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
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
be otherwise but there must be differences betwixt the members thereof one part may understand that whereof an other is ignorant and ignorance being the mother of error one particular Church may wrongly conceive of some points wherein others may be rightly informed Neyther will it follow thereupon that these Churches must be of different Religions because they fully agree not in all things or that therefore the Reformed Churches in our dayes must disclaime all kindred with those in ancient times because they have washed away some spots from themselves which they discerned to have been in them It is not every spot that taketh away the beautie of a Church not every sicknesse that taketh away the life thereof and therefore though wee should admit that the ancient Church of Rome was somewhat impaired both in beautie and in health too wherein we have no reason to be sorie that we are unlike unto her there is no necessitie that hereupon presently she must cease to be our sister S. Cyprian and the rest of the African Bishops that joined with him held that such as were baptized by heretickes should be rebaptized the African Bishops in the time of Aurelius were of another minde Doth the diversitie of their judgements in this point make them to have been of a diverse Religion It was the use of the ancient Church to minister the Communion unto Infants which is yet also practised by the Christians in Egypt and Ethiopia The Church of Rome upon better consideration hath thought fit to doe otherwise and yet for all that will not yeeld that either she her selfe hath forsaken the Religion of her ancestors because she followeth them not in this or that they were of the same religion with the Cophtites and Habassines because they agree together in this particular So put case the Church of Rome now did use prayer for the dead in the same maner that the ancient Church did which we will shew to be otherwise the reformed Churches that upon better advice have altered that usage need not therefore graunt that eyther themselves hold a different Religion from that of the Fathers because they doe not precisely follow them in this nor yet that the Fathers were therefore Papists because in this point they thus concurred For as two may be discerned to be sisters by the likenesse of their faces although the one have some spottes or blemishes which the other hath not so a third may bee brought in which may shew like spots and blemishes and yet have no such likenesse of visage as may bewray her to be the others sister But our Challenger having first conceited in his minde an Idea of an unspotted Church upon earth then being farre in love with the painted face of the present Church of Rome and out of love with us because we like not as he liketh he taketh a view of both our faces in the false glasses of affection and findeth her on whom he doteth to answer his unspotted Church in all points but us to agree with it in almost nothing And thereupon he would faine know whether of both have the true Religion they that doe not disagree with that holy Church in any point of Religion or they that agree with it but in very few and disagree in almost all Indeed if that which he assumeth for granted could as easily bee proved as it is boldly avouched the question would quickly be resolved whether of us both have the true Religion But he is to understand that strong conceits are but weake proofes and that the Iesuites have not been the first from whom such bragges as these have beene heard Dioscorus the hereticke was as peart when hee uttered these speeches in the Councell of Chalcedon I am cast out with the Fathers I defend the doctrines of the Fathers I transgresse them not in any point and I have their testimonies not barely but in their very bookes Neither need we wonder that he should beare us down that the Church of Rome at this day doth not disagree from the primitive Church in any point of Religion who sticketh not so confidently to affirme that we agree with it but in very few and disagree in almost all For those few points wherein hee confesseth wee doe agree with the ancient Church must either be meant of such articles onely wherein wee disagree from the now Church of Rome or else of the whole bodie of that Religion which we professe If in the former he yeeld that wee doe agree with the primitive Church what credite doth he leave unto himselfe who with the same breath hath givē out that the present Church of Rome doth not disagree with that holy Church in any point If he meanethe latter with what face can he say that wee agree with that holy Church but in very few points of religion and disagree in almost all Irenaeus who was the Disciple of those which heard S. Iohn the Apostle layeth downe the articles of that faith in the unitie whereof the Churches that were founded in Germany Spaine France the East Egypt Lybia and all the world did sweetly accord as if they had all dwelt in one house all had but one soule and one heart and one mouth Is he able to shew one point wherein we have broken that harmony which Irenaeus commendeth in the Catholick Church of his time But that Rule of faith so much commended by him and Tertullian and the rest of the Fathers and all the articles of the severall Creedes that were ever received in the ancient Church as badges of the Catholicke profession to which we willingly subscribe is with this man almost nothing none must now be counted a Catholicke but he that can conforme his beliefe unto the Creed of the new fashion compiled by Pope Pius the fourth some foure and fiftie yeares ago As for the particular differences wherein he thinketh he hath the advantage of us when we come unto the sifting of them it shall appeare how farre he was deceived in his imagination In the meane time having as yet not strucken one stroake but threatned only to doe wonders if any would be so hardy to accept his Challenge he might have done very well to have deferred his triumph untill such time as he had obtayned the victory For as if he had borne us downe with the weight of the authority of the Fathers and so astonished us therwith that we could not tell what to say for our selves he thus bestirreth himselfe in a most ridiculous maner fighting with his owne shadow Will you say that these Fathers saith he who hath not hitherto layd downe so much as the name of any one Father maintained these opinions contrary to the vvord of God Why you know that they were the pillers of Christianitie 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
