loosing the Church was equally builded on them all These things I will particularly confirme and proue and first that all the Apostles had the same commission of feeding the flocke of Christ that Peter had it is euident For whereas there are but foure kindes of feeding Vitâ exemplari subsidio corporali doctrinâ salutari disciplinâ regulari that is By exemplary conversation by ministring things necessary for the entertainment of this present life by wholesome doctrine and by regular discipline and gouernement all these waies the rest of the Apostles stood bound to feede the flocke of Christ as well as Peter For they were all the Lights of the world and their Light was so to shine before men that they seeing their good workes might glorifie their Father in Heauen they were all to take care of the poore and needie they had all power to preach and minister Sacraments by Christs owne warrant saying vnto them all Goe teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost and to gouerne and guide the Church and people of God as well as Peter Christ sending them as his Father sent him and assuring them that whose sinnes they remit they are remitted and whose sinnes they retaine they are retained Neither can this bee doubted of seeing Bellarmine himselfe confesseth in the place before alleadged that in the Apostolique power all power and Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall as well inward as outward was contained so that that which Bellarmine and other Papistes insist vpon that Christ commended all his Sheepe vnto Peters care and charge in that hee saide vnto him Feed my sheepe without any limitation or distinction as if in this respect they would shew vs some singular thing in Peters feeding of the flocke of Christ not found in others is too silly For who knoweth not that euery Apostle had generall commission and that howsoeuer for the better dispatch of the worke they had in hand they diuided amongst them the seuerall prouinces of the world yet this was as Bellarâ—… himselfe confesseth Prouinciarum non iurisdictionis diuisio that is a diuision of prouinces not of Iurisdiction for there was not any of them but had power to preach minister Sacraments and exercise discipline wheresoeuer they would one of them no way hindering the employment of another but all with joynt care seeking to set forward the worke they had in hand Yea this is so cleare that the Cardinall ingenuously confesseth it to be so saying in expresse words that the rest of the Apostles were heads Rulers and Pastours of the vniuersall Church Touching the power of the Keyes promised to Peter and the power of binding and loosing it will easily appeare that no singular thing was either promised or giuen vnto him but that which was common to him with the rest Thomas Aquinis fitly obserueth that in corporall things the Key is an instrument that openeth the doore and giueth entrance to him that formerly was excluded Now the doore of the kingdome of heauen is shut against vs by sinne both in respect of the staine of it and the guilt of punishment whence it commeth as hee aptly noteth that the power by which this stoppe impediment is taken away is named the Key This power is in the diuine Trinity principally and by way of authority in that God onely taketh away sinne dimittendo quae facta sunt adiuvando ne fiant perducendo ad vitam vbi omnino fieri non possunt that is By forgiuing the sinne that is past by helping the sinner that he doth not the like againe and by bringing him to that life where hee can sinne no more And therefore the blessed Trinity is said to haue the Key of Authority Christ had power to remoue this stoppe and hinderance by the merite of his passion by instituting Sacraments and making them effectuall instruments of the communication of his grace for the taking away of sinne and therefore he is said to haue the Key of Excellency In men there is a ministeriall Power to remoue the impediment of sinne that hindereth from entring into Heauen and therefore they are rightly said to haue a key of Ministery which is two-fold of Science and of Iurisdiction Of Science remouendo ignorantiam inducendo ad conuersionem that is by remouing the blindnesse of heart that is found in men and inducing them to conuert and turne to God Of Iurisdiction in receiuing men into the society of holy ones and in admitting those that they thinke meete worthy to the participation of the holy Sacraments in which the efficacy of Christs passion communicateth it selfe as also in reiectâ—…ng the vnholy and vncleane The Iurisdiction of the Church is rightly signified Metaphorically by the name of a Key because the chiefe command in a house or Citty is in him to whom the keyes of that house or Citty are committed hee that hath the keyes hath thereby power to admit and receiue into the house or Citty whom he will to exclude and shut out whoÌ„ he pleaseth And therefore when Princes enter into their Cities Towns the Citizens are wont to offer vnto theÌ„ the keyes thereof thereby acknowledging that the chiefe power command of those places doth rest in them Wherevpon when the Lord promised to Eliacim sonne of Hilkiah servant of King Hezekiah chiefe authority in the Kings Court and in the Citty of Ierusalem he said by his Prophet I will giue the keye of the house of Dauid vpon his shoulders Hee shall open and no man shall shut hee shall shut and no man shall open In which sense also it is said in the Reuelation of Christ that He hath the key of Dauid that he openeth and no man shutteth that hee shutteth and no man openeth that is hath all fulnesse of power in his Fathers house and kingdome Thus then the key of Ministery being onely the power of teaching instructing admonishing comforting gouerning and yeelding sacramentall assurances of Gods mercy grace by dispensing the Sacraments Christ hath instituted and this power being the same in Peter the rest it is cleare that the keyes of the kingdome of Heauen were equally committed vnto them all The force of these keyes is not onely expressed by the acts of opening shutting but of binding loosing also thereby to shew that they are no materiall keyes but Metaphorically vnderstood and spirituall and that heauen is then opened vnto men that they may enter into it when they are loosed from their sins that hindered them from entring in thither and hereupon it is that Christ hauing promised the keyes of the kingdome of heauen to blessed Peter telleth him likewise that what hee shall binde on earth shall be bound in heauen and what he shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heauen The bonds wherewith men are bound on earth are of foure sorts First of Lawes obliging
to their after-commers by succession but in steed of immediate calling wee haue now succession in steed of infallibility of judgment the direction of their writings guiding vs to the finding out of the truth in steede of Generall commission particular Assignation of seuerall Churches to rule and parts of Christs flocke to feed in steed of miraculous gifts and the Apostles power to conferre them a setled course of Schooles and Vniuersities fitting men for the worke of the Ministery insteed of their Miracles wherewith they confirmed their doctrine the Faith already receiued and by so many generations recommended vnto vs as confirmed by the Apostles Miracles at the first Neither was it fit as Saint Augustine noteth that these miraculous courses should still haue continued For euen as a man that neuer had seene the seede cast into the earth and there rotting and the trees dead in Winter after reuiuing and flourishing againe in their appointed time would wonder no lesse at it then if he should see a blind man receiue sight or a dead man life but now that these things are ordinary wee little esteeme them so if those miraculous things appearing in the Apostles and first Ministers of Christ which with their newnesse and strangenesse moued much at the first should haue beene continued still they would haue grown into contempt and not haue beene regarded at all All that which hath beene sayd touching the dignity Apostolicall and the things properly pertaining to it is so cleare and euident that wise and judicious men make no question of any part thereof Yet are there some that seeme to doubt whether the Apostles generally had immediate calling or vniuersality of commission supposing that Peter onely was immediately designed by Christ and the rest by him that he onely had an illimited commission without all restraint and the rest an inferiour commission to that of Peter bounded and stinted Touching the first of these doubts Bellarmine whose manner it is not to conceale the diuisions and differences that are or haue beene amongst the Friends and Louers of the Church of Rome but to write them in the forehead of euery controuersie sheweth that there are three opinions amongst the Diuines of the Romish Church touching this point The first that as well the Apostles as succeeding Bishops receiued their power and and jurisdiction from Peter and his supposed successour the Bishop of Rome The second that both Apostles and Bishops receiued their Ecclesiasticall power and jurisdiction immediately from Christ and not from Peter nor his Successours The third that Bishops receiue their jurisdiction from the Pope but that the Apostles receiued all their power and jurisdiction immediately from CHRIST and not from Peter The Second of these opinions is wholly true and I will in due place confirme the same The third in part true and in part false which Bellarmine followeth and the first wholly false which hee largely and substantially confuteth prouing first that the Apostles receiued all their jurisdiction and power immediately from Christ and not from Peter as well out of the words of our Sauiour when hee sayth As my Father sent mee soe send I you as out of the election of Matthias who was not chosen by Peter or the other Apostles but designed immediatly by God himselfe shewing by direction of the Lot falling on Matthias that it was hee whom hee would haue to succede into the void roome of Iudas the Traytour adding that the Apostles gaue him no authority and that Paul professeth the same touching himselfe protesting that hee receiued all his power and Iurisdiction immediately from Christ and thereby prouing himselfe to be an Apostle Secondly he proueth that the fullnesse of all Ecclesiasticall power was committed to all the Apostles in as large and ample sort as to Peter by the testimonies of Chrysostome and Theophylact and that Christ by those words As my Father sent mee so send I you made all the Apostles his Vicars or Vicegerents yea gaue them his owne office and authority and out of Cyrill that by these words he made them Apostles and Doctours of the whole world and that to let them know that in Apostolique power hee gaue them all Ecclesiasticall power he sayd vnto them As my Father sent me so send I you it being certaine that the Father sent the Sonne with all fulnesse of power Farther he addeth out of Cyprian that the same fulnesse of power was giuen vnto the rest of the Apostles by those words As my Father sent me so send I you that was promised to Peter by those I will giue thee the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen performed by those other Feed my Sheep feed my Lambes Now saith he it is certain that by those words I will giue thee the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen and by those other Feed my sheep c. is vnderstood all fulnesse of Iurisdiction both inward and outward therefore the fulnesse of Ecclesiasticall power and Iurisdiction was giuen to euery one of the Apostles Thus then the Cardinall confesseth first that all the Apostles were immediately taught of God without learning any thing of Peter or needing in any thing to be confirmed by him Secondly that their commission was generall so that there was not any act of Ecclesiasticall Ministery to which their commission did not extend nor any places in which nor persons towardes whom they might not performe the acts of their Ministery Thirdly that they receiued all this authority and power immediatly from Christ and not from Peter and that therefore they could neither be limited nor wholly restrained by him in the vse and exercise of the same Thus doth hee ouerthrow the whole frame and fabrique of their building who ground the pretended supremacy of the Pope vpon Christs words spoken to Peter For to what purpose doe they vrge that to Peter onely Christ said Feede my Sheepe c that to him onely he gaue the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen and vpon him onely promised to build his Church seeing they are forced to confesse that the commission of feeding Christs sheepe was giuen in as ample sort to the rest as to Peter that they all receiued the whole power of the keyes that the Church was builded vpon the rest as well as vpon Peter and equally founded vpon them all If the Cardinall shall shrinke from this his confession we can easily force him to it againe and make him acknowledge that whatsoeuer Christ promised intended or performed by any of his speeches directed vnto Peter he performed to all Christ said specially to Peter Feede my sheepe yet had the rest our Adversaries being Iudges the same commission Hee promised to him the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen so that what hee should binde on Earth should bee bound in Heauen hee named him Peter and promised vpon that Rocke to build his Church yet all receiued the same keyes as well as he the same power of binding and
the influence thereof more powerfull yet is there a kind of influence vpon the waters wherein the Moon is more excellent then the Sun In like sort the power which is spirituall may do greater things then that which is temporall yet the temporall may do those things the spirituall cannot do And therfore it will not follow that the Ecclesiasticall state the principall Ministers of the Church may take vnto themselues the authority of Kings or take vpon them to do the things that pertaine to Kingly offices because they are greater in dignity and haue a greater power vnlesse they had a greater dignity power in the same kind Nowthey who most amplifie the greatnes of Ecclesiasticall power preferring it before the other which is ciuill neuer make the greatnes of it to consist in that in ciuill affaires it may do more then that but in that it hath a more noble object more wonderfull effects We also saith Nazianzen haue power and authority that farre more ample and excellent then that of ciuill Princes insomuch as it is fit the flesh should yeeld to the spirit things earthly to things heauenly Priesthood saith Chrysostome is a Princedome more honourable great then a Kingdome tell not mee of the purple diademe scepter or golden apparell of Kings for these are but shadowes and more vaine then flowres at the spring time If you will see the difference betweene them how much the King is inferiour to the Priest cōsider the manner of the power deliuered to them both you shall see the Priests tribunall much higher then that of the King who hath receiued only the administratiō of earthly things But the Priests tribunal is placed in heauē he hath authority to pronoūce sentence in heauēly affairs And again Earthly Princes haue power to bind but our bodies onely but the bands which Priests can lay vpō vs do touch the soul it self reach euen vnto the heauēs so far forth as that whatsoeuer Priests shal determin here beneath that God doth ratifie aboue in heauen and confirme the sentence of his seruants vpon earth When king Richard the first returning from the holy land was taken and holde as a prisoner by Duke Leopold of Austria and the Emperour Henry the sixth Queene Elenor his mother seeking all meanes to procure his deliuerance among other thinges wrote a letter to the Bishop of Rome intreating him to interpose his authority The words of her letter are these expressing the passion and earnest desire of her heart This onely remaineth ô Father that you draw forth the sword of Peter against malefactors which sword God hath appointed to be ouer nations and kingdomes The Crosse of Christ doth excell the Eagles that are in Caesars Banners the spirituall sword of Peter is of more power then was the temporall sword of Constantine the Emperour and the See Apostolicke is more potent then any Imperiall power or authority and I would aske whether your power be of God or of men did not the God of Gods speake to you in Peter the Apostle saying Whatsoeuer you shall binde vpon earth shall be bound in heauen and whatsoeuer you shall loose on earth shall bee loosed in heauen and why then do you so negligently or rather cruelly delay for a long time to lose my sonne or why dare you not do it perhaps you will say that the power giuen you by God of binding and losing is for soules and not for bodies Let it bee so truly it is sufficiont for vs if you will binde the soules of those that hold my sons body bound in prison By all these sayings of them that most admired the excellency of Priesthood it appeareth that the excellencie thereof aboue princely power is in respect of the object thereof which is more noble the effects thereof which are more wonderfull not in respect of greater power authority right to dispose of temporal affaires businesses either simply or vpon any abuse or negligence of ciuil Princes So that from hence it cannot be inferred that the chiefe ministers of the Church may depose the Princes of the world Hugo de sancto Victore sayth There are two kinds of power the one terrene the head whereof is the King the other spirituall the head whereof is the pope To the Kings power those things pertaine that are terrene to the Popes those that are spirituall and looke how much the spirituall life is better then the earthly so much doth the spirituall power excell the earthly in honour and dignity For the spirituall power doth constitute the terrene power that it may be and iudgeth it whether it proceede aright or not But it selfe was first instituted of God and when it goeth aside can bee judged of none but of God onely From hence as Waldensis sheweth some men tooke an occasion of errour affirming that the roote of terrene power doth so farre fotrh depend vpon the Pope that by commission from him the execution of things pertaining thereunto is deriued vnto the Prince and that when the Prince goeth aside or faileth to do his duty the chiefe Bishop may manage the ciuill affaires because hee saith the spirituall power doth institute the ciuil power that it may be But these men presume too farre and in so doing offend because the terrene power of Kings is not reduced into any other originally as hauing authority ouer Kings but vnto Christ onely and yet notwithstanding as the Priest joyneth the man and his wife in marriage and blesseth them that they may be man and wife and joyfull parents of happy children and judgeth afterwards whether they performe the duties of marriage or not So the chiefe Priest setteth the crowne vpon the head of the Empreor anointeth him with holy oyle taketh an oath of him for the defence of the Christian faith and religion putteth vpon him the royall robes and thereby inuesteth him with royall power putteth him in possession of his Imperiall state and dignity But it is not to be imagined saith Waldensis that the imperiall power is from the power of the Church or dependeth of it though certaine solemnities bee vsed by Bishops in the inauguration of Kings and Emperours neither may the chiefe Ministers of the Church any more challenge the disposing or managing of ciuill affaires vpon any defect or failing of ciuill Princes then they may the administration and dispensation of holy things vpon the defect or failing of the Ecclesiasticall Ministers Yet in case of necessity either of these two states may and ought to helpe and succour the other not as he sayth vt vtens potestate sed fraternitatis accessu that is Not as hauing authority or by vertue thereof presuming to doe any thing but as one brother maketh hast to helpe another in danger reaching forth the hand to stay him that is standing and to raise him that is fallen Both the brethren sayth Waldensis both
which motion expresseth the condition of those things to the which God hath denied the knowledge and immediate enioying of himselfe which are established in the perfection of their owne nature and therein rest without seeking any further thing Some with circular motion by which they returne to the same point whence they began to mooue The motion of these expresseth the nature and condition of men and Angels who only are capable of true happinesse whose desires are never satisfied till they come backe to the same beginning whence they came forth till they come to see God face to face and to dwell in his presence None but immortall and incorruptible bodies are rolled with circular motions none but Angels that are heavenly spirits and men whose soules are immortall returne backe to the sight presence and happy enioying of God their Creator Each thing is carried in direct motion by natures force in circular by heavenly movers Every thing attaineth natures perfection by natures force and guidance but that other which is Divine and supernaturall consisting in the vision and fruition of God they that attaine vnto it must impute it to the sweete motions and happy directions of Divine grace This grace God vouchsafed both men and Angels in the day of their creation thereby calling them to the participation of eternall happinesse and giuing them power that they might attaine to the perfection of all happie and desired good if they would and everlastingly continue in the ioyfull possession of the same But such was the infelicitie of these most excellent creatures that knowing all the different degrees of goodnesse found in things and having power to make choise of what they would ioyned with that mutability of nature which they were subiect vnto in that they were made of nothing they fell from the loue of that which is the chiefe and greatest good to those of meaner qualitie and thereby deprived themselues of that sweete and happy contentment they should haue found in God and denying to be subiect to their great soveraigne and to performe that duty they owed vnto him were iustly dispossessed of all that good which from him they receiued and vnder him should haue enioyed yea all other things which were made to do them seruice lost their natiue beautie and originall perfection and became feeble weake vnpleasant and vntractable that in them they might find as little contentment as in themselues For seing nothing can prevaile or resist against the lawes of the omnipotent Creatour no creature is suffered to denie the yeelding of that which from it is due to God For either it shall be forced to yeeld it by right vsing of that which from him it receiued or by loosing that which it would not vse well and so consequently if it yeeld not that by dutie it should by doing and working righteousnesse it shall by feeling smart and miserie This then was the fall of men and Angels from their first estate in that by turning from the greater to the lesser good they depriued themselues of that blessednesse which though they had not of themselues yet they were capable of might haue attained vnto by adhering to the chiefe and immutable good and so by their fault fell into those greevous evils they are now subject vnto yet in very different sort and manner CHAP. 3. Of the Church consisting of those Angels that continued in their first estate by force of grace vpholding them and men redeemed THe Fall of Angels was irrecouerable For without all hope of any better estate or future deliverance out of those euils into the bottomlesse gulph whereof by their rebellious sinne they plunged themselues they are reserued in chaines of darkenesse to the iudgment of the great day But concerning the sonnes of men the Lord knew whereof they were made and remembred that they were but dust Hee looked vpon them with the eye of pitty and in the multitude of his compassionate mercies said of them as it is in the Prophet Ieremie Shall they fall and shall they not arise shall they turne away and shall they not returne as high as the heauens is aboue the earth so great was his mercie towards thē As farre as the East is from the West so farre remoued hee their sins from them hee redeemed their life from hell and crowned them with mercie and compassion The reason of this so great difference as the Schoolemen thinke is First for that the Angels are not by propagation one from another but were created all at once so that of Angels some might fall and others stand But men descend by generation from one stocke or roote and therefore the first man falling and corrupting his nature deriued to all his posteritie a corrupted and sinfull nature if therefore God had not appointed a redemption for man hee had beene wholy depriued of one of the most excellent creatures that ever hee made whereas among the Angels notwithstanding the Appostasie of some he held still innumerable in their first estate Secondly the Angels fell of themselues but man by the suggestion of another Thirdly the Angels in the height of their pride sought to be like vnto God in omnipotencie which is an incommunicable property of diuine being and cannot be imparted to any creature But men desired only to be like vnto God in omniscience and the generall knowledge of all things which may be communicated to a creature as in Christ it is to his humane soule which notwithstanding the vnion with God yet still remaineth and continueth a created nature and therefore the degree of sinnefull transgression was not so greevous in the one as in the other Fourthly the Angels were immateriall and intellectuall spirits dwelling in heavenly palaces in the presence of God and the light of his countenance and therefore could not sinne by error or misperswasion but of purposed malice which is the sinne against the holy Ghost and is irremissible But man fell by misperswasion and being deceiued by the lying suggestion of the spirit of errour Fiftly the Angels haue the fulnesse of intellectuall light when they take view of any thing they see all that any way pertaineth to it and so doe all things with so full resolution that they never alter nor repent But man who findeth out one thing after another and one thing out of another doth dislike vpon farther consideration that which formerly he liked Wherevpon the Schoolemen note that there are three kinds of willes The first of God which never turneth nor altereth the second of Angels that turneth and returneth not the third of men that turneth and returneth Sixtly there is a time prefixed both to men and Angels after which there is no possibility of altering their estate bettering themselues or attayning any good Now as death is that time prefixed vnto men so was the first good or badde deliberate action to the Angels that who would might be perpetually good who would not no grace should
