tradition of the Iewes numbred only 22 Canonicall bookes of the old Testament as we do and in his Chronicle he sayth expressely that the bookes of the Macchabees are not in the canon Reade saith Cyrill of Hierusalem in his Catechisme the diuine Scriptures that is the 22 bookes of the old Testament and a litle after Reade therefore these 22 bookes but with the apocrypha haue nothing to doe meditate vpon the diuine Scriptures which wee confidently reade in the Church the holy Apostles the guides of truth who deliuered vnto vs these bookes were more wise and religious then thou art Seing therefore thou art but a sonne transgresse not the precepts of the Fathers Now these are the bookes which thou must reade and then numbreth all the bookes of the old Testament and omitteth all those that are controuersed sauing that hee addeth that of Baruch thinking it a part of Hieremies prophesies Of the same opinion is Epiphanius making no mention of any of the bookes reiected by vs as apocryphall but onely the booke of Wisdome and Iesus the sonne of Sirach which hee saith are profitable but not to be esteemed as the 22 bookes or 27 as some count them that were kept in the arke of the couenant which are the bookes by vs acknowledged to bee canonicall Amphilochius Bishoppe of Iconium writing to Seleucus hath these words I will reckon vnto thee all the bookes that proceeded from the holy Ghost and that thou mayest cleerely conceiue that which concernes this matter I wil first number vnto thee the bookes of the old Testament then he nameth the 5 bookes of Moses Iosua and the Iudges Ruth 4 bookes of the Kings 2 of the Chronicles 2 of Esdras Iob the Psalmes 3 of Solomon the proverbes Ecclesiastes Canticles 12 Prophets Hose Amos Micheas Ioel Abdias Ionas Naum Abacuch Sophonie Haâ—…ge Zacharias Malachias the 4 Prophets Esai Hieremie Ezekiel Daniel and concludeth that to these some adde Hester The reason why some doubted of Hester I haue elsewhere shewed out of Sixtus Senensis to haue been the Apocryphall additions to the booke I haue some where cited this booke as a part of Gregorie Nazianzens workes because some thinke it so to be and put it amongst his workes But Gregory hath deliuered his opinion clearely touching this matter though that booke happily be not his Bee conuersant saith hee day and night in the diuine oracles but least such bookes as are not of this sort deceiue thee for many erroneous bookes are inserted receiue the true and iust number of bookes that are diuine and then nameth all the bookes that wee admitte saue that hee omitteth the booke of Hester vpon the same reason that I noted out of Sixtus Senensis and when he hath named these he addeth those of the new testament and then pronounceth that whatsoeuer is not within this number is to bee accounted amongst bastard counterfeit bookes Origen expounding the first Psalme putteth downe a catalogue of the holy Scriptures of the old Testament writing thus in precise words as Eusebius telleth vs Wee must not be ignorant that the bookes of the old Testament as the Hebrewes doe deliuer are 22 which is the number of their letters and then nameth all the bookes admitted by vs and addeth that the bookes of Macchabees are without this number Athanasius agreeth with Origen writing in this sort All our Scripture that are Christians was giuen by divine inspiration neither hath this Scripture infinite bookes but a definite number and contayned in a certaine canon and these are the bookes of the old Testament Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomie Iosuáh Iudges Ruth the first and second of Kings accounted one booke the third fourth of Kings accounted one booke Chronicles first second accounted one booke Esdras the first second one booke the Psalmes of David 151. Proverbs of Salomon Ecclesiastes Canticles Iob 12 Prophets contayned in one volume Osee Amos Micheas Ioell Abdias Ionas Naum Ambacum Sophonias Aggaeus Zacharias Malachias 4 other Prophets Esai Hieremie Ezechiel Daniel the bookes therefore of the old Testament are 22 in number answerable to the Hebrew letters Beside these there are certaine other bookes of the old Testament that are not in the canon and these are read onely to the Catechumens or Novices Amongst these hee numbreth the Wisedome of Solomon the Wisedome of Iesus the sonne of Sirach Iudith Tobit but mentioneth not the bookes of Macchabees at all to these he addeth the booke of Hester accounting it Apocryphall being misperswaded of the whole by reason of those Apocryphall additions as before I noted out of Sixtus Senensis In the conclusion of his Synopsis he mentioneth together with the former foure bookes of Macchabees and the story of Susanna but sayth they are in the number of them that are contradicted The councell of Laodicea decreeth in this sort Let no bookes be read in the Church but the bookes of the old new Testament and then addeth these are the bookes of the old Testament that are to bee read Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomie Iosuah Iudges Ruth foure bookes of Kings 2 of Chronicles Esdras the booke of the Psalmes 150. the Proverbs of Solomon Ecclesiastes Canticles Iob Hester 12 Prophets Osee c Esay Hieremie Ezekiel Daniel The canons of this councell are confirmed by the sixt generall councell holden in Trullo To these we may adde Damascene who hauing numbred all those bookes and those onely as canonicall that wee doe addeth that the booke of Wisedome and of Iesus the son of Sirach are good bookes and containe good lessons of vertue but that they are not numbred in this account neither were layd vp in the arke Leontius advocatus Byzantinus sayth there are onely 22 bookes of the old Testament reckoneth all those and those onely that wee doe All these worthies that wee haue hitherto produced to testifie in this case are of the Greeke Church wherefore let vs passe to them of the Latine Hilary Bishop of Poictiers saith the law of the old testament is contained in 22 bookes according to the number of the Hebrew letters which are so disposed and put in order according to the tradition of the auncient that there are fiue bookes of Moses that Iosuah is the sixt the Iudges and Ruth the seaventh the first and second of Kings the eigth the third and fourth the ninth 2 of Chronicles the tenth Esdras the eleventh Psalmes 12 Solomons Proverbs Ecclesiastes Canticles 13 14 15 the 12 Prophets 16 Esay Hieremie with the Lamentations and epistle Daniell Ezechiel Iob Hester doe make vp the number of 22 bookes some haue thought good to adde Tobie and Iudith and so to make the bookes to bee 24 in number according to the number of the Greeke letters Ruffinus in the explanation of the Creed which is found amongst the works of Cyprian and so attributed to him setteth downe a Catalogue of those bookes
and in the new there are eight Hugo cardinalis repeateth certaine verses expressing which bookes are Canonicall and which Apocryphall the verses are these Quinque libros Moisi Iosue Iudicum Samuelem Et Melachim tres praecipuos bis sexque Prophetas Hebraeus reliquis censet praecellere libris Quinque vocat legem reliquos vult esse Prophetas Post hagiographasunt Daniel Dauid Hester Esdras Iob Paralipomenon tres libri Solomonis Restant Apocrypha Iesus Sapientia Pastor Et Machabaeorum libri Iudith atque Tobias Hi quia sunt dubii sub canone non numerantur Sed quia vera canunt Ecclesia suscipit illos Here he numbreth the bookes Canonicall and Apocryphall as wee do And the same Hugo in prologū galeatum speaking of the bookes reiected by vs saith that these bookes are not receiued by the Church for proofe of doctrine but for information of manners And in another place he saith they are not counted amongst the Canonicall Cardinall Caietan sayth those bookes only are to be accounted Canonicall which Hierome so accounted and admitteth none of those that are now questioned this he wrote at Rome as himselfe telleth vs in the yeare 1532. From the Church of Rome which was the principall amongst these of the West let vs proceed to see what other Churches thought of this matter Thomas Aquinas proposing the question whether the soules of them that are departed doe know what things are done here it being obiected that the dead do often appeare vnto the liuing as Samuel appeared vnto Saul concerning Samuel he answereth that it may be sayd that he appeared by diuine reuelation according to that in Eccle siasticus 46. or else if the authority of that booke be not admitted because it is not in the Canon of the Hebrewes it may be sayd that that apparition was procured by the diuel Antoninus Archbishop of Florence affirmeth that the authority of the sixe bookes questioned is not sufficient to proue any thing that is in controuersie and that Thomas secunda secundae and Lyranus in his prologue before the booke of Tobias do say that those bookes are not ofsoe greate authority that any sufficient proofes may be drawne from them in matters of faith as from the other bookes And therefore pronounceth he thinketh they haue such authority as the writings of the Fathers approued by the Church And he mentioneth a certaine worke intitled Catholicon the authors name is not knowne but the same author as hee telleth vs pronounceth that none of these books were receiued for proofe of matters of faith but only for information of manners By this of Antoninus who was present at the councell of Florence it will easily appeare to be meerely supposititious that we find in the abridgment of that councell by Caranza that these bookes were pronounced to be canonicall for had they bin so neither would hee nor others haue reiected them after the holding of this councell neither would such a decree haue bin omitted by all others that put out the councells at large and abridged Radulphus Flaviacensis in his commentaries vpon Leuiticus speaking of bookes pertaining to the sacred history hath these words The books of Tobias Iudith and of the Macchabees though they be read for the edification of the Church yet haue no perfect authority Beda after the history of Ezra addeth thus farre the diuine scripture containeth the course of times what things afterwards wee found digested among the Iewes they are taken out of the booke of Macchabees Iosephus the writings of Africanus It appeareth by the Epistle of Hilarie B. of Arles that in Massilia in some other places of France there were that tooke exception to Augustine alleaging a place out of the booke of Wisdome cap. 4. Raptus est ne malitia mutaret intellectam eius and affirmed that this testimonie as not beeing canonicall should haue beene omitted Hugo de sancto victore hauing reckoned the 22 bookes of the old Testament sayth there are besides certaine other bookes as the Wisdome of Solomon the booke of Iesus the sonne of Sirach Iudith Tobias and the booke of Macchabees which are read but are not written in the canon these hee matcheth in authority with the writings of the Fathers Richardus de sancto victore deliuereth his opinion of the same bookes in the same sort and maketh them to be of no greater authority then the writings of the Fathers Petrus Cluniacensis abbas after an enumeration of all the bookes that are canonicall sayth there are yet besides these authenticall bookes 6 other books not to be rejected Iudith Tobias Wisdome Ecclesiasticus and the two bookes of Macchabees which though they attaine not to the high dignitie of the former yet they are receiued of the Church as containing profitable and necessarie doctrine Ockam to the same purpose saith that according to Hierome in his Prologue before the booke of Proverbes and Gregory in his Moralls the booke of Iudith Tobias and the Macchabees Ecclesiasticus and the booke of Wisdome are not to be receiued for confirmation of any matter of faith For Hierome saith as Gregory also doth that the Church readeth the bookes of Iudith Tobias and the Macchabees but accounteth them not amongst the Canonicall Scriptures So also it readeth those 2 volumes of Ecclesiasticus and Wisdome for the edification of the people but not for confirmation of points of faith and Religion Richardus Radulphus Archbishop of Armach and Primate of Ireland saith it is defined in generall Councels that there are 22 authenticall bookes of the Olde Testament Thomas Waldensis Provinciall of the Carmelites heere in England an enemy to Wickliff whose workes were greatly approued by Pope Martin and the Cardinals at that time hath these wordes The length breadth and depth of the city are equall for as in breadth it can enlarge it selfe no farther then to the loue of GOD and our neighbour nor in heigth nor depth then to GOD the rewarder of all so in length which is the Catholique Faith it cannot growe beyond the 12 Articles contained in the Symbole and found scattered in some of the 22 bookes especially seeing the Holy Ghost sayth in the conclusion of all Canonicall Scripture Let him that will take of the water of life freely I professe vnto euery one that heareth the words of this prophesie if any man shall adde GOD shall adde to his plague Lyra writeth thus Now that I haue by Gods helpe written vpon the Canonicall bookes of holy Scripture beginning at Genesis and so going on to the end trusting to the helpe of the same GOD I intend to write vpon those other bookes that are not Canonicall such as are the book of Wisdome Ecclesiasticus Iudith Tobias and the bookes of Macchabees and addeth that it is to bee considered that these bookes which are not Canonicall are receiued by the Church and read in the same for the
and what hereticall after many convincing reasons hee addeth this in the conclusion The defining of things in this kinde pertayneth principally to the professors of that science to which nothing may bee added and from which nothing may bee detracted but of this sorte is the profession of diuines and therefore Moses sayth in the person of God Deuteronomie 4. Yee shall not adde vnto the word I speake vnto you neither shall yee take from it to which that of Solomon answereth Proverb 30. where speaking of the word of God hee sayth Adde nothing to his words least thou be reproved found a liar And hence it is that the holy Ghost doth terribly threaten by Iohn the Evangelist in the last of the Revelation all them that adde or take any thing from the holy Scripture saying If any man shall adde more then this God shall adde vnto him the plagues that are in this booke and if any man shall take any thing from the words of the Prophesie of this booke God shall take his part out of the booke of life and out of the holy city By all which it is euidently collected that nothing is to bee added to the holy Scripture nor nothing to be taken from it Cardinall Cameracensis agreeth fully with Ariminensis before cited for first hee distinguisheth principles and conclusions theologicall principles he maketh to be the verities of the sacred canon conclusions to bee those verities which are not sound formally and in expresse words or precise tearmes in Scripture but may necessarily be deduced from things so contayned whether they bee articles or not whether they bee determined by the Church or not determined and then pronounceth that that onely is a theologicall discourse which consisteth of sayings and propositions contayned in the sacred Scriptures or of such as may bee deduced from them and that then onely wee say a thing is theologically proued when it is concluded out of the words of holy Scripture To these wee may adde Waldensis his words are these That Wickliffe affirmeth that neither Friars nor Prelates may define any thing in matters of faith vnlesse they haue the authoritie of sacred Scripture or some speciall revelation I dislike not but I condemne his way wardnesse craft and thinke it necessary least we wrest the Scriptures erre in the interpretation of them to follow the tradition of the Church expounding them vnto vs and not to trust to our owne private singular conceipts â— Gerson acknowledgeth as much as the rest his wordes are these What evils what daungers what confusions haue followed the contempt ofsacred Scripture which is sufficient for the government of the Church or else Christ was an imperfect lawgiuer experience will teach vs. The authour of that most pious and worthy worke called Destructorium vitiorum hath sundry things for confirmation of this poynt As sayth hee corporall things here below may in some sorte bee known without the benefit of corporall light for one may know the length breadth and other dimensions of such a thing and may in the darke discerne whether it bee long or short but whether it bee faire or foule white or black wee cannot certainely know So it is in things that are to bee discerned intellectually for though Philosophers excelling in mundane wisedome lacking the light of faith had some kinde of knowledge of God as that hee is the beginning cause of all things yet could they not know how faire how good how mercifull and how glorious hee is neither did euer any man knowe it but either by diuine revelation or by the information of the holy Scripture so that the holy Scripture is that light by which in this state of wayfaring men wee may haue sufficient knowledge of all things necessary to saluation whence it is that the Psalmist sayth Thy word is a lanthorne to my feete a light to my steppes But as experience doth teach that hee that will bee lighted by the light of a candle must haue the candle before him and must follow it but that if hee shall cause it to bee brought after him in the darkenesse of the night it will not giue him light to any purpose so they that walke in the darkenes of this life if they desire to be lighted by the candle of Gods word and to direct their goings in the way of trueth without falling they must haue the light of Gods word before their eyes and must follow it by well doing But even as if a candle be carried out in the darkenesse of the night where bruite beasts as horses and the like are they will runne from it whereas birds will come towards it So bestiall men that are like horses mules flie from the light of the Scriptures according to that of Iohn 3. Every one that doth euill hateth the light neither doth hee come to the light least his workes should bee reproued For confirmation of that hee sayth hee alleadgeth a most excellent discourse of Bishop Grosthead who intreating of that history in the 1 Kings 19. where the Angell of the Lord sayd to Elias goe forth and stand in the mountaine before the Lord and hee stood and saw and behold a winde passed by him overthrowing the mountaines and tearing the rockes in sunder but the Lord was not in the winde and after the winde an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voyce and there was the Lord sheweth that God is not found in any other science but in the holy Scripture only which is giuen by diuine inspiration and for farther illustration hereof noteth that there were three wels digged by Isaak Genesis 26. For he digged the first and the Philistins stroue for it likewise the second and they claymed it also wherefore hee left them both and digged a third which hee peaceably enjoyed and called the name of it Robooth that is latitude because the waters of it were inlarged and to the first of these wells hee compareth naturall scâ—…ences to wit the seaven liberall arts as logicke in which there is much brawling contending to the second such science as wee learne for gaine sake and to get preferment as is the knowledge of humane lawes according to those verses Dat Galenus opes sanctio Iustiniana Ex aliis paleas existis collige grana To the third hee compareth diuine knowledge and sayth that that well was rightly named Robooth that is latitude because the waters of it were inlarged So the heavenly doctrine was published to all parts of the world by the Apostles and other faithfull preachers according to that of the Psalmist Their sound is gone forth into all the earth and the Lord inviteth his elect to come and drinke the waters of this well saying all yee that are thirsty come to these waters and the wordes of Christ moue all
rightly noteth that there is no merit properly so named to bee attributed to mortall miserable men and that though the ecclesiasticall writers vse the word merit and when they speake of holy mens workes call them merits yet they thinke them not to bee properly so but doe so name the good actions of holy men that proceed from faith and the working of the holy Ghost because Almighty God though they bee his gifts and joyned in them by whom they are wrought with defect imperfection yet is so pleased to accept of them out of his goodnesse that he not onely rewardeth the doers of them with ample great rewards in their owne persons but so as to doe good to others for their sakes So God sayd to Abraham if there were but fifty righteous in the city hee would spare the whole city for their sakes Neither onely doth hee good for their sakes whose workes hee thus rewardeth while they liue but euen after they à re dead also And therefore God promiseth that hee will protect Hierusalem for his owne sake and for Dauid his seruant which he must be vnderstood to doe not onely in respect of the promise made vnto him but with respect had to his vertue according to the which we read 1 Reg. 15. 3. that God left a little light in Hierusalem to Abiam the sonne of Roboam King of Iudah for Dauids sake who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. This Dauid saith Chrysostome did not only please God while he was in the body but he is found to haue yeelded great comfort after his death to such as he left behinde him aliue The Prophet Esay commeth to Hezekiah and saith vnto him I will defend this city for mine own sake and for Dauid my seruants sake David is dead but his vertues that pleased God do still liue O strange thing O ineffable clemencie a man long since dead patronizeth him that liueth In this sense then it is that the Church desireth God to be gratious vnto her in graunting her petitions for the merit of those his holiest Ones that she remembreth no way derogating from the merites of Christ but putting a great difference betweene them and those of the Saints for Christs merite is the onely price of our redemption by which onely we are redeemed from sinne eternall death and being reconciled to God are adopted to bee sonnes and heires of eternall life but the merites of the Saints here mentioned are nothing but those imperfect good workes which they did while they liued here which God was pleased so to accept that hee promised not onely to reward them with great and ample rewards in their owne persons but to doe good for their sakes that did them to others also Bucer speaking of the publique prayers of the Church which wee call Collects in which the intercession and merites of Saints are commemorated hath these words Seeing in these prayers whatsoeuer is attributed to the intercession and merites of Saints all that is asked not of the Saints but of our mercifull God through Iesus Christ they that so pray doe thereby professe and testifie that they acknowledge that those things which they aske of God by the intercession and for the merites of the Saints are the free gifts of God c And a little after Wee willingly acknowledge and publiquely professe that GOD doth reward the workes of his Saints not onely in their owne persons but in those also that pertaine vnto them and for whom they intercede for hee hath promised to doe good to a thousand generations to them that loue him and study to keepe his Commaundements hence it was that hee would not heale those of the house of Abimelech till Abraham interceded and intreated for them and hence it was that God graunted and gaue the deliuerance and saluation of all the people to Moses when he intreated for the same These are the wordes of Bucer which not being contradicted by any of our profession it is evident that no part of Romish Religion disliked by vs can bee prooued out of this part of the Canon of the Masse Thus hauing cleared that great objection of Mr Brerelie touching the publique Liturgie vsed in the Church in the dayes of our Fathers and made it appeare that the vsing thereof is no proofe that the Church that then was was not a Protestant Church and hauing made it cleare and evident that both the Liturgie it selfe and the profession of such as vsed it shew plainely that the Church that then was neuer allowed any Romish errour howsoeuer some did in the midst of her it remaineth that I now proceed to shew in the particulars that the outward face of Religion at and before Luthers appearing was not as M ◠Brerelie telleth vs the now professed Romane Religion and that whatsoeuer wee haue done in the reformation of the Church was long before wished for and desired by the best men amongst the guides of the Church CHAP. 1. Of the Canon of the Scriptures THat the Church did not admit the Canon of Scripture which the Romanists now doe nor euer accounted those bookes Canonicall which we thinke to be Apocryphall it will easily appeare in that all the most famous Divines from the beginning of the Christian World euen till the time of Luther did reject those bookes as Apocryphall that wee doe The Church of the Iewes to whom as S. Paul saith the oracles of God were committed admitted but onely 22 Bookes as deliuered to them from God to be the Canon of their faith as Iosephus witnesseth Neither did the Christian Church euer admit any more Melito Bishop of Sardis being desired by Onesimus to send him a catalogue of the bookes of the old and new Testament writeth thus vnto him Hauing diligently sought out the bookes of the old Testament and put them in order I haue sent them vnto you the names whereof are these the 5 bookes of Moses Genesis Exodus Leuiticus Numbers Deuteronomie then Iesus the sonne of Naue Iudges Ruth the 4 bookes of Kings two bookes of Chronicles the Psalmes of Dauid the Prouerbes which is also called the Wisdome of Salomon Ecclesiastes the Canticles Iob the Prophets Esay Hieremie one booke of the twelue Prophets Daniel Ezechiel Esdras Some soe translate the words of Melito as if hee reckoned the wisdome of Salomon as a seperate booke and so meant the booke that is commonly called the Wisdome of Salomon and is by vs accounted to be apocryphall but Ruffinus translateth as wee doe and that wee haue rightly expressed the meaning of this worthy Bishoppe and that hee onely added this as a glorious title to the booke of Salomons Prouerbs which as Eusebius saith the auncients vsually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reader will soone be satisfied if he peruse that which D. Raynolds hath touching this point in his prelections Eusebius she weth that Iosephus according to the auncient
which according to the tradition of the ancient are beleeued to haue beene inspired by the Holy Ghost and deliuered to the Churches of Christ containing all those bookes which we admit secluding all those that are now in question It must be knowne saith he that there are other bookes which are not called Canonicall but Ecclesiasticall by the ancient as the Wisedome of Solomon and that of the sonne of Sirach And in the same ranke we must put the booke of Tobias and Iudith and the bookes of the Machabees and in the New Testament the booke of Pastor all which truly they would haue to be read in the Church but not to be alleadged for proofe of any matter of faith that was questioned or doubted of and then concludeth that hee held it very fit to put downe these things which were deliuered by tradition from the Fathers that they that are to learne the first elements and rudiments of Christian Religion may know out of what fountaines to draw Hierome in his prologue which he prefixed before the bookes of the Old Testament by him translated out of Hebrew into Latine saith There are 22 bookes of the Olde Testament and that as there are but 22 Hebrew Letters by which wee write whatsoeuer wee speake so there are 22 bookes by which as by Letters and beginnings in the doctrine of God the tender infancie of the just man that yet is like a childe hanging on the breast is informed and instructed and then nameth all the bookes which we admit and after addeth Whatsoeuer is beside these is to bee put amongst the Apocrypha and that therefore the book of Wisdome of Iesus the sonne of Sirach of Iudith Tobias and Pastor are not in the Canon And the same Hierome in his Preface before the Bookes of Solomon hauing made mention of the booke of Wisdome and Ecclesiasticus and deliuered his opinion that it is vntruely called the Wisdome of Solomon and attributed to him then addeth that as the Church readeth the bookes of Iudith Tobias and the Macchabees but doth not account them amongst the Canonicall Scriptures so these 2 Bookes may bee read for the edification of the people but not for the confirmation of any doubtfull point of doctrine Sixtus Senensis confesseth that Philastrius rejecteth the Bookes of Macchabees And the same Philastrius in the he heresie of the Prodianitae taxeth them amongst other things that they vsed the booke of Wisdome which Iesus the sonne of Sirach wrote long after Solomons time The Authour of the Booke De mirabilibus Scripturae that goeth vnder the name of Augustine hath these wordes De lacu verò Abacuck translato in Belis Draconisque fabula idcirco in hoc ordine non ponitur quod in authoritate divinae Scripturae non habentur It is true that Augustine and the African Bishoppes of his time and some other in that age finding these bookes which Hierome and the rest before cited reject as Apocryphall to bee joyned with the other and together read with them in the Church seeme to account them to bee Canonicall Caietan and others answere that those Fathers speake of the Canon of manners not of faith and of Bookes not simply hut in a sort canonicall so that they differ not from the other Fathers before alleadged that deny them to bee Canonicall as not being simply and absolutely so How fit and true this answer is I will not stand to examine but this is most certaine that Augustine himselfe seemeth something to lessen the authority of this Booke for whereas the example of Razias killing himselfe is pressed against him to prooue that it is lawfull for a man to kill himselfe after other aunswers he saith the Iewes doe not esteeme this Scripture called the history of Macâ—…bees in such sort as the law the Prophets and the Psalmes to which Christ giueth testimonie as to them that beare witnesse of him saying it behoued that all those things should bee fullfilled that are written of mee in the Lawe the prophets and the Psalmes but it is receaued of the Church not vnprofitably if it be soberly read and heard especially in respect of those Macchabees that as true martyres indured grieuous and horrible things of the persecutors for the law of God And the councell of Carthage whereat Augustine was present prescribing that noe bookes should be reade in the Church as canonicall but such as indeede are canonicall leaueth out the bookes of Macchabees as it appeareth by the Greeke edition though they haue foysted them into the Latine But howsoeuer these did not soe exactly looke into these things as they of the Greeke Church and many of the Latine Church before named but admitted those bookes as in a sort canonicall that they found ioyned together with the other indubitate scriptures which they had of the translation of the Septuagint yet after Hierome had translated them out of the Hebrew and prefixed his prologues and prefaces before the bookes translated by him almost all the Bishoppes and men of account in the Latine or West Church so approued the same that they admitted no other bookes as Canonicall but those that hee did Pope Gregorie the first citing a certaine testimonie out of the first booke of Macchabees hath these words wee offend not if touching this thing we alleage and produce a testimonie out of books though not canonicall yet published for the edification of the people This was the opinion of Pope Gregory Gregorie the first Gregory the greate our Apostle as they of the Romish faction tell vs and therefore it will not be safe for vs to leaue the faith first deliuered vnto vs. To the Pope I will adde certaine Cardinalls Bonauentura in his preface before his exposition of the Psalter vndertaketh to shew which are the bookes of Scripture Scripture sayth hee consisteth of the old and new Testament and the whole body of canonicall Scripture is contained in these 2 then passing by the bookes of the new Testament hee reckoneth all those and those only that Hierome doth sorting them into their seuerall rankes and orders as the Hebrewes do And in another place he sayth there are 4 sorts of writings in which a student must bee conuersant the bookes of holy Scripture the writings of the Fathers such sayings as haue bin gathered out of them and the writings of Philosophers And because in the bookes of Philosophers there is no knowledge to giue remission of sinnes nor originally in the summes because they haue bin extracted out of the originalls of the Fathers nor in them because they haue been taken out of the Scripture therefore that is principally and in the first place to be studied and there wee must seeke that knowledge as in the fountaine and then that all may know which and how many these bookes of Scripture are that hee will haue to bee thus studied hee sayth according to Hierome there are 22 in the old Testament
tunc solum theologicè aliquid probari cum ex dictis probatur sacrae scripturae out of the common conceipt and apprehension of all men for all men doe thinke that then onely a thing is proued theologically when it is proued out of the sayings of holy Scripture and if wee distinguish theologicall conclusions from principles theologicall I affirme that all those verities that are not formally and in precise words contained in holy scripture but are necessarily deduced from things soe contained in it are conclusions theologicall whether they bee determined by the Church or not for the Church determineth that a proposition is to bee beleeued precisely because it seeth it is necessarily deduced from the words of holy Scripture but no other that is not so deduced is to be accounted a theologicall conclusion which is proued out of the sayings of Saint Augustine in his fourteenth booke de Trinitate cap. 1. where hee sayth hee doth not conceiue that all that that may bee knowne by man in humane things pertaineth to this science but those things onely whereby the most wholesome faith that leadeth to true happinesse is begotten nourished defended and strengthened but it is euident that euery such thing is either expressely and in precise tearmes contained in holie scripture or is deduced from things soe contained in it for otherwise the Scripture should not bee sufficient to our saluation and the defense of our faith which is contrary to Saint August 2 de doctrinâ Christianâ where hee sayth Quicquid homo extra didicerit si noxium est ibi damnatur si vtile ibi inuenitur that is whatsoeuer a man shall learne without and beside the scripture if it bee hurtfull it is there condemned if profitable it is there found Here wee haue a pregnant testimonie of a man of eminent place and great worth peremptorily resoluing for the sufficiencie of the Scripture and assuring vs that this was not his priuate conceipt but the generall opinion of all men in his time and be fore Scotus agreeth with Ariminensis his words are these Whatsoeuer pertaineth to the heauenly and supernaturall knowledge and is necessary to bee knowne of man in this life is sufficiently deliuered in the sacred Scriptures and in another place Sicut theologia beatorum habet terminum ita nostra ex voluntate Dei revelantis terminus autem praefixus â voluntate divinâ quantum ad revelationem generalem est eorum quae sunt in sacrâ scripturâ quia sicut habetur Apocalyp ultimo Qui apposuerit ad haec apponet ei Deus plagas quae apponuntur in libro isto igitur theologia nostra de facto non est nisi de his quae continentur in scripturâ de his quae possunt elici ex ipsis that is As the Theologie of those blessed ones that are in heauen hath a certaine bound without and beyond which it extendeth not it selfe so also that theologicall knowledge that wee haue hath bounds set vnto it by the will of God that revealeth divine and heauenly trueth vnto vs and the bound prefixed by the will of God who generally will reveale no more is within the compasse of such things as are found in the holy Scripture because as it is in the last of the Revelation whosoeuer shall adde vnto these things GOD shall adde vnto him the plagues that are added in this booke Ockam in his Dialogues saith There is one opinion that onely those verities are to bee esteemed Catholique and such as are necessarily to bee beleeued for the attaining of saluation which either expressely are deliuered in Scripture or by necessary consequence may bee inferred from things so expressed and that they that follow this opinion alleadge sundry authorities for proofe of the same as that of Augustine Ego solis scripturarum libris didici hunc timorem honoremque deferre ut earum nullum authorem in aliquo errasse firmissimè credam c. alios autem ita lego ut quantalibet sanctitate quantave doctrinâ polleant non ideo verum putem quia ita ipsi senserint sed quia per alios authores canonicos vel probabiles rationes quod à vero non aberrent mihi persuadere potuerunt I haue learned to giue this honour and reverence onely to the bookes of Scripture as that I should beleeue that none of the authors of them in ought haue erred c But others I so reade that how great soeuer their sanctitie and learning bee I doe not therefore thinke that to bee true which they haue written because it was their opinion but because they are able to perswade mee either by some other canonicall Authours or by probable reasons that they haue not erred from the trueth And in another place Quis nesciat sanctam scripturam canonicam tam veteris quà m noui testamenti certis terminis suis contineri eamque posterioribus omnibus Episcoporum libris praeponi ut de illâ omninò dubitari disceptari non possit vtrum verum vel utrum rectum sit quicquid in eâ scriptum esse constiterit Episcoporum autem literas quae post confirmatum canonem vel scriptae sunt vel scribuntur per sermonem fortè sapientiorem cuiuslibet in eà re peritioris per aliorum Episcoporum graviorem auctoritatem doctioremque prudentiam per concilia reprehendi licere si quid in iis forté à veritate est deviatum Who knowes not that the holy Canonicall Scripture as well of the Olde as the New Testament is contained within it's certaine bounds and that it is preferred before all the Bookes of Bishoppes that haue beene written since so that there may bee no doubt made nor dispute raised concerning it whether whatsoeuer is certainely knowne to bee registred in it bee true or right But that the letters of Bishoppes which either haue beene or are written since the confirmation of the Canon may bee reprehended if in any thing they haue strayed from the trueth both by the speech perchaunce wiser of some one better skilled in that matter and by the more graue authority more learned wisedome of other Bishops and by generall councells And Hierom Quod de Scripturis authoritatem non habet eâdem facilitate contemnitur quâ probatur That which hath not authority and confirmation from the Scriptures is with like facility rejected as it is vrged Others hee sheweth to bee of a contrary opinion but being pressed to giue instance of things necessarily beleeued and yet not contayned in the Scripture they giue no other but certaine matters of fact as that the Apostles composed the Symbol called the Apostles creed that Peter was at Rome things of that nature Ockam in this place deliuereth not his owne opinion but only reciteth the contrary opinions of other men but in another place inveighing against the Canonists going about to proue that it principally pertayneth to diuines to define determine what is catholicke
