of the holy Scripture Or will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinions by malice and corrupt intentions Why your selves cannot deny but that they lived most holy and vertuous lives free from all malitious corrupting or perverting of Gods holy word and by their holy lives are now made worthy to raigne with God in his glory Insomuch as their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspition of ignorant errour and their innocent sanctity freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption But by his leave hee is a little too hastie Hee were best to bethink himselfe more advisedly of that which he hath undertaken to performe and to remember the saying of the King of Israel unto Benhadad Let not him that girdeth on his harnesse boast himselfe as he that putteth it off Hee hath taken upon him to prove that our Religon cannot be true because it disalloweth of many chiefe articles which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did generally hold to be true For performance hereof it wil not be sufficient for him to shew that some of these Fathers maintained some of these opinions he must prove if hee will be as good as his word and deale any thing to the purpose that they held them generally and held them too not as opinions but tanquam de fide as appertayning to the substance of faith and religion For as Vincentius Lirinensis well observeth the auncient consent of the holy Fathers is with great care to be sought and followed by us not in every petty question belonging to the Law of God but only or at least principally in the Rule of faith But all the points propounded by our Challenger be not chiefe articles and therefore if in some of them the Fathers have held some opinions that will not beare waight in the ballance of the Sanctuary as some conceits they had herein which the Papists themselves must confesse to be erroneous their defects in that kinde doe abate nothing of that reverend estimation which we have them in for their great paines taken in the defence of the true Catholick Religion and the serious studie of the holy Scripture Neither doe I thinke that he who thus commendeth them for the pillers of Christianitie and the champions of Christs Church will therefore hold himselfe tyed to stand unto every thing that they have said sure he will not if he follow the steppes of the great ones of his owne Societie For what doth hee thinke of Iustin Martyr Irenaeus and Epiphanius Doth he not account them among those pillers and champions hee speaketh of Yet saith Cardinall Bellarmine I doe not see how we may defend their opinion from error When others object that they have two or three hundred testimonies of the Doctors to prove that the Virgin Mary was conceived in sinne Salmeron the Iesuite steps forth and answereth them first out of the doctrine of Augustine and Thomas that the argument drawne from authoritie is weake then out of the word of God Exod. 23. In judicio plurimorum non acquiesces sententiae ut á vero devies In judgement thou shalt not be ledde with the sentence of the most to decline from the truth And lastly telleth them that when the Donatists gloried in the multitude of authors S. Augustin did answer them that it was a signe their cause was destitute of the strength of truth which was onely supported by the authority of many who were subject to error And when his Adversaries presse him not onely with the multitude but also with the antiquitie of the Doctors alledged unto which more honour alwayes hath beene given then unto novelties he answereth that indeed every age hath alwayes attributed much unto antiquity and every old man as the Poët saith is a commender of the time past but this saith he vvee averre that the yonger the Doctors are the more sharpe-sighted they be And therefore for his part he yeeldeth rather to the judgement of the yonger Doctors of Paris among whom none is held worthy of the title of a Master in Divinitie who hath not first bound himselfe with a religious oath to defend and maintaine the priviledge of the B. Virgin Only he forgot to tell how they which take that oath might dispense with another oath which the Pope requireth them to take that they will never understand and interprete the holy Scripture but according to the uniforme consent of the Fathers Pererius in his disputations upon the Epistle to the Romans confesseth that the Greeke Fathers and not a few of the Latine Doctors too have delivered in their writings that the cause of the predestination of men unto everlasting life is the foreknowledge which God had from eternitie either of the good workes which they were to doe by cooperating with his grace or of the faith wherby they were to beleeve the word of God to obey his calling And yet he for his part notwithstanding thinketh that this is contrary to the holy Scripture but especially to the doctrine of S. Paul If our Questionist had beene by him hee would have pluckt his