Moone they followed the Alexandrian cycle of XIX yeeres whence our golden number had his originall as it was explained unto them by Dionysius Exiguus which is the account that is still observed not onely in the Church of England but also among all the Christians of Greece Russia Asia Aegypt and Aethiopia and was since the time that I my selfe was borne generally received in all Christendome untill the late change of the Kalendar was made by Pope Gregory the XIII th The Northren Irish and Scottish together with the Picts observed the custome of the Britons keeping their Easter upon the Sunday that fell betwixt the XIIII and the XX. day of the Moone and following in their account thereof not the XIX yeeres computation of Anatolius but Sulpicius Severus his circle of LXXXIIII yeeres for howsoever they extolled Anatolius for appointing as they supposed the bounds of Easter betwixt the XIIII and the XX. day of the Moone yet Wilfride in the Synod of Strenshal chargeth them utterly to have rejected his cycle of XIX yeeres from which therefore Cummianus draweth an argument against them that they can never come to the true account of Easter who observe the cycle of LXXXIIII yeeres To reduce the Irish unto conformity with the Church of Rome in this point Pope Honorius the first of that name directed his letters unto them Exhortintg them that they would not esteeme their own paucity seated in the utmost borders of the earth more wise than the ancient or moderne Churches of Christ through the whole world and that they would not celebrate another Easter contrary to the Paschall computations and the Synodall decrees of the Bishops of the whole world and shortly after the Clergie of Rome as wee have said upon the death of Severinus wrote other letters unto them to the same effect Now where Osullevan avoucheth that the common custome used by the Church in celebrating the feast of the Lords resurrection was alwaies observed by the Southerne Irish and now embraced also by the Northren together with the Picts and Britons who received the faith from Irish Doctors when they had knowledge given them of the rite of the Church of Rome in all this according to his common wont he speaketh never a true word For neyther did the Southerne Irish alwayes observe the celebration of Easter commonly received abroad neyther did the Northren Irish nor the Picts nor the Britons many yeeres after this admonition given by the Church of Rome admit that observation among them to speake nothing of his folly in saying that the Britons received the faith from the Irish when the contrary is so well knowne that the Irish rather received the same from the Britons That the common custome of celebrating the time of Easter was not alwaies observed by the Southerne Irish may appeare by those words of Bede in the third booke of his history and the third chapter Porrò gentes Scottorum quae in australibus Hiberniae insulae partibus morabantur jamdudum ad admonitionem Apostolicae sedis antistitis Paschacanonico ritu observare didicerunt For if as this place cleerly proveth the nations of the Scots that dwelt in the Southern parts of Ireland did learne to observe Easter after the canonicall manner upon the admonition of the Bishop of Rome it is evident that before that admonition they did observe it after another manner The word jamdudum which Bede here useth is taken among authors oftentimes in contrary senses either to signifie a great while since or else but lately or erewhile In the former sense it must bee here taken if it have relation to the time wherein Bede did write his book and in the latter also it may be taken if it be referred to the time whereof he treateth which is the more likely opinion namely to the comming of Bishop Aidan into England which fell out about halfe a yeere after that Honorius had sent his admonitorie letters to the Irish. who as hee was the first Bishop of Rome we can reade of that admonished them to reforme their rite of keeping the time of Easter so that the Irish also much about the same time conformed themselves herein to the Romane usage may thus be manifested When Bishop Aidan came into England from the Iland Hy now called Y-Columkille the Colledge of Monkes there was governed by Segenius who in the inscription of the epistle of the clergie of Rome sent unto the Irish is called Segianus Now there is yet extant in Sir Robert Cottons worthy Librarie an epistle of Cummianus directed to this Segienus for so is his name there written Abbot of Y-Columkille wherein he plainly declareth that the great cycle of DXXXII yeeres and the Romane use of celebrating the time of Easter according to the same was then newly brought in into this country For the first yeere saith he wherein the cycle of DXXXII yeeres began to bee observed by our men I received it not but held my peace daring neither to commend it nor to dispraise it That yeere being past he saith he consulted with his ancients who were the successors