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
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
was in Scotland in the Year one thousand six hundred thirty and three to the Bishoprick of Edenburgh that was then founded by him so that that glorious King said on good grounds that he had found out a Bishop that deserved that a See should be made for him he was a grave and eminent Divine my Father that knew him long and being of Council for him in his Law-matters had occasion to know him well has often told me That he never saw him but he thought his Heart was in Heaven and he was never alone with him but he felt within himself a Commentary on these Words of the Apostles Did not our Hearts burn within us while he yet talked with us and opened to us the Scriptures He preached with a zeal and vehemence that made him often forget all the measures of time two or three Hours was no extraordinary thing for him those Sermons wasted his Strength so fast and his ascetical course of life was such that he supplyed it so scantly that he dyed within a Year after his Promotion so he only appeared there long enough to be known but not long enough to do what might have been otherwise expected from so great a Prelate That little remnant of his that is in Print shews how Learned he was I do not deny but his earnest desire of a general Peace and Union among all Christians has made him too favourable to many of the Corruptions in the Church of Rome but tho' a Charity that is not well ballanced may carry one to very indiscreet things yet the Principle from whence they flowed in him was so truly good that the errors to which it carried him ought to be either excused or at least to be very gently censured Another of our late Bishops was the noblest born of all the Order being Brother to the Lord Boid that is one of the best Families of Scotland but was provided to the poorest Bishoprick which was Argile yet he did great things in it He found his Diocess overrun with ignorance and barbarity so that in many places the name of Christ was not known but he went about that Apostolical Work of planting the Gospel with a particular industry and almost with equal success He got Churches and Schools to be raised and endowed every where and lived to see a great blessing on his endeavours so that he is not so much as named in that Country to this day but with a particular veneration even by those who are otherwise no way equitable to that Order The only answer that our angry people in Scotland used to make when they were pressed with such Instances was that there were too few of them But some of the severest of them have owned to me that if there were many such Bishops they would all be Episcopal I shall not add much of the Bishops that have been in that Church since the last re-establishing of the Order but that I have observed among the few of them to whom I had the honour to be known particularly as great and as exemplary things as ever I met with in all Ecclesiastical History Not only the practice of the strictest of all the Antient Canons but a pitch of Vertue and Piety beyond what can fall under common imitation or be made the measure of even the most Angelical rank of Men and saw things in them that would look liker fair Ideas than what Men cloathed with Flesh and Blood could grow up to But of this I will say no more since those that are concerned are yet alive and their Character is too singular not to make them to be as easily known if I enlarged upon it as if I named them But of one that is dead I may be allowed to say somewhat with whom the See of Aberdeen was as happy in this Age as it was in his worthy Predecessor Forbes in the last both in the number of the Years for he sat seventeen Years in that Chair and in the rare qualities that dignified them both almost equally He also saw his Son fill the Divinity Chair as the other had done but here was the fatal difference that he only lived long enough to raise the greatest expectation that I ever knew upon any of that Nation of his standing for when all hoped to se in him a second Dr. Forbes or to bring it nearer home another Bishop Scougall for that was his Fathers name he dyed very young The endearing gentleness of the Father to all that differed from him his great strictness in giving Orders his most unaffected humility and contempt of the World were things so singular in him that they deserved to be much more admired than his other Talents which were also extraordinary a wonderful strength of Judgment a dexterity in the conduct of Affairs which he imployed chiefly in the making up of Differences and a Discretion in his whole deportment For he had a way of Familiarity by which he gave every body all sort of freedom with him and in which at the same time he inspired them with a veneration for him and by that he gained so much on their affections that he was considered as the common Father of his whole Diocess and the Dissenters themselves seemed to esteem him no less than the Conformists did He took great pleasure in discoursing often with young Divines and set himself to frame in them right and generous Notions of the Christian Religion and of the Pastoral Care so that a Set of Men grew up under his Labors that carry still on them clear Characters of his spirit and temper One thing more I will add which may afford a more general Instruction Several years ago he observ'd a great heat in some young Minds that as he believed had very good intentions but were