resurrection of the same thy onely begotten Sonne our Redeemer O God who art the Creator and maker of all things and vvho art the blisse of thy Saincts grant unto us who make request unto thee that the spirit of our brother who is loosed from the knott of his body may bee presented in the blessed resurrection of thy Saincts O almightie and mercifull God vve doe intreat thy clemency forasmuch as by thy judgement we are borne and make an end that thou wilt receive into everlasting rest the soule of our brother whom thou of thy piety hast commanded to passe from the dwelling of this world and permit him to be associated with the company of thine elect that together with them he may remaine in everlasting blisse without end Eternall God vvho in Christ thine only begotten sonne our Lord hast given unto us the hope of a blessed Resurrection grant we beseech thee that the soules for which we offer this sacrifice of our redemption unto thy Majestie may of thy mercy attaine unto the rest of a blessed resurrection with thy Saincts Let this communion we beseech thee O Lord purge us from sinne and give unto the soule of thy servant N. a portion in the heavenly joy that being set apart before the throne of the glory of thy Christ with those that are upon the right hand it may have nothing common with those that are upon the left Through Christ our Lord. At whose comming when thou shalt command both the peoples to appeare command thy servant also to be severed from the number of the evill and grant unto him that he may both escape the flames of everlasting punishment and obtaine the rewards of a righteous life c. In these and other prayers of the like kind we may descry evident footsteps of the primarie intention of the Church in her supplications for the dead which was that the whole man not the soule separated only might receive publick remission of sinnes a solemne acquitall in the judgement of that great day and so obtaine both a full escape from all the consequences of sinne the last enemie being now destroyed and death swallowed up in victory and a perfect consummation of blisse and happinesse all which are comprised in that short prayer of S. Paul for Onesiphorus though made for him while he was alive The Lord grant unto him that he may finde mercie of the Lord in that day Yea diverse prayers for the dead of this kinde are still retained in the Romane Offices of which the great Spanish Doctor Iohannes Medina thus writeth Although I have read manie prayers for the faithfull deceased which are contayned in the Romane Missall yet have I read in none of them that the Church doth petition that they may more quickly be freed from paines but I have read that in some of them petition is made that they may be freed from everlasting paines For beside the common prayer that is used in the Masse for the Commemoration of all the faithfull deceased that Christ would free them from the mouth of the Lion that Hell may not swallow them up and that they may not fall into the place of darknesse this prayer is prescribed for the day wherin the dead did depart out of this life O God vvhose propertie is alwayes to have mercie and to spare vve most humbly beseech thee for the soule of thy servant N. which this day thou hast commanded to depart out of this world that thou mayst not deliver it into the hands of the enemy nor forget it finally but command it to be received by the holy Angels and brought unto the country of Paradise that because he hath trusted and beleeved in thee he may not sustain the paines of Hell but possesse joyes everlasting which is a direct prayer that the soule of him which was then departed might immediatly be received into Heaven and escape not the temporarie paines of Purgatorie but the everlasting paines of Hell for howsoever the new reformers of the Romane Missall have put in here poenas inferni under the generalitie peradventure of the terme of the paines of hell intending to shrowde their Purgatorie which they would have men beleeve to be one of the lodges of Hell yet in the old Missall which Medina had respect unto we reade expressely poenas aeternas everlasting paines which by no construction can be referred unto the paines of Purgatorie and to the same purpose in the book of the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome at the exequies of a Cardinall a prayer is appointed to be read that by the assistance of Gods grace he might escape the judgement of everlasting revenge who while he lived was marked with the seale of the holy Trinity Againe there be other prayers saith Medina wherein petition is made that God would raise the soules of the dead in their bodies unto blisse at the day of judgement Such for example is that which is found in the Romane Missall Absolve vvee beseech thee O Lord the soule of thy servant from all the bond of his sinnes that in the glory of the resurrection being raysed among thy saincts and elect hee may breath againe or bee refreshed and that other