beseeching him that no such pictures may be hanged vp contrarie to our religion Though by the way who can but blush at Master Fishers euasion that it was sure the picture of some profane Pagan When as Epiphanius himselfe there sayes it had Imaginem quasi Christi vel sancti cuiusdam the Image as it were of Christ or some Saint Surely therfore the Image went for Christs or for some noted Saints neither doth he find fault with the irresemblance but with the Image as such That of Agobardus is sufficient for vs Nullus antiquorum Catholicorum None of the ancient Catholiques euer thought that Images were to be worshipped or adored They had them indeed but for historie-sake To remember the Saints by not to worship them The decision of Gregory the Great some six hundred yeeres after Christ which he gaue to Serenus Bishop of Massilia is famous in euerie mans mouth and pen Et quidem quia eas adorari vetuisses c. Wee commend you saith hee that you forbade those Images to bee worshipped but we reproue your breaking of them adding the reason of both For that they were onely retained for historie and instruction not for adoration which ingenuous Cassander so comments vpon as that he showes this to be a sufficient declaration of the iudgement of the Roman Church in those times Videlicet ideo haberi picturas c. That Images are kept not to bee adored and worshipped but that the ignorant by beholding those pictures might as by written records be put in minde of what hath beene formerly done and bee thereupon stirred vp to pietie And the same Author tells vs that Sanioribus scholasticis displicet c. the sounder Schoole-men disliked that opinion of Thomas Aquine who held that the Image is to be worshipped with the same adoration which is due to the thing represented by it reckoning vp Durand Holcot Biel. Not to spend many words in a cleere case What the iudgement and practice of our Ancestors in this Iland was concerning this point appeares sufficiently by the relation of Roger Houeden our Historian Who tells vs that in the yeere 792. Charles the King of France sent into this Isle a Synodall Booke directed vnto him from Constantinople wherein there were diuers offensiue passages but especially this one that by the vnanimous consent of all the Doctors of the East and no fewer then 300. Bishops it was decreed that Images should be worshipped quod Ecclesia Deiexecratur saith he which the Church of God abhorres Against which errour Albinus saith he wrote an Epistle maruellously confirmed by authoritie of diuine Scriptures and in the person of our Bishops and Princes exhibited it together with the sayd Booke vnto the French King This was the setled resolution of our Predecessours And if since that time preuailing superstition haue incroached vpon the ensuing succession of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the old rules stand as those Fathers determined Away with nouelties But good Lord how apt men are to raise or beleeue lies for their owne aduantages Vspergensis and other friends of Idolatrie tell vs of a Councell held at London in the dayes of Pope Constantine Anno 714. wherein the worship of Images was publiquely decreed the occasion whereof was this Egwin the Monke after made Bishop had a vision from God wherein hee was admonished to set vp the Image of the Mother of God in his Church The matter was debated and brought before the Pope in his See Apostolike There Egwin was sworne to the truth of his vision Thereupon Pope Constantine sent his Legate Boniface into England who called a Councell at London wherein after proofe made of Egwins visions there was an act made for Image-worship A figment so grosse that euen their Baronius and Binius fall foule vpon it with a facile inducimur c. we are easily induced to beleeue it to be a lie Their ground is that it is destitute of all testimony of Antiquitie and besides that it doth directly crosse the report of Beda who tells vs that our English together with the Gospell receiued the vse of Images from their Apostle Augustine and therefore needed not any new vision for the entertainment thereof Let vs inquire then a little into the words of Beda At illi but they Augustine and his fellowes non daemoniaca c. came armed not with the power of Deuils but of God bearing a siluer Crosse for their Standard and the image of our Lord and Sauiour painted in a Table and singing Letanies both for the saluation of themselues and of them whom they came to conuert Thus he This shewes indeed that Augustine and his fellowes brought Images into England vnknowne here before A point worthy of good obseruation but how little this proues the allowed worship of them will easily appeare to any reader if hee consider that Gregorie the first and Great was he that sent this Augustine in England whose iudgement concerning Images is cleerely published by himselfe to all the world in his fore-cited Epistle absolutely condemning their adoration Augustine should haue been an ill Apostle if he had herein gone contrarie to the will of him that sent him If withall he shall consider that within the verie same centurie of yeeres the Clergie of England by Albinus Bedes Scholler sent this publique declaration of their earnest disauowing both of the doctrine and practice of Image-worship SECT II. Image Worship against Scripture AS for Scripture We need not to goe further then the verie second Commandement