is the Bishop of Rome And the Title whereby he claimeth this power over us is the same whereby he claimeth it over the whole World because he is S. Peter's Successor forsooth And indeed if St. Peter himself had been now alive I should freely confess that he ought to have spiritual Authority and Superiority within this Kingdom But so would I say also if St. Andrew St. Bartholoâ—ew St. Thomas or any of the other Apostles had been alive For I know that their Commission was very large to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel unto every Creature So that in what part of the World soever they lived they could not be said to be out of their Charge their Apostleship being a kind of an Universal Bishoprick If therefore the Bishop of Rome can prove himself to be one of this rank the Oath must be amended and we must acknowledge that he hath Ecclesiastical Authority within this Realm True it is that our Lawyers in their Year-Books by the name of the Apostle do usually design the Pope But if they had examined his Title to that Apostleship as they would try an ordinary man's Title to a piece of Land they might easily have found a number of flaws and main defects therein For first It would be enquired whether the Apostleship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a special Commission which being personal only was to determine with the death of the first Apostles For howsoever at their first entry into the execution of this Commission we find that Matthias was admitted to the Apostleship in the room of Judas yet afterwards when James the Brother of John was slain by Herod we do not read that any other was substituted in his place Nay we know that the Apostles generally left no Successors in this kind Neither did any of the Bishops he of Rome only excepted that sate in those famous Churches wherein the Apostles exercised their ministry challenge an Apostleship or an Universal Bishoprick by virtue of that Succession It would secondly therefore be inquired what sound Evidence they can produce to shew that one of the company was to hold the Apostleship as it were in Fee for him and his Successors for ever and that the other eleven should hold the same for term of life only Thirdly if this state of perpetuity was to be cast upon one how came it to fall upon St. Peter rather than upon St. John who outlived all the rest of his follows and so as a surviving feoffee had the fairest right to retain the same in himself and his Successors for ever Fourthly if that state were wholly setled upon St. Peter seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome we require them to shew why so great an inheritance as this should descend unto the younger Brother as it were by Burrough-English rather than to the elder according to the ordinary manner of descents Especially seeing Rome hath little else to alledge for this preferment but only that St. Peter was crucified in it which was a very slender reason to move the Apostle so to respect it Seeing therefore the grounds of this great claim of the Bishop of Rome appear to be so vain and frivolous I may safely conclude That he ought to have no Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority within this Realm which is the principal point contained in the second part of the Oath JAMES REX RIght Reverend Father in God and Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor We greet you well You have not deceived our expectation nor the gracious opinion We ever conceived both of your abilities in Learning and of your faithfulness to Us and our Service Whereof as we have received sundry Testimonies both from Our precedent Deputies as likewise from Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Cousin and Councellor the Viscount Falkland Our present Deputy of that Realm so have We now of late in one particular had a further evidence of your Duty and Affection well expressed by your late carriage in Our Castle-Chamber there at the censure of those disobedient Magistrates who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy Wherein your zeal to the maintenance of Our Just and Lawful Power defended with so much Learning and Reason deserves Our Princely and Gracious thanks which We do by this Our Letter unto you and so bid you farewell Given under Our Signet at Our Court at White-Hall the eleventh of January 1622. In the twentieth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland To the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor the Bishop of Meath This discourse had so good an effect that divers of the Offenders being satisfied they might lawfully take those Oaths did thereby avoid the Sentence of Praemunire then ready to be pronounced against them After the Bishop had been in Ireland about two years it pleased King James to imploy him to write the Antiquities of the British Church and that he might have the better opportunity and means for that end he sent over a Letter to the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland commanding them to grant a Licence for his being absent from his See part of which Letter it may not be amiss to give you here Verbatim JAMES REX RIght Trusty and Welbeloved Cousins c. We Greet you well Whereas We have heretofore in Our Princely judgment made choice of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to imploy him in Collecting the Antiquities of the British Church before and since the Christian Faith was received by the English Nation And whereas We are also given to understand That the said Bishop hath already taken pains in divers things in that kind which being published might tend to the furtherance of Religion and good Learning Our pleasure therefore is That so soon as the said Bishop hath setled the necessary Affairs of his Bishoprick there he should repair into England and to one of the Universities here to enable himself by the helps to be had there to proceed the better to the finishing of the said Work Requiring you hereby to cause our Licence to be passed unto him the said Lord Bishop of Meath under Our Great Seal orotherwise as he shall desire it and unto you shall be thought fit for his repairing unto this Kingdom for Our Service and for his continuance here so long time as he shall have occasion to stay about the perfecting of those Works undertaken by him by Our Commandment and for the good of the Church c. Upon which Summons the Bishop came over into England and spent about a year here in consulting the best Manuscripts in both Universities and private Libraries in order to the perfecting that noble Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum though it was not published till above two years after when we shall take occasion to speak thereof more at large
that Government as well Ecclesiastical as Civil We have taken in special consideration the growth and increase of the Romish Faction there and cannot but from thence collect That the Clergy of that Church are not so careful as they ought to be either of God's Service or the honour of themselves and their Profession in removing all pretences of Scandal in their lives and conversation wherefore as We have by all means endeavoured to provide for them a competency of maintenance so We shall expect hereafter on their part a reciprocal diligence both by their Teaching and Example to win that Ignorant and Superstitious People to joyn with them in the true Worship of God And for that purpose We have thought fit by these Our Letters not only to excite your care of these things according to your Duty and dignity of your Place in that Church but further to Authorize you in Our Name to give by your Letters to the several Bishops in your Province a special charge requiring them to give notice to their Clergy under them in their Diocesses respectively That all of them be careful to do their Duty by Preaching and Catechising in the Parishes committed to their charge And that they live answerable to the Doctrine which they Preach to the People And further We Will that in Our Name you write to every Bishop within your Province That none of them presume to hold with their Bishopricks any Benefice or other Ecclesiastical dignity whatsoever in their own hands or to their own use save only such as We have given leave under Our Broad Seal of that Our Kingdom to hold in Commendam And of this We require you to be very careful because there is a complaint brought to the said Lords Committees for Irish Affairs That some Bishops there when Livings fall void in their Gift do either not dispose them so soon as they ought but keep the profits in their own hands to the hinderance of God's Service and great offence of good People or else they give them to young and mean men which only bear the Name reserving the greatest part of the Benefice to themselves by which means that Church must needs be very ill and weakly served of which abuses and the like if any shall be practised We require you to take special care for present redress of them and shall expect from you such account of your endeavours herein as may discharge you not to Us only but to God whose honour and service it concerns Given under Our Signet at Our Palace atWestminster the twelfth of April in the Sixth year of Our Reign By which Letter it is manifest how highly his Majesty was offended at the increase of the Popish party in that Kingdom and therefore would have all diligence used to prevent it as also other abuses reformed which had it seems crept in by degrees amongst the Protestant Clergy there But how little his Majesty liked the Romish Religion the Lord Primate was before very well satisfied by this Memorandum which I have of his own hand writing in a Book of his viz. The King once at White-Hall in the presence of George Duke of Buckingham of his own accord said to me That he never loved Popery in all his life But that he never detested it before his going into Spain But to return to the matter in hand the Lord Primate in pursuance of his Majestie 's Command which so fully agreed with his own desires set himself diligently to put in execution what had been committed to his care as well for the good of the Church as his Majestie 's Service He therefore endeavoured to reform first those disorders which had been complained of in his own Province and which had been in good measure rectified already as has been already mentioned and in the next place he made it his business to reclaim those deluded People who had been bred up in that Religion from their infancy for which end he began to converse more frequently and familiarly with the Gentry and Nobility of that perswasion as also with divers of the Inferior sort that dwelt near him inviting them often to his House and discoursing with them with great mildness of the chief Tenets of their Religion by which gentle usage he was strangely successful convincing many of them of their Errors and bringing them to the knowledge of the Truth And he also advised the Bishops and Clergy of his Province to deal with the Popish Recusants in their several Diocesses and Cures after the same manner that if possible they might make them understand their Errors and the danger in which they were which way in a Country where there are no Penal Laws to restrain the publick Profession of that Religion was the best if not the only means which could be used Nor was his care confined only to the conversion of the ignorant Irish Papists but he also endeavoured the reduction of the Scotch and English Sectaries to the bosom of the Church as it was by Law established conferring and arguing with divers of them as well Ministers as Lay-men and shewing them the weakness of those Scruples and Objections they had against their joyning with the publick Service of the Church and submitting to its Government and Discipline and indeed the Lord Primate was now so taken up in Conferences with all sorts of Persons or in answering Letters from Learned men abroad or else such as applied themselves to him for his judgment in difficult points in Divinity or resolutions in Cases of Conscience that whoever shall consider this as also his many Civil and Ecclesiastical Functions together with the constant course of his Studies must acknowledge that none but one of his large capacity and who made a constant good use of his time could ever be sufficient for so many and so different imployments About the end of this year I find the Arch-Bishop was in England by his publishing and printing at London a small Treatise of the Religion Anciently professed by the Irish which comprehends also the Northern Scots and Britains which he writ in English to satisfie the Gentry and better sort of People that the Religion professed by the Ancient Bishops Priests Monks and other Christians of these Kingdoms was the very same in the most material Points with that which is now maintained by publick Authority against those novel and foreign Doctrines introduced by the Bishop of Rome in latter times The next year Anno 1632. the Lord Primate after his return into Ireland published his Veterum Epistolarum Hybernicarum Sylloge containing a choice Collection of Letters out of several Ancient Manuscripts and other Authors partly from and partly to Ancient Irish Bishops and Monks Commencing about the year of our Lord 592. to the year 1180. concerning the Affairs of the Irish Church in those times which abundantly shew the great esteem the Learning and Piety of the Bishops and Clergy of that Church had then both at Rome France
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
into too great a bulk and only serve to prove that which I think no body questions I shall only refer you to the Learned Works of Mr. Cambden Mr. Selden Sir Roger Twisden Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall Bishop Prideaux and divers others of our own Country And of Foreigners to the Learned Vossius Spanhemius Testardus Morus Lud. de Dieu Bochartus and many more divers of whose Letters you will find in this ensuing Collection so that you can scarce read farther than the Preface or Epistle Dedicatory of several of their Works without finding his name mentioned with peculiar honour but I cannot here omit that Elogy given him by the Suffrages of the University of Oxford in a publick Convocation Anno 1644. since the Authors are not commonly known Jacobus Usserius Archiepiscopus Armachanus Totius Hiberniae Primas Antiquitatis primaevae peritissimus Orthodoxae Religionis vindex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Errorum malleus In Concionando frequens facundus praepotens Vitae inculpatae Exemplar Spectabile Rob. Pink Vicecancellarius Oxoniensis posuit This was then ordered to be placed under his Effigies cut in Brass at the charges of the University in order to be prefixed before his Works And unto what hath been already said concerning his great Learning we may add his great activity as occasion served to advance the Restauration of our old Northern Antiquities which lay buried in the Gothick Anglo-Saxonick and other the like obsolate Languages And for this we have the Testimony of two late learned and most industrious retrievers of those decayed Dialects namely Mr. Abraham Whelock late Professor of Arabick and Saxon in the University of Cambridge and Mr. Francis Junius The first of these in an Epistle before the Saxon Translation of Bede's History acknowledgeth the solemn direction and encouragement he received in Cambridge from the Lord Primate of Ireland in order to the prosecuting his publick Saxon Lectures in that place And in his Notes upon the Persian Gospels the same Author shews what information he received from that Reverend Person concerning the Doxology in the Lord's Prayer which is found in the very Ancient Translation of the Gospels into Gothick Mr. Junius published a very old Paraphrastical Poem in Saxon which upon strict enquiry was found to be written by one Caedmon a Monk of whom Bede makes mention The Manuscript Copy of which Poem the said Publisher lets his Reader know more than once he received from the hands of the Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh And when the same Author published the now mentioned Gothick Translation of the four Evangelists and carefully transcribed out of the most venerable Monument known by the name of Codex Argenteus he therewith printed in his Gothick Glossary a very learned Epistle upon that Subject written to him by the same Lord Primate of Armagh which you will find in this ensuing Collection But whilst we now speak of his Learning I had almost omitted to give you some account of that out of which he gained great part of it his excellent Library consisting of near 10000 Volumes Prints and Manuscripts all which he in the time of his prosperity intended to bestow at his death on the Colledge of Dublin in gratitude to the place where he received his Education But when it pleased God to lay that great Affliction upon him in the loss of all he had except his Books it is not to be wondered if he left those as a portion to his only Daughter who had been the Mother of a numerous Off-spring and hitherto had nothing from him and which besides some parcels of Gold he had by him that had been before presented to him by Mr. Selden's Executors and other Persons of Quality was all he had to leave her This Library which cost the Lord Primate many Thousand pounds was after his decease much sought for by the King of Denmark and Cardinal Mazarine and a good price offered for it by their Agents here But the Lord Primate's Administrators being prohibited by an Order from the Usurper and his Council to sell it to any without his consent it was at last bought by the Souldiers and Officers of the then Army in Ireland who out of Emulation to the former Noble Action of Queen Elizabeth's Army were incited by some men of Publick Spirits to the like performance and they had it for much less than what it was really worth or what had been offered for it before by the Agents above mentioned They had also with it all his Manuscripts which were not of his own hand-writing as also a choice though not numerous Collection of Ancient Coins But when this Library was brought over into Ireland the Usurper and his Son who then Commanded in chief there would not bestow it upon the Colledge of Dublin least perhaps the gift should not appear so considerable there as it would do by it self and therefore they gave out That they would reserve it for a new Colledge or Hall which they said they intended to Build and Endow But it proved that as those were not Times so were they not Persons capable of any such noble or pious work so that this Library lay in the Castle of Dublin unbestowed and unimployed all the remaining time of Cromwell's Usurpation but after his death and during that Anarchy and confusion that followed it the rooms where this Treasure was kept being left open many of the Books and most of the best Manuscripts were stolen away or else imbezeled by those who were intrusted with them but after his late Majesty's Restauration when they fell to his disposal he generously bestowed them on the Colledge for which they were intended by their owner where they now remain and as they are make up the greater part of that Library Thus having dispatch'd as well as I am able this account of the Life and Writings of this rare and admirable Prelate though infinitely short of his incomparable worth and perfections being so eminently Pious so prodigiously Learned and every way so richly accomplished I can only conclude humbly beseeching the God of all Grace the Father of Light the Giver of every good and perfect Gift That he would appoint and continue in his Church a constant Succession of such Lights and that particularly within his Majesty's Dominions these Churches may still flourish under the like Pious Watchful Laborious and Exemplary Ministers and Bishops who may adorn the Gospel and their own profession for the Confutation of the Adversaries of our Religion and the Conviction of all those who clamour against the Doctrine Government and Godly Worship now Established in the Church of England Amen M. S. JACOBUS USSERIUS Archiepiscopus Armachanus Hic situs est Ob Praeclaram Prosapiam Raram Eruditionem Ingenii Acumen Dicendi scribendi faeundiam Morum gravitatem suavitate conditam Vitae candorem integritatem Aequabilem in utrâque fortunâ animi constantiam Orbi Christiano Piis omnibus Charus Omniumque
very desirous to be certified of from you the one In what sort you would have him answer that Calumniation of our Irish Libeller where he intimateth that you dissemble your Religion and write otherwise than you think delusus Spe hujus secult et mundani honor is lenocinio illectus The other What you think of our great St. Patrick and of his Miracles Touching the former I assured him of my own knowledge that you were wrong'd most shamefully what you did you did out of Judgment and not led by any such base Respect as you were charged withal and that I knew for certain that with your heart you embraced the Religion which by Authority is maintained in the Church of England For the latter I gave him good leave to discredit as much as he list that Pack of ridiculous Miracles which latter Writers had fastned upon St. Patrick but wished him in no wise to touch the Credit of that worthy man himself nor to question his Succession to Palladius nor to cast him unto lower Times contrary to the consent of all Writers that ever make Mention of him And to this end I shewed unto him what I had gathered together to this purpose in a Treatise which I lately wrote at the Request of Dr. Hampton Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh of the first Planters of the Christian Faith in Ireland and specially of St. Patrick and his Successors in the See of Armagh but one word from you will satisfie him more than a hundred from me and therefore let me intreat you that you would here erranti comiter monstrare viam You easily may see what little Credit the Testimony or the Silence rather of so late an Author as Platina is may carry to bear down the constant agrement of all our own Writers The Objection would be far more specious if it were drawn from the Silence of venerable Bede who making express Mention both in his History and his Chronicle of Palladius speaketh nothing at all of Patricius Yet have I seen in Sir Robert Cotton's Library an ancient Fragment written before the time of Bede wherein St. Patrick is not only mentioned but also made to be as ancient in time as hitherto we have still believed him to have been It was found among Mr. Josseline's Papers and is now bound up in blew Leather with other Antiquities If you can come by the Book and will be pleased to transcribe that place of it where the Tradition of the Liturgy from Man to Man is described for there this Mention of St. Patrick is to be found either that or nothing will give full Satisfaction to our Doctor The Company of Stationers in London are now erecting a Factory for Books and a Press among us here Mr. Felix Kingston and some others are sent over for that Purpose They begin with the printing of the Statutes of the Realm afterwards they purpose to fall in Hand with my Collections De Christianarum Ecclesiarum Successione Statu I do intreat you of all Love to look over the first Edition and what you find I have mistaken or what you think may be further added out of the Antiquities which you have met withal signifie unto me I wrote unto you to this purpose about four years since by a Kinsman of mine Mr. John Brereton at which time also I desired to understand from you Whether it were possible to get the Copy of the Epistles to the Monks of Glastenbury attributed to St. Patrick which I remember you told me you had sometimes seen But since that time I have heard nothing from you If you will be pleased at this time to write unto me or to Dr. Rives who earnestly expecteth your Answer you may leave your Letters at my Lord Knevet's House in Westminster there to be delivered unto Sir Henry Docwra our Treasurer at Wars who will take Order that they shall be safely conveyed unto me And thus craving Pardon for my Boldness in troubling you thus far I take my Leave for this time resting always Your most loving and firm Friend James Usher Dublin June 8. 1618. LETTER XXXIV A Letter from Mr. William Camden to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh My most esteemed good Mr. Dr. YOur loving Letter of the Eighth of June I received the Fourth of July being retired into the Country for the recovery of my tender health where portum anhelans beatadinis I purposed to sequester my self from Worldly business and cogitations Yet being somewhat recovered I could not but answer your love and Mr. Doctor Rieves Letter for your sake with the few lines herein enclosed which I submit to your censure I thank God my life hath been such among men as I am neither ashamed to live nor fear to die being secure in Christ my Saviour in whose true Religion I was born and bred in the time of King Edward VI. and have continued firm therein And to make you my Confessor sub sigillo Confessionis I took my Oath thereunto at my Matriculation in the University of Oxon. when Popery was predominant and for defending the Religion established I lost a fellowship in All-Souls as Sir Daniel Dun could testifie and often would relate how I was there opposed by the Popish Faction At my coming to Westminster I took the like Oath where absit jactantia God so blessed my labours that the now Bishops of London Durham and St. Asaph to say nothing of persons employed now in eminent place abroad and many of especial note at home of all degrees do acknowledge themselves to have been my Scholars Yea I brought there to Church divers Gentlemen of Ireland as Walshes Nugents O Raily Shee s the eldest Son of the Arch-Bishop of Cassiles Petre Lombard a Merchants Son of Waterford a youth of admirable docility and others bred Popishly and so affected I know not who may justly say that I was ambitious who contented my self in Westminster School when I writ my Britannia and eleven years afterward Who refused a Mastership of Requests offered and then had the place of a King of Arms without any suit cast upon me I did never set sail after present preferments or desired to soar higher by others I never made suit to any man no not to his Majesty but for a matter of course incident to my place neither God be praised I needed having gathered a contented sufficiency by my long labours in the School Why the Annalectist should so censure me I know not but that men of all humours repair unto me in respect of my place and rest content to be belied by him who is not ashamed to belie the Lords Deputies of Ireland and others of honourable rank Sed haec tibi uni soli That I might give you better satisfaction I sent my Servant with directions to my Study at Westminster who found this which I have herein inclosed Which if they may stead you I shall be right glad As my health will permit I will look over
