Church may still either by preaching or writing maintain any point of Doctrine contained in those Articles without being either Heterodox or Irregular It was likewise reported and has been since written by some with the like truth that the Lord Primate should have some dispute with Dr. Bramhall then Bishop of London-Derry concerning these Articles Whereas the contest between the Lord Primate and that Bishop was not about the Articles but the Book of Canons which were then to be established for the Church of Ireland and which the Bishop of Derry would have to be passed in the very same form and words with those in England which the Lord Primate with divers other of the Bishops opposed as somewhat prejudicial to the Liberties of the Church of Ireland and they so far prevailed herein that it was at last concluded That the Church of Ireland should not be tyed to that Book but that such Canons should be selected out of the same and such others added thereunto as the present Convocation should judge fit for the Government of that Church which was accordingly performed as any man may see that will take the pains to compare the two Books of the English and Irish Canons together And what the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's judgment was on this affair you may see in a Letter of his to the Lord Primate published in this Collection About the end of this year the Lord Primate published his Anno 1639 long expected work entitled Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates In which also is inserted a History of Pelagius and his Heresie which Work I suppose my Lord kept so long unpublished because he still found fresh matter to add to it as you may see by the many Additions and Emendations at the latter end of it and as it was long in coming out so it did fully answer expectation when it came abroad into the World being the most exact account that ever yet was given of the British Church beginning with the earliest notices we can find in Ancient Authors of any credit concerning the first planting of Christianity in these Islands within twenty years after our Saviour's Crucifixion and bringing it down with the Succession of Bishops as far as they could be retreived not only in our Britain but in Ireland also as far as towards the end of the VII Century collected out of the best Authors either Printed or Manuscript and is so great a Treasure of this kind of Learning that all that have writ since with any success on this subject must own themselves beholding to him for his elaborate Collections The Lord Primate having now sate Arch-Bishop sixteen years Anno 1640 with great satisfaction and benefit to the Church about the beginning of this year came into England with his Wife and Family intending to stay here a year or two about his private Affairs and then to return again But it pleased God to disappoint him in those resolutions for he never saw his native Country again not long after his coming to London when he had kissed his Majesty's hand and been received by him with his wonted favour he went to Oxford as well to be absent from those heats and differences which then happened in that short Parliament as also with greater freedom to pursue his Studies in the Libraries there where he was accommodated with Lodgings in Christ-Church by Dr. Morice Canon of that House and Hebrew Professor and whilst he was there he conversed with the most Learned Persons in that famous University who used him with all due respect whilst he continued with them so after he had resided there some time he returned again to London where after the sitting of that long and unhappy Parliament he made it his business as well by preaching as writing to exhort them to Loyalty and Obedience to their Prince endeavouring to the utmost of his power to heal up those breaches and reconcile those differences that were ready to break out both in Church and State though it did not meet with that success he always desired This year there was published at Oxford among divers other Treatises of Bishop Andrews Mr. Hooker and other Learned men Anno 1641 concerning Church Government the Lord Primate's Original of Bishops and Metropolitans wherein he proves from Scripture as also the most Ancient Writings and Monuments of the Church that they owe their original to no less Authority than that of the Apostles and that they are the Stars in the right hand of Christ Apoc. 2. So that there was never any Christian Church founded in the Primitive Times without Bishops which discourse was not then nor I suppose ever will be answered by those of a contrary judgment That unhappy dispute between his Majesty and the two Houses concerning his passing the Bill for the Earl of Strafford's Attainder now arising and he much perplexed and divided between the clamour of a discontented People and an unsatisfied Conscience thought fit to advise with some of his Bishops what they thought he ought to do in point of Conscience as he had before consulted his Judges in matter of Law among which his Majesty thought fit to make choice of the Lord Primate for one though without his seeking or knowledge but since some men either out of spleen or because they would not retract what they had once written from vulgar report have thought fit to publish as if the Lord Primate should advise the King to sign the Bill for the said Earl's Attainder it will not be amiss to give you here that relation which Dr. Bernard had under his own hand and has printed in the Funeral Sermon by him published which is as followeth That Sunday morning wherein the King consulted with the four Bishops of London Durham Lincoln and Carlisle the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was not present being then preaching as he then accustomed every Sunday to do in the Church of Covent-Garden where a Message coming unto him from his Majesty he descended from the Pulpit and told him that brought it he was then as he saw imployed about God's business which as soon as he had done he would attend upon the King to understand his pleasure But the King spending the whole Afternoon in the serious debate of the Lord Strafford's Case with the Lords of his Council and the Judges of the Land he could not before Evening be admitted to his Majesty's presence There the Question was again agitated Whether the King in justice might pass the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford for that he might shew mercy to him was no question at all no man doubting but that the King without any Scruple of Conscience might have granted him a Pardon if other reasons of State in which the Bishops were made neither Judges nor Advisers did not hinder him The whole result therefore of the determination of the Bishops was to this effect That therein the matter of Fact and matter of Law were to be distinguished That of the
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
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
vainly and viciously and neglected our Conversion till we can sin no longer Thus he exhorted us all to fear God and love and obey the Lord Jesus Christ and to live a Holy Life And then said he you will find the comfort of it at your death And your Change will be happy While he was thus bleeding there came to visit him one of the then House of Commons that was related by marriage to that Family To whom he said Sir you see I am very weak and cannot expect to live many hours you are returning to the Parliament I am going to God my blood and life is almost spent I charge you to tell them from me That I know they are in the wrong and have dealt very injuriously with the King and I am not mistaken in this matter After this the Room being cleared of company and only my self left with him he spake somewhat to me about his own private concerns giving orders how he would have his Books and Papers disposed of here and elsewhere and that those Books which he had borrowed should be restored and that if any friend would undertake to finish his Annals he should have the use of his Papers and Collections he thought Dr. Langbaine the fittest man for that purpose as being very well vers'd in those Studies and so most able if willing to undertake it After some other discourse I then made bold to ask him if he had advised the King to pass the Bill against the Earl of Strafford as it had been reported To which he replyed I know there is such a thing most wrongfully laid to my charge for I neither gave nor approved of any such advice as that the King should assent to the Bill against the Earl but on the contrary told his Majesty that if he was satisfied by what he had heard at his Tryal that the Earl was not guilty of Treason his Majesty ought not in Conscience to consent to his Condemnation And this the King knows well enough and can clear me if he pleases Nor was my Lord Primate mistaken in this for when not long after it was told his Majesty at Oxford that the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was dead he spake to Colonel William Leggt and Mr. Kirk then of the Bed-Chamber as they were since to his late Majesty to this effect viz. That he was very sorry for his death together with high expressions of his Piety and Merits But one there present replyed That he believed he might be so were it not for his perswading Your Majesty to consent to the Earl of Strafford 's Execution To which the King in a great passion returned That it was false For said the King after the Bill was past the Arch-Bishop came to me saying with Tears in his Eyes Oh Sir What have You done I fear that this Act may prove a great trouble to Your Conscience and pray God that Your Majesty may never suffer by the Signing of this Bill or words to that effect This is the substance of two Certificates taken at divers times under the hands of these two Gentlemen of unquestionable credit both which since they agree in substance I thought fit to contract into one Testimony which I have inferted here having the Originals by me to produce if occasion be And now I hope after what hath been said to justifie my Lord Primate of this calumny that no honest or Charitable person can believe it but as for those who are so ill Natur'd and Censorious as to think and speak ill of all men that do not fully comply with their Notions and Opinions it is no great matter what they either believe or report Whilst the Lord Primate was in Wales there was published at London under his name by Mr. Downame a Book Intitled A Body of Divinity or the Sum and Substance of the Christian Religion which being formerly lent by the Lord Primate and transcribed by some who had borrowed it but was not intended by him to be published being only some Collections of his out of several modern Authors for his own private use when he was a young man And though he did at the importunity of some friends communicate it to them yet it was not with a design to have it printed but the Treatise at the end of this Book Intitled Immanuel or the Incarnation of the Son of God is wholly my Lord Primate's and is an excellent Discourse being the substance of divers Sermons he had formerly preacht upon that subject There came out likewise not long after under his name a Catechism Intitled The Principles of Christian Religion and was an Epitome of the former and which he had extracted for his own private Family without any intention to be made Publick but seeing contrary to his mind it had by many impressions been divulged and that in a very faulty manner he was resolved at last to review it as well for his own Vindication as the common good and so much he thought fit to tell the Reader in his Preface to the Edition which himself published in the year 1653. After the Lord Primate had fully recovered his strength at St. year 1646 Donates and been most kindly entertained and tenderly used during his great weakness by the Lady of that place he began now to consider where next to remove but the King's Affairs growing every day more desperate and Oxford like speedily to be taken there was no returning thither nor yet had he a mind to trust himself at London the Faction there being very much exasperated against him therefore he began to reassume his former thoughts of passing beyond the Seas and upon this endeavoured to get a Vessel for his Transportation having before obtained a Pass from the Earl of Warwick then Admiral for that purpose but when we had now procured him a Vessel and that we were preparing to go to it there came into the Road before Caerdiffe a Squadron of Ships under the Command of one Molton Vice-Admiral for the Parliament Whereupon my Lord Primate sent me to him being then on shoar at Caerdiffe to know if he would suffer him to go by him and I shewed him the Pass aboye mentioned to which Molton returned a rude and threatening answer absolutely refusing it and saying If he could get him into his hands he would carry him Prisoner to the Parliament and threatned likewise to send me also to his Ship By which you may see how highly inraged those of that Faction were at this good Bishop for adhereing to the King He being thus disappointed in this design attempted it no farther And not long after came to him a most kind invitation from that noble Lady the Countess Dowager of Peterborough to come and make his abode with her and she would engage that he should not be molested but have all accomodations suitable to his condition and the great affection and esteem she had for him as a return for those benefits she had formerly received from
About this time whilst his late Majesty was kept Prisoner at year 1648 Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight the Lord Primate was highly concerned at the disloyal actions of the two Houses towards their Lawful Prince to express which he preached at Lincolns-Inn on this Text Isa. 8. 12 13. Say ye not a Confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a Confederacy neither fear you their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread Wherein he sufficiently expressed his dislike of those Covenants and Consederacies which they had now entred into contrary to that Oath they had taken already and that we should not fear man more than God when we were to do our Duty to our Prince or Country Not long after which the Presbyterians finding the Independant party too strong for them had no way left to secure themselves but by recalling their Votes of Non-Addresses and to Vote a Treaty with his Majesty in the Isle of Wight And because the differences concerning Church-Government were not the least of those that were to be setled and concluded at this Treaty and for which it was necessary for his Majesty to consult with some of his Bishops and Divines the Lord Primate was sent for by the King among divers others to attend him for that purpose when he came thither he found one of the greatest points then in debate was about the Government of the Church The Parliament Commissioners insisting peremptorily for the abolishing and taking away Arch-Bishops Bishops c. out of the Churches of England and Ireland His Majesty thought he could not with a good Conscience consent to that demand viz. totally to abolish or take away Episcopal Government but his Majesty then declared that he no otherwise aimed at the keeping up the present Hierarchy in the Church than what was most agreeable to the Episcopal Government in the Primitive and purest Times But his Majesty since the Parliament insisted so obstinately on it was at last forced to consent to the suspension of Episcopacy for three years but would by no means agree to take away Bishops absolutely But now to stop the present career of the Presbyterian Discipline the Lord Primate proposed an expedient which he called Episcopal and Presbyterial Government conjoyned and which he not long after he came thither delivered into his Majesty's hands who having perused it liked it well saying it was the only Expedient to reconcile the present differences for his Majesty in his last Message to the Parliament had before condescended to the reducing of Episcopal Government into a much narrower compass viz. Not only to the Apostolical Institution but much farther than the Lord Primate proposed or desired even to the taking away of Arch-Bishops Deans Chapters c. Together with all that additional Power and Jurisdiction which his Majesty's Predecessors had bestowed upon that Function Which Message being read in the House was by them notwithstanding voted unsatisfactory So that the Presbyterian Party was so absolutely bent to abolish the very Order of Bishops that no proposals of his Majesty's though never so moderate would content them till at last when they had wrangled so long till they saw the King's person seized by the Army and that the power was like to be taken out of their hands they then grew wiser and would have agreed to his Proposals when it was too late and so the Presbyterian Party saw themselves within a few days after forcibly excluded and turned out of doors by that very Army which they themselves had raised and hired to fight against their Prince which as it was the cause of his Majesty's destruction so it proved their own ruine But since some of the Church of England have been pleased to judge very hardly of this Proposal made by the Arch-Bishop as if it too much debased the Episcopal Order and levelled it with that of Presbyters To vindicate the Lord Primate from which imputation I desire them to consider these particulars first the time when this Expedient was proposed viz. When his Majesty had already consented to the suspension of Episcopal Government for three years absolutely as also for setling Presbytery in the room of it for that time and for quite taking away Arch-Bishops Deans and Chapters c. as hath been already said whereas the Lord Primate's Expedient proposes none of these but supposes the Arch-Bishops or Primates ought to be continued appointing them to be the moderators of the Provincial Synods of Suffragans and Pastors And though it is true he mentions Bishops as to be only Presidents of the Diocesan Synod yet he no where denies them a Negative Voice in that Assembly and though he mentions at the beginning of this Expedient that the Bishops were wont in the Primitive times to do nothing of moment without the advice of a Synod of their Clergy as he proves from divers quotations out of the Fathers and Ancient Councils yet he does not assert this practice as a thing of Divine or unalterable right but only as the custom and practice of the Church in those Times which being only prudential may be altered one way or other according as the peace and order of the Church or the exigency of Affairs may require and though in Sect. 11. of this Expedient he proposes the making of as many Suffragans in each Diocess as there are Rural Deanries in the same and who should assemble a Synod of all the Rectors or Ministers of their Precinct yet their power was only to be according to the Statute of the 26th of Henry the Eighth whereby they are expresly forbid to act in any matters but by the Authority of and in Subordination to their Diocesan Bishop nor does the Lord Primate here extend their power farther than to be moderators of this lesser Synod where matters of Discipline and Excommunication only were to be determined still reserving the power of Ordination to the Diocesan this being no where given from him in this Expedient neither was this power of Excommunication left absolutely to this lesser Synod without an Appeal to the Diocesan Synod of the Suffragans and the rest of the Pastors wherein the Bishop was to preside only I shall say thus much That it was not the Lord Primate's design or intention in the least to rob the Bishops of any of those just Rights which are essentially necessary to their Order and Constitution and without abasing Episcopacy into Presbytery or stripping the Church of its Lands and Revenues both which the Lord Primate always abhorred for he was of his Majesty's mind in his excellent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Presbytery is never so considerable or effectual as when it is joyned to and Crowned with Episcopacy And that the King himself was then convinced that this was the best Expedient for the setling of the differences of the Church at that time You may
