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
or more to one day of the seven than to any other let us next see by what Authority the day was changed and how it came to be translated from the seventh to the first Concerning which it follows thus in the said Homily viz. This Example and Commandment of God the godly Christian People began to follow immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing Day of the week to come together in yet not the seventh Day which the Jews kept but the Lord's Day the Day of the Lord's Resurrection the Day after the seventh Day which is the first Day of the week c. sithence which time God's People hath always in all Ages without any gainsaying used to come together on the Sunday to celebrate and honour God's blessed Name and carefully to keep that Day in holy rest and quietness So far the Homily And by this Homily it appears plainly that the keeping of the Lord's day is not grounded on any Commandment of Christ nor any Precept of the Apostles but that it was chosen as a standing day of the week to come together in by the Godly Christian People immediately after Christ's Ascension and hath so continued ever since But the Doctor has been very careful in his Quotations not only to take whatsoever in this Homily he thinks makes for his purpose but has also been so wary as to leave out whatsoever he thinks is against him and therefore the Reader is to take notice that the place first cited by the Doctor immediately precedes that before quoted by the Lord Primate being connected to it by this passage which the Doctor omits And therefore by this Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the week wherein we ought to rest yea from our lawful and needful works So likewise doth he omit that which immediately follows the words quoted by my Lord Primate viz. So that God doth not only command the observation of this Holy Day but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to the diligent keeping of the same And after the obedience of natural Children not only to the Commands but also to the Example of their Parents is urged it follows thus as an Argument for its observation So if we will be the Children of our heavenly Father we must be careful to keep the Christian Sabbath Day which is the Sunday not only for that it is God's express Commandment but also to declare our selves to be loving Children in following the Example of our gracious Lord and Father After which it follows again in the next Paragraph which is also concealed by the Doctor tho it connects the words aforegoing and the passage he next makes use of together Thus it may plainly appear that God's Will and Commandment was to have a solemn time and standing-day in the week wherein the People should come together and have in remembrance his wonderful Benefits and to render him thanks for them as appertaineth to loving and obedient People From all which put together I shall leave it to the ingenuous Reader to judge who hath most perverted the sence of this Homily the Lord Primate or the Doctor and whether or no these Conclusions following do not clearly follow from the passages above-cited first that by the fourth Commandment it is God's perpetual Will to have one solemn and standing Day in the week for People to meet together to worship and serve him Secondly That this day tho it be not the seventh day from the Creation yet is still the Christian Sabbath or day of Rest being still the seventh day and still observed not only because of our Saviour Christ's Resurrection on this day but also that we keep the Christian Sabbath which is the Sunday as well for that it is God's express Commandment as also to shew our selves dutiful Children in following the Example of our gracious Lord and Father who rested on the seventh day Thirdly That on this Christian Sabbath or Sunday we ought to rest from our lawful and needful works and common and daily business and also give our selves wholly to Heavenly Exercises of God's true Religion and Service And therefore this being the express words and sence of this Homily that we may not make it contradict it self the passages which the Doctor relies so much upon must have this reasonable construction viz. That the Maker thereof tho he supposed that we Christians were not obliged to the precise keeping of the seventh day after the manner of the Jews Yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in this Commandment appertaining to the Law of Nature c. as most just and needful for the setting forth of God's Glory ought to be retained and kept of all Christian People Which words must be understood in a clean contrary sence to the Doctor 's viz. that the meaning of the Author was and which our Church confirms that by the Law of Nature the seventh day or one day in seven is to be kept holy or otherwise to what purpose serve these words before recited viz. thus it may plainly appear that God's Will and Commandment was to have one solemn and standing Day in the week wherein People should come together c. that is now under the Gospel as before under the Law And what follows which the Doctor thinks makes for him viz. This Example and Commandment of God the Godly Christian People began to follow immediatly after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day of the week to come together in yet not the seventh day which the Jews kept but the Lord's Day the Day of the Lord's Resurrection the day after the seventh day which is the first day of the week c. does rather make against him that is by Gods Example as well as Command they were obliged after Christs Ascension to chuse them one standing day of the week to meet together in And if so that must be one day in seven by an immutable moral institution or else the Church might if they had so pleased have celebrated the Lord's Resurrection not as the Homily says on one standing day of the week but only at Easter and the Law of Nature according to the Doctor not tying us to observe one day in seven if this Commandment of keeping the Sabbath or seventh day oblige none but the Jews then the primitive Church might if they had pleased have quite left off setting aside any particular day of the week for God's Service and have thought it sufficient to have kept one day suppose in a month or two for Men to meet together for the Service and Worship of God which whether those of the Doctor 's Party would be pleased with I shall not dispute but sure I am that the Church of England maintains no such Doctrine But the Doctor because he thinks the Homily not enough of his side undertakes to shew us upon what grounds the Lord's day
stood in the Church of England at the time of the making this Homily and therefore he has put down the Proem of an Act of Parliament of the fifth and sixth years of Edward the 6th concerning Holy-days by which he would have the Lord's day to stand on no other ground but the Authority of the Church not as enjoyned by Christ or ordained by any of his Apostles Which Statute whosoever shall be pleased to peruse may easily see that this Proem he mentions relates only to Holy days and not to Sundays as you may observe from this passage viz. which holy Works as they may be called God's Service so the times especially appointed for the same are called Holy-days not for the matter or nature either of the time or day c. which title of Holy-days was never applied to Sundays either in a vulgar or legal acceptation And tho the Doctor fancied this Act was in force at the time when this Homily was made and therefore must by no means contradict so sacred an Authority as that of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament because this Act tho repealed by Queen Mary he would have to be revived again the first year of Queen Elizabeth and so to stand in force at the time of making this Homily whereas whoever consults our Statute-Book will find that this Statute of King Edward the 6th was not revived nor in force till the first of King James when the Repeal of this Statute was again repealed tho certainly the reviving of that or any other Statute does not make their Proems which are often very carelesly drawn to be in every clause either good Law or Gospel But tho the Doctor in other things abhors the Temporal Powers having any thing to do in matters of Religion yet if it make for his Opinion then the Authority of a Parliament shall be as good as that of a Convocation But I have dwelt too long upon this Head which I could not well contract if I spoke any thing at all to justifie the Lord Primat's Judgment in this so material a Doctrine The next Point that the Doctor lays to the Lord Primat's charge as not according to the Church of England is a passage in a Letter to Dr. Bernard and by him published in the Book intituled The Judgment of the late Primat of Ireland c. viz. That he ever declared his Opinion to be that Episcopus Presbyter gradu tantum differunt non ordine and consequently that in places where Bishops cannot be had the Ordination by Presbyters standeth valid And however saith he I must needs think that the Churches in France who living under a Popish Power and cannot do what they would are more excusable in that defect than those of the Low-Countries that live under a Free-State yet for the testifying my communion with these Churches which I do love and honour as true members of the Church Universal I do profess that with like affection I should receive the blessed Sacrament at the hands of the Dutch Ministers if I were in Holland as I should do at the hands of the French Ministers if I were at Charenton Which Opinion as I cannot deny to have been my Lord Primat's since I find the same written almost verbatim with his own hand dated Nov. 26. 1655 in a private Note-Book not many months before his death with the addition of this clause at the beginning viz. Yet on the other side holding as I do That a Bishop hath Superiority in degree above Presbyters you may easily judg that the Ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from their Bishops cannot possibly by me be excused from being schismatical And concluding with another clause viz. for the agreement or disagreement in radical and fundamental Doctrines not the consonancy or dissonancy in the particular points of Ecclesiastical Government is with me and I hope with every man that mindeth Peace the rule of adhering to or receding from the Communion of any Church And that the Lord Primate was always of this Opinion I find by another Note of his own hand written in another Book many years before this in these words viz. The intrinsecal power of Ordaining proceedeth not from Jurisdiction but only from Order But a Presbyter hath the same Order in specie with a Bishop Ergo A Presbyter hath equally an intrinsecal power to give Orders and is equal to him in the power of Order the Bishop having no higher degree in respect of intension or extention of the character of Order tho he hath an higher degree i. e. a more eminent place in respect of Authority and Jurisdiction in Spiritual Regiment Again The Papists teach that the confirmation of the Baptized is proper to a Bishop as proceeding from the Episcopal Character as well as Ordination and yet in some cases may be communicated to a Presbyter and much more therefore in regard of the over-ruling Commands of invincible necessity although the right of Baptising was given by Christ's own Commission to the Apostles and their Successors and yet in case of Necessity allowed to Lay-men even so Ordination might be devolved to Presbyters in case of Necessity These passages perhaps may seem to some Men inconsistent with what the Lord Primate hath written in some of his printed Treatises and particularly that of the Original of Episcopacy wherein he proves from Rev. 2. 1. that the Stars there described in our blessed Saviour's right hand to be the Angels of the seven Churches 2. That these Angels were the several Bishops of those Churches and not the whole Colledg of Presbyters as Mr. Brightman would have it 3. Nor has he proved Archbishops less ancient each of these seven Churches being at that time a Metropolis which had several Bishops under it and 4 that these Bishops and Archbishops were ordained by the Apostles as constant permanent Officers in the Church and so in some sort Jure Divino that is in St. Hierom's sence were ordained by the Apostles for the better conferring of Orders and for preventing of Schisms which would otherwise arise among Presbyters if they had been all left equal and independent to each other And that this may very well consist with their being in some cases of Necessity not absolutely necessary in some Churches is proved by the Learned Mr. Mason in his defence of the Ordination of Ministers beyond the Seas where there are no Bishops in which he proves at large against the Papists that make this Objection from their own Schoolmen and Canonists and that tho a Bishop receives a Sacred Office Eminency in Degree and a larger Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than a Presbyter yet that all these do not confer an absolute distinct Order and yet that Bishops are still Jure Divino that is by the Ordinance of God since they were ordained by the Apostles and whereunto they were directed by God's Holy Spirit and in that sence are the Ordinance of
draw them up which Articles being signed by Arch-Bishop Jones then Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Speaker of the House of the Bishops in Convocation as also by the Prolocutor of the House of the Clergy in their names And signed by the then Lord Deputy Chichester by order from King James in his name As I shall not take upon me to defend these Articles in all points therein laid down or that they were better than those of the Church of England So on the other side I cannot be of the opinion of that Author who would needs have the passing of these Articles to be An absolute Plot of the Sabbatarians and Calvinians in England to make themselves so strong a Party in Ireland as to obtain what they pleased in this Convocation unless he will suppose that the Bishops and Clergy of that Church could be so inveagled by I know not what Inchantments as to pass those things for Articles of their Belief which they had never so much as studied nor understood the true meaning of And that the then Lord Deputy and King James were likewise drawn in to be of the Plot to Sign and Confirm those Articles which they knew to be Heterodox to the Doctrine and Articles of the Church of England Anno 1619 But though Dr. Usher was thus remarkable for Piety and Learning yet he could not escape the common Fate of extraordinary men viz. Envy and Detraction for there were some in Ireland though of no great repute for Learning or Worth who would needs have him to be a Puritan as then they called those whom they looked upon as disaffected to the discipline of the Church as by Law establisht And to lay a block in the way of his future Preferment they had got some to traduce him as such to the King who had no great kindness for those men as he had little reason But the Dr. hearing of it and having occasion about this time to come for England as he always had done once in three or four years The Lord Deputy and Council were so sensible of this scandal that for his Vindication they writ by him this Recommendatory Letter to His Majesties Privy-Council here May it please Your Lordships THe extraordinary merit of this Bearer Mr. Doctor Usher prevaileth with us to offer him that favour which we deny to many that move us to be recommended to Your Lordships and we do it the rather because we are desirous to set him right in His Majesties Opinion who it seemeth hath been informed that he is somewhat Transported with Singularities and unaptness to be Conformable to the Rules and Orders of the Church We are so far from suspecting him in that kind that we may boldly recommend him to Your Lordships as a man Orthodox and worthy to govern in the Church when occasion shall be presented And His Majesty may be pleased to advance him he being one that hath preached before the State here for eighteen years And has been His Majesties Professor of Divinity in the University thirteen years And a man who has given himself over to his Profession An excellent and painful Preacher a modest man abounding in goodness and his Life and Doctrine so agreeable as those who agree not with him are yet constrained to love and admire him And for such an one we beseech Your Lordships to understand him And accordingly to speak to His Majesty And thus with the remembrance of our humble Duties we take leave Your Lordships most humbly at Command Ad. Loftus Canc. Henry Docwra William Methwold John King Dud. Norton Oliver St. John William Tuameusis Fra. Anngiers From Dublin the last of Sept. 1619. But that you may see this odious nick-name was put upon many Pious and Orthodox Divines that did not deserve it it will not be amiss to give you this following Letter to Dr. Usher then in England from a worthy Divine then in Ireland Reverend Sir I Hope you are not ignorant of the hurt that is come to the Church by this name Puritan and how his Majesties good intent and meaning therein is much abused and wronged and especially in this poor Country where the Pope and Popery is so much affected I being lately in the Country had conference with a worthy painful Preacher who hath been an instrument of drawing many of the meer Irish there from the blindness of Popery to imbrace the Gospel with much comfort to themselves and heart-breaking to the Priests who perceiving they cannot now prevail with their jugling Tricks have forged a new device They have now stirred up some crafty Papists who very boldly rail both at Ministers and People saying They seek to sow this damnable Heresie of Puritanism among them which word though not understood but only known to be most odious to his Majesty makes many afraid of joyning themselves to the Gospel though in conference their Consciences are convicted herein So to prevent a greater mischief that may follow it were good to Petition his Majesty to define a Puritan whereby the mouths of those scoffing Enemies would be stopt And if his Majesty be not at leisure that he would appoint some good men to do it for him for the effecting thereof you know better than I can direct and therefore I commit you and your Affairs to the blessing of the Almighty praying for your good success there and safe return hither resting Your assured Friend to his power Emanuel Downing Dublin 24th Oct. 1620. But to return whence we have digressed this Character of the Lord Deputy together with King James's own conversation with and tryal of Dr. Usher whom he sent for on purpose to that end did so fully satisfie the King that after he had discoursed with him in divers points both of Learning and Religion he who was well able to judge of both was so extreamly well satisfied with him that he said he perceived That the knave Puritan was a bad but the knave's Puritan an honest man And of which latter sort he accounted Dr. Usher to be since the King had so good an opinion of him that of his own accord he now Nominated him to the Bishoprick of Meath in Ireland being then void Anno 1620 with this expression That Dr. Usher was a Bishop of his own making and so his Conge d' Eslire being sent over he was elected by the Dean and Chapter there And that you may perceive how much the report of his advancement rejoyced all sorts of men this following Letter from the then Lord Deputy of Ireland may testifie To Dr. James Usher Bishop Elect of Meath My Lord I Thank God for your Preferment to the Bishoprick of Meath His Majesty therein hath done a gracious favour to his poor Church here There is none here but are exceeding glad that you are called thereunto even some Papists themselves have largely testified their gladness of it Your Grant is and other necessary things shall be Sealed this Day or to Morrow I pray
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
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
God But if by Jure Divino you would understand a Law binding all Christian Churches universally perpetually unchangeably and with such absolute Necessity that no other form of Regiment may in any case be admitted in this sence we cannot grant it to be Jure Divino And much of the same Opinion is the Learned Bishop Davenant in his Treatise So that you see here that as Learned Men and as stout Asserters of Episcopacy as any the Church of England hath had have been of the Lord Primat's Judgment in this matter tho without any design to lessen the Order of Bishops or to take away their use in the Church since Mr. Mason in the said Treatise tho he grants the French Churches having a constant President of the Presbytery to enjoy the substance of the Episcopal Office Yet whereas their Discipline is still very defective he wishes them in the bowels of Christ by all means to redress and reform it and to conform themselves to the ancient Custom of the Church of Christ So that I hope after all this Question Whether Episcopacy be Ordo or Gradus will prove only a difference in words rather than substance between those of the Lord Primat's Judgment and those of the contrary since they are both agreed in the main Points in controve sie between them and the Presbyterians viz. That Bishops were ordained in the Church by the Apostles themselves from the direction or at least approbation of our Saviour himself being the Stars which St. John saw in his Vision in our Lord Christ's own Hand and that they are permanent immutable Officers in the Church which cannot subsist without it but in Cases of pure Necessity And lastly that those Presbyters which in Churches founded and setled with Bishops do separate from them are guilty of Schism These things being agreed upon on both sides I think the rest of the Controversie is not worth contending about But if any Learned Persons of the Church of England who are well vers'd in the Writings of the Fathers and other ancient Monuments of the Church have already proved or can further make out that Episcopacy has always been an absolute distinct Order as well as Office in the Church I suppose the Lord Primate were he now alive would be so far from opposing them that he would heartily thank them for giving him greater light provided it could be done without unchurching all those Protestant Churches abroad vvho want Bishops And I hope however if the Lord Primat may be thought by the Doctor or others not to go high enough in this matter nor sufficiently to magnifie his own Office yet that he may well be pardoned since it proceeded from his excess of Humility and Charity towards our neighbouring-Churches to whom no good Protestants ought to deny the right-hand of fellowship The third Point which the Doctor will have the Lord Primat to hold contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England which he says maintains an Universal Redemption of all Mankind by the Sufferings and Death of Christ as is proved by the Prayer of Consecration of the sacred Elements in the Sacrament which declares that God hath given to his Son Jesus Christ by his suffering death upon the Cross and by the Oblation of himself a full and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World And also that in the publick Catechism the party catechised is taught to believe in God the Son who hath redeemed him and all Mankind But that in this Point the Lord Primat is of a contrary Judgment to the Church of England For as he seems not to like their opinion who contradict the riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World so he declareth his dislike of the other Extream as he is pleased to call it by which the benefit of this Satisfaction is extended to the Redemption of all Mankind The one Extremity saith he extends the benefit of Christ's Satisfaction so far ut reconciliationem cum Deo Peccatorem Remissionem singulis impetraverit as to obtain a Reconciliation with God and a Remission of Sins for all Men at his merciful hands p. 21. which tho they are the words of the Remonstrants at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1611 and are by him reckoned for untrue yet do they naturally result from the Doctrine of Universal Redemption which is maintained in the Church of England not that all Mankind is so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their Sins before they actually believe which the Lord Primate makes to be the meaning and effect of that Extremity as he calls it p. 2. but that they are so far reconciled unto Him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith in their common Saviour which is required thereunto And here the Doctor thinks he finds out two notable Contradictions in the Lord Primat's Letter of the Year 1617 since in one part thereof he seems to dislike of their Opinion who contract the riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any kind of interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World as before was said And in the other he declares that he is well assured that our Saviour hath obtained at the hands of his Father Reconciliation and Forgiveness of Sins not for the Reprobate but Elect only p. â—1 Now the Doctor has done his worst Yet I hope to prove that tho there may be a difference between my Lord Primat's way of explaining this Doctrine and that of the Doctor 's which proceeds indeed from the different Notions they had of Election and Reprobation Yet that there is no such formidable Contradiction in these two Propositions of my Lord Primat's by him laid down as the Doctor fancies or that the L. Primat hath maintained any thing in this Doctrine contrary to that of the Church of England for 1. the Doctor owns that all Mankind is not so perfectly reconciled to Almighty God as to be really and actually discharged from all their Sins before they actually believe but that they are so far reconciled unto him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith in their common Saviour which is required thereunto Now what will the Doctor get by these words if they are so far reconciled to him as to be capable of the remission of their Sins in case they do not want that Faith which is required thereunto since the Question still remains between the Lord Primat and those of the contrary Opinion Whether all Men can obtain without the aid of Grace this saving Faith which is required thereunto Our Saviour says the direct contrary Joh. 6. 44 65. No Man can come to me except the
Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day And St. Paul tells us Ephes. 2. 8. For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God So Phil. 1. 29. And that likewise it is the greatness of God's Power that raises Man's heart unto this Faith Ephes. 1. 19. So then Faith being the work of God in Man's heart which he bestows on whom he pleases all the question now is Whether Christ has obtained Reconciliation and Remission of Sins from his Father for those whom God foresaw would or could not obtain this saving Faith and if not consequently not for the Reprobate as the Lord Primat hath laid down they being only Reprobate for want of this Faith Nor will this be contradictory to my Lord Prim at 's other Proposition against such who contract the Riches of Christ's Satisfaction into too narrow a room as if none had any kind of interest therein but such as were elected before the foundation of the World Since this is to be understood of the Supralapsarian Opinion which makes Reprobation to be antecedant to the Fall of Adam and not only at a Praeterition but a Predamnation for actual Sins Whereas the Lord Primat held that Mankind considered in massa corrupta after the Fall of Adam was the only Object of God's Election or Reprobation so that it is in this sence that he is to be understood when he says that our Saviour hath obtainedat the hands of his Father forgiveness of Sins not for the Reprobate but Elect only Nor does he say that this proceeds from any deficiency in our Saviour's Death and Satisfaction which is sufficient to save the whole World if they would lay hold of it and apply it to themselves but the reason why all Men were not thereby saved was because they do not accept Salvation when offered to them Which is the Lord Primat's express words in a Sermon upon John 1. 12. concerning our Redemption by Christ. So that those passages in our Liturgy and Catechism before cited by the Doctor of Christ's being a sufficient Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World and in the Catechism of his redeeming all Mankind must certainly be understood in this restrictive sence viz. to as many of the World of Mankind as God foresaw would lay hold of this Satisfaction by Faith and good Works or else all Men must have a like share therein whether they contribute any thing to it by Faith or Repentance or not And now I shall leave it to the indifferent Reader to judg whether the Lord Primat or the Doctor are most to be blamed for breaking their Subscription to the 39 Articles as the Doctor would have him guilty of in this Point because the Church of England in its second Article says expresly that Christ suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original Guilt but also for the Actual Sins of Men. In which says he as well the Sacrifice as the effect and fruit thereof which is the Reconciliation of Mankind to God the Father is delivered in general terms without any restriction put upon them neither the Sacrifice nor the Reconciliation being restrained to this or that Man some certain quidams of their own whom they pass commonly by the name of God's Elect. The Sacrifice being made for the Sins of Men of Men indefinitly without limitation is not to be confined to some few Men only Yet after the Doctor has said all he can it seems still to me and I suppose to any unprejudiced Reader that these Christ suffered c. to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice c. for the actual Sins of Men to be not general but limited Propositions since by reconciling his Father to us can be understood no further than to us that are not Reprobates every Man supposing himself not to be of that number and in this sence the Lord Primat himself makes use of the words we and us in his Body of Divinity when he speaks of Justification and Reconciliation by Faith tho he there supposes that all Men are not actually justified nor reconciled to God by Christ's Sufferings And as for the last clause it is no more general than the former for tho the word Men be used in that place indefinitly yet it is not therefore a general Proposition it being still to be understood of those Men who truly believe for otherwise it had been very easie and natural for the Framers of this Article to have added this small word all and if they had the question would have been much as it was before Christ's Death being a Sacrifice that did not actually take away the Sins of the whole World for then none could be damned tho vertually it hath power to do it if it were rightly applied the Sacrifice having such virtue in it self that if all the World would take it and apply it it were able to expiate the Sins of the whole World as the Lord Primat in the above cited Sermon very plainly and truly expresses himself on this Doctrine The fourth Point which the Doctor accuses the Lord Primat not to hold according to the Church of England is that of the true and real Presence of Christ's most precious Body and Blood in the Sacrament Which Doctrine of a real Presence he first proves from the words of the distribution retained in the first Liturgy of King Edward the sixth and formerly prescribed to be used in the ancient Missals viz. The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul unto Life everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. It is proved secondly by that passage in the publick Catechism in which the party catechised is taught to say that the Body and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received of the Faithful in the Lord's Supper Now if a question should be made what the Church means by verily and indeed in the former passage it must be answered that she means that Christ is truly and really present in that blessed Sacrament as before was said the words being rendred thus in the Latin Translation viz. Corpus Sanguis Domini quae verè realiter exhibentur c. verily and indeed as the English hath it the same with verè and realiter that is to say truly and really as it is in the Latin He likewise cites Bp. Bilson Bp Morton and Bp. Andrews all of them to maintain a true and real Prefence of Christ in the Sacrament and likewise Mr. Alex. Noel in his Latin Catechism makes the party catechized answer to this effect That the Body and Blood of Christ given in the Lord's Supper and eaten and drank by them tho it be only in an heavenly and spiritual manner yet are they both given and taken truly and really or
in very deed by God's faithful People By which it seems it is agreed on both sides that is to say the Church of England and the Church of Rome that there is a true and real Presence of Christ in the holy Eucharist the disagreement being only in the modus Praesentiae But on the contrary the Ld Primat in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge hath written one whole Chapter against the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament In which tho he would seem to aim at the Church of Rome tho by that Church not only the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but the corporal eating of his Body is maintained and taught yet doth he strike obliquely and on the by on the Church of England All that he doth allow concerning the real Presence is no more than this viz. That in the receiving of the blessed Sacrament we are to distinguish between the outward and the inward action of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouth we receive really the visible Elements of Bread and Wine in the inward we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord that is to say we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man Which is no more than any Calvinist will stick to say But now after all these hard words the Doctor has here bestowed upon my Lord Primat part of which I omit I think I can without much difficulty make it appear that all this grievous Accusation of the Doctor 's is nothing but a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strife about words and that the Lord Primat held and believed this Doctrine in the same sence with the Church of England 1. Then the 29th Article of our Church disavows all Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord. The second asserts that the Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner and that the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith And now I will leave it to the unprejudiced Reader to judge whether the Lord Primat's way of explaining this Sacrament according to the passage before cited by the Doctor does differ in sence from these Articles however it may somewhat in words as coming nearer the Articles in Ireland which the Bishop when he writ this Book had alone subscribed to and was bound to maintain for I think no true Son of the Church of England will deny that in this Sacrament they still really receive the visible Elements of Bread and Wine 2. That in the inward and spiritual action we really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord as the Lord Primat has before laid down But perhaps it will be said That the Lord Primat goes further in this Article than the Church of England does and takes upon him to explain in what sence we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and that otherwise than the Church of England does he explaining it thus that is to say We are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man whereas the Church of England declares that the Body of Christ is eaten only after a heavenly and spiritual manner yet still maintains the Body of Christ to be eaten whereas the Lord Primat only says that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified but does not say as the Article of our Church does that we are therein partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ. But I desire the Objector to consider whether the Explanation of our Church does not amount to the same thing in effect that saying that the Body of Christ is eaten in the Supper after a heavenly and spiritual manner and the Lord Primat that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified viz. after a spiritual and not a carnal manner But perhaps the Doctor 's Friends may still object that the Lord Primat does not express this Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament as Bp. Bilson and Bp. Morton assert the former saying that Christ's Flesh and Blood are truly present and truly received by the Faithful in the Sacrament and the latter expresly owning a real Presence therein And Bp. Andrews in his Apology to Cardinal Bellarmine thus declares himself viz. Praesentiam credimus non minus quam vos veram de modo praesentiae nil timerè definimus Which the Doctor renders thus We acknowledg saith he a presence as true and real as you do but we determine nothing rashly of the manner of it And the Church Catechism above cited as also the Latin Catechism of Mr. Noel confess the Body and Blood of our Lord are truly and indeed or as the Latin Translation renders it verè realiter taken and received in the Lord's Supper Which the Lord Primat does not affirm I know not what such Men would have The Lord Primat asserts that we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of Christ and that in the same sence with Mr. Noel's Catechism and the Article of the Church viz. that Christ's Body is received after a spiritual and heavenly manner Which was added to exclude any real presence as taken in a carnal or bodily sence So that our Church does in this Article explain the manner of the Presence notwithstanding what Bp. Andrews says to the contrary Nor know I what they can here further mean by a real Presence unless a carnal one which indeed the Church of England at the first Reformation thought to be all one with the real as appears by these words in the first Articles of Religion agreed on in the Convocation 1552 Anno 5. Edw. 6. It becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporal Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the holy Eucharist And that our Church did likewise at the first passing the 39 Articles in Convocation Anno 1562 likewise disallow any Real Presence taken in a carnal sence Christ's Body being always in Heaven at the right hand of God and therefore cannot be in more places than one appears by the original of those Articles to be seen in the Library of Corpus Christi Colledg in Cambridg where tho this passage against a Real or Corporal Presence which they then thought to be all one are dash'd over with red Ink yet so as it is still legible therefore it may not be amiss to give you Dr. Burnet's Reasons in his 2d part of the History of the Reformation p. 406 for the doing of it The secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alledged that such an express Definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of
that perswasion and therefore it was thought to be enough to condemn Transubstantiation and to say that Christ was present after a spiritual manner and received by Faith And to say more as it was judged superfluous so it might occasion division Upon this these words were by common consent left out and in the next Convocation the Articles were subscribed without them This shews that the Doctrine of the Church then subscribed by the whole Convocation was at that time contrary to the belief of a Real and Corporal Presence in the Sacrament only it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it Tho from this silence which flowed not from their Opinion but the Wisdom of that Time in leaving a liberty for different Speculations as to the manner of the Presence Some have since inferred that the chief Pastors of this Church did then disapprove of the Definition made in King Edward 's time and that they were for a Real Presence And that our Protestant Bishops that were martyr'd in Queen Mary's days were against this expression of a Real Presence of Christ as a Natural Body appears by those Questions which they disputed on solemnly at Oxford before their Martyrdom The first Question Whether the Natural Body of Christ was Really in the Sacrament The second Whether no other substance did remain but the Body and Blood of Christ Both which they held in the Negative So that since this expression of a Real Presence of Christ's Body was not maintained by our first Protestant Reformers nor used by the Church of England in her Articles I do not see of what use it can be now tho perhaps only meant in a spiritual sence by most that make use of it For the real presence of a Body and yet unbodily I suppose those that speak thus understand as little as I do unless that some Men love to come as near the Papists as may be in their expressions tho without any hopes now of ever making them approach the nearer to us and in the mean time giving matter of offence and scandal to divers ignorant and weak Christians of our own Religion The fifth Point that the Doctor taxes the Lord Primat with as held by him contrary to the Church of England is That she teaches that the Priest hath power to forgive Sins as may be easily proved by three several Arguments not very easie to be answered The first is from those solemn words used in the Ordination of the Priest or Presbyter that is to say Receive the Holy Ghost Whose Sins ye forgive they are forgiven and whose Sins ye retain they are retained Which were a gross prophanation of the words of our Lord and Saviour and a meer mockery of the Priest if no such power were given unto him as is there affirmed The second Argument is taken from one of the Exhortations before the Communion where we find the people are exhorted by the Priest that if they cannot quiet their Consciences they should come unto him or some other discreet Minister of God's Word and open their grief that they may receive such ghostly advice and comfort as their Consciences may be relieved and that by the Ministry of God's Word they may receive Comfort and the benefit of Absolution to the quieting of their Consciences and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness The third and most material Proof is the Form prescribed for the Visitation of the Sick In which it is required that after the sick Person hath made a Confession of his Faith and professed himself to be in Charity with all Men he shall then make a special Confession if he feel his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter And then it follows that after such Confession the Minister shall absolve him in this manner viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left power to his Church to absolve all Sinners that truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thine Offences And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Amen Of the first of these three places deduced all of them from the best Monuments and Records of the Church of England the Lord Primat takes notice in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge p. 109. where he treateth purposely of the Priests power to forgive Sins but gives us such a Gloss upon it as utterly subverts as well the Doctrine of this Church in that particular as her purpose in it And of the second he takes notice p. 81. where he speaks purposely of Confession but gives us such a Gloss upon that also as he did upon the other But of the third which is more positive and material than the other two he is not pleased to take any notice at all as if no such Doctrine were either taught by the Church of England or no such Power had been ever exercised by the Ministers of it For in the canvassing of this Point he declares sometimes that the Priest doth forgive Sins only declarative by the way of declaration only when on the consideration of the true Faith and sincere Repentance of the Party penitent he doth declare unto him in the Name of God that his Sins are pardoned and sometimes that the Priest forgives Sins only optativè by the way of Prayers and Intercession when on the like consideration he makes his prayers unto God that the Sins of the Penitent may be pardoned Neither of which comes up unto the Doctrine of the Church of England which holdeth that the Priest forgiveth Sins authoritativè by virtue of a Power committed to him by our Lord and Saviour That the Supream power of forgiving Sins is in God alone against whose Divine Majesty all Sins of what sort soever may be truly said to be committed was never question'd by any who pretended to the Christian Faith The Power which is given to the Priest is but a delegated power such as is exercised by Judges under Soveraign Princes where they are not tied unto the Verdict of Twelve Men as with us in England who by the Power committed to them in their several Circuits and Divisions do actually absolve the party which is brought before them if on good proof they find him innocent of the Crimes he stands accused for and so discharge him of his Irons And such a power as this I say is both given to and exercised by the Priest or Presbyters in the Church of England For if they did forgive Sins only declarativè that form of Absolution which follows the general Confession in the beginning of the Common-prayer-Book would have been sufficient where the Absolution is put in the third person Or if he did forgive Sins only optativè in the way of prayers and intercession there could not be a better way of Absolution than that which is prescribed to be used by the Priest or Bishop after the general Confession made by such as
of the Papists when he urges these words I absolve thee from all thy Sins as an Argument of the Priests power to forgive Sins authoritative and as if this Form had something more in it or could work further towards the remission of the Sins of the Penitent than any of the rest I shall leave it to the Reader Whereas whosoever will consider the Office of the Priest will find that it is not like that of a Judg or a Vice-Roy as the Doctor would have it under a Soveraign Prince who has power not only to declare the person absolved from his Crimes but also may reprieve or pardon him when guilty or condemn him tho innocent neither of which perhaps the Prince himself by whose Commission he acts would do whereas the Priest whatever power he has delegated from God vvhich I do not deny yet it is still only declarative and conditional according to the sincerity of the Repentance in the person absolved For as his Absolution signifies nothing if the Repentance of the Penitent or dying person be not real and sincere so neither can he hinder God from pardoning him if it be so indeed tho he should be so wicked or uncharitable as to deny him the benefit of this Absolution if he desire it so that the Office of the Priest in this matter rather resembleth that of an Herald who has a Commission from his Prince to proclaim and declare Pardon to a company of Rebels who have already submitted themselves and promised Obedience to their Prince which Pardon as it signifies nothing if they still continue in their Rebellion so tho the Herald alone has the power of declaring this Pardon yet it is only in the Name and by the Authority of his Prince who had passed this Pardon in his own Breast before ever the Herald published it to the Offenders so that it is in this sence only that the Priest can say thus By his Authority viz. of our Lord Jesus Christ committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins since he does this not as Christ's Vicar or Judg under him but as his Herald or Ambassador or as St. Paul words it In the Person of Christ forgives our Offences Yet still conditionally that we are really penitent and consequently is not effective but only declarative of that Forgiveness I shall now in the last place shew you that the Church of England understands it in no other sence but this alone and that if it did it would make it all one with that of the Papists First That the Form of Absolution which follows the general Confession is only declarative the Doctor himself grants so likewise that before the Communion is only optative in the way of prayer and intercession and consequently no other than declarative or conditional and therefore that the Absolution to particular Penitents both in order to receive the Communion as also in the Visitation of the Sick are no other likewise than declarative appears from the great tenderness of the Church of England in this matter not enjoining but only advising the Penitent in either case to make any special Confession of his Sins to the Priest in which case alone this Absolution is supposed to be necessary unless he cannot quiet his Conscience without it or if he feel his Conscience troubled vvith any weighty matter after which Confession the Priest shall absolve him But our Church does not declare that either the Penitent is obliged to make any such special Confession to the Priest either before the Sacrament or at the point of Death or that any person cannot obtain remission of their Sins without Absolution as the Church of Rome asserts so that it seems our Church's Absolution in all these cases is no other than declarative and for the quieting of the Conscience of the Penitent if he find himself so troubled in mind that he thinks he cannot obtain pardon from God without it Tho the Priest as the Herald above-mentioned whose Office it is to proclaim the King's Pardon still absolves authoriative and could not do it unless he were authorized by Jesus Christ for that purpose And if the Doctor or any other will maintain any higher Absolution than this it must be that of the Church of Rome where a small Attrition or sorrow for Sin by virtue of the Keys that is the Absolution of the Priest is made Contrition and the Penitent is immediately absolved from all his Sins tho perhaps he commit the same again as soon as ever he has done the penance enjoyned And that the pious and judicious Mr. Hooker who certainly understood the Doctrine of the Church of England as well as Dr. H. agrees fully with the Lord Primat in this matter appears from his sixth Book of Ecclesiastical Policy where after his declaring with the Lord Primat that for any thing he could ever observe those Formalities the Church of Rome do so much esteem of were not of such estimation nor thought to be of absolute necessity with the ancient Fathers and that the Form with them was with Invocation or praying for the Penitent that God would be reconciled unto him for which he produces St. Ambrose St. Hierom and Leo c. p. 96. he thus declares his Judgment viz. As for the Ministerial Sentence of privat Absolution it can be no more than a declaration what God hath done it hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan's Absolution God hath taken away thy Sins than which construction especially of words judicial there is nothing more vulgar For example the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God the Jews in Malachy to have blessed the proud man which sin and prosper not that the one did make God righteous or the other the wicked happy but to bless to justifie and to absolve are as commonly used for words of Judgment or Declaration as of true and real efficacy yea even by the Opinion of the Master of the Sentences c. Priests are authorized to loose and bind that is to say declare who are bound and who are loosed The last Point in which the Doctor taxes the Lord Primat as differing from the Church of England is in the Article of Christ's descent into Hell The Church of England says he maintains a Local Descent that is to say That the Soul of Christ at such time as his Body lay in the Grave did locally descend into the nethermost parts in which the Devil and his Angels are reserved in everlasting Chains of Darkness unto the Judgment of the great and terrible Day This is proved at large by Bishop Bilson in his learned and laborious Work entitled The Survey of Christ's Sufferings And that this was the meaning of the first Reformers when this Article amongst others was first agreed upon in the first Convocation of the Year 1552 appears by that passage of St. Peter which is cited by them touching Christ's preaching to the Spirits which were in prison And tho
