mâ—st Orthodâ—x Divines They determine according to St. Austin against the Doctrine of the Pelagians Prove the Man of sin spoken of 1 Thess. 2. to be the Bishop of Rome and for the Morality of the Sabbath of both which this most learned Doctor was very confident and oft wished that some of our learned men of late had spared their pains when they went about to prove the contrary In defence of the last of these he wrote a most excellent and learned Letter to Dr. Twiss who had desired his judgement about it He wanted not enemies who sought to scandalize him to King James under the Title of a Puritan which was very odious to him in those dayes seeking hereby to prevent his further promotion but God so ordered it that it proved an occasion of his advancement for King James being jealous of him upon that score by reason of the eminency of his learning fell into serious discourse with him and therein received such abundance of satisfaction both of the soundness of his judgement and piety that notwithstanding the opposition made by some great ones without his seeking he made him Bishop of Meath in Ireland which just then fell void whilst he was in England and the King often boasted that he was a Bishop of his own making Whilst he was thus Bishop Elect he was chosen to preach before the House of Commons Feb. 18. 1620 in Margarets Westminster The Sermon by order of the House was printed and it is a most learned one Upon his return into Ireland he was consecrated Bishop of Meath at Droheda by Archbishop Hampton with the assistance of two Suffragan Bishops according to the custome at which time there was given him an Anagram of his Name as he was then to write himself which was this James Meath I am the same and he made it good ever afterwards His preferment did not cause him to grow slack in his constancy of preaching as it did too many who having caught the Fish laid aside the Net But as Possidonius saith of St. Austin he was still the same which he bound himself the rather unto by the Motto of his Episcopal Seal Ve mihi si non Evangelizavero Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel which he continued in the Seal of his Primacy also He had many Papists in his Diocess whom he endeavoured to reclaim by private conferences and at length they were willing to hear him preach so it were not in a Church which he condescended to and preached in the Sessions-house and his Sermon wrought so much upon some of them that their Priests forbad them hearing him in any place ever after Anno 1622 there were some Papists censured in the Star-chamber for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy at which time he was called thither to inform them of it before the sentence passed which occasioned that learned Speech of his upon that subject since printed with his English works While he was Bishop of Meath he answered a challenge sent him by the Jesuite Malone and his going over into England to Print it occasioned another learned Tractate of the Universality of the Church of Christ and the Unity of the Catholick Faith in a Sermon preached before King James on Eph. 4. 13. Till we all come in the unity of the Faith c. And Gods providence so ordered it that whilst he was thus busied in England Archbishop Hampton dying he was made his successour Primate of Ireland Anno Christi 1624 and he was the hundreth Bishop of that See Being thus promoted to the highest preferment his Profession was capable of in his native Country he was so far from being puffed up with Pride that he was more humble and frequent in preaching and it so fell out that for some weeks together overtoyling himself in the work of the Ministry to the overwasting of his spirits whic he did at the request of some Essex Ministers who importuned him to preach on the week dayes because they could not come to hear him on the Sabbaths he fell into a Quartane Ague which held him three quarters of a year After his recovery the Lord Mordant afterwards Earle of Peterborough being a Papist and desirous to draw his Lady to the same Religion he was willing that there should be a meeting of two eminent persons of each party to dispute what might be in controversie between them The Lady made choice of our Lord Primate and prevailed with him though newly recovered from the aforesaid long sickness and scarce able to take such a journey The Jesuite chosen by the Earle went under the name of Beaumond but his true name was Rookwood brother to Ambrose Rookwood one of the Gunpowder Traitors The place of meeting was at Drayton in Northamptonshire where there was a great Library so that no Books of the ancient Fathers were wanting upon occasion for their view The points to be disputed on were concerning Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints worshipping of Images and the visibility of the Church Three dayes they were in this Disputation three hours in the forenoon and two hours in the afternoon each day and the conclusion was this After the third day of meeting the Lord Primate having been hitherto opponent now the Tables were to be turned and the Jesuit according to his desire was to oppose and the Lord Primate to answer But when the time came and the Jesuit was expected instead of coming he sent his excuse to the Lord Mordant which was that all the Arguments which he had framed in his head and premeditated so that he thought he had them as perfect as his Pater Noster were now slipt from him and he could not possibly recover them again and that he believed it was a just judgement of God upon him for undertaking of himself to dispute with a man of that eminency and learning without a licence from his Superiour The Lord Mordant seeing his tergiversation upon some further discourse with the