have shewed themselves more forward than wise in preaching publickly against this kind of Toleration I hope the great charge laid upon them by your selves in the Parliament wherein that Statute was inacted will plead their excuse For there the Lords Temporal and all the Commons do in God's name earnestly require and charge all Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour themselves to the utmost of their knowledge that the due and true execution of this Statute may be had throughout their Diocesses and charged as they will answer it before God for such Evils and Plagues as Almighty God might justly punish his People for neglecting these good and wholesome Laws So that if in this case they had holden their Tongues they might have been censured little better than Atheists and made themselves accessary to the drawing down of God's heavy vengeance upon the People But if for these and such like Causes the former project will not be admitted we must not therefore think our selves discharged from taking farther care to provide for our safeties Other consultations must be had and other courses thought upon which need not be liable to the like exceptions Where the burden is born in common and the aid required to be given to the Prince by his Subjects that are of different judgments in Religion it stands not with the ground of common reason that such a Condition should be annexed unto the Gift as must of necessity deter the one Party from giving at all upon such terms as are repugnant to their Consciences As therefore on the one side if we desire that the Recusants should joyn with us in granting a common aid we should not put in the Condition of executing the Statute which we are sure they would not yield unto so on the other side if they will have us to joyn with them in the like Contribution they should not require the Condition of suspending the Statute to be added which we in Conscience cannot yield unto The way will be then freely to grant unto his Majesty what we give without all manner of Condition that may seem unequal unto any side and to refer unto his own Sacred Breast how far he will be pleased to extend or abridge his favours of whose Lenity in forbearing the executing of the Statute our Recusants have found such experience that they cannot expect a greater liberty by giving any thing that is demanded than now already they do freely enjoy As for the fear that this voluntary Contribution may in time be made a matter of necessity and imposed as a perpetual charge upon Posterity it may easily be holpen with such a clause as we find added in the Grant of an aid made by the Pope's Council Anno 11 Hen. 3. out of the Ecclesiastical profits of this Land Quod non debet trahi in consuetudinem of which kinds of Grants many other Examples of later memory might be produced And as for the proportion of the Sum which you thought to be so great in the former Proposition it is my Lord's desire that you should signifie unto him what you think you are well able to bear and what your selves will be content voluntarily to proffer To alledge as you have done that you are not able to bear so great a charge as was demanded may stand with some reason but to plead an unability to give any thing at all is neither agreeable to Reason or Duty You say you are ready to serve the King as your Ancestors did heretofore with your Bodies and Lives as if the supply of the King's wants with monies were a thing unknown to our Fore-fathers But if you will search the Pipe-Rolls you shall find the names of those who contributed to King Henry the Third for a matter that did less concern the Subjects of this Kingdom than the help that is now demanded namely for the marrying of his Sister to the Emperour In the Records of the same King kept in England we find his Letters Patents directed hither into Ireland for levying of Money to help to pay his Debts unto Lewis the Son of the King of France In the Rolls of Gascony we find the like Letter directed by King Edward the Second unto the Gentlemen and Merchants of Ireland of whose names there is a List there set down to give him aid in his Expedition into Aquitaine and for defence of his Land which is now the thing in question We find an Ordinance likewise made in the time of Edward the Third for the personal Taxing of them that lived in England and hold Lands and Tenements in Ireland Nay in this case you must give me leave as a Divine to tell you plainly that to supply the King means for the necessary defence of your Country is not a thing left to your own discretion either to do or not to do but a matter of Duty which in Conscience you stand bound to perform The Apostle Rom. 13. having affirmed That we must be subject to the higher powers not only for wrath but for Conscience sake adds this as a reason to confirm it For for this cause you pay tribute also as if the denying such payment could not stand with a conscionable subjection thereupon he infers this conclusion Render therefore to all their due Tribute to whom Tribute Custom to whom Custom is due agreeable to that known Lesson which he had learned of our Saviour Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's where you may observe as to with-hold from God the things which are God's man is said to be a robber of God whereof he himself thus complaineth in the case of substracting of Tythes and Oblations So to deny a supply to Caesar of such means as are necessary for the support of his Kingdom can be accounted no less than a robbing of him of that which is his due which I wish you seriously to ponder and to think better of yielding something to this present necessity that we may not return from you an undutiful answer which may be justly displeasing to his Majesty This Speech though it had not its desired effect yet may sufficiently declare the Lord Primate's abilities in matters of Government when ever he would give his mind to them and how well he understood the present state of that Kingdom And it had been well for Ireland if his advice had been then hearken'd to since those standing Forces then moved for being to have been all Protestants would in all probability have prevented that Rebellion that some years after broke out in that Kingdom but a Copy of this Speech being desired by the Lord Deputy was transmitted to his Majesty who very well approved of it as much conducing to his Service and the publick safety It cannot now be expected in times so peaceable and quiet as these seem'd to be and in which my Lord Primate proceeded in one constant course with little
alteration that every year should afford matter enough to be taken notice of in this account therefore I shall only here give you in general the more remarkable transactions of his Life from this time till his going over into England not long before that unhappy War After his being Arch-Bishop he laid out a great deal of money Anno 1627 in Books laying aside every year a considerable Sum for that end and especially for the procuring of Manuscripts as well from foreign Parts as near at hand having about this time by the means of Mr. Thomas Davis then Merchant at Aleppo procured one of the first Samaritan Pentateuchs that ever was brought into these Western Parts of Europe as Mr. Selden and Dr. Walton acknowledge as also the Old Testament in Syriack much more perfect than had hitherto been seen in these Parts together with other Manuscripts of value This Pentateuch with the rest were borrowed of him by Dr. Walton after Bishop of Chester and by him made use of in the Polyglot Bible All which Manuscripts being lately retrieved out of the hands of the said Bishop's Executors are now in the Bodleyan Library at Oxford a fit Repository for such Sacred Monuments About this time the Lord Viscount Falkland being re-called Anno 1629 from being Deputy of Ireland was waited on by the Lord Primate to the Sea side of whom taking his leave and begging his Blessing he set sail for England having before contracted an intimate friendship with the Lord Primate which lasted till his death nor did the Lord Primate fail to express his friendship to him on all occasions after his departure doing his utmost by Letters to several of the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council here for his Vindication from several false Accusations which were then laid to his charge by some of the Irish Nation before his Majesty which Letters together with the Vindication of the Council of Ireland by their Letter to his Majesty of his just and equal Government did very much contribute to the clearing of his Innocence in those things whereof he was then accused This year the happy news of the birth of Prince Charles his late Gracious Majesty then Prince of Wales being brought into Ireland Anno 1630 by an Express on purpose the Lords Justices and Council order'd a Solemn Day of Thanksgiving for that great happiness and the Lord Primate was invited as I find by their Letter to preach before them on that occasion as he did accordingly My Lord Primate published at Dublin his History of Gotteschalcus Anno 1631 and of the Predestinarian Controversie stirred by him being the first