of Bishop Ailbeus Queranus Coloniensis Brendinus Nessanus and Lugidus who being gathered together in Campo-lene concluded to celebrate Easter the yeere following together with the universall Church But not long after saith hee there arose up a certaine whited wall pretending to keepe the tradition of the Elders which did not make both one but divided them and made voide in part that which was promised whom the Lord as I hope will smite in whatsoever manner he pleaseth To this argument drawne from the tradition of the elders hee maketh answer that they did simply and faithfully observe that which they knew to bee best in their dayes without the fault of any contradiction or animosity and did so recommend it to their posterity and opposeth thereunto the unanimous rule of the Vniversall Catholicke Church deeming this to be a very harsh conclusion Rome erreth Ierusalem erreth Alexandria erreth Antioch erreth the whole world erreth the Scottish onely and the Britons doe alone hold the right but especially hee urgeth the authority of the first of these Patriarchicall Sees which now since the advancement thereof by the Emperour Phocas began to bee admired by the inhabitants of the earth as the place which God had chosen whereunto if greater causes did arise recourse was to bee had according to the Synodicall decree as unto the head of cities and therefore he saith that they sent some unto Rome who returning backe in the third yeere informed them that they met there with a Grecian and an Hebrew and a Scythian and an Aegyptian in one lodging and that they all and the whole world too did keep their Easter at the same time when the Irish were dis-joyned from them by the space of a whole moneth And wee have proved saith Cummianus that the vertue of God
onely justifieth and in this meaning onely doe we defend that proposition understanding still by faith not a dead carkase thereof for how should the just bee able to live by a dead faith but a true and lively faith which worketh by love For as it is a certaine truth that among all the members of the body the eye is the onely instrument whereby we see and yet it is as true also that the eye being alone and separated from the rest of the members is dead and for that cause doth neither see onely not see at all so these two sayings likewise may stand well enough together that among all the vertues in the foule faith is the onely instrument whereby wee lay hold upon Christ for our justification and yet that faith being alone and disjoyned from the society of other graces is dead in it selfe as St. Iames speaketh and in that respect can neither only justifie nor justifie at all So though Claudius doe teach as wee doe that faith alone saveth us because by the workes of the law no man shall bee justified yet hee addeth withall this caution Not as if the workes of the law should be contemned and without them a simple faith so hee calleth that solitary faith whereof we spake which is a simple faith indeed should bee desired but that the workes themselves should bee adorned with the faith of Christ. For that sentence of the wise man is excellent that the faithfull man doth not live by righteousnesse but the righteous man by faith In like manner Sedulius acknowledgeth with us that God hath purposed by faith onely to forgive our sinnes freely and by faith onely to save the beleevers and that when men have fallen they are to bee renewed onely by the faith of Christ which worketh by love intimating by this last clause that howsoever faith onely be it which justifieth the man yet the worke of love is necessarily required for all that to justifie the faith And this faith saith he when it hath beene iustified sticketh in the soyle of the soule like a roote which hath received a showre that when it hath begunne to be manured by the law of God it may rise up againe into bowes which may beare the fruit of workes Therefore the roote of righteousnesse doth not grow out of works but the fruit of works out of the root of righteousnesse namely out of that root of righteousnesse which God doth accept for righteousnesse without workes The conclusion is that saving faith is alwaies a fruitfull faith and though it never goe alone yet may there be some gift of God which it alone is able to reach unto as Columbanus also implieth in that verse Sola fides fidei dono ditabitur almo The greatest depressers of Gods grace and the advancers of mans abilities were Pelagius and Celestiusâ— the one borne in Brittaine as appeareth by Prosper Aquitanus the other in Scotland or Ireland as M r. Persons doth gather out of those words of S. Hierom in one of the Prefaces of his commentaries not upon Ezechiel as he quoteth it but upon Ieremy He hath his off-spring from the Scottish nation neere to the Britans These hereticks as our Marianus noteth out of Prosper in his Chronicle preached among other of their impieties that for attaining of righteousnesse every one was governed by his