fearfulest Blindness of Mind and strong delusions to believe Lyes that they may be damned that believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness But you hope better things of them accompanying Salvation and this Message of our Lord Jesus Christ if you will be pleased to deliver accompanying it with those General and common goods of Charity and Meekness Integrity good Example and the special furtherance which your Callings and Places in State Church or Family can give it doubtless to Christs people it will not be uneffectual Blessed be God that hath long ago stirred up the Spirits of our Princes like Cyrus to give liberty to God's People to go out of Babylon and to give large Patents with Darius and Artaxerxes for the building of the Temple and establishing the Service of God And blessed be God and his Majesty that hath sent us another Nehemiah to build up the Walls of Jerusalem and to procure that the Portion of the Levites should be given them Give me leave Right Honourable to put you in mind That this also belongeth to your Care to cooperate with Christ in bringing his People out of the Romish Captivity And if to help away a poor Captive out of Turky hath been Honourable to some Publick Ministers What shall it be to help to the enlarging of so many thousand Souls out of the bondage of Mens Traditions and gaining to his Majesty so many entire Subjects Your wisdom my Lord is such as it needeth not to be advised and your Zeal as it needeth not to to be stired up yet pardon me one Word for the purpose of helping Christ's People out of Babylon They are called by himself often in Scripture His Sheep and verily as in many other so in this they are like to Sheep which being cooped up in a narrow Pent though they find some pressure and the Passage be set open are not forward to come out unless they be put on but strain Courtesie which should begin yet when they are once out with a joyful frisk they exult in their Freedome yea and when a few of the foremost lead the rest follow I shall not need to make Application Do according to your wisdom in your place and Christ whose Work it is shall be with you and further your endeavours The like I say unto you the rest of my Lords Fathers and Brethren help your Friends Followers and Tenants out of Babylon what you may in your places you have the Examples of Abraham Ioshua Cornelius praised in Scripture for propagating the Knowledge and Fear of God in their Families and Commands with the report of God's accepting it and rewarding it and this to the use of others But shall you not carry away something for your selves also yes verily take to your selves this Voyce of our Saviour Come out of Babylon you will say we have done it already God be thanked we are good Christians good Protestants some of us Preachers and that call upon others to come out of Babylon But if S. Paul prayed the converted Corinthians to be reconciled to God And S. Iohn writing to Believers sets down the Record of God touching his Son That they might believe in the Name of the Son of God Why may not I exhort in Christ's Name and Words even those that are come out of Babylon to come out of her Qui monet ut fâ—â—ias c. He that perswades another to that which he doth already in perswading incourageth him and puts him on in his performance but if there be any yet unresolved and halting or hanging between two as the people did in Elias time that present their bodies at such meetings as this is when their hearts are perhaps at Rome or no where If any are in some points rightly informed and cleared and in others doubtful to such Christ speaks Come out of her my people press on by Prayer Conference Reading if Christ's Voyce be to be heard If Rome be Babylon Come out of her And let it be spoken with as little offence as it is delight we that seem to be the forwardest in Reformation are not yet so come out of Babylon as that we have not many shameful badges of her Captivity witness her Impropriations being indeed plain Church-robberies devised to maintain her Colonies of idle and irregular Regulars idle to the Church and State zealous and pragmatical to support and defend her power pomp and pride by whom they subsisted witness her Dispensations or dissipations rather of all Canonical Orders bearing down all with her Non obstante her Symoniacal and Sacrilegious Venality of holy things her manifold Extortions in the exercise of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction which we have not wholly banished Let each of us therefore account it as spoken to himself Come out of her my people In this Journey let us not trouble and cast stumbling blocks before God's people that are ready to come out or hinder one another with Dissentions in matters either inexplicable or unprofitable Let it have some pardon if some be even so forward in flying from Babylon as they fear to go back to take their own goods for haste and let it not be blamed or uncharitably censured if some come in the Rear and would leave none of Christ's people behind them No man reacheth his hand to another whom he would lift out of a Ditch but he stoops to him Our ends immediate are not the same but yet they meet in one final intention The one hates Babylon and the other loves and pities Christ's people The one believes the Angel that cast the Milstone into the Sea in the end of this Chapter with that Word so shall Babylon rise no more The other fears the threatning of our Saviour against such as scandalize any of the little ones believing in