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
Learning for the first I shall say in general That he always adhered to and maintained the fundamental Catholick Truths observing that Golden Rule concerning Traditions Quod ubique quod ab omnibus quod semper Creditum est c. and never approved of any Religion under what pretence soever obtruded or introduced contrary to the Scriptures and Primitive Truths received and professed in the Church of Christ in all Ages and upon this account could never comply with nor approve of the new Doctrines and Worship obtruded and practised in the Church of Rome as now it is but always protested against their Innovations and humane Inventions as doth most evidently appear in his Writings bearing Testimony against their Corruptions False and Erroneous principles And as for the great Scholars and Leading Men of the Romish Church the Lord Primate usually said That it is no Marvel if they had a veil cast over their Eyes as St. Paul said of the Jews in the reading of the Scriptures for besides the several judgments of God upon them that have blinded their own Eyes their Minds are so prepossessed and Corrupted with false Principles Prejudices and Worldly interest that it is no wonder if they cannot perceive the most manifest and plainest Truths But as this good Mans judgment was sound and not byassed by prejudice or passion or worldly interest so did he heartily approve of the Religion professed and established in the Church of England as most Congruous to the Holy Scriptures and Primitive Christianity and in which if a Man keep the Faith and Lives according to its precepts persevering he need not doubt of his Salvation And in this Faith and Communion of the Church of England he lived Holily and died happily And this Holy Primate being fully perswaded in his own Mind laboured instantly to reduce Popish Recusants and Sectaries from their Errors and vain Conceits to inform them aright and to perswade them for their Souls good to comply with and embrace the Religion and Communion of the Church of England and this he aimed to bring about by his Writing Preaching and Conference upon all occasions and was successful in that enterprise But now for his Opinion in some nice points of Religion that do not touch the foundation of Faith he would not be rigorously Dogmatical in his own Opinions as to impose on others Learned and Pious Men of a different Apprehension in the more obscure points with whom nevertheless thô not altogether of his judgment he had a friendly Conversation and mutual Affection and Respect seeing they agreed in the points necessary Would to God That the Learned and Pious Men in these Days were of the like temper It will be needless here to mention any more particulars of his judgment in several points seeing there are so many instances of this kind in the Collection to which I refer the Reader Yet before I leave this matter I think fit to mind you of some Treatises published by Doctor Bernard after the Primates Death Intituled The judgment of the late Lord Primate on several Subjects 1. Of Spiritual Babylon on Rev. 18. 4. 2. Of Laying on of Hands Heb. 6. 2. and the ancient form of Words in Ordination 3. Of a set form of Prayer in the Church Each being the judgment of the late Bishop of Armagh which being not set down in my Lord Primates own Words nor written by him in the Method and Order they are there put into cannot be reckoned being much enlarged by the Dr. as himself confesseth therefore cannot so well vouch them as if I had been certain that all he writes were purely the Lord Primate 's since the Papers out of which the Doctor says he Collected them were never restored to my Custody thô borrowed under that Trust that they should be so and therefore I desire that those into whose hands those Manuscripts are now fallen since the Drs. decease would restore them either to my self or the Lord Primates Relations And tho perhaps some of those Letters published by Dr. Bernard might have been as well omitted or at least some private reflections of them left out concerning a Person easily provoked to bitterness and ill words being provoked by the publishing those Letters writ an invective Book on purpose to answer to what was contained therein and not contented with this has likewise bestowed great part of that Book to tax my Lord Primates Opinions and Actions as differing from the Church of England only to lessen the Esteem and Veneration which he deservedly had with all those who loved the King and Church of England as also to maintain those old Stories broached before concerning the repeal of the Irish Articles and the Death of the Earl of Strafford to which last particulars I need say no more than what I have already spoken in the Lord Primate's Vindication and as to the former relating to my Lord's Opinions and Actions a near Relation of the Lord Primate's has I hope vindicated him sufficiently in an Appendix at the end of this Account so that I shall concern my self no farther therewith I have now no more to do than to give you a short account of his Opinions in some of the most difficult parts of Learning with some Observations which either my self or others that convers'd with him can remember we have received from him by way of discourse though not the Twentieth part of what might have been retrieved in this kind had this task been undertaken many years agone whilst these things were fresh in our memories and whilst many more of his learned friends were alive who must needs have received divers learned remarks from his excellent conversation As for the Lord Primate's Opinions in Critical Learning it is very well known as well by his Discourse as Writings that he still defended the certainty and purity of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament before the Translation of the Septuagint since he doubted whether this we have were the true Translation of the LXX or not as you may see in his Epistle to Valesius and his Answer thereunto which controversie as it is a subject above my capacity to give a Judgment on having exercised as it still does both the Wits and Pens of the greatest Scholars in this present Age So I heartily wish That it may never tend to the disadvantage not only of our own but indeed of the whole Christian Religion with Prophane and Sceptical men for whilst one Party decry the Hebrew Text as obscure and corrupted by the Jews and the other side shew the failings and mistakes of the Greek Translation sufficient to prove that it was not performed by men Divinely Inspired it gives the Weak and more Prophane sort of Readers occasion to doubt of the Divine Authority of these Sacred Records though notwithstanding all the differences that have hitherto been shown between the Hebrew Original and Greek Translation do not God be thanked prove of greater moment than
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
that perswasion and therefore it was thought to be enough to condemn Transubstantiation and to say that Christ was present after a spiritual manner and received by Faith And to say more as it was judged superfluous so it might occasion division Upon this these words were by common consent left out and in the next Convocation the Articles were subscribed without them This shews that the Doctrine of the Church then subscribed by the whole Convocation was at that time contrary to the belief of a Real and Corporal Presence in the Sacrament only it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it Tho from this silence which flowed not from their Opinion but the Wisdom of that Time in leaving a liberty for different Speculations as to the manner of the Presence Some have since inferred that the chief Pastors of this Church did then disapprove of the Definition made in King Edward 's time and that they were for a Real Presence And that our Protestant Bishops that were martyr'd in Queen Mary's days were against this expression of a Real Presence of Christ as a Natural Body appears by those Questions which they disputed on solemnly at Oxford before their Martyrdom The first Question Whether the Natural Body of Christ was Really in the Sacrament The second Whether no other substance did remain but the Body and Blood of Christ Both which they held in the Negative So that since this expression of a Real Presence of Christ's Body was not maintained by our first Protestant Reformers nor used by the Church of England in her Articles I do not see of what use it can be now tho perhaps only meant in a spiritual sence by most that make use of it For the real presence of a Body and yet unbodily I suppose those that speak thus understand as little as I do unless that some Men love to come as near the Papists as may be in their expressions tho without any hopes now of ever making them approach the nearer to us and in the mean time giving matter of offence and scandal to divers ignorant and weak Christians of our own Religion The fifth Point that the Doctor taxes the Lord Primat with as held by him contrary to the Church of England is That she teaches that the Priest hath power to forgive Sins as may be easily proved by three several Arguments not very easie to be answered The first is from those solemn words used in the Ordination of the Priest or Presbyter that is to say Receive the Holy Ghost Whose Sins ye forgive they are forgiven and whose Sins ye retain they are retained Which were a gross prophanation of the words of our Lord and Saviour and a meer mockery of the Priest if no such power were given unto him as is there affirmed The second Argument is taken from one of the Exhortations before the Communion where we find the people are exhorted by the Priest that if they cannot quiet their Consciences they should come unto him or some other discreet Minister of God's Word and open their grief that they may receive such ghostly advice and comfort as their Consciences may be relieved and that by the Ministry of God's Word they may receive Comfort and the benefit of Absolution to the quieting of their Consciences and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness The third and most material Proof is the Form prescribed for the Visitation of the Sick In which it is required that after the sick Person hath made a Confession of his Faith and professed himself to be in Charity with all Men he shall then make a special Confession if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter And then it follows that after such Confession the Minister shall absolve him in this manner viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left power to his Church to absolve all Sinners that truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thine Offences And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Amen Of the first of these three places deduced all of them from the best Monuments and Records of the Church of England the Lord Primat takes notice in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge p. 109. where he treateth purposely of the Priests power to forgive Sins but gives us such a Gloss upon it as utterly subverts as well the Doctrine of this Church in that particular as her purpose in it And of the second he takes notice p. 81. where he speaks purposely of Confession but gives us such a Gloss upon that also as he did upon the other But of the third which is more positive and material than the other two he is not pleased to take any notice at all as if no such Doctrine were either taught by the Church of England or no such Power had been ever exercised by the Ministers of it For in the canvassing of this Point he declares sometimes that the Priest doth forgive Sins only declarative by the way of declaration only when on the consideration of the true Faith and sincere Repentance of the Party penitent he doth declare unto him in the Name of God that his Sins are pardoned and sometimes that the Priest forgives Sins only optativè by the way of Prayers and Intercession when on the like consideration he makes his prayers unto God that the Sins of the Penitent may be pardoned Neither of which comes up unto the Doctrine of the Church of England which holdeth that the Priest forgiveth Sins authoritativè by virtue of a Power committed to him by our Lord and Saviour That the Supream power of forgiving Sins is in God alone against whose Divine Majesty all Sins of what sort soever may be truly said to be committed was never question'd by any who pretended to the Christian Faith The Power which is given to the Priest is but a delegated power such as is exercised by Judges under Soveraign Princes where they are not tied unto the Verdict of Twelve Men as with us in England who by the Power committed to them in their several Circuits and Divisions do actually absolve the party which is brought before them if on good proof they find him innocent of the Crimes he stands accused for and so discharge him of his Irons And such a power as this I say is both given to and exercised by the Priest or Presbyters in the Church of England For if they did forgive Sins only declarativè that form of Absolution which follows the general Confession in the beginning of the Common-prayer-Book would have been sufficient where the Absolution is put in the third person Or if he did forgive Sins only optativè in the way of prayers and intercession there could not be a better way of Absolution than that which is prescribed to be used by the Priest or Bishop after the general Confession made by such as
