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
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
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
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
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
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
alteration that every year should afford matter enough to be taken notice of in this account therefore I shall only here give you in general the more remarkable transactions of his Life from this time till his going over into England not long before that unhappy War After his being Arch-Bishop he laid out a great deal of money Anno 1627 in Books laying aside every year a considerable Sum for that end and especially for the procuring of Manuscripts as well from foreign Parts as near at hand having about this time by the means of Mr. Thomas Davis then Merchant at Aleppo procured one of the first Samaritan Pentateuchs that ever was brought into these Western Parts of Europe as Mr. Selden and Dr. Walton acknowledge as also the Old Testament in Syriack much more perfect than had hitherto been seen in these Parts together with other Manuscripts of value This Pentateuch with the rest were borrowed of him by Dr. Walton after Bishop of Chester and by him made use of in the Polyglot Bible All which Manuscripts being lately retrieved out of the hands of the said Bishop's Executors are now in the Bodleyan Library at Oxford a fit Repository for such Sacred Monuments About this time the Lord Viscount Falkland being re-called Anno 1629 from being Deputy of Ireland was waited on by the Lord Primate to the Sea side of whom taking his leave and begging his Blessing he set sail for England having before contracted an intimate friendship with the Lord Primate which lasted till his death nor did the Lord Primate fail to express his friendship to him on all occasions after his departure doing his utmost by Letters to several of the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council here for his Vindication from several false Accusations which were then laid to his charge by some of the Irish Nation before his Majesty which Letters together with the Vindication of the Council of Ireland by their Letter to his Majesty of his just and equal Government did very much contribute to the clearing of his Innocence in those things whereof he was then accused This year the happy news of the birth of Prince Charles his late Gracious Majesty then Prince of Wales being brought into Ireland Anno 1630 by an Express on purpose the Lords Justices and Council order'd a Solemn Day of Thanksgiving for that great happiness and the Lord Primate was invited as I find by their Letter to preach before them on that occasion as he did accordingly My Lord Primate published at Dublin his History of Gotteschalcus Anno 1631 and of the Predestinarian Controversie stirred by him being the first Latin Book that was ever printed in Ireland Wherein after a short account of Pelagianism which had then much spread it self in Spain and Britain he proceeds to the History of Gotteschalcus a Monk of the Abby of Orbais who lived in the beginning of the IX Century and his Opinions shewing out of Flodoardus and other approved Writers of that Age that the points then held by this learned Monk and that were then laid to his charge by Hincmar Arch-Bishop of Rhemes and Rabanus Arch-Bishop of Mentz and which they got condemned in a Synod held in that City as also in another at Quierzy were notwithstanding defended and maintained by Remigius or St. Remy Arch-Bishop of Lyons and the Church of that Diocess as consonant to the Scriptures and Writings of the Fathers And that indeed divers dangerous Opinions and Consequences were imputed to this learned Monk which he was not guilty of And after an account of the heads of a Treatise written by J. Scotius Erigene in defence of Free-will and the contrary Opinions to those of Gotteschalce the Lord Primate then likewise gives the sum of the Censure which Florus Deacon of Lyons writ against the same in the name of that Church As also of several Writings of Remigius Arch-Bishop of Lyons Pudentius Bishop of Troyes and Ratramus a Monk of Corbey in defence of the said Gotteschalce's Opinions and against the extravagant Tenets of Scotus Which Disputes produced two other Synods at Bonoil and Neufle in France wherein the Opinions held by Gotteschalce were asserted and the contrary as maintained by Scotus were condemned Though those Councils were still opposed and censured by Hincmar in a large Book dedicated to the Emperour Charles the Bald the heads of which are there set down out of Flodoard Which yet did not at all satisfie the contrary party nor hinder Remigius Arch-Bishop of Lyons and his Provincial Bishops from calling another Council at Langres wherein the Canons of the Valentinian Council were confirmed and those Propositions maintained by Scotus were again condemned Which Canons were also referred to the judgment of the General Council of the XII Provinces assembled at Thoul and being there debated were not by it condemned as Baronius and others will have it but for quietness sake were again referred to the judgment of the next General Assembly that the Doctrines of the Church and Fathers being produced those should be agreed on that should then appear most Sound and Orthodox And in the Conclusion my Lord there shews the great constancy of this poor Monk who notwithstanding his cruel whippings and long imprisonment to which he had been condemned by the Council of Mentz till his death yet he would never Recant but made two Confessions of his Faith which are there set down and by which it appears That many things were laid to his charge and condemned in those Councils which he never held In this Treatise as the Lord Primate has shewn himself excellently well skill'd in the Church History of those dark and ignorant Ages so he there concludes that men should not Dogmatize in these Points And indeed there ever have been and still will be different Opinions concerning these great and abstruse questions of Predestination and Free-will which yet may be tolerated and consist in any Church if the maintainers of either the one side or other will use that Charity as they ought and forbear publickly to condemn rail at or write against each other About this time the Romish Faction growing there very prevalent Anno 1631 by reason of some former connivance by the State as also for want of due instruction as hath been already said and likewise that divers abuses had crept into the Church not only among the inferior Clergy but the Bishops themselves all which had been represented by the Lords Committees for Irish Affairs to his Majesty who thereupon thought fit to send over his Letters into Ireland to all the Arch-Bishops of that Kingdom as well to put them in mind of their duty as to strengthen their Authority which were as follows CHARLES REX MOst Reverend Father in God right Trusty and entirely Beloved We Greet you well Among such disorders as the Lords of Our Privy-Council Deputed by Us to a particular care of Our Realm of Ireland and the Affairs thereof have observed and represented to Us in
Church may still either by preaching or writing maintain any point of Doctrine contained in those Articles without being either Heterodox or Irregular It was likewise reported and has been since written by some with the like truth that the Lord Primate should have some dispute with Dr. Bramhall then Bishop of London-Derry concerning these Articles Whereas the contest between the Lord Primate and that Bishop was not about the Articles but the Book of Canons which were then to be established for the Church of Ireland and which the Bishop of Derry would have to be passed in the very same form and words with those in England which the Lord Primate with divers other of the Bishops opposed as somewhat prejudicial to the Liberties of the Church of Ireland and they so far prevailed herein that it was at last concluded That the Church of Ireland should not be tyed to that Book but that such Canons should be selected out of the same and such others added thereunto as the present Convocation should judge fit for the Government of that Church which was accordingly performed as any man may see that will take the pains to compare the two Books of the English and Irish Canons together And what the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's judgment was on this affair you may see in a Letter of his to the Lord Primate published in this Collection About the end of this year the Lord Primate published his Anno 1639 long expected work entitled Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates In which also is inserted a History of Pelagius and his Heresie which Work I suppose my Lord kept so long unpublished because he still found fresh matter to add to it as you may see by the many Additions and Emendations at the latter end of it and as it was long in coming out so it did fully answer expectation when it came abroad into the World being the most exact account that ever yet was given of the British Church beginning with the earliest notices we can find in Ancient Authors of any credit concerning the first planting of Christianity in these Islands within twenty years after our Saviour's Crucifixion and bringing it down with the Succession of Bishops as far as they could be retreived not only in our Britain but in Ireland also as far as towards the end of the VII Century collected out of the best Authors either Printed or Manuscript and is so great a Treasure of this kind of Learning that all that have writ since with any success on this subject must own themselves beholding to him for his elaborate Collections The Lord Primate having now sate Arch-Bishop sixteen years Anno 1640 with great satisfaction and benefit to the Church about the beginning of this year came into England with his Wife and Family intending to stay here a year or two about his private Affairs and then to return again But it pleased God to disappoint him in those resolutions for he never saw his native Country again not long after his coming to London when he had kissed his Majesty's hand and been received by him with his wonted favour he went to Oxford as well to be absent from those heats and differences which then happened in that short Parliament as also with greater freedom to pursue his Studies in the Libraries there where he was accommodated with Lodgings in Christ-Church by Dr. Morice Canon of that House and Hebrew Professor and whilst he was there he conversed with the most Learned Persons in that famous University who used him with all due respect whilst he continued with them so after he had resided there some time he returned again to London where after the sitting of that long and unhappy Parliament he made it his business