V. CORRESPONDENCE, IN LATIN AND ENGLISH, BETWEEN ARCHBISHOP USHER AND BISHOP HALL". EPISTOLA I. EPISCOPUS NORVIC. ARCHIEPISCOPO ARMACH. GRATULOR verò ex animo te, Antistitum decus, Sancto Ignatio tuo. Gratulor tibi, immò, universo orbi Christiano, Ignatium, meritissimò tuum; sed quidem et tuo beneficio nostrum. Gratiorem profectò operam navare Dei Ecclesiæ nullus unquam potuisset, quàm tantum, tam antiquum sanctumque, Apostolicæ TроσTаolas patronum, ac tam egregium primævæ pietatis exemplar, ab injuriâ temporis vindicando. Inciderat nempe bonus iste viator Hierosolymitanus in latrones quosdam Hierochuntinos, qui illum non spoliârant modò, sed miserè etiam penèque ad mortem vulnerârant. Præterierant saucium, ac ferè moribundum, nescio quot Parkeri, Coci, Salmasii, aliique nuperæ sectæ coryphæi. Vestra verò (molliora uti sunt) viscera tam durâ hominis ağıoleoû sorte misericorditer commota sunt; vestra unius pietatis (optimi instar Samarita) vinum oleumque infudit tam patentibus vulneribus, abstersit saniem, foedèque hiulca plagarum ora manu tenerâ fasciavit; ferèque exanimem vestro typorum jumento imposuit; ac communi denique Ecclesiæ hospitio, non sine maximis impensis, commendavit. Profectò hoc uno nomine assurgent Amplitudini tuæ boni (quotquot sunt) omnes; manusque tam salutares piis labiis exosculabuntur. Intelligent jam novitiæ paritatis assertores, quid illud sit, quod tanto molimine usque machinantur; sentientque quàm probè illis cum sanctissimo Martyre, ac celeberrimo Apostolorum Discipulo, conveniat. Illud verò, inter doctissimas annotationes vestras saliente et corde et oculo legisse me fateor, quo egregium illud opáλua Salmasianum de tempore a Of the six Letters which follow, the five first are gathered from the Collection annexed to the Life of Archbishop Usher, by Dr. R. Parr; Lond. 1686, fol. and reprinted (unhappily, like other portions of that volume, with shameful inaccuracy) in Mr. Jones's Appendix. The last is taken from a miscellaneous assortment of materials, appended to Archbishop Usher's Judgment on Three Points of Divinity, published by Dr. N. Bernard, Lond. 1657, 12mo.-H. supposititii Ignatii, leni illâ quidem, sed castigatrice, manu corripueris. Fierine potuit ut tantus author, in re tanti momenti Chronologicâ, tam fœdè laberetur; aut num forte, hôc pacto, (quandoquidem hæc causæ disciplinariæ arx meritò habeatur,) dominis suis palpum obtrudere maluit? Quicquid sit, bis Martyrium passus Ignatius noster, tuâ demum operâ, Præsul honoratissime, reviviscit; causamque iniquissimè jam abdicatæ 'ЕTIOкоns in Ecclesiæ totius foro tam catè agit, ut non pudere non possit hesternæ disciplinæ astipulatores, tam malè suscepti litis injustæ patrocinii. Quod si nullum aliud foret nostræ sententiæ propugnaculum, nobis quidem abundè sufficeret habuisse (ovv Oé) nostræ veritatis patronos, te et Ignatium. Vale, Primatum ağıovóμaore, et Ecclesiæ laboranti, et precibus, et operis (quod facis) subvenire perge; et fave Cultori tuo, ac malorum tuorum JOS. NORVICENSI. E TUGURIOLO NOSTRO HIGHAMENSI, EPISTOLA II. EPISCOPUS NORVIC. ARCHIEPISCOPO ARMACH. SALUTEM IN CHRISTO. GRATA admodum et manu et mente accepi heri, Primatum Reverendissime, à manibus Honorandi plurimùm Episcopi Dunelmensis, literas tuas, sed et donaria longè pretiosissima, libros tuos: Deus bone! quàm elaboratos, quàm reconditiore literaturâ refertos! quos stupebunt exteri, gratulabunturque authori felicitatem hanc et otii et eruditionis. Nostri verò quô tandem non possunt non erubescere, tantum virum neglectui habuisse? At, O te omni et invidiâ et tyrannide superiorem! quem divinior mens supra terrena quæque ita longè extulit, ut ingratissimi ævi sive incuriam sive contemptum nihil quicquam ad te pertinere sentias. Illud tibi unum curæ est, ut bene merearis. İlicet hôc animo resides in obscuro Lincolniensis Hospitii angulo, qui totius Occidentis Patriarchatu dignissimum te præstitisti. Mihi vero, homini pauperculo, quid tandem suppetit, quod munificentiæ tuæ retribuam? Exciderat mihi pridem opella quædam, ita quidem minutula, ut me planè puduerit ejusmodi strenulam tanto Præsuli obtulisse. Tandem tamen eò prorupi audacíæ, ut id facerem. Tu, pro singulari candore tuo, ignosces erroribus quibusque sive scriptiunculæ, sive authoris; qui se Reverendissimæ Paternitatis vestræ Clientem profitetur devotissimum, E TUGURIO MEO HIGHAMENSI, Feb. 26, 1647-8. JOS. NORVIC. EPISTOLA III. ARCHIEPISCOPUS ARMACH. EPISCOPO NORVIC. Admodum Reverendo in Christo Patri, Fratrique charissimo, D. Josepho Hallo, Norwicensi Episcopo. QUEM tui in me amoris et judicii (Antistes optime) fructum ceperim, Ignatiana Appendix ista declarabit: ad quam perficiendam, et