are they not as much as an outward element Yes surely as much in quantitie and more too Bell. l. 1. de matrim c. 6. Si matrimonium consideretur Vt jam factum celebratum conjugati sunt materiale Synbolum externū cujus re fut at vid. apud Chamierum Panistrat Cathol de sacr l. 4 c. 27. but none ever before this Iesuit and his Master Bellarmine maketh mens bodies outward elements in any Sacrament the bodies of men and their soules are either the Ministers or receivers in every Sacrament not the elements or materiall parts thereof The element in every Sacrament hath the denomination of the whole as when wee say the sacrament of Circumcision of the Passeover of bread and wine but who ever heard of the sacrament of men and womens bodies Our third exception against the sacrament of Matrimonie is that if it bee a sacrament conferring grace as they teach ex opere operato why doe they deprive Priests of it and make them take a solemne vow against it The Iesuit answereth that though Mariagebee a holy thing as Order also is yet as Order is forbidden to all women so upon good reason Mariage is forbidden all Priests T is true I grant that all holy things in themselves are not fit for all ages sexes and callings In particular it is no way fit that women should be admitted into holy Orders because they are forbidden to speake in the Church 1 Cor. 14.34 and it seemeth to bee against the law of nature that the weaker and more ignoble sex should be appointed to instruct and governe the stronger and more noble but there is not the like reason in Order and Matrimonie Heb. 13.4 For the Scripture saith Mariage is honourable among all but not that the order of Priesthood is commendable in all men Much lesse women yet the Iesuit saith that upon good reason Mariage is forbidden Priests because it is not agreeable to the high and holy estate of Priesthood and religious life A strange thing that a sacrament should not bee agreeable to the most sacred function that a holy Rite conferring grace should not bee agreeable to a religious life If Marriage were any disparagement to the holinesse of priesthood why did God appoint married Priests under the law and Christ chose married Apostles in the Gospel Eusebius saith of Spiridion that though hee were married and brought up children Sozom. Eccles hist l. 1. c. 11. Chrys in Gen. 5.22 vet that hee was nothing thereby 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hindered or disparaged in his sacred function and S. Chrysostome in his Homilie upon those words Enoch walked with God noteth it that it is said twice for failing Enoch walked with God and begat sonnes and daughters to teach us that marriage is no impeachment to holinesse or the highest degree of perfection whereby wee are said to walke with God To shut up this point concerning Matrimonie Cardinal Bellarmine teacheth us that the seven Sacraments anwer seven Vertues Baptisme answereth to Faith Confirmation to Hope the Eucharist to Charitie Penance to Iustice Extreame Vnction to Fortitude and Matrimonie to continence or temperance if so then certainly Matrimonie is most agreeable to the office of a Bishop or Priest 1 Tim. 3.2 For a Bishop must hee continent and modest and as it there followeth the husband of one wife and unlesse the rules of Logick faile if Matrimonie hold correspondencie with temperance the prohibition thereof and forced single life must needs answer to intemperance as the testimonie of all ages proveth it For Extreame Vnction the lagge of all their Sacraments little or nothing can bee said For it wanteth all the three conditions requisite to a Sacrament it hath neither element nor forme of words prescribed by Christ nor any promise of saving sanctifying grace The Apostles indeed used oile but as a medicine to heale the body not as a sacrament to cure the soule As the Apostles used oyle so Christ spittle in restoring sight to the blind will they hereupon make spittle an eighth sacrnment Sacraments ought to be of perpetual use in the Church whereas the Unction whereof the Scripture speaketh wherby the sick were miraculously cured is ceased long agoe if the Iesuit will not give eare to us let him yet yeeld so much respect to Cardinall Cajetan as to peruse what he commenteth on that text of Scripture on which the Church of Rome foundeth this Sacrament Is any sick among you Iames 5.14.15 let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anoynting him with oyle in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if hee have committed sins they shall bee forgiven him Cajet com in hunc locum neque ex verbīs neque ex effectu verba baec loquuntur de Sacramentali Vnctione seu sacramento Extremae Vnctionis sed magis de Vnctione quam instituit Dominus Iesus in Evangelio à discipulis exercendâ in aegrot is textus enim non dicit infirmatur quis ad mortem sed absolutè infirmatur quis effectum dicit infirmi allemiationem de remissione peccatorum non nisi conditionaliter loquitur cum extrema Vnctio