Oracles of GOD to them pertained the adoption and glory and the covenants and the giuing of the Law and the seruice of GOD and the promises of whom were the fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is God ouer all blessed for euer the propitiation for sinnes the merite of reconciliation the glory of Israel and the light of the Genâ—…iles to whom God gaue a name aboue all names that at the naming thereof all knees doe bow both of things in heauen and things in earth and things vnder the earth in whom all things appeare full of mercie and full of marueile God before all eternities yet made man in time begotten before all times yet borne in time borne of a woman yet a Virgine inclosed in the wombe of Mary his Mother yet euen then knowne of Iohn his fore-runner yet in the wombe of Elizabeth his Mother likewise who sprang for joy at the presence of the Eternall Word He was borne in Bethlehem the meanest of the cities of Iudah wrapped in swadling bands and laid in a manger yet glorified by the Angels pointed to by a starre and adored by the Sages that came from farre He was no sooner borne into the World but Herod sought his life so that he was forced to flye into Egypt whilest he did yet hang on his mothers brests but he ouer-threw brake in pieces all the Idoles of Egypt The Iewes saw no beauty in his face nor glory in his countenance yet Dauid in spirit long before pronounced that hee was fairer than the sonnes of men and being transfigured in the mount his face did shine like the Sunne and gaue a taste of that glory wherein hee will returne to judge the quicke and dead he was baptized as a man but forgaue sinnes as God not washed by those waters but purifying them rather and filling them with sanctifying force and power he was tempted as a man but ouer-comming as GOD maketh vs confident because he hath ouercome the world he was hungry but fed many thousands and was the true Bread that came downe from Heauen he thirsted but cryed aloude If any man thirst let him come vnto me and promiseth to euery one that beleeueth in him that riuers of waters shall flow out of his belly He was weary but promised rest to all them that are weary and come vnto him he slept but waking stilled the tempest and commaunded the winde and the sea he payed tribute but out of the mouth of a fish taken in the sea hee prayed but heareth our prayers he wept but wipeth all teares from our eyes hee was sold for thirty pence but redeemed the World with a great and inestimable price hee was ledde as a sheepe to the slaughter but he is the great shepheard that feedeth the Israel of God hee was beaten and wounded but cureth all our weakenesse and healeth all our sicknesse hee died was buried and descended into hell but he rose againe and ascended into heauen where he sitteth on the right hand of the highest Majestie till all his enemies be made his foot stoole This was hee whom all the Fathers looked for all the Prophets prophesied of whom all the Ceremonies Sacrifices and Iewish obseruations led vnto in whom that which was foretold was fulfilled that which was imperfect supplied and all things changed into a better estate so that by his comming all things are become new a new Priesthood a new Law a new Couenant new Sacraments and a new people that worship not at Ierusalem or in the Temple alone but without respect of place worship God in spirit and trueth CHAP. 5. Of the Christian Church THE societie of this new blessed people began in the Apostles whom Christ the anointed Sauiour of the World did chose to be his followers to be witnesses of all the things he did suffered among sinfull men To these our Sauiour Christ after his resurrection gaue most ample Commission to teach the Nations and people of the world and to preach repentance and remission of sinnes in his Name opening their vnderstandings that they might vnderstand the Scripturâ—… that so it beâ—…oued him to suffer and to rise againe the third day whereof they were witnesses Yet commaunded he them to tarry in Ierusalem till they were indued with power from aboue which was performed vnto them in the feast of Pentecost when all they that looked for the redemption of Israel by this anointed Sauiour and had beene his followers after his departure from them and returning to the heauens were assembled into one place and suddainly heard as it were the noyse of a mighty and rushing winde and there appeared vnto them clouen tongues like fire and sate vpon euery of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost and began to speake with other tongues as the spirit gaue them vtterance so that though there were dwelling at Ierusalem men that feared God of euery nation vnder heauen yet they all heard them speake in their owne tongues the wonderfull workes of God Heere was the beginning of that blessed company which for distinctions sake wee call the Christian Church as consisting of them that beleeue in Christ now alreadie come in the flesh And though the Church of the Olde and New Testament be in essence the same yet for that the state of the Church of the New Testament is in many respects farre more glorious and excellent the Fathers and Ecclesiasticall Writers forthe mostpart appropriate the name of the Church to the multitude of beleeuers sincethe comming of Christ call the faithfull people that were before by the name of the Synagogue If this difference of names be retained onely for distinction sake that men may know when we speake of that moity of the people of God that was before and when of that other that is and hath beene since the comming of Christ we dislike it not The Greeke words which we turne Church and Synagogue the one originally and properly signifieth a multitude called out or called together which is proper to men the other a multitude congregated and gathered together which is common to men with brute beasts If any man hauing an eye to the different originall significations of these words doe therevpon inferre that the people of GOD before the comming of Christ did seeke nothing but earthly outward and transitory things and so were gathered together like brute beasts and like oxen fatted to the day of slaughter we detest and accurse so wicked and damnable a construction And herein surely the Catechisme of Trent cannot well be excused which abusing the authority of Augustine vpon the Psalme 77 and 81. affirmeth that the name of Synagogue is therefore applyed to the peâ—… that were vnder the Law because like brute beasts which most properly are said to be congregated or gathered together they respected intended and sought nothing but onely outward sensible earthly and
of the Bishop of Rome Touching the first which is the neglect of divine lawes infinite multiplying of humane inuentions he pronounceth confidently there can be no generall reformation of the Church without the abolishing of sundry canons and statutes which neither are nor reasonably can be obserued in these times which doe nothing else but insnare the consciences of men to their endlesse perdition That no tongue is able sufficiently to expresse what euill what danger what confusion the contempt of holy Scripture which doubtlesse is sufficient for the gouernment of the Church for otherwise Christ had beene an vnperfect lawgiuer and the following of humane inuentions hath brought into the Church For proofe hereof saith he let vs consider the state of the clergie to which heauenly wisedome should haue beene espoused but they haue committed whoredome with that filthy harlot earthly carnall and diuelish wisedome so that the state of the Church is become meerely brutish monstrous heauen is below and the earth aboue the spirit obeyeth and the flesh commaundeth the principall is esteemed but as accessary and the accessary as principall yet some shame not to say that the Church is better gouerned by humane inuentions than by the diuine law and the law of the Gospell of Christ which assertion is most blasphemous For the Euangelicall doctrine by the professours of it did enlarge the bounds of the Church and lifted her vp to heauen which these sonnes of Hagar seeking out that wisedome which is from the earth haue cast downe to the dunghill And that it is not wholly fallen and vtterly overthrowne and extinct it is the great mercy of our God and Sauiour Touching the second cause of the Churches ruine which is the ambition pride and couetousnes of the Bishop and Court of Rome he boldly affirmeth that whereas the Bishoppes of Rome challenging the greatest place in the Church should haue sought the good of Gods people they contrarily sought onely to aduance themselues ad imitationem Luciferi adorari volunt vt dij neque reputant se subditos esse cuiquam sicut filij Belial sine iugo nec sibi posse dici cur ita facis nec Deum timent nec homines reuerentur In imitation of Lucifer they will bee adored and worshipped as Gods Neither doe they thinke themselues subiect to any but are as the sonnes of Beliall that haue cast off the yoke not enduring whatsoeuer they doe that any one should aske them why they doe so They neither feare God nor reuerence men Wherevpon hee feareth not to deliuer the opinion of many good and worthy men in his time That there beeing a Schisme in the Church by reason of the contention of the three Popes which continued for a long time in that age wherein hee liued it were good to take the aduantage of the time and neuer to restore to any Pope againe that vniversall administration of the temporalities of the Church and swaying the jurisdiction of the same but that it were best that all things were brought backe to that state they were in the times of the Apostles or at least in the times of Syluester and Gregorie when each prelate in his owne iurisdiction was permitted to gouerne them committed to his charge and dispose of the temporalities belonging to the Church without so many reseruations exactions as haue beene since brought in The Popes in time getting all into their owne hands with so many abuses fraudes and Simonies all seruing to maintaine the state of the Romish Court and of that head thereof which long since grew too heauie for the body to beare Neither was this the priuate opinion conceipt of Gerson only but Petrus de Aliaco Cardinalis Cusanus Picus Mirandula innumerable more of the best wisest and holiest men the Church had saw those abuses errours vncertainties and barbarismes wherewith the glory of the Church was greatly blemished and almost quite defaced and wished and expected a reformation Yea nothing was more certainely looked for a long time before Luther was borne than the ruine of that pompous state of the Church the staying of the furious couetous and tyranous proceedings of the Court and Bishop of Rome and the freeing of the Church from that Aegypticall bondage wherein it was holden CHAP. 12. Of the desire and expectation of a reformation of the corrupt state of the Church and that the alteration which hath beene is a reformation WHen the Pope resolued to accurse Anathematise and excommunicate Grostead the renowned Bishop of Lincolne because he contemned his papall Bulles and Letters who was therefore in his time named Romanorum malleus contemptor The Cardinalls opposed themselues saying hee was a right good man and holier then any of them the things he charged the Pope with most true and that therefore it was not safe thus to proceede least some tumult should follow especially say they seeing it is knowne there must be a departure from vs and a forsaking of the Romane See The same Grosteade a little before his death complayning of the wicked courses holden by the Romanists whose scourge he was said the Church should neuer finde any ease from the oppressiue burdens laid vpon her nor be deliuered from the Aegyptiacall bondage shee was holden in till her deliuerance were wrought in ore gladij cruentandi in the mouth of the sword all bathed in bloud Sauanorola holden by many for a Prophet surely a renowned man for pietie and learning tould the French King Charles the eight hee should haue great prosperity in his voyage into Italy and that God would giue the sword into his hand and all this to the end hee should reforme the corrupt state of the Church which if hee did not performe he should returne home againe with dishonour and God would reserue the honour of this worke for some other and so it fell out At that time when Luther began to reprooue the abuses of the Church of Rome things were in so bad state that not onely the blood of Christ was prophaned the power of the keyes by abuse made contemptible and the redemption of soules out of purgatory set as a stake at dice by the pardon-sellers to bee played for but so many grieuances there were besides that all the world sighed vnder the burden of them and wished that some man of heroicall magnanimitie would oppose himselfe When God had stirred vp so worthy an Instrument what did the Pope and his adherents Surely as Guicciardin reports there were that yeere many meetings in Rome to consult what was best to bee done The more wise and moderate sorte wished the Pope to reforme things apparantly amisse and not to persecute Luther least continuing those intollerable disorders abuses and villanies whereof all good men complayned and persecuting him that reprooued them with so great applause of the whole Christian world men should thinke innocencie vertue and piety in him to be
I am si canon ille missae in hunc quem diximus sensum intelligatur nihil habet incommodi superstitiosa tantum absit opinio quia quidam de naturâ energiâ huius sanctissimi sacrificii male edocti virtutem eius ex solo externo opere quod facit Sacerdos in se deriuari putabant tametsi illi nullam viuam fidem adferrent nullam pietatem adhiberent nulla communione vel precum seu orationis sacrificio assensum praeberent quales erant qui nullâ suae nefandae impietatis execrandorum flagitiorum habitâ ratione se huic sacratissimae diuinissimae actioni damnabiliter miscuerunt missam solius externi operis quod sacerdos facit virtute prodesse put antes etsi ipsi nihil probae mentis adferrent That is If the canon of the Masse bee vnderstood in this sense which wee haue expressed there is no euill in it so that men haue no superstitious conceipt of things for there were some who being ill instructed touching the nature of this sacrament supposed that vertue might be deriued vnto them by the sole externe action of the priest although they brought no liuely faith no piety nor gaue any consent to the sacrifice by any communion so much as of prayer of which sort they were who hauing no consideration of their owne horrible impieties evills committed by them persevering in the purpose of sinning damnably presumed to be present at this most holy action and put themselues in a sort into it perswading themselues that the masse by the vertue of the externe worke of the priest alone would doe them good though they brought no motions affections or desires of a good mind with them Hosius was of the same opinion with these before recited When the priest sayth hee lifteth vp the eucharist let men remember that sacrifice wherein Christ being lifted vp to the crosse offered himselfe to God a sacrifice for vs. Let them thinke how bitter the torments were that hee sustained let them know that mens sins were the cause of such his sufferings let them greiue as it is fitte they should for them and let them shew by all meanes that they hate them And because by his precious death hee hath so fully satisfied for all sinnes that there are none that are not abolished let them with good assurance considence goe vnto the throne of grace and whereas wee haue no merit of our owne let them plead that of Christ let them present that his body that did hang on the crosse and his bloud which was shed for the remission of our sinnes to God the Father and let them humbly beseech him to turne away his face from their sinnes and to looke vpon the face of his son Christ who bare our infirmities to looke vpon his face for his merit to remit their sinnes and to graunt that they may deriue vnto themselues all that fruite which that sacrifice of the crosse that is represented on the altar brought to the world Thus he sayth the people were taught by our forefathers and this hee sayth is enough for them to know Notwithstanding hee sheweth that Michael Bishop of Merspurge a man learned godly and truely catholique published certaine sermons touching the sacrifice of the massâ—… which hee wisheth to bee in the hands of all men in these sermons the same explication is made of the sacrament so often mentioned that I haue already deliuered And with him agreeth another learned Bishop Thomas Watson sometimes Bishop of Lincolne in his sermons vpon the seauen sacraments his words are these Christ in heaven and wee his mysticall body on earth doe but one thing for Christ being a Priest for euermore after his passion and resurrection entred into heauen and there appeareth now to the countenance of God for vs offering himselfe for vs to pacifie the anger of God against vs and representing his passion and all that he suffered for vs that we might be reconciled to God by him euen so the Church our mother being carefull for vs her children that haue offended our father in heauen vseth continually by her publique minister to pray to offer vnto God the body bloud of her husband Christ representing renewing his passion and death before God that wee thereby might bee renewed in grace and receiue life perfection and saluation and after the same sort the holy Angels of God in the time of this our sacrifice do assist the priest and stand about the host thinking that the meetest time to shew their charitie towards vs and therefore holding forth the body of Christ praye for mankind as saying thus Lord wee pray for them whom thou hast so loued that for their saluation thou hast suffered death spent thy life vpon the crosse we make supplication for them for whom thou hast shed this thy bloud we pray for them for whom thou hast offered this same thy very body In that houre when Christs death is renewed in mysterie his most fearefull and acceptable sacrifice is represented to the sight of God then sitteth the King on his Mercie-seat enclined to giue and forgiue whatsoeuer is demaunded and asked of him in humble manner In the presence of this body and bloud of our Sauiour Christ the teares of a meeke and humble man neuer beg pardoÌ„ in vain nor the sacrifice of a contrite heart is neuer put back but hath his lawfull desires granted giuen By resorting to this sacrifice of the masse we evidently declare protest before God the whole world that we put our singular only trust of grace saluation in Christ our Lord for the merits of his death his passion not for the worthinesse of any good worke that we haue done or can doe that we make his passion our only refuge For when wisedome faileth which onely commeth by the doctrine of Christ when righteousnesse lacketh which onely is gotten by the mercie of Christ when vertue ceaseth which onely is receiued from him who is the Lord of all vertue then for supplying of these our lacks needs our refuge is to Christs passion then we run as the Prophet saith to the cup of our Sauiour and call vpon the Name of our Lord that is to say we take his passion offer to God the Father in mystery the worke of our redemption that by this memorie commemoration of it it would please his mercifull goodnes to innovate his grace in vs to replenish vs with the fruit of his Sonns passion We are become debtors to Almighty God for our manifold sins iniquities done against him we can neuer pay this debt no scarse one farthing of a 1000 pounds what remedie then haue we but to run to the rich man our neighbour that hath enough to pay for vs all I meane Christ our Lord who hath payde his heart bloud for no debt of his own but for our
