on the 26 th of December Mr. William Bedell the Bishop's eldest Son preached on S. Stephen's last Words which afforded proper matter for their meditation who were every day in expectation when they should be put to give such a testimony of their Faith as that first Martyr had done And on the second of Ianuary which was the last Sunday of their imprisonment Mr. Clogy preached on S. Luke 2.32 33 34. During all their religious exercises their keepers never gave them any disturbance and indeed they carried so gently towards them that their natures seemed to be so much changed that it lookt like a second stopping the mouths of Lions They often told the Bishop that they had no personal quarrel to him and no other cause to be so severe to him but because he was an Englishman But while he was in this dismal Prison some of the Scots of that County that had retired to two Houses that were strong enough to resist any thing but Cannon and were commanded by Sir Iames Craig Sir Francis Hamilton and Sir Arthur Forker now Lord Grenard finding themselves like to suffer more by hunger than by the Siege that was laid to them made so resolute a Sally upon the Irâ—sh that they killed several took some Prisoners and dispersed the rest so that many Months passed before they offered to besiege them any more Among their Prisoners four were Men of considerable interest so they treated an exchange of them for the Bishop with his two Sons and Mr. Clogy which was concluded and the Prisoners were delivered on both sides on the 7 th of Ianuary but though the Irish promised to suffer the Bishop with the other three to go safe to Dublin yet they would not let them go out of the Country but intended to make further advantage by having them still among them and so they were suffered to go to the House of an Irish Minister Denis O Shereden to whom some respect was shewed by reason of his extraction though he had forsaken their Religion and had married an English Woman he continued firm in his Religion and relieved many in their extremity Here the Bishop spent the few remaining dayes of his Pilgrimage having his latter end so full in view that he seemed dead to the World and every thing in it and to be hasting for the coming of the Day of God During the last Sabbaths of his life though there were three Ministers present he read all the Prayers and Lessons himself and likewise preached on all those days On the 9 th of Ianuary he preached on the whole 44 th Psalm being the first of the Psalms appointed for that day and very suitable to the miseries the English were then in who were killed all day long as Sheep appointed for Meat Next Sabbath which was the 16 th he preached on the 79. Psalm the first Psalm for the day which runs much on the like Argument when the Temple was defiled and Ierusalem was laid on heaps and the dead Bodies of God's servants were given to be meat to the Fouls of Heaven and their Flesh to the Beasts of the Earth and their blood vvas shed like Water and there vvas none to bury them Their condition being so like one another it vvas very proper to put up that Prayer O remember not against us former iniquities Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low Together with the other Let the sighing of the Prisoner come before thee according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to dye On the 23 d. he preached on the last ten Verses of the 71. Psalm observing the great fitness that was in them to express his present condition especially in these Words O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto have I declared thy wonderous works now also when I am old and gray headed forsake me not And on the 30 th which was the last Lord's day in which he had strength enough to preach he preached on the 144. Psalm the first appointed for that day and when he came to the Words in the seventh Verse which are also repeated in the eleventh Verse Send thine hand from above rid me and deliver me out of great Waters from the hand of strange Children whose mouth speaketh vanity and whose right-hand is a right hand of falshood He repeated them again and again with so much zeal and affection that it appeared how much he was hasting to the day of God and that his Heart was crying out Come Lord Iesus come quickly how long how long and he dwelt so long upon them with so many sighs that all the little assembly about him melted into Tears and lookt on this as a presage of his approaching dissolution And it proved too true for the day after he sickned which on the second day after appeared to be an Ague and on the fourth day he apprehending his speedy change called for his Sons and his Sons Wives and spake to them at several times as near in these Words as their memories could serve them to write them down soon after I am going the way of all flesh I am now ready to be offered up and the time of my departure is at hand knowing therefore that shortly I must put off this Tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me I know also that if this my earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved I have a building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens a fair Mansion in the New Ierusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from my God Therefore to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain