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
Letters there hath hapned the most doleful dissolving of our University and the most suddain dispersion of our Students that ever I knew occasioned by the Infection brought hither by a Souldier or two dismissed not long since from the King of Sweden's Army in February last So as whereas this time was our chief time of the Year for Acts and Disputations now our School-gates are shut up and our Colledges left desolate and empty almost There have died of this Infection from the last of February till the 24th of April 24 Persons and since then till May 15 30 more and 7 more The Magistrates are careful But the Charge groweth great both in maintaining the Infected and the Poor amongst us which want both Means and Work I pray God we may be sensible of our Sins and his heavy Hand and may by serious Repentance meet him that so he may forgive our Sins and heal our Town and Land I received in your Lordship's Letter the Copy of Sir John Breerton's Will inclosed signed with your Grace's Hand For which in the Name of our whole Society I humbly thank your Lordship It seemeth the Inventory is not yet put in I received also by Mr. Stubbin a Letter from Mr. Randal-Breerton sole Executor to Sir John his Brother who at his coming into England from you promiseth me to acquaint the Colledg with the particularity of his Brothers Bequest I have heard Mr. Randal very well reported of and I hope verily he will faithfully discharge the Trust reposed in him by his deceased Brother I will still intreat your Lordship when the Inventory is exhibited for a Copy to be sent us If my leasure permit I will hearken God willing to your Lordship's Motion of revising my Lectures of Grace and Free-will In my proceedings in my Readings I acquainted your Lordship formerly with some opposition I had from some in our University under pretence of violating his Majesty's Declaration which I say I do not And so as yet I have continued in reading on that Argument though not in naming the Authors Remonstrants whom I impugn If God give opportunity and health I will do the like in my Readings upon the Eucharist My Lord of Sarum hath transcribed his Readings de Praedest Reprobatione morte Christi I am instant with him to transcribe other Readings of his I suppose your Lordship hath heard of my Lord of Sarum how he was questioned for his Sermon before his Majesty in the beginning of Lent last the Particulars whereof you shall more fully understand by the enclosed parcel of a Letter he wrote to me I am right sorry the delivery of the established Doctrine of our Church should thus be questioned I have vindicated my Reasons I sent one in our University touching the 17th Article from such Answers as he had returned me As also sundry Testimonies of St. Augustine from the like opposition which I sent the same Party tending to shew that according to St. Augustine the Non-Elect never come to be justified by a true and lively Faith nor ever are by that Bond mystically united to Christ as their Head nor ever attain unto true Repentance c. It is worthily done of your Lordship to set forth Marianus Scotus emendatê and his Abridger who as it seemeth abridged his Work in Marianus's life-time for Marianus died but a little before Rob. Lotharingus As touching the History of Gotteschalcus I wish it may be cleared out of the Ancient Monuments It seemeth your Lordship hath taken pains therein It may occasion Mr. Vossius to revise his Story touching him I make no doubt but that the Semi-Pelagians Massilienses were the first insertors of the Pradestinatiani into the Catalogue of Hereticks And it may seem that Arnobius jun who writ upon the Psalms was one of the first that imposed the Name of Heresy upon the Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation as it was delivered by St. Augustine vid. in Psal. 108. And was the first that stiled the holding of St. Austin's Doctrine Praedestinatus in Psal. 146. For I conceive he was in time before Tyro Prosper Faustus or Gennadius For the conjecture of S. Senenses seemeth to me probable that this Arnobius lived in St. Austin's Time for that his Commentary upon the Psalms is ascribed to two African Bishops Laurentio Rustico Episcopis Now S. Senensis saith he findeth in a Council of Carthage in which St. Austin was present there were also present Laurentius Icositanus and Rusticus Though I find not this in any one Council of Carthage yet I easily believe it was so for I find that Rusticus an African Bishop was one of them Bishops which in a Synodical Epistle to Innocentius 1. condemned Pelagins and Caelestius the Epistle is the 90th Epistle amongst St. Austin's Epistles where two of that Name Rusticus are mentioned this Epistle was written Anno 416. Now shortly after viz. Anno 419 in that Council of Carthage wherein the Book of Canons which is Codex Africanus was confirmed there were present 217 Bishops as the Code saith of which only 24 are named in which number are St. Austin and Laurentius Jositanus And it is very credible that Rusticus living a little before was among the 193 the rest which were not named Again it is observed both by Erasmus in his Preface prefixed before Arnobius and by S. Senensis also That in these Commentaries are found sundry unusual Latin words which in St. Austin's Time were very usual amongst the Africans which though Laurentius de la Barre doth hold to be no sufficient Reason yet it carrieth with it no little probability Tyro Prosp. may seem to be the next who as it seemeth was not that Prosp. Aquitanus who was Episcopus Rhegiensis in Italy though they both continued St. Hierome ad eadem usque tempora According to your Lordship's Directions I looked into the Prosper which is in Bennet-Colledg Library and I find Ad Arcadii Honorii An. xxiv thus Praedestinatorum haeresis quae ab Augustino accepisse initium dicitur hiis temporibus serpere exorsa just as it is in the Manuscript which is in his Majesty's Library at St. James's as I remember your Lordship told me The four Divines of Leyden in the Censure of the Remonstrants Confession relate the words of Tyro Prosp. thus Praedestinatorum Haeresis quae ex Augustini libris malè intellectis accepisse dicitur initium hiis temporibus serpere exorsa sine specie tamen erroris pag. 97. The last words are not in my Tyro Prosp. which is amongst the Works of P. Pithaeus nor in the Manuscript of Bennet-Colledg After these Faustus and Gennadius continued this Nick-name the latter expresly in the continuation of the Index Haeresium Hieronymi where he perstringeth a Sentence of Augustine contra Julianum lib. 5. c. 3. as I conceive Now howsoever Sigebert relateth the Opinion of the Predestinati as having grown out of the misunderstanding of St. Augustine and not as any just
