IT is Lawful to fight in the Company of notorious wicked men and of a different Faith looking at the Cause whatever inordinate ends they have The Primitive Christians fought in the Company of Heathens and Idolaters under their Heathen Emperors and did by prayer obtain relief for the whole Army when it was in distress Which did also shew That God approved that their Service it being the duty they owed to their Lawful Emperors From the performance of which duty to a Sovereign the many evil Examples and occasions of Sin which the Military life abounds with cannot excuse that Subject that is justly Commanded to it But the Conscionable Souldier must commend himself to the Grace and Protection of the Almighty who is able to keep him from the dangers as of the Body so of the Soul too Remember the Examples of the good and faithful Centurion that came to our Saviour Luke 7. And of the Godly Centurion Cornelius who is approved of God Acts 10. To the Seventh FOR obeying Extrajudicial Precepts of his Majesty If they be such as command a Man to be Active in doing that which is unjust by the known Laws of the Land he yields truest Obedience that denies to fulfil such a Command Only this must not be generally pronounced as a Rule in time of War where necessity will be in many things a stronger Law than that which is fixed for a peaceable Government But if they be such Commands as make me only Passive by requiring some of my Estate upon a Loan or Tax I may not hastily square with my Sovereign by denyal and standing out For any Man as he may recede from his right and that which is his own so ought he not to contest with his Sovereign upon matters of no very great Moment As for the Infringing of the Liberties of the Subject such Taxes or Loans or any other Extrajudicial Commands of the King must be General extending to all or most Subjects and Customary being often imposed before they can be judged so immediately to infringe the Subject's Liberty as to make a Subject think he is bound to deny To the Last TO yield to Martialists quartered upon him if they be the King 's he is bound in duty if of the Rebels he is directed by prudence to yield unto it when they can by force command it About this time he also preached before the King on a Fast day the Text 2 Chron. 7. 14. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways Then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their Sin and will heal their Land In this Sermon among other things suitable to the occasion he had this remarkable passage viz. The casting of our Eyes upon other mens sins more than upon our own makes us to esteem the things we suffer to be the injuries of men and not the punishments of God When the outward senses fail we take it to be a sign of approaching death and so when we are given over to have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not it is an argument of decaying Souls For as no Prayers or Fastings in the World can sanctifie a Rebellion nor tempt God to own an unjust party so neither will a good cause alone justifie us any more than a true Religion without practice we must first do our duties otherwise neither the one nor the other will do us any good with many other things against that looseness and debauch'dness of manners which he had observed in too many who believed that the being of the right side would atone for all other faults Thus he neither spared or flattered any when his duty required him to speak the truth and to reprove those sins that were most scandalous at that time and place He would also tell them in conversation that such actions would frustrate all our hopes of success for how could they expect that God should bless their Arms whilst they were fighting against him Nor was he less severe against the actions of the then Rebellious Houses against his Majesty and declared against the War they made as wicked and of fatal Consequence and which cast an irreparable scandal upon the Reformed Religion so that they thereby rendered themselves liable to the Censures of the Church that might justly have been pronounced against them And during the Treaty of Peace at Uxbridge he preached likewise before the King on a Fast day upon Jam. 3. 18. The fruits of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace Wherein he shewed from vers 16. the great evils which come of Contention Strife and War and from whence they proceed and the great happiness and blessings of Peace and wished that those then up in Arms in a Rebellious manner against their Prince would seriously consider this and speedily accept of those gracious Concessions that His Majesty then offer'd though all to no purpose for the Treaty quickly after broke off the Rebels being too stout to yield to any equal Terms and so that unhappy War for a short time suspended broke out again with greater violence never ceasing till at last it ended not only with the murder of the best of Kings but also with the loss and destruction of those very Rights and Priviledges for which these men pretended to shed so much blood And now it being given out that Oxford would soon be besieged year 1644 5 and that the King would speedily quit that place the Lord Primate was advised by his friends if it were possible to be avoided not to run that hazard and therefore having been before invited by his Son-in-law Sir Timothy Tyrrel who had married his only Daughter to come to them to Caerdiffe in Wales where the said Sir Timothy was then Governor and General of the Ordnance under the Lord Gerard Lieutenant General of his Majesty's Forces in South Wales which invitation the Lord Primate resolved to accept and so having taken leave of His Majesty he with his approbation took the opportunity of waiting upon his Highness the Prince of Wales our late Gracious Sovereign as far as Bristol and from thence he went to Caerdiffe where his Son and Daughter welcomed him with all that Joy and Affection which so good a Father after so long an absence could expect Here he staid almost a year free from the dangers of War this being a strong Garrison and well manned which invited many persons of good Quality to come thither for safety so that the Lord Primate had a good opportunity to pursue his Studies having brought many Chests of Books along with him and he now made a great progress in the first part of his Annals Whilst he was at Caerdiffe his Majesty after the fatal Battle at Naseby came into Wales to my Lord Marquess of Worcester's at Ragland and from thence to Caerdiffe where he staid some days And the Lord Primate then enjoyed the satisfaction
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
