and Physick and attend only to the ordering of one poor Colledg of Divines whereas with a little more labour and a few Priviledges attained a great many more good Wits might have been allured to study and seasoned with Piety and made Instruments for the bringing in Learning Civility and Religion into that Country I did communicate the Plat to my Lord of Canterbury at my first being with him especially in that Point of admitting all Students that should be matriculated though they lodg in Dublin in private Houses and of the four Faculties with their several Promoters c. who seemed not to dislike it but required it should be maturely thought of by your Grace and the University and promised his assistance if it were found fit At that time I left with him the Statutes of our Colledg which I had this Winter written out with mine own hand and caused to be fair bound He retained them with him till the very morning of my departing from London At which time he signified his good approbation of the whole only accounted that too strait for the Provost's absence but six weeks whereas many Causes there would be which would require longer discontinuance I shewed his Grace that Colledg-Business was excepted and that we had not innovated any thing in that Statute it being so before my Election Another Point he disliked was touching Students wearing Gowns always in the Colledg and if it might be when they went into the Town Whereas that of all other said he would have been provided for I answereth The Streets in Dublin were very foul and that by the Statutes Scholars were not permitted to go ordinarily into the Town without their Tutors consent He said they might if the Streets were never so foul take their Gowns under their Arms. I told him that this was also an old Statute e're I came there With the occasion I told his Grace of the new Stirs I heard of in the Colledg for even but the day before I had understood by other Mens Letters more perfectly of my Lord Deputy's putting in certain Fellows and of their displacing of Mr. Lloyd by your Grace and the Visitors whereof I had no intelligence till then save by Rumors only I added of mine own fears that I should make a very ill Pilot in so rough Seas He perswaded me to go on using that Verse Tu ne cede malis c. I told him of my deafness and that the Law not allowing surdum procuratorem how could it be but absurd in the Provost of such a Society He told me that was not so great a matter for a great many did male andire He bad me not be dismayed representing to me the future Reward I told him indeed if that were not I had little eneouragement sith neither I should for ought I saw have the Maintenance for the Lecture which I was put in hope of nor retain the Title of my Benefice only renouncing the Profits To that he said there was no question I might that I had not beneficium and he would maintain it to any Man c. With these Discourses having brought his Grace from his Chamber to his Barge I recommended my self to his Prayers The same morning e're my departure I wrote to Dublin amongst others to Mr. Lloyd endeavouring to let him see his Fault and to keep him from being hardned in it At my return home I found one of my Sons yet afflicted with an Ague which hath held him these six weeks and the Ways being not yet fit for travel the Spring having been very late and winterly I have resolved to attend your Grace's Letters both in answer to my Case propounded in my Letters of September and of my last from London wherein I did put my place there wholly in your disposition and if you think it may be more to the good of the Colledg and Church there that I forgo it did and do again by these Presents absolutely resign it into your hands or the hands of them whom it may concern Your Grace may be pleased to consider seriously my insufficiency which by my last being there partly by your own experience and the report of others you may have understood to be more than perhaps you imagined before And by these new Accidents you may perceive the need the Colledg hath of a more able Head I have ever liked and loved to proceed by that good old Form Ut inter bonos bene ageir c. I have seen it written from thence that you and other wise Men account me a weak Man and in truth I do know my self so to be Do not the Colledg that wrong to clog it with me hitherto iâ— hath received no great damage and these new Broils may serve fitly as a good occasion to cover my defectiveness I may without any disgrace and with much content fit still That which Annibal when in the Common-Council at Carthage he plâ—cked down a turbulent Orator that stood up to disswade a necessary Peace said to excuse his uncivility That the Feats of War he had meetly learned but the Fashions of the City he was to be taught by them I would crave leave to invert the Arâ— of dutiful Obedience and just ruling also in part I did for 17 years endeavour to learn under that good Father Dr. Chaderton in a well temper'd Society the câ—â—nning tricks of paching siding bandying and 〈◊〉 with and between great Men I confess my self ignorant in and am now I fear too old to be taught And me thinks the Society it self like to the Frogs in the Tale weary of the Block set over them esteem the neither worthy to be acquainted with the Colledg-Affairs nor so much as answered in mine own and wherein they do extreamly wrong not me only but your Grace also as I verily believe do keep your Letters from me I wish them a more active Governor Concluding I be send your Grace vouchsafe me your last resolution for my coming or stay and esteem 〈◊〉 as you shall ever truly Your Grace's humble Servant in Christ Jesus W. Bedell Horningerth April the 15th 1628. LETTER CXXVII A Letter from Dr. Samuel Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Tredagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord THough I must needs acknowledg my neglect in writing or forgetfulness or both since your last going into Ireland yet now I could have no further pretext for the omission of that Duty by which I am obliged by no few Bonds especially having such conveniency of sending by my most worthy Friend with whom I am most loth to part but that upon higher considerations I conceive God may use him as an Instrument of much good in that place if God send him health and life I assure your Lordship I know not where you could have pitched upon a Man every way so qualified for such a place He is a sincere honest Man not tainted with avarsee of ambition pious
I would fain have you know that I neither came then nor now do come unto you in any confidence of any Learning that is in me in which respect notwithstanding I thank God I am what I am but I come in the Name of the Lord of Hosts whose Companies you have reproached being certainly perswaded that even out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings he was able to shew forth his own Praises for the further manifestation whereof I do again earnestly request you that setting aside all vain comparisons of Persons we may go plainly forward in examining the matters that rest in controversie between us otherwise I hope you will not be displeased if as for your part you have begun so I also for my own part may be bold for the clearing of my self and the truth which I profess freely to make known what hath already passed concerning this matter Thus intreating you in a few lines to make known unto me your purpose in this behalf I end praying the Lord that both this and all other enterprises that we take in hand may be so ordered as may most make for the advancement of his own Glory and the Kingdom of his Son Jesus Christ. Tuus ad Aras usque James Usher No answer to this Letter nor any further conference can I find but this the Jesuite confessed after he got out viz. Prodiit quidam octodenarius praecocis sapientiae juvenis de abstrusisimis rebus Theologicis cum adhuc Philosophica studia vix emensus nec ex Ephebis egressus c. In English to this effect There came to me once a youth of about 18 years of age of a ripe Wit when scarce as you would think gon through his course of Philosophy or got out of his Childhood yet ready to dispute on the most abstruse points of Divinity But afterwards the same Jesuite living to understand him better calls him Acatholicorum doctissimus a tender expression from a Jesuite he does not say of Hereticks but of the Not Catholicks most Learned Anno Dom. 1600. Being now twenty years old and having lived in the Colledge seven years from his first admission he took the degree of Master of Arts and the same year he was chosen Catechist Reader in the Colledge in which office and imployment he treated of the pure Principles of the Christian Religion in Faith and Practice as professed and maintained by the Reformed Churches in opposition to the Errors and Innovations which had mixed themselves with Primitive Christianity and sifting the Wheat from the Tares He did so learnedly and plainly discharge that Exercise to the satisfaction of his then Auditors that he was much importuned to appear and Preach in publick which was as himself then thought very much above his years to enter on so weighty a charge But not being able to withstand the importunity of his Friends and the commands of Superiors he yielded though with some reluctance so that being thought fit for the Ministry in the twenty first year of his age he was accordingly Ordained Deacon and Priest by his Uncle Henry Usher then Arch-Bishop of Armagh with the assistance of others of the Clergy Anno 1601 which though uncanonical yet his own extraordinary merit and the necessity which the Church then had of such a Labourer rendred a dispensation in that case very tolerable if not necessary And being not long after appointed to Preach constantly before the State at Christ-Church in Dublin on Sundays in the afternoon he made it his business to treat of the chief points in controversie between the Romish Church and Ours In which Discourses he was so clear powerful and convincing that he thereby setled many that were wavering and converted divers from that Superstitious perswasion to the Church of England And now this young but grave Divine applies himself to the study of gaining Souls as the main end and design of his Ministry and this he continued through the whole course of his life and was exceeding successful in it The first Text he preached on Publickly before the State presently after his Ordination was Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead which fell out to be the day of the Battle of Kinsale and was especially set apart to pray for the good success of that Engagement which God was pleased to answer with a noble Victory And it must be here remembred That in the year 1601 after that the Irish Papists many of them in and about Dublin and some other parts of the Kingdom had seemingly submitted to the Laws and came frequently to our Churches yet there were still very many of the Irish that kept their distance from the English and stuck to their old Principles and earnestly solicited for a Toleration or at least a Connivance to use their own way of Worship which this zealous Divine believed to be Superstitious and Idolatrous And fearing lest a Connivance might be granted to them and so a lukewarm indifferency to Religion might seize on the Protestants themselves This pious young man was deeply touched with the sense of the evil of such an Indulgence and dangerous Consequence of allowing liberty to that sort of People to exercise a Religion so contrary to the truth and fearing that the introducing of that Religion tended to the disturbance of the Government in Church and State on which occasion this newly Ordained Servant of God then Preached a very remarkable Sermon before the same Audience on a great Solemnity and did not dissemble but freely gave his Opinion in reference to a Toleration And this he did from that of Ezekiel's Vision concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and that Nation Ezek. 4. 6. And thou shalt bear the iniquity of the House of Judah forty days I have appointed thee each day for a year He made then this his conjecture in reference to Ireland viz. From this year I reckon forty years and then those whom you now imbrace shall be your ruine and you shall bear their iniquity This then uttered by him in his Sermon seemed only to be the present thoughts of a young man who was no friend to Popery but afterwards when it came to pass at the expiration of forty years that is from 1601. to 1641. when the Irish Rebellion broke out and that they had murthered and slain so many thousands of Protestants and harassed the whole Nation by a bloody War then those who lived to see that day began to think he was a young Prophet year 1603 Neither must it be forgotten that after the English Forces had beaten and driven out the Spaniards who then came to the assistance of the Irish at Kinsale that Army resolved to do some worthy act that might be a lasting memorial of the gallantry of Military men and that due respect which they had for true Religion and Learning To promote which they raised among themselves the Sum of 1800 l. to buy Books to furnish the Library of the University
the Peritonaeum somewhat below the Diaphragma so that I have heard him say he never felt his heart beat in the most Exercise and the Chyrurgeon said That had it not belonged to the Body of a Person of his Eminency he would have taken it out and preserved it as a rarity which he had never found or heard of in any other Body besides and therefore the quickness of his Digestion considered it was no wonder if he bred blood so fast as he did so that he used to have frequent Evacuations thereof from the Veins on one side of his Tongue but more usually in some lower parts of his Body to the stopage of which for some time before his death may very well be ascribed that Distemper which was the cause of it As for his natural temper and disposition he was of a free and easie humour not morose proud or imperious but courteous and affable and extremely obliging towards all he convers'd with and though he could be angry and rebuke sharply when he ought that is when Religion or Vertue were concerned yet he was not easily provoked to passion rarely for smaller matters such as the neglects of Servants or worldly disappointments He was of so sweet a nature that I never heard he did an injury or ill Office to any man or revenged any of those that had been done to him but could readily forgive them as our blessed Lord and Master enjoyns Nor envyed he any man's happiness or vilified any man's Person or Parts nor was he apt to Censure or Condemn any man upon bare reports but observed that rule of the Son of Syrach Blame not before thou hast examined the Truth understand first and then rebuke His natural endowments were so various and so great as seldom are to be met with in one man viz. a Fertile Invention a Tenacious Memory with a Solid and Well-weigh'd Judgment whereby he was always from a young man presently furnished for any Exercise he was put upon which lay within the compass of those studies he had applied himself to so that in short that Character given of St. Augustin might be very well applied to him viz. Insignis erat sanctissimi praesulis mansuetudo ac miranda animi lenitas quaedam invincibilis clementia Linguam habebat ab omni petulantia convitiis puram Ingenii felicitas prorsus erat incomparabilis sive spectes ingenii acumen vel obscurissima facile penetrans sive capacis memoriae fidem sive vim quandam Mentis indefatigabilem c. But that which is above all he was endowed with that Wisdom from above Which is Pure Peaceable Gentle easie to be Intreated full of Mercy and good Fruits without Partiality and without Hypocrisie No man could charge him of Pride Injustice Covetousness or any other known Vice he did nothing mis-becoming a prudent or a good man and he was so Beneficent to the Poor that when he was in prosperity besides the large Alms with which he daily fed the attendants at his door he gave a great deal away in money keeping many of the Irish poor Children at School and allowing several Stipends to necessitous Scholars at the University not to mention other Objects which he still found out on whom to bestow his Charity And after the Irish Rebellion when he himself was in a manner bereft of all it is incredible to think how liberal he was to poor Ministers or their Widows and others that had been undone by that wicked Insurrection and I scarce ever knew he refused an Alms to any person whom he believed to be really in want insomuch that I have heard this passage from his