too forward and complained much of abuses calling loudly and not very decently for a Reformation of them upon which he told them the noise made about reforming abuses was the likeliest way to keep them up for that would raise Heats and Disputes and would be ascribed to envy and faction in them and ill-minded Men that loved the abuses for the advantages they made by them would blast and misrepresent those that went about to correct them by which they would fall under the jealousie of being ill affected to the Church and they being once loaded with this prejudice would be disabled from doing the good of which they might otherwise be the Instruments Therefore he thought a Reformation of Abuses ought to be carried on by every one in his station with no other noise than what the things themselves must necessarily produce and then the silent way of conviction that is raised by great Patterns would speak louder and would recommend such Practices more strongly as well as more modestly Discourses work but upon speculative people and it has been so long the method of factious and ill designing Men to accuse publick Errors that he wished those to
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
called that which he was himself that the building of the eternal Temple might by the marvelous gift of God consist in Peter ' s firmness What is this undivided Unity Not of the Trinity I trow or natures in Christ. What then his Office of which he said a little before out of the Apostle that no Man can lay any other foundation but Iesus Christ. Yes that from Peter as a certain head he should as it were pour abroad his gifts into his whole body That the Church might stand upon Peter 's firmness This Foundation S. Paul knew not when he blamed I am of Cephas Peters infirmity cannot bear up the weight of such a building much less which we must remember the Romanists understand by this Iargon the Popes his Successors Such another interpretation is that of Pope Boniface that makes Vnum Ovile unus Pastor the Church and the Pope But it is plain our Saviour alludes to the Prophecies Ezek 34.23 and 37.24 where the Lord calls that one Pastor his servant David What blasphemy is this thus to usurp Christs Royalties What Father what Council what Catholick man ever interpreted this Text on this manner By which the Pope while he seeks the name of the Shepherd shuts himself out of Christs â—old Yea the same Pope calls the Church his Spouse also and so other Popes since S. Iohn the Baptist tells them that he that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom S. Paul prepared her to one Husband Christ. If she be the Popes Spouse with her will she is a Harlot if against her will he is a Ravisher and our Lord Jesus Christ will deliver her out of his lewd imbracements crying out of the violence which she suffers as it is to he hoped shortly That in the Churches power are two Swords the spiritual and temporal we are taught by the Words of the Gospel saith the same Boniface For when the Apostles said Behold there be two swords here to wit in the Church when the Apostles spake thus the Lord answered not that it was too much but enough Certainly he that denies the temporal Sword to be in Peter ' s power doth ill observe the Speech which our Lord utters Put up thy Sword into thy sheath No doubt an infallible Interpretation by which it should appear that both the Swords that were in our Saviours company hung by S. Peter's side or else that some other had the spiritual leaving none to S. Peter but that which he might not use The Exposition is S Bernards you will say But in an Epistle paraenetical to the Pope himself S. Bernard might have leave to use allusions and after his manner to be liberal of all that the See of Rome challenged that he might have the more Authority to reform the abuses of it As to grant Peter the temporal Sword but so as he must not use it Quid tu gladium denuo usurpare tentes quem semel jussus es ponere in vaginam and he shews how these two Swords be the Churches The one to be drawn out for the Church the other also by the Church This by the Priests that by the Souldiers hand but at the beck of the Priest and bidding of the Emperor But the Pope in a Decretal Epistle pretending to teach the World in a Point as he pronounces necessary to Salvation with such an Interpretation as this argues little reverence to the Word of God and a very mean Opinion of the Judgments and Consciences of Christen Men if they could not discern this to be a Strangers Voice not Christs Besides that he changes S. Bernards Words and clean perverts his meaning For exerendus he puts in exercendus For ille Sacerdotis is militis manu sed sanè ad nutum Sacerdotis jussum Imperatoris Pope Boniface thinking jussum too absolute in the Emperor makes him to be the executioner and joyns him with the Souldier on this manner Ille Sacerdotum is manu Regum Militum sed ad nutum patientiam Sacerdotis S. Bernard makes the executive power to be in the Souldier the directive in the Priest the commanding in the Emperor Pope Boniface makes the Kings and Souldiers to have only the executive the directive and permissive to be in the Priest Yea sword he saith must be under Sword For where the Apostle saith There is no power but of God quae autem sunt à Deo ordinati sunt more fully in the original Text the powers that are are ordained that is appointed of God The Interpreter here dreams of order and subordination and cites a saying of Dionysius that the lowest