of Dublin And when the Sum was raised it was resolved by the Benefactors That Dr. Challoner and Mr. James Usher should have the said 1800 l. paid into their hands to procure such Books as they should judge most necessary for the Library and most useful for advancement of Learning which they accordingly undertook and coming into England for that purpose where as also from beyond Sea they procured the best Books in all kinds which were then to be had So that they most faithfully discharged that great trust to the Donors and the whole Colledges great satisfaction And it is somewhat remarkable that at this time when the said Persons were at London about laying out this money in Books they then met Sir Thomas Bodley there buying Books for his new erected Library at Oxford so that there began a correspondence between them upon this occasion helping each other to procure the choicest and best Books on several subjects that could be gotten so that the famous Bodleyan Library at Oxford and that of Dublin began together About this time the Chancellorship of St. Patrick Dublin was conferred on him by Dr. Loftus then Arch-Bishop of Dublin which was the first Ecclesiastical Preferment that he had and which he retained without taking any other Benefice until he was thence promoted to the Bishoprick of Meath Here he lived single for some years and kept Hospitality proportionable to his Incomes nor cared he for any overplus at the years end for indeed he was never a hoarder of money but for Books and Learning he had a kind of laudable covetousness and never thought a good Book either Manuscript or Printed too dear And in this place Mr. Cambden found him Anno 1607. when he was putting out the last Edition of his Britannia where speaking of Dublin he concludes thus Most of which I acknowledge to owe to the diligence and labour of James Usher Chancellor of the Church of St. Patricks who in various learning and judgment far exceeds his years And though he had here no particular obligation to preach unless sometimes in his course before the State yet he would not omit it in the place from whence he received the profits viz. Finglass not far from Dublin which he endowed with a Vicaridge and preached there every Lord's Day unless hindered by very extraordinary occasions year 1607 In the year 1607. being the seven and twentieth of his age he took the degree of Batchelor of Divinity and soon after he was chosen Divinity Professor in the University of Dublin wherein he continued thirteen years reading weekly throughout the whole year his Lectures were Polemical upon the chief Controversies in Religion especially those Points and Doctrines maintained by the Romish Church confuting their Errors and answering their Arguments by Scripture Antiquity and sound Reason which was the method he still used in that Exercise as also in his Preaching and Writings when he had to do with Controversies of that Nature then most proper to be treated on not only because incumbent upon him by virtue of his place as Professor but also in respect of Popery then prevailing in that Kingdom But as for those many learned and elaborate Lectures he then read written with his own hand and worthy to be Printed we cannot tell what is become of them those and many other of his Pieces full of excellent Learning being dispersed or lost by the many sudden removals of his Papers or detained by such to whom they were lent and as 't is pity any of the Works of this great man should be lost so I wish that those Persons who have any of them in their hands would restore them to compleat these Remains since they cannot be so useful in private Studies as they would be if published to the World year 1609 About this time there was a great dispute about the Herenagh Terman or Corban Lands which anciently the Chorepiscopi received which as well concerned the Bishops of England as Ireland He wrote a learned Treatise of it so approved that it was sent to Arch-Bishop Bancroft and by him presented to King James the substance of which was afterwards Translated by Sir Henry Spelman into Latin and published in the first part of his Glossary as himself acknowledgeth giving him there this Character Literarum insignis Pharus Which Treatise is still in Manuscript in the Arch-Bishop's Library at Lambeth This year also he came over into England to buy Books and to converse with learned men and was now first taken notice of at Court preaching before the Houshold which was a great honour in those days And now whilst here he made it his business to inquire into the most hidden and private paths of Antiquity for which purpose he inquired after and consulted the best Manuscripts of both Universities and in all Libraries both publick and private and came acquainted with the most learned men here such as Mr. Cambden Sir Robert Cotton Sir John Bourchier after Earl of Bath Mr. Selden Mr. Brigs Astronomy Professor in the University of Oxford Mr. Lydiat Dr. Davenant after Lord Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Ward off Cambridge and divers others with most of whom he kept a constant Friendship and Correspondence to their Deaths After this he constantly came over into England once in three years spending one Month of the Summer at Oxford another at Cambridge the rest of the time at London spending his time chiefly in the Cottonian Library the Noble and Learned Master of which affording him a free access not only to that but his own Conversation year 1610 This being the thirtieth years of his age he was unanimously chosen by the Fellows of Dublin Colledge to the Provostship of that House but he refused it fearing it might prove a hinderance to his studies no other reason caN be given for his refusal For at that time he was deeply engaged in the Fathers Councils and Church History comparing Things with Things Times with Times gathering and laying up in store Materials for the repairing of the decayed Temple of Knowledge and endeavouring to separate the purer Mettal from the Dross with which Time Ignorance and the Arts of ill designing men had in latter Ages corrupted and sophisticated it For some years before he began to make large Notes and Observations upon the Writings of the Fathers and other Theological Authors beginning with those of the first Century and so going on with the rest as they occurred in order of time passing his judgment on their Works and divers Passages in them which were genuine which spurious or forged or else ascribed to wrong Authors So that in the space of about eighteen or nineteen years in which he made it his chief study he had read over all the Greek and Latin Fathers as also most of the considerable School-men and Divines from the first to the thirteenth Century So he was now well able to judge whether the passages quoted by our adversaries were truly cited or not or
were wrested to a wrong sense And this he did not out of bare Curiosity but to confute the Arrogance of those men who will still appeal though with ill success to Antiquity and the Writings of the Fathers But these learned Collections of his being a large Volume and designed by him as the foundation of a more large and elaborate Work which might have been of great use to the Church were never finished but remain still in Manuscript though he fully intended had God afforded him life to have fallen upon this as the only considerable work he had left to do and which perhaps he had performed many years before his death had it not been for that unhappy Irish Rebellion which bereft him not only of that but of all his other Books for some time except those he brought over with him or furnished himself with here so that when at last this Manuscript together with the rest of his Library was brought over from Droghedah they found him engaged in that long and laborious Work of his Annals and when that was done he had as an Appendix thereunto his Chronologia Sacra to perfect though he never lived to make an end of it so that it is no wonder if he wanted opportunity and leisure to finish this great Task But that he intended to give his last hand to this Work will appear from this passage in his Epistle to the Reader before his answer to the Jesuite's Challenge in these words The exact discussion as well of the Authors Times as of the Censures of their Works I refer to my Theological Bibliothcque if God hereafter shall lend me life and leisure to make up that Work for the use of those that mean to give themselves to that Noble Study of the Doctrine and Rites of the Ancient Church And how much he desired it might be done may farther appear that being askt upon his Death-bed What his Will was concerning those Collections He answered to this effect That he desired they might be committed to his dear friend Dr. Langbaine Provost of Queens Colledge the only man on whose Learning as well as Friendship he could rely to cast them into such a Form as might render them fit for the Press According to which bequest they were put into the hands of that learned Dr. who in order thereunto had them transcribed and then set himself to fill up the breaches in the Original the quotations in the Margine being much defaced with Rats about which laborious Task that learned and good man studying in the publick Library at Oxford in a very severe Season got such an extreme cold as quickly to the great grief of all good men brought him to his end Feb. An. 1657. So that though that excellent Person Dr. Fell now Lord Bishop of Oxford who has deserved so well of Learning has endeavoured to get those Lacunae filled up yet these Collections still remain unfit to be published though the transcript from the Original with the Marginal quotations and additions are now in the Bodleyan Library as a lasting Monument of the Lord Primate's Learning and Industry and may be like wise useful to those learned Persons for whom they were designed and who will take the pains to consult them But the Original of the Authors hand writing is or was lately in the possession of the Reverend and Learned Anno 1612 Dr. Edward Stillingfleet Dean of St. Pauls He was now in the 32 d. year of his age in which he took the Degree of Dr. of Divinity in that University wherein he was bred and to which he was admitted by Dr. Hampton then Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Vice-Chancellor after he had performed the usual Exercises part of which was to read two Solemn Lectures on some places of Scripture which he then did on Dan. 9. 24. Of the Seventy Weeks And on Rev. 20. 4. Explaining those Texts so mis-applied Anno 1613 by the Millenaries both in Elder and Latter times The next year being at London he published his first Treatise De Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione Statu being much magnified by Casaubon and Scultetus in their Greek and Latin Verses before it was solemnly presented by Arch-Bishop Abbot to King James as the eminent First-fruits of that Colledge of Dublin It is imperfect for about 300 years from Gregory XI to Leo X. i. e. from 1371. to 1513. and from thence to this last Century which he intended to have added had God afforded him longer life though he had lost very considerable assistances towards that design as you will find hereafter in the Series of this Relation This he wrote to answer that great Objection of the Papists when they ask us Where our Religion was before Luther And therefore the design of this Book was to prove from Authors of unquestionable Credit and Antiquity that Christ has always had a Visible Church of true Christians who had not been tainted with the Errours and Corruptions of the Romish Church and that even in the midst of the darkest and most ignorant times and that these Islands owe not their first Christianity to Rome About this time also he altered his condition changing a single for a married life marrying Phoebe only Daughter of Luke Challoner Doctor of Divinity of the Ancient Family of the Challoners in Yorkshire who had been a great Assister and Benefactor to the late Erected Colledge at Dublin having been appointed Overseer of the Building and Treasurer for the money raised to that purpose He was a Learned and Pious man and had such a friendship for Dr. Usher that he courted his Alliance and intended had he lived to have given him this his only Daughter with a considerable Estate in Land and Money but dying before he could see it concluded he charged her upon his Death-bed that if Dr. Usher would marry her she should think of no other person for a Husband which command of her dying Father she punctually obeyed and was married to him soon after and was his Wife for about forty years and was always treated by him with great kindness and conjugal affection until her death which preceded his about one year and a half He had by her one only Child the Lady Tyrrel yet living Thus he lived for several years in great reputation pursuing his Studies and following his Calling and whilst he sat at home endeavouring the advancement of Vertue and Learning his fame flew abroad almost all over Europe and divers learned men not only in England but foreign Countries made their applications to him by Letters as well to express the honour and respect they had for him as also for satisfaction in several doubtful points either in humane Learning or Divinity as the Reader may see in this ensuing Collection Anno 1615 There was now a Parliament at Dublin and so a Convocation of the Clergy when the Articles of Ireland were composed and published and he being a Member of the Synod was appointed to
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-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-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