Latin Book that was ever printed in Ireland Wherein after a short account of Pelagianism which had then much spread it self in Spain and Britain he proceeds to the History of Gotteschalcus a Monk of the Abby of Orbais who lived in the beginning of the IX Century and his Opinions shewing out of Flodoardus and other approved Writers of that Age that the points then held by this learned Monk and that were then laid to his charge by Hincmar Arch-Bishop of Rhemes and Rabanus Arch-Bishop of Mentz and which they got condemned in a Synod held in that City as also in another at Quierzy were notwithstanding defended and maintained by Remigius or St. Remy Arch-Bishop of Lyons and the Church of that Diocess as consonant to the Scriptures and Writings of the Fathers And that indeed divers dangerous Opinions and Consequences were imputed to this learned Monk which he was not guilty of And after an account of the heads of a Treatise written by J. Scotius Erigene in defence of Free-will and the contrary Opinions to those of Gotteschalce the Lord Primate then likewise gives the sum of the Censure which Florus Deacon of Lyons writ against the same in the name of that Church As also of several Writings of Remigius Arch-Bishop of Lyons Pudentius Bishop of Troyes and Ratramus a Monk of Corbey in defence of the said Gotteschalce's Opinions and against the extravagant Tenets of Scotus Which Disputes produced two other Synods at Bonoil and Neufle in France wherein the Opinions held by Gotteschalce were asserted and the contrary as maintained by Scotus were condemned Though those Councils were still opposed and censured by Hincmar in a large Book dedicated to the Emperour Charles the Bald the heads of which are there set down out of Flodoard Which yet did not at all satisfie the contrary party nor hinder Remigius Arch-Bishop of Lyons and his Provincial Bishops from calling another Council at Langres wherein the Canons of the Valentinian Council were confirmed and those Propositions maintained by Scotus were again condemned Which Canons were also referred to the judgment of the General Council of the XII Provinces assembled at Thoul and being there debated were not by it condemned as Baronius and others will have it but for quietness sake were again referred to the judgment of the next General Assembly that the Doctrines of the Church and Fathers being produced those should be agreed on that should then appear most Sound and Orthodox And in the Conclusion my Lord there shews the great constancy of this poor Monk who notwithstanding his cruel whippings and long imprisonment to which he had been condemned by the Council of Mentz till his death yet he would never Recant but made two Confessions of his Faith which are there set down and by which it appears That many things were laid to his charge and condemned in those Councils which he never held In this Treatise as the Lord Primate has shewn himself excellently well skill'd in the Church History of those dark and ignorant Ages so he there concludes that men should not Dogmatize in these Points And indeed there ever have been and still will be different Opinions concerning these great and abstruse questions of Predestination and Free-will which yet may be tolerated and consist in any Church if the maintainers of either the one side or other will use that Charity as they ought and forbear publickly to condemn rail at or write against each other About this time the Romish Faction growing there very prevalent Anno 1631 by reason of some former connivance by the State as also for want of due instruction as hath been already said and likewise that divers abuses had crept into the Church not only among the inferior Clergy but the Bishops themselves all which had been represented by the Lords Committees for Irish Affairs to his Majesty who thereupon thought fit to send over his Letters into Ireland to all the Arch-Bishops of that Kingdom as well to put them in mind of their duty as to strengthen their Authority which were as follows CHARLES REX MOst Reverend Father in God right Trusty and entirely Beloved We Greet you well Among such disorders as the Lords of Our Privy-Council Deputed by Us to a particular care of Our Realm of Ireland and the Affairs thereof have observed and represented to Us in
England and elsewhere Containing likewise divers choice matters relating to the great Controversies of those times concerning the keeping of Easter as also divers things relating to the Ecclesiastical Discipline and Jurisdiction of the Church of that Kingdom very worthy the taking notice of And I suppose about this time if not before he contracted a more intimate acquaintance with the Reverend Dr. Laud Lord Bishop of London who had for some time managed the most considerable Affairs both in Church and State And I find by divers of his Letters to the Lord Primate as well whilst he was Bishop of London as after he was advanced to the See of Canterbury that there was scarce any thing of moment concluded on or any considerable Preferment bestowed by his Majesty in the Church of Ireland without his advice and approbation which you may see by some Letters in this ensuing Collection which we have selected from divers others of lesser moment as fittest for publick view but the L. Primate always made use of his interest with the said Arch-Bishop and other great men at Court not for his own private advantage but for the common good of the Church by opposing and hindering divers Grants and Patents to some great men and Courtiers who had under-hand obtained the same and particularly he caused a Patent made to a Person of Quality of the Scotch Nation in Ireland of several Tythes to be called in and vacuated his Majesty being deceived in his Grant who would not have done any thing prejudicial to the Church had he been rightly informed of the nature of the thing and the Lord Primate was so much concerned for a competent maintenance for the Clergy in that Kingdom that he had some years before this obtained a Grant of a Patent from his Majesty to be passed in his own name though for the use of the Church of such impropriations belonging to the Crown as were then Leased out as soon as they should fall which though it did not succeed being too much neglected by those who were concerned more immediately yet it sufficiently shews my Lord's pious intentions in this matter About this time there was a Letter sent over from his late Anno 1634 Majesty to the Lord Viscount Wentworth then Lord Deputy and the Council of Ireland for determining the precedency of the Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Arch-Bishop of Dublin in respect of their Sees the latter making some pretence unto it therefore in regard of a Parliament intended by his Majesty shortly to meet it was thought fit for order's sake that controversie should be decided before their meeting In order to which he was commanded by the Lord Deputy to reduce into writing what he knew upon that subject But he not desiring to engage in so invidious an argument and which so nearly concerned himself and which he did not desire to have stirred did what he could to decline it but being still further urged and commanded to do it he did at last though unwillingly write a short and learned discourse full of excellent remarks wherein he proved the Antiquity and Primacy of his See to have preceded that of Dublin divers Ages which discourse being sent over into England the precedency was determined by his Majesty on his side as afterwards by another Letter from his Majesty and Council here he had also without his seeking the precedency given him of the Lord Chancellor which he being above such trifles were not at all able to elate him At the opening of the following Parliament he preached before the Lord Deputy Lords and Commons at St. Patrick's Dublin his Text was Genes 49. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till Shiloh come and to him shall the gathering of the People be And in the Convocation which was now Assembled the Lord Primate at the instrance of the Lord Deputy and Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury thought fit to propose That to express the agreement of the Church of Ireland with that of England both in Doctrine and Discipline the Thirty Nine Articles should be received by the Church of Ireland which Proposal was thereupon consented to by both Houses of Convocation and the said Articles were declared to be the Confession of Faith of the Church of Ireland but without abrogating or excluding the former Articles made 1615 either by that Convocation or Parliament as two several Writers of those times viz. a Church and Civil Historian have without ground reported them to be And though the latter was at last brought to confess his Error of their being Repealed by Autority of Parliament yet he still insisted That the reception of the Articles of the Church of England though it be not an express yet is a tacite annulling of the former instancing in the Old Covenant which St. Paul proves to be abrogated by the giving of a New which were a good Argument if the Articles of the Church of England were as inconsistent with those of Ireland as those two Covenants are with each other but if they differ no more than the Nicene does from the Apostles Creed which though it contains more yet does not Annul the former then without doubt the receiving of the Articles of the Church of England was no abrogation of those of Ireland But since it is not my design to write Controversies I shall not enter farther into this Argument but shall leave the Reader to consider whether the instances brought by the Historian to prove the Articles of these two Churches to be inconsistent are convincing or not and shall say no more on this ungrateful subject but that it is highly improbable that the Lord Primate should be so outwitted by the Lord Deputy or his Chaplains as the Historian makes him to have been in this affair but that he very well understood the Articles of both Churches and did then know that they were so far from being inconsistent or contradictory to each other that he thought the Irish Articles did only contain the Doctrine of the Church of England more fully or else he would never have been so easily perswaded to an Act which would amount to a Repeal of those Articles which as hath been already said he himself made and drew up And for a farther proof that this was the sense not only of himself but of most of the rest of the Bishops at that time they always at all Ordinations took the subscription of the Party Ordained to both Articles the Articles of England not being received instead but with those of Ireland as Dr. Bernard hath informed us which course was continued by the Lord Primate and most part of the Bishops till the confusion of that Church by the Irish Rebellion And if at this day the subscription to the Thirty Nine Articles be now only required of the Clergy of that Kingdom I suppose it is purely out of prudential considerations that any divine or other person of that
the Princes About this there is now much consultation in what manner to proceed Salvo legatino jure and Sir Robert Cotton as you know his manner is hath been very busie in ransacking his Papers for Presidents Of this more hereafter This day my Lord Treasurer makes his Answer about the beginning of the next Week we shall know his Doom Our good Friend D. Lyndsel was cut on Munday and is yet God be praised well after it there was a Stone taken out of his Bladder about the bigness of a Shilling and rough on the one side I am now collating of Bede's Ecclestastical History with Sir Robert Cotton's Copy wherein I find many Variations I compare it with Commelyn's Edition in Folio which is that I have All that I expect from your Lordship is to understand of the Receipt of my Letters which if I know I shall write the more confidently I should also willingly know how you like your Dwelling My Lord of Bristol is come I pray you present my Love and Service to Mrs. Usher And so with many thanks for all your kind Respects I will ever remain Your very affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier London April 28. 1623. Sir Robert Cotton is like to get a very good Copy of Malmsbury de Antiquit Glaston It is a Book I much desire to see I pray you remember the Irish Annal which you promised me before your going out of Town LETTER LV. A Letter from Mr. H. Holcroft to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My Lord IT hath pleased his Majesty now to direct this Letter to the Lord Deputy to admit you a Privy Counsellor of that Kingdom I am ashamed it hath staid so long in my hands before it could be dispatch'd But if it had come at the first to me during the Duke of Buckingham's being here it had not staid three days but gone on in the plain High-way which is ever via sana After the Lord Deputy was pleased to put it into my Hands at my first Access I moved his Majesty and shewed his Lordships Hand But the King willed it should stay and it became not me to press it further at that time I know the Cause of the Stay was not any dislike of your Person or Purpose not to grant it But if the Duke had come home in any time you should have been beholding to him for it I pray your Lordship not to think it strange that about the same time his Majesty dispatch'd the Letter for Sir Edward Trevour to be a Counsellor The Grant was gotten by my Lord of Buckingham before his going and by his Commandment I drew it I do strive to give your Lordship a particular Accompt of this Business and do pray your Lordship to endeavour to satisfie the Lord Deputy of whose Commands herein I was not negligent So soon as I acquainted his Majesty with his Lordships second Letter I had his Royal Signature of which I wish you much Joy My Lord Grandison is in reasonable good Health So I remain Your Lordships most assured Friend Henry Holcroft Westminster June 13. 1623. LETTER LVI A Letter from Dr. Goad and Dr. Featly Chaplains to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Admodum Reverende Domine HAving so convenient a means we send to your Lordship which perhaps you have not yet seen translated and thus Armed with a Preface by a worthy and learned Gentleman Sir Humphrey Lynd our Neighbour To whose Observations concerning the Censures upon this Tractate de Corpore Sang. Christi if you will add any thing which he hath not espyed we will impart the same from you to him whereby your Lordship shall more encourage this well deserving Defender of the Cause of Religion to whom in other Respects the Church and common Cause oweth much For at this instant upon our Motion he hath undertaken the Charge of printing the particular passages of many late Writers castrated by the Romish Knife The Collections are made by Dr. James and are now to be sent unto us for preparation to the Press We shall begin with Polydore Virg. Stella Mariana and Ferus Proeterea in eodem genere alia texitur tela The Story of the Waldenses written in French and comprising Relations and Records for 400 years is now in translating into English to be published Before which it is much desired that your Lordship will be pleased to prefix a Preface for the better pass which we think will be very acceptable and the rather because we hope your Lordship will therein intimate that in the same Subject jamdudum aliquid parturis whereto this may serve for a Midwife unless the Masculine birth deliver it self before this foreign Midwife come Thus desiring to hear from your Lordship but more to see you here upon a good occasion we take our Leave and rest Thomas Goad Your Lordships to be commanded Daniel Featly Lambeth June 14. 1623. LETTER LVII A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Salutem à Salutis fonte D. N. Jesu Christo. Most Reverend in Christ THough I have little to say more than the remembrance of my love and best respects I could not forbear to lay hold on the opportunity of this Bearer our common friend thereby to present them as many ways most due from me to your Lordship You have been so long expected here that your Friends Letters have by that means come more rarely to your hands We have little News either of the great business or any other though Messengers come Weekly out of Spain And I conceive that Matters are yet very Doubtful The new Chapel for the Infanta goes on in Building and our London-Papists report That the Angels descend every Night and Build part of it Here hath been lately a Conference between one Fisher a Jesuit and one Sweete on the one side and Dr. Whyte and Dr. Feately on the other The Question was of the Antiquity and Succession of the Church It is said that we shall have it Printed All our Friends are in good Health namely Sr. Robert Cotton Sr. Henry Spelman Mr. Camden Mr. Selden and the rest and Remember themselves most Affectionately to you Mr. Selden will send you a Copy of his Eadmerus with the first opportunity which should have been done before this time had not his expectation of you here stayed his hand Philip Cluverius is lately Dead at Leyden of a Consumption Before his Death he was so happy as to finish his Italia which they say is done with great diligence and the Impression so forward that we shall have it this Autumnal Marte My Lord Chichester is to go within a Fortnight to Colen to the Treaty and Meeting there appointed for the Restitution of the Palatinate But some think that the Armies now a-foot in Germany will much hinder it Bethlem Gabor troubles the Emperor again in Austria The Duke of Brunswick in