him that it is better for such a one to have a Milstone hanged upon his neck and be cast into the Sea himself Finally let us all beseech our Lord Iesus Christ to give us Wisdom and opportunity to further his work and to give success unto the same himself to hasten the judgment of Babylon to bring his people out of this bondage that we with them and all his Saints in the Church Triumphant may thereupon sing a joyful Hallelujah as is expressed in the next Chapter Salvation and Honour and Glory and Power be unto the LORD our GOD Amen Hallelujah He preached very often in his Episcopal habit but not alwayes and used it seldome in the Afternoon nor did he love the pomp of a Quire nor Instrumental Musick which he thought filled the ear with too much pleasure and carried away the mind from the serious attention to the matter which is indeed the singing with grace in the Heart and the inward melody with which God is chiefly pleased And when another Bishop justified these things because they served much to raise the affections he answered That in order to the raising
from which we dissented much more I held as you may perceive that neither amongst our selves nor from our predecessors we disagree in any truth necessary to salvation He makes me to say our dissentions are about Moon-shine and de umbrâ asini de lanâ caprinâ and trifles and matters of no consequence To return to you good Mr. Waddesworth let Men avouch as confidently as they will touching their own Positions Est de Fide Nihil certius apud Catholicos and of their contraries cry out They are Hereticks renew ancient Heresies race the Foundation deny the Articles of the Creed Gods Omnipotency c. all because themselves by Discourse can as they think fasten such things upon them A sober Christian must not give heed to all that is said in this kind These things must be examined with right judgment and ever with much charity and patience remembring that our selves know in part and prophesie in part In a Word this should not have so much disquieted you Nor yet that which you add That every one pretends Scripture Best of all saith S. Chrysostome For if we should say we believe humane reasons thou mightest with good reason be troubled but when as we receive the Scriptures and they be simple and true it will be an easie thing for thee to judge c. And to what purpose indeed serves the faculty of Reason perfected and polished with learning wherefore the supernatural light of Faith wherefore the gift of God in us Ministers conferred by the imposition of Hands but to try which side handles the Word of God deceitfully which sincerely But here again Each side arrogates the Holy Ghost in his favour What then If we our selves have the anointing we shall be able as we are bidden to try the Spirits whether they be of God or no For we will not believe them because they say they have the Spirit or cannot be deceived but because their Doctrine is consonant to the Principles of Heavenly Truth which by the Writings inspired by himself the Holy Ghost hath graven in our Hearts Which Writings are well acknowledged by you to be the Law and Rule according whereunto in judgment of Religion we must proceed CHAP. III. Of the want of an Humane External Infallible Iudge and Interpreter AS to that you say did above all trouble you the want of a certain humane external infallible Iudge to interpret Scripture and define Questions of Faith without error What if you found not an external humane Judge if you had an internal divine one And having an infallible Rule by which your humane Judge should proceed why should you trust another Mans applying it rather than your own in a matter concerning your own salvation But if God have left us no such external Judge if Antiquity knew none if Religion need none it was no just motive to leave us that you could find none amongst all those Sects which you mention and how much less if you have not a whit amended your self where you are which we shall consider by and by I say then first That to make this your motive of any moment it must be shewed that God hath appointed such a Judge in his Church Let that appear out of some passage of Holy Scripture For your conceit or desire that such a Judge there should be to whom you might in Conscience obey and yield your self because he could not err doth not prove it You would know the truth only by the Authority and sole pronouncing of the Judges Mouth A short and easie way which to most Men is plausible because it spares the pains of Study and Discourse To such especially as either out of weakness dare not trust their own Judgment or account it shall have the merit of humility to be led by their Teachers But what now if God will have you call no Man your Father upon Earth If he will send you to his Word and after you have received the Faith by the Churches Testimony out of the easie and plain places thereof bid you Search the Scriptures to find the Truth in the remnant and pick it out by your own industry The rich Man being in Hell-Torments in whose Words I doubt not but our Saviour doth impersonate and represent the conceits of many Men living in this World presumes that if one were sent from the Dead his Kinsmen would hearken to him but he is remitted to Moses and the Prophets The Iews as I perceived by Speech with some of them at Venice make it one of their Motives that our Lord Jesus is not the Christ. He should not say they have come in such a fashion to leave his own Nation in doubt and suspence and scandalize so many thousands