alteration that every year should afford matter enough to be taken notice of in this account therefore I shall only here give you in general the more remarkable transactions of his Life from this time till his going over into England not long before that unhappy War After his being Arch-Bishop he laid out a great deal of money Anno 1627 in Books laying aside every year a considerable Sum for that end and especially for the procuring of Manuscripts as well from foreign Parts as near at hand having about this time by the means of Mr. Thomas Davis then Merchant at Aleppo procured one of the first Samaritan Pentateuchs that ever was brought into these Western Parts of Europe as Mr. Selden and Dr. Walton acknowledge as also the Old Testament in Syriack much more perfect than had hitherto been seen in these Parts together with other Manuscripts of value This Pentateuch with the rest were borrowed of him by Dr. Walton after Bishop of Chester and by him made use of in the Polyglot Bible All which Manuscripts being lately retrieved out of the hands of the said Bishop's Executors are now in the Bodleyan Library at Oxford a fit Repository for such Sacred Monuments About this time the Lord Viscount Falkland being re-called Anno 1629 from being Deputy of Ireland was waited on by the Lord Primate to the Sea side of whom taking his leave and begging his Blessing he set sail for England having before contracted an intimate friendship with the Lord Primate which lasted till his death nor did the Lord Primate fail to express his friendship to him on all occasions after his departure doing his utmost by Letters to several of the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council here for his Vindication from several false Accusations which were then laid to his charge by some of the Irish Nation before his Majesty which Letters together with the Vindication of the Council of Ireland by their Letter to his Majesty of his just and equal Government did very much contribute to the clearing of his Innocence in those things whereof he was then accused This year the happy news of the birth of Prince Charles his late Gracious Majesty then Prince of Wales being brought into Ireland Anno 1630 by an Express on purpose the Lords Justices and Council order'd a Solemn Day of Thanksgiving for that great happiness and the Lord Primate was invited as I find by their Letter to preach before them on that occasion as he did accordingly My Lord Primate published at Dublin his History of Gotteschalcus Anno 1631 and of the Predestinarian Controversie stirred by him being the first Latin Book that was ever printed in Ireland Wherein after a short account of Pelagianism which had then much spread it self in Spain and Britain he proceeds to the History of Gotteschalcus a Monk of the Abby of Orbais who lived in the beginning of the IX Century and his Opinions shewing out of Flodoardus and other approved Writers of that Age that the points then held by this learned Monk and that were then laid to his charge by Hincmar Arch-Bishop of Rhemes and Rabanus Arch-Bishop of Mentz and which they got condemned in a Synod held in that City as also in another at Quierzy were notwithstanding defended and maintained by Remigius or St. Remy Arch-Bishop of Lyons and the Church of that Diocess as consonant to the Scriptures and Writings of the Fathers And that indeed divers dangerous Opinions and Consequences were imputed to this learned Monk which he was not guilty of And after an account of the heads of a Treatise written by J. Scotius Erigene in defence of Free-will and the contrary Opinions to those of Gotteschalce the Lord Primate then likewise gives the sum of the Censure which Florus Deacon of Lyons writ against the same in the name of that Church As also of several Writings of Remigius Arch-Bishop of Lyons Pudentius Bishop of Troyes and Ratramus a Monk of Corbey in defence of the said Gotteschalce's Opinions and against the extravagant Tenets of Scotus Which Disputes produced two other Synods at Bonoil and Neufle in France wherein the Opinions held by Gotteschalce were asserted and the contrary as maintained by Scotus were condemned Though those Councils were still opposed and censured by Hincmar in a large Book dedicated to the Emperour Charles the Bald the heads of which are there set down out of Flodoard Which yet did not at all satisfie the contrary party nor hinder Remigius Arch-Bishop of Lyons and his Provincial Bishops from calling another Council at Langres wherein the Canons of the Valentinian Council were confirmed and those Propositions maintained by Scotus were again condemned Which Canons were also referred to the judgment of the General Council of the XII Provinces assembled at Thoul and being there debated were not by it condemned as Baronius and others will have it but for quietness sake were again referred to the judgment of the next General Assembly that the Doctrines of the Church and Fathers being produced those should be agreed on that should then appear most Sound and Orthodox And in the Conclusion my Lord there shews the great constancy of this poor Monk who notwithstanding his cruel whippings and long imprisonment to which he had been condemned by the Council of Mentz till his death yet he would never Recant but made two Confessions of his Faith which are there set down and by which it appears That many things were laid to his charge and condemned in those Councils which he never held In this Treatise as the Lord Primate has shewn himself excellently well skill'd in the Church History of those dark and ignorant Ages so he there concludes that men should not Dogmatize in these Points And indeed there ever have been and still will be different Opinions concerning these great and abstruse questions of Predestination and Free-will which yet may be tolerated and consist in any Church if the maintainers of either the one side or other will use that Charity as they ought and forbear publickly to condemn rail at or write against each other About this time the Romish Faction growing there very prevalent Anno 1631 by reason of some former connivance by the State as also for want of due instruction as hath been already said and likewise that divers abuses had crept into the Church not only among the inferior Clergy but the Bishops themselves all which had been represented by the Lords Committees for Irish Affairs to his Majesty who thereupon thought fit to send over his Letters into Ireland to all the Arch-Bishops of that Kingdom as well to put them in mind of their duty as to strengthen their Authority which were as follows CHARLES REX MOst Reverend Father in God right Trusty and entirely Beloved We Greet you well Among such disorders as the Lords of Our Privy-Council Deputed by Us to a particular care of Our Realm of Ireland and the Affairs thereof have observed and represented to Us in
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
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
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
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
Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day And St. Paul tells us Ephes. 2. 8. For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God So Phil. 1. 29. And that likewise it is the greatness of God's Power that raises Man's heart unto this Faith Ephes. 1. 19. So then Faith being the work of God in Man's heart which he bestows on whom he pleases all the question now is Whether Christ has obtained Reconciliation and Remission of Sins from his Father for those whom God foresaw would or could not obtain this saving Faith and if not consequently not for the Reprobate as the Lord Primat hath laid down they being only Reprobate for want of this Faith Nor will this be contradictory to my Lord Prim at 's other Proposition against such 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 Since this is to be understood of the Supralapsarian Opinion which makes Reprobation to be antecedant to the Fall of Adam and not only at a Praeterition but a Predamnation for actual Sins Whereas the Lord Primat held that Mankind considered in massa corrupta after the Fall of Adam was the only Object of God's Election or Reprobation so that it is in this sence that he is to be understood when he says that our Saviour hath obtainedat the hands of his Father forgiveness of Sins not for the Reprobate but Elect only Nor does he say that this proceeds from any deficiency in our Saviour's Death and Satisfaction which is sufficient to save the whole World if they would lay hold of it and apply it to themselves but the reason why all Men were not thereby saved was because they do not accept Salvation when offered to them Which is the Lord Primat's express words in a Sermon upon John 1. 12. concerning our Redemption by Christ. So that those passages in our Liturgy and Catechism before cited by the Doctor of Christ's being a sufficient Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World and in the Catechism of his redeeming all Mankind must certainly be understood in this restrictive sence viz. to as many of the World of Mankind as God foresaw would lay hold of this Satisfaction by Faith and good Works or else all Men must have a like share therein whether they contribute any thing to it by Faith or Repentance or not And now I shall leave it to the indifferent Reader to judg whether the Lord Primat or the Doctor are most to be blamed for breaking their Subscription to the 39 Articles as the Doctor would have him guilty of in this Point because the Church of England in its second Article says expresly that Christ suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original Guilt but also for the Actual Sins of Men. In which says he as well the Sacrifice as the effect and fruit thereof which is the Reconciliation of Mankind to God the Father is delivered in general terms without any restriction put upon them neither the Sacrifice nor the Reconciliation being restrained to this or that Man some certain quidams of their own whom they pass commonly by the name of God's Elect. The Sacrifice being made for the Sins of Men of Men indefinitly without limitation is not to be confined to some few Men only Yet after the Doctor has said all he can it seems still to me and I suppose to any unprejudiced Reader that these Christ suffered c. to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice c. for the actual Sins of Men to be not general but limited Propositions since by reconciling his Father to us can be understood no further than to us that are not Reprobates every Man supposing himself not to be of that number and in this sence the Lord Primat himself makes use of the words we and us in his Body of Divinity when he speaks of Justification and Reconciliation by Faith tho he there supposes that all Men are not actually justified nor reconciled to God by Christ's Sufferings And as for the last clause it is no more general than the former for tho the word Men be used in that place indefinitly yet it is not therefore a general Proposition it being still to be understood of those Men who truly believe for otherwise it had been very easie and natural for the Framers of this Article to have added this small word all and if they had the question would have been much as it was before Christ's Death being a Sacrifice that did not actually take away the Sins of the whole World for then none could be damned tho vertually it hath power to do it if it were rightly applied the Sacrifice having such virtue in it self that if all the World would take it and apply it it were able to expiate the Sins of the whole World as the Lord Primat in the above cited Sermon very plainly and truly expresses himself on this Doctrine The fourth Point which the Doctor accuses the Lord Primat not to hold according to the Church of England is that of the true and real Presence of Christ's most precious Body and Blood in the Sacrament Which Doctrine of a real Presence he first proves from the words of the distribution retained in the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth and formerly prescribed to be used in the ancient Missals viz. The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto Life everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. It is proved secondly by that passage in the publick Catechism in which the party catechised is taught to say that the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received of the Faithful in the Lord's Supper Now if a question should be made what the Church means by verily and indeed in the former passage it must be answered that she means that Christ is truly and really present in that blessed Sacrament as before was said the words being rendred thus in the Latin Translation viz. Corpus Sanguis Domini quae verè realiter exhibentur c. verily and indeed as the English hath it the same with verè and realiter that is to say truly and really as it is in the Latin He likewise cites Bp. Bilson Bp Morton and Bp. Andrews all of them to maintain a true and real Prefence of Christ in the Sacrament and likewise Mr. Alex. Noel in his Latin Catechism makes the party catechized answer to this effect That the Body and Blood of Christ given in the Lord's Supper and eaten and drank by them tho it be only in an heavenly and spiritual manner yet are they both given and taken truly and really or