non nisi propè articulum mortis detur directè ut ejus-forms sonat tendit ad remissionem peccatorum adde quod Iacobus ad unum aegrum mult os praesbyteros tum orantes tum Vnguentes mandat vocari quod ab Extremae Vnction is ritu alienumest On these words thus Cajetan inferreth it cannot bee gathered either from the words nor from the effect here mentioned that the Apostle speaketh of sacramentall or Ex. treame Vnction but rather of that anoynting which Christ appointed in the Gospell to bee used in healing the sick for the Text saith not is any man sick unto death but simply is any man sick and the effect hee attributeth to this anoynting is the ease or raising of the sick of remission of sinnes he speaks but conditionally where as Extreame Vnction is given to none but at the point of death and directly tendeth to remission of sinnes as the forme importeth Adde hereunto that S. Iames commandeth many Elders to be sent for both to pray and anoynt the sick which is not done in Extreame Vnction To the sixt The Knight having shot two arrowes out of S. Austines quiver the one with a head the other without yet sharpe pointed the Iesuit quite concealeth the one and endeavours to blunt the other The former hee drew out of S. Austine his treatise de symbole ad catechumenos where speaking of Baptisme and the Lords Supper he saith haec sunt Ecclesiae gemina Sacramenta these are the two twin Sacraments of the Church De latere in cruce pendentis lanceâ percusso sacramenta Ecclesiae profluxerunt to this the Iesuit answereth negry quidem To the other taken out of the 15. tract
of the principles of Nature and Constantine the ancient Romans out of the Oracles of Sibylla and Eusebius the Gentiles out of their owne Historians b Credis te non posse nisi per mortem Christi servari respondet insirmus etiam tum illi dicitur age ergo dum super est in te anima in hac sola morte fiduciam tuam constitue in nulla alia re fiduciam habe huic morti te totum cōmitte hac solâ te totum contege si dixerit tibi quod meruisti damnationem dic Domine mortem D. nostri Iesu Christi obtendo inter me mala merita mea ipsiusque meritum offero pro merito quod ego debuissem habere nec habeo credis quod Dom noster Iesus Christus pro nostrâ salute mortuus sit quod exproprijs meritis vel alio modo nullus posset salvari nisi merito passionis eju◠Impres Venet 1575. and S. Paul the Athenians out of their owne Poets so doth the Knight here in a litigious case of greatest moment convince the Iesuite out of his owne evidence a booke intituled The forme and order of baptizing and visiting the sicke printed and reprinted and practised for many hundred yeares without any check or controle In this booke the Priest is directed to put this question to the sick Dost thou beleeve that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ the sicke person answereth I beleeve then the Priest goeth on saying Goe too therefore as long as thy soule remaines in thee place thy whole confidence in this death only have confidence in no other thing commit thy selfe wholly to this death with this alone cover thy selfe wholly if hee say unto thee thou hast deserved damnation say Lord I set the death of our Lord lesus Christ betwixt mee and my bad merits and I offer his merit in stead of the merits which I ought to have and yet have not What could Luther or Calvin or Zuinglius or Peter Martyr or any Protestant in the world speake more expressely for the renouncing all merit and relying upon Christ wholly and solely for justification and salvation Yet our Spectacle-maker by a false glosse as it were a false glasse would make us beleeve that the author of the Liturgie cast his eyes another way and that this allegation maketh nothing for us First he excepteth against this Authour as a single witnesse you produce saith he but one only place out of one authour c. I answer as the Lionesse doth in the fable to the aemulous beast twitting her c Aesop Fab. that whereas other females had many young ones at once shee had but one ac pol leonem in quit but saith shee that one is a Lion of more worth then twenty whelpes so I grant that in this place hee insisteth but upon one allegation but it is a most remarkable one It is very likely that this ordo visitandi as other parts of the Liturgie and Catechismes and confessions might bee penned by one man yet atfer they are generally received and approved and passe currant for many ages they carry the authoritie of many yea the whole Church and howsoever the Iesuite would intimate that the Authour was an anonymus yet hee might have learned from their great d Hosius Conf. Petricon c. 73 Sed Anselmus Cantuar Interrogat quasdam praescripsisse dicitur infirmis in extremis constitutis Cardinall Hosius that hee was the famous Archbishop of Canterburie Neither is ther any reason to make scruple thereof for it hath beene anciently printed with his Workes and passed under his name and both the style and the doctrine in it is very conformable to that wee find in his unquestionable writings as namely in his Comment upon Romans chapter the eight v. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthie to bee compared with the glorie which shall bee revealed in us if a man saith he e Si homo mille annis serviret Deo etiam ferventissimè non mereretur ex condigno dimidium diem esse in regno caelorum should serve God a thousand yeares and that most fervently he should not deserve of condignity to bee halfe a day in the kingdome of heaven Neither is Cassanders testimonie of this booke at which the Iesuite gives so many a flert to be sleighted for he was a man of eminent note and in high esteeme among the learned of his age hee was a favourite of two great Emperours and lived and died in good reputation as appeareth by the sundrie encomiums before his Workes as also the Epitaph on his Tombe As for the setting him in the first Classis of prohibited bookes no whit ecclipseth the glorie but rather enobleth him for that Index is a kind of Ecclesiasticall ostracisme by which the Romanists banish as farre as their power stretcheth the most eminent Authours and most free and ingenuous professors of the truth As f Tertul in Apologet c. 5. consulite commentarios vestros illic reperietis primum Neronem in hanc Sectam Romae orientē Caesariano gladio ferocisse Sed tali dedicatore damnationis nostrae etiam gloriamu◠qui enim scit illum intelligere potest non nisi grande aliquod bonum à Nerone damnatum Tertullian draweth an argument to prove the sincerity and holinesse of the Christian Religion from the barbarous decree of wicked Nero against the professours thereof it must needs saith hee bee singular good which that damned monster condemnes so if any man peruse the Authours censured and the passages expunged in the Index expurgatorious he shall find them to be of speciall note and singular use Albeit the Inquisitors pretend that they change not nor blot out any thing but onely where manifest errour is crept in and that since the yeare 1515. Yet the Knight hath demonstrated before by undeniable instances in all ages that they blot out of the Index of the Bible the writings of the ancient Fathers and since 800. yeares out of the Doctours of their owne Church what maketh most against their errours and superstitions Yea but saith the Iesuite this supposed booke of Anselme hath beene printed and reprinted by heretiques and therefore may well fall under the Inquisitions censure so hath Ignatius Cyprian Theodoret and Ambrose and Austine yea and the originalls of the old and new Testament and must they therefore come under their file and bee subject to their Index correction As g Iohn 18.23 Christ spake to the high Priests servant If I have spoken ill beare witnesse of the ill if well why smitest thou mee So say wee of these bookes printed and reprinted by those whom hee tearmes heretiques because they impugne his errours and heresies if they have printed ought amisse declare it if not why doe you prohibit or correct their impressions Well saith he for all this if the worst come to the worst if this Authour prove to be S.
receive but the Knight must prove that S. Paul would not say Masse unlesse others would communicate with him or that he teacheth that other Priests must not Where S. Paul 1 Cor. 11. commandeth the people to tarrie one for another when they came together to cate hee speaketh to the people who made the suppers called Agape as is plaine by the text wherein bee reprehendeth the Abuses that were committed as that some did exceed others did want some were drunke some went away hungry which could not pertaine to the blessed Sacrament besides the distribution of that belonged to the Priests not to the people who are here instructed and reprehended for their manner of making their suppers The cup of blessing is called a Communion because it uniteth us to Christ our head and also among our selves as members of the same body and though it doe this most perfectly when it is also received sacramentally yet not only so but it doth the same also in some measure being spiritually received and as this union may remaine among us members though every one among us doe not receive every day so it may also remaine betweene us and the Priest though hee say Masse and wee not receive If this argument of the Knight were good it would follow that not only some but that all the people must receive together with the Priest The Catholique Doctours cited by the Knight say indeed that it was the practise of the primitive Church to communicate every day with the Priest but they say not that it was of necessitie so to doe nay some of them as Bellarmine and Durand prove manifestly that there was no such necessitie or dependence of the Priests celebrating upon the peoples communicating that they might not celebrate unlesse the people did communicate For S. Chrysostome saith of himselfe that hee celebrated every day though there were no body to participate with him The