Servant who then waited on him That once at London when he was out of the way there was brought to my Lord a poor Irish Woman pretending great necessity but he being either somewhat displeased to be called off from his Study upon which he was then very intent or perhaps he might not have at that time much to spare told her in short He was not able to relieve all that came to him upon that account if he did he should soon have nothing left for himself which this poor Woman was so far from taking ill that she went away praying for him which he immediately reflecting was much concerned at for fear he should have neglected his duty when a fit Object of Charity was offered him wherefore he presently commanded some of my Lady's Servants to run after her and if possible overtake her and bring her back but they could not light of her So when his Servant returned home he told him this accident with great concern ordering him to go the next day to some places where such people used to resort to inquire out such a Woman whom he described as exactly as he could to him which orders his man obeyed though without success At which his Lord was much troubled and could she have been found no question but she would have been very well rewarded for her being sent away empty the day before by him Yet notwithstanding all these Vertues none was more humble and free from vain glory than this person who was endowed with them so that what high esteem soever others might have of him he never put any value on himself but was little in his own thoughts and would often bewail his own infirmities and the want of those Graces he thought he saw in others and which he most earnestly desired He was so great a lover of real Piety that he thought no other accomplishments worth speaking of without it and he heartily loved and respected all humble devout Christians and would always say they were God's Jewels highly to be valued and with these though of the meanest condition he would gladly discourse speaking kindly to them causing them to sit down by him and if they were bashful he would encourge them to speak their minds freely in any words that might best express their love to God and the State of their Souls and he was so skilful a Physician in Spiritual matters that he could readily perceive every man's case and necessities and would apply suitable remedies thereunto if wavering to settle them if doubting to resolve them if sad to comfort them if fallen into a fault to restore them administering means to prevent the like Temptations nor did he neglect any opportunities by good advice and admonitions to reclaim those that were corrupted with Errors or Vices So that in all his discourses as well publick as private he still endeavoured to bring Religion into reputation and to make sin and a wicked course of life odious shameful and destructive to the Souls and Bodies of men And he would press this point with such a concerned earnestness that one would have believed those to whom he then applied himself must needs resolve not to love sin any longer And on the other side he would so magnifie the happiness and excellencies of a Vertuous and Pious Life
and his Epistle to Lud. Capellus concerning the various readings of the Hebrew Text speak him a great Critick in the Greek and Hebrew Tongues and his Annals of the Old and New Testament do shew how great a Master he was in all the Ancient Authors both Sacred and Prophane besides several other smaller Treatises as well in Latin as English viz. Of the Macedonian Year the Geographical Description of the lesser Asia c. each of which shew his great skill either in Astronomy ancient Geography or the Civil Laws of the Roman Empire besides divers other smaller Works of his too many to be here particularly inserted and therefore I shall refer the Reader to the Catalogue added at the end of this Account Yet must I not omit particularly to take notice of two excellent Posthumous Treatises of his which have not been yet mentioned as being published since his death the first is that of the Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject which was written by the King's Command during the late Wars but forborn then to be published because the corruption of those Times still growing worse and worse would not bear this sound Doctrine nor did he think it proper to do it in the short time of that Usurper lest he or others might have interpreted it to his advantage but not long after his late Majesty's happy Restauration it was Published and Dedicated to him by the Lord Primate's Grandson James Tyrrel with an excellent Preface written by that learned and good Bishop Sanderson in which he has given as true a Character of the Author as of the work it self in which he says with a great deal of truth That there is nothing which can be brought either from the Holy Scriptures Fathers Philosophers common Reason and the Laws and Statutes of this Realm to prove it altogether unlawful for Subjects to take up Arms against their Sovereign Prince but is there made use of with the greatest advantage The other Treatise is written in Latin entitled Chronologia Sacra which the Lord Primate never lived to finish but was as much of it as could be found though somewhat imperfectly published by the Learned and Reverend Dr. Barlow now Lord Bishop of Lincoln The occasion and design of this Treatise was to prove the Foundations of the accounts of time in his Annals and that his Chronological Calculations made use of in that work agreed with the accounts laid down in the Scriptures and Prophane Authors which could not be done in the Annals themselves without interrupting the Series of the Work In this he hath solved several difficulties relating to the History and Chronology of the Bible he began with the Creation though the first Chapter is lost being not to be found among his Papers yet in the next he gives an exact account of the differences between the Jewish Samaritan and Greek Calculations from the Creation to the Birth of Abraham which he carried on as far as the time of the Judges but was then interrupted by death Yet he had before happily perfected the account of the Reigns and Synchronisms of the Kings of Judah and Israel from Saul to the Babylonish Captivity which being more perfect than the other part was thought fit by the Printer or Publisher to be set before it though it be indeed contrary to the order of time It was great pity that my Lord did not live to finish this work which would have been of excellent use for the clearing of many difficulties and reconciling the differences between the Sacred and Prophane Chronology and History I may here likewise take notice of those many Volumes of his Collections and several of them all of his own hand on particular subjects both Theological Philological and Historical most of them extracted out of several Manuscripts in the Libraries of the Universities Cathedrals and private mens Studies there being scarce a choice Book or Manuscript in any of them but was known to him nor was he conversant in the Libraries of our own Nation alone but also knew most of the choice pieces in the Vatican Escurial and Imperial Library at Vienna as likewise in that of the King of France of Thuanus at Paris and Erpenius in Holland as still appears by the Catalogues he had procured of them divers of which I have now in my Custody and out of which Libraries he at his great cost procured divers Copies for his own use which made the most considerable Ornament of his Study But to return to his own Collections above mentioned which were the Store-Houses and Repositories from whence he furnished himself with materials for the writing of so many learned Treatises and out of which might be gathered matter towards the performing much more in the same kind though divers Volumes of them were borrowed by Dr. Bernard and never restored by him as I have already said Yet those that remain are thought very considerable by the several Learned men who have perused them and in particular the late judicious Lord Chief Justice Hale having borrowed several of them did out of them Transcribe those four Volumes which he bequeaths in his Will to the Library at Lincolns-Inn among divers other Manuscripts of his by the name of His Extracts out of the Lord Primate's Collections And for the satisfaction of the Reader I shall give you the Heads and Subjects of some of the most considerable of them at the end of this account So that the Lord Primate was like the wise Housholder in the Gospel who brought out of his Treasure things New and Old And a Learned man of this Nation compared the Arch-Bishop of Armagh not only to a careful Surveyor who collects all sorts of materials for his building before he begins his work but also to a skilful Architect who knew Artificially how to frame and put together the materials before Collected till they became one strong entire and uniform Structure Nor does any thing more express the great strength of the Lord Primate's memory than those Collections which though promiscuously gathered by way of Adversaria according as those Subjects offered themselves yet could he as readily call to mind and find out any particular in them which he had occasion to make use of as if they had been digested in the more exact method of a Common-place-Book So that he certainly deserved a much higher Character than that Dr. Heylin Sarcastically puts upon him Of a walking Concordance and living Library as if he had been only an Index for such wise men as himself to make use of but greater Scholars than he had far higher and more Reverend thoughts of him there being scarce a Learned Writer of this present Age who does not mention his great Piety Learning and Judgment with honour and veneration I had once collected a great many Elogies of this kind from the Writings of divers considerable Authors but since I find that done already by others and that it would swell this work
of that Chapter which I had undertaken to answer as a principal motive of his Conversion to them which he hath added to the Oration of the motives to his Conversion I suppose you have seen the Book Now having been lately chosen upon my Lord of Sarum his promotion to be Reader of the Margaret Lecture in our University Lam advised by my good friends and namely the Lords Bishops of Wells and Sarum to read those Controversies mentioned in that Chapter And upon more mature advice have resolved to set down positively the Fathers Doctrine not barely by Thesis but with their several proofs and the Vindication of them from the Adversaries cavils I will be bold to communicate with you the special difficulties which I shall observe if it be not troublesome unto your Lordship In the first Controversie touching the Real Presence they except against the testimony produced by P. Martyr of Chrysostom ad Caesarium Monachum I have heard your Lordship say it is alledged by Leontius but by what Leontius and where I remember not I cannot find it in such Tractates of Leontius as I find in Bibliotheca Patrum I desire your Lordship in a word to certifie me It seemeth P. Martyr read it in Latin for otherwise it is probable he would have alledged the Greek Text if originally he had it out of the Greek I suppose your Lordship hath seen the third Tome of Spalatensis containing his VII and IX Book I fear me he may do some harm with the Treatise which he hath lib. 7. c. 11. touching the matter of Predestination wherein he goeth about to shew That both Opinions may be Tolerated both that of St. Austin's which makes Predestination to be gratuita and that other which maketh Predestination to be Ex proevisis fide operibus But chiefly he goeth about to invalidate St. Austin's Opinion It will confirm the Remonstrants in their Error for he hath said more than any of them but all in vain for doubtless St. Austin's Opinion is the truth and no doubt but it is special Grace which doth distinguish Peter from Judas and not solum liberum arbitrium It is great pity the man was so carried away with Ambition and Avarice otherwise I think he is not inferior to Bellarmine for the Controversies I write this Letter upon my way being at Sarum where my Lord Bishop of Sarum doth salute you I cannot now dilate further but with my best service and wishes commend your Lordship to the Highest Majesty and so rest Your Lordships in all service Samuel Ward Sarum Sept. 25. 1622. I intreat your Lordship that I may know where Leontius doth alledge that Tractate of Chrysostom LETTER LI. A Letter from the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to the Right Honourable Oliver Lord Grandison My very good Lord I Had purposed with my self long ere now to have seen your Honour in England which was one reason among others why I did forbear to trouble you hitherto with any Letters But seeing I think now it will fall out that I shall remain here this Winter I thought it my duty both to tender my thankfulness unto your Lordship for all the honourable favours which I have received at your hands and withal to acquaint you with a certain particular which partly doth concern my self and in some sort also the state of the Church in this poor Nation The day that my Lord of Falkland received the Sword I preached at Christ-Church and fitting my self to the present occasion took for my Text those words in the 13th to the Romans He beareth not the Sword in vain There I shewed 1. What was meant by this Sword 2. The Subject wherein that power rested 3. The matters wherein it was exercised 4. Thereupon what it was to bear the Sword in vain Whereupon falling upon the Duty of the Magistrate in seeing those Laws executed that were made for the furtherance of God's Service I first declared That no more was to be expected herein from the subordinate Magistrate than he had received in Commission from the Supreme in whose power it lay to limit the other at his pleasure Secondly I wished That if his Majesty who is under God our Supreme Governour were pleased to extend his clemency toward his Subjects that were Recusants some order notwithstanding might be taken with them that they should not give us publick affronts and take possession of our Churches before our Faces And that it might appear that it was not without cause that I made this motion I instanced in two particulars that had lately fallen out in mine own Diocess The one certified unto me by Mr. John Ankers Preacher of Athloane a man well known unto your Lordship who wrote unto me That going to read Prayers at Kilkenny in West-Meath he found an old Priest and about 40 with him in the Church who was so bold as to require him the said Ankers to depart until he had done his business The other concerning the Friars who not content to possess the House of Multifernan alone whence your Lordship had dislodged them went about to make Collections for the re-edifying of another Abby near Molengarre for the entertaining of another swarm of Locusts These things I touched only in general not mentioning any circumstances of Persons or Places Thirdly I did intreat That whatsoever connivance were used unto others the Laws might be strictly executed against such as revolted from us that we might at least-wise keep our own and not suffer them without all fear to fall away from us Lastly I made a publick Protestation That it was far from my mind to excite the Magistrate unto any violent courses against them as one that naturally did abhor all cruel dealings and wished that effusion of blood might be held rather the Badge of the Whore of Babylon than of the Church of God These points howsoever they were delivered by me with such limitations as in moderate mens judgments might seem rather to intimate an allowance of a Toleration in respect of the general than to exasperate the State unto any extraordinary severity yet did the Popish Priests perswade their followers that I had said The Sword had rusted too long in the Sheath whereas in my whole Sermon I never made mention either of Rust or Sheath yea some also did not stick to give out That I did thereby closely tax your self for being too remiss in prosecuting of the Papists in the time of your Government I have not such diffidence in your Lordships good opinion of me neither will I wrong my self so much as to spend time in refelling so lewd a calumniation Only I thought good to mention these things unto your Lordship that if any occasion should be offered hereafter to speak of them you might be informed in the truth of matters Wherein if I have been too troublesome unto you I humbly crave pardon and rest Your Honours in all Duty ever ready to be commanded Jac.
