of Christ are inabled to govern well to speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authority to loose such as are Penitent to commit others unto the Lord's Prison until their amendment or to bind them over unto the Judgment of the Great Day if they shall persist in their wilfulness and obstinacy By the other Princes have an imperious power assigned by God unto them for the defence of such as do well and executing revenge and wrath upon such as do evil whether by death or banishment or confiscation of goods or imprisonment according to the quality of the offence When St. Peter that had the Keys committed unto him made bold to draw the Sword he was commanded to put it up as a weapon that he had no authority to meddle withal And on the other side when Uzziah the King would venture upon the execution of the Priest's Office it was said unto him It pertaineth not unto thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the Sons of Aaron that are Consecrated to burn incense Let this therefore be our second Conclusion That the power of the Sword and of the Keys are two distinct Ordinances of God and that the Prince hath no more Authority to enter upon the execution of any part of the Priest's Function than the Priest hath to intrude upon any part of the Office of the Prince In the third place we are to observe That the power of the Civil Sword the supreme managing whereof belongeth to the King alone is not to be restrained unto Temporal Causes only but is by Gods Ordinance to be extended likewise unto all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Things and Causes That as the spiritual Rulers of the Church do exercise their kind of Government in bringing men unto obedience not of the duties of the first Table alone which concerneth Piety and the Religious Service which man is bound to perform unto his Creator but also of the second which respecteth moral honesty and the Offices that man doth owe unto man so the Civil Magistrate is to use his Authority also in redressing the abuses committed against the first Table as well as against the second that is to say as well in punishing of an Heretick or an Idolater or a Blasphemer as of a Thief or a Murtherer or a Traytor and in providing by all good means that such as live under his Government may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and honesty And howsoever by this means we make both Prince and Priest to be in their several places Custodes utriusque Tabulae Keepers of both God's Tables yet do we not hereby any way confound both of their Offices together For though the matter wherein their Government is exercised may be the same yet is the form and manner of governing therein always different the one reaching to the outward man only the other to the inward the one binding or loosing the Soul the other laying hold on the Body and the things belonging thereunto the one having special reference to the Judgment of the World to come the other respecting the present retaining or losing of some of the comforts of this life That there is such a Civil Government as this in Causes Spiritual or Ecclesiastical no man of judgment can deny For must not Heresie for example be acknowledged to be a cause meerly Spiritual or Ecclesiastical And yet by what power is an Heretick put to death The Officers of the Church have no Authority to take away the life of any man it must be done therefore per brachium saeculare and consequently it must be yielded without contradiction that the temporal Magistrate doth exercise therein a part of his Civil Government in punishing a Crime that is of its own nature Spiritual or Ecclesiastical But here it will be said the words of the Oath being general That the King is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness's Dominions and Countries How may it appear that the power of the Civil Sword only is meant by that Government and that the power of the Keys is not comprehended therein I answer First That where a Civil Magistrate is affirmed to be the Governor of his own Dominions and Countries by common intendment this must needs be understood of a Civil Government and may in no reason be extended to that which is meerly of another kind Secondly I say That where an ambiguity is conceived to be in any part of an Oath it ought to be taken according to the understanding of him for whose satisfaction the Oath was ministred Now in this case it hath been sufficiently declared by publick Authority That no other thing is meant by the Government here mentioned but that of the Civil Sword only For in the Book of Articles agreed upon by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. thus we read Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injuctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers If it be here objected that the Authority of the Convocation is not a sufficient ground for the exposition of that which was enacted in Parliament I answer That these Articles stand confirmed not only by the Royal assent of the Prince for the establishing of whose Supremacy the Oath was framed but also by a special Act of Parliament which is to be found among the Statutes in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth chap. 12. Seeing therefore the makers of the Law have full Authority to expound the Law and they have sufficiently manifested That by the supreme Government given to the Prince they understand that kind of Government only which is exercised with the Civil Sword I conclude that nothing can be more plain than this That without all scruple of Conscience the King's Majesty may be acknowledged in this sense to be the only Supreme Governor of all his Highness's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And so have I cleared the first main branch of the Oath I come now unto the Second which is propounded Negatively That no foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm The foreigner that challengeth this Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Jurisdiction over us
is the Bishop of Rome And the Title whereby he claimeth this power over us is the same whereby he claimeth it over the whole World because he is S. Peter's Successor forsooth And indeed if St. Peter himself had been now alive I should freely confess that he ought to have spiritual Authority and Superiority within this Kingdom But so would I say also if St. Andrew St. Bartholoâ—ew St. Thomas or any of the other Apostles had been alive For I know that their Commission was very large to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel unto every Creature So that in what part of the World soever they lived they could not be said to be out of their Charge their Apostleship being a kind of an Universal Bishoprick If therefore the Bishop of Rome can prove himself to be one of this rank the Oath must be amended and we must acknowledge that he hath Ecclesiastical Authority within this Realm True it is that our Lawyers in their Year-Books by the name of the Apostle do usually design the Pope But if they had examined his Title to that Apostleship as they would try an ordinary man's Title to a piece of Land they might easily have found a number of flaws and main defects therein For first It would be enquired whether the Apostleship was not ordained by our Saviour Christ as a special Commission which being personal only was to determine with the death of the first Apostles For howsoever at their first entry into the execution of this Commission we find that Matthias was admitted to the Apostleship in the room of Judas yet afterwards when James the Brother of John was slain by Herod we do not read that any other was substituted in his place Nay we know that the Apostles generally left no Successors in this kind Neither did any of the Bishops he of Rome only excepted that sate in those famous Churches wherein the Apostles exercised their ministry challenge an Apostleship or an Universal Bishoprick by virtue of that Succession It would secondly therefore be inquired what sound Evidence they can produce to shew that one of the company was to hold the Apostleship as it were in Fee for him and his Successors for ever and that the other eleven should hold the same for term of life only Thirdly if this state of perpetuity was to be cast upon one how came it to fall upon St. Peter rather than upon St. John who outlived all the rest of his follows and so as a surviving feoffee had the fairest right to retain the same in himself and his Successors for ever Fourthly if that state were wholly setled upon St. Peter seeing the Romanists themselves acknowledge that he was Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome we require them to shew why so great an inheritance as this should descend unto the younger Brother as it were by Burrough-English rather than to the elder according to the ordinary manner of descents Especially seeing Rome hath little else to alledge for this preferment but only that St. Peter was crucified in it which was a very slender reason to move the Apostle so to respect it Seeing therefore the grounds of this great claim of the Bishop of Rome appear to be so vain and frivolous I may safely conclude That he ought to have no Ecclesiastical or Spiritual Authority within this Realm which is the principal point contained in the second part of the Oath JAMES REX RIght Reverend Father in God and Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor We greet you well You have not deceived our expectation nor the gracious opinion We ever conceived both of your abilities in Learning and of your faithfulness to Us and our Service Whereof as we have received sundry Testimonies both from Our precedent Deputies