the king proposed to confer upon him the vacant bishopric of Carlisle, and as he had no disposition to settle in a foreign land, he gladly accepted that offer in preference to the others, although the revenues of the see seemed precarious according to the present aspect of affairs, and were so impoverished as to be inadequate to his maintenance without "some other helps," in consequence of the armies in the north being quartered upon the bishopric.

A few years after, when parliament. seized upon the bishop's lands, they made a show of generosity, by voting for his use an annual pension of four hundred pounds; but that payment was soon discontinued, and he probably did not receive it more than twice, if so often.*

In 1642 he resolved once more to withdraw himself from the tumults and heart-burnings of the metropolis, and to remove to his favourite residence at Oxford; and he found on his arrival that poverty did not make him

of

*The chief agent employed by parliament to dispose of the property of the See of Carlisle, was one Barker, of whom Walker relates the following particulars: he destroyed the woods, pillaged the castle of Rose, (the bishop's residence,) and carried off many the stones to build his own house and barn. But in the next generation Barker's name was clean put out; for he died soon after the restoration, and his son and posterity, together with the house and lands are in a manner quite vanished: that is, the latter out of the name, the former out of the country. About the year 1645, Mr. Lowther, who had been constable of the castle of Rose, with about twenty or thirty men, endeavoured to keep it for the rightful lord, but he was soon beaten out of it by a party of Colonel Hevingham's regiment, who burned down the best and greatest part of it; in which condition it remains, says Walker, unrepaired to this day. For this, and other good services of the same kind, Hevingham and some of the rest of the officers had the lands and revenues of the bishop, dean, and chapter, for their debentures.

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less welcome to his friends. Dr. Prideaux, the bishop of Worcester, lent him a house near Exeter college, at a very short distance from the Bodleian library, where he prosecuted his studies diligently, and prepared several works for the press.

The archbishop preached at one of the churches in Oxford every Sunday, and multitudes flocked to hear him. There was something remarkably simple and impressive in his sermons; he shunned that "windy affected sort of oratory, which was then much in use, called florid preaching, or strong lines ;" and, being gifted with a quickness of mind and ready command of language, he only wrote down the heads of the discourse, for which he had prepared himself by reflection, study, and prayer.

"I remember," says Dr. Parr, "that there was a person in the University, very much famed for that [florid] kind of preaching, who, after he had sometimes heard the lord primate's sermons, and observing how plain and yet moving they were, and being sufficiently satisfied that it was not for want of wit or learning that he did not do otherwise, he was soon convinced that his own was not the most ready way of gaining souls, and therefore, quitting his affected style and studied periods, took up a more plain and profitable way of preaching; so that, coming afterwards to visit the lord primate, he gave him many thanks, and told him that he had now learned of him how to preach, and, that since he had followed his example, he had found more satisfaction in his own conscience, and comfort in his ministry,. than ever he had before.

"And I remember one sermon above the rest, which he preached in Exeter college chapel, about that time, upon the text, Prov. xviii. 1. Through desire a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all

wisdom;-in which sermon he so lively and pathetically set forth the excellency of true wisdom, as well human as divine, and that desire which every ingenuous and virtuous soul ought to have for it, that it wrought so effectually upon the hearts of many of the younger students, that it rendered them more serious, and made them ply their studies much harder than before."

In the same year he was appointed to preach before the king, on his majesty's return to Oxford after the battle of Edgehill, and on other solemn occasions.

Some of his sermons preached at Oxford, were published, after his death, from notes taken by three clergymen, who acknowledged in the preface that they had derived great benefit from his ministry. "The 'persuasion of Armagh's incomparable learning," they say, "the observation of his awful gravity, the evidence of his eminent and exemplary piety, all improved to the height by his indefatigable industry, drew students to flock to him as doves to the windows. It joys us to recollect how multitudes of scholars, especially the heads of our tribes, thronged to hear the sound of his silver bells; how much they were taken with the voice of this wise charmer; how their ears seemed, as it were, fastened to his lips. Here you might have seen a sturdy Paul, a persecutor transformed into a preacher; there a tender-hearted Josiah lamenting after the Lord, and with Ephraim smiting on his thigh, saying, "What have I done!" Others with the penitent Jews so stabbed at the heart, as that they were forced to cry out in the bitterness of their soul, Men, brethren, fathers, what shall we do? These were some of the blessings from on high which attended these sermons.”

In the summer of 1643 the archbishop was nominated one of the Assembly of Divines, a body called together by Parliament to consult about the changes to be made

in the doctrine and discipline of the church. According to Dr. Parr, he neither recognised the lawfulness of their appointment, nor approved of the business upon which they met, and therefore "never troubled himself to go thither;" and upon this a complaint was made to the Commons, who voted him out of the assembly. But Walker's account is, that he " stooped so low as to appear among them for a little while; but after attending his majesty at Oxford and refusing to return, they did that great prelate justice, by honouring him, and scandalising themselves, with an expulsion from their assembly."

They soon after vented their indignation upon him. As he would not countenance their measures, so in his sermons at Oxford he objected to their rebellious proceedings; and they were so enraged, that "the committee which they appointed for delinquents' estates, (as they nicknamed those who now faithfully served their prince,) made an order for the seizure of a study of books of considerable value," which he had left at Chelsea college, waiting for the time when he might have some settled residence.

His library was accordingly seized, and about to be sold, when Dr. Featly, who was then in some favour with them, and one of the assembly, contrived, through the learned Selden, (who was a member of parliament, as also of the assembly,) to obtain those books for his own use, either as a gift, or for a sum of money. Thus he got them into his hands, and secured them for my lord primate's use, at least as many of them as were not embezzled or stolen away whilst they were in their custody; as, amongst other things, divers papers and collections of his own writing, with all his letters, either to or from his

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learned friends, which he had left behind him there, were then plundered."

Soon after this occurrence, the friendship which existed between archbishop Usher and Dr. Featly was the innocent cause of the greatest trouble to the latter. He was in doctrine a puritan, a favourer of the parliament on many questions, and a popular member of the assembly of divines; but withal a man of great moderation. He was too moderate to prosper in those times; and being taken before one of the committees of inquiry, that body was induced by false witnesses and frivolous charges to vote that he should be dispossessed of his living of Lambeth. The House of Commons, however, refused to confirm that decision; but soon after, it was discovered that he was a correspondent of our archbishop's, who was then with the king at Oxford. The House then resumed the inquiry, and, "for betraying the trust reposed in him and adhering to the enemy," he was expelled from the assembly, both his livings were sequestered, his library and estate seized, and he himself was committed to a common gaol, which in a short time brought him to his end. And to complete these oppressions, although he suffered these wrongs in consequence of his correspondence with archbishop Usher, yet the articles of accusation which the House had before set aside as frivolous and scandalous, were now read in his church at Lambeth as the ground of his sequestration.

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During his residence at Oxford, the archbishop prepared for publication several of his works, which were characterized by great learning and a diligent research into antiquity. He continued to uphold the episcopal form of church government as that most accordant with the primitive `model; and in this labour he had a partner