is the Bishop of Rome And the Title whereby he claimeth this power over us is the same whereby he claimeth it over the whole World because he is S. Peter's Successor forsooth And indeed if St. Peter himself had been now alive I should freely confess that he ought to have spiritual Authority and Superiority within this Kingdom But so would I say also if St. Andrew St. Bartholoâ—ew St. Thomas or any of the other Apostles had been alive For I know that their Commission was very large to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel unto every Creature So that in what part of the World soever they lived they could not be said to be out of their Charge their Apostleship being a kind of an Universal Bishoprick If therefore the Bishop of Rome can prove himself to be one of this rank the Oath must be amended and we must acknowledge that he hath Ecclesiastical Authority within this Realm True it is that our Lawyers in their Year-Books by the name of the Apostle do usually design the Pope But if they had examined his Title to that Apostleship as they would try an ordinary man's Title to a piece of Land they might easily have found a number of flaws and main defects therein For first It would be enquired whether the Apostleship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a special Commission which being personal only was to determine with the death of the first Apostles For howsoever at their first entry into the execution of this Commission we find that Matthias was admitted to the Apostleship in the room of Judas yet afterwards when James the Brother of John was slain by Herod we do not read that any other was substituted in his place Nay we know that the Apostles generally left no Successors in this kind Neither did any of the Bishops he of Rome only excepted that sate in those famous Churches wherein the Apostles exercised their ministry challenge an Apostleship or an Universal Bishoprick by virtue of that Succession It would secondly therefore be inquired what sound Evidence they can produce to shew that one of the company was to hold the Apostleship as it were in Fee for him and his Successors for ever and that the other eleven should hold the same for term of life only Thirdly if this state of perpetuity was to be cast upon one how came it to fall upon St. Peter rather than upon St. John who outlived all the rest of his follows and so as a surviving feoffee had the fairest right to retain the same in himself and his Successors for ever Fourthly if that state were wholly setled upon St. Peter seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome we require them to shew why so great an inheritance as this should descend unto the younger Brother as it were by Burrough-English rather than to the elder according to the ordinary manner of descents Especially seeing Rome hath little else to alledge for this preferment but only that St. Peter was crucified in it which was a very slender reason to move the Apostle so to respect it Seeing therefore the grounds of this great claim of the Bishop of Rome appear to be so vain and frivolous I may safely conclude That he ought to have no Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority within this Realm which is the principal point contained in the second part of the Oath JAMES REX RIght Reverend Father in God and Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor We greet you well You have not deceived our expectation nor the gracious opinion We ever conceived both of your abilities in Learning and of your faithfulness to Us and our Service Whereof as we have received sundry Testimonies both from Our precedent Deputies as likewise from Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Cousin and Councellor the Viscount Falkland Our present Deputy of that Realm so have We now of late in one particular had a further evidence of your Duty and Affection well expressed by your late carriage in Our Castle-Chamber there at the censure of those disobedient Magistrates who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy Wherein your zeal to the maintenance of Our Just and Lawful Power defended with so much Learning and Reason deserves Our Princely and Gracious thanks which We do by this Our Letter unto you and so bid you farewell Given under Our Signet at Our Court at White-Hall the eleventh of January 1622. In the twentieth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland To the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor the Bishop of Meath This discourse had so good an effect that divers of the Offenders being satisfied they might lawfully take those Oaths did thereby avoid the Sentence of Praemunire then ready to be pronounced against them After the Bishop had been in Ireland about two years it pleased King James to imploy him to write the Antiquities of the British Church and that he might have the better opportunity and means for that end he sent over a Letter to the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland commanding them to grant a Licence for his being absent from his See part of which Letter it may not be amiss to give you here Verbatim JAMES REX RIght Trusty and Welbeloved Cousins c. We Greet you well Whereas We have heretofore in Our Princely judgment made choice of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to imploy him in Collecting the Antiquities of the British Church before and since the Christian Faith was received by the English Nation And whereas We are also given to understand That the said Bishop hath already taken pains in divers things in that kind which being published might tend to the furtherance of Religion and good Learning Our pleasure therefore is That so soon as the said Bishop hath setled the necessary Affairs of his Bishoprick there he should repair into England and to one of the Universities here to enable himself by the helps to be had there to proceed the better to the finishing of the said Work Requiring you hereby to cause our Licence to be passed unto him the said Lord Bishop of Meath under Our Great Seal orotherwise as he shall desire it and unto you shall be thought fit for his repairing unto this Kingdom for Our Service and for his continuance here so long time as he shall have occasion to stay about the perfecting of those Works undertaken by him by Our Commandment and for the good of the Church c. Upon which Summons the Bishop came over into England and spent about a year here in consulting the best Manuscripts in both Universities and private Libraries in order to the perfecting that noble Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum though it was not published till above two years after when we shall take occasion to speak thereof more at large
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
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
Church may still either by preaching or writing maintain any point of Doctrine contained in those Articles without being either Heterodox or Irregular It was likewise reported and has been since written by some with the like truth that the Lord Primate should have some dispute with Dr. Bramhall then Bishop of London-Derry concerning these Articles Whereas the contest between the Lord Primate and that Bishop was not about the Articles but the Book of Canons which were then to be established for the Church of Ireland and which the Bishop of Derry would have to be passed in the very same form and words with those in England which the Lord Primate with divers other of the Bishops opposed as somewhat prejudicial to the Liberties of the Church of Ireland and they so far prevailed herein that it was at last concluded That the Church of Ireland should not be tyed to that Book but that such Canons should be selected out of the same and such others added thereunto as the present Convocation should judge fit for the Government of that Church which was accordingly performed as any man may see that will take the pains to compare the two Books of the English and Irish Canons together And what the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's judgment was on this affair you may see in a Letter of his to the Lord Primate published in this Collection About the end of this year the Lord Primate published his Anno 1639 long expected work entitled Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates In which also is inserted a History of Pelagius and his Heresie which Work I suppose my Lord kept so long unpublished because he still found fresh matter to add to it as you may see by the many Additions and Emendations at the latter end of it and as it was long in coming out so it did fully answer expectation when it came abroad into the World being the most exact account that ever yet was given of the British Church beginning with the earliest notices we can find in Ancient Authors of any credit concerning the first planting of Christianity in these Islands within twenty years after our Saviour's Crucifixion and bringing it down with the Succession of Bishops as far as they could be retreived not only in our Britain but in Ireland also as far as towards the end of the VII Century collected out of the best Authors either Printed or Manuscript and is so great a Treasure of this kind of Learning that all that have writ since with any success on this subject must own themselves beholding to him for his elaborate Collections The Lord Primate having now sate Arch-Bishop sixteen years Anno 1640 with great satisfaction and benefit to the Church about the beginning of this year came into England with his Wife and Family intending to stay here a year or two about his private Affairs and then to return again But it pleased God to disappoint him in those resolutions for he never saw his native Country again not long after his coming to London when he had kissed his Majesty's hand and been received by him with his wonted favour he went to Oxford as well to be absent from those heats and differences which then happened in that short Parliament as also with greater freedom to pursue his Studies in the Libraries there where he was accommodated with Lodgings in Christ-Church by Dr. Morice Canon of that House and Hebrew Professor and whilst he was there he conversed with the most Learned Persons in that famous University who used him with all due respect whilst he continued with them so after he had resided there some time he returned again to London where after the sitting of that long and unhappy Parliament he made it his business as well by preaching as writing to exhort them to Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince endeavouring to the utmost of his power to heal up those breaches and reconcile those differences that were ready to break out both in Church and State though it did not meet with that success he always desired This year there was published at Oxford among divers other Treatises of Bishop Andrews Mr. Hooker and other Learned men Anno 1641 concerning Church Government the Lord Primate's Original of Bishops and Metropolitans wherein he proves from Scripture as also the most Ancient Writings and Monuments of the Church that they owe their original to no less Authority than that of the Apostles and that they are the Stars in the right hand of Christ Apoc. 2. So that there was never any Christian Church founded in the Primitive Times without Bishops which discourse was not then nor I suppose ever will be answered by those of a contrary judgment That unhappy dispute between his Majesty and the two Houses concerning his passing the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Attainder now arising and he much perplexed and divided between the clamour of a discontented People and an unsatisfied Conscience thought fit to advise with some of his Bishops what they thought he ought to do in point of Conscience as he had before consulted his Judges in matter of Law among which his Majesty thought fit to make choice of the Lord Primate for one though without his seeking or knowledge but since some men either out of spleen or because they would not retract what they had once written from vulgar report have thought fit to publish as if the Lord Primate should advise the King to sign the Bill for the said Earl's Attainder it will not be amiss to give you here that relation which Dr. Bernard had under his own hand and has printed in the Funeral Sermon by him published which is as followeth That Sunday morning wherein the King consulted with the four Bishops of London Durham Lincoln and Carlisle the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was not present being then preaching as he then accustomed every Sunday to do in the Church of Covent-Garden where a Message coming unto him from his Majesty he descended from the Pulpit and told him that brought it he was then as he saw imployed about God's business which as soon as he had done he would attend upon the King to understand his pleasure But the King spending the whole Afternoon in the serious debate of the Lord Strafford's Case with the Lords of his Council and the Judges of the Land he could not before Evening be admitted to his Majesty's presence There the Question was again agitated Whether the King in justice might pass the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford for that he might shew mercy to him was no question at all no man doubting but that the King without any Scruple of Conscience might have granted him a Pardon if other reasons of State in which the Bishops were made neither Judges nor Advisers did not hinder him The whole result therefore of the determination of the Bishops was to this effect That therein the matter of Fact and matter of Law were to be distinguished That of the