of Christ are inabled to govern well to speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authority to loose such as are Penitent to commit others unto the Lord's Prison until their amendment or to bind them over unto the Judgment of the Great Day if they shall persist in their wilfulness and obstinacy By the other Princes have an imperious power assigned by God unto them for the defence of such as do well and executing revenge and wrath upon such as do evil whether by death or banishment or confiscation of goods or imprisonment according to the quality of the offence When St. Peter that had the Keys committed unto him made bold to draw the Sword he was commanded to put it up as a weapon that he had no authority to meddle withal And on the other side when Uzziah the King would venture upon the execution of the Priest's Office it was said unto him It pertaineth not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the Sons of Aaron that are Consecrated to burn incense Let this therefore be our second Conclusion That the power of the Sword and of the Keys are two distinct Ordinances of God and that the Prince hath no more Authority to enter upon the execution of any part of the Priest's Function than the Priest hath to intrude upon any part of the Office of the Prince In the third place we are to observe That the power of the Civil Sword the supreme managing whereof belongeth to the King alone is not to be restrained unto Temporal Causes only but is by Gods Ordinance to be extended likewise unto all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes That as the spiritual Rulers of the Church do exercise their kind of Government in bringing men unto obedience not of the duties of the first Table alone which concerneth Piety and the Religious Service which man is bound to perform unto his Creator but also of the second which respecteth moral honesty and the Offices that man doth owe unto man so the Civil Magistrate is to use his Authority also in redressing the abuses committed against the first Table as well as against the second that is to say as well in punishing of an Heretick or an Idolater or a Blasphemer as of a Thief or a Murtherer or a Traytor and in providing by all good means that such as live under his Government may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and honesty And howsoever by this means we make both Prince and Priest to be in their several places Custodes utriusque Tabulae Keepers of both God's Tables yet do we not hereby any way confound both of their Offices together For though the matter wherein their Government is exercised may be the same yet is the form and manner of governing therein always different the one reaching to the outward man only the other to the inward the one binding or loosing the Soul the other laying hold on the Body and the things belonging thereunto the one having special reference to the Judgment of the World to come the other respecting the present retaining or losing of some of the comforts of this life That there is such a Civil Government as this in Causes Spiritual or Ecclesiastical no man of judgment can deny For must not Heresie for example be acknowledged to be a cause meerly Spiritual or Ecclesiastical And yet by what power is an Heretick put to death The Officers of the Church have no Authority to take away the life of any man it must be done therefore per brachium saeculare and consequently it must be yielded without contradiction that the temporal Magistrate doth exercise therein a part of his Civil Government in punishing a Crime that is of its own nature Spiritual or Ecclesiastical But here it will be said the words of the Oath being general That the King is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness's Dominions and Countries How may it appear that the power of the Civil Sword only is meant by that Government and that the power of the Keys is not comprehended therein I answer First That where a Civil Magistrate is affirmed to be the Governor of his own Dominions and Countries by common intendment this must needs be understood of a Civil Government and may in no reason be extended to that which is meerly of another kind Secondly I say That where an ambiguity is conceived to be in any part of an Oath it ought to be taken according to the understanding of him for whose satisfaction the Oath was ministred Now in this case it hath been sufficiently declared by publick Authority That no other thing is meant by the Government here mentioned but that of the Civil Sword only For in the Book of Articles agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. thus we read Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injuctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers If it be here objected that the Authority of the Convocation is not a sufficient ground for the exposition of that which was enacted in Parliament I answer That these Articles stand confirmed not only by the Royal assent of the Prince for the establishing of whose Supremacy the Oath was framed but also by a special Act of Parliament which is to be found among the Statutes in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth chap. 12. Seeing therefore the makers of the Law have full Authority to expound the Law and they have sufficiently manifested That by the supreme Government given to the Prince they understand that kind of Government only which is exercised with the Civil Sword I conclude that nothing can be more plain than this That without all scruple of Conscience the King's Majesty may be acknowledged in this sense to be the only Supreme Governor of all his Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And so have I cleared the first main branch of the Oath I come now unto the Second which is propounded Negatively That no foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm The foreigner that challengeth this Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Jurisdiction over us
though upon a sad occasion of his Majesty's excellent conversation in the same House who received him with his wonted kindness and favour Whilst he was here the Lord Primate preached before him in the Castle and when his Majesty went away and that the Lord Primate had taken his leave of him I heard him declare that nothing came nearer to his heart than the imminent danger of the King and Church with the effusion of so much Christian Blood His Majesty's necessities now not permitting him to leave many men in Garrisons he was now forced to unfurnish this as well as others of its Souldiers and Ammunition so that Sir Timothy Tyrrel was forced to quit that Government by reason of which the Arch-Bishop being forced to remove was in a great strait whether to go the ways from thence to Oxford being all cut off by the Enemy so that he had some thoughts being near the Sea of going over into France or Holland to both which places he had been formerly invited as hath been already mentioned But whilst he was in this perplexity the Lady Dowager Stradling sent him a kind invitation to come to her Castle of St. Donates as soon as he pleased which he accepted as a great favour But by that time he was ready to go with his Daughter the Lady Tyrrel the Country thereabouts was up in Arms in a tumultuous manner to the number of Ten Thousand as was supposed who chose themselves Officers to form them into a Body pretending for the King but yet would not be governed by English Commanders or suffer any English Garrisons in the Country this gave the Lord Primate a fresh disturbance the Welch-men lying upon the ways between that place and St. Donates but there were some at that time in Caerdiffe who would needs undertake to convey the Lord Primate and his company through by ways so that they might avoid this tumultuous Rabble which though it might be well advised by the then Governor of Caerdiffe and was faithfully enough executed by them that undertook it yet happened very ill for my Lord and those that were with him for going by some private ways near the Mountains they fell into a stragling Party that were scouting thereabouts who soon led