likewise see by what he writes in the same Chap. in these words viz. Not that I am against the managing of this Presidency and Authority in one man by the joynt Counsel and Consent of many Presbyters I have offered to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errors Corruptions and Partialities which are incident to any one man And so likewise in the Chapter about the Reformation of the Times he has this passage I was willing to grant or restore to Presbytery what with reason or discretion it can pretend to in a Conjuncture with Episcopacy but for that wholly to invade the Power and by the Sword to Arrogate and quite Abrogate the Authority of that Ancient Order I think neither just as to Episcopacy nor safe for Presbytery nor yet any way convenient for this Church or State And that the most Pious and Learned Dr. Hammond was about the same time of the Lord Primate's judgment in this matter may appear by this passage in the Preface to his Treatise of the Power of the Keys That a moderate Episcopacy with a standing assistant Presbytery as it will certainly satisfie the desires of those whose pretentions are regular and moderate craving nothing more and in some things less than the Laws of the Land so that it will appear to be that which all parties can best Tolerate and which next himself both Presbyterian Independant and Erastian will make no question to choose and prefer before any of the other Pretenders And though it may be true that divers of the more sober of the Presbyterian party have seemed to have approved of these terms of Reconciliation yet it has been only since the ill success their Discipline hath met with both in England and Scotland that has made them more moderate in their demands for it is very well known that when these Terms were first proposed the Ring-leaders of the Party utterly cryed them down as a great Enemy to Presbytery Since this Expedient would have yet left Episcopacy in a better condition than it is at this day in any of the Lutheran Churches but they were not then for Divisum Imperium would have all or nothing and they had their desires So that it is no wonder if the Lord Primate in this endeavour of Reconciliation met with the common fate of Arbitrators to please neither party But thô the Church is now restored beyond our expectation as well as merits to all its just Rights and Priviledges without the least diminution Yet certainly no good Subject or Son of the Church either of the Clergy or Laity at that time when this Expedient was proposed but would have been very well contented to have yielded farther than this to have preserved his late Majesty's life and to have prevented those Schisms and Confusions which for so many years harrassed these poor Nations But if our King and Church are both now restored it is what then no man could fore-see it is the Lord 's doing and is marvellous in our Eyes but I have dwelt so long upon this subject that I forgot to relate a passage though not of so great moment as the Affair we last mentioned yet as it happened in order of time before it so was it too considerable to be passed over viz. the Sermon which the Lord Primate now preached before the King at Newport in the Isle of Wight presently after his coming thither on the 19th of Novemb. being his Majesty's Birth-day which because it then was the occasion of a great deal of discourse I shall give you the heads of it being there present at that Sermon which afterward was published though very imperfectly by some that took Notes the Text was Gen. 49. 3. Ruben thou art my first-born my Might and the beginning of my Strength the excellency of Dignity and the excellency of Power These remarkable passages he had in this Sermon among others in Explication viz. The Regal power which comes by Descent is described by a double Excellency The Excellency of Dignity and the Excellency of Power By Dignity we understand all outward Glory by Power all Dominion And these are the two branches of Majesty The Greeks express it in the abstract And so in respect of Dignity The Supreme Magistrate is called Glory and in respect of Sovereignty he is called Lord Both these are joyned in the Epistle of Jude ver 8. There are a wicked sort there described that despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and make no Conscience to Blaspheme the Footsteps of the Lord 's Anointed And what is their Censure ver 13. To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever We used to say That those that have God's Tokens upon them are past hopes of life here you may plainly see God's Tokens upon these men they are reserved to everlasting Damnation After he had shewen in many instances of the outward Splendor and Pomp which peculiarly belong to Majesty and are lawful and requisite to maintain the Dignity of a Prince c. then he proceeded to shew the Eminency of Power belonging thereunto For a King to have great State and to have no Power he were then but a poor weak King There is a subordination of Power in all Governments which because it cannot go in Infinitum it must needs rest some where and that is in the King Let every Soul be subject to the higher power whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God And the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 13. To the King as Supreme If any Professors of Religion do Rebel against the King this is a scandal to Religion and 't is the fault of the Professors and not of the Profession for the Church of England doth teach the contrary But when men shall not only practise but teach Rebellion this amounts to a very high Crime indeed The King as St. Peter saith hath the Excellency of Power as sent by God But what need I say any more we all swear that the King is the Only Supreme Governor in his Dominions A man would think that that word Only might be spared since nothing can be above a Supreme but it is put there by way of Eminency I read in Josephus That Herod having offended Cleopatra she besought Antony to call him to account for it But Antony refused so to do for then said he He will be no King And after he had enlarged somewhat on these points he added this In the word of a King there is power saith the Preacher It was wont to be so and by the word of God it ought to be so I might enlarge upon this but some Ears will not endure sound Doctrine The King you see must be acknowledged to be Supreme and no Superior to the King on Earth far be it from me to flatter any man I thank God I fear no flesh but do deliver the Truth This day is the Birth-day of our Sovereign Lord. Birth-days of Kings have been usually Celebrated
with great Solemnity in former times it pleaseth God that this day begins the 49th year of his Majesty's life and let me call it the year of Jubilee to his Majesty The Jews had a Custom that in the 49th year of any mans life he should be at liberty whatever his sufferings were before It must be the desire and prayer of every Loyal heart that the King may have a Jubilee indeed This is that which Loyalty bids us do I will not stand too much upon this particular but this I will say Oh! that we knew our happiness to have a King that is the Son of Nobles a King that is not a Child a King that is at full Age to Govern by Wisdom and Prudence And truly as God gives us this blessing so he expects we should acknowledge it thankfully Eccles. 10. 16. Wo be to thee O Land saith the Preacher when the King is a Child To have him when his experience hath riveted in him sound judgment and ability to Govern The Lord threatned Jerusalem in Isa. 3. 4. I will give Children to be their Princes and Babes shall rule over them Those that would have their own Wills could I warrant you be content that the youngest should Reign To have a base man exalted is one of the things that the Earth cannot bear but some Body must have the Government it doth not belong to all you see here is one that alone hath a right to it After which he concluded to this effect That all true Christians are the First-born of God Heb. 12. The Congregation of the First-born they are all Heirs of Heaven in the same relation that Christ is by Nature we are by Grace and Adoption c. This Sermon together with the Arch-Bishop's steady carriage in the point of Episcopacy did so much enrage both the Presbyterian and Independant Factions that in their News Books and Pamphlets at London they reproach'd the Lord Primate for flattering the King as also for his perswading him not to abolish Bishops and that he had very much prejudiced the Treaty and that none among all the King's Chaplains had been so mischievous meaning to Them as He which reproaches whether the Lord Primate did deserve or not I leave to the candid Readers both of the said Sermon and Reconciliation above mentioned to judge I am sure his Majesty's Affairs were in as ill a condition to tempt any man to flatter him as the temper of his Soul was then to suffer it But the truth is the Lord Primate did no more than assert his Majesty's just Rights and Prerogative then trampled upon and it was no more than what he had both preached and written before in that Treatise since published Of the Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject After the Lord Primate had taken his last leave of his Majesty and done him and the Church all the service he was able at that time though not with that success he desired he returned to Southampton in order to his going towards London where he was kindly received by the chief of the Town and withal intreated to preach there the next day being Sunday but when he thought of complying with their desires the Governor of the Garrison hearing of it came to my Lord Primate and told him he had been informed he intended to preach on the morrow to which when my Lord answered yes 't was true he replyed that it might be at that time of ill consequence to the Place and therefore wished him to forbear for they could not permit it and so they suffered him not to preach there for they were afraid of his plain dealing and that he would have declared against that Villainy they were then about to execute For not long after my Lord's return to London his Majesty was brought up thither as a Prisonerby the Army in order to that wicked piece of Pageantry which they called his Tryal And now too soon after came that fatal Thirtieth of January never to be mentioned or thought on by all good men without grief and detestation on which was perpetrated the most Execrable Villainy under the pretence of Justice that ever was acted since the World began A King Murthered by his own Subjects before his own Palace in the face of the Sun For which the Lord Primate was so deeply sensible and afflicted that he kept that day as a private Fast so long as he lived and would always be wail the scandal and reproach it cast not only on our own Nation but Religion it self saying That thereby a great advantage was given to Popery and that from thence forward the Priests would with greater success advance their designs against the Church of England and Protestant Religion in general Nor will it be impertinent here to relate a passage that happened to the Lord Primate at the time of his Majesty's murther The Lady Peterborough's House where my Lord then lived being just over against Charing-Cross divers of the Countesse's Gentlemen and Servants got upon the Leads of the House from whence they could see plainly what was acting before White-Hall as soon as his Majesty came upon the Scaffold some of the House-hold came and told my Lord Primate of it and askt him if he would see the King once more before he was put to death My Lord was at first unwilling but was at last perswaded to go up as well out of his desire to see his Majesty once again as also curiosity since he could scarce believe what they told him unless he saw it When he came upon the Leads the King was in his Speech the Lord Primate stood still and said nothing but sighed and lifting up his Hands and Eyes full of Tears towards Heaven seemed to pray earnestly but when his Majesty had done speaking and had pulled off his Cloak and Doublet and stood stripped in his Wastcoat and that the Villains in Vizards began to put up his hair the good Bishop no longer able to endure so dismal a sight and being full of grief and horror for that most wicked Fact now ready to be Executed grew pale and began to faint so that if he had not been observed by his own Servant and some others that stood near him who thereupon supported him he had swounded away So they presently carried him down and laid him on his Bed where he used those powerful weapons which God has left his People in such Afflictions viz. Prayers and Tears Tears that so horrid a sin should be committed and Prayers that God would give his Prince patience and constancy to undergo these cruel Sufferings and that he likewise would not for the vindication of his own Honour and Providence permit so great a wickedness to pass unpublished This I received from my Lord Primate's Grandson who heard it from the mouth of his Servant who lived with him till his death After this sad Tragedy the Government if it may be so called was managed by a
all Monuments of Antiquity hath emboldned me at this time to put your Lordship in mind of a present occasion which may much conduce to the general good of all of us that employ our Studies in this kind of Learning That famous Library of Giâ—cono Barocci a Gentleman of Venice consisting of 242 Greek Manuscript Volumes is now brought into England by Mr. Fetherstone the Stationer Great pity it were that such a Treasure should be dissipated and the Books dispersed into private hands If by your Lordship's mediation the King's Majesty might be induced to take them into his own hand and add there unto that rare Collection of Arabick Manuscripts which my Lord Duke of Buckingham purchased from the Hens of Erpenius it would make that of his Majestys a Royal Library indeed and make some recompence of that incomparable loss which we have lately sustain'd in the Library of Heidelberg We have 〈◊〉 a poor return unto your Lordship of our Commission in the business of Pbeliâ— Mâ—â— Fâ—â—gh Birr and his Sons And because the directions which we received 〈◊〉 the Lords required the dispatch thereof with all convenient expedition 〈◊〉 we have made more haste I fear than good speed fully purposing in our selves that the examination which 〈…〉 taken should have come unto your 〈…〉 your Lordships Resolutions 〈…〉 have been notified before the beginning of Hilâ—â—y Teâ—m That things have fallen out otherwiseâ— iâ— that I confess wherein we shall be hardly 〈…〉 â—â—â— selves 〈…〉 that this important Business might in such 〈◊〉 be 〈…〉 that the Honour and Dignity of his Majesty 〈…〉 might withal be very tenderly respected for the least shew of 〈…〉 that may 〈…〉 he given from thence 〈◊〉 Authority will add encouragement to such â—â— are too apt to 〈…〉 his Majesty's Ministers here from being so forward as otherwise they would be in prosecution of such publick Services of the State Which I humbly leave unto your Lordship's deeper consideration and evermore rest Your Honour 's in all dutiful Service ready to be commanded Ja. Armachanst Dublin Jan. 22. 1628. LETTER CXXXIV 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 Have received your Grace's second Letters and with the Letters from Dr. Barlow a Man known to me only by Name and good Report I have upon receipt of these a second time humbly presented Dr. Barlow's Suit to his Majesty with all fair representation to his Majesty of the necessity of a good Commendam to the Arch-bishop of Tuam And tho in my judgment I hold it very unfit and of ill both Example and Consequence in the Church to have a Bishop much more an Arch-bishop retain a Deanery in Commendam Yet because there is as I am informed much service to be done for that Arch-bishop and because I have conceived this Man will do that Service for so he hath assumed and because much of that Service must be done at Dublin where that Deaury will the better fit him as well for House as Charge and because it is no new thing in that Country to hold a Deanry with a Bishoprick I made bold to move his Majesty for it and his Majesty is graciously pleased to grant it and I have already by his Majesty's special Command given order to Sir Hen. Holcross to send Letters to my Lord Deputy to this purpose But there two things his Majesty commanded me to write to your Lordship The one that young Men be not commended to him for Bishops The other that he shall 〈◊〉 be drawn again to grant a Deanry in Commendam Any other Preferment though of more value he shall be content to yield I am glad I have been able to serve your Grace's desires in this Business And for Dr. Barlow I with him joy but must desire your Lordship to excuse my not writing to him for between Parliament and Term I have not lenure So I leave you to the Grace of God and shall ever rest Your Graces loving Friend and Brother Guil. London Jan. 29. 1628. My Lord Arch-bishop of Tak Dr. Barlow's 〈…〉 that was is of my 〈◊〉 for holding a 〈…〉 LETTER CXXXV A Letter from Dr. William Bedell to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Drogheda Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord SInce your Graces departure from Dublin I began to peruse the Papers you left me of Dr. Ghaloner's hand about the first foundation of the Colledg which although in some places I cannot read word for word yet I perceive the sense and have transcribed so far as they go without interruption But they refer to some Copies of Letters which I have not nor yet are in our Chest as namely the City's Letter to Queen Elizabeth and the Lord Deputy and Comisales and hers to the Lord Deputy here for the founding of the Colledg All which if they might be had would be inserted into the History of the Colledg ad Verbum And which is worse the third Duernion is wholly missing noted it seems in the Front with the Figure 3. This makes me bold to write to your Grace to search if you can find any thing more of this Argument that there may be somewhat left to Posterity concerning the beginnings of so good a Work I have also since your Grace's departure drawn a Form of the Confirmation of our Rectories from the Bishop of Clougher in conformity to two Instruments viz. the Resignation of George Montgomery sometime Bishop thereof and Derry and Rapho and our Colledg Patent I have used all the means I can to know whether any Predecessor of your Grace did in like manner resign into the King's Hands any Patronages within your Diocess and what their Names be which if I could understand I would entreat your Grace to go before in your Diocess and to be our Patron in the soliciting the other Bishops to follow in theirs I send your Grace the form of the Confirmation and the Names of the Rectories in our Patent referring the rest to your wisdom and love to the Colledg This is a Business of great importance to this Society and hath already been deferred so long and Mr. Usher's sudden taking away to omit my Lord of Kilmore admonishes me to work while the day lasts Another Business there is which enforceth me to have recourse to your Grace which is this Yesterday as I was following Mr. Usher's Funeral there was delivered me a Letter from my Lord Chancellor containing another to his Lordship from Mr. Lloyd together 〈◊〉 a Note which I send herewith He demandeth of the Colledg not only his Diâ—t in his absence which the Statute expresly denies to a Fellow and which a your Grace and the Visitors intended to grant him you did him a Favour instead of a Punishment but Wages for being a Prime-Lecturer whereas his Year came out at Midsummer and he had till then his Allowance although he performed not the
Privy Counsellor who was present and assistant in all the Consultations about setting it forth and privy to the Resolutions of the Board thereupon But since this is come to my hands from another I do hereby pray and authorize your Lordship calling to your assistance Mr. Justice Philpot who is now resident there to enter into a serious examination of the Premises and to give me a full information of what you find thereof by the first opportunity So desiring to be remembred in your daily Prayers I am Your Lordship 's very affectionate Friend Falkland Dublin-Castle Apr. 14. 1629. LETTER CXL A Letter from Mr. Philpot to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My good Lord I Have had some Conference with my Lord Deputy about those Matters wherein your Grace and I were lately imployed he telleth me that this day he will advise with the Counsel upon the Informations sent by us and afterwards will take such course therein as shall be thought fit His Lordship insisteth much upon that part of Mr. Sing's Information where he saith That the Titulary Bishop of Rapho did make a Priest at a publick Mass in an Orchard He saith That the said Bishop is as dangerous a Fellow here in Ireland as Smith is in England and that he hath good Bonds upon him and would be glad to this occasion to call him in and therefore I pray your Grace to wish Mr. Sing to be ready to make good his Accusation for the said Bishop is bound not to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction I told my Lord Deputy how careful you were to see him before his going from hence and that your Grace intended to make a journey of purpose hither having now no other business here He told me that if your Grace had any such purpose that you need not make any great haste for he hoped to have time enough before his going to make some good progress in the Business begun concerning the Jesuits and their Houses c. and that he had not his Summons yet to go away which could not come till the Wind turned and if it came then he said he would stay ten days after at the least in which your Grace may have notice time enough to perform your desire I told my Lord that your Grace was somewhat troubled at his Letter for which he was sorry and blamed his Secretary protesting he did not intend to give your Grace any cause of discontent His Lordship told me that the News of Mantua is true which is relieved and the French King returned but there is no certainty but a common report of any Peace concluded with France I shall be ready upon all occasions to do your Lordship any acceptable Service and will for ever remain Your Grace's faithful Servant Jo. Philpot. Dublin April 27. 1629. LETTER CXLI A Letter from the Lord Deputy c. to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After our right hearty Commendations to your Lordship BY your Letters of the 6th of this Instant which we the Lord Deputy thought fit to communicate to the Council we perceive and do well approve the care and pains you have taken as well in searching out the truth of the Matter concerning the Titulary Bishop of Raphae as in endeavouring to inform your self of the Proprietors and Possessors of the Popish Conventual-Houses in that Town Touching the Titulary Bishop we rest satisfied by your Lordship 's said Letters that at that time he did no publick Act nor gave Orders to any But as yet remain unsatisfied whether there were any great Assembly of People at that Meeting and what Persons of Note were among them wherein we desire to receive further satisfaction from your Lordship As to their Conventual-Houses we have given his Majesty's Attorney-General a Copy of the Paper enclosed in your Letters to us and gave him direction to put up Informations in his Majesty's Court of Exchequer against the Proprietors and Possessors of those Houses that thereby way may be made to such further course of proceeding as the several Cases shall require And this being all for the present we bid your Lorship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin May 15. 1629. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends H. Falkland A. Loftus Canc. Anth. Midensis Hen. Docwra W. Parsons Tyringham LETTER CXLII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Am glad Mr. Bedell's Preferment gives your Grace such contentment Your former Letter came safe to my hands so did your second I see nothing is so well done but Exceptions can fret it for I hear that which I looked not for concerning Mr. Bedell's Preferment whole Name was never put to the King till both the other Competitors were refused by his Majesty as too young Ardagh is not forgotten in the Letter for since upon receipt of your Lordship's last Letters I spake with Sir Hen. Holcroft about it Beside those of your Lordship's I have received Letters from Mr. Bedell and from the Fellows about their freedom of election of a Provost My Lord his Majesty would fain have a Man to go on where Mr. Bedell leaves I am engaged for none I heartily love Freedoms granted by Charter and would have them maintained If they will return which are come hither and all agree or a major part upon a worthy Man that will serve God and the King I will give them all the assistance I can to keep their Priviledg whole The King likes wondrons well of the Irish Lecture begun by Mr. Bedell and the course of sending such young Men as your Grace mentions I hope before our Committee for the establishment of Ireland end I shall find a time to think of the Remedy your Lordship proposes about scandalous Ministers in which or any other Service I shall not be wanting For the particulars concerning Clark I have your inclosed and if he stir any thing while I am present you shall be sure I will do you right Now my Lord I have answered all your Letter save about the Arch-bishop of Cassa's for the old Dean I have done all I am able for that reverend and well-deserving Gentleman but the King's Majesty hath been possessed another way and it seems upon like removes hereafter will move more than one And at this time he will give Cassils to my Lord of Clougher if he will take it and so go on with another to succeed him of whom he is likewise resolved And who shall be Cassils if my Lord of Clougher refuse There is nothing which the Dean of Cassils can have at this time unless he will with a good commendam be content to take Kilfanora To which tho I do not perswade yet I would receive his Answer And I add it will be a step for him to a better As for Betts the Lord-Elect that was he hath lapsed it by not proceeding to
