one place with an other For I aske and ask them again and again by whom Scripture ought to be interpreted They will say by Scripture conferred with Scripture Here I must yet ask them again by whom the conference of one Scripture with another can be made so exactly that from hence wee may come vndoubtedly to know the true interpretation This question I will be still asking them untill they can answer it For I am sure that If I presse this question home they must be at last enforced to say that the ground of their whole Religion is the Scripture interpreted by them selves when it hath bin carefully conferred by them selves so that the very ground of their whole fayth is deceiptfull and fallible if they them selves be fallible either in interpteting or in conferring Scripture carefully or skillfully If they say their Interpretation thus made is undoubted and infallible then they can not blame us for saying that the interpretation of the Church made with as great care and skill used by her in the exact conference of one Scripture with an other is infallible 3. Stay here Deare Reader and as thou lovest thy saluation before thou goest any further ponder attentively how fallible and subject to a world of errors the ground of all such Religions must needs be which wholy and entirely are found at last to rely upon a meer human interpretation after that a meer human and most fallible diligence and skill hath bin employed in conferring one Text with an other Then ponder on the other side how incomparably surer and more justifiable in the sight of God and man the ground of that faith is which relyeth indeed on the Scripture but not on the Scripture as interpreted by private and fallible interpreters after theyr most fallible exactnesse of conferring Scripture with Scripture but which relyeth upon Scripture as interpreted by the Church after that shee with no lesse exactnes hath conferred one Scripture with an other in a generall Council having incomparable greater human abilities then those of any private mans be and having the speciall assistance of the Holy Host leading his Church into all truth Of this infallibility wee shall speak fully Point 5. 4. Now the Scripture as rightly interpreted by the Church will send us for the clearing of many doubtes unto the Church authorized by Christ to instruct and teach us as in that fift Point shall be evidenced out of Scripture The difference then between our adversaries and us is that wee affirme the Scripture as it is rightly interpreted by the Church after she hath exactly conferred in a general Councel Scripture with Scripture to be the Rule of Faith by which she decideth all necessary Controversies But our adversaries misliking the dependence on the Church will have the Scripture by it selfe alone to be a Rule sufficient to direct each one who shall carefully conferre it to judge all necessary Controversies This wee deny and though they say it in wordes yet in very deed they also come to deny what they say for let a man mark it well and he shall see that all these sectaries when they come to the maine Controversie do not take Scripture alone as conferred with Scripture only but they all take Scripture with theyr own interpretation made upon theyr own conference And if you tell them they have fayled by not taking due notice of severall other Texts in Scripture which should have been pondered in their Conference and would have produced a different interpretation they will say their own spirit tels them the contrary so that finally they who laugh at the Church for trusting to be securely guided by the Holy Ghost come to ground theyr whole fayth upon the assurance of being truly guided by theyr own spirit or judgement but let us come to what we propound and let us prove by Scripture that Scripture taken as they take it can not be a sufficient Rule to direct us in all necessary Controversies This I prove 5. First because to end all Controversies wee must at least rule our selves by al the bookes of Scripture and we must be assured wee doe so This is cleere because by no text of Scripture it can be prouved that any determed booke or number of bookes is sufficient to end all Controversies But to do this the whole number of books written by any Scripture writer is wholy requisite seeing that no Text speaks of any one or any determinate number but all speake of all Now marke to what passe this opinion brings you For if wee be to judge all necessary Controversies by all the bookes which ever were written by any Scripture writer we must necessarily have these books amongst us But wee have not in the whole world extant amongst us diverse books of Sacred Propheticall Scriptures For no fewer then twenty books of the Propheticall Pennemen of the Holy Ghost have quite perished as the learned Contzen proveth in his Preface upon the fower Ghospels and I will prove this as far as is sufficient by these following texts Iosue 10.13 Is not this written in the book of Iascker Again 1. Kinges 4.32 Salomon spoke three thousand Proverbs and his songes were one thousand and five Again 1. Chron. 29.29 The actes of David first and last are written in the book of Samuel the Seer and the book of Nathan the Prophet and the book of Gad the Seer Where be these two Prophets books Again 2. Chron. 