USHER. 



coiilidered tliein as lawful objetls of pillage, becaufe they 

 were Englifh. They were rudely treated and plundered ; 

 but a party of officers interpofed, and reflored as much of 

 the baggage as they could find. They then condufted the 

 travellers to the houfe of fir John Aubrey, where they were 

 lodged for the night. During his abode at St. Donat's, he 

 was feized with a diforder which had nearly proved fatal, and 

 which, indeed, occafioned a report of his death ; but he 

 afterwards flowly recovered, and continued in Wales nearly 

 a year and a half. Failing to fucceed in his attempt to crofs 

 the Channel, he accepted the invitation of the countcfs of 

 Peterborough to refide at her houfe in London, and arrived 

 thither in 1646. About this time there was an order of 

 parliament to pay him the fum of 400/. per annum ; but it 

 does not appear that this penfion was paid above once or 

 twice. Early in the year 1 647 he was elefted preacher to 

 the fociety of Lincoln's-lnn, and here he continued to en- 

 joy comfortable apartments, and to officiate for nearly eight 

 years. It is faid that his fermons were chiefly extempo- 

 raneous, and no trace of them remains. His literary la- 

 bours were continued. In the year 1648, when the king 

 was confined at Carifbrook caftle, in the Ifle of Wight, 

 Ufiier, and five others of the epifcopal clergy, were deputed 

 to vifit him, and to treat with him on the fubjecl of church- 

 government. The primate renewed his former propofition 

 of " Epifcopal and Prefcyterial Government conjoined :" 

 but the parliamentary commiflioners being determined upon 

 the total aboUtion of epifcopacy, the treaty terminated with- 

 out effeft. In a converfation which occurred between Bax- 

 ter and Ulher, it appears that the latter admitted the vali- 

 dity of prelbyterian ordination. " I aflced him," fays Bax- 

 ter, " his judgment about the vaHdity of prefbyters' or- 

 dination, which he afierted, and told me, that the king 

 a&e'd him at the Ifie of Wight, where ever he found in anti- 

 quity that prefbyters alone ordained any ? and that he an- 

 fwered, I can fliew your majefty more, eves where prefby- 

 ters alone fucceflively ordained bifliops ; and inftanced in 

 Hierom's words (Epift. ad Evagrium) of the prefbyters of 

 Alexandria choofing and making their own bifhops from the 

 days of Mark till Heraclius and Dionyfius." After this 

 interview with the king, Ufher faw him only once more, 

 on the fcaffold. The fight was fo affefting, that he 

 was obhged to withdraw ; and being overpowered by it, 

 he was led down from the leads of lady Peterborough's 

 houfe, at Charing-crofs, and laid upon his bed, where 

 abundant tears and prayers gave relief to the deep forrow 

 with which he was overwhelmed. His great chronological 

 work, entitled " Annales Veteris Teftamenti," was fo far 

 completed, that in 1650 he publifhed the firft part of it, and 

 the fecond part was printed in 1654. In 1652 he pubhfhed 

 his " Epiflola ad Lodovicum Capellum de Textus Hebraici 

 variantiljus leftionibus," in which he difplays varied and pro- 

 found erudition concerning the Greek Septuagint and the 

 Samaritan Pentateuch. It appears that Cromwell requefted 

 a conference with Ufher, and that the former promifed the 

 primate a leafe for twenty-one years of part of the lands be- 

 longing to the archbifhopric of Armagh, which he did not 

 refufe to accept ; but the grant was never pafTed during his 

 life, and after his death was refufed to his daughter and fon- 

 in-law on the pretext of " malignancy." On occafion of 

 the death of his old friend Selden, towards the clofe of the 

 year 1654, he delivered a funeral difcourfe at the Temple- 

 church before a fplendid and numerous audience ; and this 

 was the lafl of his public pulpit fervices. His work " De 

 Grseca Septuaginta Interpretum Verfione Syntagma, &c." 

 was printed in 1655. In an interview with the Proteftor, 

 whilft he was attended by a furgeon who drefTed a boil on 



his breaft, Cromwell faid, " If this core (pomting to the 

 boil) were once out, I Ihould quickly be weU." " I fear," 

 replied Ufher, " the core lies deeper ; there is a core at the 

 heart that muft be taken out, or elfe it will not be well." 