in the Romane Pontificall O God unto whom all things doe live and unto whom our bodies in dying do not perish but are changed for the better we humbly pray thee that thou wouldest command the soule of thy servant N. to be received by the hands of thy holy Angells to be carried into the bosome of thy friend the Patriarch Abraham and to be raysed up at the last day of the great judgement whatsoever faults by the deceit of the Divel he hath incurred do thou of thy pitie and mercy wash away by forgiving them Now forasmuch as it is most certaine that all such as depart in grace as the Adversaries acknowledge that all in Purgatorie doe are sure to escape Hell and to be raysed up unto glorie at the last day Medina perplexeth himselfe exceedingly in according these kinde of praiers with the received grounds of Purgatorie and after much agitation of the businesse too and fro at last resolveth upon one of these two desperate conclusions that touching these praiers which are made in the Church for the dead it may first of all be said that it is not necessary to excuse them all from all unfitnesse For many things are permitted to be read in the Church which although they be not altogether true nor altogether fit yet serve for the stirring up and increasing the devotion of the faithfull Many such things saith he we beleeve are contayned in the histories that be not sacred and in the Legends of the Saincts and in the opinions and writings of the Doctors all which are tolerated by the Church in the meane time while there is no question moved of them and no scandall ariseth from
that Infidels and wicked men departed out of this life were no more to be prayed for then the Divell and his angells which were appointed unto everlasting punishment should in his practise be found to be so much different from his judgement The second tale toucheth upon the verie times of the Apostles wherein the Apostolesse Thecla is said to have prayed for Falconilla the daughter of Tryphaena whom S. Paul saluteth Rom. 16.12 a gentile and an Idolatresse altogether profane and a servitour of another God to this effect O God Sonne of the true God grant unto Tryphaena according to thy will that her daughter may live with thee time without end or as Basil Bishop of Seleucia doth expresse it Grant unto thy servant Tryphaena that her desire may be fulfilled concerning her daughter her desire therein being this that her soule may be numbred among the soules of those that have already beleeved in thee and may enjoy the life and pleasure that is in Paradise The third tale he produceth out of Palladius his historicall book written unto Lausus although neither in the Greek set out by Meursius nor in the three severall Latin editions of that historie published before theâ—e bee any such thing to be found touching a dead mans skull that should have uttered this speech unto Macarius the great Aegyptian anchorer When thou dost offer up thy prayers for the dead then doe wee feele some little consâ—lation A brainlesse answer you may well conceive it to be that must be thought to have proceeded from a dry skull lying by the highway side but as brainlâ—sse as it is it hath not a little troubled the quick heads of our Romish Divines and put mâ—ny an odd cratchet into their nimble braines Renatus Laurentius telleth us that without all doubt it was an Angell that did speake in this skull And I say quoth Alphonsus Mendoza that this head which lay in the way was not the head of one that was damned but of a just man remayning in Purgatory for Damascen doth not say in that sermon that iâ— was the head of a Gentile as it may there be seene And true it is indeed he neither saith that it was so neither yet that it was not so but the Grecians generally relate the matter thus that Macarius did heare this from the skull of one that had been a Priest of Idoles which he found lying in the wildernesse that by his prayers such as were with him in punishment received a little ease of their torment whensoever it fell out that he made the same for them and among the Latins Thomas Aquinas and other of the Schoolemen take this for granted because they found in the Lives of the Fathers that the speech which the dead skull used was this I was a Priest of the Gentiles so Iohn the Roman subdeacoâ— translateth it or as Rufinus is supposed to have rendred it I was the chiefe of the Priests of the Idoles which dwelt in this place and thou art abbot Macarius that art filled with the spirit of God At whatsoever houre therefore thou takest pitie of them that are in torments and prayest for them they then feele som consolation Well saith Mendoza then if S. Thomas relating this history out of the Lives of the Fathers doth say that this vvas the head of a Gentile he himselfe is bound to untye this knot And so hee doth resolving the matter thus that the damned get no true ease by the prayers made for them but such a phantasticall kinde of joy only as the Divels are said to have when they have seduced and deceived any man But peradventure saith Cardinall Bellarmine for the upshott the things which are brought touching that skull might better be rejected as false and apocryphall and Stephen Durant more peremptorily The things vvhich are told of Trajan and Falconilla delivered out of hell by the prayers of S Gregory and Thecla and of the dry skull spoken too by Macarius be fayned and commentitious Which last answere though it be the truest of all the rest yet is it not to be doubted for all that but that the generall credite which these fables obtained together with the countenance which the opinion of the Origenists did receive from Didymus Euagrius Gregory Nyssen if he be not corrupted and other Doctors inclined the minds of men verie much to apply the common use of praying for the dead unto this