were wrested to a wrong sense And this he did not out of bare Curiosity but to confute the Arrogance of those men who will still appeal though with ill success to Antiquity and the Writings of the Fathers But these learned Collections of his being a large Volume and designed by him as the foundation of a more large and elaborate Work which might have been of great use to the Church were never finished but remain still in Manuscript though he fully intended had God afforded him life to have fallen upon this as the only considerable work he had left to do and which perhaps he had performed many years before his death had it not been for that unhappy Irish Rebellion which bereft him not only of that but of all his other Books for some time except those he brought over with him or furnished himself with here so that when at last this Manuscript together with the rest of his Library was brought over from Droghedah they found him engaged in that long and laborious Work of his Annals and when that was done he had as an Appendix thereunto his Chronologia Sacra to perfect though he never lived to make an end of it so that it is no wonder if he wanted opportunity and leisure to finish this great Task But that he intended to give his last hand to this Work will appear from this passage in his Epistle to the Reader before his answer to the Jesuite's Challenge in these words The exact discussion as well of the Authors Times as of the Censures of their Works I refer to my Theological Bibliothcque if God hereafter shall lend me life and leisure to make up that Work for the use of those that mean to give themselves to that Noble Study of the Doctrine and Rites of the Ancient Church And how much he desired it might be done may farther appear that being askt upon his Death-bed What his Will was concerning those Collections He answered to this effect That he desired they might be committed to his dear friend Dr. Langbaine Provost of Queens Colledge the only man on whose Learning as well as Friendship he could rely to cast them into such a Form as might render them fit for the Press According to which bequest they were put into the hands of that learned Dr. who in order thereunto had them transcribed and then set himself to fill up the breaches in the Original the quotations in the Margine being much defaced with Rats about which laborious Task that learned and good man studying in the publick Library at Oxford in a very severe Season got such an extreme cold as quickly to the great grief of all good men brought him to his end Feb. An. 1657. So that though that excellent Person Dr. Fell now Lord Bishop of Oxford who has deserved so well of Learning has endeavoured to get those Lacunae filled up yet these Collections still remain unfit to be published though the transcript from the Original with the Marginal quotations and additions are now in the Bodleyan Library as a lasting Monument of the Lord Primate's Learning and Industry and may be like wise useful to those learned Persons for whom they were designed and who will take the pains to consult them But the Original of the Authors hand writing is or was lately in the possession of the Reverend and Learned Anno 1612 Dr. Edward Stillingfleet Dean of St. Pauls He was now in the 32 d. year of his age in which he took the Degree of Dr. of Divinity in that University wherein he was bred and to which he was admitted by Dr. Hampton then Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Vice-Chancellor after he had performed the usual Exercises part of which was to read two Solemn Lectures on some places of Scripture which he then did on Dan. 9. 24. Of the Seventy Weeks And on Rev. 20. 4. Explaining those Texts so mis-applied Anno 1613 by the Millenaries both in Elder and Latter times The next year being at London he published his first Treatise De Ecclesiarum Christianarum Successione Statu being much magnified by Casaubon and Scultetus in their Greek and Latin Verses before it was solemnly presented by Arch-Bishop Abbot to King James as the eminent First-fruits of that Colledge of Dublin It is imperfect for about 300 years from Gregory XI to Leo X. i. e. from 1371. to 1513. and from thence to this last Century which he intended to have added had God afforded him longer life though he had lost very considerable assistances towards that design as you will find hereafter in the Series of this Relation This he wrote to answer that great Objection of the Papists when they ask us Where our Religion was before Luther And therefore the design of this Book was to prove from Authors of unquestionable Credit and Antiquity that Christ has always had a Visible Church of true Christians who had not been tainted with the Errours and Corruptions of the Romish Church and that even in the midst of the darkest and most ignorant times and that these Islands owe not their first Christianity to Rome About this time also he altered his condition changing a single for a married life marrying Phoebe only Daughter of Luke Challoner Doctor of Divinity of the Ancient Family of the Challoners in Yorkshire who had been a great Assister and Benefactor to the late Erected Colledge at Dublin having been appointed Overseer of the Building and Treasurer for the money raised to that purpose He was a Learned and Pious man and had such a friendship for Dr. Usher that he courted his Alliance and intended had he lived to have given him this his only Daughter with a considerable Estate in Land and Money but dying before he could see it concluded he charged her upon his Death-bed that if Dr. Usher would marry her she should think of no other person for a Husband which command of her dying Father she punctually obeyed and was married to him soon after and was his Wife for about forty years and was always treated by him with great kindness and conjugal affection until her death which preceded his about one year and a half He had by her one only Child the Lady Tyrrel yet living Thus he lived for several years in great reputation pursuing his Studies and following his Calling and whilst he sat at home endeavouring the advancement of Vertue and Learning his fame flew abroad almost all over Europe and divers learned men not only in England but foreign Countries made their applications to him by Letters as well to express the honour and respect they had for him as also for satisfaction in several doubtful points either in humane Learning or Divinity as the Reader may see in this ensuing Collection Anno 1615 There was now a Parliament at Dublin and so a Convocation of the Clergy when the Articles of Ireland were composed and published and he being a Member of the Synod was appointed to
is the Bishop of Rome And the Title whereby he claimeth this power over us is the same whereby he claimeth it over the whole World because he is S. Peter's Successor forsooth And indeed if St. Peter himself had been now alive I should freely confess that he ought to have spiritual Authority and Superiority within this Kingdom But so would I say also if St. Andrew St. Bartholoâ—ew St. Thomas or any of the other Apostles had been alive For I know that their Commission was very large to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel unto every Creature So that in what part of the World soever they lived they could not be said to be out of their Charge their Apostleship being a kind of an Universal Bishoprick If therefore the Bishop of Rome can prove himself to be one of this rank the Oath must be amended and we must acknowledge that he hath Ecclesiastical Authority within this Realm True it is that our Lawyers in their Year-Books by the name of the Apostle do usually design the Pope But if they had examined his Title to that Apostleship as they would try an ordinary man's Title to a piece of Land they might easily have found a number of flaws and main defects therein For first It would be enquired whether the Apostleship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a special Commission which being personal only was to determine with the death of the first Apostles For howsoever at their first entry into the execution of this Commission we find that Matthias was admitted to the Apostleship in the room of Judas yet afterwards when James the Brother of John was slain by Herod we do not read that any other was substituted in his place Nay we know that the Apostles generally left no Successors in this kind Neither did any of the Bishops he of Rome only excepted that sate in those famous Churches wherein the Apostles exercised their ministry challenge an Apostleship or an Universal Bishoprick by virtue of that Succession It would secondly therefore be inquired what sound Evidence they can produce to shew that one of the company was to hold the Apostleship as it were in Fee for him and his Successors for ever and that the other eleven should hold the same for term of life only Thirdly if this state of perpetuity was to be cast upon one how came it to fall upon St. Peter rather than upon St. John who outlived all the rest of his follows and so as a surviving feoffee had the fairest right to retain the same in himself and his Successors for ever Fourthly if that state were wholly setled upon St. Peter seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome we require them to shew why so great an inheritance as this should descend unto the younger Brother as it were by Burrough-English rather than to the elder according to the ordinary manner of descents Especially seeing Rome hath little else to alledge for this preferment but only that St. Peter was crucified in it which was a very slender reason to move the Apostle so to respect it Seeing therefore the grounds of this great claim of the Bishop of Rome appear to be so vain and frivolous I may safely conclude That he ought to have no Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority within this Realm which is the principal point contained in the second part of the Oath JAMES REX RIght Reverend Father in God and Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor We greet you well You have not deceived our expectation nor the gracious opinion We ever conceived both of your abilities in Learning and of your faithfulness to Us and our Service Whereof as we have received sundry Testimonies both from Our precedent Deputies as likewise from Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Cousin and Councellor the Viscount Falkland Our present Deputy of that Realm so have We now of late in one particular had a further evidence of your Duty and Affection well expressed by your late carriage in Our Castle-Chamber there at the censure of those disobedient Magistrates who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy Wherein your zeal to the maintenance of Our Just and Lawful Power defended with so much Learning and Reason deserves Our Princely and Gracious thanks which We do by this Our Letter unto you and so bid you farewell Given under Our Signet at Our Court at White-Hall the eleventh of January 1622. In the twentieth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland To the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor the Bishop of Meath This discourse had so good an effect that divers of the Offenders being satisfied they might lawfully take those Oaths did thereby avoid the Sentence of Praemunire then ready to be pronounced against them After the Bishop had been in Ireland about two years it pleased King James to imploy him to write the Antiquities of the British Church and that he might have the better opportunity and means for that end he sent over a Letter to the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland commanding them to grant a Licence for his being absent from his See part of which Letter it may not be amiss to give you here Verbatim JAMES REX RIght Trusty and Welbeloved Cousins c. We Greet you well Whereas We have heretofore in Our Princely judgment made choice of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to imploy him in Collecting the Antiquities of the British Church before and since the Christian Faith was received by the English Nation And whereas We are also given to understand That the said Bishop hath already taken pains in divers things in that kind which being published might tend to the furtherance of Religion and good Learning Our pleasure therefore is That so soon as the said Bishop hath setled the necessary Affairs of his Bishoprick there he should repair into England and to one of the Universities here to enable himself by the helps to be had there to proceed the better to the finishing of the said Work Requiring you hereby to cause our Licence to be passed unto him the said Lord Bishop of Meath under Our Great Seal orotherwise as he shall desire it and unto you shall be thought fit for his repairing unto this Kingdom for Our Service and for his continuance here so long time as he shall have occasion to stay about the perfecting of those Works undertaken by him by Our Commandment and for the good of the Church c. Upon which Summons the Bishop came over into England and spent about a year here in consulting the best Manuscripts in both Universities and private Libraries in order to the perfecting that noble Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum though it was not published till above two years after when we shall take occasion to speak thereof more at large
