BX 5A55 .B6 1842 v.l Bramhall, John, 1594-1663. The works of the Most Reverend Father in God,
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1
THE WORKS
OF
ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL.
THE
WORKS
OF THE
MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,
JOHN BRAMHALL, D.D.
SOMETIME LORD ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, PRIMATE AND METROPOLITAN OF ALL IRELAND.
WITH
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
AND A COLLECTION OF HIS LETTERS.
VOL. I.
OXFORD :
JOHN HENRY PARKER.
MDCCCXLH.
OXFORD : PRINTED BY I. SHRIMPTON.
The Works of Archbisliop Bramhall were collected, and published at DubUn in a large folio volumej in 1674-7, a few years after the author's death. In republishing them, the order, in which they were then arranged, will be strictly followed. They were di^dded in that arrangement, piincipally according to the subjects treated, into fom- Parts. Of the first of these, containing the Discourses against the Roman- ists, the present volume comprises the first two Discourses, ^dz., the " Answer to La Milletiere," and the " Just Vin- dication of the Church of England from the Unjust Asper- sion of Criminal Schism." The paging of the same edition is retained in the present upon the inner margin of the page.
Of the two Discoui'ses now published, the text of the first has been corrected by that of the earlier editions of the work in 1653 and 1654. Neither of these, unfortunateh^, was printed under the author's own superintendence ; the former having been taken from a copy of his MS. procured surrepti- tiously, and the latter being merely a reprint by the same parties, with one and one only correction by the author himself ^. They are, however, the only editions, to which any weight can be attached ; since no steps were taken by Bram- hall himself, beyond a general acknowledgment and this one correction, towards publishing an accurate copy of his tract ; nor did the Dublin editor make use of any new materials (if any were mthin his reach), but contented himself Avith reprinting the former of the eariy editions, uncorrected. A similar course has been followed with the second treatise
« See pp. xxvi., 45. 1. 32, 276. note u.
PREFACE.
in the volume. Of this, as of the Answer, there are two separate editions, the original one of 1654 and another pub- lished in 1661 ; the former printed in London while the author was in Holland, and confessedly full of errors ; the latter, a mere reprint of this, corrected according to its table of eiTata, by the same publisher. The two however (so far as the Editor is aware) are the only separate editions of the work, certainly the only editions to which any authority belongs; the folio text being merely a (very careless) reprint of the first of them, uncorrected, unless in obvious typogi'a- phical mistakes. In the present volume, the edition of 1654 has been followed, with the correction of course of its ac- knowledged errors.
The references'", in both treatises, have been verified and corrected to the extent of the Editor's abihty; and additional references given wherever they seemed to be required. In a few cases unfortunately, but those it is hoped of no material consequence, he has failed in his search, either for the book quoted, or for the quotation itself. Such failure is specified in each case«; and in the notes, and tlu'oughout, whatever has been added is marked by brackets, unless in a few trifling and ob\'ious instances (e. g. the fuller writing of an abbre-
Of the bonks, which are frequently Clarendon, 4to. Oxf 1816.
quoted, and of nliich there are various Jer. Taylor, ed. Heber.
editions, the following have been used, Field, Of the Church, Lond. 1628.
unless it is in any case otherwise Collier, Ch. Hist., fol. Lond. 1708, specified. 17 \i.
Concil., ed. Labb. et Cossart., Paris. 'lapse of a right of patronage to a supe-
" This has been overlooked in one case, p. 142, note a. And a more serious error has inadvertently been committed in another note (p. 180, note b), in the explanation given of the term " devo- lution." The word really means the
Platina, Colon. Agripp. 1626. S. Clara, Lugdun. 1635. Bellarm., Controv., Ingoldst. 1571.
S. Chrys., ed. Savil. S. Cyprian, eJ. Fell. TertuUian, Paris. 16.34. Beda, Op., Colon. 1612. Biblioth. Patrum, Colon. 1618.
1671.
rior, through neglect to present on the part of an inferior, patron' (Du Maillane, Dictionii. du Droit Canonique) ; and is di.stingnislied in French law-lan- guage from the tenn ' devolut,' which signifies a similar lapse through inca- pacity in tlie presentee of an inferior patron.
Matth. Paris., ed. Wats., Lond. 1610.
Gerson., Op., Paris. 1521.
Antiq. Brit. Ecclcs., Hanov. 1650.
Foxe, Acts and Monum., Lond. 1684.
PREFACE.
viated name), where it appeared useless to disfigui-e the page in order to point them out.
The quotations in the text of the treatises themselves, where they are verbally exact or nearly so, are marked with double commas ; where such exactness does not exist, with single commas.
The orthography (\vith the exception of a few words'', where it seemed worth while to preserve a pecuUar or characteristic mode of spelling) has been throiighout modernised (excepting of course in the Letters, mentioned below); as there appeared to be Httle in it in general either to mark the style of the author or to illustrate the history of the language.
The running titles, placed in the outer margin of the page, have been filled up where they appeared deficient (the additions being of course marked as such) ; so as to make them, as far as possible, a complete abstract of the text. It has seemed worth while, also, to follow the example of a late editor of the Answer to La Milletiere in placing the titles in question, with such additions from the text as were needfid to adapt them for the pm'pose, at the head of each treatise, as a table of contents.
Prefixed to the treatises themselves will be found, 1, a Life of the Author; 2, a Sermon preached at his funeral by Jeremy Taylor; 3, a Collection of his Letters, with a few other original documents relating to him ; and 4, a transla- tion of that part of La Milletiere's work (viz., the Dedicatory Epistle at the commencement of it), to which the Answer is a reply.
1 . Of the Lives of BramhaU already existing, two only are sufficiently short, to render them admissible into a volume like the present; viz. those of Mr. Harris in his edition of Sir James Ware, and of Mr. Morant in the Biographia Britannica. The latter has been preferred^ as being, on
A Viz. The words extrinsecal, intrinse- cal, aocessnry, loth, stedfast, which are ahiiost invariably spelt by Branihal] as here marked. lie uses also the words iutcressed, cHoil, apostate (as a verb),
apph'reble, sub.stract. In two other eases of a similar kind his mode of spelling has not been retained, viz., connivence for eonniv«acc, and ini'.vn:ioe, rncsna- gery, &:c., for m«nage, m(rnagery, &c.
PREFACE.
tlie one hand, a more concise abstract of the verbose and tedious Life prefixed by Dr. Vesey to the folio edition, from which both are derived, and, on the other, as com- prising a larger range of information di'awn fi'om other sources. It has been taken from the second edition of the work, with only so much however of the additional notes of that edition as seemed to be worth reprinting^. It is necessary to add, — since the contrary is the case in one in- stance?,— that it is upon the whole a very fair and adequate representation of the original, fi'om which it is abridged. In republishing it, several eiTors have been corrected, and considerable additions made; especially in the long foot notes (Avhich, for the sake of convenience, have been here thrown into an appendLxi^), and most especially in the ac- count of Bramhall's Works. For some further and valuable information (wliich will be found in note n. p. cxiii.) the Editor begs to exjiress his thanks to Dr. Todd, of Dubhn, who also, with very great kindness, rensed the greater part of the Life itself.
2. It has been thought worth while to reprint hkewise the Sermon preached at Bramhall's funeral by Jeremy Taylor, as (besides its own merits) containing a sketch of the Primate's life and character, entirely independent of that di-awn by Dr. Yescy. The Oration, pronounced upon the same occasion by Dr. Loftus, would probably have been preferred, had the Editor come into earlier possession of it, as being a ti'act of great rarit}', and more exclusiA cly employed upon its subject, whilst its information and line of thought are, equally with Bishop Taylor's, independent of Dr. Vesey. The Sermon however was in type before the Oration Avas procm'cd. It is exactly reprinted from the text of Bishop Heber, Avith the addition of several, although far from all, of the references that are wanting in his edition.
3. The Letters of Dr. Bramhall here collected are sixteen in number, two of Avhich are now for the first time printed.
' • See p. iii. e Sec p. xx. text to note s.
See pp. xxxvi — xxxviii. pp. xvi — xxxv.
PREFACE.
For one of these, No. XI., the Editor is indebted to the kindness of the Provost and Fellows of Queen's College, Oxford^ whose Library possesses the MS. of Bishop Barlow containing it; for the other, numbered XVIII., he returns his thanks to Mr. Upcott, in whose extensive collection of letters the original is preserved*. The sources whence the remaining letters have been taken will be found stated in the notes upon each.
Three other documents are added to the Letters : viz., the Will of Archbishop BramhaU, already printed in the preface to the Rawdon Papers, whence it has been copied ; the public and solemn recognition of his services by the Irish Convoca- tion of 1661, never before pubUshed, for which the Editor has a second time to thank Dr. Todd ; and a Latin inscription to his memory taken from the foUo edition of his works.
4. The translation of the Epistle Dedicatory of La Mille- tiere's Victoire de la Verite originally appeared with Bram- hall's Answer in 1653 ; it was reprinted with considerable alterations in the new edition of the Answer in 1654, and again from that of 1653 in the foho edition of Bramhall's Works. That in the present volume has been corrected by the original French; and, although still far from elegant, will be found, it is hoped, at all events, — what it was not before, accurate and intelhgible. Marginal titles have also been added : and the error ^ corrected, -(vhicli has hitherto prevailed in the spelling of the author's name. It must be confessed, however, that the error in question appears to have originated with Bramhall himself, and not with the self-appointed editors of his Answer ; since it occurs both in the Just Vindication, and wherever in his other works he has occasion to mention the name. The present Editor has ventured to correct it in every case. For the convenience
' There is a clause in this letter clearer." Tlie words, between whicli
almost illegible. A dillerent interpre- the question lies, are not so unlike as
tation to the one given in p. cxvii. has they may at first sight appear to be ; nor
been kindly supplied by Mr. Upcott does the context disagree with either, as the more probable of the two, viz., See p. cxli. note b.
" '.('/»(/s prove clearer," for "/enswprove
PREFACE.
of the printer, the Epistle has been quoted in the margin of the Answer by the marginal, i. e. the folio, paging.
It remains to say a few words of the works themselves repubhshed.
An examination of the authorities, upon which the argu- ments of the Just Vindication are founded, has proved most satisfactorily the soundness of the author's positions. It has at the same time brought to Hght the existence of a few un- important errors in minor points. In making this acknow- ledgment, let it in fairness be remembered, — first, that for most of these errors the printer is probably responsible and not the author', the hand^vriting of the latter being far from easily legible, whilst (as has been seen) he was unable per- sonally to superintend the printing of his work; and secondly, that, where the author is himself responsible, he may still reasonably claim indulgence for what are after all but a very few errors, in a work written under the hardships and imcer- tainties of poverty and exile from recollections and notes of past reading, with but scanty present opportunities of access to books, and in an argument based upon a very large and minute induction. Nor is there reason to do more than thus advert to the subject, since each error has been noticed as it occurs, whilst aU taken together do not in the shghtest degree tend to invahdate even the minor branches of the argument of the work. One or two isolated points may, perhaps, be too strongly put; but the masterly and com- prehensive reasoning, the terse and emphatic statement, •the well-marked and consistent system, which are the gi'cat merits of Bramhall's Avritings, rest untouched upon a broad and firm foundation.
There is another and an vmpleasant subject, referring more particularly to the first of the two treatises, which, though it may seem imddious to notice it, yet must not be passed over in silence. It is impossible to read a sentence of Bram-
' e. g. "four" for ''forty," in p. 181. this edition.) 1. 20, (see p. 181, note g.) ; "320" for » See the Just Vindication, c. x. p. "500" in p. 212. 1. 25, (corrected in 276 of this volume.
PREFACE.
hall's writings without feeling that he is in earnest. He is indeed so entirely bent upon his purpose, as to be neglectful of every thing subordinate and supplemental to it. His lan- guage accordingly is ahvays nen'ous and intelligible, but at the same time, is not seldom unpolished, and occasionally even inacc\irate. It is but fair to Bramhall to prepare his reader for occasional homeHness of language : and though, one whose thoughts are so vigorous, might well be excused, if on ordinary topics his expressions should be sometimes harsh ; there are subjects where such an excuse is hardly sufficient. But the fault may be truly said to be, in a degree, non hominis sed temporum.
In conclusion, the Editor has to express his regret, that an accumulation of unforeseen and unavoidable occupations has so long delayed the completion of an engagement, under- taken originally upon a very hasty calculation, and with a very insufficient conception, of the difficulties of the task. He is sorry to be compelled to acknowledge, that the delay is far from being compensated by any corresponding im- provement in the volume itself.
March, 1842. A. W. H.
GENERAL TABLE
ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL'S WORKS.
Part I. — Containing the Discourses against the Romanists.
Present edition.
Dis- course.
VOL. L -!
VOL. IL J
VOL. IIL-^
\. The Answer to La Milletiere, with La Milletiere's Letter prefixed
2. A Just Vindication of the Church of
England from the Unjust Asper- sion of Criminal Schism
3. A RepUcation to the Bishop of
Chalcedon's Survey of the Vin- dication of the Church of Eng- land from Criminous Schism
4. A Reply to S. W.'s Refutation of
the Bishop of Berry's Just Vin- dication of the Church of Eng- land . . . ■ .
5. Schism Guarded and Beaten back
upon the Right Owners
6. The Consecration of Protestant Bi-
shops Vindicated, and the Fable of the Nag's- Head Ordination refuted
First Printed.
Hague, 1653.
Lond. 1654.
y Lond. 1G5G.
Hague, 1658.
Hague, 1658.
Part H. — Against the English Sbctarii
A Fair Warning to take Heed of the
Scotch Discipline The Serpent-Salve, or, the Observator's
Grounds discussed His Vindication of Himself and the
Episcopal Clergy from the Charge
of Popery, against Mr. Baxter
Hague, 1649. 1643.
Lond. 1672.
GENERAL TABLE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL's WORKS.
Part III. — Against Mr. Hobbks. Present Dis- First edition. course. Printed, r i. A Defence of True Liberty from ante- cedent and extrinsecal Necessity . Lend. 1655. VOL. IV. -X ii. Castigations of Mr. Hobbes his Ani-
madversions, &c. . . . Lond. 165|. t iii. The Catching of the Leviathan . . Lond. 1658.
Part IV. — On Miscellaneous Subjects.
A Treatise concerning the Sabbath and
the Lord's Day . . .In foho edit.
A Sermon on 2 Sam. x. 12, before the Marquis of Nevi'castle, being ready to meet the Scotch Army ; Jan. 28, 164f York, 1643.
A Sermon on Ps. cxxvi. 7, April 23, 1661, being the day of his Majesty's Coronation; with two Speeches in the House of Peers . Dubl. 1661.
A Sermon on Prov. xxviii. 13, before the Honourable House of Com- mons, at their solemn receiving the Sacrament, in St. Patrick's, Dublin, Jan. 16, 1661 . . Dubl. 1661.
Of Persons dying without Baptism . In folio edit.
An Answer to two Papers, of Protest- ants' Ordination, &c. . . .In folio edit, i. An Answer to S. N.'s Objections against
Protestants' Ordination . . In foho edit.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
Page
Life of Archbishop Braiaihall ...... i
Sermon preached at the Funeral of Archbishop Bi'amhall,
by Bishop Taylor xxxix
Letters &c. of Archbishop Bramhall ..... Ixxvii Dedicatory Epistle of La Milletiere's Victoiy of Truth. . cxix
Answer to the Epistle of M. de La Milletiere. Part i. Dis- course i. 1
Just Vindication of the Church of England from the Unjust
Aspersion of Criminal Schism. Part i. Discourse ii. . 83
THE LETTERS &c. OF DR. BRAMHALL, PRINTED IN THE PRESENT VOLUME.
I. From Dr. Bramliall to Laud (then) Bishop of London. .....
II. From the Bishop of Derry to Lord Deputy Wentworth ....
III. From the same to Archbishop Spottiswood
IV. From the same to Dr. Coote, Dean of Down
V. From the same to his wife, Mrs. Bramhall
VI. From the same to the Lord Primate (Ussher
VII. From the same to King Charles II.
VIII. From the same to his Son, under the nam of Mr. John Pierson
IX. From the same to the same
X. From the same to the Archbishop of Armagh (Ussher) ....
XI. From the same to Dr. Bernard
XII. From the same to Mrs. Bramhall .
XIII. The Petition of the Clergy of Ireland to Charles II. .
XIV. From the Lord Primate to Sir Edwar Nicholas ....
XV. From the same to King Charles II.
XVI. The last Will and Testament of Archbishop Bramhall ....
XVII. Public and Solemn Recognition of Arch bishop Bramhall's Services by the Irish Convo cation of 1661
XVIII. From tlie Bishop of Derry to Sir Richard Browne .....
XIX. "tironvrtuduevfia, in memory of Archbishop Bramhall.
Dubl. Castle, Aug. 10. 16.3.3
Fawne, . . . May 30. 163o Glasslough, . Aug. 13. 1637 (Ireland.) . . Jan. 27. 1639 March 12. 164'^ . April 26. 1641
(Dublin.) (Ireland) Hague, .
(Abroad.) . . Feb. Antwerpe, . . May
1654
(Abroad.) . (The Hague, London, . .
Dublin, . .
July 20. 1654 . about 1658) July 7. 1660
Dec. 5. 1660
Dublin, . . . July 10. 1661 (Dublin, 1661)
Jan. .5. 166|
July 3. 1661 (Abroad.) . . June .30. 1646
THE LIFE
OF
THE MOST REVEKEND FATHER IN GOD
JOHN
LORD ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, AND PRIMATE OF ALL IRELAND.
[TAKEN FROM THE SECOND EDITIOnJoF THE BIOGRAPIIIA BRITANNICA.]
1
LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL.
Bramhall (John), Archbisliop of Armagh in the seven- teenth centux-y, was born at Pontefract in Yorkshire, about the year 1593% being descended from " an ancient and genteel family ''[A]." He received his first education in the place of his birth ; and when he was qualified for the University, was sent to Sidney College in Cambridge, where he was admitted Fe- bruary the 21st, 1608^ and put under the care of Mr. Hulet<i[B].
[The principal authorities for Abp. Bramhall's Life are, 1. the Life prefixed to liis works by Bp.Vesey (see note b below) ; 2. the Funeral Sermon by Jer. Taylor, re- printed in the present volume ; 3. the short article in Sir James Ware's Comment, de Proesul. Hiberniae ; the additions in Harris's edition of Ware being taken almost entirely from Bp. Vesey. There is also a Funeral Oration in Latin, published at Dublin in 1663 by Dr. L)udley Loftus, and containing a sketch of the Bishop's life, but which the present Editor has been unable to see. Vesey and Taylor liave sup- plied the materials for most of the later memoirs of Bramhall, that for instance in the Biographic Universelle being taken entirely from the former, and those in Barksdale's Remembrancer, Lloyd's Loyal Martyrs, &c. entirely from the latter. The article in the Biographia Britannica, here reprinted, is for the most part an abridgment, and in the very words of the original, of Dr. Vesey' s Life, but witli the infonnation supplied by Sir James V/are and from other sources — Bp. Taylor excepted, of whose sermon the writer does not seem to have been aware,— inter- woven in the proper places. Some further additions have been made in the pre- sent reprint, principally from the Rawdon Papers (Letters, &c. to and from Abp Bramhall, preserved in the family of the Marquis of Hastings, whose ancestors were connected with the Archbishop by marriage, and printed in 1819 by the Rev. Edw. Berwick, his Lordship's Chaplain). For the references to Dr. Todd's Life of Milton, to the Life of Dean Barwick, and to Grainger's Biograph. History, the Editor is indebted to the Life of Bramhall in Chalmers.]
^ [Dr. Bramhall was 'approaching born so early as 1593, would have been to' 70 years of age in January 1G0|, of course, in the last named year, not when he made his will (see it among less but more tlian the required age. his Letters, &c. in the present volume, See Mant as above quoted.] No. XV.); which would agree with the •> [Athanasius Hibernicus, or] The year assigned for his birth in the text : Life of John Lord Archbishop of Ard- yet on the other hand itwould appear to magh, prefixed to his Works, edit. 1677, follow from an expression used by Abp. fol., ^y John [Vesey], Biiihop of Lyme- Laud(asquotedbyMant,Ch. of Ireland, rick, p. 2. It is not paged, ch. iv. § 4. pp. 471, 472) that the date ' From Dr. Sherman's Tabulas Sid- there given was rather too early. For a neianse.
rule had been laid down by Laud in 1633 <i Sir James Ware's Works, edit,
(mentioned byhim in a letter to Strafford 1739, under the Life of our Primate,
dated Oct. 14. in that year, in the Straff [This Mr. Hulet is probably tl.e same
Papers), tliat no one should thenceforth with the Mr. Howlett mentioned by
be consecrated a Bishop, who should be Abp. Laud in a letter to Bp. Bramhall,
at the time less than forty years of age ; dated Aug. 11. 1638 (Rawd. Papers,
of which rule he apologizes for his own No. xix), as being then designed to
violation in the case of Bramhall (whom marry a kinswoman of the Archbishop,
he had recommended) May 14, 1634 Mr. Hulet " was then in Ireland, where
(Letter to Straftbrd of that date, in he was well provided for by his pupil,
StrafF. Papers) : whereas Bramhall, if according to the account given by Dr.
b 2
iv
LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHAT.L.
He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the year 1612, and that of Master in 1G16^ After taking the hitter, he quitted the University, and entering into Holy Orders, had a living given him in the city of York''. He was, likewise, presented to the rectory of Elvington, or Eterington, in Yorkshire, by Mr. Wandesford, afterwards Master of the Rolls, and some- time Lord Deputy of Ireland. About the same time he mar- ried a clergyman's widow, of the [Halleys] family, an agreeable woman, and of a good fortune, with whom he had a valuable "library, left by her former husband; by which he was so wedded to his studies, that all the temptations of a new- married life could not divorce him from them, or give any intermission to his duty of constant preaching." This he performed with so much assiduity, prudence, and gravity, that " he became as eminent in the Church, as before in the University, and greatly beloved by all degrees of men''." In the year 1623, he had two public disputations at North- Allerton, with a secular priest and a Jesuit [C], which gained him great reputation, and so recommended him in particular to the Archbishop of York's' esteem, that he made him his chaplain, and took him into his confidence. During the life of the Archbishop, he was made prebendary of York [D], and after of Ripon ; at which last place he went and resided after the Archbishop's death (which happened in 1628 [March, 162|]), "and conducted most of the concernments of that church in the quality of Sub-Dean." Here ['he shewed his exceeding great love to his flock, in staying among them in the time of a most contagious and destructive pestilence; visiting them in their houses, baptizing their children, and doing all other offices of his ministry ><.' Here too] he preached constantly for several years, and became so eminent, not only for his abilities in the pulpit, but also for his knowledge in the laws, that he was frequently chosen arbitrator between contending parties'; and by that, and his good behaviour
Lloyd in his book of Worthies" (Rawd. (Rawd. Papers, pp. 12, &c.). It is mis- Papers, ]). .■")]. note). See also Jer. spelt by the writer in the Biographia Taylor's J'un. Serm.] I5ritannica, who misunderstood Dr. Ve-
From the Grace-book of Sidney- sey's expression.] College. t Life, pp. 2, 3.
f Life, &c. as above. i Toby INIatthews.
e [That this was the real name of the [Life, &<•. p. I.]
family into which Dr. Bramhall mar- ' [The talents for business, for which
vied, appears from the will of his widow Bramhall was conspicuous, seem to
LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMUALL.