and as after him all men of note in the Latine Church did There was great exception taken to Hierome for aduenturing to translate the scripture out of Hebrew and among others Augustine and the Africans seemed not much to like it They therefore reckon the bookes of Scripture according as they found them in vse in the Latine Church not exactly noting the difference of the one from the other yet not denying but that the Hebrew Canon consisted only of two and twenty bookes and that many tooke exceptions to them when they alleaged any testimonies out of those bookes the Hebrewes admit not Against which exceptions Augustine no otherwise iustifieth himselfe but by the vse of the Church in reading them Which proofe is too weake to proue them Canonicall seeing the prayer of Manasses confessed by our aduersaries to be Apocryphall the third and fourth of Esdras the booke called Pastor and some other were likewise read by them of the Church cited by them in their writings and many things translated out of them into the publike prayers and Liturgies of the Church Thus then these Father 's not looking carefully into the originals name all those bookes Canonicall which the vse of Gods Church approoued as profitable and containing matter of good instruction and so numbred the bookes of Wisdome the rest with the Canonicall Whose opinion yet as Caietane thinketh was not that they were absolutely Canonicall but in a sort in that they containe a good direction of mens manners These the Greeke Fathers rejected from the Canon admitting only those which the reformed Churches at this day admitte as also almost all the diuines of the Latine Church after Hierome doe That some of the Greeke Fathers rejected the booke of Hester it was as Sixtus Senensis rightly noteth by reason of those Apocryphall additions which they not being skilfull in the Hebrew tongue did not discerne from the true parts of it which errour made them to reject the whole booke as Apocryphall This was also the reason why they admitted those Apochryphall additaments joyned to the booke of Daniel Howsoeuer it appeareth that all they which diligently looked into these things did admit all those bookes which we admitte and reject all those which we reject Neither is there any one amongst all the auncient before the third Councell of Carthage that clearely and of set purpose numbreth the bookes controuersed betweene vs and our aduersaries with the bookes of the Canon Melito then Bishop of Sardis going purposely into the East parts of the world that he might diligently search out the monuments and sacred bookes of diuine knowledge reckoneth those only Canonicall which we do saue that he addeth the booke of Wisdome Origen admitteth and acknowledgeth onely two and twenty bookes of the old Testament Athanasius likewise numbreth the books of the Canon in the same sort and addeth There are also certaine other bookes which are read only to the Catechumens and nouices Hilarius sayth the law of the old Couenant is contained in two and twenty bookes answerable to the number of the Hebrew letters Nazianzene also is of the same opinion and Cyrillus Bishop of Hierusalem onely he addeth the booke of Baruch thinking it to be a part of Ieremies Prophecies but suffereth not any others to be added saying The Apostles and first Bishops which deliuered these only were wiser and much more to be esteemed than such as now goe about to adde others Of the same judgment are Epiphanius Ruffinus Hierome and Gregory And Iosephus confirmeth the opinion of these Fathers saying that from the time of Artaxerxes till the age wherein he liued all things were cōmitted to writing which concerned the state of Gods people and Religion but that they were not of equall authority with those which were formerly written because after that time the indubitate succession of the Prophets ceased Vnto these authorities of the Fathers some of our aduersaries as Andradius and others doe answere that they speake of the Canon of the Hebrewes and not of the Canon of the Church so not denying absolutely these bookes to bee canonicall but that they are not so esteemed by the Iewes but this aunswere the wordes of Hierome doe most clearely refute As sayth hee the Church not the Synagogue of the Iewes readeth the bookes of Iudeth Tobias and the Maccabees but receiueth them not as Canonicall Scriptures so likewise it may reade these two bookes of Wisedome and Ecclesiasticus for the edification of the people but not for confirmation of doubtfull poynts of doctrine And therefore Bellarmine Sixtus Senensis and others clearely confesse that this answere of Andradius is insufficient They therefore adde another to wit that the Canon was not perfectly knowen and confirmed in the time of those Fathers Wee aske them when it was confirmed If they say in the Councell of Nice which as Hierome sayth some report receiued the booke of Iudeth as Canonicall though Lindan say it is not likely it did and that Hierome did not say it did so but that some reported so wee aske how it came to passe that so many Catholike Diuines after the Nicene Councell reiected these bookes as they did before If they say they were confirmed in the Councell of Cartharge that was but a prouinciall Councell as was that of Laodicea in which they are not mentioned If they say the Councell of Carthage was confirmed in the sixt generall Councell holden at Trullo wee answere first that it was no more confirmed there than that of Laodicea and as Canus noteth the sixt Councell doeth not expressely name the third Councell of Carthage but onely speaketh of Canons agreed vpon in new Carthage Secondly wee say that those Canons of the sixt Councell wherein this pretended confirmation is found are of no credit with the Romanists so that it is cleare that neither the Nicene Councell nor this other did confirme the authoritie of the bookes questioned as appeareth by the consent of almost all the worthiest Diuines in the Church after those Councells till our age as Gregory Damascenus Hugo de Sancto Victore Ricardus de sancto Victore Petrus Cluniacensis Lyranus Dionysius Carthusianus Hugo Cardinalis Thomas Aquinas Occam Picus Mirandula Waldensis Armacanus Driedo Caietane and others CHAP. 24. Of the vncertainty and contrariety found amongst Papists touching bookes Canonicall and Apocryphall now controversed BVt let vs come particularly to the bookes controversed and see how sweetely our aduersaries agree with themselues in admitting or reiecting them First touching the booke of Baruch though the Councell of Florence and Trent haue confirmed it to be Canonicall yet Melchior Canus sayth it is doubtfull whether it be or not and yet sayth if it bee not Canonicall the Councels of Florence Trent haue erred and the people
Bishoppe For say they hee doth not reject the second mariage who hath often commaunded that it should be vsed For a woman sayth he is bound by the Law so long as her husband liueth but if her husband be dead she is free that she may marry with whom shee will onely in the Lord c. For if he haue thrust away his Wife and be joyned to another hee is worthie to bee reprehended and is justly subject to accusation but if force of death haue disjoyned his first Wife and Nature vrging haue compelled him to bee joyned to a second Wife his second mariage is proceeded not of his will but of casualty These things considered saith Theodoret I admit the interpretation of those which haue so vnderstood the place Neither doe Chrysostome and Theodoret only thus interpret the wordes of the Apostle but Theophylact also The Apostle saith he prescribeth that he who is to bee chosen a Bishop must bee the husband of one Wife because of the Iewes to whom Polygamy was permitted that is to joyne mariage with many together And Hierome maketh mention of this Interpretation The Apostle saith he was of the Iewes and the first Church of Christ was gathered out of the remaines of Israell He knew it was permitted by the Law and ordinary among the people by the example of the Patriarches and Moses to begette children of many Wiues vvhich thing also vvas permitted vnto the Priests and therefore hee commaunded that the Priests of the Church should not take vnto themselues the like liberty nor haue tvvo or three vviues at once but that they should haue one only vvife at one time And though he rather incline to another interpretation yet in his Commentary vpon Titus hee mentioneth this againe vvithout any signification of dislike and saith We must not thinke that euery one that hath beene but once maried is better then hee that hath beene tvvice maried but that indeed hee may better exhort to one onely mariage and continencie that can bring forth his ovvne example in teaching For other vvise if a young man marry a vvife shee dye vvithin a little vvhile after after her he marry a second vvhich vvithin a short time hee looseth also and then continue continent hee is to be preferred before him that liueth vvith one vvife till his olde age So that often-times if he that hath beene but once maried be preferred before him that hath beene tvvice maried his happinesse is chosen rather then his vvill And as sundry great and vvorthie Divines did soe interprete the Apostles vvords as to condemne Polygamie and not to exclude from the Ministery mentvvice maried so the practise vvas according there-vnto For hovv-soeuer many vrged the other Construction of the Apostles vvordes and excluded men tvvice maried from the holy Ministery yet others did not so And therefore Tertullian vvho vvas a Montanist and condemned second mariage in his booke of Monogamie interpreting the Apostles vvords of such as had maried the second vvife speaking bitterly against the Catholikes of those times saith the Holy Ghost fore-savv there should come some that should affirme all things to be lawfull for Bishops For sayth he how many are there among you that gouerne the Church which haue maried the second time insulting against the Apostles and not blushing when these vvords are read vnder them Hierome vvas of opinion that men twice maried might bee chosen to be Bishops or Presbyters if they maried both or one of their vviues before they vvere baptized Which vvas the case of very manie in those times seeing besides those who vvere conuerted from Paganisme manie that were borne of Christian parents put off their baptisme along time So that some were elected Bishops before they were baptized as we read of Ambrose Hereupon he saith the nūber of such as had bin twice maried yet vvere admitted into the holy Ministerie vvas exceeding great His vvords are these All the world is full of these Ordinations I speake not of Presbyters nor those of inferiour degrees I come to Bishops whom if I shall go about particularly to name I shall muster together soe great a nūber as will exceed the multitudes of them that were at the Councell of Ariminum And it appeareth by the Epistle of Innocentius to the Bishops of Macedonia that they thought as Hierome did that such as vvere not twice maried after Baptisme might be admited into the Ministery hovv often soeuer they had beene maried before It is true that Innocentius vvas of another minde and Austine likewise But Hierome vvho is vvont to spare no man that crosseth his conceipt calleth them Hypocrites and telleth them that they are like the Scribes and Pharizees that did straine at a Gnat and swallow a Camell that tithed Mint and Annis-seede but let passe the weightier things of the Lawe because they admitted such into the Ministery as had kept Harlots before their Baptisme and yet reiected such as had beene maried for that sinne is washed away in Baptisme and nothing else Rem nouam audio sayth hee quia peccatum non non fuit in peccatum reputabitur That is it is a new and strange thing that I heare because it was no sinne to haue a vvife therefore it shall be reputed for a fault and sin Whoredome Impiety against God parricide incest and the sin against Nature are purged and washed away in the Baptisme of Christ but this that a man hath had a vvife sticketh fast vnto him still So are the filthy stewes preferred before the honourable and vndefiled mariage-bed Let the Pagans heare vvhat the Haruestes of the Church are out of which our Barnes are filled Let the Cathecumens who are not yet baptized heare likewise and let them take heed they marry no wiues before baptisme neither enter into the state of honest mariage but let them giue themselues to all impurities only let them take heed of the name of mariage least after they shall beleeue in Christ this may prejudice them that sometimes they had not concubines nor Harlots but lawfull vviues Zonaras in his exposition of the Canons of the Apostles followeth the Opinion of Hierome and so doth Sedulius Scotus and Anselme as Sixtus Senensis reporteth And this opinion vvas very generall as it appeareth by Ambrose who though he disliketh it yet saith exceeding many did approue it So that to resolue this point wee see some vnderstood the words of the Apostle as ment against Polygamie only or the hauing of many wiues at once and not successiuely and that accordingly many were permitted to gouerne the Church that hadbin twice maried that of them that vnderstood the words of the Apostle as ment of the not hauing of more wiues then one successiuely some excluded only such as had more thē one wife after baptisme others all that had bin twice maried either before or after But we shall find that they who generally excluded all them that
was no cause for here is neither falsehood nor absurdity but in himselfe who to wrecke his anger hath sold himselfe to bee an absurd Patron of errour and vntruth The rest of his friuolous discourse following being but a reflection as hee calleth it vpon these premises I will not trouble my selfe nor the reader with The Second Booke §. 1. I Come to his Second Booke in the first part whereof hee challengeth mee for traducing the foure Doctors of the Church beginning with Gregory and from him proceeding to the rest To make it appeare that I haue wronged Gregory First he noteth that the principall drift of my discourse touching the Church is to proue that the opinions wherein the Papists dissent from the Protestants at this day were not the doctrines of the Church wherein our Fathers liued and died but of a faction only predominating in the same Secondly that to this purpose I frame an appendix wherein I produce the testimonies of sundry Fathers and Schoole-authors to justifie the foresayd position Thirdly that descending into the controuersie whether any sinnes be remitted after this life or not I vse this pretense to wit that whereas Lombard and other do say that some veniall sinnes are remitted after this life we must so vnderstand their sayings that therefore they are sayd to bee remitted after this life because they are taken away in the very momēt of dissolution the last instant of life being the first after life That this is the summe of that Exposition I make of Lombards other mens opinion cōcerning the remission of sins after this life wherein how sincerely exactly I deale he wil not dispute 4ly That to corroborate this my Exposition I bring a testimony of S. Gregory not without great wrong done vnto him To these his obseruations I briefely answere First that it is true that the doctrines wherein the Papists and We dissent at this day were not the doctrines of that Church wherein our Fathers liued and dyed but that I haue in any part vntruly set downe the differences betweene them and vs this false runnagate shall neuer be able to proue though if his credit would reach vnto it hee would gladly make men beleeue so 2ly That I haue indeed framed and added such an Appendix as he speaketh of to my Third booke wherein I haue produced sundry learned men and Schoole-authors for proofe of that my former position calling them as they well deserue worthy learned men but that they are mine enimies or that I speake honourably of them for mine own aduantage is but the saying of a silly fellow that careth not much what hee sayth soe he may be thought to say something Thirdly that this good fellow that complaineth so much of falshood and bad dealing hath in his third obseruation wholy mistaken the matter shamefully belied me for I make not that costruction of the sayings of Lombard and others which he speaketh of but it is the construction of Alexander of Ales the irrefragable Doctor and first of all the Schoole-men But that the Reader may the better perceiue how hee peruerteth all that commeth in his way I will lay downe the matter at large In the twentieth Chapter of that Appendix he speaketh of I produce the iudgment and resolution of Scotus Durandus and Alexander of Ales that all sinfulnesse is vtterly abolished in the very moment of dissolution and that there is no remission of any sin in respect of the fault and staine after death The words of these Authors I set downe at large The words of Alexander of Ales are these Finall grace taketh away all sinfulnesse out of the soule because when the soule parteth from the body all pronenesse to ill and all perturbations which were found in it by reason of the coniunction with the flesh do cease the powers thereof are quieted perfectly subiected to grace by that means all veniall sins remoued so that no veniall sin is remitted after this life but in that instant wherein grace may be said to be finall grace it hath full dominion absolute command and expelleth all sin Whereunto he addeth that whereas the Mr of Sentences some other do say that some veniall sins are remitted after this life some answer that they speake of a full remission both in respect of the fault and staine and the punishment also but that others more narrowly and piercingly looking into the thing do say that they are to be vnderstood to say sins are remitted after this life because it being the same moment or instant that doth continuate the time of life that after life so that the last instant of life is the first after life they are remitted in the very moment of dissolution grace more fully infusing and powring it selfe into the soule at that time then before to the vtter abolishing of all sin all impediment formerly hindering her working now ceasing So that these are the words of Alexander of Ales deliuering the opiniōof many worthy men in the church and not mine and therefore whether he and they doe aptly expound the sayings of the Master of Sentences and others or not it is nothing to me for I doe not so interpret the sayings of these men nor cite him to proue they are to bee so interpreted but cite him onely to shew that many learned men in former times did thinke all sinfulnes to be purged out of the souls of men departing hence in the state of grace euen in the very moment of dissolution which he clearely sheweth and besides telleth vs how they sought to construe the sayings of them that seemed to bee of another judgement that they might not be thought to bee contrary herevnto The same may bee confirmed out of Bonaventura who sayth it was the opinion of certaine Doctours who were of good vnderstanding that no sinne is remitted after death because the force of Free-will in respect of merite or demerite doth altogether cease These as he saith thought that veniall sinnes are wholly remitted and taken away either by repentance or by finall grace if there bee no time and place for repentance as when a just good man is suddainly seized vpon by death The Authour of the booke called Regimen Animarum a manuscript copy whereof I haue who liued about the yeare 1343 hath these words Delet gratia finalis veniale peccatum in ipsà dissolutione corporis animae ex virtute completionis sui status quamvis motus contritionis non sit ad illud directus hoc ab antiquis dictum est sed modò communiter tenetur quod peccatum veniale hinc deferatur à multis etiam quoad culpam That is finall grace doth abolish and vtterly take away veniall sinne in the very dissolution and parting of the soule and body in that she groweth to bee in a full and perfect estate though no motion of contrition bee directed to the putting of it
Augustine saith he would not beleeue the Gospell if the authoritie of the Church did not moue him hee vnderstandeth by the name of the Church the Primitiue congregation of those Faithful ones which saw heard Christ and were his witnesses Thirdly Driedo writeth thus when Augustine saith hee would not beleeue the Gospell if the authoritie of the Church did not moue him hee vnderstandeth that Church which hath beene euer since the beginning of the Christian Faith hauing her Bishops in orderly sort succeeding one another and growing and increasing till our times which Church truly comprehendeth in it the blessed company of the Holy Apostles who hauing seene Christ his miracles and learned from his mouth the Doctrine of Faith deliuered vnto vs the Evangelicall Scriptures And againe the same ◠Driedo saith that the authority of the Scripture is greater then the authoritie of the Church that now is in the world in it selfe considered But if wee speake of the vniversal Church including all Faithfull ones that are and haue beene the authority of the Church is in a sort greater then the Scripture and in a sort equall For explication whereof he addeth that as touching things that cannot bee seené nor knowne by vs we beleeue the sayings writings of men not as if they had in them in themselues considered a sufficient force to moue vs to beleeue but because by some reasons we are perswaded of them who deliuer such things vnto vs thinke them worthie to be beleeued So S. Augustine might rightly say hee would not beleeue the bookes of the Gospel if the authority of the Church did not moue him vnderstanding the vniuersal Church of which he speaketh against Manicheus which including the Apostles hath had in it an orderly course of succession of Bishops till our time For the faithfulnes trueth credit of this Church was more evident then the Trueth of the books of the New Testament which are therefore receiued as sacred true because written by those Apostles to whō Christ so many waies gaue testimony both by word and worke and the Scriptures are to be proued by the authority of that Church which included the Apostles but in the Church that now is or that includeth only such as are now liuing God doth not so manifest himselfe as hee formerly did so that this Church must demōstrat herself to be Orthodox by prouing her faith out of the Scripture With Driedo Ockam cōcurreth his words are these sometimes the name of the Church cōprehendeth not only the whole cōgregation of Catholiques liuing but the Faithful departed also in this sense blessed Augustine vseth the name of the Church in his book against the Manichees cited in the Decrees 2. dist c. palà m where the Catholique Church importeth the Bishops that haue succeeded one another frō the Apostles times the people subiect to thē And in the same sense Augustine vseth the name of the Church when he saith he would not beleeue the Gospell if the authoritie of the Church did not moue him for this Church comprehendeth in it the Writers of the bookes of the Gospell and all the Apostles so that from the authoritie of Augustine rightly vnderstood it cannot be inferred that the Pope the maker of the Canons is rather more to be beleeued then the Gospel yet it may be granted that wee must more rather beleeue the Church which hath beene from the times of the Prophets Apostles till now then the Gospel not for that men may any way doubt of the Gospell but because the whole is greater then the part So that the Church which is of greater authoritie then the Gospel is that whereof the Writer of the Gospel is a part Neither is it strange that the whole should bee of more authority then the parts These are the words of Ockam in the place cited by me Wherfore let the Reader judge whether that I cite out of Ockam be impertinent as the Treatiser saith or not To Durandus Gerson Driedo Ockam we may adde Waldensis who fully agrees with thē shewing at large that it pertayned to the Church onely in her first best and primitiue state age to deliuer a perfect direction touching the Canon of the Scripture so that shee hath no power or authority now to adde any more bookes to the Canon already receiued as out of her owne immediate knowledge But it sufficeth to the magnifying of her authority in her present estate that euen now no other bookes may bee receiued but such only as in her first and best estate shee proposed Farther adding that the saying of Augustine that hee would not beleeue the Gospell if the authority of the Church did not moue him is to bee vnderstood of the Church including the primitiue Fathers and Pastors the Apostles Scholers By this which hath bin sayd it is euident as I thinke that the former of those two constructions which I make of Augustines words hath bin approued by far better men then this Treatiser And that therefore he sheweth himself more bold then wise when he pronounceth it to be frivolous And surely if we consider well the discourse of S. Augustine I thinke it may be proued vnanswerably out of the circumstances of the fame that hee speaketh not precisely of the present Church For it is that authority of the catholicke church hee vrgeth that was begun by miracles nourished by hope increased by charity confirmed strengthned by long continuance And of that Church he speaketh wherin there had bin a succession of Bishops from Peter till that present time So that he must needs meane the Church including not onely such faythfull ones as were then liuing when hee wrote but all that either then were or had bin from the Apostles times Wherefore let vs passe to the other construction of Augustines words which is that the authority of the present church was the ground reason of an acquisit fayth an introduction leading him to a more sure stay but not the reason or ground of that faith whereby principally he did beleeue This constructiō the Treatiser sayth cannot stand because Aug saith if the authority he speaketh of be weakned hee will beleeue no longer Whence it seemeth to be consequent that it was the cause of all thē perswasion of fayth that he had then when he wrote not only of an acquisit fayth preparing fitting him to a stronger more excellent farther degree or kind of faith For the clearing of this poynt we must note that there are 3. sorts of such mē as beleeue for there are some that beleeue out of piety onely not discerning by reason whether the things they beleeue be to be beleeued as true or not the 2d. haue a light of diuine reason shining in them causing an approbation of that they beleeue the 3d. sort hauing a pure heart conscience begin already inwardly to taste that which hereafter
that they are not beleiued by the Church or they shal be shewed him in those Epistles Wherfore let vs see what he hath more to say One of the Apostolicall Epistles he saith is lost namely that which Paul wrote to the Laodiceans in which there might be something necessarily to be beleeued that is not fouÌ„d in any other book of the New Testament Therefore it may be thought that there is some want imperfection in the books of the New Testament This truly is a very idle and and silly obiection for though there was a certaine Epistle to the Laodiceans carried about and read by some in auncient times yet as Hierome testifieth it was exploded by all and Chrysostome and Theodoret are of opinion that Paul neuer wrote any Epistle to the Laodiceans but that the Epistle hee speaketh of was written from Laodicea or by the Laodiceans to informe him of the state of things amongst themselues or amongst the Colossians by whom hee would haue it read And Cardinall Baronius himselfe approueth their opinion rather then the other That which he hath of my admitting traditions I will answere when I come to examine his next section §. 8. IN his next section he hath these words Barlow and Field two famous English Protestants admitte certaine Apostolicall traditions And farther hee addeth that I allow of certaine rules for the discerning of Apostolicke traditions from such as are not such Whereunto wee answere that wee admit sundry kindes of tradition and yet deny that any thing concerning fayth or the necessary direction and information of mens manners is to bee beleeued and receiued that is not written For we say nothing was deliuered by tradition but the bookes of Scripture thinges in some sort therein contayned and thence deduced and certaine dispensable obseruations not at all or hardly to be discerned from Ecclesiasticall constitutions Neither is it new or strange that wee should admit some kinds of traditions For Kemnitiuâ—… acknowledgeth all those kinds that I meÌ„tion which will no way help the Papists For the question between theÌ„ vs is not whether there be any traditions or not For it is most certaine that the bookes of Scripture are deliuered by tradition But it beeing â—…upposed that the holy men of God taught immediately by Christ his Sonne â—…ded certaine bookes to posterities and agreed on which those bookes are whâ—…her they containe all thinges necessary to bee knowne and practised by Christian â—…en for the attayning of euerlasting life and saluation Wee say they doe they deny it Yet will the Treatiser proue from hence contrary to my assertions that according to my owne grounds tradition is the very foundation of my faith For if Protestantes receiue the number names of the Authours and integrity of the parts of bookes divine and canonicall as deliuered by tradition as I say they doe and if without tradition wee cannot know such diuine bookes hee thinketh it consequent that tradition is the ground of our faith But indeede there is no such consequence as hee imagineth For it is one thing to require the tradition of the church as a necessary meaâ—…s whereby the bookes of Scripture may be deliuered vnto vs and made known another to make the same tradition the ground of our faith seeing in the judgment of the Treatiser himselfe euery thing is not the ground of our saith builded vpon Scripture without which we cannot know the Canonicall bookes of Scripture from such as are not of that ranke As it is euident in that he distinguisheth the groâ—…d of our faith reason of our beleeuing from the condition required to the producing of such an act of fayth denying the churches proposing of things to bee beleeued to be the ground of our faith and yet requiring it as a necessary condition without which ordinarily men cannot beleeue So that though we know the names of the writers of the books of holy Scripture by tradition and that there were no more bookes nor no more partes of bookes of this kinde left to posterities by the Apostles but such as the church deliuereth to vs yet it is not consequent that wee haue no other ground of our perswasion that the bookes deliuered to vs and the parts thereof are canonicall but tradition for the euidence of diuine power and majesty shewing it selfe in them more then in all humane compoÌ„sitions whatsoeuer proueth them to haue proceeded from the immediate inspiration of the holy Ghost breathing in them nothing but heauenly grace The words of holy Scripture sayth Picus Mirandula are rude and plaine but full of life and soule they haue their sting they pierce and enter in euen to the most secret spirit and strangely transforme him that with due respect readeth them and meditateth on them And besides there are sundry diuine and conuincing reasons that the summe of Christian doctrine contayned in these bookes is nothing else but heauenly truth and being without the compasse of that wee naturally vnderstand reuealed trueth So that the Treatiser doth greatly forget himselfe when hee pronounceth it to bee false that I say that the Scriptures winne credit of themselues and yeelde sufficient satisfaction to all men of their diuine truth This is the summe of all that hee hath of traditions For where hee saith I affirme that without the Creed of the Apostles wee cannot know the Scriptures to bee of God hee sheweth himselfe to care little whether that hee writeth bee true or false For I no where haue any such thing but where hee saith I affirme that Papists make traditions Ecclesiasticall equall with the written word of God and that this is one of my ordinary vntruths hee deserueth a sharper censure For if the Reader be pleased to peruse the place cited by him hee shall finde that I say no such thing nor any thing that the Pope himselfe can possibly dislike For deliuering the opinion of Papists touching traditions their diuerse kindes and the credit that is to bee giuen vnto them I shew that they make diuine traditions equall with the words precepts and doctrines of Christ left vnto vs in writing apostolicall with the written precepts of the Apostles and ecclesiasticall with the written precepts of the Pastours of the Church confessing that there is no reason why they should not so doe if they could proue any such vnwritten traditions Is this to say that Papists make Ecclesiasticall traditions equall with the written Word of God Is this one of my ordinary vntruthes or rather is not this a bewraying of an extraordinary impudency in him that so saith Surely I feare the Reader will haue a very ill conceipt of him vpon the discerning of this his bad dealing Yet hee goeth forward charging Mee that I make the baptisme of Infants to be an vnwritten tradition whereas yet he knoweth right well that howsoeuer I grant it may be named a tradition in that there is no expresse precept or
truth whose communion we must embrace follow her directions rest in her iudgement liuing and dying therein to haue eternall life men might here by my censure and advice confine themselues and wade no further in so many intricate controversies of religion the second that I am or must bee of opinion that all those bookes which the church of Rome receiued for canonicall are indeede canonicall For answere to the former of these allegations First I professe before God men and Angels that I neither do nor euer did thinke the present Romane church to be the true church whose communion wee are bound to embrace but an hereticall church with which we may not communicate Secondly I professe in like sort that though I did and doe acknowledge the church wherein our Fathers liued before Luthers time to haue beene the true church of God in respect of the best and indeede the principall parts thereof which held a sauing profession of the truth in Christ howsoeuer many and they greatly prevailing erred damnably yet I neuer thought it to be that church in whose iudgement we are to rest without any farther doubt or question nor that it was safe to follow the greater part of the guides and rulers of it but the church in whose iudgement wee must absolutely and finally rest is that whole and entire societie of Holy ones which beginning at Hierusalem and filling the world continueth vnto this day To refuse the iudgement of this church or to resist against any thing deliuered ab omnibus ubique semper in all places at all times by all Christian pastors and people not noted for heresie or singularitie were extreame folly and madnesse so that as I noted in answer to the first chapter out of Waldensis it is not any particular church as the church of Africa nor the particular Romane church but the vniuersall church not gathered together in a generall councell which hath sometimes erred but the whole catholique church dispersed through the world from the baptisme of Christ vnto our times which doth vndoubtedly holde the true faith and faithfull testimony of IESVS and in whose iudgement we must absolutely rest without any farther question oâ—… doubting and hereunto agreeth t Vincentius Lirinensis prescribing this course to bee followed in matters questioned touching faith and religion If errour creepe into one part of the Church we must looke vnto other that still are sound and pure if into almost the whole present church we must looke vp higher into former times and the resolutions of them that haue beene since the Apostles times Thus I hope the Reader will easily perceiue that this first allegation is friuolous For I doe not thinke the present Church of Rome to be the true church of God whose communion we must embrace nor that the particular Romane church when it was at the best was that church in the judgement whereof we are absolutely to rest and therefore let no man confine himselfe here without farther wading into particular controuersies but let euery man as he tendreth the saluation of his owne soule looke to the judgement of other churches also and to the resolutions of former times Now let vs proceede to his second allegation concerning canonicall and apocryphall bookes of Scripture His words are The Protestant surueyor of the Communion-booke affirmeth plainely that the Protestants of England must approue for Canonicall all those bookes which the Romane Church doth and Doctour Field is of the same opinion or must be for thus he writeth The ancient and true-beleeuing Iewes before the comming of Christ especially such as liued in Greece and nations out of Iury commonly called Hellenists receiued those bookes for canonicall Scripture It is well hee saith not absolutely that I am of that opinion but that I am or must be for he is well assured I am not but he knoweth how to force me to bee whether I will or not by falsly reporting my wordes and making me say that I neuer thought nor said For doe I any where say the ancient and true â—…euing Iewes before the comming of Christ receiued those bookes for canonicall especially such as were dispersed among the Gentiles No surely but the contrary namely that the ancient church of the Iewes did receiue those only as diuine and canonicall which we doe and not those other in question I am verily perswaded these men thinke lying to be no sinne for otherwise it were not likely that bragging so much of their good workes and trusting to the merit thereof they would wittingly runne so often into such a sinne as we silly men thinke it to be and as the spirit of God assureth vs it is being of the number of those that shut men out of the kingdome of God and Christ according to that in the Reuelation Without shall be dogges and inchanters and whore-mongers and murtherers idolaters and whosoeuer loueth or maketh lies But let vs see if hee deale not better in that which followeth Surely no hee is constant and euer like himselfe for hee saith Doctour Field writeth thus The ancient and true-beleeuing Iewes before the comming of Christ especially such as liued in Greece and nations out of Iury commonly called Hellenists receiued those bookes for canonicall Scripture and to vse his owne wordes Hence it came that the Iewes deliuered a double canon of Scripture to the Christian Churches Surely this is not to vse but to abuse my words For I was not so senselesse as to say the auncient and true-beleeuing Iewes receiued the bookes in question for Canonicall and that thence it came that they deliuered a double Canon of Scripture to the Christian Churches For if the Iewes generally had receiued all these bookes for canonicall but especially the Hellenists then they could not haue deliuered a double canon of Scripture but one onely Wherefore my words are not as hee reporteth them but hauing spoken of the 22 bookes of the old Testament I adde These onely did the auncient Church of the Iewes receiue as diuine Canonicall and that other bookes were added vnto these whose authoritie not being certaine and knowne are named Apocryphall fèll out in this sort The Iewes in their latter times before and at the comming of Christ were of two sorts some properly named Hebrewes commorant at Hierusalem in the holy land other named Hellenists Iewes of the dispersion mingled with the Grecians these had written sundry bookes in Greeke which they made vse of together with other parts of the old Testament which they had of the translation of the Septuagint but the Hebrewes receiued onely the 22 bookes before mentioned Hence it came that the Iewes deliuered a double Canon of the Scripture to the Christian Church the one pure indubitate diuine which is the Hebrew Canon the other in Greeke inriched with or rather adulterated by the addition of certaine other bookes written in those dayes when God raised vp no more Prophets among his people So that the