fellow by the sleeve and taken him up in this maner Will you say that these Fathers maintained this opinion contrary to the word of God Why you know that they were the pillers of Christianity the Champions of Christ his Church and of the true Catholick religion which they most learnedly defended against diverse heresies and therefore spent all their time in a most serious studie of the holy Scripture He would also perhaps further challenge him as he doth us Will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinion by malice corrupt intentions For sure hee might have asked this wise question of any of his owne fellowes as well as of us who doe allow and esteeme so much of these blessed Doctors and Martyrs of the ancient Church as he himselfe in the end of his Challenge doth acknowledge which verily we should have little reason to doe if wee did imagine that they brought in opinions which they knew to be repugnant to the Scriptures for any malice or corrupt intentions Indeed men they were compassed with the common infirmities of our nature and therefore subject unto error but godly men and therefore free from all malicious error Howsoever then we yeeld unto you that their innocent sanctitie freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption yet you must pardon us if wee make question whether their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspicion of error which may arise either of affection or want of due consideration or such ignorance as the very best are subject unto in this life For it is not admirable learning that is sufficient to crosse out that suspicion but such an immediate guidance of the holy Ghost as the Prophets and Apostles were
torments which by Arator is thus more amply expressed in verse pavidis resplenduit umbris Pallida regna petens propriâ quem luce corruscum Non potuit fuscare chaeos fugere dolores Infernus tunc esse timet nullumque coërcens In se poena redit nova tortor ad otia languet Tartara moesta gemunt quia vincula cuncta quiescunt Mors ibi quid faceret quò vitae portitor ibat S. Augustine doth thus deliver his opinion touching this matter That Christs soule came unto those places wherein sinners are punished that hee might loose them from torments whom by his hidden justice he judged fit to be loosed is not without cause beleeved Neyther did our Saviour being dead for us scorne to visite those parts that hee might loose from thence such as hee could not bee ignorant according to his divine and secret justice were not to bee loosed But whether hee loosed all that hee found in those paines or some whom hee thought worthy of that benefit I yet enquire For that he was in hell and bestowed this benefit upon some that did lye in the paines thereof I doe not doubt Thus did S. Augustine write unto Euodias who inquired of him whether our Saviour loosed all from thence and emptied Hell which was in those dayes a great question and gave occasion to that speech of Gregory Nazianzen If hee descend into Hell goe thou downe with him namely in contemplation and meditation learne the mysteries of Christs doings there what the dispensation and what the reason was of his double descent to wit from heaven unto earth from earth unto hell whether at his appearing he simply saved all or there also such only as did beleeve What ClemeÌ„s Alexandrinus his opinion was herein every one knoweth that our Lord descended for no other cause into Hell but to preach the Gospell and that such as lived a good life before the time of the Gospell whether Iewes or Grecians although they were in hell and in durance yet hearing the voyce of our Lord eyther from himselfe immediatly or by the working of his Apostles were presently converted and did beleeve in a word that in Hell things were so ordred that eveÌ„ there all the soules having heard this preaching might eyther shew their repentance or acknowledge their punishment to be just because they did not beleeve Hereupon when Celsus the Philosopher made this objection concerning our Saviour Surely you will not say of him that when hee could not perswade those that were heere hee went unto Hell to perswade those that were there Origen the scholler of Clemens sticketh not to returne unto him this answere Whether he will or no wee say this that both being in the bodie hee did perswade not a few but so many that for the multitude of those that were perswaded by him he was layd in wayt for and after his soule was separated from his body hee had conference with soules separated from their bodies converting of them unto himselfe such as would or such as he discerned to bee more fit for reasons best knowne unto himselfe The like effect of Christs preaching in Hell is delivered by Anastasius Sinaita Iobius or Iovius Damascen Oecumenius Michael Glycas and his transcriber Theodorus Metochites Procopius saith that hee preached to the spirits that were in Hell restrayned in the prison house releasing them all from