After his coming over again he was for some time engaged in answering the bold challenge of Malone an Irish Jesuite of the Anno 1624 Colledge of Lovain which Treatise he finished and published this year in Ireland which he so solidly and learnedly performed that those that shall peruse it may be abundantly satisfied that those very Judges the Challenger appealed to viz. the Fathers of the Primitive Church did never hold or believe Transubstantiation Auricular Confession Purgatory or a Limbus Patrum Prayer for the Dead or to Saints the Use of Images in Divine Worship Absolute Free-Will with Merits annexed with those other points by him maintained And though about three years after the publishing of this Treatise when the Colledge of Lovain had been long studying how to answer it the said Malone did at last publish a long and tedious reply stuffed with Scurrillous and Virulent Expressions against the Lord Primate his Relations and Calling and full of quotations either falsly cited out of the Fathers or else out of divers supposititious Authors as also forged Miracles and lying Legends made use of meerly to blind the Eyes of ordinary Readers who are not able to distinguish Gold from Dross all which together gave the Bishop so great a disgust that he disdained to answer a fool according to his folly and made no reply unto him though some of his worthy friends would not let it pass so But the learned Dr. Hoyl and Dr. Sing and Mr. Puttock did take him to task and so fully and clearly lay open the falshood and disingenuity of those his Arguments and Quotations from the Ancient Records and Fathers of the Church which had been cited by this Author that he had very little reason to brag of his Victory After the Bishop had published this Treatise he returned again into England to give his last hand to his said Work De Primordiis and being now busied about it the Arch-Bishoprick of Armagh became vacant by the death of Dr. Hampton the late Arch-Bishop not long after which the King was pleased to nominate the Bishop of Meath though there were divers competitors as the fittest Person for that great charge and high dignity in the Church in respect of his own great Merits and Services done unto it and not long after he was Elected Arch-Bishop by the Dean and Chapter there After which the next Testimony that he received of His Majesties favour was his Letter to a Person of Quality in Ireland who had newly obtained the Custodium of the Temporalties of that See Forbidding him to meddle with or receive any of the Rents or Profits of the same but immediately to deliver what he had already received unto the Receivers of the present Arch-Bishop since he was here imployed in His Majesties special Service c. Not long after which favour it pleased God to take King James of Pious Memory out of this World Nor was his Son and Successor our late Gracious Sovereign less kind unto him than his Father had been which he signified not long after his coming to the Crown by a Letter under his Privy Signet to the Lord Deputy and Treasurer of the Realm of Ireland That Whereas the present Arch-Bishop of Armagh had for many years together on several occasions performed many painful and acceptable Services to his Dear Father deceased and upon his special directions That therefore he was pleased as a gracious acceptation thereof and in consideration of his said Services done or to be done hereafter to bestow upon the said Primate out of his Princely bounty 400 pound English out of the Revenues of that Kingdom But before the return of the said Arch-Bishop into Ireland I shall here mention an accident that happened about this time to let you see that he neglected no opportunity of bringing men from the darkness of Popery into the clearer light of the Reformed Religion I shall give you his own relation of it from a Note which though imperfect I find of his own hand writing Viz. That in November 1625. he was invited by the Lord Mordant and his Lady to my Lord's House at Drayton in Northampton-shire to confer with a Priest he then kept by the name of Beaumont upon the points in dispute between the Church of Rome and Ours And particularly That the Religion maintained by Publick Authority in the Church of England was no new Religion but the same that was taught by our Saviour and his Apostles and ever continued in the Primitive Church during the purest times So far my Lord's Note What was the issue of this Dispute we must take from the report of my Lord and Lady and other Persons of Quality there present that this Conference held for some days and at last ended with that satisfaction to them both and confusion of his Adversary that as it confirmed the Lady in her Religion whom her Lord by the means of this Priest endeavoured to pervert so it made his Lordship so firm a Convert to the Protestant Religion that he lived and died in it When the Lord Primate had dispatcht his Affairs in England he year 1626 then returned to be Enthroned in Ireland having before his going over received many Congratulatory Letters from the Lord Viscount Falkland then Lord Deputy the Lord Loftus then Lord Chancellor the Lord Arch-Bishop of Dublin and divers others of the most considerable of the Bishops and Nobility of that Kingdom expressing their high satisfaction for his promotion to the Primacy many of which I have now by me no way needful to be inserted here Being now returned into his native Country and setled in this Anno 1626 great charge having not only many Churches but Diocesses under his care he began carefully to inspect his own Diocess first and the manners and abilities of those of the Clergy by frequent personal Visitations admonishing those he found faulty and giving excellent advice and directions to the rest charging them to use the Liturgy of the Church in all Publick Administrations and to Preach and Catechise diligently in their respective Cures and to make the Holy Scripture the rule as well as the subject of their Doctrine and Sermons Nor did he only endeavour to reform the Clergy among whom in so large a Diocess and where there was so small Encouragements there could not but be many things amiss but also the Proctors Apparitors and other Officers of his Ecclesiastical Courts against whom there were many great complaints of abuses and exactions in his Predecessor's time nor did he find that Popery and Prophaneness had increased in that Kingdom by any thing more than the neglect of due Catechising and Preaching for want of which instruction the poor People that were outwardly Protestants were very ignorant of the Principles of Religion and the Papists continued still in a blind obedience to their Leaders therefore he set himself with all his power to redress these neglects as well by his own example as by his Ecclesiastical
Discipline all which proving at last too weak for so inveterate a Disease he obtained his Majesty's Injunctions to strengthen his Authority as shall be hereafter mentioned The Winter after his coming over there were some Propositions made and offered to be assented unto by the Papists for a more full Toleration of their Religion viz. The maintaining 500 Horse and 5000 Foot wherein the Protestants must have born some share also for the consideration of which a great Assembly of the whole Nation both Papists and Protestants was called by the then Lord Deputy Falkland The meeting was in the Hall of the Castle of Dublin The Bishops by the Lord Primate's invitation met first at his House and both he and they then unanimously drew up and subscribed a Protestation against the Toleration of Popery which was as follows The Judgment of divers of the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of Ireland concerning Toleration of Religion THe Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous Their Faith and Doctrine Erroneous and Heretical Their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration or to consent that they may freely exercise their Religion and profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous sin and that in two respects For 1. It is to make our selves accessary not only to their Superstitions Idolatries and Heresies and in a word to all the abominations of Popery but also which is a consequent of the former to the perdition of the seduced People which perish in the Deluge of the Catholick Apostacy 2. To grant them Toleration in respect of any money to be given or contribution to be made by them is to set Religion to sale and with it the Souls of the People whom Christ our Saviour hath Redeemed with his most precious blood And as it is a great Sin so also a matter of most dangerous consequence The consideration whereof we commend to the Wise and Judicious Bejeeching the God of Truth to make them who are in Authority Zealous of God's Glory and of the advancement of true Religion Zealous Resolute and Courageous against all Popery Superstition and Idolatry Amen James Armachanus Richard Cork Cloyne Rossens Mal. Casellen Andr. Alachadens Anth. Medensis Tho. Kilmore Ardagh Tho. Fernes Leghlin Theo. Dromore Ro. Dunensis c. Michael Waterford Lysmore George Derens. Fran. Lymerick This Protestation of the Bishops Dr. Downham Lord Bishop of Derry at the next meeting of the Assembly April 23 d. 1627. published at christ-Christ-Church before the Lord Deputy and Council in the midst of his Sermon wherein he spake much against mens subordinating Religion and the keeping of a good Conscience to outward and worldly respects and to set their Souls to sale for the gain of earthly matters c. The Lord Primate the next Lord's Day preached before the same Auditory the Text was 1 John 5. 15. Love not the World nor the things that are in the World when he made the like Application with the Bishop rebuking such who for worldly ends like Judas would sell Christ for thirty pieces of Silver The Judgment of the Bishops prevailed so much with the Protestants that the Proposals were drove on very heavily but yet upon serious consideration when it was found that the weak and distracted condition of the Kingdom could not well subsist without some standing Forces it was resolved by the Lord Deputy and Council that the Lord Primate then a Privy-Councellor should in regard of his great esteem with all Parties declare in a Speech to the whole Assembly the true state of the Kingdom and the necessity of a standing Army for the defence thereof against any foreign Invasion or intestine commotions and consequently that a competent supply was needful to be granted for that purpose and that without any Conditions whatsoever as well by the Roman Catholick as Protestant Subjects for which end the Lord Deputy having Summoned the Assembly to the Castle-Chamber at Dublin the Lord Primate addressing himself to the Lord Deputy made this ensuing Speech My Lord THe resolution of those Gentlemen in denying to contribute date April 30th 1627 unto the supplying of the Army sent hither for their defence doth put me in mind of the Philosopher's observation That such as have a respect to a few things are easily misled The present pressure which they sustain by the imposition of the Souldiers and the desire they have to be eased of that burthen doth so wholly possess their minds that they have only an eye to the freeing of themselves from that incumbrance without looking at all to the desolations that are like to come upon them by a long and heavy War which the having of an Army in readiness might be a means to have prevented the lamentable effects of our last Wars in this Kingdom do yet freshly stick in our memories neither can we so soon forget the depopulation of our Land when besides the combustions of War the extremity of Famine grew so great that the very Women in some places by the way side have surprised the men that rode by to feed themselves with the flesh of the Horse or the Rider And that now again here is a Storm towards wheresoever it will light every wise man may easily foresee which if we be not careful to meet with in time our State may prove irrecoverable when it will be too late to think of Had I wist The dangers that now threaten us are partly from abroad and partly from home abroad we are now at odds with two of the most potent Princes in Christendom and to both which in former times the discontented persons in this Country have had recourse heretofore proferring the Kingdom it self unto them if they would undertake the Conquest of it for it is not unknown unto them that look into the search of those things that in the days of King Henry the Eighth the Earl of Desmond made such an offer of this Kingdom to the French King the Instrument whereof yet remains upon Record in the Court of Paris and the Bishop of Rome afterwards transferred the Title of all our Kingdoms unto Charles the Fifth which by new Grants was confirmed unto his Son Philip in the time of Queen Elizabeth with a resolution to setle this Crown upon the Spanish Infanta Which donations of the Pope's howsoever in themselves they are of no value yet will they serve for a fair colour to a Potent Pretender who is able to supply by the power of the Sword whatsoever therein may be thought defective Hereunto may we add that of late in Spain at the very same time when the treaty of the Match was in hand there was a Book published with great approbation there by one of this Country birth Philip O Sullevan wherein the Spaniard is taught That the ready way to establish his Monarchy for that is the only thing he mainly aimeth at and is plainly there confessed is first to set upon Ireland which being quickly obtained