JACOBUS USSERIUS ARCHIEPISCOPUS ARMACHANUS TOTIUS HIBERNIAE PRIMAS London Printed for Nath Ranew and Ionat Robinson at the Kings Armes in S. Pauls church yard 1676 THE LIFE Of the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop OF ARMAGH Primate and Metropolitan of all IRELAND With a Collection of Three Hundred LETTERS between the said Lord Primate and most of the Eminentest Persons for Piety and Learning in his time both in England and beyond the Seas Collected and published from Original Copies under their own hands by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Chaplain at the time of his Death with whom the care of all his Papers were intrusted by his Lordship LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the Kings-Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard MDCL XXXVI THE PREFACE WHEN the Son of Syrach undertook to recount the Famous Men of Old and record their Worth and Renown he says of them That they were Men of Knowledge Wise and Eloquent in their Instructions that of these there are who have left behind them a Name beloved of God and good Men whose Memorials are Blessed honoured in their Generation being the Glory of their times whose Righteousness shall not be forgotten and although their Bodies be buried yet their Names shall live for Ever And as in the former so likewise in these latter Days there have been many Men of excellent Endowments for Wisdom and Learning for Piety and all other eminent Vertues whose Memorials are with us in Church and State Among these of the first Rank this admirable Primate James Usher whose Life we are about to relate ought to be reckoned whether we consider him as he was indeed a profound Scholar exactly skilled in all sorts of Learning Divine and Humane or as a Person of unfeigned Piety and exemplary Vertue and Conversation or as a Subject of steady and unmoveable Loyalty to his Sovereign Prince or as a Clergy Man in all his Capacity from a Presbyter to a Bishop and Primate So that I think of him it may be as truly said as of St. Augustine with a kind of Admiration O Virum ad totius Ecclesiae publicam utilitatem natum factum datúmque divinitùs This Character his Writings have justly purchased him among the best and most Learned whether of these or other Nations whose Encomiums of him are too many and large for this Place let me therefore include all in that of a memorable Bishop of our Church who upon the Receipt of the Primates Book de Primordiis thus writes of him I may truly say that the Church hereafter will owe as much Reverence to his Memory as we of this present Age ought to pay to his Person And therefore when we have before us a subject of so Eminent Dignity we shall no need Apology for reviving the Memory of this incomparable Prelate and collecting such materials from his Life his Papers and the Informations of Wise and Knowing Men as may render him as well useful to future Ages in his Example as a Person truly Illustrious in himself 1. But perhaps it may be a needless attempt to write again the Life and Actions of this incomparable Primate seeing it hath been performed already by several Persons 2. And likewise it may be demanded how it comes to my share and what were the enducements to undertake this Province 1. To the first I say that though Dr. Bernard in the Sermon be Preached at the Funerals of the Lord Primate hath said many worthy things of him truly which we have reason to believe having the joynt Testimonies from Persons of Worth and unquestionable Credit who had been acquainted with this great and good Man for many years both in England and Ireland and must go along with the Dr. a good way in reciting many material passages contained in the said Sermon yet I take leave to say that he hath omitted very many remarkable things which perhaps either slipt his Memory or came not at all under his observation or because that those then in Power would not indure that any thing should be said of the Primate which might reflect upon that Usurpation Therefore we thought it needful to make up those defects by adding such Remarks as are wanting in that Description and likewise to rectifie the mistakes of those Writers of the Lord Primates Life who Writing after Dr. Bernard's Copy are deficient also in their Accounts and lyable to Question in some instances 2. If it be demanded how it comes to my share to revive the Memory of this great Man and to undertake the Task To this I say that I waited and heartily wished to see if any Person better Qualified than my self being sensible of my own weakness would engage himself in this Affair to whom I would most readily have Communicated those Materials and Observations which I had gathered together and lay by me for a long time but at length perceiving it not likely to be undertaken I was perswaded by those who have a prevailing Power with me to take upon me this Task and to acquaint the World with my own Observations touching this most Reverend Primate Usher whom I had the Advantage of any Man now living to know for I had the Blessing of an intimate Acquaintance with his Person and Affairs by my Attendance on him during the last thirteen years of his Life So that I may be thought capable to give a considerable Account not only of the Lord Primates particular Disposition and heavenly Conversation but likewise of those Passages and Performances of which I was an Eye Witness and may confidently relate upon mine own Knowledge This is the thing I undertake to perform especially in that part of the History of his Life and Actions from the year 1642 to the time of his Death 1655. But not withstanding my long experience of this excellent Person and what I had collected from several passages in Letters and by conference with those who made Observations yet I had not the confidence to attempt this work by my own strength or skill without Counsel and Help therefore when I had drawn together the Memorials I consulted with Persons of better understandign than my self with request to correct and amend what was misplaced or not well expressed and to remind me of any remarkable passage that had escaped my Memory And the assistance I had in this kind was administred by that Learned and Judicious Gentleman James Tyrrell Esq Grandson to the Lord Primate one as deeply concerned for the honour of his Grandfather as can be he became helpful to me in hinting many passages touching his Grandfather which he tho then young had himself observed and had heard from Persons of great Worth and Credit and of the Primates familiar Acquaintance We also owe unto him the account given of the Lord Primates Printed Works both of the time and occasion of Writing them and subject matter treated on as the Reader will perceive in the following History
draw them up which Articles being signed by Arch-Bishop Jones then Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Speaker of the House of the Bishops in Convocation as also by the Prolocutor of the House of the Clergy in their names And signed by the then Lord Deputy Chichester by order from King James in his name As I shall not take upon me to defend these Articles in all points therein laid down or that they were better than those of the Church of England So on the other side I cannot be of the opinion of that Author who would needs have the passing of these Articles to be An absolute Plot of the Sabbatarians and Calvinians in England to make themselves so strong a Party in Ireland as to obtain what they pleased in this Convocation unless he will suppose that the Bishops and Clergy of that Church could be so inveagled by I know not what Inchantments as to pass those things for Articles of their Belief which they had never so much as studied nor understood the true meaning of And that the then Lord Deputy and King James were likewise drawn in to be of the Plot to Sign and Confirm those Articles which they knew to be Heterodox to the Doctrine and Articles of the Church of England Anno 1619 But though Dr. Usher was thus remarkable for Piety and Learning yet he could not escape the common Fate of extraordinary men viz. Envy and Detraction for there were some in Ireland though of no great repute for Learning or Worth who would needs have him to be a Puritan as then they called those whom they looked upon as disaffected to the discipline of the Church as by Law establisht And to lay a block in the way of his future Preferment they had got some to traduce him as such to the King who had no great kindness for those men as he had little reason But the Dr. hearing of it and having occasion about this time to come for England as he always had done once in three or four years The Lord Deputy and Council were so sensible of this scandal that for his Vindication they writ by him this Recommendatory Letter to His Majesties Privy-Council here May it please Your Lordships THe extraordinary merit of this Bearer Mr. Doctor Usher prevaileth with us to offer him that favour which we deny to many that move us to be recommended to Your Lordships and we do it the rather because we are desirous to set him right in His Majesties Opinion who it seemeth hath been informed that he is somewhat Transported with Singularities and unaptness to be Conformable to the Rules and Orders of the Church We are so far from suspecting him in that kind that we may boldly recommend him to Your Lordships as a man Orthodox and worthy to govern in the Church when occasion shall be presented And His Majesty may be pleased to advance him he being one that hath preached before the State here for eighteen years And has been His Majesties Professor of Divinity in the University thirteen years And a man who has given himself over to his Profession An excellent and painful Preacher a modest man abounding in goodness and his Life and Doctrine so agreeable as those who agree not with him are yet constrained to love and admire him And for such an one we beseech Your Lordships to understand him And accordingly to speak to His Majesty And thus with the remembrance of our humble Duties we take leave Your Lordships most humbly at Command Ad. Loftus Canc. Henry Docwra William Methwold John King Dud. Norton Oliver St. John William Tuameusis Fra. Anngiers From Dublin the last of Sept. 1619. But that you may see this odious nick-name was put upon many Pious and Orthodox Divines that did not deserve it it will not be amiss to give you this following Letter to Dr. Usher then in England from a worthy Divine then in Ireland Reverend Sir I Hope you are not ignorant of the hurt that is come to the Church by this name Puritan and how his Majesties good intent and meaning therein is much abused and wronged and especially in this poor Country where the Pope and Popery is so much affected I being lately in the Country had conference with a worthy painful Preacher who hath been an instrument of drawing many of the meer Irish there from the blindness of Popery to imbrace the Gospel with much comfort to themselves and heart-breaking to the Priests who perceiving they cannot now prevail with their jugling Tricks have forged a new device They have now stirred up some crafty Papists who very boldly rail both at Ministers and People saying They seek to sow this damnable Heresie of Puritanism among them which word though not understood but only known to be most odious to his Majesty makes many afraid of joyning themselves to the Gospel though in conference their Consciences are convicted herein So to prevent a greater mischief that may follow it were good to Petition his Majesty to define a Puritan whereby the mouths of those scoffing Enemies would be stopt And if his Majesty be not at leisure that he would appoint some good men to do it for him for the effecting thereof you know better than I can direct and therefore I commit you and your Affairs to the blessing of the Almighty praying for your good success there and safe return hither resting Your assured Friend to his power Emanuel Downing Dublin 24th Oct. 1620. But to return whence we have digressed this Character of the Lord Deputy together with King James's own conversation with and tryal of Dr. Usher whom he sent for on purpose to that end did so fully satisfie the King that after he had discoursed with him in divers points both of Learning and Religion he who was well able to judge of both was so extreamly well satisfied with him that he said he perceived That the knave Puritan was a bad but the knave's Puritan an honest man And of which latter sort he accounted Dr. Usher to be since the King had so good an opinion of him that of his own accord he now Nominated him to the Bishoprick of Meath in Ireland being then void Anno 1620 with this expression That Dr. Usher was a Bishop of his own making and so his Conge d' Eslire being sent over he was elected by the Dean and Chapter there And that you may perceive how much the report of his advancement rejoyced all sorts of men this following Letter from the then Lord Deputy of Ireland may testifie To Dr. James Usher Bishop Elect of Meath My Lord I Thank God for your Preferment to the Bishoprick of Meath His Majesty therein hath done a gracious favour to his poor Church here There is none here but are exceeding glad that you are called thereunto even some Papists themselves have largely testified their gladness of it Your Grant is and other necessary things shall be Sealed this Day or to Morrow I pray
After his coming over again he was for some time engaged in answering the bold challenge of Malone an Irish Jesuite of the Anno 1624 Colledge of Lovain which Treatise he finished and published this year in Ireland which he so solidly and learnedly performed that those that shall peruse it may be abundantly satisfied that those very Judges the Challenger appealed to viz. the Fathers of the Primitive Church did never hold or believe Transubstantiation Auricular Confession Purgatory or a Limbus Patrum Prayer for the Dead or to Saints the Use of Images in Divine Worship Absolute Free-Will with Merits annexed with those other points by him maintained And though about three years after the publishing of this Treatise when the Colledge of Lovain had been long studying how to answer it the said Malone did at last publish a long and tedious reply stuffed with Scurrillous and Virulent Expressions against the Lord Primate his Relations and Calling and full of quotations either falsly cited out of the Fathers or else out of divers supposititious Authors as also forged Miracles and lying Legends made use of meerly to blind the Eyes of ordinary Readers who are not able to distinguish Gold from Dross all which together gave the Bishop so great a disgust that he disdained to answer a fool according to his folly and made no reply unto him though some of his worthy friends would not let it pass so But the learned Dr. Hoyl and Dr. Sing and Mr. Puttock did take him to task and so fully and clearly lay open the falshood and disingenuity of those his Arguments and Quotations from the Ancient Records and Fathers of the Church which had been cited by this Author that he had very little reason to brag of his Victory After the Bishop had published this Treatise he returned again into England to give his last hand to his said Work De Primordiis and being now busied about it the Arch-Bishoprick of Armagh became vacant by the death of Dr. Hampton the late Arch-Bishop not long after which the King was pleased to nominate the Bishop of Meath though there were divers competitors as the fittest Person for that great charge and high dignity in the Church in respect of his own great Merits and Services done unto it and not long after he was Elected Arch-Bishop by the Dean and Chapter there After which the next Testimony that he received of His Majesties favour was his Letter to a Person of Quality in Ireland who had newly obtained the Custodium of the Temporalties of that See Forbidding him to meddle with or receive any of the Rents or Profits of the same but immediately to deliver what he had already received unto the Receivers of the present Arch-Bishop since he was here imployed in His Majesties special Service c. Not long after which favour it pleased God to take King James of Pious Memory out of this World Nor was his Son and Successor our late Gracious Sovereign less kind unto him than his Father had been which he signified not long after his coming to the Crown by a Letter under his Privy Signet to the Lord Deputy and Treasurer of the Realm of Ireland That Whereas the present Arch-Bishop of Armagh had for many years together on several occasions performed many painful and acceptable Services to his Dear Father deceased and upon his special directions That therefore he was pleased as a gracious acceptation thereof and in consideration of his said Services done or to be done hereafter to bestow upon the said Primate out of his Princely bounty 400 pound English out of the Revenues of that Kingdom But before the return of the said Arch-Bishop into Ireland I shall here mention an accident that happened about this time to let you see that he neglected no opportunity of bringing men from the darkness of Popery into the clearer light of the Reformed Religion I shall give you his own relation of it from a Note which though imperfect I find of his own hand writing Viz. That in November 1625. he was invited by the Lord Mordant and his Lady to my Lord's House at Drayton in Northampton-shire to confer with a Priest he then kept by the name of Beaumont upon the points in dispute between the Church of Rome and Ours And particularly That the Religion maintained by Publick Authority in the Church of England was no new Religion but the same that was taught by our Saviour and his Apostles and ever continued in the Primitive Church during the purest times So far my Lord's Note What was the issue of this Dispute we must take from the report of my Lord and Lady and other Persons of Quality there present that this Conference held for some days and at last ended with that satisfaction to them both and confusion of his Adversary that as it confirmed the Lady in her Religion whom her Lord by the means of this Priest endeavoured to pervert so it made his Lordship so firm a Convert to the Protestant Religion that he lived and died in it When the Lord Primate had dispatcht his Affairs in England he year 1626 then returned to be Enthroned in Ireland having before his going over received many Congratulatory Letters from the Lord Viscount Falkland then Lord Deputy the Lord Loftus then Lord Chancellor the Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin and divers others of the most considerable of the Bishops and Nobility of that Kingdom expressing their high satisfaction for his promotion to the Primacy many of which I have now by me no way needful to be inserted here Being now returned into his native Country and setled in this Anno 1626 great charge having not only many Churches but Diocesses under his care he began carefully to inspect his own Diocess first and the manners and abilities of those of the Clergy by frequent personal Visitations admonishing those he found faulty and giving excellent advice and directions to the rest charging them to use the Liturgy of the Church in all Publick Administrations and to Preach and Catechise diligently in their respective Cures and to make the Holy Scripture the rule as well as the subject of their Doctrine and Sermons Nor did he only endeavour to reform the Clergy among whom in so large a Diocess and where there was so small Encouragements there could not but be many things amiss but also the Proctors Apparitors and other Officers of his Ecclesiastical Courts against whom there were many great complaints of abuses and exactions in his Predecessor's time nor did he find that Popery and Prophaneness had increased in that Kingdom by any thing more than the neglect of due Catechising and Preaching for want of which instruction the poor People that were outwardly Protestants were very ignorant of the Principles of Religion and the Papists continued still in a blind obedience to their Leaders therefore he set himself with all his power to redress these neglects as well by his own example as by his Ecclesiastical
