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prayer_n	form_n	public_a	set_a	3,224	5	10.4233	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64661	The judgement of the late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland 1. Of the extent of Christs death and satisfaction &c, 2. Of the Sabbath, and observation of the Lords day, 3. Of the ordination in other reformed churches : with a vindication of him from a pretended change of opinion in the first, some advertisements upon the latter, and in prevention of further injuries, a declaration of his judgement in several other subjects / by N. Bernard.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1658 (1658)	Wing U188; ESTC R24649	53,942	189

Primates judgement of severall Subjects THe mifinterpretations which have been already made of this most Reverend and Learned mate of a change of judgement in him towards his latter end which I have been moved here to vindicate giving it suspected to be the fore-runner of more of the like which may be raised hereafter I have been advised upon this occasion both in answer to and prevention of any other false rumours for the future to declare more fully what I did of him briefly in his Funerall Sermon as to some particulars then whispering of him omitted at the presse but not with my will And I do it the rather in regard as I was desired then by some of different judgement to make an impartial relation of his there there each like Israel and Judah for David claiming an interest in him so finding that omission to be diversly interpreted to my censure and conceived by some to be the occasion of those severall mistakes raised of him since whereby as praef to disp of Sacram. Mr. Baxter complaines The good Bishop must now be what every one will say of him one feigning him to be of one extreame and the other of the other extreame which the publishing might have prevented I have thought fit to discharge that trust reposed in me both in relation to his Doctrine and practice and I know no person of more generall reputation and more like to be an exemplary pattern in this his moderation which I conceived fit to be known unto all men The late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland his judgement in matter of Doctrine Discipline and other subjects of which there have been some different opinions among others and some misinterpretations of him IN Doctrine he did fully approve the Articles of Religion of the Church of England as the same more enlarged in the Articles of Ireland The discipline and constitutious of both he did also approve For the Liturgy in the publick prayers as while he lived at Drogheda in Ireland they were constantly observed in his family so he had them in estimation to his last And the last time he was in London upon the occasion of some rash groundlesse rumours raised of him to the contrary to his no small grief he gave his judgement accordingly to an Honourable person wrote with his owne hand which he shewed unto me He had constantly prayers in his family four times a day At six in the morning and eight at night they were such wherein the gifts of those who were his Chaplains were exercised but before Dinner and Supper in the Chappel was the forenamed also observed Indeed he was not so rigid as to tie all men in the private to an absolute necessary use of it or in the publike that a Sermon was not to be heard unlesse that did precede And for the healing or preventing of those distractions and divisions which have been among Ministers as others and the moderating of each extremity in relation to the use of it whereby there might be a return of that wished-for peace and unity which of late years we have been strangers to He conceived some prudent moderate accommodation might have been thought of and yet may by wise men in order to the present continuance of the substantial part of it each side yielding somewhat after the example of Saint Paul in circumstantials which might have better borne the name of a reformation than thus to have a totall suppression of it whereby with the intention of gathering up the Tares the Wheat hath been rooted up also As for some arbitrary innovations not within the compasse of the rule and order of the book he did not affect and often wished they had not been introduced as foreseeing the issue of it what was commanded he readily observed but did not take upon him to introduce any Rite or Ceremony upon his own opinion of decency till the Church had judged it so and thought they most owned the book who neither added or diminished from the rule of it And for bowing at the Name of Jesus though he censured not those that did either in our or other Reformed Churches according to the custome of each yet he did not conceive the injunction of it could be founded upon that of the Apostle Phil. 2. 