Lord Primate was converted and became a Protestant and so continued to his death One Challoner a Secular Priest afterwards writing a book against this Beaumond by way of scorn bids him beware of coming any more to Drayton lest he meet with another Usher to foil him again to the dishonour of his profession and himself The Lord having made his labours so succesful the Countess of Peterborough had him alwayes in great respect and upon his losses in Ireland and other distresses here she took him home to her owne house with whom be lived about nine or ten years and then died there Anno Christi 16â—6 in August he went back into Ireland where he was entertained with all the expressions of love and joy that could be The discourses which daily fell from him at his Table in clearing difficulties in the Scripture and other subjects especially when learned men came to visit him tended exceedingly to the edification
Protestants also must have born some share To consider hereof a great Assembly of Papists and Protestants of the whole Nation was appointed in the Lord Deputy Faulklands time The place of their meeting was in the Hall of the Castle in Dublin At which time the Bishops by our Lord Primates invitation met at his house where he and they drew up and unanimously subscribed a Protestation against the Toleration of Popery A Copy whereof because it deserves perpetual remembrance is here inserted The Judgement of the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland concerning the Toleration of Popery which is applicable also against the Toleration of other Heresies The Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous their Faith and Doctrine erroneous and Heretical their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration or to consent that they may freely exercise their Religion and profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous sin and that in two respects For 1. It is to make our selves accessary not onely to their Superstitions Idolatries Heresies and in a word to all the abominations of Popery but also which is a consequent of the former to the perdition of the seduced people which perish in the Deluge of the Catholick Apostacy 2. To grant them a Toleration in respect of any money to be given or contribution to be made by them is to set Religion to sale and with it the souls of the People whom Christ our Saviour hath redeemed with his most precious blood And as it is a great sin so also a matter of most dangerous consequence the consideration whereof we commend to the Wise and Juditious Beseeching the Zealous God of Truth to make them who are in Authority zealous or Gods glory and of the advancement of true Religion zealous resolute and couragious against all Popery Superstition and Idolatry Amen Ja. Armachanus Mal. Cashlen Anth. Medensis Tho. Hernes Laghlin Ro. Dunensis c. Georg. Derens. Rich. Cork Cloyne Rosses Andr. Alachadens Tho. Kilmore Ardagh Theo. Dromore Mic. Waterford Lysm Fran. Lymerick This Judgement of the Bishops Dr. George Downham Bishop of Derry at the next meeting of the Assembly which was April the 23 1627 published at Christ Church before the Lord Deputy and Council in the middest of his Sermon with this preamble viz. Are not many amongst us for gain and outward respects willing and ready to consent to a Toleration of false Religions thereby making themselves guilty of a great offence in putting to sale not onely their own souls but also the souls of others But what is to be thought of Toleration of Religion I will not deliver my own private opinion but the judgement of the Archbishops and Bishops of this Kingdome which I think good to publish unto you that whasoever shall happen the world may know that we were far from consenting to those favours which the Papists expect After he had published it the people gave their votes with a generall acclamation crying Amen The judgements of the Bishops prevailed so much with the Protestants that now the Proposals drove on very heavily and after much debate of things the L. Deputy finding the discontents of both parties encreasing desired our Lord Primate as the fittest person both in regard of his esteem in the Assembly and being a member of the Council and therefore concerned in promoting of the Kings business to sum up the state of things and to move them to an absolute grant of some competency that might comply with the Kings necessities without any such conditions with which upon their answer he would cease moving any further which upon very little warning he did with much prudence according to his double capacity of a Privy Counsellour and a Bishop A copy of which Speech desired of him by the Lord Deputy was immediately transmitted into England But it not being prevalent with the Assembly to induce them to supply the Kings wants it was dissolved Not long after the Lord Deputy Falkland being called back into England when he was to take Boat at the water side he reserved our Lord Primate as the last person to take his leave of and fell upon his knees on the sands and begged his blessing which reverend respect shewed to him gained a greater reputation to himself both in Ireland and England and indeed from his younger years the several Lord Deputies had alwayes a great esteem of him It was no small labour to him to answer those many Letters which came to him from forreign parts and our own Nations upon several occasions some for resolution of difficulties in Divinity others about Cases of Conscience and practical subjects Twelve of the most eminent Divines in London who at his being here were wont to apply themselves to him as to a Father as Dr. Sibbs Dr. Preston c. between whom and him there were most entire affections wrote to him for his directions