Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/402

 ATHERTON. the effect of a dream, or a device to give weight to her ar- guments with her brother, fhe actually went to Ireland, and declared to him what, (he faid, had been revealed to her* His anlwer was, " What mutt be, (hall be; marriage and woman, and went forward himfelf,, ftill mending his pace$ The ren]- but altering his path to perdition; for after this he fell into tcntD.ath he cornnjifl-ioii O f beiiialitv. At length, in the midft of his of a wce'ul, ' . . . c . . . sinner. foul career, the man who had been the corrupter of him in P. 27. &c. his vouth, and whom he had not feen in twenty years before, coining cafuaily to Ireland; the fight of him ftruck him with horror, as if fome ghoft had appeared to him : Atherton faid, his very heart mifgave him, and his confidence appre- hended him as a prefage or forerunner of a fpeedy vengeance. In f.itt, about three weeks after, a bill of complaint was pre- ferred againtt the bilhop in the parliament of Ireland, where- upon he was fuddenly feized, and ftritly imprifoned. His arraignment laiU'd long, and ended on the 27th of Novem- KT, 1640, with fentence of death [B]. After his condemna- tion, he was returned priloner again to the Caftle of Dub- lin; and Dr. Bernard the next day repaired to him, probably by direction from archbifhop Uftier, whofe chaplain he was. Atherton was allowed fevendays to fit himfelf for his difTolu- tiun. The doctor rirft advifed him to lay alide his rich
 * hanging go by deftiny." So he fent her back as a weak
 * h?, to kt the chamber be kept dark, to admit no com-

fntiy but luch as might come to give him fpiritual counfel, .;: J 10 to commit himfelf clofe prifoner to his thoughts; to eat infolitude, give himfelf to falling, even to the afflicting [B] " We have been informed by a 1710, Sec. This title has moved the Icmanof repute, who had long " fpleen of a late apologift in this caufe, " been in Waterford, as well as other " to miflead the world with a new- " parts of Ireland, and converfant with < f tangled Cafe of Bifhop Atherton j in '' m ny grave and iirc!ii:i;nt perlbns " which he ebjecls no untruth to that - ihru-, tVii-t he oticn hr.ird, there " title, but ch;dcs the editor for print- w.t s i favourite but unlmky mare, " ing that creature in capital letters." " by which the unwary bifliop got his Biogiaphia Brit. 'lydownf;,!. And how true it is, Dr. Bernard, by archbifhop Ufher's " we know not, but a tate rditor tf command, publifhed two difcourfes; ' }:. Dcrnard's bock on the bilhop has one intitled, ' The penitent Death <,f a - named in tl.c title-page another four- " woeful linner; or, the penitent l d.'.ied favourite, uith whom our " Death of John Atherton, executed at dainty couttier would in like manner " Dublin," &c. The other, " A Ca- - f. Lire; for;he title of that edition " veat to the Miniftry and People; or, ' runs thus, The Cafe of John Athtr- " a Sermon preached at the Funeral of l ton, Bifbop of Waterford, in Ireland, " the faid Prelate." They contain a 1 wt.u was convi&td of the bin <:t Un- very particular account of his behaviour ..ieis with a Cosv, and other from tije time of his receiving fentence ( ies, tor which l.e was hanged till his execution. u jl Duiiin, &c. primed in oftivo, tf