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
Discipline all which proving at last too weak for so inveterate a Disease he obtained his Majesty's Injunctions to strengthen his Authority as shall be hereafter mentioned The Winter after his coming over there were some Propositions made and offered to be assented unto by the Papists for a more full Toleration of their Religion viz. The maintaining 500 Horse and 5000 Foot wherein the Protestants must have born some share also for the consideration of which a great Assembly of the whole Nation both Papists and Protestants was called by the then Lord Deputy Falkland The meeting was in the Hall of the Castle of Dublin The Bishops by the Lord Primate's invitation met first at his House and both he and they then unanimously drew up and subscribed a Protestation against the Toleration of Popery which was as follows The Judgment of divers of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Ireland concerning Toleration of Religion THe Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous Their Faith and Doctrine Erroneous and Heretical Their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration or to consent that they may freely exercise their Religion and profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous sin and that in two respects For 1. It is to make our selves accessary not only to their Superstitions Idolatries and Heresies and in a word to all the abominations of Popery but also which is a consequent of the former to the perdition of the seduced People which perish in the Deluge of the Catholick Apostacy 2. To grant them Toleration in respect of any money to be given or contribution to be made by them is to set Religion to sale and with it the Souls of the People whom Christ our Saviour hath Redeemed with his most precious blood And as it is a great Sin so also a matter of most dangerous consequence The consideration whereof we commend to the Wise and Judicious Bejeeching the God of Truth to make them who are in Authority Zealous of God's Glory and of the advancement of true Religion Zealous Resolute and Courageous against all Popery Superstition and Idolatry Amen James Armachanus Richard Cork Cloyne Rossens Mal. Casellen Andr. Alachadens Anth. Medensis Tho. Kilmore Ardagh Tho. Fernes Leghlin Theo. Dromore Ro. Dunensis c. Michael Waterford Lysmore George Derens. Fran. Lymerick This Protestation of the Bishops Dr. Downham Lord Bishop of Derry at the next meeting of the Assembly April 23 d. 1627. published at Christ-Church before the Lord Deputy and Council in the midst of his Sermon wherein he spake much against mens subordinating Religion and the keeping of a good Conscience to outward and worldly respects and to set their Souls to sale for the gain of earthly matters c. The Lord Primate the next Lord's Day preached before the same Auditory the Text was 1 John 5. 15. Love not the World nor the things that are in the World when he made the like Application with the Bishop rebuking such who for worldly ends like Judas would sell Christ for thirty pieces of Silver The Judgment of the Bishops prevailed so much with the Protestants that the Proposals were drove on very heavily but yet upon serious consideration when it was found that the weak and distracted condition of the Kingdom could not well subsist without some standing Forces it was resolved by the Lord Deputy and Council that the Lord Primate then a Privy-Councellor should in regard of his great esteem with all Parties declare in a Speech to the whole Assembly the true state of the Kingdom and the necessity of a standing Army for the defence thereof against any foreign Invasion or intestine commotions and consequently that a competent supply was needful to be granted for that purpose and that without any Conditions whatsoever as well by the Roman Catholick as Protestant Subjects for which end the Lord Deputy having Summoned the Assembly to the Castle-Chamber at Dublin the Lord Primate addressing himself to the Lord Deputy made this ensuing Speech My Lord THe resolution of those Gentlemen in denying to contribute date April 30th 1627 unto the supplying of the Army sent hither for their defence doth put me in mind of the Philosopher's observation That such as have a respect to a few things are easily misled The present pressure which they sustain by the imposition of the Souldiers and the desire they have to be eased of that burthen doth so wholly possess their minds that they have only an eye to the freeing of themselves from that incumbrance without looking at all to the desolations that are like to come upon them by a long and heavy War which the having of an Army in readiness might be a means to have prevented the lamentable effects of our last Wars in this Kingdom do yet freshly stick in our memories neither can we so soon forget the depopulation of our Land when besides the combustions of War the extremity of Famine grew so great that the very Women in some places by the way side have surprised the men that rode by to feed themselves with the flesh of the Horse or the Rider And that now again here is a Storm towards wheresoever it will light every wise man may easily foresee which if we be not careful to meet with in time our State may prove irrecoverable when it will be too late to think of Had I wist The dangers that now threaten us are partly from abroad and partly from home abroad we are now at odds with two of the most potent Princes in Christendom and to both which in former times the discontented persons in this Country have had recourse heretofore proferring the Kingdom it self unto them if they would undertake the Conquest of it for it is not unknown unto them that look into the search of those things that in the days of King Henry the Eighth the Earl of Desmond made such an offer of this Kingdom to the French King the Instrument whereof yet remains upon Record in the Court of Paris and the Bishop of Rome afterwards transferred the Title of all our Kingdoms unto Charles the Fifth which by new Grants was confirmed unto his Son Philip in the time of Queen Elizabeth with a resolution to setle this Crown upon the Spanish Infanta Which donations of the Pope's howsoever in themselves they are of no value yet will they serve for a fair colour to a Potent Pretender who is able to supply by the power of the Sword whatsoever therein may be thought defective Hereunto may we add that of late in Spain at the very same time when the treaty of the Match was in hand there was a Book published with great approbation there by one of this Country birth Philip O Sullevan wherein the Spaniard is taught That the ready way to establish his Monarchy for that is the only thing he mainly aimeth at and is plainly there confessed is first to set upon Ireland which being quickly obtained
