participant each of other Rather I concluded that seeing many of the best learned Protestants did grant The Church of Rome to be a true Church though peradventure faulty in some things And contrarily not only the Catholicks but also the Puritans Anabaptists Brownists c. did all deny the Church of England to be a true Church therefore it would be more safe and secure to become a Roman Catholick who have a true Church by consent of both parties than to remain a Protestant who do alone plead their own cause having all the other against them For the testimony of our selves and our contraries also is much more sufficient and more certain than to justifie our selves alone Yet I resisted and stood out still and betook my self again to read over and examine the chiefest Controversies especially those about the Church which is cardo negotii and herein because the Bearer stayes now a day or two longer I will inlarge my self more than I purposed and so I would needs peruse the Original quotations and Texts of the Councils Fathers and Doctors in the Authors themselves which were alledged on both parts to see if they were truly cited and according to the meaning of the Authors a labour of much labour and of travel sometime to find the Books wherein I found much fraud committed by the Protestants and that the Catholicks had far greater and better armies of evident Witnesses on their sides much more than the Protestants in so much that the Centurists are fain often to censure and reject the plain testimonies of those Ancients as if their new censure were sufficient to disauthorize the others ancient sentences And so I remember Danaeus in Commentariis super D. Augustin Enchirid. ad Laurentium Where S. Augustin plainly avoucheth Purgatory He rejects S. Augustines Opinion saying hic est naevus Augustini But I had rather follow S. Augustine's Opinion than his Censure for who are they to control the Fathers There are indeed some few places in Authors which prima facie seem to favour Protestants as many Hereticks alledge some Texts of Scriptures whose sound of Words seem to make for their Opinions But being well examined and interpreted according to the Analogy of faith and according to many other places of the same Authors where they do more fully explain their Opinions so they appear to be wrested and from the purpose In fine I found my self evidently convinced both by many Authorities and by many Arguments which now I do not remember all nor can here repeat those which I do remember But only some few Arguments I will relate unto you which prevailed most with me besides those aforementioned First therefore I could never approve the Protestants evasion by Invisibility of their Church For though sometime it may be diminished and obscured yet the Catholick Church must ever be visible set on a Hill and not as Light hid under a Bushel for how should it enlighten and teach her Children if invisible or how should Strangers and Pagans and others be converted unto her or where should any find the Sacraments if invisible Also the true Church in all places and all Ages ever holds one Vniformity and Concord in all matters of Faith though not in all matters of Ceremony or Government But the Protestants Church hath not in all Ages nor in all places such uniform concord no not in one Age as is manifest to all the World and as Father Parsons proved against Fox's Martyrs Wickliffe Husse and the rest Ergo the Protestants Church not the true Church Again by that saying Haereses ad originem revocasse est refutasse and so considering Luther's first rancor against the Dominicans his disobedience and contempt of his former Superiours his vow-breaking and violent courses even causing rebellion against the Emperour whom he reviles and other Princes most shamefully surely such arrogant disobedience Schism and Rebellions had no warrant nor vocation of God to plant his Church but of the Devil to begin a Schism and a Sect. So likewise for Calvin to say nothing of all that D. Bolsecus brings against him I do urge only what Mr. Hooker Dr. Bancroft and Saravia do prove aganst him for his unquietness and ambition revolving the Commonwealth and so unjustly expelling and depriving the Bishop of Geneva and other temporal Lords of their due obedience and ancient inheritance Moreover I refer you to the stirs broils sedition and murthers which Knox and the Geneva-Gospellers caused in Scotland against their lawful Governours against their Queen and against our King even in his Mothers Belly Nor will I insist upon the passions which first moved King Henry violently to divorce himself from his lawful Wife to fall out with the Pope his Friend to marry the Lady Anne Bullen and soon after to behead her to disinherit Queen Mary and inable Queen Elizabeth and presently to disinherit Queen Elizabeth and to restore Queen Mary to hang up Catholicks for Traytors and to burn Protestants for Hereticks to destroy Monasteries and to pill Churches Were these fit beginnings for the Gospel of Christ I pray was this Man a good Head of Gods Church for my part I beseech our Lord bless me from being a Member of such a Head or such a Church I come to France and Holland where you know by the Hugonots and Geuses all Calvinists what Civil Wars they have raised how much Blood they have shed what Rebellion Rapine and Desolations they have occasioned principally for their new Religion founded in