so to whom Flavianus replied that not they but the fathers required him so to professe and therefore if he did so beleeue hee should anathamatize all that thought otherwise To whom Eutiches answered he had never hitherto professed so to beleiue yet would now for their sakes but would never be induced to anathematize them that thinke otherwise for that if hee should he must as he supposed accurse the holy Fathers and Scriptures which doe so speake that they deny Christs body to be of the same substance with ours When Flavianus heard him thus speake hee put him out of the order of Presbyters and remoued him from his office and dignity of an Abbot Eutiches thus degraded and depriued resorted oft to the Emperour complaining that he was wronged by Flauianus wherevpon Theodosius then Emperour called a Councell at Ephesus that it might be there examined whether Eutyches were duely proceeded against or not and made Dioscorus Bish. of Alexandria president of the Councell who caused the proceedings of Flauianus to be read but suffered him not to say any thing in his owne defence neither would he giue him leaue to aske any question if any doubt arose for Eusebius who was to accuse Eutiches he would not so much as suffer him to speake The conclusioÌ„ was he deposed Flavianus restored Eutiches Things being thus violeÌ„tly carried they that supplied the place of the B. of Rome returned home and made all known to Leo the Bish. He preseÌ„tly went to Valentinian who wrote to Theoâ—…osius to call another Councell but he refused so to do thinking Dioscorus had duely proceeded But after his death Martianus called a Councell at Chalcedon In the first Session of this Councell Dioscorus appeared where he clearely anathematized those that bring in either a confusion conversion or commixtion of the Natures of God and man vnited in Christ. So condemning Eutyches whom out of partiality and sinister respect he had formerly acquitted But yet professed that after the vnion wee must not say there are two Natures but one Nature of the Sonne of God incarnate and told them he had to this purpose sundry testimonies of the holy Fathers Athanasius Gregory and Cyrill For confirmation of this his saying Eustathius Bishop of Beretum produced an Epistle of Cyrill to Acacius Bishop of Melitinum Valerianus of Iconium and Successus Bishop of the Province of Diocaesarea wherein more fully explaining certaine things contained in his former Epistles he saith expressely wee must not say there are two natures in Christ but one nature of the Sonne of God incarnate Which when they of the East disliked he brought forth the booke reade the very same words vnto them and after the reading of them brake forth into these wordes Whosoeuer saith there is one nature to deny the flesh of Christ which we beleeue to be consubstantiall with ours let him be anathema and whosoeuer saith there are two natures to make a division in Christ let him be accursed also adding that Flavianus admitted this doctrine of Cyrill and therefore that he was vnjustly condemned by Dioscorus But Dioscorus answered that he condemned him because he affirmed that there are two natures in Christ after the vnion whereas the Fathers tell vs wee must not say there are two natures after the vnion but one of the Word incarnate And after this time he refused to appeare any more in the Councell Wherevpon for his former violent and sinister proceedings and for his present contumacie he was condemned and deposed and not for heresie as is expressely deliuered by Anatolius in the Councell For whereas there was a forme of Confession composed which Asclepiades recited in the Councell wherein was contained that Christ consisted of two natures there arose presently a great doubt amongst the Bishops the Nobles and great men therefore that moderated spake vnto them in this sort Dioscorus saith that Christ consisteth of two natures Leo that he consisteth in two natures without mutation confusion or division whom follow yee to whom the Bishops rising vp answered with one voice as Leo so we all beleeue accursed bee Dioscorus At the hearing hereof Anatolius said Dioscorus was not deposed for erring in faith but because he excommunicated Leo Bishop of Rome and refused to come into the Councell when as hee was required so to doe Neither was the forme of Confession recited by Asclepiades rejected as ill but as imperfect That which some alledge that Dioscorus had beene condemned as an Hereticke if he had appeared is childish For if the Fathers there assembled had judged his sayings hereticall they might and no doubt would haue condemned him as an hereticke though absent aswell as the Councell of Ephesus condemned Nestorius though absenting himselfe and asmuch as in him lay declining their judgment So the Councell of Chalcedon condemned Eutyches as an Hereticke and deposed Dioscorus for his contumacie and other sinister violent and disordered proceedings in that second Councell wherein he was President so ended But after the ending thereof there arose woful distractions divisions in the Christian world For besides those that followed Eutyches in his Heresie there were many found who though they were far froÌ„ adhering to cursed Eutyches yet disliked the proceedings against Dioscorus and stifly maintained that forme of Confession that was published by Asclepiades not only as good but as perfect sufficient Affirming that 2 natures were vnited in Christ without mutatioÌ„ conversioÌ„ coÌ„mixtion or confusioÌ„ but that being vnited they are no longer two but one So that we may say Christ coÌ„sisted of 2 natures but wee must not say hee consisteth in 2 natures as Leo and the councell Vrging to this purpose that authority of Cyrill That wee must not say there are 2 natures in Christ but one of the Word incarnat His words are Post vnionem sublata in duo diuisione vnam esse credimus filij 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nestorianus agnoscit Verbum incarnatum sed dum duas nominat naturas diuidit seiungit ab invicem This opinioÌ„ prevailed mightily in those times continueth in many Christian Churches till this day For the Christians of Aegypt Aethiopia Armenia the Iacobites of Syria defend the same accursing Eutiches as an Hereticke and acquitting Dioscorus yea honouring him as a good and holy man Wherefore seeing it is against the law of charity to condemne so many millions of soules to hell vnlesse they bee cleerely convinced of heresie let vs more exactly consider what it is they say First therefore they teach that Christ is truely God and truely man that hee receiued his diuine nature of his Father before all eternity his humane nature from his mother in the fulnesse of time Secondly they accurse all them that spoile him of either of these natures Thirdly they say that these natures were so vnited that there was no confusion mixtion or conuersion of one of them into another nor such composition as that a third nature might arise out
wee are of wee will most willingly listen vnto them But this they doe not and therefore their talking of the Fathers reasoning from succession when they dare not reason as the fathers did is most vaine and idle CHAP. 41. Of Vnity the kindes of it and that Communion with the Romane Bishoppe is not alwayes a note of true and Catholike profession THe next note of the Church assigned by them is Vnity The Vnity of the Church consisteth principally in three things First in obseruing and holding the Rule of faith once deliuered to the Saints Secondly in the subiection of the people to their Pastours and thirdly in the due connexion of many Pastours and the flockes depending on them among themselues All these kinds and sorts of vnity wee thinke necessarily required in some degree in all those societies of Christians that will demonstrate themselues to bee the true Churches of God and deny not but that vnity in this sort expressed and conceiued is a most apt note of the true Church The papists suppose that besides these kinds and sorts of vnity before expressed there is also required another kind of vnity to the being of the Church namely subiection to and vnion with that visible head which as they thinke Christ hath left in his steade to gouerne the whole body of the Church and to rule both Pastors and people This head as they suppose is the Bishoppe of Rome from whose communion sith wee are fallen they inferre that wee are diuided from the vnity of the true Church This last kinde of vnity deuised by the Papists wee deny to bee necessarily required to the beeing of the true Church First therefore let vs see what may bee said for or against the necessity of this kinde of vnitie and in the next place consider what our aduersaries can conclude for themselues or against vs from that kind of vnity which wee acknowledge to be necessarily required to the being of the true Church If the vnion of all Christians with this supposed visible head which is the Bishop of Rome were necessarily required as a perpetuall dutie then was there no true Church in the time of the Anti-Popes when the wisest knew not who were the true Popes and who were vsurpers If they shall reply that it is necessary to hold Communion with the true if hee may bee knowne this hath no more warrant of reason than the former seeing the best learned amongst thēselues thinke that not only the Pope but also the whole cleargy people of Rome may erre and fall into damnable heresies in which case it is the part of euery true Christian to disclaime all communion with them and to oppose himselfe against them and all their hereticall impieties That it is possible for the Pope to erre and become an heretique so many great Divines in the Church of Rome haue at all times most constantly defended that the greatest patrons of the infallibility of the Popes judgement at this day are forced to confesse it is not necessary to beleeue that the Pope cannot erre but that it is onely a matter of probable dispute Thus then it is evident to all that will not wilfully oppose themselues against the truth that consent with the Romane Bishoppe cannot bee made a perpetuall and sure note of the true Church Nay the Grecians most constantly affirme that the Popes taking all to himselfe and challenging to bee head of the vniversall Church hath beene the cause of the Churches division But because Bellarmine is so excellent a Sophister that he is able to proue any thing to bee true though neuer so false and absurde Let vs see how hee proueth that consent with the Bishop of Rome is a note of the true Church in such sorte that whosoeuer holdeth Communion with him is a Catholike and contrarily whosoeuer forsaketh his Communion is an Heretique or Schismatique This hee endeavoureth to make good by the testimonies of sundry of the auncient Fathers wrested against their knowne meanings and vndoubted resolutions in other parts of their workes and writings His first allegation is out of Irenaeus in his third booke and third Chapter against heresies But if wee consider the circumstances of the place and the occasion of the wordes ci◅d by Bellarmine wee shall easily see they proue no such thing as hee laboureth to enforce For Irenaeus in that place sheweth how all heresies may bee refuted by opposing against them the tradition of the Apostles which hee saith wee may easily finde out and discerne how contrary it is to the franticke conceites of heretiques by taking a view of them which were ordained Bishoppes by the Apostles in the Churches of Christ and their successours to this present time which neuer taught nor knew any such thing as these men dreame Now because it would bee tedious to reckon all the successions of Bishoppes succeeding one another in euery Church therefore he produceth the succession of the Bishops in the Romane Church in steede of all because that being the most famous and renowned Church of the world constituted and founded by the two most principall and glorious Apostles Peter and Paul whatsoeuer was successiuely taught and receiued in that Church and consequently deliuered vnto it by those blessed Apostles must needes be the doctrine and tradition of the rest of the Apostles deliuered to all other Churches of the World For what was there hidden from these Apostles that was revealed vnto any of the rest and what would they hide from this principall Church that was any way necessary to bee knowne Therefore saith Irenaeus the producing of the Romane succession is in stead of all For it must needes bee that what this most principall Church receiued from these great Apostles that nothing else the other did receiue from their Apostles first preachers which he expresseth in these words Ad hanc Ecclesiam propter potentiorē principalitatē necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiā hoc est cos qui sunt vndique fideles Bellarmines sense of these words that all Churches must frame themselues to beleeue what the Church of Rome beleeueth and prescribeth to others to bee beleeued no way standeth with the drift of Irenaeus in this place as may appeare by that which hath beene sayd and therefore this allegation might haue beene spared His next authorities are out of Cyprians Epistles in the first of which Epistles we shall finde that there were certaine Schismatikes that fled from their owne lawfull Bishop and superiours with complaints to other Bishops and Churches and amongst the rest to the Church and Bishop of Rome not knowing sayth Cyprian or at least not considering that the Romanes are such as will not giue entertainement to such perfidious companions nor listen to lying and false reports For that is the meaning of those words Ad quos perfidia non possit habere accessum But Bellarmine wresteth the words to another sense to wit that infidelitie and
they desire to be tryed AN APPENDIX WHEREIN IT IS CLEARELY PROVED THAT THE LATINE OR WEST CHVRCH IN WHICH THE POPE TYRANNIZED VV AS AND CONTINVED A TRVEORTHODOXE AND PROTESTANT CHVRCH AND THAT THE DEVISERS AND MAINTAINERS OF ROMISH ERROVRS and superstitious abuses were onely a faction in the same at the time when Luther not without the applause of all good men published his propositions against the prophane abuse of Papall indulgences To the Reader THis Appendix when first published by the Author contained only some briefe quotations vpon seuerall points of difference betweene us and the Papistes showing that the nowe Romish faith was neuer generally receiued in the VVesterne or Latine Church in the dayes of our Fathers no not then when the darke mist of Poperie seemed to haue ouershadowed all things The Author not long before he died intended an inlargment of it in the seuerall particulars but being preuented by death liued not to finish what hee had begun So much as was finished of it comming to my hands I thought my selfe bound in duty not to depriue the world of I haue therefore so farre aduentured to hazard the credit of the Author as to make it publique though something imperfect and wanting that lustre and beauty which it might haue receiued from the last hand of the Author if God had lent him longer life As it is it may serue if for no other vse yet for this as a platforme to shew what might be done in this kind and what the Author intended I make no question but a fauourable Reader will looke on it as wee vse to looke on the foundations of stately buildings the finishing whereof hath beene hindred by some fatall accident the very ruines whereof breede in us astonishment and amazement while we consider not what they are but what they might haue beene The twelue first chapters of this Appendix are enlarged the rest remaine as they were formerly set forth The quotations contained in that part which hath beene added I haue compared and amended if any where they differed from the Originalls whence they were taken and the truth of them I am able to iustifie If the world shall reape any benifit by the worke or if I may be thought by my paines bestowed on it to haue performed that duty wich I owe vnto the memorie of a deare father I haue my desire and so I rest Yours in all due respect NATHANIEL FIELD AN ANSWER TO Mr Brerelyes obiection concerning the Masse publiquelie vsed in all Churches at LVTHERS appearing WHereas to silence our adversaries who neuer cease challenging vs for departing from the faith of our Fathers and the doctrine of the Church wherein they liued and died I affirmed in my 3◠Booke that none of those erroneous positions which at this day they of the Romish faction doe defend and wee impugne were euer constantly receiued in the dayes of our Fathers as the doctrine of that Church wherein they liued and died but onely doubtfully disputed of as things not clearely resolued or broached onely as the priuate fancies and conceipts of particular men and for proofe heereof heeretofore added an Appendix wherein I produced the testimonies of sundry worthy Pastours and guides of the Church in euery age teaching as we doe touching the points now controversed It hath pleased some of the adverse faction to take exceptions to the same my assertion I will first therefore set downe such objections as they haue made and answere the same and then enlarge my former proofes that all that will not be wilfully blinde may see the trueth of that which I affirmed The principall man that shewed himselfe in this kinde is M ◠Brerelie the Author of the booke entitled the Protestant Apologie And after him the author of the answer to Mr D Whites way to the Church M Brerelie in the first tract pag. 139 hath these words It is beyond beleefe and very wonderment that D Field a man otherwise graue and learned should not be abashed by his publique writing so confidently to averre of our so many Christian Catholique Churches dispersed thorough the world at Luthers first appearing that they were all of them the true Protestant Churches of God And that they which then beleeued those damnable errours which the Romanists now defend were a particular faction onely contrary to the confession of so many learned Protestants And in his 2 tract cap. 2. sect 2 pag. 329. hee hath these words In this vndue sort doth Illyricus place in his catalogue of Protestant witnesses Gerson Aquinas and sundry of our Schoolemen all of them vndoubtedly knowne Catholiques and we could giue like farther example of S. Bernard Erasmus Mirandula and sundry other knowne Catholique Writers whom our adversaries in like manner doe vnjustly claime to bee of their Church D Field a prime adversarie and for such was together with the Bishops and Deanes summoned to the conference before his Majestie in Ianuarie 1603 as appeareth by the said conference forbeareth not in these straits to inforce the like vndue and intollerable bold claime to the many Catholiques a particular faction of them onely excepted dispersed thorough the world at and next before Luthers first appearing And in his third Booke of the Church cap. 12. pag. 85 saith nothing is done in the Protestant reformation which Camaracensis Picus Savanarola Gerson and innumerable other worthy guides of Gods Church long before thought 〈◊〉 fit to bee done And pag. 330 Mr Brerelie addeth these wordes D. Feild of the Church l. 3. c. 6. sayth it is most fond friuolous that some demaund where our Church was before Luther began For we say it was where now it is and that it was the knowne apparant Church in the world where all our Fathers liued died And most exceeding boldly hee there farther sayth none of the poynts of false doctrine errour which the Romanists now maintaine we condemne were the doctrines of that Church constantly deliuered or generally receiued but doubtfully broached and factiously defended by some certaine only And booke the third cap. 8. pag. 76 he proceedeth yet farther with like incredible boldnesse saying we must farther beleeue that all the Churches in the world wherein our Fathers liued died were the true Churches of God that they that taught the errours the Romanists now defend against vs were a faction only as they that denied the resurrection vrged circumcision despised the Apostles of Christ were in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Who can without amazement and wonder behold this incredible boldnesse For was not the Masse wherein are comprehended so many cheife points of our Religion the publique liturgie solemnly celebrated in all Churches at Luthers first appearing Was then the externall face of religion any other then our now professed Catholique faith Was Protestancie then so much as in beeing No marvaile then if our aduersaries doubt not to make vndue and pretended claime to the auncient Fathers seeing they blush
was revealed to her as the Arch-bishop of Florence reporteth in his summe And Caietan saith if miracles be pretended for proofe great caution is to bee vsed both in respect of the strange workes and in respect of the illusions that may fall out in things of this kinde In respect of the strange workes that are done because the Angell of Satan transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light and can doe many great and strange things which wee would thinke to bee true miracles and such things as God onely can doe as the workes of healing strange mutations in the Elements and the like Whence it is that it is said Antichrist shall doe so many miracles in the sight of men that if it were possible the very elect should bee deceiued Moreouer as the Apostle testifieth 1 Cor. 14 and blessed Gregory in his tenth Homilie miracles were giuen to Infidels not to beleeuers but to the Church as faithfull and not faithlesse the propheticall and Apostolicall revelation was giuen for her direction So that though that course of proofe that is by miracles was appointed by Christ Marke the last in respect of Infidels and though it bee allowed by the Church to make good the personall condition of some man as when one pretendeth to bee sent extraordinarily of God yet vnlesse most clearely a true and vndoubted not wonder but miracle were done in the sight of the Gouernours of the Romane Church expressely to testifie that this particular is true the Roman Bishops ought not to determine any doubtfull thing in matter of faith vpon the doing of a miracle And the reason is because God hath appointed an ordinary course for the resoluing of points of faith so that if an Angell from Heauen should say vnto vs any thing contrary to this way wee were not to beleeue him as the Apostle saith in the first to the Galathians Adde hereunto that the miracles which the Church admitteth in the canonization of Saints which yet are most authenticall are not altogether certaine seeing the credite of them dependeth vpon the testimonie of men and euery man is a lyar And hee concludeth that these things being so wise men thinke that pretended miracles and revelations in this kinde contrary to so many Saints and auncient Doctours argue rather that the Angell of Satan is transformed into an Angell of light and that whatsoeuer things are alleadged in this kinde are meere fancies and counterfeite stuffe then that they prooue the trueth of this conceipt and that proofes in this kinde are fitter for silly women then councels to take notice of It appeareth by Saint Bernard that in his time they of Lyons in France out of a superstitious conceipt as he rightly censureth it beganne to celebrate the Feast of the Conception of the blessed Virgin supposing that she was conceiued without sinne but he opposeth himselfe against this innovation and saith the observation of the Church hath no such thing reason inferreth it not nor ancient tradition commendeth it that wee are not more learned devout then our Fathers that in like sort others may bring in the Feast of her parents Conception that patriae non exilii frequentia haec gaudiorum numerositas festivitatum cives non exules decet That whereas some brought out a certaine pretended writing of divine revelation it was not to be regarded and that another might bring forth the like writing wherein the holy Virgin might bee found to commaund the same thing to be done in honour of her parents according to the commaund of the Lord Honour thy father and thy mother so did hee shew his dislike Yet after this many Churches receiued the same obseruation and in processe of time all were brought to keepe the same day holy yet so that many of them professed that they would keepe it holy not in respect of her preseruation but of her sanctification from sinne So that wee see that this poynt of Romish superstition was neuer admitted by the Church but protested against by all the most worthy members of it which thing besides that which hath already beene alleadged the reader may finde farther confirmed by Ariminensis who not only contradicteth this fancie himself but produceth many authorities for the reproof of it So that herein also the Church wherein our Fathers liued and died is found to haue beene a Protestant Church as in the former But some man will say many of those that we produce for witnesses that she was conceiued in sinne yet thinke that shee was sanctified in the wombe and borne without sinne For answere herevnto we must obserue that which Gregorius Ariminensis hath that many thought shee was sanctified in the wombe and borne without originall sinne as sinne and making guilty of condemnation but not without concupiscence inclining to euill which was wholly taken away or so restrained by the superabundance of grace when the holy spirit overshadowed her that shee might be the mother of God that it should neuer be an occasion of sinne this opinion the master of sentences followeth and this opinion the Schoolemen followe for the most part But August sayth Ista sanctificatio quâ efficimur singuli templa Dei in vnum omnes templum Dei non est nisi renatorum quod nisi nati homines esse non possunt Si homo regenerari per gratiam spiritus in vtero potest quoniam restat illi adhuc nasci renascitur ergo antequam nascitur quod fieri nullo modo potest Seeing therefore none can be sanctified before hee bee borne neither canne any man be cleansed from originall sinne before his birth in asmuch as that is not taken away but by the infusion of grace And the glosse vpon the eigth to the Romans saith Christ was the first that was borne without sinne And Anselme in his second booke cur Deus homo hath these wordes Though Christs conception were pure and without the sinne of carnall delight yet the virgine her selfe of whom he tooke flesh was conceiued in iniquity and her mother conceiued her in sinne and shee was borne with originall sin because shee also sinned in Adam in whom all sinned And diverse of the Fathers feared not to make her subject to actuall sin Origen writing vpon Luke insisting vpon those wordes of Simeon to Mary a sword shall pierce thorough thy soule hath these wordes What is this sword that pierced the heart not only of others but of Mary also It is plainly written that in the time of his passion all the Apostles were scandalized as the Lord himselfe had sayd you shall all be scandalized this night they were all therefore so scandalized that even Peter the prince of the Apostles denyed him thrice What shall we thinke that when the Apostles were scandalized the mother of our Lord was free from being scandalized Surely if shee suffered no scandall in the time of the Lords passion Christ dyed not for her sins but
condemnation if it bee not remitted Thirdly That God hateth it and that wee must hate it as long as any remaines of it are found in vs. Fourthly That the first motions of it are sin The first of these foure is clearely deliuered by Saint Augustine in his third booke against Iulian his wordes are these An vero cuiuscunque frontis sis audeas suspicari in primâ hominum constitutione priusquam culpam debita damnatio sequeretur istam carnalem concupiscentiam aut extitisse in paradiso aut inordinatis vt eam nunc videmus motibus pugnas adversus spiritum faedissimas edidisse And in his fourth booke where Iulian obiecteth that if wee graunt that that concupiscence of the flesh against which wee resist by continencie was not in paradise before sinne but that it flowed from that sinne which the devill first perswaded the first man to commit it will bee consequent that the senses of seeing hearing tasting smelling and handling are not of God but of the devill hee answereth that Iulian is ignorant or maketh shew to be ignorant per quemlibet corporis sensum aliud esse sentiendi vivacitatem vel vtilitatem vel necessitatem aliud sentiendi libidinem Vivacitas sentiendi quâ magis alius alius minus in ipsis corporalibus rebus pro earum modo atque naturâ quod verum est percipit atque id à falso magis minusve discernit Vtilitas sentiendi est per quam corpori vitaeque quam gerimus ad aliquid approbandum vel improbandum sumendum vel reijciendum appetendum vitandumve consulimus Necessitas sentiendi est quando sensibus nostris etiam quae nolumus ingeruntur Libido autem sentiendi est de quâ nunc agimus quae nos ad sentiendum sive consentientes mente sive repugnantes appetitu carnalis voluptatis impellit Haec est contraria delectationi sapientiae haec virtutibus inimica And in his fifth booke he hath these wordes Dixi inobedientiam carnis quae in carne concupiscente aduersus spiritum apparet diabolico vulnere contigisse And again Hanc legem peccati repugnantē legi mentis á Deo illatam propter vltionem ideo poenam esse peccati But I will no longer insist vpon this poynt hauing sufficiently proved in that part that is of originall sinne that all these evils did flow from Adams transgression were no conditions of nature The next thing that is to be proued is that concupiscence till it be remitted maketh them in whom it is guilty of eternal condemnation This is proued out of Saint Augustine his words are these Iulianus concupiscentiam bonam praedicat Nos autem qui eam malam dicimus manere tamen in baptizatis quamvis reatus eius non quo ipsa erat rea neque enim aliqua persona est sed quo reum hominem originaliter faciebat fuerit remissus atque vacuatus absit ut dicamus sanctificari cum quâ necesse habent regenerati si non in vacuum Dei gratiam susceperunt intestino quodam bello tanquam cum hoste confligere atque ab eâ peste desiderare atque optare sanari And afterwards Et concupiscentia quae manet oppugnanda atque sananda quamvis in baptismo dimissa sint cuncta omninò peccata non solùm non sanctificatur sed potius ne sanctificatos aeternae morti obnoxios possit tenere evacuatur Gregorius Ariminensis fully agreeth with Augustine and contradicteth Bellarmine his wordes are these Originall sinne is in a sort taken away and in a sort remaineth after Baptisme for it is taken away in respect of the guilt not of the essence that is that vice or that qualitie that is named concupiscence and is before Baptisme originall sinne abideth truely in the essence of it after Baptisme but not in the guilt that is it maketh not men guilty of condemnation after Baptisme as it did before and for proofe hereof he alleadgeth the testimony of S. Augustine in his booke de peccato originali his words are these Obesset ista carnalis concupiscentia etiam tantummodo quod inesset nisi peccatorum remissio sic prodesset ut quae in eis est nato renato nato quidem inesse obesse renato autem inesse quidem sed non obesse possit In tantum enim obest natis ut nisi renascantur nihil possit prodesse si nati sunt de renatis Manet quippe in prole ita ut reatum faciat originis vitium etiamsi in parente reatus eiusdem vitii remissione ablutus est peccatorum That is Carnall concupiscence by onely being in a man would vndoe him if remission of sinnes did not so helpe the matter that it being in men borne and borne a new in men as borne into the world it is and is to their hurt and euill in men borne anew it onely is but is not to their hurt For it is so farre forth hurtfull to men borne that vnlesse they bee borne a newe it nothing profiteth them to haue beene borne of such as were new borne For originall sinne doeth so abide in the childe as to make him guilty though the guilt of the same sinne be taken away in the parent by remission of sinnes The Master of sentences in his 2d booke agreeth with Saint Augustine his wordes are these Vnlesse it be by an ineffable miracle of the Creator Baptisme doth not cause the Law of sinne which is in our members to bee extinguished and not to bee it causeth indeede all the euill a man hath thought or done to be abolished and to be accounted as if it had neuer beene done but it suffereth concupiscence the bond of guilt where with the diuell by it held the soule and separated it from God her Creator being loosened to remaine that there may be a continuall fight Bonaventura writing vpon the same place saith Concupiscence importeth in the vnregenerate an immoderate desire of commutable good in such sort as to captivate reason and to pervert the soule so that it must preferre commutable good before that which is incommutable this concupiscence cannot be found in any but it must make him in whom it is guilty of condemnation the strength of this concupiscence is so broken and ouerthrowne by the grace of regeneration that it hath no power to captiuate reason to pervert the soule bring vpon it a necessitie of preferring things finite before infinite and so the guilt of condemnation is taken away but it hath still power to moue and sollicite vs to euill and we by Gods grace haue power to resist ouercome For as the Master of the sentences saith in the same place though concupiscence remaine after Baptisme yet doth it not rule raigne as before but it is diminished weakned made lesse forcible that it may rule no longer vnlesse any man will giue strength vnto his enimy by going after the lusts thereof So that it is euident
corporis tui quod cum de nostro sit nostra sunt illius merita proferimus tibi meritum passionis tuae ineritum crucis tuae meritum mortis tuae haec sunt merita nostra quae tu clementissime Domine nobiscum pro immensâ benignitate tuâ communicare dignatus es Secundum haec merita abs te iudicari postulamus his meritis freti coram tribunali tuo nos intrepidisistimus nostra sunt quia nostri sunt capitis nostra sunt quia nostri sunt corporis á quo nos nefario schismate nunquam praecidimus haec merita interponimus inter nos iudicium tuum aliter tecum iudicio contendere nolumus de quo solenniter protestamur These wordes of Hosius Eisengreinius saith are worthy to bee written in letters of gold Albertus Pighius writeth thus In hominibus duplex considerari potest iustitia sicut duplex invenitur regula cui conformari debeant altera quâ iusti sunt coram hominibus aut inter homines nempe respondentes legibus quibus constat iustum inter homines vt neminem afficientes iniuriâ imo benevolentiâ humilitatis charitatisque officijs prosequentes proximos omnibus in omni ordine reddentes quod suum est Altera est iustitia quâ iusti sunt coram Deo Quod tamen trifariam ferè intelligere possumus Vel quod nostra iustitia cum divinâ conferatur Sic non iustificatur in conspectu eius vlla creatura vt cuius puritate merito inquinantur omnia Velintelligitur homo iustificari coram Deo hoc est coram tribunali diuini iudicij dum regulae divinae iustitiae quâ parte ipsum respicit exactè respondet Regula est lex illaÌ„ dupliciter intelligere possumus vel in suâ illâ absolutâ perfectione Vt cum praecipitur vt diligamus Deum ex totâ animâ totâ mente totis viribus Vel prout illa ipsa divinae iustitiae lex regula nos respiciens nostrae infirmitati aptata condescendit convenit Si hoc modo intelligas ex voluntatis humanae inconstantiâ inclinatione quâdam ad carnis sui hospitis amica desideria quae ab illâ lege diuinae iustitiae nos deflectere ad se attrahere ac sollicitare nunquam cessat adhuc invenire non est iustum quenquam coram Deo inter filios Adae sed verum reperietur etiam de hâc ipsâ quamvis imperfectâ iustitiâ quod non iustificabitur in conspectu Dei omnis vivens Siquidem iustitia haec est ad suam regulam etiam nostrae infirmitati attemperatam exacta correspondentia commensuratio in actionibus nostris omnibus Totum enim vniuersumque hominem denominans iustitia haec secundum omnes eius partes omnes singularum partium actiones vt illi regulae suae correspondeat in officio suo constet necesse est cuicunque haec iustitia convenit Neque enim qui partem vnam aliquam legis seruauerit praevaricator in caeteris hic iustus est Imo Quicunque inquit Iacobus totam legem servauerit offendit autem in vno factus est omnium reus Si dixerimus quoniam peccatum non habemus c. Christus omnes nos neminem quantumvis iustum excipiens docuit orare Diâ—… nobis debita c. Aversatur Deus omnem iniustitiam Constat ergo quae de nobis omnibus foret sententia si Deus voluisset districto nobiscum judicio agere si non misericordissimè nobis succurrisset in filio nostrâ justitiâ vacuos ejus involuisset justitiâ Quod verissime intellexit ille qui ait Si iniquitates observaveris Domine Domine quis sustinebit Ne intres in judicium c. In Christi autem obedientiâ quòd nostra collocatur justitia inde est quòd nobis illi incorporatis ac si nostra esset accepta ea fertur ita ut eâ ipsâ etiam nos justi habeamur Et velut ille quondam Iacob cùm nativitate primogenitus non esset sub habitu fratris occultatus atque eius veste indutus quae odorem optimum spirabat seipsum insinuavit Patri ut sub aliena persona benedictioneÌ„ primogeniturae acciperet Ita nos sub Christi primogeniti fratris nostri preciosâ puritate delitescere bono eius odore fragrare eius perfectione vitia nostra sepeliri obtegi atque ita nos piissimo patri ingerere ut iustitiae benedictionem ab eodem assequamur necesse est This of Pighius is acknowledged by our adversaries and they are wont to alleadge his example to shew how dangerous it is to reade the writings of Protestants seeing a man so well grounded as he was was drawne into this opinion by reading of Calvin The most reverend Canons of the Metropoliticall Church of Colein in their antididagma opposed against the booke of reformation of Religion intended by their Archbishop Hermannus follow the same opinion that Pighius doeth their wordes are these Iustificamur à Deo justitiâ duplici tanquam per causas formales essentiales Quarum una prior est consummata Christi justitia non quidem quomodo extra nos in ipso est sed sicut quando eadem nobis dum tamen fide apprehenditur ad iustitiam imputatur Aliter verò iustificamur formaliter per iustitiam inhaerentem Cuâ—… tamen inhaerenti iustitiae quod sit imperfecta non innitimur principaliter sed eâ tanquam interiori quodam experimento certificamur nobis qui talem renovationem spiritus nostri in nobis sentimus experimur remissionem peccatorum factam Christi consummatam iustitiam nobis imputari atque ita Christum per fidem in nobis habitare Non ignoramus nos nulli alii merito praeterquam solius Christi neque item ulli alii iustitiae quà m iustitiae Christi sine qua omninò nulla est iustitia tanquam fundamento fidei nostrae inniti debere Quanquam oporteat nos interim internae illius renovationis quae fit per charitatem quam spiritus sanctus in corda nostra diffundit tanquam arrabonis aut certè experientiae impetratae remissionis peccatorum imputationis justitiae Christi rationem habere The booke commended to Charles the fifth as opening a way for the composing of the controversies in Religion then moued and by him offered and recommended to the Diuines appointed of both sides in the assembly at Ratisbon for to conferre about the composing of the differences in Religion clearely contayneth the same doctrine that the most reverend Canons of Colein deliuered before For in the 5 Article of the same booke the Authors and composers of it amongst other good things communicated to vs in our Iustification reckon the imputation of Christs righteousnesse and say that we are said to bee justified by faith that is accepted and reconciled vnto God in that it apprehendeth mercy and the righteousnesse that is imputed to vs for Christs sake and