Councell of Nants forbidding Priests to celebrate alone speaketh only of not saying Masse all alone without one or two to answer to whom the Priest may seeme to speake when hee saith Dominus vobiscum and the like but what 's this to saying Masse without some body to communicate with him The Councell of Trent doth not blesse and curse out of the same mouth or approve or condemne the same thing when it commendeth sacramentall communion of the people together with the Priest and yet condemneth those who say private Masses are unlawfull For it is one thing for the Councell to wish that the people would communicate because to heare Masse and receive withall will be more profitable an other to say that if there bee no body to communicate such a Masse is unlawfull or that the Priest must not say Masse The Hammer THe Iesuits answer to this Section of the Knight wherein hee impugneth private Masse by foure texts of Scripture two Canons of Councells and twelve pregnant Confessions of Romish Doctours consisteth partly of sophismes and partly of sarcasmes to both which I purpose to returne a short and smart answer first by refuting his sophismes and after by retorting his sarcasmes To the first sophisticall answer I replie That the words of our Saviour Take eat Mat. 26.26 this is my body were spoken to all future communicants as well as to the Apostles then present for they containe in them an institution of a Sacrament to bee celebrated in all Christian Churches till the end of the world as the Apostle teacheth us from the 23. to the 28. especially at the 26 verse 1 Cor. 11. as often as yee eate this bread and drinke this cup ye shew the Lords death till he come This the Apostles in their persons alone could not fulfill for they lived not till Christs second comming they must of necessitie therefore bee extended to all that in succeeding ages should bee present at the Lords Supper who are as much bound by this precept of Christ to communicate with the Priest or dispencer of the Sacrament as the Apostles were to communicate with Christ himselfe when hee first in his owne person administred it otherwise if the precepts Take eate doe this in remembrance of mee appertained to the Apostles only what warrant hath any Priest now to consecrate the elements or administer the Sacrament nay what command have any faithfull at all to receive the Communion Yea but saith the Iesuit if not only the Apostles and their successors but all the faithfull are here enjoyned to eate it would follow that whensoever the Sacrament is administred all must communicate that are in the Church at the same time It will follow that all who are bid to the Lords table and come prepared to whom the Priest in the person of Christ saith Take eate this is my body ought to communicate De eccles observ sciendum juxta antiquos patres quod soli cōmunicantes divinis mysterijs inter esse consueverint Orat. de consecrat dist 2. peractâ consecratione omnes communicent nisi malint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus and this was the custome of the ancient Church as Micrologus teacheth Wee must know saith he according to the ancient Fathers that none but Communicants were wont to be present at the mysteries and therefore before the Communion the Catechumenie and penitents which were not prepared to communicate were commanded to depart ite Missa est and wee find an ancient Canon of the Roman Church attributed to Gelasius enjoyning all under paine of excommunication that are present after the Consecrationis finished to participate of the blessed Sacrament To the second The precept of the Apostle bee ye followers of mee as I am of Christ 1 Co. 11.1 is generall and reacheth as well to acts of pietie as charitie As non est distinguendum ubi lex non distinguit so non est restringendum ubi lex non restringit as wee may not distinguish where the law doth not distinguish so we must not restraine where the law hath no restriction The Iesuite himselfe saith that S. Pauls imitation is directed to all if to all then to Priests and againe hee saith these words come in very fitly to prove that in all things that appertaine unto salvation wee should seeke to imitate S. Paul as hee doth Christ And I hope the Iesuit holdeth the worthy receiving of the Sacrament a matter of salvation I am sure the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 11. Hee that eateth and drinketh unwerthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himselfe But what need wee dispute this point any further sith the Apostle after hee had delivered this precept in the beginning of the chapter in pursuit thereof at the 23 verse instanceth in the Sacrament it selfe saying What I received of the Lord that I delivered unto you that the Lord Iesus the same night hee was betrayed tooke bread c. Surely if wee are to follow the Apostle in the performance of morall duties much more of religious and this the Iesuit in the end is compelled