10. and wondred at some learned mens assertions that it was the Exposition of all the Fathers upon it And as the wise composers of the Liturgy gave no direct injunction for it there so in Ireland he withstood the putting of it into the Canon Anno 1634. That a form of prayer not only by way of direction but punctually composed were fit to be had in the publike he was ever for as much conducing to the benefit of the vulgar people which are the major part of the Nation and especially in the administration of Baptisme and the Communion as well for the shunning and preventing the disorder and scandalous confusion found in some mens performances of them as the testifying of an unity and unanimity among us which Saint Paul prefers as the more excellent way before the variety of all Spirituall gifts whatsoever He often wished The judgement of Calvine concerning it who was a wise and learned man in his letter to the L. Protector of England in Edward the sixth's time were more known than it is in regard of his esteem with such who have oppsed it who doth much approve that there should be a certain set form of prayer from which it should not be lawfull for the Pastors to depart in their function both that some care might be had of the more simple and ignorant sort as also that the consent of all the Churches within themselves might the more evidently appear And lastly for the prevention of the inconstant levity of some who are affecters of novelty and so adviseth to have a set Catechisme a set form of publick prayers and administration of Sacraments He was for the Ministers improving of their gifts and abilties in prayer before Sermon and after according to his own practice but if that were done he saw no reason why the other should be left undone The Church of God being like a great family whereein some being Infants and Children as well as of full age a provision must be had of Milk as stronger meat and all ought to be equally taken care of even the ignorant and simpler sort as well as those of greater education For Ordination or an ordained Ministery such was his judgement of the necessity of it That he took it to be a fundamental and one of those principles of Christian Doctrine Hebr. 6. 2. called laying on of hands the great neglect of which he much lamented as fearing it would prove to be the undermining the foundation of our Church which Mr. Cartwright in his Commentary upon the place confirmes to the full and in a higher expression as if it were the overthrow of Christianity And yet as you have

1634. as Doctor Heylin hath affirmed DOctor Heylin under the mask of an Observator hath been already offended with me for joyning in a Certificate against what he hath related concerning the abrogating of the Articles of Ireland which was done by the command of this most Reverend Primate in his life time and since that he hath been much more for my saying in his Funeral Sermon Some had rashly affirmed it and that some such presumptious affections have been lately published and stiling that person a presumptuous I may say also uncharitable observator that should presume to enter into the Lord Primates breast and aver that the abrogating of them to use his own term was the cause of his carrying a sharp tooth bearing a grudge and that a mortal one towards the L. Lieutenant Strafford The Language with which throughout he pleaseth himselfe might have been easily returned but in regard such pen-combats are unseasonable and unfitting betweene those of the same profession onely gratefull to the adversary of both I have left it to the prudence of a third person who hath a convenient opportunity in his History to clear the whole in the examination and moderation of all the passages between Mr. L. Strange and him Onely thus much upon this occasion the observator is pleased to give me a share in his Title-page calling it a rescue from the back-blowes of Dr. Bernard Indeed as to the person smitten if they were any they could be no other for he then turned the back and not the face being an Anonymus and so appearing in that disguise I might be excused as he was that smote a Clergy man riding without his Priestly habit A man that walks in the dark may meet with a knock by such as mean him no harm And indeed the apprehension of the Authours disaffection so much expressed to this Eminent and pious Primate in the endeavours thus to blemish him whom the whole reformed Church hath an high esteem of gave it suspected both to my self and others to have been some Jesuit or Agent of the Sea of Rome though as yet not any one as I hear of hath moved his tongue against that true Israelite at his Exit hence and I am sorry to see his sole enemies to be those of his own house and profession But for the confirmation of what is here affirmed by the Primate that the Articles of Ireland were not called in though his above-mentioned Letter is sufficient to all uninteressed persons yet for the Readers more full satisfaction I shall give you a brief Narrative of the whole matter being then a Member of that Convocation First in the House of the Clergy which was then in the Cathedrall of St. Patricks Dublin there was a motion made for the reception anew of the Articles of Ireland and all unanimous were for the affirmative excepting two who went out Another time the whole house of the Clergy being called into the Quire where the Bishops sate and the same thing again propounded to them they all stuck to their former vote excepting seven The intent of the whole Clergy being by this sufficiently understood and it appearing there was no need of any such confirmation