A LEGACIE left to PROTESTANTS Containing Eighteen Controversies viz. 1. Of the Holy Scriptures 2. Of Christs Catholick Church c. 3. Of the Bishop and Church of Rome 4. Of Traditions needfull c. DOWA Printed 1654 To the Reader THese ensuing Controversies were found in a learned mans study dead nine years since and commended to the care of a Friend who dyed soon after him or otherwise they had been printed long since with the foresaid Title by the Author himself prefixed uâ— to them desiring not to have his name or any dedication added unto them but this That many learned Freinds had read and approved them that he heartily wished they might help to convert unto the true faith of Christs Catholique Church such Protestants as should read them which I wish also his Friend Whilâ—st he lived T. B. A Table of the severall Controversies 1. OF the Holy Scriptures pag. 1. 2. Of Christs Catholick Church in generall not colourably now among Christians the first part pag. 14. The second part pag. 30. 3. Of the Bishop and Church of Rome pag. 48 4. Of Traditions needfully added into the Canon of Scripture pag. 69 5. Of Protestancy begun here in England under Queen Elizabeth pag. 82 6. Of the holy Eucharist pag. 92 First part concerning our Saviours reall presence therein ib. Second part pag. 101 7. Of honouring Saints and praying to them pag. 109 8. Of reverencing of Saints Reliques pag. 116 9. Of holy Images kept and honoured by us pag. 120 10. Of Purgatory and Prayer for the dead pag. 131 11. Of Sacramentall Confession pag. 135 12. Concerning the number and effects of Sacraments pag. 145 13. Of Free-will pag. 157 14. Of Calvins Solifidian Justice pag. 16â— 15. Concerning the merit of good Works pag. 169 16. About the possibility of keeping Gods Commandements pag. 177 17. Of Feasts and Fasts Apostolically ordained and neglected both by English Calvinists and Independents pag. 183 18. Concerning praedestination pag. 191 THE First Controversie Of the holy Scriptures WHerein our Adversaries do notoriously wrong us and make simple people believe that we Catholicks yeeld no more authority to sacred Writings then our Church alloweth them Whereas we firmly believe them to have been inspired by God and therefore attribute a divine and infallible authority unto them when they are sufficiently declared to be such and truly Expounded unto us For without the former condition to wit an undoubted knowledge of them no man can securely rely on any doctrine contained in them and without the latter condition of being rightly understood all Heresies have been formerly and may now also be drawn pernitiously from them So as about these two points our Adversaries and we chiefly and indeed only differ They for example Calvinists especially for a certain knowledge of them rely upon-their own private Spirit and an imaginary light shining to all faithfull Readers of them no lesse clearly distinguishing true Scriptures from false then light by our eyes from darknesse is discernable by us which internall light is a meere Chymaera say we and other great Protestants with us by Calvin purposely devised to accept or reject what Scriptures he liked and interpret them as he pleased without any authority to controle him which is as St. Austine told Faustus his Manichean Lib. contra â—um 13. c. 5 Adversary to take away all authority both of Church and Scripture licensing every man to believe what he lifteâ—h Whereas we Catholicks for a certain knowledge of true Scriptures rely upon the exteriour and infallible tâ—stimony of Christ's Church by himself warranted unto us when he commanded us to heare and obey such as he appointed therein to govern and guide us no lesse then himself And whereas Calvin deemeth it a thing very inconvenient and against the Majesty of Scripture to be subjected to mens judgements about declaring the sacred authority thereof we say no and prove it to be no more inconvenient for Scriptures then for other points of Faith to be made known by the Church's testimony unto us And if the holy Scriptures have been written by men divinly inspired and guided in the penning of them as assuredly they have been why may they not also by men assisted by the holy Ghost be made known infallibly unto us especially sithence they cannot give testimony of themselves as Hooker and other chief Protestants Lib. 2. sect 14. Lib. 2. sect 4 7. Lib. 3. sâ—ct 8. have proved because if part of Scripture should give credit to the rest that very part might be doubted of likewise Unlesse besides Scripture there were something elsâ— that might assure us which he acknowledgeth to be the authority of Christs Church Insomuch as Egidius Hunnius a cheife Colloquio Ratisbonen si Lutheran Divine and sixteen others with him at Ratisbone before sundry Princes of Germany were by Gretzerus and Tanner Catholick Divines