the bonds of necessity wherein he followeth S. Cyrill of Alexandria writing upon the same place that Christ went to preach to the spirits in Hell and appeared to them that were detayned in the prison house and freed them all fâ—om bonds and necessitie and paine and punishment The same S. Cyrill in his Paschall homilies affirmeth more directly that our Saviour entring into the lowermost dennes of Hell and preaching to the spirits that were there emptied that unsatiable denne of death spoyled Hell of spirits and having thus spoyled all Hell left the Divell there solitarie and alone For when Christ descended into Hell sayth Andronicus not onely the soules of the Saints were delivered from thence but all those that before did serve in the error of the Divell and the worship of idols being enriched with the knowledge of God obtayned salvation for which also they gave thankes praysing God Whereupon the author of one of the sermons upon the Ascension fathered upon S. Chrysostom bringeth in the Divell complayning that the sonne of Mary having taken away from him all those that were with him from the verie beginning had left him desolate whereas the true Chrysostom doth at large confute this fond opinion censuring the maintayners thereof as the bringers in of old wives conceytes and Iewish fables Yea Philastrius S. Augustin out of him doth brand such for hereticks whose testimonie also is urged by S. Gregory against George and Theodore two of the clergie of Constantinople who held in his time as many others did before and after them that our omnipotent Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ descending into Hell did save all those vvho there confessed him to be God and did deliver them from the paines that were due unto them and when Clement our countryman about 150. years after did renue that old error in Germanie that the sonne of God descending into Hell delivered from thence all such as that infernall prison did detayne beleevers and unbeleevers praysers of God and worshippers of idols the Romane Synod held by Pope Zacharie condemned him and his followers for it But to leave Clemens Scotus and to returne unto Clemens Alexandrinus at whom Philastrius may seeme to have aymed specially it is confessed by our Adversaries that he fell into this error partly being deceived with the superficiall consideration of the wordes of S. Petâ—r touching Christs preaching to the spirits in prison 1. Pet. 3.19 partly being deluded with the authority of Hermes the supposed scholler of S. Paul by whose dreames he was perswaded to beleeve that not onely Christ himselfe but his Apostles also did descend into Hell to preach there unto the dead to baptize them But touching the wordes of S. Peter is the maine doubt whether they are to bee referred unto Christs preaching by the ministerie of Noë unto the world of the ungodly or unto his owne immediate preaching to the spirits in Hell after his death upon the Crosse. For seeing it was the spirit of Christ which spake in the Prophets as S. Peter sheweth in this same Epistle and among them was Noë a preacher of righteousnesse as hee declareth in the next even as in S. Paul Christ is sayd to have come and preached to the Ephesians namely by his spirit in the mouth of his Apostles so likewise in S. Peter may he be sayd to have gone and preached to the old world by
we may ground our consciences in things that are to be beleeved And this wee say not as if wee feared that these men were able to produce better proofes out of the writings of the Fathers for the part of the Pope then we can do for the Catholick cause when we come to joine in the particulars they shall finde it otherwise but partly to bring the matter unto a shorter triall partly to give the word of God his due and to declare what that rocke is upon which alone we build our faith even the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets from which no sleight that they can devise shall ever draw us The same course did S. Augustine take with the Pelagians against whom he wanted not the authority of the Fathers of the Church Which if I vvould collect saith he and use their testimonies it would be too long a worke and I might peradventure seeme to haue lesse confidence then I ought in the Canonicall authorities from which we ought not to be withdrawen Yet was the Pelagian Heresie then but newly budded which is the time wherein the pressing of the Fathers testimonies is thought to be best in season With how much better warrant may we follow this president having to deale with such as have had time and leisure enough to falsifie the Fathers writings and to teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans The method of confuting heresies by the consent of holy Fathers is by none commended more then by Vincentius Lirinensis who is carefull notwithstanding herein to give us this caveat But neither alwayes nor all kindes of heresies are to be impugned after this manner