least suspition of heresie The narration of Lazarus and the rich man saith the author of the Questions and Answers in the workes of Iustin Martyr presenteth this doctrine unto us that after the departure of the soule out of the body men cannot by any providence or care obtaine any profite Then saith Gregory Nazianzen in vaine shall anie one goe about to relieve those that lament Here men may have a remedie but afterwards there is nothing but bonds or all things are fast bound For after death the punishment of sinne is remedilesse saith Theodoret. and therefore S. Hierome doth conclude that while we are in this present world we may be able to helpe one another eyther by our prayers or by our counsailes but when vvee shall come before the judgement seat of Christ neyther Iob nor Daniel nor Noah can intreate for any one but every one must beare his owne burden Other Doctors were of another iudgement that the dead received speciall profite by the prayers and oblations of the living eyther for the remission of their sinnes or the easing of their punishment but whether this were restrained to smaller offences only or such as lived and died in great sinnes might be made partakers of the same benefite and whether these mens torments might be lessened only thereby or in tract of time quite extinguished they did not agree upon That Stephanus Gobarus whom before I alledged made a collection of the different sentences of the Fathers whereof some contayned the received doctrine of the Church others the unallowable opinions of certaine of the ancient that varied therefrom Of this latter kinde he maketh this sentence to be one that such sinners as be delivered unto punishment are purged therein from their sinnes and after their purging are freed from their punishment albeit not all who are delivered unto punishment be thus purged and freed but some onely whereas the true sentence of the Church was that none at all was freed from punishment If that were the true sentence of the Church that none of those who suffered punishment in the other world were ever freed from the same then the applying of prayers to the helping of mens soules out of any such punishments must be referred to the erroneous apprehension of some particular men and not to the generall intention of the ancient Church from which in this point as in manie others beside the latter Church of Rome hath swarved and quite gone astray The ancient writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchie handling this matter of praying for the dead professedly doth by way of objection move this doubt to vvhat purpose should the Bishop intreat the divine goodnesse to grant remission of sinnes unto the dead and a like glorious inheritance with those that have followed God seeing by such prayers he can be brought to no other rest but that which is fitting for him and answerable unto the life which he hath here ledd If our Romish divinitie had bene then acknowledged by the Church there had beene no place left to such questions and doubts as these The matter might easily have beene answered that though a man did die in the state of grace yet was he not presently to be admitted unto the place of rest but must first be reckoned withall both for the committall of those smaller faults unto which through humane frailtie he was daily subject and for the not performance of full penance and satisfaction for the greater sinnes into which in this life he had fallen and Purgatorie being the place wherein he must be cleansed from the one and make up the iust payment for the other these prayers were directed unto God for the deliverie of the poore soule which was not now in case to helpe it selfe out of that place of torment But this author taking upon him the person of S. Pauls scholler and professing to deliver herein that tradition which he had received from his divine Masters saith no such thing but giveth in this for his answer The divine Bishop as the Scriptures witnesse is the interpreter of the divine judgements for hee is the Angell of the Lord God almightie He hath learned therefore out of the oracles delivered by God that a most glorious and divine life is by his just judgement worthily adwarded to them that have lived holily his divine goodnesse and kindenesse passing over those blots which by humane frailtie he had contracted forasmuch as no man as the Scriptures speake is free from pollution The Bishop therefore knowing these things to be promised by the true oracles prayeth that they may accordingly come to passe and those sacred rewards may be bestowed upon them that have lived holily The Bishop at that time belike did not know so much as our Popish Bishops doe now that Gods servants must dearely smart in Purgatorie for the sinnes wherewith they were overtaken through humane infirmitie he beleeved that God of his mercifull goodnesse would passe by those slipps and that such after-reckonings as these should give no stoppage to the present bestowing of those holy rewards upon the children of the promise Therâ—fore the divine Bishop saith our author asketh those things which vvere promised by God and are gratefull to him and without doubt will be granted theâ—eby aswell manifesting his own good disposition unto God who is a lover of the good as declaring like an interpreter unto them that be present the gifts that shall befall to such as are holy Hee further also addeth that the Bishops have a separating power as the interpreters of Gods judgements according to that commission of Christ Whose sinnes ye remitt they are remitted unto them and whose you shall retaine they are retained and Whatsoever thou shalt binde upon earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven And as in the use of the keyes the Schoolemen following S Hierom do account the minister to be the interpreter onely of Gods judgement by declaring what is done by him in the binding or loosing of mens sinnes so doth this author heâ—e give them power onely to separate those that are alâ—eady judged of God and by way of declaration and convoy to bring in those that are beloved of God and to exclude such as are ungodly And if the power which the Ministers have received by the foresaid commission doe extend it selfe to any further reall operation upon the living Pope Gelasius will denie that it may be stretched in like maner unto the dead because that Châ—ist saith Whatsoever thou shalt binde upon earth He saith upon earth for he that dyeth bound is no where said to be loosed and that which a man remayning in his body hath not received being uncloathed of his flesh he cannot obtaine saith Leo. Whether the dead received profite by the prayers of the living was still a question in the Church Maximus in his Greeke
true by often experience that the wounded conscience will still pinch grievously notwithstanding the confession made unto God in secret At such a time as this then where the sinner can finde no ease at home what should hee doe but use the best means he can to finde it abroad Is there no balme in Gilead is there no physician there No doubt but God hath provided both the one and the other for recovering of the health of the daughter of his people and S. Iames hath herein given us this direction Confesse your faults one to another and pray one for another that yee may be healed According to which prescription Gregory Nyssen toward the end of his Sermon of Repentance useth this exhortation to the sinner Be sensible of the disease vvherewith thou art taken afflict thy selfe as much as thou canst Seeke also the mourning of thy intirely affected brethren to helpe thee unto libertie Shew me thy bitter and aboundant teares that I may also mingle mine therewith Take likewise the Priest for a partner of thine affliction as thy Father For who is it that so falsely obtayneth the name of a father or hath so adamantine a soule that he will not condole with his sonns lamenting Shew unto him without blushing the things that were kept close discover the secrets of thy soule as showing thy hidden disease unto thy physician Hee will have care both of thy credit and of thy cure It was no part of his meaning to advise us that wee should open our selves in this maner unto everie hedge-priest as if there were a vertue generally annexed to the order that upon confession made and absolution received from anie of that ranke all should be straight made up but he would have us communicate our case both to such Christian brethren and to such a ghostly father as had skill in physick of this kinde and out of a fellow-feeling of our griefe would apply themselves to our recoverie Therefore saith Origen looke about thee diligently unto whom thou oughtest to confesse thy sinne Try first the physician unto whom thou oughtest to declare the cause of thy maladie vvho knoweth to be weake with him that is weake to weepe with him that weepeth who understandeth the discipline of condoling and compassionating that so at length if hee shall say anie thing who hath first shewed himselfe to be both a skilfull physician and a mercifull or if he shall give anie counsaile thou mayest doe