shall leape as calves of the heard And Iob 20. 15 16. The riches which he shall gather unjustly shall be vomited out of his belly the Angel of death draweth him Hee shall be mulcted with the wrath of Dragons the tongue of the Serpent shall kill him where the Vulgar Latin readeth The riches which he hath devoured he shall vomit out and God shall draw them forth out of his belly He shall suck the head of Aspes and the Vipers tongue shall kill him The same course is likewise observed by Sedulius in his citations But Gildas the Briton in some Bookes as Deuteronomy Esay and Ieremy for example useth to follow the Vulgar Latin translated out of the Hebrew in others as the bookes of Chronicles Iob Proverbs Ezekiel and the small Prophets the elder Latin translated out of the Greeke as also long after him his country man Nennius in reckoning the yeares of the age of the world followeth the LXX and Asser alledgeth the text Genes 4. 7. If thou offer aright and dost not divide aright thou sinnest according to the Greek reading whereas the Vulgar Latin hath it If thou doe well shalt thou not receive againe but if thou doest ill shall not thy sinne forthwith be present at the doore Of the Psalter there are extant foure Latin translations out of the Greeke namely the old Italian the Romane the Gallican and that of Millayne and one out of the Hebrew composed by St. Hierome which though it bee now excluded out of the body of the Bible and the Gallican admitted in the roome thereof yet in some Manuscript Copies it still retaineth his ancient place three whereof I have seene my selfe in Cambridge the one in Trinitie the other in Benet and the third in Iesus Colledge Librarie where this translation out of the Hebrew and not the Vulgar out of the Greek is inserted into the context of the Bible In the citations of Gildas and the Confession of Saint Patrick I observe that the Roman Psalter is followed rather than the Gallican in the quotations of Sedulius on the other side the Gallican rather than the Roman Claudius speaking of a text in the 118 th or as he accounteth it the 117 th Psalme saith that where the LXX Interpreters did translate it O Lord save me it was written in the Hebrew Anna Adonai Osanna which our Interpreter Hierom saith he more diligently explaining translated thus I beseech thee O Lord save I beseech thee Before this translation of S. Hierome I have seene an Epigram prefixed by Ricemarch the Briton who by Caradoc of Lhancarpan is commended for the godliest wisest and greatest Clerke that had been in Wales many yeares before his time his father Sulgen Bishop of S. Davids only excepted who had brought him up and a great number of learned disciples He having in this Epigramme said of those who translated the Psalter out of Greeke that they did darken the Hebrew rayes with thir Latin clowde addeth of S. Hierome that being replenished with the Hebrew fountaine hee did more cleerely and briefly discover the truth as drawing it out of the first vessell immediately and not taking it at the second hand To this purpose thus expresseth he himselfe Ebraeis nablam custodit littera signis Pro captu quam quisque suo sermone Latino Edidit innumeros Linguâ variante libellos Ebraeumque jubar suffuscat nube Latina Nam tepefacta ferum dant tertia labrasaporem Sed sacer Hieronymus Ebraeo fonte repletus Lucidiùs nudat verum breviusque ministrat Namque secunda creat nam tertia vascula vitat Now for those bookes annexed to the Old Testament which S. Hierom calleth Apocryphall others Ecclesiasticall true it is that in our Irish and Brittish writers some of them are alledged as parcels of Scripture and propheticall writings those especially that commonly bare the name of Salomon But so also is the fourth booke of Esdras cited by Gildas in the name of blessed Esdras the Prophet which yet our Romanists will not admit to be Canonicall neither doe our writers mention any of the rest with more titles of respect than wee finde given unto them by others of the ancient Fathers who yet in expresse termes doe exclude them out of the number of those bookes which properly are to be esteemed Canonicall So that from hence no sufficient proofe can bee taken that our ancestours did herein depart from the tradition of the Elder Church delivered by S. Hierome in his Prologues and explained by Brito a Briton it seemeth by nation as well as by appellation in his commentaries upon the same which being heretofore joyned with the Ordinarie Glosse upon the Bible have of late proved so distastefull unto our Popish Divines that in their new editions printed at Lyons anno 1590. and at Venice afterward they have quite crossed them out of their books Yet Marianus Scotus who was borne in Ireland in the MXXVIII yeare of our Lord was somewhat more carefull to maintaine the ancient bounds of the Canon set by his forefathers For he in his Chronicle following Eusebius and S. Hierom at the reigne of Artaxerxes