for to get a License of Mortmain for the holding of 240 Acres of Capite Land which a Gentleman would give to our Colledg but I find great difficulty in effecting it so as I fear me I must return re infectâ If you would be pleased to send Mr. Lively's Chronology I think Mr. Whalley would see to the publishing of it And thus with tender of my best Service and my best Wishes and Prayers for the happy success of your good Designs and prospering of all your Endeavours and for the publick Peace and Safety of both the Nations Yours and Ours in these tottering and troublesome Times I commend your Lordship and all yours to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty Your Lordship 's in all Service Samuel Ward London Feb. 13. 1626. LETTER CXVIII A Letter from the Right Honorable the Lord Deputy Falkland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord YOur judicious apprehension of the Perils which threaten the Peace of this Kingdom which your dutiful consideration of the King's Wants through his other manifold Occasions of Expence together with your Zeal to his Service is clearly manifested by conforming your Tenants to the good Example of others to join with the rest of the Inhabitants in contributing to the relief of the new Supplies and other Souldiers sent hither for the publick Defence notwithstanding your Privileges of Exemption by Patent from such Taxes which I will take a fitting occasion to make known to his Majesty for your Honour And where your Lordship doth complain that other Country Charges are imposed upon your Tenants whereof you conceive they ought to be free by virtue of your Patent I can give no direct answer thereunto until I be informed from your Lordship of what Nature they be but do faithfully assure your Lordship that neither my Lord Chichester nor my Lord Grandison did ever shew more respect to your Predecessors than I will be ready to perform towards your Lordship as well in this your Demand as in all other things which lie in my Power not being prejudicial to the King's Service which I know is as much as your Lordship will ever desire and do pray your Lordship to send me a Copy of their Warrants for my information what hath been done in that behalf before my Time I have kept Sir Charles Cootes Company from that County as long as I could and will remove them thence as soon as I can conveniently But your Lordship may please to understand that by the earnest intercession of some well-willers to that County it hath been less burthened with Souldiers than any other within that Province saving only Fermannagh which is much smaller in scope than it And for the Distinction you desire to be made between your Town-Lands which you alleadg are generally less by one half than those that are held by others that Error cannot be reformed without a general admeasurement and valluation of the different Fertilities for we all know that a hundred Acres in a good Soil may be worth a thousand Acres of Lands that are mountainous and barren and therefore it will surely prove a Work of great difficulty and will require a long time to reduce it to any perfection so as it is best to observe the custom in usage until such a reformation shall be seriously debated and agreed upon For the Bridg to be built at Charlemount it was propounded to the Board by the Lord Caulfield he informing that the old one was so decayed that it could hardly last out another Year The usesul Consequence of that Bridg in time of War guarded by a strong Fort which Defence others want being well known to the Table did make it a short Debate every Man concurring in Opinion with an unanimous consent that it was most necessary for the King's Service that a substantial Bridg should be erected there with expedition Then the Question grew At whose Charge whether at the King 's or Countries Which upon mature debate was ordered that the Country should bear as well for that it is a place of equal conveniency with any other that is or can be made elsewhere for passage of the Inhabitants over that deep River in times of Peace as because they shall enjoy great security by their Neighbourhoods to that strong Fort of Charlemount in times of Combustion built and maintained without their Charge These Considerations did move us to give direction to certain of the Justices of Peace of each of these Counties of Tyrone and Armagh to view the place and treat with Workmen which they accordingly did Upon whose Certificate we gave Warrant to applot the same according to their Agreement with Workmen which I wish may be levied without opposition or interruption and do make it my request unto your Lordship to give way and furtherance thereunto for this Work tending so much to the Service of the King and Country which I shall take in very good part from your Lordship and you cannot want your Reward in Heaven for it it being a Work of that kind which is accounted pious And so I commit your Lorship to God's protection and rest Your Lordships very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle March 15. 1626. I have given order for the preparing a Fyant for the passing of those Particulars your Lordship desired by Mr. Singe Falkland LETTER CXIX A Letter from the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Send unto you Mr. Sibbes who can best report what I have said unto him I hope that Colledg shall in him have a very good Master which hitherto it hath not had You shall make my excuse to the Fellows that I write not unto them You shall do well to pray to God that he will bless his Church but be not too sollicitous in that Matter which will fall of it self God Almighty being able and ready to support his own Cause But of all things take heed that you project no new ways for if they fail you shall bear a grievous Burthen If they prosper there shall be no Thanks to you Be patient and tarry the Lord's leasure And so commending me unto you and to the rest of your Brethren I leave you to the Almighty and remain Your Lordship's loving Brother G. Cant. Lambeth March 19. 1626. LETTER CXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Sir MAY it please your Lordship to take a view of my Proceedings for the procuring of such Books you gave me order for such as I could get and have in readiness to be sent by our next Ships which may depart this Port about four months hence are certain Books and loose Papers in the Samaritan Tongue of what use or value I cannot learn The Old Testament in the Chaldean which after seventeen months time is written in a fair Character wanting only the Book
I would fain have you know that I neither came then nor now do come unto you in any confidence of any Learning that is in me in which respect notwithstanding I thank God I am what I am but I come in the Name of the Lord of Hosts whose Companies you have reproached being certainly perswaded that even out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings he was able to shew forth his own Praises for the further manifestation whereof I do again earnestly request you that setting aside all vain comparisons of Persons we may go plainly forward in examining the matters that rest in controversie between us otherwise I hope you will not be displeased if as for your part you have begun so I also for my own part may be bold for the clearing of my self and the truth which I profess freely to make known what hath already passed concerning this matter Thus intreating you in a few lines to make known unto me your purpose in this behalf I end praying the Lord that both this and all other enterprises that we take in hand may be so ordered as may most make for the advancement of his own Glory and the Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ. Tuus ad Aras usque James Usher No answer to this Letter nor any further conference can I find but this the Jesuite confessed after he got out viz. Prodiit quidam octodenarius praecocis sapientiae juvenis de abstrusisimis rebus Theologicis cum adhuc Philosophica studia vix emensus nec ex Ephebis egressus c. In English to this effect There came to me once a youth of about 18 years of age of a ripe Wit when scarce as you would think gon through his course of Philosophy or got out of his Childhood yet ready to dispute on the most abstruse points of Divinity But afterwards the same Jesuite living to understand him better calls him Acatholicorum doctissimus a tender expression from a Jesuite he does not say of Hereticks but of the Not Catholicks most Learned Anno Dom. 1600. Being now twenty years old and having lived in the Colledge seven years from his first admission he took the degree of Master of Arts and the same year he was chosen Catechist Reader in the Colledge in which office and imployment he treated of the pure Principles of the Christian Religion in Faith and Practice as professed and maintained by the Reformed Churches in opposition to the Errors and Innovations which had mixed themselves with Primitive Christianity and sifting the Wheat from the Tares He did so learnedly and plainly discharge that Exercise to the satisfaction of his then Auditors that he was much importuned to appear and Preach in publick which was as himself then thought very much above his years to enter on so weighty a charge But not being able to withstand the importunity of his Friends and the commands of Superiors he yielded though with some reluctance so that being thought fit for the Ministry in the twenty first year of his age he was accordingly Ordained Deacon and Priest by his Uncle Henry Usher then Arch-Bishop of Armagh with the assistance of others of the Clergy Anno 1601 which though uncanonical yet his own extraordinary merit and the necessity which the Church then had of such a Labourer rendred a dispensation in that case very tolerable if not necessary And being not long after appointed to Preach constantly before the State at Christ-Church in Dublin on Sundays in the