotidianis contra genium voluntatem meam concionibus ad populum nimis ut videtur frequentibus quasi demersus fuerim ut nihil in Hebraicis quaestionibus me posse videar atque in quibusdam absque te quem pure indigitare possim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita haeret aqua ut ulterius progredi non liceat fas sit igitur mihi Oraculum tuum consulere limatissimum judicium tuum expiscari Nolo tamen in hoc tempore diutiùs te interpellare Gratulor tibi ex animo purpuram tuam costam illam quam tibi Deus restituit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cura Valetudinem Gratia Jesu Christi sit cum omnibus vobis Amen G. Eyres Colcestriae 170 die Augusti 1617. LETTER XXIX A Letter from Mr. Edward Warren to Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh at St. Patricks Reverend Sir THat the Beast which was and is not and yet is should be Romanus Pontifex I like your Conjecture very well and the Ground seems to me firm and such as I may tread safely on And that which you quote out of Dionys. Halicarnas touching his Immunity brought me to consider better of his Office and Authority set down by Livy lib. 1. Caetera quoque omnia publica privataque sacra pontificis scitis subjecit Numa ut esset quò consultum Plebs veniret ne quid divini juris negligendo patrios ritus peregrinósque asciscendo turbaretur Which in my conceit is some Resemblance of that Head-ship which the latter Pontifex now challengeth to himself In the other Part I take all to be clear save only that I stick somewhat at the Accommodation of those Words pag. 10. That when he cometh he shall continue but a short Space I heartily thank you that for my satisfaction you have taken so much Pains Your poor Friend Edward Warren Kilkenny Novemb. 4. 1617. The God of Peace be with you Usserii notae Of Pontifex Maximus see Plutarch in Vitâ Numae Ciceronem in orat pro domo apud Pont. et de aruspic Resp. Val. Max. lib. 1. cap. 1. Georg. Fabrice observat lect Virgil. Aenead 6. Insolentia superbia eorum abiit in Proverbium Horat. Od. 2. 14. Mero Tinget pavimentum superbo Pontificum potiore Coenis Vid. loc ubi Interpres not at proelautas coenas Proverbio Pontificales appellari solitas Exemplum hujus Coenae vide in Macrobio lib. 2. Saturnal cap. 9. LETTER XXX A Letter from Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Mr. Thomas Lydyat Rector of Askerton in Oxford-shire Salutem in Christo. AS I was now going out of the House I met with Robert Allen who told me he was to go presently for England and required my Letters unto you I have nothing that upon this sudden I can well write of but the renewing of my former Request for those two Books which I wrote for in my two former Letters And therefore according to the Form which our Canonists use in their Court Proceedings Peto primò secundò tertio instantèr instantiùs instantissimè That you will let me have the use of your Geminus and Albategnius which shall God willing be returned unto you as safely and as speedily as you shall desire which I hope you will the rather condescend unto because I have no purpose to see England these many
Years the contrary Report whereunto was the chief Cause wherefore you deferred the sending of those Books by the former Messenger And so nothing doubting but you will yield at last to my earnest Request I bid you heartily farewel resting ever Your assured loving Friend and Brother James Usher Scripsi raptim Dominici Adventûs Anno Domini 1617. LETTER XXXI A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh at Dublin Worthy Sir HAD the Opportunity of convenient Messengers concurr'd with my Desires my Letters should have come faster to your Hands than they have done and what hath been wanting of that Respect which absent Friends yield one another I do assure you hath been supplied by an affectionate Desire in me to enjoy your Company together with the Remembrance of those many happy Hours which I have spent with you I had once hop'd to have seen you this Winter but my necessary Occasions in England with the Difficulties of a Winter Journey are like to detain me here until the Spring where if my Service may be useful or advantageous to you it shall be as absolutely at your Command as any Friend of yours that lives I doubt not but you have heard much of the troublesome Estate of the Low-Country Churches by their Diversity of Opinions and what Tumults had like to have ensued or rather are like to ensue for the Tempest is not yet over-blown and had not the opposite Faction to the Arminian by them termed vulgarly Gomarians shewed a great deal of Temperance and Patience much Effusion of Christian Blood had followed I suppose you have seen Sir Dud. Carlton's Speech in the last General Assembly at the Hague which is answered by H. Grotius in Print He is a Professor in Leyden very inward with Mouns Barneveldt and by name I think well known to you And 14 of the 18 Cities which send their Deputies to the General Assembly have publickly protested against any National or Provincial Synods which shall be called About a Fortnight since the Heads and others of the University of Cambridge were summon'd to appear before his Majesty at New-market where at their coming they were required to deliver their Opinions concerning Mouns Barneveldt's Confession lately sent over to the King to which as I am informed many of them did subscribe and principally Dr. Richardson the Kings Professor for which he either hath already or is in some Danger of losing his Place I know not whether you have seen the Book called Analecta Sacra published the last Mart if you can discover the Author I pray you let me know him I have written to a Friend of mine at Paris to enquire at the Printers where the Book was printed of the Author With much difficulty I obtained one of them which you should have received had I not been constrained to bestow it otherwise Here in England there is little written or published in any kind of Learning In every Parish-Church there are now Sums of Money collected for Chelsey Colledge but I see no Addition to the Work Our kind Friend Mr. Briggs hath lately published a Supplement to the most excellent Tables of Logarithms which I presume he hath sent you Suarez's Book against the King is now grown common by the late German Impression which if you please you may have The Popish Writers having sharpned their Weapons being now to strike with sharp Invectives our Arch-Bishop of Spalato after their wonted manners and now openly charge him with Apostacy and revolt from their Religion He hath not obtained any Ecclesiastical Promotion nor for ought I hear desireth any but rather to end his Days in a retired and solitary Exile Since the return of Digby into Spain there is little known of the Progress of our Affairs there neither of Sir Walter Raleigh since the Return of Captain Bayly from him if I may give his unworthy running away so honest a name Sir both I and my Messenger stand upon Thorns as they say being both presently to begin our Journeys he for Ireland I for the West of England where I mean to spend this Festival time which I hope shall excuse my Rudeness in Writing both for Matter and Manner When I come to a place of more leisure you shall hear from me In the mean time let me live in your good Opinion as one who truly loves you and will ever declare himself Your truly affectionate and faithful Friend Henry Bourgchier London the 6th of December 1617. LETTER XXXII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Eximio Sacr. Theologiae Professori amico suo singulari Domino Jacobo Usserio S. RAMUS iste tuus noster qui brevi ut opinor ad nos in Angliam reversurus est absque grati animi mei significatione aliqua pro singulari tuâ erga me clementiâ benignitate non est dimittendus Gratulor verò tibi charissime frater felicitatem tuam qui in regione minùs culta variis motibus perturbatâ natus educatus nobis hic in florentissimo Regno totique orbi Christiano facem Divinae intelligentiae in rebus maximè necessariis praebuisti ac etiamnum porrò uti speramus expectamus praebiturus es Intelligo doctissimas tuas lucubrationes tanquam stellas totidem lucidissimas Macte Virtute istâ tuâ Christo optimo Maximo duce in omnibus Nos hic Semipagani qui ad stivam religati sumus Rusticos in Christianae fidei fundamentalibus in timore Domini instruimus Plerique hic ferè omnes Papismum detestantur Sit nomen Domini benedictum Contra Papatum quotidie concionamur Neminem habemus repugnantem omnes consentientes Caeterum valde multi sunt qui odio Papismi plusquam Vatiniano ut ita dicam flagrant ut solenniorem Dei cultum nullo modo ferre possint Hinc omne genus nequitiae caput sustollere taxim occoepit Multi qui contra Papisticam superstitionem invehuntur contra rapinam sacrilegium luxuriam ebrietatem gulam arrogantiam superbiam avaritiam usuram id genus enormia ne protestantur quidem Sed quorsum haec Manum de Tabula Verbum sapienti sat est satque habet favitorum semper qui rectè agit Quid nos in votis habemus postmodum accipies Interea verò in Jesu Christo Domino ac sospitatore nostro benè vale Fraterculus tibi multis nominibus devinctissimus Guilielmus Eyres Colcestriae 21. die Aprilis 1618. LETTER XXXIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Mr. William Camden My dear and worthy Friend I Have been earnestly intreated by Dr. Rives to send this inclosed Letter unto you He hath had his Education in New-Colledge in the University of Oxford where he took his Degree of Doctor in the Civil Law He is now one of the Masters of the Chancery with us and Judge of the Faculties and Prerogative Court Two things he told me he was
your Lordship from this place are That the Lord Vicomte Doncastré returneth within three days into France as 't is thought invited thereunto by that King both at his coming from thence and since by his Ambassadour resident here which occasioneth some forward natures to presage of Peace very speedily in those Parts between the King and his Protestant Subjects Whereof notwithstanding except want of moneys the importunity of his old Councellors at length having been long slighted the disunion of his Grandees and desperate resolution of the afflicted Protestants to withstand these Enemies shall beget an alteration for my own part I see little reason for it is not likely That either the Prince of Condé who hateth the Protestants and loveth to fish in troubled Waters or the Jesuit party earnest votaries of the House of Austria being still powerful in France will ever suffer that King to be at rest until their Patrons Affairs shall be settled in Grisons Germany c. From Italy I hear that in Rome there is lately erected a new Congregation De fide propaganda consisting of 12 Cardinals whereof Cardinal Savelli is chief A principal Referendary thereof being Gaspar Schioppius There are to be admitted into this Congregation of all Nations and their Opus is to provide maintenance from their Friends c. for Proselites of all Nations who shall retire into the Bosom of the Romish Church But I fear I begin to be tedious to your Lordship and therefore craving Pardon as well for my present boldness as former omissions with my ancient and most unfeigned Respects I take leave of your Lordship desiring to know if in these parts I may be useful to your Lordship and remaining ever Your Lordships most Affectionate to love and serve you William Boswel From Westminster Colledge March 17. 1621. LETTER XLV A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend and my most worthy Lord THough I be always tied to reiterate my thankfulness to your Lordship for your favours here in England yet is it not fit to trouble you too often with Letters only of complement And other occasion I have hitherto not had any save what in Michaelmas Term last I wrote unto you touching the Monument of Bury Abby which the Cutter going then in hand with came to me about as directed so by your Lorship I was bold to stay him for the time and signified by those Letters that I thought much exception might be taken to the credit of the Monument for that both the ends of the upper Label pictured in the Glass over the head of Antichrist are stretched out so far as they rest not in the Glass but run on either way upon the stone Pillars which as your Lordship knows could not possibly be so in the Window it self How it cometh to pass I do not know whether by the rashness of the Painter not heeding so light a matter as he might take it or that perphaps those which in the picture seem to be the Pillars of the Window were but painted Pillars in the Glass it self and so the whole Window but one Pannel I cannot determine this doubt but out of all doubt such a picture there was and taken out exactly by a Painter then as a right honest old Gentleman which saw it standing in the Abby Window and the Painter that took it out did often tell me about 40 years since affirming the picture now at the Cutters to be the true pattern thereof But at that time my understanding shewed me not to make this doubt if I had he perhaps could have resolved it For my own part though I think it fitter in this respect not to be published as doth also Sir H. Bourgchier yet I leave it to your direction which the Cutter hitherto expecteth So remembring my service most humbly to your Lordship and desiring your blessing I rest Your Lordships to be commanded Henry Spelman Tuttle-street Westm. Mar. 18. 1621. LETTER XLVI A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My Lord I Should before this have returned your Nubiensis Geographia but Mr. Bedwell had it of me and until this time presuming on your favour he keeps it nor can we have of them till the return of the Mart. Then I shall be sure to send your through Mr. Burnet There is nothing that here is worth memory to you touching the State of Learning only I received Letters lately out of France touching this point Whether we find that any Churches in the elder times of Christianity were with the Doors or Fronts Eastward or no because of that in Sidonius Arce Frontis ortum spectat aequinoctialem lib. 2. ep 10. c. and other like I beseech your Lordship to let me know from you what you think hereof I have not yet sent it but I shall most greedily covet your resolution And if any thing be here in England that may do your Lordship favour or service and lye in my power command it I beseech you and believe that no man more admires truly admires your worth and professes himself to do so than Your Lordships humble Servant J. Selden March 24. 1621. Styl-Anglic My Titles of Honour are in the Press and new written but I hear it shall be staid if not I shall salute you with one as soon as it is done LETTER XLVII A Letter from Sir Robert Cotton to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My honourable Lord THe opportunity I had by the going over of this honourable Gentleman Sir Henry Bourgchier I could not pass over without doing my service to your Lordship in these few lines We are all glad here you are so well settled to your own content and merit yet sorry that you must have so important a cause of stay that all hopes we had to have seen your Lordship in these parts is almost taken away Yet I doubt not but the worthy work you gave in England the first life to and have so far happily proceeded in will be again a just motive to draw you over into England to see it perfected for without your direction in the sequel I am afraid it will be hopeless and impossible Let me I pray you intreat from your Honour the Copy of as much as you have finished to show his Majesty that he may be the more earnest to urge on other Labourers to work up with your Lordships advice the rest I have received Eight of the Manuscripts you had the rest are not returned If I might know what my Study would afford to your content I would always send you and that you may the better direct me I will as soon as it is perfected send your Honour a Catalogue of my Books The Occurrents here I forbear to write because a Gentleman so intelligent cometh to you What after falleth worthy your Honours knowledge I will write hereafter upon direction from your
Judgment of the Church of Christ from the beginning of the Gospel unto this day and that of old they were condemned for heretical in the Nazarites But finding that for the present he was not to be wrought upon by any reasoning and that long a dies was the only means to cure him of this Sickness I remembred what course I had heretofore held with another in this Country who was so far ingaged in this Opinion of the calling of the Jews tho not of the revoking of Judaism that he was strongly perswaded he himself should be the Man that should effect this great Work and to this purpose wrote an Hebrew Epistle which I have still in my hands directed to the dispersed Jews To reason the matter with him I found it bootless I advised him therefore that until the Jews did gather themselves together and make choice of him for their Captain he should labour to benefit his Country-men at home with that Skill he had attained unto in the Hebrew Tongue I wished him therefore to give us an exact Translation of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew Verity which he accordingly undertook and performed The Translation I have still by me but before he had finished that Task his Conceit of the calling of the Jews and his Captainship over them vanished clean away and was never heard of after In like manner I dealt with Mr. Whitehall that forasmuch as he himself acknowledged that the Mosaical Rites were not to be practised unto the general calling of the Jews he might do well I said to let that matter rest till then and in the mean time keep his Opinion to himself and not bring needless Trouble upon himself and others by divulging it out of season And whereas he had intended to write an historical Discourse of the retaining of Judaism under Christianity I counselled him rather to spend his pains in setting down the History of Purgatory or Invocation of Saints or some of the other Points in controversy betwixt the Church of Rome and Us. So far I prevailed with him herein that he intreated me to become a Suitor unto your Lordship in his behalf that the loss of his Living and those other Troubles which he hath already sustained might be accepted for a sufficient Punishment of his former Offence and that he might have the Favour to be restored only unto his Fellowship in Oxford where he would bind himself to forbare intermedling any way with his former Opinions either in publick or in private and spend his time in any other Employment that should be imposed upon him How far it will be fitting to give way unto this motion I wholly leave unto your own grave Consideration Thus much only I have presumed to propound unto your Lordship in discharge of my Promise made unto Mr. Whitehall with whom I could have no long Communication by reason I way presently to begin my Journey for the visitation of the Diocess of Meath Until my return from thence I have stayed the printing of the rest of mine Answer unto the Jesuits Challenge the former part whereof I humbly make bold to present unto your Lordship's view as unto whom above all others I most desire my simple Labours in this kind may be approved And so craving pardon for my boldness in troubling you thus far I rest Your Lordship's in all Christian Duty ready to be commanded Ja. Midensis Dublin Sept. 28. 1621. LETTER LXVIII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath MY Duty remembred unto your Lordship I am much beholden to your Lordship for your last Book which I received before the Act by my good Friend Mr. Calendrine I have punctually perused it and do render unto your Lordship both common and private thanks for the same and expect your Lordship 's of the Britains ancient Religion wherein as I see no difficulty so I would be glad to assist with my Pains if any thing were worthy yet of my Cousin Mr. Rich. Jame's who remembreth himself most dutifully to your Lordship I send a Taste or Essay of what may be done by him I will say no more of him or it but this That I know no Man living more fit to be imployed by your Lordship in this kind than himself his Pains incredible and his Zeal as great and his Judgment in Manuscripts such as I doubt not but your Lordship may use to the great benefit of the Church and ease of your Lordship may there be but some course taken that he may have victum vestitum independant from any one This if he may have from your Lordship or by your Lordships means I know his Deserts and Willingness to deserve well of the Church For my own Business I know not what to say whether to go onward or to stay Guil. de s. Amore is transcribed and wants but the three Books from your Lordship whereof Mr. Calendrine hath given me good hopes Wickleph de Veritate is the better part done I have hitherto laid out the Money but my Purse will hold out no longer to defray the Charges If it would be so that I may receive the Money to recompence their pains I would not doubt before the next Session but to have most of Wickleph's Works transcribed but I fail in the burden and refer all to God's Providence and your Lordship's Direction being not idle in these Businesses And so in haste with my own and my Cousin's Duty to you I end and rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Tho. James Oxon the 27 July 1624. LETTER LXIX A Letter from Thomas Davies to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Right Reverend MAY it please your Lordship to take notice that your Letter of the 24th of January in London came to my hands the 14th of July unto which I have given due perusal and perceiving your Lordship's pleasure thereby omitted no opportunity neither any time but the very day that I received it began to lay out for those Books you writ for The five Books of Moses in the Samaritan Character I have found by a meer accident with the rest of the Old Testament joyned with them but the mischief is there wants two or three leaves of the beginning of Genesis and as many in the Psalms which notwithstanding I purpose to send by this Ship lest I meet not with another yet I have sent to Damascus and if not there to be had to Mount Gerazim so that in time I hope to procure another which shall contain the five Books of Moses perfectly I sent a Messenger on purpose to Mount Libanus and Tripoly for the Old Testament in the Syriack Tongue but he returned without it and brought word that there I might have one after two months but could not have it time enough to send by this Ship The reason why they sent it not was that they wanted Parchment to copy one of the Books and so not being perfect
did not send it which by the next Ship if your Lordship please God willing I will send you But I pray understand that by the Syriack Tongue they mean here the Caldean And every Man tells me it is all one the Syrians and Caldeans being one and the same People but questionless the same Language Therefore if your Lordship mean and desire to have the Old Testament in Caldean I beseech you to write me by the first over Land that I may provide it by the next Ship Also I beseech you to take knowledge that I dare not promise you to send it according to the Hebrew for neither my self nor any other Man here can determine it only I must be forc'd to take his word that sells it me who is a Minister of the Sect of the Marranites and by birth a Caldean but no Scholar neither is there any to be found in these parts but if your Lordship will have me send it at adventures though it cost dear as it will cost 10 l. I will do my best endeavour to send it by the first Conveyance but shall do nothing herein until such time I have further order from your Lordship to effect business of this nature in these parts requires time Travel being very tedious in these Countries I have inquired of divers both Christians and Jews of the overflowing of Jordan but can learn no certainty Some say it never rises but after great Rain but I met with a learned Jew at least so reputed who told me that Jordan begins to flow the 13th of July and continues flowing 29 days and is some 18 or 20 days increasing but I dare not believe him his Relation not agreeing with the Text for Harvest is near ended with them by that time and unless you will understand by Harvest the time of gathering Grapes it cannot agree I have also sent to Damascus concerning this and trust ere long to satisfy your Lordship in this Particular and in the Calendar of the Samaritans A French Frier who lived at Jerusalem told me that it never overflowed except occasiond by Rain whereupon I shewed him the words in Joshua 3. 15. that Jordan overfloweth his Banks at the time of Harvest which words are written with a Parenthesis and therefore said he are no part of the Text which I know is his ignorance I could have shewed him the thing plainly proved by that which he holds Canonical Scripture Ecclus. 24. 26. If I have done your Lordship any Service herein I shall greatly rejoyce and shall ever be ready and willing to do the best Service I can to further the Manifestation of God's Truth yea I should think my self happy that I were able to bring a little Goats Hair or a few Badgers Skins to the building of God's Tabernacle I acknowledg your Lordship's Favour towards me who have not neither could deserve at your hands the least Kindness conceivable yet the Graciousness of your sweet Disposition emboldens me to entreat the continuance of the same and also the benefit of your faithful Prayers so shall I pass the better amongst these Infidel Enemies to God and his Christ. And so I pray God to encrease and multiply his Favours and Graces both upon your Soul and Body making you happy in what ever you possess here and hereafter to grant you Glory with Christ into whose hands I recommend your Lordship and humbly take leave ever resting Your Lordship 's in all bounden duty to command Thomas Davies Aleppo Aug. 29. 1624. LETTER LXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Pickering to the R. R. James Usher Bishop of Meath at Wicken-Hall Right Reverend and my very good Lord I Was not unmindful according to my Promise to send to Dr. Crakenthorp for Polybius and Diodorus Siculus immediatly after I was with your Lordship But he attending the Visitations at Colchester and Maldon came not home till yesterday At which time sending my Man for the Books the Doctor returned Answer That your Lordship shall command any Books he hath whensoever you please That he had not Diodorus Siculus but he sent me Polybius and Marianus Scotus which he says Dr. Barkham told him you desired to borrow These two Books your Lordship shall now receive and if it fall out that you be already provided of Marianus Scotus then it may please you to let that come back again because the Doctor tells me that after a while he shall have occasion to see some things for his use in Sigebert and other Writers which are bound in this Volume with Marianus but by all means he desires your turn should be served however I shall be most ready to afford your Lordship any Service that lieth in my power during your aboad in these parts holding my self in common with the Church of God much bound to you for your great and weighty Labours both formerly and presently undertaken in the Cause of our Religion The God of all Wisdom direct your Meditations and Studies and grant you Health and all Conveniences for the Accomplishment of your intended Task And so with remembrance of Dr. Crakenthorp's and my own Love and Service I humbly take leave and shall ever rest Your Lordship 's in my best Devotions and Services to be commanded Tho. Pickering Finchingfield Sept. 9. 1624. LETTER LXXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davies in Aleppo to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend Sir MY bounden Duty remembred c. News here is not any worthy your knowledg the great Rebel Abassa still troubles the State and hinders the going forward of the Army against the Persian Some few days time News came that the Vizier had given Battel to the Rebel and that the Rebel had cut off 12000 Janisaries yet they report the Vizier to have the best of the day which most Men judg to be but report certainly it is that Abassa will give them great trouble pretending only Revenge upon the Janisaries for the Blood of his Master Sultan Osman The greatest Villanies that ever were practised or intended never wanted their Pretences Yet it is thought by many that this Man hath done nothing without leave from the Port otherways it is strange they had not cut him off long since for what can be his Forces against the Grand Signior's Powers The Janisaries refuse to go to War before the Rebel be cut off or Peace made with him whereby you may observe what Power the King hath over his Souldiers the truth is they command and rule all oppressing and eating up the Poor When I consider the Estate of the Christians in these Parts yea the Mahumetans themselves that are not Souldiers then must I say happy yea thrice happy are the Subjects of the King of England who live in peace and enjoy the Fruits of their own Labours and yet have another and a greater Blessing the free passage of the Gospel I pray God we may see and be thankful for so great Favours expressing it by Obedience