having been An. 1615. fully and formally established viz. signed by Arch-Bishop Jones Chancelour of Ireland and then Speaker of the House of the Bishops in Convocation by the Prolocutor of the House of the Clergy in their names and signed by the then Lord Deputy Chichester by order from King James in his name that motion was no more repeated onely the Primate was consulted with concerning the approving and receiving of the Articles of England also to which he readily consented there being no substantial difference between them to which he had subscribed himself voluntarily long before in England and conceiving it to be without any prejudice to the other Hereupon the first Canon being all that was done in relation to them was drawn up the Primate approved it and proposed it selfe as President of the Synod in the House of the Bishops commended it to the House of the Clergy where by his motion many assented the more readily they all gave their Votes man by man excepting one person who suspended his out of the suspition that some might make that construction which is the observators conclusion Now the chief argument which the observator if I may not call him Dr. Heylin spends himself upon is from what he hath picked out of the words of the Canon where they do not onely approve but receive the Articles of England from thence he inferres a superinducing of those and so an abrogating of these of Ireland But I answer there was not a reception of the one instead of the other but the one with the other and there being no difference in substance but onely in method number of subjects determined and other circumstantials it argues no more an abrogation than that doth of the Apostles Creed by our reception of the Nicene Creed and Athanasius's wherein some points are more enlarged or that the reception into our use the form of the Lords Prayer according to Saint Matthew abrogates that of Saint Luke being the shorter Neither do I see but if for the manifestation of our Union with other reformed Churches We should approve and receive their Articles of Religion and they receive ours it were no abrogating of either And the difference in them being onely in circumstantials and not in substance all might be called one confession That as of many Seas one Ocean of many National Churches one Catholick Church so of many forms of Canfessions but one faith amongst them That Argument from the Apostles speech of making void the old Covenant by speaking of a new or taking in the first day of the week to be the Sabbath instead of the last when but one of the seven was to be kept doth not fit the case for in these there was a superinduction and reception of the one for the other but in the Canon the Articles of England are received not instead but with those of Ireland And that it was the sense then apprehended not only by the Primate but by the other Bishops at least divers of them appears in this That afterwards at an Ordination they took the subscription of the party ordained to both Articles And for further confirmation of this I shall give you the sense of a most eminent learned and judicious person upon the view of what the observator rescued had written of it I have received sayes he the book you sent me and have perused it I see he will have the allowance of our Articles of England by the Synod in Ireland to be a virtual disanulling of the Irish Confession which I conceive saith no more but That both Confessions were consistent And the Act of that Synod not a revocation of the Irish Articles but an approbation of ours as agreeing with them He hath his flings at your Sermon Preached at

heard he was not so severe as to condemn and disown the Ministery of other reformed Churches or refuse Communion with them because in every particular as to some persons usually ordaining they were defective For Episcopacy he was not wanting with Saint Paul to magnifie his own office by two several Tractates he hath published none being more able to defend the ancient right of it for which he was by Letters importuned by some of the most eminent persons of his own profession yet how humbly without any partiality to himself and the eminent degree he had obtained in it did he declare his judgement is evident by the above-said Tractates and the Letter before mentioned And his prudence in the present accommodation of things in that Treatise of his viz. The reduction of it to the form of Synodical Government for the prevention of that disturbance which did afterwards arise about it is as apparent also if others concerned in these transactions had been of that moderation humility and meeknesse the wound given might have been healed before it grew incurable That the Annual Commemorations of the Articles of the faith such as the Nativity Passion Resurrection of our Saviour c. were fit to be observed which Saint Augustine saith in his time were in use through the whole Catholick Church of Christ and is now in some Reformed Churches as a means to keep them in the memory of the vulgar according to the pattern of Gods injunction to the Israelites in the Old Testament for the Types of them appeared sufficiently to be his judgement by his then constant preaching upon those subjects The