this time a kind of a general combination to be made for the disgrace and keeping down of our Ministers What that particular is which your Grace doth mention in the beginning of your Letter I do not yet understand John Forth having not as yet sent any Letter unto me But whatsoever it is I will not fail God willing to be present at the Assizes in Trim and both in that particular and in all other things wherein your Grace shall be pleased to employ me to follow your directions as one who desireth always to be accounted Your Graces ready to do you all service Ja. Midensis Pinglass August 6. 1623. LETTER LX. A Letter from the Most Reverend the Arch-Bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem in Christo. UPon Sunday last as I was going to Bed a Pacquet was brought unto me from my Lord Deputy with the Advertisements of all that passed at White-Hall the 20th of July But by good hap I received advice from my Lord Grandison five days before of the King 's noble profession in a Speech used to his Judges That as he had so he would still maintain the Religion Established in the Church of England and would never give way to the contrary Only he wished the Judges to proceed in the execution of Laws with temperance and fitting moderation Seeing it hath pleased God whose Councils may be secret but not unjust to exercise us with this mixture let us remember how dangerous it is to provoke Princes with too much animosity and what hazard Chrysostom brought to Religion that way The Gospel is not supported with wilfulness but by patience and obedience And if your Lordship light upon petulant and seditious Libels too frequent now-a-days as report goeth I beseech you to repress them and advise our Brethren to the like care So I commend you to God resting Your Lordships very loving Brother Armagh August 12. 1623. LETTER LXI A Letter from Dr. Ryves to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Right Reverend and my very good Lord I Have now too long time forborn to write unto your Lordship the cause whereof hath been for that we have here lived in suspense our selves of what would ensue of our Noble Prince his Journey into Spain neither durst I write you any thing for certain because I was ever in fear of a contrary report before my Letter could come unto you and as for Uncertainties they were not worth the writing But now at the last thanks be to our good God we have our Prince again he came to London on Monday Morning last being the 6th of this present at Eight of the Clock in the Morning it was my hap to be at Lambeth at that time with my Lord of Canterbury and whilst I was there the Prince came to Lambeth Stairs where his Grace received him and kissed his Hand and from thence in his Graces Barge went to York-House where he brake his Fast and presently went away to Royston where the King then was and is News of his lodging that Night at Guilford came to his Grace of Canterbury that Morning at Three of the Clock and presently all London rang with Bells and flamed with Bonfires and resounded all over with such Shouts as is not well possible to express The day without bidding was kept festival by every Man whereof because I took such pleasure in seeing it I conceive your Lordship will also take some pleasure in hearing the Relation As for the Match Rumor in ambiguo est pars invenit utraque causas some say it will be a Match others that it will not and each part thinks he hath reason for what he says but nothing is yet known that may be reported for a certainty As for my self hanging otherwise in equal Ballance between the two Opinions your divining Spirit is always obversant before mine eyes and sways me to believe as I hope that it will please God to dispose of our Prince's Affections for the greater benefit of his Church and our State It hath happly ere this came to your Lordship's Ears that I was not long since commanded to attend my Lord Chichester into Germany after a while that Negotiation was hung up upon the Nail in expectance of the Princes return and now we look to hear of a new Summons but nothing is done as yet therein And even so my good Lord humbly desiring your good Prayers to God for me in all my honest Endeavours I take leave and rest Your Lordship 's in all Service to be commanded F. Ryves From my House near the Doctors-Commons this 8th of October 1623. POSTSCRIPT MY good Lord no Man doubts but that the Prince went a good Protestant out of England but it 's as certain thanks be given to God for it that he is returned out of Spain tenfold more confirm'd in ours more obdurate against their Religion than ever he was before So is the Duke of Buckingham in so much that upon his Letters to his Dutchess out of Spain she went also publickly to her Parish-Church at St. Martins the Sunday before Michaelmas-day and on Michaelmas-day it self and so continueth Moreover what is befallen to the Prince himself and to the Duke the same is befallen to all the rest of his Company they all return more resolv'd Protestants than ever being thorowly perswaded ex evidentia facti that Popery is Idolatry if ever any were F. R. LETTER LXII A Letter from Sir H. Bourgchier to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath Salutem à D. N. Iesu Christo. Most Reverend in Christ I Hope you will impute my long silence to your long expected and much wished repair hither which you seemed in your last kind Letter to intend before this time I trust that your Stay proceeds not from want of Health but some other occasion which I shall most gladly understand We are here full of business but all in Treaty and so little concluded that I know not what to deliver for Truth to my Friends Here hath been a great Conventicle of Embassadors which is now dissolved Dieguo de Mendoza who accompanied the Prince is gone yesterday Dieguo de Meshia who came from Bruxells with a fair train of Nobles Gentlemen and Military Men goes away on Tuesday next Our late prodigious Events as that of the fall of the House in Black-friers being related in three several Pamphelts the late dangerous Fire in London with some others of that kind cannot now be new to your Lordship The latest which I must send you is very sad and dolorous being of the death of our late worthy Friend Mr. Camden whose Funeral we solemnized at Westminster on Wednesday last in the Afternoon with all due Solemnity At which was present a great Assembly of all Conditions and Degrees the Sermon was preached by Dr. Sutton who made a true grave and modest Commemoration of his Life As he was not factious in Religion so neither was
so many oppose so falsly and so impudently I have written to his Grace by his Chaplains for helps necessary for the forwarding so great a Work as the Visibility and perpetual Succession of the Church There shall come nothing forth till I have viewed by my self or others under a publick Notaries hands all the Testimonies that do result out of the Manuscripts and printed Books of Papists But what can I poor weak Man do unless my Lord of Canterbury command Help and command Books and all things necessary to so great and requisite a Work which being well done will-serve to close up the Mouths of our deceived Papists This Question if I conceive aright is set afoot politickly by our Adversaries the Papists by especial Advice from Rome for it is plausible amongst the People and vulgar sort and impossible to be answered by every one but be it as it may I have willingly offered to answer one Smith a Lincolnshire-Man who insults upon us in the close of his Book in these words And if now they endeavour to answer them his Reasons it will yet more appear that they can no way answer them and that this kind of dealing with Protestants in matters of Fact out of their own Confessions is the fittest to stop all Mouths Upon occasion of these words I will make bold to write somewhat concerning this matter both to divert our Papists to other matters of Fact wherein they have hitherto declined the Question about the Controversie of their Bibles I mean of Sixtus and Clemens impossible to be answered I have heard their best Reasons about the number of the bastard Treatises which as false Writers have put them into Possession of their false Religion which amount unto five hundred reckoning none but such as are both condemned by some and urged by others as learned Papists touching the corrupting of all Authors and Records in all Ages both in their several Indices Expurgatorii and without especially of their Decretals and Gratian wherein the Soul and Life of Popery consists For the Decretals I have lighted upon a Manuscript that I trust to a clear eye will make the matter indubious and by the sight of this Manuscript which contains them not at large there are such Absurdities contain'd in them as I shame either in modesty as of Mice Turds in the Eucharist or in Grammar Epscopi si in fide erraverit are to be quitted but for all other matters whatsoever they are portandi a good Resolution set down in a good Phrase For the Canon Law I mean Gratian I have compared it from top to tae not without special Contentment to all Lovers of the Truth For by the Edition of the Canon Law so carefully set out by Greg. 13. Faber and Contius and I know not who must be imployed to that great business more care had of the printing of that than of the Bible it must be testified that the Edition doth agree exactly with the Roman Copy or else it of no worth they had the use of many Vatican Copies Now either this is untrue or their Copies are of no Credit For none of our Copies of as great Antiquity as theirs either have Constantine's Donation or the proof of it out of Gelasius Dist. If Gesta SS Martyrum S. Sylvestri this is proving of a thing that is ignotum by ignolius for both are wanting in all our Copies that are of as great Antiquity as theirs as long since Antoninus and other good Lawyers have observed Generally in the Edition of the Canon Law they have deceived us thus 1. Those which are Palea noted by them are indeed Palea that is Chaff in our old Copies But besides 2. There are a number of good Consequences that are Paleae which they have passed over in silence whereof our Manuscripts give good witness There are also a third sort which they have made Paleae to discredit them which are no Paleae as in the 8th Distinction touching Obedience to Princes Commandments for Religion this is in all our Manuscripts but censured and sentenced by them Lord What a world of Corruptions is contained in that Volume I mean not only of Gratians that is bad enough but of their Additions to and Perversions of Gratian's I mean to spend this next week wholly upon this Argument of Popish Fraâ—ds and to send up my abortive Labours to be submitted to your Lordship's grave Judgment I deal in matters of Fact and have little help God knoweth I will empty my self to your Lordship For Marianus Scotus God knows if I had compared it one of the first Books and both that and Matthew of Paris yea and Bedes History must be compared or vain will be our Labour in writing of the Visibility of the Church when we shall rely upon such sandy Proofs It is too true that Possevin observeth that there are whole Pages thrust into Marianus's Works he saith by Hereticks he lieth like a Varlet the cui bono will shew us that The Manuscript in our publick Library I have compared the Capita throughout doth hugely differ from the Printed and so doth another Copy of alike Goodness and Antiquity in C. C. C. To compare him exactly is to write him out anew Hoc opus hic labor est I doubt your Lordship's Leisure will not serve after this Fortnight mine shall and it will need the help both of Dr. Banbridge and Mr. Briggs To have the Copy out of the Library it is impossible for if the King should write for it it is Perjury for any Man to propose a Dispensation for the lending it forth but the Copy at C. C. C. upon a sufficient caution for the redelivery shall and may be sent up to your Lordship and I suppose Mr. Patrick Young hath one or two Copies in the Princes Library at St. James's Not only the Rabbins but the Thalmud in six Volumes at Rome hath felt the smart of the Popish Indices would God we were but half as diligent to restore as they abolish and put out the Truth I have restored 300 Citations and rescued them from Corruption in thirty quire of Paper Mr. Briggs will satisfie you in this Point and sundry other Projects of mine if they miscarry not for want of maintenance it would deserve a Prince's Purse If I was in Germany the Estates would defray all Charges cannot our Estates supply what is wanting If every Church-man that hath an 100 l. per Annum and upward will lay down but a Shilling for every hundred towards these publick Works I will undertake the reprinting of the Fathers and setting forth of five or six Volumes of Orthodox Writers comparing of Books printed with printed or written collating of Popish Translations in Greek and generally whosoever shall concern Books or the Purity of them I will take upon me to be a Magister S. Palatii in England if I shall be thereunto lawfully required I thank your Lordship for my poor Kinsman whom I leave to express