of my Collations your Lordship shall not want the Heydelburg Edition which I will take care to have sent unto you I have been this Morning with Mr. Patrick Young who cannot give me satisfaction concerning those Books till he have been in the Princes Library For the nameless Annal I conceive that your Amanuensis mistook your meaning for where you say that it begins at the year of our Lord 744 and ends in the year 1100 I cannot see how Asserius Menevensis could be the Author of most of it Mr. Young will make search for it and return an Answer as soon as conveniently he may As for Asserius de rebus gestis Alfredi he tells me that they have only a Transcript of it but Sir Robert Cotton hath an ancient Copy the same he tells me of Florentius Wigorniensis and Simeon Dunelmensis Of Eusebius Chronicle they have three or four Copies and if you please shall have all of them or which you please Sir Rob. Cotton doth daily augment his store he hath gotten lately a Book of St. Edm. Bury By the next return I hope to send the Books which you desire and perhaps to play the Carrier my self There is a rumor of the Adjournment of the Parliament till April but no Proclamation yet come forth There is a new Secretary Sir Albertus Morton to be sworn in the place of Sir Geo. Calvert I have not heard any thing out of Ireland since my last to your Lordship Mr. Young tells me that he received lately a Letter from Paris from one Lucas Holstenius a young Man whom I mention'd sometime to your Lordship being acquainted with him here in London the last year he writes to him that a Jesuit there doth publish a new Edition of Eusebius in Greek and Latin for the furtherance of which Work Mr. Mountague and Mr. Young sends thither their Notes and Observations upon him Petavius is busy about his work de Emendat Temp. which will shortly come abroad Holstenius is printing Scylax Artemidorus Ephesius with divers other old Geographers some of which were heretofore publish'd by D. Haeschelius and some till now never publish'd I doubt not but D. Ryves hath sent your Lordship his Answer to the Analecta I have read him over and approve the Work but not in every particular as where he makes Sedulius among others pag. 46. lib. 2. to be one of St. Patrick's forerunners in the plantation of Christian Religion in Ireland I do not see how that can be The best Authors making him contemporary if not later than St. Patrick Some other passages I could censure both of ancient and modern times but I will spare that labour till our meeting In the mean time with the remembrance of my Love and Service to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher and my heartiest Wishes and Prayers for your Health I will remain Your Lordship's most affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier Lond. Jan. 17. 1624. LETTER LXXVI A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath AFter my Duty in humble manner premised I hope and am right glad to hear of your Lordship's Recovery I have received from your Lordship two Books whereby I have not been a little benefited yet of Boston I hear there is a greater Catalogue extant I forbore to write all this while for fear of trouble I have laboured ever since in the common business as your Lordship shall perceive by an humble Supplication printed which your Lordship shall receive by Mr. Calandrine which could I have had the happiness that it might have passed your learned Censure would have been much more perfect but ut quimus aut quando non ut volumus I have done it as advisedly as I could and doubt not to give every Man good satisfaction in good time If our Friends of Cambridge will joyn with us the Work may be well atchieved within half the time they taking half the Points mentioned and they both sending to us their Observations to be revised by us we ours to them to be revised by them that it may be the work jointly of both Universities My Zeal and Knowledg cannot match Dr. Ward 's yet I will endeavour to do my best I deâ—ire to have my Service remembred to my Lord of Ely I have upon a Letter of your Lordship's imployed some in transcribing Guil. de S. Amore not that which your Lorship sent but another greater and fuller Work that is done and a great deal besides More had been if we had not been compell'd for want of Mony to have surceased and my poor Means would not serve to supply Wants and I am indebted for that which is done Your Lordship by Letter if I mistake not undertook for my Lord of Ely's 20 l. per Annum had all promised been paid I had had 20 or 30 quire in readiness that which I have shall be fitted against the Parliament in the exactest manner that it can be done for the Press I have in the Press at the present these things A Confutation of Papists out of Papists in the most material Articles of our Religion whose Testimonies are taken either out of the Indices Expurgatorii or out of the ancient Books especially the Manuscripts An Index librorum prohibitorum 1ae 2ae vel 3ae Classis vel expurgatorum quovismodo chiefly for the use of our publick Library that we may know what Books and what Editions to buy their prohibition being a good direction to guide us therein I have cast them into an exact Alphabet My Cousin Rich. James desireth to have his Duty remembred to your Lordship he hath reviewed and inlarged his Book of Bochel's Decanonization a Book so nearly concerning Kingly Dignity and so fully opening the History of those Times that I know not where a Man shall read the like I would he might have the happiness that your Lordship might see it being now fair transcribed that it might pass your Lordship's Censure before it pass any further And I am perswaded over-weaning perhaps in love to my Cousin that if his Majesty saw it it would please him having so many good pieces of Antiquity in it it is his and shall be my chiefest Study I have here found upon search thereof Petrus Minorita's Homil. upon Matthew and two Books of St. Augustins coming here into England which are of good note but I make no doubt your Lordship hath seen them already I leave therefore to trouble your Lordship any further being right glad to hear of your Lordship's Preferment as I am informed for the good of the Church and so I rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Thomas James Oxon Febr. 8. LETTER LXXVII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My humble Duty remembred to your Lordship I Am incouraged by your Lordship's Letters to go on chearfully in my intended course and discovery solus aut quomodo what is one Man able to resist when
so many oppose so falsly and so impudently I have written to his Grace by his Chaplains for helps necessary for the forwarding so great a Work as the Visibility and perpetual Succession of the Church There shall come nothing forth till I have viewed by my self or others under a publick Notaries hands all the Testimonies that do result out of the Manuscripts and printed Books of Papists But what can I poor weak Man do unless my Lord of Canterbury command Help and command Books and all things necessary to so great and requisite a Work which being well done will-serve to close up the Mouths of our deceived Papists This Question if I conceive aright is set afoot politickly by our Adversaries the Papists by especial Advice from Rome for it is plausible amongst the People and vulgar sort and impossible to be answered by every one but be it as it may I have willingly offered to answer one Smith a Lincolnshire-Man who insults upon us in the close of his Book in these words And if now they endeavour to answer them his Reasons it will yet more appear that they can no way answer them and that this kind of dealing with Protestants in matters of Fact out of their own Confessions is the fittest to stop all Mouths Upon occasion of these words I will make bold to write somewhat concerning this matter both to divert our Papists to other matters of Fact wherein they have hitherto declined the Question about the Controversie of their Bibles I mean of Sixtus and Clemens impossible to be answered I have heard their best Reasons about the number of the bastard Treatises which as false Writers have put them into Possession of their false Religion which amount unto five hundred reckoning none but such as are both condemned by some and urged by others as learned Papists touching the corrupting of all Authors and Records in all Ages both in their several Indices Expurgatorii and without especially of their Decretals and Gratian wherein the Soul and Life of Popery consists For the Decretals I have lighted upon a Manuscript that I trust to a clear eye will make the matter indubious and by the sight of this Manuscript which contains them not at large there are such Absurdities contain'd in them as I shame either in modesty as of Mice Turds in the Eucharist or in Grammar Epscopi si in fide erraverit are to be quitted but for all other matters whatsoever they are portandi a good Resolution set down in a good Phrase For the Canon Law I mean Gratian I have compared it from top to tae not without special Contentment to all Lovers of the Truth For by the Edition of the Canon Law so carefully set out by Greg. 13. Faber and Contius and I know not who must be imployed to that great business more care had of the printing of that than of the Bible it must be testified that the Edition doth agree exactly with the Roman Copy or else it of no worth they had the use of many Vatican Copies Now either this is untrue or their Copies are of no Credit For none of our Copies of as great Antiquity as theirs either have Constantine's Donation or the proof of it out of Gelasius Dist. If Gesta SS Martyrum S. Sylvestri this is proving of a thing that is ignotum by ignolius for both are wanting in all our Copies that are of as great Antiquity as theirs as long since Antoninus and other good Lawyers have observed Generally in the Edition of the Canon Law they have deceived us thus 1. Those which are Palea noted by them are indeed Palea that is Chaff in our old Copies But besides 2. There are a number of good Consequences that are Paleae which they have passed over in silence whereof our Manuscripts give good witness There are also a third sort which they have made Paleae to discredit them which are no Paleae as in the 8th Distinction touching Obedience to Princes Commandments for Religion this is in all our Manuscripts but censured and sentenced by them Lord What a world of Corruptions is contained in that Volume I mean not only of Gratians that is bad enough but of their Additions to and Perversions of Gratian's I mean to spend this next week wholly upon this Argument of Popish Fraâ—ds and to send up my abortive Labours to be submitted to your Lordship's grave Judgment I deal in matters of Fact and have little help God knoweth I will empty my self to your Lordship For Marianus Scotus God knows if I had compared it one of the first Books and both that and Matthew of Paris yea and Bedes History must be compared or vain will be our Labour in writing of the Visibility of the Church when we shall rely upon such sandy Proofs It is too true that Possevin observeth that there are whole Pages thrust into Marianus's Works he saith by Hereticks he lieth like a Varlet the cui bono will shew us that The Manuscript in our publick Library I have compared the Capita throughout doth hugely differ from the Printed and so doth another Copy of alike Goodness and Antiquity in C. C. C. To compare him exactly is to write him out anew Hoc opus hic labor est I doubt your Lordship's Leisure will not serve after this Fortnight mine shall and it will need the help both of Dr. Banbridge and Mr. Briggs To have the Copy out of the Library it is impossible for if the King should write for it it is Perjury for any Man to propose a Dispensation for the lending it forth but the Copy at C. C. C. upon a sufficient caution for the redelivery shall and may be sent up to your Lordship and I suppose Mr. Patrick Young hath one or two Copies in the Princes Library at St. James's Not only the Rabbins but the Thalmud in six Volumes at Rome hath felt the smart of the Popish Indices would God we were but half as diligent to restore as they abolish and put out the Truth I have restored 300 Citations and rescued them from Corruption in thirty quire of Paper Mr. Briggs will satisfie you in this Point and sundry other Projects of mine if they miscarry not for want of maintenance it would deserve a Prince's Purse If I was in Germany the Estates would defray all Charges cannot our Estates supply what is wanting If every Church-man that hath an 100 l. per Annum and upward will lay down but a Shilling for every hundred towards these publick Works I will undertake the reprinting of the Fathers and setting forth of five or six Volumes of Orthodox Writers comparing of Books printed with printed or written collating of Popish Translations in Greek and generally whosoever shall concern Books or the Purity of them I will take upon me to be a Magister S. Palatii in England if I shall be thereunto lawfully required I thank your Lordship for my poor Kinsman whom I leave to express
decay the which I rather mention because it is within your Province The more is taken away from the King's Clergy the more accrews to the Pope's and the Servitors and Undertakers who should be Instruments for settling a Church do hereby advance their Rents and make the Church poor In a word in all Consultations which concern the Church not the Advice of sages but of young Counsellors is followed With all particulars the Agents whom we have sent over will fully acquaint you to whom I rest assured your Lordship will afford your Countenance and best Assistance And my good Lord now remember that you sit at the Stern not only to guide us in a right Course but to be continually in action and standing in the Watch-Tower to see that the Church receive no hurt I know my Lord's Grace of Canterbury will give his best furtherance to the Cause to whom I do not doubt but after you have fully possessed your self thereof you will address your self And so with the remembrance of my Love and Duty unto you praying for the perfect recovery of your Health I rest Your Lordship 's most true and faithful Servant to command Tho. Kilmore c. March 26. 1624. LETTER LXXXI A Letter from Mr. Tho. Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend MAY it please your Grace upo the 8th of July past I received your Letter baring date the 12th of March from Much-Haddam and the 5th of the last Month the Copy thereof by way of Legorn whereby I perceive that my Letter of the 29th of Spetember 1624 together with the five Books of Moses in the Samaritan Character came in safety to your hands being very glad it proves so acceptable to your Lordship however find myself to have been abused by a Jew who pretends to have knowledg in that Tongue affirming to me that it contained all the Old Testament How they read those Books I have enquired having no better means of him who I perceive knows no more if so much than their Alphabet and to hear him read the first two Verses of Genesis I could not because another of those Books is not here to be had The Name of God Jehovah is pronounced by them as saith he Yehueh and the fist eight and sixth of these Letters of their Alphabet are pronounced hef chef ef the ch of the eight Letters must be pronounced deep in the throat Chef I sent to Damascus to see if I could procure the Grammer Chronicles and Calendar which your Lordship desires but could not obtain any of them there being but one poor Man of the Samaritan race left in Damascus who is not able to satisfy me in any thing you desire only he said there were certain Books in their Language pawned to a great Spahee of that City but what they contained the poor Fellow knew not The Spahee would not part with them under 200 Dollers which is 60 l. Sterling so I durst not venture upon them being ignorant of their worth yet I will not cease labouring as occasion shall serve to give satisfaction to your Grace in what you require touching the Samaritans and I hope to prevail in some things unless the Troubles in and about Jerusalem do hinder the free passage of Caravans this ensuing Spring A former Letter which it seems your Lordship writ and sentaway by Marcelles I never received but as for the Old Testament in the Chaldean Tongue my diligence hath not wanted to procure and to this end sent divers times to Tripoly and Mount Libanus but could not prevail I have seen here the two first Books of Moses but examining them according to your Direction I found them to be out of the Greek whereupon I resolved to send to Emmit and Carommitt a City in Mesopotamia where divers of the Sect of the Jacobites do remain and after a long time there was sent me which I received eight days past the five Books of Moses only in an old Manuscript and according to the Hebrews with a promise ere long to send the rest of the Old Testament the Party that sent me this is the Patriarch of the Jacobites in those Parts who writ also that I should have Eusebius his Chronicle with some of the Works of Ephraem which if he do shall be sent by the first good Conveyance Those parcels of the New Testament viz. the History of the Adulterous Woman the second Epistle of St. Peter the second and third of John the Epistle of Jude with the Book of the Revelations I have procured and sent them together with the five Books of Moses and a small Tract of Eprhaem by the Ship Patience of London With the said Books I have sent another in the same Tongue which I humbly present your Grace if it shall yeild any matter worthy your reading I have obtained my desire however it may prove I presume it will be accepted as a Token of his Love who will ever be ready in what he can to observe and effect what your Lordship shall command him I have sought the Old Testament in that Tongue which is out of the Greek and distinguished by certain Marks and Stars but I cannot hear of any such From Emmit I hope to have some good News to write your Lordship and to send you a Catalogue of such Books as be here to be had When this Book which I now send shall be received I beseech your Grace to give your Secretary order to advise me thereof in the mean time if any of the Books you desire shall be brought or sent unto me I will not let them go for a small matter more or less such Books are very rare and esteemed as Jewels by the Owners tho they know not how to use them neither will they part with them but at dear rates especially to Strangers who they presume would not seek after them except they were of good worth and indeed they give a kind of superstitious Reverence to all Antiquity Thus have I related my proceedings and what intend to do in what your Lordship writes for and I should be very glad to accomplish your desire but I presume my willing and ready mind shall be accepted Here is News from Bagdat that the Vizier with the Army have been thereabouts now three Months past but have done little worthy so great a force and now for 70 or 80 days have besieged Bagdat but can do no good upon it The Persians have made divers Sallies out of the City and after a small Skirmish returned giving the Turks the worst the King of Persia if report be true draws all his Forces that way but rather to fear the Turk than encounter him unless by some Stratagem wherein he hath the advantage of the Turks the sequel and issue of this War we expect and greatly desire in this place the rather because our Trade depends much thereupon There hath of late happened some Troubles about Jerusalem by the
Insolence of an Arab called Emeere Farrach there is a force of Men gone against him he being of no great power will be soon quiet The Estate of his Empire decays and will be utterly ruined by the Tyranny and Oppression of the Spahees and Janisaries who are Lords and Governors of the Country what Man is he that dare oppose a Souldier The Mahometans are Slaves to the Souldiers the Christian and Jew under both it would grieve a Man's Heart to see the poor Estate and Condition of the Christians in these Parts nor so much for their outward Estate tho that be marvelous grievous but they are to be pitied for their Estate of Christianity for I know that in a manner all true knowledg is departed both from Minister and People the Lord in Mercy visit them Pardon my Tediousness and Presumption and excuse my weakness who shall daily pray unto the Lord of Lords to prosper all your ways and bless all your Endeavours and grant you a long Life here with Happiness and everlasting Glory in the Life to come and will ever rest Your Graces in all humble observance to be commanded Thomas Davis Aleppo the 16th of January 1625. LETTER LXXXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Much-Haddam Most Reverend in Christ and my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter of the 26th of March for which I return many humble Thanks I have written to Mr. Pat. Young both concerning his Transcript of Epistles and the nameless Annal but I could yet receive no Answer from him and I have not yet had time to go to him myself I have spoken with Sir Rob. Cotton concerning Malmesbury and the two Books of Saints Lives in Sarisbury Library all which he hath undertaken your Lordship shall have with all convenient speed As for the other two Books he tells me that you have one of them if not both already but if you want either of them you shall have it sent to you Giraldus Cambrensis of the Lives of David and Patrick was in my hands which I send your Lordship herewithal I have transcrib'd him for the Press only I will desire that when the Printer is ready for that part I may have it to compare with my Transcript for I purpose to go in hand with the Impression of his Works tho I make some adventure of my own Purss. If my Memory fail me not that Arabick Book is in my Lord Marshall's Library but I have not had opportunity to go in since the receipt of your Lordship's Letter by the next I will give your Lordship an account of it I received some Letters out of Ireland of the 25th of March but containing little memorable only which is very lamentable of five hundred Souldiers lately transported from the River of Chester three hundred at least are lost by Shipwrack upon the Coast of Wales Sir Ed. Chichester is created Baron of Belfast and Viscount of Carikfergus Here is much preparation for the Solemnities of the Funeral Parliament and Coronation The new Writs are gone out returnable the 17th of May. The Funeral-day is appointed the 10th of May which doubtless will be very great and sumptuous It is said that the King of Bohemia his eldest Son comes over to be chief Mourner There is no day certain for the Coronation because it depends upon the Marriage that both may be done together Italy which hath been quiet sixty Years some few Brables of the D. of Savoy excepted is now grown the Stage of War The French the Duke of Savoy and the Venetian Forces are 50000 and are come within twelve Miles of Genoa having already taken divers of their Towns But now my Paper bids me end wherefore with the remembrance of my Love and Service to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher as also to Sir Garret Harvy and my Lady I will ever remain Your Graces most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London April 7. 1625. LETTER LXXXIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davies to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father and my no less honoured Lord IT is a good while since I writ your to Grace for want of a good occasion not presuming to trouble you with unnecessary Lines so trust my long silence will be excused The five Books of Moses with those parcels of the New Testament which your Lordship writ for in the Caldean Tongue sent you ten Months ago I trust in safety are come to your hands whereof I should be glad to hear I have used my best Industry to procure those other Books that you would have bought but hitherto have not been so happy as to light upon any of them such Books being very rare and valued as Jewels tho the Possessors are able to make little use of them Amongst all the Caldeans that lay in Mount Libanus Tripoly Sidon and Jerusalem there is but only one old Copy of the Old Testament in their Language extant and that in the custody of the Patriarch of the Sect of the Maronites who hath his residence in Mount Libanus which he may not part with upon any terms only there is liberty given to take Copies thereof which of a long time hath been promised me and indeed I made full account to have been possessed of one ere this time having agreed for it but I was deluded which troubled me not a little so in fine resolved to send a Man on purpose to Libanus to take a Copy thereof who is gone and I hope in four or five Months will finish it and by the assistance of the Almighty I trust to be able to send it by our next Ships By our Ships lately departed I have sent your Lordship some of the Works of Ephrem which if they prove useful I have my desire however I trust will be acceptable The last Letter I received from your Lordship bears date the 21st of February and came to my hands the 18th of July where I perceive you would have the New Testament in the Aethiopian Language and Character wherein my best Endeavours have not wanted for which purpose I have sent to Damascus where a few of the Abissines do inhabit yet have had no answer thence and in case do not prevail here I purpose to send to Jerusalem where divers of them do attend upon the Sepulcher of our Lord whence I hope to be furnished and in due time to send it with the Old Testament in the Syriack Tongue by the next Ships Thus much I beseech your Lordship to be assured of that I will omit no time nor neglect any means for effecting what you have or shall command me Touching such Occurrences which are worthy your Lordship's knowledg this unsettled tottering Estate affords little The Turks Forces were before Bagdat and during the Siege the Persians sallied out of the City divers times and had many Skirmishes with the Turks but ever came off with Honour
