"tainties cleared up which they laboured under, "in reference to matters of the greatest moment. "The method indeed they took was prudent and "Christian, to seek for knowledge at those lips "which are appointed to preserve it, and to bring "their doubts to their own pastors, before they sub"mit to the authority of others. And I question "not but for this reason, among many, God thought "fit to give them the satisfaction they sought for; "and if others, who are assaulted after this manner, "would take the same course, I doubt not but that they would find the same success.” 66 If the reader is desirous to know who those ladies (mentioned in the beginning of the paragraph) were, I can only tell him, that one of them was the wife of a worthy person now living, who (for reasons best known to himself) was unwilling her name should be mentioned upon such an occasion by Mr. Nelson; and supposing him to be still of the same opinion, I shall not insert any thing here which may be grating to him. The other was the countess of Newbrugh, for whose sake this treatise was composed: and of her all the account I can at present give is, that she was daughter and sole heiress of sir Henry Pool, bart. of Salperton, in the county of Gloucester, and wife to Charles Leviston, who, for services done a [This marriage is omitted in all the Peerages which I have seen; and probably because there was no issue from it. Robert Bull was however mistaken in calling the first earl of Newburgh Charles; his name was James Livingston, or Levingstone: he the crown in the reign of king Charles the Second, was by him created earl of Newbrugh in the kingdom of Scotland, and held a considerable place in that king's favour as long as he lived. She was a lady (as I have been informed by persons who very well remember her) of great personal endowments; and the reader may collect the same from several passages in the following letter. It seems to have been her mother, the lady Pool of Cirencester, who first advised her to consult my father in this important affair; who, out of a sense of gratitude for this and other services done her family, and to testify the great esteem she had for him, did afterwards, in her last will, appoint him to be her executor c. As to the letter itself, I shall forbear giving any character of it, my near relation to the author unqualifying me for such an undertaking. The reader himself must judge of that, who (I question not) upon a full perusal of it, will esteem it a performance worthy the author whose name it bears. I will no longer deprive the reader of the satisfaction the following treatise may afford him, than to let him know he is obliged to that worthy gentleman, married first Anne, daughter of sir Henry Pool, and secondly lady Catharine Howard, daughter of Theophilus, earl of Suffolk, and widow of George lord Aubigny, by whom he had Charles the second earl.] Mr. Richard Rawlinson, A. M. of St. John's college Oxon. and F. R. S. for the discovery of this manuscript, who for rescuing it from the obscurity it had lain in for almost fifty years, and bestowing it on the public by me, has a just right to the thanks of every one who shall receive advantage from it. Tortworth, April 18, 1719. ROBERT BULL. A Reply to a book entitled, The Catholic Scripturist; (or, the Plea of the Roman Catholics: shew- ing the Scriptures to hold the Roman Faith in above forty of the chief Controversies now Of the Reformation, and Thirty-nine Articles 210. 211. 225 |