V
in all other respects, he obtauied so much honour and in- terest, that there was scarcely any public transaction over which he had not a considerable influence ; " even in the elections for members of Parliament, such as he named at Ripon, and other corporations, carrying the vote and favour of the people," He was also appointed one of his Majesty's High Commissioners; in which office he was "very curious in the disquisition of all causes," and by some was accoimted severe : but, however rough his speech might sometimes be, his dealings were generally smooth and gentle "\ In the year 1623 he took the degree of Bachelor, and in 1630 that of Doctor, in Divinity "[E.] Soon after, he was invited to Ireland by the Lord Viscount Wentworth, Deputy of that kingdom, and Sir Christopher Wandesford, Master of the Rolls : and he accepted of their invitation ; though he had a prospect of being promoted in his native country [, "being in as good esteem with Archbishop Neil, then lately, in the beginning of 1632, removed from Winton to York, as he had been with all his predecessors, Matthews, Mountain, and Harsnett""], and was offered ["besides by some noblemen" i' ] to be made one of the King's Chaplains in Ordinary i. Having therefore
have been constantly called into requi- sition by his friends. During his resi- dence in Ireland as Bp. of Derry, not to mention his public employment in every Church commission and visita- tion, &c., we find him also privately and repeatedly employed by the Lord De- puty Wentworth (Ld. Stratford) in his own family affairs and those of his brother-in-law and sister ( Rawd. Papers, Nos. V. vi. vii. x. xi. xvi. xxxiii.) : when in exile, again, during the Rebellion, it was to his care that the (then) Marquis of Ormcnd entrusted the management of his property for the benefit of the Marchioness, then also abroad (Rawd. Papers, No. xxxviii, letter from the Mar- chioness to Bramhall,- — Bramhall's let- ters in this vol., No. VII.) : and, what would be curious enough, if it were not painful to see a Bishop reduced to so low an employment, it was he, during the same period, who was selected by Charles II. (as we shall see below), while the Dutch and English were at war in ]C.5;3, to act as his prize-master at Flu.shing.]
Life, &c. pp. 4, 5. " From the Grace-book of Sidney
College, as above.
° [Life, &c. p. 7.]
" [Life, &c. ibid.] [The account given by Bp. Vesey (Life, &c. pp. G, 7.) of the motives of Dr. Bramhall in accepting Lord Went- worth's invitation, is so creditable to him, that it woidd be injustice to his memory to omit it. The prospects of preferment above-mentioned are there spoken of as pressed upon Bramhall by his friends, while he himself, acknow- ledging " the great force of what they said," declared, that " they mhrhi thence see that he ' consulted not with flesh and blood and solemnly protested in the presence of God, that nothing but an unmingled zeal to serve God and the King in recovering the rights of an op- pressed Church, which he xmderstood the Lord Deputy had laid to heart, could bias him against the inclinations he had to gratify so many dear and noble friends ; upon which declaration tliey all desisted from any further at- tempt, as giving him up to th.e Will of God, which they discerned overruled him in this matter."]
VI
i>iFE or arciIbishop buamhall.
resigned all his Church preferments in England"^, he went over into Ireland in the year 1633 ^ ; and, a little while after, obtained the Archdeaconry of Meath, the best in that king- dom. " The first public service he was employed in, was a regal visitation, in which he was either one of the King's Commissioners with Baron Hilton, Judge of the Prerogative, or such a co-adjutor that all was governed by his directions." In this visitation [, of which he gives an account to Archbishop Laud in a letter dated' Dublin, August 10th, 1633,] he found ' the revenues of the Church miserably wasted, the discipline scandalously despised, and the ministers but meanly pro- vided.' The Bishoprics, in particular, " were wretchedly dilapidated by fee-farms, and long leases at small rents" [F]. But he applied, in process of time, proper remedies to these several evils. He likewise endeavoured to destroy "some opinions of general credit, that he judged very prejudicial to a good life [G], which yet were reverenced almost like articles of Faith"." In the year 1634, he was promoted to the Bishopric of Londonderry, and consecrated the sixteenth [it should be twenti/s'ixtli] of May, in the chapel of the Castle of Dublin^. While he enjoyed this See, he very much improved it, not only in advancing the rents, but also in recovering lands'^ detained from his predecessors ; by which means he doubled the yearh' profits of that Bishopric J". But the greatest service
' [This is not strictly correct. The letter of Laud dated May 1 4, IBS*, which w.Ts quoted in note a, speaks of Engli h preferment still at (hat time retained by Bramhall ; and which, upon his promotion to tlie See of Derry, Laud considered him bound to sur- render: and it appears from Brov.ae Willis (Sui'vey of the Cathedr. of York, &c. p. 145.)," tliat tlie preferment al- luded to was his prebenual stall at York, which he did not vacate until Aug. 6. 16.34.]
s [He " was admitted Treasurer of Christ Chm-ch Dublin, Sept. 3, 103.3, by virtue of the King's patent dated tlie SOth of the preceding month" (Harris in his edit, of Ware, Art. on Bramh. among the Bps. of Derry).]
' [Letters, No. I. A similar ac- count in 1C37, upon Bramhall's visit to London, is mentioned by Dr. Vese)'. See also the two letters of Land to
Bramhall in 1638 ; Rav/don Papers, Nos. xviii. xix.]
" Life, &c. pp. 7, 8,9.
^ Sir James Ware, ubi supra. [Ac- cording to Harris (as quoted above, note s), Bramhall hold the prebend of Dunlavan in the Cathedral of St. Patrick's, Dublin, in commendam while Bp. of Derry; but this appears from the visitation books of that Cathe- dral to be an error, Colbonie, Bp. of Kildare (E'pus Dai:, not E'pus Der.) having held that prebend from 1618 until after 1648 (Mason's St. Patrick's, Notes, p. Irixxi.).]
^ As Termin [see Letters, No. II.], Colahy, &e. [and Desart Martin, ' whicli he retrieved to its proper use as mensal lands, and made a park there for the Bishops of the diocese.' Life, &c. p. 11.]
> Life, &c. as above, pp. 10, 11.
LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL, VU
he did the Church of Ireland, was, by getting, with the Lord Deputy's assistance, several Acts passed, in the Parliament which met in that kingdom, July 14, 1634 [H]. In pursuance of these Acts, he abolished the fee-farms that Avere charged on church lands, and obtained compositions for the rent, instead of the small reserved rents. He, likewise, was very instru- mental in getting such impropriations as remained in the Crown, vested by King Charles I. on the several incumbents, after the expiration of the leases. Some he recovered by law, and persuaded many persons possessed of tithes to restore them, or sufficiently to endow the vicarages, or to grant a proper salary at least to the curates. Moreover, he himself purchased abundance of impropriations, either with his own money, or by large remittances from England^; by money given by his Majesty to pious uses ; by borrowing large sums, and securing them out of the issues of the impropriations he bought ; by voluntary contributions ; and by a share of the goods of persons dying intestate. " By these, and other means, he regained to the Church, in the space of four years, thirty or forty thousand pounds a-year^" In the Convocation that met at the same time, he prevailed upon the Church of Ireland to be united in the same Faith with the Church of England [I], by embracing the XXXIX Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Convocation holden at London in the year 1562. He would fain also have got the English Canons established in Ireland : but, notwithstanding his utmost en- deavours, he could obtain no more [through a jealous care- fulness on the part of many among his fellow Bishops, and especially of the Primate, Usher, for the liberties of the Church of L-eland'',] than that such of our canons "as were fit to be transplanted among the Irish should be removed thither, and others new framed, and added to them." Accordingly, a book of canons was compiled, chiefly by our Bishop, and having passed in Convocation, received the royal confirma- tion For all these services, he met, from several quarters, with a great deal of detraction and envy ; and, according to
z ['Al)p. Laud designed £40,000 for his Funeral Sermon.] this purpose out of his own purse.' Life, [Life, &c. as above, p. 19.]
fie. as a!)o> e, p. 1.").] [See a full account of this second
^ I1)id. pp. 11', 15, 1(5. [£.30,000 is part of the Bishop's labours in Mant's
the sum mentioned by Jer. Taylor in Ch. of Ireland, ch. vii. § 5. pp. 495, Sec]
via
LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL,
the fashion of those times, was charged with Arminianism and Popery : but " he was not of a spirit to be terrified fi'om what he thought his duty with noise and ill words'^." " Having thus, for a considerable time, laboured for the good of others, he thought it time to make some provision for his own family. In order to it, he took a journey to England in 1637," and was received with much respect by persons of the highest quality, particularly in his native county [, and by his former flocks at Ripon and at York]. But when he came to London, he was surprised with the news of an information exhibited against him in the Star Chamber [K], of which however he soon cleared himself After having received much honour from King Charles I. and many civilities from Archbishop Laud, and other great persons, he returned to Ireland^; and "with six thousand pounds f, for which he sold his estate in England (but brought over at several times), he purchased another of good value, and began a plantation at Omagh, in the county of Tyrone." But the distractions in that kingdom hindered him from bringing it to perfection s; for he was not without his share in the troubles that brought Ireland to the brink of destruction. On the fourth of March 1640-41, articles of high treason against him, and several of the Prime Ministers of State'', were exhibited by the House of Commons to the House of Lords in Ireland ; wherein the}' were charged with having " conspired together to subvert the fundamental laws and government of that kingdom," and to " introduce an arbitrary and tyrannical government to have ' pronounced many false, unjust, and erroneous judgments, against law, which had occasioned divers seditions and rebellions ;' and to have " laboured to subvert the rights of Parliament, and the
Life, &c. as above, pp. 17, 18, 19, 20. " Never fear wheti tlic cause is just, was one of his usual sayings." Ibid, p. 20.
^ [In February, 1C3|. See the letter of Abp. Laud to Branihall, February 17. 1631. (Rawd. Papers, No. xviii). He was in London in November, 1637, having left Ireland in the latter part of the previous September (from letters in Rawd. Papers, pp. 41, 42).]
' [Exaggerated into 30,000 by PjTn in opening the charges against tlie Earl of Strafford. Nalson, vol. ii. p. 43.]
2 Life, &c. as above, pp. 21,22.
■> Viz. Sir Ricli. Bolton, Knt., Lord Chancellor of Ireland ; Sir Gerard Lowther, Knt., Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; and Sir George Rad- cliffe, Knt. [This impeachment was laid in Ireland at tlie same time that the Earl of Strafford was impeached in England ; in order, probably, as indeed was said (Nalson, vol. ii. p. 8.) in the case of Sir G. Radcliffe, that the Earl might be deprived of the assistance of his friends and confidents.]
LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL.
IX
ancient course of Parliamentary proceedings'." The Bishop was then at Londonderry, when he received intelhgence of this accusation, on the sixth of March. " All his friends wrote to him to decline the trial, but he thought it dishonourable to fly." On the contrary, he repaired to Dublin, and 'shewed himself the next day in the Parliament house, where his ene- mies stood staring upon him for awhile, and then made him a close prisoner But though all persons were encouraged to contribute to his ruin they found little to object, but his endeavours to retrieve the ancient patrimony of the Church. Notwithstanding they examined all his actions with severity, they could not fix the least tincture of private advantage on him ; none of his relations, family, or friends, being one far- thing the richer for any thing he had recovered to the Church.' Not being able, therefore, to make any thing good on that head, they accused him of having attempted " to subvert the fundamental laws." In this distress he wrote to the Primate Usher, then in England, for his advice and comfort [L] ; who mediated so effectually in his behalf with the King, that his Majesty sent a letter over to Ireland to stop proceedings against Bishop Bramhall : but this letter was very slowly obeyed. However, the Bishop was 'at length restored to liberty, but without any public acquittal, the charge lying still dormant against him, to be awakened when his enemies pleased"".' Shortly after his return to Londonderry, Sir Phelim O'Neil contrived his ruin in the following manner: " he directed a letter to him, wherein he desired, ' that, ac- cording to their articles, such a gate of the city should be delivered to him,' expecting that the Scots in the place would, upon the discovery, become his executioners." But the person who was to manage the matter, ran away with the letter. " Though this design took no place, the Bishop found no safety there. The city daily filling with discontented persons, out of Scotland, he began to grow afraid they would deliver him up. One night they turned a cannon against his house to affront him; upon which, being per- suaded by his friends to look on that as a warning, he took
■ See the Articles at length, printed ' [' There were above 2C0 petitions
in IC'l l, 4to. [and in Rushworth and put in against him." Bp. Taylor, Fun.
Nalson.] Senn.]
k [See Letters, No. V.] " Life, &•(•, as above, pp. 24, 25, 26.
X
LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL,.
their advice, and privately embarked for England." He went into Yorkshire " where, by his example, his frequent ex- hortations from the pulpit, his incessant labours with the gentr3', and his prudent advices to the Marquis of Newcastle, he put great life into the King's affairs." Moreover, he sent" a considerable present of plate to his Majesty at Nottingham, and composed some things in favour of the Royal cause, of which we shall give an account below?. " Thus he continued active all the time of his being in England that is, till the unfortunate battle of Marston Moor [July 2, 1644] : but, after that, the King's affairs being entirely grown desperate, the Bishop embarked with [the Marquis of Newcastle and] several [other] persons of distinction, and landed at Hamburgh, July 8, 1644 •i[M]. Thence he went to Brussels, "where he con- tinued for the most part till the year 1648, with Sir Henry (le Vic, the King's Resident, preaching constantly every Sunday, and frequently administering the Sacrament [and confirining such as desired it]. The English merchants of Antwerp, ten leagues thence, used to be monthly of his audience and communion, and were his best benefactors." In the year 1648, he returned into Ireland; and after having xuidergone several dangers and difficulties [N], narrowly escaped thence in a little bark"^ [O]. On his arrival in fo- reign parts. Providence supplied him with a considerable sum of money, of which he gi'eatly stood in necd^; for having had seven hundred pounds long due to him, for salmon caught in the river Bann' and sent abroad, which debt he looked upon as lost, he was now so fortunate as to recover
n [He preached at Yovk, Jan. 28, UHf. before the M. of Newcastle. See his Sermon, Works, P;.rt iv. Discour.-e il.]
° [He refused at the same tune a sum of £500 offered him by t'.ie of New- castle out of the public stock. Life, &c. p. 27.]
P Ibid. pp. 26, 27. See below, note [U]. It was then he wrote " Serpgnt Salve." [But the writer in the Biogr. Britann. is wrong in saying that he wrote "Fair Warning" at 'this time. ;jt v/as not v.riften until 1G19.]
" Histoiical KccoUcciinns. <\;c. by I. llushworth, vol. v. edit. 1721, p. G'i7. [Bramliall was at Brussel?, June 20,
164 -3 (Works, p. 9S !. fol. edit.) ; and at
Paris in tlie autumn of that year (where ];e met with Hobbcs ; see below note U).]
' [He was at Rotterdam agaiif Oct. 1, 16 IS. (Note of the M. of Newcastle to him of that date, in Rawd. Papers, p. 93.).]
s Life, Sec. pp. 27, 28.
' Where tliere is a fine Salmon fishery belonging to the Bisliop of London- derry [See Letters, Nos. II. and IX.]. The Bishop had also some relief from tlie Lord Scudamore ; see View of th.e Churclics of Door, &c. Loud. 1727, ■Ito. by Mr. Gibson, p. 110.
LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMIIAl.L. XI
it; which proved a seasonable relief both to him and to many royalists that partook of his generosity". During this second time of his being abroad, ' he had many disputes about religion with the learned of all nations, sometimes occasionally, and at other times by appointment and formal challenge ;' and wrote several things in defence of the Church of England ''. He, likewise, purposed to draw a parallel be- tween the liturgy of the Church of England, and the public forms of the Protestant Churches ; and " for that end de- signed a journey into Spain ;" " but he met with an unex- pected diversion in his first day's journey into that king- dom">'[P]. At the same time, there was a great friendship and correspondence between him and the Marquis of Mon- trose'-, whose cause he often recommended to the favour and justice of foreign princes. Upon the restoration of the Church and monarchy, Bishop Bramhall returned to England-''; and was, from the first, designed for some higher promotion.
" [Dr. Bramliall was reduced for a short time, as has been hinted already, to act as prize-master, and even to sell the prizes in person, for Charles II., during the war between the English Commonwealth and the Dutch ; for wliich purpose he resided at Flushing in the latter part of 1(3.03 (Letters of in- telligence from Holland, in Sept., Oct., and Nov., in Thurloe's State
Papers, vol. i. pp. 4(i4, 514, 585, 586). He complains himself of tlie hardships and indignities to which he and his brother exiles were ex])0sed, in his "Just Vindication, &c." ch. x. ( Works, p. 130. fol. edit.), published in 1654. It appears (from his Letters ; see also Thurloe's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 601. vol. V. p. 645) that he resided princi- pally, during this second banishment, in Holland, but in a very unsettled condition; now at the Hague, now at Antwerp, now at Aken (Aix la Cha- pelle), and again at Bruges, at Utrecht, (Rawd. Papers, p. 103) or at Brussels (Life of Dean Barwick, p. 424. Eng. edit), as circumstances compelled. He was at Paris Dec. 30, 1651 (Contempor. J ourn. quoted by Bray, Mem. of Evelyn, vol. V. p. 275. 8vo. edit.), at the court of Charles II. (then still acknowledged by the French governiuenf ), at which time and place he probably wrote his Answer to La Milletierc (see below, note U).]
" [The whole of his discourses against the Roman Catholics and against Hobbes, together with the two against Baxter and upon the Sabbath Day, were written within this period, i. e. be- tween 1649 and 1660.] See below, note [U] ; and Life, pp. 29, &c. [and Bramhall's own account of his la- bours for the English Church at this time in his " Vindication of Episcop. Clergy," c. v.. Works, p. 524. fol. edit.] Life, &c. p. 33. and ["Serpent Salve," c. xii.] Works, p. 511. [fbl. edit. See also Letters, No. VIII., and the addi- tional remarks at the end of note U.]
2 Life, &c. p. 29. [The Bishop's eldest daughter (as will be seen below, p. xiii.) v/as married subsequently to Sir James Graham, whose father the Earl of Mon- teilii was nearly related to the great Mavquis.]
" In October, 1660 (Public Intelli- gence, 4to.). [ Bramhall was in London more than two months before the time here assigned, and in all probability came over from Holland immediately upon the Restoration. lie writes to his wife from London, July 7, 1660, having then already passed more than a fortnight there (Letters, No. XII.) ; and Evelyn speaks of " saluting his old friend, the Abp. of Armagh, Ibnnerly of London- derry," in London, .luly 28, of the ;ame year" (Diary under ihpt date).]
xu LIFE OF ARCHBISilOP BRAMHALL.
Most people imagined it would be the Archbishopric of York ; but at last he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh, Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland'' [Q], to which he was translated the 18th of January 1660-61'^. Not long after, ' he consecrated, in one day. Dr. Margetson, Archbishop of Dublin ; Dr. Pullen, of Tuam ;' and the following " ten Bishops ; Dr. Boyle, Bishop of Cork ; Dr. Parker, of Elfin ; Dr. Jeremy Taylor, of Down ; Syng, of Lymerick ; Price, of Leighlin ; Baker, of Waterford ; Wild, of Derry ; Lessl}', of Dromore; Worth, of Killalow; and Hall, of Killala." The ceremony " was performed in the cathedral church of St. Patrick, Dublin, [the sermon being preached by the Bishop of Down, and] the Lords Justices and Council attending"^." In this same year he visited his diocese, where he found great disorder ; some having committed horrible outrages, and many imbibed very strong prejudices, " both against his person, and the doctrine and discipline of the Church: but by lenity and reproof, by argument and persuasion, by long- suffering [and doctrine], he gained upon them even beyond his own expectation. He used to say, men must have some time to return to their wits, that had been so long out of them :" therefore, 'by his prudence and moderation he greatly softened the spirit of opposition, and effectually obtained the point he aimed at''' [R]. ' As he was, by his place. President of the Convocation which met the 8th of Ma}' 1661, so he was also, for his merit, chosen Speaker of the House of Lords,' in the Parliament which met at the same time - [S]. And so great a value had both Houses for him, that ' they ap- pointed committees to examine what was upon record in their books concerning him and the Earl of Strafford, and ordered the charges against them to be torn out, which was accordingly done^.' In this Parliament "many advantages
" Life, &c. p. 34.
" Sir James Ware's Works, as above. Ware's Works, in the Lives of those respective Prelates ; and Life, as above, p. 35. [and Jer. Taylor's Consecration Sermon, Works, vol. vi. pp. 301, &c. See also the circumstantial account of the ceremony in Mason's St. Patrick's (pp. 192— 194).]
f Life, &c. as above, pp. 35, 3(5.
' [See the Letter of Lord Orrery
quoted b}' Mant (Ch. of Ireland, ch. ix. § 2. p. 631) from Orrery's State Papers (vol. i. p. 34) ; and another Letter of Lord Orrei-y to Bramhall himself in the Rawd. Papers (No. Iviii.).]
^ [' The Convocation also acknow- ledged his services in an instrument, des'gned to be made public, but un- happily mislaid or lost.' Life, &c. p. 37. See also Jer. Taylor's Funeral Sermon.]
LtFE OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL.