owne will and received so much grace as he did merit Whole venemous doctrine was in Brittaine repressed first by Palladius Lupus Germanus and Severus from abroad afterward by David Menevensis and his successors at home agreeably to whose institution Asser. Menâ—vensis doth professe that God is alwaies to bee esteemed both the mover of the will and the bestower of the good that is willed for hee is saith hee the instigatour of all good wills and withall the most bountifull provider that the good things desired may bee had forasmuch as hee would never stirre up any to will well unlesse hee did also liberally supply that which every one doth well and justly desire to obtaine Among our Irish the grounds of sound doctrine in these points were at the beginning well settled by Palladius and Patricius sent hither by Celestinus Bishop of Rome And when the poyson of the Pelagian heresie about two hundred yeares after that beganne to breake out among them the Clergie of Rome in the yeare of our Lord DCXXXIX during the vacancie of the See upon the death of Severinus directed their letters unto them for the preventing of this growing mischiefe Wherein among other things they put them in minde that it is both blasphemy and folly to say that a man is without sinne which none at all can say but that one mediatour betwixt God and man the man Christ Iesus who was conceived and borne without sinne Which is agreeable partly to that of Claudius that it is manifest unto all wise men although it bee contradicted by heretickes that there is none who can live upon earth without the touch of some sinne partly to that of Sedulius that there is none of the elect so great whom the Divell doth not dare to accuse but him alone who did no sinne and who said The Prince of this world commeth now and in mee bee findeth nothing For touching the imperfection of our sanctification in this life these men held the same that wee doe to wit that the Law cannot be fulfilled that there is none that doth good that is to say perfect and entire good that Gods elect shall be perfectly holy and immaculate in the life to come where the Church of Christ shall have no spot nor wrinkle whereas in this present life they are righteous holy and immaculate not wholly but in part only that the righteous shall then be without all kinde of sinne when there shall be no law in their members that shall resist the law of their minde that although sinne doe not now reigne in their mortall body to obey the desires thereof yet sin dwelleth in that mortall body the force of that naturall custome being not yet extinguished which we have gotten by our originall and increased by our actual transgressions And as for the matter of merit Sedulius doth resolve us out of S. Paul that we are Saints by the calling of God not by the merit of our deed that God is able to exceeding abundantly above that we aske or think according to the power that worketh in us not according to our merits that whatsoever men have from God is grace because they have nothing of due and that nothing can bee found worthy or to bee compared with the glorie to come CHAP. III. Of Purgatory and Prayer for the dead THe next Point that offereth it selfe unto our consideration is that of Purgatory Whereof if any man doe doubt Caesarius a Germane Monke of the Cistercian order adviseth him for his resolution
him backe with commendatory letters aswell to the said Gothric King of the Ostmans as to Terdeluacus the chiefe King or Monarch of the Irish. Hereupon after the decease of this Patrick in the yeare 1085. the same Terdeluacus and the Bishops of Ireland joyned with the Clergie and people of Dublin in the election of Donatus one of Lanfrancs owne Monkes in Canterbury who was by him there also consecrated Then when he dyed in the yeare 1095. his nephew Samuel a monke of St. Albans but borne in Ireland was chosen Bishop in his place by Murierdach King of Ireland and the Clergie and people of the Citie by whose common decree he was also sent unto Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury for his consecration Not long after the Waterfordians following the example of the Dublinians erected a Bishoprick among themselves and sent their new Bishop to Canterburie for his consecration the manner of whose election the Clergie and people of Waterford in the letters which they wrote at that time unto Anselme doe thus intimate We and our King Murchertach and Dofnald the Bishop and Dermeth our Captain the Kings brother have made choice of this Priest Malchus a monke of Walkeline Bishop of Winchester the same man without doubt who was afterward promoted to the Bishopricke of Lismore so much commended by Bernard in the life of Malachias The last Bishop of Dublin in the yeare 1122. was sent unto Anselmes next successor for his consecration touching which I have seene this writ of King Henry the first directed unto him Henricus Rex Anglia Radulpho Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo salutem Mandavit mihi Rex Hiberniae per Breve suum Burgenses Dublinae quòd elegerunt hunc Gregorium in Episcopum eum tibi mittunt consecrandum Vndè tibi mando ut petitioni eorum satisfaciens ejus consecrationem sine dilatione expleas Teste Ranulpho Cancellario apud Windelsor Henry King of England to Ralphe Archbishop of Canterbury greeting The King of Ireland hath intimated unto mee by his writ and the Burgesses of Dublin that they have chosen this Gregory for their Bishop and send him unto you to be consecrated Wherfore I wish you that satisfying their request you performe his consecration without delay Witnesse Ranuph our Chancellour at Windsor All the Burgesses of Dublin likewise and the whole assembly of the Clergie directed their joint letters to the Archbishop of Canterburie the same time where in among other things they write thus Know you for verity that the Bishops of Ireland have great indignation toward us and that Bishop most of all that dwelleth at Armagh because we will not obey their ordination but will alwaies bee under your governement Whereby we may see that as the Ostmans were desirous to sever themselves from the Irish and to bee esteemed Normans rather so the Irish Bishops on the other side howsoever they digested in some sort the recourse which they had to Lanfranc and Anselme who were two of the most famous men in their times and with whom they themselves were desirous to hold all good correspondence yet could they not well brooke this continuation of their dependance upon a Metropolitan of another kingdome which they conceived to be somewhat derogatorie to the dignitie of their owne Primate But this jealousie continued not long for this same Gregorie being afterwards made Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishopricks here settled by Iohannes Paparo aswell they of Dublin as the others of Waterford and Limrick for they also had one Patricke consecrated Bishop unto them by Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury did ever after that time cease to have any relation unto the See of Canterbury And now to goe forward as the Kings and people of this land in those elder times kept the nomination of their Archbishops and Bishops in their own hands and depended not upon the Popes provisions that way so doe wee not finde by any approved record of antiquitie that any Visitations of the clergie were held here in the Popes name much lesse that any Indulgences were sought for by our people at his hands For as for the Charter of S. Patrick by some intituled De antiquitate Avalonicâ wherein Phaganus and Deruvianus are said to have purchased ten or thirtie yeares of Indulgences from Pope Eleutherius and St. Patrick himselfe to have procured twelve yeares in his time from Pope Celestinus it might easily bee demonstrated if this were a place for it that it is a meere figment devised by the Monkes of Glastenbury Neyther doe I well know what credit is to bee given unto that stragling sentence which I finde ascribed unto the same authour If any questions doe arise in this Iland let them bee referred to the See Apostolick or that other decree attributed to Auxilius Patricius Secundinus and Benignus Whensoever any cause that is very difficult and unknown unto all the Iudges of the Scottish nations shall arise it is rightly to bee referred to the See of the Archbishop of the Irish to wit Patrick and to the examination of the Prelate thereof But if there by him and his wisemen a cause of this nature cannot easily be made up wee have decreed it shall bee sent to the See Apostolick that is to say to the chaire of the Apostle Peter which hath the authoritie of the City of Rome Onely this I will say that as it is most likely that St. Patrick had a speciall regard unto the Church of Rome from whence he was sent for the conversion of this Iland so if I my selfe had lived in his daies for the resolution of a doubtful question I should as willingly have listened to the judgement of the Church of Rome as to the determination of any Church in the whole world so reverend an estimation have I of the integritie of that Church as it stood in those good daies But that St. Patrick was of opinion that the Church of Rome was sure ever afterward to continue in that good estate and that there was a perpetuall priviledge annexed unto that See that it should never erre in judgment or that the Popes sentences were alway to bee held as infallible Oracles that will I never beleeve sure I am that my countrey-men after him were of a farre other beleefe who were so farre from submitting themselves in this sort to whatsoever should proceed from the See of Rome that they oftentimes stood out against it when they had little cause so to doe For proofe whereof I need to seeke no further than to those very allegations which have been lately urged for maintenance of the supremacie of the Pope and Church of Rome in this Countrey First M r. Coppinger commeth upon us with this wise question Was not Ireland among other Countries absolved from the Pelagian heresie by the Church of Rome as Cesar Baronius writeth then hee setteth downe the copie of S. Gregories epistle in answer unto the
