following year gave him a promise to grant liberty of conscience to the episcopal clergy, which being evaded by the Usurper, occasioned the Primate thereupon to predict the King's restoration.† The same year, 1655, his Primate lived, so, after his death, he made a pretence (by imputing malignancy to the Primate's son-in-law and daughter) to free himself from that promise. It was by the particular desire of the episcopal clergy in and about London, that the application had been made for this favour to Cromwell, who promised him they should not be molested, provided they meddled not with any matters relating to his government. But when he went again, to get this promise ratified and put in writing, he found the Protector under the hands of his surgeon, who was dressing a great boil that he had then upon his breast. So he begged the Primate to sit down, saying he would speak with him when the dressing was over. Whilst it was doing, he said to the Primate, If this core (pointing to the boil) were once out, I should quickly be well.' To which the Primate replied, "I doubt the core lies deeper; there is a core at the heart that must be taken out, or else it will not be well." Ah!' replied Cromwell, (seemingly unconcerned) so there is indeed,' and sighed. But, when the Primate began to speak of the business he came about, he answered to this effect, That he had since better considered it, having advised with his council, who thought it not safe for him to grant liberty of conscience to those sort of men, who are restless and implacable enemies to him and his government.' And so took his leave with good words and outward civility. We have already observed, that such kind of predictions were usual with the Primate in expressing his resentment of any great and violent wickedness. Upon the present occasion, when he found it in vain to urge the matter any further, he returned to his lodgings very much troubled and concerned, and, when he was in his chamber, said to some of his relations and Dr. Parr, that came to visit him, "This false man hath broken his word with me, and refuses to perform what he promised. Well, he will have little cause to glory in his wickedness; for he will not continue long. The King will return: Though I shall not live to see it, you may. The government, both in church and state, is in confusion. The papists are advancing their projects, and making such advantages as will hardly be prevented." With regard to his predicting the restoration from the wickedness of the times and the prevalence of popery, we shall present the reader with the following particular account from a manuscript in the Museum Thoresbianum, entitled, The Predictions of that learned and holy man, Bishop Usher. That year wherein he died, being asked by a gentleman, what his present apprehensions were of a very great persecution that would fall upon the church of Christ in these nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland, (concerning which he had ever confidently spoken many years past, when we were in the fullest peace and settlement) whether he did not believe these sad times to be passed, or whether yet to come?' He told me "They were yet to come, and that he did as confidently expect them as ever he had done. That they would fall upon ourselves and the protestant churches in Europe." I answered, I hoped they might have been past, as to this nation, since that I thought, though we in them had been punished less than our sins deserved, and that the wars had his Grace published his last piece, De Græca Septuaginta Interpretum verum Septagma, to which was subjoined, De Cainane had left much less devastation than by that means had been brought upon other countries, yet many a house, fair and great, had been left without inhabitants, many a family had been impoverished, and many thousand lives lost in that war; that Ireland and Scotland had drunk deep of the cup of God's anger, to the overthrow of government, and almost utter destruction of a great part of those nations. He, turning to me, and fixing his eyes with that ireful look which he used to have when he spake God's words, and not his own, and the power of God upon him to constrain him so to do," Fool not yourself with such hopes; for I tell you all that you have yet seen have been but the beginning of sorrows to what is yet to come upon the protestant churches of Christ; which shall, ere long, fall under sharper persecutions than ever yet hath been upon them. And therefore, said he to me, look you be not found in the outer court, but a worshipper in the temple before the altar; for Christ will measure all that profess his name and call themselves his people, and the outward worshippers he will leave to be trodden down by the Gentiles. The outward court (said he) is the formal Christians, whose religion stands in performing the outside duties of Christianity, without having an inward life and power of faith and love uniting them to Christ; these GoD will leave to be trodden down and swept away by the Gentiles But the worshippers within the temple and before the altar, are those who worship GoD in spirit and truth, whose souls are made his temples, where he is honoured and adored in the most inward thoughts they