all that is called God or worshipped And consequently that Rome where he hath settled his Chayre hath long since begun and yet continueth to be that Babylon from whose communion we are charged to sever our selves by that voyce from Heaven Apoc. 18.4 Goe out of her my People that ye be not partakers of her sinnes and receive not of her Plagues The judgement of the Primate wrot by him long agoe in answer to the request of a learned Friend what is meant by the beast that was and is not and yet is and other passages in the 17. and 18. of the Revelation IN the Revelation these four Particalars must be carefully distinguished The woman which is the great City Babylon The first beast which ariseth out of the Sea Apoc. 13.1 The second beast which ariseth out of the Earth Apoc. 13.11 and the false Prophet which ministreth to the second beast that goeth to destruction Apoc. 16.13 19.20 by which are meant as I conceive Vrbs Romana Imperium Romanum Pontifex Romanus and Clerus Romanus The two beasts in Cap. 13. verse 11. are plainly distinguished and that distinction must necessarily be observed in the seventeenth Chapter Likewise for the great beast mentioned in the third and seventh verses of that Chapter is the same with the first beast of the thirteenth Chapter as appeareth by the like description of the seven heads and ten horns the lesser beasts mentioned in the eighth and eleventh verses which is the last head of the former can be no other but the second beast mentioned in the thirteenth Chapter verse 22. who revived the Image of the former i. e. of the Empire and made all to admire and adore it Now the Question is how this latter which is Pontifex Romanus can be said to be the beast that was and is not and yet is My conceit of this is Singular but such as it is I will not conceal from you The Pontifices among the ancient Rom. as Dionysius Halicarnassaeus noâ—eth in his second Book of Roman Antiquities were obnoxious to no other jurisdiction neither were bound to render account of their doings to any they were only at the command of the Pontifex maximus whose authority was so great that the Emperours thought it inconvenient that this Supremacy should be committed to any other therefore by assumeing it to themselves and anexing it to their imperial Crown they did by this means extinguish the Spiritual Magistracie and in a sort extinguish the solemne Magistracy which under the 5. former heads was distinguished from all other superiour Governments and prosecuted with special regard and reverence That as if now for example in our state one should Prophesie of the Government of the Dukes of Lancaster under the like Type he might say of them in this manner The beast that was for the Dukes of Lancaster in their time have been great and is not for by annexing of the Dutchey to the Crown there is now no speech of any Duke and yet is for the Dutchey still remaineth with the several offices appertaining thereunto though the state of the Duke lieth as it were drowned in the person of the King So in like manner the Angel might speak of these Pontifices Romani the beast that was for he was in former time of speciall account And is not Being now confounded and in a manner swallowed up with the state of the Emperour And yet is for the Priest-hood remained still the Title and Dignity thereof resting in the Emperour This Beast this Pontifex Romanus shall hereafter appear in his Pontificalibus and by his creatures the false Prophet induce the world to accept his Pontifical power for the highest upon earth as before they did the Imperial the image whereof is in this perfectly revived As for the second we are to consider that the seven heads of the first beast are expounded Apoc. 17.9 10. to be both the seven Mountains on which the woman i. e. the great City verse 18. was seated and the seven Kings or head Governours by which that City was ruled The Pope in regard of his Civil power over the woman i. e. his Regall Power over the City of Rome orderly succeedeth the six heads that went before him and so becometh the seventh claiming that respect in higher headship then did his Predecessors But not content with that for whereas the state of Pontifex maximus which in Saint Johns time after a sort was and is not as hath been shewed by means of the Christian Emperors was clean extinguisht the first of them bearing only the Title but not exercising the Office and Gratian the Emperour at last abolishing both the Title and the Office as by Zosimus a heathen Historian we understand the Pope raised it again out of the grave and took it to himself and after he had gotten to be the seventh head retained not the pontificality as an appendant of his regall Power as did the Emperours before him but advanced the head thereof far above any of the seven civil supreme governments making himself by that means an eight head distinct from any of the former which in respect of his civil Power was one of the seven Neither was he content to extend the jurisdiction of his Pontificality ad urbem regiones suburbicarias onely or to bound it within the confines of Italy but which was never done by any Pontifex maximus before him by being Pontifex urbis he challenged a Title of Summus Pontifex Orbis and so became not onely a head of the former beast but also a severall beast by himself receiving in his government the image of the former beasts drawing all the world to worship the same for as Augustinus Steuchus writeth in his