the charge whereof is so ineuitable that it is very ordinarily doubtlesse in the guiltinesse of an apparent checke left out in the deuotionall Bookes to the people Others since they cannot raze it out would faine limit it to the Iewes pretending that this precept against the worship of Images was only Temporall and Ceremoniall and such as ought not to be in force vnder the Times of the Gospell Wherin they recal to my thoughts that which Epiphanes the sonne of Carpocrates answered When his lust was checked with the command of Non concupisces True said hee that is to be vnderstood of the Heathen whose Wiues and Sisters wee may not indeed lust after Some more modest spirits are ashamed of that shift and fly to the distinction of Idols and Images a distinction without a difference of their making not of Gods Of whom we neuer learned other then that as euery Idoll is an Image of something so euery Image worshipped turnes Idoll The Language differs not the thing it selfe To be sure God takes order for both Yee shall make you no Idoll nor grauen Image neither reare you vp any standing Image neither shall you set vp any Image of stone in your Land to bow downe to it Yea as their owne vulgar turnes it Non facies tibi c. statuam Thou shalt not set thee vp a Statue which God hateth The Booke of God is full of his
satisfaction when as all that man is capable to suffer cannot be sufficient for one and that the least sin of his owne the wages whereof is eternall death Or that those superfluities of humane satisfaction should peece vp the infinite and perfitly meritorious superabundance of the Sonne of God Or that this supposed treasure of diuine and humane satisfactions should bee kept vnder the key of some one sinfull man Or that this one man who cannot deliuer his owne soule from Purgatorie no not from hell it selfe should haue power to free what others hee pleaseth from those fearefull flames to the full Iaole-deliuerie of that direfull prison which though his great power can doe yet his no lesse charitie will not doth not Or that the same pardon which cannot acquit a man from one houres tooth-ach should be of force to giue his soule ease from the temporarie paines of another world Lastly guilt and punishment are relatiues and can no more be seuered then a perfect forgiuenesse and a remaining compensation can stand together This doctrine therefore of Papall Indulgences as it led the way to the further discouery of the corruptions of the degenerated Church of Rome so it still continues iustly branded with noueltie and errour and may not bee admitted into our beleefe and wee for reiecting it are vniustly refused CHAP. XII The newnesse of Diuine Seruice in an vnknowne tongue THat Prayers and other Diuine offices should bee done in a known tongue vnderstood of the people is not more auailable to edification as their Caietan liberally confesseth then consonant to the practice of all antiquitie In so much as Lyranus freely In the Primitiue Church blessings and all other seruices were done in the vulgar tongue What need wee looke backe so farre when euen the Lateran Councell which was but in the yeere 1215. vnder Innocent the third makes this decree Quoniam in plaerisque Because in many parts within the same Citie and Diocesse people are mixed of diuers languages hauing vnder one faith diuers rites and fashions wee strictly command that the Bishops of the sayd Cities or Diocesses prouide fit and able men who according to the diuersities of their rites and languages may celebrate diuine seruices and administer the Sacraments of the Church to them instructing them both in word and example Cardinall Bellarmines euasion is verie grosse That in that place Innocentius and the Councell speake onely of the Greeke and Latine tongue For then saith he Constantinople was newly taken by the Romans by reason whereof there was in Greece a mixture of Greekes and Latines in so much as they desired that in such places of frequence two Bishops might be allowed for the ordering of those seuerall Nations Whereupon it was concluded that since it were no other then monstrous to appoint two Bishops vnto one See it should be the charge of that one Bishop to prouide such vnder him as should administer all holy things to the Grecians in Greeke and in Latine to the Latines For who sees not that the Constitution is generall Plaerisque partibus for verie many parts of the Christian world and Populi diuersarum lingâ—arum People of sundrie languages not as Bellarmine cunningly diuersae linguae of a diuerse language And if these two only languages had been meant why had it not bin as easie to specifie them as to intimate them by so large a circumlocution This Synode is said to be vniuersall comprehending all the Patriarkes seuentie seuen Metropolitans and the most eminent Diuines of both East and West Churches to the number of at least 2212. persons or as some others 2285. besides the Embassadours of all Christian Princes of seuerall languages Now shall wee thinke that there were in all their Territories and Iurisdictions no mixtures of inhabitants but onely of Grecians and Romans or that all these Fathers were carelesse of the rest Especially since the end which they professe to propose vnto themselues herein is the instruction of the people of what nation or language soeuer which end as it was neuer meant to bee limited to two sorts of people so could