Xlll
were procured, and more designed, for the Church, in which Archbishop Bramhall was very industrious. Several of the Bishops obtained their augmentations through his inter- cession; as Ukewise the inferior clergy the forfeited impro- priate tithes ; and the whole Church all the advantageous clauses in the acts of settlement and explanation" [, ' although she did not reap the benefit of them to the full extent that was intended'^].' "There were two bills, for the passing of which he took great pains, but was defeated in both:" one was, "for making the tithing-table of Ulster the rule for the whole kingdom:" the other, "for enabling the Bishops to make leases for sixty years'." About this time he had a violent sickness, being the second fit of a palsy'', which was very near putting an end to his life ; but he recovered. ' Before his death, he was intent upon a royal visitation, in order to the correction of some disordei's he had observed, and the better settlement of ministers upon their cures," by a more convenient distribution or union of parishes, and the building of churches': but he could not put this, and some other designs he had formed, in execution. A little before his death he visited his diocese, and having provided for the repair of his cathedral, and other affairs suitable to his pastoral office, he returned to Dublin about the middle of May 1663. The latter end of the month following, he was seized with the third fit of the palsy [T], which quickly put an end to his life'". By his wife mentioned above, he had four children, a son and three daughters. The son, Sir Thomas Bramhall, Bart, married the daughter of Sir Paul Davys, Knt. Clerk of the Council, and died without issue. Of the daughters ; the eldest [Isabella] was married [not long before her father's death] to Sir James Graham, son to the Earl of Monteith ; the second [Jane] to Alderman [Toxteath] of Drog- heda, and the third [Anne] to Standish [Hartstong], Esq.,
'i [Harris in his edition of Ware, from Vesey's Life.]
' Life, &c. as above, pp. 37, 38. [See the letter and petition upon the suhject, Letters, No. XIII.]
k [Apparently in January 1()6|, at which time he made his will (,Ier. Tay- lor's Fun. Serm., and the will itself among Bramhall's Letters, &c. No.
XV). He is spoken of as " old and in- firm," and " unable to last long," in a letter of Dean Barwick to Ld. Claren- don, 14th September, 1659. Life of Barwick, p. 439. Eng. Edit.] ' Life, Src. p. 39.
[June 25, in the 70th year of his age (Ware, as before quoted).]
XIV
LIFE OF ARC'KBISIIOP BRAMHALL.
[subsequently to the Archbishop's decease"] . Among other bene- factions, the Archbishop left a legacy of five hundred pounds for the repair of the Cathedral of Armagh, and St. Peter's at Drogheda". We shall give an account of his works in the note [U]. With regard to his person and character; he was " of a middle stature and active, but his mien and presence not altogether so great as his endowments of mind. His complexion was highly sanguine, pretty deeply tinctured with choler, which in his declining years became predomi- nant, and would sometimes overflow, not without some tartness of expression, but it proceeded no farther?." As "he was a great lover of plain-dealing and plain-speaking "J," "so his conversation was free and familiar, patient of any thing in discourse but obstinacy; his speech ready and intelligible, smooth and strong, free from affectation of phrase or fancy, saying, it was a boyish sport to hunt for words, and argued a penury of matter, which would always find expi-ession for itself His understanding was very good, and greatly im- proved by labour and study." " As a scholar, his excellency lay in the rational and argumentative part of learning." He was, also, well acquainted " with ecclesiastical and other histories; and in the pulpit an excellent persuasive oratoi\" He was a firm friend to the Church of England', " bold in the defence of it, and patient in suffering for it; yet he was very far from any thing like bigotry. He had a great allowance and charity for men of different persuasions, looking upon those Churches as in a tottering condition that stood upon nice opinions." Accordingly, he made a " distinction be- tween articles necessary for peace and order, and those that
n Life, &c. p. 39. [and the Abp.'s will, as before referred to. The names of the husbands of the Abp.'s 3'ounger daughters are spelt inaccurately by the writer in the Biogr. Britann. They are here coiTected from Dr. Vesey's Life. Mr. Hartstong " was one of the Barons of the Exchequer;" and the Sir James Graham, who married the eldest daugh- ter, was " the third and youngest son of William, Earl of Monteith and Airth," and by his daughter Helen, the only issue of his marriage witli Miss Bram- hall, became the maternal ancestor of the Earls of Moira and the ALirquisses
of Hastings, Sir Arthur Rawdon, tlie grand-father of the first Earl of Moira (and the nephew and only representative of the last Earl of Conway), having mar- ried Miss Helen Graham (Preface to Rawdon Papers. — Collins' Peerage by Sir Egert. Brydges, vol. vi. p. 684, and note).]
o Life, &c. pp. 39, 42, 43. [See also the Abp.'s will, as above referred to.] Life, &c. as above, p. 43. " Ibid. p. 2L
' [" Tenacious of the Catholic Tradi- tion," are Bp. Vesey's words.]
I.U-E OF ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL.
XV
are necessary to salvation ;" and he " often declared, That the Church was not to be healed but by general proposi- tions'*."
' Life, &c. p. 43. [Compare his Works, p. 937, fol. edit.] Discourse on Sabbatli and Lord's Day,
APPENDIX,
[A] Being descended from an ancient and genteel family. '\ Namely, "from the Bramhalls, of Bramhall-Hall in Cheshire'', related by intermarriage to the Keresfords, of Keresford in Yorkshire, a house that has flourished in a direct line from the time of King Henry IP."
[B] And put under the care of Mr. Hulet.'] The Right Reverend author of his life, Bishop Vesey, informs us, That " he became there master of the arts and sciences before he had the degree ; all his acts and exercises being still performed with that easiness and smoothness which argues clean strength and sufficiency''."
[C] He had two public disputations at North-Allerton, with a secular Priest and a Jesuit.'] These two Papists"^ had sent a public defiance to all the Protestant clergy in that country (at a time when the match between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain was in agitation, and they expected from thence great advantages and countenance to their own religion), and when none durst accept the challenge, our author undertook the combat. " Though he was then but about thirty years of age, and a stripling in the school of controversy," yet he managed the dispute so well, "that his an- tagonists, and their whole party, had reason to repent of the inso- lence of their adventure. One of the subjects of the disputation was the article of Transubstantiation, from whence they easily sliding into that other of the Half-Communion, he shamefully baflSed their doctrine of concomitancy, and drove the disputant up to so narrow a corner, that he affirmed that eating was drinking and drinking was eating in a material or bodily sense. Mr. Bramhall looked on this as so elegant a solecism, that he needed no greater trophy, if he could get under his hand, what he had declared with his tongue ; which being desired, was by the other, in his heat, and shame to seem to retreat, as readily granted. But upon cooler thoughts, finding perhaps, after the heat of the contest was over, that he could not quench his thirst with a piece of bread, he re-
a [A brother of the Bishop is men- Life, &c. as above, p. 2.
tioned incidentally by Laud in a letter Life, &c. as above, p. 2.
to Dr. Bramhall (dated in February Hungate, a Jesuit, and Hougliton,
1637, Rawd, Papers, p. .53), in con- a secular Priest. See Archbishop Bram-
nection with the gentry of Cheshire.] hall's Works, p. 624 [fol. edit.].
APPENDIX.
XVU
fleeted so sadly on the dishonour he had suffered, that, not being able to digest it, in ten days he died." Archbishop Matthews, hearing of this disputation, " sent for Mr. Bramhall, and at first rebuked him for his hardiness in undertaking a disputation so publicly without allowance ; but soon forgave him^."
[D] During the life of the Archbishop he was made Prebendary of York.'] So we are assured by the Right Reverend author of his Life''. But according to Browne Willis, Esq.s, he was not made prebendary of York till the 13th of June, 1633, five years after the death of Archbishop Matthews ; so that one of these two authors must be mistaken. The prebend he had, was that of Hustwaith, in the Church of York.
[E] He took the degree of Doctor in Divinity.'] The thesis he dis- puted upon, on that occasion, was this : Pontifex Romanus est causa, vel procreans vel conservans, omnium vel saltern prcccipuarum con- troversiarum in orhe Christiano, i. e. ' The Pope is the author, or maintainer, of all, or at least of the chief, controversies in the Christian world.' And in all his exercises, then, " he made it ap- pear that he had not lost his time in the country, nor evaporated all in pulpit discourses, but that he had furnished himself with very substantial learning*^." [His own account is more accurate. It is as follows : — " When I disputed in Cambridge for the degree of Doctor, my thesis was taken out of Nilus', that the Papacy (as it was challenged and usurped in many places, and as it had been sometime usurped in our native country) was either the procreant or conservant cause, or both the procreant and conservant cause.
He had preached upon a similar subject, viz. " the Pope's unlawful usurpation of jurisdiction over the Britannic Churches," at an earlier period, before a Synod of the Province of York, apparently that of 1620'. It is curious to observe how early and how con- tinually his attention was turned to the subject of his subsequent treatises against the Romanists.]
[F] The Bishoprics were dilapidated by fee-farms, and long leases
' Life, &c. as above, p. 3. [See also the " Viiidic. of Episcop. Clergy," c. V. Works, p. 624. fol. edit.]
' Life, &c. as above, p. 4.
8 Survey of the Cathedrals of York, &c. edit. 1727, 4to. vol. i. p. 145.
•> Life, &c. as above, p. 5.
' [Bramhall must mean that he took the hint of this subject from Nilus (Abp. of Thessalonica, De Primatu Papae), as neitlier the words nor the exact sentiment occur in that author.]
[" Vindication of the Episcopal Clerg)', &c." c. V. Works, p. 623. fol. edit.]
'["Vindication, &c., as quoted in last note. Bramhall, it will be re- membered, did not take Orders until after 1616, and the sermon liere al- luded to was preached before 1623, the date of his disputation at North-Aller- ton ; consequently in the year above given, there having been no other northern Synod within the interval.]
BRAMHALL.
c
APPENDIX.
at small rents.'] These had been " granted, partly by the Popish Bishops, who resolved to carry as much with them as they could," and " partly by their Protestant successors, who might fear another turn, and were, having their example, disposed enough to make use of the same arts. By such means on the one side and the other, many Bishoprics were made" extremely small: some reduced to one hundred pounds per annum ; some to fifty, as Waterford, Kil- fenoragh, &c. ; some to five marks, as Kilmacduagh, and particu- larly Cloyne, the Bishop whereof was called Episcopus quinque marcarum, the five-marks-Bishop. Aghadoe was only one pound one shilling and eight pence ; and Ardfert but sixty pounds. Lyme- rick had above five parts in six made away by fee-farms, or en- croached on by undertakers. The like was done in Cashel, Emly, Waterford, Lismore, and Killaloe. In some dioceses, as in Ferns and Leighlin, there was scarcely a living left that was not farmed out to the patron, or to some for his use, at two, three, foui", or five pounds per annum, for a long time, three lives, or a hundred years™.
[G] He likeivise endeavoured to destroy some opinions of general credit, that he judged very prejudicial to a good life.] ** He was very desirous to abate of their value, and to reduce them to what they ought only to pass for, school opinions, that so men might have the liberty of their private reasons \_sah-d Fide and salvd caritate]. He could not endure to see some men enslave their judgment to a person or a part}', that cry up nothing more than Christian liberty. He thought that liberty was much confined by being chained to any man's chair, as if all he uttered were" oracles, " and to be made the standard and test of orthodoxy : that the Christian faith and liberty are then most in danger, when so many things are crowded into confessions, that what should be practical, becomes purely a science, of a rule of life an useless speculation, of a thing easy to be under- stood, a thing hai'd to be remembered : that it was the interest of the Protestant Church to widen her bottom, and make her Articles as charitable and comprehensive as she could, that those nicer accu- racies, that divide the greatest wits in the world, might not be made the characteristics of reformation, and give occasion to one party to excommunicate and censure another. Thus he saw the Church of England constituted ; both Calvinists and Arminians .... sub- scribing the same propositions, and ' walking to the house of God as friends".' "
■n Life, &c. as above, pp. 7, 8. 25. [and words between brackets are Dr. A'e- Letters, Nos. I. and VI.] sey's.] n Life, &c. as above, p. 9. [The
APPENDIX.
[H] Several acts passed in the Parliament, which met in that king' dom, July the Mth, 1634.] The first was, "A statute for the main- tenance and execution of pious uses," obliging all 'Archbishops and Bisliops to perform every such trust according to the true intent of the deeds in that behalf made, or to be made".' The next was, "A statute for confirmation of leases made by the Lord Primate, and other Bishops in Ulster," of such endowments as had been made by King James to the Archbishopric of Armagh, the Bishoprics of Derry, Clogher, Raphoe and Killmore, giving them power, any time within five years, to make leases for sixty years of such lands?. By this statute, the Church was enabled, on the surrender of titles to fee-farms, and some improvement of rent, to make leases, as above, for sixty years ; " by which means she was in many places bettered at present, and had a hopeful prospect of recovering her full right at last." But the best defence of the Irish Church, was the statute entitled, "An Act for the preservation of the inheritance, rights, and profits, of lands belonging to the Church and persons ecclesiastical <i." " This limited them to time and rent, prescribed w^iat they might set, and for what, and how long, and is the security of succession." — Care also was taken of the inferior clergy, in another Act, which enableth "restitution of impropriations and tithes, and other rights ecclesiastical, to the clergy, with a restraint of aliening the same, and direction for the presentations to churches'"."
[I] In the Convocation that met at the same time, he prevailed upon the Church of Ireland to he united in the same Faith with the Church of England.'] Tlie Faith of both was the same in the main, only with this difference, that the Irish Articles were more rigid and Calvinistical. Of this no better reason can be given, than that the first reformers in Ireland, on account of the great number of Papists in that kingdom, endeavoured to guard against them as much as possible. " Therefore, like burnt children, which so much dread the fire that they think they can never be far enough from their fear, they became very dogmatical in some propositions (most oppo- site, as they conceived, to the Church of Rome), left undetermined by the Church of England." Now Bishop Bramhall "laboured, in the Convocation, to have the correspondence more entire and accu-
° Sir Richard Bolton's Statutes of rents of the See of Ardmagh in par- Ireland, Sess. 3. c. ]. fol. 50. ticular were improved £735 4s. 4d. Ibid. c. 5. fol. 56. yearly, more than usual. [Letter of P Sess. 4. 0. 3. fol. 78. Abp. Uslier to Bramhall, dated Fe- ' Ibid. c. 2. fol. 75. In pursuance, bruary 25. 1035, in Bramhall's] Life, and by the benefit, of these Acts, the &c. as above, p. 1 3.
c .2
XX
APPENDIX.
rate; and discoursed, with great moderation and sobriety, of the convenience of having the articles of peace and communion in every national Church worded in that latitude, that dissenting persons, in those things that concerned not the Christian Faith, might subscribe, and the Church not lose the benefit of their labours for an opinion which it may be they could not help ; that it were to be wished such articles might be contrived for the whole Christian world, but especially that the Protestant Churches under the King's dominion might 'all speak the same language;' and, particularly, that those of England and Ireland, being reformed by the same principle and rule of Scripture [expounded by universal tradition. Councils, Fathers, and other ways of conveyance^], might confess their Faith in the same form." Persuaded by these arguments, the Convocation drew u}) a canon which is as follows : " For the manifestation of our agreement with the Church of England in the confession of the same Christian Faith, and the doctrine of the Sacraments, we do re- ceive and approve the book of Articles of religion agreed upon by the Archbishops and Bishops and the whole clergy in the Convoca- tion holden at London in the year 1562, &c. And, therefore, if any hereafter shall affirm, that any of those articles are in any part superstitious or erroneous, or such as he may not with a good con- science subscribe unto, let him be excommunicated, and not absolved before he make public revocation of his error'."
[K] An information exJtibited against him in the Star Chamber.^ " The charge was, ' That he was present at Ripon when one Mr. Palmer had made some reflecting discourse upon his Majesty, and that his Lordship had taken no notice of it, either to reprove him or inform against him.' The words .... deserved no very capital punishment, if they had been true, being no more than, ' That he feared a Scottish mist was come over their town ;' because the King liad altered his lodgings from Ripon, where he had de- signed them, to one Sir Richard Graham's house, not far from that place: but the Bishop .... easily cleared the whole company"." [It seems that this was not the only charge made upon this occa- sion against Dr. Bramhall. Another, equally groundless and equally unsuccessful, ' of having uttered some yeomanly language upon the serving and executing a commission out of the Court of the Star
' [The words between brackets are tion ; afterwards Archbishop of Casliel.'
Dr. Vesey's, the sentence now standmg — See also the Constitutions and Canons
as he wrote it.] of the Synod at Dublin, A. D. 1634,
' Life, &c. pp. 17, 18. ['from the in- Can. 1, in Wilkins, Concil., torn. iv.
formation of Thos. Price, then Arch- p. 498. and the additional remarks at
deacon of Kilmore, and consequently a the end of note U.] member of the lower house of Convoca- " Life, &e. p. 22.
APPENDIX.
xxi
Chamber,' was brought against him by one Mr. Bacon at the same time^.]
[L] In this distress he wrote to the Primate Usher, then in England, for his adcice and comfort.'] This letter^ is dated April 26, 1641. Archbishop Usher, in his answer, has these words : " I assure you my care never slackened in solliciting your cause at Court, with as great vigilancy as if it did touch mine own proper person. I never intermitted any occasion of mediating with his Majestic in your behalf, wlio still pittyed your case, acknowledged the faithfulness of your services both to the Church and to him, avowed that you were no more guilty of treason than himself, and assured me that he would do for you all that lay in his power, &c." [Abp. Usher con- tinues,— " My Lord Strafford the night before his suffering (which was most Christian and magnanimous ad stnporem usque), sent me to the King, giving me in charge among other particulars to put him in mind of you, and of the other two Lords that are under the same pressure, Stcy." It deserves to be mentioned to the credit both of Bp, Bramhall and of Abp. Usher, that, although the former was a man of active zeal and hasty temper, and devoted heart and soul to the restoration of the Irish Church in a way, which Abp. Usher opposed, and upon principles, with which he did not sympa- thise,— in times too of strong excitement and violent party-feeling,— yet there ever existed between them a most friendly and even af- fectionate intercourse : as the above letters among others^ testify, and as Bramhall (after Usher's death) expressly declares*.]
[M] And landed at Hamburgh, July 8, 16-44.] Shortly after, at. the treaty of Uxbridge, the Parliaments of England and Scotland made this one of their preliminary demands, that Bishop Bramhall (together with Archbishop Laud, &c.) should be excepted out of the general pardon^. This Avas accordingly done, in an ordinance of indemnity passed by the Rump-Parliament in 1652. [He had been included likewise in the " First Qualification" of those, against whom the Parliament demanded liberty to take proceedings, in the
» [Commendatory Letter fioiii the Ld. Deputy Wentworth to the Ld. Keeper Coventry in behalf of Dr. Bram- hall, then going to London, September 11, 1637. Rawdon Papers, No. xv.]
» [Letters, No. VL] Life, as above, p. 2.5. [See the letter entire in the Rawdon Papers, No. xxxiv.]
I [See also Letters, No. X., and Usher's letters in the Ravvd. Papers, Nos. xxiii, and xxxiii, especially the
former.]
^ [" I praise God that we" (the Lord Primate and his Sviffragans) "were like the Candles in the Levitical Temple, looking one towards another, and all towards the stem. We had no conten- tion among us, but who should hate contention most, and pursue the peace of the Church with swiftest paces." (Discourse on the Sabbatli, &c. in Bramhall's Works, p. 9;3K foh edit.).] Dugdale's View, &c. p. 711.
xxu
APPENDIX.
Articles of Peace proposed to King Charles I. (then at Newcastle in the hands of the Scots) in 1646^]
[N] And after having undergone several dangers and difficidties.~\ All the while he was there, " he had his life continually in his hand ; being in perils by Irish, in perils by his own countrymen, and in perils by false brethren. At Lymerick, the Earl of Roscommon had such a fall coming down a pair of stairs, that he lived only so long to declare his Faith (at Bishop Bramhall's instance) as it is pro- fessed in the Church of England : which gave such offence to the Romanists there, who would have reported he died a Papist, if he had not spoken at all, that they threatened the Bishop's death, if he did not suddenly depart the town. At Portumnagh, indeed, he and such as went with him enjoyed afterwards more freedom under the Marquis of Clanrickard's pritection, and an allowance of the Church service : but, at the revolt of Cork, he had a very narrow- deliverance, which Cromwell was so troubled at, that he declared he would have given a good sum of money for X\\a.t Irish Canterbury^."
[O] Narrowly escaped thence in a little har'k.'] This escape of his is accounted very wonderful : for " the little bark he was in was closely hunted by two of the Parliament frigates, many of which were on that coast ; and when they were come so near, that all hopes of being saved were taken away, .... on a sudden the wind slackened into a perfect calm, and as it were flew into the sails of the little vessel, and carried her away in view''."
[P] But he met with an unexpected diversion in his first day's journey into that kingdom.'] " For he no sooner came into the house where he intended to refresh himself, but he was known and called by his name by the hostess. And his Lordship admiring at his being discovered, she soon revealed the secret, and shewed him his own picture, and assured him there were several of them upon the road ; tliat, being known by them, he might be seized and carried to the Inquisition ; and that her husband, among others, had power to that purpose, which he would certainly make use of if he found him. The Bishop saw evidently he was a condemned man, being already hanged in effigie, and therefore made use of the advertise- ment, and escaped out of the power of that Court^."
" [Thurloe's State Papers, vol. i. p. p. 193. 4to. edit.) introduces this storj-, 80.] mere I)' to remark on the word ' pic-
f Life, as above, p. 33. [See also the Miisgrave, in his MS. Adversaria (in additional remarks at the end of note the British Museum), observes that it U. — " Granger (Biograph. Hitt. vol v. was neither a painting nor an eugrav-
<> Life, as above, pp. 27, 28. « Life, as above, p. 28.
turc,' that it \ which he nc
' doubtless his print, saw.' Sir William
APPENDIX.
XXIU
[Q] Archbishop of Armagh, Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland.'] The author of his life observess, that "no man could be more acceptable to the clergy there, because none so fit to repair the breaches of the Church, by knowing to what part every stone and every piece of timber belonged, as this skilful architect, who, by assigning the proper place for every thing, had the satisfaction to see the building rise suddenly out of its ashes, without the noise of hammer'', or any contradiction ; the authority of his person and of his judgment silenced all the opposition which one of less veneration might possibly have met with. All men's expectations were fixed on him ; and many of the prime nobility and clergy in Eng- land" (particularly the Queen of Bohemia)' "congratulated the Church's happiness in his promotion." [It may be worth while to quote a few words from two of the letters of congratulation here alluded to : the first, that of the Queen of Bohemia (daughter of James I.) " who in a letter addressed to his Grace prayed him to be confident ' that none of his friends could be more glad, or wished him more happiness, than his ever most affectionate friend Eliza- beth'' ;' " the other, that of Lord Caulfield, "afterwards known by the honourable epithet of the good Lord CharlemontV who tells him (in a letter dated Oct. 22, 1660™), that " as the news of your Lordship's safe arrival is most welcome to me, so is it likewise occasion of great rejoicing to all those in the kingdom who truly fear God, and pray for the welfare of his Church : it being yet fresh in the memories of us all, how eminent an instrument your Lordship hath been long
ing, hut a description of the person hy words, wliich was usually drawn up hy a painter, and was therefore called a picture. But the expression of ' heing hanged in effigy,' which, as Granger does not mention it, Sir William pro- bably never saw, seems to imply some kind of engraving or caricature.' " (Chalmers' 13iogr. Diet., Art. Bram- ball).]