Longimanus writeth thus Hitherto the divine Scripture of the Hebrewes containeth the order of Times But those things that after this were done among the Iewes are represented out of the booke of the Maccabees and the writings of Iosephus and Aphricanus But before him more plainly the author of the book de mirabilibus Scripturae who is accounted to have lived here about the yeare DCLVII In the bookes of the Maccabees howsoever some wonderfull things bee found which might conveniently bee inserted into this ranke yet wâ—ll wee not weary our selves with any care thereof because wee only purposed to touch in some measure a short historicall exposition of the wonderfull things contained in the divine canon as also in the apocryphall additions of Daniel hee telleth us that what is reported touching the lake or denne and the carrying of Abackuk in the fable of Bel and the Dragon is not therefore placed in this ranke because these things have not the authority of divine Scripture And so much concerning the holy Scriptures CHAP. II. Of Predestination Grace Free-will Faith Workes Iustification and Sanctification THe Doctrine which our learned men observed out of the Scriptures the writings of the most approved Fathers was this that God by his immoveable counsaile as Gallus speaketh in his Sermon preached at Constance ordained some of his creatures to praise hâ—m and to live blessedly from him and in him by him namely by his eternall predestination his free calling and his grace which was due to none that hee hath mercie with great goodnesse and hardneth without any iniquitie so as neyther he that is delivered can glory of his own merits nor he that is condemned complain but of his own merits for asmuch as grace onely maketh the distinction betwixt the
redeemed and the lost who by a cause drawne from their common originall were framed together into one masse of perdition For all mankinde stood condemned in the apostaticall roote of Adam with so just and divine a judgement that although none should be freed from thence no man could rightly blame the justice of God and such as were freed must so have beene freed that by those many which were not freed but left in their most just condemnation it might bee shewed what the whole lumpe had deserved that the due judgement of God should have condemned even those that are justified unlesse mercy had relieved them from that which was due that so all the mouthes of them which would glory of their merits might bee stopped and hee that glorieth might glory in the Lord. They further taught as Saint Augustine did that Man using ill his Free will lost both himselfe and it that as one by living is able to kill himselfe but by killing himselfe is not able to live nor hath power to raise up himselfe when hee hath killed himselfe so when sinne had beene committed by free will sinne being the conquerour free will also was lost for asmuch as of whom a man is overcome of the same is hee also brought in bondage 2 Pet. 2. 19. that unto a man thus brought in bondage and sold there is no liberty left to doe well unlesse he redeeme him whose saying is this If the Sonne make you free yee shall bee free indeede Iohn 8. 36. that the minde of men from their very youth is set upon evill there being not a man which sinneth not that a man hath nothing from himselfe but sinne that God is the author of all good things that is to say both of good nature and of good will which unlesse God doe worke in him man cannot doe because this good will is prepared by the Lord in man that by the gift of God hee may doe that which of himselfe he could not doe by his owne free-will that the good will of man goeth before many gifts of God but not all and of those which it doth not goe before it selfe is one For both of these is read in the holy Scriptures His mercy shall goe before mee and His mercie shall follow mee it preventeth him that is unwilling that hee may will and it followeth him that is willing that he will not in vaine and that therefore we are admonished to aske that wee may receive to the end that what we doe will may be effected by him by whom it was effected that we did so will They taught also that the Law was not given that it might take away sinne but that it might shut up all under sinne to the end that men being by this means humbled might understand that their salvation was not in their owne hand but in the hand of a Mediatour that by the Law commeth neither the remission nor the removall but the knowledge of sinnes that it taketh not away diseases but discovereth them forgiveth not sinnes but condemneth them that the Lord God did impose it not upon those that served righteousnesse but sinne namely by giving a just law to unjust men to manifest their sins and not to take them away forasmuch as nothing taketh away sins but the grace of faith which worketh by love That our sinnes are freely forgiven us without the merit of our workes that through