 " Ah \" rejoined the unhappy great man, " fo there is in- 

 deed !" pronouncing the words with a figh. At Ryegate, 

 whither the primate foon after retired, he employed himfelf 

 in the completion of his " Chronologia Sacra ;" and here he . 

 felt fymptoms of decay ; for in his almanac, oppofite to his 

 birth-day, in 1655-6, was found written the following note : 

 " Now aged feventy-five years : my days are full :" and after 

 a fmall interval, in capital letters, the word Resignation. 

 On the 20th of March he was attacked with a pleuritic in- 

 flammation, which occafioned acute pain, and indicated his 

 approaching end. Having taken refpeftful aud grateful 

 leave of his noble hoftefs, the countefs of Peterborough, he 

 withdrew, and requefted to be left to his private devotions. 

 The laft words he was heard to utter were, " O Lord, for- 

 give me ; efpecially my fins of omiffion I" and prefently 

 after expired, March 21, 1655-6, having completed his 

 75th year nearly three months. It was propofed to bury 

 him at Ryegate, in lady Peterborough's family vault ; but 

 Cromwell fent an order that his body fhould be brought for 

 burial in Weftminfter-abbey, with the ceremony of a pubhc 

 funeral. On the 17th of April his remains were met, near 

 London, by the carriages of moft perfons of rank then in 

 town ; and from Somerfet-houfe to the Abbey they were at- 

 tended in proceflion by all the clergy, and a great concourfe 

 of people. The funeral fermon was preached by Dr. Ni- 

 cholas Bernard, the primate's former chaplain, upon the 

 following appropriate text : " And Samuel died, and all 

 Ifrael were gathered together, and lamented him, and 

 buried him." 



Primate Ufher was in perfon moderately tall and well- 

 fhaped, with an ereft carriage to the laft ; of a fanguine 

 complexion, and features exprefling gravity and benevolence 

 combined. His conftitution was firm, and enabled him to 

 bear uninjured his early hours of ftudy, and the various fa- 

 tigues of a life both aftive and contemplative. His mode of 

 living was fimple ; his manners were free and affable, void of 

 all pomp and affectation ; his temper was remarkably fweet 

 and placable, though he could rebuke with feverity when 

 he thought the occafion required it. Among his numerous 

 eulogifts,no one, perhaps, has eftimated him more correftly 

 than bifhop Burnet, who, in his " Life of Bifhop Bedell," 

 mentions the primate in the following terms : 



" Together with his great and vaft learning, no man had a 

 better foul, and a more apoflohc mind. In his converfation 

 he exprefled the true fimplicity of a chriftian ; for pafGon, 

 pride, felf-will, or the love of the world, feemed not to be 

 fo much as in his nature ; fo that he had all the innocence of 

 the dove in him. He had a way of gaining people's hearts, 

 and of touching their confciences, that looked like fomewhat 

 of the apoftolic age revived. He fpent much of his time 

 in thofe two bcft exercifes, fecret prayer, and dealing with 

 other people's confciences, either in his fermons or private 

 difcourfes ; and what remained he dedicated to his ftudies, 

 in which thofe many volumes that came from him fhewed a 

 moft amazing diUgence and exaftnefs, joined with great 

 judgment ; fo that he was certainly one of the greateft and 

 beft men that the age, or perhaps the world, has produced. 

 But no man is entirely perfeft : he was not made for the 

 governing part of his funAion. He had too gentle a foul 

 to manage that rough work of reforming abufes, and there- 

 fore left things as he found them." 



Ulber, through life, feemed to have had gloomy fore- 

 bodings with regard to the return and temporary triumph of 



popery, 