Blood like Draco's Laws But I would gladly know whether you can approve such bloody broils for Religion or no I know Protestants de facto do justifie the Civil Wars of France and Holland for good against their Kings but I could never understand of them quo jure If the Hollanders be Rebels as they are why did we support them if they be no Rebels because they fight for the pretended liberty of their ancient Priviledges and for their new Religion we see it is an easie matter to pretend Liberties and also why may not others as well revolt for their old Religion Or I beseech you why is that accounted Treason against the State in Catholicks which is called Reason of State in Protestants I reduce this Argument to few Words That Church which is founded and begun in Malice Disobedience Passion Blood and Rebellion cannot be the true Church but it is evident to the World That the Protestant Churches in Germany France Holland Geneva c. were so founded and in Geneva and Holland are still continued in Rebellion ergo They are not true Churches Furthermore where is not Succession both of true Pastors and of true Doctrine there is no true Church But among Protestants is no succession of true Pastors for I omit here to treat of Doctrine ergo no true Church I prove the minor where is no consecration nor ordination of Bishops and Priests according to the due Form and right intention required necessarily by the
by the learned and truly noble Lord of Plessis in his Mysterium iniquitatis But his Book I suppose you cannot view and it would require a just volume to shew it though but shortly It shall be therefore if you will the task of another time And yet because I do not love to leave things wholly at random consider a few Instances in some of these Pope Boniface III. obtained that proud and ambitious Title of Oecumenical so much detested by S. Gregory Pope Constantine and Gregory II. revolted Italy from the Greek Emperors Obedience forbidding to pay Tribute or obey them Pope Zachary animated Pipine High Steward of France to depose Chilperick his Lord and dispensed with the Oaths of his Subjects Pope Stephen II. most treacherously and unjustly perswaded the same Pipine not to restore the Exarchate of Ravenna to the Emperor after he had recovered it from Astulfus King of Lombards but to give it to him Pope Nicholas II. and Gregory VI. parted the prey with the Normans in Calabria and Apulia creating them Dukes thereof to hold the Constantinople's Country in Vassalage of them This latter also was the first as all Historians accord that ever attempted to depose the Emperor against whom he most impiously stirred up his own Children which most lamentably brought him to his end Pope Paschal II. would not suffer for the full accomplishment of this Tragedy his Son to bury him Pope Adrian IV. demanded Homage of the Emperor Frederick Alexander III. trod on his neck Celestine III. crowned Henry VI. with his Feet Innocent IV. stirred up Frederick II. his own Servants to poison him practised with the Sultan of Aegypt to break with him This is that Innocent of whose Extortions Matthew Paris relates so much in our Story whom the learned zealous and Holy Bishop of Lincoln on his Death-bed proved to be Antichrist and in a Vision stroke so with his Crosier-staff that he died Boniface VIII challenged both Swords pretended to be superior to the King of France in Temporal things also Clement V. would in the vacancy of the Empire that all the Cities and Countries thereof should be under his disposition made the Duke of Venice Dandalus couch under his Table with a Chain on his neck like a Dog e're he would grant Peace to the Venetians This Clement V. commanded the Angels to carry their Souls to Heaven that should take the Cross to fight for the Holy Land What shall I say more I am weary with writing thus much and yet in all this I do not insist upon private and personal Faults Blasphemies Perjuries Necromancies Murthers barbarous Cruelties even upon one another alive and dead nor on Whoredoms Incests Sodomies open Pillages besides the perpetual Abuse of the Censures of the Church I insist not upon these more than you did upon King Henry's Passions I tell you not of him that called the Gospel a Fable or another that instituted his Dei's to strangle Sin like Christ's Blood Of him that dispensed with one to marry his own Sister for the Uncle to marry with the Neece or a Woman to marry two Brothers a Man two Sisters by Dispensation is no rare thing at this day The Faculty to use Sodomy the Story of Pope Joan are almost incredible and yet they have Authors of better Credit than Bolseck It may be said that Iohn XXII called a Devil incarnate that Alexander VI. the Poisoner of his Cardinals the Adulterer of his Son-in-laws Bed incestuous Defiler of his own Daughter and Rival in that villany to his Son sinned as Men which empeacheth not the Credit of their Office That Paulus V. Vice-deus takes too much upon him when he will be Pope-almighty but the Chair is without Error Wherein not to insist for the present but admitting it as true that wickedness of mens Persons doth not impeach the Holiness of their Functions which they have received of God nor make Gods Ordinances as his Word and Sacraments of none effect But tell me for Gods love Master Waddesworth is it likely that this Monarchy thus sought thus gotten thus kept thus exercised is of God Are these men that wholly