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death_n	know_v	life_n	love_v	8,582	5	6.6638	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14614	The copies of certaine letters vvhich haue passed betweene Spaine and England in matter of religion Concerning the generall motiues to the Romane obedience. Betweene Master Iames Wadesworth, a late pensioner of the holy Inquisition in Siuill, and W. Bedell a minister of the Gospell of Iesus Christ in Suffolke.	Wadsworth, James, 1572?-1623.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642. aut; Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1624 (1624)	STC 24925; ESTC S119341	112,807	174

Letters to you did make mee procrastinate my payment till now to my shame you should neede to demand it And that I may by the more shaming my selfe obtaine a more easie penance from you I confesse to you I was sometime halfe in the minde hauing especially differred it so long to suppresse it altogether First out of mine owne naturall disposition who haue euer abhorred contention and whereas in matters of Religion there ought to be the fairest wars I could neuer yet meete with any of that side of so patient a minde but by opposition he would be vnsetled For your selfe though I knew your former moderate temper and as I remember I wrote to Doctor Hall beleeued you in that which you protest that out of conscience you were such as you professe yet me thought I perceiued by your quick manner to him and some passages in the conclusion of your Letter you were rather desirous to enioy the quiet possession of your owne opinion then come to any fur●her disputation whose is the right And in truth the time of that triall had beene proper before your departure nor you had to● farre engaged your selfe and were to iustifie by your constancie the wisedome of your change Besides since the sum of the errour of that side as I haue euer conceiued it is beleeuing rather too much then failing in any point necessary to saluation that notable place of the Apostle Rom. 14. 1. came to my minde especially after that I had once occasion to preach of it where he forbids controuersies of disputations with those that are infirme in faith Who art thou saith he that iudgest another mans seruant he standeth or falleth to his owne Master Why should I grieue you and perhaps make my friend mine enemy as Saint Paul the Galathians by saying the truth The world is full enough of contentious writings which as by your letter appeares you had seen ere ye resolued If those had not satisfied you what could I hope to adde to them These things moued me but as you say they did not yet satisfie me For all men are interessed in the defence of truth how much more he that is called to be a Preacher of it All Christians are admonished by Saint Iude to fight for the faith once giuen to the Saints how much more those that are leaders in this warfare How could I say I loued our Lord Iesus Christ if his honour being questioned I should be silent How could I approue to mine owne soule that I loued you if I sufered you to enioy your owne error suppose not damnable Besides that you and perhaps others also might be confirmed in it perhaps interpreting my silence for a confession that your Motiues were vnanswerable But therein I was not onely resolued selfe to the contrary but thought it so easie to resolue any indifferent minde as me thought it was more shame not to haue done it at the first then praise to doe it at the last As for the successe of my endeauour I was to leaue it to God Many and secret are the wayes of his Prouidence which serueth it selfe sometimes euen of our errours to the safer conduct of vs to our finall happinesse Some I had known and heard of more who being at first carried away with the shewes of Vnity Order Succession Infallability when they found them emptie of Truth and the cloakes of Pride ambition coue●ousnesse ioyned with an obstinacie to defend all corruptions how palpable so euer by finding the difference of these Hulles from their Fathers Table had with the prodigall Son returned home againe To conclude I accounted my selfe still in debt and was I confesse to you unwilling to die in it and somtimes vowed to God in the middest of my troubles if I might once see an end of them to endeuour to discharge it And now hauing by his mercy not onely attained that but a new occasion presented me presently thereupon by your calling for satisfaction to pay it and meanes offered me to send it safely I take this motion to proceede from God and doe humbly desire his Maiesty to turne it to good It remaines therefore good Master Wadesworth that I doe intreat your pardo● of that slacknesse that is past and gentlenesse to take it as I shall be able to pay it My employments both ordinary and extraordinary are many the bulke of it is to great to conuey in one Letter consisting of sundry sheetes of paper and at this present there lies an extraordinary taske vpon me so as I cannot presently writ it out I doe therefore no more now but acknowledge the debt and promise speedy paiment Vnlesse I shall adde this also that I doe vndertake to pay interest for the forbearance and according as I shall vnderstand by Master Austen shall be fittest and safest to send it in parts or all at once To the conclusion of your last Letter wherein you professe your desire to spend the rest of your life rather in the heate of deuotion then of disputation desiring pardon of coldenesse that way and of all other your sinnes and that it would please God to guide and keepe me in all happinesse as your selfe through the redemption of our sweete Sauiour and by the intercession of his holy mother and all Saints I doe most thankefully and willingly subscribe Amen returning vnto you from my heart your owne best wishes Neither is it my purpose to call into question the soliditie of truth or firmenesse of the hope of saluation which you finde in your present way This onely I say Et pro nobis Christus mortuus est pro nostra Redemptione sanguinem suum fudit Peccatores quidem sed de ipsius grege sumus inter eius ouiculas numeramur This is my tenet And if the doctrine of the holy Bible doe containe solid truth and beleeuing in the name of the Son of God doe giue firme hope of saluation according to Gods own record 1 Iohn 5. 10. 11. 12. we are perswaded we haue both I will adde this more We know that wee are translated from death to life because wee loue our brethren With this Oyle in our Lampes which we desire may be alwayes in store in our Vessels also our hearts we attend the comming of the Bridegroome and say cheerefully Etiam veni Domine Iesu. To whose gracious protection I doe most hartily commit you and doe rest Your assured friend and louing Brother W. BEDELL Horningesherth this fifth of August 1619. To the Worshipfull Master WILLIAM BEDELL at Horningesherth neere Saint Edmundsbury in Suffolke these Salutem in Crucifix● WORTHY SIR I Was exceeding glad to perceiue by your kinde modest and discreete Letters of 5. of August last that you are still permanent in your own good nature and constant in your loue to me not like Master Ioseph Hall neither bitterly reuiling nor flourishing impertinently Vnto whom I pray you returne his scoffing railing Letter with these few marginall noates I