as likewise from Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Cousin and Councellor the Viscount Falkland Our present Deputy of that Realm so have We now of late in one particular had a further evidence of your Duty and Affection well expressed by your late carriage in Our Castle-Chamber there at the censure of those disobedient Magistrates who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy Wherein your zeal to the maintenance of Our Just and Lawful Power defended with so much Learning and Reason deserves Our Princely and Gracious thanks which We do by this Our Letter unto you and so bid you farewell Given under Our Signet at Our Court at White-Hall the eleventh of January 1622. In the twentieth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland To the Right Reverend Father in God and Our Right Trusty and Welbeloved Councellor the Bishop of Meath This discourse had so good an effect that divers of the Offenders being satisfied they might lawfully take those Oaths did thereby avoid the Sentence of Praemunire then ready to be pronounced against them After the Bishop had been in Ireland about two years it pleased King James to imploy him to write the Antiquities of the British Church and that he might have the better opportunity and means for that end he sent over a Letter to the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland commanding them to grant a Licence for his being absent from his See part of which Letter it may not be amiss to give you here Verbatim JAMES REX RIght Trusty and Welbeloved Cousins c. We Greet you well Whereas We have heretofore in Our Princely judgment made choice of the Right Reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath to imploy him in Collecting the Antiquities of the British Church before and since the Christian Faith was received by the English Nation And whereas We are also given to understand That the said Bishop hath already taken pains in divers things in that kind which being published might tend to the furtherance of Religion and good Learning Our pleasure therefore is That so soon as the said Bishop hath setled the necessary Affairs of his Bishoprick there he should repair into England and to one of the Universities here to enable himself by the helps to be had there to proceed the better to the finishing of the said Work Requiring you hereby to cause our Licence to be passed unto him the said Lord Bishop of Meath under Our Great Seal orotherwise as he shall desire it and unto you shall be thought fit for his repairing unto this Kingdom for Our Service and for his continuance here so long time as he shall have occasion to stay about the perfecting of those Works undertaken by him by Our Commandment and for the good of the Church c. Upon which Summons the Bishop came over into England and spent about a year here in consulting the best Manuscripts in both Universities and private Libraries in order to the perfecting that noble Work De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum though it was not published till above two years after when we shall take occasion to speak thereof more at large
that Government as well Ecclesiastical as Civil We have taken in special consideration the growth and increase of the Romish Faction there and cannot but from thence collect That the Clergy of that Church are not so careful as they ought to be either of God's Service or the honour of themselves and their Profession in removing all pretences of Scandal in their lives and conversation wherefore as We have by all means endeavoured to provide for them a competency of maintenance so We shall expect hereafter on their part a reciprocal diligence both by their Teaching and Example to win that Ignorant and Superstitious People to joyn with them in the true Worship of God And for that purpose We have thought fit by these Our Letters not only to excite your care of these things according to your Duty and dignity of your Place in that Church but further to Authorize you in Our Name to give by your Letters to the several Bishops in your Province a special charge requiring them to give notice to their Clergy under them in their Diocesses respectively That all of them be careful to do their Duty by Preaching and Catechising in the Parishes committed to their charge And that they live answerable to the Doctrine which they Preach to the People And further We Will that in Our Name you write to every Bishop within your Province That none of them presume to hold with their Bishopricks any Benefice or other Ecclesiastical dignity whatsoever in their own hands or to their own use save only such as We have given leave under Our Broad Seal of that Our Kingdom to hold in Commendam And of this We require you to be very careful because there is a complaint brought to the said Lords Committees for Irish Affairs That some Bishops there when Livings fall void in their Gift do either not dispose them so soon as they ought but keep the profits in their own hands to the hinderance of God's Service and great offence of good People or else they give them to young and mean men which only bear the Name reserving the greatest part of the Benefice to themselves by which means that Church must needs be very ill and weakly served of which abuses and the like if any shall be practised We require you to take special care for present redress of them and shall expect from you such account of your endeavours herein as may discharge you not to Us only but to God whose honour and service it concerns Given under Our Signet at Our Palace atWestminster the twelfth of April in the Sixth year of Our Reign By which Letter it is manifest how highly his Majesty was offended at the increase of the Popish party in that Kingdom and therefore would have all diligence used to prevent it as also other abuses reformed which had it seems crept in by degrees amongst the Protestant Clergy there But how little his Majesty liked the Romish Religion the Lord Primate was before very well satisfied by this Memorandum which I have of his own hand writing in a Book of his viz. The King once at White-Hall in the presence of George Duke of Buckingham of his own accord said to me That he never loved Popery in all his life But that he never detested it before his going into Spain But to return to the matter in hand the Lord Primate in pursuance of his Majestie 's Command which so fully agreed with his own desires set himself diligently to put in execution what had been committed to his care as well for the good of the Church as his Majestie 's Service He therefore endeavoured to reform first those disorders which had been complained of in his own Province and which had been in good measure rectified already as has been already mentioned and in the next place he made it his business to reclaim those deluded People who had been bred up in that Religion from their infancy for which end he began to converse more frequently and familiarly with the Gentry and Nobility of that perswasion as also with divers of the Inferior sort that dwelt near him inviting them often to his House and discoursing with them with great mildness of the chief Tenets of their Religion by which gentle usage he was strangely successful convincing many of them of their Errors and bringing them to the knowledge of the Truth And he also advised the Bishops and Clergy of his Province to deal with the Popish Recusants in their several Diocesses and Cures after the same manner that if possible they might make them understand their Errors and the danger in which they were which way in a Country where there are no Penal Laws to restrain the publick Profession of that Religion was the best if not the only means which could be used Nor was his care confined only to the conversion of the ignorant Irish Papists but he also endeavoured the reduction of the Scotch and English Sectaries to the bosom of the Church as it was by Law established conferring and arguing with divers of them as well Ministers as Lay-men and shewing them the weakness of those Scruples and Objections they had against their joyning with the publick Service of the Church and submitting to its Government and Discipline and indeed the Lord Primate was now so taken up in Conferences with all sorts of Persons or in answering Letters from Learned men abroad or else such as applied themselves to him for his judgment in difficult points in Divinity or resolutions in Cases of Conscience that whoever shall consider this as also his many Civil and Ecclesiastical Functions together with the constant course of his Studies must acknowledge that none but one of his large capacity and who made a constant good use of his time could ever be sufficient for so many and so different imployments About the end of this year I find the Arch-Bishop was in England by his publishing and printing at London a small Treatise of the Religion Anciently professed by the Irish which comprehends also the Northern Scots and Britains which he writ in English to satisfie the Gentry and better sort of People that the Religion professed by the Ancient Bishops Priests Monks and other Christians of these Kingdoms was the very same in the most material Points with that which is now maintained by publick Authority against those novel and foreign Doctrines introduced by the Bishop of Rome in latter times The next year Anno 1632. the Lord Primate after his return into Ireland published his Veterum Epistolarum Hybernicarum Sylloge containing a choice Collection of Letters out of several Ancient Manuscripts and other Authors partly from and partly to Ancient Irish Bishops and Monks Commencing about the year of our Lord 592. to the year 1180. concerning the Affairs of the Irish Church in those times which abundantly shew the great esteem the Learning and Piety of the Bishops and Clergy of that Church had then both at Rome France
