him in the way of vertue and well-doing so amongst the children the elder should help the yonger the stronger and more excellent the weaker and more meane none could be fitter to assist him in the Kingly and Priestly office while he liued and to succeed him in the same when he died then the first-borne the beginning of strength the excellencie of dignity and the excellencie of power And heereupon we shall finde that from the beginning the first borne excelled the rest in three things For first he was Lord ouer his brethren according to that of Isaac blessing Iacob the yonger in steed of the elder and thereby preferring him to the dignity of the first-borne Be Lord ouer thy brethren and let thy mothers children bow downe vnto thee Secondly he had a double portion thirdly he was holy vnto God which dignity as it belonged formerly euen frō the beginning to the first-borne as being most worthy excellent so was it confirmed when God striking all the first borne in Egypt spared the first born of the Israelites This praeeminence of the first borne continued the eldest euer succeeding in the Kingly and Priestly office vnlesse for impiety or cause best knowen to God he were reiected by him till the time that Israel came out of Aegypt and the Church of God became nationall For then according to the tenor of Iacobs blessing these priuiledges were diuided Iudah had the Scepter Leui the Priesthood and Ioseph the double portion in that two of his Sonnes Ephraim and Manasses became Patriarches and Heads of tribes and had equall inheritance in the land of promise with the sonnes of Iacob So that in the societies of faithfull and holy ones from the first man that God made till Aaron was sanctified to bee a Priest vnto God in steed of the first borne the eldest alwayes vnlesse for impiety or other cause best knowen to God hee were reiected by him had the Kingly and Priestly direction of the rest So when Cain the eldest Sonne of Adam and first that was borne of a woman to whom the dignity of the first borne did pertaine was for his impiety reiected from that honour and Abel who by fayth offered a better sacrifice then hee was slaine by him God raysed vp Seth who being taught by Adam his father touching the Creation the fall the punishments of sinne and the promised Sauiour assisted him while hee lived in guiding the people and Church of God and succeeded him in the same gouernment after his death In like sorte Enosh assisted and succeeded Seth and dying left that honour to Kenan Kenan to Mahalaleel Mahalaleel to Iered Iered suruiuing Enoch his son whom God translated left it to Methusalem Methusalem to Lamech the father of Noe in whose time the children of God that is the posterity of Seth marying with the daughters of men that is such as came of wicked Cain highly displeased almighty God who therevpon appoynted him to bee a preacher of repentance vnto them whom when they contemned and despised hee brought in the floud and destroyed both them and all the inhabitants of the world Noe and his family onely excepted Noe gouerned the Church before and after the floud and left the same office and dignity to Sem his eldest sonne saying Blessed bee the God of Sem and let Canaan be his servant The Lord perswade Iaphet to dwell in the tents of Sem. Sem begat Arphaxad Arphaxad Sale Sale Heber Heber Phaleg Phaleg Rehu Rehu Serug Serug Nachor Nachor Thare Thare Abraham and Abraham Isaac All these onely Heber and Isaac excepted he suruiued so that dying he left the right of his office dignity to Isaac Heber hauing corrupted his wayes This Sem the Iewes thinke to haue beene Melchizedek that met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the Kings that brought out bread and wine to refresh his wearied troupes and blessed him in the name of the Lord as being a Priest of the high God Thus then Sem gouerned the Church in his time and dying in part left his honour to Isaac soiourning as a stranger in Canaan Isaac to Iacob Iacob to Iudah and his sonnes who liuing in Aegypt in bondage with the rest of their brethren could not freely exercise the Kingly and Priestly office nor performe the things pertayning therevnto So that none of these succeeded Sem in the fulnesse as well of Kingly as Priestly power CHAP. 3. Of the diuision of the preeminences of the first borne amongst the sonnes of Iacob when they came out of Aegypt and the Church of God became Nationall BVt when it pleased Almighty God who chose vnto himselfe the posteritie of Israel and sonnes of Iacob as his peculiar portion and inheritance aboue all the nations of the world to bring them with a mighty hand and out stretched arme out of the land of Aegypt and the house of bondage to the land which he promised to their fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob to make of them a mighty people then the former kinde of gouernment which was domesticall not so well fitting a people as a houshold he setled another in steed of the first borne which formerly in each family and kindred was both a King and Priest he chose the tribe of Iudah to sway the scepter and to be a lawgiuer to the rest of of his people and the tribe of Leui to attend his Tabernacle and seruice and out of all the families of that tribe tooke Aaron and his sonnes to serue in the Priests office appointing the rest to meaner seruices about the Sanctuary or to bee assistants to the Priests and rulers in the gouernment of the people CHAP 4. Of the separation of Aaron and his sonnes from the rest of the sonnes of Leui to serue in the Priests office and of the head or chiefe of that company THE Priests the sonnes of Aaron whom God separated from the rest of their brethren the sonnes of Leui were of two sorts For there was an high Prieste and there were others of an inferiour condition Touching the high Priest foure things are to obserued First his consecration Secondly the things that were required in him that was to be consecrated to so sacred a function Thirdly his imployment and Fourthly his attire The consecration of the high Priest was seauen daies in performing in this sort 1. He that was to be consecrated was brought before the Altar 2. Then he was washed with water and clothed with those sacred garments which God had prescribed holy oyle was poured on his heade sacrifice was offered on the Altar for his sanctification and his garments were sprinkled with the blood of it The things that were required in him that was to serue in the high Priests office were these Hee might not be defectiue nor deformed in body His wife must be a virgin not a widdow not one that had beene diuorced nor that had beene infamous
require inward qualities in a man before hee can be at all of the Church but before hee can bee fully of the mysticall bodie of Christ. We say therefore that all they are of the Church that outwardly hold the faith of Christ and that that society wherein the sincere outward professiâ—… of the truth of God is preserued is that true Church of God whose commâ—…on we must imbrace that happy mother in whose wombe we are conceiuâ—… with whose milke we are nourished to whose censures we must submit our selues And so it is vntrue that the same Bellarmine imputeth vnto vs charging vs that we affirme that none of the priviledges which Christ hath bestowed on his Church do pertaine to the Church generally considered but only to that more speciall nuÌ„ber of the elect of God who coÌ„municate in the benefits of effectual sauing grace which who they are is known to none but God only For though we know they were all granted for their sakes do benefit them only yet we say not that they pertaine only vnto them For whereas there are 4 sorts of things pertaining and belonging to the Church to wit First the promises of euerlasting loue mercie secondly the knowledge of God and meanes of saluation thirdly the ministery and dispensation of the word and sacraments and fourthly the performance of such duties as God requireth The first sort of things pertaine onely to the more speciall number of the elect of God the second to the whole multitude of Christians in generall the third to such as are lawfully called thereunto the fourth if they be generall duties pertaine to all if speciall to speciall degrees and sorts of men in the Church according to their severall differences Thus then wee see the divers considerations of the Church and the different condition of them that doe pertaine to it of whom it doth consist notwithstanding all which differences for that they all concurre in the same holy profession and vse of the same happy meanes of saluation they make one holy Catholicke Church in which onely the light of heauenly trueth is to be sought where only grace mercie remission of sinnes and hope of eternall happinesse are found Sola Catholica Ecclesia est quae verum Dei cultum retinet hic autem est fons veritatis hoc est domicilium fidei hoc templum Dei quod si quis non intrauerit vel à quo si quis exierit à spe vitae ac salutis aeternae alienus est It is only the Catholicke Church that hath the true worship and seruice of God this is the welspring of trueth the dwelling place of faith the temple of God into which whoso entreth not and from which whoso departeth is without all hope of life and eternall saluation CHAP. 12. Of the diuers sorts of them that haue not yet entred into the Church THey that haue not entred into this societie are of two sorts Infidels and Catechumens that is infidels and such as though they be beleeuers are not yet baptized The former are without of whom the Apostle speaketh when hee pronounceth that hee hath nothing to doe to iudge them that are without The latter for that they make profession of the trueth of God and with longing desires thirst after the full enjoying of the blessed communion of the Saints of God wishing for nothing more then by baptisme to be admitted into the family of Christ and houshold of faith are in vestibulo pietatis as Nazianzen noteth and are like children formed and fashioned in the wombe and come to the birth though not yet brought foorth And therefore the constant resolution almost of all Diuines is and hath beene that if without contempt and neglect by any vnauoidable impediment they bee hindered from enjoying the benefite of this sacramentall assurance of their adoption they doe notwithstanding the want thereof liue and die in the state of saluation These therefore are within as the Apostle speaketh though not by that solemne outward and sacramentâ—… admission which they doe desire yet in desire purpose and preparation fitting them vnto it which is so farre forth necessarie to saluation that no man euer was or shall be saued that either wilfully neglected or contemned the same And therefore it is not without great cause that Nazianzen in the place aboue mentioned taxeth the folly of some in his time who for that they knew the greatnesse of the benefit of grace which is receiued in baptisme which by no other meanes in so full and ample sort is bestowed on the scâ—…nes of men lest by the euils they might through humane frailtie easily runne into they should fall from it which could not in the same degree and measure be recouered againe deferred and put off their baptisme as long as they could so that some were lifted vp to Bishops chaires before by baptisme they had set one foote within the doores of the house of God not considering as he wisely obserueth that while they sought so providently to auoide the danger of loosing the benefits once receiued in Baptisme they did runne into as great or greater danger neuer to receiue the same And that if the feare of loosing the benefite of the grace of Baptisme once receiued may cause vs iustly to deferre the seeking and obtaining of it we may with as good reason deferre and put off to be Christians at all lest happily in time of persecution and triall we might fall away This was the fault of sundry in the Primitiue Church and which was yet more to be condemned many did therefore differre and put off their Baptisme that so whatsoeuer evill things they did in the meane time might in that Lauer of new birth be washed away thereby taking greater liberty to offend for that they had so present meanes of full remission and perfect reconciliation so making that which was ordained against sinne and for the weakening and ouerthrow of it to be an encouragement thereunto and to giue life and strength vnto it Seeing therefore wee are but in vestibulo pietatis while we remaine vnbaptized and our feete stand but in the outward courts of the Lord of hostes wee must not rest till we enter into his holy habitation till wee may looke into the holiest of all and behold his glorious presence in the middest of his Saints CHAP 13. Of the first sort of them that after their admission into the Church of God doe voluntarily depart and goe out from the same THey which after their entrance and admission into the house of God depart and goe out againe are of two sorts For either they depart of themselues leauing the fellowship and forsaking the faith as Schismatikes and Heretikes or else they are cast out by the censures of the guides of the Church for their wicked vngodly and scandalous conuersation as excommunicate persons and such as are enjoyned publike penance Concerning the first sort
posterity not by imitation only but by propagation and descent subjecting all to curse and malediction yet not without possibilitie and hope of mercifull deliuerance Thirdly wee must beleeue that for the working of this deliuerance the Sonne of God assumed the nature of man into the vnity of his diuine person so that hee subsisteth in the nature of God and man without all corruption confusion or conuersion of one of them into another that in the nature of man thus assumed hee suffered death but being God could not be holden of it but rose againe and triumphantly ascended into Heauen that hee satisfied the wrath of his father obtayned for vs remission of sinnes past the grace of repentant conuersion and a new conuersation joyned with assured hope desire and expectation of eternall happinesse Fourthly wee must constantly beleeue that God doth call and gather to himselfe out of the manifold confusions of erring ignorant and wretched men whom hee pleaseth to be partakers of these precious benefits of eternall saluation the happy number and joyfull society of whom wee name the Church of God whether they were before or since the manifestation of Christ the sonne of God in our flesh For both had the same faith hope and spirit of adoption whereby they were sealed vnto eternall life though there bee a great difference in the degree and measure of knowledge and the excellencie of the meanes which God hath vouchsafed the one more then the other Fiftly wee must know and beleeue that for the publishing of this joyfull deliverance and the communicating of the benefits of the same the Sonne of God committed to those his followers whom hee chose to bee witnesses of all the things hee did and suffered not onely the word of reconciliation but also the dispensation of sacred and sacramentall assurances of his loue set meanes of his gracious working that those first messengers whom hee sent with immediate commission were infallibly led into all trueth and left vnto posterities that summe of Christian doctrine that must for euer be the rule of our faith that these blessed messengers of so good and happy tidings departing hence left the ministerie of reconciliation to those whom they appoynted to succeede them in the worke so happily begun by them Lastly wee must know and be assuredly perswaded that seeing the renouation of our spirites and mindes is not perfect and the redemption of our bodies still remaining corruptible is not yet therefore God hath appointed a time when Christ his sonne shall returne againe raise vp the dead and giue eternall life to all that with repentant sorrow turne from their euill and wicked wayes while it is yet the accepted time and day of saluation and contrary wayes cast out into vtter darkenesse and into the fire that neuer shall bee quenched all those that neglect and despise so great saluation That all these things and these onely doe directly concerne the matter of eternall saluation is euidently proued by vnaunswerable demonstration For how should they attaine euerlasting happinesse that know not God the originall cause and end of all things the object matter and cause of all happinesse that know not of whom they were created of what sorte to what whereof capable and how enabled to it how farre they are fallen from that they originally were and the hope of that which they were made to be whence are those euills that make them miserable and whence the deliuerance from them is to be looked for by whom it is wrought what the benefits of it are the meanes whereby they are communicated to whom and what shall bee the end both of them that partake and partake not in them Wee see then that all these things and these onely essentially and directly touch the matter of eternall saluation Other things there are that attend on them as consequents deduced from them or some way appertayning to them whereof some are of that sorte that a man cannot rightly be perswaded of these but hee must needes see the necessary consequence and deduction of them from these if they bee propounded vnto him as that there are two wils in Christ that there is no saluation remission of sinnes or hope of eternall life out of the Church that the matrimoniall societie of man and wife is not impure as the Marcionites Tatianus and other supposed nor any kinde of meates to bee rejected as vncleane by nature as the Manichees and some other Heretickes fondly and impiously dreamed other things there are that are not so clearely deduced from those indubitate principles of our Christian faith as namely concerning the place of the Fathers rest before the comming of our Sauiour Christ concerning the locall descending of Christ into the hell of the damned In the first sorte of things which are the principles that make the rule of faith a man cannot be ignorant and bee saued In the second which are so clearely deduced from those principles that who so aduisedly considereth them cannot but see their consequence from them and dependance of them a man cannot erre and be saued because if he beleeue those things which euery one that will bee saued must particularly know and beleeue he cannot erre in these The third a man may be ignorant of and erre in them without danger of damnation if errour bee not joyned with pertinacie The principall grounds of Christian doctrine aboue mentioned are the whole platforme of all Christian Religion The rule of faith so often mentioned by the Auncient by the measure of which all the holy Fathers Bishops and Pastours of the Church made their Sermons Commentaries and Interpretations of Scripture This rule euery part whereof is prooued so neerely to concerne all them that looke for saluation we make the rule to trie all doctrines by and not such platformes of doctrine as euery Sect-master by himselfe canne deduce out of the Scriptures vnderstood according to his owne private fancie as the Rhemists falsely charge vs. This rule is deliuered by Tertullian Irenaeus and other of the Fathers and with addition of conclusions most easily clearely and vnavoydably deduced hence by Theodoret in his Epitome Dogmatum CHAP. 5. Of the nature of Schisme and the kindes of it and that it no way appeareth that the Churches of Greece c. are hereticall or in damnable schisme OVt of this which hath beene deliuered it is easie to discerne what is Heresie and what errours they are that exclude from possibility of saluation It remaineth to speake of Schisme and the kindes and degrees of it Schisme is a breach of the vnity of the Church The vnity of the Church consisteth in three things First the subjection of people to their lawfull Pastours Secondly the connexion and communion which many particular Churches and the Pastours of them haue among themselues Thirdly in holding the same rule of faith The vnity of each particular Church depends of the vnity of the Pastour who is one to whom an
ex obiecto euill it hath God for the first mouing cause he doth primarily originally predetermine the will of the creature by an actuall motion to such an act in that it is an act in that it hath being and yet not to the difformity of it But Cumel disputeth strongly against this proposition in this sort There are certain acts saith he intrinsecally euill so that in them that which is materiall cannot bee separated à formali malitiâ peccati that is from the difformity or sinfulnesse of such an act So that it implyeth a contradiction that God should determine our wills freely to bring forth such an action in respect of that which is materiall in it and not to determine it to bring forth the same action in respect of that which is formall And this reason hath greater force against them that hold that the formality of sinne consisteth in some thing that is positiue as in the manner of working freely with positiue repugnance to the Law of reason and of God For if God predetermine and effectually moue to the producing of euill actions in respect of that which is materiall in them and the substance of the act hee must necessarily also predetermine the same actions in respect of all their positiue conditions and circumstances as the freedome of working and the positiue repugnance to the Law of God And if he determine the will to worke repugnantly to the Law he must needs moue and determine it to sinne seeing to sinne is nothing else but to repugne vnto the law So that it must not bee sayd that God is the originall cause that man hath any such action of will as is euill ex obiecto For if hee should originally and out of himselfe will any such acte he must bee the authour of sinne seeing such an acte is intrinsecally euill so that it cannot be separated from difformity but whosoeuer willeth the substance of such an acte must also will the difformity annexed therevnto in the same sorte as hee willeth the substance of it as is already proved Wherefore that wee may rightly conceiue how God may bee said to will actions of this kinde I will lay downe these propositions First that of the sinne of omission no higher cause needeth to be sought then the deficient will of the creature and that God no otherwise decreed the enterance of it but in that he decreed the deniall of that grace without which hee knew such omission would bee The second that the sinne of omission is in order before the sinne of commission The sinne of omission was first in the Angells sayth Wickliffe as it is also in every man that sinneth Omission saith Alexander of Hales in the order of sinnes so farre forth as wee may conceiue that there is any order amongst them is before commission The third that the sinner falling into the sinne of omission putteth himselfe not onely into an estate of aversion from God but of opposition also and being adverse vnto God and so into a necessitie of committing sinne so long as hee continueth in that state For hee that is opposite to God if he haue any action at all must of necessity haue such as are repugnant to the will and law of God The fourth that God the vniversall mouer who moueth and worketh all things to bring forth such actions as are fitting to their condition ceaseth not to worke and moue vpon men Angels after they are become averse but hee still moueth and impelleth them to doe things fitting to that condition wherein hee findeth them as he doth all other things and as hee worketh in and together with all second causes such effects as are fitting to their condition So hee bringeth forth in and with these thus auerse actions fitting to such an estate of aversion and adverse opposition that is such as are beside and contrary to the rule of righteousnes So that to conclude this point God neither worketh the creature to be evill for it becommeth euill of it selfe by falling into the sinne of omission nor simplie and absolutely moueth and determineth it to doe euill but hee moueth it to doe things fitting to the condition wherein it is even after by it owne fault it is become evill and produceth in and together with it such actions as are fitting to that estate that is such as are euill And his will being that nothing shall be without action nor without action fitting to the condition thereof hee hath setled it by an effectuall and positiue decree that hee that will be averse and evill shall not but doe euill so long as he is and will bee in such an estate and condition If wee speake saith Gregorius Ariminensis de prima mala voluntate non habuit causam efficientem quia nulla res fuit quae aliquid faciendo faceret illam malam sed ipsa desistendo à bona volitione facta est mala sed malae volitionis aliqua est causa That is If wee seeke out how the will of the creature at first became ill there is no efficient cause thereof to bee found for there was nothing that did any thing to make it euill but of it selfe by desisting to will that it should it became euill but of the acte of willing what it should not there is a positiue cause It is excellent to this purpose that Luther hath in his booke de servo arbitrio against Erasmus Reason yeeldeth sayth hee that God worketh all in all and that nothing can be done without him for hee is omnipotent and this pertayneth to his omnipotencie as Paul saith to the Ephesians Now Satan and man fallen from God and forsaken of him cannot will that which is good that is such things as please God or such as hee would haue to be done but being turned away to desire such other things as shall please themselues they cannot but seeke those things that are their owne This nature of men and Angels thus turned from God is not nothing neither is Satan and a wicked man nothing neither can wee say they haue no nature nor will though they haue a corrupt and auerse nature Therefore that which remaineth of nature in a wicked man and in Satan as a creature and the worke of God is no lesse subject to omnipotencie and the action of God then all other creatures and workes of God are Whereas therefore God moueth and worketh all in all hee moueth and worketh also in Satan and the wicked man and hee worketh in them in such sorte as is fitting to that they are and as hee findeth them that is so that being evill and averse yet carried on with the motion of diuine omnipotencie they cannot but doe such things as are averse euill As if a horseman shal driue a horse that goeth but on two or three feete hee maketh him goe so as hee must needs goe if hee goe at all so long as hee is thus lame that is haltingly But