but such only as are new and lately sprung namely when they doe first arise while by the straitnesse of the time it selfe they be hindred from falsifying the rules of the ancient faith and before the time that their poyson spreading farther they attempt to corrupt the writings of the ancient But farre-spred and inveterate heresies are not to bee dealt vvithall this way for as much as by long continuance of time a long occasion hath lyen open unto them to steale away the truth The heresies with which wee have to deale have spred so farre and continued so long that the defenders of them are bold to make Vniversality and Duration the speciall markes of their Church they had opportunity enough of time and place to put in ure all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse neither will they have it to say that in coyning and clipping and washing the monuments of Antiquitie they have beene wanting to themselves Before the Councell of Nice as hath beene observed by one who sometime was Pope himselfe little respect to speake of was had to the Church of Rome If this may be thought to prejudice the dignity of that Church which would be held to have sate as Queene among the Nations from the very beginning of Christianity you shall have a craftie merchant Isidorus Mercator I trow they call him that will helpe the matter by counterfeiting Decretall Epistles in the name of the primitive Bishops of Rome and bringing in thirty of them in a row as so many Knights of the Poste to beare witnesse of that great authority which the Church of Rome enjoyed before the Nicene Fathers were assembled If the Nicene Fathers have not amplified the bounds of her jurisdiction in so large a maner as shee desired shee hath had her well-willers that have supplied the Councels negligence in that behalfe and made Canons for the purpose in the name of the good Fathers that never dreamed of such a businesse If the power of judging all others will not content the Pope unlesse he himselfe may be exempted from being judged by any other another Councell as ancient at least as that of Nice shall be suborned wherein it shall be concluded by the consent of 284 imaginarie Bishops that No man may judge the first seat and for fayling in an elder Councell then that consisting of 300 buckram Bishops of the very selfe same making the like note shall be sung quoniam prima sedes non judicabitur à quoquam The first seat must not be judged by any man Lastly if the Pope do not thinke that the fulnesse of spirituall power is sufficient for his greatnesse unlesse hee may be also Lord paramount in temporalibus hee hath his followers ready at hand to frame a faire donation in the name of Constantine the Emperour whereby his Holinesse shall be estated not only in the Citie of Rome but also in the seigniory of the whole West It would require a Volume to rehearse the names of those severall Tractates which have beene basely bred in the former dayes of darknesse and fathered upon the ancient Doctors of the Church who if they were now alive would be deposed that they were never privie to their begetting Neither hath this corrupting humour stayed it selfe in forging of whole Councels and intire Treatises of the ancient writers but hath like a canker fretted away diverse of their sound parts and so altered their complexions that they appear not to be the same men they were To instance in the great question of Transubstantiation we were wont to reade in the books attributed unto S. Ambrose De Sacramentis libr. 4. cap. 4. Si ergo tanta vis est in sermone Domini Iesu ut inciperent esse quae non erant quanto magis operatorius est ut sint quae erant in aliud commutentur If therefore there be so great force in the speech of our Lord Iesus that the things which were not begun to bee namely at the first creation how much more is the same powerfull to make that things may still be that which they were and yet be changed into another thing It is not unknowne how much those words ut sint quae erant have troubled their braines who maintaine that after the words of consecration the elements of bread and wine be not that thing which they were and what devises they have found to make the bread and wine in the Sacrament to be like unto the Beast in the Revelation that was and is not and yet is But that Gordian knot which they with their skill could not so readily untye their masters at Rome Alexander-like have now cut asunder paring cleane away in their Romane Edition which is also followed in that set out at Paris Anno 1603. those words that so much troubled them and letting the rest run smoothly after this maner quanto magis operatorius est ut quae erant in aliud cōmutentur how much more is the speech of our Lord powerfull to make that those things which were should be changed into another thing The author of the imperfect work upon Matthew homil 11. writeth thus Si ergo haec vasa sanctificata ad privatos usus transferre sic periculosum est in quibus non est verum corpus Christi sed