wrong end of hoping to relieve the damned thereby S. Augustine doth shew that in his time not onely some but exceeding many also did out of an humane affection take compassion of the eternall paines of the damned and would not beleeve that they should never have an end And notwithstanding this error was publickly condemned afterwards in the Origenists by the fifth generall Councell held at Constantinople yet by idle and voluptuous persons was it still greedily embraced as Climacus complaineth and even now also saith S. Gregory there be some who therefore neglect to put an end unto their sinnes because they imagine that the judgements which are to come upon them shall sometimes have an end Yea of late dayes this opinion was maintayned by the Porretanians as Thomas calleth them and some of the Canonists the one following therein Gilbert Porreta Bishop of Poictiers in his booke of Theological Questions the other Iohn Semeca in his Glosse upon Gratian that by the prayers and suffrages of the living the paines of some of the damned were continually diminished in such maner as infinite proportionable parts may be taken from a line without ever comming unto an end of the division which was in effect to take from them at the last all paine of sense or sense of paine For as Thomas observeth it rightly and Durand after him in the division of a Line at last we must come unto that which is not sensible considering that a sensible bodie cannot be divided infinitely and so it would folloâ— that after many suffrages that paine remayning should not be sensible and consequently should be no paine at all Neither is it to be forgotten that the invention of All Soules day of which you may reade if you please Polydore Vergil in his sixth booke of the Inventers of things and the ninth chapter that solemne day I say wherein our Romanists most devoutly perform all their superstitious observances for the dead was occasioned at the first by the apprehension of this same erroneous conceit that the soules of the damned might not onely be eased but fully also delivered by the almes prayers of the living The whole narration of the businesse is thus laid down by Sigebertus Gemblacensis in his Chronicâ—e at the yeare of our Lord 998. This time saith he a certaine religious man returning from Ierusalem being intertained for a while in Sicile by the courtesie of a certaine anchoret learned from him among
raised up upon which place Origen writeth thus In this place and in many others likewise the graves of the dead are to be understood according to the more certaine meaning of the Scripture not such onely as wee see are builded for the receiving of mens bodies eyther cut out in stones or digged downe in the earth but every place wherein a mans bodie lyeth eyther entire or in any part albeit it fell out that one body should be dispersed through many places it being no absurditie at all that all those places in which any part of the body lyeth should bee called the sepulchres of that bodie For if wee do not thus understand the dead to bee raysed by the power of God out of their graves they which are not committed to buriall nor layd in graves but have ended their life either in shipwrackes or in some desart places so as they could not be committed to buriall should not seeme to bee recokoned among them who are said should bee raysed up out of their graves which would bee a very great absurditie Thus Origen Now you shall heare if you please what our Romish Doctors doe deliver touching this point There be two opinions saith Pererius upon Genes 37.35 concerning this question The one of the Hebrewes and of many of the Christians in this our age but especially of the Heretickes affirming that the word Sheol signifieth nothing else in the Scripture but the pit or the grave and from thence reasoning falsly that our Lord did not descend into Hell The other opinion is of undoubted and certaine truth that the Hebrew word Sheol and the Latin Infernus answering to it both in this place of Scripture and elsewhere oftentimes doth signifie not the pit or the grave but the place of Hell and the places under the earth wherein the soules are after death Wheresoever Hiâ—rome saith Augustinus Steuchus upon the same place and the Sâ—ptuagint have translated Hell it is in the Hebrewe Sheol that is the pit or the grave For it doth not signifie that place wherein Antiquitie hath thought that the soules of the wicked are received The Hebrew word properly signifieth the grave saith Iansenius upon Proverb 15.12 the Grave properly and Hell onely metaphorically saith Arias Montanus in his answere unto Leo á Castro and in the old Testament the name of Hell doth alwayes almost import the Grave saith Alphonsus Mendoza The Iesuite Pineda commendeth one Cyprian a Cistercian monke as a man famous for learning and pietie yet holdeth him worthie to be censured for affirming that Sheol or Hell is in all the old Testament taken for the Grave Another croaking monke Crocquet they call him crieth out on the other side that we shall never be able to prove by the producing of as much as one place of Scripture that Sheol doth signifie the Grave Cardinall Bellarmine is a little and but a verie little more modest heerein The Hebrewe Sheol hee saith is ordinarily taken for the place of soules under the earth and eyther rarely or never for the grave but the Greeke word Hades alwayes signifieth Hell never the grave But Stapleton will stand to it stoutly that neyther Hades nor Sheol is in the Scriptures ever taken for the grave but alwayes for Hell The word Infernus Hades Sheol saith hee is never taken for the grave The grave is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrewe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore all the Paraphrastes of the Hebrewes also doe