second Book against Laur. Valla when the Pontificality was first set up in Rome all Nations from East to West did worship the Pope no otherwise then of old the Caesars A SERMON Preached at Christ-Church Dublyn before the Lord Deputie and the Parliament of Ireland by BP BEDELL Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Anno 1634. Revel 18.4 And I heard another voyce from Heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues Right Honorable Reverend Worshipful and Beloved THe Censure that Saint Hierome passeth on this Book of the Revelation Tot Sacramenta quot Verba so many Words so many Mysteries hath often run in my mind and made me even fearful to pronounce concerning the divers Visions in it and even loath to meddle with it Neither have I to my best rememberance above twice in my whole life chosen any Text out of it to declare out of this place which resolution I should stil have holden save that I conceive some extraordinary fitness in this passage for the present occasion of this great meeting And yet even now I shall treat of such a part as is none of the hardest to be understood so as with out
be a certain great City called Babylon in a Mysterie Proof THis we finde directly laid down in the Revelation that a a Apoc. 17. v. 18. 18 v. 2. 21. great Citie called b Apoc. 17.5 in a mystery Babylon should become the mother of the spiritual whoredome and abominations of the earth so that the c Apoc. 17 2. 18. v. 3. Kings of the earth should commit fornication with her and the Inhabitants of the earth should be made drunke with the wine of her fornication The second Position THat by this great City Babylon the Mother of all the abominations of the earth is understood Rome Proof 1. BY the clear Testimony of Scripture in the seventeen Chapter of the Revelation where this City is described unto us First by the situation that it is seated upon seven Hills v. 9.18 and then by the largeness of the Dominion thereof That it is that great Citie that ruleth over the Kings of the earth v. 18. Now that by these two marks Rome was most notoriously known in the Apostles dayes may appear even by the Romane Poets who describe Rome just after the same manner as d Horat. in Car. seculari Dii quibus septem placuere colles Ovid Sed quae de septem totum circumspicit orbem Montibus imperii Roma Deumque locus Trist lib. 1. Eleg. 4. Lib. 3. Eleg 10. Rome the place of the Empire and of the Gods which from seven hills doth take a view of the whole world And more shortly Propertius Septem urbs alta jugis toti quae prafidet Orbi The City mounted on seven hils which ruleth the whole world No man reading Propertius ever made question but that Rome was here described and therefore no reason why any doubt should be made what that great Citie may be which with the same colours is painted out unto us in the book of the Revelation 2. By the judgement of the anancient Fathers affirming expresly that Rome is meant by Babylon in the seventeenth Chapter of the Revelation as the Rhemists themselves doe voluntarily confess in their last note upon the first Epistle of Peter 3. By the Confession of those who are most Devoted to the See of Rome as to name one for many e De Rom. Pontif. lib. 2. cap. 2. Bellarmine the Cardinal Jesuite whose words are these John in the Revelation every where calleth Rome Babylon as Tertullian hath noted in his third Book against Marcion and in his Book against the Jewes and it is plainly gathered out of the seventeenth Chapter of the Revelation Where great Babylon is said to sit upon seven Mountains and to have Dominion over the Kings of the earth For there is no other City which in the time of John had Dominion over the Kings of the Earth but Rome and the building of Rome upon 7. hills is a matter most famous Hitherto Bellarmine The third Position THat old Rome onely under the Heathen persecutors from the time of the first Emperour till Constantines dayes was not Babylon as the Proctors of the Church of Rome would perswade us but Rome in her last dayes being free from the Government both of Heathen and Christian Emperours And that Rome was to be that Babylon which should draw the Kings and Nations of the world unto Superstition and Idolatrie from such time as it ceased to be subject to the civil Prince and became the Possession of the Pope until the last destruction thereof which is yet to come Proof 1. THe matter of Babylon is revealed unto Saint John as a mysterie Apoc 17.6 But the persecution of the Church by the Heathen Emperour was far from being a mysterie For it being openly committed Apoc. 1.9 Saint Iohn himself at the same time being a companion with the rest of the Saints in this tribulation banished for the Word of God and for the witnessing of Iesus Christ into the Iland Pathmos this could not be shewed as a secret and mystical thing And therefore some further matter not then openly known to the world must here be intended 2. The state of Babylon after her fall is thus declared Apoc. 18.2 It is fallen it is fallen Babylon the great Citie is become the habitation of Devils the hold of all foul spirits and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird for all Nations have drunken of the wine of the wrath of her fornication and the Kings of the Earth have committed fornication with her c. If Heathen Rome onely were Babylon it would follow that upon the fall thereof in the dayes of Constantine the Emperour Rome professing the Faith of Christ should