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King James, without his seeking, made him Bishop of Meath, in Ireland. He did not now slacken his constancy of preaching, but rather bound himself to it by the motto of his episcopal seal, Vae mihi si non Evangelizavero ('Woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel!')

While he was in England, Primate Hampton dying, he was made, in the year 1624, Primate of Ireland, the hundredth bishop of that see. When thus promoted, he was the more humble and laborious in preaching; but preaching some weeks together beyond his strength, he fell into a quartan ague, which disabled him three quarters of a year. After his recovery, Lord Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough, being a Papist, and desirous to draw his lady to the same religion, was willing there should be a meeting of eminent men of each side to dispute on the controversy between them. The lady made choice of the Lord Primate, and prevailed with him, though recently recovered, and scarcely able to take that journey. The Jesuit chosen by the Earl went under the name of Beaumond, but his right name was Rockwood, brother to Ambrose Rockwood, one of the conspirators of the gunpowder treason. The place of meeting was at Drayton, in Northamptonshire, where there was a great library, that no books of the ancient fathers might be wanting. The points proposed were concerning Transubstantiation, Invocation of Saints, Images, and the Visibility of the Church. Three days were spent in disputations. The Earl, upon some further discourse with the Lord Primate, was converted, and became a Protestant, and so continued to his death. The Countess of Peterborough showed Usher great respect, and upon his losses in Ireland, took him to her own house, where he lived nine or ten years.

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In the year 1626 he returned into Ireland, where he was received with all expressions of joy. The order observed in his family as to prayer, was service four times a day in the morning at six, in the evening at eight, and before dinner and supper in the chapel, at all which he was always present. On Friday afternoons an hour was spent in going through the principles of religion, for the instruction of the family.

In Michaelmas Term, 1626, propositions were made by the Papists for a more full toleration of their religion; viz., the maintaining five hundred horse and five thousand foot, wherein the Protestants must have borne some share; for the consideration of which an assembly of the whole nation, Papists and Protestants, was called. The Bishops, by the Lord Primate's invitation, met at his house, and he and they unanimously subscribed a protestation against the toleration of Popery, of which the following is an extract:

The religion of the Papists is superstitious and idolatrous; their faith and doctrine erroneous and heretical; their Church in respect of both, apostatical. To grant them any money or contribution is to set religion to sale, and with it the souls of the people, whom Christ our Saviour hath redeemed with His most precious blood. And as it is a great sin, so also it is a matter of dangerous consequence.'

Every Lord's Day the Archbishop preached in the forenoon, in which he spent himself much. His order throughout his diocese to the Ministers was, to go through the Body of Divinity once a year. When a public fast was enjoined he kept it very strictly, preached always himself, continuing at least two hours. The last time he was in London, he much lamented the deadly hatred kindling in the hearts of men one against another by the several opinions in matters of religion; some of them in opposition to a ministry, contemning the Sacraments; others spreading damnable doctrines, heresies, and blasphemies; he was confident that the enemy which had sown these up and down the nation were priests, friars, and Jesuits, sent out of their seminaries from beyond sea in other disguises.

In the year 1640 he came out of Ireland to England, being invited by some eminent persons upon occasion of the difference between the King and parliament; this was God's special providence for his preservation, it being the year before the rebellion in Ireland. The sufferings he now endured were many. All his personal estate, with what else belonged to his primacy in Ireland, was destroyed. At this time he was preacher at Covent-garden Church. Upon his losses in Ireland, two offers

were made him from foreign nations: one from Cardinal Richelieu, of a large maintenance, and liberty to live where he pleased in France with the Protestants; the other from the Hollanders, offering him the place of Professor at Leyden, which had an ample stipend, but he refused both. And now he was, by the disturbance of the times, perpetually removed, having, with St. Paul, ‘no certain dwelling-place.' The saying of David was often in his thoughts: 'Thou tellest my wanderings: put Thou my tears into Thy bottle.'

In 1642 he obtained leave of both Houses of Parliament to go to Oxford for study. In the year 1644, November 5th, the King coming there, he preached before him. The text was Nehemiah iv. 11: 'And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.' But a passage in his sermon against the Papists, advising not to repose any trust in them, for that upon the first opportunity they would serve us here as they did the poor Protestants in Ireland, offended some persons present. In March following he went from thence into Wales, to Cardiff, and resided with his daughter. In September 16th, 1645, he removed thence to St. Donnet's (Lady Stradling's), when by the way he was barbarously used by some soldiers, and plucked off his horse; they broke open two of his trunks full of books, and took all away, amongst which he lost two manuscripts of the history of the Waldenses, which he never got again; most of the other books were restored, by the preachers exhorting all in their sermons to that end. Not long after he fell into a painful sickness, and all hope of life was past. But he recovered, and in 1646 returned to London.

After some time he was chosen preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, where he continued many years with great honour and respect, till, having nearly lost his sight and strength, he was advised to forbear, and reserve the remainder of his strength for writing books. No spectacles could help him; only when the sun shone could he see at a window, which he hourly followed from room to room: in winter the window was often open for him to write at. After he left Lincoln's Inn, he

was prevailed on to preach at Gray's Inn in December, 1654; at the Temple, at Mr. Selden's funeral; and two other places in the city, both which latter were effectual in the conversion of many; and, indeed, seldom did the sword drawn by him return empty. The last sermon he preached was at Hammersmith. He sought no great things for himself. In his distresses by his losses in Ireland, the Parliament for some years had been bountiful to him in an annual stipend. After their dissolution the care of him was renewed by the Lord Protector Cromwell, by whose order a competent allowance was made to him. He was not so severe as to disown the ministry of other Reformed Churches, but declared he did love and honour them as true members of the Church universal. He was a man of exemplary moderation, meekness, and ingenuity. He had in 1641 drawn up an expedient, by way of accommodation in some ecclesiastical affairs, which some moderate persons of each party were ready to subscribe.

The last words he was heard to utter in praying for forgiveness of sins were, 'But, Lord, in special, forgive my sins of omission.' He died in the spring of 1656.

Archbishop Usher was one of the best and ablest men of an age in which there were many intellectual and spiritual giants. His literary reputation in this country principally rests, in the present day, on his attempts to settle Biblical chronology.

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THE PURITANS UNDER THE STUARTS:

THOMAS GOODWIN.

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