disposing the affaires of Princes their States there were euer many worthy men that opposed themselues against his vnjust and Antichristian claimes There are some sayth Waldensis that erre supposing that the roote of all terrene power dependeth in such sort of the Pope that it is deriued vnto Princes by commission from him and that if they abuse the same hee may take the disposing of such affaires as belong vnto them into his own hands This they indeauour to proue because the Ecclesiasticall power is more eminent and excellent than the power of Princes but this their proofe is too weake for let vt runne through all examples of things which are different in degree of excellencie and one of them more worthy than another wee shall see that the Sunne is better than the Moone yet the power and vertue of moystening that is in the Moone is not imparted to it from the Sunne the soule is more excellent than the body yet the body was before the soule came into it and in it many workes of sense are performed which the spirit by it selfe cannot performe gold is better then leade yet doth it not giue being vnto it so that though it were granted that Episcopall dignity is more high and eminent then the authority of Princes yet the first spring of Regall power is in the King from God and not from the Pope There is sayth Waldensis one doctor Adam a Cardinall who in a dialogue betweene a Bishoppe and a King indeauoureth altogether to deriue the authority of Kings from the Papall power both in the being and excercise of it and reserueth onely a power of execution to Princes at the commaund of the high bishop this errour hee condemneth and sayth that howsoeuer the solemnities of the oath vnction crowning and the like are performed to Kings by Bishoppes yet hath not kingly dignity her beginning from Priesthood but by the ministery of Priests Kings receiue it from God and are put in possession of it Fawning and deceitfull flattery sayth Gerson whispereth in the eares of Ecclesiasticall persons especially of the Pope in shamelesse manner saying vnto them O sacred Clergie how great how great is the height and sublimity of thy Ecclesiasticall power how is all secular authority compared thereunto altogether nothing For as all power in heauen and earth was giuen to Christ soe Christ left it all to Peter and his Successours soe that Constantine the Emperour gaue nothing to Pope Syluester that was not his before but onely restored that which had bin vnjustly detayned besides as there is no power but of God so is there none whether Temporall or Ecclesiasticall Imperiall or Regall but from the Pope in whose thigh CHRIST hath written King of Kings and Lord of Lords of whose power to dispute is sacrilegious boldnesse to whom no man may say Sir why doe you so though he alter over-turne waste and confound all States Rules Dominions and Possessions of men whether Ciuill or Ecclesiasticall let me be judged a Lyar saith he if these things bee not found written by them that seeme wise in their owne eyes and if some Popes haue not giuen credit to such lying and flattering wordes Nay I am greatly deceiued if before the holding of the sacred Synode of Constance this tradition did not so farre forth possesse the mindes of very many men rather literall then literate that whosoeuer should haue taught the contrary should haue beene noted and condemned for heresie THE FOVRTH BOOK OF THE PRIVILEDGES OF THE CHVRCH CHAP. 1. Of the divers kindes of the priviledges of the Church and of the different acceptions of the name of the Church NOw it remayneth that wee proceede to the other parts of our first generall diuision to wit the priviledges that pertaine to the Church the diverse and different degrees orders and callings of them to whom the gouernement of it is committed The priviledges that pertaine to the Church are of two sorts The first proper to the best and most essentiall parts of it to wit the elect and chosen of God as are the promises and assurances of euerlasting loue and happinesse the second such as are communicable vnto others not partaking in that highest degree of vnitie the partes of the Church haue amongst themselues or with Christ their head These are specially foure the first the possession of the rich treasure of heauenly trueth whence it is called by Irenaeus Depositoriū diues by the Apostle the pillar and ground of truth The second is the office of teaching and witnessing the same truth The third the authority to iudge of such differences as arise amongst men concerning any part of it The fourth is power to make lawes for the better guiding gouerning of them that professe this truth Touching the first that wee may the better vnderstand in what degree and sort and vpon what assurances the Church is possessed of the knowledge and profession of the truth reuealed in Christ wee must obserue the diverse acceptions of the name of Church for accordingly more or lesse in this kinde is attributed to it and verified of it The Romanistes make the Church to bee of three sorts For there is as they say Ecclesia virtualis repraesentativa essentialis By the name of virtuall Church they vnderstand the Bishoppe of Rome who being by Christes appointment as they suppose chiefe Pastor of the whole Church hath in himselfe eminently and virtually as great certainty of truth infallibility of iudgement as is in the whole Church vpon whom dependeth all that certainety of truth that is found in it By the name of representatiue Church they vnderstand the assembly of Bishops in a generall Councell representing the whole body of the Church from the seuerall parts whereof they come By the name of the essentiall Church they vnderstand the whole multitude of the beleeuers This essentiall Church either comprehendeth all the faithfull that are and haue beene since CHRIST appeared in the flesh or all that are and haue beene since the Apostles time or onely those that now presently liue in the world CHAP. 2. Of the different degrees of infallibility found in the Church IF we speake of the Church as it comprehendeth the whole number of beleeuers that are and haue beene since CHRIST appeared in the flesh it is absolutely free from all errour and ignorance of Diuine things that are to be knowne by revelation Quid enim latuit Petrum c. For as Tertullian sayth rightly and aptly to this purpose What was hidden and concealed from Peter vpon whom Christ promised to build his Church and to whom hee gaue the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen from Iohn the Disciple hee so dearely loued which leaned on his breast at the mysticall Supper and the rest of that blessed company that should after bee manifested to succeeding generations so that touching the Church taken in this sort there is no question but it is absolutely led
the time of his innocencie had but one commaundement which yet vnhappily he brake and that therefore they seeme to haue no sense of mans miserable wretched condition nor any way to compassionate his infirmitie that charge him with so many precepts besides those of God and Nature Whereupon he grauely and wisely concludeth that he supposeth that the wisest and best amongst the guides of Gods Church had not so ill a meaning as to haue all their constitutions ordinances taken for lawes properly so named much lesse strictly binding the conscience but for threatnings admonitions counsailes and directions onely And that when there groweth a generall neglect they seeme to consent to the abolishing of them againe For seeing lex instituitur cùm promulgatur vigorem habet cum moribus vtentium approbatur Lawes are made when they are published by such as haue authoritie but haue life force and vigour when the manners of men receiuing and obeying them giue them allowance Generall long continued disuse is and justly may be thought an abolishing and abrogating of humane lawes Whereas contrarywise against the Lawes of God and Nature no prescription or contrary vse doth euer prevaile but euery such contrary custome or practise is rightly judged a corruption and fault THE FIFTH BOOKE OF THE CHVRCH TOGETHER WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING A DEFENCE OF SVCH PARTES AND PASSAGES OF THE FORMER BOOKES AS HAVE BEENE EITHER EXCEPTED AGAINST OR WRESTED TO THE MAINtenance of Romish errours By RICHARD FIELD Doctour of Diuinity OXFORD Printed by WILLIAM TVRNER Printer to the famous Vniuersitie Ann. Dom. 1628. The Epistle to the Reader AS in the dayes of Noe they all perished in the waters that entred not into the Arke prepared by Gods owne appointment for the preseruation of such as should escape that fearefull and almost vniversall destruction So is it a most certaine and vndoubted truth good Christian Reader that none can flie from the wrath to come and attaine desired happinesse but such as enter into that society of men which we call the Church which is the chosen multitude of them whom God hath seperated from the rest of the world and to whom he hath in more speciall sort manifested himselfe by the knowledge of reuealed truth then to any other So that nothing is more necessary to be sought out and knowne then which and where this happy society of holy ones is that so wee may joyne our selues to the same and inherit the promises made vnto it according to that of the holy Patriarch Noe Blessed be the God of Sem and let Chanaan be his seruant the Lord perswade Iaphet to dwell in the tents of Sem. The consideration whereof moued me when I was to enter into the controuersies of these times first and before all other things carefully to seeke out the nature and being of this Church the notes whereby it may be knowne which it is amongst all the societies of men in the world and what the priuiledges are that doe belong vnto it of all which things I haue treated in those foure Bookes of that argument which not long since I offered to thy viewe and censure Now it remaineth that in this insueing Booke then promised I shew in what sort almighty God who sitteth betweene the Cherubins in this his holy Temple reuealeth himselfe from off the mercy seate to such as by the calling of grace he hath caused to approach draw neare vnto himselfe and how he guideth and directeth them to the attaining of eternall felicity Many sundry waies did God reueale himselfe in ancient times as it is in the Epistle to the Hebrewes For sometimes he manifested himselfe to men waking by visions sometimes to men sleeping by dreames sometimes he appeared in a piller of a cloud sometimes in flaming fire sometimes he came walking a soft pace among the trees of the garden in the coole of the day sometimes he rent the rockes and claue the mountaines in sunder sometimes he spake with a still and soft voyce sometimes his thunders shooke the pillars of heauen and made the earth to tremble as in the giuing of the lawe when he came downe vpon Mount Sinai what time the people by Moses direction went forth to meete him but when they heard the thunders and the sound of the trumpet and saw the lightnings and the mountaine smoaking they fled stood a farre off sayd vnto Moses Talke thou with vs and we will heare thee but let not God talke with us lest we die This their petition Almighty God mercifully granted and knowing whereof they were made resolued no more to speake vnto them in soe terrible and fearefull manner but rather to put heauenly treasures into earthen vessels that is to enlighten the vnderstandings and to sanctifie the mouthes tongues of some amongst themselues and by them to make knowen his will pleasure to the rest In this sort after the giuing of the law he imployed the Priests Levites in a set and ordinary course appoynting that the people should seeke the knowledge of the same at their mouthes and in case of great confusion and generall defects of these ordinary guides raised vp Prophets as well to denounce his judgements against offenders and to reforme abuses as also to foreshew the future state of things and more more to raise in men a desire hope and expectation of the comming of the promised Messias whom in the fulnesse of time he sent into the world as the happiest Messenger of glad tidings that euer came vnto the sonnes of men and the Angell of the great couenant of peace causing this proclamation to be made before him This is my welbeloued Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare him In him were hid all the treasures of wisedome and knowledge so that as it was sayd of him Hee hath done all things well so likewise that Neuer man spake as he spake But because he came not into this lower world to make his abode here perpetually but to cary vp with him into heaven our desires first and then our selues after he had wrought all righteousnesse and performed the worke for which hee came he returned backe to God that sent him Choosing out some of them that had been conuersant with him in the dayes of his flesh that had heard the words of his diuine wisedom were eye-witnesses of all the things he did suffered sending them as his father sent him who were therefore named Apostles These had many excellent preeminences proper to those beginnings and fit for the founding of Christian Churches as immediate calling infallibility of judgement generall commission the vnderstanding and knowledge of all tongues power to confirme their doctrine by signes and wonders and to conferre the miraculous gifts of the spirit vpon other also by the imposition of their hands In which things when they had finished their course they left none to succeede them yet out of their more large ample and immediate
mission and the second for the second Secondly who was fitter to be cast out into the Sea to stay the tempest then that Ionas for whose sake it arose Almighty God was displeased for the wrong offred to his Sonne in desiring to be like vnto God and to know all things in such sort as is proper to the onely begotten Sonne of the Father therefore was he the fittest to pacifie all againe Thirdly who was fitter to become the Son of man then he that was by nature the Sonne of God Patrem habuit in coelis Matrem quaesiuit in terris Hee had a Father in heauen he sought onely a mother on earth Who could bee fitter to make vs the Sonnes of God by adoption grace then he that was the Sonne of God by nature who fitter to repaire the Image of God decayed in vs then hee that was the brightnesse of glory and the engrauen forme of his Fathers Person Lastly who was fitter to bee a Mediator then the middle Person who was in a sorte a Mediator in the state of creation and before the fall Wherevpon Hugo de Sancto victore bringeth in Almighty God speaking to the Sonnes of men concerning Christ his Sonne in this sort Nolite putare quòd ipse tantùm sit Mediator in reconciliatione hominum quia per ipsum etiam commendabilis placita fit aspectui meo conditio omnium creaturarum that is thinke not that he is a Mediator onely in the reconciliation of men for by him the condition of all creatures is gratefull vnto me and pleasing in my sight Magni consilii Angelus sayth Hugo nobis mittitur vt qui conditis datus fuit ad gloriam idem perditis veniat ad medelam that is the Angell of the great Counsell is sent vnto vs that hee who was giuen vnto vs when we were made to bee the crowne of our glory and Prince of our excellency might relieue helpe and restore vs when we were lost Yet our aduersaries take I knowe not what exceptions against Caluin for saying that Christ was a Mediator in the state of creation but they should know that there is a Mediator of reconciliation of parties at variance and a Mediator of coniunction of them that are farre asunder and remote one from another and that in this later sort betweene the Father that no way receiueth any thing from another and the creatures that so receiue their being from another that they are made out of nothing hee may rightly be sayd to mediate that receiueth being from another but the same that is in him from whom he receiueth it If any man shall say that the holy Ghost also in this sort commeth betweene him in whom the fulnesse of beeing is originally found and the creatures that are made of nothing as well as the Sonne and that therefore in this sence he also may be said to be a Mediator it is easily answered that the Sonne onely commeth betweene the Father in whom the fulnesse of beeing is originally found the creatures made of nothing as he by whom all things were made the holy Ghost as he in whom all things doe consist and stand and that therefore he hath not the condition of a Mediator being not considered as he by whom all things are bestowed vpon vs but as that gift in which all other things are giuen vnto vs so that the Sonne onely is the Mediator because by him from the Father in the holy Ghost we receiue all that which we haue and enjoy Neither needeth there any Mediator to conjoyne him to vs and vs to him for the medium conjoyneth both the extremes first with it selfe and then within themselues in that it hath something of one of them and something of another in something agreeing with and in something differing from either of the extremes So the Sonne of God agreeth with vs in that hee receiueth the beeing and Essence he hath from another in which respect he is distinguished though not diuided from the Father but in that the nature he receiueth from the Father is not another but the same which the Father hath he is vnlike vnto vs but agreeth with the Father And here we may see the malice and ignorance of them that charge Caluine with heresie for affirming that Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himselfe as if hee denyed the eternall generation of the Sonne of God and were contrary to the decree of the sacred Nicene Councell which defineth that he is Deus de Deo Lumen de Lumine for these men should know that Christ may be sayd to be from another in two sortes either by production of Essence or by communication of Essence the Nicene Councell defined that Christ the Sonne of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is consubstantiall with the Father is notwithstanding God of God that is hath his Essence Deitie communicated vnto him by eternall generation from the Father euen the same the Father had originally in himselfe All which Caluine most willingly acknowledgeth to be true and therefore denyeth not but that it may bee truely sayd according to the sacred decree and definition of that worthy Councell that Christ the Sonne of God is God of God and light of light but to imagine as Valentinus Gentilis and other damnable heretickes did that he is from the Father by production of Essence whence it will follow that he hath not the same essence with the Father but another different from it inferior to it and dependant on it is impious and hereticall and in opposition to this impious conceit of these Hereticks and in the sense intended by them Caluine rightly denied Christ to bee God of God For this their conceipt was euer detested by all Catholiques as wicked blasphemous yea so farre are they from approuing any such impiety that no axiome is more common in all their Schooles then that Essentia nec generat nec generatur that is the diuine Essence neither generateth nor is generated and surely howsoeuer Kellison in his Suruey saith the contrary and opposeth his affirmatiue against the negatiue of all the most famous and renowned Schoole-men yet I am perswaded he did so rather out of ignorance then any reason leading him so to doe do thinke it more then improper and hard to say that the diuine Essence doth either generate or is generated Thus then Christ is truly sayd by Caluine to be God of himselfe by way of opposition to that kinde of being from another which is by production of Essence and yet is rightly acknowledged by him with the Nicene Fathers to be from another to wit the Father and to be God of God in that he receiueth the eternall Essence by communication from him This Bellarmine saw and acknowledged to bee true pronouncing that touching this point Calvin erred not in judgment that his opinion is rather an error in forme of words expressing ill that he
afterwards he knew it when he was risen and appointed of his Father King and Iudge which words of his admitte no such glosse Wherefore Iansenius saith there are two principall interpretations of those words of Christ when he saith Of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Sonne the one that he sayd hee knew it not because he knew it not to reueale it and because his body the Church knew it not the other that he knew it not as man and this interpretation hee sheweth to bee likewise two-fold For saith he if we follow the common opinion that Christ had the perfect knowledge of all things in his humane soule at the first then we must vnderstand that Christ sayd hee knew not the day of judgement because hee knew it not by naturall and acquisite knowledge but by vertue of that knowledge that was infused into him but if wee follow the other opinion that Christ had not perfect knowledge of all things in his humane soule at the first but grew in it then as Origen among other senses deliuereth the meaning of the words is that hee knew it not till after his resurrection And surely Cyrill a worthy Bishop and one that had many conflicts with the Nestorian heretiques who diuided the person of Christ feareth not directly to say that Christ as man knew not the day appointed for the generall judgement when he vsed the words before mentioned Neither is this the heresie of the Agnoêtae as some ignorantly affirme for their errour was that the Deitie of Christ was ignorant of some thing or that Christ in his humane nature was properly ignorant that is knew not such things and at such time as he should haue knowen and that he is still ignorant of sundry things in the state of his glorification as it appeareth by that Epistle of Gregorie in which one of them alledgeth that as Christ tooke our nature so hee tooke our ignorance to free vs from the same and therefore Maldonatus vpon the 24. of Matthew saith that the Themistians called also Agnoetae were accounted heretiques not for saying Christ knew not the day of iudgement as Damascene de haeresibus testifieth but that as may be gathered out of the same Damascene they simply without all distinction of the diuine or humane nature said Christ was ignorant thereof because they thought the Diuinitie was turned into the Humanitie CHAP. 15. Of the third kind of Communication of properties and the second degree thereof THus hauing spoken of those finite and created things that were bestowed on the nature of man when it was assumed into the vnitie of the diuine person let vs come to those things that are infinite Where first we are certainely to resolue that as the nature of man was truely giuen and communicated to the Person of the Sonne of God so that he is indeede and really Man so the Persont of the Sonne of God was as truly communicated to the nature of man that it migh subsist in it and that that which was fashioned in the wombe of the blessed virgine borne of her might not onely be holy but the holiest of all euen the Sonne of God Secondly that in this sense the fulnesse of all perfection and all the properties of the diuine Essence are communicated to the nature of man in the Person of the Sonne For as the Father communicated his Essence to the Sonne by eternall generation who therefore is the second Person in Trinitie and God of God so in the Person of the Sonne hee really communicated the same to the nature of man formed in Maries wombe in such sort that that Man that was borne of her is truely God And in this sense the Germane Diuines affirme that there is a reall Communication of the diuine properties to the nature of man in the personall vnion of the natures of God and Man in Christ not by physicall communication or effusion as if the like equall properties to those that are in God were put inherently into the nature of man in such sort as the heate transfused from the fire into the water is inherent in it whence would follow a confusion conuersion and equalling of the natures and naturall properties but personall in the Person of the Son of God For as the Person of the Son of God in whom the nature and Essence of God is found is so communicated to the nature of Man that the Man Christ is not onely in phrase of speech named God but is indeede and really God so he is as really omnipotent hauing all power both in heauen in earth There is one Christ saith Luther who is both the Son of God and of the Virgine By the right of his first birth not in time but from all eternity he receiued all power that is the Deitie it selfe which the Father communicated to him eternally but touching the other nature of Christ which began in time euen so also the eternall power of God was giuen vnto him so that the Son of the Virgine is truely really eternall God hauing eternall power according to that in the last of Matthew All power is giuen vnto me both in heauen and in earth And of this power a litle after he bringeth in Christ speaking in this sorte Although this power was mine eternally before I assumed the nature of man notwithstanding after I began to be man euen according to the nature of man I receiued the same power in time though I shewed it not during the time of my infirmitie and crosse Bonauentura saith the very same in effect that Luther doth when it is sayd saith he speaking of the Man Christ This Man is euery where this may either note out the Person of Christ or the singular and indiuiduall nature of a man if the Person of Christ there is no doubt but the proposition is true if the indiuiduall nature of a Man yet still it is true not by proprietie of nature but by communication of properties because that which agreeth to the Sonne of God by nature agreeth vnto this Man by grace Cardinall Cameracensis agreeth with Bonauentura affirming that the diuine attributes and properties are more really communicated to the Man Christ then the humane are to the Sonne of God and that therefore a man may most truely and properly say speaking of the Man Christ This Man is immortall almighty and of infinite power and maiestie because he is properly the diuine Person so consequently truely really immortall and omnipotent Yea Bellarmine though he impugne the errours of the Lutherans as he calleth them with all bitternesse yet confesseth all that hitherto hath beene sayd to be most true I say saith he as before that the glorie of God the Father was giuen to the humanitie of Christ non in ipsa not to be formally or subiectiuely inherent in it but in the diuine Person that is that by grace of vnion the humane