Supper without the words shew forth or as he speaketh announce the death of our Lord for Bread is broken and Wine poured out at common meales yet our Lords death is not thereby declared both must concurre mysterious rites and sacred formes of words lively to present Christs death The Knights argument therefore standeth firme The Sacraments ought so to bee celebrated that by them the Lords death might bee shewed forth but it cannot be shewed forth unlesse the Evangelicall storie and especially the words of the Institution be pronounced in a language that may be understood For to speake Latine to the people that understand it not is surdo narrare fabulam to tell a tale to a deafe man or to set a beautifull picture before him that is blind or in the Knights phrase to speake to a wall at which notwithstanding the Iesuit ridiculously carpeth saying I never heard before that it was all one to speake Latine and to speake to a wall were hee according to our English proverbe as wise as a wall hee could not but understand what was the Knights meaning to wit that to speake Latine prayers and exhortations as Papists doe at their Masse to those who understand them not is no better then to speake to so many walls when the Apostle touching upon the same string the Knight doth 1 Cor. 14.9 tearmeth the uttering words in an unknowne tongue as speaking into the ayre This Iesuit in the spirit of Lucian might in like manner have jeared at the Apostle saying I never heard that to speake in an unknowne tongue bee it Greeke Latine or Hebrew is to speake to the ayre The meaning of both phrases to speake to a wall and to speake into the ayre is all one to lose a mans breath to speake idlely and unprofitably or to no end and purpose when no man is the better for it as the Iesuit afterwards confesseth saying The other reason from the Apostle is that those which heare a prayer in a strange language are nothing the better for it nor can say Amen unto it What then can the common people bee the better for hearing popish Mattens or even-song which are chaunted in Latine a language which they understand not To the seventh Admit the Apostle in that place spake not of publike prayers but rather of private extemporarie devotion yet the reasons he there useth against prayer in an unknowne tongue are as forcible against publike as private ptayers For if wee may not pray without understanding or speake into the ayre in our private devotions much lesse in our publike But the truth is the Apostle speaketh evidently of publike prayers and all the parts thereof first of petitions v. 15. secondly of giving of thanks v. 17. thirdly of prophecying and interpreting of Scriptutes v. 4. fourthly of singing Psalmes v. 15. and all this when the whole Church bee come together in one place v. 23. Moreover he speaketh of prayers made in the Church v. 19. of the edification of others v. 12.26 and of blessings also wherein the people are to joyne with the Priest v. 16. and what can such prayers benedictions hymnes and thankes-givings bee other then parte of the publike Liturgie in the Church in those dayes Yea but saith the Iesuit hee cannot speake of the publike prayers of the Church which no man can doubt either for the truth or goodnesse of them and therefore hee may confidently say Amen to them though they bee uttered in an unknowne tongue I answer that the Apostle here speaketh not of confidently saying Amen but understandingly saying it which no man can doe who is utterly ignorant of the tongue in which the Priest prayeth Hos de verb Dei I beleeve what the Church beleeveth the Church beleeveth what I beleeve And howsoever none of the coliers implicite circnlar faith can make any doubt of the truth or goodnesse of the prayers said in the Masse yet those whose eyes are not put out with the Romish coale dust may very well doubt of them first they may well doubt whether the Church of Rome which appointeth them may not erre as other Churches have done especially considering what the Apostle speaketh expresly of that Church Rom. 11.22 Vid. Bull. praefix breviar Rom. Melcbior loc theol l. 11. c. 5. nec enim animus est meri omnes historias quae passim in ecclcsiâ loctitantur Claudius Espen in 2. ad Tim. c. 4. digres 2. nostri quantum me pigeant falsa in ecclesia Dei cantica canentes quantae nugae canore mihi audibiles in uno hymno praeter ineptitudinem sententiarum mendacia ad minus 24. reperi Petrus Pictau ep 31. conqueritur inepta ac falsa in laudem Sancti Mauri super aquas currentis afficta that if shee continued not in her goodnesse shee should be cut off Secondly hee may doubt whether all those corruptions and abuses which the Fathers in the Councell of Trent complaine to have crept into their Masse are reformed Thirdly he may doubt whether the Priests booke may not bee some-where false printed Lastly he may doubt whether the Priest alwayes reades true surely that Priest who baptized a child in nomine patria filia spiritua sancta and another who read in the