« Page 34.
[Bp. Bramhall " was neither a boaster of revelations nor an ohsen'er of dreams ; and yet he would often before the Ilebellion of Ireland speak of one, that then much troubled him, which was, that being in a very fair Cathedral Church he thought it suddenly fell upon him, so that he was almost buried in the rubbish, but, having with much difficulty got out, and looking upon it some time, he saw it rise up without any noise ; of every part whereof he lived to see the verification (Life, &c., p.
' [Perhaps nothing marks more sh-ongly the estimation in which Bp. Bramhall was d(-t rvr .'iv M, than the intimacy whicli itli the
great and goou > lass of
his contemi'ov;, : friends are to I im' , ilie two,
whose V: '• Lord
Straftbi- I, . , lier, Sir
George UadtlilK , -Mr. W .ii)rde,the Marquis of Orniond, Lords Orrery and Southampton " (Advertisement to Raw- don Papers); to whom may be added the Marquis of Newcastle, the Mar- quis of Montrose, Sir 'William Bos- well, and, lastly, one not the least honourable of the list, Evelvn.]
k [Quoted in Rawd. Papers, p. 118, note; and by Bp. Vesej', Life, &c. p. 34.]
' [Mant, Ch. of Ireland, ch. ix. § L p. 605.]
[Rawd. Papers, No liii.]
xxiv
APPENDIX.
since in the propagating the true ancient Protestant religion in this kingdom."]
[R] And effectually obtained the point he aimed at."] We have " one instance of his prudence, in turning the edge of the most popular objection of that time against conformity. When the bene- fices were called over at the visitation, several appeared, and exhi- bited only such titles as they had received from the late powers. He told them, ' they were no legal titles, but in regard he heard well of them, he was willing to make such to them by institution and in- duction;'" which they thankfully accepted of. — But when he de- sired " to see their letters of orders, some had no other but their certificates of ordination by some Presbyterian classes, which, he told them, did not qualify them for any preferment in the Church. Upon this, the question arose, ' Are we not Ministers of the Gospel V To which his Grace answered, That was not the question ; at least, he desired for peace sake, that might not be the question for that time. ' I dispute not,' said he, ' the value of your ordination, nor those acts you have exercised by virtue of it ; what you are, or might be, here when there was no law, or in other Churches abroad. But we are now to consider ourselves as a national Church limited by law, which among other things takes chief care to prescribe about ordination ; and I do not know how you could recover the means of the Church, if any should refuse to pay you your tithes, if you are not ordained as the law of this Church requireth ; and I am de- sirous that she may have your labours, and you such portions of her revenue as shall be allotted you, in a legal and assured way.' By this means he gained such as were learned and sober"."
[S] Chosen Speaker of the house of Lords, in the Parliament which met at the same time.'] The author of his life observes", that " it is not easy to say which of the two places he filled best, whether the Statesman or Divine shined with greater brightness. He had a judgment so clear, and a speech so plain and persuasive, that he could readily unravel any intricacy and divide all the parts of the controversy into their proper sides, so that the heavier scale would easily shew itself. In short, he so moderated and stated all ques- tions that arose, that few assemblies can boast of so great an interest being disputed with so little noise (though there wanted not some) in those kind of arguments wherein men are not usually the most silent."
[T] The latter end of June he was seized with the third Jit of the
" Life, &c. pp. 35, 3(5. [See tlie ad- " Page 37. ditional remarks at the end of note U. ]
APPENDIX.
XXV
palsy.'] " He had then a trial for some part of his temporal estate, at Omagh, with Sir Audley MervynP, depending in the court of claims ; and there, at the time of hearing, .... the third fit of the palsy so smote him, that he sunk in the court, was carried out senseless, and continued so till death finished his worki. Had the cause l-een unjust," as the author of his Life [goes on to] observe, " or adjudged against him, some censorious spirits would not have spared to have made left-hand judgments from the circumstances of his death : but his right so appeared on the argument, that he was a conqueror in his death, and victory and honour waited upon him to the grave^."
[U] We shall give an account of his Works, ^-c] They were most of them published [and, excepting three out of the four sermons, the whole of them written] at different times [during Dr. Bramhall's exile from Ireland, between 1643 and 16G0]. But they were all reprinted at Dublin [at intervals from 1674 to 1676, and published together in the last named year, and again with only a trifling change in the title-page] in the year 1677, in one volume folio, with this title : — " The Works of the most Reverend Father in God, John Bramhall, D.D. late Lord Archbishop of Ardmagh, Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland. Some of which never before printed. Collected into one volume. To which is added (for the vindication of some of his writings). An exact Copy of the Records, touching Archbishop Parker's Consecration, taken from the original, in the Registry of the See of Canterbury. As also, the Copy of an old ^lanuscript, in Corpus Cliristi College, in Cambridge, of the same Subject;" — [with a life of the author prefixed by the editor Bp. Vesey, and a dedication to Michael (Boyle) then Arch- bishop of Dublin. Very little pains or care however were be- stowed upon either the text or the references by Dr. Vesey, the collection and arrangement of Bp. Bramhall's Works (with the in- formation contained in the Life,) constituting the only merits of his edition.]
P [See Letters, No. XII. Sir A. Mervyn had opened the proceedings against Bramhall when he was im- peached in Kill, in a very virulent speech, Nalson, vol. ii. jjp. .5"(iO, &c.]
1 [Bishop Mant (Clmrch of Ire- land, ch. ix. § 2. p. (jll) mentions, on the authority of Palliser's Funeral Oration for Abp. Margetson, that Bram- hall on liis death-bed recommended that prelate to the Duke of Onnond (then Lord Lieutenant) as his suc- cessor : an anecdote, he adds, of which
Harris (in his edition of Ware, Art. upon Abp. Margetson) has questioned the accuracy on the ground of its in- compatibility with the circumstances of Dr. Bramhall's death; unnecessarily, however, as the Abp. had regarded him- self as upon his death- bed since his se- cond attack of the palsy three (it should be five — See p. xiii. notes k and ni) months before.]
' Life, &c. p. 42. [See also the Abp.'s will, among his Letters, &c. No. XVI.]
APPENDIX.
This volume is divided into four Tomes or Parts. I. Tome I. containelh the Discourses against the Romanists; viz.
1. "An Answer to M. de la Militiere" [Milletiere^], "his im- pertinent Dedication of his imaginary Triumph (intitlcd ' The Victory of Truth'), or his Epistle to the King of Great Britain" (King Charles 11. ), " wherein he inviteth his Majesty to forsake the Church of England, and to embrace the Roman Catholic Religion : with the said IMilitiere's" [Milletiere's] "Epistle prefixed."
This was first published at the Hague in [1653], 12mo., but not by the author. [It was acknowledged by him in his " Just Vindi- cation," &c.' (published the next year, 1654), "excepting the errors of the press," of which he there noticed one : and was upon this again published, but evidently not by Bramhall himself (The Hague, ]2mo. 1654), as " corrected according to his Lordship's own direc- tions in his Vindication," &c. viz. with that one error and that only corrected, together with a few alterations in the (so called) translation, prefixed to it, of La Milletiere's Epistle. Bayle", Niceron'', and Bram- hally himself, speak also of a French translation of the Answer (Geneva, 1655, 8vo.), entitled " Reponse faite par le Commandement du Roi de la Grande Bretagne a TEpitre Dedicatoire du Triomphe Imagi- naire de iL de la Milletiere," with an "Avis au Lecteur " by the Genevese editor prefixed : and the original has been again lately i-epublished in 12mo. from the folio edition (corrected, however, as it should seem, by that of 1654), v/ith one or two notes and a memoir of the Author abridged from Dr. Vesey's Life, by the Rev. G. Ingram, Lond. 1841.]
The occasion of it was, that the Romanists endeavoured to per- suade King Charles II., during his exile, to hope his restoration by embracing their religion ; and for that purpose emi^loyed M. de la [Milletiere], Counsellor in Ordinary to the King of France, to write to him [the Epistle in question^. This was published in 1651, at Paris, where Charles's court then was ; and Dr. Bramhall's reply, written (if we may trust tlie Genevese editor) by his jMajesty's ex- press command, and probably enough for his private satisfaction %
^ [See note b, p. 1 0. (marginal paging) of La Milletiere's Epistle.]
' [c. X. Works, Part i. Discourse ii. p. ISC, fol. edit.]
" [Dictionn., Art. Milletiere.]
" [Memoives, 8cc. torn. xli. Art. Mil- letiire.]
5 [" Viiidic. of Episcop. Clergy," &r. c. vi., Works, Part ii. Discourse iii.
p. 627. fol. edit.]
z Life, &c. as above, pp. 29, 30. [and Jer. Taylor's Fun. Sonn.]
[Bramhall's trr.ct was not designed for publication, but was written for some private purpose urispecilied (".lust Vindication," &c. c. x. as cjuoted in note t.).]
APPENDIX.
xxvu
was apparently composed'' at the same place at the close of the same year''.]
2. "A Just Vindication of the Church of England from the unjust Aspersion of Criminal Schism, wherein the Nature of criminal Schism, the divers Sorts of Schismatics, the Liberties and Privi- leges of National Churches, the Rights of Sovereign Magistrates, the Tyranny, Extortion, and Schism, of the Roman Court, with the Grievances, Complaints, and opposition of all Princes and States of the Roman Communion of Old, and at this very Day, are manifested to the View of the World."
First printed at London [in 1654, 8vo., 'from a written copy, during the Author's absence,' he being then in Holland ; and again, with the " Replication," &c. (Part i. Discourse iii.) bound up under the same title-page, also at London] in 1661, 8vo., [but ap- parently, as before, without the author's superintendence, this second being merely a reprint of the first edition with the errata corrected.
The immediate occasion of this treatise, which was originally designed to form an appendix to the Answer to La IMilletiere'^, seems to have been the publication abroad by English Roman Catholics of several works^, in which the accusation of schism was put forward prominently, as an unanswerable confutation of the pretensions of the English Church f.] In this Discourse [, accordingly,
*> [See the Ansv/er itself, p. 23, note 1. p. 78, note 1. of tlie present edit. ; and that Bramliall was in Paris in Dccein- hcr 1()51, see above, p. xi. note u. His previous residence in Holland may be traced in the Dutch words, which occa- sionally occur in this tract.]
'' [In reply to Baxter's objections to the " Answer," Branihall ohserves (Vindic. of Episcop. Clergy, c. vi. as quoted in note y), that abroad " it hath hcen more happy, — to confirm many, to convert some (and particularly the transcriber of the copy which was brought to the press)," "to irritate no man but the common adversaries, who vented their spleen against it weekly in their pulpits, as thinking that the easiest way of confutation ;" adding, that " some" of the old Episcopal Divines, (i. e. of Eng- land) had "approved it and thanked him for it."]
■1 [Answer to La Millet., pp. 36. fiO. of the present edit, and the Just Vin- dication, &c. as quoted in note t.]
' [The Appendix (De Schismate) to Dr. Holden's book De Resolutione
Fidei, Paris, 1652. 8vo — Mr. Knott's " Infidelity Unmasked Gant, 1652. ■Ito.]
' [The general tone of the controversy with the Romanists seems to have turned at this time very much upon the question of Schism. Dr. Hammond's treatise "Of Schism," and another, by Dr. feme, " Of the Di\ isiou between tlie English and Ror.iish Church upon the Rtformation," 6cc., had been pub- lished in London in Ki'jo, and Sir Roger Twysden's " Historical Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism" followed Bramball's (but to all appearance independently) in 1().37 (Lond. 4to.). The latter is partly a reply to a "Treatise of the Schism of England" by Philip Scot (Amsterd. 1650), but is partly also directed against the arguments of the Romanists gene- rall}'. Sir G. Radcliffc again writes to Branihall from Paris, .Jul) 21, 1656 (Rawd. Papers, p. 102), that he had met there " with sundry very learned men," who seemed "to agree" with him "in points of Faith, and particu-
xxviii
APPENDIX.
the Author] proves [among other points], That the separation from the Court of Rome was not made by Protestants, but Roman Catholics themselves?; That the Britannic Churches were ever exempted from all foreign jurisdiction for the first six hundred years'^; and had both sufficient authority and sufficient grounds to withdraw their obedience from Rome'. [Although such however may have been the immediate occasion of the work, yet the subject had dwelt in the author's mind long previously, and appears indeed to have been his favourite topic''.]
3. " A Replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon" (Richard Smith) " his ' Survey of the Vindication of the Church of England from Criminous Schism,' clearing the English laws from the Aspersion of Cruelty. With an Appendix in Answer to the exceptions of S. W." [(William Sergeant), "or a Reply to S. W.'s 'Refutation of the Bp. of Derry's Just Vindication of the Church of England.' "]
Printed at first [in London, 1656, 8vo., the "Survey," &c. by R. C. (i. e. Richard Chalcedon) having appeared in 1654. The unsold copies of this edition were bound up, under a common title- page,] with [the new impression, in 1661, of] the " Just Vindi- cation," &c.
4. " Schism Guarded, and beaten back upon the right Owners, Shewing, — that our great Controversie about Papal power, is not a question of Faith, but of Interest and Profit, not with the Church of Rome but with the Court of Rome ; v.'herein the true Contro- versie doth consist ; who were the first Innovators ; when, and where, these Papal Innovations first began in England ; with the Opposition that was made against them."
This [was first' printed at the Hague, 1658, Svo. ; and republished but not reprinted in the following year in London, with " The Con- secration and Succession," &c. (the treatise to be next mentioned) bound up with it, and an additional title-page for the whole volume, as follows ; " 'Po/x^aia AlaTOfios 'O^ela, or, The Church of England
larly about the Pope's jurisdiction, and the Bread in the Sacrament, which two points" he had " tliouglit most irre- concilcable ;" hut " tlie Schism" was "that only whicli is now the lilock be- tween us." See also a preceding letter of his (Rawd. Papers, pp. 99, 100).]
E Ch. iii.
h Ch. V.
i Ch. vi.
See above, note E. [A letter of Bp. Morley to the author upon Ihe pub- lication of this work is <|uoted by Dr. Yeisey, in which that Bishop says that
he " never saw anything written of that argument so clearly, so fully, so con- vincingly ; and therefore " he adds, " I heartily thank your Lordship for it, not only in my own name, but of the whole Clergy and Cliurch of England, which thereby is notably vindicated from the greatest prejudice that lay upon her, or could with any probability be objected to her," &c. (Life, &c. pp. 30, 31.).]
' [Adverlisement to Keader, dated March 11, 1658 stilo novo, and pre- fixed to the " Castigations of Mr. Hobbes," Works, p. 734. fol. edit.]
APPENDIX.
Defended, in two treatises, against the fabulous and slanderous im- putations cast upon her in the two points of Succession of Bishops, and Schisme, wherein the Fable of the Nag's Head Ordination is detected, and the accusation of Schism retorted."
It] is an answer to a book entitled, " Schism Dispatcht, [or, A Re- joinder to the Replies of Dr. Hammond and the Lord of Derry" (i. e. to Dr. Hammond's " Disarmer's Dexterities Examined," Lond. 1656, and to Bramhall's Reply to S. W. in the appendix to his " Replication," &c., above mentioned) ;] by S. W. i. e. Will. Ser- geant [1657. 8vo.]; and our Author proves therein, [among other points,] that the Pope hath no legislative nor judiciary power in England "\
5. " The Consecration and Succession of Protestant Bishops justified. The Bishop of Duresme Vindicated. And that infamous Fable, of the Ordination at the Nag's Head, clearly confuted."
This [appears to have been, from its subject, among the most popular of Dr. Bramhall's Works. It was first published at the Hague in 1G58, and again, as above mentioned, with "Schism Guarded," in London, in 1059. A third edition (Lond. 1664. 8vo.) is mentioned by Nicolson", separately from "Schism Guarded;" and a fourth, also separate, appeared in 1716 (Lond. 8vo.).
It] is an answer [partly] to a calumny of two Jesuits, Father
Talbot and Father B , against our Author. And the Bishop
of Durham here vindicated, is Bishop Morton, who was charged by the same Fathers [upon the authority of a certain Nobleman, viz. Lord Audley°], — "in 1640, when some Presbyterian Lords pre- sented to the Upper House a book, proving, that the Protestant Bishops had no Succession or Consecration, and therefore were no Bishops," — to have made a speech against that book; and "en- deavoured to prove succession from the last" [Roman] " Catholic Bishops, who, by imposition of hands, ordained the first Protestant Bishops at the Nag's Head in CheapsideP." — In opposition to this. Bishop Morton'i, and such of the Spiritual and temporal Lords as were in the House in 1640 and still living in 1658, made solemn
Sect. i. ch. 6, 7. " [Eng. Hist. Libr. p. 138. 3rd edit.] ° [Neither Bramhall nor the Fathers had in the first instance named tliis nobleman, but the latter (or their re- presentative) broke through their scru- ples in their reply. See the " Nullity of the Prelatique Clergy, by N. N." ch. ix.]
[These are " the words of the Fa- thers themselves," as quoted by Bram-
hall in his Reply, ch. ii. Works, p. 430. fol. edit.]
q [Dean Barwick, then cliaplain to Bp. Morton, was about to reply to the story ; but hearing of the Bp. of Derry' s intention, he handed over the materials, which he had collected, to him (Life of Barwick, by his brother, p. 174. Eng. Transl.). See the work itself, ch. ii. p. 432. fol. edit]
XXX
APPENDIX.
protestations (inserted in this book), " That no such book was ever presented, nor such a speech made by Bishop Morton." [The charge was brought by the Fathers (or by one of them, or of their party) in the 2nd chapter of a book, entitled " A Treatise of the nature of the Catholique Faith and of Heresy by N. N." (Rouen, 1057); to the remainder of the second chapter of which book the greater part of Bramhall's Work is a reply, the story of the Nag's Head Ordination being its principal argument "■.]
11. Tome II., "Against the English Sectaries;" comprehends,
1. "A Fair Warning to take heed of the Scottish Discipline, as being of all others most injurious to the Civil Magistrate, most op- pressive to the Subject, most pernicious to both."
[First published in 1049% 4to., no place; but spoken of in a "Review" of it by one Robert Baylie', as "published in Holland" :" and republished but not reprinted in 1G61, at the Hague, with Baylie's Review and a " Second Fair Warning in vindication of the First," by Rich. Watson", bound up under a common title-page. Another edition, without either name or place, and with considerable omissions and errors, appeared also in 1649>': and another, (an exact reprint of the first mentioned^) was published between 1661 and 1663, and either in England or in Ireland^.]
2. " The Serpent Salve : or, A Remedy for the biting of an Aspe :
f [A Rejoinder to BiauihaH's work, entitled " The Nullity of tlie Prelatique Clergy and Church of England further discovered, in answer to the plain pre- varication, S:c., of D. John IJraniliall," &c. \c. appcirod in Ki-^O (Aiilw. 8vo.) from llio 1,1!. of the same. N. X. The Ka>;'s Ik-ad Ordination was not a new subject to Branihall ; he had treated of it incidentally in his " Protestants" Or- dination Defended" (unpublished how- ever at this time), Works, Part iv. Dis- course vii. pp. 1006, 1007. fol. edit. — of which see below.]
s [That this was its first publication, is fixed bv the quotation in the book it- self (Works, p. .j().3. fol. edit.) of a ' So- lemn Acknowledgment, lS:c. ' made by the General Assembly of Scotland, Oct. t). 1648.]
' ["Review of Dr. Bramble" (sic), " late Bp. of Londenderry, his Fair Warning against the Scotcs DiscipHn, by R. B. G." (Robert Baylie, minister at Glasgow, at the time, however, with Charles II. at the Hague.) Delph. 1619. 4to. The name is mispelt Bromwcll in the title-page of the book itself.]
" [Bp. Branihall had returned from Ireland and was at Rotterdam in Oct. 16i8 : see above, p. x, note r.]
X [First published in 16-)1, Hague, 4to. He was chaplain to Lord Hop- ton.]
y [From the substitution in at least one instance (" reglement " for " re- gulation") of a foreign for an English word, this edition also would seem to have been printed abroad, and very possibly without the author's knowledge, as he does not appear to have ever disavowed or concealed his authorship.]
z [The title-page and a table of con- tents (taken from the headings of the chapters) excepted.]
" [It is entitled " A Fair Warning for England, to take heed of the Scottish Discipline, S.C. &c. Also the Sinful- nesse and wickednesse of the Covenant, to intioiluce that Government upon the Church of England, by Dr. .Tohn Brum- hall" (sic), "Lord Archbishop of Ar- magh and Primate, &c., now reprinted for the good and benefit of all his Ma- jesty's Subjects."]
APPENDIX.
xxxi
Wherein the Observator's Grounds are discussed, &c." written Dialogue-wise, and in vindication of King Charles I., [(in reply to a tract by Henry Parker, entitled " Observations upon some of His Majesty's late Answers and Expresses," published anonymously in 1642)] ; wherein the author endeavours to prove that 'power is not originally inherent in, and derived from, the people, &c.' [It was the first publication of Bp. Bramhall, and was] first printed in 1643^, [i. e. in the spring of 164f , whilst he was in Yorkshire with the Marquis of Newcastle "=.]
3. " Bishop Bi-amhall's Vindication of himself, and the Episcopal Clergy, from the Presbyterian charge of Popery, as it is managed by Mr. Baxter, in his treatise of the Grotian Religion." [first pub- lished under this title by Dr. Samuel Parker in 1672 (Lond. 8vo.), nine years after the author's death, with a Preface, which excited a great deal of controversy by its violence, " shewing what grounds there are of Fears and Jealousies of Popery." It was written in the latter end of 1659 or beginning of 1660, after the author had been sixteen years in exile*^, in answer to Baxter's " Treatise of the Grotian Religion against Thos. Pierce" (1658. Lond.), wherein Bramhall was accused by name of a design to bring in Popery ; and is the last, a few sermons excepted, of his published writings.]
III. Tome III. Against Mr. Hobbes.
1. " A Defence of True Liberty, from antecedent and extrinsecal Necessity. Being an answer to a late book of Mr. Thomas Hobbs of Malmesbury, intitled, A Treatise of Liberty and Necessity."
