fall to challenge not only the infallibility but which were more dangerous the Authority of their Judge If it be thought better to leave scope to Opinions opposition it self profitably serving to the boulting out of the Truth If Unity in all things be as it seems despaired of by this your Gellius himself why are we not content with Vnity in things necessary to Salvation expresly set down in Holy Scripture And anciently thought to suffice reserving Infallibility as an honour proper to God speaking there Why should it not be thought to suffice that every Man having imbraced that necessary Truth which is the Rule of our Faith thereby try the Spirits whether they be of God or no. If he meet with any that hath not that Doctrine receive him not to House nor salute him If consenting to that but otherwise infirm or erring yet charitably bear with him This for every private Man As for the publick order and peace of the Church God hath given Pastors and Teachers that we should not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine and amongst them appointed Bishops to command that Men teach no other or foreign Doctrine which was the end of Timothy his leaving at Ephesus 1 Tim. 1.3 Then the Apostles themselves by their example have commended to the Church the wholesome use of Synods to determine of such controversies as cannot by the former means be composed but still by the Holy Scriptures the Law or Rule as you say well by which all these Iudges must proceed Which if they do not then may they be deceived themselves and deceive others as experience hath shewed yet never be able to extinguish the truth To come to Antiquity There is not any one thing belonging to Christian Religion if we consider well of more importance than how the purity of the whole may be maintained The Ancients that write of the rest of Christian Doctrine is it not a miracle had they known any such infallible Judge in whose Oracle the security of all with the perpetual tranquillity of the Church is contained they should say nothing of him There was never any Age wherein there have not been Heresies and Sects to which of them was it ever objected that they had no infallible Judge How soon would they have sought to amend that defect if it had been a currant Doctrine in those times that the true Church cannot be without such an Officer The Fathers that dealt with them why did they not lay aside all disputing and appeal them only to this Barr Unless perhaps that were the lett which Cardinal Bellarmine tells the Venetians hindred S. Paul from appealing to S. Peter Lest they should have made their Adversaries to laugh at them for their labour Well howsoever the Cardinal hath found out a merry reason for S. Paul's appealing to Caesars Judgment not Peter's lest he should expose himself to the laughter of Pagans what shall we say when the Fathers write professedly to instruct Catholick Men of the forepleadings and advantages to be used against Hereticks even without descending to tryal by Scriptures or of some certain general and ordinary way to discern the Truth of the Catholick Faith from the prophane novelties of Heresies Had they known of this infallible Judge should we not have heard of him in this so proper a place and as it were in a cause belonging to his own Court Nay doth not the writing it self of such Books shew that this matter was wholly unknown to Antiquity For had the Church been in possession of so easie and sure a course to discover and discard heresies they should not have needded to task themselves to find out any other But the truth is infallibility is and ever hath been accounted proper to Christs judgment And as hath been said all necessary Truth to Salvation he hath delivered us in his Word That Word himself tells us shall judge at the last day Yea in all true decisions of Faith that word even now judgeth Christ judgeth the Apostle sits Iudge Christ speaks in the Apostle Thus Antiquity Neither are they moved a whit with that Objection That the Scriptures are often the matter of Controversies For in that case the remedy was easie which S. Augustine shews to have recourse to the plain places and manifest such as should need no interpreter for such there be by which the other may be cleared The same may be said if sometimes it be questioned Which be Scriptures which not I think it was never heard of in the Church that there was an external infallible Judge who could determine that question Arguments may be brought from the consent or dissent with other Scriptures from the attestation of Antiquity and inherent signs of Divine Authority or humane infirmity but if the Auditor or Adversary yield not to these such parts of necessity must needs be laid aside If all Scripture be denied which is as it were exceptio in judicem ante litis contestationem Faith hath no place only reason remains To which I think it will scarce seem reasonable if you should say Though all Men are lyers yet this Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in conscience to obey and yield thy understanding in all his Determinations for he cannot err No not if all Men in the World should say it Unless you first set down there is a God and stablish the authority of the Books of Holy Scripture as his voice and thence shew if you can the warrant of this priviledge Where you affirm The Scriptures to be the Law and the Rule but alone of themselves cannot be Iudges If you mean without being produced applied and heard you say truth Yet Nicodemus spake not amiss when he demanded Doth our Law judge any Man unless it hear him first he meant the same which S. Paul when he said of the High Priest thou sittest to judge me according to the Law and so do we when we say the same Neither do we send you to Angels or God himself immediately but speaking by his Spirit in the Scriptures and as I have right now said alledged and by discourse applyed to the matters in question As for Princes since it pleased you to make an excursion to them if we should make them infallible Judges or give them Authority to decree in Religion as they list as Gardiner did to King Henry the Eight it might well be condemned for monstrous as it was by Calvin As for the purpose Licere Regi interdicere populo usum calicis in Coena Quare Potestas n. summa est penes Regem quoth Gardiner This was to make the King as absolute a Tyrant in the Church as the Pope claimed to be But that Princes which obey the truth have commandment from God to command good things and forbid evil not only in matters pertaining to humane society but also the Religion of God This is no new strange Doctrine but Calvins and
ours and S. Augustines in so many words And this is all the Headship of the Church we give to Kings Whereof a Queen is as well capable as a King since it is an act of Authority not Ecclesiastical Ministery proceeding from eminency of power not of knowledge or holiness Wherein not only a learned King as ours is but a good old Woman as Queen Elizabeth besides her Princely dignity was may excel as your selves confess your infallible Judge himself But in power he saith he is above all which not to examine for the present in this Power Princes are above all their Subjects I trow and S. Augustine saith plainly to command and forbid even in the Religion of God still according to Gods Word which is the touchstone of Good and Evil. Neither was King Henry the Eight the first Prince that exercised this power witness David and Solomon and the rest of the Kings of Iudah before Christ. And since that Kings were Christians The affairs of the Church have depended upon them and the greatest Synods have been by their Decree as Socrates expresly saith Nor did King Henry claim any new thing in this Land but restored to the Crown the ancient right thereof which sundry his Predecessors had exercised as our Historians and Lawyers with one consent affirm The rest of your induction of Archbishops Bishops and whole Clergy in their Convocation-House and a Council of all Lutherans Calvinists Protestants c. is but a needless pomp of words striving to win by a form of discourse that which gladly shall be yielded at the first demand They might all err if they were as many as the Sand on the Sea Shoar if they did not rightly apply the Rule of Holy Scriptures by which as you acknowledge the external Iudge which you seek must proceed As to your demand therefore how you should be sure when and wherein they did and did not err where you should have fixed your foot to forbear to skirmish with your confirmation That though à posse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquando valet frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam ducitur in actum To the former whereof I might tell you that without question nunquam valet And to the second that I can very well allow that errandi potentia among Protestants be ever frustra This I say freely That if you come with this resolution to learn nothing by discourse or evidence of Scripture but only by the meer pronouncing of a humane external Judge's Mouth to whom you would yield your understanding in all his determinations If as the Jesuites teach their Scholars you will wholly deny your own judgment and resolve that if this Iudge shall say that is black which appears to your Eyes white you will say it is black too you have posed all the Protestants they cannot tell how to teach you infallibly Withal I must tell you thus much that this preparation of mind in a Scholar as you are in a Minister yea in a Christian that had but learned his Creed much more that had from a Child known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make us wise to salvation through the Faith that is in Christ Iesus were too great weakness and to use the Apostles Phrase childishness of understanding But at length you heard a sound of Harmony and Consent that in the Catholick Church as in Noah 's Ark was infallibility and possibility of salvation which occasioned you to seek out and to enter into this Ark of Noah The sound of Consent and Infallibility is most pleasing and harmonious and undoubtedly ever and only to be found in the Catholick Church to wit in the Rule of Faith and in the Holy Scriptures and such necessary Doctrine as perfectly concordeth with the same But as in Song many discords do pass in smaller Notes without offence of the Ears so should they in smaller matters of Opinion in the Church without the offence of judicious and charitable minds Which yet I speak not to justifie them nay I am verily of the mind That this is the thing that hath marred the Church Musick in both kinds that too much liberty is taken in descant to depart from the Ground and as one saith notae nimium denigrantur The fault of the Italians though they think themselves the only Songsters in the World But to return to you tell me I beseech you good Mr. Waddesworth was this the Harmony that transported you The Pope himself saith I cannot err and to me thou oughtest to have recourse for decision of doubts in matters of Faith And whereas this is not only denyed by Protestants but hath been ever by the French and anciently I am sure by the Spanish lately by some Italian Divines also unless he use due means to find the truth yea whereas it is the issue of all the Controversies of this age in this snare you fastened your Foot This was the Center that settled your Conscience this the solid and firm foundation of your Faith What and did it not move you that some limit this infallibility of the Pope thus If he enter Canonically if he proceed advisedly and maturely using that diligence that is fit to find out the Truth that is as you said before proceeding by the Rule the Scriptures Albeit to the Fathers of the African Council it seemed incredible as they write in their Synodal Epistle to P. Coelestine standing for Appeals to himself that God can inspire the right in tryal to one denying it to many Bishops in a Council Tell us then who made you secure of these things or did you in truth never so much as make question of them but hearing this harmonious sound The Pope is the Infallible Iudge you trusted the new Masters of that side Gregory de Valentia and Bellarmine that whether the Pope in defining do use diligence or no if he do define he shall define infallibly Alas Sir if this were the rest you found for the soale of your Foot instead of moveable Water you fell upon mire and puddle Or rather like to another Dove mentioned in Scripture columba seducta non habens Cor by the most chaffy shrap that ever was set before the Eyes of winged Fowl were brought to the door-fal Excuse my grief mixed I confess with some indignation but more love to you though I thus write Many things there be in Popery inconvenient and to my conceit weakly and ungroundedly affirmed to say no more but this is so absurd and palpable a flattery as to omit to speak of you for my part I cannot be perswaded that Paulus the Fifth believes it himself For consider I pray what needed anciently the Christian Emperours and sometimes at the request of the Bishops of Rome themselves to have gathered together so many Bishops from so divers parts of the World to celebrate Councils if it had been known and believed then that one Mans Sentence
of the Woman shall crush his head The vulgar Edition leaving here the Hebrew the Seventy and Saint Hierome himself as appears by his questions upon Genesis translates Ipsa She shall bruise thy head So it stands now in the authentical Scripture of the Church of Rome and herein Sixtus and Clemens are of accord The Divines of Lovaine observe that two Manuscript Copies have Ipse That the Hebrew Chaldee and Greek have it so likewise Why then did not either Sixtus or Clemens or they themselves having Copies for it correct it and make it so in the authentical Text I will tell you by colour of this corruption the Devil envying Christs glory like an obstinate enemy rather yielding himself to any than his true Conqueror hath given this honour to the Virgin Mary To her it is attributed in that work which I think to be the most ungodly and blasphemous that ever saw the Sun The Ladies Psalter wherein that which is spoken of God by the Spirit of God is writhed to her In the 51. Psalm Quid gloriaris in malitia ô maligne Serpens e. Why boastest thou in malice ô thou malignant Serpent and infernal Dragon Submit thy head to the Woman by whose valour thou shalt be drowned in the deep Crush him ô Lady with the foot of thy valour arise and scatter his malice c. And in the 52. speaking to the same Serpent Noli extolli c. Be not lifted up for the fall of the Woman for a Woman shall crush thy head c So that in that Anthem Haec est mulier virtutis quae contrivit caput Serpentis Yea which I write with gief and shame to her doth good Bernard apply it Hom. 2. Super Missus est and which is more strange expounds it not of her bearing our Saviour but Ipsa proculdubio c. She doubtless crushed that poisonfull head which brought to naught all manner of suggestion of that wicked one both of temptation of the flesh and of pride of mind To her doth the learned and devout Chancellor of Paris apply it Has pestes universas dicimus membra Serpentis antiqui cujus caput ipsa virgo contrivit And what marvel in those times when the plain Text of the Scripture ran so in the feminine gender of a woman and few or none had any skill of the Greek or Hebrew Who should that SHEE be but she that is blessed among women Now although that thanks be to God it is known that this is a corrupt place out of the Fountains yea out of the Rivers also the testimonies of the Fathers referring this to Christ as Irenaeus Iustine Cyprian Clemens Alexandrinus Hierome yea Pope Leo