by way of Catechism long ago which a Neighbour-Minister having afterwards gotten from some of my Hearers he wrote those Doubts which follow in the Book the better to inform either himself or me Whereupon as I could get any time in the midst of other continual Employments too heavy for me I wrote to him the Discourse following the more fully to acquaint him with the grounds of my Judgment as knowing well his sufficiency to object fully if he found himself unsatisfied in any Passage thereof The Style I confess is unmeet for you to read as being plain and popular and therefore too large and withal empty of variety of reading which store of other Occurrences in my Calling here inforceth me too often to intermit Thus much let me humbly intreat at your Lordship's hands by the honour which you owe to Christ and by the Love you bare to his poorest Servants stick not I beseech you to advertise me freely of any such tenent herein as you shall think less safe I trust you shall find me conscious of mine own Slenderness and glad to râ—â—â—ive such Light as God shall be pleased to impart to me by you Yet this one thing more let me also add Tho I yield some degree of Efficacy in Christ's Death unto all yet I conceive it far short both of Impetration and Application of that gracious Atonement which is thereby wrought to the Elect of God whence also it is that I dare not preach the Gospel indifferently unto all before the Law nor the worth of Christ before the need of Christ. Childrens Bread is not meet for Whelps and full Souls will despise Hony-Combes I see John Baptist was sent to humble before Christ to heal and Christ himself preached Repentance before Faith in the Promises Mark 1. 15. Neither do I remember in the Gospel any Promise of Grace pardoning Sin nor any Commandment to believe Sin pardoned but to the broken the bruised the poor the weary the thirsty or the like Faith in the Promises before the Heart be changed from Stoniness to Brokenness I fear is no better than the Temporary Faith which is found in the stony Soil Luke 8. 13. But I cease your Lordship 's further Trouble Now the Lord Jesus who hath delighted in you to fill your Heart with the Riches of his manifold precious Graces be pleased to enlarge you to the Employment of them to his best advantage guide all your Ways in his Faithfulness and Wisdom and sustain you with his Mercy and Power unto the end So I humbly take leave and rest Earnestly desirous to be directed by your Lordship or confirmed in the Truth John Cotton Boston May 31. 1626. LETTER XCV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Samuel Ward Salutem in Christo Jesu SIR I Am very sorry to hear of your Distractions there but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whose Guidance we must refer both this and ipsam rerum summam quae in summo jam si quid videmus versatur discrimine When the Collaters have finished the Acts I could wish they collated the Epistles with the Text which is inserted into the Commentaries of Photius and Oecumenius Manuscripts in the University Library where there are some varieties of readings also as I remember noted in the Margent in the brief Scholies that are written in red Letters Remember me to Mr. Chancy and learn of him what he hath done for Mr. Broughton's Books intreat him also to look into the Manuscript Psalter in Hebrew and Latin in Trinity Colledg-Library and thence transcribe for me the last Verse save one of the 52 Psalm which is wanting in our printed Hebrew Bibles the Latin of that Verse if I forget not beginneth Consilium Mosis c. I would willingly also hear how far he hath proceeded in the Samaritan Bible and what Mr. Boys hath done in the transcribing of the Greek Manuscript which I left with him Wish Mr. Green to send me Lucian in Greek and Latin Your assured Friend J. Ar. LETTER XCVI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter and that which I signified to your Lordship in my last Letter was almost really effected The night before the choice of our new Chancellor I was very ill so as without hazard of my Health I could not be at the choice and so was absent The Duke carried it not above three or four Voices from the Earl of Berkshire and had not neither carried it but that the King's Pleasure was signified for the Duke both by Message and Letter Quod vis summam rerum in summo versari discrimine timeo doleo I acquainted Mr. White with your Pleasure and wished him to impart it to the rest of the Collators as touching the Collation of the Text in the Comments of Photius and Oecumenius I send you inclosed the Hebrew Verse you writ for They are in Denteronomy in the Samaritan Pentateuch I have not as yet spoken with Mr. Boyse I received the Books you mention and sent two of them to Mr. Austine Mr. Green will send you the two Books Lucian Graeco Lat. and N. Testam Syrlacum-Latin to Mr. Burnets Mr. White sendeth up unto you the Variae Lectiónes upon the Psalms The divers Readings of Prosper shall be sent you Dr. Goad sent me two sheets of my Latin Sermon printed But I hear not whether our Suffrage be reprinted I would know whether Nicetus his Orthodoxus Thesaurus be extant in Greek I suppose it is in Latin at least in the New Bibliotheca He is said to interpret Greg. Nyssen his Opinion of the Conversion which is made in the Eucharist mentioned c. 37 Catechet I cannot tell what to pronounce touching that discourse His discourse is somewhat plausible till he come to the conversion made in the Eucharist by Christ's words and then he doth faulter I pray you let me know where the Manuscript Copies of the Saxon Annals are to be had Mr. Mede and Mr. Whalley are both in good health I am right sorry that your Lordship should so soon go from us I am now in business in Disputations in our Schools I shall forget many things which I should have enquired of And so with my best Service remembred to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher I commend you to the gracious Protection of the highest Majesty and so rest Your Lordship 's in all Observance Samuel Ward Sidney-College June 6. 1626. There is good Agreement God be thanked in King's College LETTER XCVII A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Have sent you here enclosed the diverse Readings of the Continuation of Eusebius's Chronicle by Hierom and both the Prospers Mr. Elmar will bring your Lordship the Concio ad Clerum which against my mind is set forth without those other things
Books and his Matrices of the Oriental Tongue are already sold. I am glad your Lordship hath got the old Manuscript of the Syriack Translation of the Pentateuch and for your hopes of the rest You say you have received the parcels of the New Testament in that Language which hitherto we have wanted But it seemeth those Parcels are writttn out of some Copies But I doubt whether anciently they were in the old Manuscript I am much afraid the Jesuits have laid hold of Elmenhorst's Copy As for the places of Chrysostom I will at my better leisure by God's Grace examine it Mr. Boyse hath written out the Fragment of P. Alexandrinus but intreateth me to let him have the Book till the next week for he would gladly peruse the Notes of Casaubon upon Nicander And God-willing the next week I will send it to Mr. Francis Burnett I am right sorry to see matters of that importance carried ex consilio perpaucorum I had a Letter from my Lord of Sarum by which I understand as much There was the last week a Cod-fish brought from Colchester to our Market to be sold in the cutting up which there was found in the Maw of the Fish a thing which was hard which proved to be a Book of a large 16 o which had been bound in Parchment the Leaves were glewed together with a Gelly And being taken out did smell much at the first but after washing of it Mr. Mead did look into it It was printed and he found a Table of the Contents The Book was intituled A preparation to the Cross it may be a special admonition to us at Cambridg Mr. Mead upon Saturday read to me the Heads of the Chapters which I very well liked of Now it is found to have been made by Rich. Tracy of whom Bale maketh mention Cent. 9. p. 719. He is said to flourish then 1550. But I think the Book was made in King Henry the Eighth's Time when the six Articles were a-foot The Book will be printed here shortly I know not how long your Lordship will stay in England I wish you might stay longer We are to come to present our new Chancellor with his Patent upon the 13th of July all our Heads will be there I would be glad to meet your Lordship then And thus wishing your Lordship all good success in your Affairs a fortunate Journey and speedy Passage when you go with our best Devotions my Wife and I wish you and yours all health and happiness commending you to the safest protection of the highest Majesty Your Lorships in all observance Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. June 27. 1626. LETTER CI. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh To Dr. Samuel Ward SIR I Received your Letter wherein you signify unto me the News of the Book taken in the Fishes Belly and another Letter from Mr. Mead touching the same Argument The Accident is not lightly to be passed over which I fear me bringeth with it too true a Prophesy of the State to come And to you of Cambridg as you write it may well be a special Admonition which should not be neglected It behoveth you who are Heads of Colledges and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stick close to one another and quite obliterating all secret Distasts or privy Discontentments which possibly may fall betwixt your selves with joint consent to promote the Cause of God Mr. Provost I doubt not will with great alacrity in hoc incumbere So with the remembrance of my Affections to all my Friends there I commit you to the protection and direction of our Good God In whom I rest Your own most assured Ja. Armachanus Lond. June 30. 1626. LETTER CII A Letter from Mr. Ralph Skinner to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend in God and cordially Religious YOUR Lordship knows right-well that trivial Adage That there is no fishing to the Sea nor Mines of Silver and Gold like to the Indies Yet no Fisher when he fished did ever draw up all Fish in his Net and no Mud Gravel or Stones nor no Pioneer did ever dig up all pure Trench or without some Oar intermixed therewith The same befalls me in the Works of Maymon the Ocean of all Jewish Learning the Quarries of Silver and Gold whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fame surpasseth the Indies for his Wine is mixed now and then with Water and his Silver with some dross All is not Fish that comes to the Net nor all is not Gold that glisters What must I do then Shall I reject Maymon full of good Mammon for some few Errors Or shall I not rather separate the Errors from Maymon and present you with his golden Mammon for so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. He that winneth Souls is wise the true Fisher of Men the wise Catcher of Souls my Lord and Master hath taught me to do imitating the Fishers whose custom is to gather the good into Vessels and to cast away the bad and putrid and to play the skilful Goldsmith in the purging the Tradition from the Precept as he hath taught me Mat. 15. 5. discerning inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mandatum which was this honour thy Father and thy Mother and inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traditionem which was this When any one saith to his Father or his Mother Korbon est quo jurari debebas à me That the Reader then may make a profitable use of Maymon he must observe his Errors and his good Things His Errors be these Six I. That the Stars and Celestial Spheres have Life and Knowledg This Error is gross it needs no confutation II. That God did never repent him of a good Thing or retreat his words but only once viz. When he destroyed the Just with the Unjust in the destruction of the first Temple He forgot himself of that he said in the first Chapter viz. That no Accidents are incident unto God that he cannot change that he is not as Man that lies or the Son of Man to repent but one that keepeth his fidelity for ever III. That all Moses Law is perpetual He understood not that the Ceremonies was buried in Christ's Grave Dan. 9. That the Substance come the Shadow must vanish IV. That Man hath free-will to do Good or Evil. But we know that the preparations of Man's Heart are of God that we are not able as of our selves to think a good thought and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from him If the preparation then to a good Thought if the good Thought it self if the willing and doing of good be of God wherein have we Free-will V. That the Promises of God mentioned in the Prophets are for things Temporal to be fulfilled in this Life in the Days of the Messiah But we know that the Son of God is already come and hath given us an understanding that we might
this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel This phrase is frequent with Maymon in his Tract of Repentance cap. 8. sect 7. where he saith that the World passeth away only the Kingdom must first be restored unto Israel 10. 1 Cor. 7. 31. For the Fashion of this World passeth away So 1 John 2. 17. The World passeth away So Maymon in his Tract of Repent cap. 9. sect 2. saith That this World after his fashion passeth away And there he makes as it were a threefold World 1. This present World 2. The day of the Messiah And 3. the World to come or Everlasting Life And he explaineth himself That by this present World he means the Kingdoms and Monarchies which do captivate and afflict Israel the last of which being taken away then shall begin the World of the Messias he means as Rabby Abraham Tzebang a Spanish Jew hath expounded in his bundle of Myrth on the first of Gen. that after 5600 Years of the World expired and before the end of the 6000 Year in which they say the World shall end In this interim I say of 400 Years in which time we now live shall be the fall of Rome which they call Edom typically and that then Redemption shall come in to Israel And this is Maymon's meaning here when he saith That the first wise Men have said that between this World of the Monarchies viz. and the days or times of the Messiah there is not any space or let but only this that God causes first the Kingdoms to pass away that is the last of these Monarchies that afflicts Israel must pass away which is the Idolatry of Rome that hinders the Jews from believing in Christ. 11. 2 Cor. 11. 31. The God which is blessed for ever So Rom. 1. 25. The Creator blessed for ever So Rom. 9. 5. God over all blessed for ever This Epistle which St. Paul useth so frequently in his Epistles is infinitely used of Maymon and all the Rabbins and therefore is become one of their Rabbinical Abbreviatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God holy and blessed for ever 12. 2 Cor. 1. 3. Blessed be God the Father of Mercies So Maymon ends his Book of Knowledg Blessed be the God of Mercy it were more significantly translated the God of Commiserations as Drusius hath well observed for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Father of Mercies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Father of Commiserations answerable to Maymon's Syriac word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose fatherly Bowels yearn with a natural 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Pity and Compassion towards his 13. Rev. 1. 20. 2. 1 8 12. He whom St. John calls so often in the Revelations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angel of the Church is called by Maymon in his first Chap. of the Fundamentals of Moses's Law Sect. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Messenger Legate Legate Apostle Minister of the Church or Congregation There he saith that God appeared in Mount Sinai when he gave the Law like to the Angel or Minister of the Church or Congregation wrapped in Garments 14. Luke 3. Christ saith twice It is written and once It is said And so St. Paul often useth this Phrase The Scripture saith but they seldom or never tell you in what Book it is written or said or in what Chapter or in what Verse The same Phrase is as frequent with Maymon he saith It is said It is written or The Scripture saith whensoever he bringeth any place of Scripture for to prove his Assertion Now the reason why he never cites the Section Chapter or Book is for that the Jews have always been so ready and pregnant in the Scriptures as that they need not cite the Book Chapter or Verse For this their expertness in the Scriptures they were called Sopherim Seribes or Numberers of the Law They have told us that there be 54 Parashioths or Sections in Moses's Law of which they do here joyn together the two shortest and so in every year they read over Moses's Law ending on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles every Sabbath-day reading in the Synagogue a whole Section They set down the number of the Verses of every Book as namely Genesis hath in it 1534 Verses The midst of the Book is at these words And by thy Sword thou shalt live The Sections thereof be 12. The Sydrim or lesser Sections be 43. The number of the Letters of Genesis be 4395. And Hakmi tells us on the first of Genesis how many Alphabets there be in the Law viz. 1800. And so I could run through all the other Books But I must not be tedious Now methinks I hear some ignorant Scholar object such an one as Jude speaks of who condemns and speaks ill of those things which he knows not and corrupts those things he also knows To what end and purpose serves this great and needless labour of the Rabbies in numbring up of the Books Verses Sections Words and Letters I answer They serve us for exceeding great use especially in these our days in which God did foresee Popelings would go about to prove that the Scriptures were corrupted and that then we must of necessity have another Judg viz. the Pope If I should grant this Argument made by the Pope's Champion Pistorius That the Scriptures were corrupted and that therefore we must have another Judge Yet doth it not follow that the Pope must be he but contrary-wise that of all other the Pope must be excluded from being Judg for that he is a Party But we constantly deny the Corruption of the Scriptures which they affirm and endeavour to prove by the 848 variae Lectiones and by the Keries and the Cethists And we answer that variety of reading argues not any Corruption but Ingenuity and plentiful Fruit of the Spirit of God done only in obscure places for Illumination for we can prove out of the Nazarites and Sopherisms every word and letter to have been through God's singular Providence numbred up and so kept by them thereby from Corruption Upon which Point Pistorius the Pope's Champion durst not dispute with a Learned Man of our Land For howsoever the Jews were male Legis observatores yet were they boni servatores custodes true keepers of the Oracles of God committed unto them And how did they keep them but by numbring up every Word Letter and Verse that so it being left unto Posterity on Record we might prove the Purity of the Scriptures by their Nazaretical Books against the foisting Papists who do nothing but foist in and corrupt all things not only the Greek Fathers but even the Targums and Comments of the Rabbins in all those places and expressions that make against Rome in Buxtorffs Bible lately set forth As for Example Esay 34. 9. And her i. e. Edom's Rivers shall be turned into Pitch Jonathan the Chaldee Paraphrast that wrote long before Christ comments thus And the Rivers of Rome shall be turned into
translated for the good of the Gentry in that it fitteth a Gentleman with Discourse of every Nation and Language but that I understood the several Characters in this Book would not be had for 1000 l. and to set it forth without Characters would be a Catarract in the Reader 's Eye He setteth down thirteen several Characters of the Hebrew Tongue pag. 117. deinceps In the division of the Books of the Talmud he follows Riccius and Galatinus which are not so exact as Buxtorf In his 76 Page he affirmeth that Moses foreseeing his death wrote the Law in thirteen Copies from the first Element to the last giving each of the twelve Tribes of Israel a Copy written in publick Characters namely saith he Characters Samaritan and that he left the 13th Copy to the Levites and Priests in secret and divine Writing standing on triangular Rods the use of which remained only to the Priests and Levites who were expert and of understanding in the reading and understanding thereof having the knowledg of the Points and Accents of Letters and Vowels c. Out of which I note these two things First That Moses left unvowelled Copies to the Tribes save one which had both Accents and Vowels to the custody of the Priests to which they might have recourse in doubtful Lections Secondly The Antiquity of the Samaritan Characters for the commendation of your Lordships Samaritain Bible I beseech your Lordship any time at your fit leisure to send to Mr. Burnett's that little Tract of mine of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and your Lordships approbation or reprobation of it wherein I fail for I have not yet done it so exactly as if God permit I intend I would gladly be confirmed in the Truth or have the falshood infirmed if there be any in that Tract for the Lord he knows I have always sought the Truth with integrity of Heart weeping often with St. John where I find the sealed Book submitting always my Spirit to the Spirit of the Prophets in propriis stare but crying out always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let the Righteous smite me vincet veritas Surely the Prophesy and Sign of Jonas is expounded to be fulfilled in that Article of our Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as Jonas's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was three days and three nights from the time that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Fish swallowed him till the time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cast him up So Christ's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must answerably be part of three days from the time he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that he was laid in the Sepulchre till the time that he arose out of the Sepulcre the precise time of 34 hours at which instant neither the great Stone or the Sepulchre nor the Seal of Pontius Pilate nor the Guard could hold him any longer under the power of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Death for so long he must be held under Destroy this Temple within three days I will build it up again Now the Jews laboured all they could to disannul this Prophesy and to keep him longer yea for ever in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and under the Power of Death To this end rolling on his Sepulchre a Stone sealing it and setting a Guard saying This Deceiver said while he was living that within three days he would rise again Now this is more than to be buried for he might have risen in so few hours again but till the 34 hours expired he could not without the disannulling of Jonas's Prophecy And now from Christ's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I pass unto mine own for I am to speak with dead Phrase in a kind of living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obscuratus ab amicis meis living in tenebris dark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum blattis ac tineis quotidie rixans Out of this place of obscurity I would gladly enter into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Guttural omitted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that House that Temple of God called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercy Chaldaice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebraice as the word is taken Jonah 2. 8. They that observe vain Vanities forsake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Mercies the God of Mercies as the Apostle calls him the Syriac 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 merciful now as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said so say I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your Lordship must be this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else I shall still remain telluris inutile pondus unprofitable to the Church burying invitus my Talent in the Ground Whereas David tells me Psal. 92. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Righteous shall flourish as a Palm-tree the reason he renders in the words following They shall bring c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as the Apostle saith to the same effect The Grace of God was not in vain in me therefore saith he I laboured more abundantly then they all The Grace of God is operative in whomsoever it is which not suffering me to be idle makes me seek late full Employment Now as for me God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for your Lordship's Health that you may still fight Jehovah's Battels for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all other points which these devilish Spirits of the Jesuits the Locusts of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the bottomless pit by their smoaky Doctrine do resist I humbly beseech your Lordship to have a care of your Health and a while to spare your self from being tantus helluo librorum till you have perfectly recovered your former Health for much reading is a weariness to the Flesh. There is a company of Mistresses of Witchcraft Nahum 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately discovered your Lordship will by others understand the Particulars I only touch the General And thus with my humble Duty and Observance to your Lordship ever remembring you in my poor Prayers I rest now and ever your Lordship 's ever obliged Ralph Skynner From Waltham-stow January 26. 1624. LETTER CIV Right Reverend in God I Have sent your Grace Cunradus Graserus on the ten last Verses of the 11th Chapter of Daniel whose tenet is contrary to Junius and Broughton Now to satisfy your Lordship's next Request That the Hebrew Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that memorial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is frequently put for the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 articulo loco Prepositionis these places sufficiently prove 1. Rabbi David Kimchy in his Preface on the Psalms saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There be some Psalms also that have this Title or Epigraph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to David instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for David As Psal. 20. To the Master Quirester 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Psalm to David