9.29 mention is made of the books of Nathan the Prophet and the Prophesie of Ahyah and the visions Iddo the Seer And Chap 12.15 and the book Schemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer concerning Genealogies which seemes to be a different book from his book of visions before specifyed And Chap. 13.22 mention is made of the story of the Prophet Iddo And Ch. 20.34 mention is made of the book of Iehu sonne of Hanani and Ch 33.19 wee find mention of the works of the sayings of the Seers Wee know then by Scripture that what is sayd by those books is sayd by Prophets And wee also know by Scripture that God spoke in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets 2. Pet. 1.21 Moreover we know by Scripture that Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man But the Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1.21 Standing therefore to what is known by Scripture these bookes which have perished did deliver what was spoken by the Holy Ghost and contained the true word of God Whēce is proved that we have not now entierly the whole word of God written and this is further proved by the ensuing textes of S. Paul 1. Cor. 5.9 I wrote to you in one Epistle Note that he sayth this in his first Epistle to them Where is the Epistle which S. Paul wrote to them before he wrote the first to them I wrote to you Wee then say Give us all sacred Propheticall writings which ever were written
THE CATHOLIKE SCRIPTVRIST OR THE PLEA OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIKES SHEWING The Scriptures to hold forth the Roman Faith in above forty of the cheife Controversies now under debate Now I beseech you Bretheren marke them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 By I. M. Printed in Gant by Maximilian Graet M.DC.LXII THE PREFACE 1. NOw I beseech you Bretheren mark those which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 These words were the words of God and of truth as well in the yeare 1517. as at this present yeare Had any good Christian spoaken these words in that foresaid yeare 1517. all who had heard thē could have made no other sense of thē but that they were forewarned by them both to marke and to avoid all Authors of divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which they had learned yet as then there was not any good Christian unles you will account them for such whome you yourselves acknowledg to have maintained grosse Heresies who did not beleeve and professe the Roman Faith This was the Faith and Doctrine which they had learned Wherefore when in that yeare Luther first appeared causing divisions and offenses contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned all were bound by the advise of the Apostle to mark and avoid the sayd Luther and all his adherents and followers 2. But the world then no lesse addicted to old vices then to new doctrines did shutt they reares to this advise of the Apostle and did opē theyr armes to imbrace that which was in so very many Points contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned And the misery is that all those new Teachers which ensued in whole swarmes though they all taught contrary to what they had learned yea and the one contrary to the other yet all pretended to teach nothing but Scripture rightly understood which they all affirmed not to have been rightly understood for the foregoeing thousand yeares in such points as then they began to question yet with the same breath they sayd that in all those severall Points in which they contradicted the former doctrine and by doing so caused so great divisions and offenses they did affirme only that to which they were enforced by evident manifest and most cleer Texts of Scripture Which was to say that for the precedent thousand yeares no body had rightly understood or at least every body had by word and practise contradicted evident manifest and most cleere Texts of Scripture 3. The good Christians of those ages and we who adhere unto thē being in the quiet and peaceable possession of what we had learned were bound according to the advice of the Apostle to avoid those new teachers and it was sufficient for us to shew they taught contrary to what we had learned which they themselves confessed to be true and was too evident to require proofe But because we stood constantly to maintain what we had learned upon this ground as the Apostle did bid us our Adversaries desirous to bring us from beleeving to disputing would be still importunely pressing us to prove Point by Point every Point which we held by evidēt manifest and most cleere Scripture We vvell understood that it was theyr parts who affirmed all former ages for some thousand yeares at least to have thus grosly erred against cleere Scripture to make good so great and so scandalous an accusation by producing Texts in the Points under question of so manifest undeniable evidence against us that theyr Texts compared to ours alleadged in defence of the same Points should make the Truth so cleer on theyr side that all might be forced to confesse they had reason to revolt as they did from all theyr Ecclesiasticall and Civill Magistrates and to frame allso a new body by themselves wholy and entirely both in doctrine and discipline quite different yea and contrary to all Congregatiōs as then upō the face of the earth 4. The exorbitancy of this theyr proceeding will be unjustifyable when I shall here produce so many and so loud-speaking texts for above forty of those Points which they most misliked in our Religion yea it was our holding those Points for which they sayd they were enforced to this so unfortunate a Division But how weakly they were enforced upon this account to cause such divisions and offenses will easily be seen by any impartiall eye which shall attentively peruse on the one side al the texts which I shall here alleadg for forty five of those Points for which chiefly they have caused this division and on the other the few and inconsiderable and a thousand-times-answered Texts which they bring to the contrary 5. This then is the Plea of us Roman Catholicks that we ever since our Ancestors in England were Christians have held the doctrine which we have learned still avoiding those who taught the contrary For that we have done this in no fewer then fifty Points in which we are most accused of Novelty hath been demonstrated in a