himself yet because no error of the Church of Rome may be acknowledged how palpable soever they have cast how to shadow this corruption and set some colour upon it that howsoever this reading cannot be true yet it may be made like to truth Lo in the Interlinear-Bible set forth by the authority of King Philip the father of his Majesty that now Reigns with you the Hebrew Text is reformed according to the Latine IPSA There was some opportunity hereunto by reason that the Letters of the Text without pricks would bear both readings For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hu or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hiu And this self-same word for the Letters the base of reading is so pointed in this Chapter verse 19. and applyed to Eve She is the mother of all living And so elsewhere as Gen. 28.1 and 21. Hereunto perhaps was added that the pricks are a late invention of the Rabbines as many think and no part of the Hebrew Text. And that not only Leo Castro and such as accuse the present Hebrew Copies as faâ—sified but those that defend them also do many of them confess Hereupon it was resolved as it seems to point this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hiu For it was not by mistaking but purposely done Franciscus Lucas in his Annotations upon the place doth assure us and saith it was Guido Fabricius his deed And indeed other things there be in that work which savour not of the learning and integrity of Arias Montanus as for example the Etymologie of Missa from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as Boldness is not always as provident as Ignorance or Malice is bold these Correctors marked not that the gender of the Verb and the affix of the Noun following are both Masculine So although the Orthographie would be framed to consent yet the Syntax doth crie out against this Sacriledge And yet our Rhemists as I am informed in their lately set-forth Bible with a long note upon this place defend the applying of this Text to the blessed Virgin and the old reading Ipsa What should a man say Necessity makes men desperate and as the Apostle saith Evil men and deceivers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived These be frauds indeed in the strictest sense wilfully corrupting the Texts of good Authors wilfully maintaining them so corrupted not abstaining from the holy Scriptures themselves For as to that other kind depraving the sense retaining the words it were endless to cite examples Bellarmine alone as I believe passeth any two Protestants that ever set pen to paper perhaps all of them put together CHAP. VII Of the Armies of evident Witnesses for the Romanists WHere you add That you found the Catholicks had far greater and better Armies of evident Witnesses than the Protestants it might perhaps seem so to you as your mind was prepared when you had met with such cunning Muster-Masters as the Romanists are Who sometimes bring into the Field to make their number seem more after the old stratagem of War a sort of Pages and Lackies unworthy to hold any rank in the Host of God under the names of the Fathers Sometimes to confirm their part give out a Voice confidently that all the Forces which they see aloof in the Field are on their side whereas when it comes to the Battle they shall find that they will turn their Arms against them Sometimes they change the Quarrel it self in which case how easie is it to bring Armies as you say into the Field to fight against No-body and evident Witnesses to prove that which no Man denies For the purpose that the Bishop of Rome hath had a primacy of Honour and Authority when as the question is about a Monarchy and infallible Judgment an uncontrolable Jurisdiction Herein if you please see how Bellarmine alledges the Fathers Greek and Latine in the 15. and 16. Chapters of his First Book de Summo Pontifice So for proof of the verity of Christs Body and Blood in the Lords Supper he spends a whole Book only in citing the Testimonies of the Fathers To what purpose When the question is not of the truth of the Presence but of the manner whether it be to the Teeth and Belly
had without paying for it or be lyable to a Suit in the Prerogative Court He knew the Archbishop's power over Bishops was not founded on Divine or Apostolical right but on Ecclesiastical Canons and Practice and that it was only a matter of Order and that therefore the Archbishop had no Authority to come and invade his Pastoral Office and suspend him for a Year These were some of the worst of the abuses that the Canonists had introduced in the later Ages by which they had broken the Episcopal Authority and had made way for vesting the whole power of the Church in the Pope He laid those things often before Archbishop Vsher and prest him earnestly to set himself to the reforming them since they were acted in his name and by vertue of his Authority deputed to his Chancellour and to the other Officers of the Court called the Spiritual Court No Man was more sensible of those abuses than Vsher was no Man knew the beginning and progress of them better nor was more touched with the ill effects of them and together with his great and vast learning no Man had a better Soul and a more Apostolical mind In his conversation he expressed the true simplicity of a Christian For Passion Pride self-Will or the Love of the World seemed not to be so much as in his Nature So that he had all the innocence of the Dove in him He had a way of gaining peoples Hearts and of touching their Consciences that lookt like â—omewhat of the Apostolical Age revived he spent much of his time in those two best Exercises secret Prayer and dealing with other peoples Consciences either in his Sermons or private Discourses and what remained he dedicated to his Studies in which those many Volumes that came from him shewed a most amazing diligence and exactness joyned with great Judgment So that he was certainly one of the greatest and best Men that the Age or perhaps the World has produced But no Man is intirely perfect he was not made for the governing part of his Function He had too gentle a Soul to manage that rough Work of reforming Abuses And therefore he left things as he found them He hoped a time of Reformation would come He saw the necessity of cutting off many abuses and confessed that the tolerating those abominable corruptions that the Canonists had brought in was such a stain upon a Church that in all other respects was the best reformed in the World that he apprehended it would bring a Curse and Ruine upon the whole Constitution But though he prayed for a more favourable conjuncture and would have concurred in a joynt Reformation of these things very heartily yet he did not bestir himself suitably to the Obligations that lay on him for carrying it on And it is very likely that this sat heavy on his thoughts when he came to dye for he prayed often and with great humility That God would forgive him his sins of Omission and his failings in his Duty It was not without great uneasiness to me that I overcome my self so far as to say any thing that may seem to diminish the Character of so extraordinary a Man who in other things was beyond any Man of his time but in this only he fell beneath himself And those that upon all other accounts loved and admired him lamented this defect in him which was the only allay that seemed left and without which he would have been held perhaps in more veneration than was fitting His Physician Dr. Bootius that was a Dutchman said truly of him If our Primate of Armagh were as exact a Disciplinarian as he is eminent in searching Antiquity defending the Truth and preaching the Gospel he might without doubt deserve to be made the chief Churchman of Christendome But this was necessary to be told since History is to be writ impartially and I ought to be forgiven for taxing his Memory a little for I was never so tempted in any thing that I ever writ to disguise the Truth as upon this occasion Yet though Bishop Vsher did not much himself he had a singular esteem for that vigour of Mind which our Bishop expressed in the reforming these matters And now I come to the next instance of his Pastoral care which made more noise and met with more opposition than any of the former He found his Court that sat in his name was an entire abuse It was managed by a Chancellour that had bought his place from his Predecessor and so thought he had a right to all the Profits that he could raise out of it and the whole business of the Court seemed to be nothing but Extortion and Oppression For it is an old observation That men who buy Justice will also sell it Bribes went about almost barefaced and the exchange they made of Penance for Money was the worst sort of Simony being in effect the very same abuse that gave the World such a scandal when it was so indecently practised in the Church of Rome and opened the way to the Reformation For the selling of Indulgences is really but a commutation of Penance He found the Officers of the Court made it their business to draw people into trouble by vexatious Suits and to hold them so long in it that for three Pence worth of the Tithe of Turf they would be put to five Pounds charge And the solemnest and sacredest of all the Church Censures which was Excommunication went about in so sordid and base a manner that all regard to it as it was a Spiritual Censure was lost and the effects it had in Law made it be cryed out on as a most intolerable piece of Tyranny The Officers of the Court thought they had a sort of right to oppress the Natives and that all was well got that was wrung from them And of all this the good Primate was so sensible that he gives this sad account of the Venality of all sacred things in a Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury As for the general state of things here they are so desperate that I am afraid to write any thing thereof Some of the adverse part have asked me the Qâ—estion Where I have heard or read before that Religion and Mens Souls should be set to sale after this manner Vnto whom I could reply nothing but that I had read in Mantuan That there was another place in the World where Coelum est venale Deúsque Both Heaven and God himself are set to sale But our Bishop thought it not enough to lament this he resolved to do what in him lay to correct these abuses and to goe and sit and judge in his own Courts himself He carried a competent number of his Clergy with him who sate about him and there he heard Causes and by their advice he gave Sentence By this means so many Causes were dismist and such a change was wrought in the whole Proceedings of the Court that instead of being any
if an unmeasured ambition had not much defaced his other great abilities and excellent qualities The old degraded Bishop Adair was quickly restored to another Bishoprick which came to be vacant upon a dismal account which I would gladly pass over if I could for the thing is but too well known One Adderton Bishop of Waterford who as was believed had by a Symoniacal compact pâ—ocured such favour that he was recommended to that Bishoprick and had covered his own unworthiness as all wicked Men are apt to do by seeming very zealous in every thing that is acceptable to those who govern and had been in particular very severe on Bishop Adair came to be accused and convicted of a crime not to be named that God punished with fire from Heaven and suffered publickly for it He expressed so great a repentance that Dr. Bernard who preached his funeral Sermon and had waited on him in his Imprisonment had a very charitable opinion of the state in which he dyed Upon this Adair's Case was so represented to the King that he was provided with that Bishoprick From which it may appear That he was not censured so much for any guilt as to strike a terrour in all that might express the least kindness to the Scotch Covenanters But our Bishop thought the degrading of a Bishop was too sacred a thing to be done meerly upon politick Considerations Bishop Bedell was exactly conformable to the Forms and Rules of the Church he went constantly to Common Prayer in his Cathedral and often read it himself and assisted in it always with great reverence and affection He took care to have the Publick Service performed strictly according to the Rubrick so that a Curate of another Parish being imployed to read Prayers in the Cathedral that added somewhat to the Collects the Bishop observing he did this once or twice went from his place to the Reader 's Pew and took the book out of his Hand and in the hearing of the Congregation suspended him for his presumption and read the rest of the Office himself He preached constantly twice a Sunday in his Cathedral on the Epistles and Gospels for the Day and catechised alwayes in the Afternoon before Sermon and he preached always twice a Year before the Judges when they made the Circuit His Voice was low and mournful but as his matter was excellent so there was a gravity in his looks and behaviour that struck his Auditors He observed the Rubrick so nicely that he would do nothing but according to it so that in the reading the Psalms and the Anthems he did not observe the common custome of the Minister and the People reading the Verses by turns for he read all himself because the other was not enjoyned by the Rubrick As for the placing of the Communion Table by the East wall and the bowing to it he never would depart from the Rule of observing the Conformity prescribed by Law for he said That they were as much Nonconformists who added of their own as they that came short of what was enjoyned as he that adds an Inch to a measure disowns it for a Rule as much as he that cuts an Inch from it and as he was severe to him that added Words of his own to the Collect so he thought it was no less censurable to add Rites to those that were prescribed When he came within the Church it appeared in the composedness of his behaviour that he observed the Rule given by the Preacher of Keeping his Feet when he went into the House of God but he was not to be wrought on by the greatness of any Man or by the Authority of any persons example to go out of his own way though he could not but know that such things were then much observed and measures were taken of Men by these little distinctions in which it was thought that the zeal of Conformity discovered it self There is so full an account of the tenderness with which he advised all Men but Churchmen in particular to treat those that differed from them in a Sermon that he preached on those Words of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and lowly that I am assured the Reader will well bear with the length of it It was preached soon after some heats that had been in the House of Commons in the Parliament of Ireland in which there were many Papists and in it the sense he had of the way of treating all differences in Religion whether great or small is so well laid down that I hope it will be looked on as no ordinary nor useless piece of Instruction IS it not a shame that our two Bodies the Church and Commonwealth should exercise mortal hatreds or immortal rather and being so near in place should be so far asunder in affection it will be said by each that other are in fault and perhaps it may truly be â—aid that both are the one in that they cannot endure with patience the lawful superiority of the worthier Body the other in that they take no care so to govern that the governed may find it to be for their best behoof to obey until which time it will never be but there will be repining and troubles and brangles between us This will be done in my Opinion not by bolstering out and maintaining the errours and unruliness of the lower Officers or Members of our body but by severely punishing them and on both sides must be avoided such Men for Magistrates and Ministers as seek to dash us one against another all they may And would to God this were all but is it not a shame of shames that Mens emulations and contentions cannot stay themselves in matters of this sort but the holy profession of Divinity is made fuel to a publick fire and that when we had well hoped all had been either quenched or raked up it should afresh be kindled and blown up with bitter and biting Words God help us we had need to attend to this Lesson of Christ Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart or to that of the Apostle It behoves the servant of God not to contend but to be meek towards all instructing with lenity those that be contrary affected waiting if at any time God will give them a better mind to see the truth 2 Tim. 2.25 And here give me leave R. W. and beloved Brethren and Sisters to speak freely my mind unto you I know right well that I shall incur the reproof of divers yet I will never the more for that spare to utter my Conscience I hope wise Men will assent or shew me better For my part I have been long of this mind that many in their Sermons and Writings are to blame for their manner of dealing with the adversaries of their Opinions when they give Reins to their Tongues and Pens to railing and reproachful Speeches and think they have done well when they exceed or equal them in this Trade wherein to