of the People to War Moses and so successively the Supreme Governor had the power of the Trumpet for that purpose Nu. 10. 2. 9. and accordingly the Duty and Oath of Allegiance binds every Subject to come in to the defence of his Sovereign against what Power soever The danger of Poverty and ruine of Estate must give way to publick respects Nor must it be provided against but in a just way in the prosecution of which Life and Goods and every thing else must be committed to the Providence of God To the Second FOr the discerning of the justness of the Cause We must not look only at the Ends pretended which though never so fair and specious do not justifie a bad Cause or unlawful Means nor at the Wickedness or Evil carriage of Instruments imployed in the prosecution which doth not conclude the Cause to be bad and unjust But we must look at the means used for such Ends and then consider the Ends whether intended by those that do pretend them By these we shall see the Cause of the adverse Party to the King is unjust For First The means they use is War maintained against their Sovereign the End pretended is the defence of Religion Laws Liberties But War made by Subjects though really intending such an End is Unjust I. It has no Warrant in Scripture but is disallowed Prov. 30. 31. No rising up against a King 1 Sam. 8. 18. No remedy left them against the Oppressions of their King but crying to the Lord. The Prophets also which bitterly reproved the Idolatrous and unjust Kings of Israel and Judah never called upon the Elders of the People by Arms to secure the Worship of God or the just Government of the Kingdom In the 13th to the Romans and the 1 Ep. 2 Cap. of Peter the same Doctrine of Passive Obedience is taught and accordingly was the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Christians II. Arms taken up by Subjects do invade the Power and Rights of the Sovereign For it takes from him the Sword which he is said to bear Rom. 13. 4. and so doth every Supreme Magistrate The Supreme Power being signified by bearing the Sword as the best Interpreters do affirm And as our Laws and the Oath of Supremacy do acknowlege our King the only Supreme Governor and to be vested with the Power of Arms. Now what saith the Scripture He that takes the Sword shall perish by the Sword that is He that takes and uses it without Warrant without and against his consent that bears the Sword that is Supreme Also War undertaken by Subjects invades the Rights of the Sovereign his Revenue Customs c. will not give to Caesar what is Caesar ' s. But the Scripture is very express in preserving Rights and Power entire even to the worst Princes Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's said our Saviour when Caesar was bad enough And St. Paul bids us Render them their Due Tribute Customs Honour when the Emperours were at the worst And our Laws determine Insurrection or Levying of War to be Treason not against a Religious and just Prince only but indefinitely against any Secondly Their Pretences are taken away if we consider That the continuance of the Established Religion and Government together with a just Reformation of all Abuses and Grievances has been offered promised protested for by his Majesty But the Religion and Government of Church and State as by Law Established will not content the adverse Party however they pretend to fight for Religion and Laws I mean those of the Party which are the main contrivers of the Enterprise and those also upon whose number the main strength of the Faction rests being of such Sects for the most part as are by the Law to abjure the Land because not to be held within the bounds of any setled Government There are no question many which follow them and do really intend the advancement of Religion going after them as many did after Absalom in the simplicity of their hearts expecting a speedier course of Justice and redress of Grievances which they suffered by some evil Officers under David 2 Sam. 15. 4. 11. But for the other to whom we owe this War and who will rule and dispose all if they do prevail their end intended and driven at is the abolishing of the Publick Service and Liturgy which is Established by Law the utter taking away of Episcopal Government which has always been And for their greater security they will have the Power which by Law is his Majesty's and because these are not granted Arms are taken up by Subjects to the invading of his Majesty's Rights and Power and for the maintaining of them the Right and Liberty of Subjects are destroyed To the Third HEnce will appear what is to be Answered to the Third Query That there is Precept and Example for Passive Obedience but none for taking Arms to divert apparent Innovations The Example commonly abused to this purpose is that of the Israelites preparing to go out to War against their Brethren the 〈◊〉 and Gadâ—es for raising an Altar Jos. 22. 13. But it is altogether impertinent for those Arms are taken up and that War prepared by those that had the Supreme Power To the Fourth THe right being discovered it would tend much to the ending of this War and the restoring of our peace if the King's Subjects would rise as one Man to maintain the Right Every particular Man is bound to do it upon the Summons of his Sovereign commanding his assistance The danger and loss of Estate in discharge of Duty is but an outward Consideration and to be left to the Providence of God as was said in the first Resolution To the other part of this fourth Query Answer That necessary maintenance is due to him that lawfully bears Arms For who goeth a Warfare any time as the Apostle saith at his own charges And if the Army cannot be maintained but by free Quarter it is Lawful to receive maintenance that way though at the cost of others whose private interests must give way to the publick Indeed the abuse of free Quarter may make a Souldier guilty of the Sins here mentioned but then it is by his own wilful Transgression To the Fifth HE must in the prosecution of his Military Duty so behave himself as to observe John Baptist's rule Do violence to no man that is unjust violence for he forbids not to use force against them of the adverse Party who are in Arms ready to offer force For sparing Friends and Kindred he must be guided by Christian prudence so to do it as thereby not to endanger any present design or at large to hinder the publick Service As for the King 's Person it cannot be every where so that he must not limit his Duty and Service to the immediate defence of it but know That to serve any where in the defence of his Majesty's just Cause is to defend Him To the Sixth
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
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
this good Bishop took delight to advise others in the exercise of this great Duty so likewise he said none of his Labours adminstred greater comfort to him in his Old Age than that he had ever since he vvas called to the Ministry vvhich vvas very early endeavoured to discharge that great Trust committed unto him of preaching the Gospel vvhich he accounted so much his duty that he made this the Motto of his Episcopal Seal Vae mihi si non Evangelizavero I mention not this as if he thought all those of his ovvn Order vvere obliged to preach constantly themselves since he was sensible that God hath not bestowed the same Talents on all men alike but as St. Paul says Gave some Apostles and some Pastors and Teachers though on some he hath bestowed all these gifts as on this great Prelate yet it is not often And besides God's Providence so ordained that as he had qualified him in an extraordinary manner for the preaching of the Gospel so likewise towards his latter end he should be reduced to that condition as in great part to live by it And here I cannot omit that amongst many of those Advices which he gave to those who came to him for Spiritual Counsel one was concerning Afflictions as a necessary mark of being a Child of God which some might have gathered out of certain unwary passages in Books and which he himself had met with in his Youth and which wrought upon him so much that he earnestly prayed God to deal with him that way and he had his request And he told me that from that time he was not without various Afflictions through the whole course of his life and therefore he advised that no Christian should tempt God to shew such a Sign for a mark of his paternal love but to wait and be prepared for them and patient under them and to consider the intention of them so as to be the better for them when they are inflicted And by no means to judge of a man's Spiritual State either by or without Afflictions for they are fallible Evidences in Spiritual matters but that we should look after a real sincere Conversion and internal Holiness which indeed is the only true Character and Evidence of a state of Salvation I have already given you some account of his carriage whilst he exercised his Sacred Function in his own Country to which I shall only add That as his Discipline was not too severe so was it not remiss being chiefly exercised upon such as were remarkably Vicious and Scandalous in their Lives and Conversations whether of the Clergy or Laity for as he loved and esteemed the sober diligent and pious Clergy-men and could not endure they should be wronged or contemned so as for those who were Vicious Idle and cared not for their Flocks he would call them the worst of men being a scandal to the Church and a blemish to their profession and therefore he was always very careful what persons he Ordained to this high Calling observing St. Paul's injunction to Timothy Lay hands suddenly on no man And I never heard he Ordained more than one person who was not sufficiently qualified in respect of Learning and this was in so extraordinary a case that I think it will not be amiss to give you a short account of it there was a certain English Mechanick living in the Lord Primate's Diocess who constantly frequented the publick Service of the Church and attained to a competent knowledge in the Scriptures and gave himself to read what Books of Practical Divinity he could get and was reputed among his Neighbours and Protestants thereabouts a very honest and Pious Man this Person applyed himself to the Lord Primate and told him That he had an earnest desire to be admitted to the Ministry but the Bishop refused him advising him to go home and follow his Calling and pray to God to remove this Temptation yet after some time he returns again renewing his request Saying He could not be at rest in his Mind but that his desires toward that Calling encreased more and more whereupon the Lord Primate discoursed him and found upon Examination that he gave a very good account of his Faith and knowledge in all the main points of Religion Then the Bishop questioned him farther if he could speak Irish for if not his Preaching would be of little use in a Country where the greatest part of the People were Irish that understood no English The Man replyed that indeed he could not speak Irish but if his Lordship thought fit he would endeavour to learn it which he bid him do and as soon as he had attained the Language to come again which he did about a Twelvemonth after telling my Lord that he could now express himself tolerably well in Irish and therefore desired Ordination whereupon the Lord Primate finding upon Examination that he spake Truth Ordained him accordingly being satisfied that such an ordinary Man was able to do more good than if he had Latin without any Irish at all nor was the Bishop deceived in his expectation for this Man as soon as he had a Cure imployed his Talent diligently and faithfully and proved very successful in Converting many of the Irish Papists to our Church and continued labouring in that Work until the Rebellion and Massacre wherein he hardly escaped with Life And as this good Bishop did still protect and encourage those of his own Coat so did he likewise all poor Men whom he found oppressed or wronged by those above them And for an instance of this I will give you part of a Letter which he Writ to a Person of Quality in Ireland in behalf of a poor Man which was his Tenant whom he found much wronged and oppressed by him viz. I Am much ashamed to receive such Petitions against you Have you never read that the unrighteous and he that doth wrong shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Think there is a God who heareth the Cry of the Poor and may bring a rot upon your Flocks and Curse every thing you put your hand to And if you think not of him because you see him not although he sees you through and through yet believe your own Eyes and consider that he hath appointed his Deputies upon Earth the higher Powers which will not suffer the Poor to be oppressed by you or those that are greater than you for shame therefore give content to this Petitioner that you hear not of this in a place where your Face must blush and your Ears tingle at the hearing of it J. A. Now having given as brief a Character as I could of this excellent Prelate not only as a private Man but also a Minister and Bishop of Gods Church and as a most Loyal Subject to his Lawful Sovereign Prince expressed upon all occasions I should proceed in the last place to give some account of his Judgment and Opinions in points of Religion and