as well by preaching as writing to exhort them to Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince endeavouring to the utmost of his power to heal up those breaches and reconcile those differences that were ready to break out both in Church and State though it did not meet with that success he always desired This year there was published at Oxford among divers other Treatises of Bishop Andrews Mr. Hooker and other Learned men Anno 1641 concerning Church Government the Lord Primate's Original of Bishops and Metropolitans wherein he proves from Scripture as also the most Ancient Writings and Monuments of the Church that they owe their original to no less Authority than that of the Apostles and that they are the Stars in the right hand of Christ Apoc. 2. So that there was never any Christian Church founded in the Primitive Times without Bishops which discourse was not then nor I suppose ever will be answered by those of a contrary judgment That unhappy dispute between his Majesty and the two Houses concerning his passing the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Attainder now arising and he much perplexed and divided between the clamour of a discontented People and an unsatisfied Conscience thought fit to advise with some of his Bishops what they thought he ought to do in point of Conscience as he had before consulted his Judges in matter of Law among which his Majesty thought fit to make choice of the Lord Primate for one though without his seeking or knowledge but since some men either out of spleen or because they would not retract what they had once written from vulgar report have thought fit to publish as if the Lord Primate should advise the King to sign the Bill for the said Earl's Attainder it will not be amiss to give you here that relation which Dr. Bernard had under his own hand and has printed in the Funeral Sermon by him published which is as followeth That Sunday morning wherein the King consulted with the four Bishops of London Durham Lincoln and Carlisle the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was not present being then preaching as he then accustomed every Sunday to do in the Church of Covent-Garden where a Message coming unto him from his Majesty he descended from the Pulpit and told him that brought it he was then as he saw imployed about God's business which as soon as he had done he would attend upon the King to understand his pleasure But the King spending the whole Afternoon in the serious debate of the Lord Strafford's Case with the Lords of his Council and the Judges of the Land he could not before Evening be admitted to his Majesty's presence There the Question was again agitated Whether the King in justice might pass the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford for that he might shew mercy to him was no question at all no man doubting but that the King without any Scruple of Conscience might have granted him a Pardon if other reasons of State in which the Bishops were made neither Judges nor Advisers did not hinder him The whole result therefore of the determination of the Bishops was to this effect That therein the matter of Fact and matter of Law were to be distinguished That of the
names of the Proconsular Asia or Asian Diocess Where having shewn his admirable skill in the Geography of the Ancients and also in the Imperial Laws in order to the right understanding the Ecclesiastical and Civil Histories of those Times out of which he hath fixed and setled the several Provinces of the lesser Asia as Mysia Caria and Lydia under which latter were comprehended the adjoyning Countries of Ionia and Aeolis He then proves That the Asia mentioned in the New Testament and the seven Churches of Asia particularly are contained within the limits of Lydia and that each of these seven Cities was a Metropolis and that according to this division of the Civil Government they were made choice of to be the Seats of the most eminent Churches of all Asia 2. That the Roman Provinces were not always the same but according as reason of State required and for greater ease and security of the Government often varied and admitted alterations the division of the Empire being different in the Times of Augustus from what it was under Constantine under whom the Proconsular Asia was confined to the Lydian Asia only the former great extent of its Jurisdiction being then very much abridged and a distinction made between the Proconsular Asia which was under the Jurisdiction of the Proconsul and the Asian Diocess governed by the Vicarius or Comes Asiae or Dioceseos Asianae As it was also subject in the Times of the succeeding Emperors to variety of Changes and that in this disposition made by Constantine it was ordered That there should be but one Metropolis in each distinct Province whereas before there had been several Though this did not hold always in the Reigns of some of his Successors who permitted sometimes two Metropolitans in one Province to satisfie the ambitious humour of several Bishops who contended for that Title upon the account of the riches and greatness of each of their respective Cities 3. That in regard to this Establishment of Constantine Ephesus where the Deputies of the several Provinces of Asia who Constituted and made up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Common-Council had their Assemblies and which had formerly been lookt upon as the chief City became the sole Metropolis of this new Proconsular Asia the Proconsul of which was exempted from the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Praefectus Praetorio And accordingly in the Ecclesiastical Government for the greater honour of this Renowned See the Bishop of Ephesus was not only held the Metropolitan of the Proconsular Asia but as my Lord most judiciously proves the Primate or Enarchus of all the Provinces that were comprehended within the compass of the whole Asian Diocess of which Diocess he discourses at large and that he acted suitably to this Patriarchal Jurisdiction which was in effect conferred upon him Lastly That there was a great harmony between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government and consequently that the Bishops of every Province were subject subordinate to the Metropolitan Bishop the same then with our Arch-Bishop as the Magistrates that Ruled in the other subordinate Cities were to the President or chief Governor of that Province The Arch-Bishop in these years whilst he was now at Oxford published in Greek and Latine the Epistles of the holy Martyrs years 1643 1644 Ignatius and as much of the Epistle of St. Barnabas as the great fire at Oxford which burnt the Copy had spared together with a premunition of the entire design The old Latin Version of Ignatius his Lordship publisht out of two Manuscripts found in England noting in red Letters the interpolation of the former Greek Impressions This work was much illustrated by his Collation of several Greek Copies of the Letters and Martyrdom of Ignatius and Polycarp as also with a most learned dissertation concerning those Epistles as also touching the Canons and Constitutions ascribed to the Apostles and to St. Clement Bishop of Rome About seven years after which his Lordship also set forth at London his Appendix Ignatiana wherein besides other Tracts there are added the seven genuine Epistles of Ignatius commended by Eusebius Caesare and other Fathers according to the Amsterdam Edition publisht by the learned Dr. Is. Vossius from the Greek Manuscript in the Medicean Library which the Lord Primate had some years before given him notice of and also obtained the Great Duke's leave to Copy it The signal use of these Epistles so eminently asserting that perpetual order of which his Grace was so great an Ornament well deserved all that time which himself Dr. Hammond and the learned Lord Bishop of Chester have so usefully imployed therein This year my Lord Primate publisht his Syntagma de Editione LXX Interpretum in which he asserts though with great modesty this particular Opinion That Greek Version of the five Books of Moses under Ptolomeus Philadelphus utterly perishing at the Conflagration of his Library Dositheus the Jew made another Greek Translation of the Pentateuch and the rest of the Old Testament about 177. years before the Birth of Christ viz. in the time of Ptolomey Philometor Collecting so much from a Note at the end of the Greek Esther which latter Version his Lordship conjectures the Greek Fathers and all the Eastern Churches cited and made use of instead of the true Philadelphian Then he learnedly and fully discourses concerning the several Editions of this latter Version found in the Library of Cleopatra the last Egyptian Queen As also touching the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vulgar and that more correct one of Origen those of Eusebius Lucian and Hesychius and lastly of the modern ones as the Complutine Venetian and Roman Hereunto also is added a Specimen of Esther in Greek according to two Ancient Manuscripts in the Arundelian Library as also after the Alexandrian Copy in the King's Library This Syntagma was followed the next year before his death by his Lordships dissertation De Cainane altero or the second Cainan mentioned in the LXX and by St. Luke And that was again followed with a Letter to Ludovicus Capellus wherein the Lord Primate very judiciously moderates in the Controversie between that learned Professor and Ar. Bootius concerning the present Hebrew Bibles Superadding his own conjectures That Dositheus the false Messias was the corrupter of the Samaritan Pentateuch as we now have it And that especially by his Lordships great care and expence But to let you see how he further now imployed his time at Oxford for his Majesties Service I shall give you here his Answers to several Queries made to him from some at London or other Parliament Quarters concerning the Lawfulness of taking up Arms against the King in that unhappy War then newly begun The Queries we have not but you may easily judge what their sense was by the following Answers here inserted To the First NO man is bound to leave his Vocation and turn Souldier unless Summoned and Commanded by his Majesty or those that have Commission from him for the gathering