About this time whilst his late Majesty was kept Prisoner at year 1648 Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight the Lord Primate was highly concerned at the disloyal actions of the two Houses towards their Lawful Prince to express which he preached at Lincolns-Inn on this Text Isa. 8. 12 13. Say ye not a Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a Confederacy neither fear you their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Wherein he sufficiently expressed his dislike of those Covenants and Consederacies which they had now entred into contrary to that Oath they had taken already and that we should not fear man more than God when we were to do our Duty to our Prince or Country Not long after which the Presbyterians finding the Independant party too strong for them had no way left to secure themselves but by recalling their Votes of Non-Addresses and to Vote a Treaty with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight And because the differences concerning Church-Government were not the least of those that were to be setled and concluded at this Treaty and for which it was necessary for his Majesty to consult with some of his Bishops and Divines the Lord Primate was sent for by the King among divers others to attend him for that purpose when he came thither he found one of the greatest points then in debate was about the Government of the Church The Parliament Commissioners insisting peremptorily for the abolishing and taking away arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops c. out of the Churches of England and Ireland His Majesty thought he could not with a good Conscience consent to that demand viz. totally to abolish or take away Episcopal Government but his Majesty then declared that he no otherwise aimed at the keeping up the present Hierarchy in the Church than what was most agreeable to the Episcopal Government in the Primitive and purest Times But his Majesty since the Parliament insisted so obstinately on it was at last forced to consent to the suspension of Episcopacy for three years but would by no means agree to take away Bishops absolutely But now to stop the present career of the Presbyterian Discipline the Lord Primate proposed an expedient which he called Episcopal and Presbyterial Government conjoyned and which he not long after he came thither delivered into his Majesty's hands who having perused it liked it well saying it was the only Expedient to reconcile the present differences for his Majesty in his last Message to the Parliament had before condescended to the reducing of Episcopal Government into a much narrower compass viz. Not only to the Apostolical Institution but much farther than the Lord Primate proposed or desired even to the taking away of Arch-Bishops Deans Chapters c. Together with all that additional Power and Jurisdiction which his Majesty's Predecessors had bestowed upon that Function Which Message being read in the House was by them notwithstanding voted unsatisfactory So that the Presbyterian Party was so absolutely bent to abolish the very Order of Bishops that no proposals of his Majesty's though never so moderate would content them till at last when they had wrangled so long till they saw the King's person seized by the Army and that the power was like to be taken out of their hands they then grew wiser and would have agreed to his Proposals when it was too late and so the Presbyterian Party saw themselves within a few days after forcibly excluded and turned out of doors by that very Army which they themselves had raised and hired to fight against their Prince which as it was the cause of his Majesty's destruction so it proved their own ruine But since some of the Church of England have been pleased to judge very hardly of this Proposal made by the Arch-Bishop as if it too much debased the Episcopal Order and levelled it with that of Presbyters To vindicate the Lord Primate from which imputation I desire them to consider these particulars first the time when this Expedient was proposed viz. When his Majesty had already consented to the suspension of Episcopal Government for three years absolutely as also for setling Presbytery in the room of it for that time and for quite taking away Arch-Bishops Deans and Chapters c. as hath been already said whereas the Lord Primate's Expedient proposes none of these but supposes the Arch-Bishops or Primates ought to be continued appointing them to be the moderators of the Provincial Synods of Suffragans and Pastors And though it is true he mentions Bishops as to be only Presidents of the Diocesan Synod yet he no where denies them a Negative Voice in that Assembly and though he mentions at the beginning of this Expedient that the Bishops were wont in the Primitive times to do nothing of moment without the advice of a Synod of their Clergy as he proves from divers quotations out of the Fathers and Ancient Councils yet he does not assert this practice as a thing of Divine or unalterable right but only as the custom and practice of the Church in those Times which being only prudential may be altered one way or other according as the peace and order of the Church or the exigency of Affairs may require and though in Sect. 11. of this Expedient he proposes the making of as many Suffragans in each Diocess as there are Rural Deanries in the same and who should assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or Ministers of their Precinct yet their power was only to be according to the Statute of the 26th of Henry the Eighth whereby they are expresly forbid to act in any matters but by the Authority of and in Subordination to their Diocesan Bishop nor does the Lord Primate here extend their power farther than to be moderators of this lesser Synod where matters of Discipline and Excommunication only were to be determined still reserving the power of Ordination to the Diocesan this being no where given from him in this Expedient neither was this power of Excommunication left absolutely to this lesser Synod without an Appeal to the Diocesan Synod of the Suffragans and the rest of the Pastors wherein the Bishop was to preside only I shall say thus much That it was not the Lord Primate's design or intention in the least to rob the Bishops of any of those just Rights which are essentially necessary to their Order and Constitution and without abasing Episcopacy into Presbytery or stripping the Church of its Lands and Revenues both which the Lord Primate always abhorred for he was of his Majesty's mind in his excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Presbytery is never so considerable or effectual as when it is joyned to and Crowned with Episcopacy And that the King himself was then convinced that this was the best Expedient for the setling of the differences of the Church at that time You may
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
God But if by Jure Divino you would understand a Law binding all Christian Churches universally perpetually unchangeably and with such absolute Necessity that no other form of Regiment may in any case be admitted in this sence we cannot grant it to be Jure Divino And much of the same Opinion is the Learned Bishop Davenant in his Treatise So that you see here that as Learned Men and as stout Asserters of Episcopacy as any the Church of England hath had have been of the Lord Primat's Judgment in this matter tho without any design to lessen the Order of Bishops or to take away their use in the Church since Mr. Mason in the said Treatise tho he grants the French Churches having a constant President of the Presbytery to enjoy the substance of the Episcopal Office Yet whereas their Discipline is still very defective he wishes them in the bowels of Christ by all means to redress and reform it and to conform themselves to the ancient Custom of the Church of Christ So that I hope after all this Question Whether Episcopacy be Ordo or Gradus will prove only a difference in words rather than substance between those of the Lord Primat's Judgment and those of the contrary since they are both agreed in the main Points in controve sie between them and the Presbyterians viz. That Bishops were ordained in the Church by the Apostles themselves from the direction or at least approbation of our Saviour himself being the Stars which St. John saw in his Vision in our Lord Christ's own Hand and that they are permanent immutable Officers in the Church which cannot subsist without it but in Cases of pure Necessity And lastly that those Presbyters which in Churches founded and setled with Bishops do separate from them are guilty of Schism These things being agreed upon on both sides I think the rest of the Controversie is not worth contending about But if any Learned Persons of the Church of England who are well vers'd in the Writings of the Fathers and other ancient Monuments of the Church have already proved or can further make out that Episcopacy has always been an absolute distinct Order as well as Office in the Church I suppose the Lord Primate were he now alive would be so far from opposing them that he would heartily thank them for giving him greater light provided it could be done without unchurching all those Protestant Churches abroad vvho want Bishops And I hope however if the Lord Primat may be thought by the Doctor or others not to go high enough in this matter nor sufficiently to magnifie his own Office yet that he may well be pardoned since it proceeded from his excess of Humility and Charity towards our neighbouring-Churches to whom no good Protestants ought to deny the right-hand of fellowship The third Point which the Doctor will have the Lord Primat to hold contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England which he says maintains an Universal Redemption of all Mankind by the Sufferings and Death of Christ as is proved by the Prayer of Consecration of the sacred Elements in the Sacrament which declares that God hath given to his Son Jesus Christ by his suffering death upon the Cross and by the Oblation of himself a full and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World And also that in the publick Catechism the party catechised is taught to believe in God the Son who hath redeemed him and all Mankind But that in this Point the Lord Primat is of a contrary Judgment to the Church of England For as he seems not to like their opinion who contradict the riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World so he declareth his dislike of the other Extream as he is pleased to call it by which the benefit of this Satisfaction is extended to the Redemption of all Mankind The one Extremity saith he extends the benefit of Christ's Satisfaction so far ut reconciliationem cum Deo Peccatorem Remissionem singulis impetraverit as to obtain a Reconciliation with God and a Remission of Sins for all Men at his merciful hands p. 21. which tho they are the words of the Remonstrants at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1611 and are by him reckoned for untrue yet do they naturally result from the Doctrine of Universal Redemption which is maintained in the Church of England not that all Mankind is so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their Sins before they actually believe which the Lord Primate makes to be the meaning and effect of that Extremity as he calls it p. 2. but that they are so far reconciled unto Him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith in their common Saviour which is required thereunto And here the Doctor thinks he finds out two notable Contradictions in the Lord Primat's Letter of the Year 1617 since in one part thereof he seems to dislike of their Opinion who contract the riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any kind of interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World as before was said And in the other he declares that he is well assured that our Saviour hath obtained at the hands of his Father Reconciliation and Forgiveness of Sins not for the Reprobate but Elect only p. â—1 Now the Doctor has done his worst Yet I hope to prove that tho there may be a difference between my Lord Primat's way of explaining this Doctrine and that of the Doctor 's which proceeds indeed from the different Notions they had of Election and Reprobation Yet that there is no such formidable Contradiction in these two Propositions of my Lord Primat's by him laid down as the Doctor fancies or that the L. Primat hath maintained any thing in this Doctrine contrary to that of the Church of England for 1. the Doctor owns that all Mankind is not so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their Sins before they actually believe but that they are so far reconciled unto him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith in their common Saviour which is required thereunto Now what will the Doctor get by these words if they are so far reconciled to him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith which is required thereunto since the Question still remains between the Lord Primat and those of the contrary Opinion Whether all Men can obtain without the aid of Grace this saving Faith which is required thereunto Our Saviour says the direct contrary Joh. 6. 44 65. No Man can come to me except the