nature of Christ obtained to bee in such sort the nature of the Sonne of God that the Man Christ should be truely and really in the glory of God the Father filling both heauen and earth Againe he saith those places All things are giuen me of my Father and All power is giuen me both in heauen and earth may bee vnderstood first of diuine power which the Sonne of God receiued of the Father by eternall generation and secondly of diuine power which the nature of Man receiued by personall vnion and in another place speaking of sundry things proper to God he saith All those things may be sayd to be communicated and giuen to the humane nature not formally in it selfe but in the Person of the Sonne of God by the grace of vnion The Diuines distinguish the properties of God and make them to be of two sorts communicable and incommunicable Communicable properties they define to be those perfections that are called perfectiones simpliciter which are found without mixture of imperfection in God and in a more imperfect sort in the creatures These they name perfectiones simplicitèr that is simply and absolutely perfections because it is better for any thing to haue them then not to haue them and because those things are better that haue them then those that haue them not as likewise for that they imply in them no imperfection though they bee mingled with imperfection defect in the creatures Of this sort is life which it is betrer to haue then not to haue and it includeth in it no imperfection though it bee accompanied with defect imperfection in many of the things wherein it is found for that life that is in trees is an imperfect life the life of men who in truth then begin to die when they begin to liue is imperfect yea the life of Angels is imperfect because if they be not continually sustained they returne to that nothing out of which they were made Of the same kinde are Truth Goodnesse Iustice Mercie Wisdome Knowledge Vnderstanding And therefore all these separated from that imperfection that cleaueth vnto them elsewhere are found in God may truely bee attributed vnto him Incommunicable properties are nothing else but the negation and remouing of all that imperfection that is in the Creatures of which sort are Immortality Eternity Immensitie Infinitie the like all importing a negation of imperfection The former of these two sorts of diuine properties which are named Communicable are communicated to meere creatures in some degree and sort though in highest degree they are no where found but in God with the addition of words expressing such eminency they may bee attributed to none but to God for hee onely is Almighty most wise most just and most mercifull But both these with addition of highest degree and the other which are named Incommunicable are by all Diuines confessed to bee in such sort communicated in the Person of the Son of GOD to the nature of man assumed into the vnity of the same that the Man CHRIST and the Son of Mary is not in title onely but really indeede most wise most just omnipotent incomprehensible eternall and infinite And this is all as I thinke that the Diuines of Germany the followers of Luther meane when they speake of the reall communication of divine properties to the humane nature in Christ. If any man say that they may justly bee thought to proceede farther to vnderstand some other communication of properties then that by vs expressed in that they doe not onely say concretiuely that the Man Christ is omni-present but the Humanity also It may be answered that when we speake of the Humanity of Christ sometimes we vnderstand onely that humane created essence of a man that was in him sometimes all that that is implyed in the being of a Man as well subsistence as essence In the former sort it is absurd and impious to thinke that the Humanity of Christ that is the created Essence of a Man in him is omnipotent omni-present or infinite neither doe they so thinke but they affirme that the subsistence of the Man Christ implyed in his being a Man is infinite and omni-present as being the subsistence of the Sonne of GOD communicated to the nature of Man in steade of that finite subsistence which left to it selfe it would haue had of it owne Much contention there hath beene betweene them other touching the vbiquitary presence of the humanity of Christ but I verily thinke it hath beene in a great part vpon mistaking because they vnderstood not one another For the followers of Luther confesse that the Body of Christ is onely in one place locally doe not thinke it to bee euery-where in Extent of Essence diffused into all places but say onely that it is euery-where in the infinitenesse of the subsistence of the Son of God communicated to it If we aske them saith Zanchius whether Christs Body be euery-where they answere that locally it is but in one place but that personally it is euery-where If they meane saith he that in respect of the being of Essence it is finite and confined to one certaine place but that the being of subsistence which it hath is infinite contained within the straites of no one place they say the truth contradict not them whom they seeme to doe Now that this is their meaning which this worthy learned Diuine acknowledgeth to bee true Catholique not contradicted by them that seeme to bee their opposites they constantly professe and therefore I am perswaded that howsoeuer some of them haue vsed harsh doubtfull dangerous and vnfitting formes of speech yet they differ not in meaning and judgment from the Orthodoxe and right beleeuers For they do not imagine if wee may beleeue their most constant protestations any essentiall or naturall communication of diuine properties but personall onely in that the Person of the sonne of God is really communicated to the nature of man in which Person they are Neither do they define the personall vniō by the communication of properties but say onely that it is implied in it touching the co-operation of the two natures of God and Man in Christ they teach noe other but that which wee described when wee spake of the Theandricall actions of Christ. The infinite obiections that are made on either side to the multiplying of needles fruitlesse contentions may easily be cleared and the seeming contradictions reconciled by the right vnderstanding of the point about which the difference hath growne CHAP. 16. Of the worke of Mediation performed by Christ in our nature THus hauing spoken of the abasing of the Sonne of God to take our nature and of the gifts and graces he bestowed on it when he assumed it into the vnity of his Person it remaineth that we speake of the things hee did and suffered for vs in the same The thing in generall which
to glorifie God as much as he dishonoured him before and God accepteth weake indeauours as sufficient in this kind CHRIST hauing perfectly satisfied for us as a publicke person may accept of a meane and weake satisfaction for the wrong done to him but must inflict punishment answerable to the fault to satisfie publique justice offended by that wrong Wherefore passing from this kinde of satisfaction let vs speake of that other that God requireth standing in the suffering of punishments due to sinne Some define this kind of satisfaction to be the suffering of the punishments that God inflicteth or wherewith a man voluntarily punisheth himselfe but this is not a good definition For as a thiefe or murtherer may not lay violent hands on himself be his owne executioner when he hath offended to satisfie publique Iustice but must submit himself to that which authority will lay on him so it is so farre frō being any satisfaction to Gods Iustice for a man when he hath sinned to become his own executioner to punish himselfe for his sin to satisfie the Iustice of God that it highly displeaseth God It is true indeede that we may lawfully afflict our selues not to satisfie Gods Iustice but to purge out the drosse of that sinfull impuritie that cleaueth to vs and to cure the wounds of our soules as wee may afflict our selues by fasting watching and abstaining from many things otherwise lawfull for the freeing of our selues from the remaines of our former excessiue and immoderate delight in eating drinking surfeiting and riot other abuses of the good creatures of God So that we must not define satisfaction to bee the suffering of those punishments that God inflicteth or wherewith the sinner punisheth himself for it is only the sustaining of those that God in Iustice doth inflict And in this sort Christ satisfied his Fathers wrath not by punishing himself but by being obedient to his Father euen vnto the death Wherefore let vs proceed more particularly to consider the satisfactory sufferings of Christ see first what punishments Christ suffered to pacifie his Fathers wrath and secondly what the manner of his passion was Touching the punishments that Christ suffered they were not ordinary but beyond measure grievous bitter insupportable yea such as would haue made any meere creature to sinke down vnder the burthen of thē to the bottome of Hell For he suffered grieuous things from all the things in Heauen Earth Hell in all that any way pertained to him He suffered at the hands of God his Father and of Men of Iewes of Gentiles of enemies insulting of friends forsaking of the Prince of darknes all his cruell mercilesse instruments of the elements of the world the Sun denying to giue him light the aire breath the earth supportance Hee suffered in all that pertained to him In his name being condemned as a blasphemer as an enemy to Moses the Law the Temple worship of God to his own Nation to Caesar the Romans a glutton a cōpanion with Publicans sinners a Samaritan one that had a Diuell did all his miracles by the power of Beelzebub In the things he possessed when they stripped him out of his garments cast lots on his seamelesse coate In his friends greatly distressed discomforted with the sight of those things that fell out vnto him according to that which was prophesied before The Shepheard shall be smitten the sheep shall be scattered In his body when his hands feete were nailed his sides goared his head pierced with the crown of thorns his cheeks swollen with buffering his face defiled with spitting vpon his eyes offended with beholding the scornefull behauiour of his proud insulting enemies his eares with hearing the wordes of their execrable blasphemy his taste with the myrrhe gall that they gaue him in his drinke his smell with the stinch and horrour of the place wherein he was crucified being a place of dead mens skuls Lastly in his soule distressed with feares compassed about with sorrowes besetting him on euery side that euen vnto death In so wofull sort did he take on him our defects and suffer our punishments But because we may as well enlarge and amplifie Christs passions and sufferings too much as extenuate them too much let vs see if it bee possible the vttermost extent of that he suffered For the clearing hereof some say that he suffered all those punishments that were beseeming him or behoofefull for vs that hee suffered all those punishments that neither prejudice the plenitude of sanctitie nor science But that wee may the better informe our selues touching this point wee must obserue that the punishments of sinne are of three sorts First Culpa Secondly ex culpa ad culpam Thirdly ex culpa sed nec culpa nec ad culpam that is First sinne Secondly something proceeding from sinne and inducing to sin Thirdly things proceeding from sin that neither are sins nor incline and induce to sinne Examples of the first are Enuie afflicting the mind of the proud man grieuous disorders accompanying the drunkard and a reprobate sense following the contempt of Gods worshippe and seruice Of the second naturall concupiscence pronenesse to euill difficulty to doe good contrariety in the faculties of the soule and repugnance and resistance of the meaner against the better Examples of the third which are things proceeding from sin but neither sinnes nor inclinations to sinne are hunger thirst weakenesse nakednesse and death it selfe The punishments of this last sort onely Christ suffered and neither of the former two for neither was there sin in him nor any thing inclining him to euill or discouraging him from good The punishments of this kinde are of two sorts Naturall and Personall Naturall are such as follow the whole nature of man as hunger thirst labour wearinesse and death it selfe Personall are such as grow out of some imperfection and defect in the vertue and faculty forming the body disorder in diet or some violence offered and these are found but in some particular men and not in all men generally as Leprosies Agues Gowts the like All those punishments that are punishments only that are from without and that are common to the whole nature of Men Christ suffered that came to bee a Redeemer of all without respect of persons but such as flow from sin dwelling within or proceed from particular causes or are proper to some and not common to all hee suffered not The punishments that are punishments onely and not sinne and are common to the whole nature of man are likewise of two sorts for either they are suffered for sinne imputed or sinne inherent For one may bee punished either for his owne fault or the fault of another in some sort imputed to him When a man is punished for his owne fault hee hath remorse of conscience blaming and condemning him as hauing brought such euils vpon himselfe by
damage It were impious to thinke that Christ suffered the former kinde but that hee suffered this latter kinde of punishment of losse damage many great Diuines are of opinion For though as hee was ioyned to God affectione iustitiae that is by the affection of vertue or justice hee could not be diuided or separated from him no not for a moment because he could not but loue him feare him trust in him giue him the praise and glory that belongeth to him yet as he was to be joyned to him affectione commodi that is by that affection that seeketh pleasing content in enjoying those ineffable delights pleasures that are found in him hee might bee and was for a time diuided from him For as very great graue Diuines do thinke he was destitutus omni solatio that is destitute void of all that solace he was wont to find in God in that fearefull houre of darknesse of his dolefull passion As saith Melchior Canus Christ in the time of his life miraculously restrained kept within the closet of his secret Spirit the happines that he injoyed in seeing God that it should not spread farther communicate it self to the inferior faculties of his Soule or impart the brightnes of it to the body so in the houre of his passion his very Spirit was with-holden from any pleasure it might take in so pleasing an object as is the Essence Majesty and glory of God which euen then he clearely beheld So that Christ neuer wanted the vision of that object which naturally maketh all them happy that beholde it and filleth them with such joy as no heart of mortall man can conceiue or tongue expresse But as it was strange and yet most true in the time of his life that his Soule enjoyed Heauen-happines and that yet neither the inferiour faculties thereof were admitted into any fellowship of the same nor his Body glorified but subject to misery and passion so it fell out by the speciall dispensation of Almighty God in the time of his death and in that fearefull houre of darknes that his Soule seeing God the pleasure delight that naturally commeth from so pleasing an object stayed with-held communicated not it selfe vnto it as a man in great distresse taketh no pleasure in those things that otherwise exceedingly affect him This his conceipt he saith he communicated to very great and worthy Diuines while he was yet but a young man and that they were so farre from disliking it that they approued it exceedingly But some man will say it is not possible in this life to feele extremity of paines answereable to the paines of hell more then on earth to enjoy the happines of Heauen and that therefore it is absurd to grant that Christ in the dayes of his flesh suffered in this World extremity of paine answerable to the paines of hell Hereunto it is answered that in ordinary course it is impossible for any man liuing in this World either to enjoy the happines of Heauen or feele the paines of Hell but that as Christ was at the same time both Viator and Comprehensor that is a manlike vnto vs that journey here in this World towards Heauen-happines and yet happy with that happines that ordinarily is found no where but in Heauen so hee might suffer that extremity of paine haue that apprehension of afflictiue euils that ordinarily is no where to bee found in this World euen while he liued here on earth Luther saith truely that if a man could perfectly see his owne euils the sight thereof would bee a perfect hell vnto him now it is certaine that Christ saw all the euils of punishment before expressed to which he voluntarily subjected himselfe to satisfie diuine Iustice comming fierce and violently vpon him with as cleare a sight and as perfect an apprehension of them as is to be had in the other World CHAP. 18. Of the nature and qualitie of the passion and suffering of Christ. HItherto we haue spoken of the punishments that Christ sustained and suffered to satisfie the justice and pacifie the wrath of his Father Now it remaineth that we come to take a view of the nature and qualitie of his passion and suffering consisting partly in his feare and agonie before and pardy in his bitter sorrow and distresse in the very act of that dolefull tragedy Touching the first the Scripture testifieth that he feared exceedingly and desired the cuppe might passe from him Touching the second that he was beset with sorrowes euen vnto the death and that in his extremitie he cried aloud My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But touching both these passions of feare sorrow it is noted that whereas there are three kindes of faults found in the passions of mens mindes the first that they arise before reason be consulted or giue direction the second that they proceed farther then they should and stay not when they are required and the third that they transport reason judgement it selfe Christ had these passions but in a sort free from all these euils For neither did they arise in him before reason gaue direction wherevpon he is said to haue troubled or moued himselfe in the case of Lazarus for whom he greatly sorrowed neither did they proceede any farther if once reason judgement commanded a stay and retrait wherevpon they are called Propassions rather then Passions not because as Kellison ignorantly supposeth reason preuenteth them and causeth them to arise though it bee true it doth so but because they are but fore-runners to passions at liberty and beginnings of passions to be staied at pleasure rather then full and perfect passions and therefore much lesse had they any power to transport judgement reason it selfe From these generall considerations of the passions of Christ let vs proceede to take a more particular view of the chiefe particulars of his passions to wit Feare Sorrow Feare is described to bee a retiring or flying backe from a thing if it be good because it is too high and excellent aboue the reach and without the extent of our condition power if it be euill because it is hard to bee escaped So that the proper and adequate obiect of feare is not as some suppose future euill but difficulty greatnesse excellency which found in things good makes vs know wee cannot at all attaine them or at least that wee cannot attaine them but with too great difficultie labour in euill that they will not easily be ouer mastered or escaped The difficultie greatnesse and excellency found in things that are good causeth feare of reuerence which maketh vs steppe backe and not to meddle at all with thinges that are too high excellent for vs nor with things hard without good advice and causeth vs to giue place to those of better condition and to acknowledge and professe by all significations of body and
bound of all his desires and yet in a sort not being come vnto it because howsoeuer he was perfectly joyned with God affectione iustitiae that is with that affection that yeeldeth vnto God the praise honour and loue that is due vnto him and saw him face to face with cleare and perfect vision yet hee was not so fully joyned to him as he is to be enjoyed affectione commodi that is with that affection that seeketh after pleasing delight but that hee suffered many bitter grieuous and vnpleasant things fasting watching weeping wearying himselfe in all which respects being extra terminū that is not yet come to the vttermost extent bound of that is desired he was in state of meriting But because the enduring of these bitter grieuous afflictiue euils may seem rather to pertain to the nature of satisfactiō then merit therfore they adde that howsoeuer in respect of the perfectiō of his Diuine Heauenly vertues he were in termino that is come to the vttermost bound extent thereof yet in the expressing of the actions of thē he fitted himself to the conditiō of men here below as appeared in the actiōs of his loue obediēce in that he gaue himself for the pacifying of his Fathers wrath the satisfying of his Iustice the promeriting of our good besides he had the actiōs of many vertues that are proper to the conversation of this world whereof there is no vse in Heauen or in Heauen-happinesse but in the way and journey towardes Heauen as Temperance Sobriety Fortitude Patience and the Obseruation of the ceremoniall and judiciall Law in which respect he may very properly be said to haue been in a state of meriting and to haue merited Wherefore presupposing that Christ might and did merite let vs see whether hee merited any thing for himselfe The Papists impute I know not what impiety to Caluine because he saith Christ merited not for himselfe but for vs onely vrge against him that saying of the Apostle when he saith that Christ humbled himselfe was made obedient vnto death euen the death of the Crosse and that therefore God exalted him and gaue him a name aboue euery name Wherefore let vs take a view of that they teach touching this point that so wee may the better discerne whether Caluine be justly blamed by them or not The Schoolemen generally agree that Christ neither did nor could merite the grace of personall vnion the habituall perfections of his humane Soule or the vision of God because hee possessed all these from the beginning it would haue beene a matter of more imperfection to haue wanted any of them at the first then of perfection to haue gotten them by merite afterwards Yet the Master of Sentences others resolue that hee did procure vnto himselfe by his merite the impassibility and glorification of his Body But Scotus very acutely and wittily objecteth against them that so think that Christ cannot be sayd to haue merited the impassibility glorification of his body because they would haue beene found in it from the very first instant of the vnion of the Natures of God and Man in him by vertue of that union before any act of his had not the naturall consequence and flowing of them from that vnion beene stayed and hindered by speciall dispensation for the working of our saluation and therefore he sayth that if we will defend the Ma ster of Sentences from errour in this point we must soe construe his words as that Christ did not directly merit glorification and impassibility but onely the remouing of that miraculous stay of the naturall redundance of glory from his Soule filled with the happy vision of his Deitie into his body But surely this fauourable construction will not helpe the matter for seeing the miraculous stay of the redundance of glory from the Soule of Christ into his body was of it selfe to cease when that should be performed for the effecting whereof such stay was made he could no more merit such remoue of stay then the glory it selfe that in respect of the grace of personall vnion would as naturally haue beene communiated to his body as it was in his Soule had not God for speciall purpose stayed and hindred such redundance So that wee shall find that how soeuer the Papists do presse certaine testimonies of Scripture as if they would proue out of them that Christ meritted the name aboue all names and the fullnesse of all power both in heauen and in earth which hee could no more merit then to be God yet in the end they are forced to confesse soe great is the truth which will euer preuaile that he neither meritted the personall vnion of his two natures the perfection of his habituall graces the vision of God nor the glorification of his body but onely the remouing of that stay and impediment that hindred the flowing of Glory from his soule into his body finding that this stay or hinderance was to cease of it self so soon as the work of our Redēptiō should be wrought consequētly that he could not merit it they flie for helpe to a distinctiō of merits which they make to be of 3 sorts For there is as they say one kind of merit that maketh a thing due which was not due before another that maketh a thing more due thē it was before a 3d that maketh a thing more waies due thē at first it was The 2 first kinds of merit they cōfesse did not agree to Christ there being nothing that was not due vnto him in as high degree in the beginning as euer it was afterwards But they say that he merited in the 3d sort or kind in that he made those things that were due vnto him as consequents of the personall vnion of his 2 natures to be due vnto him as a reward of his passion This truly is a very silly evasiō seeing that cānot be a reward of a mans labors that was due to him in as high degree before as after his work is don He that labouteth in the field or vineyard of another man she that nourisheth a child that is not her owne trauaile both in hope of reward but that reward must of necessity be some thing that was not due to them before such trauaile yea he that dresseth his owne vine she that nourisheth her owne children looke to the recompense of reward but that reward is no other thing but the prosperity and increase of their fields and vineyards and the grouth of their children like the Oliue branches round about their their table which without such paines and trauaile they could not looke for In like sort a Man may say to his child this land shall be the reward of thy dutifull behauiour if he haue power to put it from him if his behauiour be not dutiefull but if he haue not it is ridiculous to promise it as a reward seeing a
