away speaketh he these things as if he were tâ— goe down into hell by dying For of Hell there is a great question and what the Scripture delivereth thereof in all the places where it hath occasion to make mention of it is to be observed Hitherto S. Augustin who had reference to this great question when he said as hath beene before alledged Of Hell neyther have I had any experience as yet nor you and peradventure there shal be another way and by Hell it shall not be For these things are uncertaine Neyther is there greater question among the Doctors of the Church concerning the Hell of the Fathers of the Old Testament then there is of the Hell of the faithfull now in the time of the New neyther are there greater differences betwixt them touching the Hell into which our Saviour went whether it were under the earth or above whether a darkesome place or a lightsome whether a prison or a paradise then there are of the mansions wherein the soules of the blessed do now continue S. Hierome interpreting those words of King Ezechias Esai 38.10 I shall goe to the gates of Hell saith that this is meant eyther of the common law of nature or else of those gates from which that he was delivered the Psalmist singeth Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death that I may shew forth all thy prayses in the gates of the daughter of Sion Psalm 9.13 14. Now as some of the Fathers doe expound our Saviours going to Hell of his descending into Gehenna so others expound it of his going to Hell according to the common law of nature the common law of nature I say which extendeth it selfe indifferently unto all the dead whether they belong to the state of the New Testament or of the Old For as Christs soule was in all points made like unto ours sinne onely excepted while it was joyned with his body here in the land of the living so when he had humbled himselfe unto the death it became him in all things to be made like unto his brethren even in that state of dissolution And so indeed the soule of Iesus had experience of both For it was in the place of humaine soules and being out of the flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable soule therefore and of the same substance with the soules of men even as his flesh is of the same substance with the flesh of men proceeding from Mary saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his exposition of that text of the Psalme Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell Where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell you see he understandeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humaine soules which is the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or world of spirits and by the disposing of Christs soule there after the maner of other soules concludeth it to be of the same nature with other mens soules So S Hilary in his exposition of the 138. Psalme This is the law of humaine necessitie saith he that the bodies being buried the soules should goe to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man and a little after he repeateth it that de supernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit he descended from the supernall to the infernall parts by the law of death and upon the 53. Psalme more fully To fulfill the nature of man he subjected himselfe to death that is to a departure as it were of the soule and body and pierced into the infernall seates which was a thing that seemed to be duâ— unto man So Leo in one of his Sermons upon our Lords passion Hee did undergoe the lawes of Hell by dying but did dissolve them by rising againe and so did cut off the perpetuitie of death that of eternall hee might make it temporall So Irenaeus having said that our Lord conversed three dayes where the dead were addeth that therein he observed the law of the dead that hee might be made the first begotten from the dead staying untill the third day in the lower parts of the earth and afterward rising in his flesh Then he draweth from thence this generall conclusion Seeing our Lord went in the midst of the shadow of death vvhere the soules of the dead were then afterward rose againe corporally and after his resurrection was assumed it is manifest that the soules of his disciples also for whose sake the Lord wrought these things shall goe to an invisible place appointed unto them by God and there shall abide untill the resurrection wayting for the resurrection and afterwards receaving their bodies and rising againe perfectly that is to say corporally even as our Lord did rise againe they shall so come unto the presence of God For there is no disciple above his master but every one shall be perfect if he be as his master The like collection doth Tertullian make in his booke of the Soule If Christ being God because he was also man dying according to the Scriptures and being buried according to the same did heere also satisfie the law by performing the course of an humane death in Hell neyther did ascend into the higher parts of the heavens before he descended into the lower parts of the earth that he might there make the Patriarches and Prophets partakers of himselfe thou hast both to beleeve that there is a region of Hell under the earth and to push them with the elbowe who proudly enough doe not thinke the soules of the faithfull to be fit for Hell servants above their Lord and disciples above their Master scorning perhaps to take the comfort of expecting the resurrection in Abrahams bosome And in the same booke speaking of the soule What is that saith he which is translated unto the infernall parts or Hell after the separation of the body which is detayned there which is reserved unto the day of judgement unto which Christ by dying did descend to the soules of the Patriarches I thinke Where he maketh the Hell unto which our Saviour did descend to be the common receptacle not of the soules of the Patriarches alone but also of the soules that are now still separated from their bodies as being the place quò universa humanitas trahitur as he speaketh elsewhere in that booke unto which all mankinde is drawne So Novatianus after him affirmeth that the very places which lye under the earth be not voyde of distinguished and ordered powers For that is the place saith he whither the soules both of the godly and ungodly are led receiving the fore-judgements of their future dâ—ome Lactantius saith that our Saviour rose againe ab inferis from Hell but so he saith also that the dead Saints shall be raised up ab inferis at the time of the Resurrection S. Cyrill of Alexandria saith that the Iewes killed Christ and cast him into the deepe