there be any other places or other Mansions by which the Soul that believeth in God passing and coming unto that River which maketh glad the City of God may receive within it the lot of the Inheritance promised unto the Fathers For touching the determinate state of the faithful Souls departed this life the ancient Doctors as we have shewed were not so throughly resolved The Lord Primat having thus shewn in what sence many of the ancient Fathers did understand this word Hades which we translate Hell proceeds to shew that divers of them expound Christ's Descent into Hell or Hades according to the common Law of Nature which extends it self indifferently unto all that die For as Christ's Soul was in all points made like unto ours Sin only excepted while it was joined with his Body here in the Land of the Living so when he had humbled himself unto the Death it became him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren even in the state of dissolution And so indeed the Soul of Jesus had experience of both for it was in the place of human Souls and being out of the Flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable Soul therefore and of the same substance with the flesh of Men proceeding from Mary Saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his Exposition of that Text of the Psalm Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humane Souls which in the Hebrew is the world of Spirits and by the disposing of Christ's Soul there after the manner of other Souls concludes it to be of the same nature with other Mens Souls So St. Hilary in his Exposition of the 138th Psalm This is the Law of humane Necessity saith he that the Bodies being buried the Souls should go to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man And a little after he repeats it that desupernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit He descended from the supernal to the infernal parts by the Law of Death And upon Psal. 53. more fully To fulfil the Nature of Man he subjected himself to Death that is to a departure as it were of the Soul and Body and pierced into the infernal seats which was a thing that seemed to be due unto Man I shall not trouble you with more Quotations of this kind out of several of the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers which he makes use of in this Treatise most of them agreeing in this That Christ died and was buried and that his Soul went to that place or receptacle where the Souls of good Men do remain after Death which whether it is no more in effect but differing in terms than to say he died and was buried and rose not till the third day which the Doctor makes to be the absurdity of this Opinion I leave to the Judgment of the impartial Reader as I likewise do whether the Lord Primat deserves so severe a Censure after his shewing so great Learning as he has done concerning the various Interpretations of this word Hades or Hell both out of sacred and prophane Writers that it only serves to amaze the Ignorant and confound the Learned Or that he meant nothing less in all these Collections than to assert the Doctrine of the Church of England in this particular Or whether Christ's Local Descent into Hell can be found in the Book of Articles which he had subscribed to or in the Book of Common-Prayer which he was bound to conform to And if it be not so expressed in any of these I leave it to you to judge how far Dr. H. is to be believed in his Accusation against the Lord Primat in other matters But I doubt I have dwelt too long upon this less important Article which it seems was not thought so fundamental a one but as the Lord Primat very well observes Ruffinus in his Exposition of the Creed takes notice that in the Creed or Symbol of the Church of Rome there is not added He descended into Hell and presently adds yet the force or meaning of the word seems to be the same in that he is said to have been buried So that it seems old Ruffinus is one of those who is guilty of this Impertinency as the Doctor calls it of making Christ's descent into Hell to signifie the same with his lying in the Grave or being buried tho the same Author takes notice that the Church of Aquileia had this Article inserted in her Creed but the Church of Rome had not which sure with Men of the Doctor 's way should be a Rule to other Churches And further Card. Bellarmin noteth as the Lord Primat confesses that St. Augustin in his Book De Fide Symbolo and in his four Books de Symbolo ad Catechumenos maketh no mention of this Article when he doth expound the whole Creed five several times Which is very strange if the Creed received by the African Church had this Article in it Ruffinus further takes notice that it is not found in the Symbol of the Churches of the East by which he means the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds the latter of which is nothing else but an Explanation or more ample Enlargement of Creed Apostolical Tho this indeed be not at this day read in the Greek or other Eastern Churches or so much as known or received in that of the Copties and Abyssines But the Doctor having shown his Malice against the Lord Primat's Memory and Opinions in those Points which I hope I have sufficiently answered cannot give off so but in the next Section accuses him for inserting the nine Articles of Lambeth into those of the Church of Ireland being inconsistent with the Doctrine of the Church of England But before I answer this Accusation I shall first premise that as I do not defend or approve that Bishops or others tho never so learned Divines should take upon them to make new Articles or define and determine doubtful Questions and Controversies in Religion without being authorized by the King and Convocation so to do Yet thus much I may charitably say of those good Bishops and other Divines of the Church of England who framed and agreed upon these Articles that what they did in this matter was sincerely and as they then believed according to the Doctrine of the Church of England as either expresly contained in or else to be drawn by consequence from that Article of the Church concerning Predestination And certainly this makes stronger against the Doctor for if with him the Judgment of Bp. Bilson Bp. Andrews and Mr. Noel in their Writings be a sufficient Authority to declare the sence of the Church of England in those Questions of Christ's true and real Presence in the Sacrament and his Local Descent into Hell why should not the Judgment and Determination of the two Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York with divers other Bishops and
learned Divines after a serious debate and mature deliberation as well declare what was the Doctrine of the Church of England in those Questions of Predestination Justifying Faith Saving Grace and Perseverance But it seems with the Doctor no Bishops Opinions shall be Orthodox if they agree not with his own But to come to the Charge it self The main Reason why the Doctor will needs have the Lord Primat to be the cause of the inserting these Articles of Lambeth into those of Ireland agreed on in Convocation 1615 is because the Lord Primat being then no Bishop but only Professor of Divinity in the University there and a Member of Convocation was ordered by the Convocation to draw up those Articles and put them into Latin as if Dr. Usher could have then such a great influence upon it as to be able to govern the Church at his pleasure or that the Scribe of any Synod or Council should make it pass what Acts or Articles he pleases or that one private Divine should be able to manage the whole Church of Ireland as the Doctor would needs have him do in this Affair Whereas the Doctor having been an ancient Member of Convocation could not but know that all Articles after they are debated are proposed by way of Question by the President and Prolocutor of either House and are afterwards ordered to be drawn into form and put in Latin by some Persons whom they appoint for that purpose and tho perhaps they might not be themselves in all points of the same Opinion with those Articles they are so ordered to draw up and that Dr. Usher did not hold all those Articles of Ireland in the same sence as they are there laid down appears from what the Doctor himself tells us in this Pamphlet for p. 116 he saith That it was his viz. the Lord Primat's doing that a different explication of the Article of Christ's descent into Hell from that allowed of by this Church and almost all the other Heterodoxies of the Sect of Calvin were inserted and incorporated into the Articles of Ireland And p. 129 he finds fault with the 30th Article of that Church because it is said of Christ that for our sakes he endured most grievous Torments immediatly in his Soul and most painful Sufferings in his Body The enduring of which grievous Torments in his Soul as Calvin not without some touch of Blasphemy did first devise so did he lay it down for the true sence and meaning of the Article of Christ's descending into Hell In which expression as the Articles of Ireland have taken up the words of Calvin so it may be rationally conceived that they take them with the same meaning and construction also But the Doctor owns that this was not the Lord Primat's sence of this Article for p. 113 aforegoing he says thus Yet he viz. the Lord Primat neither follows the Opinion of Calvin himself nor of the generality of those of the Calvinian Party who herein differ from their Master but goes a new way of a later discovery in which altho he had few Leaders he hath found many Followers But as I shall not take upon me to enter into a dispute with the Doctor or his Followers in defence of these Irish Articles and to prove they are not contradictory to those of England it not being my business yet I cannot forbear to observe that it is highly improbable that all the Bishops and Clergy of Ireland should incorporate the nine Articles of Lambeth containing all the Calvinian Rigours as the Doctor calls them in the points of Predestination Grace Free-will c. if they had thought they were inconsistent with those of the Church of England and had not been satisfied that it was the Doctrine then held and maintained in those Points by the major part of the Bishops and Clergy of our Church as also believed by the King himself who confirmed them and certainly would never else have sent one Bishop and three of the most Learned Divines within his Dominions to the Synod of Dort to maintain against the Remonstrants or Arminians the very same Opinions contained in these Irish Articles But if all those must be counted by the Doctor for Rigorous Calvinists that maintain these Articles and consequently Heterodox to the Church of England I desire to know how he can excuse the major part of our Bishops in Queen Elizabeth and King James's Reign and a considerable part of them during the Reigns of the two last Kings of blessed Memory some of whom are still living from this Heterodoxy And if all Men must be guilty of Calvinism who hold these Opinions concerning Predestination Grace and Free-will then the most part of the Lutherans who differ very little from Calvin in these points must be Calvinists too Nor are these Points held only by Protestants but many also of the Church of Rome hold the same as witness the Jansenists and also the Order of the Dominicans who come very near to Calvin in the Doctrines of Predestination c. and are as much opposed by the Jesuits as the Arminians are by the Anti-remonstrants in Holland But perhaps the Doctor may make St. Augustin a Calvinist too since he is much of the same Opinion with the Lord Primat in most of these Points against the Pelagians Having now I hope vindicated the Lord Primat from these unjust Accusations of his differing from the Church of England in matters of Doctrine I now come to answer his Aspersions upon the Lord Primat in lesser matters and that you may see how unjustly he seeks out a Quarrel against him he makes it a crime in him because those who were aspersed with the names of Puritans made their Addresses to him by Letters or Visits and because he was carress'd and feasted by them where-ever he came as the Doctor will have it as if the Lord Primat had no other Perfections but his asserting those Calvinian Tenents Then he goes on to tax the Lord Primat with Inconformity to the Rules and Orders of the Church of England in several particulars but with how great want of Charity and with how many malicious Inferences and Reflections without any just grounds I leave to the impartial Reader who will give himself the trouble to peruse that Pamphlet many of those passages being cull'd here and there out of Dr. Bernard's Treatise entitled The late Lord Primat's Judgment c. without ever considering what went before or what followed after and without taking notice that several things enjoined in the Canons of the Church of England had no force or obligation in that of Ireland where those Canons were not yet subscribed to or received and consequently such Ceremonies as were by them enjoined being in themselves indifferent as the Church declares it had been singularity in him to have observed them there and much worse to have imposed them upon others for it is truly said of him by Dr. Bernard That he did not affect some
JACOBUS USSERIUS ARCHIEPISCOPUS ARMACHANUS TOTIUS HIBERNIAE PRIMAS London Printed for Nath Ranew and Ionat Robinson at the Kings Armes in S. Pauls church yard 1676 THE LIFE Of the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop OF ARMAGH Primate and Metropolitan of all IRELAND With a Collection of Three Hundred LETTERS between the said Lord Primate and most of the Eminentest Persons for Piety and Learning in his time both in England and beyond the Seas Collected and published from Original Copies under their own hands by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Chaplain at the time of his Death with whom the care of all his Papers were intrusted by his Lordship LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the Kings-Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard MDCL XXXVI THE PREFACE WHEN the Son of Syrach undertook to recount the Famous Men of Old and record their Worth and Renown he says of them That they were Men of Knowledge Wise and Eloquent in their Instructions that of these there are who have left behind them a Name beloved of God and good Men whose Memorials are Blessed honoured in their Generation being the Glory of their times whose Righteousness shall not be forgotten and although their Bodies be buried yet their Names shall live for Ever And as in the former so likewise in these latter Days there have been many Men of excellent Endowments for Wisdom and Learning for Piety and all other eminent Vertues whose Memorials are with us in Church and State Among these of the first Rank this admirable Primate James Usher whose Life we are about to relate ought to be reckoned whether we consider him as he was indeed a profound Scholar exactly skilled in all sorts of Learning Divine and Humane or as a Person of unfeigned Piety and exemplary Vertue and Conversation or as a Subject of steady and unmoveable Loyalty to his Sovereign Prince or as a Clergy Man in all his Capacity from a Presbyter to a Bishop and Primate So that I think of him it may be as truly said as of St. Augustine with a kind of Admiration O Virum ad totius Ecclesiae publicam utilitatem natum factum datúmque divinitùs This Character his Writings have justly purchased him among the best and most Learned whether of these or other Nations whose Encomiums of him are too many and large for this Place let me therefore include all in that of a memorable Bishop of our Church who upon the Receipt of the Primates Book de Primordiis thus writes of him I may truly say that the Church hereafter will owe as much Reverence to his Memory as we of this present Age ought to pay to his Person And therefore when we have before us a subject of so Eminent Dignity we shall no need Apology for reviving the Memory of this incomparable Prelate and collecting such materials from his Life his Papers and the Informations of Wise and Knowing Men as may render him as well useful to future Ages in his Example as a Person truly Illustrious in himself 1. But perhaps it may be a needless attempt to write again the Life and Actions of this incomparable Primate seeing it hath been performed already by several Persons 2. And likewise it may be demanded how it comes to my share and what were the enducements to undertake this Province 1. To the first I say that though Dr. Bernard in the Sermon be Preached at the Funerals of the Lord Primate hath said many worthy things of him truly which we have reason to believe having the joynt Testimonies from Persons of Worth and unquestionable Credit who had been acquainted with this great and good Man for many years both in England and Ireland and must go along with the Dr. a good way in reciting many material passages contained in the said Sermon yet I take leave to say that he hath omitted very many remarkable things which perhaps either slipt his Memory or came not at all under his observation or because that those then in Power would not indure that any thing should be said of the Primate which might reflect upon that Usurpation Therefore we thought it needful to make up those defects by adding such Remarks as are wanting in that Description and likewise to rectifie the mistakes of those Writers of the Lord Primates Life who Writing after Dr. Bernard's Copy are deficient also in their Accounts and lyable to Question in some instances 2. If it be demanded how it comes to my share to revive the Memory of this great Man and to undertake the Task To this I say that I waited and heartily wished to see if any Person better Qualified than my self being sensible of my own weakness would engage himself in this Affair to whom I would most readily have Communicated those Materials and Observations which I had gathered together and lay by me for a long time but at length perceiving it not likely to be undertaken I was perswaded by those who have a prevailing Power with me to take upon me this Task and to acquaint the World with my own Observations touching this most Reverend Primate Usher whom I had the Advantage of any Man now living to know for I had the Blessing of an intimate Acquaintance with his Person and Affairs by my Attendance on him during the last thirteen years of his Life So that I may be thought capable to give a considerable Account not only of the Lord Primates particular Disposition and heavenly Conversation but likewise of those Passages and Performances of which I was an Eye Witness and may confidently relate upon mine own Knowledge This is the thing I undertake to perform especially in that part of the History of his Life and Actions from the year 1642 to the time of his Death 1655. But not withstanding my long experience of this excellent Person and what I had collected from several passages in Letters and by conference with those who made Observations yet I had not the confidence to attempt this work by my own strength or skill without Counsel and Help therefore when I had drawn together the Memorials I consulted with Persons of better understandign than my self with request to correct and amend what was misplaced or not well expressed and to remind me of any remarkable passage that had escaped my Memory And the assistance I had in this kind was administred by that Learned and Judicious Gentleman James Tyrrell Esq Grandson to the Lord Primate one as deeply concerned for the honour of his Grandfather as can be he became helpful to me in hinting many passages touching his Grandfather which he tho then young had himself observed and had heard from Persons of great Worth and Credit and of the Primates familiar Acquaintance We also owe unto him the account given of the Lord Primates Printed Works both of the time and occasion of Writing them and subject matter treated on as the Reader will perceive in the following History
I would fain have you know that I neither came then nor now do come unto you in any confidence of any Learning that is in me in which respect notwithstanding I thank God I am what I am but I come in the Name of the Lord of Hosts whose Companies you have reproached being certainly perswaded that even out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings he was able to shew forth his own Praises for the further manifestation whereof I do again earnestly request you that setting aside all vain comparisons of Persons we may go plainly forward in examining the matters that rest in controversie between us otherwise I hope you will not be displeased if as for your part you have begun so I also for my own part may be bold for the clearing of my self and the truth which I profess freely to make known what hath already passed concerning this matter Thus intreating you in a few lines to make known unto me your purpose in this behalf I end praying the Lord that both this and all other enterprises that we take in hand may be so ordered as may most make for the advancement of his own Glory and the Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ. Tuus ad Aras usque James Usher No answer to this Letter nor any further conference can I find but this the Jesuite confessed after he got out viz. Prodiit quidam octodenarius praecocis sapientiae juvenis de abstrusisimis rebus Theologicis cum adhuc Philosophica studia vix emensus nec ex Ephebis egressus c. In English to this effect There came to me once a youth of about 18 years of age of a ripe Wit when scarce as you would think gon through his course of Philosophy or got out of his Childhood yet ready to dispute on the most abstruse points of Divinity But afterwards the same Jesuite living to understand him better calls him Acatholicorum doctissimus a tender expression from a Jesuite he does not say of Hereticks but of the Not Catholicks most Learned Anno Dom. 1600. Being now twenty years old and having lived in the Colledge seven years from his first admission he took the degree of Master of Arts and the same year he was chosen Catechist Reader in the Colledge in which office and imployment he treated of the pure Principles of the Christian Religion in Faith and Practice as professed and maintained by the Reformed Churches in opposition to the Errors and Innovations which had mixed themselves with Primitive Christianity and sifting the Wheat from the Tares He did so learnedly and plainly discharge that Exercise to the satisfaction of his then Auditors that he was much importuned to appear and Preach in publick which was as himself then thought very much above his years to enter on so weighty a charge But not being able to withstand the importunity of his Friends and the commands of Superiors he yielded though with some reluctance so that being thought fit for the Ministry in the twenty first year of his age he was accordingly Ordained Deacon and Priest by his Uncle Henry Usher then Arch-Bishop of Armagh with the assistance of others of the Clergy Anno 1601 which though uncanonical yet his own extraordinary merit and the necessity which the Church then had of such a Labourer rendred a dispensation in that case very tolerable if not necessary And being not long after appointed to Preach constantly before the State at Christ-Church in Dublin on Sundays in the afternoon he made it his business to treat of the chief points in controversie between the Romish Church and Ours In which Discourses he was so clear powerful and convincing that he thereby setled many that were wavering and converted divers from that Superstitious perswasion to the Church of England And now this young but grave Divine applies himself to the study of gaining Souls as the main end and design of his Ministry and this he continued through the whole course of his life and was exceeding successful in it The first Text he preached on Publickly before the State presently after his Ordination was Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead which fell out to be the day of the Battle of Kinsale and was especially set apart to pray for the good success of that Engagement which God was pleased to answer with a noble Victory And it must be here remembred That in the year 1601 after that the Irish Papists many of them in and about Dublin and some other parts of the Kingdom had seemingly submitted to the Laws and came frequently to our Churches yet there were still very many of the Irish that kept their distance from the English and stuck to their old Principles and earnestly solicited for a Toleration or at least a Connivance to use their own way of Worship which this zealous Divine believed to be Superstitious and Idolatrous And fearing lest a Connivance might be granted to them and so a lukewarm indifferency to Religion might seize on the Protestants themselves This pious young man was deeply touched with the sense of the evil of such an Indulgence and dangerous Consequence of allowing liberty to that sort of People to exercise a Religion so contrary to the truth and fearing that the introducing of that Religion tended to the disturbance of the Government in Church and State on which occasion this newly Ordained Servant of God then Preached a very remarkable Sermon before the same Audience on a great Solemnity and did not dissemble but freely gave his Opinion in reference to a Toleration And this he did from that of Ezekiel's Vision concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and that Nation Ezek. 4. 6. And thou shalt bear the iniquity of the House of Judah forty days I have appointed thee each day for a year He made then this his conjecture in reference to Ireland viz. From this year I reckon forty years and then those whom you now imbrace shall be your ruine and you shall bear their iniquity This then uttered by him in his Sermon seemed only to be the present thoughts of a young man who was no friend to Popery but afterwards when it came to pass at the expiration of forty years that is from 1601. to 1641. when the Irish Rebellion broke out and that they had murthered and slain so many thousands of Protestants and harassed the whole Nation by a bloody War then those who lived to see that day began to think he was a young Prophet year 1603 Neither must it be forgotten that after the English Forces had beaten and driven out the Spaniards who then came to the assistance of the Irish at Kinsale that Army resolved to do some worthy act that might be a lasting memorial of the gallantry of Military men and that due respect which they had for true Religion and Learning To promote which they raised among themselves the Sum of 1800 l. to buy Books to furnish the Library of the University
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
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