what should the horseman doe hee driueth on the lame horse with the other that are sound they goe well this ill It cannot bee otherwise vnlesse the horse bee freed from his lamenesse Heere wee see by this comparison how that when God worketh in and by them that are euill such things are done as are euill but that God cannot doe euill though hee produce in and by them that are euill such things as are euill because hee being good cannot doe euill Yet doth hee vse ill instruments which cannot but bee moued with the motion of his power nor cannot but doe euill if they bee moued So that the fault is in the instruments which God moueth and will not suffer to be idle that euill things are done when he moueth them no otherwise than if a Carpenter vsing an ill axe should cut or rather teare the timber ill favouredly And hence it commeth that the wicked cannot but alwayes doe amisse and sinne Because being carried on by the motion of diuine power they are not suffered to doe nothing but are forced to will desire and doe that which it fitting to the state wherein they are till they be altered by Gods holy grace and spirit And herevnto agree all the best learned in the Roman Schooles If the name of sinne saith Gregorius Ariminensis be taken improperly for an euill act as for such an acte as whosoeuer doth sinneth for example for the acte of willing something that should not be willed or for some other inward or outward acte which the sinner doth there is some doubt whether God be an immediate efficient cause of such a sinfull acte or not and there are solemne opinions one contrary to another touching that point But without peremptory defence of the one or the other which might argue rashnesse for the present I hold the affirmatiue as more probable and as it seemeth to me more consonant to the sayings of the Saints And hee addeth whereas some speake of the difformity of such a sinfull acte denying God to bee any efficient cause thereof Si per difformitatem intelligatur aliqua entitas quaecunque vbicunque sit illam coagit Deus nec scio oppositum dici à Sanctis Doctores aliqui moderni dicunt quod licet actus difformis sit à Deo difformitas tamen ipsa non est à Deo Quod dictum potest habere bonum intellectum non quidem concipiendo quòd difformitas sit aliqua entitas ab actu distincta quae non causetur à Deo sed intelligendo quod licet actus difformis sit à Deo non tamen est difformis in quantum est à Deo Nam non est difformis nisi in quantum contra rectam rationem fit ab homine non autem à Deo qui nihil agit contra id quod ab eo agendum esse recta ratio indicat Deus non est eiusdem rei secundum idem actor vltor sed est eius actor in quantum entitas quaedam eius verò vltor in quantum est malum Est autem malum in quantum malè fit ideo punit eum à quo male fit pro eâ If by the difformity they vnderstand any being or any thing that is positiue whatsoever and wheresoever it is God is a cause thereof neither doe I know sayth hee that the contrary is deliuered by the Saints Indeede there are certaine moderne Doctours that say that though the acte wherein difformity is bee from God yet the difformity is not which their saying may haue a good sense not conceiving that the difformity is any positiue thing distinct from the acte whereof God should not be an actor but so vnderstanding it that though the act which is done otherwise then it should be done be of God yet it is not done otherwise then it should bee done as it is done by God for God doth nothing in producing such an acte that hee should not doe but the creature onely So that as the Divines doe tell vs God is not an actor and a punisher of the same thing in respect of the same but hee is an actor of the thing in that it is a thing done but a punisher in that it is ill done And therefore he punisheth him that hath done ill in doing ill himselfe hauing done the same thing well Quid mirum saith Anselm si dicamus Deum facere singulas actiones quâ—… fiunt mala voluntate cùm fateamur eum facere singulas substantias quae fiunt iniustâ voluntate inhonestâ actione that is What strange thing is it if wee say that God produceth all those actions which sinfull men doe wickedly seeing we confesse he produceth all those substances which are brought forth by a sinfull desire of the will and an vnhonest action God produceth formeth the same child in the womb which a man begetteth in adulterie yet man only sinneth not God Si verò dicitur saith Hugo de S. Victore Deus vult malum grave est auditu non facilè recipit hoc pia mens de bono quod malumvult Videtur enim hoc solum dici cum dicitur Deus vult malum quia bonus malum diligit approbat quod pravum est amicam sibi reputat iniquitatem gaudet quasi de consimili bonum put at quod malum est ideo refutat hoc menspia non quia quod dicitur non benè dicitur sed quia quod bené dicitur non benè intelligitur Non enim hoc solùm dicitur sed ex eo quod dicitur aliquid intelligitur quod non dicitur Quoniam malum esse vult malum non vult that is If it be said that God willeth the thing that is euill men hardly endure to heare it and a pious and good minde doth not easily admit that he that is good willeth the thing that is euill for wee conceiue nothing else when we say God willeth that which is euill but that hee that is good loueth that which is euill and approueth that which is wicked And therefore a good minde reiecteth such a speech not because it is not right and good but because that which is rightly said is not rightly vnderstood For this speech is not so to be taken as if God loued or approued that which is euill but something is to bee vnderstood which is not expressed And the meaning of this speech is that God willeth the being of euill or that euill shal be and yet willeth not euill that is approueth it not Now when it is said that God willeth the being of euill or that euill shal be the meaning of this saying of Hugo is concerning the sinne of omission that he willeth it no otherwise but onely in that he denieth that grace which onely he knoweth would worke the doing of the contrary good and concerning the sinne of commission that he produceth in and together with them that by falling into the sinne of
what time and against what persons he pleaseth and no otherwise and is author ordinis in malo though not mali When we say he openeth the way passage for wickednesse to break forth wee must vnderstand that he doth this in two sorts either by not hindring it from breaking forth in some one kinde which hee suffereth no otherwise to shew it selfe or in that he positiuely inclineth it hither rather then thither not by way of cause but of occasiō offered In which sense it is that Dauid saith God commanded Shemei to curse him not as if God had eyther inwardly or outwardly perswaded him so to do But because finding him full of malice against Dauid he so prospered Dauid before that he durst not reuile him not had no cause to insult vpon him But now he presented him to his eyes in such a miserable estate forsaken of many and pursued by his owne sonne as he knew would occasion these words of insultation and bitter malediction Thus then God commanded Shemei to curse Dauid not by precept outwardly requiring him so to do nor by perswasiō inwardly inclining him to so vile an actiō but by direction inclining him by words of malediction to expresse his bitter affection which long before desired to vent it selfe now at this time and for the punishment of Dauids sinnes rather then at an other time and in another sort So when wicked men had spoyled Iob he sayd The Lord hath giuen the Lord hath taken away imputing it to God not as if he had made them to become Robbers but for that being such hee directed their wickednesse and vsed it to the triall of his servant opening a passage for their wickednesse and presenting to them such things as hee knew would occasion this outrage As lakewise the Iewes in crucifying Christ are said to haue done nothing but that which God had before resolutely determined not as if God had purposed their wickednesse but only because knowing what was in them he was pleased to direct guide and turne their wickednesse and furious malice to the effecting of his owne purposes The third action that wee attribute vnto God is that hee punisheth one sin by an other In punishments Hugo de sancto victore noteth three things The matter with which a man is punished the contrariety betweene it and the party punished and the order of consequence that where such an offence went before such an euil shall follow to make the party offending feele the smart of it In those punishments which be punishments onely not sinnes God is the author and cause of all these three things implyed in the nature of punishments in those which be punishments and sinnes God is author only of the order of consequence the contrariety between them the nature of the parties punished not of the matter wherwith they are afflicted punished As for exāple Pride is punished by envie Enuie is not of God but the contrarietie betweene it and the soule of man which maketh it bitter and afflictiue is And the order of consequence that where pride went before enuy must follow Neither doth God only punish one sinne with another when there is such a dependance of one vpon the other that where one goeth before the other must follow But oftentimes when there is no such necessary dependance yet he withdraweth his grace and for the punishment of one sinne letteth men runne into another In this sense there are three things attributed to God in the punishment of wicked and godlesse men The blinding of their vrderstanding The hardning of their hearts and the giuing of them vp vnto a reprobate sense These things God is said to doe three wayes First by subtraction and deniall of that grace which should lighten the vnderstandings and soften and mollifie the hearts of men Secondly by giuing leaue to Sathan to work vpon them no way either strengthning them against him or weakning his force Thirdly occasionally and by accident when God doth that which is good which yet hee knoweth through the euill disposition that is in men will increase their wickednesse and make it greater then it was before CHAP. 24. Of the heresies of Origen touching the Image of God and touching hell falsely imputed to Caluin IN the third place the Iesuite fearing that men should thinke hee were neere driuen and wanted store hee chargeth Caluin at once with two heresies of Origen The first concerning the Image of God the second touching Hell and the punishments of it Touching the first it is true that Epiphanius chargeth Origen with heresie For saying that Adam lost the Image of God by his disobedience and sinne but how iustly it is very doubtfull Seeing neither Hierome nor Theophilus Alexandrinus most diligently noting his errours make any mention of it And therefore it may bee probably thought as Alphonsius à Castro noteth that if any such thing was found in the workes of Origen it was so deliuered by him as that it might carrie a good construction and free from heresie But leauing it vncertain what it was that Origen meant by the losse of Gods Image For the cleering of Caluin wee must note that which Thomas Aquinas no hereticke I hope in Bellarmines iudgment beeing a Canonized Saint of the Romish Church hath fittely obserued to this purpose Hee noteth first that the Image of God consisteth in the eminent perfection which is found in men expressing the nature of God in an higher degree then any excellencie of other creatures doth Secondly that this perfection is found principally in the soule Thirdly that it is threefold First naturall which is the largenesse of the naturall faculties of vnderstanding and will not limitted to the apprehension or desire of some certaine things only but extending to all the conditions of beeing and goodnesse whose principall obiect is God So that they neuer rest satisfied with any other thing but the seeing and enioying of him The second kind of this perfection is supernaturall when the soule actually or at the least habitually knoweth and loueth God aright though not so perfectly as hee may and shall bee loued hereafter The third is when the soule knoweth and loueth God in fulnesse of happinesse The first is of nature the second of grace and the third of glory The first of these is neuer lost no not by the damned in hell The second Adam had but lost it and it is renued in vs by grace The third wee expect in heauen To thinke the Image of God considered in the first sort to be lost is heresie but Caluin is free from it To thinke it lost in the second sort is the Catholique doctrine of the Church for who knoweth not that man hath lost all right knowledge and loue of God by Adams fall Some restraine the name of the Image of God to the excellency of the soules nature framed to know all things and neuer to rest
of Pelagius CHAP. 27 Of the heresies of Nouatus Sabellius and the Manichees THe sixt heresie that wee are charged with is that of Nouatus who would not haue those that fell in the time of persecution reconciled and receiued againe to the communion of the Church vpon their repentance But wee receiue all Penitents whatsoeuer and therefore this lying slander may be added to the rest to make vp a number But they will say the Nouatians were condemned for denying penance to be a Sacrament and that therein at least wee agree with the Nouatians This is as false as the rest for it is most certaine that the absolution which was giuen in the Primitiue Church disliked by Nouatus was not taken as a sacramentall acte giuing grace remitting sinnes but as a judiciall acte receiving them to the peace of the Church and the vse of the Sacraments which had beene formerly put from them This the best and most iudicious of the Schoole-men confesse besides the infinite testimonies that might be alleaged out of the Fathers to proue the same It was then an admitting to the vse of the Sacraments not it selfe a Sacrament But Caluin sayth that the speech of Hierome that poenitentia is secunda tabula post naufragium is impious and cannot be excused and therefore it seemeth he inclineth to the Nouatians heresie in denying the benefite of penitencie to distressed and miserable sinners that seeke it Augustine in his booke De mendacio ad Consentium maketh it a disputable question whether a man that vsually lieth speaking trueth at some one time with purpose to make men thinke it like the rest of his lying speaches wherewith they are well acquainted may not be said to lie when hee speaketh trueth because hee intendeth to deceiue and doeth deceiue Surely if this man should speake any trueth I feare the Reader would thinke it a falsehood because his ordinary manner is seldome or neuer to speake any trueth Doeth Caluine say the speach of Hierome is impious and not to bee excused as hee reporteth he doeth Surely no but that if it be vnderstood as the Papists vnderstand it it cannot bee excused For they conceiue thereby that the Sacrament of Penance is implied which Hierome neuer thought of But hee will say the Nouatians refused to haue those that they baptized to receiue imposition of hands with which was joyned in those times the anoynting of the parties with oyle Surely so they did but so doe not wee for we tâ—…inke of the vse of imposition of hands as Hierome doeth in his booke against he Luciferians But touching the vse of oyle though at that time there was no cause for the Nouatians to except much against it yet now that it is made the matter and element of a Sacrament and that by a kinde of consecration the ground whereof wee know not wee thinke we doe not offend in omitting it no more than the Church of Rome in omitting innumerable ceremoniall obseuations of like nature that were in vse in those times The seauenth is the heresie of Sabellius which he sayth was reuiued by Servetus So it was indeede that Seruetus reuiued in our time the damnable heresie of Sabellius long since condemned in the first ages of the Church But what is that to vs How little approbation hee found amongst vs the just and honourable proceeding against him at Geneva will witnesse to all posterity The eighth is the heresie of the Manichees which taught that euills which are found in the World were from an euill beginning so making two originall causes the one good of things good the other euill of things euill It is true that this was the damnable opinion of the Manichees But will the shamelesse companion charge vs with this impiety I thinke hee dareth not for hee knoweth that wee teach that all the euils that are in the World had their beginning and did proceede from the freedome of mans will which while hee vsed ill hee ouerthrewe and lost both himselfe and it that while hee turned from the greater to the lesser good and preferred the creature before the Creatour hee plunged himselfe into innumerable defects miseries perplexities and discomforts and justly deserued that GOD from whome thus wickedly hee departed should make all those things which formerly hee appointed to doe him seruice to become feeble weake vnfit and vnwilling to performe the same But saith he Luther affirmeth that all things fall out by a kinde of absolute necessitie whence the heresie of the Manichees may bee inferred The aunswere to this objection is easie for Luther taketh necessitie for infallibilitie of event thereby meaning that all things fall out infallibly so as God before disposed and determined but doth not imagine a necessitie of coaction enforcing nor a naturall and inevitable necessitie taking away all freedome of choyce as our adversaries injuriously impute vnto him If this of Luther faile as in deede it doeth Bellarmine hath another proofe and demonstration that wee are Manichees for that Calvine denyeth man to haue freedome of choyce in any thing whatsoeuer This is a most false and injurious imputation For though Calvine deny that man can doe any thing in such sort as therein to bee free from the direction and ordering of Almighty GOD yet hee confesseth that Adams will in the day of his creation was free not onely from sinne and miserie but also from limitation of desire and naturall necessitie and left to her owne choyce in the highest matter and of most consequence of all the rest and that man by making an euill choyce did runne into those euills which he is now subject vnto Calvin then is not worse than the Manichees as making God the Authour of those euills which the Manichees attribute to an euill beginning as Bellarmine is pleased to pronounce of him but is farther from that hellish conceit than Bellarmine is from hell it selfe if he repent him not of these his wicked and hellish slanders But sayth hee the Manichees blamed and reprehended the Fathers of the Olde Testament and so also doeth Calvine therefore Calvin is a Manichee This is as if a man should thus reason with Bellarmine Porphyry blamed Paul as an arrogant man for reprehending Peter that was his auncient and before him in the faith of Christ and Bellarmine diliâ—…eth him for persecuting the Church of GOD in the time of his infidility therefore Bellarmine is as bad or worse than Porphyry For the Manichees thought that the Old Testament was from an euill beginning and therefore exaggerated all the faults and sinnes of the Fathers that then liâ—…ed for confirmation and strengthening of this their blasphemie But Calvin hateth this impiety more than the Romanists who imagine a greater difference betwixt the state of the Iewes and the Christians that hee doeth It is therefore an ill consequence Caluine doth not hide nor excuse but condemne the murder and adultery of Dauid the drunkennesse of Noe and the
saued though the assertions of some men were damnable Now it is cleane contrary touching the present state of the Romish Church For the generall maine doctrine agreed vpon in the Councel of Trent in sort as it is most commonly conceiued is damnable but there are no doubt some of a better spirit and haue in themselues particularly a better conceit of things than generally is holden Formerly the Church of Rome was the true Church but had in it an hereticall faction now the Church it selfe is hereticall some certaine onely are found in it in such degree of Orthodoxie as that we may well hope of their saluation Thus then this great obiection taken from our owne confession is easily answered CHAP. 48. Of Miracles confirming the Romane faith THe next note of the Church is Gods owne testimony which hee giueth of the trueth sanctity of the faith and profession it holdeth This doubtlesse is the most absolute excellent note of all other For that must needes bee the true Church which holdeth the true faith and profession and that the true profession which God that neither himselfe can be deceiued nor deceiue others doeth witnesse testifie to be so For who dare make any doubt whether that bee the true religion or that the true Church which the God of trueth witnesseth to be so Let vs see therefore how God doth testifie concerning the trueth of religion and the happy condition of them that professe it Surely this testification is of two sorts the one by the inward operation of his inlightening spirit satisfying our vnderstandings in those things which by natures light we could not discerne and filling our hearts with ioy and gladnesse such and so great as nothing within natures compasse can yeeld For by this so great happie and heauenly an alteration which wee finde in our selues vpon and together with this receiuing of this doctrine which the spirit of trueth doth teach vs hee doth most clearely witnesse vnto vs that it is heauenly indeede and such as we could not haue attained vnto but by diuine reuelation The other kind of testification is when being desired by them that teach and learne this doctrine to giue some outward testimonie that it is true he doth some such thing for the good of them that receiue it or hurt of such as refuse it as none but God can doe But because partly by reason of the manifold illusions wherewith Sathan can and often doth abuse men making it seem vnto them that those things are done which are not and partly because we doe not exactly know what may be done by the force of naturall causes we cannot infallibly know concerning any outward thing performed before our eyes that it is in deede immediately and miraculously wrought by Gods owne most sacred hands This kinde of testification is not matchable with the other Nay wee cannot be infallibly assured of any thing done that it is Gods owne worke and in deede a miracle vnlesse this assurance grow out of the former testification For we may justly feare some fraud till finding by the inward testimony of Gods spirit the trueth of that for proofe whereof this strange thing is done we are assured it is the immediate and peculiar worke of God This assurance the quality of the things done and the difference betweene the workes of Sathan which onely cause admiration and wonder and the miraculous workes of God that are full of gracious goodnes winning the hearts of such as see them will greatly strengthen To what purpose then will some man say serued all the miracles that were done by Christ and his blessed Apostles This doubt is easily cleared for whereas the things then taught were new strange and incredible to naturall men they would not at all haue listned vnto them made inquiry after them or search into them had not the strange workes that followed the publishers of them made them thinke the things credible that were accompanied with so strange attendants Now while they gaue heed to the things that were spoken the Word was mighty in operation and entred into them in such sort that they discerned it was Gods owne word and that the way of saluation which by it they were directed vnto Thus then we see that miracles are no sure notes of the trueth of Religion nor certaine marke to know the Church by vnlesse they bee strengthened by some other meanes not for that a miracle knowne to bee so is insufficient to testifie of the trueth of God but because it is not possible infallibly to know that the things which seeme vnto vs to be miracles be so in deede vnlesse being assured of the trueth of that for confirmation whereof they are wrought wee thereby bee perswaded they are of God All that hath beene hitherto said is confessed to be true by the best learned Divines of the Romane Church Yea Cardinall Caietan proceedeth so farre that he pronounceth it cannot bee certainely knowne that those miracles are true miracles which the Church admitteth and approueth in the canonizing of Saints seeing the trueth of them dependeth on mens report that may deceiue and be deceiued Thus hauing declared what the vse of miracles is and how farre they giue testimony of the trueth let vs see what our adversaries conclude from hence for themselues or against vs. They haue miracles for confirmation of their faith and Religion and we haue none therefore they hold the true faith and we are in errour For answere hereunto first we say that the trueth of Religion cannot infallibly and certainely be found out by miracles especially in these last times because as Gerson noteth in his booke De distinctione verarum falsarum visionum in this old age of the world in this last houre and time so neere Antichrist his revelation it is not to bee marvailed at if the world like a doating olde man bee abused by many illusions and fantasies most like to dreames Secondly wee say that howsoeuer it may bee some miracles were done by such good men as liued in the corrupt state of the Church in the dayes of our Fathers yet that is no proofe of those errours which the Romanists maintaine against vs. For wee peremptorily deny that euer any miracle was done by any in times past or in our times to confirme any of the things controuersed betweene them and vs. What credit is to be giuen to the reportes of their miracles they may easily conceiue in that in all the differences they haue had amongst themselues either in matters of opinion or of faction they haue had contrary visions reuelations and miracles to confirme the perswasion of either side as appeared in the differences touching Maries conception and in the times of the Anti-Popes Wherevpon Caietane writing to Pope Leo about the controuersie of Maries conception wisheth him not to suffer his iudgement to be swayed by shew of miracles and giueth many good reasons of the