forsaking the feeding of the Flock of God dream of nothing now but Crowns and Scepters serve to the Church to no use in the World unless it be to break the ancient Canons and oppress with their Power all that shall but utter a free word against their Ambition and Tyranny are they I will not say with you good Heads of Gods Church but Members of it and not rather Limbs of Satan Consider those Texts My Kingdom is not of this World Vos autem non sic Consider the Charge which S. Peter gives to his fellow Presbyters 1 Pet. 5.2 3 4. Now I beseech our Lord deliver his Church from this Tyranny and bless you from being a Member of such a Head CHAP. XI Of lack of Succession Bishops true Ordinations Orders Priesthood I Come now to your Motive from Succession Where I marvel first that leaving the Succession of Doctrine which is far more proper and intrinsecal to the Churches being you stand upon that of Persons and Offices Yea and about them too immediately pass from that which is of Essence to the external Formalities in Consecration and Ordination according to the ancient Councils Have you forgotten what you said right now that matters of Ceremony and Government are changeable Yea but in France Holland and Germany they have no Bishops First what if I should defend they have because a Bishop and a Presbyter are all one as S. Ierom maintains and proves out of Holy Scripture and the use of Antiquity Of which Judgment as Medina confesseth are sundry of the ancient Fathers both Greek and Latin S. Ambrose Augustine Sedulius Primasius Chrysostome Theodoret Oecumenius and Theophylact which point I have largely treated of in another place against him that undertook Master Alablaster's Quarrel Besides those Churches in Germany have those whom they call Superintendents and general Superintendents as out of Doctor Bancroft by the Testimony of Zanchius and sundry German Divines you might perceive Yea and where these are not as in Geneva and the French Churches yet there are saith Zanchius usually certain chief Men that do in a manner bear all the sway as if order it self and necessity led them to this course And what are these but Bishops indeed unless we shall wrangle about names which for reason of State those Churches were to abstain from As for that you say Lay-men intermeddle there with the making of their Ministers if you mean the election of them they have reason for anciently the People had always a right therein as S. Cyprian writes to the Churches of Leon and Astorga there in Spain Plebs ipsa maxime habet potestatem vel eligendi dignos Sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi and in sundry places of Italy this usage doth continue to this day If ye mean it in Ordination ye are deceived and wrong these Churches
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
not drawn from any thing à parte rei as what the true Church is what it teacheth or such â—â—ke but from opinion and testimony What Men say of that of Rome and of the reformed Churches c. Now Opinions are no certain grounds of Truth no not in natural and civil matters much less in Religion So this Argument at the most is but Topical and probable Let us see the parts of it And first that ground The testimony of our selves and of our contraries is much more sufficient and certain than to justifie our selves alone Surely neither the one nor the other is sufficient or certain It is true that if other proof fail and we will follow conjectures he is in probability an honester Man that others beside himself say well of than he that alone testifieth of himself And yet according to truth this latter may be a right honest Man and dwell as we say by ill neighbours or where he is not known or requires not the testimony of other Men Whereas the other being indeed a knave is either cunning to conceal it or hath suborned other like himself to say for him or dwels by honest Men that judge and say the best And in this very kind our Saviour attributes so little to testimony as he pronounces a woe to them that all Men speak well of So in our case it is more probable I grant if there were no other Argument to clear it but Opinion and most Voices that you have the true Church and are in the way of salvation than we because we give you a better testimony than you do us But it is possible we are both deceived in our Opinions each of other we through too much charity and you and others through ignorance or malice Herein undoubtedly we have the advantage of you and the rest and do take that course which is more safe and sure to avoid sin that if we do fail of the truth yet we be deceived with the error of Love which as the Apostle saith hopeth all things and is not puffed up We avoid at the least that gulph of rash judgment which me thinks if the case be not too too clear we should all fear With what judgment you judge you shall be judged Thou that judgest another condemnest thy self But that you may a little better consider the weakness of this discourse if the testimony of our selves and our contraries were sufficient and certain to make truth and ever more safe and secure to follow that side which hath that testimony it had been better to have become a Jewish Proâ—elyte in the Apostles times than a Christian For the Christians acknowledged the Jews to be the people of God heirs of the promises and of Christ and stiled them Brethren notwithstanding their zeal to the Ceremonies