late booke entitled Englands old Religion out of Bedes owne words And though Bede had not been as he was the most grave and famed Authour which ever England had but had been only a lack straw living and writing before the yeare 731. that is above 900. yeares agoe yet to see in his words then writtē those fifty Points all held and all practised in our England when Englands Religion was at the purest cannot but abundantly convince that we Roman Catholiks did thē hold and practice what we hold and practise now What is this but to hold the doctrine we have learned avoiding those who teach the contrary 6. Yet this is not our whole Plea for wee know it will be objected that what we then learnt was contrary to Scripture and they must meane cleer and manifest Scripture or else why did they go against the doctrine and practise which they found agreeing so exactly with the doctrine and practice of old England as is unanswerably demonstrated in that book But we further more plead that in those very Points in which contradiction yea and manifest contradiction to Scripture is objected against us we have Scripture speaking so fully for us that no one of those many Religions now tolerated in England can with any colour of probability challenge greater evidence of Scripture for theyr opposit Tenets then we here produce for our undoubtedly ancient doctrine and therefore this our doctrine evē in this respect ought in all reason to be at least as much tolerated as any of those Religions lately sprōg up in England The proof of what I say must rely upon what shall appeare to be made good by me in each point of those forty five here ensuing 7. It only remaines that I advertise the reader how impossible it is that I or any one else should cite all Texts just in those very words in
which he will find them in his English Bible for you have so many severall traÌ„slations of the English Bible that whilst I oblige my selfe to follow one I shall make sure not to follow the other I conceived the best expedieÌ„t to avoid this difficulty would be to follow alwayes either the very words or the full seÌ„se of that English Bible which is most universally received And in this point I have been so very scrupulous that I continually admonish my Reader if at any one time I chance to put downe any single text differing in sense from the English Bible vvich I have made choice of as the best edition of theyr most received Bible which is that which was set forth at Cambridg 1635. printed by Thomas and Iohn Buck Printers to that Vniversity which Bible King Iames did cause to be set forth out of his deep Iudgment apprehending how convenient it was that out of the Originall sacred tongues there should be a more exact TranslatioÌ„ as is sayd in the Preface of this TranslatioÌ„ dedicated to his Majesty A note to the Catholike Reader LEt the Catholik Reader observe that when we cite the two books of Samuel the texts cited will be fouÌ„d in our two first Books of Kings And when we cite here theyr two Books of Kings the Texts will be found in our Bibles in the two last Books of Kings For our Third is theyr first our fourth theyr second So also with them the Books of Paraâ—ip be called Chronicles the secoÌ„d of Esdras they call Nehemiah In numbring allso the Psalmes they do from the 10 Psalme differ from us counting still one more then we untill they come to Ps 147. which from the 11. verse includes our Psalm 147. And thence we goe forward with the same account A Table of the Pointes contained in this Treatise POINT I. That the Scripture alone cannot be a Rule sufficient to direct us in all necessary Controversies Page 1. POINT II. Tradition besides Scripture must direct us in in many necessary Controversies Page 12. POINT III. Of the never failing of the Church which beeing perpetuall can preserve perpetuall Traditions allso of succession of true Pastors and Professors P. 21. POINT IV. Of the universality and vast extent of this perpetuall Church which allso must be the converter of Gentils this no Church differing from the Roman ever was Page 33. POINT V. Of the infallibilitie of the Church and consequently of her fittnes to be judge of Controversies P. 44. POINT VI. That the Roman Church is this infallible Church aÌ„d our Iudge in all points of CoÌ„troversie P. 64. POINT VII That the Chief Pastor of this Church is the successor of S. Peter Page 66. POINT VIII That this our Chiefe Pastour or Pope is not Anti-christ Page 74. POINT IX Of the Sacraments of the Church and of the Ceremonies which the Church useth in administrating these Sacraments as allso in other occasions Page 79. POINT X. Of Baptisme which is the first Sacrament P. 86. POINT XI Of Confirmation Pag. 87. POINT XII Of the Holy Eucharist Page 89. POINT XIII Of Communion under one kind Page 106. POINT XIV Of the Masse and of the Holy Eucharist as it is a Sacrifice Page 109. POINT XV. Of saying Masses and other publike prayers in the Latin tongue Page 119. POINT XVI Of the Sacrament of Pennance or Confession Page 131. POINT XVII Of the Sacrament of Extreame Vnction Page 134. POINT XVIII Of the Sacrament of Holy Order P. 138. POINT XIX Of the Sacrament of Matrimony Page 139. POINT XX. Of the single life of Priests Page 141. POINT XXI Of the single life of such as have vowed Chastity Page 149. POINT XXII Of works of Counsel and supererogation Page 155. POINT XXIII Of voluntary Austerity of life Page 159. POINT XXIV Of satisfactory good workes Page 165. POINT XXV Of Purgatory aÌ„d prayer for the dead P. 173. POINT XXVI Of Indulgences Page 189. POINT XXVII That faith alone doth not Iustifie P. 196. POINT XXVIII Whether Justification be any thing inherent in us Page 200. POINT XXIX Whether our Justification may not be lost Page 205. POINT XXX To Justification it is necessary to keep the Commandments Page 209. POINT XXXI