certain words of His only to render Him odious objecting against Him that He saith That the Carnal Form of Jesus Christ was changed into the nature of the Deity whereas all that he saith is That it was changed by the Deity dwelling in iâ— Whence it appears how much credit we are to give to these Men when they alledge here and there divers strange and unheard of pieces and on the contrary scornfully reject whatever their Adversaries bring as for example they did a remarkable Passage alledged by them out of Epiphanius which Passage they refused as supposititious Because said they if Epiphanius had been of the same judgment with the Iconoclasts he would then in his Panarium have reckoned the Reverencing of Images among the other Heresies And may not a man by the same reason as well conclude that Epiphanius was a favourer of the Iconoclasts for otherwise he would have reckoned their opinion among the rest of the Heresies by him reckoned up I shal not here say any thing of their refusing so boldly and confidently those Passages alledged out of The odotui Ancyranus and others Since that time you shall find nothing more ordinary in the Books both of the Greeks and the Latins than the like reproaches that they mutually cast upon each other of having corrupted the Pieces and Evidences wherein their cause was the most concerned As for example at the Council of Florence Mark Bishop of Ephesus disputing concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost had nothing to answer to two passages that were alledged against him the one out of that piece of Epiphanius which is entituled Ancoratus the other out of S. Basils Writings against Eunomius but that That piece of Epiphanius had been long since corrupted and so likewise of that other passage out of S. Basil that Some one or other who favoured the opinion of the Latinâ—s had accommodated that place to their sence withall protesting that in all Constantinople there was but four Copies only of the said Book that had that passage alledged by the Latins but that there was in the said City above a thousand other copies wherein those words were not to be found at all Then had the Latins nothing to return upon them more readily than that it had been the ordinary practice not of the West but of the East to corrupt Books and for proof hereof they presently cite a passage out of S. Cyrill which we have formerly set down where notwithstanding he speaks not any thing save only of the Hereticks that is to say of the Nestorians who were said to have falsified the Epistle of Athanasius to Epictetus but not a word there of all the Eastern men much less of the whole Greek Church The Greeks then charged back upon the Latines the story of Pope Zozimus mentioned in the preceeding Chapter And thus did they bandy stifly one against the other each of them as may be easily perceived having much more appearance of reason and of truth in their accusation of their Adversary than in excusing or defending themselves I shall here give you also another the like answer made by one Gregorius a Greek Monk a strong maintainer of the Vnion made at Florence to a passage cited by Mark Bishop of Ephesus out of a certain Book of John Damascene affirming that The Father only is the Cause to wit in the Trinity These words saith this Monk are not found in any of the ancient Copies which is an evident argument that it had been afterwards foisted in by the Greeks to bring over this Doctor to their opinion Petavinâ— hath in like manner lately quitted his hands of an objection taken out of the 68. Canon of the Apostles against the Fasting on Saturdays which is observed in the Roman Church pretending that the Greeks have falsified this Canon But whosoever desires to see how full of uncertainty the Writings of this later Antiquity are let him but read the VIII Council which is pretended by the Western Church to be a general Council and but compare the Latine and the Greek Copies together withal taking especial notice of the Preface of Anastasius Bibliothecarius who after he hath very sharply reproved the Ambition of the Greeks and accused the Canons which they produce of the Third General Council as Forged and supposititious to make short work with them he says in plain terms that the Greeks have corrupted all the Councils except the First What then have we now left us to build upon seeing that this Corruption hath prevailed even as far as on the Councils which are the very heart of the Ancient Monuments of the Church Neither yet hath the Nicene Creed which hath been approved and made sacred in so many General Councils been able to escape these Alterations For not to speak any thing of these Expressions which are of little importance De Coelis from Heaven secundum Scripturas according to the Scriptures Deum de Deo God of God which Cardinal Julian affirmed at the Council of Florence were to be found in some Creeds and in some others were not it is now the space of some Ages past since the Eastern Church accused the Western of having added Filioque and the Son in the Article touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost the Western Men as senselesly charging back upon them again that they have cut it off Which is an Alteration though it seem but trivial in appearance that is of great importance both to the one side and to the other for the decision of that great Controversie which hath hitherto caused a separation betwixt them namely Whether or no the Holy Ghost proceed from the Son as well as from the Father Which is an evident Argument that either the one or the other of them hath out of a desire to do service to their own Side laid false hands upon this Sacred Piece Now whatever hath been attempted in this kind by the Ancients may well pass for Innocence if compar'd but with what these Later Times have dared to do their Passion being of late years so much heated that laying all Reason and Honesty aside they have most miserably and shamelesly corrupted all sorts of Books and of Authors Of those Men that go so desperately to work we cannot certainly speak of their baseness as it deserveth and in my judgment Laurentius Bochellus in his Preface to the Decreta Ecclesiae Gallicanae had all the reason in the world to detest these Men as People of a most wretched and malicious spirit who have most miserably gelded and mangled so infinite a number of Authors both Sacred and Prophane Ancient and Modern their ordinary custom being to spare no Person no not Kings nor even S. Lewis himself out of whose Pragmatica Sanctio as they call it they have blotted out some certain Articles principally those which concerned the State of France out of the Bibliotheca Patrum the Constitutiones Regiae and the
Bold Assertion of his at once we need go no further than to the very Point it self touching which he proposed it For whom will he ever be able to perswade that All the Fathers have written and said the very same things touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost It is evident that sometimes they will have It to Proceed from the Son also as S. Basil by name hath expressed himself in that Passage of his which is alledged by the Latins out of his Book against Eunomius which Piece yet the Greeks say is forged and as the Fathers of the Western Church have most expresly declared themselves in many places But yet I cannot possibly see how we can say That they have All been of this Opinion I shall not here meddle with those other Authorities produced by the Greeks out of the Fathers which their Adversaries put by as well as they can oftentimes most miserably wresting and stretching upon the Rack the Words and Meaning of the Fathers But that Passage of Theodoret in his Refutation of S. Cyril's Anathema's is so clear and express as that nothing can be more S. Cyril had said in his IX Anathema That the Holy Ghost proceeded Properly from the Son Theodoret answereth That it is both Impious and Blasphemous to say that the Holy Ghost hath its Subsistence from the Son or by the Son If he mean saith he that the Holy Ghost proceedeth properly from the Son as heing of the same Nature with It and as proceeding from the Father we shall willingly agree with him and shall receive his Doctrine as Sound and Pious But if he mean that the Holy Ghost hath its Subsistence from the Son or by the Son we must then reject it as Impious and Blasphemous He could not have thrown by this Proposition of S. Cyril more bluntly or in courser Terms And yet for all this so flat giving him the Lie as it were and his so insolent rejecting of an Opinion that was then received by the Church as the Latins pretend S. Cyril replies no more but this That the Holy Ghost altbough It proceed from the Father yet nevertheless is not a Stranger to the Son since He hath all things common with the Father Why did he not cry out against him as an Heretick as he many times elsewhere doth with much less reason if at least you must needs have it granted you that the Opinion of the Church at that time was That the H. Ghost proceeded from the Son Why did he not take it very ill at his hands that he should in so insolent a manner reject as Impious and Blasphemous a Proposition that was so Holy and so True Why did he not call the Whole Church in to be his Warrant for what he had said if so be it had Really been the General Belief of the Church at that time And how comes it to pass that in stead of all this he rather returns so tame an Answer as seems rather to betray his own Cause and something also to encline to the contrary Opinion of his Adversary For it is evident that neither Theoderet nor yet any of the Modern Greeks ever held That the Holy Ghost was a Stranger to or was Unconcerned in the Son seeing they all confess That these three to wit the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are One and the same God who is Blessed for ever Whosoever shall but diligently consider these things for we cannot stand any longer upon the Examination of them he cannot in my Judgment but confess that the Church had not as yet declared it self or determined any thing touching this Point and that these Doctors spake herein each Man his own Private Opinion only and according as the Present Occasion of Disputation led him to speak where you shall have them contradicting one another in like manner as is usual in speaking of things not as yet throughly examined or expresly determined insomuch that it would grieve a Man to see how the Greeks and the Latins toil and sweat to no purpose each of them labouring to bring over the Fathers to speak to their Side and fearfully wresting their Words whensoever they seem to be but never so little ambiguous and ever and anon accusing one another of having corrupted the Ancients Writings whensoever they are found to speak expresly against them and when all is done leaving