Discipline all which proving at last too weak for so inveterate a Disease he obtained his Majesty's Injunctions to strengthen his Authority as shall be hereafter mentioned The Winter after his coming over there were some Propositions made and offered to be assented unto by the Papists for a more full Toleration of their Religion viz. The maintaining 500 Horse and 5000 Foot wherein the Protestants must have born some share also for the consideration of which a great Assembly of the whole Nation both Papists and Protestants was called by the then Lord Deputy Falkland The meeting was in the Hall of the Castle of Dublin The Bishops by the Lord Primate's invitation met first at his House and both he and they then unanimously drew up and subscribed a Protestation against the Toleration of Popery which was as follows The Judgment of divers of the arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Ireland concerning Toleration of Religion THe Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous Their Faith and Doctrine Erroneous and Heretical Their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration or to consent that they may freely exercise their Religion and profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous sin and that in two respects For 1. It is to make our selves accessary not only to their Superstitions Idolatries and Heresies and in a word to all the abominations of Popery but also which is a consequent of the former to the perdition of the seduced People which perish in the Deluge of the Catholick Apostacy 2. To grant them Toleration in respect of any money to be given or contribution to be made by them is to set Religion to sale and with it the Souls of the People whom Christ our Saviour hath Redeemed with his most precious blood And as it is a great Sin so also a matter of most dangerous consequence The consideration whereof we commend to the Wise and Judicious Bejeeching the God of Truth to make them who are in Authority Zealous of God's Glory and of the advancement of true Religion Zealous Resolute and Courageous against all Popery Superstition and Idolatry Amen James Armachanus Richard Cork Cloyne Rossens Mal. Casellen Andr. Alachadens Anth. Medensis Tho. Kilmore Ardagh Tho. Fernes Leghlin Theo. Dromore Ro. Dunensis c. Michael Waterford Lysmore George Derens. Fran. Lymerick This Protestation of the Bishops Dr. Downham Lord Bishop of Derry at the next meeting of the Assembly April 23 d. 1627. published at christ-Christ-Church before the Lord Deputy and Council in the midst of his Sermon wherein he spake much against mens subordinating Religion and the keeping of a good Conscience to outward and worldly respects and to set their Souls to sale for the gain of earthly matters c. The Lord Primate the next Lord's Day preached before the same Auditory the Text was 1 John 5. 15. Love not the World nor the things that are in the World when he made the like Application with the Bishop rebuking such who for worldly ends like Judas would sell Christ for thirty pieces of Silver The Judgment of the Bishops prevailed so much with the Protestants that the Proposals were drove on very heavily but yet upon serious consideration when it was found that the weak and distracted condition of the Kingdom could not well subsist without some standing Forces it was resolved by the Lord Deputy and Council that the Lord Primate then a Privy-Councellor should in regard of his great esteem with all Parties declare in a Speech to the whole Assembly the true state of the Kingdom and the necessity of a standing Army for the defence thereof against any foreign Invasion or intestine commotions and consequently that a competent supply was needful to be granted for that purpose and that without any Conditions whatsoever as well by the Roman Catholick as Protestant Subjects for which end the Lord Deputy having Summoned the Assembly to the Castle-Chamber at Dublin the Lord Primate addressing himself to the Lord Deputy made this ensuing Speech My Lord THe resolution of those Gentlemen in denying to contribute date April 30th 1627 unto the supplying of the Army sent hither for their defence doth put me in mind of the Philosopher's observation That such as have a respect to a few things are easily misled The present pressure which they sustain by the imposition of the Souldiers and the desire they have to be eased of that burthen doth so wholly possess their minds that they have only an eye to the freeing of themselves from that incumbrance without looking at all to the desolations that are like to come upon them by a long and heavy War which the having of an Army in readiness might be a means to have prevented the lamentable effects of our last Wars in this Kingdom do yet freshly stick in our memories neither can we so soon forget the depopulation of our Land when besides the combustions of War the extremity of Famine grew so great that the very Women in some places by the way side have surprised the men that rode by to feed themselves with the flesh of the Horse or the Rider And that now again here is a Storm towards wheresoever it will light every wise man may easily foresee which if we be not careful to meet with in time our State may prove irrecoverable when it will be too late to think of Had I wist The dangers that now threaten us are partly from abroad and partly from home abroad we are now at odds with two of the most potent Princes in Christendom and to both which in former times the discontented persons in this Country have had recourse heretofore proferring the Kingdom it self unto them if they would undertake the Conquest of it for it is not unknown unto them that look into the search of those things that in the days of King Henry the Eighth the Earl of Desmond made such an offer of this Kingdom to the French King the Instrument whereof yet remains upon Record in the Court of Paris and the Bishop of Rome afterwards transferred the Title of all our Kingdoms unto Charles the Fifth which by new Grants was confirmed unto his Son Philip in the time of Queen Elizabeth with a resolution to setle this Crown upon the Spanish Infanta Which donations of the Pope's howsoever in themselves they are of no value yet will they serve for a fair colour to a Potent Pretender who is able to supply by the power of the Sword whatsoever therein may be thought defective Hereunto may we add that of late in Spain at the very same time when the treaty of the Match was in hand there was a Book published with great approbation there by one of this Country birth Philip O Sullevan wherein the Spaniard is taught That the ready way to establish his Monarchy for that is the only thing he mainly aimeth at and is plainly there confessed is first to set upon Ireland which being quickly obtained
England and elsewhere Containing likewise divers choice matters relating to the great Controversies of those times concerning the keeping of Easter as also divers things relating to the Ecclesiastical Discipline and Jurisdiction of the Church of that Kingdom very worthy the taking notice of And I suppose about this time if not before he contracted a more intimate acquaintance with the Reverend Dr. Laud Lord Bishop of London who had for some time managed the most considerable Affairs both in Church and State And I find by divers of his Letters to the Lord Primate as well whilst he was Bishop of London as after he was advanced to the See of Canterbury that there was scarce any thing of moment concluded on or any considerable Preferment bestowed by his Majesty in the Church of Ireland without his advice and approbation which you may see by some Letters in this ensuing Collection which we have selected from divers others of lesser moment as fittest for publick view but the L. Primate always made use of his interest with the said Arch-Bishop and other great men at Court not for his own private advantage but for the common good of the Church by opposing and hindering divers Grants and Patents to some great men and Courtiers who had under-hand obtained the same and particularly he caused a Patent made to a Person of Quality of the Scotch Nation in Ireland of several Tythes to be called in and vacuated his Majesty being deceived in his Grant who would not have done any thing prejudicial to the Church had he been rightly informed of the nature of the thing and the Lord Primate was so much concerned for a competent maintenance for the Clergy in that Kingdom that he had some years before this obtained a Grant of a Patent from his Majesty to be passed in his own name though for the use of the Church of such impropriations belonging to the Crown as were then Leased out as soon as they should fall which though it did not succeed being too much neglected by those who were concerned more immediately yet it sufficiently shews my Lord's pious intentions in this matter About this time there was a Letter sent over from his late Anno 1634 Majesty to the Lord Viscount Wentworth then Lord Deputy and the Council of Ireland for determining the precedency of the Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Arch-Bishop of Dublin in respect of their Sees the latter making some pretence unto it therefore in regard of a Parliament intended by his Majesty shortly to meet it was thought fit for order's sake that controversie should be decided before their meeting In order to which he was commanded by the Lord Deputy to reduce into writing what he knew upon that subject But he not desiring to engage in so invidious an argument and which so nearly concerned himself and which he did not desire to have stirred did what he could to decline it but being still further urged and commanded to do it he did at last though unwillingly write a short and learned discourse full of excellent remarks wherein he proved the Antiquity and Primacy of his See to have preceded that of Dublin divers Ages which discourse being sent over into England the precedency was determined by his Majesty on his side as afterwards by another Letter from his Majesty and Council here he had also without his seeking the precedency given him of the Lord Chancellor which he being above such trifles were not at all able to elate him At the opening of the following Parliament he preached before the Lord Deputy Lords and Commons at St. Patrick's Dublin his Text was Genes 49. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till Shiloh come and to him shall the gathering of the People be And in the Convocation which was now Assembled the Lord Primate at the instrance of the Lord Deputy and Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury thought fit to propose That to express the agreement of the Church of Ireland with that of England both in Doctrine and Discipline the Thirty Nine Articles should be received by the Church of Ireland which Proposal was thereupon consented to by both Houses of Convocation and the said Articles were declared to be the Confession of Faith of the Church of Ireland but without abrogating or excluding the former Articles made 1615 either by that Convocation or Parliament as two several Writers of those times viz. a Church and Civil Historian have without ground reported them to be And though the latter was at last brought to confess his Error of their being Repealed by Autority of Parliament yet he still insisted That the reception of the Articles of the Church of England though it be not an express yet is a tacite annulling of the former instancing in the Old Covenant which St. Paul proves to be abrogated by the giving of a New which were a good Argument if the Articles of the Church of England were as inconsistent with those of Ireland as those two Covenants are with each other but if they differ no more than the Nicene does from the Apostles Creed which though it contains more yet does not Annul the former then without doubt the receiving of the Articles of the Church of England was no abrogation of those of Ireland But since it is not my design to write Controversies I shall not enter farther into this Argument but shall leave the Reader to consider whether the instances brought by the Historian to prove the Articles of these two Churches to be inconsistent are convincing or not and shall say no more on this ungrateful subject but that it is highly improbable that the Lord Primate should be so outwitted by the Lord Deputy or his Chaplains as the Historian makes him to have been in this affair but that he very well understood the Articles of both Churches and did then know that they were so far from being inconsistent or contradictory to each other that he thought the Irish Articles did only contain the Doctrine of the Church of England more fully or else he would never have been so easily perswaded to an Act which would amount to a Repeal of those Articles which as hath been already said he himself made and drew up And for a farther proof that this was the sense not only of himself but of most of the rest of the Bishops at that time they always at all Ordinations took the subscription of the Party Ordained to both Articles the Articles of England not being received instead but with those of Ireland as Dr. Bernard hath informed us which course was continued by the Lord Primate and most part of the Bishops till the confusion of that Church by the Irish Rebellion And if at this day the subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles be now only required of the Clergy of that Kingdom I suppose it is purely out of prudential considerations that any divine or other person of that
About this time whilst his late Majesty was kept Prisoner at year 1648 Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight the Lord Primate was highly concerned at the disloyal actions of the two Houses towards their Lawful Prince to express which he preached at Lincolns-Inn on this Text Isa. 8. 12 13. Say ye not a Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a Confederacy neither fear you their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Wherein he sufficiently expressed his dislike of those Covenants and Consederacies which they had now entred into contrary to that Oath they had taken already and that we should not fear man more than God when we were to do our Duty to our Prince or Country Not long after which the Presbyterians finding the Independant party too strong for them had no way left to secure themselves but by recalling their Votes of Non-Addresses and to Vote a Treaty with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight And because the differences concerning Church-Government were not the least of those that were to be setled and concluded at this Treaty and for which it was necessary for his Majesty to consult with some of his Bishops and Divines the Lord Primate was sent for by the King among divers others to attend him for that purpose when he came thither he found one of the greatest points then in debate was about the Government of the Church The Parliament Commissioners insisting peremptorily for the abolishing and taking away arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops c. out of the Churches of England and Ireland His Majesty thought he could not with a good Conscience consent to that demand viz. totally to abolish or take away Episcopal Government but his Majesty then declared that he no otherwise aimed at the keeping up the present Hierarchy in the Church than what was most agreeable to the Episcopal Government in the Primitive and purest Times But his Majesty since the Parliament insisted so obstinately on it was at last forced to consent to the suspension of Episcopacy for three years but would by no means agree to take away Bishops absolutely But now to stop the present career of the Presbyterian Discipline the Lord Primate proposed an expedient which he called Episcopal and Presbyterial Government conjoyned and which he not long after he came thither delivered into his Majesty's hands who having perused it liked it well saying it was the only Expedient to reconcile the present differences for his Majesty in his last Message to the Parliament had before condescended to the reducing of Episcopal Government into a much narrower compass viz. Not only to the Apostolical Institution but much farther than the Lord Primate proposed or desired even to the taking away of Arch-Bishops Deans Chapters c. Together with all that additional Power and Jurisdiction which his Majesty's Predecessors had bestowed upon that Function Which Message being read in the House was by them notwithstanding voted unsatisfactory So that the Presbyterian Party was so absolutely bent to abolish the very Order of Bishops that no proposals of his Majesty's though never so moderate would content them till at last when they had wrangled so long till they saw the King's person seized by the Army and that the power was like to be taken out of their hands they then grew wiser and would have agreed to his Proposals when it was too late and so the Presbyterian Party saw themselves within a few days after forcibly excluded and turned out of doors by that very Army which they themselves had raised and hired to fight against their Prince which as it was the cause of his Majesty's destruction so it proved their own ruine But since some of the Church of England have been pleased to judge very hardly of this Proposal made by the Arch-Bishop as if it too much debased the Episcopal Order and levelled it with that of Presbyters To vindicate the Lord Primate from which imputation I desire them to consider these particulars first the time when this Expedient was proposed viz. When his Majesty had already consented to the suspension of Episcopal Government for three years absolutely as also for setling Presbytery in the room of it for that time and for quite taking away Arch-Bishops Deans and Chapters c. as hath been already said whereas the Lord Primate's Expedient proposes none of these but supposes the Arch-Bishops or Primates ought to be continued appointing them to be the moderators of the Provincial Synods of Suffragans and Pastors And though it is true he mentions Bishops as to be only Presidents of the Diocesan Synod yet he no where denies them a Negative Voice in that Assembly and though he mentions at the beginning of this Expedient that the Bishops were wont in the Primitive times to do nothing of moment without the advice of a Synod of their Clergy as he proves from divers quotations out of the Fathers and Ancient Councils yet he does not assert this practice as a thing of Divine or unalterable right but only as the custom and practice of the Church in those Times which being only prudential may be altered one way or other according as the peace and order of the Church or the exigency of Affairs may require and though in Sect. 11. of this Expedient he proposes the making of as many Suffragans in each Diocess as there are Rural Deanries in the same and who should assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or Ministers of their Precinct yet their power was only to be according to the Statute of the 26th of Henry the Eighth whereby they are expresly forbid to act in any matters but by the Authority of and in Subordination to their Diocesan Bishop nor does the Lord Primate here extend their power farther than to be moderators of this lesser Synod where matters of Discipline and Excommunication only were to be determined still reserving the power of Ordination to the Diocesan this being no where given from him in this Expedient neither was this power of Excommunication left absolutely to this lesser Synod without an Appeal to the Diocesan Synod of the Suffragans and the rest of the Pastors wherein the Bishop was to preside only I shall say thus much That it was not the Lord Primate's design or intention in the least to rob the Bishops of any of those just Rights which are essentially necessary to their Order and Constitution and without abasing Episcopacy into Presbytery or stripping the Church of its Lands and Revenues both which the Lord Primate always abhorred for he was of his Majesty's mind in his excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Presbytery is never so considerable or effectual as when it is joyned to and Crowned with Episcopacy And that the King himself was then convinced that this was the best Expedient for the setling of the differences of the Church at that time You may
some of the most considerable Episcopal Clergy in and about London desired my Lord Primate that he would use his Interest with Cromwell since they heard he pretended a great respect for him that as he granted Liberty of Conscience to almost all sorts of Religions so the Episcopal Divines might have the same freedom of serving God in their private Congregations since they were not permitted the publick Churches according to the Liturgy of the Church of England and that neither the Ministers nor those that frequented that Service might be any more hindered or disturbed by his Souldiers So according to their desires he went and used his utmost endeavours with Cromwell for the taking off this restraint which was at last promised though with some difficulty that they should not be molested provided they medled not with any matters relating to his Government But when the Lord Primate went to him a second time to get this promise Ratified and put into Writing he found him under his Chyrurgeons hands who was dressing a great Boyl which he had on his Breast so Cromwell prayed the Lord Primate to sit down a little and that when he was dressed he would speak with him whilst this was a doing Cromwell said to my Lord Primate If this Core pointing to the Boyl were once out I should quickly be well to whom the good Bishop replyed I doubt the Core lies deeper there is a Core at the heart that must be taken out or else it will not be well Ah! replyed he seeming unconcerned so there is indeed and sighed But when the Lord Primate began to speak to him concerning the business he came about he answered him to this effect That he had since better considered it having advised with his Council about it and that they thought it not safe for him to grant liberty of Conscience to those sort of men who are restless and implacable Enemies to him and his Government and so he took his leave of him though with good words and outward civility The Lord Primate seeing it was in vain to urge it any farther said little more to him but returned to his Lodgings very much troubled and concerned that his endeavours had met with no better success when he was in his Chamber he said to some of his Relations and my self that came to see him This false man hath broken his word with me and refuses to perform what he promised well he will have little cause to glory in his wickedness for he will not continue long the King will return though I shall not live to see it you may The Government both in Church and State is in confusion the Papists are advancing their Projects and making such advantages as will hardly be prevented Not long after this viz. about the midle of February following he went from London to Rygate taking his last leave of his Friends and Relations who never had the happiness to see him again As soon as he came thither he set himself to finish his Chronologia Sacra which took up most of that little time he after lived he was now very Aged and though both his Body and mind were healthy and vigorous for a man of his years yet his Eye-sight was extremely decayed by his constant studying so that he could scarce see to write but at a Window and that in the Sun-shine which he constantly followed in clear days from one Window to another so that had he lived he intended to have made use of an Ammanuensis He had now frequent thoughts of his dissolution and as he was wont every year to Note in his Almanack over against the day of his Birth the year of his Age so I find this year 1655. this Note written with his own hand Now Aged 75 years My Days are full and presently after in Capital Letters RESIGNATION From which we may gather that he now thought the days of his Pilgrimage to be fulfilled and that he now wholly resigned up himself to God's Will and Pleasure Not long before his death going to Rygate I preached a Sermon there where this good Bishop was present after Church he was pleased to confer with me in private as 't was usual with him so to do and he spake to this effect I thank you for your Sermon I am going out of this World and I now desire according to you Text To seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and to be with him in Heaven of which said he we ought not to doubt if we can evidence to our selves our Conversion True Faith and Charity and live in the Exercise of those Christian Graces and Vertues with perseverance mortifying daily our inbred Corruptions renouncing all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts and he that is arrived at this habitual frame and holy course of life is the blessed and happy man and may rejoyce in hope of a glorious Eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven to receive that Inheritance given by God to those that are sanctified So that all his discourse was of Heavenly things as if his better part had been there already freed from the Body and all Terrene affections and he seemed as if he were seriously considering his Spiritual State and making ready for his departure which he now shortly expected But since it had been usual with him to insist on things of this Nature when we were together and that he was at this time in health I did not believe that his Change was so near as he presaged yet he himself had other thoughts and it proved he was not mistaken for on the 20th of March the day he fell sick after he had been most part of it as long as he had light at his Study he went from thence to visit a Gentlewoman then sick in the House giving her most excellent preparatives for death together with other holy advice for almost an hour and that in such a Heavenly manner as if like Moses upon Mount Pisgah he had then a prospect of the Celestial Canaan that Night after Supper he first complained of his hip judging it to be a touch of the Sciatica which he had many years agone next Morning early he complained of a great pain in his side a Physician being sent for prescribed what he thought convenient in that case but it could not thereby be removed but rather encreased more and more upon him which he bore with great patience for 13 or 14 hours but his strength and spirits decaying he wholly applied himself to prayer and therein had the assistance of the Countesse's Chaplain upon some abatement of the torture he advised those about him to provide for death in the time of health that then they might have nothing else to do but to dye Then taking his leave of the Countess of Peterborough by whom he had been so long and kindly entertained and giving her many thanks for all her kindness to him with excellent Spiritual Counsel as