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
him in converting her Lord and securing her self from Popery as has been already related So after some consideration he thought fit to accept this kind proffer and after having obtained Passes for his Journey he left St. Donates after almost a years residence there But it must not be here forgotten That before he left Wales the great expences of his sickness and removals in the year past had much reduced him as to his Purse nor knew he where to get it supplyed when it pleased God to put it into the hearts of divers worthy Persons of that Countrey to consider that the Lord Primate had not only suffered much by the rudeness of the Rabble as hath been already related but also by a long and expensive sickness So they sent him unknown to each other divers considerable Sums so that he had in a few weeks enough to supply all his present occasions and also to defray the expences of his Journey into England This the good Bishop accounted a special Providence and was very thankful for it And I thought good to take notice of it that it may serve as a memorial of the high Generosity and Charity of the Gentry of this Countrey at that time So that considering all those fore-mentioned occurrences the Lord Primate might very well say with St. Paul In Journeyings often in perils of Waters in perils of Robbers in perils among false Brethren in Weariness and Painfulness in Afflictions Necessities in Tumults in evil and good Report Yet in all these Tryals he could still say Though chastned yet not killed as sorrowful yet rejoicing though poor yet making many rich c. So that in all these dispensations he fainted not his Faith and Patience were still Victorious So the Lord Primate arrived safe at the Countess of Peterborough's House in London in June following where he was most kindly received by her and from this time he commonly resided with her at some or other of her Houses till his death where now he met with a fresh disturbance there was an Order of Parliament That whosever should come from any of the King's Garrisons to London must signifie their names to the Committee at Goldsmiths-Hall and there give notice of their being in Town and where they lodged accordingly June 18th he sent me to Goldsmiths-Hall to acquaint them that the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was in Town and at the Countess of Peterborough's House but they refused to take notice of his being in Town without his personal appearance so upon a Summons from the Committee of Examinations at Westminster he appeared before them being advised by his friends so to do they strictly examined him where he had been ever since his departure from London and whether he had any leave for his going from London to Oxford he answered he had a Pass from a Committee of both Houses they demanded farther whether Sir Charles Coote or any other ever desired him to use his power with the King for a Toleration of Religion in Ireland He answered That neither Sir Charles Coote nor any other ever moved any such thing to him but that as soon as he heard of the Irish Agent 's coming to Oxford he went to the King and beseeched his Majesty not to do any thing with the Irish in point of Religion without his knowledge which his Majesty promised he would not and when the point of Toleration came to be debated at the Council-Board the King with all the Lords there absolutely denyed it and he professed for his part that he was ever against it as a thing dangerous to the Protestant Religion Having answered these Queries the Chair-man of the Committee offered him the Negative Oath which had been made on purpose for all those that had adhered to the King or came from any of his Garrisons but he desired time to consider of that and so was dismissed and appeared no more for Mr. Selden and others of his friends in the House made use of their interest to put a stop to that trouble Not long after this he retired with the Countess of Peterborough to her House at Rygate in Surrey where he often preached either in her Chappel or in the Parish Church of that place and always whilst he continued here there frequently resorted to him many of the best of the Gentry and Clergy thereabouts as well to enjoy his excellent Conversation as for his Opinion and Advice in matters of Religion About the beginning of this year he was chosen by the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn to be their Preacher which after year 1647 some solicitations he accepted and the Treasurer and Benchers of that House whereof his good friend Mr. Hales since L. Chief Justice was one ordered him handsome Lodgings ready furnished as also divers Rooms for his Library which was about this time brought up from Chesten being almost all the remains of his worldly substance that had escaped the fury of the Rebels Here he was most kindly received and treated with all respect and honour constantly preaching all the Term time for almost Eight years till at last his Eye-sight and Teeth beginning to fail him so that he could not be well heard in so large a Congregation he was forced about a year and half before his death to quit that place to the great trouble of that Honourable Society About this time he published his Diatriba de Romanae Ecclesiae Symbolo Apostolico vetere aliis fidei formulis wherein he gives a learned account of that which is commonly called The Apostles Creed and shews the various Copies which were used in the Roman Church with other forms of Confessions of Faith that were wont to be proposed to the Catechumeni and younger sort of People in the Eastern and Western Churches together with several other Monuments of Antiquity relating to the same This he dedicated to his Learned Friend Ger. Vossius About the beginning of this year he published his Learned Dissertation year 1648 concerning the Solar Year anciently used among the Macedonians Syrians and Inhabitants of Asia properly so called in which he explains many great difficulties in Chronology and Ecclesiastical History and has particularly fixed the time of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp He hath also here compared the Grecian and Macedonian months with the Julian and with those also of other Nations and having laid down the method and entire disposition of the Macedonian and Asiatick year he thought fit to add certain Rules whereby to find out the Cycles of the Sun and Moon and Easter for ever with several curious accounts of the Celestial Motions according to the Ancient Greek Astronomers Meton Calippus Eudoxus and others together with an Ephemeris at the end of it being an entire Greek and Roman Kalendar for the whole year with the Rising and Setting of the Stars in that Climate In this small Treatise my Lord Primate has shewed himself admirably well skill'd in Astronomical as well as Chronological Learning