calumniators and lyars or a Parrat likewise if hee be taught the words may aswel absolve as the Priest as if the speech were all the thing that here were to be considered and not the power where we are taught that the kingdome of God is not in word but in power Indeed if the Priests by their office brought nothing with them but the ministerie of the bare letter a Parrat peradventure might be taught to sound that letter as well as they but we beleeve that God hath made them able ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the spirit and that the Gospell ministred by them commeth unto us not in word onely but also in power and in the holy Ghost and in much assurance For God hath added a speciall beautie to the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace that howsoever others may bring glad tydings of good things to the penitent sinner as truely as they doe yet neyther can they doe it with the same authoritie neyther is it to be expected that they should doe it with such power such assurance and such full satisfaction to the afflicted conscience The speech of everie Christian we know should be employed to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers and a private brother in his place may deliver found doctrine reprehend vice exhort to righteousnesse verie commendably yet hath the Lord notwithstanding all this for the necessarie use of his Church appointed publicke officers to doe the same things and hath given unto them a peculiar power for edification wherein they may boast above others and in the due execution whereof God is pleased to make them instruments of ministring a more plentifull measure of grace unto their hearers then may be ordinarily looked for from others These men are appointed to bee of Gods high commission and therefore they may speake and exhort and rebuke with all authoritie· they are Gods Angels and Ambassadors for Christ and therefore in delivering their message are to be received as an Angel of God yea as Christ Iesus that looke how the Prophet Esay was comforted when the Angel said unto him Thine iniquitie is taken away and thy sinne purged and the poore woman in the Gospell when Iesus said unto her Thy sinnes are forgiven the like consolation doth the distressed sinner receive from the mouth of the Minister when hee hath compared the truth of Gods word faithfully delivered by him with the worke of Gods grace in his owne heart according to that of Elihu If there be an Angel or a messenger with him an Interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousnesse then will God have mercy upon him and say Deliver him from going downe to the pit I have received a reconciliation For as it is the office of this messenger and interpreter to pray us in Christs stead that we would be reconciled to God so when wee have listened unto this motion and submitted our selves to the Gospell of peace it is a part of his office likewise to declare unto us in Christs stead that we are reconciled to God and in him Christ himselfe must bee acknowledged to speake who to us ward by this meanes is not weake but is mightie in us But our new Masters will not content themselves with such a ministeriall power of forgiving sinnes as hath beene spoken of unlesse we yeeld that they have authoritie so to doe properly directly and absolutely that is unlesse wee acknowledge that their high Priest sitteth in the Temple of God as God and all his creatures as so manie demi-gods under him For we must say if we will be drunke with the drunken that in this high Priest there is the fulnesse of all graces because hee alone giveth a full indulgence of all sinnes that this may agree unto him which we say of the chiefe prince our Lord that of his fulnesse all we have received Nay wee must acknowledge that the meanest in the whole armie of Priests that followeth this king of pride hath such fulnesse of power derived unto him for the opening and shutting of heaven before men that forgivenesse is denyed to them whom the Priest will not forgive and his Absolution on the other side is a sacramentall act which conferreth grace by the worke wrought that is as they expound it actively and immediately and instrumentally effecteth the grace of justification in such as receive it that as the winde doth extinguish the fire and dispell the clowdes so doth the Priests absolution scatter sinnes and make them to vanish away the sinner being thereby immediately acquitted before God howsoever that sound conversion of heart be wanting in him which otherwise would be requisite for a conditionall Absolution upon such termes as these If thou doest beleeve and repent as thou oughtest to doe is in these mens judgement to no purpose and can give no securitie to the penitent seeing it dependeth upon an uncertaine condition Have wee not then just cause to say unto them as Optatus did unto the Donatistes Nolite vobis Majestatis