reward is euer some good to be gained by our well doing or patient suffering counteruailing the difficultie in doing and bitternesse in suffering It is therefore most absurd that any thing which is a mans owne in as ample sort before he begin his worke as after he hath done it should be the reward of his worke But some man perhaps will say that a thing that was due in respect of the habit resting in the mind may become due in respect of the Act done and consequently that that which was due one way may become more waies due Surely wee make no question but it may because it was due to the Habit as to the Roote of such action when occasion should be offered opportunity serue not otherwise But seeing in Christ the glorification impassibility of his body was due vnto him as a consequent of personall vnion and not of any habituall quality or habit inclining fitting vnto action therefore that could not become due to any action of Christ that was due vnto him in respect of some former thing as that may bee due to the action of a Man that was formerly due to the habit that is the roote of such action The places of Scripture that are brought to proue that Christ merited for himself are specially two for though there be a third as pregnant as any of the other in the first to the Hebrewes where it is said of Christ Thou hast loued righteousnesse and hated iniquity therefore God euen thy God hath annointed thee with the oyle of gladnesse aboue thy fâ—…llowes yet doe they not much stand vpon it because if it proue any thing it proueth that Christ merited the grace of vnction which they deny who teach that Christ merited for himselfe The first of the two places alleaged to proue that Christ merited for himselfe is in the second to the Hebrewes where the Apostle saith Wee see Iesus for the passion of death crowned with glory and honour But the words as some thinke are not so to be read but to be placed in this sort Wee see Iesus who was for a litle while made lower then the Angels for the passion of death that is that he might suffer death crowned with glory and honour so expressing the finall cause of his humiliation and not the meritorious cause of his exaltation This coniecture is made exceeding probable by those words added by the Apostle that hee might taste of death which otherwise haue no coherence with any part of his speech The second place that they bring is that of the second to the Philippians The words are these Christ humbled himselfe and became obedient vnto the death euen the death of the crosse Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him and giuen him a name aboue every name c. This place as Hugo de Sancto Victore hath fitly noted importeth that the humiliation of the Son of God becomming Man was the cause of the exaltation of the nature of Man for when he personally assumed the nature of Man became Man Man became God almighty hauing all power a name aboue all names according to that of Leo Diuinae maiestat is exinanitio seruilis formae in summa prouectio est that is The abasing of the Diuine Maiestie and Person of the Sonne of God is the high aduancing exaltation of the forme of a Seruant and therefore he addeth that Ex quo Deus coepit esse homo homo coepit esse Deus Deus coepit esse homo subiectus homo coepit esse Deus perfectus Si Deus humiliatus est quantum potuit in homine homo sublimatus non est quantum potuit in Deo that is When God began to be Man and Man began to be God God began to be a Man in subiection and humilitie and Man to be God in the heighth of perfection For if God were humbled as much as hee might be in that he became man was not Man exalted as much as he might be in that hee became God God was humbled when first he became Man In quantum homo dignitate in quantum bonus voluntate that is in that a Man in condition and state in that a good man in will minde but manifested the same more specially in his passion Likewise the Man Christ was exalted when he was borne the Sonne of God but manifested the same more specially after his resurrection then before For wee must not thinke that the Man Christ did then first receiue the full and perfect power of Deitie when he sayd All power is giuen me in heauen and in earth seeing before the vttering of those words he commaunded the Diuels had the Angels to do him seruice and made the very elements of the world to bow and bend at his pleasure Wherefore this place is vnaduisedly brought by our Aduersaries to proue that Christ merited for himselfe it being most cleare and evident that the name aboue all names mentioned in this place which is the name of God Almighty was giuen to the Sonne of God donatione naturali that is by naturall communication when he was begotten of his Father before all eternity and to the Man Christ donatione gratuità that is by free gift when God was made man and Man became God as the ordinarie Glosse vpon these words fitly obserueth and so could no more bee merited by the passion of Christ then it was possible for him to doe any thing whereby to merite to be God And hereupon Caluine rightly asketh which all the Papists in the world are not able to answere Quibus meritis assequi potuit homo ut iudex esset mundi caput Angelorum atque ut potiretur summo Dei imperio that is by what merits could man attaine to bee Iudge of the world Head of Angels to haue the highest authority and power of God But some man will say that Christ pronounceth it was necessary that he should suffer and so enter into his glory and that therefore it seemeth he could not haue entred into it vnlesse hee had suffered Quomodò ergo suam saith Hugo si oportuit quomodò oportuit si suam Si gloria eius fuit quomodò vt ad illam intraret pati oportuit Sed suam propter se oportuit propter nos that is How then was it his glory if he could not enter into it vnlesse he suffered and how was it necessary that hee should suffer to enter into it if it were his Surely it was his in respect of himselfe and it was necessary he should enter into it by suffering onely in respect of vs. For Christ truly if he had pleased might haue entred into his glory some other way haue receiued it in what sort he would euen as hee needed neuer to haue wanted it vnlesse he had pleased but he would for our sakes by punishment enter into his glory that dying he might take away the
liberty freeth not frō the duety of doing the things which the Law requireth but frō doing them so as to haue them examined tryed strictly according to the Law rule of Iustice God in mercy accepting our works though imperfect if they proceed frō a good conscience faith vnfained But saith Kellison the Protestants teach that Christ came to bee a Redeemer only not a Law-giuer therefore it seemeth they thinke men free from the duety of following the prescription of any Law This surely is a very bad weake inference Christian men haue nothing to doe with Moses his Law and may at their pleasure either breake it or keep it because Christ came to be a Redeemer not a Law-giuer For though it be true that Christ came not to giue a new or more perfect Law of morall duties or to vrge it more strictly then Moses did as some imagine in which sense our Diuines rightly deny him to haue come as a Law-giuer yet hee came to fulfill the Law formerly giuen by the Ministery of Moses which thing hee performed first by clearing the meaning of it and making it to be rightly vnderstood where it was mistaken Secondly by meriting remission of the precedent breaches and transgressions of it And thirdly by giuing grace that men may in some sort doe the things it requireth Wherefore if any man aske of vs whether it may be truly said that Christ was a Law-giuer to his Church we answer that our Diuines did neuer simply deny Christ to be a Law-giuer but onely in sort before expressed For they confesse that he may truely be so named first because he writeth those Lawes in our hearts which Moses deliuered written in Tables of stone and secondly because hee gaue certaine positiue Lawes to Christian men touching Sacraments Ministery and outward meanes of saluation that were not of force before Wherefore to conclude this point we do not think as Kellison slaunderously against his own conscience reporteth of vs that no sins can hurt vs that no Hell nor Iudgement remaineth for vs whatsoeuer we doe but wee constantly teach that they who commit sinne with full consent and persist therein shall vndoubtedly perish euerlastingly So that this is all that we say that no sins how grieuous soeuer resisted disliked repented of forsaken can hurt vs that no Hell nor Iudgement remaineth for them whom the working of diuine grace freeth from the dominion of sin and the satisfaction of Christ from the condemnation of it Against which doctrine or any part of it neither Kellison nor any Papist in the world is able to take any just exception CHAP. 22. Of the Ministery of them to whom Christ committed the publishing of the reconciliation betweene God and Men procured by him THus haue wee seene first the excellency of Christ our Sauiour whom God sent into the world in the fulnesse of time to bee the great Sheepheard of his Sheepe the guide of his people the light of the Gentiles the glory of Israel and a King to fit vpon the throne of Dauid for euer hauing all power both in Heauen and in Earth Secondly what great thinges hee did and suffered for vs to reconcile vs vnto God Thirdly what the benefits are which hee procured for vs and bestowed on vs. Now it remaineth that wee see to whom he committed the publishing of the joyfull reconciliation betweene God and Man the conversion of the world vnto himselfe and the gouernment of such as should by beleeuing become his people when hauing finished the great worke he came to performe he was to returne backe to that God his Father that sent him The Apostle Saint Paul telleth vs that Christ hauing triumphed ouer principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly vpon his Crosse led captiuitie captiue and gaue gifts vnto men that hee gaue some to be Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers for the gathering together of the Saints the worke of the Ministery and the edifying of the body of Christ vntill wee all meete in the vnitie of Faith and knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect Man euen into the measure of the Age of the fulnesse of Christ. Amongstall those Messengers of glad tidings and Ministers of Christ appointed by him for the gathering together of the Saints the Apostles were chiefe and principall Evangelists were assistants which they vsed for the better settling perfecting of thinges happily begunne by them and the writing of the Euangelicall histories concerning Christ The Prophets were such as foretold future thinges that knew all secrets and opened the hidden mysteries of God speaking to the consciences of Men in a strange and admirable manner so that as the Apostle telleth vs They that heard them prostrated themselues at their feete acknowledging that God was in them These were temporary and to continue but for a time In the Apostles two sorts of thinges are to bee considered and distinguished by vs first such as were proper to them as fitting to those first beginnings of Christianity and secondly such as are of perpetuall vse and necessity and so to bee passed ouer to other and continued to the end of the world The Diuines do note that there were foure things proper peculiar to the Apostles not communicable to any other of the Ministers of Christ appointed by him for the gathering together of his Saints The first was Immediate vocation the second Infallibility of Iudgment the 3d generality of Commission to do all things pertaining to the ministery of Saluation in all places towards all Persons the fourth the speaking in all the tongues and languages of the world the knowledge of all secrets and power to confirme their Doctrine by signes and miracles and by the imposition of their hands to giue the like miraculous gifts of the Spirite to others These joyntly were not communicable to any other in those times neither Evangelists nor Prophets as either not being called immediatly but appointed by the Apostles or not infallibly led into all truth Generall commission they had not but were taken into the fellowship of the Apostles labours to assist their presence supply their absence to build vpon their foundation and to perfect that they beganne Lastly though the hauing of miraculous gifts and the power of working miracles simply were not proper to the Apostles yet the hauing of them in such sort as by the imposition of their hands to giue the Spirit enabling to worke miracles to doe miraculous things was peculiar and proper to them and therefore we reade that Philip baptized but that the Apostles went to confirme them by imposition of hands that were baptized by him that so they might receiue the miraculous gifts of the holy Ghost And as these things were reserued as proper and peculiar vnto the Apostles and not communicated to any other in their time soe are they not passed ouer
excommunication they may restraine from vse of Sacraments societie of Beleeuers and benefite of the Churches praiers so by Absolution they may free from all these bonds againe Neither is this kinde of binding and loosing lightly to bee esteemed of or little regarded for he that for his contempt and disobedience is debarred from the vfe of the Sacraments from enjoying the societie of the beleeuers and partaking in the benefite of the Churches prayers is vndoubtedly excluded from all accesse to the Throne of grace in Heauen all acceptation there so consequently no lesse bound in Heauen then in Earth and he that is vnloosed from these bonds on Earth is vnloosed and set free in Heauen that without all restraint he may goe boldly to the Throne of Grace to seeke helpe in the time of neede Thus wee see the diuerse kindes of binding and loosing that the Guides of Gods Church haue power and authority by Lawes and precepts censures and punishments to binde those that are committed to their care and trust and when they see cause by reuersing such Lawes and precepts wholly or in part and by diminishing releasing taking away such censures and punishments to vnty them and set them free againe The bond of Diuine Lawes they may no otherwise meddle with then by letting them know who are so bound how straightly they are tyed The bonds of sinne and punishments by Diuine Iustice to be inflicted they haue no power and authoritie to vnloose but they concurre as helpers to the vnloosing of them by the Ministery of the Word vvinning and persvvading men to convert vnto God to cast their sinnes from them and by the Sacraments instrumentally communicating vnto them the grace of repentant conversion and the assurance of remission and pardon In all these kindes of binding and loosing the Apostles were equall seeing our Aduersaries themselues confessing they had the same power of Order and jurisdiction in like extent within the compasse whereof all these kinds of binding and loosing are confined Wherefore let vs proceede to speake of the power of remitting and retaining sinnes giuen to the Apostles by Christ our Sauiour To remit sinne properly is nothing else but to resolue not to punish sinne and therefore hee onely may properly be sayd to remit sinne that hath power to punish it Now as sinne is committed against the prescript of God our Conscience and Men in authority soe GOD the conscience of the Sinner and the Magistrate and Minister haue power to punish sinne GOD with punishments temporall and eternall of this life and that which is to come the Conscience with remorse the Magistrate with death banishment Confiscation of goods imprisonment and the like and the guides of the Church with suspension excommunication degradation and such other censures Hence it followeth that GOD onely is sayd properly to remitte the punishments that his justice doth inflict that the conscience onely vpon repentance canne take away that bitter and aflictiue punishment of remorse wherewith shee is wont to torment and disquiet the minde of the offendour and that the Magistrate and Minister onely haue power to take away those punishments that in their seuerall courses they may and doe inflict Notwithstanding the Minister by the Word perswading men to repentance procuring remission and out of his prudent obseruation of the parties conuersion vnto GOD assuring him that it will goe well vvith him as also by the Sacrament instrumentally communicating to him as well the grace of repentant conuersion as of free remission that soe hee may heare the very sound and voyce of GOD in mercy saying to the heart and spirit of the repentant Sinner I am thy Saluation may bee sayd in a sort to remitte sinne euen in that it is an offence against GOD not by way of authority and power but by winning and perswading the sinner to that conuersion which obtaineth remission from GOD and by the Sacrament instrumentally making him partaker as well of the grace of remission of sinne from GOD as of conuersion from sinne to GOD. There are but foure things in the hand of the Minister the Word Prayer Sacraments and Discipline By the word of Doctrine hee frameth winneth and perswadeth the sinner to repentant conuersion seeking and procuring remission from God By Prayer he seeketh and obtaineth it for the sinner By Sacraments he instrumentally maketh him partaker as well of the grace of remission as conuersion And by the power of Discipline he doth by way of authority punish euill doings and remit or diminish the punishments he inflicteth according as the condition of the party may seeme to require By that which hath beene sayd it appeareth that to bind and loose to remit to retaine sins are equiualent the same saue that to bind and loose is of more ample large extent in that it implyeth in it the binding by precepts lawes the loosing which is by reversing or dispensing with the same And therefore hauing shewed that the Apostles were equall in the power ofbinding and loosing we need ad no farther proofe that they were equall in power of remitting retaining sins Wherefore let vs proceede to the promise of Christ made to Peter that vpon the Rocke mentioned by him he would build his Church and let vs see whether any peculiar thing were promised vnto Peter in that behalfe The Church of God we know is compared in Scripture to a City an House and a Temple and therefore the beginning proceeding and increasing of the same is rightly compared to building Now in building there must be a foundation vpon which all may rest and stay that is put into the same building and the foundation must be sure firme immoueable for otherwise it wall faile and so alll other parts of the building wanting their stay will fall to the ground Now nothing is so firme sure and immoueable as a Rocke and consequently no building so strōg as that which is raised vpon a rockie foundation wherevpon our Sauiour sheweth that a House builded on the sand is easily ruinated soone shaken to pieces but that an House builded vpon a rocke standeth firme notwithstanding the furie and violence of the flouds winds and tempests and compareth a Man rightly grounded and established in his perswasion and resolution to an house so built By a Rocke therefore in this place is meant a sure foundation that will not faile nor be moued or shaken how great a weight soeuer be laid vpon it In a foundation there are three things required The first is that it bee the first thing in the building the second that it beare vp all the other parts of the building the third that it be firme and immoueable For as Christ saith If the eye that is the light of the bodie be darknesse how great is that Darknesse So if that which is to support and beare vp all doe faile shrinke all must needs be shaken and fall a