retained by God For the Priests put the Name of the Lord upon the Children of Israel but it was he himself that blessed them Neither do we grant hereby as the Adversary falsly chargeth us that a Lay-man yea or a Woman or a Child or any Infidel or a Parrat likewise if he be taught the words may in this sence as well absolve as the Priest as if the speech were all the thing that here were to be considered and not the power whereas we are taught that the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power Indeed if the Priests by their Office brought nothing with them but the Ministry of the bare Letter a Parrat peradventure might be taught to found that Letter as well as they but we believe that God hath made them able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and that the Gospel ministred by them cometh unto us not in vvord only but also in power and in the holy Ghost and in much assurance For God hath added a speical beauty to the feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace that howsoever others may bring glad-tidings of good things to the penitent Sinner as truly as they do yet neither can they do it with the same authority neither is it to be expected that they should do it with such power such assurance and such full satisfaction to the afflicted Conscience The speech of every Christian we know should be imployed to the use of edifying that it may minister Grace unto the Hearers and a private Brother in his place may deliver sound Doctrine reprehend Vice exhort to Righteousness very commendably yet hath the Lord notwithstanding all this for the necessary use of his Church appointed publick Officers to do the same things and hath given to them a peculiar power for edification wherein they may boast above others and in the due execution whereof God is pleased to make them Instruments of ministring a more plentiful measure of Grace unto their Hearers than may be ordinarily looked for from others These are God's Angels and Ambassadors for Christ and therefore in delivering their Message are to be received as an Angel of God yea as Christ Jesus That look how the Prophet Esay was comforted when the Angel said unto him Thy Iniquity is taken away and thy Sin purged and the poor Woman in the Gospel when Jesus said unto her Thy Sins are forgiven The like Consolation doth the distressed Sinner receive from the mouth of the Minister when he hath compared the truth of God's Word faithfully delivered by him with the work of God's Grace in his own heart For as it is the Office of this Messenger to pray us in Christ's stead that we would be reconciled unto God so when we have listned unto this motion and submitted our selves to the Gospel of Peace it is a part of his Office likewise to declare unto us in Christ's stead that we are reconciled to God and in him Christ himself must be acknowledged to speak who to us-ward by this means is not weak but mighty in us Having now shewn what the Lord Primate hath said in that Treatise That the Absolution of the Priest or Minister tho it be declarativè yet is still authoritativè by virtue of that power which Christ hath commited unto him But that this is no absolute power but still only declarative I shall prove in the next place as well from what the Lord Primat hath here laid down as from the nature of the Absolution it self The Lord Primat having before declared that the prayer of the Priest is one great means of obtaining remission of Sins I shall now shew you that the Doctor did not so well peruse the Lord Primat's Book as he might have done when he so confidently affirms That tho the Lord Primat has spoken somewhat of the declarative and optative Forms of Absolution yet he hath taken no notice of the Indicative or that which is used in the Absolution of the Sick of which sort take the Lord Primat's words In the days of Thomas Aquinas there arose a Learned Man among the Papists themselves who found fault with that Indicative Form of Absolution then used by the Priest I absolve thee from all thy Sins and would have it delivered by way of deprecation alledging that this was not only the Opinion of Guliel Altisiodo Guliel Paris and Hugo Cardinal but also that thirty years were scarce passed since all did use this Form only Absolutionem Remissionem tribuat tibi Omnipotens Deus Almighty God give unto thee Absolution and Forgiveness This only will I add that as well in the ancient Rituals and in the new Pontificial of the Church of Rome as in the present practice of the Greek Church I find the Absolution expressed in the third Person as attributed wholly to God and not in the first as if it came from the Priest himself And after the Lord Primat hath there shewn That the most Ancient Forms of Absolution both in the Latin and Greek Church were in the third and not in the first person he proceeds thus Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure in the form of Absolution used in their time to observe that Prayer was premised in the Optative and Absolution adjoined afterward in the Indicative Mood Whence they gather that the Priest's Prayer obtaineth Grace his Absolution presupposeth it and that by the former he ascendeth unto God and procureth pardon for the fault by the latter he descendeth to the Sinner and reconcileth him to the Church For although a man be loosed before God saith the Master of the Sentences yet is he not held loosed in the face of the Church but by the Judgment of the Priest And this loosing of Men by the Judgment of the Priest is by the Fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring them to the peace of the Church and admitting of them to the Lord's Table again which therefore they usually express by the terms of bringing them to the Communion reconciling them to or with the Communion restoring the Communion to them admitting them to Fellowship granting them Peace c. Neither do I find that they did ever use any such formal Absolution as this I absolve thee from all thy Sins wherein our Popish Priests notwithstanding do place the very Form of their late-devised Sacrament of Penance nay hold it to be so absolute a Form that according to Thomas Aquinas his new Divinity it would not be sufficient to say Almighty God have mercy upon thee or God grant unto thee Absolution and Forgiveness because forsooth the Priest by these words doth not signifie that the Absolution is done but entreateth that it may be done Which how it will accord with the Roman Pontifical where the Form of Absolution is laid down Prayer-wise the Jesuits who follow Thomas may do well to consider Now how near the Doctor approaches to this Opinion
of the Papists when he urges these words I absolve thee from all thy Sins as an Argument of the Priests power to forgive Sins authoritative and as if this Form had something more in it or could work further towards the remission of the Sins of the Penitent than any of the rest I shall leave it to the Reader Whereas whosoever will consider the Office of the Priest will find that it is not like that of a Judg or a Vice-Roy as the Doctor would have it under a Soveraign Prince who has power not only to declare the person absolved from his Crimes but also may reprieve or pardon him when guilty or condemn him tho innocent neither of which perhaps the Prince himself by whose Commission he acts would do whereas the Priest whatever power he has delegated from God vvhich I do not deny yet it is still only declarative and conditional according to the sincerity of the Repentance in the person absolved For as his Absolution signifies nothing if the Repentance of the Penitent or dying person be not real and sincere so neither can he hinder God from pardoning him if it be so indeed tho he should be so wicked or uncharitable as to deny him the benefit of this Absolution if he desire it so that the Office of the Priest in this matter rather resembleth that of an Herald who has a Commission from his Prince to proclaim and declare Pardon to a company of Rebels who have already submitted themselves and promised Obedience to their Prince which Pardon as it signifies nothing if they still continue in their Rebellion so tho the Herald alone has the power of declaring this Pardon yet it is only in the Name and by the Authority of his Prince who had passed this Pardon in his own Breast before ever the Herald published it to the Offenders so that it is in this sence only that the Priest can say thus By his Authority viz. of our Lord Jesus Christ committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins since he does this not as Christ's Vicar or Judg under him but as his Herald or Ambassador or as St. Paul words it In the Person of Christ forgives our Offences Yet still conditionally that we are really penitent and consequently is not effective but only declarative of that Forgiveness I shall now in the last place shew you that the Church of England understands it in no other sence but this alone and that if it did it would make it all one with that of the Papists First That the Form of Absolution which follows the general Confession is only declarative the Doctor himself grants so likewise that before the Communion is only optative in the way of prayer and intercession and consequently no other than declarative or conditional and therefore that the Absolution to particular Penitents both in order to receive the Communion as also in the Visitation of the Sick are no other likewise than declarative appears from the great tenderness of the Church of England in this matter not enjoining but only advising the Penitent in either case to make any special Confession of his Sins to the Priest in which case alone this Absolution is supposed to be necessary unless he cannot quiet his Conscience without it or if he feel his Conscience troubled vvith any weighty matter after which Confession the Priest shall absolve him But our Church does not declare that either the Penitent is obliged to make any such special Confession to the Priest either before the Sacrament or at the point of Death or that any person cannot obtain remission of their Sins without Absolution as the Church of Rome asserts so that it seems our Church's Absolution in all these cases is no other than declarative and for the quieting of the Conscience of the Penitent if he find himself so troubled in mind that he thinks he cannot obtain pardon from God without it Tho the Priest as the Herald above-mentioned whose Office it is to proclaim the King's Pardon still absolves authoriative and could not do it unless he were authorized by Jesus Christ for that purpose And if the Doctor or any other will maintain any higher Absolution than this it must be that of the Church of Rome where a small Attrition or sorrow for Sin by virtue of the Keys that is the Absolution of the Priest is made Contrition and the Penitent is immediately absolved from all his Sins tho perhaps he commit the same again as soon as ever he has done the penance enjoyned And that the pious and judicious Mr. Hooker who certainly understood the Doctrine of the Church of England as well as Dr. H. agrees fully with the Lord Primat in this matter appears from his sixth Book of Ecclesiastical Policy where after his declaring with the Lord Primat that for any thing he could ever observe those Formalities the Church of Rome do so much esteem of were not of such estimation nor thought to be of absolute necessity with the ancient Fathers and that the Form with them was with Invocation or praying for the Penitent that God would be reconciled unto him for which he produces St. Ambrose St. Hierom and Leo c. p. 96. he thus declares his Judgment viz. As for the Ministerial Sentence of privat Absolution it can be no more than a declaration what God hath done it hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan's Absolution God hath taken away thy Sins than which construction especially of words judicial there is nothing more vulgar For example the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God the Jews in Malachy to have blessed the proud man which sin and prosper not that the one did make God righteous or the other the wicked happy but to bless to justifie and to absolve are as commonly used for words of Judgment or Declaration as of true and real efficacy yea even by the Opinion of the Master of the Sentences c. Priests are authorized to loose and bind that is to say declare who are bound and who are loosed The last Point in which the Doctor taxes the Lord Primat as differing from the Church of England is in the Article of Christ's descent into Hell The Church of England says he maintains a Local Descent that is to say That the Soul of Christ at such time as his Body lay in the Grave did locally descend into the nethermost parts in which the Devil and his Angels are reserved in everlasting Chains of Darkness unto the Judgment of the great and terrible Day This is proved at large by Bishop Bilson in his learned and laborious Work entitled The Survey of Christ's Sufferings And that this was the meaning of the first Reformers when this Article amongst others was first agreed upon in the first Convocation of the Year 1552 appears by that passage of St. Peter which is cited by them touching Christ's preaching to the Spirits which were in prison And tho
that passage be left out of the present Article according as it passed in the Convocation of the Year 1562 yet cannot it be used as an Argument to prove that the Church hath altered her Judgment in that Point as some Men would have it that passage being left out for these Reasons following For first that passage was conceived to make the Article too inclinable to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome which makes the chief end of Christ's descent into Hell to be the fetching thence the Souls of the Fathers who died before and under the Law And secondly because it was conceived by some Learned Men that the Text was capable of some other construction than to be used for an Argument of this Descent The Judgment of the Church continues still the same as before it was and is as plain and positive for a Local Descent as ever she had not else left this Article in the same place in which she found it or given it the same distinct Title as before it had viz. De Descensu Christi ad Inferos in the Latin Copies of King Edward the 6th that is to say Of the going down of Christ into Hell as in the English Copies of Queen Elizabeth's Reign Nor indeed was there any reason why this Article should have any distinct place or title at all unless the maintenance of a Local Descent were intended by it For having spoken in the former Article of Christ's Suffering Crucifying Death and Burial it had been a very great Impertinency not to call it worse to make a distinct Article of his descending into Hell if to descend into Hell did signifie the same with this being buried as some Men then fancied or that there were not in it some further meaning which might deserve a place distinct from his Death and Burial The Article speaking thus viz. as Christ died for us and was buried so is it to be believed that he went down into Hell is either to be understood of a Local Descent or else we are tied to believe nothing by it but what was explicitly or implicitly comprehended in the former Article And lastly That Mr. Alex. Noel before mentioned who being Prolocutor of the Convocation in the Year 1562 when this Article was disputed approved and ratified cannot in reason be supposed to be ignorant of the true sence and meaning of this Church in that particular And he in his Catechism above mentioned declares that Christ descended in his Body