he understood by me how much you esteemed and loved him he desired me to return his humble Thanks with desire that you would imploy his Service in whatsoever he is able to perform His Majesty has conserr'd on him the Prebend in Canterbury which lately was Dr. Chapman's He is now settling himself in it he saith he hath received a late Advertisement of the Death of Bertius who over-lived his own Credit and Reputation Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour hath long slept under the Press by reason of his long close Imprisonment but now he tells me it shall go forward and he thinks within two Months it will come abroad The War in Italy is like to proceed the French King raiseth a great Army for that Expedition Here was a report that the States had taken Gulick but it holds not for a certain Truth One thing I must not over-pass and that a strange and monstrous Accident lately happened here in England One Dorington a younger Son of Sir William Dorington of Hamp-shire and Grand-Child to that Dorington who brake his Neck from St. Sepulchres Steeple in London being reprehended for some disorderly Courses by his Mother drew his Sword and ran her twice through and afterwards she being dead gave her many Wounds and had slain his Sister at the same time had he not been prevented I presume your Grace hath heard of the Death of Dr. Tho. James his Nephew Mr. Rich. James is fallen into some Trouble by reason of his Familiarity and Inwardness with Sir Robert Cotton I suppose you have the last Catalogue of Francfort which hath nothing of note But I fear I have been over troublesome to your Grace's more serious and weighty Imployments wherefore with the remembrance of my Love and Service I will ever remain Your Grace's most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London December the 4th 1629. LETTER CXLVIII 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 Have received two or three Letters from you since I writ you any Answer I hope your Grace is not of opinion that it is either idlenesi or neglect which have made me silent for the plain truth is I fell into a fierce burning Fever August the 14th which held me above three Weeks It was so fierce that my Physicians as well as my Friends gave me for dead and it is a piece of a Miracle that I live I have not yet recovered my wonted Strength and God knows when I shall yet since I was able to go to the Court tho not to wait there I have done as much business as I could and I think as your Grace hath desired of me for the Church of Ireland as your Lordship will see by this brief Account following And first my Lord I have obtain'd of his Majesty the new incorporating of the Dean and Chapter of Derry and I think the Dean is returned At the same time the King was pleased to give order for confirming the Election of Dr. Usher to be Governour of the Colledg in Dublin Thirdly upon the refusal of my Lord of Clougher his Majesty gave in the time of my Sickness the Arch-bishoprick of Cassills to the Bishop of Killally and the Bishoprick of Killally to the Dean of Rapho And whereas your Grace in the close of one of your Letters did acquaint me that there was a fear lest some cunning would be used to beg or buy some Patronages out of the King's Hands I moved his Majesty about that likewise and he made me a gracious promise that he would part with none of them And now my Lord I give your Lordship thanks for the Catalogue of the Bishopricks of Ireland which I heartily desire your Grace to perfect as occasion may be offered you And for the last business as I remember concerning the Table of Tything in Ulster I have carefully look'd it over but by reason I have no experience of those parts I cannot judg clearly of the Business but I am taking the best care I can about it and when I have done I will do my best with his Majesty for Confirmation and leave Mr. Hyegate to report the Particulars to your Grace I have observed that Kilphanora is no fertile Ground it is let lie so long Fallow Hereupon I have adventured to move his Majesty that some one or two good Benefices lying not too far off or any other Church-Preferment without Cure so it be not a Deanery may be not for this time only but for ever annex'd to that Bishoprick The care of managing that Business he refers to your Grace and such good Counsel in the Law as you shall call to your assistance And I pray your Grace think of it seriously and speedily and though I doubt you will find nothing actually void to annex unto it yet if that Act be but once past the hope of that which is annex'd will make some worthy Man venture upon that Pastoral Charge and so soon as you are resolv'd what to do I pray send me word that so I may acquaint his Majesty with it and get pow'r for you to do the Work These are all the Particulars that for the present I can recall out of your Letters sent unto me in the time of my Sickness So with my hearty Prayers for your Health and Happiness and that you may never be parch'd in such a Fire as I have been I leave you to the Grace of God and rest Your Grace's loving poor Friend and Brother Guil. London London-house Decemb. 7. 1629. LETTER CXLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord I Have received your Grace's Letters concerning Mr. Cook I do acknowledg all that which your Grace writes to be true concerning his sufficiency and experience to the execution of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction neither did I forber to do him right in giving him that Testimony when before the Chapter I did declare and shew the nullity of his Parent I have heard of my Lord of Meathe's attempt and I do believe that if this Patent had due Form I could not overthrow it how unequal soever it be But falling in the essential parts besides sundry other defects I do not think any reasonable Creature can adjudg it to be good I shall more at large certify your Grace of the whole Matter and the reasons of my Counsel herein I shall desire herein to be tried by your Grace's own Judgment and not by your Chancellor's or as I think in such a case I ought to be by the Synod of the Province I have resolved to see the end of this matter and do desire your Grace's savour herein no farther than the equity of the Cause and the Good as far as I can judg of the Church in a high degree do require So with my humble
I meant I do it very willingly for I never meant him nor any Man else but thought it concerned your Grace to know what I credibly heard to be spoken concerning your Court Neither as God knows did I ever think it was fit to take away the Jurisdiction from Chancellors and put it into the Bishops Hands alone or so much as in a Dream condemn those that think they have reason to do otherwise nor tax your Grace's Visitation nor imagine you would account that to pertain to your Reproof and take it as a Wrong from me which out of my Duty to God and you I thought was not to be concealed from you I beseech you pardon me this one Error Si unquam posthac For that Knave whom as your Grace writes they say I did absolve I took him for one of my Flock or rather Christ's for whom he shed his Blood And I would have absolved Julian the Apostata under the same form Some other Passages there be in your Grace's Letters which I But I will lay mine Hand upon mine Mouth And craving the blessing of your Prayers ever remain Your Grace's poor Brother and humble Servant Will. Kilmore and Ardaghen Kilmore March 29. 1630. LETTER CLVI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Lords Justices My most Honoured Lords I Received a Letter from your Lordships without any Date wherein I am required to declare what Motives I can alleadg for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent Whereunto I answer That I cannot nor need not produce any other reason than that which I have done and for the maintenance of the sufficiency whereof I will adventure all I am worth namely that for the Particular now in question Sir John Bathe's Letter hath been gotten from his Majesty by meer surreption and therefore no Patent ought to be passed thereupon For although I easily grant that my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer might certify unto his Majesty that there was no other thing left to be passed here but Impropriations though Sir John Bathe I think hath found already somewhat else to be passed in his Book and may do more if he will not be so hasty but take time to enquire Yet how doth it appear that either of these two noble Gentlemen did as much as know that his Majesty had taken a former Order for the settlement of these things upon the Church To which Resolution had they been privy I do so presume of their Nobleness and care of the Publick Good that the remittal of a Matter of two thousand pounds would not induce them to divert his Majesty from making good that precious Donation which by the Example of his Father of never-dying memory he had solemnly devoted to God and his Church such an eximious Act of Piety as is not to be countervalued with two or twenty thousand pounds of any earthly Treasure But whatsoever they knew or knew not of his Majesty's own pious Resolution and constant Purpose never to revoke that which he hath once given unto God I rest so confident as I dare pawn my Life upon it that when he did sign those Letters of Sir John Bathe's he had not the least intimation given unto him that this did any way cross that former Gift which he made unto the Church upon so great and mature deliberation as being grounded upon the Advice first of the Commissioners sent into Ireland then of the Lords of the Council upon their report in England thirdly of King James that ever blessed Father of the Church and lastly of the Commissioners for Irish Affairs unto whom for the last debating and conclusion of this business I was by his now Majesty referr'd my self at my being in England I know Sir John and his Counsel do take notice of all those Reasons that may seem to make any way for themselves But your Lordships may do well to consider that such Letters as these have come before now wherein Rectories have been expresly named and those general Non obstantes also put which are usual in this kind and yet notwithstanding all this his Majesty intimateth unto you in his last Letters that he will take a time to examine those Proceedings and punish those that then had so little regard to the particular and direct expression of his Royal Pleasure for the disposing of the Impropriations to the general benefit of the Church Which whether it carrieth not with it a powerful Non obstante to that surreptious Grant now in question I hold it more safe for your Lordships to take Advice among your selves than from any other bodies Counsel who think it their Duty to speak any thing for their Clients Fee As for the want of Attestation wherewith the credit of the Copy of a Letter transmitted unto you is laboured to be impaired If the Testimony of my Lord of London who procured it and the Bishop Elect of Kilfennora who is the bringer of it and of a Dean and an Arch-Deacon now in Ireland who themselves saw it will not suffice it will not be many days in all likelihood before the Original it self shall be presented to your Lordships In the mean time I desire and more than desire if I may presume to go so far that your Lordships will stay your hands from passing Sir John Bathe's Patent until my Lord of London himself shall signifie his Majesties further Pleasure unto you in this Particular And it my Zeal hath carried me any way further than Duty would require I beseech your Lordships to consider that I deal in a Cause that highly concerneth the good of the Church unto which I profess I owe my whole self and therefore craving Pardon for this my Boldness I humbly take leave and rest still to continue Your Lordships in all dutiful Observance J. A. Droghedah April the 3d 1630. Instructions given to Mr. Dean Lesly April 5. 1630. for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent 1. YOU are to inform your self whether Sir John Bathe's Patent be already sealed and if it be whether it were done before Saturday which was the day wherein I received and answered the Lords Justices Letters touching this business and at which time they signified the Patent was as yet unpast and use all speedy means that the Patent may not be delivered into Sir John Bathes hands before you be heard to speak what you can against it and if that also be done I authorize you to signifie unto the Lords Justices that I must and will complain against them to his Sacred Majesty 2. You are to go unto Sir James Ware the younger from me and enquire of him whether he gave any Certificate unto my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the King had not of Temporal Lands the annual Rent of 300 l. to grant in reversion but that of necessity must be supplied with the Grant of the reversion of Tithes impropriate And withal learn
of him to what value the Temporal Rents not yet passed in reversion do arise and what proportion thereof Sir John Bathe is now a passing in his Book 3. Whereas the Lords Justices in their Letter do signifie unto 〈◊〉 that such a Certificate had been made unto his Majesty by the Lord Treasurer and Chancellor of the Exchequer you may certifie them that Sir John Bathe sent unto me a Certificate under their hands to view wherein they do inform his Majesty that in their Judgments the granting of 〈◊〉 l. Rent in Reversion will countervail the Sum which Sir John was to remit but that there was no other thing leâ—t to be passed but Impropriations which is the main thing that concerns this business that to my remembrance they meddle not with at all and Sir John Bathe by the Temporal Lands that now he is passing in his Book doth prove it to be otherwise 4. Take a view of Sir John Bathe's Letter and consider with your Counsel first whether there be any general Non obstante in it against all precedent Instructions and Directions of which I much doubt And secondly Whether any such general Non obstante have power to cross the particular Letter which in â—y apprehension is more then an Instruction at large which I brought over from his Majesty that now is for the disposing of the Impropriations otherwise 5. Let Sir John Bathe be demanded upon his Conscience whether he did so much as know that I had obtained any such Letter from his Majesty when he procured his If he did why did he not to take away all suspicion of surreption cause a special Non obstante to be inserted against it as well as he hath done against another particular Instruction mentioned in the end of his Letter If he did not as his Kinsman who brought me the Lords Justices Letters assured me he did not how in any common intendment can it be presumed that the Particularities of my former Letter were 〈◊〉 into due consideration and revoked by his Majesty If it be alledged that his Letter coming after mine is of it self a sufficient Revocation thereof I alledg in like manner that this last Letter of mine coming after his is of it self a sufficient Revocation of his and so much the more by far because his was obtained upon my direct Complaint against Sir John Bathe's Letter as surreptitiously procured which I take to be a Non-obstante sufficient enough against him whatsoever it be against any other whereas in the procuring of Sir John Bathe's there was no notice at all taken of my particular Letter 6. You are to 〈…〉 the Instructions which they received with the Sword they are 〈…〉 make stay of the passing of any Grant for which the King's Letters are brought unto them where they have cause to doubt whether his Majesty were fully informed or no concerning the 〈◊〉 or inconveniency of that Particular Wherein if my Lord of London's Letter be not of authority sufficient otherwise to make a legal Attestation of his Majesties Royal Intendâ—ent yeâ— I suppoâ—◠〈◊〉 will 〈◊〉 so much weight with it as to 〈◊〉 theâ—◠〈◊〉 little which longer as they have done 〈◊〉 when they had nothing so strong a 〈◊〉 until his Majesty being fully informed upon both sides shall signifie his express Pleasure unto them in this particular And in doing otherwise they may justly conceive that it will be charged upon them for a neglect in performance of his Majesties Pleasure LETTER CLVII A Letter from the Right Reverend George Downham Bishop of London-Derry to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend MY very good Lord. The Book and Papers which you were pleased to send to me I have now returned with Thanks Of which I made this use so soon as I had received them that I gave Directions to Mr. Price to insert those Additions unto the 13th Chapter of Perseverance and § 3. both in the beginning whereof I spake of Adulti of whom properly this Controversy is understood And in the end thereof where I speak of Infants touching whom I say first That this Controversy is not understood of those who neither are endued with Habit of Grace nor are able to produce the Acts thereof as not having the use of Reason And therefore being neither justified by Faith nor sanctified by the Habits of Grace cannot be said to fall from them Thus I thought good to rid my self of that Question rather then to profess a difference from them who notwithstanding that Objection taken from Baptism agree with me in the Doctrine of Perseverance yet I must profess to your Grace that I do not subscribe to their Opinion who extend the benefit of Baptism beyond either the Purpose or Covenant of Grace But hereof more when it shall please God to give us a meeting In the mean time and always I commend your Grace to the gracious Protection of the Almighty In whom I ever rest Your Grace's in all Duty Georg. Derens. Fawne April 24. 1630. LETTER CLVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Thomas Morton Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Salutem in Christo Jesu Most Reverend I Was right glad to receive by your Graces own Letters the report of your late almost desperate Sickness they being therein the Messengers of your present Health Wherein I and others are to acknowledg the Mercâ— of God unto us who hath preserved you to be still a most emâ—nenâ—â—nstrument of his Glory and Comfort of his Church I do also condole with your Lordship the loss of those rare Lights of Learning mentioned in your Letter but yet enjoying also with you the hopes of their Blessedness Your Grace inquires after Christ his Mass a Fruit which will not be in season before Michaelmas I have an eager longing to be made partaker Histoâ—icae Controversiae Predestinatianae together with your new Edition of altering the Jesuits Challenge I had the sight of your Adversaries Book but obiter at what time I alight on a palpable Falsification of his but ea est infelicitas Memoriae that I have forgot it else according to my Duty I should have acquainted your Grace with it Good my Lord that which our outward Man denieth let our inward continually seek to embrace and enjoy our mutual presence by brotherly Affection and holy Prayer unto God that we may be that which we profess Filii Gratiae Charitate Fratres Our Lord Jesus preserve us to the Glory of his saving Grace Your Grace's in respectful Acknowledgment Tho. Covent Litchfield Eccleshall-Castle May 21 1630. LETTER CLIX. A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Salutem à salutis fonte D. N. Jesu Christo. YOur Letter of the 24th of November lay by the way almost a quarter of a Year before it came into my hands but was the most welcome when it came of any that I did receive from