about a Body of practical Divinity which he returned them accordingly He much endeavoured the augmentation of the maintenance of the Ministery in Ireland and for that end he had obtained a Patent for Impropriations to be passed in his name for their use as they should fall but it was too much neglected by themselves whereby his desires were frustrated He preached every Lords day in the forenoon never failing unless he was disabled by sickness in which he spent himself very much In the afternoons his directions to Dr. Bernard his assistant were that before publick Prayers he should Catechize the youth and that after the first and second Lesson he should spend half an hour in a brief and plain opening the Principles of Religion in the publick Catichisme and therein he directed him to go first through the Creed at once giving but the sum of each Article the next time to go through it at thrice and afterwards to take each time one Article as they might be more able to bear it and to observe the like proportionably in the Ten Commandements the Lords Prayer and the Doctrine of the Sacraments The good fruit of which was apparent in the common people upon their coming to the Communion at which time by ordeâ— the receivers were to send in their names and some account was constantly taken of their fitness for it His order throughout his Diocess to the Ministers was that they should go through the Body of Divinity once a year which he had accordingly drawn out into fifty heads When any publick Fast was enjoyned he kept it very strictly preaching alwayes first himself and therein continuing at least two hours in a more than ordinary manner enlarging himself in prayer the like was done by those that assisted him in the duty His expences for Books was very great especially whilst he enjoyed the revenues of his Archbishoprick a certain part whereof he laid aside yearly for that end but especially for the purchasing of Manuscripts and other Rarities
acknowledged Having thus preached for a while as a Probationer he refused to continue it any longer having not as yet received Ordination He also scrupled to be as yet Ordained by reason of his defect of years the Canons requiring twenty four and he being yet but twenty one But by some grave and learned men he was told that the Lord had need of his labours and so upon their perswasions and importunity his age being dispensed with according to some former presidents he was ordained at the usual time the Sabbath before Christmas day Anno 1601 by his Uncle Henry Usher Archbishop of Armagh with the assistance of some other Ministers The first Text that he preached publickly upon before the State after his Ordination was Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead which fell out to be the same day upon which was fought the Battel of Kinsale which being a day specially set apart by prayer to seek unto God for his blessing and assistance in that engagement and being his first fruits after his entrance into the Office of the Ministry God might in a more than ordinary manner make his labours efficatious and prevailing the rest of that Epistle to the Church of Sardis he finished afterwards It was well known that if the Spaniards had gotten the better that day the Irish Papists had designed to murther the English Protestants both in Dublin and other places but especially the Ministers Hence said he arose a tentation in me to have deferred my Ordination till the event of the Battel had been known that so I might the better have escaped their fury but I repelled that suggestion and resolved the rather upon it that dying a Minister and in that quarrel I might at least be the next door to a Martyr The Spaniards being as was said before overthrown at Kinsale and the hopes of the Irish as to that design being frustrated they began generally to subject themselves to the Statute which was now put in execution in their coming to Church and that it might tend the more to their profit the Lord Lieutenant and his Council desired the Ministers at Dublin so to divide themselves that in imitation of what he had already begun at Christ Church there might be a Sermon on the Lords dayes in the afternoon at every Church upon those Controversies St. Katherines a convenient Church was assigned for Mr. Usher who removed accordingly and duely observed it and his custome was that what he had delivered in one Sermon he drew it up into Questions and Answers and the next Lords day several persons of note voluntary offered themselves to repeat those Answers before the whole Congregation which made them more clear and perspicuous to the Popish party It pleased God by his and the labours of others of his Brethren in the Ministry not only in Dublin but in other parts of the Kingdome that the Papists came so diligently to Church that if they had any occasion to absent themselves they used to send in their excuses to the Church-wardens and there were great hopes in a short time to have reduced the whole Nation to Protestanisme But on a sudden the execution of the Statute was suspended and the power of the High Commission Court then erected and used onely against the Papists was taken away whereupon the Papists presently withdrew themselves from the publick Assembles the Ministry was discouraged all good mens hearts were grieved and Popery from that time forward encreased till like a great Deluge it had overflowed the whole Nation Upon this the spirit of this holy man like Pauls at Athens was exceedingly stirred in him insomuch as preaching before the State at Christ Church upon a special solemnity he did with as much prudence courage and boldness as became his young years give them his opinion of that abominable Toleration of Idolatry making a full and clear application of that passage in Ezekiels Vision Chap. 4. 