and follow it For as S. Basil well noteth the verie same course is to be held in the confession of sinnes which is in the opening of the diseases of the bodie As men therefore do not discover the diseases of their bodie to all nor to everie sort of people but to those that are skilfull in the cure thereof even so ought the confession of our sinnes be made unto such as are able to cure them according to that which is written Yee that are strong beare the infirmities of the weake that is take them away by your diligence He requireth care and diligence in performance of the cure being ignorant good man of that new compendious method of healing invented by our Romane Paracelsians whereby a man in confession of attrite is made contrite by vertue of the keyes that the sinner need put his ghostly father to no further trouble then this Speake the word onely and I shall be healed And this is that Sacramentall confession devised of late by the Priests of Rome which they notwithstanding would faine father upon S. Peter from whom the Church of Rome as they would have us beleeve received this instruction that if envie or infidelitie or anie other evill did secretly creepe into anie mans heart hee who had care of his owne soule should not be ashamed to confesse those things unto him who had the oversight over him that by Gods word and wholsome counsaile he might be cured by him And so indeed we reade in the apocryphall epistle of Clement pretended to be written unto S. Iames the brother of our Lord where in the severall editions of Crab Sichardus Venradius Surius Nicolinus and Binius wee finde this note also laid downe in the margent Nota de confessione sacramentali Marke this of sacramentall confession But their owne Maldonat would have taught them that this note was not worth the marking forasmuch as the proper end of sacramentall confession is the obtayning of remission of sinnes by vertue of the keyes of the Church whereas the end of the confession here said to be commended by S. Peter was the obtayning of counsaile out of Gods word for the remedie of sinnes which kinde of medicinall confession wee well approve of and acknowledge to have beene ordinarily prescribed by the ancient Fathers for the cure of secret sinnes For as for notorious offences which bred open scandall private confession was not thought sufficient but there was further required publick acknowledgement of the fault the solemne use of the keyes for the reconciliation of the penitent If his sin do not only redound to his own evill but also unto much scandall of others and the Bishop thinketh it to be expedient for the profit of the Church let him not refuse to performe his penance in the knowledge of manie or of the whole people also let him not resist let him not by his shamefastnesse add swelling to his deadly and mortall wound saith S. Augustine and more largely in another place where he meeteth with the objection of the sufficiencie of internall repentance in this maner Let no man say unto himselfe I doe it secretly I doe it before God God vvho pardoneth me doth know that I doe it in my heart Is it therefore said without cause Whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Are the keyes therfore without cause given unto the Church of God Doe we frustrate the Gospell of God doe we frustrate the words of Christ Doe we promise that to you which hee denieth you Do wee not deceive you Iob saith If I was abashed to confesse my sinnes in the sight of the people So just a man of Gods rich threasure who was tried in such a furnace saith thus and doth the childe of pestilence vvithstand me and is ashamed to bow his knee under th◠blessing of God That which the Emperor was not ashamed to doe is he ashamed of who is not as much as a Senator but only a simple Courtier O proud neck ó crooked minde perhaps nay it is not to be doubted it was for this reason God would that Theodosius the Emperour should doe publick penance in the sight of the people especially because his sinne could not be concealed and is a Senator ashamed of that whereof the Emperour was not ashamed is he ashamed of that who is no Senator but a Courtier onely whereof the Emperour was not ashamed Is one of the vulgar sort or a trader
of the Greek Church I finde the absolution expressed in the third person as attributed wholly to God and not in the first as if it came from the Priest himselfe One ancient forme of Absolution used among the Latins was this Almighty God be mercifull unto thee and forgive thee all thy sinnes past present and to come visible and invisible which thou hast committed before him and his Saints which thou hast confessed or by some negligence or forgetfulnesse or evill vvill hast concealed God deliver thee from all evill here and hereafter preserve and confirme thee alwayes in everie good worke and Christ the sonne of the living God bring thee unto the life which remayneth without end And so among the Grecians whatsoever sinnes the penitent for forgetfulnes or shamefastnesse doth leave unconfessed we pray the mercifull and most pitifull God that those also may be pardoned unto him and we are perswaded that hee shall receive pardon of them from God saith Ieremy the late Patriarch of Constantinople Where by the way you may observe no such necessitie to be here held of confessing everie knowne sinne unto a Priest that if either for shame or for some other respect the penitent doe not make an intire confession but conceale somewhat from the notice of his ghostly father his confession should thereby be made voyde and hee excluded from all hope of forgivenesse which is that engine whereby the Priests of Rome have lift up themselves into that height of domineering and tyrannizing over mens conscience wherewith we see they now hold the poore people in most miserable awe Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure in the forme of absolution used in their time observe that prayer was premised in the optative and absolution adjoyned afterward in the indicative mood whence they gather that the Priests prayer obtayneth grace his absolution presupposeth it that by the former he ascendeth unto God and procureth pardon for the fault by the later he descendeth to the sinner and reconcileth him to the Church for although a man be loosed before God saith the Master of the Sentences yet is he not held loosed in the face of the Church but by the judgement of the Priest And this loosing of men by the judgement of the Priest is by the Fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring of them to the peace of the Church and an admitting of them to the Lords table againe which therefore they usually expresse by the termes of bringing them to the communion reconciling them to or with the communion restoring the communion to them admitting them to fellowship granting them peace c. Neyther doe we finde that they did ever use anie such formall absolution as this I absolve thee from all thy sinnes wherein our Popish Priests notwithstanding doe place the verie forme of their late devised sacrament of Penance nay hold it to be so absolute a forme that according to Thomas Aquinas his new divinitie it would not be sufficient to say Almightie God have mercie upon thee or God grant unto thee absolution and forgivenesse because forsooth the Priest by these vvords doth not signifie that the absolution is done but intreateth that it may be done which how it will accord with the Romane Pontificall where the forme of Absolution is layd downe prayer-wise the Iesuites who follow Thomas may doe well to consider I passe this over that in the dayes not onely of S. Cyprian but of Alcuinus also who lived 800. yeares after Christ the reconciliation of Penitents was not held to be such a proper office of the Priest but that a Deacon in his absence was allowed to performe the same The ordinarie course that was held herein according to the forme of the ancient Canons is thus layde down by the fathers of the third Councell of Toledo that the Priest should first suspend him that repented of his fault from the communion and make him to have often recourse unto imposition of hands among the rest of the penitents then when hee had fulfilled the time of his satisfaction as the consideration of the Priest did approve of it he should restore him to the communion And this was a Constitution of old fathered upon the Apostles that Bishops should separate those vvho said they repented of their sinnes for a time determined according to the proportion of their sinne and afterward receive them being penitent as fathers would do their children To this Penitential excommunication and absolution belongeth that saying eyther of S. Ambrose or S. Augustin for the same discourse is attributed to them both Hee who hath truely performed his repentance and is loosed from that bond wherewith he was tyed and separated from the body of Christ and doth live well after his repentance whensoever after his reconciliation he shall depart this life he goeth to the Lord he goeth to rest he shall not be deprived of the kingdome of God and from the people of the Divell he shall be