as being against the Canons and yet tolde Chrysostome there was no helpe nor no meanes to releeue him but in a generall Councell which by all possible meanes he will labour to procure till which time hee must be content and referre all to God who taketh care of these things But with how ill successe hee sought to procure a generall Councell for the restoring of him to his place againe wee may finde in k Sozomene who reporteth that being desirous that Chrysostome might returne he sent with those Orientall Bishops that came to him to intreate his helpe and assistance fiue Bishops and two Presbyters to Honorius Arcadius to obtaine a Councell and to haue the time appointed who were so farre from prevailing and obtaining that they sought that they were sent away with disgrace as forreine and outlandish disturbers of the state of the Empire These are the principall and most materiall circumstances of the narration and report of the vniust deposition of Chrysostome his writing to the Bishop of Rome and the answer hee had from him and the other Bishops of the West which make most strongly against the pretended supremacie of Popes For Innocentius telleth Chrysostomes friends that it lyeth not in him to helpe him but in a generall Councell And though hee and the Bishops of the West pronounce the proceedings of Theophilus voide as against the Canons and do make them voyd as much as by their dissenting they can yet they confesse that the absolute voyding of them and the punishing of Theophilus was not in them but in a generall Councell But sayth Bellarmine Chrysostome in another Epistle giueth Innocentius thankes for his fatherly care and kindnesse intreateth that his enemies may not be excluded from the communion if by any meanes they may be reclaimed therefore it seemeth Chrysostome thought hee had an absolute supreame commanding power What it is in this Epistle that argueth that supreame power which Bellarmine dreameth of I cannot tell For I know no reason why Chrysostome now a deposed and distressed Bishop might not vse so respectiue a forme of speech to the Bishop of the first See and esteeme of him as a father without acknowledging him to haue any absolute supreame power ouer all And all the other circumstances and parts of the Epistle most clearely make against the Papacie For he sayth Innocentius had done what he could but that his enemies notwithstanding went still forward in their ill courses and for the auoyding of greater scandals distractions confusions desireth him not to reiect them from his communion considering the greatnesse of the worke for that this was the contention almost of all the world So that the Churches were brought vpon their knees the people dispersed the Cleargy vexed Bishops banished and the constitutions of the holy Fathers violated and broken The eighth Greeke Father is Cyril Bishop of Alexandria out of whom Bellarmine alleageth noe new thing but the very same which hee brought out of the Councell of Ephesus whereof he was president and therefore I will make no new answere here to this renued allegation but referre the Reader to the answere already made The ninth Greeke Father is Theodoret out of whom Bellarmine seeketh to confirme the Papacie for that though he were a Bishop of Asia and had vnder him eight hundred Churches yet he acknowledgeth the Bishop of Rome to be his supreme Iudge and in an Epistle written to Renatus a Presbyter of the Church of Rome sayth that that holy See hath the gouernment and direction of the Churches throughout the world For answere vnto this objection we must obserue that Theodoret being deposed banished and grieuously vexed for matters of faith seeketh to haue his cause reexamined and heard againe by the Bishop of Rome and the Bishops of the West which thing he obtained and was by Leo and the rest of the Bishops of the West judged Catholique receiued to their communion and as much as lay in them restored to his Bishopricke againe yet could he not repossesse his place till the Councell of Chalcedon put him into it which though it were informed by the deputies of Leo that hee had long before receiued him to his communion yet admited him not till he was reexamined and at the first many of the Fathers disliking his answeres as imperfect cryed out aloud that he was a Nestorian and desired that the Heretique might be cast out censuring him as Cyril and other Catholique Bishops had done before But when hee fully and peremptorily accursed Nestorius with all his adherents they all with one consenting voyce pronounced him worthy of his place and admitted him to sit in Councel with them Whereby it apeareth that howsoeuer the Westerne Bishops pronounced him Catholique receiued him to their communion and as much as in them lay restored him to his place yet of themselues they neither could nor did perfect that worke but were forced to leaue it to the generall Councell all which Leo himselfe in his Epistle to Theodoret acknowledgeth Adiutorium nostrum sayth he in nomine Domini qui fecit coelum terram qui nullum nos in nostris fratribus detrimentum sustinere permisit sed quae nostro prius ministerio definierat vniuersae fraternitatis irretractabili firmauit assensu vt verè à se prodijsse ostenderet quod priùs à prima omnium sede formatū totius Christiani orbis iudicium recepisset vt in hoc quoque Capiti membra concordent Nā ne aliarum sedium ad eam quam caeteris omnium Dominus statuit praesidere consensus assentatio uideretur inuenti priùs sunt qui de iudicijs nostris ambigerent that is Our helpe is in the name of the Lord who made both heauen and earth who suffered vs not to sustaine any losse in our brethren but confirmed established by the irreuocable assent of the whole brotherhood what things he had before defined by our ministery that he might clearly shew that thing vndoubtedly to haue proceeded frō himselfe which being formerly framed by the first See the iudgment of the whole Christian world received So that herein the head mēbers conspire together For lest the consenting of other Sees to that which the Lord of all appointed to be the first of all might seeme to bee but flattery there were some found that at first doubted of our iudgements whether they were right or not And he addeth that multum Sacerdotalis officij meritum splendescit vbi sic summorum servatur authoritas vt in nullo inferiorum putetur imminuta libertas that is that the excellent worthinesse of the Priestly office doth then most appeare in shining brightnesse when the authority of the highest is so retained that the liberty of the inferiour and lesser be thought in nothing to be diminished or empaired Thereby insinuating that hee and his Westerne Bishops did so goe before in their resolution touching the case of Theodoret that they no way
himselfe was no temporall or earthly king and therefore much lesse Peter or the Pope that pretendeth to be Christs Vicar and Peters successour Notwithstanding they that are otherwise minded endevour to proue that Christ was a temporall king and that hee left a kingly power to Peter and his successours First out of Scripture strangely wrested Secondly out of the testimonies of Popes For better authorities they haue none The principall text of Scripture which they alleage is in the Gospell of Saint Matthew where our Sauiour saith All power is given me in heauen and in earth But Bellarmine telleth them and the best Diuines agree with him that that place is not to bee vnderstood of a temporall power such as earthly kings haue but either of a spirituall whereby Christ so raigneth in earth in the hearts of men by faith as hee doth in heaven in the presence of his glorie among the Angels or a diuine power ouer all creatures not communicable to mortall men The former of these interpretations the Authour of the Interlineall Glosse followeth the later Lyra vpon this place his words are Licèt Christus quantum ad diuinitatem ab aeterno haberet hanc potestatem in quantum homo ab instanti conceptionis haberet potestatem in coelo in terra authoritativè tamen executivè non habuit ante resurrectionem suam sed voluit esse passibilitati subiectus propter nostram redemptionem that is Although Christ in that he was God had this power from all eternity and in that hee was man had power both in heauen and in earth from the first moment of his conception in respect of authority yet in respect of the execution and performance of the acts of it he had it not before his resurrection but was pleased to bee subiect to passibilitie for our redemption Let vs come therefore from the Scripture to the testimonies of later Popes for Fathers auncient Councells or auncient Bishops of Rome they haue none to speake for them The first Pope that they alleage is Pope Nicholas in a certaine Epistle of his where he saith as they tell vs that Christ committed and gaue vnto blessed Peter the Key-bearer of eternall life the rights both of the earthly and heauenly Empire To this authority first wee answere that Pope Nicholas hath no such words in any Epistle howsoeuer Gratian who citeth them as the words of Nicholas mistooke the matter Secondly that supposing the words to be the words of Nicholas his meaning may bee that the spirituall power of binding and loosing which Christ left to Peter is not onely of force in earth but in heauen also that being bound in heauen that is bound on earth and they beeing repulsed from the throne of grace in heauen and excluded from Gods fauours that are reiected from the holy Altars and put from the Sacraments of the Church Wherevpon Chrysostome saith that the power of the church directeth and commaundeth the very Tribunall of heauen and addeth that heauen taketh authority of judging from the earth For that the Iudge sitteth on earth and the Lord followeth the sentence of his servants according to that of Christ Whatsoeuer you shall binde on earth shall be bound in heauen Others expound the supposed words of Pope Nicholas of the spirituall power of Peter ouer the good and bad in the visible church the good being named the kingdome of heauen and the bad an earthly kingdome or company But howsoeuer it is most certaine that Pope Nicholas in his Epistle to Michael the Emperour hath the cleane contrary to that which some would charge him with For there hee sheweth that howsoeuer before Christ some were both kings and priests as was Melchisedeck and as likewise some other among the Pagans were yet after Christ none were so Neither did the Emperour take vnto him the rights of the chiefe Priesthood nor the chiefe Priest the name of the Emperour Sed mediator Dei hominum homo Christus sic actibus propriis dignitatibus distinctis officia potestatis vtriusque discreuit vt Christiani Imperatores pro aeterna vita pontificibus indigerent Pontifices pro cursu temporalium tantummodò rerum Imperialibus legibus vterentur that is But the Mediatour of God and men the man Christ did so distinguish and seuer the duties and offices of either of these kinds of power by their proper actions distinct dignities that both Christian Emperours should stand in neede of Bishops for the attaining of eternall life and that Bishoppes should vse the lawes of Emperours for the course of temporall things onely that so both the spirituall action and employment might be free from carnall turmoyles and that he who goeth on warfare vnto God might not at all bee entangled with secular businesses and that on the other side he might not seeme to bee set ouer the things that are Diuine whom the businesses of this world should possesse that both the modestie of each of these orders and degrees might bee preserued and that also no one hauing both these kindes of power should be lifted vp too high The next authoritie is that of Bonifacius the eighth who hath these words speaking of the Church which is one and whereof he supposeth the Bishop of Rome to be the head Wee are instructed by the Evangelicall sayings that in this Church and in the power of it there are two swords to wit a spirituall and a temporall For when the Apostles said Beholde heere are two swords to wit in the Church because they were the Apostles that spake the Lord did not answere that it was too much but that it was enough and therefore surely whosoeuer denyeth the temporall sword to be in the power of Peter seemeth not well to consider the word of the Lord commaunding him to sheathe his sword The answer vnto this authority is easie For Bonifacius as Duarenus noteth was a vaine busie turbulent arrogant and proud man presuming aboue that which was fit and challenging that which no way pertained vnto him and therefore we may justly reject both him and his sayings But for the words of our Sauiour it is euident that they proue no such thing as this Pope would inforce out of them Some saith Maldonatus frō these words would proue that the Church hath two swords the one spirituall the other temporall which whether it haue or haue not cannot be proued out of this place where other swords are meant then either of Ciuill or Ecclesiasticall authority Our Sauiour telleth his Disciples the times approaching will be such as that a man had neede for his owne defence to sell his coate to buy a sword Whereupon the Disciples supposing they should vse materiall swords in their owne defence answere that they haue two swords To whom Christ replyeth that it is enough not confirming their erring opinion but answering them Ironically as Theophylact and Euthymius thinke Or otherwise letting them vnderstand that
chiefe-fathers of Israel they came to Ierusalem and all the congregation made a couenant with the King said The Kings sonne must reigne as the Lord hath said of the sons of Dauid Hereupon the King is proclaimed Athaliah is slaine the house of Baal destroied the Altars and idols that were in it broken down In all this narration there is nothing that maketh for the chiefe Priests power of deposing lawfull kings if they become heretiques For first Athaliah was an vsurper no lawfull Queene Secondly here was nothing done by Iehoiada alone but by him and the Captaines of hundreths and the chiefe Fathers of Israel that entred into couenant with him Thirdly there is great difference betweene the high Priest in the time of the Lawe and in the time of Christ. For before the comming of Christ the high Priest euen in the managing of the weightiest ciuill affaires and in iudgement of life and death sate in the Councell of State as the second person next vnto the King by Gods owne appointment Whereas our Aduersaries dare not claime any such thing for the Pope And therefore it is not to bee maruailed at if the high Priest beeing the second person in the kingdome of Iudah by Gods owne appointment and the Vnckle and Protectour of the young king whom his wife had saued from destruction bee the first mouer for the bringing of him to his right and when things are resolued on by common consent take on him not onely to commaund and direct the Priests and Leuites but the Captaines souldiers also for the establishing of their King the suppressing of a bloody tyrant and vsurper For all this might be done by Iehoiada as a chiefe man in that state and yet the Pope be so farre from obtaining that he claimeth which is to depose lawfull kings for abusing their authority that hee may not presume to do all that the high Priests lawfully did and might doe as not hauing so great preeminence from Christ in respect of matters of ciuill state in any kingdome of the world as the high Priest had by Gods owne appointment in the kingdome of Iudah Israel In the old Law saith Occā the high Priest meddled in matters of warre in the judgment of life and death the losse of members vengeance of blood it beseemed him well so to do But the Priests of the new Law may not meddle with things of this nature Wherefore from the power dominion which the high Priest of the old Law had it cannot be concluded that the Pope hath any power in tēporal matters The fifth example is of Ambrose repelling Theodosius the Emperour from the communion of the Church after the bloody and horrible murther that was committed at Thessalonica by his commandement The story is this The coach-man of Borherica the Captaine of the souldiers in that towne for some fault was committed to prison Now when the solemne horse-race and sporting fight of horsemen approched the people of Thessalonica desired to haue him set at liberty as one of whom there would be great vse in those ensuing solemne sports which being denied the citty was in an vprore and Botherica and certaine other of the magistrates were stoned to death and most despitefully vsed Theodosius the Emperour hearing of this outrage was exceedingly moued and commaunded a certaine number to be put to the sword without all iudiciall forme of proceeding or putting difference betweene offendors and such as were innocent So that seauen thousand perished by the sword and among them many strangers that were come into the citty vpon diuerse occasions that had no part in the outrage for which Theodosius was so sore displeased were most cruelly and vniustly slaine Saint Ambrose vnderstanding of this violent and vniust proceeding of the Emperour the next time he came to Millaine and was comming to the Church after his wonted manner met him at the doore and stayd him from entring with this speech Thou seemest not to know O Emperour what horrible and bloudy murthers haue beene committed by thee neither dost thou bethinke thy selfe now thy rage is past to what extremities thy fury carried thee perhaps the glory of thine Imperiall power will not let thee take notice of any fault thy greatnesse repelleth all checke of reason controlling thee but thou shouldest know the frailty of mans nature and that the dust was that beginning whence we are taken and and to which we must returne Let not therefore the glory of thy purple robes make thee forget the weakenesse of that body of flesh that is couered with them Thy subjects O Emperour are in nature like thee and in seruice thy fellowes for there is one Lord and commander ouer all the maker of all things Wherefore with what eyes wilt thou behold his temple or with what feete wilt thou treade on the sacred pauement thereof wilt thou lift vp to him those hands from which the bloud yet droppeth wilt thou receiue with them the sacred body of our Lord or wilt thou presume to put to thy mouth the cup replenished with the precious bloud of Christ which hast shed so much innocent bloud by the word of thy mouth vttering the passion of thy furious minde Depart therefore adde not this iniquity to the rest and decline not those bands which God aboue approueth With these speeches the Emperour was much moued and knowing the distinct duties both of Emperours and Bishops for that he had bin trained vp in the knowledge of heauenly doctrine returned to the Court with teares sighes A long time after for eight moneths were first past the solemne feast of the Natiuity of Christ approached and all prepared themselues to solemnize the same with triumphant ioy But the Emperor sate in the Court lamenting powring out riuers of teares which when Ruffinus maister of the pallace perceiued he came vnto him and asked the cause of his weeping to whom weeping more bitterly then before he said O Ruffinus thou makest but a sport of these things for thou art touched with no sence of those euils wherewith I am afflicted but the consideration of my calamity maketh me sigh and lament for that whereas the doores of Gods Temple are open to slaues and beggars and they goe freely into the same to make prayers vnto their Lord they are shut against me and which is yet worse the gates of heauen are shut against me also for I cannot forget the words of our Lord who saith Whomsoeuer ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heauen To whom Ruffinus replied I will runne if it please thee O Emperour to the Bishop and intreate him to vnloose these bands wherewith hee hath bound thee No saith the Emperour it is to no purpose so to doe for he will not bee intreated I know his sentence is right and iust and that he will not transgresse the law of God for any respect of imperiall power Yet when Ruffinus was
Pope perceiuing his dislike promised that both the writing and the painting should bee taken away that it might giue no occasiō of contention discord These Romish practises making the Emperour and his Nobles to vnderstand the wordes of the Popes Letter in the worst sense caused the message of these Cardinals to bee very offensiue and a generall murmuring against them was heard among the Princes which growing more lowde and being heard and discerned by the Legates one of them adventured in the quarrell of his Master to demaund of whom the Emperour hath his Empire if hee haue it not of the Lord Pope Which speach of the Cardinall so inraged the Princes that one of them to wit Otto the County Palatine of Boiaria had with his sword runne him through had not Fredericke the Emperor interposed his authority pacified the present rage The Emperor seeing in what termes things stood tooke the best course he could for the security of the Legates and commaunded that they should presently bee had to their lodgings that the next morning they should be gon returne directly to him that sent them and not to wander vp downe in the Territories of Bishops Abbots as he thus happily dispatched them away in safety so after they were gonne providently by letters he caused it to be made known throughout the whole Empire what had passed betweene him the Pope The Tenor of his letters was this Whereas the diuine power from which all power proceedeth both in heauen and earth hath committed to vs his annoynted the rule of the Kingdome and Empire and ordayned that by Imperiall armes wee should preserue the peace of the Churches we are forced not without great griefe of heart to complaine vnto you that from the head of the holy Church in which Christ imprinted the Character of his peace loue the causes of dissention the seminary of euils and the poyson of a most pestiferous disease doe seeme to flow by meanes whereof if God turne not away this euill there is danger least the vnity betwixt the Priest-hood kingdome be broken and a schisme follow For of late as we were in the Court of Bisuntium consulting about things concerning the honour of the Empire good of the Churches there came vnto vs certain Legates from the Pope who professed to bring such a message as tended greatly to the increase of the honour of the Empire But when we had the first day honorably entertained them as the manner is and the second day sat with our Princes to heare their message They as it were puffed vp by reason of the Mammō of iniquity out of the height of their pride out of the haughtinesse of their arrogant mindes and out of the execrable elation of their swelling hearts presented vnto vs an Embassage contained in letters written by the Pope the tenor whereof was That wee should alwayes haue before the eyes of our mind in what sort the Lord Pope had conferred vpon vs the Ensigne of the Imperiall crowne and that yet notwithstanding it would no way repent him if he had done vs greater fauours and wee had receiued more benefits of him These thinges not onely much affected but so moued the Princes and inraged them in such sort that if we had not stayed them by our Princely authority the two wicked Priestes the Legates had neuer returned aliue Wherefore seeing they had many schedules sealed to be written in at their pleasure by which as formerly they were wont to doe they might scatter the poyson of their iniquity throughout all the Churches of the Germane kingdome make bare naked the holy Altars carry away with them the vessels of the house of God as a prey that they might proceede no farther in mischief we cōmanded them without wandring or going aside to returne the same way they came For whereas we haue our kingdome by the election of the Princes from God only who in the passion of his son subiected the world to 2 sword◅ and the Apostle Peter informed the world with the same doctrine saying Feare God honour the King We are well assured that whosoeuer shall say that we receiue our Imperiall crowne as a benefit from the Pope he is contrary to the institution of God the doctrine of blessed Peter is a lyar and therefore our hope is that you will not suffer the honor of the Empire which hath continued from the Constitution of the Citty and the Institution of Christian Religion inviolable till our times to be diminished by such vnheard-of nouelties presumptuous pride But howsoeuer know yee that we will rather run into perill of death it self then suffer such a shamefull confusion to fall out in our times After the returne of the Cardinals their complaints made the Pope wrote letters to the Arch-bishops and Bishops of Germany telling them with what indignity the Emperour dismissed his Legates and how he forbad any to come to Rome out of his kingdome and prayed them to aduise him better and to let him know that the Church which is builded vpon a most firme sure rocke shall continue for euer howsoeuer it may bee shaken with windes and tempests The Bishoppes of Germany hauing receiued these letters from the Pope writ backe vnto him that howsoeuer the Church cannot bee moued yet they were greatly shaken by reason of these differences betweene him and the Emperour and tell him that the words of his letter were such as that neither the Emperor and Princes could indure them nor they knew how to defend them as being strange and vnheard-of before these times Notwithstanding they let him know that after the receipt of his letters they communed with the Emperour about these affaires and receiued from him such an answere as beseemed a Catholique Prince to wit that there are two things whereby his Empire must be swayed the Lawes of Emperors and the vse and custome of his ancestors These limits he is resolued not to passe and whatsoeuer will not stand with these he will vtterly refuse and reject he is willing to giue all due reuerence vnto his ghostly father but that he ascribeth the crown of his Empire to the diuine fauour onely the first voyce in the election to the Arch-bishop of Mentz and the rest to the other Princes in order that hee acknowledgeth to haue receiued the vnction of a King from the Arch-bishop of Coleyn and the supreme vnction which is that of an Emperour from the Pope and that whatsoeuer is besides these is more then ynough and proceedeth from that which is euill that hee had not sent away the Cardinals in contempt but forbad them to proceede any further with such writings as they had tending to the dishonour and scandall of the Empire and that hee had not restrained the going of men into Italy vpon necessary occasions to be allowed by their Bishops nor simply inhibited the comming of men from thence