6. where the Prophet by lying on his side was to bear the iniquity of Judah for forty dayes I have appointed thee saith the Lord each day for a year This said he by the consent of Interpreters signifies the time of forty years to the destruction of Jerusalem and of that Nation for their Idolatry and so said he will I reckon from this year the sin of Ireland and at the end of the time those whom you now imbrace shal be your ruine and you shall bear this iniquity wherein he proved a Prophet For this was delivered by him Anno Christi 1601 and Anno 1641 was the Irish Rebellion and Massacre and what a continued expectation he had of a great judgement upon that his Native Country I saith Dr. Bernard can witness from the year 1624 at which time I had the happiness first to be known to him and the nearer the time approached the more confident he was of the event though as yet nothing that tended towards it was visible to other men The Body of Divinity which is printed in his name is highly commended by Mr. Downam who set it forth and so it is by a stranger Ludovicus Crocius who much desired that some English man would turn it into Latine for the benefit of forreign Churches but it was not intended by him for the Press It was begun by him in publick but finished some years after in private in his Family constantly instructing them twice a week unto which persons of quality and learning resorted and divers of them took Notes whereby several Copies were dispersed abroad some imperfect and mistaken and many passages are in it which were not his neither is the whole so polished as his other Pieces which were published by himself and indeed he was displeased that it came forth without his knowledge yet understanding how much good it had done he connived at it Shortly after the aforementioned defeat given to the Spaniards at Kinsale the Officers of our English Army gave 1800 pounds to buy Books for the College Library at Dublin then Souldiers were advancers of Learning the ordering of which was committed to Dr. Challoner and this Lord Primate who made a journey into England on purpose to buy Books with it He then met with Sir Thomas Bodly who was buying Books for his Library at Oxford and they were very helpful each to other in procuring the rarest Pieces In his journey he visited Mr. Christopher Goodman who had been Professor of Divinity in Oxford in King Edward the sixths dayes then lying on his death-bed at Chester and he would often repeat some grave and wise speeches that he heard from him After this he constantly came over into England once in three years spending one moneth at Oxford another at Cambridge in searching the Books especially the Manuscripts in each University amongst which those of Corpus Christi College in Cambridge he most esteemed the third moneth he spent at London
intending chiefly Sir Robert Cottons Library and conversing with learned men amongst whom even in those his younger years he was in great esteem In his after-years he was acquainted with the rarities in other Nations There was scarce a choice Book in any eminent persons Library in France Italy Germany or Rome it self but he had his way to procure it or what he desired transcribed out of it so that he was better acquainted with the Popes Vatican than some that daily visited it The Puteani fratres two learned men in Paris holp him much with many Transcripts out of Thuanus and others between whom and him many Letters passed Now though the reading of the Fathers all over was a vast work yet the pains he took out of the common road of learning in searching of Records and all the Manuscripts he could get throughout Christendome together with the knotty study of Chronology and Antiquity was equal with if it did not exceed the other Many Volumes he also read onely to attain to the knowledge of the use of words in several ages as Galen Hipocrates c. and most of the Records in the Tower of London Besides there was scarce the meanest book in his own Library but he remembred it even to admiration and had in his head readily whatsoever he had read The first Church-preferment which he had was given him by Archbishop Loftus a little before his death which was the Chancellorship of St. Patricks Dublin unto which he took no other Benefice In that place Mr. Camden found him when he was writing his Britannia Anno Christi 1607 and in his observations concerning Dublin saith of him Most of these I acknowledge to owe to the diligence and labours of James Usher Chancellor of the Church of St. Patricks who in various learning and judgement far exceeds his years In this preferment though the Law required not his preaching but onely in his course before the State yet would he not omit it in the place from whence he received his profits and though he endowed it with a Vicaridge yet went he thither in person viz. to Finglas a mile from Dublin and preached there every Lords day unless he were detained upon some extraordinary occasions and the remembrance that he had been a constant Preacher was a greater comfort to him in his old age than all his other labours and writings His experiments in Prayer were many and very observable God ofen answering his desires in kinde and that immediately when he was in some distresses and Gods Providence in taking care and providing for him in his younger years as he often spake of it so it wrought in him a firm resolution to depend upon God in his latter dayes what ever extremity he might be brought into Anno Christi 1607 when he was twenty seven years old he commenced batchelor of Divinity and immediately after be was chosen Professor of Divinity in the University of Dublin At first he