not conuince him and force him to bee otherwise minded for that hee might thereby disaduantage his aduersaries of the Romish faction no way proueth that which Bellarmine intendeth For this is all hee sayth Let no man thinke that it is wilfullnesse and a preiudicate opinion that maketh mee dissent from Zuinglius and the rest for in my affection and desire I should rather Wish to consent with them in this point then with the Romanists whose manifolde damnable errours I detest if it were affection and not reason and the cleare euidence of truth that must preuaile in things of this kind Indeede the Romanists are wont to temper their opinions and sway their iudgments accordingly as they finde they may most aduantage their owne cause and disaduantage their aduersaries As appeareth by Bellarmine who in the question whether the eminent degree of Bishoppes aboue Presbyters bee a distinct order of Ministrie doth incline to the opinion of them that thinke it is contrary to the iudgment of the best learned of the Schoolemen for that thereby hee may the more easily impugne the opinion of them that thinke Bishoppes and Presbyters to bee all one iure diuino That which followeth is as little to the purpose as the rest It is true that in the assurance of the truth hee professed and the certaine victorie of the same ouer all the enimies of it of what kinde degree or sort soeuer hee esteemed all the greatenesse of the malicious aduersaries therof as vile as the dirt vnderneath his feete though otherwise out of this comparison with the truth and opposition to it hee respected them as the greatnesse of their place did require That hee saith hee regardeth not a thousand Cyprians a thousand Augustines if they should bee produced proueth not that hee thinketh them to be against him in the cause of religion or that hee contemneth them but that no authority of men or Angells shall euer remoue him from that hee knoweth to be the truth of God as the Apostle requireth the Galathians If an Angell come from heauen and preach otherwise to them then they had beene taught to hold him accursed not as if the holy Angels in heauen now confirmed in grace could either erre themselues from the truth of the Gospell or peruert others or that they should bee vilely esteemed of in the messages they bring vnto vs but that if it were possible for them to erre and misleade others wee should not listen vnto them but hold them accursed That out of his booke of corner masses is as diuellish a slander as the rest For Luther doth not say hee learned of the diuell that the Masse is impious and wicked but that hauing learned that in the schoole of Christ the diuell therevpon tempted him to dispaire for that he had so often sayd such Masses and thereby dishonoured God and misled his people what this can proue against him I see not That hee was of a violent spirit wee deny not nay himselfe gloried in it that hee had an heroicall spirit made to contemne the fury and folly of the Romanists neither had hee beene fitte to oppose against enimies of this kinde if hee had beene of another spirit That he was carried too much with the violent streame of his passions wee impute it to the infirmity of flesh and blood and the perversenesse of the manyfold adversaries hee found in those times Neither was this the peculiar or proper fault of Luther for who knoweth not that Hierome and Chrysostome and diuerse other lights of the World were not without their blemishes in this kinde That the Tigurines Gesnerus and others disliked the distempered passions of Luther is not to bee maruailed at or that there were some differences amongst them seeing the like were in former times betweene Epiphanius and Chrysostome Hierome Ruffinus Augustine and others From Luther the Iesuite commeth to the people of our profession pronouncing that there are many wicked amongst his consorts but that there are none good amongst those that are of the Reformed Religion Thus with the breath of his mouth he thinketh to blow vp all that standeth before him But how proueth he that he saith Our owne confession saith he is proofe enough But against this pretended and imagined confession we protest and professe before God men and Angels that wee neuer thought much lesse spake or wrote any such thing If Luther in his sermons complaine that the world is euery day worse than other who was there euer found that vsed not wordes of the like complaint If hee say that the men of the world abuse the grace of God vnto want onnesse and the more and better meanes they haue bee the worse what strange thing saith hee Did not S. Paul finde that when hee magnified the riches of the grace of God and shewed that where sinne hath abounded grace more abounded many tooke occasion to say It is good to continue in sinne that grace may abound Doth he not charge the Corinthians that there was fornication amongst them and such as was not once named among the Gentiles that they went to law one with another and that vnder Infidels to the slaunder of the Gospell of Christ that there was not a wise man amongst them to interpose himselfe and stay these their proceedings one against another That which is alleaged out of Smidelinus tendeth to the same purpose and requireth no other nor farther answere Touching the judgement of Erasmus it was so variable and vncertaine in things of this kind that neither they nor we can take any advantage by it But for the extraordinary sanctity of the Romish Priests Friars Monkes and other irreligious amongst them whereof they insolently boast and bragge if we should stirre the dunghils of their own histories wherein the liues of these Saints are described vnto vs the stench of them would infect the aire if we should make report of that we reade in Authors not partiall men would stop their eares and pronounce against vs that such things ought not once to be named amongst men This is so euident that Bellarmine in his preface before his bookes of the Pope is not ashamed to make the wickednesse and prodigious villanies of the Popes a proofe and demonstration of the Sanctity of that Chaire in which they sit and of Gods provident care of it Which argument though it seeme strange at the first sight yet it is in his judgement very forcible and vnanswerable For that such and so great hath beene the wickednesse of the Roman Bishops that if God had not strangely vpholden it the Sea and Chaire in which they sit had long since sunk down into hell Thus I hope it appeareth to all not wilfully blinded that this note of the sanctitie of the liues of the Professours of Religion maketh very little for them or against vs. And thus haue wee run through and examined all the notes of the Church by which
which wee haue lost by our sinnes for there is nothing that offendeth God and provoketh him to be dipleased but sinne only as the Psalmist sayth they prouoked and displeased God with their inuentions the Priest therefore lifteth vp the body of Christ on the altar as if hee should thus say O heauenly Father wee haue sinned and provoked thee to anger but now looke on the face of Christ thy sonne whom wee present vnto thee to moue thee to turne from thy wrath and displeasure to mercie and grace turne not away thy face therefore from this thy holy child Iesus from this thy sonne but remember that thou hast sayd of this same thy sonne this is my welbeloued sonne in whom I am well pleased correct therefore mercifully in vs whatsoeuer thou findest in vs fit to be corrected and turne vs vnto thee and turne thy wrath from vs. The question is proposed sayth Petrus Cluniacensis why this sacrifice is so often repeated seeing Christ once offered on the crosse is sufficient to take away the sinnes of the whole world especially seeing here and there not a diuers but the same sacrifice that is the same Christ is offered For if that on the crosse sufficed this seemeth to bee supefluous but it is not superfluous c. for after hee had sayd doe this hee addeth in remembrance of mee This then is the cause of this Sacrament euen the commemoration of CHRIST Our Sauiour knew what hee had done and what hee would doe for man hee knew how great and singular that worke was which hee had done in putting on the nature of man hee knewe how wonderfull that worke would bee that hee was to do when hee should die for man hee knew that by this worke hee should saue man but that noe man could be saued without the loue of this worke hee knew that this worke of his becomming man and dying for man as it was renowned aboue all his workes soe it was especially to bee recommended vnto men for whome it was done it was specially to bee commended to them seeing his flesh was tormented for them his soule grieued and death seized on him that they might liue this was solemnly to be commended vnto them that Christ might bee beloued that being beloued hee might be possessed that being once had hee might neuer bee lost But this loue of him could not haue beene retained by men if they should-haue forgotten him neither could they haue retained the memorie of him vnlesse they should haue beene put in minde of him by some fitting outward signe For this cause was this signe proposed and appointed by CHRIST which yet is so a signe that it is the same thing that it signifieth and herein it differeth from the sacrifices of the old Law which were not that they signified Sed istud nostri sacrificij signum non aliud sed ipsum est quod signat ita vero est ci idem quod signat vt quantum ad corpus id est ad veritatem carnis sanguinis Christi pertinet sit idem quod signat non quoad mortem passionem neque enim ibi Christus vt olim dolorem mortem patitur cum tamen immolari dicatur cum videlicet inviolabiter in altari frangitur diuiditur comeditur cum ijs quibusdam alijs signis in quantum fieri potest mors domini maximè repraesentatur vnde sicut dixi quantum ad veritatem corporis sanguinis Christi pertinet est idem quod signat non quoad mortem passionem quam tamen maximè signat that is This signe of our sacrifice is noe other but the same thing that it signifieth but wee must soe vnderstand it to bee the same thing that it signifieth in respect of the trueth of the flesh and bloud of Christ which it signifieth but not in respect of his passion death though it very liuely expresse signifie that also for Christ doth not there suffer griefe or death as once he did though hee be said there to be offered immolated when hee is inviolably broken vpon the altar distributed eaten when by these the like signes Christs death is represented asmuch as possibly it may be so that as I said if we speake of the trueth of the body and bloud of Christ this signe is the thing it signifieth but if we speake of the death and suffering of Christ it is not so though it doe very clearely expressely represent signifie that his death and passion Thus we see he maketh the sacrifice to be merely representatiue Algerus excellently expresseth the same thing in these words Notandum quia quotidianum nostrum sacrificium idem ipsum dicit cum eo quo Christus semel oblatus est in cruce quantum ad eandem veram hic ibi corporis substantiā quod verò nostrum quotidianum illius semel oblati dicit esse exemplum id est figuram vel formam non dicit ut hic vel ibi alium Christum constituat sed ut eundem in cruce semel in altari quotidiè alio modo immolari offerri ostendat ibi in veritate passionis quâ pro nobis occisus est hic in figurâ imitatione passionis ipsius quâ Christus non iterum verè patitur sed ipsius verè memoria passionis quotidiè nobis iteratur quod ipse Ambrosius notans subiicit Quod nos facimus in commemorationem fit eius quod factum est hoc enim facite inquit in meam commemorationē non aliud sacrificium sed ipsum semper offerimus magis autem sacrificii recordationem operamur Non ergo est in ipsius Christi veritate diversitas sed in ipsius immolationis actione quae dum veram Christi passionem mortem quâdam suâ similitudine figurando repraesentat nos ad imitationē ipsius passionis invitat accendit contra hostem nos roborat munit à vitiis purgans virtutibus condecorans vitae aeternae idoneos dignos exhibet That is It is to bee noted that our daylie sacrifice is the same thing with that sacrifice whereby Christ was once offered vpon the crosse in that the same true substance is offered here that was offered there whereas therefore he saith that the sacrifice which we daylie offer is a similitude figure or representation of that sacrifice which Christ once offered he is not to be conceiued to imagine that there is one Christ essentially here another there but his meaning is to shew that the same Christ once offered on the crosse is dayly offered in another sort on the altar there in the truth of his passion being slaine for vs here in figure and imitation of his passion not suffering againe indeed but hauing the memory of his passion which once he endured daylie renewed which thing Ambrose himself also obseruing hath these words That which we doe is done in remembrance of that which
and what hereticall after many convincing reasons hee addeth this in the conclusion The defining of things in this kinde pertayneth principally to the professors of that science to which nothing may bee added and from which nothing may bee detracted but of this sorte is the profession of diuines and therefore Moses sayth in the person of God Deuteronomie 4. Yee shall not adde vnto the word I speake vnto you neither shall yee take from it to which that of Solomon answereth Proverb 30. where speaking of the word of God hee sayth Adde nothing to his words least thou be reproved found a liar And hence it is that the holy Ghost doth terribly threaten by Iohn the Evangelist in the last of the Revelation all them that adde or take any thing from the holy Scripture saying If any man shall adde more then this God shall adde vnto him the plagues that are in this booke and if any man shall take any thing from the words of the Prophesie of this booke God shall take his part out of the booke of life and out of the holy city By all which it is euidently collected that nothing is to bee added to the holy Scripture nor nothing to be taken from it Cardinall Cameracensis agreeth fully with Ariminensis before cited for first hee distinguisheth principles and conclusions theologicall principles he maketh to be the verities of the sacred canon conclusions to bee those verities which are not sound formally and in expresse words or precise tearmes in Scripture but may necessarily be deduced from things so contayned whether they bee articles or not whether they bee determined by the Church or not determined and then pronounceth that that onely is a theologicall discourse which consisteth of sayings and propositions contayned in the sacred Scriptures or of such as may bee deduced from them and that then onely wee say a thing is theologically proued when it is concluded out of the words of holy Scripture To these wee may adde Waldensis his words are these That Wickliffe affirmeth that neither Friars nor Prelates may define any thing in matters of faith vnlesse they haue the authoritie of sacred Scripture or some speciall revelation I dislike not but I condemne his way wardnesse craft and thinke it necessary least we wrest the Scriptures erre in the interpretation of them to follow the tradition of the Church expounding them vnto vs and not to trust to our owne private singular conceipts â— Gerson acknowledgeth as much as the rest his wordes are these What evils what daungers what confusions haue followed the contempt ofsacred Scripture which is sufficient for the government of the Church or else Christ was an imperfect lawgiuer experience will teach vs. The authour of that most pious and worthy worke called Destructorium vitiorum hath sundry things for confirmation of this poynt As sayth hee corporall things here below may in some sorte bee known without the benefit of corporall light for one may know the length breadth and other dimensions of such a thing and may in the darke discerne whether it bee long or short but whether it bee faire or foule white or black wee cannot certainely know So it is in things that are to bee discerned intellectually for though Philosophers excelling in mundane wisedome lacking the light of faith had some kinde of knowledge of God as that hee is the beginning cause of all things yet could they not know how faire how good how mercifull and how glorious hee is neither did euer any man knowe it but either by diuine revelation or by the information of the holy Scripture so that the holy Scripture is that light by which in this state of wayfaring men wee may haue sufficient knowledge of all things necessary to saluation whence it is that the Psalmist sayth Thy word is a lanthorne to my feete a light to my steppes But as experience doth teach that hee that will bee lighted by the light of a candle must haue the candle before him and must follow it but that if hee shall cause it to bee brought after him in the darkenesse of the night it will not giue him light to any purpose so they that walke in the darkenes of this life if they desire to be lighted by the candle of Gods word and to direct their goings in the way of trueth without falling they must haue the light of Gods word before their eyes and must follow it by well doing But even as if a candle be carried out in the darkenesse of the night where bruite beasts as horses and the like are they will runne from it whereas birds will come towards it So bestiall men that are like horses mules flie from the light of the Scriptures according to that of Iohn 3. Every one that doth euill hateth the light neither doth hee come to the light least his workes should bee reproued For confirmation of that hee sayth hee alleadgeth a most excellent discourse of Bishop Grosthead who intreating of that history in the 1 Kings 19. where the Angell of the Lord sayd to Elias goe forth and stand in the mountaine before the Lord and hee stood and saw and behold a winde passed by him overthrowing the mountaines and tearing the rockes in sunder but the Lord was not in the winde and after the winde an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voyce and there was the Lord sheweth that God is not found in any other science but in the holy Scripture only which is giuen by diuine inspiration and for farther illustration hereof noteth that there were three wels digged by Isaak Genesis 26. For he digged the first and the Philistins stroue for it likewise the second and they claymed it also wherefore hee left them both and digged a third which hee peaceably enjoyed and called the name of it Robooth that is latitude because the waters of it were inlarged and to the first of these wells hee compareth naturall scâ—…ences to wit the seaven liberall arts as logicke in which there is much brawling contending to the second such science as wee learne for gaine sake and to get preferment as is the knowledge of humane lawes according to those verses Dat Galenus opes sanctio Iustiniana Ex aliis paleas existis collige grana To the third hee compareth diuine knowledge and sayth that that well was rightly named Robooth that is latitude because the waters of it were inlarged So the heavenly doctrine was published to all parts of the world by the Apostles and other faithfull preachers according to that of the Psalmist Their sound is gone forth into all the earth and the Lord inviteth his elect to come and drinke the waters of this well saying all yee that are thirsty come to these waters and the wordes of Christ moue all
darke the length breadth and other dimensions of a thing but not whether it be faire or foule white or blacke So men in this obscurity of discerning may finde out that there is a God and that he is the beginning and cause of all things but they cannot know how faire how good how mercifull and how glorious hee is that so they may loue him feare him honour him and trust in him as God vnlesse they haue an illumination of grace The difference therefore betweene those of the Church of Rome and vs touching originall sinne consisteth in two points First In that they make the former defects of ignorance difficultie to doe good pronenesse to euill contrarietie betweene the powers of the soule and the rebellion of the meaner and inferiour against the better and superiour consequents of nature as it might and would be in it selfe simply considered without all defection and falling from God that originall righteousnesse was giuen to prevent and stay the effects that these naturally would haue brought forth and that these are not the consequents of Adams sinne but that onely the leauing of them free to themselues to disorder all is a consequent of the losse of that righteousnesse which was giuen to Adam and by him forfaited and lost that they proceede from the guilt of sinne but that they make not them guilty in whom they are But we say that these are no conditions of nature simply considered that they cannot bee found but where there is a falling from God that they are the consequents of Adams sinfull aversion from God his Creator that they are a part of original sinne and that they make men guilty of grieuous punishment so long as they remaine in them The second thing is that originall sin is indeed according to their opinion the privation of originall righteousnes but as original righteousnes was not giuen simply to inable men to decline euill and do good but collectiuely constantly and meritoriously to decline euill doe good so the privation of it doth not depriue men of all power of declining euill doing good but only of the power of declining all euill and doing all good collectiuely meritoriously But we say that originall righteousnes was given simply to inable men to decline euill to doe good and that without it the nature of man could not performe her proper and principall actions about her principall obiects So that the privation of it depriveth a man of all power of knowing loving fearing honouring or glorifying God as God and of all power of doing any thing morally good or not sinfull and putteth him into an estate wherein hee cannot but loue and desire things that God would not or so as hee would not haue him yea of louing other things more than God and and so as to dishonour God in any kind rather than not to enjoy the things he desires So that if wee speake of originall sinne formally it is the privation of those excellent gifts of diuine grace inabling vs to know loue feare serue honour and trust in God and to doe the things he delighteth in which Adam had lost If materially it is that habituall inclination that is found in men averse from God carrying them to the loue and desire of finite things more then of God and this also is properly sin making guilty of condemnation the nature and person in which it is found This habituall inclination to desire finite things inordinately is named concupiscence and this concupiscence is two fold as Alensis noteth out of Hugo for there is concupiscentia spiritus and concupiscentia carnis there is a concupiscence of the spirit or superiour faculties of the flesh or inferiour the former is sinne the latter sinne and punishment For what is more iust then that the will refusing to bee ordered by God and desiring what hee would not haue it should finde the inferiour faculties rebellious and inclined to desire things the will would haue to bee declined It remaineth therefore that wee proceede to proue that this doctrine was receiued taught continued in the Churches wherein our Fathers liued died till after Luthers time I haue shewed already that Gregorius Ariminensis professeth that Adam in the state of his creation was not inabled to perform any acte morally good or so to doe any good thing as not to sin in doing it by any thing in nature without addition of grace which thing he proveth out of the master of the sentences whose words are these speaking of the first man before his fall Egebat itaque homo gratiâ non vt liberaret voluntatem suam quae peccati serva non fuerat sed vt praepararet ad volendum efficaciter bonum quod per se non poterat That is The first man needed grace not to free his will for it neuer had been in bondage but to prepare and fit it effectually to will that which is good which of it selfe it could not doe And he confirmeth the same out of Saint August his words are these Istam gratiam non habuit homo primus quâ nunquam vellet esse malus sed habuit in qua si permanere vellet nunquam malus esset sine quâ etiam cum libero arbitrio bonus esse non posset sed eam tamen per liberum arbitrium deserere posset nec ipsum ergo Deus esse voluit sine suâ gratiâ quem reliquit in eius libero arbitrio quoniam liberum arbitrium ad malum sufficit ad bonum auâ—…m parumest nisi adiuuetur ab omnipotenti bono quod adiutorium si homo ille per liberum non deseruisset arbitrium semper esset bonus sed deseruit et desertus est that is The first man had not that grace that might make him so will good as neuer to become euill but truely hee had that wherein if hee would haue continued hee should neuer haue bin euill and without which notwithstanding all the freedome of his will he could not be good yet by the freedome of his will he might loose it wherefore God would not haue him to be without his grace whom he left in the freedome of his will because free will is sufficient of it selfe to doe evill but it is of litle force or rather as the true reading is of no force nothing to do good vnlesse it be holpeÌ„ of the omnipotent good which helpe if maÌ„ had not forsakeÌ„ by his free will he had ever beene good but he forsooke it and was forsaken Thirdly he proueth the same in this sort Si Adam ante peccatum potuisset per suas vires naturales praecise agere actum moraliter bonum ipse potuisset facere se de non bono bonum posito quod aliquando fuisset sine omni actu voluntatis cum suis taÌ„tum naturalibus aut de bono meliorem deo illum non specialiter adiuvante that is If Adam had power before the