separated and that which we reade in Anastasius Sinaita Binde him and till thou hast appeased God doe not let him loose that he be not more bound with the wrath of God for if thou bindest him not there remaine bonds for him that cannot be broken Neither doe we enquire whither the wound were often bound but whither the binding hath profited If it have profited although in a short time use it no longer Let the measure of the loosing be the profit of him that is bound and that exhortation which another maketh unto the Pastors of the Church Binde with separation such as have sinned after baptisme and loose them againe when they have repented receiving them as brethren for the saying is true Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven That this authoritie of loosing remaineth still in the Church wee constantly maintaine against the heresie of the Montanists and Novatians who upon this pretence among others that God onely had power to remit sinnes took away the ministeriall power of reconciling such penitents as had committed haynous sinnes denying that the Church had anie warrant to receive them to her communion againe and to the participation of the holy mysteries notwithstanding their repentance were ever so sound Which is directly contrarie to the doctrine delivered by S. Paul both in the generall that if a man be overtaken in a fault they who are spirituall should restore such a one in the spirit of meekenesse and in the particular of the incestuous Corinthian who though hee had beene excommunicated for such a crime as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles yet upon his repentance the Apostle telleth the Church that they ought to forgive him and comfort him lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow Where that speech of his is specially noted and pressed against the hereticks by S. Ambrose To whom
yee forgive anie thing I forgive also for if I forgave anie thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ. For as in the name and by the power of our Lord Iesus such a one was delivered to Satan so God having given unto him repentance to recover himselfe out of the snare of the Divell in the same name and in the same power was hee to be restored againe the ministers of reconciliation standing in Christs stead and Christ himselfe being in the mids of them that are thus gathered together in his name to binde or loose in heaven whatsoever they according to his commission shall binde or loose on earth And here it is to be noted that Anastasius by some called Nicaenus by others Sinaita and Antiochenus who is so eager against them which say that Confession made unto men profiteth nothing at all confesseth yet that the minister in hearing the confession and instructing and correcting the sinner doth but give furtherance onely thereby unto his repentance but that the pardoning of the sinne is the proper worke of God For man saith he cooperateth with man unto repentance and ministreth and buildeth and instructeth and reproveth in things belonging unto salvation according to the Apostle and the Prophet but God blotteth out the sinnes of those that have confessed saying I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities for mine owne sake and thy sinnes and will not remember them There followeth now another part of the ministery of reconciliation consisting in the due administration of the Sacraments which being the proper seales of the promises of the Gospell as the Censures are of the threats must therefore necessarily also have reference to the remission of sinnes And so we see the ancient Fathers doe hold that the commission Ioh. 20.23 Whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted unto them c. is executed by the ministers of Christ aswell in the conferring of Baptisme as in the reconciling of Penitents yet so in both these and in all the sacraments likewise of both the Testaments that the ministerie onely is to be accounted mans but the power Gods For as S. Augustin well observeth it is one thing to baptize by way of ministerie another thing to baptize by vvay of power the power of baptizing the Lord retayneth to himselfe the ministerie hee hath given to his servants the power of the Lords Baptisme was to passe from the Lord to no man but the ministery was the power was to be transferred from the Lord unto none of his ministers the ministery was both unto the good and unto the bad And the reason which hee assigneth hereof is verie good that the hope of the baptized might be in him by whom they did acknowledge themselves to have beene baptized The Lord therefore would not have a servant to put his hope in a servant And therefore those Schoolemen argued not much amisse that gathered this conclusion thence It is a matter of equall power to baptize inwardly and to absolve from mortall sinne But it vvas not fit that God should communicate the power of baptizing inwardly unto any lest our hope should be reposed in man Therefore by the same reason it was not fit that hee should communicate the power of absolving from actuall sinne unto any So Bernard or whosoever was the author of the booke intituled Scala Paradisi The office of baptizing the Lord granted unto many but the power and authoritie of remitting sinnes in baptisme he retayned unto himselfe alone whence Iohn by vvay of singularitie and differencing said of him He it is which baptizeth with the holy Ghost And the Baptist indeed doth make a singular difference betwixt the conferrer of the externall and the internall baptisme in saying I baptize with water but it is hee which baptizeth with the holy Ghost While Iohn did his service God did give who fayleth not in giving and now when all others doe their service the service is mans but the gift is Gods saith Optatus and Arnaldus Bonaevallensis the author of the twelve treatises de Cardinalibus operibus Christi falsely ascribed to S. Cyprian touching the Sacraments in generall Forgivenesse of sinnes whether it be given by Baptisme or by other sacraments is properly of the holy Ghost and the priviledge of effecting this remayneth to him alone But the word of reconciliation is it wherein the Apostle doth especially place that ministerie of reconciliation which the Lord hath committed to his Ambassadors here upon earth This is that key of knowledge which doth both open the conscience to the confession of sinne and include therein the grace of the healthfull mysterie unto eternitie as Maximus Taurinensis speaketh of it This is that powerfull meanes which God hath sanctified for the washing away of the pollution of our soules Now ye are cleane saith our Saviour to his Apostles through the word which I have spoken unto you And whereas everie transgressor is holden with the cords of his owne sinnes the Apostles according to the commission given unto them by their Master that whatsoever they should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven did loose those cords by the word of God and the testimonies of the Scriptures and exhortation unto vertues as saith S. Hierome Thus likewise doth S. Ambrose note that sinnes are remitted by the word of God whereof the Levite was an interpreter and a kinde of an executer in that respect concludeth that the Levite was a minister of this remission As the Iewish Scribes therefore by taking away the key of knowledge did shut up the kingdom of heaven against men so every Scribe which is instructed unto the kingdome of heaven by opening unto his hearers the doore of faith doth as it were unlock that kingdome unto them being the instrument of God herein to open mens eyes and to turne them from darkenesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ. And here are we to understand that the ministers of Christ by applying the word of God unto the consciences of men both in publick and in private doe discharge that part of their function which concerneth forgivenesse of sinnes partly operatively partly declaratively Operatively inasmuch as God is pleased to use their preaching of the Gospell as a meanes of conferring his spirit upon the sonnes of men of begetting them in Christ and of working faith and repentance in them whereby the remission of sinnes is obtayned Thus Iohn preaching the Baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes and teaching the people that they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus is said to turne manie of the children of Israel to the