which encreaseth my desire even now to depart and to be with Christ which is far better than to continue here in all the transitory vain and false pleasures of this world of which I have seen an end Hearken therefore unto the last Words of your dying Father I am no more in this World but ye are in the World I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God through the all-sufficient merits of Jesus Christ my Redeemer who ever lives to make intercession for me who is a propitiation for all my sins and washed me from them all in his own Blood who is worthy to receive Glory and Honour and Power who hath created all things and for whose pleasure they are and were created My witness is in Heaven and my record on high That I have endeavoured to glorifie God on Earth and in the Ministry of the Gospel of his dear Son which was committed to my trust I have finished the Work which he gave me to do as a faithful Embassadour of Christ and Steward of the mysteries of God I have preached Righteousness in the great Congregation lo I have not refrained my Lips O Lord thou knowest I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy
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
you forbare to answer I yielded to the example and condition so much the rather because I remembered my self a Debtor to your Grace by my promise of writing to you more fully touching the Reasons of my difference with Mr. Cooke and now a suiter in your Court at his instance And First I beseech your Grace let it be a matter meerly of merriment that I skirmish a little with your Court touching the Inhibition and Citation which thence proceeded against me as you shall perceive by the inclosed Recusation For the thing it self as I have written I do submit it wholly to your Grace's decision And to enlarge my self a little not as to a Iudge but a Father to whom besides the bond of your undeserved love I am bound also by an Oath of God I will pour out my Heart unto you even without craving pardon of my boldness It will be perhaps some little diversion of your thoughts from your own infirmity to understand that you sâ—ffer not alone but you in Body others otherwise each must bear his Cross and follow the steps of our high Master My Lord since it pleased God to call me to this place in this Church what my intentions have been to the discharge of my duty he best knows But I have met with many impediments and discouragements and chiefly from them of mine own Profession in Religion Concerning Mr. Hoile I acquainted your Grace Sir Edward Bagshaw Sir Francis Hamilton Mr. William Flemming and diverse more have been and yet are pulling from the Rights of my Church But all these have been light in respect of the dealing of some others professing me kindness by whom I have been blazed a Papist an Arminian a Neuter a Politician an Equivocator a niggardly Housekeeper an Vsurer That I bow at the name of Iesus pray to the East would pull down the Seat of my Predecessor to set up an Altar denyed burial in the Chancel to one of his Daughters and to make up all That I compared your Grace's preaching to one Mr. Whiskins Mr. Creighton and Mr. Baxters and preferred them That you found your self deceived in me These things have been reported at Dublin and some of the best affected of mine own Diocess as hath been told me induced hereby to bewail with tears the misery of the Church some of the Clergy also as it was said looking about how they might remove themselves out of this Countrey Of all this I heard but little till Mr. Price coming from Dublin before Christmas to be ordered Deacon having for his memory set down Twelve Articles among a number of Points more required satisfaction of me concerning them Which I endeavoured to give both to him and to them of the Ministry that met at our Chapter for the examination of Mr Cookes Patent Omitting all the rest yet because this Venome hath spread it self so far I cannot but touch the last touching the preferring others to your Grace's preaching To which Mr. Price's answer was as he told me I will be quartered if this be true Thus it was Mr. Dunsterville acquainted me with his purpose to preach out of Prov. 20.6 But a faithful Man who can find where he said the Doctrine he meant to raise was this That Faith is a rare gift of God I told him I thought he mistook the meaning of the Text and wished him to choose longer Texts and not bring his Discourses to a Word or two of Scripture but rather to declare those of the Holy Ghost He said your Grace did so sometimes I answered there might be jâ—st cause but I thought you did not so ordinarily As for those Men Mr. Whiskins and the rest I never heard any of them preach to this day Peradventure their manner is to take longer Texts whereupon the comparison is made up as if I preferred them before you This slander did not much trouble me I know your Grace will not think me such a Fool if I had no fear of God to prefer before your excellent gifts Men that I never heard But look as the French Proverb is He that is disposed to kill his Dog tells Men he is mad And whom Men have once wronged unless the Grace of God be the more they ever hate Concerning the wrongs which these people have offered me I shall take another fit time to inform your Grace Where they say Your