this body they would all crye out with a loud voice If we say we haue no sinne wee deceiue our selues and there is no trueth in vs. Gregorius Ariminensis noteth that Augustine speaketh not of originall sin but actuall and that this ample grace to ouercome sinne was not giuen her till the spirit ouer-shadowed her and the power of the most High came vpon her that shee might conceiue and beare him that neuer knew sinne so that before shee might commit sinne which yet hee will not affirme because the moderne Doctours for the most part thinke otherwise so intimating that all did not And surely the wordes of Augustin doe not import that shee had no sinne but that shee ouercame it which argueth a conflict neither doth hee say he will acknowledge shee was without sinne but that hee will not moue any question touching her in this dispute of sinnes and sinners So passing by the point and not willing to enter into this dispute with the Pelagian who conceiued it would be plausible for him to pleade for the puritie of the Mother of our Lord and disgracefull for any one to except against her By that which hath beene said it appeareth that the Church of God neuer resolued any thing touching the birth of the blessed Virgin without sinne nor whether shee were free from all actuall sinne or not If happily it bee alleadged that the Church celebrated the Feast of her nativitie and therefore beleeued that shee was borne without sinne First touching the celebration of this Feast it is evident that it was not auncient That it was not in the dayes of Saint Augustine as some imagine because on that day there is read in the Church a Sermon of Saint Augustines touching the solemnitie of that day it is proued out of Saint Augustine himselfe for in his 21 Sermon de sanctis he hath these wordes Wee celebrate this day the birth-day of Iohn the Baptist which honour wee neuer read to haue beene giuen to any of the Saints Solius enim Domini beati Ioannis dies nativitatis in universo mundo celebratur colitur That is For the birth-day of our Lord onely and of Iohn the Baptist is celelebrated kept holy throughout the whole world illum enim sterilis peperit illum virgo concepit in Elizabetha sterilitas vincitur in beatâ Mariâ conceptionis consuetudo mutatur That is A woman that was barren bare the one and a virgin the other in Elizabeth barrennes is ouercome in blessed Mary the ordinary course of conceiuing is changed And in his 20 â—h sermon hee hath these words Post illum sacrosanctum Domini natalis diem nullius hominum nativitatem legimus celebrari nisi solius beati Ioannis Baptistae In aliis sanctis electis Dei novimus illum diem coli quo illos post consummationem laborum devictum triumphatumque mundum in perpetuas aeternitates praesens haec vita parturit In aliis consummata vltimi diei merita celebrantur in hoc etiam prima dies ipsa etiam hominis initia consecrantur pro hac absque dubio causà quia per hunc Dominus adventum suum ne subito homines insperatum non agnoscerent voluit esse testatum That is After that most sacred day of the birth of our Lord wee reade not that the nativity of any one amongst men is celebrated but of Iohn the Baptist onely touching other Saints and other the chosen of God wee know that that day is celebrated in which after the consummation of their labours after their victories and triumphs ouer the world this present life bringeth them forth to begin to liue for euer In others the consummate vertues of the last day are celebrated in this the first day and the beginnings of the man are consecrated for this cause no doubt because the Lord would haue his comming made knowen to the world by him least if his comming had not beene expected and looked for it might happily not haue beene acknowledged Neither doth the reading of the sermon of Saint Augustine on that day pertayning to the solemnity of the day proue that this day was kept holy before his time for as Baronius sheweth the sermon was fitted originally to the solemnity of the feast of the Annunciation the words were these Let our land reioyce illustrated with the solemne day of so great a virgine which are altered and read in the breviarie in this sorte Let our land rejoyce illustrated by the birth day of so great a virgin And it is evident by the councell of Mentz holden in the time of Charles the great in the yeare 813 that this feast was not celebrated in the Church of Germany and France in those times As likewise it appeareth by the constitutions of Charles and Ludovicus Pius Secondly the celebrating of the birth-day of the blessed virgine will no more proue that shee was borne without all sinne then that Iohn the Baptist was so borne concerning whom Bernard sayth hee knoweth he was sanctified before he came out of the wombe but how farre this sanctification freed him from sinne hee dareth not say or define any thing Thus wee see that the Church wherein our Fathers liued and died was a Protestant Church in these poynts touching the conception birth of the blessed virgine aswell as in the former CHAP. 7. Of the punishment of originall sinne and of Limbus puerorum BEllarmine sheweth that there are foure opinions in the Roman Church touching the punishment of originall sinne and the state of infants dying vnregenerate for Ambrosius Catharinus in his booke of the state of children dying vnbaptized Albertus Pighius in his first controversie and Savanarola in hâ—…s booke of the triumph of the crosse doe teach that infants dying without baptisme shall after the iudgement enioy a kinde of naturall happinesse and liue happily for euer as it were in a certaine earthly paradise howsoeuer for the present they goe downe into those lower parts of the earth which are called Limbus puerorum These men suppose that infants incurre no staine or infection by Adams sinne but that for his offence being denyed the benefit of supernaturall grace which would haue made them capable of heauen happines they are found in a state of meere nature in which as they cannot come to heauen so they are subiect to no euili that may cause them to sorrow For though they see that happines in heaven whereof they had a possibility yet they no more greiue that they haue not attained it then innumerable men doe that they are not Kings and Emperours as well as others of which honours they were capable as well as they in that they were men The second opinion is that infants dying in the state of originall sinne not remitted are excluded from the sight of God and condemned to the prison house of the infernall dwellings for euer so that they suffer the punishment of losse but
leaue any thing though never so deare vnto vs if wee should vnderstand that wee must either leaue it or not come into favour with God It is true sayth Vega that wee may know all these things but because there may bee some sinne that wee thinke not of thorough forgetfulnes ignorance or want of consideration from which if wee depart not we cannot obtaine the fauour of God therefore we cannot certainly know whether wee be so disposed as is required for the receipt of grace But this is a silly allegation for Roffensis adversus Lutherum artic 14. sayth Ignoratio peccatorum nihil obstat quo minus quisquam vere conteri posset nisi velis cavillum ex vocabulo quaerere neque enim dubito quin Maria Magdalena verè contrita fuerat quam si Christus interrogasset an verè fuisset contrita potuit respondisse se verè contritam esse verèque doluisse pro peccatis nec tamen est credibile quod singula peccata quae prius in tot vanitatibus suis admisit integre venerint in ejus memoriam Sed omittamus hanc quae singulare poenitudinis exemplar fuerat de communibus loquamur peccatoribus Num aliquot ex his opinaris ad sacramentum absolutionis accedere cum vero dolore Num eos usque adeo stupidos arbitraris ut non sentiant an verè non fictè doleant Quod si conscientia fuerit ijs judex quod verè doleant cur te quaeso respondere non licet se verè dolere Quid huic rei peccatorum obsistit ignoratio cùm pro cunctis dolere possint tam ignoratis quam cognitis Nam qui damni perpendit immensitatem quod ex peccato conquisivit is odiet facile peccatum detestabitur tam in alijs quam in seipso neque minus id quod occultum est quam quod est agnitum So that we may reason thus If a man sorrow or sorrow not for sinne or not for the true causes or not so much as he should either hee may know when he doth right and when he faileth or not If he may then a man may know when he is in such a disposition as is required in him that is to be justified If he may not then he hath no power to sorrow or to sorrow in this or that sort For no maÌ„ hath power to do that act that he knoweth not how to do neither doth any man know how to doe a thing but he knoweth likewise when he doth the same thing whether he doe so or not If he haue no power to sorrow for sinne or to sorrow so and in such sort as he should then God hath commanded things impossible to bee done Impossible I say in respect both of Nature and grace They will say a man knoweth when he sorroweth rightly for each particular sinne but not when for all in generall But against this as before if he knowe how rightly to sorrow for all then he knoweth when he doth so but he knoweth how rightly to sorrow for all If he know not rightly how to sorrow for all then he cannot rightly sorrow for all If hee cannot rightly sorrow for all then either God hath not commaunded so to doe or hee hath commaunded impossibilities if he haue not commaunded vs in this sort to sorrow for all then for none for wee cannot rightly sorrow for one vnlesse wee sorrow for all for if wee might we might haue remission of one and not of another then wee might be in the state of saluation damnation together Vega having debated the matter alleadging the objections and answeares of both sides for and against the certainty of grace in the end concludeth that hauing maturely considered all that is sayd on either side hee thinketh it more probable that some spirituall men may so farre profitte in spirituall exercise and in diuine familiarity that without all rashnes they may beleeue certainely and without all doubting that they haue found grace and remission of sinnes with God and bringeth many excellent proofes of that his saying As that the law of friendship requireth so much for it cannot bee that one friend should not powre forth his very soule to another And that familiaritie and exceeding loue that the Canticles shew that God beareth towards his Church and somtimes sheweth to it make it evident there are alwayes some to whom God speaketh so familiarly that they are certaine and no way doubt of his loue Besides the resolution and securitie with which many of the Saints of God goe out of this world that ardent desire quo charitas cum perfecta fuerit clamat Cupio dissolui esse cum Christo illa laetitia quâ permulti exultant dum intelligentes sibi propinquum esse diem mortis dicunt cum Davide Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi in domum Domini ibimus Alacritas etiam admiranda constantia Martyrum despicientia omnium tormentorum are a sufficient proofe of this they would neuer doe so that doubted of their estate Ambrose in Ps. 118. Videmus in saeculo innocentes laetos ad iudicium festinare odisse moras celeritatem affectare iudicij Beatus itaque ille qui coeleste judicium laetus expectat scit enim sibi regnum coelorum Angelorum consortium coronam quoque bonorum repositam esse meritorum And Catharinus in his purgation of himselfe sheweth the same in the examples of many Saints Such confidence Ezechias may bee thought to haue had 2. Reg. 12. when he prayed thus Remember Lord how I haue walked before thee c where this his prayer is approued by Gods answeare I haue heard thy prayer c. The testimonie of the spirit seemeth to require vt aliquibus saltem viris perfectis spiritualibus hoc ipsum de adoptione in particulari semper contestetur interius vt quilibet iustorum ex eo testimonio verè possitaudacter clamare Abba pater Et verbum istud spiritui nostro huc videtur nos vocare inflectere Cumque illud testimonium quicquid sit de intelligentiâ Pauli dubium non sit vt sancti doctores saepe tradiderunt persaepe interius exhiberi à spiritu sancto loquente interius familiarissime cum his qui ei toto corde famulantur consentaneum non est neque verisimile quin aliquando ita sese illis aperiat vt omnem abigat forâ—…dinem de ipsorum poenitentiâ eorum iustificatione praesertim cum teste Paulo ad hoc detur nobis vt sciamus quae nobis à Deo sunt donata This certainty hee calleth morall distinguisheth it from the certainty of â—…aith that he may avoyd the decree of the councell of Trent and yet saith it excludeth all doubt and feare of the being otherwise of that he is thus certaine of and saith if any man will name this a certainty of faith hee will not striue The difference hee maketh betweene them is this
is in himselfe and maketh vs already to beginne to tast the sweetnesse of so great and happy an vnion is not only true but Diuine and Heauenly such as nature could not teach vs but is to be learned onely of God himselfe It being presupposed in the generalily that the doctrine of the Christian faith is of God and containeth nothing but heauenly truth in the next place we are to inquire by what rule wee are to iudge of particular things contained within the compasse of it This rule is first the summary comprehension of such principall articles of this diuine knowledge as are the principles whence all other things are concluded and inferred These are contained in the creed of the Apostles Secondly all such things as every Christian is bound expressely to beleeue by the light direction whereof he iudgeth of other things which are not absolutely necessary soe particularly to be knowne These are rightly sayd to bee the rule of our faith because the principles of euery science are the rule whereby wee iudge of the truth of all things as being better and more generally knowne then any other thing and the cause of knowing them Thirdly the Analogie due proportion and correspondence that one thing in this diuiue knowledge hath with another soe that men cannot erre in one of them without erring in another nor rightly vnderstand one but they must likewise rightly conceiue the rest Fourthly whatsoeuer bookes were deliuered vnto vs as written by them to whom the first and immediate reuelation of diuine truth was made Fiftly whatsoeuer hath been deliuered by all the Saints with one consent which haue left their iudgment and opinion in writing Sixtly whatsoeuer the most famous haue constantly and vniformely delivered as a matter of faith no man contradicting though many other Ecclesiasticall writers be silent and say nothing of it Seuenthly that which the most and most famous in euery age constantly deliuered as matter of faith and as receiued of them that went before them in such sort that the contradictors and gainsayers wâ—…re in their beginnings noted for singularity nouelty and diuision and afterwards in processe of time if they persisted in such contradiction charged with heresie These three latter rules of our faith we admit not because they are equall with the former originally in themselues containe the direction of our faith but because nothing can be deliuered with such and so full consent of the people of God as in them is expressed but it must needes bee from those first Authors and founders of our Christian profession The Romanists adde vnto these the decrees of Councels and determinations of Popes making these also to bee the rules of faith but because we haue no proofe of their infallibility we number them not with the rest Thus then we see how many things in seuerall degrees and sorts are said to be rules of our faith The infinite excellency of God as that whereby the truth of the heauenly doctrine is proued The articles of faith and other verities euer expressely knowne in the Church as the first principles are the canon by which we judge of conclusions from thence inferred The Scripture as containing in it all that doctrine of faith which Christ the Sonne of GOD deliuered The vniforâ—…e practice and consenting judgement of them that went before vs as a 〈◊〉 and vndoubted explication of the things contayned in the Scripture The Scripture saith Vincentius Lirinensis is full and sufficient to all purposes but because of the manifold turnings of heretiques it is necessary that the line of Propheticall and Apostolicall interpretation be drawnâ—…â—…owne and directed vnto vs according to the rule of Ecclesiasticall and Catholique sense So then we doe not so make the Scripture the rule of our faith but that other things in their kinde are rules likewise in such sort that it is not safe without respect had vnto them to judge of things by the Scripture alone For without the first rule we cannot know the Scripture to be of God Without the second and third we haue no forme of Christian doctrine by the direction whereof to judge of particular doubts and questions without the other rules wee cannot know the authors and number of the Bookes of Scripture nor the meaning of the things therein written For who shal be able to vnderstand them but hee that is settledin these things which the Apostles presupposed in their deliuery of the Scripture We doe not therefore so make the Scripture the rule of our faith as to neglect the other nor so admit the other as to detract any thing from the plenitude of the Scripture in which all things are contained that must bee beleeued CHAP. 15. Of the challenge of Papists against the rule of Scripture charging it with obscurity and imperfection THis rule our adversaries least esteeme of charging it with obscurity and imperfection and thereupon rely vpon humane interpretations and vncertaine traditions Touching their first challenge made against this rule of the scripture as being obscure and darke and so not fit to giue direction to our faith vnlesse it borrow light from some thing else wee aunswere there is no question but there are manifold difficulties in the scripture proceeding partly from the high and excellent nature of the things therein contained which are without the compasse of naturall vnderstanding and so are wholly hidden from naturall men and not knowne of them that are spirituall without much trauaile and studious meditation partly out of the ignorance of tongues and of the nature of such things by the coÌ„parison whereof the matters of divine knowledge are manifested vnto vs. But the difference betweene their opinion and ours concerning this difficultie is first in that they thinke the scripture so obscure and hard to be vnderstood that Heretiques may wrest and abuse it at their pleasures and no man be able to convince their folly by the evidence of the Scripture it selfe Secondly in that they thinke that wee cannot by any helpes bee assured out of the Scripture it selfe and the nature of the things therein contayned that that is the true meaning of it which wee thinke to be but that we rest in it onely for the authority of the Church But wee say that men not neglecting that light of direction which the Church yeeldeth nor other helpes and meanes may be assured out of the nature of the things themselues the conference of places the knowledge of tongues and the sutable correspondence that one part of diuine truth hath with another that they haue found out the true meaning of it and so be able to convince the adversaries and gainesayers CHAP. 16. Of the interpretation of Scripture and to whom it pertayneth TOuching this poynt there are two questions vsually proposed the one to whom the interpretation of the Scripture pertaineth the other by what rules and meanes men may finde out tâ—…e true meaning of it Tâ—…ching the first our Adversaries jangle
meant well then in the thing it self That Caluin erred not in the thing it selfe he deliuered he proueth at large specially out of the doctrin of Caluins followers for Beza in axiom de trin in the 14 axiom affirmeth that the Son is frō the Father by ineffable cōmunication of the whole diuine Essence Iosias Simlerus in his epistle to the Polonians defendeth the opinion of Calvine and expresseth his owne opinion Calvins in this sort Non negamus filium habere essentiam à patre sed essentiam genitam negamus that is we doe not deny the Son to haue receiued his Essence from the Father but that his Essence is generated This doctrine of Simlerus why it should not be Catholique Bellarmine professeth he cannot see yet his fellowes in all their Pamphlets traduce Calvins Autotheisme as an execrable heresie and muster the Autotheani as they call them amongst the damned Heretickes of this time which is not to bee marvailed at for the manner of these men is odiously to object things againe and againe that haue beene often cleared both by themselues and vs litle regarding whether it bee true or false they say so they may fasten some note of disgrace vpon them whose persons and professions they hate One memorable example of hellish impudencie in this kinde worthy neuer to bee forgotten but to be remembred and recorded to the shame and reproofe of the slaundering Sect of Papists we haue in Mathew Kellison his late Survey of the new Religion who to proue that the Protestants contemne the Fathers affirmeth that Beza called Athanasius that worthy Champion of the Catholique faith Sathanasius and judged the Fathers of the Nicene Councell to haue beene blinde Sophisters ministers of the Beast and slaues of Antichrist whereas Beza esteemeth of Athanasius as one of the worthiest Divines that the World for many ages had in whose lap and bosome our wearied Mother the Church in her greatest distresses forsaken of her owne children was forced to repose and lay her head in those restlesse and confused turmoyles during the time of the Arrian heresie and professeth that he thinketh the Sunne in Heauen neuer beheld a more sacred and diuine assembly or meeting then that of the Nicene Fathers since the Apostles times yea he pronounceth that there was neuer any found to resist against the proceedings and decrees of that Councell but their wofull and vnhappy ends made it appeare to all the World they were fighters against God and condemneth the Arrians as execrable miscreants to the pit of hell for vsing those words wherewith this Surveyour chargeth him Wherefore let the Reader beware how without due examination he giue credite to the sinister reports of these lewde companions who haue sold themselues not onely to speake lies but to write them and leaue them vpon record to all posterity But let vs see whether Caluin haue not erred at least in the forme of words and ill expressed that he meant well as Bellarmine chargeth him Surely we shall finde if wee take a view of that which Caluin hath written that the Cardinals reprehension of him in this behalfe is most vnjust for Epiphanius a worthy Bishop and great Diuine writing against heresies and therefore endeavouring to be most exact in his formes of speech calleth the Sonne of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as Caluine doth It is true saith Bellarmine he doth so but when he saith Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he meaneth onely that hee is truely God whereas Caluin affirmeth that he is so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that hee is God of himselfe which is false for neither the Father nor the Son is God of himselfe the Sonne being of the Father and the Father of none because he receiueth being from none as if it were so strange a thing to say God is of himselfe or as if it were all one for a thing to be of it selfe and to be produced or to receiue being of or from it selfe Omne ens saith Scaliger aut est à se aut ab alio that is euery thing that hath being either is of it selfe or of another Cuius rationi saith Scotus simpliciter repugnat esse ab alio illud si potest esse potest esse â se sed rationi primi effectiui repugnat esse ab alio ergo potest esse à se ergo est à se quia quod non est à se non potest esse à se quia tunc non ens produceret aliquid ad esse idem causaret se ita non erit incausabile omnino That thing with the nature and condition whereof it cannot stand to be of or from another if it may be at all it may be of it selfe but it standeth not with the nature and condition of the first efficient cause to be of or from another therefore it may be nay therefore it is of it selfe because that which is not of it selfe cannot afterwards be of it selfe For then a thing not being might cause a thing to be yea the same might be the cause of it selfe and soe the highest and first cause of all things might haue a cause giuing beeing vnto it which is impossible These men feared not to speake as Caluine speaketh and yet I thinke Bellarmine dareth not reprehend them also as he doth Caluine but if hee do I suppose the world will thinke they knewe how to speake as properly as hee Thus then we see the Son of God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is God of himselfe that yet he receiued his essence frō the Father but the same that was in the Father not another caused made or produced by him and that soe he was a Mediator in the state of creation between God and his Creatures in that hee was of a middle condition betweene him that no way was of any other and those things that by another were made and produced out of nothing knitting and ioyning them together in an indissoluble band and that in this respect he was fittest to become Man and to be a Mediator of reconciliation when betweene God and his creatures there was not onely a great distance as before but a great diuision difference and breach also CHAP. 12. Of the manner of the vnion that is betweene the Person of the Sonne of God and our nature in Christ and the similitudes brought to expresse the same WHerefore let vs proceede to see how the natures of God and Man were vnited in Christ and what kinde of vnion it was that made God to become Man Man God For the clearing hereofthe Diuines do note that there is Vnum per vnitatē Vnū per vnionē that is that sometimes a thing is said to be one by vnity or Onenes sometimes by vniō Vnum per vnitatē est illud in quo non est multitudo quod scilicet nō est in multis nec ex multis that is That thing is