How still wee have free will to do good or evill Page 213. POINT XXXII How this free will is still helped with sufficient grace Page 216. POINT XXXIII This sufficient grace is denyed to none Christ dying even for Reprobates Page 220. POINT XXXIV How our good works done in grace and by the helpe of Christs grace be meritorious and merit life everlasting Page 224. POINT XXXV It is laudable to do good works for reward Page 233. POINT XXXVI Wee laudably worship Angels and Saints Page 235. POINT XXXVII The Angels and Saints can hear our Prayers Page 245. POINT XXXVIII That Saints can and will helpe us and therefore it is laudable to pray to them Page 252. POINT XXXIX That among the Saints it is most laudable to pray to our Lady and of the beads sayd to her honour Page 264. POINT XL. It is laudable to worship the Images of Saints Page 275. POINT XLI It is iaudable to worship the Reliques of Saints Page 289. POINT XLII Some places are more Holy then others wee therefore laudably make Pilgrimages and Processions to such Holy places Page 296. POINT XLIII That wee laudably keepe Feasts in the honour of Saints Page 306. POINT XLIV That we laudably observe Fasts Saints eves and other dayes Page 312. POINT XLV That we laudably in our fasts obstaine from certaine meates Page 317. TO THE PROTESTANT READER I Humbly begg of thee to peruse this Table of the Points here treated and to turn first to that very Point in which thou thinkest wee are less able to give thee satisfaction And according as thou findest what I shall say even in that Point to be more or less satisfactory so judge of the rest But first correct these faults escaped with thy penne and pardon the Printer who was an externe THE FIRST POINT That Scripture alone can not be a Rule sufficient to direct us in all necessary Controversies 1. NO Roman Catholike doth deny the Scripture to be a sufficient Rule to direct us in all controversies if wee take the Scripture rightly interpreted And therefore all those many textes which Protestantes bring to prove the Scripture to be our sole Rule of fayth are very clearely answered by saying that all those Textes speake of the Scripture not taken as the letter sounds for the letter kills 2. Cor. 3.6 but they speake of the Scripture as rightly interpreted And Protestantes cannot but graunt the Scripture rightly interpreted to be a sufficient Rule of fayth But what are wee the nearer For now comes the great Question of Questions who be those that give the right Interpretation to Scripture 2. The very ground of all Religions but the Roman is the Scripture as Interpreted by theyr own selves after they have carefully conferred
publick practice and also upon all occasions taught by word of mouth and expressed in written bookes Thus our common law in England though never written by any lawmaker is notwithstanding by dayly practice most faithfully kept and hath been so for so many hundred yeares by the whole Nation diffused And in this manner the Church diffused keepeth in perpetuall practice and delivereth to her children as infallible truth what was first delivered unto her by commission from God either in writing or by word of mouth The other way of making and delivering Laws is to call togeather the represētative body of the Community So here in England our statute laws are made not onely by the King nor onely by the Parlament but by the order both of King and Parlament And what is thus enacted is the decree of the Natiō representative Now as the represētative of our nation is the King and Parlament so the Church Representative is the chiefe Pastour thereof togeather with a Lawfull generall Councill And the definitions and decrees set forth by their authority be called the definitions and the decrees of the Church Representative All such definitions we Romā Catholicks hold infallible Whither the definition of a Councill alone defining without their chiefe Pastour or the definitions of the chiefe Pastour alone defining without a Councill be infallible or no there be severall opinions amongst us in which we do and may varie without any prejudice to our Faith which is not built upon what is yet under opinion but upon that which is delivered as infallible and we all unanimously hold that to be so which the universall Church Representatiue consisting joyntly of the chiefe Pastour of the sayd Church voting in and with a Generall Councell not that this Representatiue made wholy of men is not of its owne nature subject to errour For this we never affirme And so our adversaries say nothing at all to the purpose whilst they labour to proue this Let thē disproue if they can and that out of Scripture alone that which we say to witt that this Church Representatiue is infallible meerly and purely by the speciall assistance of the Divine Provedence always affording to his Church a sufficient measure of the spirit of truth to lead her into all truth And that he is evcr so surely resolved to do this that no sinns of his Church shall ever hinder him from doeing of it as is most expressly delivered by God himselfe Psalm 89. in the words cited by me at large Point 3. n. 3. Which place the Reader shall find most convincing to prove that notwithstanding all the sinns that shall euer happen in his Church the sunne and moone shall sooner faile then God will faile to provide a successour in Christs throne to governe his Church in the profession of truth so as his faithfulnes shall not faile nor none of his words be frustrated which you shall see delivered again and again in the ensueing places of Scripture All which to the number of thirty I gather to fully because the Protestants exclaime againest nothing more then the Churches claime to infallibility which D. Ferne calls The very bane of Christendome though it be the very ground worke of Christianity For all interpretation