But shortly after the opposition betwixt these two sides grew to be so great that our Cuthbert Bishop of Lindisfarne upon his death-bed required his followers that they should hold no communion with them which did swerve from the unity of the Catholicke peace eyther by not celebrating Easter in his due time or by living perversly and that they should rather take up his bones and remove their place of habitation than any way condescend to submit their neckes unto the yoke of schismatickes For the further maintaining of which breach also there were certaine decrees made both by the Romanes and by the Saxons that were guided by their institution One of the instructions that the Romans gave them was this You must beware that causes bee not referred to other Provinces or Churches which use another manner and another religion whether to the Iewes which doe serve the shadow of the Law rather than the truth or to the Britons who are contrary unto all men and have cut themselves off from the Romane manner and the unitie of the Church or to Heretickes although they should bee learned in Ecclesiasticall causes and well studied And among the decrees made by some of the Saxon Bishops which were to bee seene in the Library of Sir Thomas Knevet in Northfolke and are still I suppose preserved there by his heire this is laid downe for one Such as have received ordination from the Bishops of the Scots or Brittaines who in the matter of Easter and Tonsure are not united unto the Catholicke Church let them bee againe by imposition of hands confirmed by a Catholicke Bishop In like manner also let the Churches that have beene ordered by those Bishops be sprinkled with exorcized water and confirmed with some service Wee have no licence also to give unto them Chrisme or the Eucharist when they require it unlesse they doe first professe that they will remaine with us in the unity of the Church And such likewise as eyther of their nation or of any other shall doubt of their baptism let them be baptized Thus did they On the other side how averse the Brittish and the Irish were from having any communion with those of the Romane party the complaint of Laurentius Mellitus and Iustus before specified doth sufficiently manifest And the answer is well knowne which the seven Brittish Bishops and many other most learned men of the same nation did return unto the propositions made unto them by Austin the Monk who was sent unto their parts with authority from Rome that they would perform none of them nor at all adneit him for their Archbishop The Welsh Chroniclers do further relate that Dinot the Abbot of Bangor produced diverse arguments at that time to shew that they did owe him no subjection and this among others Wee are under the government of the Bishop of Kaer-leon upon Vske who under God is to oversee us and cause us to keepe the way spirituall and Gotcelinus Bertinianus in the life of Austin that for the authority of their ceremonies they did alledge that they were not onely delivered unto them by Saint Eleutherius the Pope their first instructer at the first infancie almost of the Church but also hitherto observed by their holy fathers who were the friends of God and followers of the Apostles and therefore they ought not to change them for any new dogmatists But above all others the Brittish Priests that dwelt in West-wales abhorred the communion of these new dogmatists above all measure as Aldhelme Abbot of Malmesbury declareth at large in his Epistle sent to Geruntius King of Cornwall where among many other particulars hee sheweth that if any of the Catholickes for so he calleth those of his owne side did goe to dwell among them they would not vouchsafe to admit them unto their company and society before they first put them to forty dayes penance Yea even to this day saith Bede who wrote his history in the yeere DCCXXXI it is the manner of the Brittons to hold the faith and the religion of the English in no account at all nor to communicate with them in any thing more than with Pagans Whereunto those Verses of Taliessyn honoured by the Britons with the title of Ben Beirdh that is the chiefe of the Bardes or Wisemen may bee added which shew that hee wrote after the comming of Austin into England and not 50. or 60. yeeres before as others have imagined Gwae'r offeiriad byd Nys engreifftia gwyd Ac ny phregetha Gwae ny cheidw ey gail Ac ef yn vigail Ac nys areilia Gwae ny cheidw ey dheuaid Rhac bleidhie Rhufeniaid A'iffon gnwppa Wo be to that Priest yborne That will not cleanly weed his corne And preach his charge among Wo be to that shepheard I say That will not watch his fold alway As to his office doth belong Wo be to him that doth not keepe From Romish wolves his sheepe With staffe and weapon