more unlearned and unhappy If I bee not able to discover what feates the Divell wrought in that time of darkenesse wherin men were not so vigilant in marking his conveyances and such as might see somewhat were not so forward in writing bookes of their Observations must the infelicitie of that age wherein there was little learning and lesse writing yea which for want of Writers as Cardinal Baronius acknowledgeth hath been usually named the Obscure age must this I say inforce me to yeeld that the Divell brought in no tares all that while but let slip the opportunitie of so darke a night and slept himselfe for company There are other meanes left unto us whereby we may discerne the Tares brought in by the instruments of Satan from the good seed which was sowen by the Apostles of Christ beside this observation of times and seasons which will often faile vs. Ipsa doctrina eorum saith Tertullian cum Apostolicâ comparata ex diversitate contrarietate suâ pronuntiabit neque Apostoti alicujus auctoris esse neque Apostolici Their very doctrine it selfe being compared with the Apostolick by the diversitie and contrariety thereof will pronounce that it had for author neyther any Apostle nor any man Apostolicall For there cannot be a better prescription against Hereticall novelties then that which our Saviour Christ useth against the Pharisees From the beginning it vvas not so nor a better preservative against the infection of seducers that are crept in unawares then that which is prescribed by the Apostle Iude earnestly to contend for the faith vvhich vvas once delivered unto the Saints Now to the end we might know the certaintie of those things wherein the Saints were at the first instructed God hath provided that the memoriall thereof should be recorded in his owne Booke that it might remaine for the time to come for ever and ever He then who out of that Booke is able to demonstrate that the doctrine or practice now prevailing swarveth from that which was at first established in the Church by the Apostles of Christ doth as strongly prove that a change hath beene made in the middle times as if hee were able to nominate the place where the time when and the person by whom any such corruption was first brought in In the Apostles dayes when a man had examined himselfe hee was admitted unto the Lords Table there to eate of that bread and drinke of that cup as appeareth plainly 1. Cor. 11.28 In the Church of Rome at this day the people are indeed permitted to eate of the bread if bread they may call it but not allowed to drinke of the cup. Must all of us now shut our eyes and sing Sicut erat in principio nunc unlesse we be able to tell by whom and when this first institution was altered By S. Pauls order who would have all things done to edification Christians should pray with understanding and not in an unknowne language as may be seene in the fourteenth chapter of the same Epistle to the Corinthians The case is now so altered that the bringing in of a tongue not understood which hindred the edifying of Babel it selfe and scattered the builders thereof is accounted a good meanes to further the edifying of your Babel and to hold her followers together Is not this then a good ground to resolve a mans judgement that things are not now kept in that order wherin they were set at first by the Apostles although he be not able to point unto the first author of the disorder And as wee may thus discover innovations by having recourse unto the first and best times so may wee doe the like by comparing the state of things present with the middle times of the Church Thus I finde by the constant and approved practice of the auncient Church that all sorts of people men women and children had free libertic to reade the holy Scriptures I finde now the contrary among the Papists and shall I say for all this that they have not removed the bounds which were set by the Fathers because perhaps I cannot name the Pope that ventured to make the first inclosure of these commons of Gods people I heare S. Hierâ—me say Iudith Tobiae Macchabaeorum libros legit quidem Ecclesia sed eos inter Canonicas Scripturas non recipit The Church doth reade indeed the books of Iudith and Toby and the Macchabees but doth not receive them for Canonicall Scripture I see that at this day the Church of Rome receiveth them for such May not I then conclude that betwixt S. Hieromes time and ours there hath beene a change and that the Church of Rome now is not of the same judgement with the Church of God theâ— howsoever I cannot precisely lay downe the time wherein shee first thought her selfe to be wiser herein then her Forefathers But here our Adversary closeth with us and layeth downe a number of points held by them and denied by us which he undertaketh to make good as well by the expresse testimonies of the Fathers of the Primitive Church of Rome as also by good and certaine grounds out of the sacred Scriptures if the Fathers authoritie will not suffice Where if hee would change his order and give the sacred Scriptures the precedency hee should therein do more right to God the author of them who well deserveth to have audience in the first place and withall ease both himselfe and us of a needlesse labour in seeking any further authority to compose our differences For if he can produce as he beareth us in hand he can good and certaine grounds oâ—t of the sacred Scriptures for the points in controversie the matter is at an end he that will not rest satisfied with such evidences as these may if he please travaile further and speed worse Therefore as S. Augustine heretofore provoked the Donatists so provoke I him Auferantur chartae humanae sonent voces divinae ede mihi unam Scripturae vocem pro parte Donati Let humane vvritings be removed let Gods voyce sound bring mee onâ—e voyce of the Scripture for the part of Donatus Produce but one cleere testimony of the sacred Scripture for the Popes part and it shall suffice alledge what authority you list without Scripture and it cannot suffice Wee reverence indeed the ancient Fathers as it is fit we should and hold it our duety to rise up before the hoare head and to honour the person of the aged but still with reservation of the respect we owe to their Father and ours that Ancient of dayes the hayre of vvhose head is like the pure vvooll We may not forget the lesson which our great Master hath taught us Call no man your Father upon the earth for one is your Father which is in heaven Him therefore alone doe wee acknowledge for the Father of our Faith no other Father doe we know upon whose bare credite
his Commentaries upon Moses adviseth his Reader not to loath the new sense of the holy Scripture for this that it dissenteth from the ancient Doctors but to search more exactly the text and context of the Scripture and if he find it agree to praise God that hath not tyed the exposition of the Scriptures to the senses of the ancient Doctors But leaving comparisons which you know are odious the envie whereof notwithstanding your owne Doctors and Masters you see helpe us to beare off and teach us how to decline I now come to the examination of the particular points by you propounded It should indeed be your part by right to be the Assailant who first did make the Challenge and I who sustaine the person of the Defendant might here wel stay accepting only your challenge expecting your encounter Yet do not I meane at this time to answer your Bill of Challenge as Bills are usually answered in the Chancerie with saving all advantages to the Defendant I am content in this also to abbridge my selfe of the libertie w ch I might lawfully take make a further demōstration of my forwardnes in undertaking the maintenāce of so good a cause by giving the first onset my selfe OF TRADITIONS TO begin therefore with Traditions which is your forlorne Hope that in the first place we are to set upon this must I needes tell you before we begin that you much mistake the matter if you thinke that Traditions of all sorts promiscuously are struck at by our Religion We willingly acknowledge that the word of God which by some of the Apostles was set downe in writing was both by themselves and others of their fellow-labourers delivered by word of mouth and that the Church in succeeding ages was bound not only to preserve