a return for all her favours Then he desired to be left to his own private Devotions After which the last words he was heard to utter about One of the Clock in the Afternoon praying for forgiveness of Sins were these viz. O Lord forgive me especially my sins of Omission So presently after this in sure hopes of a glorious Immortality he fell asleep to the great grief and affliction of the said Countess who could never sufficiently lament her own and the Churches great loss by his too sudden departure out of this life Thus dyed this humble and holy man praying for his sins of Omission who was never known to omit his duty or scarce to have let any time slip wherein he was not imployed in some good action or other and if such a man thought he had so much to beg pardon for what an account must those have to make who scarce bestow any of their time as they ought to do He had been when he died 55 years a Minister and almost all that time a constant Preacher near 14 years a Professor of Divinity in the Univesity of Dublin and several years Vice-Chancellor of the same he sat Bishop of Meath near 4 years and one and thirty years Arch-Bishop of Armagh being from St. Patrick the 100 Bishop of that See As soon as his Relations received the sad news of his death they gave orders for his interment at Rygate where he dyed the Honourable Countess with whom he had lived and dyed intending to have him buried in her own Vault in order to which his Relations being then not near it was thought fit to preserve the Corps by such means as are proper in that case so a Chyrurgeon being sent for the Body was opened and a great deal of Coagulated blood found setled in his left side which shewed that the Physician had mistook his disease not expecting a Pleurisie in a man of above 75 years of Age. But now whilst they were preparing speedily to bury him some or other put it into Oliver Cromwell's head how much it would be for the Lord Primate's as well as his own honour to have him solemnly buried which he approving of and thinking it a good way to make himself Popular because he well knew what great reputation the deceased had among all Ranks and Degrees of men Whereupon he presently caused an Order to be drawn and sent to the Lord Primate's Son-in-law and Daughter straitly forbidding them to bury his Body any where else than at Westminster Abby for that his Highness as he then called himself intended a Publick Funeral for him This Command his Relations durst not disobey as the Times then were though it was much against their Wills perceiving well enough the Usurper's design that as it was intended so it would make more for his own honour than that of the deceased Primate and withal perceiving what accordingly happened that he would never defray half the expence of such a solemn Funeral which therefore would cause the greatest part of the charge to fall upon them though they were least able to bear it and yet he would reap all the glory of it I should not have said so much on this subject had it not been to shew the World the intriguing subtilty of this Usurper even in this small Affair and that for the expence of about 200 l. out of the Deodands in his Amoner's hands which was nothing at all to him he was able to put those he accounted his Enemies to treble that charge However since it could not be avoided the Corps was kept unburied till the 17th of April following when it was removed from Rygate towards London being met and attended by the Coaches of most of the Persons of Quality then in Town the Clergy in and about London waiting on the Hearse from Somerset House to the Abby Church where the Crowd was so great that there was forced to be a Guard to prevent the rudeness of the people The Body being brought into the Quire Dr. Nicholas Bernard then Preacher of Grays-Inn preached his Sermon his discourse was on 1 Sam. 25. 1. And Samuel died and all Israel were gathered together and lamented him and buried him Of which I shall say nothing more since it is in print and is but for the most part an account of his life which we now give you more at large The Sermon ended the Corps was conveyed to the Grave in St. Erasmus Chappel and there buried by the said Dr. according to the Liturgy of the Church of England his Grave being next to Sir James Fullerton's once his School-Master there waiting a glorious Resurrection with those that dye in the faith of our Lord Jesus Many Tears were shed at his Obsequies the City and Country being full of the singular Piety Learning and Worth of the deceased Primate which though it fall not to every man's Lot to equal yet it is his duty to follow so good an example as far as he is able Quamvis non passibus aequis In the next place I shall give you a faithful account without flattery of his personal Qualifications Opinions and Learning As for his outward form he was indifferent tall and well shaped and went always upright to the last his Hair naturally Brown when young his Complexion Sanguine his Countenance expressed Gravity and good Nature his Carriage free a presence that commanded both Respect and Reverence and though many Pictures have been made of him the Air of his face was so hard to hit that I never saw but one that was like him He was of a strong and healthy Constitution so that he said That for the most part of his life he very rarely felt any pain in his head or stomach in his youth he had been troubled with the Sciatica and some years after that with a long Quartan Ague besides the fit of the Strangury and Bleeding above mentioned but he never had the Gout or Stone A little sleep served his turn and even in his last years though he went to Bed pretty late yet in the Summer he would rise by five and in the Winter by six of the Clock in the Morning his Appetite was always suited to his dyet he would feed heartily on plain wholsom Meat without Sauce and better pleased with a few Dishes than with great Varieties nor did he love to tast of what he was not used to Eat He liked not tedious Meals it was a weariness to him to sit long at Table but what ever he Eat or Drank was never offensive to his Stomach or Brain for he never exceeded at the greatest Feast and I have heard some Physicians impute the easieness of his Digestion to something very particular in the frame of his Body for when the Chyrurgeon had opened him he found a thick Membrane lined with Far which as I suppose was but a continuation of the Omentum which extended it self quite over his Stomach and was fastened above to
Et stygio soboles carcere spurca fluens Fulgenti nuper cecidit tua gloria coelo Nunc eadem terris in loca nigra cadit LETTER XX. A Letter from Mr. Thomas Lydyat to Dr. James Usher at Dublin Colledge Reverend and Dear Dr. Usher I Received your Letter dated the sixth of October I am glad you received my Book and I thank you for yours which I received from Mr. Harris of Hanwell The former part of your Letter being in regard of the matter a Tragi-Comedy drave me almost into an ecstasie and afterwards brought to my mind that of the Psalmist Many are the troubles of the righteous but God delivereth him out of them all And therefore it is good to hold fast by him continually and to desire his direction and furtherance in all our Affairs and Businesses So although the beginning and middle thereof be never so troublesome we shall not need to doubt but that the end will be happy and prosperous The Astronomical Calculation of years in Ptolemy's Canons if it be Genuine is doubtless an excellent Monument of Antiquity which I would gladly see But yet it is not likely to make me to let go mine account of Darius his years firmly proved out of Thucydides and Ctesias compared with Diodorus I have endeavoured to satisfie you touching the objections you make in your Letter as also to satisfie your desire touching the distances of Taurus mentioned by Albategnius and touching the quantity of the Solar and Lunar year and disposition of the Grecian Calendar in Geminus Thus with remembrance of my dutiful commendations to your self Mr. Provost Temple D. Richardson and the rest of our friends with you I commit you your Studies and Affairs to the blessing of God to the behoof of your Country and the whole Church of Christ. Yours to be commanded in all Christian Duties Thomas Lydyat Alkerton Monday March 18. 1616. Excerpta ex Albatenio DE Epocharum distantiis I find no such express mention in Albategnius as that in the end of the 15 of Alfraganus of Christman's Edition neither are his 32 nor his 421 set down in the same method The 325 the Title whereof in the Indice Capitum before the Book is In scientiâ Tarec Arabum Romanorum ac Persarum atque Alkept alternatim hath three parts In the first part are set down their 4 sorts of Months thus Mensium quidem Arabum nomina sunt Almuhartan Saphar c. Romanorum autem mensium nomina secundùm Graecorum Egyptiorum principia sunt Elul Tisrin primus Tisrin Secundus c. Nomina verò mensium Persarum sunt Efrosometh Asdiasdmed c. Mensium autem Alkept nomina sunt Tut Bena Accur c. Whereunto is subjoyned a Clause directly concerning your purpose and that truly set down amidst the manifold errors about the Dates of Times both in the same Chapter and in the whole Book as appeareth by comparing the same with other places in these Words Principium autem à quo Romani incipiunt Alkept est à morte Alexandri Macedonis secundum Graecos Aegyptii verò Romani ab Ehahilcarnain annis numerant sunt inter eos 12 anni Aegyptiaci These are the very Words and without doubt Albatenius his meaning confirmed by the Dates of the most principal of his observations and the plain truth In the second part he sheweth how to find the beginnings of all those 4 sorts of Years and Months Where the Arabian and Alhegira radix is 5d The Roman from Alhilcarnain is 0d 7d The Persian from Jesdag 3d. The Alkept also from Adhilcarnain 5d Whereby is signified that the first year of Dhilcarnain began in the 436 year of Nabonazar and 12 à morte Alexandri almost ending to wit on the 8d Of Tisrin posterioris or November following In the 3. he sheweth how to find one sort of year by another and it hath 8 Sections 1. Romanorum i. e. Syre-Graecorum Constantinopolitana à die Septembris feria 7a anni periodi Julianae 4402. ab initio Octobris alii Arabes exteri Antiochiam deducunt ut à 1 o Tisri Hebraei in suâ aerâ contractuum Jason Cyrenaeus in 2o. lib. Maccab. vel 1 o die Octobris ejusdem anni feriâ 22 ut apud Alfraganum alios Arabas Hebraeos in suo 2. Alkept Alexandrinorum i. e. à 290 die Augusti feriâ anni periodi Julianae 4403. ut aera Chaldaeorum apud Ptolęmaeum Laodicenorum apud Scalig. p. 405. Nam Thoth Nabonass 436. incurrit in Novem. 