this good Bishop took delight to advise others in the exercise of this great Duty so likewise he said none of his Labours adminstred greater comfort to him in his Old Age than that he had ever since he vvas called to the Ministry vvhich vvas very early endeavoured to discharge that great Trust committed unto him of preaching the Gospel vvhich he accounted so much his duty that he made this the Motto of his Episcopal Seal Vae mihi si non Evangelizavero I mention not this as if he thought all those of his ovvn Order vvere obliged to preach constantly themselves since he was sensible that God hath not bestowed the same Talents on all men alike but as St. Paul says Gave some Apostles and some Pastors and Teachers though on some he hath bestowed all these gifts as on this great Prelate yet it is not often And besides God's Providence so ordained that as he had qualified him in an extraordinary manner for the preaching of the Gospel so likewise towards his latter end he should be reduced to that condition as in great part to live by it And here I cannot omit that amongst many of those Advices which he gave to those who came to him for Spiritual Counsel one was concerning Afflictions as a necessary mark of being a Child of God which some might have gathered out of certain unwary passages in Books and which he himself had met with in his Youth and which wrought upon him so much that he earnestly prayed God to deal with him that way and he had his request And he told me that from that time he was not without various Afflictions through the whole course of his life and therefore he advised that no Christian should tempt God to shew such a Sign for a mark of his paternal love but to wait and be prepared for them and patient under them and to consider the intention of them so as to be the better for them when they are inflicted And by no means to judge of a man's Spiritual State either by or without Afflictions for they are fallible Evidences in Spiritual matters but that we should look after a real sincere Conversion and internal Holiness which indeed is the only true Character and Evidence of a state of Salvation I have already given you some account of his carriage whilst he exercised his Sacred Function in his own Country to which I shall only add That as his Discipline was not too severe so was it not remiss being chiefly exercised upon such as were remarkably Vicious and Scandalous in their Lives and Conversations whether of the Clergy or Laity for as he loved and esteemed the sober diligent and pious Clergy-men and could not endure they should be wronged or contemned so as for those who were Vicious Idle and cared not for their Flocks he would call them the worst of men being a scandal to the Church and a blemish to their profession and therefore he was always very careful what persons he Ordained to this high Calling observing St. Paul's injunction to Timothy Lay hands suddenly on no man And I never heard he Ordained more than one person who was not sufficiently qualified in respect of Learning and this was in so extraordinary a case that I think it will not be amiss to give you a short account of it there was a certain English Mechanick living in the Lord Primate's Diocess who constantly frequented the publick Service of the Church and attained to a competent knowledge in the Scriptures and gave himself to read what Books of Practical Divinity he could get and was reputed among his Neighbours and Protestants thereabouts a very honest and Pious Man this Person applyed himself to the Lord Primate and told him That he had an earnest desire to be admitted to the Ministry but the Bishop refused him advising him to go home and follow his Calling and pray to God to remove this Temptation yet after some time he returns again renewing his request Saying He could not be at rest in his Mind but that his desires toward that Calling encreased more and more whereupon the Lord Primate discoursed him and found upon Examination that he gave a very good account of his Faith and knowledge in all the main points of Religion Then the Bishop questioned him farther if he could speak Irish for if not his Preaching would be of little use in a Country where the greatest part of the People were Irish that understood no English The Man replyed that indeed he could not speak Irish but if his Lordship thought fit he would endeavour to learn it which he bid him do and as soon as he had attained the Language to come again which he did about a Twelvemonth after telling my Lord that he could now express himself tolerably well in Irish and therefore desired Ordination whereupon the Lord Primate finding upon Examination that he spake Truth Ordained him accordingly being satisfied that such an ordinary Man was able to do more good than if he had Latin without any Irish at all nor was the Bishop deceived in his expectation for this Man as soon as he had a Cure imployed his Talent diligently and faithfully and proved very successful in Converting many of the Irish Papists to our Church and continued labouring in that Work until the Rebellion and Massacre wherein he hardly escaped with Life And as this good Bishop did still protect and encourage those of his own Coat so did he likewise all poor Men whom he found oppressed or wronged by those above them And for an instance of this I will give you part of a Letter which he Writ to a Person of Quality in Ireland in behalf of a poor Man which was his Tenant whom he found much wronged and oppressed by him viz. I Am much ashamed to receive such Petitions against you Have you never read that the unrighteous and he that doth wrong shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Think there is a God who heareth the Cry of the Poor and may bring a rot upon your Flocks and Curse every thing you put your hand to And if you think not of him because you see him not although he sees you through and through yet believe your own Eyes and consider that he hath appointed his Deputies upon Earth the higher Powers which will not suffer the Poor to be oppressed by you or those that are greater than you for shame therefore give content to this Petitioner that you hear not of this in a place where your Face must blush and your Ears tingle at the hearing of it J. A. Now having given as brief a Character as I could of this excellent Prelate not only as a private Man but also a Minister and Bishop of Gods Church and as a most Loyal Subject to his Lawful Sovereign Prince expressed upon all occasions I should proceed in the last place to give some account of his Judgment and Opinions in points of Religion and
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
Primis Haereticis Haeresibus Judaeorum Annotationes Rabbinicae ex Scriptis Rabbinorum eorum Scarae Scripturae Interpretum Imperatorum Christianorum à Constantino magno usque ad Justinianum Constitutiones Epistolae collectae recensitae Veterum Anglo-Saxorum Monumenta Anglo-Saxonicarum Epistolarum Sylloge ex variis Manuscriptis Epistolae Alcuini variae ad diversos Missae ineditae in Bibliothecâ Cottonianâ Manuscriptis collectae recensitae Epistolae venerabilis Archiepiscop Lanfranci ad diversos Missae ex antiquissimo exemplari Bibliothecae Cottonianae collectae recensitae Collectiones Genealogicae Historicae Mathematicae Astrologicae Chronologicae Theologicae variae de quibus passim judicium fertur Memorandum THat out of the forementioned Manuscripts the Incomparable Sir Math. Hale late Lord Chief Justice having borrowed them extracted those four Volumes which he calls Chronological Remembrances extracted out of thë Notes of Bishop Usher mentioned in the Catalogue of his Manuscripts which he Left to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn Besides those Manuscripts above cited the Primate Usher had Written his Polemical Lectures in the University of Dublin while professor there touching the Points in Controversie between the Protestants and Pontificians 3 Volumes 4 to Lost His Lectures pro formâ when he commenced Dr. of Divinity touching the 70 Weeks Dan. 9. 24. and de Mille Annis mentioned Apocal. 20. 4. Lost His Treatise of the Hermage and Corban Lands in England and Ireland yet to be seen in Bibliothecâ Lambethianâ His Collections and Observations touching the Advancement and Restauration of our Northern Antiquities in the Gothick Anglo-Saxonick and the like obscure Languages and also concerning the Doxology found in the very Ancient Gospels in Gothick His Numerous Epistles Latin and English touching matters of Learning and Religion many of them now Printed in Collection with others An APPENDIX to the Life of the Lord Primate USHER containing a vindication of his Opinions and Actions in reference to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England and his Conformity thereunto from the Aspersions of Peter Heylin D. D. in his Pamphlet called Respondet Petrus FInding that Dr. Heylin hath taken the pains to write this Book on purpose to callumniate and asperse the Lord Primates Memory and arraign his Opinions and Actions as not conformable to the Doctrines of the Church of England I cannot well omit to consider what that Author hath there laid to his charge how justly I shall leave to the impartial Reader to judg for I hope I shall make it appear that what the Lord Primate hath either publish'd or written in private Letters on those Subjects was on very good grounds and such as may very well be defended as agreeable to the Sence and Doctrine of our Church contained in the 39 Articles Or if after all I can say the Reader shall happen to think otherwise I desire him not to censure too hardly but to pass it by since such difference if any be was not in the fundamental Doctrines of our Religion but only some Points of lesser moment or in which the Church it self has not tied men either to this or that sence and that the Lord Primate held these Opinions not out of contradiction or singularity but only because he thought them more agreeable to Scripture and Reason tho in most of them I doubt not but to shew that the Doctor has stretched the Lord Primate's words farther than ever his own sence and meaning was But to come to the Points in which the Doctor hath made bold to question his Judgment the first is his Opinion of the Divine Morality of the Sabbath or Seventh days rest asserted by him in two several Letters published tho perhaps not so prudently with those private reflections by Dr. Bernard in which Controversy whether the Authorities made use of by the Lord Primate out of the Fathers and other Writers do not make out the Assertion by him laid down or whether the Doctor has fairly and ingenuously answered those Quotations he cites in those Letters I shall not here take upon me to examine but shall observe thus much That as it is a Doctrine held by some of the Fathers as also maintained by divers learned Divines and Bishops of our Church and therefore could not be so Puritanical as the Doctor would have it especially since the Lord Primate thought that he had the Church of England on his side as she hath declared her sence of this matter in the first part of the Homily of the time and place of Prayer viz. God hath given express charge to all Men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday they shall cease from all weekly and work-day labour to the intent that like as God himself wrought six days and rested the seventh and blessed and consecrated it to quietness and rest from labour even so God's obedient People should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily business and also give themselves wholly to the heavenly exercise of God's true Religion and Service Which passage being expresly in the point of my Lord Primat's side the Sabbath day mentioned in the fourth Commandment being there called our Sunday and the same reason laid down for its observation viz. because God had rested on the seventh day c. The Doctor has no way to oppose this so express Authority but to make if possible this Homily to contradict it self and therefore he produces another passage just preceding in this Homily as making for his Opinion which that you may judge whether it does so or no I shall put down the passage as he himself hath cited it with his Conclusions from it and shall then further examine whether it makes so much of his side as he would have it viz. As concerning the time in which God hath appointed his People to assemble together solemnly it doth appear by the fourth Commandment c. And albeit this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian People so strictly to observe and keep the utter Ceremonies of the Sabbath day as it was given unto the Jews as touching the forbearing of work and labour and as touching the precise keeping of the seventh day after the manner of the Jews for we keep now the first day which is our Sunday and make that our Sabbath that is our day of rest in honour of our Saviour Christ who upon that day rose from death conquering the same most triumphantly yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in the Commandment appertaining to the Law of Nature as a thing most godly most just and needful for the setting forth of God's Glory ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian People So that it being thus resolved that there is no more of the fourth Commandment to be retained by good Christian People than what is found appertaining to the Law of Nature and that the Law of Nature doth not tie us to one day in seven
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
God But if by Jure Divino you would understand a Law binding all Christian Churches universally perpetually unchangeably and with such absolute Necessity that no other form of Regiment may in any case be admitted in this sence we cannot grant it to be Jure Divino And much of the same Opinion is the Learned Bishop Davenant in his Treatise So that you see here that as Learned Men and as stout Asserters of Episcopacy as any the Church of England hath had have been of the Lord Primat's Judgment in this matter tho without any design to lessen the Order of Bishops or to take away their use in the Church since Mr. Mason in the said Treatise tho he grants the French Churches having a constant President of the Presbytery to enjoy the substance of the Episcopal Office Yet whereas their Discipline is still very defective he wishes them in the bowels of Christ by all means to redress and reform it and to conform themselves to the ancient Custom of the Church of Christ So that I hope after all this Question Whether Episcopacy be Ordo or Gradus will prove only a difference in words rather than substance between those of the Lord Primat's Judgment and those of the contrary since they are both agreed in the main Points in controve sie between them and the Presbyterians viz. That Bishops were ordained in the Church by the Apostles themselves from the direction or at least approbation of our Saviour himself being the Stars which St. John saw in his Vision in our Lord Christ's own Hand and that they are permanent immutable Officers in the Church which cannot subsist without it but in Cases of pure Necessity And lastly that those Presbyters which in Churches founded and setled with Bishops do separate from them are guilty of Schism These things being agreed upon on both sides I think the rest of the Controversie is not worth contending about But if any Learned Persons of the Church of England who are well vers'd in the Writings of the Fathers and other ancient Monuments of the Church have already proved or can further make out that Episcopacy has always been an absolute distinct Order as well as Office in the Church I suppose the Lord Primate were he now alive would be so far from opposing them that he would heartily thank them for giving him greater light provided it could be done without unchurching all those Protestant Churches abroad vvho want Bishops And I hope however if the Lord Primat may be thought by the Doctor or others not to go high enough in this matter nor sufficiently to magnifie his own Office yet that he may well be pardoned since it proceeded from his excess of Humility and Charity towards our neighbouring-Churches to whom no good Protestants ought to deny the right-hand of fellowship The third Point which the Doctor will have the Lord Primat to hold contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England which he says maintains an Universal Redemption of all Mankind by the Sufferings and Death of Christ as is proved by the Prayer of Consecration of the sacred Elements in the Sacrament which declares that God hath given to his Son Jesus Christ by his suffering death upon the Cross and by the Oblation of himself a full and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World And also that in the publick Catechism the party catechised is taught to believe in God the Son who hath redeemed him and all Mankind But that in this Point the Lord Primat is of a contrary Judgment to the Church of England For as he seems not to like their opinion who contradict the riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World so he declareth his dislike of the other Extream as he is pleased to call it by which the benefit of this Satisfaction is extended to the Redemption of all Mankind The one Extremity saith he extends the benefit of Christ's Satisfaction so far ut reconciliationem cum Deo Peccatorem Remissionem singulis impetraverit as to obtain a Reconciliation with God and a Remission of Sins for all Men at his merciful hands p. 21. which tho they are the words of the Remonstrants at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1611 and are by him reckoned for untrue yet do they naturally result from the Doctrine of Universal Redemption which is maintained in the Church of England not that all Mankind is so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their Sins before they actually believe which the Lord Primate makes to be the meaning and effect of that Extremity as he calls it p. 2. but that they are so far reconciled unto Him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith in their common Saviour which is required thereunto And here the Doctor thinks he finds out two notable Contradictions in the Lord Primat's Letter of the Year 1617 since in one part thereof he seems to dislike of their Opinion who contract the riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any kind of interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World as before was said And in the other he declares that he is well assured that our Saviour hath obtained at the hands of his Father Reconciliation and Forgiveness of Sins not for the Reprobate but Elect only p. â—1 Now the Doctor has done his worst Yet I hope to prove that tho there may be a difference between my Lord Primat's way of explaining this Doctrine and that of the Doctor 's which proceeds indeed from the different Notions they had of Election and Reprobation Yet that there is no such formidable Contradiction in these two Propositions of my Lord Primat's by him laid down as the Doctor fancies or that the L. Primat hath maintained any thing in this Doctrine contrary to that of the Church of England for 1. the Doctor owns that all Mankind is not so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their Sins before they actually believe but that they are so far reconciled unto him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith in their common Saviour which is required thereunto Now what will the Doctor get by these words if they are so far reconciled to him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith which is required thereunto since the Question still remains between the Lord Primat and those of the contrary Opinion Whether all Men can obtain without the aid of Grace this saving Faith which is required thereunto Our Saviour says the direct contrary Joh. 6. 44 65. No Man can come to me except the