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
the whole Auditory being so much moved therewith that none unless perhaps some of the meaner sort in the Iles went out of the Church until he had done his Sermon I relate this to let you know what great power this good man had in the Pulpit and I have heard many say they were never weary of hearing him for besides the excellency of the matter he was upon he had the faculty still to keep up the warmth and attention of his hearers and to dismiss them withal with an Appetite And that you may see how great a Master he was in this Art of gaining Souls it will not be amiss to insert here some of those Directions he used to give those who were newly enter'd into Holy Orders since they may not be unprofitable to such as mean seriously to undertake this Sacred Calling I. Read and Study the Scriptures carefully wherein is the best Learning and only infallible Truth they can furnish you with the best materials for your Sermons the only rules of Faith and Practice the most powerful motives to perswade and convince the Conscience and the strongest arguments to confute all Errors Heresies and Schisms Therefore be sure let all your Sermons be congruous to them and to this End it is expedient that you understand them as well in the Originals as in the Translations II. Take not hastily up other mens Opinions without due Tryal nor vent your own conceits but compare them first with the Analogy of Faith and rules of Holiness recorded in the Scriptures which are the proper Tests of all Opinions and Doctrines III. Meddle with Controversies and doubtful points as little as may be in your popular preaching lest you puzzle your hearers or engage them in wrangling Disputations and so hinder their Conversion which is the main design of Preaching IV. Insist most on those points that tend to effect sound Belief sincere love to God repentance for Sin and that may perswade to Holiness of Life Press these things home to the Conscience of your Hearers as of absolute necessity leaving no gap for evasions but bind them as close as may be to their duty and as you ought to preach Sound and Orthodox Doctrine so ought you to deliver God's Message as near as may be in God's Words that is in such as are plain and intelligible that the meanest of your Auditors may understand To which end 't is necessary to back all practical Precepts and Doctrines with apt proofs from the holy Scriptures avoiding all Exotic Phrases Scholastick Terms unnecessary Quotations of Authors and forced Rhetorical Figures since it is not difficult to make easie things appear hard but to render hard things easie is the hardest part of a good Orator as well as Preacher V. Get your hearts sincerely affected with the things you perswade others to embrace that so you may preach Experimentally and your Hearers perceive that you are in good earnest and press nothing upon them but what may tend to their advantage and which your self would venture your own Salvation on VI. Study and consider well the Subjects you intend to Preach on before you come into the Pulpit and then words will readily offer themselves yet think what you are about to say before you speak avoiding all uncouth phantastical words or phrases or nauseous undecent or ridiculous expressions which will quickly bring Preaching into contempt and make your Sermons and Persons the subjects of Sport and Merriment VII Dissemble not the Truths of God in any case nor comply with the lusts of men or give any countenance to Sin by word or deed VIII But above all you must never forget to order your own Conversation as becomes the Gospel that so you may teach by Example as well as Precept and that you may appear a good Divine every where as well as in the Pulpit for a Minister's Life and Conversation is more heeded than his Doctrine IX Yet after all this take heed you be not puffed up with Spiritual Pride of you own Vertues nor with a vain conceit of your Parts or Abilities nor yet be transported with the Applause of men nor dejected or discouraged with the Scoffs or Frowns of the wicked and profane To which I shall add one advice more which I received from a person of great worth and dignity in the Church who had it from the mouth of this great Master of perswasion it was concerning Reproof where men were to be dealt with that lay under great Prejudices and Vices either by Education Interest Passion or ill Habits cases of much frequency and therefore to render admonitions of greater force upon them his direction was To avoid giving the persons intended to be wrought upon any Alarm before hand that their Faults or Errors were designed to be attacked for then the persons concern'd look upon the Preacher as an Enemy and set themselves upon their guard On such occasions he rather recommended the chusing of a Text that stood only upon the borders of the difficult subject and if it might be seem'd more to favour it that so the obnoxious hearers may be rather surprized and undermined than stormed and fought with And so the Preacher as St. Paul expresses it being crafty may take them with guile He would also exhort those who were already engaged in this Holy Function and advised them how they might well discharge their duty in the Church of God answerable to their Calling to this Effect You are engaged in an excellent Employment in the Church and intrusted with weighty matters as Stewards of our great Master Christ the great Bishop Under him and by his Commission you are to endeavour to reconcile men to God to convert sinners and to build them up in the holy Faith of the Gospel that they may he saved and that Repentance and Remission of sins be preached in his name This is of highest importance and requires faithfulness diligence prudence and watchfulness The Souls of men are committed to our care and guidance and the Eyes of God Angels and Men are upon us and great is the account we must make to our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Supreme Head of his Church and will at length reward or punish his Servants in this Ministry of his Gospel as he shall find them faithful or negligent therefore it behoves us to exercise our best Talents labouring in the Lord's Vineyard with all diligence that we may bring forth fruit and that the fruit may remain This is the work we are separated for and ordained unto we must not think to be idle or careless in this Office but must bend our Minds and Studies and imploy all our Gifts and Abilities in this Service We must Preach the word of Faith that men may believe aright and the Doctrine and Laws of Godliness that men may act as becomes Christians indeed for without Faith no man can please God and without Holiness no man can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And as
