but Christ requyres them to be done our part for they be our scores which be thus behind untill we shall have done all that he hath ordayned that we should doe to be partakers of the full fruit of his Passion in order to the cancelling of paines due for our sinns And we must either by our selves fill up what is behind or accomplish these things which want of the Passion of Christ to this effect or our charitable Brothers must by theyr suffering for us helpe us out as S. Paul here sayth he did helpe out the Coliossians by his suffering for them So that if we be fellows in his Passion we shall be fellows in his Resurrection and gloy Rom. 8.17 7. The obtayning of this remission of all sinns and of all paines due to these sinns which are committed after Baptisme is not done with that facility and easines with which all this was done in Baptisme but it is a thing requires much labour and paine Heb. 10.26 For if we sin willingly after the knowledge of truth receaved there is not left an Host for sins Wherefore though it be most true which was there sayd v. 14. By one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Yet the true meaning of that text is that he hath done this in that manner which he in his prudence and justice hath thought fitt that is he hath by that one oblation so perfected them for ever that they to be partakers of this consummated perfection compleated on his part must do all things which he exacts to be done on theyr parts that is believe repent resolue to keepe or endeavour to keepe the Commaundements If thus disposed they superadde Baptisme all is perfected wholy supposing theyr perseverance But if we sin after this Baptisme in which we professe the knowledge of the truth receaved there is now not an Host for sin that is the Host of Christ Crucified which is the oblation consummating them for ever is not left to witt it is not left to cancel and cleanse our sins so easily as before For none can again be baptized in cold water but wee must be rebaptized in the hott water of our teares in the baptisme of pennance for so the Scripture calls pennance in fasting sackcloath watching praying almesdeeds or else we must smart in Purgatory as by Scripture wee shall now prove THE XXV POINT Of Purgatory and prayer for the Dead 1. SOme are so ignorant in the understanding of Scripture that if they find not there the name of Purgatory they presently conclude that according to Scripture there is no such thing as Purgatory This is as great simplicity as it would be to deny the most Blessed Trinity because this name cannot be found in all the Scripture old or new Such men are to be taught that any thing is sufficiently proved out of Scripture if the Scripture can be shewed to contain such principles as cannot be true unlesse it be true allso that there is a Purgatory 2. I say then the Scripture holds forth vnto ut three severall principles all which three must be false unlesse we grant a Purgatory For first if any Scripture teach that although our sins be forgiven us whensoever we truly repent but yet that they are only forgiven so that all the paines due to them be not allwayes forgiven them together with these sins then that very Scripture teacheth us allso that there is a Purgatory because it may often happen that he to whom all sins were forgiven did depart this life before that all the paines due to those his sins were remitted These pains being due by divine Iustice and not being cancelled by any satisfaction made for them in this world it evidently follows that divine Iustice must exact the payment of them in the next world but not in Hell because no man is condemned to Hell who did truly repent for his sin Therefore some other place or state must needs be granted in which such a soule is to pay those temporall punishments which are yet due to her by divine Iustice This place or state is that which we call Purgatory 3. Secondly if any Scripture teach vs that we may live and dye with such sins as be not damnable but only deserve temporall punishment and not eternall that Scripture allso must needs teach us Purgatory which is nothing else but a place in which souls departed suffer only for a time and not for eternity 4. Thirdly if any Scripture teach us to pray for the dead that very Scripture teacheth us a Purgatory For prayers for the dead are unnescessary to those who are in heaven and unprofitable to such as are in Hell Those dead then who can receive help and relief by our prayers must neither be in heaven nor in Hell but in a third place which we call Purgatory My work then is done if I can shew that these three principles beheld forth unto us in Holy Scripture Yet fourthly we shall add severall other Texts in proofe of Purgatory 5. Let us now begin with the first principle and let us shew how the Scripture teacheth us that full often after the sin it self is forgived there do remain some pains yet due even to that sin We are all born in Originall sin This sin is quite forgiven to many children wether it by the faith of theyr parents as in the Law of nature or by Circumcision as in the old Law or by Baptisme as in the new And yet those very infants to whom this sin is forgiuen do notwithstanding for the selfsame forgiven sin suffer the punishment of death due unto them for no