Doxologie glia pni flo spui sco scutrat in primpo scla sclorum Amen said Masse by rote and could not have skill of brachygraphy nor well spell Latine and can no man then doubt of the truth and goodnesse of any of the prayers that are said by your Masse-priests To the eighth The shaft which the Knight draweth out of Haymo his quiver flieth home For first he expresly teacheth that S. Paul speaketh of publike prayers 1 Cor. 14. and among other reasons used by the Apostle against the conceiving of prayers in an unknowne tongue hee insisteth upon that v. 16. when thou shalt blesse with the spirit how shall hee that occupieth the Roome of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thankes seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest adding if one knoweth that onely tongue wherein hee was borne and bred if such an one stand by thee whilest thou dost solemnly celebrate the mysterie of the Masse or make a Sermon or give a blessing how shall hee say Amen at thy blessing when hee knoweth not what thou sayest for asmuch as hee understanding none but his mothers tengue hee cannot tell what thou speakest in that strange and barbarous tongue Hereunto the Iesuit answereth that if wee take Haymo altogether wee shall find hee doth not require that all that are by shall understand but that hee that supplieth the place of the idiot or laye-man in answering for the people shall understand An answer befitting an idiot indeed for doth not S. Paul 1 Cor. 14.16 and after him Haymo speake indefinitly of any that occupie the place of the unlearned or standeth by at Service or Sermon in an unknowne tongue or is it lesse absurd for any
Bishop of Rochester Gregorie the great and venerable Bede let the Iesuit therefore looke to the Consequent The Church of Rome commandeth every one upon paine of hell-fire to beleeve a temporarie purging fire after this life First upon what ground Scripture or unanimous consent of Fathers or Tradition of the Catholike Church no such thing But upon apparitions of dead men and testimonie of Spirits whether good Spirits or evill they cannot tell Next wee demand what soules and how long doe they contine there To this they must answer likewise Ignoramus Soto thinketh that none continueth in this purgation ten yeares If this be true saith Bellarmine No soule needs to stay in purging one houre Thirdly the soules that are supposed to be there till their sinnes are purged where with are they purged With fire onely so saith Sir Thomas Moore and proves it out of Zacharie 9.11 Thou hast delivered the prisoners out of the place where there is no water or with water and fire so saith Gregorie in his Dialogues lib. 4. Some are purged by fire and some by bathes and Fisher Bishop of Rochester proves it out of those words of the Psalmist Wee have passed thorow fire and water Fourthly admit they are purged by fire whether is this fire materiall or metaphoricall Ignoramus Wee know not saith Bellarmine lib. 2. de Purg. cap. 6. Lastly is there any mittigation of this paine in Purgatorie or no They cannot tell this neither For venerable Bede hist Ang. lib. 5. tels us of the apparition of a Ghost reporting that There was an infernall place where soules suffered no paine where they had a brooke running through it Neither is it improbable saith Bellarmine l. 2. de Purg. cap. 7. that there should be such an honorable prison which is a most milde and temperate Purgatorie Yea but saith the Iesuit Saint Austin is a firme man for Purgatorie and hee will prove it out of that booke of Enchiridion and place quoted by the Knight Resolutely spoken but so falsly Encharid ad Laurent c 69. Tale aliquid etiam post hanc vitam fieri incredibile non est et utrum ita sit quaeri potest et ut inveniri aut latere possit nonnullos fideles per ignem quendam purgaiorium salvari non tamen tales de quibus dictū est regnum Dei non posside bant that in this very booke chapter 69 Saint Austine speaking of a purging fire and commenting upon the words of Saint Paul Hee shall be saved as it were by fire addeth immediately It is not unlikely that some such thing may be after this life but whether it be so or no it may be argued and whether it can be found or not found that some Beleevers are saved by a purging fire yet it is certaine that none of them shall be saved of whom the Apostle saith they shall not inherit the Kingdome of God And in the same booke chapter 109. he resolves that All soules from the day of their death to their resurrection abide in expectation what shall become of them and are reserved in secret receptacles accordingly as they deserve either torment or ease These hidden Cells or Receptacles wheresoever they are scituated in St. Austins judgment C. 109. Tempus quod inter hominis mortem ultimam resurrectionem interpositum est animus abditis receptaculis continet sicut unaqueque digna est vel requiae vel arumnâ certaine it is they are not in the Popish Purgatory for St. Austine placeth in these secret