[The controversy between Bramhall and Hobbes, which gave oc- casion to this and the following works, took its rise from a conver- sation, that passed between them at an accidental meeting, in 1645, at the house of the Marquis of Newcastle in Paris. It appears from the works themselves, that the Bishop subsequently committed his thoughts upon the subject to writing, and transmitted his " discourse" through the Marquis to Hobbes. This called forth an answer from the latter in a letter addressed to the Marquis (dated Rouen, Aug.
^ [Title-page; see also Vesey's Life, &c. p. 27.]
' [Abp. Usher, in a letter to Bram- hall dated Oxford lfi44, speaks of hav- ing " at length received his book to- gether with his seiTnon" (viz. Serpent Salve, and the sermon before the M. of Newcastle of Jan. 28. 164|.) ; adding that he "cannot sufficiently commend" the author's " dexterity in clearing those points which have not been so satisfactorily liandled by those who have taken pains in the same argu-
ment before;" and that he had "pro- fited more thereby than by any of the books he had read before touching that subject" (Dr. Vesey's Life, &c. p. 27). Both the sermon and the book are like- wise mentioned and discussed by Sir G. Radclifte in a letter to Bramhall, dated Oxon 20. March 1C43, thanking him for the present of them (Rawd. Papers, No. xxxvii).]
[See his own words in ch. v. — Works, p. 524. fol. edit.]
xxxii
APPENDIX.
20, 1645), to be communicated "only to my Lord Bishop;" to •which Bramhall replied in a second paper, not however until the middle of the following year^ and privately as before. Here the controversy rested for more than eight years, having been hitherto carried on with perfect courtesy on both sides. In 1654, however, a friend of Hobbes procured without his knowledge a copy of his letter, and published it in London with Hobbes' name, but with the erroneous date of 1652 for 1645 ; upon which Bram- hall, finding himself thus deceived, rejoined in the next year by the publication of the " Defence, &c." (Lond. 1655. 8vo.) consisting of his own original "discourse," of Hobbes' answer, and of his own reply, printed sentence by sentence, with a dedication to the ]\Iarquis of Newcastle, and an advertisement to the reader explaining the cir- cumstances under which it was published.]
2. " Castigations of Mr. Hobbes, his last Animadversions, in the case concerning Liberty and universal Necessity [, wherein all his exceptions about the controversie are fully satisfied]."
3. " The Catching of Leviathan, or the Great \Miale ; Demon- strating, out of Mr. Hobs his own Works, that no man who is thoroughly a Hobbist, can be a good Christian, or a good Com- monwealth's man, or reconcile himself to himself, because his Prin- ciples are not only destructive to all Religion, but to all Societies ; extinguishing the Relation between Prince and Subject, Parent and Child, Master and Servant, Husband and AVife : and abound with palpable contradictions."
[These two works were printed in London, the first in 1657, the second, as an appendix to it, in 1658; and as two parts of one and the same volume. It would seem that Bramhall took ad- vantage of the " slowness of this edition" (it being printed in Lon- don while he was in Holland) to add to a part of the impression a common title-page for the whole volume, an additional "Advertise- ment to the Reader" (dated March 11, 1658, new style), and a table of errata ; as copies exist with these additions (from one of M'hich the folio edition was taken), which are in every other respect identical with those, wherein these additions are wanting.
The occasion of the first of the two was, the publication by Hobbes in 1656 of a reply to the " Defence," entitled " The Ques- tions concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance, clearly stated and debated between Dr. Bramhall, Bp. of Derry, and Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury," in which the whole of the " Defence" had been reprinted with Hobbes' own "Animadversions" upon it, head by
<: [See the Isl page of the Defence.]
APPENDIX.
XXXUl
head: an example of "needless repetition," which Bramhall had himself set, but did not now continue.
The second has no further connection with the dispute, than as being provoked by it ; and as directed against another treatise of the same adversary. Hobbes in this instance took his time to reply, his answer not appearing until 1682 (Lond. 8vo.), nearly twenty years after his opponent's death.]
IV. Tome IV. [Upon Miscellaneous Subjects,] contains,
1. " The Controversies about the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day; with their respective obligations ; clearly, succinctly, and impartially, stated, discussed, and determined."
[First published in the folio edition*', but written in the year 16585 or thereabouts, in consequence of the controversy whicharose aboutthat time in England between Dr. Bernard on the one side and Dr. Heylin and Dr. Pierce on the other concerning some opinions of Abp. Usher, and among the rest, his Judgment of the Sabbath and Observation of the Lord's Day. A tract which Bramhall had not seen when he wrote the earlier part of his book, but which he notices in its conclusion, was published by Dean Bernard in 1657 and 1658 at London, entitled, " The Judgment of the late Abp. of Armagh," &c., "1. Of the Extent of Christ's Death and Satisfaction, 2. of the Sabbath and Observation of the Lord's Day, 3. of the Ordination in other Reformed Churches," and noticing also rather sharply the substi- tution of the English for the Irish articles in the Convocation of 1634 at Dublin. The bulk of Dr. Bramhail's treatise is addressed to a friend unnamed who had asked him for his opinion upon the subject M'ithout specifying his reason for requiring it, that reason apparently being the controversy above mentioned.]
2. " A Sermon preached in York Minster before his Excellency the Marquis of Newcastle, being then ready to meet the Scotch army, Jan. 28, 1643 [i. e. 164|.]i."
3. "A Sermon preached at Dublin, upon the twenty-third of April 1661, being the day appointed for his Majestie's Coronation ;
' [General table of Contents to the folio edition.]
^ [From the date of publication of Dean Bernard's book mentioned above in the text. See Bramhail's Works, p. 934. fol. edit.]
h [This friend had himself written a "treatise" u))on the subject (Works, p. 907. fol. edit.) ; but there is no further clue to his name. A fragment of a letter by Bramhall (see Letters, No. XI.) upon the same controversy, ad-
BRAMHALL.
dressed, according to Bp. Barlow's en- dorsement, to Dean Bernard, might lead to the conjecture that he was the person ; but there is no other treatise by Dean Bernard at all bearing upon the subject, except the one mentioned in the text ; and this (if it can be called a "treatise" at all) was not seen by Bramhall until he had written nearly the whole of his book.]
' [See above, what is said of " Ser- pent-Salve."]
d
xxxiv
APPENDIX.
with two Speeches made in the House of Peers, the eleventh of May, 1661, when the House of Commons presented their Speaker."
4. " The right "Way to Safety after Shipwrack : in a Sermon preached to the Honourable House of Commons in St. Patrick's Church, Dublin, June 16, 1661, at their solemn receiving of the Blessed Sacrament."
[Both this and the last-mentioned sermons were first printed in 1661, upon their delivery, and the latter by request of the House of Commons''.]
5. "A short Discourse to Sir Henry De Vic, about a passage at his table, after the Christening of his Daughter, Anne Charlott ; of Persons dying without Baptism'." ["Written while in exile," i. e. at Brussels between 1644 and 1648. This and the next Paper were apparently printed for the first time in the folio edition.]
6 "An Answer to two Papers brought him June the 19th, 1645, about the Protestants' Ordination," &c. [written June 20th. in that year at Brussels.]
7 "Protestants' Ordination Defended," &c. or "An Answer to the twentieth- Chapter of The Guide of Faith ; or. The third Part of the Antidote of S. N. Doctor of Divinity" :" [written before 1654", but apparently first published in the folio edition.]
He had, likewise, prepared a hundred sermons for the press, but they [, with some memoirs he had written of his own life,] were " torn by the rats before his death"." [A short discourse upon Transubstantiation, written for the satisfaction of the English mer- chants at Antwerp during his first exile?, — a History of Hull, said to have been published shortly before his quitting England in 1644<J, — a reply to some objections made by a Jesuit against his Answer
[The title-pages of both Sei-mons by a singular mistake give the date 1C60 : yet it appears by the same title- pages, that the Sei-mons were not preached, nor the Speeches delivered, until nfler March 1661.]
1 See above [in the Life itself, p. x.] m [The full title of the work to which Bramhall replied, is as follows ; — " The Guide of Faith, or, A third Part of the Antidote against the Pestiferous writ- ings of all English Sectaries, and in particular, against D. Bilson, D. Fulke, D. Reynolds, D. Whitaker, D. Field, D. Sparkes, D. "SVhite, and M. Mason, the chief upholders, some of Protes- tancy, and some of Puritanisme.
Wherein the Truth, and perpetual Visible Succession, of the Catholique Roman Church, is clearly demon- strated, by S. N. Doctor of Divinity, 4to., no place, 1621.]
" [It is mentioned by Bramhall in his Just Vindication, c. ix. Works, p. 134. fol. edit.]
» [Life, &c. p. 29.]
P [Life, &c. p. 27 ; and see above, p. X.]
[Life, &c. p. 27 ; but the report might allude, as Dr. Vesey suggests, to the latter part of Serpent- Salve, pub- lished at this time, which treats at length of Sir J. Hotham's treason at Hull. See Works, pp. .581, &c. fol. edit.]
APPENDIX.
XXXV
to La Milletiere"", — and a paper of objections against Hobbes' book " De Cive^," — have been also lost.
Two treatises on the other hand have been attributed to him incor- rectly ; one, an " Apoloc/ia pro Rege et Populo Anglicano, Contra Jo- hannis Pohjpragmatici {alias Miltoni Angli) Defensionem destructi- vam Regis et Populi" (i. e. Milton's well-known " Defensio Popiili Anglicani"), published in 1G51, and supposed to be Bramhall's by Milton, and his nephew Phillips (who answered it) ; the other a treatise against the Presbyterians, entitled " The Countermine, or a Short but True Discovery of the Dangerous Principles and Secret Practices of the Presbyterians," &c. &c. published anonymously at London in 1677. That the former was not Bramhall's has been satisfactorily shewn by Archdeacon Todd', from the " contemptible and barbai-ous style" of the work, from the avowal of the authorship by the real author" in a subsequent work, and from the express denial of Bramhall himself''. The latter is written in a style very different from the nervous energy of Dr. Bramhall's ; and was really the composition of Dr. John Nalson. Lastly, he is said^ (although upon very slight grounds) to have assisted in the composition of two other treatises against the Presbyterians by one John Corbet, once a Presbyterian Minister at Bonyl, near Dumbarton, viz. " The Ungirding of the Scottish Armour''," and " Lysimachus Nicanor";" and also^ in that of a third, by Bp. Maxwell <= (attributed however by some to the same John Corbet), entitled " The Burthen of Issa- char''."]
[' Mentioned in the " Vindic. of Covenanters at Edinburgh, &c. &c., to Episeop. Clergy," c. vi. Works, p. G2C. draw them to take up amies, against fol. edit.] the Lord's Anointed, throughout the
» [.Mentioned in the Preface to the whole kingdom of Scotland." Dublin, " Defence ofTrue Liberty," &c., Works, Ito. 1()39. Witli Licence from tlie p. C 18. fol. edit.] Primate Usher, and a Dedication to the
' [Life of Milton, sect.iii. pp. 133— Lord Deputy, Wentwortli.] 135. note.] a ["The Epistle Congratulatory of
" [An English clergyman, named Lysimachus Nicanor, of the Society of John Rowland.] Jesu, to the Covenanters in Scotland,
^ [In a letter to his Son, Letters wherein is Paralleled our Sweet Har- No. IX.] mony and Correspondency in Divers
^ [Life, &c. p. 24. The story is Material! Points of Doctrine and Prac- inverted by Mr. Baylie, in his Review tice." First printed anonymously, in of Fair Warning, ch.i.p. 2. whoaccuses 1640, 4to.]
Bramhall of borrowing, in that treatise, ^ [Note by Baker, on Wood's Athen. from Corbet's Lysimachus Nicanor, and Oxon. by Bliss, vol. iii. p. 1265.] Maxwell's Burthen of Issachar. Cor- [First of Ross, in Scotland, then
bet, when compelled to fly to Ireland, of Killala and Tuam successively. He upon his refusal to take the Covenant, was received by Bp. Bramhall in Ire- was protected and patronised by Bram- land, when compelled to fly from Scot- hall (Life, &c. p. 27.).] land, in 1639 (Life, &c. p. 24.).]
^ [" In answer to the Informations d [" Or, The Tyrannical I'ower and for Defensive Armes against the King's Practices of the Presbyterian Govern- Majestie, which were drawn up by the ment in Scotland." Lond. l(j4C. 4to.]
■ (12
xxxvi
APPENDIX.
*** [Some additional remarks were appended to the Life of Bp. Bramhall by Towers and Kippis, in their edition of the Biograph. Britann. ; of which those worthy of notice are here added.
1. They observe, that "the conduct of Bp. Bramhall in the Irish Convocation of 1634^, doth not seem entitled to any very extrava- gant aj^plause ;" that " it was his aim to have the Articles of the Church of Ireland somewhat less Calvinistical," and that " in the management of this affair he shewed great dexterity." It must be remembered*', however, that, in the substitution of the English for the Irish Articles by that Convocation (the former omitting, the latter containing, the five Lambeth Articles), the change in itself was held by both parties to be sufficiently formal to allow both to regard its accomplishment as in some sense a victory, — the Primate Usher and his friends considering the Irish Articles uncondemned by the act, although set aside. Bp. Bramhall and the Lord Deputy holding them to be in effect abrogated s, but only or chiefly because set aside. The Bishop's dexterity therefore can scarcely be supposed or implied to have exceeded the bounds of honesty, because he urged the adoption of the measure upon the ground of its being in the main, and in itself, a merely formal change, — a ground, which the opinion of the opposite party also warranted him in assuming, — while he considered it all the time in its probable consequences to be real and most important.
2. It is further remarked by the same writers, that " the story of Bp. Bramhall's danger in Spain'^ is very extraordinary : for unless he had done something relative to that kingdom, of which we have no account, it seems scarcely conceivable that such measures should be adopted for apprehending him." However, in the words of Bp. Mant', " his well-known character, his station in the Church, his former connection with those of the highest authority in his own country, and the influence of which he was probably still possessed, mJly be sufficient to account for the hostility of" so "jealous and watchful" a tribunal as the Inquisition, and leave Bp. Vesey's state- ment " unsuspected."
The object of the journey seems to have been, partly, " the pur- pose^ of drawing a parallel between the Liturgy of the Church of
e [See above note I.]
f [See the circumstantial account of the matter in Mant, Ch. of Ireland, ch. vii. § 5.]
« [So Bp. Vesey (Life, &c. pp. 1 7, 18), and Bp. Taylor (Funer. Sermon), and Bramhall himself (Discourse upon the Sabbath, pp. 936, 937, fol. edit.).]
1' [See note P.]
' [Ch. of Irel, ch. viii. pp. 595, 596.] ^ [Bp. Vesey reports this fact, as from Bramhall's own declaration to Dr. Walker, Dr. Vesey's uncle ; and that Bramhall entertained a design of the kind, appears from his " Serpent-Salve," c. xii (p. 511. fol. edit.). Mant therefore (as quoted in note i) had insufficient reason to doubt its truth.]
APPENDIX.
xxxvu
England and the public forms of the Protestant Churches," and, partly, the settlement of some pecuniary affairs'.
3. The writers above mentioned go on to remark, that " the matter of reordination"* was a great difficulty in the last" (i. e. the seven- teenth) "century, with many non-conformist divines, who were other- wise disposed to have come over to the Church of England ;" that " the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of 1689 proposed to admit of some latitude in the affair ;" and that " Abp. Bramhall had furnished them with a precedent for so doing, by the manner in which he had received some Scotch Presbyters into the Church." The extent of the latitude here hinted will be best seen by stating the instance given of it°, viz. that, " in the orders" (i. e. letters of orders) " which he gave to Mr. Edward Parkinson, the following words were inserted : — ' Non annihilantes priores ordines {si quos habuit) nec invaliditatem eorundem deter minantes, multo minus omnes ordines sacros Ecclesiarum forinsecarum condemnantes, quos propria Judici relinquimus, sed solummodo supplentes quicquid prius defuit per canones Ecclesice Anglicance requisitum, et providentes paci Ecclesice, ut schismatis tollatur occasio, et conscientiis fidelium satisfiat, nec ulli dubitent de ejus ordiiiatione, aut actus suos presbyteriales tanquam invalidos aversentur. In cujus rei testimonium,' " ^-c.
It is certainly " not a little remarkable" that a concession so carefully guarded should have been elsewhere made the foundation of a very serious and groundless misrepresentation. It has been however asserted", and upon the strength of the instance above given, that " with regard to any Ministers who had received Presbyterian orders during the confusion of the Great Rebellion, the method employed by Archbishop Bramhall, was, not to cause them ' to undergo a new ordination, but to admit them into the Ministry of the Church by a conditional ordination, as we do in the Baptism of those of whom it is uncertain whether they are baptized or not.' But this assertion is not supported by the statement of Bp. Vesey" upon the subject, " and the document alleged by him : on the contrary it is directly opposed to both. For they give us to understand that the Archbishop did ' ordain' the persons in question, ' as the law of this Church requireth ;' therefore 7iot conditionalli/, for the law of this Church recognises no conditional ordination : but that subsequently he introduced into his ' letters' of orders an explanatory remark.
' [See Letters, No. VIII.] Church of England, Introd. p. 112
[See ahove, note R.] quoted hy Mant, Ch. of Irel., ch. ix.
■> From Birch's Life of Tillotson, p. § 1. p. 625, from whom the rest of this
176. [Seealso Vesey's Life,&c.p. 3(i.] paragraph is taken.] ■> [By Nichols, in his Defence of the
xxxviii
APPENDIX.
The historian seems to identify the form of ordination with the subsequent letters of orders or certificate. But, whatever be the cause, the error is manifest ; and it requires correction, both that the character of such a man as Primate Bramhall may be vindicated from the allegation, and even from the suspicion, of illegally devia- ting from the prescript forms of the Church, whereas he acted pro- fessedly and strictly ' as the law of the Church requireth ;' and that the principles and provisions of the Church herself may not be mis- apprehended in a matter of such infinite importance P."
4. The writers above mentioned conclude with quoting Mr. Granger'si observation, that "Dr. Bramhall was one of the most able, learned, and active Prelates of the age in which he lived, an acute disputant, and an excellent preacher."
[Bramhall's conductin a somewhat person's own request, one who liad
parallel case to the one to which the orioinally received only Presbyterian
above observations relate, may serve to orders (Life, &c. p. 34.).] strengthen tlieir force: for it appears *■ Biographical Hist. [vol. V. p. 194.
expressly that he did on one occasion 4to. edit.] reordain, although, it is true, at the
A SERMON
rREACIIED IN
CHRIST'S CHURCH, DUBLIN,
JULY 16, 16G3 ;
AT THE FUNERAL OF
THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,
JOHN
LATE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, AND PRIMATE OF ALL IRELAND. BY THE RIGHT REVEREND
JEREMY TAYLOR, D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF DOWN, CONNOR, AND DROMORE.
[Vol. vi. pp. 409, sq. of Taylor's Works, ed. Heber. — being tbe Vlltli Sermon of the AfKOS 'EnPuXifiaios, or Supplement to the 'Eci'auTor.]
A FUNERAL SERMON.
1 Cor. XV. 23.
But every man in his own order : Christ the first-fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming.
The condition of man, in this world, is so limited and depressed, so relative and imperfect, that the best things he does, he does weakly, — and the best things he hath, are im- perfections in their very constitution. I need not tell how little it is that we know : the greatest indication of this is that we can never tell how many things we know not ; and we may soon span our own knowledge, but our ignorance we can never fathom. Our very will, in which mankind pre- tends to be most noble and imperial, is a direct state of im- perfection ; and our very liberty of choosing good and evil is permitted to us, not to make us proud, but to make us humble ; for it supposes weakness of reason and weakness of love. For if we understood all the degrees of amabihty in the service of God, or if we had such love to God as He de- serves, and so perfect a conviction as were fit for His ser- vices, we could no more deliberate : for hberty of Avill is hke the motion of a magnetic needle toward the north, full of trembhng and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved point ; it wavers as long as it is free, and is at rest when it can choose no more. And truly what is the hope of man? It is indeed the resurrection of the soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures, and like the t^vihght to the day, and the harbinger of joy ; but still it is but a conjuga- tion of infirmities, and proclaims our present calamity ; only because it is uneasy here, it thrusts us forward toward the light and glories of the resvu-rection.
xlii
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
For as a worm creeping with her belly on the ground^ with her portion and share of Adam's curse, lifts up its head to partake a little of the blessings of the air, and opens the junctui'es of her imperfect body, and curls her little rings into knots and combinations, drawing up her tail to a neighbourhood of the head's pleasure and motion ; but still it must return to abide the fate of its own natiu-e, and dwell and sleep upon the dust : so are the hopes of a mortal man ; he opens his eyes, and looks upon fine things at dis- tance, and shuts them again with weakness, because they are too glorious to behold ; and the man rejoices because he hopes fine things are stajdng for him ; but his heart aches, because he knows there are a thousand ways to fail and miss of those glories ; and though he hopes, yet he enjoys not ; _he longs, but he possesses not, and must be content with his [Ps. xxii. portion of dust ; and being " a worm, and no man," must lie down in this portion, before he can receive the end of his hopes, the salvation of his soul in the resurrection of the dead. For as death is the end of our lives, so is the resur- [I Cor. XV. rection the end of om* hopes ; and as we " die daily," so we ^'■■^ daily hope : bvit death, which is the end of our life, is the enlargement of our spirits from hope to certainty, from un- certain fears to certain expectations, from the death of the body to the life of the soul ; that is, to partake of the light and life of Christ, to rise to life as He did ; for His resurrec- tion is the beginning of ours : He died for us alone, not for Himself; but He rose again for Himself and us too. So that if He did rise, so shall we ; the resurrection shall be universal ; good and bad, all shall rise, but not altogether : ' first Christ, then we that are Christ's and yet there is a third resurrection, though not spoken of here ; but thus it [iThess. shall be. "The dead of Christ shall rise first;" that is, " ■ next to Christ ; and after them, the wicked shall rise to con-
demnation.
