yet is daily offered for the life of the vvorld Contra quem saith he satis argumentatur Rabanus in Epistolâ ad Egilonem Abbatem Ratrannus quidam libro composito ad Karolum regem dicentes aliam esse Against whom both Rabanus in his Epistle to Abbot Egilo and one Ratrannus in a booke which he made to King Charles argue largely saying that it is another kind of flesh Whereby what Rabanus his opinion was of this point in his Epistle to Abbot Egilo or Egilus consequently what that was which the Monkes of Weingart could not indure in his Penitentiall I trust is plaine enough I omit other corruptions of antiquitie in this same question which I have touched elsewhere only that of Bertram I may not passe over wherein the dishonesty of these men in handling the writings of the ancient is laid open even by the confession of their owne mouthes Thus the case standeth That Ratrannus who joined with Rabanus in refuting the error of the carnall presence at the first bringing in thereof by Paschasius Ratbertus is he who commonly is knowen by the name of Bertramus The booke which he wrote of this argument to Carolus Calvus the Emperour was forbidden to be read by order from the Roman Inquisition confirmed afterwards by the Councell of Trent The Divines of Doway perceiving that the forbidding of the booke did not keepe men from reading it but gave them rather occasion to seeke more earnestly after it thought it better policy that Bertram should be permitted to goe abroad but handled in such sort as other ancient writers that made against them were wont to be Seeing therefore say they we beare with very many errors in other of the old Catholike vvriters and extenuate them excuse them by inventing some device oftentimes deny them and fayne some commodious sense for them when they are objected in disputations or conflicts with our adversaries wee doe not see why Bertram may not deserve the same equitie and diligent reviseall Least the heretickes cry out that we burne and forbid such antiquity as maketh for them Marke this dealing well The world must be borne in hand that all the Fathers make for the Church of Rome against us in all our controversies When we bring forth expresse testimonies of the Fathers to the contrary what must then be done A good face must be put upō the matter one device or other must be invented to elude the testimonies objected and still it must be denied that the Fathers make against the doctrine of the Papists Bertram for example writeth thus The things which differ one from another are not the same The body of Christ which was dead and rose again and being made immortall now dyeth not death no more having dominion over it is everlasting and now not subject to suffering But this which is celebrated in the Church is temporall not everlasting it is corruptible not free from corruption What device must they finde out here They must say this is meant of the accidents or formes of the Sacrament which are corruptible or of the use of the Sacrament which continueth only in this present world But how will this shift serve the turne when as the whole drift of the discourse tendeth to prove that that which is received by the mouth of the faithfull in the Sacrament is not that very bodie of Christ which dyed upon the Crosse and rose againe from death Non malé aut inconsulté omittantur igitur omnia haec It were not amisse therefore say our Popish Censurers nor unadvisedly done that all these things should be left out If this be your maner of dealing with antiquity let all men judge whether it be not high time for us to listen unto the advice of Vincentius Lirinensis and not be so forward to commit the triall of our controversies to the writings of the Fathers who have had the ill hap to fall into such hucksters handling Yet that you may see how confident we are in the goodnesse of our cause we will not now stand upon our right nor refuse to enter with you into this field but give you leave for this time both to be the Challenger and the appointer of your owne weapons Let us then heare your challenge wherin you would so faine be answered I would faine know say you how can your Religion be true which disalloweth of many chiefe articles which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did generally hold to be true For they of your side that have read the Fathers of that unspotted Church can well testifie and if any deny it it shall be presently shewen that the Doctors Pastors and Fathers of that Church doe allow of Traditions c. And againe Now would I faine know whether of both have the true Religion they that hold all these abovesaid points with the primitive Church or they that do most vehemently contradict and gainsay them they that doe not disagree with that holy Church in any point of Religion or they that agree with it but in very few and disagree in almost all And the third time too for fayling Now would I willingly see what reasonable answer may be made to this For the Protestants graunt that the Church of Rome for 400 or 500 yeares held the true Religion of Christ yet do they exclaime against the abovesaid articles which the same Church did maintaine and uphold as may be shewen by the expresse testimonies of the Fathers of the same Church and shall be largely layd downe if any learned Protestant will deny it If Albertus Pighius had now beene alive as great a Scholer as he was he might have learned that he never knew before Who did ever yet saith he by the Church of Rome understand the Vniversall Church That doth this man say I who styleth all the ancient Doctors and Martyrs of the Church Vniversall with the name of the Saints and Fathers of the primitive Church of Rome But it seemeth a small matter unto him for the magnifying of that Church to confound Vrbem Orbem unlesse he mingle also Heaven and Earth together by giving the title of that unspotted Church which is the speciall priviledge of the Church triumphant in heaven unto the Church of Rome here militant upon earth S. Augustine surely would not have himselfe otherwise understood whensoever hee speaketh of the unspotted Church and therefore to prevent all mistaking hee thus expoundeth himselfe in his Retractations Wheresoever in these bookes I have made mention of the Church not having spot or wrinkle it is not so to be taken as if she were so now but that she is prepared to bee so when she shall appeare glorious For now by reason of certaine ignorances and infirmities of her members the whole Church hath cause to say every day Forgive us our trespasses Now as long as the Church is subject to these ignorances and infirmities it cannot
true by often experience that the wounded conscience will still pinch grievously notwithstanding the confession made unto God in secret At such a time as this then where the sinner can finde no ease at home what should hee doe but use the best means he can to finde it abroad Is there no balme in Gilead is there no physician there No doubt but God hath provided both the one and the other for recovering of the health of the daughter of his people and S. Iames hath herein given us this direction Confesse your faults one to another and pray one for another that yee may be healed According to which prescription Gregory Nyssen toward the end of his Sermon of Repentance useth this exhortation to the sinner Be sensible of the disease vvherewith thou art taken afflict thy selfe as much as thou canst Seeke also the mourning of thy intirely affected brethren to helpe thee unto libertie Shew me thy bitter and aboundant teares that I may also mingle mine therewith Take likewise the Priest for a partner of thine affliction as thy Father For who is it that so falsely obtayneth the name of a father or hath so adamantine a soule that he will not condole with his sonns lamenting Shew unto him without blushing the things that were kept close discover the secrets of thy soule as showing thy hidden disease unto thy physician Hee will have care both of thy credit and of thy cure It was no part of his meaning to advise us that wee should open our selves in this maner unto everie hedge-priest as if there were a vertue generally annexed to the order that upon confession made and absolution received from anie of that ranke all should be straight made up but he would have us communicate our case both to such Christian brethren and to such a ghostly father as had skill in physick of this kinde and out of a fellow-feeling of our griefe would apply themselves to our recoverie Therefore saith Origen looke about thee diligently unto whom thou oughtest to confesse thy sinne Try first the physician unto whom thou oughtest to declare the cause of thy maladie vvho knoweth to be weake with him that is weake to weepe with him that weepeth who understandeth the discipline of condoling and compassionating that so at length if hee shall say anie thing who hath first shewed himselfe to be both a skilfull physician and a mercifull or if he shall give anie counsaile thou mayest doe and follow it For as S. Basil well noteth the verie same course is to be held in the confession of sinnes which is in the opening of the diseases of the bodie As men therefore do not discover the diseases of their bodie to all nor to everie sort of people but to those that are skilfull in the cure thereof even so ought the confession of our sinnes be made unto such as are able to cure them according to that which is written Yee that are strong beare the infirmities of the weake that is take them away by your diligence He requireth care and diligence in performance of the cure being ignorant good man of that new compendious method of healing invented by our Romane Paracelsians whereby a man in confession of attrite is made contrite by vertue of the keyes that the sinner need put his ghostly father to no further trouble then this Speake the word onely and I shall be healed And this is that Sacramentall confession devised of late by the Priests of Rome which they notwithstanding