those who either read or hear them without any Prejudice very much unsatisfied whereas it had been much more easie to have honestly confessed at first that which is but too apparent that the Fathers as in this so in many other Points of Religion have not all been of one and the same Perswasion And whereas Bessarion that he may clude this Testimony of Theodoret affirms That he was cast forth of the Church for having denied that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Son and that he afterwards publickly confessed his Error at the Council of Cbalcedon where he was received into the Church again all this I say is only a Piece of Grecian Confidence which shews more clearly than all the rest how much this Man was carried away with his Passion and the violence of his Affection to the Latin Church For I beseech you in what Ancient Author had he ever read that Theodoret was I do not say Condemned or Excommunicated but so much as Reproved or Accused onely for having maintained any Erroneous Opinion touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost We have the Acts of the Council of Ephesus where he was Excommunicated We have the Letters of S. Cyril wherein he again received into the Communion of the Church John Patriarch of Antioch and all his Followers of which number Theodoret was the Chief We have the Council of Chalcedon where Theodoret after some certain Cryings out of his Adversaries against him was at length received by the whole Assembly as a Catholick Bishop and was admitted to sit amongst them In which of all these Authentick Pieces is there so much as one word spoken touching this Opinion of his concerning the Point of the Proceeding of the Holy Ghost S. Cyril himself that is to say those of his Party did not at all condemn what he said touching this Particular but he rather contented himself in excusing or if you please in defending onely his own Opinion The Business for which Theodoret was questioned in the Councils of Ephesus and of Chalcedon had nothing in the World to do with this touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost for the Question was onely there touching the Two Natures of our Saviour Christ whom Nestorius would needs divide into Two Persons John Patriarch of Antioch Theodoret and divers other Eastern Bishops favouring in some sort his Person or being indeed offended rather at the Proceeding of the Council of Ephesus against him and withal rejecting several things that were contained in the Anathemas of S. Cyril Now with what face could this Man tell us after all
the other side Ruffinus had some Name in the Church though nothing near so great a one as Cyprian had and this is the reason why the afore-named Merchants have inscribed with S. Cyprian's Name that Treatise upon the Apostles Creed which was written by Ruffinus Besides the Avarice of these Librarii their own Ignorance or at least of those whom they consulted hath in like manner produced no small number of these spurious Pieces For when either the likeness of the Name or of the Stile or of the Subject treated of or any other seeming Reason gave them occasion to believe that such an Anonymous Book was the Work of such or such an ancient Author they presently copied it out under the said Author's Name and thus it came from thenceforth to be received by the World for such and by them to be delivered for such over to Posterity But all the blame is not to be laid upon the Transcribers onely in this particular the Authors themselves have contributed very much to the promoting of this kind of Imposture For there have been found in all Ages some that have been so sottishly ambitious and so desirous at what rate soever to have their Conceptions published to the World as that finding they should never be able to please and get applause abroad of themselves they have vented them under the Name of some of the Fathers chusing rather to see them received and honoured under this false Habit than disdained and slighted under their own true one These Men according as their several Abilities have been have imitated the Stile and Fancy of the Fathers either more or less happily and have boldly presented these Issues of their own Brain to the World under their Names The World the greatest part whereof hath always been the least subtile hath very readily collected preserved and cherished these false Births and hath by degrees filled all their Libraries with them Others have been moved to use the same Artifice not out of Ambition but some other irregular Fancy as those Men have done who having had a particular affection either to such a Person or to such an Opinion have faln to write of the same under the Name of some Author of good Esteem and Reputation with the World to make it pass the more currantly abroad Just as that Priest did who published a Book entituled The Acts of S. Paul and of Tecla and being convinced of being the Author of it in the presence of S. John he plainly confessed that the love that he bare to S. Paul was the onely cause that moved him to do it Such was the boldness also of Ruffinus a Priest of Aquileia whom S. Hierome justly reprehendeth so sharply and in so many places who to vindicate Origen's Honour wrote an Apology for him under the Name of Pamphilus a holy and renowned Martyr although the truth of it is he had taken it partly out of the First and Sixth Books that Eusebius had written upon the same Subject and partly made use of his own Invention in it Some such like Fancy it was that moved him also to put forth the Life of one Sextus a Pythagorean Philosopher under the Name of S. Sixtus the Martyr to the end that the Work might be received the more favourably What can you say to this namely That in the very same Age there was a Personage of greater Note than the former who disliking that Hierome had translated the Old Testament out of the Hebrew framed an Epistle under his Name wherein he maketh him repent himself of having done it which Epistle even in S. Hierome's Life-time though without his knowledge was published by the said Author both at Rome and in Africk Who could believe the truth of this bold attempt had not S. Hierome himself related the Story and made complaint of the Injury done him therein I must impute also to a Fancy of the same kind though certainly more innocent than the other the spreading abroad of so many Predictions of our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Kingdom under the Names of the Sibylls which was done by some of the first Christians onely to prepare the Pagans to relish this Doctrine the better as it is objected against them by Celsus in Origen But that which is of greater consequence yet is that even the Fathers themselves have sometimes made use of this Artifice to promote the Interest either of their own Opinions or their Passions We have a notable Example hereof which was objected against the Latins by the Greeks above two hundred years since of two Bishops of Rome Zozimus and Boniface who to authorize the Title which they pretended to have of being Universal Bishops and Heads of the whole Christian Church and particularly of the African forged about the beginning of the Fifth Century certain Canons in the Council of Nice and alledged them for such divers times in the Councils in Africa which notwithstanding after a long and diligent search could never yet be found in any of the Authentick Copies of the said Council of Nice although the African Bishops had taken the pains to send as far as Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch to get the best and truest Copies that they could Neither indeed have the Canons and Acts of the Council of Nice at this day though it hath since that time passed through so many several hands any such thing in itâ— no not in the Editions of those very Men who are the most interested in the Honour of the Popes as that of Dionysius Exiguus who published his Latin Collection of them about the year of our Saviour Christ 525. nor in any other either Ancient or Modern For at for that Authentick Copy of the Council of Nice which one Frier John at the Council of Florence pretended to have been the onely Copy that had escaped the Corruptions of the Arrians and had for this cause been always kept under Lock and Key at Rome with all the safety and care that might be out of which Copy they had transcribed the said Canons I confess this Copy must needs have been kept up very close under Locks and Seals seeing that three of their Popes namely Zozimus Boniface and Celestine could never be able to produce it for the justification of their pretended Title against the African Fathers though in a case of so great Importance And it is a wonderful strange thing to me that this Man who came a thousand years after should now at last make use of it in this cause whereas those very Persons who had it in their custody never so much as mentioned one Syllable of it which is an evident Argument that the Seals of this rare Book were never opened save onely in the Brains of this Doctor where onely it was both framed and sealed up brought forth and vanished all at the same instant the greatest part of those Men that have come after him having laid aside this Chimerical