those sacred writings committed to her trust but also to deliver unto her children vivâ voce the forme of wholsome words contayned therein Traditions therefore of this nature come not within the compasse of our controversie the question being betwixt us de ipsâ doctrinâ traditâ not de tradendi modo touching the substance of the doctrine delivered not of the maner of delivering it Againe it must be remembred that here wee speake of doctrine delivered as the word of God that is of points of religion revealed unto the Prophets and Apostles for the perpetuall information of Gods people not of rites and ceremonies and other ordinances which are left to the disposition of the Church and consequently be not of divine but of positive and humane right Traditions therefore of this kinde likewise are not properly brought within the circuit of this question But that Traditions of men should be obtruded unto us for articles of Religion and admitted for parts of Gods worship or that any Traditions should be accepted for parcels of Gods word beside the holy Scriptures and such doctrines as are either expressely therein contayned or by sound inference may be deduced from thence I thinke wee have reason to gainsay As long as for the first wee have this direct sentence from God himselfe Matth. 15. In vaine doe they worship me teaching for doctrines the Commandements of men And for the second the expresse warrant of the Apostle 2. Tim. 3. testifying of the holy Scriptures not onely that they are able to make us wise unto salvation which they should not be able to doe if they did not containe all things necessary to salvation but also that by them the man of God that is the minister of Gods word unto whom it appertaineth to declare all the counsell of God may be perfectly instructed to every good worke which could not be if the Scriptures did not containe all the counsell of God which was fit for him to learne or if there were any other word of God which he were bound to teach that should not be contained within the limits of the Booke of God Now whether herein we disagree from the doctrine generally received by the Fathers we referre our selves to their owne sayings For Rituall Traditions unwritten and for doctrinall Traditions written indeed but preserved also by the continual preaching of the Pastors of the Church successively wee find no man a more earnest advocate then Tertullian Yet hee having to deale with Hermogenes the hereticke in a question concerning the faith whether all things at the beginning were made of nothing presseth him in this manner with the argument ab authoritate negativé for avoyding whereof the Papists are driven to flie for succour to their unwritten verities Whether all things vvere made of any subject matter I have as yet read no where Let those of Hermogenes his shop shew that it is written If it be not written let them feare that Woe which is allotted to such as adde or take away In the two Testaments saith Origen every word that appertayneth to God may be required and discussed and all knowledge of things out of them may be understood But if any thing doe remaine which the holy Scripture doth not determine no other third Scripture ought to be received for to authorize any knowledge but that which remaineth we must commit to the fire that is we must reserve it to God For in this present world God would not have us to know all things Hippolytus the Martyr in his Homily against the Heresie of Noëtus There is one God whom wee doe not otherwise acknowledge brethren but out of the holy Scriptures For as he that would professe the wisedome of this world cannot otherwise attaine hereunto unlesse hee reade the doctrine of the Philosophers so whosoever of us will exercise pietie toward God cannot learne this elsewhere but out of the holy Scriptures Whatsoever therefore the holy Scriptures doe preach that let us know and whatsoever they teach that let us understand Athanasius in his Oration against the Gentiles toward the beginning The holy Scriptures given by inspiration of God are of themselves sufficient to the discoverie of truth S. Ambrose The things which vve finde not in the Scriptures how can vve use them And againe I reade that he is the first I reade that hee is not the second they who say he is the second let them shew it by reading It is well saith S. Hilary that thou art content vvith those things vvhich be written And in another place he commendeth Constantius the Emperour for desiring the faith to be ordered onely according to those things that be vvritten S. Basil Beleeve those things vvhich are written the things which are not written seeke not It is a manifest falling from the faith and an argument of arrogancy either to reject any point of those things that are written or to bring in any of those things that are not written He teacheth further that every word and action ought to be confirmed by the testimony of the holy Scripture for confirmation of the faith of the
good and the confusion of the evill and that it is the propertie of a faithfull man to bee fully perswaded of the truth of those things that are delivered in the holy Scripture and not to dare eyther to reject or to adde any thing thereunto For if whatsoever is not of faith be sinne as the Apostle saith and faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God then vvhatsoever is without the holy Scripture being not of faith must needs be sinne Thus farre S. Basil. In like maner Gregory Nyssene S. Basils brother layeth this for a ground vvhich no man should contradict that in that onely the truth must be acknowledged wherein the seale of the Scripture testimony is to be seene And accordingly in another booke attributed also unto him we finde this conclusion made Forasmuch as this is upholden vvith no testimony of the Scripture as false vve will reject it Thus also S. Hierome disputeth against Helvidius· As vvee denye not those things that are written so vve refuse those things that are not vvritten That God was borne of a Virgin we beleeve because we reade it that Mary did marry after shee was delivered wee beleeve not because wee reade it not In those things saith S. Augustine vvhich are layd downe plainly in the Scriptures all those things are found which appertaine to faith and direction of life And againe Whatsoever ye heare from the holy Scriptures let that savour vvell unto you whatsoever is without them refuse lest you wander in a cloud And in another place All those things which in times past our ancestors have mentioned to be done toward mankind and have delivered unto us all those things also which we see and doe deliver unto our posteritie so farre as they appertaine to the seeking and maintayning of true Religion the holy Scripture hath not passed in silence The holy Scripture saith S. Cyrill of Alexandria is sufficient to make them which are brought up in it wise and most approved and furnished with most sufficient understanding And againe That which the holy Scripture hath not said by what meanes should wee receive and account it among those things that be true Lastly in the writings of Theodoret wee meete with these kinde of speeches By the holy Scripture alone am I perswaded I am not so bold as to affirme any thing which the sacred Scripture passeth in silence It is an idle and a senselesse thing to seeke those things that are passed in silence Wee ought not to seeke those things which are passed in silence but rest in the things that are written By the verdict of these twelve men you may judge what opinion was held in those ancient times of such Traditions as did crosse either the verity or the perfection of the sacred Scripture which are the Traditions we set our selves against If now it be demanded in what Popes dayes the contrarie doctrine was brought in among Christians I answer that if S. Peter were ever Pope in his dayes it was that some seducers first laboured to bring in Will-worship into the Church against whom S. Paul opposing himselfe Coloss. 