So that you see here is the sum of affairs treated of in niy text : not whether it be lawful to eat a tortoise or a mush- room, or to tread with the foot bare upon the ground within the octaves of Easter. It is not here inquired, whether angels be material or immaterial ; or Avhethcr the dwellings of dead infants be Avithin the air or in tlic regions of tlic
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. xliii
earth ? the inquiiy here is, whether we are to be Christians or no ? whether we are to Hve good hves or no ? or whether it be permitted to us to hve with lust or covetousuess, acted with all the daughters of rapine and ambition? whether there be any such thing as sin, any judicatory for con- sciences, any rewards of pietj^, any difference of good and bad, any rewards after this life ? This is the design of these words by proper interpretation : for if men shall die hke dogs and sheep, they will certainly live Hke wolves and foxes ; but he that believes the article of the resurrection, hath entertained the gi-eatest demonstration in the world, that nothing can make us happy but the knowledge of God, and conformity to the life and death of the Holy Jesus. Here, therefore, are the gi'eat hinges of all rehgion : 1. Christ is ah'eady risen from the dead. 2. TTe also shall rise in God's time and our order. " Chinst is the fii'st-fiiiits." But there shall be a full hai-vest of the resurrection, and all shall rise. My text speaks only of the resim-ection of the just, of them that belong to Chi'ist ; exphcitly, I say, of these ; and, therefore, dii-ectly of resui-rection to life eternal. But because he also says there shall be an order for every man ; and yet every man does not belong to Christ ; there- fore, indirectly also, he imphes the more universal resiuTec- tion unto judgment : but this shall be the last thing that shall be done; for, according to the proverb of the Jews, ^Michael flies but with one wing, and Gabriel with two : God is quick in sending angels of peace, and they fly apace ; but the messengers of fli'ath come slowly : God is more hasty to glorify His servants than to condemn the i^icked. And, therefore, in the story of Dives and Lazarus, ^ e find that the [Luke xvi. beggar died first ; the good man, Lazarus, was first taken "" -l away from his misery to his comfort, and afterwai'ds the rich man died ; and as the good, many rimes, die fii'st, so all of them rise first, as if it were a matter of haste : and as the mother's breasts swell, and shoot, and long to give food to her babe, so God's bowels did yearn over His banished childi-en, and He longs to cause them to eat and di'ink in His kingdom. And at last the wicked shall rise imto con- demnation, for that must be done too ; every man in his OAvn order : first Chiist, then Chi*ist's servants, and, at last.
xliv A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
Christ's enemies. The first of these is the gi'eat ground of our faith ; the second is the consummation of all our hopes : the first is the foundation of God, that stands siu'e ; the second is that superstructiu*e that shall never perish : by the fii'st we believe in God unto righteousness ; by the second we live in God unto salvation : but the third, for that also is true, and must be considered, is the great afi'rightment of all them that hve ungodly. But in the whole, Christ's resur- [Rev. i. 8. rection and ours is " the A and 12" of a Cliristian ; that as FHeb xiii " J^sus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and the 8] same for ever," so may we in Christ become the moiTow of
the resurrection, the same or better than yesterday in our natural life ; the same body and the same soul, tied to- gether in the same essential union, -with this only difference, that not nature, but grace and glory, with an hermetic seal, give us a new signature, whereby we shall no more be changed, but, hke unto Christ our Head, we shall become the same for ever. Of these I shall discourse in order. 1 . That Christ, who is " the first fruits," is the first in this order : He is abeady risen from the dead. 2. We shall all take our turns, we shall die, and, as sure as death, we shall all rise again. And, 3. This very order is eff'ective of the thing itself. That Christ is first risen, is the demonstration and certainty of ours ; for because there is an order in this economy, the first in the kind is the measure of the rest. If Christ be the first frviits, we are the whole \intage ; and we shall aU die in the order of nature, and shall rise again in the order of Clu-ist : " they that are Christ's," and are found so " at His coming," shall partake of His resurrection. But Christ first, then they that are Christ's : that is tlie order. I. Clirist is the fii'st fruits ; He is already risen from the [Acts ii. dead : for He alone ' could not be held by death.' " Free among the dead."
lxxxviii.5.]
Synes. " ^Z"'^'" yipiav t6t€
Pe™ " ■'^'^"^ ° TTokaLyeurjs
p. 347. " Kat Xao^opos kvwv
" ^ hvexdcrcraTO ^rfKov."
Death was sin's eldest daughter, and the grave clothes were her first mantle ; but Chi'ist was Conqueror over both,
I
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. xlv
and came to take tliat away, and to disaim this. This was a glorj-^ fit for the Head of mankind, but it was too great and too good to be easily believed by incrednloiis and weak- hearted man. It was at first doubted by all that were con- cerned ; but they that saw it, had no reason to doubt any longer. But what is that to us, who saw it not ? Yes, very much : " Valde dubitatum est ab illis, ne dubitaretur a nobis," saith St. Austin ; " They doubted veiy much, that, by their confirmation, we might be established, and doubt no more." Marv jSIagdaleue saw Him fii-st, and she ran ^ith [Mark xvi. joy, and said " She had seen the Lord," and that He was joim sx. risen from the dead ; but they "believed her not ;" — after that, divers women together saw Him, and they told it, but had l^^^^^.- „
» ' • . xxviii. 9.
no thanks for tlieii' pains, and obtained no credit among the Luke xxiv. disciples : the tAvo disciples that went to Emmaus, saw Him, [[^^g talked with Him, ate with Him, and thev ran and told it : ^^'V they told true, but nobody bebeved them : then St. Peter [mke saw Him, but he was not yet got into the chair of the ^ cor. xl*. Catholic Chiu'ch, they did not tliink him infallible, and so ^-3 they believed him not at all. Five times in one day He appeared ; for after all this. He appeai-ed to the eleven ; they tLji^J^^^ were indeed transported yxith joy and wonder; but they &c.] would scai'ce believe their own eyes, and though they saw Him, they doubted. "Well, all this A\-as not enough ; He was Li^Cor xv. seen also of James, and suffered Thomas to thrust his hand [John xx. into His side, and appeared to St. Paul, and was seen by [Acts ix. " five hundi'cd brethi-eu at once." So that there is no ca- ^q^^ pacity of mankind, no time, no place, but had an oculai' 6.] demonstration of His resurrection. He appeared to meu and women, to the clergy and the laity, to sinners of both sexes ; to weak men and to criminals, to doubters and deniers at home and abroad, in public and in private, in their houses and their journeys, unexpected and by appointment, betimes in the morning and late at night, to them in conjimction and to them in dispersion, when they did look for Him and when they did not ; He appeared upon eai'th to many, and to St. Paul and St. Stephen from Heaven : so that we can [Acts vii. requii'e no greater testimony than all these ai-e able to give ^' ^'^ lis; and they saw for themselves and for us too, that the faith and ceitainty of the resun-ection of Jesus might be
xlvi A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
conveyed to all that shall die^ and follow Christ in theii' own order.
Now this being matter of fact, cannot be supposed infinite, but hmited to time and place, and, therefore, to be proved hj them who, at that time, were upon the place ; good men and true, simple, and yet losers by the bargain, many and united, confident and constant, pi*eaching it all their life, and stoutly maintaining it at their death; men that would not decei\ e others, and men that covdd not be deceived them- selves, in a matter so notorious, and so proved, and so seen : and if this be not sufficient credibihty in a matter of fact, as this was, then we can have no story credibly transmitted to us, no records kept, no acts of coiu'ts, no narratives of the days of old, no traditions of oiu' fathers, no memorials of them in the third generation. Nay, if from these we have not si^fficient causes and arguments of faith, how shaU we be able to know the will of Heaven upon earth ? unless God do not only tell it once, but always, and not only always to some men, but always to all men : for if some men must be- lieve others, they can never do it in any thing more rea- sonably than in this ; and if we may not trust them in this, then, without a perpetual miracle, no man could have faith : for faith could never come by hearing, by nothing but by seeing. But if there be any use of history, any faith in men, any honesty in manners, any truth in human intercourse ; if there be any use of apostles or teachers, of ambassadors or letters, of ears or hearing ; if there be any such thing as the grace of faith, that is less than demonstration or intuition; then we may be as sui*e that Christ, the first fi^uits, is already risen, as all these credibilities can make us. But let us take heed ; as God hates a lie, so He hates incredulity ; an obstinate, a foolish, and pertinacious understanding. What we do every minute of oui* lives, in matters of title and great concernment, if we refuse to do it in religion, which yet is to be conducted, as all human affairs are, by human instruments, and arguments of persuasion proper to the natui'e of the thing, it is an obstinacy as cross to human reason, as it is to Di-^dne faith.
But this article was so clearly proved, that presently it came to pass that men were no longer ashamed of the cross,
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. xlvii
l)ut it was worn upon breasts, printed in tlie air, drawn upon foieheads, carried upon banners, put upon crowns imperial ; presently it came to pass tbat the religion of the despised Jesus did infinitely prevail; a religion that taught men to be meek and humble, apt to receive injuries, but unapt to do any ; a religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful, in a time when riches were adored, and ambition and pleasure had possessed the heart of all mankind ; a religion tliat would change the face of things, and the hearts of men, and break ^dle habits into gentleness and counsel; that such a religion, in such a time, by the sermons and conduct of lisliermen, men of mean breeding and ilhberal arts, should so s})ccdily triumph over the philosophy of the world, and the arguments of the subtle, and the sermons of the eloquent ; the power of princes and the interests of states, the inclina- tions of nature and the blindness of zeal, the force of custom and the solicitation of passions, the pleasures of sin and the l)usy arts of the devil ; that is, against wit and power, super- stition and wilfulness, fame and money, natm-e and empire, which are all the causes in this world that can make a thing impossible ; this, this is to be ascribed to the power of God, and is the great demonstration of the resurrection of Jesus. Every thing was an argument for it, and improved it; no ol)jection could hinder it^ no enemies destroy it ; whatsoever ^\ as for them, it made the religion to increase ; whatsoever was against them, made it to increase ; sunshine and storms, fair weather or foul, it was all one as to the event of things : tor they were instruments in the hands of God, who could make what Himself should choose to be the product of any cause ; so that if the Christians had peace, they went abroad and brought in converts : if they had no peace but perse- cution, the converts came in to them. In prosperity, they alhired and enticed the world by the beauty of holiness ; in affliction and trouble, they amazed all men with the splendour of their innocence, and the glories of. their patience; and ([uickly it was that the world became disciple to the gloriovis Kazarene, and men could no longer doubt of the resurrection of Jesus, when it became so demonstrated by the certainty of them that saw it, and the courage of them that died for it, and the multitude of them that believed it; who, by their
xlviii
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
sermons and tlieir actions, by their public offices and dis- coirrses, by festivals and eucbaristsj by arguments of expe- rience and sense, by reason and religion, by persuading rational men, and estabbsliing belie^dng Christians, by their living in the obedience of Jesus, and djdng for the testimony of Jesus, have greatly advanced His kingdom, and His power, and His glory, into which He entered after His resui'rection from the dead. For He is the Fii'st Fruits ; and if we hope to rise tlirough Him, we must confess that Himself is first risen from the dead. That is the first particular.
2. There is an order for us also : we also shaU rise again :
" Combustusque senex tumulo procedit adultus ; " Con sum ens dat memTjra rogus ; "
The ashes of old Camillus shall stand up spritely from his urn; and the funeral fii'cs shall produce a new warmth to the dead bones of all those, who died under the arms of all the enemies of the Roman greatness. This is a less wonder than the former ; for " admonetur omnis atas Jam fieri posse quod aliquando factum est." If it was done once, it may be done again : for since it could never have been done but by a Power that is infinite, that infinite must also be eternal and indeficient. By the same almighty Power, which re- stored life to the dead Body of our h^ing Lord, we may all be restored to a new hfe in the resiu'rection of the dead.
Wlien man was not, what power, what causes made him to be ? Wliatsoever it was, it did then as great a work as to raise his body to the same being again ; and because we know not the method of nature's secret changes, and how we can be fashioned beneath ' in secreto terrce,' and cannot handle and discern the possibilities and seminal powers in the ashes of dissolved bones, must our ignorance in philo- sophy be put in balance against the articles of religion, the hopes of mankind, the faith of nations, and the truth of God? And are our opinions of the power of God so low, that our understanding must be His measure ; and He shall be confessed to do nothing, unless it be made j)lain in our philosophy ? Certaiidy we have a low opinion of God, un- less we believe He can do more things than we can under-
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. xlix
stand : but let us liear St. Paul's demonstration ; if tlic [i Cm-, xv. com dies and lives again ; if it lays its bodj^ down^ sutlers ^'^'^ alteration, dissolution, and death, — but, at the spring, rises again in the verdure of a leaf, in the fulness of the ear, in the kidneys of wheat ; if it proceeds from little to great, from nakedness to ornament, from emptiness to plentj'', from unity to multitude, from death to life : be a Sadducee no more, shame not thy understanding, and reproach not the weakness of thy faith, by thinking that corn can be restored to life, and man cannot ; especially since, in every creature, the obediential capacity is infinite, and cannot admit de- gi'ees ; for every creature can be any thing under the power of God, which cannot be less than infinite.
But we find no obscure footsteps of this mystery even amongst the heathens : Pliny reports that Apion, the gram- [Nnt. iiist. marian, by the use of the plant osuis, called Homer from ^'^ his grave; and in Valerius Maximus v.'e find that CEUus [Piin.,N.it. Tubero returned to life, Avhen he was seated in his funeral"']''^"' pile; and in Plutarch, that Soleus, after three days' bm'ial, did live ; and in Valerius, that Eris Pamphylius did so after Lib. i. ten days. And it was so commonly behoved, that Giaucus, fixciii/" who Avas choked in a vessel of honey, did rise again, that it ' ' ■ grew to a proverb : " Giaucus, jwto melle, surrexit " Giau- cus, having tasted honey, died and lived again." I pretend not to believe these stories to be true; but from these in- stances it may be concluded, that they believed it possible that there should be a resiuTCction from the dead; and natural reason, and their philosophy, did not wholly destroy their hopes and expectation to have a portion in this article.
For God, knowing that the great hopes of man, that the biggest endearment of religion, the sanction of private justice, the band of piety and holy courage, — does wholly derive from the article of the resurrection, — was pleased not only to make it credible, but easy and familiar to us ; and we so converse every night with the image of death, that every morning we find an argument of the resurrection. Sleep and death have but one mother, and they have one name iu common.
" Soles occidere et redire possunt ; Cafull. v.
" Nobis cum semcl occidit brevia lux, " Nox est perpetua una dormienda."
BRAMHALL. G
1
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
Cliarnel houses are but Koi/j,7)T^pia, ' cemeteries' or sleep- ing places; and tliey that die^ are fallen asleep, and the resurrection is but an awakening and standing up from sleep : but in sleep our senses are as fast bound by nature, as our joints are by the grave-clothes ; and unless an angel of God waken us every morning, we must confess ourselves as unable to converse with men, as we now are afraid to die and to converse ^dth spirits. But, however, death itself is no more ; it is but darkness and a shadow, a rest and a forget- fulness. Wliat is there more in death? What is there less in sleep ? For do we not see by experience that nothing of equal loudness does awaken us sooner than a man's voice, especially if he be called by name ? And thus also it shall be in the resurrection : Ave shall be awakened by the voice of a man, and He that called Lazarus by name from his gi-ave, [) Cor. XV. shall also call us : for although St. Paul affirms, "that the [1 Thess. trumpet shall soimd," and there shall be " the voice of an arch- IV. 16.] angel;" yet this is not a word of nature, but of office and ministry: Christ Himself is that archangel, and He shall 1 Thees. iv. " descend with a mighty shout," saith the Apostle ; " and all Johnv. 28. that are in the grave shall hear His voice," saith St. John : so that we shall be awakened by the voice of man, because we are only fallen asleep by the decree of God ; and when the cock and the lark call vis up to prayer and labour, the first thing we see is an argument of our resurrection from the dead. And when we consider what the Greek Church reports, — that amongst them the bodies of those that die excommunicate, will not return to dust till the censm-e be taken off, — we may, with a little faith and reason, believe, that the same power that keeps them from their natural dissolution, can recall them to life and union. I will not now insist upon the story of the rising bones seen every year in Egypt, nor the pretences of the chemists, that they, from the ashes of flowers, can reproduce, from the same materials, the same beauties in colom' and figure ; for he that proves a certain truth from an uncertain argument, is like him that wears a wooden leg, when he hath two sound legs already ; it hinders his going, but helps him not : the truth of God stands not in need of such supporters ; natm'e alone is a sufficient preacher ;
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE.
li
" Quse nunc herba fuit, lignum jacet, herba futura, " Aerise nudantur aves cum penna vetusta, " Et nova subvestit reparatas pluma volucres.''
Draponti de Open Dei.
Niglit and day; the sun returning to the same point of east ; every change of species in the same matter ; generation and corruption; the eagle renewing her youth^ and the snake her skin ; the silk-worm and the swallows ; the care of posterity, and the care of an immortal name ; winter and summer; the fall and spring; the Old Testament and the New ; the words of Job ; and the visions of the prophets ; the [Job xix. prayer of Ezekiel for the resuri'ection of the men of Ephraim ; [Ezek."' and the return of Jonas from the whale's belly ; the histories 1 of the Jews and the narratives of Christians; the faith of believers and the philosophy of the reasonable ; — all join in the verification of this mystery. And amongst these heaps, it is not of the least consideration, that there was never any good man, who ha\ing been taught this article, but if he served God, he also relied upon this. If he believed God, he bcheved this ; and therefore St. Paul says, that they who were "iXTTiBa fMT) e'^ovre?," were also " adeot iv Koa/u-a," "^thcy who [Epiies. had no hope'' (meaning of the resurrection) 'were also athe- ists, and without God in the world.' — And it is remarkable what St. Austin observes, that when the world saw the righteous Abel destroyed, and that the murderer outlived his crime, and built up a numerous family, and grew mighty upon earth, — they neglected the service of God upon that account, till God, in pity of their prejudice and foolish argu- ings, took Enoch up to Heaven to recover them fi'om their impieties, by shewing them that their bodies and souls should be rewarded for ever in an eternal imion. But Christ, the first fruits, is gone before, and Himself did promise, that when Himself was lifted up, He wovdd draw all men after Him : " Every man in his own order : first Christ, then they that are Christ's at His coming." — And so I have done with the second particular ; not Christ only, but we also shall rise in God's time and our order.
But concerning this order I must speak a ^vord or two, not only for the fuller handling the text, but because it will be matter of application of what hath been already spoken of the article of the resurrection.
lii
A SERMON PllEACIIED AT THE
3. First Christ, and then we : and we, tlierefore, because Christ is already risen : but yow must remember, that the resurrection and exaltation of Christ was the reward of His perfect obedience and purest holiness ; "and He calling us to an imitation of the same obedience, and the same perfect holi- ness, prepares away for us to the same resm'rection. If Ave, by holiness, become the sons of God, as Christ was, we shall also, as He was, become the sons of God in the resiuTcction : but upon no other terms. So said our blessed Lord Himself: Matt. xix. " Ye Avhicli have followed Me in the regeneration, when the
2?,
Son of Man shall sit on the throne of Plis glory, ye also shall sit upon thrones judging the tribes of Israel." For as it was with Clirist the First Fruits, so it sliall be yvith all Christians in their own order : as with the Head, so it shall be with the members. He was the Son of God by love and obedience, and then became the Son of God by resui-rection fi'om the dead to life eternal, and so shall m c ; but we cannot be so in a,ny other way. To them that are Christ's, and to none else shall this be given : for we must know that God hath sent Christ into the Avorld to be a great example and demonstra- tion of the economy and dispensation of eternal bfe. As God brought Christ to gloiy, so He will bring us, but by no other method. He first obeyed the wiU of God, and patiently suffered the will of God ; He died and rose again, and entered into glory ; and so must we. Thus Christ is made " Via, Veritas, et ^^ita," "the Way, the Truth, and the Life that is, the true way to eternal life : He fii'st trod this wine-press, and we must insist in the same steps, or we shall never partake of this blessed resui-rection. He was made the Son of God in a most glorious manner, and we by Him, by His merit, and hy His grace, and by His example ; but other than tliis there is no way of salvation for us : that is the first and great effect of this glorious order.
4. But there is one tiling more in it yet : " Every man in his own order ; first Christ, and then they that are Christ's but what shall become of them that arc not Christ's ? Why there is an order for them too : first, " they that are Christ's ; and then they that are not His :" " Blessed and lioly is he Rev. XX. 6. that hath his pai't in the first resurrection :" there is a first and a second resurrection even after this life ; " Tlie dead in
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE.
liii
Christ sliall rise first now blessed are they that have their i Thess. iv. portion here ; " for upon these the second death shall have uo power." As for the recalling the wicked from their graves,, it is no otherwise in the sense of the Spirit to be called a resurrection, than taking a criminal from the prison to the bar, is a giring of liberty. When poor Acilius Aviola had been seized on by an apoplexy, his friends, supposing piin. vii. him dead, carried him to his funeral pile ; but when the fire iliax'".!' s!'' began to approach, and the heat to warm the body, he ^- J revived, and seeing himself encircled with funeral flames, called out aloud to his friends to rescue, not the dead, but the Hving Aviola from that horrid burning : but it could not be, he only was restored from his sickness to fall into death, and from his dull disease to a sharp and intolerable torment. Just so shall the wicked live again ; they shall receive their souls, that they may be a portion for devils ; they shall receive their bodies, that they may feel the everlasting burn- ing ; they shall see Christ, that they may ' look on Him [Zech. xii. whom they have pierced;' and they shall hear the voice of God passing upon them the intolerable sentence ; they shall come from their graves, that they may go into hell ; and live again, that they may die for e^ er. So have we seen a poor condemned criminal, the weight of whose sorrows sitting heavily upon his soul hath benumbed him into a deep sleep, till he hath forgotten his gi'oans, and laid aside his deep sighings ; but, on a sudden, comes the messenger of death, and unbinds the poppy garland, scatters the hea^y cloud that encircled his miserable head, and makes him return to acts of hfe, that he may quickly descend into death and be no more. So is every sinner that Hes down in shame, and * makes his grave with the wicked ' ; he shall indeed rise [isai. Uii. again, and be called upon by the voice of the archangel ; but then he shall descend into sorrows greater than the reason and the patience of a man, weeping and shrieking louder than the groans of the miserable children in the valley of Hinnom.
These, indeed, are sad stories, but true as the voice of God, and the sermons of the Holy Jesus. They are God's words, and God's decrees; and I wish that all who profess the belief of these, wovdd consider sadly what they mean. If
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ye believe the article of the resuiTcctioiij then you know, that, in your body, you shall receive what you did in the body, whether it be good or bad. It matters not noAv very much, whether our bodies be beauteous or deformed ; for if we glorify God in our bodies, God shall make our bodies glori- ous. It matters not much whether we live in ease and plea- sure, or eat nothing but bitter herbs ; the body that Hes in dust and ashes, that goes stooping and feeble, that lodges at the foot of the cross, and dAveUs in disciphne, shall be feasted at the eternal supper of the Lamb. And ever remember tliis, that beastly pleasures, and lying lips, and a deceitful tongue, and a heart tliat sendeth forth proud things, are no good dispositions to a blessed resurrection.