them to their main Body where it was Crime enough that they were English so that they immediately fell to plundering and breaking open my Lord Brimate's Chests of Books and other things which he then had with him ransacking all his Manuscripts and Papers many of them of his own hand writing which were quickly dispersed among a thousand hands and not content with this they pulled the Lord Primate and his Daughter and other Ladies from their Horses all which the Lord Primate bore with his wonted patience and a seeming unconcernedness But now some of their Officers coming in who were of the Gentry of the Country seemed very much ashamed of this barbarous treatment and by force or fair means caused their Horses and other things which were taken from them to be restored but as for the Books and Papers they were got into too many hands to be then retrieved nor were these Gentlemen satisfied with this but some of them very civilly conducted him through the rest of this tumultuous Rabble to Sir John Aubery's House not far off where he was civilly received and lodged that Night When he came thither and had retired himself I must confess that I never saw him so much troubled in my life and those that were with him before my self said That he seemed not more sensibly concerned for all his losses in Ireland than for this saying to his Daughter and those that endeavoured to comfort him I know that it is God's hand and I must endeavour to bear it patiently though I have too much humane frailty not to be extremely concerned for I am touched in a very tender place and He has thought â—it to take from me at once all that I have been gathering together above these twenty years and which I intended to publish for the advancement of Learning and the good of the Church The next day divers of the neighbouring Gentry and Clergy came to Visit him and to Condole this irreparable loss promising to do their utmost endeavours that what Books or Papers were not burnt or torn should be restored and so very civilly waited on him to St. Donates And to let you see that these Gentlemen and Ministers did not only promise but were also able to perform it they so used their power with the people that publishing in the Churches all over those parts That all that had any such Books or Papers should bring them to their Ministers or Landlords which they accordingly did so that in the space of two or three Months there were brought in to him by parcels all his Books and Papers so fully that being put altogether we found not many wanting those most remarkable that I or others can call to mind were two Manuscripts concerning the VValdenses which he much valued and which he had obtained toward the continuing of his Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione As also another Manuscript Catalogue of the Persian Kings communicated by Elikmannus and one Volume of Manuscripts Variae Lectiones of the New Testament And of Printed Books only Tully's Works and some others of less concernment Whilst the Lord Primate was at St. Donates till he could get his own Books and Papers again he spent his time chiefly in looking over the Books and Manuscripts in the Library in that Castle and which had been collected by Sir Edward Stradling a great Antiquary and friend of Mr. Cambden's and out of some of these Manuscripts the L. Primate made many choice Collections of the British or Welch Antiquity which I have now in my Custody Within a little more than a Month after my Lord Primate's coming hither he was taken with a sharp and dangerous illness which began at first with the Strangury and suppression of Urine with extremity of torture which at last caused a violent bleeding at the Nose for near forty hours together without any considerable intermission no means applied could stop it so that the Physicians and all about him dispaired of his life till at last when we apprehended he was expiring it stanched of it self for he lay a good while in a trance but God had some farther work for him to perform and was pleased by degrees to restore him to his former health and strength but it is worth the remembering that whilst he was in the midst of his pain as also his bleeding he was still patient praising God and resigning up himself to his Will and giving all those about him or that came to visit him excellent Heavenly advice to a Holy Life and due preparation for death e're its Agonies seized them saying It is a dangerous thing to leave all undone till our last sickness I fear a Death-bed Repentance will avail us little if we have lived
likewise see by what he writes in the same Chap. in these words viz. Not that I am against the managing of this Presidency and Authority in one man by the joynt Counsel and Consent of many Presbyters I have offered to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errors Corruptions and Partialities which are incident to any one man And so likewise in the Chapter about the Reformation of the Times he has this passage I was willing to grant or restore to Presbytery what with reason or discretion it can pretend to in a Conjuncture with Episcopacy but for that wholly to invade the Power and by the Sword to Arrogate and quite Abrogate the Authority of that Ancient Order I think neither just as to Episcopacy nor safe for Presbytery nor yet any way convenient for this Church or State And that the most Pious and Learned Dr. Hammond was about the same time of the Lord Primate's judgment in this matter may appear by this passage in the Preface to his Treatise of the Power of the Keys That a moderate Episcopacy with a standing assistant Presbytery as it will certainly satisfie the desires of those whose pretentions are regular and moderate craving nothing more and in some things less than the Laws of the Land so that it will appear to be that which all parties can best Tolerate and which next himself both Presbyterian Independant and Erastian will make no question to choose and prefer before any of the other Pretenders And though it may be true that divers of the more sober of the Presbyterian party have seemed to have approved of these terms of Reconciliation yet it has been only since the ill success their Discipline hath met with both in England and Scotland that has made them more moderate in their demands for it is very well known that when these Terms were first proposed the Ring-leaders of the Party utterly cryed them down as a great Enemy to Presbytery Since this Expedient would have yet left Episcopacy in a better condition than it is at this day in any of the Lutheran Churches but they were not then for Divisum Imperium would have all or nothing and they had their desires So that it is no wonder if the Lord Primate in this endeavour of Reconciliation met with the common fate of Arbitrators to please neither party But thô the Church is now restored beyond our expectation as well as merits to all its just Rights and Priviledges without the least diminution Yet certainly no good Subject or Son of the Church either of the Clergy or Laity at that time when this Expedient was proposed but would have been very well contented to have yielded farther than this to have preserved his late Majesty's life and to have prevented those Schisms and Confusions which for so many years harrassed these poor Nations But if our King and Church are both now restored it is what then no man could fore-see it is the Lord 's doing and is marvellous in our Eyes but I have dwelt so long upon this subject that I forgot to relate a passage though not of so great moment as the Affair we last mentioned yet as it happened in order of time before it so was it too considerable to be passed over viz. the Sermon which the Lord Primate now preached before the King at Newport in the Isle of Wight presently after his coming thither on the 19th of Novemb. being his Majesty's Birth-day which because it then was the occasion of a great deal of discourse I shall give you the heads of it being there present at that Sermon which afterward was published though very imperfectly by some that took Notes the Text was Gen. 49. 