and slew the Turks in great numbers who after eight Months were forced to raise their Seige and be gone who whilst they sought to starve their Enemies were themselves almost famish'd the Persians having stopped all Passages whereby Provision should have been brought to the Camp The Vizier having raised the Siege and marching toward Mossell a City formerly called Ninive was pursued by their subtil Adversaries demanding their Ambassador who the Turks contrary to the Laws of Arms did detain in this their Fight the Persians had the slaughter of the Turks and after three days the Ambassador was delivered them who with great Honour and Joy returned to Bagdat and the Turks with great loss and greater dishonour marched weakly towards Mossell who before they could arrive thither what with want of Victuals and a Sickness that raigned amongst them as also an extream hot Wind that sometimes happens in those Parts there died in one day twelve thousand Persons in fine they lost in these Wars the greater part of the Army which consisted of 150 thousand Men and now the Vizier with a great part of the Army are here in Aleppo where they purpose to winter and in the Spring to make a second on-set and try their Fortunes as they term it with their Enemies But a good success such unruly and rebellious Souldiers can scarce expect their long Ease and unjust gotten Wealth hath caused them to forget Obedience either to their King or his Lieutenant But whether of these two Mahumetans prevail I think makes not much my Prayers shall be that God his Enemies may be scattered and his Truth take place Your Graces in all bounden Duty Thomas Davis Aleppo July 1625. LETTER LXXXIV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend John Lord Bishop of Lincoln Lord Keeper of the Great Seal My very good Lord IT pleased your Lordship and my Lord Treasurer upon the reference made unto you by his Majesty to order that Dr. Rives should forgo the Claim which he made by his Patent to the exercise of the Office of the Prerogative and Faculties and to execute the same only as Substitute under me But the Doctor having taken upon him to set down in Writing your Lordship's Mind hath done it with such advantage to himself that I am forced to become an humble suitor unto your Lordship to commit the drawing up of that order to some Person that shall be more indifferent For there he hath inserted a Clause that he may enjoy the place which he desireth during his Life which is not fit to be granted unto any Substitute but during his good Behaviour and generally he setteth down all things therein as may most make for his own behoof without reserving any Power unto me to limit him any way in the exercise of those Offices when it was no part of my meaning to give him any such unlimited and absolute Power but such only as other Bishops ordinarily do give unto those which they place under them And whereas in Ireland the power of granting Dispensations is not by Law restrained to any competent distance of place to any certain number of Benefices or to any Qualification of Persons I more particularly declared my Mind therein unto my Lord Treasurer in the Doctor 's own presence that I held it no ways fit that my Substitute should have Authority to grant Faculties as he listed but only to such Persons and in such manner as I my self should appoint yet so as the whole profit of such Grants should wholly be reserved unto him and the care of ordering them left only unto me Hereupon a motion was made by my Lord Treasurer that as we had referred the main business unto your Lordship so we should also refer the condition and limitation of that Deputation which was to be granted unto him by me unto which Motion both of us then yeilded After this he brought unto me the Copy of an Instrument drawn by himself wherein there was no manner of mention at all made of any limitation of his Power either in the granting of Dispensations or in any thing else So that by virtue hereof he might also likely do what he pleased without controul or restraint from me I leave unto your Lordship's Wisdom to consider whether it would be convenient that the Doctor should take upon him to visit the whole Clergy of the Kingdom to convent Arch-bishops and Bishops before him and to grant all manner of Dispensations whether I will or no and whether I should not wrong both my self and the whole Clergy of Ireland who have groaned long under this heavy burden as your Lordship discerns by the Copy of their Petitions here inclosed if I did commit any such transcendent and unlimited Power unto him My humble suit therefore unto your Lordship is that you would be pleased to get the Order drawn by Dr. Rives into your hands again and to commit the laying down both of it and of the Authority which he is to receive from me unto some other which shall not respect his own Ends but simply express what shall be your Lordship's pleasure therein whereunto I will most willingly submit my self and ever rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty ready to be commanded Ja. Armachanus Much-Haddam 6 July 1625. The Answer of the Bishop of Lincoln My Lord I do not conceive this Patent to be so unreasonable so a Clause be added therein of a Power reserved to you and your Successors Person to take unto your own Cognizance any Exercise of any one private Act of Jurisdiction or issuing forth of any one particular Dispensation that may be of consequence to the State or the Church which Clause Sir Henry Martyn will at my desire and request clear up for your Lordship Jo. Lincoln C. S. LETTER LXXXV A Letter from Mr. Abraham Wheelock to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend MY most humble Duty remembred to your Lordship being not a little affected with your Recovery My Lord you may peradventure blame me of Neglect or Forgetfulness or both concerning some business I was entrusted with when last I was with your Lordship I had wrote a Letter fully to excuse my self The Fellows of Emanuel were confident they had not that Thalmud your Lordship desired Mr. Dr. Ward undertook the delivery of that Bennet-Colledg Book when I intended to have by a Letter excused my self but a long fit of Sickness prevented me I could draw little or nothing from Mr. Downs whose Memory fails him by much a-do I desired him to shew me that place which Mr. Broughton so much talked of concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in Plato his Cratylus pag. 54. at the bottom of the Leaf of the Basil Edition apud Henricum Petri where he brings Socrates shewing why Pluto was so called your Lordship will better gather the Argument that I can fitly set it down Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Consecration I must now humbly intreat your Grace to send me the Names and Values of all the Bishopricks and Deaneries in Ireland And what Bishopricks are joyned to others that I may be the better able to serve that Church being as yet one of the Committee And I pray excuse my not writing to Mr. Bedle for in truth I have not leisure So I leave you to the Grace of God and rest Your Grace's very loving Brother Guil. London June 16 1629. LETTER CXLIII A Letter from the Right Reverend W. Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh at Armagh My very good Lord THE two Fellows of the Colledg of Dublin which are attendant here about the freedom of their Election were commanded by his Majesty to send to the Colledg there and to know whom they would pitch upon for their Governour And his Majesty was content upon the Reasons given by me and the Petition of the Fellows to leave them to freedom so they did chuse such a Man as would be serviceable to the Church and Him Upon this after some time they delivered to the King that they would choose or had chosen Dr. Usher a Man of your Grace's Name and Kindred His Majesty thereupon referred them to the Secretary the Lord Vicount Dorchester and my self to inform our selves of his Worth and Fitness My Lord proposed that they should think of another Man that was known unto us that we might the better deliver our Judgments to the King I was very sensible of your Lordship's Name in him and remembred what you had written to me in a former Letter concerning him and thereupon prevailed with his Majesty that I might write these Letters to you which are to let your Grace understand that his Majesty puts so great Confidence in your Integrity and readiness to do him Service that he hath referred this business to the Uprightness of your Judgment and will exercise his Power accordingly For thus he hath commanded me to write That your Grace should presently upon receipt of these Letters write back to me what your Knowledg and Judgment is of the worth and fitness of Dr. Usher for this place setting all Kindred and Affection aside And upon that Certificate of yours the King will leave them to all freedom of their choice or confirm it if it be made So wishing your Lordship all Health and Happiness I leave you to the Grace of God and shall ever rest Your Grace's very loving Friend and Brother Guil. London London House June 25. 1629. LETTER CXLIV A Letter from Dr. Bainbridg to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord THis Bearer's unexpected departure hath prevented my desire to discharge some part of those many Obligations wherein I am bound unto your Grace but assuring my self that your Grace will a little longer suspend your Censure I am bold to mediate for another Whereas our Turky Merchants trading at Aleppo being now destitute of a Minister have referr'd the choice of one unto your self may it please you to understand that there is one Mr. Johnson a Fellow of Magdalen-Colledg who hath spent some Years in the Oriental Languages and being desirous to improve his Knowledg therein is content to adventure himself in the voyage he would take the pains to preach once a week but not oftner being desirous to spend the rest of his time in perfecting his Languages and making such other Observations as may tend to the advancement of Learning If your Grace upon these terms please to recommend him to the Merchants I dare engage my Credit for his civil and sober Behaviour and his best Endeavours to do your Grace all respective Service I do not commend an indigent Fellow enforced to run a desperate hazard of his Fortunes but a learned Gentleman of fair hopes and presently well furnished with all things needful to a Scholar I suppose that Fetherstone did send you a Catalogue of Barroccins his Greek Manuscripts they be now Prisoners in our publick Library by the gift of one Chancellor and with them some few more given by Sir Tho. Rae amongst which there is as I take it a fair Copy in Arabick of the Apostles Canons If there be any thing in these Manuscripts which may give you content I shall with my hearty Prayers for your good Health endeavour to approve my self Your Graces most affectionate Servant John Bainbridge Oxon July 20 1629. LETTER CXLV A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Right Reverend W. Laud Bishop of London My very good Lord YOur Letters of the 25th of June I received the 8th day of August wherein I found contained a large Testimony as well of your special care of the welfare of our poor Colledg as of your tender respect unto my Name and Credit for which I must acknowledg my self to stand ever bound to perform all faithful Service unto your Lordship I have hereupon written unto the Fellows of the House that in making their Election they should follow their Consciences according to their Oaths without any by-respects whatsoever Dr. Usher is indeed my Cousin german but withal the Son of that Father at whose instance charge and travel the Charter of the Foundation of the Colledg was first obtained from Queen Elizabeth which peradventure may make him somewhat the more to be respected by that Society To his Learning Honesty and Conformity unto the Discipline of our Church no Man I suppose will take exception And of his Ability in Government he hath given some proof already while he was Vice-Provost in that House where his care in preventing the renewing of the Leases at that time was such that thereby we have been now enabled so to order the matter that within these six Years the Colledg-Rents shall be advanced well-nigh to the double value of that they have been Whereunto I will add thus much more that I know he sincerely intendeth the good of his Country meaneth to go on where Dr. Bedell hath left and in his proceedings will order himself wholly according as your Lordship shall be pleased to direct him Which if it may prove an inducement to move his Majesty to confirm his Election I shall hold my self strongly engaged thereby to have a special eye to the Government of that Colledg seeing the miscarriage of any thing therein cannot but in some sort reflect upon my self who would rather lose my Life than not answer the Trust reposed in me by my Soveraign In obedience unto whose sacred Directions and discharge of the Care committed unto me by his Letters of the 7th of November last the Copy whereof I send herewith I humbly make bold to represent this also unto your Lordship's Consideration whether if the Lord Bishop of Glogher shall be removed unto the Arch-bishoprick of Cashell the Dean of Raphoe may not be thought upon to succeed him in Glogher as being a very well deserying Man and one toward