in very deed by God's faithful People By which it seems it is agreed on both sides that is to say the Church of England and the Church of Rome that there is a true and real Presence of Christ in the holy Eucharist the disagreement being only in the modus Praesentiae But on the contrary the Ld Primat in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge hath written one whole Chapter against the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament In which tho he would seem to aim at the Church of Rome tho by that Church not only the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but the corporal eating of his Body is maintained and taught yet doth he strike obliquely and on the by on the Church of England All that he doth allow concerning the real Presence is no more than this viz. That in the receiving of the blessed Sacrament we are to distinguish between the outward and the inward action of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouth we receive really the visible Elements of Bread and Wine in the inward we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord that is to say we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man Which is no more than any Calvinist will stick to say But now after all these hard words the Doctor has here bestowed upon my Lord Primat part of which I omit I think I can without much difficulty make it appear that all this grievous Accusation of the Doctor 's is nothing but a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strife about words and that the Lord Primat held and believed this Doctrine in the same sence with the Church of England 1. Then the 29th Article of our Church disavows all Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord. The second asserts that the Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner and that the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith And now I will leave it to the unprejudiced Reader to judge whether the Lord Primat's way of explaining this Sacrament according to the passage before cited by the Doctor does differ in sence from these Articles however it may somewhat in words as coming nearer the Articles in Ireland which the Bishop when he writ this Book had alone subscribed to and was bound to maintain for I think no true Son of the Church of England will deny that in this Sacrament they still really receive the visible Elements of Bread and Wine 2. That in the inward and spiritual action we really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord as the Lord Primat has before laid down But perhaps it will be said That the Lord Primat goes further in this Article than the Church of England does and takes upon him to explain in what sence we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and that otherwise than the Church of England does he explaining it thus that is to say We are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man whereas the Church of England declares that the Body of Christ is eaten only after a heavenly and spiritual manner yet still maintains the Body of Christ to be eaten whereas the Lord Primat only says that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified but does not say as the Article of our Church does that we are therein partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ. But I desire the Objector to consider whether the Explanation of our Church does not amount to the same thing in effect that saying that the Body of Christ is eaten in the Supper after a heavenly and spiritual manner and the Lord Primat that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified viz. after a spiritual and not a carnal manner But perhaps the Doctor 's Friends may still object that the Lord Primat does not express this Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament as Bp. Bilson and Bp. Morton assert the former saying that Christ's Flesh and Blood are truly present and truly received by the Faithful in the Sacrament and the latter expresly owning a real Presence therein And Bp. Andrews in his Apology to Cardinal Bellarmine thus declares himself viz. Praesentiam credimus non minus quam vos veram de modo praesentiae nil timerè definimus Which the Doctor renders thus We acknowledg saith he a presence as true and real as you do but we determine nothing rashly of the manner of it And the Church Catechism above cited as also the Latin Catechism of Mr. Noel confess the Body and Blood of our Lord are truly and indeed or as the Latin Translation renders it verè realiter taken and received in the Lord's Supper Which the Lord Primat does not affirm I know not what such Men would have The Lord Primat asserts that we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of Christ and that in the same sence with Mr. Noel's Catechism and the Article of the Church viz. that Christ's Body is received after a spiritual and heavenly manner Which was added to exclude any real presence as taken in a carnal or bodily sence So that our Church does in this Article explain the manner of the Presence notwithstanding what Bp. Andrews says to the contrary Nor know I what they can here further mean by a real Presence unless a carnal one which indeed the Church of England at the first Reformation thought to be all one with the real as appears by these words in the first Articles of Religion agreed on in the Convocation 1552 Anno 5. Edw. 6. It becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporal Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the holy Eucharist And that our Church did likewise at the first passing the 39 Articles in Convocation Anno 1562 likewise disallow any Real Presence taken in a carnal sence Christ's Body being always in Heaven at the right hand of God and therefore cannot be in more places than one appears by the original of those Articles to be seen in the Library of Corpus Christi Colledg in Cambridg where tho this passage against a Real or Corporal Presence which they then thought to be all one are dash'd over with red Ink yet so as it is still legible therefore it may not be amiss to give you Dr. Burnet's Reasons in his 2d part of the History of the Reformation p. 406 for the doing of it The secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alledged that such an express Definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of
there be any other places or other Mansions by which the Soul that believeth in God passing and coming unto that River which maketh glad the City of God may receive within it the lot of the Inheritance promised unto the Fathers For touching the determinate state of the faithful Souls departed this life the ancient Doctors as we have shewed were not so throughly resolved The Lord Primat having thus shewn in what sence many of the ancient Fathers did understand this word Hades which we translate Hell proceeds to shew that divers of them expound Christ's Descent into Hell or Hades according to the common Law of Nature which extends it self indifferently unto all that die For as Christ's Soul was in all points made like unto ours Sin only excepted while it was joined with his Body here in the Land of the Living so when he had humbled himself unto the Death it became him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren even in the state of dissolution And so indeed the Soul of Jesus had experience of both for it was in the place of human Souls and being out of the Flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable Soul therefore and of the same substance with the flesh of Men proceeding from Mary Saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his Exposition of that Text of the Psalm Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humane Souls which in the Hebrew is the world of Spirits and by the disposing of Christ's Soul there after the manner of other Souls concludes it to be of the same nature with other Mens Souls So St. Hilary in his Exposition of the 138th Psalm This is the Law of humane Necessity saith he that the Bodies being buried the Souls should go to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man And a little after he repeats it that desupernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit He descended from the supernal to the infernal parts by the Law of Death And upon Psal. 53. more fully To fulfil the Nature of Man he subjected himself to Death that is to a departure as it were of the Soul and Body and pierced into the infernal seats which was a thing that seemed to be due unto Man I shall not trouble you with more Quotations of this kind out of several of the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers which he makes use of in this Treatise most of them agreeing in this That Christ died and was buried and that his Soul went to that place or receptacle where the Souls of good Men do remain after Death which whether it is no more in effect but differing in terms than to say he died and was buried and rose not till the third day which the Doctor makes to be the absurdity of this Opinion I leave to the Judgment of the impartial Reader as I likewise do whether the Lord Primat deserves so severe a Censure after his shewing so great Learning as he has done concerning the various Interpretations of this word Hades or Hell both out of sacred and prophane Writers that it only serves to amaze the Ignorant and confound the Learned Or that he meant nothing less in all these Collections than to assert the Doctrine of the Church of England in this particular Or whether Christ's Local Descent into Hell can be found in the Book of Articles which he had subscribed to or in the Book of Common-Prayer which he was bound to conform to And if it be not so expressed in any of these I leave it to you to judge how far Dr. H. is to be believed in his Accusation against the Lord Primat in other matters But I doubt I have dwelt too long upon this less important Article which it seems was not thought so fundamental a one but as the Lord Primat very well observes Ruffinus in his Exposition of the Creed takes notice that in the Creed or Symbol of the Church of Rome there is not added He descended into Hell and presently adds yet the force or meaning of the word seems to be the same in that he is said to have been buried So that it seems old Ruffinus is one of those who is guilty of this Impertinency as the Doctor calls it of making Christ's descent into Hell to signifie the same with his lying in the Grave or being buried tho the same Author takes notice that the Church of Aquileia had this Article inserted in her Creed but the Church of Rome had not which sure with Men of the Doctor 's way should be a Rule to other Churches And further Card. Bellarmin noteth as the Lord Primat confesses that St. Augustin in his Book De Fide Symbolo and in his four Books de Symbolo ad Catechumenos maketh no mention of this Article when he doth expound the whole Creed five several times Which is very strange if the Creed received by the African Church had this Article in it Ruffinus further takes notice that it is not found in the Symbol of the Churches of the East by which he means the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds the latter of which is nothing else but an Explanation or more ample Enlargement of Creed Apostolical Tho this indeed be not at this day read in the Greek or other Eastern Churches or so much as known or received in that of the Copties and Abyssines But the Doctor having shown his Malice against the Lord Primat's Memory and Opinions in those Points which I hope I have sufficiently answered cannot give off so but in the next Section accuses him for inserting the nine Articles of Lambeth into those of the Church of Ireland being inconsistent with the Doctrine of the Church of England But before I answer this Accusation I shall first premise that as I do not defend or approve that Bishops or others tho never so learned Divines should take upon them to make new Articles or define and determine doubtful Questions and Controversies in Religion without being authorized by the King and Convocation so to do Yet thus much I may charitably say of those good Bishops and other Divines of the Church of England who framed and agreed upon these Articles that what they did in this matter was sincerely and as they then believed according to the Doctrine of the Church of England as either expresly contained in or else to be drawn by consequence from that Article of the Church concerning Predestination And certainly this makes stronger against the Doctor for if with him the Judgment of Bp. Bilson Bp. Andrews and Mr. Noel in their Writings be a sufficient Authority to declare the sence of the Church of England in those Questions of Christ's true and real Presence in the Sacrament and his Local Descent into Hell why should not the Judgment and Determination of the two arch-Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York with divers other Bishops and
learned Divines after a serious debate and mature deliberation as well declare what was the Doctrine of the Church of England in those Questions of Predestination Justifying Faith Saving Grace and Perseverance But it seems with the Doctor no Bishops Opinions shall be Orthodox if they agree not with his own But to come to the Charge it self The main Reason why the Doctor will needs have the Lord Primat to be the cause of the inserting these Articles of Lambeth into those of Ireland agreed on in Convocation 1615 is because the Lord Primat being then no Bishop but only Professor of Divinity in the University there and a Member of Convocation was ordered by the Convocation to draw up those Articles and put them into Latin as if Dr. Usher could have then such a great influence upon it as to be able to govern the Church at his pleasure or that the Scribe of any Synod or Council should make it pass what Acts or Articles he pleases or that one private Divine should be able to manage the whole Church of Ireland as the Doctor would needs have him do in this Affair Whereas the Doctor having been an ancient Member of Convocation could not but know that all Articles after they are debated are proposed by way of Question by the President and Prolocutor of either House and are afterwards ordered to be drawn into form and put in Latin by some Persons whom they appoint for that purpose and tho perhaps they might not be themselves in all points of the same Opinion with those Articles they are so ordered to draw up and that Dr. Usher did not hold all those Articles of Ireland in the same sence as they are there laid down appears from what the Doctor himself tells us in this Pamphlet for p. 116 he saith That it was his viz. the Lord Primat's doing that a different explication of the Article of Christ's descent into Hell from that allowed of by this Church and almost all the other Heterodoxies of the Sect of Calvin were inserted and incorporated into the Articles of Ireland And p. 129 he finds fault with the 30th Article of that Church because it is said of Christ that for our sakes he endured most grievous Torments immediatly in his Soul and most painful Sufferings in his Body The enduring of which grievous Torments in his Soul as Calvin not without some touch of Blasphemy did first devise so did he lay it down for the true sence and meaning of the Article of Christ's descending into Hell In which expression as the Articles of Ireland have taken up the words of Calvin so it may be rationally conceived that they take them with the same meaning and construction also But the Doctor owns that this was not the Lord Primat's sence of this Article for p. 113 aforegoing he says thus Yet he viz. the Lord Primat neither follows the Opinion of Calvin himself nor of the generality of those of the Calvinian Party who herein differ from their Master but goes a new way of a later discovery in which altho he had few Leaders he hath found many Followers But as I shall not take upon me to enter into a dispute with the Doctor or his Followers in defence of these Irish Articles and to prove they are not contradictory to those of England it not being my business yet I cannot forbear to observe that it is highly improbable that all the Bishops and Clergy of Ireland should incorporate the nine Articles of Lambeth containing all the Calvinian Rigours as the Doctor calls them in the points of Predestination Grace Free-will c. if they had thought they were inconsistent with those of the Church of England and had not been satisfied that it was the Doctrine then held and maintained in those Points by the major part of the Bishops and Clergy of our Church as also believed by the King himself who confirmed them and certainly would never else have sent one Bishop and three of the most Learned Divines within his Dominions to the Synod of Dort to maintain against the Remonstrants or Arminians the very same Opinions contained in these Irish Articles But if all those must be counted by the Doctor for Rigorous Calvinists that maintain these Articles and consequently Heterodox to the Church of England I desire to know how he can excuse the major part of our Bishops in Queen Elizabeth and King James's Reign and a considerable part of them during the Reigns of the two last Kings of blessed Memory some of whom are still living from this Heterodoxy And if all Men must be guilty of Calvinism who hold these Opinions concerning Predestination Grace and Free-will then the most part of the Lutherans who differ very little from Calvin in these points must be Calvinists too Nor are these Points held only by Protestants but many also of the Church of Rome hold the same as witness the Jansenists and also the Order of the Dominicans who come very near to Calvin in the Doctrines of Predestination c. and are as much opposed by the Jesuits as the Arminians are by the Anti-remonstrants in Holland But perhaps the Doctor may make St. Augustin a Calvinist too since he is much of the same Opinion with the Lord Primat in most of these Points against the Pelagians Having now I hope vindicated the Lord Primat from these unjust Accusations of his differing from the Church of England in matters of Doctrine I now come to answer his Aspersions upon the Lord Primat in lesser matters and that you may see how unjustly he seeks out a Quarrel against him he makes it a crime in him because those who were aspersed with the names of Puritans made their Addresses to him by Letters or Visits and because he was carress'd and feasted by them where-ever he came as the Doctor will have it as if the Lord Primat had no other Perfections but his asserting those Calvinian Tenents Then he goes on to tax the Lord Primat with Inconformity to the Rules and Orders of the Church of England in several particulars but with how great want of Charity and with how many malicious Inferences and Reflections without any just grounds I leave to the impartial Reader who will give himself the trouble to peruse that Pamphlet many of those passages being cull'd here and there out of Dr. Bernard's Treatise entitled The late Lord Primat's Judgment c. without ever considering what went before or what followed after and without taking notice that several things enjoined in the Canons of the Church of England had no force or obligation in that of Ireland where those Canons were not yet subscribed to or received and consequently such Ceremonies as were by them enjoined being in themselves indifferent as the Church declares it had been singularity in him to have observed them there and much worse to have imposed them upon others for it is truly said of him by Dr. Bernard That he did not affect some
Arbitrary Innovations not within the compass of the Rule and Order of the Book of Common-prayer and that he did not take upon him to introduce any Rite or Ceremony upon his own Opinion of Decency till the Church had judged it so p. 147. What the Lord Primat's behaviour was in England in relation to some of these Ceremonies of lesser moment either to the peace or well-being of the Church the Lord Primat needs no Apology he having reason enough for what he did if he conformed himself no further than the Doctor would have him But to give one Instance for all of the Doctor 's want of Charity towards the Lord Primat Dr. Bernard having asserted his Conformity to the Discipline Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England and that many of those who were called Puritans received such satisfaction from him as to concur with him in the above-said particulars The Doctor immediatly makes this Remark For this says he might very well be done and yet the Men remain as unconformable to the Rules of the Church their Kneeling at the Communion only excepted as they were before Now what other Rules of the Church the Doctor means I know not since I always thought that whoever had brought over a Lay-Nonconformist to conform to the Service and Orders of the Church had done a very good work and I know not when that is done what is required more to make him a true Son of the Church of England But I shall say no more on this ungrateful Subject since I doubt not but the Lord Primat's great Esteem and Reputation is too deep rooted in the hearts of all Good Men to be at all lessened by the Doctor 's hard Reflections tho I thought I could do no less than vindicate the Memory of so pious a Prelate since many ordinary Readers who were not acquainted with this good Bishop or his Writings may think Dr. H. had cause thus to find fault with him So avoiding all invidious Reflections upon the Reverend Doctor long since deceased I shall now conclude heartily wishing that whatever he hath written or published had never done any more prejudice to that Church which he undertook to serve than any of those Writings or Opinions of the Lord Primat's which he so much finds fault with FINIS A COLLECTION Of Three Hundred LETTERS Written between the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH and most of the Eminentest Persons for PIETY and LEARNING in his Time both in ENGLAND and beyond the SEAS Collected and Published From Original Copies under their own Hands by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Chaplain at the Time of his Death with whom the Care of all his Papers were intrusted by his Lordship LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVI THE CONTENTS LETTER I. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Richard Stanihurst at the English Colledge in Lovain Page 1. II. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. William Eyres 2 III. A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher 3 IV. A Letter from Mr. Henry Briggs to Mr. James Usher 11 V. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Mr. James Usher 13 VI. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 14 VII A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 15 VIII A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Dr. Challoner 16 IX A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 17 X. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Samuel Ward 18 XI A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr James Usher 22 XII A Letter from Mr. Alexander Cook to Mr. James Usher 32 XIII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 33 XIV A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 34 XV. A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher 34 XVI A Letter from Mr. Henry Briggs to Mr. James Usher 35 XVII A Letter from the Most Reverend Tobias Matthews Arch-Bishop of York to Mr. James Usher 36 XVIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Mr. James Usher 37 XIX A Letter from Mr. Robert Usher to Dr. James Usher 38 XX. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Dr. James Usher 39 XXI A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 43 XXII A Letter from Dr. James Usher concerning the Death and Satisfaction of Christ. 46 XXIII An Answer to some Objections against the said Letter by Dr. James Usher 49 XXIV A Letter from Sr. Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher 53 XXV A Letter from Mr. William Crashaw to Dr. James Usher 55 XXVI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Dr. James Usher 56 XXVII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Dr. James Usher 57 XXVIII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher 59 XXIX A Letter from Mr. James Warren to Dr. James Usher 60 XXX A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 60 XXXI A Letter from Sr. Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher 61 XXXII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher 62 XXXIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. William Camden 63 XXXIV A Letter from Mr. William Camden to Dr. James Usher 65 XXXV A Letter from Mr. Thomas Warren to Dr. James Usher 66 XXXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Chester to Dr. James Usher 67 XXXVII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Dr. James Usher 67 XXXVIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 68 XXXIX A Letter from Dr. James Usher 71 XL. A Letter from Mr. Edward Browncker to Dr. James Usher 72 XLI A Letter from Dr. James Usher Bishop Elect of Meath to the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh 73 XLII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 75 XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 76 XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 77 XLV A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 78 XLVI A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 78 XLVII A Letter from Sir Robert Cotton to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 79 XLVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 80 XLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Mr. John Selden 81 L. A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 81 LI. A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Oliver Lord Grandison 83 LII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 84 LIII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward 85