afternoon he made it his business to treat of the chief points in controversie between the Romish Church and Ours In which Discourses he was so clear powerful and convincing that he thereby setled many that were wavering and converted divers from that Superstitious perswasion to the Church of England And now this young but grave Divine applies himself to the study of gaining Souls as the main end and design of his Ministry and this he continued through the whole course of his life and was exceeding successful in it The first Text he preached on Publickly before the State presently after his Ordination was Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead which fell out to be the day of the Battle of Kinsale and was especially set apart to pray for the good success of that Engagement which God was pleased to answer with a noble Victory And it must be here remembred That in the year 1601 after that the Irish Papists many of them in and about Dublin and some other parts of the Kingdom had seemingly submitted to the Laws and came frequently to our Churches yet there were still very many of the Irish that kept their distance from the English and stuck to their old Principles and earnestly solicited for a Toleration or at least a Connivance to use their own way of Worship which this zealous Divine believed to be Superstitious and Idolatrous And fearing lest a Connivance might be granted to them and so a lukewarm indifferency to Religion might seize on the Protestants themselves This pious young man was deeply touched with the sense of the evil of such an Indulgence and dangerous Consequence of allowing liberty to that sort of People to exercise a Religion so contrary to the truth and fearing that the introducing of that Religion tended to the disturbance of the Government in Church and State on which occasion this newly Ordained Servant of God then Preached a very remarkable Sermon before the same Audience on a great Solemnity and did not dissemble but freely gave his Opinion in reference to a Toleration And this he did from that of Ezekiel's Vision concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and that Nation Ezek. 4. 6. And thou shalt bear the iniquity of the House of Judah forty days I have appointed thee each day for a year He made then this his conjecture in reference to Ireland viz. From this year I reckon forty years and then those whom you now imbrace shall be your ruine and you shall bear their iniquity This then uttered by him in his Sermon seemed only to be the present thoughts of a young man who was no friend to Popery but afterwards when it came to pass at the expiration of forty years that is from 1601. to 1641. when the Irish Rebellion broke out and that they had murthered and slain so many thousands of Protestants and harassed the whole Nation by a bloody War then those who lived to see that day began to think he was a young Prophet year 1603 Neither must it be forgotten that after the English Forces had beaten and driven out the Spaniards who then came to the assistance of the Irish at Kinsale that Army resolved to do some worthy act that might be a lasting memorial of the gallantry of Military men and that due respect which they had for true Religion and Learning To promote which they raised among themselves the Sum of 1800 l. to buy Books to furnish the Library of the University
is the Bishop of Rome And the Title whereby he claimeth this power over us is the same whereby he claimeth it over the whole World because he is S. Peter's Successor forsooth And indeed if St. Peter himself had been now alive I should freely confess that he ought to have spiritual Authority and Superiority within this Kingdom But so would I say also if St. Andrew St. Bartholoâ—ew St. Thomas or any of the other Apostles had been alive For I know that their Commission was very large to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel unto every Creature So that in what part of the World soever they lived they could not be said to be out of their Charge their Apostleship being a kind of an Universal Bishoprick If therefore the Bishop of Rome can prove himself to be one of this rank the Oath must be amended and we must acknowledge that he hath Ecclesiastical Authority within this Realm True it is that our Lawyers in their Year-Books by the name of the Apostle do usually design the Pope But if they had examined his Title to that Apostleship as they would try an ordinary man's Title to a piece of Land they might easily have found a number of flaws and main defects therein For first It would be enquired whether the Apostleship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a special Commission which being personal only was to determine with the death of the first Apostles For howsoever at their first entry into the execution of this Commission we find that Matthias was admitted to the Apostleship in the room of Judas yet afterwards when James the Brother of John was slain by Herod we do not read that any other was substituted in his place Nay we know that the Apostles generally left no Successors in this kind Neither did any of the Bishops he of Rome only excepted that sate in those famous Churches wherein the Apostles exercised their ministry challenge an Apostleship or an Universal Bishoprick by virtue of that Succession It would secondly therefore be inquired what sound Evidence they can produce to shew that one of the company was to hold the Apostleship as it were in Fee for him and his Successors for ever and that the other eleven should hold the same for term of life only Thirdly if this state of perpetuity was to be cast upon one how came it to fall upon St. Peter rather than upon St. John who outlived all the rest of his follows and so as a surviving feoffee had the fairest right to retain the same in himself and his Successors for ever Fourthly if that state were wholly setled upon St. Peter seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome we require them to shew why so great an inheritance as this should descend unto the younger Brother as it were by Burrough-English rather than to the elder according to the ordinary manner of descents Especially seeing Rome hath little else to alledge for this preferment but only that St. Peter was crucified in it which was a very slender reason to move the Apostle so to respect it Seeing therefore the grounds of this great claim of the Bishop of Rome appear to be so vain and frivolous I may safely conclude That he ought to have no Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority within this Realm which is the principal point contained in the second part of the Oath JAMES REX RIght Reverend Father in God and Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor We greet you well You have not deceived our expectation nor the gracious opinion We ever conceived both of your abilities in Learning and of your faithfulness to Us and our Service Whereof as we have received sundry Testimonies both from Our precedent Deputies as likewise from Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Cousin and Councellor the Viscount Falkland Our present Deputy of that Realm so have We now of late in one particular had a further evidence of your Duty and Affection well expressed by your late carriage in Our Castle-Chamber there at the censure of those disobedient Magistrates who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy Wherein your zeal to the maintenance of Our Just and Lawful Power defended with so much Learning and Reason deserves Our Princely and Gracious thanks which We do by this Our Letter unto you and so bid you farewell Given under Our Signet at Our Court at White-Hall the eleventh of January 1622. In the twentieth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland To the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor the Bishop of Meath This discourse had so good an effect that divers of the Offenders being satisfied they might lawfully take those Oaths did thereby avoid the Sentence of Praemunire then ready to be pronounced against them After the Bishop had been in Ireland about two years it pleased King James to imploy him to write the Antiquities of the British Church and that he might have the better opportunity and means for that end he sent over a Letter to the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland commanding them to grant a Licence for his being absent from his See part of which Letter it may not be amiss to give you here Verbatim JAMES REX RIght Trusty and Welbeloved Cousins c. We Greet you well Whereas We have heretofore in Our Princely judgment made choice of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to imploy him in Collecting the Antiquities of the British Church before and since the Christian Faith was received by the English Nation And whereas We are also given to understand That the said Bishop hath already taken pains in divers things in that kind which being published might tend to the furtherance of Religion and good Learning Our pleasure therefore is That so soon as the said Bishop hath setled the necessary Affairs of his Bishoprick there he should repair into England and to one of the Universities here to enable himself by the helps to be had there to proceed the better to the finishing of the said Work Requiring you hereby to cause our Licence to be passed unto him the said Lord Bishop of Meath under Our Great Seal orotherwise as he shall desire it and unto you shall be thought fit for his repairing unto this Kingdom for Our Service and for his continuance here so long time as he shall have occasion to stay about the perfecting of those Works undertaken by him by Our Commandment and for the good of the Church c. Upon which Summons the Bishop came over into England and spent about a year here in consulting the best Manuscripts in both Universities and private Libraries in order to the perfecting that noble Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum though it was not published till above two years after when we shall take occasion to speak thereof more at large