Learning for the first I shall say in general That he always adhered to and maintained the fundamental Catholick Truths observing that Golden Rule concerning Traditions Quod ubique quod ab omnibus quod semper Creditum est c. and never approved of any Religion under what pretence soever obtruded or introduced contrary to the Scriptures and Primitive Truths received and professed in the Church of Christ in all Ages and upon this account could never comply with nor approve of the new Doctrines and Worship obtruded and practised in the Church of Rome as now it is but always protested against their Innovations and humane Inventions as doth most evidently appear in his Writings bearing Testimony against their Corruptions False and Erroneous principles And as for the great Scholars and Leading Men of the Romish Church the Lord Primate usually said That it is no Marvel if they had a veil cast over their Eyes as St. Paul said of the Jews in the reading of the Scriptures for besides the several judgments of God upon them that have blinded their own Eyes their Minds are so prepossessed and Corrupted with false Principles Prejudices and Worldly interest that it is no wonder if they cannot perceive the most manifest and plainest Truths But as this good Mans judgment was sound and not byassed by prejudice or passion or worldly interest so did he heartily approve of the Religion professed and established in the Church of England as most Congruous to the Holy Scriptures and Primitive Christianity and in which if a Man keep the Faith and Lives according to its precepts persevering he need not doubt of his Salvation And in this Faith and Communion of the Church of England he lived Holily and died happily And this Holy Primate being fully perswaded in his own Mind laboured instantly to reduce Popish Recusants and Sectaries from their Errors and vain Conceits to inform them aright and to perswade them for their Souls good to comply with and embrace the Religion and Communion of the Church of England and this he aimed to bring about by his Writing Preaching and Conference upon all occasions and was successful in that enterprise But now for his Opinion in some nice points of Religion that do not touch the foundation of Faith he would not be rigorously Dogmatical in his own Opinions as to impose on others Learned and Pious Men of a different Apprehension in the more obscure points with whom nevertheless thô not altogether of his judgment he had a friendly Conversation and mutual Affection and Respect seeing they agreed in the points necessary Would to God That the Learned and Pious Men in these Days were of the like temper It will be needless here to mention any more particulars of his judgment in several points seeing there are so many instances of this kind in the Collection to which I refer the Reader Yet before I leave this matter I think fit to mind you of some Treatises published by Doctor Bernard after the Primates Death Intituled The judgment of the late Lord Primate on several Subjects 1. Of Spiritual Babylon on Rev. 18. 4. 2. Of Laying on of Hands Heb. 6. 2. and the ancient form of Words in Ordination 3. Of a set form of Prayer in the Church Each being the judgment of the late Bishop of Armagh which being not set down in my Lord Primates own Words nor written by him in the Method and Order they are there put into cannot be reckoned being much enlarged by the Dr. as himself confesseth therefore cannot so well vouch them as if I had been certain that all he writes were purely the Lord Primate 's since the Papers out of which the Doctor says he Collected them were never restored to my Custody thô borrowed under that Trust that they should be so and therefore I desire that those into whose hands those Manuscripts are now fallen since the Drs. decease would restore them either to my self or the Lord Primates Relations And tho perhaps some of those Letters published by Dr. Bernard might have been as well omitted or at least some private reflections of them left out concerning a Person easily provoked to bitterness and ill words being provoked by the publishing those Letters writ an invective Book on purpose to answer to what was contained therein and not contented with this has likewise bestowed great part of that Book to tax my Lord Primates Opinions and Actions as differing from the Church of England only to lessen the Esteem and Veneration which he deservedly had with all those who loved the King and Church of England as also to maintain those old Stories broached before concerning the repeal of the Irish Articles and the Death of the Earl of Strafford to which last particulars I need say no more than what I have already spoken in the Lord Primate's Vindication and as to the former relating to my Lord's Opinions and Actions a near Relation of the Lord Primate's has I hope vindicated him sufficiently in an Appendix at the end of this Account so that I shall concern my self no farther therewith I have now no more to do than to give you a short account of his Opinions in some of the most difficult parts of Learning with some Observations which either my self or others that convers'd with him can remember we have received from him by way of discourse though not the Twentieth part of what might have been retrieved in this kind had this task been undertaken many years agone whilst these things were fresh in our memories and whilst many more of his learned friends were alive who must needs have received divers learned remarks from his excellent conversation As for the Lord Primate's Opinions in Critical Learning it is very well known as well by his Discourse as Writings that he still defended the certainty and purity of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament before the Translation of the Septuagint since he doubted whether this we have were the true Translation of the LXX or not as you may see in his Epistle to Valesius and his Answer thereunto which controversie as it is a subject above my capacity to give a Judgment on having exercised as it still does both the Wits and Pens of the greatest Scholars in this present Age So I heartily wish That it may never tend to the disadvantage not only of our own but indeed of the whole Christian Religion with Prophane and Sceptical men for whilst one Party decry the Hebrew Text as obscure and corrupted by the Jews and the other side shew the failings and mistakes of the Greek Translation sufficient to prove that it was not performed by men Divinely Inspired it gives the Weak and more Prophane sort of Readers occasion to doubt of the Divine Authority of these Sacred Records though notwithstanding all the differences that have hitherto been shown between the Hebrew Original and Greek Translation do not God be thanked prove of greater moment than
in the accounts of Time Names or Numbers of men difference of some Words and Phrases c. whilst they still agree in all the main points both of the History and Doctrine which I think ought to satisfie any sincere considering Person that God's Providence has taken sufficient care to convey these Sacred Records and Foundations of our Faith clear and uncorrupted to us a reasonable allowance being still given to the Mistakes and Errours of the Copiers or Translators which were not Divinely Inspired so as to secure us from all mistakes in a Book which has been so often transcribed in so many hundreds of years and that out of a Language which is thought by divers of the learned to have been written without any of those Points which in most of these Eastern Languages stand for Vowels But to other of the Learned of the contrary Opinion and what our Primate thought of this and some beside him skill'd in this point we may understand among the Collections hereafter unto which I refer the Reader and to return from whence we have digressed The Lord Primate being once importuned by a Learned man to give some directions in Writing for the advancement of solid and useful learning as well Sacred as Prophane he said it might be thus performed 1. By learned Notes and Illustrations on the Bible 2. By censuring and inquiring into the Ancient Councils and Works of the Fathers 3. By the orderly Writing and Digesting of Ecclesiastical History 4. By gathering together whatsoever may concern the State of the Jews from the destruction of Jerusalem to this present Age. 5. By Collecting of all the Greek and Roman Histories and disting them into a Body And to effect all this he proposed That the most ingenious and studious men of both Universities being preferred to Prebends in Cathedral Churches should be enjoyned and amply encouraged to prosecute this design for the advancement of this most profitable Learning And how much the Lord Primate desired the performance of these so useful works appears by what he had long since recommended to the University of Oxford touching the revising the Works of the Ancient Fathers of the Church What his design was in this kind the Reader may best judge by this passage in a Letter written 1626. recommending this design to the University of Oxford which I shall here insert The business of Revising the Ancient Fathers works in Latin so long projected and so many years followed by Dr. James I do greatly approve and judge it to be as the times now are and the Books now printed at Cologne and else where most necessary tending to the great honour of this famous University the benefit of them that shall be imployed therein and the great good of the Church And if the Heads of the University would be pleased or might be intreated to incourage and imploy some of their Younger Divines herein whereof I see so great store and some I have found very painful in another kind I shall think my self greatly honoured by this University as I confess I have been very much already if by my means they may be the rather encouraged to the performance of this great work And indeed he had so great an esteem of the Ancient Authors for the acquiring any solid learning whether Sacred or Prophane that his advice to young Students either in Divinity or Antiquity was not to spend too much time in Epitomes but to set themselves to read the Ancient Authors themselves as to begin with the Fathers and to read them according to the Ages in which they lived which was the Method he had taken himself and together with them carefully to peruse the Church Historians that treated of that Age in which those Fathers lived by which means the Student would be better able to perceive the reason and meaning of divers Passages in their Writings which otherwise would be obscure when he knew the Original and Growth of those Heresies and Heterodox Opinions they wrote against and may also better judge what Doctrines Ceremonies and Opinions prevailed in the Church in every Age and by what means introduced So likewise for Prophane Authors his advice was to begin with the most Ancient and so to read them in the order of time of which they writ which was the Method he used in the composing of his Annals Nor did he advise Students in Divinity to spend more time than was necessary in the subtilties of the School-men only so far as might serve for the understanding and answering the Controversies between those of the Church of Rome and us saying That they were good to puzzle mens heads with unnecessary doubts but bunglers in resolving them and that their Writings had done more mischief to the Church than brought advantage either to Learning or Religion That they might serve for Controversial Disputes in the Schools but were very improper for the Pulpit and altogether useless for the Functions of a Civil Life And whom one would think Prudentius had on purpose thus described Solvunt ligantque quaestionum vincula per Syllogismos plectiles fidem minutis diffecant ambagibus c. As for the Heathen moral Philosophers he advised young Divines not to spend too much time in them for they were much mistaken in many great points of Morality and true happiness the best rules of life c. and the shortest and plainest for all moral Duties being delivered by God in the Holy Scriptures In Theological Treatises and Discourses he was displeased with new wording of old Truths and changing the Terms used by the Ancients to express the things they meant he would have the old form of sound words retained for Qui nova facit verba nova gignit Dogmata and ever suspected that those who purposely used new coined words had no very good meaning or else affected too great singularity But I think I need say no more to prove the Lord Primate's great knowledge in all parts of useful Learning since besides the Suffrages of the most knowing men of this Age his many and learned works of which I have given you a short account in this Treatise sufficiently declare it to the World but let us look back a little and survey at once those various parts of Learning he was skilled in First his Sermons Treatises Theological and Writings against the Papists do sufficiently shew how great a Doctor he was in Theology as well Practical as Polemical his Theological Bibliotheke as imperfect as it is together with the Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp which he put forth with learned dissertations concerning their Writings as also his Treatise of the Ancient Apostolical Symbol of the Roman Church declare how well he was versed in all the Ancient Monuments of the Church as his works of the Succession and state of the Christian Churches and of the Antiquities of the British Church do his knowledge in Ecclesiastical History and Antiquity his Syntagma of the Version of the Septuagint