and Traditions of their Fathers excused their ignorance bare with them laboured to give them content in all things Whereas they to the contrary called those that professed Christ Hereticks and Sectaries accursed them drew them out of their Synagogues scourged them cast them in Prison compelled them to blaspheme As you do now Protestants to abjure though in other cruelties I confess you go far beyond them By like reason a Pagan in S. Augustine's time should rather have made himself a Christian among the Donatists than with the Catholicks For the Catholicks granted the Donatists Baptism to be true accounted them Brethren The Donatists to the contrary renounced their Brother-hood and Baptism both re-baptized such as fell to their side used these forms to their Friends Save thy Soul become a Christian like to those used by your Reconcilers at this day Lastly consider if this ground of the testimony of our contraries for our part and their lack of ours for theirs be sure you have justified the cause of the Protestants in the main Question Which is the better Religion For whatsoever a Protestant holds as of Faith you cannot deny to be good and Catholick nor any Christian Man else For he binds him to his Creed to the Holy Scriptures and goes no further And in these he hath your testimony for him But he denies many things which you believe and accounts them foreign yea repugnant to Faith as the Popes infallibility Transubstantiation Purgatory worshipping of Images invocation of Saints In all these you speak only for your selves in some of these you have not us only but all other Christians your opposites to say nothing of the Jews and Turks whom I might as well chock you withal as you do the Protestants with Anabaptists So by this reason our Profession is more safe and secure and questionless is more Catholick than yours Neither have we in this discourse the Argument only as you see very appliable and favourable to us but which I would entreat you by the way to observe the conclusion it self often granted by moderate and sober Men of your own side viz. That our course is in sundry things more safe than yours As in making no Image of God In trusting only in the merits of Christ. In worshipping none but the Trinity In directing our Prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ alone In allowing Ministers to marry In diverse other Points also many of your side say the same with the Protestants and defend us from the imputations which others of you lay upon us as is shewed in the Catholick Apology by the reverend Bishop of Chester This to the proposition Let us come to the Assumption where you mince too much the Protestants Opinion touching the Church of Rome when you make them say It is peradventure faulty in some things Nay without peradventure they say It is corrupt in Doctrine superstitious and Idolatrous in Religion tyrannical in government defiled in manners from the crown of the Head to the soal of the Foot no soundness in it as the Prophet saith of another like it yet the vital parts not perished ready to dye yet not dead A true Church though neither the Catholick Church nor yet a sound member of the same That also is false in the assumption that the Puritans deny the Church of England to be a true Church Unless the Puritans and Brownists be with you all one which you have made diverse Sects above and then are you to blame as to multiply names whereof I have told you before so now again to consound them What is now the Conclusion It would be more safe and secure to become a Roman Catholick But the Proposition will not infer thus much simply but only in this respect For Topical arguments as you know hold only caeteris paribus We must then inquire if there be no other intrinsical arguments by which it may be discerned whether cause be the better whether pretence to the Church and Truth more just more evident Whether it may be warranted to return to Babel because God hath some people there when as he commands those that are there to come out
granted them for consulting their Divines in Germany And at last Letters were brought from thence concerning their Exceptions to Communion with that Church Because the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament was not explained in such a manner as agreed with their Doctrine The Archbishop of Dublin sent these to our Bishop that he might answer them and upon that he writ so learned and so full an answer to all their Objections and explained the matter so clearly that when this was seen by the German Divines it gave them such entire satisfaction that upon it they advised their Countreymen to join in Communion with the Church For such is the moderation of our Church in that matter that no positive definition of the manner of the Presence being made Men of different sentiments may agree in the same acts of Worship without being obliged to declare their Opinion or being understood to do any thing contrary to their several Perswasions His moderation in this matter was a thing of no danger to him but he expressed it on other instances in which it appeared that he was not afraid to own it upon more tender occasions The Troubles that broke out in Scotland upon the account of the Book of Common Prayer which encreased to the height of the swearing the Covenant and putting down of Episcopacy and the turning out of all Clergy Men that did not concur with them are so