expound that word Sheol by the word Gehenna as Genebrard doth shew at large in his third Booke of the Trinity Where yet hee might have learned some more moderation from Genebrard himselfe unto whom hee referreth us who thus layeth downe his judgement of the matter in the place by him alledged As they be in an error who contend that Sheol doth never designe the grave so have they a shamelesse forehead who denie that it doth any where signifie the region of the damned or Gehenna It is an error therefore in Stapleton by his owne authors confession to maintayne that Sheol is never taken for the grave and in so doing hee doth but bewray his old wrangling disposition But least any other should take the shamelesse forehead from him hee faceth it downe that all the paraphrastes of the Hebrewes do interpret Sheol by the word Gehenna Whereas it is well knowne that the two Paraphrastes that are of greatest antiquitie and credit with the Hebrewes Onkelos the interpreter of Moses and Ionathan ben Vzziel of the Prophets never translate it so Beside that of Onkelos wee have two other Chaldee Paraphrases which expound the harder places of Moses the one called the Targum of Ierusalem the other attributed unto Ionathan in neyther of of these can wee finde that Sheol is expounded by Gehenna but in the latter of them we see it twise expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of the grave In the Arabicke interpretations of Moses where the translator out of the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-gehim Hell there the translator out of the Hebrew putteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-tharai which signifieth earth or clay Iacobus Tawosius in his Persian translation of the Pentateuch for Sheol doth alwaies put Gor that is the grave The Chaldee Paraphrase upon the Proverbs keepeth still the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deflected a little from the Hebrew the Paraphrast upon Iob useth that word thrise but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie the grave in steed thereof five severall times In Ecclesiastes the word commeth but once there the Chaldee Paraphrast rendreth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of the grave R. Ioseph Coecus doth the like in his paraphrase upon Psalm 31.17 and 89.48 In Psalm 141.7 he rendreth it by the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grave but in the 15. and 16. verses of the 49. Psalme by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gehenna And only there and in Cantic 8.6 is Sheol in the Chaldee paraphrases expounded by Gehenna whereby if we shall understand the place not of dead bodies as in that place of the Psalme the Paraphrast maketh expresse mention of the bodies waxing old or consuming in Gehenna but of tormented soules as the Rabbines more commonly doe take it yet doe our Romanists get little advantage thereby who would faine have the Sheól into which our Saviour went be conceived to have beene a place of rest and not of torment the bosome of Abraham and not Gehenna the seat of the damned As for the Greek word Hádes it is used by Hippocrates to expresse the first matter of things from which they have their beginning and into which afterwards being dissolved they make their ending For having said that in nature nothing properly may be held to be newly made or to perish he addeth this
But men do thinke that what doth grow from Hades into light is newly made and what is diminished from the light into Hades is perished by light understanding nothing else but the visible structure and existence of things and by Hádes that invisible and insensible thing which other Philosophers commonly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chalcidius the Platonick translateth Sylvam the Aristotelians more fitly Materiam primam whence also it is supposed by Master Casaubon that those passages were borrowed which we meet withall in the bookes that beare the name of Hermes Trismegistus In the dissolution of a materiall bodie the body it selfe is brought to alteration and the forme which it had is made invisible and so there is a privation of the sense made not a destruction of the bodies I say then that the world is changed in as much as every day a part thereof is made invisible but never utterly dissolved wherewith wee may compare likewise that place of Plutarch in his booke of living privately Generation doth not make any of the things that be but manifesteth them neyther is corruption a translation of a thing from being to not being but rather a bringing of the thing that is dissolved unto that vvhich is unseene Whereupon men according to the ancient traditions of their fathers thinking the sunne to be Apollo called him Delius and Pythius namely from manifesting of things and the ruler of the contrary destinie whether he be a God or an Angel they named Hádes by reason that we when we are dissolved doe goe unto an unseene and invisible place By the Latins this Hádes is termed Dispiter or Diespiter which name they gave unto this lower ayre that is joyned to the earth vvhere all things have their beginning and ending quorum quòd finis ortus Orcus dictus saith Varro All this earthly power and nature saith Iulius Firmicus they named Ditem patrem because this is the nature of the earth that all things doe both fall into it and taking their originall from thence doe againe proceed out of it Whence the Earth is brought in using this speech unto God in Hermes I do receive the nature of all things For I according as thou hast commanded doe both beare all things and receive such as are deprived of life The use which we make of the testimony of Hippocrates those other authorities of the heathen is to shew that the Greek Interpreters of the old TestameÌ„t did most aptly assume the word