seal Vision and Prophecy cannot be in Commendation Now seeing it 's so how can we order aright these words to restrain Rebellion and to end erroneous Sin that they should be in Commendation And so the like of those words to seal Vision and Prophecy But behold we find it written that the Iniquity of the Amorite was not perfectly filled up and those words are spoken in vituperium in the ill sense for the meaning is that hitherto the day of his Calamity and the final punishment of his Iniquity is not yet come as that place Greater is my Punishment than can be born and so that if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Punishment shall happen unto thee And so thy Iniquity is perfected and finished thy Punishment is ended and it is in the ill sense But the Replyer may answer that these words erroneous Sin and Trespass as also that word I beseech thee take away now c. are contrary to those words and her Iniquity is taken away But lo the whole shall be expounded according to the meaning of the place but these words to bring in eternal Righteousness do shew that they are in Commendation And the sense of to seal Vision is the understanding of the Prophets which have prophesied of the Subject of the second Temple And now I will tell the meaning of that eminent Gaon he saith That the exposition of the word went forth is That God had decreed that Jerusalem with the second Temple should he waste 490 Years which are the 70 Weeks Only thou hast erred in thine Account when the 70 Years were compleat and ended and they are but only seven Weeks which make 49 Years and thou needest not be curious to mention the Years for they were 51. And the meaning to Messias the Prince is Cyrus the King And he hath brought a Reason from the words of the Prophet Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus his Messias or anointed One whose right hand I have strengthned And the 62 Weeks are the Days i. e. Years of the second House But lae there is a difficulty for the Angel saith In the beginning of thy Supplications the Word went forth Again how can the Years of the Captivity be mingled with the Years of the second Temple Or how should we expound to restrain Rebellion and to finish Error Again what shall become of the Week that remains Of which he saith he will confirm the Covenant for many in one Week after the 62 Weeks and it were meet to mention that yet three Weeks do remain Moreover his proof that Cyrus is the Messias is not right for that to his Messias is as much as to his Prophet for so it is written for that that the Lord hath anointed me But before I speak my Opinion I will expound these words He will confirm the Covenant for many It is a thing manifestly known that Titus made a Covenant with Israel for seven years and that three years and an half the daily Sacrifice ceased before the destruction of the second Temple as it s written in the Book of Josephus Son of Goryon Dan. 9. 27. And he saith with the Wing of Abomination he shall make it desolate because the Abominations shall spoil the Sanctum Sanctorum or the Oracle after the number of years mentioned before when Jerusalem was taken And it is written in the 4th Prophecy And they polluted the Sanctuary of my Strength that was the day Jerusalem was taken in the time of Titus who had taken away the continual Sacrifice before and the abomination of Desolation was set up For so it is written And from the time that the daily Sacrifice was taken away and the desolating Abomination set up shall be 1290 days And they must needs expound Daniel how many compleat days are half a week because of the Leap Years so also by reason of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or half a week For it is not meet that half should be the whole neither more nor less as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 half-Tribe of Manasses and many such like Now know thou that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 days are always so taken for days and not for years Only it is meet that if it be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 days that it should be a compleat year in the revolution of the days of the year as they were at first As that from days to days which are the days of a compleat year so that days shall be his Redemption that is in a year shall he be redeemed But when the number of two or three days shall be used within this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 days it cannot fitly be taken for years but for days as they are after the exposition of that place two days which were two compleat ones when the days returned as they were And so that until a month of dayes when the Moon shall be seen according to the form in which she was seen in the first day of Man's being Therefore have I said that 1290 days are that half of the week that he mentioneth And so that blessed is he that waiteth for that he may attain to those days as I will expound For in case they were years how could a Man wait or expect a 1000 years to come unto them And it is written the days of our years in them are 70 years And behold we find that Nehemiah saith That the City of the Sepulchres of my Fathers lieth wasted and the Gates thereof are burnt with Fire And it 's written Also me hath he commanded to be a Prince in the Land of Judah And it 's written of him He shall build up the Temple of the Lord and shall bear the Honour shall sit and reign upon his Throne So Jeremy prophesyeth of him A King shall reign and be wise And in Ezra it 's written concerning Nehemiah And thou shalt be to them for a King And now I will expound the 70 weeks The 70 weeks are from the going forth of the Word in the beginning of Daniel's Supplications To restrain Rebellion is like that The Iniquity of the Amorite is not yet perfect And to seal up Error is as that thy Iniquity is perfect and finished And to cover Iniquity to bear the Yoke of the Captivity to make reconciliation with our Fathers And to bring in till God shall judg them with Righteousness Or his Exposition is in dispraise For the coming of Righteousness is the setting of Righteousness as the going down of the Sun is the setting thereof Therefore it 's in dispraise For commendation is the contrary as that their Righteousness shall go forth like the Light And he shall bring forth thy Righteousness like light And this is that Arise O my Light for thy Light cometh For thy Light was set until now Dan. 9. 24. And to seal up the Vision and Prophecy because the Prophets shall cease And to seal the Messias the most Holy And behold
this is the beginning of the Captivity So that the matter of the Account cannot come into thy mind For lae in the Account of the Kings of Persia there is a New Moon added according to the word of the Angel as I will declare Now whether there be in the Computation an Addition or Substraction it hurteth not Peradventure the matter of the New Moon will come into thy mind when he knoweth the moment of the Eclipse of the Moon in this Year Besides we have found another Eclipse before this an hundred Years by which I may know the place of the Moon according to Truth And according to his Account he will willingly reduce backward the Years that come Now lo the meaming of Vers. 25. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the Gommandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Prince Messias are 70 Weeks And behold 19 Years were of the Kingdom of Cyrus and Ahashuerosh And two Years of Darius and he reigned 12 Years and it s so written in a Book of the Kings of Persia. And twenty Years of Artaxshashta the King Lo all amounts but to seven Weeks till Nehemiah came as it s written in the Book of Ezra Now the 62 Weeks are the time that the second Temple stood and the half of the Week I have expounded And thus my Lord I have shewed your Grace the Exposition of R. Sagnadiah to be false by Abben Ezra his Opinion And 2dly I have set down Abben Ezra's Supputation of the 70 Weeks Which is thus 51 Years of Cyrus and Ahashuerosh Darius and Artaxerxes or 7 Weeks 434 Years or the 62 Weeks the time the second Temple stood and he makes the Temple to stand longer by 14 Years than any other Seven Years the last Week in all 491 Years You see he is a Year too much besides he makes the last Weeks half to be after the destruction of Zorobabel's Temple which was 40 Years before the destruction thereof My Lord I must now impart a Matter unto you My Wife received a Letter of late since I was with your Lordship from her Sister my Lady Temple wherein she writeth that my Lord of Meath hearing of my entring into the Ministry did promise to confer upon me a Living worth 60 l. per Annum presently and that within a Year he would make it worth an 100 l. per Annum if I would come over I wonder that my Lord of Meath Dr. Martin as I suppose should of his own accord make such an offer unto me that am a meer Stranger to him and never had conference with him But my Lord if your Lordship would vouchsafe me to be a poor Levite and Chaplain in your Service I would say with Mollerus in Psal. 123. v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cum omne servire durum sit faelicissimus cui contigerit bono ac pio servire Domino If your Grace shall in your Letter signify 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then behold I will say with Ruth Where thou goest I will go and where thou diest I will die c. And thus with thanks for your Lordships last bounty in bearing my Charges which I understood not till I took Horse and therefore could not return thanks till now I rest now and ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ralph Skynner Sutton Octob. 31. 1625. My Lord I would gladly be your Scholar to learn your Method and facile way in preaching O that I might be beholden unto you for some of your directions in that kind And that I might see but a Sermon or two of your Graces in writing according to those directions For therefore did I enter in the last hour of the day of my Life into God's House that I might say with David Ps. 92. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Reason is rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Abben Ezra calleth the Rabbies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LETTER CV Worthy Sir YOUR last kindness is not forgotten though unrequited for I cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pecuniam qui habet non refert qui refert non habet At gratiam qui refert habet qui habet refert Accept therefore this my Literarum Manus by which now I prove that plainly unto you which long ago I affirmed in conference viz. That Israel passed not over the Red Sea transversum as you with others have supposed If Israel coming out of the Sea arrived and landed at the self-same side of the Wilderness from which he departed when he entred the Sea Then did he not go over the Red Sea transversum But Israel coming out of the Sea arrived and landed at the self-same side of the Wilderness from which he departed when he entred the Sea Ergo Israel did not go over the Sea transversum The Major Proposition cannot be denied For if he went into and out of the Sea keeping still the same side he did not pass over-thwart the Sea which is the breadth thereof from one side to another The Minor is thus proved out of the Text in express words They came from Succoth to Etham in the edg of the Wilderness Exod. 13. 20. Num. 33. 6. And returned from Etham to Pihahiroth encamping by the Sea Num. 33. 7. Exod. 14. 1. 9. and passing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or by the midst of the Sea Num. 33. 8. they came into the same Wilderness again Num. 33. 8. which is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 15. 22. From which collation of places it appears that Abben Ezra his Opinion is true We know saith he that there is no Red Sea between Egypt and the Land of Israel neither was there any need that they should go into the Red Sea for that it was their way to Canaan only God commanded them so to do to the end that the Egyptians might go in after them and be drowned Now from the Wilderness of Etham Israel entred the Sea and into the Wilderness of Etham they went out again Seeing from the Collation of these two places the Truth will better appear I will set them down Exodus 12. 37. 1. On the 15th of Nisan six hundred thousand Footmen journied from Rangmeses to Succoth Exod. 12. 37. Numbers 33. 3 5. They departed from Rameses on the 15th day of the first month and pitched in Succoth Numb 33. 3 5. Exod. 13. 20. 2. They departed from Succoth and encamped in Etham in the edg of the Wilderness of Etham viz. Exod. 13. 20. Numb 33. 6. And they departed from Succoth and pitched in Etham which is in the end of that Wilderness Numb 33. 6. Exod. 14. 2. 3. Then from Etham they returned and encamped before Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the Sea before Bagnal-zephon before it they pitched by the Sea Exod. 14. 2. And 600 Chariots of the Egyptians following after Israel overtook them pitching by the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 14. 7 9. There the Children of
can Mr. Walker hath not Gersham nor any Comment on Daniel but the same that I have only he lent me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so I have read over the whole Tractate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but there is not any word touching the duration of the Babylonian Kingdom or any other Kingdom It only handleth on what days the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be read and their Rites and Ceremonies I confess I read only the Text of Megillah I read not Rambanus nor Bartinorah's Comment for that would require many days and I found no one word in the Text tending any thing at all towards any such Matter and therefore my Lord I would be glad to know what Author referred you to that Tractate of Megillah or whether your Grace hath mistaken the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I humbly thank your Grace for your Lordship's last kindness unto me when I was at Much-Haddam for defraying my Charges at mine Inn. And now my Lord vetus conferendo beneficium invitas novum It hath pleased my Lord Carew who lieth at Nonesuch some mile and an half from Sutton before whose Honour I have often preached to be pleased to write his Letter to the Right Honourable my Lord Keeper Sir Thomas Coventry that he would be pleased at his Request to bestow a Benefice on me when any shall fall in his Gift And he was pleased moreover to send the Letter by Sir Thomas Stafford to my Lord Keeper to sollicit the Matter also by word of mouth And so I was there at Hampton-Court and presented my self to my Lord Keeper who gave me his hand and promised that within three months or sooner he assured himself he should provide for me And now my Lord my request is that your Grace would be pleased to write your Letter also unto my Lord Keeper in my behalf to this effect having relation to my Lord Carew's Precedent That whereas your Lordship is informed that my Lord Carew hath sollicited my Lord Keeper to bestow a Benefice on one Ralph Skynner Minister and Preacher of the Word at Sutton under Mr. Glover a Man of honest Life and Conversation and conformable to the Orders of our Church and so forth as it shall please your Lordship to write of me that you would be pleased to second my Lord Carew's Request effectually for that I am but mediocris fortunae Vir and have not means and maintenance to buy me Books and other Necessaries This your Grace's Letter in my behalf to my Lord Keeper if your Lordship would be pleased to send it before Christide inclosed in a Letter to Mr. Burnet's and to give me leave to seal it after I have read it it 's likely my Lord Keeper would remember me the sooner I have given my Lord Carew satisfaction in many Questions at sundry times of conference and especially in these three 1. That the Pope and Conclave be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. That the Points and Vowels were given by God from Sinai and not the invention of the Masorits 3. That the Hebrew Tongue is the most ancient Tongue and that Moses wrote in it and not in the Caldee and Egyptian and all this proved expresly out of the Text of the Scripture For which my Lord hath given me a greater commendation in the ancient Tongues to my Lord Keeper than I either have deserved or can answer unto And thus with my humble Service to your Grace I end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Per Metathesin RADULPH SKYNNER London Decemb. 8. 1625. LETTER CVII A Letter from Mr. James White to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Illustrissime Reverendissime Antistes QUòd venerandae Antiquitatis Monumenta quae meae curae non ita pridem conferenda credidit Dominatio vestra tardiùs multò quà m vellem ad umbilicum perduxerim est quod sperem apud tantum Candorem veniae locum me inventurum Quòd autem eo auspicio dicam an infortunio transacta sint ut neutiquam industriae meae specimen exhibendi nedum judicio vestro sublimi satisfaciendi copia fiat quicquid veniae audacia arrogaverit nullam fidenter sperari posse exploratum habeo Siquidem quod minimè dissimulandum existimavi vel ipsae liturae quibus inter scribendum imprudens indulsi incuriae me vel invitum coarguunt Quin inter sacras illas paginas conferendas semel atque iterum in ea loca incidi unde me facilè expedire non potui Intelligat obsecro Dominatio vestra Psalmos 117 147. Quo utroque in loco idem scrupulus eadem occurrit difficultas Utrobique enim Psalmi duo fronte satis distincti materiâ varii titulis etiam à se invicem diversi Identitatem numericam si ipsum Catalogum spectemus mirum in modum prae se ferunt Porrò naevo haud minore laborant Psalmi 145 146. ad quos liber ille typis excusus quem praeire voluisse expectavi claudus adeò inventus est ut id spatii meâ solius conjecturâ in versibus à nnotandis emetiri coactus fuerim Has istiusmodi densiores ingenii mei nebulas vestro benignè affulgente candore opportunè dispersum iri nullus dubito Colophonem imposuimus quatuor S. S. Evangeliis ante-Pentecosten coronidem pariter Actis Apostolorum si Deus dederit breve addituri Interim quà m sim obstrictus Dominationi vestrae quòd me indignum ullis negotiis hisce sacris dignatus fueris Praesul amplissime preces meae testatum faciant Deo Opt. Max. apud quem ardentissimis uti par est votis contendo ut Reverentiam vestram Ecclesiae suae columen diutissimè conservet Reverendissimae vestrae Dominationis Observantissimus Jacobus White Cantabrigiae ex Col. Sid. Nonas Junii 1626. LETTER CVIII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's I understood by others this Commencement of your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Sermon before his Majesty as touching the repressing of the Arminian Faction God's Blessing be upon you for this good Service to opportunely performed I pray God his Majesty may have a true apprehension of the ensuing Danger I was told by some that notwithstanding the Proclamation Mr. Mountague was to set out a Book but I cannot say it for certain Mr. Whalley spoke to me above a month ago to write to your Lordship to leave Mr. Lively his Chronology with him and me and we would take care for the publishing thereof If your Lordship have not sent it away we desire it may be sent hither I had quite forgot in my last Letters to mention it I did your Lordship's Message to Mr. Chancy I have sent your Lordship the Book which Mr. Boys had as also his Transcript which he doth expect hereafter again Those Commencement-Affairs here so distracted me that I cannot recollect my self to bethink of some things which I would
have demanded of your Lordship I am right sorry of your departure from us so soon I will intreat you to remember Chrysostom ad Caesarium Monachum I pray God to be with you in initio progressu exitu itineris My best Wishes and Devotions shall accompany you to Tredaw and there also And so with my Prayers for your Lordship's Health and Happiness I take my leave resting Your Lordships for ever Samuel Ward Sidney-Colledg July 5. 1626. Amicitia quae desinere potest nunquam vera fuit Hieron I shall be bold to transmit my Letters as occasion shall serve LETTER CIX A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Salutem in Christo Jesu AMong the Manuscripts of the Library of Magdalen Colledg in Oxford in Dr. James's Catalogue numb 211. I found Lib. Jo. Chrysostomi contra illos qui negant veritatem carnis humane assumptae à Deo Which I verily did suppose to be the Book ad Caesarium Monichum which he wrote against the History of Sidonius Apollinarius But coming unto the Library and making search for the Book I found it was conveyed away and not to be heard of which did not a little offend me I spake with Mr. Young for the Collation of the place in Gregory Nyssen's Catechetical Oration touching the matter of the Eucharist who told me that Mr. Cafaâ—hon and himself had heretofore collated that place but could find nothing that could bring help to the interpretation of the place or make much any way to or fro You have in Trinity-College a Greek Manuscript of Euthymius's Panoplia Dogmatica wherein this is cited If you find any difference bet wixt it and the printed I pray you acquaint me therewith as also with your Judgment concerning the place of Chrysostom which I proposed unto you and the similitude of Wax which he there useth I had many things to write but am now intercepted by the time being ready to take Barque presently yet in all my haste I cannot forget Sir Ger and Harvy's business unto Trinity College in giving furtherance whereunto as I have already found your exceeding great forwardness so I earnestly intreat you in my absence to supply what I my self would most willingly have done if I were there present for which Favour to a noble Friend unto whom I have so extraordinarily been beholden as well as for the many other Fruits of your Love shewed to me I shall ever rest Your assured Friend and Brother Ja. Armachanus Leverpool Aug. 17. 1626. LETTER CX A Letter from Dr. Bambridge Professor of Astronomy in Oxford to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend and my singular good Lord BEsides my many obligations of Service to your Grace I am in particular engaged in an expedite and resolute method of calculating Eclipses which I hope to accomplish to your Grace's Content and would now have presented the same but that many other pursuits in my Astronomical History have taken up my time Presently after my return from your Grace I made haste to London but could find nothing of Dee's Books but bare Titles whereof some did very much please me and encourage me to make a diligent enquiry after them I reforted to Sir Rob. Cotton with very kind welcome but his Books being not yet ordered in a Catalogue I deferred my search there till another opportunity and now am bold to enter your Grace's Bibliotheca with humble request that I may have the names of such Mathematical Books as were Dee's It may be I shall find those Books whose Titles did promise so much If I had the Books at Oxford I would make an abstract of all things making to Astronomical History and Chronography the two chief Objects of my Enquiry and safely return the Books and Abstract to your Grace Being at London I procured an Arabick Book of Astronomy the Tables whereof I do perfectly understand but the Canons annexed are more difficult and yet do so much the more incite me to find out that particular meaning which is not possible without knowledg in the Arabick wherefore I have made entrance into the Rudiments thereof and hope labore Constantiâ at length to be able to translate any Arabick Book of Mathematicks It is a difficult thing which I undertake but the great hopes I have in that happy Arabia to find most precious Stones for the adorning and enriching my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do overcome all difficulties besides the great Satisfaction to see with mine own Eyes videre est octava scientia and not to be led hoodwinkt by others who tho they may be expert in that Tongue yet without special skill in these particular Sciences cannot truly translate the Arabick besides that every one hath a special purpose in his study of that Language taking no delight to follow anothers course flultum est ducere invitos caâ—es ad venandum I relate this to your Grace in assurance of your Favour herein if you please in your enquiry at Aleppo and other Eastern Places for Syriack Books to take in all Arabick Books of the Mathematicks and Chronology and amongst the rest a good Arabick Copy of the Alkoran the only Book whereby that Language is attained If your Grace have one already I humbly request the use thereof for some time for ours are bound Prisoners in the Library wherein are many Arabick Books but aut hore nescio-quo de re nescio qua I hope to bring them in lucem meliorem and with them many others if I may have the gracious Rays of your favourable assistance I am not yet come to the closure of my Apology I beseech your Grace's patience a while Besides my Enquiries I am very busy in the Fabrick of a large Instrument for Observations that I may mea fide both teach and write and here again I humbly entreat you to take in your Consideration my Petition at Oxford that you would as occasion shall be offered commend to the Munificence of some noble Benefactors this excellent and rare part of Astronomy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which would certainly commend them to Posterity in the mean time I would not fail to publish their Fame unto the Learned World I may not forget in my return from your Grace I called on Mr. Burton to see his Leland and there in the Catalogue of Books in Worcester Church I found Commentarii ' Dunchagt praesulis Hybernensis in Mart. Capel opus eruditum if I do well remember for I cannot now find my written note I spake to the Dean of Worcester who was with me at Oxford about it but he made no esteem thereof Yet if it please your Grace I will cause it to be perused I shall account my self very happy if I may here do any thing worthy your Grace's Acceptation In the mean time I much desire to hear of your Grace's safe return into Ireland with your worthy Confort and with many hearty Prayers to God that
you may live many heathful and happy Years I rest Your Grace's most humbly devoted Servant John Bainbridg Oxon. Octob. 3. 1626. LETTER CXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Sir AFter I had writ the former Lines came to my hands your Lordship's Letter of the 31th of July from Oxford whereto I have given due perusal and thereby take notice that your Grace hath received mine of the 16th of January with the Books sent you by the Ship Patience of London being very glad thereof but more joy ful that your Lordship finds such content in them being sorry that I am not able to perform to the full what you desire The Patriarch's Name that sold me the Books of Moses is Jesu Jáb which in the Chaldee Tongue is as much as to say Jesus give me And whereas I writ he was a Jacobite I pray take notice that he is a Nestorian and hath his residence in Emite and Zert and continually comes to this Town to visit them that are of that Heresy His promise to me he hath not kept neither could I ever hear from him since he sent me that Book now in your Lordships possession yet I caused divers Letters to be writ to him and at this present have given order to write to him again But as I often writ to your Grace those Books are rare especially in the Chaldean Tongue and Character the greatest part of the Chaldee Books are written in the Arab Character which I think you would not have nor esteem As for the remainder of the Old Testament in the Chaldee I have sent a Man to Mount Libanus to take a Copy thereof intending to send you the whole Old Testament in one Volume notwithstanding I know you have the Books of Moses and the Psalms those you have are old Copies and this will be a new Transcript presuming your Lordship will not think much of the Charge which if I had excepted would have been very little less than now it will be And as for the Samaritan Books in the hands of the Damasceen Spahee I will use my best diligence to find him out again and redeem them at as easy a rate as I can And so continue my care in accomplishing your Lordship's Will in every thing desiring the benefit of your particular Prayers And so fearing to be further troublesom to your Grace humbly take my leave and remain Your Graces most humbly to command Thomas Davis Aleppo Novemb. 14. 1626. English Account The 14th day of the 3d Month of the Turkish Account and the 1036 of Mahomet The Turks and Moors begin their Month when they first see the Moon after the Change LETTER CXII A Letter from Mr. Alexander Cook to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My good Lord IAcknowledg my self much bounden unto you for your Letter sent me from Liverpool in your return to Ireland Yet I confess I had not from this place where now I am returned you thanks but that I was desirous to acquaint you with an Accident lately fallen out some Circumstances whereof I had better occasion to know than many my betters It concerneth my Lady Faukland She within this fortnight hath declared her self to be a Papist One of the Priests who perverted her goeth under the Name of Fitz Gerard though his true Name is George Pettinger a York-shire Man an idle pâ—ating Companion and a Serving-man not many years ago a frequenter of Baudy-Houses and a Cozener of Trades-men in London as I my self in part know and as I am credily informed by Sir Tho. Savile to whom he was well known and by some Gentlemen of his own Kindred Mr. Mountague Mr. Coseâ—s and the Colledg as it is called at Durham-house are sensible of the disgrace which they sustain by reason of her fall Mr. Mountague told her That dying an English Papist she died in the state of Damnation Mr. Coosens told her That she had sinned damnably in departing from that Church wherein she was born and baptized before she had consulted with the Governors thereof Besides Mr. Coosens gave her a few Notes which she sent unto her Priest to answer whose Answer came to my hands and in my poor Opinion was a very silly one Yet Mr. Coosens would not reply but took his farewel of the Lady without purpose of ever visiting her again She protested that if ever she turned again she will turn Puritan not Moderate Protestant as she phraseth it for Moderate Protestants viz. Mr. Coosens c. are farther from Catholicks than Puritans And thus much concerning her who for any thing I know is neither fallen from Grace nor to Grace Here is 15000 l. offered as it 's said for the Bishoprick of Winchester by the Dean of Winchester And some say it is worth it for he may make of the Leases at his first entrance 10000 l. The other Bishopricks are rated proportionably and destinated to Men of corrupt Minds Dr. Laud is Dean of the Chappel and Dr. White Bishop of Carlisle Chamierus is lately come forth against Bellarmine they are sold as fast as they come over But Mr. Fetherston looks daily for 40 more of which I hope to have one The Papists brag that God hath not shewed himself a Hugonite for these three years last past They have great hopes but I trust their hopes shall perish Yet wise Men are afraid of what may follow and are more inquisitive than heretofore to know Whether Dotage may not be wrought by Sorcery I shall be glad to see your second part of the Succession of Christian Churches or any thing else of yours against the common Adversary Your Lordship had need now to do something for few go with a right foot and the Enemies are many I thought all this while I had been writing to Mr. Usher which made me write so carelesly but ere-now my Memory serves to tell me that it is my Lord Primat of Armagh to whom I ought to have written more respectively yet I cannot find in my heart to burn what I have written but to pass it a way as it is not doubting of a pardon from your Lordship if for no other respect yet for this that I live in the North where we know not well what Manners mean And so with remembrance of my humble Duty and Service I rest Your Lordship 's poor welwiller A. Cook Lond. Nov. 30. 1626. LETTER CXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Honourable the Lord Deputy Falkland May it please your Lordship MY diligence hath not been wanting either in treating with my Lords the Bishops when they were present or in writing unto them when they were absent touching the Augmentation and the present paiment of the Loan-monies demanded of the Clergy in the Province of Armagh The Augmentation with one Voice they did deny alledging that your Lordship in your Letters directed unto them did not
