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of this month; I thank you for your care and dili"gence in this matter. For answer whereof, although “I could have desired so much respite, as to have con"ferred with some of my friends, such as possibly do "know the condition of that place better than I do, "and my insufficiencies better than my Lord Primate; yet since that I perceive by both of your letters, the "matter requires a speedy and present answer, thus I "stand: I am married, and have three children; there"fore if the place requires a single man, the business is "at an end. I have no want, I thank my God, of any "thing necessary for this life; I have a competent liv"ing of above a hundred pounds a-year, in a good air "and seat, with a very convenient house near to my "friends, a little parish, not exceeding the compass of "my weak voice. I have often heard it, that changing "seldom brings the better, especially to those that are "well. And I see well, that my wife (though resolv

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ing, as she ought, to be contented with whatsoever "GOD shall appoint,) had rather continue with her "friends in her native country, than put herself into "the hazard of the seas, and a foreign land, with many "casualties in travel, which she, perhaps out of fear, "apprehends more than there is cause.

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"All these reasons I have, if I consult with flesh and "blood, which move me rather to reject this offer; "(yet with all humble and dutiful thanks to my Lord "Primate for his mind and good opinion of me.) On "the other side, I consider the end wherefore I came "into the world, and the business of a subject to our "Lord Jesus Christ, of a minister of the Gospel, of a good patriot, and of an honest man. If I may be of 66 any better use to my country, to God's church, or "of any better service to our common Master, I must "close mine eyes against all private respects; and if "GOD call me, I must answer, Here I am. For my "part, therefore, I will not stir one foot, or lift up my "finger for or against this motion; but if it proceed "from the Lord, that is, if those whom it concerns "there, do procure those who may command me here, "to send me thither, I shall obey, if it were not only "to go into Ireland, but into Virginia, yea, though I "were not only to meet with troubles, dangers, and "difficulties, but death itself in the performance. Sir, "I have, as plainly as I can, shewed you my mind; "desiring you with my humble service to represent it

"to my reverend good Lord, my Lord Primate. And "GOD Almighty direct this affair to the glory of his "holy name, and have you in his merciful protection; 66 SO I rest

From Bury, 6th March 1626.

"Your loving friend,

"WILL. BEdell."

The conclusion of this matter was, that the king, being well informed concerning him, commanded him to undertake this charge, which he cheerfully obeyed; and set about the duties incumbent on him in such a manner, as shewed how well he had improved the long time of retirement that he had hitherto enjoyed, and how ripely he had digested all his thoughts and observations. He had hitherto lived as if he had been made for nothing but speculation and study; and now, when he entered upon a more public scene, it appeared that he understood the practical things of government and human life so well, that no man seemed to be more cut out for business than he was. In the government of the college, and at his first entry upon a new scene, he resolved to act nothing till he both knew the statutes of the house perfectly well, and understood well the tempers of the people; therefore when he went over first, he carried himself so abstractedly from all affairs, that he passed for a soft and weak man. The zeal that appeared afterwards in him, shewed, that this coldness was only the effect of his wisdom, and not of his temper: But when he found that some grew to think meanly of him, and that even Usher himself began to change his opinion of him: Upon that when he went over to England some months after, to bring his family over to Ireland, he was thinking to have resigned his new preferment, and to have returned to his benefice in Suffolk; but the primate wrote so kind a letter to him, that as it made him lay down those thoughts, so it drew from him the following words, in the answer that he wrote to him.

"TOUCHING my return, I do thankfully accept your "Grace's exhortation, advising me to have faith in GOD, "and not to consult with flesh and blood, nor have "mind of this country. Now I would to GoD, that your Grace could look into my heart, and see how lit"tle I fear lack of provision, or pass upon any outward

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thing in this world: My chief fear in truth was, and "is, lest I should be unfit and unprofitable in the place; "in which case, if I might have a lawful and honest "retreat, I think no wise man could blame me to retain "it: Especially having understood that your Grace, "whose authority I chiefly followed at the first, did "from your own judgment, and that of other wise.

men, so truly pronounce of me, that I was a weak 66 man. Now that I have received your letters so full "of life and encouragement, it puts some more life in

me. For sure it cannot agree with that goodness and " ingenuity of yours, praised among all God's graces "in you, by those that know you, to write one thing "to me, and to speak another thing to others of me, "or to go about to beguile my simplicity with fair "words, laying in the mean while a net for my feet, "especially sith my weakness shall in truth redound to "the blaming of your own discretion in bringing me "thither."

Thus was he prevailed on to resign his benefice, and carry his family to Ireland, and then he applied himself, with that vigour of mind that was peculiar to him, to the government of the college.