them from the hand of Hell the Vulgar Latin hath De manu mortis liberabo eos I will deliver them from the hand of Death which S. Cyrill of Alexandria sheweth to be the same in effect for he hath redeemed us saith he from the hand of Hell that is to say from the power of Death So out of the text Matth. 16.18 Eusebius noteth that the Church doth not give place to the gates of DEATH for that one saying which Christ did utter Vpon the rocke I will build my Church and the gates of HELL shall not prevaile against it S. Ambrose also from the same text collecteth thus that faith is the foundation of the Church For it was not said of the flesh of Peter but of the faith that the gates of DEATH should not prevaile against it but the confession of the faith overcame HELL So Theodoret noteth that the name of Hell is given unto Death in that place Cantic 8.6 Love is strong as death jealousie is hard or cruell as Hell which in the writings of the Fathers is a thing very usuall Take the Poems of Theodorus Prodromus for an instance where delivering an historie out of the life of S. Chrysostom of a woman that had lost foure of her sonnes he saith that they foure were gone unto Hádes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and relating how S. Basil had freed the countrey of Cappadocia from famine thus he expresseth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shewing how Gregory Nazianzen when he was a childe was recovered from death by being brought to the communion Table he saith he was brought unto the Sunne from Hádes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gregory himselfe likewise in his Poems setting out the dangers of a sea-faring life saith that the greater part of them that saile the seas is in Hades Baesil of Seleucia speaking of the translation of Enoch and Elias saith in one place that Enoch remayned out of Deaths nett Elias obeyed not the lawes of nature and in another that Elias remayned superior to death Enoch by translation declined Hades making Death and Hades to be one and the same thing So he maketh Elias to pray thus at the raysing of the widowes sonne Shew ô Lord that Death is made gentle towards men let it learne the evidences of thy humanity let the documents of thy goodnesse come even to Hades And as he there noteth that Death received an overthrow from Elias so in another place he noteth that Hades received a like overthrow by Christs raysing of the dead whereupon he bringeth in S. Peter using this speech unto our Saviour Shall Death make any youthfull attempt against thee whose voyce Hades could not endure The other day thou didst call the widowes sonne that was dead and Death fled not being able to accompany him unto the grave whom he had overcome how shall Death therefore lay hold on him whom it feareth and our Saviour himselfe speaking thus unto his Disciples I will arise out of the grave renewing the Resurrection I will teach Hades that it must expect the Resurrection to succeed it For in me both Death ceaseth and immortalitie is planted So saith S. Cyrill of Alexandria Christ was raysed up for us for he could not be detayned by the gates of Hades nor taken at all by the bonds of Death And therefore Cyrill of Hierusalem having sayd that our Saviour did descend into Hades doth presently adde as an explication thereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for he did descend into Death He descended into Death as a man saith Athanasius The diuine nature saith Ruffinus meaning the divine person by his flesh descended into Death not that according to the law of mortall men he should be detayned of death but that rising againe by himselfe he might open the gates of death When thou didst descend into Death ô immortall Life say the Grecians in their Liturgie thou didst then mortifie Hades or Hell with the brightnesse of thy divinitie And thus if my memory do not faile me for at this present I have not the booke lying by me is the article expressed in the Hebrew Creed which is printed with Potkens Aethiopian Syllabarie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He descended into the shadow of death where the Hebrew Interpreter doth render Hades by the shadow of death as the Greeke Interpreters in that text which by the Fathers is applied to our Saviours descent into Hell Iob. 38.17 doe render the shadow of death by Hades for where the Hebrew hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gates of the shadow of death they â—eade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the keepers of the gates of Hades seeing thee shranke for feare The resurrection from the dead therefore being the end of our Saviours sâ—ffering as Eusebius notes and so the beginning of his glorifying the first degree of his exaltation would thus very aptly answerâ— unto the last degree of his humiliation that as his Resurrection is an arising from the dead so his descending unto Hades or