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
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
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
it is a Pledg to assure us thereof And so Ursinus truly saith Baptismus coena Domini sunt Sacramenta quia sunt opus Dei qui aliquid in iis nobis dat se dare testatur and he hath many Speeches to this purpose So Calvin Institut So that instrumental conveyance of the Grace signified to the due Receiver is as true an Effect or End of a Sacrament when it is duly administred as Obsignation and is praeexisting in order of Nature to Obsignation for Obsignation must be of that quod prius datur exhibetur as Mr. Beza often saith Mr. Hooker in mine Opinion doth truly explicate the Nature of Sacraments Lib. 5. Sect. 57 59 60 64 67. Nay it may seem that Obsignation is not so essential as exhibitio rei signatae for the latter may be without the former as in the Baptism of Infants where no preparation ex parte suscipientis but only Capacity and Not-resistance is sufficient ad rem signatam recipiendam All these I submit to your Lordship's Judgment and will not be contentious if any can bring that which is more demonstrative out of Scriptures Mr. Hooker saith as we say touching the efficacy of Baptism in Infants and yet holdeth the Doctrine de perseverantia fidelium as well as we do Thus fearing too much Prolixity may argue me to be unmannerly I hold my hand I know not how my Lord of Kilmore doth sort with the Irish. I perswade my self he hath godly and pious Intentions He is discreet and wise industrious and diligent and of great sufficiency many ways I do perswade my self the more your Lordship doth know him the more your Lordship will love him And this I dare say he truly honoureth and sincerely loveth your Lordship And thus with my affectionate and earnest Prayers to the God of Heaven for the continuance of your Lordship and him and my Reverend good Lord of Derry for the good of his Church and to multiply his Graces upon you and to give you all Health here and Happiness hereafter With tender of my best Service to your Lordship I commend you to the most gracious protection of the highest Majesty Your Grace's in all observance for ever Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. May 25. 1630. The Arminians as Dr. Meddus writeth to Dr. Chadderton are very factions in Amsterdam and demand justice for Barnevelt's death I fear me they will much disturb that State God keep us also LETTER CLXI Part of a Letter of the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to Dr. Ward Master of Sidney Colledg Cambridg Anno 1630 out of Bishop Bedell 's Papers A Passage in my former Letters to Mr. Doctor Ward I Thank you for the two Treatises that of my Lord of Salisbury and your own which you were pleased to communicate to me Concerning which to give you mine opinion shortly for the present This I do yield to my Lord of Sarum most willingly that the Justification Sanctification and Adoption which Children have in Baptism is not univocè the same with that which adulti have And this I likewise do yeild to you that it is vera solutio reatus veracitèr in rei veritate performed and all the like emphatical forms c. But all these sacramentalitèr and that is obsiguativè ex formulâ conditione foederis Where you make Circumcision and Baptism to be the remedy of Original Sin I think it be too specially said which is true of all Sin And so much the Text Acts 2. 38. with the rest do shew I do think also that Reprobates coming to Years of Discretion after Baptism shall be condemned for Original Sin For their Absolution and washing in Baptism was but conditional and expectative which doth truly interest them in all the Promises of God but under the condition of repenting believing and obeying which they never perform and therefore never attain the Promise Consider well what you will say of Women before Christ which had no Circumcision and of all Mankind before Circumcision was instituted and you will perceive I think the nature of Sacraments to be not as Medicines but as Seals to confirm the Covenant not to confer the Promise immediately These things I write now in exceeding post-haste in respect that this Bearer goes away so presently I only give sapienti occasionem I think the emphatical Speeches of Augustin against the Pelagians and of Prosper are not so much to be regarded who say the like of the Eucharist also touching the necessity and efficacy in the case of Infants and they are very like the Speeches of Lanfranck and Guitmund of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament opposing â—er acitèr verè to sacramentalitèr which is a false and absurd Contraposition Sed manâ—â— de Tabulâ The right Definition of a Sacrament in general will decide this Question LETTER CLXII Part of Letter from Dr. Ward to the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore A Passage out of his last Letters to me May 28. AS touching the Papers which I sent you and had before sent to my Lord Primate touching the Efficacy of Baptism in Infants I would desire your Censure at your best leisure You seem in your Letter to make the principal End and Effect of all Sacraments to be Obsignation and all Sacraments to be meerly obsignatory Signs and that all ablution of Sin in Infants is only conditional and expectative of which they have no benefit till they believe and repent I cannot easily assent hereunto For so 1. Infants baptized dying in Infancy have no benefit by Baptism 2. Non-elect Infants living have no benefit at all so that to both these they are made 〈◊〉 prorsus inefficacia signa And 3. What necessity can there be of baptizing Infants if it produce no Effect till they come to years of Discretion 4. Our Divines do generally hold that the Sacraments do offer and exhibit that Grace which they signify and in order of Nature do first offer and exhibit before they assure and confirm For God doth offer and exhibit Grace promised in the Sacrament Then we exercise our Faith in relying upon God promising offering and exhibiting on his part and so receive the Grace promised and then the Sacrament assureth us of the Grace received So it is in the definition of a Sacrament in our short Catechism when it is said It is an outward visible Sign of an inward spiritual Grace given unto us ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we receive the same and a pledg to assure us thereof So that first it is a means whereby God doth offer and exhibit the Grace it signifieth which we receiving by Faith it then also becometh a pledg to assure us of the receipt thereof So the Eucharist doth first offer and exhibit growth and increase of Grace and a nearer and faster Communion with Christ's Body and Blood and all the benefits flowing thence and then it iâ— a Pledg to assure us hereof