inforced to admit the Church's testimony and historicall tradition as they câ—lled it altogether needfull for an undoubted knowledge of Scripture as heretofore many forged Scriptures have been rejected and others approved by it Albeit they proceed not conformably therein by not admiting into their Canon all Books and parts of Scripture so approved For if the Churches testimony be false in declaring some Books surely it cannot be certain in declaring others and so we can receive no infallible assurance from her Turtullian notwithstanding prescribeth Lib. 1. praescript c. 6. this for an undoubted truth that what the Apostles preached and Christ revealed unto them cannot be testified unto us but by the Churches which they founded and St. Austine so affirmed the same as he saith He Tom. 6. contra Epist fundament cap. 5. would not believe the Gospel were it not that the Church by her authority commended the same unto him So far was he and other Fathers from dreaming of Calvin's inward light communicated to all faithful Readers of Scriptures wherein the Lutherans might claim an equall share with him as his Companions and so they might agree about their Canon of Scripture as now they do not nor with any antient Church before them Lib. 33. contra Faustum cap. 6. Whereas St. Austin speaking of our Canon which himself amongst other African Bishops had declared in the third Councel of Carthage as St. Innocentius the first had done before him and many both Popes and Councels Epist ad Exupâ—rium have done since those Books saith he by the consent of Christian Churches and Bishops of them succeeding each other downwards from the Apostles have been warranted for true Scriptures unto us and are onely denyed by you speaking then of the Manicheans as we doe now of Protestants few in number and lately risen because they make not for your Doctrine And whereas they provoke us to the Originals to wit the Hebrew and Greek Texts of the old Testament and seek by what means they can to disgrace our Vulgar Edition We answer them first that they
themselves in their Translations of Scripture follow sometimes the Greek sometimes the Hebrew and somtimes neither but other extravagancies yea and often our Vulgar Translation as they finde this or that or a third or fourth most convenient for them Secondly we tell them that we hold it more wholesome for us to drink the water of a pure stream then of a troubled fountain for that all learned and impartiall men know the Hebrew and Greek Originals to have been by Jewish Rabbins since St. Hierom's time and Grecian Hereticks altered and corrupted in many places whereas our Vulgar Edition is held in most parts thereof to be the same which that great Doctor at Pope Damasus intreaty corrected in the new Testament according to the Greek and translated in the Old out of the Hebrew by St. Austin in sundry places Lib. 10. de Civit. dei cap. 43. highly extolled thuâ— also mentioned by Doctor Whitaker against Reignalds Hierome I reverence Damasus I commend and the work I confesse to Pag. 241. in cap. 1. Luc. v. 1. be godly profitable for the Church So as Beza himself is inforced to confesse our Interpretor to have translated the holy Books with marvelous sincerity and religion And Pelicanus in his Preface on the Psalter which in our Edition is not St. Hieroms affirmeth the Interpretor thereof to have expressed the Hebrew Text with great learning and fidelity not doubting him to have been some propheticall person And many other cheif Protestants have highly commended the whole Edition generally used in the Church as Doctor Covel against M. Burges hath affirmed for 1300. past whereas Protestants with sharp and virulent censures mutually condemn each others translations Zuinglius for example and very justly condemneth Luther for having in his German Bible changed and left out not onely words but whole Sentences And Oecolampadius his Bible printed at Bazil is censured by Beza to be a sacrilegious corruption of Scripture Betwâ—en himself also and Castalio like censures have passed and been published of their different versions with greater bitterness then beseemed Christian Doctors Carolus Molineus condemneth Calvin and saith that in his Harmony he maketh the Text to leap up and down as he pleaseth Broughton hath noted multitudes of errours in all our English translations and King James in the conference at Hampton-Court affirmed plainly that he had never amongst them all seen a good one and judged that of Geneva to be the worst amongst them So full of incertainties are these new Doctors in the total summe as I may say of their Religion wholy depending upon the true knowledge of Scripture For that in their opinion no point or practice of Faith is to be admitted which is not expressed or gatherable by a clear and immediate consequence out of Scripture