He corrected such abuses as he found among them; he set such rules to them, and saw these so well executed, that it quickly appeared how happy a choice they had made: And as he was a great promoter of learning among them, so he thought his particular province was to instruct the house aright in the principles of religion. In order to this he catechized the youth in the college once aweek, and preached once on a Sunday, though he was not obliged to it: And that he might acquaint them with a plain and particular body of divinity, he divided the church catechism into two-and-fifty parts, one for every Sunday, and explained it in a way so mixed with speculative and practical matters, that his sermons were both learned lectures of divinity, and excellent exhortations to virtue and piety. Many took notes of them, and copies of them were much inquired after; for as they were fitted to the capacity of his hearers, so they contained much matter in them, for entertaining the most learned. He had not staid there above two years, when by his friend Sir Thomas Jermyn's means, a patent was sent him to be Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, two contiguous sees in the province of Ulster.

VOL. III.

I

And

And now in the fifty-ninth year of his age, he entered upon a different course of life and employment, when it might have been thought, that the vigour of his spirits was much broken and spent. But by his administration of his diocese, it appeared that there remained yet a vast heat and force of spirit to carry him through those difficult undertakings, to which he found himself obliged by this new character; which if it makes a man but a little lower than the angels, so that the term angel is applied to that office in Scripture, he thought it obliged him to an angelical course of life, and to divide his time, as much as could consist with the frailties and necessities of a body made of flesh and blood, as those glorious spirits do, between the beholding the face of their father which is in heaven, and the ministering to the heirs of salvation. He considered the bishop's office made him the shepherd of the inferior shepherds, if not of the whole diocese; and therefore he resolved to spare himself in nothing, by which he might advance the interest of religion among them: And he thought it a disingenuous thing to vouch antiquity for the authority and dignity of that function, and not at the same time to express those virtues and practices that made it so venerable among them. Since the forms of church government must appear amiable and valuable to the world, not so much for the reasonings and arguments that learned men use concerning them, as for the real advantages that mankind find from them.

In laying open his designs and performances in this last and greatest period of his life, there are fuller materials than in the former parts. For my author was particularly known to him during a large part of it, and spent several years in his family; so that his opportunities of knowing him were as great as could be desired, and the Bishop was of so gentle a temper, and of so communicative a nature, that he easily opened himself to one, that was taken into his alliance as well as into his heart, he being indeed a man of primitive simplicity. He found his diocese under so many disorders, that there was scarce a sound part remaining. The revenue was wasted by excessive dilapidations, and all sacred things had been exposed to sale in so sordid a manner, that it was grown to a proverb. But I will not enlarge further on the ill things others had done, than as it is necessary to shew the good things that were done by him. One of his cathedrals, Ardagh, was fallen down to the ground, and

there

there was scarce enough remaining of both those revenues to support a bishop that was resolved not to supply himself by indirect and base methods. He had a very small clergy, but seven or eight in each diocese of good sufficiency; but every one of these was multiplied into many parishes, they having many vicarages apiece; but being English, and his whole diocese consisting of Irish, they were barbarians to them; nor could they perform any part of divine offices among them. But the state of his clergy will appear best from a letter that he wrote to Archbishop Laud concerning it, which I shall here insert.

"Right reverend Father, my honourable good Lord.

"SINCE my coming to this place, which was a little "before Michaelmas, (till which time, the settling of the "state of the college, and my Lord Primate's visitation, "deferred my consecration) I have not been unmindful "of your Lordship's commands to advertise you, as my "experience should inform me, of the state of the "church, which I shall now the better do, because I "have been about my dioceses, and can set down, out " of my knowledge and view, what I shall relate: And "shortly to speak much ill matter in a few words, it is "very miserable. The cathedral church of Ardagh, "one of the most ancient in Ireland, and said to be built "by St. Patrick, together with the bishop's house there, "is down to the ground. The church here, built, but "without bell or steeple, font, or chalice. The parish "churches all in a manner ruined, and unroofed, and "unrepaired. The people, saving a few British planters "here and there, (which are not a tenth part of the "remnant) obstinate recusants. A popish clergy more 66 numerous by far than we, and in full exercise of all jurisdiction ecclesiastical, by their vicar-general and "officials; who are so confident, as they excommunicate "those that come to our courts, even in matrimonial causes: Which affront hath been offered myself by "the popish primate's vicar-general; for which I have "begun a process against him. The primate himself "lives in my parish, within two miles of my house; "the bishop in another part of my diocese further off. "Every parish hath its priest; and some two or three "apiece, and so their mass-houses also; in some places mass is said in the churches.

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"Fryars