ad inferos should be no other thing but a going to the dead For further confirmation whereof let it be considered that S. Hierome in the vulgar Latin translation of the Bible hath ad inferos deducentur Ecclesiaâ—â—is 9.3 where the Hebrew and Greeke reade to the dead and in like manner Proverb 2.18 he hath ad inferos againe where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the Hebrew which being a word that somtimes signifieth the dead and somtimes Gyants the LXX doe joyne both together and reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hades â—ith the Giants So in the Sibylline verses cyted by Lactantius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he may speake unto the dead is in Prosper translated Vt inferis lâ—quatur and those other veâ—ses touching our Saviours Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then comming forth from the Dead c. are thus turned into Latin in Prosper Tunc ab inferis regressus ad lucem veniet primus resurrectionis principio revocatis ostenso Then returning from Hell he shall come unto the light first shewing the beginning of the Resurrection unto those whoÌ„ he shall call back from thence for Christ returning backe a conqueror from Hádes unto life as Basil of Seleucia writeth the dead were taught the reviving againe unto life His rising from the Dead vvas the loosing of us from Hádes saith Gregory Nazianzen He was raysed from Hádes or from the dead and raysed me being dead with him saith Nectarius his successor in the See of Constantinople Therefore is he called the first begotten of the dead because he was the first that rose from Hádes as we also shall rise at his second comming saith the author of the Treatise of Definitions among the workes of Athanasius To lay downe all
But howsoever this wee are sure of that the Canonists afterward held no absolute necessitie of obedience to be required therein as unto a Sacramentall institution ordayned by Christ for obtayning remission of sinnes but a Canonicall obedience onely as unto an usefull constitution of the Church And therefore where Gratian in his first distinction de Poenitentiâ had in the 34. chapter and the three next following propounded the allegations which made for them who held that men might obtaine pardon for their sinnes without anie orall confession of them and then proceeded to the authorities which might seeme to make for the contrarie opinion Iohannes Semeca at the beginning of that part upon those words of Gratian Alij é contrario tesâ—antur putteth too this Glosse From this place untill the section His auctoritatib he alledgeth for the other part that sinne is not forgiven unto such as are of yeares without confession of the mouth which yet is false saith he But this free dealing of his did so displease Friar Manrique who by the command of Pius Quintus set out a censure upon the Glosses of the Canon law that hee gave direction these words which yet is false should be cleane blotted out which direction of his notwithstanding the Romane Correctors under Gregory the XIII did not follow but letting the words still stand give them a check only with this marginall annotation Nay it is most true that without confession in desire at least the sinne is not forgiven In like maner where the same Semeca holdeth it to be the better opinion that Confession was ordayned by a certaine tradition of the universall Church rather then by the authoritie of the new or old Testament and inferreth thereupon that it is necessarie among the Latins but not among the Greekes because that tradition did not spread to them Friar Manrique commandeth all that passage to be blotted out but the Romane Correctors clap this note upon the margent for an antidote Nay confession was ordayned by our Lord and by Gods Law is necessary to all that fall into mortall sinne after Baptisme as well Greekes as Latins and for this they quote onely the 14. Session of the Councell of Trent where that opinion is accursed in us which was held two or three hundred yeares ago by the men of their owne religion among whom Michael of Bononia who was Prior general of the order of the Carmelites in the dayes of Pope Vrban the sixth doth conclude strongly out of their owne received grounds that confession is not necessary for the obtayning of the pardon of our sinne and Panormitan the great Canonist professeth that the opinion of Semeca doth much please him which referreth the originall of Confession to a generall tradition of the Church because saith he there is not anie cleare authority which sheweth that God or Christ did clearely ordayne that Confession should be made unto a Priest Yea all the Canonists following their first Interpreter say that Confession was brought in onely by the law of the Church and not by anie divine precept if we will beleeve Maldonat who addeth notwithstanding that this opinion is eyther alreadie sufficiently declared by the Church to be heresie or that the Church should doe well if it did declare it to be heresie And we finde indeed that in the yeare of our Lord 1479. which was 34. yeares after the death of Panormitan by a speciall commission directed from Pope Sixtus the fourth unto Alfonsus Carillus Archbishop of Toledo one Petrus Oxomensis professor of Divinitie in the Vniversitie of Salamanca was driven to abjure this conclusion which hee had before delivered as agreeable to the common opinion of the Doctors that confession of sinnes in particular vvas grounded upon some statute of the universall Church and not upon divine right and when learned men for all this would not take warning but would needs be medling againe with that which the Popish Clergie could not indure should be touched as Iohannes de Selva among others in the end of his treatise de Iurejurando Erasmus