into too great a bulk and only serve to prove that which I think no body questions I shall only refer you to the Learned Works of Mr. Cambden Mr. Selden Sir Roger Twisden Bishop Davenant Bishop Hall Bishop Prideaux and divers others of our own Country And of Foreigners to the Learned Vossius Spanhemius Testardus Morus Lud. de Dieu Bochartus and many more divers of whose Letters you will find in this ensuing Collection so that you can scarce read farther than the Preface or Epistle Dedicatory of several of their Works without finding his name mentioned with peculiar honour but I cannot here omit that Elogy given him by the Suffrages of the University of Oxford in a publick Convocation Anno 1644. since the Authors are not commonly known Jacobus Usserius Archiepiscopus Armachanus Totius Hiberniae Primas Antiquitatis primaevae peritissimus Orthodoxae Religionis vindex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Errorum malleus In Concionando frequens facundus praepotens Vitae inculpatae Exemplar Spectabile Rob. Pink Vicecancellarius Oxoniensis posuit This was then ordered to be placed under his Effigies cut in Brass at the charges of the University in order to be prefixed before his Works And unto what hath been already said concerning his great Learning we may add his great activity as occasion served to advance the Restauration of our old Northern Antiquities which lay buried in the Gothick Anglo-Saxonick and other the like obsolate Languages And for this we have the Testimony of two late learned and most industrious retrievers of those decayed Dialects namely Mr. Abraham Whelock late Professor of Arabick and Saxon in the University of Cambridge and Mr. Francis Junius The first of these in an Epistle before the Saxon Translation of Bede's History acknowledgeth the solemn direction and encouragement he received in Cambridge from the Lord Primate of Ireland in order to the prosecuting his publick Saxon Lectures in that place And in his Notes upon the Persian Gospels the same Author shews what information he received from that Reverend Person concerning the Doxology in the Lord's Prayer which is found in the very Ancient Translation of the Gospels into Gothick Mr. Junius published a very old Paraphrastical Poem in Saxon which upon strict enquiry was found to be written by one Caedmon a Monk of whom Bede makes mention The Manuscript Copy of which Poem the said Publisher lets his Reader know more than once he received from the hands of the Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh And when the same Author published the now mentioned Gothick Translation of the four Evangelists and carefully transcribed out of the most venerable Monument known by the name of Codex Argenteus he therewith printed in his Gothick Glossary a very learned Epistle upon that Subject written to him by the same Lord Primate of Armagh which you will find in this ensuing Collection But whilst we now speak of his Learning I had almost omitted to give you some account of that out of which he gained great part of it his excellent Library consisting of near 10000 Volumes Prints and Manuscripts all which he in the time of his prosperity intended to bestow at his death on the Colledge of Dublin in gratitude to the place where he received his Education But when it pleased God to lay that great Affliction upon him in the loss of all he had except his Books it is not to be wondered if he left those as a portion to his only Daughter who had been the Mother of a numerous Off-spring and hitherto had nothing from him and which besides some parcels of Gold he had by him that had been before presented to him by Mr. Selden's Executors and other Persons of Quality was all he had to leave her This Library which cost the Lord Primate many Thousand pounds was after his decease much sought for by the King of Denmark and Cardinal Mazarine and a good price offered for it by their Agents here But the Lord Primate's Administrators being prohibited by an Order from the Usurper and his Council to sell it to any without his consent it was at last bought by the Souldiers and Officers of the then Army in Ireland who out of Emulation to the former Noble Action of Queen Elizabeth's Army were incited by some men of Publick Spirits to the like performance and they had it for much less than what it was really worth or what had been offered for it before by the Agents above mentioned They had also with it all his Manuscripts which were not of his own hand-writing as also a choice though not numerous Collection of Ancient Coins But when this Library was brought over into Ireland the Usurper and his Son who then Commanded in chief there would not bestow it upon the Colledge of Dublin least perhaps the gift should not appear so considerable there as it would do by it self and therefore they gave out That they would reserve it for a new Colledge or Hall which they said they intended to Build and Endow But it proved that as those were not Times so were they not Persons capable of any such noble or pious work so that this Library lay in the Castle of Dublin unbestowed and unimployed all the remaining time of Cromwell's Usurpation but after his death and during that Anarchy and confusion that followed it the rooms where this Treasure was kept being left open many of the Books and most of the best Manuscripts were stolen away or else imbezeled by those who were intrusted with them but after his late Majesty's Restauration when they fell to his disposal he generously bestowed them on the Colledge for which they were intended by their owner where they now remain and as they are make up the greater part of that Library Thus having dispatch'd as well as I am able this account of the Life and Writings of this rare and admirable Prelate though infinitely short of his incomparable worth and perfections being so eminently Pious so prodigiously Learned and every way so richly accomplished I can only conclude humbly beseeching the God of all Grace the Father of Light the Giver of every good and perfect Gift That he would appoint and continue in his Church a constant Succession of such Lights and that particularly within his Majesty's Dominions these Churches may still flourish under the like Pious Watchful Laborious and Exemplary Ministers and Bishops who may adorn the Gospel and their own profession for the Confutation of the Adversaries of our Religion and the Conviction of all those who clamour against the Doctrine Government and Godly Worship now Established in the Church of England Amen M. S. JACOBUS USSERIUS Archiepiscopus Armachanus Hic situs est Ob Praeclaram Prosapiam Raram Eruditionem Ingenii Acumen Dicendi scribendi faeundiam Morum gravitatem suavitate conditam Vitae candorem integritatem Aequabilem in utrâque fortunâ animi constantiam Orbi Christiano Piis omnibus Charus Omniumque
Primis Haereticis Haeresibus Judaeorum Annotationes Rabbinicae ex Scriptis Rabbinorum eorum Scarae Scripturae Interpretum Imperatorum Christianorum à Constantino magno usque ad Justinianum Constitutiones Epistolae collectae recensitae Veterum Anglo-Saxorum Monumenta Anglo-Saxonicarum Epistolarum Sylloge ex variis Manuscriptis Epistolae Alcuini variae ad diversos Missae ineditae in Bibliothecâ Cottonianâ Manuscriptis collectae recensitae Epistolae venerabilis Archiepiscop Lanfranci ad diversos Missae ex antiquissimo exemplari Bibliothecae Cottonianae collectae recensitae Collectiones Genealogicae Historicae Mathematicae Astrologicae Chronologicae Theologicae variae de quibus passim judicium fertur Memorandum THat out of the forementioned Manuscripts the Incomparable Sir Math. Hale late Lord Chief Justice having borrowed them extracted those four Volumes which he calls Chronological Remembrances extracted out of thë Notes of Bishop Usher mentioned in the Catalogue of his Manuscripts which he Left to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn Besides those Manuscripts above cited the Primate Usher had Written his Polemical Lectures in the University of Dublin while professor there touching the Points in Controversie between the Protestants and Pontificians 3 Volumes 4 to Lost His Lectures pro formâ when he commenced Dr. of Divinity touching the 70 Weeks Dan. 9. 24. and de Mille Annis mentioned Apocal. 20. 4. Lost His Treatise of the Hermage and Corban Lands in England and Ireland yet to be seen in Bibliothecâ Lambethianâ His Collections and Observations touching the Advancement and Restauration of our Northern Antiquities in the Gothick Anglo-Saxonick and the like obscure Languages and also concerning the Doxology found in the very Ancient Gospels in Gothick His Numerous Epistles Latin and English touching matters of Learning and Religion many of them now Printed in Collection with others An APPENDIX to the Life of the Lord Primate USHER containing a vindication of his Opinions and Actions in reference to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England and his Conformity thereunto from the Aspersions of Peter Heylin D. D. in his Pamphlet called Respondet Petrus FInding that Dr. Heylin hath taken the pains to write this Book on purpose to callumniate and asperse the Lord Primates Memory and arraign his Opinions and Actions as not conformable to the Doctrines of the Church of England I cannot well omit to consider what that Author hath there laid to his charge how justly I shall leave to the impartial Reader to judg for I hope I shall make it appear that what the Lord Primate hath either publish'd or written in private Letters on those Subjects was on very good grounds and such as may very well be defended as agreeable to the Sence and Doctrine of our Church contained in the 39 Articles Or if after all I can say the Reader shall happen to think otherwise I desire him not to censure too hardly but to pass it by since such difference if any be was not in the fundamental Doctrines of our Religion but only some Points of lesser moment or in which the Church it self has not tied men either to this or that sence and that the Lord Primate held these Opinions not out of contradiction or singularity but only because he thought them more agreeable to Scripture and Reason tho in most of them I doubt not but to shew that the Doctor has stretched the Lord Primate's words farther than ever his own sence and meaning was But to come to the Points in which the Doctor hath made bold to question his Judgment the first is his Opinion of the Divine Morality of the Sabbath or Seventh days rest asserted by him in two several Letters published tho perhaps not so prudently with those private reflections by Dr. Bernard in which Controversy whether the Authorities made use of by the Lord Primate out of the Fathers and other Writers do not make out the Assertion by him laid down or whether the Doctor has fairly and ingenuously answered those Quotations he cites in those Letters I shall not here take upon me to examine but shall observe thus much That as it is a Doctrine held by some of the Fathers as also maintained by divers learned Divines and Bishops of our Church and therefore could not be so Puritanical as the Doctor would have it especially since the Lord Primate thought that he had the Church of England on his side as she hath declared her sence of this matter in the first part of the Homily of the time and place of Prayer viz. God hath given express charge to all Men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday they shall cease from all weekly and work-day labour to the intent that like as God himself wrought six days and rested the seventh and blessed and consecrated it to quietness and rest from labour even so God's obedient People should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily business and also give themselves wholly to the heavenly exercise of God's true Religion and Service Which passage being expresly in the point of my Lord Primat's side the Sabbath day mentioned in the fourth Commandment being there called our Sunday and the same reason laid down for its observation viz. because God had rested on the seventh day c. The Doctor has no way to oppose this so express Authority but to make if possible this Homily to contradict it self and therefore he produces another passage just preceding in this Homily as making for his Opinion which that you may judge whether it does so or no I shall put down the passage as he himself hath cited it with his Conclusions from it and shall then further examine whether it makes so much of his side as he would have it viz. As concerning the time in which God hath appointed his People to assemble together solemnly it doth appear by the fourth Commandment c. And albeit this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian People so strictly to observe and keep the utter Ceremonies of the Sabbath day as it was given unto the Jews as touching the forbearing of work and labour and as touching the precise keeping of the seventh day after the manner of the Jews for we keep now the first day which is our Sunday and make that our Sabbath that is our day of rest in honour of our Saviour Christ who upon that day rose from death conquering the same most triumphantly yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in the Commandment appertaining to the Law of Nature as a thing most godly most just and needful for the setting forth of God's Glory ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian People So that it being thus resolved that there is no more of the fourth Commandment to be retained by good Christian People than what is found appertaining to the Law of Nature and that the Law of Nature doth not tie us to one day in seven