3. Ruben thou art my first-born my Might and the beginning of my Strength the excellency of Dignity and the excellency of Power These remarkable passages he had in this Sermon among others in Explication viz. The Regal power which comes by Descent is described by a double Excellency The Excellency of Dignity and the Excellency of Power By Dignity we understand all outward Glory by Power all Dominion And these are the two branches of Majesty The Greeks express it in the abstract And so in respect of Dignity The Supreme Magistrate is called Glory and in respect of Sovereignty he is called Lord Both these are joyned in the Epistle of Jude ver 8. There are a wicked sort there described that despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and make no Conscience to Blaspheme the Footsteps of the Lord 's Anointed And what is their Censure ver 13. To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever We used to say That those that have God's Tokens upon them are past hopes of life here you may plainly see God's Tokens upon these men they are reserved to everlasting Damnation After he had shewen in many instances of the outward Splendor and Pomp which peculiarly belong to Majesty and are lawful and requisite to maintain the Dignity of a Prince c. then he proceeded to shew the Eminency of Power belonging thereunto For a King to have great State and to have no Power he were then but a poor weak King There is a subordination of Power in all Governments which because it cannot go in Infinitum it must needs rest some where and that is in the King Let every Soul be subject to the higher power whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God And the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 13. To the King as Supreme If any Professors of Religion do Rebel against the King this is a scandal to Religion and 't is the fault of the Professors and not of the Profession for the Church of England doth teach the contrary But when men shall not only practise but teach Rebellion this amounts to a very high Crime indeed The King as St. Peter saith hath the Excellency of Power as sent by God But what need I say any more we all swear that the King is the Only Supreme Governor in his Dominions A man would think that that word Only might be spared since nothing can be above a Supreme but it is put there by way of Eminency I read in Josephus That Herod having offended Cleopatra she besought Antony to call him to account for it But Antony refused so to do for then said he He will be no King And after he had enlarged somewhat on these points he added this In the word of a King there is power saith the Preacher It was wont to be so and by the word of God it ought to be so I might enlarge upon this but some Ears will not endure sound Doctrine The King you see must be acknowledged to be Supreme and no Superior to the King on Earth far be it from me to flatter any man I thank God I fear no flesh but do deliver the Truth This day is the Birth-day of our Sovereign Lord. Birth-days of Kings have been usually Celebrated
corrupt Oligarchy until Oliver Cromwell turned them out and set himself up for Protector by the help of his Army and Creatures though with equal Tyranny and Arbitrariness as the former during most of which sad Times the Lord Primate kept close to his Study and Charge at Lincolns-Inn utterly disowning those Usurpers and their wicked actions and still comforting the Loyal Party then sufferers that this Usurpation would quickly expire and that the King whose right it was would return unto his Throne though he himself should not live to see it and thus much he declared not long before his death to his said Grand-son and my self among others saying That this usurpation of Cromwell's was but like that of some of the Grecian Tyrants which As it began by an Army so it commonly ended with the death of the Usurper About the middle of this year he finished the first part of his year 1650 great and long expected work of the Annals of the Old Testament from the beginning of the World to Anno Mundi 3828. as far as to the Reign of Antiochus Epiphanes in which he has very exactly fixed the three great Epocha's of the Deluge the going of the Children of Israel out of Egypt and the return of the Jews from their Captivity in the first year of Cyrus which is the only certain Epocha or rule of conjoyning the Sacred with Prophane Chronology In this Volume he gives a most exact account of the Reigns of the Kings of Israel and Judah with their Synchronisms As also the Succession of the Babylonish Persian and Macedonian Monarchs with the concurrent Olympiads and Aera of Nabonussar and the most remarkable Eclypses of the Sun as they might any way serve to regulate the account of time which he has collected out of all Authors both Sacred and Prophane with singular Industry Learning and Judgment About this time the Lord Primate had finished and published year 1654 the second part of his Annals beginning with Antiochus Epiphanes and continued to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian In which Volume he has given an exact account of the Macedonian Empire under the Asiatick and Egyptian Kings reducing their Reigns to a more certain Calculation than ever had been done before and restoring several of them to their due Places and Times which had been omitted by other writers of Chronological History as also an account of the Affairs of the Roman Empire especially those relating to the Oriental Parts thereof together with a History of the New Testament from the Birth of St. John the Baptist to Anno Christi 73. out of the Holy Scriptures as also from the best Greek and Roman Authors that have written of those Times So that these two Volumes may well be accounted of as the most useful as well as the Learned'st Works he ever wrote and are a Repository or Common-place of all Ancient History I cannot now omit to take Notice That Oliver Cromwell to make the World believe that he did not persecute men for Religion had for some time before this shewed favour to some of the Orthodox Clergy as particularly to Dr. Brownrig Bishop of Exeter whom he had sent for and treated with great outward respect and as for Dr. Bernard who had been the Lord Primate's Chaplain in Ireland and was after Dean of Kilmore Cromwell having saved his life at the taking of Droghedah had made him his Almoner here So that it is the less wonder if he also sent for the Lord Primate to come to him who was at first unwilling to go but upon 2d thoughts considering that his refusal would but exasperate him the more against himself and the rest of the Clergy of the King's party and that