things are reduced to the highest by the middlemost a conceit that makes nothing to the purpose of the Apostle in that place He proceeds and tells us that of the Church and Power Ecclesiastical is verified the Prophecy of Jeremy Behold I have set thee this day over Kings and Kingdoms c. Tell me good Mr. Waddesworth what is to pervert the Scriptures if this be not to apply to the power Ecclesiastical that which is spoken of the Word and Calling Prophetical Yet more The Earthly Power if it swerve out of the way shall be judged of the power Spiritual but if the Spiritual that is lesser of that which is superior to it But if the highest it may be judged of God only not of Man the Apostle witnessing the Spiritual Man judgeth all things but himself is judged of none We are come at length as it were to the Fountains of Nilus to the Original of the Infallibility of your Iudge and if he have here rightly interpreted S. Paul we learn that no earthly power no Magistrate is a spiritual Man unless he be one of the Popes spiritualty For these be S. Paul's spiritual Men that judge all things Yet this must receive limitation For no Man may judge the Pope the Supreme Spiritual Man for of him it seems S. Paul meant it his authority he saith is not humane but divine by the divine Mouth given to Peter and his Successors when the Lord said to him Quodcunque ligaveris For conclusion Whosoever resists this power thus ordered of God resists the Ordinance of God unless as Manichaeus he feign two beginnings which saith he we judge to be false and heretical sith by Moses record not in the beginnings but in the beginning God created Heaven and Earth Who would not acknowledge the divine Authority and Infallibility of your Interpreter both in confirming his purpose and convincing heresies from so high a beginning as this first sentence of Holy Writ What rests now but after so many testimonies he inferr Furthermore to be under the Bishop of Rome we declare say define and pronounce that to every humane creature it is altogether of necessity of salvation Thus saith your infallible Judge and Interpreter of Scripture the center of your Conscience and foundation of your Faith not as a private Doctor but
as Pope in his own Law intending to inform and bind the Church and that in matters with him of the greatest importance that may be touching his own Authority and as he pretends absolutely necessary to Salvation to all the Sons of Adam I might heap up many more but these may suffice for a sample You may and so do by your self I beseech you observe these kind of Interpretations in other Points also and in other the Decretals and Breves of Popes which as I hear are lately come forth in great Volumes You shall find many Mysteries in your Faith that perhaps you know not of as That you cannot please God because you are married for so is that place of the Apostle interpreted qui in carne vivunt Deo placere non possunt That not only the Wine in the Chalice but the Water also is transubstantiated first into Wine then into Christs blood That it was not watry moisture but the true element of Water which issued out of Christs side You shall find confession of sins to the Priest proved by the Text Corde creditur ad justitiam ore autem fit confessio ad salutem That the good Ground that received the Seed in the Gospel is the Religion of the Friers Minors That this is that pure and immaculate Religion with God and the Father which descending from the Father of Lights delivered exemplariter verbaliter by the Son to his Apostles and then inspired by the Holy Ghost into S. Francis and his Followers contains in it self the Testimony of the Trinity This is that which as S. Paul witnesseth no Man must be troublesome unto which Christ hath confirmed with the prints of his Passion The Text is de caetero nemo mihi molestus sit ego n. stigmata Domini Iesu in corpore meo porto It is marvel if S. Paul were not of the Order of S. Francis That when Christ said Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus dicbus he meant it of remaining and being with them even by his bodily presence S. Augustine upon the same Text denies this and saith that according to the presence of his Body he is ascended into Heaven and is not here That the Father of the Child Christned and his Godfathers Wife may not marry because according to the Lords Word the Husband and the Wife are made one flesh by marriage That the number of Four doth well agree to the degrees prohibited in corporal marriage of which the Apostle saith The Man hath not the power of his own body but the Woman nor the Woman power of her body but the Man because there are four humours in the body which consist of the four Elements For Conclusion you shall find it by a commodious interpretation concluded contrary to many Texts of Scripture out of Scripture it self that no simple and unlearned Man presume to reach to the subtlety of the Scripture because well it was enacted in the law of God that the Beast which should touch the Mountain should be stoned For it is written Seek not things higher than thy self For which cause the Apostle saith Be not more wise than it behoveth but be wise to sobriety One thing more also you shall find that now adays this spiritual Man and sole infallible Interpreter of Scripture seldom interprets Scripture or uses it in his Decretals and Breves Nay the stile of his Court hath no manner of smack or savor of it A long compass of a Sentence intricate to understand yea even to remember