Invention being ashamed to make use of it any longer And to say truth that which these Men answer by way of excusing the said Popes is not any whit more probable namely That they took the Council of Nice and that of Sardica in which those Canons they alledge are really found for one and the same Council For whom will these Men ever be able to perswade That two Ecclesiastical Assemblies betwixt which there passed near twenty two whole years called by two several Emperors and for Matters of a far different nature the one of them for the Explanation of the Christian Faith and the other for the Re-establishing of two Bishops in their Thrones and in Places very far distant from each other the one at Nicaea in Bithynia the other at Sardica a City of Illyricum the Canons of which two Councils are very different both in substance number and authority the one of them having always been received generally by the whole Church but the other having never been acknowledged by the Eastern Church should yet notwithstanding be but one and the same Council How can they themselves endure this who are so fierce against the Greeks for having offered to attribute which they do notwithstanding with more appearance of truth to the Sixth Council those CII Canons which were agreed upon ten years after at Constantinople in an Assembly wherein one party of the Fathers of the Sixth Council met How came it to pass that they gave any credit to the Ancient Church seeing that in the Greek Collection of her Ancient Canons those of the Council of Sardica are quite left out and in the Latin Collection of Dionysius Exiguus made at Rome eleven hundred years since they are placed not with those of the Council of Nice nor yet immediately after them as if they all made up but one Body betwixt them but are put in a place a great way behind after the Canons of all the General Councils that had been held till that very time he lived in And how comes it to pass that these Ancient Popes who alledged these Canons if they believed these Councils to be both one did not say so The African Bishops had diverse and sundry times declared That these Canons which were by them alledged were not at all to be found in their Copies Certainly therefore if those who had cited them had thought the Council of Nice and that of Sardica to have been both but one Council they would no doubt have made answer That 〈◊〉 Canons were to be found in this pretended Second Part of the Council of Nice among those which had been agreed upon at Sardica especially when they saw that these careful Fathers for the clearing of the Controversie betwixt them had resolved to send to this purpose as far as Constantinople and Alexandria And yet for all this there is not the least Syllable tending this way said by them And certainly if the Canons of the Council of Sardica had been in those days reputed as a part of the Council of Nice it is a very strange thing that so many Learned and Religious Prelates as there were at that time in Africk as namely Aurelius Alypius and even S. Augustine that glorious Light not of the African onely but of the whole Ancient Church should have been so ignorant in this particular But it is a wonder beyond all belief that three Popes and their Legates should leave their Party in an Ignorance so gross and so prejudicial to their own Interest it being in their power to have relieved them in two words We may safely then conclude That these Popes Zozimus and Boniface had no other Copies of the Council of Nice than what we have and also that they did not believe that the Canons of the Council of Sardica were a part of the Council of Nice but that they rather purposely alledged some of the Canons of Sardica under the name of the Canons of the Council of Nice And this they did according to that Maxim which was in force with those of former times and is not utterly laid aside even in our own namely That for the advancing of a Good and Godly Cause it is lawful sometimes to use a little Deceit and to have recourse to your Piae Fraudes They therefore firmly believing as they did That the Supremacy of their See over all other Churches was a Business of great importance and would be very profitable to all Christendom we are not to wonder if for the establishing this right on themselvs they made use of a little Legerdemain alledging Sardica for Nice reckoning with themselves that if they brought their Design about this small Failing of theirs would in process of time be abundantly satisfied for by the benefit and excellency of the thing it self Yet notwithstanding this Opposition made by the African Fathers against the Church of Rome Pope Leo not many years after writing to the Emperour Theodosius did not forbear to make use of the old Forgery citing one of the Canons of the Council of Sardica for a Legitimate Canon of the Council of Nice which was the cause that the Emperour Valentinian also and his Empress Galla Placidia writing in the behalf of the said Pope Leo to the Emperour Theodosius affirmed to him for a certain Truth That both all Antiquity and the Canons of the Council of Nice also had assigned to the Pope of Rome the Power of judging of Points of Faith and of the Prelates of the Church Leo having before possessed them That this Canons of the Council of Sardica was one of the Canons of Nice And thus by a strong perseverance in this Pious Fraud they have at length so fully perswaded a great part of Christendom that the Council of Nice had established this Supremacy upon the Pope of Rome that it is now generally urged by all of them whenever this Point is controverted I must crave pardon of the Reader for having so long insisted on this Particular and perhaps longer somewhat than my Design required yet in my judgment it may be of no small importance to the Business in hand For will the Protestants here say seeing that two Popes Bishops and Princes which all Christians have approved have notwithstanding thus foisted in false Wares what ought we to expect from the rest of the Bishops and Doctors Since these Men have done this in the beginning of the Fifth Century an Age of so high repute for its Faith and Doctrine what have they not dared to do in the succeeding Ages If they have not forborn so foully to abuse the sacred Name of the Council of Nice the most Illustrious and Venerable Monument of Christianity next to the Holy Scriptures what other Authors can we imagine they would spare And if in the face of so Renowned an Assembly and in the presence of whatever Africk could shew of Eminency both for Sanctity and Learning and even under the eye of the great S. Augustine
reading of these Books That Time hath by degrees introduced very great Alterations as well in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Ancients as in all other things Our Conclusion therefore shall be That whosoever shall desire to know what the Sense and Judgment of the Primitive Church hath been touching our present Controversies it will be first in a manner as necessary for him as it is difficult exactly to find out both the Name and the Age of each of these several Authors CHAP. IV. Reason IV. That those of the Writings of the Fathers which are Legitimate have been in many Places corrupted by Time Ignorance and Fraud both Pious and Malicious both in the former and later Ages BUt put the case now here that you had by your long and judicious Endeavours severed the True and Genuine Writings of the Fathers from the Spurious and Forged there would yet lie upon you a second Task whose event is like to prove much more doubtful and fuller of difficulty than the former For it would concern you in the next place in reading over those Authors which you acknowledge for Legitimate to distinguish what is the Author 's own and what hath been soisted in by another Hand and also to restore to your Author whatsoever either by Time or Fraud hath been taken away and to take out of him whatsoever hath been added by either of these two Otherwise you will never be able to assure your self that you have discovered out of these Books what the true and proper meaning and sense of your Author hath been considering the great Alterations that by several ways they may have suffered in several Times I shall not here speak of those Errours which have been produced by the Ignorance of the Transcribers Who write as Hierome hath complained of them not what they find but what themselves understand Nor yet of those Faults which necessarily have grown up out of the very Transcribing it being an impossible thing that Books which have been copied out an infinite number of times during the space of ten or twelve Centuries of years by Men of so different Capâ—â—cities and Hands should all this while retain exactly and in every Particular the self-same Juyce the same Form and Body that they had when they first came forth from the Author 's own hand Neither shall I here say any thing of the sufferings of these Books by Moths and a thousand other Injuries of Time by which they have been corrupted while all kind of Learning for so many Ages together lay buried as it were in the Grave the Worms on one side feeding on the Books of the Learned and on the other the Dust defacing them so that it is impossible now to restore them to their first integrity And this is the sad Fate that all sorts of Books have lain under whence hath sprung up so great variety of Readings as are found almost in all Authors I shall not here make any advantage of this though there are some Doctors in the World that have shewed us the way to do it taking advantage from this Consideration to lessen the Authority that the Holy Scriptures of themselves ought to have in the esteem of all Men under this colour That even in these Sacred Writings there are sometimes found varieties of Reading which yet are of very little or no Importance as to the Ground-work If we would tread in these Mens steps and apply to the Writings of the Fathers what they speak and conclude of the Scriptures we could do it upon much better terms than they there being no reason in the Earth to imagine but that the Books of the Ancient Writers have suffered very much more than the Scriptures have which have always been preserved in the Church with much greater care than any other Books have been whatsoever and which have been learnt by all Nations and translated into all Languages which all Sects have retained both Orthodox and Hereticks Catholicks and Schismaticks Greeks and Latins Moscovites and Ethiopians observing diligently the Eye and the Hand one of the other so that there could not possibly happen any remarkable Alteration in them but that presently the whole World as it were would have exclaimed against it and have made their Complaints to have resounded throughout the Universe Whereas on the contrary the Writings of the Fathers have been kept transcribed and read in as careless a manner as could be and that too but by very few and in few Places being but rarely understood by any save those of the same Language which is the cause that so many Faults have both the more easily crept into them and likewise are the more hard to be discovered Besides that the particular Stile and Obscurity of some of them renders the Errours the more important As for example Take me a Tertullian and you shall find that one little Word added or taken away or altered never so little or a Full-point or Comma but out of its place will so confound the Sense that you will not be able to find what he would have Whereas in Books of an easie smooth clear Style as the Scriptures for the most part are these Faults are much less prejudicial seeing they cannot in any wise so darken the Sense but that it will be still easie enough to apprehend it But I shall pass by all these minute Punctilioes as more suitable to the Enquiries of the Pyrrhonians and Academicks whose Business it is to question all things than of Christians who onely seek in simplicity and sincerity of heart whereon to build their Faith I shall onely here take notice of such alterations as have been knowingly and voluntarily made in the Writings of the Fathers purposely by our holding our peace to disguise their Sâ—nse or else to make them speak more than they meant And this Forgery is of two sorts The one hath been made use of with a good intention the other out of malice Again The one hath been committed in Times long since past the other in this last Age in our own days and the days of our Fathers Lastly the one is in the Additions made to Authors to make them speak more than they meant the other in subtracting from the Author to eclipse and darken what he would be understood to say Neither ought we to wonder that even those of the honest innocent primitive Times also made use of these Deceits seeing that for a good end they made no great scruple to forge whole Books taking a much stranger and bolder course in my opinion than the other For without all doubt it is a greater Crime to coin false Money than to clip or a little alter the true This Opinion hath always been in the World That to settle a certain and assured estimation upon that which is good and true that is to say upon what we account to be such it is necessary that we remove out of the way whatsoever may be a hinderance to it