Grace doth find your self deceived in me I think it may be the truest word they said yet For indeed I do think both you and many more are deceived in me accounting me to have some honesty discretion and Grace more than you will by proof find But if as it seems to me that form hath this meaning that they pretend to have undeceived you I hope they are deceived yea I hope they shall be deceived if by such courses as these they think to unsettle me and the Devil himself also if he think to dismay me I will go on in the strength of the Lord God and remember his righteousness even his alone as by that reverend and good Father my Lord of Canterbury when I first came over I was exhorted and have obtained help of God to do to this day But had I not work enough before but I must bring Mr. Cooke upon my top One that for his Experience Purse Friends in a Case already adjudged wherein he is ingaged not only for his profit but reputation also will easily no doubt overbear me How much better to study to be quiet and to do mine own business or as I think Staupitius was wont to bid Luther go into my Study and pray My Lord all these things came to my mind and at the first I came with a resolution to take heed to my self and if I could to teach others moderation and forbearance by mine own example But I could not be quiet nor without pity hear the complaints of those that resorted to me some of them of mine own Neighbours and Tenants called into the Court commonly by information of Apparitors holden there without just cause and not dismissed without excessive Fees as they exclaimed Lastly one Mr. Mayot a Minister of the Diocess of Ardagh made a complaint to me That he was excommunicated by Mr. Cooke notwithstanding as I heard also by others the correction of Ministers was excepted out of his Patent Whereupon I desired to see the Patent and to have a Copy of it that I might know how to govern my self He said Mr. Ask being then from home should bring it to me at his return Himself went to Dublin to the Term. At the first view I saw it was a formless Chaos of Authority conferred upon him against all reason and equity I had not long after occasion to call the Chapter together at the time of Ordination I shewed the Original being brought forth by Mr. Ask desired to know if that were the Chapter Seal and these their Hands they acknowledged their Hands and Seal and said they were
Salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great Congregation of mankind He is near that justifieth me That I have not concealed the Words of the holy one but the Words that he gave to me I have given to you and ye have received them I had a desire and resolution to walk before God in every station of my pilgrimage from my youth up to this day in truth and with an upright Heart and to do that which was upright in his Eyes to the utmost of my power and what things were gain to me formerly these things I count now loss for Christ yea doubtless and I account all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and I account them but Dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his Death I press therefore towards the mark for the price of the high Calling of God in Jesus Christ. Let nothing separate you from the love of Christ neither tribulation nor distress nor persecution nor famine nor nakedness nor peril nor Sword though as ye hear and see for his sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as Sheep for the slaughter Yet in all these things we are more than conquerers through him that loved us For I am perswaded That neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any Creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesu my Lord. Therefore love not the World nor the things of the World but prepare daily and hourly for death that now besieges us on every side and be faithful unto death that we may meet together joyfully on the right-Hand of Christ at the last day and follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth with all those that are cloathed with white Robes in sign of innocency and Palms in their Hands in sign of Victory which came out of great tribulation and have washed their Robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. They shall hunger no more nor thirst neither shall the Sun light on them or any heat for the Lamb that is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living Fountains of Waters and shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes Chuse rather with Moses to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season which will be bitterness in the latter end Look therefore for sufferings and to be daily made partakers of the sufferings of Christ to fill up that which is behind of the affliction of Christ in your Flesh for his Bodies sake which is the Church What can you look for but one woe after another while the Man of sin is thus suffered to rage and to make havock of God's people at his pleasure while Men are divided about trifles that ought to have been more vigilant over us and careful of those whose Blood is precious in God's sight though now shed every where like Water If ye suffer for righteousness happy are ye be not afraid of their terrour neither be ye troubled and be in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God For to you