Rabbinicum codicem ubi in latinum Sermonem convertero id enim ago objectionibus respondero faciam Deo dante ut Illustrissima tua dignitas exemplar quamprimum habeat Et quandoquidem intellexi ex antiquis raris Manuscriptis illustrissimam tuam dignitatem percipere magnam venustatem reticere nequeo quin de alio Manuscripto cujus me compotem fecit D. Buxtorfius mentionem injiciam nomen est Nizahon virulentum scriptum contra Christianos Vertere etiam coepi ut eodem modo edam atque transmittam Porrò cum in D. tuâ instructissimá Bibliothecâ Syriacum in Biblia Commentarium esse intellexerim sive Thesaurum secretarium atque ab iis qui vetus Testamentum transferunt in linguam Belgicam rogatus sim ut observationes ad loca difficiliora porrò suppeditem si optare liceret istius Syriaci in Hagiographa Prophetas posteriores Commentarii usum ad tempus concedi exoptarem Nam Pentateuchum reliquos Historicos quod concernit istos jam examinarunt revisores ut vocant atque ad Hagiographa pergunt In locis dubiis Abrabanielem meum omnium Commentatorum coryphaeum consulere soleo sed ne is quidem per omnia satisfacit Attamen ne vel minimum quidem hac mea petitione D. tuae commodis obesse velim neque committendum censeo ut liber adeo rarus cum discrimine amittendi periculo in incertum mittatur verum suo loco relinquendum si tuta mittendi ratio desit existimo De Chronico Samaritanorum Arabico cum collega D. Golio egi quod D. tuae votum esse cognoscerem ut ex Arabico in Latinum verteretur Sed tot jam negotiis se implicitum quaeritur ut hoc tempore id praestare nequeat ita enim praeter stata negotia undique sollicitari ut suus non sit Cyclium denique Paschalem V. M. de quo D. t. ad Dominum Frey perscripserat in nostra Bibliotheca nondum invenire potui Hactenus curas tuas interpellari boni quaeso consulas tua facilitate fretus id feci qui mea officia offero Illustrissimae dignitati tuae cujus cliens audire gestio Constantinus L'Empereur ab Oppych Ludg-Bat 16 Kal. Dec. An. 1633. Partae salutis LETTER CLXXVIII A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to Dr. Ward Good Doctor I Received with your last Letter the Penitential Canons of Maimonides for which I heartily thank you In lieu whereof I hereby send you the History of Gottheschalcus the first Latin Book I suppose that ever was printed in Ireland I have directed it as you see to Mr. Vossius but upon your advertisement forbore to commit the publication of it unto him For the Arminian Questions I desire never to read any more than my Lord of Salisbury's Lectures touching Predestination and Christ's Death and yours concerning Grace and Free-will together with the determination of the Question of Perseverance which you shewed unto me The Book of Scotus in Benet-Colledg I guess to be the same with a Manuscript which I have my self without the Author's Name beginning thus Quod status Praelatorum viz. pastorum Ecclesiae presupponit statum alium probatur sic I had thought the other had been written by Johannes Erigena or else I had not much desired it but now I discern it came from Johannes Duns I do not much esteem it If I be not deceived being once in talk of Scaliger at your Table Mr. Mead made mention of some Mistake of his in the Fragments of Abydenus or Berosus which he hath published at the end of his Book De Emendatione Temporum but what it was I cannot call to remembrance If you have a better memory I pray you help mine or else enquire of Mr. Mead himself when you shall next see him I received a very kind Letter from Mr. Vossius for my History of Gottheschalcus A Copy of your Writings touching the Efficacy of Baptism and the Questions with the Remonstrants I much desire Dr. Twisse I see as you feared hath followed the rigid part I have gotten a good large Fragment of the beginning of Clement's genuine Epistle to the Corinthians Your own most assured Ja. Armachanus Dublin April 30. 1634. LETTER CLXXIX A Letter from Dr. Ward to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend and my very good Lord I Received your Grace's Letter of the 30th of April for which I humbly thank your Lordship and crave pardon withal of my long silence I am right sorry to hear of the late decease of the worthy Bishop of Derry Boni deficiunt mali proficiunt I heard before the receipt of your Lordship's Letter of it at London I heard also there that Dr. Bramhall of our Colledg was likely to succeed him I pray God he may succed him as in place so in all his Vertues and vertuous Actions I pray God to be assistant to the Parliament of State with you and to bless all the Proceedings therein and to give an happy success to that Honourable Meeting in all their Important Affairs For my Lectures of the Eucharist I have as yet no leisure to transcribe them nor others touching the Remonstrants As for my Lord of Sarum his Readings I will see if I can get Mr. Burnet to procure them to be transcribed As for an Answer to the Animadversions you mention I will God willing e're long send your Lordship a Copy of them The Author of the Animadversions is now with us We have had some doings here of late about one of Pembrook-Hall who preaching in St. Mary's about the beginning of Lent upon that Text James 2. 22. seemed to avouch the insufficiency of Faith to Justification and to impugn the Doctrine of our 11th Article of Justification by Faith only for which he was convented by the Vice-Chancellor who was willing to accept of an easy acknowledgment but the same Party preaching his Latin Sermon pro gradu the last week upon Rom. 3. 28. he said he came not palinodiam canere sed eandem cantilenam canere which moved our Vice-Chancellor Dr. Love to call for his Sermon which he refused to deliver Whereupon upon Wednesday last being Barnaby day the day appointed for the admission of the Batchelors of Divinity and the choice of the Batchelors of Divinity which must answer Die comitiorum he was stayed by the major part of the Suffrages of the Doctors of the Faculty And though sundry Doctors did favour him and would have had him to be the Man that should answer Die comitiorum yet he is put by and one Mr. Flatkers of our Colledg chosen to answer Whos 's first Question is Sola sides justificat 2. Realis praesentia Christi in Eucharistia non ponit Transubstantiationem The truth is there are some Heads among us that are great Abettors of Mr. Tourney the Party above mentioned who no doubt are backed by others I pray God we may persist in the Doctrine
Mead will not be able to evince either out of Deut. 5. 15. or out of any other Scripture whatsoever And the Text Gen. 2. 3. as you well note is so clear for the ancient institution of the Sabbath and so fully vindicated by Dr. Rivet from the Exceptions of Gomarus that I see no reason in the Earth why any Man should make doubt thereof especially considering withal that the very Gentiles both civil and barbarous both ancient and of later days as it were by an universal kind of Tradition retained the distinction of the seven days of the Week which if Dr. Heylin had read so well proved as it is by Rivetus and Salmasius he would not have made such a conclusion as he doth That because the Heathen of the four great Monarchies at least had no distinction of Weeks therefore they could observe no Sabbath whereas he might have found that the distinction of the days of the week did reach etiam ad ipsos usque Sauromatas for even of the Slavonians themselves while they yet continued in their ancient Paganism thus writeth Helmoldus Chronic. Slavor lib. 1. cap. 84. Illic secundâ feriâ papulus terrae cum flamine regulo convenire solebant propter judicia The same order of the days of the Week being retained by them which Theophilus the old Bishop of Antioch noteth to have been observed by all Mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he lib. 2. ad Antolycum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confounding as it seemeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also doth Lactantius lib. 7. cap. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherewith we may joyn that other place of Johannes Philoponus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 7. Cap. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who with shewing the cause thereof thus shuts up the whole work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We see it almost generally observed in all Nations though never so far distant and strangers one to another that in their reckoning of Numbers when they come to 10 they return to their addition of 1 2 and 3 again If it should be demanded how they did all come to agree upon this kind of Arithmetick and not some place their Period at 8 some at 12 some at 15 I suppose this could not be better resolved than by saying They had this by tradition from the first Fathers that lived before the Dispersion and that this is not an improbable Evidence of that Truth propounded by the Apostle unto the Philosophers of Athens Acts 17. 26. That God made of one Blood all Nations of Men to dwell on all the Face of the Earth How much more when we find a far greater Agreement among the Nations in the computation of the seven days of the Week the self-same day which is accounted the first by one being in like manner reckoned so by all notwithstanding that great variety of differences which is betwixt them in the ordering of their Years and Months How much more strongly I say may we conclude from hence that the tradition of the seventh-Day was not of Moses but of the Fathers and did not begin with the Common-Wealth of Israel but was derived unto all Nations by lineal descent from the Sons of Noah Add hereunto that those Heathens who were strangers from the Common-wealth of Israel though they made not the seventh day a Festival as the Jews did yet did they attribute some holiness to it and gave it a peculiar honour above the other days of the week wherein they retained some Relicks and preserved still some clear foot-steps of the first institution Quinetiam populi jam olim saith Josephus sub fin lib. 2. contra Apion multùm nostram pietatem aemulantur neque est civitas Graecorum ulla usquà m aut Barbarorum nec ulla gens ad quam septimanae in qua vacamus consuetudo minimè pervenerit Jejuniaque candelabra accensa c. Of which Rite of lighting of Candles or Lamps rather mention also is made by Seneca in his 95th Epistle Accendere aliquam lucernam Sabbathis prohibeamus quoniam nec lumine Dii egent ne homines quidem delectantur fuligine And by Tertullian lib. 1. ad Nation cap. 13. where he noteth also those to be the Sabbaths observed by the Nations saying thus unto them Qui solem diem ejus nobis exprobratis agnoscite vicinitatem Non longè à Saturno Sabbatis VESTRIS sumus wherein though their Devotion were somewhat like unto that of the Jews which is all that those words of Josephus do import Multum nostram pietatem aemulantur yet that it was not done by any late imitation of them or with any relation at all to their observance that other place of Tertullian doth seem to evince in the 16th Chapter of his Apologeticum Aequè si diem solis laetitiae indulgemus aliâ longè ratione quà m religione solis secundo loco ab eis sumus qui diem Saturni otio victui decernunt exorbitantes ipsi à Judaico more quem ignorant And that they did not celebrate their Saturdays with that solemnity wherewith themselves did their Annual Festivities or the Jews their Weekly Sabbaths may appear by the words of this same Author in the 14th Chapter of his Book de Idololatriâ thus speaking unto-the Christians who observed 52 Lord's Days every Year whereas all the Annual Festivities of the Pagans put together did come short of fifty Ethnicis semel annuus dies quisque festus est tibi octavo quoque die Excerpe singulas solemnitates nationum in ordinem texe Pentecosten implere non potuerunt And yet as I said that they accounted Saturday more holy and requiring more respect from them than the other ordinaray days of the Week may be seen by that of Tibullus Eleg. 3. lib. 1. Aut ego sum causatus aves aut omnia dira Saturni SACRA me tenuisse die And that of Lucian in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Boys getting leave to play 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that of Aelius Lampridius touching Alexander Severus using to go unto the Capitols and other Temples upon the seventh Day Whereunto we may add those Verse of the Ancient Greek Poets alleadged by Clemens Alexandrinus lib. 5. Stromat and Eusebius lib. 13. Praeparat Evangelic which plainly shew that they were not ignorant that the Works of Creation were finished on the Seventh Day for so much doth that Verse of Linus intimate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of Callimachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Israelites by the Law of Moses were not only to observe their weekly Sabbath every seventh Day but also their Feast of Weeks once in the Year Which although by the vulgar use of the Jewish Nation it may now fall upon any day of the Week yet do the Samaritans until this day constantly observe it on the first Day of the Week which