For as Mr. Beza saith in Col. Mompel Obsignari non potest quod non habetur pag. 66 76 131. Ursin. Cat. Edit Cant. p. 584. Sacramentum opus Dei erga nos in quo dat aliquid scilicet signa res signalas in quo testatur se nobis offerre ac dare sua beneficio mox Baptismus ac Coena Domini sunt Sacramenta quia sunt opus Dei qui aliquid in its nobis dat se dare testatur Vid. etiam Calvin Instit. lib. 4. c. 17. § 10 11. and in 1 Cor. 24. So that instrumental conveyance of the Grace signified to the due Receiver is as true an effect of a Sacrament when it is administred as obsignation and is pre-existing in order of Nature to Obsignation See more at large Mr. Hooker l. 5. § 57 59 60 64 67. who in my opinion doth truly explicate the Efficacy of Sacraments The opinion of the Franciscans out of Soctus Bonaeventure and St. Bernard mentioned in the History of the Council of Trent pag. 237 is a true opinion tho they leave out the other use of the Sacraments which is Obsignation Tho Catherinus and Eisingrenâ—us hold that also Since then Infants are capable of Baptism why not of spiritual Ablution of Original Guilt which is the thing signified tho not of actual Obsignation of this since they cannot interpose any impediment to hinder the operation of the Sacrament It seemeth you conceive that I make Circumsion and Baptism to be the remedy of original Sin only I neither so say nor think It is true your Lordship saith the true definition of a Sacrament in general will decide this Question and so say I and think the definition in our ordinary Catechism formerly mentioned is a good and sound definition LETTER CLXIII Part of a Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to Dr. Samuel Ward FIrst you say If Sacraments be meerly obsignatory and the ablution of Sons in Baptism only conditional and expectative of which the Baptized have no benefit till they believe and repent Then Infants baptized dying in Infancy have no benefit by Baptism This Consequence me-thinks is not good For they are by Baptism received into the visible Church which is a noble Priviledg of Comfort to Parents and Honour and Profit to themselves Again there is presently granted them an entrance into Covenant with God as was anciently by Circumcision with the God of Abraham wherein God promises Pardon of Sin and Life eternal upon their Faith and Repentance and in this they have a present right tho the accomplishment be deferred Yet if God take them out of this World while the Condition is in expectation most pious it is to believe that he takes the Condition for performed Like to him that solemnizeth a Marriage with her to whom he was betrothed sub conditione And here if the Souls of Christians be indued with any actual Knowledg at all so soon as they leave the Body it seems the mystery of Redemption by Christ is revealed unto them and Faith is given them whereby they cleave to God by him the Author of their Blessedness although they have no need now of the Obsignation of the Promise whereof they are in present possession The second Reason Non-elect Infants living shall thus have no benefit at all by Baptism I answer Where there be divers ends of one and the same thing the denial of one is not the denial of the rest These Non-elect Infants have offered by God the same with the other viz. the obsignation of the Covenant and aggregation to the Church The same that he hath also quifictus accedit ut ponit obicem gratiae as to the present possession of it All that come to the Sacrament Elect or Non-elect receive the Pardon of Sin Original and Actual sacramentally and whosoever performs the Condition of the Covenant hath the fruition of that whereof before he had the Grant under Seal So as the Sacraments are not nuda inefficacia signa on God's part to the one or other Thirdly you say What necessity of baptizing Infants if their Baptism produce no effect till they come to years of discretion Though the most principal Effect be not attained presently the less principal are not to be refused So Children were circumcised which could not understand the reason of it and the same also did eat the Passover And so did also Children baptized in the Primitive Church communicate in the Lord's Supper Which I know not why it should not be so still de quo alias Fourthly Our Divines you say generally hold that the Sacraments do offer and exhibit the Grace which they signify and in order of Nature do first offer and exhibit before they assure and confirm For God doth 1. Offer and exhibit Grace promised in the Sacraments 2. We exercise our Faith resting upon God promising and exhibiting 3. So we receive the Grace promised 4. Then the Sacraments assure us of the Grace received And this order you endeavour to confirm out of the Definition of a Sament in our Catechism you declare it in the Eucharist and bring divers Testimonies of our Writers to prove it I answer The Grace which the Sacraments confer is of three sorts The first is The spiritual things which are proportionable to the outward The second The Effects of these The third The Certification of the Party in the lawful use of the outward of the enjoying the two former As in Baptism 1. The Blood and Spirit of Christ. 2. The washing of Sin and new Birth 3. The Obsignation to the Party baptized that by Christ's Blood his Sins are cleansed The first of these is signified in that common Sentence That Sacraments consist of two parts An outward visible Sign and an inward invisible Grace The second is the most usual and common notion of the word Grace meaning some Spiritual Favour in order to Salvation promised in the New Covenant The last is most properly the Grace of the Sacrament it self For the two former which our Catechism seems to reduce to one are properly the Grace of the Covenant which God doth confirm and seal by the Sacraments As when the King's Majesty grants Lands and Tenements with certain Immunities and Priviledges thereunto appertaining as in his Letters Patents at large appeareth and sets to the Great Seal all the Grants and Articles in the Patent are confirmed thereby materialiter subjective but the Ratification of the Patent is properly and formally that which the Seal works Which also according to the form of the Patent may be simple or conditional present or ad diem according as his Majesty is pleased As touching the terms also of offering and exhibiting they may be taken two ways Either of the offering and propounding so doth Calvin take the word exhibet in the Covenant and Institution of the Sacraments Or 2. confirming in the use of them These things thus premised it seems