for to get a License of Mortmain for the holding of 240 Acres of Capite Land which a Gentleman would give to our Colledg but I find great difficulty in effecting it so as I fear me I must return re infectâ If you would be pleased to send Mr. Lively's Chronology I think Mr. Whalley would see to the publishing of it And thus with tender of my best Service and my best Wishes and Prayers for the happy success of your good Designs and prospering of all your Endeavours and for the publick Peace and Safety of both the Nations Yours and Ours in these tottering and troublesome Times I commend your Lordship and all yours to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all Service Samuel Ward London Feb. 13. 1626. LETTER CXVIII A Letter from the Right Honorable the Lord Deputy Falkland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord YOur judicious apprehension of the Perils which threaten the Peace of this Kingdom which your dutiful consideration of the King's Wants through his other manifold Occasions of Expence together with your Zeal to his Service is clearly manifested by conforming your Tenants to the good Example of others to join with the rest of the Inhabitants in contributing to the relief of the new Supplies and other Souldiers sent hither for the publick Defence notwithstanding your Privileges of Exemption by Patent from such Taxes which I will take a fitting occasion to make known to his Majesty for your Honour And where your Lordship doth complain that other Country Charges are imposed upon your Tenants whereof you conceive they ought to be free by virtue of your Patent I can give no direct answer thereunto until I be informed from your Lordship of what Nature they be but do faithfully assure your Lordship that neither my Lord Chichester nor my Lord Grandison did ever shew more respect to your Predecessors than I will be ready to perform towards your Lordship as well in this your Demand as in all other things which lie in my Power not being prejudicial to the King's Service which I know is as much as your Lordship will ever desire and do pray your Lordship to send me a Copy of their Warrants for my information what hath been done in that behalf before my Time I have kept Sir Charles Cootes Company from that County as long as I could and will remove them thence as soon as I can conveniently But your Lordship may please to understand that by the earnest intercession of some well-willers to that County it hath been less burthened with Souldiers than any other within that Province saving only Fermannagh which is much smaller in scope than it And for the Distinction you desire to be made between your Town-Lands which you alleadg are generally less by one half than those that are held by others that Error cannot be reformed without a general admeasurement and valluation of the different Fertilities for we all know that a hundred Acres in a good Soil may be worth a thousand Acres of Lands that are mountainous and barren and therefore it will surely prove a Work of great difficulty and will require a long time to reduce it to any perfection so as it is best to observe the custom in usage until such a reformation shall be seriously debated and agreed upon For the Bridg to be built at Charlemount it was propounded to the Board by the Lord Caulfield he informing that the old one was so decayed that it could hardly last out another Year The usesul Consequence of that Bridg in time of War guarded by a strong Fort which Defence others want being well known to the Table did make it a short Debate every Man concurring in Opinion with an unanimous consent that it was most necessary for the King's Service that a substantial Bridg should be erected there with expedition Then the Question grew At whose Charge whether at the King 's or Countries Which upon mature debate was ordered that the Country should bear as well for that it is a place of equal conveniency with any other that is or can be made elsewhere for passage of the Inhabitants over that deep River in times of Peace as because they shall enjoy great security by their Neighbourhoods to that strong Fort of Charlemount in times of Combustion built and maintained without their Charge These Considerations did move us to give direction to certain of the Justices of Peace of each of these Counties of Tyrone and Armagh to view the place and treat with Workmen which they accordingly did Upon whose Certificate we gave Warrant to applot the same according to their Agreement with Workmen which I wish may be levied without opposition or interruption and do make it my request unto your Lordship to give way and furtherance thereunto for this Work tending so much to the Service of the King and Country which I shall take in very good part from your Lordship and you cannot want your Reward in Heaven for it it being a Work of that kind which is accounted pious And so I commit your Lorship to God's protection and rest Your Lordships very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle March 15. 1626. I have given order for the preparing a Fyant for the passing of those Particulars your Lordship desired by Mr. Singe Falkland LETTER CXIX A Letter from the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Send unto you Mr. Sibbes who can best report what I have said unto him I hope that Colledg shall in him have a very good Master which hitherto it hath not had You shall make my excuse to the Fellows that I write not unto them You shall do well to pray to God that he will bless his Church but be not too sollicitous in that Matter which will fall of it self God Almighty being able and ready to support his own Cause But of all things take heed that you project no new ways for if they fail you shall bear a grievous Burthen If they prosper there shall be no Thanks to you Be patient and tarry the Lord's leasure And so commending me unto you and to the rest of your Brethren I leave you to the Almighty and remain Your Lordship's loving Brother G. Cant. Lambeth March 19. 1626. LETTER CXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Sir MAY it please your Lordship to take a view of my Proceedings for the procuring of such Books you gave me order for such as I could get and have in readiness to be sent by our next Ships which may depart this Port about four months hence are certain Books and loose Papers in the Samaritan Tongue of what use or value I cannot learn The Old Testament in the Chaldean which after seventeen months time is written in a fair Character wanting only the Book
where it should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his Son Seth and to Noah are attributed 600 Years for which Scaliger setteth down 700 thinking that to be signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which rather should have been noted by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas there is meant thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 600. Likewise to Mahalaleel there are attributed there 75 Years and to Methusalach 77 for which Eusebius in his Greek Chronicle pag. 4. hath 65 67. Which Scaliger in his Notes upon the place pag. 243. a would have reformed according to his Samaritan Chronography But that Eusebius was in the right and his Chronography wrong appeareth now plainly by the Samaritan's own Text of the Bible Only one fault there is in Eusebius or in the corrupt Copy of Georgius Syncellus rather which Scaliger used in annis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patrum ante Diluvium Namely in the 60 Years attributed to Exoch Which to have been miswritten for 65 appeareth not only by the consent of the Samaritan both Chronicle and Text but also by the total sum of the Years from Adam to the Flood which as well in Ensebius pag. 9. Graeci Chronici lin 10. pag. 19. lin 36. as in Georgius Syncellus is noted to be annorum 1307 which Scaliger in his Notes pag. 248 b. and 249 b doth wrongfully mend 1327. and pag. 243 a with a greater Error terminate with the time of Noah's Birth blaming George the Monk for extending them as the truth was to the Year of the Flood From the Creation to the Flood according to the Hebrew Verity are 1656 Years according to the Samaritan Text 1307 according to Eusebius his reckoning out of the Septuagint 2242 and according to Africanus 2262. George followeth Eusebius his Account which he noteth to be 20 Years less than that of Africanus 186 greater than the Hebrew and 935 greater than the Samaritan for that he meant so and not as it is written pag. 243 a. Scaligeri 930 is evident even to this that in the self-same place he maketh the difference betwixt the Hebrew Account which every one knoweth to be 1656 and the Samaritan to be annorum 349. Now for the Years that these Fathers lived post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is an exact agreement between the Samaritan Text and the Chronicle of Eusebius save that herein the application of them to the Years of Noah there is a manifest Error of the Scribe Pag. 4. lin 1 and 2 putting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adhuc tamen restat te vindice dignus nodus St. Hierom in his Hebrew Questions upon Genesis affirmeth that he found the Year of Mathusalah and Lamech to be alike in Hebraeis Samaritanorum Libris And indeed the Hebrew hath as he setteth it down that Mathusalah lived 187 Years before he begat Noah But in the Samaritan Text it is far otherwise that Mathusalah lived 67 Years before he begat Lamech 653 after 720 in all and Lamech 53 Years before the birth of Noah And these numbers are in the self-same sort related by Eusebius who lived before St. Hierom lest any Man should imagine that since his Time the Samaritan Text which we have might be altered Now it is to be noted that by both these Accounts it falleth out that the Death of Mathusalah doth concur with the Year of the Flood And it is the principal intent of St. Hierom in this place to solve the Difficulty moved out of the Greek Edition that Mathusalah lived 14 Years after the Flood by appealing unto the Books of the Hebrews and the Samaritans wherein Mathusalah is made to die Eo Anno as he speaketh quo caepit esse diluvium This general peradventure might run in St. Hierom's memory when he wrote this which well might make him think that the particular Numbers of both Texts did not differ especially if as it is likely he had not the Samaritan Text then lying by him to consult withal But howsoever his slip of memory derogateth nothing from the Credit of that which we are sure was in the Samaritan Text before he committed this to writing I come now to the Years of the Fathers which lived after the Flood Wherein for the Time ante 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon the course of the Chronology doth depend there is an exact agreement betwixt the Samaritan Text and Chronicle From whom also Eusebius doth not dissent if the Error be amended which hath crept into pag. 10. lin 12. Graeci Chronici where 130 Years are assigned to Arphaxad instead of 135. For that this was the Error not of Eusebius but of the Transcriber appeareth evidently both by the Line next going before where Sem after the begetting of Arphacsad is said to have lived 500 Years 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas there would be but 495 Years to the 111th of Phaleg if 130 Years only had been assigned to Arphacsad and not 135 and by the total Sum thus laid down in the 20th line of the same page 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And indeed in the Years ante 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 post diluvium there is a full agreement both in the total Sum and in all the Particulars betwixt the Samaritan Account and that of the LXX as it is related by Eusebius Gainan in both being omitted which sum of 942 being added to the former of 1307 maketh up the full number of 2249 from the first of Adam to the 70th Year of Terah the very same Sum which is laid down by Eusebius pag. 19. lin 37. Graeci Chronici and answereth precisely to the Collection of the Particulars that are found in my Samaritan Bible In Scaliger's Samaritan Chronicle pag. 618. Emend the particulars being summed up amount to 2267 2365 it is in Scaliger pag. 625. which number so laid down in the Chronicle and partly misreckoned partly miswritten in the Commentary is by the same Scaliger in his Notes upon Eusebius pag. 249. b. amended 2269 nimirum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neque dubium est ita esse saith he of which yet I do very much doubt or rather do not doubt at all because I know the Error was not in the Transcriber but in the Chronologer himself who accounteth from the Birth of Noah to the Birth of Arphacsad as did also Africanus and others before him 600 only and not as Eusebius and others more rightly 602 from whence unto the 70th of Terah by the joint consent as well of Eusebius as of the Samaritan Text and Chronicle there are 940 Years For Scaliger's 937 pag. 249. b. Eusebian is but an Error of that noble Wit who intending higher Matters did not heed so much his ordinary Arithmetick In the numbering of the Years of these Fathers post 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is not the like consent betwixt the LXX and the Samaritan as was before Our Greek Copies differing very much herein
discreet wise and stout enough si res exigat he will be frugi and provident for the Colledg and for converse of a sweet and amiable disposition and well experienced In a word he is homo perpaucorum hominum si quid judico I pray the God of Heaven to bless his coming to you to the good of your Colledg and the Church of Ireland I suppose your Lordship will desire to hear somewhat of our Cambridg-Affairs though I doubt not but you hear by some Cambridg Men which come over to you I suppose you have heard of a Lecture for reading of History intended to be given us by the Lord Brook Who as you know first intended to have had Mr. Vossius of Leyden afterward his Stipend being augmented by the States he resolved of Dr. Dorislaw of Leyden also He before his coming hither took his Degree of Doctor of the Civil Law at Leyden was sent down to Cambridg by my Lord Brook with his Majesty's Letters to the Vice-Chancellor and the Head signifying my Lord Brook's intent and also willing us to appoint him a place and time for his Reading which accordingly was done He read some two or three Lectures beginning with Cornehâ—s Tacitus where his Author mentioning the conversion of the State of Rome from Government by Kings to the Government by Consuls by the suggestion of Junius Bruâ—us he took occasion to discourse of the Power of the People under the Kings and afterward When he touched upon the Excesses of Tarquintus Superâ—us his infringing of the Liberties of the People which they enjoyed under former Kings and so among many other things descended to the vindicating of the Netherlanders for retaining their Liberties against the violences of Spain In conclusion he was conceived of by some to speak too much for the defence of the Liberties of the People though he spake with great moderation and with an exception of such Monarchies as ours where the People had surrendered their Right to the King as that in truth there could be no just exception taken against him yet the Master of Peter-house complained to the Vice-Chancellor Master of Christ's-Colledg and complaint also was made above and it came to â—is Majesty's ear which we having intelligence of Dr. Dorislaw denied to come and clear himself before the Heads and carried himself so ingeâ—â—ously that he gave satisfaction to an whereupon 〈…〉 were 〈◊〉 to his Patron to the Bishop of Durham and others to signify â—â— much But he going to his Patron first he suppressed the Letters 〈…〉 he would 〈…〉 before any excuse should be made After word came from the Bishop of Winchester then Durham in the Majesty's Name to prohibit the History-Reader to read But after that both his Majesty and the Bishop and all others above and here were satisfied but then his Patron kept off and doth to this day and will allow his Reader the Stipend for his time but we fear we shall lose the Lecture I see a Letter which his Patron writ to him to Malden to will him to be gone into his Country but he would assure him of his Stipend The Doctor kept with me while he was in Town He married an English Woman about Malden in Essex where now he is He is a fair-conditioned Man and a good Scholar I had a Letter from Mr. Vossius before Christmass with a Book of the Latin Historians which he lately set forth and dedicated to my Lord the Duke of Buckingham He sent also a Book to his Majesty and the Court-Bishops I writ back unto him and sent him my Lord of Sarum his Commentary on the Colossians willing him to revise his Pelagian History especially about the Points of Original Sin and the Efficacy of Grace As touching my self in my Readings I have suspended my Reading upon the Real Pretence though I had almost finished it And have read this Year and half at least upon that Point which I chiefly insist upon in my Sermon in Latin to shew that the Grace of Conversion giveth not only posse convertere but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle I have been long in vindicating the third Argument used by the Contra-Remonstrants in Colloq Hagiensi taken from the places where we are said to be mortui in peccatis wherein the Remonstrants do discover the grounds of their Assertions more than elsewhere Dr. Jackson hath lately set forth a Book of the Attributes of God wherein in the Preface to the Earl of Pembroke he doth profess himself an Arminian ascribing to the opposites of Arminius as I conceive that God's Decrees before the Creation take away all possibilities of contrary Events after the Creation True it is that God's eternal Decree of any Event as that I should write at this moment cannot consist with my actual not writing at this time But none say it taketh from me all possibility of writing at this time unless it be sensu composito This conceit as I conceive maketh him elsewhere to impugn all Divine Predefinitions as prejudicious to Man's Liberty and Freedom which is a most silly conceit I do conceive all that which he disputeth in his Book against Negative Reprobation as not sorting with the antecedent Will of God for the Salvation of all to be against the seventeenth Article of Religion which plainly averâ—eth a gratuitous predestination of some and not of all Therefore from thence is inferred a not-election of others to that Grace which is that which properly is stiled Reprobation As for our University none do patronage these Points either in 〈…〉 or Pulpit though because Preferments at Court are conferred upon such as incline that way causeth some to look that way I suppose your Lordship hath seen my Lord of 〈…〉 Reading 〈…〉 the Colossions which should have been exhibited 〈…〉 his Majesty when he was here about the beginning of Lent But my Lord of Winchester hindred that intention though herein he 〈◊〉 the University For we having received a Favour from his Majesty to enjoy the priviledg of our Charter for printing all kind of Books against the London Printers thought to shew to his Majesty a Specimen of our Printing both for good Letter and good Paper of both which his Majesty had 〈…〉 in printing the Bibles at London Thus with remembrance of my best Service to your good Lordship with my best Wishes and Prayers for the continuance of your Lordship's Health and Prosperity here for the good of God's Church and your happiness hereafter I commend you to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty resting Your Graces in all Service Samuel Ward Cambridg May 16. 1628. Mr. Whalley and Mr. Mead are both in good health for which Friends I am beholden to your Lordship tho you take Mr. Bedell from me Dr. Chaderton also is in health LETTER CXXVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Pleaseth it your Grace I Cannot express with what humble gladness I received your Letters
Letter for his Consecration is like to be there as soon as this I am heartily glad of his good Preferment but am somewhat grieved withal that the Colledg hath enjoyed him for so small a time who was like to make it much happy by his careful Government Some fear there is conceived that one or other from hence may be put upon the House who will not it may be so truly aim at the religious Education of the Students for some one deeply tainted with the Arminian Tenets putteth in close to be recommended thither by his Majesty and thinks to prevail by that means This I thought good to certify that your Grace may give timely warning thereof to the Fellows that they may make a wary and a safe Election of some sound Scholar and Orthodox Divine I will not presume to name any but I think Mr. Mead might be well thought of the place being formerly intended for him and he generally reputed a very able Man for such a Charge The Earl of Totnes departed this Life some ten days since his Corps is not yet buried Soon after his decease I went and made enquiry after that Press of Books and Manuscripts which only concern Ireland and asked whether he had left them as a Legacy to our Colledg as your Lordship heretofore moved him and as he himself lately promised to Sir Fran Annesly and my self that he would whatsoever the good Man intended or whatsoever direction he gave I cannot learn but the Colledg is not like to get them for one Sir Thomas Stafford the reputed Son of the said Earl hath got them and many other Things of my Lord 's into his hands out of which there will be hard wringing of them Sir Fran. Annesly and I have earnestly dealt with him that he would give them to the Colledg as the Earl intended to leave them and if not that he would let your Lordship have the refusal of them before any other if they be to be made away he absolutely refuseth to part with them upon any terms alleadging that he purposeth to erect a Library wherein they and all other the Earl's Books are to be preserved for his everlasting memory He promiseth withal that if your Grace or any that your Lordship will appoint hath a mind to exemplify write out or collect any thing out of any of the said Books and Manuscripts he will most willingly affoyd your Lordship or them a fire and leasurely use of the same as to you shall seem sitting and this was all that we could get from him If your Lordship's Letter can be so powerful it were not amiss to write to himself for it may be conjectured for all his fair pretences that a ready sum of Mony may make an easy purchase of them In my last Letter I advertised your Lordship how far I had proceeded in the business of Armagh since which time I have driven it to no further perfection partly because I expect to hear your Lordship's express pleasure therein and partly by reason of the Lord Keeper and Lord Grandison's late Sickness which hath kept them and the rest of the Committees from meeting to make a final determination of their Report that his Majesty's Letter may be procured accordingly for the setting off all things to your Lordship's desire If the Report were once made the Letter shall come speedily over and in a sufficient time to settle all before the Parliament sit or can conclude any Acts for restraining of Bishops to set any Leases for any longer term than one and twenty Years Thus recommending your Lordship to the blessed protection of the Almighty and humbly intreating your Lordship to have a vigilant care for the providing of an able Head to the Colledg I humbly take leave and remain Your Grace's Servant Archibald Hamilton White-hall April 8. 1629. LETTER CXXXVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend in Christ my very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter of the 22d of March by Sir Jo. Neutervill I doubt not but your Grace hath heard of the Greek Library brought from Venice by Mr. Fetherston which the Earl of Pembroke hath bought for the University-Library of Oxford it cost him 700 l. there are of them 250 Volumes Dr. Lindsell now Dean of Litchfield tells me that it is a great Treasure far exceeding the Catalogue He likewise tells me that there are a great number of excellent Tracts of the Greek Fathers never yet published besides divers ancient Historians and Geographers and particularly that there is as much of Chrysostom as will make a Volume equal to any of those published by Sir H. Savil I do not hear of any Books brought home by Sir Thomas Rae besides the ancient Greek Bible which was sent to his Majesty by him from Cyrill the old Patriarch sometime of Alexandria but now of Constantinople It is that which went among them by Tradition to be written by St. Tecla the Martyr and Scholar of the Apostles but it is most apparent not to be so ancient by some hundreds of years and that as for divers reasons so especially because there is before the Psalms a Preface of Athanasius I hear he hath brought home a rare Collection of Coyns and Medals I now spend my spare time in gathering Matter for the Story of Hen. 8. which in time if God spare me Life and Health I intend to publish And thus with the tender of my Love and Service to your Grace I will remain Your Grace's very affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier Lond. April 13. 1629. LETTER CXXXIX A Letter from the Right Honourable the Lord Falkland Lord Deputy of Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Have received information both of the unreverend manner of publishing the late Proclamation at Drogedah and the ill observance of the same since it was published For the first That it was done in scornful and contemptuous sort a drunken Souldier being first set up to read it and then a drunken Serjeant of the Town both being made by too much Drink uncapable of that task and perhaps purposely put to it made the same seem like a May-game And for the latter That there is yet very little obedience shewed thereto by the Friers and Priests only that they have shut up the Fore-doors of some of their Mass-houses but have as ordinary recourse thither by their private Passages and do as frequently use their superstitious Service there as if there were no command to the contrary those Mass-houses being continued in their former use though perhaps a little more privately without any demolishing of their Altars c. I expected to have been informed as well of the publishing thereof there as of the Effects it had wrought from no Man before your Lordship both in respect of your Profession and the eminent place you hold in the Church and of your being a