a tenent which shall be by me afterwards in every controversie disproved In the mean time to their pretence that St. Hierome denyed those very Books to be of a sacred and infallible authority which they have rejected from the Canon of Scripture I Answer first that St. Hierom as a private Doctor might easily erre in his opinion of these Books before our Churches Canon was fully declared and accepted Secondly I Answer that when Ruffinus objected this unto him In Apologia 2a contrâ— Russinum he called him Sycophant and said that he had onely uttered what the Jews not himself thought of those Books and professed to translate Judith because the first Nicene Councel had declared the same to be canonical albeit the Jews then denyed it to be so Neither doth it make much against the sacred authority of those Bookes that the Jews admitted them not into their Canon of Scripture because all or most part of them were written since Esdras composed their Canon and who can doubt but that Christs Church might better from them Apostles than from the Jews come to know true Scriptures And whereas some Protestant Divines pretend against those Books because they were not written in Hebrew as though no Scriptures could be written in any other tongue I can tell them here also that it hath been discovered and confessed of late even by Protestants themselves that the two Books of Machabees were first written in Hebrew and so was Ecclesiasticus which S. Hierom testifieth himself to have seen in Hebrew bound up together with the Proverbs of Solomon As for the absurdities pretended by our Adversaries to be found in those Books of Tobias Judith and Hester many of our chief Divines as Canus Bellarmine Serrarius and others have cleared them and shewed no lesse difficulties to be found in other confessed Books of Scriptures That some ancient Fathers also when many forged Scriptures were extant not distinguish'd from canonical writings doubted of or denied the authority of some Books admitted by us is an argument that proveth over much or just nothing for that we know many undoubted parts of Scripture have been questioned in a likâ— manner the Churches Examen having in time discovered the verity of them And albeit no one of those Books denied by Protestants wanteth the testimonies of antient Fathers to prove the said sacred Authority yet are there two of them in former times especially so approved Sapientia and Ecclesiastiâ—us the first of them was written as St. Hierome witnesseth in his Preface on the Books of Salomon by Philo a Jew long before our Saviours time wherein he compiled the Sentences of Salomon not conteined in his own Books but by tradition other wise conserved this Book is cited for true Scripture by S. Hierome himself yet with this restriction Cui In c. 8 12 Zacha. iae in cap. Esaiae in 18. Hâ—â—râ—â—iae tamen placeâ— librum recipere if any man will receive this book and without it in his latter Writings for then perchance he saw the Canon of Scripture more fully declared St. Ireneus Apud Eusebi um li. 5. Hist c. 8. l. 5. 6. stomatum bomil 12. in Leviti cum lib. 8. in epist. ad Romanos Heâ—â—si 63. homilia 33. 34. in Math. also long before him cited it for sacred so did St. Clement of Alexandria so did Origen so did S. Athanasius in Synopsi orat 2. contra Arianos so did S. Basil lib. 5. contra Eunomianos so did S. Gregory Nissen in testimoniis ex veteri testamento cap. de Nativitate Christi ex virgine so did S. Epiphanius S. Chrysostom S. Ciprian S. Hilary in Psal 127 S. Ambrose li. de Salomone cap. 1. S. Austin and others highly extolling the Book as Exhortatione ad martyrium teaching all sorts of vertue under the generall notions of Wisdome and Justice and conteyning in the second Chapter thereof a clear Prophesie of our Saviours Passion killed by the Jews because he made himself the Son of God c. which alone is sufficient to prove the divine authority of this Book Ecclesiasticus also was written by Jesus the Son of Sirach in
of it more in a generall Councel than in the Pope who hath authority to call and confirm it is an extravagant opinion of some divines and hath little colour of truth in it especially considering that sundry great and general Councels not following the Popes sentence and directions given either by their Letters or Legats in them have perniciously in their Decrees and scandalously erred Whereas it cannot be proved that Popes alone have in their doctrines so failed Neither hath it in former times been held necessary for resolving doubts in matters of faith or for condemning Heresies risen against them to have a generall Councel presently called but Popes alone have commonly performed that Office acknowledged by chief Fathers in all ages to belong unto them so as amongst many others which might here to that purpose be instanced by me St. Hierom