will persist in them And yet further if there be any doubt he must manifest unto me which is the Catholick Church Thirdly to make it full Apostasie he should have convinced me to have swarved and backslidden as you know the Greek Word signifies like Iulian renouncing his Baptism and forsaken totally all Christian Religion a horrible imputation though false nor so easily proved as declaimed But I thank God daily that I am become Catholick as all our Ancestors were till of late years and as the most of Christendome still be at this present day with whom I had rather be miscalled a Papist a Traytor an Apostata or Idolater or what he will than to remain a Protestant with him still For in Protestant Religion I could never find Uniformity of a settled Faith and so no quietness of Conscience especially for three or four years before my coming away although by reading studying praying and conferring I did most carefully and diligently labour to find it among them But your contrariety of Sects and Opinions of Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists â—rotestants Puritans Cartwrightists and Brownists some of them damning each other many of them avouching their Positions to be matters of Faith for if they made them but School Questions of Opinion only they should not so much have disquieted me and all these being so contrary yet every one pretending Scriptures and arrogating the Holy Ghost in his favour And above all which did most of all trouble me about the deciding of these and all other Controversies which might arise I could not find among all these Sects any certain humane external Iudge so infallibly to interpret Scriptures and by them and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost so undoubtedly to define questions of Faith that I could assure my self and my Soul This Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in Conscience to obey and yield thy understanding in all his determinations of Faith for he cannot erre in those Points And note that I speak now of an external humane infallible Iudge For I know the Holy Ghost is the Divine internal and principal Iudge and the Scriptures be the Law or Rule by which that humane external Judge must proceed But the Holy Scriptures being often the Matter of Controversie and sometime questioned which be Scriptures and which be not they alone of themselves cannot be Judges And for the Holy Ghost likewise every one pretending him to be his Patron how should I certainly know by whom he speaketh or not For to Men we must go to learn and not to Angels nor to God himself immediately The Head of your Church was the Queen an excellent notable Prince but a Woman not to speak much less to be Iudge in the Church and since a learned King like King Henry the Eighth who was the first temporal Prince that ever made himself Ex Regio jure Head of the Church in Spiritual matters a new strange Doctrine and therefore justly condemned by Calvin for monstrous But suppose he were such a Head yet you all confess that he may erre in matters of Faith And so you acknowledge may your Archbishops and Bishops and your whole Clergy in their Convocation-House even making Articles and Decrees yea though a Council of all your Lutherans Calvinists Protestants c. of Germany France England c. were all joyned together and should agree all which they never will do to compound and determine the differences among themselves yet by the ordinary Doctrine of most Protestants they might in such a Council err and it were possible in their Decrees to be deceived But if they may err how should I know and be sure when and wherein they did or did not err for though on the one side Aposse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquanâ—o valet and on the other side frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam ducitur in actum So that if neither in general nor in particular in publick nor private in Head nor Members joyntly nor severally you have no visible external humane infallible Iudge who cannot err and to whom I might have recourse for decision of doubts in matters of Faith I pray let Mr. Hall tell me Where should I have fixed my foot for God is my Witness my Soul was like Noah's Dove a long time hovering and desirous to discover Land but seeing nothing but moveable and troublesome deceivable Water I could find no quiet center for my Conscience nor any firm Foundation for my Faith in Protestant Religion Wherefore hearing a sound of Harmony and Consent That the Catholick Church could not err and that only in the Catholick Church as in Noah's Ark was infallibility and possibility of salvation I was so occasioned and I think had important reason like Noah's Dove to seek out and to enter into this Ark of Noah Hereupon I was occasioned to doubt Whether the Church of England were the true Church or not For by consent of all the true Church cannot err but the Church of England Head and Members King Clergy and People as before is said yea a whole Council of Protestants by their own grant may err ergo no true Church If no true Church no salvation in it therefore come out of it but that I was loth to do Rather I laboured mightily to defend it both against the Puritans and against the Catholicks But the best Arguments I could use against the Puritans from the Authority of the Church and of the ancient Doctors interpreting Scriptures against them when they could not answer them they would reject them for Popish and flye to their own arrogant spirit by which forsooth they must control others This I found on the one side most absurd and to breed an Anarchy of confusion and yet when I came to answer the Catholick Arguments on the other side against Protestants urging the like Authority and Vniformity of the Church I perceived the most Protestants did frame evasions in effect like those of the Puritans inclining to their private Spirit and other uncertainties Next therefore I applyed my self to follow their Opinion who would make the Church of England and the Church of Rome still to be all one in essental Points and the differences to be accidential confessing the Church of Rome to be a true Church though sick or corrupted and the Protestants to be derived from it and reformed and to this end I laboured much to reconcile most of our particular controversies But in truth I found such contrarieties not only between Catholicks and Protestants but even among Protestants themselves that I could never settle my self fully in this Opinion of some reconciliation which I know many great Scholars in England did favour For considering so many opposite great Points for which they did excommunicate and put to death each other and making the Pope to be Antichrist proper or improper it could never sink into my Brain how these two could be descendent or Members sound nor unsound
Church and ancient Councils there is no succession of true Pastors But among Protestants the said due Form and right intention are not observed ergo no succession of true Pastors The said due Form and right intention are not observed among Protestants in France Holland nor Germany where they have no Bishops and where Laymen do intermeddle in the making of their Ministers And for England whereas the Councils require the Ordines minores of Subdeacon and the rest to go before Priesthood your Ministers are made per saltum without ever being Subdeacons And whereas the Councils require three Bishops to assist at the consecration of a Bishop it is certain that at the Nags-Head in Cheapside where consecration of your first Bishops was attempted but not effected whereabout I remember the controversie you had with one there was but one Bishop and I am sure there was such a matter And although I know and have seen the Records themselves that afterward there was a consecration of Dr. Parker at Lambeth and three Bishops named viz. Miles Coverdal of Exceter one Hodgeskin Suffragan of Bedford and another whose name I have forgotten yet it is very doubtful that Coverdal being made Bishop of Exceter in King Edward's time when all Councils and Church-Canons were little observed he was never himself Canonically consecrated and so if he were no Canonical Bishop he could not make another Canonical And the third unnamed as I remember but am not sure was only a Bishop elect and not consecrated and so was not sufficient But hereof I am sure that they did consecrate Parker by vertue of a Breve from the Queen as Head of the Church Who indeed being no true Head and a Woman I cannot see how they could make a true Consecration grounded on her Authority Furthermore making your Ministers you keep not the right intention for neither do the Orderer nor the Ordered give nor receive the Orders as a Sacrament nor with any intention of Sacrificing Also they want the Matter and Form with which according to the Councils and Canons of the Church holy Orders should be given namely for the Matter Priesthood is given by the delivery of the Patena with Bread and of the Chalice with Wine Deaconship by the delivery of the Book of the Gospels and Subdeaconship by the delivery of the Patena alone and of the Chalice empty And in the substantial form of Priesthood you do fail most of all which Form consists in these Words Accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificium in Ecclesia pro Vivis Mortuis which are neither said nor done by you and therefore well may you be called Ministers as also Laymen are but you are no Priests Wherefore I conclude wanting Subdeaconship wanting undoubted Canonical Bishops wanting right intention wanting Matter and due Form and deriving even that you seem to have from a Woman the Head of your Church therefore you have no true Pastors and consequently no true Church And so to conclude and not to weary my self and you too much being resolved in my understanding by these and many other Arguments That the Church of England was not the true Church but that the Church of Rome was and is the only true Church because it alone is Ancient Catholick and Apostolick having Succession Vnity and Visibility in all Ages and Places yet what Agonies I passed with my Will here I will over-pass Only I cannot pretermit to tell you That at last having also mastered and subdued my will to relent unto my understanding by means of Prayer and by God Almighty's Grace principally I came to break through many tentations and impediments and from a troubled unquiet Heart to a fixed and peaceable tranquillity of Mind for which I do most humbly thank our sweet Lord and Saviour Iesus before whom with all reverence I do avouch and swear unto you as I shall answer it in the dreadful Day of Judgment when all Hearts shall be discovered That I forsook Protestant Religion for very fear of Damnation and became a Catholick with good hope of Salvation and that in this hope I do continue and increase daily And that I would not for all the World become a Protestant again And for this which here I have written unto you in great hast I know there be many Replyes and Rejoynders wherewith I could never be satisfied nor do I desire any further Disputation about them but rather to spend the rest of my life in Devotion yet in part to give you my dear good Friend some account of my sel◠having now so good an occasion and fit a Messenger and by you if you please to render a reason of my Faith to Mr. Hall who in his said printed Epistle in one place desires to know the Motives thereof I have thus plainly made relation of some Points among many Whereunto if Mr. Hall will make any Reply I do desire it may be directly and fully to the Points and in friendly Terms upon which condition I do pardon what is past and of you I know I need not require any such circumstances And so most seriously intreating and praying to our gracious Lord to direct and keep us all and ever in his holy Truth I commend you unto his heavenly Grace and my self unto your friendly love Your very affectionate and true loving Friend James Waddesworth Sevil in Spain April 1. 1615. ✚ To the Worshipful his respected Friend Mr. William Bedell at his House in S. Edmundsbury or at Horinger be there delivered in Suffolk Kind Mr. Bedel MIne old acquaintance and Friend having heard of your health and worldly well-fare by this Bearer Mr. Austen your Neighbour and by him having opportunity to salute you with these few Lines I could not omit though some few years since I wrote you by one who since told me certainly he delivered my Letters and that you promised answer and so you are in my debt which I do not claim nor urge so much as I do that in truth and before our Lord I speak it you do owe me love in all mutual amity for the hearty affectionate love which I have and ever did bear unto you with all sincerity For though I love not your Religion wherein I could never find solid Truth nor firm hope of Salvation as dow I do being a Catholick and our Lord is my Witness who shall be my Judge yet indeed I do love your person and your ingenuous honest good moral condition which ever I observed in you nor do I desire to have altercations with Mr. Ioseph Hall especially if he should proceed as Satyrically as he hath begun with me nor with any other Man and much less would I have any debate with your self whom I do esteem and affect as before I have written nor would I spend the rest of my life which I take to be short for my Lungs are decaying in any Questions but rather in Devotion wherein I do much more desire to be hot and