2. counteth it a sufficient argument to condemne all such inventions that they were the commandements and doctrines of men Shortly after them started up other Hereticks who taught that the truth could not be found out of the Scriptures by those to whom Tradition was unknowen forasmuch as it was not delivered by writing but by word of mouth for which cause S. Paul also should say Wee speake wisedome among them that be perfect The verie same Text doe the Iesuites alledge to prove the dignitie of manie mysteries to be such that they require silence and that it is unmeet they should bee opened in the Scriptures which are read to the whole world and therefore can onely be learned by unwritten Traditions Wherein they consider not how they make so neare an approach unto the confines of some of the ancientest Heretickes that they may well shake hands together For howsoever some of them were so madde as to say that they were wiser then the Apostles themselves and therefore made light account of the doctrine which they delivered unto the Church either by writing or by word of mouth yet all of them broake not forth into that open impietie the same mysterie of iniquitie wrought in some of Antichrists fore-runners then which is discovered in his ministers now They confessed indeed as witnesseth Tertullian that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing and differed not among themselves in their preaching but they say they revealed not all things unto all men some things they delivered openly and to all some things secretly and to a few because that Paul useth this speech unto Timothy O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust And againe That good thing which was committed unto thee keepe Which verie Texts the Iesuites likewise bring in to prove that there are some Traditions which are not contayned in the Scripture In the dayes of S. Hierome also this was wont to be the saying of Hereticks We are the sonnes of the wise men which from the beginning have delivered the doctrine of the Apostles unto us But those things saith that Father which they of themselves finde out and faine to have received as it were by Tradition from the Apostles without the authoritie and testimonies of the Scriptures the sword of God doth smite S. Chrysostome in like maner giveth this for a marke of Antichrist and of all spiritual theeves that they come not in by the doore of the Scriptures For the Scripture saith hee like unto a sure doore doth barre an entrance unto Hereticks safeguarding us in all things that we will and not suffering us to be deceived Whereupon he concludeth that who so useth not the Scriptures but commeth in otherwise that is betaketh himselfe to another and an unlawfull way he is a theefe How this mysterie of iniquitie wrought when Antichrist came unto his full growth and what experiments his followers gave of their theevish entry in this kind was well observed by the author of the book De unitate Ecclesiae thought by some to be Waltram Bishop of Naumburg who speaking of the Monks that for the upholding of Pope Hildebrands faction brought in schismes and heresies into the Church noteth this specially of them that despising the tradition of God they desired other doctrines and brought in maisteries of humane institution Against whom hee alledgeth the authoritie of their owne S. Benedict the father of the Monkes in the West writing thus The Abbot ought to teach or ordaine or command nothing which is without the precept of the Lord but his commandement or instruction should be spred as the leaven of divine righteousnesse in the minds of his Disciples Whereunto also hee might have added the testimonie of the two famous Fathers
answer of Ratrannus was directed had then in his Court a famous countrey-man of ours called Iohannes Scotus who wrote a booke of the same argument and to the same effect that the other had done This man for his extraordinarie learning was in England where hee lived in great account with King Alfred surnamed Iohn the wise and had verie lately a roome in the Martyrologe of the Church of Rome though now he be ejected thence Wee finde him indeed censured by the Church of Lyons and others in that time for certaine opinions which he delivered touching Gods foreknowledge and predestination before the beginning of the world Mans freewill and the concurrence thereof with Grace in this present world and the maner of the punishment of reprobate Men Angels in the world to come but we finde not anie where that his book of the Sacrament was condemned before the dayes of x Lanfranc who was the first that leavened that Church of England afterward with this corrupt doctrine of the carnall presence Till then this question of the reall presence continued still in debate and it was as free for anie man to follow the doctrine of Ratrannus or Iohannes Scotus therein as that of Paschasius Radbertus which since the time of Satans loosing obtayned the upper hand Men have often searched and doe yet often search how bread that is gathered of corne and through fires heate baked may be turned to Christs bodie or how wine that is pressed out of manie grapes is turned through one blessing to the Lords blood saith Aelfrick Abbat of Malmesburie in his Saxon Homily written about 650. yeares agoe His resolution is not onely the same with that of Ratrannus but also in manie places directly translated out of him as may appeare by these passages following compared with his Latin layd downe in the margent The bread and the wine which by the Priests ministery is hallowed shew one thing without to mens senses and another thing they call within to beleeving mindes Without they be seene bread wine both in figure and in taste and they be truely after their hallowing Christs body and his blood by spirituall mysterie So the holy font water that is called the well-spring of life is like in shape to other waters and is subject to corruption but the holy Ghosts might commeth to the corruptible water through the Priests blessing and it may after wash the body and soule from all sinne by spirituall vertue Behold now we see two things in this one creature in true nature that water is corruptible moisture and in spirituall mysterie hath healing vertue So also if we behold that holy housel after bodily sense then see wee that it is a creature corruptible and mutable If we acknowledge therein spirituall vertue then understand we that life is therein and that it giveth immortalitie to them that eate it with beleefe Much is betwixt the bodie Christ suffered in and the body that is hallowed to housel The body truely that Christ suffered in was borne of the flesh of Mary with blood and with bone with skin and with sinewes in humane limbs with a reasonable soule living and his spirituall body which we call the housel is gathered of many cornes without blood and bone without lim without soule and therefore nothing is to be understood therein bodily but spiriâ—ually Whatsoever is in that housel which giveth substance of life that is spirituall vertue and invisible doing Certainly Christs body which suffered death and rose from death shall never dye henceforth but is eternall and unpassible That housel is temporall not eternall corruptible dealed into sundry parts chewed betweene teeth and sent into the belly This mysterie is a pledge and a figure Christs bodie is truth it selfe This pledge wee doe keepe mystically untill that we be come to the truth it selfe and then is this pledge ended Christ hallowed bread and wine to housel before his suffering and said This is my body my blood Yet he had not then suffered but so notwithstanding hee turned through invisible vertue the bread to his owne body and that wine to his blood as he before did in the wildernesse before that he was borne to men when he turned that heavenly meate to his flesh and the flowing water from that stone to his owne blood Moses and Aaron and manie other of that people which pleased God did eate that heavenly bread and they died not the everlasting death though they dyed the common They saw that the heavenly meate was visible and corruptible and they spiritually understood by that visible thing and spiritually received it This Homily was appointed publikely to be read to the people in England on Easter day before they did receive the communion The like matter also was delivered to the Clergie by the Bishops at their Synods out of two other writings of the same Aelfrick in the one wherof directed to Wulfsine Bishop of Shyrburne we reade thus That housel is Christs bodie not bodily but spiritually Not the body which he