but so as all Men might know him to be what he was Miserable Men that will give Laws to God Of which fault be you aware also good Mr. Waddesworth and be content to take not to prescribe the means by which you will be brought unto the knowledge of the Truth To use what he hath given not to conjecture and divine what he must give But God fails not his Church in such means as be necessary Let us therefore consider the necessity of this Judge Where I beseech you consider for I am sure you cannot but know it that all things necessary to salvation are evidently set down in Holy Scripture This both the Scriptures themselves do teach and the Fathers avouch namely S. Augustine and S. Chrysostome and others I forbear to set down their Words or further to confirm this Lemma which I proved at large against another Adversary and shall at all times make good if it be questioned Besides these Points there are a great many other though not of such necessity yet evidently laid down also in the same Scriptures by occasion of them Many by just Discourse may be cleared from these and the former If any thing yet remain in suspence and unknown yea or if you will erred in so it be not wilfully and obstinately yet shall it be ever without peril of damnation to him that receiveth what the Holy Ghost hath plainly delivered What necessity then of your imaginary Judge Yes for Unity is a goodly thing not only in matters necessary but universally in all Controversies must not be endless But how comes it to pass then that your Judge whosoever he be doth not all this while decide the Question touching the conception of the Blessed Virgin that is between the Dominicans and Franciscans nor that between the Dominicans and Iesuites touching Grace and Free-will and all other the Points that are controverted in the Schools to spare contention and time a precious Commodity among wise Men and give this honour to Divinity alone that in it all doubts should be reduced to certainties Or if it seem no wisdom to be hasty in deciding such Questions wherein Witty and Learned Men are ingaged lest in stead of changing their Opinions they should
East in Asia now of the South in Africk And he was in as ill conceit with Cyprian for his breaking good order and communicating with Basilides and Martialis justly deprived in Spain as Saint Cyprian was with him when he stiled him a false Christ and a false Apostle But that holy Martyr was of a more patient and calm spirit than to be moved with such reproaches nay he took occasion as it should seem thereby to write of patience From this mildness it was that he so closely taxed the presumption of him that made himself Bishop of Bishops and by terror which what it was Firmilianus's Epistle shews threatning Excommunication would compel his Colleagues to his own opinion None of us saith he doth thus As the Apostle we preach not our selves we commend not our selves We are not as many that adulterate the Word of God c. Bellarmine takes the first kindly No marvel saith he for this is the Bishop of Rome's due But they go together he must be content to take both or leave both Such another place there is in Saint Augustine Epist. 86. the words are Petrus etiam inquit Apostolorum Caput coeli janitor Ecclesiae fundamentum Where in the Margent the Divines of Lovaine the overseers of Plantines edition set this note Petrus Ecclesiae fundamentum Why might they not The words ye will say of the Text. But these words of the text be not Saint Augustines whose opinion is well enough known That it is Christ confessed by Peter that is the foundation of the Church but they are the words of an undiscreet railer of the City of Rome against whom Saint Augustine in all that Epistle most vehemently inveighs This arrogant Author endeavours so to defend the Roman custome of fasting on the Saturday as he reproaches all other Churches that used otherwise And that we may see with what Spirit he was led he brings the same text that is brought in Pope Siricius and Innocentius's Epistles against the marriage of Clergy-men Qui in carne sunt Deo placere non possunt and many other Scriptures wrested and far from the purpose at last comes the authority of Peter and his tradition very Pope-like alledged Peter he saith the head of the Apostles porter of heaven and foundation of the Church having overcome Simon the Sorcerer who was a figure of the Devil not to be overcome but by fasting thus taught the Romans whose faith is famous in the whole world I remit you to Saint Augustine's answer to this tradition This I note that where your Censors do rase out of the Margents of former editions such notes as do express the very opinions of the Ancients and in their own words here they can allow and authorize such marginal notes as are directly contrary to their meaning Yea which are earnestly oppugned by them when they seem to make for the authority of the Pope Good sir examine well this dealing and judge if this be not wresting the Fathers and applying them clean from their purpose In fine you found your self you say evidently convinced Perswaded I believe rather than convinced Else if the force and evidence of the Arguments and not the pliableness of your mind were the cause of your yielding methinks they should work like effect in others no less seriously seeking for truth and setting all worldly respects aside earnestly minding their own salvation than your self Which I well know they do not neither those which hitherto have been examined nor those which yet remain to be