feare of death rising againe he might restore vnto vs the hope of glorification he would not goe any other way because we could not go any other way we would but could not he could but would not Quia sialiter iuisset pervenisset sed non subvenisset that is because if hee had gone any other way hee might haue entred in himselfe but could not haue brought vs in with him There is nothing therefore that Christ gained to himselfe by his passion but that hee was made an example of suffering to all that beleeue in him a cause of glorification to all them that suffer with him that they may bee glorified with him but what did this profite him He went before wee all follow him whose good is this I finde men out of the way I goe before them to shew them the way all follow mee what doth it profite me I knew the way and could haue gone it by my selfe alone Sed non esset causa pergendi nisi compassio esset subveniendi that is but there were no cause of my going if the compassionate consideration of such as know not the way did not moue me by going before them to be a guide vnto thē Thus then we say that Christ merited nothing for himself not because we would detract any thing frō him for he did things worthy of most ample rewards if there had beene any thing hee had not already that might haue been giuen added to him or that hee had not already a just claime vnto but because we admire his perfection which was so great from the beginning that nothing could be after added vnto it and praise his goodnesse that came into this world for our sakes onely and not for his owne good Wherefore let vs proceed to see how and in what sort he merited for vs. In the merit of Christ 2 things are to be considered The worth of those actions workes of vertue which hee performed the dignity of his Diuine Infinite Person performing them Touching the former though the actions of the best men that euer were done in the state of grace proceeding frō the working of Gods Spirit be not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed yet we constantly affirme teach that the actions of Christ done in his humane nature were worthy of that glory and therefore dare not deny that Christ merited for vs ex condigno as some of the Schoolemen doe But for the better clearing of this point touching the merite of Christ wee must obserue that to merite simply absolutely properly so named foure things concurre For first he that will merite or deserue any thing at anothers mans hand must do somthing that the other had no former claime vnto Secondly hee must doe something that may be beneficiall good vnto him of whom hee desireth to deserue something Thirdly he must doe something that may bee beneficiall in as high a degree vnto him as he looketh to be benefited by him againe And fourthly hee must not hurt wrong him as much one way as he benefiteth him another for if he doe so he loseth all merit of reward These being the things required to the nature of Merite strictly so named no creature can in this sort merit any thing at Gods hand seeing there is nothing that any creature can doe which God may not justly claime challenge as due in respect of good already done to it or whereby it may any way benefite or profite him according to that in Iob that Our righteousnesse reacheth not vnto God Yet such is the goodnesse of Almighty God towards his poore creatures that as if hee had no claime to their well doings in respect of benefits already bestowed on them and as if they were as good and beneficiall to him as they are good in them selues seeking in all his workes to communicate and not to receiue any good in the day he made them hee couenanted with them to giue them rewards answerable to the worth of their actions which gracious condescending of Almighty God to the condition of his creatures presupposed Adam in the state of his innocencie and before he fell might haue meritted and deserued good at Gods hands but the best men in the world since his fall are excluded from all possibility of meriting any thing especially heauen-happinesse properly of him first because they haue lost all that power of well doing which originally in the state of their creation they had and canne performe nothing that is good vnlesse it be giuen vnto them by a newe free gift for which they shall rather be indebted to God then any vvay binde him vnto them Secondly because they offend him as much one vvay as they please him another And thirdly because there is no equality betweene the good actions of vertue vvhich they performe and do and the revvards that are layd vp in heauen neither in totall perpetuall and constant doing of that they do nor in the manner quality and measure thereof the height of heauen-happinesse incomparably exceeding all other knowledge and desire according to that of the Apostle The eye hath not seene the eare hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man what things God hath prepared for them that loue him But none of these things exclude Christ from meriting in the nature of Man which he assumed for he brought the fulnesse of grace with himinto the world it was Naturall unto him He no way offended or displeased God his Father and there was a perfect equality betweene his actions and the rewards of Heauen in that he loued God with that kind degree and measure of loue wherewith men loue him in heauen ardently without defect entirely and totally without distraction perpetually without intermission and constantly without possibility of euer ceasing so to do Wherefore let vs passe from the worth and value of those workes of vertue that Christ performed to the consideration of the dignity of his diuine and infinite Person performing them Which dignity and infinity of the Person of Christ to which nothing could be added made the things he did to promerite and to procure good to others and to infinite other Christus sayth a learned Schoole-man meruit omnibus quantum fuit ex sufficientiâ sui pro eo quod in ipso fuit gratia non sicut in singulari homine sed sicut in capite totius Ecclesiae propter quod fructus passionis eius redundare potuit in omnia Ecclesiae membra quia vt dicit Damascenus ratione vnitatis Diuinitatis cum humanitate Christus operatur ea quae sunt hominis supra hominē operatio eius extendebat se ad totam naturam quod non potest operatio puri hominis Huius diuersitatis ratio reducenda est non in habitualem aliquam gratiam creatam sed increatam quod pro multis sufficit finita gratia haec sufficientia est ex
excommunication they may restraine from vse of Sacraments societie of Beleeuers and benefite of the Churches praiers so by Absolution they may free from all these bonds againe Neither is this kinde of binding and loosing lightly to bee esteemed of or little regarded for he that for his contempt and disobedience is debarred from the vfe of the Sacraments from enjoying the societie of the beleeuers and partaking in the benefite of the Churches prayers is vndoubtedly excluded from all accesse to the Throne of grace in Heauen all acceptation there so consequently no lesse bound in Heauen then in Earth and he that is vnloosed from these bonds on Earth is vnloosed and set free in Heauen that without all restraint he may goe boldly to the Throne of Grace to seeke helpe in the time of neede Thus wee see the diuerse kindes of binding and loosing that the Guides of Gods Church haue power and authority by Lawes and precepts censures and punishments to binde those that are committed to their care and trust and when they see cause by reuersing such Lawes and precepts wholly or in part and by diminishing releasing taking away such censures and punishments to vnty them and set them free againe The bond of Diuine Lawes they may no otherwise meddle with then by letting them know who are so bound how straightly they are tyed The bonds of sinne and punishments by Diuine Iustice to be inflicted they haue no power and authoritie to vnloose but they concurre as helpers to the vnloosing of them by the Ministery of the Word vvinning and persvvading men to convert vnto God to cast their sinnes from them and by the Sacraments instrumentally communicating vnto them the grace of repentant conversion and the assurance of remission and pardon In all these kindes of binding and loosing the Apostles were equall seeing our Aduersaries themselues confessing they had the same power of Order and jurisdiction in like extent within the compasse whereof all these kinds of binding and loosing are confined Wherefore let vs proceede to speake of the power of remitting and retaining sinnes giuen to the Apostles by Christ our Sauiour To remit sinne properly is nothing else but to resolue not to punish sinne and therefore hee onely may properly be sayd to remit sinne that hath power to punish it Now as sinne is committed against the prescript of God our Conscience and Men in authority soe GOD the conscience of the Sinner and the Magistrate and Minister haue power to punish sinne GOD with punishments temporall and eternall of this life and that which is to come the Conscience with remorse the Magistrate with death banishment Confiscation of goods imprisonment and the like and the guides of the Church with suspension excommunication degradation and such other censures Hence it followeth that GOD onely is sayd properly to remitte the punishments that his justice doth inflict that the conscience onely vpon repentance canne take away that bitter and aflictiue punishment of remorse wherewith shee is wont to torment and disquiet the minde of the offendour and that the Magistrate and Minister onely haue power to take away those punishments that in their seuerall courses they may and doe inflict Notwithstanding the Minister by the Word perswading men to repentance procuring remission and out of his prudent obseruation of the parties conuersion vnto GOD assuring him that it will goe well vvith him as also by the Sacrament instrumentally communicating to him as well the grace of repentant conuersion as of free remission that soe hee may heare the very sound and voyce of GOD in mercy saying to the heart and spirit of the repentant Sinner I am thy Saluation may bee sayd in a sort to remitte sinne euen in that it is an offence against GOD not by way of authority and power but by winning and perswading the sinner to that conuersion which obtaineth remission from GOD and by the Sacrament instrumentally making him partaker as well of the grace of remission of sinne from GOD as of conuersion from sinne to GOD. There are but foure things in the hand of the Minister the Word Prayer Sacraments and Discipline By the word of Doctrine hee frameth winneth and perswadeth the sinner to repentant conuersion seeking and procuring remission from God By Prayer he seeketh and obtaineth it for the sinner By Sacraments he instrumentally maketh him partaker as well of the grace of remission as conuersion And by the power of Discipline he doth by way of authority punish euill doings and remit or diminish the punishments he inflicteth according as the condition of the party may seeme to require By that which hath beene sayd it appeareth that to bind and loose to remit to retaine sins are equiualent the same saue that to bind and loose is of more ample large extent in that it implyeth in it the binding by precepts lawes the loosing which is by reversing or dispensing with the same And therefore hauing shewed that the Apostles were equall in the power ofbinding and loosing we need ad no farther proofe that they were equall in power of remitting retaining sins Wherefore let vs proceede to the promise of Christ made to Peter that vpon the Rocke mentioned by him he would build his Church and let vs see whether any peculiar thing were promised vnto Peter in that behalfe The Church of God we know is compared in Scripture to a City an House and a Temple and therefore the beginning proceeding and increasing of the same is rightly compared to building Now in building there must be a foundation vpon which all may rest and stay that is put into the same building and the foundation must be sure firme immoueable for otherwise it wall faile and so alll other parts of the building wanting their stay will fall to the ground Now nothing is so firme sure and immoueable as a Rocke and consequently no building so strōg as that which is raised vpon a rockie foundation wherevpon our Sauiour sheweth that a House builded on the sand is easily ruinated soone shaken to pieces but that an House builded vpon a rocke standeth firme notwithstanding the furie and violence of the flouds winds and tempests and compareth a Man rightly grounded and established in his perswasion and resolution to an house so built By a Rocke therefore in this place is meant a sure foundation that will not faile nor be moued or shaken how great a weight soeuer be laid vpon it In a foundation there are three things required The first is that it bee the first thing in the building the second that it beare vp all the other parts of the building the third that it be firme and immoueable For as Christ saith If the eye that is the light of the bodie be darknesse how great is that Darknesse So if that which is to support and beare vp all doe faile shrinke all must needs be shaken and fall a
the Greeke or Easterne Bishops and consequently of all the world For the better manifesting of the bad dealing of the Cardinall in alledging this testimony I will briefly set downe all the most materiall and principall circumstances of the narration of the most vniust deposition of Chrysostome that worthy and renowned Bishop of Constantinople Thus therefore the case stood There arose a question in the Churches of Aegypt whether God were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is had the shape of a man Some of the simpler sort of Monkes thought that God hath a bodily forme or shape others thought otherwise and condemned such as so thought as blasphemous Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria was of opinion that GOD is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is that God hath no bodily shape or forme which the Monkes that thought otherwise greatly disliking came to Alexandria with a full purpose to kill and destroy him as a wicked and godlesse person But he perceiuing their affection presented himselfe speedily vnto them saying I haue seene you and looked vpon you as vpon the face of God and thereby pacified them for the present supposing he had beene of their opinion and had thought God to haue a face and countenance like man But afterwards hauing vpon some dislikes excommunicated Isidorus a Presbyter of his Church Isidorus goeth to the Monkes and thereupon Ammonius with certaine other come to Theophilus desiring him to receiue such to the communion as hee had excommunicated which he promised to doe but performed not Hereupon farther quarrels grew and Theophilus perceiuing that these Monkes were in opinion contrary to the Anthropomorphites ioyned himselfe with the Anthropomorphites and intended some ill to the other whereupon Ammonius Dioscorus and Isidore came to Constantinople and desired that the Emperour and Chrysostome might heare the matter between them Chrysostome vsed them kindly and suffered them to be present at the common prayers but admitted them not to the communion he wrote to Theophilus to restore them to the communion as being right beleeuers and desired him if he thought fitte to haue their cause heard and examined at Constantinople to send some to follow the businesse for him Whereunto Theophilus returned no answere which moued the complainants to sue to the Empresse that a Councell might be called which shee promised to procure but in the meane while there being a rumor raised that Chrysostome had received Dioscorus and the rest to the communion and that he sought to steed them what hee could Theophilus enraged against him beganne to devise how hee might put him from his Bishopricke To this purpose he writeth to sundry Bishops reprehending the bookes of Origen wherein the errour of the Anthropomorphites was condemned Amongst other he drew into his faction by this means Epiphanius a man erring in that point but otherwise of great authority for his good life and learning Epiphanius calleth a Synode of the Bishops of Cyprus condemneth the bookes of Origen forbiddeth the reading of them and perswadeth other and amongst them the Bishop of Constantinople to doe the like Theophilus likewise followed his example and with his Bishops passed the like decree but Chrysostome neglected the matter which offended Epiphanius and Theophilus not a little Hereupon many of the great ones in Constantinople and of the Clergy also hating Chrysostome perceiuing that Theophilus was bent against him vrged him to goe forward and procured a great Synode to be called at Constantinople which opportunity he neglected not commanding the Bishops of Aegypt to goe thither and writing to Epiphanius and the rest of the Easterne Bishops to come thither Epiphanius accordingly came thither shewed himselfe auerse from Chrysostome and would neither come into the same house nor pray with him though hee sought him with great respect Wherevpon after a while Epiphanius in great dislike departed from Constantinople at the parting of these Bishops the one of them saying he hoped the other should neuer returne home the other that he should neuer dye a Bishop both which fell out accordingly for Epiphanius dyed by the way as he was returning home and Chrysostome cast out of his Bishopricke dyed in banishment After the departing of Epiphanius Chrysostome made a Sermon in reproofe and reprehension of women which so moued and enraged the Empresse that shee complained bitterly to her husband and vrged him to cause Theophilus to come quickly and to hold a Councell which accordingly he did Chrysostome was called to come into the Synode but he answered that he refused not judgement but desired to know his accusers and what crimes he was charged with and protested against these Iudges as partiall appealing to a Generall Councell whereupon he was deposed Three dayes after he withdrew himselfe which put the people into an vproare who stirring in very tumultuous manner forced the Emperour to bring him backe againe and caused him to take his chaire againe thirtie Bishops bringing him to it Heere beganne a new quarrell for that being deposed by a Synode hee resumed his place without a Synode but the matter was reasonably well quieted till reprehending those in authority for permitting certaine abuses the Empresse thinking her selfe touched beganne againe to thinke how she might procure another greater Councell to bee called then before which Chrysostome vnderstanding made that Sermon that beginneth Herodias denuò insanire denuò commoveri denuò saltare pergit denuò caput Ioannis in disco accipere quaerit that is Herodias proceedeth and goeth on to be mad againe to be moued and stirred againe and to daunce againe shee seekes once againe to haue the head of Iohn in a platter It was not long after the preaching of this Sermon before the Bishops came together and met in Synode by the procurement of the Empresse who omitting all other things objected vnto him the resuming of his place without a Synode He answered that there were 50 Bishops that consented to him and communicated with him But they replyed that there were more that condemned him and that therefore by the Canon he ought not to haue resumed his place To whom he answered that that was a Canon of the Arrians made by them when they proceeded against Athanasius and therefore not to bee regarded But that answer would not serue the turne wherefore they proceeded to sentence against him and put him out of his Bishopricke and the Emperour immediatly sent him into banishment Being in this distresse and thus grieuously wronged he writeth to Innocentius and the Westerne Bishops desiring them to doe what they can to represse these vile practises to write that the things done against him be of no force as indeede they are not and that hee might still hold communion with them as before he had done The Bishop of Rome vpon this his suite called a Synode of all the Bishops of the West held both Theophilus and Chrysostome in their communion pronounced the judgement of Theophilus his proceedings against Chrysostome to be voide
neede sent vnto them Germanus and Lupus Bishops and brethren defenders of the Catholicke faith who cleared the I le from the Pelagian heresie and confirmed it in the faith both by the word of truth signes and miracles Besides this condemnation of Palagius by the French Britaines there were sundry Councels holden to condemne both him his wicked heresies in Palestina at Carthage at Mileuise and at Arausicum and it is most certaine that the Church of GOD and all posterities are more bound to Saint Augustine for clearing the points of doctrine questioned by the Pelagians then to any Bishop of Rome whatsoeuer So that it is most vntrue that the Pelagians were condemned onely by the Bishop of Rome for other were as forward in that businesse as he yea the Africans were more forward then the Romanes and drew them into the fellowship of the same worke with themselues The like may be said of the Priscillianistes for it is more then euident out of the Councell of Bracar that they were not condemned by the Bishop of Rome alone but by many Synodes for it is there reported that Leo did write by Turibius notary of the See Apostolike to the Synode of Galitia at what time the heresie of the Priscillianistes began to spreade in those parts and that by his prescription and appointment they of Tarracon of Carthage of Portugall and Boetica met in Councell and composing a rule of faith against the heresie of the Priscillianistes containing certaine chiefe heades of Christian doctrine directed the same patterne of right beliefe to the Bishop of Bracar that then was which heads of Christian doctrine were recited in the first Councel of Bracar the heresie of the Priscillianistes thereupō more distinctly and particularly condemned then euer before In all which proceedings we may see that the Pope doth nothing of himselfe alone but being Patriarch of the West and hearing of a dangerous heresie spreading in some Churches subject to him hee causeth the Bishops vnder him to meete in Councels and to condemne the same Which as I thinke will not proue that the Pope alone condemned heresies or that some heresies were rejected onely because the Pope condemned them or that the Pope cannot erre which is the thing in question Touching Iouinian and Vigilantius their errours are so vncertainely reported some attributing to them one thing and some another and some condemning them for things for which they were not to be condemned that it is hard to say by what lawfull authority or by whom they were condemned but that in their errours justly disliked they were condemned onely by the Bishops of Rome and therefore taken to bee heretickes by the whole vniuersall Church our aduersaries will neuer be able to proue That the errours attributed vnto them are vncertainely reported it appeareth in that Austine chargeth Iouinian with two dangerous and wicked assertions touching the deniall of the perpetuall virginity of the blessed Virgin the mother of our Lord and the parity of sins whereof Hierome who yet was not like to haue spared him maketh no mention And that they were in somethings vnjustly condemned it is euident first in that Hierome blameth Iouinian for saying that married persons virgins widowes if they differ not in other workes of vertue and therein excell one another are of equall merit which the best learned both of the Fathers and Schoole-men do approue as I haue elsewhere shewed at large Secondly in in that he so bitterly inueigheth against Vigilantius for disliking the pernoctations in the Cemiteries and places of Saints buriall vsed in ancient times which a Councell for the same reasons that moued Vigilantius to dislike them took wholly away and forbade them to be vsed any more the Romane Churches haue long since disused But that the Popes peremptorie cōdemning of an error in matter of faith was not taken in ancient times to be a sufficiēt demonstration that they were heretickes that defended such errors after his cōdemning of the same it is euident in that Austine saith that the Churches might doubt stil touching the matter of rebaptization because in the times of Stephen who condemned it and Cyprian who vrged it there was no generall Councell to end the controuersie betweene them and in that after the peremptory forbidding and condemning of rebaptization by Stephen Bishop of Rome Cyprian and his colleagues still persisted in the practice of it and in vrging the necessity of it and yet were neuer branded with the marke and note of heresie but euer were and still are reputed Catholiques Bellarmine to avoid the force of this argument feareth not to say contrarie to his owne knowledge that Stephen and his adherents neuer determined the question of rebaptization But that hee did and that in most peremptory sort and manner it is more cleare and euident then that the Sunne shineth at noone For Firmilianus a famous learned Bishoppe chargeth him that hee caused great dissentions throughout all the Churches of the world that hee grieuously sinned in that hee deuided himselfe from soe many flockes of Christs sheepe that hee was a schismaticke that hee had forsaken the communion of Ecclesiasticall vnity willing him not to deceiue himselfe but to bee well assured that in thinking hee could put all other from the communion he had put himselfe out of the communion of all that hee brake the bandes of vnity with many Bishoppes in all parts of the World as well in the East as in the South with the Africanes not admitting such as came from them vnto him into his presence or to any speech with him and farther commanding the brethren that none of them should receiue them to house So that he not only denyed the peace of the Church and the communion of Christians vnto them but the entring vnder the roofe of any mans house that would be ruled by him and that thus he held the vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace rejecting them as damnable miscreants that dissented from him and calling blessed Cyprian a false Christ a false Apostle and a deceiptfull labourer or workman And Dionysius a famous and worthy Bishop reporteth that he wrote concerning Hellenus and Firmilianus and all the Bishops in Cilicia Cappadocia and Galatia and all the bordering countries that he would not communicate with them for the same cause of rebaptization which yet as hee saith was agreed on in many very great Synodes of Bishops If this bee not sufficient to proue that Stephen determined the question of rebaptization I know not what can bee For first he commaunded that none should be rebaptized when they returned from the societies and prophane conventicles of heretickes but that they should bee admitted with the onely imposition of hands Secondly he deliuered his owne opinion that rebaptization was vnlawfull confidently as hauing so learned of his elders not in doubting manner And thirdly he rejected all them