writing to Pope Damasus about admiting 3 hypostasies in the deity or not because that word then was of a doubtfull signification tell me saith he whether I shall admit them or not as a sheep I ask help of my Sheapherd I know not Vitalis I refuse to believe Mâ—lesius I am joyned to your beatitude alone c. And in this kinde of language have other antient fathers written to severâ—l Pâ—pâ—s to have quâ—stions and doubts of faiâ—h resolved by them which they would not have done had they not believed our Saviours prayer that their faith should not fail to hâ—ve been heard for them by his eternal Father and that a peculiar assistance of the Holy Ghost was promised unto them The fourth Controversie Of Traditions needfully added into the Canon of Scripture OUr Adversaries under a specious pretence of following in the Doctrine and practice of Faith Gods word alone contained in Scripture seek to overthrow amongst Christians all true belief and Religion for admitting what scriptures they list themselves and interpreting them as they please is in effect to have a Religion of their own making no lesse absurd than if in Kingdomes and Common-wealths Subjects were permitted to interpret laws of themselves without admitting Judges to determine of them or any authentical Declaration of them so as every man may to his own advantage in suits and controversies expound them and defend any cause how bad and unjust soever it be by them And that pretence of Protestants to believe nothing which is not either expressed in Scripture or by a clear immediate consequence gatherable from it is a false brag and purposely devised to exclude the Churches teaching and deceive ignorant people unable to note how ungroundedly and without sence many times texts of Scripture are cited by them to prove their own and impugn our doctrines insomuch as the Catholick and learned Pastor of Chaventon a place alotted unto the Hugonits neer Paris hath in sundry Volumes discovered the fraudulent proceedings of Protestants about maintaining points of their Religion and particularly shewed that no point thereof can be without false Glosses of their own convinced out of Scripture For example when S. Paul affirmeth all scripture divinely inspired to be profitable to teach to correct to instruct in justice that the man of God may be perfect He doth not say as our Adversaires falsly gather from this place that scripture alone can make him perfect in the knowledge of heavenly truth for that revealed and unwritten doctrines may serve likewise to increase this knowledge in him as when S. Paul willed the Galatians to stick firmly to cap. 1. his doctrine by writing or preaching delivered unto them and exhorted the Thessalonians to keep those traditions which either by his Epistles or by 2 Thess 2. speech they had received from him praâ—sing the Corinthians for observing such precepts as he had given unto them When also against Apostolical and certain tradition they urged those texts wherein our Saviour reprehended Pharisaical and wicked doctrines teaching plainly observances against the Law of God sometimes also vain things and of no moment their arguments are meer fopperies and prove nothing against unwritten doctrines such as are the Creed of the Apostlâ—s the translation of the Jewish Sabbath into our Sunday the Feasts of Easter and Pentecost antiently observed not for the celebration of Jewish but Christian mysteries and many other Feasts and Fastâ— kept in the Church from Apostolical tradition the Baptism of Children the matters and forms of Sacraments and many other doctrines and practices of faith not expressed in Scripture Where in the mean time I will ask those mâ—n is it either plainly expressâ—d or by clear consequencies gatheâ—ablâ— from Scripture that the Commandements of God are impossible to be observed that men have no free will to do good or evill that the justâ—st men do mortally offend in their best actions that there is no inherent justice or sanctification in us by heavenly graces communicated unto soules cleansed from sin but that all are holy by Christs justice alone apprehended by faith and imputed only unto them that each faithfull man is by an Act of faith to believe that he shall be saved no lesse surely than Christ himself that Christ dyed for none but the Elect and that others were to have no share in the fruit of his death and passion for us that Christs body and blood are not really and corporally present in the Sacrament but by saith onely that Sacraments of the new law are signes and seals of faith onely no graces are communicated at all to such as receive them and many such Protestants Tenents bâ—sides which have no true ground at all in Scripture for them And in this pretence of gathering and proving the faith out of scriptures onely they imitate many anciâ—nt Hereticks