suffered in but the bodie of which he spake when he blessed bread and wine to housel the night before his suffering and said by the blessed bread This is my body and againe by the holy wine This is my blood which is shed for many in forgivenesse of sinnes In the other written to Wulfstane Archbishop of Yorke thus The Lord which hallowed housel before his suffering and saith that the bread was his owne bodie and that the wine vvas truely his blood halloweth daily by the hands of the Priest bread to his body and wine to his blood in spirituall mysterie as wee reade in bookes And yet notwithstanding that lively bread is not bodily so nor the selfe same body that Christ suffered in nor that holy vvine is the Saviours blood which was shed for us in bodily thing but in spirituall understanding Both be truely that bread his body and that wine also his blood as was the heavenly bread which vve call Manna that fedde fortie yeares Gods people and the cleare water which did then runne from the stone in the vvildernesse vvas truely his blood as Paul wrote in one of his Epistles Thus was Priest and people taught to beleeve in the Church of England toward the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh age after the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ. And therefore it is not to be wondered that when Berengarius shortly after stood to maintaine this doctrine manie both by word and writing disputed for him and not onely the English but also all the French almost the Italians as Matthew of Westminster reporteth were so readie to entertaine that which hee delivered Who though they were so borne downe by the power of the Pope who now was growne to his height that they durst not make open profession of that which they beleeved yet manie continued even
the writings of S. Cyrill Gennadius Olympiodorus and oâ—hers S. Cyrill from those last words of our Saviour upon the Crosse Father into thy hands I commend my spirit delivereth this as the certaine ground and foundation of our hope Wee ought to beleeve that the soules of the Saints when they are departed out of their bodies are commended unto Gods goodnesse as unto the hands of a most deare Father and doe not remaine in the earth as some of the unbeleevers have imagined untill they have had the honour of buriall neyther are carried as the soules of the wicked be unto a place of unmeasurable torment that is unto Hell but rather flye to the hands of the Father this way being first prepared for us by Christ. For hee delivered up his soule into the hands of his Father that from it and by it a beginning being made we might have certaine hope of this thing firmely beleeving that after death we shall be in the hands of God and shall live a farre better life for ever with Christ. for therefore Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Gennadius in a booke wherein hee purposely taketh upon him to reckon up the particular points of doctrine received by the Church in his time when he commeth to treat of the state of soules separated from the body maketh no mention at all of Purgatorie but layeth down this for one of his positions After the ascension of our Lord into heaven the soules of all the Saints are with Christ and departing out of the bodie goe unto Christ expecting the resurrection of their bodie that together with it they may be changed unto perfect and perpetuall blessednesse as the soules of the sinners also being placed in Hell under feare expect the resurrection of their body that with it they may be thrust unto everlasting paine In like maner Olympiodorus expounding that place of Ecclesiastes If the tree fall toward the South or toward the North in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be maketh this inference thereupon In whatsoever place therefore either lightsome or darke that is either in the foule station of sinnes or in the honest of vertues a man is taken when he dyeth in that degree and order he remaineth for ever For either hee resteth in the light of eternall felicitie with the just and with Christ our Lord or is tormented in darkenesse with the wicked and with the Divell the prince of this world The first whom we finde directly to have held that for certaine light faults there is a purgatory fire provided before the day of judgement was Gregory the first about the end of the sixth age after the birth of our Saviour Christ. It was his imagination that the end of the world was then at hand and that as when the night beginneth to be ended and the day to spring before the rising of the Sunne the darkenesse is in some sort mingled together with the light untill the remaines of the departing night be turned into the light of the following day so the end of this world was then intermingled with the beginning of the world to come and the very darkenes of the remaines thereof made transparent by a certaine mixture of spirituall things And this he assigneth for the reason why in those last times so many things were made cleare touching the soules which before lay hid so that by open revelations and apparitions the world to come might seeme to bring in and open it selfe unto them But as we see that he was plainly deceived in the one of his conceits so have we just cause to call into question the veritie of the other the Scripture especially having informed us that a people for enquiry of matters should not have recourse to the dead but to their God to the Law and to the Testimony it being not Gods manner to send men from the dead to instruct the living but to remit them unto Moses and the Prophets that they may heare them And the reason is well worth the observation which the author of the Questions to Antiochus rendreth why God would not permit the soule of any of those that departed from hence to returne backe unto us againe and to declare the state of things in Hell unto us least much errour might arise from thence unto us in this life For many of the Divels saith hee might transforme themselves into the shapes of those men that were deceased and say that they vvere risen from the dead and so might spred many false matters doctrines of the things there unto our seduction and destruction Neither is it to be passed over that in those apparitions and revelations related by Gregory there is no mention made of any common lodge in Hell appointed for purging of the dead which is that which the Church of Rome now striveth for but of certaine soules only that for their punishment were confined to bathes and other such places here upon earth which our Romanists may beleeve if they list but must seeke for the Purgatorie they looke for somewhere else And yet may they save themselves that labour if they will be advised by the Bishops assembled in the Councell of Aquisgran 240. yeares after these visions were published by Gregory who will resolve them out of the word of God how sinnes are punished in the world to come The sinnes of men say they are punished three maner of wayes two in this life and the third in the life to come Of those two the Apostle saith If we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. This is the punishment wherewith by the inspiration of God every sinner by repenting for his offences taketh revenge upon himselfe But where the Apostle consequently adjoyneth When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with this world this is the punishment which almightie God doth mercifully inflict upon a sinner according to that saying Whom God loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth everie sonne that hee receiveth But the third is very fearefull and terrible which by the most just judgement of God shall be executed not in this world but in that which is to come vvhen the just Iudge shall say Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Divell and his angells Adde hereunto the saying of the author of the booke De vanitate saeculi wrongly ascribed to S. Augustine Know that when the soule is separated from the body presently it is eyther placed in Paradise for his good merites or cast headlong into the bottom of hell for his sinnes and that in the dayes of Otto Frisingensis himselfe who wrote in the year of our Lord MCXLVI the doctrine of Purgatory was esteemed onely a private assertion held by some and not an article of faith generally received by the whole Church for why should hee