matter of Fact he himself might make a judgment having been present at all proceedings against the said Earl where if upon the hearing of the Allegations on either side he did not conceive him guilty of the Crimes wherewith he was charged he could not in justice condemn him But for the matter in Law what was Treason and what was not he was to rest in the opinion of the Judges whose Office it was to declare the Law and who were Sworn therein to carry themselves indifferently betwixt Him and his Subjects Which gave his Majesty occasion to complain of the dealing of the Judges with him not long before That having earnestly pressed them to declare in particular what point of the Lord of Strafford's Charge they judged to be Treasonable forasmuch as upon the hearing of the proofs produced he might in his Conscience perhaps find him guiltless of that Fact he could not by any means draw them to nominate any in particular but that upon the whole matter Treason might justly be charged upon him And in this second meeting it was observed That the Bishop of London spake nothing at all but the Bishop of Lincoln not only spake but put a Writing also into the King's hand wherein what was contained the rest of his Brethren knew not From all which we may observe my Lord Primate's modesty who would not set down his own particular judgment in this matter but only that it agreed with that of his Brethren but also his charity and fidelity who would not though to acquit himself betray his trust and accuse the only person of that company who was supposed to have moved the King to the doing of it Nor is the reason those men have supposed why my Lord Primate should perswade the King to do this less false and improbable viz. Revenge because the Earl of Strafford whilst Lord Lieutenant of Ireland had outwitted him and made him the Instrument before he was aware of abrogating the Articles of Ireland above mentioned the falseness of which Calumny may sufficiently appear from what hath been already said upon this subject for the Lord Primate did willingly and upon due consideration without any surprise propose the Admission of those Articles of the Church of England nor was he ever convinced neither did my Lord Strafford ever insist upon it that the admission of these Articles was an abrogation of the former and if the Lord Primate had any private grudge against the Earl upon this Score he carried it very slyly insomuch that the Earl himself nor any of his friends were ever sensible of it for whilst the Earl continued in Ireland there was never any dispute or unkindness between them but they parted good friends as will appear by some Letters which you will find in this Collection The Earl writ to him after this business and not long before his going for England full of kindness and respect So likewise after the Earl's Commitment to the Black-Rod as also when he was a Prisoner in the Tower the Lord Primate frequently visited him and the Earl was pleased to consult with him in divers matters relating to his defence at his Tryal And certainly had the Earl believed that the Lord Primate bore any malice towards him much more had advised the King to put him to death which could not have been well concealed from him though we may suppose the Earl had so much Christian charity as to forgive so great an injury yet it is not very likely that he should exercise such a piece of mortification as to chuse him whom he believed to be the promoter of his death to prepare him for it and to be the man to whom he addressed his Speech upon the Scaffold and whose assistance he desired in that his last extremity But I shall speak no farther of this matter till I can in order of time tell you what the Lord Primate himself said unto me concerning it when he lay as he thought on his Death-bed and not likely to live an hour and also what his Majesty declared when he heard the report of his death Not many Months after the Execution of this great and unfortunate Earl there came over the unhappy news of the breaking out of the horrid Irish Rebellion in which as his Majesty's with the English and Protestant interest in that Kingdom received an unexpressible blow so likewise the Lord Primate bore too great a share in that common affliction for in a very few days the Rebels had plundered his Houses in the Countrey seized on his Rents quite ruined or destroyed his Tenements killed or drove away his numerous Flocks and Herds of Cattle to a very great value and in a world had not left him any thing in that Kingdom which escaped their fury but his Library and some Furniture in his House in Droghedah which were secured by the strength of that place notwithstanding a long and dangerous Siege by those Rebels which Library was some years after conveyed over to Chester and from thence to London This must needs reduce him to a very low condition happening not long after Michaelmas when he expected a return of his Rents so that he was forced for his present supply to sell or pawn all the Plate and Jewels he had this though a very great Tryal yet made not any change in his Natural Temper and Heavenly Disposition still submitting to God's Providence with Christian Patience and Magnanimity having long before learned to use the things of this World as if he used them not and in whatsoever condition he was therewith to be content Yet these afflictions were sufficient to move compassion even in the breasts of Foreigners for some Months after his losses the City and University of Leyden offered to chuse him their Honorarie Professor with a more ample stipend than had been formerly annexed to that place And Dr. Bernard in the above cited Sermon likewise tells us that Cardinal Richlieu did about the same time make him an Invitation to come into France with a promise of a very noble Pension and freedom of his Religion there and that this is not unlikely though I never heard my Lord Primate speak of it may be proved from the great honour that Cardinal had for him which he expressed by a Letter full of kindness and respect accompanied with a Gold Medal of considerable value having his own Effigies stamped upon it which is still preserved these were sent him upon his publishing his Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum which Present was also returned by the Lord Primate by a Letter of thanks with a handsome present of Irish Grey-hounds and other rarities which that Countrey afforded But it pleased his late Majesty to provide for him much better in England by conferring on him the Bishoprick of Carlisle lately void by the death of Dr. Potter to be held in Commendam this though very much abated by the Scotch and English Armies Quartering upon it as also by
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-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
likewise see by what he writes in the same Chap. in these words viz. Not that I am against the managing of this Presidency and Authority in one man by the joynt Counsel and Consent of many Presbyters I have offered to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errors Corruptions and Partialities which are incident to any one man And so likewise in the Chapter about the Reformation of the Times he has this passage I was willing to grant or restore to Presbytery what with reason or discretion it can pretend to in a Conjuncture with Episcopacy but for that wholly to invade the Power and by the Sword to Arrogate and quite Abrogate the Authority of that Ancient Order I think neither just as to Episcopacy nor safe for Presbytery nor yet any way convenient for this Church or State And that the most Pious and Learned Dr. Hammond was about the same time of the Lord Primate's judgment in this matter may appear by this passage in the Preface to his Treatise of the Power of the Keys That a moderate Episcopacy with a standing assistant Presbytery as it will certainly satisfie the desires of those whose pretentions are regular and moderate craving nothing more and in some things less than the Laws of the Land so that it will appear to be that which all parties can best Tolerate and which next himself both Presbyterian Independant and Erastian will make no question to choose and prefer before any of the other Pretenders And though it may be true that divers of the more sober of the Presbyterian party have seemed to have approved of these terms of Reconciliation yet it has been only since the ill success their Discipline hath met with both in England and Scotland that has made them more moderate in their demands for it is very well known that when these Terms were first proposed the Ring-leaders of the Party utterly cryed them down as a great Enemy to Presbytery Since this Expedient would have yet left Episcopacy in a better condition than it is at this day in any of the Lutheran Churches but they were not then for Divisum Imperium would have all or nothing and they had their desires So that it is no wonder if the Lord Primate in this endeavour of Reconciliation met with the common fate of Arbitrators to please neither party But thô the Church is now restored beyond our expectation as well as merits to all its just Rights and Priviledges without the least diminution Yet certainly no good Subject or Son of the Church either of the Clergy or Laity at that time when this Expedient was proposed but would have been very well contented to have yielded farther than this to have preserved his late Majesty's life and to have prevented those Schisms and Confusions which for so many years harrassed these poor Nations But if our King and Church are both now restored it is what then no man could fore-see it is the Lord 's doing and is marvellous in our Eyes but I have dwelt so long upon this subject that I forgot to relate a passage though not of so great moment as the Affair we last mentioned yet as it happened in order of time before it so was it too considerable to be passed over viz. the Sermon which the Lord Primate now preached before the King at Newport in the Isle of Wight presently after his coming thither on the 19th of Novemb. being his Majesty's Birth-day which because it then was the occasion of a great deal of discourse I shall give you the heads of it being there present at that Sermon which afterward was published though very imperfectly by some that took Notes the Text was Gen. 49. 3. Ruben thou art my first-born my Might and the beginning of my Strength the excellency of Dignity and the excellency of Power These remarkable passages he had in this Sermon among others in Explication viz. The Regal power which comes by Descent is described by a double Excellency The Excellency of Dignity and the Excellency of Power By Dignity we understand all outward Glory by Power all Dominion And these are the two branches of Majesty The Greeks express it in the abstract And so in respect of Dignity The Supreme Magistrate is called Glory and in respect of Sovereignty he is called Lord Both these are joyned in the Epistle of Jude ver 8. There are a wicked sort there described that despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and make no Conscience to Blaspheme the Footsteps of the Lord 's Anointed And what is their Censure ver 13. To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever We used to say That those that have God's Tokens upon them are past hopes of life here you may plainly see God's Tokens upon these men they are reserved to everlasting Damnation After he had shewen in many instances of the outward Splendor and Pomp which peculiarly belong to Majesty and are lawful and requisite to maintain the Dignity of a Prince c. then he proceeded to shew the Eminency of Power belonging thereunto For a King to have great State and to have no Power he were then but a poor weak King There is a subordination of Power in all Governments which because it cannot go in Infinitum it must needs rest some where and that is in the King Let every Soul be subject to the higher power whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God And the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 13. To the King as Supreme If any Professors of Religion do Rebel against the King this is a scandal to Religion and 't is the fault of the Professors and not of the Profession for the Church of England doth teach the contrary But when men shall not only practise but teach Rebellion this amounts to a very high Crime indeed The King as St. Peter saith hath the Excellency of Power as sent by God But what need I say any more we all swear that the King is the Only Supreme Governor in his Dominions A man would think that that word Only might be spared since nothing can be above a Supreme but it is put there by way of Eminency I read in Josephus That Herod having offended Cleopatra she besought Antony to call him to account for it But Antony refused so to do for then said he He will be no King And after he had enlarged somewhat on these points he added this In the word of a King there is power saith the Preacher It was wont to be so and by the word of God it ought to be so I might enlarge upon this but some Ears will not endure sound Doctrine The King you see must be acknowledged to be Supreme and no Superior to the King on Earth far be it from me to flatter any man I thank God I fear no flesh but do deliver the Truth This day is the Birth-day of our Sovereign Lord. Birth-days of Kings have been usually Celebrated
with great Solemnity in former times it pleaseth God that this day begins the 49th year of his Majesty's life and let me call it the year of Jubilee to his Majesty The Jews had a Custom that in the 49th year of any mans life he should be at liberty whatever his sufferings were before It must be the desire and prayer of every Loyal heart that the King may have a Jubilee indeed This is that which Loyalty bids us do I will not stand too much upon this particular but this I will say Oh! that we knew our happiness to have a King that is the Son of Nobles a King that is not a Child a King that is at full Age to Govern by Wisdom and Prudence And truly as God gives us this blessing so he expects we should acknowledge it thankfully Eccles. 10. 16. Wo be to thee O Land saith the Preacher when the King is a Child To have him when his experience hath riveted in him sound judgment and ability to Govern The Lord threatned Jerusalem in Isa. 3. 4. I will give Children to be their Princes and Babes shall rule over them Those that would have their own Wills could I warrant you be content that the youngest should Reign To have a base man exalted is one of the things that the Earth cannot bear but some Body must have the Government it doth not belong to all you see here is one that alone hath a right to it After which he concluded to this effect That all true Christians are the First-born of God Heb. 12. The Congregation of the First-born they are all Heirs of Heaven in the same relation that Christ is by Nature we are by Grace and Adoption c. This Sermon together with the Arch-Bishop's steady carriage in the point of Episcopacy did so much enrage both the Presbyterian and Independant Factions that in their News Books and Pamphlets at London they reproach'd the Lord Primate for flattering the King as also for his perswading him not to abolish Bishops and that he had very much prejudiced the Treaty and that none among all the King's Chaplains had been so mischievous meaning to Them as He which reproaches whether the Lord Primate did deserve or not I leave to the candid Readers both of the said Sermon and Reconciliation above mentioned to judge I am sure his Majesty's Affairs were in as ill a condition to tempt any man to flatter him as the temper of his Soul was then to suffer it But the truth is the Lord Primate did no more than assert his Majesty's just Rights and Prerogative then trampled upon and it was no more than what he had both preached and written before in that Treatise since published Of the Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject After the Lord Primate had taken his last leave of his Majesty and done him and the Church all the service he was able at that time though not with that success he desired he returned to Southampton in order to his going towards London where he was kindly received by the chief of the Town and withal intreated to preach there the next day being Sunday but when he thought of complying with their desires the Governor of the Garrison hearing of it came to my Lord Primate and told him he had been informed he intended to preach on the morrow to which when my Lord answered yes 't was true he replyed that it might be at that time of ill consequence to the Place and therefore wished him to forbear for they could not permit it and so they suffered him not to preach there for they were afraid of his plain dealing and that he would have declared against that Villainy they were then about to execute For not long after my Lord's return to London his Majesty was brought up thither as a Prisonerby the Army in order to that wicked piece of Pageantry which they called his Tryal And now too soon after came that fatal Thirtieth of January never to be mentioned or thought on by all good men without grief and detestation on which was perpetrated the most Execrable Villainy under the pretence of Justice that ever was acted since the World began A King Murthered by his own Subjects before his own Palace in the face of the Sun For which the Lord Primate was so deeply sensible and afflicted that he kept that day as a private Fast so long as he lived and would always be wail the scandal and reproach it cast not only on our own Nation but Religion it self saying That thereby a great advantage was given to Popery and that from thence forward the Priests would with greater success advance their designs against the Church of England and Protestant Religion in general Nor will it be impertinent here to relate a passage that happened to the Lord Primate at the time of his Majesty's murther The Lady Peterborough's House where my Lord then lived being just over against Charing-Cross divers of the Countesse's Gentlemen and Servants got upon the Leads of the House from whence they could see plainly what was acting before White-Hall as soon as his Majesty came upon the Scaffold some of the House-hold came and told my Lord Primate of it and askt him if he would see the King once more before he was put to death My Lord was at first unwilling but was at last perswaded to go up as well out of his desire to see his Majesty once again as also curiosity since he could scarce believe what they told him unless he saw it When he came upon the Leads the King was in his Speech the Lord Primate stood still and said nothing but sighed and lifting up his Hands and Eyes full of Tears towards Heaven seemed to pray earnestly but when his Majesty had done speaking and had pulled off his Cloak and Doublet and stood stripped in his Wastcoat and that the Villains in Vizards began to put up his hair the good Bishop no longer able to endure so dismal a sight and being full of grief and horror for that most wicked Fact now ready to be Executed grew pale and began to faint so that if he had not been observed by his own Servant and some others that stood near him who thereupon supported him he had swounded away So they presently carried him down and laid him on his Bed where he used those powerful weapons which God has left his People in such Afflictions viz. Prayers and Tears Tears that so horrid a sin should be committed and Prayers that God would give his Prince patience and constancy to undergo these cruel Sufferings and that he likewise would not for the vindication of his own Honour and Providence permit so great a wickedness to pass unpublished This I received from my Lord Primate's Grandson who heard it from the mouth of his Servant who lived with him till his death After this sad Tragedy the Government if it may be so called was managed by a
some of the most considerable Episcopal Clergy in and about London desired my Lord Primate that he would use his Interest with Cromwell since they heard he pretended a great respect for him that as he granted Liberty of Conscience to almost all sorts of Religions so the Episcopal Divines might have the same freedom of serving God in their private Congregations since they were not permitted the publick Churches according to the Liturgy of the Church of England and that neither the Ministers nor those that frequented that Service might be any more hindered or disturbed by his Souldiers So according to their desires he went and used his utmost endeavours with Cromwell for the taking off this restraint which was at last promised though with some difficulty that they should not be molested provided they medled not with any matters relating to his Government But when the Lord Primate went to him a second time to get this promise Ratified and put into Writing he found him under his Chyrurgeons hands who was dressing a great Boyl which he had on his Breast so Cromwell prayed the Lord Primate to sit down a little and that when he was dressed he would speak with him whilst this was a doing Cromwell said to my Lord Primate If this Core pointing to the Boyl were once out I should quickly be well to whom the good Bishop replyed I doubt the Core lies deeper there is a Core at the heart that must be taken out or else it will not be well Ah! replyed he seeming unconcerned so there is indeed and sighed But when the Lord Primate began to speak to him concerning the business he came about he answered him to this effect That he had since better considered it having advised with his Council about it and that they thought it not safe for him to grant liberty of Conscience to those sort of men who are restless and implacable Enemies to him and his Government and so he took his leave of him though with good words and outward civility The Lord Primate seeing it was in vain to urge it any farther said little more to him but returned to his Lodgings very much troubled and concerned that his endeavours had met with no better success when he was in his Chamber he said to some of his Relations and my self that came to see him This false man hath broken his word with me and refuses to perform what he promised well he will have little cause to glory in his wickedness for he will not continue long the King will return though I shall not live to see it you may The Government both in Church and State is in confusion the Papists are advancing their Projects and making such advantages as will hardly be prevented Not long after this viz. about the midle of February following he went from London to Rygate taking his last leave of his Friends and Relations who never had the happiness to see him again As soon as he came thither he set himself to finish his Chronologia Sacra which took up most of that little time he after lived he was now very Aged and though both his Body and mind were healthy and vigorous for a man of his years yet his Eye-sight was extremely decayed by his constant studying so that he could scarce see to write but at a Window and that in the Sun-shine which he constantly followed in clear days from one Window to another so that had he lived he intended to have made use of an Ammanuensis He had now frequent thoughts of his dissolution and as he was wont every year to Note in his Almanack over against the day of his Birth the year of his Age so I find this year 1655. this Note written with his own hand Now Aged 75 years My Days are full and presently after in Capital Letters RESIGNATION From which we may gather that he now thought the days of his Pilgrimage to be fulfilled and that he now wholly resigned up himself to God's Will and Pleasure Not long before his death going to Rygate I preached a Sermon there where this good Bishop was present after Church he was pleased to confer with me in private as 't was usual with him so to do and he spake to this effect I thank you for your Sermon I am going out of this World and I now desire according to you Text To seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and to be with him in Heaven of which said he we ought not to doubt if we can evidence to our selves our Conversion True Faith and Charity and live in the Exercise of those Christian Graces and Vertues with perseverance mortifying daily our inbred Corruptions renouncing all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts and he that is arrived at this habitual frame and holy course of life is the blessed and happy man and may rejoyce in hope of a glorious Eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven to receive that Inheritance given by God to those that are sanctified So that all his discourse was of Heavenly things as if his better part had been there already freed from the Body and all Terrene affections and he seemed as if he were seriously considering his Spiritual State and making ready for his departure which he now shortly expected But since it had been usual with him to insist on things of this Nature when we were together and that he was at this time in health I did not believe that his Change was so near as he presaged yet he himself had other thoughts and it proved he was not mistaken for on the 20th of March the day he fell sick after he had been most part of it as long as he had light at his Study he went from thence to visit a Gentlewoman then sick in the House giving her most excellent preparatives for death together with other holy advice for almost an hour and that in such a Heavenly manner as if like Moses upon Mount Pisgah he had then a prospect of the Celestial Canaan that Night after Supper he first complained of his hip judging it to be a touch of the Sciatica which he had many years agone next Morning early he complained of a great pain in his side a Physician being sent for prescribed what he thought convenient in that case but it could not thereby be removed but rather encreased more and more upon him which he bore with great patience for 13 or 14 hours but his strength and spirits decaying he wholly applied himself to prayer and therein had the assistance of the Countesse's Chaplain upon some abatement of the torture he advised those about him to provide for death in the time of health that then they might have nothing else to do but to dye Then taking his leave of the Countess of Peterborough by whom he had been so long and kindly entertained and giving her many thanks for all her kindness to him with excellent Spiritual Counsel as