corrupt Oligarchy until Oliver Cromwell turned them out and set himself up for Protector by the help of his Army and Creatures though with equal Tyranny and Arbitrariness as the former during most of which sad Times the Lord Primate kept close to his Study and Charge at Lincolns-Inn utterly disowning those Usurpers and their wicked actions and still comforting the Loyal Party then sufferers that this Usurpation would quickly expire and that the King whose right it was would return unto his Throne though he himself should not live to see it and thus much he declared not long before his death to his said Grand-son and my self among others saying That this usurpation of Cromwell's was but like that of some of the Grecian Tyrants which As it began by an Army so it commonly ended with the death of the Usurper About the middle of this year he finished the first part of his year 1650 great and long expected work of the Annals of the Old Testament from the beginning of the World to Anno Mundi 3828. as far as to the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in which he has very exactly fixed the three great Epocha's of the Deluge the going of the Children of Israel out of Egypt and the return of the Jews from their Captivity in the first year of Cyrus which is the only certain Epocha or rule of conjoyning the Sacred with Prophane Chronology In this Volume he gives a most exact account of the Reigns of the Kings of Israel and Judah with their Synchronisms As also the Succession of the Babylonish Persian and Macedonian Monarchs with the concurrent Olympiads and Aera of Nabonussar and the most remarkable Eclypses of the Sun as they might any way serve to regulate the account of time which he has collected out of all Authors both Sacred and Prophane with singular Industry Learning and Judgment About this time the Lord Primate had finished and published year 1654 the second part of his Annals beginning with Antiochus Epiphanes and continued to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian In which Volume he has given an exact account of the Macedonian Empire under the Asiatick and Egyptian Kings reducing their Reigns to a more certain Calculation than ever had been done before and restoring several of them to their due Places and Times which had been omitted by other writers of Chronological History as also an account of the Affairs of the Roman Empire especially those relating to the Oriental Parts thereof together with a History of the New Testament from the Birth of St. John the Baptist to Anno Christi 73. out of the Holy Scriptures as also from the best Greek and Roman Authors that have written of those Times So that these two Volumes may well be accounted of as the most useful as well as the Learned'st Works he ever wrote and are a Repository or Common-place of all Ancient History I cannot now omit to take Notice That Oliver Cromwell to make the World believe that he did not persecute men for Religion had for some time before this shewed favour to some of the Orthodox Clergy as particularly to Dr. Brownrig Bishop of Exeter whom he had sent for and treated with great outward respect and as for Dr. Bernard who had been the Lord Primate's Chaplain in Ireland and was after Dean of Kilmore Cromwell having saved his life at the taking of Droghedah had made him his Almoner here So that it is the less wonder if he also sent for the Lord Primate to come to him who was at first unwilling to go but upon 2d thoughts considering that his refusal would but exasperate him the more against himself and the rest of the Clergy of the King's party and that perhaps he might thereby prevail with him to do some Good or at least hinder him from acting some greater Evil he went accordingly and was received by Cromwell with great outward kindness and civility what the conversation was in particular I cannot tell but as I have heard it was chiefly about advancing the Protestant Interest as well at home as abroad to which Cromwell made great pretences but be it as it will you may be sure he was too great an Enthusiast to take my Lord Primate's advice and so after a great deal of Canting discourse he civily dismist him But whether now or at any other time Oliver Cromwell bestowed any Gratuity or Pension upon him I know not nor do at all believe notwithstanding a late English writer of his life I know not upon what grounds has made bold to say so only this much I remember my Lord Primate said that Oliver Cromwell had promised to make him a Lease of some part of the Lands belonging to the Arch-Bishoprick of Armagh for 21 years which my Lord Primate thought it no harm to accept considering it was but his own and which he had been deprived of above half that time especially in consideration of his Daughter and many Grand-Children for whom he had as yet been able to do nothing And if the Church did happen to be restored before that time it could lose nothing by this Grant and if not he thought his Children might as well deserve to reap the benefit of it as others but though Dr. Bernard in his Epistle to the Reader before the life of the Lord Primate was made by Cromwell's Secretary who then had the Copy in his power to publish as if this Grant had been really past yet the Usurper was craftier then so and as he delayed the passing of it as long as the Lord Primate lived so after his death he made a pretence by imputing malignancy which was indeed Loyalty to the Lord Primate's Son-in-law and Daughter to free himself from that promise This year about the beginning of Winter the most Learned Mr. Selden happening to dye the Lord Primate was desired by Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Hales and the rest of his Executors to preach his Funeral Sermon which though he had now left off preaching in great Congregations yet he now granted as well out of respect to those two above mentioned as also to the deceased between whom and himself there had been so long an acquaintance so he preached at the Temple-Church where he was buried giving him all the Elogies which so great and Learned a man could deserve though to the lessening of himself having this passage among others in his Sermon that he looked upon the person deceased as so great a Scholar that himself was scarce worthy to carry his Books after him Cromwell being now highly enraged against the Loyal Party year 1655 for their indefatigable though unsuccessful endeavours for his Majesty's Restauration to his Throne after he had shewed himself very implacable and severe to the Cavalier Gentry as they then called them began now to discharge part of his rage upon the Orthodox Clergy forbidding them under great penalties to teach Schools or to perform any part of their Ministerial Function whereupon
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
of May we loosed from the Bril and arrived at Gravesend the thirteenth of May And visited his Majesty at Greenwich as we came by who graciously did receive us And thus I thank God we are safely returned to our homes And here with my hearty salutations I commend you to the gracious Protection of the highest Majesty Your assured ever-loving Friend Samuel Ward Sidney Colledge May 26. 1619. LETTER XXXVIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydyat Salutem à Salutis fonte D. N. Jesu Christo. Dear Sir I Do acknowledge my self much bound unto you for the Loan of your Geminus and Albategnius the Reading whereof hath given me a great deal of Contentment but most of all for your kind Letter delivered unto me by Robert Allen the 3d. of July last wherein you so gently pass over my great Error in detaining your Books so long from you I will not make any long Apology for my self and excuse my Negligence by want of Opportunity of a fit Messenger your love having covered my Offence already I may spare my Labour in covering any further Now at length therefore I return your Books unto you again with a thousand Thanks and heartily do wish that I may have some Occasion offered on my part to gratify you in the same kind In the mean time I send you Ptolomy's Canon Regum so often cited by Dr. Rainolds in his Lectures a Copy whereof I received from Bishop Overal lately deceased transcribed by Mr. Rich. Mountague out of Sir Henry Savils Manuscript of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the same Volume is Theon also upon those Canons whence Sir Henry Savil himself hath sent me certain Notes de Ratione anni Alexandrini touching which also within these three daies I received from Meursius a Greek Discourse of the Scholiasts against Paulus Alexandrinus who wrote in the Year of the World according the Account of the Grecians 6659 Dioclesiani 867 hoc est Aerae nostrae 1151. This latter doth contain but ordinary Stuff in Theon the Principal thing that I observe is the time of the Concurrence of the beginning of the Aegyptian and the Alexandrian year hoc est anni vagi et fixi noted by him in these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as he otherwise expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For ab initio aerae Philippicae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he reckoneth with Ptolomy annos 294 but 299 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That from this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must deduce Caput aerae Alkept apud Albategnium which by him is placed annis 287. 587 387. your Book hath the first Figure being set down inconstantly and falsly the other two constantly and truly post aeram Dhilcarnain I make little question howsoever I be not yet fully resolved whether I should referr the same to the beginning or the ending of the fifth year of Augustus that is whether I should begin it à Thoth anni 299. or 300. oerae Philippicoe for in both of them the first of Thoth fell upon the same day tam in anno vago quam in fixo in the former upon August 30 feria 5 a which is the Character oerae Alkept in Albategnius if the number be not depraved in the latter upon August 29 feria 6 a unto which I rather incline because by this means we shall keep straight the beginning of Dhilkarnain which by Albategnius his Account certainly doth incurr in annum periodi Julianoe 4402 twelve years after the Death of Alexander as himself setteth down fol. 43. lin 4. and you do acknowledge to be true whereas by the former Hypothesis it must be referred to the Year 4401 contrary to the meaning of Albategnius eleven Years after Alexander's Death That the Aegyptians received the use of their annus aequabilis from Nabonasar or that the Babylonians did ever use that Form of Year I think will hardly be proved If that be true which Eratosthenes writeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Geminum pag. 127. that the Aegyptians sometime celebrated their Isia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using this manner of year it must needs be that they used this Form of year before the time of Nabonasar For the 17th day of Athyr to which you rightly refer the beginning of that I could never concurr with the Summer Solstice betwixt the time of Nabonasar and Eratosthenes The Authority of Geminus also moveth me to yield that in Metonis Enneadecaëteride the years were not alternatim pleni and cavi as you imagine although in Calippus his Period the Disposition seemeth to have been such to which as to that which was received into civil use in his time I referr that place of Geminus pag. 115 