borrowed it of me was so exceedingly in love with it as I could not be quiet till I bestowed it upon him I have sent your Syriack Treatise of Ephrem as likewise your Kimchii Radices Hebraicae of which Book although I have as much use as ever and shall have as long as God giveth me life and opportunity in my Studies in which the illustrating the Hebrew Text holdeth the chief place with me yet I thought it unreasonable to detain it any longer from you having had it so many Years already That breach in Popery about Grace groweth wider and wider every day and whereas hitherto Jansenism hath contained it self within France where most part of the Prelats and Sorbonists are addicted to it and the Low-Countries now it hath found entrance into Spain and among the very Jesuits those eager opposers of it one of whom having written a Book in defence of it the University of Salamanca gave their approbation to it after the amplest and most solemn manner and at the same time caused publickly to be burnt a Treatise written by the Jesuits against a little Jansenical Book published here at Paris with the Title of Catechisme de la Grace And having sent the Jesuit to Rome with their Letters to the Pope in recommendation of his Person and his Book he hath there very boldly asserted his Writing before the Pope and the Cardinals and in the manner as they although hitherto professed and bitter Enemies of that Doctrine could find no Exceptions against him Which hath made those of his Order such bitter Enemies to him as they have secretly made him away out of which Fact great Troubles are like to follow for the Pope and the King of Spain both upon complaint made to them have injoined the Jesuits to produce that Colleague of theirs alive or dead upon pain of their highest Displeasure Which News having been first told me by others was confirmed to me by Mr. Cressey for a certain Truth Thus humbly taking leave of your Grace and praying God to add many and happy Years to your Life in the preservation whereof the Church of God hath so great an interest I rest Your Grace's most humble and most affectionate Servant Arnold Boate. Paris Nov. 17. 1650. stilo novo LETTER CCLIX A Letter from the Learned Ludovicus Capellus to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh MIraberis fortè nec sine causâ Virlonge clarissime me primo quasi impetu publico Scripto dignitatem tuam compellare nulla prius ad te data privatâ Epistolâ Id sane longè praeoptassem ac pridem certe in votis habui aliquod literarum cum dignitate tua commercium habere quod multa audiveram de singulari tuâ humanitate cum summâ doctrinâ eruditione conjunctâ quodque ab amicis per Epistolas cognoveram Arcanum meum punctationis si forte etiam Spicilegium meum non esse tibi ignota aut improbata unde mihi nascebatur desiderium resciscendi à te quid de hisce Lucubrationibus meis sentires sed inhibuit me hactenùs tum subrusticus quidam mihi à naturâ insitus pudor tum tui reverentia ne importunis meis literis dignitatem tuam interpellarem teque a melioribus occupationibus avocarem molestiamve tibi literarum mearum lectione facesserem Vicit tamen me adversus Bootium defendendi necessitas quae quia urgebat eam amici flagitabant spatium mihi non concessit te priùs per literas compellandi quod pro tua humanitate mihi condonabis è grato uti spero animo accipies hanc ad te mei adversus illum hominem justam defensionem quâ meam quam ille impetit existimationem veritatem quam impugnat adversus illius offutias tueor Dabis hoc hominis illius importunitati iniquitati ac de me uti confido aliter senties quam ille suis accusationibus conatus est Dignitati tuae persuadere Hoc à candore aequitate tua exspecto atque ut dignitatem tuam in longos annos Ecclesiae suae bono servet incolumem Deum ardentissimis Votis comprecor Tui cum omni obsequio diligentissimus Cultor Lud. Capellus Salmurii 28 Jan. 1651. LETTER CCLX A Letter from the Learned Arnold Boate to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh May it please your Grace I Have received your Letters of 14 â—4 January and of 23 Jan. stilo vet In the first whereof came inclosed your Answer upon a Question concerning the late King and the second was accompanied with a Gift for which I humbly thank your Grace of a Copy of your Annales for me and of Gatakerus de Stilo N. Testamenti As for the other Copy of your Annales that for Friar Goart I delivered it him within two days after and he expressed a great deal of sence of the savour which you have done him in it He gave me also an Extract about the Priesthood of Simon Onia and told me that Syncellus with his Notes is begun now to be printed and will be done by the end of this year He told me also of the Latin Translation of an Arabian Chronologer who lived above 400 years ago and hath writ the Chronology ab initio Mundi ad suam aetatem with an extraordinary exactness of supputation newly printed here of which I intend God willing to send you a Copy together with those Books formerly desired by you at Ellis his next return thither which he maketh me believe will be within these two or three weeks The Disputes and Animosities between the Jansenists and the Molinists do grow hotter and hotter every day and lately some Irish-men here having been busy to get Subscriptions of their Country-men in prejudice of Janseniana Dogmata they have been sharply censured for it by a Decree of the University a printed Copy whereof you will receive by Ellis Capell hath written an Apologetical Epistle to you in answer to mine Epistle against him and somewhat about the same bulk the which being not only fraught with most injurious Language against me but taxing your Grace of rashness and injustice for having condemned his Opinion upon my Relation I have writ an additional Sheet to my former Treatise in vindication of your Grace and of my self the writing and printing thereof having been dispatched in the space of three days ne impune velitaret caninum illud scriptum I am now going to write Justum volumen sub titulo Vindiciarum sacri Textus Hebraici contra Morinum Capellum junctim in quo scripto omnes Criticae Errores ut scriptorum Morini ad vivum persequar For these here who vaunted of their intention of writing against Capel have all given over and Buxtorf too will make no full answer to his Critica as you may see by the following Extract of his Letter to me dated 3 Januarii Vindiciae meae directe opponentur ejus Defensioni sed methodicae erunt
it were to do again he would not do it for double the Monies as having been a whole sevennight busied with it and found it incomparably more toilsome than he had imagined it And although he be a very able Grecian and wonderful diligent and faithful in what-ever he undertakes yet I would not rely solely upon him but compared every Obelisk and Asterisk of his transcription in which he hath made use of notae Paratheseon for the Obelisks and of Sublineation in lieu of Asterisks with the Membranae for to be sure that all was right and that he had no where exchanged one for the other And I can give your Lordship an entire assurance that his Transcript agreeth most exactly with the Original not only in marking the Obel and Aster but in every word and syllable ne vitiis quidem orthographicis quae hic illic occurrunt exceptis The only Error committed by him is that he hath misplaced some Chapters of Deuter. the which nevertheless cannot be of any other prejudice to Mr. Young than that of the transposing of a quaternio by a Bookbinder useth to be He hath also in most places added as I have desired him quomodo Editio Romana se haberet quantum ad verba obelis asteriscis conclusa utrum ea ibi adsint vel absint About the verifying whereof I have not taken the same pains as about that of the main Matter because that the Errors here if any be are not of any dangerous consequence and may easily be mended by Mr. Junius himself who if he have not some skill in the Hebrew will have much ado to comprehend the sense and the reason of some of the Asterisks there being divers of them very perverse or frivolous I had lately a Letter from Mr. Croy dated 7. Idus Augusti 1651. who writes to me that being at a Synod at Mompelier when he received the Copy of the Anticritica which I had sent him and having made report to the Synod of the Contents of the same Ea omnium animos ita perculerunt ut si eam rem urgere voluissem decreto publico Criticam illam damnaturi fuerint He tells me further to have also read afterwards Ipsam Gapelli Criticam à capite ad Calcem adding Tecum jam sentio vir nobilissime profiteor Criticam illam non esse sacram appellandam sed potius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profanam impiam Interpretum Graecorum Latinorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hallucinationes inscitiam errores nobis pro totidem variis lectionibus obtrudit Puerilibus levibus ridiculis falsis scatet observationibus Tot asserit esse varia Scripturae exemplaria quot fuerunt illius Interpretes Textus Sacri incorruptam veritatem authentiam atque autoritatem audaci conatu labefactat Impurissimi atque impudentissimi Morini aliorumque Sacrae Scripturae hostium quos Roma peperit alit partes agit in Academia Salmuriensi Verbi Divini Minister Theologiae Professor quod hactenus inauditum suit nec unquam visum monstra prodigia adversus Dei Verbum contra firmissima verae Theologiae fundamenta piam Fidem gignit atque educat Multa jam annotavi quae illius inscitiam audaciam fraudes errores demonstrent in oculis conspectuque omnium exponant c. Laetor glorior quod doctissimo piissimo Praesuli Armachano nomen meum notum sit Si ad eum scribas ipsum quaeso meo nomine saluta certiorem fac se in inferiori Occitania sui nominis admiratorem laudum praeconem habere Me beatum praedicari si mihi cum illo literarum commercium esse posset Hectenus Croiius Habeo etiam literas à Voetio in eandem plane sententiam de Capelli Critica scriptas As for Buxtorf he in his last Letter to me dated the second of June hath these words Quum occasionem habebis Reverendissimo D. Armachano mea studia officia obsequia cum humili salute deferes nuntiabis meo nomine De ejus constantia in bonae causae semel suscepto patrocinio si dubitarem flagitium summum in tanti viri judicium committerem And there besides he maketh in the same Letter this following Proposition Quum Capellus Armachanum quem indigne procaciter excipit judicem tamen arbitrum hujus causae constituat quid si ille breviter pro tanti judicis gravitate authoritate nervose sub Epistola ad utrunque vestrum data suum post auditam utramque partem judicium suamque sententiam ferat ac pronuntiet cum uterque ad ejus tribunal provocaveritis nisi itineris viarum longinquitas obstarent ipsemet fortassis ad eum hoc nomine scriberem This Proposition is so fully agreeable to mine own Thoughts and if I be not much deceived to Truth and Equity as I do most humbly beseech your Lordship to accomplish it which as you are able to do now to the full after the perusal of all Capellus his own Writings so methinks it may be done in few words viz. first to state the Question about Capellus his Innovation as it appeareth to you by the perusal of his Works and then to give your own Subject with a brief touch of the principal Arguments which move you either to concur with or dissent from him or me in any of the most material Particulars I am told by them that had it from your Grace's own Mouth that Capel for fear of some such thing and for to prevent it hath written fawning Letters to your Grace But that I am confident will not hinder you from appearing freely and fully in a Cause wherein God's Truth and Sacred Word is so deeply concerned and as I have great cause to think that a full and free declaring of your mind will be a condemning of Capellus in all the main Points in controversy between me and him so if it be otherwise and that in any of them you find him in the right and me in the wrong I seek no favour but an absolute impartiality And as I dare prescribe your Grace nothing concerning the form of your delivering of your self so I hope that you will approve of that pointed at by Buxtorfius of setting down your Mind in the form of an Epistle to be writ iisdem verbis unto Capellus and unto me mutatis tantum mutandis But however and whether you be resolved to fulfil this Request of Buxtorf and of mine or whether that you have no mind to meddle in it the which nevertheless is no way credible to me I do pray your Grace most earnestly to let me hear from you about it at your first commodity And if it were not too troublesome to you I should be glad at the same time to hear in a few words your Opinion about the Septimanae Danielis and where you fix the beginning of them as likewise your judgment upon Marshami Diatriba and his great