in diverse of his workes and Beatus Rhenanus in his argument upon Tertullians booke de Poenitentiâ the fathers of Trent within 72. yeares after that conspired together to stop all mens mouthes with an anathema that should denie sacramentall confession to be of divine institution or to be necessarie unto salvation And so we are come to an end of that point OF THE PRIESTS POVVER TO FORGIVE SINNES FRom Confession we are now to proceed unto Absolution which it were pitie this man should receive before he made confession of the open wrong he hath here done in charging us to denie that Priests have power to forgive sinnes whereas the verie formall words which our Church requireth to be used in the ordination of a Minister are these Whose sinnes thou doest forgive they are forgiven and vvhose sinnes thou doest retaine they are retained And therefore if this be all the matter the Fathers and we shal agree well enough howsoever this make-bate would faine put friends together by the eares where there is no occasion at all of quarrell For wee acknowledge most willingly that the principall part of the Priests ministerie is exercised in the matter of forgivenesse of sinnes the question only is of the maner how this part of their function is executed by them and of the bounds and limits thereof which the Pope and his Clergie for their owne advantage have inlarged beyond all measure of truth and reason That wee may therefore give unto the Priest the things that are the Priests and to God the things that are Gods not coÌ„municate unto any creature the power that properly belongeth to the Creator who will not give his glory unto another we must in the first place lay this downe for a sure ground that to forgive sinnes properly directly and absolutely is a priviledge onely appertayning unto the most High I saith he of himselfe even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne sake and will not remember thy sinnes Esai 43.25 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquitie saith the Prophet Micah 7.18 which in effect is the same with that of the Scribes Mark 2.7 and Luk. 5.21 Who can forgive sinnes but God alone And therefore when David saith unto God Thou forgavest the iniquitie of my sinne Psalm 32.5 Gregory surnamed the great the first Bishop of Rome of that name thought this to be a sound paraphrase of his words Thou vvho alone sparest who alone forgivest sinnes For who can forgive sinnes but God alone Hee did not imagine that he had committed anie great error in subscribing thus simply unto that sentence of the Scribes and little dreamed that anie petie Doctors afterwards would arise in Rome or Rhemes who would tell us a faire tale that the faithlesse Iewes thought as Hereticks now adayes that to forgive
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
answer Surely this we may say and thinke that God alone doth forgive and retayne sinnes and yet hath given power of binding and loosing unto the Church but He bindeth and looseth one way and the Church another For he only by himselfe forgiveth sinne who both cleanseth the soule from inward blot and looseth it from the debt of everlasting death But this hath he not granted unto Priests to whom notwithstanding he hath given the power of binding and loosing that is to say of declaring men to be bound or loosed Wherupon the Lord did first by himselfe restore health unto the leper and then sent him unto the Priests by whose judgement he might be declared to be cleansed so also he offered Lazarus to his disciples to be loosed having first quickned him In like maner Hugo Cardinalis sheweth that it is onely God that forgiveth sinnes and that the Priest cannot binde or loose the sinner with or from the bond of the fault and the punishment due thereunto but onely declare him to be bound or loosed as the Leviticall Priest did not make nor cleanse the leper but onely declared him to be infected or cleane And a great number of the Schoolemen afterward shewed themselves to be of the same judgement that to pardon the fault and the eternall punishment due unto the same was the proper worke of God that the Priests absolution hath no reall operation that way but presupposeth the partie to be first justified and absolved by God Of this minde were Guilielmus Altissiodorensis Alexander of Hales Bonaventure Ockam Thomas de Argentinâ Michael de Bononiâ Gabriel Biel Henricus de Huecta Iohannes Major and others To lay downe all their words at large would be too tedious In generall Hadrian the sixth one of their owne Popes acknowledgeth that the most apprâ—ved Divines were of this minde that the keyes of the Priesthood doe not extend themselves to the remission of the fault and Major affirmeth that this is the common Tenet of the Doctors So likewise is it avouched by Gabriel Biel that the old Doctors commonly follow the opinion of the Master of the Sentences that Priests do forgive or retaine sinnes while they iudge and declare that they are forgiven by God or retained But all this notwithstanding Suarez is bold to tell us that this opinion of the Master is false and now at this time erroneous It was not held so the other day when Ferus preached at Mentz that man did not properly remit sinne but did declare and certifie that it was remitted by God so that the Absolution received from man is nothing else then if he should say Behold my sonne I certifie thee that thy sinnes are forgiven thee I pronounce unto thee that thou hast God favourable unto thee and vvhatsoever Christ in Baptisme and in his Gospell hath promised unto us he doth now declare and promise unto thee by me Of this shalt thou have me to be a witnesse goe in peace and in quiet of conscience But jam hoc tempore the case is altered these things must be purged out of