9. seria 5a. Thoth verò 437 quod hic potius intelligendum quia à 12 Alexandri dessnente sit supputatio à Nov. ser. 6a. § 1. Si autem Romanorum Taric per Taric Alhegira scire volueris ita ut diem Romani mensis in quo fueris quot ad Hilcarnaim anni praeterierint deprehendas Arabicam radicem servatam accipe eique 317 dies superadde viz. as many as are from the first of Elul or September to the 15 of Themmur or Tamuz that is July quibus 933 superadde annos collectumque erunt anni ad Hilcarnaim This confirms the former account for being granted that there are 945 years inter Philippum sive mortem Alexandri Hegiram take away 12 there remain 933 between Dhilcarnaim and Hegira § 2. Cum autem Taric Alkept per Romanorum Taric nosse desideras annos ad Hilcarnaim cum anno in quo fueris etsi Elul per unum tantùm diem ingressus sit accipe post hoc ex eo 387 diem abjice c. et collecto tres semper dies adjunge et hi sunt dies in quibus Alkepin Elul Graecos ingressu quae est Tut proecedunt c. per hoc autem Taric stellarum ex Canonibus Theum abstrahuntur postquà m his annis 15 anni superadduntur eo quod sit à morte Alexandri Macedonis § 3. Romanorum autem Taric per Taric Alkept si nosse quaeris annos Alkept qui sunt anni ad Hilcarnaim Aegyptiaci perfecti sume ex quibus 387 abjice c. Et si perfectis annis Alkept 15 annos ut ab Alexandri Macedonis morte sic adhibueris Dehinc collecto 535 annos Aegyptiacos adjunxeris inde collectum annos libri Ptolemaei quibus stellarum motus abstrahuntur efficies quod est à principio regni Nabuchodonosor primi usque ad annum in quo fue is ex annis Alkept Here the last number 535 being by a manifest error of the first Figure put for 435 from the beginning of Nabonazar's Reign to the Alkept year in which oera Dhilcarnaim from the Syro-Graeco-Roman Month Elul Gorpioeus and September began doth as manifestly discover the error of 15 twice put for 11 and consequently of 387 days for 283 years from anno Nabonazari 436 to 719 as being the remains of 11 taken away from 294. à morte Alexandri in the 425 year ad regnum Aegyptiacum Augusti in
due time the Clouds and Mists of errors being dispersed and vanished it will shine forth as bright as the clear Sun at Noontyde As touching the Books you wrote for I told this Messenger that I meant to send them and therefore I appointed him to call for them together with my Letter this Day But since I have altered my purpose not envying you the sight of them but expecting your coming into England ere long as of custom once within three or four years at which time I shall be glad to shew you them and to confer them together with your Ptolemy's Canons In the mean time if you have any more urgent occasion of desiring to be resolved of any thing in them do but acquaint me with your purpose what you would prove out of them and I will truly give my best diligence to â—â—â— what may be found in them for the same and so save you that Labour on seeking which I suppose you may better bestow otherwise and so I trust I shall deserve better of you than if I sent you the Books Thus desiring your daily Prayers as you have mine for Gods blessing to bend our Studies to the best ends and make them most profitable to the setting forth of his glory and the good of his Church and of our Countries I take leave of you for this time resting Yours to be commanded in all Christian duties Thomas Lydyan 〈◊〉 July 8 1617. LETTER XXVIII Mr. William Eyres Letter to Dr. James Usher afterward Arch-Bishop of Armagh Eximio Doctori Domino Jacobo Usserio Guilielmus Eyre S. P. D. Praestantissime Domine FAteor me tibi plus debere quà m verbis exprimere possim etiamsi centiès ad te quotannis literas darem idque non solùm propter privatae benevolentiae erga me tuae fructus uberrimos sed etiam ob magnitudinem tuorum erga nos omnes qui Theologiae studiosi sumus meritorum Macte virtute tua faxitque Christus Opt. Max. cujus sub vexillo militamus ut Scripta tua polemica cedant in nominis sui gloriam Antichristi interitum quo de in Sibyllinus memini me legisse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod de scriptis doctissimorum Virorum quidam interpretantur Nos hic plerique omnes ut opinor preces fundimus dum vos sive gubernatores sive nautae vel clavum tenetis vel per foros cursitatis c. navali praelio dimicatis preces lachrymae arma nunquam magis necessaria fuerunt quà m in hac in exulceratissima tempestate omnium pessimâ morum corruptelâ Serenissimus Rex noster Jacobus jam denuò collegium illud Chelseiense prope Londinum Theologorum Gratia qui controversiis dent operam adornare locupletare coepit Matthaeus Sutlivius ea in re nullum lapidem immotum relinquit Quid fiet nescio Res agitur per Regias literas ad Episcopos apud Clerum eorum operâ apud subditos ditiores ut opus tandem perficiatur Forsan majora adhuc à vobis in Dubliniensi Collegio quà m ab illis Chelseiensibus expectare possumus quamdiù vivit acviget amicus ille meus de quo Draxus quidam nostras in libello nuper edito lumen illud Irlandiae in Academia Dubliniensi Professor regius Theologus tam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut sive scripta sive disputationem requiras idoneus est qui cum tota Papistarum natione concertet Sed quid ego haec autem ne quicquam ingrata revolvo Me quod atinet ita nuper praesertim per integrum annum novissime elapsum eo plus secularibus negotiis quotidianis contra genium voluntatem meam concionibus ad populum nimis ut videtur frequentibus quasi demersus fuerim ut nihil in Hebraicis quaestionibus me posse videar atque in quibusdam absque te quem pure indigitare possim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ita haeret aqua ut ulterius progredi non liceat fas sit igitur mihi Oraculum tuum consulere limatissimum judicium tuum expiscari Nolo tamen in hoc tempore diutiùs te interpellare Gratulor tibi ex animo purpuram tuam costam illam quam tibi Deus restituit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cura Valetudinem Gratia Jesu Christi sit cum omnibus vobis Amen G. Eyres Colcestriae 170 die Augusti 1617. LETTER XXIX A Letter from Mr. Edward Warren to Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh at St. Patricks Reverend Sir THat the Beast which was and is not and yet is should be Romanus Pontifex I like your Conjecture very well and the Ground seems to me firm and such as I may tread safely on And that which you quote out of Dionys. Halicarnas touching his Immunity brought me to consider better of his Office and Authority set down by Livy lib. 1. Caetera quoque omnia publica privataque sacra pontificis scitis subjecit Numa ut esset quò consultum Plebs veniret ne quid divini juris negligendo patrios ritus peregrinósque asciscendo turbaretur Which in my conceit is some Resemblance of that Head-ship which the latter Pontifex now challengeth to himself In the other Part I take all to be clear save only that I stick somewhat at the Accommodation of those Words pag. 10. That when he cometh he shall continue but a short Space I heartily thank you that for my satisfaction you have taken so much Pains Your poor Friend Edward Warren Kilkenny Novemb. 4. 1617. The God of Peace be with you Usserii notae Of Pontifex Maximus see Plutarch in Vitâ Numae Ciceronem in orat pro domo apud Pont. et de aruspic Resp. Val. Max. lib. 1. cap. 1. Georg. Fabrice observat lect Virgil. Aenead 6. Insolentia superbia eorum abiit in Proverbium Horat. Od. 2. 14. Mero Tinget pavimentum superbo Pontificum potiore Coenis Vid. loc ubi Interpres not at proelautas coenas Proverbio Pontificales appellari solitas Exemplum hujus Coenae vide in Macrobio lib. 2. Saturnal cap. 9. LETTER XXX A Letter from Dr. James Usher afterwards Arch-Bishop of Armagh to Mr. Thomas Lydyat Rector of Askerton in Oxford-shire Salutem in Christo. AS I was now going out of the House I met with Robert Allen who told me he was to go presently for England and required my Letters unto you I have nothing that upon this sudden I can well write of but the renewing of my former Request for those two Books which I wrote for in my two former Letters And therefore according to the Form which our Canonists use in their Court Proceedings Peto primò secundò tertio instantèr instantiùs instantissimè That you will let me have the use of your Geminus and Albategnius which shall God willing be returned unto you as safely and as speedily as you shall desire which I hope you will the rather condescend unto because I have no purpose to see England these many
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.