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You have rightly observ'd that in my Discourse de Christianarum Ecclesiarum Successione Statu there is wanting for the Accomplishment of the second Part an hundred years Story which defect in the Continuation of the Work is by me supplied I purpose to publish the whole Work together much augmented but do first expect the Publication of my Uncle Stanihurst's Answer to the former which I hear since his death is sent to Paris to be there Printed I am advertised also that even now there is come out at Antwerp a Treatise of my Country-man Christopher de Sacro-Bosco De verae Ecclesiae Investigatione wherein he hath some dealing with me Both these I would willingly see before I set out my Book anew that if they have justly found fault with any thing I may amend it if unjustly I may defend it I am very glad to hear of your Pains taken in the unfolding of the Revelation and hope that e'er long it will come abroad among us To help you therein touching the Fratricelli Beguini c. my Opinion is this That as under the name of the Albigenses were comprehended not only the Manichees which swarmed in those parts of France but also the Waldenses which dwelt among them so likewise under the Name of the Fratricelli and Beguini unto whom as monstrous Opinions and Practices are ascribed as unto the other those also were contained who made Profession of the Truth For to omit the Testimony of a certain Writing in quo S. Bernardini Errores recensentur alledged by Illyricus affirming Fratricellos qui potissimum in Italiâ fuerunt communiter esse Hussitas the Witness of Conradus de Monte Puellarum or of Maydenburg a Canon of Ratisbon who wrote about the year 1340. De Erroribus Begehardorum is plain to this purpose Sub illorum habitu saith he quarumlibet Hoeresum species utpote pauperum de Lugduno aliarum iniquitatis Sectarum partitiones per Ovile Christi suos Apostolos satagunt seminare Add hereunto that the Waldenses Merindoll and Cabriers are known to have been a Colony deduced from the Alpes the chief Receptacle of the Fratricelli This appeareth by the Inquisition returned unto Francis the first anno 1540. by William Bellay then Governor of those
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
not only from the Samaritan but also betwixt themselves Eusebius pag. 10. Graeci Chronici differeth from my Samaritan Text only in the Years of Ragau Yet there lin 15. in Phalec instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would be read more fully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lin 17. in Seruch instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod res ipsa indicat lin 16. it is said of Ragau 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas the Samaritan Text hath a whole hundred Years less And that we may not suspect there was here any Error Librarii by putting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wheraas Rehu or Ragau is said to have lived 132 Years before he begat Serug 107 after the whole sum of the Years of his Life is added to be 239. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For so the Samaritan in the 11th of Genesis as allothers in the 5th useth to sum up the whole Time of the Lives of the Fathers It is true indeed that attributing unto Ragau 207 years after he begat Serug he should have continued his Life by this Account until the 77th of Nachor But the Text it self of the Samaritan Bible beareth such sway with me that I should rather think Eusebius did out of it as elsewhere always set down 107 as he found it there And Georgius the Monk in his miswritten Copy finding 207 laboured thus to fit the whole unto the 77th of Nachor Which I am so much the more easily induced to believe because in the Chronology of the LXX related by Eusebius pag. 9. lin 37. Non dissimile quid animadvertisse mihi videor for there the same Ragau is said to have begotten Seruch at 135 years Scaliger giveth there a mark that it should be 132 as every where else it is read and that so it should be here appeareth plainly by the Total in lin 44 and 45 of 942 from the Flood and 3184 from Adam unto Abraham Which to be the genuine calculation of Eusebius Nemo harum rerum paulo peritior ignorat Yet George not heeding this but finding 35 written in that Copy which came to his hands of Eusebius turneth the Stream that way and maketh the 406 years which Eusebius giveth to Salah after he begat Eber to end in the 7th of Seruch which would not so fall out unless Ragau did hold his 135 years In like manner he maketh the 207 years of Ragau himself after he begat Serug in the printed Books pag. 10. lin 37. there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to end in the 77th of Nachor And the 209 of Peleg after he begat Ragau to end in the 75th of Serug though in these there be one years odds For of the 135 years that Eber is said to have lived until the 38th of Nachor p. l. 33. we can make here mense because both the Numbers are vitiated Thus much I thought good to write unto you concerning the State of the Samaritan Account because no Man hath dealt herewith since Scaliger I have likewise the old Syriack Translation of the Pentateuch which was received from the beginning of Christianity in the Church of Antioch but neither have I transcribed any thing unto you out of that nor out of my Arabick Manuscript of Moses because the former hath but a meer Translation of the Years of the Fathers as they are found in our common Hebrew Text and the other is wholly taken out of the LXX I have had also another Book lately sent unto me from the East intituled Otzar Raza or rather Razaja a Treasury of Secrets containing a brief Commentary in the Syriack Language upon the whole Old Testament excepting the Book of the Lamentations Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah and Esther and likewise the New those parts only excepted which are wanting in our printed Syriack Testaments the Text whereof I have procured likewise from the Patriarch of the Nestorians in Syria viz. The 2d Epistle of St. Peter the 2d and 3d of St. John that of St. Jude and the Revelation In this Treasure among other things worth the observation are found 1. A Genealogical Table from Adam to Moses 2. A Table of the Judges to Samuel 3. A Table of the Kings of Judah from Saul to Sedechias 4. A Chronological Table of the Kings that successively reigned in Babylon Persia and Egypt from thence unto Vespasian Where to Nebuchadnezzar after the time of Sedechias are assigned 24 years To Evilmerodach 1. To Belshatzar 2. To Darius the Mede 3. To Cyrus 30. To Cambyses 8 and all this to make 70 years to the second of Darius Hystaspis from the desolation of Jerusalem according to Zachar. 1. 12. In these Tables some Heathenish Antiquities also are inserted as of the building of Tarsus c. But these are nothing in comparison of the Treasure which you have found of the Kings and Archons of Athens than which as you have rightly judged nothing can please me more You have made my Teeth water at the mention thereof and therefore I pray you satisfy my longing with what convenient speed you may I can give you no occasion of Inscriptions because I am fixed here in a Country where the old Romanists never had any footing All that I have in this kind I did but borrow from the Monuments of my Lord of Arundel my Lord William Howard of Naworth and Sir Robert Cotton which to send back unto you who are there at the Well-head were inanis opera Those Hebrew Fragments of Aldersgate had your own explication in Latin adjoined unto them as I remember which made me seek no further especially because those Inscriptions were made by later Jews and so were of the same stamp with that of R. Moses filii R. Isaac found in Ludgate whereof Stow maketh mention in his Survey I think you may do well to put together all the Inscriptions printed and imprinted which are not to be found in the great Volume of Goltzius and amongst the rest the Latin one v. Scipionis Barbati F. with Sirmondus his Explanation and the Greek of Herod expounded by Casaubon for Salmasius his Exposition is a little too long And whatsoever Punick Letters can be had in any Coin as one or two Sir Robert Cotton hath of them would be added also because these are scarce known to any There was a Chronology some years since published by one of Ausborough and dedicated to the Pope the Emperor and King James which was prescribed by the Church of Rome I pray you if you can help me to a sight of it and let me understand whether your second Edition of Titles of Honour be yet come abroad for as yet I have heard nothing of it By this time I suppose I have tired you with a tedious Letter and therefore now I dismiss you and rest always Your most assured loving Friend Ja. Armachanus Drogheda Nov. 30. 1627. LETTER CXXIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Mr. Dean Mr. Dean I
of our Church contained in our Articles and Homilies Innovators are too much favoured now a-days Our Vice-Chancellor hath carried Business for Matter of Religion both stoutly and discreetly Dr. Lane died on Sunday last and was buried in the night upon Tuesday in St. John's Colledg It may be you are willing to hear of our University Affairs I may truly say I never knew them in worse condition since I was a Member thereof which is almost 46 years Not but that I hope the greater part is Orthodox but that new Heads are brought in and they are backed in maintaining Novelties and them which broach new Opinions as I doubt not but you hear others are disgraced and checked when they come above as my self was by my Lord of York the last Lent for favouring Puritans in Consistory and all from false Informations from hence which are believed without any examination At that time also I intreated my Lord of Canterbury to speak to the Dean of Wells that now is who had sundry times excepted against me for not residing three months per Annum as I should by Charter which I nothing doubt but it was by his instigation he promised me then he would but not having done it yet I repaired again to my Lord's Grace about it in November But now he cannot for that his Majesty hath given him in charge to take account of the Bishops in his Province how Residence is kept I told him my Case was not every Man's Case and that I had a Benefice at which I desired to be in the Vacation-Time but nothing would prevail And yet as I told him I am every Year at Wells sometimes a month or six weeks I think they would have me out of my Professor's place and I could wish the same if I could have one to succeed according to my mind for then I should have leasure to transcribe things Well howsoever God's Will be done and he teach us Humility and Patience I heard also of some doings with you The Lord of Heaven direct you and us and teach us to submit to him in all things I have not yet sent my Answer to Mr. Ch. but intend e're long I have not finished yet one Point to shew the Arminian Opinions were condemned in the Synods which condemned the Pelagian Heresy At Mr. Burnet's importunity who could not get a good Scrivener to transcribe my Lord of Sarum's Readings de Praedestinatione morte Christi I gave way that he should send it to you which I intreat your Lordship if you have received it to return it me as soon and as safely as you conveniently can The Tractate de Praedestinatianis in defence of your Lordship I know not your Adversary nor his Name is Dr. Twisses it may be he hath sent your Lordship a Copy of it He is a deserving Man We have a Vice-Chancellor that favoureth Novelties both in Rites and Doctrines I could write more sed manum de Tabula The greatest part of this was inclosed in the Letter your Lordship had sent Jan. 14. I made now a few additions And so I rest Your Grace's in all observance Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. Jun. 14. 