considered in the rereward CHAP. VIII Of the Invisibility of the Church said to be an evasion of Protestants THE first whereof is the dislike of the Protestants evasion as you call it by the invisibility of their Church Give me leave here to tell you plainly ye seem to me not to understand the Protestants doctrine in this point Else ye would have spared all that The Catholick Church must ever be visible as a City set on a hill otherwise how should she teach her children convert Pagans dispense Sacraments All this is yielded with both hands The Congregations of which the Catholick Church doth consist are visible But the promise made to this Church of victory against the gates of Hell the titles of the house of God the base and pillar of Truth an allusion as I take it to the bases and pillars that held up the veil or curtains in the Tabernacle the body of Christ his Dove his undefiled are not verified of this Church in the whole visible bulk of it but in those that are called according to Gods purpose given to Christ and kept by him to be raised up to life at the last day This doctrine is Saint Augustine's in many places which it would be too tedious to set down at large In his third book De doctrina Christiana among the rules of Tychonius there is one which he corrects a little for the terms De Domini corpore bipartito which he saith ought not to have been called so for in truth that is not the Lords body which shall not be with him for ever but he should have said of the Lords true body and mixt or true and feigned or some such thing Because not only for ever but even now hypocrites are not to be said to be with him though they seem to be in his Church Consider those resemblances taken out of the holy Scripture wherein that godly Father is frequent of chaff and wheat in the Lords floor of good and bad fishes in the net of spots and light in the Moon Of the Church carnal and spiritual of the wicked multitudes of the Church yet not to be accounted in the Church Of the Lilly and the Thorns those that are marked which mourn for the sins of Gods people and the rest which perish which yet bear his Sacraments Consider the last Chapter of the book De Vnitate Ecclesiae and that large Treatise which he hath of that matter Epist. 48. The place is long which deserves to be read for the objection of the Universality of Arianisme like to that of Papisme in these last ages which Saint Augustine answers in the fifth book De Baptismo contra Donatistas cap. 27. That number of the just who are called according to Gods purpose of whom it is said The Lord knoweth who are his is the inclosed garden the sealed fountain the well of living waters the orchard with Apples c. The like he hath l. 5. c. 3. 23. he concludes that because such are built upon the Rock as hear the Word of God and do it and the rest upon the sand now the Church is built upon the Rock all therefore that hear the Word of God and do it not are out of question without the Church In the seventh book cap. 51. Quibus omnibus consideratis Read and mark the whole Chapter Out of these and many more like places which I forbear to mention it appears that albeit
that he had been too vehement and excusing himself by the importunity of the Pardoners and of those that had written against him promising to use more modesty in time to come to satisfie the Pope and not to speak any more of Indulgences provided that his Adversaries would do the like This was Luthers manner at the first till the Bull of Pope Leo came out dated the ninth of November 1518. Wherein he declared the validity of Indulgences and that he as Peters Successor and Christs Vicar had power to grant them for the quick and dead that this is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Mother and Mistris of all Christians and ought to be received of all that would be in the Communion of the Church From this time forward Luther began to change his stile And saith he as before he had for the most part reserved the Person and Iudgment of the Pope so after this Bull he resolved to refuse it and thereupon put forth an Appeal to the Council c. You see then how submissively Luther at first carried himself But extream tyranny overcomes often a well prepared patience Touching his causing Rebellion also against the Emperour ye are mis-informed His advice was asked about the Association of the Protestants at Smalcald he said plainly He could not see how it could be lawful further than for their own defence Ioh. Bodin in his second Book de Repub. cap. 5. hath these Words We read also that the Protestant Princes of Almain before they took Arms against the Emperor demanded of Martin Luther if it were Lawful He answered freely that it was not lawful whatsoever tyranny or impiety were pretended He was not believed so the end thereof was miserable and drew after it the ruine of great and illustrious Houses of Germany As for the war in Germany it began not till after Luthers death neither was it a rebellion of the Protestants the truth is they stood for their Lives The Emperor with the help of the Popes both Mony and Arms intended to root them out and although at the first the Emperour did not avow his raising Arms against them to be for Religion yet the Pope in his Jubilee published upon this occasion did not lett to declare to the World that himself and Caesar had concluded a League to reduce the Hereticks by force of Arms to the obedience of the Church and therefore all should pray for the good success of the War That Luther ever