it neuer be attained without this libertie of language fitted to their vnderstanding To which may bee added that the Greekes and Latines of all other had the least need of this prouision since it was famously knowne that they had their seuerall seruices already of receiued and currant vse before this constitution was hatched Neither is it of any moment which hee addeth that in Italy it selfe this decree was not extended to the vse of vulgar tongues for that it is euident that Saint Thomas who liued soone after composed in Latine the Office of the feast of Corpus Christi not in the Italian although the same Aquinas confesses that that the vulgar tongue of Italy at that time was not Latine For what childe cannot easily see that if their great Doctor would write an office for the publique vse as is intended of the whole Church hee would make choyce to write it in such a language as might improue it to the most common benefit of all the Christian world not confining it to the bounds of a particular Nation Besides what was the Italian in those times especially but a broken and corrupt Latine differing more in Idiome and termination then in the substance of speech That which Radeuicus about the yeere 1170. records for the voyce of the people in the election of Pope Victor Papa Vittore Sancto Pietro l'elege makes good no lesse for what such difference is betwixt this and Papam Victorem Sanctus Petrus elegit So as this instance doth nothing at all infringe that iust decree of the Roman Fathers Howsoeuer that obseruation of Erasmus is true and pregnant to this purpose Nec lingua vulgaris e. Neither was the vulgar tongue i. the Latine withdrawne from the people but the people went off from it And as for our Ancestours in this Island Our venerable Bede witnesses that in England the Scriptures were read by them in fiue languages according to the number of the bookes wherein the Law of God was written namely English Scottish Brittish Pictish and Latine which saith hee in meditation of the Scriptures is made common to all the rest A point which the sayd Author specifies for a commendation of the well-instructednesse of those people not as purposing to intimate that the vse of the Latine did thrust out the other foure for he there tells vs that in all foure they did not only search but confesse and vtter the knowledge of the highest truth This restraint then is not more new then enuious and preiudiciall to the honour of God and the soules of men SECT II. Against Scripture AS for Scriptures Were this practice so old as it is pretended the rule is Longaeuae consuetudinis c. the authoritie of an ancient custome is not to be sleighted so long as it is not against the Canons Nothing can be more
against the Canons of the blessed Apostle then this who did he liue in these our dayes and would bend his speech against the vse of a language not vnderstood in Gods seruice could not speake more directly more punctually then hee doth to his Corinths How doth hee tell vs that the speaking in a strange tongue edifies not the Church profits not the hearers produces a necessarie ignorance of the thing spoken Makes mee a Barbarian to him that speaketh and him that speakes a Barbarian to me How doth hee require him that speaketh in an vnknowne tongue to pray that hee may interpret And if hee must pray that hee may doe it how much more must he practice it when he can doe it How doth hee tell vs that in a strange languaged prayer the vnderstanding is vnfruitfull That it is better to speake fiue words with vnderstanding that wee may teach others then ten thousand words in an vnknowne tongue That those which speake with strange tongues are but as mad men to the vnlearned or vnbeleeuers SECT III. Against reason IN which Scriptures besides authoritie the Apostle hath comprized vnanswerable and conuincing reasons against this Romish abuse Amongst the rest is intimated that vtter frustration of the vse of the tongue in Gods seruice For it is a true rule which Salmeron cites out of Lactantius Nihil valet ex se c. That thing is to no purpose which auailes not vnto the end whereto it serues Silence doth as much expresse the thought as a language not vnderstood In this sense is that of Laurentius too well verified Sacerdos imperitus mulier sterilis A Priest vnable to expresse himselfe is as a barren woman vncapable of bringing forth children to God As good no tongue as no vnderstanding What good doth a Well sealed vp as Ptolome sayd of the Hebrew Text. Wherefore doe we speake if we would not bee vnderstood It was an holy resolution of Saint Augustine that hee would rather say Ossum in false Latin to be vnderstood of the people then Os in true not to be vnderstood This practice howeuer it may seeme in it selfe sleight and vnworthy of too much contention yet in regard of that miserable blindnesse and mis-deuotion which it must needs draw in after it it is so hainous as may well deserue our vtmost opposition The vnauoydablenesse of which effects hath carried some of their Casuists into an opinion of the vnnecessarinesse of deuotion in these holy businesses so as one sayes He that wants deuotion sinnes not Another Though it bee conuenient that the Communicant should haue actuall deuotion yet it is not necessarie Alas what seruice is this which poore soules are taught to take vp with which God must be content to take from hood-winkt suppliants This