of the Church by the Ministery whereof they were appointed and not from the words of forme as the other doe Hence also it commeth that they are variable both in their matter and forme The Apostles sayth Alexander of Hales confirmed with the onely imposition of their hands without any certain forme of wordes or outward matter or Element but afterward it was otherwise ordayned both in respect of the one and the other the formes of Baptisme and the Eucharist being appoynted by Christ are kept inviolably without all change but touching the wordes of forme to be vsed in any other of the supposed Sacraments there is no certainty but they are diversly and doubtfully desiuered The reason whereof is because they are of humane devising By this which hath beene sayd it may appeare that the other pretended Sacraments are not of the same nature with Baptisme and the Eucharist as euen Bellarmin himselfe is forced to confesse the sacred or holy things sayth he which the Sacraments of the new Law signifie are threefold the grace of Iustification the Passion of Christ and eternall life as Thomas teacheth touching Baptisme and the Eucharist the thing is most evident concerning the other it is not so certaine CHAP. 16. Of the being of one body in many places at the same time THE possibility of the being of one body in many places at the same time was euer denyed by many worthy members of the Church and consequently the locall presence of Christs Body in the Sacrament whether definitiue or circumscriptiue was likewise reiected as a thing impossible To affirme sayth Aquinas that one body may be locally in this place and yet also in another at the same time implyeth a contradiction and therefore the power of God extendeth not to the effecting of any such thing Scotus confesseth that Egidius Godfredus de font Alanus and Henricus are of the same opinion with Thomas Durandus sayth that which is present in one place definitiuely or circumscriptiuely cannot in any such sort be in many places at the same time Whervpon he pronounceth that the body of Christ is no otherwise in the Sacrament but by reason of a certaine habitudinary vnion betweene it and the sacramentall elements whence it was wont to be sayd that Christs body is personaliter in verbo localiter in coelo sacramentaliter in Eucharistia Personally in the eternall word locally in heauen sacramentally in the Eucharist The first that taught otherwise and brought in the locall presence was Scotus whom Occam followed though he deny not but the former opinion had great fauourers CHAP 17. Of Transubstantiation THe conuersion of the bread and wine into Christs body and blood all of us sayth Caietane do teach in words but in deede many deny it thinking nothing lesse These are diuersly diuided one from another for some by the Conuersion that is in the sacrament vnderstand nothing but Indentity of place that is that the bread is therefore sayd to be made the body of Christ because where the bread is the body of Christ becomes present also others vnderstand by the word Conuersion nothing else but the order of succession that is that the body succeedeth and is vnder the vailes of those accidents vnder which the bread which they thinke to be annihilated was before This opinion in substance Scotus followeth though in the maner of his speech he seemeth to decline it Some admit both the word and thing but yet not wholy but only in part as Durandus Bonauentura sayth that some seeing the accidents to remaine both in their being and operation thinke the matter of the sacramentall element still remaineth Other the forme but that the more Catholike or generall opinion is that the whole substance of the elements is turned into Christs body and blood We see he maketh the doctrine of Transubstantiation to be but an opinion Occam sayth there are three opinions of Transubstantiation of which the first supposeth a couersion of the sacramentall elements the second an annihilation the third affirmeth the bread to be in such sort transubstantiated into the body of Christ that it is no way changed in substance or substantially cōuerted into Christs body or doth cease to bee but onely that the body of Christ in euery part of it becomes present in euery part of the bread This opinion he sayth the Master of sentences mentioneth not much disliking it yet is it not commonly holden Cameracensis sayth that the more common opinion is that the substance of bread doth not remaine but wholly ceaseth and that though this opinion be not euidently deduced from the scriptures nor concluded out of any determination of the vniuersall Church for ought he can see yet he is resolued to follow it Waldensis sayth hee found in a certaine old booke of decrees that in the yeare 1049. there was a meeting of Archbishops Bishoppes and other religious persons in a Synode and that when they were come together they beganne to speake of the body and bloud of Christ some saying one thing some another but that before the third day of meeting they that denyed the substantiall conuersion of the sacramentall elements were silent But in the same booke he reporteth out of Christopolitanus Zacharias his booke intituled Quatuor vnum that there were some perhaps many but hardly to be discerned and noted that thought still as Berengarius did whom they then condemned and yet condemned him with the rest in this respect onely disliking him for that refusing the forme of wordes the Church vsed with the nakednesse of his maner of speaking hee gaue offence not following the vse of the Scriptures which every where call things that are signes by the names of things signifyed especially in the matter of Sacraments the more liuely to expresse their vertue and efficacie these men ceased not to charge others secretly that they knew not the nature of figuratiue speaches therefore not without grosse errour killing the soule tooke signes for the things whereof they are signes scorning not a little the folly of them that say the appearing accidents of bread and wine after the conuersion doe hang in the ayre or that the senses are deceiued In the same place he sayth that Guitmundus reporteth some other that were not of the faction of Berengarius but with great vehementie contrary and opposite vnto him to haue beene of opinion that the bread and wine in part are changed and in part remaine these supposed so much onely to bee changed as is to serue for the communicating of the worthy receiuers others thought the whole to be changed but that when vnworthy men come to communicate the body and blood of Christ cease to bee present and the substances of bread and wine returne and are there present to be receiued by them But that it may yet more clearely appeare that the opinion of Transubstantiation neuer passed currantly in the Church let vs adde another testimony
manner of hauing the truth is inferiour vnto it neither are we bound to receiue her doctrines as the sacred Scriptures Besides though the Church taken in this sort be free from errour yet not from ignorance of many things wherein we may be instructed by the scripture So that it is possible for a man to vnderstand the naturall literall sense of some parts of Scripture and from thence some things that were not in such sort knowne and deliuered by any that went before as Andradius and Caietanus do proue at large If the comparison be made betweene the Church consisting of all the belieuers that are and haue beene since Christ appeared in the flesh so including the Apostles and their blessed assistants the Euangelists we deny not but that the Church is of greater authority antiquity and excellencie than the Scripture of the new Testament as the witnesse is better then his testimonie and the Lawgiuer greater then the Lawes made by him as Stapleton alleageth But he is to proue the present Church greater in authority than the Scripture which hee vndertaketh but performeth not His reason that the Scripture was giuen for the good of the Church and that therefore the Church is better than the Scripture proueth not the thing intended For as the people are more excellent in degree of being and nature of things than the lawes that be made for their good yet are the lawes of more authority and must ouer-rule and direct the people so though the Scriptures being but significations declarations and manifestations of diuine truth be not better in degree of things than the Church yet in power of prescribing directing and ouer-ruling our faith they are incomparably greater That which the Rhemists adde to shew the greatnesse of the Church aboue the Scripture because the Church hath judiciall power to determine doubts and controuersies whereof as they suppose the Scripture is not capable I will examine in the next part when I come to speake of the power of judging which the Church hath This errour of the Romanists imagining the authority of the Church to bee greater than the Scripture all the best learned in the Church of Rome euer resisted as Waldensis Occam Gerson and sundry others CHAP. 12. Of their errour who thinke the Church may make new articles of faith VNto this errour is joyned and out of this hath growne another not vnlike that the Church may make new articles of faith which though Stapleton and some other of our time seeme to disclaime yet do they indeede fall into it For the better vnderstanding whereof we must obserue as Occam fitly noteth that an Article of faith is sometimes strictly taken onely for one of those diuine verities which are contained in the creede of the Apostles sometimes generally for any Catholike verity This question is not meant of articles of faith in the first sense but in the second and so the meaning of the question is whether the Church that now is may by her approbation make those assertions and propositions to be Catholike verities that were not before or those hereticall that were not A Catholike vetity is a diuine truth which euery Christian is bound to beleeue The things which Christian men are bound to beleeue are of two sorts and consequently there are two sorts of Catholike verities to wit some so neerely touching the matter of eternall saluation that a man cannot be saued vnlesse hee expressely knowe and beleeue them others farther remooued which if a man beleeue implicitè and in praeparatione animi it sufficeth These must bee beleeued expressely and distinctly if their coherence with or dependance on the former do appeare vnto vs so that the manifest deduction of them from the former will make them such as must be expressely beleeued Our aduersaries confesse that the approbation and determination of the Church cannot make that a truth which was not nor that a Diuine or Catholike truth that was not so before but they thinke that the Church by her bare and sole determination may make that verity to be in such sort Catholike that euery one vnderstanding of such determination must expressely beleeue it that was not so and in such degree Catholike before But wee thinke that it is not the authority of the Church but the cleare deduction from the things which we are bound expressely to beleeue that maketh things of that sort that they must be particularly and distinctly known beleeued that were not necessarily so to bee beleeued before and therefore before and without such determination men seeing cleerely the deduction of things of this nature from the former and refusing to beleeue them are condemned of hereticall pertinacy and men not seeing that deduction after the decree of a Councell hath passed vpon them may still doubt and refuse to beleeue without hereticall pertinacy We cannot therefore condemne the Grecians as heretickes as the Romanists doe because wee cannot perswade our selues of them generally that they see that which they deny touching the proceeding of the holy Ghost deduced from the indubitate principles of our Christian faith or that they impiously neglect the search of the trueth What is it then will some men say that the decree of a Councell doth effect Surely nothing else but the rejecting of such as are otherwise minded from the societies of those men and Churches with whom the decree of the Councell doth prevaile and with all wise men the more wary and fearefull pronouncing any thing of those matters concerning which so graue authority hath passed her sentence The Papists proceed further and thinke it hereticall pertinacie to gainsay the decrees of a Councell though they finde the reasons by which they of the Councell were mooued so to thinke and determine to bee too weake and not to conclude the thing intended as in the matter of Transubstantiation they thinke it heresie to gainesay the decrees of those Councels that haue defined it and yet many of them judge all the reasons alleaged to proue it too weake to proue it In deed if it were certaine as they suppose that a generall Councell could not erre this were a sufficient deduction These things are decreede in a generall Councell Therefore ture because it is consequent that that is true which is affirmed by him that cannot erre Thus wee see what it is to bee thought touching this question whether the Church may make new Articles of faith onely one thing must be added for the further clearing hereof The Papistes thinke that the Church may adde to the Canon of the Scripture bookes not yet admitted as the bookes of Hermas the Scholler of Paul intituled Pastor and the constitutions of Clement which if it should doe we were to receiue them with no lesse respect then the Epistle of Iames and other bookes of the New Testament This we thinke to be a most grosse heresie and contrrry to their owne principles who making the number
none of them could erre in writing but if in them I find any thing that may seeme contrary to the trueth I perswade my selfe that either the Copie is corrupt or the interpreter defectiue and faultie or that the fault is in my not vnderstanding of it but other authors I so read that how great soeuer their learning sanctitie bee I doe not therefore thinke any thing to bee true because they haue so thought but because they perswade me that it is true by the authority of the Canonicall authors or the probability of Reason Besides the indubitate writings of those Canonicall Authours there are other bookes written of the same argument which because the credite and authority of the authors of them is not knowen are named Apocryphall Bookes are named Apocryphall first because the authour of them is not knowen and in this sense some of the Bookes of Canonicall Scripture as the bookes of Chronicles of Hester and a great part of the Psalmes may be named Apocryphall though vnproperly and vnfitly The authority of the authors of them not being doubted of though their names and other personall conditions be not knowen And therefore Andradius reprehendeth the Glosse which defineth those things to be Apocryphall quae incerto authore prodita sunt the author and publisher whereof is not knowen Secondly bookes are therefore named Apocryphall because the authority and credite of them is called in question it being doubted whether they proceeded from the inspiration of the holy spirit so that they cannot serue for the confirmation of any thing that is called in question In this seuse Hierome calleth the bookes of the Macchabees and the rest of that kinde Apocryphall though they were read privately and publikely for the edification of the people and the information of manners Thirdly such bookes are named Apocryphall as are meerely fabulous and full of impiety and therefore interdicted and forbidden to bee read or regarded at all The auncientest of the Fathers name these onely Apocryphall and so doth Hierome sometimes calling those of the second ranke Hagiographall though this name be sometimes giuen to those Canonicall bookes which pertaine not to the Lawe nor the Prophets as the booke of Iob the Psalmes the bookes of Salomon Esdras the Chronicles c. so diuiding the whole Canon of the Scripture of the old Testament into the Law the Prophets and the Hagiographall bookes that is those which not hauing any proper name of difference retaine and are knowen by the common name of holy writ CHAP. 23. Of the Canonicall and Apocryphall bookes of Scripture THe bookes of the old Testament were committed to the Church of the Iewes wherevpon that is one of the things in respect whereof the Apostle preferreth them before the Gentiles that to them were committed the Oracles of God This Church of the Iewes admitted but onely 22 bookes as deliuered vnto them from God to bee the Canon of their faith according to the nūber of the letters of their Alphabet as Iosephus sheweth For though they sometimes reckon foure and twenty and somtimes seuen and twenty yet they adde no more in one of these accounts than in the other For repeating Iod thrice for honour of the Name of GOD and so the number of the letters rising to foure and twenty they number the bookes of Canonicall Scripture to be foure and twenty dividing the booke of Ruth from the Iudges and the Lamentations from the Prophecies of Ieremy and reckoning them by themselues which in the former account they joyned with them These bookes thus numbred Hierome fitly compareth to the foure and twenty Elders mentioned in the Revelation Qui adorabant prostratis vultibus offerebant coronas suas Which prostrating themselues adored and worshipped the Lambe acknowledging that they receiued their Crownes of him Stantibus coram quatuor animalibus oculatis antè retrò in praeteritum futurum respicientibus Those foure admirable liuing creatures hauing eyes before and behind looking to things past and to come standing before him And because fiue of the Hebrew letters are double they sometimes reckon the bookes of the holy Canon so as that they make them rise to the number of seuen and twenty reckoning the first and second of Samuel of Kings of Chronicles and of Esdras by themselues seuerally which in the first accompt were numbred together two of euery of these being accompted but as one booke and dividing Ruth from the Iudges These onely did the auncient Church of the Iewes receiue as Divine and Canonicall That other bookes were added vnto these whose authority not being certain and knowne are named Apocryphall fell out on this sort The Iewes in their latter times before and at the comming of Christ were of two sorts some properly and for distinctions sake named Hebrewes commorant at Hierusalem and in the holy Land others named Helenists that is Iewes of the dispersion mingled with the Grecians These had written sundry bookes in Greeke which they made vse of together with other parts of the Old Testament which they had of the Translation of the Septuagint but the Hebrewes receiued onely the two and twenty bookes before mentioned Hence it came that the Iewes deliuered a double Canon of the Scripture to the Christian Churches the one pure indubitate and divine which is the Hebrew Canon the other in Greeke enriched with or rather adulterated by the addition of certain bookes written in those times when God raised vp no more Prophets among his people This volume thus mixed of diuers sorts of bookes the Christians receiued of the Iewes These bookes joyned in one volume were translated out of Greeke into Latine and read by them of the Latine Church in that Translation for there was no Catholique Christian that euer translated the Scriptures of the old Testament out of Hebrew into Latine before Hieromes time nor none after him till our age Hence it came that the Fathers of the Greeke Church hauing Origen and sundry other learned in the Hebrew tongue and making search into the antiquities and originals of the Iewes receiued as Canonicall onely the two and twenty bookes written in the Hebrew and did account all those books which were added in the Greeke to bee Apocryphall The Latines receiuing them both in one Translation and bound vp in one volume vsed sundry parts of the Apocryphall bookes in their prayers and readings together with the other and cited them in their writings yet did none of them make any Catalogue of Canonicall and Apocryphall bookes and number them amongst the Canonicall before the third Councell of Carthage wherein Augustine was present at which time also Innocentius liued which Fathers seeme to adde to the Canon diuers bookes which the Hebrewes receiue not Hierome translating the Scriptures out of the Hebrew and most exactly learning what was the Hebrew Canon rejected all besides the two and twenty Hebrew bookes as the Grecians did before
force his people to borrow the bookes of Scripture one from another Onely some doubt there is touching the Gospel of Mathew the Epistle to the Hebrewes which are supposed to haue been written in Hebrew and the Gospell of Marke written as some say in Latine That the Gospell of Mathew was written in Hebrew Hierome others affirme Guido Fabritius sayth it was written in Hebrew but in vulgar Hebrew which is the Syriacke that they of Hierusalem did speake which opinion others seeme to incline vnto the Gospell in Hebrew which some bring forth being of no credit The Epistle to the Hebrewes some say was written in Hebrew translated by Luke or Barnab as into Greeke The Syrians say the Gospell of Marke was first written in Latine that afterward hee translated both it and the whole New Testament beside into Syriacke which they say they haue preserued to this day This Syriacke Translation of the New Testament was not knowne in these parts of the world till our age as Fabritius Boderianus noteth who thereupon breaketh out into the praises of our times if the men of this generation either knew the happinesse thereof or how to vse it Howbeit that Marke was Authour of this Syriacke translation which the Syrians in this age haue deliuered vnto vs wee cannot perswade our selues because none of the Fathers that liued in Syria and Egypt as Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Eusebius Athanasius Theophilus Epiphanius Hierome Cyrill Theodoret and Damascen make any mention of it besides it is apparantly defectiue in diuerse things as the learned note So then the indubitate originals of these parts of the New Testament in Hebrew or Syriacke if they were written at first in these tongues being lost and the Church depriued of them the Greeke is holden to bee Originall in respect of all the bookes of the New Testament For that either they were all written in it or translated into it by the Apostles or Apostolike men CHAP. 26. Of the translations of the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke THus hauing deliuered in what tongues the Scriptures and bookes of God were written it remayneth that we enquire what the principall translations of them haue beene and whether the indubitate verity of them be in the originals or in the translations There was as some suppose a translation of the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke before the time of Alexander the great but the first that was in note and remayned long in esteeme in the world was that of the Septuagint in the time of Ptolomaeus Philadelphus Who intending to furnish a Librarie at Alexandria with all the choisest bookes the world would affoord amongst other places sent to Hierusalem to the rulers guides of the people there who sent vnto him the bookes of Moses and the Prophets written in Hebrewe in letters of gold Which hee not vnderstanding sent the second time for interpreters and they sent vnto him 72 in imitation of Moses who when hee went vp to the Mount to receiue the Law being commaunded to take with him 70 of the Elders of Israell added two to the number prescribed lest taking six out of some Tribes and but fiue out of other some dislike might haue grown amongst them These in 70 dayes translated the whole old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke For though Iosephus and the Iewes say they translated onely the bookes of Moses yet the consenting voyce of all the Fathers affirming that they translated the whole mooueth vs rather to thinke the whole was translated by them then onely the bookes of Moses vnlesse wee say with Iunius for the reconciling of this difference that onely the bookes of Moses were translated by the first 72. sent to Ptolomee and the rest afterwards by 72 also though not the same That which some report that they were shutte vp in severall celles which long after were to be seene at Alexandria Hierome rejecteth as a fable shewing that no such thing is reported by Aristaeus that was present at the businesse and that no remaynder of any such celles was to bee found at Alexandria but that they met in one place and conferring together euery day till the ninth houre in 70 dayes perfected the whole worke and Augustine leaueth it doubtfull This fable is vrged by some to proue that these translatours were guided by a propheticall spirite and so could not erre which false and absurd conceite Hierome condemneth likewise The second translation of the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke was that of Aquila in the time of Adrian the Emperour the 3. of Theodotion in the time of Commodus The fourth of Symachus in the time of Seuerus The fift without name of author was found in the City of Hiericho in the time of Antonius Caracalla The sixt in Nicopolis in the dayes of Alexander the son of Mammca The seaventh of Origen who translated not but corrected the translation of the Septuagint adding some things out of Theodotions translation which additions he noted with the marke of a shining starre detracting other thinges which he pearced through with a spitte The eight of Lucian the Martyr was not a translation but a correction only of such faults as were crept into the translation of the Septuagint This was found at Nicomedia in the time of Constantine Lucian being martyred long before in the dayes of Dioclesian the Emperour The ninth of Hesichius was likewise but a correction of such things as were amisse in the vulgar editions of the Septuagint It appeareth by Hierome in his preface before the bookes of Chronicles that they of Alexandria Egypt vsed that edition of the Septuagint which Hesichius corrected they of Constantinople that of Lucian the Martyr and they of the Prouinces and Countries lying betweene these that which Origen corrected The Greeke translation found to neede correction and corrected by these as it seemeth was called by the name of the common edition not as being a different translation from that of the Septuagint but as being that which was common in all mens hands and much altered and corrupted from the originall purity which these worthy men endeauoured to restore it to againe And was so named because there was another preserued in greater purity in that worthy worke of Origen that filled all the famous libraries in the world in those times in which first diuiding euery page into sixe columnes or pillars in the first he put the Hebrewe in the Hebrewe Characters in the second in Greeke in the third the interpretation of Aquila in the fourth of Symmachus in the fift of the Septuagint in the sixt of Theodotion and named the volumes thus disposed in respect of the foure translations Tetrapla a foure fould worke in respect of these translations and the Hebrewe in two kind of Characters placed in two seuerall pillars or Columnes Hexapla a
Whosoeuer is angry with his brother vnaduisedly shall be guilty of judgment but whosoeuer sayth Racha shall be guiltie of a Councell and he that saith Thou foole shall be worthy to be punished with Gehenna of fire or the fierie Gehenna Thereby shewing vs that one of these offences and faults is more grieuous and worthy of greater punishment then the other for the Councell or Sanedrim did handle weightier causes and might inflict more grieuous punishments theÌ„ the set Courts of Iustice in the gates of euery city So that this is it he meant to say He that is angry with his brother vnaduisedly shall be guilty of judgment that is of some lighter punishment and he that sayth Racha shall be subject to the councell that is punished more grieuously but he that sayth Thou foole shall be punished with all extremity answering in proportion to the cruell and mercilesse burning of of men in the valley of Hinnon or the fiery Gehenna S. Augustine in his first booke De Sermone Domini in monte doth somewhat otherwise but very excellently expresse the meaning of Christs words in this sort There are sayth he degrees of sinne in this kind mentioned by Christ itaque in primo vnum est id est ira sola in secundo duo ira vox quae iram significat in tertio tria ira vox quae iram significat in voce ipsa certae vituperationis expressio Vide nunc etiam tres reatus Iudicij Concilij Gehennae ignis Nam in Iudicio adhuc defensioni datur locus ad Concilium pertinet sententiae prolatio quando non jam cum reo agitur vtrum damnandus sit sed inter se qui iudicant conferunt quo supplicio damnari oporteat quem constat esse damnandum Gehenna vero ignis nec damnationem habet dubiaÌ„ sicut Iudicium nec damnati poenam sicut ConciliuÌ„ in Gehenná quippe ignis certa est daÌ„natio poena damnati That is In the first degree there is but one thing that is anger only In the 2d two anger a voyce expressing anger In the third three anger the voyce that giueth signification of it and in the voyce it selfe an expressing of some certaine reproach See now also three guilts of judgment of Councell and the Gehenna of fire For in Iudgment there is yet place left for defence to Councell pertaineth the pronouncing of the sentence when there is no more to bee done with the partie guilty nor no further doubt whether he be to be condemned or not but they that iudge take counsell and conferre amongst themselues to what punishment they shall condemne him of whose condemnation they are already resolued but in the Gehenna of fire there is neither doubtfulnesse of condemnation as in Iudgement nor of the punishment of the condemned as in Councell For there both the condemnation is certaine and the punishment also The Papists alledge the words of Christ for proofe of veniall sinnes because onely the last degree of vnaduised and causelesse anger is pronounced worthy to be punished with Gehenna of fire or hell fire Whence they thinke it may be concluded that other degrees of causelesse anger though sinfull yet do not subiect men to any punishment in hell and consequently are by nature veniall But if we vnderstand that Christ alluded to the different courts of justice amongst the Iewes their proceedings in the same and the diuersity of punishments which they inflicted more or lesse grieuous as Sigonius in his booke Derepub Hebraeorum and other excellently learned doe then by Gehenna of fire is not simply meant hell fire which is the generall punishment of damned sinners but the greatest extremity of punishment in hell expressed by comparison with the cruell torments which they indured that were consumed in fire in Gehenna or the valley of Hinnon farre more intollerable then were the punishments inflicted by the Iudgement or Councell to which the lighter and lesser punishments in hell due to lesser and lighter sinnes may be resembled And though wee vnderstand the words as Augustine doth yet is not their errour confirmed by this place for as he fitly noteth whereas to kill is more greeuous then to wrong by contumelious and railing speeches amongst the Pharisees onely killing was thought to make a man guilty of judgement But heere anger the least of all the sinnes mentioned by Christ is by him pronounced guilty of judgement and whereas amongst them the question of murther was brought before the iudgement seate of men here all things are left to the judgement of God where the end of the condemned and guilty is hell fire And for farther cleering of this point he addeth that if any man shall say that murther as more greiuous is to be punished more grieuously according to the rule of iustice then with hell fire if rayling speeches be punishable with hell fire hee will force vs to acknowledge diuerse hells or kindes and degrees of punishments in hell So farre was Augustine from imagining any such difference of sinnes whereof some should be worthy to be punished in hell and some not to be proued out of this place as our aduersaries would enforce and vrge CHAP. 10. Of the sâ—…t Courts amongst the Iewes their authority and continuance TOuching the Tribunals and iudgements that were in euery city God sayd vnto Moses Thou shalt appoint thee Iudges and Magistrates in all thy cityes and againe They shall goe vp to the Iudges that sit in the gates of the city But the Sanedrim or great Councell of State consisted of the King the twelue Princes of the people the seaventy Elders the high Priest the chiefe Priests and the Scribes And this Councell was first in Siloh afterwards at Hierusalem first in the tribe of Ephraim and after in the tribe of Iudah and after the rent of the tenne tribes none but the elders of Iudah and Beniamin and the Priests and Leuites entred into this Councell This Councell either the King or high Priest called according as the matter to bee heard touched Religion or the common-wealth But after the returne from Babylon the high Priest was alwayes chiefe and gouerned with the Elders and chiefe Priests For there were no more kings of Iudah after that time but the kings of Persia Aegypt and Syria had the command ouer Iudaea and made the Iewes pay tribute vnto them Of this Councell almighty God did speake when he said If there arise a matter too hard for thee in iudgement between bloud and bloud between plea plea betweene plague and plague in matters of controversie within thy gates then shalt thou arise goe vp to the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse and thou shalt come vnto the Priests of the Leuites vnto the Iudge that shall be in those dayes aske they shall shew thee the sentence of iudgment thou shalt doe according vnto that thing which they of
quicquid ego de vobis boni audio mihi imputo that is Whereas there were many Apostles yet in respect of the chiefty that Peter had as being Prince of the Apostles his Sea only grew to be in chiefe authority which in three places is yet the See but of one and the same Apostle For he exalted that Sea in which he pleased to rest and end this present life Hee beautified that Sea in which he placed Marke his Scholer and he firmly and strongly setled that Sea in which hee sate seauen yeares though with purpose in the end to leaue it When as therefore there is one See of one Apostle in which by diuine authority three sit as presidents whatsoeuer good I heare of you I impute it to my selfe And againe in the same place to Eulogius hauing spoken to him of the dignitie of Peters chaire in which he sate he saith He hath spoken to me of Peters chaire who himselfe sitteth on Peters chaire This is the opinion of these Romane Bishops touching the reason of the exaltation of the Seas of Rome Alexandria and Antioche aboue other Episcopall Seas who how partially soeuer they may be thought to be affected to the chaire of Peter yet herein do they mainly crosse the conceipt of the Romanists at this day in that they teach that other Bishops succeede Peter in the chaire and that chiefty and primacy he had as well as the Bishop of Rome The dignity of these 3 Apostolicall Churches was cōfirmed in the Nicene Councell and each of them confined within the ancient bounds and limits thereof Let the ancient custome say the Nicene Fathers continue in Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria may haue power ouer all these seeing the Bishop of Rome hath the like custome In like sort in Antioche and other prouinces let euery Church retaine and keepe her owne degree and honour Bellarmine much troubleth himselfe about this limitation and bounding of these Patriarches as preiudiciall to the illimited iurisdiction of the Romane Bishop and therefore though it be most cleare that there was a particular assignation of Churches to euery of these Patriarches yet hee seeketh to auoyd the euidence of these words For whereas Ruffinus sayth it was decreede by the Councell of Nice that the Bishop of Alexandria should haue care and charge ouer Aegypt as the Bishop of Rome hath of the Churches neere that city and Theodorus Balsamon in the explication of the Nicene canons with Nilus in his booke against the primacie interpreteth the words of the Nicene decree in this sense that the Bishoppe of Alexandria should haue the charge of Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis and the confirming of the Metropolitanes in those parts because the Bishop of Rome who hath a care of the West confirmeth the Metropolitanes of the West hee maketh this construction of the words of the councell Let the Bishop of Alexandria haue the charge of Aegypt seeing the Bishoppe of Rome was wont to permitte him soe to haue before any Councell had decreed it And soe hee sayth Nicolas the Pope in his Epistle to Michael the Emperour vnderstandeth the words which yet is most vntrue for Nicolas sayth no such thing but onely that the Councell maketh the custome of the Romane Church the patterne for others to follow But the eight generall Councell which no doubt vnderstood the words of the Nicene Fathers farre better then Bellarmine sheweth plainely that the meaning of the Nicene Canon was that the Bishop of Alexandria should haue power ouer Aegypt and the prouinces pertaining to it to confirme the Metropolitanes in the same seeing the like custome preuaileth in the Romane Church And this Councell confirmeth the same distinction of the bounds of iurisdiction within which euery Patriarch is to containe himselfe both for old Rome and new and for the other Churches of Alexandria and Antioche The Canons of the Nicene Councell translated out of the Arabian tongue and published by Turrian Pisanus and Binnius will fully cleare this point if our Aduersaries giue any credit vnto them For in the eighth of those Canons the decree about the meaning whereof wee contend is thus set downe Constitutum est vt Episcopus Aegypti id est Patriarcha Alexandrinus praesideat habeat potestatem totius Aegypti that is It is ordained that the Bishop of Aegypt that is the Patriarch of Alexandria shall sit as President and haue power ouer all Aegypt and ouer all places Citties and Townes which are round about it because soe it is fit and because likewise the Bishop of Rome that is the Successour of Peter the Apostle hath power ouer all the Citties and places which are about Rome And in like sort let the Bishop of ANTIOCH haue power ouer that whole prouince c. But because perhaps these Canons though published by themselues as rare secrets of Antiquity lately brought to light will be of litle credit with them I will adde one reason more which to me seemeth very forcible to confirme our interpretation of the words of the Nicene Fathers There was aunciently a great contention betweene the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople about the Churches of Bulgaria either of these Churches making claime thereunto and seeking to bring them within the compasse of their owne Iurisdiction which contention could not haue beene if the one of these two Churches had had an illimited extent of Iurisdiction But that neither of them had any such illimited Iurisdiction it is euident in that neither Constantinople nor Rome vrge any such thing for iustification of their claime but stand vpon their conuerting of the people of Bulgaria to the Christian faith and the planting of religion amongst them Which either of these pretending rather then other sought thereby to iustifie a title of iurisdiction and authority ouer them Wherefore resoluing that we haue the true meaning of the Nicene canon let vs returne thither whence we haue a litle digressed namely to the discourse of Patriarchical Churches and Bishops set in order and honour before all other These as I haue already shewed were at first but three to which afterwards two other were added First Constantinople and afterwards Hierusalem Touching the Church and Bishop of Constantinople after that city was by Constantine made the seate of the Empire and thereby as much or more honoured then any city in the world the Bishop thereof before little esteemed grew exceeding great and in the second Councell which was the first of Constantinople was made a Patriarch in degree of honour next the Bishop of Rome and before the other two And againe in the Councell of Chalcedon confirmed in the same And though Leo resisted against this act of the Councell of Chalcedon and peremptorily protested that he would not suffer the Church of Alexandria to loose the dignity of the second See and the Church of Antioch of the third and his successours many of them persisted in the