is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake Rejoice therefore in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his Glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy And if ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye the Spirit of glory and of Christ resteth on you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified God will surely visit you in due time and return your captivity as the Rivers of the South and bring you back again into your possession in this Land though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations yet ye shall reap in joy though now ye sow in Tears all our losses shall be recompenced with abundant advantages for my God will supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Jesus Christ who is able to do exceeding abundantly for us above all that we are able to ask or think After that he blessed his Children and those that stood about him in an audible Voice in these Words God of his infinite mercy bless you all and present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight that we may meet together at the right-Hand of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ with joy unspeakable and full of glory Amen To which he added these Words I have fought a good fight I have finished the course of my Ministry and life together Though grievous Wolves have entered in among us not sparing the Flock yet I trust the great Shepherd of his Flock will save and deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in this cloudy and dark day that they shall be no more a prey to the Heathen neither shall the Beasts of the Land devour them but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid O Lord I have waited for thy Salvation And after a little interval he said I have kept the Faith once given to the Saints for the which cause I have also suffered these things but I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day After this time he spoke little for as his sickness encreased his Speech failed and he slumbered out most of the time only between hands it appeared that he was cheerfully waiting for his change which at last came about Midnight on the 7 th of February that he fell asleep in the Lord and entred into his rest and obtained his Crown which in some sort was a Crown of Martyrdom for no doubt the sad weight of sorrow that lay upon his Mind and his ill usage in his Imprisonment had much hastened his death And he suffered more in his mind by what he had lived to hear and see these last fifteen Weeks of his Life than he could have done if he had fallen by the Sword among the first of those that felt the rage of the Irish. His Friends went about his Burying and since that could not be obtained but by the new intruding Bishop's leave Mr. Clogy and Mr. Shereden went to ask it and Mr. Dillon was prevailed with by his Wife
that Communion triumph so much Where was our Religion before Luther and what became of our Ancestors that dyed in Popery Archbishop Vsher prest him to have printed it and he had resolved to do it but that with all his other Works was swallowed up in the Rebellion He kept a great correspondence not only with the Divines of England but with many others over Europe for he writ both Latin and Italian very elegantly He was very free in his conversation but talked seldome of indifferent matters he expressed a great modesty of Spirit and a moderation of temper in every thing he spoke and his Discourse still turned to somewhat that made his company useful and instructing He spoke his own thoughts very plainly and as he bore well with the freedom of others so he took all the discreet liberty that became a Man of his Age and station and did not stick to tell even the Learned and Worthy Primate Vsher such things as he thought were blame-worthy in him and with the same sincerity he shewed him some critical mistakes that he met with in some of his Works They were very few and not of any great importance but they did not agree with the Primates exactness in other things and so he laid them before him which the other took from him with that kindness and humility that was natural to him His Habit was decent and grave he wore no Silk but plain Stuffs the furniture of his House was not pompous nor superfluous but necessary for common use and proper His Table was well covered according to the plenty that was in the Country but there was no luxury in it Great resort was made to him and he observed a true hospitality in House-keeping Many poor Irish families about him were maintained out of his Kitchin And in the Christmass time he had the Poor always eating with him at his own Table and he brought himself to endure both the sight of their Rags and their rudeness He was not forward to speak and he expressed himself in very few Words in publick companies At publick Tables he usually sat silent Once at the Earl of Strafford's Table one observed That while they were all talking he said nothing So the Primate answered Broach him and you will find good liquor in him Upon which that person proposed a question in Divinity to him and in answering it the Bishop shewed both his own sufficiency so well and pusled the other so much that all at Table except the Bishop himself fell a laughing at the other The greatness of his mind and the