into the bowels of the Earth and in his Soul separated from that Body he descended also into Hell by means whereof the power and efficacy of his Death was not made known only to the Dead but the Devils themselves insomuch that both the Souls of the Unbelievers did sensibly perceive that Condemnation which was most justly due to them for their Incredulity and Satan himself the Prince of Devils did as plainly see that his tyranny and all the Powers of Darkness were opprest ruined and destroyed But on the contrary the L. Primat allows not any such Local Descent as is maintained by the Church and defended by the most learned Members of it who have left us any thing in writing about this Article And yet he neither followeth 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 although he had few Leaders he hath found many Followers By Christ's descending into Hell he would have nothing else to be understood but his continuing in the state of separation between the Body and the Soul his remaining under the power of Death during the time he lay buried in the Grave which is no more in effect tho it differ somewhat in the terms than to say that he died and was buried and rose not till the third day as the Creed instructs us In vindication of the Lord Primat's Judgment in the sence of this Article I shall lay down some previous Considerations to excuse him if perhaps he differed from the sence of the Church of England in this Article if it should appear that it ought to be understood in a strict and literal sence For first you must understand that this Article of Christ's Descent into Hell is not inserted amongst the Articles of the Church of Ireland which were the Confession of Faith of that Church when the Lord Primat writ this Answer to the Jesuit the Articles of the Church of England amongst which this of Christ's Descent into Hell is one not being received by the Church of Ireland till the Year 1634 ten years after the publishing of this Book so that he could not be accused for differing from those Articles which he was not then obliged to receive or subscribe to 2dly Had this Article been then inserted and expressed in the very same words as it is in those of the Church of England could he be accused of being Heterodox for not understanding it as the Doctor does of a Local Descent of Christ's Soul into Hell or the places of Torment since the Church of England is so modest as only to assert that it is to be believed that he went down into Hell without specifying in what sence she understand it For as the Lord Primat very learnedly proves in this Treatise the word Hell in old Saxon signifies no more than hidden or covered so that in the original propriety of the word our Hell doth exactly answer the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place which is unseen or removed from the sight of man So that the word Hell signifies the same with Hades in the Greek and Inferi in the Latin Concerning which St. Augustin gives us this Note The name of Hell in Latin Inferi is variously put in Scriptures and in many meanings according as the sence of the things which are intreated of do require And Mr. Casaubon who understood the property of Greek and Latin words as well as any this other They who think that Hades is properly the seat of the Damned be no less deceived than they who when they reade Inferos in Latin Writers do interpret it of the same place Whereupon the Lord Primat proceeds to shew That by Hell in divers places of Scripture is not to be understood the place of the Wicked or Damned but of the Dead in general as in Psal. 89. 48. What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of Hell And Esa. 38. 18 19. Hell cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy Truth The Living the Living he shall praise thee as I do this day Where the opposition betwixt Hell and the state of Life in this World is to be observed Therefore since the word Hell does not necessarily imply a place of Torment either in Scriptures or
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-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
to Sir Francis Bacon 19 XV. A Letter from Sir Henry Sydney to his Son Sir Phillip Sydney 23 XVI A Letter from Sir Henry Sydney to his Son Sir Phillip Sydney 24 XVII A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the Most Reverend William Laud Arch-Bishop of 〈…〉 LETTERS LETTER I. A Letter from Mr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Mr. Richard Stanihurst at the English Colledge in Lovain Dear Uncle HAving the opportunity of this Messenger so fitly offered unto me I make bold to desire your furtherance in some matters that concern my Studies The principal part of my study at this time is imployed in perusing the Writings of the Fathers and observing out of them the Doctrine of the Ancient Church wherein I find it very necessary that the Reader should be thoroughly informed touching his Authors what Time they lived and what Works are truly what falsely attributed to them either of which being mistaken must of force bring great confusion in this kind of study To help Students wherein Johannes Molanus sometime Divinity Professor in the University of Lovain wrote a Book which he intituled Bibliotheca Theologica giving charge at his death to his Heirs That they should see the Work published as witnesseth Possevinus in Apparatu Sacro but they being negligent in discharging that Trust committed unto them the Book is at last fallen into the hands of Aubertus Miroeus a Canon of Antwerp as himself acknowledgeth in his Edition of Sigebert's Chronicle If you could procure from him the Copy thereof which I suppose will be no hard matter for you to effect and with some convenient speed impart it unto me I should take it for a very great argument of your love and hold my self exceedingly obliged unto you thereby Besides my main studies I have always used as a kind of Recreation to spend some time in gathering together the scattered Antiquities of our Nation whereof I doubt not but many Relicks are come into your hands which I would very willingly hear of But especially I would intreat you to let me have a Copy of Philip Flatsebury's Chronicle for hitherto I could never get a sight of it as neither of Cornelius Hibernicus his History cited by Hector Boethius Sentleger's Collections alledged by Mr. Campian Richard Creagh of the Saints of Ireland Christopher Pembridg his Abstract of the Irish Chronicles c. There is also among the Manuscript Books of the Jesuites Colledge at Lovain the Life of St. Patrick a Manuscript c. A Manuscript whereof I have much desired both because the Author seemeth to be of some Antiquity and likewise alledgeth certain Sentences out of St. Patrick's own Writings If any of our Country men studious of such matters will be pleased to communicate either that or any other Antiquities of like nature I do promise that I will take as much pains for him and make full recompence of courtesie in the same kind Your own Treatise of St. Patrick's Life I have as also your Hebdomada Mariana Your Margarita Mariana and other writings if there be any I have much sought for but could not as yet get Thus presuming upon that natural bond of love which is knit betwixt us that I shall receive such satisfaction from you as I expect with my Mother your Sister 's most kind remembrance I remain Your most loving Nephew James Usher LETTER II. Jac. Usseri ad Guil. Eyrium Epistola Guilielmo Eyrio in Collegio Emmanuelis Cantabrigiae Socio QUas ad me dedisti literas Eyri ornatissime eas reddidit mihi jampridem huc ex Angliâ reversus Frater Ad quas quòd seriùs jam respondeam partim illud in causa fuit quòd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 partim etiam quòd Livelaeanam de authentica Scripturarum editione commentationem priùs expectaverim quo amplior mihi tribueretur occasio gratias agendi amplius de quaestione gravissimâ inquirendi quo unâ fideliâ duos dealbarem parietes profectò me negligentiam insuper commemorare necesse sit quam diffiteri non possum Sanè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum Livelaeo tuo conferre cum aliis de rebus tum praecipuè de versione LXX Interpretibus adscriptâ ubi mihi in multis aquam haerere non diffiteor Promisit de his nuper rara quaedam inaudita doctissimus Scaliger cujus ego hominis multiplicem eruditionem admirari soleo ut de Masoritarum observationibus à quibus post Hieronymi tempora puncta Hebraeorum accentus inventos confirmatur Sed ludet ibi profectò operam si quid ego augurari possum Ludat Scaligeri Critica in Virgiliano Culice ludat inquam nam lusisse ostendunt crebrae illae trajectiones quas ille nulli opinor hominum unquam probaverit Et ludente autore ludat etiam Interpres Lusit Virgilius Culice Lusimus Octavi lusit etiam in emendando Culice Scaliger Et hujusmodi nugis ludat ille quantum volet Non in eo positae sunt fortunae Graeciae Sed in seriis maximi momenti rebus pium modestum pectus desideraverim Tuum erit doctiss Eyri tui simillium quibus ad arcana literaturae Hebraicae datus est aditus succrescenti huic malo ire obviam curare ne quid inde detrimenti Resp. Christiana capiat Haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros aut aliquis latet error Ad nos quod attinet qui sacris illis vix dum initiati sumus congessimus et nos ex Hieronymo Scriptis Hebraeorum observationes sed Talmudicorum librorum ope destituti quod voluimus perficere nondum potuimus Illud certè mihi persuasissimum ipsum Masoreth longè antè Hieronymi tempora extitisse Illud velim scire quomodo in Baba Bothra in Historia de Joabo magistrum suum occidente distinguunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an per puncta vocalia an aliter Et in Massecheth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 et quid intelligit Arias Montanus cum dicit Josephum punctorum meminisse Lasciviunt critici quorum petulantia comprimenda nisi non sit verisimile non ego credulus illis Cur dextrae jungere dextram Non datur ac veras audire reddere voces Aen. 1. Nec vidisse semel satis est juvatusque morari Et conferre gradum veniendi discere causas Aen. 6. Nequeunt expleri corda tuendo Aen. 8. Spondeo digna tuis ingentibus omnia coeptis Nec partum gratia talem Parva manet Aen. 9. Omnia magna de te spem nobis conciliasti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jac. Usserius Dublin 12 Kal. Januar. 1607. LETTER III. Guiliel Eyrii ad Usserium Epistola Spectatissimo Viro ac Amico suo singulari M. Jacobo Usserio Theologiae Professori apud Dublinienses in Hyberniâ S. QUOD Hieronymus in Epistolâ quâdam ad Paulinum Presbyterum scripsit nempè literas ejus à principio probatae jam fidei fidem
Letters there hath hapned the most doleful dissolving of our University and the most suddain dispersion of our Students that ever I knew occasioned by the Infection brought hither by a Souldier or two dismissed not long since from the King of Sweden's Army in February last So as whereas this time was our chief time of the Year for Acts and Disputations now our School-gates are shut up and our Colledges left desolate and empty almost There have died of this Infection from the last of February till the 24th of April 24 Persons and since then till May 15 30 more and 7 more The Magistrates are careful But the Charge groweth great both in maintaining the Infected and the Poor amongst us which want both Means and Work I pray God we may be sensible of our Sins and his heavy Hand and may by serious Repentance meet him that so he may forgive our Sins and heal our Town and Land I received in your Lordship's Letter the Copy of Sir John Breerton's Will inclosed signed with your Grace's Hand For which in the Name of our whole Society I humbly thank your Lordship It seemeth the Inventory is not yet put in I received also by Mr. Stubbin a Letter from Mr. Randal-Breerton sole Executor to Sir John his Brother who at his coming into England from you promiseth me to acquaint the Colledg with the particularity of his Brothers Bequest I have heard Mr. Randal very well reported of and I hope verily he will faithfully discharge the Trust reposed in him by his deceased Brother I will still intreat your Lordship when the Inventory is exhibited for a Copy to be sent us If my leasure permit I will hearken God willing to your Lordship's Motion of revising my Lectures of Grace and Free-will In my proceedings in my Readings I acquainted your Lordship formerly with some opposition I had from some in our University under pretence of violating his Majesty's Declaration which I say I do not And so as yet I have continued in reading on that Argument though not in naming the Authors Remonstrants whom I impugn If God give opportunity and health I will do the like in my Readings upon the Eucharist My Lord of Sarum hath transcribed his Readings de Praedest Reprobatione morte Christi I am instant with him to transcribe other Readings of his I suppose your Lordship hath heard of my Lord of Sarum how he was questioned for his Sermon before his Majesty in the beginning of Lent last the Particulars whereof you shall more fully understand by the enclosed parcel of a Letter he wrote to me I am right sorry the delivery of the established Doctrine of our Church should thus be questioned I have vindicated my Reasons I sent one in our University touching the 17th Article from such Answers as he had returned me As also sundry Testimonies of St. Augustine from the like opposition which I sent the same Party tending to shew that according to St. Augustine the Non-Elect never come to be justified by a true and lively Faith nor ever are by that Bond mystically united to Christ as their Head nor ever attain unto true Repentance c. It is worthily done of your Lordship to set forth Marianus Scotus emendatê and his Abridger who as it seemeth abridged his Work in Marianus's life-time for Marianus died but a little before Rob. Lotharingus As touching the History of Gotteschalcus I wish it may be cleared out of the Ancient Monuments It seemeth your Lordship hath taken pains therein It may occasion