your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed for the fervent prayer of a righteous man avayleth much The later of which sentences hath reference to the prayers of everie good Christian whereunto we finde a gracious promise annexed according to that of S. Iohn If anie man see his brother sinne a sinne which is not unto death he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sinne not unto death But the former as the verse immediatly going before doth manifestly prove pertayneth to the prayers made by the ministers of the Church who have a speciall charge to be the Lords remembrancers for the good of his people And therefore as S. Augustin out the later proveth that one brother by this meanes may cleanse another from the contagion of sinne so doth S. Chrysostom out of the former that Priests doe performe this not by teaching onely and admonishing but by assisting us also with their prayers and the faithfull prayers both of the one and of the other are by S. Augustin made the especiall meanes whereby the power of the keyes is exercised in the remitting of sinnes who thereupon exhorteth offendors to shew their repentance publickly in the Church that the Church might pray for them and impart the benefite of absolution unto them In the life of S Basil fathered upon Amphilochius of the credite whereof we have before spoken a certaine gentlewoman is brought in comming unto S. Basil for obtayning remission of her sinnes who is said there to have demanded this question of her Hast thou heard ô vvoman that none can forgive sinnes but God alone and shee to have returned him this answer I have heard it Father and therefore have I moved thee to make intercession unto our most mercifull God for mee Which agreeth well with that which Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure doe maintaine that the power of the keyes extend to the remission of faults by way of intercession onely and deprecation not by imparting anie immediate absolution And as in our private forgiving and praying one for another S. Augustin well noteth that it is our part God giving us the grace to use the ministerie of charitie and humilitie but it is his to heare us and to cleanse us from all pollution of sinnes for Christ and in Christ that what we forgive unto others that is to say what wee loose upon earth may be loosed also in heaven so doth S. Ambrose shew that the case also standeth with the ministers of the Gospell in the execution of that commission given unto them for the remitting of sinnes Ioh. 20.23 They make request saith he the Godhead bestoweth the gift for the service is done by man but the bountie is from the power above The reason which hee rendreth thereof is because in their ministerie it is the holy Ghost that forgiveth the sinne and it is God onely that can give the holy Ghost For this is not an humane worke saith he in another place neyther is the holy Ghost given by man but being called upon by the Priest is bestowed by God wherein the gift is Gods the ministery is the Priests For if the Apostle Paul did judge that hee could not conferre the hâ—ly Ghost by his authoritie but beleeved himselfe to be so farre unable for this office that hee wished wee might be filled with the spirit from God who is so great as dare arrogate unto himselfe the bestowing of this gift Therefore the Apostle did intimate his desire by prayer hee challenged no right by anie authoritie hee wished to obtaine it he presumed not to command it Thus farre S. Ambrose of whom Paulinus writeth that whensoever anie penitents came unto him the crimes which they confessed unto him hee spake of to none but to God alone unto whom he made intercession leaving a good example to the Priests of succeeding ages that they be rather intercessors for them unto God than accusers unto men The same also and in the selfe same words doth Ionas write of Eustachius the scholler of Columbanus our famous countrey-man Hitherto appertaineth that sentence cyted by Thomas Waldensis out of S. Hieroms exposition upon the Psalmes that voyce of God cutteth off daily in everie one of us the flame of lust by confession and the grace of the holy Ghost that is to say by the prayer of the Priest maketh it to cease in us and that which before hath been alledged out of Leo of the confession offered first to God and then to the Priest vvho commeth as an intreater for the sinnes of the penitent which hee more fully expresseth in another epistle affirming it to be very profitable and necessarie that the guilt of sinnes or sinners be loosed by the supplication of the Priest before the last day See S. Gregory in his morall exposition upon 1. Sam. 2.25 Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus in his answer to the 141. question of Gretsers edition and Nicolaus Cabasilas in the 29. chapter of his exposition of the Liturgie where he directly affirmeth that remission of sinnes is given to the penitents by the prayer of the Priests And therefore by the Order used of old in the Church of Rome the Priest before hee began his worke was required to use this prayer O Lord God almightie be mercifull unto me a sinner that I may worthily give thankes unto thee who hast made mee an unworthy one for thy mercies sake a minister of the Priestly office and hast appointed me a poore and humble mediator to pray and make intercession unto our Lord Iesus Christ for sinners that returne unto repentance And therefore O Lord the ruler who wouldest have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth who doest not desire the death of a sinner but that he may be reconciled and live receive my prayer which I poure forth before the face of thy mercie for thy servants and handmaydes who have fledd to repentance and to thy mercy Yea in the dayes of Thomas Aquinas there arose a learned man among the Papists themselves who found fault with that indicative forme of absolution then used by the Priest I absolve thee from all thy sinnes and would have it delivered by way of deprecation alledging that this was not onely the opinion of Gulielmus Altisiodorensis Gulielmus Parisiensis and Hugo Cardinalis but also that thirtie yeares were scarce passed since all did use this forme onely Absolutionem remissionem tribuat tibi omnipotens Deus Almightie God give unto thee absolution and forgivenesse What Thomas doth answer hereunto may be seene in his little treatise of the forme of absolution which upon this occasion he wrote unto the Generall of his order This onely will I adde that aswell in the ancient Ritualls and in the new Pontificall of the Church of Rome as in the present practise
beene said actually voideth himselfe of this power this unrighteous judgement of his given upon earth being no wayes ratified but absolutely disanulled in the court of heaven For hee who by his office is appointed to be a minister of the word of truth hath no power given him to do any thing against the truth but for the truth neyther is it to be imagined that the sentence of man who is subject to deceive and be deceived should anie wayes prejudice the sentence of God whose judgement wee know to be alwayes according to the truth Therefore doth Pacianus in the end of his first epistle to Sympronianus the Novatian shew that at that time absolution was not so easily given unto penitents as now a dayes it is but vvith great pondering of the matter and with great deliberation after manie sighes and shedding of teares after the prayers of the whole Church pardon was so not denyed unto trâ—e repentance that Christ being to judge no man should prejudge him and a little before speaking of the Bishop by whose ministerie this was done He shall give an account saith he if hee have done anie thing amisse or if he have judged corruptly and wickedly Neyther is there anie prejudice done unto God whereby he might not undoe the workes of this evill builder but in the meane time if that administration of his be godly he continueth a helper of the workes of God Wherein he doth but tread in the steps of S. Cyprian who at the first rising of the Novatian heresie wrote in the same maner unto Antonianus Wee doe not prejudice the Lord that is to judge but that hee if he finde the repentance of the sinner to be full and just he may then ratifie that which shall be here ordayned by us but if any one doe deceive us with the semblance of repentance God who is not mocked and who beholdeth the heart of man may judge of those things which we did not well discerne and the Lord may amend the sentence of the servants Hereupon S. Hierome expounding those words Daniel 4.24 It may be God will pardon thy sinnes reproveth those men of great rashnesse that are so peremptorie and absolute in their absolutions When blessed Daniel saith he who knew things to come doth doubt of the sentence of God they do a rash deed that boldly promise pardon unto sinners S. Basil also resolveth us that the power of forgiving is not given absolutely but upon the obedience of the penitent and his consent with him that hath the care of his soule For it is in loosing as it is in binding Thou hast begun to esteeme thy brother as a publican saith S. Augustin thou bindest him upon earth But looke that thou bindest him justly For unjust bonds justice doth breake So when the Priest saith I absolve thee Maldonat confesseth that hee meaneth no more thereby but As much as in me lyeth I absolve thee and Suarez acknowledgeth that it implicity includeth this condition Vnlesse the receiver put some impediment for which hee alledgeth the authority of Hugo de S. Victore lib. 2. de Sacramentis pa. 14. s. 8. affirming that this forme doth rather signifie the power and vertue then the event of the absolution And therefore doth the Master of the Sentences rightly observe that God doth not evermore follow the judgement of