doctrine this practice thus new thus preiudiciall to Christians we blesse God that we haue so happily discarded and for our iust refusall are vniustly eiected CHAP. XIII The newnesse of forced Sacramentall Confession THe necessitie of a particular secret full Sacramentall Confession of all our sins to a Priest vpon paine of Non-remission is an Act or Institution of the Romane Church For as for the Greeke Church it ownes not either the doctrine or practice So the Glosse of the Canon Law directly Confessio apud Graecos c. Confession is not not necessary amongst the Grecians vnto whom no such Tradition hath beene deriued That Glosse would tell vs more and so would Gratian himselfe if their tongues were not clipt by a guiltie expurgation But in the meane time the Glosse of that Canon hitherto allowed plainly controules the Decree of that late Councell For if the Necessitie of Confession be only a Tradition and such a one as hath not beene deduced to the Greeke Church then it stands not by a Law of God which is vniuersall not making differences of places or times like an high-eleuated Starre which hath no particular aspect vpon one Region That there is a lawfull commendable beneficiall vse of Confession was neuer denied by vs but to set men vpon the racke and to straine their soules vp to a double pin of absolute necessitie both praecepti and medij and of a strict particularitie and that by a screw of Ius diuinum Gods Law is so meere a Romane noueltie that many ingenuous Authors of their owne haue willingly confessed it Amongst whom Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe yeelds vs Erasmus and Beatus Rhenanus two noble Witnesses Whose ioynt-Tenet he confesses to be Confessionem secretam c. That the secret Confession of all our sinnes is not only not instituted or commanded Iure Diuino by Gods Law but that it was not so much as receiued into vse in the Ancient Church of God To whom he might haue added out of Maldonates account omnes decretorum c. all the Interpreters of the Decrees and amongst the Schoolemen Scotus We know well those sad and austere Exomologesis which were publikely vsed in the seuere times of the Primitiue Church whiles these tooke place what vse was there of priuate These obtayned euen in the Westerne or Latine Church till the dayes of Leo about 450. yeares In which time they had a graue publike Penitentiarie for this purpose Afterwards whether the noted inconueniences of that practice or whether the cooling of the former feruour occasioned it this open Confession beganne to giue way to secret which continued in the Church but with freedome and without that forced and scrupulous strictnesse which the later times haue put vpon it It is verie remarkable which learned Rhenanus hath Caeterum Thomas ab Aquino c. But saith hee Thomas of Aquine and Scotus men too acute haue made confession at this day such as that Ioannes Geilerius a graue and holy Diuine which was for many yeeres Preacher at Strasburgh had wont to say to his frends that according to their rules it is an impossible thing to confesse Adding that the same Geilerius being familiarly conuersant with some religious Votaries both Carthusians and Franciscans learned of them with what torments the godly mindes of some men were afflicted by the rigour of that confession which they were not able to answer and thereupon he published a booke in Dutch entitled The sicknesse of confession The same therefore which Rhenanus writes of his Geilerius he may well apply vnto vs Itaque Geilerio non displicebat c. Geilerius therefore did not dislike confession but the scrupulous anxietie which is taught in the summes of some late Diuines more fit â—â—deed for some other place then for Libraries Thus he What would that ingenuous Author haue sayd if hee had liued to see those volumes of Cases which haue beene since published able to perplex a world and those peremptorie decisions of the Fathers of the Societie whose strokes haue beene with Scorpions in comparison of the rods of their Predecessors To conclude This bird was hatched
yeelded that no man hath power to set to a seale but he whose the writing is Sacraments then being the seales of Gods gracious euidences whereby hee hath conueyed to vs eternall life can bee instituted by no other then the same power that can assure and performe life to his creature In euerie Sacrament therefore must bee a diuine institution and command of an element that signifies of a grace that is signified of a word adioyned to that element of an holy act adioyned to that Word Where these concurre not there can bee no true Sacrament and they are palpably missing in these fiue Adiections of the Church of Rome Lastly The Sacraments of the new Law as Saint Austen often flowed out of the side of Christ None flowed thence but the Sacrament of water which is Baptisme and the Sacrament of bloud in the Supper Whereof the Author saith This cup is the new Testament in my bloud which is shed for you The rest neuer flowing either from the side or from the lips of Christ are as new and mis-named Sacraments iustly reiected by vs and we thereupon as vniustly censured CHAP. XVI The newnesse of the Doctrine of Traditions THe chiefe ground of these and all other errours in the Church of Rome is the ouer-valuing of Traditions which the Tridentine Synode professeth to receiue and reuerence with no lesse pious affection then the Bookes