of my Collations your Lordship shall not want the Heydelburg Edition which I will take care to have sent unto you I have been this Morning with Mr. Patrick Young who cannot give me satisfaction concerning those Books till he have been in the Princes Library For the nameless Annal I conceive that your Amanuensis mistook your meaning for where you say that it begins at the year of our Lord 744 and ends in the year 1100 I cannot see how Asserius Menevensis could be the Author of most of it Mr. Young will make search for it and return an Answer as soon as conveniently he may As for Asserius de rebus gestis Alfredi he tells me that they have only a Transcript of it but Sir Robert Cotton hath an ancient Copy the same he tells me of Florentius Wigorniensis and Simeon Dunelmensis Of Eusebius Chronicle they have three or four Copies and if you please shall have all of them or which you please Sir Rob. Cotton doth daily augment his store he hath gotten lately a Book of St. Edm. Bury By the next return I hope to send the Books which you desire and perhaps to play the Carrier my self There is a rumor of the Adjournment of the Parliament till April but no Proclamation yet come forth There is a new Secretary Sir Albertus Morton to be sworn in the place of Sir Geo. Calvert I have not heard any thing out of Ireland since my last to your Lordship Mr. Young tells me that he received lately a Letter from Paris from one Lucas Holstenius a young Man whom I mention'd sometime to your Lordship being acquainted with him here in London the last year he writes to him that a Jesuit there doth publish a new Edition of Eusebius in Greek and Latin for the furtherance of which Work Mr. Mountague and Mr. Young sends thither their Notes and Observations upon him Petavius is busy about his work de Emendat Temp. which will shortly come abroad Holstenius is printing Scylax Artemidorus Ephesius with divers other old Geographers some of which were heretofore publish'd by D. Haeschelius and some till now never publish'd I doubt not but D. Ryves hath sent your Lordship his Answer to the Analecta I have read him over and approve the Work but not in every particular as where he makes Sedulius among others pag. 46. lib. 2. to be one of St. Patrick's forerunners in the plantation of Christian Religion in Ireland I do not see how that can be The best Authors making him contemporary if not later than St. Patrick Some other passages I could censure both of ancient and modern times but I will spare that labour till our meeting In the mean time with the remembrance of my Love and Service to your Lordship and Mrs. Usher and my heartiest Wishes and Prayers for your Health I will remain Your Lordship's most affectionate Friend and Servant Henry Bourgchier Lond. Jan. 17. 1624. LETTER LXXVI A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Lord Bishop of Meath AFter my Duty in humble manner premised I hope and am right glad to hear of your Lordship's Recovery I have received from your Lordship two Books whereby I have not been a little benefited yet of Boston I hear there is a greater Catalogue extant I forbore to write all this while for fear of trouble I have laboured ever since in the common business as your Lordship shall perceive by an humble Supplication printed which your Lordship shall receive by Mr. Calandrine which could I have had the happiness that it might have passed your learned Censure would have been much more perfect but ut quimus aut quando non ut volumus I have done it as advisedly as I could and doubt not to give every Man good satisfaction in good time If our Friends of Cambridge will joyn with us the Work may be well atchieved within half the time they taking half the Points mentioned and they both sending to us their Observations to be revised by us we ours to them to be revised by them that it may be the work jointly of both Universities My Zeal and Knowledg cannot match Dr. Ward 's yet I will endeavour to do my best I deâ—ire to have my Service remembred to my Lord of Ely I have upon a Letter of your Lordship's imployed some in transcribing Guil. de S. Amore not that which your Lorship sent but another greater and fuller Work that is done and a great deal besides More had been if we had not been compell'd for want of Mony to have surceased and my poor Means would not serve to supply Wants and I am indebted for that which is done Your Lordship by Letter if I mistake not undertook for my Lord of Ely's 20 l. per Annum had all promised been paid I had had 20 or 30 quire in readiness that which I have shall be fitted against the Parliament in the exactest manner that it can be done for the Press I have in the Press at the present these things A Confutation of Papists out of Papists in the most material Articles of our Religion whose Testimonies are taken either out of the Indices Expurgatorii or out of the ancient Books especially the Manuscripts An Index librorum prohibitorum 1ae 2ae vel 3ae Classis vel expurgatorum quovismodo chiefly for the use of our publick Library that we may know what Books and what Editions to buy their prohibition being a good direction to guide us therein I have cast them into an exact Alphabet My Cousin Rich. James desireth to have his Duty remembred to your Lordship he hath reviewed and inlarged his Book of Bochel's Decanonization a Book so nearly concerning Kingly Dignity and so fully opening the History of those Times that I know not where a Man shall read the like I would he might have the happiness that your Lordship might see it being now fair transcribed that it might pass your Lordship's Censure before it pass any further And I am perswaded over-weaning perhaps in love to my Cousin that if his Majesty saw it it would please him having so many good pieces of Antiquity in it it is his and shall be my chiefest Study I have here found upon search thereof Petrus Minorita's Homil. upon Matthew and two Books of St. Augustins coming here into England which are of good note but I make no doubt your Lordship hath seen them already I leave therefore to trouble your Lordship any further being right glad to hear of your Lordship's Preferment as I am informed for the good of the Church and so I rest Your Lordship 's in all Duty Thomas James Oxon Febr. 8. LETTER LXXVII A Letter from Dr. Thomas James to the Right Reverend James Usher Bishop of Meath My humble Duty remembred to your Lordship I Am incouraged by your Lordship's Letters to go on chearfully in my intended course and discovery solus aut quomodo what is one Man able to resist when
decay the which I rather mention because it is within your Province The more is taken away from the King's Clergy the more accrews to the Pope's and the Servitors and Undertakers who should be Instruments for settling a Church do hereby advance their Rents and make the Church poor In a word in all Consultations which concern the Church not the Advice of sages but of young Counsellors is followed With all particulars the Agents whom we have sent over will fully acquaint you to whom I rest assured your Lordship will afford your Countenance and best Assistance And my good Lord now remember that you sit at the Stern not only to guide us in a right Course but to be continually in action and standing in the Watch-Tower to see that the Church receive no hurt I know my Lord's Grace of Canterbury will give his best furtherance to the Cause to whom I do not doubt but after you have fully possessed your self thereof you will address your self And so with the remembrance of my Love and Duty unto you praying for the perfect recovery of your Health I rest Your Lordship 's most true and faithful Servant to command Tho. Kilmore c. March 26. 1624. LETTER LXXXI A Letter from Mr. Tho. Davis to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend MAY it please your Grace upo the 8th of July past I received your Letter baring date the 12th of March from Much-Haddam and the 5th of the last Month the Copy thereof by way of Legorn whereby I perceive that my Letter of the 29th of Spetember 1624 together with the five Books of Moses in the Samaritan Character came in safety to your hands being very glad it proves so acceptable to your Lordship however find myself to have been abused by a Jew who pretends to have knowledg in that Tongue affirming to me that it contained all the Old Testament How they read those Books I have enquired having no better means of him who I perceive knows no more if so much than their Alphabet and to hear him read the first two Verses of Genesis I could not because another of those Books is not here to be had The Name of God Jehovah is pronounced by them as saith he Yehueh and the fist eight and sixth of these Letters of their Alphabet are pronounced hef chef ef the ch of the eight Letters must be pronounced deep in the throat Chef I sent to Damascus to see if I could procure the Grammer Chronicles and Calendar which your Lordship desires but could not obtain any of them there being but one poor Man of the Samaritan race left in Damascus who is not able to satisfy me in any thing you desire only he said there were certain Books in their Language pawned to a great Spahee of that City but what they contained the poor Fellow knew not The Spahee would not part with them under 200 Dollers which is 60 l. Sterling so I durst not venture upon them being ignorant of their worth yet I will not cease labouring as occasion shall serve to give satisfaction to your Grace in what you require touching the Samaritans and I hope to prevail in some things unless the Troubles in and about Jerusalem do hinder the free passage of Caravans this ensuing Spring A former Letter which it seems your Lordship writ and sentaway by Marcelles I never received but as for the Old Testament in the Chaldean Tongue my diligence