Mansions all soules indifferently good or bad whereas the Popish Purgatory is restrained only to those of a middle condition being neither exceeding good nor exceeding bad Againe in St. Austines hidden repositories some soules have ease and some paine as each deserveth but in the Romish Purgatory all soules are in little-ease being tormented in a flame little differing from Hell fire or rather nothing at all save onely in time the paines are as grievous but not so durable Else where St. Austine is most direct against Purgatory and wholly for us as namely de peceat meritis de remissione l. 1. c. 28. There is no middle or third place saith he but he must needs be with the Devill who is not with Christ And Hypog l. 5. The first place the faith of Catholikes by divine authority beleeveth to be the Kingdome of Heaven the second to be Hell tertium locum penitùs ignoramus the third place we are alltogether ignorant of and in his booke de vanit seculi cap. 1. Know that when the soule is seperated from the body statim presently it is either placed in Paradise for his good worke or cast headlong into the bottome of hell for his sinnes Neither can the Iesuit evade by saying that there are two onely places where the soules remaine finally and eternally to wit Heaven and Hell but yet that there is a third place where the bodies fry in purging for a time for St. Austine speakes of all soules in generall both good and bad and saith that statim that is presently upon death they are receaved into Heaven or throwne into Hell and therefore stay no time in a Third place What then say we to the passage in which the Iesuit so triumpheth Enchirid. ad Laurenc c. 110. Neither is it to be denied that the soules of the dead are relieved by the piety of their friends living when the Sacrifice of our Mediatour is offered for them and Almes given in the Church We answer that where St. Austine is not constant to himselfe we are not bound to stand to his authority and therefore we appeale from Saint Austine missing his way in this place to the same Austine Nullum auxilium misericordiae potest preberi a justis defunctorum animabus etiamsi justi praebere velint quia est immutabilis divina sententia Qualis quisque moritur talis a Deo judicatur nec potest mutari corrigi vel minus dimia sententia hitting his way elsewhere namely l. 2. Quest Evan. c. 38. There can be no helpe of mercy afforded by just men to the soules of the deceased although the righteous would never so faine have it so because the sentence of God is immutable and Ep. 80. ad Hesich such as a man is when he dieth for such he is judged of God neither can the sentence of God be changed corrected or diminished As for Mr. Anthony Alcots confession that Saint Austines opinion was for purgatorie it maketh not for the Iesuit but against him for he saith it was his opinion not his resolved judgment and his opinion at one place and at one time which after he retracted and resolved the cleane contrary as Mr. Alcots there in part sheweth and Danaeus most fully in his Comment upon St. Austine his Enchiridian ad Laurentium To the tenth If all Papists did agree in this that all Images were to be worshipped but not as Gods yet are they at odds in other
subject unto in it selfe Lastly the Iesuit taketh himselfe by the nose in saying Heretikes in all Controversies run to the letter of the Scriptures leaving the true sense and spirituall meaning for so doe the Romanists apparantly namely in the Controversie of Supremacie Ecce duo gladii Loe here two swords therefore the Pope hath the temporall and spirituall Sword at command Peter rise up kill and eate therefore the Pope hath power to put Princes to death In the question about the number of Sacraments they alleage the letter of that text in the vulgar translation Hoc est magnum Sacramentum to prove marriage a Sacrament whereas the Apostle in the same place saith that hee speaketh not of corporall marriage of a man and his wife but of the spirituall marriage of Christ and his Church Likewise in the Controversie about the reall presence they run to the letter Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood though Christ in the same place expounding himselfe saith The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life the like may be observed in other Controversies For answer to all which texts wee tell him out of Saint Ierome whom himselfe quoteth in the next Paragraph That the Gospell consisteth not in the words of Scripture but in the sense not in the supersicies or barke but in the pith not in the leaves of speech but in the root of reason To the tenth How neere neighbours the Romanists are to Marcion who denied or by consequence overthrew the truth of Christs humaine nature as the Papists doe in the Sacrament vailing him under the outside or accidents of a round water and what affinitie the Iesuit hath with the rest of the ancient Heretikes the Knight shewed him before in his seventh Section and if hee desire