Consecrated and thereupon desire Justice I shall be ready to shew reason and yield account of my Opinion as well in the King's Courts as in Theological Schools For to pass the general words of his grant cum omnibus Jurisdictionibus which grant him Jus ad rem but not in re The Statute of 2 Eliz. cap. 1. expresly forbiddeth all that shall be preferred to take upon them receive use exercise any Bishoprick c. before he hath taken the corporal Oath of the King's Supremacy before such person as hath Authority to admit him to his Bishoprick As for the Statute of Conferring and Consecrating Bishops within this Realm I find not the words you have written viz. That he which hath the King's Letters Patents for a Bishoprick is put in the same state as if he were Canonically elected and confirmed But that his Majesties Collation shall be to the same effect as if the Conge delire had been given the election duly made and the same election confirmed for the Dean and Chapters election in England is not good until the King have confirmed by his Royal assent then it followeth in the Statute upon that collation the person may be consecrated c. Afterward in the same Statute it is further enacted That every person hereafter conferred invested and consecrated c. shall be obeyed c. and do and execute in every thing and things touching the same as any Bishop of this Realm without offending of the Prerogatives Royal. Now by an argument à contrario sensu it appeareth that it is not I which stand against his Majesties Prerogative but they which exercise Jurisdiction without the form prescribed in these Statutes Confider again how impertinent the opinion of Canonists is in this case where the King's collation is aequivalent to a Canonical Election and Confirmation The Confirmation which the Canonists speak of is from the Pope not from the Prince Gregoriana constitutione in Lugdunensi Consilio cautum est Electum infra tres menses post consensum suum electioni proestitum si nullum justum impedimentum obstat confirmationem à superiore Proelato petere debere alioqui trimestri spatio elapso electionem esse penitus irritandam When the See of Armagh falleth void the Dean and Chapter have Authority by the Canons to exercise Jurisdiction which the Bishop elect hath not until he be consecrated as you may read in Mason's Book and elsewhere and so it is practised in England Behold the cause which maketh the Dean capable namely the Authority Canons and Custom of the Church So is not the Bishop elect warranted and standeth still in the quality of a simple Presbyter until he be further advanced by the Church When Jo. Forth shall bring his Libel I will do the part which belongeth to me In the mean time I commend you to God and rest Your Lordships very loving Friend Armagh 13 July 1621. LETTER XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend MY duty to your Lordship remembred This Messenger so fitly offering himself unto me albeit it were the Sabbath Even and I cast behind hand in my studies by absence from home yet I could not but in a line or two salute your Lordship and thereby signifie my continued and deserved remembrance of you and hearty desire of your welfare By this time I presume your Lordship in setled in your weighty charge of Over-sight wherein I beseech the Lord in mercy to bless your Labours and Endeavours to the glory of his own Name and the good of his Church never more in our times oppugned and opposed by mighty and malitious Adversaries both at home and abroad never in foreign Parts generally more distracted and distressed than at the present Out of France daily news of Murthers and Massacres Cities and Towns taken and all sorts put to the Sword Nor are those few that stand out yet likely to hold long against the power of so great a Prince having no succours from without In the Palatinate likewise all is reported to go to ruine Nor do the Hollanders sit for ought I see any surer the rather for that the Coals that have here been heretofore kindled against them about Transportation of Coin and the Fine imposed for it the Quarrels of the East-Indies the Command of the Narrow Seas the Interrupting of the Trade into Flanders c. are daily more and more blown upon and fire beginneth to break out which I pray God do not burn up both them and us too I doubt not worthy Sir but you see as well yea much better I suppose than my self and many others as being able further to pierce into the state of the times and the consequents of these things what need the forlorn flock of Christ hath of hearts and hands to help to repair her ruines and to fence that part of the Fold that as yet is not so openly broken in upon against the Incursions of such ravenous Wolves as having prevailed so freely against the other parts will not in likelihood leave it also unassaulted as also what need she hath if ever of Prayers and Tears her ancient principal Armor unto him who hath the hearts and hands of all men in his hand and whose help our only hope as things now stand is oft-times then most present when all humane helps and hopes do fail But these lamentable occurrents carry me further than I had purposed when I put Pen to Paper I shall be right glad to hear of your Lordship's health and welfare which the Lord vouchsafe to continue gladder to see the remainder of your former learned and laborious Work abroad The Lord bless and protect you And thus ready to do your Lordship any service I may in these parts I rest Your Lordships to be commanded in the Lord Thomas Gataker Rothtrith Sept. 19. 1621. LETTER XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswel to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My very good Lord IF your Lordship hath forgotten my name I shall account my self very unhappy therein yet justly rewarded for my long silence the cause whereof hath especially been my continual absence almost for these last eight years from my native Country where now returning and disposed to rest I would not omit the performance of this duty unto your Lordship hoping that the renewing of my ancient respects will be entertained by your Lordship as I have seen an old Friend or Servant who arriving suddenly and unexpected hath been better welcomed than if he had kept a set and frequent course of visiting and attendance With this representing of my service I presume your Lordship will not dislike that I recommend my especial kind friend Dr. Price one of his Majesties Commissioners for that Kingdom and for his Learning Wisdom and other Merits which your Lordship will find in him truly deserving your Lordships good affection The most current news I can signifie to
Lordship whither and by whom I may address my Letters I cannot forget your Lordships promise to get me a Book of the Irish Saints Lives and that Poem of Richard the Second your Honour told me of A love to these things I hope shall make excuse for my bold remembrance My service to your self I remain Your Lordships constant and assured to be ever Commanded Robert Cotton New Exchange Mar. 26. 1622. LETTER XLVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Most Reverend in Christ I Must excuse my long silence partly by my long stay by the way and partly by my expectation of your Lordship here about this time Now being somewhat doubtful of your repair hither I have adventur'd these as an assured Testimony of my respect and observance to your Lordship Many of your good friends here were glad to hear of your health and hopeful to see you Sir Robert Cotton hath purchased a House in Westminster near the Parliament House which he is now repairing and there means to settle his Library by Feoffment to continue for the use of Posterity Mr. Camden is much decayed Et senio planè confectus in so much that I doubt his friends shall not enjoy him long Sir Henry Spelman is busie about the impression of his Glossary and Mr. Selden of his Eadmerus which will be finished within three or four days together with his Notes and the Laws of the Conqueror the comparing whereof with the Copy of Crowland was the cause of this long stay for they could not get the Book hither though they had many promises but were faign to send one to Crowland to compare things We have not yet the Catalogue of Frankfort nor any news but what you often hear The reports of the Princes entertainment in Spain fills the Mouths and Ears of all men and not so only but also set the Printers a work I should be very glad to know your Lordships resolution of coming into England that I might accordingly send you either Books or other news which we have here If your Lordship would be pleased to send me your Copy of Dionysius Exiguus I would willingly take some pains in the publication of him for I doubt your own labours take you up so much that you cannot attend him I desire to be most kindly remembred to Mr. Dean of Christ-Church I hear much murmurings among the Papists here especially those of our County against some new persecutions you know their Phrase lately raised in Ireland and particularly against some courses of your Lordships in the Diocess of Meath as namely in the case of Clandestine Christnings c. beyond all others of your rank I should be larger did I not doubt of my Letter 's finding your Lordship there but wheresoever God will dispose of us let it be I will ever approve myself Your Lordships true Affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London April 16. 1622. Your Colledge Statute of seven years continuance is much disliked here with some other things in that Society and some fault laid upon us that we did not take a more exact Survey of their Affairs LETTER XLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to Mr. John Selden Worthy Sir I Received your loving Letter sent unto me by Sir Henry Bourgchier and do heartily thank you for your kind remembrance of me Touching that which you move concerning the situation of Churches in the elder times of Christianity Walafridus Strabo De rebus Ecclesiasticis cap. 4. telleth us Non magnoperè curabant illius temporis justi quam in partem orationis loca converterent Yet his conclusion is Sed tamen usus frequentior rationi vicinior habet in Orientem orantes converti pluralitatem maximam Ecclesiarum eo tenore constitui Which doth further also appear by the Testimony of Paulinus Bishop of Nola in his twelfth Epistle to Severus Prospectus verò basilicae non ut usitatior mos Orientem spectat And particularly with us here in Ireland Joceline in the Life of St. Patrick observeth That a Church was built by him in Sabul hard by Downe in Ulster Ab aquilonali parte versus meridianam plagam Add hereunto that place of Socrates lib. 5. hist. Eccles. cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And compare it with that other place of Walafridus Strabo where he sheweth both in the Church that Constantine and Helena builded at Jerusalem and at Rome also in the Church of All-Saints which before was the Pantheon and St. Peters Altaria non tantum ad Orientem sed etiam in alias partes esse distributa I desire to have some news out of France concerning the Samaritan Pentateuch and how the numbers of the years of the Fathers noted therein do agree with those which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath in Graecis Eusebianis Scaligeri also whether Fronto Ducoeus his Edition of the Septuagint be yet published I would intreat you likewise if it be not too great a trouble to transcribe for me out of the Annals of Mailrose in Sir Robert Cotton's Library the Succession and Times of the Kings of Scotland So ceasing to be further troublesome unto you at this time I rest Your most assured loving Friend Ja. Mid. Dublin April 16. 1622. LETTER L. A Letter from Dr. Ward Margaret Professor at Cambridge to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My good Lord THe remembrance of our former love doth embolden me to present these lines to your Lordship which otherwise I would not presume to do I wish your Lordship in your great Place and Dignity all happiness and contentment still perswading my self That your Place and Dignity doth not so alter you but that you still do continue to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no less than that Bishop of Durham R. Angervile was I hope therefore it will not be altogether ungrateful to write of things touching that argument I am right sorry to hear of that heavy news which was reported unto me upon Monday last of the taking of Heydelberg by Tilly the Commander of the Duke of Bavaria It is a great grief that the place where the purity of the Reformed Religion hath so long been maintained should now come into the hands of the Enemy I take it I have heard that out of fear it should be Besieged care was taken that the Manuscripts were conveyed into the Duke of Wirtemburg's Country I wish it were so if it be not It should grieve me if that famous Library too should come into their hands who are so faithless in setting them out Your Lordship was partly acquainted with a business which I had undertaken to answer one Chapter of Perron's latest work set out after his decease Since that time Petrus Bertius the Remonstrant is turned Roman Catholick and hath undertaken the Translation of that whole Book into Latin and hath in Specimen set forth the Translation
to God and Honour to our King Thus fearing that I have troubled your Lordship with a slender Discourse humbly take my leave beseeching the Lord of Lords to multiply his Graces upon you recommending you with all yours to God's Grace and Mercy rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty to command Thomas Davies Aleppo 29th September 1624. LETTER LXXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter for which I return many thanks My Journy into Ireland is of such necessity that I cannot defer it long though I have many motives besides those mentioned by your Lordship to urge my stay As for the Books which you mention I find Jordanus in vitas Fratrum in the Catalogue of the Publick Library at Oxford Mr. Selden told me he never heard of the Author if any Library about London have it or that other Work of his I will endeavour to discover them As for the new Edition of Sealiger de Emendat Temporum as many as I speak withal are of opinion that it is so far from coming out that it is not yet come in to the Press Here are already come two Dry-fats of Mart Books and they expect but one more you may perceive by the Catalogue what they are Here will be very shortly some good Libraries to be had as Dr. Dee's which hath been long litigious and by that means unsold One Oliver a Physician of St. Edmundsbury of whose writing I have seen some Mathematical Tracts printed and Dr. Crakanthorp are lately dead If there be any extraordinary Books which your Lordship affects if you will be pleased to send a note of them they shall be bought Such News as we have you receive so frequently as coming from me they would be stale which you know destroys their very Essence We have had Bonfires Ringing Shouting and also Ballads and base Epithalamiums for the conclusion of the French Marriage and yet I am but modicae fidei Our Country-man Florence Mr. Carthye was committed to the Tower some five days since And thus remembring my best Affection to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher I will remain Your Lordship 's very affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London in haste Novemb. 24. 1624. LETTER LXXIII A Letter from Dr. Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath at Much-Haddam in Essex My very good Lord IT was my purpose to have come to visit your Lordship at Haddam to morrow but the truth is upon Thusday last before I came out of Cambridg I was made acquainted with a business which will occasion my return to Cambridg to morrow I notwithstanding brought with me the Manuscripts of Bedes Ecclesiastical Story which I have of Sir R. Cotton's and have sent it unto you by this Bearer Walter Mark I will expect the Book from you when you have done with it for that I would keep it till Sir Robert restore a Book of mine which he had of Mr. Patrick Young I had purposed to have borrowed also out of our University Library Simeon Dunelmensis but I find that I am deceived in that I thought it had been his History or Chronicle but it is only the History of the Church of Durham and of the Endowments of that Church and not his History of England And thus sorry that my occasions will not suffer me to see your Lordship this time and with my kind Salutations to Sir Gerard Harvy and his Lady with Thanks for my kind Entertainment when I was there I commend you to the gracious Protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all observance Samuel Ward Much-Mondon Jan. 2. 1624. LETTER LXXIV A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward Good Mr. Doctor I Received by W. Marks your Ancient Bede which I suppose did sometime belong to the Church of Durham As soon as I have compared it with the printed Book I will not fail God willing to send it you safe back again As for Simeon Dunelmensis his History of the Church of Durham which is in the publick Library of your University I would intreat you to borrow it for me however it hath not proved to be the Chronicle which I at first desired for I have a great mind to see and transcribe all that hath been written by Simeon and Turgotus Dunelmensis Turgotus I hear is with Mr. Tho. Allen of Oxford and if my memory do not much deceive me at my being in England the last time before this you told me that you had begun to transcribe the Annals of Simeon Dunelmensis which continue the History of Bede I pray you if you know where those Annals may be had do your best to help me unto them I could wish that Mr. Lisle would take some pains in translating the Saxon Annals into our English Tongue for I do not know how he can more profitably imploy that Skill which God hath given to him in that Language If I had any opportunity to speak with him my self I would direct him to five or six Annals of this kind three of which belonging to Sir Rober Cotton I have in my hands at this present our of which there might be one perfect Annal made up in the English Tongue which might unfold unto us the full State of the Saxon Times But how that Gentleman's Mind stands affected that way I know not the feeling of his Mind therein I leave to you And so commending all your good Endeavours to the Blessing of our good God I rest Your most assured Friend Ja. Mid. Much-Haddam Jan. 4. 1624. LETTER LXXV A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter which was must wellcome to me and much more the News of your Recovery which was deliver'd to me by Mr. Burnet and by me to some others of your Friends who were no less glad than my self I am afraid that you converse too much with your Books I need not tell you the danger of a Relapse This News which I sent your Lordship deserved not Thanks because vulgar and trivial that of the Death of Erpenius is but too true and is much lamented by learned Men in all places for the cause by your Lordship truly expressed he died of the Plague Mr. Briggs was gone from London some three days before the Receipt of your Lordship's Letter But I will write to him that which I should have delivered by word of Mouth if he had tarried here In the collating of Books your Lordship hath made a good choice that being a fit study in time of Sickness as not so much imploying the Mind as other Studies As for Bede I doubt the Collation of him will be scarce worth your labour For as far as I went they seemed rather to be variantes lectiones than material Differences a very few excepted To make use
where he addeth much more concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I were able to give the sum of it it needeth not if your Lordship have Plato if not except London Stationers now furnish I can with much conveniency send down to Tottenham any Book I was lately with one Mr. Boyse whose Notes are on Chrysostom with Mr. Downes's he is now comparing of Nicene Syn. in Greek with an old Manuscript which was by great chance offered to him he is very learned in the Greek Authors and most willing to communicate tho your Lordship needs not those Excellencies he is but four Miles dwelling out of Cambridg I intend to go over of purpose to him concerning the same Queries which your Lordship propounded because he was Mr. Downes his Scholar I shall intreat him to furnish me with all the Notes if he may conveniently that he gathered from Mr. Downes My Lord if I be not over-bold to desire such a Favour I wish I had that Table wherein your Lordship hath compared the Hebrew Greek and Latin Alphabet which sheweth plainly the right Pronunciation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the whole consent of the rest When I have done with Mr. Boyse and have obtained any thing worth your view I will by that Messenger desire your Servant to copy out that Table for me which would give great content to my Scholars which study the Languages And thus craving pardon of your Lordship I humbly take my leave and rest Your Lordship's humble Servant to his Power Abraham Wheelock Clare-Hall July 12. 1625. LETTER LXXXVI A Letter from Dr. Sam. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Much-Haddam Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received a Note from Dr. Lindsell written by your Lordship wherein you desire to have a Book out of Trinity-Colledg Library which you intitle Psalterium Gallicum Romanum Hebraicum MS. in magno Folio There is no such Book there as the Master telleth me but he shewed me the Psalter in Hebrew MS. interlinear with a Latin Translation and two other Collateral Translations in Latin but there is no French and it is but in a little Folio The Catena in Psalmos 50 priores Daniele Barbaro interprete I cannot learn where it is Whereas you desire some old Impression of the Greek Psalms in Trinity-Colledg Library there is Augustini Justiniani Episcopi Nebiensis Psalterium Octaplum in which there is the Greek Translation also the Arabick and Chalde Paraphrase but I suppose you have that Book already Also they have a Manuscript Psalter in Greek a very good Hand which it seemeth was Liber Theodori Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis If you would have any of those I will procure them from Dr. Maw I had purposed to have seen you e're now and now this Week I had purposed to have brought my whole Family to Mundon but this day I received a Letter that one of my Workmen at my Parsonage had a Sister who is suspected the last Saturday to die of the Plague at Standon I thank God we are yet well at Cambridg If you please to write unto me your mind touching the Books aforesaid I will do what you would have me Thus desiring the Lord to mitigate this grievous Judgment which hath seized upon our Mother-City and from thence is diffused to many other Towns in the Land and to stay it in his good time and in the mean time to sanctify this Correction unto the whole Land that it may have that powerful working for which God sends it to make us sensible of our Sins and of his Wrath for our Sins and of the Miseries of our Brethren under the Cross and so to move us to true Repentance and new Obedience which He effect in us for his Mercy 's sake Thus with my best Service to your self and Mrs. Usher and my kind Love to Sir Gerard and his Lady I commend you to the safe protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordships in all observance Samuel Ward Sidney-Coll Aug. 3. 1625. I am careful that the Letter be conveyed by Persons safe from all Infection LETTER LXXXVII A Letter from Dr. James to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After the remembrance of my humble Duty MAY it please your Grace to pardon my long silence and neglect of writing according to my Duty occasioned partly by Sickness partly by Discontent and Discouragement from our great Ones But being now freed from both God be thanked I address my self wholly to the care of the Publick long since by me intended Wherein now more than ever I must be bold to crave your Lordships furtherance that as it had its first beginnings from your Grace so it may its final end and a fulfilling by your Lordships good means It is true my Lord of Litchfield is intrusted with the whole direction and managing of this Business but had your Grace been near there would have been none more able nor willing than your Grace I do therefore most humbly intreat your Lordship that sometime before your Grace's departure into Ireland you would be pleased upon conference with my Lord of Litchfield to settle the whole Business what Authors we shall begin with in what order and after what manner As for the Canon-Law which I have looked unto not without the vocation and approbation of Mr. Vice-chancellor I must confess my forwardness therein upon a supposal of sundry Additions unto Gratian and my Fellow-labourers are as earnest as my self upon that little which we have hitherto found Doubtless Gratian was one of the first Compilers of the Popish Religion in his hotch-potch of the Canon-Law but yet he is not so bad as he is made the Corruptions are of a later hue and came in long since his time I have given a taste as of all that I have hitherto done in certain rude Papers overhastily perhaps sent up to pass your Lordships Censure and Judgment and from thence to the Press that I may have a taste to present unto my Lord the Bishops and others that have already promised their helps If this of almost an hundred places corrupted in point of Religion not taking all upon an exact survey but a few to give proof of the faisibility of the Work to the common profit of the Church shall be thought fit to be printed and an hundred places of flat contradiction Men if ever will be stirred up to advance this Work for the doing whereof with some jeopardy of my Health and loss of all worldly Preferment I am most willing to be imployed to the uttermost of my simple Endeavours having nothing to promise but Fidelity and Industry Good my Lord what can be done by your Grace let it be done to the uttermost the Work is in a manner yours to God be the Glory and if the Church of England receive not as much profit by this one Work being well done as by any thing since Erasmus's Time I will never look hereafter to be