After his coming over again he was for some time engaged in answering the bold challenge of Malone an Irish Jesuite of the Anno 1624 Colledge of Lovain which Treatise he finished and published this year in Ireland which he so solidly and learnedly performed that those that shall peruse it may be abundantly satisfied that those very Judges the Challenger appealed to viz. the Fathers of the Primitive Church did never hold or believe Transubstantiation Auricular Confession Purgatory or a Limbus Patrum Prayer for the Dead or to Saints the Use of Images in Divine Worship Absolute Free-Will with Merits annexed with those other points by him maintained And though about three years after the publishing of this Treatise when the Colledge of Lovain had been long studying how to answer it the said Malone did at last publish a long and tedious reply stuffed with Scurrillous and Virulent Expressions against the Lord Primate his Relations and Calling and full of quotations either falsly cited out of the Fathers or else out of divers supposititious Authors as also forged Miracles and lying Legends made use of meerly to blind the Eyes of ordinary Readers who are not able to distinguish Gold from Dross all which together gave the Bishop so great a disgust that he disdained to answer a fool according to his folly and made no reply unto him though some of his worthy friends would not let it pass so But the learned Dr. Hoyl and Dr. Sing and Mr. Puttock did take him to task and so fully and clearly lay open the falshood and disingenuity of those his Arguments and Quotations from the Ancient Records and Fathers of the Church which had been cited by this Author that he had very little reason to brag of his Victory After the Bishop had published this Treatise he returned again into England to give his last hand to his said Work De Primordiis and being now busied about it the Arch-Bishoprick of Armagh became vacant by the death of Dr. Hampton the late Arch-Bishop not long after which the King was pleased to nominate the Bishop of Meath though there were divers competitors as the fittest Person for that great charge and high dignity in the Church in respect of his own great Merits and Services done unto it and not long after he was Elected Arch-Bishop by the Dean and Chapter there After which the next Testimony that he received of His Majesties favour was his Letter to a Person of Quality in Ireland who had newly obtained the Custodium of the Temporalties of that See Forbidding him to meddle with or receive any of the Rents or Profits of the same but immediately to deliver what he had already received unto the Receivers of the present Arch-Bishop since he was here imployed in His Majesties special Service c. Not long after which favour it pleased God to take King James of Pious Memory out of this World Nor was his Son and Successor our late Gracious Sovereign less kind unto him than his Father had been which he signified not long after his coming to the Crown by a Letter under his Privy Signet to the Lord Deputy and Treasurer of the Realm of Ireland That Whereas the present Arch-Bishop of Armagh had for many years together on several occasions performed many painful and acceptable Services to his Dear Father deceased and upon his special directions That therefore he was pleased as a gracious acceptation thereof and in consideration of his said Services done or to be done hereafter to bestow upon the said Primate out of his Princely bounty 400 pound English out of the Revenues of that Kingdom But before the return of the said Arch-Bishop into Ireland I shall here mention an accident that happened about this time to let you see that he neglected no opportunity of bringing men from the darkness of Popery into the clearer light of the Reformed Religion I shall give you his own relation of it from a Note which though imperfect I find of his own hand writing Viz. That in November 1625. he was invited by the Lord Mordant and his Lady to my Lord's House at Drayton in Northampton-shire to confer with a Priest he then kept by the name of Beaumont upon the points in dispute between the Church of Rome and Ours And particularly That the Religion maintained by Publick Authority in the Church of England was no new Religion but the same that was taught by our Saviour and his Apostles and ever continued in the Primitive Church during the purest times So far my Lord's Note What was the issue of this Dispute we must take from the report of my Lord and Lady and other Persons of Quality there present that this Conference held for some days and at last ended with that satisfaction to them both and confusion of his Adversary that as it confirmed the Lady in her Religion whom her Lord by the means of this Priest endeavoured to pervert so it made his Lordship so firm a Convert to the Protestant Religion that he lived and died in it When the Lord Primate had dispatcht his Affairs in England he year 1626 then returned to be Enthroned in Ireland having before his going over received many Congratulatory Letters from the Lord Viscount Falkland then Lord Deputy the Lord Loftus then Lord Chancellor the Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin and divers others of the most considerable of the Bishops and Nobility of that Kingdom expressing their high satisfaction for his promotion to the Primacy many of which I have now by me no way needful to be inserted here Being now returned into his native Country and setled in this Anno 1626 great charge having not only many Churches but Diocesses under his care he began carefully to inspect his own Diocess first and the manners and abilities of those of the Clergy by frequent personal Visitations admonishing those he found faulty and giving excellent advice and directions to the rest charging them to use the Liturgy of the Church in all Publick Administrations and to Preach and Catechise diligently in their respective Cures and to make the Holy Scripture the rule as well as the subject of their Doctrine and Sermons Nor did he only endeavour to reform the Clergy among whom in so large a Diocess and where there was so small Encouragements there could not but be many things amiss but also the Proctors Apparitors and other Officers of his Ecclesiastical Courts against whom there were many great complaints of abuses and exactions in his Predecessor's time nor did he find that Popery and Prophaneness had increased in that Kingdom by any thing more than the neglect of due Catechising and Preaching for want of which instruction the poor People that were outwardly Protestants were very ignorant of the Principles of Religion and the Papists continued still in a blind obedience to their Leaders therefore he set himself with all his power to redress these neglects as well by his own example as by his Ecclesiastical
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