assembled in Generall councels rely not vpon any speciall and immediate revelations may easily be proued by sundry good and effectuall reasons For first whensoeuer we hope to come to know any thing by speciall and immediate revelation from God wee vse not to betake our selues to study and meditation but to prayer onely and other good workes or at least principally to these Whence it is that Daniel when he hoped to obtaine of GOD the interpretation of Nebuchadnezars dreame by speciall and immediate revelation did not exhort his companions and consorts by study to search out the secret he desired to know but by prayer and supplication to seeke it of GOD. And after hee had found out the secret hee sought for hee saide O God of my Fathers I confesse vnto thee and praise thee because thou hast giuen mee wisedome and strength and hast shewed vnto me those things which we desired of thee and hast opened vnto vs the word of the King Whence also it is that Christ promising-his Apostles that hee would reveale vnto them what they should speake when they should bee brought before Kings and Rulers willeth them To take no care how or what to speake for that it should bee revealed vnto them in that houre what they should speake It is not you that speake saith our Sauiour but the spirit of my Father that speaketh in you When as therefore wee hope to learne any thing of GOD by immediate revelation wee must not apply our selues to study and meditation but to prayer But when men meete in Generall councels to determine any doubt or question they principally giue themselues to meditation study and search therefore they hope not to bee taught of GOD by immediate revelation Secondly when wee desire to haue things made knowne vnto vs by immediate revelation from GOD wee goe not to them that are most learned but to them that are most devout and religious whether they bee learned or vnlearned whether of the cleargy or the Laity whether men or women because for the most part GOD revealeth his secrets not to them that are wiser more learned but to them that are better more religious and devout according to that of our Sauiour r I giue thee thankes O Father LORD of Heauen and Earth because thou hast hidde these things from the wise and men of vnderstanding and hast opened them vnto Babes And therefore the good King Iosias when hee desired by revelation to know the will of GOD touching the wordes of the volume that was found in the Temple hee sent Helkiah the High Priest to Huldah the Prophetesse and sought not concerning the wordes of the Law among the Priests whose lippes are to preserue knowledge and at whose mouth men ought to seeke the Law because though the Law bee to bee sought at the mouth of the Priest in all those things which may bee learned by study meditation search yet in those things that are to bee learned by revelation recourse must bee had to them that haue the spirit of prophecie if any such bee or else to them that are most holy and whose prayers are most acceptable vnto God Neither are men for satisfaction in these things rather to goe to the Priestes then to any Lay-man that is vtterly vnlearned But in councels men goe to them that are more learned and of better place in the church though they bee not the best and holyest men Therefore questions touching matters of faith are not determined in councels by immediate revelation If it be said that the Apostles and Elders in that first councell which is mentioned in the Actes relyed on the knowledge they had of the Scriptures and Trueth of GOD and did not wayte for a new immediate revelation and that therefore this kinde of reasoning will bring them within compasse of the same danger of erring that wee subiect their Successors vnto because they relye not vpon immediate revelation but search and study It will bee easily aunswered that though the Apostles and others assembled in that councell depended not vpon immediate revelation but the knowledge they had of the Scriptures and Trueth of GOD and thence inferred what was to be thought of the matter then in question yet were they not in danger of erring as their successours are because they relyed not on such imperfect knowledge as study meditatiō begets but such as divine revelatiō causeth to wit perfect absolute whēce they knew how to deriue the resolution of any doubt or question beeing specially assisted by the Spirit of Trueth Neither lette any man thinke that the Apostles assembled in this Councell were any way doubtfull what to resolue when they heard the matter proposed because there is mention made of great disputation in that meeting For as it may bee thought that questioning and disputing was among the Elders and Brethren and not among the Apostles the meanest of them being able to resolue a farre greater matter without any the least doubt or stay So that it is absurd that Melchior Canus from hence inferreth that the Decrees of this Councell wherein there was so great a dispute are not Canonicall Scripture any other wayes then the wordes of Pilate are because they are recorded by the Euangelists in the holy Scripture But to returne to the matter whence this obiection made vs digresse it is no way necessary to thinke that the Fathers are any otherwise directed by the Spirit of Trueth in Generall Councels then in Patriarchicall Nationall or Prouinciall Seeing Generall Councells consist of such as come with instructions from Prouinciall Nationall and Patriarchicall Synodes must follow the same in making Decrees as hath beene shewed before and consequently that they are not led to the finding out of the trueth in any speciall sort or manner beyond that generall influence that is required to the performance of euery good worke So that as God assisting Christian men in the Church onely in a generall sort to the performance of the workes of vertue there are euer some wel-doers and yet no particular man doth alwayes well and there is no degree or kinde of Morall vertue commanded in the Law but is attained by some one or other at one time or other one excelling in one thing and another in another yet no particular man or company of men hath all degrees and perfections of vertue as Hierome fitly noteth against the Pelagians so in like sort God assisting Christian men in the Church in seeking out the truth only in generall sort as in the performance of the actions of vertue not by immediate reuelation and inspiration as in the Apostles times there are euer some that hold and professe all necessary truth though no one man or company of men doe find the truth euer and in all thinges nor any assurance can be had of any particular men that they should alwayes hold all necessary truthes And therefore we may safely conclude that
this immunity And Sixtus Senensis saith that Hierome speaketh not of that tribute which subiects pay to their Princes here in this world but of that which we all owe to CHRIST so that this is that he saith why doe not we wretched men professing our selues to be the servants of Christ yeeld vnto his Maiesty the due tribute of our seruice seeing Christ so great and excellent payde tribute for our sakes S. Austine in his first book of Questions vpon the Gospels saith that Kings sons in this world are free that therefore much more the sonnes of that Kingdome vnder which all kingdomes of the World are should bee free in each earthly Kingdome which words Thomas and Sixtus Senensis vnderstand of a freedome from the bondage of sin but Iansenius rejecteth that interpretation because Austine saith the children of Kings are free from tribute and thinketh that Austines meaning is that if God the King of Heauen Earth had many naturall sonnes as hee hath but one only begotten they should all be free in all the Kingdomes of the world and other apply these words to cleargy-men though there bee nothing in the place leading to any such interpretation But whatsoeuer we thinke of the meaning of Austine Bellarmine saith it cannot bee inferred from these his wordes that cleargy-men by Gods Law are free from the duty of paying tribute because as Chrysostome noteth Christ speaketh only of naturall children and besides prescribeth nothing but onely sheweth that vsually among men Kings sonnes are free from tribute and therefore whereas the authority of Bonifacius the Eighth who affirmeth that the goods persons of Cleargy-men are free from exactions both by the law of God and man is brought to proue the contrary Hee answereth first that haply the Pope meant not that they are absolutely freed by any speciall graunt frō God but only that there is an example of Pharaoh an Heathen Prince freeing the Priests of his Gods mentioned in Scripture which may induce Christian Kings to free the Pastours of Christs Church Secondly that it was but the priuate opinion of the Pope inclining to the iudgment of the Canonistes and that he did not define any such thing So that men may lawfully dissent from him in this point So that we see by the testimonies of Scripture and Fathers and the confession of the best learned among our aduersaries themselues that Almighty God did not by any special exemption free either the goods or persons of Cleargy-men from the command of Princes and that in the beginning they were subiect to all seruices iudgements payments burdens that any other are subiect to and required by Christ the Sonne of God and his blessed Apostles to be so But some man happily will say that though Christ did not specially free eyther the goods or persons of Cleargy-men from the subiection to Princes yet there are inducements in reason and in the very light of nature such and so great to moue Princes to set them free that they should not do well if they did not so Whereunto wee answere that there is no question to be made but that the Pastors of the Church that watch ouer the soules of men are to bee respected and tendered more then men of any other calling and so they are and euer were where any sence of religion is or was The Apostle Saint Paul testifieth of the Galathians that they receiued him as an Angell of God yea as Christ Iesus himselfe that they would haue euen plucked out their eyes to haue done him good The Emperour Constantine honoured the Christian Bishops with the name and title of Gods acknowledged himselfe subject to their iudgment though he swayed the scepter of the World and refused to see what the complaintes were that they preferred one against another or to read their bils but professed that to couer their faults he would euen cast frō him his purple Robe Whence it came that many priuiledges were anciently graunted vnto them both in respect of their persons goods For first Constantine the Great not onely gaue ample gifts to the Pastors of the Churches but exempted them also from those seruices ministeries and imployments that other men are subiect to His Epistle to Anelinus the Proconsul of Africa wherein this graunt was made to them of Affrica is found in Eusebius Neyther is it to be doubted but that he extended his fauours to the Bishops of other Churches also aswell as to them The words of the Grant are these Considering that the due obseruation of things pertaining to true religion and the worshippe of God bringeth great happinesse to the whole state of the Common-wealth and Empire of Rome For the incouragement of such as attend the holy Ministery and are named Cleargy-men my pleasure is that all such in the Church wherein Caecilianus is Bishop be at once and altogether absolutely freed and exempted from all publicke Ministeries and Seruices Neither did the Emperors only exempt them from these seruices but they freed them also frō secular iudgements vnles it were in certaine kindes of criminall causes Wherein yet a Bishop was not to be cōuēted against his wil before any secular Magistrate without the Emperors cōmand Neyther might the temporall Magistrates condemne any Cleargy-man till hee were degraded by his Bishoppe howsoeuer they might imprison and restraine such vpon complaints made And answerably hereunto the Councell of Matiscon prouideth that no Cleargy-man for any cause without the discussion of his Bishop shall bee wronged imprisoned by any Secular Magistrate that if any Iudge shal presume to doe soe to the Cleargy-men of any Bishoppe vnlesse it be in a criminall cause hee shall bee excommunicated as long as the Bishoppe shall thinke fitte This was all the immunity that Cleargy-men anciently had by any grant of Princes and as much as euer the Church desired to enjoy but that which in latter times was challenged by some and in defence of the claime whereof Thomas Becket resisted the King till his bloud was shedde was of another kinde For whereas it was not thought fitte by the King and State of the Realme at that time that Church-men found in enormous crimes by the kings Iustices should be deliuered ouer to their Bishoppes and so escape ciuill punishment but that confessing such crimes or being clearely conuinced of them before the Bishoppe the Bishoppe should in presence of the Kings Iustices degrade them and put them from all Ecclesiasticall honour and deliuer them to the Kings Court to be punished Becket was of a contrary minde and thought that such as Bishoppes degraded or putte out of their Ministery of the Church should not bee punished by the ciuill Magistrates because as hee sayd one offence was not to be punished twice The occasion of this controuersie betweene the King and the Arch-bishoppe was giuen by one Philip Brocke a Canon of Bedford Who beeing brought before
Pope and other Bishoppes to haue them Tithe-free The Councell of Lateran vnder Alexander the Third ordayneth That religious men shall pay no Tithes out of such their landes as they tille themselues But if they shall rent any they shall pay Tithe as other doe and likewise if they let any landes out vnto Countrey-men to be tilled they shall pay Tithes out of them yea if they shall get new landes after their foundation and confirmation of their Priuiledges they shall pay Tithes though they keepe them in their owne handes But this exemption of Religious men though very preiudiciall to the Church staid not heere but preuayled yet further to the great hurt of the Church and therefore wee reade that some sought to exempt their Farmers also from paying Tithes which the Bishoppes assembled in the Councell of Cabilon disliked and commaunded that both Bishops and Abbots should permit their Tenants to pay Tithes in the places where they receiued the Sacraments and that they should keepe the Tithes of such fieldes and Vineyardes as they held in their owne occupation to themselues Thus we shall finde that this Monkish generation first robbed the parochiall Churches within the boundes whereof their houses and possessions were of a great portion of Tithes due vnto them by their priuiledges and exemptions and that after they had tasted the sweetnesse of this robbery they went forward till they had subiected those Ministers and their Churches to themselues to whose Iurisdiction they were formerly subiect And got the Tithes that others payed to parochiall Churches to bee appropriated to themselues that at first by priuiledge exempted themselues from paying Tithes forgetting that of Saint Hierome Alia Monachorum est causa alia Clericorum Clerici pascunt oues ego pascor illi de Altari vivunt mihi quasi infructuosae arbori securis ponitur ad radicem si munus ad Altare non defero nec possum obtendere paupertatem cum in Evangelio anum viduam duo quae sola sibi supererant aera mittentem laudauerit Dominus mihi ante Presbyterum sedere non licet illi si peccauero licet tradere me Satanae in interitum carnis vt Spiritus salvus sit That is the condition of Monkes and the condition of Cleargy-men differ very much Cleargy-men feede the Sheepe of CHRIST but I am fedde they liue by the Altar but if I bring not my gift to the Altar the Axe is laid vnto mee as to an vnfruitfull Tree neither ◅nne I pretend Pouerty seing the Lord in the Gospell praysed the Widow that cast in two Mites which was all that shee had I may not sitte in the presence of a Presbyter but if I offend he may deliuer me to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saued But as these idle bellies and euill beasts by the fauour of Popes and Prelates got into their hands the portion which God appointed for his seruants the Ministers of his Churches so in the end growing odious to the world for that professing mortification and a voluntary penitentiall course of life they abounded in wealth surfetted vpon pleasures more then any secular men in the world they were deuoured of others who seazed vpon their houses tooke from them their reuenewes and together with their other liuings led captiue that portion of tithes they found in their possessions and hold it in sort as the former vsurpers did euen to this day So that wee may truely pronounce that the Cloisters of Monks are guilty of all that horrible Sacriledge that hath layed wast so many Churches spoyled so many Christians of the comfort of Godly Pastors that otherwise they might haue enioyed brought the Cleargy into that meane estate that now it is come vnto For it is not to be imagined that euer any Lay-man would once haue entertayned a thought of receiuing tithes that as consecrated things to God and holy vnto him were to bee put into the Store-house of his Temple if they had not found them who by the originall of their order and institution were to pay and not to receiue tithes possessed of them and spending them in most vile and shamefull manner Neither shall we euer finde as I thinke that Lay-men inherited this portion of the Lord in sort as now they doe till the suppressing of the houses of these irreligious Monkes which were become cages of vncleane Birdes and dens of theeues and robbers It is true indeed that Duarenus hath that the right of receiuing sacred tithe Clientela titulo was by certaine Princes with the consent of the whole Cleargy made ouer to Knights and Marshall men for defending the Church and people of CHRIST against the enemies of Religion But this was for the good and benefite of the Cleargy and in their right and not as now it is by absolute Title of Inheritance and Fee-simple or Freehold The beginner of this kinde of assignation of tithes to Lay-men for defence of the Church was Charles Martell as Duarenus saith and the third Councell of Laterane reversed and voydedit more then foure hundred yeares since From tithes which the Lord God possessor of Heauen and earth appropriated to himselfe as his owne particular portion from the beginning though all were his let vs proceede to see what the devotion of men gaue vnto him since the appearing of CHRIST his Son in the world Touching which point first we shall find in the sacred story of the Evangelists that many ministred vnto CHRIST out of their substance and that hee had a Bagge wherein he kept the things which the faithfull ministred vnto him and out of the same supplyed his owne necessities and the wants of others as Saint Augustine obserueth So that he did not liue so as to haue nothing or to begge as some here-tofore haue thought whose errour Pope Iohn the two and twentieth long since condemned Heere was the first patterne of Church-goods and treasure as Augustine noteth After the death resurrection and returne of CHRIST into Heauen such was the devotion of the beleeuers in the beginning that many of thē solde their possessions and brought the price thereof and laid it down at the Apostles feet Which communication of the goods of the first Christians though it extended to the benefite of all yet was there a speciall respect therein had to the Apostles to whom they would haue nothing to be wanting and to whose disposition all was committed The reason why they rather solde their possessions and turned their lands into money then gaue them to the Apostles for the reliefe and maintenance of themselues others was as some thinke for that the Church was soone after to bee remooued from those parts and to be dispersed amongst the Gentiles which made them little regard to haue lands and possessions in Iudaea But after these times when the Christians were dispersed throughout the world Churches established amongst the Gentiles they thought
what is yet wanting to the faithfull departed or to such as are aliue at the suite supplication of the holy Patriarches Prophets Apostles c. For seeing it is confessed by vs that the Saints in heauen doe pray for vs in a generality we may desire of God the graunting of such things as we or others need not only vpon our own suite but much more for that there are so many supplyants to him for vs not in earth alone but in heauen also though without sence or knowledge of our particular wantes So that there is nothing found in Chrysostome either touching prayer for the dead or invocation of Saints that maketh any thing for the confirmation of popish errours For neither doth Chrysostome in that Liturgie pray for the ease of men in Purgatorie neither doth he inuocate any Saint but calleth vpon God onely though not without hope of being heard the rather for that not onely the faithfull on earth but the Saints in heauen also make petition for him But Master Higgons asketh why I concealed these things To whom I answere that I did not conceale any of them For howsoeuer citing some other parts of Chrysostomes Liturgie to another purpose I had no reason to bring in these passages being altogether impertinent to my purpose and the matter in hand yet in other places I haue shewed at large the ancient practise in all these things and therefore this seduced runnagate whom Sathan the tempter hath beguiled had no reason to compare me to the Tempter leauing out certaine wordes in the text he alleadged vnto Christ. §. 5. IN the next place he obiecteth to vs the heresie of Aerius condemned by Augustine amongst many other impious heresies and Augustines conclusion that whosoeuer maintaineth any of the hereticall opinions condemned by him is no Catholicke Christian and telleth vs that this censure toucheth vs very neere but that I demeane my selfe plausibly and artificially to avoid the pressure of that difficultie which is too heauy for me to beare Whereunto I briefly answer that I demeane not my self artificially to avoid the force of any trueth which I esteeme value aboue all treasures in the world but in all sincerity vnfold those thinges which Papists seeke to wrap vp in perplexed and intricate disputes to the entangling of the Readers For I shew that the naming of the names of the departed the offering of the sacrifice of praise for them the praying for their resurrection publike acquitall perfect consummation and blisse in the day of Christ yea the praying for their deliuerance from the hand of hel the mouth of the Lyon the vtter deletion remissioÌ„ of their sins respectiuely to their passage hence first entrance into the other world are not disliked by vs and that thus far the general intention of the Church extended but that to pray for the deliuerance of meÌ„ out of hel or for the mitigation or suspension of the punishments that are in hel was but the priuat deuotioÌ„ of some particular men doubtfully eroneously extending the publicke prayers of the Church farther then they were meant and intended by her and that in this particular they fell from the trueth which if M. Theophilus Higgons shall deny justifie such kind of prayers for the dead we will be bold to call him by his new name Theomisus But he is desirous to know of me or any other without lies obscurities and circuitions whether Cyrill of Hierusalem concurring absolutely with the Papists in this point of prayer for the dead and Augustine agreeing with him fell away from the truth or not That he professeth himselfe an enemy to lies obscurities and circuitions the best sanctuaries of their euill cause I greatly maruell feare that if he giue ouer the aduantage which he and his companions are wont to make thereof this his first booke will be his last But in that he saith Cyrill of Hierusalem concurreth absolutely with the Papists in the matter of prayer for the dead and Augustine with him hee doth as beseemeth him for he vttereth lies and vntruthes which before vnaduisedly he condemned For first it is most certaine that Cyrill maketh but two sortes of men departing out of this life sinners righteous and that he thinketh as Chrysostome also doth and after them Damascene many other that wicked and sinfull men in hell may find some ease be relieued by the prayers of the liuing but of Purgatory he speaketh not Touching Augustine he dissenteth altogether from this opinion of Chrysostome Cyrill and Damascene thinketh that the prayers of the Church for such as excelled in goodnes are thanksgiuings to God for such as died impenitently in grieuous sins comforts of the liuing but no helpes of the dead for those that were neithâ—… exceeding good nor exceeding euill propitiations and meanes to obtaine fauour and remission But whether they of this middle sort be in any penall estate after death or whether by the mercy of God and working of his grace the prayers of the liuing accompanying them they bee freed from sinne and the punishment of it in the first entrance into the other world he resolueth nothing and therfore there was no cause why this good man reflecting as he saith vpon my assertion should bee amazed to behold such a repugnancie betweene these things to wit Augustine ran doubtingly into the opinion of Purgatorie and yet he affirmeth there is no doubt but that some sinnes are remitted in the other world and tâ—…at some soules may be relieued by prayer For in the iudgement of wiser men then Mastâ—…r Higgons these thinges imply no contradiction and therefore the Grecians admit the latter of them and yet deny Purgatory Yea in their Apologie touching Purgatory they say if there be remission of sinnes after this life there is no enduring of the punishments due to sin it being one thing to haue remission of a sin or fault and another to suffer the extremity of punishment it deserueth That there is therefore remission of sinnes of a middle sort of men after this life in the entrance into the other world Augustine made no doubt and to that purpose he alleadged the saying of Christ concerning the sinne that is neither remitted in this world nor the other from thence to inferre that some sinnes are remitted after this life But whether there be any Purgatory-punishments after this life or not hee was euer doubtfull as appeareth by sundry places in his workes where he saith Perhaps there is some such thing it is not incredible that there is some such thing and whether there be or not it may be found out or it may be hid neither will it follow that because he maketh three estates of men dying whereof some are so good that wee haue rather cause to giue God thankes for them then to pray others so ill that they cannot be relieued and a third sort that need our