strong As also those others of Mantuan which shew that some tooke the boldnesse to taxe the Romans of folly impudencie and stolidity for standing so much upon matters of humane institution that for the not admitting of them they would breake peace there where the Law of God and the Doctrine first delivered by Christ and his Apostles was safely kept and maintained Adde quod patres ausi taxare Latinos Causabantur eos stultè imprudenter aequo Duriùs ad ritum Romae voluisse Britannos Cogere antiquum tam praecipitanter amorem Tam stolido temerâsse ausu Concedere Roma Debuit aiebant potiùs quà m rumpere pacem Humani quae juris erant modò salva maneret Lex divina fides Christi doctrina Senatus Quam primus tulit ore suo quia tradita ab ipso Christo erat humanae doctore lumine vitae By all that hath been said the vanity of Osullevan may be seene who feigneth the Northren Irish together with the Picts and the Britons to have beene so obsequious unto the Bishop of Rome that they reformed the celebration of Easter by them formerly used as soone as they understood what the rite of the Romane Church was Whereas it is knowne that after the declaration thereof made by Pope Honorius and the Clergie of Rome the Northren Irish were nothing moved therewith but continued still their owne tradition And therfore Bede findeth no other excuse for Bishop Aidan herein but that eyther hee was ignorant of the canonicall time or if he knew it that he was so overcome with the authority of his owne nation that he did not follow it that he did it after the manner of his owne nation and that hee could not keepe Easter contrary to the custome of them which had sent him His successor Finan contended more fiercely in the businesse with Ronan his countryman and declared himselfe an open adversary to the Romane rite Colman that
shall leape as calves of the heard And Iob 20. 15 16. The riches which he shall gather unjustly shall be vomited out of his belly the Angel of death draweth him Hee shall be mulcted with the wrath of Dragons the tongue of the Serpent shall kill him where the Vulgar Latin readeth The riches which he hath devoured he shall vomit out and God shall draw them forth out of his belly He shall suck the head of Aspes and the Vipers tongue shall kill him The same course is likewise observed by Sedulius in his citations But Gildas the Briton in some Bookes as Deuteronomy Esay and Ieremy for example useth to follow the Vulgar Latin translated out of the Hebrew in others as the bookes of Chronicles Iob Proverbs Ezekiel and the small Prophets the elder Latin translated out of the Greeke as also long after him his country man Nennius in reckoning the yeares of the age of the world followeth the LXX and Asser alledgeth the text Genes 4. 7. If thou offer aright and dost not divide aright thou sinnest according to the Greek reading whereas the Vulgar Latin hath it If thou doe well shalt thou not receive againe but if thou doest ill shall not thy sinne forthwith be present at the doore Of the Psalter there are extant foure Latin translations out of the Greeke namely the old Italian the Romane the Gallican and that of Millayne and one out of the Hebrew composed by St. Hierome which though it bee now excluded out of the body of the Bible and the Gallican admitted in the roome thereof yet in some Manuscript Copies it still retaineth his ancient place three whereof I have seene my selfe in Cambridge the one in Trinitie the other in Benet and the third in Iesus Colledge Librarie where this translation out of the Hebrew and not the Vulgar out of the Greek is inserted into the context of the Bible In the citations of Gildas and the Confession of Saint Patrick I observe that the Roman Psalter is followed rather than the Gallican in the quotations of Sedulius on the other side the Gallican rather than the Roman Claudius speaking of a text in the 118 th or as he accounteth it the 117 th Psalme saith that where the LXX Interpreters did translate it O Lord save me it was written in the Hebrew Anna Adonai Osanna which our Interpreter Hierom saith he more diligently explaining translated thus I beseech thee O Lord save I beseech thee Before this translation of S. Hierome I have seene an Epigram prefixed by Ricemarch the Briton who by Caradoc of Lhancarpan is commended for the godliest wisest and greatest Clerke that had been in Wales many yeares before his time his father Sulgen Bishop of S. Davids only excepted who had brought him up and a great number of learned disciples He having in this Epigramme said of those who translated the Psalter out of Greeke that they did darken the Hebrew rayes with thir Latin clowde addeth of S. Hierome that being replenished with the Hebrew fountaine hee did more cleerely and briefly discover the truth as drawing it out of the first vessell immediately and not taking it at the second hand To this purpose thus expresseth he himselfe Ebraeis nablam custodit littera signis Pro captu quam quisque