one vvhom Gehenna doth receive whom Hell doth devoure for whose paine the everlasting fire doth burne Let us whose departure a troupe of Angells doth accompanie vvhom Christ commeth forth to meete be more grieved if we doe longer dwell in this tabernacle of death Because as long as wee remaine here vvee are pilgrims from God By all that hath beene said the indifferent Reader may easily discerne what may be thought of the craking Cardinall who would face us downe that all the ancients both Greek and Latine from the very time of the Apostles did constantly teach that there was a Purgatory whereas his owne partners could tell him in his eare that in the ancient writers there is almost no mention of Purgatory especially in the Greek writers and therefore that by the Grecians it is not beleeved untill this day He alledgeth indeed a number of authorities to bleare mâ—ns eyes withall which being narrowly looked into will be found eyther to be counterfeit stuffe or to make nothing at all to the purpose as belonging eyther to the point of praying for the dead onely which in those ancient times had no relation to Purgatory as in the handling of the next article wee shall see or unto the fire of affliction in this life or to the fire that shall burne the world at the last day or to the fire prepared for the Divell and his Angells or to some other fire then that which hee intended to kindle thereby This benefite onely have wee here gotten by his labours that hee hath saved us the paynes of seeking farre for the forge from whence the first sparkles of that purging fire of his brake forth For the ancientest memoriall that he bringeth thereof the places which he hath abused out of the Canonical and Apocryphal scriptures onely excepted is out of Plato in his Gorgias and Phaedo Cicero in the end of his fiction of the dreame of Scipio and Virgil in the sixth booke of his Aeneids and next after the Apostles times out of Tertullian in the seventeenth chapter of his booke de Animâ and Origen in diverse places Onely hee must give us leave to put him in minde with what spirit Tertullian was ledd when hee wrote that book de Animâ and with what authoritie hee strengtheneth that conceipt of mens paying in hell for their small faults before the resurrection namely of the Paraclete by whom if hee meane Montanus the arch hereticke as there is small cause to doubt that he doth we need not much envy the Cardinal for raising up so worshipfull a patron of his Purgatory But if Montanus come short in his testimonie Origen I am sure payes it home with full measure not pressed down only and shaken together but also running over For he was one of those as the Cardinall knoweth full well who approved of Purgatory so much that he acknowledged no other paines after this life but purgatory penalties onely and therefore in his iudgement Hell and Purgatorie being the selfe same thing such as blindely follow the Cardinall may do well to look that they stumble not upon Hell while they seeke for Purgatorie The Grecians professe that they are afrayde to tell their people of anie temporary fire after this life lest it should breed in them a spice of Origens disease and put out of their memorie the thought of eternall punishment and by this meanes occasioning them to be more carelesse of their conversation make them indeed fit fuell for those everlasting flames Which feare of theirs wee may perceive not to have beene altogether causelesse when the Purgatorie of Origen resembleth the Purgatorie of the Pope so neerely that the wisest of his Cardinalls is so readie to mistake the one for the other And to speake the truth the one is but an unhappie sprigge cut off from the rotten trunck of the other which sundry men long since endevoured to graffe upon other stockes but could not bring unto anie great perfection untill the Popes followers tryed their skill upon it with that successe which now we behold Some of the ancient that put their hand to this worke extended the benefite of this fiery purge unto all men in generall others thought fit to restrain it unto such as some way or other bare the name of Christians others to such Christians onely as had one time or other made profession of the Catholick faith and others to such alone as did continue in that profession untill their dying day Against all these S. Augustine doth learnedly dispute proving that wicked men of what profession soever shall be punished with everlasting perdition And whereas the defenders of the last opinion did ground themselves upon that place in the third chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians which the Pope also doth make the principall foundation of his Purgatory although it be a probatory and not a purgatory fire that the Apostle there treateth of S. Augustine maketh answere that this sentence of the Apostle is verie obscure to be reckoned among those things which S. Peter saith are hard to be understood in his writings which men ought not to pervert unto their owne destruction and freely confesseth that in this matter he would rather heare more intelligent and more learned men then himselfe Yet this he delivereth for his opinion that by vvood hay and stubble is understood that over-great love which the faithfull beare to the things of this life and by fire that temporall tribulation which causeth griefe unto them by the losse of those things upon which they had too much placed their affections But whether in this life onely saith he men suffer such things or whether some such judgements also doe follow after this life the meaning which I have given of this sentence as I suppose abhorreth not from the truth And againe Whether they finde the fire of transitorie tribulation burning those secular affections which are pardoned from damnation in the other world onely or vvhether here and there or vvhether therefore here that they may not finde them there I gainsay it not because peradventure it is true And in another place That some such thing should be after this life it is not incredible and whether it be so it may be inquired and either be found or remaine hidden that some of the faithfull by a certaine purgatory fire by how much more or lesse they have loved these perishing goods are so much the more slowly or sooner saved Wherein the learned Father dealeth no otherwise then when in disputing against the same men he is content if they would acknowledge that the wrath of God did remaine everlastingly upon the damned to give them leave to thinke that their paines might some way or other be lightned or mitigated Which yet notwithstanding saith he I doe not therefore affirme because I oppose it not What the Doctors of the next succeeding ages taught herein may appeare by
and vve must pray to the Word of God his onely begotten and the first bornè of all creatures and we must intreat him that he as high Priest would present our prayer when it is come to him unto his God and our God unto his Father and the father of them that frame their life according to the word of God And whereas Celsus had further sayd that we must offer first fruits unto Angels and prayers as long as we live that we may finde them propitious unto us answere is returned by Origen in the name of the Christians that they held it rather fit to offer first fruits unto him which sayd Let the earth bring forth grasse the herbe yeelding seed and the fruite tree yeelding fruite after his kinde And to whom wee give the first fruites saith he to him also doe wee send our prayers having a great high Priest that is entred into the Heavens Iesus the Sonne of God and we hold fast this confession whiles we live having God favourable unto us and his onely begotten Sonne Iesus being manifested amongst us But if we have a desire unto a multitude whom we would willingly have to be favourable unto us we learne that thousand thousands stand by him and millions of millions minister unto him who beholding them that imitate their pietie towards God as if they were their kinsfolkes and friends helpe forward their salvation who call upon God and pray sincerely appearing also and thinking that they ought to doe service to them and as it were upon one watchword to set forth for the â—enefit and salvation of them that pray to God unto whom they themselves also pray For they are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation Thus farre Origen in his eight booke against Celsus to which for a conclusion we wil adde that place of the fift booke All prayers and supplications and intercessions and thankesgivings are to be sent up unto God the Lord of all by the high Priest who is above all Angels being the living Word and God For to call upon Angels we not comprehending the knowledge of them which is above the reach of man is not agreeable to reason And if by supposition it were granted that the knowledge of them which is wonderfull and secret might be comprehended this very knowledge declaring their nature unto us and the charge over which every one of them is set would not permit us to presume to pray unto any other but unto God the Lord over all who is aboundantly sufficient for all by our Saviour the Sonne of God Tertullian and Cyprian in the bookes which they purposely wrote concerning Prayer deliver no other doctrine but teach us to regulate all our prayers according unto that perfect patterne prescribed by our great Master wherein we are required to direct our petitions unto Our Father which is in heaven Matth. 