the Church which sometimes judgeth by surreption and ignorance whereas God doth alwayes judge according to the truth So the Priests sometime declare men to be loosed or bound who are not so before God with the penaltie of satisfaction or excommunication they sometime binde such as are unworthy or loose them they admit them that be unworthy to the Sacraments and put backe them that be worthy to be admitted That saying therefore of Christ must be understood to be verified in them saith he whose merits doe require that they should be loosed or bound For then is the sentence of the Priest approved and confirmed by the judgement of God and the whole court of heaven when it doth proceed with that discretion that the merits of them who be dealt withall doe not contradict the same Whomsoever therefore they do loose or binde using the key of discretion according to the parties merits they are loosed or bound in heaven that is to say with God because the sentence of the Priest proceeding in this maner is approved and confirmed by divine judgement Thus farre the Master of the Sentences who is followed herein by the rest of the Schoolemen who generally agree that the power of binding and loosing committed to the Ministers of the Church is not absolute but must be limited with Clave non errante as being then onely of force when matters are carried with right iudgement and no error is committed in the use of the keyes Our Saviour therefore must stil have the priviledge reserved unto him of being the absolute Lord over his owne house it is sufficient for his officers that they bee esteemed as Moses was faithfull in all his house as servants The place wherein they serve is a Stewards place and the Apostle telleth them that it is required in Stewards that the man be found faithfull They may not therefore carrie themselves in their office as the unjust steward did and presume to strike out their Masters debt without his direction and contrarie to his liking Now we know that our Lord hath given no authoritie unto his stewards to grant an acquittance unto anie of his debtors that bring not unfayned faith and repentance with them Neyther Angell nor Archangell can neyther yet the Lord himselfe who alone can say I am with you when we have sinned doth release us unlesse vvee bring repentance with us saith S. Ambrose and Eligius Bishop of Noyon in his Sermon unto the Penitents Before all things it is necessary you should know that howsoever you desire to receive the imposition of our hands yet you cannot obtaine the absolution of your sinnes before the divine piety shall vouchsafe to absolve you by the grace of compunction To thinke therefore that it lyeth in the power of anie Priest truely to absolve a man from his sinnes without implying the condition of his beleeving and repenting as he ought to doe is both presumption and madnesse in the highest degree Neyther dareth Cardinall Bellarmine who censureth this conditionall absolution in us for idle and superfluous when he hath considered better of the matter assume unto himselfe or communicate unto his brethren the power of giving an absolute one For he is driven to confesse with other of his fellowes that when the Priest saith I absolve thee he doth not affirme that he doth absolve absolutely as not being ignorant that it may many wayes come to passe that he doth not absolve although he pronounce those words namely if hee who seemeth to receive this Sacrament for
by Peter Lombard and other of the Schoolemen but also by Iudocus Clichtoveus not long before the time of the Councell of Trent Lazarus saith Clichtoveus first of all came forth alive out of the sepulchre and then was commandement given by our Lord that hee should be loosed by the disciples and suffered to go his way because the Lord doth first inwardly by himselfe quicken the sinner and afterwards absolveth him by the Priests ministerie For no sinner is to be absolved before it appeareth that hee be amended by due repentance and bee quickned inwardly But inwardly to quicken the sinner is the office of God alone who saith by the Prophet I am he that blotteth out your iniquities The truth therefore of the Priests absolution dependeth upon the truth and sinceritie of Gods quickning grace in the heart of the Penitent which if it be wanting all the absolutions in the world will stand him in no stead For example our Saviour saith If yee forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neyther will your Father forgive your trespasses and in this respect as is observed by Sedulius in other mens persons we are eyther absolved or bound graviusque soluti Nectimur alterius si solvere vincla negamus Suppose now that a man who cannot find in his heart to forgive the wrong done unto him by another is absolved here by the Priest from all his sinnes according to the usuall forme of Absolution are wee to thinke that what is thus loosed upon earth shall be loosed in heaven and that Christ to make the Priests word true will make his owne false And what wee say of charitie toward man must much more be understood of the love of God and the love of righteousnesse the defect whereof is not to be supplyed by the absolution of anie Priest It hath beene alwayes observed for a speciall difference betwixt good and bad men that the one hated sinne for the love of vertue the other onely for the feare of punishment The like difference do our Adveâ—saries make betwixt Contrition and Attrition that the hatred of sinne in the one proceedeth from the love of God and of righteousnesse in the other from the feare of punishment and yet teach for all this that Attrition which they confesse would not otherwise suffice to justifie a man being ioyned with the Priests Absolution is sufficient for that purpose he that was attrite being by vertue of this Absolution made contrite and iustified that is to say hee that was led onely by a servile feare and consequently was to be rancked among disordered and evill persons being by this meanes put in as good case for the matter of the forgivenesse of his sinnes as hee that loveth God sincerely For they themselves doe graunt that such as have this servile feare from whence Attrition issueth are to be accounted evill and disordered men by reason of their want of charitie to which purpose also they alledge that saying of Gregory Recti diligunt te non recti adhuc timent te Such as be righteous love thee such as be not rightâ—ous as yet feare thee But they have taken an order notwithstanding that non recti shall stand recti in curiâ with them by assuming a strange authoritie unto themselves of iustifying the wicked a thing we know that hath the curse of God and man threatned unto it making men friends with God that have not the love of God dwelling in them For although we be taught by the word of God that perfect love casteth out feare that wee have not received the spirit of bondage to feare againe but the spirit of adoption whereby wee cry Abba father that mount Sinai which maketh those that come unto it to feare and quake engendreth to bondage and is to be cast out with her children from inheriting the promise that without love both we our selves are nothing and all that we have doth profit us nothing yet these wonderfull men would have us beleeve that by their word alone they are able to make something of this nothing that feare without love shall make men capable of the benefite of their pardon as well as love without feare that whether men come by the way of mount Sinai or mount Sion whether they have Legall or Evangelicall repentance they have authoritie to absolve them from all their sinnes as if it did lye in their power to confound Gods Testaments at their pleasure and to give unto a servile feare not the benefite of manumission only but the priviledge of adoption also by making the children of the bondwoman children of the promise and giving them a portion in that blessed inheritance together with the children of her that is free Repentance from dead workes is one of the foundations and principles of the doctrine of Christ. Nothing maketh repentance certaine but the hatred of sinne and the love of God and without true repentance all the Priests under heaven are not able to give us a discharge from our sinnes and deliver us from the wrath to come Except ye be converted ye shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven Except yee repent yee shall all perish is the Lords saying in the new Testament and in the old Repent and turne from all your transgressions so iniquitie shall not be your ruine Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will yee dye O house of Israel Now put case one commeth to his ghostly father with such sorrow of minde as the terrours of a guiltie conscience usually doe produce and with such a resolution to cast away his sins as a man hath in a storme to cast away his goods not because he doth not love them but because he feareth to loose his life if he part not with them doth not he betray this mans soule who putteth into his head that such an extorted repentance as this which hath not one graine of love to season it withall wil qualifie him sufficiently for the receiving of an absolution by I know not what sacramentall facultie that the Priest is furnished withall to that purpose For all doe confesse with S. Augustin that this feare which loveth not justice but dreadeth punishment is servile because it is carnall and therefore doth not crucifie the flesh For the willingnesse to sinne liveth which then appeareth in the work when impunitie is hoped for but when it is beleeved that punishment will follow it liveth closely yet it liveth For it would wish rather that it were lawfull to doe that which the Law forbiddeth and is sorry that it is not lawfull because it is not spiritually delighted with the good thereof but carnally feareth the evill vvhich it doth threaten What man then doe we