" Ov KaXov dpfxovirjv dvakvefifv dv6pa>Troio'"
' It is not for good, that in the body we live a hfe of dissolu- tion, for that is no good harmony with that piu'pose of glory which God designs the body
" Kai Tux^a 6' c/c yaitjs ikirl^ojifv is <f}dos IkBeiv "Aflyj^av diToixopivaiv' onicrco 8e 6eoi TeXedovrai,"
[Nov0(T. said Phocylides ; " for we hope that from our beds of dark- •jr^'yo"] ^^^^ shall rise into regions of light, and shall become hke Gaisfoicl, unto God they shall partake of a resurrection to life ; and ^' what this can infer is very ob\ious : for if it be so hard
to believe a resurrection from one death, let us not be dead in trespasses and sins ; for a resurrection from two deaths will be harder to be believed, and harder to be effected. But if any of you have lost the Hfe of grace, and so forfeited all your title to a life of glory, betake yourselves to an early and an entire piety, that when, by this first resurrection, you have made this way plain before your face, you may with confidence expect a happy resxirrection from your graves : for if it be possible that the spuit, when it is dead in sin, can arise to a life of righteoiisness ; much more it is easy to sup- pose that the body, after death, is capable of being restored again : and this is a consequent of St. Paul's argument : Roin V. 10. " If; when ye Avere enemies, ye were reconciled by His death, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life plainly declaring, that it is a harder and more wonderfid
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Iv
tiling for a wicked man to become the friend of God^ tlian for one that is so, to be carried up to Heaven and partake of His glory. The first resurrection is certainly the greater miracle : but he that hath risen once, may rise again ; and this is as sure as that he that dies once, may die again, and die for ever. But he who partakes of the death of Clrrist by mortification, and of His resiu'rection by holiness of hfe and a holy faith, shall, according to the expression of the Prophet Isaiah, "Enter into his chamber of death when nature and isai. xxvi.
20.
God's decree " shall shut the doors upon him," and there he shall be hidden for a little moment : but then shall they tliat dwell in dust, awake and sing, with Christ's dead Body shall they arise j all shall rise, but " every man in his oavu order ; Christ, the first fruits, then they that are Christ's at His coming." Amen.
I have now done with my meditation of the resurrection ; but we have had a new and a sadder subject to consider. It is glorious and brave Avhen a Christian contemplates those glories, which stand at the foot of the accomit of all God's servants ; but when we consider, that before all, or any thing of this happens, every Christian must twice ' exuere hominem,' ' put off the old man,' and then lie down in dust, [Ephes. iy. and the dishonoiu's of the grave ; it is ' vinum myrrhatum,' gfj there is ' myrrh put into our wine :' it is wholesome, but it will allay all om- pleasm'es of that glorious expectation : but no man can escape it. After that the great Cyius had ruled long in a mighty empire, yet there came a message fi'om Heaven, not so sad it may be, yet as decretory as the hand- ■\rating on the wall that arrested his successor Darius, "^va-Kevd^ou,M Kvpe' rjhr] 'yap et? 6eov^ airei," "Prepare thyself, Cyrop. O Cp'us, and then go unto the gods he laid aside his tii-e Schneider, and his beauteous diadem, and covered his face with a cloth, and in a single Hnen laid his honoured head in a poor humble grave ; and none of us all can avoid this sentence : for if wit and learning, great fame and great experience ; if wise notices of things, and an honom'able fortime ; if coin-age and skill, if prelacy and an honourable age, if any thing that could give greatness and immunity to a wise and prudent man, could have been put in a bar against a sad day, and have gone for good plea, this sad scene of sorrows had not
Ivi
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been the entertainment of tliis assembly. But tell me. Where are those great masters, Avho while they lived, flourished in their studies? "Jam eorum •praibendas alii 2)ossidetit, et nescio utrum de Us coyitant "other men have got tlieii' prebends and their dignities, and who knoAvs ■whether ever they remember them or no?" Wliile they hved, they seemed nothing ; Avhen they are dead, every man for awliile speaks of them what they please ; and afterwards they are as if they had not been. But the piety of the Christian Church hath made some little provision towards an artificial immortality for brave and worthy persons ; and the friendships ^vhich our dead contracted Avhile they were alive, require us to continue a fair memory as long as we can ; but they cxpu-e in monthly minds, or at most in a faint and declining anniversary;
" fVct (ptXos, ScTTis iralpov
" Mefiurjrat KTafievoio Kai lixyvTM ovT tr' (OVTOS."
And we have great reason so to do in this present sad accident of the death of om' late most reverend Primate, Avhosc death the Church of Ireland hath very great reason to deplore ; and we have gi'eat obligation to remember his very many worthy deeds, done for this poor afflicted and despised Chui'ch. St. Paul made an excellent funeral oration, as it were Hebrews, instituting a feast of all saints, who all died "^liaving obtained a good report and that excellent preacher made a sermon of their commemoration. For since good men, Avhile they are ali\ e, ha\ e their conversation in Heaven ; when they are in Heaven, it is also fit that they should, in then' good names, live upon earth. And as then* great examples are an excellent sermon to the liA^ing, and the praising them, when envy and flattery can have no interest to interpose, as it is the best and most vigorous sermon and incentive to great things ; so to conceal what good God hath wrought by them is great unthankfulness to God and to good men.
Wlien Dorcas died, the Apostle came to see the dead corpse, and the friends of the deceased expressed their grief and their love, by shewing the coats that she, whilst she lived, wrought Avith her own hands : she was a good needle-
rUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE.
woman and a good house-wife, and did good to mankind in her Httle way, and thai itself ought not to be forgotten ; and the Apostle himself Avas not displeased with theii' little sermons, and that €v(pr]fiia-fio<; which the women made upon that sad interv iew. But if we may have the same liberty to record the worthy things of this our most venerable father and brother, and if there remains no more of that envy which usually obscures the splendour of h\ing heroes ; if you can with yom' charitable, thoiigh weeping eyes, behold the great gifts of God with which He adorned this great prelate, and not object the failings of humanity to the participation of the graces of the Spirit, or think that God's gifts are the less because they are born in earthen vessels, " Trai^re? yap KKvra Bcopa Kepacrad/xevoi, (f)opeovaiv," for all men bear mortal- ity about them, and the cabinet is not so beauteous as the diamond that shines within its bosom ; then we may, -without interruption, pay this duty to piety, and finendship, and thankfidness ; and deplore oiu- sad loss by telling a true and sad story of this great man, whom God hath lately taken from our eyes.
He was bred in Cambridge, in Sidney College, under Mr. Hulet, a grave and worthy man ; and he shewed him- self not only a fruitful plant by his great progress in his studies, but made him another return of gratitude, taking care to pro\ide a good employment for him in Ireland, where he then began to be greatly interested. It was spoken as an honom* to Augustus Caesar, that he gave his tutor an honourable funeral ; and Marcus Antoninus erected a statue [Capitoli- unto his ; and Gratian the emperor made his master Auso- v'ihl]" nius to be consul : and our worthy primate, knowing the Gratian obhgation which they pass upon us, who do ' obstetricare gra- Giatiar. ' vidce animce,' ' help the parturient soul' to bring forth fruits ^"^^ "' according to its seminal powers, was careful not only to re- ward the industry of such persons, so useful to the Church in the cultivating ' infantes palmarum,' ' young plants,' whose joints are to be stretched and made straight ; but to demonstrate that his scholar kncAV how to value learnins, when he knew so well how to reward the teacher.
Having passed the com-se of his studies in the Uni\^ersity, and done his exercise with that applause which is usually the
Iviii
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
reward of pregnant wit and hard study, he was remoA'^ed into Yorkshire, where first, in the city of York, he was an assi- duous preacher ; hut, hy the disposition of the Divine Pro- [Bram- vidence, he happened to he engaged at Northallerton in dis- gonists"'*" putation with three pragmatical Romish priests of the number" J^siiits' order, whom he so much worsted in the conference, not three: and SO shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of trath, see his own t-i ti tii i^.
account of represented wisely and learnedly, that the famous primate of versyTs^"^"' York, Archbishop Matthews, a learned and an excellent hrs°lffe pi'elate, and a most worthy preacher, hearing of that triumph, above, note sent for him, and made him his chaplain ; in whose service he continued till the death of the primate, but, in that time had given so much testimony of his dexterity in the conduct of ecclesiastical and ci\il affairs, that he grew dear to his master. In that employment he Avas made prebendary of York, and then of Rippon, the dean of which chm-ch having made him his sub-dean, he managed the affairs of that Church so Avell, that he soon acquired a greater fame, and entered into the possession of many hearts, and admiration to those many more that knew him. There and at his par- sonage he continued long to do the duty of a learned and good preacher, and by his Avisdom, eloquence, and deport- ment, so gained the affections of the nobility, gentry, and commons of that country, that at his return thither upon the blessed restoration of his most sacred majesty, he knew himself obliged enough, and Avas so kind as to give them a visit ; so they, by their coming in great numbers to meet him, then" joyful reception of him, their great caressing of him Avhen he Avas there, their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop, their trouble at his dcpartai'e, their unAvHling- ness to let him go away, gave signal testimonies that they Avere AAise and kind enough to understand and value his great Avorth.
But while he hved there, he Avas hke a diamond in the dust, or Lucius Quinctius at the plough; his Ioav fortime covered a most valuable person, till he became observed by Sir Thomas Wentworth, Lord President of York, Avhom we all knew for his great excellencies, and his great but glorious misfortunes. This rare person espied the great abilities of Doctor Bramhall, and made him his chaplain, and bimight
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lix
Hm into Ireland, as one who, he beheved, would prove the most fit instrument to serve in that design, which, for two years before his arrival here, he had greatly meditated and resolved, the reformation of rehgion, and the reparation of the broken fortunes of the Church. The complaints were many, the abuses great, the causes of the Church vastly numerous ; but as fast as they were brought in, so fast they were by the Lord Deputy refen-ed back to Dr. Bramhall, who by his indefatigable pains, great sagacity, perpetual watchfulness, daily and houi'ly consultations, reduced things to a more tolerable condition, than they had been left in by the schismatical principles of some, and the unjust prepos- sessions of others, for many years before : for at the refor- mation, the popish bishops and priests seemed to conform, and did so, that keeping their bishopricks they might em-ich their kindred and dilapidate the revenues of the Church, which by pretended offices, false informations, fee-farms at contemptible rents, and ungodly alienations, were made low as poverty itself, and unfit to minister to the needs of them that served the altar, or the noblest purposes of religion : for hospitality decayed, and the bishops were easy to be op- pressed by those that would ; and they complained, but for a long time had no helper, till God raised up that glorious in- strument the Earl of Strafi'ord, who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all public interests, and as admirable abihties, as ever before his time did inv est and adorn any of the king's vicegerents ; and God fitted his hand with an instrument good as his skill was great : for the first specimen of his abilities and diligence in the recovery of some lost tithes, being represented to his late majesty, of blessed and glorious memory, it pleased his majesty, upon the death of Bishop Downham, to advance the doctor to the bishoprick of Derry, which he not only adorned with an ex- cellent spirit and a wise government, but did more than double the revenue, not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due, but by resuming something of the Church's patrimony, which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands.
But his care was beyond his diocese, and his zeal broke out to warm all his brethren ; and, though by reason of the
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favour and piety of King James, tlie esclieated counties were well provided for their tithes, yet the bishopricks were not so well, till the primate, then bishop of Dern,', by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his ov.'n incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct, brought in divers impro- priations, cancelled many unjust alienations, and did restore them to a condition miich more tolerable ; I say much more tolerable; for though he raised them above contempt, yet they were not near to envy ; but he knew there coidd not in all times be Avauting too many, that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity : so Judas did to Clu'ist the ex- pense of ointment ; and so Diouysius told the priest, when himself stole the golden cloak from ApoUo, and gave him one of the Ai'cadian home-spun, that it was warmer for him in winter and cooler in summer. And, for e^-er, since the Church, by God's blessing and the favour of religious kings and princes, and pious nobility, hath been endowed with fair [Matt. xiv. revenues, ' inimicus homo,' ' the enemy ' hath not been "^^'■^ wanting, by pretences of religion, to take away God's portion from the Clnu'ch, as if His word were intended as an instru- ment to rob His houses. But when the Israelites were governed by a deoKparia, and ' God was their king,' and Moses His heutenant, and things were of His management, — He was pleased, by making gi'cat provisions for them that ministered in the service of the tabernacle, to consign this truth for ever; — that men, as they love God, at the same rate are to make provisions for His priests. For when Him- self did it. He not only gave the forty-eight cities, with a mile of glebe round about their city every way, and j'et the whole country was but an hundred and forty miles long, or thereabouts, from Dan to Beersheba; but beside this they had the tithe of aU increase, the first fruits, oflFerings, vows, redemptions, and in short, they had twenty-four sorts of dues, as Buxtorf relates ; and all this either brought to the barn home to them without trouble, or else, as the nature of the thing required, brought to the temple ; the first to make it more profitable, and the second to declare that they received it not from the people but from God, not the people's kindness but the Lord's inheritance : insomuch that this small tribe of Levi, which was not the fortieth part of
FUXERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE.
the people, as the Scripture computes tlicni, luul a re^cmu; almost treble to any of the largest of the tribes. I will not Numb. i. insist on what Villalpandus observes, it may easily be read in gp,',"'^'jgf the xlvth. of Ezekiel, concerning that portion which God o unes. reserves for Himself and His service ; but whatsoever it be, ^' this shall I say, that is confessedly a prophecy of the Gospel; but this I add, that they had as little to do, and much less than a Christian priest ; and yet in all the twenty-four .see Phiio, courses the poorest priest among them might be esteemed '^^^f^ "^"f^^ a rich man. I speak not this to upbraid any man, or any Upfof. thing but sacrilege and murmur, nor to any other end but to represent upon what great and religious grounds the then Bishop of Derry did, with so much care and assiduous labour, endeavour to restore the Church of Ireland to that splendour and fulness ; which as it is much conducing to the honour of God and of religion, God Himself being the judge, so it is much more necessary for you than it is for us ; and so this wise prelate rarely well understood it ; and having the same advantage and blessing as we now have, a gracious king, and a Heutenant, patron of religion and the Clnu'ch, he improved the ' deposita pietaiis,' as Origen calls them, the ' gages of Tr.ict. 25. piety,' which the religion of the ancient princes and nobles of this kingdom had bountifully given to such a comfortal)lc competency, that though there be place left for present and futm'e piety to large itself, yet no man hath reason to be discoiu'aged in his duty ; insomuch that as I have heard from a most worthy hand, that at his going into England he gave account to the Archbishop of Canterbury of 30,000jS. a year, in the recovery of which he was greatly and principally instrumental. But the goods of this Avorld are called " waters" [p.ov. ix. by Solomon: " stolen waters are sweet," and they are too un- stable to be stopped : some of these waters did run back from their proper channel, and return to another coui'se than God and the laws intended; yet his labours and pious counsels were not the less acceptable to God and good men, and there- fore by a thankful and honourable recognition, the con\ oca- tion of the Church of Ireland has transmitted in record to posterity then* deep resentment of his singular services and great abilities in this whole affair. And this honour will for ever remain to that Bishop of Derry ; he had a Zerubbabel
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who repaired the temple and restored its beautj'- ; but he was the Joshua, the high priest, who under him ministered this blessing to the congregations of the Lord.
But his care Avas not determined in the exterior part only, and accessaries of religion ; he was careful, and he was prosperous in it, to reduce that di\ine and excellent service of our Church to public and constant exercise, to unity and devotion; and to cause the articles of the Church of Eng- land to be accepted as the rule of pubhc confessions and per-
[Gon.xi.1.] suasions here, that they and we might be ' populus unius labii,' ' of one heart and one hp,' building up our hopes of Heaven on a most holy faith ; and talcing away that Shib- boleth which made this Church lisp too undecently, or rather, in some httle degree, to speak the speech of Ashdod, and not the language of Canaan ; and the excellent and wise pains he took in this particular no man can dehonestate or reproach, but he that is not willing to confess, that the Church of England is the best reformed Church in the world. But when the brave Roman infantry, under the conduct of Manhus, ascended up to the Capitol to defend rehgion and the altars from the fury of the Gauls, they all prayed to
[Fionis, i. God, " lit quemadmodum ipsi ad defendendum templum Ejus concurrissent, ita lUe virtutem eorum numine Suo tueretur :" "That as they came to defend His temple by their arms, so He would defend their persons and that cause with His power and divinity." And this excellent man in the cause of religion found the hke blessing which they prayed for; God, by the prosperity of his labom-s and a blessed effect, gave testimony not only of the piety and wisdom of his purposes, but that He loves to bless a wise in- strument, when it is vigorously employed in a wise and reli- gious labour. He overcame the difficulty in defiance of all such pretences, as were made even from religion itself, to ob- struct the better procedm-e of real and material religion.
These were great tilings and matter of great envy, and hke the fiery eruptions of Vesmius, might, with the very ashes of consumption, have buried another man. At first in- deed, as his blessed Master, the most holy Jesus, had, so he
[isa. ixi. 2. also had his ' annum acceptabilem.' At first the product u eiv. ---^j^g nothing but great admii'ation at his stupendous parts,
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. Ixiii
and wonder at his mighty dihgence and ohscn^ation of his unusual zeal in so good and great things ; but this quickly passed into the natm'al daughters of envy, suspicion, and de- traction, the spirit of obloquy and slander. His zeal for the recovery of the Church-revenues was called oppression and rapine, covetousness and injustice ; his care of reducing reli- gion to wise and justifiable principles was called Popery and Arminianism, and I know not what names, which signify what the authors are pleased to mean, and the people to construe and to hate. The intermedial prosperity of his person and fortune, which he had as an eai'nest of a greater reward to so well-meant laboui's, was supposed to be the production of illiberal arts and ways of getting ; and the ne- cessary refreshment of his wearied spirits, which did not always supply all his needs, and were sometimes less than the permissions even of prudent charity, they called intem- perance : " Dederunt enim malum Metelli Ncevio poet(R their own surmises were the bills of accusation ; and the splendour of his great aya6o€p<yia, or ' doing of good works,' was the great probation of all their calamities. But if envy be the accuser, what can be the defences of innocence ?
" Saucior invidiae morsu, quaerenda medela est; " Die quibus in terris sentiet aeger opem ?"
Our blessed Saviour, knowing the unsatisfiable angers of men if their money or estates were meddled with, refused to divide an inheritance amongst brethren : it was not to be imagined that this great person (invested, as all his brethi'en were, with the infirmities of mortality, and yet employed in dividing and recovering, and apportioning of lands) should be able to bear all that reproach, which jealousy and sus- picion and mahcious envy could invent against him. But "air i')(6p(av TToWafiavddvova-Lv ol cro(f}ol," said Sophocles: and [Aristnph. so did he; the aff'rightments brought to his great fame and ] reputation made him to walk more warily, and do justly, and act prudently, and conduct his aff'airs by the measure of laws, as far as he understood, and indeed that was a very great way : but there was ' aperta justitia, clausa manus,' 'justice was open, but his hand was shut and, though every slanderer could tell a story, yet none could prove that ^ver he received ' a bril)e to blind his eyes, to the value of a
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pair of glo^'es :' it was his own expression, Avlien he gave glory to God who had preserved him innocent. But, because every man's cause is righteous in his own eyes, it was hard for him so to acquit himself, that in the intrigues of law and difficult cases, some of his enemies shoidd not seem (when they were heard alone) to speak reason against him. But see the greatness of truth and prudence, and how greatly God stood with him. "When the numerous armies of vexed people,
]\fart., De " Turba gravis paci, placidaque inimica qiiieti,"
^,)ect.,4. j^g^pgij catalogues of accusations, when the parliament of Ireland, imitating the violent procedures of the then dis- ordered English, when his glorious patron was taken from his head, and he was disrobed of his great defences ; when petitions were invited and accusations furnished, and calumny was rewarded and managed with art and power, when there were above two hundred petitions put in against him, and himself denied leave to answer by word of mouth ; when he was long imprisoned, and treated so that a guilty man would have been broken into affrightment and pitiful and low considera- [Poiemon. tions ; yet then he himself, standing almost alone, like Calli- Vim. II. c. machus at IMarathon, invested with enemies and covered with 60, o/.j arrows, defended himself beyond all the powers of guiltiness, even with the defences of truth and the bravery of inno- cence, and answered the petitions in writing, sometimes twenty in a day, with so much clearness, e^ddence of truth, reality of fact, and testimony of law, that his very enemies were ashamed and con^dnced ; they found they had done like ^sop's viper, they licked the file till their tongues bled ; but liimself was wholly in\ailnerable. They were therefore forced to leave their muster-rolls and decline the particulars, and fall to their ev /^eyaj to accuse him for going about to subvert the fundamental laws ; the way by which great Strafford and Canterbury fell ; which was a device, when all reasons failed, to oppress the enemy by the bold affirmation of a conclusion they could not prove : they did like those ' gladiatores' whom the Romans called ' retiarii,' when they could not stab their enemy with their daggers, they threw nets over him, and covered him with a general mischief. But the martjT, King Charles the First, of most glorious and eternal memory.
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seeing so great a champion likely to be oppressed with num- bers and despair, sent what resciie he conld, his royal letter for his bail, which was hardly gi'anted to him ; and when it was, it was upon such hard terms, that his very delivery was a persecution. So necessary it was for them, who intended to do mischief to the public, to take away the strongest pillars of the house. This thing I remark to acquit this great man from the tongue of slander, which had so boldly spoken, that it was certain something would stick ; yet was so impotent and unarmed, that it could not kill that great fame, Avhich his greater worthiness had prociu-ed him. It Avas said of Hip- pasus the Pythagorean, that being asked how and what he [Coei. Au- had done, he answered, " Nondum nihil; neque enim «rf/mc ' mihi invidetur ;" "I have done nothing yet, for no man envies me." He that does great things, cannot avoid the tongues and teeth of envy ; but if calumnies must pass for evidences, the bravest heroes must always be the most reproached persons in the world.
" Nascitur jEtolicus, pravum ingeniosus ad omne ; " Qui facere assuerat, patriae non degener artis, "Candida de nigris, et de candeiitibus atra."