have, and who sacrifice their lusts and foul affections in their own wills to him. GOD will hide them in the hollow of his hand, and under the shadow of his wings. And that will be one great difference between these last and all other preceding persecutions: In them the most eminent and spiritual ministers were, first or last, violently fallen upon; but, in this last, these will be preserved by Gor, as a seed of that glory that shall immediately fall to the church as soon as these storms are over; for as they will be the sharpest, so they will be but short, and shall take away but the gross hypocrites and formalists, while the true spiritual believers shall be preserved till the calamity be past." I then asked him by what instruments this great trial would be brought on. He answered, "By the papists." I replied, that seemed to me very improbable, since they were less countenanced, and less in number in these nations, and the hearts of the people were more set against them than ever, since the Reformation. He answered, "That it would be by their hands, and in the way of a sudden massacre, and that the now Pope would be the instrument of it." And these things he spoke with the assurance and ireful look that I have observed him to speak with, when I have heard him myself predict things very unlikely, in human appearance, to come, which I myself had then lived to see happen according to his predictions; which made me give the more attention to what he uttered. And he then added, "That the papists were, in his opinion, the Gentiles spoken of in Rev ii. to whom the outward court should be left, that they may tread it under foot, they having received the Gentile worship in their adoring images and saints departed, and taken to themselves many mediators. And this (said he) is now designing among them, and therefore look you be ready." This Cainane in vulgata LXX. editione superaddita ex ejusdem This was the substance, and, for the greatest part, (I think) the words themselves, which that holy man spake to me at the time beforementioned, which I set down, that so great a prediction may not be lost to myself or others. The same holy man repeated the same predictions to his only daughter, the Lady Tyrrel; and that, with many others, much about the same time he had explained himself to me, as she herself assured me with her own mouth. That, after she had been at the door of his chamber, she found him with his eyes lift up to heaven, and tears running down apace, in a kind of extacy, wherein he continued after she came into the room, without taking any notice of her, for about half an hour. And then he told her "His thoughts had been taken up about the miseries and persecutions that were coming upon the church of Christ, that would be so sharp and bitter, that they had forced those tears from his eyes; but he hoped he should not live to see it; but possibly she might, for they were even at the door: Therefore take heed you be not found sleeping" The same be after repeated to Mrs. Biss, the Chief Baron of Ireland's wife, that now is, with this difference in circumstances, "That if (said he) they bring back the King, they may be a little longer delayed; but they will surely come, and therefore look ye be not unprepared for it." The Lady Tyrrel's answer to a friend's letter about the truth of these predictions: SIR, 'I CANNOT speak so punctually to the particulars of your paper, but much of it I have heard him speak with great assurance in the beginning of the summer, before the Rebellion in Ireland. Sir Thomas Barrington's lady was inquiring his opinion of the interpreters of the Revelations and of the prophecies of Daniel: She was desirous to know whether the last bitter dregs should be poured out upon the world. I can never forget with what trouble he expressed his answer, viz. "That he could not see but that God intended them on the northern parts. And, said he, I besought GGD, in mercy, to divert a share of the time from our dominions, and that they may not begin with poor Ireland: But we must all (said he) taste of them, I am certain." Mrs. Barrington, who is yet living, was present at this discourse as well as myself, when my father, among other admonitions, was pleased to give me his commands to be prepared for times of persecution; for he feared wicked people would for a time prevail, and that the persecution would be sharp, but should not last long. The last day that I saw my dear father he told me, "That I should see, in a short time, London burnt;" at which when I was troubled, "Yes, says he, it will be burnt to a cinder: (that was his expression.) How can we expect other than judgment upon the seat of rebellion and sin, and miseries that have proceeded from thence?" He was also confident of his majesty's restoration within five years, or less. He said, "It will be in a short time; you will live to see it, but I shall not:" And said, "My thoughts and dreams are often troubled by being carried by violence into a great church." These were his last discourses to her, who is Your faithful servant, E. TYRREL. Lectionibus, anno 1652 et altera, a Gulielmo Eyrio, ad eundem Jacobum, anno 1607, data Epistola. Our Author did not long survive this publication; for, going