before them So Maximus the Arian as S. Austin in his first In principio book against him recounteth rejecteth the word Homousion because it was not expressed in Scripture and so did Epist 174. Pascentius as the same father recounteth and as S. Gregory Naziâ—nzen relateth of Eunomius he was wont to ask his Christian Adversaries why they did name a God meaning the Holy Ghost not mentioned for such in scripture making so saith he the sacred Act. 3. writings of God a cloak of their impiety Acasius the Arian in the Councel of Selevica used the same words and so did Eutiches in the Councel of Constantinople under Flavianus asking the Fathers therein assembled in what scripture they found expressed that cap. 6. Christ had two Natures conjoyned in his Person neither could he be drawn from those words commonly used by Protestants I follow onely the scriptures and regard not the Fathers Exposition Lib. de natura de gratia cap. 39. of them The Pelagians also as S. Austin citâ—th their words made profession to believe no more than Anathetisma 7. what they read in Scripture So did the Iconomachi or Image-breakers in the second Councel of Nice and the Albigenses said the same to S. Bernard Hom. 66. in Cant. as
Hebrew and translated by his Grand-childe into Greek as appeareth by his short Prologue before it worthily called by some Authors Panaretes a receptacle to wit or store-house of all vertues fit to instruct all sorts of Persons and containing as I have said of Sapientia Salomons dispersed Sentences diligently by the Author collected held by some also to have been one of the 72. Translators and divinely inspired to write this book cited for Scripture by St. Clement of Alexandâ—ia by Origen Lib. 1. paedagogi c. 8. hom 8. in numer homil 1. in Ezechiel Oâ—at 2. in Julianum by S. Cyprian de opere Elcemosina by S. Athanasius in Synopsi li. de virginitate by S. Basil in regulis disputatis responsione 114. by S. Gregory Nazianzen by S. Epiphanius heresi 76 in Anchorato by S. Hilari by S. Ambrose by S. Chrysostome by S. Austin and sundry in Psal 144 lib. de bono mortis c. 8. other chief Fathers yet able to prevaile nothing at all with men heretically swayed to the contrary So as the Nicene Councels Decree about the Book of Judith is slighted also and regarded nothing at all by them The second Controversie Of Christs Catholick Church in generall not colourably now amongst Protestants The first Part. FOr a good beginning of this Controversie I wish my Reader if he be no Catholick seriously to consider with himself how much it importeth him to finde out Christs true Church and to make himself a member thereof because a Christian man saith S. Austin ought not to fear any thing more than to be separated from Christs mysticall body for that so he remaineth no more a member of him nor can he be quickned with his holy Spirit nor receive any Li. de unit Ecclâ— Light or Life of Grace from him they remain not saith St. Cyprian with God who live not concordiously in the Church of his Son for should any out of the same fry in flames that Death would be no crown of Faith but a punishment of infidelity such may be killed but not crowned This Church was to be that Hill cap. 1. of our Lord prepared on the top of mountains which Esay spake of raised above other hills whereunto the Gentiles should flow as a Sea saying unto each other come let us ascend unto the hill of our Lord and to the house cap. 54. of Jacob to wit Christ and his Church c. willed by the same Prophet to inlarge the place of her Tents to spread out the Curtains of her habitation for that she should increase on the right hand and on the left and cap. 60. that her Seed should possesse the Gentiles that her gates should be open day and night and never shut that the people might enter continually into her that Kings should be her cap. 42. nursing Fathers and Queens her Mothers c. And it cannot be doubted but whatsoever is spoken in the Psalms and Prophets in a hundred severall places concerning the propagation greatnesse glory and continuance of Christs Church and Kingdome here on earth wherein all Psal 71. 2. Princes to the ends thereof were to adore him and Nations serve him hath been and shall be accordingly fulfilled To say therefore as commonly our Adversaries print in their Books and preach in their Pulpits that this once glorious and Catholickly dilated Church of Christ hath fallen away from the true faith and service of him by becomming Antichristian Idolatrous and abominable in her Rights and Superstitions some say 800. some say 1000. some 1360. years together yea and to have declined in her Doctrines from the very time of the Apostles first Planters thereof and onely Enarrat in Psal 101. to have remained in a few hidden Believers of Protestancy but not daring to professe it in our Churches is as S. Austin termed