Emperours charges But there are many things that bewray it to be a mere counterfeit For first it hath a sencelesse title for it is named another Romane Councell vnder Syluester the first whereas no man can tell of any besides this Secondly it is fronted with a briefe Epilogue in steed of a Preface Thirdly there is scarce any sence to bee made of any one sentence throughout the whole Fourthly it is sayd to consist of 139 Bishops out of the citty of Rome or not farre from it and the rest out of Greece whereas all men know the citty of Rome had but one Bishop so that it was sencelesse to say there were in that Councell 139 Bishops out of the citty of Rome or not farre from it And besides all men see how silly a thing it was to muster so many names of Bishops without specifying the places whereof they were Bishops Fiftly whereas it is said to haue consisted of 284 Bishops out of the citty of Rome and places neere to it and out of Greece as if it had beene a generall Councell it is strange that the Histories reporting farre meaner Councels then this is supposed to haue beene should neuer make any mention of this nor the occasion of calling it Sixtly whereas the supposed Fathers of this Councel do condemne though in very sencelesse manner certaine vnknowne heretickes it is strange they should make no mention of the Arrians who were famous and at that time troubled all the East Seuenthly the end why these supposed Fathers met was ridiculous For thus it is expressed i Vt Ecclesiae regia non vatieinentur sed sit fiâ—…ma claudat ostium propter persecutorem Or as another Edition hath it Vt Ecclesia regia non vacilletur sed sit firma claudat ostium propter persecutorem For why should these good men forbid the kingly Churches to prophecie or why should they feare the shaking or tottering of them or shut the doore for feare of the persecutor after Constantine was become a Christian baptized by Syluester and in requitall of his kindnesse had giuen him all the Empire of the West Lastly whereas the manner of Councels was that the Bishops sate round in a compasse the Presbyters sate behind them and the Deacons stood before them the Councell of Carthage forbiddeth a Bishop to sit suffer a Presbyter to stand Hierome sheweth that euen in Rome the manner was that Presbyters did sit and Deacons stand here it is noted that none sate but Bishops These things being obserued touching the credit of this Councel let vs come to the Decrees of it by which the Pope would exempt himselfe from all iudgment of men whatsoeuer villanyes he should chance to commit Thus then the Decrees of this sacred Synode are passed in fauour of the Pope First it is decreed that no Presbyter à die onus Presbyterij latine fitter for Hog-heards then Bishops shall marry and that if he do hee shall loose his honour for 12. yeares Secondly it is ordered thus That if any one shall do against this present hand-writing hee shall be condemned for euer For let no man iudge the first See for neither shall the Iudge be iudged of Augustus nor of all the Clergy nor of Kings nor People These sencelesse Decrees of a fained ridiculous Synode our aduersaries such is their pouerty in this cause bring forth as good authorities for the Pope But I thinke the reader will not much be moued with them vnlesse it be to pitty those that liued before vs who were abused with such fooleries and shamelesse forgeries and to giue thankes to God that hath giuen vs meanes to descry the cozening deuices of Satans Agents Neither doth it any thing assure vs of the truth of this Councel that Pope Nicholas was coÌ„tent to make vse of it in his Epistle to Michael the Emperor of Constantinople seeing he citeth also in the same Epistle the Romane Synode vnder Sixtus the third in the cause of Polychronius Bishop of Hierusalem whereas yet not withstanding Binnius saith confidently that euery learned man wil pronounce the acts of it to be counterfeit if he attend the names of the Consuls in whose times it is supposed to haue bin holden the name of him that was accused and other things described in those supposed pretended acts To these they adde another authority as it may seeme of the same stamp out of the Councell of Rome vnder Sixtus the third which they endeuour to strengthen with certaine sayings out of a booke of one Euodius a Deacon admitted and allowed in the fifth Councell vnder Symmachus The Romane Councell vnder Sixtus was called to examine a very foule fact wherewith Sixtus was charged which was the abusing of one Chrysogonet a professed and consecrated virgin In this Councell Sixtus presented himselfe and professed that it was in his power choice either to submit himselfe to the iudgment of the Councell or to refuse it yet voluntarily referred his cause to be there heard whence our Auersaries suppose they may inferre that all the world may not iudge the Pope against his will The Barbarismes manifold senceles absurdities that are found in this Councell may iustly make us suspect it of forgery But admitting it to haue bin a lawfull Synode no such thing can be concluded out of it as our aduersaries dreame of For it was but a Diocesan Synode there was neuer a Bishop in it besides Sixtus whom they went about to iudge And therefore it was not to be maruailed at if Sixtus said it was in his power and choice whether hee would be iudged by the Presbyters Deacons of his owne Church or not seeing no Bishop be he neuer so meane may be judged by the Clergy of his own Church but by the Synode of the Bishops of the prouince and therefore I greatly feare they wil hardly draw a good argument froÌ„ hence to proue that the Pope may not at all be iudged For I think it will not follow Maximus the exconsul said it was not lawful for those Lay-men inferiour Clergy-men theÌ„ assembled to giue sentence against the B of Rome the B himselfe protested that he might chuse whether he would be judged by them or not therefore the whole Christian world may not judge the Pope Wherefore let vs come to the sayings of Euodius see whether they confirme the Romish conceipt any better The occasioÌ„ of the writing of this booke of Euodius was this Symmachus the Bishop of Rome being charged with certaine grieuous crimes was to bee judged in a Synode called by Theodoricus the King not without his own coÌ„sent To this Councel he was willing to come and to submit him selfe to the judgement of it onely hee desired restitution of such things as had beene taken from him till he were convicted which he could not obtaine and yet presented himselfe in the Synode But such was the
fury and violence of his enemies pressing in vpon him that he was in very great danger of his life and therefore after the first time would come no more to the place where the Bishops sate Whereupon they not knowing what to doe for it was not fit to judge him being absent there was no reason to proceed against him as contumacious in refusing to come vnto them seeing his refusall seemed to proceed from just feare of danger vtterly refused disclaimed the trying of his cause and the judging of it moued not a little so to doe because great multitudes of the people communicated with him and they had no president of such proceedings against former Bishops The King somewhat offended herewith tolde them that if they did not discusse the cause they would giue an ill example to all Bishops to liue wickedly and at their pleasure in hope of impunity and yet left the matter wholly to them who did nothing in it but onely perswaded to vnity Heereupon there grew some distraction among the Cleargy and people of Rome and some thought the Bishops had done ill in leauing the matter vnexamined Vpon which occasion one Euodius a Deacon writeth a booke in defence of their proceedings which they approue in their fifth Synode or meeting wherein among other things hee hath these wordes Lex probitatis mentis est quae hominem viventem sine lege castigat propriè moribus impendit qui necessitati non debet disciplinam Aliorum fortè hominum causas Deus voluit homines terminare sed sedis istius Praesulis suo sine quaestione reservavit arbitrio Voluit beati Petri Apostoli successores coelo tantùm debere innocentiam sublimissimi discussoris indagini iuviolatam exhibere conscientiam That is The Law of vertue and of the minde keepeth them in awe who liue without any other law Hee that is not otherwise inforced to liue well will liue orderly for the loue of order and good life Haply God would haue the causes of other men ended by men but the causes of the Bishop of this See he reserued no doubt to his owne judgment and his pleasure was that the successours of blessed Peter should be accountable for their good or ill liuing to Heauen only and present and exhibite their consciences kept inviolable to the examination of the most exquisite examiner For answer to this allegation wee say that neither the credite of Euodius is so great that vpon his bare word wee should bee bound to beleeue him nor the authoritie of these Fathers such that whatsoeuer they approue and allow must bee holden for good Notwithstanding admitting these sayings to bee true their owne Canonists and Diuines in their Glosses doe limite and restrain them with certaine exceptions For first they say the case of heresie must bee excepted there being no question but that the Pope may bee judged and condemned by men if he become an hereticke Secondly the case of Penitentiall confession wherein he yeeldeth himself as in duty bound so to do to be judged directed and commanded for his soules good by him to whom hee is pleased to reueale the estate of the same Thirdly the case of voluntary submission It is in my power saith Pope Sixtus to bee judged or not but let matters bee examined and the trueth found out And in like sort Symmachus submitted himselfe to bee judged by the Councell of Bishops Fourthly the case of incorrigible wickednesse when the Church is grieuously scandalized by the notorious ill life and wickednesse of the Pope and hee is found incorrigible in the same This case the Glosse excepteth warranted so to doe by the very light of naturall reason which teacheth vs that when any member of the Body after the cutting off whereof the body may liue and continue infecteth and endangereth the rest and is incurable it may and ought to bee cut off Now though the Pope should in a sort be acknowledged to haue the proportion of the head in the body of the church yet is he herein vnlike vnto a natural head for that the body of the church dieth not when he is taken away from it therefore to stop the deadly infectiō of his impiety and outragious wickednesse from spreading it selfe any further he may bee cut off So that this is the onely difference betweene the Pope and other Bishops that other may be judged though they be not incorrigible but he is not to bee iudged of any other without his owne consent and concurrence when he may be induced to reforme and correct what is amisse as being the chiefe of that company that is to judge of ill doers but if he be incorrigible hee may be proceeded against euen against his will as wee see by the example of Iohn the twelfth who being prodigiously wicked and after many and most earnest admonitions intreaties and perswasions of the Emperour and others refusing any way to reforme himselfe the Emperour called a Councell and deposed him and chose another to succeede him that this deposition was lawfull and good it is euident in that the succeeding Pope was holden to be a true and lawfull Pope while hee yet liued But concerning Gregory the Pope Henry the third did rather perswade him to yeeld and to relinquish his place then depose him because he found him tractable Two other authorities our Aduersaries haue yet behind to proue that the Pope may not be iudged The first is out of the Councell of Chalcedon where the Fathers among many other reasons alledged why they condemned Dioscorus vrge this also as one that hee was so farre from repenting of his manifold euill doings that he railed against the Apostolicke See sought to excommunicate blessed Leo and persisting in his wickednes was wilfull against the whole Councell refused to answer to such things as hee was charged with How it will be inferred from hence that the Pope may not be iudged by a generall Councell I see not For though it bee true that the inferiours may not iudge the greater and superiour and that therefore Iohn of Antioch was condemned for iudging Cyril of Alexandria and Dioscorus for iudging Leo yet it is no way consequent that either Cyril or Leo were free from all iudgement or that they might not be iudged by a generall Councell whatsoeuer they should doe The other authority is out of the Romane Councell vnder Adrian the second whose words recited in the eigth generall Councel are these We reade that the Romane Bishops haue iudged the Bishops of all Churches but that any one hath iudged them we doe not reade For the better vnderstanding and clearing whereof we must obserue first that the person of the Bishop of Rome alone is not meant when he is said to haue iudged the Bishops of all Churches but he must be vnderstood to haue iudged them with his Synode and the Bishops subiect to him as Patriarch of the West For otherwise he
interpreteth the words of Almighty God in this sort Constitui te super Gentes super regna vt euellas id est euellendo denuncies transferendos inde habitatores destruas quantum ad occidendos disperdas quantum ad fugientes per diuersas vias dissipes quantum ad morientes in fuga vel captiuitate aedifices plantes id est denuncies Iudaeos reaedificandos plantandos in terrasua c. that is I haue set thee ouer nations and kingdomes that thou mightest plucke vp that is that thou mightest denounce and foreshew that the inhabitants being plucked vp out of their places shall bee carried into another place that thou mayst destroy that is denounce the destruction of such as shall be slaine That thou maist scatter that is denounce and foreshew the dispersion of such as shall flie diuers wayes That thou maist ouerthrow that is declare and foreshew the ouerthrow of them that shall die in flight or in captiuitie That thou maist build and plant that is foreshew that the Iewes shall be builded and planted againe in their owne land which was fulfilled in the time of Cyrus who gaue liberty to the people to returne into their owne countrey and to reëdifie the temple and in the time of Artaxerxes who gaue leaue to Nehemiah to reëdifie the citie of Hierusalem as we may reade in the bookes of Ezra and Nehemiah The authour of the interlineall Glosse interpreteth the words in this sence that the Prophet was appointed by almighty God ouer kingdomes and people to plucke vp vices and sinnes to destroy the kingdome of the Divell and to build the Church of God Saint Hierome likewise interpreteth the words in the same sort Considerandum est saith he quòd quatuor tristibus duo laeta succedunt Neque enim aedificari poterant bona nisi destructa essent mala nec plantari optima nisi eradicarentur pessima c. that is Wee must consider that two joyfull happy things succeed foure grievous and sorrowfull thinges For neither could good things be builded if euill things were not first destroyed nor the best things bee planted if the worst things were not first pluckt vp by the rootes For euery plant which our heauenly Father hath not planted shall be plucked vp by the rootes And euery building which hath not a foundation vpon the Rocke but is builded vpon the sand is digged downe and destroyed by the word of God and Iesus shall consume it by the spirite of his mouth and destroy it by the comming of his presence that is hee shall destroy for euer all sacrilegious and peruerse doctrine and that also which is lifted vp against the knowledge of God and the confidence that men haue in their owne wisedome he shall-scatter destroy and cast downe that in steed of these things the things that sauour of humilitie may be builded and the thinges which agree with Ecclesiasticall veritie may be builded and planted in the place of the former thinges which were destroyed and pluckt vp Here is pulling vp of all false doctrine and throwing downe whatsoeuer is lifted vp against the knowledge of God that those things that sauour of humilitie and are agreeable to Ecclesiasticall verity may be builded and planted And thus to plucke vp and to plant to cast downe and to build vp pertayneth to Hieremies office and calling but for deposing of Kings and transferring kingdomes no auncient writeâ—… could euer finde any thing in this place The third example that they produce is that of Vzziah who after much prosperitie in all that hee tooke in hand and many glorious victories obtayned not contenting himselfe with the honour of a King but presuming to come into the Temple to offer incense and intruding vpon the Priests office also was by them resisted told it would be displeasing to allmighty God that he did But he waxing angry would not desist till beeing stricken with leprosie and the verie earth trembling and quaking for horrour of so vile a fact hee was by the Priests and the remorse of his own conscience forced to goe hastily out of the Temple This leprosie departed not from him till his dying day and therefore hee was by vertue of Gods lawe constrained to departe from the society of men and to dwell apart and Iotham his sonne ruled ouer the kings house and iudged the people of the land How this place will proue that the deposing of Kings belongeth to Priests I knowe not for surely Vzziah was not deposed but being forced to liue in an house apart by himselfe and in that respect vnfitte for the gouernment his sonne supplied his place in iudging the people of the land but hee continued king still and if hee had beene cleansed from his leprosie before his death no doubt might and would haue resumed his kingly dignitie and the publique administration of iustice Wherevpon wee shall finde that Iotham is said to haue reigned no more but 16 yeares because after his fathers death in his owne right he reigned no more Though otherwise wee finde mention of things that fell out in the 20 yeare of his reigne So including the time of his ruling for his father in his right So that here was nothing done by the Priests but that which pertained to their priestly office which was to keepe the holy places attend the Altars to iudge of the plague of leprosie But for deposing the King they medled not The fourth example is of Iehoiada the high Priest deposing Athaliah and setting vp Ioash as they tell vs. The storie is this Iehosaphat dieth and Iehoram his sonne succeedeth him This Iehoram marrieth Athaliah the daughter of Ahab the sonne of Omri and hee walked not in the wayes of Iehosaphat and Asa kings of Iudah but of wicked Ahab whose daughter hee married Whereupon God stirred vp the spirite of the Philistines and Arabians and they came and tooke away all the substance that was found in his house and his wiues and sons so that none was left him but Iehoahaz or Ahaziah his youngest sonne After this Iehoram dieth and Ahaziah reigneth in his stead who followed the counsell of Athaliah and did wickedly in the sight of the Lord. This Ahaziah going to Iehoram the sonne of Ahab and being found with him when Iehu came to execute iudgement against the house of Ahab was there slaine by Iehu After his death Athaliah his mother destroyed all the Kings seede of the house of Iudah and vsurped the kingdome But Iehoshebeath the wife of Iehoiada the Priest sister to Ahaziah stale away Ioash the Kings sonne from among the Kings sonnes that hee should not be slaine and hee was hid in the house of God sixe yeares all which time Athaliah reigned But in the seauenth yeare Iohoiada waxed bold tooke the Captaines of hundreds in couenant with him and went about in Iudah and gathered the Leuites out of all the cities of Iudah and the
many of the Princes of Germany and first of all the Saxons formerly averse frō him withdrew their subiectiō pretending that they might justly cast off the yoake and refuse to obey him any longer seeing hauing beene called to giue satisfaction to two Popes concerning certaine crimes obiected to him he had refused to appeare and was thereupon excommunicated These rebellions and defections so affrighted the Nobles and Princes of the Empire that still remained well affected to the Emperour that for the staying of present confusiōs preventing of other they thought good that the Pope should be intreated to come into Germany and that then the Emperour should submit himselfe vnto him aske forgiuenesse which thing accordingly was effected for the Pope was perswaded consented to come into Germany was cōming towards Augusta as farre as Versella But when hee came thither pretēding feare that the Emperor meant not wel towards him he brake off his journy went to Canossū there staied Which the Emperor hearing of doubting what might be the cause of his stay hastned thither putting off all Royall robes on his bare feet came to the gates of the town hūbly beseeching that he might be let in but was staied without 3 daies though it were extreme colde winter weather which hee endured patiently continually intreating till in the end hee was let in and absolued but yet conditionally that being called he should appeare in an assembly of Princes Bishoppes to answere such crimes as were obiected to him and either to purge himselfe and so retaine his kingdome or otherwise failing so to doe to lose it This his submission afterwards he made knowne to the Italians who vnderstanding what hee had done were exceedingly enraged against him derided the Legates of the Pope contemned his curses as being deposed by all the Bishops of Italy for iust causes as namely for simony murther adultery and other most horrible and capitall crimes and told him that he had done a most intollerable thing in submitting himselfe his kingly Maiestie to an hereticke and most infamous person Yea they proceeded so farre that they told him because he had so done they were resolued to make his son Emperour in his steede and to go to Rome and chuse a new Pope by whom he might be consecrated and all the proceedings of this false Pope voided But the Emperour excusing himselfe for that which hee had done as driuen by necessity so to doe and promising to revenge these wrongs when opportunity should bee offered pacifyed them in such sort that they began to incline to him againe Yet were not his euils at an end hereby For his enemies among the Germanes presently tooke the opportunity of this his relapse and calling an assembly with the Legates of the Pope chose a new Emperour Rodolphe Duke of Sueuia to whō the Pope sent an imperiall crown hauing this inscription Petra dedit Petro Petrus diadema Rodolpho Which when he heard of hee called a Councell of the Bishoppes of Italy and Germany and charging Hildebrand the Pope with most horrible crimes of heresie necromancy periury murther and the like deposed him chose Guibertus Bishoppe of Rauenna in his place and gathering together a great and mighty army went against Rodolphe abiding in Saxony where a most terrible and bloudy battell was fought betweene them in which battell Rodolphe was wounded and going aside from his companions with many other likewise wounded was carried to Mersberge where he died who a litle before his death beholding his right hand cut off in that battell fetching a deepe sigh said to the Bishops which by chance were present Behold this is the hand with which by solemne vow and oath I obliged my faith and feaulty to Henry my Lord. Behold now I leaue his kingdome and this present life see you that made mee climbe vp into his throne what you haue done would to God you had led me the right way whom you found so willing to follow your aduice and counsell and to be directed by you Yet did neither the ill successe of the former attempt nor the speeches of Rodolphe at his death blaming those that had set him a worke and condemning himselfe for that which he had done discourage the ill affected from proceeding on in their rebellious practises For they set vp Hermannus Prince of Lorrayne in steed of Rodolphe and proclaimed him Emperour whom the Emperour Henry slew likewise as he had done the other rested not till hee made Pope Hildebrand leaue Rome and flie to Salernum and brought the new Pope named Clement to be inthronized and himselfe crowned by him in Rome The acts of Hildebrand saith Nauclerus were such that the writers bee very doubtfull whether the things that were done by him were done out of any loue of vertue or any zeale hee bare to the faith or not They that loued him best disliked his stiffenes as Auentinus witnesseth Otho Frisingensis noteth that his disposition was such that for the most part he euer liked that which others disliked So that of Lucane might bee verified of him Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni that is The prevailing part and cause best pleased God but that which fell and had the ouerthrow had Catoes wishes And though he commend his zeale yet in his prologue of his 7. booke he taxeth him and others like vnto him in very bitter sort His words are these Videntur tamen culpandi Sacerdotes per omnia qui regnum suo gladio quem ipsi ex regum habent gratia ferire conantur Nisi fortè Dauid imitari cogitant qui Philistaeum primò virtute Dei strauit postmodùm proprio gladio iugulauit that is Notwithstanding whatsoeuer may be said the Priests seeme altogether blameable and worthy of reproofe reprehension which goe about to strike Kings and princes with that their sword which they haue by the grace and fauour of Princes vnlesse haply they doe thinke it lawfull for them to imitate Dauid who first ouerthrew and cast to the ground the proude Philistine by the power of God and afterwards slew him with his ownesword Of this Hildebrand Sigebert saith he found it thus written Wee will haue you know you that manage the Ecclesiasticall affaires and to whom the care of the Church is committed that the Lord Pope Hildebrand who also was called Gregory being in extremis drawing neare his end called vnto him one of the 12 Cardinalls whom hee loued dearely and more then any of the rest and in his hearing confessed to God to holy Peter and to the whole Church that he had sinned exceedingly and grieuously offended in the Pastorall charge committed to him and in governing the people of whom he had vndertaken the care and that by the perswasion and instigation of the Diuell he had stirred vp hatred and wrath against mankind then commanded the forenamed Confessor to make haste to goe to the Emperour
this immunity And Sixtus Senensis saith that Hierome speaketh not of that tribute which subiects pay to their Princes here in this world but of that which we all owe to CHRIST so that this is that he saith why doe not we wretched men professing our selues to be the servants of Christ yeeld vnto his Maiesty the due tribute of our seruice seeing Christ so great and excellent payde tribute for our sakes S. Austine in his first book of Questions vpon the Gospels saith that Kings sons in this world are free that therefore much more the sonnes of that Kingdome vnder which all kingdomes of the World are should bee free in each earthly Kingdome which words Thomas and Sixtus Senensis vnderstand of a freedome from the bondage of sin but Iansenius rejecteth that interpretation because Austine saith the children of Kings are free from tribute and thinketh that Austines meaning is that if God the King of Heauen Earth had many naturall sonnes as hee hath but one only begotten they should all be free in all the Kingdomes of the world and other apply these words to cleargy-men though there bee nothing in the place leading to any such interpretation But whatsoeuer we thinke of the meaning of Austine Bellarmine saith it cannot bee inferred from these his wordes that cleargy-men by Gods Law are free from the duty of paying tribute because as Chrysostome noteth Christ speaketh only of naturall children and besides prescribeth nothing but onely sheweth that vsually among men Kings sonnes are free from tribute and therefore whereas the authority of Bonifacius the Eighth who affirmeth that the goods persons of Cleargy-men are free from exactions both by the law of God and man is brought to proue the contrary Hee answereth first that haply the Pope meant not that they are absolutely freed by any speciall graunt frō God but only that there is an example of Pharaoh an Heathen Prince freeing the Priests of his Gods mentioned in Scripture which may induce Christian Kings to free the Pastours of Christs Church Secondly that it was but the priuate opinion of the Pope inclining to the iudgment of the Canonistes and that he did not define any such thing So that men may lawfully dissent from him in this point So that we see by the testimonies of Scripture and Fathers and the confession of the best learned among our aduersaries themselues that Almighty God did not by any special exemption free either the goods or persons of Cleargy-men from the command of Princes and that in the beginning they were subiect to all seruices iudgements payments burdens that any other are subiect to and required by Christ the Sonne of God and his blessed Apostles to be so But some man happily will say that though Christ did not specially free eyther the goods or persons of Cleargy-men from the subiection to Princes yet there are inducements in reason and in the very light of nature such and so great to moue Princes to set them free that they should not do well if they did not so Whereunto wee answere that there is no question to be made but that the Pastors of the Church that watch ouer the soules of men are to bee respected and tendered more then men of any other calling and so they are and euer were where any sence of religion is or was The Apostle Saint Paul testifieth of the Galathians that they receiued him as an Angell of God yea as Christ Iesus himselfe that they would haue euen plucked out their eyes to haue done him good The Emperour Constantine honoured the Christian Bishops with the name and title of Gods acknowledged himselfe subject to their iudgment though he swayed the scepter of the World and refused to see what the complaintes were that they preferred one against another or to read their bils but professed that to couer their faults he would euen cast frō him his purple Robe Whence it came that many priuiledges were anciently graunted vnto them both in respect of their persons goods For first Constantine the Great not onely gaue ample gifts to the Pastors of the Churches but exempted them also from those seruices ministeries and imployments that other men are subiect to His Epistle to Anelinus the Proconsul of Africa wherein this graunt was made to them of Affrica is found in Eusebius Neyther is it to be doubted but that he extended his fauours to the Bishops of other Churches also aswell as to them The words of the Grant are these Considering that the due obseruation of things pertaining to true religion and the worshippe of God bringeth great happinesse to the whole state of the Common-wealth and Empire of Rome For the incouragement of such as attend the holy Ministery and are named Cleargy-men my pleasure is that all such in the Church wherein Caecilianus is Bishop be at once and altogether absolutely freed and exempted from all publicke Ministeries and Seruices Neither did the Emperors only exempt them from these seruices but they freed them also frō secular iudgements vnles it were in certaine kindes of criminall causes Wherein yet a Bishop was not to be cōuēted against his wil before any secular Magistrate without the Emperors cōmand Neyther might the temporall Magistrates condemne any Cleargy-man till hee were degraded by his Bishoppe howsoeuer they might imprison and restraine such vpon complaints made And answerably hereunto the Councell of Matiscon prouideth that no Cleargy-man for any cause without the discussion of his Bishop shall bee wronged imprisoned by any Secular Magistrate that if any Iudge shal presume to doe soe to the Cleargy-men of any Bishoppe vnlesse it be in a criminall cause hee shall bee excommunicated as long as the Bishoppe shall thinke fitte This was all the immunity that Cleargy-men anciently had by any grant of Princes and as much as euer the Church desired to enjoy but that which in latter times was challenged by some and in defence of the claime whereof Thomas Becket resisted the King till his bloud was shedde was of another kinde For whereas it was not thought fitte by the King and State of the Realme at that time that Church-men found in enormous crimes by the kings Iustices should be deliuered ouer to their Bishoppes and so escape ciuill punishment but that confessing such crimes or being clearely conuinced of them before the Bishoppe the Bishoppe should in presence of the Kings Iustices degrade them and put them from all Ecclesiasticall honour and deliuer them to the Kings Court to be punished Becket was of a contrary minde and thought that such as Bishoppes degraded or putte out of their Ministery of the Church should not bee punished by the ciuill Magistrates because as hee sayd one offence was not to be punished twice The occasion of this controuersie betweene the King and the Arch-bishoppe was giuen by one Philip Brocke a Canon of Bedford Who beeing brought before