1634. Dr. Baden a Dean with you in Ireland answereth the Act In Vesperiis Comitiórum His Questions are 1. Justificatio non suscipit magis minus 2. Non dantur Consilia perfectionis supra legem LETTER CLXXX A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Illustrissimo Primati D. Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano Hyberniae Primati I. V. S. P. Vir Reverende EST quod mihi admodum gratuler qui cum antea viro illustri nonnisi de nomine innotuissem tamen quod in votis habebam audacter petiissem tantam evestigio nactus sim benevolentiam ut illustris tua dignitas expetitum commentariorum in sacras literas volumen Syriacum transmittere gravata non fuerit Dabitur Deo favente opera ut fideliter in Hyberniam transmittatur ubi usus fuero In veteri Testamento spei meae non respondet licet subinde notatur digna animad vertam Ad textum Syriacum commentaria accommodata sunt non verò quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suadebat consultus fuit Ebraicus Imo quantum adhuc videre possum Syriacus quo usus fuit contextus è Graeco expressus fuit ideoque saepe aliter legit author quam in Ebraeo extat Aliquando etiam verba de industria secus collocat quam invenit Graecae Linguae peritiam prae se fert in Syriaca nimis anxiè quae ad vocales spectant persequitur Occidentalem Syrum fuisse id est viciniorem Mari Mediterraneo ostendit quod sect 28. Usa annotat Tandem hoc observo ut omnia conglomerem quae è lectione in mentem veniunt non satis ad messam applicare quae ad ipsum passim directa fuere Nihilominus pro usu istius libri gratias habeo maximas inprimis cum praeclara annotentur in Testamentum Novum Quae in c. 1. Matt. observata sunt evolvi placent admodum Caeterum est in illustris D. T. Bibliotheca uti intelligo versio Syriaca duplex V. T. patruus autem meus D. Antonius Thysius paratum habet commentarium in duo priora cap. Genes ubi Historiam creationis illustrat cui praemittere statuit versiones primarias Ideoque summa diligentia è variis autoribus Symmachi Theodotionis Aquilae c. interpretamenta ita collegit ut continuum contextum reddant Itaque valdè sibi gratum fore dicit si versionem Syriacam ab Amanuensi aliquo descriptam obtinere in 2. cap. Gen. posset Hoc vix à me impetro ut subjungam verum fortassis post libri editionem istius consilii se non factum certiorem D. tua aegre ferret ut cui hoc unum cordi sit prodesse publico Hic subsisto Patri D. nostri I. Christi commendo Illustrem tuam dignitatem cujus permanere gestio cliens humillimus Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych Lug. Bat. 3. Kal. Jul. ā partae salutis 1634. LETTER CLXXXI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord OUR Commencement is now over where Dean Baden now Dr. Baden did well perform his part who answered the Act Vesperiis Comitiorum And so did the Batchelor of Divinity Die Comitiorum being one of the Fellows of our Colledg The Vice-Chancellor Dr. Love did well perform his part especially in encountring with one Franciscus de S. Chara but his true name is Davenport who in a Book set forth at Doway would reconcile si diis placet our Articles of Religion with the Definitions of the Council of Trent But we have dismissed the Auditors this Year with much more content than they were the Year before Our Stirs we had a little before the Commencement are prettily well over There is a little Book intituled
characterum mutationem longe antea factam somniet Morinus Cloaca quo magis agitatur eo Mephitin exhalat magis Morinus Samaritanis antiquis Samaritanior etiam evasit Illi enim teste Eulogio Jesum filium Nave Prophetam praedictum Mosi similem futurum profitebantur Librum ejus pro Canonico certò habuere qui hanc illi gloriam tribuebant At hunc librum nobis eripuit cùm aliis prophetiis Dositheus Morini antecessor Det nobis Morinus charactere Samaritano scriptos Prophetarum libros aut fateatur se plures scripturae sacrae codices quam dederit abstulisse Sed nec ferendum est hominem Christianum Samaritanos Dei hostes Judaeis Dei populo in libris sacris tuendis anteferre Praecipuè cum constet Prophetas fuisse post commentitiam characterum mutationem in populo Judaico in Samaritano nullos Cur non ergo Samaritana Biblia nobis reliquere Prophetae Cur de tanta mutatione silent Cur apud Haereticos sepulta Biblia in lucem Spiritu Divino eos illustrante non producunt Ut taceam Morini in Sacris Literis tractandis magistralitatem qui eodem jure in his quo Sorbona in aliis censurâ afficiendis utitur Hoc placet illud displicet quandoque Samaritanus codex quandoque Latinus Graecus semper nunquam illi Hebraicus approbatur Si prout meritus est verbis asperioribus nonnunquam castigetur Morinus nemo nobis vitio vertat neque enim cum Haeretico aliquo res est qui articulum fidei unum aut alterum negat aut textum peculiarem aliter quà m veritas posuit interpretatur sed cum eo qui fontes sacros in universum abripit pro Deo Israelis falsi Messiae adulteria nobis obtrudit Nec ignorantiam nobis objiciat quis quòd Jesuitam eum appellemus Indignaretur sat scio Morinus si Congregationis Oratoriae Iesu Christi Presbyterum titulo isto non dignaremur Liber certè totus Jesuiticum spiritum frontem perfrictam Societati illi familiarem nimis prodit Si quid sit quod ulteriorem disquisitionem requirat totum illud si respondere Morino visum fuerit in replicatione fusiùs tractabitur Prelo aliàs impraesentiarum vacante oblata vulgandi opportunitas festinationem operis urgebat Haec interim habui quae tibi dummodo id placeat quod pro singulari tua tum pietate tum candore nullus ambigo in perpetuum erga Dominationem tuam studii observantiae meae monumentum dedicarem Deus verbi sui majestatem contra omnes impiorum latratus potenter ipse tueatur per totum orbem indiès ampliùs diffundat Te verò Hibernae gentis ornamentum in Christianae Religionis emolumentum diutissimè in terris florentem conservare tandemque sero tamen in gloriam sempiternam recipere dignetur Claphamae Calend. April 1635. Reverendissimae Dominationi tuae addictissimus Franciscus Tailerus LETTER CLXXXIV A Letter from the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. My very good Lord I Thank you heartily for your Letters and am as heartily glad that your Parliament and Convocation are so happily ended especially for the Church and that both for the particular of your letting Leases which is for Maintenance and for the quiet and well-ordering and ending of your Book of Canons I hope now the Church of Ireland will begin to flourish again and that both with inward Sufficiency and outward Means to support it And for your Canons to speak Truth and with wonted liberty and freedom though I cannot but think the English Canons entire especially with some few amendments would have done betterly yet since you and that Church have thought otherwise I do very easily submit to it and you shall have my Prayers that God would bless it As for the Particular about Subscription I think you have couched that well since as it seems there was some necessity to carry that Article closely And God forbid you should upon any occasion have rouled back upon your former Controversy about the Articles For if you should have risen from this Convocation in heat God knows when or how that Church would have cooled again had the cause of Difference been never so slight By which means the Romanist which is too strong a Party already would both have strengthned and made a scorn of you And therefore ye are much bound to God that in this nice and picked Age you have ended all things canonically and yet in peace And I hope you will be all careful to continue and maintain that which God hath thus mercifully bestowed upon you Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother W. Cant. Lambeth May 10. 1635. LETTER CLXXXV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Good Doctor I Have been almost tired with continual attendance on out long continued Parliament and Convocation which being done they would needs impose upon me also the moderating of the Divinity Act and the creating of the Doctors at our last Commencement I am now at last retired from Dublin to my old Place where I begin at length Redire in gratiam cum veteribus Amicis I send you herewith Harrys his Book against the Friars and our New Canons The Articles of Religion agreed upon in our former Synod Anno 1615 we let stand as they did before But for the manifesting of our Agreement with the Church of England we have received and approved your Articles also concluded in the Year 1562 as you may see in the first of our Canons But while we strive here to maintain the Purity of our ancient Truth how cometh it to pass that you in Cambridg do cast such stumbling-blocks in our way by publishing unto the World such rotten Stuff as Shelford hath vented in his five Discourses wherein he hath so carried himself ut Famosi Perni amanuensem possis agnoscere The Jesuits of England sent over the Book hither to confirm our Papists in their obstinacy and to assure them that we are now coming home unto them as fast as we can I pray God this Sin be not deeply laid to their charge who give an occasion to our blind thus to stumble I thank you most heartily for communicating my Lord of Salisbury's Lectures unto me they are excellent learnedly foundly and perspicuously performed and I hope will do much good here for the establishing of our young Divines in the present Truth Will you not make us as much beholden unto you for your own Lectures upon the other Questions You may not think that the same accurateness is expected in the Writings which you privately communicate unto your Friends as in that which you are to commit unto the Press after you have added supremam manum thereunto Neither were it amiss that you should make a Collection of all your Determinations as you see the Bishop of Salisbury hath done and cause your Lectures of the Eucharist to