thinke will take the paynes to get him a new heart and a new spirit and undertake the toylsome worke of crucifying the flesh with the lustes thereof if without all this adoe the Priests absolution can make that other imperfect or rather equivocall contrition arising from a carnall and servile feare to be sufficient for the blotting out of all his sinnes Or are wee not rather to thinke that this sacramentall penance of the Papists is a device invented by the enemie to hoodwinke poore soules and to divert them from seeking that true repentance which is onely able to stand them in stead and that such as take upon them to helpe lame dogges over the stile after this maner by substituting quid pro quo attrition in stead of contrition servile feare in stead of filiall love carnall sorrow in stead of godly repentance are physicians of no value nay such as minister poyson unto men under colour of providing a soveraigne medicine for them Hee therefore that will have care of his soules health must consider that much resteth here in the good choyce of a skilfull physician but much more in the paines that must be taken by the patient himselfe For that every one who beareth the name of a Priest is not fit to bee trusted with a matter of this moment their owne Decrees may give them faire warning where this admonition is twise laid down out of the author that wrote of true and false repentance Hee who will confesse his sinnes that he may finde grace let him seeke for a Priest that knoweth how to binde and loose least while he is negligent concerning himselfe he be neglected by him vvho mercifully admonisheth and desireth him that both fall not into the pit which the foole would not avoid And when the skilfullest Priest that is hath done his best S. Cyprian will tell them that to him that repenteth to him that worketh to him that prayeth the Lord of his mercie can grant a pardon hee can make good that which for such men eyther the Martyrs shall request or the Priest shall doe If we inquire who they were that first assumed unto themselves this exorbitant power of forgiving sins we are like to finde them in the Tents of the ancient hereticks and schismaticks who promised unto others libertie when they themselves were the servants of corruption How manie saith S. Hierom which have neyther bread nor apparell when they themselves are hungry and naked and neyther have spirituall meates nor preserve the coate of Christ intire yet promise unto others food and rayment and being full of wounds themselves bragge that they be physicians and doe not observe that of Moses Exod. 4.13 Provide another vvhom thou mayest send that other commandement Ecclesiastic 7.6 Doe not seeke to be made a Iudge lest peradventure thou be not able to take away iniquitie It is Iesus alone who healeth all sicknesses and infirmities of vvhom it is written Psalm 147.4 He healeth the contrite in heart and bindeth up their soares Thus farre S. Hierom. The Rhemists in their marginall note upon Luke 7.49 tell us that as the Pharisees did alwayes carp Christ for remission of sinnes in earth so the Hereticks reprehend his Church that remitteth sinnes by his authoritie But S. Augustin treating upon the selfe same place might have taught them that hereby the bewrayed themselves to be the off spring of Hereticks rather then children of the Church For whereas our Saviour there had said unto the penitent woman Thy sinnes are forgiven and they that sate at meate with him began to say within themselves Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also S. Augustin first compareth their knowledge and the knowledge of the woman thus together Shee knew that hee could forgive sinnes but they knew that a man could not forgive sinnes And wee are to beleeve that all that is both they which sat at table and the woman which came to our Lords feet they all knew that a man could not forgive sinnes Seeing all therefore knew this shee who beleeved that hee could forgive sinnes understood him to be more then a man and a little after That doe you know well that doe you hold well saith that learned Father Hold that a man cannot forgive sinnes Shee who beleeved that her sinnes were forgiven her by Christ beleeved that Christ was not only man but God also Then doth hee proceede to compare the knowledge of the Iewes then with the opinion of the Heretickes in his dayes Herein saith he the Pharisee was better then these men for when he did thinke that Christ was a man he did not beleeve that sinnes could be forgiven by a man It appeared therefore that the Iewes had better understanding then the Hereticks The Iewes said Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also Dare a man challenge this to himselfe What saith the Heretick on the other side I do forgive I doe cleanse I doe sanctifie Let Christ answer him not I O man when I was thought by the Iewes to bee a man I ascribed the forgivenesse of sinnes to faith Not I but Christ doth answer thee O Heretick Thou when thou art but a man sayest Come woman I doe make the safe I when I was thought to be but a man said Goe woman thy faith hath made thee safe The Hereticks at whom S. Augustin here aymeth were the Donatists whom Optatus also before him did thus roundly take up for the same presumption Vnderstand at length that you are servants and not Lords And if the Church be a vineyard and men be appointed to be dressers of it why doe you rush into the dominion of the housholder Why doe you challenge unto your selves that which is Gods Give leave unto God to performe the things that belong unto himselfe For that gift cannot be given by man which is divine If you think so you labour to frustrate the words of the Prophets the promises of God by which it is proved that God washeth away sinne and not man It is noted likewise by Theodoret of the Audian hereticks that they bragged they did forgive sinnes The maner of Confession which he saith was used among them was not much unlike that which Alvarus Pelagius acknowledgeth to have beene the usuall practise of them that made greatest profession of religion and learning in his time For scarce at all saith hee or very seldome doth any of them confesse otherwise then in generall termes scarce doe they ever specifie any grievous sinne What they say one day that they say another as if every day they did offend alike The maner of Absolution was the same with that which Theodoricus de Niem noteth to have beene practised by the pardoners sent abroad by Pope Boniface the ninth who released all sinnes to them that confessed without any penance or repentance affirming that they had for their warrant in so doing all that power which Christ gave unto
Peter of binding and loosing upon earth just as Theodoret reporteth the Audians were wont to doe who presently after confession graunted remission not prescribing a time for repentance as the lawes of the Church did require but giving pardon by authoritie The lawes of the Church prescribed a certaine time unto Penitents wherein they should give proofe of the soundnesse of their repentance and gave order that afterwards they should be forgiven and comforted lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch heavinesse So that first their penance was injoyned unto them and thereby they were held to be bound after performance whereof they received their absolution by which they were loosed againe But the Audian hereticks without anie such triall taken of their repentance did of their owne heads give them absolution presently upon their confession as the Popish Priests use to doe now a dayes Onely the Audians had one ridiculous ceremonie more then the Papists that having placed the Canonicall bookes of Scripture upon one side and certaine Apocryphall writings on the other they caused their followers to passe betwixt them and in their passing to make confession of their sinnes as the Papists another idle practise more then they that after they have given absolution they injoyne penance to the partie absolved that is to say as they of old would have interpreted it they first loose him and presently after binde him which howsoever they hold to be done in respect of the temporall punishment remayning due after the remission of the fault yet it appeareth plainly that the penitentiall workes required in the ancient Church had reference to the fault