all Abraham's Seed Males and Females yea to the Males and Females of all that were adjoyned to Abraham tho but bought with his Mony And the Circumcision of the Males was an Obsignation of God's Covenant to the Females also Lastly in the New Testament willing to make more ample Demonstration of his Love and more abundantly to confirm the Truth of his Promises he hath appointed the Obsignation of them even to both Sexes and to every several Person Whereby he hath not made their Condition worse who without contempt do want it but their 's better which are Partakers of it Which I speak in regard of the imagined necessity of Baptism to Infants to Salvation as if it were indeed a Medicine to save Life whereas it is only an assuring that Christ gives Life Consider how Baptism was given to them who had remission of Sins and the gifts of the Holy Ghost also before who therefore could have no other Intention therein but Certification only and adjoyning to the Church Acts 10. 44. Consider how it hath force about Sin not only going before it but following also yea even to them that at the time of the outward receiving it do ponere obicem else such ought to be re-baptized Consider that if the Faith of the Parents or the Church were effectual before Circumcision was instituted for the taking away of Original Sin from Infants or under the Law from Female Children it is no less effectual at the present under the Gospel And this presupposing that some mean must come between to make them partakers of Christ. Wherefore the same mean yet standing the effect of Baptism needs not to be assigned Justification or Ablution from Sin but Testification to the Receiver when he repents and believes that he is washed from Sin Consider that if you will aver that Baptism washes away otherwise then sacramentally that is obsignatorily original Sin yet you must allow that manner of washing for future actual Sins And you must make two sons of Justification one for Children another for Adulti And which passes all the rest you must find some Promise in God's Covenant wherein he binds himself to wash away Sin without Faith or Repentance for that Children have these I think you will not say You seem also to break the Chain of the Apostle Rom. 8. 30. Whom he hath justified he hath glorified Lastly by this Doctrine you must also maintain that Children do spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood if they receive the Encharist as for divers Ages they did and by the Analogy of the Passover they may perhaps ought since they do not ponere obicem contraria cogitationis aut pravae operationis And sith the use of his Sacrament topics quoties must needs confer Grace it seems it were necessary to let them communicate and the oftner the better to the intent they might be stronger in Grace Which Opinion tho St. Austine and many more of the Ancients do maintain I believe you will not easily condescend unto or that Children dying without Baptism are damn'd Which if Baptism be the Remedy that takes away Original Sin I see not how you can avoid Touching the Propositions of Molina opposed by the Dominicans and the Letters of Hippolytus de Alonte-Peloso I am glad you have met with them For I sent you the Originals which P. Paulo gave me upon occasion of speech with him touching that Controversy reserving no Copy to my self The occasion was the contention of the Jesuits and Dominicans before Pope Clement the 8th And those Letters were week by sent from Rome to Padre Paule of the carriage of the Business When you find a trusty Messenger I desire you to send me them For the Quodlibetical Question there is no haste I would join with it another Tractate about the Valtelinâ— set forth by Sir Rob. Cotton in English as it is said at least but I cannot get the Italian Copy I am sorry that Arminianism finds such favour in the Low-Countries and amongst our selves and glad that my Lord of Sarum whom I truly love and honour came off so well in the Business touching his Sermon LETTER CLXIV A Letter from his Majesty K. Charles the First to the King's Council in Ireland Cha. REX Right trusty and right well-beloved Cousins and Counsellors we greet you well Whereas it hath pleased God of his infinite Grace and Goodness to vouchsafe unto us a Son born at our Palace of St. James's the 9th day of this present Month of May to the great comfort not only of our Selves in particular but to the general Joy and Contentment of all our Good and Loving Subjects as being a principal Mean for the establishment of the prosperous Estate and Peace of all our Kingdoms whose Welfare We do and will ever prefer before any other earthly Blessing that can befal Us in this Life We therefore according to the laudable Custom of our Royal Progenitors in like case heretofort used have thought fit to make known unto you the joyful Tidings as well in regard of the High Place ye hold under Us in the Government of that our Kingdom as also that by timely Order from you the same may be communicated unto the Nobility and principal Cities and Towns thereof as to those who we know with all dutiful and loving Affections will embrace whatsoever may maâ—â— for the prosperous advancement of the Publick Good in which both you and they have so great Interest And to this purpose We have sent these out Letters unto you by Our trusty and well beloved Servant Thomas Pristâ—◠〈◊〉 one of our Officers of Arms being an Officer of Honour specially by Us honour to appointed for the more honourable expression of our good affection to that our Kingdom Given under our Signet at Our Palace of Westminister the fifth day of June in the sixth Year of Our Reign To Our right 〈◊〉 and right well-beloved 〈◊〉 and Counsellors Adam Viscount Loftus of Ely 〈◊〉 Chancellor of Our Kingdom of Ireland and Richard Earl of Cork Our Justices of that our Realm LETTER CLXV A Letter from the Right Honourable the Earl of Cork c. to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After our hearty Commendations to your Lordship WE have lately to our exceeding great comfort received the glad Advertisement of the Queen 's safe Delivery in the Birth of a young Prince which did surprize us with such extraordinary Joy as is justly due from us upon so happy an occasion And because it is our Duties to join in sit Expressions of thankfulness to God for so great a Blessing we have resolved to set a Day apart for performance of those Duties so soon as one of his Majesty's Servants shall arrive here who is an Officer of Honour especially appointed by his Majesty to convey unto us those glad Tidings for the more honourable expression of his Highness's good Affection to this his Kingdom The particular respect we