in very deed by God's faithful People By which it seems it is agreed on both sides that is to say the Church of England and the Church of Rome that there is a true and real Presence of Christ in the holy Eucharist the disagreement being only in the modus Praesentiae But on the contrary the Ld Primat in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge hath written one whole Chapter against the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament In which tho he would seem to aim at the Church of Rome tho by that Church not only the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but the corporal eating of his Body is maintained and taught yet doth he strike obliquely and on the by on the Church of England All that he doth allow concerning the real Presence is no more than this viz. That in the receiving of the blessed Sacrament we are to distinguish between the outward and the inward action of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouth we receive really the visible Elements of Bread and Wine in the inward we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord that is to say we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man Which is no more than any Calvinist will stick to say But now after all these hard words the Doctor has here bestowed upon my Lord Primat part of which I omit I think I can without much difficulty make it appear that all this grievous Accusation of the Doctor 's is nothing but a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strife about words and that the Lord Primat held and believed this Doctrine in the same sence with the Church of England 1. Then the 29th Article of our Church disavows all Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord. The second asserts that the Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner and that the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith And now I will leave it to the unprejudiced Reader to judge whether the Lord Primat's way of explaining this Sacrament according to the passage before cited by the Doctor does differ in sence from these Articles however it may somewhat in words as coming nearer the Articles in Ireland which the Bishop when he writ this Book had alone subscribed to and was bound to maintain for I think no true Son of the Church of England will deny that in this Sacrament they still really receive the visible Elements of Bread and Wine 2. That in the inward and spiritual action we really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord as the Lord Primat has before laid down But perhaps it will be said That the Lord Primat goes further in this Article than the Church of England does and takes upon him to explain in what sence we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and that otherwise than the Church of England does he explaining it thus that is to say We are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man whereas the Church of England declares that the Body of Christ is eaten only after a heavenly and spiritual manner yet still maintains the Body of Christ to be eaten whereas the Lord Primat only says that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified but does not say as the Article of our Church does that we are therein partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ. But I desire the Objector to consider whether the Explanation of our Church does not amount to the same thing in effect that saying that the Body of Christ is eaten in the Supper after a heavenly and spiritual manner and the Lord Primat that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified viz. after a spiritual and not a carnal manner But perhaps the Doctor 's Friends may still object that the Lord Primat does not express this Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament as Bp. Bilson and Bp. Morton assert the former saying that Christ's Flesh and Blood are truly present and truly received by the Faithful in the Sacrament and the latter expresly owning a real Presence therein And Bp. Andrews in his Apology to Cardinal Bellarmine thus declares himself viz. Praesentiam credimus non minus quam vos veram de modo praesentiae nil timerè definimus Which the Doctor renders thus We acknowledg saith he a presence as true and real as you do but we determine nothing rashly of the manner of it And the Church Catechism above cited as also the Latin Catechism of Mr. Noel confess the Body and Blood of our Lord are truly and indeed or as the Latin Translation renders it verè realiter taken and received in the Lord's Supper Which the Lord Primat does not affirm I know not what such Men would have The Lord Primat asserts that we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of Christ and that in the same sence with Mr. Noel's Catechism and the Article of the Church viz. that Christ's Body is received after a spiritual and heavenly manner Which was added to exclude any real presence as taken in a carnal or bodily sence So that our Church does in this Article explain the manner of the Presence notwithstanding what Bp. Andrews says to the contrary Nor know I what they can here further mean by a real Presence unless a carnal one which indeed the Church of England at the first Reformation thought to be all one with the real as appears by these words in the first Articles of Religion agreed on in the Convocation 1552 Anno 5. Edw. 6. It becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporal Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the holy Eucharist And that our Church did likewise at the first passing the 39 Articles in Convocation Anno 1562 likewise disallow any Real Presence taken in a carnal sence Christ's Body being always in Heaven at the right hand of God and therefore cannot be in more places than one appears by the original of those Articles to be seen in the Library of Corpus Christi Colledg in Cambridg where tho this passage against a Real or Corporal Presence which they then thought to be all one are dash'd over with red Ink yet so as it is still legible therefore it may not be amiss to give you Dr. Burnet's Reasons in his 2d part of the History of the Reformation p. 406 for the doing of it The secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alledged that such an express Definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of
there be any other places or other Mansions by which the Soul that believeth in God passing and coming unto that River which maketh glad the City of God may receive within it the lot of the Inheritance promised unto the Fathers For touching the determinate state of the faithful Souls departed this life the ancient Doctors as we have shewed were not so throughly resolved The Lord Primat having thus shewn in what sence many of the ancient Fathers did understand this word Hades which we translate Hell proceeds to shew that divers of them expound Christ's Descent into Hell or Hades according to the common Law of Nature which extends it self indifferently unto all that die For as Christ's Soul was in all points made like unto ours Sin only excepted while it was joined with his Body here in the Land of the Living so when he had humbled himself unto the Death it became him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren even in the state of dissolution And so indeed the Soul of Jesus had experience of both for it was in the place of human Souls and being out of the Flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable Soul therefore and of the same substance with the flesh of Men proceeding from Mary Saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his Exposition of that Text of the Psalm Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humane Souls which in the Hebrew is the world of Spirits and by the disposing of Christ's Soul there after the manner of other Souls concludes it to be of the same nature with other Mens Souls So St. Hilary in his Exposition of the 138th Psalm This is the Law of humane Necessity saith he that the Bodies being buried the Souls should go to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man And a little after he repeats it that desupernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit He descended from the supernal to the infernal parts by the Law of Death And upon Psal. 53. more fully To fulfil the Nature of Man he subjected himself to Death that is to a departure as it were of the Soul and Body and pierced into the infernal seats which was a thing that seemed to be due unto Man I shall not trouble you with more Quotations of this kind out of several of the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers which he makes use of in this Treatise most of them agreeing in this That Christ died and was buried and that his Soul went to that place or receptacle where the Souls of good Men do remain after Death which whether it is no more in effect but differing in terms than to say he died and was buried and rose not till the third day which the Doctor makes to be the absurdity of this Opinion I leave to the Judgment of the impartial Reader as I likewise do whether the Lord Primat deserves so severe a Censure after his shewing so great Learning as he has done concerning the various Interpretations of this word Hades or Hell both out of sacred and prophane Writers that it only serves to amaze the Ignorant and confound the Learned Or that he meant nothing less in all these Collections than to assert the Doctrine of the Church of England in this particular Or whether Christ's Local Descent into Hell can be found in the Book of Articles which he had subscribed to or in the Book of Common-Prayer which he was bound to conform to And if it be not so expressed in any of these I leave it to you to judge how far Dr. H. is to be believed in his Accusation against the Lord Primat in other matters But I doubt I have dwelt too long upon this less important Article which it seems was not thought so fundamental a one but as the Lord Primat very well observes Ruffinus in his Exposition of the Creed takes notice that in the Creed or Symbol of the Church of Rome there is not added He descended into Hell and presently adds yet the force or meaning of the word seems to be the same in that he is said to have been buried So that it seems old Ruffinus is one of those who is guilty of this Impertinency as the Doctor calls it of making Christ's descent into Hell to signifie the same with his lying in the Grave or being buried tho the same Author takes notice that the Church of Aquileia had this Article inserted in her Creed but the Church of Rome had not which sure with Men of the Doctor 's way should be a Rule to other Churches And further Card. Bellarmin noteth as the Lord Primat confesses that St. Augustin in his Book De Fide Symbolo and in his four Books de Symbolo ad Catechumenos maketh no mention of this Article when he doth expound the whole Creed five several times Which is very strange if the Creed received by the African Church had this Article in it Ruffinus further takes notice that it is not found in the Symbol of the Churches of the East by which he means the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds the latter of which is nothing else but an Explanation or more ample Enlargement of Creed Apostolical Tho this indeed be not at this day read in the Greek or other Eastern Churches or so much as known or received in that of the Copties and Abyssines But the Doctor having shown his Malice against the Lord Primat's Memory and Opinions in those Points which I hope I have sufficiently answered cannot give off so but in the next Section accuses him for inserting the nine Articles of Lambeth into those of the Church of Ireland being inconsistent with the Doctrine of the Church of England But before I answer this Accusation I shall first premise that as I do not defend or approve that Bishops or others tho never so learned Divines should take upon them to make new Articles or define and determine doubtful Questions and Controversies in Religion without being authorized by the King and Convocation so to do Yet thus much I may charitably say of those good Bishops and other Divines of the Church of England who framed and agreed upon these Articles that what they did in this matter was sincerely and as they then believed according to the Doctrine of the Church of England as either expresly contained in or else to be drawn by consequence from that Article of the Church concerning Predestination And certainly this makes stronger against the Doctor for if with him the Judgment of Bp. Bilson Bp. Andrews and Mr. Noel in their Writings be a sufficient Authority to declare the sence of the Church of England in those Questions of Christ's true and real Presence in the Sacrament and his Local Descent into Hell why should not the Judgment and Determination of the two arch-Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York with divers other Bishops and