bear to your Person and to the eminence of your place in the Church have moved us to make choice of your Lordship to preach here before this State on the Day whereon we purpose to perform those Ceremonies of Thankfulness due from us which we have thought fit to make known unto you purposing shortly to let you know the day when we desire your presence Yet if you shall find by your late Sickness any indisposition in your Body or danger to your Health to perform this Charge which we know would otherwise be very acceptable to you we do not in such case so strictly require your presence with us but that we do freely leave it to your own choice to come or stay as you shall find the disposition of your Body to enable you Only we desire to understand from you whether we shall then expect you or not to the end we may make choice of another if you may not come And so we bid your Lordship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin Junii 18. 1630. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends R. Cork Ad. Loftus Canc. In imitation of the like sent us out of England we have caused the inclosed to be imprinted here LETTER CLXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. My very good Lord I Hope your Grace will pardon me that in all this time I have not written unto you For though I thank God I have recovered my Health in a measure beyond expectation yet I have been so overlaid with Business that I have not been able to give you any account or at least not such as I desired Your Lordship's first Letters for I owe you an answer to two bear date April the 5th and your later June the 4th 1630. The Main of both Letters is concerning Sir John Bathe And though in your last Letters you be confident that Sir John's Grant is not past the Seals as he hath avouched it is yet I must acquaint your Grace that you are mistaken therein for it appeared at the last sitting of the Committee that the Seal was put to his Grant at the beginning of April last Of which Doctrine you may make this Use what close conveyance and carriage there may be when the Church is to be spoiled I understand by Mr. Hamilton that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland is in Holy Orders and that being Deacon he holds an Arch-Deaconry yet of good value Surely my Lord if this be so there is somewhat in it that I will not express by Letter but were I his Superior in Ordinary I know what I would do and that I have plainly expressed both to his Majesty and the Lords Committees But my Lord for the Business I have stuck so close unto it both with his Majesty and with the Lords especially the Lord Treasurer who hath been and is very noble to the Church that I hope Sir John Bathe will see his Error and pitch upon some other Reward for his Services and surrender this Patent though seal'd that we may go on with the King 's Royal and Pious Grant to the Church Things being thus far onward once more there are two things which stick with the Lords 1. One is They like not the placing of these Impropriations upon any Incorporations Dublin or other To this I answered That neither did I like it and that it must be alter'd because it is against Law So it is resolved that we shall hereafter take not only that but all other material Passages of the Grant into consideration and therefore I think neither your old nor your new Letter will stand Some thought it fittest that these Impropriations should be left to the King to give To this I replied That that course would by the Suit of the Clergy and their Journeys over take off a great part of the Benefit intended them And to leave them in the Power of the Lord Deputy that might be but to enrich his Secretaries and expose the Church to that which I will not speak 2. The other Difficulty is That this Grant to the Church is too much against the King's Profit in these difficult Times because in the Lay-way the King's Rent may be improved which according to this Grant cannot be This Blow I looked not for but answered upon the sudden That I thought the Church of Ireland would be glad to take the King's Grant though it were with some improvement upon such Impropriations as might well bear it This I did partly to bear off the shock for the time and partly to gain opportunity to write to you who understand that Business better And I pray you by your next Letters give me all the help you can towards this Business One thing more and then I have done with Sir John Bathe Upon occasion of his Speech That the Clergy had a third part of that Kingdom I represented to the Lords the Paper which you sent me concerning the State of the County of Louth It was a miserable spectacle to them all yet at the last some Doubt arose whether those Values there expressed were the Rate in the King's Books or the uttermost value to the Incumbent To this I was not able to make a resolute Answer yet I feared they were Rates to the utmost value Hereupon the Lords required of me to write unto you to desire you to send me word with all the speed you can what value that Note of yours contain'd of which I pray fail not Your Grace is pleased in another Passage to desire me not to be too strict to my Rule in chusing Deans only to be Bishops My Lord it is true Deans are or should be the likeliest Men to be fitted for Bishopricks but they and no other was never any Rule of mine to my remembrance My Rule was and is and to that I shall ever be strict not to suffer any Bishop to hold any Deanery in Commendam if it lie in my power to hinder it For that which concerns the Bishop of Clonfert and Killmacduagh I have read the inclosed Papers you sent and see cause more than enough to pity but the way for remedy will be full of difficulty And for Killâ—anora there will be time enough to think upon Annexation For the Colledg and their Chauntry-Lands c. when they come for their Patent they shall not need to doubt all the lawful assistance that I can give them And now my Lord for as my Business stands 't is time to make an end I must needs thank you that you make it a matter of Joy to hear of my late Honour in being chosen Chancellor of Oxford My Lord I speak really it was beyond my deserts and contrary to my desires but since it hath pleased God by their Love to lay it upon me I must undergo the Burden as I may My honourable Predecessor enriched his Name by the Greek Manuscripts
Brevis Disquisitio which I suppose your Lordship hath seen It containeth in it sundry both Socinian and Pelagian Points as also that the Body which shall be raised in the Resurrection is not idem numero also Souls do not live till the Resurrection besides sundry other Points It is printed Eleutheropoli it is said it cometh out of Eaton-Colledg and that Alesius should be the Author who was at Dort with us I am sorry such a Book should come thence In my last Letters from my Lord of Kilmore he was inquisitive of the Ancient Codes of Canons as being desirous to inquire into the ancient Discipline of the Church Your Lordship could direct him for Books If he would undertake it he would do it to some purpose And there are not many Books necessary to know the substance of it as Codex Canonum Universalis Ecclesiae Codex Aphricanus with Zonarus and Balsamon upon them and the Trullan Canons and Codex Romanus reprinted which obtained in the Western Church At better leisure I will write to him more at large In the mean time I told him your Lordship could show them all the fore-named Thus in some haste I beseech God to bless you and your Parliament in all their weighty Affairs and so intreat your Prayers for us And so with my Salutations to you my much honoured Lord I commend you to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty resting Your Lordship 's in all affectionate observance Samuel Ward Cambridg July 7. 1634. LETTER CLXXXII A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh D. I. V. S. P. Praesul Venerande TU denuò eum qui humanitatem tuam ipsa fretus literis fagitare non erubescit quas fideliter datas sperare non desino donec secus intelligam Postremis meis scripta quaedam à me publici juris facta transmisi ubi inter caetera quae de septuaginta septimanis Prophetae Danielis mea sit sententia vel conjectura plenè exposui quemadmodum in transmissis ad Danielem notis videre licet Memini etiam quum de Gregorio Syro cujus sunt istae Syriacae notae manuscriptae in V. N. T. quum inquam de ipso agerem me in hac fuisse sententia eum usum fuisse Syra Versione è 70 concinnata quod in Isaia eam alicubi cum Ebraeo quam cum Graeco contextu magis convenire deprehendissem Verum postea in isto scriptore amplius evolvendo sententiam mutavi Commentatur enim ad versionem ex Ebraeo confectam licet non usquequaque cum eo concordantem sed aliquando ad Graecos interpretes deflectentem Ipse tamen initio commentariorum in Genesin ubi se usum illa versione profitetur cum originali Textum quem tamen non intellexit exactissimè facere arbitratur Caeterum reverendissime Domine est apud nos vir nobilis doctissimus qui omnium reformatarum Ecclesiarum confessiones editurus aliquoties me sollicitavit ne dignitatem tuam percunctari gravarer num extet propria Hybernicarum Ecclesiarum confessio Existimat vir doctus pius non exiguam se reportaturum gratiam si consensu communissimo orthodoxiam confirmatum iret Denique hic unà mitto Clavem Talmudicam nuper à me editam quorsum cui bono docebit dissertatio ad lectorem Hoc levidense munusculum aequi bonique facias quaeso utpote ab eo profectum qui tua merita deosculans animum gratum si posset aliquo signo ostendere anniteretur Vale Antistes venerande Deum veneror ut tuos conatus labores prosperet Dignitatis tuae cultor humillimus Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych Dabam Lugd. Bat. 21 Dec. an partae salutis 1634. LETTER CLXXXIII A Letter from Mr. Francis Taylor to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Domino Jacobo Providentia Divina Armachano apud Hibernos Archiepiscopo totius Hiberniae Primati Metropolitano longè dignissimo DOminationi tuae Reverendissime in Christo Pater in veteribus ab ipsis cunabulis exercitatissimae Bibliorum Hebraicorum adversus Morini Samaritanismum defensionem hanc pro mea parte inscribere visum est Cui enim potiùs quam tibi Episcopo Catholico Orthodoxo Morini Pseudocatholici qui nos oves Christi è pascuis virentibus arcere conatus est technas retectas dedicarem Gratulor sane ex animo gratulor Hiberniae tuae cui tantum Praesulem tam insigniter eruditum piumque Deus Rex concessere gratulationis testimonium solenne inscriptionem hanc extare volui Peculiarem insuper Dominationi vestrae gratiam debet hoc opus cujus sumptibus cura exemplar Samaritanum nobis in Anglia primo communicatum suit in Bibliotheca Cottoniana in doctorum seculis etiam futuris commodum reconditum Ex illo enim codice habuimus discrepantes Samaritani textus ab Hebraica veritate lectiones quarum quanta fuerit utilitas ac propemodum necessitas ad rabiem Morini plene retundendam non opus est hic dicere siquidem suis id locis manifesto apparebit Ad Cardinalem Gallum aspirat Morinus cur non ego ad Archiepiscopum Hibernum Dedicationem hanc praeterea à me flagitat foelix ille calamus tuus quo Pontificiae superstitionis fibras faeliciore quà m multi alii successu in utroque idiomate dissecuisti Quoties Polemica tua vere aurea revolvo nescio quo modo in ima cordis penetralia ingens autoris admiratio ingens erga autorem affectus nunquam nisi me moriente moriturus irrepit Urgent praeterea sacrae manus illae mihi sacrum munus adeunti inter alias impositae Cogit denique quae mihi tecum intercessit si de tanto viro tali verbo tam pusillo uti licuerit per multos annos continuata necessitudo De operis necessitate non opus est longa praefatione Biblia Hebraica recepit Synagoga Judaica oraculorum divinorum custos Rom. 3. 2. Ad nos eadem ista transmisit Patres ad unum omnes pro authenticis habuere in linguas alias transtulere translationem discrepantiam ex his correxere In Ecclesia Romana viri doctissimi plurimi sacram eorum autoritatem scriptis suis communivere Ecclesiae Orientales omnes approbavere Protestantes pleno ore pro fonte sacro illa venerantur Morinus Samaritanorum aduocatus interim in hoc Judaeis quos oppugnat tamen similis nec Deo placet hominibus omnibus contrarius est 1 Thess. 2. 15. Cum inprimis observatum esset dogmatibus Pontificiis parum propitios esse codices Hebraeos reperti sunt qui corruptos esse clamarent rivulos iis anteferrent Sed fontem novum qui aperiret ante Morinum inventus est nemo Gratuletur patrono suo Ecclesia Pontificia Nos interim libros sacros antiquos colimus quibus usus est Christus ipse Apostoli cum tamen
Battiere to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father in God my most honoured Lord I Have received a Letter from your Grace by Mr. Cullen with much joy as well to hear of your Grace's good Health which I pray to God may continue long so for the Good of Christendom as to see me favoured with some Employment again for your Grace than whom I know no body living I desire to serve with more affection I will with one word set down here what hath been done in your Lordship's Business since Mr. Cullen's arrival I brought him first to my Lord the Earl of Leicester who for your Grace's sake and his own worth shewed him all kindness and to Mr. Joanes I carried him to Mr. Duluy where he made acquaintance bestowing a Complement upon them from your Grace Pere Sirmond and Mr. Rigault we could not find at home yet nor Gabriel the Sionita whose great Bible I shewed him also and conferred the Syrian Characters together of which there be three or four here but of this Mr. Cullen will give a better account a while hence for I have written also to Geneva where such a Character is to be sold to have the sight of it in print and at what rate they mean to sell it to compare the Prices and Characters together with these here In the mean while Mr. Cullen is advised to sequester himself from English and Irish to profit the more in the French Tongue for conversing afterwards with those that he hath business withal and to that end I hope he will not be denied a prorogation of his licence of travelling and absenting himself from the Colledg for some few months longer with the continuation of his Stipend he being imployed in Work so good for the Common Wealth especially upon your Grace's Commendation I have set one to work for the transcribing of Concil Lemovicense and Theodori Poenitentiale and will go on with the rest one by one as I can get them for to demand so much at once would seem strange to them although they be very courteous and officious Of printed Books I bought Vita Leonis Caroli of Sirmondus but the rest marked to me are not his Hincmari Opusc. are of Cordesius and I think you Grace hath them Ivo Carnotensis of Juret Damianus of Caetan a Benedictine Bellarm. de Script Eccl. of Sirmond but scarce any thing altered in it Browerus de Treverensis Ecclesiae Antiquit I cannot get yet There is nothing added to the Councils of Binius nor any thing printed of St. Chrysostom but what your Grace hath Du Chesnes's third and fourth Volume are a printing but not yet finished This Kingdom being now in Wars on all sides doth not afford any great Design for the advancement of Learning Of late one Mr. Gallant a Counsellor of State and a Protestant set forth a Book de Franco allodio in French in which he gives a touch unto the Waldenses History and Simon de Montfort I wrote of this Man heretofore to your Grace as one best versed in that History and best stored with their Writings this Book I will send with the rest I wonder your Grace hath not received my former with one from Mr. Buxtorf if I am not deceived I sent them away with those of the City and University of Basil to my Lord Deputy to whom I made bold to add one of mine to thank his Greatness for the Favour of my Naturalization in Ireland and for his nobleness to my Kinsman Frey I am not so out with Ireland where I have heretofore received so good entertainment but I hope to see it again which I desire the more for your Grace's sake to tender my best Respects in Person to so much worth and should think me happy if I could deserve a mean Prebend in your Cathedral to wait more close upon your Grace I humbly crave your Grace's Blessing and remain with my hearty Prayers for your Health and Prosperity Your Grace's most humbly obedient and devoted Servant J. Battiere Paris 2◠1◠August 1637. My Lord the Earl of Leicester remembers his Love and Service to your Grace LETTER CXCVII Illustrissimo viro Domino Jacobo Usserio Armachano totius Hyberniae Archiepiscopo Dublin D. I. V. S. P. Antistes reverende QUas ad me 15 Septembris dedisti literas ubi perlegissem non mediocriter incensus fui ut in eruenda antiquitate Judaica iis quae ad gentem illam ex propriis ipsorum scriptis convincendam faciunt evulgandis majori quam antea animi alacritate progredi animo meo constituerem Benignum enim istud de scriptis meis judicium non potui non facere maximi ut pote ab eo profectum quem Belgium hoc confoederatum ut alias linquam nationes ob acerrimum judicium latissimam eruditionem suspicit ac miratur summè Hoc tempore si quis abstrusiora tractet vel invidia vel pravo imperitorum judicio saepe laborat utriusque securum jure optimo reddunt tanti viri qui mihi Belgio nostro est instar omnium favor ac Judicium Hoc nomine ingentes ago gratias uti etiam pro Thesauro secretorum quem uti singulari promovendae cognitionis studio miseras ita etiam diuturniorem in reddendo à me necti moram passus Sed jam per D. legatum Boswellum remitto navi quae Rotterodamo rectà in Hiberniam solvit Animum etiam in omnes literatos pronum in eo agnosco quod articulos fidei in Hiberniae Synodo stabilitos ad primas literas obtinuerim Quos viris doctis orthodoxiae amantibus communico postea isti missurus qui ut antea scripsi confessionum orthodoxarum editionem molitur Vicissim vobis Catalogum librorum quos D. Golius ex Oriente attulit quemque D. Botius petierat transmitterem verum D. de Dieu utsibi id officii relinquerem voluit ut qui ea de re literas à D. tua accepisset Accepi hisce diebus à D. Gomaro T. D. Professore in Academia Groeningana poesin Abraam sive veteram illam carminum rationem ac formam qua poemata sacri contextus in Jobo Psalmis Proverbiis diversisque Canticis concinnata confecta fuere Eamque poesin cum illa Pindari Sophoclis perpetuò confert Hujus editionem mihi mandavit atque alia mea opera nonnihil remoratus est Etenim cum liber perpetuis exemplis refertus sit eqque sine versione latina apposuerit super eo monitus non responsurum fructum nisi ea vetantur hanc operam mihi offerenti imposuit ne forte liber si remitteretur in itinere periret De ista veteri poesi scripsere etiam antehac docti libri Cosroes author Abrabaniel Rabbi Azarias quem postremum vertere incaepi Sed isti aliam sequuntur rationem ut qui magis in membrorum inter se convenientia quam in syllabarum quantitate numero
The publication of the Martyrdoms of Ignatius and Polycarpus sure cannot be unseasonable we are born to those times quibus sirmare animum expedit constantibus exemplis For my self I cannot tell what account to make of my present Employment I have many Irons in the Fire but of no great consequence I do not know how soon I shall be called to give up and am therefore putting my House in order digesting the confused Notes and Papers left me by several Predecessors both in the University and Colledg which I purpose to leave in a better method than I found them At Mr. Patr. Young's request I have undertaken the Collation of Constantines Geoponicks with two MSS. in our publick Library upon which I am forced to bestow some vacâ—nt hours In our Colledg I am ex officio to moderate Divinity-Disputations once a week My honoured Friend Dr. Duck has given me occasion to make some enquiry after the Law And the opportunity of an ingenious young Man come lately from Paris who has put up a private course of Anatomy has prevailed with me to engage my self for his Auditor and Spectator upon three days a week four hours each time But this I do ut explorator non ut transfuga For tho I am not sollicitous to engage my self in that great and weighty Calling of the Ministery after this new way yet I would be loth to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to Divinity Tho I am very insufficient to make a Master-buider yet I could help to bring in Materials from that publick store in our Library to which I could willingly consecrate the remainder of my days and count it no loss to be deprived of all other Accommodations so I might be permitted to enjoy the liberty of my Conscience and Study in that place But if there be such a price set upon the latter as I cannot reach without pawning the former I am resolved the Lord's Will be done I shall in all conditions be most desirous of the continuance of your Grace's Affection and at this time more especially of your Prayers for him who is Your Lordship's most engaged Servant Ger. Langbaine Queens Coll. Feb. 9. 1646 7. LETTER CCXIII. Viro Reverendissimo Honoratissimo Jacobo Usserio Patrono meo summo Venerande Christianus Ravius S. P. D. NON possum omittere Patrone Pater Domine quin subinde ad Te scribam ut solâ meâ voluntate animoque interim gratitudinem meritorum ergà me ingentium tuorum ostendam quando reapse nihil dum possum Rogo saltem hoc ut cùm nuper intellexerim Rev. Dominum Rutilium habuisse Commissum à Tuâ Honoratissimâ Reverendissimaque Dign ut aliquos pro te libros inquireret procuraret meâ potiùs eâ te operâ uti velis tanquam clientis tui obsequentissimi Iste enim meus amicus eam fortè nequeat praestare operam ita laboriosam quam tali in re requiri scio Jam fere annus est elapsus elabeturque ad Calendas Majas à quibus Lectiones meas Amstelodamenses tractavi absolvique interim praeter Grammaticam Mehlfureri Ebraicam A. Buxtorfii Chaldeam Joelem prophetam itemque tria priora Capita Danielis privatisque Collegiis binis de septimanâ publicis lectionibus diebus Martis Veneris hora tertiâ pomeridianâ frequentiori certè auditorio quà m Leidae L'Empereurius Franekerae Coccejus Groningae Altingius Altingii Theologi Germani Filius Cl. Pasor qui olim Arabica Oxoniae docuit publicè jam ab aliquot benè multis annis quibus Groningae Professor vivit nihil omnino praestat in Orientalibus eorum amorem penitus rejecit P. L' Empereurius est Professor Theologiae isque locus vacat si Cl. Buxtorfium Basileâ nancisci potuissent vocatum magno gaudio suscepissent cum desistat locum illum pariter supplere perget L' Empereurius Ego Amstelodamensem Conditionem multo praeferam Leidensi proximo Maio res experientur an Magistratus noster Amplissimus Orientalium Professionem constituerere Ordinariam possit velitque Hoc interim fatentur Curatores ipsi rem ultrà suam omnium spem felicius procedere Aliquot MSS. misi Tigurum à quo loco omnium Tigurinarum Ecclesiarum Antistitis Professoris literas T. D. Committo ut videas me non Amstel 8 Aprilis 1647. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LETTER CCXIV. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Langbaine Salutem in Christo Jesu YEsterday I received your Letter sent by Mr. Patrick Young and thank you very much for your readiness in contributing your pains to the furtherance of my little Treatise de Fidei Symbolis which is now in the Press I hold therein against Vossius and the vulgar Opinion that the Nicene Creed in our Common-Prayer Book is indeed the Nicene and not the Constantinopolitan I mean the Nicene as it is recited by Epiphanius in his Anchoratus p. 518. Edit Graec. Basiliens a Book written seven Years before the Council of Constantinople was held and yet therein both the Article of the Holy Ghost and the others following are recited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which have been hitherto thought to have been added to the Symbol first by that Council If the Synodicon which you think to have been written Anno Christi 583 have any thing touching the distinction of Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creed I would willingly understand and with what number your Synodicon is noted in the former disposition of the Baroccian Library according to which my Catalogue is framed In the first Tome of the Graeco-Latin Edition of Gregory Nazianzen about the 728 Page there is a kind of Symbol the first part whereof I find at the end of the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon in Crabbes Edition intituled Fides Romanorum that is as I conceive it Constantinopolitanorum It is to be found also if I remember aright among the Manuscript Tractates of Nazianzen translated by Ruffinus in Magdalen Colledg Library in the first Edition of S. Ambrose his Works and in Georgius Wicelius his Euchologium By comparing of all which together if I might get a right Copy thereof it would do me some pleasure It is also by some attributed to Athanasius and happily may be that Symbol of his differing from ours which Cazanorius or Czecanorius in his Epistle to Calvin saith to be so common in the Moscovitical and Russian Churches of whose Ecclesiastical Offices you have in the publick Library some Copies by which we might understand the truth hereof I will trouble you no further at this time but rest Your most assured loving Friend Ja. Armachanus London April 22. 1647. I send you back with much thanks your Catalogue of the Arch-bishops of Constantinople In Epistolis Photii Epistola prima MS. quae ad Michaelem Bulgariae Regem est cujus partem aliquiam interprete Turriano Latine dedit Hen. Canisius Antiquarum lectionum Tom. 5. pag. 183. post septem Synodos plus
