And before him Thomas Waldensis the great Champion of Pope Martine against the miscalled Hereticks of his owne name professes him the sounder Diuine and truer Catholique which simply denies any such Merit and ascribes all to the meere grace of God and the will of the giuer What should I need to darken the ayre with a cloud of witnesses their Gregorie Ariminensis their Brugensis Marsilius Pighius Eckius Ferus Stella Faber Stapulensis Let their famous Preacher Royard shut vp all Quid â—gitur is qui Merita praetendit c. Whosoeuer he be that pretends his Merits what doth hee else but deserue Hell by his Workes Let Bellarmines Tutissimum est c. ground it selfe vpon Saint Bernards experimentall resolution Periculosa habita est Perilous is their dwelling place who trust in their owne Merits perillous because ruinous All these and many more teach this not as their owne doctrine but as the Churches Either they and the Church whose voyce they are are Hereticks with vs or we orthodoxe with them and they and wee with the Ancients The noueltie of this Romane Doctrine is accompanied with Errour Against Scripture against Reason SECT II. Against Scripture THat God doth graciously accept and munificently recompence our good workes euen with incomprehensible glory we doubt not we denie not but this either out of the riches of his mercy or the iustice of his promise but that we can earne this at his hands out of the intrinsecal worthines of our acts is a challenge too high for flesh and bloud yea for the Angels of Heauen How direct is our Sauiours instance of the seruant comne out of the field and commanded by his Master to attendance Doth hee thanke that seruant because hee did the things that were commanded him I trow not so likewise yee When yee shall haue done all things which are commanded you say we are vnprofitable seruants Vnprofitable perhaps you will say in respect of meriting thankes not vnprofitable in respect of meriting wages For to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt True therefore herein our case differeth from seruants that wee may not looke for Gods reward as of debt but as of Grace By grace are yee saued through faith neither is it our earning but Gods gift Both it cannot be For if by grace then it is no more of workes euen of the most renued otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of workes then it is no more grace otherwise worke should bee no more worke Now not by workes of righteousnesse which we haue done at our best but according to his mercie he saueth vs Were our saluation of workes then should eternall life be our wages but now The wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. SECT III. Against Reason IN very reason where all is of meere dutie there can bee no merit for how can wee deserue reward by doing that which if we did not we should offend It is enough for him that is obliged to his taske that his worke is well taken Now all that wee can possibly doe and more is most iustly due vnto God by the bond of our Creation of our Redemption by the charge of his royall Law and that sweet Law of his Gospell Nay alas wee are farre from beeing able to compasse so much as our dutie In many things we sinne all It is enough that in our glory we cannot sinne though their Faber Stapulensis would not yeeld so much and taxeth Thomas for saying so with the same presumption that Origen held the very good Angels might offend Then is our grace consummate Till then our best abilities are full of imperfection â—herefore the conceit of merit is not more arrogant then absurd We cannot merit of him whom we gratifie not We cannot gratifie â— man with his owne All our good â—s Gods alreadie his gift his proprietie What haue wee that we haue not receiued Not our Talent only but the improouement also is his meere bountie There can be therefore no place for Merit In all iust Merit there must needs be a due proportion betwixt the act and the recompence It is of fauour if the gift exceed the worth of the seruice Now what proportion can bee betwixt a finite weake imperfect obedience such is ours at the best and an infinite full and most perfect glory The bold Schooles dare say that the naturall and entitatiue value of the workes of Christ himselfe was finite though the moralâ— value was infinite What then shall bee said of our workes which are like our selues meere imperfection We are not so proud that we should scorne with Ruard Tapperus to expect Heauen as a poore man doth an Almes rather according to Saint Austens charge Non sit capâ—â—turgidum c. Let not the heaâ— bee proud that it may receiue a Crowne We doe with all humilitie and selfe-deiection looke vp to the bountifull hands of that God who crowneth vs in mercie and compassion This Doctrine then of Merit being both new and erroneous hath iustly merited our reproofe and detestation and we are vniustly censured for our censure thereof CHAP. VII The newnesse of the Doctrine of Transsubstantiation THe point of Transsubstantion is iustly ranked amongst our highest