of Seripture is fallible if the interpretation of the Church be fallible euen then when she hath carefully conferred Scripture with Scripture 2. And to avoide confusion I will divide these thirty Texts into these three severall sorts The first sort shall containe eyther such as command vs absolutly to follow and obey the Church in such a māner as would wholy misbeseeme God to commaund vs if she could thrust errours vpon vs for Divine verities or such Texts as theach vs to relie more vpon the Church then could prudently be done if she could teach errour The second sort shall containe a multitude of such glorious expressions made every where of the Church as would be most emptie and truthlesse if the Church should ever prove a Mistris of errours and presse them on her children for Divine verities The third and last sort shall be such Texts as plainly affirme Truth to be still taught in the Church and to be intailed vpon her promising she shall not revolt from it but stand still a true piller and ground of Truth 3. Of the first sort of Texts we haue these by which eyther God commaundes vs vniversally to follow his Church or speakes that of his Church which could not be delivered as it is if this Church could erre For example how could God glorie in the multitude of such as follow his Church if by so doeing they should be led into errour And yet Isaias 2. God seemes to glorie in the multitude of those who confidently resort to the Church as to a Mistris of assured Truth to be instructed by her saying v. 3. Let us goe vp to the mountaine of our Lord and he wil teach us his wayes and we shall walke in his pathes and he shall judge among the natiōs Behold Christ erecting a Court or tribunal in his Church to judge amōg natiōs ād decide all their cōtroversies which must needs suppose obediēce to be yeilded to this judgmēt Yea the same Prophet adds c. 54. v. 17. that No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue resisting thee in judgment thou shalt condemne And the Prophet there from the beginning manifestly speakes of Christs Church Thirdly Isaias Ch. 60.12 The Nation and Kingdome that will not serve thee shall perish Vnder paine of perishing the Church must be obeyed Whence Fourthly Ezech c 44. v. 23. They that is the Priests shall teach the people what is between a holy thing and a thing polluted and the difference between clēane and vncleane They shall shew them and when there shall be controversie they shall stand in judgment and shall judge according to my judgments This being their office the peoples office must needs be not to judge them but obey them 4. Whence Fiftly Christ Matt. 18.17 commands all to obey the Church vnder paine of being held here on earth as Publicās and Heathens and of haveing this sentence ratifyed in heauen Tell the Church sayth he and if he will not heare the Church let him be vnto thee as a Heathen and a Publican Amē I say vnto you whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose vpon earth shall be loosed also in heaven Here you see obedience to be yeilded vnder paine of being held as a Publican or an Heathen and this sentence to be ratified in heaven Now if the Church could erre in theaching for example that Christ is truly present in the Sacrament and hence oblige all to adore him there in as much as they adore him in heauē and could oblige them to this vnder paine of being held as Publicans and Heathens ād held so as well in heaven as vpon earth surely this cānot be an errour
not be partakers of the Table of our Lord and of the Table of the Divels The reason why we cite and expound this place so fully is because we desire exceedingly to have it noted how that here our Chalice our Bread our Table and Altar the participation of our Host and Oblation are point by point in all Conditions effects and proprieties compared to the Altar Hosts Sacrifices and Oblations of the Iewes and Gentills and as he calls theyr Chalice the Chalice of the Divels for no other reason but because it conteyns liquor Sacrificed to him so he must be sayd to call our Chalice the Chalice of our Lord because it conteyns the liquor of Christs blood sacrificed to our Lord. For by force of these words This is my blood his blood under a liquid species is put in the Chalice as it were a part from that body which before he had put under the shape of bread All which discourse had been very ineffectuall if this had not bin the proper sacrifice among the Christians as those others were the knowne Sacrifices of the Iewes and Gentills 8. Again the same S. Paul sayth Heb. 13. v. 10. We have an Altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the Tabernacle still pressing the Iewes that they can not partake of the Sacrifice of our Altar if they will still stick fast to theyr old Sacrifices And note that which he called before the Table of our Lord he now calleth an Altar truly and properly ordeyned for Sacrifice and so he tearmes it thysiastirion that is Sacrificatorium An Altar to Sacrifice upon And by that word allwaies the Altars of the Iewes ordeyned for Sacrifice are still out of the Hebrew interpreted in Greek Well thē we have an Altar built purposely to offer Sacrifice upon therefore we have a true Sacrifice not of bread and wyne for in no mans opinion we Sacrifice these but of the Body and Blood of our Saviour under the shape of bread and wyne And this was the reason why in the Primative Church the Heathens would some times say we worshipped Bacchus the God of wyne and Ceres the Goddesse of corne sometimes they traduced us as feeders on mans flesh for eating the flesh of our Saviour in this Sacrifice 9. I conclude that had not this manner of Sacrificing in the Masse been delivered us with our first faith from the Apostles it could never without notice beeing taken of the first authour and of the time