and speaks thus l. de anima C. 58. Seeing we understand that prison which the Gospel demonstrates to be places below and the last farthing we interpret every small fault there to be punished by the delay of the Resurrection no man will doubt but that the soul doth recompence something in the places below Ibid. we make yearly Oblations says he for the dead Origen hom 6. in Exod. he that is saved is saved by fire so that if a man have something mixed with Lead that the fire doth purge and resolve that all may become pure Gold S. Cyprian l. 4. Ep. 2. It is one thing to be purged a long time for sins by Torment and cleansed by a long fire and another thing to purge all sins by patience and sufferings What fire is more clear then S. Augustine and others be with S. Cyprian and Origen here for a purging fire I know Protestants Expound that place of S. Paul 1 Cor. 3. v. 13 14. of the fire of Tribulation in this life but not so S. Augustine in Ps 37. where citing the words of the Apostle he shall be safe yet so as by fire says and because it is said he shall be safe that fire is contemned yet that fire shall be more grievous then what ever a man can suffer in this life and then entring in a most fervent Prayer continues Purge me O Lord in this life that I need not that mending fire 6. Protestants deny Invocation and honouring of Saints But in the first Age S. Denis eccl Hierarch C. 7. says I constantly affirm with the Divine Scripture that the Prayers of the Saints are very profitable for us in this life when a man is inflamed with a desire to imitate the Saints and distrusting his own weakness he betakes himself to any Saint beseeching him to be his helper and petitioner to God for him he shall obtain by that means very great assistance In the same Age S. Clement l. Apost Constit 5. We command you that the Martyrs be in all honor among you even as James the Bishop and Stephen our fellow Deacon have been amongst us for God has made them blessed and holy men have honoured them In the second Age S. Cornelius Ep. 1. exhorteth to beseech God and our Lord Jesus Christ that his holy Apostles making Intercession for you he would purge you from your sins And Justin Martyr Apol. 2. We worship and adore both God the Father and his Son c. as also the company of his followers and the good Angels and we worship them both by words and deeds and in truth even as we our selves have been taught and instructed In the third Age S. Cyprian l. 4. Ep. 9. The sufferings and days of Martyrs we celebrate with a yearly remembracne And Origen in Lament I will begin to fall down on my knees and pray to all his Saints to succour me who dare not ask God for the exceeding greatness of my sins O Saints of my God with tears I beseech you to fall down before his mercy for me a wretch 7. Protestants deny the use of the sign of the Cross and Images But in the first Age S. Denis l. 2. Eccl. Hierarch c. 2. The sign of the Cross is so much honoured that it is often used both in baptism and other Sacraments In the same Age S. Martial Ep. ad Burdegal Remember the Cross of our Lord keep it in your mind speak often of it have it in the Sign for it is your invincible Armour against Satan Tertullian l. de Coron milit c. 3. In every thing we do we sign our forehead with the sign of the Cross of which practice Tradition is the defender Custome the conserver and Faith the observer And in his time he sayes l. 2. de pudicit The Image of Christ bearing a Lamb was graven on the Chalices used in Churches And how famous is the memory of many more Images in the first three Ages as that of our Saviour sent to Abgarus Prince of Edessa of which see Evagrius l. 4. c. 26. Mataphrastes in the life of Constantine S. John Damascon in his book of Images That which the woman cured of a Flux set up in brass at Caesaraea Philippi as witness Eusebius in his 7. Book Ch. 14. So Zomenus l. 5. c. 20. and Damascene again Ibid. a third made by Nicodemus which being afterward taken by the Jews and in mockery crucified was honored by God with many Miracles as is related by S. Athanasius or some other most antient Author of the Book Intituled of the Passion of our Lords Image Besides these Theodorus Lect. l. 1. Collectan maketh mention of one of our blessed Lady drawn by S Luke Eusebius relateth that he did see many antient Images of Christ placed betwixt S. Peter and S. Paul as much witnesseth S. Augustine l. 1. De cons Evan. c. 10. Damasus in the life of S. Silvester writeth that Constantine in the place where he was Baptized Erected Silver Images of our Saviour and S. John Baptist as also others in the Church of S. John Lateran which the first Christian Emperour had never done nor S. Silvester permitted if the practice of the Church from the Apostles had not been such 8. Protestants deny Free will after the fall of Adam but in the first Age S. Clement l. 3. recognit Asketh how doth God judge every man by his deeds according to truth if he have not