other cause but for that very originall sin which was forgiven them This is taught by S. Paul Rom. 5.12 As by one man sin entred into the world and by sin death so unto all death did passe yea truly unto all did death passe even to those innocent Children who have not committed the least offence in the world 6. In the book of Numbers ch 14 The people greviously offended God by murmuring But Moses praying earnestly for them our Lord said I have forgiuen it according to thy word But yet all the men that have seen the signes that I have done in Aegypt and in the wildernesse they shall not see the Land for which I sware to theyr Fathers v. 23. In this wildernesse shall your Carcases lye v. 28. and v. 32 Your Carcases shall be in the wildernesse your Children shall wander in the desert forty years and shall bear your fornication untill the Carcases of theyr Fathers be consumed in the desert And forty yeares shall ye bear your iniquities For as I have spoken so will I doe Note here that God with his own mouth sayd he had forgiven the sin and yet he with the same mouth and breath as I may say tells them there shall be still a just punishment undergone for this very sin for which though forgiven they shall dye in the wildernesse
many nor halfe so cōvincing Texts cā be alleaged against it And yet grāt this and you must grāt all Note that besides these 30. Texts here alledged I have allso all those numerous and most full Texts related at large Point 3. For whatsoever proves that the true Church cannot faile to be a true church proves allso her infallibility For truth of doctrine is essentiall to a true Church If therefore by being fallible and erring the whole Church could recede from the true doctrine of Christ it manifestly follows that the whole Church could faile to be a true Church contrary to these most expresse Scriptures there plentifully alledged 23. Most impertinent is the distinction which our adversaries use to avoide the force of these Texts They say that the Church may be taken in two wayes first for the visible Church containing all beleevers as well reprobate as elect and this Church they say may erre Secondly for the invisible Church which only containes the elect and this they say cannot erre But this is a palpable contradiction if well noted For this invisible Church of the elect which as you say cannot erre is contained in the visible Church in which as you say both reprobate and elect are contained which visible Church you allso say may wholy erre But if the whole visible Church wholy erre then allso the elect contained in it may erre or if they cannot erre thē many in the visible Church cannot erre And yet you cannot find many in any Church visible vpon earth whome you can shew on the one side to have differed from the beleefe of the Roman Church and on the other to have been guarded from errour as those who make the true Church must be Again I have shewed that many Texts here by me cited speake clearly of the visible Church THE SIXT POINT That the Roman Church is this infallible Church and our judge in all points of Controversie 1. THough this Question seemes to import as much as the certaine decision of all our Controversies yet haveing been so long in the former Point we are able to give in a word full satisfaction in this For no man will denye the Church which is proved to be infallible to be the most commodious decider of all Controversies For what can a man wish more to the right decision of his Controversie then a cleare sentence delivered there in by an infallible authority 2. All that can be imagined against what hath been sayd is this That we have not as yet proved the Roman Church to be infallible We have indeed proved the true Church to be so but there seemes a vast labour to remaine to prove the Roman Church to be this true infallible Church and consequently the decider of all Controversies I most earnestly therefore begg of my Reader to note well this one short demonstration and he will see how evidently convincing it is to prove home our full intent even in a word 3. My demonstration is this No Church can be the true infallible Church and decider of all Controversies which teacheth herselfe to be fallible For if any such Church be infallible in all that she teacheth she is infallible allso in teaching herselfe to be fallible And hence it followeth that infallibly such a Church is fallible but every Church in the world but the Romā teacheth herselfe to be fallible wherefore by evident demonstration no other Church upon earth can be infallible But the true Church is infallible as hath been proved by no fewer then thirty Texts therefore by evident consequence the Roman Church by all those Texts is proved the only true Church and our Iudge in all our Controversies THE SEAVENTH POINT That the Chiefe Pastour of this Church is the successor of S. Peter 1. THe old Testament helps vs thus farr in this Point that it teacheth first that amongst the Priests of the old law one was chosen successively to be the highest and chiefe Priest Num. 3.32 The Prince of Princes of the Levitts Eliazar the sonne of Aaron the Priest And Num. 27.21 If any thing be to be done for Iosue theyr Governour Eliazar the Priest shall consult our Lord. At his word shall he Iosue go out and go in and