from which we dissented much more I held as you may perceive that neither amongst our selves nor from our predecessors we disagree in any truth necessary to salvation He makes me to say our dissentions are about Moon-shine and de umbrâ asini de lanâ caprinâ and trifles and matters of no consequence To return to you good Mr. Waddesworth let Men avouch as confidently as they will touching their own Positions Est de Fide Nihil certius apud Catholicos and of their contraries cry out They are Hereticks renew ancient Heresies race the Foundation deny the Articles of the Creed Gods Omnipotency c. all because themselves by Discourse can as they think fasten such things upon them A sober Christian must not give heed to all that is said in this kind These things must be examined with right judgment and ever with much charity and patience remembring that our selves know in part and prophesie in part In a Word this should not have so much disquieted you Nor yet that which you add That every one pretends Scripture Best of all saith S. Chrysostome For if we should say we believe humane reasons thou mightest with good reason be troubled but when as we receive the Scriptures and they be simple and true it will be an easie thing for thee to judge c. And to what purpose indeed serves the faculty of Reason perfected and polished with learning wherefore the supernatural light of Faith wherefore the gift of God in us Ministers conferred by the imposition of Hands but to try which side handles the Word of God deceitfully which sincerely But here again Each side arrogates the Holy Ghost in his favour What then If we our selves have the anointing we shall be able as we are bidden to try the Spirits whether they be of God or no For we will not believe them because they say they have the Spirit or cannot be deceived but because their Doctrine is consonant to the Principles of Heavenly Truth which by the Writings inspired by himself the Holy Ghost hath graven in our Hearts Which Writings are well acknowledged by you to be the Law and Rule according whereunto in judgment of Religion we must proceed CHAP. III. Of the want of an Humane External Infallible Iudge and Interpreter AS to that you say did above all trouble you the want of a certain humane external infallible Iudge to interpret Scripture and define Questions of Faith without error What if you found not an external humane Judge if you had an internal divine one And having an infallible Rule by which your humane Judge should proceed why should you trust another Mans applying it rather than your own in a matter concerning your own salvation But if God have left us no such external Judge if Antiquity knew none if Religion need none it was no just motive to leave us that you could find none amongst all those Sects which you mention and how much less if you have not a whit amended your self where you are which we shall consider by and by I say then first That to make this your motive of any moment it must be shewed that God hath appointed such a Judge in his Church Let that appear out of some passage of Holy Scripture For your conceit or desire that such a Judge there should be to whom you might in Conscience obey and yield your self because he could not err doth not prove it You would know the truth only by the Authority and sole pronouncing of the Judges Mouth A short and easie way which to most Men is plausible because it spares the pains of Study and Discourse To such especially as either out of weakness dare not trust their own Judgment or account it shall have the merit of humility to be led by their Teachers But what now if God will have you call no Man your Father upon Earth If he will send you to his Word and after you have received the Faith by the Churches Testimony out of the easie and plain places thereof bid you Search the Scriptures to find the Truth in the remnant and pick it out by your own industry The rich Man being in Hell-Torments in whose Words I doubt not but our Saviour doth impersonate and represent the conceits of many Men living in this World presumes that if one were sent from the Dead his Kinsmen would hearken to him but he is remitted to Moses and the Prophets The Iews as I perceived by Speech with some of them at Venice make it one of their Motives that our Lord Jesus is not the Christ. He should not say they have come in such a fashion to leave his own Nation in doubt and suspence and scandalize so many thousands but so as all Men might know him to be what he was Miserable Men that will give Laws to God Of which fault be you aware also good Mr. Waddesworth and be content to take not to prescribe the means by which you will be brought unto the knowledge of the Truth To use what he hath given not to conjecture and divine what he must give But God fails not his Church in such means as be necessary Let us therefore consider the necessity of this Judge Where I beseech you consider for I am sure you cannot but know it that all things necessary to salvation are evidently set down in Holy Scripture This both the Scriptures themselves do teach and the Fathers avouch namely S. Augustine and S. Chrysostome and others I forbear to set down their Words or further to confirm this Lemma which I proved at large against another Adversary and shall at all times make good if it be questioned Besides these Points there are a great many other though not of such necessity yet evidently laid down also in the same Scriptures by occasion of them Many by just Discourse may be cleared from these and the former If any thing yet remain in suspence and unknown yea or if you will erred in so it be not wilfully and obstinately yet shall it be ever without peril of damnation to him that receiveth what the Holy Ghost hath plainly delivered What necessity then of your imaginary Judge Yes for Unity is a goodly thing not only in matters necessary but universally in all Controversies must not be endless But how comes it to pass then that your Judge whosoever he be doth not all this while decide the Question touching the conception of the Blessed Virgin that is between the Dominicans and Franciscans nor that between the Dominicans and Iesuites touching Grace and Free-will and all other the Points that are controverted in the Schools to spare contention and time a precious Commodity among wise Men and give this honour to Divinity alone that in it all doubts should be reduced to certainties Or if it seem no wisdom to be hasty in deciding such Questions wherein Witty and Learned Men are ingaged lest in stead of changing their Opinions they should
sever not For it is not by humane but râ—ther divine power that spiritual marriage is dissolved when as by translation or cession by the authority of the Bishop of Rome whom it is plain to be the Vicar of Iesus Christ a Bishop is removed from his Church An admirable interpretation of the Text Quos Deus conjunxit by which the Pope not only challengeth that which is proper to Gods judgment only as he saith viz. to dissolve the Bond of spiritual Wedlock but because that is the stronger of carnal it seems also when it shall please him The anointing of a Prince since Christs coming is translated from the Head to the Shoulder by which Principality is fitly designed according to that which is read Factus est principatus super humerum ejus for signifying also whereof Samuel caused the shoulder to be set before Saul Who should ever have understood these Texts if your infallible Interpreter had not declared them But this is nothing yet to the exposition of those Texts which the Pope interprets in his answer to the Emperour of Constantinople as Subditi estote omni humanae Creaturae propter Deum c. He tells him that S. Peter wrote that to his own Subjects to provoke them to the merit of humility For if he had meant thereby to lay the yoke of subjection upon Priests it would follow that every Servant were to rule over them since it is said Omni humanae creaturae After It is not barely set down Regi praecellenti but there is put between perhaps not without cause tanquam And that which follows ad vindictam malefactorum laudem verò bonorum is not to be understood that the King or Emperor hath received the power of the Sword upon good and evil Men save only those who using the sword are committed to his jurisdiction according to that which the Truth saith They which take the Sword shall perish with the Sword For no Man ought or can judge anothers Servant since the Servant according to the Apostle standeth or falleth to his own Lord. For the love of God consider this Interpretation and compare it with S. Chrysostome upon Rom. 13. Nay do but read the Text attentively and judge of the infallibility of your interpreter Straight after he tells the Emperor That he might have understood the prerogative of Priesthood out of that which was said not of every Man but of God not to the King but to the Priest not to one descending of the Royal Stock but of the Priestly Linage of the Priests to wit which were in Anathot Behold I have set thee over Nations and Kingdoms to pull up and destroy to build and to plant See the Prerogative of the Priesthood out of Ieremies calling to be a Prophet O if he had been high Priest This had been a Text for the nonce But he goes on It is said in Gods Law also Diis non detrahes Principem populi tui non maledices Which setting Priests before Kings calls them Gods and the other Princes Compare this exposition with David's and Paul's Psal. 82. and Acts 23.5 and ye shall see how the Interpreter hath hit the mark Again you ought to have known quod fecit Deus duo magna luminaria c. See the Exposition and the difference between the Pope and Kings both in the Text and Gloss. Now although the Gloss-Writer were no excellent Calculator yet out of Clavius the account may be cleared who tells us the Sun exceeds the Moon 6539. times and a Fifth I let pass the collection out of Pasce oves meas that he belongs not to Christs Fold that doth not acknowledge Peter and his Successors his Masters and Pastors out of Quodcunque ligaveris that nothing is excepted Indeed the Pope excepts nothing but looseth Vows Contracts Oaths the Bond of Allegiance and Fealty between Subjects and their Princes The Commandment of Christ Drink ye all of this c. But our Lord expounds himself Iohn 20. Whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. Ex ore sedentis in Throno procedebat gladius bis acutus This is saith the Pope the Sword of Solomon which cuts on both sides giving every Man his own We then who albeit unworthy hold the place of the true Solomon by the favour of God do wisely exercise this Sword when such causes as in our audience are lawfully canvassed we do with Iustice determine This interpretation first corrupts the Text for it hath not out of the Mouth of him that sate on the Throne but that sate on the Horse next it perverts it for it is not the Sword of Iustice but of Christs Word which is more piercing than any two-Edged Sword that issueth out of his Mouth As for that of Iustice he never assumed it but renounced it rather when he said Man who made me a divider to you Luke 12.14 ¶ To prove that in other Regions besides the patrimony of the Church the Pope doth casually exercise temporal Iurisdiction it is said in Deuteronomy Si difficile sit ambiguum c. And because Deuteronomy is by interpretation the second Law Surely by the force of the Word it is proved that what is there decreed should be observed in the New Testament For the place which the Lord did chuse is known to â—e the Apostolick See For when as Peter fleeing went out of the City the Lord minding to call him back to the place he had chosen being asked of him Lord whither goest thou answered I go to Rome to be crucified again The Priests of the Tribe of Levi are the Popes coadjutors The high Priest or Iudge he to whom the Lord said in Peter Quodcunque ligaveris c. His Vicar who is a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck appointed by God the Iudge of quick and dead He that contemns the Popes Sentence is to be excommunicated for that is the meaning of being commanded to be put to death Doth not this well follow out of the word Deuteronomy And Rome is the place that Christ did choose because he went he said to be crucified there Only there is a scruple of the High Priest for as much as he that is High Priest after Melchisedeck's Order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a Priesthood that passes not into another Heb. 7. He adds there that Paul that he might declare the fulness of power writing to the Corinthians saith Know ye not that ye shall judge the Angels how much more the things of the World Is this then the Popes plenitude of Power to judge secular things or was Corinth the Apostolick See and so many Popes there even of the meanest of the Church What shall we say to that Exposition of the famous Text Tu es Petrus super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam The Lord he saith taking Peter into the fellowship of the undivided Vnity would have him to be
as Pope in his own Law intending to inform and bind the Church and that in matters with him of the greatest importance that may be touching his own Authority and as he pretends absolutely necessary to Salvation to all the Sons of Adam I might heap up many more but these may suffice for a sample You may and so do by your self I beseech you observe these kind of Interpretations in other Points also and in other the Decretals and Breves of Popes which as I hear are lately come forth in great Volumes You shall find many Mysteries in your Faith that perhaps you know not of as That you cannot please God because you are married for so is that place of the Apostle interpreted qui in carne vivunt Deo placere non possunt That not only the Wine in the Chalice but the Water also is transubstantiated first into Wine then into Christs blood That it was not watry moisture but the true element of Water which issued out of Christs side You shall find confession of sins to the Priest proved by the Text Corde creditur ad justitiam ore autem fit confessio ad salutem That the good Ground that received the Seed in the Gospel is the Religion of the Friers Minors That this is that pure and immaculate Religion with God and the Father which descending from the Father of Lights delivered exemplariter verbaliter by the Son to his Apostles and then inspired by the Holy Ghost into S. Francis and his Followers contains in it self the Testimony of the Trinity This is that which as S. Paul witnesseth no Man must be troublesome unto which Christ hath confirmed with the prints of his Passion The Text is de caetero nemo mihi molestus sit ego n. stigmata Domini Iesu in corpore meo porto It is marvel if S. Paul were not of the Order of S. Francis That when Christ said Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus dicbus he meant it of remaining and being with them even by his bodily presence S. Augustine upon the same Text denies this and saith that according to the presence of his Body he is ascended into Heaven and is not here That the Father of the Child Christned and his Godfathers Wife may not marry because according to the Lords Word the Husband and the Wife are made one flesh by marriage That the number of Four doth well agree to the degrees prohibited in corporal marriage of which the Apostle saith The Man hath not the power of his own body but the Woman nor the Woman power of her body but the Man because there are four humours in the body which consist of the four Elements For Conclusion you shall find it by a commodious interpretation concluded contrary to many Texts of Scripture out of Scripture it self that no simple and unlearned Man presume to reach to the subtlety of the Scripture because well it was enacted in the law of God that the Beast which should touch the Mountain should be stoned For it is written Seek not things higher than thy self For which cause the Apostle saith Be not more wise than it behoveth but be wise to sobriety One thing more also you shall find that now adays this spiritual Man and sole infallible Interpreter of Scripture seldom interprets Scripture or uses it in his Decretals and Breves Nay the stile of his Court hath no manner of smack or savor of it A long compass of a Sentence intricate to understand yea even to remember