learned Divines after a serious debate and mature deliberation as well declare what was the Doctrine of the Church of England in those Questions of Predestination Justifying Faith Saving Grace and Perseverance But it seems with the Doctor no Bishops Opinions shall be Orthodox if they agree not with his own But to come to the Charge it self The main Reason why the Doctor will needs have the Lord Primat to be the cause of the inserting these Articles of Lambeth into those of Ireland agreed on in Convocation 1615 is because the Lord Primat being then no Bishop but only Professor of Divinity in the University there and a Member of Convocation was ordered by the Convocation to draw up those Articles and put them into Latin as if Dr. Usher could have then such a great influence upon it as to be able to govern the Church at his pleasure or that the Scribe of any Synod or Council should make it pass what Acts or Articles he pleases or that one private Divine should be able to manage the whole Church of Ireland as the Doctor would needs have him do in this Affair Whereas the Doctor having been an ancient Member of Convocation could not but know that all Articles after they are debated are proposed by way of Question by the President and Prolocutor of either House and are afterwards ordered to be drawn into form and put in Latin by some Persons whom they appoint for that purpose and tho perhaps they might not be themselves in all points of the same Opinion with those Articles they are so ordered to draw up and that Dr. Usher did not hold all those Articles of Ireland in the same sence as they are there laid down appears from what the Doctor himself tells us in this Pamphlet for p. 116 he saith That it was his viz. the Lord Primat's doing that a different explication of the Article of Christ's descent into Hell from that allowed of by this Church and almost all the other Heterodoxies of the Sect of Calvin were inserted and incorporated into the Articles of Ireland And p. 129 he finds fault with the 30th Article of that Church because it is said of Christ that for our sakes he endured most grievous Torments immediatly in his Soul and most painful Sufferings in his Body The enduring of which grievous Torments in his Soul as Calvin not without some touch of Blasphemy did first devise so did he lay it down for the true sence and meaning of the Article of Christ's descending into Hell In which expression as the Articles of Ireland have taken up the words of Calvin so it may be rationally conceived that they take them with the same meaning and construction also But the Doctor owns that this was not the Lord Primat's sence of this Article for p. 113 aforegoing he says thus Yet he viz. the Lord Primat neither follows the Opinion of Calvin himself nor of the generality of those of the Calvinian Party who herein differ from their Master but goes a new way of a later discovery in which altho he had few Leaders he hath found many Followers But as I shall not take upon me to enter into a dispute with the Doctor or his Followers in defence of these Irish Articles and to prove they are not contradictory to those of England it not being my business yet I cannot forbear to observe that it is highly improbable that all the Bishops and Clergy of Ireland should incorporate the nine Articles of Lambeth containing all the Calvinian Rigours as the Doctor calls them in the points of Predestination Grace Free-will c. if they had thought they were inconsistent with those of the Church of England and had not been satisfied that it was the Doctrine then held and maintained in those Points by the major part of the Bishops and Clergy of our Church as also believed by the King himself who confirmed them and certainly would never else have sent one Bishop and three of the most Learned Divines within his Dominions to the Synod of Dort to maintain against the Remonstrants or Arminians the very same Opinions contained in these Irish Articles But if all those must be counted by the Doctor for Rigorous Calvinists that maintain these Articles and consequently Heterodox to the Church of England I desire to know how he can excuse the major part of our Bishops in Queen Elizabeth and King James's Reign and a considerable part of them during the Reigns of the two last Kings of blessed Memory some of whom are still living from this Heterodoxy And if all Men must be guilty of Calvinism who hold these Opinions concerning Predestination Grace and Free-will then the most part of the Lutherans who differ very little from Calvin in these points must be Calvinists too Nor are these Points held only by Protestants but many also of the Church of Rome hold the same as witness the Jansenists and also the Order of the Dominicans who come very near to Calvin in the Doctrines of Predestination c. and are as much opposed by the Jesuits as the Arminians are by the Anti-remonstrants in Holland But perhaps the Doctor may make St. Augustin a Calvinist too since he is much of the same Opinion with the Lord Primat in most of these Points against the Pelagians Having now I hope vindicated the Lord Primat from these unjust Accusations of his differing from the Church of England in matters of Doctrine I now come to answer his Aspersions upon the Lord Primat in lesser matters and that you may see how unjustly he seeks out a Quarrel against him he makes it a crime in him because those who were aspersed with the names of Puritans made their Addresses to him by Letters or Visits and because he was carress'd and feasted by them where-ever he came as the Doctor will have it as if the Lord Primat had no other Perfections but his asserting those Calvinian Tenents Then he goes on to tax the Lord Primat with Inconformity to the Rules and Orders of the Church of England in several particulars but with how great want of Charity and with how many malicious Inferences and Reflections without any just grounds I leave to the impartial Reader who will give himself the trouble to peruse that Pamphlet many of those passages being cull'd here and there out of Dr. Bernard's Treatise entitled The late Lord Primat's Judgment c. without ever considering what went before or what followed after and without taking notice that several things enjoined in the Canons of the Church of England had no force or obligation in that of Ireland where those Canons were not yet subscribed to or received and consequently such Ceremonies as were by them enjoined being in themselves indifferent as the Church declares it had been singularity in him to have observed them there and much worse to have imposed them upon others for it is truly said of him by Dr. Bernard That he did not affect some
assignata fuerunt ut haeserit istis temporibus circa priores partes Geminorum Perspicuum est jgitur quâ ratione quaestio de Solaris apogaei motu huc pertineat quòd Cydo meo LXX annorum nullus detâ—r 〈◊〉 Superest ut coâ—â—odior quoque ostendatur isto 33 annorum Nam per 〈…〉 tempora per quam oportunum est nec infrequens Divinis Oraculiâ— quae non solum exitum Israëlitarum aetatibus sed aetatem hominis LXX annis LXX annis sabbathum terrae sanctae totidem annorum hebdomadibus Unctionem Messiae praesiniuint Proinde quemadmodum Hebraeorum Jubilaei septies septenis annis distinguebantur ita nostra aetas spetuagenis Cyclus seriarum septies septuagenis annis absolvitur Imò si Matthaeus Evangelista praecipuas mundi aetates generationibus distinguit atque in eo septenarium numerum affectat licebit nobis mundana tempora aetatibus metiri septenarium sacrum sponte oblatum amplecti qui Naturae humanae familiaris est adeò ut non solùm integram nostram aetatem coronet sed in partes digestam insuper Climactericis insigniat Deinde promtum facile est cuilibet in Arithmeticis leviter versato progressionem septuagenarii numeri memoriter continuare quo in 33 annorum periodo vix procedat quemadmodum distributio cujus bet annorum summae multò facilior est in Hebdomecontaëteridas quà m in Triacontatrieteridas nam aequè facile est multiplicare vel dividere per 70 atque per 7 nec minus facile per 7 atque per 4 quare operandi facilitate Cyelus 7 orius vix cedit ipsi quatuor annorum periodo Ac licet ex 33 37 annorum Cyclis componatur meus LXX annorum hujus tamen utpote rotundi observatio commodior accidit imaginationi quae naturaliter non acquiescit prius quà m imparem numerum multiplicando ad rotunditatem perduxerit Postremò quanquam periodus feriarum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sequitur ultrò Cyclum LXX annorum etiamsi nemo illud curet adeòque nullam prolixitudine suâ difficultatem parit tamen absque hoc foret periodus septem aetatum non tantùm aequè facilè sed commodius etiam sive per literas conservatur sive traditione propogatur atque ista 231 annorum quâ videlicet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 atque ideo corruptioni vel abolitioni minus oportuna est Hisee o decus ingens Anglae velificari in praesens debui sublimi tuo favori quo ut porro adspirare meis studiis digneris supplex oro Reverendissimi atque Illustrissimi Domini mei devotus cultor Nicolaus Mercater Hasniae Martii 4 14. 1653 4. LETTER CCXCI. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Henricus Valesius Viro Doctissimo D. Henrico Valesio Lutetiam Parisiorum Vir Clarissimo MItto ad te non Eufebium solum sed caeteros quoque Ecclesiastieae Historiae Scriptores à D. Henrico Savilio cum Manuscripto suo codice quem in bombycinâ papyro descriptum publicae Oxoniensis Academiae Bibliothecae donavit diligenter collatos Ubi lacunas in libris de vita Constanti suppletas invenies Plura ad te scribere volentem caligantes oculi prohibent Hoc tamen supprimere non valentem Seldenum nostrum jam septuagenarium Pridie Kalendas Decembris Julianas magno nostro cum luctu ex hac vitâ decessisse Te vero ad Reipublicae literariae bonum diu velit Deus esse superstitem quod ex animo exoptat Studiorum tuorum Fautor Summus Ja. Usserius Armachanus Lond. xiii Kalend. Januar. Anno Christi 1654. Stylo vetere LETTER CCXCII A Letter from the Right Reverend Jos. Hall Bishop of Norwich to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and Honourable WIth never enow thanks for this precious Gift which I receive from your Grace's Hand I have with no small eagerness and delight turned over these your learned and accurate Annals wondring not a little at that your indefatigable Labour which you have bestowed upon a Work fetch'd together out of such a World of Monuments of Antiquity whereby your Grace hath better merited the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than those on whom it was formerly imposed But in looking over this admirable Pile of History my curiosity cast me upon the search of two over-famous Persons Simon Magus and Apòllonius Tyanaeus the particularities of whose Story seems so much to be concerned in the disquisition of that Antichrist lately set on foot by Grotius and Dr. Hammond I had hoped to have found a just account both of their Times and their Actions and Events in this your compleat Collection Which missing of I have taken the boldness to give this touch of it to your Grace as being desirous to know Whether you thought good to omit it upon the opinion of the invalidity of those Records which mention the Acts and Issue of those two great Juglers or whether you have pleased to reserve them for some further opportunity of Relation Howsoever certainly my Lord it would give great satisfaction to many and amongst them to my self if by your accurate search I might understand whether the Chronology of Simon Magus his Prodigies and affectation of Deity may well stand with St. Paul's Prediction of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as following it in time after the writing of that second Epistle to the Thessalonians I must confess if the Times may accord there may seem to be some probability in casting Antichrist upon an Age not so far remote from the Apostolick as hath been commonly reputed since the Apostle speaks of it as a thing so near hand that the ordinary Christians of Thessalonica were well acquainted with the bar of his Revelation I beseech your Grace to pardon this bold importunity of him who out of the consciousness of his deep devotion to you and his dependence upon your oracular Sentence in doubts of this Nature have presumed thus to interrupt your higher Thoughts In the desire and hope whereof I humbly take leave and profess my self Your Grace's in all Christian Observance and fervent Devotion Jos. Norvic Higham May 1 1654. LETTER CCXCIII A Letter from the Right Reverend J. Bramhall Bishop of Derry afterward Primate of Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend I Thank God I do take my Pilgrimage patiently yet I cannot but condole the Change of the Church and state of England And more in my Pilgrimage than ever because I dare not witness and declare to that straying Flock of our Brethren in England who have misled them and who they are that feed them But that your Lordship may be more sensible of the Churches Calamities and of the Dangers she is in of being ruin'd if God be not mercifull unto Her I have sent you a part of my Discoveries and it from credible hands at this present having so sure a Messenger and so fit