to the end full of swelling Words of Vanity with I know not how many ampliations and alternatives after the fashion of Lawyers in Civil Courts not of sober Divines much less of the Spirit of God in his Word Some Man would perhaps think this proceeds from an affectation of greatness and the desire of retaining Authority which seems to be embased by alledging reason or Scripture and interpreting Texts For my part I account it comes as much from necessity For it is notorious That neither the Popes themselves nor those of the Court the Secretaries and Dataries which pen their Bulls and Breves have any use or exercise in Holy Scripture or soundness in the knowledge of Divinity or skill in the Original Tongues wherein Gods Word is written all which are necessary to an able Interpreter And therefore it is a wise reservedness in them not to intermeddle with that wherein they might easily fault especially in a learned Age and wherein so many watchful Eyes are continually upon them And to this very poverty and cautelousness I do impute it That the present Pope in his Breves about the Oath of Allegiance useth not a Word of Scripture But tells his Faction that they cannot without most evident and grievous injury of Gods honour take the Oath the tenour whereof he sets down Word for Word and that done adds Quae cum ita sint c. Which things saith he since they be so it must needs be clear unto you out of the Words themselves that such an Oath cannot be taken with the safety of the Catholick Faith and of your Souls sith it containeth many things which are apparently contrary to Faith and salvation He instances in no one thing brings neither Scripture nor Reason but a Quae cum ita sint without any premisses Which loose and undergrounded Proceeding when as it is occasioned the Arch-Priest here and many other of that side to think these Letters forged or gotten by surreption he sends another of the same tenor with this further Reason Haec autem est mora pura integraque voluntas nostra This is now to be more than an Interpreter even to be a Lord over the Faith of his Followers to make his Will a Reason What would you have him do to alledge a better he could not a weak and unsufficient one he was ashamed he thought it best to resolve the matter into his sole Authority Whereby he hath proved himself a fallible both Iudge and Interpreter yea a false witness against God and the Truth commanding by the Apostle Christian Men to be subject and to give every Man their dues fear to whom fear honour to whom honour and much more if there be any difference Allegiance to whom Allegiance CHAP. IV. Of the state of the Church of England and whether it may be reconciled with Rome BUt of your Interpreters Infallibility enough Your next doubt Whether the Church of England were of the true Church or no was resolved with a Paralogism partly by reason of equivâ—â—â—tion and diverse acception of the terms The Church and to err partly by composition and division in the connexion of these by those Verbs can or may Let us examine the several parts of your Syllogisme The Proposition The true Church cannot â—rr is confirmed by the consent of all Excuse me Sir if I withhold my consent without some Declaration and Limitation I say
of the Woman shall crush his head The vulgar Edition leaving here the Hebrew the Seventy and Saint Hierome himself as appears by his questions upon Genesis translates Ipsa She shall bruise thy head So it stands now in the authentical Scripture of the Church of Rome and herein Sixtus and Clemens are of accord The Divines of Lovaine observe that two Manuscript Copies have Ipse That the Hebrew Chaldee and Greek have it so likewise Why then did not either Sixtus or Clemens or they themselves having Copies for it correct it and make it so in the authentical Text I will tell you by colour of this corruption the Devil envying Christs glory like an obstinate enemy rather yielding himself to any than his true Conqueror hath given this honour to the Virgin Mary To her it is attributed in that work which I think to be the most ungodly and blasphemous that ever saw the Sun The Ladies Psalter wherein that which is spoken of God by the Spirit of God is writhed to her In the 51. Psalm Quid gloriaris in malitia ô maligne Serpens e. Why boastest thou in malice ô thou malignant Serpent and infernal Dragon Submit thy head to the Woman by whose valour thou shalt be drowned in the deep Crush him ô Lady with the foot of thy valour arise and scatter his malice c. And in the 52. speaking to the same Serpent Noli extolli c. Be not lifted up for the fall of the Woman for a Woman shall crush thy head c So that in that Anthem Haec est mulier virtutis quae contrivit caput Serpentis Yea which I write with gief and shame to her doth good Bernard apply it Hom. 2. Super Missus est and which is more strange expounds it not of her bearing our Saviour but Ipsa proculdubio c. She doubtless crushed that poisonfull head which brought to naught all manner of suggestion of that wicked one both of temptation of the flesh and of pride of mind To her doth the learned and devout Chancellor of Paris apply it Has pestes universas dicimus membra Serpentis antiqui cujus caput ipsa virgo contrivit And what marvel in those times when the plain Text of the Scripture ran so in the feminine gender of a woman and few or none had any skill of the Greek or Hebrew Who should that SHEE be but she that is blessed among women Now although that thanks be to God it is known