would faine father upon S. Peter from whom the Church of Rome as they would have us beleeve received this instruction that if envie or infidelitie or anie other evill did secretly creepe into anie mans heart hee who had care of his owne soule should not be ashamed to confesse those things unto him who had the oversight over him that by Gods word and wholsome counsaile he might be cured by him And so indeed we reade in the apocryphall epistle of Clement pretended to be written unto S. Iames the brother of our Lord where in the severall editions of Crab Sichardus Venradius Surius Nicolinus and Binius wee finde this note also laid downe in the margent Nota de confessione sacramentali Marke this of sacramentall confession But their owne Maldonat would have taught them that this note was not worth the marking forasmuch as the proper end of sacramentall confession is the obtayning of remission of sinnes by vertue of the keyes of the Church whereas the end of the confession here said to be commended by S. Peter was the obtayning of counsaile out of Gods word for the remedie of sinnes which kinde of medicinall confession wee well approve of and acknowledge to have beene ordinarily prescribed by the ancient Fathers for the cure of secret sinnes For as for notorious offences which bred open scandall private confession was not thought sufficient but there was further required publick acknowledgement of the fault the solemne use of the keyes for the reconciliation of the penitent If his sin do not only redound to his own evill but also unto much scandall of others and the Bishop thinketh it to be expedient for the profit of the Church let him not refuse to performe his penance in the knowledge of manie or of the whole people also let him not resist let him not by his shamefastnesse add swelling to his deadly and mortall wound saith S. Augustine and more largely in another place where he meeteth with the objection of the sufficiencie of internall repentance in this maner Let no man say unto himselfe I doe it secretly I doe it before God God vvho pardoneth me doth know that I doe it in my heart Is it therefore said without cause Whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Are the keyes therfore without cause given unto the Church of God Doe we frustrate the Gospell of God doe we frustrate the words of Christ Doe we promise that to you which hee denieth you Do wee not deceive you Iob saith If I was abashed to confesse my sinnes in the sight of the people So just a man of Gods rich threasure who was tried in such a furnace saith thus and doth the childe of pestilence vvithstand me and is ashamed to bow his knee under th◠blessing of God That which the Emperor was not ashamed to doe is he ashamed of who is not as much as a Senator but only a simple Courtier O proud neck ó crooked minde perhaps nay it is not to be doubted it was for this reason God would that Theodosius the Emperour should doe publick penance in the sight of the people especially because his sinne could not be concealed and is a Senator ashamed of that whereof the Emperour was not ashamed is he ashamed of that who is no Senator but a Courtier onely whereof the Emperour was not ashamed Is one of the vulgar sort or a trader
of the Greek Church I finde the absolution expressed in the third person as attributed wholly to God and not in the first as if it came from the Priest himselfe One ancient forme of Absolution used among the Latins was this Almighty God be mercifull unto thee and forgive thee all thy sinnes past present and to come visible and invisible which thou hast committed before him and his Saints which thou hast confessed or by some negligence or forgetfulnesse or evill vvill hast concealed God deliver thee from all evill here and hereafter preserve and confirme thee alwayes in everie good worke and Christ the sonne of the living God bring thee unto the life which remayneth without end And so among the Grecians whatsoever sinnes the penitent for forgetfulnes or shamefastnesse doth leave unconfessed we pray the mercifull and most pitifull God that those also may be pardoned unto him and we are perswaded that hee shall receive pardon of them from God saith Ieremy the late Patriarch of Constantinople Where by the way you may observe no such necessitie to be here held of confessing everie knowne sinne unto a Priest that if either for shame or for some other respect the penitent doe not make an intire confession but conceale somewhat from the notice of his ghostly father his confession should thereby be made voyde and hee excluded from all hope of forgivenesse which is that engine whereby the Priests of Rome have lift up themselves into that height of domineering and tyrannizing over mens conscience wherewith we see they now hold the poore people in most miserable awe Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure in the forme of absolution used in their time observe that prayer was premised in the optative and absolution adjoyned afterward in the indicative mood whence they gather that the Priests prayer obtayneth grace his absolution presupposeth it that by the former he ascendeth unto God and procureth pardon for the fault by the later he descendeth to the sinner and reconcileth him to the Church for although a man be loosed before God saith the Master of the Sentences yet is he not held loosed in the face of the Church but by the judgement of the Priest And this loosing of men by the judgement of the Priest is by the Fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring of them to the peace of the Church and an admitting of them to the Lords table againe which therefore they usually expresse by the termes of bringing them to the communion reconciling them to or with the communion restoring the communion to them admitting them to fellowship granting them peace c. Neyther doe we finde that they did ever use anie such formall absolution as this I absolve thee from all thy sinnes wherein our Popish Priests notwithstanding doe place the verie forme of their late devised sacrament of Penance nay hold it to be so absolute a forme that according to Thomas Aquinas his new divinitie it would not be sufficient to say Almightie God have mercie upon thee or God grant unto thee absolution and forgivenesse because forsooth the Priest by these vvords doth not signifie that the absolution is done but intreateth that it may be done which how it will accord with the Romane Pontificall where the forme of Absolution is layd downe prayer-wise the Iesuites who follow Thomas may doe well to consider I passe this over that in the dayes not onely of S. Cyprian but of Alcuinus also who lived 800. yeares after Christ the reconciliation of Penitents was not held to be such a proper office of the Priest but that a Deacon in his absence was allowed to performe the same The ordinarie course that was held herein according to the forme of the ancient Canons is thus layde down by the fathers of the third Councell of Toledo that the Priest should first suspend him that repented of his fault from the communion and make him to have often recourse unto imposition of hands among the rest of the penitents then when hee had fulfilled the time of his satisfaction as the consideration of the Priest did approve of it he should restore him to the communion And this was a Constitution of old fathered upon the Apostles that Bishops should separate those vvho said they repented of their sinnes for a time determined according to the proportion of their sinne and afterward receive them being penitent as fathers would do their children To this Penitential excommunication and absolution belongeth that saying eyther of S. Ambrose or S. Augustin for the same discourse is attributed to them both Hee who hath truely performed his repentance and is loosed from that bond wherewith he was tyed and separated from the body of Christ and doth live well after his repentance whensoever after his reconciliation he shall depart this life he goeth to the Lord he goeth to rest he shall not be deprived of the kingdome of God and from the people of the Divell he shall be separated and that which we reade in Anastasius Sinaita Binde him and till thou hast appeased God doe not let him loose that he be not more bound with the wrath of God for if thou bindest him not there remaine bonds for him that cannot be broken Neither doe we enquire whither the wound were often bound but whither the binding hath profited If it have profited although in a short time use it no longer Let the measure of the loosing be the profit of him that is bound and that exhortation which another maketh unto the Pastors of the Church Binde with separation such as have sinned after baptisme and loose them againe when they have repented receiving them as brethren for the saying is true Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven That this authoritie of loosing remaineth still in the Church wee constantly maintaine against the heresie of the Montanists and Novatians who upon this pretence among others that God onely had power to remit sinnes took away the ministeriall power of reconciling such penitents as had committed haynous sinnes denying that the Church had anie warrant to receive them to her communion againe and to the participation of the holy mysteries notwithstanding their repentance were ever so sound Which is directly contrarie to the doctrine delivered by S. Paul both in the generall that if a man be overtaken in a fault they who are spirituall should restore such a one in the spirit of meekenesse and in the particular of the incestuous Corinthian who though hee had beene excommunicated for such a crime as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles yet upon his repentance the Apostle telleth the Church that they ought to forgive him and comfort him lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow Where that speech of his is specially noted and pressed against the hereticks by S. Ambrose To whom
