THe Author of the Life of this Excellent and Worthy Pri­mate and Arch▪Bishop, gives an Account, that among other extraordinary gifts and graces, which it pleased the Almighty to bestow upon him, he was wonderfully endued with a Spirit of Prophecy, whereby he gave out several true Predictions and pro­phesies of things a great while before they came to pass, whereof some we have seen fulfilled, and others remain yet to be accom­plished. And though he was one that abhor'd Enthusiastick No­tions, being too Learned, Rational, and knowing, to admit of such idle Freaks and Whimsies. Yet he prosest, ‘That several times in his life he had many things imprest upon his mind con­cerning future Events, with so much warmness and importunity, that he was not able to keep them secret, but lay under an un­avoidable necessity to make them known.’

From which Spirit he foretold the Irish Rebellion Forty years before it came to pass, with the very time when it should break forth, in a Sermon Preached in Dablin in 1601 where from Ezek. 4.6. discoursing concerning the Prophets bearing the Iniquity of Judah forty dayes, the Lord therein appointed a day for a year; he made this direct Application in Relation to the connivance at Po­pery at that time. From this year (sayes he) will I reckon the sin of Ireland, that those whom you now imbrace, shall be your Ruin, and you shall bear this Iniquity. Which prediction proved exactly true, for from that time 1601, to the year 1641, was just Forty years, in which it is notoriovsly known, that the Rebellion and Destructi­on of Ireland happened, which was acted by those Popish Priests and other Papists which were then connived at. And of this Ser­mon [Page 3] the Bishop reserved the Notes, and put a note thereof in the Margent of his Bible, and for 20 years before he still lived in the expectation of the fulfilling thereof, & the nearer the time was, the more confident he was that it was near accomplishment, though there was no visible appearance of any such thing; and (sayes Dr. Barnard) the year before the Rebellion broke forth, the Bishop taking his leave of me, being then going from Ireland to Eng­land, he advised me to a serious Preparation, for I should see heavy sorrows and miseries before I saw him again; which he de­livered with as great confidence, as if he had seen it with his eyes, which seems to verify that of the Prophet, Amos 3.7. Surely the Lord will do nothing but he will reveal it to his Servants the Prophets.

From this Spirit of Prophesie be foresaw the Changes and Mi­series of England in Church and State, for having in one of his Books, (called De Prim. Eccl. Brit.) given a large account of the destruction of the Church and State of the Brittaines by the Sax­ons, about 550 years after Christ: He gives this among other Reasons, why he insisted so largely upon it, that he foresaw that a like Judgement was yet behind, if timely Repentance and Refor­mation did not prevent it: and he would often Mourn upon the foresight of this long before it came.

From this Spirit he gave mournful intimations of the Death of our late Soveraign Charles the first, of whom he would be often speaking with fear and trembling, even when the King had the greatest success, and would therefore constantly pray, and gave all advice possible to prevent any such thing.

From this Spirit he foresaw his own Poverty in worldly things and this he would often speak of with admiration to the hearors, when he was in his greatest Prosperity, which the event did must certainly verifie.

From this Spirit he Predicted the Devisions and Confusions in England in matters of Religion, and the sad consequents thereof, some of which we have seen fulfill'd & I play God the rest which he feared may not also be accomplished upon us.

Lastly from this Spirit he foretold, That the greatest stroake upon the Reformed Churches was yet to come; and that the time of the utter Ruine of the See of Rome should be when she thought her self most secure: and as to this last, I shall add a brief acount from the Persons own hand who was concerned therein, which followeth in these words.

The year before this Learned and holy Primate And Bishop Vsher died, I went to him, and earnestly desired him, to give me in Writing his apprehensions concerning Justification and Sanctifi: cation by Christ, because I had formerly heard him Preach upon those Points, wherein he seemed to make those great Misteries more intelligible to my mean capacity, then any thing which I had ever heard from any other; but because I had but an imper­fect and confused Remembrance of the particulars, I tooke the boldness to importune him, that he would please to give a brief account of them in Writing, whereby I might the better imprint them in my Memory, of which he would willingly excused himself, by declaring his intentions of not writing any more, adding that if he did write any thing it should not exceed above a sheet or two; but upon my continued importunity, I at last obtained his promise.

He coming to Town some time after, was pleased to give me a visit at my own House, where I failed not to challenge the benefit of the promise he had made me; He replyed, That he had not writ, and yet he could not charge himself with any breach of Promise; For (said he) I did begin to write, but when I came to write of Sanctification, that is of the New Creature, which God formeth by his Spirit in every Soul which he doth truly Regenerate I found so little of it wrought in myself, that I could speak of it only as Parrots by Rote, and without the knowledge and understanding of what I might have exprest, and therefore I durst not presume to proceed any further upon it.

And when I seemed to stand amazed to hear such an humble Confession from so great and experienced a Christian, He added I must tell you, we do not well understand what Sanctification and the New [Page 5] Creature are; It is no less then for a man to be brought to in an [...] [...]sig­nation of his will to the will of God, and to live in the Offering up of his Soul continually in the flames of Love, as a whole burnt Offering to Christ and how little (says he) are many of those who profess Christianity expe­rimentally acquainted with this work on their Souls.

By this Discourse, I conceived he had very excellently and clear­ly discovered to me that part of Sanctification which he was un­willing to write.