had been written against the See of Rome and he commanded the very same thing also in the VIII Council which is accounted by the Latines for a General Council It is impossible but that in these Fires very many Pieces must needs have perished which might have been of good use to us for the discovering what the opinion of the Ancients was whether touching Images which was the business of the VII Council or that other Controversie touching the Power of the Pope which was the principal Point debated in the Synod held by Photius some of whose Pieces they for the self same reason do at this day keep at Rome under Lock and Key which doubtless they would long ere this have published had they but made as much for the Pope as in all probability they make against him This rigorous proceeding against Books came at length to that height as that Leo X. at the Council of Lateran which brake up An. 1518. decreed That no Book should be printed but what had first been diligently examined at Rome by the Master of the Palace in other places by the Bishop or some other person deputed by him to the same purpose and by the Inquisitor under this penalty That all Book sellers offending herein should forfeit their Books which should be presently burnt in publick and should pay a hundred Ducats when it should be demanded towards the Fabrick of S. Peter a kind of punishment this which we find no examples of in all the Canons of the Ancient Church and should also be suspended from exercising his Function for the space of a whole year This is a General Sentence and which comprehendeth as well the Works of the Fathers as of any others as appeareth plainly by this that the Bishop of Malfi having given in his opinion saying that he concurred with them in relation to New Authors but not to the Old all the rest of the Fathers voted simply for all neither was there any Limitation at all added to this Decree of the Council This very Decree hath been since strongly confirmed by the Council of Trent which appointed also certain persons to take a Review of the Books and Censures and to make a Report of them to the Company To the end that there might be a separation made betwixt the good Grain of Christian Verity and the Darnel of strange Doctrines That is in plain terms that they might blot out of all manner of Books whatsoever relished not well with the gust of the Church of Rome But these Fathers having not the leisure themselves to look to this Pious Work appointed certain Commissaries who should give an account of this matter to the Pope whence afterward it came to pass that Pope Pius IV. first and afterward Sixtus V. and Clement VIII published certain Rules and Indexes of such Authors and Books as they thought fit should be either quite abolished or purged only and have given such strict order for the printing of Books as that in those Countries where this order is observed there is little danger that ever any thing should be published that is either contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome or which maketh any thing for their Adversaries All these Instructions which are too long to be inserted here may be seen at the end of the Council of Trent where they are usually set down at large And in order to these Rules they have since put forth their Indices Expurgatorii as they call them namely that of the Low Countries and of Spain and other places where these Gallants come with their Razor in their hand and sit in judgment upon all manner of Books rasing out and altering as they please Periods Chapters and whole Treatises also often times and that too in the Works of those Men who for the most part were born and bred up and dyed also in the Communion of their own Church If the Church for eight or nine hundred years since had so sharp Razors as these men now have it is then a vain thing for us to search any higher what the judgment of the Primitive Christians was touching any particular Point for whatsoever it was it could not have escaped the hands of such Masters And if the Ancient Church had not heretofore any such Institution as this why then do we who pretend to be such Observers of Antiquity practise these Novelties I know very well that these men make profession of reforming only the Writings of the Moderns but who sees not that this is but a Cloak which they throw over themselves lest they should be accused as guilty of the same cruelty that Jupiter is among the Poets for having behaved himself so insolently against his own Father Those Pieces which they raze so exactly in the Books of the Moderns are the cause of the greater mischief to themselves when they are found in the Writings of the Ancients as sometimes they are For what a senseless thing is it to leave them in where they hurt most and to raze them out where they do little hurt The Inquisition at Madrid puts out these words in the Index of Athanasius Adorari solius Dei est that is God alone is to be worshipped and yet notwithstanding these words are still expresly found in the Text of Athanasius The same Father saith That there were some other Books besides those which he had before set down which in truth were not of the Canon and which the Fathers had ordained should be read to those who were newly come into the Christian Communion and desired to be instructed in the word of Piety reckoning in this number the Wisdom of Solomon Ecclesiâ—sticus Judith Esther Tobit and some other Nevertheless these very Censâ—rs put out in the †Index of Athanasius his Works those words which affirm that the said Books are not at all Canonical In the Index of St. Augustine they put out these wâ—rds Christ hâ—th given the sign of his Body which yet are evidently to be seen in the Text of this Father in his Book against Adimantus Chap. 12. They put out in like manner these words Augustine accounted the Eucharist necessary to be administred to Infants which opinion of S. Augustine is very frequently found expressed either in these very words or the like throughout his Works as we shall see hereafter They likewise put out these words We ought not to build Temples to Angels and yet the very Text of S. Augustine saith If we should erect a Temple of Wood or of Stone to any of the holy Angels should we not be Anathematized And this is the practice of the Censors both in the Low Countries and in Spain in many other particulars which we shall not here set down Now if thou cuttest off such Sentences as these out of the Indexes of these Holy Fathers why dost thou not as well raze them out of the Text also Or if thou leavest
Word and God In which words he seems to intimate That Jesus Christ hath appointed some one of the Angels to hear our Prayers and that by him we ought to present them to God Whereas Origen says the clean contrary namely That we ought to send up to God who is above all things every of our Demands Prayers and Requests by the great High-Priest the Living Word and God who is above all the Angels You have a sufficient discovery also of the Affections of Translators who many times make their Authors speak more than they meant in Jo. Christophorson's Translation of the Ecclesiastical Historians as likewise in most of the Translators of these later Times excepting only some very few of the more moderate sort But we shall not need to insist any longer on this Particular which hath been sufficiently proved already by the several Parties of both Sides discovering the falseness of their Adversaries Translations as every Man must needs know that is any whit conversant in these kind of Writings where you shall meet with nothing more frequent than these mutual Reprehensions of each other Now in the midst of such distraction and contrariety of Judgments how can a Man possibly assure himself that he hath the true sense and meaning of the Fathers unless he hear them speak in their own Language and have it from their own mouth I shall here lay down then for a most sure Ground and undeniable Maxime That to be able rightly to apprehend the Judgment and Sense of the Fathers it is necessary that we first understand the Language they write in and that too not slightly and superficially but exactly and fully there being in all Languages certain peculiar Terms and Idioms familiarly used by the Lâ—arned which no Man shall ever be able to understand throughly and clearly that hath but a superficial knowledge of the said Languages and hath not dived even to the depth and very bottom of them If you would see how necessary the knowledge of an Authors Language is and how prejudâ—cial the want of it do but turn to that Passage of Theodoret where speaking of the Eucharist he saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Protestants and all their Advâ—râ—â—ries before Cardinal Perron interpret this place thus The Mystical Symbols after Consecration do not leave their proper Nature for they continue in their first Substance Figure and Form Now what can be said more expresly against Transubstantiation But yet the above-named Cardinal having it seems consulted those old Friends of his among the Grammarians who had heretofore taught him that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified to smoak or evaporate will needs perswade us that this Passage is to be interpreted otherwise namely That the Signs in the Eucharist continue in the figure and form of their first Substance which would be tacitely and indirectly to allow Transubstantiation Now it is true that this Exposition is contrary not onely to the Design and purpose of the Author but to the usual way of speaking also among the Greeks But in case you had not exact skill in the Language how should you be able to judge of this Interpretation especially seeing it put upon you with so much confidence and unparallel'd boldness according to the ordinary custom of this Doctor who never affirms or recommends any thing to us more confidently than when it is most doubtful and uncertain It is out of the same rare and unheard of Grammar that the said Cardinal hath elsewhere