it a most false temerarious blasphemous and witlesse assertion contradicted by many plain Predictions of the Prophets Promises of Christ himself shewing that this City built upon a hill cannot be hidden that this Tabernacle of God placed in the Sun to illuminate the world with the heavenly Rayes of her doctrine cannot be obscured That the bloud of Christ once shed to redeem souls shall never for that purpose be fruitlesse and un-effectuall That Hell gates shall never prevaile to overthrow that building by himself on a rock firmly established against them That Gods Covenant made with men to save the world by his Sons death and passion should never be frustrated and made void by any power of the Devill or wickednesse amongst them Because God himself speaking thereof saith thus The heavens shall Esay c. 9. vanish away like smoak the earth also shall â—remble and wear away like a garment but my salvation shall last for ever and my justice shall never fail and again saith he I will place my tabernacle amongst men and be their God and they shall be my people and the Gentiles shall know that I am their Lord when my sanctification shall be for ever amongst them Daniel likewise speaking of Christ saith That his power shall be an everlasting power and his kingdome shall never be broken or taken from him Cap. 2. Micheas also speaketh most plainly of Christs Church whereunto cap. 4. all people shall flow and our Lord shall raign over them for ever Our Redeemer saith Esay shall come and remove all iniquity from Jacob and this saith God shall be my league my spirit which is in thee speaking to his Son and the words which I cap. 59. have put into thy mouth shall not depart from it nor from the mouth of thy seed nor from the mouth of thy seeds seed from henceforth and for ever Which Texts so plainly proveth the continuance of Christs Church and the truth of heavenly Doctrine therein remaining to the worlds end as Calvin himself in his Exposition thereon writeth thus Here God promised that the Church should never be deprived of that inestimable blessing of being still govern'd by the holy Ghost and maintained in the truth of heavenly doctrine because it would have little availed us to have had the Gospel once preached or the holy Ghost for a time onely given unto us unlesse he remain continually with us c. Wherefore our Lord promised here to remain still with his Church and to have a care that it shall never be deprived of true Doctrine which being Calvins own words may well serve to shew his plain contradictions in other places about the Churches having faln away for many ages together from the truth of heavenly doctrine first planted in her and to prove likewise that all pretended reformers of her catholick and ever continued faith have been impostors onely and produced nought else but hereticall innovations from the first to the last of them For if Christ had a will and power to build this house of God and firm foundation of truth as St.
Saints as S. Justine Apolog. 2. ad Anteninum witnesseth in these words we are callâ—d saith he athiests because we worship not your Gods it is true we acknowledge no such Gods but one true God alone c. and his only Son who came from him and taught us to seâ—ve him we reverence the whole Army of his angels and blessed Spirits of the Prophets c. which honour yielded unto Saints is by St. Deunis in his celestial and Ecclesiastical Hierarchies by St. Ignatius in his Epistles and in all ancient Liturgies peculiarly expressed and in this we believe communion between them and us that as we rejoyce in their felicity and greatnes so they secure now for themselves saith St. Cyprian are sollicitous for us and the higher they are now in their own Heavenly glory and greatnesse the more clearly do they know our necessities and are ready from their divine Lord and ours to obtain remedies for them And if whilst they lived here on earth they might lawfully pray for us why may they not now do the same in their happier estate not hindering but increasing their Charity towards us sithence especially their locall remotenesse from us hindereth not their hearing of our prayers directed unto them no otherwise than angells know by the testimony of our Mat. 22. Lucae 10. Saviour himself the secretest conversions here of sinners and rejoyce in them Saints being in their blessed estate like and equall unto them and those who together behold the Charity of their heavenly Lord in whom Morali 14. lib. 4 Dialog all things are contained can be ignorant of nothing saith St. Gregory belonging unto them in which sense St Paul telleth us that we are come to Mount Sion heavenly Jerusalem and City of the living God to the frequency of millions of Angells and the Church of those who were first conscribed amongst them c. so gone before us as we are hopefull to arrive