most Protestants they mig●t in such a Councell erre and it were possible in their Decrees to be deceiued But if they may erre how should I know and be sure when and wherein they did or did not erre for though on the one side ● posse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet 〈◊〉 valet and on the other side 〈…〉 potentia quae nunquam ducitur in actu● So that 〈◊〉 neither in generall nor in particular in puo●●que 〈◊〉 priuate in head nor members ioynely nor ●euerally you haue no visible externall humane infallible Iudge who cannot erre and to whom I might haue recourse for decision of doubts in matters of faith ● pray let Master Hall tell me where should I haue fixed my foot for God is my witnesse my soule was like Noah Dou● a long time houering desirous to discouer land but seeing nothing but moueable and troublesome deceiueable water I could find no quiet center for my conscience nor any firme foundation for your faith in Protestant Religion Wherfore hearing a sound of harmon●e and consent that the Catholique Church could not erre and that onely in the Catholique Church as in Noahs Arke was infallabilitte and possibilitie of saluation I was so occasioned and I thinke had important reason like Noahs Doue to seeke out and to enter into this Arke 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 erre but the Church of England head and members King Clergie and People as before is said yea a whole Councell of Protestants by their owne grant may erre ergo no true Church If no true Church no saluation in it therefore come out of it but that I was loath to doe Rather I laboured mightily to defend it both against the Puritanes and against the Catholiques But the best arguments I could vse against t●e Puritanes from the Authoritie of the Church and of the ancient Doctors interpreting Scriptures against them when they could not answere them they would reiect them for Popish and f●ye to their owne arrogant spirit by which forsooth they must controll others This I found on the one side most abs●rd and ●o b●eede an Anarchy of confusion and yet when I come to answere the Catholique Arguments on ●he other side against Protestants ●rging the like Authority and vniformity of the Church I perceiued the most Protestants did frame euasions in effect like those of the Puritanes inclining to ●heir priuate spirit and other vncertainties Next therefore I applied my selfe to follow their opinion who would make the Church of England and the Church of Rome still to be all one ●n essentiall points and the diff●rences to be accidentall confessing the Church of Rome to be a true Church though sicke or corrupted and the Protestants to be deriued from it and reformed and to this end I laboured much to reconcile most of our particular controuersies But in truth I found such contrar●eties not onely betweene Catholiques and Protestants but euen among Protestants themselues that I could neuer settle my selfe fully in this opinion of some reconciliation which I know many great Schollers in England did fauour 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 neuer sinke into my braine how these two could be descendent or members ●ound nor vnfound participant each of other Rather I concluded that ●eeing many of the best learned Protestants did grant the Church or Rome 〈…〉 true Church though 〈…〉 And contrarily not onely the Catholiques but also the Puritanes Anabaptists Brownists c. did all denie the Church of England to be a true Church therefore it would be more safe and secure to become a Romane Catholique who haue a true Church by consent of both parties then to remaine a Protestant who doe alone plead their owne cause hauing all the other against them For the testimony of our selues and our contraries also is much more sufficient and more certaine then to iustifie our selues alone Yet I resisted and stood out still and betooke my selfe againe to reade ouer and examine the chiefest controuersies especially those about the Church which is cardo negotij and herein because the Bearer ●taies now a day or two longer I will inlarge my selfe more then I purposed and so I would needes peruse the Originall quotations and Texts of the Councels Fathers and Doctors in the Authors themselues which were alleadged on both parts to see if they were truely cited and according to the meaning of the Authors a labour of much labor and of trauell sometime to finde the Books wherein I found much fraud committed by the Protestants and that the Catholiques had farre greater and better armies of euident witnesses on their sides much more then the Protestants in so much that the Centurists are faine often to censure and reiect the plaine testimonies of those Ancients as if their new censure were sufficient to disaucthorize the others auncient sentences And so I remember Danaeus in Commentarijs super D. Augustin Enchirid ad Laurentium Where Saint Augustin plainely auoucheth Purgatory he reiects Saints Augustines opinion saying hic est naeuus Augustini but I had rather follow Saint Augustins opinion then his ce●sure for who are they to controll the Fathers There are indeede some few places in Authors which prima facie seeme to fauour Protestants as many Heretiques alleadge some texts of Scriptures whose sound of words seeme to make for their opinions but being well examined and interpreted according to the analogie of faith and according to many other places of the same Authours where they doe more fully explaine their opinions so they appeare to be wrested and from the purpose In fine I found my selfe euidently conuinced both by many Authorities and by many Arguments which now I doe not remember all nor can here repeate those which I doe remember but onely some few arguments I will relate vnto you which preuailed most with me besides those afore mentioned First therefore I could neuer approue the Protestants euasion by Inuisibility of their Church For though sometime it may be diminished and obscured yet the Catholique Church must euer be visible set on a hill and not as light hid vnder a Bushell for how should it enlighte●●nd teach her children if inuisible or how should Strangers and Pagans and others be conuerted vnto her or where should any finde the Sacraments if inuisible Also the true Church in all places and all ages euer holds one vniformitie and concord in all matters of Faith though not in all matters of ceremony or gouernment But the Protestants Church hath not in all ages nor in all places such vniforme concord no not in one age as is manifest to all the world and as Father Parsons proued against Foxes martirs Wickliffe Husse and the res● ergo the