taken upon him to give us that notable Corrâ—ction of his of the Inscription of an Epistle written by the Emperour Constantine to Miltiaâ—es Bishop of Rome set down in the Tenth Boâ—k of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History reading it thus Constantinus Augustus to Miltiades Bishop of the Romans wisheth long time or long opportunity whereas all Copies both Manuscript and Printed have it Constantinus Augustus to Miltiades Bishop of the Romans and to Mark fearing I suppose lest some might accuse the Emperour of not understanding himself aright in making this Mark here Companion to the Pope who in all things ought to march without a Copesmate I should never have done if I should but go about to set down all those other Passages in which he hath used the same Arts in wresting the words of the Ancients to a wrong sense which otherwise would seem to make for the Protestants whence it may plainly appear how necessary the knowledge of the Languages is for the right understanding of the Sense of the Fathers So that in my judgment the Result of all this will clearly be that as we have before said it is a difficult thing to come to the right understanding of them For who knows not what pains it will cost a Man to attain to a perfect knowledge of these two Tongues what Parts are necessarily required in this case A happy Memory a lively Conceit good bringing up continual pains-taking much and diligent Reading and the like all which things do very rarely meet in any one Person But yet the truth of this Assertion of ours is clearly proved also by the continual Debates and Disputes of those who though they have referred the Judgment of their Differences to the Decision of the Fathers â—o yet noâ—â—â—thstanding still implead each other at their Bâ—â— and cannot possibly be brought to any Agreement 〈…〉 Many of the Writers of the Church of Râ—me objâ—ct â—gainst the Protestants as an Argument of the obscuâ—â—y of the Scriptures the Controversies that are beâ—â—â—xâ— themselves and the Lutherans against the Calvinists touching the Eucharist and of the Calvinists against the Lutherans and the Arminians in the Point of Predestinaâ—ion If this Argument of theirs be of any force at all who sees not that it clearly proves that which we maintain in this particular For the Greeks and the Latius who both of them make profession of submitting themselves to the Authority of the Fathers and to plead all their Causes before them have not as yet been able to come to any Agreement Do but observe the Passages betwixt these two at the Council of Florence where the strongest and ablest Champions on both Sides were brought into the Lists how they wrangled out whole Sessions about the Exposition of a certain short Passage in the Council at Ephesus and some other the like out of Epiphanius S. Basil and others and how after all their Disputes how clearly and powerfully soever each Party made their vaunts the Business was carried on their Side they have yet left us the Sense of the Fathers much more dark and obscure than it was before their Contestations having but rendred the Business much more perplexed each Side having indeed very much appearance of Reason in what they urge against their Adversaries but very little solidity in what they have said severally for themselves Certainly the Latins who are thought to have had the better Cause of the two and who upon a certain
Passage of S. Basil alledged by themselves triumphed as if they had got the day baffling and affronting the Greeks in a very disdainful manner and giving them very harsh Language also used notwithstanding such an odd kind of Logick to perswade the receiving of the Exposition which they gave as that even at this day in the last Edition of S. Basil's Works Printed at Paris and Revised by Fronto Ducaeus the Latin Translation follows in this Particular not their Exposition but that of the Greek Schismaticks And some of the Protestants having also had the same success in some particular Points controverted betwixt themselves it lies open to every Mans observation how much obscurity there is found in the Passages cited by both Sides If Tertullian was of the Opinion of the Church of Rome in the Point concerning the Eucharist what could he have uttered more dark and obscure than this Passage is of his in his Fourth Book against Marcion Christ having taken Bread and distributed it to his Disciples made it his Body in saying This is my Body that is to say The Figure of my Body If S. Augustine held Transubstantiation what can the meaning be of these words of his The Lord stuck not to say This is my Body when he delivered onely the Sign of his Body If these Passages and an infinite number of the like do really and truly mean that which Cardinal Perron pretends they do then was there never any thing of obscurity either in the Riddles of the Theban Sphinx or in the Oracles of the Sibyls If you look on the other side you shall meet with some other Passages in the Fathers which seem to speak point-blank against the Protestants as for example where they say expresly That the Bread changeth its nature and That by the Almighty Power of God it becomes the Flesh of the Word and the like And so in all the Controversies betwixt them they produce such Passages as these both on the one side and on the other some whereof seem to be irreconcileable to the Sense of the Church of Rome and some other to the Sense of their Adversaries If Cardinal Perron and those other subsime Wits of both Parties can have the confidence to affirm that they find no difficulty at all in these Particulars we must needs think that either they speak this but out of a Bravado setting a good face upon a bad matter or else that both the Wits and Eye-sight of all the rest of the World are marvelous dull and feeble in finding nothing but Darkness there where these Men see nothing but Light But yet for all this if there be not obscurity in these Writings of the Fathers and that very much too how comes it to pass that even these very Men find themselves ever and anon so tormented to find out the meaning of them How comes it to pass that they are fain to use so many words and make tryal of so many tricks and devices for the clearing of them Whence proceeds it that so often for fear of not being able to satisfie their Readers they are forced to cry down either the Authors or the Pieces out of which their Adversaries produce their Testimonies What strange Sentences and Passages of Authors are those that require more time and trouble in the clearing Them than in deciding the Controversie it self and which multiply Differences rather than determine them oftentimes serving as a Covert and retreating-place to both Parties The sense and meaning of these words is debated This is my Body For the explaining of them there is brought this Passage out of Tertullian and that other out of S. Augustine Now I would have any Man speak in his conscience what he thinks whether or not these words are not as clear or clearer than those Passages which they alledge out of these Fathers as they are explained by the different Parties I desire Reader no other judge than thy self whosoever thou art only provided that thou wilt but vouchsafe to read and examine that which is now said upon these places and withal consider the strange Turnings and Windings-about that they make us take to bring us to the right sense and meaning of them In a word if the most able Men that are did not find themselves extreamly puzled and perplexed in distinguishing the Legitimate Writings of the Fathers from the Spurious it is not likely that the Censors of the Low-Countries who are all choice pickt Men should be forced to shew us so ill an Example of finding a way to help our selves when the Authority of the Ancients is strongly pressed against us by our Adversaries as they do in excusing the expressions of the Fathers sometimes by some handsomlâ— contrived invention and imputting some convenient probable sense upon them That which hath been said I am confident is sufficient to convince any reasonable Man of the Truth of this Assertion of ours namely that it is a very hard matter to understand the sense and opinions of the Fathers by their Books But that we may leave no doubt behind us let us briefly consider some few of the principal Causes of this Difficulty Certainly the Fathers having been Wise Men all of them both spoke and wrote to be understood insomuch that having both the will and the ability to do it it seemeth very strange that they should not be able to attain to the end they aimed at But we must here call to mind what we have said before namely that these Controversies of ours being not in their time yet sprung up they had no occasion neither was it any of their design either to speak or write any thing of them For these Sages stirred up as few doubts in matters of Religion as they could Besides that their times furnished them with sufficient matter of Disputes in Points which were then in agitation without so much as thinking of Ours now on foot And they have very clearly delivered their sense in all those Controversiâ—s which they have handled Even Tertullian himself who is the most obscure amongst them all hath notwithstanding delivered himself so clearly in the debates betwixt him and Marcion and others that there is no place left for a Man to doubt what his opinions were in the points debated of I am therefore fully perswaded that if they had lived in these times or that the present Controversies had been agitated in their times they would have delivered their judgment upon them very plainly and expresly But seeing they have not touched upon them but only by the By and as they câ—me accidentally into their way rather than upon any set purpose we are not to think it strange if we find them not to have spoken out and given their sense clearly as to these Debates of ours For as any Man may easily observe in the ordinary course of things those things that happen without design are never clear and full but ambiguous and doubtful and oftentimes