all the rest of the Children of Israël with him By going in and going out all the principall actions are vsually vnderstood in Scripture In those actions therefore God would have Iosue and all the people to depend on the high Priest When then we read Iosue 3.8 that Iosue did commaund the Priests and that Ch. 5. he appointed Circumcision to be ministred and that Ch. 24. he renewed God's Covenāt c. he is to be supposed therin as in all his principall actions to have proceeded according to the above cited Text only executing that which God by Eleazar the Priest had ordeined him to do For example to command the Priests to go with the Arke into Iourdan to administer Circumcision to renew the Covenant with God c. Again when Princes are allso Prophets as Iosue David Salomon and some others were they might have some extraordinary commission to do and order severall things which belong not to the ordinary Iurisdiction of temporall Princes So Kings 2.27 Salomon cast out Abiather that he should not be the Priest of our Lord yet this was done that the word of our Lord might be fullfilled which he spake concerning the house of Helle. Salomon allso as a Prophet by extrordinary commission v. 35. Placed sadoe the Priest for Abiathar 2. Secondly wee have cleerly in the old Testament the distinction of the chiefe Ecclesiasticall and chiefe secular Power 2. Chr. 19.11 And behold Amariath the chiefe Priest is over you in all matters of the Lord that is Ecclesiasticall affaires Then for temporall or secular affayres Zebediath the Ruler of the house of Iudah for all the Kings matters whence it is cleare that the former causes are not matters which aperteine to the Kings 3. Thirdly we have the old law Deut. 17. v. 8. commanding all such causes as are Ecclesiasticall causes to be brought to the Tribunall of the High Priest and his sentence to be obeyed even vnder paine of death I call them Ecclesiasticall causes because the former Text sayth they be matters of the Lord and distinct from matters of the King 4. Fourthly we have out of the new Testament this vnanswerable Text concerning the high Priests even of the old law Matth. 23.2 Vpon the chaire of Moyses have sitten the Scribes and Pharisees all therefore whatsoever they shall say unto you observe and doe it No wikedness of the high Priests his person shall excuse your obedience if he sitt vpon the chaire of Moyses Moyses was not only a secular Prince but allso the first high Priest amongst the Iewes Moyses and Aaron amongst his Priests Psal 99.6 Now those who succeed Moyses as he was high Priest are sayd to sitt upon the chaire of Moyses for as he was the secular Prince of the
which we call austerity of life such as that of Iudith was both great and voluntary as allso that of Rechabites or Sonns of Ionadab how great and voluntary was the austerity of Holy David though a King His knees were weake through fasting Psal 109.24 I am weary with my groaning All the night make I my bed to swimme I water my couch with my teares Psal 6. v. 6. By reason of the voice of my groaning my boanes have cleaved to my skin Ps 102. v. 5. I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drinke with weeping v. 9. His prayers allso farre exceeded any commaund given him Psal 119. 148. Mine eyes have prevented the nights watches that I might meditate thy word I prevented the dawning of the morning and cried And v. 62. At midnight I will rise to give thanks to thee And v. 97. Thy Law is my Meditation all day And 164. Seven times a day I do prayse the. Daniel c. 9.3 of himselfe sayth I did put my face to my Lord God to beseech and pray him in fastings sackcloath and ashes And Nehemiah 9. v. 1. The Children of Israël came together in fasting and sackclaths and earth upon them What the Ninivites did is wel knowne Of Iacob as wealthy as he was the Scripture tells us how sleeping on the ground he used a stone for his pillow and so was favored with that heavenly vision Gen. 28.11 so all Israël is sayd Ioël 2.12 Turne ye to me with all your heart with fasting with weeping and with mourning 5. Now in the new Testament Christs doctrine would have made the great sinners of Tyre and Sidon do pennance in sackloath and ashes Matth. 11. v. 21. He sayth to all He that will come after me lett him take up his crosse Great and voluntary was the austerity of S. Iohn Baptist He shall be great before our Lord. Wine and sicer or strong drink he shall not drinke Luc. 1.15 The Child grew and waxed in spirit and was in the desert untill the day of of his Manifestation or shewing in Israël v. 80. That is from his childhoode untill he was above 30. yeares old He was cloathed with Camels haire and a girdle of skinne about his Ioynes and he did eate locusts and wilde honie Mark 1. v. 6. And he did eate so sparingly that of him Christ sayth Iohn came neither eating nor drinking Matth. 11.18 Of his Disciples often fasting we reade Matth. 