that this is a corrupt place out of the Fountains yea out of the Rivers also the testimonies of the Fathers referring this to Christ as Irenaeus Iustine Cyprian Clemens Alexandrinus Hierome yea Pope Leo himself yet because no error of the Church of Rome may be acknowledged how palpable soever they have cast how to shadow this corruption and set some colour upon it that howsoever this reading cannot be true yet it may be made like to truth Lo in the Interlinear-Bible set forth by the authority of King Philip the father of his Majesty that now Reigns with you the Hebrew Text is reformed according to the Latine IPSA There was some opportunity hereunto by reason that the Letters of the Text without pricks would bear both readings For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hu or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hiu And this self-same word for the Letters the base of reading is so pointed in this Chapter verse 19. and applyed to Eve She is the mother of all living And so elsewhere as Gen. 28.1 and 21. Hereunto perhaps was added that the pricks are a late invention of the Rabbines as many think and no part of the Hebrew Text. And that not only Leo Castro and such as accuse the present Hebrew Copies as faâ—sified but those that defend them also do many of them confess Hereupon it was resolved as it seems to point this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hiu For it was not by mistaking but purposely done Franciscus Lucas in his Annotations upon the place doth assure us and saith it was Guido Fabricius his deed And indeed other things there be in that work which savour not of the learning and integrity of Arias Montanus as for example the Etymologie of Missa from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as Boldness is not always as provident as Ignorance or Malice is bold these Correctors marked not that the gender of the Verb and the affix of the Noun following are both Masculine So although the Orthographie would be framed to consent yet the Syntax doth crie out against this Sacriledge And yet our Rhemists as I am informed in their lately set-forth Bible with a long note upon this place defend the applying of this Text to the blessed Virgin and the old reading Ipsa What should a man say Necessity makes men desperate and as the Apostle saith Evil men and deceivers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived These be frauds indeed in the strictest sense wilfully corrupting the Texts of good Authors wilfully maintaining them so corrupted not abstaining from the holy Scriptures themselves For as to that other kind depraving the sense retaining the words it were endless to cite examples Bellarmine alone as I believe passeth any two Protestants that ever set pen to paper perhaps all of them put together CHAP. VII Of the Armies of evident Witnesses for the Romanists WHere you add That you found the Catholicks had far greater and better Armies of evident Witnesses than the Protestants it might perhaps seem so to you as your mind was prepared when you had met with such cunning Muster-Masters as the Romanists are Who sometimes bring into the Field to make their number seem more after the old stratagem of War a sort of Pages and Lackies unworthy to hold any rank in the Host of God under the names of the Fathers Sometimes to confirm their part give out a Voice confidently that all the Forces which they see aloof in the Field are on their side whereas when it comes to the Battle they shall find that they will turn their Arms against them Sometimes they change the Quarrel it self in which case how easie is it to bring Armies as you say into the Field to fight against No-body and evident Witnesses to prove that which no Man denies For the purpose that the Bishop of Rome hath had a primacy of Honour and Authority when as the question is about a Monarchy and infallible Judgment an uncontrolable Jurisdiction Herein if you please see how Bellarmine alledges the Fathers Greek and Latine in the 15. and 16. Chapters of his First Book de Summo Pontifice So for proof of the verity of Christs Body and Blood in the Lords Supper he spends a whole Book only in citing the Testimonies of the Fathers To what purpose When the question is not of the truth of the Presence but of the manner whether it be to the Teeth and Belly
which if it be put to be a sign of a holy thing these be both so and a many more than seven If a Seal of the New Testament so are there but those two which we properly call Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper In which last as to the intention of Sacrificing surely if ye allow the Doctrine of the Master of the Sentences That it is called a Sacrifice and Oblation which is offered and consecrated by the Priest because it is a Memory and Representation of the true Sacrifice and holy Immolâ—tion made on the Altar of the Cross. And that Christ once dyed on the Cross and there was offered up in himself but is daily offered up in a Sacrament because in the Sacrament there is a remembrance â—f that which was onceâ—done which he there confirms by the Authorities of the Fathers cited by Gratian in the Canon Law If this Doctrine I say may yet pass for good and this be the Churches intention we want not this Intention of sacrificing Add to this the Confession of Melchior Canus who saith the Lutherans do not wholly deny the Sacrifice but grant a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving which they call the Eucharist they