grace we are saved by faith and not by works and that therfore we are to rejoyce not in our owne righteousnesse or learning but in the faith of the Crosse by which all our sinnes are forgiven us That grace is abject and vaine if it alone doe not suffice us and that we esteem basely of Christ when we thinke that he is not sufficient for us to salvation That God hath so ordered it that he will be gracious to mankind if they do beleeve that they shall be freed by the bloud of Christ. that as the soule is the life of the body so faith is the life of the soule and that wee live by faith onely as owing nothing to the Law that hee who beleeveth in Christ hath the perfection of the Law For whereas none might be justified by the Law because none did fulfill the Law but onely hee which did trust in the promise of Christ faith was appointed which should be accepted for the perfection of the Law that in all things which were omitted faith might satisfie for the whole Law That this righteousnesse therefore is not ours nor in us but in Christ in whom were are considered as members in the head That faith procuring the remission of sinnes by grace maketh all beleevers the children of Abraham and that it was just that as Abraham was justified by faith onely so also the rest that followed his faith should bee saved after the same manner That through adoption we are made the sons of God by beleeving in the Sonne of God and that this is a testimony of our adoption that we have the spirit by which we pray and cry Abba Father forasmuch as none can receive so great a pledge as this but such as bee sonnes onely That Moses himselfe made a distinction betwixt both the justices to wit of faith and of deedes that the one did by workes justifie him that came the other by beleeving onely that the Patriarches and the Prophets were not justified by the workes of the Law but by faith that the custome of sinne hath so prevailed that none now can fulfill the Law as the Apostle Peter saith Acts 15. 10. Which neither our fathers nor wee have beene able to beare But if there were any righteous men which did escape the curse it was not by the workes of the Law but for their faiths sake that they were saved Thus did Sedulius and Claudius two of our most famous Divines deliver the doctrine of free will and grace faith and workes the Law and the Gospel Iustification and Adoption no lesse agreeably to the faith which is at this day professed in the reformed Churches that to that which they themselves received from the more ancient Doctors whom they did follow therein Neither doe wee in our judgement one whit differ from them when they teach that faith alone is not sufficient to life For when it is said that Faith alone justifieth this word alone may bee conceived to have relation either to the former part of the sentence which in the Schooles they terme the Subject or to the latter which they call the Predicate Being referred to the former the meaning will be that such a faith as is alone that is to say not accompanied with other vertues doth justifie and in this sense wee utterly disclaime the assertion But being referred to the latter it maketh this sense that faith is it which alone or
his sonnes whom hee himselfe would should bee crowned for the KINGDOME of Ireland And this the Pope did not onely confirme by his Bull but also the yeere following purposely sent over Cardinall Octavian and Hugo de Nunant or Novant his Legates into Ireland to crowne Iohn the Kings sonne there By all this wee may see how farre King Henry the second proceeded in this businesse which I doe not so much note to convince the stolidity of Osullevan who would faine perswade fooles that he was preferred onely to bee collector of the Popes Peter-pence as to shew that Ireland at that time was esteemed a Kingdome and the Kings of England accounted no lesse than Kings thereof And therefore Paul the fourth needed not make all that noyse and trouble the whole Court of heaven with the matter when in the yeere MDLV he tooke upon him by his Apostolicall authority such I am sure as none of the Apostles of Christ did ever assume unto themselves to erect Ireland unto the title and dignity of a Kingdome Whereas hee might have found even in his owne Romane Provinciall that Ireland was reckoned among the Kingdomes of Christendome before hee was borne Insomuch that in the yeere MCCCCXVII when the Legates of the King of England and the French Kings Ambassadours fell at variance in the Councell of Constance for precedencie the English Orators among other arguments alledged this also for themselves It is well knowne that according to Albertus Magnus and Bartholomaeus in his booke De proprietatibus rerum the whole world being divided into three parts to wit Asia Africk and Europe Europe is divided into foure Kingdomes namely the Romane for the first the Constantinopolitane for the second the third the Kingdome of Ireland which is now