9. v. 14. And they were instructed by him of whome Christ sayd amongst the Children of woemen there hath not risen a greater then Iohn Baptist Christ allso promised there that his Disciples should do as Iohns did that is fast often when the Bridgrome should be taken from them 6. They did but what S. Paul taught 2. Cor. 6. v. 4. In all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God in much patience in tribulations in necessityes in distresses in strypes in prisons in seditions To these which all perhaps were not voluptary he exhorts us voluntarily to adde In labours in watchings in fasting in purenesse or Chastity For as we shall be partakers of his sufferings so shall we be of his consolation 2. Cor. 1.7 Mortify your members which be upon earth Col. 3.5 But before I passe hence I must observe what is sayd of Holy Anne Luk. 2. v. 37. Shee was a widdow untill eighty and fowre yeares living even untill that age shee departed not from the Temple by fasting and prayers serving God night and day Behold by what exercises God is served Who commaunded her this The desyre of serving God more perfectly 7. Heare S. Paul of himselfe 1. Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body and bring it into subjection least perhaps whilst I preach to others my selfe may become a cast away or reprobate Who commaunded him Desire of securing his saluation Again Col. 1.24 I Paul who now rejoyce in suffering for you and do accomplish or fill up that which is behind or those things which want of the affliction of Christ in my flesh for his body which is the Church Behold an other reason which was to suffer thereby to satisfy for the sinns of others of which text more when we shall speake of satisfactory good works in the next point n. 6. 8. S. Timothey Disciple to S. Paul having great weaknes of stomack and frequent infirmities in the midst of so great labours did notwithstandin so continually drinke water at all his meales that S. Paul thought it necessary to write to him thus 1. Tim. 5.23 Drinke not yet water but use a litle wine for thy stomack ād thy oftē infirmityes So that you see that before he did not so much as drinke a litle wine though it were the common drinke of that countrey and though he were so weakned by sicknesse and labour Thus voluntarily absteyning from wine so good a creature of God Who commaunded him this abstinence Love of Perfection THE XXIV POINT Of satisfactory good workes 1. THese voluntary austerities of which we spoake in the former point and all such painfull and laborious good workes when they are performed in state of grace are held by vs Catholicks to have a great satisfactory vertue by which the paine due to our sin is forgiven and is more or lesse cancelled as the works are more or lesse perfect For wee teach that after the sin it selfe is forgiven by our true repentance and humble Confession there yet remaines the guilt of temporall paine to which that sin makes us still lyable as I shall prove in the next point which if you please you may reade before this Protestants thinke they much magnify the Passion of our Saviour by saying that by vertue of that alone all sinns and all paine due to all sinns are quite forgiven But first I aske them if nothing else be required on our parts They are forced to confesse something else required for they are constrained to acknowledge First that we must be baptized Secondly that we must lay hould of the Passion of Christ by the hand of Faith Thirdly that besids this faith wee must have true repentance Fourthly they must needs say that allso you must have a will to receave the Body and Blood of Christ Vnlesse you eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood you shall not have life in you Io. 6.53 Fiftly they must needs allso say that either the observation of the commaundements is necessary as we shall shew point 36 or at least a good will and serious endeavour to keepe them He was made to all that obey him the cause of eternall saluation Hebr. 5.9 So that obeying him is required on our parts to have him be effectually to us the cause of eternall salvation 2. By this discourse it is evident that though the Passion of Christ in it selfe be of a sufficient worth and value to satisfy for all the sinns of the world yea of a million of worlds and allso for all the paine that
his pleasure by graunting him a Plenary Indulgence But if our doctrine be truly understood we all require more for gaining pardon even of the least part of the paine still due to our very least sins then Protestants require to the full forgivenes of all the greatest sins that are or can be takē all togeather with all the paine which can be due unto them which is a point exceedingly to be noted it being apparently true 2. For the first thing which we require to gain any part even of the least Indulgence is to have true faith producing true repentance for our sin This alone with Protestants suffices to remit the guilt of all sins whatsoever and all paines due to all sins of which any man can be guilty Doth it do so with us No it is farre from it We say that after this first he must make a true entire Confession Secondly He must moreover stand obliged to make perfect restitution of any thing to which hs is bound Thirdly he stands obliged to performe the Pennance enjoyned him Fourthly if this pennance fall short of satisfying the divine Iustice for the paines yet due to the sins forgiven the sinner stands still obliged to satisfie the divine Iustice by other penall works Now all that we say is that this paine may be pardoned him by Indulgences though not by Indulgences graunted meerly at the Popes pleasure but by Indulgences