Quotis ad R. D. Tuam unà cum Eucharisticis missimus rectè redditas esse Ita nunc etiam pro novissimis duabus Quotis quae 185 libras Sterl 8 Solidos continuerunt hic nostrae Monetae florenos 1231 confecerunt Catalogum hisce adjunctum mittimus Ut hanc distributionem non minùs quà m priores duas fideliter à nobis factas esse inde constare possit In quem finem etiam Apocham pro acceptis pecuniis non tantùm à nobis collectae Administratoribus sed etiam ab aliis Primariis Viris subscriptam ad opt humaniss Virum Dom. Christianum Bor. Mercatorem Dublinensem missimus Habemus praeterea hîc ad manus diligenter asservamus singulorum Participantium Chirographa quibus se portiones in Catalogo assignatas accepisse attestantur Si fortè ad probandam Accepticum Expenso congruentiam iis aliquando opus sit Quod restat quod unum gratitudinis argumentum edere nunc possumus nos non tantùm pro salute incolumitate tuâ seduli ad DEUM precatores verùm etiam tuorum in nos meritorum laudumque tuarum grati buccinatores apud homines futuri sumus ita ut quocunque terrarum nostra nos fata deferent fidelem tui memoriam nobiscum simus ablaturi Bene vale Pater eximie venerande DOMINUS JESUS opus manuum tuarum confirmet ad nominis sui gloriam Ecclesiae suae incrementum Amen Norinburgae die xiii Septembris Anno Dei Hominis facti M. DC XXXI Reverendiss Dom. Tuam Subjectissimo Studio colentes Sacrae Collectae pro Exulib Archipalatinatus Superioris Administratores Fratrum omnium nomine Ambrosius Tolner quondam Pastor Ecclesiae Tursehennentensis Dioceseos Waldsassensis Inspector unde nunc exul in agro Norico suo Ln. Georgii Summeri nomine jam absentis Gebhardus Agricola Ecclesiae Aurbacensis quondam Pastor Inspector nunc in Marchionatum exulans c. Jonas Libingus Judex quondam Archipalatinus Caenobii Weisseno nunc in Exilio ad facrae Collectae negotia Deputatus Norimbergae LETTER CLXXII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the most Reverend William Laud Arch-bishop of Canterbury My most gracious Lord WHen I took Pen to write the first thing that presented it self to my thoughts was that saying in the Scripture Why are you the last to bring the King back to his House For methought I could not but be much blamed for coming thus late to congratulate both his Majesty's safe return and your own advancement joined therewith unto the highest place of Church-Preferment that is within his Highnesses Dominions Wherein I may truly say thus much for my self to begin withal that since the time I received the Letter you wrote unto me the day before you began your Journey for Scotland no day hath passed hitherto wherein I have not made particular mention of you in my Prayers unto Almighty God who hath graciously heard my Request and granted therein as much as my Heart could desire But thus in the mean time did the Case stand with me Upon the arrival of the Lord Deputy I found him very honourably affected toward me and very ready to further me as in other things that concerned the Church so particularly in that which did concern the settlement of the Lands belonging to the Arch-bishoprick of Armagh Wherefore not being willing to let slip so fair an opportunity I presently obtained a Commission for making an inquiry of all the Lands that remained in my quiet possession and took my Journey though in an unseasonable time of the Year into the Northern Parts of the Kingdom Where beside the speeding of the Offices that were taken in the three several Counties of Armagh Tirone and London-Derry there was offered the opportunity of solemnizing the translation of the Bishop of Raphae and a Consecration of the Bishop of Ardagh in the Cathedral Church of Armagh where no such Act had been before performed within the memory of any Man living And much about this time had we the News of your Grace's Election into that high Dignity which his Majesty hath called you unto for which as this poor Church in general so none more than my self in particular have great cause to rejoice God having no doubt given you such high favour in our Master's Eyes that you might be enabled thereby to do the more good unto his Church and especially to put a happy end to that great Work which hitherto hath received so many Impediments of setling the Reversion of the Impropriations of this Kingdom upon the several Incumbents Whereunto I assure my self your Grace will easily work my Lord Deputy who every day sheweth himself so zealous for the recovering of the dissipated Patrimony of the Church that mine Eyes never yet beheld his match in that kind By the death of your Predecessor our University of Dublin was left to seek a new Chancellor whom I advised to pitch upon no other but your self which they did with all readiness and alacrity If your Grace will design to receive that poor Society under the shadow of your Wings you shall put a further tie of observance not upon that only but upon me also who had my whole breeding there and obtained the honour of being the first Proctor that ever was there I am further intreated by our Lord Treasurer the Earl of Corke to certify my knowledg touching the placing of his Monument in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick's in the Suburbs of Dublin The place wherein it is erected was an ancient Passage into a Chappel within that Church which hath time out of mind been stopped up with a Partition made of Boards and Lime I remember I was present when the Earl concluded with the Dean to allow thirty Pounds for the raising of another Partition betwixt this new Monument and the Quire wherein the Ten Commandments might be fairly written Which if it were put up I see not what offence could be taken at the Monument which otherwise cannot be denied to be a very great Ornament to the Church I have nothing at hand to present your Grace withal but this small Treatise written unto Pope Calixtus the 2d by one of your Predecessors touching the ancient Dignity of the See of Canterbury Which I beseech you to accept at the hands of Your Grace's most devoted Servant J. A. 1632. LETTER CLXXIII Another Letter to the same May it please your Grace UPon my return from my Northern Journey I wrote unto you by Sir Francis Cook declaring the cause of my long silence together with the extraordinary Zeal of our noble Lord Deputy I may justly term him a new Zerubbabel raised by God for the making up of the Ruins of this decayed Church who upon an occasion openly declared himself an opposite to the greatest of those that have devoured our holy Things and made the Patrimony of the Church the Inheritance of their Sons and Daughers I likewise made bold
Pains for a Cause or two so followed will free thee from Suits a great part of thy Life after 8. Be sure to keep some Gentleman thy Friend but trouble him not with every trifling Complaint often present him with many yet small Gifts And if thou have cause to bestow any great Gratuity let it be such as may be daily in his sight otherwise in this ambitious Age thou shalt remain like a Hop without a Pole live in obscurity and be made a Footstool for every insulting Companion to spur at 9. Towards thy Superiors be humbly generous with thy Equals familiar yet respective towards thy Inferiors shew much humility and some familiarity as to bow thy Body stretch forth thy Hand and to uncover thy Head with such be popular Complements the first prepares the way to Advancement the second makes thee known for a Man as well bred the third gains a Man good report which once being gotten is easily kept for high Humilitudes take such deep root in the minds of the Multitude who are more easily won by unprofitable Courtesies than curious Benefits that I advise thee not to affect nor neglect Popularities Trust not any Man with thy Estate for it is a meer folly for a Man to enthral himself to his Friends as though if occasion be offered he should not dare become his Enemy 10. Be not scurrilous in thy Conversation nor Stoical in thy Jests the one will make thee unwelcome to all Companies the other will breed Quarrels and get thee hatred of thy best Friends for Jests when they savour too much of Truth leave bitterness in the minds of those that are touched Although I have pointed at all these inclusive yet I think it fit and necessary to leave it thee as a special Caution because I have seen many so prone to quip and gird that they will rather lose their Friend than their Scoff then they will travel to be delivered of it as a Woman with Child these nimble Apprehensions are but the Froth of Wit Your loving Father Henry Sydney LETTER XVII A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the most Reverend William Laud late Arch-bishop of Canterbury remaining with Sir Robert Cotton 's choice Papers Most Reverend AS I am here employ'd by our Soveraign Lord the King your Grace can testify that I have left no Stone unturn'd for his Majesty's Advancement neither can I omit whenever I meet with Treacheries or Conspiracies against the Church and State of England the sending your Grace an Accompt in General I fear Matters will not answer your expectations if your Grace do but seriously weigh them with deliberation For be you assur'd the Romish Clergy have gull'd the misled Party of our English Nation and that under a Puritanical Dress for which the several Fraternities of that Church have lately received Indulgences from the See of Rome and Council of Cardinals for to educate several of the young Fry of the Church of Rome who be Natives of his Majesty's Realms and Dominions and instruct them in all manner of Principles and Tenents contrary to the Episcopacy of the Church of England There be in the Town of Hague to my certain Knowledg two dangerous Impostors of whom I have given notice to the Prince of Orange who have large Indulgences granted them and known to be of the Church of Rome altho they seem Puritans and do converse with several of our English Factors The one James Murray a Scotchman and the other John Napper a Yorkshire Blade The main drift of these Intentions is to pull down the English Episcopacy as being the chief Support of the Imperial Crown of our Nation For which purpose above sixty Romish Clergy-men are gone within these two Years out of the Monasteries of the French King's Dominions to preach up the Scotch Covenant and Mr. Knox his Descriptions and Rules within that Kirk and to spread the same about the Northern Coasts of England Let therefore his Majesty have an inkling of these Crotchets that he might be persuaded whenever Matters of the Church come before you to refer them to your Grace and the Episcopal Party of the Realm For there be great Preparations making ready against the Liturgy and Ceremonies of the Church of England And all evil Contrivances here and in France and in other Protestant Holdings to make your Grace and the Episcopacy odious to all Reformed Protestants abroad It has wrought so much on divers of the Forreign Ministers of the Protestants that they esteem our Clergy little better than Papists The main things that they hit in our teeth are our Bishops to be called Lords The Service of the Church The Cross in Baptism Confirmation Bowing at the Name of Jesus The Communion Tables placed Altar-ways Our manner of Consecrations And several other Matters which be of late buzz'd into the Heads of the Forreign Clergy to make your Grievances the less regarded in case of a Change which is aimed at if not speedily prevented Your Grace's Letter is carefully delivered by my Gentleman 's own hands unto the Prince Thus craving your Graces hearty Prayers for my Undertakings abroad as also for my safe arrival that I may have the freedom to kiss your Grace's hands and to tell you more at large of these things I rest Your Grace's most humble Servant W. B. Hague June 12. 1640. FINIS ERRATA IN the Preface Line 35 after the word be add thought In the Life Page 1. l. 10. after since read been P. 1. l. 16. for Mastres r. Masters P. 25. l. 23. f. two r. ten P. 36. l. 5. f. Erigene r. Erigena l. 6. et per tot P. 47. l. 19. f. Tenements r. Tenants P. 93. l. penult dele most In the Appendix Page 7. l. 22. after the word his read Lat. Determinations Quaest. xlii p. 187 191. P. 9. l. antepenult f. would r. would not P. 10. l. 10. after sence add alone l. 18. over against these words Sermon upon John add in the Margin vid. Collection of Sermons printed at the end of the last Edition of the Lord Primates Body of Divinity p. 83. P. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro 〈…〉 P. 29. l. 35. f. to r. do The Author since he wrote this has thought fit to add the Passages following toward the illustration of the Life Page 5. l. 1. after the word Doctrine add Nay it is evident that our Church maintains the contrary Doctrine that the Fourth Commandment as to the substance of it is moral and binds Christians to observe it as well since Christ as it did the Jews before For in our Liturgy which is confirmed by Supream Authority Sacred and Civil by Convocation and Parliament in the Communion-Offices after the repeating of the Fourth Commandment concerning the Observation of the Sabbath it follows Lord have Mercy upon us and incline our Hearts to KEEP THIS LAW Whence it is evident that in the Judgment of our Church not only the Jews but we Christians are under the
Tongues and did render much of the Old Testament from the Original Hebrew into English before King James's Translation was made which I have seen and is now in Manuscript with his Nephew Sir Theophilus Jones Knight one of his Majesties Privy-Council in Ireland He also Translated out of Latin into English that Book written by his Brother James Usher De Ecclesiarum Christianarum successione statu which Translation is yet only in Manuscript And of this Ambrose being a very young man the Learned Mr. William Eyre in a Letter to Dr. James Usher writes thus Interea vero agnosco me valde obaeratum esse tibi doctissimo juveni fratri tuo Ambrosio qui peritissima manu sua quaedam in meum usum ex Alcorano Arabice excripsit which knowledge in the Arabick Tongue in those days was very rare especially in that Country But our James Usher as God had furnisht him with excellent endowments of Nature a treatable Disposition a strong Memory and a ready Invention so by God's blessing on his improvement of them by his Learning and Industry he arrived to that admirable perfection that gave him a reputation superiour to all that he could derive from his Family and rendred his name famous beyond the narrow bounds of his own Country even throughout the Christian World wherever true Piety and useful Learning were had in any esteem and veneration After he had learnt to read from his Aunts he entered on the Bible that Book of Books as he ever called it in which he made a happy beginning and a more happy progress like Timothy of whom it is recorded That from a Child he had known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make a man wise to Salvation According to which excellent Rule he always governed his life and conversation He began early to have a deep sense of Religion and to consider the great concernment of his Soul how he might serve God aright Remembring his Creator in the days of his Youth even but in the tenth year of his Age When he became fit for a Grammar-School it happened that two eminent Persons of the Scottish Nation though their business and quality were then unknown came to Dublin being sent over thither by King James then King of Scotland to keep a correspondence with the English Protestant Nobility and Gentry about Dublin in order to secure his interest in that Kingdom when Queen Elizabeth should happen to die these for a colour undertook the imployment of School-Masters to instruct and discipline Youth in Learning and good Education for the want of such was very great there at that time The one was James Fullerton afterward Knighted and of the Bed-chamber to King James the other was James Hamilton afterward also Knighted and created by the King Viscount Clandebois To their Instruction and Tuition was our James Usher committed by his Parents with whom he made so great a proficiency in a short time that he became the best Scholar of the School for Latin Poetry and Rhetorick all this being within the space of five years He would usually say when he recounted the Providences of God towards him That he took this for one remarkable instance of it That he had the opportunity and advantage of his Education from those men who came thither by Chance and yet proved so happily useful to himself and others He told me That in this first Scene of his life he was extreamly addicted to Poetry and was much delighted with it but afterward growing to more maturity and consideration he shook it off as not suitable to the great end of his more resolved serious and profitable Studies and then set himself industriously to pursue Learning of a higher Nature Yet he always loved a good Poem that was well and chastly writ And lighting once upon a passage in Tully viz. Nescire quid antea quam natus sis acciderit id est semper esse Puerum and also reading Sleidan's History of the four Empires he presently resolved on the study and search of Antiquity and all sorts of Learning and how he might contribute to the advancement thereof this was a brave and a manly attempt for a Lad but of 12 or 13 years of age yet as he attempted so he conquered all the difficulties which he met with in the search after and bringing to light those many things which ignorance had corrupted and time well-nigh buried in oblivion especially in a Country where there was then so great a scarcity of good Books and learned Men. I mention these things so much above his years for a remembrance of God's special Providence over this Person in endowing him with such admirable gifts of Nature to dispose him so vigorously to Learning and to fit and qualifie him for such highly serviceable Undertakings so that he seem'd designed by God by his Doctrine and Example to teach men how to live and by his deep Learning and strong Reason to confute the clamorous Cavils of the greatest adversaries of our Religion year 1593 In the year 1593 was Trinity Colledge in Dublin finished and James Usher then in the thirteenth year of his age adjudged by his School-Masters sufficiently qualified for an admittance into that University and so was entered accordingly Dr. Loftus sometime Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge afterwards Arch-Bishop of Dublin being the first Provost of that College and Mr. Hamilton one of this our Usher's School-Masters and Senior Fellow was Tutor to this early ripe Youth whose name as the first Scholar there stands to this day in the first line of the Roll not without a future presage that he might prove an honour and ornament to that Colledge and Nation as he afterwards did And being thus fixed he sets himself in good earnest to the study of the Languages and Liberal Arts not neglecting Ecclesiastical History and Antiquity in all which he improved to admiration for between fifteen and sixteen years of age he had made such a proficiency in Chronology that he had drawn up in Latin an exact Chronicle of the Bible as far as the book of Kings not much differing from the method of his late Annals excepting the enlargements in some more accurate Observations and Synchronisms of Heathen Stories Sometime after this before he was Batchelor of Arts he had read Stapleton's Fortress of the Faith and finding his confidence in asserting Antiquity for the Tenents of Popery and taxing of our Church with Novelty in what it dissented from theirs he was in a great dispute with himself where the truth lay not then knowing but that those quotations he made use of might be true but this he took for an undeniable truth That the ancientest must needs be the right as the nearer the Fountain the purer the Streams and that Errours sprang up as the Ages succeeded according to that known Speech of Tertullian Verum quodcunque primum adulterum quodcunque posterius He suspected that Stapleton might misquote the Fathers or
God bless you and whatever you undertake so I rest Your Lordship's most Affectionate Friend Ol. Grandisone Dublin 3 Feb. 1620. But before his going over and while Bishop Elect a Parliament was Convened at Westminster and began Feb. 1 st 1620. and I find this passage among some of his Memorandums of that time viz. I was appointed by the Lower House of Parliament to preach at St. Margarets Westminster Feb. 7. the Prebends claimed the priviledge of the Church and their exemption from Episcopal Jurisdiction for many hundred years and offered their own Service Whereupon the House being displeased appointed the place to be at the Temple I was chosen a second time And Secretary Calvert by the appointment of the House spake to the King that the choice of their Preacher might stand The King said It was very well done Feb. 13 th being Shrove-Tuesday I dined at Court and betwixt 4 and 5 I kiss'd the King's hand and had conference with him touching my Sermon He said I had charge of an unruly Flock to look unto the next Sunday He asked me how I thought it could stand with true Divinity that so many hundred should be tyed upon so short warning to receive the Communion upon a day all could not be in Charity after so late contentions in the House Many must needs come without Preparation and eat their own Condemnation That himself required all his whole Houshold to receive the Communion but not all the same day unless at Easter when the whole Lent was a time of Preparation He bad me to tell them I hoped they were all prepared but wished they might be better To exhort them to Unity and Concord To love God first and then their Prince and Country To look to the urgent necessities of the Times and the miserable state of Christendom with Bis dat qui citò dat Feb. 10 th The first Sunday in Lent I preached at St. Margarets to them And Feb. 27 th the House sent Sir James Perrot and Mr. Drake to give me thanks and to desire me to print the Sermon which was done accordingly the Text being upon the first of the Cor. 10. 17. For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread This Sermon was printed by the desire of the House and with one more preached before the King at Wansted Jan. 20. 1624. upon Eph. 4. 13. concerning the unity of the Catholick Faith were all the Sermons I can find to have been published by his allowance But the Lord Bishop Elect returning some time after into Ireland was there Consecrated by Dr. Hampton then Lord Primate assisted with some other of the Bishops and being thus advanced to the Episcopal Degree his Province and Imployment might be altered but not his mind nor humble temper of Spirit Neither did he cease to turn as many as he could from Darkness to Light from Sin and Satan to Christ by his Preaching Writing and Exemplary Life observing that which St. Augustine said of St. Ambrose Et eum quidem in populo verbum veritatis recte tractantem omni die Dominico audiebam Magis Magisque mihi confirmabat c. That he handled the Word of God unto the People every Lord's Day About this time some violent Papists of Quality happened to be censured in the Castle-Chamber at Dublin for refusing to take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance upon this occasion the State ordered the Bishop of Meath on the day of the Sentence to make a Speech to them as well to inform their Consciences of the Lawfulness of it as of the great penalties they would undergo if they persisted to refuse it Which he performed in a Learned Discourse and highly approved of by His Majesty Which was as follows A Speech delivered in the Castle-Chamber at Dublin November 22 th 1622. At the Censuring of certain Officers concerning the Lawfulness of taking and danger of refusing the Oath of Supremacy WHat the danger of the Law is for refusing this Oath hath been sufficiently opened by my Lords the Judges and the quality and quantity of that offence hath been aggravated to the full by those that have spoken after them The part which is most proper for me to deal in is the information of the Conscience touching the truth and equity of the matters contained in the Oath which I also have made choice the rather to insist upon because both the form of the Oath it self requireth herein a full resolution of the Conscience as appeareth by those words in the very beginning thereof I do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience c. and the persons that stand here to be censured for refusing the same have alledged nothing in their own defence but only the simple plea of Ignorance That this point therefore may be cleared and all needless scruples removed out of mens minds two main branches there be of this Oath which require special consideration The one positive acknowledging the Supremacy of the Government of these Realms in all Causes whatsoever to rest in the King's Highness only The other Negative renouncing all Jurisdictions and Authorities of any foreign Prince or Prelate within his Majesties Dominions For the better understanding of the former we are in the first place to call unto our remembrance that exhortation of St. Peter Submit your selves unto every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake whether it be unto the King as having the preheminence or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well By this we are taught to respect the King not as the only Governour of his Dominions simply for we see there be other Governours placed under him but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as him that excelleth and hath the preheminence over the rest that is to say according to the tenure of the Oath as him that is the only Supreme Governor of his Realms Upon which ground we may safely build this conclusion That whatsoever power is incident unto the King by virtue of his place must be acknowledged to be in him Supreme there being nothing so contrary to the nature of Soveraignty as to have another superiour power to over rule it Qui Rex est Regem maxime non habeat In the second place we are to consider That God for the better setling of piety and honesty among men and the repressing of prophaneness and other vices hath established two distinct powers upon Earth The one of the Keys committed to the Church the other of the Sword committed to the Civil Magistrate That of the Keys is ordained to work upon the inner man having immediate relation to the remitting or retaining of sins That of the Sword is appointed to work upon the outward man yielding protection to the obedient and inflicting external punishment on the rebellious and disobedient By the former the spiritual Officers of the Church