hath not wanted to procure and to this end sent divers times to Tripoly and Mount Libanus but could not prevail I have seen here the two first Books of Moses but examining them according to your Direction I found them to be out of the Greek whereupon I resolved to send to Emmit and Carommitt a City in Mesopotamia where divers of the Sect of the Jacobites do remain and after a long time there was sent me which I received eight days past the five Books of Moses only in an old Manuscript and according to the Hebrews with a promise ere long to send the rest of the Old Testament the Party that sent me this is the Patriarch of the Jacobites in those Parts who writ also that I should have Eusebius his Chronicle with some of the Works of Ephraem which if he do shall be sent by the first good Conveyance Those parcels of the New Testament viz. the History of the Adulterous Woman the second Epistle of St. Peter the second and third of John the Epistle of Jude with the Book of the Revelations I have procured and sent them together with the five Books of Moses and a small Tract of Eprhaem by the Ship Patience of London With the said Books I have sent another in the same Tongue which I humbly present your Grace if it shall yeild any matter worthy your reading I have obtained my desire however it may prove I presume it will be accepted as a Token of his Love who will ever be ready in what he can to observe and effect what your Lordship shall command him I have sought the Old Testament in that Tongue which is out of the Greek and distinguished by certain Marks and Stars but I cannot hear of any such From Emmit I hope to have some good News to write your Lordship and to send you a Catalogue of such Books as be here to be had When this Book which I now send shall be received I beseech your Grace to give your Secretary order to advise me thereof in the mean time if any of the Books you desire shall be brought or sent unto me I will not let them go for a small matter more or less such Books are very rare and esteemed as Jewels by the Owners tho they know not how to use them neither will they part with them but at dear rates especially to Strangers who they presume would not seek after them except they were of good worth and indeed they give a kind of superstitious Reverence to all Antiquity Thus have I related my proceedings and what intend to do in what your Lordship writes for and I should be very glad to accomplish your desire but I presume my willing and ready mind shall be accepted Here is News from Bagdat that the Vizier with the Army have been thereabouts now three Months past but have done little worthy so great a force and now for 70 or 80 days have besieged Bagdat but can do no good upon it The Persians have made divers Sallies out of the City and after a small Skirmish returned giving the Turks the worst the King of Persia if report be true draws all his Forces that way but rather to fear the Turk than encounter him unless by some Stratagem wherein he hath the advantage of the Turks the sequel and issue of this War we expect and greatly desire in this place the rather because our Trade depends much thereupon There hath of late happened some Troubles about Jerusalem by the
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
forbore to answer I yielded to the Example and Condition so much the rather because I remembred my self a Debtor to your Grace by my promise of writing to you more fully touching the Reasons of my difference with Mr. Cook and now a Suitor in your Court at his instance And first I beseech your Grace let it be a Matter meerly of merriment that I skirmish a little with your Court touching the Inhibition and Citation which thence proceeded against me as you shall perceive by the inclosed Recusation For the thing it self as I have written I do submit it wholly to your Grace's decision And to enlarge my self a little not as to a Judg but a Father to whom beside the bond of your undeserved Love I am bound also by an Oath of God I will pour out my Heart unto you even without craving pardon of my boldness It will be perhaps some little diversion of your Thoughts from your own infirmity to understand that you suffer not alone but you in Body others otherwise each must bear his Cross and follow the steps of our high Master My Lord since it pleased God to call me to this place in this Church what my Intentions have been to the discharge of my Duty he best knows But I have met with many Impediments and Discouragements and chiefly from them of mine own Profession in Religion Concerning Mr. Hoil I acquainted your Grace Sir Ed. Bagshaw Sir Francis Hamilton Mr. William Flemming and divers more have been and yet are pulling from the Rights of my Church But all these have been light in respect of the dealing of some others professing me kindness by whom I have been blazed a Papist an Arminian a Neuter a Politician an Equivocator a nigardly House-keeper an Usurer that I â—ow at the Name of Jesus pray towards the East would pull down the Seat of my Predecessor to set up an Altar denied burial in the Chaneel to one of his Daughters and to make up all that I compared your Grace's preaching to one Mr. Whiskins Mr. Creighton and Mr. Baxter's and preferred them That you found your self deceived in me c. These things have been reported at Dublin and some of the best affected of mine own Diocess as hath been told me induced hereby to bewail with Tears the Misery of the Church some of the Clergy also as it was said looking about how they might remove themselves out of this Country Of all this I heard but little till Mr. Price coming from Dublin before Christmass to be ordered Deacon having for his memory set down twelve Articles among a number of Points more required satisfaction of me concerning them Which I endeavoured to give both to him and to them of the Ministry that met at our Chapter for the examination of Mr. Cook 's Patent Omitting all the rest yet because this Venim hath spread it self so far I cannot but touch the last touching the preferring others to your Grace's preaching To which Mr. Price's answer was as he told me I will be quarter'd if this be true Thus it was Mr. Dunsterveil acquainted me with his purpose to preach out of Prov. 20. 6. But a faithful Man who can find Where he said the Doctrine he meant to raise was this That Faith is a rare Gift of God I told him I thought he mistook the meaning of the Text and wished him to chuse longer Texts and not to bring his Discourses to a word or two of Scripture but rather to declare those of the Holy Ghost He said your Grace did so Sometimes I answered there might be just cause but I thought you did not so ordinarily As for those Men Mr. Whiskins and the rest I never heard any of them preach to this day Peradventure their manner is to take larger Texts whereupon the Comparison is made as if I preferred them before you This Slander did not much trouble me I know your Grace will not think me such a Fool if I had no fear of God to prefer before your excellent Gifts Men that I never heard But look as the French Proverb is He that is disposed to kill his Dog tells Men he is mad And whom Men have once wronged unless the Grace of God be the more they ever hate Concerning the wrongs which these People have offered me I shall take another fit time to inform your Grace Where they say your Grace doth find your self deceived in me I think it may be the truest word they have said yet for indeed I do think both you and many more are deceived in me accounting me to have some Honesty Discretion and Grace more than you will by proof find But if as it seems to me that Form hath this meaning that they pretend to have undeceived you I hope they are deceived Yea I hope they shall be deceived if by such Courses as these they think to unsettle me and the Devil himself also if he think to dismay me I will go on in the strength of the Lord God and remember his Righteousness even his alone as by that Reverend and good Father my-Lord of Canterbury when I first came over I was exhorted and have obtained help of God to do unto this day But had I not work enough before but I must bring Mr. Cook upon my top one that for his Experience Purse Friends in a case already adjudged wherein he is ingaged not only for his profit but reputation also will easily no doubt overturn me How much better to study to be quiet and to do mine own Business or as I think Stampitius was wont to bid Luther go into my Study and Pray My Lord all these things came to my mind and at the first I came with a resolution to take heed to my self and if I could to teach others moderation and forbearance by mine own Example But I could not be quiet nor without pity hear the Complaints of those that resorted to me some of them of mine own Neighbours and Tenants called into the Court commonly by information of Apparators holden there without just Cause and not dismissed without excessive Fees aâ— they exclaimed Lastly One Mr. Mayot a Minister of the Diocess of Ardagh made a Complaint to me that he was Excommunicated by Mr. Cook notwithstanding as I heard also by others the Correction of Ministers was excepted out of his Patent Whereupon I desired to see the Patent and to have a Copy of it that I might know how to govern my self He said Mr. Ash being then from home should bring it me at his return Himself went to Dublin to the Term. At the first view I saw it was a formless Chaös of Authority conferred upon him against all reason and equity I had not long after occasion to call the Chapter together at the time of Ordination I shewed the Original being brought forth by Mr. Ash desired to know if that were the Chapter-Seal and these their hands they acknowledged their Hands and Seal and said they