satis laudatas subjungit Symbolum fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ut in versione Turriani nisi quod recte conjectavit Canisius quod Spiritum Sanctumrà patre procedere dicit Nulla uti Turrianus adjecerat filii mentone factà Inde Narrationem de septem Synodis instituit quam Turrianus misit Sed latine dedit Binius Concil Tom. 3. p. 400. Demum monita plura politica subjicit Quae in latinis Turriani enim comparent Vid. Cod. African ad finem Crabbe F. 155 308. LETTER CCXV A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Received yours of the 22d upon the 25th of April and have bestowed the most part of the last Week in the search of those Particulars there mention'd I am sorry the Event has not answered my Desires and Endeavours I do not doubt but your Lordship will make good that Assertion of the Nicene Creed though I profess I yet look upon it with some prejudice as being prepossessed with an anticipated Notion to the contrary Something in these Papers which I have collected in haste do in the general look that way upon perusal if it be not too much trouble to your Lordship and the time not overpast already your Lordship will make the Consequence In that Synodicon of Basilius Jalimbanensis I met with nothing directly to the purpose only in the beginning of the Book this enclosed of Germanus de sex Synodis What he says of the two first as only to the purpose I have transcribed In each of them is mention of a Symbol but not of the difference I have in the same Argument sent to and confronted two pieces of Photius the one out of his Epistles the other I met with in a Copy of his Nomocanon with Balsamon's Scholia much larger than the printed I have looked upon that in Gregory Nazianzen and compared it with that in Crab which he calls Fides Romanorum and do readily subscribe that by Romanorum must be meant the Eastern Church but then he that made that Title must be supposed to have writ since the division of the Empire In Magd. Coll. Library I spent two days in search after Nazianzen's Translation by Ruffin but in vain I do not find they have any such Book What seem'd next like it was some pieces of Basil of Ruffin's Translation at the end whereof there is indeed a part of his Exposition on the Creed While I was there tumbling amongst their Books I light upon an old English Comment upon the Psalms the Hymns of the Church and Athanasius's Creed which I presently conjectured though there be no Name to it to be Wickliffs and comparing the beginning with Bale found that I had not erred in the Conjecture and therefore writ this piece out in which he calls the Nicene Creed the Creed of the Church I remember two Years ago when I had an opportunity to read some Saxon Books that had formerly as I suppose belonged to the Church of Worcester I met twice with the Nicene Creed in Saxon but I do not remember any difference from that we use I have sought in the ancientest Editions of Ambrose but return with a non est inventus Wicelius we have not and for the Russian Offices if I can find any thing you shall have it by the next I presume you have already a Copy of that old Latin Creed at the end of the ancient Copy of the Acts given by my Lord of Canterbury and therefore I forbore to send it Gulasius in the Acts of the Nicene Council brings in the Philosopher disputing against the Holy Ghost as well as against the Son and that may be as far as the authority of the Author will bear somewhat to the purpose I received my Copy of the Arch-bishops of Constantinople and do return unto your Grace with thanks that Oration of Himerius which I had from your Lordship The Papers which I send are somewhat confused and some not right writ I fear some my Boy has left in the Publick Library and the Carrier will be gone before the Library be open I have in the Margent thus * marked what I conceive your Grace may possibly make use of I am very much straitned in time and therefore desire your Lordship's favour for thus scribling I am Your Lordship 's to command Gerard Langbaine Q. C. Oxon. May 4. 1647. LETTER CCXVI A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord SInce my last this day seven-night I have enquired and I do here send you what I met with concerning the use of the Nicene Creed among the Russians which I conceive full to your purpose I perceive my haste made me then omit at sealing that Oration of Himerius which I now return with thanks to your Lordship and perhaps by mistake I might send some other Papers no way pertinent I have thought sometimes and have not yet found any sufficient reason to remove me from that Opinion That notwithstanding what Vossius hath said the Church was never without some Form of Confession which they required before they admitted any to Baptism I know not otherwise how to expound that of Heb. 6. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For though Vossius affirm no more to have been required but barely In nomina Patris Filii Spiritus sancti yet methinks that of Repentance from dead Works of the Resurrection of the Dead and everlasting Judgment are made parts of those Fundamental Doctrines and Faith in God seems to comprehend the rest To this purpose I conceive Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. pag. 93. speaks for the Requisites to Baptism in the Practice of the Church in his Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then follows the mention of the Three Persons of the Trinity not simply but with equipollent Attributes to those in the Creed of the Father as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which what is it else but what we read both in Cyrill of Jerusalem and Epiphanius and the latter part of the Nicene Creed In like manner Clemens Alex. Paedagog lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 92 93 94. gives this Attribute to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and speaking then of Baptism under the various names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quotes Joh. 5. for everlasting Life mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Resurrection of the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where he produceth again a Testimony out of John 3. That every one that believes hath Life everlasting and I will raise him up again at the last Day Where considering the proper importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Matter there treated of Baptism and the Points there spoken of Resurrection Life Eternal I suppose it may not absurdly be collected that he implies these Doctrines were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
aut acta fuerit gratia Ante annum quod excurrit Appendicem meam Ignatianam ac de Macedonum ac Asianorum anno solari dissertationem mittere ad te memini sed quid tantilla illa ad justos hosce poëticae tuae tanta diligentia industriâ elucubratos commentarios Majoris fortasse operis pretii usus certè aliquandò uberioris futuri sunt Annales nostri sacri Cum Asiatico Aegyptiaco Olympiadum exordio usque ad Vespasiani imperium ex scriptoribus exteris deducto chronico Quamprimum opus absolutum fuerit quod ante finem proximae aestatis futurum spero consendum ad te sum missurus Si lucis hujus usuram saevitia temporum tantisper mihi permiserit Intereò literarum harum latorem D. Johannem Priceum insignis eruditionis probitatis virum quem ex scriptis notum tibi esse non dubito sui praecipuè mei etià m cui amicissimus est causâ finu complexuque tuo recipe me licet id parum commerentem amare non cessa Tui Cupidissimus Ja. Usserius Armachanus Londini xvii Kalend. April anno 1648 9. LETTER CCXL A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Johan Hevelius Viro Clarissimo D. Johanni Hevelio Dantiscano Gedanum Vir Praestantissime SElenographiam tuam admirandam ostendit mihi Hartlibius noster Splendidissimum munus Dubliniensi nostrae Bibliothecae benignissime à te donatum Cui inter tumultus bellicos jam animam penè agenti Academiae inter primos in illam admissos ego jam unicus superstes relictus filius officii mei esse duxi gratias quantum possum maximas dulcissimae matris nomine tibi persolvere atque privati mei insuper in te affectus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asiaticum Aegyptiacum nostrum chronicon à mundi primâ origine ad Antiochi Epiphanis Maccabaica tempora deductum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qualiscunque vicem suppleturum ad te transmittere Quod ut boni consulas oro ut profectum ab homine Tui amantissimo J. U. Armachanus Londini pridie Kalend. Novemb. Julian anno aerae Christianae MDCL LETTER CCXLI. A Letter from the Reverend Dr. Hammond to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord SOme few Dissertations I have put together with some purpose to adventure them to the Press But first desire to offer them to your Grace's view to receive your judgment of the fitness of so doing If the whole do bring too great a trouble to your Grace you may then read over the Lemmata and thereby be directed to read where you think there will be most hazard of my running any Error And if upon survey your Grace shall find cause to send back the Book again for my further thoughts it will be welcome if accompanied with your Directions But if there be no more dangerous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than what your Pen may without much trouble correct I desire it may then be returned to Mr. Royston this Bearer with a word of notice to him that he may proceed But I must desire from your Grace the favour of perfect secrecy till the Book be printed and then it shall visit your Grace again From Your Graces most humble Servant H. Hammond Dec. 6. LETTER CCXLII. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Reverend Dr. Hammond Good Doctor I Received heretofore by your direction from Mr. Allestree the Greek Passage of Irenaeus and yesterday your most accurate descanting upon the same for which I return unto you very hearty thanks being very glad also to understand by your Letter of the 20th of August therewith received that you have a thought of making an entire dissertation for the vindicating of Ignatius his Epistles Which together with your Treatise of Episcopacy in Latin enlarged with such additions as you mention of Act. 20. and the Ancyran Canon I hold would be to exceeding good purpose The new Title wherewith you were dubbed of Sir Knave is in the railing Book writ expresly against Desiderius Heraldus which having but look'd on I sent to young Heraldus the other 's Son who hath not hitherto restor'd the same to me I pray God to bless you in all your Godly Endeavours in whom I ever more rest Your very loving Brother Ja. Armachanus Rigate in Surry Apr. 30. 1649. LETTER CCXLIII A Letter from the Reverend Dr. Hammond to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Must not omit to render my most humble Acknowledgments for the favour of your last Book of Chronology added to the many former Obligations laid on me by your Grace I could not but smile when I was of late required by the London-Minsters to answer the Objections which you had made to the Epistles of Ignatius The Printer will shortly give you an account of the Return I have made to it I find now in another Caviller against those Epistles a Testimony out of St. Jerom Dial. 3. cont Pelag. Jgnatius vir Apostolicus Martyr Scribit audacter Elegit Dominus Apostolos qui super omnes homines peccatores erant which I find not in his Epistles Doth your Grace remember any thing of it If it be not troublesome I beseech you impart one word concerning it to Your most humble Servant H. Hammond May 16. LETTER CCXLIV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Reverend Dr. Hammond Good Doctor I Have read with great delight and content your accurate Answer to the Objections made against the Credit of Ignatius his Epistles for which as I do most heartily thank you so am I moved thereby further to entreat you to publish to the World in Latin what you have already written in English against this Objector and that other who for your pains hath rudely requited you with the bare appellation of Nebulo for the assertion of Episcopacy to the end it may no longer be credited abroad that these two have so beaten down this Calling that the defence thereof is now deserted by all Men as by Lud. Capellus is intimated in his Theses of Church-Government at Sedan lately published Which I leave to your serious consideration and all your Godly Labours to the blessing of our God in whom I evermore rest Your very loving Friend and Brother Ja. Armachanus July 21. LETTER CCXLV A Letter from the Reverend Dr. Hammond to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord TO the trouble that I lately offered your Grace I beseech your pardon if I present this Addition in desiring a view of your Variae Lectiones of the New Testament which I conceive fit to be look'd on to prepare those Notes for the Press which I have now in good part done If this Favour be uncivil for me to ask or inconvenient for your Grace to grant I shall by your least word be kept from farther importuning it but
borrowed it of me was so exceedingly in love with it as I could not be quiet till I bestowed it upon him I have sent your Syriack Treatise of Ephrem as likewise your Kimchii Radices Hebraicae of which Book although I have as much use as ever and shall have as long as God giveth me life and opportunity in my Studies in which the illustrating the Hebrew Text holdeth the chief place with me yet I thought it unreasonable to detain it any longer from you having had it so many Years already That breach in Popery about Grace groweth wider and wider every day and whereas hitherto Jansenism hath contained it self within France where most part of the Prelats and Sorbonists are addicted to it and the Low-Countries now it hath found entrance into Spain and among the very Jesuits those eager opposers of it one of whom having written a Book in defence of it the University of Salamanca gave their approbation to it after the amplest and most solemn manner and at the same time caused publickly to be burnt a Treatise written by the Jesuits against a little Jansenical Book published here at Paris with the Title of Catechisme de la Grace And having sent the Jesuit to Rome with their Letters to the Pope in recommendation of his Person and his Book he hath there very boldly asserted his Writing before the Pope and the Cardinals and in the manner as they although hitherto professed and bitter Enemies of that Doctrine could find no Exceptions against him Which hath made those of his Order such bitter Enemies to him as they have secretly made him away out of which Fact great Troubles are like to follow for the Pope and the King of Spain both upon complaint made to them have injoined the Jesuits to produce that Colleague of theirs alive or dead upon pain of their highest Displeasure Which News having been first told me by others was confirmed to me by Mr. Cressey for a certain Truth Thus humbly taking leave of your Grace and praying God to add many and happy Years to your Life in the preservation whereof the Church of God hath so great an interest I rest Your Grace's most humble and most affectionate Servant Arnold Boate. Paris Nov. 17. 1650. stilo novo LETTER CCLIX A Letter from the Learned Ludovicus Capellus to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh MIraberis fortè nec sine causâ Virlonge clarissime me primo quasi impetu publico Scripto dignitatem tuam compellare nulla prius ad te data privatâ Epistolâ Id sane longè praeoptassem ac pridem certe in votis habui aliquod literarum cum dignitate tua commercium habere quod multa audiveram de singulari tuâ humanitate cum summâ doctrinâ eruditione conjunctâ quodque ab amicis per Epistolas cognoveram Arcanum meum punctationis si forte etiam Spicilegium meum non esse tibi ignota aut improbata unde mihi nascebatur desiderium resciscendi à te quid de hisce Lucubrationibus meis sentires sed inhibuit me hactenùs tum subrusticus quidam mihi à naturâ insitus pudor tum tui reverentia ne importunis meis literis dignitatem tuam interpellarem teque a melioribus occupationibus avocarem molestiamve tibi literarum mearum lectione facesserem Vicit tamen me adversus Bootium defendendi necessitas quae quia urgebat eam amici flagitabant spatium mihi non concessit te priùs per literas compellandi quod pro tua humanitate mihi condonabis è grato uti spero animo accipies hanc ad te mei adversus illum hominem justam defensionem quâ meam quam ille impetit existimationem veritatem quam impugnat adversus illius offutias tueor Dabis hoc hominis illius importunitati iniquitati ac de me uti confido aliter senties quam ille suis accusationibus conatus est Dignitati tuae persuadere Hoc à candore aequitate tua exspecto atque ut dignitatem tuam in longos annos Ecclesiae suae bono servet incolumem Deum ardentissimis Votis comprecor Tui cum omni obsequio diligentissimus Cultor Lud. Capellus Salmurii 28 Jan. 1651. LETTER CCLX A Letter from the Learned Arnold Boate to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh May it please your Grace I Have received your Letters of 14 â—4 January and of 23 Jan. stilo vet In the first whereof came inclosed your Answer upon a Question concerning the late King and the second was accompanied with a Gift for which I humbly thank your Grace of a Copy of your Annales for me and of Gatakerus de Stilo N. Testamenti As for the other Copy of your Annales that for Friar Goart I delivered it him within two days after and he expressed a great deal of sence of the savour which you have done him in it He gave me also an Extract about the Priesthood of Simon Onia and told me that Syncellus with his Notes is begun now to be printed and will be done by the end of this year He told me also of the Latin Translation of an Arabian Chronologer who lived above 400 years ago and hath writ the Chronology ab initio Mundi ad suam aetatem with an extraordinary exactness of supputation newly printed here of which I intend God willing to send you a Copy together with those Books formerly desired by you at Ellis his next return thither which he maketh me believe will be within these two or three weeks The Disputes and Animosities between the Jansenists and the Molinists do grow hotter and hotter every day and lately some Irish-men here having been busy to get Subscriptions of their Country-men in prejudice of Janseniana Dogmata they have been sharply censured for it by a Decree of the University a printed Copy whereof you will receive by Ellis Capell hath written an Apologetical Epistle to you in answer to mine Epistle against him and somewhat about the same bulk the which being not only fraught with most injurious Language against me but taxing your Grace of rashness and injustice for having condemned his Opinion upon my Relation I have writ an additional Sheet to my former Treatise in vindication of your Grace and of my self the writing and printing thereof having been dispatched in the space of three days ne impune velitaret caninum illud scriptum I am now going to write Justum volumen sub titulo Vindiciarum sacri Textus Hebraici contra Morinum Capellum junctim in quo scripto omnes Criticae Errores ut scriptorum Morini ad vivum persequar For these here who vaunted of their intention of writing against Capel have all given over and Buxtorf too will make no full answer to his Critica as you may see by the following Extract of his Letter to me dated 3 Januarii Vindiciae meae directe opponentur ejus Defensioni sed methodicae erunt
antiquitatem discernendam plurimùm conducit cum hisce editionibus cum aliis Veterum sive translationibus sive paraphrasibus consimilis facta collatio Sed de Criteriis illis jam non agitur quibus Vatiantium textus Hebraici lectionum discriminari possit vel praestantia vel antiquitas unde petendae illae sint quantùmque vel augendae vel minuendae tota inter nos vertitur quaestio In qua tractanda si occurrent aliqua quae minus tibi arrideant da quaeso libertati huic meae veniam ab homine nominis honoris tui ut ex animo anteà ad te scripsi studiosissimo profecta ea omnia esse cogita Vale. Ja. Usserius Armachanus LETTER CCLXVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Brain Duppa Bishop of Salisbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Humbly thank you for that excellent Piece of Origen against Celsus which though in my younger days I had met withall in Latin yet I never saw it in his own Language till now And indeed the Book hath been a double Feast to me for besides my first course which is Origen himself I find in the same Volume that piece of Gregory his Scholar which was wrote by way of Panegyrick of him and hath served me instead of a Banquet But besides that which the Ancients have done of whom many have been liberal in this Argument either by way of Praise or of Apology I find in some Notes that I have taken the mention of two more modern Apologists for him the one Jo. Picus of Mirandula the other more obscure to me for I have not otherwise met him cited Jacobus Merlinus If the latter of these be in your Lordship's Judgment worth the reading and in your power to communicate and impart to me I beseech you to afford it me for a time for Origen hath had so many Enemies that I cannot in charity pass by his Friends without seeing what they can say in his defence I have something else to be a Suitor for and that is your Lordship 's own Book I dare not beg it of you for this is no time for you to be a giver I shall only desire the loan of it that I may have a fuller view than I had from that which I borrowed from Sir Edward Leech I beseech you my Lord pardon this boldness of mine which your own Goodness hath made me guilty of I have no more to trouble your Lordship withal but only to remain Your Lordship 's most humble Servant Br. Sarum Richm. Octob. 20. LETTER CCLXIX Viro Admodum Venerando Doctrina Pietate insigniter Eminenti Domino Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano meritissimo c. Plurimam in Christo salutem precat Gothofredus Hotton QUòd ego homo peregrinus id fiduciae sumo ut hoc quicquid sit literarum ad Tuam venerandam Dignitatem exarare mittereque ausim illud ipsum est Praesul Excellentissime quod principio humillimè deprecor Nec certè eò prorupissem ni Nobilissimus juxta atque longè Eruditissimus Vir Dominus Junius Tuarum Virtutum cultor animum addidisset mihi dubitanti promissâ nimirum à bonitate Tuâ culpae meae si qua subsit pronâ promptâ veniâ At quâ de re Te Vir Reverendissime primum epistolâ hac meâ appellem utique Evangelicus Praeco Dei Gratiâ cum sim de rebus quae studia Theologiae mea concernunt si Tecum paucis agam id forsan Tuâ meaque cura non videbitur indignum Vidit nec prorsus ut spero improbavit Tua Excellentia ea quae ante paucisimos annos de Tolerantia inter Europaeos Evangelicos in Charitate stabilienda libello consignavi evulgavique In iis pacis cogitationibus me adhuc totum esse in ardes scere sciant volo quotquot sunt Pacis Filii ubi ubi reperiantur Qua ratione vero illuc consilii venerim non in consultum fortassis erit si Reverendae Tuae Dignitati brevibus aperiam Monasterii Westphalorum ubi eo tempore congregabant Europae plurimi Proceres de pace consulturi atque acturi consilia agitari inter malè affectos mihi secreto tunc temporis relatum est de Reformatis à pace Imperii excludendis èo quòd ut illi opinabantur non essent Augustanae Confessionis socii Nec relatum est duntaxat à nostratium qui ibidem erant primariis sed significatum insuper summè necessarium esse ut quam ejus fieri posset citissimè aliquid remedii huic malo adhiberetur Qua monitione ego animosior mea sorte factus haec qualia-qualia mea in chartam festinanter conjeci et ter Descripsi festinantiùs Et descripta illa tria exemplaria misi unum ad ipsam Sueciae Reginam Alterum ad Plenipotentiarios quos jam vocant Principum Lutheranorum dicto loco coactos ad Reformatorum Tertium suppresso obscuri ignoti Authoris nomine Quid factum eam his conatibus dedit Deus pacis benedictionem ut melioribus mollioribusque consiliis à Primatibus Monasterii operantibus locus datus sit Articulusque Instrumento Pacis insertus fuerit quo cautum est ex aequo libertati securitati Reformatorum in Imperio atque Lutheranorum quod nunquam antea ita solemniter fuerat factum Factum praeterea ut aliquis qui solus Authorem norat inter Primores Authoris nomen contra ejus mèntem revelaverit unde ipsi aliqua necessitas imposita fuit Tractatum suum typis edendi Editus ergo est sed prima vice sine nomine postea cum nomine mandante id nostrarum Gallobelgicarum Ecclesiarum in his Provinciis Synodo Dordrechti eo temporis articulo coacta ut apparet ex approbatione Synodali quae libello Gallica lingua concepta praefigitur Ex illo tempore quamplurimae in nostra Reformatione Societates in iis societatibus magni Viri calculo suo ista mea Moderationis conamina approbare voluerunt reipsa missis ad eam rem suis literis concorditer approbavêre Ea porro publica approbatoria hortatoria Testimonia sequenti anno cum bono Deo juris publici facere mihi decretum est idque de communi consilio facturus sum nempe ut ex una parte malè feriatis quibusdam os obthuretur ansa praeripiatur cavillandi calumniandi ex altera verò ut via apud bonos per bonos muniatur strictioris inter partes vinculi de quo successu spes mihi non mediocris surgit ut ex praesentium exhibitore amicissimo tua excellentia intelligere poterit Me beares Virorum Optime rem faceres fortassis te dignam Reipublicae Christianae non inutilem si his Ecclesiarum nostrarum suffragiis Tuum maximi in iis ponderis testimonium addere dignaveris quod à Tua bonitate etiam atque etiam efflagitare audeo Deus Ter Optimus
Maximus Venerandae Dignissimae Amplitudini Tuae tuisque in Ecclesiâ suâ magnis laboribus abunde benedicere pergat Vale. Tuae Excellentiae Observantissimus cultor Gothofredus Hotton Propria manu Dabam xxviii Januarii 1652. Amstelodami LETTER CCLXX. A Letter from R. Vaughan to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverend Father MY Duty most humbly remembred unto you with thanks for your Opinion of King Cadwalader which hereafter shall be unto me a Tract to follow as best agreeing with Reason and Truth I hope you have received your Books in November last and if they are any way impaired in the carriage if you please to send them me I will have them fairly written again for you What I omitted in my last Letter by reason of the Bearers haste is that in your Giraldus his first Book Laudabilium and 8. Cap. I observe that my Countrymen in his time used to yoke their Oxen for the Plow and Cart four in a breast in these words Boves ad aratra vel plaustra non binos jungunt sed quaternos c. which I find not in the printed Book This may happily give some light and help to understand a clause in our ancient British Laws treating of Measures made as is there alleged by Dyfrewal Moel-mud King of Britain where it is said that the Britains in his time used four kinds of Yokes for Oxen the first was four foot long the second eight foot the third twelve and the fourth was sixteen foot long The first was such as we use now a-days for a couple of Oxen the second was that mentioned by Giraldus serving for four Oxen the third as I suppose suitable with those two for six Oxen and the fourth consequently for eight Oxen. The two last are clean forgotten with us and not as much as a word heard of them saving what is in that old Law but of the second mentioned by Giraldus we have a Tradition that such was in use with us about sixscore Years ago and I heard how true I know not that in Ireland the People in some places do yet or very lately did use the same I pray you call to your mind whether that be true or whether you have heard or read any thing of the use of the other two in any Country and be pleased to let me know thereof The Copy of Ninnius you sent me hath holpen me well to correct mine but finding such difference between the three Manuscript Books which the Scribe confesseth to have made use of I presume your Transcript comprehends much more in regard you have had the benefit of eleven Copies as you confess to help you which Differences are very requisite to be known of such as love Antiquity And also where those several Copies that you have seen are extant and to be found at present and how many of those Copies bear the name of Gildas before them and how many the name of Ninnius And what those of Gildas do comprehend more or less in them than those of Ninnius And whether the Notes of Samuel Beulan are found in any of those of Gildas or yet in every one of the Copies of Ninnius and whether the name of Samuel be added to those Notes in any of those Copies and to which of them All which with the antiquity of the Character of those several Copies are very necessary to be known and may easily be discovered by you and very hardly by any other ever after you Moreover about three Years ago I sent a Copy of the Tract concerning the Saxon Genealogies extant if I mistake not in Gildas and Ninnius unto you to be corrected by your Book and Sir Simon D'Ewes undertaking that charge for you as Mr. Dr. Ellis told me returned me only this Answer upon the back of my own Papers viz. The eldest Copy of this Anonymon Chron. doth in some places agree with the Notes sent up but in others differs so much as there can be no collation made of it c. But those my Notes do agree very well with the Book you sent me and differs not in twenty words in all the Tract whereof either many are only Letters wanting or abounding and therefore I marvel what he meant in saying so unless he had seen a larger Copy of the same than that I had but your last Letter unto me tells that it is only extant in Sir Thomas Cotton's two Books and wanting in all the other Books that bear the name either of Gildas or Ninnius and that Book you sent me was copied out of one of Sir Thomas Cotton's Books and examined by the other He further addeth that the Author of that Tract being as he saith an English-Saxon lived in the Year of our Lord 620 upon what ground I know not Yet I cannot think otherwise but that Sir Simon D'Ewes had some grounds for the same and it may be the very same that Leland the famous Antiquary had to say that Ninnius lived tempore inclinationis Britannici imperii and Jo. Bale who more plainly saith that he lived in the Year 620 just as Sir Simon D'Ewes hath And for that Sir Simon is dead I desire to know of you whether the said Tract be not more copious in one of Sir Thomas Cottom's Books than it is in the other Or whether Sir Simon D'Ewes might not find a larger Copy of the same elsewhere for if it be not the work of Ninnius nor Samuel Beulan it may as well be in other Books as in those especially if an English-Saxon was Author of it But if it be not found elsewhere I pray you tell me upon what grounds is the Author of it said by Sir Simon to live Anno 620 and Ninnius by Leland and Bale likewise said to live in the same Time when by the first Chapter of some Copies of Ninnius his Book it seemeth he wrote not two hundred Years after Moreover in regard you prefer that small Tract so much spoken of by me before all the rest of the Book it were a deed of Charity for you to paraphrase a little upon it whereby such as are but meanly skilled in Antiquity may reap some profit by it Truly some remarhable Passages from the Reign of Ida to the Death of Oswi Kings of Northumberland are contained in it which being well understood would add a greater luster to the British History Lastly Most Reverend Father I pray you be pleased to lend me your Copy of that Fragment of the Welch Annals sent by the Bishop of St. David's Rich. Davies to Matthew Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury who bestowed a Copy thereof upon the Library in Bennet-Colledg in Cambridg or your Copy of the Book of Landaff and I shall rest most heartily thankful unto you and I do hereby faithfully promise to return whatsoever you shall send me as soon as I shall have done writing of it I have already taken order to provide a little Trunk or Box for the safe carrying of
