"SIR,-You may be pleased to take notice, that the Catechisme you write of is none of mine, but transcribed out of Mr. Cartwright's catechisme and Mr. Crook's and some other English Divines, but drawn together in one method as a kinde of common place book, where other mens judgments and reasons are strongly laid down, though not approved in all places by the collector; besides that the collection (such as it is) being lent abroad to divers in scattered sheets, hath for a great part of it miscarried; the one half of it as I suppose (well nigh) being no way to be recovered, so that so imperfect a thing copied verbatim out of others, and in divers places dissonant from my own judgement, may not by any means be owned by me; But if it shall seem good of any industrious person to cut of what is weak and superfluous therein, and supply the wants thereof, and cast it into a new mould of his own framing, I shall be very well content that he make what use he pleaseth of any the materials therein, and set out the whole in his own name: and this is the resolution of "May 13 1645." "Your most assured loving friend, When the Primate thus positively declared that the book was in divers places dissonant from his own judgement, and that it could not by any means be owned by him, it might have been supposed that it would never have been republished with his name, or quoted as his work; yet the fact is far otherwise. Many editions have been published by those who were aware of this letter, and yet affixed the Primate's name; and every advocate of supralapsarian doctrines quotes in his support the opinions of Archbishop Ussher, as put m Dr. Bernard, who could not have been offended by the extreme doctrines contained in the work, says of it, "being so unpolished, defective and full of mistakes he was much displeased at the publishing it in his name." An edition was published in London so lately as the year 1841, and the attention of the editors was drawn to the letter of Archbishop Ussher. They promised to prefix the letter to the work, but they never fulfilled the promise. forth in his "Body of Divinity." I understand that several persons have expressed their disappointment at my not having published "The Body of Divinity" among the works of the Archbishop. Had the authorship been a matter of doubtful evidence, there might be a plausible ground for such complaint, but there can be none for not publishing among the works of Archbishop Ussher what Archbishop Ussher declared was not his work. In the commencement of the year 1647 the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn appointed the Archbishop their preacher. There was some difficulty in prevailing upon the Primate to accept the office, and still more in obtaining the consent of the Parliament; but at length the appointment was completed, which he held for nearly eight years, until the increasing infirmities of age, weakness of sight, and loss of teeth, obliged him to resign it about a year and a half before his death. Mr. Hale, afterwards the celebrated Chief Justice, was then a Bencher, and a particular friend of the Archbishop. By his kind interference, the Benchers appropriated to the use of the Primate extensive apartments, to which he was able to remove as much of his library as had escaped the plunder of the Irish rebels and the English Parliament, and which was, in fact, the only property he now possessed. In this year he published the Appendix Ignatiana, of which an account has already been given, and also Diatriba de Romanæ Ecclesiæ Symbolo Apostolico vetere aliisque fidei formulis, tum ab Occidentalibus tum ab Orientalibus, in prima Catechesi et Baptismo proponi solitis. This learned work was dedicated to Gerard John Vossius, who had anticipated him by a treatise on the three Creeds. However this treatise contains much that had not been treated of by Vossius or any other writer, and has brought to light many facts, which had lain concealed in the most obscure and unknown writers. One of the most remarkable positions established by the Primate in this tract is, that the latter clauses of the Nicene Creed, which were generally considered to have been added at the Council of Constantinople on account of the Macedonian heresy, had formed part of the Creed long before the meeting of that Council, which only made some slight variations in the Creed submitted to its consideration. There has been considerable doubt expressed, whether the Primate enjoyed any pension from the Parliament after he was deprived of the revenues of Carlisle. Whitelock, in his Memorials, states, that about the year 1646 there was an order from Parliament to pay the Primate £400 per annum, and there certainly appears in the Parliamentary Journals an order, dated July 1649, for its continuance to the next October. Dr. Bernard mentions the pension, but not its amount, and adds, that it was suspended during the last two years of the Parliament, but that, after their dissolving, "the" care