I meant I do it very willingly for I never meant him nor any Man else but thought it concerned your Grace to know what I credibly heard to be spoken concerning your Court Neither as God knows did I ever think it was fit to take away the Jurisdiction from Chancellors and put it into the Bishops Hands alone or so much as in a Dream condemn those that think they have reason to do otherwise nor tax your Grace's Visitation nor imagine you would account that to pertain to your Reproof and take it as a Wrong from me which out of my Duty to God and you I thought was not to be concealed from you I beseech you pardon me this one Error Si unquam posthac For that Knave whom as your Grace writes they say I did absolve I took him for one of my Flock or rather Christ's for whom he shed his Blood And I would have absolved Julian the Apostata under the same form Some other Passages there be in your Grace's Letters which I But I will lay mine Hand upon mine Mouth And craving the blessing of your Prayers ever remain Your Grace's poor Brother and humble Servant Will. Kilmore and Ardaghen Kilmore March 29. 1630. LETTER CLVI A Letter from the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh to the Lords Justices My most Honoured Lords I Received a Letter from your Lordships without any Date wherein I am required to declare what Motives I can alleadg for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent Whereunto I answer That I cannot nor need not produce any other reason than that which I have done and for the maintenance of the sufficiency whereof I will adventure all I am worth namely that for the Particular now in question Sir John Bathe's Letter hath been gotten from his Majesty by meer surreption and therefore no Patent ought to be passed thereupon For although I easily grant that my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer might certify unto his Majesty that there was no other thing left to be passed here but Impropriations though Sir John Bathe I think hath found already somewhat else to be passed in his Book and may do more if he will not be so hasty but take time to enquire Yet how doth it appear that either of these two noble Gentlemen did as much as know that his Majesty had taken a former Order for the settlement of these things upon the Church To which Resolution had they been privy I do so presume of their Nobleness and care of the Publick Good that the remittal of a Matter of two thousand pounds would not induce them to divert his Majesty from making good that precious Donation which by the Example of his Father of never-dying memory he had solemnly devoted to God and his Church such an eximious Act of Piety as is not to be countervalued with two or twenty thousand pounds of any earthly Treasure But whatsoever they knew or knew not of his Majesty's own pious Resolution and constant Purpose never to revoke that which he hath once given unto God I rest so confident as I dare pawn my Life upon it that when he did sign those Letters of Sir John Bathe's he had not the least intimation given unto him that this did any way cross that former Gift which he made unto the Church upon so great and mature deliberation as being grounded upon the Advice first of the Commissioners sent into Ireland then of the Lords of the Council upon their report in England thirdly of King James that ever blessed Father of the Church and lastly of the Commissioners for Irish Affairs unto whom for the last debating and conclusion of this business I was by his now Majesty referr'd my self at my being in England I know Sir John and his Counsel do take notice of all those Reasons that may seem to make any way for themselves But your Lordships may do well to consider that such Letters as these have come before now wherein Rectories have been expresly named and those general Non obstantes also put which are usual in this kind and yet notwithstanding all this his Majesty intimateth unto you in his last Letters that he will take a time to examine those Proceedings and punish those that then had so little regard to the particular and direct expression of his Royal Pleasure for the disposing of the Impropriations to the general benefit of the Church Which whether it carrieth not with it a powerful Non obstante to that surreptious Grant now in question I hold it more safe for your Lordships to take Advice among your selves than from any other bodies Counsel who think it their Duty to speak any thing for their Clients Fee As for the want of Attestation wherewith the credit of the Copy of a Letter transmitted unto you is laboured to be impaired If the Testimony of my Lord of London who procured it and the Bishop Elect of Kilfennora who is the bringer of it and of a Dean and an Arch-Deacon now in Ireland who themselves saw it will not suffice it will not be many days in all likelihood before the Original it self shall be presented to your Lordships In the mean time I desire and more than desire if I may presume to go so far that your Lordships will stay your hands from passing Sir John Bathe's Patent until my Lord of London himself shall signifie his Majesties further Pleasure unto you in this Particular And it my Zeal hath carried me any way further than Duty would require I beseech your Lordships to consider that I deal in a Cause that highly concerneth the good of the Church unto which I profess I owe my whole self and therefore craving Pardon for this my Boldness I humbly take leave and rest still to continue Your Lordships in all dutiful Observance J. A. Droghedah April the 3d 1630. Instructions given to Mr. Dean Lesly April 5. 1630. for the stopping of Sir John Bathe's Patent 1. YOU are to inform your self whether Sir John Bathe's Patent be already sealed and if it be whether it were done before Saturday which was the day wherein I received and answered the Lords Justices Letters touching this business and at which time they signified the Patent was as yet unpast and use all speedy means that the Patent may not be delivered into Sir John Bathes hands before you be heard to speak what you can against it and if that also be done I authorize you to signifie unto the Lords Justices that I must and will complain against them to his Sacred Majesty 2. You are to go unto Sir James Ware the younger from me and enquire of him whether he gave any Certificate unto my Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer that the King had not of Temporal Lands the annual Rent of 300 l. to grant in reversion but that of necessity must be supplied with the Grant of the reversion of Tithes impropriate And withal learn
he understood by me how much you esteemed and loved him he desired me to return his humble Thanks with desire that you would imploy his Service in whatsoever he is able to perform His Majesty has conserr'd on him the Prebend in Canterbury which lately was Dr. Chapman's He is now settling himself in it he saith he hath received a late Advertisement of the Death of Bertius who over-lived his own Credit and Reputation Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour hath long slept under the Press by reason of his long close Imprisonment but now he tells me it shall go forward and he thinks within two Months it will come abroad The War in Italy is like to proceed the French King raiseth a great Army for that Expedition Here was a report that the States had taken Gulick but it holds not for a certain Truth One thing I must not over-pass and that a strange and monstrous Accident lately happened here in England One Dorington a younger Son of Sir William Dorington of Hamp-shire and Grand-Child to that Dorington who brake his Neck from St. Sepulchres Steeple in London being reprehended for some disorderly Courses by his Mother drew his Sword and ran her twice through and afterwards she being dead gave her many Wounds and had slain his Sister at the same time had he not been prevented I presume your Grace hath heard of the Death of Dr. Tho. James his Nephew Mr. Rich. James is fallen into some Trouble by reason of his Familiarity and Inwardness with Sir Robert Cotton I suppose you have the last Catalogue of Francfort which hath nothing of note But I fear I have been over troublesome to your Grace's more serious and weighty Imployments wherefore with the remembrance of my Love and Service I will ever remain Your Grace's most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London December the 4th 1629. LETTER CXLVIII A Letter from the Right Reverend William Laud Bishop of London to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My very good Lord I Have received two or three Letters from you since I writ you any Answer I hope your Grace is not of opinion that it is either idlenesi or neglect which have made me silent for the plain truth is I fell into a fierce burning Fever August the 14th which held me above three Weeks It was so fierce that my Physicians as well as my Friends gave me for dead and it is a piece of a Miracle that I live I have not yet recovered my wonted Strength and God knows when I shall yet since I was able to go to the Court tho not to wait there I have done as much business as I could and I think as your Grace hath desired of me for the Church of Ireland as your Lordship will see by this brief Account following And first my Lord I have obtain'd of his Majesty the new incorporating of the Dean and Chapter of Derry and I think the Dean is returned At the same time the King was pleased to give order for confirming the Election of Dr. Usher to be Governour of the Colledg in Dublin Thirdly upon the refusal of my Lord of Clougher his Majesty gave in the time of my Sickness the Arch-bishoprick of Cassills to the Bishop of Killally and the Bishoprick of Killally to the Dean of Rapho And whereas your Grace in the close of one of your Letters did acquaint me that there was a fear