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
names of the Proconsular Asia or Asian Diocess Where having shewn his admirable skill in the Geography of the Ancients and also in the Imperial Laws in order to the right understanding the Ecclesiastical and Civil Histories of those Times out of which he hath fixed and setled the several Provinces of the lesser Asia as Mysia Caria and Lydia under which latter were comprehended the adjoyning Countries of Ionia and Aeolis He then proves That the Asia mentioned in the New Testament and the seven Churches of Asia particularly are contained within the limits of Lydia and that each of these seven Cities was a Metropolis and that according to this division of the Civil Government they were made choice of to be the Seats of the most eminent Churches of all Asia 2. That the Roman Provinces were not always the same but according as reason of State required and for greater ease and security of the Government often varied and admitted alterations the division of the Empire being different in the Times of Augustus from what it was under Constantine under whom the Proconsular Asia was confined to the Lydian Asia only the former great extent of its Jurisdiction being then very much abridged and a distinction made between the Proconsular Asia which was under the Jurisdiction of the Proconsul and the Asian Diocess governed by the Vicarius or Comes Asiae or Dioceseos Asianae As it was also subject in the Times of the succeeding Emperors to variety of Changes and that in this disposition made by Constantine it was ordered That there should be but one Metropolis in each distinct Province whereas before there had been several Though this did not hold always in the Reigns of some of his Successors who permitted sometimes two Metropolitans in one Province to satisfie the ambitious humour of several Bishops who contended for that Title upon the account of the riches and greatness of each of their respective Cities 3. That in regard to this Establishment of Constantine Ephesus where the Deputies of the several Provinces of Asia who Constituted and made up the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Common-Council had their Assemblies and which had formerly been lookt upon as the chief City became the sole Metropolis of this new Proconsular Asia the Proconsul of which was exempted from the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Praefectus Praetorio And accordingly in the Ecclesiastical Government for the greater honour of this Renowned See the Bishop of Ephesus was not only held the Metropolitan of the Proconsular Asia but as my Lord most judiciously proves the Primate or Enarchus of all the Provinces that were comprehended within the compass of the whole Asian Diocess of which Diocess he discourses at large and that he acted suitably to this Patriarchal Jurisdiction which was in effect conferred upon him Lastly That there was a great harmony between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government and consequently that the Bishops of every Province were subject subordinate to the Metropolitan Bishop the same then with our Arch-Bishop as the Magistrates that Ruled in the other subordinate Cities were to the President or chief Governor of that Province The Arch-Bishop in these years whilst he was now at Oxford published in Greek and Latine the Epistles of the holy Martyrs years 1643 1644 Ignatius and as much of the Epistle of St. Barnabas as the great fire at Oxford which burnt the Copy had spared together with a premunition of the entire design The old Latin Version of Ignatius his Lordship publisht out of two Manuscripts found in England noting in red Letters the interpolation of the former Greek Impressions This work was much illustrated by his Collation of several Greek Copies of the Letters and Martyrdom of Ignatius and Polycarp as also with a most learned dissertation concerning those Epistles as also touching the Canons and Constitutions ascribed to the Apostles and to St. Clement Bishop of Rome About seven years after which his Lordship also set forth at London his Appendix Ignatiana wherein besides other Tracts there are added the seven genuine Epistles of Ignatius commended by Eusebius Caesare and other Fathers according to the Amsterdam Edition publisht by the learned Dr. Is. Vossius from the Greek Manuscript in the Medicean Library which the Lord Primate had some years before given him notice of and also obtained the Great Duke's leave to Copy it The signal use of these Epistles so eminently asserting that perpetual order of which his Grace was so great an Ornament well deserved all that time which himself Dr. Hammond and the learned Lord Bishop of Chester have so usefully imployed therein This year my Lord Primate publisht his Syntagma de Editione LXX Interpretum in which he asserts though with great modesty this particular Opinion That Greek Version of the five Books of Moses under Ptolomeus Philadelphus utterly perishing at the Conflagration of his Library Dositheus the Jew made another Greek Translation of the Pentateuch and the rest of the Old Testament about 177. years before the Birth of Christ viz. in the time of Ptolomey Philometor Collecting so much from a Note at the end of the Greek Esther which latter Version his Lordship conjectures the Greek Fathers and all the Eastern Churches cited and made use of instead of the true Philadelphian Then he learnedly and fully discourses concerning the several Editions of this latter Version found in the Library of Cleopatra the last Egyptian Queen As also touching the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or vulgar and that more correct one of Origen those of Eusebius Lucian and Hesychius and lastly of the modern ones as the Complutine Venetian and Roman Hereunto also is added a Specimen of Esther in Greek according to two Ancient Manuscripts in the Arundelian Library as also after the Alexandrian Copy in the King's Library This Syntagma was followed the next year before his death by his Lordships dissertation De Cainane altero or the second Cainan mentioned in the LXX and by St. Luke And that was again followed with a Letter to Ludovicus Capellus wherein the Lord Primate very judiciously moderates in the Controversie between that learned Professor and Ar. Bootius concerning the present Hebrew Bibles Superadding his own conjectures That Dositheus the false Messias was the corrupter of the Samaritan Pentateuch as we now have it And that especially by his Lordships great care and expence But to let you see how he further now imployed his time at Oxford for his Majesties Service I shall give you here his Answers to several Queries made to him from some at London or other Parliament Quarters concerning the Lawfulness of taking up Arms against the King in that unhappy War then newly begun The Queries we have not but you may easily judge what their sense was by the following Answers here inserted To the First NO man is bound to leave his Vocation and turn Souldier unless Summoned and Commanded by his Majesty or those that have Commission from him for the gathering
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
him in converting her Lord and securing her self from Popery as has been already related So after some consideration he thought fit to accept this kind proffer and after having obtained Passes for his Journey he left St. Donates after almost a years residence there But it must not be here forgotten That before he left Wales the great expences of his sickness and removals in the year past had much reduced him as to his Purse nor knew he where to get it supplyed when it pleased God to put it into the hearts of divers worthy Persons of that Countrey to consider that the Lord Primate had not only suffered much by the rudeness of the Rabble as hath been already related but also by a long and expensive sickness So they sent him unknown to each other divers considerable Sums so that he had in a few weeks enough to supply all his present occasions and also to defray the expences of his Journey into England This the good Bishop accounted a special Providence and was very thankful for it And I thought good to take notice of it that it may serve as a memorial of the high Generosity and Charity of the Gentry of this Countrey at that time So that considering all those fore-mentioned occurrences the Lord Primate might very well say with St. Paul In Journeyings often in perils of Waters in perils of Robbers in perils among false Brethren in Weariness and Painfulness in Afflictions Necessities in Tumults in evil and good Report Yet in all these Tryals he could still say Though chastned yet not killed as sorrowful yet rejoicing though poor yet making many rich c. So that in all these dispensations he fainted not his Faith and Patience were still Victorious So the Lord Primate arrived safe at the Countess of Peterborough's House in London in June following where he was most kindly received by her and from this time he commonly resided with her at some or other of her Houses till his death where now he met with a fresh disturbance there was an Order of Parliament That whosever should come from any of the King's Garrisons to London must signifie their names to the Committee at Goldsmiths-Hall and there give notice of their being in Town and where they lodged accordingly June 18th he sent me to Goldsmiths-Hall to acquaint them that the Arch-Bishop of Armagh was in Town and at the Countess of Peterborough's House but they refused to take notice of his being in Town without his personal appearance so upon a Summons from the Committee of Examinations at Westminster he appeared before them being advised by his friends so to do they strictly examined him where he had been ever since his departure from London and whether he had any leave for his going from London to Oxford he answered he had a Pass from a Committee of both Houses they demanded farther whether Sir Charles Coote or any other ever desired him to use his power with the King for a Toleration of Religion in Ireland He answered That neither Sir Charles Coote nor any other ever moved any such thing to him but that as soon as he heard of the Irish Agent 's coming to Oxford he went to the King and beseeched his Majesty not to do any thing with the Irish in point of Religion without his knowledge which his Majesty promised he would not and when the point of Toleration came to be debated at the Council-Board the King with all the Lords there absolutely denyed it and he professed for his part that he was ever against it as a thing dangerous to the Protestant Religion Having answered these Queries the Chair-man of the Committee offered him the Negative Oath which had been made on purpose for all those that had adhered to the King or came from any of his Garrisons but he desired time to consider of that and so was dismissed and appeared no more for Mr. Selden and others of his friends in the House made use of their interest to put a stop to that trouble Not long after this he retired with the Countess of Peterborough to her House at Rygate in Surrey where he often preached either in her Chappel or in the Parish Church of that place and always whilst he continued here there frequently resorted to him many of the best of the Gentry and Clergy thereabouts as well to enjoy his excellent Conversation as for his Opinion and Advice in matters of Religion About the beginning of this year he was chosen by the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn to be their Preacher which after year 1647 some solicitations he accepted and the Treasurer and Benchers of that House whereof his good friend Mr. Hales since L. Chief Justice was one ordered him handsome Lodgings ready furnished as also divers Rooms for his Library which was about this time brought up from Chesten being almost all the remains of his worldly substance that had escaped the fury of the Rebels Here he was most kindly received and treated with all respect and honour constantly preaching all the Term time for almost Eight years till at last his Eye-sight and Teeth beginning to fail him so that he could not be well heard in so large a Congregation he was forced about a year and half before his death to quit that place to the great trouble of that Honourable Society About this time he published his Diatriba de Romanae Ecclesiae Symbolo Apostolico vetere aliis fidei formulis wherein he gives a learned account of that which is commonly called The Apostles Creed and shews the various Copies which were used in the Roman Church with other forms of Confessions of Faith that were wont to be proposed to the Catechumeni and younger sort of People in the Eastern and Western Churches together with several other Monuments of Antiquity relating to the same This he dedicated to his Learned Friend Ger. Vossius About the beginning of this year he published his Learned Dissertation year 1648 concerning the Solar Year anciently used among the Macedonians Syrians and Inhabitants of Asia properly so called in which he explains many great difficulties in Chronology and Ecclesiastical History and has particularly fixed the time of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp He hath also here compared the Grecian and Macedonian months with the Julian and with those also of other Nations and having laid down the method and entire disposition of the Macedonian and Asiatick year he thought fit to add certain Rules whereby to find out the Cycles of the Sun and Moon and Easter for ever with several curious accounts of the Celestial Motions according to the Ancient Greek Astronomers Meton Calippus Eudoxus and others together with an Ephemeris at the end of it being an entire Greek and Roman Kalendar for the whole year with the Rising and Setting of the Stars in that Climate In this small Treatise my Lord Primate has shewed himself admirably well skill'd in Astronomical as well as Chronological Learning
very desirous to be certified of from you the one In what sort you would have him answer that Calumniation of our Irish Libeller where he intimateth that you dissemble your Religion and write otherwise than you think delusus Spe hujus secult et mundani honor is lenocinio illectus The other What you think of our great St. Patrick and of his Miracles Touching the former I assured him of my own knowledge that you were wrong'd most shamefully what you did you did out of Judgment and not led by any such base Respect as you were charged withal and that I knew for certain that with your heart you embraced the Religion which by Authority is maintained in the Church of England For the latter I gave him good leave to discredit as much as he list that Pack of ridiculous Miracles which latter Writers had fastned upon St. Patrick but wished him in no wise to touch the Credit of that worthy man himself nor to question his Succession to Palladius nor to cast him unto lower Times contrary to the consent of all Writers that ever make Mention of him And to this end I shewed unto him what I had gathered together to this purpose in a Treatise which I lately wrote at the Request of Dr. Hampton Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh of the first Planters of the Christian Faith in Ireland and specially of St. Patrick and his Successors in the See of Armagh but one word from you will satisfie him more than a hundred from me and therefore let me intreat you that you would here erranti comiter monstrare viam You easily may see what little Credit the Testimony or the Silence rather of so late an Author as Platina is may carry to bear down the constant agrement of all our own Writers The Objection would be far more specious if it were drawn from the Silence of venerable Bede who making express Mention both in his History and his Chronicle of Palladius speaketh nothing at all of Patricius Yet have I seen in Sir Robert Cotton's Library an ancient Fragment written before the time of Bede wherein St. Patrick is not only mentioned but also made to be as ancient in time as hitherto we have still believed him to have been It was found among Mr. Josseline's Papers and is now bound up in blew Leather with other Antiquities If you can come by the Book and will be pleased to transcribe that place of it where the Tradition of the Liturgy from Man to Man is described for there this Mention of St. Patrick is to be found either that or nothing will give full Satisfaction to our Doctor The Company of Stationers in London are now erecting a Factory for Books and a Press among us here Mr. Felix Kingston and some others are sent over for that Purpose They begin with the printing of the Statutes of the Realm afterwards they purpose to fall in Hand with my Collections De Christianarum Ecclesiarum Successione Statu I do intreat you of all Love to look over the first Edition and what you find I have mistaken or what you think may be further added out of the Antiquities which you have met withal signifie unto me I wrote unto you to this purpose about four years since by a Kinsman of mine Mr. John Brereton at which time also I desired to understand from you Whether it were possible to get the Copy of the Epistles to the Monks of Glastenbury attributed to St. Patrick which I remember you told me you had sometimes seen But since that time I have heard nothing from you If you will be pleased at this time to write unto me or to Dr. Rives who earnestly expecteth your Answer you may leave your Letters at my Lord Knevet's House in Westminster there to be delivered unto Sir Henry Docwra our Treasurer at Wars who will take Order that they shall be safely conveyed unto me And thus craving Pardon for my Boldness in troubling you thus far I take my Leave for this time resting always Your most loving and firm Friend James Usher Dublin June 8. 1618. LETTER XXXIV A Letter from Mr. William Camden to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh My most esteemed good Mr. Dr. YOur loving Letter of the Eighth of June I received the Fourth of July being retired into the Country for the recovery of my tender health where portum anhelans beatadinis I purposed to sequester my self from Worldly business and cogitations Yet being somewhat recovered I could not but answer your love and Mr. Doctor Rieves Letter for your sake with the few lines herein enclosed which I submit to your censure I thank God my life hath been such among men as I am neither ashamed to live nor fear to die being secure in Christ my Saviour in whose true Religion I was born and bred in the time of King Edward VI. and have continued firm therein And to make you my Confessor sub sigillo Confessionis I took my Oath thereunto at my Matriculation in the University of Oxon. when Popery was predominant and for defending the Religion established I lost a fellowship in All-Souls as Sir Daniel Dun could testifie and often would relate how I was there opposed by the Popish Faction At my coming to Westminster I took the like Oath where absit jactantia God so blessed my labours that the now Bishops of London Durham and St. Asaph to say nothing of persons employed now in eminent place abroad and many of especial note at home of all degrees do acknowledge themselves to have been my Scholars Yea I brought there to Church divers Gentlemen of Ireland as Walshes Nugents O Raily Shee s the eldest Son of the Arch-Bishop of Cassiles Petre Lombard a Merchants Son of Waterford a youth of admirable docility and others bred Popishly and so affected I know not who may justly say that I was ambitious who contented my self in Westminster School when I writ my Britannia and eleven years afterward Who refused a Mastership of Requests offered and then had the place of a King of Arms without any suit cast upon me I did never set sail after present preferments or desired to soar higher by others I never made suit to any man no not to his Majesty but for a matter of course incident to my place neither God be praised I needed having gathered a contented sufficiency by my long labours in the School Why the Annalectist should so censure me I know not but that men of all humours repair unto me in respect of my place and rest content to be belied by him who is not ashamed to belie the Lords Deputies of Ireland and others of honourable rank Sed haec tibi uni soli That I might give you better satisfaction I sent my Servant with directions to my Study at Westminster who found this which I have herein inclosed Which if they may stead you I shall be right glad As my health will permit I will look over