in his power to do what is commanded if this be held all things are frustrate in vain shall the study be of following better things In the same Age S. Ignatius Ep. ad Magn. If any man do wickedly he is a man of the Devil not made so by Nature but by his own free will In the second Age S. Justin Martyr in Apol. Unless mankind can both fly foul and undecent things and follow fair and good things of his own free will it is without all cause and blame of theirs howsoever things be done S. Irenaeus l. 4. c. 72. not only in works but even in Faith hath Almighty God reserved liberty of will to Man saying be it to thee according to thy Faith In the third Age S. Cyprian in Deut. l. 3. ad Quirin c. 52. The freedome of believing or not believing is placed in the will In the same Age Origen hom 12. in Num. O Israel what doth thy Lord God require of thee let them be ashamed of these words who deny free will in man how should God require of man unless man had in his power what to offer to God requiring 9. Protestants deny merit of Works But in the first Age S. Ignatius Ep. ad Rom. says Give me leave to become the food of beasts that by that means I might merit and win God In the second Justin Martyr Apol. 2. We think that men who by works have shewed themselves worthy c. shall by their Merits live and Reign with him In the third S. Cyprian l.
who in his Book against the Sacramentarians says plainly They believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in vain all these things avail them nothing for as much as they deny this Article of the Real Presence and attach him of falshood who said of the Sacrament This is my Body And he had reason for St. Thomas 2.2 q. 5. a 3. with other Divines teach he has no Spiritual Faith who believeth not every thing little or great Fundamental or not Proposed to him by the same Authority Whereupon they infer that no Sectary upon his own choice adhering to this or that believeth any thing So Tertullian l. de praesc speaking against Valentine says some things of the Law and Prophets he approveth some things not that is difalloweth all whil'st he disproveth some 3. From all this appeareth how idlely this distinction of fundamntals not fundamentals in the Protestans sense was brought in by them it serving to no other purpose then to palliate their divisions at present deceive Ignorants in the pretended succession they claim to in old condemn'd Hereticks whose Errors they will have to be no Fundamentals As M. Menzeis taking Hierome of Prague John Huss Wickcliff the Waldenses and Grecians for true Protestants before Luther to make up an imaginary Succession in the Protestant Church which to do with any apparent shew of Truth 1. He should prove those Sects to have been the Catholick Church spread through the whole world and owned as such by the Fathers of those times 2. Justifie their Doctrine which we find partly in their own Writings partly in the most Authentick Records of the Ages wherein they lived to have been in many things most false erroneous and unchristian 3. Their succession from the Apostles times finding their Bishops and Pastors in the Registers of the Church History or Fathers Neither will he make this good by the Authority of Friar Reiner who speaking of the Waldenses whom he names Lionists says at most even as Illiricus quotes his words some affirm they have been from the time of Pope Sylvester others from the dayes of the Apostles M. Menzeis to make the Argument stronger will have Friar Reiner to say absolutely they were from the time of the Apostles with his ordinary ingenuity but what I pray you concludes he from this Those who said so being Lionists themselves as witnesseth Piliâ—hdorphius So a little before Waldo there arose Hereticks who falsly bragged of the same even as after them Protestants do now But if you or they either sir were in all ages from the Apostles tell us the Authours in every age who marked the succession of your Pastors where lived your people c. then refute the great number of learned Writers who lived when such Sects did start up in a suddain as a Mushrome in a night marking their Rise and noting their Errours which certainly they had never done if such Doctrine had been professed before as that of the true and visible Church But to speak a word in particular of every one of those Sects with what ignorance and falshood M. Menzeis calls them true Protestants you shall presently see And first in John Huss to whose name I am sure he has a more just claim then to his Religion if we trust all the most Authentick Records of Huss his Doctrine I cite not for this the Juridick Acts of the Council at Constance because Popish not Father Gordon of Huntley no less eminent for his Learning then Birth because a Jesuit though living in Prague in Boheme where Hussits most abound and having made most diligent enquiry of their Tenents he found as he witnesseth Cont. 3. de Euch. c. 17. they did hold Invocation of Saints