lest some cunning would be used to beg or buy some Patronages out of the King's Hands I moved his Majesty about that likewise and he made me a gracious promise that he would part with none of them And now my Lord I give your Lordship thanks for the Catalogue of the Bishopricks of Ireland which I heartily desire your Grace to perfect as occasion may be offered you And for the last business as I remember concerning the Table of Tything in Ulster I have carefully look'd it over but by reason I have no experience of those parts I cannot judg clearly of the Business but I am taking the best care I can about it and when I have done I will do my best with his Majesty for Confirmation and leave Mr. Hyegate to report the Particulars to your Grace I have observed that Kilphanora is no fertile Ground it is let lie so long Fallow Hereupon I have adventured to move his Majesty that some one or two good Benefices lying not too far off or any other Church-Preferment without Cure so it be not a Deanery may be not for this time only but for ever annex'd to that Bishoprick The care of managing that Business he refers to your Grace and such good Counsel in the Law as you shall call to your assistance And I pray your Grace think of it seriously and speedily and though I doubt you will find nothing actually void to annex unto it yet if that Act be but once past the hope of that which is annex'd will make some worthy Man venture upon that Pastoral Charge and so soon as you are resolv'd what to do I pray send me word that so I may acquaint his Majesty with it and get pow'r for you to do the Work These are all the Particulars that for the present I can recall out of your Letters sent unto me in the time of my Sickness So with my hearty Prayers for your Health and Happiness and that you may never be parch'd in such a Fire as I have been I leave you to the Grace of God and rest Your Grace's loving poor Friend and Brother Guil. London London-house Decemb. 7. 1629. LETTER CXLIX A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Right Reverend Father my Honourable good Lord I Have received your Grace's Letters concerning Mr. Cook I do acknowledg all that which your Grace writes to be true concerning his sufficiency and experience to the execution of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction neither did I forber to do him right in giving him that Testimony when before the Chapter I did declare and shew the nullity of his Parent I have heard of my Lord of Meathe's attempt and I do believe that if this Patent had due Form I could not overthrow it how unequal soever it be But falling in the essential parts besides sundry other defects I do not think any reasonable Creature can adjudg it to be good I shall more at large certify your Grace of the whole Matter and the reasons of my Counsel herein I shall desire herein to be tried by your Grace's own Judgment and not by your Chancellor's or as I think in such a case I ought to be by the Synod of the Province I have resolved to see the end of this matter and do desire your Grace's savour herein no farther than the equity of the Cause and the Good as far as I can judg of the Church in a high degree do require So with my humble
service to your Grace I rest Your Grace's in all duty W. Kilmore Kilmore Decemb. 28. 1629. LETTER CL. A Letter from L. Robinson to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh My honourable and most dear Lord MY poor Prayers to God shall never be wanting for the continuance and increase of your Lordship's Health and all true Happiness nor my serviceable and thankful Affections for all your noble Favours done to me and mine I forbear to treat with my Lord of Kilmore altogether about any of those things which are divulged under his hand being perswaded his Desires were only to do good and assured himself sees his expectation fail in them partly by the Apology he made for himself amongst his Ministers gathered together in the Church of Kilmore at the inhibiting of Mr. Cook where he shewed much grief that there were divers scandalous Reports rais'd of him As that he was a Papist an Arminian an Equivocator Politician and traveller into Italy that he bow'd his Knee at the Name of Jesus pull'd down the late Bishop's Seat because it was too near the Altar preached in his Surplice c. There generally he affirmed his education in Christian Religion and his love to the Truth shewing the Reasons of his Travels and the Use of the Ceremonies not to hinder any Man's liberty of Conscience nor urge Conscience but as he had voluntarily practis'd them in England for the good of some others so here Some things he denied and others he shew'd Reasons for so that he gave us all good satisfaction and we hope we shall have much comfort in him Yet 't is true he sent a strange Absolution to an Irish Recusant in a Letter using many good Instructions for the Man was sick in this form If you be content to receive Christ and believe in him by the Authority which is given to me I absolve you from all your Sins you have confessed to Almighty God and are truly contrite for in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen Thus craving pardon for being troublesome to your Grace I take leave and will ever rejoice to remain Your Lordship 's poor Servant to be commanded Lau. Robinson Farnh Jan. 18. 1629. LETTER CLI A Letter from Sir Henry Bourgchier to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend in Christ and my very good Lord I Did very lately presume to present my Service to your Grace by my Servant whom I sent into Ireland whose return from thence I expect very shortly and by him to hear at least of your Grace's Health and welfare than which no news can be more welcome to me Your Friends here as many as I know are all well Sir Rob. Cotton is not altogether free of his Trouble but he and his Friends hope he shall shortly Mr. Selden is also a Prisoner in the King's-Bench but goes abroad when he pleaseth so that his Friends enjoy him often I hope we shall have his Titles of Honour very shortly At Paris there is ready to come forth the King of Spain's Bible that was It will be now in ten Volumes whereas the other was but in eight and much fairer than the other as they say that have seen it which I think can hardly be Here is little News at this present The French Army is gone into Italy commanded by the Cardinal Richleau The Imperialists are so terrified with their coming that they have raised the Siege of Mantua and drawn themselves into the Dutchy of Milan for the defence thereof There is a Treaty of Peace there and in the Low-Countries of a Truce between the King of Spain and the States and the Spanish Ambassador is here about the same Business and ours in Spain And these several Treaties depend so one upon another that it is thought it will either prove a general Peace or a general War I wrote to your Grace in my former Letter of Mr. Vossius being here in England Within these two days I heard from him by Mr. Junius his Brother-in-law who went over with him He liked his entertainment so well in England that he hath now a good mind to settle himself here Concerning our own poor Country I can say nothing only that the Business of Philim Mac Teagh is in question which I mention the rather because your Grace had your part in it as a Commissioner The King hath sat two days already with the Lords and heard it with great patience and attention My Lord of Falkland as I hear hath ended his part which was to answer the Certificate and Report of the Commissioners in Ireland as far as it touched himself Sir Henry Beatinges part is next when those have done the other side shall have liberty to reply I cannot hear any speech of a new Deputy I believe the Government will continue as it is and the rather because it is a saving way which these Times do easily hearken unto I have sent your Grace here inclosed something that hath been lately done concerning the Church of England I doubt not but your Grace hath received it from other hands but I thought good to adventure it howsoever I intend with God's Assistance to be in Ireland about the midst of March at the farthest If your Grace desire any thing from hence I shall willingly conveigh it to you and if they be Books I can do it conveniently because I carry many of my own I will desire your Grace to esteem me in the number of those who most reverence and honour you and will ever approve himself Your Grace's most affectionate Friend and humble Servant Henry Bourgchier London Jan. 21. 1629. LETTER CLII. A Letter from the Right Reverend William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore to the most Reverend James Usher Arch-bishop of Armagh Most Reverend Father my honourable good Lord THE report of your Grace's indisposition how sorrowful it was to me the Lord knows albeit the same was somewhat mitigated by other News of your better Estate In that fluctuation of my mind perhaps like that of your Health the saying of the Apostle served me for an Anchor That none of us liveth to himself neither doth any die to himself For whether we live we live to the Lord or whether we die we die to the Lord Whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's Thereupon from the bottom of my heart commending your Estate and that of his Church here which how much it needs you he knows best to our common Master though I had written large Letters to you which have lien by me sundry Weeks fearing in your sickness to be troublesom I thought not to send them but to attend some other opportunity after your perfect recovery to send or perhaps bring them When I understood by Mr. Dean of his Journey or at least sending an express Messenger to you with other Letters putting me also in mind that perhaps it would not be unwelcome to you to hear from me though you