read twice a week and afterwards once a week without intermission throughout the year going through a great part of Bellarmines Controversies In this employment he continued thirteen or fourteen years and was a great ornament to his place Three Volumes of those his Lectures written with his own hand he hath left behinde him and it would be a great honour to that University where they were read and benefit to many others if they were published When he performed his Acts for his degree Latine Sermon Lectures Position and answered the Divinity Act he wrote nothing but only the heads of the several Subjects putting all upon the strength of his memory and present expressions as also he did his English Sermons His readiness in the Latine Tongue was inferiour to none in these latter times which after seventeen years disuse from the time that he left his Professors place appeared when he moderated the Divinity Act and created Doctors to all mens admiration The Provostship of the College of Dublin falling void he was unanimously elected thereto by all the Fellows he being then about thirty years of age but foreseeing that upon the settlement of Lands belonging to it and the establishing of other matters he should be much impeded and distracted in his studies he refused it and so another was sent out of England to fill it The revenues of it were very considerable whereby we may see how mean and little the things of the world seemed in his eyes even in those his younger years About this time the Irish Prelates especially Dr. Hampton his predecessor in the Sea of Armagh had obtained King James his grant for reducing Ireland to the same Ecclesiastical Government of the Church of England the principal occasion whereof was this The English Prelates a little before had used a great deal of severity against the Non-conformists their High Commission and other Courts and Canons had driven many worthy and learned men into other Countries and some of them went into Ireland the Irish Bishops being weary of this resort are desirous to advance their power to the same height with the English Hierarchy combined together and obtained King James his Commission to Sir Arthur Chichester Earle of Belfast a famous Souldier and prudent Governour who was at this time Lord Deputy and bore the Sword there eleven years together with very much honour and esteem in that Nation For the effecting of this a great Assembly of the whole Nation was convened In the Commission the King required them to consult with Mr. Usher whose learning judgement and esteem would much conduce to the promoting of that work But if he approved it not the King required that they should proceed no further for that he would not be the author of any Innovation amongst them This reserve troubled the Prelates exceedingly and therefore they resolved to carry it closely the Kings Letters to them they transmitted from one to another but acquainted not Mr. Usher with them intending to surprize him when the Assembly was met they should come prepared and fortified he would be taken on the sudden Howbeit God that intended him for so great a good at that time in crossing their design that many faithful labourers in his Vineyard might not by this their power be displaced by a special Providence gave him some light though but very little into the matter and the manner was thus Mr. Usher going to visit one of them found him perusing the Kings Letter but upon his coming he laid it down in his window closed at both ends onely there was an open place in the middle and as they were discoursing together Mr. Usher glancing his eye upon it espied his own name and some other vvords about himself of which he could not pick out the meaning but yet he judged them to be of importance as Discipline Ireland England c. Mr. Usher thought it not prudence for him to take notice of those hints neither could
he handsomely fish out the business from the Bishop wherefore he went another way to work and indeed the surest way by seeking counsel from God communicating the matter to Dean Hill a very godly man whom he requested that with some others they would seek unto God for his assistance for he believed that something was in brewing that he might not know of Herein imitating the practise of wise Daniel Chap. 2. 17 18. This done he studied the Rights of the Irish Church some fruits whereof we have in that Learned Piece of his called The Religion professed by the ancient Irish and Britains Yet he heard nothing till the Assembly was summoned and himself the next day was to be present at it then went he to the Lord Deputy to know the occasion of their meeting The Lord Deputy would not believe at first that he could be a stranger to it but afterwards when Mr. Usher had assured him that he had no information from the Bishops about it he was much displeased and told him that without him all the the rest were but Cyphers for that the King had referred the whole business to his judgement whether the power of the Hierarchy should be established there as it was in England The next day the Kings Commission and Letters were read in the Assembly and Speeches were made concerning the excellency of the Kings intention to reduce that Kingdome to one uniformity with England in Ecclesiastical Government they also told him what honour the King had put upon him whose esteem learning and judgement the King so much depended upon for the promoting so great and good a work Mr. Usher replied that he believed that in a business of so great concernment wherein he was so far interested the Kings intentions were that he should have convenient time to consider of it before he delivered his opinion which he also humbly desired The Bishops answered that his judgement was