then become the habitation of Devils and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird Which being a most grosse and absurd imagination it must needs be granted that afte◠〈◊〉 â—ayes of the Christian Emperouâ— the faithful Citie should become a harlot even Rome whose Faith was once renowned throughout Romans 1.8 all the world should become Babylon the mother of whoredomes and abominations of the Earth Apoc. 17.5 3. Such a Desolation is foretold should come upon the great City Babylon which in the second position is proved to be Rome that it should utterly be destroyed and never built again nor reinhabited Apoc. 18. v. 21 22 23. Now at that very time when this judgement shall come it is said that the Kings of the Earth which have committed fornication with her shall bewail her and lament her Rev. 18. verse 9. whereby it is most evident that Rome is not to cease from being Babylon till her last destruction shall come upon her and that unto her last gaspe she is to continue her spiritual fornications alluring all Nations unto her superstition and idolatrie 4. Saint Paul 2 Thessalonians 2.7 Declareth that there was One in his time who did hinder the revealing of that wicked man who was to be the head of this Apostacie and falling away from the Faith And when that he should be taken out of the way then saith the Apostle Verse 8. Shall that wicked man be revealed He that with-held and made this hinderance in the Apostles time could be no other but the Emperour in whose hands as long as the possession and governement of Rome remained it was impossible that that wicked One of whom the Apostle speaketh should raigne there So that upon his removal that man of sinne must succeede in his roome whereupon that great Citie wherein he placeth his Throne falleth to be that Babylon Revel 18.23 which should deceive all Nations with her inchantments Now all the world can witnesse that the Emperour who sometime was the Soveraigne Lord of Rome is now quite turned out of the Possession thereof and the Pope entered thereupon in his stead Whereupon it followeth that the Pope for all his Holiness is that wicked one of whom the Apostle Prophesied 2 Thess 2.4 that he should sit in the temple of God exalting himself above
excessive decking of Images and Idols with painting gilding adorning with pretious vestures pearles and stones what is it else but for the further provocation and inticement to spiritual fornication whieh the Idolatrous Church understandeth well enough For she being indeed not only an harlot as the Scripture calls her but also a foule filthy old harlot for she is indeed of ancient yeares and understanding her lack of nature and true beauty and great lothsomnesse which of her self she hath she doth after the custome of such harlots paint her self and deck and tire her self with gold pearle stone and all kind of pretious jewels that she shining with the outward beauty and glory of them may please the foolish fantasie of fond lovers and so entice them to spiritual fornication with her Who if they saw her I will not say naked but in simple apparel would abhorre her as the foulest and filthiest harlot that ever was seen According as appeareth by the description of the garnishing of the great strumpet of all strumpets the Mother of whoredomes set forth by Saint John in his Revelation Apoc. 17. who by her glory provoked the Princes of the earth to commit whoredome with her c. and it followeth pag. 77. And it is not enough to deck Idols but at the last come in the Priests themselves likewise decked with gold and pearle and with a solemn pace they pass forth before these golden puppets and fall down to the ground on their marrow-bones before these honourable Idols and then rising up again offer up odours and incense to them c. He that reads the whole cannot judge of it to be meant otherwise then of the Papacy And if the fifth and sixth part of the Sermon against wilful rebellion be viewed there will be found such a large narration of the pride and ambition of the Bishop of Rome that there will not need any further help to an application of that 2 Thes 2. to him which thus beginneth viz. After that ambition and desire of dominion entred once into Ecclesiastical Ministers whose greatnesse after the doctrine and the example of our Saviour should chiefly stand in humbling themselves And that the Bishop of Rome did by intolerable ambition challenge not only to be the head of all the Church dispersed throughout the world but also to be Lord of all kingdoms of the world as is expressely set forth in the book of his own Canon-Lawes He became at once the spoyler and destroyer both of the Church which is the kingdom of our Saviour Christ and of the Christian Empire and all Christian kingdomes as an universal Tyrant over all The particulars of whose actions to that end are there related viz. The Bishop of Rome stirring up subjects to rebell against their Soveraigne Lords even the Son against the Father pronouncing such Schismaticks and persecuting them who refused to acknowledge his above-said challenge of supreme authority over them discharging them from their oath of fidelity made not only to the Emperour but to other Kings and Princes throughout Christendome The most cruell and bloody wars raised amongst Christian Princes of all kingdoms the horrible murder of infinite thousands of Christian men being slain by Christians the losse of so many great Cities Countries Dominions and Kingdomes