Mead will not be able to evince either out of Deut. 5. 15. or out of any other Scripture whatsoever And the Text Gen. 2. 3. as you well note is so clear for the ancient institution of the Sabbath and so fully vindicated by Dr. Rivet from the Exceptions of Gomarus that I see no reason in the Earth why any Man should make doubt thereof especially considering withal that the very Gentiles both civil and barbarous both ancient and of later days as it were by an universal kind of Tradition retained the distinction of the seven days of the Week which if Dr. Heylin had read so well proved as it is by Rivetus and Salmasius he would not have made such a conclusion as he doth That because the Heathen of the four great Monarchies at least had no distinction of Weeks therefore they could observe no Sabbath whereas he might have found that the distinction of the days of the week did reach etiam ad ipsos usque Sauromatas for even of the Slavonians themselves while they yet continued in their ancient Paganism thus writeth Helmoldus Chronic. Slavor lib. 1. cap. 84. Illic secundâ feriâ papulus terrae cum flamine regulo convenire solebant propter judicia The same order of the days of the Week being retained by them which Theophilus the old Bishop of Antioch noteth to have been observed by all Mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he lib. 2. ad Antolycum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confounding as it seemeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also doth Lactantius lib. 7. cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherewith we may joyn that other place of Johannes Philoponus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 7. Cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who with shewing the cause thereof thus shuts up the whole work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We see it almost generally observed in all Nations though never so far distant and strangers one to another that in their reckoning of Numbers when they come to 10 they return to their addition of 1 2 and 3 again If it should be demanded how they did all come to agree upon this kind of Arithmetick and not some place their Period at 8 some at 12 some at 15 I suppose this could not be better resolved than by saying They had this by tradition from the first Fathers that lived before the Dispersion and that this is not an improbable Evidence of that Truth propounded by the Apostle unto the Philosophers of Athens Acts 17. 26. That God made of one Blood all Nations of Men to dwell on all the Face of the Earth How much more when we find a far greater Agreement among the Nations in the computation of the seven days of the Week the self-same day which is accounted the first by one being in like manner reckoned so by all notwithstanding that great variety of differences which is betwixt them in the ordering of their Years and Months How much more strongly I say may we conclude from hence that the tradition of the seventh-Day was not of Moses but of the Fathers and did not begin with the Common-Wealth of Israel but was derived unto all Nations by lineal descent from the Sons of Noah Add hereunto that those Heathens who were strangers from the Common-wealth of Israel though they made not the seventh day a Festival as the Jews did yet did they attribute some holiness to it and gave it a peculiar honour above the other days of the week wherein they retained some Relicks and preserved still some clear foot-steps of the first institution Quinetiam populi jam olim saith Josephus sub fin lib. 2. contra Apion multùm nostram pietatem aemulantur neque est civitas Graecorum ulla usquà m aut Barbarorum nec ulla gens ad quam septimanae in qua vacamus consuetudo minimè pervenerit Jejuniaque candelabra accensa c. Of which Rite of lighting of Candles or Lamps rather mention also is made by Seneca in his 95th Epistle Accendere aliquam lucernam Sabbathis prohibeamus quoniam nec lumine Dii egent ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine And by Tertullian lib. 1. ad Nation cap. 13. where he noteth also those to be the Sabbaths observed by the Nations saying thus unto them Qui solem diem ejus nobis exprobratis agnoscite vicinitatem Non longè à Saturno Sabbatis VESTRIS sumus wherein though their Devotion were somewhat like unto that of the Jews which is all that those words of Josephus do import Multum nostram pietatem aemulantur yet that it was not done by any late imitation of them or with any relation at all to their observance that other place of Tertullian doth seem to evince in the 16th Chapter of his Apologeticum Aequè si diem solis laetitiae indulgemus aliâ longè ratione quà m religione solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio victui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant And that they did not celebrate their Saturdays with that solemnity wherewith themselves did their Annual Festivities or the Jews their Weekly Sabbaths may appear by the words of this same Author in the 14th Chapter of his Book de Idololatriâ thus speaking unto-the Christians who observed 52 Lord's Days every Year whereas all the Annual Festivities of the Pagans put together did come short of fifty Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi octavo quoque die Excerpe singulas solemnitates nationum in ordinem texe Pentecosten implere non potuerunt And yet as I said that they accounted Saturday more holy and requiring more respect from them than the other ordinaray days of the Week may be seen by that of Tibullus Eleg. 3. lib. 1. Aut ego sum causatus aves aut omnia dira Saturni SACRA me tenuisse die And that of Lucian in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Boys getting leave to play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that of Aelius Lampridius touching Alexander Severus using to go unto the Capitols and other Temples upon the seventh Day Whereunto we may add those Verse of the Ancient Greek Poets alleadged by Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 5. Stromat and Eusebius lib. 13. Praeparat Evangelic which plainly shew that they were not ignorant that the Works of Creation were finished on the Seventh Day for so much doth that Verse of Linus intimate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of Callimachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Israelites by the Law of Moses were not only to observe their weekly Sabbath every seventh Day but also their Feast of Weeks once in the Year Which although by the vulgar use of the Jewish Nation it may now fall upon any day of the Week yet do the Samaritans until this day constantly observe it on the first Day of the Week which
is our Sunday For which they produce the Letter of the Law Levit. 23. 15 16. where the Feast of the first Fruits otherwise called Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks is prescribed to be kept the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which not they only but also amongst our Christian Interpreters Isychins and Rupertus do interpret to be the first Day of the Week Planius saith Isychius Legislator intentionem suam demonstrare volens ab altero die Sabbati memorari praecepit quinquaginta dies Dominicum diem proculdubiò volens intelligi Hic enim est altera dies Sabbati in hâc enim resurrectio facta est qua hebdomadae numerantur septem usque ad alterum diem expletionis hebdomadae Dominicâ rursus die Pentecostes celebramus festivitatem in quâ Sancti Spiritus adventum mernimus Where you may observe by the way that although this Author made a little bold to strain the signification of altera dies Sabbati which in Moses denoteth no more than the Morrow after the Sabbath yet he maketh no scruple to call the Day of Christ's Resurrection another Sabbath Day as in the Council of Friuli also if I greatly mistake not the Matter you shall find Saturday called by the name of Sabbatum ultimum and the Lord's Day of Sabbatum primum with some allusion perhaps to that of St. Ambrose in Psal. 47. Ubi Dominica dies caepit praecellere quâ Dominus resurrexit Sabbatum quod primum erat secundum haberi caepit à primo not much unlike unto that which Dr. Heylin himself noteth out of Scaliger of the Ethiopian Christians that they call both of them by the name of Sabbaths the one the first the other the latter Sabbath or in their own Language the one Sanbath Sachristos i. e. Christ's Sabbath the other Sanbath Judi or the Jews Sabbath But touching the old Pentecost it is very considerable that it is no where in Moses affixed unto any one certain day of the Month as all the rest of the Feasts are which is a very great presumption that it was a moveable Feast and so varied that it might always fall upon the day immediately following the ordinary Sabbath And if God so order the matter that in the celebration of the Feast of Weeks the Seventh should purposely be passed over and that Solemnity should be kept upon the First what other thing may we imagine could be presignified thereby but that under the State of the Gospel the solemnity of the weekly Service should be celebrated upon that day That on that day the famous Pentecost in the 2d of the Acts was observed is in a manner generally acknowledged by all wherein the Truth of all those that went before being accomplished we may observe the Type and the Verity concurring together in a wonderful manner At the time of the Passeover Christ our Passeover was slain for us the whole Sabbath following he rested in the Grave The next day after that Sabbath the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sheaf of the first Fruits of the first or Barly Harvest was offered unto God and Christ rose from the Dead and became the first Fruits of them that slept many Bodies of the Saints that slept arising likewise after him From thence was the Account taken of the seven Sabbaths and upon the morrow after the seventh Sabbath which was our Lord's Day was celebrated the Feast of Weeks the day of the first Fruits of the second or Wheat Harvest upon which day the Apostles having themselves received the first Fruits of the Spirit begat three thousand Souls with the Word of Truth and presented them as the first Fruits of the Christian Church unto God and unto the Lamb. And from that time forward doth Waldensis note that the Lord's Day was observed in the Christian Church in the place of the Sabbath Quia inter legalia saith he tunc sublata Sabbati custodia fuit unum planum est tunc intrâsse Dominicam loco ejus sicut Baptisma statim loco Circumcisionis Adhuc enim superstes erat sanctus Johannes qui diceret Et fui in spiritu die Dominicâ Apoc. 1. cùm de Dominicâ die ante Christi Resurrectionem nulla prorsùs mentio haberetur Sed statim post missionem Spiritus sancti lege novâ fulgente in humano cultu sublatum est Sabbatum dies Dominicae Resurrectionis clarescebat Dominicâ The Revelation exhibited unto