suo sermone Latino Edidit innumeros Linguâ variante libellos Ebraeumque jubar suffuscat nube Latina Nam tepefacta ferum dant tertia labrasaporem Sed sacer Hieronymus Ebraeo fonte repletus Lucidiùs nudat verum breviusque ministrat Namque secunda creat nam tertia vascula vitat Now for those bookes annexed to the Old Testament which S. Hierom calleth Apocryphall others Ecclesiasticall true it is that in our Irish and Brittish writers some of them are alledged as parcels of Scripture and propheticall writings those especially that commonly bare the name of Salomon But so also is the fourth booke of Esdras cited by Gildas in the name of blessed Esdras the Prophet which yet our Romanists will not admit to be Canonicall neither doe our writers mention any of the rest with more titles of respect than wee finde given unto them by others of the ancient Fathers who yet in expresse termes doe exclude them out of the number of those bookes which properly are to be esteemed Canonicall So that from hence no sufficient proofe can bee taken that our ancestours did herein depart from the tradition of the Elder Church delivered by S. Hierome in his Prologues and explained by Brito a Briton it seemeth by nation as well as by appellation in his commentaries upon the same which being heretofore joyned with the Ordinarie Glosse upon the Bible have of late proved so distastefull unto our Popish Divines that in their new editions printed at Lyons anno 1590. and at Venice afterward they have quite crossed them out of their books Yet Marianus Scotus who was borne in Ireland in the MXXVIII yeare of our Lord was somewhat more carefull to maintaine the ancient bounds of the Canon set by his forefathers For he in his Chronicle following Eusebius and S. Hierom at the reigne of Artaxerxes Longimanus writeth thus Hitherto the divine Scripture of the Hebrewes containeth the order of Times But those things that after this were done among the Iewes are represented out of the booke of the Maccabees and the writings of Iosephus and Aphricanus But before him more plainly the author of the book de mirabilibus Scripturae who is accounted to have lived here about the yeare DCLVII In the bookes of the Maccabees howsoever some wonderfull things bee found which might conveniently bee inserted into this ranke yet wâ—ll wee not weary our selves with any care thereof because wee only purposed to touch in some measure a short historicall exposition of the wonderfull things contained in the divine canon as also in the apocryphall additions of Daniel hee telleth us that what is reported touching the lake or denne and the carrying of Abackuk in the fable of Bel and the Dragon is not therefore placed in this ranke because these things have not the authority of divine Scripture And so much concerning the holy Scriptures CHAP. II. Of Predestination Grace Free-will Faith Workes Iustification and Sanctification THe Doctrine which our learned men observed out of the Scriptures the writings of the most approved Fathers was this that God by his immoveable counsaile as Gallus speaketh in his Sermon preached at Constance ordained some of his creatures to praise hâ—m and to live blessedly from him and in him by him namely by his eternall predestination his free calling and his grace which was due to none that hee hath mercie with great goodnesse and hardneth without any iniquitie so as neyther he that is delivered can glory of his own merits nor he that is condemned complain but of his own merits for asmuch as grace onely maketh the distinction betwixt the
redeemed and the lost who by a cause drawne from their common originall were framed together into one masse of perdition For all mankinde stood condemned in the apostaticall roote of Adam with so just and divine a judgement that although none should be freed from thence no man could rightly blame the justice of God and such as were freed must so have beene freed that by those many which were not freed but left in their most just condemnation it might bee shewed what the whole lumpe had deserved that the due judgement of God should have condemned even those that are justified unlesse mercy had relieved them from that which was due that so all the mouthes of them which would glory of their merits might bee stopped and hee that glorieth might glory in the Lord. They further taught as Saint Augustine did that Man using ill his Free will lost both himselfe and it that as one by living is able to kill himselfe but by killing himselfe is not able to live nor hath power to raise up himselfe when hee hath killed himselfe so when sinne had beene committed by free will sinne being the conquerour free will also was lost for asmuch as of whom a man is overcome of the same is hee also brought in bondage 2 Pet. 2. 19. that unto a man thus brought in bondage and sold there is no liberty left to doe well unlesse he redeeme him whose saying is this If the Sonne make you free yee shall bee free indeede Iohn 8. 