sometimes possessed by Christians in Asia Affrick and Europe The miserable fall of the Empire and Church of Greece sometime the most flourishing part of Christendom into the hands of the Turks The lamentable diminishing decay and ruine of Christian Religion and all by the practice and procurement of the Bishop of Rome chiefly which is in the Histories and Chronicles written by the Bishop of Rome 's own favourites and friends to be seen claiming also to have divers Princes and Kings to their vassals liege men and subjects c. behaving themselves more like Kings and Emperours in all things then remained like Priests Bishops and Ecclesiastical or as they would be called spiritual persons in any one thing at all c. and so concludes with an exhortation of all good subjects knowing those the speciall instruments of the Devill to the stirring up of all Rebellion to avoid and flee them Is not this a full description of the pride of that man of sinne 2 Thess 2. in exalting himselfe above all Kings and Princes and that son of perdition being understood actively who was the cause of the perdition or losse of so many thousands of Christian mens lives And in the sixth part of the same Sermon you have a more particular relation of the Bishop of Rome 's blood-shed according to the description of that Harlot Revel 17.6 in these words viz. And as these ambitious usurpers the Bishops of Rome have overflowed all Italy and Germany with streams of Christian blood shed by the rebellions of ignorant subjects against their naturall Lords and Emperours whom they have stirred thereunto by false pretences so is there no Countrey in Christendome which by the like means of false pretences hath not been over-sprinkled with the blood of subjects by rebellion against their naturall Soveraigns stirred up by the same Bishops of Rome c. And in conclusion as the Sermon often entitles the Bishops of Rome unsatiable wolfes and their Adherents Romish greedy wolfes so doth it in speciall call the See of Rome the Babylonicall beast in these words viz. The Bishop of Rome understanding the bruit blindnesse ignorance and superstition of the English in King Johns time and how much they were inclined to worship the Babilonical beast of Rome and to fear all his threatnings and causelesse curses he abused them thus c. I have transcribed these the more largely out of the Book of Homilies both that such as have rejected them as Popish may see their errour and those that now so much favour the See of Rome that they call such language railing may have their mouthes stopped being it is from the mouth of the Church of England in her Homilies which is a good warrant for her sons to say after her Let the Reader judge whether these passages do not confirme rather then contradict or be contrary as Doctor Heylene saith to the Articles of Ireland and the Primates judgement of the See of Rome I shall only alledge one passage more and that is in the conclusion of the second part of the Sermon for Whit-sunday viz. Wicked and nought were the Popes and Prelates of Rome for the most part as doth well appear by the story of their lives and therefore worthily accounted among the number of false Prophets and false Christs which deceived the world a long while the Lord defend us from their Tyranny and pride that they may never enter into this Vineyard again but that they may be utterly confounded and put to flight in all parts of the world And he of his great mercy so work that the Gospel of his Son may be truly preached to the beating down of sin death the Pope the Devill
and all the kingdome of Antichrist c. This latter passage is only produced by Doctor Heylene as an evidence that the Pope is not declared to be Antichrist either here or any where else in the book of Articles or Homilies which how the force of it can be extended so farre beyond its own sphere doth not appeare For his principal argument that he finds here the Pope and Antichrist distinguished as much as the Devil and the Pope 'T is answered The destinction here is not between the Pope and Antichrist but between him and his Antichristian kingdom for the words are not the Pope the Divell and Antichrist but and all the kingdome of Antichrist That Universality all comprehending both head and members And if we should allow a Duumvirate in the Pope and Devill for the government of that kingdom one as the visible head the other as the invisible or the one him that reigneth the other by whom he receiveth power so to do Rev. 13.4 both might be thus owned without infringing the title of either Howsoever 't is not the arguings from such niceties in the placing of words which the book of Homilies are not strict in as might be shewed in several instances but the observation of the scope and drift of the place the comparing it with others the concurrance of the judgement of severall eminent Bishops afore-cited who cannot be imagined to declare against the doctrine of it will carry the sense of it accordingly with the judicious and unbiassed Reader and so much for the book of Homilies Unto which I might also adde the opinion of some learned men liveing and dying within the outward communion of the Church of Rome To instance onely in Padrio Paulo who wrote the History of the Councill of Trent After whose stabbing by an Emissarie from Rome many of the Clergy of Venice brake out into that application calling that See Impura insana superba meretrix pestis ac lues mortalium and her ruine