First For that they gave me assurance of your Recovery then that among your weighty Affairs of Church and Common-wealth you should descend to think on me so remote in Application to your Lordship though no Man nearer in Affection and Devotion I register it in my Memorials of your Goodness as also your sending to me the Copy of the Synod of St. Patrick which I much desired and many thanks to your Lordship for it Touching the Books it pleased you to require my help in procuring them by some of my Friends and Kindred in France your Grace knoweth that all intercourse between us and them is now stopped up Yet have I taken order with Mr. Boswell who is gone over with my Lord of Carlisle and to pass near Province that if any opportunity may serve he will endeavour to procure them and my Son who is gone after them shall put him in mind of it It is said that my Lord of Carlisle having treated beyond the Sea with the States of the Low-Countries and not satisfied in their Answer hath left some Protestation against them as he passed from them and that the States have done the like against us I hope it is not true we have Enemies enow I suppose your Lordship would gladly hear how the great Orb of State moveth here in Parliament your own and many others depending on it And I would very willingly have been the first that should have done you that Service if the Messenger had staid a day or two longer that we might have seen the Event For all hangeth yet in suspence but the Points touching the Right of the Subject in the Property of their Goods and to be free from imprisonment at the King's Pleasure or without lawful cause expressed upon the Commitment hath been so seriously and unanswerably proved and concluded by the Lower House that they have cast their Sheat Anchor on it and will not recede from any tittle of the Formality proposed in their Petition of Right touching the same The Upper House hath in some things dissented from them proposing a Caution to be added to the Petition for preservation of the King 's Soveraign Prerogative which the Lower House affirms they have not rub'd upon in ought that of right belongeth to it Yet will they not admit that Addition lest it impeach the whole intent of their Petition Wherein they are so resolute that having upon Thursday last admirably evinced the Right of the Subjects in every part thereof at a Conference with the Upper House they refused to meet the Lords the day following in a Committee required by them for qualification as was conceived Thereupon the Lords spent Saturday in debate among themselves but concluded nothing that we hear of It is reported the Lord Say did then speak very freely and resolutely on behalf of the Subject with some unpleasing rubs upon the Duke there present but by others interposition all was well expounded What this Day will produce Night must relate And of what I have written I have nothing but by hear-say for I am no Parliament-man My Lord of Denbigh with the Navy that went for the rescue of Rochel is returned without blow or blood-draught It is said their Commission gave them not sufficient Warrant to fight and one Captain Clark suspected in Religion is committed to the Gatehouse for disswading them Thus praying for your Health and Happiness I rest Your Grace's most humbly devoted in all Service Henry Spelman Barbacan May 26. 1628. LETTER CXXIX A Letter from J. King to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my especial good Lord TWo things do occasion me to write to your Lordship the one to show the continuance of my dutiful and best respect to your Lordship which I have born to your Lordship ever since your Childhood which indeed descended first from your Father who loved me always in his life-time as I did him truly and faithfully The other is upon some mislike I understand your Lordship hath conceived of the Lord Camfield my Son-in-Law which indeed I am sorry for for I never found him but honest and religious I know he may have ill Instruments about him and the World is full of Pick-thanks and such as usually do lewd Offices amongst Men of Place and Quality But if your Lordship would please to take him into your favour and upon any occasion if any happen to make known to him what is or may be reported to your Lordship of any of his miscarriages or unfriendly dealings towards your Lordship I would not doubt of his conformity and giving of your Lordship meet satisfaction and this is my Suit and Petition to your Lorship for of all Men in that Kingdom I do wish him and all others that are my Friends to be serviceable and respective to your Lordship and for my self so long as it shall please God to give me Life I will pray for your Lordship which is all the Service I can do you Our worthy Bishop here who I have found here ever since I came hither a worthy Friend and a godly Pastor and Pillar of the Church hath many times and often most kindly remembred your Lordship and surely he is as good a Man as may be yet in this Parliament which is yet scarcely ended some have conceited not so well of him as before but who can or doth escape the malice of wicked Men this being the last and worst Age of the World and surely for all crying and notorious Sins as Whoredom Lying Swearing and Drunkenness I am perswaded that now our own Nation is become the very worst of any in the Christian World which makes me much afraid that God Almighty hath some heavy Judgment a preparing for us It is certain that in Spain are wondrous great preparations for War especially for Sea-Service which some think is rather for Denmark and those Eastern parts than for us and the rather it is conjectured of because Monsieur Oillur lies yet with a great Army of above 60000 Men about Stoade Hambourgh and other parts If his Fleet come on this Summer as it is thought it will and pass the Narrow Seas unfought withal and unbeaten by us it is to be feared that Spain and France or one of them will next land upon our Continent and sit down and fortify being hopeful as it may be well imagined of aid from English Papists whereof the Kingdom is too well stored Rochel is much doubted cannot long hold out and then there is little hope of any Mercy from the King of France which would be a woful case to have so many poor Souls put to the Sword It is thought his Majesty would relieve them if these Subsidies could come in time And it is to be wished now that his Majesty had never medled with them for in the beginning they were well provided to have made their own Peace It is strange to be believed how this Kingdom is weakned by the
were many good parts would become an Instrument to oppose the Work of God which I was assured he had called me to c. This was all that passed He offered himself to the Lord's Board and I gave him the Communion After Dinner he preached out of 1 Joh. 4. ult And this Commandment have we from him that he that loveth God c. When we came out of the Church Dr. Shiriden delivered me your Grace's Letters And thus Mr. Dean thinks he hath healed all as you may perceive by his next Letters of August 30. Only he labours about Kildromfarten Whereabouts I purposed to have spoken with your Grace at my being with you but I know not how it came not to my mind Whether it be that the Soul as well as the Body after-some travel easily falleth to rest or else God would have it reserved perhaps to a more seasonable time It is now above a Twelve-month the Day in many respects I may well wish that it may not be reckoned with the days of the Year that your Grace as it were delivered to me with your own hands Mr. Crian a converted Friar To whom I offered my self as largely as my ability would extend unto though I had already at your Grace's commendation received Mr. Dunsterville to be in my house with the allowance of 20 l. per Annum The next day before my departing Mr. Hilton made a motion to me that where he had in his hands sufficient to make the Benefice of Kildromfarten void if I would bestow it upon Mr. Dean he would do so otherwise it should remain in Statu I answered With profession of my love and good opinion of Mr. Dean whereof I shewed the Reasons I added I did not know the Place nor the People but if they were meer Irish I did not see how Mr. Dean should discharge the Duty of a Minister to them This Motion was seconded by your Grace But so as I easily conceived that being solicited by your old Servant could do no less than you did and notwithstanding the Lecture he promised your Grace should read to me in the matter of Collations would not be displeased if I did as became me according to my Conscience and in conformity to your former motion for Mr. Crian Dr. Dean after pressed me that if without my concurrence your Grace would confer that living upon him I would not be against it Which I promised but heard no more of it till about April last In the mean while the Benefice next unto that which Mr. Dunsterville was already possessed of falling void Mr. Crian not coming to me nor purposing to do so till after Christmass and whensoever he should come my House as I found not affording room for him and Mr. Dunsterville both whose former Benefice was unable he said to maintain him chiefly he promising Residence and taking of me for that purpose an Oath absolutely without any exception of Dispensation I united it to his former and dismissed him to go to his Cure Wherein how carelesly he hath behaved himself I forbear to relate To return to Mr. Dean About mid April he brought me a Presentation to Kildromfarten under the Broad Seal I could do no less but signify to the Incumbent who came to me and maintained his Title requiring me not to admiâ— Whereupon I returned the Presentation indorsing the Reason of my refusal And being then occasioned to write to the Lords Justices I signified what I thought of these Pluralities in a Time when we are so far overmatched in number by the Adverse Party This passed on till the Visitation wherein Mr. Dean shewed himself in his Colours When the Vicar of Kildromfarten was called he said He was Vicar but would exhibit no Title After the Curat Mr. Smith signified to me that his Stipend was unpaid and he feared it would still be in the contention of two Incumbents Upon these and other Reasons I sequestred the Profits which I have heard by a Simoniacal Compact betwixt them should be for this Year the former Incumbents Neither did Mr. Dean write or speak a word to me hereabout till the day before the Communion in the Inclosed That very Morning I was certified that he purposed to appeal to your Grace which made me in answer to his next to add Quod facis fac citius Here I beseech your Grace give me leave to speak freely touching this matter so much the rather because it is the only Root of all Mr. Dean's despite against me Plainly I do thus think that of all the Diseases of the Church in these times next to that of the Corruption of our Courts this of Pluralities is the most deadly and pestilent especially when those are instituted into Charges Ecclesiastical who were they never so willing yet for want of the Language of the People are unable to discharge them Concerning which very Point I know your Grace remembers the Propositions of the Learned and Zealous Bishop of Lincoln before Pope Innocent I will not add the Confession of our Adversaries themselves in the Council of Trent nor the Judgment of that good Father the Author of the History thereof touching Non-residence Let the thing it self speak whence flow the Ignorance of the People the Neglect of God's Worship the Defrauding of the Poor of the remains of dedicate Things the Ruin of the Mansion-houses of the Ministers the desolation of Churches the swallowing up of Parishes by the Farmers of them but from this fountain There may be cause no doubt why sometimes in some Place and to some Man many Churches may be committed But now that as appears by the late Certificates there are besides the Titulary Primat and Bishop of Priests in the Diocesses of Kilmore and Ardagh 66 of Ministers and Curats but 32 of which also three whose Wives come not to Church In this so great odds as the Adversaries have of us in number to omit the advantage of the Language the possession of the Peoples Hearts the countenancing of the Nobility and Gentry is it a Time to commit many Churches to one Man whom I will not disable and he saith he hath a very able Interpreter and I think no less which made me once to say that I would sooner confer the Benefice of Kildromfarten upon him than upon himself which Resolution I do still hold in how ill part soever he takes it But what hath he done in the Parishes already committed to him for the instruction of the Irish that we should commit another unto him He that cannot perform his Duty to one without a helper or to that little part of it whose Tongue he hath is he sufficient to do it to three No it is the Wages is sought not the Work And yet with the Means he hath already the good Man his Predecessor maintained a Wife and a Family and cannot he in his Solitary he had once written Monkish Life defray himself Well if there can be none found fit to
Quotis ad R. D. Tuam unà cum Eucharisticis missimus rectè redditas esse Ita nunc etiam pro novissimis duabus Quotis quae 185 libras Sterl 8 Solidos continuerunt hic nostrae Monetae florenos 1231 confecerunt Catalogum hisce adjunctum mittimus Ut hanc distributionem non minùs quà m priores duas fideliter à nobis factas esse inde constare possit In quem finem etiam Apocham pro acceptis pecuniis non tantùm à nobis collectae Administratoribus sed etiam ab aliis Primariis Viris subscriptam ad opt humaniss Virum Dom. Christianum Bor. Mercatorem Dublinensem missimus Habemus praeterea hîc ad manus diligenter asservamus singulorum Participantium Chirographa quibus se portiones in Catalogo assignatas accepisse attestantur Si fortè ad probandam Accepticum Expenso congruentiam iis aliquando opus sit Quod restat quod unum gratitudinis argumentum edere nunc possumus nos non tantùm pro salute incolumitate tuâ seduli ad DEUM precatores verùm etiam tuorum in nos meritorum laudumque tuarum grati buccinatores apud homines futuri sumus ita ut quocunque terrarum nostra nos fata deferent fidelem tui memoriam nobiscum simus ablaturi Bene vale Pater eximie venerande DOMINUS JESUS opus manuum tuarum confirmet ad nominis sui gloriam Ecclesiae suae incrementum Amen Norinburgae die xiii Septembris Anno Dei Hominis facti M. DC XXXI Reverendiss Dom. Tuam Subjectissimo Studio colentes Sacrae Collectae pro Exulib Archipalatinatus Superioris Administratores Fratrum omnium nomine Ambrosius Tolner quondam Pastor Ecclesiae Tursehennentensis Dioceseos Waldsassensis Inspector unde nunc exul in agro Norico suo Ln. Georgii Summeri nomine jam absentis Gebhardus Agricola Ecclesiae Aurbacensis quondam Pastor Inspector nunc in Marchionatum exulans c. Jonas Libingus Judex quondam Archipalatinus Caenobii Weisseno nunc in Exilio ad facrae Collectae negotia Deputatus Norimbergae LETTER CLXXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury My most gracious Lord WHen I took Pen to write the first thing that presented it self to my thoughts was that saying in the Scripture Why are you the last to bring the King back to his House For methought I could not but be much blamed for coming thus late to congratulate both his Majesty's safe return and your own advancement joined therewith unto the highest place of Church-Preferment that is within his Highnesses Dominions Wherein I may truly say thus much for my self to begin withal that since the time I received the Letter you wrote unto me the day before you began your Journey for Scotland no day hath passed hitherto wherein I have not made particular mention of you in my Prayers unto Almighty God who hath graciously heard my Request and granted therein as much as my Heart could desire But thus in the mean time did the Case stand with me Upon the arrival of the Lord Deputy I found him very honourably affected toward me and very ready to further me as in other things that concerned the Church so particularly in that which did concern the settlement of the Lands belonging to the Arch-bishoprick of Armagh Wherefore not being willing to let slip so fair an opportunity I presently obtained a Commission for making an inquiry of all the Lands that remained in my quiet possession and took my Journey though in an unseasonable time of the Year into the Northern Parts of the Kingdom Where beside the speeding of the Offices that were taken in the three several Counties of Armagh Tirone and London-Derry there was offered the opportunity of solemnizing the translation of the Bishop of Raphae and a Consecration of the Bishop of Ardagh in the Cathedral Church of Armagh where no such Act had been before performed within the memory of any Man living And much about this time had we the News of your Grace's Election into that high Dignity which his Majesty hath called you unto for which as this poor Church in general so none more than my self in particular have great cause to rejoice God having no doubt given you such high favour in our Master's Eyes that you might be enabled thereby to do the more good unto his Church and especially to put a happy end to that great Work which hitherto hath received so many Impediments of setling the Reversion of the Impropriations of this Kingdom upon the several Incumbents Whereunto I assure my self your Grace will easily work my Lord Deputy who every day sheweth himself so zealous for the recovering of the dissipated Patrimony of the Church that mine Eyes never yet beheld his match in that kind By the death of your Predecessor our University of Dublin was left to seek a new Chancellor whom I advised to pitch upon no other but your self which they did with all readiness and alacrity If your Grace will design to receive that poor Society under the shadow of your Wings you shall put a further tie of observance not upon that only but upon me also who had my whole breeding there and obtained the honour of being the first Proctor that ever was there I am further intreated by our Lord Treasurer the Earl of Corke to certify my knowledg touching the placing of his Monument in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick's in the Suburbs of Dublin The place wherein it is erected was an ancient Passage into a Chappel within that Church which hath time out of mind been stopped up with a Partition made of Boards and Lime I remember I was present when the Earl concluded with the Dean to allow thirty Pounds for the raising of another Partition betwixt this new Monument and the Quire wherein the Ten Commandments might be fairly written Which if it were put up I see not what offence could be taken at the Monument which otherwise cannot be denied to be a very great Ornament to the Church I have nothing at hand to present your Grace withal but this small Treatise written unto Pope Calixtus the 2d by one of your Predecessors touching the ancient Dignity of the See of Canterbury Which I beseech you to accept at the hands of Your Grace's most devoted Servant J. A. 1632. LETTER CLXXIII Another Letter to the same May it please your Grace UPon my return from my Northern Journey I wrote unto you by Sir Francis Cook declaring the cause of my long silence together with the extraordinary Zeal of our noble Lord Deputy I may justly term him a new Zerubbabel raised by God for the making up of the Ruins of this decayed Church who upon an occasion openly declared himself an opposite to the greatest of those that have devoured our holy Things and made the Patrimony of the Church the Inheritance of their Sons and Daughers I likewise made bold
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