c. have been universally receaved with out opposition of any or without beeing ever taxed by any one of Novelty yea and be received allso so universally that if before Luthers days you look into all Parishes of Christianity where Confessed Heretiks did not domineere you will in every Parish thereof find no other Common service used publikly in that Parish but the saying and celebrating Masse with offering that which they all adored for the true Body and Blood of Christ under the shape of bread and wyne A Proofe unanswerable See what we sayd before Point 12. n. 2. THE XV. POINT Of saying Masses and other publike prayers in the Latin tongue 1. INS Matth. Chap. 1. v. 17. All the generations from the Transmigration of Babylon unto Christ fourteen generations a very long time And yet all this time the Iewish Church the only true Church in the world had all her Scriptures and all her publike service and prayer which was all taken out of the Psalmes the Law and the Prophets in that very language in which they were written to witt in old Hebrew that is in a language wel known indeed to the common people of the Iewes before theyr Transmigration into Babylon but in theyr Captivity at Babylon they lost the knowledge of theyr old Hebrew language in which all theyr Scriptures were written and did not perfectly learne the Chaldean or Babylonian language whence they made a mixture of both those languages which was called the Syrike language The very letters and characters of this language differ as much as the Greek letters differs from the Latin So that those who can perfectly read the one can not so much as read the other Neither do they understand one another more then the Italians can understand Latin which was theyr ancient native tongue The Scriptures were not at this time but some good time after Christ translated in to Syrike as your great Doctours who now at Londow have sett forth your famous Bible of so many languages do professe in theyr Praeface to theyr Bible And by the way they allso in the same Praeface plainly and openly confesse that in no Parish in Christendom they could in any of those nations which they have caused to be searched for old copies find so much as one ancient service booke written in a language understood by the vulgar or common people of the place A testimony to theyr owne condemnation and confusion The knowledge then of the old Hebrew tongue in which all the Scriptures were written beeing so much lost in the Captivity of Babilon they had all theyr Scriptures and publike service which was taken out of the Law and the Prophets and Psalmes read in a language unknown to all the common people and this was done for fourteen generations 2. Hence presently after theyr Captivity when they first retourned into theyr country Esdra was forced by himself and others to make the Law be interpreted unto them Nehemiah c. 8. v. 8. v. 13. So when our Saviour upon the Crosse did in the old Hebrew words of the Psalme say as it was first written Eli Eli Lammasabachihani Mat. 27. v. 46. S. Matthew who did write his Ghospel in that new kind of Hebrew or Syrike which was vulgarly spoaken by the Iewes in Christs dayes is forced to interprete these words saying which is interpreted my God my God why hast thou forsaken me For this reason allso he interpreted severall other Hebrew words A manifest signe they could not be understood by the Iewes in whose language he did write without interpretation And as he who writes English should ridiculously interpret English so if those words of the Psalme had been written by David in the same language in which S. Matthew did write it had been ridiculous for him to adde theyr interpretation Iosephus the Iew tells you what a world of schooles there were in Ierusalem for Children to learne the Law and Prophets they beeing written in a language otherwise unknown Well then as those who have not been now at our Latin Schooles understand not our Latin Bible and service so then the vulgar sort understood not theyr Scriptures nor theyr common service taken out of them and read in theyr Synagogues before theyr Sermons and Exhortations which S. Paul calls The lesson of the Law and Prophets Act. 13.5 Neither after the Captivity did the vulgar understand the words of Moyses who of old times hath in every citty those who preach him in the Synagogue where he is
again And hence these sins are called veniall such as easily have pardon 13. Whence our Saviour himself doth distinguish severall sins and affirms some of them to deserve punishment but not hell fire Matth. 5. v. 22. Whosoever is angry for so the Protestant Bibles read it with his Brother shall be in danger of Iudgment And whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of Councill And whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire Of which only eternall punishment the two former sins did not endanger us they being but veniall Hence it is evident that there be some sins which God judgeth worthy of punishment and yet not to deserve hell fire and he speaks of the punishment of the next life as of hell c. Again Matth. 12.36 I say unto you that every idle word that man shall speak he shall render an account therof in the day of Iudgment The words of lesser anger deserved not hell fire as the former Text taught us yet they being worse then meer idle words some punishment is due to them For here this Text sayth some account must be rendred even for every idle word But a lesser account then for angry words and therefore they will not alone make us liable to hell fire Again Matth. 7.3 some sins be called Beams some only Mothes which name Christ hating deadly sin to death would never give to any sin that were damnable Neither would he if these lesser sins were damnable speak of them as he doth Matth. 