Ferus as erroneous the opinion of the old Doctors must give place to the sentence of the new Fathers of Trent And so we are come at length to the end of this long question in the handling whereof I have spent more time th◠〈◊〉 aniâ— of thâ— râ—st by reason our Priests doe make this facultie of pardoning mens sinnes to be one of the most principall parts of their occupation and the particular discoverie thereof is not ordinarily by the writers of our side so much insisted upon The performance therefore of my promise of brevitie is to be expected in the briefer treating upon those articles that remaine the fift whereof we are now to take into our consideration which is OF PVRGATORIE FOr extinguishing the imaginarie flames of Popish Purgatory wee need not goe farre to fetch water seeing the whole current of Gods word runneth mainly upon this that the blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne that all Gods children dye in Christ and that such as dye in him doe rest from their labours that as they be absent from the Lord while they are in the bodie so when they be absent from the bodie they are present with the Lord and in a word that they come not into judgement but passe from death unto life And if wee need the assistance of the ancient Fathers in this businesse behold they be here readie with full buckets in their hands Tertullian to begin withall counteth it iniurious unto Christ to hold that such as be called from hence by him are in a state that should be pittied whereas they have obtayned their desire of being with Christ according to that of the Apostle Philip. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Chrest What pitie was it that the poore soules in Purgatorie should finde no 〈◊〉 in those dayes to informe men better of their ruefull condition nor no Secretarie to draw up such another supplication for them as this which of late years Sir Thomas Moore presented in their name To all good Christen people In most piteous wise continually calleth and cryeth upon your devoute charitie and most tender pitie for helpe comfort and reliefe your late acquaintance kindred spouses companions playfellowes and friends and now your humble and unacquainted and halfe forgotten suppliants poore prisoners of God the sely soules in Purgatorie here abiding and enduring the grievous paynes and hote clensing fire c. If S. Cyprian had understood but halfe thus much doubtlesse he would have strucken out the best part of that famous treatise which hee wrote of Mortalitie to comfort men against death in the time of a great plague especially such passages as these are which by no meanes can be reconciled with Purgatorie It is for him to feare death that is not willing to goe unto Christ it is for him to bee unwilling to goe unto Christ who doth not beleeve that hee beginneth to raigne with Christ. For it is written that the just doth live by faith If thou be just and livest by faith if thou dost truly beleeve in God why being to be with Christ and being secure of the Lords promise doest not thou embrace the message whereby thou art called unto Christ and rejoycest that thou shalt be ridd of the Divell Simeon said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seene thy salvation proving thereby and witnessing that the servants of God then have peace then injoy free and quiet rest when being drawen from these stormes of the world vvee arrive at the haven of our everlasting habitation and securitie vvhen this death being ended wee enter into immortalitie The righteous are called to a refreshing the unrighteous are haled to torment safety is quickly
labouâ—ed in vaine 1. Thessal 2.19 For what is our hope or joy or crowne of rejoycing are not even yee in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his comming 1. Pet. 1. â— Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation readie to be revealed in the last time 1. Corinth 5.5 That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Iâ—sus Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed unto the day of redemption Luk. 21.28 When these things beginne to come to passe then looke up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh 2. Timoth. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righâ—eousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and Luk. 14.14 Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just And that the Church in her Offices for the dead had speciall respect unto this time of the Resurrection appeareth plainly both by the portions of Scripture appointed to be read therein and by diverse particulars in the prayers themselves that manifestly discover this intention For there the ministers as the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy reporteth read those undoubted promises vvhich are recorded in the divine Scriptures of our holy ResurrectioÌ„ and then devoutly sang such of the sacred Psalmes as were of the same subject and argument And so accordingly in the Romane Missall the lessons ordained to be read for that time are taken from 1. Corinth 15. Behold I tell you a mysterie Wee shall all rise againe c. Ioh. 5. The houre commeth wherein all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life c. 1. Thessal 4. Brethren we would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleepe that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope Ioh. 11. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me although he were dead shall live 2. Maccab. 12. Iudas caused a sacrifice to be offered for the sinnes of the dead justly and religiously thinking of the Resurrection Ioh. 6. This is the will of my Father that sent me that every one that seeth the Sonne and beleeveth in him may have life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and lastly Apocal. 