in the expressions of the Fathers and this defect proceedeth from the weakness of their Passion only and not from any design or purpose that they had of speaking thus rather than otherwise For seeing that all manner of passions do disturb and in some small measure as it were confound the Judgment and seeing it is hard for a Man how holy soever he be to go through with a Disputation without some alteration in his Temper especially if it be of any Importance as all those touching Religion are we are not to wonder at it if in these Cases we sometimes find the language of the Fathers something mixed and appearing of several colours such as Passion usually dyeth both the Countenance and the Words withal of such persons as it hath seised on But besides this Confusion which is caused meerly by the Agitation of the spirits without the Fathers so much as thinking of it we are here further to take notice that the proper design and the Law of the Method that is observed in disputations is the cause of our incountring with so many and so great Difficulties For their opinion was that in this kind of Writing it was lawful for them to say and make use of any thing that might advance their Cause although it were otherwise but Light and Trivial or perhaps also contrary to what themselves believed and so on the other side to conceal and reject whatsoever might prejudice their Cause though otherwise True and allowable Now that this Observation may not seem strange and incredible as coming out of my mouth let us hear what they themselves say in this particular And first let us hear S. Hierome who was the greatest Critick of them all and who by often exercising the strength of his admirable Wit both by himself and with others hath observed more touching the Style Method Natural Disposition and Opinions of the Fathers than any other We have learned together saith He writing to Pammachius that there are divers sorts of Discourse and among the rest that it is one thing to write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Disâ—utation and another thing to write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of Instruction In the former of these the Disputes are free and rambling where in answering an Adversary and proposing one while one thing and another while another a Man argueth as he pleaseth speaking one thing and doing another shewing bread as it is in the proverb and holding a stone in his hand Whereas in the second kind an open Forehead and that I may so speak Ingenuity is necessarily required It is one thing to make Inquiries and another to deâ—ine in the one we must fight in the other we must teâ—ch Thou seest me in a combat and in peril of my life and dost thou come with thy grave Instructions like some Reverend Schoolmaster Do not wound me by stealth and from whence I least expected it Let thy sword strike directly at me it is a shame for thee to wound thy Enemy by guile and iâ—t by strength as if it were not a piece of the greatest mastery in fighting to threaten one part but hit another I beseech you read Demosthenes read Tully and lest perhaps you should refuse Oratours whose profession it is to propose things rather probatâ—e thâ—n true read Plato Theophrastus Xenophon Aristoâ—le and others who springing all from Socrates his Fountain as so many several Rivolets ran several ways what can you find in them that is clear and open what word in them but hath its Design and what Design but of Victory only Origen Methodius Eusebius Apollinaris have written largely against Celsus and Porphyrie do but observe what manner of Arguments and how slippery Problems they made use of for the subverting of those works which had been wrought by the spirit of the Devil and how that being sometimes forced to speak they alledged against the Gentiles not that which they believed but that which was most necessary to be said I shall not here speak any thing of the Latin Writers as Tertullian Cyprian Minucius Victorinus Lactantius and Hilary lest I might seem rather to accuse others than to defend my self Thus S. Hierome For as for that which he presently addeth touching St. Paul whom he believeth to have practised the very same Arts this is no proper place to examine either the Truth or the Use of this Opinion of his â—or as much as our purpose is here to treat of the Fathers only Now you see that he testifieth clearly that they were wont in their Disputations sometimes to say one thing and believe another to shew us Bread and keep a Stone in their hand to threaten one part and to hit another and that they were sometimes constrained to fit their words not to their own proper Thoughts but to the present Necessity And the very same thing is confessed also by Athanasius speaking of Dionysius Alexandrinus as hath been said before namely that he wrote not simply and plainly as giving us an account of his own Belief but that he was moved and as it were forced to speak as he did by reason of the Occasion and of the Person he disputed against The like account doth S. Basil give of a certain Passage of Gregorius Neocaesari 〈◊〉 answering for him with this distinction That he spake not in that place Dogmatically but only by way of Oeconomy or Dispensation By which Term is meant that a Man keepeth to himself what he believeth and proposeth some other thing lying wide of his own opinion either this way or that way being concerned so to do out of some certain particular considerations And as we sometimes see that the Water ascendeth being forced to mount up to fill some space which otherwise would remain void Now you will not I hope conclude from hence that this is its natural and ordinary motion In like manner was it with the Fathers who being sometimes distressed and hard put to it in Disputation for to avoid as I may so speak some certain Vacuum which they were afraid of they sometimes left their Natural Motion and their proper sense and opinion and took up some other contrary one according to the Necessity of the present occasion And indeed although St. Hienome had not given us this notice the thing it self would evidently enough have appeared out of their Writings For otherwise how could any one possibly have believed that they could have spoken so diversly as they have done in many particulars blowing hot and cold with one and the same mouth How could they possibly have delivered so many things contrary either to Reason or to the Scriptures or to the Fathers For as the same St. Hierome saith who is so very a Block head and so ignorant iâ— the Art of Writing as that he will praise and condemnâ—ne and the same thing pull down what he hath bâ—ilt and build what he had pulled down Now the Fathers
the Truth when as in his old age taking Pen in hand he reviewed and corrected all that he had ever written during his whole Life faithfully and ingenuously noting whatsoever he thought worthy of reprehension and giving us all those his Animadversions collected together in the Books of his Retractations which in my judgment is the most glorious and most excellent of all those many Monuments which he hath left to Posterity whether you consider here the Learning or the Modesty and Sincerity of the Man S. Hierome reporteth that Origen also long before had in his old age written an Epistle to Fabianus Bishop of Rome wherein he confesseth That he repented him of many things which he had taught and written Neither is there any doubt but that some such like thing may have hapned to most of the other Fathers and that they may have sometime disallowed of that which they had formerly believed as true Now from this consideration there falls in our way a new Difficulty which we are to grapple with in this our Inquiry into the true genuine sense of the Fathers touching our present Controversies For seeing that the Condition and Nature of their Writings is such it is most evident that when we would make use of any of their Opinions it will concern us to be very well assured that they have not only sometime either held or written the same but that they have moreover persevered in them to the end Whence Vincentius Lirinensis in that Passage of his which is so often urged for the making use of the Ancient Authors in deciding our present Controversies thinks it not fit that we should be bound to receive whatsoever they have said for certain and undoubted Truth unless they have assured and confirmed it unto us by their Perseverance in the same as he there speaketh Cardinal Perron also evidently sheweth us the same way by his own practice for disputing about the Canon of the Holy Scriptures which he pretendeth to have been always the very same in the Western Church with that which is delivered unto us by the III Council of Carthage where the Maccabees are reckoâ—ed in among the rest and finding himself hardly pressed by some certain Passages alledged by the Protestants out of S. Hierome to the contrary he answereth the Objection by saying among other things That this Father when he wrote the said Passages was not yet come to the ripeness of his Judgment and perfection of his Studies whereas afterwards when he was now more fully instructed in the truth of the Sense of the Church he changed his Opinion and retracted as this Cardinal saith both in general and in particular whatsoever he had before written in those three Prologues where he had excluded the Maccabees out of the Canon And so likewise to another Objection brought to the same purpose out of the Commentaries of S. Gregory the Great he gives the like answer saying That S. Gregory when he wrote that Piece was not yet come to be Pope but was a plain Deacon only being at that time employed at Constantinople as the Popes Nuncio to the Greeks Now these Answers of his are either insufficient or else it will necessarily follow from hence That we ought not to rest certainly satisfied in the Testimony of any Father except we first be assured that not only he never afterwards retracted that Opinion of his but that besides he wrote it in the strength and ripeness of his Judgment And see now how we are fallen into a new Labyrinth For first of all from whence and by what means may we be able to come truly and certainly to the knowledge of this Secret when as we can hardly meet with any light Conjectures tending to the making of this Discovery namely Whether a Father hath in his old age changed his Opinion touching that Point for which it is produced against us or not If they had all of them been either able or willing to have imitated the Modesty of S. Augustine we should then have had little left to trouble us But you will hardly find any either of the Ancients or of those of Later times that have followed this example unless it be Cardinal Bellarmine who hath lately thought good to revive this Piece of Modesty which had lain dead and buried for the space of so many Ages together by writing a Book of Retractations which Book of his is very diversly received by the Learned as well of the one as of the other Religion But yet if you will stand stiff upon it with Cardinal Perron and not allow the saying of a Father to be of any value unless it were written by him after the Ripeness of his Studies I shall then despair of our ever making any Progress so much as one step forward by this means in the business in hand For will the one and the other Party say upon every Testimony that shall be produced against them how do we know whether this Father had yet arrived to the Ripeness of his Judgment when he wrote this Book or not Who can tell whether or no those days of his Life that he enjoyed after the Writing