St. John upon the Lord's Day is by Irenaeus in his fifth Book referred unto the Empire of Domitian or as S. Hierome in his Catalogue more particularly doth express it to the fourth Year of his Reign Which answereth partly to the forty-ninth and partly to the ninty-fifth Year of our Lord according to our vulgar computation and was but eleven or twelve Years before the Time when Ignatius did write his Epistles Of whom then should we more certainly learn what the Apostle meant by the Lord's Day than from Ignatius who was by the Apostles themselves ordained Bishop of that Church wherein the Disciples were first called Christians And in his Epistle to the Magnesians clearly maketh the Lord's Day to be a weekly Holy-Day observed by Christians in the room of the abrogated Sabbath of the Jews than which can we desire more But here you are to know beside the common Edition wherein the genuine Epistles of Ignatius are fouly depraved by a number of beggarly Patches added unto his Purple by later hands There is an ancient Latin Translation to be found in the Library of Caius Colledg in Cambridg which although it be very rude and corrupt both in many other and in this very same place also of the Epistle to the Magnesians yet is it free from these Additaments and in many respects to be preferred before the common Greek Copy as well because it agreeth with the Citations of Eusebius Athanasius and Theodoret and hath the Sentences vouched by them out of Ignatius and particularly that of the Eucharist in the Epistle to the Smyrnians which are not at all to be found in our Greek and hath in a manner none of all those places in the true Epistles of Ignatius against which exception hath been taken by our Divines which addeth great strength to those Exceptions of theirs and sheweth that they were not made without good cause Now in this Translation there is nothing to be found touching the Sabbath and the Lord's Day in the Epistle to the Magnesians but these words only Non ampliûs sabbitazantes sed secundùm Dominicam viventes in quâ vita nostra orta est Whereunto these of our common Greek may be made answerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All those other words alleadged by Dr. Heylin Part. 2. pag. 43. to prove that Ignatius would have both the Sabbath and the Lord's Day observed being afterwards added by some later Grecian who was afraid that the custom of keeping both days observed in his
as were many more of his Parts and Merits Your Grace was pleased to ask him what I was doing My Lord I cannot spend my time better than after the Holy Scriptures in gathering your Lordship's Observations upon many obscure Texts of the Bible but by my constant attending on my Lectures I am prevented of doing what I otherwise might Sir Henry Spelman's Saxon Lecture honoured by your Lordship's first motion to the Heads of Houses and have I not cause to admire God's Providence as my Lord of Exeter told me that the Work should be countenanced by so transcendent Patronage hath made me your Grace's Scholar as in truth the Ecclesiae ipsae Britannicae Universae at this time are But my Lord pardon my boldness and give me leave to chalenge the Stile if not of Scholar or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 since I never counted my self worthy to wait on your Person yet a true admirer of all your Lordship's most rich Treasures now in your most learned Writings bequeathed to the Church but my Saxon Imploiment will bind me much to be acquainted with your Primordia Eccles. Britannicarum tho your Grace will pity my Condition as being not able to compass the use of those rare Manuscripts cited in that most rich Magazine yet I am glad that we have many excellent and rare Antiquities there at large cited to us I presumed two Years since to send Mr. Hartlib a Specimen of my Intentions and beginnings of a Confutation of the Alcoran It was according to my poor skill a discovery of Mahomet's and his Chaplains devilish Policy to raze out of the Faith of the Eastern People the memory of the Three Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by substituing in the stead thereof three words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so in the same manner as by fair and goodly Language he blotted out of the Christian Church the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so doth he the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gloria Patri by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to God the Lord of the World c. for this intent to square out a Platform of Faith easy for all the World to believe that so he and his succeeding Chalifs may gain such a false believing and seduced World to the infernal See of Meccha and that was his meaning in binding all to pray towards Meccha Had I Skill and Means and Encouragement from your Grace I would endeavour to make some progress in the same Work not but that I know many in this Kingdom far more able than my self but that I fear none of them will attempt it but rather smile at the Design The Language of the Alchoran to write in that stile may be attained the matter of Confutation may be easy to any that will attend to the wicked Plots of Apostates then and ever practised in the World But Mr. Hartlib returned my Papers and told me they were not or else my Intention was not approved I purposedly was desirous to be ignorant who should give this severe Censure lest they should think I should grieve thereat Mr. Hartlib I thank him did me the pleasure as to conceal it from me I could scarce keep my self from some such Imployment about the Alchoran but these Times call us now to other Thoughts The fear of losing the Univers as well as Regnum Sacerdotium doth not a little amaze us When a Messenger comes hither from your Grace I shall be glad to be informed by him wherein I may best in this Lambeth Library be serviceable and express my bounden Duty to your Lordship The Lord still add to the number of your Days to the comfort of the afflicted Britain Churches which next to God cast their Eyes upon you in these sad Extremities which they have already suffered Your Grace's most humble Servant Abraham Wheelocke We expect every day the setting up of the Lambeth Books in the Schools where your Grace above 30 Years since heard Mr. Andrew Downs read the Greek Lecture as yet they remain in Fat 's or great Chests and cannot be of any use LETTER CCXLIX A Letter from the Learned Isaacus Gruterus to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Viro Maximo Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano Hiberniae Primati S. P. D. Isaacus Gruterus NON passus sum me abripi affectu virtutes tuas si non aestimare saltem venerari nescio cum mihi nuper apud te calamum feci pararium Neque ex alto nunc causas arcesso quae necdum consumptae fiduciam sustinent fore ut secundae allocutioni sua venia sit interiorem tantae Eruditionis in perspectâ multis humanitate cultum meditanti Eorum quae tunc scripsi alia tempus mutavit intermedium alia integram officii gratiam habent si vel partem desiderii nostri expletam imputare liceat tuae benevolentiae Savilii enim filiam Sidleijo cuidam olim nuptam obiisse narravit mihi Nobiliss. Boswellus vir non aliis magis virtutibus quas plures benignior indulsit natura quam literarum patrocinio illustris Quid vero Savilianae industriae ineditum servent alicubi scrinia chartacea non alîunde quam ex te melius constare mihi posse videtur cum doceant scripta tua propriori vos familiaritate coaluisse Illud ergo repetere ausus sum hoc Epistolae compendio explicatum forte olim uberius ut in concilianda istius rei notitia gratificari velis homini extero in magna felicitatis parte habituro per istud obsequium posse tibi commendare quamcunque affectus sui operam testem positi non apud ingratum beneficii Vale. Isaacus Gruterus Hagae-Comitis 26. Febr. iv Calendas Martii CICICCL LETTER CCL A Letter from P. Scavenius to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Vir Illustrissime Reverendissime NIhil gratius mihi accidere potuit quà m tuas literas iisque inclusa mandata accipere Totus fui in ea exequendo ut tuae petitioni meo voto rectè satissecisse viderer sed nescio quo fato res hic aguntur ut semper objiciantur tantae remorae praetextus quibus suas res ornare allaborant quibus alienae parum curae sunt qui potius nomine quam reipsa aliis inservire cupiunt divites ut aiunt promissis tardi vel seri in fide datâ servandâ Clariss Dominus Holsteinius infinitis destrictus negotiis nam Censor est librorum qui hic typis mandantur merito fugit hunc laborem quippe immensum quem requirit vel descriptio vel collatio hujus MS. cum excusis codicibus Codex enim est antiquissimus hinc inde mutilus ut interdum Oedippo opus sit sensum indagare Promisit tamen se missurum parvulas aliquot varias lectiones quas successive sparsim in unum vel alterum Prophetam notavit excusavit se non posse ipsum Codicem mittere eumque periculis
planae atque in capita distinctae Sub finem specimina aliquot ex critica exerpam ostendam quam necessaria quam utilis quam solida ista sit crisis quam faeliciter cedat Nolo enim totam ejus criticam examinare refutare neque è republica id esset quia in immensam molem liber excresceret I have printed just as many Copies of the said Sheet as of the Epistola it self for to send an equal number of it as of the Epistle to all the Places where I have sent the other so as a great many of them shall go into England by Ellis In the mean while that you may not stay too long for it I send you a Copy of it here inclosed and shall be very glad to have your Grace's Judgment about it Thus with my humble respects I rest Your Grace's most humble Servant Arnold Boate. Paris 15 25 March 1651. Extract out of Goart's Syncellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syncellus his Copy as appeareth by this Extract is defective quanquam nulla in membranis lacuna apparet clrca annos Simonis non exprimendo annos ipsius proprios uti in aliis Summis Pontificibus facere solet sed tantum annos Mundi è quibus tamen clarum est non annos novem cum Scaligero sed annos novendecim Simoni isti à Syncello tributos LETTER CCLXI A Letter from Mr. Robert Vaughan to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverend Father c. IN performance of your Request and my Promise I have at last sent you the Annales of Wales as out of the ancient Copy which you saw with me I did faithfully translate them into the English Tongue as near as I could word by word wherein knowing my weakness I laboured not so much to render a sweet harmony of Speech as the plain and simple Phrase of that Age wherein it was written which I thought would best please you tho happily with others it will not so well relish be pleased to receive it as a Token from him that honours your Worth as you read it I pray you correct it for I know it hath need There was a Leaf