Consecrated and thereupon desire Justice I shall be ready to shew reason and yield account of my Opinion as well in the King's Courts as in Theological Schools For to pass the general words of his grant cum omnibus Jurisdictionibus which grant him Jus ad rem but not in re The Statute of 2 Eliz. cap. 1. expresly forbiddeth all that shall be preferred to take upon them receive use exercise any Bishoprick c. before he hath taken the corporal Oath of the King's Supremacy before such person as hath Authority to admit him to his Bishoprick As for the Statute of Conferring and Consecrating Bishops within this Realm I find not the words you have written viz. That he which hath the King's Letters Patents for a Bishoprick is put in the same state as if he were Canonically elected and confirmed But that his Majesties Collation shall be to the same effect as if the Conge delire had been given the election duly made and the same election confirmed for the Dean and Chapters election in England is not good until the King have confirmed by his Royal assent then it followeth in the Statute upon that collation the person may be consecrated c. Afterward in the same Statute it is further enacted That every person hereafter conferred invested and consecrated c. shall be obeyed c. and do and execute in every thing and things touching the same as any Bishop of this Realm without offending of the Prerogatives Royal. Now by an argument à contrario sensu it appeareth that it is not I which stand against his Majesties Prerogative but they which exercise Jurisdiction without the form prescribed in these Statutes Confider again how impertinent the opinion of Canonists is in this case where the King's collation is aequivalent to a Canonical Election and Confirmation The Confirmation which the Canonists speak of is from the Pope not from the Prince Gregoriana constitutione in Lugdunensi Consilio cautum est Electum infra tres menses post consensum suum electioni proestitum si nullum justum impedimentum obstat confirmationem à superiore Proelato petere debere alioqui trimestri spatio elapso electionem esse penitus irritandam When the See of Armagh falleth void the Dean and Chapter have Authority by the Canons to exercise Jurisdiction which the Bishop elect hath not until he be consecrated as you may read in Mason's Book and elsewhere and so it is practised in England Behold the cause which maketh the Dean capable namely the Authority Canons and Custom of the Church So is not the Bishop elect warranted and standeth still in the quality of a simple Presbyter until he be further advanced by the Church When Jo. Forth shall bring his Libel I will do the part which belongeth to me In the mean time I commend you to God and rest Your Lordships very loving Friend Armagh 13 July 1621. LETTER XLIII A Letter from Mr. Thomas Gataker to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend MY duty to your Lordship remembred This Messenger so fitly offering himself unto me albeit it were the Sabbath Even and I cast behind hand in my studies by absence from home yet I could not but in a line or two salute your Lordship and thereby signifie my continued and deserved remembrance of you and hearty desire of your welfare By this time I presume your Lordship in setled in your weighty charge of Over-sight wherein I beseech the Lord in mercy to bless your Labours and Endeavours to the glory of his own Name and the good of his Church never more in our times oppugned and opposed by mighty and malitious Adversaries both at home and abroad never in foreign Parts generally more distracted and distressed than at the present Out of France daily news of Murthers and Massacres Cities and Towns taken and all sorts put to the Sword Nor are those few that stand out yet likely to hold long against the power of so great a Prince having no succours from without In the Palatinate likewise all is reported to go to ruine Nor do the Hollanders sit for ought I see any surer the rather for that the Coals that have here been heretofore kindled against them about Transportation of Coin and the Fine imposed for it the Quarrels of the East-Indies the Command of the Narrow Seas the Interrupting of the Trade into Flanders c. are daily more and more blown upon and fire beginneth to break out which I pray God do not burn up both them and us too I doubt not worthy Sir but you see as well yea much better I suppose than my self and many others as being able further to pierce into the state of the times and the consequents of these things what need the forlorn flock of Christ hath of hearts and hands to help to repair her ruines and to fence that part of the Fold that as yet is not so openly broken in upon against the Incursions of such ravenous Wolves as having prevailed so freely against the other parts will not in likelihood leave it also unassaulted as also what need she hath if ever of Prayers and Tears her ancient principal Armor unto him who hath the hearts and hands of all men in his hand and whose help our only hope as things now stand is oft-times then most present when all humane helps and hopes do fail But these lamentable occurrents carry me further than I had purposed when I put Pen to Paper I shall be right glad to hear of your Lordship's health and welfare which the Lord vouchsafe to continue gladder to see the remainder of your former learned and laborious Work abroad The Lord bless and protect you And thus ready to do your Lordship any service I may in these parts I rest Your Lordships to be commanded in the Lord Thomas Gataker Rothtrith Sept. 19. 1621. LETTER XLIV A Letter from Sir William Boswel to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath My very good Lord IF your Lordship hath forgotten my name I shall account my self very unhappy therein yet justly rewarded for my long silence the cause whereof hath especially been my continual absence almost for these last eight years from my native Country where now returning and disposed to rest I would not omit the performance of this duty unto your Lordship hoping that the renewing of my ancient respects will be entertained by your Lordship as I have seen an old Friend or Servant who arriving suddenly and unexpected hath been better welcomed than if he had kept a set and frequent course of visiting and attendance With this representing of my service I presume your Lordship will not dislike that I recommend my especial kind friend Dr. Price one of his Majesties Commissioners for that Kingdom and for his Learning Wisdom and other Merits which your Lordship will find in him truly deserving your Lordships good affection The most current news I can signifie to
of some Pasture Grounds which I held I have forgone but the main Matter of my Estate lying in Mony I cannot yet recover At my coming up hither I left one of my Children sick of an Ague which he hath had these three Weeks and if he should be recovered he cannot be presently fit to travel neither are the Ways and Weather indeed seasonable thereto But that which to deal plainly doth most of all trouble me is the report of the new Broils in the Colledg which I see partly in other Mens Letters for to my self as if I were but a Cypher in Algorism they vouchsafe not a word That some Fellows are displaced by the Visitors others placed by Mandate of my Lord Deputy old Grudges and Factions revived malè sarta gratia necquicquam coit rescinditur I never delighted nor am made for it ignum gladio fodere Some of my Friends represented to me the Examples of Mr. Travers and Mr. Alvey and that comes to my mind Better sit still than Rise and Fall I have now an honest Retreat with that form Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites It is written hither and I have seen it with mine Eyes That I am said to be a weak Man and so thought to be by wise Men. This Witness is most true In all these regards I humbly beseech your Grace by your undeserved love to me which God knows how much I value and that it was no small encouragement to me to enter into this Business by your love to the Colledg which I know is great by your love to our Lord Jesus Christ whereof he takes that proof your love to his Lambs Since you know now my weakness a little better than when you first nominated me to that place and the want of the Colledg of an able Head dispose of my place as you shall think most fit for that Colledg University Church and Kingdom For my part I do here absolutely resign all my Interest unto it into your Grace's hands or the hands of those whom it may concern Assuring your Grace that I shall account your freeing me from this burden the greatest favour that you can do me under the which if it had not been for the fear of offending God I think I had never put my shoulder so far as I have done But if you shall esteem in Conscience I cannot go back I beseech you be pleased freely to set down your Opinion touching my Case propounded in my last I desire of God that neither my Living nor my Life may be so dear unto me as to finish my Course with joy and the Ministry that I have received of the Lord Jesus Upon the receipt of your Graces Letters I shall resolve presently if God let not to come or stay Touching the Parliament-Affairs I know your Grace hath better advertisement than I can give you The beginnings yet go marvellously well the Lower House excellently tempered Nothing hath as yet been so much as put to question The Upper House joined with them insomuch as when they had received the Motion for a publick Fast they added a Motion to petition to his Majesty for the putting in execution all Laws and Acts of State against Recusants This Petition was penned by the Bishops of Norwich and Litchfield and presented to his Majesty by both Houses The former is appointed by Proclamation to be April 21. The latter the King hath taken into consideration with good signs of approbation The Lower House is now employed about the Liberties of the Subjects which they deduce even from the Conquest and so down They purpose it seems to proceed to the examination of the infringing of them and of their Causes and Remedies It is resolved among them that the Grievances of the Subjects shall go hand in hand with the Supply of the King's Wants which are so great as his Majesty when he received the latter Petition told them March 3. That without present Supply he could not set forth one Ship c. God of his Mercy grant that the Progress and End may be correspondent In which hearty Prayer I end recommending your Grace to the Lord's Protection and my self to your Prayers and rest Your Grace's in all Duty W. Bedell London April 1. 1628. LETTER CXXV A Letter from Dr. Bainbridge Professor of Astronomy in Oxford to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend and my very good Lord HAving so fit opportunity I am bold to remember my Service to your Grace and withal my former suit concerning Hipparchus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being both in the Vatican and Escurial I marvel that Patavius did not procure a Transcript thereof certainly it would have helped much in his Doctrina Temporum contra Scaligerum Whereas now the neglect of that and other ancient Monuments hath left that Work imperfect and given just cause to others of a more curious search wherein I purpose to bestow my best Endeavours not doubting of your Grace's Favour Mr. Selden hath written some Notes upon certain ancient Greek Inscriptions which were brought out of Turky for my Lord of Arundel amongst which one doth promise some light in the Persian Chronology I mean of the Persian Monarchy which of all others I most desire to be illustrated being so necessary to the connexion of Sacred and Prophane History concerning which I will yet forbear to signify my Opinion daily expecting a view of Mr. Selden's Book Your Grace's most obliged Servant John Bainbridg Oxon April 7. 1628. LETTER CXXVI A Letter from Dr. Bedell to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord HAving the opportunity of this Bearer's return from his Friends my Neighbours to Kelles I thought fit to send by him if it were but the Duplicate of my last to your Grace from London the first of this Month sent as Mr. Burnet told me by one Mr. Goodwyn of London-Derry who had special occasion to repair to your presence Wherein I satisfied you I hope of the rightness of my Intention in the restriction of the Statute for Batchelors Probationers to seven Terms standing and represented to your Grace the chief exercise of my Thoughts since my leaving Ireland I mean the Draught of a new Patent and new Statutes to be procured for the University which I hope you have safely received You may perhaps esteem it a pragmatical unquietness of Spirit in me that would busy my self with things beyond mine own line But since it hath pleased God to embarque me by their means in the Affairs of that Country I take my self bound to further the Voyage what I may not only for mine own safety and the rest of the Passengers but for the honour of your self that are the Pilot and the Glory of God especially unto which Port I am well assured all your Course is directed I suppose it hath been an Error all this while to neglect the Faculties of Law
discreet wise and stout enough si res exigat he will be frugi and provident for the Colledg and for converse of a sweet and amiable disposition and well experienced In a word he is homo perpaucorum hominum si quid judico I pray the God of Heaven to bless his coming to you to the good of your Colledg and the Church of Ireland I suppose your Lordship will desire to hear somewhat of our Cambridg-Affairs though I doubt not but you hear by some Cambridg Men which come over to you I suppose you have heard of a Lecture for reading of History intended to be given us by the Lord Brook Who as you know first intended to have had Mr. Vossius of Leyden afterward his Stipend being augmented by the States he resolved of Dr. Dorislaw of Leyden also He before his coming hither took his Degree of Doctor of the Civil Law at Leyden was sent down to Cambridg by my Lord Brook with his Majesty's Letters to the Vice-Chancellor and the Head signifying my Lord Brook's intent and also willing us to appoint him a place and time for his Reading which accordingly was done He read some two or three Lectures beginning with Cornehâ—s Tacitus where his Author mentioning the conversion of the State of Rome from Government by Kings to the Government by Consuls by the suggestion of Junius Bruâ—us he took occasion to discourse of the Power of the People under the Kings and afterward When he touched upon the Excesses of Tarquintus Superâ—us his infringing of the Liberties of the People which they enjoyed under former Kings and so among many other things descended to the vindicating of the Netherlanders for retaining their Liberties against the violences of Spain In conclusion he was conceived of by some to speak too much for the defence of the Liberties of the People though he spake with great moderation and with an exception of such Monarchies as ours where the People had surrendered their Right to the King as that in truth there could be no just exception taken against him yet the Master of Peter-house complained to the Vice-Chancellor Master of Christ's-Colledg and complaint also was made above and it came to â—is Majesty's ear which we having intelligence of Dr. Dorislaw denied to come and clear himself before the Heads and carried himself so ingeâ—â—ously that he gave satisfaction to an whereupon 〈…〉 were 〈◊〉 to his Patron to the Bishop of Durham and others to signify â—â— much But he going to his Patron first he suppressed the Letters 〈…〉 he would 〈…〉 before any excuse should be made After word came from the Bishop of Winchester then Durham in the Majesty's Name to prohibit the History-Reader to read But after that both his Majesty and the Bishop and all others above and here were satisfied but then his Patron kept off and doth to this day and will allow his Reader the Stipend for his time but we fear we shall lose the Lecture I see a Letter which his Patron writ to him to Malden to will him to be gone into his Country but he would assure him of his Stipend The Doctor kept with me while he was in Town He married an English Woman about Malden in Essex where now he is He is a fair-conditioned Man and a good Scholar I had a Letter from Mr. Vossius before Christmass with a Book of the Latin Historians which he lately set forth and dedicated to my Lord the Duke of Buckingham He sent also a Book to his Majesty and the Court-Bishops I writ back unto him and sent him my Lord of Sarum his Commentary on the Colossians willing him to revise his Pelagian History especially about the Points of Original Sin and the Efficacy of Grace As touching my self in my Readings I have suspended my Reading upon the Real Pretence though I had almost finished it And have read this Year and half at least upon that Point which I chiefly insist upon in my Sermon in Latin to shew that the Grace of Conversion giveth not only posse convertere but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 velle I have been long in vindicating the third Argument used by the Contra-Remonstrants in Colloq Hagiensi taken from the places where we are said to be mortui in peccatis wherein the Remonstrants do discover the grounds of their Assertions more than elsewhere Dr. Jackson hath lately set forth a Book of the Attributes of God wherein in the Preface to the Earl of Pembroke he doth profess himself an Arminian ascribing to the opposites of Arminius as I conceive that God's Decrees before the Creation take away all possibilities of contrary Events after the Creation True it is that God's eternal Decree of any Event as that I should write at this moment cannot consist with my actual not writing at this time But none say it taketh from me all possibility of writing at this time unless it be sensu composito This conceit as I conceive maketh him elsewhere to impugn all Divine Predefinitions as prejudicious to Man's Liberty and Freedom which is a most silly conceit I do conceive all that which he disputeth in his Book against Negative Reprobation as not sorting with the antecedent Will of God for the Salvation of all to be against the seventeenth Article of Religion which plainly averâ—eth a gratuitous predestination of some and not of all Therefore from thence is inferred a not-election of others to that Grace which is that which properly is stiled Reprobation As for our University none do patronage these Points either in 〈…〉 or Pulpit though because Preferments at Court are conferred upon such as incline that way causeth some to look that way I suppose your Lordship hath seen my Lord of 〈…〉 Reading 〈…〉 the Colossions which should have been exhibited 〈…〉 his Majesty when he was here about the beginning of Lent But my Lord of Winchester hindred that intention though herein he 〈◊〉 the University For we having received a Favour from his Majesty to enjoy the priviledg of our Charter for printing all kind of Books against the London Printers thought to shew to his Majesty a Specimen of our Printing both for good Letter and good Paper of both which his Majesty had 〈…〉 in printing the Bibles at London Thus with remembrance of my best Service to your good Lordship with my best Wishes and Prayers for the continuance of your Lordship's Health and Prosperity here for the good of God's Church and your happiness hereafter I commend you to the gracious protection of the highest Majesty resting Your Graces in all Service Samuel Ward Cambridg May 16. 1628. Mr. Whalley and Mr. Mead are both in good health for which Friends I am beholden to your Lordship tho you take Mr. Bedell from me Dr. Chaderton also is in health LETTER CXXVIII A Letter from Sir Henry Spelman to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Pleaseth it your Grace I Cannot express with what humble gladness I received your Letters
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
Consecration I must now humbly intreat your Grace to send me the Names and Values of all the Bishopricks and Deaneries in Ireland And what Bishopricks are joyned to others that I may be the better able to serve that Church being as yet one of the Committee And I pray excuse my not writing to Mr. Bedle for in truth I have not leisure So I leave you to the Grace of God and rest Your Grace's very loving Brother Guil. London June 16 1629. LETTER CXLIII A Letter from the Right Reverend W. Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Armagh My very good Lord THE two Fellows of the Colledg of Dublin which are attendant here about the freedom of their Election were commanded by his Majesty to send to the Colledg there and to know whom they would pitch upon for their Governour And his Majesty was content upon the Reasons given by me and the Petition of the Fellows to leave them to freedom so they did chuse such a Man as would be serviceable to the Church and Him Upon this after some time they delivered to the King that they would choose or had chosen Dr. Usher a Man of your Grace's Name and Kindred His Majesty thereupon referred them to the Secretary the Lord Vicount Dorchester and my self to inform our selves of his Worth and Fitness My Lord proposed that they should think of another Man that was known unto us that we might the better deliver our Judgments to the King I was very sensible of your Lordship's Name in him and remembred what you had written to me in a former Letter concerning him and thereupon prevailed with his Majesty that I might write these Letters to you which are to let your Grace understand that his Majesty puts so great Confidence in your Integrity and readiness to do him Service that he hath referred this business to the Uprightness of your Judgment and will exercise his Power accordingly For thus he hath commanded me to write That your Grace should presently upon receipt of these Letters write back to me what your Knowledg and Judgment is of the worth and fitness of Dr. Usher for this place setting all Kindred and Affection aside And upon that Certificate of yours the King will leave them to all freedom of their choice or confirm it if it be made So wishing your Lordship all Health and Happiness I leave you to the Grace of God and shall ever rest Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother Guil. London London House June 25. 1629. LETTER CXLIV A Letter from Dr. Bainbridg to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord THis Bearer's unexpected departure hath prevented my desire to discharge some part of those many Obligations wherein I am bound unto your Grace but assuring my self that your Grace will a little longer suspend your Censure I am bold to mediate for another Whereas our Turky Merchants trading at Aleppo being now destitute of a Minister have referr'd the choice of one unto your self may it please you to understand that there is one Mr. Johnson a Fellow of Magdalen-Colledg who hath spent some Years in the Oriental Languages and being desirous to improve his Knowledg therein is content to adventure himself in the voyage he would take the pains to preach once a week but not oftner being desirous to spend the rest of his time in perfecting his Languages and making such other Observations as may tend to the advancement of Learning If your Grace upon these terms please to recommend him to the Merchants I dare engage my Credit for his civil and sober Behaviour and his best Endeavours to do your Grace all respective Service I do not commend an indigent Fellow enforced to run a desperate hazard of his Fortunes but a learned Gentleman of fair hopes and presently well furnished with all things needful to a Scholar I suppose that Fetherstone did send you a Catalogue of Barroccins his Greek Manuscripts they be now Prisoners in our publick Library by the gift of one Chancellor and with them some few more given by Sir Tho. Rae amongst which there is as I take it a fair Copy in Arabick of the Apostles Canons If there be any thing in these Manuscripts which may give you content I shall with my hearty Prayers for your good Health endeavour to approve my self Your Graces most affectionate Servant John Bainbridge Oxon July 20 1629. LETTER CXLV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend W. Laud Bishop of London My very good Lord YOur Letters of the 25th of June I received the 8th day of August wherein I found contained a large Testimony as well of your special care of the welfare of our poor Colledg as of your tender respect unto my Name and Credit for which I must acknowledg my self to stand ever bound to perform all faithful Service unto your Lordship I have hereupon written unto the Fellows of the House that in making their Election they should follow their Consciences according to their Oaths without any by-respects whatsoever Dr. Usher is indeed my Cousin german but withal the Son of that Father at whose instance charge and travel the Charter of the Foundation of the Colledg was first obtained from Queen Elizabeth which peradventure may make him somewhat the more to be respected by that Society To his Learning Honesty and Conformity unto the Discipline of our Church no Man I suppose will take exception And of his Ability in Government he hath given some proof already while he was Vice-Provost in that House where his care in preventing the renewing of the Leases at that time was such that thereby we have been now enabled so to order the matter that within these six Years the Colledg-Rents shall be advanced well-nigh to the double value of that they have been Whereunto I will add thus much more that I know he sincerely intendeth the good of his Country meaneth to go on where Dr. Bedell hath left and in his proceedings will order himself wholly according as your Lordship shall be pleased to direct him Which if it may prove an inducement to move his Majesty to confirm his Election I shall hold my self strongly engaged thereby to have a special eye to the Government of that Colledg seeing the miscarriage of any thing therein cannot but in some sort reflect upon my self who would rather lose my Life than not answer the Trust reposed in me by my Soveraign In obedience unto whose sacred Directions and discharge of the Care committed unto me by his Letters of the 7th of November last the Copy whereof I send herewith I humbly make bold to represent this also unto your Lordship's Consideration whether if the Lord Bishop of Glogher shall be removed unto the Arch-bishoprick of Cashell the Dean of Raphoe may not be thought upon to succeed him in Glogher as being a very well deserying Man and one toward