were Arbitrators and rather to read them which deliver their Opinion with reservation and in Matters not decided do not play the Pedants over others The University of Paris hath much used to apply themselves to the best Judgments that did spring up amongst them and the last that offered himself was William Occam whom if you lay his Barbarism aside you shall find a Judicious Writer I have still esteemed him above all the School-men His Work upon the Sentences doth render the Conceit of him that reads him quick and fit to judg His Dialogues which pass from the speculative matters to the more practical and in use are much esteemed where they are permitted to be read Gerson teacheth well of that which he toucheth but he did not propound to himself to treat of the whole Subject St. Thomas is currant among the Jesuits and Prelates as a Writer very easy and who doth not intangle the mind of the Reader with doubts but resolves him indeed too much If you resolve to read him it will be good very punctually to examine his Sorites for so are almost all his Proofs and he is in the number of those that I named first If you will read the Controversies that do at this present exercise the World you shall do well to bear in mind that the Writers do all of them exceed in Affection to their own side and do accommodate matters to their own Taste and in the ancient Writers do see not that which is there but that which they desire And therefore it is necessary to use with them the caution that a good Judg should use not to pronounce till both the Parties be heard As for the means to get the understanding of the Ecclesiastical History it will be necessary to put in your Head a Chronology of all the Princes and famous Men that have been in the World all of them distinguished in their Times and Countries In the reading of the Historiographers to be very wary because for the most part they are interested on the one side or the other when they treat of any Controversies The most sincere Authors are the English Paris Hoveden Walsingham The most sincere and faithful History is to be drawn out of the Epistles of the Fathers and other Writers of every time Above all it is necessary in reading to bear a neutral Affection and not to suffer that which you find in one Author to take so deep root in you that it may not give place to the Truth or greater Probability which you may find afterwards But according to my Judgment to give a general and infallible Rule for all the Difficulties that may occur in the process of your Studies I take it to be to consult with the Jesuits and to resolve the clean contrary to that which they say There remaineth you say the Parliament for a Bank to keep them from overflowing but still I see the Water to encrease and the Earth of the Bank to diminish which puts me in great doubt We indeed are free from their Persons but not from their Vexations and Ambushes I know not whether mischief to be the greater that which they do being absent or that which they do being present I begin to believe for that which now I see that they have been re-accepted in France to free that Kingdom from greater Mischief which they did in their absence and peradventure I am not deceived Your Worship doth esteem me more than is fitting in thinking that the Jesuits have any thought of me Assure your self that I am not high enough to be stricken with such a Lightning unless they were whereof I doubt in the number of those curious Men that do not overslip no not the least matters However it be every one is subject unto danger only it rests to rely our selves on God in those things whereunto no humane caution can arrive I beseech your Lordship to make me partaker sometimes of your Letters whom you shall oblige thereby You shall not be obliged to write Italian because however I answer you in this my Language yet it is to me indifferent to read yours in this or in French Our Lord God give your Lordship all Happiness whose Hands I do reverently kiss From Venice this 22d of July 1608. LETTER IV. A Letter from H. Grotius to Dr. Overal Dean of St. Pauls Admodum Reverendo Eruditissimoque D. Doctori Johanni Overal Decano Sancti Pauli Londini Reverende D. CRimen mihi ingratitudinis mea febricula secutus statim abitus imposuit sed quas agere corà m gratias non potui eas habeo tibi maximas tum pro perscripta tua de Praedestinatione sententia tum pro doctissimo Thomsonis libello Non possim verbis explicare quam mihi utrumque placuerit quamque me confirmaverit in sobria veterum vere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faciente sententia Miserum me quod pro istis muneribus reponere nihil possum Ostendi utrumque scriptum viris hic piis atque eruditis qui delectati iis maxime fuerunt quibusque in primis voluptas fuit intelligere non esse eam totius Anglicanae Ecclesiae sententiam quam confidenter admodum jactant illi qui praeter Calvinum Ursinum vix quicquam legerunt Non cesso urgere latinam interpretationem Colloquii Hagiensis istis de controversiis item libelli quem vir praestantissimus Johannes Utenbogardus scripsit de Jure Magistratuum in regenda Ecclesia legum Ecclesiasticarum quae Trajecti nuper promulgatae fuerunt Apparebit ex eorum librorum lectione quam non ex fide quidam statum nostrarum controversiarum descripserint Nunc in Hollandia laboratur de statuendis legibus quibusdam super Ecclesiastico regimine Ubi constitutum quid fuerit faciam te certiorem Si qui sunt auctores qui tibi commode videantur istud argumentum tractasse eos mihi judices velim ut eorum lectione instructior ad istam deliberationem accedam Utinam mihi occasio esset ea sermones tecum serendi quae nuper in Britannia fuit nullius consiliis libentius uterer nunc rogo per literas id me facere patiaris quod praesens ipse facturus essem meque in gravissimis rebus dubitantem praeceptis tuis rege imo potius dubitationes meas ipse praeveni Non debet tantum licere locorum spatiis ut coeptae tam foeliciter amicitiae usum interrumpant Unum opto ut tibi tam sit jucundum me docere quam mihi doceri erit utile Vale mi Domine ac Pater in precibus tuis Grotii memento Tui observantissimus H. Grotius LETTER V. A Letter from H. Grotius to Dr. Overal Dean of St. Pauls Admodum Reverendo Eruditissimoque D. Doctori Johanni Decano S. Pauli Londini Reverendissime D. ac Pater JAmdudum est quod ad R. D. T. nullas dedi literas veritus ne molesta esset mea interpellatio his praesertim temporibus tam iniquis atque
opinion I hold of your noble disposition and of the freedom in these Cases that you will afford your special Friends which hath induced me to do it Now though I my self like a Carriers Horse cannot blauch the beaten way in which I was trained yet such is my censure of your Cogitata that I must tell you to be plain you have much wronged your self and the World to smother such a Treasure so long in your Coffer for though I stand well assured touching the tenour and subject of your main discourse you are not able to impannel a substantiall Jury in any University that will give up a Verdict to acquit you of error yet it cannot be gain-said that all your Treatise over doth abound which choice Conceits of the present state of Learning and with so worthy Contemplations of the Means to procure it as may perswade with any Student to look more narrowly to his business not only by aspiring to the greatest persection of that which is now-adays divulged in the Sciences but by diving yet deeper as it were into the Bowels and Secrets of Nature and by Inforcing the power of his Judgment and Wit to learn of St. Paul consectari meliora dona which course would to God to whisper so much in your ears you had followed at first when you fell to the study of such a Study as was not worthy such a Student nevertheless being as it is that your were therein setled and your Country soundly served I can but wish with al my Heart as I do very often that you may gain a fit reward to the full of your deserts which I hope will come with heaps of Happiness and Honour Yours to be used and commanded Thomas Bodleigh Fullham Feb. 19. 1607. POST-SCRIPT SIR One kind of boldness doth draw on another insomuch that me-thinks I should offend not to signify that before the Transcript of your Book be fitted for the Press it will be requisite for you to cast a Censors Eye upon the Stile and Elocution which in the frame of your Periods and in divers Words and Phrases will hardly go for currant if the Copy brought to me be just the same that you would publish Novum Organum LETTER XV. A Letter from Sir Henry Sydney to his Son Sir Philip Sydney Son Philip I Have received two Letters from you the one written in Latin the other in French which I take in good part and will you to exercise that Practise of learning often for it will stand you in stead in that profession of Life which you are born to live in And now since that this is my first Letter that ever I did write to you I will not that it be all empty of some Advices which my natural care of you provoketh me to wish you to follow as Documents to you in this your tender Age. 1. Let your first Action be the lifting up of your Hands and Mind to Almighty God by hearty Prayer and feelingly digest the words you speak in Prayer with continual meditation and thinking of him to whom you pray and use this at an ordinary hour whereby the time it self will put you in remembrance to do that thing which you are accustomed in that time 2. Apply your study such hours as your discreet Master doth assign you earnestly and the time I know he will so limit as shall be both sufficient for your Learning and safe for your Health And mark the sence and matter of that you read as well as the words so shall you both enrich your Tongue with Words and your Wit with Matter and Judgment will grow as Years grow on you 3. Be humble and obedient to your Master For unless you frame your self to obey yea and to feel in your self what Obedience is you shall never be able to teach others how to obey you hereafter 4. Be courteous of gesture and affable to all Men with universality of Reverence according to the dignity of the Person there is nothing that winneth so much with so little cost 5. Use moderate Diet so as after your meat you may find your Wit fresher and not duller and your Body more lively and not more heavy 6. Seldom drink Wine and yet sometime do lest being enforced to drink upon the sudden you should find your self enflamed 7. Use exercise of Body but such as is without peril of your Bones or Joints it will much encrease your Force and inlarge your Breath 8. Delight to be cleanly as well in all parts of your Body as in your Garments it shall make you grateful in each Company and otherwise loathsom 9. Give your self to be merry for you degenerate from your Father if you find not your self most able in Wit and Body to do any thing when you be most merry But let your Mirth be ever void of all scurrility and biting words to any Man for a Wound given by a Word is harder to be cured than that which is given by a Sword 10. Be you rather a hearer and bearer away of other Mens Talk than a beginner or procurer of Speech otherwise you shall be accounted to delight to hear your self speak 11. Be modest in each Assembly and rather be rebuked of light Fellows for a maiden-like Shame-facedness than of your sober Friends for pert Boldness 12. Think upon every word you will speak before you utter it and remember how Nature hath as it were rampir'd up the Tongue with Teeth Lips yea and Hair without the Lips and all betoken Reins and Bridles to the restraining the use of that Member 13. Above all things tell no Untruth no not in Trifles the custom of it is naught And let it not satisfy you that the hearers for a time take it for a Truth for afterwards it will be known as it is to your Shame And there cannot be a greater Reproach to a Gentleman than to be accounted a Liar 14. Study and endeavour your self to be vertuously occupied so shall you make such a habit of well-doing as you shall not know how to do evil tho you would 15. Remember my Son the Noble Blood you are descended of by your Mothers side and think that only by a vertuous Life and good Actions you may be an Ornament to your Illustrious Family and otherwise through Vice and Sloth you may be esteemed labes generis one of the greatest Curses that can happen to a Man Well my little Philip this is enough for me and I fear too much for you at this time but yet if I find that this light meat of digestion do nourish any thing the weak stomach of your young Capacity I will as I find the same grow stronger feed it with tougher Food Farewel Your Mother and I send you our Blessing and Almighty God grant you his nourish you with his Fear guide you with his Grace and make you a good Servant to your Prince and Country Your Loving Father Henry Sydney LETTER XVI A Letter from Sir Henry