a return for all her favours Then he desired to be left to his own private Devotions After which the last words he was heard to utter about One of the Clock in the Afternoon praying for forgiveness of Sins were these viz. O Lord forgive me especially my sins of Omission So presently after this in sure hopes of a glorious Immortality he fell asleep to the great grief and affliction of the said Countess who could never sufficiently lament her own and the Churches great loss by his too sudden departure out of this life Thus dyed this humble and holy man praying for his sins of Omission who was never known to omit his duty or scarce to have let any time slip wherein he was not imployed in some good action or other and if such a man thought he had so much to beg pardon for what an account must those have to make who scarce bestow any of their time as they ought to do He had been when he died 55 years a Minister and almost all that time a constant Preacher near 14 years a Professor of Divinity in the Univesity of Dublin and several years Vice-Chancellor of the same he sat Bishop of Meath near 4 years and one and thirty years Arch-Bishop of Armagh being from St. Patrick the 100 Bishop of that See As soon as his Relations received the sad news of his death they gave orders for his interment at Rygate where he dyed the Honourable Countess with whom he had lived and dyed intending to have him buried in her own Vault in order to which his Relations being then not near it was thought fit to preserve the Corps by such means as are proper in that case so a Chyrurgeon being sent for the Body was opened and a great deal of Coagulated blood found setled in his left side which shewed that the Physician had mistook his disease not expecting a Pleurisie in a man of above 75 years of Age. But now whilst they were preparing speedily to bury him some or other put it into Oliver Cromwell's head how much it would be for the Lord Primate's as well as his own honour to have him solemnly buried which he approving of and thinking it a good way to make himself Popular because he well knew what great reputation the deceased had among all Ranks and Degrees of men Whereupon he presently caused an Order to be drawn and sent to the Lord Primate's Son-in-law and Daughter straitly forbidding them to bury his Body any where else than at Westminster Abby for that his Highness as he then called himself intended a Publick Funeral for him This Command his Relations durst not disobey as the Times then were though it was much against their Wills perceiving well enough the Usurper's design that as it was intended so it would make more for his own honour than that of the deceased Primate and withal perceiving what accordingly happened that he would never defray half the expence of such a solemn Funeral which therefore would cause the greatest part of the charge to fall upon them though they were least able to bear it and yet he would reap all the glory of it I should not have said so much on this subject had it not been to shew the World the intriguing subtilty of this Usurper even in this small Affair and that for the expence of about 200 l. out of the Deodands in his Amoner's hands which was nothing at all to him he was able to put those he accounted his Enemies to treble that charge However since it could not be avoided the Corps was kept unburied till the 17th of April following when it was removed from Rygate towards London being met and attended by the Coaches of most of the Persons of Quality then in Town the Clergy in and about London waiting on the Hearse from Somerset House to the Abby Church where the Crowd was so great that there was forced to be a Guard to prevent the rudeness of the people The Body being brought into the Quire Dr. Nicholas Bernard then Preacher of Grays-Inn preached his Sermon his discourse was on 1 Sam. 25. 1. And Samuel died and all Israel were gathered together and lamented him and buried him Of which I shall say nothing more since it is in print and is but for the most part an account of his life which we now give you more at large The Sermon ended the Corps was conveyed to the Grave in St. Erasmus Chappel and there buried by the said Dr. according to the Liturgy of the Church of England his Grave being next to Sir James Fullerton's once his School-Master there waiting a glorious Resurrection with those that dye in the faith of our Lord Jesus Many Tears were shed at his Obsequies the City and Country being full of the singular Piety Learning and Worth of the deceased Primate which though it fall not to every man's Lot to equal yet it is his duty to follow so good an example as far as he is able Quamvis non passibus aequis In the next place I shall give you a faithful account without flattery of his personal Qualifications Opinions and Learning As for his outward form he was indifferent tall and well shaped and went always upright to the last his Hair naturally Brown when young his Complexion Sanguine his Countenance expressed Gravity and good Nature his Carriage free a presence that commanded both Respect and Reverence and though many Pictures have been made of him the Air of his face was so hard to hit that I never saw but one that was like him He was of a strong and healthy Constitution so that he said That for the most part of his life he very rarely felt any pain in his head or stomach in his youth he had been troubled with the Sciatica and some years after that with a long Quartan Ague besides the fit of the Strangury and Bleeding above mentioned but he never had the Gout or Stone A little sleep served his turn and even in his last years though he went to Bed pretty late yet in the Summer he would rise by five and in the Winter by six of the Clock in the Morning his Appetite was always suited to his dyet he would feed heartily on plain wholsom Meat without Sauce and better pleased with a few Dishes than with great Varieties nor did he love to tast of what he was not used to Eat He liked not tedious Meals it was a weariness to him to sit long at Table but what ever he Eat or Drank was never offensive to his Stomach or Brain for he never exceeded at the greatest Feast and I have heard some Physicians impute the easieness of his Digestion to something very particular in the frame of his Body for when the Chyrurgeon had opened him he found a thick Membrane lined with Far which as I suppose was but a continuation of the Omentum which extended it self quite over his Stomach and was fastened above to
Learning for the first I shall say in general That he always adhered to and maintained the fundamental Catholick Truths observing that Golden Rule concerning Traditions Quod ubique quod ab omnibus quod semper Creditum est c. and never approved of any Religion under what pretence soever obtruded or introduced contrary to the Scriptures and Primitive Truths received and professed in the Church of Christ in all Ages and upon this account could never comply with nor approve of the new Doctrines and Worship obtruded and practised in the Church of Rome as now it is but always protested against their Innovations and humane Inventions as doth most evidently appear in his Writings bearing Testimony against their Corruptions False and Erroneous principles And as for the great Scholars and Leading Men of the Romish Church the Lord Primate usually said That it is no Marvel if they had a veil cast over their Eyes as St. Paul said of the Jews in the reading of the Scriptures for besides the several judgments of God upon them that have blinded their own Eyes their Minds are so prepossessed and Corrupted with false Principles Prejudices and Worldly interest that it is no wonder if they cannot perceive the most manifest and plainest Truths But as this good Mans judgment was sound and not byassed by prejudice or passion or worldly interest so did he heartily approve of the Religion professed and established in the Church of England as most Congruous to the Holy Scriptures and Primitive Christianity and in which if a Man keep the Faith and Lives according to its precepts persevering he need not doubt of his Salvation And in this Faith and Communion of the Church of England he lived Holily and died happily And this Holy Primate being fully perswaded in his own Mind laboured instantly to reduce Popish Recusants and Sectaries from their Errors and vain Conceits to inform them aright and to perswade them for their Souls good to comply with and embrace the Religion and Communion of the Church of England and this he aimed to bring about by his Writing Preaching and Conference upon all occasions and was successful in that enterprise But now for his Opinion in some nice points of Religion that do not touch the foundation of Faith he would not be rigorously Dogmatical in his own Opinions as to impose on others Learned and Pious Men of a different Apprehension in the more obscure points with whom nevertheless thô not altogether of his judgment he had a friendly Conversation and mutual Affection and Respect seeing they agreed in the points necessary Would to God That the Learned and Pious Men in these Days were of the like temper It will be needless here to mention any more particulars of his judgment in several points seeing there are so many instances of this kind in the Collection to which I refer the Reader Yet before I leave this matter I think fit to mind you of some Treatises published by Doctor Bernard after the Primates Death Intituled The judgment of the late Lord Primate on several Subjects 1. Of Spiritual Babylon on Rev. 18. 4. 2. Of Laying on of Hands Heb. 6. 2. and the ancient form of Words in Ordination 3. Of a set form of Prayer in the Church Each being the judgment of the late Bishop of Armagh which being not set down in my Lord Primates own Words nor written by him in the Method and Order they are there put into cannot be reckoned being much enlarged by the Dr. as himself confesseth therefore cannot so well vouch them as if I had been certain that all he writes were purely the Lord Primate 's since the Papers out of which the Doctor says he Collected them were never restored to my Custody thô borrowed under that Trust that they should be so and therefore I desire that those into whose hands those Manuscripts are now fallen since the Drs. decease would restore them either to my self or the Lord Primates Relations And tho perhaps some of those Letters published by Dr. Bernard might have been as well omitted or at least some private reflections of them left out concerning a Person easily provoked to bitterness and ill words being provoked by the publishing those Letters writ an invective Book on purpose to answer to what was contained therein and not contented with this has likewise bestowed great part of that Book to tax my Lord Primates Opinions and Actions as differing from the Church of England only to lessen the Esteem and Veneration which he deservedly had with all those who loved the King and Church of England as also to maintain those old Stories broached before concerning the repeal of the Irish Articles and the Death of the Earl of Strafford to which last particulars I need say no more than what I have already spoken in the Lord Primate's Vindication and as to the former relating to my Lord's Opinions and Actions a near Relation of the Lord Primate's has I hope vindicated him sufficiently in an Appendix at the end of this Account so that I shall concern my self no farther therewith I have now no more to do than to give you a short account of his Opinions in some of the most difficult parts of Learning with some Observations which either my self or others that convers'd with him can remember we have received from him by way of discourse though not the Twentieth part of what might have been retrieved in this kind had this task been undertaken many years agone whilst these things were fresh in our memories and whilst many more of his learned friends were alive who must needs have received divers learned remarks from his excellent conversation As for the Lord Primate's Opinions in Critical Learning it is very well known as well by his Discourse as Writings that he still defended the certainty and purity of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament before the Translation of the Septuagint since he doubted whether this we have were the true Translation of the LXX or not as you may see in his Epistle to Valesius and his Answer thereunto which controversie as it is a subject above my capacity to give a Judgment on having exercised as it still does both the Wits and Pens of the greatest Scholars in this present Age So I heartily wish That it may never tend to the disadvantage not only of our own but indeed of the whole Christian Religion with Prophane and Sceptical men for whilst one Party decry the Hebrew Text as obscure and corrupted by the Jews and the other side shew the failings and mistakes of the Greek Translation sufficient to prove that it was not performed by men Divinely Inspired it gives the Weak and more Prophane sort of Readers occasion to doubt of the Divine Authority of these Sacred Records though notwithstanding all the differences that have hitherto been shown between the Hebrew Original and Greek Translation do not God be thanked prove of greater moment than
are to receive the Communion viz. Almighty God and heavenly Father c. have mercy upon you pardon you and deliver you from all your Sins c. Or else the first clause in the form of Absolution used at the Visitation of the Sick would have served the turn viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left Power to his Church to absolve all Sinners which truly repent and believe in him of his great Mercy forgive thee thine Offences And there could be no reason at all imaginable why the next clause should be superadded to this prayer viz. And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee from all thy Sins c. if the Priest did not forgive Sins Authoritativè by such a delegated and commissionated power as before we spake of After all which tedious Charge of the Doctor 's against the Lord Primate which I have been forced to transcribe to let the impartial Reader see I shall not answer him by halves I doubt not but to prove that first the Doctor hath dealt very disingenuously with the Lord Primat's Book by him there cited out of which he hath culled some passages here and there on purpose to cavil and find fault For I shall shew you 1. that the Lord Primat doth there assert that whatsoever the Priest or Minister contributes in this great Work of Cleansing the Souls of Men they do it as God's Ministers and receiving a power from God so to do and that tho perhaps he does not make use of the Doctor 's distinction of authoritativè yet he speaks the same sence 2. That admit the Priest does absolve authoritativè Yet that this Absolution can only operate declarativè or optativè and not absolutely And 3dly That the Church of England in none of the three forms of Absolution above mentioned no not in the last which he so much insists upon does pretend to give any larger power to the Priest or Minister than this amounts to As for the first Head I have laid down I shall prove it from the Lord Primat's own words in the same Treatise before cited by the Doctor who agrees with the Lord Primat that the supream power of forgiving Sins is in God alone Next that the power given to the Priest is but a delegated power from God himself Now that the Lord Primat owns the Priest or Minister to be endowed with such a power I shall put down his own words in the said Book viz. Having thus reserved unto God his Prerogative Royal in Cleansing the Soul we give unto his under Officers their due when we account of them as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God Not as Lords that have power to dispose of Spiritual Graces as they please but as Servants that are tied to follow their Master's prescriptions therein and in following thereof do but bring their external Ministry for which it self also they are beholden to God's Mercy and Goodness God conferring the inward Blessing of his Spirit thereupon when and where he will Who then is Paul saith St. Paul himself and who is Apollos but Ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every Man Therefore saith Optatus in all the Servants there is no Dominion but a Ministery Cui creditur ipse dat quod creditur non per quem creditur It is he who is believed that giveth the thing that is believed not he by whom we do believe Whereas our Saviour then saith unto his Apostles Joh. 20. Receive the holy Ghost Whose Sins ye forgive shall be forgiven St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Chrysostom and St. Cyril make this Observation thereupon that this is not their work properly but the work of the holy Ghost who remitteth by them and therein performeth the works of the true God To forgive Sins therefore being thus proper to God only and to his Christ his Ministers must not be held to have this power communicated unto them but in an improper sence namely because God forgiveth by them and hath appointed them both to apply those means by which he useth to forgive Sins and to give notice unto Repentant Sinners of that Forgiveness For who can forgive Sins but God alone yet doth he forgive by them also unto whom he hath given power to forgive saith St. Ambrose And tho it be the proper work of God to remit Sins saith Ferus yet are the Apostles and their Successors said to remit also not simply but because they apply those means whereby God doth remit Sins After the Lord Primat had shewed in the pages before-going that the power of binding and loosing consists in exercising the Discipline of the Church in debarring or admitting Penitents from or to the Communion he proceeds thus That this Authority of loosing remaineth still in the Church we constantly maintain against the Heresie of the Montanists and Novations c. And after having confuted the uncharitableness of those Hereticks who denied that Penitents who had committed heinous Sins ought to be received into the Communion of the Church goes on thus That speech of his viz. St. Paul's is specially noted and pressed against the Hereticks by St. Ambrose To whom ye forgive any thing I forgive also for if I forgave any thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the Person of Christ. For as in the Name and by the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ such a one was delivered to Satan for God having given unto him Repentance to recover himself out of the snare of the Devil in the same Name and in the same Power was he to be restored again the Ministers of Reconciliation standing in Christ's stead and Christ himself being in the midst of them that are thus gathered together in his Name will bind or loose in Heaven whatsoever they according to his Commission shall bind or loose on Earth Then after he has shewn that the power of the Priest or Ministers of the Gospel is only ministerial and declarative like that of the Priests under the Law of Moses Where the Laws are set down that concern the Leprosie which was a type of the pollution of Sin we meet often with these speeches The Priest shall cleanse him and The Priest shall pollute him and in vers 44. of the same chapter The Priest with pollution shall pollute him as it is in the Original Not saith St. Hierom that he is the author of the pollution but that he declareth him to be polluted who before did seem unto many to have been clean Whereupon the Master of the Sentences following herein St. Hierom and being afterwards therein followed himself by many others observeth that in remitting or retaining Sins the Priests of the Gospel have that Right and Office which the Legal Priests had of old under the Law in curing of the Lepers These therefore saith he forgive Sins or retain them whiles they shew and declare that they are forgiven or
that passage be left out of the present Article according as it passed in the Convocation of the Year 1562 yet cannot it be used as an Argument to prove that the Church hath altered her Judgment in that Point as some Men would have it that passage being left out for these Reasons following For first that passage was conceived to make the Article too inclinable to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome which makes the chief end of Christ's descent into Hell to be the fetching thence the Souls of the Fathers who died before and under the Law And secondly because it was conceived by some Learned Men that the Text was capable of some other construction than to be used for an Argument of this Descent The Judgment of the Church continues still the same as before it was and is as plain and positive for a Local Descent as ever she had not else left this Article in the same place in which she found it or given it the same distinct Title as before it had viz. De Descensu Christi ad Inferos in the Latin Copies of King Edward the 6th that is to say Of the going down of Christ into Hell as in the English Copies of Queen Elizabeth's Reign Nor indeed was there any reason why this Article should have any distinct place or title at all unless the maintenance of a Local Descent were intended by it For having spoken in the former Article of Christ's Suffering Crucifying Death and Burial it had been a very great Impertinency not to call it worse to make a distinct Article of his descending into Hell if to descend into Hell did signifie the same with this being buried as some Men then fancied or that there were not in it some further meaning which might deserve a place distinct from his Death and Burial The Article speaking thus viz. as Christ died for us and was buried so is it to be believed that he went down into Hell is either to be understood of a Local Descent or else we are tied to believe nothing by it but what was explicitly or implicitly comprehended in the former Article And lastly That Mr. Alex. Noel before mentioned who being Prolocutor of the Convocation in the Year 1562 when this Article was disputed approved and ratified cannot in reason be supposed to be ignorant of the true sence and meaning of this Church in that particular And he in his Catechism above mentioned declares that Christ descended in his Body into the bowels of the Earth and in his Soul separated from that Body he descended also into Hell by means whereof the power and efficacy of his Death was not made known only to the Dead but the Devils themselves insomuch that both the Souls of the Unbelievers did sensibly perceive that Condemnation which was most justly due to them for their Incredulity and Satan himself the Prince of Devils did as plainly see that his tyranny and all the Powers of Darkness were opprest ruined and destroyed But on the contrary the L. Primat allows not any such Local Descent as is maintained by the Church and defended by the most learned Members of it who have left us any thing in writing about this Article And yet he neither followeth the Opinion of Calvin himself nor of the generality of those of the Calvinian Party who herein differ from their Master but goes a new way of a later discovery in which although he had few Leaders he hath found many Followers By Christ's descending into Hell he would have nothing else to be understood but his continuing in the state of separation between the Body and the Soul his remaining under the power of Death during the time he lay buried in the Grave which is no more in effect tho it differ somewhat in the terms than to say that he died and was buried and rose not till the third day as the Creed instructs us In vindication of the Lord Primat's Judgment in the sence of this Article I shall lay down some previous Considerations to excuse him if perhaps he differed from the sence of the Church of England in this Article if it should appear that it ought to be understood in a strict and literal sence For first you must understand that this Article of Christ's Descent into Hell is not inserted amongst the Articles of the Church of Ireland which were the Confession of Faith of that Church when the Lord Primat writ this Answer to the Jesuit the Articles of the Church of England amongst which this of Christ's Descent into Hell is one not being received by the Church of Ireland till the Year 1634 ten years after the publishing of this Book so that he could not be accused for differing from those Articles which he was not then obliged to receive or subscribe to 2dly Had this Article been then inserted and expressed in the very same words as it is in those of the Church of England could he be accused of being Heterodox for not understanding it as the Doctor does of a Local Descent of Christ's Soul into Hell or the places of Torment since the Church of England is so modest as only to assert that it is to be believed that he went down into Hell without specifying in what sence she understand it For as the Lord Primat very learnedly proves in this Treatise the word Hell in old Saxon signifies no more than hidden or covered so that in the original propriety of the word our Hell doth exactly answer the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place which is unseen or removed from the sight of man So that the word Hell signifies the same with Hades in the Greek and Inferi in the Latin Concerning which St. Augustin gives us this Note The name of Hell in Latin Inferi is variously put in Scriptures and in many meanings according as the sence of the things which are intreated of do require And Mr. Casaubon who understood the property of Greek and Latin words as well as any this other They who think that Hades is properly the seat of the Damned be no less deceived than they who when they reade Inferos in Latin Writers do interpret it of the same place Whereupon the Lord Primat proceeds to shew That by Hell in divers places of Scripture is not to be understood the place of the Wicked or Damned but of the Dead in general as in Psal. 89. 48. What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of Hell And Esa. 38. 18 19. Hell cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the Pit cannot hope for thy Truth The Living the Living he shall praise thee as I do this day Where the opposition betwixt Hell and the state of Life in this World is to be observed Therefore since the word Hell does not necessarily imply a place of Torment either in Scriptures or
Arbitrary Innovations not within the compass of the Rule and Order of the Book of Common-prayer and that he did not take upon him to introduce any Rite or Ceremony upon his own Opinion of Decency till the Church had judged it so p. 147. What the Lord Primat's behaviour was in England in relation to some of these Ceremonies of lesser moment either to the peace or well-being of the Church the Lord Primat needs no Apology he having reason enough for what he did if he conformed himself no further than the Doctor would have him But to give one Instance for all of the Doctor 's want of Charity towards the Lord Primat Dr. Bernard having asserted his Conformity to the Discipline Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England and that many of those who were called Puritans received such satisfaction from him as to concur with him in the above-said particulars The Doctor immediatly makes this Remark For this says he might very well be done and yet the Men remain as unconformable to the Rules of the Church their Kneeling at the Communion only excepted as they were before Now what other Rules of the Church the Doctor means I know not since I always thought that whoever had brought over a Lay-Nonconformist to conform to the Service and Orders of the Church had done a very good work and I know not when that is done what is required more to make him a true Son of the Church of England But I shall say no more on this ungrateful Subject since I doubt not but the Lord Primat's great Esteem and Reputation is too deep rooted in the hearts of all Good Men to be at all lessened by the Doctor 's hard Reflections tho I thought I could do no less than vindicate the Memory of so pious a Prelate since many ordinary Readers who were not acquainted with this good Bishop or his Writings may think Dr. H. had cause thus to find fault with him So avoiding all invidious Reflections upon the Reverend Doctor long since deceased I shall now conclude heartily wishing that whatever he hath written or published had never done any more prejudice to that Church which he undertook to serve than any of those Writings or Opinions of the Lord Primat's which he so much finds fault with FINIS A COLLECTION Of Three Hundred LETTERS Written between the Most Reverend Father in GOD JAMES USHER Late Lord Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH and most of the Eminentest Persons for PIETY and LEARNING in his Time both in ENGLAND and beyond the SEAS Collected and Published From Original Copies under their own Hands by RICHARD PARR D. D. his Lordships Chaplain at the Time of his Death with whom the Care of all his Papers were intrusted by his Lordship LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVI THE CONTENTS LETTER I. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Richard Stanihurst at the English Colledge in Lovain Page 1. II. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. William Eyres 2 III. A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher 3 IV. A Letter from Mr. Henry Briggs to Mr. James Usher 11 V. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Mr. James Usher 13 VI. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 14 VII A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 15 VIII A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Dr. Challoner 16 IX A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 17 X. A Letter from Mr. James Usher to Mr. Samuel Ward 18 XI A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr James Usher 22 XII A Letter from Mr. Alexander Cook to Mr. James Usher 32 XIII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 33 XIV A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Mr. James Usher 34 XV. A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Mr. James Usher 34 XVI A Letter from Mr. Henry Briggs to Mr. James Usher 35 XVII A Letter from the Most Reverend Tobias Matthews Arch-Bishop of York to Mr. James Usher 36 XVIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Mr. James Usher 37 XIX A Letter from Mr. Robert Usher to Dr. James Usher 38 XX. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Dr. James Usher 39 XXI A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 43 XXII A Letter from Dr. James Usher concerning the Death and Satisfaction of Christ. 46 XXIII An Answer to some Objections against the said Letter by Dr. James Usher 49 XXIV A Letter from Sr. Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher 53 XXV A Letter from Mr. William Crashaw to Dr. James Usher 55 XXVI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to Dr. James Usher 56 XXVII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydiat to Dr. James Usher 57 XXVIII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher 59 XXIX A Letter from Mr. James Warren to Dr. James Usher 60 XXX A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 60 XXXI A Letter from Sr. Henry Bourgchier to Dr. James Usher 61 XXXII A Letter from Mr. William Eyres to Dr. James Usher 62 XXXIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. William Camden 63 XXXIV A Letter from Mr. William Camden to Dr. James Usher 65 XXXV A Letter from Mr. Thomas Warren to Dr. James Usher 66 XXXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Chester to Dr. James Usher 67 XXXVII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Dr. James Usher 67 XXXVIII A Letter from Dr. James Usher to Mr. Thomas Lydiat 68 XXXIX A Letter from Dr. James Usher 71 XL. A Letter from Mr. Edward Browncker to Dr. James Usher 72 XLI A Letter from Dr. James Usher Bishop Elect of Meath to the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh 73 XLII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 75 XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 76 XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 77 XLV A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 78 XLVI A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 78 XLVII A Letter from Sir Robert Cotton to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 79 XLVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 80 XLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Mr. John Selden 81 L. A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 81 LI. A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Oliver Lord Grandison 83 LII A Letter from the most Reverend Dr. Hampton Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath 84 LIII A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward 85