the rest of the Images of the Saints in memorie and honour of them whom they figure as also their places and Relickes ought to be worshipped with processions bendings of the knee bowings of the bodie incensings kissings offerings lighting of candles and pilgrimages together with all other maners and formes whatsoever as hath beene accustomed to be done in our or our predecessors times And in the Romane Catechisme set out by the appointment of the Councell of Trent the Parish priest is required to declare unto his parishioners not onely that it is lawfull to have images in the Church and to give honour and worship unto them for asmuch as the honour which is done unto them is referred unto the things which they represent but also that this hath still beene done to the great good of the faithfull and that the Images of the Saints are put in Churches aswell that they may be worshipped as that we being admonished by their example might conforme our selves unto their life and maners Now for the maner of this worship we are told by one of their Bishops that it must not onely be confessed that the faithfull in the Church doe adore before the Images as some peradventure would cautelously speake but also adore the Image it selfe without what scruple you will yea they doe reverence it with the same worship wherewith they doe the thing that is represented thereby Wherefore saith he if that ought to be adored with Latrîa or divine worship this also is to bee adored with Latrîa if with Dulîa or Hyperdulîa this likewise is to be adored with the same kinde of worship And so we see that Thomas Aquinas doth directly conclude that the same reverence is to be given unto the Image of Christ and to Christ himselfe and by consequence seeing Christ is adored with the adoration of LatrÃa or divine worship that his image it to be adored with the adoration of Latrîa Vpon which place of Thomas Fryar Pedro de Cabrera a great Master of Divinitie in Spaine doth lay downe these conclusions I. It is simply and absolutely to be said that holy Images are to be worshipped in Churches â—ut of Churches and the contrary is an hereticall doctrine for explication wherof he declareth that by this worshipping he meaneth that signes of service and submission are to be exhibited unto Images by embracing lightes oblation of incense uncovering of the head c. and that this conclusion is a doctrine of faith collected out of the holy Scripture by which it appeareth that things created yea although they be senselesse so that they be consecrated unto God are to be adored II. Images are truely and properly to be adored and out of an intention to adore themselves and not onely the samplers that are represented in them This conclusion which he maketh to be the common resolution of the Divines of that side he opposeth against Durand his followers who helde that Images are adored onely improperly because they put men in minde of the persons represented by them who are then adored before the images as if they had beene there really present But this opinion he saith is censured by the latter Divines to be dangerous rash and savouring of heresie yea and by Fr. Victoria to be plainely hereticall For if Images be adored only improperly they are not to be adored simply absolutely which is a manifest heresie saith Cabrera And if Images were onely to be worshipped by way of rememoration and recordation because they make us remember the samplers which we doe so worship as if they had beene then present it would follow that all creatures should be adored with the same adoration wherewith we worship God seeing all of them doe lead us unto the knowledge and remembrance of God and God is present in all things III. The doctrine delivered by Thomas that the Image and the sampler represented by it is to be worshipped with the same act of adoration is most true most pious and very consonant to the decrees of Faith This he saith is the doctrine not onely of Thomas and of all his disciples but also of all the old Schoole-men almost and particularly he quoteth for it Cajetan Capreolus Paludanus Ferrariensis Antonius Soto Alexander of Hales Albertus Magnus Bonaventura Richardus de Mediavilla Dionysius Carthusianus Major Masilius Thomas Waldensis Turrecremata Angestus Clichtoveus Turrian and Vazquez In a word it is the constant judgement of Divines saith Azorius the Iesuite that the Image is to be honoured and worshipped with the same honour and worship wherewith that is worshipped whereof it is an image Against this use or rather horrible abuse of Images to what purpose should we heape up anie testimonyes of holy Scripture if the words of the second commandement uttered with Gods owne mouth with thundring and lightning upon mount Sinai may not be heard Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image nor the likenesse of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bowe downe to them nor worship them Which thunderclap from heaven the guides of the Romish Church discerning to threaten sore that fearefull Idolatrie which daily they commit thought fit in wisedome first to conceale the knowledge of this from the people by excluding those words out of the Decalogue that went abroad for common use under pretence forsooth of including it in the first Commandement and then afterwards to put this conceite into mens heads that this first commandement was so farre from condemning the veneration of Images that it commanded the same and condemned the contrarie neglect thereof And therefore Laurence Vaux in his Catechisme unto this Question Who breaketh the first Commandement of God by unreverence of God frameth this Answere They that doe not give due reverence to God and his Saints or to their Relickes and IMAGES and Iacobus de Graffijs in his explication of the same Commandement specifieth the due reverence here required more particularly namely that we should reverence everie Image with the same worship that we doe him whose image it is that is to say that wee impart Latrîa or divine worship to the Image of God or of Christ or to the signe of the Crosse also in asmuch as it bringeth the Passion of our Lord unto our minde and that we use the adoration of Hyperdulîa at the Image of the holy Virgin but of Dulìa at the Images of other Saints And can there be found thinke you among men a more desperate impudencie then this that not onely the practise of this wretched Idolatrie should be maintayned against the expresse commandement of almightie God but also that hee himselfe should be made the author and commander of it even in that verie place where he doth so severely forbid it and reveale his wrath from heaven against the ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse
Christ. Thirdly That Gods promise is annexed indeed to the workes of just men yet it belongeth no way to the reason of the merit but commeth rather to the workes which are alreadie not worthy only but also meritorious Unto all which hee addeth afterwards this Corollary Seeing the works of a just man doe condignely merit eternall life as an equall recompence and reward there is no need that any other condigne merit such as is the merit of Christ should come betweene that eternall life might be rendred unto them Yea the merit of every just man hath somewhat peculiar in respect of the just man himselfe which the merit of Christ hath not namely to make the man himselfe just and worthie of eternall life that hee may worthily obtaine the same But the merit of Christ although it be most worthie to obtaine glory of God for us yet it hath not this efficacy and vertue to make us formally just and worthy of eternall life but men by vertue derived from him attaine this effect in themselves And so we never request of God by the merits of Christ that the reward of eternall life may be given to our worthy and meritorious workes but that by Christ grace may be given unto us whereby we may be enabled worthily to merit this reward In a word Our merits saith hee have this force in us that they make us formally worthy of eternall life the merits of Christ doe not make us worthy formally but Christ is worthy in regard of them to impetrate unto us whatsoever he requesteth for us Thus doth Vasquez the Iesuite discover unto us to the full the mysterie of this iniquitie with whom for the better information of the English Reader wee joine our Rhemists who deliver this as their Catholike doctrine that all good workes done by Gods grace after the first justification be truly and properly meritorious and fully worthy of everlasting life and that thereupon heaven is the due and just stipend crowne or recompence which God by his justice oweth to the person so working by his grace For he rendreth or repayeth heaven say they as a just Iudge and not only as a mercifull giver and the crowne which he payeth is not only of mercy or favour or grace but also of justice And againe that mans workes done by Christs grace doe condignely or worthily deserve eternall joy so as works can be none other but the value desert price worth and merit of the same Whereupon they put us in minde that the word Reward which in our English tongue may signifie a voluntarie or bountifull gift doth not here so well expresse the nature of the Latine word Merces or the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are rather the very stipend that the hired work-man or journey-man covenanteth to have of him whose worke he-doth and is a thing equally and justly answering to the time and weight of his travels and workes rather than a free gift This is that doctrine of merits which from our very hearts we detest and abhorre as utterly repugnant to the truth of God and the common sense of all true-hearted Christians The lesson which our Saviour taught his disciples is farre different from this Luk. 17.10 When ye have done all those things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our dutie to doe And if he be unprofitable saith S. Hierome