perhaps he might thereby prevail with him to do some Good or at least hinder him from acting some greater Evil he went accordingly and was received by Cromwell with great outward kindness and civility what the conversation was in particular I cannot tell but as I have heard it was chiefly about advancing the Protestant Interest as well at home as abroad to which Cromwell made great pretences but be it as it will you may be sure he was too great an Enthusiast to take my Lord Primate's advice and so after a great deal of Canting discourse he civily dismist him But whether now or at any other time Oliver Cromwell bestowed any Gratuity or Pension upon him I know not nor do at all believe notwithstanding a late English writer of his life I know not upon what grounds has made bold to say so only this much I remember my Lord Primate said that Oliver Cromwell had promised to make him a Lease of some part of the Lands belonging to the Arch-Bishoprick of Armagh for 21 years which my Lord Primate thought it no harm to accept considering it was but his own and which he had been deprived of above half that time especially in consideration of his Daughter and many Grand-Children for whom he had as yet been able to do nothing And if the Church did happen to be restored before that time it could lose nothing by this Grant and if not he thought his Children might as well deserve to reap the benefit of it as others but though Dr. Bernard in his Epistle to the Reader before the life of the Lord Primate was made by Cromwell's Secretary who then had the Copy in his power to publish as if this Grant had been really past yet the Usurper was craftier then so and as he delayed the passing of it as long as the Lord Primate lived so after his death he made a pretence by imputing malignancy which was indeed Loyalty to the Lord Primate's Son-in-law and Daughter to free himself from that promise This year about the beginning of Winter the most Learned Mr. Selden happening to dye the Lord Primate was desired by Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Hales and the rest of his Executors to preach his Funeral Sermon which though he had now left off preaching in great Congregations yet he now granted as well out of respect to those two above mentioned as also to the deceased between whom and himself there had been so long an acquaintance so he preached at the Temple-Church where he was buried giving him all the Elogies which so great and Learned a man could deserve though to the lessening of himself having this passage among others in his Sermon that he looked upon the person deceased as so great a Scholar that himself was scarce worthy to carry his Books after him Cromwell being now highly enraged against the Loyal Party year 1655 for their indefatigable though unsuccessful endeavours for his Majesty's Restauration to his Throne after he had shewed himself very implacable and severe to the Cavalier Gentry as they then called them began now to discharge part of his rage upon the Orthodox Clergy forbidding them under great penalties to teach Schools or to perform any part of their Ministerial Function whereupon
the Peritonaeum somewhat below the Diaphragma so that I have heard him say he never felt his heart beat in the most Exercise and the Chyrurgeon said That had it not belonged to the Body of a Person of his Eminency he would have taken it out and preserved it as a rarity which he had never found or heard of in any other Body besides and therefore the quickness of his Digestion considered it was no wonder if he bred blood so fast as he did so that he used to have frequent Evacuations thereof from the Veins on one side of his Tongue but more usually in some lower parts of his Body to the stopage of which for some time before his death may very well be ascribed that Distemper which was the cause of it As for his natural temper and disposition he was of a free and easie humour not morose proud or imperious but courteous and affable and extremely obliging towards all he convers'd with and though he could be angry and rebuke sharply when he ought that is when Religion or Vertue were concerned yet he was not easily provoked to passion rarely for smaller matters such as the neglects of Servants or worldly disappointments He was of so sweet a nature that I never heard he did an injury or ill Office to any man or revenged any of those that had been done to him but could readily forgive them as our blessed Lord and Master enjoyns Nor envyed he any man's happiness or vilified any man's Person or Parts nor was he apt to Censure or Condemn any man upon bare reports but observed that rule of the Son of Syrach Blame not before thou hast examined the Truth understand first and then rebuke His natural endowments were so various and so great as seldom are to be met with in one man viz. a Fertile Invention a Tenacious Memory with a Solid and Well-weigh'd Judgment whereby he was always from a young man presently furnished for any Exercise he was put upon which lay within the compass of those studies he had applied himself to so that in short that Character given of St. Augustin might be very well applied to him viz. Insignis erat sanctissimi praesulis mansuetudo ac miranda animi lenitas quaedam invincibilis clementia Linguam habebat ab omni petulantia convitiis puram Ingenii felicitas prorsus erat incomparabilis sive spectes ingenii acumen vel obscurissima facile penetrans sive capacis memoriae fidem sive vim quandam Mentis indefatigabilem c. But that which is above all he was endowed with that Wisdom from above Which is Pure Peaceable Gentle easie to be Intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisie No man could charge him of Pride Injustice Covetousness or any other known Vice he did nothing mis-becoming a prudent or a good man and he was so Beneficent to the Poor that when he was in prosperity besides the large Alms with which he daily fed the attendants at his door he gave a great deal away in money keeping many of the Irish poor Children at School and allowing several Stipends to necessitous Scholars at the University not to mention other Objects which he still found out on whom to bestow his Charity And after the Irish Rebellion when he himself was in a manner bereft of all it is incredible to think how liberal he was to poor Ministers or their Widows and others that had been undone by that wicked Insurrection and I scarce ever knew he refused an Alms to any person whom he believed to be really in want insomuch that I have heard this passage from his Servant who then waited on him That once at London when he was out of the way there was brought to my Lord a poor Irish Woman pretending great necessity but he being either somewhat displeased to be called off from his Study upon which he was then very intent or perhaps he might not have at that time much to spare told her in short He was not able to relieve all that came to him upon that account if he did he should soon have nothing left for himself which this poor Woman was so far from taking ill that she went away praying for him which he immediately reflecting was much concerned at for fear he should have neglected his duty when a fit Object of Charity was offered him wherefore he presently commanded some of my Lady's Servants to run after her and if possible overtake her and bring her back but they could not light