6.9 Luk. 11.2 These things saith Tertullian in his Apologie for the Christians of his time I may not pray for from any other but from him of whom I know I shall obtayne them because both it is he who is alone able to give and I am he unto whom it appertayneth to obtayne that which is requested being 〈◊〉 servant who observe him alone who for his religion am killed who offer unto him a rich and great sacrifice which he himselfe hath commanded Prayer proceeding from a chaste body from an innocent soule from a holy spirit where he accounteth Prayer to be the chiefe sacrifice wherewith God is worshipped agreeably to that which Clemens Alexandrinus wrote at the same time We doe not without cause honour God by prayer and with righteousnesse send up this best and holyest sacrifice The direction given by Ignatius unto Virgins in this case is short and sweete Yee Virgins have Christ alone before your eyes and his Father in your prayers being inlightened by the Spirit for explication whereof that may be taken which we reade in the exposition of the Faith attributed unto S. Gregory of Neocaesarea Whosoever rightly prayeth unto God prayeth by the Sonne and whosoever commeth as he ought to doe commeth by Christ and to the Sonne he can not come without the holy Ghost Neyther is it to be passed over that one of the speciall arguments whereby the writers of this time do prove our Saviour Christ to bee truely God is taken from our praying unto him and his accepting of our petitions If Christ be onely man saith Novatianus how is he present being called upon every where seeing this is not the nature of man but of God that he can be present at every place If Christ be onely man why is a man called upon in our prayers as a mediatour seeing the invocation of a man is judged of no force to yeeld salvation If Christ be onely man why is there hope reposed in him seeing hope in man 〈◊〉 sayd to be cursed So is it noted by Origen that S. Paul in the beginning of the former epistle to the Corinthians where he saith With all that in every place call upon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1. Corinth 1.2 doth thereby pronounce Iesus Christ whose Name is called upon to be God And if to call upon the Name of the Lord saith he and to adore God bee one and the selfe same thing as Christ is called upon so is he to be adored and as we do offer to God the Father first of all prayers 1. Tim. 2.1 so must we also to the Lord Iesus Christ and â—s wee doe offer supplications to the Father so doe we offer supplications also to the Sonne and as wee doe offer thankesgivings to God so doe we offer thankesgivings to our Saviour In like maner Athanasius disputing against the Arrians by that prayer which the Apostle maketh 1. Thessal 3.11 God himselfe and our Father and our Lord Iesus Christ direct our way unto you doth prove the unitie of the Father and the Sonne For no man saith he would pray to receive any thing from the Father and the Angels or from any of the other creatures neyther would any man say God and the Angell give thee this And whereas it might be objected that Iacob in the blessing that he gave unto Ephraim and Manasseh Genes 48.15 16. did use this forme of prayer The God which fed me from my youth unto this day The Angel which delivered me from all evills blesse those children which Cardinall Bellarmine placeth in the forefront of the forces he bringeth forth to establish the Invocation of Saints Athanasius answereth that he did not couple one of the created and naturall Angels with God that did create them nor omitting God that fed him did desire a blessing for his nephews from an Angel but saying Which delivered me from all evills hee did shew that it was not any of the created Angels but
Hierome pronounce against those who not beleeving in Christ did yet thinke themselves to be valiant and wise temperate or just that they might know that no man doth live without Christ without whom all vertue is accounted vice And Prosper against Cassianus a Patron of the free-will of the Semipelagians It appeareth saith he most manifestly that there dwelleth no vertue in the minds of the ungodly but that all their workes be uncleane and polluted who have wisdome not spirituall but animall not heavenly but earthly not Christian but Diabolicall not from the Father of light but from the Prince of darknesse while by those very things which they should not have had but by Gods giving they are made subject to him who did first fall from God Neither ought we therefore to imagine that the beginnings of vertues be in the treasures of nature because many commendable things are found in the mindes of ungodly men which doe proceed indeed from nature but because they haue departed from him that made nature can not be accounted vertues For that which is illuminated with the true light is light and that which wanteth that light is night because the wisdome of this world is foolishnesse with God And so that is vice which is thought to be vertue as that is foolishnesse which is thought to be wisdome Hitherto also pertaineth that sentence produced by him out of S. Augustines workes The whole life of unbeleevers is sinne and there is nothing good without the chiefest good For where there is wanting the acknowledgement of the eternall and unchangeable truth there is false vertue even in the best manners Which he elegantly expresseth in verse as well in his 81. Epigramme as in his Poëme against the Pelagians wherein of naturall wisdome he writeth thus Et licèt eximias studeat pollere per artes Ingeniumque bonum generosis moribus ornet Coeca tamen finem ad mortis per deuia currit Nec vitae aeternae veros acquirere fructus De falsâ virtute potest unamque decoris Occidui speciem mortali perdit in aevo Omne etenim probitatis opus nisi semine verae Exoritur fidei peccatum est inque reatum Vertitur sterilis cumulat sibi gloria poenam The Author of the booke De Vocatione Gentium by some wrongly attributed to S. Ambrose to Prosper by others delivereth the same doctrine in these words Although there have beene some who by their naturall understanding have endevoured to resist vices yet have they only barrenly adorned this temporall life but not profited at all unto true vertues and everlasting blisse For without the worship of the true God even that which seemeth to be vertue is sinne neither can any man please God without God And he that doth not please God whom doth hee please but himselfe and the Devill By whom when man was spoiled he was deprived not of his will but of the sanitie of his will Therefore if God doe not worke in us we can be partakers of no vertue For without this good there is nothing good without this light there is nothing lightsome without this wisdome there is nothing sound without this righteousnesse there is nothing right So Fulgentius in his booke of the Incarnation and Grace of Christ. If unto some who did know God and yet did not glorifie him as God that knowledge did profit nothing unto salvation how could they be just with God which doe so keepe some goodnesse in their manners and workes that yet they referre it not unto the end of Christian faith and charitie In whom there may be indeed some good things that appertaine to the equitie of humane societie but because they are not done by the love of God profit they cannot And Maxentius in the Confessioâ— of his Faith We beleeve that naturall Free-will hath abilitie to nothing else but to discerne and desire carnall or secular things only which not with God but with mâ—n peradventure may seeme glorious but for the things that pertaine to everlasting life that it can neither thinke nor will nor desire nor effect but by the infusion and inward operation of the Holy Ghost and Cassiodorus in his exposition of the Psalmes On the evill part indeed there is an execrable freedome of the will that the sinner may forsake his Creator and convert himselfe to wicked vices but on the good part by Adams sinning we have lost free-will unto which otherwise than by the grace of Christ we cannot returne according to the saying of the Apostle It is God which worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Philip. 