Friday before Easter i e. the Resurrection East in old Saxon signifying rising appointed for the remembrance of the Passion of our Saviour he did duely at Drogheda in Ireland observe as a solemn fast inclining the rather to that choice out of Prudence and the security from censure by the then custome of having Sermons beyond their ordinary limit in England when after the publick prayers of the Church he first preached upon that subject extending himselfe in prayer and Sermon beyond his ordinary time which we imitated who succeeded in the duties of the day and which being known to be his constant custome some from Dublin as other parts came to partake of it which most excellent Sermons of his upon that occasion he was by many Godly Religious persons importuned much for the publishing of them and his strict observation of this fast was such that neither before or after that extraordinary paines would he take the least refreshment till about six a Clock and which did not excuse him from Preaching again on Easter day when we constantly had a Communion That Tractate of his entitled The Incarnation of the Son of God was the summe of two or three Sermons which I heard him preach at Drogheda at that Festivall when we celebrate the birth of our Saviour That he was for the often publike reading of the ten Commandements and the Creed before the Congregation according to the custome of other reformed Churches I suppose none can doubt of and not onely that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed but the Nicene and Athanasius his book of the three Creeds sufficiently perswade it What his judgement was of the use of the Lords Prayer his practice shewed it in the constant concluding of his prayer before Sermon with it And his approbation of that gesture of kneeling at the Communion was often apparent before many witnesses For confirmation of Children which Calvine Beza Piscator and others do much commend and wish it were restored among them he was not wanting in his observation as an ancient laudable custome by which was occasioned the more frequent having in memory the principles of religion with the yonger sort At his first publike giving notice of the time of that his intention it having been long disused in Ireland he made a large speech unto the people of the antiquity of it the prudence of the first reformers in purging it from Popish superstitions with the end of it and then such youths presented to him who could repeat the publike Catechisme were confirmed and so often afterwards and indeed the apprehension of his piety and holinesse moved the Parents much to desire that their Children might by him receive that Benediction which was seconded with good and spiritual instruction that stuck to them when they came to further yeares The publike Catechisme containing the summe of the Creed the 10. Commandements the Lords Prayer and Doctrine of the Sacraments despised by some for its plainnesse he thought therefore to be the more profitable for the vulgar And at Drogheda in Ireland gave me orders every Lords day in the afternoon beside the Sermon which was not omitted to explain it He was very exemplary in the careful observation of the Lords day in his family The Sermon preached by him in the forenoon being constantly repeated in the Chappel by his Chaplain about five of the Clock in the afternoon unto which many of the Town resorted For Habits he observed such which were accustomed by those of his profession for the Organ and the Quire he continued them as he found them in use before him And as in all things so in his ordinary wearing Garments he was a Pattern of gravity approving much of a distinctive Apparel in the Ministery that way Lastly for the Ecclesiastical Constitutions of Ireland as he was in An. 1634. being then the Primate the chief guide in their establishment so before he was a Bishop An. 614. being then a Member of the Convocation he was employed as a principal person for the Collecting and drawing up such Canons as concerned the Discipline and Government of the Church and were to be treated upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland divers taken out of the Statutes Queen Elizabeths Injunctions and the Canons of England 1571. which I have lately found written then with his own hand The two first of which being in these words 1. That no other form of Liturgy or Divine service shall be used in any Church of this Realm but that which is established by Law and comprized in the book of common-Common-Prayer and Administrations of Sacraments c. 2. That no other form of Ordination shall be used in this Nation but which is contained in the book of ordering of Bishops Priests and Deacons allowed by Authority and hitherto practized in the Churches of England and Ireland make it apparent that his judgement concerning many of the above-mentioned subjects was the same in his yonger as Elder years And yet notwithstanding all this there were alwayes some and still are too many who are apt to blurre him with the title of a Puritane which is is one occasion of this enlargement though in none the sense of it is more uncertain then in his application and from none a greater lustre would be given unto it than by his