dominium vendicare Intrude not upon the royall prerogative of our Lord and Master No man may challenge this absolute power of the keyes but he that hath the key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth hee to whom the Father hath given power over all flesh yea all power in heaven and in earth even the eternall Sonne of God who hath in his hands the keyes of death and is able to quicken whom he will The Ministers of the Gospell may not meddle with the matter of soveraignetie and thinke that they have power to proclaime warre or conclude peace betwixt God and man according to their owne discretion they must remember that they are Ambassadors for Christ and therefore in this treatie are to proceed according to the instructions which they have received from their soveraigne which if they doe transgresse they goe beyond their commission therein they doe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their authoritie for so much is plainly voyde The Bishop saith S. Gregory and the Fathers in the Councell of Aquisgran following him in loosing and binding those that are under his charge doth follow oftentimes the motions of his owne will and not the merit of the causes Whence it commeth to passe that he depriveth himselfe of this power of binding and loosing who doth exercise the same according to his owne will and not according to the manners of them which be subject unto him that is to say he maketh himselfe worthy to be deprived of that power which he hath thus abused as the Master of the Sentences and Semeca in his Glosse upon Gratian would have S. Gregories meaning to be expounded and pro tanto as hath
unto them in such maner as the Romanists use now to do because the Saints not enjoying the sight of God are not able ordinarily to take notice of the prayers that are put up unto them But manie and verie famous Doctors too among the ancient did hold that the Saints are not yet admitted to the sight of God Therefore manie and verie famous Doctors among the ancient could not well hold that men should pray unto the Saints in such maner as the Romanists use now to doe The first proposition is given unto us by Bellarmine and his fellow Iesuites the second by Stapleton and other Doctors of the Romish Church yet all of them with equall boldnesse agree in denying the Conclusion It is the certaine and manifest definition of the Councells saith a Iesuite confirmed by perpetuall use from the times of the Apostles and by the authoritie of ALL the Greeke and Latin Fathers that Saints are to be prayed unto and invocated ALL the Fathers Greek and Latin teach this saith Bellarmine ALL the Fathers aswell Greeke as Latin perpetually have called upon the Saints saith Salmeron and this is cleere by ALL the writers of the first sixe hundred yeares quoth Stapleton for these kinde of men have so enured their tongues to talke of all fathers and all writers that they can hardly use any other forme of speech having told such tales as these so often over that at last they perswade themselves that they be very true indeed The memorie of the Martyrs indeed was from the very beginning had in great reverence and at their Memorialls and Martyria that is to say at the places wherein their bodies were layd which were the Churches whereunto the Christians did in those times usually resort prayers were ordinarily offered up unto that God for whose cause they layd down their lives Where the Lord being pleased to give a gracious answere to such prayers and to doe many wonderfull things for the honouring of that Christian profession which those worthy champions maintayned unto the death men began afterwards to conceive that it was at their suite and mediation that these things were granted and effected Which was the rather beleeved by reason that the Martyrs themselves were thought to have appeared unto diverse that were thus releeved both at the places of their memorialls and other where Notwithstanding in what sort these things were brought about S. Augustin professeth that it did passe the strength of his understanding to define whether the Martyrs themselves were in their owne persons present at one time in such diverse places so farre distant one from another or whether they remaining in a certaine place removed from all commerce with the affayres of men here but praying in generall for the necessities of suppliants God by the ministery of Angels did effect these things when where in what maner he pleased but especially at the Memorialls of the martyrs because he knew that to be expedient to us for the building of the faith of Christ for vvhose confession they did suffer This matter is higher faith he than that it may be touched by me and more abstruse than that it can be searched into by me and therefore whether of these two it be or whether peradventure both of them be that these things may sometimes be done by the very presence of the Martyrs sometimes by Angels taking upon them