2.13 The first presumptuous advancer of free-will contrary to the doctrine anciently received in the Church is by Vicentius Lirinensis noted to be Pelagius the hereticke For who ever saith he before that profane Pelagius presumed the vertue of free-will to be so great that he did not thinke the grace of God to be necessarie for the helping of it in good things at every act For maintaining of which ungodly opinion both he and his disciple Celestius were condemned by the censure of the CCXLIII Bishops assembled in the great Councell of Carthage anno Dom. 418. untill they should acknowledge by a most open confession that by the grace of God through Iesus Christ our Lord we are holpen not onely to know but also to doe righteousnesse at every act so that without it we can have thinke say doe nothing that belongeth to true and holy piety Wherewith Pelagius being pressed stucke not to make this profession Anathema to him who either thinketh or saith that the grace of God whereby Christ came into this world to save sinners is not necessarie not onely at every houre or every moment but also at every act of ours and they who goe about to take away this are worthy to suffer everlasting punishment Foure bookes also did he publish in defence of Free-will to which he thus referreth his adversaries for further satisfaction in this matter Let them reade the late worke which we were forced to set out the other day for Free-will and they shall perceive how uniustly they goe about to defame us with the deniall of Grace who thorowout the whole context almost of that worke doe perfectly and entirely confesse both Free-will and Grace Yet for all this he did but equivocate in the name of Grace under an ambiguous generalitie hiding what he thought but by the tearme of Grace breaking the envie and declining the offence which might be taken at his doctrine as S. Augustine well observeth For by Grace he did not understand as the Church did in this question the infusion of a new qualitie of holinesse into the soule whereby it was regenerated and the will of evill made good but first the possibilitie of nature that is to say the naturall freedome of will which every one hath received from God
of the holy Scripture Or will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinions by malice and corrupt intentions Why your selves cannot deny but that they lived most holy and vertuous lives free from all malitious corrupting or perverting of Gods holy word and by their holy lives are now made worthy to raigne with God in his glory Insomuch as their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspition of ignorant errour and their innocent sanctity freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption But by his leave hee is a little too hastie Hee were best to bethink himselfe more advisedly of that which he hath undertaken to performe and to remember the saying of the King of Israel unto Benhadad Let not him that girdeth on his harnesse boast himselfe as he that putteth it off Hee hath taken upon him to prove that our Religon cannot be true because it disalloweth of many chiefe articles which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did generally hold to be true For performance hereof it wil not be sufficient for him to shew that some of these Fathers maintained some of these opinions he must prove if hee will be as good as his word and deale any thing to the purpose that they held them generally and held them too not as opinions but tanquam de fide as appertayning to the substance of faith and religion For as Vincentius Lirinensis well observeth the auncient consent of the holy Fathers is with great care to be sought and followed by us not in every petty question belonging to the Law of God but only or at least principally in the Rule of faith But all the points propounded by our Challenger be not chiefe articles and therefore if in some of them the Fathers have held some opinions that will not beare waight in the ballance of the Sanctuary as some conceits they had herein which the Papists themselves must confesse to be erroneous their defects in that kinde doe abate nothing of that reverend estimation which we have them in for their great paines taken in the defence of the true Catholick Religion and the serious studie of the holy Scripture Neither doe I thinke that he who thus commendeth them for the pillers of Christianitie and the champions of Christs Church will therefore hold himselfe tyed to stand unto every thing that they have said sure he will not if he follow the steppes of the great ones of his owne Societie For what doth hee thinke of Iustin Martyr Irenaeus and Epiphanius Doth he not account them among those pillers and champions hee speaketh of Yet saith Cardinall Bellarmine I doe not see how we may defend their opinion from error When others object that they have two or three hundred testimonies of the Doctors to prove that the Virgin Mary was conceived in sinne Salmeron the Iesuite steps forth and answereth them first out of the doctrine of Augustine and Thomas that the argument drawne from authoritie is weake then out of the word of God Exod. 23. In judicio plurimorum non acquiesces sententiae ut á vero devies In judgement thou shalt not be ledde with the sentence of the most to decline from the truth And lastly telleth them that when the Donatists gloried in the multitude of authors S. Augustin did answer them that it was a signe their cause was destitute of the strength of truth which was onely supported by the authority of many who were subject to error And when his Adversaries presse him not onely with the multitude but also with the antiquitie of the Doctors alledged unto which more honour alwayes hath beene given then unto novelties he answereth that indeed every age hath alwayes attributed much unto antiquity and every old man as the Poët saith is a commender of the time past but this saith he vvee averre that the yonger the Doctors are the more sharpe-sighted they be And therefore for his part he yeeldeth rather to the judgement of the yonger Doctors of Paris among whom none is held worthy of the title of a Master in Divinitie who hath not first bound himselfe with a religious oath to defend and maintaine the priviledge of the B. Virgin Only he forgot to tell how they which take that oath might dispense with another oath which the Pope requireth them to take that they will never understand and interprete the holy Scripture but according to the uniforme consent of the Fathers Pererius in his disputations upon the Epistle to the Romans confesseth that the Greeke Fathers and not a few of the Latine Doctors too have delivered in their writings that the cause of the predestination of men unto everlasting life is the foreknowledge which God had from eternitie either of the good workes which they were to doe by cooperating with his grace or of the faith wherby they were to beleeve the word of God to obey his calling And yet he for his part notwithstanding thinketh that this is contrary to the holy Scripture but especially to the doctrine of S. Paul If our Questionist had beene by him hee would have pluckt his fellow by the sleeve and taken him up in this maner Will you say that these Fathers