who hath done all what is to be said of him who could not fulfill them So likewise the Romanes themselves might remember that they were taught by S. Paul at the beginning that there is no proportion of condignitie to be found betwixt not the actions only but the passions also of the Saints and the reward that is reserved for us in the world to come For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us saith he Rom. 8.18 and Bernard thereupon Concerning the life eternall we know that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory no not if one man did sustaine them all For the merits of men are not such that for them eternall life should be due of right or God should doe any iniurie if he did not give it For to let passe that all merits are Gods gifts and in that respect a man is for them made a debter to God more than God to man what are all merits in comparison of so great a glory and S. Ambrose long before him All those things which we suffer are too little and unworthy fot the paines whereof there should be rendred unto us so great reward of good things to come as shall be revealed in us when being reformed according to the image of God we shall merit or obtaine to see his glory face to face Where for the better understanding of the meaning of the Fathers in this point we may further observe that merits in their writings doe ordinarily signifie nothing but workes as in the alleaged place of Bernard and to merit simply to procure or to attaine without any relation at all to the dignitie either of the person or the worke as in the last words of Ambrose is plainly to be seene And therefore as Tacitus writes of Agricola that by his vertues he merited that is to say incurred the anger of Caius Caesar so S. Augustine saith that he and his fellowes for their good doings at the hands of the Donatists in stead of thanks merited that is incurred the flames of hatred On the other side the same Father affirmeth that S. Paul for his persecutions and blasphemies merited that is found the grace to be named a vessell of election having reference to that in 1 Timoth. 1.13 Who was before a blasphemer and a persecuter and injurious but I obtained mercy where in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the vulgar Latine translateth Misericordiam consecutus sum S. Cyprian readeth Misericordiam merui I merited mercy Whereunto we may adde that saying which is found also among the workes of S. Augustine that no sinner should despaire of himselfe seeing Paul hath merited pardon and that of Gregory Paul when he went about to extinguish the name of our Redeemer upon earth merited to heare his words from heaven as also that other straine of his concerning the sin of Adam which is sung in the Church of Rome at the blessing of the Taper O happy sinne that merited that is found the favour to have such and so great a Redeemer Howsoever therefore the ancient Doctors may seeme unto those that are not well acquainted with their language to speake of merits as the Romanists doe yet have they nothing common with them but the bare word in the thing it selfe they differ as much from them every way as our Church doth
be otherwise but there must be differences betwixt the members thereof one part may understand that whereof an other is ignorant and ignorance being the mother of error one particular Church may wrongly conceive of some points wherein others may be rightly informed Neyther will it follow thereupon that these Churches must be of different Religions because they fully agree not in all things or that therefore the Reformed Churches in our dayes must disclaime all kindred with those in ancient times because they have washed away some spots from themselves which they discerned to have been in them It is not every spot that taketh away the beautie of a Church not every sicknesse that taketh away the life thereof and therefore though wee should admit that the ancient Church of Rome was somewhat impaired both in beautie and in health too wherein we have no reason to be sorie that we are unlike unto her there is no necessitie that hereupon presently she must cease to be our sister S. Cyprian and the rest of the African Bishops that joined with him held that such as were baptized by heretickes should be rebaptized the African Bishops in the time of Aurelius were of another minde Doth the diversitie of their judgements in this point make them to have been of a diverse Religion It was the use of the ancient Church to minister the Communion unto Infants which is yet also practised by the Christians in Egypt and Ethiopia The Church of Rome upon better consideration hath thought fit to doe otherwise and yet for all that will not yeeld that either she her selfe hath forsaken the Religion of her ancestors because she followeth them not in this or that they were of the same religion with the Cophtites and Habassines because they agree together in this particular So put case the Church of Rome now did use prayer for the dead in the same maner that the ancient Church did which we will shew to be otherwise the reformed Churches that upon better advice have altered that usage need not therefore graunt that eyther themselves hold a different Religion from that of the Fathers because they doe not precisely follow them in this nor yet that the Fathers were therefore Papists because in this point they thus concurred For as two may be discerned to be sisters by the likenesse of their faces although the one have some spottes or blemishes which the other hath not so a third may bee brought in which may shew like spots and blemishes and yet have no such likenesse of visage as may bewray her to be the others sister But our Challenger having first conceited in his minde an Idea of an unspotted Church upon earth then being farre in love with the painted face of the present Church of Rome and out of love with us because we like not as he liketh he taketh a view of both our faces in the false glasses of affection and findeth her on whom he doteth to answer his unspotted Church in all points but us to agree with it in almost nothing And thereupon he would faine know whether of both have the true Religion they that doe not disagree with that holy Church in any point of Religion or they that agree with it but in very few and disagree in almost all Indeed if that which he assumeth for granted could as easily bee proved as it is boldly avouched the question would quickly be resolved whether of us both have the true Religion But he is to understand that strong conceits are but weake proofes and that the Iesuites have not been the first from whom such bragges as these have beene heard Dioscorus the hereticke was as peart when hee uttered these speeches in the Councell of Chalcedon I am cast out with the Fathers I defend the doctrines of the Fathers I transgresse them not in any point and I have their testimonies not barely but in their very bookes Neither need we wonder that he should beare us down that the Church of Rome at this day doth not disagree from the primitive Church in any point of Religion who sticketh not so confidently to affirme that we agree with it but in very few and disagree in almost all For those few points wherein hee confesseth wee doe agree with the ancient Church must either be meant of such articles onely wherein wee disagree from the now Church of Rome or else of the whole bodie of that Religion which we professe If in the former he yeeld that wee doe agree with the primitive Church what credite doth he leave unto himselfe who with the same breath hath givē out that the present Church of Rome doth not disagree with that holy Church in any point If he meanethe latter with what face can he say that wee agree with that holy Church but in very few points of religion and disagree in almost all Irenaeus who was the Disciple of those which heard S. Iohn the Apostle layeth downe the articles of that faith in the unitie whereof the Churches that were founded in Germany Spaine France the East Egypt Lybia and all the world did sweetly accord as if they had all dwelt in one house all had but one soule and one heart and one mouth Is he able to shew one point wherein we have broken that harmony which Irenaeus commendeth in the Catholick Church of his time But that Rule of faith so much commended by him and Tertullian and the rest of the Fathers and all the articles of the severall Creedes that were ever received in the ancient Church as badges of the Catholicke profession to which we willingly subscribe is with this man almost nothing none must now be counted a Catholicke but he that can conforme his beliefe unto the Creed of the new fashion compiled by Pope Pius the fourth some foure and fiftie yeares ago As for the particular differences wherein he thinketh he hath the advantage of us when we come unto the sifting of them it shall appeare how farre he was deceived in his imagination In the meane time having as yet not strucken one stroake but threatned only to doe wonders if any would be so hardy to accept his Challenge he might have done very well to have deferred his triumph untill such time as he had obtayned the victory For as if he had borne us downe with the weight of the authority of the Fathers and so astonished us therwith that we could not tell what to say for our selves he thus bestirreth himselfe in a most ridiculous maner fighting with his owne shadow Will you say that these Fathers saith he who hath not hitherto layd downe so much as the name of any one Father maintained these opinions contrary to the vvord of God Why you know that they were the pillers of Christianitie the champions of Christ his Church and of the true Catholick Religion which they most learnedly defended against diverse heresies and therefore spent all their time in a most serious studie