to be expected according to Rvelat 18. Some of the verses are printed at the end of the Interdict writ by Padrio Paulo and translated out of Italian into Latin by Bishop Bedell who was often an ear-witnsse when he lived in those parts of divers learned men producing that of 2 Thes 2. the man of sin who exalts himself above all c. and shall sit in the Temple of God c. both as an argument that the Bishop of Rome is the person sitting and that those who are oppressed and tyrannised over by him are (u) Calvin Epist 104. Under the Papacy some Church remaineth a Church crazed forlorne mistaken yet some Church his reason is Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God which is cited by Mr. Hooker Instit Sect. 27. Gehazi a man though over-run with a Leprosy and to be shunned as unclean Antichristianismus est morbus in Christianismo the Church of God and from thence rejecting any application to Mahumet and fixing it upon the Bishop of Rome some questioning Is it he or shall we look for another others saying as the Jewes of the blind man This is one very like him but many This is he Which puts me in mind of the confident assertion of Cardinal Perron who affirms that whosoever maintaineth this wicked doctrine that Popes have no power to put Kings by their supreme thrones they teach men to beleeve that there hath not been any Church for many ages past and that indeed the Church is the very Synagogue of Antichrist and the Pope in good consequence to be the Antichrist which Oration the Cardinal himselfe addressed to King James upon a supposition it might have converted him See King James Preface to the defence of the right of Kings * The words of the Cardinal are these viz. by this Article i. e. that Kings are not deposable by the Pope we are cast headlong into a manifest heresie as binding us to confesse that for many ages past the Catholick Church hath been banished out of the whole world for if the Champions of the doctrine contrary to this Article do hold an impious detestable opinion contrary to Gods word then doubtless the Pope for so many hundred years expired hath not been the head of the Church but an heretick and the Antichrist p. 453. Now whereas both sides as you have heard are agreed upon the place to be Rome which checks the phansie of such as would apply it to Constantinople or to persons that never were at either I shall only confirm it out of one of the Popish Writers who hath quoted most of the rest to save the Reader any farther labour if he hath a mind to satisfie himself in it 't is Tyrinus the Jesuit in his Commentary upon the 17. Revelat. Where comparing the vision of the beast with 7 heads and 10 hornes cap. 13. with that of the 17. and granting it to be meant of the same like Pharaoh's dreames the seven eares of corne and the seven kine were both one then for the vision there he saith by the great harlot whose Mystical name is Babylon cannot possibly be meant of any other then Rome 't is plain saith he she sits upon (x) The usual stile of the Sybils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Roma septicollis in Plutarch Varro a Festival among the Romans called dies septem montium Tertul. in his time calls the people of Rome the people of the seven hills Ipsam vernaculam septem collium plebem convenio Apol. l. 35. seven Mountains and raigns over the Kings of the earth which can agree to no other city besides And urgeth that place of Saint Peter 2 Peter 5.13 the Church which is at Babylon salutes you to be meant of Rome for as Bishop Andrewes observes (x) Ita avidè avent homines hii Petrum Romae alicubi in Scripturâ reperire potius ut Babylonem velint esse Romam ubi Petrus fuit quam ut Petrus Romae non fuerit Valde enim illorum interest ad caput fidei ut Petrus Romae credatur fuisse c. Tort. Torti p 183. rather then Peter should not be at Rome which they have slender or no proofes for out of Scripture but yet is of great consequence to the Papacy they will confesse it to be Babylon And though 2 Thes 2. he saith the Temple of God where the man of sinne sits is Jerusalem yet here his seat of Babylon must be Rome Produceth the expresse Testimonies of the Fathers for it Lactantius Tertullian Jerome Ambrose Augustine c. and saith he even our hereticks meaning the Protestant Writers for after the same way he calls heresie so worship we the God of our Fathers and in conclusion produceth most of his own associates the Writers of the Church of Rome Sixtus Senensis Bellarmine Bozius Zuarez Salmeran Alcazar unto which I may adde Baronius (y) Certissimum esse nomine Babylonis Romam urbem significari Anno 45. n. 18. 'T
duty we owe to the person we pray unto c. This saith that worthy and judicious Writer Mr. Hildersham I can but wonder upon what pretence such a man could be silenced as he wrot himselfe to the Primate Anno 1630. I conclude only with an exhortation to decency and a reverent comelinesse in our solemne meetings that devotion and prudence may kisse each other that while the soule is lifted up in prayer the body may be humbled and the whole man presented to God as an acceptable sacrifice that unity and uniformity in doctrine and worship may be found among us and that we may all be of one heart and one mind Consider what hath been said and the Lord give us understanding and moderation in all things A CHARACTER of Bishop Bedell late Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland UPon the occasion of publishing this Sermon of his on