subscribed in this sort First Eutychius Bishop of Constantinople then Apollinarius of Alexandria after him Domninus of Antioch and last of all the Legates of Eustochius of Ierusalem for the Bishop of Rome was not there in person nor by his Legates In the sixth the Emperour sate in the highest place in the middest His great men and the Consuls sate by him on the left side the Legates of the Bishop of Rome the Vicars of the Bishop of Ierusalem the Bishops that were present out of the Romane Synode On the right side sate first the Bishop of Constantinople next him the Bishop of Antioche then hee that supplied the place of the Bishoppe of Alexandria and so in order the Bishoppes subiect to them yet in subscribing the Bishop of Rome was first Constantinople second Alexandria third Antioch fourth and Ierusalem last In the seauenth the Legates of Adrian Bishop of Rome had the first place and subscribed first after them the Bishop of Constantinople Tharassius and then they that supplyed the roomes of the other three Patriarchicall Thrones But Tharassius rather performed the duty of a President Moderator then the Legates of Rome as I shewed before These are all the Generall Councels that the Greeke and Latine Churches jointly acknowledge by this view which we haue taken of them wee may see how diuersly things haue beene carried both concerning the Presidentship in Generall Councels and the preheminences of the chiefest Bishops in the same Yet as the Graecians were content in the Councell of Florence that the Bishoppe of Rome should haue all such preheminences againe as hee had before the division of the Churches if other matters might bee agreed on So if the Bishoppe of Rome would disclaime his claime of vniuersall jurisdiction of infallible judgement and power to dispose at his pleasure the Kingdomes of the World and would content himself with that all Antiquity gaue him which is to bee in order and honour the first among Bishoppes wee would easily grant him to bee in such sort President of Generall Councels as to sit and speake first in such meetings but to bee an absolute commaunder wee cannot yeeld vnto him Cardinall Turrecremata rightly noteth that the Presidentship of Councels whereof men doe speake is of two sorts the one of honour the other of power Presidentship of honouris to haue preheminence in place to propose things to bee debated to direct the actions and to giue definitiue sentence according to the voyces and judgement of the Councell Presidentshippe of power is to haue the right not onely of directing but of ruling their doings also that are assembled in Councell and to conclude of matters after his owne judgement though the greater part of the Councell like it not yea though no part like it A Presidentshippe of the former sort Antiquity yeelded to the Bishop of Rome when hee was not wanting to himselfe And if there were no other differences betweene vs and him wee also would yeeld it him But the latter kinde of presidentshippe wee cannot yeeld vnlesse wee ouerthrow the whole course of Councels and goe against the streame of all Antiquity This seemeth saith Duarenus to bee consonant vnto the Law of GOD that the Church which the Synode doth represent should haue the fulnesse of all power and that the Pope should acknowledge himselfe subject vnto it For Christ did not giue the power of binding and loosing to Peter alone whose successor the pope is said to bee but to the whole church Although I doe not deny but that hee was set before the rest of the Apostles yet so often as any one was to bee ordained either Bishoppe or Deacon or any thing to bee decreed that concerned the church Peter neuer tooke it to himselfe but referred it to the whole church But heerein did his preheminence stand and consist that as prince of the Apostles it pertained to him to call the rest together and to propose vnto them the things that were to bee handled as with vs at this day the president of the court of parliament calleth together the whole Senate and when occasion requireth beginneth first to speake and doth many other things which easily shew the greatnesse of the person which he sustaineth and yet notwithstanding hee is not greater or superiour to the whole court neither hath hee power ouer all the Senatours neither may hee decree any thing contrary to their judgements But the judgement of all controversies pertaineth to the court it selfe whose Head the president is said to be nay which is more the court commaundeth judgeth and punisheth the president as well as any other if there be cause so to doe And these things truely were likewise in the Ecclesiasticall state heretofore but I know not by what meanes it is now brought about that supreme power ouer all Christians is giuen to one and that hee is set free from all Lawes and canons after the example of the Emperours This is the judgement of the learned and worthy Duarenus yet the Iesuites and Iesuited papists at this day will needs haue the pope to be president of General councels in such sort that hee may conclude of matters after his owne judgement and liking though the greater part of the councell like it not yea though no part like it But this their conceit is easily refuted first by reason then by the practise of the church from the beginning For first either Bishops are assembled in Generall Councels onely as the Popes Counsellers to giue him aduise or they are in joynt Commission with him and sitte as his fellow Iudges of all matters of faith and discipline If onely as Counsellers to aduise him Councels should not consist only or principally of Bishops For as they say commonly that many a doting old woman may be more deuout and many a poore begging Frier more learned thē the Pope himself so there is no questiō but that many other may be as learned and iudicious as Bishops Though saith Austine according to the titles of honour which the custome of the Church giueth men Austine a Bishop be greater then Hierome a Presbyter yet Hierome in worth and merite is greater then Austine In the late Councell of Trent there is no question but that Andradius Vega and other Doctors that were there were euery way comparable with the greatest Bishop or Cardinall yet Bishoppes onely as of ordinary right and some few other by speciall priuiledge gaue decisiue voyces in that Councell other how learned soeuer being admitted onely to discusse and debate matters and thereby to prepare and ripen them that the Bishops might more easily iudge of them and therefore the current of most Papists is against that conceit of making Bishops to bee but the Popes Counsellers onely as appeareth by Andradius Canus Bellarmine and many moe That Bishops saith Melchior Canus are not Counsellers onely to advise but Iudges to determine all matters doubtfull touching
in appointing some selected men for the visitation of the rest Fourthly in joyning temporall menincommission with the spirituall guides of the church to take view of and to censure the actions of men of Ecclesiasticall order because they are directed not onely by Canons but lawes Imperiall Fifthly when matters of fact are obiected for which the canons and lawes Imperiall judge men depriueable the Prince when hee seeth cause and when the state of things require it either in person if he please or by such other as hee thinketh fitte to appoint may heare and examine the proofes of the same and either ratifie that others did or voyd it as wee see in the case of Caecilianus to whom it was objected that hee was a Traditor and Faelix Antumnitanus that ordayned him was so likewise and that therefore his ordination was voyd For first the enemies of Caecilianus disliking his ordination made complaintes against him to Constantine and hee appointed Melchiades and some other Bishoppes to sitte and heare the matter From their judgement there was a new appeale made to Constantine Whereupon hee sent to the Proconsull to examine the proofes that might bee produced But from his iudgmēt the complainants appealed the third time to Constantine who appointed a Synode at Arle All this hee did to giue satisfaction if it were possible to these men and so to procure the peace of the Church And though he excused himselfe for medling in these businesses and asked pardon for the same for that regularly hee was to haue left these iudge ments to Ecclesiasticall persons yet it no way appeareth that hee did ill in interposing himselfe in such sort as hee did the state of things being such as it was nor that the Bishoppes did ill that yeelded to him in these courses and therefore in cases of like nature Princes may doe whatsoeuer hee did and Bishops may appeare before them and submit themselues to their iudgement though in another case Ambrose refused to present himselfe before Valentinian the Emperour for tryall of an Ecclesiasticall cause Neither is it strange in our state that Kinges should intermedle in causes Ecclesiasticall For Matthew Paris sheweth that the ancient lawes of England prouided that in appeales men should proceed from the Arch-deacon to the Bishoppe from the Bishop to the Arch-bishop and that if the Arch-bishop should faile in doing iustice the matter should be made knowne to the King that by vertue of his commandement it might receiue an end in the Arch-bishops Court that there might be no further proceeding in appeales without the Kings consent From the power which Princes haue in causes Ecclesiasticall let vs proceed to the power they haue ouer persons Ecclesiasticall and see whether they be supreame ouer all persons or whether men of the Church bee exempt from their iurisdiction That they are not exempted by GODS law wee haue the cleare confession of Cardinall Bellarmine and others who not onely yeeld so farre vnto the trueth forced so to doe by the cleare euidence thereof but proue the same by Scripture and Fathers The Cardinals wordes are these Exceptio Clericorum in rebus politicis tam quoad personas quam quoad bona iure humano introducta est non diuino that is The exemption of Cleargy-men in things ciuill as well in respect of their persons as their goods was introduced brought in by mans law and not by the law of God Which thing is proued first out of the precept of the Apostle to the Romanes Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers and addeth Therefore pay yee tribute For when the Apostle saith Let euery soule be subiect hee includeth Cleargy-men as Chrysostome witnesseth and therefore when hee addeth for this cause pay yee tribute he speaketh of Cleargy-men also Whence it will follow that Cleargy-men are bound to pay tribute vnlesse they be exempted by the fauour and priviledge of Princes freeing them from so doing which thing Thomas Aquinas also affirmeth writing vpon the same place Secondly the same is proued out of the Ancient For Vrbanus saith The tribute money was therefore found in the mouth of the fish taken by Saint Peter because the Church payeth tribute out of her outward and earthly possessions And Saint Ambrose saith if tribute bee demaunded it is not denyed the Church-Land payeth tribute Now if Vrbanus Bishoppe of Rome and worthy Ambrose Bishop of Millaine then whom there was neuer any Bishoppe found more resolute in the defence of the right of the Church say that tribute is not to bee denyed but payed vnto Princes by men of the Church and in respect of Church-land I thinke it is evident there is no exemption by any Law of GOD that freeth the goods of Church-men from yeelding tribute to Princes For touching that text where our Sauiour sayth vnto Peter What thinkest thou Simon of whom doe the Kings of the Gentiles receiue tribute of their owne children or of strangers And Peter answereth of strangers Whence CHRIST inferreth that the children are free brought by some to proue the supposed immunity of Cleargy-men to bee from GODS owne graunt Bellarmine sufficiently cleareth the matter For first hee sheweth that CHRIST speaketh of himselfe onely making this argument Kings sonnes are free from tribute as beeing neither to pay to their owne fathers seeing their goods are common nor to strangers to whom they are not subiect therefore himselfe being the Sonne of the great King of Kings oweth no Tribute to any mortall man So that when hee saide the children are free hee meant not to signifie that any other are free but onely that himselfe was free Secondly he rightly obserueth that this place would proue that all Christians are free from Tribute if it proued any other then CHRIST to bee so for all Christians are the sonnes of GOD by adoption and grace And Hierome writing vpon this place hath these words Our Lord was the Kings son both according to the flesh and according to the spirit descending of the stocke of Dauid and being the Word of the Almighty Father and therefore as being the Sonne of the Kingdome owed no tribute but because hee assumed the humility of flesh it behooued him to fulfill all righteousnesse but vnhappy men that wee are we are called after the name of Christ doe nothing worthy so great an honour He for the great loue he bare towards vs sustained the crosse for vs and payde tribute but we for his honour pay no tribute and as Kings sons are free from tribute These words are brought by some to proue the imagined freedome we speake of but first they are so far from prouing any such thing that Erasmus thinketh Hierome reprehended it and disliked it as a thing sauouring of arrogancy that cleargymen should refuse to pay tribute which hee saith is contrary to the conceit of men in our time who thinke it the height of all piety to maintaine
and not these for being sent by men that haue authority though abusing the same they haue a true and lawfull Ministery till they be put from it by superiour authority else were all Ministration of Sacraments and other sacred things voyde performed by such as simoniacally or by sinister meanes get into these holy places The fourth are such as neither are sent of GOD nor of men nor by men but of them-selues of whom our Sauiour Christ saith all that came before me were theeues robbers and of whome almighty GOD pronounceth and sayth by the Prophet Ieremy I sent them not they 〈◊〉 I spake not to them they prophecied This euill is carefully to bee declined and therefore CHRIST would not suffer the diuels to speake that which was true least vnder the pretence of trueth errour might creepe in seeing hee that speaketh of him-selfe cannot but speake lyes These are the foure sortes of them that serue in the worke of the Ministery whereof the last haue no calling at all and all they doe is voide the Third haue a lawfull commission though they obtayned it by sinister meanes and bee vnworthy of it so that they could not bee put into it without the faulte of the ordayners The First had a lawfull but extraordinary calling needefull onely in those first beginnings of Christianity and not longer to continue The second haue that calling which is Ordinary and to continue whereof wee are now to speake In this calling there are three things implied Election Ordination and Assignation to some particular Church whereof men elected and ordained are appointed to take charge In ancient times there was no ordination at large without particular Assignation and sine titulo allowed as it appeareth by the Councell of Chalcedon forbidding any such thing to be done and voyding any such Act if it should bee done and therefore in those times the very electing and ordayning was an assigning of the elected ordayned to the place of Charge they were to take and a giuing of them the power of iurisdiction as wel as of order But this Canon in latter times grew out of vse whence ensued great confusions in the state of the Church as Duarenus rightly noteth yet are we not of opinion that all such ordinations are voyde in the nature of the thing whatsoeuer the Ancients pronounced of them according to the strictnesse of the Canons For seeing Ordination which is the sanctifying of men to the worke of the holy Ministery is a diffeernt thing in nature from the placing of them where they shal do that holy worke and a man once ordained needeth not any new Ordination when he is remoued from one Church to another it is euident that in the nature of the thing Ordination doth not so depend on the title and place of Charge the Ordayned entereth into as that Ordinations at large should bee voyd yet are they not to bee permitted neither are they in our Church For the Ordinations of Ministers in Colledges in our Vniuersities are not within the compasse of those prohibited Ordinations at large and sine titulo and none other by the order of our Church may bee Ordayned vnlesse he be certainly prouided of some definite place of charge imployment And as the Auncient were thus precise in admitting none into the holy Ministery but with assignation of the particular place of his imployment so they tooke as strict order that men once placed should not sodainly be remoued and translated to any other church or charge In the Councell of Sardica Hosius the President of that Councell sayd That same ill custome and pernicious corruption is wholy to be plucked vp by the rootes that it may not be lawfull for a Bishoppe to passe from his citie to any other city For the cause why they doe so is knowne to all seeing none is found to passe from a greater citie to a lesser whence it appeareth that they are inflamed with ardent desires of couetousnesse and that they serue their owne ambitious designes that they may exercise dominion and grow great If therefore it seeme good to you all that such an euill as this is may be more seuerely punished lette him that is such a one bee reiected from all communion euen such as Lay-men inioy To whom all the Bishoppes answered it pleaseth vs well To whom Hosius replyed Though any shall bee found so ill aduised as haply in excuse of himselfe to affirme that hee receiued letters from the people to draw him from his owne city to another yet I thinke seeing it is manifest that some few not sincere in the Faith might be corrupted by reward and procured to desire his translation all such fraudes should altogether bee condemned So that such a one should not bee admitted so much as to the communion which Lay-men enioy no not in the end which thing if it seeme good vnto you all confirme and settle it by your Decree And the Synode answered it pleaseth vs well Leo to the same purpose writeth thus If any Bishoppe despising the meanenesse of his owne citie shall seeke to gette the administration gouernment of some more noted and better respected place and shall by any meanes translate remoue himselfe to a greater People and more large and ample charge let him bee driuen from that other chaire which hee sought and lette him bee depriued also of his owne So that hee bee neither suffered to rule ouer them whom out of a couetous desire hee would haue subiected to himselfe nor ouer them whom g in pride hee contemned and scorned And the like is found in other but as Theodoret sheweth it was ambition and such other like euils that these Holy Fathers sought to stoppe and preuent rather then generally to condemne all Translation of Bishops from one Church and cittie to another For these changes may sometimes bring so great and euident vtility that they are not to be disliked And therefore the same Theodoret sheweth that notwithstanding this Canon Gregory Nazianzen was remoued from his Church and constituted Bishop of Constantinople And Socrates reporteth that Proclus was remoued thither from Cyzicum Wherefore passing by these matters as cleare and resolued of Let vs proceed to see first to whom it pertaineth to Elect Secondly to whom it belongeth to ordaine such as are duly elected and chosen to the worke of the Ministery Touching Election wee thinke that each Church and People that haue not by lawe custome or consent restrayned themselues stand free by Gods law to admitte maintaine and obey no man as their Pastor without their liking and that the peoples election by themselues or their rulers dependeth on the first principles of humane fellowships and assemblies for which cause though Bishops by Gods lawe haue power to examine and ordaine before any may be placed to take charge of soules yet haue they no power to impose a Pastor on any Church against their
quondam oblata turned out of French into Latine by Duarenus and added to his booke De sacris Ecclesiae Ministeriis that there being a great number of goodly Churches founded by the Kings of France when the Bishops of Rome began to prejudice the liberties of them the King the Nobles the Princes of the bloud the Cleargy and commons assembled to resist the vexations oppressions wrongs of the Court of Rome made many good Constitutions for the repressing of such insolencies So Lewys when first the Pope began to meddle in the yeare one thousand two hundred sixty seauē decreed that Preslacies Dignities electiue should be giuen by election and such as are not electiue by collation and presentation of Patrons and that the Court of Rome should extort no money for any such thing out of the Kingdome of France And when notwithstanding this Decree in processe of time the Court of Rome attempted divers things contrary to the liberty of the church of France Charles the Sixth with the advise of his Nobles Prelates Abbottes Colledges Vniversities and other partes of his Kingdome in the yeare one thousand foure hundred and sixe made a Constitution whereby hee restored the church to her auncient liberty and this Decree was published in the yeare one thousand foure hundred and seauen in which yeare Benedict the Pope and his Ministers hauing imposed and exacted great summes of money a new complaint was made to the King and thereupon a Decree made that nothing should bee payde out of France in the nature of Annates or Tenthes and that such as had beene excommunicated for refusall of them should bee absolued againe In the yeare one thousand foure hundred and eighteene a Constitution was made whereby all Reservations and Apostolicall graces as they call them together with all exactions of the court of Rome were forbidden And when as the Romanes contemning all Constitutions ceased not to trouble and confound the Hierarchy of the Church and scattered abroad euery where throughout the World their Reservations and expectatiue graces whence followed great and horrible deformities in the church at last a Generall Councell was assembled for the Reformation of the church in the Head and members which prohibited these Reseruations and expectatiue Graces restored the canons touching Elections and Collations and subjected all that should contumaciously resist yea though the Pope him-selfe to due punishment The Decrees of this councell Charles the Seauenth confirmed with the consent of all Estates of his Kingdome and this his Decree of Confirmation was called the Pragmaticall Sanction But the Popes neuer rested till they had if not wholly ouerthrowne it yet greatly weakened it The attemptes of Pius the Second who beeing a private man in the Councell of Basil set it forward what hee could are not vnknowne as also of Sixtus the Fourth Innocentius the Eighth Alexander the Sixth Iulius the Second and Leo the Tenth who published a Constitution whereby the Pragmaticall Sanction was much weakened though not wholly taken away and those his new Decrees were called Conventa that is agreements betweene the King and him From these Decrees the Vniversity of Paris appealed to a Generall councell And thus wee see how well the Popes fulfill the commaundement of Christ in feeding his Sheepe that labour so mainely the ouer-throw of those canons which being taken away the whole Ecclesiasticall Order is confounded whole countries are made desolate and forsaken Kingdomes are robbed of their money and treasure churches are ruinated and subverted For so did all good men out of wofull experience complaine in former times Wherefore passing by these intrusions vsurpations and tyrannicall inter-meddling of Popes with things not pertayning to them it is evident by that which hath beene saide that the Election of fit Ministers to teach the people of God pertaineth to the cleargy and people by the reasons and grounds of humane societies vnlesse by their owne consent forfeiture restraint of superiour authority cōmaunding ouer them or speciall reasons prevailing more then those generall grounds of humane fellowship it be taken from them As in case of founding churches and endowing them with lands the Patrons haue the right of presenting in cases of intollerable abuses negligences or insolencies the Prince as Head of the people assumeth to himselfe the nomination of such as are to serue in the holy Ministery of the church Some there are that thinke the right of the people in choosing their Pastours and Ministers to bee such as that it may not bee limited restrayned or taken away vpon any consideration what-soeuer and that therefore there is no lawfull Election of Ecclesiastical Ministers vnlesse the people chuse But the errour of these men is easily refuted For seeing the Scripture Word of GOD giueth no such power to the people and all the interest they haue or canne claime is but from the ground of humane fellowship subject to many limitations alterations and restraintes there is no reason to thinke that necessarily the people must euer elect their Pastors In the reformed Churches of France Geneua the people giue no voyces in the election of Ministers but are onely permitted if they haue any causes of dislike or exception to make them knowne to the Pastours and guides of the Church and the power of iudging of such exceptions resteth wholy in them In so much that when one Morellius a fantasticall companion sought to bring the elections of Bishoppes and Ministers to bee Popular and swayed by the most voyces of the people hee was condemned by all the Synodes in France as Beza sheweth in his Epistles That there is no precept in the whole new Testament forcing popular elections it is euident And the onely example that is brought of any such thing is that of the seauen Deacons but first there was some speciall reason why the peoples consent was sought in the election of these Deacons beeing to bee trusted with the treasure of the Church and the disposing of the contributions of the faithfull and secondly from one example a generall rule may not bee gathered Seeing the circumstances of things times persons admit infinite varieties some alleadge that place in the Acts for proofe of popular elections where the Apostles are said to haue appointed Elders or Presbyters by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth that kind of election that is made by the more part of the voyces of the Electors expressing their consent by lifting vp of their handes as sometimes men shew their consent by going to one side of the place or roome where they are whence they are sayd Pedibus ire insententiam But surely these places are vnaduisedly alledged for proofe of popular elections For first the Apostles onely are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently the election pertayned to them onely and they onely elected for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth to elect and not to gather voyces Secondly though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