in very deed by God's faithful People By which it seems it is agreed on both sides that is to say the Church of England and the Church of Rome that there is a true and real Presence of Christ in the holy Eucharist the disagreement being only in the modus Praesentiae But on the contrary the Ld Primat in his Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge hath written one whole Chapter against the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament In which tho he would seem to aim at the Church of Rome tho by that Church not only the real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament but the corporal eating of his Body is maintained and taught yet doth he strike obliquely and on the by on the Church of England All that he doth allow concerning the real Presence is no more than this viz. That in the receiving of the blessed Sacrament we are to distinguish between the outward and the inward action of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouth we receive really the visible Elements of Bread and Wine in the inward we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord that is to say we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man Which is no more than any Calvinist will stick to say But now after all these hard words the Doctor has here bestowed upon my Lord Primat part of which I omit I think I can without much difficulty make it appear that all this grievous Accusation of the Doctor 's is nothing but a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a strife about words and that the Lord Primat held and believed this Doctrine in the same sence with the Church of England 1. Then the 29th Article of our Church disavows all Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord. The second asserts that the Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after an heavenly and spiritual manner and that the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith And now I will leave it to the unprejudiced Reader to judge whether the Lord Primat's way of explaining this Sacrament according to the passage before cited by the Doctor does differ in sence from these Articles however it may somewhat in words as coming nearer the Articles in Ireland which the Bishop when he writ this Book had alone subscribed to and was bound to maintain for I think no true Son of the Church of England will deny that in this Sacrament they still really receive the visible Elements of Bread and Wine 2. That in the inward and spiritual action we really receive the Body and Blood of our Lord as the Lord Primat has before laid down But perhaps it will be said That the Lord Primat goes further in this Article than the Church of England does and takes upon him to explain in what sence we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and that otherwise than the Church of England does he explaining it thus that is to say We are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthning of our inward man whereas the Church of England declares that the Body of Christ is eaten only after a heavenly and spiritual manner yet still maintains the Body of Christ to be eaten whereas the Lord Primat only says that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified but does not say as the Article of our Church does that we are therein partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ. But I desire the Objector to consider whether the Explanation of our Church does not amount to the same thing in effect that saying that the Body of Christ is eaten in the Supper after a heavenly and spiritual manner and the Lord Primat that we are truly and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified viz. after a spiritual and not a carnal manner But perhaps the Doctor 's Friends may still object that the Lord Primat does not express this Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament as Bp. Bilson and Bp. Morton assert the former saying that Christ's Flesh and Blood are truly present and truly received by the Faithful in the Sacrament and the latter expresly owning a real Presence therein And Bp. Andrews in his Apology to Cardinal Bellarmine thus declares himself viz. Praesentiam credimus non minus quam vos veram de modo praesentiae nil timerè definimus Which the Doctor renders thus We acknowledg saith he a presence as true and real as you do but we determine nothing rashly of the manner of it And the Church Catechism above cited as also the Latin Catechism of Mr. Noel confess the Body and Blood of our Lord are truly and indeed or as the Latin Translation renders it verè realiter taken and received in the Lord's Supper Which the Lord Primat does not affirm I know not what such Men would have The Lord Primat asserts that we do by Faith really receive the Body and Blood of Christ and that in the same sence with Mr. Noel's Catechism and the Article of the Church viz. that Christ's Body is received after a spiritual and heavenly manner Which was added to exclude any real presence as taken in a carnal or bodily sence So that our Church does in this Article explain the manner of the Presence notwithstanding what Bp. Andrews says to the contrary Nor know I what they can here further mean by a real Presence unless a carnal one which indeed the Church of England at the first Reformation thought to be all one with the real as appears by these words in the first Articles of Religion agreed on in the Convocation 1552 Anno 5. Edw. 6. It becometh not any of the Faithful to believe or profess that there is a Real or Corporal Presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the holy Eucharist And that our Church did likewise at the first passing the 39 Articles in Convocation Anno 1562 likewise disallow any Real Presence taken in a carnal sence Christ's Body being always in Heaven at the right hand of God and therefore cannot be in more places than one appears by the original of those Articles to be seen in the Library of Corpus Christi Colledg in Cambridg where tho this passage against a Real or Corporal Presence which they then thought to be all one are dash'd over with red Ink yet so as it is still legible therefore it may not be amiss to give you Dr. Burnet's Reasons in his 2d part of the History of the Reformation p. 406 for the doing of it The secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alledged that such an express Definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of
there be any other places or other Mansions by which the Soul that believeth in God passing and coming unto that River which maketh glad the City of God may receive within it the lot of the Inheritance promised unto the Fathers For touching the determinate state of the faithful Souls departed this life the ancient Doctors as we have shewed were not so throughly resolved The Lord Primat having thus shewn in what sence many of the ancient Fathers did understand this word Hades which we translate Hell proceeds to shew that divers of them expound Christ's Descent into Hell or Hades according to the common Law of Nature which extends it self indifferently unto all that die For as Christ's Soul was in all points made like unto ours Sin only excepted while it was joined with his Body here in the Land of the Living so when he had humbled himself unto the Death it became him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren even in the state of dissolution And so indeed the Soul of Jesus had experience of both for it was in the place of human Souls and being out of the Flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable Soul therefore and of the same substance with the flesh of Men proceeding from Mary Saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his Exposition of that Text of the Psalm Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humane Souls which in the Hebrew is the world of Spirits and by the disposing of Christ's Soul there after the manner of other Souls concludes it to be of the same nature with other Mens Souls So St. Hilary in his Exposition of the 138th Psalm This is the Law of humane Necessity saith he that the Bodies being buried the Souls should go to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man And a little after he repeats it that desupernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit He descended from the supernal to the infernal parts by the Law of Death And upon Psal. 53. more fully To fulfil the Nature of Man he subjected himself to Death that is to a departure as it were of the Soul and Body and pierced into the infernal seats which was a thing that seemed to be due unto Man I shall not trouble you with more Quotations of this kind out of several of the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers which he makes use of in this Treatise most of them agreeing in this That Christ died and was buried and that his Soul went to that place or receptacle where the Souls of good Men do remain after Death which whether it is no more in effect but differing in terms than to say he died and was buried and rose not till the third day which the Doctor makes to be the absurdity of this Opinion I leave to the Judgment of the impartial Reader as I likewise do whether the Lord Primat deserves so severe a Censure after his shewing so great Learning as he has done concerning the various Interpretations of this word Hades or Hell both out of sacred and prophane Writers that it only serves to amaze the Ignorant and confound the Learned Or that he meant nothing less in all these Collections than to assert the Doctrine of the Church of England in this particular Or whether Christ's Local Descent into Hell can be found in the Book of Articles which he had subscribed to or in the Book of Common-Prayer which he was bound to conform to And if it be not so expressed in any of these I leave it to you to judge how far Dr. H. is to be believed in his Accusation against the Lord Primat in other matters But I doubt I have dwelt too long upon this less important Article which it seems was not thought so fundamental a one but as the Lord Primat very well observes Ruffinus in his Exposition of the Creed takes notice that in the Creed or Symbol of the Church of Rome there is not added He descended into Hell and presently adds yet the force or meaning of the word seems to be the same in that he is said to have been buried So that it seems old Ruffinus is one of those who is guilty of this Impertinency as the Doctor calls it of making Christ's descent into Hell to signifie the same with his lying in the Grave or being buried tho the same Author takes notice that the Church of Aquileia had this Article inserted in her Creed but the Church of Rome had not which sure with Men of the Doctor 's way should be a Rule to other Churches And further Card. Bellarmin noteth as the Lord Primat confesses that St. Augustin in his Book De Fide Symbolo and in his four Books de Symbolo ad Catechumenos maketh no mention of this Article when he doth expound the whole Creed five several times Which is very strange if the Creed received by the African Church had this Article in it Ruffinus further takes notice that it is not found in the Symbol of the Churches of the East by which he means the Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creeds the latter of which is nothing else but an Explanation or more ample Enlargement of Creed Apostolical Tho this indeed be not at this day read in the Greek or other Eastern Churches or so much as known or received in that of the Copties and Abyssines But the Doctor having shown his Malice against the Lord Primat's Memory and Opinions in those Points which I hope I have sufficiently answered cannot give off so but in the next Section accuses him for inserting the nine Articles of Lambeth into those of the Church of Ireland being inconsistent with the Doctrine of the Church of England But before I answer this Accusation I shall first premise that as I do not defend or approve that Bishops or others tho never so learned Divines should take upon them to make new Articles or define and determine doubtful Questions and Controversies in Religion without being authorized by the King and Convocation so to do Yet thus much I may charitably say of those good Bishops and other Divines of the Church of England who framed and agreed upon these Articles that what they did in this matter was sincerely and as they then believed according to the Doctrine of the Church of England as either expresly contained in or else to be drawn by consequence from that Article of the Church concerning Predestination And certainly this makes stronger against the Doctor for if with him the Judgment of Bp. Bilson Bp. Andrews and Mr. Noel in their Writings be a sufficient Authority to declare the sence of the Church of England in those Questions of Christ's true and real Presence in the Sacrament and his Local Descent into Hell why should not the Judgment and Determination of the two Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York with divers other Bishops and