I then presumed to enquire of him what his present apprehen­sions were concerning a very great Persecution which should fall upon the Church of God in these Nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland, of which this Reverend Primate had spoken with great confidence many years before, when we were in the highest and fullest state of outward Peace and Settlement. I asked him whe­ther he did believe those sad times to be past, or that they were yet to come, To which he answered, That they were yet to come and that he did as considently expect it, as ever be had done, adding, That this sail Persecution would sall upon all the Protestant Churches of Europe; I replyed, That I did hope it might have been past as to these Na­tions of ours, since I thought, that though we, who are the People thereof, have been punished much less than our sins have deserved, and that our late Wars had made far less devastations, then War commonly brings upon those Countries where it pleaseth God in Judgement to suffer it; yet we must needs acknowledge, that ma­ny great Houses had been Burnt, Ruined, and left without Inhabitants, many great Families impoverished and undone, and many thousand Lives also had been lost in that bloody War, and that Ireland and Scotland, as well as England, had drunk very deep of the Cup of Gods Anger, even to the overthrow of the Govern­ment, and the utter Desolation almost of a very great part of those Countries.

But this Holy man, turning to me, and fixing his Eyes upon me with that serious and ireful look which he usually had when he spake Gods word and not his own; and when the power of [Page 6] God seamed to be upon him and to constrain him to speak, [...] could easily discern much to differ from the countenance wherewith he usually spake to me; He said thus,

Fool not your self with such hopes, for I tell you, all you have yet seen, hath been but the beginning of sorrows to what is yet to come upon the Pro­testant Churches of Christ, who will ere long fall under a sharper Pers [...]cuti­on then ever yet has upon them; and therefore (said he to me) look you he not found in the Outward Court, but a worshipper in the Temple before the Altar, for Christ will measure all these that profess his Name & call them­selves his People and the Outward worshippers he will leave out, to be­ [...]rodden down by the Gentils. The Outward Court (sayes he) is the for­mal Christian, whose Religion lies in performing the outside duties of Christ stianity, without having on inward Life and Power of Faith, and Love uniting them to Christ, and 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 do indeed worship God in spirit and Truth, whose Souls are made his Temple, and he is Honoured and Adored in the most inward thou his of their hearts, and they Sacrifice their Lusts and vile affections, yea and their own wills to him; and these God will hide in the hollow of his Hand, and under the shadow of his wings, and this shall be one great difference between this last, and all the other preceding pers [...]cu­tions; For in the former, the most eminent and spiritual. Ministers and Christians did generally suffer most, and were most violently fallen upon, but in this fast Persecution, these shall he preserved by God as a Se [...]d to partake of that Glory which shall immediately follow and come upon the Church, as s [...]on as ever this storm shall be over; for as it shall be the sharp­est, so it shall be the shortest Persecution of them all; and shall only take away the th [...] gross Hypocrites and [...]ormal Professors, but the true Spi­ritual Believers shall be preser [...]d [...]ill the Calamity be over past.

I then asked him by what means or Instruments this great Try­al should be brought on, He answered B [...] the Papists, I replyed, that it seemed to me very improbable they should be able to do it, since they were now little countenanced, and but few in these Na­tions, [Page 7] and that the hearts of [...] People were more [...]et against them then ever since the Reformation. He answered again, That it would be by the hands of Papists, and in the way of a sudden Mas­sacree; 'and that the then Pope should be the chief Instrument of of it.

All this he Spake with so great Assurance, and with the same serious and concerned Countenance, which I have before observed him to have, when I have heard him foretell some things which in all humane appearance were very unlikely to come to pass, which yet my sell have lived to see happen according to his Pre­diction, and this made me give the more earnest attention to what he then uttered.

He then added, ‘That the Papists were in his Opinion the Gentiles spoken of in the 11th of the Revelations, to whom the Outward Court should be left, that they might tread it under­foot; They having received the Gentiles worship in their adore­ing Images, and Saints departed, & in taking to themselves many Mediators; And this (Said he) the Papists are now designing among themselves, and therefore be sure you be ready.’

This was the Substance, and I think (for the greatest part) the very same words which this Holy man spake to me at the time before mentioned not long before his death, and which I writ down, that so great and noble a Prediction might not be lost and forgotten by my self nor others.

This gratious Man repeated the same things in Substance to his only daughter the Lady [...] and that with many tears, and much about the same time that he had exprest what is aforesaid to me, & which the Lady Tyrril assured me of with her own mouth, to this purpose.

That opening the Dore of his Chamber, She found him with his Eyes lift up to Heaven, and the tears running a pace down his Checks, and that he s [...]emed to be in an Ex [...]asie, wherein he con­tinued for about half an hour, not taking the least notice of her, [Page 8] though she came into the Room, but at last turning to her, he told her, That his thoughts had been taken up about the Miseries and Persecutions that were coming upon the Churches of Christ, which would be so sharp and bitter, that the contemplation of them had fetched those Tears from his Eyes, and that he hoped he should not live to see it but possibly she might, for it was even at the door, Therefore take head (sayes he) that you he not found sleeping.

The same things he also Repeated to the Lady Basse, Wife to the present Lord Chief Baron of Ireland, but with adding this cir­cumstance, That if they brought back the King, it might be de­layed a little longer, but (said he) It will surely come; therefore be sure to look that you he not found unprepared for it.

To conclude in the words of Dr. Barnard, speaking of this Ex­cellēt Person, ‘Now howsoever I am as far from heeding of Pro­phesies this way as any, yet with me it is not Improbable, tha [...] so great a Prophet, so sanctified from his youth, so knowing and eminent throughout the Universal Church, might have at some special times more then Ordinary Motions and Impulses in doing the watch-mans part, of giving warnining of Judgements ap­proaching.’