of her So when his Servant returned home he told him this accident with great concern ordering him to go the next day to some places where such people used to resort to inquire out such a Woman whom he described as exactly as he could to him which orders his man obeyed though without success At which his Lord was much troubled and could she have been found no question but she would have been very well rewarded for her being sent away empty the day before by him Yet notwithstanding all these Vertues none was more humble and free from vain glory than this person who was endowed with them so that what high esteem soever others might have of him he never put any value on himself but was little in his own thoughts and would often bewail his own infirmities and the want of those Graces he thought he saw in others and which he most earnestly desired He was so great a lover of real Piety that he thought no other accomplishments worth speaking of without it and he heartily loved and respected all humble devout Christians and would always say they were God's Jewels highly to be valued and with these though of the meanest condition he would gladly discourse speaking kindly to them causing them to sit down by him and if they were bashful he would encourge them to speak their minds freely in any words that might best express their love to God and the State of their Souls and he was so skilful a Physician in Spiritual matters that he could readily perceive every man's case and necessities and would apply suitable remedies thereunto if wavering to settle them if doubting to resolve them if sad to comfort them if fallen into a fault to restore them administering means to prevent the like Temptations nor did he neglect any opportunities by good advice and admonitions to reclaim those that were corrupted with Errors or Vices So that in all his discourses as well publick as private he still endeavoured to bring Religion into reputation and to make sin and a wicked course of life odious shameful and destructive to the Souls and Bodies of men And he would press this point with such a concerned earnestness that one would have believed those to whom he then applied himself must needs resolve not to love sin any longer And on the other side he would so magnifie the happiness and excellencies of a Vertuous and Pious Life
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
First For that they gave me assurance of your Recovery then that among your weighty Affairs of Church and Common-wealth you should descend to think on me so remote in Application to your Lordship though no Man nearer in Affection and Devotion I register it in my Memorials of your Goodness as also your sending to me the Copy of the Synod of St. Patrick which I much desired and many thanks to your Lordship for it Touching the Books it pleased you to require my help in procuring them by some of my Friends and Kindred in France your Grace knoweth that all intercourse between us and them is now stopped up Yet have I taken order with Mr. Boswell who is gone over with my Lord of Carlisle and to pass near Province that if any opportunity may serve he will endeavour to procure them and my Son who is gone after them shall put him in mind of it It is said that my Lord of Carlisle having treated beyond the Sea with the States of the Low-Countries and not satisfied in their Answer hath left some Protestation against them as he passed from them and that the States have done the like against us I hope it is not true we have Enemies enow I suppose your Lordship would gladly hear how the great Orb of State moveth here in Parliament your own and many others depending on it And I would very willingly have been the first that should have done you that Service if the Messenger had staid a day or two longer that we might have seen the Event For all hangeth yet in suspence but the Points touching the Right of the Subject in the Property of their Goods and to be free from imprisonment at the King's Pleasure or without lawful cause expressed upon the Commitment hath been so seriously and unanswerably proved and concluded by the Lower House that they have cast their Sheat Anchor on it and will not recede from any tittle of the Formality proposed in their Petition of Right touching the same The Upper House hath in some things dissented from them proposing a Caution to be added to the Petition for preservation of the King 's Soveraign Prerogative which the Lower House affirms they have not rub'd upon in ought that of right belongeth to it Yet will they not admit that Addition lest it impeach the whole intent of their Petition Wherein they are so resolute that having upon Thursday last admirably evinced the Right of the Subjects in every part thereof at a Conference with the Upper House they refused to meet the Lords the day following in a Committee required by them for qualification as was conceived Thereupon the Lords spent Saturday in debate among themselves but concluded nothing that we hear of It is reported the Lord Say did then speak very freely and resolutely on behalf of the Subject with some unpleasing rubs upon the Duke there present but by others interposition all was well expounded What this Day will produce Night must relate And of what I have written I have nothing but by hear-say for I am no Parliament-man My Lord of Denbigh with the Navy that went for the rescue of Rochel is returned without blow or blood-draught It is said their Commission gave them not sufficient Warrant to fight and one Captain Clark suspected in Religion is committed to the Gatehouse for disswading them Thus praying for your Health and Happiness I rest Your Grace's most humbly devoted in all Service Henry Spelman Barbacan May 26. 1628. LETTER CXXIX A Letter from J. King to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my especial good Lord TWo things do occasion me to write to your Lordship the one to show the continuance of my dutiful and best respect to your Lordship which I have born to your Lordship ever since your Childhood which indeed descended first from your Father who loved me always in his life-time as I did him truly and faithfully The other is upon some mislike I understand your Lordship hath conceived of the Lord Camfield my Son-in-Law which indeed I am sorry for for I never found him but honest and religious I know he may have ill Instruments about him and the World is full of Pick-thanks and such as usually do lewd Offices amongst Men of Place and Quality But if your Lordship would please to take him into your favour and upon any occasion if any happen to make known to him what is or may be reported to your Lordship of any of his miscarriages or unfriendly dealings towards your Lordship I would not doubt of his conformity and giving of your Lordship meet satisfaction and this is my Suit and Petition to your Lorship for of all Men in that Kingdom I do wish him and all others that are my Friends to be serviceable and respective to your Lordship and for my self so long as it shall please God to give me Life I will pray for your Lordship which is all the Service I can do you Our worthy Bishop here who I have found here ever since I came hither a worthy Friend and a godly Pastor and Pillar of the Church hath many times and often most kindly remembred your Lordship and surely he is as good a Man as may be yet in this