of the Old and New Testament and that not in matter of Rite and Historie only but of faith and manners also Wherein as they are not vn willing to cast a kind of imputation of imperfection vpon the written Word so they make vp the defects of it by the supply of vnwritten Traditions to which indeed they are more beholden for the warrant of the greater part of their super-added Articles then to the Scriptures of God Both which are points so dangerously enuious as that Antiquitie would haue abhorred their mention Neither is any thing more common with the holy Fathers of the Church then the magnifying the complete perfection of Scripture in all things needfull either to be beleeued or done What can be more ful and cleere then that of Saint Austen In his quae apertè c. In these things which are openly laid forth in Scripture are found all matters that containe either faith or manners Cardinall Bellarmines elusion is not a little preiudiciall to his owne cause He tels vs that Saint Austen speakes of those points which are simply necessary to saluation for all men All which hee acknowledges to be written by the Apostles But besides these there are many other things saith hee which wee haue only by Tradition Will it not therfore hence follow that the common sort of Christians need not looke at his Traditions That commonly men may be saued without them that Heauen may bee attained though there were no Traditions Who will not now say Let mee come to Heauen by Scripture goe you whither you will by Traditions To which adde that a great yea the greater part if wee may beleeue some of their owne of that which they call religion is grounded vpon only Tradition if then Tradition bee only of such things as are not simply unnecessary to saluation then the greater part of their mis-named Religion must needs be yielded for simply vnnecessary to all men And if wee may bee saued without them and bee made Citizens of Heauen how much more may we without them be members of the true Church on Earth As for this place Saint Augustines words are full and comprehensiue expressing all those things which containe either faith or manners whether concerning Gouernours or people If now they can finde out any thing that belongs not either to beleefe or action wee doe willingly giue it vp to their Traditions but all things which pertaine to either of those are openly comprized in Scripture What can bee more direct then that of holy Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The holy Scriptures inspired by God are in themselues all-sufficient to the instruction of truth and if Chemnitius construe it All truth this needs not raise a cauill The word signifies no lesse for if they bee all-sufficient to instruction they must needs be sufficient to all instruction in the truth intended Tertullian professes openly Adoro Scripturae pleniâ—udinem c. I adore the fulnesse of Scripture Let the skill of Hermogenes show where it is written if it bee not written let him feare that woe which is pronounced against those that adde or detract Thus he Who can but feare that the Cardinall shifts this euidence against his owne heart For saith he Tertullian speakes of that one point That God created all things of nothing and not of a pre-existent matter as Hermogenes dreamed now because this truth is clearely expressed in Scripture therefore the fulnesse of Scripture as concerning this point is adored by Tertullian And for that Hermogenes held an opinion contrarie to Scripture he is said to adde vnto Scripture and to incurre that malediction Now let any reader of common sense iudge whether the words of Tertullian be not generall without any limitation and if the first clause could bee restrained the second cannot Scriptum esse doceat c. Whatsoeuer therefore is not written by this rule may not be oberuded to our beleefe Neither doth he say If it be written against but If it be not written and his challenge is nusquam legi that the words are no where read as if this were quarrell enough without a flat contradiction to what is read So as the Cardinals glosse meerely corrupts the Text How easie were it for me to tire my reader with the full suffrages of Origen Cyprian Chrysostome Basil Cyrill Epiphanius Hierome Ambrose Theodoret Hilarie Vincentius Lirinensis and in a word with the whole streame of Antiquitie which though they giue a meet place to Traditions of Ceremony of historie of interpretation of some immateriall verities yet reserue the due honour to the sacred monuments of Diuine Scriptures Our learned Chemnitius hath freely yeelded seuen sorts of Traditions such as haue a correspondence with or an attestation from the written word the rest we do iustly together with him disclaime as vnworthy to appeare vpon that awfull Bench amongst the inspired Pen-men of God SECT II. Traditions against Scripture IT is not to be imagined that the same word of God which speakes for all other truths should not speake for it selfe how fully doth it display it 's owne sufficiencie and perfection All Scripture saith the Chosen Vessell is giuen by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnesse Profitable saith the Cardinall but not sufficient Many things may auaile to that end whereto they suffice not So meat is profitable to nourish but without naturall heat it nourisheth not Thus hee Heare yet what followeth That the man of God may bee perfited and thorowly