Revel 18.4 I have thought fit to give this exemplary character of him Somewhat of his life is already extant within that of Sir Henry Wottons the enlargement of which I leave to the prudence of others onely thus much in brief He was Fellow of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge where he was one of the eight that commenced Batchellours of Divinity of that house in one yeare whereof Bishop Hall and Doctor Ward were two between whom and him there was a continuall intercourse of Letters to their last From that Colledge and Vniversity he had that Character given him of learning and prudence that he was chosen to go with the Embassadour Sir Henry Wotton unto Venice What the fruits of his some yeares being there produced upon Padre Paulo and other learned men sufficiently appears by the testimony given of him in a letter of the Embassadors hereunto annexed The Interdict of Venice wrot by the foresaid Authour he translated out of Italian into Latin for whose use he also translated the book of Common Prayer into Italian and made an English Grammar which I have seen writ with his own hand After his return from Venice were wrot those learned Letters of his to Mr. Wadesworth who at the same time going with the Embassadour into Spain had been withdrawn to the See of Rome whose temper and meeknesse of stile to an Apostate I wish were so far exemplary with some Writers among our selves as to abate that heat and bitternesse which hath broke forth in matters of lesse consequence At his Benefice of Horningesh-earth near St. Edm. Bury in Suffolk he continued long in great esteem sometimes chosen by the Diocesse to be a member of the Convocation Upon the death of Sir William Temple Provost of the Colledge in Dublin the late Primate wrot earnestly to him to accept of it being unanimously chosen by the Fellowes During his abode there he performed the duty of the Catechist preached a Lecture Sermon once a week in Christ Church He was not long Provost but he was promoted to be Bishop of Kilmore where I being then the Dean it gave me the occasion to be more known to him In relation to the Liturgie of the Church of England he gave this direction viz. to observe whatsoever was enjoyned in the Rubrick without addition or diminution not to be led by custome but by rule And in speciall he ordered that the whole Doxology to the blessed Trinity Glory be to the Father c. should be alwayes read by the Minister alone without the respond of the people and the like for the Psalms Te Deum c. with the rest appointed to be read between and after the Lessons though the custome had prevailed otherwise in most Churches The Communion Table was placed by him not at the East end but within the body of the Chancell and for other Innovations elsewhere introduced he observed them not His judgement being that those were as well Non-conformists who added of their own as those who came short of what was enjoyned as he that addes an inch to the measure disownes it for a rule as well as he that cuts an inch off He was a careful observer of the Lords Day both in the publick and private at one of the clock in the after-noon he had then the Book of Common-Prayer read in the Irish tongue in the Church for the benefit of the Irish at which he was constantly present himself who in that little space had obtained the knowledge of the language And as the New Testament had been long before translated into Irish so had he caused the Old Testam to be accordingly was almost ready for the press And Whereas Doctor Heylene hath censured the late Primate very liberally for his approbation of the Articles of Ireland he must take Bishop Bedell into the number also who was so much for them that I was present when at the examination of an * Mr. Thomas Price then Fellow of the Colledge of Dublin who afterwards suffered much in the same Diocesse by the Rebellion of Iâ—eland and is yet living in Wales able Minister then to be ordained he did in the Church examin him in each or most of the Articles in a solemn meeting of the Clergy of that Diocesse for that end at least 2 full hours whereby our votes might be also given for his approbation At his Courts of Jurisdiction he frequently sate himself where he caused alwayes some of the Clergy if any were there to sit covered on each side of him with liberty to give their opinion in each case and at a sentence he asked their votes man by man In some degree reducing then his Episcopall to a Synodicall Government according to the Primates proposall by way of accommodation an 1641. It was his custome usually on the Lords dayes to preach upon those select portions of Scripture commonly called the Epistles and Gospels of the day At the Visitations he usually preached himselfe The Procurations were bestowed in defraying the charges of the Ministers and the rest given to some pious uses After dinner and supper a Chapter was constantly read at his Table and some time spent by him in opening some difficulties in it The publick Catechisme he had branched out into 52 parts whereof he appointed one to be constantly explain'd in the Afternoons in each Church within his Diocess He was very indulgent to the Irish Natives in the preferring and encouraging of them for the Ministery and yet such was their Ingratitude i. e. the Popish party that in that horrid rebellion 1641. they exempted him not from their rapine but seized upon his cattle pillaged his house ransack't and spoyled his Library put him into a Castle standing in a Lough called Lough-outre about a mile and a halfe from his house where he was imprisoned that winter And at length being permitted to come out died in a poor house of one who was an Irish-man and a Protestant and continued faithfull to him by whose means an Hebrew manuscript Bible of his which he brought from Venice was preserved and is now in Emmanuel