wife which hee marryed while hee was yet a Lay-man hee should bee put out of the Ministery of the Church Whereas all the most famous Presbyters and Bishoppes also in the East might if they pleased but were no way by any Law constrained to refraine from the company of their wiues So that many of them euen when they were Bishoppes did beget children of their lawfull wiues A particular and most approued example whereof wee haue in the Father of Gregory Nazianzene who beeing a Bishoppe not onely liued with his wife till death divided them but became the Father also of Gregory Nazianzen as worthy and renowned a man as any the Greeke Church euer had after he was entered into the priestly Office as appeareth by his owne wordes reported by Gregory Nazianzen For after many motiues vsed by him to Gregory Nazianzen his sonne to perswade him to assist him in the worke of his Bishoply Ministery the last that hee most insisteth on is taken from the consideration of his olde age dis-inabling him to beare that burden and performe that worke any longer that hitherto hee had done And therefore intreating him to put to his helping hand he breaketh out into thesewords Thou hast not liued so long a time as I haue spent in the priestly office therefore yeeld thus much vnto mee and helpe mee in that little time of my life that is yet behinde or else thou shalt not haue the honour to bury mee but I will giue charge to another to doe it Heere we see Gregory Nazianzens father was employed in the priestly function before hee was borne and that therefore hee became the father of so worthy a sonne after hee was a Bishoppe or at least after hee was a Presbyter Neither was the father of Gregory Nazianzene singular in this behalfe For Athanasius writing to Dracontius who beeing greatly in loue with a retyred and monasticall kinde of life refused the Bishoply Office when hee was chosen vnto it for that hee feared hee might not in that state liue so strictly as formerly hee had done controuleth this his conceit and telleth him that hee may in the Bishoppes office hunger and thirst as Paul did drinke no wine as Timothy and fast often as did the Apostle So that the Bishoppes Office is no cause of doing ill or doing lesse good then may bee done in other states of life and there-upon assureth him that hee hath knowne Bishoppes to fast and Monkes to eate Bishoppes to drinke no wine and Monkes to drinke it Bishoppes to worke miracles and Monkes to doe none lastly many Bishoppes neuer to haue married and Monkes to haue become fathers of children and on the contrary side Bishoppes to haue become fathers of children and Monkes to haue liued altogether as Monkes without desire of posterity Neither can this authority of Athanasius bee avoyded as Bellarmine seeketh to avoyde it namely that those Bishoppes did ill which hee sayth became fathers of children For Clemens Alexandrinus an auncient Greeke Father sayth expressely The Apostle admitteth the husband of one wife to bee a Bispoppe and that though hee bee a Presbyter Deacon or Lay-man if hee vse marriage aright and so as not to incurre iust reprehension hee shall be saued by the procreation of children Chrysostome accordeth with Athanasius and Clemens Alexandrinus and sayth that mariage is in so high a degree honourable that men with it may ascend into the Episcopall chayres euen such as yet liue with their wiues For though it be an hard thing yet it is possible so to performe the duties of marriage as not to be wanting in the performance of the duties of a Bishoppe wherevnto Zozomen agreeth saying of Spiridion that though hee had wife and children yet he was not therefore any whitte the more negligent in performing the duties of his calling and of Gregory Nyssene it is reported that though he were marryed yet he was no way inferiour to his worthy brother that liued single But some haply will obiect that Epiphanius is of another minde and that hee sayth where the strictnesse of the canon is obserued none but such as are vnmarried or resolued to refraine from matrimoniall society with their wiues are admitted into the ministery of the Church Wee deny not but that he sayth so But hee confesseth in the same place that many in the Church did liue with their wiues in his time and beget Children euen after their admission into the ministery Soe that the strictnesse of the Canon hee speaketh of was not generall but in some certaine places onely as I noted before out of Socrates Nay it is euident by Socrates that howsoeuer in Thessalia Thessalonica Macedonia and Hellas this strictnesse preuailed yet all the Bishoppes of the East besides were left to their owne liberty and howsoeuer some in diuerse places went about to take away this liberty yet the worthyest men the Church had stood in defence of it protesting they would not suffer themselues to bee inthralled in this behalfe to which purpose that of the famous and renowned Synesius is most excellent who when they of Ptolemais would needes haue him to be their Bishoppe which thing hee little desired hee made them acquainted with his present condition and resolued purpose for the time to come God sayth hee the Law and the sacred hand of Theophilus hath giuen vnto mee a wife I therefore tell all men afore-hand and testifie vnto all that I will neither suffer my selfe to be altogether estranged and seperated from her neyther will I liue with her secretly as an adulterer For the one of these is no way pious and godly and the other no way lawfull but I will desire and pray vnto God that exceeding many and most good and happy children may be borne vnto mee Neyther will I haue him that is to be chiefe in ordayning of mee to be ignorant hereof This liberty the councel in Trullo impeached in respect of Bishops but in respect of Presbyters it continueth in all the East Churches of the world euen till this day Greeke Armenian and Ethiopian warranted vnto them by the Canons of the Apostles Iudgment of Bishops Decrees of Councels and the consent of all other partes of the World For first the Apostle Saint Paule telleth the Corinthians hee had power to lead about a wife a sister as well as the brethen of the Lord and Cephas Which words Clemens Alexandrinus interpreteth in this sort Paul feareth not in a certaine Epistle to speake to his yoake-fellow which hee did not lead about with him because he had no neede of any great seruice Therefore hee sayth in a certaine Epistle Haue wee not power to lead about a sister a wife as the rest of the Apostles but they truely as it was meete because they could not spare their Ministery attending without distraction to preaching lead their wiues about not as wiues but as sisters which should minister together with them
These men therefore make 2. sorts of vowes naming some simple and other solemne and affirme that the latter do debarre men from mariage and voyd their mariages if they do marry but that the former do so debarre them from marrying that they cannot marry without some offence and yet if they do their mariage is good and not to be voyded The Diuines of the Church of Rome as Caietane rightly noteth differ much in opinion about the difference of these vowes For some of them thinke that they differ in such sort as that one of them is a promise onely and the other a reall and actuall exhibition that the solemnity of a mans vow consisteth in a reall and actuall exhibition of himselfe and putting himselfe into such an estate as cannot stand with marriage But this opinion as hee rightly noteth cannot bee true seeing there is no such repugnance simply and in the nature of the thinges betweene the Order of the holy Ministery and Marriage as appeareth in that the Ministers of the Greeke Church as tyed by noe vowe are judged by all to liue in lawfull Mariage notwithstanding their Ministery and also in that the entering into noe religious Order voydeth mariage vnlesse it be approued by the Church There is therefore as he sheweth another opinion that it is not from different nature of the vowes that the one voydeth mariage contracted and the other doth not but from the authority of the Church that will haue mariage after a vowe made in one sort to bee voyd and not in another The latter of these two opinions Bellarmine sayth Scotus Paludanus and Caietane follow and as Panormitan reporteth the whole schoole of Canonistes And these do answere to the authorities of the Fathers denying mariages to bee voyde after a solemne vowe that they are to bee vnderstood to deny them to be voyde by Gods Law and that there was no Law of man then passed to make them voyde when they liued that they knew of and that therefore they might rightly bee of opinion in those times that no vowes made insuing marriages to be voyde seeing no vowes doe voyde marriages by GODS Law and there was no law of man in their time making marriage voyde in respect of a vowe made to the contrary Soe that euen in the judgment of many of the best learned of our Aduersaries themselues Mariage after a vow is not voyd by Gods law but only by the positiue Constitution of the Church which will haue it so to bee But against this positiue Constitution two things may be alleaged first that it began from that erroneous conceipt which Anstine refuteth in his booke do bono viduitatis as it appeareth by the Epistle of Innocentius grounding his resolution for voyding of mariages in this kinde vpon that verie reason of their beeing espoused to Christ which haue vowed vnto GOD that they will liue continently Secondly that the Church hath no power simply to forbidde any man to marry whom Gods Law leaueth free seeing single life is one of the things that men may be counselled and advised vnto but cannot be prescribed and imposed by commandement that the Church may keepe men from mariage if they will inioy some fauours as wee see in Colledges and Societies or that She may by her Censures punish such as vnaduisedly and without just cause shall breake their vow and promise wee make no question but that She may simply forbid any one to marry how faulty and punishable soeuer otherwise wee vtterly deny Neyther is the reason that is brought to proue this power to bee in the Church of any force For though it were graunted that the Church by her authority for respectes best knowne to her selfe may forbid a man to marry with some of those with whom God permitteth him to marry yet wil it not follow that she may absolutely forbid any one to cōtract mariage seeing parents to whom it pertaineth to direct the choyce of their children may forbid them to marry with such as they iustly dislike and yet they may not simplie restraine them from marying So that though it were yeelded that the Church for causes best known to her selfe may forbid mariage with moe then the Law of God doth and that in such sort as to void it hauing greater power in this behalfe then naturall parents yet would it not follow that shee may simplie forbid any one to marry and voide his mariage if he do whereas the Law of God voideth it not And so vvee see that as mariage after a solemne vow is not void by the Lavv of God so the Church hath no power to make any law to make it voyd But because though it be so yet it may seeme that no man that had vowed the cōtrary can marry without sinne it remaineth that wee proceede to consider and see whether there be any cases wherein a man that vowed the contrary may marry without offence to God First touching this poynt the Schoole-men generally resolue that the Pope may dispence with a Priest Deacon or Sub-deacon to marry though he haue sollemnely vowed the contrary by entring into holy Orders because the duty and bond of containing is not essentially annexed vnto holy Orders but by the Canon of the Church onely Aquinas and they of that time thought hee might not dispense with a Monke to marry For that single life is essentially implyed in the profession of a Monke and cannot be seperated from the same as it may from the office and calling of a Priest But since that time the generall opinion is that he may because though single life cannot be separated from the profession of a Monke yet he that is a Monke may be freed from that profession that he hath made and cease to be a Monke Neither is this onely the opinion of the Schooles but the practise of Popes hath concurred with the same For as Petrus Paludanus reporteth a Pope reviued a Monke who was next in blood and to succeed in the Kingdome of Arragon and dispensed with him to marry a wife for the good of that Kingdome Caietan sayth the like is reported in the stories of Constantia daughter and heire of Roger King of Sicily who was a religious woman and of fifty yeares of age and yet by the dispensation of Caelestinus was called out of the Cloyster and permitted to marry with the Emperour Henry the Sixth who begatte of her Fredericke the Second And Andreas Frisius reporteth out of the Histories of Polonia that Casimirus sonne of Mersistaus King of Polonia was a Monke and ordayned a Deacon and yet when after the death of Mersistaus his father there was none to sway the Scepter of that Kingdome whence many mischiefes followed Benedict the Ninth gaue him leaue to marry a wife making him to leaue his Cloyster his Vowes and Deaconship that so there might bee a succession in that Kingdome So that there is no question but that for a
Canons prouided that Bishops and other Cleargy-men might make their last Will and Testament and giue to whom they pleased that which came to them by inheritance the gift of their friendes or which they gained vppon the same But that which they gayned vpon their Church-liuings they should leaue to their Churches But the Church of England had a different custome neither were these Canons euer of force in our Church And therefore her Bishops and Ministers might euer at their pleasure bequeath to whom they would whatsoeuer they had gained either vpon their Church liuings or otherwise And surely there was great reason it should be so for seeing The labourer is worthy of his hire why should not they haue power to giue that which was yeelded vnto them as due recompence and reward of their labours to whom they please And how can it bee excused from iniustice and wrong that men spending a great part of their owne Patrimonie in fitting themselues for the Ministery of the Church which conuerted to the best aduantage and benefitte might greatly haue enriched them should not haue right and power to dispose of such thinges as they haue lawfully gayned out of those liuings which are assigned to thē as the due reward of their worthy paines Yet are there some that are much more iniurious to the holy Ministery For Waldensis out of a Monkish humour thinketh that Cleargy-men are bound to giue away whatsoeuer commeth to thē by inheritan ce or by any other meanes that they ought not to possesse any thing in priuate and as their owne And alleageth to this purpose the saying of Origen Hierome and Bernard that the Cleargy-man that hath any part or portion on earth cannot haue the Lord for his portion nor any part in heauen But Cardinall Bellarmine answereth to these authorities That these Fathers speake of such as content not themselues with that which is sufficient but immoderately seeke the things of this world and proueth that Cleargy-men may haue and keepe lands and possessions as their owne First because the Apostle prescribeth that such a one should be chosena Bishop As gouerneth his owne house well and hath children in Obedience which presupposeth that he hath something in priuate and that is his owne Secondly hee cofirmeth the same by the Canons of the Apostles the Councell of Agatha Martinus Bracharensis in his Decrees and the first Councell of Hispalis and further addeth that a man hauing Lands Possessions and Inheritance of his owne may spare his owne liuing and receiue maintenance from the Church for proofe whereof he alleageth the Glosse and Iohn de Turrecremata a Cardinall in his time of great esteeme and confirmeth the same by that saying of Christ The Labourer is worthy of his hyre and that of the Apostle Saint Paul Who goeth to warfare at any time at his owne charge FINIS AN APPENDIX CONTAYNING A DEFENSE OF SVCH PARTES AND PASSAGES OF THE FORMER foure bookes as haue bin either excepted against or wrested to the maintenance of Romish errours Diuided into three partes THE EPISTLE TO THE READER SINCE the time I presumed good Christian Reader to offer to thy view what I had long before for my priuate satisfaction obserued touching certaine points concerning the nature definition notes visibility and authority of the Church much questioned in our times first there came forth a Pamphlet intituled The first part of Protestant proofes for Catholique Religion and recusancie After that a larger discourse bearing the name of A Treatise of the grounds of the old and new religion thirdly the first motiue of one Theophilus Higgons lately minister to suspect the integrity of his Religion The Author of the first of these worthy workes vndertaketh to proue out of the writings of Protestant Diuines published since the beginning of his Maiesties raigne ouer this Kingdome that his Romish faith and profession is Catholique The second endeauoureth to make the world belieue that Protestants haue no sure grounds of Religion And the third hauing made shipwracke of the faith and forsaken his calling laboureth to iustifie and make good that he hath done Euery of these hath beene pleased for the aduantage of the Romish cause amonst the Workes of many worthy men to make vse of that which I haue written the first seeking to draw mee into the defence of that hee knoweth I impugne and the other two taking exceptions to certaine parts and passages scattered here and there Such is the insufficiencie and weakenesse of the idle and emptie discourses of these men that I almost resolued to take no notice of them But finding that the last of these good Authors fronteth his booke with an odious title of Detection of falshood in Doctor Humfrey Doctor Field and other learned Protestants and addeth an Appendix wherein hee vndertaketh to discouer some notable vntruethes of Doctor Field and D. Morton pretending that the consideration thereof moued him to be come a Papist I thought it not amisse to take a little paynes in shewing the folly of these vaine men who care not what they write so they write something and are in hope that no man wil trouble himselfe so much as once to examine what they say yet not intending to answere all that euery of these hath said for who would mispend his time and weary himselfe in so fruitlesse a labour but that which concerneth my selfe against whom they bend themselues in more speciall sort then any other as it seemeth because I haue treatised as Maister Higgons speaketh of that subiect which is the center and circumference in all religious disputes And b◅b◅cause Mr Higgons is pleased to let vs know his name whereas the other cōceale theirs it being no small comfort for a man to know his Aduersary I will do him all the kindnesse I can first begin with him though he shewed himselfe last and from him proceed to the rest What it is that maketh him so much offended with me I cannot tell but sure it is he hath a good vvill to offend me for hee chargeth mee vvith trifeling egregious falshood collusion vnfaithfull dealing abusing the holy Fathers and I knowe not what else But such is the shamelesse and apparant vntrueth of these horrible imputations that it is altogether needelesse to spend time bestow labour in the refutation of them Yet because in the suspicion of heresie falsehood and vfaithfull dealing in matters of faith religion no man ought to be patient I will briefely take a view of his whole booke And though his beginning bee abrupt and absurd his whole discourse confused and perplexed and all that he doth without order or method yet to giue satisfaction to all I will follow him the same way hee goeth I was vnwilling good Christian Reader to trouble thee with such discourses but the restlesse importunity of our aduersaries setting euery one a worke to say something against vs forceth mee thereunto Read
grow vnto if it bee immutable For to dislike that which before we did not dislike or to dislike a thing more then formerly we did vpon farther better consideration argueth a mutability in the Wil so that if the Wil be immutable in those that are departed hence immediately vpon their dissolution as our Aduersaries think it is the fire of purgatory can no way helpe to the purging out of sin To these reasons they adde another takē frō the story or parable of the rich man Lazarus in the Gospell where Christ sheweth that the poore man Lazarus as soone as hee was dead was carryed by the Angels into Abrahams bosome that the rich mans soule as soone as hee was dead was found in the torments of hell By the bosome of Abraham expressing a most excellent estate in the blessed rest of such as are beloued of God and by hell and the torments thereof the vtter most condemnation and the euerlasting punishment of sinners and no way leauing any other place betweene these hauing temporall affliction and paine but making betweene them a great and vnpasseable gulfe separating the one from the other and establishing an extreame and immediate opposition betweene them then which what could bee more cleerely spoken against Purgatory for our opinion For if there be no middle place of temporall torment as the Authors of this Apologie say there is not if there be but two sorts of men the one expressed by the condition of the rich man the other of Lazarus and if the one of these goe immediately vpon death into a place of torment euerlasting the other into a place of rest and into the bosome of Abraham where is the Purgatory of Papists either in the name or in the thing in substance or in circumstance To these reasons for farther confirmation they adde two most excellent testimonies out of Gregory Nazianzen who vpon these wordes touching the Passeouer Wee shall carrie out nothing nor leaue nothing till the morning saith expresly and clearely that beyond or after this Night there is no purging calling the life of each man heere the Night and yeelding no purging to be after it and else-where hath these wordes I omitte to speake of the torments to which impunity doth deliuer men in the other world for they are such that it were better for a man to be chastised and purged heere then to be reserued and deliuered ouer to that punishment that is after this life when as there is a time of punishment but not of purgation so expressely defining that there is no purging after the departure out of this life and that there remaineth nothing but eternall punishment for such as must there be punished Elias Cretensis a learned Grecian writing vpon that place of Nazianzen where he saith Hee is a poore and a meane Pastour and not liked of other Pastors whether because hee defendeth the trueth or for what other cause he knoweth not but God knoweth and as the Apostle saith that day of reuelation and last fire shall clearely manifest it whereby all our workes are either iudged or purged hath these wordes The word iudged Gregory Nazianzen put for tried and purged for reuealed or manifested for that fire doth make the workes of iust men to shine and burneth vppe the workes of sinners and that I may speake plainly and simply manifesteth of what sort each mans workes are those thinges being taken away that in this world did hide them and suffered them not to appeare to be such as indeede they are For here oftentimes as well the workes of a vertuous man as of an euill man are hidde but there they are reuealed and made manifest therefore there judgement is passed vpon all that is all are tried and againe all thinges are purged that is manifested and not by any meanes according to the fooleries of those men who thinke that there shall be an end of punishment after a thousand yeares and that after they are purged men shall cease to bee punished Thus doth this worthy Bishoppe of Candie contradict the Papistes in their fancie of Purgatory and agree with the Authors of the Apologie In the writings of Armacanus I finde that one Athanasius a Grecian proposed sundry excellent reasons against the imagined Purgatory of the Latines which Armachanus goeth about to answere but indeede cannot answere the first is this It is no way iust that the Soule alone should bee punished for the sinnes of the whole man or that the body should haue part and fellowship in Sinne and glory after remission of Sinne and not in the punishment that purgeth out sinne The second is this It is more proper to God to reward good thinges then to punish euill So that if it were necessary that the soules of such as are truely penitent should after death goe into Purgatory punishments it were much more necessary that the soules of such as haue kept the commaundements of GOD all their life long and at last falling into sinne die in such an estate without repentance should goe first into a place of refreshing to receiue the rewardes of their well doings before they should be cast out into eternall punishments but this is not to be graunted by any meanes therefore much lesse the other Thirdly whereas some goe about to proue Purgatory by the custome of praying for the dead hee sheweth by an vnanswerable reason that if wee admitte Purgatory wee may not pray for the dead his reason is this Whosoeuer causeth another to bee afflicted doth it in one of these three sortes either onely out of vnreasonable passion and desire of tormenting and afflicting or for the vpholding of the course of iustice and the example and good of others as when murderers are put to death or thirdly in mercy for the good and benefite of him that is punished as the Physician afflict◅h the sicke patient And in this third sort it is that God is supposed to afflict soules in Purgatory As therefore the Physician and Surgeon delight not in afflicting their sicke patients but deale as tenderly with them as possibly they may due respect had to the recouering of their health and former estate so God will afflict no more then is precisely necessary for the purging out of sinne so that as it were vaine if not hurtfull to intreat the good and skilfull Physician tendering his patient and no way afflicting him more then is precisely necessary for the recouering of his health either wholly to withdraw his hand or to remitte any thing of that hee intends to doe for that if so hee should doe the patient could not recouer so in like sort it were not onely vaine but hurtfull for the soules of men departed to intreate GOD any way to lessen their afflictions which otherwise he would lay vpon them seeing hee intendeth to afflict them no more then is precisely necessary for the purging out of the impurity that is found in them and