14. I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth now saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours for their workes follow them Wherewith the Sequence also doth agree beginning Dies irae dies illa Solvet saeclum in favillâ Teste David cum Sibyllâ and ending Lacrymosa dies illa Quâ resurget ex favillâ Iudicandus homo reus Huic ergo parce Deus Pie Iesu Domine Dona eis requiem Tertullian in his booke de Monogamiâ which hee wrote after hee had beene infected with the heresie of the Montanists speaking of the prayer of a widow for the soule of her deceased husband saith that she requesteth refreshing for him and a portion in the first resurrection Which seemeth to have some tang of the error of the Millenaries whereunto not Tertullian onely with his Prophet Montanus but Nepos also and Lactantius and diverse other Doctors of the Church did fall who misunderstanding the prophecie in the 20. of the Revelation imagined that there should be a first resurrection of the just that should raigne here a thousand yeares upon earth and after that a second resurrection of the wicked at the day of the general judgement Yet in a certaine Gotthicke Missall I meet with two severall exhortations made unto the people to pray after the selfe same forme the one that God would vouchsafe to place in the bosome of Abraham the soules of those that be at rest and admit them unto the part of the first resurrectioÌ„ the other which I find elsewhere also repeated in particular that he would place in rest the spirits of their friends which were gone before them in the Lords peace and rayse them up in the part of the first resurrection Which how it may be excused otherwise then by saying that at the generall resurrection the dead in Christ shall rise fiâ—st and then the wicked shall be raysed after them and by referring the first resurrection unto the resurrection of the just which shall be at that day I cannot well resolve For certaine it is that the first râ—surrection spoken of in the 20. chapter of the Revelation of S. Iohn is the resuâ—rection of the soule from the death of sinne and error in this world as the second is the resurrection of the bodie out of the dust of the earth in the world to come both whiâ—h be distinctly layd down by our Saviour in the fift chapter of the Gospell of S. Iohn the first in the 25. verse The houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live the second in the 28. and 29. Marveile not at this for the houre is comming in which all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation And to this generall resurrection and to the judgement of the last day had the Church relation in her prayers some patternes whereof it will not be amisse to exhibit here in these examples following Although the condition of death brought in upon mankinde doth make our hearts and mindes heavy yet by the gift of thy clemencie we are raised up with the hope of future immortalitie and being mindfull of eternall salvation are not afraid to sustaine the losse of this light For by the benefite of thy grace life is not taken away to the faithful but changed and the soules being freed from the prison of the body abhorre things mortall when they attaine unto things eternall Wherefore we beseech thee that thy servant N. being placed in the tabernacles of the blessed may rejoyce that he hath escaped the straytes of the flesh and in the desire of glorification expect with confidence the day of Iudgement Through Iesus Christ our Lord. whose holy passion we celebrate without doubt for immortall and well resting soules for them especially upon whom thou hast bestowed the grace of the second birth who by the example of the same Iesus Christ our Lord have begunne to be secure of the resurrection For thou vvho hast made the things that were not art able to repaire the things that were and hast given unto us evidences of the resurrection to come not onely by the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but also by the
other matters that there were places neere unto them that used to cast up burning flames which by the inhabitants were called the Potts of Vulcan wherein the soules of the reprobate according to the qualitie of their deserts did suffer diverse punishments the Divels being there deputed for the execution therof whose voyces angers and terrors and somtimes howlings also he said he often heard as lamenting that the soules of the damned were taken out of their hands by the almes and prayers of the faithfull and more at this time by the prayers of the monkes of Cluny who prayed vvithout ceasing for the rest of those that were deceased The abbot Odilo having understood this by him appointed throughout all the monasteries under his subjection that as upon the first day of November the solemnitie of all the Saints is observed so upon the day following the memoriall of all that rested in Christ should be celebrated Which rite passing into many other Churches made the memory of the faithfull deceased to be solemnized For the elect this forme of prayer was wont to be used in the Romane Church O God unto whom alone is knowne the number of the elect that are to be placed in the supernall blisse grant we beseech thee that the book of blessed predestination may retaine the names of all those whom we have undertaken to recommend in our prayer or of all the faithfull that are written therein And to pray that the names of all those that are written in the book of Gods election should still be retayned therein may be somewhat tolerable considering as the Divines of that side have informed us that those things may be prayed for which we know most certainly wilcome to passe But hardly I think shall you finde in any Rituall a form of prayer answerable