to the end full of swelling Words of Vanity with I know not how many ampliations and alternatives after the fashion of Lawyers in Civil Courts not of sober Divines much less of the Spirit of God in his Word Some Man would perhaps think this proceeds from an affectation of greatness and the desire of retaining Authority which seems to be embased by alledging reason or Scripture and interpreting Texts For my part I account it comes as much from necessity For it is notorious That neither the Popes themselves nor those of the Court the Secretaries and Dataries which pen their Bulls and Breves have any use or exercise in Holy Scripture or soundness in the knowledge of Divinity or skill in the Original Tongues wherein Gods Word is written all which are necessary to an able Interpreter And therefore it is a wise reservedness in them not to intermeddle with that wherein they might easily fault especially in a learned Age and wherein so many watchful Eyes are continually upon them And to this very poverty and cautelousness I do impute it That the present Pope in his Breves about the Oath of Allegiance useth not a Word of Scripture But tells his Faction that they cannot without most evident and grievous injury of Gods honour take the Oath the tenour whereof he sets down Word for Word and that done adds Quae cum ita sint c. Which things saith he since they be so it must needs be clear unto you out of the Words themselves that such an Oath cannot be taken with the safety of the Catholick Faith and of your Souls sith it containeth many things which are apparently contrary to Faith and salvation He instances in no one thing brings neither Scripture nor Reason but a Quae cum ita sint without any premisses Which loose and undergrounded Proceeding when as it is occasioned the Arch-Priest here and many other of that side to think these Letters forged or gotten by surreption he sends another of the same tenor with this further Reason Haec autem est mora pura integraque voluntas nostra This is now to be more than an Interpreter even to be a Lord over the Faith of his Followers to make his Will a Reason What would you have him do to alledge a better he could not a weak and unsufficient one he was ashamed he thought it best to resolve the matter into his sole Authority Whereby he hath proved himself a fallible both Iudge and Interpreter yea a false witness against God and the Truth commanding by the Apostle Christian Men to be subject and to give every Man their dues fear to whom fear honour to whom honour and much more if there be any difference Allegiance to whom Allegiance CHAP. IV. Of the state of the Church of England and whether it may be reconciled with Rome BUt of your Interpreters Infallibility enough Your next doubt Whether the Church of England were of the true Church or no was resolved with a Paralogism partly by reason of equivâ—â—â—tion and diverse acception of the terms The Church and to err partly by composition and division in the connexion of these by those Verbs can or may Let us examine the several parts of your Syllogisme The Proposition The true Church cannot â—rr is confirmed by the consent of all Excuse me Sir if I withhold my consent without some Declaration and Limitation I say
first it must be declared whether you mean the Catholick Church or a true part of the Catholick Church For there is not the like reason of these to error Against the Catholick Church Hell Gates shall not prevail against particular when Christ doth remove the Candlestick out of his place they do Witness the Churches of Africk sometimes most Catholick And thus it seems you must take this term since your doubt was Whether the Church of England be of the true Church or no. Besides I must desire to know what manner of Errors you mean whether even the least or only deadly and such as bar from salvation which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heresies of perdition 2 Pet. 2.1 Take now your own choice for if you speak of every errour the Proposition is false even of the Catholick Church much more of any particular Church Yea I add further not only of the Catholick Church by denomination from the greatest part or by representation as the Pastors or Prelates thereof met in a Council which is still the mixt Church but even that which is Christs true body whereof he is the Saviour and which shall be with him for ever As for deadly and damnable errors this true and properly called Church both in the whole and every part of the mixt Church is yet priviledged from them finally For it is kept by the power of God to salvation it is not possible the Elect should thus be seduced Truth it is That by such errors particular visible Assemblies universally and obstinately defending them become falsly called Churches from which we are to separate our selves Example in the Synagogue and in Churches of the Arians Now let us see your Assumption But the Church of England Head and Members King Clergy and People yea a whole Council of Protestants may err by your own grant I answer The Church of England that is the Elect in the Church of England which only are truly called the Church can never deadly err This no Protestant will grant ye The mixt Church of England Head Members King Clergy and the residue of the people and a whole Council of Protestants may err damnably and therefore much more fall into lesser errors This they grant And if they shall so err obstinately they shall deservedly lose the name of a trâ—e Church But they deny they do thus err yea they deny that they err de facto at all What follows in Conclusion Ergo No true Church This shortness in suppressing the Verb would make a Man think you meant to cover the fault of your Discourse And indeed you might by that means easily beguile another but I cannot be perswaded you would willingly beguile your self Sure you were beguiled if you meant it thus Ergo it is no true Church See your Argument in the like A faithful Witness cannot lye But Socrates or Aristides may lye by his own grant Ergo no faithful Witness He that stands upright cannot fall But you Mr. Waddesworth by your own grant may fall Ergo stand not upright Perhaps your meaning was Ergo it may become no â—rue Church to wit when it shall so err damnably But then it follows not There is now no salvation in it and therefore come out of it now When you shew that I shall account â—ou have done wisely to go out of it Shew â—â—at in any one Point and take me with â—ou In the mean while for my part I shall sooner trust that Chapman that shall say to me Lo here is a perfect Yard I will measure as truly as I can and when I have done take the Yard and measure it your self than him that shall say here is thus much ye shall not need to measure it but take it on my Word Yea though one of his Apprentices should stand by and say he could not deceive me though he would as Benedictus à Benedictis tells the present Pope Volens nolens errare non potâ—s Where you relate your endeavour to defend the Church of England and tell of the Puritans rejecting those Arguments you could use from the Authority of the Church and of the ancient â—octors interpreting Scriptures against them flying to their own arrogant Spirit I cannot excuse them for the former nor subscribe to your accusation in the latter Perhaps you have met with some more fanatical Brownists or Anabaptists whom here you call Puritans But these that are commonly so called which differ from the Church of England about Church Government and Ceremonies only give indeed too little to the Authority of Men how holy learned or ancient soever Which is their fault and their great fault especially in matters of this nature yet they fly not to their own Spirit as you charge them That which you add That you perceived the most Protestants did frame the like evasions when you came to answer the Arguments against them on the other side When you shall shew this in particulars I shall believe it In the mean while I believe you thought so for commonly mediocrities are aggravated with the hatred and slandered with the names of both extreams But in the question between the Popish faction and us you might easily have discerned why the Argument from bare Authority is not of such validity For Ceremonies and matters of order may be ordered by wise Men and are not the worse but the better if they be ancient yea if they be common to us with Rome which Puritans will by no means allow In Doctrine if holy Men yea if an Angel from Heaven shall innovate any thing we are not to admit it Now the Controversies between the Romanists and us are most about Doctrine and they exceed as much in extolling the authority of the Ancients in their private Opinions and incommodious and strained speeches as the Puritans in depressing them We hold the mean and give as much to the Authority and Testimonies of the Fathers as may stand with the truth of Holy Scriptures and as themselves defer to the writing of others or require to be given to their own Next you tell of your following their Opinion who would make the Church of England and the Church of Rome still to be all one in Essential Points and the differences to be accidental Confessing the Church of Rome to be a true Church though sick or corrupted and the Protestants to be derived from it and reformed This Opinion is not only as you write favoured of many great Scholars in England but is the common Opinion of all the best Divines of the reformed Churches that are or have been in the World as I shewed in part of another Work which as I remember you had a sight of Wherein yet I fear you mistake the term accidental which doth not import that our differences are but slight and of small consideration but that all those Opinions and Abuses which we reform and cut off are not of the Faith but superfluous and foreign yea
of the Leaves the number he saith will rise to thirty thousand by which Iohn Fox his Book will as much exceed Iohn Sleidans Story in number of lyes in which were found only eleven thousand as it doth in bulk and bigness This manner of writing of these Men brings to my mind that which Sir Thomas More writes of Tyndals New Testament wherein he saith Were founden and noted wrong and falsely translated above a thousand Texts by tale The Language is like and the cause is the same Men were loth these Books should be read The substance of them was such as could not be controlled The next remedy was to forestal the Readers minds with a prejudice of falsification that so they might not regard them but cast them out of their Hands of their own accord The Vulgar sort would be brought out of conceit at the first hearing with vehement accusation Even wise Men would suppose though there should not be any thing near so many wilful faults yet surely there must needs be a very great number and that could not happen but with a very bad meaning this admitted who would vouchsafe them the reading And in truth among those that favour the reformed part I have met with some that out of this buz of falsification in the Lord of Plessis Book cared not for reading it whereby may be thought in what account it should be with all those who esteem all F. Parsons Libels to be Oracles But shortly Sith neither the Cardinal Perone nor F. Parsons have had the means or will to decypher those hundreds and thousands of falsifications in Sleidan Bishop Iewel Mr. Fox or Plessis in these so many years as have run since they wrote and as for the last he hath set forth the Book again with all the Authorities at large in the Margent in the Authors own Words and hath answered all those that bayed at it till they are silent what remains but that we count this multiplying of F. Parsons may be joyned with Aequivocation to make up the art of Falshood wherein he and his Faction may justly claim to be the worthiest Professors in the World But without any multiplication or other Arithmetick in the fifth page of that Relation of his in the seven first Lines are four notorious I will not say lyes or falsifications but falshoods by tale The First That the tryal being begun upon the first place that was found false The French Discourse printed at Antwerp Cum privilegio and approbation of the Visitor of Books saith And as to the said first Article nothing was judged thereabout by the said Commissioners nor pronounced by my said Lord the Chancellor and the King said that it should be remitted to another time to deliberate thereabout The Second He that is Plessis would have passed to the second but the Bishop refused so to do except the Ministers and Protestants there present would first subscribe and testifie that this first place was falsified He said in the page before that Plessis appeared at last with some four or five Ministers on his side There were no Ministers appeared with him on his side No Protestants no creature did subscribe or was required so to do The third Which at length they did viz. subscribe this place was falsified An utter untruth Whereof there is not a Word in the said printed Narration The fourth As well in this as in all the rest There was no subscription as I said at all The Commissioners were all of the Roman profession saving Casaubon and he no Minister They never pronounced much less subscribed that any of those places examined were falsified Of the first place of Scotus they pronounced nothing Of the second of Durand That the opposition of Durand was alledged for the resolution And this they would have remitted also as the former to another time save that the Bishop insisted saying it was in vain to dispute if they would not judge Addressing his Speech divers times to the King to the intent he should signifie his pleasure to the Commissioners and then his Majesty drawing near to them they gave their Opinions upon that Article as before This was that which F. Parsons stumbled at when he wrote The Ministers and Protestants there present subscribed and testified that it was falsified and so all the rest For being overjoyed with this News which he did not well understand to think the charitablest of him he thought the Commissioners had been part at least Protestants and Ministers And had subscribed whereas they pronounced their Sentence vivâ voce by the Mouth of the Chancellor never using the term falsification yea in some of the rest they acquitted the Lord of Plessis as in the passage of P. Crinitus though they said Crinitus was deceived In that of Bernard that it had been good to distinguish the two passages of S. Bernard out of the same Book with an caetera Not to stand now upon that that in the rest of the places he hath a reasonable and just defence with indifferent Men for the omissions he was charged with in Chrysostome Hierome Bernard and Theodoret And in that of Cyril the King himself said aloud tha both sides had reason But F. Parsons not having as it appears received perfect information of the particularities of this affair was so hasty to write according to the partial intelligence he received at Rome that he faults himself in the same kind that he imputes to another And if he should meet with some severe Adversary that would multiply his falshoods by his leaves and lines as he dealeth with Mr. Fox and then extend by proportion his Pamphlet to the bigness of Mr. Fox his Book of Martyrs he would find that he provides very ill for himself that is too rigorous and censorious to other Men. But I leave him and come to the fidelity of the Popish Faction whereof I shall desire you to take a taste in one of the questions which you name about the Church even that which is indeed cardo negotii as you say the controversie of the Popes authority For the establishing whereof First the Epistles of the ancient Bishops of Rome for the space of about three hundred years after Christ are counterfeited The Barbarous not Latine but lead of the stile and the likeness of them all one to another the deep silence of Antiquity concerning them the Scriptures alledged after Hierom's translation do convince them of Falshood and by whose practice and procurement we cannot doubt if we ask but as Cassius was wont cui bono For at every bout the Authority of the Pope and priviledges of the Roman See are extolled and magnified Next the Donation of Constantine is a senseless forgery and so blazed by some of the learnedest of the Roman Church Read it advisedly either in Gratian or in the Decrees of Sylvester with the Confession and Legend of Constantines baptism and say out of your own judgment if ever any thing