thinke will take the paynes to get him a new heart and a new spirit and undertake the toylsome worke of crucifying the flesh with the lustes thereof if without all this adoe the Priests absolution can make that other imperfect or rather equivocall contrition arising from a carnall and servile feare to be sufficient for the blotting out of all his sinnes Or are wee not rather to thinke that this sacramentall penance of the Papists is a device invented by the enemie to hoodwinke poore soules and to divert them from seeking that true repentance which is onely able to stand them in stead and that such as take upon them to helpe lame dogges over the stile after this maner by substituting quid pro quo attrition in stead of contrition servile feare in stead of filiall love carnall sorrow in stead of godly repentance are physicians of no value nay such as minister poyson unto men under colour of providing a soveraigne medicine for them Hee therefore that will have care of his soules health must consider that much resteth here in the good choyce of a skilfull physician but much more in the paines that must be taken by the patient himselfe For that every one who beareth the name of a Priest is not fit to bee trusted with a matter of this moment their owne Decrees may give them faire warning where this admonition is twise laid down out of the author that wrote of true and false repentance Hee who will confesse his sinnes that he may finde grace let him seeke for a Priest that knoweth how to binde and loose least while he is negligent concerning himselfe he be neglected by him vvho mercifully admonisheth and desireth him that both fall not into the pit which the foole would not avoid And when the skilfullest Priest that is hath done his best S. Cyprian will tell them that to him that repenteth to him that worketh to him that prayeth the Lord of his mercie can grant a pardon hee can make good that which for such men eyther the Martyrs shall request or the Priest shall doe If we inquire who they were that first assumed unto themselves this exorbitant power of forgiving sins we are like to finde them in the Tents of the ancient hereticks and schismaticks who promised unto others libertie when they themselves were the servants of corruption How manie saith S. Hierom which have neyther bread nor apparell when they themselves are hungry and naked and neyther have spirituall meates nor preserve the coate of Christ intire yet promise unto others food and rayment and being full of wounds themselves bragge that they be physicians and doe not observe that of Moses Exod. 4.13 Provide another vvhom thou mayest send that other commandement Ecclesiastic 7.6 Doe not seeke to be made a Iudge lest peradventure thou be not able to take away iniquitie It is Iesus alone who healeth all sicknesses and infirmities of vvhom it is written Psalm 147.4 He healeth the contrite in heart and bindeth up their soares Thus farre S. Hierom. The Rhemists in their marginall note upon Luke 7.49 tell us that as the Pharisees did alwayes carp Christ for remission of sinnes in earth so the Hereticks reprehend his Church that remitteth sinnes by his authoritie But S. Augustin treating upon the selfe same place might have taught them that hereby the bewrayed themselves to be the off spring of Hereticks rather then children of the Church For whereas our Saviour there had said unto the penitent woman Thy sinnes are forgiven and they that sate at meate with him began to say within themselves Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also S. Augustin first compareth their knowledge and the knowledge of the woman thus together Shee knew that hee could forgive sinnes but they knew that a man could not forgive sinnes And wee are to beleeve that all that is both they which sat at table and the woman which came to our Lords feet they all knew that a man could not forgive sinnes Seeing all therefore knew this shee who beleeved that hee could forgive sinnes understood him to be more then a man and a little after That doe you know well that doe you hold well saith that learned Father Hold that a man cannot forgive sinnes Shee who beleeved that her sinnes were forgiven her by Christ beleeved that Christ was not only man but God also Then doth hee proceede to compare the knowledge of the Iewes then with the opinion of the Heretickes in his dayes Herein saith he the Pharisee was better then these men for when he did thinke that Christ was a man he did not beleeve that sinnes could be forgiven by a man It appeared therefore that the Iewes had better understanding then the Hereticks The Iewes said Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also Dare a man challenge this to himselfe What saith the Heretick on the other side I do forgive I doe cleanse I doe sanctifie Let Christ answer him not I O man when I was thought by the Iewes to bee a man I ascribed the forgivenesse of sinnes to faith Not I but Christ doth answer thee O Heretick Thou when thou art but a man sayest Come woman I doe make the safe I when I was thought to be but a man said Goe woman thy faith hath made thee safe The Hereticks at whom S. Augustin here aymeth were the Donatists whom Optatus also before him did thus roundly take up for the same presumption Vnderstand at length that you are servants and not Lords And if the Church be a vineyard and men be appointed to be dressers of it why doe you rush into the dominion of the housholder Why doe you challenge unto your selves that which is Gods Give leave unto God to performe the things that belong unto himselfe For that gift cannot be given by man which is divine If you think so you labour to frustrate the words of the Prophets the promises of God by which it is proved that God washeth away sinne and not man It is noted likewise by Theodoret of the Audian hereticks that they bragged they did forgive sinnes The maner of Confession which he saith was used among them was not much unlike that which Alvarus Pelagius acknowledgeth to have beene the usuall practise of them that made greatest profession of religion and learning in his time For scarce at all saith hee or very seldome doth any of them confesse otherwise then in generall termes scarce doe they ever specifie any grievous sinne What they say one day that they say another as if every day they did offend alike The maner of Absolution was the same with that which Theodoricus de Niem noteth to have beene practised by the pardoners sent abroad by Pope Boniface the ninth who released all sinnes to them that confessed without any penance or repentance affirming that they had for their warrant in so doing all that power which Christ gave unto
Peter of binding and loosing upon earth just as Theodoret reporteth the Audians were wont to doe who presently after confession graunted remission not prescribing a time for repentance as the lawes of the Church did require but giving pardon by authoritie The lawes of the Church prescribed a certaine time unto Penitents wherein they should give proofe of the soundnesse of their repentance and gave order that afterwards they should be forgiven and comforted lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch heavinesse So that first their penance was injoyned unto them and thereby they were held to be bound after performance whereof they received their absolution by which they were loosed againe But the Audian hereticks without anie such triall taken of their repentance did of their owne heads give them absolution presently upon their confession as the Popish Priests use to doe now a dayes Onely the Audians had one ridiculous ceremonie more then the Papists that having placed the Canonicall bookes of Scripture upon one side and certaine Apocryphall writings on the other they caused their followers to passe betwixt them and in their passing to make confession of their sinnes as the Papists another idle practise more then they that after they have given absolution they injoyne penance to the partie absolved that is to say as they of old would have interpreted it they first loose him and presently after binde him which howsoever they hold to be done in respect of the temporall punishment remayning due after the remission of the fault yet it appeareth plainly that the penitentiall workes required in the ancient Church had reference to the fault it selfe and that no absolution was to be expected from the Minister for the one before all reckonings were ended for the other Onely where the danger of death was imminent the case admitted some exception reconciâ—iation being not denied indeed unto them that desired it at such a time yet so granted that it was left verie doubtfull whether it would stand the parties in anie great stead or no. If any one being in the last extremitie of his sicknesse saith S. Augustin is willing to receive penance and â—oth receive it and is presently reconciled and departeth hence I confesse unto you wee doe not denie him that which hee asketh but wee doe not presume that he goeth well from hence I doe not presume I deceive you not I doe not presume Hee who putteth off his penance to the last and is reconciled whether hee goeth secure from hence I am not secure Penance I can give him securitie I cannot give him Doe I say hee shall be damned I say not so But doe I say also he shall be freed No. What doest thou then say unto mee I know not I presume not I promise not I know not Wilt thou free thy selfe of the doubt wilt thou escape that which is uncertaine Doe thy penance while thou art in health The penance which is asked for by the infirme man is infirme The penance which is asked for onely by him that is a dying I feare lest it also dye But with the matter of penance we have not here to deale those formal absolutions and pardons of course immediately granted upon the hearing of mens confessions is that which wee charge the Romish Priests to have learned from the Audian hereticks Some require penance to this end that they might presently have the communion restored unto them these men desire not so much to loose themselves as to binde the Priest saith S. Ambrose If this be true that the