to this of the monkes of Cluny for the reprobate unlesse it be that whereby S. Francis is said to have obtained that friat Elias should be made ex praescito praedestinatus an elect of a reprobare Yet it seemeth that some were not very well pleased that what was done so seldom by S. Francis the Angel of the Friars that for a reprobate yet living should be so usually practised by the followers of S. Odilo the Archangel of the Monkes for reprobates that were dead therefore in the cōmon editions of Sigeberts Chronicle they have cleane strucke out the word damnatorū instead of reproborū chopt in defunctorū which depravatiō may be detected aswel by the sincere edition of Sigebert published by Aubertus Miraeus out of the Manuscript of Gemblac abbay w ch is thought to be the originall copie of Sigebert himselfe as by the comparing of him with Petrus Damiani in the life of Odilo whence this whole narration was by him borrowed For there also doe we reade that in those flaming places the soules of the reprobate according to the qualitie of their deserts did suffer diverse torments and that the Divels did complaine that by the almes and prayers of Odilo and others the soules of the damned were taken out of their hands By these things we may see what we are to judge of that which our Adversaries presse so much against us out of Epiphanius that he nameth an obscure fellow one Aërius to be the first author of this heresie that prayers and sacrifice profiteth not the departed in Christ. For neyther doth Epiphanius name this to be an heresie neyther doth it appeare that himselfe did hold that praiers and oblations bring such profite to the dead as these men dreame they do He is much deceived who thinketh everie thing that Epiphanius findeth fault withall in heretickes is esteemed by him to be an heresie seeing heresie cannot be but in matters of faith and the course which Epiphanius taketh in that worke is not only to declare in what speciall points of faith hereticks did dissent from the Catholicke doctrine but in what particular observances also they refused to follow the received customes and ordinances of the Church Therefore at the end of the whole worke hee setteth downe a Briefe first of the faith and then of the ordinances and observances of the Church and among the particulars of the latter kinde he rehearseth this For the dead they make commemorations by name performing or when they doe performe their prayers and divine service and dispensation of the mysteries and disputing against Aërius touching the point it selfe hee doth not at all charge him with forsaking the doctrine of the Scriptures or the faith of the Catholick Church concerning the state of those that are departed out of this life but with rejecting the order observed by the Church in her Commemorations of the dead which being an ancient institution brought in upon wonderfull good considerations should not by this humorous hereticke have beene thus condemned The Church saith he doth necessarily performe this having received it by tradition from the Fathers and who may dissolve the ordinance of his mother or the law of his Father and againe Our mother the Church hath ordinances setled in her which are inviolable and may not be broken Seeing then there are ordinances established in the Church and they are well and all things are admirably done this seducer is againe refuted For the further opening hereof it will not be amisse to consider both of the objection of Aërius and of the answer of Epiphanius Thus did Aërius argue against the practise of the Church For what reason doe you commemorate after death the names of those that are departed He that is alive prayeth or maketh dispensation of the mysteries what shall the dead be profited hereby And if the prayer of those here doe altogether profite them that be there then let no body be godly let no man do good but let him procure some friends by what meanes it pleaseth him eyther perswading them by money or intreating friends at his death and let them pray for him that he may suffer nothing there and that those inexpiable sins which he hath cōmitted may not be required at his hands This was Aërius his argumentation which would have beene of force indeed if the whole Church had held as manie did that the judgement after death was suspended untill the generall Resurrection and that in the meane time the sinnes of the dead might be taken away by the suffrages of the living But hee should have considered as Stephanus Gobarus who was as great an heretick as himselfe did that the Doctors were not agreed upon the point some of them maintayning the soule of every one that departed out of this life received very great profite by the prayers and oblations and almes that were performed for him and others on the contrary side that it was not so and that it was a foolish part of him to confound the private opinion of some with the common faith of the universall Church That he reproved this
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