will have none for sin which they call propitiatory If he had put hereto unless it be a Mysterie he had rightly expressed the Opinion of the Protestants Thirdly You object We want the matter and Form with which Orders should be given Namely for the matter in Priesthood the delivery of the Patena with Bread and the Chalice with Wine In Deaconship the delivery of the Book of the Gospel c. By which reason the seven first Deacons had no true Ordination for then there was no Gospel written to be delivered them Nor those Priests whom the Pope shall make by his sole Word saying Esto Sacerdos Whom notwithstanding sundry famous Canonists hold to be well and lawfully ordained and Innocentius himself saith That if these Forms of Ordination were not found out any other Ordainer might in like manner make Priests with those Words or the like for as much as these Forms were in process of time appointed by the Church And if we list to seek for these metaphysical Notions of Matter and Form in Ordination which at the most can be but by Analogy how much better might we assign the persons deputed to sacred Functions to be the matter as those that contract are by your selves made the matter in Matrimony and the imposing of Hands with the expressing the Authority and Office given to be the Form In Dionysius though falsely called the Areopagite yet an antient Author you shall find nothing else nor which I may tell you by the way any other Orders save Bishops Priests and Deacons And to come to that wherein you say we fail most of all the substantial Form of Priesthood tell me ingenuously good Master Waddesworth how do you know that our Lord Jesus Christ made his Apostles or they other Priests with this Form which hath no mention or footstep in the Gospels or otherwhere in Holy Scripture Nor so much as in the Council of Carthage that from whence the manner of giving other Orders is fetched nor in Gratian nor in any other antient Author that I can find save in the Pontifical only And is the present Pontifical of such Authority with you as the Form of Priesthood the substantial Form can subsist in no other Words than those that be there expressed To omit the late turkesing whereof consider what Augustinus Patritius writes in his Preface before that which at Pope Innocent the Eighth his commandment he patched together That there were scarce two or three Books found that delivered the same thing Quot libri tot varietates Ille deficit hic superabundat alius nihil omnino de eâ re habet raro aut nunquam conveniunt saepe obscuri implicati Librariorum vitio plerunque mendosi And in truth in this your essential Form of Priesthood the old Pontificals before that which he set forth either had other Words at the giving of the Chalice and Paten as may seem or wanted both that Form and the Matter also together The Master of the Sentences declaring the manner of the Ordination of Priests and the reason why they have the Chalice with Wine and Paten with Hosts given unto them saith it is Vt per hoc sâ—iant se accepisse potestatem placabiles Deo hostias offerendi Hugo in like manner Accipiunt Calicem cum vino Patenam cum Hostia de manu Episcopi quatenus potestatem se accepisse cognoscant placabiles Deo Hostias offerendi Stephanus Eduensis Episcopus in the same Words Datur eis Calix cum Vino Patena cum Hostia in quo traditur iis potestas ad offerendum Deo placabiles Hostias So Iohannes Ianuensis in his Summ entitled Catholicon verbo Presbyter If you ascend to the higher times of Rabanus Alcuinus Isidâ—rus you shall find that they mention no such matter of delivering Chalice or Paten or Words used at the delivery and no marvel â—or in the Canons of the fourth Council of Carthage they found none Dionysiâ—s falsly called Arcopagita whom I mentioned before setting down the manner of Ordaining in his time The Priest upon â—oth his knees before the Altar with the Bishâ—ps right-Hand upon his Head is on this manner sanctified by his Consecrator with holy Invocations Here is all save that he saith after he hath described that also which pertains unto the Deacon that every one of them is signed with the Cross when the Bishop blesseth them and proclaimed and saluted by the Consecrator himself and every one of that sacred Order that is present The Greek Scholiast very lively shews the meaning and manner of this proclaiming He saith The Ordainer pronounceth by name when he signeth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a Man is consecrated from being Presbyter to be a Bishop in the name of the Father c. and so in the Presbyter and Deacon Clemens Romanus if F. Turrian and the rest of the Romish Faction deceive us not or be not deceived themselves in attributing to him the eight Books of the Apostolick Constitutions that bear his name cuts the matter yet more short and without either crossing or proclaiming appoints the Bishop to lay his Hands upon him in the presence of the Presbytery and the Deacons using a Prayer which you may see at length in him for the increase of the Church and of the number of them that by Word and Work may edifie it For the party elected unto the Office of Priesthood that being filled with the operations of Healing and Word of Doctrine he may instruct Gods people with meekness and serve him sincerely with a pure mind and willing heart and perform holy Services without spot for his people through his Christ to whom c. These last Words which are in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carolus Bovius