whom I make to be the very same with Simeon Metaphrastes being altogether wanting I send you also herewith six of my Annales newly come forth one for your self the other for Monsieur Sarrarius Puteani fratres Sirmondus Petavius and Bignonius the King's Advocate into whose Acquaintance I had the honour to be brought by Dr. Price his means I would not have forgotten Dr. Blondel but that I perswade my self he is gone from you to Amsterdam there to succeed Vossius in his Historical Profession I desire to know what is done for the publishing of Georgius Syncellus Ja. Armachanus Lond. July 5 15 1650. LETTER CCC A Letter from the most R. Ja. Usher Archb. of Armagh to Dr. Arn. Boate. I Am sorry Sirmondus is proved so unkind The best is we have no need at all of any of Fronto's Variae Lectiones we have as good Books here as any he did use Only we desired that out of our own Book the very Original whereof Sir Rob. Cotton so lovingly sent unto him we might have those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transcribed for us that are betwixt the 27th and 29th Chapt. of the Book of Gen. which was so equal and easy a Request that we thought none could be so envious as to deny unto us But the main thing we want is a Transcript of Cardinal Rupitfucaldius his Copy of the Prophets which I see they labour by all means to hide from us But if Sir K. Digby be in Paris and you go to him in my Name and tell him how much it will make for the honour of his Country that we may have the benefit of it I assure my self his Credit will reach to the borrowing of it for himself and then it may be easily transcribed and collated Esay the longest Book being omitted as already printed I have oft made use in mine Annales of the excerpta ex Polybio Diodoro Appiano c. set out by Henr. Valesius a very Learned Man who hath also written upon Ammianus Marcellinus If you can learn from the Puteani Fratres where he resideth I should be glad that the Copy of the Annales remaining should be sent unto him To the same The Catalogue of the High-Priests which Altinus sent unto me out of his Syncellus was this Onias Filius Jaddi Annis 21. Anno M. 5170. Simon annis 19. Eleazar annis 32. Manasses annis 26. Onias F. Simonis annis 14. Simon annis 2. Jesus Filius Sirach annis 6. Onias annis 5. Jason annis 3. Simon annis 19. Mattathias anno m. 5328. The 2 Years of Simon which you sent unto me out of Goartus his Copy belong to the second Simon But the Years which I desired to know were of the first Simon whether they were 9 or 19 whereof I would willingly hear again from you and receive any thing out of Goartus his Notes which may make for the clearing of the dimness of this dark Succession I thank you very much for your large Narrative of the proceedings in the Controversy touching Grace and Free-will by occasion whereof if any ancient Treatise or Epistles shall be hereafter published by Sirmondus or any other of his Society I should be glad to have it sent unto me by the first opportunity Ja. Armachanus LETTER CCCI. A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Arnold Boate. MR. Young having now done with those Variantes Lectiones I send them back again unto you with much thanks He was wonderfully taken with the perusing of them as finding them very exactly to agree with the Alexandrian Copy in the Library of St. James which he intendeth shortly to make publick Mr. Selden and my self every Day pressing him to the Work Neither will he be unmindful to make honourable mention of Mons. Sarau as he well deserveth unto whom he acknowledgeth himself much bound for vouchsafeing to communicate unto him so great a rarity And I for my self must entreat herein a further favour at your hands That you will be pleased to spend one Day in the transcribing of the places noted with Obelisks in the fragments of Gen. LV. and Numb I thank you for the great pains you have taken in writing out the passages of Georgius Syncellus concerning the Succession of the High Priests after the times of Jaddus Wherein finding my self deceived by the trust I gave to Scaliger I shall be forced in the next Edition of mine Annals to alter the whole course of the times of that Succession I should be much also to blame if I did forget to return you thanks for your defending of me against Capellus I did not condemn his Book before I saw it as he chargeth me but declared hypothetically That if there were such a Proposition therein as you told me there was and he himself denieth not it was both very unreasonable and very dangerous I see by your Reply that you intend to set out a full Refutation both of his and of Morinus his particular Objections against the integrity of the Hebrew Text But how you can spare so much time from your practices I know not Yet if you shall continue still in that Mind the Psalter being the only Book wherein the Papists generally stand for the Greek reading out of which their vulgar Latin is rendred against the verity of the Hebrew Text I will send you Mr. William Eyre his censure upon all the particular places excepted against therein which forasmuch as concerneth that Book will ease you of much Labour I pray send me Raimundi Pugio and the Latin Translation of the Arabick Chronology assoon as it shall be suffered to be Publick Ja. Armachanus June 1651. LETTER CCCII A Letter from the Most Reverend James Usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Dr. Arnold Boate. Good Doctor I Received both your last Letter and your entire dispute against Capellus in the publication whereof I see you do still bewray your old error of loading me with those Encomiums the least measure whereof I dare not own but pray only unto God that by his Grace I may hereafter endeavour to be that which the abundance of your affection maketh me to be already The Books are much desired here I am sorry I have put you to so much pains in seeking out for your Valesius and am not altogether out of hope of obtaining Rochefoculd's Copy by your industrious Negotiation with the Puteani Fratres and S. K. Digby But I was out of measure pleased with your good News you brought me of Mons. Sarau's pieces of the Septuagint and his willingness to impart the Transcript of the Variae Lectiones thereof unto Mr. Patrick Young He most earnestly desireth you to see those Variations transcribed for his use Wherein he entreateth you to have a special care of the places noted with Obelisks and Asterisks and carefully to set down the Marks of the ending of every one of them I pray send me the Volume of Anastasius Bibliothecarius his Works and the
corruptelis quibus nullum imperium statu etiam florentissimo nunquam caruit emendationes illas utiliores judicate quae non agglomerantur sed per partes momenta digeruntur paulatim sanciuntur Et denique per viscera miserationum Christi permittite vos exorari ut quas opes quam potentiam quas vires vobis Deus cumulatè largitus est eas non videamus amplius in perniciem vestram consumi verum in tot afflictissimorum fratrum vestrorum pacem vestram suspirantium liberationem levamentum explicari Haec purissima nostra vota exaudiat rataque esse jubeat Deus pacis Ille Diaboli Antichristi machinamenta omnia demoliatur regnumque atque Ecclesias vestras in alto illo sanctae gloriae reponat quae hactenus in terris Ecclesiae Theatro emicuere Nostra vero sensa fraterna fiducia exprompta aequi bonique consulite atque cunctationem in respondendo nostram causis quas habuimus graves condonate Rumor percrebuerat pacis tractationem apud nos fervere quare expectandum nobis judicavimus quid dies pareret ut omnia verba nostra omnesque animorum motus in meram gratulationem effusam laetitiae testificationem liquescerent Dolemus nos inani ope luctatos sed prope diem fore illius compotes optamus vovemus eo affectu quo vos fratres conjunctissimos nobis esse à vobis haberi gloriamur vobisque amplissimam Dei benedictionem ipsius sapientiae roboris copiam exoptamus Valete in Domino foelicissime Johannis Deodati S. S. Theologiae apud Genevenses Professoris Pastoris ibidem Responsum Ad Conventum Ecclesiasticum Londini Congregatum 1647. LETTER XIII A Letter from Sir Thomas Bodleigh to Sir Francis Bacon My good Cousin ACcording to your Request in your Letter dated the 19th of October at Orleans I received here the 18th of December I have sent you by your Merchant 30 l. Sterling for your present supply and had sent you a greater Sum but that my extraordinary Charge this Year hath utterly unfurnished me And now Cousin though I will be no fevere exacter of Account either of your Mony or Time yet for the love I bear you I am very desirous both to satisfy my self and your Friends how you prosper in your Travels and how you find your self bettered thereby either in knowledg of God or of the World the rather because the Days you have already spent abroad are now both sufficient to give you Light how to fix your self and end with counsel and accordingly to shape your Course constantly unto it Besides it is a vulgar scandal to Travellers that few return more religious than they went forth wherein both my Hope and Request is to you that your principal care be to hold your Foundation and to make no other use of informing your self in the Corruptions and Superstitions of other Nations than only thereby to engage your own Heart more firmly to the Truth You live indeed in a Country of two several Professions and you shall return a Novice if you be not able to give an account of the Ordinances Strength and Progress of each in Reputation and Party and how both are supported ballanced and managed by the State as being the contrary Humours in the temper of Predominancy whereof the Health or Disease of that Body doth consist These things you will observe not only as an English-man whom it may concern to what Interest his Country may expect in the Consciences of their Neighbours but also as a Christian to consider both the Beauties and Blemishes the Hopes and Dangers of the Church in all places Now for the World I know it too well to perswade you to dive into the practices thereof rather stand upon your own guard against all that attempt you thereunto or may practise upon you in your Conscience Reputation or your Purse Resolve no Man is wise or safe but he that is honest and let this Perswasion turn your Studies and Observations from the Complement and Impostures of the debased Age to more real grounds of Wisdom gathered out of the Story of Times past and out of the Government of the present State Your guide to this is the knowledg of the Country and the People among whom you live for the Country though you cannot see all places yet if as you pass along you enquire carefully and further help your self with Books that are written of the Cosmography of those Parts you shall sufficiently gather the Strength Riches Traffick Havens Shipping Commodities Vent and the Wants and Disadvantages of all places Wherein also for your own good hereafter and for your Friends it will be fit to note their Buildings Furnitures their Entertainments all their Husbandry and ingenious Inventions in whatsoever concerneth either Pleasure or Profit For the People your Traffick among them while you learn their Language will sufficiently instruct you in their Habilities Dispositions and Humours if you a little enlarge the privacy of your own Nature to seek acquaintance with the best sort of Strangers and restrain your Affections and Participation for your own Country-men of whatsoever condition In the Story of France you have a large and pleasant Field in three Lines of their Kings to observe their Alliances and Successions their Conquests their Wars especially with us their Councils their Treaties and all Rules and Examples of Experiences and Wisdom which may be Lights and Remembrances to you hereafter to judg of all Occurrents both at Home and Abroad Lastly For the Government your end must not be like an Intelligencer to spend all your time in fishing after the present News Humours Graces or Disgraces of Court which happily may change before you come Home but your better and more constant ground will be to know the Consanguinities Alliances and Estates of their Princes the proportion between the Nobility and Magistracy the Constitutions of their Courts of Justice the state of their Laws as well for the making as the execution thereof How the Soveraignty of the King infuseth it self into all Acts and Ordinances how many ways they lay Impositions and Taxations and gather Revenues to the Crown What be the Liberties and Servitudes of all Degrees what Discipline and Preparations for Wars what Inventions for increase of Traffick at Home for multiplying their Commodities encouraging Arts and Manufactures or of Worth in any kind Also what good establishment to prevent the Necessities and Discontentment of People to cut off Suits at Law and Duels to suppress Thieves and all Disorders To be short because my purpose is not to bring all your Observations to Heads but only by these few to let you know what manner of Return your Friends expect from you let me for all these and all the rest give you this one Note which I desire you to observe as the Counsel of a Friend not to spend your Spirits and the precious time of your Travel in a captious prejudice
I will also write to Mr. Bedell for the Manuscript Psalter he hath Thus in some haste I commend your Lordship to the safe protection of the highect Majesty Your Lordships in what he may Samuel Ward Cambridg Aug. 12. 1625. I send you also one Edition of the Psalms Graeco Lat. but I think it will do you no great pleasure LETTER XCII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh To the Right Honourable and my special good Lords the Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal and the Lord High-Treasurer of England My most honoured Lords YOUR Lordships Letters bearing date the 9th of this Present were delivered unto me by a Servant of Dr. Rives the 18th of the same In reading whereof I found my self much grieved that the Doctor by his sinister Suggestions should so far prevail with your Wisdoms as to make you conceive that I refused to perform the Agreement which your Lordships made betwixt us True it is indeed that I complained unto your Lordships that the drawing up that Agreement was committed to the Party himself who was careful enough to lay down all things therein to his own best advantage without reservation of any Power unto me to limit him any way in the exercise of that Authority which he was to hold under me But as soon as I had received satisfaction from your Honour my Lord Keeper under your hand writing that I might limit him by private Instructions though not by Patent and that the clause of good-behaviour was ever included in these Offices howsoever they were granted during Life I presently did agree to sign his Patent And this is that second Agreement he talketh so much of which I never took to be any other than that which was at first intended Concerning this he affirmeth in his Petition that having shewed unto me my Lord Keeper's Opinion signified in writing concerning the Exceptions taken by me against his Draught of the Patent I agreed to seal him the said Patent provided that two Clauses only might be added but most guilefully suppresseth that which was not to be inserted in the Patent but to pass in private betwixt us two namely that I might limit him by private Instructions according to my Lord Keeper's direction which at that very time he delivered unto me in writing My Lords if you think that I have any Faith or Honesty in me believe me herein that I propounded this unto him as the main foundation of our Agreement and that he gave his assent unto it before ever I would promise to seal his Patent He only adding this That he did not doubt when he could shew cause unto me why I should vary from my Instructions in any Particular I would be ruled by better Reason Herewith for the present did I rest satisfied but the day following I considered better with my self what a slender Tie I had upon him if I only should rest contented with his bare Word only which at his pleasure he might deny where-ever he saw cause And therefore to prevent all matter of future Discord I intreated him by Letter that as I had shewed my self ready to gratify him by binding my self publickly under my Hand and Seal unto him so he would privately tie himself in like manner for giving more full satisfaction unto me in two Particulars For the former of these which doth concern the Registership I signified unto him at the time of our Agreement that I had made promise of it already to one Mr. Hilton Which being a Matter of less importance the Doctor doth now so little stand upon it that in a Letter lately written unto me he hath utterly disclaimed all Power of conferring the said Office upon the next avoidance But for the latter which concerneth the limiting of him by private Instructions according to my Lord-Keeper's express direction he hath now at full discovered that whereof I conceiv'd at first but a jealousie namely that he did but dare verba and intended nothing less than performance when to get my consent unto the signing of the Patent of his own drawing he submitted himself to be ordered by the Instructions which I should give him For as if res were adhuc integra and no such Agreement at all had passed betwixt us he now maketh your Lordships to write that you do not think it reasonable that this should be imposed upon him I am bold to say that he maketh your Lordships to write thus because I am verily perswaded that if the Matter be examined it will be found that this Letter was of his own drawing Wherein what infinite wrong he hath done unto your Honour my Lord-Keeper I humbly beseech you to consider First He bringeth your Lordship's Writing unto me signifying that I might limit him by private Instructions though not by Patent and hereunto he shewed himself then content to yield And now he hath stolen another Letter from your Honour wherein he would have you signify again that you do not think it reasonable that he should be tied to follow the Instructions that I shall give him Behold Jordanes conversus est retrorsum and now not Littora littoribus contraria but litterae litteris Your Lordships had need to watch this Man's Fingers when-ever you trust him with drawing up of any Orders or Letters that do concern his own Particular for otherwise you may chance to find him as nimble in putting Tricks upon your selves for his own advantage as now he is in putting them upon me Which that your Lordships may yet be more sensible of I intreat you to weigh well the Reason which he maketh you here to render of the unreasonableness of the Condition that I require of him For did ever any reasonable Man hold it to be a thing unreasonable that a Substitute should be ordered by him that hath appointed him to be his Substitute This may be true will he say in thesi but not in hypothesi in other Substitutions but not in this because upon your Lordships motion he hath submitted himself to take that under me which he hath a fair pretence to challenge in his own Right So that were it not for the respect which he did bear unto your Lordships motion his stout heart belike would not stoop to such terms of submission but hazard the whole rather by putting his own Right in trial Yea but what if this prove to be another piece of the Doctor 's Legerdemain and that it do appear evidently under his own hand that this desire of submission did primarily and originally proceed out of his own breast ex motu mero proprio long before your Lordships had any thing to do in the business If you will be pleased to take so much pains as to peruse the inclosed copy of a Letter which he wrote unto me not long before the decease of his late Majesty of blessed memory you shall find a Motion tendred therein unto me for the intreating of Sir Henry Holcraft
to move his Majesty that he the said Doctor might be spoken to for the surrendering of his Patent together with the renewing of a former Suit of making him my Servant in that place sealed up with a promise of rendring his due obedience and thankfulness unto me for my favour So far was he then from those high terms whereon he now standeth But the case is now so far altered that this obedient Servant of mine affecteth not an Equality only with me by exempting himself wholly from my controul but also for ought I see a Superiority over me For if it shall please him to visit my Diocess or my Province as he did in the time of my Predecessor what is there in that Patent as he hath drawn it whereby I may hinder him from so doing Your Honour may by private Instructions and his Discretion free your self of this fear faith my Lord-Keeper in his Marginal Annotations upon my former Letter But good my Lord give me leave to think that the hope of such a Prize as he got by his other Visitation of all the Arch-bishops and Bishops in our Kingdom will very easily blind this Man's Discretion and for my private Instructions what weight will they be of if it be now thought a matter not reasonable that my Substitute should be tied by them As for the Report which your Lordships are to make unto his Majesty upon the reference of this Business unto you I humbly crave that for so much as doth concern me it may be made to this effect First That I never did nor do refuse to submit my self to that Agreement which you have put under your hands to be signified to his Majesty but am ready to perform it in every particular Secondly That for the limiting of my Substitute and the terms whereupon he must hold his Place under me of which there is nothing laid down in that Agreement which you have signed that which concerneth Fees and Profits only excepted I do desire that his Patent only be drawn according to the Pattern of Sir Henry Martin's and that the same Power may be reserved to me and my Successors that my Lord of Canterbury's Grace doth retain unto himself in the exercise of the Office of Prerogative and Faculties Which if it may here stand well with Sir Henry Martin's Reputation I see not but it may stand as well likewise in Ireland without any such great disparagement to Mr. Doctor 's Dignity And lastly If the Doctor herein shall not hold himself to be fairly and exceeding favourably dealt withal my desire is that both of us may be left to the Law to try our Rights together For thereby it shall be made as clear as the Light that the Doctor 's Patent was absolutely void or voidable ab initio that whatsoever validity it had at the beginning yet it was afterwards forfeited by his notorious Misdemeanour and in fine that it was actually surrendred into the Hands of His Majesty and by him cassated and annulled howsoever the Ceremony of cancelling it hath been neglected Which kind of Trial by course of Law I do now the rather desire yet strill submitting my self to the former Agreement if it shall so seem fit unto your Lordships 1. Because the Doctor wished mine Agent to certify me in plain terms that he would not be under me and hereby for his part hath disclaimed the benefit of your Lordships Order 2. Because by his incensing of my Lord of Canterbury against me of whose Grace I never yet deserved evil by his abusing of me in his Reports unto your Lordships and by his disgraceful traducing of me in all Companies he hath made himself utterly unworthy of the Favour which I intended to shew unto him 3. Because as long as my Life shall be conceived to remain in that pretended Patent the validity of the Acts that have passed in the Prerogative Court during the time of my Predecessor some whereof have been of very great moment may be held in suspence it being still questionable whether they were done coram non-Judice or no. All which I leave unto your honourable consideration and humbly craving pardon if I have any way overshot my self in defending mine Innocency and Reputation against the unworthy Proceedings of my ungrateful Accuser I rest Your Lordships ready to do you Service J. A. Much Haddam Aug. 20. 1625. LETTER XCIII A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord IT was most glad News to me to hear of your so forward Recovery and I shall pray for the addition of Strength to it that so you may the easier go on still in the advancement of that Common-wealth of Learning wherein you can so guide us I humbly thank your Lordship for your Instructions touching the Samaritan Bible and the Books I have returned the Saxon Annals again as you desired with this suit that if you have more of them for these are very slight ones and the old Book of Ely Historia Jornallensis the Saxon Evangelist the Book of Worcester the Book of Mailros or any of them you will be pleased to send me them all or as many as you have of them by you and what else you have of the History of Scotland and Ireland and they shall be returned at your pleasure if you have a Saxon Bede I beseech you let that be one also If I have any thing here of the rest or ought else that your Lordship requires for any present use I shall most readily send them to you and shall ever be Your Lordship's most affectionate Servant J. Selden Sept. 14. 1625. Wrest Sept. 19. Sent him upon this Annales Latino-Saxonici the Book of Mailros Fordoni Scotichronic Fragment Scotic Annal. ad finem Ivonis Carnot Fragment Annalium Abb. B. Mariae Virginis Dublin Annales Hiberniae Thomae Case The Book of Hoath Pembrig's Annals Ms. There is hope as Sir Robert Cotton tells me that a very ancient Greek MS. Copy of the Council of Nice the first of them of that name is to be had some where in Huntingdonshire I thought it was a piece of News that would be acceptable to your Lordship he is in chase for it LETTER XCIV A Letter from Mr. John Cotton of Boston in New-England to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend MY beloved Neighbour-Minister Mr. Wood acquainted me with your desire to hear from me how I conceived of the way of God's eternal Predestination and the Execution of it I should not have hearkned to him herein tho I love him well were it not for the deep Affection and Reverence I bear to your Person and Gifts which hath constrained me together with his importunacy to yield to the sending of this Discourse to you which I was occasioned to write a year ago for the satisfaction of a Neighbour-Minister in Points of this nature The Questions and Answers in the beginning of the Book I delivered and opened