undauntedness of his Spirit on all occasions has appeared very evidently in many of the passages of his life but though that height of mind is often accompanied with a great mixture of Pride nothing of that appeared in the Bishop He carried himself towards all people with such a gaining humility that he got into their Hearts He lived with his Clergy as if they had been his Brethren When he went his Visitations he would not accept of the Invitations that were made him by the great Men of the Country but would needs eat with his Brethren in such poor Inns and of such course fare as the places afforded A person of Quality that had prepared an entertainment for him during his Visitation took his refusing it so ill that whereas the Bishop promised to come and see him after Dinner as soon as he came near his Gate which was standing open it was presently shut on design to affront him and he was kept half an hour knocking at it the affront was visible and when some would have had him go away he would not do it but said They will hear e're long At last the Master came out and received him with many shews of civility but he made a very short visit and though the rudeness he met with prevailed not on him either to resent it or to go away upon it yet it appeared that he understood it well enough He avoided all affectations of state or greatness in his carriage He went about always on foot when he was at Dublin one Servant only attending on him except on publick occasions that obliged him to ride in Procession among his Brethren He never kept a Coach for his strength continued so entire that he was alwayes able to ride on Horseback He avoided the affectations of humility as well as of Pride the former flowing often from the greater pride of the two and amidst all those extraordinary Talents with which God had blest him it never appeared that he overvalued himself nor despised others that he assumed to himself a Dictatorship or was impatient of contradiction He took an ingenious device to put him in mind both of his Obligations to purity and humility It was a flaming Crucible with this Motto in Hebrew Take from me all my Tin The Word in Hebrew that signifies Tin was Bedil This imported that he thought that every thing in himself was but base alloy and therefore he prayed that God would cleanse him from it His great humility made the secreter parts of his goodness as to his private walking with God less known except as they appeared in that best and surest indication of it which his life and conversation gave yet if the Rebells had not destroyed all his Papers there would have been found among them great discoveries of this for he kept a daily Journal for many years but of what sort it was how full and how particular is only known to God since no Man ever saw it unless some of the Rebells found it Though it is not probable that they would have taken the pains to examine his Papers it being more likely that they destroyed them all in a heap He never thought of changing his See or of rising up to a more advantagious Bishoprick but considered himself as under a tye to his See that could not be easily dissolved So that when the translating him to a Bishoprick in England was proposed to him he refused it and said he should be as troublesome a Bishop in England as he had been in Ireland It appeared he had a true and generous notion of Religion and that he did not look upon it so much as a System of Opinions or a set of Forms as a Divine Discipline that reforms the Heart and Life and therefore when some Men were valued upon their zeal for some lesser matters he had those Words of S. Augustine's often in his Mouth It is not Leaves but Fruit that I seek This was the true principle of his great zeal against Popery It was not the peevishness of a party the sourness of a speculative Man nor the concern of an interested person that wrought on him But he considered the corruptions of that Church as an effectual course for enervating the true design of Christianity and this he not only gathered from Speculation but from what he saw and knew during his long abode in Italy
a possible member of Christ and the Communion of Saints is a straiter Bond than Redemption by Christ and possibility of being ingrafted and bearing Fruit in his mystical Body And I would to Christ that of all other Controversies this were the vehementest between us which should love each other most Wherein although I would strive and do my best to have the better yet see how equally I would contend For both I would acknowledge freely my self far short of that which I may by my Profession do in this kind and perswade my self better of your secret affection to us than you may by your Profession express I will not easily believe that you can find in your Heart to count that Man a Dogg and out of the Church and in state of damnation that stedfastly believeth in our Lord Jesus Christ and by him in the Blessed Trinity that confesseth all the Doctrine of Holy Scriptures the summ whereof is in the Creed that lastly with a charitable affection embraceth all that hold this Faith throughout the World yea even those that hate and persecute him to the death Wherein I forbear for the present to enlarge because I speak more of it in my answer to your first Letters which Mr. Aston gives me