reviled the Emperour I did never till now hear or read and therefore would desire to know what Authors you have for it Touching other Princes namely King Henry the Eighth I will not defend him who condemned himself thereof It is true that he was a Man of a bold and high Stomach and specially fitted thereby through the Providence of God to work upon the heavy and dull disposition of the Almains and in so general a Lethargy as the World then was in he carried himself as fell out sometimes very boisterously But Arrogancy Schism Rebellion were as far from him as the intention it self to plant a Church As to his Vow-breaking lastly if that Vow were foolishly made and sinfully kept it was justly broken Perhaps also charitably if he would by his own example reform such as lived in Whoredome and other Uncleanness and induce them to use the Remedy that God hath appointed for the avoiding of them to wit honourable Marriage All this matter touching Luther unless I be deceived you have taken from Mr. Harding that at least touching his rancor against the Dominicans for it is his very Phrase But Mr. Harding both in this and many things else discovereth his passion and lack of true information in this affair When with one Breath he affirmeth that first it was a Pardon of a Croisade against the Turks which was preached Whereas it was an Indulgence to those that should put their helping hands for the building of S. Peters Church at Rome as the Articles of this Pardon printed in English one of the Copies whereof I have my self do shew Secondly next he saith the preaching hereof was granted to Friar John Tetzet It was Friar Iohn Thecel or Tecel Thirdly he saith The Elector of Mentz Albert granted this to Thecel and the Dominicans whereby Luther was bereft of the gain be expected The truth is it was Aremboldus a Bishop living at the Court of Rome whom having before been a Merchant of Genoa Magdalen the Popes Sister put in trust with this Merchandise that appointed the Dominicans to be the Retailers of these Pardons The Archbishop of Mentz had nothing to do with it otherwise than to allow and suffer it which occasioned Luther to write to him as to the Bishop of Brandenburgh and to Leo himself to repress the impudence of the Pardoners And Lutherâ—aith â—aith further in one place that the Archbishop undertook to give countenance to this business with that condition that the half of the prey should go to the Pope and himself might have the other half to pay for his Pall. By these Errors heaped together it may appear what credit it is like Mr. Hardings Tale be worthy of touching the remnant that of rancor and malice against the Dominicans and because he was bereaved of that sweet Morsel which in hope he had almost swallowed down Luther made this stir A hard thing methinks it is for any that lived at that day to set down what was in Luthers Heart what were his hopes his desires rancor and spleen much more for Mr. Harding most of all for you and me When the actions of Men have an appearance of good Charity would hope the best Piety would reserve the judgment of the intention to God Let us come to Calvin touching whom I marvel not much that you say nothing of all that which Bolseck brings against him who being by his means chased out of Geneva discovereth as I remember in the very entrance that he was requested by some of his good Masters to write against him I once saw the book while I lived in Cambridge it hath no shew of probability that Calvin would go about to work a miracle to confirm his Doctrine who teacheth that Miracles are no sure and sufficient proof of Doctrine I marvel rather that even in reading Dr. Banâ—roft Mr. Hooker and Saravia all Opposites to Calvin in the question of Church-Discipline and therefore not all the fittest to testifie of him or his actions all late Writers and Strangers to the Estate and Affairs of Geneva of whom therefore besides their bare Word sufficient proof were to be required of what they say you not only receive whatsoever they bring but more than they bring You say they prove what never came in their minds and which is not only utterly untrue but even unpossible As that Calvin by his unquietness and ambition revolved the State of Geneva so unjustly expelling and depriving the Bishop of Geneva and other Temporal
your Ordination there is no Word said And as little there is in Scripture of your Sacrifice which makes Christ not to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedeck c. with much more to this purpose Where my Defence for your Ministry hath been this That the Form Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. doth sufficiently comprehend the Authority of preaching the Gospel Use you the same equity towards us and tell those hot Spirits among you that stand so much upon formalities of Words That to be a Dispenser of the Word of God and his holy Sacraments is all the duty of Priesthood And to you I add further that if you consider well the Words of the Master of the Sentences which I vouched before how that which is consecrated of the Priest is called a Sacrifice and Oblation because it is a Memorial and Representation of the true Sacrifice and holy Offering made on the Altar of the Cross and joyn thereto that of the Apostle that by that one Offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and as he saith in another place through that Blood of his Cross reconciled unto God all things whether in Earth or in Heaven you shall perceive that we do offer Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead remembring representing and mystically offering that sole Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead by the which all their sins are meritoriously expiated and desiring that by the same we and all the Church may obtain remission of sins and all other Benefits of Christs Passion To the Epilogue therefore of this your last Motive I say in short Sith we have no need of Subdeaconship more than the Churches in the Apostles times and in truth those whom we call Clerks and Sextons perform what is necessary in this behalf Sith we have Canonical Bishops and lawful Succession Sith we neither want due intention to depute Men to Ecclesiastical Functions nor matter or Form in giving Priesthood deriving from no Man or Woman the Authority of Ordination but from Christ the Head of the Church you have alledged no sufficient Cause why we should not have true Pastors and consequently a true Church in England CHAP. XII Of the Conclusion Mr. Waddesworth's Agonies and Protestation c. YEt by these you say and many other Arguments you were resolved in your understanding to the contrary It may well be that your Understanding out of its own heedless hast as that of our first Parents while it was at the perfectest was induced into error by resolving too soon out of seeming Arguments and granting too forward assent For surely these which you have mentioned could not convince it if it would have taken the pains to examine them throughly or had the patience to give unpartial hearing to the Motives on the other side But as if you triumphed in your own conquest and captivity you add that which passeth yet all that hitherto you have set down viz. That the Church of Rome was and is the only true Church because it alone is Antient Catholick and Apostolick having Succession Vnity and Visibility in all Ages and Places Is it only antient To omit Ierusalem are not that of Antioch where the Disciples were first called Christians and Alexandria Ephesus Corinth and the rest mentioned in the Scriptures antient also and of Antioch antienter than Rome Is it Catholick and Apostolick only Do not these and many more hold the Catholick Faith received from the Apostles as well as the Church of Rome For that it should be the Vniversal Church is all one as ye would say the part is the whole one City the World Hath it only succession where to set aside the enquiry of Doctrine so many Simoniacks and Intruders have ruled as about fifty of your Popes together were by your own Mens Confession Apostatical rather than Apostolical Or Unity where there have been thirty Schisms and one of them which endured fifty years long and at last grew into three Heads as if they would share among them the triple Crown And as for dissentions in Doctrine I remit you to Master Doctor Halls peace of Rome wherein he scores above three hundred mentioned in Bellarmine alone above three-score in one only head of Penance out of Navarrus As to that addition in all Ages and places I know not what to make of it nor where to refer it Consider I beseech you with your wonted moderation what you say for sure unless you were beguiled I had almost said bewitched you could never have resolved to believe and profess that which all the World knows to be as false I had well nigh said as God is true touching the extent of the Romish Church to all Ages and places Concerning the agonies you passed I will say only thus much if being resolved though erroneously that was truth you were withholden from professing it with worldly respects you did well to break through them all But if besides these there were doubt of the contrary as methinks needs must be unless you could satisfie your self touching those many and known Exceptions against the Court of Rome which you could not be ignorant of take heed lest the rest insuing these agonies were not like Sampsons sleeping on Dalilahs knees while the Locks of his Strength were shaven whereupon the Lord departing from him he was taken by the Philistins had his Eyes put out and was made to grind in the Prison But I do not despair but your former resolutions shall grow again And as I do believe your religious asseveration that for very fear of damnation you forsook us which makes me to have the better hope and opinion of you for that I see you do so seriously mind that which is the end of our whole life so I desire from my Heart the good hope of salvation you have in your present way may be as happy as your fear I am perswaded was causeless For my part I call God to record against mine own Soul that both before my going into Italy and since I have still endeavoured to find and follow the truth in the Points controverted between us without any earthly respect in the World Neither wanted I fair opportunity had I seen it on that side easily and with hope of good entertainment to have adjoyned my self to the Church of Rome after your example But to use your words as I shall answer at the dreadful day of judgement I never saw heard or read any thing which did convince me nay which did not finally confirm me daily more and more in the perswasion that in these differences it rests on our part Wherein I have not followlowed humane conjectures from foreign and outward things as by your leave methinks you do in these your motives whereby I protest to you in the sight of God I am also much comforted and assured in the possession of the truth but the undoubted Voice of God in his Word which is more
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