of the People to War Moses and so successively the Supreme Governor had the power of the Trumpet for that purpose Nu. 10. 2. 9. and accordingly the Duty and Oath of Allegiance binds every Subject to come in to the defence of his Sovereign against what Power soever The danger of Poverty and ruine of Estate must give way to publick respects Nor must it be provided against but in a just way in the prosecution of which Life and Goods and every thing else must be committed to the Providence of God To the Second FOr the discerning of the justness of the Cause We must not look only at the Ends pretended which though never so fair and specious do not justifie a bad Cause or unlawful Means nor at the Wickedness or Evil carriage of Instruments imployed in the prosecution which doth not conclude the Cause to be bad and unjust But we must look at the means used for such Ends and then consider the Ends whether intended by those that do pretend them By these we shall see the Cause of the adverse Party to the King is unjust For First The means they use is War maintained against their Sovereign the End pretended is the defence of Religion Laws Liberties But War made by Subjects though really intending such an End is Unjust I. It has no Warrant in Scripture but is disallowed Prov. 30. 31. No rising up against a King 1 Sam. 8. 18. No remedy left them against the Oppressions of their King but crying to the Lord. The Prophets also which bitterly reproved the Idolatrous and unjust Kings of Israel and Judah never called upon the Elders of the People by Arms to secure the Worship of God or the just Government of the Kingdom In the 13th to the Romans and the 1 Ep. 2 Cap. of Peter the same Doctrine of Passive Obedience is taught and accordingly was the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Christians II. Arms taken up by Subjects do invade the Power and Rights of the Sovereign For it takes from him the Sword which he is said to bear Rom. 13. 4. and so doth every Supreme Magistrate The Supreme Power being signified by bearing the Sword as the best Interpreters do affirm And as our Laws and the Oath of Supremacy do acknowlege our King the only Supreme Governor and to be vested with the Power of Arms. Now what saith the Scripture He that takes the Sword shall perish by the Sword that is He that takes and uses it without Warrant without and against his consent that bears the Sword that is Supreme Also War undertaken by Subjects invades the Rights of the Sovereign his Revenue Customs c. will not give to Caesar what is Caesar ' s. But the Scripture is very express in preserving Rights and Power entire even to the worst Princes Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's said our Saviour when Caesar was bad enough And St. Paul bids us Render them their Due Tribute Customs Honour when the Emperours were at the worst And our Laws determine Insurrection or Levying of War to be Treason not against a Religious and just Prince only but indefinitely against any Secondly Their Pretences are taken away if we consider That the continuance of the Established Religion and Government together with a just Reformation of all Abuses and Grievances has been offered promised protested for by his Majesty But the Religion and Government of Church and State as by Law Established will not content the adverse Party however they pretend to fight for Religion and Laws I mean those of the Party which are the main contrivers of the Enterprise and those also upon whose number the main strength of the Faction rests being of such Sects for the most part as are by the Law to abjure the Land because not to be held within the bounds of any setled Government There are no question many which follow them and do really intend the advancement of Religion going after them as many did after Absalom in the simplicity of their hearts expecting a speedier course of Justice and redress of Grievances which they suffered by some evil Officers under David 2 Sam. 15. 4. 11. But for the other to whom we owe this War and who will rule and dispose all if they do prevail their end intended and driven at is the abolishing of the Publick Service and Liturgy which is Established by Law the utter taking away of Episcopal Government which has always been And for their greater security they will have the Power which by Law is his Majesty's and because these are not granted Arms are taken up by Subjects to the invading of his Majesty's Rights and Power and for the maintaining of them the Right and Liberty of Subjects are destroyed To the Third HEnce will appear what is to be Answered to the Third Query That there is Precept and Example for Passive Obedience but none for taking Arms to divert apparent Innovations The Example commonly abused to this purpose is that of the Israelites preparing to go out to War against their Brethren the 〈◊〉 and Gadâ—es for raising an Altar Jos. 22. 13. But it is altogether impertinent for those Arms are taken up and that War prepared by those that had the Supreme Power To the Fourth THe right being discovered it would tend much to the ending of this War and the restoring of our peace if the King's Subjects would rise as one Man to maintain the Right Every particular Man is bound to do it upon the Summons of his Sovereign commanding his assistance The danger and loss of Estate in discharge of Duty is but an outward Consideration and to be left to the Providence of God as was said in the first Resolution To the other part of this fourth Query Answer That necessary maintenance is due to him that lawfully bears Arms For who goeth a Warfare any time as the Apostle saith at his own charges And if the Army cannot be maintained but by free Quarter it is Lawful to receive maintenance that way though at the cost of others whose private interests must give way to the publick Indeed the abuse of free Quarter may make a Souldier guilty of the Sins here mentioned but then it is by his own wilful Transgression To the Fifth HE must in the prosecution of his Military Duty so behave himself as to observe John Baptist's rule Do violence to no man that is unjust violence for he forbids not to use force against them of the adverse Party who are in Arms ready to offer force For sparing Friends and Kindred he must be guided by Christian prudence so to do it as thereby not to endanger any present design or at large to hinder the publick Service As for the King 's Person it cannot be every where so that he must not limit his Duty and Service to the immediate defence of it but know That to serve any where in the defence of his Majesty's just Cause is to defend Him To the Sixth
to move his Majesty that he the said Doctor might be spoken to for the surrendering of his Patent together with the renewing of a former Suit of making him my Servant in that place sealed up with a promise of rendring his due obedience and thankfulness unto me for my favour So far was he then from those high terms whereon he now standeth But the case is now so far altered that this obedient Servant of mine affecteth not an Equality only with me by exempting himself wholly from my controul but also for ought I see a Superiority over me For if it shall please him to visit my Diocess or my Province as he did in the time of my Predecessor what is there in that Patent as he hath drawn it whereby I may hinder him from so doing Your Honour may by private Instructions and his Discretion free your self of this fear faith my Lord-Keeper in his Marginal Annotations upon my former Letter But good my Lord give me leave to think that the hope of such a Prize as he got by his other Visitation of all the Arch-bishops and Bishops in our Kingdom will very easily blind this Man's Discretion and for my private Instructions what weight will they be of if it be now thought a matter not reasonable that my Substitute should be tied by them As for the Report which your Lordships are to make unto his Majesty upon the reference of this Business unto you I humbly crave that for so much as doth concern me it may be made to this effect First That I never did nor do refuse to submit my self to that Agreement which you have put under your hands to be signified to his Majesty but am ready to perform it in every particular Secondly That for the limiting of my Substitute and the terms whereupon he must hold his Place under me of which there is nothing laid down in that Agreement which you have signed that which concerneth Fees and Profits only excepted I do desire that his Patent only be drawn according to the Pattern of Sir Henry Martin's and that the same Power may be reserved to me and my Successors that my Lord of Canterbury's Grace doth retain unto himself in the exercise of the Office of Prerogative and Faculties Which if it may here stand well with Sir Henry Martin's Reputation I see not but it may stand as well likewise in Ireland without any such great disparagement to Mr. Doctor 's Dignity And lastly If the Doctor herein shall not hold himself to be fairly and exceeding favourably dealt withal my desire is that both of us may be left to the Law to try our Rights together For thereby it shall be made as clear as the Light that the Doctor 's Patent was absolutely void or voidable ab initio that whatsoever validity it had at the beginning yet it was afterwards forfeited by his notorious Misdemeanour and in fine that it was actually surrendred into the Hands of His Majesty and by him cassated and annulled howsoever the Ceremony of cancelling it hath been neglected Which kind of Trial by course of Law I do now the rather desire yet strill submitting my self to the former Agreement if it shall so seem fit unto your Lordships 1. Because the Doctor wished mine Agent to certify me in plain terms that he would not be under me and hereby for his part hath disclaimed the benefit of your Lordships Order 2. Because by his incensing of my Lord of Canterbury against me of whose Grace I never yet deserved evil by his abusing of me in his Reports unto your Lordships and by his disgraceful traducing of me in all Companies he hath made himself utterly unworthy of the Favour which I intended to shew unto him 3. Because as long as my Life shall be conceived to remain in that pretended Patent the validity of the Acts that have passed in the Prerogative Court during the time of my Predecessor some whereof have been of very great moment may be held in suspence it being still questionable whether they were done coram non-Judice or no. All which I leave unto your honourable consideration and humbly craving pardon if I have any way overshot my self in defending mine Innocency and Reputation against the unworthy Proceedings of my ungrateful Accuser I rest Your Lordships ready to do you Service J. A. Much Haddam Aug. 20. 