likewise see by what he writes in the same Chap. in these words viz. Not that I am against the managing of this Presidency and Authority in one man by the joynt Counsel and Consent of many Presbyters I have offered to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errors Corruptions and Partialities which are incident to any one man And so likewise in the Chapter about the Reformation of the Times he has this passage I was willing to grant or restore to Presbytery what with reason or discretion it can pretend to in a Conjuncture with Episcopacy but for that wholly to invade the Power and by the Sword to Arrogate and quite Abrogate the Authority of that Ancient Order I think neither just as to Episcopacy nor safe for Presbytery nor yet any way convenient for this Church or State And that the most Pious and Learned Dr. Hammond was about the same time of the Lord Primate's judgment in this matter may appear by this passage in the Preface to his Treatise of the Power of the Keys That a moderate Episcopacy with a standing assistant Presbytery as it will certainly satisfie the desires of those whose pretentions are regular and moderate craving nothing more and in some things less than the Laws of the Land so that it will appear to be that which all parties can best Tolerate and which next himself both Presbyterian Independant and Erastian will make no question to choose and prefer before any of the other Pretenders And though it may be true that divers of the more sober of the Presbyterian party have seemed to have approved of these terms of Reconciliation yet it has been only since the ill success their Discipline hath met with both in England and Scotland that has made them more moderate in their demands for it is very well known that when these Terms were first proposed the Ring-leaders of the Party utterly cryed them down as a great Enemy to Presbytery Since this Expedient would have yet left Episcopacy in a better condition than it is at this day in any of the Lutheran Churches but they were not then for Divisum Imperium would have all or nothing and they had their desires So that it is no wonder if the Lord Primate in this endeavour of Reconciliation met with the common fate of Arbitrators to please neither party But thô the Church is now restored beyond our expectation as well as merits to all its just Rights and Priviledges without the least diminution Yet certainly no good Subject or Son of the Church either of the Clergy or Laity at that time when this Expedient was proposed but would have been very well contented to have yielded farther than this to have preserved his late Majesty's life and to have prevented those Schisms and Confusions which for so many years harrassed these poor Nations But if our King and Church are both now restored it is what then no man could fore-see it is the Lord 's doing and is marvellous in our Eyes but I have dwelt so long upon this subject that I forgot to relate a passage though not of so great moment as the Affair we last mentioned yet as it happened in order of time before it so was it too considerable to be passed over viz. the Sermon which the Lord Primate now preached before the King at Newport in the Isle of Wight presently after his coming thither on the 19th of Novemb. being his Majesty's Birth-day which because it then was the occasion of a great deal of discourse I shall give you the heads of it being there present at that Sermon which afterward was published though very imperfectly by some that took Notes the Text was Gen. 49. 3. Ruben thou art my first-born my Might and the beginning of my Strength the excellency of Dignity and the excellency of Power These remarkable passages he had in this Sermon among others in Explication viz. The Regal power which comes by Descent is described by a double Excellency The Excellency of Dignity and the Excellency of Power By Dignity we understand all outward Glory by Power all Dominion And these are the two branches of Majesty The Greeks express it in the abstract And so in respect of Dignity The Supreme Magistrate is called Glory and in respect of Sovereignty he is called Lord Both these are joyned in the Epistle of Jude ver 8. There are a wicked sort there described that despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and make no Conscience to Blaspheme the Footsteps of the Lord 's Anointed And what is their Censure ver 13. To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever We used to say That those that have God's Tokens upon them are past hopes of life here you may plainly see God's Tokens upon these men they are reserved to everlasting Damnation After he had shewen in many instances of the outward Splendor and Pomp which peculiarly belong to Majesty and are lawful and requisite to maintain the Dignity of a Prince c. then he proceeded to shew the Eminency of Power belonging thereunto For a King to have great State and to have no Power he were then but a poor weak King There is a subordination of Power in all Governments which because it cannot go in Infinitum it must needs rest some where and that is in the King Let every Soul be subject to the higher power whosoever resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God And the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 13. To the King as Supreme If any Professors of Religion do Rebel against the King this is a scandal to Religion and 't is the fault of the Professors and not of the Profession for the Church of England doth teach the contrary But when men shall not only practise but teach Rebellion this amounts to a very high Crime indeed The King as St. Peter saith hath the Excellency of Power as sent by God But what need I say any more we all swear that the King is the Only Supreme Governor in his Dominions A man would think that that word Only might be spared since nothing can be above a Supreme but it is put there by way of Eminency I read in Josephus That Herod having offended Cleopatra she besought Antony to call him to account for it But Antony refused so to do for then said he He will be no King And after he had enlarged somewhat on these points he added this In the word of a King there is power saith the Preacher It was wont to be so and by the word of God it ought to be so I might enlarge upon this but some Ears will not endure sound Doctrine The King you see must be acknowledged to be Supreme and no Superior to the King on Earth far be it from me to flatter any man I thank God I fear no flesh but do deliver the Truth This day is the Birth-day of our Sovereign Lord. Birth-days of Kings have been usually Celebrated
with great Solemnity in former times it pleaseth God that this day begins the 49th year of his Majesty's life and let me call it the year of Jubilee to his Majesty The Jews had a Custom that in the 49th year of any mans life he should be at liberty whatever his sufferings were before It must be the desire and prayer of every Loyal heart that the King may have a Jubilee indeed This is that which Loyalty bids us do I will not stand too much upon this particular but this I will say Oh! that we knew our happiness to have a King that is the Son of Nobles a King that is not a Child a King that is at full Age to Govern by Wisdom and Prudence And truly as God gives us this blessing so he expects we should acknowledge it thankfully Eccles. 10. 16. Wo be to thee O Land saith the Preacher when the King is a Child To have him when his experience hath riveted in him sound judgment and ability to Govern The Lord threatned Jerusalem in Isa. 3. 4. I will give Children to be their Princes and Babes shall rule over them Those that would have their own Wills could I warrant you be content that the youngest should Reign To have a base man exalted is one of the things that the Earth cannot bear but some Body must have the Government it doth not belong to all you see here is one that alone hath a right to it After which he concluded to this effect That all true Christians are the First-born of God Heb. 12. The Congregation of the First-born they are all Heirs of Heaven in the same relation that Christ is by Nature we are by Grace and Adoption c. This Sermon together with the Arch-Bishop's steady carriage in the point of Episcopacy did so much enrage both the Presbyterian and Independant Factions that in their News Books and Pamphlets at London they reproach'd the Lord Primate for flattering the King as also for his perswading him not to abolish Bishops and that he had very much prejudiced the Treaty and that none among all the King's Chaplains had been so mischievous meaning to Them as He which reproaches whether the Lord Primate did deserve or not I leave to the candid Readers both of the said Sermon and Reconciliation above mentioned to judge I am sure his Majesty's Affairs were in as ill a condition to tempt any man to flatter him as the temper of his Soul was then to suffer it But the truth is the Lord Primate did no more than assert his Majesty's just Rights and Prerogative then trampled upon and it was no more than what he had both preached and written before in that Treatise since published Of the Power of the Prince and Obedience of the Subject After the Lord Primate had taken his last leave of his Majesty and done him and the Church all the service he was able at that time though not with that success he desired he returned to Southampton in order to his going towards London where he was kindly received by the chief of the Town and withal intreated to preach there the next day being Sunday but when he thought of complying with their desires the Governor of the Garrison hearing of it came to my Lord Primate and told him he had been informed he intended to preach on the morrow to which when my Lord answered yes 't was true he replyed that it might be at that time of ill consequence to the Place and therefore wished him to forbear for they could not permit it and so they suffered him not to preach there for they were afraid of his plain dealing and that he would have declared against that Villainy they were then about to execute For not long after my Lord's return to London his Majesty was brought up thither as a Prisonerby the Army in order to that wicked piece of Pageantry which they called his Tryal And now too soon after came that fatal Thirtieth of January never to be mentioned or thought on by all good men without grief and detestation on which was perpetrated the most Execrable Villainy under the pretence of Justice that ever was acted since the World began A King Murthered by his own Subjects before his own Palace in the face of the Sun For which the Lord Primate was so deeply sensible and afflicted that he kept that day as a private Fast so long as he lived and would always be wail the scandal and reproach it cast not only on our own Nation but Religion it self saying That thereby a great advantage was given to Popery and that from thence forward the Priests would with greater success advance their designs against the Church of England and Protestant Religion in general Nor will it be impertinent here to relate a passage that happened to the Lord Primate at the time of his Majesty's murther The Lady Peterborough's House where my Lord then lived being just over against Charing-Cross divers of the Countesse's Gentlemen and Servants got upon the Leads of the House from whence they could see plainly what was acting before White-Hall as soon as his Majesty came upon the Scaffold some of the House-hold came and told my Lord Primate of it and askt him if he would see the King once more before he was put to death My Lord was at first unwilling but was at last perswaded to go up as well out of his desire to see his Majesty once again as also curiosity since he could scarce believe what they told him unless he saw it When he came upon the Leads the King was in his Speech the Lord Primate stood still and said nothing but sighed and lifting up his Hands and Eyes full of Tears towards Heaven seemed to pray earnestly but when his Majesty had done speaking and had pulled off his Cloak and Doublet and stood stripped in his Wastcoat and that the Villains in Vizards began to put up his hair the good Bishop no longer able to endure so dismal a sight and being full of grief and horror for that most wicked Fact now ready to be Executed grew pale and began to faint so that if he had not been observed by his own Servant and some others that stood near him who thereupon supported him he had swounded away So they presently carried him down and laid him on his Bed where he used those powerful weapons which God has left his People in such Afflictions viz. Prayers and Tears Tears that so horrid a sin should be committed and Prayers that God would give his Prince patience and constancy to undergo these cruel Sufferings and that he likewise would not for the vindication of his own Honour and Providence permit so great a wickedness to pass unpublished This I received from my Lord Primate's Grandson who heard it from the mouth of his Servant who lived with him till his death After this sad Tragedy the Government if it may be so called was managed by a