Prayer for the dead the Fastings and Ceremonies of the Catholick Church with free will confession of Sins seven Sacraments c. But I hope he will trust Fox a most firy Protestant speaking thus upon the 2. Ch. of the Revelation What did Huss at any time teach or defend in the Council wherein he did not seem superstitiously to consent with the Papists what did the Popish Faith decree concerning Transubstantiation which he likewise with the Papists did not confirm who celebrated Mass more Religiously then he or more Religiously observed the Vows of Priestly Chastity Concerning Free Will Predestination informed Faith that is without Charity the cause of Justification and merit of good Works what other thing did he hold then is taught at Rome All this he and more in his Monuments that he did acknowledge seven Sacraments and the Popes Supremacy p. 216. and 227. And if he should as yet disown Fox as a private Writer yet must he trust Luther as a man extraordinarily sent by God to Reform the Church and the 14. Apostle The Papists burned Huss says he Colloq Germ. C. de Antich when as yet he departed not a fingers breadth from the Papacy for he taught the same which the Papists do only he found fault with their Vices against the Pope he did nothing To the same purpose Luther has much more Tom. 2. in Assert art 30. and Tom. 3. in Ps 2. But in fine should not Huss himself be trusted better then any his works are extant and perusing them you shall find he did hold seven Sacraments upon the fifth of S. James Transubstantiation in his Book of the Lords Supper Ch. 2. and 3. the Sacrifice of the Mass in his Sermon of Funerals Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead in the same place confession of sins to a Priest in his Treatise of pennance invocation of Saints in his Epistles 22.30.35 Veneration of Relicks upon Ps 115. yea in his question of believing the Popes Supremacie as to his office dignity and power though with this Caveat common to him with Wicliff that ecclesiastical dignity as well as Civil was grounded on Inherent Justice and so lost by Mortal Sin which neither Catholicks nor Protestants do teach Nevertheless M. Menzeis is not ashamed to own Huss for a Protestant so constant is he in professing his Fundamentals which he will have to be in Scripture so clear I insist not so much on the rest yet to say a little of every one Of Hierome of Prague Fox pag. 585. relateth whatever was his Opinion in other things yet stood he constantly in defence of the real Presence and Transubstantiation saying he did give more credit to S. Augustine and other Doctors of the Church who affirmed the same then to any that denyed it Wikcliff again M. Menzeis is not ashamed to call a Protestant who in his own Writings so expresly holds against them 1. Worship of Images in his 9. Ch. of the Eucharist Images says he we adore purely as signs but God we must adore with all our power It is therefore granted that Relicks Images and the Sacraments be with prudence to be adored He did also hold Invocation of Saints in his Sermon of the Assumption into Heaven of our blessed Lady
a General Council as infallible in their Decrees Here either acknowledgeth the Records of the Ecclesiastick History and Writings of the Fathers as witnessing infallibly to us the Doctrine of these ages or else must grant he hath no infallible assurance that this his second ground of Faith is solid and Infallible There being no other way left us without particular Revelation to know what Doctrine the Church did teach and believe in the first three Ages save only the Writings of the Fathers and Tradition of the present Church which consequently M. Menzeis must either here own as Infallible or avouch he builds his Faith upon a sandy and fallible ground The first Reformers standing better to their own Principles then he and of much greater sincerity and learning grant plainly the Fathers of the Primitive Church to hold many things in opposition to them Luther L. de servo arbitr C. 2. and in his Table Conferences C. de patrib Eccl. The Authority of the Fathers is not to be regarded in the Writings of Hierome there is not a word of true Faith in Christ sound Religion Tertullian is very Superstitious I have holden Origen long since accursed of Chrysostome I make no account Basil is of no worth he is wholly a Monk I weigh not him a hair Cyprian is a weak Divine affirming there yet further that the Apology of Melancthon doth far excell all the Doctors of the Church yea even Augustine himself Calvin L. 3. Inst C. 5. It was a custome 1300. years ago that is in the second age to pray for the dead but all of that time says he I confess were carried away with Errour And in the fourth Book of his Institutions Chapter 9. he will stand to no Decision of Councils Fathers Bishops but try all by Scripture alone granting generally all the Western Churches to have defended Popery Resp ad Versipell p. 134. Melancthon on the first Cor. 3. speaks