did not send it which by the next Ship if your Lordship please God willing I will send you But I pray understand that by the Syriack Tongue they mean here the Caldean And every Man tells me it is all one the Syrians and Caldeans being one and the same People but questionless the same Language Therefore if your Lordship mean and desire to have the Old Testament in Caldean I beseech you to write me by the first over Land that I may provide it by the next Ship Also I beseech you to take knowledge that I dare not promise you to send it according to the Hebrew for neither my self nor any other Man here can determine it only I must be forc'd to take his word that sells it me who is a Minister of the Sect of the Marranites and by birth a Caldean but no Scholar neither is there any to be found in these parts but if your Lordship will have me send it at adventures though it cost dear as it will cost 10 l. I will do my best endeavour to send it by the first Conveyance but shall do nothing herein until such time I have further order from your Lordship to effect business of this nature in these parts requires time Travel being very tedious in these Countries I have inquired of divers both Christians and Jews of the overflowing of Jordan but can learn no certainty Some say it never rises but after great Rain but I met with a learned Jew at least so reputed who told me that Jordan begins to flow the 13th of July and continues flowing 29 days and is some 18 or 20 days increasing but I dare not believe him his Relation not agreeing with the Text for Harvest is near ended with them by that time and unless you will understand by Harvest the time of gathering Grapes it cannot agree I have also sent to Damascus concerning this and trust ere long to satisfy your Lordship in this Particular and in the Calendar of the Samaritans A French Frier who lived at Jerusalem told me that it never overflowed except occasiond by Rain whereupon I shewed him the words in Joshua 3. 15. that Jordan overfloweth his Banks at the time of Harvest which words are written with a Parenthesis and therefore said he are no part of the Text which I know is his ignorance I could have shewed him the thing plainly proved by that which he holds Canonical Scripture Ecclus. 24. 26. If I have done your Lordship any Service herein I shall greatly rejoyce and shall ever be ready and willing to do the best Service I can to further the Manifestation of God's Truth yea I should think my self happy that I were able to bring a little Goats Hair or a few Badgers Skins to the building of God's Tabernacle I acknowledg your Lordship's Favour towards me who have not neither could deserve at your hands the least Kindness conceivable yet the Graciousness of your sweet Disposition emboldens me to entreat the continuance of the same and also the benefit of your faithful Prayers so shall I pass the better amongst these Infidel Enemies to God and his Christ. And so I pray God to encrease and multiply his Favours and Graces both upon your Soul and Body making you happy in what ever you possess here and hereafter to grant you Glory with Christ into whose hands I recommend your Lordship and humbly take leave ever resting Your Lordship 's in all bounden duty to command Thomas Davies Aleppo Aug. 29. 1624. LETTER LXX A Letter from Mr. Thomas Pickering to the R. R. James Usher Bishop of Meath at Wicken-Hall Right Reverend and my very good Lord I Was not unmindful according to my Promise to send to Dr. Crakenthorp for Polybius and Diodorus Siculus immediatly after I was with your Lordship But he attending the Visitations at Colchester and Maldon came not home till yesterday At which time sending my Man for the Books the Doctor returned Answer That your Lordship shall command any Books he hath whensoever you please That he had not Diodorus Siculus but he sent me Polybius and Marianus Scotus which he says Dr. Barkham told him you desired to borrow These two Books your Lordship shall now receive and if it fall out that you be already provided of Marianus Scotus then it may please you to let that come back again because the Doctor tells me that after a while he shall have occasion to see some things for his use in Sigebert and other Writers which are bound in this Volume with Marianus but by all means he desires your turn should be served however I shall be most ready to afford your Lordship any Service that lieth in my power during your aboad in these parts holding my self in common with the Church of God much bound to you for your great and weighty Labours both formerly and presently undertaken in the Cause of our Religion The God of all Wisdom direct your Meditations and Studies and grant you Health and all Conveniences for the Accomplishment of your intended Task And so with remembrance of Dr. Crakenthorp's and my own Love and Service I humbly take leave and shall ever rest Your Lordship 's in my best Devotions and Services to be commanded Tho. Pickering Finchingfield Sept. 9. 1624. LETTER LXXI A Letter from Mr. Thomas Davies in Aleppo to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath Right Reverend Sir MY bounden Duty remembred c. News here is not any worthy your knowledg the great Rebel Abassa still troubles the State and hinders the going forward of the Army against the Persian Some few days time News came that the Vizier had given Battel to the Rebel and that the Rebel had cut off 12000 Janisaries yet they report the Vizier to have the best of the day which most Men judg to be but report certainly it is that Abassa will give them great trouble pretending only Revenge upon the Janisaries for the Blood of his Master Sultan Osman The greatest Villanies that ever were practised or intended never wanted their Pretences Yet it is thought by many that this Man hath done nothing without leave from the Port otherways it is strange they had not cut him off long since for what can be his Forces against the Grand Signior's Powers The Janisaries refuse to go to War before the Rebel be cut off or Peace made with him whereby you may observe what Power the King hath over his Souldiers the truth is they command and rule all oppressing and eating up the Poor When I consider the Estate of the Christians in these Parts yea the Mahumetans themselves that are not Souldiers then must I say happy yea thrice happy are the Subjects of the King of England who live in peace and enjoy the Fruits of their own Labours and yet have another and a greater Blessing the free passage of the Gospel I pray God we may see and be thankful for so great Favours expressing it by Obedience
forbore to answer I yielded to the Example and Condition so much the rather because I remembred my self a Debtor to your Grace by my promise of writing to you more fully touching the Reasons of my difference with Mr. Cook and now a Suitor in your Court at his instance And first I beseech your Grace let it be a Matter meerly of merriment that I skirmish a little with your Court touching the Inhibition and Citation which thence proceeded against me as you shall perceive by the inclosed Recusation For the thing it self as I have written I do submit it wholly to your Grace's decision And to enlarge my self a little not as to a Judg but a Father to whom beside the bond of your undeserved Love I am bound also by an Oath of God I will pour out my Heart unto you even without craving pardon of my boldness It will be perhaps some little diversion of your Thoughts from your own infirmity to understand that you suffer not alone but you in Body others otherwise each must bear his Cross and follow the steps of our high Master My Lord since it pleased God to call me to this place in this Church what my Intentions have been to the discharge of my Duty he best knows But I have met with many Impediments and Discouragements and chiefly from them of mine own Profession in Religion Concerning Mr. Hoil I acquainted your Grace Sir Ed. Bagshaw Sir Francis Hamilton Mr. William Flemming and divers more have been and yet are pulling from the Rights of my Church But all these have been light in respect of the dealing of some others professing me kindness by whom I have been blazed a Papist an Arminian a Neuter a Politician an Equivocator a nigardly House-keeper an Usurer that I â—ow at the Name of Jesus pray towards the East would pull down the Seat of my Predecessor to set up an Altar denied burial in the Chaneel to one of his Daughters and to make up all that I compared your Grace's preaching to one Mr. Whiskins Mr. Creighton and Mr. Baxter's and preferred them That you found your self deceived in me c. These things have been reported at Dublin and some of the best affected of mine own Diocess as hath been told me induced hereby to bewail with Tears the Misery of the Church some of the Clergy also as it was said looking about how they might remove themselves out of this Country Of all this I heard but little till Mr. Price coming from Dublin before Christmass to be ordered Deacon having for his memory set down twelve Articles among a number of Points more required satisfaction of me concerning them Which I endeavoured to give both to him and to them of the Ministry that met at our Chapter for the examination of Mr. Cook 's Patent Omitting all the rest yet because this Venim hath spread it self so far I cannot but touch the last touching the preferring others to your Grace's preaching To which Mr. Price's answer was as he told me I will be quarter'd if this be true Thus it was Mr. Dunsterveil acquainted me with his purpose to preach out of Prov. 20. 6. But a faithful Man who can find Where he said the Doctrine he meant to raise was this That Faith is a rare Gift of God I told him I thought he mistook the meaning of the Text and wished him to chuse longer Texts and not to bring his Discourses to a word or two of Scripture but rather to declare those of the Holy Ghost He said your Grace did so Sometimes I answered there might be just cause but I thought you did not so ordinarily As for those Men Mr. Whiskins and the rest I never heard any of them preach to this day Peradventure their manner is to take larger Texts whereupon the Comparison is made as if I preferred them before you This Slander did not much trouble me I know your Grace will not think me such a Fool if I had no fear of God to prefer before your excellent Gifts Men that I never heard But look as the French Proverb is He that is disposed to kill his Dog tells Men he is mad And whom Men have once wronged unless the Grace of God be the more they ever hate Concerning the wrongs which these People have offered me I shall take another fit time to inform your Grace Where they say your Grace doth find your self deceived in me I think it may be the truest word they have said yet for indeed I do think both you and many more are deceived in me accounting me to have some Honesty Discretion and Grace more than you will by proof find But if as it seems to me that Form hath this meaning that they pretend to have undeceived you I hope they are deceived Yea I hope they shall be deceived if by such Courses as these they think to unsettle me and the Devil himself also if he think to dismay me I will go on in the strength of the Lord God and remember his Righteousness even his alone as by that Reverend and good Father my-Lord of Canterbury when I first came over I was exhorted and have obtained help of God to do unto this day But had I not work enough before but I must bring Mr. Cook upon my top one that for his Experience Purse Friends in a case already adjudged wherein he is ingaged not only for his profit but reputation also will easily no doubt overturn me How much better to study to be quiet and to do mine own Business or as I think Stampitius was wont to bid Luther go into my Study and Pray My Lord all these things came to my mind and at the first I came with a resolution to take heed to my self and if I could to teach others moderation and forbearance by mine own Example But I could not be quiet nor without pity hear the Complaints of those that resorted to me some of them of mine own Neighbours and Tenants called into the Court commonly by information of Apparators holden there without just Cause and not dismissed without excessive Fees aâ— they exclaimed Lastly One Mr. Mayot a Minister of the Diocess of Ardagh made a Complaint to me that he was Excommunicated by Mr. Cook notwithstanding as I heard also by others the Correction of Ministers was excepted out of his Patent Whereupon I desired to see the Patent and to have a Copy of it that I might know how to govern my self He said Mr. Ash being then from home should bring it me at his return Himself went to Dublin to the Term. At the first view I saw it was a formless Chaös of Authority conferred upon him against all reason and equity I had not long after occasion to call the Chapter together at the time of Ordination I shewed the Original being brought forth by Mr. Ash desired to know if that were the Chapter-Seal and these their hands they acknowledged their Hands and Seal and said they