graunted by him upon sufficient causes which causes he must carefully examine And after the graunt of Indulgences upon due causes you must not thinke any thing is done untill we on our parts have done what is required What is that It is that after such humble Repentance and after such an entire Confession and restitution as I sayd we performe the things expressed in the Graunt of the Indulgence And when all is done the most that we obtaine is to have pardon due to such sins the guilt of which is allready forgiven by our repentance and Confession But the Protestants teach that Faith alone quite frees men for ever of all theyr sins and of all the paine that was due for theyr sins though never so many or so great for after this faith God imputes theyr sins no longer to them 3. Before I prove that the Pope hath power by Indulgences graunted upon just cause to pardon such as duely performe what is enjoyned I further note that the Blood of Christ was of that infinite value that the shedding of one droppe thereof was able to satisfie divine Iustice for all the sins of the world yea of a million of worlds and able to satisfie also for all the paine that could be due for all those sins Wherefore seeing Christ did not shed his blood for us by dropps but by showers hence it followeth evidently that the satisfactions of Christ alone be in a most high degree superaboundant Tell me now is the most precious treasure of all this superaboundancy of satisfactions in order to cancell the paine due to our sins so wholy lost that even the liveing members of Christs body can receive no benefit by this superaboundancy God forbid They be not treasures wrapped up in a napkin Wherefore there must be a power on earth to dispense this rich treasure but yet to dispense it so as becoms a prudent dispenser of the mysteries of God Now who is the highest and chiefest in this dignity of dispensing but he whome we have proved to be the head and chief Pastour of Christs Church to whome it was sayd To thee I will give the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven Matth. 16. v. 19. Feede my sheepe Io 21. v 15. See the seventh Point 4. That such Indulgences as here described may be graunted I prove first because to give thus the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven to S. Peter and to his successours as is there proved is to give power of removing any barr that may shutt us out of heaven whether this barr be the sin it selfe which excludes us eternally if not removed or whether it be the guilt of paine for our sins forgiven which excludeth us onely untill such time as due satisfaction is made for that paine Satisfaction may be made for this paine either by our selves performing sufficiently for this effect such satisfactory workes as we spake of Point 9. and 24. Or which may be performed for us by others For as I may pay my debts by my selfe so I may pay them by a friend 5. And the proofe of this is a second proofe of Indulgences out of Col. 1.24 I Paul who now rejoyce in suffering for you and doe accomplish those things which want of the Passion of Christ in my flesh for his body which is the Church Of which Text see what I sayd Point 24. n. 6. whence appeares that notwithstanding the fullnes and superabondance of Christs Passion in it selfe yet in order to our being made compleatly partakers of severall fruits thereof something may be and often is wanting on our part What is this It is the adjoyning of those satisfactory workes which in that Point we have at large shewed Christ to expect at our hands And untill such workes be performed either by us in person or for us in the person of some other we still stand lyable to the paine due to our sins forgiven Now that an other may offer such workes for us is made evident by the text we cited out of S. Paul affirming that he rejoyced in doeing this deed of charity which consisted in suffering that is in doeing a worke most satisfactory for them and by it to make up or to accomplish in his flesh that which was yet behind or as yet wanted of the Passion of Christ that is what was wanting not on Christs part but on the part o his body which is the Church Now as S. Paul as then confirmed in grace had few sins and many sufferings which he could well spare and give away to pay his brothers debt so had S. Iohn Baptist so had our Lady so the Apostles so the Holy Martyrs and many others But above all Christs sufferings alone had an inexhaustable superaboundance which sufferings although Christ by his ordinary course of providence doth not applie to the full cleansing of our sins and of the paine due to our sins unlesse we doe what is required on our part yet he hath left power to his Vicar on earth upon just causes and with due circumspection to impart by way of speciall favour or Indulgence those superabundant satisfactions of Christ and his Saints unto us that by this superabondancy our wants may be supplied if we duely dispose our selves by his grace to be partakers of that great favour 6. A third proofe of Indulgences out of Scripture is to shew S. Paul exercising in the person of Christ this speciall favour or Indulgence towards the incestous Corinthian Whome in his first Epistle to the Corinthians he had given over to Satan by Excommunication But afterwards