Parliament which is yet scarcely ended some have conceited not so well of him as before but who can or doth escape the malice of wicked Men this being the last and worst Age of the World and surely for all crying and notorious Sins as Whoredom Lying Swearing and Drunkenness I am perswaded that now our own Nation is become the very worst of any in the Christian World which makes me much afraid that God Almighty hath some heavy Judgment a preparing for us It is certain that in Spain are wondrous great preparations for War especially for Sea-Service which some think is rather for Denmark and those Eastern parts than for us and the rather it is conjectured of because Monsieur Oillur lies yet with a great Army of above 60000 Men about Stoade Hambourgh and other parts If his Fleet come on this Summer as it is thought it will and pass the Narrow Seas unfought withal and unbeaten by us it is to be feared that Spain and France or one of them will next land upon our Continent and sit down and fortify being hopeful as it may be well imagined of aid from English Papists whereof the Kingdom is too well stored Rochel is much doubted cannot long hold out and then there is little hope of any Mercy from the King of France which would be a woful case to have so many poor Souls put to the Sword It is thought his Majesty would relieve them if these Subsidies could come in time And it is to be wished now that his Majesty had never medled with them for in the beginning they were well provided to have made their own Peace It is strange to be believed how this Kingdom is weakned by the
discharge the Duty let him have the Wages to better his Maintenance But when your Grace assureth us we shall lack no Men when there is besides Mr. Crien whom D. Sheriden hath heard preach as a Frier in that very place which I account would be the more to God's Glory if there now he should plant the Truth which before he endeavoured to root out besides him we have Mr. Nugent who offereth himself in an honest and discreet Letter lately written to me We have sundry in the Colledg and namely two trained up at the Irish Lecture one whereof hath translated your Grace's Catechism into Irish besides Mr. Duncan and others With what colour can we pass by these and suffer him to fat himself with the Blood of God's People Pardon me I beseech your Grace when I say We I mean not to prescribe any thing to you My self I hope shall never do it or consent to it And so long as this is the cause of Mr. D's Wrath against me whether I suffer by his Pen or his Tongue I shall rejoice as suffering for Righteousness sake And sith himself in his last Letter excuses my Intent I do submit my Actions after God to your Grace's Censure ready to make him Satisfaction if in any thing in Word or Deed I have wronged him For conclusion of this business wherein I am sorry to be so troublesome to your Grace let him surcease this his greedy and impudent pretence to this Benefice let Mr. Nugent be admitted to it or Mr. Crien if he be not yet provided for to whom I will hope ere long to add Mr. Nugent for a Neighbour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If these second questionless better Thoughts have any place in him as in his last Letters he gives some hope let my Complaints against him be cast into the Fire God make him an humble and modest Man But if Mr. Dean will needs persist I beseech your Grace to view my Reply to the which I will add no more As touching his traducing me in the Pulpit at Cavan I have sent your Grace the Testimonies of Mr. Robins and Mr. Teate altho he had been with them before and denied what they formerly conceived And if your Grace will be pleased to enquire of Mr. Cape by a Line or two with whom I never spake word about the matter or compare the heads of his Sermon which he saith were general with his former Reports made of me I doubt not but you will soon find the Truth I have sent also his Protestation against my Visitations wherein I desire your Grace to observe the blindness of Malice He pretends that I may not visit but at or after Michaelmas every Year As if the Month of July wherein I visited were not after Michaelmas for before the last Michaelmas I visited not I omit that he calls himself the Head of the Chapter The Canon Law calls the Bishop so he will have the Bishop visit the whole Diocess together directly contrary to that form which the Canons prescribe But this Protestation having neither Latin nor Law nor common Sence doth declare the Skill of him that drew it and the Wit of him that uses it Which if your Grace enjoyn him not to revoke I shall be enforced to put a remedy to it otherwise in respect of the evil Example and Prejudice it might bring to Posterity And now to leave this unpleasing Subject Since my being with you here was with me Mr. Brady bringing with him the Resignation of the Benefice of Mullagh which I had conferred upon Mr. Dunsterville and united to his former of Moybolk he brought with him Letters from my L. of Corke and Sir W. Parsons to whom he is allied But examining him I found him besides a very raw Divine unable to read the Irish and therefore excused my self to the Lords for admitting him A few days after viz. the 10th of this Month here was with me Mr. Dunsterville himself and signified unto me that he had revoked his former Resignation Thus he plays fast and loose and most unconscionably neglects his Duty Omnes quae sua sunt quaerunt Indeed I doubted his Resignation was not good in as much as he retained still the former Benefice whereto this was united Now I see clearly there was a compact between him and Mr. Brady that if he could not be admitted he should resume his Benefice again I have received Letters from Mr. Dr. Ward of the Date of May 28 in which he mentions again the point of the Justification of Infants by Baptism To whom I have written an Answer but not yet sent it I send herewith a Copy thereof to your Grace humbly requiring your Advice and Censure if it be not too much to your Graces trouble before I send it I have also written an Answer to Dr. Richardson in the question touching the Root of Efficacy or Efficiency of Grace but it is long and consists of five or six sheets of Paper so as I cannot now send it I shall hereafter submit it as all other my Endeavours to your Grace's Censure and Correction I have received also a large Answer from my Lord of Derry touching Justifying Faith whereto I have not yet had time to reply Nor do I know if it be worth the labour the difference being but in the manner of teaching As whether justifying Faith be an Assent working Assiance or else an Assiance following Assent I wrote presently upon my return from your Grace to my Lords Justices desiring to be excused from going in person to take Possession of the Mass-houses and a certificate that my Suit with Mr. Cook is depending before them I have not as yet received Answer by reason as Sir Will. Usher signified to my Son the Lord Chancellor's Indisposition did not permit his hand to be gotten I do scarce hope to receive any Certificate from them for the respect they will have not to seem to infringe your Grace's Jurisdiction Whereupon I shall be inforced to entertain a Proctor for me at your Graces Court when I am next to appear it being the very time when my Courts in the County of Leatrym were set before I was with you Asham'd I am to be thus tedious but I hope you will pardon me sith you required and I promised to write often And having had opportunity to convey my Letters this must serve instead of many Concluding with my humble Service to your Grace and Thanks for my kind Entertainment I desire the Blessing of your Prayers and remain always Your Graces humble Servant Will. Kilmore and Ardaghen Kilmore Sept. 18. 1630. LETTER CLXIX A Letter sent from Dr. Forbes Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen with his Irenicum to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Reverendissimo in Christo Patri Jacobo Usserio Dei miseratione Archiepiscopo Armacano totius Hiberniae Primati meritissimo Domino suo colendissimo Salutem in Domino Reverendissime Sanctissime Pater TAnta mihi ex