23. v. 24. You tithe Mint and Anise c blinde guides that strain a gnat and swallow a Camel Behold some sins only like gnats and the doing of them compared to the fault that would be in omitting te pay Tythe for Mint and Anise Yet because all veniall sins do something pollute the soule this stain must be purged or cleansed Often this is not done in this world for we see dayly men continew in doing these sins to the last loosing all sense and life allso before they repent them some account then in Iudgment following after death immediately will be given of them Not in Hell for they deserve it not therefore in Purgatory 14. Agreable to this is that which our Saviour sayth Luke 12.47 That servant who knoweth the will of his Lord and doth not according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes but he that knoweth it not and doth things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes Hence it is evident that there be some men who do things worthy of stripes which they shall not escape but yet they shall be beaten with few stripes But if these stripes be to be laid on for all eternity as all stripes be which are paid in Hell they will not be few because being everlasting the number of them will be without number will then any one call these stripes few Or can any man perswade himself that a God who is all mercy will in this unmercifull manner punish the speaking of one idle word Yet Christ himself sayth that we shall be accountable for every idle word we speak Matth. 12. Wherefore we must be lyable to some punishment for every idle word so that if a man of full age converted from Idolatry be baptized and by and by after killed before he commit any other sin then the speaking of one idle word only shall this man be tormented for ever and ever so long as God shall be God And shall the Father of mercies give this unmercifull sentence Doubtlesse if any man can do a thing worthy of stripes and for doing it deserve only to be beaten with few stripes this man may hope for this mercy But for greater then this he cannot hope seeing that Christ sayth that some account is to be given for that idle word Some punishment therefore he must suffer but not eternall and consequently not in Hell but in Purgatory For he must be beaten with few stripes not with masny or everlasting stripes If this principle so well grounded in Scripture be true then it cannot but be true that there is a Purgatory 15. The third principle clearly allso contained in Scripture is that prayer may profitably be made for the dead This is proved as well out of the old as new Testament In the old Testament 2. Mach. 12. where after diverse of the souldiers of Iudas Machabeus had been slain in the Battle v. 43. He making a gathering sent twelve thousand drachmes of silver to Hierusalem to have Sacrifice offered for the sins of the dead well and religiously thinking of the resurrection For unlesse he hoped that they who were slain should rise again it should seem superfluous and vain to pray for the dead It is therefore a holy and healthfull cogitation to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from theyr sins Your English Bibles so mangle the sense here that I would not follow them I know Protestants will say these Books be not Canonicall though in the third Councel of Carthage Can. 47. They be registred in the Canon Yet not to dispute this matter I take that which is granted without all dispute that is that these Books be writen by a true and faithfull writer of the ancient Church History or else why do you place them in the Bible And without dispute allso they were written before our Saviours time So that by the most grave testimony of so antient a writer of Ecclesiasticall History we have first that Iudas Machabeus who then was High Priest and allso chief commander of the Iewes Gods only true people did hold prayer for the dead to be laudable Secondly that this was not his private opinion but a thing done confirmably to the custome of the Iewish Church which to this very day uses prayer for the dead Thirdly all the souldiers being men who had devoted theyr lives for the defence of the true belief concurred by contributing to this act of Piety That Sacrifice might be offered for the dead Fourthly the Priests of Hierusalem who best knew theyr Churches custome in Sacrifices for the dead which were the same that for sin are never sayd to have scrupulized at the matter Fifthly this most ancient Historian recommends this custome as holy All these things not being singular in those men alone and happening not full two hundred yeares before Christ and still lasting to this day among the Iewes there could not but be many who practised this so commō a thing in his and his Apostles times And yet you never read the least reprehension given them for it 16. Out of the new Testament we have two places First S. Paul 1. Cor. 15.29 What shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead do not rise att all to what end are they baptized for them As if he would say to what end do men do pennance for the dead To what end is this done if there be no resurrection and