hope that himself ere long will consign into your hands Now by his direction I send you only advice of the receipt of your last with hearty thanks for them desirous not to run further in arrearages with you in this office of writing This one thing I add that where you write You are glad I do subscribe to your intercession by the Saints wishing me fully to extend it to invocation of Saints as Intercessors though not as Redeemers I should be very glad if I could as well content you in all other Points as that one coming thus prepared in all controversies with you and all Men to yield whatsoever I may saving the truth But as I conceive it there is great odds between these two To desire God to grant us this or that good thing by the intercession of the Saints and To use invocation of themselves The one supposeth only that the Saints in glory generally knowing the warfare of those on Earth are careful for them and omit not this act of never-failing charity to pray for them These prayers it hopes and desires of God may be helpful to us by the only merit of our Lord Iesus Christ in the same sort as those of the Saints wheresoever on Earth as 2 Cor. 1.10.11 Ephes. 6.1 Philem v. 22 The other that the Saints departed know our wants and states in particular and hear our Prayers and by consequent know our Hearts which is flatly contrary to the Scriptures 2 Chron. 6.30 Esay 63.16 To omit now that you do not only desire them to pray for you but ask at their hands Grace and Glory trust in them vow to them swear by them offer and receive the Sacrifice of the New Testament to their honour and glory and desire it may be accepted by their Patronage Wherefore as I am glad to perceive that you do reverse those blasphemies indeed Salva me Salvatrix Redime me Redemptrix and will not subscribe to those Words of Bellarmine non erit absurdum si sancti viri Redemptores nostri aliquo modo id est secundum aliquid non simpliciter largo modo non in rigore verborum esse dicantur And again cur ineptè dicantur Sancti viri aliquo modo passionibus suis delicta nostra posse redimere so I hope and wish you would do the like for calling upon them and presenting their Merits unto God and as ye may more safely and sweetly speak unto our Jesus who is our Advocate with the Father entered into the Holy of Holies to appear before God for us To his gracious protection I commit you and do rest Your assured Friend and loving Brother W. Bedell Horningshearth Iune 15. 1620. ✚ To the Worshipful his much respected Friend Mr. William Bedell at Horningshearth by S. Edmundsbury in Suffolk these My very good Friend MR. Bedell my last unto you was by a Gentleman who went from hence about six Months since but I have understood he fell sick at Paris by the way and so was first hindred there in his Journey and afterwards again at Brussels fell to a relapse which detained him so long that although now very lately I hear he is recovered and gone forward into England yet in so long delays and so often sicknesses I know not whether he have lost or forgotten my former Letters Wherefore out of this consideration and by the opportunity of this Bringer and by the true hearty affection which I bear you being desirous to signifie unto you the continuance of my sincere love I could not pretermit this so good an occasion though hereby I have nothing else to say nor intreat but if we have Wars yet our dissention may be rather in the matter and cases than betwixt our persons as discreet Lawyers use to plead vehemently each for his Clients Iustice and yet remain betwixt themselves without breach of amity and abstaining from opprobrious injury wherein I have great confidence that you will proceed both more moderately in all the circumstance and to better purpose in the substance than Mr. Ioseph Hall unto whose Letter directed to you and by you sent unto me I wrote certain Marginal Notes only and so returned the same by the above named Gentleman whereof also if it return to your Hands I would intreat you to send me a Copy both of his Text and my Gloss for then being in haste I remained with neither Our Lord keep you and guide us all to his truth and to Heaven Iames Waddesworth Madrid Iune 8. 1620. The Letter of Mr. Dr. Hall mentioned in the former with Mr. Waddesworth's Marginal Notes Good Master Bedell WHat a sorry crabb hath Mr. Waddesworth at last sent us from Sevil I pity the impotent malice of the Man sure that hot Region and sulphurous Religion are guilty of this his choler For ought I see he is not only turned Papist but Spaniard too Ibi vivitur ambitiosa paupertate The great Man would not foil his Fingers for that is his Word with such an Adversary as my self he should have found this conflict his foiling indeed but he scorns the match and what wonder if he that hath all this while sat on Father Creswel 's Stairs scorn the unworthiness of him whom an English University scorned not to set in the Chair of Divinity But whence is this my contempt I see but two Vices to clear my self of Poetry and Railing of the latter you shall acquit me if you will but read that my poor Epistle which he sleights thus Let your Eyes judge whether ever any thing could be written more mildly more modestly more lovingly Of the former I must acquit my self Cujus unum est sed magnum vitium Poesis What were