differences Vpon this quarâ—ll in the very last age how many â—ules were sent vp to Heauen in â—he midst of their flames as if the Sacrament of the Altar had beene sufficient ground of these bloudie Sacrifices The definition of the Tridentine Councell is herein beyond the wont cleare and expresse If any man shall say that in the Sacrament of the sacred Eucharist there remaynes still the substance of Bread and Wine together with the Body and Bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ and shall denie that maruellous and singular conuersion of the whole substance of Bread into the Bodie and the whole substance of Wine into Bloud the Species semblances or shewes only of Bread and Wine remaining which said Conuersion the Catholike Church doth most fitly call Transsubstantiation let him be accursed Thus they Now let vs inquire how old this piece of faith is In synaxi sero c. It was late ere the Church defined Transsubstantiation saith Erasmus For of so long it was saith hee held sufficient to beleeue that the true Bodie of Christ was there whether vnder the consecrated Bread or howsoeuer And how late was this Scotus shall tell vs Ante Concilium Lateranense Before the Councell of Lateran Transsubstantiation was no point of faith as Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe confesses his opinion with a â—minime probandum And this Councell was in the yeere of our Lord one thousand two hundred and fifteene Let who list beleeue that this subtile Doctour had neuer heard of the Roman Councell vnder Gregory the seuenth which was in the yeere one thousand seuentie
that wee must take this vpon the bare word of Conradus Vrspergensis Secondly that this Indulgence of his is no other but a relaxation of Canonicall penance For hee addes which Bellarmine purposely concealeth ijs qui de capitalibus c. to those that should doe penance for capitall sinnes hee released fortie dayes penance So as this instance helpes nothing neither are the rest which hee hath raked together within the compasse of a few preceding yeeres of any other alloy Neither hath that Cardinall offered to cite one Father for the proofe of this practice the birth whereof was many hundred yeeres after their expiration but cunningly shifts it off with a cleanly excuse Neque mirum c. Neither may it seem strange if wee haue not many ancient Authors that make mention of these things in the Church which are preserued only by vse not by writing So he He sayes Not many authors hee showes not one And if many matters of rite haue been traduced to the Church without notice of pen or presse yet let it be showne what one doctrine or practice of such importance as this is pretended to bee hath escaped the report and maintenance of some Ecclesiasticke Writer or other and we shall willingly yeeld it in this Till then wee shall take this but for a meere colour and resolue that our honest Roffensis deales plainly with vs who tells vs Quam diu nulla fuerat de Purgatorio cura c. So long as there was no care of Purgatorie no man sought after Indulgences for vpon that depends all the opinion of pardons If you take away Purgatorie wherefore should wee need pardons Since therefore Purgatorie was so lately knowne and receiued of the whole Church who can maruell concerning Indulgences that there was no vse of them in the beginning of the Church Indulgences then began after men had trembled somewhile at the torments of a Purgatorie Thus their Martyr not partially for vs but ingenuously out of the power of truth professes the noueltie of two great Articles of the Roman Creed Purgatorie and Indulgences Indeed both these now hang on one string Although there was a kinde of Purgatorie dreamed of before their pardons came into play That deuice peept out fearefully from Origen and pull'd in the head againe as in Saint Austens time doubting to show it Tale aliquod c. That there is some such thing saith hee after this life it is not vtterly incredible and may be made a question And elsewhere I reproue it not for it may perhaps be true And yet againe as retracting what hee had yeelded resolues Let no man deceiue himselfe my brethren there are but two places and a third there is none Before whom Saint Cyprian is peremptorie Quando istinc excessum fuerit When wee are once departed hence there is now no more place of repentance no effect of satisfaction Here is life either lost or kept And Gregorie Nazianzens verse sounds to the same sense And Saint Ambrose can say of his Theodosius that being freed from this earthly warfare Fruitur nunc luce perpetua c. hee now enioyes euerlasting light during tranquillitie and triumphs in the troopes of the Saints But what striue wee in this Wee may well take the word of their Martyr our Roffensis for both And true Erasmus for the ground of this defence Mirum in modum c. They doe maruellously affect the fire of Purgatorie because it is most profitable for their Kitchins SECT II. Indulgences and Purgatorie against Scripture THese two then are so late comne strangers that they