Priest doth binde himselfe by his hastie and unadvised loosing of others the case is like to go hard with our Popish Priests who ordinarily in bestowing their absolutions use to make more hast then good speed Wherein with how little judgement they proceed who thus take upon them the place of Iudges in mens consciences may sufficiently appeare by this that whereas the maine ground whereupon they would build the necessitie of Auricular confession and the particular enumeration of all knowne sinnes is pretended to be this that the ghostly Father having taken notice of the cause may judge righteous judgement and discerne who should be bound and who should be loosed the matter yet is so carried in this court of theirs that everie man commonly goeth away with his absolution and all sorts of people usually receive one and the selfe same iudgement If thou seperate the pretious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth saith the Lord. Whose mouth then may we hold them to be who seldome put anie difference betweene these and make it their ordinarie practise to pronounce the same sentence of absolution aswell upon the one as upon the other If we would know how late it was before this trade of pardoning mens sinnes after this maner was established in the Church of Rome wee cannot discover this better then by tracing out the doctrine publickly taught in that Church touching this matter from the time of Satans loosing untill his binding againe by the restoring of the puritie of the Gospell in our dayes And here Radulphus Ardens doth in the first place offer himselfe who toward the beginning of that time preached this for sound divinitie The power of releasing sinnes belongeth to God alone But the ministery which improperly also is called a power hee hath granted unto his substitutes who after their maner doe binde and absolve that is to say doe declare that men are bound or absolved For God doth first inwardly absolve the sinner by compunction and then the Priest outwardly by giving the sentence doth declare that he is absolved Which is well signified by that of Lazarus who first in the grave was raysed up by the Lord and afterward by the ministery of the disciples was loosed from the bands wherewith he was tyed Then follow both the Anselmes ours of Canterbury and the other of Laon in France who in their expositions upon the ninth of S. Matthew cleerely teach that none but God alone can forgive sinnes Ivo Bishop of Chartres writeth that by inward contrition the inward judge is satisfied and therefore without delay forgivenesse of the sinne is granted by him unto whom the inward conversion is manifest but the Church because it knoweth not the hidden things of the heart doth not loose him that is bound although he be raysed up untill hee be brought out of the tombe that is to say purged by publick satisfaction and if presently upon the inward conversion God be pleased to forgive the sinne the absolution of the Priest which followeth cannot in anie sort properly be accounted a remission of that sinne but a further manifestation onely of the remission formerly granted by God himselfe The Master of the Sentences after him having propounded the diverse opinions of the Doctors touching this point demandeth at last In this so great varietie what is to be held and returneth for
particular error which seemeth to have gotten head in his time as being most plausible to the multitude and very pleasing unto the looser sort of Christians therein he did well but that thereupon he condemned the generall practise of the Church which had no dependance upon that erroneous conceipt therein he did like unto himselfe headily and perversely For the Church in her Commemorations and prayers for the dead had no relation at all unto those that had ledd their lives lewdly and dissolutely as appeareth plainly both by the author of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy and by diverse other evidences before alledged but unto those that did end their lives in such a godly maner as gave pregnant hope unto the living that their soules were at rest with God and to such as these alone did it wish the accomplishment of that which remained of their redemption to wit their publick justification and solemne acquitall at the last day and their perfect consummation of blisse both in body and soule in the kingdome of heaven for ever after not that the event of these things was conceived to be anie wayes doubtfull for wee have beene told that things may be prayed for the event whereof is knowne to be most certaine but because the commemoration thereof was thought to serve for speciall use not onely in regard of the manifestation of the affection of the living toward the dead he that prayed as Dionysius noteth desiring other mens gifts as if they were his owne graces but also in respect of the consolation and instruction which the living might receive thereby as Epiphanius in his answer to Aërius doth more particularly declare The obiection of Aërius was this The Commemorations and prayers used in the Church bring no profit to the dead therefore as an unprofitable thing they are to be reiected To this doth Epiphanius thus frame his answer As for the reciting of the names of those that are deceased what can be better then this what more commodious and more admirable that such as are present do beleeve that they who are departed do live and are not extinguished but are still being and living with the Lord and that this most pious preaching might be declared that they who pray for their brethren have hope of them as being in a peregrination Which is as much in effect as if he had denied Aërius his consequence and answered him that although the dead were not profited by this action yet it did not therefore follow that it should be condemned as altogether unprofitable because it had a singular use otherwise namely to testifie the faith and the hope of the living concerning the dead the faith in declaring them to be alive for so doth Dionysius also expound the Churches intention in her publick nomination of the dead and as Divinitie teacheth not mortified but translated from death unto a most divine life the hope in that they signified hereby that they accounted their brethren to have departed from them no otherwise than as if they had beene in a journey with expectation to meet them afterward and by this meanes made a difference betwixt themselves and others which had no hope Then doth Epiphanius proceed further in answering the same objection after this maner The prayer also which is made for them doth profite although it do not cut off all their sinnes yet forasmuch as whilest we are in the world we oftentimes slip both unwillingly and with our will it serveth to signifie that which is more perfect For we make a memoriall both for the just and for sinners for sinners intreating the mercy of God for the just both the Fathers and Patriarches the Prophets and Apostles and Euangelists and Martyrs and Confessors Bishâ—ps also and Anchorites and the whole order that vve may sever our Lord Iesus Christ from the ranke of all other men by the honour that we doe unto him and that we may yeeld worship unto him Which as farre as I apprehend him is no more then if he had thus replyed unto Aërius Although the prayer that is made for the dead doe not cut off all their sinnes which is the onely thing that thou goest about to prove yet doth it profite notwithstanding for another purpose namely to signifie the supereminent perfection of our Saviour Christ above the rest of the sonnes of men who are subiect to manifold slipps and falls as long as they live in this world For aswell the righteous with their involuntarie slipps as sinners with their voluntarie falls doe come within the compasse of these Commemorations wherein prayers are made both for sinners that repent and for righteous persons that have no such need of repentance For sinners that being by their repentance recovered out of the snare of the Divell they may finde mercy of the Lord at the last day and bee freed from the fire prepared for the Divell and his angells For the righteous that they may be recompensed in the resurrection of the iust and received into the kingdome prepared for them from the foundation of the world Which kinde of prayer being made for the best men that ever lived even the Patriarches Prophets Apostles Euangelists and Martyrs themselves Christ onely excepted sheweth that the profite which the Church intended should be reaped therefrom was not the taking away of the sinnes of the parties that were prayed for but the honouring of their Lord above them it being hereby declared that our Lord is not to be compared unto any man though a man live in righteousnesse a thousand times and more for how should that be possible considering that the one is God the other man as the praying to the one and for the other doth discover and the one is in heaven the other in earth by reason of the remaines of the body yet resting in the earth untill the day of the Resurrection unto which all these prayers had speciall reference This do I conceive to be the right meaning of Epiphanius his answer as suting best both with the generall intention of the Church which he taketh upon him to vindicate from the misconstruction of Aërius with the application therof unto his obiection with the known doctrine of Epiphanius delivered by him elsewhere in these terms After death there is no helpe to be gotten eyther by godlinesse or by repentance For Lazarus doth not goe there unto the rich man nor the rich man unto Lazarus neyther doth Abraham send any of his spoyles that the poore may be afterward made rich thereby neyther doth the rich man obtaine that which he asketh although hee intreat mercifull Abraham â—ith instant supplication For the Garners are sealed up and the time is fulfilled and the combat is finished and the lists are voyded and the Garlands are given and such as have fought are at rest and such as have not obtained are gone forth and such as have not fought cannot now be present in time