Hádes to expresse that coÌ„mon state place of corruption which was signified by the Hebrew Sheol therfore in the last verse of the 17. of Iob where the Greeke maketh mention of descending into Hádes Comitolus the Iesuite noteth that S. Ambrose rendreth it in sepulchrum into the grave which agreeth well with the paraphrase that the Greeke Scholiasts make upon that place Is it not a thing common unto all mortall men to die is not Hell or Hádes the house of all doe not all finde there an end of their labours Yea some doe thinke that Homer himselfe doth take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either for the earth or the grave in those verses of the eighth of his Iliads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I 'le cast him downe as deepe As Tartarus the brood of night where Barathrum doth sleepe Torment in his profoundest sinks where is the floore of brasse And gates of iron the place for depth as far doth Hell surpasse As heaven for height exceeds the earth For Tartarus being coÌ„monly acknowledged to be a part of Hádes and to be the very Hell where the wicked spirits are tormented they thinke the Hell from whence Homer maketh it to be as farre distant as the heaven is from the earth can be referred to nothing so fitly as to the Earth or the Grave It is taken also for a tombe in that place of Pindarus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Other sacred Kings have gotten a tombe apart by themselves before the houses or before the gates of the Citie And therefore we see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by Suidas in his Lexicon expressely interpreted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tombe or a grave and in the Greeke Dictionary set out by the Romanists themselves for the better understanding of the Bible it is noted that Hádes doth not onely signifie that which we commonly call Hell but the sepulchre or grave also Of which because Stapleton and Bellarmine doe denie that any proofe can be brought these instances following may be considered In the booke of Tobi chap. 3.10 I shall bring my fathers old age with sorrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto Hell what can it import else but that which is in other wordes expressed chap. 6.14 I shall bring my fathers life with sorrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the grave In the 93. and 113. Psalm according to the Greeke division or the 94. and 115. according to the Hebrew where the Hebrew hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of silence meaning the grave as our adversaries themselves do grant there the Greeke hath Hades or Hell In Esai 14.19 where the vulgar â—atin translateth out of the Hebrew Descenderunt ad fundamenta laci quasi cadaver putridum They descended unto the foundations of the lake or pit as a rotten carkeis in steed of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the lake or pit the Greeke both there and in Esai 38.18 putteth in Hades or Hell and on the other side Ezech. 32.21 where the Hebrew saith The strong among the mightie shall speake to him out of the middest of Sheol or Hell there the Greeke readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the depth of the lake or pit by Hell lake and pit nothing but the grave being understood as appeareth by comparing this verse with the five that come after it So in these places following where in the Hebrew is Sheol in the Greeke Hades in the Latin Infernus or Inferi in the English Hell the place of dead bodies not of soules is to be understood Gen. 44.31 We shall bring downe the gray haires of our father with sorrow unto Hell where no lower Hell can be conceited into which gray haires may be brought then the Grave So 1. King 2.6 David giveth this charge unto Salomon concerning Ioab Let not his hoare head goe downe to Hell in peace and in the ninth verse concerning Shimei His hoare head bring thou downe to Hell with bloud Psalm 141.7 Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Hell Esai 14.11 Thy pompe is brought downe to Hell the worme is spread under thee and the wormes cover thee Psal. 6.5 In death there is no remembrance of thee
and that God effecteth this grace in us not by way of counsell and perswasion only but by an inward change and reformation of the minde making up a new vessell of a broken one by a creating vertue Non hoc consilio tantùm hortatuque benigno Suadens atque docens quasi normam legis haberet Gratia sed mutans intus mentem atque reformans Vasque novum ex fracto fingens virtute creandi The Writers of principal esteeme on the other side were Iohannes Cassianus and Faustus Regiensis or Reiensis the former of which was encountred by Prosper in his booke Contra Collatorem the latter by Fulgentius Ioh. Maxentius Facundus Caesarius Iohannes Antiochenus as also by Gelasius and his Romane Synod of LXX Bishops the writings of them both were rejected amongst the bookes Apocryphall And lastly by the joint authoritie both of the See of Rome and of the French Bishops assembled in the second Councell of Orange in the yeare of our Lord DXXIX sentence was giuen against the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians in generall that their opinions touching Grace and Free-will were not agreeable to the rule of the Catholike faith and these conclusions following among sundrie others determined in particular If any doth say that by mans prayer the grace of God may be conferred and that it is not grace it selfe which maketh that God is prayed unto by us he contradicteth the Prophet Esay or the Apostle saying the same thing I was found of them that sought me not and have beene made manifest to them that asked not after me Esai 65.1 Rom. 10.20 If any man defend that God doth expect our will that we may be purged from sinne and doth not confesse