plain presently from the beginning of the Church the antient Fathers obscâ—â—ed the Doctrine of Justice by Faith encreased Ceremonies and devised new Worships In like manner Peter Martyr 1. devotis p. 477. that in the Church Errours did begin Immediately after the Apostles and therefore as long as we stand to Councils and Fathers we shall be alwayes in the same Errours Whitaker cont 2. q. 5. C. 7. it is true which Calvin and the Centurists have written that the antient Church did Err in many things as touching Limbo free Will merit of Works c. Chemnitius in Exam. conc trid pa. 200. most of the Fathers did not dispute but avouch that the souls of Martyrs heard the petitions of those who prayed to them they went to the Monuments of Martyrs and Invocated Martyrs by name D. Fulk in his confutation of Purgatory grants Tertullian Cyprian Hierome Augustine do witness that Sacrifice for the Dead is a Tradition of the Apostles yea in his retentive says Prayer for the dead prevailed within the first 300. years And in his Answer to a counterfeit Catholick That Pope Victor in the second Age did practise Supremacy in the Church The Centurists do reprehend Cyprian Origen Tertullian in the third Century and S. Gregory Nazianzen in the fourth for teaching Peters Primacy as they do also S. Cyprian in the third Century of Superstition for saying that the Priest at Mass holds the place of Christ and offers up Sacrifice to God the Father Sacerdotem Cyprianus inquit vice Christi fungi deo patri sacrificium offerre And generally confess the Fathers of the third Age do witness and that not in obscure terms invocation of Saints videas in doctorum hujus soeculi Scriptis non obscura vestigia invocationis Sanctorum They say further in the second Century S. Irenaeus admitteth free Will even in Spiritual actions and that S. Clement every where asserteth it so that the Doctors and Parstors of that Age were in this manner of blindness say they reckoning out in this number S. Cyprian Theophilus Tertullian Origen Clemens Alexandrinus Justine Irenaeus Athenagoras Tatianus c. As doth also Abraham Scultetus with them Yea Doctor Humphrey in his Jesuitisms pa. 2. and else where Eccl. C. 15. says it cannot be denyed but that S. Irenaeus S. Clement and other Fathers of the first and second age called Apostolicks for that they were Disciples of the Apostles or immediately followed them have in their Writings the Opinion of free Will and Merit of Works The Cenâ—ury Writers and Scultetus Tax for the same Clement of Alexandria S. Cyprian Justin Martyr c. In the third Century they say Origen made good Works the cause of Justification and in the 5. accuse S. Chrysostome for handling the Doctrine of Justification impurely as attributing Merit to Works M. Whitaker saith that not only Cyprian but almost all the most holy Fathers of that time were in that Errour as thinking so to pay the pain due to sin and to satisfie to Gods Justice in so far as Luther on the 4. ch to the Gallathians calls for this Hierome Ambrose Augustine and other Fathers Justice-workers of the old Papacy And M. Wotton in his defence of M. Perkins forbeareth not to censure for this very Point of Merit the undoubted and confessed Writings of Ignatius Disciple of S. John Chemnitius in his Examine par 4. p. 20. affirmeth the Antient Fathers Erred in making Pilgrimages to Relicks of Saints and Osiander with the Centurists Cent. 4. that S. Hierome did foolishly contend that the Relicks of Saints ought to be worshipped For owning Traditions Chemnitius in his Exam. Par. 1. p. 87.89.90 reproves Clement of Alexandria Origen Epiphanius Hierome Ambrose Basil Maximus Damacene and M. Whitaker de Sacr. Script S. Chrysostome as speaking inconsiderately when he admitteth them D. Reynolds in his Concla 1. p. 689. somewhat more moderate leaves the censuring of S. Epiphanius for this to the Church M. Whitgift in his defence against Cartwrights Reply grants Ignatius Disciple of the Apostles to have said of Hereticks They do not admit the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ which flesh suffered for our sins And M. Beacon in his Treatise the Relicks of Rome says the Mass was begotten conceived and born anon after the Apostles time if it be true what Historiographers write Calvin L. 1. Inst C. 4. confesseth in the Primative Church Confession Pennance and Absolution by the Priests and the Century Writers that in the times of S. Cyprian and Tertullian there was used private confession even of thoughts and lesser sins then so commanded as necessary Where any judicious Reader may evidently see how by chief Protestant Authours both the Primitive Church and the Fathers are censured for many Errours Yea and for the very same which are most objected against the Romish Church a most invincible Argument from the confession of our Adversaries That the Church and Fathers of the three first Ages did teach the self same Doctrine with the present Roman Church and