sufficiently known by his practise and that they expected no more from him but his consent and concurrence with them He replied that the matter concerned more than himself For said he if I had all mens consciences in my keeping I could in these disputable cases give Laws unto them as well as unto my self but it s one thing what I can do and another thing what all other men must do Then they asked of him if he had any thing to say why they should not satisfie the Kings desire He after a short pause wherein he lifted up his heart unto God for direction told them that if they would grant him no longer time he would as well as he was able give them his judgement if that Honourable Assembly would grant him three Requests 1. A free hearing without interruption 2. Liberty for him to answer any man that should be unsatisfied 3. That there might be a final determination of the business at that meeting These being all granted Mr. Usher undertook to prove that such a Jurisdiction could not be introduced into that Kingdome neither by the Laws of God nor by the Civil or Ecclesiastical Constitutions of that Kingdome nor yet without the violation of the Kings Prerogative in that Nation All which he performed to admiration But before he descended to particulars he shewed the difference between Conformity as it was set up in England and as it would be if it were set up in Ireland The Kings saith he and Queen of England imposed those Ceremonies that thereby they might decline the charge of Schismaticks wherewith the Church of Rome laboured to brand them seeing it did appear hereby that they left them only in such Doctrinal points wherein they left the truth Again hereby they would testifie how far they would willingly stoop to win and gain them by yeelding to meet them as far as they might in their own way But saith he the experience of many years hath shewed that this condescention hath rather hardened them in their errours than brought them to a liking of our Religion This being their usual saying If our Flesh be not good why doe you drinke of our Broth As for Ireland wherein the English Canons were never yet received and the generality of the Inabitans were Popish Recusants and even in Popish Kings times there was no receptions of the Popes Ecclesiastical Constitutions because he encroached upon their temporals if such Laws now should be set up under so Religious a Protestant King this would be to set the Pope on Horse-back amongst them which needed not The Lord Deputy when he had finished his Speech and answered what was objected against it told him that he was much affected with every part of his learned speech but that he was more especially concerned in that which touched upon the Kings Prerogative part wherein he had discovered such hidden flowers of the Crown as he thought the King himself knew not and therefore he said as he would endeavour to preserve his Majesties right therein whilst he was his Deputy so he would present them to the King and take care that it should be very hard for any that came after him to rob him of them By this we may easily see that he was then so far from a Prelatical spirit that on the contrary he was an Advocate for and Patione of godly and conscientious Non-Conformists Anno Christi 1612 he proceeded Dr. of Divinity being created by Archbishop Hampton his Predecessor one of his Lectures for his Degree was upon the seventy weeks to the slaying of the Messias mentioned Dan. 9. 24. the other out of Rev. 20. 4. concerning the meaning of the Prophesie that the Saints should reign with Crist a thousand years which in these times would be very seasonable but it s lost Dr. Hoyle who died Professor of Divinity in Oxford after he had many years been the like in Dublin said that when he went out Dr. of Divinity he thought Tully himself could not have excelled him in Eloquence had he been alive not only in his composed speeches but in those which occasionally fell from him upon the by Anno Christi 1613 He published his Book De Ecclesiaram Christianarum successione statu magnified so much by Causabon and Scultetus in their Greek and Latine verses before it It was solemnly presented by Archbishop Abbot to King James as the eminent first fruits of that College at Dublin Indeed its imperfect for about three hundred years from Gregory the 11 to Leo the 10 viz. from the year 1371 to 1513 and from thence to this last Century which he intended after the finishing of a Book which he was now about to have compleated But the Lord prevented him Anno Christi 1615 there was a Parliament in Dublin and consequently a Convocation of the Clergy at which time those learned Articles of Ireland were composed and published and Dr. Usher being a member of that Synod was appointed to draw them up they were highly approved of the
of Woolweaver were as little satisfied as he and therefore sent messengers after him who finding him upon his journey in the Territories of a Prince who owed him no good will they procured him to be imprisoned and afterwards charging him with Treason against the State of Lubeck he was put to death and quartered And now Lubeck was setled upon its old basis and flourished again leaving this lesson to such as would be States-men That miscarriages in Government are not reformed by altering but by establishing the Government Haffnia now after a years siege being tired out with the miseries of War was surrendred upon tearms not altogether so honourable for the Duke of Holst as might have been expected whereupon the King of Sueden told the Duke that being privy to his own engagements in the Dukes behalf he little expected that such an agreement should ever have been made by the Duke without his knowledge and in one thing not without his