Colledge Library in Cambridge He was buried acccording to his own appointment in the Church-yard of the Cathedral of Kilmore where he had caused his wife and son some years before to be buried His judgement being against burials in Churches as an abuse introduced by pride superstition I conclude only with this if the Moderation of this Bishop had been observed elsewhere I believe Episcopacy might have been kept upon its wheeles A Letter of Sir Henry Wottons to the late King in the behalf of Bishop Bedel when he was desired by the Archbishop of Armagh to accept of the Provostship of Dublin Colledge in Ireland which hath been lately published in the Life of Sir Henry Wotton May it please your most Gracious Majesty HAving been informed that certain persons have by the good wishes of the Arch-Bishop of Armagh been directed hither with a most humble Petition unto your Majesty that you will be pleased to make Mr. William Bedell now resident upon a small Benefice in Suffolk Governour of your Colledg at Dublin for the good of that society and my self being required to render unto your Majesty some testimony of the said William Bedell who was long my Chaplain at Venice in the time of my employment there I am bound in all conscience and truth so far as your Majesty will vouchsafe to accept my poore judgement to affirm of him that I think hardly a fitter man for that charge could have been propounded unto your Majesty in your whole Kingdom for singular erudition and piety Conformitie to the rites of the Church and Zeal to advance the Cause of God wherein his Travels abroad were not obscure in the time of the Excommunication of the Venetians For may it please your Majesty to know that this is the man whom Padro Paule took I may say into his very soule with whom he did communicate the inwardest thoughts of his heart from whom he professed to have received more knowledge in all Divinity both Scholastical and positive then from any that he had ever practiced in his dayes of which all the passages were well known to the King your Father of most blessed memory And so with your Majesties good favour I will end this needlesse office for the generall fame of his Learning his Life and Christian temper and those religious labours which himself hath dedicated to your Majesty do better describe him then I am able Your Majesties most humble and faithfull Servant H. WOTTON A Postscript Mr. Thomas Pierce hath in an Appendage to a late book of his printed five Letters wrot unto me by him in each of which I cannot but much acknowledge his respects to me To the four first I gave little else but brief returnes of the like to him which consisting chiefly either in the asserting of the nearnesse of his judgement to the Primates or the remotenesse of Mr. Barlees I did not conceive it fitting for me to interpose and where there was a professed full agreement it was no good office in me to make a difference Now for those the cause rendred of his not publishing them is good there being nothing as he saith needfull or of concernment in any one of them Only to the fifth of his wherein three Certificates are published as testimonies to confirm his former assertion of a late change of judgment in the Primate with other applicatory passages from thence I did return him a larger answer in this Letter following excepting some few circumstantiall alterations having then no imagination that either of them should have bin made publick And I have as little mind to it now only by the provocation of divers of my Friends who conceive the Primate suffers in the interpretation of many by the silence of it I have been compelled upon this occasion to put forth this brief defence of him without any offence to Mr. Pierce For his Appendage wherein his respects to me are rather encreased then lessened I have thought fit to clear one passage He saith I have spoken indiscriminately of Universal Grace and Vniversall Redemption and the place he quotes for it is out of my second Letter to Mr. Barlee p. 64. in these words viz. But that by an Vniversall Redemption should be understood an Vniversall Grace c. will not be attested to have heen affirmed by the Primate c. doth not this clearly imply a distinction to be made between them I am sure I then so intended it And therefore that which he addes immediately after viz. That there is a wide difference between them I do fully concurre with him in it Yet it seems to me that himself puts them together often indiscriminately as in the page before this thrice in one page 86. and p. 88. l. 32. as in his Philanth p. 15. and elsewhere And if I have in any other place done it as in the title of the Letter I was led to it by him In this we have no disagreement and I wish this following Letter may not occasion any which I am forced thus to publish as followeth Doctor Bernards Answer to Mr. Pierces Fifth Letter containing three Certificates produced by him to justifie a late change of judgsment in the Primate of Ireland SIR I Owe you many thanks for the labour you have taken in your last Letter of the 28. of January