of him was renewed by his Highness the Lord Protector; by whose order a constant competent allowance was given for him for his subsistence, which contented him and which I received from him to the last with other very considerable summes extraordinary. All that knew him found him very communicative not onely of his studies, but of what he had out of his stipend to persons in want, wherein he needed rather a bridle than a spur." Yet Dr. Parr seems to think the pension was not paid; he says: "I cannot hear that he received it above once or twice at most, for the independent faction getting uppermost soon put an end to the payment." The following document proves that a pension had been granted at an earlier period than has been generally supposed, but had not been paid for four years, as this warrant bears internal evidence of being the first order for payment: "By vertue of an Ordinance of both Howses of Parliament of the xxjth daie of Septemb: 1643. And in pursuance of an Order of the Commons Howse of the fifth of October 1647. these are to will & require you, Out of such Threasure as shall be in your hands to paye vnto James Usher Doctor in Divinitie the Sume of One hundred pownds, in part of his Allowance of Fower hundred, to be paied quar " Bernard's Life, pag. 103, 104. • This warrant was found in the Rolls' Office in London by W. H. Black, Esq., and kindly communicated to me. He states that no other such document exists among the series of warrants in the time of the Commonwealth, which is extremely scanty and defective. terly vnto him, (for one quarter of a yeere to be ended the fifth daie of Januarie next ensueing), for his present supporte and subsistance, and incourragement in his Studdies, for the space of one whole yeere: Except He shall be provided with a Compatent good Livinge in the meane tyme; that then, from such tyme as He shall be provided for, this Allowance to Cease. And for soe doing this together with his Acquittance for the Receipte therof, shall be your Warrant, & Discharge; And allso to the Auditor generall to Allowe the same upon your Accompte. Dated at the Committee of Lords & Commons for his Maties Revenue sitting at Westminster the fiue & twentieth day of November. 1647. "PEMBROKE & MONT. "W. SAY & SEALE. "P. WHARTON. "COR. HOLLAND. "THO. HOYLE. "Int' "To our verie Loving freind Thomas Fauconbridg Esq, Receivor generall of the Revenue. 5) Doctor Usher. xmo Die Decembr 1647. "Receiued by me James Usher Dcor in Divinity of Thomas Fauconberge Esq' Receiuo' Generall of the Revenew the some of fifty pounde in pt of one hundred pounde according to this warrant "Wittnes "Wm BURLEY. 1.li "JA. USSHER Armachan. "Vicesimo quarto die Februar 1647. "Receiued by me James Usher Dco' in Divinity of Thomas Fauconberge Esq' Receiuo Gen all of the Reuenewe the Sume of Fiftie pounds in full of 1. one hundred pounds According to the Warrt wthin menconed. I say rec "JA. USSHER Armachan. "Wittnes "Wm BURLEY. "(Indorsed) DOCTOR VSHER. 239." In the beginning of the year 1648 the Primate published another work, exhibiting his chronological and astronomical knowledge. The title of the book was, "Jacobi Usserii Armachani de Macedonum et Asianorum anno solari Dissertatio cum Græcorum astronomorum parapegmate ad Macedonum et Juliani anni rationes accomodata." One of his correspondents remarks, upon his dropping the title of Archbishop and Primate: "Equidem libri tui frontem subtristis et pæne flens aspexi. Jacobi Usserii Armachani vidi, et quid, inquam ego apud me, de Archiepiscopo et totius Hiberniæ Primate fit? Hui: Tantane tam patienter nullo certamine tolli dona sines? tantaque doctrinæ virtutis et honoris insignia humeris illis pendentia detrahi vel diripi potius patieris? sed video quid sit; libris enim tuis tot tantisque plurimis et optimis Anglice Latineque olim conscriptis effectum esse putas, ut nulla regio tam remota sit, quæ non intelligat, nulla ætas tam fera quæ non recognoscat Armachani titulum huic operi præfixum non inquilinatus, sed honoris et dignitatis tuæ esse, et recte quidem putas itaque This was not however the first tract, in the title of which he had dropped any mention of his rank; the title-page of the tract on the Creed is exactly similar. In this learned treatise the Primate establishes the fact, that the Macedonian months were changed from lunar to solar in the interval between the appointment of Philip to the command against the Phocians and the battle of Granicus; and then explains the subsequent introduction of solar months into Greece, by which means he solves many difficulties in chronology and ecclesiastical history: he endeavours particularly to determine the date of the martyrdom of Polycarp by many ingenious arguments, and fixes on the 26th of March, in the year 169. He also compared the Gre P Letter 256, Works, vol. xvi. pag. 125. Another giant in learning, Bishop Pearson, has brought all his information to bear upon this point, and in seven dissertations refuted the po |