quondam oblata turned out of French into Latine by Duarenus and added to his booke De sacris Ecclesiae Ministeriis that there being a great number of goodly Churches founded by the Kings of France when the Bishops of Rome began to prejudice the liberties of them the King the Nobles the Princes of the bloud the Cleargy and commons assembled to resist the vexations oppressions wrongs of the Court of Rome made many good Constitutions for the repressing of such insolencies So Lewys when first the Pope began to meddle in the yeare one thousand two hundred sixty seauē decreed that Preslacies Dignities electiue should be giuen by election and such as are not electiue by collation and presentation of Patrons and that the Court of Rome should extort no money for any such thing out of the Kingdome of France And when notwithstanding this Decree in processe of time the Court of Rome attempted divers things contrary to the liberty of the church of France Charles the Sixth with the advise of his Nobles Prelates Abbottes Colledges Vniversities and other partes of his Kingdome in the yeare one thousand foure hundred and sixe made a Constitution whereby hee restored the church to her auncient liberty and this Decree was published in the yeare one thousand foure hundred and seauen in which yeare Benedict the Pope and his Ministers hauing imposed and exacted great summes of money a new complaint was made to the King and thereupon a Decree made that nothing should bee payde out of France in the nature of Annates or Tenthes and that such as had beene excommunicated for refusall of them should bee absolued againe In the yeare one thousand foure hundred and eighteene a Constitution was made whereby all Reservations and Apostolicall graces as they call them together with all exactions of the court of Rome were forbidden And when as the Romanes contemning all Constitutions ceased not to trouble and confound the Hierarchy of the Church and scattered abroad euery where throughout the World their Reservations and expectatiue graces whence followed great and horrible deformities in the church at last a Generall Councell was assembled for the Reformation of the church in the Head and members which prohibited these Reseruations and expectatiue Graces restored the canons touching Elections and Collations and subjected all that should contumaciously resist yea though the Pope him-selfe to due punishment The Decrees of this councell Charles the Seauenth confirmed with the consent of all Estates of his Kingdome and this his Decree of Confirmation was called the Pragmaticall Sanction But the Popes neuer rested till they had if not wholly ouerthrowne it yet greatly weakened it The attemptes of Pius the Second who beeing a private man in the Councell of Basil set it forward what hee could are not vnknowne as also of Sixtus the Fourth Innocentius the Eighth Alexander the Sixth Iulius the Second and Leo the Tenth who published a Constitution whereby the Pragmaticall Sanction was much weakened though not wholly taken away and those his new Decrees were called Conventa that is agreements betweene the King and him From these Decrees the Vniversity of Paris appealed to a Generall councell And thus wee see how well the Popes fulfill the commaundement of Christ in feeding his Sheepe that labour so mainely the ouer-throw of those canons which being taken away the whole Ecclesiasticall Order is confounded whole countries are made desolate and forsaken Kingdomes are robbed of their money and treasure churches are ruinated and subverted For so did all good men out of wofull experience complaine in former times Wherefore passing by these intrusions vsurpations and tyrannicall inter-meddling of Popes with things not pertayning to them it is evident by that which hath beene saide that the Election of fit Ministers to teach the people of God pertaineth to the cleargy and people by the reasons and grounds of humane societies vnlesse by their owne consent forfeiture restraint of superiour authority cōmaunding ouer them or speciall reasons prevailing more then those generall grounds of humane fellowship it be taken from them As in case of founding churches and endowing them with lands the Patrons haue the right of presenting in cases of intollerable abuses negligences or insolencies the Prince as Head of the people assumeth to himselfe the nomination of such as are to serue in the holy Ministery of the church Some there are that thinke the right of the people in choosing their Pastours and Ministers to bee such as that it may not bee limited restrayned or taken away vpon any consideration what-soeuer and that therefore there is no lawfull Election of Ecclesiastical Ministers vnlesse the people chuse But the errour of these men is easily refuted For seeing the Scripture Word of GOD giueth no such power to the people and all the interest they haue or canne claime is but from the ground of humane fellowship subject to many limitations alterations and restraintes there is no reason to thinke that necessarily the people must euer elect their Pastors In the reformed Churches of France Geneua the people giue no voyces in the election of Ministers but are onely permitted if they haue any causes of dislike or exception to make them knowne to the Pastours and guides of the Church and the power of iudging of such exceptions resteth wholy in them In so much that when one Morellius a fantasticall companion sought to bring the elections of Bishoppes and Ministers to bee Popular and swayed by the most voyces of the people hee was condemned by all the Synodes in France as Beza sheweth in his Epistles That there is no precept in the whole new Testament forcing popular elections it is euident And the onely example that is brought of any such thing is that of the seauen Deacons but first there was some speciall reason why the peoples consent was sought in the election of these Deacons beeing to bee trusted with the treasure of the Church and the disposing of the contributions of the faithfull and secondly from one example a generall rule may not bee gathered Seeing the circumstances of things times persons admit infinite varieties some alleadge that place in the Acts for proofe of popular elections where the Apostles are said to haue appointed Elders or Presbyters by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth that kind of election that is made by the more part of the voyces of the Electors expressing their consent by lifting vp of their handes as sometimes men shew their consent by going to one side of the place or roome where they are whence they are sayd Pedibus ire insententiam But surely these places are vnaduisedly alledged for proofe of popular elections For first the Apostles onely are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently the election pertayned to them onely and they onely elected for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to elect and not to gather voyces Secondly though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
or consent to them that so doe the care of the church is devolued to the Presbyters remaining Catholicke and as in the case of necessity they may doe all other things regularly reserued to Bishops only as Ambrose sheweth that the Presbyters of Egypt were permitted in some cases to confirme the baptized which thing also Gregory after him durst not condemne So in case of Generall defect of the Bishops of a whole countrey refusing to ordaine any but such as shall consent to their Heresies when there appeareth no hope of remedy or helpe from other parts of the Church the Presbyters may chuse out one among themselues to be chiefe and so adde other to their numbers by the imposition of his and their hands This I haue proued in my third booke out of the authorities of Armachanus and sundry other of whom Alexander of Hales speaketh To which wee may adde that which Durandus hath where he saith That Hierome seemeth to haue beene of opinion that the highest power of consecration or order is the power of a Priest or Elder So that euery Priest in respect of his Priestly power may minister all Sacraments confirme the baptized and giue all Orders howsoeuer for the avoydiug of the perill of Schisme it was ordained that one should bee chosen to haue a preheminence aboue the rest who was named a Bishop and to whom it was peculiarly reserued to giue Orders and to doe some such other things And afterwards he saith that Hierome is clearely of this opinion Neither can the Romanists deny this justifie their owne practise For their Chorepiscopi or Titular Bishops are no Bishops as I haue proued at large out of Damasus not disputing or giuing his private opiniō but resoluing the point and prescribing to other what they must beleeue practise yet doe they of the Church of Rome permit these to ordaine not onely Sub-deacons and other inferiour Cleargy-men but Priests and Deacons also and holde their Ordinations to be good and of force If any man haply say that 〈◊〉 Bishop when he is old and weake or otherwise imployed may haue a Coadiutor and consequently that it is no such absurdity to admit these Suffragan and Titular Bishops and that therefore they may haue power to ordaine as being truely Bishops and yet Presbyters in no case bee permitted so to doe for answer herevnto let him reade what I haue written in the 29. chapter of this booke concerning this matter CHAP. 57. Of the things required in such as are to be ordained Ministers and of the lawfulnesse of their Marriage FRom the election and ordination of Ministers we are to proceede to the things required in them that are to be chosen and ordayned If any man saith the Apostle desire the office of a Bishop he desireth a worthy worke A Bishop therefore must be vnreproueable the husband of one wife watching sober modest harberous apt to teach not giuen to wine no striker not giuen to filthy lucre but gentle no fighter not couetous no young scholler but well reported of euen of those that are without The canons of the church require the same things and adde some other as that no man may be chosen and ordained a Minister of the Word and Sacraments till he be thirty yeares of age nor none that was baptized in his bed and the like The Papists proceed further and not contenting themselues with the moderation of the Apostle and the Primitiue Fathers admit none into the holy Ministery but those that are vnmarried or being married promise to liue frō their wiues yet not so neither if either they haue beene twice married or if they married with a widow Wherefore letting passe the things the Apostle prescribeth and those other which the Canons adde of which there is no question let vs come to the marriage of them that are to bee admitted into the holy Ministery of the Church It is clearely confessed by the best learned in the Romane Church that Bishops Presbyters and other Cleargy-men are not forbidden to marry or being married before they enter into the Ministery to continue in matrimoniall society with their wiues by any law of God and therefore there is little feare of offending against God eyther by admitting such into the Ministery as will not liue single or by entring into it with purpose of marriage Non est essentialiter annexum debitum continentiae ordini sacro sayth Aquinas sed ex statuto Ecclesiae vnde uidetur quod per Ecclesiam possit dispensari in voto continentiae solemnizato per susceptionem sacri ordinis that is It is not essentially annexed vnto holy order that men should containe and liue single that enter into the Ministry but by the Decree of the Church onely So that it seemeth that the Church may dispence in the vow of continency though made solemne by taking holy orders And in another place hee sayth that it is from the Churches constitution that they who are entred into the holy orders of the Church may not marry which yet is not the same among the Graecians that it is among the Latines For the Graecians make no vow and do liue with their wiues that they married before they entred into orders of the same opinion is Bonauentura who acknowledgeth that in the Primitiue Church it was otherwise touching this matter then now it is in the Church of Rome and endeauoureth to giue reasons of the difference Scotus and Occam are of the same iudgement and all the rest of the Schoole men of note agree with them And Caietane a great learned Diuine and a Cardinall in our time pronounceth confidently that it cannot be proued either by reason or authority setting aside the Lawes that are positiue and vowes which men make to the contrary that a Priest doth sinne in contracting marriage And that therefore the Pope with good conscience may dispense with such a one and giue him leaue to marry though there be no inducement of publike profit or benefit leading him so to do And addeth that reason seemeth to bee strong on the contrary side for the lawfulnesse of such dispensation because as it appeareth by Peter Lombard in the fourth of the Sentences neyther Order in that it is Order nor holy Order in that it is holy crosseth or hindereth marriage And as it is in the Decrees Deacons in auncient times might marry euen in the West Church and as it is in the same Decrees they of the East Church are ioyned in marriage euen after they are entered into holy Orders Neither is that glosse to bee admitted which expoundeth their coupling or ioyning in marriage of the liuing in marriage formerly contracted Seeing the whole course coherence of the Text speaketh of the Contract of Marriage as by the opposition of the practise of the West Church the Priests whereof are saide not to marry it may bee confirmed These are the wordes of
Epaunine Councell agreeth and the second Councell of Bracar saying If any widdow of a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon take an husband let no Cleargy-man nor no religious woman banquet with them neither let her euer communicate onely at the time of her death let the Sacraments of the Church bee administred vnto her Likewise the Councel of Antisiodorum decreeth to the same effect Neither can it be answered that these Councels forbid the widdows of Presbyters Deacōs Subdeacons to marry because during the life of their husbands vpon some voluntary parting they bound themselues by promise to liue continently For the Councell of Matiscon decreeth that if the wiues of Subdeacons Exorcistes or Acoluthes shall after their death ioyne themselues in marriage the second time they shall bee separated and thrust into the houses of Nunnes And yet these might lawfully liue with their husbands euen in the judgement of them that made this decree Neither were they any way induced necessarily to promise to containe Thus hauing seene where when and by whom the forbidding of the lawfull marriage of Presbyters entred into the Church in what sort it was vrged at the first how afterwards what contradiction it found how farre forth in the end it preuailed it remaineth that wee proceed to see what good followed vpon it Where first Aventinus telleth vs that after the restraint of Hildebrand vnder the honest name of Chastity the greatest part euery where without checke of punishment committed whoredomes incests and adulteries and that the Lawe of single life which offended the good was exceeding pleasing to impure companions who now for one wife might haue sixe hundred Harlots Neither is this the priuate conceit of Auentinus alone but all good wise men beare witnes with him that hee speaketh the truth say as much as he Bern speaking of the state of the Cleargie in his time saith Many not all truely but yet many vndoubtedly who neither canne bee hid they are so many nor care to bee hid they are so shamelesse many surely seeme to haue made the liberty in which they are called to serue as a fitte occasion to satisfie the flesh abstayning from the remedy of Mariage and powring forth themselues into all manner of sinfull wickednesses And in the same Chapter he saith That if wee digge downe the wall according to the wordes of the Prophet Ezechiell wee shall see horrible things in the house of God For after whoredomes adulteries and incests there are found the passions of ignominy and the workes of impurity and filthinesse Would to GOD saith hee those thinges that are most vnnaturall were not committed that neither the Apostles needed to write of them nor wee to speake and that no man would beleeue that so abominable lust did euer possesse the minde of man Were not those Citties which were the Mothers of this impure filthinesse long since condemned by the iudgement of God himselfe and consumed with fire Did not the fire of hell impatient of delay preuent the time and in a sort before the time consume that cursed Nation Did not fire brimestone and the sto◅mie tempest consume the very earth and ground it selfe as priuie to such confusions as should neuer so much as once bee thought of Was not all the whole land and ground it selfe turned into an horrible Lake Surely fiue heads of the Monster Hydra are cut off but woe is vnto vs innumerable moe are risen vp Who hath reedified those Cities of villany who hath inlarged the walles of impuritie and who hath spread out those venimous branches Woe woe the enemy of man-kinde hath scattered euery where round about the vnhappy reliques of that sulphureous burning and hath sprinckled the body of the Church with those execrable ashes hath filled some of the Ministers of the Church with that filthy stinking and impure running sore Saluianus in like sort in his booke of diuine Prouidence hath these wordes It is surely altogether a new and strange kinde of conuersion that some men talke of lawfull thinges they doe not and vnlawfull thinges they committe They refraine from mariage but refraine not from Rape What doest thou O foolish perswasion God forbad sinne not mariage your deedes agree not with your profession You should not bee the friends of enormous crimes who professe to doe the workes of vertue It is a preposterous thing that you doe it is not conuersion but auersion You that haue long since as the same is forsaken the worke of honest mariage cease at the last from sinfull wickednesse With these agree the Historians generally reporting that innumerable euills followed the prohibition of the mariage of Cleargie-men published by Pope Hildebrand that few liued continently though some counterfaited so to doe for filthie lucres sake and for ostentation and that many ioyned both periurie and adultery together and not contenting them-selues with an ordinary degree of wickednesse multiplyed their whoredomes and adulteries exceedingly Whereupon wee shall finde that many of the best learned most judicious worthiest men the Church had in latter times wished the Law of single life to be taken away euen as many resisted it when it was first made Durandus in his booke De modo celebrandi Concilii proueth by many reasons that it were fit that the libertie of mariage were againe restored to Priests in a Generall councell In the councell of Basill when exception was taken against the choice of Amedeus Duke of Savoy whō many thought fit to be Pope for that he had beene a maried man and had children it was answered by some of good esteeme that that was no exception and that haply it were much better that Priests were permitted to liue in mariage then restrained For that many of them might be saued in chaste mariage which now perish in their filthie and impure single life Aeneas Sylvius a great man in that councell who was afterwards Pope and named Pius the second in an Epistle to a friend of his who was in the holy orders of the ministery of the church yet desirous for the avoiding of fornicatiō to marry a wife writeth thus We suppose that you are not ill advised if when you cannot containe you seeke a wife though that should haue been thought on before you had entred into holy Orders But wee are not Gods neither can wee fore-see things to come Wherefore seeing things are come to this passe that you cannot resist the law of the flesh it is better to marry then to burne Yet cannot the Pope be perswaded to dispense with you but he standeth resolued to holde his seuere course still and thinketh it not fit to grant that to one which may be hurtfull vnto many If therefore you desire safely to marry you must expect some other Pope who may be more inclineable and yeelding And of this Aeneas Sylvius afterwards named Pius the second Platina and Sabellicus report that hee was wont
so doe least which once to thinke is impious shee make CHRIST himselfe an adulterer to whome shee marryeth her husband yet liuing After this refutation of their reasons hee goeth forward to shew the absurd consequences of their opinion By this inconsiderate opinion saith he of them that thinke the marriages of women falne from an holy purpose if they doe marry to bee voide not a little euill is brought forth for from hence it commeth that women are separated from their husbands as adulteresses and not wiues And while they thus separate them and force them to containe they make their husbands truely and indeede adulterers when as these their wiues yet liuing they marry Thus doth Austine resolue that mariages after vowes made to the contrary are lawfull and good though the not performing of vowed continency is a sinne as hee thinketh more grieuous then adultery not for that the mariage of such is to bee condemned but because the inconstancie in not performing that was purposed and the violating of the vow are condemned Non susceptio à bono inferiori sed ruina ex bono superiori not for that they doe a lesser good but because they fall from a greater Lastly not for that they afterwardes maryed but for that they violated their first faith of continency Which thing that the Apostle might briefly insinuate hee would not say that they haue damnation which marry after the purpose of a more high degree of sanctity not for that they are not to be disliked that so do but least their mariage it selfe might seem to be condemned but when hee had saide they will marry hee by and by addeth Hauing condemnation and expresseth why Because they haue broken their first faith That it may appeare that the Will which fell from a former purpose is condemned and reproued whether mariage follow or not If any man doubt whether Saint Austine were the Author of this booke De bono viduitatis wherein these things are found as some doe and consequently whether he were of the opinion wee haue recited or not hee may easily know that this is Saint Augustines judgement whether this be his booke or not by his Epistle to one Bonifacius who had vowed a monasticall retyred and single life and yet afterwards did marry whom hee telleth hee cannot now as otherwise hee would exhort to that kind of life which he had formerly vowed because of his wife so that he thought not his mariage voyde or that he was to be separated from his wife His wordes are these Thy wife hindereth mee that I cannot exhort thee to this kind of life without whose consent it is not lawfull for thee to containe c. And else-where speaking of certaine women who abode not in that which they had first vowed which had a desire of mariage but maried not for feare of disgrace he saith It were better for them to marry then to burne that is then to bee wasted with the secret flame of the conscience in lust And Hierome also is of the same opinion For speaking to a certaine virgine that had priuately vowed virginity and that could not endure the straight keeping of her mothers house he hath these words If thou be a virgine why dost thou feare carefull and diligent keeping If thou be corrupted why dost thou not openly marry This is as a board to swimme out on after shipwracke So should'st thou temper that which thou begannest ill by vsing this remedy Neither truely doe I say this for that I take away repentance after sin that so that which is ill begun may still continue but for that I despaire of drawing of you from that ill company into which you are entered And in his Epistle to Demetriades he hath these wordes The ill name and report of some that behaue not themselues well disgraceth and dishonoureth the holy purpose of virgins and obscureth and blemisheth the glory of the Heauenly and Angel-like family who must bee plainely and peremptorily vrged and required either to marry if they cannot containe or to containe if they will not marry To these we may adde Epiphanius who indeede maketh it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a thing euill and such as God will judge and punish to forget neglect and not to performe a vowe made to God but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a thing that casteth men into the condemnation of hell fire and plungeth them into euerlasting destruction as to liue in adultery Who defendeth that it is better to descend to that state of life which is lawfull and honourable with one fault of breaking the vow passed to the contrary and with teares of repentance to wash away the impurity of that one fault of inconstancy and so to bee saued then to liue in sinne continually and so to perish So that though hee thinke it a fault for a man to promise a course of continencie to GOD by vowe and not to performe it yet hee thinketh it better for a man after this one fault committed which may bee repented of and forgiuen to marry then by liuing in continuall adultery to adde one sinne vnto another and to plunge himselfe into endlesse destruction Hugo de sancto victore maketh two constructions of the wordes of Saint Austine before alleadged Whereof the one is that hee speaketh of secret vowes whereof the Church canne take no knowledge because there is no witnesse of them and that Saint Austines meaning is that mariages after such vowes are to bee reputed good by the Church The other is that the Church in the time of Austine allowed mariages after a vowe made to the contrary but that now the same Church for consideratiōs her mouing hath determined otherwise and by her authority made them voyd The former of these constructions is too weake and cannot be allowed For that Austine thinketh mariage is lawfull and good after knowne vowes made to the contrary it is euident by his Epistle to Bonifacius whom he blameth for breaking his vow whereof himselfe and Alipius were witnesses and yet alloweth his mariage as also for that in the place interpreted by Hugo hee sheweth that some who were of another judgement as indeed we finde Innocentius Bishop of Rome to haue beene dissolued mariages after vowes made to the contrary which they would not nor could not haue done if those vowes had beene altogether secret vnknowne Neither doth that hee saith in the 2d place any better avoyd the cleare euidence of Saint Austines judgment then the first For no difference of times and conditions of men and thinges canne so change the nature of vowes and mariages as that a vowe at one time should make voyd an ensuing mariage and not at another Others therefore there bee who goe about to avoide the euidence of the authorites of Austine and the Fathers brought to proue the validity of mariage after vowes made to the contrary by making a distinction of vowes
without partiality and Iudge betweene vs as God shall direct thee THE FIRST PART Contayning a discouery of the vanitie of such silly exceptions as haue beene taken against the former foure Bookes by one Theophilus Higgons §. 1. THE first exception Master Higgons is pleased to take against me is that in all my foure Bookes I haue not graced any Father with the glorious title of Saint his words are these I am bold to intreat D Feildes leaue to honour Augustine with the name of Saint howsoeuer hee hath not once vouchsafed in his foure Books to grace him or any Father with this glorious title It is strange that such a novice as he is should dare to begin in so scornfull a manner with so shamelesse an vntruth as if hee had been anold practitioner in the faculty of lying but his desire it seemeth was to giue as good proofe at first as possibly hee might of the good seruice hee is like to do if his new Masters wil be pleased to make vse of him imploy him as they do others For otherwise he could not but know he might easily be convinced of a lye for I haue giuen the title of Saint to Augustine that worthy and renowned Father more then once twice or thrice I call Leo blessed Leo so giue him a title aequivalent to that of Saint more often found in the writings of the Ancient If happily it offend him that euery time I name any Father I giue him not the title of Saint let him take the paines to peruse the writings of Alexander of Hales Tho. Aquinas Scotus Durandus Waldensis Sixtus Senensis and other of that sort I doubt not but hee will soone perceiue his folly cease to be angry with me any longer vnlesse he be resolued to condemne them also This surely is a childish and a bad beginning and may make vs justly feare he will performe little in that which followeth §. 2. THat which he hath in the next place that D Humphrey and I admit try all by the Fathers is true but to no purpose for he and his consorts know right well that the Fathers make nothing for them and therefore they are soone weary of this course of tryall as often as they are brought to it as it appeared by Hardinges writing against Bishoppe Iewell For whereas the challenge was made by that worthie Bishoppe to try the matter of difference betweene the Romanists and vs not onely by discourse of reason or testimonies of Scripture wherein all the world knâ—…w our Adversaries to be too weake but by authorities of the Auncient wherein they were thought to haue more strength And whereas to that purpose hee brought out against them all the renowned Fathers and Bishoppes that lined in auncient times the decrees of Councels then holden and the report of Historians Harding could finde none to speake for him but Martialis Abdias Amphilochius such branded counterfeits nor no other proofes of his cause but the fayned Epistles of the auncient Popes and shamelesse forgeries vnder the honourable names of holy Fathers with other-like base stuffe The thing that offendeth Master Higgons in Doctor Humphrey is that he saith the Romanistes are like Thrasilaus who in a madde humour tooke all the shippes in the Atticke hauen to bee his owne though he possessed not one vessell or rather maketh the degree of their phrensie greater because they see and yet seeing dissemble that they are destitute of all defence from the Fathers Which saying of the worthy and renowned Doctor is most true and shall bee defended against a farre better man then Theophilus Higgons though childishly hee charge him with Notable and vast vntruth in this behalfe Neither shall hee nor any of his great Masters euer proue that I haue vntruely alleadged the cause why Luther Zuinglius and other at the first seemed to decline the tryall by the Fathers for the true cause was indeede as I haue alleadged the feare of the corruptions of the Fathers workes and writings and not any imagination that the Fathers generally from the beginning were in errour which is so barbarous a conceit that it cannot enter into the heart of any reasonable man Neither was it any folly in them as this wise man is pleased to censure the matter to decline the tryall by the Fathers in those times after barbarisme superstition and tyrannie had so long prevayled and almost layd waste all learning religion and liberty of the Church seeing Vincentius Lyrinensis prescribeth that after Heresies haue long preuailed growne inueterate wee shoulde flie to the Scriptures alone SECT 3. IN the third place he saith Hee was desirous to vnderstand why amongst other particulars I should esteeme it a folly and inconstancy in the Romanistes to say that Purgatory is holden by Tradition and yet proued by Scripture Which argueth that the man is either very weake in vnderstanding or else maketh himselfe more simple then indeed he is For hauing shewed that the name of Tradition sometime signifieth euery part of Christian Doctrine deliuered from one to another either by liuely voyce only or by writing sometimes such partes there of onely as were not written by them to whom they were first deliuered and that our Aduersaries so vnderstand the word in the controuersies betweene them and vs. I note it as a contradiction amongst Papistes that some of them say Purgatory is holden by Tradition in that latter sence other that it is proued by Scripture as likewise that some of them alledge for proofe of vnwritten Traditions the article of the consubstantiality of the Sonne of God with the Father and the proceeding of the holy Ghost from them both and others constantly affirme that those Articles may bee proued out of Scripture Now if to bee written and not to bee written to be holden by vnwritten Tradition or Tradition opposite to writing and to bee proued out of Scripture bee not contradictory in Master Higgons his apprehension it is no great matter of what side he be § 4. IN the Fourth place he saith I accept the rule of Saint Augustine that whatsoeuer is frequented by the vniuersall Church and was not instituted by Councels but was alwayes holden that is beleeued most rightly to be an Apostolicall tradition And that liberally I adde that whatsoeuer all or the most famous and renowned in all ages or at the least is diuers ages haue constantly deliuered as receiued from them that went before them no man doubting or contradicting it may be thought to be an Apostolical tradition Whence hee thinketh hee may conclude ineuitably by my allowance that prayer for the dead may bee thought to be an Apostolicall tradition many famous and renowned Fathers in diuers ages mentioning prayer for the dead and none disliking or reprouing it For answere whereunto I say that prayer for the resurrection publike acquittall in the day of Iudgement and perfit consummation and blisse of them that
prayers and may be releeued by them that therefore there is a third place wherein they are to be temporally afflicted For all this may be in the passage hence and entrance into the other world the prayers of the liuing accompanying them and God purging out that which is impure and remitting that which offendeth him in this middle sort of men euen in that first entrance into the state of the other world And surely Augustine himselfe in his owne prayer for Monicha his mother neuer speaketh one word of releasing her out of paine or punishment but prayeth God not to enter into iudgment with her to suffer none to diuide her from him and take her out of his protection to keepe her that neither the lyon nor dragon by force or subtilty interpose himselfe for that shee will not plead that shee hath not trespassed lest shee should be conuinced and the accuser should preuaile against her and gette her to himselfe but that her trespasses are remitted to her by Christ so shewing that hee made his prayer for her respectiuely to the state shee was in in her passage and while she stood to be judged and because this might seeme to bee already past and the things hee asked performed when he prayed hee sayth he thinketh God hath already done that he prayeth for but beseecheth him to accept his voluntary deuotions Two places there are found in Augustines workes where he seemeth peremptorily to affirme that there is a penall state and purging fire after this life the first is in his one and twentieth booke De ciuitate Dei where he sayth When the dead shall rise againe there shall some bee found to whom after they haue suffered punishments mercy shall be shewed that they be not cast into eternall fire But the words as Viues noteth vpon the same place are not found in some auncient manuscripts nor in that printed at Friburge The other place is in his second booke De Genesi against the Manichees The words are these Hee who happily shall not till his field but shall suffer it to be ouer-growne with thornes and briars hath in this life the curse of his life in all his workes and after this life hee shall haue either the fire of Purgation or eternall punishment which wordes beeing spoken of them that till not their fielde that suffer it to bee ouer-growne with thornes and bryers whose whole life is accursed in all they doe and not of such good men to whom some imperfection cleaueth are vttered according to that opinion then preuayling of deliuerance out of hell which Augustine in that place would not stand to discusse but else-where refuteth at large So that the thinges t◅ are found in Augustine clearely resolued on are onely these First that some sinnes are remitted after this life which wee graunt vnderstanding that remission to bee in the first enterance into the other world Secondly that they are onely the lesser sinnes that are thus remitted after this life and not those more grieuous wherein men dye without repentance for these exclude from the Kingdome of Heauen Thirdly that prayers do helpe men dying in those lesser sinnes Which likewise we acknowledge to be true if such prayers be conceaued and vnderstood as made respectiuely to the enterance into the other world Fourthly that there is no deliuerance of men dying in the state of mortall sinne out of hell and that noe prayers can benefit them in this behalfe In all these pointes his resolution is full and cleare but whether the paines of men damned in hell may be eased mitigated or suspended for a time by the prayers of the liuing he professeth hee will not striue so that the wrath of God be acknowledged to remaine eternally vppon them Neither is this contradictory to that which he hath else-where that the prayers of the liuing are no helpes of such as are damned but onely comforts of the liuing For hee meaneth that they are no helpes able to free and deliuer them out of that state of punishment wherein they are but whether they may some way ease them or not hee will not much contend and therefore hee sayth that whom praiers profit either they profit them for full remission as they doe men dying in the lesser sinnes or that their damnation may bee the more tolerable and easie The Papists applying these latter words of more tollerable damnation to the state of soules in their supposed Purgatory is absurd for they cānot in any proper sense be said to be dāned These things being thus distinguished wee see there is nothing found in Augustine for confirmation of the Popish error touching Purgatory that no testimonies of Augustine could seale vp M. Higgons his heart in this idle conceit of Purgatory as vntruly he sayth they did that wee no way oppose our selues against the vniuersall resolution and practice of the whole Church which to do Augustine pronounceth insolent madnesse that we no way contradict this worthy Father reporting to vs the doctrine and tradition of the Church and consequently that Higgons ridiculously and idlely asketh whether Augustine or I know better the sense and iudgment of Anti◅uity thereupon childishly making a comparison betweene him and me for I make no question but he knew the sense of Antiquity right well neither do I dissent from him in any thing that he constantly deliuereth and for the comparison confesse my selfe vnworthy to be named the same day but whereas hee saith hee found sincetity in him vnfaithfulnes in me I defie the faithles Apostata challenge him or any of the proudest of his consorts to tell me truely wherein I haue shewed the least vnfaithfulnesse It seemeth he measureth other men by himselfe and his companions but we are not like them making marchandize of the word of GOD. After these idle discourses he passeth from me to that reverend renowned and worthy Divine Doctor Humfrey in his time the light and ornament of the Vniuersitie that bred him whom such a silly novice as M. Theophilus durst not haue looked in the face while hee liued But it is easier to insult vpon a dead lyon then a liuing dog that maketh him barke against him but such was his great reading variety of learning in all kindes profound science and mature judgement as made him so highly esteemed at home and abroad by all that knew how to judge of things aright that the scornefull speeches of this Renegado concerning his Rhetoricall flourishes will neuer be able to diminish or lessen the good opinion that most deseruedly all wise and good men holde of him Yet let vs see what it is that this graue censurer reprehendeth in D. Humfrey surely hee knoweth not what himselfe D. Humfrey speaking of the ancient commemoration or commendation of the dead saith We retaine it in our Colledges which is most true but hee hath spied as he supposeth three differences for first as he saith the