can be more fraudulent more sottish And because I have mentioned Gratian his whole compilation is full of falsification and corruption of Antiquity take an example or two in the matter we have in hand The Milevitane and after the African Councils under pain of excommunication prohibit Appeals beyond the Seas Which Canons were made purposely to meet with the usurpations of the Bishops of Rome of which I have spoken somewhat before Now in the citing this Canon Gratian adds this goodly explication nisi forte Romanam sedem appellaverint thus excepting that abuse which these Councils directly sought to prohibite Again S. Augustine to inform a Christian man what Scriptures he should hold for Canonical bids him follow the Authority of the greater part of the Catholick Church amongst which are those quae Apostolicas sedes habere Epistolas accipere meruerunt which had the honour to have the Apostles sit in them and to receive Epistles from them Gratian fits it thus inter quas Scripturas sanc illae sunt quas Apostoliâ—â— sedes habere ab ea alii meruerunt accipere Epistolas And accordingly the title of that Canon is Inter Canonicas The Decretal Epistles are numbred amongst the Canonical Scriptures True it is that in the end of the next Canon Gratian adds a good limitation and worth the remembring that this must be understood of such Decrees in which there is nothing found contrary to the Decrees of the Fathers foregoing nor the Precepts of the Gospel Belike even in Gratian's time it was not holden impossible That in the Sanctions and Decretals of Popes something might be decreed contrary to the Gospel which may be added to your Judges Infallibility which hath been touched before But these be old tricks of the Champions of the Papacy At this day perhaps it is better Yes and that shall ye ununderstand by the Words of the Children of the Church of Rome themselves the Venetians But first ye are to know that among certain Propositions set forth in defence of that State there was one the fourth in number of eight That the Authority promised by our Saviour Christ to S. Peter under the metaphor of the Keyes is meerly Spiritual For confirmation whereof after other proof was said That the Authority of the highest Bishop is over Sin and over Souls only according to the words of that Prayer of the Church about S. Peter qui B. Petro animas ligandi atque solvendi Pontificium tradidisti Cardinal Bellarmine undertook to answer these Propositions and coming to this place he saith That peradventure Gods providence to take away such deceipts whereby the Author of these Propositions would deceive the simple with the words of the holy Church misunderstood inspired into the Reformers of the Breviary that they should take out of that Prayer the word animas as anciently it was not there nor ought to be because that Prayer was formed out of the words of the Gospel Quodcunque ligaveris quodcunque solveris Now mark the Rejoinder that is made to him by Iohannes Marsilius who numbering up his errors in the defence of every Proposition roundly tells him Erra XIV perche dice c. He errs in the fourteenth place for that he saith That those which have taken out of the Breviary the word animas were inspired by the Holy Ghost I know not whether the Holy Ghost be the Author of Discord This I know well that one of his Gifts and of his Fruits is Peace Those which made that Prayer had this intention to explain the Words Quodcunque ligaveris with the Word animas by that Text which explaineth them quorum remiseritis peccata sins being in the Soul and not in the body left any should believe that the Pope were Dominus in temporalibus spiritualibus of Goods of Bodies and of Souls and that he might loose and bind every thing as it seems the L. Cardinal believeth And they explained them with the Word animas by which explication a remedy is put unto all those discords which may arise between the Pope and Princes de meo tuo Wheras those which have lately taken it away out of the Breviary have anew stirred up occasion of discords and contentions Besides that it is a thing known of all Men that in the Books of the Councils of the Canons of other Doctors in a word even in the very Breviaries and Missals there have been and are taken away those things which are in favour of Princes of the Laity to see if at length there might be established the opinion de illimitata Potestate Pontificis in temporalibus So as he that compares together the Books printed in the year 30. in 50. and those at this day as well of the Councils as others evidently perceives the vintage that marvail it is that we post vindemiam have found some few Clusters for the defence of our gracious Prince This is a means if it go on further to make all writings to lose their credit and to ruine the Church of God Be it spoken by the occasion that the Lord Cardinal hath given me thereof and for charities sake and for the desire that these writings be no more touched which be also said with all humility and reverence He errs in the fifteenth place for that he saith that in the ancient Breviaries there was not the word animas And I have seen Breviaries written with pen above 200 years ago and printed above an hundred in them is the word animas and if it were not yet ought it to be put in to take away the occasions of discords Thus he there As for the Prayer corrected or corrupted rather if you look the old Breviaries yea even that set forth by Pius the Fifth printed by Plantine with the Priviledge of the Pope and his Catholick Majesty Anno 77. upon the nine and twentieth of Iune ye shall find it to run thus Deus qui B. Petro Apostolo tuo collatis clavibus regni Coelestis animas ligandi atque solvendi Pontificium tradidisti concede ut intercessionis ejus auxilio peccatorum nostrorum nexibus liberemur Per Dominum Now in the late correction Animas is left out and we understand the Reason In the end of the same Book there is an Advertisement to the Reader the beginning whereof I will not stick to set down verbatim it is this Because in this Defence I have often said that Authors are made to recant and that out of their Books many things are taken away sincerely said in favour of the power of Temporal Princes to establish by these means the Opinion De suprema authoritate Papae in temporalibus I have thought good to advise the Reader that the quotations by me brought are taken ad verbum out of those Books which are incorrupt and contain the opinion of the Authors sincerely And that the more ancient the Copies be and further from these our times so much the
the true Catholick Church is such as cannot be hid yet considering that it consists of two sorts of people the one which is the greater part who do not indeed properly belong to it the other the fewer truely and properly so called to whom all the glorious things spoken of the Church do agree The face therefore of the mixt Church may be over-run with scandals as in all times almost The greatest number may sometime be Idolaters as in the Kingdom of Israel under Achab. The principallest in authority may be false teachers as the Priests and Prophets in Ieremies time the sons of pestilence may sit in Moses Chair as they did in Christs time Yet still the Church is the ground and pillar of Truth in the Elect Ipsa est praedestinata columna firmamentum veritatis The Sheep hear not Seducers Iohn 10.8 to wit finally and in any damnable point Thus was it before Christ thus since thus in the Church of England before yea and since it was reformed Thus in that of Rome it self at this day There is a distinction of Thomas of those that be in the Church which rightly interpreted agrees fully herewith There are some De Ecclesia numero tantúm Some numero merito The former are such as have only fidem informem the latter formatam Now though the persons of such as be in the Church be visible yet the Faith and Charity of men we see not and to argue from the priviledges of the Church numero merito to the Church numero tantum is a perpetual but a palpable paralogisme of the Romish faction which is grosser yet when they argue to the Church representative and grossest of all when one man is made the Church and he as themselves grant may fall out a Devil incarnate CHAP. IX Of lack of Vniformity in matters of Faith in all Ages and Places ANd this self same Paralogism you were beguiled with in the next Point of Vniformity and Concord in matters of Faith The true Church ye say ever holds such Vniformity It is utterly false in the Visible and mixt Church both before Christ and since It is false in the Church of Rome it self whose new-coined Faith patched to the Creed by Pius the Fourth came in piece-meal out of private Opinions and corrupt usages nor ever was in any Age uniformly holden or taught as matter of Faith even in it as it is at this day So by your own Discourse it should be no true Church And taking matters of Faith so largely as it seems you do in opposition to such things as be Ceremonies or of Government it is untrue also of the Church of the Elect or properly so called For though the Faith in the Principles thereof be ever the same yet many Conclusions of Faith have sometimes lyen unsearched out and like some parts of the World unknown till by the industry of Gods Servants occasioned also by the importunity and opposition of Hereticks they were discovered Sundry common errors also there have been which in succeeding Ages have been cleared and reformed as the Chiliasts That Angels have Bodies That Children after they be baptized are to be communicated That Hereticks are to be rebaptized To the Assumption First The Protestants challenge not to themselves any Church as their own which I must advertise you of here because formerly also you do use this Phrase The Church is Christs both the visible and invisible Next taking matters of Faith for foundations or Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation the Church of Christ hath in all Ages had Uniform concord with the Protestants at this day in such matters as appeareth by the Common Rule of Faith the Creed and so hath also the Church under the Popes tyranny As to the Trent Additions they are foreign to the Faith as neither Principles nor Conclusions thereof Neither can your selves shew uniform consent and concord in them and namely in the 11. of them in any one Age especially as matters of Salvation as now they are canonized How much less can ye shew it in all other conclusions of Faith whereabout there have been among you as are now among us and ever will be differences of Opinions without any prejudice for all that unto the unity of the Faith of the Church and title to the name of it As for Wicliff Hus and the rest if they have any of them born record to the Truth and resisted any innovation of corrupt Teachers in their times even to Blood they are justly to be termed Martyrs yea albeit they saw not all corruptions but in some were themselves carried away with the stream of error Else if because they erred in some things they be no Martyrs or because we dissent from them in some things we are not of the same Church both you and we must quit all claim to S. Cyprian Iustin Martyr and many more whom we count our Antients and Predecessors and bereave them also of the honour of Martyrdom which so long they have enjoyed You see I hope by this time the weakness of your Argument CHAP. X. Of the Original of Reformation in Luther Calvin Scotland England c. IN your next Motive taken from the Original of Reformation before I come to answer your Argument shortly coucht in form I must endeavour to reform your judgment in sundry points of Story wherein partly you are mis-led and abused by Parsons and others of that Spirit partly you have mistaken some particulars and out of a false imagination framed a like discourse First for Luther it was not his rancor against the Dominicans that stirred him up against the Pope but the shameful merchandize of Indulgences set to sale in Germany to the advantage of Magdalen sister to Pope Leo the Tenth Believe herein if not Sleidan yet Guicciardine l. 13. And of all that mention those affairs it is acknowledged that at the first and for a good time he shewed all obedience and reverence to the Pope The new History of the Council of Trent written by an Italian a Subject and part of the Church of Rome as should appear by the Epistle Dedicatory of the Reverend and learned Archbishop of Spalato prefixed to his Majesty speaketh thus of the matter Questo diede occasione c. This gave occasion to Martin to pass from Indulgences to the Authority of the Pope which being by others proclaimed for the highest in the Church by him was made subject to a General Council lawfully celebrated Whereof he said that there was need in that instant and urgent necessity And as the heat of disputation continued by how much the more the Popes power was by others exalted so much the more was it by him abased yet so as Martin contained himself within the terms of speaking modestly of the person of Leo and saving sometimes his judgment Again after his departure from the presence of Cardinal Cajetan at Augusta he saith He wrote a Letter to the Cardinal confessing