Every thing can have an ill name and an ill sense put upon it ; but God, who takes care of reputations as He does of lives, by the orders of His Providence confutes the slan- der, ' ut memoria justorum sit in benedictionibus,' ' that the [Prov. x. memory of the righteous man might be embalmed with ' honour and so it happened to this great man ; for hj a public warranty, by the concm'rent consent of both houses of parliament, the libellous petitions against him, the false records and pubHc monuments of injurious shame, were cancelled, and he was restored, 'in integrum,' to that fame where his great labours and just procedures had first estated him ; which though it was but justice, yet it was also such honotir, that it is greater than the virulence of tongues, which his worthiness and their en\y had armed against him.
But yet the great scene of the troubles was but newly opened. I shaU not refuse to speak yet more of his troubles, as remembering that St. Paul, when he discourses of the glories of the saints departed, he tells more of their sufferings than of their prosperities, as being that laboratory and cruci-
BRAMHALL. f
Ixvi
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
ble, in wliich God makes His servants vessels of honour to His glory. The storm quickly grew high; ' et transitum est a Unguis ad gladios ;' and that was indeed " aBiKia e')(pv<Ta [Aristof. oifKa" ' Iniqmty had put on arms / when it is ' armata 1 '■ nequitia,' then a man is hard put to it. The rebellion breaking out, the Bishop went to his charge at Derry ; and because he was within the defence of walls, the execrable traitor, Sir Phelim O'Neale, laid a snare to bring him to a dishonourable death; for he wrote a letter to the Bishop, pretended intelligence between them, desired that according to their former agreement such a gate might be delivered to him. The messenger was not advised to be cautious, nor at all instructed in the art of secrecy ; for it was intended that he should be searched, intercepted, and hanged, for aught tlicy cared : but the arrow was shot against the Bishop, that he might be accused for base conspuvacy, and die with shame and sad dishonour. But here God manifested His mighty care of His servants ; He was pleased to send into the heart of the messenger such an affrightment, that he directly ran away with the letter, and never durst come near the town to deliver it. This story was pubhshed by Sir Phelim himself, who added, that if he could have thus ensnared the Bishop, he had good assurance the tovra should have been his own : " Sed bonitas Dei pr<Bvalitura est super omnem malitiam hominis " The goodness of God is greater than all the malice of men ;" and nothing could so prove how dear that sacred life was to God, as his rescue from the dangers. Mart. I. " Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deos . " ' To have kept him in a warm house had been nothing, unless the roof had fallen upon his head ; that rescue was a remark of Divine favour and Providence.' But it seems Sn Phehm's treason against the life of this worthy man had a correspondent in the town ; and it broke out speedily ; for what they could not effect by maUcious stratagem, they did in part by open force; they tiu-ned the Bishop out of the town, and upon trifling and unjust pretences searched his carriages, and took what they pleased, till they were ashamed to take more : they did worse than divorce him from his Chiu-ch ; for in all the Roman divorces they said, " Tuas tibi res habeto," " Take your goods and begone ;" but plunder was
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. Ixvii
religion then. However, though the usage was sad, yet it was recompensed to him by his taking sanctuary in Oxford, where he was gracioxisly received by that most incomparable and divine prince ; but having served the king in Yorkshire, by his pen, and by his counsels, and by his interests, he retui'ned back to Ireland, where, under the excellent conduct of his Grace the now Lord Lieutenant, he ran the risk and fortune of oppressed virtue.
But God having still resolved to afflict us, the good man was forced into the fortune of the patriarchs, to leave his country and his charges, and seek for safety and bread in a strange land ; for so the prophets were used to do, wan- dering up and down in sheep's clothing ; but poor as they were, the world was not worthy of them : and this worthy man, despising the shame, took up his cross and followed his Master.
" Exilium causa ipsa jubet sibi dulce videri, " Et desiderium dulce levat patriae."
He was not ashamed to suffer, where the cause was honourable and glorious ; but so God provided for the needs of His banished, and sent a man who could minister comfort to the afflicted, and courage to the persecuted, and resolu- tions to the tempted, and strength to that religion for which they all suffered.
And here tliis great man was indeed triumphant ; this was one of the last and best scenes of his life : " rj/xepac yap eVi- [Pindar. Xoyot ixdpTvpe<; a-ocpcoTarot,''' " The last days are the best wit- 54.']'' nesses of a man." But so it was, that lie stood up in pubhc and brave defence for the doctrine and discij)Une of the Church of England ; first, by his suflPerings and great ex- ample ; for, " Verbis tantum philosophari, non est doctoris, sed histrionis;" "To talk well and not to do bravely, is for a comedian, not a divine but this great man did both ; he suffered his own calamity with great courage, and by his wise discourses, strengthened the heart of others.
For there wanted no diligent tempters in the Church of Rome, who taking advantage of the afflictions of his sacred Majesty, in which state men commonly suspect every thing, and like men in sickness arc wilhng to change from side to side, hoping for ease and finding none, flew at royal game, f 2-
Ixviii
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
and hoped to draw away the king from that religion which his most royal father, the best man and the wisest prince in the world, had sealed with the best blood in Christendom, and which himself sucked in with his education, and had confirmed by choice and reason, and confessed publicly and bravely, and hath since restored prosperously. Milletiere was the man, witty and bold enough to attempt a zealous and foolish undertaking, who addressed himself with ignoble, indeed, but witty arts, to persuade the king to leave what was dearer to him than his eyes. It is true, it was a wave dashed against a rock, and an arrow shot against the sun, it covdd not reach him ; but the Bishop of Deri-y turned it also, and made it fall upon the shooter's head ; for he made so in- genious, so learned, and so acute reply to that book ; he so discovered the errors of the Roman Church, retorted the arguments, stated the questions, demonstrated the truth, and shamed their procedm-es, that nothing could be a greater argument of the Bishop's learning, great parts, deep judg- ment, quickness of apprehension, and sincerity in the catholic and apostolic Faith ; or of the follies and prevarications of the Church of Rome. He wrote no apologies for himself, though it were much to be wished that, as Junius wrote his own life, or Moses his own story, so we might have understood from himself how great things God had done for him and by him : but all that he permitted to God, and was silent in his own defences ; " Gloriosius enim est injuriam tacenclo fu- gere, quam respondendo superare : " but when the honour and conscience of his Idng, and the interest of a true religion was [Ps. xxxix. at stake, " the fire bm'ned within him, and at last he spake with his tongue-;" he cried out like the son of Croesus, ""flv- Herod. i. BpcoTTe, fjbr) KTelve Kpolaov," Take heed and meddle not with ^hweig. ^ing ; his person is too sacred, and rehgion too dear to
him to be assaulted by vulgar hands. In short, he acquitted himself in this aff'air with so much truth and piety, learning and judgment, that in those papers his memory will last until very late succeeding generations.
But this most reverend prelate found a nobler adversary, and a braver scene for his contention : he found that the Roman priests, being wearied and baffled by the wise dis- courses and pungent arguments of the English divines, had
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. Ixix
studiously declined any more to dispute the particular questions against us^ but fell at last upon a general charge, imputing to the Church of England the great crime of schism; and by this they thought they might Avith most probabiUty deceive unwary and unskilful readers ; for they saw the schism, and they saw we had left them; and because they considered not the causes, they resolved to out-face us in the charge : but now it was that ' dignum nactus argumentum,' ' having an argument fit' to employ his great abilities,
" Consecrat liic praesul calamum calamique labores, " Ante aras Domino lata tropsea suo ;"
' The Bishop now dedicates his labours to the service of God' and of His Church, undertook the question, and in a full dis- course proves the Chui'ch of Rome not only to be guilty of the schism, by making it necessary to depart from them j but they did actuate the schisms, and themselves made the first separation in the great point of the pope's supremacy, which was the palladium for which they principally con- tended. He made it appear that the popes of Rome were usurpers of the rights of kings and bishops : that they brought in new doctrines in every age, that they imposed their own devices upon Christendom as articles of faith, that they prevaricated the doctrines of the apostles, that the Church of England only returned to her primitive purity, that she joined with Christ and His Apostles, that she agreed in all the sentiments of the primitive Church. He stated the questions so wisely, and conducted them so prudently, and handled them so learnedly, that I may truly say, they never were more materially confuted by any man, since the questions have so unhappily disturbed Christendom. ' Verum hoc eos male ussit ;' and they finding themselves smitten under the fifth rib, set up an old champion of their own, a Goliah to fight against the armies of Israel ; the old Bishop of Chalcedon, known to many of us, replied to this excellent book ; but was so answered by a rejoinder made by the Lord Bishop of Derry, in which he so pressed the former ai'guments, refuted the cavils, brought in so many im- pregnable authorities and probations, and added so many moments and weights to his discourse, that the pleasures of
Ixx A SERMON PKEACHED AT THE
reading the book would be the greatest, if tbe profit to the Church of God were not greater.
Ovid. M. i. " Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant,
111. "Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella."
For so Sampson's riddle was again expounded, "Out of the [Judg. xiv. strong came meat, and out of the eater came sweetness."
His arguments were strong, and the eloquence was sweet and delectable; and though there started up another com- batant against him, yet he had only the honour to fall by the [^n. iv. hands of Hector : still " h(Bret lateri lethalis arundo ;" the ' ' headed arrow went in so far, that it could not be drawn out
but the barbed steel stuck behind : and whenever men wiU desire to be satisfied in those great questions, the Bishop of Derry's book shall be his oracle.
I will not insist upon his other excellent writings ; but it is knoATO every where with what piety and acumen he wrote against the Mauichean doctrine of " fatal necessity," which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new vizor : but this excellent person washed off the ceruse and the mere- tricious paintings, rarely well asserted the economy of the Divine Pro^-idence, and having once more triumphed over his adversary, " plenus victoriarum et tropceorum," betook him- self to the more agreeable attendance upon sacred oflfices ; and liaAing usefully and wisely discoursed of the sacred rite of confirmation, imposed his hands upon the most illustrious princes, the Dukes of York and Gloucester, and the Princess Eoyal, and ministered to them the promise of the Holy Sph'it, and ministerially established them in the religion and ser\-ice of the Holy Jesus. And one thing more I shall remark; that at his leaving those parts upon the king's return, some of the remonstrant ministers of the Low Coun- tries coming to take their leaves of this great man, and de- siring that by his means the Chm'ch of England Avould be kind to them, he had reason to grant it, because they were learned men, and in many things of a most excellent belief; yet he reproved them, and gave them caution against it, that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errors of the Socinians.
He thus having served God and the king abroad, God was pleased to return to the king and to us all, as in the days of
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. Ixxi
old, and we sung the song of Da\'id, "In convertendo cap- [Ps.cxxvi. tivitatem Sion," when king David and all his servants re- turned to Jerusalem. This great person having trod in the wine-press, was called to drink of the wine, and, as an hono- rary reward of his great services and abihties, was chosen Primate of this national Church, in which time we are to look upon him, as the king and the king's great vicegerent did, as a person concerning whose abilities the world had too great testimony ever to make a doubt. It is true he was in the declension of his age and health ; but his very ruins were goodly; and they who saw the broken heaps of Pompey's theatre, and the crushed obehsks, and the old face of beau- teous Philsenium, could not but admire the disordered glories of such magnificent structures, which were venerable in their very dust.
He ever was used to overcome all difficulties, only mor- tality was too hard for him; but still his virtues and his spirit were immortal ; he still took gi'eat care, and still had new and noble designs, and proposed to himself admirable things. He governed his province with great justice and sincerity ;
" Unus amplo consulens pastor gregi, " Somnos tuetur omnium solus vigil."
And had this remark in all his government, that as he was a great hater of sacrilege, so he professed himself a public enemy to non-residence, and often would declare wisely and religiously against it, allowing it in no case but of necessity, or the greater good of the Church. There are great things spoken of his predecessor, St. Patrick, that he founded seven hundred chui'ches and rehgious convents, that he ordained fiA^e thousand priests, and, Avith his OAvn hands, consecrated three hundred and fifty bishops. Hoav true the story is I know not; but we are all witnesses that the late primate, whose memory we now celebrate, did, by an extraordinary contingency of Providence, in one day, consecrate two arch- bishops and ten bishops ; and did benefit to almost all the churches in Ireland, and was greatly instrumental to the re- endoAvments of the whole clergy; and in the greatest abilities and incomparable industry, was inferior to none of his most glorious antecessors.
Ixxii
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
Since tlie canouization of saints came into the Church, we find no Irish bishop canonized, except St. Laurence of Dubhn, and, St. Malachias of Down; indeed Richard of Armagh's canonization was propounded, but not effected ; but the cha- De Scrip- racter which was given of that learned primate by Trithemius, tor. Eccies. ^^^^ exactly fit this, our late father : " Vir in Divinis Scrip- turis eruditus, secularis philosophice jurisque canonici non ignarus, clarus ingenio, sermone scholasticus, in declamandis sermonibus ad populum excellentis industrice :" " He was learned in the Scriptures, skilled in secular philosophy, and not unknowing in the civil and canon laws " (in which studies I msh the clergy were, with some carefulness and diligence, still more conversant), " he was of an excellent spirit, a scholar in his discoui'ses, an early and industrious preacher to the people." And as if there were a more particular sympathy between then' sovls, our primate had so great a veneration to his memory, that he purposed, if he had hved, to have re- stored his monument in Dundalk, which time, or impiety, or unthankfulness, had either omitted or destroyed. So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth, that he loved it in the very memory of the dead, and to have such great examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of pos- terity.
At his coming to the primacy, he knew he should at first espy little besides the ruin of disciphne, a harvest of thorns, and heresies prevailing in the hearts of the people, the churches possessed by wolves and intruders, men's hearts greatly es- tranged from true religion ; and, therefore, he set himself to weed the fields of the Church ; he treated the adversaries sometimes sweetly, sometimes he confuted them learnedly, sometimes he rebuked them sharply. He ^dsited his charges dihgently and in his own person, not by proxies and instru- [2 Cor. xii. mental deputations : ' Quarens non nostra, sed nos, et quae sunt Jesu Christi:' He designed nothing that we knew of but the redintegration of rehgion, the honour of God and the king, the restoring of collapsed discipline, and the renovation of faith and the ser\Tice of God in the chm'ches. And still he was indefatigable, and, even at the last scene of his life, in- tended to undertake a regal visitation. " Quid enim vultis me otiosum a Domino comprehendi?" said one; "He was
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE. Ixxiii
not willing that God should take him unemployed:" but, good man, he felt his tabernacle ready to fall in pieces, and I could go no further, — for God would have no more work I done by that hand ; he, therefore, espying this, put his house in order, and had lately visited his diocese, and done what he then could, to put his charge in order ; for he had, a good "while since, received the sentence of death within himself, and knew he was shortly to render an account of his steward- ! ship ; he, therefore, upon a brisk alarm of death, which God sent him the last J anuary, made liis will ; in which, besides the prudence and presence of spirit manifested in making just and wise settlement of his estate, and provisions for his descendants : at midnight, and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death, still kept a special sentiment, and made confession of God's admii-able mercies, and gave thanks that God had permitted him to Hve to see the blessed restoration of his majesty and the Chiirch of f England, confessed his Faith to be the same as ever, gave 1 praises to God that he was born and bred up in this religion, f and prayed to God, and hoped he shou.ld die in the com- j munion of this Church, which he declared to be the most ■ pure and apostolical Church in the whole world. i| He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities, rehed upon the mercies of God and the merits of Jesus Christ, and, with a singiilar sweetness resigned up his soul I into the hands of his Redeemer.
I But God, who is the great Choragus and Master of the scenes of life and death, was not pleased then to draw the curtains ; there was an epilogue to his life yet to be acted and spoken. He retm'ued to actions and life, and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before ; was desirous still to establish the affairs of the Church, complained of some disorders which he purposed to redress, girt himself to the work; but though his spirit was wiUing, yet his flesh was weak ; and as the Apostles in the vespers of Christ's passion, so he, in the eye of his own dissolution, was heavy, not to sleep, but hea\y unto death ; and looked for the last warning, which seized on him in the midst of business ; and though it was sudden, yet it could not be unexpected, or unprovided by surprise, and, therefore, could be no other than that
Ixxiv
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
[Sueton. in " eWavaaia" wliich Augustus used to wish unto himself, a civil
Vita. 99 ]
and weU-natiu'ed deatli, without the amazement of trouble- some circumstances, or the great cracks of a falling house, or the convulsions of impatience. Seneca tells that Bassus Aufidius was wont to say, " Sperare se nullum dolorem esse in illo extremo anhelitu ; si tamen esset, habere aliquantum in Epist. 30. ipsa brevitate solatii :" "He hoped that the pains of the last dissolution were little or none ; or if they were, it was fiill of comfort that they coidd be but short." It happened so to this excellent man ; his passive fortitude had been abundantly tried before, and, therefore, there was the less need of it now ; his active graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did ; and, therefore, his last scene was not so laborious, but God called him away something after the manner of Moses, which the Jews express by ' os- mium oris Dei,' ' the kiss of God's mouth ■' that is, a death indeed fore-signified, but gentle and serene, and without temptation.
To sum up all : he was a wise prelate, a learned doctor, a just man, a true friend, a gi'eat benefactor to others, a thank- ful beneficiary Avhere he Avas obliged himself. He was a faithful servant to his masters, a loyal subject to the king, a zealous assertor of his reUgion against popery on one side, and fanaticism on the other. The practice of his rehgion was not so much in forms and exterior ministries, though he was a great observer of all the public rites and ministries of the Chm'ch, as it was in doing good for others. He was like ]\Iyson, whom the Scythian Anacharsis so greatly praised, [Max. Tyr. " o MvcTcov rjv oIkov oiKijaa<; Ka\S)<;," ' lie governed his family ^^'"^ well,' he gave to all theii" due of maintenance and duty; he did great benefit to mankind ; he had the fate of the apostle St. Paul, he passed ' through evil report and good report, as a deceiver, and yet true.' He was a man of great business and great resort : " Semper aliquis in Cydonis domo," as the Corinthians said ; " There was always somebody in Cydon's Synes. Ep. house." He was " fj,epL^cov rov ^tov epya> koL ^l^m," ' he di- vided his life into labour and his book.' He took care of his churches when he was alive, and even after his death, having left five hundred pounds for the repair of his cathedral of Armagh and St. Peter's chmch in Droghcda. He was an
FUNERAL OF THE LORD PRIMATE.
Ixxv
excellent scholar, and rarely well accomplished; first in- structed to great excellency by natural parts, and then con- summated by study and experience. Melancthon was used to say, that himself was a logician; Pomeranus, a gramma- rian ; Justus Jonas, an orator ; but that Luther was all these. It was greatly true of him, that the single perfec- tions which make many men eminent, were imited iu this pi-imate, and made him illustrious.
It will be hard to find his equal in all things : " Fortasse tanquam Phoenix anno quingentesimo nascitur" (that I may use the words of Seneca) " nec est mirum ex intervallo [Epist.42.] magna generari ; mediocria et in turbam nascentia sape for- tuna producit ; eximia vero ij)sa raritate commendat." For in him were Adsible the great lines of Hooker's judiciousness, of Jewel's learning, of the acuteness of bishop Andi'ewes. He was skilled in more great things than one, and, as one said of Pliidias, he could not only make excellent statues of ivory, but he could Avork in stone and brass. He shewed his equa- nimity in poverty, and his justice in riches ; he was useful in his country, and profitable in his banishment ; for as Parseus Mas at Anvilla, Luther at Wittenbm-g, St. Athanasius and St. Chiysostom in their banishment, St. Jerome in his retire- ment at Bethlehem, they were oracles to them that needed it : so was he in Holland and France, where he was abroad ; and beside the particular endearments which his friends re- cei^ed from him, for he did do rehef to his brethren that wanted, and supplied the soldiers out of his store in York- shire, when himself could but ill spare it : but he received pubUc thanks fi'om the convocation of wliich he was pre- sident, and pubhc justification from the parliament where he was speaker ; so that although, as one said, " Miraculi instar vita iter, si longum, sine offensione percurrere ;" yet no man had greater enemies, and no man had greater justifications. But God hath taken our Elijah fi'om oui' heads this day : I pray God that at least his mantle may be left behind, and that his spirit may be doubled upon his successor ; and that
" Ergo Quinctilium perpetuus sopor " Urget ? cui Pudor, et, Justitiae soror, " Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas, " Quando uUum invenient parem ? "
24. 5—8.]
Ixxvi
A SERMON, &C.
we may all meet together with him at the right hand of the Lamb, where every man shall receive according to his deeds, whether they be good, or whether they be evil. I conclude [Epist. vi. with the words of Caius Plinius : " Equidem beatos puto qui- Gie^g!^]' bus Deorum munere datum est, aut facere scribenda, aut scribere legenda :" ' he wrote many things fit to be read, and did very many things worthy to be written which if we wisely imitate, we may hope to meet him in the resurrection of the just, and feast with him in the eternal supper of the Lamb, there to sing perpetual anthems to the honour of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; to whom be all honour, &c.
LETTERS, &c.
OF
ARCHBISHOP BRAMHALL.
L E T T E H S,
&c.
LETTER I.»
From Dr. Bramhall to Laud {then) Bishop of London.
Right Reverend Father, My most honour'd Lord, presuming partly upon your Licence, but especially dii'ected by my Lord Deputy's com- mands, I am to give your Fatherhood a brief account of the [See Life, present state of the poor Church of Ireland, such as oiu* ^' ^ short intelhgence here, and your Lordship's weightier im- ployments there, will permit. First, for the fabricks, it is hard to say whether the churches be the more ruinous and sordid, or the people irrcA^erent ; even in Dublin the metro- polis of this kingdom, and seat of justice (to begin the in- quisition where the reformation mil begin), we find our parochial church converted to the Lord Deputy's stable, a second to a nobleman's dwelling house, the quire of a third to a tennis court, and the Vicar acts the keeper. In Christ's Church, the principal chiu'ch in Ireland, whither the Lord Deputy and Council repair every Sunday, the Vaults, from one end of the Minster to the other, are made into tippling- rooms, for beer, wine, and tobacco, demised all to Popish re- cusants, and by them and others so much frequented in time of Di^dne Sendee, that though there is no danger of blowing up the assembly above their heads, yet there is of poisoning them with the fumes. The table used for the administration of the blessed Sacrament in the midst of the choir, made an ordinary seat for maids and apprentices. I cannot omit the glorious tomb'' in the other Cathedral Church of St. Patrick,
^ [Printed in Collier's Ch. Hist., Pt. a vault of hewn stone beneath it. As
ii. bk. ix. vol. ii. p. 759, from the State to its usurping the place of the Altar,
Papers, and from Collier by Mant, Ch. Archbishop Usher explained, that the
of Ireland, c. viii. § 3. pp. 41'8-452.] place