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
your learned Treatise De Christianarum Ecclesiarum Successione But such hath been your happy industry therein that I have little hope to add any thing and less to observe any mistaking Thus with my salutations to your good self and my respectful love remembred to Sir Arthur Savage I rest Your true and devoted Friend William Camden Chesilhurst July 10. 1618. LETTER XXXV A Letter from Mr. Thomas Warren to Dr. James Usher after Arch-Bishop of Armagh Sir I Have read carefully what Arminius hath written De justitia efficacia providentiae Dei in malo Yet in that I read him for especially he leaves me as doubtful as he found me For where he saith Quum soepenumero futurum sit ut creatura non omnino in malo obdurata actum quia peccato junctus sit patrare nolit nisi argumentis quibusdam occasionibus quae velut incitamenta sint ad illum patrandum objectis istius quoque objectionis administratio penes Dei providentiam est qui irritamenta ista objicit In these words if I mistake him not he will have it That God casts Stumbling-blocks in the way of them that of themselves would have gone upright of purpose to provoke them to do evil which taken together with his foreknowledge of the event in my apprehension seems very harsh and flat contrary to the Scripture Jam. 1. 13. Indeed if God foreseeing both what arguments and occasions inciting unto sin would by ordinary course of Nature or free-will come in the way of him that for the present meant no such evil and likewise that unless his Providence hindered he would be thereby overcome I say if God foreseeing all this should with-hold his preventing interposition it were no more than bare permission the justice whereof cannot be called in question And if this seem too little it might haply be farther granted istius objectionis administrationem penes Dei providentiam esse to use his own words though I cannot think what bounds are thereunto due but that he should irritamenta ista objicere cum creatura actum peccato junctum ex se patrare nolit It seems to me very hard to grant and he as hardly to maintain the justice of it pag. 102. 114. But of the extent and justice of his Administration in this point I would your leisure served to send me your opinion you shall both pleasure me and do God service in it So commending you to his Protection and Grace I rest and shall be Ever at Your Service Edward Warren Kilkenny Sept. 1. 1610. I have sent you Arminius by this Bearer James Congame LETTER XXXVI A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Chester to Dr. James Usher late Arch-Bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo Jesu Sir I Do heartily thank you for your double pains in writing which is your kindness beyond any single desert of my part and I must twice thank you for the young Batchelor who hath approved himself since his coming hither to be indeed very commendable Your manifold Imployments specified in your Letters will not suffer me to be too large in these of mine lest I might morari tua tempora Truly I cannot but admire your exceeding pains and bless God for his Graces in you The Synod in the low Countries is held at Dort the most of their Suffragators are already Assembled the manner of their proceedings is methodically ordered the Remonstrants excepting some few do exempt themselves I think to hold universal grace quoad revelationem negativè as importing that no Soul can be said particularly to be excluded may sufficiently qualifie the violence of oppositions I shall long to see you with me that I may enjoy the comfort of your presence I pray you if it be possible satisfie my desire In the interim and always I pray our Lord Jesus to preserve us to the glory of his Saving Grace and rest Your loving Friend Tho. Cestrensis Chester Decemb. 15. 1618. LETTER XXXVII A Letter from Mr. Samuel Ward to Dr. James Usher at Dublin Good Mr. Dr. Usher MY kindest salutations premised These are to signifie unto you That I received at Dort the Letter you sent me though a long time after the date As touching the Additions and Corrections which J. Scaliger left with Gomarus I understand by him that they shall shortly be published He hath delivered them to a Printer at Leyden who is to print them The Additions are many as he telleth me almost as many as are already set forth Chamierus was not at the Synod and I cannot learn whether any such ancient Writings of the Albigenses were left with him As for that which you desired to be transcribed out of Paulus Alexandrinus concerning the method of the Alexandrian Year I being at Leyden after the Synod was desirous to have spoken with Meursius but enquiring for him of Mr. Joannes Latius one of our Synod he told me he would go to Meursius and transcribe it and send it me into England for he thought it not seasonable to go to him that day being the day of Bernevelt's Execution whose Sons Meursius had been Tutor unto When I receive the Transcript from Latius I will send it you It may be you will be desirous to know the remarkable passages of the Synod which will be shortly published both the Acts and the Canons concluded upon touching the five Articles We had somewhat to do when we came to frame Canons with the Provincials and some of the Exteri touching some points especially touching the second Article Some of us were held by some half Remonstrants for extending the Oblation made to the Father to all and for holding sundry effects thereof offered seriò and some really communicated to the reprobate I had somewhat to do with a principal man touching this point somewhat passed in writing between us privately We were careful that nothing should be defined which might gainsay the Confession of the Church of England which was effected for that they were desirous to have all things in the Canons defined unanimi consensu We foreign Divines after the Subscription of the Canons and a general approbation of the Belgick Confession and Catechism which is the Palatine's as containing no Dogmata repugnant to the Word of God and a Decree against Vorstius's Doctrine chiefly that in his Book De Deo were dismissed In our approbation of the Belgick Confession our consent was only asked for Doctrinals not for matters touching Discipline We had a solemn parting in the Synod and all was concluded with a solemn Feast This was upon Thursday April 29. The Saturday we went to the Hague to take our leaves of the States General where we resolved while our Ship was made ready to see Leyden Amsterdam and Harlem which we did the week following Upon the Monday we purposing to go for Leyden early in the morning were informed that Bernevelt was to lose his head that morning which was executed Upon the tenth
this time a kind of a general combination to be made for the disgrace and keeping down of our Ministers What that particular is which your Grace doth mention in the beginning of your Letter I do not yet understand John Forth having not as yet sent any Letter unto me But whatsoever it is I will not fail God willing to be present at the Assizes in Trim and both in that particular and in all other things wherein your Grace shall be pleased to employ me to follow your directions as one who desireth always to be accounted Your Graces ready to do you all service Ja. Midensis Pinglass August 6. 1623. LETTER LX. A Letter from the Most Reverend the Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem in Christo. UPon Sunday last as I was going to Bed a Pacquet was brought unto me from my Lord Deputy with the Advertisements of all that passed at White-Hall the 20th of July But by good hap I received advice from my Lord Grandison five days before of the King 's noble profession in a Speech used to his Judges That as he had so he would still maintain the Religion Established in the Church of England and would never give way to the contrary Only he wished the Judges to proceed in the execution of Laws with temperance and fitting moderation Seeing it hath pleased God whose Councils may be secret but not unjust to exercise us with this mixture let us remember how dangerous it is to provoke Princes with too much animosity and what hazard Chrysostom brought to Religion that way The Gospel is not supported with wilfulness but by patience and obedience And if your Lordship light upon petulant and seditious Libels too frequent now-a-days as report goeth I beseech you to repress them and advise our Brethren to the like care So I commend you to God resting Your Lordships very loving Brother Armagh August 12. 1623. LETTER LXI A Letter from Dr. Ryves to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Right Reverend and my very good Lord I Have now too long time forborn to write unto your Lordship the cause whereof hath been for that we have here lived in suspense our selves of what would ensue of our Noble Prince his Journey into Spain neither durst I write you any thing for certain because I was ever in fear of a contrary report before my Letter could come unto you and as for Uncertainties they were not worth the writing But now at the last thanks be to our good God we have our Prince again he came to London on Monday Morning last being the 6th of this present at Eight of the Clock in the Morning it was my hap to be at Lambeth at that time with my Lord of Canterbury and whilst I was there the Prince came to Lambeth Stairs where his Grace received him and kissed his Hand and from thence in his Graces Barge went to York-House where he brake his Fast and presently went away to Royston where the King then was and is News of his lodging that Night at Guilford came to his Grace of Canterbury that Morning at Three of the Clock and presently all London rang with Bells and flamed with Bonfires and resounded all over with such Shouts as is not well possible to express The day without bidding was kept festival by every Man whereof because I took such pleasure in seeing it I conceive your Lordship will also take some pleasure in hearing the Relation As for the Match Rumor in ambiguo est pars invenit utraque causas some say it will be a Match others that it will not and each part thinks he hath reason for what he says but nothing is yet known that may be reported for a certainty As for my self hanging otherwise in equal Ballance between the two Opinions your divining Spirit is always obversant before mine eyes and sways me to believe as I hope that it will please God to dispose of our Prince's Affections for the greater benefit of his Church and our State It hath happly ere this came to your Lordship's Ears that I was not long since commanded to attend my Lord Chichester into Germany after a while that Negotiation was hung up upon the Nail in expectance of the Princes return and now we look to hear of a new Summons but nothing is done as yet therein And even so my good Lord humbly desiring your good Prayers to God for me in all my honest Endeavours I take leave and rest Your Lordship 's in all Service to be commanded F. Ryves From my House near the Doctors-Commons this 8th of October 1623. POSTSCRIPT MY good Lord no Man doubts but that the Prince went a good Protestant out of England but it 's as certain thanks be given to God for it that he is returned out of Spain tenfold more confirm'd in ours more obdurate against their Religion than ever he was before So is the Duke of Buckingham in so much that upon his Letters to his Dutchess out of Spain she went also publickly to her Parish-Church at St. Martins the Sunday before Michaelmas-day and on Michaelmas-day it self and so continueth Moreover what is befallen to the Prince himself and to the Duke the same is befallen to all the rest of his Company they all return more resolv'd Protestants than ever being thorowly perswaded ex evidentia facti that Popery is Idolatry if ever any were F. R. LETTER LXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem à D. N. Iesu Christo. Most Reverend in Christ I Hope you will impute my long silence to your long expected and much wished repair hither which you seemed in your last kind Letter to intend before this time I trust that your Stay proceeds not from want of Health but some other occasion which I shall most gladly understand We are here full of business but all in Treaty and so little concluded that I know not what to deliver for Truth to my Friends Here hath been a great Conventicle of Embassadors which is now dissolved Dieguo de Mendoza who accompanied the Prince is gone yesterday Dieguo de Meshia who came from Bruxells with a fair train of Nobles Gentlemen and Military Men goes away on Tuesday next Our late prodigious Events as that of the fall of the House in Black-friers being related in three several Pamphelts the late dangerous Fire in London with some others of that kind cannot now be new to your Lordship The latest which I must send you is very sad and dolorous being of the death of our late worthy Friend Mr. Camden whose Funeral we solemnized at Westminster on Wednesday last in the Afternoon with all due Solemnity At which was present a great Assembly of all Conditions and Degrees the Sermon was preached by Dr. Sutton who made a true grave and modest Commemoration of his Life As he was not factious in Religion so neither was
he wavering or inconstant of which he gave good Testimony at his end professing in the Exordium of his last Will and Testament that he died as he had lived in the Faith Communion and Fellowship of the Church of England His Library I hope will fall to my share by an Agreement between his Executors and Me which I much desire partly to keep it entire out of my Love to the Defunct The original Copy of the second part of his Elizabeth is in my hands which is intended to be shortly printed Within a day or two Sir Robert Cotton and my self intend to go into his Study which is yet shut up and there to take a view of his Papers especially of such things as are left of his own writing I desire to be remembred by your Lordship in your holy Prayers to God to whose gracious Protection I commend you and ever remain Your Lordships most affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London Novemb. 22 1623. LETTER LXIII A Letter from Dr. James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath MY Duty in most humble manner remembred unto your Lordship I am informed that your Lordship passed this way not far from us to London where you have remained for some few weeks I should have been glad to have known of it sooner or rather to have waited upon your Lordship here in Oxford I have traced the Steps a far off about the Succession and Visibility of the Church wherein your Lordship hath gone a far Journey I do but glean where you have reaped a plentiful Harvest Nevertheless if my poor and weak Labours may any ways stead your Lordship I would be glad to contribute my Pains You ascend as I perceive as far as our St. Aug. of England and not unworthily for if our Records be true not only the Irish as you shew but also our Britains and Scots continued averse and heretical as they are called to the whole World almost till the time of S. Bernard Many Scots and French were orthodox in the substantial Points of Religion long before Waldus I mean P. Waldus for there was another Waldus Orthodox some hundreds of years before P. Waldus in Berengarius's time I have collected as much as I can find in all likely Authors to this purpose as in the Catalogue of Writers and Witnesses of the truth of the last Age of Goulartius Wolfius Rhoanus Balaeus de scriptoribus out of the History of the Waldenses both by Lydius and Camerarius out of Lombard Dr. Powel and others printed out of sundry Manuscripts as Gascoigne Canter Mapes P. de Vineis Becket Sarisburiensis which have been diligently read over by a learned Kinsman of mine who is at this present by my direction writing Becket's Life wherein it shall be plainly shewed both out of his own Writings and those of his time that he was not as he is esteemed an Arch-Saint but an Arch-Rebel and that the Papists have been not a little deceiv'd in him This Kinsman of mine as well as my self shall be right glad to do any Service to your Lordship in this kind He is of strength and well both able and learn'd to effectuate somewhat in this kind critically seen both in Hebrew Greek and Latin knowing well the Languages both French Spanish and Italian immense and beyond all other Men especially in reading of the Manuscripts of an extraordinary style in penning such a one as I dare ballance with any Priest or Jesuit in the World of his Age and such a one as I could wish your Lordship had about you but paupertas inimica bona est moribus and both fatherless and motherless and almost but for my self I may say the more is the pity friendless For my self I am not so far gone in Years as in Sicknesses yet my Body is not so weak but my Mind is as strong and my Zeal great to see somewhat acted against the Papists in matters of Forgery and Corruption which are matters of Fact whereto my Studies have always aim'd and shall during Life if God will I find infinite Corruptions in the Fathers Works especially of the Roman Print in the Canon Law and Decretals I can convince them of shameless Forgeries by the Parchments But that which hath amazed or amused the World and made it turn or continue Popish hath been the want of Censurers of the Fathers Works which made our Magdeburgians and some of our best learn'd to lance the Fathers and not to spare them whereas they are but Pseudo-Fathers indeed But the notedst cozenage which is rife and most beguiling in these days is a secret Index Expurgatorius and therefore the more dangerous that is the reprinting of Books not making mention of any Castigation or Purgation of them and yet both leaving and adding and otherwise infinitely depraving them as is to be seen in hundreds of Books of the middle-Age and later Writers I instance in Sixtus Senensis and Alphonsus de Castro and Antoninus Summes There are about five hundred bastard Treatises and about a thousand places in the true Authors which are corrupted that I have diligently noted and will shortly vindicate them out of the Manuscripts for hitherto they be but the Conjectures of the Learned For this purpose I have gotten together the Flower of our young Divines who voluntarily will joyn with me in the search some fruits of their labours if your Lordship desires I will send up And might I be but so happy as to have other twelve thus bestowed four in transcribing Orthodox Writers whereof we have plenty that for the substantial Points have maintain'd our Religion 40 or 50 l. would serve four to compare old Prints with the new four other to compare the Greek Translations by the Papists as Vedelius hath done with Ignatius wherein he hath been somewhat help'd by my Pains I would not doubt but to drive the Papists out of all their starting-holes But alas my Lord I have not Encouragement from our Bishops Preferment I seek none at their hands only 40 or 60 l. per Annum for others and their Lordships Letters to incourage others is that I seek which being gained the Cause is gained notwithstanding their brags in their late Books And thus craving pardon I rest in humble Service Your Lordship 's in all Duty Tho. James Oxford 28 Jan. 1623. LETTER LXIV A Letter from Mr. William Eyre to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Reverende in Christo Pater Domine mihi mult is nominibus colendissime NUperrime de adventu tuo in Angliam deque morâ per aliquot menses audivi à Ramo nostro quem tamen nondum mihi contigit videre ex quo tecum fuit Londini Solummodo per internuntium me de quibusdam certiorem fecit Gratulor verò tibi tuis nobis etiam omnibus vitam valetudinem tuam qui tam auspicatò foeliciter his funestissimis temporibus illa arma sumsisti quae non carnalia sed
to God and Honour to our King Thus fearing that I have troubled your Lordship with a slender Discourse humbly take my leave beseeching the Lord of Lords to multiply his Graces upon you recommending you with all yours to God's Grace and Mercy rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty to command Thomas Davies Aleppo 29th September 1624. LETTER LXXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter for which I return many thanks My Journy into Ireland is of such necessity that I cannot defer it long though I have many motives besides those mentioned by your Lordship to urge my stay As for the Books which you mention I find Jordanus in vitas Fratrum in the Catalogue of the Publick Library at Oxford Mr. Selden told me he never heard of the Author if any Library about London have it or that other Work of his I will endeavour to discover them As for the new Edition of Sealiger de Emendat Temporum as many as I speak withal are of opinion that it is so far from coming out that it is not yet come in to the Press Here are already come two Dry-fats of Mart Books and they expect but one more you may perceive by the Catalogue what they are Here will be very shortly some good Libraries to be had as Dr. Dee's which hath been long litigious and by that means unsold One Oliver a Physician of St. Edmundsbury of whose writing I have seen some Mathematical Tracts printed and Dr. Crakanthorp are lately dead If there be any extraordinary Books which your Lordship affects if you will be pleased to send a note of them they shall be bought Such News as we have you receive so frequently as coming from me they would be stale which you know destroys their very Essence We have had Bonfires Ringing Shouting and also Ballads and base Epithalamiums for the conclusion of the French Marriage and yet I am but modicae fidei Our Country-man Florence Mr. Carthye was committed to the Tower some five days since And thus remembring my best Affection to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher I will remain Your Lordship 's very affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London in haste Novemb. 24. 1624. LETTER LXXIII A Letter from Dr. Ward to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath at Much-Haddam in Essex My very good Lord IT was my purpose to have come to visit your Lordship at Haddam to morrow but the truth is upon Thusday last before I came out of Cambridg I was made acquainted with a business which will occasion my return to Cambridg to morrow I notwithstanding brought with me the Manuscripts of Bedes Ecclesiastical Story which I have of Sir R. Cotton's and have sent it unto you by this Bearer Walter Mark I will expect the Book from you when you have done with it for that I would keep it till Sir Robert restore a Book of mine which he had of Mr. Patrick Young I had purposed to have borrowed also out of our University Library Simeon Dunelmensis but I find that I am deceived in that I thought it had been his History or Chronicle but it is only the History of the Church of Durham and of the Endowments of that Church and not his History of England And thus sorry that my occasions will not suffer me to see your Lordship this time and with my kind Salutations to Sir Gerard Harvy and his Lady with Thanks for my kind Entertainment when I was there I commend you to the gracious Protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all observance Samuel Ward Much-Mondon Jan. 2. 1624. LETTER LXXIV A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath to Dr. Samuel Ward Good Mr. Doctor I Received by W. Marks your Ancient Bede which I suppose did sometime belong to the Church of Durham As soon as I have compared it with the printed Book I will not fail God willing to send it you safe back again As for Simeon Dunelmensis his History of the Church of Durham which is in the publick Library of your University I would intreat you to borrow it for me however it hath not proved to be the Chronicle which I at first desired for I have a great mind to see and transcribe all that hath been written by Simeon and Turgotus Dunelmensis Turgotus I hear is with Mr. Tho. Allen of Oxford and if my memory do not much deceive me at my being in England the last time before this you told me that you had begun to transcribe the Annals of Simeon Dunelmensis which continue the History of Bede I pray you if you know where those Annals may be had do your best to help me unto them I could wish that Mr. Lisle would take some pains in translating the Saxon Annals into our English Tongue for I do not know how he can more profitably imploy that Skill which God hath given to him in that Language If I had any opportunity to speak with him my self I would direct him to five or six Annals of this kind three of which belonging to Sir Rober Cotton I have in my hands at this present our of which there might be one perfect Annal made up in the English Tongue which might unfold unto us the full State of the Saxon Times But how that Gentleman's Mind stands affected that way I know not the feeling of his Mind therein I leave to you And so commending all your good Endeavours to the Blessing of our good God I rest Your most assured Friend Ja. Mid. Much-Haddam Jan. 4. 1624. LETTER LXXV A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My very good Lord I Received your Lordship's Letter which was must wellcome to me and much more the News of your Recovery which was deliver'd to me by Mr. Burnet and by me to some others of your Friends who were no less glad than my self I am afraid that you converse too much with your Books I need not tell you the danger of a Relapse This News which I sent your Lordship deserved not Thanks because vulgar and trivial that of the Death of Erpenius is but too true and is much lamented by learned Men in all places for the cause by your Lordship truly expressed he died of the Plague Mr. Briggs was gone from London some three days before the Receipt of your Lordship's Letter But I will write to him that which I should have delivered by word of Mouth if he had tarried here In the collating of Books your Lordship hath made a good choice that being a fit study in time of Sickness as not so much imploying the Mind as other Studies As for Bede I doubt the Collation of him will be scarce worth your labour For as far as I went they seemed rather to be variantes lectiones than material Differences a very few excepted To make use