as Bellarmine himself will teach you lib. De Clericis cap. 3. For amongst the Lutherans and Calvinists also saith he which have taken away almost all Ecclesiastical Rites they only lay on hands and make Pastors and Ministers who though they be not Pastors and Bishops indeed would be so accounted and called In England you miss first the lesser orders and say we are made Ministers per saltum as if all that are made Priests among you were Psalmists Sextons Readers Exorcists Torch-bearers Subdeacons and Deacons before Remember I pray what the Master of the Sentences saith of Deaconship and Priesthood Hos solos primitiva Ecclesia legitur habuisse de his solis praeceptum Apostoli habemus He means in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus Again Subdiaconos vero Acolâ—thos procâ—donte tempore Ecclesia sibi constituit What and were the Primitive and Apostolick Churches no true Churches or need we to be ashamed to be like them Besides those Councils that ye speak of it should seem were of no great either Antiquity or Authority when not only Presbyters without pasâ—â—â—g through any order but Bishops wiâ—â—â—ut being so much as baptized were ordained As Nectarius of Constantinople Synesius of Cyrene Ambrose of Millaine Constantine II. of Rome it self This therefore is a very slight Exception Your next is well worse touching the Ordination at the Nags-head where the Consecration of our first Bishops as you say was attempted but not effected It is certain you say and you are sure there was such a matter although you know and have seen the Records themselves that afterward there was a Consecration of Doctor Parker at Lambeth Alas Master Waddesworth if you be resolved to believe Lies not only against publick Acts and your own eye sight but against all Probability who can help it I had well hoped to have found that Ingenuity in you that I might have used your Testimony unto others of that side touching the Vanity of this Fable as having shewed you the Copy of the Record of Doctor Parker's Consecration which I had procured to be transcribed out of the Acts which your self also at your return from London told me you saw in a Black Book Now I perceive by your perplexed Writing and enterlining in this part of your Letter you would fain discharge your Conscience and yet uphold this Lye perhaps as loth to offend that side where you now are and therefore you have devised this Temper that the one was attempted the other effected But it â—ill not be For first of all if that at the 〈◊〉 head were but attempted what is that to the purpose of our Ordinations which are not derived from it but from the other which as you say was effected at Lambeth And are you sure there was such a Matter How are you sure Were you present there in Person or have you heard it of those that were present Neither of both I suppose but if it were so that some body pretending to have been there present told you so much how are you sure that he lied not in saying so much more when you have it but at the third or fourth hand perhaps the thirtieth or fortieth But consider a little is it probable that men of that sort in an action of that Importance and at the beginning of the Queens Reign when especially it concerned both them and her to provide that all things should be done with Reputation would be so hasty and heedless as to take a Tavern for a Church Why might they not have gone to the next Church as well They thought to make the old Catholick Bishop drunken Thus the Wisbich and Framyngham Priests were wont to tell the tale Is it likely that they would not forethink that possible this good old Man would not drink so freely as to be drunken and if he were yet would not be in the humour to do as they would have him For who can make any Foundation upon what another would do in his Cups What a scorn would this be to them Men are not always so provident in their Actions True but such men are not to be imagined so Sottish as to attempt so solemn an Action and joyned commonly with some great Feast and as you observed well out of the Acts with the Queens Mandate for the Action to be done and hang all upon a drunken fit of an old man Besides how comes it to pass that we could never understand the names of the old Bishop or of those whom he should have consecrated or which consecrated themselves when he refused to do it For so do your men give it out howsoever you say it was not there effected And in all the space of Queen Elizabeths Reign wherein so many set themselves against the Reformation by her established is it possible we should never have heard word of it of all the English on that side the Seas if it had been any other than a flying Tale After forty five years there is found at last an Irish Jesuit that dares put it in print to prove by it as now you do that the Parliamentary Pastors lack holy Orders But he relates sundry Particulars and brings his Proofs For the purpose this ordainer or consecrater he saith was Laudasensis Episcopus homo senex simplex His name Nay that ye must pardon him But of what City or Diocess was he Bishop For we have none of that Title Here I thought once that by errour it had been put for Landaffensis of Landaffe in Wales save that three times in that Narration it is written Laudasensis which notwithstanding I continued to be of the same mind because I found Bishop Bonners name twice alike false written Bomerus But loe in the Margent a direction to the Book De Schismate fol. 166. where he saith this matter is touched and it is directly affirmed that they performed the Office of Bishops without any Episcopal Consecration Again that great labour was used without an Irish Archbishop in Prison at London to ordain them but he could by no means be brought thereto So it seems we must pass out of Wales into Ireland to find the See of this Bishop or Archbishop But I believe we may sail from thence to Virginia to seek him for in Ireland we shall not find him Let us come to those that he should have ordained what were their names Candidati if that will content you more you get not Why they might have been remembred as well as the Nags-Head as well as Bonners name and his See and that he was Dean of the Bishops he means of the Archbishoprick sede vacante and that he sent his Chaplain his name also is unknown to forbid the Ordination At least their Sees To cut the matter short Quid plura Scoraeus Monachus post Herefordensis pseudo-episcopus caeteris ex caeteris quidam Scoraeo manus imponunt fiuntque sine patre filii pater à filiis procreatur res seculis omnibus
Bonner laid against the First Parliament in Queen Elizabeths time to be true of all the rest Then that he accounts Bishop Bonner to have excepted against this Parliament because the Bishops there were no Bishops as not canonically ordained Where it was because there was no Bishops true or false there at all His last proof is That Dr. Bancroft being demanded of Mr. Alablaster whence their first Bishops received their Orders answered That he hoped a Bishop might be ordained of a Presbyter in time of necessity Silently granting That they were not ordained by any Bishop And therefore saith he the Parliamentary Bishops are without order Episcopal and their Ministers also no Priests For Priests are not made but of Bishops whence Hierome Quid facit c. What doth a Bishop saving Ordination which a Presbyter doth not I have not the means to demand of D. Alablaster whether this be true or not Nor yet whether this be all the answer he had of Dr. Bancroft That I affirm that if it were yet it follows not that D. Bancroft silently granted they had no Orders of Bishops Unless he that in a false Discourse where both Propositions be untrue denies the Major doth silently grant the Minor Rather he jested at the futility of this Argument which admitting all this lying Legend of the Nags-head and more too suppose no Ordination by any Bishops had been ever effected notwithstanding shews no sufficient reason why there might not be a true consecration and true Ministers made and consequently a true Church in England For indeed necessity dispenses with Gods own positive Laws as our Saviour shews in the Gospel much more then with Mans And such by Hieroms Opinion are the Laws of the Church touching the difference of Bishops and Presbyters and consequently touching their Ordination by Bishops only Whereof I have treated more at large in another place for the justification of other reformed Churches albeit the Church of England needs it not To confirm this Argument it pleaseth F. Halywood to add That King Edward the Sixth took away the Catholick Rite of Ordaining and instead of it substituted a few Calvinistical Prayers Whom Queen Elizabeth followed c. And this is in effect the same thing which you say when you add That Coverdale being made Bishop of Exceter in King Edward 's time when all Councils and Church Canons were little observed it is very doubtful he was never himself canonically consecrated and so if he were no canonical Bishop he could not make another Canonical To F. Halywood I would answer That King Edward took not away the Catholick Rite of Ordaining but purged it from a number of idle and superstitious Rites prescribed by the Popish Pontifical And the Prayers which he scoffs at if they were Calvinistical sure it was by Prophecie for Calvin never saw them till Queen Mary's time when by certain of our English Exiles the Book of Common Prayer was translated and shewed him if he saw them then Some of them as the Litany and the Hymn Veni Creator c. I hope were none of Calvin's devising To you if you name what Councils and Church Canons you mean and make any certain exception either against Bishop Coverdale or any of the rest as not Canonical Bishops I will endeavour to satisfie you Mean while remember I beseech you That both Law and Reason and Religion should induce you in doubtful thingâ— to follow the most favourable sentence and not rashly out of light surmises to pronounce against a publick and solemn Ordination against the Orders conferred successively from it against a whole Church Wherein I cannot but commend Doctor Carriers modesty whose Words are these I will not determine against the succession of the Clergy in England because it is to me very doubtful And the discretion of Cudsemius the Jesuite which denies the English Nation to be Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops And to take away all doubt from you that some of these Ordainers were only Bishops elect and unconsecrated besides Miles Coverdale in King Edward's time Bishop of Exceter cast in Prison by Queen Mary and released and sent over Sea to the King of Denmark know that William Barlow was another in King Edward's days Bishop of Bath and Wells in Queen Mary's beyond the Seas in the company of the Dutchess of Suffolk and Mr. Bertie her Husband at the time of Dr. Parker's Ordination Elect of Chichester A third was Iohn Scory in King Edward's time Bishop of Chichester and at the time of the said Ordination Elect of Hereford A fourth was Iohn Hodgeskin Suffragan of Bedford And these four if they were all ordained according to the Form ratified in King Edward's days were presented by two Bishops at least to the Archbishop and of him and them received Imposition of Hands as in the said Form is appointed One Scruple yet remains which you have in That these Men did consecrate Doctor Parker by vertue of a Breve from the Queen as Head of the Church who being no true Head and a Woman you see not how they could make a true Consecration grounded on her Authority But to clear you in this also you must understand the Queens Mandate served not to give Power to ordain which those Bishops had before intrinsecally annexed to their Office but Leave and Warrant to apply that Power to the person named in that Mandate A thing unless I have been deceived by Reports used in other Countrys yea in the Kingdoms of his Catholick Majesty himself Sure I am by the Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church as you may see in the Ecclesiastical Histories and namely in the Ordination of Nectarius that I spake of before Yea which is more in the Consecration of the Bishops of Rome as of Leo the Eighth whose Decree with the Synod at Rome touching this matter is set down by Gratian Dist. 63. c. 23. taken from the example of Hadrian and another Council which gave to Charles the Great Ius potestatem eligendi Pontifâ—cem ordinandi Apostolicam Sedem as you may see in the Chapter next before See the same Dist. c. 16 17 18. and you shall find that when one was chosen Bishop of Reate within the Popes own Province by the Clergy and people and sent to him by Guido the Count to be consecrated the Pope durst not do it till the Emperors Licence were obtained Yâ—â— that he writes to the Emperour for Colonus That receiving his Licence he might consecrate him either there or in the Church of Tusculum which accordingly upon the Emperours bidding he performed Yet another Exception you take to the making our Ministers That we keep not the right intention First Because we neither give nor take Orders as a Sacrament By that Reason we should have no true Marriages amongst us neither because we count not Matrimony a Sacrament This Controversie depends upon the definition of a Sacrament
Bishop of Ostuna interpretâ— Sacrificia pro populo tâ—o immaculata perficiat Marvel that he added not tam pro vivis quam pro defâ—nctis Sure if S. Paul Rom. 15.16 had not added the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had sacrificed also This was the antient and Apostolick manner of Ordination if the Author be worthy of credit But that ye may perceive what tampering there hath been to bring Ordinations to the Form which the present Pontifical prescribes consider with me the Words of Amalarius Bishop of Triers in his second Book de Ecclesiast Officiis where in the Office of the Subdeacon he thus writes Miror quâ de re sumptus usus in Ecclesia c. I marvel whence the use was taken in our Church that very often the Subdeacon should read the Lesson at Mass since this is not found committed unto him by the Ministry given him in Consecration nor by the Canonical Writings nor by his name And streight after Nam primaevo tempore For in antient time the Deacon read not the Gospel which was not yet written but after it was enacted by our Fathers That the Deacons should read the Gospel they appointed also that the Subdeacon should read the Epistle or Lesson It appears then that in Amalarius time who lived with Charles the Great and Lewis his Son that ridiculous Form was not in the Pontifical where the Book of the Epistles is given to the Subdeacons and power to read them in the holy Church of God as well for the Quick as the Dead The same Author coming to speak of Deacons telleth of their consecration by Prayer and imposition of Hands and confuteth that in the present Pontifical which he saith he found in a little Book of Holy Orders made he knows not by what Author That the Bishop alone should lay Hands on the Deacon At last he adds There is one Ministry added to the Deacon viz. to read the Gospel which he saith doth well befit him quia Minister est But of the delivery of the Book of the Gospels with authority to read the Gospel for the Quick and Dead not one Word In the next Chapter of Presbyters he expounds their name and saith further hunc morem tenent Episcopi nostri Our Bishops have this Fashion they anoint the Hands of Presbyters with Oyl which Ceremony he declares touching imposition of Hands upon them he remits us to that he said before in the Deacon Then he shews out of Ambrose and Hierom That these are all one Order with Bishops and ought to govern the Church in common like Moses with the seventy Elders As for delivery of Chalice and Wine or Paten and Host with power to sacrifice so well for the Quick as the Dead he makes no mention Judge you whether these were thought to be the matter and essential Form of Priesthood in his time Yet one Author more will I name in this matter not only because he is a famous Schoolman and one of Luthers first Adversaries and therefore ought to be of more account with that side but because he professeth the end of his writing to be circa Sacramentum ordinis cautos reddere ne pertinax quisquam aut levis sit circa modum tradendi aut recipiendi ordines It is Cardinal Cajetane in the second Tome of his Opuscula Tit. De modo tradendi seu recipiendi Ordines Read the whole where these things I observe for our present purpose 1. If all be gathered together which the Pontificals or which Reason or Authority hath delivered the nature of all the rest of the Orders except Priesthood only will appear very uncertain 2. The lesser Orders and Subdeaconship according to the Master of the Sentences were instituted by the Church 3. The Deacons instituted by the Apostles Acts 6. were not Deacons of the Altar but of the Tables and Widows 4. In Deaconship there seems to be no certain Form for according to the old Pontificals the laying of Hands upon the Deacon hath no certain Form of Words but that Prayer Emitte quaesumus in eos S. Sanctum Which according to the new Pontificals is to be said after the imposition of Hands For the giving of the Book of the Gospels hath indeed a form of Words but that impresseth not the Character for before any Gospel was