consent For said he why should I be excluded out of this agreement and you thereby to engage your self not to aid me in case I should not agree with the Lubeckers upon just tearms The Duke pleaded that he was necessitated to it to gain the present surrender of the City as also that the importunity of the Lords and his neighbour Princes drew him thereto nevetheless he assured the King that if he would send Ambassadours he should finde that he should not receive any damage thereby And accordingly the King did send Ambassadours but the Lubeckers could never prevail to have a resettlement of their priviledges in Sueden as they desired so that in conclusion there was onely a bare truce concluded betwixt them and the King of Sueden for five years Thus are the three Northern Kingdomes brought once more into a settlement and turbulent Lubeck was calmed and the Captive King in a manner twice captivated and now if not quite hopeless yet less hopeful than ever formerly England indeed was allied and had done what it thought meet and possibly more than was meet For Ambassadours were sent from hence to draw the Lords to a Treaty but they liked not to adventure their necks upon purposes and promises The Emperour did less either judging Christians person despicable by reason of his unworthy carriage to his Queen and Lords or the Lords were more wise and wary than to adventure upon a second trial of their late Kings curtesie unless they were compelled thereto by force To do which the Emperour had neither time nor money to spare though the opportunity lay as fair to do his brother a good turn as he could desire if he had intended it And lastly though the common people did what they could yet they effected nothing It s many times seen that Providence doth advance some particular persons of the meanest rank to be instrumental in the publick Government but never puts the Government into the power of such which would be the speedy way to confusion as appeared in those very times by the Earthquakes in Government raised by the Anabaptists in Germany wherein though the issue was abortive yet it came to that growth as made the greater Powers to tremble And now the time of Suedens rest was come where both King and people might have leisure to injoy their several lots The King had hitherto acted the Souldiers part very well and now he must try his skill in a peaceable Government wherein I shall onely set down the brief Contents of many Laws and Acts of State which shew rather the disposition of the Government than the several actions thereof The King now at leisure taking into consideration that the fewel which maintained the Civil War was now spent and that the people who had been trained up to the toyl of War were fitter for labour than leisure and considering also that a time must come when a Commonwealth reduced by War must be governed and maintained by peace he now applied himself to acquaint his people with matters of profit drawing them to Mining Husbandry Fishing and Merchandize all which were much advanced by the Kings own ingenuous contrivances and by encouraging the laborious banishing idleness punishing vagabonds and wanderers he found a way to make the Sea to serve the Land the Land to serve Men Men to serve their Nation the Nation to observe their King and both Nation and King to serve God and thereby he laid a far better building of Sueden than Augustus did of Rome of whom it was said That he found it of earth and left it of stone The people likewise soon found the sweetness of this Government and were not far behinde in requital of the Kings favour to them They had now lived twenty years under his Government and in a good measure found the benefit of peace though bought with their sweat and blood in a long War but how sad would it be if the last breath of the King should put an end to their happiness The Council therefore at their meeting taking this into consideration that the Government of Sueden by Election was alwayes uncertain and seldome effected without deceit and discord and oft-times at the price of the peoples blood that it is of short continuance depending upon the life of one man and prejudicial to the publick good For that in such cases Kings will deplume their subjects to feather their own nests to keep their young ones warm when themselves are gone and that it were far better for the people to be sucked by one Leech which in time might be satisfied than by the change of many who will but increase the pain and suck without satiety That the advancement of one Family to the Throne would be a cure to all this and a preparative to a wining aspect from it upon the people and of a due respect from them to it and so of a kind of conjugal affection between both against the Marriage day That it is a means to suppress the turbulent aimes of ambitious men who croud into the Throne though of all others they be most unworthy Besides that it secureth the present Government in the peaceable possession of him that enjoyes it And that upon these and such like grounds Augustus and other Roman Emperours who wanting issue used in their life times to adopt and declare their successours in the Government and trained them up for that service nor did they finde it dangerous either for themselves or their successours so to do That the people at the siege of Stockholme offered to settle the Government upon the King and his children when at that time he neither had any nor was married But now that he is married and hath children and hath given such large experience of his love industry and faithfulness in adventuring all that he had even to his own life to vindicate the honour of his Country What acknowledgement can be sufficient for so great a merit less than the