satis laudatas subjungit Symbolum fidei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ut in versione Turriani nisi quod recte conjectavit Canisius quod Spiritum Sanctumrà patre procedere dicit Nulla uti Turrianus adjecerat filii mentone factà Inde Narrationem de septem Synodis instituit quam Turrianus misit Sed latine dedit Binius Concil Tom. 3. p. 400. Demum monita plura politica subjicit Quae in latinis Turriani enim comparent Vid. Cod. African ad finem Crabbe F. 155 308. LETTER CCXV A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord I Received yours of the 22d upon the 25th of April and have bestowed the most part of the last Week in the search of those Particulars there mention'd I am sorry the Event has not answered my Desires and Endeavours I do not doubt but your Lordship will make good that Assertion of the Nicene Creed though I profess I yet look upon it with some prejudice as being prepossessed with an anticipated Notion to the contrary Something in these Papers which I have collected in haste do in the general look that way upon perusal if it be not too much trouble to your Lordship and the time not overpast already your Lordship will make the Consequence In that Synodicon of Basilius Jalimbanensis I met with nothing directly to the purpose only in the beginning of the Book this enclosed of Germanus de sex Synodis What he says of the two first as only to the purpose I have transcribed In each of them is mention of a Symbol but not of the difference I have in the same Argument sent to and confronted two pieces of Photius the one out of his Epistles the other I met with in a Copy of his Nomocanon with Balsamon's Scholia much larger than the printed I have looked upon that in Gregory Nazianzen and compared it with that in Crab which he calls Fides Romanorum and do readily subscribe that by Romanorum must be meant the Eastern Church but then he that made that Title must be supposed to have writ since the division of the Empire In Magd. Coll. Library I spent two days in search after Nazianzen's Translation by Ruffin but in vain I do not find they have any such Book What seem'd next like it was some pieces of Basil of Ruffin's Translation at the end whereof there is indeed a part of his Exposition on the Creed While I was there tumbling amongst their Books I light upon an old English Comment upon the Psalms the Hymns of the Church and Athanasius's Creed which I presently conjectured though there be no Name to it to be Wickliffs and comparing the beginning with Bale found that I had not erred in the Conjecture and therefore writ this piece out in which he calls the Nicene Creed the Creed of the Church I remember two Years ago when I had an opportunity to read some Saxon Books that had formerly as I suppose belonged to the Church of Worcester I met twice with the Nicene Creed in Saxon but I do not remember any difference from that we use I have sought in the ancientest Editions of Ambrose but return with a non est inventus Wicelius we have not and for the Russian Offices if I can find any thing you shall have it by the next I presume you have already a Copy of that old Latin Creed at the end of the ancient Copy of the Acts given by my Lord of Canterbury and therefore I forbore to send it Gulasius in the Acts of the Nicene Council brings in the Philosopher disputing against the Holy Ghost as well as against the Son and that may be as far as the authority of the Author will bear somewhat to the purpose I received my Copy of the Arch-bishops of Constantinople and do return unto your Grace with thanks that Oration of Himerius which I had from your Lordship The Papers which I send are somewhat confused and some not right writ I fear some my Boy has left in the Publick Library and the Carrier will be gone before the Library be open I have in the Margent thus * marked what I conceive your Grace may possibly make use of I am very much straitned in time and therefore desire your Lordship's favour for thus scribling I am Your Lordship 's to command Gerard Langbaine Q. C. Oxon. May 4. 1647. LETTER CCXVI A Letter from Dr. Langbaine to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord SInce my last this day seven-night I have enquired and I do here send you what I met with concerning the use of the Nicene Creed among the Russians which I conceive full to your purpose I perceive my haste made me then omit at sealing that Oration of Himerius which I now return with thanks to your Lordship and perhaps by mistake I might send some other Papers no way pertinent I have thought sometimes and have not yet found any sufficient reason to remove me from that Opinion That notwithstanding what Vossius hath said the Church was never without some Form of Confession which they required before they admitted any to Baptism I know not otherwise how to expound that of Heb. 6. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For though Vossius affirm no more to have been required but barely In nomina Patris Filii Spiritus sancti yet methinks that of Repentance from dead Works of the Resurrection of the Dead and everlasting Judgment are made parts of those Fundamental Doctrines and Faith in God seems to comprehend the rest To this purpose I conceive Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. pag. 93. speaks for the Requisites to Baptism in the Practice of the Church in his Time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then follows the mention of the Three Persons of the Trinity not simply but with equipollent Attributes to those in the Creed of the Father as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which what is it else but what we read both in Cyrill of Jerusalem and Epiphanius and the latter part of the Nicene Creed In like manner Clemens Alex. Paedagog lib. 1. cap. 6. p. 92 93 94. gives this Attribute to Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and speaking then of Baptism under the various names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quotes Joh. 5. for everlasting Life mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Resurrection of the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where he produceth again a Testimony out of John 3. That every one that believes hath Life everlasting and I will raise him up again at the last Day Where considering the proper importance of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Matter there treated of Baptism and the Points there spoken of Resurrection Life Eternal I suppose it may not absurdly be collected that he implies these Doctrines were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