cannot challenge any notice taken of them by Scripture Neither were their names euer heard of in the language of Canaan yet the Wisedome of that all-seeing Spirit hath not left vs without preuentions of future errours in blowing vp the very grounds of these humane deuises The first and mayne ground of both is the remainders of some temporall punishments to be paid after the guilt and eternall punishment remitted The driblets of veniall sinnes to bee reckond for when the mortall are defraied Heare what God saith I euen I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne sake and will not remember thy sinnes Loe can the Letter bee read that is blotted out Can there be a back-reckoning for that which shal not be remembred I haue done away thy Transgressions as a Cloud What sinnes can bee lesse then transgressions What can bee more cleerely dispersed then a Cloud Wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Who can tell where the spot was when the skin is rinced If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull to forgiue our sinnes and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse Loe he cleanseth vs from the guilt and forgiues the punishment What are our sinnes but debts What is the infliction of punishment but an exaction of payment What is our remission but a striking off that score And when the score is strucke off what remaynes to pay Remitte debita Forgiue our debts is our daily Prayer Our Sauiour tels the Paralitick Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee In the same words implying the remouing of his disease the sinne bee gone the punishment cannot stay behind We may smart by way of chastisement after the freest remission not by way of reuenges for our amendment not for Gods satisfaction The second ground is a middle condition betwixt the state of eternall life and death of no lesse torment for the time then Hell it selfe whose flames may burne off the rust of our remayning sinnes the issues where-from are in the power of the great Pastor of the Church How did this escape the notice of our Sauiour Verify verily I say vnto you hee that heareth my Word and beleeueth in him that sent mee hath euerlasting life and comes not into iudgement as the Vulgar it selfe turnes it but is passed from death vnto life Behold a present possession and immediate passage no iudgement interuening no torment How was this hid from the great Doctor of the Gentiles who putting himselfe into the common case of the beleeuing Corinthians professes Wee know that if once our earthly house of this Tabernacle bee dissolued wee haue a building of God not made with hands eternall in the Heauens The dissolution of the one is the possession of the other here is no interposition of time of estate The wise man of old could say The soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them Vpon their very going from vs they are in peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Iohn heard from the heauenly voyce From their very dying in the Lord is their blessednesse SECT III. Indulgences against Reason IT is absurd in reason to thinke that God should forgiue our Talents and arrest vs for the odde farthings Neither is it lesse absurd to thinke that any liuing soule can haue superfluities of
satisfaction when as all that man is capable to suffer cannot be sufficient for one and that the least sin of his owne the wages whereof is eternall death Or that those superfluities of humane satisfaction should peece vp the infinite and perfitly meritorious superabundance of the Sonne of God Or that this supposed treasure of diuine and humane satisfactions should bee kept vnder the key of some one sinfull man Or that this one man who cannot deliuer his owne soule from Purgatorie no not from hell it selfe should haue power to free what others hee pleaseth from those fearefull flames to the full Iaole-deliuerie of that direfull prison which though his great power can doe yet his no lesse charitie will not doth not Or that the same pardon which cannot acquit a man from one houres tooth-ach should be of force to giue his soule ease from the temporarie paines of another world Lastly guilt and punishment are relatiues and can no more be seuered then a perfect forgiuenesse and a remaining compensation can stand together This doctrine therefore of Papall Indulgences as it led the way to the further discouery of the corruptions of the degenerated Church of Rome so it still continues iustly branded with noueltie and errour and may not bee admitted into our beleefe and wee for reiecting it are vniustly refused CHAP. XII The newnesse of Diuine Seruice in an vnknowne tongue THat Prayers and other Diuine offices should bee done in a known tongue vnderstood of the people is not more auailable to edification as their Caietan liberally confesseth then consonant to the practice of all antiquitie In so much as Lyranus freely In the Primitiue Church blessings and all other seruices were done in the vulgar tongue What need wee looke backe so farre when euen