written the Apostles ordained Deacons by imposition of Hands 5. In the Subdeaconship also there is no Pontifical which hath not the matter without Form viz. the delivery of the empty Chalice c. These things with more which he there sets down he would have to serve to the instruction of the learned touching the uncertainty of this whole matter to teach Men to be wise to sobriety that is every Man to be content with the accustomed Pontifical of the Church wherein he is ordained And if ought be omitted of those things which be added out of the new Pontificals as for example that the Book of the Epistles was not given with those Words Take Authority to read the Epistles as well for the Quick as the Dead there is no need of supplying this omission by a new Ordination for such new additions make no new Law Learn then of your own Cajetane that the new additions of delivery of the Chalice with Wine and Paten with Hosts and authority to offer sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead make no new Law Learn to be content with the Pontifical of the Church wherein you were ordained Wherein first is verbatim all that which your Pontificals had well taken out of the holy Words of our Saviour Accipe Spiritum Sanctum quorum remiseris peâ—cata remittuntur eis quorum retinueris retentâ— sunt Which methinks you should rather account to contain the essential Form of Priesthood than the former both because they are Christs own Word and joyned with that Ceremony of laying on Hands which antiently denominated this whole action and do express the worthiest and principallest part of your Commission which the Apostle calls the Ministry of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Then because this Office is not only deputed to consecrate the Lords Body but also to preach and baptize which in your Pontifical is wholly omitted in a larger and more convenient Form is added out of S. Paul 1 Cor. 4.1 and be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God and of his holy Sacraments In the name of the Father c. As to that you add That we offer no Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead and therefore well may be called Ministers as all Lay-men are but are no Priests I have met with sundry that pull this Rope as strongly the other way and affirm that because by the very Form of your Ordination you are appointed Sacrificers for the Quick and the Dead well may ye be Mass-Priests as ye are called but Ministers of the New Testament after S. Paul 's Phrase ye are none For that Office stands principally in preaching the Word whereof in
to my Conscience than a thousand Topical Arguments In regard whereof I am no less assured that if I should forsake it I should be renounced by our Saviour before God and his Angels than in the holding it be acknowledged and saved which makes me resolve not only for no hope if it were of ten thousand Worlds but by the gracious assistance of God without whom I know I am able to do nothing for no terrour or torment ever to become a Papist You see what a large distance there is between us in Opinion Yet for my part I do not take upon me to fore-judge you or any other that doth not with an evil Mind and self condemning Conscience only to maintain a Faction differ from that which I am perswaded is the right I account we hold one and the same Faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and by him in the blessed Trinity To his Judgment we stand or fall Incomparably more and of more importance are those things wherein we agree than those wherein we dissent Let us follow therefore the things of peace and of mutual edification If any be otherwise minded than he ought God shall reveal that also to him If any be weak or fallen God is able to raise him up And of you good Mr. Waddesworth and the rest of my Masters and Brethren of that side one thing I would again desire that according to the Apostles profession of himself you would forbear to be Lords over our Faith nor straightway condemn of Heresie our ignorance or lack or perswasion concerning such things as we cannot perceive to be founded in holy Scripture Enjoy your own Opinions but make them not Articles of our Faith the analogy whereof is broken as well by Addition as Substraction And this self same equity we desire to find in positive Laws Orders and Ceremonies Wherein as every Church hath full right to prescribe that which is decent and to edification and to reform abuse so those that are Members of each are to follow what is enjoyned till by the same Authority it be reversed And now to close up this Account of yours whereof you would have Dr. Hall and me to be as it were Examiners and Auditors Whether it be perfect and allowable or no look you to it I have here told you mine opinion of it as directly plainly and freely as I can and as you required fully if not tediously I list not to contend with you about it Satisfie your own Conscience and our common Lord and Master and you shall easily satisfie me Once yet by my advice review it and cast it over again And if in the particulars you find you have taken many nullities for signifying Numbers many smallâ—r signifiers for greater correct the total If you find namely that out of desire of Vnity and dislike of contention you have apprehended our diversities to be more than they are conceived a necessity of an external infallible Iudge where there was none attributed the priviledge of the Church properly called to that which is visible and mixt If you find the reformed Churches more charitable the proper note of Christs Sheep The Roman Faction more fraudulent and that by publick counsel and of politick purpose in framing not only all later Writers but some antient yea the Holy Scriptures for their advantage If you find you have mistaken the Protestants Doctrine touching invisibility your own also touching uniformity in matters of Faith If you have been misinformed and too hasty of credit touching the imputations laid to the beginners of Reformation For as touching the want of Succession and the fabulous Ordination at the Nags-head I hope you will not be stiff and persist in your error but confess and condemn it in your self If as I began to say you find these things to be thus give glory to God that hath heard your Prayer entreating direction in his holy Truth and withhold not that truth of his in unrighteousness Unto him that is able to restore and establish you yea to consummate and perfect you according to his almighty power and unspeakable goodness toward his elect in Christ Jesus I do from my Heart commend you and rest you Your very loving Brother in Christ Iesu W. Bedell FINIS * Who is dead since this was first written The worthy person here meant is dead since this was put in the Press but both his Name and a more particular account of him as it well deserves a Book by it self so will perhaps be given on another occasion This seems to be but the half of the Letter by the beginning See at the end Numb 1. See at the end Numb 1. Se at the end Numb 3. Prov. 26.5 Object Resp. 1. Resp. 2. Resp. 3. 2 Tim. 2.25 Prov. 19.11 John 3.18.36.5.24 John 3. ult John 14.21.23 De justifica lib. 5. cap. 7. 1 Tim. 3.15 1 Kings 19.18 John 18.15 16. Dan. 1. v. 16.2 Object Epistola 69. Answ. Joh. 20.23 Joh. 13.35 2 Thes. 2.11 Ezâ—â— 1.1 C. 6.3 7.12 Neh. 2.18 C. 10.37 13.10 2 Cor. 5.2 1 John 5.13 1 Kings 18.21 Et qui tardiùs ambulant non sunt relinquendi S. Aug. in Epistola 1. Joh. Tract 5. Matt. 18.6 See at the end Numb 4. See p. 77. See p. 79. Concil Trident eviscâ—rator Chap. I. Chap. II. Chap. III. Chap. IV. Chap. V. Chap. VI. Chap. VII Chap. VIII Chap. IX Chap. X. Chap. XI Chap. XII * Even for us also hath Christ dyed and for our Redemption haâ—h he shed his Blood Sinners indeed we are but of his Flock and among his pâ—or Sheep are we numbered * even so come Lord Jesus †I pray see within how short a compass he proves himself a Poetical Railer by his Epithets not only against me but reviling a whole Nation and the Religion of the best part of all Christendom †I pray see within how short a compass he proves himself a Poetical Railer by his Epithets not only against me but reviling a whole Nation and the Religion of the best part of all Christendom * This mock if it were true yet would I rejoyce in it not only to â—it on his Stairs but to make clean his shooes †I termed him a poetical Railer not accusing nor honouring him for a Poet but taxing him for railing poetically using the word as sometimes it is in the worst sense when it is abused neither condemning Poetry nor appâ—oving him for a Poet but a poetical Railer As he doth himself by that Epistle and by this bitter Letter * I willingly pardon all his poetical railing and false Epithetes for that one true word acknowledging S. Bernard to be devout †Pardon for S. Bernards sake * A brave Man at arms c. ‖ Pardon for S. Bernards sake †I would there were not * Satis pro imperio †This appears by your railing on him as he that justified himself from swearing by loud swearing By God he did not
might have cleared all controversies and put all Heresies to silence How durst sundry holy and learned Men have rejected his decisions whether right or wrong is not now the question unchristianly out of doubt on their parts if he had been then holden the infallible Oracle of our Religion As when Polycrates with the Bishops of Asia and Irenaeus also yielded not to Victor excommunicating the Eastern Churches about the celebration of Easter when S. Cyprian with the first Council of Carthage of eighty six Bishops had Decreed That such as were baptized by Hereticks should be rebaptized and certified Stephanus of this Decree and he opposed it and would have nothing innovated would Cyprian after that have resisted and confuted Stephanus his Letter had he known him for infallible And how doth he confute him as erring writing impertinently contrary to himself Yea let it be observed that he doth not only not account Stephanus infallible but not so much as a Judge over any Bishop See the Vote of Cyprian and note those Words Neque enim quisquam nostrum Episcopum se esse Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adigit quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis potestatis suae arbitrium proprium tanquam judicari ab alio non possit cum nec ipse possit alterum judicare Sed exspectemus universi judicium Domini nostri Iesu Christi qui unus solus habet potestatem praeponendi in Ecclesiae suae gubernatione de actu nostro judicandi A passage worthy to be noted also for the clearing of the independence of Episcopal Authority from the Pope which I now let pass Neither was S. Cyprian herein alone Firmilianus and the Eastern Bishops resisted Stephanus no less as appears by his Epistle which in the Roman Edition of Manutius set forth by the command of Pius the Fourth with the survey of four Cardinals whereof one is now a Saint with exquisite diligence is wholly left out And Pamelius saith he thinks purposely for himself is of the mind that it had been better it had never come forth But to return to our purpose The Fathers of the Council of Africk and S. Augustine amongst them resist three Popes succeeding each other Zosimus Boniface and Coelestinus about appeals to Rome shall we think they would ever have done it if they had known or imagined them to be the supream and infallible Judges in the Church I let pass the Schism between the Greek and the Latin Church which had not happened if this Doctrine had been anciently received Nay it is very plain in Story that the Bishop of Rome's lifting up himself to be universal Bishop chiefly caused it To conclude neither Liberius nor Honorius to omit many other Bishops of Rome had ever been taxed of heresie if this had anciently been currant that the Pope is infallible I will not stand now to examine the shameful defence that Bellarmine makes for the latter of these bearing down Fathers Councils Stories Popes themselves as all falsified or deceived herein Wherein because he is learnedly refuted by Dr. Raynolds I insist not upon it This I press That all those Writers and Councils and amongst them Pope Leo the Second accursing Honorius did not then hold that which by Pighius and the Iesuites is undertaken that the Pope is infallible Even the Council of Basil deposing Eugenius for obstinately resisting this Truth of the Catholick Faith That the Council is above the Pope as an Heretick doth shew the sense of Christendom even in these latter times how corrupt soever both in Rule and Practice And because you make this infallible Judge to be also an infallible Interpreter of Holy Scripture how happens it that Damasus Bishop of Rome consults with Hierome about the meaning of sundry Texts of Scripture when it seems himself might have taken his Pen and set him down quickly that which should have taught both him and the whole Church not only without danger but even possibility of error Sure we are little beholding to the diligence of our Ancestors that have not more carefully registred the Comentaries or because they have had for sundry Ages small time to write just Commentaries the Expositions which in their Sermons or otherwise the Bishops of Rome have made of Holy Scripture A work which if this Doctrine were true were more worth than all the Fathers and would justifie that blasphemy of the Canon Law where by a shameful corruption of S. Augustine the Decretals of Popes are inrolled amongst the Canonical Scriptures I am already too long in so plain a matter Yet one proof more which is of all most sensible Being admonished by this your conceit of an infallible Interpreter I chanced to turn over the Popes Decretals and observed the interpretation of Scriptures What shall I say I find them so lewd and clean beside the purpose yea oftentimes so childish and ridiculous both in giving the sense and in the application that I protest to you in the presence of God nothing doth more loath me of Popery than the handling of Holy Scripture by your infallible Interpreter alone Consider a few of the particulars and especially such as concern the Popes own Authority To justifie his exacting an Oath of Fealty of an Archbishop to whom he grants the Pall is brought our Lord Iesus Christ who committing the care of his Sheep to Peter did put too a condition saying Si diligis me pasce oves meas Christ said If thou lovest me feed my Sheep Why may not the Pope say If you will swear me fealty you shall have the Pall. But first he corrupts the Text Christ said not If thou lovest me Then Christ puts not Peters love as a condition of Feeding but feeding as a proof and effect of his love And if the feeding of Christs sheep were sought love to him and them might suffice to be professed or if he would needs have more than Christ required to be sworn What is this to the Oath of Fealty Straight after to the Objection that all Oaths are prohibited by Christ nor any such thing can be found appointed by the Apostles after the Lord or in the Councils he urges the Words following in the Text Swear not at all quod amplius est à malo est that is saith he Evil compels us by Christs permission to exact more Is it not evil to go from the Popes obedience to condemn Bishops without his privity to translate Bishops by the Kings commandment See the place and tell me of your Interpreters Infallibility Treating of the Translation of Bishops or such as are elected unto other Sees he saith That since the spiritual Band is stronger than the carnal it cannot be doubted but Almighty God hath reserved the dissolution of the spiritual Marriage that is betwixt a Bishop and his Church to his own judgment alone charging that whom God hath joyned man