of Wiâ—chester that now is nor Dr. Lindsell did ever acquaint me with your Grace's purpose of drawing Johannes Gerardus Vossius into those parts had I known it in time the Business might have been easier than now it will be For First Upon an attempt made by the Lord Brook to bring Vossius into England to be a Reader in Cambridg the States allowed him better Maintenance and were unwilling to have him come and himself was not very willing in regard of his Wife and many Children being loth to bring them from all their Kindred and Friends into a strange place And if he were unwilling upon these Grounds to come into England I doubt whether he will venture to Ireland or no. But secondly my Lord since this my Lord Duke in his life-time procured him of his Majesty the Reversion of a Prebend in Canterbury which is since fallen and Vossâ—â—s came over into England in the time of my Infirmity and was installed and I was glad I had the happiness to see him After he had seen both the Universities he return'd home again and within these two days I received a Letter from him of the safety of his return thither The Church of Canterbury notwithstanding his absence â—â—ow him an hundred pounds a Year as they formerly did to Mr. Casaubaâ—â— Now I think the Prebend of Canterbury would he have been Priest and resided upon it would have been as much to him as the Deanery of Armagh But howsoever my Lord the King having given him that Preferment already will hardly be brought to give him another especially considering what I could write unto you were it fit Nevertheless out of my lovâ— to the Work you mention if you can prevail with Vossius to be willing and that it may appear the Deanery of Armagh will be of sufficient Means for him and his numerous Family if your Grace then certify me of it I will venture to speak and do such Offices as shall be fit And now my Lord for your own Business Mr. Archibald Hamilton who it seems by your Grace's Letters is your Agent here hath not as yet been with me but whensoever he shall come he shall be very welcome and I hope your Grace knows I will be very ready to do that Church and you the best Service I can As I had written thus far Mr. Hamilton came to me so that now I shall inform my self as well as I can of your Lordship's Business which he tells me is perpleâ—d by some to whom it was formerly refer'd His Majesty is now going to New-Market so that tâ—â— his return little or nothing can be done but so soon as he comes back I will not be wanting to that part which shall be laid upon me I formerly writ to your Grace about divers Businesses and I have received your Answer to the most of them only to one particular you have answered nothing which makes me think that Letter scarce came safe to your hands It is about the Bishoprick of Kilfanora which is so poor in it self that no Man asks it of the King and his Majesty is graciously pleased that your Lordship would think of some good Parsonage or Vicariâ—g or Donative that might for ever be annex'd unto it And though nothing be now perchance actually void to fit this Purpose yet I conceive the Annexation may be presently made though the Profit arising from the thing come not to the Bishop till it become void I pray your Grace take as much care of this as possibly you can and let me hear from you what may be done This Letter my Lord is a great deal too long but so many Occasions would not suffer it to be shorter I wish you all Health and so leave you to the Grace of God ever resting Your Grace's loving poor Friend and Brother Guil. London Loâ—d House Feb. 23. 1629. LETTER CLV A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord THe Superscription of your Grace's Letters was most welcome unto me as bringing under your own Hand the best evidence of the recovery of your Health for which I did and do give hearty thanks unto God For the Contents of them as your Grace conceived they were not so pleasant but the Wounds of a Friend are faithful saith the Wise Man Sure they are no less painful than any other Unkindness cuts nearer to the Heart than Malice can do I have some experience by your Grace's said Letters Concerning which I have been at some debate with my self whether I should answer them with David's Demand What have I now done Or as the Wrongs of Parents with Patience and Silence But Mr. Dean telling me that this day he is going towards you I will speak once come of it what will You writ That the course I took with the Papists was generally cried out against neither do you remember in all your Life that any thing was done here by any of us at which the Professors of the Gospel did take more offence or by which the Adversaries were more confirmed in their Superstitions and Idolatry Wherein you could wish that I had advised with my Brethren before I would adventure to pull down that which they have been so long a building Again what I did you know was done out of a good intention but you were assured that my Project would be so quickly refuted with the present Success and Event that there would be no need my Friends should advise me from building such Castles in the Air c. My Lord all this is a Riddle to me What course I have taken with the Papists What I have done at which the Professors of the Gospel did take such offence or the Adversaries were so confirmed What it is that I have adventured to do or what Piece so long a building I have pulled down what those Projects were and those Castles in the Air so quickly refuted with present success as the Lord knows I know not For truly since I came to this place I have not changed one jot of my Purpose or Practice or Course with Papists from that which I held in England or in Trinity-Colledg or found I thank God any ill Success but the Slanders only of some Persons discontented against me for other Occasions Against which I cannot hope to justify my self if your Grace will give ear to private Informations But let me know I will not say my Accuser let him continue mask'd till God discover him but my Transgression and have place of Defence and if mine Adversary write a Book against me I will hope to bear it on my Shoulder and bind it to me as a Crown For my recusation of your Court and advertisement what I heard thereof I see they have stirred not only Laughter but some Coals too Your Chancellor desires me to acquit him to you that he is none of those Officers
For as Mr. Beza saith in Col. Mompel Obsignari non potest quod non habetur pag. 66 76 131. Ursin. Cat. Edit Cant. p. 584. Sacramentum opus Dei erga nos in quo dat aliquid scilicet signa res signalas in quo testatur se nobis offerre ac dare sua beneficio mox Baptismus ac Coena Domini sunt Sacramenta quia sunt opus Dei qui aliquid in its nobis dat se dare testatur Vid. etiam Calvin Instit. lib. 4. c. 17. § 10 11. and in 1 Cor. 24. So that instrumental conveyance of the Grace signified to the due Receiver is as true an effect of a Sacrament when it is administred as obsignation and is pre-existing in order of Nature to Obsignation See more at large Mr. Hooker l. 5. § 57 59 60 64 67. who in my opinion doth truly explicate the Efficacy of Sacraments The opinion of the Franciscans out of Soctus Bonaeventure and St. Bernard mentioned in the History of the Council of Trent pag. 237 is a true opinion tho they leave out the other use of the Sacraments which is Obsignation Tho Catherinus and Eisingrenâ—us hold that also Since then Infants are capable of Baptism why not of spiritual Ablution of Original Guilt which is the thing signified tho not of actual Obsignation of this since they cannot interpose any impediment to hinder the operation of the Sacrament It seemeth you conceive that I make Circumsion and Baptism to be the remedy of original Sin only I neither so say nor think It is true your Lordship saith the true definition of a Sacrament in general will decide this Question and so say I and think the definition in our ordinary Catechism formerly mentioned is a good and sound definition LETTER CLXIII Part of a Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to Dr. Samuel Ward FIrst you say If Sacraments be meerly obsignatory and the ablution of Sons in Baptism only conditional and expectative of which the Baptized have no benefit till they believe and repent Then Infants baptized dying in Infancy have no benefit by Baptism This Consequence me-thinks is not good For they are by Baptism received into the visible Church which is a noble Priviledg of Comfort to Parents and Honour and Profit to themselves Again there is presently granted them an entrance into Covenant with God as was anciently by Circumcision with the God of Abraham wherein God promises Pardon of Sin and Life eternal upon their Faith and Repentance and in this they have a present right tho the accomplishment be deferred Yet if God take them out of this World while the Condition is in expectation most pious it is to believe that he takes the Condition for performed Like to him that solemnizeth a Marriage with her to whom he was betrothed sub conditione And here if the Souls of Christians be indued with any actual Knowledg at all so soon as they leave the Body it seems the mystery of Redemption by Christ is revealed unto them and Faith is given them whereby they cleave to God by him the Author of their Blessedness although they have no need now of the Obsignation of the Promise whereof they are in present possession The second Reason Non-elect Infants living shall thus have no benefit at all by Baptism I answer Where there be divers ends of one and the same thing the denial of one is not the denial of the rest These Non-elect Infants have offered by God the same with the other viz. the obsignation of the Covenant and aggregation to the Church The same that he hath also quifictus accedit ut ponit obicem gratiae as to the present possession of it All that come to the Sacrament Elect or Non-elect receive the Pardon of Sin Original and Actual sacramentally and whosoever performs the Condition of the Covenant hath the fruition of that whereof before he had the Grant under Seal So as the Sacraments are not nuda inefficacia signa on God's part to the one or other Thirdly you say What necessity of baptizing Infants if their Baptism produce no effect till they come to years of discretion Though the most principal Effect be not attained presently the less principal are not to be refused So Children were circumcised which could not understand the reason of it and the same also did eat the Passover And so did also Children baptized in the Primitive Church communicate in the Lord's Supper Which I know not why it should not be so still de quo alias Fourthly Our Divines you say generally hold that the Sacraments do offer and exhibit the Grace which they signify and in order of Nature do first offer and exhibit before they assure and confirm For God doth 1. Offer and exhibit Grace promised in the Sacraments 2. We exercise our Faith resting upon God promising and exhibiting 3. So we receive the Grace promised 4. Then the Sacraments assure us of the Grace received And this order you endeavour to confirm out of the Definition of a Sament in our Catechism you declare it in the Eucharist and bring divers Testimonies of our Writers to prove it I answer The Grace which the Sacraments confer is of three sorts The first is The spiritual things which are proportionable to the outward The second The Effects of these The third The Certification of the Party in the lawful use of the outward of the enjoying the two former As in Baptism 1. The Blood and Spirit of Christ. 2. The washing of Sin and new Birth 3. The Obsignation to the Party baptized that by Christ's Blood his Sins are cleansed The first of these is signified in that common Sentence That Sacraments consist of two parts An outward visible Sign and an inward invisible Grace The second is the most usual and common notion of the word Grace meaning some Spiritual Favour in order to Salvation promised in the New Covenant The last is most properly the Grace of the Sacrament it self For the two former which our Catechism seems to reduce to one are properly the Grace of the Covenant which God doth confirm and seal by the Sacraments As when the King's Majesty grants Lands and Tenements with certain Immunities and Priviledges thereunto appertaining as in his Letters Patents at large appeareth and sets to the Great Seal all the Grants and Articles in the Patent are confirmed thereby materialiter subjective but the Ratification of the Patent is properly and formally that which the Seal works Which also according to the form of the Patent may be simple or conditional present or ad diem according as his Majesty is pleased As touching the terms also of offering and exhibiting they may be taken two ways Either of the offering and propounding so doth Calvin take the word exhibet in the Covenant and Institution of the Sacraments Or 2. confirming in the use of them These things thus premised it seems
he gave and it gives me much content that I was the means of it And now for the Bargain which you mention of Ancient Coins to the number of 5500 I cannot upon the sudden say any things for my own Purse is too shallow and my Lords the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Pembrook are dead You say they are a great Bargain at 600 l. I pray therefore if you have so much Interest in the Seller send me word as soon as you can how many Ounces the Gold Coin comes unto and how many the Silver and then I shall be able to judg of the Copper and then upon my return to those your Letters I will give you answer where I can find any noble Spirit that will deal for them or no. You may judg by these Letters I am not in haste but indeed I am and yet in the fulness of my Business more troubled a great deal that I cannot remedy what I see amiss than at any disproportion between the weakness of my Shoulder and the weight of my Load Let me have your Prayers and in them and God's Grace I shall rest Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother Guil. London Fulham-house July 5. 1630. LETTER CLXVII A Letter from the King's Council in Ireland to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh After our very hearty Commendations to your Lordship HIS Majesty by his Letters of the 5th of June last hath been graciously pleased to signify unto us that it hath pleased God of his infinite Grace and Goodness to vouchsafe his Majesty a Son and us a Prince born at the Palace of St. James's the 29th day of May last A Copy of which Letters together with some of the Prayers framed in England upon this occasion and lately imprinted here we have thought fit to send you here inclosed that by timely order from you the same may be communicated unto your Clergy as to those who with all Duty and loving Affection will embrace whatsoever may make for the prosperous advancement of the Publick Good wherein all of us have Interest The Joy and Gladness we apprehend in this great Blessing hath justly moved as to set apart one Day to be jointly and unanimously celebrated as a Festival throughout the whole Kingdom in expression of the thankfulness due from us all upon this happy occasion which Day we have resolved shall be the 15th Day of this Instant whereof we give your Lordship notice to the end you may cause the same to be notified to your Clergy and that on that day there be publick Prayers Thanksgivings and Sermons in the several Churches of your Diocess and that the said Prayers be then publickly read in the time of Divine Service and that afterwards ringing of Bells making of Bone-fires and all other expressions of Joy may be made to testify the general Joy and Gladness of that Day And we pray and require you to be with us here at that time to the end all of us who are partakers of this Benefit may join in the Solemnities of this intended Festival And so we bid your Lordship very heartily farewel From his Majesty's Castle of Dublin July 5. 1630. Your Lordship 's very loving Friends A. Loftus Canc. R. Corke Grandison Hen. Valentia W. Caulfeild Hen. Docwra Fra. Mountnorris W. Shurley W. Parsons J. Erskyne Cha. Coote Thory Duttoy Ad. Loftus LETTER CLXVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at his House at Termonfeckin Most Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord I Cannot easily express what contentment I received at my late being with your Grace at Termonfeckin There had nothing hapned to me I will not say since I came into Ireland but as far as I can call to remembrance in my whole Life which did so much affect me in this kind as the hazard of your good Opinion For loving and honouring you in Truth for the Truth 's sake which is in us and shall abide with us for ever without any private Interest and receiving so unlooked for a blow from your own hand which I expected should have tenderly applied some Remedy to me being smitten by others I had not present the defences of Reason and Grace And although I knew it to be a fault in my self since in the performance of our Duties the judgment of our Master even alone ought to suffice us yet I could not be so much Master of mine Affections as to cast out this weakness But blessed be God which as I began to say at my being with you refreshed my Spirit by your kind renewing and confirming your love to me And all humble thanks to you that gave me place to make my defence and took upon you the cognizance of mine Innocency And as for mine Accuser whose hatred I have incurred only by not giving way to his covetous desire of heaping Living upon Living to the evident damage not only of other Souls committed to me but of his own Truly I am glad and do give God thanks that his Malignicy which a while masked it self in the pretence of Friendship hath at last discovered it self by publick opposition It hath not and I hope it shall not be in his power to hurt me at all he hath rather shamed himself and although his high Heart cannot give his Tongue leave to acknowledg his Folly his Understanding is not so weak and blind as not to see it Whom I could be very well content to leave to taste the Fruit of it also without being further trouble some to your Grace save that I do not despair but your Grace's Authority will pull him out of the Snare of Satan whose Instrument he hath been to cross the Work of God and give me more occasion of joy by his amendment than I had grief by his perversion and opposition Your Grace's Letters of August 23. were not delivered to me till the â—9th In the mean space what effect those that accompanied them had with Mr. Dean you shall perceive by the inclosed which were sent me the 28th the Evening before our Communion I answered them the next Morning as is here annexed As I was at the Lord's Table beginning the Service of the Communion before the Sermon he came in and after the Sermon was done those that communicated not being departed he stood forth and spoke to his purpose That where as the Book of Common Prayer requires that before the Lord's Supper if there be any 〈…〉 there should be to conciliation this was 〈…〉 because they all knew that there was been 〈…〉 he did profess that he 〈…〉 no 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 me in any thing he was â—orry I answered That he had good reason to be sorry considering how he had behaved himself For my part I bare him no malice and if it were in my power would not make so much as his finger ake Grieved I had been that he in whom I knew there