our Lord as in the end of this booke saith he he doth testifie meaning the apocryphall Appendix which is annexed to the end of the Greeke edition of Iob wherein we reade thus It is written that he should rise againe with those whom the Lord was to raise which although it be accounted to have proceeded from the Septuagint yet the thing it selfe sheweth that it was added by some that lived after the comming of our Saviour Christ. Touching Adam S. Augustine affirmeth that the whole Church almost did consent that Christ loosed him in Hell which we are to beleeve saith he that shee did not vainely beleeve whencesoever this tradition came although no expresse authoritie of the Canonicall Scriptures be produced for it The onely place which he could thinke off that seemed to look this way was that in the beginning of the tenth Chapter of the booke of Wisedome Shee kept him who was the first formed father of the world when hee was created alone and brought him out of his sinne which would be much more pertinent to the purpose if that were added which presently followeth in the Latin text I meane in the old edition for the new corrected ones have left it out Et eduxit illum de limo terrae and brought him out of the claye of the earth which being placed after the bringing of him out of his sinne may seeme to have reference unto some deliverance like that of Davids Psalm 40 2. He brought me up out of the horrible pit out of the mirye claye rather then unto his first creation out of the dust of the earth So limus terrae may here answere well unto the Arabians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-tharai which properly signifying moyst earth or slime or claye is by the Arabick interpreter of Moses used to expresse the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Hell or Grave And as this place in the booke of Wisedome may be thus applied unto the raysing of Adams body out of the earâ—h whâ—rein hee lay buried so may that other tradition also which was so currant in the Church be referred unto the selfe same thing even to the bringing of Adam out of the Hell of the Grave The verie Liturgies of the Church doe lead us unto this interpretation of the tradition of the Church beside the testimony of the Fathers which discover unto us the first ground and foundation of this tradition In the Liturgie of the Church of Alexandria ascribed to S. Marke our Saviour Christ is thus called upon O most great King and coëternall to the Father who by thy might didst spoyle Hell and tread downe death and binde the strong one and raise Adam out of the grave by thy divine power and the bright splendour of thine unspeakeable Godhead In the Liturgie of the Church of Constantinople translated into Latin by Leo Thusâ—us the like speech is used of him He did voluntarily undergoe the Crosse for us by which he raysed up the first formed man and saved our soules from death And in the Octoëchon Anastasimon and Pentecostarion of the Grecians at this day such sayings as these are very usuall Thou didst undergoe buriall and rise in glory and rayse up Adam together with thee by thy almighty hand Rising out of thy tombe thou didst rayse up the dead and break the poâ—er of death and rayse up Adam Having slept in the flesh as a mortall man ô King and Lord the third day thou didst arise againe raysing Adam from corruption and abolishing death Iesus the deliverer who raysed up Adam of his compassion c. Therefore doth Theodorus Prodromus begin his Tetrastich upon our Saviors Resurrection with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rise up thou first formed old man rise up from thy grave S. Ambrose pointeth to the ground of the tradition when he intimateth that Christ suffered in Golgotha where Adams sepulchre was that by his Crosse he might rayse him that was dead that where in Adam the death of all men lay therein Christ might be the resurrection of all Which he receaved as he did many other things besides from Origen who writeth thus of the matter There came unto me some such tradition as this that the body of Adam the first man mas buried there where Christ was crucified that as in Adam all doe die so in Christ all might be made alive that in the place which is called the place of Calvarie that is the place of the head the head of mankinde might finde resurrection with all the rest of the people by the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour who suffered there and rose againe For it was unfit that when many which were borne of him did receive forgivenesse of their sinnes and obtayne the benefit of Resurrection he who was the father of all men should not much more obtaine the like grace Athanasius or who ever else was author of the Discourse upon the Passion of our Lord which beareth his name referreth this tradition of Adams buriall place unto the report of the Doctors of the Hebrewes from whom belike hee thought that Origen had received it and addeth withall that it was very fit that where it was said to Adam Earth thou art and to earth thou shalt returne our Saviour finding him there should say unto him again Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Epiphanius goeth a little furthet and findeth out a mysterie in the water and bloud that fell from the Crosse upon the relicks of our first father lying buried under it applying thereunto both that in the Gospell of the arising of many of the Saints Matth. 27.52 and that other place in S. Paule Arise thou that sleepest c. Ephes. 5.14 which strange speculation with what great applause it was received by the multitude at the first delivery of it and for how little reason he that list may reade in the fourth book of S. Hieroms coÌ„mentaries upon the 27. of S. Matthew in his third upon the fifth to the Ephesians for upon this first point of Christs descent into the Hell of the grave and the bringing of Adam and his children with him from thence we have dwelt too long already In the second place therefore we are now to consider that as Hádes and Inferi which we call Hell are applied by rhe Interpreters of the holy Scripture to denote the place of bodies separated from their soules so with forraine authors in whose language as being that wherewith the common people was acquainted the Church also did use to speake the same tearmes do signifie ordinarily the common lodge of soules separated from their bodies whether the particular place assigned unto each of them be conceived to be an habitation of blisse or of miserie For as when the Grave is said to be the common receptacle of dead bodies it is not meant thereby that all dead
the Ocean from the Grecians But the Pharisees as hee noteth elsewhere held that the place wherein both rewards were given to the good and punishments to the wicked was under the earth which as Origen doth declare to have been the common opinion of the Iewes so doth Lucian shew that it was the more vulgar opinion among the Grecians For among them the common multitude whom wise men saith he call simple people being perswaded of these things by Homer and Hesiod and such other fabulous authors and receiving their Poëms for a law tooke HADES to be a certaine deepe place under the earth The first originall of which conceite is by Cicero derived from hence The bodies falling into the ground and being covered with earth whence they are said to be interred men thought that the rest of the life of the dead was led under the earth upon which opinion of theirs saith he great errors did ensue which were increased by the Poës Others do imagine that the Poets herein had some relation to the sphericall situation of the world for the better understanding whereof these particulars following would be considered by them that have some knowledge in this kinde of learning First the materiall Spheres in ancient time were not made moveable in their sockets as they are now that they might bee set to any elevation of the Pole but were fixt to the elevation of XXXVI degrees which was the height of the Rhodian climat Secondly the Horizon which devided this Sphere through the middle and separated the visible part of the world from the invisible was commonly esteemed the utmost bound of the earth so that whatsoever was under that horizon was accounted to be under the earth for neyther the common people nor yet some of the learned Doctros uf the Church as Lactantius S. Augustine Procopius and others could be induced to beleeve that which our daily navigations finde now to bee most certaine that there should bee another southerne hemisphere of the earth inhabited by any Antipodes that did walke with their feete just opposite unto ours Thirdly the great Ocean was supposed to be the thing in nature which was answerable to this horizon in the Sphere Therefore it is observed by Strabo that Homer and by Theon Achilles Statius and others that Aratus and the rest of the Poets doe put the Ocean for the Horizon and thereupon where the astronomers say that the Sunne or the starres at their setting goe under the horizon the common phrase of the Poets is that they doe tingere se Oceano dive themselves into the Ocean for as they tooke the Earth to be but halfe a globe and not a whole one so they imagined that demye globe to be as it were a great mountaine or Iland seated in and invironed round about with the Ocean Thus the author of the booke de Mundo affirmeth that the whole world is one Iland compassed about with the Atlanticke sea and Dionysius Alexandrinus in the beginning of his Geography 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein he followed Eratosthenes as his expositor Eustathius there noteth who compareth also with this that place of Orpheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereunto answereth that of Euphorion or as Achilles Statius citeth it of Neoptolemus Parianus in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this opinion