shortly after to the Lady Peterborough's house, at Ryegate in Surrey, he was taken on the 20th of March 1655-6, with an illness which carried him off the next day, in the seventysixth year of his age. He first complained of his hip, thinking it was a touch of the sciatica, which he had been afflicted with many years before. But next morning he complained of a great pain in his side, which could not be removed by the physician, and he departed about one o'clock in the afternoon. His last words were, 66 O Lord forgive me, especially my sins of omission." Upon opening his body, there was observed a thick membrane lined with fat, supposed by the surgeons to be a continuation of the omentum or caul, which extended itself quite over the stomach, and was fastened above to the peritonæum, somewhat below the diaphragm. The Primate had been often heard to say, he never felt his heart beat in the most violent exercises. He used frequently to have evacuations of blood from the veins on one side of his tongue, but more usually in some lower parts of his body, which stopping for some time before his death, was thought to be the cause of it, as he had a quick digestion, and bred blood fast. His friends intended to bury him at Ryegate, in the vault of the Howard family; but they were forbid by Cromwell.* at whose order tha corpse being first removed to Somerset House in the Strand, was conveyod thence with great magnificence to Westminster Abbey, where it was interred in Erasmus's chapel, the funeral service being performed according to the liturgy of the church of England, by Dr. Nicholas Bernard, who *A more conspicuous instance of the Primate's great reputation among all orders and degrees of men could not be given, than in this action of the Protector, who was plainly led thereto from the popularity of it. His relations durst not disobey the command, though it was much against their wills, perceiving well enough, says Dr. Parr, the Usurper's design, that (as it was intended so) it would make more for his own honour than that of the deceased, and witha! perceiving (what accordingly happened) that he would never defray half the expence of such a solemn funeral which therefore would bring the greatest part upon them, though they were least able to bear it; and yet he would reap all the glory of it. I should not, proceeds the doctor, have said so much on this subject, had it not been to shew the world the intriguing subtlety of this Usurper even in this small affair; and that, for the expence of about two hundred pounds out of the deodands in his almoner's hands, (which was nothing at all to him) he was able to put those he accounted his enemies to treble that charge. who preached a sermon upon the occasion, which was afterwards printed. As to the archbishop's character: His genius, in every particular, has been sufficiently marked in the course of this memoir; we shall therefore only give some description of his person and temper. He was of the taller sort of middle-sized men, and well shaped. He walked upright to the last. His hair was naturally brown when young, and his complexion sanguine. His countenance expressed gravity and good-nature. He had a presence that commanded both respect and reverence. The air of his face was so difficult to hit, that though many pictures were drawn of him, yet, says Dr. Parr, I never saw any that was like him but one, which was done by Mr. (afterwards Sir Peter) Lely. His constitution was strong and healthy, nor was he ever troubled with the head-ache, gout, or stone, but bred blood so fast, that it often burst out of the veins on one side of his tongue; and this was something singular, that he never felt his heart beat in the greatest exercise. He was easy, affable, and cheerful in conversation, and extremely charitable. He was of so sweet a temper, continues Dr. Parr, that I never heard he did an ill office to any one man, or revenged any of those that had been done to him. He envied no man's happiness, or vilified their persons or parts, nor was he apt to censure or condemn any man upon bare reports. Though he could rebuke sharply in the cause of virtue and religion, yet he was not easily provoked to passion. He left his library, being the chief part of his substance, as a portion to his only daughter, who had been the mother of a numerous offspring. It was first bought by the officers and soldiers of Cromwell's army in Ireland, and lodged in Dublin Castle, where it lay, though not without being much pillaged, till the Restoration, which bringing it into the possession of King Charles II. he gave it, according to the Primate's first intention, to Dublin College, where it now remains. This was according to the Primate's first intention; but, upon the loss of every thing else except his books, it is no wonder he left these in the manner above-mentioned, his daughter having before had nothing from him except some pieces of gold presented to him by Mr. Selden's executors and other persons of quality. The library consisted of ten thousand volumes, printed and manuscript, and cost the Primate many thousand pounds. Both the King of Denmark and Cardinal Mazarine offered a good price for it by their agents here; but the executors were forbidden, |