the person of the Martyrs I dare not define The first of these opinions pleaseth S. Hierome best who alledgeth for proofe thereof that place in the Revelation These follow the Lambe whethersoever he goeth whereupon he inferreth a conclusion which hath neede of a very favourable interpretation If the Lambe be every where therefore they also that are with the Lambe must be beleeved to be every where From whom Maximus Taurinensis seemeth not much to differ where he sayth Although all the Saints be every where and profit all men yet they specially doe labour for us who have also suffered punishments for us So one Eustratius a priest of Constantinople made a collection of divers testimonies both out of the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers to prove that the soules which oftentimes and in different maners appeare unto many doe themselves appeare according to their proper existence and it is not the divine power assuming the shape of the holy soules that sheweth forth these operations And so strongly did this opinion prevayle when superstition had once gotten head that at length this Canon was discharged against those that should hold otherwise If any man say that the Saints themselves doe not appeare but their Angels onely let him be anathema The author of the Questions to Antiochus commonly attributed unto Athanasius thus determineth the matter on the contrary side Those adumbrations and visions which appeare at the chappels and tombes of the Saints are not made by the soules of the Saints but by holy Angels transformed into the shape of the Saints For how otherwise tell me can the soule of S. Peter or S. Paul being but one appeare at the same instant being commemorated in a thousand Churches of his throughout the whole world For this can neyther one Angell doe at any time it being proper unto God alone to be found at the same instant in two places and in the whole vvorld And Anastasius Sinaita or Nicanus in the selfe same maner It is fit we should know that all the visions which appeare at the chappels or tombes of the Saints are performed by holy Angels by the permission of God For how else should it be possible that the resurrection of the bodies being not yet made but the bodies and the flesh of the Saints being as yet dispersed that these should be seene in shape compleat men and oftentimes appeare upon horses armed And if thou thinkest that thou mayest contradict these things tell me how can Paul or Peter or any other Apostle or Martyr being but one appeare oftentimes at the same houre in many places For neyther is an Angel able to be at the same instant in diverse places but God onely who is uncircumscriptible Whereunto we may further adde those judicious observations of S. Augustine touching this matter If one in his sleepe may see me telling unto him something that is done or foretelling also something that is to come when I am altogether ignorant thereof and have no care at all not onely of what he dreameth but whether he awaketh I being a sleepe or he sleepeth I being awake or whether both of us at one and the some time doe eyther wake or sleepe when he seeth the dreame in which he seeth me what marvell is it if the dead not knowing nor perceiving these things are yet seene in dreames by the living and say somewhat which they being awake may know to be true But such is mans weakâ—esse that when any one seeth a
hath done marveilous things O give thankes unto the Lord for he is good give thankes unto his mother for her mercie endureth for ever Lady despise not my prayse and vouchsafe to accept this Psalter vvhich is dedicated unto thee The Lord sayd unto our Lady sit thou my mother at my right hand They that trust in thee O mother of God shall not feare from the face of the enemie Except our Lady build the house of our heart the building thereof will not continue Blessed are all they who feare our Ladie and blessed are all they who know to doe thy will and thy good pleasure Out of the deepe have I cried unto thee O Ladie Ladie heare my voice Ladie remember David and all that call upon thy name O give thankes unto the Lord because he is good because by his most sweete mother the virgin Mary is his mercie given Blessed be thou O Ladie which teachest thy servants to warre and strengthenest them against the enemie and so the last Psalme is begun with Prayse our Ladie in her Saints prayse her in her vertues and miracles and ended accordingly with Omnis spiritus laudet Dominam nostram Let everie spirit or everie thing that hath breath prayse our Ladie To this we may adioyne the Psalter of the salutations of the Virgin framed by Iohn Peckham archbishop of Canterburie which is not yet printed His preface he beginneth thus Mente concipio laudes perscribere Sanctae Virginis quae nos à carcere Solvit per filium genus in genere Miri vivificans effectus opere and endeth with a prayer to the blessed Virgin that shee would release the sinnes of all those