where he addeth much more concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I were able to give the sum of it it needeth not if your Lordship have Plato if not except London Stationers now furnish I can with much conveniency send down to Tottenham any Book I was lately with one Mr. Boyse whose Notes are on Chrysostom with Mr. Downes's he is now comparing of Nicene Syn. in Greek with an old Manuscript which was by great chance offered to him he is very learned in the Greek Authors and most willing to communicate tho your Lordship needs not those Excellencies he is but four Miles dwelling out of Cambridg I intend to go over of purpose to him concerning the same Queries which your Lordship propounded because he was Mr. Downes his Scholar I shall intreat him to furnish me with all the Notes if he may conveniently that he gathered from Mr. Downes My Lord if I be not over-bold to desire such a Favour I wish I had that Table wherein your Lordship hath compared the Hebrew Greek and Latin Alphabet which sheweth plainly the right Pronunciation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the whole consent of the rest When I have done with Mr. Boyse and have obtained any thing worth your view I will by that Messenger desire your Servant to copy out that Table for me which would give great content to my Scholars which study the Languages And thus craving pardon of your Lordship I humbly take my leave and rest Your Lordship's humble Servant to his Power Abraham Wheelock Clare-Hall July 12. 1625. LETTER LXXXVI A Letter from Dr. Sam. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Much-Haddam Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received a Note from Dr. Lindsell written by your Lordship wherein you desire to have a Book out of Trinity-Colledg Library which you intitle Psalterium Gallicum Romanum Hebraicum MS. in magno Folio There is no such Book there as the Master telleth me but he shewed me the Psalter in Hebrew MS. interlinear with a Latin Translation and two other Collateral Translations in Latin but there is no French and it is but in a little Folio The Catena in Psalmos 50 priores Daniele Barbaro interprete I cannot learn where it is Whereas you desire some old Impression of the Greek Psalms in Trinity-Colledg Library there is Augustini Justiniani Episcopi Nebiensis Psalterium Octaplum in which there is the Greek Translation also the Arabick and Chalde Paraphrase but I suppose you have that Book already Also they have a Manuscript Psalter in Greek a very good Hand which it seemeth was Liber Theodori Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis If you would have any of those I will procure them from Dr. Maw I had purposed to have seen you e're now and now this Week I had purposed to have brought my whole Family to Mundon but this day I received a Letter that one of my Workmen at my Parsonage had a Sister who is suspected the last Saturday to die of the Plague at Standon I thank God we are yet well at Cambridg If you please to write unto me your mind touching the Books aforesaid I will do what you would have me Thus desiring the Lord to mitigate this grievous Judgment which hath seized upon our Mother-City and from thence is diffused to many other Towns in the Land and to stay it in his good time and in the mean time to sanctify this Correction unto the whole Land that it may have that powerful working for which God sends it to make us sensible of our Sins and of his Wrath for our Sins and of the Miseries of our Brethren under the Cross and so to move us to true Repentance and new Obedience which He effect in us for his Mercy 's sake Thus with my best Service to your self and Mrs. Usher and my kind Love to Sir Gerard and his Lady I commend you to the safe protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordships in all observance Samuel Ward Sidney-Coll Aug. 3. 1625. I am careful that the Letter be conveyed by Persons safe from all Infection LETTER LXXXVII A Letter from Dr. James to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After the remembrance of my humble Duty MAY it please your Grace to pardon my long silence and neglect of writing according to my Duty occasioned partly by Sickness partly by Discontent and Discouragement from our great Ones But being now freed from both God be thanked I address my self wholly to the care of the Publick long since by me intended Wherein now more than ever I must be bold to crave your Lordships furtherance that as it had its first beginnings from your Grace so it may its final end and a fulfilling by your Lordships good means It is true my Lord of Litchfield is intrusted with the whole direction and managing of this Business but had your Grace been near there would have been none more able nor willing than your Grace I do therefore most humbly intreat your Lordship that sometime before your Grace's departure into Ireland you would be pleased upon conference with my Lord of Litchfield to settle the whole Business what Authors we shall begin with in what order and after what manner As for the Canon-Law which I have looked unto not without the vocation and approbation of Mr. Vice-chancellor I must confess my forwardness therein upon a supposal of sundry Additions unto Gratian and my Fellow-labourers are as earnest as my self upon that little which we have hitherto found Doubtless Gratian was one of the first Compilers of the Popish Religion in his hotch-potch of the Canon-Law but yet he is not so bad as he is made the Corruptions are of a later hue and came in long since his time I have given a taste as of all that I have hitherto done in certain rude Papers overhastily perhaps sent up to pass your Lordships Censure and Judgment and from thence to the Press that I may have a taste to present unto my Lord the Bishops and others that have already promised their helps If this of almost an hundred places corrupted in point of Religion not taking all upon an exact survey but a few to give proof of the faisibility of the Work to the common profit of the Church shall be thought fit to be printed and an hundred places of flat contradiction Men if ever will be stirred up to advance this Work for the doing whereof with some jeopardy of my Health and loss of all worldly Preferment I am most willing to be imployed to the uttermost of my simple Endeavours having nothing to promise but Fidelity and Industry Good my Lord what can be done by your Grace let it be done to the uttermost the Work is in a manner yours to God be the Glory and if the Church of England receive not as much profit by this one Work being well done as by any thing since Erasmus's Time I will never look hereafter to be
service to your Grace I rest Your Grace's in all duty W. Kilmore Kilmore Decemb. 28. 1629. LETTER CL. A Letter from L. Robinson to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My honourable and most dear Lord MY poor Prayers to God shall never be wanting for the continuance and increase of your Lordship's Health and all true Happiness nor my serviceable and thankful Affections for all your noble Favours done to me and mine I forbear to treat with my Lord of Kilmore altogether about any of those things which are divulged under his hand being perswaded his Desires were only to do good and assured himself sees his expectation fail in them partly by the Apology he made for himself amongst his Ministers gathered together in the Church of Kilmore at the inhibiting of Mr. Cook where he shewed much grief that there were divers scandalous Reports rais'd of him As that he was a Papist an Arminian an Equivocator Politician and traveller into Italy that he bow'd his Knee at the Name of Jesus pull'd down the late Bishop's Seat because it was too near the Altar preached in his Surplice c. There generally he affirmed his education in Christian Religion and his love to the Truth shewing the Reasons of his Travels and the Use of the Ceremonies not to hinder any Man's liberty of Conscience nor urge Conscience but as he had voluntarily practis'd them in England for the good of some others so here Some things he denied and others he shew'd Reasons for so that he gave us all good satisfaction and we hope we shall have much comfort in him Yet 't is true he sent a strange Absolution to an Irish Recusant in a Letter using many good Instructions for the Man was sick in this form If you be content to receive Christ and believe in him by the Authority which is given to me I absolve you from all your Sins you have confessed to Almighty God and are truly contrite for in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen Thus craving pardon for being troublesome to your Grace I take leave and will ever rejoice to remain Your Lordship 's poor Servant to be commanded Lau. Robinson Farnh Jan. 18. 1629. LETTER CLI A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend in Christ and my very good Lord I Did very lately presume to present my Service to your Grace by my Servant whom I sent into Ireland whose return from thence I expect very shortly and by him to hear at least of your Grace's Health and welfare than which no news can be more welcome to me Your Friends here as many as I know are all well Sir Rob. Cotton is not altogether free of his Trouble but he and his Friends hope he shall shortly Mr. Selden is also a Prisoner in the King's-Bench but goes abroad when he pleaseth so that his Friends enjoy him often I hope we shall have his Titles of Honour very shortly At Paris there is ready to come forth the King of Spain's Bible that was It will be now in ten Volumes whereas the other was but in eight and much fairer than the other as they say that have seen it which I think can hardly be Here is little News at this present The French Army is gone into Italy commanded by the Cardinal Richleau The Imperialists are so terrified with their coming that they have raised the Siege of Mantua and drawn themselves into the Dutchy of Milan for the defence thereof There is a Treaty of Peace there and in the Low-Countries of a Truce between the King of Spain and the States and the Spanish Ambassador is here about the same Business and ours in Spain And these several Treaties depend so one upon another that it is thought it will either prove a general Peace or a general War I wrote to your Grace in my former Letter of Mr. Vossius being here in England Within these two days I heard from him by Mr. Junius his Brother-in-law who went over with him He liked his entertainment so well in England that he hath now a good mind to settle himself here Concerning our own poor Country I can say nothing only that the Business of Philim Mac Teagh is in question which I mention the rather because your Grace had your part in it as a Commissioner The King hath sat two days already with the Lords and heard it with great patience and attention My Lord of Falkland as I hear hath ended his part which was to answer the Certificate and Report of the Commissioners in Ireland as far as it touched himself Sir Henry Beatinges part is next when those have done the other side shall have liberty to reply I cannot hear any speech of a new Deputy I believe the Government will continue as it is and the rather because it is a saving way which these Times do easily hearken unto I have sent your Grace here inclosed something that hath been lately done concerning the Church of England I doubt not but your Grace hath received it from other hands but I thought good to adventure it howsoever I intend with God's Assistance to be in Ireland about the midst of March at the farthest If your Grace desire any thing from hence I shall willingly conveigh it to you and if they be Books I can do it conveniently because I carry many of my own I will desire your Grace to esteem me in the number of those who most reverence and honour you and will ever approve himself Your Grace's most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London Jan. 21. 1629. LETTER CLII. A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father my honourable good Lord THE report of your Grace's indisposition how sorrowful it was to me the Lord knows albeit the same was somewhat mitigated by other News of your better Estate In that fluctuation of my mind perhaps like that of your Health the saying of the Apostle served me for an Anchor That none of us liveth to himself neither doth any die to himself For whether we live we live to the Lord or whether we die we die to the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's Thereupon from the bottom of my heart commending your Estate and that of his Church here which how much it needs you he knows best to our common Master though I had written large Letters to you which have lien by me sundry Weeks fearing in your sickness to be troublesom I thought not to send them but to attend some other opportunity after your perfect recovery to send or perhaps bring them When I understood by Mr. Dean of his Journey or at least sending an express Messenger to you with other Letters putting me also in mind that perhaps it would not be unwelcome to you to hear from me though you
were the less careful in passing it because they accounted it did rather concern my Predecessor than them I shewed the false Latin Non-sence injustice of it prejudice to them contrariety to it self and to the King 's Grant to me I shewed there were in one Period above 500 words and which passed the rest hanging in the Air without any principal Verb. I desired them to consider if the Seal hanging to it were the Bishop's Seal They acknowledged it was not Therefore with protestation that I meant no way to call in question the sufficiency of Mr. Cook or his former Acts I did judg the Patent to be void and so declared it inhibiting Mr. Cook to do any thing by virtue thereof and them to assist him therein This is the true History of this Business howsoever Mr. Cook disguises it I suspended him not absent indicta causâ It was his Commission which was present that I viewed with the Chapter and censured which if he can make good he shall have leave and time and place enough And now to accomplish my promise to relate to your Grace my purpose herein My Lord I do thus account that to any Work or Enterprize to remove Impediments is a great part of the performance And amongst all the Impediments to the Work of God amongst us there is not any one greater than the abuse of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction This is not only the Opinion of the most Godly Judicious and Learned Men that I have known but the cause of it is plain The People pierce not into the inward and true Reasons of things they are sensible in the Purse And that Religion that makes Men that profess it and shews them to be despisers of the World and so far from encroaching upon others in Matter of base Gain as rather to part with their own they magnify This bred the admiration of the Primitive Christians and after of the Monks Contrary Causes must needs produce contrary Effects Wherefore let us preach never so painfully and piously I say more let us live never so blamelesly our selves so long as the Officers in our Courts prey upon them they esteem us no better than Publicans and Worldlings and so much the more deservedly because we are called Spiritual Men and call our selves Reformed Christians And if the honestest and best of our own Protestants be thus scandalized what may we think of Papists such as are all in a manner that we live among The time was when I hoped the Church of Ireland was free from this Abuse at least freer than her Sister of England but I find I am deceived Whether it be that distance of place and being further out of the reach of the Scepter of Justice breeds more boldness to offend or necessarily brings more delay of redress I have been wont also in Ireland to except one Court as he doth Plato But trust me my Lord I have heard that it is said among great Personages here that My Lord Primate is a good Man but his Court is as corrupt as others some say worse And which I confess to your Grace did not a little terrify me from visiting till I might see how to do it with Fruit in that of your late Visitation they see no profit but the taking of Mony But to come to Mr. Cook of all that have exercised Jurisdiction in this Land these late Years he is the most noted Man and most cried out upon Insomuch as he hath found from the Irish the Nick-name of Pouc And albeit he came off with credit when he was questioned and justified himself by the Table of Fees as by a leaden Rule any Stone may be approved as well-hewed by that little I have met with sitice I came hither I am induced to believe it was not for lack of Matter but there was some other cause of his escaping in that Trial. By his pretended Commission and that Table of Fees he hath taken in my Predecessor's Time and seeks to take in mine for Exhibits at Visitations and his Charges there above the Bishop's Procurations for Unions Sequestrations Relaxations Certificates Licences Permutations of Penance Sentences as our Court calls them Interlocutory in Causes of Correction c. Such Fees as I cannot in my Conscience think to be just and yet he doth it in my Name and tells me I cannot call him into question for it Alas my Lord if this be the condition of a Bishop that he stands for a Cipher and only to uphold the Wrongs of other Men What do I in this Place Am I not bound by my Profession made to God in your presence and following your words To be gentle and merciful for Christ's sake to poor and needy People and such as be destitute of help Can I be excused another day with this That thus it was e're I came to this place and that it is not good to be over just Or sith I am perswaded Mr. Cook 's Patent is unjust and void am I not bound to make it so And to regulate If I may this matter of Fees and the rest of the Disorders of the Jurisdiction which his Majesty hath betrusted me withal Your Grace saith truly It is a difficult thing if not impossible to overthrow a Patent so confirmed and I know in Deliberations it is one of the most important Considerations what we may hope to effect But how can I tell till I have tried To be discouraged e're I begin is it not to consult with Flesh and Blood Verily I think so and therefore must put it to the trial and leave the success to God If I obtain the Cause the Profit shall be to this poor Nation if not I shall shew my Consent to those my Reverend Brethren that have endeavoured to redress this Enormity before me I shall have the Testimony of mine own Conscience to have sought to discharge my Duty to God and his People Yea which is the main the Work of my Ministry and my Service to this Nation shall receive furtherance howsoever rather than any hinderance thereby And if by the continuance of such Oppressions any thing fall out otherwise than well I shall have acquitted my self towards his Majesty and those that have engaged themselves for me At last I shall have the better Reason and juster Cause to resign to his Majesty the Jurisdiction which I am not permitted to manage And here I beseech your Grace to consider seriously whether it were not happy for us to be rid of this Charge which not being proper to our Calling nor possibly to be executed without Deputies as subjects us to the ill conceit of their unjust or indiscreet carriage and no way furthers our own Work Or if it shall be thought fit to carry this Load still whether we ought not to procure some way to be discharged of the envy of it and redress the abuse with the greatest strictness we can devise For my part I cannot bethink me of any course fitter for
I meant I do it very willingly for I never meant him nor any Man else but thought it concerned your Grace to know what I credibly heard to be spoken concerning your Court Neither as God knows did I ever think it was fit to take away the Jurisdiction from Chancellors and put it into the Bishops Hands alone or so much as in a Dream condemn those that think they have reason to do otherwise nor tax your Grace's Visitation nor imagine you would account that to pertain to your Reproof and take it as a Wrong from me which out of my Duty to God and you I thought was not to be concealed from you I beseech you pardon me this one Error Si unquam posthac For that Knave whom as your Grace writes they say I did absolve I took him for one of my Flock or rather Christ's for whom he shed his Blood And I would have absolved Julian the Apostata under the same form Some other Passages there be in your Grace's Letters which I But I will lay mine Hand upon mine Mouth And craving the blessing of your Prayers ever remain Your Grace's poor Brother and humble Servant Will. Kilmore and Ardaghen Kilmore March 29. 1630. LETTER CLVI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Lords Justices My most Honoured Lords I Received a Letter from your Lordships without any Date wherein I am required to declare what Motives I can alleadg for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent Whereunto I answer That I cannot nor need not produce any other reason than that which I have done and for the maintenance of the sufficiency whereof I will adventure all I am worth namely that for the Particular now in question Sir John Bathe's Letter hath been gotten from his Majesty by meer surreption and therefore no Patent ought to be passed thereupon For although I easily grant that my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer might certify unto his Majesty that there was no other thing left to be passed here but Impropriations though Sir John Bathe I think hath found already somewhat else to be passed in his Book and may do more if he will not be so hasty but take time to enquire Yet how doth it appear that either of these two noble Gentlemen did as much as know that his Majesty had taken a former Order for the settlement of these things upon the Church To which Resolution had they been privy I do so presume of their Nobleness and care of the Publick Good that the remittal of a Matter of two thousand pounds would not induce them to divert his Majesty from making good that precious Donation which by the Example of his Father of never-dying memory he had solemnly devoted to God and his Church such an eximious Act of Piety as is not to be countervalued with two or twenty thousand pounds of any earthly Treasure But whatsoever they knew or knew not of his Majesty's own pious Resolution and constant Purpose never to revoke that which he hath once given unto God I rest so confident as I dare pawn my Life upon it that when he did sign those Letters of Sir John Bathe's he had not the least intimation given unto him that this did any way cross that former Gift which he made unto the Church upon so great and mature deliberation as being grounded upon the Advice first of the Commissioners sent into Ireland then of the Lords of the Council upon their report in England thirdly of King James that ever blessed Father of the Church and lastly of the Commissioners for Irish Affairs unto whom for the last debating and conclusion of this business I was by his now Majesty referr'd my self at my being in England I know Sir John and his Counsel do take notice of all those Reasons that may seem to make any way for themselves But your Lordships may do well to consider that such Letters as these have come before now wherein Rectories have been expresly named and those general Non obstantes also put which are usual in this kind and yet notwithstanding all this his Majesty intimateth unto you in his last Letters that he will take a time to examine those Proceedings and punish those that then had so little regard to the particular and direct expression of his Royal Pleasure for the disposing of the Impropriations to the general benefit of the Church Which whether it carrieth not with it a powerful Non obstante to that surreptious Grant now in question I hold it more safe for your Lordships to take Advice among your selves than from any other bodies Counsel who think it their Duty to speak any thing for their Clients Fee As for the want of Attestation wherewith the credit of the Copy of a Letter transmitted unto you is laboured to be impaired If the Testimony of my Lord of London who procured it and the Bishop Elect of Kilfennora who is the bringer of it and of a Dean and an Arch-Deacon now in Ireland who themselves saw it will not suffice it will not be many days in all likelihood before the Original it self shall be presented to your Lordships In the mean time I desire and more than desire if I may presume to go so far that your Lordships will stay your hands from passing Sir John Bathe's Patent until my Lord of London himself shall signifie his Majesties further Pleasure unto you in this Particular And it my Zeal hath carried me any way further than Duty would require I beseech your Lordships to consider that I deal in a Cause that highly concerneth the good of the Church unto which I profess I owe my whole self and therefore craving Pardon for this my Boldness I humbly take leave and rest still to continue Your Lordships in all dutiful Observance J. A. Droghedah April the 3d 1630. Instructions given to Mr. Dean Lesly April 5. 1630. for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent 1. YOU are to inform your self whether Sir John Bathe's Patent be already sealed and if it be whether it were done before Saturday which was the day wherein I received and answered the Lords Justices Letters touching this business and at which time they signified the Patent was as yet unpast and use all speedy means that the Patent may not be delivered into Sir John Bathes hands before you be heard to speak what you can against it and if that also be done I authorize you to signifie unto the Lords Justices that I must and will complain against them to his Sacred Majesty 2. You are to go unto Sir James Ware the younger from me and enquire of him whether he gave any Certificate unto my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the King had not of Temporal Lands the annual Rent of 300 l. to grant in reversion but that of necessity must be supplied with the Grant of the reversion of Tithes impropriate And withal learn