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
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
very desirous to be certified of from you the one In what sort you would have him answer that Calumniation of our Irish Libeller where he intimateth that you dissemble your Religion and write otherwise than you think delusus Spe hujus secult et mundani honor is lenocinio illectus The other What you think of our great St. Patrick and of his Miracles Touching the former I assured him of my own knowledge that you were wrong'd most shamefully what you did you did out of Judgment and not led by any such base Respect as you were charged withal and that I knew for certain that with your heart you embraced the Religion which by Authority is maintained in the Church of England For the latter I gave him good leave to discredit as much as he list that Pack of ridiculous Miracles which latter Writers had fastned upon St. Patrick but wished him in no wise to touch the Credit of that worthy man himself nor to question his Succession to Palladius nor to cast him unto lower Times contrary to the consent of all Writers that ever make Mention of him And to this end I shewed unto him what I had gathered together to this purpose in a Treatise which I lately wrote at the Request of Dr. Hampton Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh of the first Planters of the Christian Faith in Ireland and specially of St. Patrick and his Successors in the See of Armagh but one word from you will satisfie him more than a hundred from me and therefore let me intreat you that you would here erranti comiter monstrare viam You easily may see what little Credit the Testimony or the Silence rather of so late an Author as Platina is may carry to bear down the constant agrement of all our own Writers The Objection would be far more specious if it were drawn from the Silence of venerable Bede who making express Mention both in his History and his Chronicle of Palladius speaketh nothing at all of Patricius Yet have I seen in Sir Robert Cotton's Library an ancient Fragment written before the time of Bede wherein St. Patrick is not only mentioned but also made to be as ancient in time as hitherto we have still believed him to have been It was found among Mr. Josseline's Papers and is now bound up in blew Leather with other Antiquities If you can come by the Book and will be pleased to transcribe that place of it where the Tradition of the Liturgy from Man to Man is described for there this Mention of St. Patrick is to be found either that or nothing will give full Satisfaction to our Doctor The Company of Stationers in London are now erecting a Factory for Books and a Press among us here Mr. Felix Kingston and some others are sent over for that Purpose They begin with the printing of the Statutes of the Realm afterwards they purpose to fall in Hand with my Collections De Christianarum Ecclesiarum Successione Statu I do intreat you of all Love to look over the first Edition and what you find I have mistaken or what you think may be further added out of the Antiquities which you have met withal signifie unto me I wrote unto you to this purpose about four years since by a Kinsman of mine Mr. John Brereton at which time also I desired to understand from you Whether it were possible to get the Copy of the Epistles to the Monks of Glastenbury attributed to St. Patrick which I remember you told me you had sometimes seen But since that time I have heard nothing from you If you will be pleased at this time to write unto me or to Dr. Rives who earnestly expecteth your Answer you may leave your Letters at my Lord Knevet's House in Westminster there to be delivered unto Sir Henry Docwra our Treasurer at Wars who will take Order that they shall be safely conveyed unto me And thus craving Pardon for my Boldness in troubling you thus far I take my Leave for this time resting always Your most loving and firm Friend James Usher Dublin June 8. 1618. LETTER XXXIV A Letter from Mr. William Camden to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh My most esteemed good Mr. Dr. YOur loving Letter of the Eighth of June I received the Fourth of July being retired into the Country for the recovery of my tender health where portum anhelans beatadinis I purposed to sequester my self from Worldly business and cogitations Yet being somewhat recovered I could not but answer your love and Mr. Doctor Rieves Letter for your sake with the few lines herein enclosed which I submit to your censure I thank God my life hath been such among men as I am neither ashamed to live nor fear to die being secure in Christ my Saviour in whose true Religion I was born and bred in the time of King Edward VI. and have continued firm therein And to make you my Confessor sub sigillo Confessionis I took my Oath thereunto at my Matriculation in the University of Oxon. when Popery was predominant and for defending the Religion established I lost a fellowship in All-Souls as Sir Daniel Dun could testifie and often would relate how I was there opposed by the Popish Faction At my coming to Westminster I took the like Oath where absit jactantia God so blessed my labours that the now Bishops of London Durham and St. Asaph to say nothing of persons employed now in eminent place abroad and many of especial note at home of all degrees do acknowledge themselves to have been my Scholars Yea I brought there to Church divers Gentlemen of Ireland as Walshes Nugents O Raily Shee s the eldest Son of the Arch-Bishop of Cassiles Petre Lombard a Merchants Son of Waterford a youth of admirable docility and others bred Popishly and so affected I know not who may justly say that I was ambitious who contented my self in Westminster School when I writ my Britannia and eleven years afterward Who refused a Mastership of Requests offered and then had the place of a King of Arms without any suit cast upon me I did never set sail after present preferments or desired to soar higher by others I never made suit to any man no not to his Majesty but for a matter of course incident to my place neither God be praised I needed having gathered a contented sufficiency by my long labours in the School Why the Annalectist should so censure me I know not but that men of all humours repair unto me in respect of my place and rest content to be belied by him who is not ashamed to belie the Lords Deputies of Ireland and others of honourable rank Sed haec tibi uni soli That I might give you better satisfaction I sent my Servant with directions to my Study at Westminster who found this which I have herein inclosed Which if they may stead you I shall be right glad As my health will permit I will look over
Consecrated and thereupon desire Justice I shall be ready to shew reason and yield account of my Opinion as well in the King's Courts as in Theological Schools For to pass the general words of his grant cum omnibus Jurisdictionibus which grant him Jus ad rem but not in re The Statute of 2 Eliz. cap. 1. expresly forbiddeth all that shall be preferred to take upon them receive use exercise any Bishoprick c. before he hath taken the corporal Oath of the King's Supremacy before such person as hath Authority to admit him to his Bishoprick As for the Statute of Conferring and Consecrating Bishops within this Realm I find not the words you have written viz. That he which hath the King's Letters Patents for a Bishoprick is put in the same state as if he were Canonically elected and confirmed But that his Majesties Collation shall be to the same effect as if the Conge delire had been given the election duly made and the same election confirmed for the Dean and Chapters election in England is not good until the King have confirmed by his Royal assent then it followeth in the Statute upon that collation the person may be consecrated c. Afterward in the same Statute it is further enacted That every person hereafter conferred invested and consecrated c. shall be obeyed c. and do and execute in every thing and things touching the same as any Bishop of this Realm without offending of the Prerogatives Royal. Now by an argument à contrario sensu it appeareth that it is not I which stand against his Majesties Prerogative but they which exercise Jurisdiction without the form prescribed in these Statutes Confider again how impertinent the opinion of Canonists is in this case where the King's collation is aequivalent to a Canonical Election and Confirmation The Confirmation which the Canonists speak of is from the Pope not from the Prince Gregoriana constitutione in Lugdunensi Consilio cautum est Electum infra tres menses post consensum suum electioni proestitum si nullum justum impedimentum obstat confirmationem à superiore Proelato petere debere alioqui trimestri spatio elapso electionem esse penitus irritandam When the See of Armagh falleth void the Dean and Chapter have Authority by the Canons to exercise Jurisdiction which the Bishop elect hath not until he be consecrated as you may read in Mason's Book and elsewhere and so it is practised in England Behold the cause which maketh the Dean capable namely the Authority Canons and Custom of the Church So is not the Bishop elect warranted and standeth still in the quality of a simple Presbyter until he be further advanced by the Church When Jo. Forth shall bring his Libel I will do the part which belongeth to me In the mean time I commend you to God and rest Your Lordships very loving Friend Armagh 13 July 1621. LETTER XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend MY duty to your Lordship remembred This Messenger so fitly offering himself unto me albeit it were the Sabbath Even and I cast behind hand in my studies by absence from home yet I could not but in a line or two salute your Lordship and thereby signifie my continued and deserved remembrance of you and hearty desire of your welfare By this time I presume your Lordship in setled in your weighty charge of Over-sight wherein I beseech the Lord in mercy to bless your Labours and Endeavours to the glory of his own Name and the good of his Church never more in our times oppugned and opposed by mighty and malitious Adversaries both at home and abroad never in foreign Parts generally more distracted and distressed than at the present Out of France daily news of Murthers and Massacres Cities and Towns taken and all sorts put to the Sword Nor are those few that stand out yet likely to hold long against the power of so great a Prince having no succours from without In the Palatinate likewise all is reported to go to ruine Nor do the Hollanders sit for ought I see any surer the rather for that the Coals that have here been heretofore kindled against them about Transportation of Coin and the Fine imposed for it the Quarrels of the East-Indies the Command of the Narrow Seas the Interrupting of the Trade into Flanders c. are daily more and more blown upon and fire beginneth to break out which I pray God do not burn up both them and us too I doubt not worthy Sir but you see as well yea much better I suppose than my self and many others as being able further to pierce into the state of the times and the consequents of these things what need the forlorn flock of Christ hath of hearts and hands to help to repair her ruines and to fence that part of the Fold that as yet is not so openly broken in upon against the Incursions of such ravenous Wolves as having prevailed so freely against the other parts will not in likelihood leave it also unassaulted as also what need she hath if ever of Prayers and Tears her ancient principal Armor unto him who hath the hearts and hands of all men in his hand and whose help our only hope as things now stand is oft-times then most present when all humane helps and hopes do fail But these lamentable occurrents carry me further than I had purposed when I put Pen to Paper I shall be right glad to hear of your Lordship's health and welfare which the Lord vouchsafe to continue gladder to see the remainder of your former learned and laborious Work abroad The Lord bless and protect you And thus ready to do your Lordship any service I may in these parts I rest Your Lordships to be commanded in the Lord Thomas Gataker Rothtrith Sept. 19. 1621. LETTER XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswel to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My very good Lord IF your Lordship hath forgotten my name I shall account my self very unhappy therein yet justly rewarded for my long silence the cause whereof hath especially been my continual absence almost for these last eight years from my native Country where now returning and disposed to rest I would not omit the performance of this duty unto your Lordship hoping that the renewing of my ancient respects will be entertained by your Lordship as I have seen an old Friend or Servant who arriving suddenly and unexpected hath been better welcomed than if he had kept a set and frequent course of visiting and attendance With this representing of my service I presume your Lordship will not dislike that I recommend my especial kind friend Dr. Price one of his Majesties Commissioners for that Kingdom and for his Learning Wisdom and other Merits which your Lordship will find in him truly deserving your Lordships good affection The most current news I can signifie to