the Lateran Councell which was but in the yeere 1215. vnder Innocent the third makes this decree Quoniam in plaerisque Because in many parts within the same Citie and Diocesse people are mixed of diuers languages hauing vnder one faith diuers rites and fashions wee strictly command that the Bishops of the sayd Cities or Diocesses prouide fit and able men who according to the diuersities of their rites and languages may celebrate diuine seruices and administer the Sacraments of the Church to them instructing them both in word and example Cardinall Bellarmines euasion is verie grosse That in that place Innocentius and the Councell speake onely of the Greeke and Latine tongue For then saith he Constantinople was newly taken by the Romans by reason whereof there was in Greece a mixture of Greekes and Latines in so much as they desired that in such places of frequence two Bishops might be allowed for the ordering of those seuerall Nations Whereupon it was concluded that since it were no other then monstrous to appoint two Bishops vnto one See it should be the charge of that one Bishop to prouide such vnder him as should administer all holy things to the Grecians in Greeke and in Latine to the Latines For who sees not that the Constitution is generall Plaerisque partibus for verie many parts of the Christian world and Populi diuersarum lingâ—arum People of sundrie languages not as Bellarmine cunningly diuersae linguae of a diuerse language And if these two only languages had been meant why had it not bin as easie to specifie them as to intimate them by so large a circumlocution This Synode is said to be vniuersall comprehending all the Patriarkes seuentie seuen Metropolitans and the most eminent Diuines of both East and West Churches to the number of at least 2212. persons or as some others 2285. besides the Embassadours of all Christian Princes of seuerall languages Now shall wee thinke that there were in all their Territories and Iurisdictions no mixtures of inhabitants but onely of Grecians and Romans or that all these Fathers were carelesse of the rest Especially since the end which they professe to propose vnto themselues herein is the instruction of the people of what nation or language soeuer which end as it was neuer meant to bee limited to two sorts of people so could it neuer be attained without this libertie of language fitted to their vnderstanding To which may bee added that the Greekes and Latines of all other had the least need of this prouision since it was famously knowne that they had their seuerall seruices already of receiued and currant vse before this constitution was hatched Neither is it of any moment which hee addeth that in Italy it selfe this decree was not extended to the vse of vulgar tongues for that it is euident that Saint Thomas who liued soone after composed in Latine the Office of the feast of Corpus Christi not in the Italian although the same Aquinas confesses that that the vulgar tongue of Italy at that time was not Latine For what childe cannot easily see that if their great Doctor would write an office for the publique vse as is intended of the whole Church hee would make choyce to write it in such a language as might improue it to the most common benefit of all the Christian world not confining it to the bounds of a particular Nation Besides what was the Italian in those times especially but a broken and corrupt Latine differing more in Idiome and termination then in the substance of speech That which Radeuicus about the yeere 1170. records for the voyce of the people in the election of Pope Victor Papa Vittore Sancto Pietro l'elege makes good no lesse for what such difference is betwixt this and Papam Victorem Sanctus Petrus elegit So as this instance doth nothing at all infringe that iust decree of the Roman Fathers Howsoeuer that obseruation of Erasmus is true and pregnant to this purpose Nec lingua vulgaris e. Neither was the vulgar tongue i. the Latine withdrawne from the people but the people went off from it And as for our Ancestours in this Island Our venerable Bede witnesses that in England the Scriptures were read by them in fiue languages according to the number of the bookes wherein the Law of God was written namely English Scottish Brittish Pictish and Latine which saith hee in meditation of the Scriptures is made common to all the rest A point which the sayd Author specifies for a commendation of the well-instructednesse of those people not as purposing to intimate that the vse of the Latine did thrust out the other foure for he there tells vs that in all foure they did not only search but confesse and vtter the knowledge of the highest truth This restraint then is not more new then enuious and preiudiciall to the honour of God and the soules of men SECT II. Against Scripture AS for Scriptures Were this practice so old as it is pretended the rule is Longaeuae consuetudinis c. the authoritie of an ancient custome is not to be sleighted so long as it is not against the Canons Nothing can be more