God shall in the end find mercy and that no torments shall be eternall he concludeth in this sort ◠As we beleeue that the torments of the diuel of such as deny God and of impious men which haue said in their hearts there is no God are eternall so we thinke that the sentence of the Iudge that shall be pronounced vpon sinners vngodly men who yet are Christians whose workes are to bee tryed and purged in the fire shall be moderate and mixed with clemency Where we see againe he maketh not the difference betweene the degrees of sinne as the Romanists doe but betweene impious men that say in their hearts there is no God that deny God and his truth and Christians that are vnrighteous and sinners Neither are those words whose workes are to be tryed and purged in the fire to bee taken distinctiuely to note forth vnto vs one certain degree of Christians who shall suffer a temporall punishment in fire as M. Higgons would haue them but explicatiuely to signifie the condition of all Christians Which appeareth because otherwise he would not haue said of sinners yet Christians but of sinners yet such Christians whose works are to be tryed in the fire This explicatiō is added to put a difference between Christians such as are no Christians because the works of Christians only of all Christians shall come to be tryed in the fire of Gods judgment others being judged already as Hierome speaketh adjudged to eternall perdition These circūstances of the words of Hierome considered I thinke there is no indifferent reader but wil cōceiue his opiniō to haue bin as I haue deliuered it that I haue no way wronged him but that Higgons hath causelesly wronged Me. Some places there are in Hierome that are brought to proue that he was of another opinion but they proue nothing The first is out of his Commentaries vpon Hosea where he saith When heretickes see men offend against God they say God seeketh nothing of them but the verity of faith for this cause the people are not humbled but they reioyce in their sinnes and goe forward with a stiffe necke wherefore the People and Priest Master and Schollers are bound vp in the same judgment This place is alledged to no purpose For here Hierome sheweth onely that Heretickes teaching falsely that God requireth not good works and such as beleeuing them shall rejoyce in euill doing shall perish which is no way contrary to the other conceipt that right beleeuing Christians liuing ill shall in the end be saued The next place they bring is out of his Commentaries vpon Mathew the words are these Marke prudent Reader that both punishments are eternall and that euerlasting life hath no more feare of any fallings away which no way contraryeth the opinion of Hierome before-mentioned For hee is resolued that the punishments of the Diuell his Angells and all impious ones are eternall but thinketh right beleeuers though liuing wickedly shall bee punished but for a time That out of his Commentaries vpon the Galathians That enmity contention wrath brawling dissention drunkennesse and other-like which wee esteeme to bee but small euills exclude vs from the Kingdome of GOD If it bee vnderstood of right beleeuers accorcording to Hieromes opinion sheweth onely what these deserue namely exclusion from the Kingdome of God but preiudice not the riches of his mercy towardes them that doe such things Heere by the way I would haue the reader to obserue a grosse ouersight in M. Higgons who saith it may as well be inferred out of the writings of Hierome that he thought all Christians shall in the end be saued how damnably soeuer erring in matters of faith as right beleeuers Whereas distinguishing the godlesse or impious man that neuer knew God or corrupteth the knowledge hee had of God as heretickes from a sinner or vnrighteous man he expresly pronounceth the one to perish euerlastingly and not the other Hauing thus cleared my selfe from the suspition of wrong offered to Hierome which M. Higgons would willingly fasten on me I will perswade my selfe to contemne the wrongs he doth me As namely that I vse the testimonies of this Saint at my pleasure that I vainely elude the truth and vnconscionably intreat the Fathers that I craftily conuay wordes into Saint Augustin that I sort my termes wisely for my aduantage and that I seeke to dazle the vnderstanding of my readers If Master Higgons were a man of any worth and should entreat mee thus ill without all cause as hee doth I would lette him knowe more of my minde but I haue resolued not to turne backe to euery Curre that barketh at mee SECT 4. WHerefore from Hierome I will passe to Ambrose whom this prophane Esau who hath sold his birth-right for a messe of pottage for more I thinke hee will not haue for it bringeth in as hee saith to make vp the messe In this idle discourse touching Ambrose the poore fellow is to bee pittied or laughed at accordingly as men are disposed so ridiculously doth hee behaue himselfe The circumstances of the matter are these In the place cited by him first I shew in what sort men prayed lawfully for the dead without any conceit of Purgatory namely respectiuely to their passage hence and enterance into the other world and for their resurrection publicke acquitall in the day of iudgement and perfit consummation blisse Secondly I shew first what erroneous conceits some particular men in former times had touching the possibility of helping men dying in mortall sinne whereupon they prayed for the dead in such sort as the Romanistes dare not doe as for the deliuerance of men out of hell or at least the suspension or mitigation of their paines secondly that they thought that there is no iudgement to passe vpon men till the last day that in the meane while all men are holden either in some place vnder the earth or else in some other place appointed for that purpose so that they come not into heauen nor receiue the reward of their labours till the generall iudgement and that out of this conceit that prayer in Iames his Liturgie grew that God would remember all the faithfull that are fallen asleepe in the sleepe of death since Abell the iust till this present day and that hee would place them in the land of the liuing as also many other like Of this opinion I report Iustine Martyr Tertullian Clemens Romanus Lactantius Victorinus Martyr Pope Iohn the two and twentith and Ambrose to haue been besides sundry other All that which I haue said touching the lawfull and vnlawfull formes of praying for the dead vsed amongst the Auncient no way importing any conceit in them of Purgatory hee passeth ouer in silence as no way able to refute any part of it likewise by his silence yeeldeth that Iustine Martyr Tertullian Clement Bishop of Rome Lactantius Victorinus Martyr and Pope Iohn
flye all are friendes and all are enemies all are tyed vnto her in a bond of amity and yet all are her aduersaries all are of her houshold and yet none are at peace with her all are neighbours and yet all seeke their owne they are the Ministers of Christ and they serue Antichrist soe that nothing remaineth but that the diuell that feareth not to walke at noone day should be reuealed to seduce such as remaine in Christ still abiding in their simplicity for hee hath already swallowed vppe the riuers of the wise and the floudes of the mighty and hath hope to draw in Iordan into his mouth that is the simple and lowly in heart that are in the Church What is therefore the frandulency Maister Higgons so much complaineth of Surely hee sayth it was onely wickednesse of life Bernard complayneth of and I seeme to extend his complaint farther For answere whereunto first I say that I no way extend the wordes of Bernard to any particular kind of euill of life doctrine or violation of discipline but cite them in such generall sort as they are found in him Secondly I say it is vntrue that Higgons sayth that Bernard complained onely of the euill liues of men in his time for in his bookes of Consideration to Eugenius the Pope hee blameth him for medling with thinges more properly pertaining to men of another ranke and sort asking of him Quid fines alienos inuaditis quid falcem vestram ad alienam messem extenditis that is why doe you incroach vppon the bounds of other men and why doe you reach forth your sicle and thrust it into the haruest of other men adding that if the daies were not euill hee would speake many other things Likewise he complaineth of the confusion and abuse of appeales to Rome in this sort Praeter fas ius praeter morem ordinem fiunt non locus non modus non tempus non causa discernitur aut persona That is appeales are made and admitted besides law and right besides custome and order no difference is made of place manner time or cause so that the Bishoppes in all partes of the world are hindered that they cannot do their duties as also of the spoyling of the guides and gouernours of the Church of their authority by exemptions and priuiledges freeing such as are vnder them from their subiection Murmur loquor sayth hee querimoniam ecclesiarum truncari se clamitant demembrari vel nullae vel paucae admodum sunt quae plagam istam aut non doleant aut non timeant Quaeris quam Subtrahuntur Abbates Episcopis Episcopi Archiepiscopis Archiepiscopi Patriarchis siue Primatibus That is I vtter the murmuring complaint of the Churches they cry out that they are mangled and dismembred there are eyther none or very few which either feele not or feare not this plague if you aske what plague Abbots are exempted from the iurisdiction of their Bishoppes Bishoppes of their Arch-bishoppes they of their Primates But hee dissented not from the Papistes in matter of doctrine Surely this is no truer then the rest for it will be found that Bernard hath written that which will not please our Adversaries very well touching speciall faith imperfection impurity of inherent righteousnesse merites power of free-will the conception of the blessed Virgin and the keeping of the Feast of her Conception For I would willingly learne of them whether they will graunt that all our righteousnesse is as the polluted ragges of a menstruous woman that wee must beleeue particularly that our sins are remitted to vs that our workes are via regni not causa regnandi that is the way that leadeth to the Kingdome but not the cause why we raigne that the blessed Virgin was conceiued in sin and that the feast of her conception ought not to be kept In all these things doubtlesse Bernard dissented from the Papists at this day neither did he know or vnderstand any thing of their transubstantiation locall presence priuate masses halfe Communions indulgences the like which are matters of difference betweene vs our Adversaries at this day so that there might be good conformity in substance betweene Bernard and Wickliff his followers though many Articles falsely attributed to him are damned hereticall some things were vttered vnadvisedly by him therefore that which followeth of Falshood Inflexions Pretenses and subtilties is but the bewraying the distemper of Higgons hâ—…e braine who hauing confounded himself in his owne intricate conceipts woulâ—…â—…ke men beleeue other are like vnto him how orderly plainely and sincerely soeuer they handle things The Third Part. §. 1. IN the third part of this Chapter he reflecteth to vse his owne wordes vpon foure passages of mine and professeth that he will detect sundry vntrueths and vanities wilfully committed in the same Wherein the Reader shall finde him as false and as vaine a man as euer he met with The foure passages he speaketh of are these the first that Gerson reporteth that sundry lewd assertions preiudiciall to the states of Kings and Princes were brought into the Councell of Constance and that the Councell could not be induced to condemne them Secondly that they made no stay to condemne the positions of Wickliff and Hus. Thirdly that they condemned the positions of Wickliff Hus seeming to derogate from the state of the Cleargy Fourthly that they condemned the said positions though many of them might carry a good and Catholicke sense if they might haue found a fauourable construction In which of these passages is my falshood and vntruth Doth not Gerson report that sundry lewd positions prejudiciall to the state of Princes were brought to the Councell of Constance to bee condemned and that by no exhortations or entreaties by word or writing the Fathers assembled in it could be brought to condemne them Doth hee not say that they condemned the positions of Wickliff and Hus that they imprisoned some for those errours in the beginning of the Councell and burnt them afterwards Doth he not say the positions preiudiciall to the states of Princes which hee speaketh of were more pestiferous in the life and conversation of men and in the state of Common-weales then those they condemned Doth he not complaine of partialitie respect of persons and the Cleargies seeking their owne rather then that which is Christ Iesus Doth he not say many of the positions of Wickliff might haue had a good sense if they might haue beene fauourably construed Doth hee not protest that he hath no hope of reformation by a Generall Councell things standing as hee found them to doe if there be any vntruth in any of these passages let the Reader censure me as he pleaseth But if all these things be most vndoubtedly true let him accompt of Higgons as of an impudent young man that hath strangely hardened his fore-head as if he had beene a
then matchable with the greatest Rabbins of the Romish Synagogue wheras Bernard some other were matchable with them For answere whereunto let the reader obserue that I neuer call the whole Latin Church by the name of the Romish Synagogue out the faction that prevailed in it therefore I meane not all the Doctours of the Latin Church by the name of the Rabbins of the Romish Synagogue but such onely as serued as vile instruments to advance Papall tyranny superstition error So that though Bernard Alexander of Hales Bonaventura Scotus Lyranus Gerson some other should be granted to haue bin matchable with Damascen Theophylact Oecumenius yet will it not follow that I haue vttered any vntruth for I deny that any of these were of the Papall faction The next supposed crimination is a most iust reproofe of the grosse ouer-sight of Bellarmine where he saith none of the Churches separated from Rome or none of the Churches of Asia and Africa as Higgons restraineth his words could euer hold any councell after their separation which cannot be avoyded by Higgons though it seemeth he would willingly doe the Cardinall some good seruice that he might become fellow Chaplaine with Mathew Tortus For if the Cardinall meane Generall Councels it is not to be marvailed at seeing they are but a part if Nationall or Provinciall it is too childish and may be refuted by sundry instances Whereunto Higgons hath nothing to say but that if Bellarmines wordes be extended to the Greeke Church his fault is vnexcusable seeing that Church hath holden Provinciall Councels since her separation whereof as Master Higgons thinketh he speaketh and not of Generall but that his words are restrained to the Churches of Asia and Africa which could neuer hold any such after their separation In this Apology of Master Higgons there are more absurdities then words For first he can giue no reason why the supposed Schismaticall Churches of Asia and Africa should be lesse able to hold Nationall or Provinciall Synodes then those of Europe Secondly the Greeke Church is principally in Asia so that if the Greeke Church had the power of convocating Provinciall Synodes some of the Churches of Asia were not excluded from partaking in it Thirdly if this were not the common misery of all diuided Churches this infelicity grew not from their separation but from some other cause and then it maketh nothing for proofe of the necessity of adhering to the Church of Rome as to an head to which purpose Bellarmine bringeth it Fourthly that other Churches may hold Provinciall Synodes namely those of Asia Africa it is most evident For first touching the Aethiopian Christians h Damianus à Goes out of the report of a learned Bishop of those parts sheweth that they haue Councels and that they make Lawes in them Of a Synode holden by the Nestorians wee reade in Onuphrius in the life of Iulius the Third In the Councell of Florence we reade of certaine Orators sent thither from the Armenians in the name of the Patriarch of Armenia his Cleargy which could not be done without some Synodall meeting Lastly seeing many Councels were holden in auncient times in shew Generall by such as were Heretiks what reason can Higgons giue why these Churches hauing a subordination of inferiour Cleargy-men Bishops Metropolitans cannot so much as call a poore Provinciall Synod If this be not childish trisling to say no more let the reader iudge how partial soeuer he be And therfore I say now againe as at first that if Bell. mean general coūcels when he saith the diuided churches could hold none after their separatiō it is not to be marvailed at seeing they are but a part if National or Provincial it is childish seeing it is most evidēt they might hold such Councels neither can his yeares dignity or other ornaments Master Higgons speaketh of priuiledge him so farre but that wee may and will taxe his wilfull ouersights as they deserue notwithstanding the boyish pratling of Theophilus Higgons The conclusion of this chapter touching our want of good manners towardes Bellarmines grace and other such lights of the world as shine in the darknesse of Popish blindnesse and superstition sorteth so well with the next part of this chapter which is concerning my inciuility towardes the Cardinall that one answere may suffice for both That I haue not wronged him by imputation of false crimes I hope the Reader will beare Mee witnesse vpon view of that I haue answered in my owne defence The 2. part of the third Chapter §. 1. WHerefore let vs see wherein my inciuility consisteth It is forsooth in aggeration of base odious and vnworthy names as Cardinall Heretike Hereticall Romanist Impious Idolater Shamelesse Iesuite Shamelesse Companion with his idle braine and sencelesse fooleries This is Master Higgons proofe of my inciuility If I make it not appeare to all men that haue their sences that I haue reason to phrase the Iesuite as Higgons speakes so as I haue done let Mee bee condemned of inciuility But if I had just cause to vse him as I did let this foolish flatterer hold his peace Wherefore to begin with the first Shall he charge vs with twenty execrable damnable Heresies all which he knowes we accurse to the bottomlesse pit of Hell may not I call him a Cardinall Hereticke or Hereticall Romanist without note of inciuility Shall he at his pleasure because he weareth a red Hat charge vs with Heresie Impiety for impugning the adoration of Images forbidden by Almighty God and may not I call him an impious Idolater Shall it bee lawfull for him to say that Elizabeth our late Queene of blessed memory tooke vpon her and was reputed to bee chiefe Priest in these her dominions and shall it not bee lawfull for me in reproofe of so impudent a slander and defence of my late dread Soueraigne the Lords annoynted and the wonder of the world to tell the Iesuiticall Friar that he is a shamelesse Iesuite that durst so say Shall he without conscience or feare of God against his own knowledge charge vs with the hellish Heresies of the Maniches touching two originall causes of things the one good of thinges good the other euill of thinges euill and shall it not be lawfull for me to aske the question whether hee be not a shamelesse companion in so charging vs Shall a Iesuiticall Frier be freely permitted in so vile sort to wrong so many mighty Monarches States people of the world as professe the reformed religion may a man say nothing to him without incurring the note of inciuility and want of good manners Shall he charge vs with palpable grosse senselesse absurdities may not we tell him the grosse absurdities which hee vntruly imputeth vnto vs are but the fancies of his owne idle braine Shall hee bee suffered to vtter senselesse fooleries in wronging Caluine other men as good as
not onely a condition but a cause of that perswasion of fayth which they haue yea the authority of the Church is the formall cause of all that faith seduced Papists haue And therefore the distinction of a cause and condition helpeth them not It is true indeed that the Ministerie of the Church proposing to men thinges to bee beleeued is onely a condition requisite to the producing of a supernaturall act of fayth in respect of them that haue some other thing to perswade them that that is true which the Church proposeth besides the authority of the Church but in respect of such as haue no other proofe of the trueth thereof it is a formall cause Now this is the condition of all Papists For let them tell Mee whether they beleeue the Scripture to be the Word of God without any motiue at all or not and if they doe not as it is most certaine they doe not whether besides such as are humane they haue any other then the authority of the Church if they haue not as doubtlesse they haue not they make the authority of the Church the formall cause of their faith and fall into that sophisticall circulation they are charged with For they beleeue the articles of religion because reuealed and that they were reuealed because it is so contayned in the Scripture and the Scripture because it is the Word of God that it is the Word of God because the Church telleth them it is and the Church because it is guided by the spirit and that it is so guided because it is so contayned in the Scripture this is such a maze as no wise man will willingly enter into and yet the Treatiser commendeth the treading of these intricate pathes and telleth vs that two causes may bee causes one of another That the cause may bee proued by the effect and the effect by the cause and that such a kinde of argumentation is not a circulation but a demonstratiue regresse that two causes may be causes either of other in diuerse respects we make no question For the end of each thing as it is desired setteth the efficient cause a worke and the efficient causeth the same to bee actually enjoyed Likewise we doubt not but that the cause may be proued by the effect and the effect by the cause in a demonstratiue regresse For the effect as better known vnto vs then the cause may make vs know the cause and the cause being found out by vs may make vs more perfitly and in a better sort to knowe the effect then before not onely that and what it is but why it is also So the death of little infants proueth them sinners and their being sinners proueth them mortall The bignesse of the footstep in the dust or sand sheweth the bignesse of his foote that made that impression And the bignesse of his foote will shew how bigge the impression is that he maketh but this maketh nothing for the justifying of the Romish circulations For heere the effect being knowne in a sort in itselfe maketh vs know the cause and the cause being found out and knowne maketh vs more perfectly to knowe the effect then at first wee did but the case is otherwise with the Papists for with them the Scripture which in it selfe hath no credit with them but such onely as it is to receiue from the Church giueth the Church credit and the Church which hath no credit but such as it is to receiue from the Scripture giueth the Scripture credit by her testimony And they endeauour to proue the infallibility of the Churches judgment out of the Scripture and the trueth of the Scripture out of the determination and judgement of the Church Much like as if when question is made touching the quality condition of two men vtterly vnknowne a man to commend them to such as doubt of them should bring no other testimony of their good and honest disposition but the testimony of each of them of the other It is true then which I haue said that to a man admitting the Old Testament and doubting of the New a man may vrge the authority of the Old and to a man doubting of the Old and admitting the New the authority of the New but to him that doubteth of both a man must alledge neither of them but must bring some other authority or proofe so likewise to him that admitteth the Scripture and doubteth of the Church a man may vrge the authority of the Scripture but to him that doubteth of both as all doe when they begin to beleeue a man must alledge some other proofe or else hee shall cause him to runne round in a Circle for euer and neuer to finde any way out Wherefore to conclude this poynt let our Aduersaries know that wee admitte and require humane motiues and inducements and amongst them a good opinion of them that teach vs as preparing fitting vs to fayth Secondly that wee require a supernaturall ayde light and habit for the producing of an act of faith Thirdly that we require some diuine motiue inducement Fourthly that this cannot be the authority of the Church seeing the authority of the Church is one of the things wee are to bee induced to beleeue Fiftly that wee require the ministery of the Church as a propounder of all heauenly trueth though her authority can be no proofe in generall of all such truth Sixtly that the Church though not as it includeth onely the beleeuers that are in the world at one time yet as it comprehendeth all that are or haue beene is an infallible propounder of heauenly truth and so acknowledged to bee by such as are assured of the trueth of the doctrine of Christianity in generall Seauenthly that the authority of this Church is a sufficient proofe of the trueth of particular things proposed by her to such as already are by other diuine motiues assured of her infallibility §. 7. FRom the authority of the Scripture which he would faine make to bee wholy dependant on the Church the Treatiser passeth to the fulnesse and sufficiency of it seeking amongst other his discourses to weaken those proofes which are brought by Mee for confirmation thereof Affirming that though I make shew as if it were a plaine matter that the Euangelists in their Gospels Saint Luke in the Actes of the Apostles and Saint Iohn in the Apocalyps meant to deliuer a perfect summe of Christian doctrine and direction of faith yet I bring no reason of any moment to proue it Whereas yet in the place cited by him I haue these wordes contayning in them as I suppose a strong proofe of the thing questioned Who seeth not that the Evangelists writing the history of CHRISTS life and death St Luke in the booke of the Acts of the Apostles describing the comming of the Holy Ghost the admirable gifts and graces powred vpon the Apostles and the churches founded and ordered by them and Saint Iohn writing the Revelations