well known that I need not inlarge upon them It is not to be denyed but provocations were given by the heats and indiscretions of some Men but these were carried so far beyond all the bounds either of Order in the Church or Peace in the State that to give things their proper names it was a Schismatical rage against the Church backt with a rebellious fury against the State When the Bishop heard of all these things he said that which Nazianzene said at Constantinople when the stir was raised in the second General Council upon his account If this great tempest is risen for our sakes take us up and cast us into the Sea that so there may be a Calm And if all others had governed their Diocesses as he did his one may adventure to affirm after Dr. Bernard That Episcopacy might have been kept still upon its Wheels Some of those that were driven out of Scotland by the fury of that time came over to Ireland among these there was one Corbet that came to Dublin who being a Man of quick Parts writ a very smart Book shewing the parallel between the Jesuites and the Scotch Covenanters which he printed under the Title of Lysimachus Nicanor The Spirit that was in this Book and the sharpness of the stile procured the Author such favour that a considerable Living falling in the Bishop of Killala's Gift he was recommended to it and so he went to that Bishop but was ill received by him The Bishop had a great affection to his Countrey for he was a Scotchman born and though he condemned the courses they had taken yet he did not love to see them exposed in a strange Nation and did not like the Man that had done it The Bishop was a little sharp upon him he played on his Name Corby in Scotch being a Raven and said it was an ill Bird that defiled its own Nest. And whereas he had said in his Book That he had hardly escaped with his own life but had left his Wife behind him to try the humanity of the Scots he told him He had left his Wife to a very base office Several other things he said which in themselves amounted to nothing but only expressed an inclination to lessen the faults of the Scots and to aggravate some provocations that had been given them Corbet came up full of wrath and brought with him many Informations against the Bishop which at any other time would not have been much considered but then it being thought necessary to make examples of all that seemed favourable to the Covenanters it was resolved to turn him out of his Bishoprick and to give it to Maxwell that had been Bishop of Rosse in Scotland and was indeed a Man of eminent parts and an excellent Preacher but by his forwardness and aspiring he had been the unhappy instrument of that which brought on all the disorders in Scotland A Pursevant was sent to bring up the Bishop of Killala and he was accused before the high Commission Court for those things that Corbet objected to him and every Man being ready to push a Man down that is falling under disgrace many designed to merit by aggravating his faults But when it came to our Bishop's turn to give his Sentence in the Court he that was afraid of nothing but sinning against God did not stick to venture against the Stream he first read over all that was objected to the Bishop at the Barr then he fetched his Argument from the qualifications of a Bishop set down by S. Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus and assumed that he found nothing in those Articles contrary to those qualifications nothing that touched either his Life or Doctrine He fortified this by shewing in what manner they proceeded against Bishops both in the Greek and Latin Churches and so concluded in the Bishops favour This put many out of countenance who had considered nothing in his Sentence but the consequences that were drawn from the Bishop's expressions from which they gathered the ill disposition of his mind so that they had gone high in their Censures without examining the Canons of the Church in such Cases But though those that gave their Votes after our Bishop were more moderate than those that had gone before him had been yet the current run so strong that none durst plainly acquit him as our Bishop had done So he was deprived fined and imprisoned and his Bishoprick was given to Maxwell who enjoyed it not long For he was stript naked wounded and left among the dead by the Irish but he was preserved by the Earl of Tomond who passing that way took care of him so that he got to Dublin And then his Talent of Preaching that had been too long neglected by him was better imployed so that he preached very often and very much to the edification of his Hearers that were then in so great a consternation that they needed all the comfort that he could minister to them and all the Spirit that he could infuse in them He went to the King to Oxford and he said in my Author 's hearing That the King had never rightly understood the innate hatred that the Irish bore to all that professed the true Religion till he had informed him of it But he was so much affected with an ill piece of News that he heard concerning some misfortune in the King's affairs in England that he was some hours after found dead in his Study This short digression I hope may be forgiven me for the person was very extraordinary
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
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
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