your Lordship from this place are That the Lord Vicomte Doncastré returneth within three days into France as 't is thought invited thereunto by that King both at his coming from thence and since by his Ambassadour resident here which occasioneth some forward natures to presage of Peace very speedily in those Parts between the King and his Protestant Subjects Whereof notwithstanding except want of moneys the importunity of his old Councellors at length having been long slighted the disunion of his Grandees and desperate resolution of the afflicted Protestants to withstand these Enemies shall beget an alteration for my own part I see little reason for it is not likely That either the Prince of Condé who hateth the Protestants and loveth to fish in troubled Waters or the Jesuit party earnest votaries of the House of Austria being still powerful in France will ever suffer that King to be at rest until their Patrons Affairs shall be settled in Grisons Germany c. From Italy I hear that in Rome there is lately erected a new Congregation De fide propaganda consisting of 12 Cardinals whereof Cardinal Savelli is chief A principal Referendary thereof being Gaspar Schioppius There are to be admitted into this Congregation of all Nations and their Opus is to provide maintenance from their Friends c. for Proselites of all Nations who shall retire into the Bosom of the Romish Church But I fear I begin to be tedious to your Lordship and therefore craving Pardon as well for my present boldness as former omissions with my ancient and most unfeigned Respects I take leave of your Lordship desiring to know if in these parts I may be useful to your Lordship and remaining ever Your Lordships most Affectionate to love and serve you William Boswel From Westminster Colledge March 17. 1621. LETTER XLV A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend and my most worthy Lord THough I be always tied to reiterate my thankfulness to your Lordship for your favours here in England yet is it not fit to trouble you too often with Letters only of complement And other occasion I have hitherto not had any save what in Michaelmas Term last I wrote unto you touching the Monument of Bury Abby which the Cutter going then in hand with came to me about as directed so by your Lorship I was bold to stay him for the time and signified by those Letters that I thought much exception might be taken to the credit of the Monument for that both the ends of the upper Label pictured in the Glass over the head of Antichrist are stretched out so far as they rest not in the Glass but run on either way upon the stone Pillars which as your Lordship knows could not possibly be so in the Window it self How it cometh to pass I do not know whether by the rashness of the Painter not heeding so light a matter as he might take it or that perphaps those which in the picture seem to be the Pillars of the Window were but painted Pillars in the Glass it self and so the whole Window but one Pannel I cannot determine this doubt but out of all doubt such a picture there was and taken out exactly by a Painter then as a right honest old Gentleman which saw it standing in the Abby Window and the Painter that took it out did often tell me about 40 years since affirming the picture now at the Cutters to be the true pattern thereof But at that time my understanding shewed me not to make this doubt if I had he perhaps could have resolved it For my own part though I think it fitter in this respect not to be published as doth also Sir H. Bourgchier yet I leave it to your direction which the Cutter hitherto expecteth So remembring my service most humbly to your Lordship and desiring your blessing I rest Your Lordships to be commanded Henry Spelman Tuttle-street Westm. Mar. 18. 1621. LETTER XLVI A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My Lord I Should before this have returned your Nubiensis Geographia but Mr. Bedwell had it of me and until this time presuming on your favour he keeps it nor can we have of them till the return of the Mart. Then I shall be sure to send your through Mr. Burnet There is nothing that here is worth memory to you touching the State of Learning only I received Letters lately out of France touching this point Whether we find that any Churches in the elder times of Christianity were with the Doors or Fronts Eastward or no because of that in Sidonius Arce Frontis ortum spectat aequinoctialem lib. 2. ep 10. c. and other like I beseech your Lordship to let me know from you what you think hereof I have not yet sent it but I shall most greedily covet your resolution And if any thing be here in England that may do your Lordship favour or service and lye in my power command it I beseech you and believe that no man more admires truly admires your worth and professes himself to do so than Your Lordships humble Servant J. Selden March 24. 1621. Styl-Anglic My Titles of Honour are in the Press and new written but I hear it shall be staid if not I shall salute you with one as soon as it is done LETTER XLVII A Letter from Sir Robert Cotton to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My honourable Lord THe opportunity I had by the going over of this honourable Gentleman Sir Henry Bourgchier I could not pass over without doing my service to your Lordship in these few lines We are all glad here you are so well settled to your own content and merit yet sorry that you must have so important a cause of stay that all hopes we had to have seen your Lordship in these parts is almost taken away Yet I doubt not but the worthy work you gave in England the first life to and have so far happily proceeded in will be again a just motive to draw you over into England to see it perfected for without your direction in the sequel I am afraid it will be hopeless and impossible Let me I pray you intreat from your Honour the Copy of as much as you have finished to show his Majesty that he may be the more earnest to urge on other Labourers to work up with your Lordships advice the rest I have received Eight of the Manuscripts you had the rest are not returned If I might know what my Study would afford to your content I would always send you and that you may the better direct me I will as soon as it is perfected send your Honour a Catalogue of my Books The Occurrents here I forbear to write because a Gentleman so intelligent cometh to you What after falleth worthy your Honours knowledge I will write hereafter upon direction from your
of that Chapter which I had undertaken to answer as a principal motive of his Conversion to them which he hath added to the Oration of the motives to his Conversion I suppose you have seen the Book Now having been lately chosen upon my Lord of Sarum his promotion to be Reader of the Margaret Lecture in our University Lam advised by my good friends and namely the Lords Bishops of Wells and Sarum to read those Controversies mentioned in that Chapter And upon more mature advice have resolved to set down positively the Fathers Doctrine not barely by Thesis but with their several proofs and the Vindication of them from the Adversaries cavils I will be bold to communicate with you the special difficulties which I shall observe if it be not troublesome unto your Lordship In the first Controversie touching the Real Presence they except against the testimony produced by P. Martyr of Chrysostom ad Caesarium Monachum I have heard your Lordship say it is alledged by Leontius but by what Leontius and where I remember not I cannot find it in such Tractates of Leontius as I find in Bibliotheca Patrum I desire your Lordship in a word to certifie me It seemeth P. Martyr read it in Latin for otherwise it is probable he would have alledged the Greek Text if originally he had it out of the Greek I suppose your Lordship hath seen the third Tome of Spalatensis containing his VII and IX Book I fear me he may do some harm with the Treatise which he hath lib. 7. c. 11. touching the matter of Predestination wherein he goeth about to shew That both Opinions may be Tolerated both that of St. Austin's which makes Predestination to be gratuita and that other which maketh Predestination to be Ex proevisis fide operibus But chiefly he goeth about to invalidate St. Austin's Opinion It will confirm the Remonstrants in their Error for he hath said more than any of them but all in vain for doubtless St. Austin's Opinion is the truth and no doubt but it is special Grace which doth distinguish Peter from Judas and not solum liberum arbitrium It is great pity the man was so carried away with Ambition and Avarice otherwise I think he is not inferior to Bellarmine for the Controversies I write this Letter upon my way being at Sarum where my Lord Bishop of Sarum doth salute you I cannot now dilate further but with my best service and wishes commend your Lordship to the Highest Majesty and so rest Your Lordships in all service Samuel Ward Sarum Sept. 25. 1622. I intreat your Lordship that I may know where Leontius doth alledge that Tractate of Chrysostom LETTER LI. A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to the Right Honourable Oliver Lord Grandison My very good Lord I Had purposed with my self long ere now to have seen your Honour in England which was one reason among others why I did forbear to trouble you hitherto with any Letters But seeing I think now it will fall out that I shall remain here this Winter I thought it my duty both to tender my thankfulness unto your Lordship for all the honourable favours which I have received at your hands and withal to acquaint you with a certain particular which partly doth concern my self and in some sort also the state of the Church in this poor Nation The day that my Lord of Falkland received the Sword I preached at Christ-Church and fitting my self to the present occasion took for my Text those words in the 13th to the Romans He beareth not the Sword in vain There I shewed 1. What was meant by this Sword 2. The Subject wherein that power rested 3. The matters wherein it was exercised 4. Thereupon what it was to bear the Sword in vain Whereupon falling upon the Duty of the Magistrate in seeing those Laws executed that were made for the furtherance of God's Service I first declared That no more was to be expected herein from the subordinate Magistrate than he had received in Commission from the Supreme in whose power it lay to limit the other at his pleasure Secondly I wished That if his Majesty who is under God our Supreme Governour were pleased to extend his clemency toward his Subjects that were Recusants some order notwithstanding might be taken with them that they should not give us publick affronts and take possession of our Churches before our Faces And that it might appear that it was not without cause that I made this motion I instanced in two particulars that had lately fallen out in mine own Diocess The one certified unto me by Mr. John Ankers Preacher of Athloane a man well known unto your Lordship who wrote unto me That going to read Prayers at Kilkenny in West-Meath he found an old Priest and about 40 with him in the Church who was so bold as to require him the said Ankers to depart until he had done his business The other concerning the Friars who not content to possess the House of Multifernan alone whence your Lordship had dislodged them went about to make Collections for the re-edifying of another Abby near Molengarre for the entertaining of another swarm of Locusts These things I touched only in general not mentioning any circumstances of Persons or Places Thirdly I did intreat That whatsoever connivance were used unto others the Laws might be strictly executed against such as revolted from us that we might at least-wise keep our own and not suffer them without all fear to fall away from us Lastly I made a publick Protestation That it was far from my mind to excite the Magistrate unto any violent courses against them as one that naturally did abhor all cruel dealings and wished that effusion of blood might be held rather the Badge of the Whore of Babylon than of the Church of God These points howsoever they were delivered by me with such limitations as in moderate mens judgments might seem rather to intimate an allowance of a Toleration in respect of the general than to exasperate the State unto any extraordinary severity yet did the Popish Priests perswade their followers that I had said The Sword had rusted too long in the Sheath whereas in my whole Sermon I never made mention either of Rust or Sheath yea some also did not stick to give out That I did thereby closely tax your self for being too remiss in prosecuting of the Papists in the time of your Government I have not such diffidence in your Lordships good opinion of me neither will I wrong my self so much as to spend time in refelling so lewd a calumniation Only I thought good to mention these things unto your Lordship that if any occasion should be offered hereafter to speak of them you might be informed in the truth of matters Wherein if I have been too troublesome unto you I humbly crave pardon and rest Your Honours in all Duty ever ready to be commanded Jac.