that this will of ours to be purged is wrought in us by the infusion and operation of the holy Ghost he resisteth the holy Ghost saying by Salomon The will is prepared by the Lord Prov. 8.35 according to the LXX and the Apostle preaching wholesomely It is God which worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 If any man say that to us without grace beleeving willing desiring endevouring labouring watching studying asking seeking knocking mercie is conferred by God and doth not confesse that it is wrought in us by the infusion and inspiration of the holy Ghost that we may beleeve will or doe all these things as we ought and doth make the helpe of grace to follow after mans either humilitie or obedience neither doth yeeld that it is the gift of grace it selfe that we are obedient and humble he resisteth the Apostle saying What hast thou that thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4.7 and By the grace of God I am that I am 1 Cor. 15.10 It is of Gods gift both when we doe thinke aright and when we hold our feet from falshood and unrighteousnesse For as oft as we doe good things God worketh in us and with us that we may worke There are many good things done in man which man doth not But man doth no good things which God doth not make man to doe This also doe we wholesomely professe and beleeve that in every good worke we doe not beginne and are holpen afterwards by the mercie of God but hee first of all no good merits of ours going before inspireth into us both faith and the love of him that we may both faithfully seeke the Sacrament of Baptisme and after Baptisme with his helpe we way fulfill the things that are pleasing unto him Touching which last Canon we may note First for the reading that in the Tomes of the Councels set out by Binius it is most notoriously corrupted For where the Councell hath Nullis praecedentibus bonis meritis No good merits going before there wee reade Multis praecedentibus bonis meritis Many good merits going before Secondly for the meaning that the Fathers understand grace to be given according to merits when any thing is done by our owne strength in respect whereof grace is given although it be no merit of condignitie as both Bellarmine him selfe doth acknowledge in the explication of the determination of the Palaestine Synod against Pelagius and in the case of the Semi-Pelagians as it is delivered by Cassianus is most evident For the grace of God saith he doth alwaies so cooperate to the good part with our Free-will and in all things helpe protect and defend it that sometime it either requireth or expecteth from it some endevours of a good will that it may not seeme to conferre its gifts upon one that is altogether sleeping and given to sluggish idlenesse seeking occasions after a sort whereby the dulnesse of humane slothfulnesse being shaken off the bargenesse of its bountie may not seeme to be unreasonable while it imparteth the same under the colour of a kinde of desire and labour Yet so notwithstanding that grace may alwaies continue to be gratious and free while to such kinde of small and little endevours with an inestimable largesse it giveth so great glory of immortalitie so great gifts of everlasting blisse Let humane frailtie therefore endevour as much as it will it cannot be equall to the retribution that is to come neither by the labours thereof doth it so diminish Gods grace that it doth not alwaies continue to be given freely Where you may observe from what fountaine the Schoole-men did derive their doctrine of workes preparatorie meriting grace by way of congruitie though not of condignitie For Cassianus whom Prosper chargeth notwithstâ—nding all this qualifying of the matter to be a maintainer in very deed of that damned point of Pelagianisme that the grace of God was given according to our merits Cassianus I say was a man that bare great sway in our Monasteries where his writings were accounted as the Monkes generall Rules and untill the other day Faustus him selfe who of all others most cunningly opposed the doctrine of S. Augustine touching grace and free-will was accepted in the Popish Schooles for a reverend Doctor and a Catholike Bishop Yea the workes of Pelagius himselfe were had in such account that some of them as his Epistle ad Demetriadem for example and his Exposition upon S. Pauls Epistles which are fraught with his hereticall opinionâ— haue passed from hand to hand as if they had beene written by S. Hierome and as such have beene alledged against us by some of our Adversaries in this very question of Free-will The lesse is it to be wondered that three hundred yeares agoe in the mid-night of Popery the profound Doctor Thomas Bradwardin then Chancellor of London and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury should beginne his Disputations Of the cause of God against Pelagius with this lamentable complaint Behold I speake it with griefe of heart touched inwardly as in old time against one Prophet of God there were found eight hundred and fiftie Prophets of Baal unto whom an innumerable company of people did