to know more of his pedegree from them I referre him to an Appendix to Whitakers answer to Sanders his Demonstration page 801. As for the aspersion of old Heresies which hee casts upon us they are washed away by Bishop Morton and Doctor Field in their Treatises of the Church Ad notam sextam But why hee denies that wee have the Spirit arrogating it onely to himselfe I see no reason but the pride of his owne spirit together with the malice of the evill spirit who suggested unto him this uncharitable censure of us To the eleventh The Scripture is a Light Psal 119. and the nature of a light is first to discover it selfe and then all things else therefore Calvin to his fond question how know you Scripture to be Scripture answereth acutely by retortion how know you the Sun to be the Sun If hee say by his bright lustre and beames wee say the same of holy Scripture that it is discerned by its owne light Which if the Papists see hot the fault ought not to be laid upon the Sun-beames but upon their Owles eyes To the twelfth That rule which needeth any thing to be added to it is imperfect but all Papists teach that to the written Word unwritten Traditions must bee added to make a compleat and perfect rule of Faith all Papists therefore teach the Scripture alone to be an imperfect Rule We on the contrary stand for the perfection of Scripture and constantly and unanimously defend that not onely the whole Scripture is perfect but that every part also hath its owne perfection but not the perfection of the whole Because the eyes have not the perfection of the whole head or the head the perfection of the whole body a man cannot conclude that the eye or the head is imperfect no more can the Iesuit conclude that the Gospell of Saint Matthew Saint Marke or Saint Iohn are therefore imperfect because they containe not in them all doctrines in particular necessary to salvation It is sufficient that they together with the rest perfectly instruct us in all points of faith by themselves they perfectly informe us so farre as the Holy Ghost intendeth that we should be informed by each of them in particular and this is their perfection that they have no defect in matter or forme and that they concurre with the rest of the bookes of Scripture to the maine end of the Holy Ghost in committing the word of God in writing for the infallible and perfect instruction of the Church and every faithfull soule in all Doctrines needfull to salvation To the thirteenth Although many Protestants have written de Scripturâ judice and they have warrant our of Scripture so to stile it the words which I have spoken they shall judge you yet in propriety of speech which especially ought to be used in stating questions the Scripture is rather to be termed a rule and law or sentence of the judge then the judge himselfe the supreame and infallible judge of all controversies we teach to be the Holy Ghost speaking to us out of Scriptures and the subordinate or inferior Judge the consencient authority of the Catholique Church To the fourteenth The Iesuit shewed no such thing nor can shew out of Tertullian De praescrip advers haeret c. 17. who convinced the greater part of Haeretikes in his time by Scripture as appeareth in his writings In the place which the Iesuit quoteth he hath no such words as he alleageth out of him viz. that there is no good to be done with Haeretikes by Scriptures He saith indeede in that place that it was but in vaine to conferre with a certaine kinde of Haeretikes by Scriptures alone quia ista haeresis non recipit quasdam Scripturas et si recipit non recipit integras et si aliquatenus integras praestat c. That is This haeresie admits not of certaine Scriptures or not intire or if in some sort in ire it perverts them by divising divers interpretations In which words he no way disparageth the holy Scriptures or derogateth from their perfection but discovereth the wicked practise of Haeretikes and their evasions and tergiversations when they are most evidently convinced by Scriptures Will you say that if a Bedlam or willfull malefactor either by puffing out the Candle or shutting his eyes or looking another way will not reade or see the evidence that is brought against him that therfore the evidence is not able to convince him To the fifteenth Though it were granted the Iesuit that the Papists have written more upon the Scriptures then Protestants it will not from thence follow that they more reverence or honour the Scripture sithence in their very Commentaries upon Scripture they derrogate from the authority sufficiency and perfection of them by refusing to referre all points of faith in controversie to their decision by resolving their faith last of all not into them but into the Church by teaching that they are obscure even in points necessary to salvation and that unwritten Traditions are equally to be reverenced with them Secondly compare men with men and oportunities with oportunities it may easily be proved that