her own soule the sword of grief did peerce As Holy Simeon prophecyed of her Luk. 2.35 When I come to say the third five tenns I will spend the time in saying each of them by meditating upon and so honouring each of the five glorious Mysteries First the Resurrection of our Saviour Secondly his Ascension to heavenly glory Thirdly his sending the Holy Ghost Fourthly the Assumption of our Lady When as many Holy Fathers have taught that body of hers in which Christ took flesh was soon after its buriall not made meat of wormes but with farre greater reason made partaker of her Sons Resurrection then were those many Saints of whom S. Matth. c. 27.53 sayth theyr graves were opened and they rose And they going forth out of theyr graves after his Resurrection came into the Holy Citty and appeared to many Fiftly and lastly I will to her honour consider her Coronation importing her special state in that heavenly glory in which shee is looked upon and reverenced by all Saints and Angels as theyr Queen she being the Mother of the King of glory The Mother of my Lord. Luke 1.43 9. The intent of the Holy Church recommending this devotion is to teach all that use it especially the more ignorant who cannot use Books how to imploy theyr minds fruitfully in a most commendable Meditation of Mysteries most glorious to Christ and his Mother and most beneficiall to our soules whilst theyr lipps are most devoutly busied in reciting words so pleasing to the Mother of God to which end the Teachers of our Church both by words and by writing still are inculcating this true use of the Beades 10. Now this number of fifteen tenns or of five tenns serving so fitly for the orderly practise of so easy a devotion cannot be more easily observed then by letting one Bead fall at each Ave Mary And the beginning of the next tenne can no way be more easily notifyed then to begin the sayd tenne with a bead of so different a bignes that it may easily be noted even in the dark without any distraction And the same different Bead serves allso to mind us of passing to the consideration of a different Mystery unles perhaps our soule hath other predominant pious thoughts or affections which tending to a very beneficiall Meditation are better continued then interrupted Now though many simple people use not these considerations but attend only to the words they say yet those words be so excellent that this entertaynment proves most vertuous by theyr using the recitall of them to honour Christ and his Blessed Mother 11. Neither is the often repeating of the same prayers or prayer a thing blame worthy For if after the saying of one Ave Mary wee should use a lesse excellent prayer yea or no prayer at all you could not blame us How then grow wee to be blame worthy for using this so excellent prayer Hee who should every houre say our Lords prayer although he should do it three times each houre is not to be blamed but commended How thē is he to be blamed who sayth the Lords prayer three our fourscore times in one houre Next unto our Lords prayer no prayer hath greater authority or excellency then the Ave Mary Why then be wee blamed for using it so often in so short a space whilst as you thinck you remain without blame who use it so seldome our Saviour had the rarest invention that ever man had and if we may make bould to accoūt any of his prayers more excellent then an other his prayer in the garden may seem to have been most excellent And yet even then as rare an invention as he had He prayed the third time using the same words Matth. 26.44 And not inventing any new forme So likewise those four blessed six winged Creatures Apoc. 4.8 Had not rest day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Omnipotent The oftner they said this one prayer over and over the more fervour appeares even in so rare inventive spirits All the Publicans prayer was God be mercifull to mee a sinner Luke 18.13 and v. 38. All the prayer of the blind man was to cry again and again saying Iesus Sonne of David have mercy upon mee And when they rebuked him to hold his peace he cryed much more Sonne of David have mercy upon me And thus he by perseverance in the same prayer obtained his request Who doth not see a speciall power to stirre up a great feeling of Gods mercies in the Psalm one hundred and thirty six which containeth but twenty seaven verses and yet it doth twenty seaven times repeat those words For his mercy endureth for ever THE XL. POINT It is laudable to worship the Images of Saints 1. IT is laudable I say to worship the Saintes Images in that sense in which we Roman Catholiks worship Images The very Saintes themselves we worship not with divine honour as I sayd and largely declared Point 36. n. 3. 4. 5. And therefore it is a most unconscionable slander which our Adversaries lay upon us saying that we give divine honour to Images No we give no such honour to the Saints themselves much lesse do we give it to theyr Images without you think we worship the Images more then the person represented by the Images All that we Roman Catholiks hold as a Point of faith may be read by all men in the Councel of Trent sess 25. where this Councel teacheth due honour and veneration to be given to the Images of Christ and his Saints not that there is believed to be in them any Divinity or Vertue for which they are to be worshiped or that any thing is to be asked of them or that any confidence is to be placed in the Images as anciently was done by the Gentils who did put theyr hope in theyr Idols Psal 115.8 But because the honour which is given to the Images is referred to the persons represented by the Images so that by or through the Images which we kisse and before which we uncover our head or ly prostrate we adore Christ and reverence the Saints whom these Images represent Behold the belief of our Church teaching that all the reverence done before Images I pray note well this manner of speach All the honour I say that is shewed before the picture resteth not in the Image but passeth through it and resteth in the person represented to me by this picture He that abuses King Charles his picture or statue neither intendeth to shew nor sheweth any anger or disrespect to Paper or to stock or stone All the abuse by all mens Iudgment is given to King Charles represented by his picture in paper or engraven in wood or stone A further and an evident proof of all this is that your selves on the one side believe the Sacrament to be only a signe or figure of Christs body and yet on the other side you count it no Idolatrie to kneel before this Sacrament at the