characterum mutationem longe antea factam somniet Morinus Cloaca quo magis agitatur eo Mephitin exhalat magis Morinus Samaritanis antiquis Samaritanior etiam evasit Illi enim teste Eulogio Jesum filium Nave Prophetam praedictum Mosi similem futurum profitebantur Librum ejus pro Canonico certò habuere qui hanc illi gloriam tribuebant At hunc librum nobis eripuit cùm aliis prophetiis Dositheus Morini antecessor Det nobis Morinus charactere Samaritano scriptos Prophetarum libros aut fateatur se plures scripturae sacrae codices quam dederit abstulisse Sed nec ferendum est hominem Christianum Samaritanos Dei hostes Judaeis Dei populo in libris sacris tuendis anteferre Praecipuè cum constet Prophetas fuisse post commentitiam characterum mutationem in populo Judaico in Samaritano nullos Cur non ergo Samaritana Biblia nobis reliquere Prophetae Cur de tanta mutatione silent Cur apud Haereticos sepulta Biblia in lucem Spiritu Divino eos illustrante non producunt Ut taceam Morini in Sacris Literis tractandis magistralitatem qui eodem jure in his quo Sorbona in aliis censurâ afficiendis utitur Hoc placet illud displicet quandoque Samaritanus codex quandoque Latinus Graecus semper nunquam illi Hebraicus approbatur Si prout meritus est verbis asperioribus nonnunquam castigetur Morinus nemo nobis vitio vertat neque enim cum Haeretico aliquo res est qui articulum fidei unum aut alterum negat aut textum peculiarem aliter quà m veritas posuit interpretatur sed cum eo qui fontes sacros in universum abripit pro Deo Israelis falsi Messiae adulteria nobis obtrudit Nec ignorantiam nobis objiciat quis quòd Jesuitam eum appellemus Indignaretur sat scio Morinus si Congregationis Oratoriae Iesu Christi Presbyterum titulo isto non dignaremur Liber certè totus Jesuiticum spiritum frontem perfrictam Societati illi familiarem nimis prodit Si quid sit quod ulteriorem disquisitionem requirat totum illud si respondere Morino visum fuerit in replicatione fusiùs tractabitur Prelo aliàs impraesentiarum vacante oblata vulgandi opportunitas festinationem operis urgebat Haec interim habui quae tibi dummodo id placeat quod pro singulari tua tum pietate tum candore nullus ambigo in perpetuum erga Dominationem tuam studii observantiae meae monumentum dedicarem Deus verbi sui majestatem contra omnes impiorum latratus potenter ipse tueatur per totum orbem indiès ampliùs diffundat Te verò Hibernae gentis ornamentum in Christianae Religionis emolumentum diutissimè in terris florentem conservare tandemque sero tamen in gloriam sempiternam recipere dignetur Claphamae Calend. April 1635. Reverendissimae Dominationi tuae addictissimus Franciscus Tailerus LETTER CLXXXIV A Letter from the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo. My very good Lord I Thank you heartily for your Letters and am as heartily glad that your Parliament and Convocation are so happily ended especially for the Church and that both for the particular of your letting Leases which is for Maintenance and for the quiet and well-ordering and ending of your Book of Canons I hope now the Church of Ireland will begin to flourish again and that both with inward Sufficiency and outward Means to support it And for your Canons to speak Truth and with wonted liberty and freedom though I cannot but think the English Canons entire especially with some few amendments would have done betterly yet since you and that Church have thought otherwise I do very easily submit to it and you shall have my Prayers that God would bless it As for the Particular about Subscription I think you have couched that well since as it seems there was some necessity to carry that Article closely And God forbid you should upon any occasion have rouled back upon your former Controversy about the Articles For if you should have risen from this Convocation in heat God knows when or how that Church would have cooled again had the cause of Difference been never so slight By which means the Romanist which is too strong a Party already would both have strengthned and made a scorn of you And therefore ye are much bound to God that in this nice and picked Age you have ended all things canonically and yet in peace And I hope you will be all careful to continue and maintain that which God hath thus mercifully bestowed upon you Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother W. Cant. Lambeth May 10. 1635. LETTER CLXXXV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Good Doctor I Have been almost tired with continual attendance on out long continued Parliament and Convocation which being done they would needs impose upon me also the moderating of the Divinity Act and the creating of the Doctors at our last Commencement I am now at last retired from Dublin to my old Place where I begin at length Redire in gratiam cum veteribus Amicis I send you herewith Harrys his Book against the Friars and our New Canons The Articles of Religion agreed upon in our former Synod Anno 1615 we let stand as they did before But for the manifesting of our Agreement with the Church of England we have received and approved your Articles also concluded in the Year 1562 as you may see in the first of our Canons But while we strive here to maintain the Purity of our ancient Truth how cometh it to pass that you in Cambridg do cast such stumbling-blocks in our way by publishing unto the World such rotten Stuff as Shelford hath vented in his five Discourses wherein he hath so carried himself ut Famosi Perni amanuensem possis agnoscere The Jesuits of England sent over the Book hither to confirm our Papists in their obstinacy and to assure them that we are now coming home unto them as fast as we can I pray God this Sin be not deeply laid to their charge who give an occasion to our blind thus to stumble I thank you most heartily for communicating my Lord of Salisbury's Lectures unto me they are excellent learnedly foundly and perspicuously performed and I hope will do much good here for the establishing of our young Divines in the present Truth Will you not make us as much beholden unto you for your own Lectures upon the other Questions You may not think that the same accurateness is expected in the Writings which you privately communicate unto your Friends as in that which you are to commit unto the Press after you have added supremam manum thereunto Neither were it amiss that you should make a Collection of all your Determinations as you see the Bishop of Salisbury hath done and cause your Lectures of the Eucharist to
scilicet qualis nulla unquam fuit nisi in primo seu aureo seculo quando hominibus praeerant Dii sicuti mutis animalibus homines quam fabulam prolixe tractat in eodem libro Plato non magis conferendum sit quam homines Diis Quanquam enim utrique 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unum idemque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nomen sit commune ac ambo Reges appellentur latissimum tamen inter ipsos esse intervallum Ex illo igitur loco non potest Platoni attribui acsi dixisset Regem esse velut Deum inter homines quum illud dixerit non de Regibus quales sunt fueruntque in mundo sed qualem inter reliquas Ideas sibimet ipse consinxit quod quia videre non poteras si nuda tantum verba illa de quibus R. D. T. quaerebat ascripsissem ideo me in tantam prolixitatem necessario diffudi I do not in any part of my Studies take so much delight as I do in what may be serviceable to your Grace Whom praying to rest fully assured of that and accordingly to employ me as often as occasion shall be offered I humbly take leave ever remaining Your Grace's most affectionate Servant Arnold Boate. Dublin Nov. 15. 1639. LETTER CCIV. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Learned Lewis de Dieu Reverendissimo in Christo fratri D. Lodovico de Dieu Ecclesiae Lugduno-Batavae Pastori fidelissimo Leydam POstremae tuae Literae dilectissime frater Londini mihi sunt redditae unà cum Catalogo librorum quos mihi comparaveras Pretio quod ut illic persolveretur probi cujusdam Bibliopolae Londinensis fidei commendavi Interim gratissima mihi fuit tua cura de locupletandâ Bibliothecâ meâ novo hoc auctario cui xx illa volumina Graecorum Aristotelis interpretum accessisse mihi jam gratulor ea cum reliquis libris Londinum ad Bibliopolam illum de quo dixi post pretium enumeratum transmitti velim Quas Britannicarum turbarum futurus sit exitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiberniae enim nostrae status adhuc est pacatissimus de cujus motibus inanes apud vos sparsi fuerant rumores sed de nostris rebus omnibus certiores vos reddet D. Boswellus noster qui confestim ad vos iter ingressurus est Deus te Custodiat piis tuis laboribus benedicat Scripsit haec raptim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ja. Usserius Armacanus Londini Jun. 28. M. DC XL. LETTER CCV A Learned Letter of the late Arch-bishop of Armagh concerning the Sabbath and observation of the Lord's Day Worthy Sir YOur Letter of the first of February came unto my hands the seventh of April but my journy to Dublin following thereupon and my long stay in the City where the multiplicity of my publick and private Employments would scarce afford me a breathing time was such that I was forced to defer my Answer thereunto untill this short time of my retiring into the Country Where being now absent also from my Library I can rather signify unto you how fully I concur in judgment with those grounds which you have so judiciously laid in that question of the Sabbath than afford any great help unto you in the building which you intend to raise thereupon For when I gave my self unto the reading of the Fathers I took no heed unto any thing that concerned this Argument as little dreaming that any such controversy would have arisen among us Yet generally I do remember that the word Sabbatum in their writngs doth denote our Saturday although by Analogy from the manner of speech used by the Jews the term be sometimes transferred to denote our Christian Festivities also as Sirmondus the Jesuite observeth out of Sidonius Apollinaris lib. 1. Epist. 2. where describing the moderation of the Table of Theodorick King of the Goths upon the Eves and the excesse on the Holy-day following he writeth of the one that his convivium diebus profestis simile privato est but of the other De luxu autem illo Sabbatario narrationi meae super sedendum est qui nec latentes potest latere personas And because the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fourth Commandment pointeth at the Sabbath as it was in the first institution the seventh day from the Creation therefore they held that Christians were not tied to the observance thereof Whereupon you may observe that S. Augustine in his speculum in operum tomo 3o. purposely selecting those things which appertained unto us Christians doth wholly pretermit that Precept in the recital of the Commandments of the Decalogue Not because the substance of the Precept was absolutely abolished but because it was in some parts held to be ceremonial and the time afterwards was changed in the state of the New Testament from the 7th to the first day of the week as appeareth by the Author of the 25 Sermon de tempore in 10 o tomo Operum Augustini and that place of Athanasius in homil de semente where he most plainly saith touching the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereupon Caesarius Arelatensis in his twelfth homily doubted not to preach unto the people Verè dico Fratres satis durum prope nimis impium est ut Christiani non habeant reverentiam diei Dominico quam Judaei observare videntur in Sabbato c. Charles the Great in his Laws taketh it for granted that our observation of the Lord's Day is founded upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the fourth Commandment Statuimus saith he libro 1o. Capitularium cap. 81. secundum quod in lege Dominus praecepit ut opera servilia diebus Dominicis non agantur sicut bonae memoriae genitor meus in suis Synodalibus edictis mandavit And Lotharius likewise in legibus Alemannorum titulo 30. Die Dominico nemo opera servilia praesumat sacere quia hoc lex prohibuit sacra scriptura in omnibus contradicit Accommodating the Law of God touching the Sabbath unto our observation of the Lord's Day by the self-same Analogy that the Church of England now doth in her publick Prayer Lord have mercy upon us and incline our hearts to keep this Law The Jewes commonly hold two things touching their Sabbath as Manasses Ben-Israel sheweth in his eighth Probleme de creatione which he published at Amsterdam the last Year First that the observation thereof was commanded only unto the Israelites where he speaketh also of the seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah which have need to be taken in a large extent if we will have all the duties that the Heathen were tyed unto to be comprised therein Secondly that it was observed by the Patriarchs before the coming out of Egypt For that then the observation began or that the Israelites were brought out of Egypt or the Egyptians drowned upon the Sabbath I suppose our good Friend Mr.
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
an Opportunity It plainly appears that in the Year 1646 by order from Rome above 100 of the Romish Clergy were sent into England consisting of English Scotch and Irish who had been educated in France Italy Germany and Spain part of these within the several Schools there appointed for their Instructions In each of these Romish Nurseries these Scholars were taught several handicraft Trades and Callings as their ingenuities were most bending besides their Orders or Functions of that Church They have many yet at Paris a fitting up to be sent over who twice in the week oppose one the other one pretending Presbytery the other Independency some Anabaptism and other contrary Tenents dangerous and prejudicial to the Church of England and to all the Reformed Churches here abroad But they are wisely preparing to prevent these Designs which I heartily wish were considered in England among the Wise there When the Romish Orders do thus argue Pro and Con there is appointed one of the Learned of those Convents to take Notes and to judg And as he finds their fancies whether for Presbytery Independency Anabaptism Atheism or for any new Tenents so accordingly they be to act and to exercise their Wits Upon their Permission when they be sent abroad they enter their Names in the Convent Registry also their Licences If a Franciscan if a Dominican or Jesuit or any other Order having several Names there entered in their Licence in case of a discovery in one place then to fly to another and there to change their Names or Habit. For an assurance of their constancy to their several Orders they are to give monthly Intelligence to their Fraternities of all Affairs where-ever they be dispers'd so that the English abroad know News better than ye at home When they return into England they are taught their Lesson to say if any enquire from whence they come that they were poor Christians formerly that fled beyond-Sea for their Religion-sake and are now returned with glad News to enjoy their Liberty of Conscience The 100 Men that went over 1646 were most of them Soldiers in the Parliament's Army and were daily to correspond with those Romanists in our late King's Army that were lately at Oxford and pretended to fight for his sacred Majesty For at that time there were some Roman-Catholicks who did not know the Design a contriving against our Church and State of England But the Year following 1647 many of those Romish Orders who came over the Year before were in consultation together knowing each other And those of the King's Party asking some why they took with the Parliament's side and asking others whether they were bewitched to turn Puritans not knowing the Design But at last secret Bulls and Licences being produced by those of the Parliament's side it was declared between them there was no better Design to confound the Church of England than by pretending Liberty of Conscience It was argued then that England would be a second Holland a Common-Wealth and if so what would become of the King It was answered Would to God it were come to that point It was again reply'd your selves have preached so much against Rome and his Holiness that Rome and her Romanists will be little the better for that Change But it was answered You shall have Mass sufficient for 100000 in a short space and the Governors never the wiser Then some of the mercifullest of the Romanists said This cannot be done unless the King die upon which Argument the Romish Orders thus licensed and in the Parliament Army wrote unto their several Convents but especially to the Sorbonists whether it may be scrupled to make away our late Godly King and his Majesty his Son our King and Master who blessed be God hath escaped their Romish Snares laid for him It was returned from the Sorbonists That it was lawful for Roman Catholicks to work Changes in Governments for the Mother-Churches Advancement and chiefly in an Heretical Kingdom and so lawfully make away the King Thus much to my knowledg have I seen and heard since my leaving your Lordship which I thought very requisite to inform your Grace for my self would hardly have credited these things had not mine Eyes seen sure Evidence of the same Let these things sleep within your gracious Lordship's Brest and not awake but upon sure grounds for this Age can trust no Man there being so great Fallacy amongst Men. So the Lord preserve your Lordship in Health for the Nations Good and the Benefit of your Friends which shall be the Prayers of Your humble Servant J. Derensis July 20. 1654. LETTER CCXCIV. Viro Clarissimo Doctissimo Jacobo Usserio Armachano Henricus Valesius S. IN aere Tuo me esse semper existimavi Vir clarissime ex quo Annales Veteris Testam abs te editos ad me misisti Qui liber si mihi corà m traditus fuisset ab eo cui id Officium mandaveras jamdudùm Tibi gratias egissem per literas Sed quoniam eum Virum postea convenire non potui Officium quod tamdiu à me dilatum est nunc tandem oblatâ scribendi opportunitate Tibi persolvo Ac primùm ago gratias quantas possum maximas ob illud literarium munus quo me honorandum esse censuisti Sunt quidem omnes libri tui eruditissimi accuratissimi sed hic prae caeteris abundè testatur quantus sis in omni genere doctrinae Atque ut ejus lectione multùm me profecisse ingenue fateor ita etiam ex secundâ parte ejusdem operis quam à te editam esse nuper accepi spero non mediocrem fructum me esse coepturum Alterum deinde beneficium abs te peto quod pro Tuâ singulari humanitate praestiturum te esse non diffido Eusebii historiam Ecclesiasticam Libros de Vita Imperatoris Constantini cum novâ interpretatione mea Annotationibus propediem Typographis commissurus sum Ad hanc novam editionem trium duntaxat Scriptorum codicum auxilio sum usus Nam Itali quorum subsidium postulaveram nihil mihi praeter verba inania contulerunt Cum igitur ex notis Tuis in Polycarpi martyrium compererim esse apud vos Savilianum exemplar quod quidem optimum esse conjicio abs te etiam atque etiam peto ut de eo exemplari certiorem me facias primùm sitnè in membranis deindè an quatuor libri de vita Constantini in eo legantur integri Postremo utrum varias lectiones ex eo codice per te nancisci possim saltem librorum devita Constantini Hi enim inquinatissimi ad nos pervenerunt multis in locis mutili Multùm Tibi debebit Eusebius noster si id mihi praestare volueris nec Italicorum codicum auxilium posthac magnoperè desiderabo si Anglicani hujus praesidium nactus fuero Equidem nolim te Vir Clarissime laborem conferendi codicis sustinere Absit à me ut te tantum Virum
Pains for a Cause or two so followed will free thee from Suits a great part of thy Life after 8. Be sure to keep some Gentleman thy Friend but trouble him not with every trifling Complaint often present him with many yet small Gifts And if thou have cause to bestow any great Gratuity let it be such as may be daily in his sight otherwise in this ambitious Age thou shalt remain like a Hop without a Pole live in obscurity and be made a Footstool for every insulting Companion to spur at 9. Towards thy Superiors be humbly generous with thy Equals familiar yet respective towards thy Inferiors shew much humility and some familiarity as to bow thy Body stretch forth thy Hand and to uncover thy Head with such be popular Complements the first prepares the way to Advancement the second makes thee known for a Man as well bred the third gains a Man good report which once being gotten is easily kept for high Humilitudes take such deep root in the minds of the Multitude who are more easily won by unprofitable Courtesies than curious Benefits that I advise thee not to affect nor neglect Popularities Trust not any Man with thy Estate for it is a meer folly for a Man to enthral himself to his Friends as though if occasion be offered he should not dare become his Enemy 10. Be not scurrilous in thy Conversation nor Stoical in thy Jests the one will make thee unwelcome to all Companies the other will breed Quarrels and get thee hatred of thy best Friends for Jests when they savour too much of Truth leave bitterness in the minds of those that are touched Although I have pointed at all these inclusive yet I think it fit and necessary to leave it thee as a special Caution because I have seen many so prone to quip and gird that they will rather lose their Friend than their Scoff then they will travel to be delivered of it as a Woman with Child these nimble Apprehensions are but the Froth of Wit Your loving Father Henry Sydney LETTER XVII A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the most Reverend William Laud late Arch-bishop of Canterbury remaining with Sir Robert Cotton 's choice Papers Most Reverend AS I am here employ'd by our Soveraign Lord the King your Grace can testify that I have left no Stone unturn'd for his Majesty's Advancement neither can I omit whenever I meet with Treacheries or Conspiracies against the Church and State of England the sending your Grace an Accompt in General I fear Matters will not answer your expectations if your Grace do but seriously weigh them with deliberation For be you assur'd the Romish Clergy have gull'd the misled Party of our English Nation and that under a Puritanical Dress for which the several Fraternities of that Church have lately received Indulgences from the See of Rome and Council of Cardinals for to educate several of the young Fry of the Church of Rome who be Natives of his Majesty's Realms and Dominions and instruct them in all manner of Principles and Tenents contrary to the Episcopacy of the Church of England There be in the Town of Hague to my certain Knowledg two dangerous Impostors of whom I have given notice to the Prince of Orange who have large Indulgences granted them and known to be of the Church of Rome altho they seem Puritans and do converse with several of our English Factors The one James Murray a Scotchman and the other John Napper a Yorkshire Blade The main drift of these Intentions is to pull down the English Episcopacy as being the chief Support of the Imperial Crown of our Nation For which purpose above sixty Romish Clergy-men are gone within these two Years out of the Monasteries of the French King's Dominions to preach up the Scotch Covenant and Mr. Knox his Descriptions and Rules within that Kirk and to spread the same about the Northern Coasts of England Let therefore his Majesty have an inkling of these Crotchets that he might be persuaded whenever Matters of the Church come before you to refer them to your Grace and the Episcopal Party of the Realm For there be great Preparations making ready against the Liturgy and Ceremonies of the Church of England And all evil Contrivances here and in France and in other Protestant Holdings to make your Grace and the Episcopacy odious to all Reformed Protestants abroad It has wrought so much on divers of the Forreign Ministers of the Protestants that they esteem our Clergy little better than Papists The main things that they hit in our teeth are our Bishops to be called Lords The Service of the Church The Cross in Baptism Confirmation Bowing at the Name of Jesus The Communion Tables placed Altar-ways Our manner of Consecrations And several other Matters which be of late buzz'd into the Heads of the Forreign Clergy to make your Grievances the less regarded in case of a Change which is aimed at if not speedily prevented Your Grace's Letter is carefully delivered by my Gentleman 's own hands unto the Prince Thus craving your Graces hearty Prayers for my Undertakings abroad as also for my safe arrival that I may have the freedom to kiss your Grace's hands and to tell you more at large of these things I rest Your Grace's most humble Servant W. B. Hague June 12. 1640. FINIS ERRATA IN the Preface Line 35 after the word be add thought In the Life Page 1. l. 10. after since read been P. 1. l. 16. for Mastres r. Masters P. 25. l. 23. f. two r. ten P. 36. l. 5. f. Erigene r. Erigena l. 6. et per tot P. 47. l. 19. f. Tenements r. Tenants P. 93. l. penult dele most In the Appendix Page 7. l. 22. after the word his read Lat. Determinations Quaest. xlii p. 187 191. P. 9. l. antepenult f. would r. would not P. 10. l. 10. after sence add alone l. 18. over against these words Sermon upon John add in the Margin vid. Collection of Sermons printed at the end of the last Edition of the Lord Primates Body of Divinity p. 83. P. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈…〉 P. 29. l. 35. f. to r. do The Author since he wrote this has thought fit to add the Passages following toward the illustration of the Life Page 5. l. 1. after the word Doctrine add Nay it is evident that our Church maintains the contrary Doctrine that the Fourth Commandment as to the substance of it is moral and binds Christians to observe it as well since Christ as it did the Jews before For in our Liturgy which is confirmed by Supream Authority Sacred and Civil by Convocation and Parliament in the Communion-Offices after the repeating of the Fourth Commandment concerning the Observation of the Sabbath it follows Lord have Mercy upon us and incline our Hearts to KEEP THIS LAW Whence it is evident that in the Judgment of our Church not only the Jews but we Christians are under the
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