hereof might not have bestowed as well clearness on his Understanding as Whiteness on his Head and have changed his Judgment as well as his Hair We suppose here that no such thing appeareth in any of his other Writings How many Authors are there who have changed their Opinions and yet have not retracted what they had formerly written But suppose now that we should have lost that particular Tract wherein the Author had given Testimony of the changing of his Opinion what should we do in this cafe If Time should have deprived us of S. Augustine's Retractations and some other of his later Writings as it hath of an infinite number of other Pieces both of his and other of the Fathers which would have been of as great importance to us we must certainly have thought that he had believed that the Cause of Predestination is the Prescience or Foreseeing of the Faith of Men reading but what he saith in one of the Books which he first wrote namely That God hath not elected the Works of any Man according to his Prescience seeing that it is He himself that gives the same to a Man But that he hath elected his Faith by His Presâ—ience that is He hath elected those who He foresaw would believe his Word that is to say He made choice of them to bestow His Holy Spirit upon that so by doing Good Works they might attain everlasting Life Now would the Pelagians and Semipelagians have brought this Passage as an infallible Argument that S. Augustine was of their Opinion but that his Retractations and his other Books which were written afterwards in his later time clearly make it appear that this Argument is of no force at all forasmuch as this Learned Father having afterwards better considered of this Point wholly altered
his own Opinions and Observations as Apostolical and which hath not used his utmost endeavour to gain them the Repute of being Vniversal S. Hierome allows every particular Province full liberty to do herein as they please Let every Province saith he abound in its own Sense and let them account of the Ordinances of their Ancestors as of Apostolical Laws It is true indeed that he speaks in this place onely of certain Observations of things which are in themselves indifferent But yet that which he hath permitted them in these Matters they have practised in all other I shall not here trouble my self to produce any other Reasons to prove the Difficulty of this Inquiry because I should then be forced to repeat a great part of that which hath been already delivered For if it be a very hard matter to attain to any certain knowledge what the Sense of the Writings of the Fathers is as we have proved before how much more difficult a thing will it be to discover whether their Opinions were the Opinions of the particular Churches wherein they lived or else were the Opinions of the Church Universal in their Age the same things which cause Obscurity in the one having as much or rather more reason of doing the like in the other And if you would fully understand how painful an Undertaking this is do but read the Disputations of the Learned of both Parties touching this Point where you shall meet with so many Doubts and Contradictions and such diversity of Opinions that you will easily conclude That this is one of the greatest Difficulties that is to be met withal throughout the whole Study of Antiquity CHAP. XI Reason XI That it is impossible to know exactly what the Belief of the Ancient Church either Vniversal or Particular hath been touching any of those Points which are at this day controverted amongst us BEfore we pass on to the Second Part of this Treatise it seemeth not impertinent to give the Reader this Last Advertisement and to let him know that though all these Difficulties here before represented were removed yet notwithstanding would it still be impossible for us to know certainly out of the Fathers what the Judgment of the whole Ancient Church whether you mean the Church Universal or but any considerable Part thereof hath been touching the Differences which are now on foot in Religion Now that we may be able to make the truth of this Proposition appear it is necessary that we should first of all explain the Terms We understand commonly by the Church especially in these Disputations either all those Persons in General who profess themselves to be of the said Church of what Condition or Quality soever they be or else in a stricter sense the Collective Body of all those who are set over and who are Representatives of the Church that is to say the Clergy So that whether you speak of the Church Universal or of some Particular Church as for example that of Spain or of Carthage this Term may be taken in either of these two senses For by the Church Universal we understand either all those Persons in general who live in the Communion of the Christian Church whether they be of the Laity or of the Clergy or else those Persons onely who are Ecclesiastici or Church-men as we now call them For in the Primitive Times all Christians that lived in the Communion of the Catholicks were called Ecclesiastici In like manner by the Church of Carthage is meant either generally All the Faithful that live in the particular Communion of the Christian Church of Carthage or else particularly and in a stricter sense the Bishop of Carthage with his whole Clergy Now I do not believe that there is any Man but will easily grant me that if we take the Church in the First sense it is impossible to know by way of Testimony given of the same what the Sense and Judgment of it hath been in each several Age touching all the Points of Christian Religion We may indeed collect by way of Discourse what hath been the Belief of the True Members of the Church For there being some certain Articles the Belief whereof is necessarily requisite for the rendring a Man such an one whosoever rightly understands which these Articles be he may certainly conclude that the True Church whether Universal or Particular hath believed the same But now in the first place this doth not extend to all the Points of Christian Religion but onely to those which are Necessary besides which there are divers others concerning which we may have not only different but even contrary Judgments too and yet not thereby hazard the loss either of the Communion of the Church or of our Inheritance of everlasting Salvation So then this Ratiocination concludeth not save onely of those who are the True Members of the Church For as for those who make but an outward Profession onely of the Truth it being not at all necessary that they should be saved there is in like manner no more necessity of their embracing those Beliefs which are requisite for that end They may under this Mask hide all manner of Opinions how Impious soever they be Lastly that which makes most for our purpose is That this Knowledge is acquired by Discourse whereas we speak here of such a Knowledge as is collected by the hearing of several Witnesses who give in their Testimonies touching the thing which we would know Now the Fathers having written with a purpose of informing us not what each particular Man believed in their time but rather what they thought fit that all Men should have believed we must needs conclude That certainly they have not told us all that they knew touching this particular And consequently therefore partly their Charity and partly also their Prudence may have caused them to pass by in silence all such Opinions either of whole Companies or of particular Persons as they conceived to be not so consonant to the Truth But supposing that they had not any of these considerations and that they had taken upon them to give us a just Account each Man of the Opinions of his particular Church wherein he lived it is evident however that they could never have been able to have attainēd to the end of this their Design For how is it possible that they should have been able to have learnt what the Opinion of every single Person was amongst so vast a Multitude which consisted of so many several Persons who were of so different both Capacities and Dispositions Who will believe that S. Cyprian for example knew all the several Opinions of each particular Person in his Diocess so as to be able to give us an account of the same Who can imagine but that among such a Multitude of People as lived in the Communion of his Church there must needs have been very many who differed in Opinion from him in divers Points of Religion Even
all this it hath not only be called in Question but hath been even utterly condemned also who seeth not that the Consent of many Fathers together although any such thing were to be had upon all the Points now in Debate would yet be no sufficient Argument of the Truth of the same But I shall pass on to the rest We have before heard how that Tertullian St. Cyprian who was both a Bishop and a Martyr Firmilianus Metropolitan of Cappadocia Dionysius Patriarch of Alexandria together with the Synods of Bishops both of Africk Cappadocia Cilicia and Bithynia held all that the Baptism of Hereticks was invalid and null St. Basil who was one of the most Eminent Bishops of the whole Eastern Church held also in a manner the very same Opinion and that a long time too after the Determination of the Council of Nice as appeareth by the Epistle which he wrote to Amphilochius which is also put in among the Publick Decrees of the Church by the Greek Canonists And yet this Opinion is now confessed by all to be Erroneous Many in like manner of the Fathers as namely Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Lactantius and Africanus believed that our Saviour Christ kept the Feast of the Passeover but once only after his Baptism And yet notwithstanding this Consent of theirs the Opinion is known to be very false as Petavius also testifieth and besides is expresly contrary to the Text of the Gospel I shall not here say any thing of the Opinion of St. Chrysostom St. Hierome St. Basil and the Fathers of the Council held at Constantinople under the Patriarch Flavianus who seem all to have held that an Oath was utterly unlawful for Christians under the New Testament Neither shall I take any notice in this place of that Conceit of Athanasius St. Basil and Methodius as he is cited by John Bishop of Thessalonica who all believed that the Angels had Bodies to whom we may also add as we have shewed before St. Hilary Justin Martyr Tertullian and very many more of the Fathers who would all of them have the Nature of Angels to be such as was capable of the Passions of Carnal love of which number is even St. Augustine also Whosoever should now conclude from hence that this Fancy of theirs which yet is of no small importance is a Truth would he not be as sharply reproved for it by the Romanists as by those of Geneva But I must not forget that besides St. Cyprian St. Augustine and