an Opportunity It plainly appears that in the Year 1646 by order from Rome above 100 of the Romish Clergy were sent into England consisting of English Scotch and Irish who had been educated in France Italy Germany and Spain part of these within the several Schools there appointed for their Instructions In each of these Romish Nurseries these Scholars were taught several handicraft Trades and Callings as their ingenuities were most bending besides their Orders or Functions of that Church They have many yet at Paris a fitting up to be sent over who twice in the week oppose one the other one pretending Presbytery the other Independency some Anabaptism and other contrary Tenents dangerous and prejudicial to the Church of England and to all the Reformed Churches here abroad But they are wisely preparing to prevent these Designs which I heartily wish were considered in England among the Wise there When the Romish Orders do thus argue Pro and Con there is appointed one of the Learned of those Convents to take Notes and to judg And as he finds their fancies whether for Presbytery Independency Anabaptism Atheism or for any new Tenents so accordingly they be to act and to exercise their Wits Upon their Permission when they be sent abroad they enter their Names in the Convent Registry also their Licences If a Franciscan if a Dominican or Jesuit or any other Order having several Names there entered in their Licence in case of a discovery in one place then to fly to another and there to change their Names or Habit. For an assurance of their constancy to their several Orders they are to give monthly Intelligence to their Fraternities of all Affairs where-ever they be dispers'd so that the English abroad know News better than ye at home When they return into England they are taught their Lesson to say if any enquire from whence they come that they were poor Christians formerly that fled beyond-Sea for their Religion-sake and are now returned with glad News to enjoy their Liberty of Conscience The 100 Men that went over 1646 were most of them Soldiers in the Parliament's Army and were daily to correspond with those Romanists in our late King's Army that were lately at Oxford and pretended to fight for his sacred Majesty For at that time there were some Roman-Catholicks who did not know the Design a contriving against our Church and State of England But the Year following 1647 many of those Romish Orders who came over the Year before were in consultation together knowing each other And those of the King's Party asking some why they took with the Parliament's side and asking others whether they were bewitched to turn Puritans not knowing the Design But at last secret Bulls and Licences being produced by those of the Parliament's side it was declared between them there was no better Design to confound the Church of England than by pretending Liberty of Conscience It was argued then that England would be a second Holland a Common-Wealth and if so what would become of the King It was answered Would to God it were come to that point It was again reply'd your selves have preached so much against Rome and his Holiness that Rome and her Romanists will be little the better for that Change But it was answered You shall have Mass sufficient for 100000 in a short space and the Governors never the wiser Then some of the mercifullest of the Romanists said This cannot be done unless the King die upon which Argument the Romish Orders thus licensed and in the Parliament Army wrote unto their several Convents but especially to the Sorbonists whether it may be scrupled to make away our late Godly King and his Majesty his Son our King and Master who blessed be God hath escaped their Romish Snares laid for him It was returned from the Sorbonists That it was lawful for Roman Catholicks to work Changes in Governments for the Mother-Churches Advancement and chiefly in an Heretical Kingdom and so lawfully make away the King Thus much to my knowledg have I seen and heard since my leaving your Lordship which I thought very requisite to inform your Grace for my self would hardly have credited these things had not mine Eyes seen sure Evidence of the same Let these things sleep within your gracious Lordship's Brest and not awake but upon sure grounds for this Age can trust no Man there being so great Fallacy amongst Men. So the Lord preserve your Lordship in Health for the Nations Good and the Benefit of your Friends which shall be the Prayers of Your humble Servant J. Derensis July 20. 1654. LETTER CCXCIV. Viro Clarissimo Doctissimo Jacobo Usserio Armachano Henricus Valesius S. IN aere Tuo me esse semper existimavi Vir clarissime ex quo Annales Veteris Testam abs te editos ad me misisti Qui liber si mihi corà m traditus fuisset ab eo cui id Officium mandaveras jamdudùm Tibi gratias egissem per literas Sed quoniam eum Virum postea convenire non potui Officium quod tamdiu à me dilatum est nunc tandem oblatâ scribendi opportunitate Tibi persolvo Ac primùm ago gratias quantas possum maximas ob illud literarium munus quo me honorandum esse censuisti Sunt quidem omnes libri tui eruditissimi accuratissimi sed hic prae caeteris abundè testatur quantus sis in omni genere doctrinae Atque ut ejus lectione multùm me profecisse ingenue fateor ita etiam ex secundâ parte ejusdem operis quam à te editam esse nuper accepi spero non mediocrem fructum me esse coepturum Alterum deinde beneficium abs te peto quod pro Tuâ singulari humanitate praestiturum te esse non diffido Eusebii historiam Ecclesiasticam Libros de Vita Imperatoris Constantini cum novâ interpretatione mea Annotationibus propediem Typographis commissurus sum Ad hanc novam editionem trium duntaxat Scriptorum codicum auxilio sum usus Nam Itali quorum subsidium postulaveram nihil mihi praeter verba inania contulerunt Cum igitur ex notis Tuis in Polycarpi martyrium compererim esse apud vos Savilianum exemplar quod quidem optimum esse conjicio abs te etiam atque etiam peto ut de eo exemplari certiorem me facias primùm sitnè in membranis deindè an quatuor libri de vita Constantini in eo legantur integri Postremo utrum varias lectiones ex eo codice per te nancisci possim saltem librorum devita Constantini Hi enim inquinatissimi ad nos pervenerunt multis in locis mutili Multùm Tibi debebit Eusebius noster si id mihi praestare volueris nec Italicorum codicum auxilium posthac magnoperè desiderabo si Anglicani hujus praesidium nactus fuero Equidem nolim te Vir Clarissime laborem conferendi codicis sustinere Absit à me ut te tantum Virum
forma P. 14. l. 1. r. tristissimam l. 20. f. ex r. l. 35. r. quassatas l. 37. ocellus P. 16. l. 5. r. audacia l. 18. r. tentatas ADVERTISEMENT LEtter 3. was from an imperfect Copy of the Bishops The Marginal Note p. 4 and 417. and so often after is Bishop Ushers The Letters mentioned p. 511. l. ult are in the Appendix p. 7 and 9. Letter 229. should be placed after Letter 230. and Letter 232. should be before Letter 226. Letter 247. should be placed at p. 510. and the Letters p. 599 c. should be placed about An. 1615. when U. A. B. was Bishop of Meath The skilful Reader will perceive that often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are confounded as p. 359 c. and we must be forced to remit the Hebrew Letters to his Correction the faults being too many to be here inserted The Book being printed at different Presses there is a mis-paging page 92. to which succeeds pag. 301. but without any defect in the Book William Juxon Bishop of London and Lord High Treasurer in a Letter Anno 1639. 1 Tim. 3. 15 16. Vide ejus Praefat. ad Britanno-Machiam c. * Which was the Title he intended to give these Collections Dr. Heylin 's Respondet Petrus St. Augustine's Confession lib. 6. cap. 3. a 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. b Joh. 20. 23. c 1 Tim. 5. 17. d Tit. 2. 15. e Matth. 16. 19. 18. 18. f Rom. 13. 4. g Ezra 7. 26. h Mat. 26. 52. i 2 Chron. 26. 18. k 1 Tim. 2. 2. * As on the other side that a Spiritual or Ecclesiastical government is exercised in causes Civil or Temporal For is not Excommunication a main part of Ecclesiastical government and Forest laws a special branch of causes Temporal yet we see in Sententiâ lat â super chartas anno 12. R. H. 3. that the Bishops of England pronounce a solemn sentence of Excommunication against the-infringers of the liberties contained in Chartâ de Forestâ l Mark 16. 15. m Act. 1. 25 26. Matth. 22. 21. Mal. 3. 8. See Mr. Davis's Letter from Aleppo where the MSS. are specified Vid. Marm. Arundel Edit Lond. Praefat in Bibl. Polyglot * Vide Respondet Petrus Sect. IX Ibid. Sect. XII * In the Life of Arch-Bishop Laud. Blondellus 2 Cor. 11. * See His Majesty's Message sent by Capt. Titus 1648. And Whitlock's Mem. p. 337. See his Majesty's Message by Major Cromwal 21. Nov. 1648. See his Message by Sir Peter Killigrew in Whitlock's Mem. p. 339. P. 141. Edit Magut 1648. Ib. pag. 138. Pag. 166. Ro. 13. 1 2. * Mr. James Tyrrel †Before the late Edition of the Body of Divinity Col. 3. 12. †Drawn by Mr. Lilly after Knighted Eccles. 11. 7. Jam. 3. 17. Dr. Heylin 's Respondet Petrus Not. ad Mat. 6. Observat. in Willeram pag. 248. Praefat in Caedâ—â— Pag. 14. Ib. Sect. 7. Resp. Pet. Sect. 10. The Lord Primat's Judgment * He adds the word real which is not in the Latin vid. Dr Burnet 's Hist. of the Reformation Part 2. p. 405. Answer to the Jesuits Challenge See the places cited at large in the Book p. 118. P. 127. P. 128. P. 135 Lev. 13. P. 136. Bellarmin de Poenitent lib. 3. cap. 2. sect ult P. 137. P. 119. P. 123. That all the antient forms of Absolution in the Greek Church were till of late only declarative or optative and always in the 3d not first person See Dr. Smith 's learned Account of the Gr. Church p. 180 181. Respon Petrus Sect. 10. § 7. P. 287 288. P. 341. P. 342. P. 343. P. 345 346. P. 310. * Vid. Jobi Ludolfi lib. 311. c. 5. 19. Hist. Aethiop * Qui mihi ad sedem Armachanam translato anno 1625. in Midensi Episcopatu successit anno 1650. mortem obiit * Of these Fulgentius Ferrandus seemeth to be one in Dionysius his Days for he never citeth those Canons * Unless in the 5th Canon of the fifth Council of Carthage of which we may further inquire * There are more * Also of the Councils Antioch Laodicen Constantinopolit Ephes. Chalcedon * In Codice Moguntino are 14. * Edit Colon. An. 1551. †Edit Venet. An. 1585. But so in Notitia Episc. Galliae propetiâ—â—m * Hec praesatio extat in Edit per Crab. p. 328. * From Turrian vid. Epist. Pontif Arabic Nomo-Canonum * Another Collector Canon Caroli M. Temporib in 3 Tom. rerum Alamannicarum Goldasti XII Vid. Summam Gratian Cod. 37. qu. 1. c. 9. 10. ex Codice Canâ—num Bernardinus de Biâ—sto in Marcul part 12. Ser. 2. de Coronatione Mariae Lit. V. 1 Aera Dhilkarnain est 2 x apud Albategnium viz. 2 Potiùs 9. 3 Quod caput est arae Dhilk. 4 Quod caput est Hegirae * i. e. aequabiles †complito ‖ 287. Crus pag. 35. * 1205 anni die 297. in anno aequabili ineunte verò an 1206. qui hic intelligitur ut ex collatione Eclipsis luminaris liquet †Vagis non fixis ‖ For though it did well agree with the observation of the Aequinoctial yet it cannot with the first Lunar Eclipse which was in the same year 1194. †i. e. Jul. esse diem 365 sed Alkept non diffâ—rt à Juliano quod etiam provâ—tur ex aerâ Philippicâ in Historiâ mescella * Aegyptiae †i. e. Julian * Why of the Flight rather than of the Ostracism which he principally relates in that place †Thucydides tamen in Attica clà m humatum dicit reserente Attico apud Cic. in Brut. ‖ But that was anno 40. Olymp. 75. according to Diodorus * But he saith that he was made Admiral Archonte Demotione though Plutarch doth make him Admiral before that Pag. 96. * Upon Eusebius's Chronicle 1800 Of the other side * He stiles him Gildas Sapiens also as Bishop Usher noted in the margin M S S. Vid. Abb. c. Qualiter tit de electo electi potestate c. Avaritiae in 6. Gregor Tholosan in Syntagm utriusque Juris alios passim * Tom. 5. Biblioth Patr. Part 1. p. 171. Edit Colon. Your Lordship may by private Instructions and his discretion free your self of this fear Mat. 4. 19. Prov. 11. 30. Mat. 13. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 7. 11. * M. Tract Fund 1. c. 3. §. 9 †M. Tr. Fund 2. c. 10. §. 4. ‖ M. Tr. Fund c. 9. §. 1. * M. Tr. Repent c. 5. §. 1 2 3 4 c. †M. Tr. Repent c. 8. §. 7. c. 9. §. 2. 1 John 5. 20. * M. Tr. Repent cap. 7. §. 6. Luke 3. 27. John 6. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Cor. 1. 22. * M. Tr. Repent cap. 3. §. 3. I would then wast hot or cold but seeing thou art lukewarm I will spuâ— thee out of my mouth
propound any indefinite Sum to be levied according to their Discretions but a precise one of 395 l. and 4 s. for one months pay of the new Supplies in Ulster And as for the present paiment of that Sum order hath been already taken that according to your Lordships special Directions 70 l. should be delivered unto Sir William Calfield One hundred twenty one Pounds and a Noble I have since received which is ready to be delivered unto any one who shall be authorized to receive the same under your Lordship's Hand The Bishop of Clogher who hath already paid half of that Sum which was assigned unto Sir William Calfield is there at Dublin ready to give an account of that which remaineth due upon his Clergy The Bishop of Derry hath left with me his Ticket wherein he undertakes to pay 50 l. unto any one of the Captains to whom your Lordship shall appoint Upon the Diocess of Meath there was 85 l. 1 s. 4 d. taxed in this Levy which is the double twentieth part of the Clergy there the twentieth part of the Bishoprick it self being abated because the Bishop is yet in First-Fruits For this I have used my utmost endeavour both with the Bishop and with his Clergy but could not prevail to get from them more than 50 l. And therefore of them I must rid my self and wholly leave them unto your Lordship As for the Remain of the Total Sum betwixt this and the beginning of the Term I will use my best endeavour to get in what may be had and give a particular Certificate of the Names of those who will not pay to the end your Lordship may deal with them as in your Wisdom you shall think fit And so expecting your Lordship's further Commands in this or any other Service I humbly take leave for the present and ever-more rest Your Honour 's faithful Servant J. A. Droghedah Jan. 7. 1626. LETTER CXIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury My most gracious Lord WHen I took my last leave of you at Lambheth I made bold to move your Grace for the settlement of the Provostship of our Colledg here upon some worthy Man whensoever the place should next become void I then recommended unto you Mr. Sibbes the Preacher of Grays-Inn with whose Learning soundness of Judgment and upâ—â—ghtness of Life I was very well acquainted And it pleased your Grace to listen unto my Motion and give way to the coming over of the Person named when time required The time my Lord is now come wherein we have â—t last wrought Sir William Temple to give up his place if the other may be drawn over And therefore I most humbly intreat your Grace to give unto Mr. Sibbes that Encouragement he deserveth in whose behalf I dare undertake that he shall be as observant of you and as careful to put in Execution all your Directions as any Man whosoever The matter is of so great importance for the good of this poor Church and your Fatherly Care as well of the Church in general as our Colledg in particular so well known that to shall not need to press you herein with many words And therefore leaving it wholly to your Grace's grave Consideration and beseeching Almighty God to bless you in the managing of your weighty Imployments I humbly take leave and rest Your Grace's in all Duty ready to be commanded J. A. Droghedah January 10th 1626. LETTER CXV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn My most worthy Friends I Cannot sufficiently express my Thankfulness unto you for the Honour which you have done unto me in vouchsafing to admit me into your Society and to make me a Member of your own Body Yet so is it fallen out for the present that I am enforced to discharge one piece of debt with entring into another For thus doth the case stand with us Sir William Temple who hath governed our Colledg at Dublin these seventeen Years finding Age and Weakness now to encrease upon him hath resolved to ease himself of that Burthen and resign the same to some other Now of all others whom we could think of your worthy Preacher Mr. Sibbs is the Man upon whom all our Voyces have here settled as one that hath been well acquainted with an Academical Life and singularly well qualified for the undertaking of such a place of Government I am not ignorant what damage you are to sustain by the loss of such an able Man with whose Ministry you have been so long acquainted but I consider withal that you are at the Well-head where the defect may quickly be supplied and that it somewhat also tendeth to the honour of your Society that out of all the King's Dominions your House should be singled out for the place unto which the Seminary of the whole Church in this Kingdom should have recourse for help and succor in this case And therefore my most earnest suit unto you is that you would give leave unto Mr. Sibbes to repair hither at leastwise for a time that he may see how the place will like him For which great Favour our whole Church shall be obliged unto you and I for my part shall evermore profess my self to rest Your own in all Christian Service ready to be commanded J. A. Droghedah Jan. 10th 1626. LETTER CXVI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the most Reverend George Abbot Arch-bishop of Canterbury My very good Lord I Wrote unto your Grace heretofore concerning the Substitution of Mr. Sibbes into the place of Sir William Temple But having since considered with my self how some occasions may fall out that may hinder him from coming hither and how many most unfit Persons are now putting in for that place I have further emboldened my self to signify thus much more of my Mind unto you That in case Mr. Sibbes do not come unto us I cannot think of a more worthy Man and more fit for the Government of that Colledg than Mr. Bedel who hath heretofore remained with Sir Henry Wotton at Venice and is now beneficed about Berry If either he or Dr. Featly or any other worthy Man whom you shall think fit can be induced to accept of the place and your Grace will be pleased to advise the Fellows of the Colledg to elect him thereunto That poor house shall ever have cause to bless your Memory for the Settlement of it at such a time as this where so many labour to make a Prey of it In ordering the Affairs that do belong unto the Primacy the greatest trouble that I yet meet withal is the Persidiousness of the Register whom my Predecessor hath fastened upon me He hath combined with one Chase a base Fellow that is now acting this business at Court to overthrow the Ministry which King James by your Grace's special
Incitation hath so happily planted in the Diocess of Armagh by making the Rectories that did belong to the Vicars Chorals of Armagh to be Lay-fee unto which Incumbents have been hitherto by his Majesties own Direction still presented and the Livings also taxed with payment of First-fruits as all other presentative Livings are Dawson is a Man so notoriously branded for his lewd Carriage that I dare not trust him with the keeping of the Records or suffer him any ways to intermeddle with the businesses of the Church To see therefore whether I can fairly rid my hands of him I have made a grant of his places unto others and so left them to the trial of their Titles by course of Law Which hath so incensed Dawson that he laboureth now by his Emissary Chase to disgrace me in Court with all the Calumnies that his wicked Heart can devise Wherein I doubt not but your Grace as occasion shall require will be ready to stand for me in my just defence As for the general state of things here they are so desperate that I am afraid to write any thing thereof Some of the adverse part have asked me the question Where I have heard or read before that Religion and Mens Souls should be set to sale after this manner unto whom I could reply nothing but that I had read in Mantuan that there was another place in the World where Coelum est venale Deusque I procured a meeting of all the Prelates at my House who with one voice protested against these Courses and subscribed this Protestation of theirs with their hands But forasmuch as we knew that the Project was wonderful distastful unto the Papists themselves we contained our selves in publick and suffered the Breach to come from their side I know their Agents are not asleep at Court but our hope is that your Grace is as vigilant there to make opposition unto their Practices and to advise of some other course to give the King content which may be more for his honour and the good of the Church All which I humbly leave unto your Grace's sage Consideration and evermore rest Your Graces ready to do you all Service Ja. Armachanus Drogheda February 9. 1626. LETTER CXVII A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord MY best Service premised c. I received your Lordship's last Letters to me dated from Leverpool and have heard by others since of your Lordship's safe arrival in Ireland As touching Sir Gerard Harvy I have been with him at Hadham since and have had Letters once or twice about his business from him I consulted with Mr. Whalley and wrote to Sir Gerard what Fine will be expected besides his coming in Rent-corn which he is willing to pay The Fine will be about 200 l. for renewing his Lease and adding of ten Years to the time he hath about Easter he will be with us about it I am sorry your Lordship missed of that Epistle of Chrysostom ad Caesarium Monachum at Oxford I was in good hope your Lordship would have hit upon it It is to be feared it is purloin'd away I received Mr. Boys his variae lectiones in Liturgiam Basilii which your Lordship left to be sent him I spake with Mr. Patrick Young who telleth me that Sirmondus hath all Fronto's Papers and that he is in hand with Theodoret and that after he is set out I shall have my Transcript upon the Psalms He saith your Lordship hath the Greek Transcript of Euthymius I have seen Athanasius Graecol newly set forth at Paris it hath some Homilies added by one Holstein but it wanteth the varia lectiones which are in Coâ—mâ—lin's Edition Eusebius in three Volumes Graecol is daily expected but not yet come Dr. White now Bishop of Carlisle hath sold all his Books to Hills the Broker His Pretence is the charge of Carriage so far by Land and the danger by Water Some think he paid for his Place I did hear of his Censure of your Lordship which I would not have believed but that I heard it credibly reported about the time of your Lordship's departure hence Sundry Bishopricks are still remaining unbestowed The Precedent is not good Concerning Court and Commonwealth-affairs here I suppose you have better Information than my Pen can afford I would I could be a Messenger by my Letter of better news than any I hear here The 25th of January deceased your good Friend and mine Mr. Henry Alvey at Cambridge I was with him twice when he was sick the first time I found him sick but very patient and comfortable He earnestly prayed that God would give him Patience and Perseverance The later time I came he was in a slumber and did speak nothing I prayed for him and then departed Shortly after he departed this Life He desired to be buried privatly and in the Church-yard and in a Sheet only without a Coffin for so said he was our Saviour But it was thought fitting he should be put in a Coffin and so he was I was at his interring the next day at night Thus God is daily collecting his Saints to himself The Lord prepare us all for the Dies accensionis as St. Cyprian stileth it Since the decease of Dr. Walsall Dr. Goslin our Vice-Chancellor and Dr. Hill Master of Katherine-Hall are both dead In their places succeed in Bennet-Colledg Dr. Butts in Caius-Colledg Mr. Bachcroft one of the Fellows in Katherine-Hall Mr. Sibbs of Grays-Inn Concerning the place of Chrysostom Homilia de Encaeniis which you mention in your last Letters I cannot write now as I would I having not my Book by me My last Lecture was touching it I see a great difference in the Reading between the reading in the Manuscript of New-Colledg in Oxon which Sir H. Savill printed and the reading in M. Baraciro which is in the Notes of Sir H. Savill The Latin Translation is answerable to that of New-Colledg That speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave occasion I think to Damascene to say the like Though I do somewhat suspect some corruption by later Grecians in that Point especially Origen writing to the contrary as you know in Matth. 15. In the similitude following from Wax the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated in the Latin Translation nihil remanet substantiae contrary as I conceive to the Greek for it should be nihil substantiae perdit For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est aliquid substantiae perdo It is not easy to conceive the sense of that Similitude both for the Protasis and Apodosis But of this when I come home at better leasure I do purpose God willing in my Determinations when I shall dispute upon any to go in the Point of Free-will for that as I conceive it is the chief ground of the rest of the Errors maintained by the Remonstrants or at least of most of them I have been here above a fortnight