the two and twentith were of the opinion I speake of to whom I might haue added Irenaeus Bernard Theophylact and many more That all these should be charged with this opinion or with this folly as hee will haue it it neuer troubleth him onely he is much moued that Ambrose should be charged with any such thing It seemeth he is not of the Gregorian but of the Ambrosian Church in that hee is carelesse what becommeth of his Popes Clement and Iohn so all bee well with Ambrose Hee was tormented he saith with a necessary suspicion rather of my vnfaithfulnesse in this report then of Saint Ambrose his folly in this matter Surely if hee were as wise as hee is wilfull hee would not passe his censures as he doth for it is no such folly but that as wise a man as S. Ambrose might fall into it to thinke as so many learned worthy and renowned Diuines did and therefore Alfonsus á Castro hauing charged the Graecians and Armenians with this error saith that after these Iohn the two and twentith rose vp and embraced the same opinion and least any man might giue lesse credit to his words hee sayth hee will report the words of Pope Adrian who writeth thus Last of all it is reported of Iohn the 22 that he publikely taught declared and commanded all to hold that soules though purged from sinne haue not that stole which is the cleare vision of God face to face before the last iudgement and it is sayd that hee brought the vniuersity of Paris to that point that no man could take any degree in Diuinitie there vnlesse first he did sweare to defend this error and to adhere to it for euer thus far Pope Adrian Besides these there are other Patrons of this errour men of renowne and famous both for sanctity and science to witte the most blessed Martyr of Christ Irenaeus Theophylact Bishoppe of Bulgaria and blessed Bernard Neither should any man maruaile that soe great men fell into so pestilent an errour seeing as blessed Iames the Apostle sayth Hee that offendeth not in words is a perfit man Notwithstanding the Reader is here to be admonished that hee thinke not that this error detracteth any thing from the holynesse or learning of so great men so that it is no such imputation of folly to attribute this opinion to Ambrose as wise M Higgons maketh it for whereas at that time the Church had defined nothing touching that matter neyther had it euer bin called in question the testimonies of Scripture for that which is now defined were not soe expresse but that they might bee wrested into another sence they might teach the one or the other without note of heresie especially seeing there wanted not testimonies of Scripture that seemed in some sort to fauour them Thus farre Alfonsus a Castro But let vs see how Maister Higgons will conuince mee that I haue wronged Ambrose which in soe clamorous manner hee vndertaketh to doe Surely this is the ground of his quarrell against mee that hauing imputed this opinion to Iustine Martyr Tertullian Clemens Romanus Lactantius Victorinus and Ambrose in the margent I referre the reader to Sixtus Senensis who yet excused Ambrose from this error But the silly Nouice should know that I doe not say Sixtus Senensis attributeth that opinion to Ambrose and that I put not his name in the margent as if I grounded my imputation vppon his authority For if I would haue done soe I could haue mustered together a farre greater number then I haue done But because it had bin tedious to haue sette downe the words of all those I mention wherein they expresse their opinion in the margent I referre the reader to Sixtus Senensis who reporteth their wordes at large according to the course of times wherein they flourished that the reader within the compasse of one page may see what they say without turning ouer their large volumes and among other the wordes of Ambrose which I thinke will strongly perswade him hee was of that opinion which I impute vnto him howsoeuer Sixtus Senensis by a fauourable construction labour to excuse him Let vs see therefore if Ambrose will not witnesse for mee that I haue done him no wrong but truly reported his opinion The first thing I imputed vnto him is that hee thinketh as many other did before and after him that there is no iudgement to passe vpon men till the last day If this be not cleerely prooued out of Ambrose his owne wordes lette the Reader thinke I haue wronged him In his second booke of Caine and Abell he hath these words The Maister of a Shippe when hee hath brought his Shippe into the hauen scarce thinketh hee hath ended his labour before hee beginne to seeke the beginning of a newe the soule is loosed from the body and after the end of this life it is still holden in suspence vpon the vncertainty and doubtfulnesse of the future iudgement soe is there no end where there is thought to be an end The second thing I attribute to Ambrose is that hee thinketh the soules of men are kept in some place appointed for that purpose soe that they come not into heauen till the generall iudgment Let vs heare him speake him-selfe and then lette the Reader iudge whether hee say not all that I impute vnto him In his booke de boâ—… mortis he hath these words In the bookes of Esdras wee read that when the day of iudgement shall come the earth shall restore the bodies of the dead and the dust shall restore those reliques and remaines of the dead which rest in the graues and the secret habitations shall restore the soules which haue beene committed to them and the most High shall be revealed vpon the Seate of Iudgement From hence hee saith the Gentiles tooke those things which they admire in the bookes of Philosophers and blaming them that they mingled superfluous and vnprofitable things with those that are true as the demigration of soules into bees birds and the like fancies saith it had been sufficient for them to haue said that soules deliuered out of mortall bodies petunt Haden that is goe into an invisible place which place in Latine is called Infernus and farther addeth that the Scripture calleth these secret habitations of soules Store-houses Heere we see Ambrose saith there are certaine secret habitations of soules which though they be higher then the receptacles of dead bodies yet are rightly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek Infernus in Latin that these are Storehouses keeping those soules that are committed to them till the Resurrection and then restoring them If M. Higgons doe thinke that Infernus is Heauen then I haue no more to say to him otherwise I thinke the evidence of this place cannot be avoyded The third thing I impute to Ambrose is that the soules of the Iust receiue not the reward of their labours till the Generall Iudgement Touching which point
expresly We retaine it in our Colledges I obserued before that wee must carefully distinguish the generall practise and intention of the whole Church from priuate conceipts the whole Church commemorated the dead offered the sacrifice of praise for them prayed for them in the passage for their resurrection and consummation all which thinges we allow so that neither Doctor Humphrey nor we condemne the Vniuersall Church but thinke it were madnesse soe to doe but the priuate fancies of such as extended their prayers farther thinking they might ease mitigate suspend or wholy take away the paines of men damned in hell for of Purgatory no man thought in the Primitiue Church wee reject This erroneous conceipt and practise Aerius rightly condemned and Doctor Humphrey and wee all agree with him in the same dislike but he did ill to impute this errour to the whole Church and to condemne that which was good and laudable vppon soe weake a ground Of the difference which Maister Higgons would faine make betweene our commendation of the dead vsed in colledges and that vsed anciently whereof Saint Augustine speaketh I haue spoken before wherefore let vs come to his last exception against Doctor Humphrey which is that hee handleth the matter artificially to make a credulous reader beleeue that Saint Augustine himselfe doth conuell the vse of prayer for the dead by those sentences of the Apostle that we cannot reape if wee sowe not here and that wee must all stand before the iudgement seate of Christ that euery one may receiue according to the things hee hath done in his body whether good or euill This imputation is nothing else but a malitious and impudent charging of him with that he neuer thought of For the onely thing he sayth Augustine held proued by these sentences is that vnlesse we depart hence in a true faith wee canot be relieued by any deuotion of other men after we are gone Which is so vndoubtedly true that I thinke Higgons him-selfe dareth not deny it But that Augustine thought that men dying in the state of grace and faith of Christ may bee holpen by the prayers of the liuing hee neither made question himselfe nor euer sought to make his reader beleeue otherwise Neither doe wee dissent from Augustine in this point if the prayers hee speaketh of bee made respectiuely to the passage hence and entrance into the other world as I haue shewed before The onely thing that is questionable betweene Vs and our Aduersaries being whether prayers may releeue men in a state of temporall affliction after this life whereof Augustine neuer resolued any thing what-soeuer this pratling Apostata say to the contrary These things being soe let the reader judge whether the detection of falshood and ill dealing in Doctor Humphrey could possibly occasion Maister Higgons his change as hee would make the world beleeue there being nothing found in his whole discourse that is not most true and iustifiable by all course of learning But because hee is sufficiently chastised by others and knoweth too well the true cause of his running away to bee things of a farre other nature then those he pretendeth I will prosecute this matter no farther against him The Appendix §. 1. NOw it remaineth that I come to the Appendix which he addeth to his booke which hee deuideth into two partes whereof the first concerneth Mee the second D. Morton which hee hath answered already In that part which concerneth Me he vndertaketh to proue that I notoriously abuse the name and authority of Gerson Grosthead c. to defend the reformation made by Princes Prelats in our Churches Wherefore that the reader may perceiue I haue not abused these reuerend worthy men but that he wrōgeth both Them Me I will take the paines to examine his whole discourse though it will be very tedious soe to do by reason of the cōfused perplexed manner of handling of things in the same without all order method In the 1. chapter he doth but lay the foūdatiō of his intēded building therefore gathereth together a great nūber of positiōs sayings out of my book miserably māgled torne one frō another all which shall be defended whē he cōmeth to say any thing against them in such sort as that it shall evidently appeare that there is no falshood or collusion in any part of my Discourse as this false and treacherous Fugitiue is pleased to say there is Onely one thing there is heere that may not bee passed ouer because it hath no farther prosecution in that which followeth His wordes are these Whereas Bellarmine doth object the intestine divisions and conflicts of the pretensed Gospellers this Doctor turneth him off with this answer wee say that these diuersities are to bee imputed wholly to our Adversaries for when there was a reformation to be made of abuses and disorders in matters of practise and manyfold corruption in many points of Christian Doctrine and in a Councell by a Generall consent it could not bee hoped for as Gerson long before out of his experience saw and professed by reason of the prevailing faction of Popes flatterers it was not possible but that some diversity should grow while one knew not nor expected to know what another did This he saith is a very admirable devise For answere hereunto we must obserue that the divisions of this part of Christendome are of two sorts the first is from the faction of the Pope the second among them that haue abandoned the vsurped Authority of the Pope That the Pope and his adherents were the cause of the former of these divisions and the consequents of it is affirmed by better men then Master Higgons I will not deny saith Cassander a man highly esteemed for piety learning by the Emperours Ferdinand and Maximilian that many in the beginning were moued out of a Godly affection more sharply to reprehend certaine manifest abuses and that the chiefe cause of this calamitie and distraction or rent of the Church is to be attributed to them who puffed vp with the swelling conceipts of their Ecclesiasticall power proudly disdainfully contemned and repelled them that admonished them rightly of things amisse And therefore I do not thinke that any firme peace is euer to be hoped for vnlesse the beginning thereof be from them that gaue the cause of this diuision that is vnlesse they that haue the gouernment of the Church remit something of that their too great rigor listning to the desires of many godly ones correct manifest abuses according to the rule of sacred Scripture the ancient Church from which they are departed c. Touching that saith c Contarenus which the Lutherans say in the first last place of manifold and great abuses brought into the Church of Christ against which they so exclaime concerning which they haue made so many complaints to expresse their greiuances I haue nothing to say but first of all to
communicating with the Priest in the Sacrament into a priuate masse which indeede if wee will speake properly is no masse or that hee helde it to bee a new reall sacrificing of CHRIST as the Iesuited Papistes doe at this day A sacrifice wee confesse it to bee of praise and thankes-giuing and a commemoration of the bloudy sacrifice of CHRIST vpon the Altar of the Crosse say that therefore it may bee named a sacrifice because signes haue the names of the things whereof they are signes as also for that there is in this Sacrament an offering or presenting of CHRIST and his passion to GOD by the faith of the Church that by it wee may obtaine grace and remission of sinnes but a new reall sacrificing of CHRIST wee denye and thinke with Luther that it is a hellish abomination so to doe That Gerson thought that there is a Purgatory doth no more prejudice his being a worthy guide of Gods Church then the errour of Cyprian and other before-mentioned Touching invocation of Saints though hee did not absolutely condemne it yet hee reprehended the abuses and superstitious observations then prevailing in the worshipping of Saints very bitterly as I shewed before sought to bring men to a truer sense of piety in that point then was ordinarily found amongst men in those times The like he did for indulgences restraining them more then was pleasing to the Popes faction and for the communion vnder one kinde howsoeuer hee thought the Church might lawfully prescribe the communicating in one kinde alone which wee cannot excuse yet hee acknowledgeth that the communion in both kindes was aunciently vsed and that when it may bee had with the peace of the Church it is to bee allowed But to what purpose doth Master Higgons alledge these things shall it bee lawfull for him and his to repute Iohn Gerson a worthy and godly man notwithstanding that he held that the Pope may erre that he is subiect to Generall Councels that he medleth with things no way pertayning to him when hee taketh vpon him to dispose the Kingdomes of the world that all our inherent righteousnesse is imperfit and as the polluted ragges of a menstruous woman that all sins are by nature mortall and the like and may not wee take him to haue beene a member of the true Church a good man and one that desired the reformation of things amisse notwithstanding his errour in some things and his not discerning all that was amisse The insufficiencie of this allegation it seemeth Master Higgons himselfe perceived and therefore saith hee will come to the supreame difference to which all other points as hee conceiueth are subordinate and inferiour that is to say the soueraigne primacy of the Romane Bishop and bringeth two very effectuall testimonies as hee thinketh of Gerson to proue the Popes soueraigne primacie The First is out of his booke De auferibilitate papae his words are these The formes of ciuill government are subiect to mutability and alteration but it is otherwise in the Church for her gouerment is Monarchicall and is so appointed by the institution of our Lord if any man will violate this sacred ordinance and persist obstinately in his contempt hee is to bee iudged an Hereticke as Marsilius of Padua and some other consorting with his fancie The second is out of his tract De vnitate Graecorum where prescribing many directions for the composing of the differences betweene the Greeke and Latine Churches hee layeth it downe as a foundation that there must bee one head on earth vnto which all men must bee vnited In these sayings Master Higgons saith Gerson shewed himselfe a worthy guide of Gods Church and a singular enemy of the Protestanticall reformation which violently impugneth the supremacie of the Pope in so much that Luther affirmeth that a man cannot be saued vnlesse from his heart hee hate the Pope and Papacie These things truely carrie a very faire shew and may deceiue such as cannot or will not throughly looke into them But whosoeuer knoweth what Gersons opinion of the Pope is and what Luther hath written against the Papacie will soone perceiue there is no contradiction betweene them or at least not in any essentiall and materiall point For Gerson was of opinion that the Pope is subiect to a Generall Councell and that hee is not free from daunger of erring and this hee thought to bee a matter of faith defined in the Councell of Constance and therefore would haue detested all claimes of infallible iudgement and vncontrouleable power of Popes as much as Luther did and would haue accursed his words of blasphemie if once hee should haue heard him say as wee doe and as before the holding of the Councell of Constance he did All the world cannot iudge mee though I ouerturne the whole course of nature no man may say vnto mee why doe you so I onely haue power to make lawes and to voide them againe I haue authority to dispence with the Canons of all Councels as seemeth good vnto mee and which is more to dispose of all the kingdomes of the world the assurance of finding out the trueth and not erring is not partly in mee and partly in the Councell but wholy in mee whatsoeuer all the world shall consent on is of no force if I allow it not Hee would haue said doubtlesse as I haue done if hee had heard him thus speake that wee are not bound to take the foame of his impure mouth and froath of his words of blasphemie as infallible Oracles This is that Pope and this is that Papacie which Luther saith euery one that will be saued must hate from his heart for otherwise if hee would onely claime to bee a Bishoppe in his precinct a Metropolitane in a prouince a Patriarch of the West and of Patriarches the first and most honourable to whom the rest are to resort in cases of greatest moment as to the head and chiefe of their company to whom it specially pertaineth to haue an eye to the preseruation of the Church in the vnity of faith and religion and the actes and exercises of the same and with the assistance and concurrence of the other by all due courses to effect that which pertaineth thereunto without clayming absolute and vncontrouleable power infallibilitie of iudgement and right to dispose the Kingdomes of the world and to intermeddle in the administration of the temporalties of particular Churches and the immediate swaying of the iurisdiction thereof Luther himselfe professeth hee would neuer open his mouth against him This kind of Primacie the Grecians likewise professed they would bee content to yeeld vnto him if other differences betweene them might be composed Cassander saith Hee is perswaded there had neuer beene any controuersies about the Popes power if the Popes had not abused their authority in a Lordly and ouer-ruling manner and through couetousnesse and ambition stretched it beyond the bounds and
stayeth on it and our righteousnesse is as the ragges of a menstruous woman c Clicthouaeus vpon the Canon of the Masse vpon these wordes not waying our merits but pardoning our offences asketh what merit we can plead with God to whom wee owe all thinges according to that When yee haue done all say that yee are vnprofitable seruants and how wee can applaud our selues in our good workes whereas all our righteousnesse is as the polluted ragges of a menstruous woman before the Lord Whereunto Bernard agreeth There is extant an excellent Epistle of Cardinall Contarenus wherein hee sheweth what reasons moued him and the other of his side to yeelde so farre to the Protestants as to leaue out the name of merit and to acknowledge that there is no meritte of workes properly so named And as these Catholicke Diuines thought thus of iustification by imputation of Christs righteousnesse the imperfection of our inherent righteousnesse and our not meriting any thing with the merit of condignity so they taught likewise that Christs righteousnesse is to bee apprehended by a liuely faith and defined a liuely faith to bee that motion of the spirit whereby men truely repenting of their former life are raised and lifted vp to God and doe truely apprehend the mercy of God promised in Christ so that they doe indeede feele in themselues that they haue receiued remission of sinnes and reconciliation by Gods goodnesse and by the merit of CHRIST and doe cry Abba Father Thus much was expresly deliuered in the booke exhibited by the Emperour Charles to the Diuines of both sides whom he appointed to conferre together for the composing of the controversies of Religion and the Diuines agreed vnto it Likewise in the Enchiridion of Christian Religion so much approued by all the more learned Diuines of Italy France thus wee read We confesse that it is true that it is altogether required to the justification of a man that hee certainly beleeue not onely in a generalitie that for CHRISTS sake sinnes are remitted to such as truly repent but that particularly they are remitted to himselfe by faith for Christs sake With whom Contarenus agreeth in his Tract of Iustification the most reverend Canons of the Metropoliticall Church of Colein Authors of the booke called Antididagma sundry other And before them all Bernard deliuered the very same his words are these If thou beleeuest that thy sinnes cannot be done away but by him against whom only thou hast sinned who cannot sin thou doest well but adde this moreouer to beleeue that thy sinnes are remitted thee this is the testimony which the holy Spirit giueth in our hearts saying Thy sinnes are remitted thee For so the Apostle supposeth that a man is iustified freely by faith That the Pope may erre not personally onely but iudicially also wee haue the opinion of Ockam Michael Caesenas Cameracensis Cusanus Almain Gerson Waldensis Picus Mirandula Pope Adriaâ—…the 6. almost all the Parisians all them that thinke the Councel to be aboue the Pope the Fathers in the Councels of Constance Basil Alphonsus à Castro and as some thinke Durandus Cyprian and his colleagues who resisted against the determination of the Bishop of Rome and all the Christians of the East at this day This might seeme to be a good proofe yet Stapleton is so farre from yeelding to it that he condemneth them all that thus thought as ignorant and rash especially the latter of them That the Pope is onely first amongst Bishops equall with him in power not of order onely but of iurisdiction also Cusanus proueth at large as Ockam Michael Caesenas and their consorts did before and with these in effect though they expresse not the same so well Cameracensis Gerson Almaine all the rest agree who thinke the Councell to be greater in authoritie and in the power of iurisdiction then the Pope and make him to be amongst Bishops as the Duke of Venice is amongst the great Senators of that state greater then each one but inferiour to the whole company of Bishops Iohn Bacon our Countrey-man noteth that many in his time were of the same opinion who thought the Pope as Head or President of the Colledge and company of Bishops and with them to haue an illimited authority reaching to all persons and causes Ecclesiasticall but not as in of and by himselfe This opinion Duarenus followeth and sheweth that anciently the Pope tooke no more on him The same opinion doe all the Christians of the East hold the practise resolution of antiquity confirmeth the same Touching the vnlawfulnes of the Popes medling with Princes their affaires we haue the testimonies of Sigebertus Cusanus many more whom I would produce but that M Blackwell the Arch-priest in his examination hath already produced a world of witnesses deposing against the Pope in this behalfe to whom I referre the Reader The like might be shewed in other points but because I will not be tedious I will leaue these points of doctrine and come to shew what complaints were euery-where heard in the Christian world before wee were borne against the pope and court of Rome Of Bishop Grosthead and our English I haue spoken already and haue sufficiently shewed how they multiplyed complaints against the pope let vs therefore come to other The popes saith Nicholaus Clemangis as they saw themselues to bee greater then other prelates so they lifted vp themselues aboue other in desire of ruling and ouer-ruling all and finding that Peters patrimonie though exceeding any one Kingdome of the world would not suffice to maintaine their state which they would haue to be greater then that of Emperors Kings and Princes they entred into those sheepfolds of other men which they found to abound vvith milke vvooll for they took to theÌ„ the povver to confer benefices church-liuings vvhich â—…ould fal void in any part of the christian vvorld ouerthrovving al those electioÌ„s vvhich the ancient by so many Canons carefully sought to vphold and hereby drew to them an infinite masse of money neither did they soe stay but tooke away from Bishops and patrons all right of collation presentation forbidding them to place any till such should bee prouided for as they had giuen the expectatiue hope of benefices not voyd Of these men there was an infinite number not comming from the Vniuersities and schooles of learning but from the plough or base trades not knowing Alpha from Beta who liued most wickedly and dissolutely and brought the holy Ministery into so great contempt that whereas anciently nothing was more honourable now nothing is more abiect and contemptible Besides these grieuances vppon euery vacancy they exacted the benefit of a whole yeare out of euery liuing according to a taxation set by them which sometimes three yeares profit would not answere and yet not content herewith they oftentimes imposed
example of it in Scripture yet I affirme that it is no vnwritten tradition in that the grounds reasons and causes of the necessity of it are there contained the benefites that follow it Neither doth the place alledged by him out of Augustine proue the contrary the words of Augustine as commonly we reade them are these the custome of the Church in baptizing infants which is not to be despised or lightly regarded were not to be beleeued were it not an Apostolique tradition But whosoeuer shall consider the place will soone perceiue that Augustines meaning is that the custome of the Church in baptizing Infants which he saith is not to be despised or lightly regarded is to be beleeued to be no other but an Apostolical tradition not that it were not to be beleeued if it were not an Apostolicall tradition howsoeuer as it seemeth esset in stead of esse is crept into the text For it is something harsh to say the custome of the Church in baptizing infants is not to be beleeued vnlesse it were an Apostolicall Tradition Seeing such a custome might be beleeued though it were not an Apostolicall Tradition And besides the drift of Augustine in that place is to vrge the necessitie of this custome and to haue it beleeued to be Apostolicall and not to weaken it as if it had no support but bare tradition which can neither stand with the opinion of Augustine the truth of the thing it selfe nor the iudgement and resolution of our Adversaries themselues who thinke that the Baptisme of Infants may be proued vnanswerably out of Scripture in that CHRIST saith the Kingdome of Heauen belongeth to litle children and yet pronounceth that except a man bee borne a new of water of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heauen Wherein yet they contradict themselues as they doe likewise in some other things which they produce as instances of vnwritten traditions and yet goe about to proue them by Scripture Neither will the Treatisers evasion serue the turne that they goe not about to proue any thing necessarily out of Scripture that they pretend to be holden by vnwritten tradition but probably only for we know they bring Paedobaptisme as an instance of vnwritten traditions and yet say it may bee vnavoydably proued out of Scripture as they propose the testimonies of it The like may be said of the consubstantiality of the Sonne of God with the Father and the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from them both brought by them as instances of vnwritten verities and yet prooued as strongly by them out of Scripture as any other point of Faith For if they shall say an Heretique will not yeeld himselfe convinced by such proofes it will bee answered that no more he will by any other in any other point nor by the tradition of the Church neither which yet I suppose they will not make to be a weake proofe in that respect §. 9. THe next exception taken against Me is that I haue not well said that a man may still doubt and refuse to beleeue a thing defined in a Generall Councell without Hereticall pertinacie and that Generall Councels may erre in matters of greatest consequence What I haue written I will make good against the Treatiser For it is not so strange a thing as he would make vs beleeue to thinke that Generall Councels may erre that a man may doubt of things defined in thē without heretical pertinacie seeing not onely our Diuines generally so thinke but sundry of the best learned in the Romane Church informer times were of the same opinion as I haue else-where shewed at large Neither were it hard to answere the authorities hee bringeth to prooue that Generall Councels cannot erre if a man would insist vpon the particular examination of them But this may suffice in a generalitie that the Fathers produced by him blame and condemne in particular the calling of things in question that had beene determined in the Councell of Nice and some other of that sort and not generallie the doubting of any thing determined in any Councell how disorderly soeuer it proceeded In the second Councell of Ephesus there wanted not a sufficient number of worthy Bishops yet because hee that tooke on him the Presidentship vsed not accustomed moderation neither permitted each man freely to deliuer his opinion it was not accepted nor the Decrees of it receiued From the not erring of Councels the Treatiser passeth to the question concerning the Churches authority in making new Articles of faith and seeketh to cleare the Romane Church from the imputation of challēging any such authority by my confession my words alleadged by him to this purpose are these Our aduersaries confesse that the approbation and determination of the Church cannot make that a truth which was not nor that a Diuine or Catholique truth that was not so before But the good man hath vsed this poore sentence of mine as Hanun vsed the messengers of Dauid whose garments he cut off in the middle a wrong afterwards seuerely and yet most iustly reuenged by Dauid For it followeth in the same sentence that Papists do thinke that the Church by her sole and bare determination may make that veritie to be in such sort Catholique that euery one must expressely beleeue it that was not soe and in such degree Catholique before Whereby it appeareth that they attribute a power to the Church in a sort to make new Articles of faith in that shee may make things formerly beleeued onely implicite to bee necessary to bee expressely beleeued not by euidence of proofe or apparant deduction from thinges expressely beleeued but by her bare and sole authority which not onely wee but sundry right learned godly and wise in the middest of the Church of Rome euer denied Wherefore let vs passe from this imagined aduantage to consider the rest of his exceptions §. 10. IN my third booke and first Chapter speaking of the Patriarche of Constantinople I haue these words In the second generall Councell holden at Constantinople he was preferred before the other Patriarches of Alexandria and Antioch and set in degree of honour next vnto the Bishoppe of Rome in the great Councell of Chalcedon hee was made equall with him and to haue all equall rights priuiledges and prerogatiues because hee was Bishoppe of new Rome as the other was of old Hereupon the Treatiser breaketh out into these wordes I cannot doe otherwise but maruaile that a man of his place and learning doth not blush to committe such a notorious vntrueth to the Print and view of the world For not to speake of the falshood of the first part of his affirmation because it is in some sort impertinent that which hee saith of the Councell of Chalcedon is most vntrue repugnant to all antiquity and not onely contrary to all proceedings and the history of the sayd Councell but also to the wordes of the Canon by him alleaged
faith only doth not iustifie that good works are meritorious he endeauoureth to proue because I confesse that men iustified freely by grace are crowned in the world to come for that new obediēce that is foūd in thē after iustificatiō But this cōsequence I suppose wil not be thought good seeing as Cassander rightly notethout of Bucer God in respect of good works or hauing an eye to thē or for good works giueth not onely temporall but eternall rewardes not for the worthinesse of the workes in themselues but out of his owne grace for the merit of Christ first working such good workes in them that are his and then crowning his owne workes in them as Augustine long since aptly obserued Let vs see therefore if he can proue any better that fayth onely doth not justifie this hee vndertaketh to doe out of that which I haue written that justification implieth in it faith hope and charity But for the clearing of this poynt let him be pleased to obserue that by the name of justification sometimes nothing is meant but an adiudging of eternall life vnto vs sometimes the whole translation of a man out of the state of sinne and wrath into a state of righteousnesse and acceptation with God which implyeth in it sundry things concurring in very different sort without any preiudice to the singular prerogatiue of fayth For first it implyeth in it a worke of almighty God as the supreame and highest cause Secondly the merits of Christ as the meanes whereby God is reconciled and induced to take vs into his fauour Thirdly in him that is to be justified a certaine perswasion of the trueth of such thinges as are contayned in the holy word of God Fourthly motions of feare contrition hope of mercy and the like workes of preparing grace as causes disposing and fitting him that is to be justified that hee may be capable of Gods fauour Fifthly as the susceptiue cause an act of faith by which a man truely repenting of former euils and seeking deliuerance without all doubting firmely beleeueth that all his sinnes are remitted him for Christs sake Lastly an infusion of the habite of diuine and heauenly vertues as a beginning of that life of God to which he doth adiudge them whom he receiueth to fauour So that my saying that justification thus taken implyeth in it Faith Hope and Charitie contrarieth not our position that fayth onely justifieth in sort before expressed which the Treatiser knowing right well insisteth no longer vpon this cauill but passeth to an vntruth charging Mee that I say of S. Augustine whom yet I pronounce to haue been the greatest of all the Fathers and the worthiest Diuine the Church of God euer had since the Apostles times that his manner of deliuering the Article of Iustification is not full perfect exact as if I imputed some fault to him in not deliuering the poynt of justification as it became him whereas I haue no such thing but say onely that his manner of deliuering that Article was not so full perfect and exact as we are forced to require in these times against the errours of the Romanists in which saying I no way blame that worthy Father but shew that new errours require a more exact manner of handling of thinges then was necessary before such errours sprung vppe which I thinke no wise man will deny and am well assured this Treatiser cannot deny vnlesse hee will bee contrary to himselfe For hee sayth expressely that Saint Augustine before some articles of Christian Religion were so throughly discussed and defined in the Church as afterwards vpon the rising of new heresies spake not so aptly and properly as was needfull in succeeding times and therefore retracted some things which hee had formerly vttered So that the Reader will easily finde that in this passage hee hath sayd lesse then nothing neither will his next discourse be found any better wherein he laboreth to shew a contrariety between Me Luther Caluine others in that I make that acte of fayth which obtayneth and procureth our justification to bee an acte by way of petition humbly intreating for acceptation and fauour and not of comfortable assurance consisting in a full perswasion that through Christs merits wee are the children of God Whereas Luther Caluine and the rest make iustifying faith to be an assured perswasion that through Christs merits wee are the sonnes of God But the Treatiser might easily know if hee were disposed that according to our opinion iustifying faith hath some actes as a cause disposing preparing and fitting vs to the receipt of that gracious fauour whereby God doth iustifie vs and other as a susceptiue cause receiuing embracing and enioying the same in the former respect neyther they nor I make faith to consist in a perswasion that wee are the sonnes of God in the latter wee both do and so agree well enough though the Treatiser it seemeth could wish it were otherwise §. 4. WHerefore let vs goe forward and take a view of that which followeth The next thing which hee hath that concerneth Mee is that it may bee gathered out of my assertions in my Third Booke of the Church that I thinke as hee saith some other also do that it is no fundamentall point of doctrine but a thing indifferent to beleeue or not to beleeue the reall that is the locall presence of CHRISTS Body in the Sacrament But I am well assured there can no such thing be gathered out of any of the places cited by him vnlesse it be lawfull for him to reason à baculo ad angulum as often as he doth For in the pages 120 and 121 of his second part because I confesse that in the Primitiue Church the manner of some was to receiue the Sacrament in the publique assembly and not bee partakers of it presently but to carry it home that the Sacrament was carried by the Deacons to the sicke that in places where they communicated euery day there was a reseruation of some parts of the sanctified Elements and that the sanctified Elements thus reserued in reference to an ensuing receiuing of them were the bodie of Christ to wit in mysterie and exhibitiue signification hee goeth about to conclude that I must needes confesse the reall that is the locall presence of Christs body in the Sacrament which consequence is no better then if a man should goe about to conclude that this Treatiser hath written a good and profitable booke because hee hath troubled the world with one such as it is full of vaine idle and emptie discourses whereof if any man make doubt let him consider but the very next words For whereas I confessed Calvines dislike of the reseruation aunciently vsed and yet saide it cannot bee proued that hee denied the Sacramentall elements consecrated and reserued for a time in reference to an ensuing receiuing of them to bee Sacramentally the body of Christ hee saith I labour in vaine because