of our Church contained in our Articles and Homilies Innovators are too much favoured now a-days Our Vice-Chancellor hath carried Business for Matter of Religion both stoutly and discreetly Dr. Lane died on Sunday last and was buried in the night upon Tuesday in St. John's Colledg It may be you are willing to hear of our University Affairs I may truly say I never knew them in worse condition since I was a Member thereof which is almost 46 years Not but that I hope the greater part is Orthodox but that new Heads are brought in and they are backed in maintaining Novelties and them which broach new Opinions as I doubt not but you hear others are disgraced and checked when they come above as my self was by my Lord of York the last Lent for favouring Puritans in Consistory and all from false Informations from hence which are believed without any examination At that time also I intreated my Lord of Canterbury to speak to the Dean of Wells that now is who had sundry times excepted against me for not residing three months per Annum as I should by Charter which I nothing doubt but it was by his instigation he promised me then he would but not having done it yet I repaired again to my Lord's Grace about it in November But now he cannot for that his Majesty hath given him in charge to take account of the Bishops in his Province how Residence is kept I told him my Case was not every Man's Case and that I had a Benefice at which I desired to be in the Vacation-Time but nothing would prevail And yet as I told him I am every Year at Wells sometimes a month or six weeks I think they would have me out of my Professor's place and I could wish the same if I could have one to succeed according to my mind for then I should have leasure to transcribe things Well howsoever God's Will be done and he teach us Humility and Patience I heard also of some doings with you The Lord of Heaven direct you and us and teach us to submit to him in all things I have not yet sent my Answer to Mr. Ch. but intend e're long I have not finished yet one Point to shew the Arminian Opinions were condemned in the Synods which condemned the Pelagian Heresy At Mr. Burnet's importunity who could not get a good Scrivener to transcribe my Lord of Sarum's Readings de Praedestinatione morte Christi I gave way that he should send it to you which I intreat your Lordship if you have received it to return it me as soon and as safely as you conveniently can The Tractate de Praedestinatianis in defence of your Lordship I know not your Adversary nor his Name is Dr. Twisses it may be he hath sent your Lordship a Copy of it He is a deserving Man We have a Vice-Chancellor that favoureth Novelties both in Rites and Doctrines I could write more sed manum de Tabula The greatest part of this was inclosed in the Letter your Lordship had sent Jan. 14. I made now a few additions And so I rest Your Grace's in all observance Samuel Ward Sidn Coll. Jun. 14. 1634. Dr. Baden a Dean with you in Ireland answereth the Act In Vesperiis Comitiórum His Questions are 1. Justificatio non suscipit magis minus 2. Non dantur Consilia perfectionis supra legem LETTER CLXXX A Letter from Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Illustrissimo Primati D. Jacobo Usserio Archiepiscopo Armachano Hyberniae Primati I. V. S. P. Vir Reverende EST quod mihi admodum gratuler qui cum antea viro illustri nonnisi de nomine innotuissem tamen quod in votis habebam audacter petiissem tantam evestigio nactus sim benevolentiam ut illustris tua dignitas expetitum commentariorum in sacras literas volumen Syriacum transmittere gravata non fuerit Dabitur Deo favente opera ut fideliter in Hyberniam transmittatur ubi usus fuero In veteri Testamento spei meae non respondet licet subinde notatur digna animad vertam Ad textum Syriacum commentaria accommodata sunt non verò quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suadebat consultus fuit Ebraicus Imo quantum adhuc videre possum Syriacus quo usus fuit contextus è Graeco expressus fuit ideoque saepe aliter legit author quam in Ebraeo extat Aliquando etiam verba de industria secus collocat quam invenit Graecae Linguae peritiam prae se fert in Syriaca nimis anxiè quae ad vocales spectant persequitur Occidentalem Syrum fuisse id est viciniorem Mari Mediterraneo ostendit quod sect 28. Usa annotat Tandem hoc observo ut omnia conglomerem quae è lectione in mentem veniunt non satis ad messam applicare quae ad ipsum passim directa fuere Nihilominus pro usu istius libri gratias habeo maximas inprimis cum praeclara annotentur in Testamentum Novum Quae in c. 1. Matt. observata sunt evolvi placent admodum Caeterum est in illustris D. T. Bibliotheca uti intelligo versio Syriaca duplex V. T. patruus autem meus D. Antonius Thysius paratum habet commentarium in duo priora cap. Genes ubi Historiam creationis illustrat cui praemittere statuit versiones primarias Ideoque summa diligentia è variis autoribus Symmachi Theodotionis Aquilae c. interpretamenta ita collegit ut continuum contextum reddant Itaque valdè sibi gratum fore dicit si versionem Syriacam ab Amanuensi aliquo descriptam obtinere in 2. cap. Gen. posset Hoc vix à me impetro ut subjungam verum fortassis post libri editionem istius consilii se non factum certiorem D. tua aegre ferret ut cui hoc unum cordi sit prodesse publico Hic subsisto Patri D. nostri I. Christi commendo Illustrem tuam dignitatem cujus permanere gestio cliens humillimus Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych Lug. Bat. 3. Kal. Jul. ā partae salutis 1634. LETTER CLXXXI A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord OUR Commencement is now over where Dean Baden now Dr. Baden did well perform his part who answered the Act Vesperiis Comitiorum And so did the Batchelor of Divinity Die Comitiorum being one of the Fellows of our Colledg The Vice-Chancellor Dr. Love did well perform his part especially in encountring with one Franciscus de S. Chara but his true name is Davenport who in a Book set forth at Doway would reconcile si diis placet our Articles of Religion with the Definitions of the Council of Trent But we have dismissed the Auditors this Year with much more content than they were the Year before Our Stirs we had a little before the Commencement are prettily well over There is a little Book intituled
confessed before Baptism I forbear to say any thing of that Regula Fidei in Irenaeus and the like in Tertullian for substance the same and containing expresly those Points which make up the close in the Nicene Creed and which Vossius supposeth to have been added by the Constantinopolitan Fathers What varieties are for matter of expression in the Citations observed out of Ruffin c. I think does not conclude without hard measure against the Antiquity of some publick form Wherein if it were not written we may suppose it capable of more we may be content to bear with some in words so long as they bear up to the same sense considering that the Quotations of those most ancient Writers out of Scripture it self are made with so much liberty and yet no Man doubts but they had a much more certain Rule to go by I am again overtaken by the Time and with the desire of your Lordship's Prayers and the continuance of your Love and Encouragement take leave and rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Gerard Langbaine Queens Coll. May 11. 1647. LETTER CCXVII A Letter from to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My Lord UNderstanding that Dr. Price is going for London I could not omit to recommend him to your Grace if you should meet with any means to encourage his Studies that I can scarce expect or at least to keep him from those Precipices which the straitness of his Fortune and manifold occasions of Discontents may drive him unto I know that it is needless for me to write thus much knowing your good Inclinations to him if things were as in Times past when there were Means and Opportunities to help one another But when I think of the loss of Hugh Cressey and some others whose melancholy Thoughts have blinded their Judgments and disposed them to be easily wrought upon by the other Party to the dishonour of our sometimes most glorious Church when I see how they brag of these Conquests methinks we should leave nothing unattempted that may by any possibility prevent Mens stumblings at those Rocks of Offence which these sad Times cast them upon I find here our Lawyers differ much from the Ecclesiasticks about the Councels of Constance and Basil These go far higher for the Popes Authority than those will give way to The King of France hath as much Authority in Church-Businesses as the King of England claims so far as I can perceive Among the Doctors of the faculty of Divinity of Paris whereof the Sorbon is but a little part here be divers that are not for the Infallibility of the Church but such a certainty of an inferior degree as yet for the Authority of the Church and her Pastors we are all bound to submit unto a Point I think very well gained and of good consequence David Blundell's last Book about Episcopacy is much cried up by those of the Reformed Religion who are generally very sharp against our English Hierarchy upon the Credit of Mr. Pryn and Bastwick's Papers and such like Testimonies I hope your Grace will vindicate your Order in general and in particular the Credit of Ignatius his Epistles against his Exceptions as I hear young Vossius in part hath done but I have not yet seen the Book That which is my great Comfort my young Master is his Fathers Son and peremptorily constant to the Principles wherein he was bred which makes me hope that our Posterity may yet see the Sun shine again I humbly beg your Prayers for My Lord your Grace's most humble Servant T. Rouen May 18 1647. LETTER CCXVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend Joseph Hall Bp of Norwich to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh GRatulor vero ex animo te Antistitum decus Sancto Ignatio tuo Gratulor tibi imò universo orbi Christiano Ignatium meritissimò tuum sed quidem tuo benificio nostrum Gratiorem profecto operam navare Dei Ecclesiae nullus unquam potuisset quam tantum tam antiquum sanctumque Apostolicae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patronum ac tam egregium primaevae pietatis exemplar ab injuria temporis vindicando Inciderat nempe bonus iste viator Hierosolymitanus in Latrones quosdam Hierochuntinos qui illum non spoliârant modò sed misere etiam penèque ad mortem vulnerârant praeterierant saucium ac fere moribundum nescio quot Parkeri Coci Salmasii aliique nuperae sectae coryphaei vestra vero molliora uti sunt viscera tam durâ hominis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorte miserecorditer commota sunt vestra unius pietatis optimi instar Samaritae vinum oleumque infudit tam patentibus vulneribus abstersit saniem foedèque hiulca plagarum ora manu tenerâ fasciavit ferèque exanimem vestro typorum jumento imposuit ac communi denique Ecclesiae hospitio non sine maximis impensis commendavit Profecto hoc uno nomine assurgent Amplitudini tuae boni quotquot sunt omnes manusque tam salutares piis labiis exosculabuntur Intelligent jam novitiae paritatis assertores quid illud sit quod tanto molimine usque machinantur sentientque quam probe illis cum sanctissimo Martyre ac celeberrimo Apostolorum Discipulo conveniat Illud vero inter doctissimas Annotationes vestras saliente corde oculo legisse me fateor quo egregium illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salmasianum de tempore suppositicii Ignatii leni illa quidem sed castigatrice manu corripueris Fieri ne potuit ut tantus author in re tanti momenti Chronologicâ tam foede laberetur aut num forte hoc pacto quandoquidem haec causae disciplinariae Arx merito habeatur Dominis suis palpum obtrudere maluit Quicquid sit bis Martyrium passus Ignatius noster tuâ demum operâ Praesul honoratissime reviviscit causamque iniquissime jam abdicatae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ecclesiae totius foro tam cate agit ut non pudere non possit hesternae Disciplinae astipulatores tam malè-suscepti litis injustae patrocinii Quod si nullum aliud foret nostrae sententiae propugnaculum nobis quidem abundè sufficeret habuisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostrae veritatis patronos te Ignatium Vale Primatum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae laboranti precibus operis quod facis subvenire perge fave Cultori tuo ac maloru tuorum Socio praeconi meritorum Jos. Norvicensi E Tuguriolo nostro Highamensi Maii 25 o 1647. LETTER CCXIX. A Letter from Mr. Patrick Young to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend and my very good Lord HItherto being disappointed by the Carrier who brought my Trunck hither so late I have been hindred to satisfie your Lordship touching the Passage Psal. 142. 9. which I find in my Roman Edition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any variety in the Margin and consequently so in the ancient Manuscript Copy I long to see your