knocke therefore dearely beloved as much as we can because we cannot as much as we ought the future blisse may be acquired but estimated it cannot be Albeit thou hadst good deeds equall in number to the starres saith Agapetus the Deacon to the Emperour Iustinian yet shalt thou never goe beyond the goodnesse of God For whatsoever any man shall bring unto God he doth but offer unto him his owne things out of his owne store and as one cannot outstrip his own shadow in the Sunne which preventeth him alwaies although he make never so much speed so neither can men by their good doings outstrip the unmatchable bountie of God All the righteousnesse of man saith Gregory is convicted to bee unrighteousnesse if it be strictly judged It needeth therefore prayer after righteousnesse that that which being sifted might faile by the meere pitie of the Iudge might stand for good Let him therefore say Although I had any righteous thing I would not answer but I would make supplication to my Iudge Iob 9.15 as if he should more plainly confesse and say Albeit I did grow up unto the worke of vertue I should be enabled unto life not by merits but by pardon But you will say If this blisse of the Saints be mercie and is not obtained by merits how shall that stand which is written And thou shalt render unto every one according to his workes If it be rendred according to workes how shall it be accounted mercie But it is one thing to render according to workes and another thing to render for the works themselves For when it is said According to works the qualitie it selfe of the worke is understood that whose workes appeare good his reward way be glorious For unto that blessed life wherein wee are to live with God and by God no labour can be equalled no workes compared seeing the Apostle saith The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us By the righteousnesse of works no man shall be saved but only by the righteousnesse of faith saith Bede and therefore no man should beleeve that either his freedome of will or his merits are sufficient to bring him unto blisse but understand that he can be saved by the grace of God only The same Author writing upon those words of David Psalm 24.5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation expoundeth the blessing to be this that for the present time he shall merit or worke well and for the future shall be rewarded well and that not by merits but by grace only To the same purpose Elias Cretensis the interpreter of Gregory Nazianzen writeth thus By mercy we ought to understand that reward which God doth repay unto us For wee as servants doe owe vertue that the best things and such as are gratefull wee should pay and offer unto God as a certaine debt considering that wee haue nothing which we have not received from him and God on the other side as our Lord and Master hath pitie on us and doth bestow rather than repay unto us This therefore is true humilitie saith Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus to doe good workes but to account ones selfe uncleane and unworthy of Gods favour thinking to be saved by his goodnesse alone For whatsoever good things we doe wee answer not God for the very aire alone which we doe breathe And when we have offered unto him all the things that we have he doth not owe us any reward for all things are his and none receiving the things that are his owne is bound to give a reward unto them that bring the same unto him In the booke set out by the authoritie of Charles the Great against Images the Arke of the Covenant is said to signifie our Lord and Saviour in whom alone we have the Covenant of peace with the Father Over which the Propitiatory is said to be placed because aboue the Commandements either of the Law or of the Gospell which are founded in him the mercy of the said Mediator taketh place by which not by the workes of the Law which we have done neither willing nor running but by his having mercy upon us we are saved So Ambrosius Ansbertus expounding that place Rev. 19.7 Let us be glad and rejoyce and give glory to him for the mariage of the Lambe is come and his wife hath made her selfe readie In this saith he doe we give glory to him when we doe confesse that by no precedent merits of our good deeds but by his mercie only we have attained unto so great a dignitie And Rabanus in his Commentaries upon the Lament of Ieremie Lest they should say Our Fathers were accepted for their merit and therefore they obtained such great things at the hand of the Lord he adjoyneth that this was not given to their merits but because it so pleased God whose free gift is whatsoever he bestoweth Haymo writing upon those words Psalm 132.10 For thy servant Davids sake refuse not the face of thine Anointed saith that For thy servant Davids sake is as much to say as For the merit of Christ himselfe and froâ— thence collecteth this doctrine that none ought to presume of his owne merits but expect all his salvation from the merits of Christ. So in another place When we performe our repentance saith he let us know that we can give nothing that is worthy for the aâ—peasing of God but that only in the bloud of that immaculate and singular Lambe we can be saved And againe Eternall life is rendred to none by debt but given by free mercie It is of necessitie that beleevers should be saved only by the faith of Christ saith Smaragdus the Abbot By grace not by merits are we saved of God saith the Author of the Commentaries upon S. Marke falsely attributed to S. Hierome That this doctrine was by Gods great mercie preserved in the Church the next 500. yeares also as well as in those middle times appeareth most evidently by those Instructions and Consolations which were prescribed to be used unto such as were readie to depart out of this life This forme of preparing men for their death was commonly to be had in all Libraries and particularly was found inserted among the Epistles of Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury who was commonly accounted to bee the Author of it The substance thereof may be seene for the copies varie some being shorter and some larger than others in a Tractate written by a Cistercian Monke of the Art of dying well which I have in written hand and have seene also printed in the yeere 1483. and 1504. in the booke called Hortulus animae in Cassanders Appendix to the booke of Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester de fiduciâ misericordiâ Dei edit Colon. An. 1556. Caspar Vlenbergius his Motives caus 14. pag.