Mr. Vossius to revise his Story touching him I make no doubt but that the Semi-Pelagians Massilienses were the first insertors of the Pradestinatiani into the Catalogue of Hereticks And it may seem that Arnobius jun who writ upon the Psalms was one of the first that imposed the Name of Heresy upon the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation as it was delivered by St. Augustine vid. in Psal. 108. And was the first that stiled the holding of St. Austin's Doctrine Praedestinatus in Psal. 146. For I conceive he was in time before Tyro Prosper Faustus or Gennadius For the conjecture of S. Senenses seemeth to me probable that this Arnobius lived in St. Austin's Time for that his Commentary upon the Psalms is ascribed to two African Bishops Laurentio Rustico Episcopis Now S. Senensis saith he findeth in a Council of Carthage in which St. Austin was present there were also present Laurentius Icositanus and Rusticus Though I find not this in any one Council of Carthage yet I easily believe it was so for I find that Rusticus an African Bishop was one of them Bishops which in a Synodical Epistle to Innocentius 1. condemned Pelagins and Caelestius the Epistle is the 90th Epistle amongst St. Austin's Epistles where two of that Name Rusticus are mentioned this Epistle was written Anno 416. Now shortly after viz. Anno 419 in that Council of Carthage wherein the Book of Canons which is Codex Africanus was confirmed there were present 217 Bishops as the Code saith of which only 24 are named in which number are St. Austin and Laurentius Jositanus And it is very credible that Rusticus living a little before was among the 193 the rest which were not named Again it is observed both by Erasmus in his Preface prefixed before Arnobius and by S. Senensis also That in these Commentaries are found sundry unusual Latin words which in St. Austin's Time were very usual amongst the Africans which though Laurentius de la Barre doth hold to be no sufficient Reason yet it carrieth with it no little probability Tyro Prosp. may seem to be the next who as it seemeth was not that Prosp. Aquitanus who was Episcopus Rhegiensis in Italy though they both continued St. Hierome ad eadem usque tempora According to your Lordship's Directions I looked into the Prosper which is in Bennet-Colledg Library and I find Ad Arcadii Honorii An. xxiv thus Praedestinatorum haeresis quae ab Augustino accepisse initium dicitur hiis temporibus serpere exorsa just as it is in the Manuscript which is in his Majesty's Library at St. James's as I remember your Lordship told me The four Divines of Leyden in the Censure of the Remonstrants Confession relate the words of Tyro Prosp. thus Praedestinatorum Haeresis quae ex Augustini libris malè intellectis accepisse dicitur initium hiis temporibus serpere exorsa sine specie tamen erroris pag. 97. The last words are not in my Tyro Prosp. which is amongst the Works of P. Pithaeus nor in the Manuscript of Bennet-Colledg After these Faustus and Gennadius continued this Nick-name the latter expresly in the continuation of the Index Haeresium Hieronymi where he perstringeth a Sentence of Augustine contra Julianum lib. 5. c. 3. as I conceive Now howsoever Sigebert relateth the Opinion of the Predestinati as having grown out of the misunderstanding of St. Augustine and not as any just
sequel of St. Austin's Doctrine Yet it may seem that both the Massilienses and some Africans in St. Augustine's Time did conceive the Opinion as is related by Sigebert to be a just Sequel of St. Austin's Doctrine as it may appear by Prosp. in Epistola ad Augustinum Haec sententia lapsis curam resurgendi adimit es sanctis occasionem teporis eo quo in utramque partem superfluus labor sit si neque rejectus illa industria possit intrare neque electus ulla negligentia possit excidere c. Et Hilarius in Epistola ad Augustin Nam si sic praedestinati sunt inquiunt in utramque partem de aliis ad alios nullus possit accedere quo pertinet tanta extrinsecus correctionis instantia And the like Inferences doth Faustus make in his two Books even as do the Remonstrants their Successors at this day though most falsly these Predesinitions not prejudging Liberty I send you here inclosed also Gulielmus Malmesburiensis his short Preface before his Abbreviation of Amularius As for Scotus de perfectione Statuum it is 16 Folio and 1 Page The Argument or Conclusion which he goeth about to demonstrate is this Quod status Praelatorum Pastorum Ecclesiae praesupponit statum alium perfectiorem quam sit omnis status Praelationis Pastoralis If your Lordship desire a Copy I will see when God shall bring together our dispersed Students if I can get a sit Amanuensis As for Dr. Walsall's Manuscript of Rathrammus I know where it is I think it were not amiss to print both those Treatises of Rathram's with that De Corpore Sanguine Domini which is already extant If I do not print them your Lordship shall have a Copy As for the Latin Copy of Ignatius's Epistles in Caius-Colledg Library I was in good hope it had been the same with an old printed Translation which I have but comparing them together I find them differ much I acquainted Mr. Thomas Whalley now Dr. Whalley with that you wrote in your Letter He seemed to me not unwilling to undertake but now in this contagious time he is gone into the Country I spoke also with Mr. Foster of Emanuel Colledg who it seemeth hath taken some pains already in it but then he was to go into the Country I am informed by some Fellows in that Colledg that being shortly to depart from the Colledg by his time there allotted finding in himself some impediment in his utterance he could wish to be imployed by your Lordship in such-like Business He is a good Scholar and an honest Man The worst is the Book cannot be lent out of the Colledg I will see by God's Grace at the return of our Students what can be done if God send life As touching those Papers which I sent touching the Efficacy of Baptism in Infants I do acknowledg it a Point in which the Scriptures are sparing The occasion of my Determination was as I think I signified in my former Letters for that the Question was given with a purpose to impugn the Doctrine of Perseverance as they conceived by an undeniable Argument I was very loth the Question should be brought upon the Commencement-Stage and therefore signified to the then Vice-Chancellor that it would intrench upon the Question of Perseverance which is one of those Questions I said his Majesty would not have discussed which he signifieth by his Declaration Yet he replied the Affirmative Part of the Question was the authorized Doctrine of our Church as appeared in the Rubrick of deferring Confirmation And the Answerer was importunate to have that Question and so accordingly it was over-ruled by the major part of the Doctors I had heretofore thought upon the Point somewhat And my Lord of Sarum and my self at Dort had speech of it when we signified in our Judgment That the Case of Infants was not appertaining to the Question of Perseverance I considered also that howsoever the Scripture sparingly speak of the Effect of Baptism in Infants yet there are general Grounds from the Nature of Sacraments which may serve to inform and direct our Judgments herein Again I considered the perpetual Tradition of the Church is no way to be slighted where it doth not cross the Scripture but is consonant to general Grounds contained in them My Lord of Derry is a worthy Man and whom I do much reverence yet I would wish his Lordship to be well advised I doubt not but the Doctrine of Perseverance may sufficiently be cleared though we grant that all Infants baptized be free from Original Guilt The Speech in Lombard alleadged as out of St. Augustine Sacramenta in solis electis efficiunt quod figurant is no where to be found in St. Augustine And if it were yet it is to be understood as Lombard doth gloss it otherwise Augustine should contradict himself as is evident by the Testimonies he there produceth out of Austin and many more which might be brought for Remission of Original Sin in all baptized Infants out of him I know most of our Divines do make the principal End and Effect of all Sacraments to be Obsignation and all Sacraments to be meerly Obsignatory Signs and consequently that Ablution of Infants from Original Sin is only conditional and expectative of which they have no benefit till they believe and repent I cannot easily assent hereunto For so 1. Infants Baptized dying in infancy have no benefit by Baptism And all Non-Elect Infants have no benefit at all so that to both of these they are nuda inefficacia signa And 2. what necessity of baptizing of Infants if it produce no effect till Years of Discretion 3. Though our Divines do most-what run upon Obsignation yet often they do expresly hold that Sacraments do offer and exhibit that Grace which they signify and as I conceive must needs offer and exhibit the Grace which they signify before they Assure and Confirm For God doth offer and exhibit Grace promised in the Sacrament then we exercise our Faith in relying upon God promising offering and exhibiting on his part and so according to the Tenure of the Covenant receive the Grace promised and then Sacraments in the second place do assure us of the Grace received And thus much is signified in the definition of a Sacrament in our short Catechism as I conceive when it is said It is an outward visible Sign of an inward Spiritual Grace given unto us ordained by Christ himself as a Means whereby we receive the same and a Pledg to assure us thereof So that first it is a Means whereby God doth offer and exhibit on his part the Grace it signifieth which we receiving by Faith it then also becometh a Pledg to assure us of the receipt thereof So the Eucharist doth first offer and exhibit Augmentum gratiae auctiorem auctiorem perfectiorem communionem cum Christi corpore sanguine participationem in beneficiis inde fluentibus and then
bear to your Person and to the eminence of your place in the Church have moved us to make choice of your Lordship to preach here before this State on the Day whereon we purpose to perform those Ceremonies of Thankfulness due from us which we have thought fit to make known unto you purposing shortly to let you know the day when we desire your presence Yet if you shall find by your late Sickness any indisposition in your Body or danger to your Health to perform this Charge which we know would otherwise be very acceptable to you we do not in such case so strictly require your presence with us but that we do freely leave it to your own choice to come or stay as you shall find the disposition of your Body to enable you Only we desire to understand from you whether we shall then expect you or not to the end we may make choice of another if you may not come And so we bid your Lordship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin Junii 18. 1630. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends R. Cork Ad. Loftus Canc. In imitation of the like sent us out of England we have caused the inclosed to be imprinted here LETTER CLXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. My very good Lord I Hope your Grace will pardon me that in all this time I have not written unto you For though I thank God I have recovered my Health in a measure beyond expectation yet I have been so overlaid with Business that I have not been able to give you any account or at least not such as I desired Your Lordship's first Letters for I owe you an answer to two bear date April the 5th and your later June the 4th 1630. The Main of both Letters is concerning Sir John Bathe And though in your last Letters you be confident that Sir John's Grant is not past the Seals as he hath avouched it is yet I must acquaint your Grace that you are mistaken therein for it appeared at the last sitting of the Committee that the Seal was put to his Grant at the beginning of April last Of which Doctrine you may make this Use what close conveyance and carriage there may be when the Church is to be spoiled I understand by Mr. Hamilton that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland is in Holy Orders and that being Deacon he holds an Arch-Deaconry yet of good value Surely my Lord if this be so there is somewhat in it that I will not express by Letter but were I his Superior in Ordinary I know what I would do and that I have plainly expressed both to his Majesty and the Lords Committees But my Lord for the Business I have stuck so close unto it both with his Majesty and with the Lords especially the Lord Treasurer who hath been and is very noble to the Church that I hope Sir John Bathe will see his Error and pitch upon some other Reward for his Services and surrender this Patent though seal'd that we may go on with the King 's Royal and Pious Grant to the Church Things being thus far onward once more there are two things which stick with the Lords 1. One is They like not the placing of these Impropriations upon any Incorporations Dublin or other To this I answered That neither did I like it and that it must be alter'd because it is against Law So it is resolved that we shall hereafter take not only that but all other material Passages of the Grant into consideration and therefore I think neither your old nor your new Letter will stand Some thought it fittest that these Impropriations should be left to the King to give To this I replied That that course would by the Suit of the Clergy and their Journeys over take off a great part of the Benefit intended them And to leave them in the Power of the Lord Deputy that might be but to enrich his Secretaries and expose the Church to that which I will not speak 2. The other Difficulty is That this Grant to the Church is too much against the King's Profit in these difficult Times because in the Lay-way the King's Rent may be improved which according to this Grant cannot be This Blow I looked not for but answered upon the sudden That I thought the Church of Ireland would be glad to take the King's Grant though it were with some