knocke therefore dearely beloved as much as we can because we cannot as much as we ought the future blisse may be acquired but estimated it cannot be Albeit thou hadst good deeds equall in number to the starres saith Agapetus the Deacon to the Emperour Iustinian yet shalt thou never goe beyond the goodnesse of God For whatsoever any man shall bring unto God he doth but offer unto him his owne things out of his owne store and as one cannot outstrip his own shadow in the Sunne which preventeth him alwaies although he make never so much speed so neither can men by their good doings outstrip the unmatchable bountie of God All the righteousnesse of man saith Gregory is convicted to bee unrighteousnesse if it be strictly judged It needeth therefore prayer after righteousnesse that that which being sifted might faile by the meere pitie of the Iudge might stand for good Let him therefore say Although I had any righteous thing I would not answer but I would make supplication to my Iudge Iob 9.15 as if he should more plainly confesse and say Albeit I did grow up unto the worke of vertue I should be enabled unto life not by merits but by pardon But you will say If this blisse of the Saints be mercie and is not obtained by merits how shall that stand which is written And thou shalt render unto every one according to his workes If it be rendred according to workes how shall it be accounted mercie But it is one thing to render according to workes and another thing to render for the works themselves For when it is said According to works the qualitie it selfe of the worke is understood that whose workes appeare good his reward way be glorious For unto that blessed life wherein wee are to live with God and by God no labour can be equalled no workes compared seeing the Apostle saith The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us By the righteousnesse of works no man shall be saved but only by the righteousnesse of faith saith Bede and therefore no man should beleeve that either his freedome of will or his merits are sufficient to bring him unto blisse but understand that he can be saved by the grace of God only The same Author writing upon those words of David Psalm 24.5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation expoundeth the blessing to be this that for the present time he shall merit or worke well and for the future shall be rewarded well and that not by merits but by grace only To the same purpose Elias Cretensis the interpreter of Gregory Nazianzen writeth thus By mercy we ought to understand that reward which God doth repay unto us For wee as servants doe owe vertue that the best things and such as are gratefull wee should pay and offer unto God as a certaine debt considering that wee haue nothing which we have not received from him and God on the other side as our Lord and Master hath pitie on us and doth bestow rather than repay unto us This therefore is true humilitie saith Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus to doe good workes but to account ones selfe uncleane and unworthy of Gods favour thinking to be saved by his goodnesse alone For whatsoever good things we doe wee answer not God for the very aire alone which we doe breathe And when we have offered unto him all the things that we have he doth not owe us any reward for all things are his and none receiving the things that are his owne is bound to give a reward unto them that bring the same unto him In the booke set out by the authoritie of Charles the Great against Images the Arke of the Covenant is said to signifie our Lord and Saviour in whom alone we have the Covenant of peace with the Father Over which the Propitiatory is said to be placed because aboue the Commandements either of the Law or of the Gospell which are founded in him the mercy of the said Mediator taketh place by which not by the workes of the Law which we have done neither willing nor running but by his having mercy upon us we are saved So Ambrosius Ansbertus expounding that place Rev. 19.7 Let us be glad and rejoyce and give glory to him for the mariage of the Lambe is come and his wife hath made her selfe readie In this saith he doe we give glory to him when we doe confesse that by no precedent merits of our good deeds but by his mercie only we have attained unto so great a dignitie And Rabanus in his Commentaries upon the Lament of Ieremie Lest they should say Our Fathers were accepted for their merit and therefore they obtained such great things at the hand of the Lord he adjoyneth that this was not given to their merits but because it so pleased God whose free gift is whatsoever he bestoweth Haymo writing upon those words Psalm 132.10 For thy servant Davids sake refuse not the face of thine Anointed saith that For thy servant Davids sake is as much to say as For the merit of Christ himselfe and froâ— thence collecteth this doctrine that none ought to presume of his owne merits but expect all his salvation from the merits of Christ. So in another place When we performe our repentance saith he let us know that we can give nothing that is worthy for the aâ—peasing of God but that only in the bloud of that immaculate and singular Lambe we can be saved And againe Eternall life is rendred to none by debt but given by free mercie It is of necessitie that beleevers should be saved only by the faith of Christ saith Smaragdus the Abbot By grace not by merits are we saved of God saith the Author of the Commentaries upon S. Marke falsely attributed to S. Hierome That this doctrine was by Gods great mercie preserved in the Church the next 500. yeares also as well as in those middle times appeareth most evidently by those Instructions and Consolations which were prescribed to be used unto such as were readie to depart out of this life This forme of preparing men for their death was commonly to be had in all Libraries and particularly was found inserted among the Epistles of Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury who was commonly accounted to bee the Author of it The substance thereof may be seene for the copies varie some being shorter and some larger than others in a Tractate written by a Cistercian Monke of the Art of dying well which I have in written hand and have seene also printed in the yeere 1483. and 1504. in the booke called Hortulus animae in Cassanders Appendix to the booke of Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester de fiduciâ misericordiâ Dei edit Colon. An. 1556. Caspar Vlenbergius his Motives caus 14. pag.