of the Psalms and the second of Esdras I have also a small Tract of Ephraems in the Syriack I have used the best means I could to procure the New Testament in the Abyssins Language and Character but to this day have not been able Fourteen days past I sent again to Jerusalem to try if it or any other of the Books your Lordship would have in the Samaritan Tongue may be had For obtaining whereof I have made use of the favour of a Gentleman of Veniee that is Consul for that Nation in this Place who I presume will endeavour to satisfy my great desire in this Particular and if he fail me I have no farther hopes of prevailing I am sorry that I can do no better service in a business that may be so beneficial as your Grace hath intimated to the Church of God and so acceptable to your self Such Papers as I have or can procure shall God willing with a Note of their Cost and Charges be sent by our Ships aforesaid News this place affords not worth your knowledg By our last Letters from Constantinople they write of great preparation for the Wars and that they will this Spring go against the Rebel Abbassa that holds the City of Assaraune In their last Years Siege of that place they lost many Men and much Honour The Common Adversary the Persian in the mean while hath time to provide himself to welcome the Turks when they shall think good to visit him They write also from Constantinople that a Greek Patriarch or Bishop that spent three Years in England was resolved to print being furnished out of Christondom with all things necessary having leave of the Caymo-cham some of the Greek Fathers whose Writings it should seem the Papists have abused Which when the Jesuits that live in Constantinople understood they went to the Bashaw and told him That the Greek under pretence of Printing would coin and stamp false Mony Whereupon without examination of the Business order was given to apprehend and instantly to hang the old Man his House and Goods to be seised upon for the King's use The latter was effected but God so provided that the Man was at that instant of time in our Ambassador's House where the Officers came to take him and execute that tyrannical Sentence But the Ambassador examining the Business undertook his Protection and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Person yea so far prâ—seâ—uted the Business against the Jesâ—its that they were cast into Prison their House Library and all their Goods taken for the King's use and liberty given to the old Greek to go on with his intended Work And for the Jesuits the best they could expect was to be banished Constantinople and never to come into any part of the Grand Signior's Dominions But I fear their Mony will produce too good an issue of so foul a Business Their Malice is inveterate God deliver all good Men out of their Power Thus I humbly take leave and ever rest Your Grace's in all Duty to be commanded Thomas Davis Aleppo the 14th of March 1627. Of the Turks Account the 18th day of the 7th Month called Raged and the 1037 Year of Mahomet LETTER CXXI A Letter from the Right Reverend Dr. John Hanmer Bishop of St. Asaph to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh May it please your Grace I Have received the Chronicle of Ireland penn'd by my Uncle and perfected by Mr. Molineux together with the History of Ireland compiled by Edmund Campian I have cursorily ran them both over and do find some defects in both not only in Orthography by reason of the unskilfulness of the Transcriber but also in the Sense by reason of dissonancy in the coherence and the very Context it self But as it is I do purpose God willing to send it this week to London unto some Friends of mine to give the Printers there a view of the Volume as also to deal with them touching the Profit that may be raised to the advancement of the Widow my Aunt I will not fail to prefix in the Epigraphe and Title to Mr. Campian's History that direction which your Lordship very kindly affordeth in your loving Letter And I am sensible enough that Campian's Name honoured with your Grace's Publication to the Work will be a Countenance unto it and much further the sale And for Mr. Daniel Molineux not only my self but the whole Realm of Ireland together with this of great Britain shall owe a large beholdenness unto him If it please God that the Work take success for the Press I will take care that his Name for his care and pains-taking therein shall live and have a being in the memory of Posterity so long as the Books shall live When the Copies shall be returned from London and the Printer agreed withal I and my Friends here will review them again and again and to our Capacities make them fit for the Press for I find by perusing that such a Work must be framed by such Men as be skilful both in the Irish and Welsh Tongues and reasonably versed in their Stories Between this and Michaelmass I hope to bring all Passages to perfection and agreement with the Printer and then I will not fail to certify your Grace of the Proceedings Till when and ever I commit you and yours to the Grace of the Almighty Resting Your Lordships most assured loving Brother and Servant in Christ Jesus Joh. Asaph Peâ—re Paâ—t May 28. 1627. LETTER CXXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Mr. John Selden Worthy Sir YOur Letter of the 9th of September came not unto my hands before the 13th of November And to give you full satisfaction in that which you desired out of my Samaritan Text I caused the whole fifth Chapter of Genesis to be taken out of it as you see and so much of the 11th as concerneth the Chronology you have to deal with The Letters in the second and third Leaf are more perfectly expressed than those in the first and therefore you were best take them for the Pattern of those which you intend to follow in your Print there being but 22 of them in number without any difference of Initials and Finals and without any distinction of Points and Accents Matrices may be easily cast for them all without any great Charge which if you can perswade your Printer to undertake I will freely communicate to him the Collection of all the Differences betwixt the Text of the Jews and the Samaritans throughout the whole Pentateuch a Work which would very greedily be sought for by the Learned Abroad howsoever such things are not much regarded by ours at Home The Original it self after the Collation is perfected I have dedicated to the Library of our Noble Friend Sir Robert Cotton In the Samaritan Chronology published by Scaliger Lib. 7. de Emend temp pag. 618. there are reckoned 130 Years from Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his Death
Privy Counsellor who was present and assistant in all the Consultations about setting it forth and privy to the Resolutions of the Board thereupon But since this is come to my hands from another I do hereby pray and authorize your Lordship calling to your assistance Mr. Justice Philpot who is now resident there to enter into a serious examination of the Premises and to give me a full information of what you find thereof by the first opportunity So desiring to be remembred in your daily Prayers I am Your Lordship 's very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle Apr. 14. 1629. LETTER CXL A Letter from Mr. Philpot to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My good Lord I Have had some Conference with my Lord Deputy about those Matters wherein your Grace and I were lately imployed he telleth me that this day he will advise with the Counsel upon the Informations sent by us and afterwards will take such course therein as shall be thought fit His Lordship insisteth much upon that part of Mr. Sing's Information where he saith That the Titulary Bishop of Rapho did make a Priest at a publick Mass in an Orchard He saith That the said Bishop is as dangerous a Fellow here in Ireland as Smith is in England and that he hath good Bonds upon him and would be glad to this occasion to call him in and therefore I pray your Grace to wish Mr. Sing to be ready to make good his Accusation for the said Bishop is bound not to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction I told my Lord Deputy how careful you were to see him before his going from hence and that your Grace intended to make a journey of purpose hither having now no other business here He told me that if your Grace had any such purpose that you need not make any great haste for he hoped to have time enough before his going to make some good progress in the Business begun concerning the Jesuits and their Houses c. and that he had not his Summons yet to go away which could not come till the Wind turned and if it came then he said he would stay ten days after at the least in which your Grace may have notice time enough to perform your desire I told my Lord that your Grace was somewhat troubled at his Letter for which he was sorry and blamed his Secretary protesting he did not intend to give your Grace any cause of discontent His Lordship told me that the News of Mantua is true which is relieved and the French King returned but there is no certainty but a common report of any Peace concluded with France I shall be ready upon all occasions to do your Lordship any acceptable Service and will for ever remain Your Grace's faithful Servant Jo. Philpot. Dublin April 27. 