improvement upon such Impropriations as might well bear it This I did partly to bear off the shock for the time and partly to gain opportunity to write to you who understand that Business better And I pray you by your next Letters give me all the help you can towards this Business One thing more and then I have done with Sir John Bathe Upon occasion of his Speech That the Clergy had a third part of that Kingdom I represented to the Lords the Paper which you sent me concerning the State of the County of Louth It was a miserable spectacle to them all yet at the last some Doubt arose whether those Values there expressed were the Rate in the King's Books or the uttermost value to the Incumbent To this I was not able to make a resolute Answer yet I feared they were Rates to the utmost value Hereupon the Lords required of me to write unto you to desire you to send me word with all the speed you can what value that Note of yours contain'd of which I pray fail not Your Grace is pleased in another Passage to desire me not to be too strict to my Rule in chusing Deans only to be Bishops My Lord it is true Deans are or should be the likeliest Men to be fitted for Bishopricks but they and no other was never any Rule of mine to my remembrance My Rule was and is and to that I shall ever be strict not to suffer any Bishop to hold any Deanery in Commendam if it lie in my power to hinder it For that which concerns the Bishop of Clonfert and Killmacduagh I have read the inclosed Papers you sent and see cause more than enough to pity but the way for remedy will be full of difficulty And for Killâ—anora there will be time enough to think upon Annexation For the Colledg and their Chauntry-Lands c. when they come for their Patent they shall not need to doubt all the lawful assistance that I can give them And now my Lord for as my Business stands 't is time to make an end I must needs thank you that you make it a matter of Joy to hear of my late Honour in being chosen Chancellor of Oxford My Lord I speak really it was beyond my deserts and contrary to my desires but since it hath pleased God by their Love to lay it upon me I must undergo the Burden as I may My honourable Predecessor enriched his Name by the Greek Manuscripts
satis laudatas subjungit Symbolum fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ut in versione Turriani nisi quod recte conjectavit Canisius quod Spiritum Sanctumrà patre procedere dicit Nulla uti Turrianus adjecerat filii mentone factà Inde Narrationem de septem Synodis instituit quam Turrianus misit Sed latine dedit Binius Concil Tom. 3. p. 400. Demum monita plura politica subjicit Quae in latinis Turriani enim comparent Vid. Cod. African ad finem Crabbe F. 155 308. LETTER CCXV A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Received yours of the 22d upon the 25th of April and have bestowed the most part of the last Week in the search of those Particulars there mention'd I am sorry the Event has not answered my Desires and Endeavours I do not doubt but your Lordship will make good that Assertion of the Nicene Creed though I profess I yet look upon it with some prejudice as being prepossessed with an anticipated Notion to the contrary Something in these Papers which I have collected in haste do in the general look that way upon perusal if it be not too much trouble to your Lordship and the time not overpast already your Lordship will make the Consequence In that Synodicon of Basilius Jalimbanensis I met with nothing directly to the purpose only in the beginning of the Book this enclosed of Germanus de sex Synodis What he says of the two first as only to the purpose I have transcribed In each of them is mention of a Symbol but not of the difference I have in the same Argument sent to and confronted two pieces of Photius the one out of his Epistles the other I met with in a Copy of his Nomocanon with Balsamon's Scholia much larger than the printed I have looked upon that in Gregory Nazianzen and compared it with that in Crab which he calls Fides Romanorum and do readily subscribe that by Romanorum must be meant the Eastern Church but then he that made that Title must be supposed to have writ since the division of the Empire In Magd. Coll. Library I spent two days in search after Nazianzen's Translation by Ruffin but in vain I do not find they have any such Book What seem'd next like it was some pieces of Basil of Ruffin's Translation at the end whereof there is indeed a part of his Exposition on the Creed While I was there tumbling amongst their Books I light upon an old English Comment upon the Psalms the Hymns of the Church and Athanasius's Creed which I presently conjectured though there be no Name to it to be Wickliffs and comparing the beginning with Bale found that I had not erred in the Conjecture and therefore writ this piece out in which he calls the Nicene Creed the Creed of the Church I remember two Years ago when I had an opportunity to read some Saxon Books that had formerly as I suppose belonged to the Church of Worcester I met twice with the Nicene Creed in Saxon but I do not remember any difference from that we use I have sought in the ancientest Editions of Ambrose but return with a non est inventus Wicelius we have not and for the Russian Offices if I can find any thing you shall have it by the next I presume you have already a Copy of that old Latin Creed at the end of the ancient Copy of the Acts given by my Lord of Canterbury and therefore I forbore to send it Gulasius in the Acts of the Nicene Council brings in the Philosopher disputing against the Holy Ghost as well as against the Son and that may be as far as the authority of the Author will bear somewhat to the purpose I received my Copy of the Arch-bishops of Constantinople and do return unto your Grace with thanks that Oration of Himerius which I had from your Lordship The Papers which I send are somewhat confused and some not right writ I fear some my Boy has left in the Publick Library and the Carrier will be gone before the Library be open I have in the Margent thus * marked what I conceive your Grace may possibly make use of I am very much straitned in time and therefore desire your Lordship's favour for thus scribling I am Your Lordship 's to command Gerard Langbaine Q. C. Oxon. May 4. 1647. LETTER CCXVI A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord SInce my last this day seven-night I have enquired and I do here send you what I met with concerning the use of the Nicene Creed among the Russians which I conceive full to your purpose I perceive my haste made me then omit at sealing that Oration of Himerius which I now return with thanks to your Lordship and perhaps by mistake I might send some other Papers no way pertinent I have thought sometimes and have not yet found any sufficient reason to remove me from that Opinion That notwithstanding what Vossius hath said the Church was never without some Form of Confession which they required before they admitted any to Baptism I know not otherwise how to expound that of Heb. 6. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For though Vossius affirm no more to have been required but barely In nomina Patris Filii Spiritus sancti yet methinks that of Repentance from dead Works of the Resurrection of the Dead and everlasting Judgment are made parts of those Fundamental Doctrines and Faith in God seems to comprehend the rest To this purpose I conceive Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. pag. 93. speaks for the Requisites to Baptism in the Practice of the Church in his Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then follows the mention of the Three Persons of the Trinity not simply but with equipollent Attributes to those in the Creed of the Father as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which what is it else but what we read both in Cyrill of Jerusalem and Epiphanius and the latter part of the Nicene Creed In like manner Clemens Alex. Paedagog lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 92 93 94. gives this Attribute to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and speaking then of Baptism under the various names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quotes Joh. 5. for everlasting Life mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Resurrection of the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where he produceth again a Testimony out of John 3. That every one that believes hath Life everlasting and I will raise him up again at the last Day Where considering the proper importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Matter there treated of Baptism and the Points there spoken of Resurrection Life Eternal I suppose it may not absurdly be collected that he implies these Doctrines were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
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
or more to one day of the seven than to any other let us next see by what Authority the day was changed and how it came to be translated from the seventh to the first Concerning which it follows thus in the said Homily viz. This Example and Commandment of God the godly Christian People began to follow immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing Day of the week to come together in yet not the seventh Day which the Jews kept but the Lord's Day the Day of the Lord's Resurrection the Day after the seventh Day which is the first Day of the week c. sithence which time God's People hath always in all Ages without any gainsaying used to come together on the Sunday to celebrate and honour God's blessed Name and carefully to keep that Day in holy rest and quietness So far the Homily And by this Homily it appears plainly that the keeping of the Lord's day is not grounded on any Commandment of Christ nor any Precept of the Apostles but that it was chosen as a standing day of the week to come together in by the Godly Christian People immediately after Christ's Ascension and hath so continued ever since But the Doctor has been very careful in his Quotations not only to take whatsoever in this Homily he thinks makes for his purpose but has also been so wary as to leave out whatsoever he thinks is against him and therefore the Reader is to take notice that the place first cited by the Doctor immediately precedes that before quoted by the Lord Primate being connected to it by this passage which the Doctor omits And therefore by this Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest yea from our lawful and needful works So likewise doth he omit that which immediately follows the words quoted by my Lord Primate viz. So that God doth not only command the observation of this Holy Day but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to the diligent keeping of the same And after the obedience of natural Children not only to the Commands but also to the Example of their Parents is urged it follows thus as an Argument for its observation So if we will be the Children of our heavenly Father we must be careful to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not only for that it is God's express Commandment but also to declare our selves to be loving Children in following the Example of our gracious Lord and Father After which it follows again in the next Paragraph which is also concealed by the Doctor tho it connects the words aforegoing and the passage he next makes use of together Thus it may plainly appear that God's Will and Commandment was to have a solemn time and standing-day in the week wherein the People should come together and have in remembrance his wonderful Benefits and to render him thanks for them as appertaineth to loving and obedient People From all which put together I shall leave it to the ingenuous Reader to judge who hath most perverted the sence of this Homily the Lord Primate or the Doctor and whether or no these Conclusions following do not clearly follow from the passages above-cited first that by the fourth Commandment it is God's perpetual Will to have one solemn and standing Day in the week for People to meet together to worship and serve him Secondly That this day tho it be not the seventh day from the Creation yet is still the Christian Sabbath or day of Rest being still the seventh day and still observed not only because of our Saviour Christ's Resurrection on this day but also that we keep the Christian Sabbath which is the Sunday as well for that it is God's express Commandment as also to shew our selves dutiful Children in following the Example of our gracious Lord and Father who rested on the seventh day Thirdly That on this Christian Sabbath or Sunday we ought to rest from our lawful and needful works and common and daily business and also give our selves wholly to Heavenly Exercises of God's true Religion and Service And therefore this being the express words and sence of this Homily that we may not make it contradict it self the passages which the Doctor relies so much upon must have this reasonable construction viz. That the Maker thereof tho he supposed that we Christians were not obliged to the precise keeping of the seventh day after the manner of the Jews Yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in this Commandment appertaining to the Law of Nature c. as most just and needful for the setting forth of God's Glory ought to be retained and kept of all Christian People Which words must be understood in a clean contrary sence to the Doctor 's viz. that the meaning of the Author was and which our Church confirms that by the Law of Nature the seventh day or one day in seven is to be kept holy or otherwise to what purpose serve these words before recited viz. thus it may plainly appear that God's Will and Commandment was to have one solemn and standing Day in the week wherein People should come together c. that is now under the Gospel as before under the Law And what follows which the Doctor thinks makes for him viz. This Example and Commandment of God the Godly Christian People began to follow immediatly after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in yet not the seventh day which the Jews kept but the Lord's Day the Day of the Lord's Resurrection the day after the seventh day which is the first day of the week c. does rather make against him that is by Gods Example as well as Command they were obliged after Christs Ascension to chuse them one standing day of the week to meet together in And if so that must be one day in seven by an immutable moral institution or else the Church might if they had so pleased have celebrated the Lord's Resurrection not as the Homily says on one standing day of the week but only at Easter and the Law of Nature according to the Doctor not tying us to observe one day in seven if this Commandment of keeping the Sabbath or seventh day oblige none but the Jews then the primitive Church might if they had pleased have quite left off setting aside any particular day of the week for God's Service and have thought it sufficient to have kept one day suppose in a month or two for Men to meet together for the Service and Worship of God which whether those of the Doctor 's Party would be pleased with I shall not dispute but sure I am that the Church of England maintains no such Doctrine But the Doctor because he thinks the Homily not enough of his side undertakes to shew us upon what grounds the Lord's day
