wife Men, fo truly pronounce of me, That I was a weak Man. Now that I have received your Letters fo full of Life and Encouragement, it puts fome more life in me. For fure it cannot agree with that goodness and ingenuity of yours, praised among all God's Graces in you, by thofe 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 fimpli city with fair Words, laying in the mean while a Net for my Feet, especially fith my weakness fball in truth redound to the blaming of your own difcretion in bringing me thither.

Thus was he prevailed on to refign 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 fuch abuses as he found among them; he fet fuch rules to them, and faw these fo well executed, that it quickly appeared how happy a choice they had made: And as he was a great promoter of learning among them, fo he thought his particular Province was to inftruct the House aright in the Principles of Religion. In order to this he catechised the Youth in the College once a Week, and preached once 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 Catechifm into Two and Fifty Parts, one for eyery Sunday, and did explain it in a way fo mix

ed

ed 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 enquired after; for as they were fitted to the capacity of his Hearers, fo they contained much matter in them, for entertaining the most learned. He had not stayed there above two Years, when by his Friend Sir Thomas Jermyn's means, a Patent was fent him to be Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, two contiguous Sees in the Province of Ulfter. And in the Letters by which the King fignified his pleasure for his Promotion, he likewife expreffed his acceptance of his fervice he had done in the College, in vehonourable terms as follows:

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And as we were pleafed by our former gracious Letters to establish the faid William Bedell, by our Royal Authority, in the ProvostShip of the faid College of the Bleffed Trinity near Dublin, where we are informed that by his Care and good Government, there hath been wrought great Reformation, to our fingilar contentment; So we purpose to continue our care of that Society, being the principal Nurfery of Religion and Learning in that our Realm; and to recommend unto the College fome fuch Perfon from whom we may expect the like worthy effects for their good, as we and they have found from Mr. Bedell,

And now in the 59th Year of his Age, he entered upon a different courfe of Life and

Em

Employment, when it might have been thought, that the vigour of his Spirits was 'much broken and fpent. But by his adminif tration of his Diocefs, it appeared that there remained yet a vaft heat and force of Spirit to carry him through thofe 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, fo that the term Angel is applied to that Office in Scripture, he thought it did oblige him to an angelical courfe of life, and to divide his time, as much as could confift with the frailties and neceffities of a Body made of Flesh and Blood, as thofe glorious Spirits do, between the beholding the Face of their Father which is in Heaven, and the miniftring to the Heirs of Salvation: He confidered the Bishop's office made him the Shepherd of the inferior Shepherds, if not of the whole Diocefs, and therefore he refolved to fpare himself in nothing, by which he might advance the intereft of Religion among them: And he thought it a difingenuous thing to vouch Antiquity for the Authority and Dignity of that Function, and not at the fame time to express thofe Virtues and Practices that made it fo Venerable among them. Since the Forms of Church Govern

ment muft appear amiable and valuable to the World, not fo much for the reasonings and arguments that learned Men use concerning them, as for the real advantages that mankind find from them. So that he determined with the great Nazianzen, To give Wings to his

Soul,

Soul, to refcue it wholly from the World, and to dedicate it to God: And not to think it enough to perform his duty in fuch a manner, as to pass through the reft of his life without reproach: For according to that Father, This was to weigh out Virtue by fmall weights; but in the Language of that Father he refolved to live, as one that had got above his fenfes, and all fenfible things, that was recollected within himself, and had attained to a familiarity with divine matters, that fo his mind might be as an unfullied Mirrour, upon which be might receive and reprefent the impresses of God and divine things, unallied with the Characters of lower objects. He faw he would fall under fome envy, and meet with great oppofitions, but he confidered that as a fort of martyrdom for God, and refolved cheerfully to undergo whatsoever uneafy things he might be forced to fuffer, in the difcharge of his conscience and duty.

In laying open his defigns and performances in this laft and greatest period of his Life, I have 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; fo that his opportunities of knowing him were as great as could be defired, and the Bifhop was of fo gentle a temper, and of fo communicative a nature, that he eafily opened himself to one, that was taken into his alliance as well as into his heart, he being indeed a Man of primi tive fimplicity. He found his Diocefs under

D

fo

fo many disorders, that there was scarce a found part remaining. The Revenue was wafted by exceffive dilapidations, and all facred things had been exposed to fale in fo fordid 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 neceffary to fhew the good things that were done by him. One of his Cathedrals, Ardagh, was fallen down to the ground, and there was fcarce enough remaining of both thefe Revenues to fupport a Bishop that was refolved not to fupply himfelf by indirect and bafe methods: He had a very fmall Clergy, but feven or eight in each Diocefs of good fufficiency; but every one of these was multiplied into many Parishes, they having many Vicarages a piece; but being English, and his whole Diocefs confifting of Irish, they were barbarians to them; nor could they perform any part of divine Offices among them. But the ftate of his Clergy will appear beft from a Letter that he writ to Archbishop Laud concerning it, which I shall here infert,

Right Reverend Father, my
honourable good Lord,

INCE my coming to this place, which was a little before Michaelmas, (till which time, the fettling of the state of the College, and my Lord Primate's Vifitation deferred my Confecration) I have not been unmindful of your Lordship's commands, to advertise you, as my expen