1629. LETTER CXLI A Letter from the Lord Deputy c. to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After our right hearty Commendations to your Lordship BY your Letters of the 6th of this Instant which we the Lord Deputy thought fit to communicate to the Council we perceive and do well approve the care and pains you have taken as well in searching out the truth of the Matter concerning the Titulary Bishop of Raphae as in endeavouring to inform your self of the Proprietors and Possessors of the Popish Conventual-Houses in that Town Touching the Titulary Bishop we rest satisfied by your Lordship 's said Letters that at that time he did no publick Act nor gave Orders to any But as yet remain unsatisfied whether there were any great Assembly of People at that Meeting and what Persons of Note were among them wherein we desire to receive further satisfaction from your Lordship As to their Conventual-Houses we have given his Majesty's Attorney-General a Copy of the Paper enclosed in your Letters to us and gave him direction to put up Informations in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer against the Proprietors and Possessors of those Houses that thereby way may be made to such further course of proceeding as the several Cases shall require And this being all for the present we bid your Lorship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin May 15. 1629. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends H. Falkland A. Loftus Canc. Anth. Midensis Hen. Docwra W. Parsons Tyringham LETTER CXLII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Am glad Mr. Bedell's Preferment gives your Grace such contentment Your former Letter came safe to my hands so did your second I see nothing is so well done but Exceptions can fret it for I hear that which I looked not for concerning Mr. Bedell's Preferment whole Name was never put to the King till both the other Competitors were refused by his Majesty as too young Ardagh is not forgotten in the Letter for since upon receipt of your Lordship's last Letters I spake with Sir Hen. Holcroft about it Beside those of your Lordship's I have received Letters from Mr. Bedell and from the Fellows about their freedom of election of a Provost My Lord his Majesty would fain have a Man to go on where Mr. Bedell leaves I am engaged for none I heartily love Freedoms granted by Charter and would have them maintained If they will return which are come hither and all agree or a major part upon a worthy Man that will serve God and the King I will give them all the assistance I can to keep their Priviledg whole The King likes wondrons well of the Irish Lecture begun by Mr. Bedell and the course of sending such young Men as your Grace mentions I hope before our Committee for the establishment of Ireland end I shall find a time to think of the Remedy your Lordship proposes about scandalous Ministers in which or any other Service I shall not be wanting For the particulars concerning Clark I have your inclosed and if he stir any thing while I am present you shall be sure I will do you right Now my Lord I have answered all your Letter save about the Arch-bishop of Cassa's for the old Dean I have done all I am able for that reverend and well-deserving Gentleman but the King's Majesty hath been possessed another way and it seems upon like removes hereafter will move more than one And at this time he will give Cassils to my Lord of Clougher if he will take it and so go on with another to succeed him of whom he is likewise resolved And who shall be Cassils if my Lord of Clougher refuse There is nothing which the Dean of Cassils can have at this time unless he will with a good commendam be content to take Kilfanora To which tho I do not perswade yet I would receive his Answer And I add it will be a step for him to a better As for Betts the Lord-Elect that was he hath lapsed it by not proceeding to
forma P. 14. l. 1. r. tristissimam l. 20. f. ex r. l. 35. r. quassatas l. 37. ocellus P. 16. l. 5. r. audacia l. 18. r. tentatas ADVERTISEMENT LEtter 3. was from an imperfect Copy of the Bishops The Marginal Note p. 4 and 417. and so often after is Bishop Ushers The Letters mentioned p. 511. l. ult are in the Appendix p. 7 and 9. Letter 229. should be placed after Letter 230. and Letter 232. should be before Letter 226. Letter 247. should be placed at p. 510. and the Letters p. 599 c. should be placed about An. 1615. when U. A. B. was Bishop of Meath The skilful Reader will perceive that often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are confounded as p. 359 c. and we must be forced to remit the Hebrew Letters to his Correction the faults being too many to be here inserted The Book being printed at different Presses there is a mis-paging page 92. to which succeeds pag. 301. but without any defect in the Book William Juxon Bishop of London and Lord High Treasurer in a Letter Anno 1639. 1 Tim. 3. 15 16. Vide ejus Praefat. ad Britanno-Machiam c. * Which was the Title he intended to give these Collections Dr. Heylin 's Respondet Petrus St. Augustine's Confession lib. 6. cap. 3. a 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. b Joh. 20. 23. c 1 Tim. 5. 17. d Tit. 2. 15. e Matth. 16. 19. 18. 18. f Rom. 13. 4. g Ezra 7. 26. h Mat. 26. 52. i 2 Chron. 26. 18. k 1 Tim. 2. 2. * As on the other side that a Spiritual or Ecclesiastical government is exercised in causes Civil or Temporal For is not Excommunication a main part of Ecclesiastical government and Forest laws a special branch of causes Temporal yet we see in Sententiâ lat â super chartas anno 12. R. H. 3. that the Bishops of England pronounce a solemn sentence of Excommunication against the-infringers of the liberties contained in Chartâ de Forestâ l Mark 16. 15. m Act. 1. 25 26. Matth. 22. 21. Mal. 3. 8. See Mr. Davis's Letter from Aleppo where the MSS. are specified Vid. Marm. Arundel Edit Lond. Praefat in Bibl. Polyglot * Vide Respondet Petrus Sect. IX Ibid. Sect. XII * In the Life of Arch-Bishop Laud. Blondellus 2 Cor. 11. * See His Majesty's Message sent by Capt. Titus 1648. And Whitlock's Mem. p. 337. See his Majesty's Message by Major Cromwal 21. Nov. 1648. See his Message by Sir Peter Killigrew in Whitlock's Mem. p. 339. P. 141. Edit Magut 1648. Ib. pag. 138. Pag. 166. Ro. 13. 1 2. * Mr. James Tyrrel †Before the late Edition of the Body of Divinity Col. 3. 12. †Drawn by Mr. Lilly after Knighted Eccles. 11. 7. Jam. 3. 17. Dr. Heylin 's Respondet Petrus Not. ad Mat. 6. Observat. in Willeram pag. 248. Praefat in Caedâ—â— Pag. 14. Ib. Sect. 7. Resp. Pet. Sect. 10. The Lord Primat's Judgment * He adds the word real which is not in the Latin vid. Dr Burnet 's Hist. of the Reformation Part 2. p. 405. Answer to the Jesuits Challenge See the places cited at large in the Book p. 118. P. 127. P. 128. P. 135 Lev. 13. P. 136. Bellarmin de Poenitent lib. 3. cap. 2. sect ult P. 137. P. 119. P. 123. That all the antient forms of Absolution in the Greek Church were till of late only declarative or optative and always in the 3d not first person See Dr. Smith 's learned Account of the Gr. Church p. 180 181. Respon Petrus Sect. 10. § 7. P. 287 288. P. 341. P. 342. P. 343. P. 345 346. P. 310. * Vid. Jobi Ludolfi lib. 311. c. 5. 19. Hist. Aethiop * Qui mihi ad sedem Armachanam translato anno 1625. in Midensi Episcopatu successit anno 1650. mortem obiit * Of these Fulgentius Ferrandus seemeth to be one in Dionysius his Days for he never citeth those Canons * Unless in the 5th Canon of the fifth Council of Carthage of which we may further inquire * There are more * Also of the Councils Antioch Laodicen Constantinopolit Ephes. Chalcedon * In Codice Moguntino are 14. * Edit Colon. An. 1551. †Edit Venet. An. 1585. But so in Notitia Episc. Galliae propetiâ—â—m * Hec praesatio extat in Edit per Crab. p. 328. * From Turrian vid. Epist. Pontif Arabic Nomo-Canonum * Another Collector Canon Caroli M. Temporib in 3 Tom. rerum Alamannicarum Goldasti XII Vid. Summam Gratian Cod. 37. qu. 1. c. 9. 10. ex Codice Canâ—num Bernardinus de Biâ—sto in Marcul part 12. Ser. 2. de Coronatione Mariae Lit. V. 1 Aera Dhilkarnain est 2 x apud Albategnium viz. 2 Potiùs 9. 3 Quod caput est arae Dhilk. 4 Quod caput est Hegirae * i. e. aequabiles †complito ‖ 287. Crus pag. 35. * 1205 anni die 297. in anno aequabili ineunte verò an 1206. qui hic intelligitur ut ex collatione Eclipsis luminaris liquet †Vagis non fixis ‖ For though it did well agree with the observation of the Aequinoctial yet it cannot with the first Lunar Eclipse which was in the same year 1194. †i. e. Jul. esse diem 365 sed Alkept non diffâ—rt à Juliano quod etiam provâ—tur ex aerâ Philippicâ in Historiâ mescella * Aegyptiae †i. e. Julian * Why of the Flight rather than of the Ostracism which he principally relates in that place †Thucydides tamen in Attica clà m humatum dicit reserente Attico apud Cic. in Brut. ‖ But that was anno 40. Olymp. 75. according to Diodorus * But he saith that he was made Admiral Archonte Demotione though Plutarch doth make him Admiral before that Pag. 96. * Upon Eusebius's Chronicle 1800 Of the other side * He stiles him Gildas Sapiens also as Bishop Usher noted in the margin M S S. Vid. Abb. c. Qualiter tit de electo electi potestate c. Avaritiae in 6. Gregor Tholosan in Syntagm utriusque Juris alios passim * Tom. 5. Biblioth Patr. Part 1. p. 171. Edit Colon. Your Lordship may by private Instructions and his discretion free your self of this fear Mat. 4. 19. Prov. 11. 30. Mat. 13. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 7. 11. * M. Tract Fund 1. c. 3. §. 9 †M. Tr. Fund 2. c. 10. §. 4. ‖ M. Tr. Fund c. 9. §. 1. * M. Tr. Repent c. 5. §. 1 2 3 4 c. †M. Tr. Repent c. 8. §. 7. c. 9. §. 2. 1 John 5. 20. * M. Tr. Repent cap. 7. §. 6. Luke 3. 27. John 6. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Cor. 1. 22. * M. Tr. Repent cap. 3. §. 3. I would then wast hot or cold but seeing thou art lukewarm I will spuâ— thee out of my mouth