1625. LETTER XCIII A Letter from Mr. John Selden to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord IT was most glad News to me to hear of your so forward Recovery and I shall pray for the addition of Strength to it that so you may the easier go on still in the advancement of that Common-wealth of Learning wherein you can so guide us I humbly thank your Lordship for your Instructions touching the Samaritan Bible and the Books I have returned the Saxon Annals again as you desired with this suit that if you have more of them for these are very slight ones and the old Book of Ely Historia Jornallensis the Saxon Evangelist the Book of Worcester the Book of Mailros or any of them you will be pleased to send me them all or as many as you have of them by you and what else you have of the History of Scotland and Ireland and they shall be returned at your pleasure if you have a Saxon Bede I beseech you let that be one also If I have any thing here of the rest or ought else that your Lordship requires for any present use I shall most readily send them to you and shall ever be Your Lordship's most affectionate Servant J. Selden Sept. 14. 1625. Wrest Sept. 19. Sent him upon this Annales Latino-Saxonici the Book of Mailros Fordoni Scotichronic Fragment Scotic Annal. ad finem Ivonis Carnot Fragment Annalium Abb. B. Mariae Virginis Dublin Annales Hiberniae Thomae Case The Book of Hoath Pembrig's Annals Ms. There is hope as Sir Robert Cotton tells me that a very ancient Greek MS. Copy of the Council of Nice the first of them of that name is to be had some where in Huntingdonshire I thought it was a piece of News that would be acceptable to your Lordship he is in chase for it LETTER XCIV A Letter from Mr. John Cotton of Boston in New-England to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend MY beloved Neighbour-Minister Mr. Wood acquainted me with your desire to hear from me how I conceived of the way of God's eternal Predestination and the Execution of it I should not have hearkned to him herein tho I love him well were it not for the deep Affection and Reverence I bear to your Person and Gifts which hath constrained me together with his importunacy to yield to the sending of this Discourse to you which I was occasioned to write a year ago for the satisfaction of a Neighbour-Minister in Points of this nature The Questions and Answers in the beginning of the Book I delivered and opened
Cook 's Patent to be void and so judicially declâ—â—ing it I wish you would not be too forward in standing upon that Point To 〈◊〉 in a judicial manner of the validity or invalidity of a Patent in no office of the Ecclesiastical but of the Civil Magistrate and for the one to 〈…〉 the Judiciture of that which appertaineth to another you know draweth near to a 〈…〉 Complaints I know will be made against my Court and your Court and every Court wherein Vice shall be punished and that not by Delinquents alone but also by their Landlords be they Protestants or others who in this Country 〈◊〉 not how their Tenants live so they pay them their Rents I learned of old in Aeschylus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if they 〈…〉 the like Authority will be ready to receive such Accusations against their Brethren every one will judg that there is less cause why they should be pitied when they are served so themselves The way to help this is not to take away the Jurisdiction from the Chancellors and to put it into the Bishops hands alone All Bishops are not like my Lord of Kilmore I know a Bishop in this Land who exerciseth the Jurisdiction himself and I dare boldly say that there is more Unjustice and Oppression to be found in him alone than in all the Chancellors in the whole Kingdom put together and though I do not justify the taking of Fees without good ground yet I may truly say of a great part of mine own and of many other Bishops Diocesses that if Men stood not more in fear of the Fees of the Court than of standing in a white Sheet we should have here among us another Sodom and Gomorrah Your course of taking pains in keeping Courts your self I will commend so that you condemn not them that think they have reason why they should do otherwise As for my self mecum habito and am not ignorant quam sit mihi curta supellex My Chancellor is better skilled in the Law than I am and far better able to manage Matters of that kind Suam quisque norit artem runneth still in my mind and how easy a matter it is for a Bishop that is ignorant in the Law to do wrong unto others and run himself into a Premunire and where Wrong is done I know Right may more easily be had against a Chancellor than against a Bishop If my Chancellor doth Wrong the Star-Chamber lieth open where I will be the Man that will cast the first Stone at him my self as I did for the removing and censuring of him whom I found at my first coming into the Diocess of Meath And as for my late visiting of your Diocesses your Lordship need not a whit be terrified therewith It is not to be expected that an Arch-bishop passing through a whole Province upon a suddain should be able to perform that which a Bishop may do by leasure in his every years Visitation Neither may the Arch-bishop meddle with the Reformation of any thing but what is presented If any such Presentation were made and reformation of the Abuse neglected there is cause to complain of the Visitation But as for the taking of Mony your Lordship will find that when you come next to visit your self there will be great odds betwixt the Sum that ought to be paid unto you and that which was delivered unto me and yet if your Clergy can get but half so much for their Mony from you as they did from me they may say you were the best Bishop that ever came among them When the Clergy of the Diocess of Ardagh was betrayed into the hands of their Adversaries à quibius minime omnium oportuorat and like to be so overborn that many of them could scarce have a bit of Bread lest them to put in their Mouths I stood then in the Gap and opposed my self for them against the whole Country and stayed that Plague In the other Diocess of Kilmore when complaint was made against the Clergy by that Knave whom they say your Lordship did absolve I took him in hand and if the Clergy had not failed in the prosecution would have bound him fast enough without asking any question for Conscience-â—ake whether he were of our Communion or no. And whereas they held their Means as it were by courtesy from the State I took the pains my self to make up the Table of all their Tithes and Duties and at this very instant am working in England to have it firmly established unto them by his Majesty's Authority And yet the Sums of Meâ—â—y which they paid me were not so great but that I could make a shift to spend it in defraying the Charges of the very Journey I am a Fool I know in this commending or defending rather my self but consider who constrained me The Writings which you sent me I had long before from the same hand which sent them unto you I should be glad to hear your judgment of them and would be glad also to go on in further answering of the remain of your Letter but that I am quite tired and what I have written I fear will not be so pleasing unto you What resteth I partly refer to Mr. Dean's Relation and partly to our Conference when we shall next meet where many things may be more fitly delivered by word of mouth than committed to a Letter In the mean time I commend you to the Blessing of our good God and ever rest Your most assured loving Friend and Brother notwithstanding any unkind Passages which may have slip'd from me in this Letter Ja. Armachanus Drogheda Feb. 23. 1629. LETTER CXLIV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Thank your Grace heartily for your Letters especially for the Preface of this your last It is true my Lord God hath restor'd me even from Death it self for I think no Man was farther gone and scap'd And your Grace doth very Christian-like put me in mind that God having renewed my Lease I should pay him an Income of some Service to his Church which I hope in the strength of his Grace I shall ever be willing and sometime able to perform I have not yet recovered the great Weakness into which my Sickness cast me but I hope when the Spring is come forward my strength will encrease and enable me to Service In the mean time my Lord as weak as I have been I have begun to pay my Fine but what the Sum comes to God knows is very little Your Table of the Tithes of Ulster and the Business concerning the Impropriations are both past and concerning both I leave my self to Mr. Hygat's Report As touching the Deanery of Armagh I am glad to hear that any place of Preferment in that Kingdom hath so good means of subsistence without Tithes But I must needs acquaint your Grace that neither my Lord
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