Pope Innocent I. whose Testimonies we have given in before all the rest of the Doctors in a manner of the first Ages maintained that the Eucharist was necessary for young Infants if at least you dare take Maldonat's word who affirms that this Opinion was in great Request in the Church during the first Six Hundred years after our Saviour Christ Cassander also testifieth that he hath often observed this Practice in the Ancients as indeed is also witnessed by Carolus Magnus and by Ludovicus Pius who lived a long time after the Sixth Century both of which assure us that this Custom continued in the West even in their time as they are cited by Cardinal Perron and the Traces of this Custom do yet remain to this day amongst those Christians who are not of the Communion of the Latine Church For Nicolaus Lyranus who lived somewhat above three hundred years since observed That the Greeks accounted the Holy Eucharist so necessary as that they administred it to little Children also as well as Baptism And even in our Fathers time the Patriarch Jeremias speaking in the name of the whole Creek Church said We do not only Baptize little Children but we also make them partakers of the Lords Supper And a little after we account saith he both Sacraments to be necessary to Salvation for all persons namely Baptism and the Holy Communion The Abyssines also make their Children in like manner Communicate of the Holy Eucharist as soon as ever they are Baptized Which are most evident Arguments that this false Opinion touching the Necessity of the Eucharist hath been of old maintained not by three or four of the Fathers only but by the Major part and in a manner by all of them For we do not hear of so much as one among all the Ancient Fathers who rejected it in express Terms as the Council of Trent hath done in these later Times To conclude the Jesuit Pererius hath informed us and indeed the observation is obvious enough to any man that is never so little conversant in the Writings of those Authors who lived before St. Augustines time that all the Greek Fathers and a considerable part also of the Latines were of Opinion that the Cause of Predestination was the Fore sight which God had either of Mens Good Works or else of their Faith either of which Opinions he assures us is manifestly contrary both to the Authority of the Scriptures and also to the Doctrine of St. Paul So that I conceive we may without troubling our selves any further in making this envious Inquiry into the Errours of the Fathers conclude from what hath been already produced that seeing the Fathers have Erred in so many Particulars not on singly but also many of them together Neither the private Opinion of each particular Father nor yet the unanimous Consent of the Major part of them is a sufficient Argument certainly to prove the Truth of those Points which are at this day controverted amongst Us. CHAP. V. Reason V. That the Fathers have strongly contradicted one another and have maintained Different Opinions in Matters of very Great Importance BEssarion a Greek born who was honoured with the Dignity of Cardinal by Pope Eugenius IV. as a Reward of his earnest desires to and the great pains he took in endeavouring a Reconciliation betwixt the Eastern and the Western Church in a Book which he wrote upon this Subject to the Council of Florence will have the whole Difference betwixt the Greek and Latine Churches to be brought before the Judgment Seat of the Fathers And for as much as he knew that unless the Judges did all agree and were of one Opinion the Cause especially in Matters of Religion necessarily remains undecided he strongly labours to prove that he hath all the Fathers consenting not only with him but which is yet much harder to prove that they are all of the same Opinion also among themselves insomuch that he commands us when ever there appeareth any contrariety in their Writings that we should accuse our own ignorance rather than blame them for contradicting each other We may conclude therefore from what is here laid down by this Author who was both as acute and as Learned a man as any was at this Council that to render the Fathers capable of being the Judges of our Controversies it is necessary that they should be
recourse to some other way of Proof if they intend to prevail upon their Adversaries to receive the aforesaid Articles But what will you say now if we make it appear to you that the Church of Rome it self doth not allow that the Fathers have any such Authority I suppose that if we are able to do this there is no Man so perverse as not to confess That this Proceeding of theirs in grounding their Articles of Faith upon the Sayings of the Fathers is not onely very Insufficient but very Inconvenient also For how can it ever be endured that a Man that would perswade you to the Belief of any thing should for that purpose make use of the Testimony of some such Persons as neither you nor himself believe to be Infallibly True and so fit to be trusted Let us now therefore see whether those of the Church of Rome really have themselves so great an Esteem of the Fathers as they would be thought to have by this their Proceeding or not Certainly several of the Learned of that Party have upon divers occasions let us see plain enough that they make no more account of them than the Protestants do For whereas these require That the Authority of the Fathers be grounded upon that of the Scripture and therefore receive nothing that they deliver as Infallibly True unless it be grounded upon the Scripture passing by or rejecting whatsoever they propose either besides or contrary to the Sense of the Scripture the other in like manner will have the Judgment of the Fathers depend upon that of the Church in present being in every Age and approve pass by or condemn all such Opinions of theirs as the Church either approveth passeth by or condemneth So that although they differ in this That the one attributeth the Supremacy to the Scripture and the other to the Present Church of their Age yet notwithstanding they both agree in this That both the one and the other of them equally deprive the Fathers of the same Insomuch that they both of them spend their time unprofitably enough whilst they trouble themselves to plead their Cause before this Inferiour Court where the wrangling and cunning Tricks of the Law have so much place where the Judgments are hard to be got and yet harder to be understood and when all is done are not Supreme but are such as both Parties believe they may lawfully appeal from whereas they might if they pleased let alone these troublesom and useless Beatings about and come at the first before the Supreme Tribunal whether it be that of the Scriptures or of the Church where the Suits are not so long and where the Subtilty of Pleading is of much less use where the Sentences also are more clear and express and which is the Chiefest thing of all such as we cannot appeal from But that we may not be thought to impose this Opinion upon the Church of Rome unjustly let us hear them speak themselves Cardinal Cajetan in his Preface upon the Five Books of Moses spâ—â—king of his own Annotations upon the same saith thus If you chance there to meet with any New Exposition which is agreeable to the Text and not Contrary either to tbe Scriptures or to the Doctrine of the Church although perhaps it differ from that which is given by the whole Current of the Holy Doctors I shall desire the Readers that they would not too hastily reject it but that they would rather censure charitably of it Let them remember to give every man his due there are none but the Authors of the Holy Scriptures alone to whom we attribute such Authority as that we ought to believe whatsoever they have written But as for others saith St. Augustine of how great Sanctity and Learning so ever they may have been I so read them as that I do not believe what they have written because they have written it Let no man therefore reject a new Exposition of any Passage of Scripture under pretence that it is contrary to what the Ancient Doctors gave but let him rather diligently examine the Text and the contexture of the Scripture and if he find that it accordeth well therewith let him praise God who hath not tyed the Exposition of the Scriptures to the sense of the Ancient Doctors but to the whole Scripture it self under the censure of the Catholick Church Melchior Canus Bishop of the Canary Islands having before declared himself according as St. Augustine hath done saying that the Holy Scriptures only are exempt from all error he further adds But there is no man how holy or learned soever he be that is not sometimes deceived that doth not sometimes dote that doth not sometimes slip And then alledging some of those examples which we have before produced he concludes in these words Let us therefore read the Ancient Fathers with all due Reverence yet notwithstanding for as much as they were but Men with Choice and Judgment And a little after he saith That the Fathers sometimes fail and bring forth Monsters besides the ordinary course of Nature And in the same place he saith that To follow the Ancients in all things and to tread every where in their steps as little Cbildren use to do in play is nothing else but to disparage our own Parts and to confess our selves to have neither Judgment nor Skill enough for the searching into the Trutâ— No let us follow them as Guides but not as Masters It is very true saith Ambrosius Catharinus in like manner that the Sayings and Writings of the Fathers have not of themselves any so absolute Authority as that we are bound to assent to them in all things The Jesuits also themselves inform us sufficiently in many places that they do not reckon themselves so tyed to follow the Judgment of the Fathers in all things as people may imagine Petavius in his Annotations upon Epiphanius confesseth freely That the Fathers were men that they had their failings and that we ought not maliciously to search after their Errors that we may lay them open to the world but that we may take the liberty to note them when ever they come in our way to the end that none be deceived by them and that we ought no more to maintain or defend their Errors than we ought to imitate their Vices if at least they had any and again That many things have slipped from them which if they were examined according to the exact Rule of Truth could not be reconciled to any good sense and that Himself hath observed That they are out sufficiently whensoever they speak of such Points of Faith as were not at all called in question in Their time And to say the truth He often rejects both Their Opinions and Their Expositions also and sometimes very Uncivilly too as we have touched before speaking of his Notes upon Epiphanius And in one place the Authority of some of the