translated unto the English and the fourth the Kingdome of Spain Whereby it appeareth that the King of England and his Kingdome are of the more eminent ancient Kings and Kingdomes of all Europe which prerogative the Kingdome of France is not said to obtaine And this have I here inserted the more willingly because it maketh something for the honour of my Country to which I confesse I am very much devoted and in the printed Acts of the Councell it is not commonly to be had But now commeth forth Osullevan againe and like a little furie flyeth upon the English-Irish Priests of his owne religion which in the late rebellion of the Earle of Tirone did not deny that Hellish doctrine fetcht out of Hell for the destruction of Catholickes that it is lawfull for Catholickes to beare armes and fight for Heretickes against Catholickes and their country or rather if you will have it in plainer termes that it is lawfull for them of the Romish Religion to beare armes and fight for their Soveraigne and fellow-subjects that are of another profession against those of their own religion that trayterously rebell against their Prince and Country and to shew how madde and how venemous a doctrine they did bring these bee the caitiffes owne termes that exhorted the laitie to follow the Queens side he setteth downe the censure of the Doctors of the University of Salamanca and Vallodilid published in the yeere MDCIII for the justification of that Rebellion and the declaration of Pope Clement the eights letters touching the same wherein he signifieth that the English ought to be set upon no lesse than the Turkes and imparteth the same favours unto such as set upon them that hee doth unto such as fight against the Turkes Such wholesome directions doth the Bishop of Rome give vnto those that will be ruled by him far different I wisse from that holy doctrine wherewith the Church of Rome was at first seasoned by the Apostles Let every soule bee subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God was the lesson that S. Paul taught to the ancient Romanes Where if it bee demanded whether that power also which persecuteth the servants of God impugneth the faith and subverteth religion be of God our countryman Sedulius will teach us to answer with Origen that even such a power as that is given of God for the revenge of the evill and the praise of the good although he were as wicked as eyther Nero among the Romans or Herod among the Iewes the one whereof most cruelly persecuted the Christians the other Christ himselfe And yet when the one of them swayed the scepter Saint Paul told the Christian Romanes that they must needes be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and of the causelesse feare of the other these Verses of Sedulius are solemnly sung in the Church of Rome even unto this day Herodes hostis impie Christum venire quid times Non eripit mortalia Qui regna dat coelestia Why wicked Herod dost thou feare And at Christs comming frowne The mortall he takes not away That gives the heavenly crowne a better paraphrase whereof you cannot have than this which Claudius hath inserted into his Collections upon St. Matthew That King which is borne doth not come to overcome Kings by fighting but to subdue them after a wonderfull manner by dying neither is he borne to the end that hee may succeed thee but that the world may faithfully beleeve in him For he is come not that hee may fight being alive but that hee may triumph being slaine nor that he may with gold get an armie unto himselfe out of other nations but that hee may shed his precious bloud for the saving of the nations Vainly didst thou by envying feare him to beâ— thy successor whom by beleeving thou oughtest to seeke as thy Saviour because if thou diddest beleeve in him thou shouldest reigne with him and as thou hast received a temporall kingdome from him thou shouldest also receive from him an everlasting For the kingdome of this Childe is not of this world but by him it is that men do reign in this world He is the Wisedome of God which saith in the Proverbs By mee Kings reigne This Childe is the Word of God this Childe is the Power and Wisedome of God If thou canst thinke against the Wisedome of God thou workest thine owne destruction and dost not know it For thou by no meanes shouldest have had thy kingdome unlesse thou hadst received it from that Childe which now is borne As for the Censure of the Doctors of Salamanca and Vallodilid our Nobility and Gentry by the faithfull service which at that time they performed unto the Crowne of England did make a reall confutation of it Of whose fidelity in this kinde I am so well perswaded that I doe assure my selfe that neither the names of Franciscus Zumel and Alphonsus Curiel how great Schoole-men soever they were nor of the Fathers of the Society Iohannes de Ziguenza Emanuel de Roias and Gaspar de Mena nor of the Pope himselfe upon whose sentence they wholly ground