Caluine doth expressely condemne these reseruations which I confessed before but no way goeth about to make good the consequence which I denied to wit that therefore hee thought the sanctified elements so reserued not to bee Sacramentally the Body of Christ. For that which hee hath that Caluine Bucer Melanchthon and almost all Protestants holde the Eucharist to bee no permanent thing but to bee the Sacrament onely when it is receiued hath no more force of proofe then the rest of his frivolous discourses seeing it is most evident that the Protestants named by him haue no such meaning that the sanctified elements in the Holy Eucharist are no Sacrament but precisely in the very receiuing of them for then they should bee no Sacrament in the hand of the Minister and on the Holy Table but onely in the hand or mouth of the communicant but that they are no Sacrament but in reference to the vse to which they were appointed by Almightie God as I haue shewed at large in the place against which this Treatiser quarrelleth §. 5. LEt vs therefore proceed to see what hee hath more to say In my Fourth booke writing of the things required for the attaining of the right vnderstanding of the Scripture I say some things are required as making vs capable of such vnderstanding and other as meanes whereby we attaine vnto it Amongst the things required as making vs capable of the right vnderstanding of Scripture I reckon the illumination of the vnderstanding and a minde free from the thought of other things depending on God as the Fountaine of illumination desirous to finde out the Truth with resolution to embrace it although contrary to the conceipts of naturall men The meanes whereby we attaine to the right vnderstanding of Holy Scripture I make to be of two sorts some disposing and preparing onely as often reading meditating and praying some guiding vs in the search it selfe and these I make to bee fiâ—…e Whereof the first is the knowledge of the rule of faith and the practise of the Saints according to the same The second a due consideration what will follow vpon our interpretation agreeing with or contrary to the things receiued amongst Christians In which consideration the conference of other places of Scripture is necessary The third the consideration of the circumstances of the places interpreted the occasion of the words the things going before and following after The fourth the knowledge of all those histories arts and sciences which may helpe vs. The fifth the knowledge of the originall tongues and the phrases and idiotismes of the same In all these passages as I thinke there is nothing that the Diuell himselfe dareth gaine-say yet as if I had vttered some strange paradoxes and things neuer heard of before the Treatiser sayth my doctrine is commonly singular in so much that hee professeth hee thinketh hee may very well in some sort liken the platforme or order and Faith of a Church sette downe in my bookes of that argument to Sir Thomas Moores Vtopia and that there neither is nor euer was any such Church in the world as I describe and therevpon maketh shew as if hee would confute euery word that I haue in the place cited by him Verily I thinke it will not bee safe for mee to write or say that there is a GOD that GOD made heauen and earth or that hee sent his sonne into the world for he impugneth thinges as cleare as any of these as that an illumination of the mind is necessary to the vnderstanding of the Scripture inspired of God the thinges contained in it seeing the naturall man perceiueth not the thinges of GOD which are spiritually discerned whereas yet wee shall finde that hee canne say nothing against the necessity of such diuine illumination for the vnderstanding of the Scripture but hee might say as much against the necessity of the light of naturall reason for the vnderstanding of things naturally discernable For hee might aske as now hee doth touching this illumination how a man knoweth hee hath reason or the vse of reason and is not mad or drunke seeing such men as are soe distempered thinke they haue the vse of reason as well as any other and one kinde of answere will serue for both these doubtes For as men know they haue reason by the discerning of such things as are not discernable by the senses or sensitiue faculties which are organicall soe faithfull and beleeuing men that haue their mindes enlightned knowe they haue receiued such a new illumination in that they discerne thinges which before by the dimme sight of nature they could not and as men that are sober and in their right wittes doe certainely know they are soe though such as are madde or drunke thinke they are when they are not and soe deceiue themselues Soe men that haue true illumination of grace may certainely knowe they haue it though some franticke and braine-sicke men thinke they haue it when they haue it not The weaknesse of this assault it seemeth the Treatiser did perceiue and therefore hee assayleth vs another way and vndertaketh to proue that it is not necessary a man should be spirituall before hee vnderstandeth the Scriptures because then it would be consequent that our faith could not be builded vpon Scriptures as we thinke it is But I doubt hee will haue as bad successe as before For as there must bee a naturall light of reason shining in men before any thing naturally discernable canne euidently appeare vnto them to bee that it is and yet the perswasion men haue touching the beeing of such things buildeth it selfe vppon such euidence soe likewise there must be a light of grace shining in the vnderstanding of men before they can vnderstand the Scripture and yet the perswasion they haue of the trueth of diuine thinges may and doth build it selfe vppon the Scriptures vnderstood through such light Wherefore let vs see what hee hath yet more to say Whereas besides an illumination I require in him that will vnderstand the Scriptures a minde free from the thought of other things depending vpon God as the fountaine of illumination and desirous of trueth with resolution to embrace it though contrary to the conceipt of naturall men besides his former exception already answered he addeth these words I dislike these wordes desirous of truth with resolution to embrace it The like wherevnto I protest I neuer read nor heard to come from any man For is it possible there should any such man be found that should dislike it in vs that wee require in him that will vnderstand the Scripture a minde desirous of trueth with resolution to embrace it Surely it is for we haue met with such an one but he hath taken order by concealing his name that noe man shall make him blush by looking on him This doubtlesse is one of the sons of Belial that haue cast off the yoake that neither feare God nor reuerence men But what
ordering or as if it could doe any thing without Gods permission concurrence And this is all that Luther hath in the former or latter of the two places alleadged by the Treatiser for hee hath no word of absolute necessity but of Gods most wise prouident direction of our wils in all their choices desires and actions And though else-where hee approue the saying of Wickliffe that all things fall out by a kinde of absolute necessitie yet he interpreteth himselfe to meane neither naturall necessity nor coaction but infallibility of event in that all things fall out most certainly as God thinketh good to dispose and order them Wherefore seeing the Treatiser can fasten no contradiction vpon Luther touching free-will let vs proceede to see what exceptions hee taketh to that defence I make of his altering of his judgement in some other thinges My defence is that it was not strange for him to alter his judgement in some poynts of good moment seeing Saint Augustine the greatest of all the Fathers and the Angelicall Doctour did so before him His exception against this my defence consisteth of two parts vvhereof the first is that Luthers changing of his opinion argueth hee was not extraordinarily and immediatly taught of God which vvee easily graunt and that hee built his fayth vpon his owne vnconstant reason which the Treatiser vvill neuer proue to bee consequent vpon the alteration of his judgement in some poynts of religion for that otherwise Augustine might be conuinced to haue so builded his fayth likewise who altered his judgement touching as great matters as euer Luther did For whereas formerly hee attributed the election of such as were chosen to eternall life to the foresight of their future fayth after hee entred into the conflict with the Pelagians he disclaymed it as a meere Pelagian conceipt The second that Saint Augustine vvriting vvhen he vvas yet a nouice in Christian religion and not fully instructed erred in some poynts vvhich errours hauing receiued better instruction hee disclaimed and that before some articles of Christian religion were so throughly discussed defined in the Church as afterwards vpon the rising of new heresies he spake not so aptly properly as was needfull in succeeding times and therefore retracted what he had vttered but that it was not therefore lawfull for Luther to leape vp and downe hither thither and to change his faith accordingly as his fancie ledde him For answere vvherevnto I say that Luther changed not his faith according to fancie nor altered his judgement in any poynt of Christian doctrine generally constantly agreed on in that Church vvherein hee liued For as I haue else-where proued at large none of the thinges vvherein vvee at this day dissent from the present Church of Rome vvere generally constantly beleeued and receiued as articles of fayth in the dayes of our Fathers in that Church vvherein they liued died so that in this respect there will bee no difference betweene the case of Luther Augustine or Aquinas who as the Treatiser confesseth altered corrected their former opinions touching sundry points of doctrine not determined by the Church without any note of inconstancy or building their faith vpon their owne vnconstant reason And thus haue I runne through both parts of the Treatise of the grounds of the olde new Religion so that I might here end but that the Authour thereof addeth in the end an Appendix in confutation of a booke written by M. Crashaw concerning Romish forgeries falsifications wherein among other things bee endeauoureth to proue there could be no such corruption of the Fathers Writings in former times as M. Crashaw conceiueth because I say the Papists were onely a faction in the Church and that there were euer diverse in the middest of all the confusions of the Papacie agreeing with vs who alwayes opposed themselues against such as sought to advance Papall tyranny Popish superstition who he thinketh if there were any such were carefull to preserue the Fathers Workes from corruption For answer whereunto wee must note that the corruptions of the Fathers Writings are of three sorts either by putting out base counterfeit stuffe vnder their honourable names or by putting in some things into their true indubitate Workes not well sorting with the same or by taking something out of them That many absurd things haue beene published vnder the names of holy Fathers no man can make any doubt that looketh into the Workes of Augustine Hicrome others with which many things censured iudged to bee Apocryphall by our Adversaries themselues are mingled Now if in their iudgement this first kinde of corruption of the Fathers Workes might be in former times notwithstanding such good men as they thinke were euer in the Church who willingly and wittingly would giue no consent to any such corruption why may not wee say that some things might bee added or detracted from the indubitate writings of the Fathers notwithstanding any thing they could doe to the contrary whom wee suppose in the middest of Papall confusions to haue opposed themselues against errour idolatry and superstition then by some brought into the Church and to haue giuen testimony to that truth which we now maintaine so that this obiection is easily answered What he hath against others I doubt not but they will take notice of and that he shall heare from them in due time to whom I leaue him The end of the second part THE THIRD PART CONTAINING A BRIEFE EXAMINATION OF SVCH PRETENDED PROOFES for Romish Religion and Recusancie as are produced and violently wrested by a late Pamphleter out of the former bookes IN the Epistle to the Lords of the Councell hee first complaineth of the long and manifold supposed miseries of English Pseudo-Catholiques Secondly hee imputeth the same to the Puritanes as if they had beene procured principally by them and for their cause Thirdly hee proueth that not onely those Puritanes that refuse externall conformity but such also as for a fashion follow it are guilty of the proceedings against the Romanists because the greatest number of Protestant Writers doe teach that there is noe such essentiall and substantiall difference betweene Protestants and Puritanes but that they are of one Church Faith and Religion A strange kind of proofe yet these are his words The pennes and pulpits of Puritanes and their Printers will sufficiently write preach and publish to the world by whom and to what purpose no small part of these afflictions haue beene vrged and incited against vs not onely by those few which refuse your externall conformity but such as for a fashion follow it to retaine themselues in authority For proofe whereof the greatest number of the present Protestant Writers D. Sutcliffe D. Doue D. Field M. Willet Wootton Middleton c. do teach there is no substantiall essentiall or materiall point of difference in religion betweene Protestants and Puritanes but they are of one Church
Faith and Religion His meaning it seemeth is that all Protestantes acknowledging Puritanes to bee of one Church with them are Puritanes and therefore hee would haue all to know that howsoeuer hee make shew of blaming Puritanes onely or principally yet in truth hee equally condemneth all and that therefore hee doth but dissemble or say hee knoweth not what But do all these Protestant writers named by him teach that there is no materiall difference betweene protestants and Puritanes Surely no. For touching my selfe I neuer wrote any such thing neither in the place cited by him nor any where else so that hee beginneth with a manifest and shamelesse vntruth But I doe the more willingly pardon him this fault for that it seemeth hee doth not consider what he writeth For in the title of his booke hee professeth that hee will take the proofes of his Catholique religion and Recusancy onely from the writings of such Protestant Diuines as haue beene published since the raigne of his Maiesty ouer this kingdome for that as hee sayth they often change their opinions at the least at the comming of euery new Prince And yet page 30. hee citeth the Bishop of Winchesters booke written many yeares agoe and Doctor Couell his booke in defence of Master Hooker as often as any other which yet was written in her late Maiesties time But what if I had written that howsoeuer there are some materiall differences betweene Protestants and Puritanes as it pleaseth him to stile them yet not so essentiall or substantiall but that they may bee of one Church faith and religion What absurdity would haue followed Would it be consequent from hence as he inferreth that it is not materiall with vs whether men be of a true or false religion of any or none at all Haue there not beene nay are there not greater differences betwixt Papists who yet will be angry if they be not esteemed to be all of one Church faith and religion Did not Pope Iohn the two and twentith thinke that the soules of the just shall not see God till the generall resurrection and did not the French King that then was with the whole vniuersity of Paris condemne the same opinion as hereticall with sound of trumpet Did not Ambrosius Catharinus teach that a man may be certaine with the certainty of faith that he is in state of grace and Soto the contrary Did not Pighius Contarenus and the Authors of the booke called Antididagma Coloniense defend imputatiue justice and other Papists reiect it Did not some amongst them teach the merit of condignity doe not others moued with a sober moderation thinke there is no such merit Doe not some thinke the Pope is vniuersall Bishop others that he is not but prime Bishop onely Doe not some teach that all Bishops receiue their jurisdiction from the Pope others the contrary Doe not some thinke the Pope may papally erre and others that he cannot Doe not some of them thinke he is temporall Lord of all the world and others the contrary Doe not so 〈◊〉 them thinke he may depose Princes and others that he may not is there not a very materiall point of difference amongst Papists touching predestination Let them shew vs if they can so many and materiall differences betweene Protestants and Puritanes And yet these were all of one Church in their judgement yea Pope Stephen who reuersed all the actes of Formosus his predecessour pronounced the ordinations of all those to bee voide whom he had ordained brought his dead body out of the graue into the Councell stript it out of the Papall vesture put vpon it a lay habit and cutting off two fingers of his right hand cast it into Tyber Pope Iohn his successour who called a Councell of 74. Bishops to confirme the ordinations of Formosus the Arch-bishoppes of France and the King being present at Rauenna burned the acts of the Synod which Stephen had called to condemne Formosus and Sergius who againe condemned Formosus and pronounced all his ordinations to be voide reuersing the acts of Pope Iohn and his Synode were all of one Church of one communion faith and religion Nay which is more strange when there were three Anti-popes sitting in diuerse places accursing one another with all their Adherents and that for many yeares yet still they were of one Church of one communion faith and religion Yet may not wee inferre from hence against them as they doe against vs that it is not materiall with them whether men be of a true or false religion of any or none at all Surely they are more priuiledged then other men for some of them may take the Oath of Allegeance disclaime the Popes power and right to intermeddle with Princes states and other refuse it and yet still be Catholicke brethren in the communion of the same Church Yea a Priest may like of this Oath and perswade others to take it and afterwards goe ouer the Sea and alter his iudgement and returning choose rather to suffer death then to take it againe yet no man must take notice of it But if a Minister subscribe and afterwards vpon ill aduice refuse to doe the same againe then all the courses of our Religion are such that by no outward signes communion profession protestation or subscription a man can tell who is of what religion amongst vs. But let vs passe from the Epistle to the booke it selfe CHAP. I. IN the first chapter which is of the supreame and most preeminent authority of the true church and how necessary it is to finde it follow the directions and rest in the iudgement of it he hath these words Doctor Field a late Protestant writer beginneth his Dedicatory Epistle to the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie before his Bookes of the church in this manner There is no part of heauenly doctrine more necessary in these dayes of so many intricate controversies of Religion then diligently to search out which amongst all the societies of men in the world is that blessed company of holy ones that household of Faith that spouse of Christ and church of the liuing God which is the pillar and ground of truth that so we may embrace her communion follow her directions and rest in her iudgement And after some other things cited out of others he addeth the ioyning with the true church is so needfull a thing that D. Field concludeth There is no saluation remission of sinnes or hope of eternall life out of the church To what purpose this allegation serueth I cannot conceiue for there is nothing in any of these speeches of mine that euer any protestant doubted of or from which any thing may bee concluded against vs or for the papists The church of God saith Master Caluine is named the Mother of the Faithfull neither is there any entrance into eternall life vnlesse shee conceiue vs in her wombe vnlesse shee
Iewes being of two sorts Hebrewes and Hellenistes The Hebrewes deliuered to the Christian church onely the 22 bookes of the old Testament whereof there is no question to bee the absolute rule and Canon of our faith and tooke no notice of the bookes now in question But the Hellenists deliuered with them these also that are questioned if not to be the canon of our faith yet to be a canon and rule of direction for matters of conuersation and manners and to bee read at least ad aedificationem plebis for the edification of the people though not for confirmation of matters of doctrine And truely I am perswaded it cannot bee proued that the Hellenists euer receiued these bookes in question as any part of the canon of faith or absolutely canonicall but in a sort only in that they containe a good direction of mens manners But saith hee D. Field speaking of this volume of the Hellenists addeth These bookes which are doubted of ioyned in one volume with those 22 whereof there is no question were translated out of Greeke into Latine and read by the Latine Church in that translation and intreating of Saint Augustine and the Latine Fathers especially in Africa and the third Carthaginian Councell writeth thus They reckon the bookes of Scripture according as they found them in vse in the Latine Church then Doctour Field hath absolutely granted that in the Latine Church vnder which England is these Scriptures were euer esteemed as Canonicall They seeme greatly to desire to end the controuersies betweene them and vs by publicke disputation and challenge vs in such sort as if we durst not shew our selues where they should appeare but surely if they performe no more when they come to disputing then they doe when they write nor bring no better arguments when they oppose in our schooles then they publish in their bookes the very boyes in our Vniuersities will hisse them out For how will this consequence euer be made good Augustine and the Africanes in the third Councell of Carthage reckon the bookes of Scripture as they found them joyned in one volume translated out of Greeke into Latine not exactly noting the difference that is betweene them and so seeme to admitte into the canon those bookes which wee reiect therefore the bookes which wee reiect were euer esteemed to bee canonicall in the Latine church seeing Hierome at the same time translating the Scriptures out of Hebrew exactly learning which bookes pertained to the Hebrew canon reiected all besides the 22 Hebrew bookes as the Grecians did before him and as after him almost all men of note in the Latine church did But hee will say Augustine and the Africanes found the bookes reiected by vs in vse in the Latine church as well as the other which wee admit to be canonicall therefore they were euer esteemed to be canonicall in the Latine Church vnder which England is This proofe is too weake for as I haue noted in the place cited by him the prayer of Manasses confessed by our Aduersaries to bee Apocryphall the third and fourth of Esdras and the booke called Pastor were likewise in vse in the Latine Church that is read by them of the Latine church cited by them in their writings and many things translated out of them into the publicke prayers liturgie of the church yet will it not follow that these bookes were euer esteemed as canonicall in the Latine church vnder which England was It is true indeede that Augustine when hee was blamed for citing some testimonies out of the bookes reiected by vs defended his so doing by the practise of the church which had anciently read the same in her publicke assemblies but not much pressing the authoritie of them saith hee can proue the things for proofe whereof he alleaged those bookes out of other that are not doubted of So that Caietanes opinion is not improbable that Augustine did not thinke these bookes to be absolutely canonicall but in a sort onely in that they containe many godly instructions and a good direction for mens manners That which hee addeth in the last place that these controuersed bookes being translated out of Greeke into Latine with the other originally written in Hebrew were in likelihood first deliuered by the Hellenists or Iewes of the dispersion to the Greeke Churches as being in Greeke amongst them is to no purpose For though we should graunt they were so deliuered all together yet they of the Greeke Church hauing an eye to the Canon of the Hebrewes put a difference betweene the one and the other and neuer accounted these to bee canonicall as I haue largely proued out of the testimonies of Melito Origen Athanasius Nazianzen Cyrill Epiphanius and Damascene Thus haue we examined the allegations of this chapter and found them very weake and frivolous CHAP. 5. IN the fifth chapter hee vndertaketh to proue that Protestants confesse the vulgar translation to bee the best and their own the worst But because he alleageth nothing to this purpose out of any thing that I haue written I will passe from this to the next not doubting but they who are wronged by him will make him know that he vndertaketh much and proueth little CHAP. 6. IN the sixth chapter wherein he vndertaketh to proue by the confession of Protestants that the true lawfull and iuridicall exposition of Scriptures is in the Romane Church not with the Protestants he endeauoureth to shew that I confesse so much His words are these D. Field confesseth that neither conference of places nor consideration of the Antecedentia Consequentia nor looking into the originals are of any force vnlesse we finde the things which we conceiue to be vnderstood meant in the places interpreted to be consonant to the rule of faith therefore hee confesseth that the warranted exposition of Scripture belongeth to the Romane church This consequence I deny as strange absurd wherefore let vs see if he make any shew of prouing it He addeth that I teach the rule of faith must be tryed either by the generall practise of the Church the renowned of all ages or the Pastors of an Apostolicall Church which as the world can witnesse no Protestant can make claime vnto as if from hence it would follow which is the thing he goeth about to proue or else he doth nothing that all warranted exposition of Scripture belongeth to the Romane Church Whatsoeuer become of the consequence of this argument there are many exceptions to be taken to the antecedent of it For first I doe not giue these three rules whereof he speaketh whereby to know the rule of faith but to know true traditions from false Secondly I do not say the generall practise of the Church the renowned of all ages the Pastors of an Apostolicall church are the rules whereby true traditions may be knowne from false but the generall practise of the church frō the beginning the report testimony of the most renowned
cleering of this point and the answering of this obiection we must remember that whereas the ordinary and set meanes of saluation is Baptisme so that no man carelessely neglecting or wilfully contemning it can be saued The Fathers notwithstanding doe constantly teach that if men be excluded by ineuitable impossibilitie they may be saued without it and that faith and the inward conuersion of the heart flying vnto GOD in Christ through the gracious instinct and sweete motion of the sanctifying spirit may bee reckoned a kind of Baptisme because thereby they obtaine all that which should haue beene sought in the Baptisme of water And because if an ordinary degree of faith doe sometimes obtaine saluation without the Baptisme of water much more that which maketh men willing to suffer death for CHRIST therefore they affirme that Martyrdome and the constant suffering for Christ is also fitly named Baptisme So that there are three kinds of Baptisme Flaminis Fluminis Sanguinis Of water of the spirit and bloud It appeareth by Bernards Epistle to Hugo de sancto victore of this Argument that there were some in his time who though they thought that Martyrdome doth supply the defecte of Baptisme yet would not grant that faith and the inward conuersion of the heart without such suffering doth so and therefore though they confessed that Martyrs not baptised with the Baptisme of water may be saved yet they denyed that others though repenting beleeuing and conuerting vnto God can possiblie obtaine remission of their sinnes without the sacramentall washing Against these Barnarde reasoneth in this sorte If Martyrdome doe supply the defect of Baptisme it is not poena but fides not the suffering but the faith of the sufferer that makes it bee of so great force Nam absque fide quid est Martyrium nisi poena For were it not for faith what were the passions of Martyrs but bitter and vncomfortable torments onely Shall then that which maketh Martyrdome bee esteemed in steade of Baptisme be so infirme and weake that what it giues to another thing it shall be denyed to haue it selfe The sheading of our blood for Christ is an vndoubted proofe and demonstration of a very great constant and vnmoueable faith but it is not God but men that take notice of faith by these proofes For God doth often see and pronounce the faith of a man dying in peace to be as great as the faith of a Martyr for that though it be not proued by Martyrdome it is ready for Martyrdome and animates him that hath it to suffer any thing if neede should require This which Barnarde hath thus deliuered touching this point is the constant doctrine of the Fathers neither doe wee or the Authours of the Centuries dislike any thing in it but wee condemne the vaine and idle disputes of the Romish Schools touching these three kinds of Baptisme especially in that they teach concerning Martyrdome that it giueth grace ex opere operato so that if a man not iustified nor yet in the state of grace come vnto it and do not ponere obicem hee shall by vertue thereof obtaine grace haue the effects of it wrought in him in such sort as in the Baptisme of water This not onely wee condemne but many amongst themselues affirming that Martyrdome hath no force to worke or procure our good farther then the greatnesse of our faith and loue which is therein tried approued and made manifest doth worke it The Centurie writers reproue not the Fathers for any such errour as the Papists doe maintaine touching the force of Martyrdome but they dislike that the Fathers did vse so many Hyperboles and Rhetoricall amplifications in the praysing of Martyrdome though in a good sense that the Romish Sophisters haue from thence taken occasion of their errour touching the merite satisfaction and expiation of sinnes which they fancie to bee in the blood of Martyrs of which impietie the Fathers neuer thought Thus then it doth not appeare by any thing which Bellarmine hath or can alleadge that wee confesse the faith of the Romanists to bee the auncient profession of the primitiue Christians but rather the contrary is constantly defended by all our Diuines in the places produced by him CHAP. 22. Wherein is examined their proofe of the Antiquitie of their doctrine taken from a false supposall that our doctrine is nothing else but heresie long since condemned LEt vs therefore come to his third part wherein hee vndertaketh to proue that the doctrine of the reformed Churches opposite to the faith and profession of Rome is the same with the old heresies long since condemned by the vniuersall consent of the whole Christian world In this part hee is so shamelesse that I blush at the very thought of that hee so doctorally and grauely deliuereth as if it were truer than trueth it selfe whereas in his conscience he knoweth it to be an vntrueth so grosse and apparant that the diuell himselfe will bee ashamed of it Hee reckoneth twenty seuerall heresies of damned Arch-heretickes euery of which he pronounceth that wee silly men defend and imbrace as the sacred trueth of God Let vs for our better satisfaction and refutation of so vile a slaunder take a view of the particulars Hee placeth in the front the heresie of Simon Magus and his disciples which was that the Angels made the world that the Prophets were inspired from them and deliuered their pleasure not the will and pleasure of the high God and that therefore the things commaunded by them were not in themselues good or to bee respected that God was displeased with their gouernment and would exempt his own from it haue them free to doe what they list for that men are saued by his fauour and not in doing those things which though they were commaunded and imposed as good by Moyses and the Prophets mis-ledde by the Angels yet were not naturally so but by accident onely This he saith is the errour of the Protestants for they thinke God made the world and not the Angels that Moyses and the Prophets spake as they were inspired of him that the things they cōmaunded are just and holy that there is no way of saluation but by hauing that righteousnesse the Law of Moses prescribeth which all they that are saued haue First by imputation of that perfect righteousnesse and obedience to Moses Law which was found in Christ to merit our good secondly by the operation infusion of sanctifying grace from him making them to hate sinne to loue righteousnesse walke in the wayes of Gods commaundements so that sinne hath no more dominion ouer them Surely I thinke if the diuell himselfe fate as Iudge in this case hee could not but condemne the impudencie of this his shamelesse disciple But he addeth Eunomius taught that if a man would embrace his profession he should bee saued though he continued without repentance remorse in all maner of most damnable wickednesse
that others whom Augustine refuteth in his booke De fide operibus were of opinion that all Christians how damnably soeuer they liue holding the trueth of Christian profession may and shall be saued This he saith is the doctrine of the Protestants If any of vs euer wrote spake or thought any such thing let GOD forget euer to doe good vnto vs and let our prayers bee rejected from his presence but if this bee as vile a slaunder as euer Satanist devised the Lord reward them that haue beene the Authours devisers of it according to their workes But let vs see doth he make no shew of proofe doubtlesse he doeth Luther saith he pronounceth that there is no way to haue accesse vnto God to treate with him touching reconciliation acceptation into his fauour but by faith that God regardeth not workes that a true Christian is so rich in faith that he cannot perish though he would nor how wickedly soeuer he liue vnlesse he refuse and cease to beleeue For the cleering of these places of Luther wee must remember that which Illyricus hath fitly noted to this purpose that there are two Courts of Gods Iudgements most righteous proceeding towards the sons of men the one he calleth forum iustificationis the other novae obedientiae In the first hee saith God requireth perfect righteousnesse fully answering that his Law prescribeth which being no where to bee found but in Christ no way apprehended but by faith in this respect sitting in this Court of exact tryall he regardeth no workes vertues or qualities finding nothing of worth or worthy to be respected but looketh to our faith onely for Christs sake onely at the sole and onely suite of Faith forgiueth sin imputeth righteousnesse Notwithstanding because he neuer saith to any sinner Thy sinnes are remitted but that he addeth goe and sinne no more that vpon perill of forfeiting the benefite receiued and that some worse thing should betide vnto him therefore there is another Court wherein he sitteth giueth commaundement for new obedience and workes of righteousnes though not requiring so strictly that perfection which formerly hee did but accepting our weake indevours study of well doing and in this sort it is that hee will judge vs in the last Day according to our workes Thus then wee see how that though Faith be neuer alone yet in procuring vs acceptation with God it is alone and that though God regard none of our vertues actions qualities as being of any worth in the strictnes of his Iudgment but reject them as vnpure vncleane respect nothing but the humble sute petition of Faith for the purpose of justification yet when we are justified he requireth of vs a new obedience judgeth vs according to it crowneth vs for it That which Luther addeth that a man cannot perish though hee would and how wickedly soeuer hee liue vnlesse he cease to beleeue may seeme hard at the first sight but not to them that doe knowe that Luther is farre from thinking that men may bee saued how wickedly soeuer they liue for he constantly teacheth that Iustifying faith cannot remaine in that man that sinneth with full consent nor be found in that soule wherein are peccata vastantia conscientiam as Melancthon speaketh following Augustine that is raging ruling preuailing laying wast and destroying the integrity of the conscience which should resist against euill and condemne it This is all then that Luther saith that no wickednesse with which faith may stand can hurt vs soe long as faith continueth but if sinne once become regnant and so exclude faith wee are in the state of damnation Against this doctrine of Luther or any part thereof neither Bellarmine nor the gates of hell shall euer be able to prevaile Wee see then how iustly wee are charged with the heresies of the Simonians Eunomians and the like monsters surely as iustly as Bellarmine may be charged with true and honest dealing in this imputation and other that follow CHAP. 23. Of the heresie of Florinus making God the author of sinne falsely imputed to Caluine and others THe next heresie which they say wee are fallen into is the heresie of Florinus who taught that God is the cause and author of sinne This he sayth Caluin Luther Martyr and sundry other of the greatest Diuines of the reformed churches haue defended in their writings Of this sinfull wicked and lying report wee are sure GOD is not the Author but the diuell and therefore wee doe not fully accord with Florinus But that it may appeare how truly these men write and speake of things of soe great moment I will onely positiuely lay downe what wee thinke of this matter and the adversaries slaunders will bee sufficiently refuted For the clearing of our opinion touching this poynt I will first set downe the different kinds of sinne Secondly what God may be sayd to will or decree touching the first entrance thereof And thirdly what when it is entred Sinne as wee know is nothing else but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transgression of the law The law is partly affirmatiue requiring partly negatiue forbidding the doing of a thing Hence it followeth that all sinne is either of omission or commission Sinne of omission is the not doing of that the Creature is bound to do Sinne of Commission is the doing of that the creature is bound not to doe The not doing of that the creature is bound to doe God may be sayd to will and decree foure wayes First by effectuall opposing against the doing of it in this sort it is impious to thinke that God decreed the omission or not doing of that the creature stands bound to doe Secondly by discouraging and disswading from the doing of it which is no lesse absurd and impious then the former Thirdly by deniall of that grace concurrence and assistance without which it cannot be done this cannot bee imagined in respect of the state of mans first creation but wee must make God the Author of sin and therefore there is none of vs that doth attribute any such thing vnto God But contrarywise Caluin whom Bellarmine seemeth most to challenge noteth fitly to this purpose out of Augustine that God gaue Adam posse si vellet sed non velle quod potuit power to stand and continue in his vprightnesse if he would though hee did not inseparably hould him to it but left him to his owne choice whence followed that euill we now complaine of Fourthly by deniall of that grace assistance and concurrence without which he seeth the creature will not be moued nor wonne to doe it though it haue other more then sufficient graces motiues and encouragements to induce it therevnto In this fourth sense many feare not to say that God negatiuely or privatiuely decreed the sinne of omission or the not doing of that the creature was bound to doe in that he decreed the deniall of