as were many more of his Parts and Merits Your Grace was pleased to ask him what I was doing My Lord I cannot spend my time better than after the Holy Scriptures in gathering your Lordship's Observations upon many obscure Texts of the Bible but by my constant attending on my Lectures I am prevented of doing what I otherwise might Sir Henry Spelman's Saxon Lecture honoured by your Lordship's first motion to the Heads of Houses and have I not cause to admire God's Providence as my Lord of Exeter told me that the Work should be countenanced by so transcendent Patronage hath made me your Grace's Scholar as in truth the Ecclesiae ipsae Britannicae Universae at this time are But my Lord pardon my boldness and give me leave to chalenge the Stile if not of Scholar or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 since I never counted my self worthy to wait on your Person yet a true admirer of all your Lordship's most rich Treasures now in your most learned Writings bequeathed to the Church but my Saxon Imploiment will bind me much to be acquainted with your Primordia Eccles. Britannicarum tho your Grace will pity my Condition as being not able to compass the use of those rare Manuscripts cited in that most rich Magazine yet I am glad that we have many excellent and rare Antiquities there at large cited to us I presumed two Years since to send Mr. Hartlib a Specimen of my Intentions and beginnings of a Confutation of the Alcoran It was according to my poor skill a discovery of Mahomet's and his Chaplains devilish Policy to raze out of the Faith of the Eastern People the memory of the Three Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by substituing in the stead thereof three words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so in the same manner as by fair and goodly Language he blotted out of the Christian Church the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so doth he the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gloria Patri by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to God the Lord of the World c. for this intent to square out a Platform of Faith easy for all the World to believe that so he and his succeeding Chalifs may gain such a false believing and seduced World to the infernal See of Meccha and that was his meaning in binding all to pray towards Meccha Had I Skill and Means and Encouragement from your Grace I would endeavour to make some progress in the same Work not but that I know many in this Kingdom far more able than my self but that I fear none of them will attempt it but rather smile at the Design The Language of the Alchoran to write in that stile may be attained the matter of Confutation may be easy to any that will attend to the wicked Plots of Apostates then and ever practised in the World But Mr. Hartlib returned my Papers and told me they were not or else my Intention was not approved I purposedly was desirous to be ignorant who should give this severe Censure lest they should think I should grieve thereat Mr. Hartlib I thank him did me the pleasure as to conceal it from me I could scarce keep my self from some such Imployment about the Alchoran but these Times call us now to other Thoughts The fear of losing the Univers as well as Regnum Sacerdotium doth not a little amaze us When a Messenger comes hither from your Grace I shall be glad to be informed by him wherein I may best in this Lambeth Library be serviceable and express my bounden Duty to your Lordship The Lord still add to the number of your Days to the comfort of the afflicted Britain Churches which next to God cast their Eyes upon you in these sad Extremities which they have already suffered Your Grace's most humble Servant Abraham Wheelocke We expect every day the setting up of the Lambeth Books in the Schools where your Grace above 30 Years since heard Mr. Andrew Downs read the Greek Lecture as yet they remain in Fat 's or great Chests and cannot be of any use LETTER CCXLIX A Letter from the Learned Isaacus Gruterus to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Viro Maximo Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano Hiberniae Primati S. P. D. Isaacus Gruterus NON passus sum me abripi affectu virtutes tuas si non aestimare saltem venerari nescio cum mihi nuper apud te calamum feci pararium Neque ex alto nunc causas arcesso quae necdum consumptae fiduciam sustinent fore ut secundae allocutioni sua venia sit interiorem tantae Eruditionis in perspectâ multis humanitate cultum meditanti Eorum quae tunc scripsi alia tempus mutavit intermedium alia integram officii gratiam habent si vel partem desiderii nostri expletam imputare liceat tuae benevolentiae Savilii enim filiam Sidleijo cuidam olim nuptam obiisse narravit mihi Nobiliss. Boswellus vir non aliis magis virtutibus quas plures benignior indulsit natura quam literarum patrocinio illustris Quid vero Savilianae industriae ineditum servent alicubi scrinia chartacea non alîunde quam ex te melius constare mihi posse videtur cum doceant scripta tua propriori vos familiaritate coaluisse Illud ergo repetere ausus sum hoc Epistolae compendio explicatum forte olim uberius ut in concilianda istius rei notitia gratificari velis homini extero in magna felicitatis parte habituro per istud obsequium posse tibi commendare quamcunque affectus sui operam testem positi non apud ingratum beneficii Vale. Isaacus Gruterus Hagae-Comitis 26. Febr. iv Calendas Martii CICICCL LETTER CCL A Letter from P. Scavenius to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Vir Illustrissime Reverendissime NIhil gratius mihi accidere potuit quà m tuas literas iisque inclusa mandata accipere Totus fui in ea exequendo ut tuae petitioni meo voto rectè satissecisse viderer sed nescio quo fato res hic aguntur ut semper objiciantur tantae remorae praetextus quibus suas res ornare allaborant quibus alienae parum curae sunt qui potius nomine quam reipsa aliis inservire cupiunt divites ut aiunt promissis tardi vel seri in fide datâ servandâ Clariss Dominus Holsteinius infinitis destrictus negotiis nam Censor est librorum qui hic typis mandantur merito fugit hunc laborem quippe immensum quem requirit vel descriptio vel collatio hujus MS. cum excusis codicibus Codex enim est antiquissimus hinc inde mutilus ut interdum Oedippo opus sit sensum indagare Promisit tamen se missurum parvulas aliquot varias lectiones quas successive sparsim in unum vel alterum Prophetam notavit excusavit se non posse ipsum Codicem mittere eumque periculis
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