for whom hee prayed and cause both his owne name and theirs to be written in the booke of life Nec non omnibus relaxes crimina Pro quibus supplicans fundo precamina Nostrumque pariter horum nomina Conscribi facias in vitae paginâ Then followeth his first Psalme wherein he prayeth that she would make us to meditate often Gods Law and afterwards to be made blessed in the glorie of Gods kingdome Ave Virgo virginum parens absque pari Sine viri semine digna foecundari Fac nos legem Domini crebró meditari Et in regni gloriâ beatificari His other 149. Psalmes which are fraught with the same kinde of stuffe I passe over But Bernardinus de Senis his boldnesse may not be forgotten who thinketh that God will give him leave to maintaine that the Virgin Marie did more unto him or at least as much as he himselfe did unto all mankinde and that wee may say for our comfort forsooth that in respect of the blessed Virgin whom God himselfe did make notwithstanding God after a sort is more bound unto us than wee are unto him With which absurd and wretched speculation Bernardinus de Busti after him was so well pleased that hee dareth to revive againe this most odious comparison and propose it a fresh in this saucy maner But O most gratefull Virgin didst not thou something to God Didst not thou make him any recompence Truely if it be Lawfull to speake it thou in some respect didst greater things to God than God himselfe did to thee and to all mankinde I will therefore speake that which thou out of thy humilitie hast past in silence For thou onely didst sing He that is mightie hath done to me great things but I doe sing and say that thou hast done greater things to him that is mightie Neyther is that vision much better which the same author reciteth as shewed to S. Francis or as others would have it to his companion Fryar Lion touching the two ladders that reached from earth unto heaven the one redd upon which Christ leaned from whence many fell backward could not ascend the other white upon which the holy Virgin leaned the helpe whereof such as used were by her received with a cheerefull countenance and so with facilitie ascended into heaven Neyther yet that sentence which came first from Anselme and was after him used by Ludolphus Saxo the Carthusian and Chrysostomus à Visitatione the Cistercian Monke that more present reliefe is sometimes found by commemorating the name of Mary then by calling upon the name of our Lord Iesus her onely Sonne which one of our Iesuites is so farre from being ashamed to defend that he dareth to extend it further to the mediation of other Saints also telling us very peremptorily that as our Lord Iesus worketh greater miracles by his Saints then by himself Iohn 14.12 so often he sheweth the force of their intercession more then of his owne All which I doe lay downe thus largely not because I take any delight in rehearsing those things which deserve rather to be buried in everlasting oblivion but first that the world may take notice what kinde of monster is nourished in the Papacie under that strange name of Hyperdulia the bare discoverie whereof I am perswaded will prevaile as much with a minde that is touched with anie zeale of Gods honour as all other arguments and authorities whatsoever secondly that such unstable soules as looke backe unto Sodome and have a lust to returne unto Egypt againe may be advised to looke a little into this sinke and consider with themselves whether the steame that ariseth from thence be not so noysome that it is not to be indured by one that hath any sense left in him of pierie and thirdly that such as be established in the present truth may be thankefull to God for this great mercie vouchsafed unto them and mak◠this still one part of their prayers From all Romish Dulîa and Hyperdulîa good Lord deliver us OF IMAGES WIth prayer to Saints our Challenger joyneth the use of holy Images which what it hath beene and still is in the Church of Rome seeing hee hath not beene pleased to declare unto us in particular I hope he will give us leave to learne from others It is the doctrine then of the Romane Church that the Images of Christ and the Saints should with pious Religion be worshipped by Christians saith Zacharias Boverius the Spanish fryar in his late Consultation directed to our most noble Prince Charles the Hope of the Church of England and the future felicitie of the World as even this Balaam himself doth style him The representations of God and of Christ and of Angels and of Saints are not onely painted that they may be shewed as the Cherubims were of old in the Temple but that they may be adored as the frequent use of the Church doth testifie saith Cardinall Cajetan So Thomas Arundell archbishop of Canterbury in his Provinciall Councell helde at Oxford in the yeare 1408. established this Constitution following * From henceforth let it be taught commonly and preached by all that the Crosse and the Image of the Crucifixe and