wanting in my Book which defect viz. from An. 900 to An. 950. and some Passages besides I was fain to make up out of other ancient Copies whereof though we have many in Wales yet but few that agree verbatim one with another And I believe some Mistakings will be found in the Times of some Transactions in this Book if they be narrowly examined as in the very Frontispiece of this Author we find in most Copies that Cadwalader went to Rome An. 680 or the Year after as it is in my Copy Nevertheless it is confessed and granted by all of them that the great Mortality hapned in that Year that he went to Rome but I find no mention of any extraordinary mortality of People that happened about Anno 680 and therefore I think it is not very likely that Cadwalader's going to Rome was deferred to that Year Morever venerable Bede and other ancient Writers do affirm that the great Mortality fell Anno 664 about the 22d Year of King Oswis Reign over Northumberland in whose Time Cadwalader lived and reigned as is manifest in the Tract which is added to some Copies of Nennius if I may give credit to that corrupt Copy of it which I have in the words following Osguid filius Edelfrid regnavit 28. An. sex mensibus dum ipse regnabat venit mortalitas hominum Catqualater regnante apud Brittones post patrem suum in ea periit This Evidence doth perswade with me that Cadwalader went to Rome far before Anno 680. But if in ea periit be meant of Cadwalader for King Oswi ruled five or six Years after unless we grant that the Plague endured twelve Years as our Welch Historians do aver it maketh such a breach in the History that I for my own part know not how to repair it for if it be true that Cadwalader died of that Plague then went he not to Rome and to deny his going to Rome is no less than to deny the Authority of all our British and Welch Antiquities in general Therefore I desire you will vouchsafe not only to give me your sense of Cadwalader's going to Rome and the Time whereby I may rest better satisfied then at present but also the loan of your best Copy of Nennius with that Tract before cited which is added to some Copies thereof And if I be not overtroublesome to your patience already I have another Request unto you which is that you will select all the Notes and Histories you have that treat of the Affairs of Wales and Princes thereof and that you will candidly impart them unto me by degrees as I shall have done with one piece so be pleased to lend another and you may command any thing that I have or can come by for it is not Labour Pains or expence of Mony to my power shall retard me in your Service My Love and Zeal to my poor Country and desire to know the truth and certainty of things past moves me sometimes to a passion when I call to mind the idle and slothful Life of my Country-men who in the revolution of 1000 Years almost afford but only Caradoc Llancarvan and the continuance thereof to register any thing to the purpose of the Acts of the Princes of Wales that I could come by or hear of some few piecemeals excepted Dr. Powel in his Latin History of the Princes of Wales citeth Tho. Maclorius de Regibus Gwynethiae but I could not hitherto meet with that Book and I am perswaded he lived not much before Henry the 6th's Time peradventure you have seen it and I do not remember that he citeth any other Author of our Country-men it may be there are some extant yet though I had not the felicity hitherto to see them I hope by your good means hereafter I shall attain to some hidden knowledg of Antiquity but I am too tedious pardon me I pray you Reverend Father think of my Request and put me not off with Excuses any longer and my Prayer shall be for your Health Peace and Prosperity in this World and everlasting Felicity in the World to come Your Friend and Servant Robert Vaughan Henewrt near Dolgelly in the County of Merionith April 14. 1651. LETTER CCLXII A Letter from the Learned Ludovicus Capellus to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh SCripfi Vir Reverendissime ad Amplissimam tuam Dignitatem ante menses quinque atque unà misi Epistolam meam adversus Bootium Apologeticam quam Nomini tuo Clarissimo inscripseram sperans aliquod ab Amplitudine tua ad me responsum quo significares quid de lite hac tota sentires Nihil dum tamen quidquam à te accepi Ac quia Amicus cui negotium literas ad te meas mittendi commiseram paulo post ad plures
be thankful if you will vouchsafe to impart your learned Meditations either therein or in ought else unto me whom I beseech the Lord to bless with his Spirit to his Glory your Comfort and the Churches Good desiring always to be accounted Yours to command Thomas Whalley Aug. 15. LETTER CCXXXVIII A Letter from Mr. Arnold Boate to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh May it please your Grace HAving written to you this day fortnight a fourth Letter since I had the honour to hear last from you I got three or four days after an Answer upon the three first dated the 14 24th of April and give you humble thanks for having been pleased to satisfy therein those several Questions which I had made bold to propound unto you The second part of your Annales is here extreamly longed for by all of them that have seen the first but I find by what you tell me of at this time that it goeth therewith as it hath done with my Work against Morinus and Capellus quòd crescat sub manu whereby it hath come to pass that instead of a Prodromus of fourteen or fifteen Sheets which at first I thought to have had it is now come to be a compleat Vindiciae Veritatis Hebraicae of full thirty Sheets I have made an end a sennight since and the Printer promiseth me to do as much for his part before the end of the next week and I hope I shall suddenly find an occasion of sending to London the 250 Copies for Mr. Pullen wherewith I intend to send likewise the Chronological Work of Labbaeus the which I bought the next day after I had received your Letter In my last I told you how I had enquired of Friar Goare about the Addenda ad Eusebii Chronicon Graecum and what answer I had of him And by this Letter of his which he hath brought me since you will find a much more ample account concerning the same Monsieur Sionita being gone out of Paris into Burgundy a few months before his decease and having carried all his Papers and Books with him thither they are fallen into the hands of some Persons who will never let them appear insomuch as Monsieur Auvergne Flavignii his Colleague in Professione Linguae Hebraicae who died the matter of half a Year ago could never hear any news of them although he used all possible diligence for that end But as for his Syriack and Arabick Bible by which those in Le-jayes Edition have been printed they were two excellent Copies and of a venerable Antiquity as he assured me and I partly discovered my self when I saw them with him at my first coming to this Town But I believe it is not unknown to you how that in printing the Syrrack he hath interpolated it in very many places and so utterly spoiled the Authenticalness of it according to what I have informed you very amply some Years since so as the Editores of the Biblia Polyglotta there must in no wise take his Syriack Edition for their Pattern or else they will spoil all I am no ways taken with their designs of putting in so much For besides that it is a very superfluous thing to add the Samaritan Pentateuch of which nothing should be printed but the Discrepancies from ours which is not an hundredth part all the rest being word for word the same I cannot see to what purpose it is to the like Editions with the Hebrew and Greek Texts with their Latin Translations and with the Vulgar Latin these being so easy to be had apart and no Body being without them And I would think it much more commendable and of much more utility for the Publick and for themselves too in regard of the ready venting of the Impression to print nothing else but the Syriack Chaldee Arabick Ethiopick and the Pentateuch in the Samaritan Language with the Latin Translations And that Edition too will not be worth a Rush if it be not done with the self-same exactness as the Biblia Regia were whereas those of Le jay are basely defaced with innumerable Faults and therefore fit for nothing but to be burnt When I shall send you any Books hereafter I will observe your directions of addressing them to Mr. Booth at Calais being most heartily sorry that Theophanes has been so unreasonably long before he came to your hands Thus humbly kissing your Hands and praying God to bless his Church and us your Servants with the prolonging of your days in perfect health and strength I remain ever Your Grace's most humble and most devoted Servant Arnold Boate. If it be not too troublesome for your Grace I would very gladly know in your next Letter what Edition or Manuscript-Copy hath been followed in the 〈…〉 Bible lately printed at London whether it hath 〈…〉 done and what the Bulk and Price of it is I delivered unto Mr. Balthazar your Letter to him and to Mr. Buxtorf and a Copy of your Epistle LETTER CCLXXXIX Illustrissimo Amplissimo Domino D. Jacobo Usserio Episcopo Armacano Jacobus Goar Ordinis Praedicatorum S. P. SEgnius est fateor in acceptum beneficium acceptum olim dico Tuâ eruditione plenum codicem animi non ingrati testimonium mutuâ aestimatione nondum merita rependendâ ad Tuas vir Illustrissime proficisci tardiores Proficiscuntur inquam à beneficio extortae verum ex officio spontaneo qua excidere dignae fuerant obsequio levissimo tentant mercari benevolentiam tuam Clar. Bootio quid de Collectaneis cunctis Eusebianis dicam an Scaligerianis cujus Authoris ex quibus Codicibus prodierint quaesivisti Is ad me qui Codicem Regium Syncelli in quo laboravit Scaliger contrectaverim quique ad Syncelli laborem passusque pedemque ex parte fuerim insequutus quaesitum retulit me resolvere impulit Ut comperi enuncio Apud Batavos Collectanea sua congessit Scaliger neque ex Regiis Parisiensibus in unum cuncta comportavit addidit quandoque propria Regia etiamnum collegit ex singulis 〈…〉 Chronici pars prior ex Regio eodem quo usus sum Syncelli 〈…〉 simis quae ad pag. 521 522. annotavi demptis tota prodiit 〈…〉 nomine quasi Stylo exaratam cum Syncelli textu comparavi 〈…〉 pag. 504. seqq Quae sequitur Eusebii rursus nomen ejus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fert quae non nisi ex methodo ordine Eusebii est Audens dico sincerus ad Eusebii Chronici Latina Hieronymi verba ex Syncelli verbis propria Minervâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plasmavit Scaliger Quo motus Eusebium reparare voluit Quo ordine Latinae interpretationis cui tamen nonnulla velut è cerebro Palladem novam Coss. nimirum numerum alia adjungere quia sic scripsisse somniavit Eusebium non est ver 〈…〉 Subduntur ad Eusebium ut putat Addenda quae Thesauri illius pag. 213. quae ex Regiis