Rabbinicum codicem ubi in latinum Sermonem convertero id enim ago objectionibus respondero faciam Deo dante ut Illustrissima tua dignitas exemplar quamprimum habeat Et quandoquidem intellexi ex antiquis raris Manuscriptis illustrissimam tuam dignitatem percipere magnam venustatem reticere nequeo quin de alio Manuscripto cujus me compotem fecit D. Buxtorfius mentionem injiciam nomen est Nizahon virulentum scriptum contra Christianos Vertere etiam coepi ut eodem modo edam atque transmittam Porrò cum in D. tuâ instructissimá Bibliothecâ Syriacum in Biblia Commentarium esse intellexerim sive Thesaurum secretarium atque ab iis qui vetus Testamentum transferunt in linguam Belgicam rogatus sim ut observationes ad loca difficiliora porrò suppeditem si optare liceret istius Syriaci in Hagiographa Prophetas posteriores Commentarii usum ad tempus concedi exoptarem Nam Pentateuchum reliquos Historicos quod concernit istos jam examinarunt revisores ut vocant atque ad Hagiographa pergunt In locis dubiis Abrabanielem meum omnium Commentatorum coryphaeum consulere soleo sed ne is quidem per omnia satisfacit Attamen ne vel minimum quidem hac mea petitione D. tuae commodis obesse velim neque committendum censeo ut liber adeo rarus cum discrimine amittendi periculo in incertum mittatur verum suo loco relinquendum si tuta mittendi ratio desit existimo De Chronico Samaritanorum Arabico cum collega D. Golio egi quod D. tuae votum esse cognoscerem ut ex Arabico in Latinum verteretur Sed tot jam negotiis se implicitum quaeritur ut hoc tempore id praestare nequeat ita enim praeter stata negotia undique sollicitari ut suus non sit Cyclium denique Paschalem V. M. de quo D. t. ad Dominum Frey perscripserat in nostra Bibliotheca nondum invenire potui Hactenus curas tuas interpellari boni quaeso consulas tua facilitate fretus id feci qui mea officia offero Illustrissimae dignitati tuae cujus cliens audire gestio Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych Ludg-Bat 16 Kal. Dec. An. 1633. Partae salutis LETTER CLXXVIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Good Doctor I Received with your last Letter the Penitential Canons of Maimonides for which I heartily thank you In lieu whereof I hereby send you the History of Gottheschalcus the first Latin Book I suppose that ever was printed in Ireland I have directed it as you see to Mr. Vossius but upon your advertisement forbore to commit the publication of it unto him For the Arminian Questions I desire never to read any more than my Lord of Salisbury's Lectures touching Predestination and Christ's Death and yours concerning Grace and Free-will together with the determination of the Question of Perseverance which you shewed unto me The Book of Scotus in Benet-Colledg I guess to be the same with a Manuscript which I have my self without the Author's Name beginning thus Quod status Praelatorum viz. pastorum Ecclesiae presupponit statum alium probatur sic I had thought the other had been written by Johannes Erigena or else I had not much desired it but now I discern it came from Johannes Duns I do not much esteem it If I be not deceived being once in talk of Scaliger at your Table Mr. Mead made mention of some Mistake of his in the Fragments of Abydenus or Berosus which he hath published at the end of his Book De Emendatione Temporum but what it was I cannot call to remembrance If you have a better memory I pray you help mine or else enquire of Mr. Mead himself when you shall next see him I received a very kind Letter from Mr. Vossius for my History of Gottheschalcus A Copy of your Writings touching the Efficacy of Baptism and the Questions with the Remonstrants I much desire Dr. Twisse I see as you feared hath followed the rigid part I have gotten a good large Fragment of the beginning of Clement's genuine Epistle to the Corinthians Your own most assured Ja. Armachanus Dublin April 30. 1634. LETTER CLXXIX A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Grace's Letter of the 30th of April for which I humbly thank your Lordship and crave pardon withal of my long silence I am right sorry to hear of the late decease of the worthy Bishop of Derry Boni deficiunt mali proficiunt I heard before the receipt of your Lordship's Letter of it at London I heard also there that Dr. Bramhall of our Colledg was likely to succeed him I pray God he may succed him as in place so in all his Vertues and vertuous Actions I pray God to be assistant to the Parliament of State with you and to bless all the Proceedings therein and to give an happy success to that Honourable Meeting in all their Important Affairs For my Lectures of the Eucharist I have as yet no leisure to transcribe them nor others touching the Remonstrants As for my Lord of Sarum his Readings I will see if I can get Mr. Burnet to procure them to be transcribed As for an Answer to the Animadversions you mention I will God willing e're long send your Lordship a Copy of them The Author of the Animadversions is now with us We have had some doings here of late about one of Pembrook-Hall who preaching in St. Mary's about the beginning of Lent upon that Text James 2. 22. seemed to avouch the insufficiency of Faith to Justification and to impugn the Doctrine of our 11th Article of Justification by Faith only for which he was convented by the Vice-Chancellor who was willing to accept of an easy acknowledgment but the same Party preaching his Latin Sermon pro gradu the last week upon Rom. 3. 28. he said he came not palinodiam canere sed eandem cantilenam canere which moved our Vice-Chancellor Dr. Love to call for his Sermon which he refused to deliver Whereupon upon Wednesday last being Barnaby day the day appointed for the admission of the Batchelors of Divinity and the choice of the Batchelors of Divinity which must answer Die comitiorum he was stayed by the major part of the Suffrages of the Doctors of the Faculty And though sundry Doctors did favour him and would have had him to be the Man that should answer Die comitiorum yet he is put by and one Mr. Flatkers of our Colledg chosen to answer Whos 's first Question is Sola sides justificat 2. Realis praesentia Christi in Eucharistia non ponit Transubstantiationem The truth is there are some Heads among us that are great Abettors of Mr. Tourney the Party above mentioned who no doubt are backed by others I pray God we may persist in the Doctrine
of our Church contained in our Articles and Homilies Innovators are too much favoured now a-days Our Vice-Chancellor hath carried Business for Matter of Religion both stoutly and discreetly Dr. Lane died on Sunday last and was buried in the night upon Tuesday in St. John's Colledg It may be you are willing to hear of our University Affairs I may truly say I never knew them in worse condition since I was a Member thereof which is almost 46 years Not but that I hope the greater part is Orthodox but that new Heads are brought in and they are backed in maintaining Novelties and them which broach new Opinions as I doubt not but you hear others are disgraced and checked when they come above as my self was by my Lord of York the last Lent for favouring Puritans in Consistory and all from false Informations from hence which are believed without any examination At that time also I intreated my Lord of Canterbury to speak to the Dean of Wells that now is who had sundry times excepted against me for not residing three months per Annum as I should by Charter which I nothing doubt but it was by his instigation he promised me then he would but not having done it yet I repaired again to my Lord's Grace about it in November But now he cannot for that his Majesty hath given him in charge to take account of the Bishops in his Province how Residence is kept I told him my Case was not every Man's Case and that I had a Benefice at which I desired to be in the Vacation-Time but nothing would prevail And yet as I told him I am every Year at Wells sometimes a month or six weeks I think they would have me out of my Professor's place and I could wish the same if I could have one to succeed according to my mind for then I should have leasure to transcribe things Well howsoever God's Will be done and he teach us Humility and Patience I heard also of some doings with you The Lord of Heaven direct you and us and teach us to submit to him in all things I have not yet sent my Answer to Mr. Ch. but intend e're long I have not finished yet one Point to shew the Arminian Opinions were condemned in the Synods which condemned the Pelagian Heresy At Mr. Burnet's importunity who could not get a good Scrivener to transcribe my Lord of Sarum's Readings de Praedestinatione morte Christi I gave way that he should send it to you which I intreat your Lordship if you have received it to return it me as soon and as safely as you conveniently can The Tractate de Praedestinatianis in defence of your Lordship I know not your Adversary nor his Name is Dr. Twisses it may be he hath sent your Lordship a Copy of it He is a deserving Man We have a Vice-Chancellor that favoureth Novelties both in Rites and Doctrines I could write more sed manum de Tabula The greatest part of this was inclosed in the Letter your Lordship had sent Jan. 14. I made now a few additions And so I rest Your Grace's in all observance Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. Jun. 14. 1634. Dr. Baden a Dean with you in Ireland answereth the Act In Vesperiis Comitiórum His Questions are 1. Justificatio non suscipit magis minus 2. Non dantur Consilia perfectionis supra legem LETTER CLXXX A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Illustrissimo Primati D. Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano Hyberniae Primati I. V. S. P. Vir Reverende EST quod mihi admodum gratuler qui cum antea viro illustri nonnisi de nomine innotuissem tamen quod in votis habebam audacter petiissem tantam evestigio nactus sim benevolentiam ut illustris tua dignitas expetitum commentariorum in sacras literas volumen Syriacum transmittere gravata non fuerit Dabitur Deo favente opera ut fideliter in Hyberniam transmittatur ubi usus fuero In veteri Testamento spei meae non respondet licet subinde notatur digna animad vertam Ad textum Syriacum commentaria accommodata sunt non verò quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suadebat consultus fuit Ebraicus Imo quantum adhuc videre possum Syriacus quo usus fuit contextus è Graeco expressus fuit ideoque saepe aliter legit author quam in Ebraeo extat Aliquando etiam verba de industria secus collocat quam invenit Graecae Linguae peritiam prae se fert in Syriaca nimis anxiè quae ad vocales spectant persequitur Occidentalem Syrum fuisse id est viciniorem Mari Mediterraneo ostendit quod sect 28. Usa annotat Tandem hoc observo ut omnia conglomerem quae è lectione in mentem veniunt non satis ad messam applicare quae ad ipsum passim directa fuere Nihilominus pro usu istius libri gratias habeo maximas inprimis cum praeclara annotentur in Testamentum Novum Quae in c. 1. Matt. observata sunt evolvi placent admodum Caeterum est in illustris D. T. Bibliotheca uti intelligo versio Syriaca duplex V. T. patruus autem meus D. Antonius Thysius paratum habet commentarium in duo priora cap. Genes ubi Historiam creationis illustrat cui praemittere statuit versiones primarias Ideoque summa diligentia è variis autoribus Symmachi Theodotionis Aquilae c. interpretamenta ita collegit ut continuum contextum reddant Itaque valdè sibi gratum fore dicit si versionem Syriacam ab Amanuensi aliquo descriptam obtinere in 2. cap. Gen. posset Hoc vix à me impetro ut subjungam verum fortassis post libri editionem istius consilii se non factum certiorem D. tua aegre ferret ut cui hoc unum cordi sit prodesse publico Hic subsisto Patri D. nostri I. Christi commendo Illustrem tuam dignitatem cujus permanere gestio cliens humillimus Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych Lug. Bat. 3. Kal. Jul. ā partae salutis 1634. LETTER CLXXXI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord OUR Commencement is now over where Dean Baden now Dr. Baden did well perform his part who answered the Act Vesperiis Comitiorum And so did the Batchelor of Divinity Die Comitiorum being one of the Fellows of our Colledg The Vice-Chancellor Dr. Love did well perform his part especially in encountring with one Franciscus de S. Chara but his true name is Davenport who in a Book set forth at Doway would reconcile si diis placet our Articles of Religion with the Definitions of the Council of Trent But we have dismissed the Auditors this Year with much more content than they were the Year before Our Stirs we had a little before the Commencement are prettily well over There is a little Book intituled