it selfe and that no absolution was to be expected from the Minister for the one before all reckonings were ended for the other Onely where the danger of death was imminent the case admitted some exception reconciâ—iation being not denied indeed unto them that desired it at such a time yet so granted that it was left verie doubtfull whether it would stand the parties in anie great stead or no. If any one being in the last extremitie of his sicknesse saith S. Augustin is willing to receive penance and â—oth receive it and is presently reconciled and departeth hence I confesse unto you wee doe not denie him that which hee asketh but wee doe not presume that he goeth well from hence I doe not presume I deceive you not I doe not presume Hee who putteth off his penance to the last and is reconciled whether hee goeth secure from hence I am not secure Penance I can give him securitie I cannot give him Doe I say hee shall be damned I say not so But doe I say also he shall be freed No. What doest thou then say unto mee I know not I presume not I promise not I know not Wilt thou free thy selfe of the doubt wilt thou escape that which is uncertaine Doe thy penance while thou art in health The penance which is asked for by the infirme man is infirme The penance which is asked for onely by him that is a dying I feare lest it also dye But with the matter of penance we have not here to deale those formal absolutions and pardons of course immediately granted upon the hearing of mens confessions is that which wee charge the Romish Priests to have learned from the Audian hereticks Some require penance to this end that they might presently have the communion restored unto them these men desire not so much to loose themselves as to binde the Priest saith S. Ambrose If this be true that the Priest doth binde himselfe by his hastie and unadvised loosing of others the case is like to go hard with our Popish Priests who ordinarily in bestowing their absolutions use to make more hast then good speed Wherein with how little judgement they proceed who thus take upon them the place of Iudges in mens consciences may sufficiently appeare by this that whereas the maine ground whereupon they would build the necessitie of Auricular confession and the particular enumeration of all knowne sinnes is pretended to be this that the ghostly Father having taken notice of the cause may judge righteous judgement and discerne who should be bound and who should be loosed the matter yet is so carried in this court of theirs that everie man commonly goeth away with his absolution and all sorts of people usually receive one and the selfe same iudgement If thou seperate the pretious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth saith the Lord. Whose mouth then may we hold them to be who seldome put anie difference betweene these and make it their ordinarie practise to pronounce the same sentence of absolution aswell upon the one as upon the other If we would know how late it was before this trade of pardoning mens sinnes after this maner was established in the Church of Rome wee cannot discover this better then by tracing out the doctrine publickly taught in that Church touching this matter from the time of Satans loosing untill his binding againe by the restoring of the puritie of the Gospell in our dayes And here Radulphus Ardens doth in the first place offer himselfe who toward the beginning of that time preached this for sound divinitie The power of releasing sinnes belongeth to God alone But the ministery which improperly also is called a power hee hath granted unto his substitutes who after their maner doe binde and absolve that is to say doe declare that men are bound or absolved For God doth first inwardly absolve the sinner by compunction and then the Priest outwardly by giving the sentence doth declare that he is absolved Which is well signified by that of Lazarus who first in the grave was raysed up by the Lord and afterward by the ministery of the disciples was loosed from the bands wherewith he was tyed Then follow both the Anselmes ours of Canterbury and the other of Laon in France who in their expositions upon the ninth of S. Matthew cleerely teach that none but God alone can forgive sinnes Ivo Bishop of Chartres writeth that by inward contrition the inward judge is satisfied and therefore without delay forgivenesse of the sinne is granted by him unto whom the inward conversion is manifest but the Church because it knoweth not the hidden things of the heart doth not loose him that is bound although he be raysed up untill hee be brought out of the tombe that is to say purged by publick satisfaction and if presently upon the inward conversion God be pleased to forgive the sinne the absolution of the Priest which followeth cannot in anie sort properly be accounted a remission of that sinne but a further manifestation onely of the remission formerly granted by God himselfe The Master of the Sentences after him having propounded the diverse opinions of the Doctors touching this point demandeth at last In this so great varietie what is to be held and returneth for
company of captives and thus was Hell spoyled and Adam delivered from his griefes Which is agreeable to that which we reade in the works of Athanasius that the soule of Adam was detayned in the condemnation of death and cryed continually unto the Lord such as had pleased God and were justified in the law of nature being detayned together with Adam and lamenting and crying out with him and that the Divell beholding himselfe spoyled did bemoane himselfe and beholding those that sometime were weeping under him now singing in the Lord did rent himselfe Others are more favourable to the soules of the Fathers though they place them in Hell for they hold them to have beene there in a state of blisse and not of miserie Thus the author of the Latin homily concerning the Rich man and Lazarus which is commonly fathered upon Chrysostom notwithstanding he affirmeth that Abraham was in Hell and that before the comming of Christ none ever entred into Paradise yet doth he acknowledge in the meane time that Lazarus did remaine there in a kinde of Paradise For the bosome of Abraham saith he vvas the poore mans Paradise and againe Some man may say unto me Is there a Paradise in Hell I say this that the bosome of Abraham is the truth of Paradise Yea and I confesse it to be a most holy Paradise So Tertullian in the fourth booke of his Verses against Marcion placeth Abrahams bosome under the earth but in an open and lightsome seate farre removed from the fire and from the darknesse of Hell sub corpore terrae In parte ignotâ quidam locus exstat apertus Luce sua fretus Abrahae sinus iste vocatur Altior á tenebris longé semotus ab igne Sub terrâ tamen Yea he maketh it to be one house with that which is eternall in the heaven distinguisht onely from it as the outer and the inner Temple or the Sanctum and the Sanctum Sanctorum were in the time of the Law by the Vayle that hung between which vayle being rent at the passion of Christ he saith these two were made one everlasting house Tempore divisa spatio ratione ligata Vna domus quamvis velo partita videtur Atque adeò passo Domino velamine rupto Coelestes patuere plagae coelataque sancta Atque duplex quondam facta est domus una perennis Yet elsewhere hee maketh up the partition againe maintaining very stiffly that the gates of Heaven remaine still shut against all men untill the end of the world come and the day of the last judgement Only Paradise he leaveth open for Martyrs as that other author of the latin Homily seemeth also to doe but the soules of the rest of the faithfull he sequestâ—eth into Hell there to remaine in Abrahams bosome untill the time of the generall resurrection And to this part of Hell doth he imagine Christ to have descended not with purpose to fetch the soules of the Fathers from thence which is the only errand that our Romanistes conceive he had thither but ut illic Patriarchas Prophetas compotes sui faceret that he might there make the Patriarches and Prophets partakers of his presence S. Hierome saith that our Lord Iesus Christ descended into the furnace of Hell wherein the soules both of sinners and of just men were held shut that without any burning or hurt unto himselfe he might free from the bonds of death those that were held shut up in that place and that hee called upon the name of the Lord out of the lowermost lake when by the power of his divinitie hee descended into Hell and having destroyed the barres of Tartarus or the dungeon of Hell bringing from thence such of his as he found there ascended conquerour up againe He saith further that Hell is the place of punishments and tortures in which the rich man that was cloathed in puâ—ple is seeâ—e unto which also the Lord did descend that he might let forth those that were bound out of prison Lastly tâ—e Sonne of God saith he following Origen as it seemeth too unaduisedly here descended into the lowermost parts of the earth and ascended above all heavens that he might not only fulfill the law and the prophets but certaine