of theirs the Fathers of the Church did the more readily entertayne because they thought it had ground from Psalm 24.2 and 136.6 and such other testimonies of holy Scripture That the whole earth saith Procopius Gazaeus doth subsist in the waters and that there is no part of it which is situated under us voyde and clear'd of waters I suppose it be knowne unto all For so doth the Scripture teach Who stretcheth out the earth upon the waters and againe Hee hath founded it upon the seas and prepared it upon the floods Neyther is it fit we should beleeve that any earth under us is inhabited opposite unto our part of the world The same collection is made by S. Hilary Chrysostom Caesarius and others Fourthly it was thought by the ancient heathen that the Ocean supplying the place of the Horizon did separate the visible world from the kingdome of Hades and therefore that such as went to Hádes or the world invisible to us must first passe the Ocean and that the pole Antarctick was seene by them there as the Arctick or North pole is by us here according to that of Virgil in his Georgicks Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis at illum Sub pedibus Styx atra videt manesque profundi Fiftly as they held that Hades was for situation placed from the center of the earth downeward so betwixt the beginning and the lowest part thereof they imagined as great a space to be interjected as there is betwixt Heaven and Earth So saith Apollodorus of Tartarus the dungeon of torment This is a darke place in Hades having as great a distance from the earth as the earth from the heaven and Hesiod in his Theogonia agreably to that which before we heard from Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is as farre beneath the earth as heaven is from the earth for thus equall is the distance from the earth unto darke Tartarus whereunto that of Virgil may be added in the â—ixt of the Aeneids tum Tartarus ipse Bis patet in praeceps tantum tenditque sub umbras Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum then Tartarus it selfe that sinke-hole steep Two times as low descends two times as headlong downright deep As heaven upright â—s hie that see how hye the heaven is over us when we looke upward to it the downright distance from thence to Tartarus should be twice as deepe againe for so wee must conceive the Poets meaning to bee if wee will make him to accord with the rest of his fellowes These observations I doubt not will be censured by many to savour of a needlesse and fruitelesse curiositie but the intelligent reader for all that will easily discâ—rne how hereby he may be led to understand in what sense the ancient both heathen and Christian writers did hold Hades to be under the earth and upon what ground For they did not meane thereby as the Schoolemen generally doe and as Tertullian sometime seemeth to imagine that it was contayned within the bowels of the earth but that it lay under the whole bulke thereof and occupied that whole space which we now finde to be taken up with the earth ayre and firmament of the southerne hemisphere the inhabitants of which infernall region and vast depth are thereupon affirmed by S. Hilary to be non intra terram sed infra terram not within the earth but beneath the earth And this proceeded
grounds from whence that Invocation of Saints did proceed whereby the honour of God and Christs office of mediation was afterwards so much obscured That saying of S. Augustin is very memorable and worthy to be pondered Whom should I finde that might reconcile me unto thee Should I have gone unto the Angels With what prayer with what sacraments Many endevouring to returne unto thee and not being able to doe it by themselves as I heare have tryed these things and have fallen into the desire of curious visions and were accounted worthy of illusions Whether they that had recourse unto the mediation of Martyrs in such sort as these had unto the mediation of Angels deserved to be punished with the like delusions I leave to the judgement of others the thing which I observed was this that such dreames and visions as these joined with the miraculous cures that were wrought at the monuments of the Martyrs bredd first an opinion in mens mindes of the Martyrs abilitie to helpe them and so afterward ledd them to the recommending of themselves unto their prayers and protection where at first they expected onely by their intercession to obtaine temporall bâ—essings such as those cures were that were wrought at their tâ—mbes and other like externall benefites but proceeded afâ—erward to crave their mediation for the procuring of the remission of their sinns and the furthering of their everlasting salvation As often dear brethren as we do celebrate the solemnities of the holy Martyrs let us so expect by their intercession to obtaine from the Lord TEMPORALL benefits that by imitating the Martyrs themselves we may deserve to receive eternall saith the author of the sermon of the Martyrs which is found among the homilies of S. Augustin and Leo and in the Romane Breviary is appointed to be read at the common festivall dayes of many Martyrs Be mindfull of the Martyr saith S. Basil in his Panegyricall oration upon Mamas as many of you as have enâ—oyed him by DREAMES as many of you as comming to this place have had him a helper to your praying as many as to whom being called by name hee shewed himselfe present by his workes as many travailers as he hath brought back againe as many as he hath raysed from sicknesse as many as he hath restored their children unto being now dead as many as have received by his meanes a longer terme of life Here a man may easily discerne the breedings of this disease and as it were the grudgings of that ague that afterwards brake out into a pestilentiall feaver The Martyr is here vocatus onely not invocatus yet not called upon by being prayed unto but called to joyne with others in putting up the same petition unto his and their God For as here in the Church militant we have our fellow-souldiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 striving together with us and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 helping together with their prayers to God for us and yet because we pray one for another we doe not pray one to another so the Fathers which taught that the Saints in the Church triumphant doe pray for us might with S. Basil acknowledge that they had the Martyrs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow-helpers to their prayer and yet pray with them onely and not unto them For howsoever this evill weed grew apace among the superstitious multitude especially yet was it so cropt at first by the skilfull husbandmen of the Church that it gott nothing neere that height which under the Papacâ— we see it is now growen unto Which that we may the better understand and more distinctly apprehend how farre the recommending of mens selves unto the prayers of the Saints which began to be used in the latter end of the fourth age after Christ came short of that Invocation of Saints which is at this day practised in the Church of Rome these speciall differences may be observed betwixt the one and the other First in those elder times he that prayed silently was thought to honour God in a singular maner as one that brought faith with him and confessed that God was the searcher of the heart and reynes and heard his prayer before it was powred out of his mouth the understanding of the present secrets of the heart by the generall judgement of the Fathers being no more communicated by him unto the creatures then the knowledge of things to come for before the day wherin the secrets of the heart shall be manifested almightie God alone doth behold the hidden things saith S. Hierome alledging for proofe of this the text Matth. 6.4 Thy Father that seeth in secret Psalm 7.9 God searcheth the hearts and reynes and 1. King 8.39 Thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of men But now in the Church of Rome mentall prayers are preâ—ented to the Saints as well as vocall and they are beleeved to receive both the one and the other Secondly in the former times it was a great question whether at all or how farre or after what maner the spirits of the dead did know the things that concerned us here and consequently whether they pray for us onely in generall and for the particulars God answereth us according to our severall necessities where when and after what maner he pleaseth Anselmus Laudunensis in his interlineall Glosse upon that text Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knoweth us not Esai 63.16 noteth that Augustine sayeth that the dead even the Saints doe not know what the living doe no not their owne sonnes And indeed S. Augustine in his booke of the Care for the dead maketh this inference upon that place of Scripture If such great Patriarches as these were ignorant what was done toward the people that descended from them unto whom beleeving God the people it selfe was promised to come from their stocke how doe the dead interpose themselves in knowing and furthering the things and actes of the living aâ—d afâ—erward draweth these conclusions from thence which Hugo de Sancto Victore borrowing from him hath inserted into his booke De Spiritu animâ cap. 29. The spirits of the dead be there where they doe neyther see nor heare the things that are done or fall out unto men in this life Yet have they such a care of the living although they know not at all what they doe as we have care of the dead although we know not what they doe The dead indeed doe not know what is done here while it is here in doing but afterward they may heare it by such as die and goe unto them from hence yet not altogether but as much as is permitted to the one to tell and is fit for the other to heare They may know it also by the Angels which be here present with us and carry our soules unto them They may know also by the revelation of Gods spirit such of the things done here as