36. that the minde of men from their very youth is set upon evill there being not a man which sinneth not that a man hath nothing from himselfe but sinne that God is the author of all good things that is to say both of good nature and of good will which unlesse God doe worke in him man cannot doe because this good will is prepared by the Lord in man that by the gift of God hee may doe that which of himselfe he could not doe by his owne free-will that the good will of man goeth before many gifts of God but not all and of those which it doth not goe before it selfe is one For both of these is read in the holy Scriptures His mercy shall goe before mee and His mercie shall follow mee it preventeth him that is unwilling that hee may will and it followeth him that is willing that he will not in vaine and that therefore we are admonished to aske that wee may receive to the end that what we doe will may be effected by him by whom it was effected that we did so will They taught also that the Law was not given that it might take away sinne but that it might shut up all under sinne to the end that men being by this means humbled might understand that their salvation was not in their owne hand but in the hand of a Mediatour that by the Law commeth neither the remission nor the removall but the knowledge of sinnes that it taketh not away diseases but discovereth them forgiveth not sinnes but condemneth them that the Lord God did impose it not upon those that served righteousnesse but sinne namely by giving a just law to unjust men to manifest their sins and not to take them away forasmuch as nothing taketh away sins but the grace of faith which worketh by love That our sinnes are freely forgiven us without the merit of our workes that through grace we are saved by faith and not by works and that therfore we are to rejoyce not in our owne righteousnesse or learning but in the faith of the Crosse by which all our sinnes are forgiven us That grace is abject and vaine if it alone doe not suffice us and that we esteem basely of Christ when we thinke that he is not sufficient for us to salvation That God hath so ordered it that he will be gracious to mankind if they do beleeve that they shall be freed by the bloud of Christ. that as the soule is the life of the body so faith is the life of the soule and that wee live by faith onely as owing nothing to the Law that hee who beleeveth in Christ hath the perfection of the Law For whereas none might be justified by the Law because none did fulfill the Law but onely hee which did trust in the promise of Christ faith was appointed which should be accepted for the perfection of the Law that in all things which were omitted faith might satisfie for the whole Law That this righteousnesse therefore is not ours nor in us but in Christ in whom were are considered as members in the head That faith procuring the remission of sinnes by grace maketh all beleevers the children of Abraham and that it was just that as Abraham was justified by faith onely so also the rest that followed his faith should bee saved after the same manner That through adoption we are made the sons of God by beleeving in the Sonne of God and that this is a testimony of our adoption that we have the spirit by which we pray and cry Abba Father forasmuch as none can receive so great a pledge as this but such as bee sonnes onely That Moses himselfe made a distinction betwixt both the justices to wit of faith and of deedes that the one did by workes justifie him that came the other by beleeving onely that the Patriarches and the Prophets were not justified by the workes of the Law but by faith that the custome of sinne hath so prevailed that none now can fulfill the Law as the Apostle Peter saith Acts 15. 10. Which neither our fathers nor wee have beene able to beare But if there were any righteous men which did escape the curse it was not by the workes of the Law but for their faiths sake that they were saved Thus did Sedulius and Claudius two of our most famous Divines deliver the doctrine of free will and grace faith and workes the Law and the Gospel Iustification and Adoption no lesse agreeably to the faith which is at this day professed in the reformed Churches that to that which they themselves received from the more ancient Doctors whom they did follow therein Neither doe wee in our judgement one whit differ from them when they teach that faith alone is not sufficient to life For when it is said that Faith alone justifieth this word alone may bee conceived to have relation either to the former part of the sentence which in the Schooles they terme the Subject or to the latter which they call the Predicate Being referred to the former the meaning will be that such a faith as is alone that is to say not accompanied with other vertues doth justifie and in this sense wee utterly disclaime the assertion But being referred to the latter it maketh this sense that faith is it which alone or