other hidden dispensations also which hee alone doth know with the Father For wee cannot understand how the bloud of Christ did profite both the Angels and those that were in Hell and yet that it did profite them wee cannot be ignorant Thus farre S. Hierome touching Christs descent into the lowermost Hell which Thomas and the other Schoolemen will not admitt that hee ever came unto Yet this must they of force grant if they will stand to the authority of the Fathers It remayned saith Fulgentius for the full effecting of our redemption that man assumed by God without sinne should thither descend whither man separated from God should have fallen by the desert of sinne that is unto Hell where the soule of the sinner was wont to be tormented and to the Grave where the flesh of the sinner was accustomed to bee corrupted yet so that neyther the flesh of Christ should be corrupted in the Grave nor his soule be tormented with the paines of Hell Because the soule free from sinne was not to be subjected to such punishment neither ought corruption to tainte the flesh without sinne And this hee saith was done for this end that by the flesh of the just dying temporally everlasting life might be given to our flesh and by the soule of the just descending into Hell the paines of hell might be loosed It is the saying of S. Ambrose that Christ being voyd of sinne when hee did descend into the lowermost parts of Tartarus breaking the barres gates of Hell called backe unto life out of the jawes of the Divell the soules that were bound with sinne having destroyed the dominion of death and of Eusebius Emissenus or Gallicanus or who ever was the author of the sixt Paschall homily attributed to him that the sonne of man laying aside his body pierced the lowest hidden seates of Tartarus but where he was thought to have beene detained among the dead there binding death did hee loose the bonds of the dead Presently therefore saith Caesarius in his third Paschall homily w ch is the same with the first of those that goe under the name of the former Eusebius the everlasting night of Hell at Christs descending shined bright the gnashing of the mourners ceased the burthens of the chaines were loosed the bursted bands of the damned fell from them The tormentors astonished in minde were amazed the whole jmpious shoppe trembled together when they beheld Christ suddainly in their dwellings So Arnoldus Bonaevallensis in his booke de Cardinalibus operibus Christi commonly attributed to S. Cyprian noteth that at that time there was a cessation from infernall
the Ocean from the Grecians But the Pharisees as hee noteth elsewhere held that the place wherein both rewards were given to the good and punishments to the wicked was under the earth which as Origen doth declare to have been the common opinion of the Iewes so doth Lucian shew that it was the more vulgar opinion among the Grecians For among them the common multitude whom wise men saith he call simple people being perswaded of these things by Homer and Hesiod and such other fabulous authors and receiving their Poëms for a law tooke HADES to be a certaine deepe place under the earth The first originall of which conceite is by Cicero derived from hence The bodies falling into the ground and being covered with earth whence they are said to be interred men thought that the rest of the life of the dead was led under the earth upon which opinion of theirs saith he great errors did ensue which were increased by the Poës Others do imagine that the Poets herein had some relation to the sphericall situation of the world for the better understanding whereof these particulars following would be considered by them that have some knowledge in this kinde of learning First the materiall Spheres in ancient time were not made moveable in their sockets as they are now that they might bee set to any elevation of the Pole but were fixt to the elevation of XXXVI degrees which was the height of the Rhodian climat Secondly the Horizon which devided this Sphere through the middle and separated the visible part of the world from the invisible was commonly esteemed the utmost bound of the earth so that whatsoever was under that horizon was accounted to be under the earth for neyther the common people nor yet some of the learned Doctros uf the Church as Lactantius S. Augustine Procopius and others could be induced to beleeve that which our daily navigations finde now to bee most certaine that there should bee another southerne hemisphere of the earth inhabited by any Antipodes that did walke with their feete just opposite unto ours Thirdly the great Ocean was supposed to be the thing in nature which was answerable to this horizon in the Sphere Therefore it is observed by Strabo that Homer and by Theon Achilles Statius and others that Aratus and the rest of the Poets doe put the Ocean for the Horizon and thereupon where the astronomers say that the Sunne or the starres at their setting goe under the horizon the common phrase of the Poets is that they doe tingere se Oceano dive themselves into the Ocean for as they tooke the Earth to be but halfe a globe and not a whole one so they imagined that demye globe to be as it were a great mountaine or Iland seated in and invironed round about with the Ocean Thus the author of the booke de Mundo affirmeth that the whole world is one Iland compassed about with the Atlanticke sea and Dionysius Alexandrinus in the beginning of his Geography 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein he followed Eratosthenes as his expositor Eustathius there noteth who compareth also with this that place of Orpheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereunto answereth that of Euphorion or as Achilles Statius citeth it of Neoptolemus Parianus in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this opinion of theirs the Fathers of the Church did the more readily entertayne because they thought it had ground from Psalm 24.2 and 136.6 and such other testimonies of holy Scripture That the whole earth saith Procopius Gazaeus doth subsist in the waters and that there is no part of it which is situated under us voyde and clear'd of waters I suppose it be knowne unto all For so doth the Scripture teach Who stretcheth out the earth upon the waters and againe Hee hath founded it upon the seas and prepared it upon the floods Neyther is it fit we should beleeve that any earth under us is inhabited opposite unto our part of the world The same collection is made by S. Hilary Chrysostom Caesarius and others Fourthly it was thought by the ancient heathen that the Ocean supplying the place of the Horizon did separate the visible world from the kingdome of Hades and therefore that such as went to Hádes or the world invisible to us must first passe the Ocean and that the pole Antarctick was seene by them there as the Arctick or North pole is by us here according to that of Virgil in his Georgicks Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis at illum Sub pedibus Styx atra videt manesque profundi Fiftly as they held that Hades was for situation placed from the center of the earth downeward so betwixt the beginning and the lowest part thereof they imagined as great a space to be interjected as there is betwixt Heaven and Earth So saith Apollodorus of Tartarus the dungeon of torment This is a darke place in Hades having as great a distance from the earth as the earth from the heaven and Hesiod in his Theogonia agreably to that which before we heard from Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is as farre beneath the earth as heaven is from the earth for thus equall is the distance from the earth unto darke Tartarus whereunto that of Virgil may be added in the â—ixt of the Aeneids tum Tartarus ipse Bis patet in praeceps tantum tenditque sub umbras Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum then Tartarus it selfe that sinke-hole steep Two times as low descends two times as headlong downright deep As heaven upright â—s hie that see how hye the heaven is over us when we looke upward to it the downright distance from thence to Tartarus should be twice as deepe againe for so wee must conceive the Poets meaning to bee if wee will make him to accord with the rest of his fellowes These observations I doubt not will be censured by many to savour of a needlesse and fruitelesse curiositie but the intelligent reader for all that will easily discâ—rne how hereby he may be led to understand in what sense the ancient both heathen and Christian writers did hold Hades to be under the earth and upon what ground For they did not meane thereby as the Schoolemen generally doe and as Tertullian sometime seemeth to imagine that it was contayned within the bowels of the earth but that it lay under the whole bulke thereof and occupied that whole space which we now finde to be taken up with the earth ayre and firmament of the southerne hemisphere the inhabitants of which infernall region and vast depth are thereupon affirmed by S. Hilary to be non intra terram sed infra terram not within the earth but beneath the earth And this proceeded