assignata fuerunt ut haeserit istis temporibus circa priores partes Geminorum Perspicuum est jgitur quâ ratione quaestio de Solaris apogaei motu huc pertineat quòd Cydo meo LXX annorum nullus detâ—r 〈◊〉 Superest ut coâ—â—odior quoque ostendatur isto 33 annorum Nam per 〈…〉 tempora per quam oportunum est nec infrequens Divinis Oraculiâ— quae non solum exitum Israëlitarum aetatibus sed aetatem hominis LXX annis LXX annis sabbathum terrae sanctae totidem annorum hebdomadibus Unctionem Messiae praesiniuint Proinde quemadmodum Hebraeorum Jubilaei septies septenis annis distinguebantur ita nostra aetas spetuagenis Cyclus seriarum septies septuagenis annis absolvitur Imò si Matthaeus Evangelista praecipuas mundi aetates generationibus distinguit atque in eo septenarium numerum affectat licebit nobis mundana tempora aetatibus metiri septenarium sacrum sponte oblatum amplecti qui Naturae humanae familiaris est adeò ut non solùm integram nostram aetatem coronet sed in partes digestam insuper Climactericis insigniat Deinde promtum facile est cuilibet in Arithmeticis leviter versato progressionem septuagenarii numeri memoriter continuare quo in 33 annorum periodo vix procedat quemadmodum distributio cujus bet annorum summae multò facilior est in Hebdomecontaëteridas quà m in Triacontatrieteridas nam aequè facile est multiplicare vel dividere per 70 atque per 7 nec minus facile per 7 atque per 4 quare operandi facilitate Cyelus 7 orius vix cedit ipsi quatuor annorum periodo Ac licet ex 33 37 annorum Cyclis componatur meus LXX annorum hujus tamen utpote rotundi observatio commodior accidit imaginationi quae naturaliter non acquiescit prius quà m imparem numerum multiplicando ad rotunditatem perduxerit Postremò quanquam periodus feriarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sequitur ultrò Cyclum LXX annorum etiamsi nemo illud curet adeòque nullam prolixitudine suâ difficultatem parit tamen absque hoc foret periodus septem aetatum non tantùm aequè facilè sed commodius etiam sive per literas conservatur sive traditione propogatur atque ista 231 annorum quâ videlicet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 atque ideo corruptioni vel abolitioni minus oportuna est Hisee o decus ingens Anglae velificari in praesens debui sublimi tuo favori quo ut porro adspirare meis studiis digneris supplex oro Reverendissimi atque Illustrissimi Domini mei devotus cultor Nicolaus Mercater Hasniae Martii 4 14. 1653 4. LETTER CCXCI. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Henricus Valesius Viro Doctissimo D. Henrico Valesio Lutetiam Parisiorum Vir Clarissimo MItto ad te non Eufebium solum sed caeteros quoque Ecclesiastieae Historiae Scriptores à D. Henrico Savilio cum Manuscripto suo codice quem in bombycinâ papyro descriptum publicae Oxoniensis Academiae Bibliothecae donavit diligenter collatos Ubi lacunas in libris de vita Constanti suppletas invenies Plura ad te scribere volentem caligantes oculi prohibent Hoc tamen supprimere non valentem Seldenum nostrum jam septuagenarium Pridie Kalendas Decembris Julianas magno nostro cum luctu ex hac vitâ decessisse Te vero ad Reipublicae literariae bonum diu velit Deus esse superstitem quod ex animo exoptat Studiorum tuorum Fautor Summus Ja. Usserius Armachanus Lond. xiii Kalend. Januar. Anno Christi 1654. Stylo vetere LETTER CCXCII A Letter from the Right Reverend Jos. Hall Bishop of Norwich to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and Honourable WIth never enow thanks for this precious Gift which I receive from your Grace's Hand I have with no small eagerness and delight turned over these your learned and accurate Annals wondring not a little at that your indefatigable Labour which you have bestowed upon a Work fetch'd together out of such a World of Monuments of Antiquity whereby your Grace hath better merited the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than those on whom it was formerly imposed But in looking over this admirable Pile of History my curiosity cast me upon the search of two over-famous Persons Simon Magus and Apòllonius Tyanaeus the particularities of whose Story seems so much to be concerned in the disquisition of that Antichrist lately set on foot by Grotius and Dr. Hammond I had hoped to have found a just account both of their Times and their Actions and Events in this your compleat Collection Which missing of I have taken the boldness to give this touch of it to your Grace as being desirous to know Whether you thought good to omit it upon the opinion of the invalidity of those Records which mention the Acts and Issue of those two great Juglers or whether you have pleased to reserve them for some further opportunity of Relation Howsoever certainly my Lord it would give great satisfaction to many and amongst them to my self if by your accurate search I might understand whether the Chronology of Simon Magus his Prodigies and affectation of Deity may well stand with St. Paul's Prediction of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as following it in time after the writing of that second Epistle to the Thessalonians I must confess if the Times may accord there may seem to be some probability in casting Antichrist upon an Age not so far remote from the Apostolick as hath been commonly reputed since the Apostle speaks of it as a thing so near hand that the ordinary Christians of Thessalonica were well acquainted with the bar of his Revelation I beseech your Grace to pardon this bold importunity of him who out of the consciousness of his deep devotion to you and his dependence upon your oracular Sentence in doubts of this Nature have presumed thus to interrupt your higher Thoughts In the desire and hope whereof I humbly take leave and profess my self Your Grace's in all Christian Observance and fervent Devotion Jos. Norvic Higham May 1 1654. LETTER CCXCIII A Letter from the Right Reverend J. Bramhall Bishop of Derry afterward Primate of Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend I Thank God I do take my Pilgrimage patiently yet I cannot but condole the Change of the Church and state of England And more in my Pilgrimage than ever because I dare not witness and declare to that straying Flock of our Brethren in England who have misled them and who they are that feed them But that your Lordship may be more sensible of the Churches Calamities and of the Dangers she is in of being ruin'd if God be not mercifull unto Her I have sent you a part of my Discoveries and it from credible hands at this present having so sure a Messenger and so fit
Pains for a Cause or two so followed will free thee from Suits a great part of thy Life after 8. Be sure to keep some Gentleman thy Friend but trouble him not with every trifling Complaint often present him with many yet small Gifts And if thou have cause to bestow any great Gratuity let it be such as may be daily in his sight otherwise in this ambitious Age thou shalt remain like a Hop without a Pole live in obscurity and be made a Footstool for every insulting Companion to spur at 9. Towards thy Superiors be humbly generous with thy Equals familiar yet respective towards thy Inferiors shew much humility and some familiarity as to bow thy Body stretch forth thy Hand and to uncover thy Head with such be popular Complements the first prepares the way to Advancement the second makes thee known for a Man as well bred the third gains a Man good report which once being gotten is easily kept for high Humilitudes take such deep root in the minds of the Multitude who are more easily won by unprofitable Courtesies than curious Benefits that I advise thee not to affect nor neglect Popularities Trust not any Man with thy Estate for it is a meer folly for a Man to enthral himself to his Friends as though if occasion be offered he should not dare become his Enemy 10. Be not scurrilous in thy Conversation nor Stoical in thy Jests the one will make thee unwelcome to all Companies the other will breed Quarrels and get thee hatred of thy best Friends for Jests when they savour too much of Truth leave bitterness in the minds of those that are touched Although I have pointed at all these inclusive yet I think it fit and necessary to leave it thee as a special Caution because I have seen many so prone to quip and gird that they will rather lose their Friend than their Scoff then they will travel to be delivered of it as a Woman with Child these nimble Apprehensions are but the Froth of Wit Your loving Father Henry Sydney LETTER XVII A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the most Reverend William Laud late Arch-bishop of Canterbury remaining with Sir Robert Cotton 's choice Papers Most Reverend AS I am here employ'd by our Soveraign Lord the King your Grace can testify that I have left no Stone unturn'd for his Majesty's Advancement neither can I omit whenever I meet with Treacheries or Conspiracies against the Church and State of England the sending your Grace an Accompt in General I fear Matters will not answer your expectations if your Grace do but seriously weigh them with deliberation For be you assur'd the Romish Clergy have gull'd the misled Party of our English Nation and that under a Puritanical Dress for which the several Fraternities of that Church have lately received Indulgences from the See of Rome and Council of Cardinals for to educate several of the young Fry of the Church of Rome who be Natives of his Majesty's Realms and Dominions and instruct them in all manner of Principles and Tenents contrary to the Episcopacy of the Church of England There be in the Town of Hague to my certain Knowledg two dangerous Impostors of whom I have given notice to the Prince of Orange who have large Indulgences granted them and known to be of the Church of Rome altho they seem Puritans and do converse with several of our English Factors The one James Murray a Scotchman and the other John Napper a Yorkshire Blade The main drift of these Intentions is to pull down the English Episcopacy as being the chief Support of the Imperial Crown of our Nation For which purpose above sixty Romish Clergy-men are gone within these two Years out of the Monasteries of the French King's Dominions to preach up the Scotch Covenant and Mr. Knox his Descriptions and Rules within that Kirk and to spread the same about the Northern Coasts of England Let therefore his Majesty have an inkling of these Crotchets that he might be persuaded whenever Matters of the Church come before you to refer them to your Grace and the Episcopal Party of the Realm For there be great Preparations making ready against the Liturgy and Ceremonies of the Church of England And all evil Contrivances here and in France and in other Protestant Holdings to make your Grace and the Episcopacy odious to all Reformed Protestants abroad It has wrought so much on divers of the Forreign Ministers of the Protestants that they esteem our Clergy little better than Papists The main things that they hit in our teeth are our Bishops to be called Lords The Service of the Church The Cross in Baptism Confirmation Bowing at the Name of Jesus The Communion Tables placed Altar-ways Our manner of Consecrations And several other Matters which be of late buzz'd into the Heads of the Forreign Clergy to make your Grievances the less regarded in case of a Change which is aimed at if not speedily prevented Your Grace's Letter is carefully delivered by my Gentleman 's own hands unto the Prince Thus craving your Graces hearty Prayers for my Undertakings abroad as also for my safe arrival that I may have the freedom to kiss your Grace's hands and to tell you more at large of these things I rest Your Grace's most humble Servant W. B. Hague June 12. 1640. FINIS ERRATA IN the Preface Line 35 after the word be add thought In the Life Page 1. l. 10. after since read been P. 1. l. 16. for Mastres r. Masters P. 25. l. 23. f. two r. ten P. 36. l. 5. f. Erigene r. Erigena l. 6. et per tot P. 47. l. 19. f. Tenements r. Tenants P. 93. l. penult dele most In the Appendix Page 7. l. 22. after the word his read Lat. Determinations Quaest. xlii p. 187 191. P. 9. l. antepenult f. would r. would not P. 10. l. 10. after sence add alone l. 18. over against these words Sermon upon John add in the Margin vid. Collection of Sermons printed at the end of the last Edition of the Lord Primates Body of Divinity p. 83. P. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈…〉 P. 29. l. 35. f. to r. do The Author since he wrote this has thought fit to add the Passages following toward the illustration of the Life Page 5. l. 1. after the word Doctrine add Nay it is evident that our Church maintains the contrary Doctrine that the Fourth Commandment as to the substance of it is moral and binds Christians to observe it as well since Christ as it did the Jews before For in our Liturgy which is confirmed by Supream Authority Sacred and Civil by Convocation and Parliament in the Communion-Offices after the repeating of the Fourth Commandment concerning the Observation of the Sabbath it follows Lord have Mercy upon us and incline our Hearts to KEEP THIS LAW Whence it is evident that in the Judgment of our Church not only the Jews but we Christians are under the
rejoyce and to shevv themselves cheerful vvhereas the vicious and vvicked have the greatest reason to be sad And as he advised others so he himself vvas alvvays of an even cheerful temper seldom troubled or discomposed unless he found such occasions as those above mentioned and indeed his conversation vvith Heaven gave him all the reason imaginable to be so for besides his private devotions Morning and Evening he never omitted vvhen he kept house to have prayers there four times a day publickly viz. in the Morning at six in the Evening at eight besides the whole Service before Dinner and Supper in his Chappel at which he was always present as he also was when it was constantly read at the Countess of Peterborough's or other Families where he lived From whence you may observe the reverend esteem he had for our Liturgy so that when some had traduced him as if he had spoke flightingly of it he took it very ill as appears by what I find of his own hand in his private Manual January 16th 1655. Not long before his death which I suppose he wrote on purpose that those who should peruse his Papers might take notice of it Of the Book of Common-Prayer I have always had a reverend and a very high esteem and therefore that at any time I should say it was an Idol is a shameless and a most abominable untruth J. A. And he did so much approve of set Forms of Prayer in publick that he always kept himself to one constant short pathetical Prayer before his Sermons with little alteration And though this Apostolical Preacher and Prelate was as much able as any to instruct and direct others in all matters of Religion yet would he still give a good Example and offer himself to be a learner and though he had preached in the Morning yet would he rarely miss his Attendance at the publick Service in the Afternoon and was observed to be one of the most devout at Prayers and the most attentive hearer of any in the Congregation nor would he admit any drowsiness to seize him nor suffer any thing to divert him from the present business And as he used plain preaching himself so was he much pleased with a pious practical discourse from others as if he had been to learn what he never knew before He delighted to hear sin rebuked and laid open in all its colours and Christ and his Kingdom exalted this was always a pleasant Theme to him and he would afterwards thank and encourage the Preacher when he had thus performed his duty to do so still Having given you some account of his private Conversation we will now proceed to that of his more Publick I have already given you an Idea of his way of Preaching to which I shall only add that in his delivery his very Voice and Gesture were moving and perswasive yet without any Tone or Affectation so that his preaching was with Authority and not with inticeing words of humane wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and with Power He had that fluency and ready command of words that for many years he never committed more to writing than the Heads of his Sermons trusting the rest after he had well considered what to say wholly to his memory which though it might render his Sermons not so fit to be published as wanting that polishing and exactness of Style which those that write and supervise their own Sermons are able to give them Yet on the other side his discourses had that Pathos and natural vigor the very sinews of perswasion which must needs be wanting in those that are read nor yet does abound being always attended with some concern in those who speak their written Sermons without Book And indeed considering how constantly he preached had he tyed himself up to that drudgery he would scarce have had time for any other business But this made him not desirous of having any of his Sermons printed since he was sufficiently sensible of the great disadvantage they must appear abroad withal as well in respect of those Errors and Omissions which those that take Sermons in Characters must needs be liable to as also because they wanted his own Eye and Correction to be added to them both which are requisite to make any discourse so exact and coherent as it ought to be But to add something farther of his way and method in his popular Sermons as he was an excellent Textuary so it was his custom to run through all the parallel places that concerned the subject on which he treated and paraphrase and illustrate them as they referred to each other and their particular Contexts he himself as he past on turning his Bible from place to place and giving his Auditory time to do the like Whereby as he render'd his preaching extreme easie to himself so it became no less beneficial to his Auditors acquainting them with the Holy Scriptures and enabling them to recur to the proofs he cited by which the memory was very much help'd to recover the Series of what was discoursed upon from them He never cared to tire his Auditory with the length of his Sermon knowing well that as the satisfaction in hearing decreases so does the attention also and people instead of minding vvhat is said only listen vvhen there is like to be an end And to let you see hovv strictly he endeavoured to keep himself to this Rule though sometimes to the great regret of his hearers I shall give you this one instance About a year before he died vvhen he had left off preaching constantly he vvas importuned being then in London by the Countess of Peterborough and some other Persons of Quality to give them a Sermon at St. Martin's Church as vvell because it vvas the Parish vvhere he then lived as that it vvas a Church vvhere his voice vvould be best heard of any thereabouts The Lord Primate complyed vvith their desires and preached a Sermon highly satisfactory to his Auditory but after a pretty vvhile the Bishop happening to look upon the Hour-Glass vvhich stood from the light and through the weakness and deficiency of his sight mistaking it to be out when indeed it was not he concluded telling them since the time was past he would leave the rest he had to say on that Subject to another opportunity if God should please to grant it him of speaking again to them in that place But the Congregation finding out my Lord's mistake and that there was some of the hour yet to come and not knowing whether they might ever have the like happiness of hearing him again made signs to the Reader to let him know that the Glass being not run out they earnestly desired he would make an end of all he intended to have spoken which the Reader performing the Bishop received it very kindly and reassuming his discourse where he broke off he concluded with an Exhortation full of Heavenly matter for almost half an hour
the whole Auditory being so much moved therewith that none unless perhaps some of the meaner sort in the Iles went out of the Church until he had done his Sermon I relate this to let you know what great power this good man had in the Pulpit and I have heard many say they were never weary of hearing him for besides the excellency of the matter he was upon he had the faculty still to keep up the warmth and attention of his hearers and to dismiss them withal with an Appetite And that you may see how great a Master he was in this Art of gaining Souls it will not be amiss to insert here some of those Directions he used to give those who were newly enter'd into Holy Orders since they may not be unprofitable to such as mean seriously to undertake this Sacred Calling I. Read and Study the Scriptures carefully wherein is the best Learning and only infallible Truth they can furnish you with the best materials for your Sermons the only rules of Faith and Practice the most powerful motives to perswade and convince the Conscience and the strongest arguments to confute all Errors Heresies and Schisms Therefore be sure let all your Sermons be congruous to them and to this End it is expedient that you understand them as well in the Originals as in the Translations II. Take not hastily up other mens Opinions without due Tryal nor vent your own conceits but compare them first with the Analogy of Faith and rules of Holiness recorded in the Scriptures which are the proper Tests of all Opinions and Doctrines III. Meddle with Controversies and doubtful points as little as may be in your popular preaching lest you puzzle your hearers or engage them in wrangling Disputations and so hinder their Conversion which is the main design of Preaching IV. Insist most on those points that tend to effect sound Belief sincere love to God repentance for Sin and that may perswade to Holiness of Life Press these things home to the Conscience of your Hearers as of absolute necessity leaving no gap for evasions but bind them as close as may be to their duty and as you ought to preach Sound and Orthodox Doctrine so ought you to deliver God's Message as near as may be in God's Words that is in such as are plain and intelligible that the meanest of your Auditors may understand To which end 't is necessary to back all practical Precepts and Doctrines with apt proofs from the holy Scriptures avoiding all Exotic Phrases Scholastick Terms unnecessary Quotations of Authors and forced Rhetorical Figures since it is not difficult to make easie things appear hard but to render hard things easie is the hardest part of a good Orator as well as Preacher V. Get your hearts sincerely affected with the things you perswade others to embrace that so you may preach Experimentally and your Hearers perceive that you are in good earnest and press nothing upon them but what may tend to their advantage and which your self would venture your own Salvation on VI. Study and consider well the Subjects you intend to Preach on before you come into the Pulpit and then words will readily offer themselves yet think what you are about to say before you speak avoiding all uncouth phantastical words or phrases or nauseous undecent or ridiculous expressions which will quickly bring Preaching into contempt and make your Sermons and Persons the subjects of Sport and Merriment VII Dissemble not the Truths of God in any case nor comply with the lusts of men or give any countenance to Sin by word or deed VIII But above all you must never forget to order your own Conversation as becomes the Gospel that so you may teach by Example as well as Precept and that you may appear a good Divine every where as well as in the Pulpit for a Minister's Life and Conversation is more heeded than his Doctrine IX Yet after all this take heed you be not puffed up with Spiritual Pride of you own Vertues nor with a vain conceit of your Parts or Abilities nor yet be transported with the Applause of men nor dejected or discouraged with the Scoffs or Frowns of the wicked and profane To which I shall add one advice more which I received from a person of great worth and dignity in the Church who had it from the mouth of this great Master of perswasion it was concerning Reproof where men were to be dealt with that lay under great Prejudices and Vices either by Education Interest Passion or ill Habits cases of much frequency and therefore to render admonitions of greater force upon them his direction was To avoid giving the persons intended to be wrought upon any Alarm before hand that their Faults or Errors were designed to be attacked for then the persons concern'd look upon the Preacher as an Enemy and set themselves upon their guard On such occasions he rather recommended the chusing of a Text that stood only upon the borders of the difficult subject and if it might be seem'd more to favour it that so the obnoxious hearers may be rather surprized and undermined than stormed and fought with And so the Preacher as St. Paul expresses it being crafty may take them with guile He would also exhort those who were already engaged in this Holy Function and advised them how they might well discharge their duty in the Church of God answerable to their Calling to this Effect You are engaged in an excellent Employment in the Church and intrusted with weighty matters as Stewards of our great Master Christ the great Bishop Under him and by his Commission you are to endeavour to reconcile men to God to convert sinners and to build them up in the holy Faith of the Gospel that they may he saved and that Repentance and Remission of sins be preached in his name This is of highest importance and requires faithfulness diligence prudence and watchfulness The Souls of men are committed to our care and guidance and the Eyes of God Angels and Men are upon us and great is the account we must make to our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Supreme Head of his Church and will at length reward or punish his Servants in this Ministry of his Gospel as he shall find them faithful or negligent therefore it behoves us to exercise our best Talents labouring in the Lord's Vineyard with all diligence that we may bring forth fruit and that the fruit may remain This is the work we are separated for and ordained unto we must not think to be idle or careless in this Office but must bend our Minds and Studies and imploy all our Gifts and Abilities in this Service We must Preach the word of Faith that men may believe aright and the Doctrine and Laws of Godliness that men may act as becomes Christians indeed for without Faith no man can please God and without Holiness no man can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And as