unto them and become as now they are fully united unto him qui est caput super omnem Ecclesiam who is head of his whole Church so as they and we belong to one body and have some communion as fellow members under one and the same head together Calvin therefore without book and out of his own hereticall fancy affirmed the Saints of heaven to be secluded from having any commerce at all with us and that they pray in generall but not in particular for us because forsooth they cannot hear us for how saith he hath it been revealed unto any man that Saints have ears so long as to reach down from heaven unto us whilst we pray unto them Which Question had been better made by some Infidel than any Christian Authour of learning or judgement proposed for who knoweth not that pure Spirits such as are souls separated from bodies have a spiritual manner both of hearing and speaking without ears tongue or other corporall senses so as it would be no absurd thing if I should tell Calvin that Lucifer in hell knew him very well and such Heresies as were to the ruine of souls broached by him albeit he had no eyes to view his papers or ears to hear his Doctrines preached by the naturall light of his understanding in absence also penetrated by him which is as ears and eys unto him whose substance as we conceive not so is the spiritual manner of his understanding things hidden wholy from us wherein Angels and Saints in heaven do far no doubt exceed him because they have a purer and higher light to wit of glory communicated by God unto them and according to his absurd question of long ears for Saints to hear our prayers directed unto them a man may well conceive him to have scarcely believed that our Saviour as Man according to his humane and glorified soul heareth the prayers of men here on earth directed unto him or knoweth their actions according to which notwithstanding he shall judge them Calvin in the mean time could not but know when he impugned our invocation of Saints that we in our addresses unto them intend nothing else but to obtain more easily at Gods hands by their intercession blessings and benefits needfull for us For if the joynt Prayers of two or three here on earth be more gratefull to God than of one alone and more effectuall to obtain what we ask of him how can it be but profitable for us to have with our own prayers the suffrages of Angels and Saints holily conjoyned we of our selves bâ—ing sinful wretches and wholy unworthy to obtain any thing of him Wherefore as Malefactors here on earth think themselves happy when any favourite of their Prince will be pleased to sollicite their pardon for crimes committed against him so are we in a like manner humble suiters unto these Courtiers of heaven to become unto their divine Lord and ours Mediators and Intercessors for us Neither doth this Mediation of Saints derogate any thing at all from the mediation of Christ For that he immediately by himself and in the right of his own merits advocateth and obtaineth at his fathers hands what graces he will himself and blessings for us Whereas Saints in a mediate and subalternate way of Mediation by him to wit and his merits who redeemed them and us also become intercessors for us And this custome of praying in this manner unto Saints hath been so anciently used in Christs Church as all Greek and Latine Fathers almost whose works are now extant have approved and practiced it Angels saith S. Ambrose are to be Lib. de Viduâ—â— invoked to our help the Martyrs are to be sought unto whose bodies we keep as pledges of their love towards us And S. Hierome disputeth thus against cap. 3. Vigilantius as now I may doe against Calvin or any other Protestant Thou sayest in thy Book that whilest we live we may pray for each other but not after death But I tell thee that if the Apostles and Martyrs living here in bodies could pray for others when they cared for themselves how much more may they now do that after their Crowns and victories So that if our Adversaries would admit any true Church or prâ—ctice of Religion before them they could not but acknowledge this doctrine and custome taught and practiced in our Church to have ever been truly Christian and Catholick but as their heretical Conventicles are newly raised so will they have a new Religion believed and practised in them The eighth Controversie Of reverencing of Saints Reliques AS we yeeld not unto Saints themselves now in heaven a divine honor but onely a reverend respect infinitely inferiour unto it so likewise their Reliques are not but by the same reverenced by us And our Adversaries sencelesly abuse words when they accuse us of Idolatry for yeelding this reverence unto them these Reliques being not false Gods or things belonging unto them but Reliques and parts of their bodies who were Gods true Servants and either