in lucem proferendam, majorem mihi animum, quàm unquam habuissem, elegantissimas et suavissimas tuas ad me literas dedisse, non possum non agnoscere. Cum eâ mitto et de Fidei Symbolis Diatribam, et de Macedonum atque Asianorum Anno dissertatiunculam; non alio à te æstimandas pretio, quàm quòd profectæ sunt A Fratre tuo amantissimo et JACOBO USSERIO, Armachano. LOND. vii. Kalend. Martias, AN. MDCXLVII. EPISTOLA IV. EPISCOPUS NORVIC. ARCHIEPISCOPO ARMACH. ACCEPI à te pridem, Honorandissime Præsul, munus egregium, teque uno dignum, Annales Sacros Veteris Testamenti, accuratissimè digestos. Non enim mihi traditum est volumen, quàm oculi mei in tam gratum diuque expetitum opus irruerint illicò; neque se exinde avelli patiuntur. Obstupui sanè indefessos labores, industriam incredibilem, reconditissimæ eruditionis monumenta, quæ se istic passim vel supino lectori ultrò objiciunt. Præcipuè vero subit animum, mirari felicitatem otii tui, quo, inter tam continuam concionum doctissimarum seriem, studiis hisce paulò asperioribus, et abstrusissimarum quarumcunque (utpote ex imæ antiquitatis caligine erutarum) historiarum indagini, vacare potueris. Hoc fieri non potuisset ilicet, sine Numine mirum in modum et tibi propitio, et Ecclesiæ: in cujus unius gratiam hæc tibi singularia et artium et linguarum charismata tam ubertim collata fuisse, facile persentisces. Perge porro, decus Presulum, ita et nos beare, et adornare tibi coronam gloriæ sempiternæ et faxis mirentur posteri tale lumen tam infælici seculo indultum. Expectare nos jubes Chronologicum opus, toti Christiano orbi exoptatissimum, sed et Annales insuper alios. Quid non à tanto authore speremus? Deus modò protrahat tibi dies, ut ævi maturus hinc tandem demigres, seròque in cælum redeas. Misit mihi librum nuper à se editum Christophorus Elderfeldius noster, non, uti fatetur, injussu tuo; sane doctum, ac probè elaboratum, et, nisi in deploratum incidissimus ævum, non inutilem. Quantum debeo et authori et patrono? Habeat suas à me uterque gratias. Ego, quod superest, Paternitatæ vestræ Reverendissimæ preces meas animitus voveo, quin et meipsum, JOS. NORVICENS. E TUGURIOLO NOSTRO HIGHAMENSI, ANNO MDCL. LETTER V. FROM BISHOP HALL TO ARCHBISHOP USHER. MOST REVEREND, AND HONOURABLE; WITH never enow thanks for this precious gift which I receive from your Grace's hand, I have, with no small eagerness and delight, turned over these your learned and accurate Annals, wondering not a little at that your indefatigable labour, which you have bestowed upon a work fetched together out of such a world of monuments of antiquity; whereby your Grace hath better merited the title of χαλκέντερος and φιλό Tovos, than those on whom it was formerly imposed. But in looking over this admirable pile of history, my curiosity cast me upon the search of two over-famous persons, Simon Magus, and Apollonius Tyanaus; the particularities of whose story seem so much to be concerned in the disquisition of that Antichrist lately set on foot by Grotius and Dr. Hammond. I had hoped to have found a just account, both of their times, and their actions and events, in this your complete collection: which missing of, I have taken the boldness to give this touch of it to your Grace, as being desirous to know, whether you thought good to omit it, upon the opinion of the invalidity of those records, which mention the acts and issue of those two great Jugglers; or whether you have pleased to reserve them for some further opportunity of relation. Howsoever, certainly, my Lord, it would give great satisfaction to many, and amongst them, to myself, if, by your accurate search, I might understand whether the chronology of Simon Magus, his prodigies and affectation of Deity, may well stand with St. Paul's prediction of an ò avтikelμevos, as following it in time, after the writing of that Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. I must confess, if the times may accord, there may seem to be some probability in casting Antichrist upon an age not so far remote from the Apostolic, as hath been commonly reputed; since the Apostle speaks of it as a thing so near at hand, that the ordinary Christians of Thessalonica were well acquainted with the bar of his revelation. I beseech your Grace to pardon this bold importunity of him, who, out of the consciousness of his deep devotion to you, and his dependence upon your oracular sentence in doubts of this nature, have presumed thus to interrupt your higher thoughts. In the desire and hope whereof, I humbly take leave, and profess myself, Your Grace's, in all Christian observance, and fervent devotion, HIGHAM, May 1, 1654. VOL. XII. JOS. NORVIC. |