in transcribing the Certificates of those learned persons which supposing to have been rightly apprehended by them without any mistake of him yet favourably interpreted do not seem to me necessarily to argue what you have apprehended and concluded of the change of judgement in the Primate which I shall now ingenuously give you my sense of without any desire of further dispute or contention about it First for Doctor Waltons where he saith My Lord Primate did declare his utter dislike of the doctrine of absolute reprobation I conceive it may be understood of the Supralapsarian opinion which makes reprobation to be antecedent to the fall of Adam and not only as a Praeterition but a Predamnation for actuall sins That he held the universality of Christs death not onely in respect of sufficiency but also in regard of efficacy so that all men were by that made salvable for so much efficacy I do not deny differs not from that which his letter published doth testifie and that the reason why all men were not thereby saved was because they did not accept of salvation offered is also granted if it be according to his judgement rightly understood viz. of those to whom the Gospel is preached not of Pagans and Infidels That the grace of Conversion was not irresistable but that men did often resist and reject the same may well stand with my Lord Primates Judgement and no wayes opposite to this viz. That it is so effectual that by the decree of his election It is not resisted by the elect and therefore his dissent from Geneva as Doctor Walton certifies is to be understood of Beza not of
spiritual real conversion which he denies to any reprobate Now in this variety of senses you should have done better then thus to chuse the worse for the Primates judgement who was against the Total and final falling away of those who were effectually called truly regenerated and sanctified according to the 38 Article of Ireland And thus I have touched the principal materials in your Letter For that you say some have endeavoured to gain credit to their Calvinistical opinions by their unjust usurpation of the Primates name I could wish those hard expressions tending so much to the distaste of Calvin might be abated whom divers of the most eminent Writers and learned Fathers of our Church whom I suppose you reverence have had in great esteem and usually name him with honour I might quote divers as Arch-Bishop Whitgift Bishop Bilson Bishop Davenant Mr. Hooker Doctor Ward c. but Bishop Andrewes shall suffice who in his determination against usury a case wherein he dissented from Calvin yet thus writes of of him Calvino illustri viro nec unquam sine summi honoris praefatione nominando c. i. e. Calvin an excellent man never to be named without a Preface of the highest honour I wish that spirit of meeknesse and charity found in those old Bishops were doubled upon us in these dayes when we are as much if not more called unto it The contrary may possibly be gratefull to the See of Rome but I do not see what advantage it can be to us For his discipline you may take your liberty which may well be distinguished from his doctrines And for the Primate though I cannot say he was of his judgement in all points yet he had a due respect for him For that which you object again to me as you did in your third Letter viz. my acknowledgeing an enngagement to Mr. Barlee for his readinesse offered in his first Letter unto me to clear the Primate c. did not deserve a repetition being it was in my first to him when he was as much a stranger to me as I was to you only let me say thus much of him How far he had disagreed in his book from the Primates judgement I shall not now enquire but after the receipt of that tractate wherein he read what his was he wrot thus unto me Decemb. 21. 1657. viz. It is true there be some minutiae about which I am not satisfied and shall be glad to have an amicable conference with you However as to the rei summam I do so perfectly agree with the most venerable Primate as that I dare discharge you from all feares of ever having him exposed to my pen and censure c. which I doe the rather thus punctually repeat his words because in short you have mentioned it from me in your fourth Letter And when I had read you both meeting in the Primate I thought it my part to sit down in silence In a word you have with much industry viewed and reviewed the Primates judgement in that point which hath been published but I wish I did not find you making that use of it to endeavour to confirm your former assertion of a change in him in which I am not in the least shaken in mind by what hath passed between us but must still conceive contrary to your expectation in the beginning of your Letter there was a mistake wheresoever it lights which being so gentle an expression and which we are all subject unto I see no cause of any offence either to your self or Certifiers I shall entreat you to let the venerable name as you stile it of that good man rest in peace without any further strife of tongues or pens and let us leave his judgment to his works which do undoubtedly testifie of him and for any further dispute of this subject between us I wish this might be the last as it is the largest and that neither by this nor any other the least breach may be made between us as to love and friendship which upon all occasions shall ever ber readily manifested by Grayes-Inne Febr. 9. 1657. Your assured Friend and Servant N. BERNARD FINIS