maintained this opinion contrary to the word of God Why you know that they were the pillers of Christianity the Champions of Christ his Church and of the true Catholick religion which they most learnedly defended against diverse heresies and therefore spent all their time in a most serious studie of the holy Scripture He would also perhaps further challenge him as he doth us Will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinion by malice corrupt intentions For sure hee might have asked this wise question of any of his owne fellowes as well as of us who doe allow and esteeme so much of these blessed Doctors and Martyrs of the ancient Church as he himselfe in the end of his Challenge doth acknowledge which verily we should have little reason to doe if wee did imagine that they brought in opinions which they knew to be repugnant to the Scriptures for any malice or corrupt intentions Indeed men they were compassed with the common infirmities of our nature and therefore subject unto error but godly men and therefore free from all malicious error Howsoever then we yeeld unto you that their innocent sanctitie freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption yet you must pardon us if wee make question whether their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspicion of error which may arise either of affection or want of due consideration or such ignorance as the very best are subject unto in this life For it is not admirable learning that is sufficient to crosse out that suspicion but such an immediate guidance of the holy Ghost as the Prophets and Apostles were
led by who were the penners of the Canocicall Scripture But this is your old wont to blinde the eyes of the simple with setting forth the sanctitie and the learning of the Fathers much after the maner of your grandfather Pelagius who in the third of his bookes which hee writ in defence of Free-will thought he had struck all dead by his commending of S. Ambrose Blessed Ambrose the Bishop saith he in whose bookes the Romane faith doth especially appeare who like a beautifull flowre shined among the Latin writers whose faith and most pure understanding in the Scriptures the enemy himselfe durst not reprehend Vnto whom S. Augustine Behold with what and how great prayses he extolleth a man though holy and learned yet not to be compared unto the authoritie of the Canonicall Scripture And therefore advance the learning and holinesse of these worthy men as much as you list other answer you are not like to have from us then that which the same S. Augustine maketh unto S. Hierome This reverence and honour have I learned to give to those bookes of Scripture only which now are called Canonical that I most firmely beleeve none of their authors could any whit erre in writing But others I so reade that with how great sanctitie and learning soever they doe excell I therefore thinke not any thing to be true because they so thought it but because they were able to perswade mee either by those Canonicall authors or by some probable reason that it did not swarve from truth Yet even to this field also doe our challengers provoke us and if the Fathers authority will not suffice they offer to produce good and certaine grounds out of the sacred Scriptures for confirmation of all the points of their religion which they have mentioned yea further they challenge any Protestant to alledge any one text out of the said Scripture which condemneth any of the above written points At which boldnesse of theirs wee should much wonder but that wee consider that Bankrupts commonly doe then most brag of their ability when their estate is at the lowest perhaps also that Ignorance might be it that did beget in them this Boldnesse For if they had been pleased to take the advice of their learned Counsell their Canonists would have told them touching Confession which is one of their points that it were better to hold that it was ordained by a certaine tradition of the universall Church then by the authority of the New or Old Testament Melchior Canus could have put them in minde that it is no where expressed in Scripture that Christ descended into Hell to deliver the soules of Adam and the rest of the Fathers which were detayned there And Dominicus Bannes that the holy Scriptures teach neither expressé nor yet impressé involuté that prayers are to be made unto Saints or that their Images are to be worshipped Or if the testimony of a lesuite will more prevayle with them that Images should be vvorshipped Saints prayed unto Auricular Confession frequented Sacrifices celebrated both for the quicke and the dead and other things of this kind Fr. Coster would have to be reckoned among divine Traditions which be not laid downe in the Scriptures Howsoever yet the matter standeth we have no reason but willingly to accept of their challenge and to require them to bring forth those good and certaine grounds out of the sacred Scriptures for confirmation of all the articles by them propounded as also to let them see whether we be able to alledge any Text of Scripture which condemneth any of those points Although I must confesse it will be a hard matter to make them see any thing which before hand have resolved to close their eyes having their mindes so preoccupied with prejudice that they professe before ever we begin they hold for certaine that wee shall never be able to produce any such Text. And why thinke you because forsooth we are neither more learned more pious nor more holy then the blessed Doctors and Martyrs of that first Church of Rome As who should say we yeelded at the first word that all those blessed Doctors and Martyrs expounded the Scriptures every where to our disadvantage or were so well perswaded of the tendernesse of a Iesuites conscience that because he hath taken an oath never to interpret the Scripture but according to the uniforme consent of the Fathers he could not therefore have the forehead to say I doe not deny that I have no author of this interpretation yet doe I so much the rather approve it then that other of Augustines though the most probable of all the rest because it is more contrary to the sense of the Calvinists which to mee is a great argument of probabilitie Or as if lastly a man might not dissent from the ancient Doctors so much as in an exposition of a Text of Scripture but hee must presently make himselfe more learned more pious and more holy then they were Yet their great Tostatus might have taught them that this argument holdeth not Such a one knoweth some conclusion that Augustine did not know therefore he is wiser then Augustine Because as a certaine skilfull Physician said the men of our time being compared vvith the ancient are like unto a little man set upon a Giants neck compared with the Giant himselfe For as that little man placed there seeth whatsoever the Giant seeth and somewhat more and yet if he be taken downe from the Giants neck would see little or nothing in comparison of the Giant even so we being setled upon the wits and workes of the ancient it were not to be wondred nay it should be very agreeable unto reason that we should see whatsoever they saw and somewhat more Though yet saith he wee doe not professe so much And even to the same effect speaketh Friar Stella that though it be farre from him to condemne the common exposition given by the ancient holy Doctors yet he knoweth full well that Pygmeis being put upon Gyants shoulders doe see further then the Gyants themselves Salmeron addeth that by the increase of time divine mysteries have beene made knowen which before were hid from many so that to know them now is to be attributed unto the benefite of the time not that we are better then our Fathers were Bishop Fisher that it cannot be obscure unto any that many things as well in the Gospels as in the rest of the Scriptures are now more exquisitely discussed by latter wits and more clearely understood then they have beene heretofore Either by reason that the yce was not as yet broken unto the ancient neither did their age suffice to weigh exactly that vvhole sea of the Scriptures or because in this most large field of the Scriptures even after the most diligent reapers some eares will remaine to be gathered as yet untouched Hereupon Cardinall Caietan in the beginning of