some vnderstanding that the bread is therefore said to be made the body of Christ because where the Bread is the Body of Christ becommeth present others vnderstanding nothing but the order of succession whereby the body succeedeth is vnder the vailes of those accidents vnder which the Bread which they suppose to bee annihilated was before which opinion in substance Scotus followeth though in the manner of his speech hee seeme to decline it some admitting both the word and thing not wholly but in part as Durandus who thinketh the matter of the bread wine remaineth the forme onely changed some thinking the forme to remaine and the matter to cease Ockam saith there are 3 opinions touching Transubstantiation of which the first supposeth a conversion of the Sacramentall Elements the second an annihilation the third maketh the Bread to be so turned into the Body of Christ that it is no way chaunged in substance or substantially converted into Christs body but that onely the body of Christ becommeth present in euery part of the bread Cameracensis Gersons master professeth that for ought he can see the substantiall conversion of the Sacramentall elemēts into the body blood of Christ cannot be proued either out of Scripture or any determination of the Vniuersall Church and maketh it but a matter of opinion inclining rather to the other opinion of Con-substantiation And therefore in his iudgement it was not witnessed by a thousand a thousand persons of most holy life and profound knowledge testifying the truth thereof vnto death by a thousand a thousand miracles So that the thing which Gerson saith hath bin proued by miracles is the true presence of Christs body blood in the Sacrament the exhibition of thē to be the food of oursoules such a change of the elements in vertue grace power of containing in thē cōmunicating to vs Christs body blood as the nature of so excellent a Sacrament requireth This is the key which M. Higgons found to vnlock his vnderstanding that it might runne riot into all idle childish discourses But see the infelicitie of the man He was no sooner at libertie but presently againe he was incompassed brought into such a strait that either he must disclaime my book or his Protestanticall beleefe Yet did he not suffer himselfe long to bee so inclosed but full wisely chose rather to forsake the Religion hee was bredde in and which as a publique Preacher hee had taught others then to disclaime my booke Because as hee saith that Religion cannot bee good that is so falsely and absurdly defended by mee and all the cheefe Authors that euer applied their paines vnto that seruice Surely the poore fugitiue is greatly to be pittied as weake in vnderstanding and medling with things not fitte for him if hee doe that hee doth in simplicity or exceedingly to bee detested as a gracelesse person if he doe it as it is to be feared out of malice For what is it in my Booke that is so false and absurd as that the consideration thereof should make a man forsake his religion is not Transubstantiation one of the greatest mysteries of Popish religion as I haue said is that falsely deliuered by mee No but I say no miracle was euer done to confirme any thing defended by the Romanistes against vs and yet Gerson highly commended by mee saith many Miracles haue beene wrought for proofe and confirmation of that Transubstantiation which the Papists at this day beleeue and this is the falsitie and absurditie hee speaketh of That no miracle was euer wrought to proue the monstrous conceit of Popish Transubstantiation or any other Popish error shall stand good when heauen and earth shall be no more And if tenne thousand Gersons nay if so many Angells from heauen should affirme the contrarie I would not beleeue them much lesse Gerson a single witnesse in such a case This is then the absurdity that made him become a Papist that I commend Gerson and yet beleeue not euerything hee saith Truely this absurdity would neuer moue any but an absurd smatterer to alter his Religion For doth not Higgons himselfe admire Pighius Catharinus Contarenus and sundry other from whom he dissenteth in the matter of justification originall sinne and the certainty of grace Doth he not highly commend many that thought the Pope may erre that he is subiect to Generall Councells and may be deposed by them not for Heresie alone but for other enormous crimes also and yet I thinke hee will not be of their opinion So that though Gerson should thinke that the Transubstantiation which we deny was proued by miracles it were no such intollerable absurdity to commend him for much piety deuotion learning and vertue and yet to dissent from him in this point In the matter controuersed in former times in the Roman Church touching the conception of the blessed virgin were there not whorthy men on both sides did not the Patrons of her spotlesse conception pretend and alledge sundry miracles and visions for confirmation thereof yet was it no absurdity for Cardinall Caietan following the current of Antiquity to dissent from them how many worthy soeuer they were to call all their pretended miracles in question But indeed here is no such matter for Gerson is not so ill aduised as to dissent from his worthy Master confidently to affirme that a thousand and a thousand renowned for piety and learning by a thousand a thousand miracles gaue testimony to the opinion of the substantiall conuersion of the Sacramentall elements into the body blood of Christ which the Master of the Sentences the Author of the Ordinary glosse professe to be doubtfull and Caietan saith so many admitted not euen in his time But the onely thing hee affirmeth to haue beene confirmed by Miracles is that Christs body blood are truely present in the Sacrament that they are giuen to be the foode of our soules and that the outward elements are changed to become the body and blood of Christ which wee deny not though we dissent from the Papists touching the manner of the conuersion which they imagine to be substantiall to which opinion haply Gerson might consent as Cameracensis also did though he professed he could not see the deduction of it from Scripture or any determination of the Church and inclined rather to thinke that the substance of bread and wine remaine and that the body and blood of Christ become present together with them according to that of Cusanus who saith certaine ancient Diuines are found to haue been of opinion that the Bread is not substantially chaunged but that it is clothed vpon with a more noble substance as we hope to be clothed vpon with the light of glory our substance remaining the same it was and seemeth not much to dislike their opinion Thus wee see poore runnagate Higgons hath made a great out-cry when there
hee hath these words The Scripture meeting with the complaints of men which they doc or may make for that the Iust which went before seeme to bee defrauded of the reward due vnto them for a long time euen till the day of Iudgement wonderfully saith that the day of Iudgment is like vnto a ring or crowne wherein as there is no slacknesse of the last so is there no swiftnesse of the first for the day of crowning is expected by all that within it they that are ouercome may be ashamed and they that are conquerours may attaine the palme of victory and after some other things inserted he addeth that so long as the fulnesse of time is expected the soules expect their due reward though neither the one sort be without all sence of euill nor the other of good Thus if it had pleased M. Higgons to look into Ambrose himselfe not to the opinion of Senensis to which I referre not the Reader as he vntruly saith I doe but to the words of Ambrose cited by him hee might haue found that I dealt faithfully and sincerely in this matter and so haue spared a great number of reproachfull termes he now bestoweth very liberally on me Some man happily will say that elsewhere Ambrose seemeth to place the soules of Iust men in Heauen before the Resurrection and that this place de bono mortis is to be interpreted by them Wherevnto I answere that places where things are but spoken of in passage and not purposely are rather to be interpreted by those wherein they are purposely handled then otherwise and therefore this place de bono mortis wherein he goeth about to describe at large the state of the dead must bee a rule to interprete other places by The most pregnant proofe that is brought to the contrary out of his indubitate workes is out of his Fpistle to the Thessalonians where speaking of Acholius of whose death he had lately heard he fayth Hee is now an inhabitant of the higher world a possessor of the eternall city of Hierusalem that is in Heauen that hee seeth there the vnmeasurable measure of that City the pure gold the pretious stone perpetuall light without any sunne and these things truely were well knowne to him before but now seeing face to face hee sayth as wee haue heard so haue wee seene in the City of the Lord of hoastes in the Citty of our God and out of the last of his Epistles where speaking of certaine Martyrs hee sayth their soules are in Heautn their bodies on Earth but the answere hereunto for the reconciling of the seeming contradictions of Ambrose is easie for in the former place De bono mortis hee sheweth that hee thinketh that the soules of the Iust by seauen seuerall degrees as it were by the space of seauen dayes are ledde along to take a view of the things they shall enioy after the judgement and that afterwardes they are gathered into their habitations there to enioy the benefite of their quiet congregating or gathering together seauen dayes liberty they haue to see the former things and then they are gathered into their habitations The seuen degrees by which they are led those seuen dayes are 1 the consideration of their victory which they haue obtained ouer the flesh and other like enemies 2 The quiet they find in themselues from these perturbations and tormentings of conscience which the wicked are subiect vnto Thirdly the Diuine testimonie which they haue in themselues that they haue kept the Law making them not to feare the vncertaine euent of the future iudgement Fourthly their beginning to discerne their rest and future glory Fifthly triumphant ioy in that they are come out of the prison of a corruptible body into light and liberty and to possesse the inheritance promised to them 6. The brightnesse of their countenances beginning to shine as the sunne 7. Their confident hastning to see the face and countenance of God Hauing beene thus led along they are brought into their habitations where they comfort themselues in the fore-sight of that which shall be and rest peaceably guarded by the Angels in a place as he describeth it aboue the earth and places of dead bodies and yet below the highest heauen the place of perfit happinesse And so Acholius might be said by Ambrose to bee an inhabitant of the higher places and to see the glory of the Hierusalem that is aboue and yet not bee in the highest heauen But he saith Acholius is a possessor of that eternall Citty and that the Martyrs bodies are on earth and their soules in heaven therefore he thought the spirits of the iust to be in the highest heauen before the resurrection This consequence I feare will hardly bee made good for Bernard who is confessed to haue holden the opinion which I impute to Ambrose maketh three estates of soules the first in Tabernaculis the second in Atriis and the third in Domo interiori That is the first in Tents or Tabernacles while they remaine in the corruptible bodies of men that are in the warfare of Christ in the world the second in the outward Courtes of the Lords house and the third in the inner roomes of the house of God so sorting these thinges that both the latter states of soules of men may bee said and thought to bee in a sort in heauen and to haue possession of the eternall Ierusalem that is in Heauen and yet but one of them bee in the highest heauen where the perfection of the happy vision of God is to which purpose it is that Saint Augustine saith after this life thou shalt not be there where the Saintes shall be to whom it shall bee said come yee blessed of my father receiue the Kingdome which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world but thou maist bee where the proud rich man in the middest of torments saw a farre off the poore man sometimes full of vlcers resting in that rest thou shalt securely expect the day of iudgement Heere hee denyeth directly the soules of the iust to bee in heauen where they shall bee after the resurrection generall iudgement In his Confessions he saith Now Nebridius liueth in the bosome of Abraham whatsoeuer that it is that is signifyed by that bosome there liueth my Nebridius my sweete friend Heere wee see hee is doubtfull what the bosome of Abraham is Vpon Genesis he doubteth whether the soules of the iust bee in the third heauen or not which peremptorily in the place before cited hee denyed Neither doth hee speake thus doubtfully touching the place only but touching the state of happinesse also for in his Retractations thus he writeth That maketh vs most happy whereof the Apostle speaketh saying then shall I see him face to face and then shall I know as I am knowne they that haue found this are to bee said to be in the possession of blessednesse but who these
most blessed ones are who are in that possession it is a great question that the holy Angells are there is no question but concerning holy men departed whether they may be said to be now already in that possession it is doubtfull c. Surely it is maruaile if Saint Augustine escape the censure of Master Higgons who pronounceth it folly to doubt of these thinges Sixtus Senensis saith wee must ciuilly interpret Saint Augustine in these his sayings but Bellarmine saith directly hee sometimes doubted of the place where the soules of the iust are after death and that vpon the 36. Psalme he denyeth them to be there where after the iudgement they shall bee This is that Augustine that Master Higgons in his scurrill and ruffian-like phrase saith was not so easily to bee iaded by me as Ambrose Thinking them all Iades as it seemeth and vnfitte for such a horse-man as hee is to ride on that haue beene doubtfull or found to erre in this point if he doe I would desire to know of him what he thinketh of Irenaus who saith that the soules of men dying shall goe into an invisible place appointed for them by God and shall abide there till the resurrection attending and waiting for it and that after receiuing their bodies and perfitly rising againe that is corporally as Christ rose they shall come into the sight of God Of Iustine Martyr who saith no man receiueth the reward of the thinges he did in this life till the resurrection that the soule of the good theefe that was crucified with Christ entered into Paradise and is kept there till the day of resurrection reward that there the soules of good men doe see the humanity of Christ themselues the thinges that are vnder them and besides the Angels and Diuels Of Tertullian who saith Nulli patet coelum terrâ adhuc salvâ ne dixer im clausa that is heauen is open to none while the earth remaineth safe and whole that I say not shut vp and againe thou hast our booke of Paradise wherein wee determine that euery soule is sequestred apud inferos with them that are in the lower dwellings till the day of the Lord. Of Lactantius who will haue no man thinke that soules are iudged presently after death but that they are all detayned and kept in one common custody till the time come when the greatest iudge shall examine their workes Of Victorinus Martyr who vpon those wordes of Iohn in the Reuelation I saw the soules of the slaine vnder the Altar of God obserueth that in the time of the Law there were two Altars one of Gold within another of brasse without that as heauen is vnderstood by that golden Altar that was within to which the Priests entered onely once in the yeare so by the brasen Altar the earth is vnderstood vnder which is Infernus a region remoued from paines and fire and the resting place of the Saints in which the iust are seene and heard of the vngodly yet they cannot passe one to another Of Bernard whose opinion Alphonsus á Castro confesseth to be as I haue said Sixtus Senensis likewise but thinketh that hee is to be excused with a benigne affection because of the exceeding great number of renowned Fathers of the Church which seemed to giue authority to this opinion by their testimony amongst whom he reckoneth Ambrose for one Lastly of Pope Iohn the 22. who was violent in the maintenance of this opinion These premises considered let the Reader iudge whether Master Higgons had any cause to complaine of want of faithfullnesse and exactnesse in me in that I say that many of the Fathers thought there is no iudgment to passe vpon men till the last day that all men are holdē either in some place vnder the earth or else in some other place appointed for that purpose so that they come not into heauen nor receiue the reward of their labours till the generall iudgement and that many made prayers for the dead out of this conceipt such as that is in Iames his Liturgy that God would remember all the faithfull that are falne a sleepe in the sleepe of death since Abel the Iust till this present time For I doe not make this the ground of the generall practise and intention of the Church in her prayers as this shamelesse companion would make men beleeue SECT 5. FRom the foure Doctors of the Church and the supposed wronges offered to them he proceedeth to shew that I calumniate a worthy person to defend the inexcusable folly of our Geneuian Apostle his meaning is that I wrong Bellarmine to iustifie Calvine but what is the wrong done to the Cardinall Doctour Field saith hee accuseth Bellarmine vniustly of trifeling and sencelesse foolery in the question of prayer for the dead Let the reader take the paines to peruse the place cited by Master Higgons out of my booke and he shall finde him to bee a very false vnhonest trifeling fellow in so saying For first I doe not accuse Bellarmine of sencelesse foolery in the matter of prayer for the dead as hee vntruly reporteth against his owne knowledge but in that he seeketh to calumniate Master Caluine worthy of eternall honor in very childish sort about the name of Merit Caluine saith the Fathers were farre from the Popish errour touching merit and that yet they vsed the word whence men haue since taken occasion of errour therefore saith Bellarm hee dissenteth from all antiquity and acknowledgeth the Romane faith to be the auncient faith religion This is Bellarmines form of reasoning against Caluin if he say any thing which whether it be full of senceles foolery or not I wil refer it to the iudgment of any one that hath his sences Yet notwithstanding M. Higgons goeth on maketh a consolatory conclusion that Bell needeth not to be discontented that I haue thus wronged him seeing I haue likewise vniustly accused the Fathers But if hee may be as justly charged with foolery in his manner of reasoning against Calvin as the Fathers are truely reported to haue holden the opinion imputed to them by me as there is no question but he may I thinke this comfortable conclusion will not be very cordiall vnto him Secondly I doe not say that Bellarmine doth trifle in the question of prayer for the dead as he likewise adding one lye to another sayth I doe but in prouing the doctrine of the Romane Church that now is to be the same with that which was of olde And therefore silly Master Higgons knoweth not what he writeth But that Bellarmine doth indeede whatsoeuer this trifler sayth to the contrary egregiously trifle I will demonstrate to the Reader in such sort that neither Higgons nor any of his new masters shall be able to avoyde it Thus therefore the case standeth Bellarmine in his discourse of the notes of the Church not in the particular question
Councell against VVickliffe simply but in comparison and so doth Gerson and disliketh it as much as I doe condemning it of partiality To the fifth and sixth I say that Gerson affirmed the one to witte that no good was to bee expected by a generall Councell that the seuerall parts of the Christian world were to reforme them-selues and feared the other namely that too great diuersity would follow vppon such diuided reformations as it will easily appeare to any one that will take the paines to peruse the places cited by Mee Neither was it hast and precipitation as Maister Higgons is pleased to censure it but necessity that made our men to doe as they did hauing no meanes to meete for common deliberation To the seauenth I answere that Gerson Grosthead and the rest were members of the Church that was vnder the Papacie but that they were not of the papall faction nor vassals of the man of sin but men of a better spirit To the eighth I answere breefely that I haue most sincerely and truly alleaged the testimony of Gerson and noe way varied from his intention which that the reader may the better be able to discerne I will first set downe what my allegation is and then what exceptions Higgons taketh to it My words are these Touching the second cause of the Churches ruine which is the ambition pride and couetousnesse of the Bishoppe and Court of Rome Gerson boldly affirmeth that whereas the Bishoppes of Rome challenging the greatest place in the Church should haue sought the good of Gods people they contrarily sought onely to aduance themselues his wordes are these In imitation of Lucifer they will bee adored and worshipped as Gods neither doe they thinke themselues subiect to any but are as the sonnes of Belial that haue cast off the yoake not enduring whatsoeuer they do that a man should aske them why they do soe they neyther feare God nor reuerence men This is my allegation now let vs see what it is that Maister Higgons excepteth against in it Are not these the wordes of Gerson Hee cannot deny but that they are but hee sayth Gerson vttered them when there was a Schisme in the Church It is true hee did soe but what then Did not the true Pope whosoeuer hee was amongst those pretenders take as much on him as the rest and is not this note of disgrace fastned vpon all but that Maister Higgons may know that Gerson spake as much of the Pope simply as I haue cited out of him without any reference to pretenders as hee would faine avoyde the evidence of his heavy sentence let him consider what Gerson hath written in his Tract de potestate Ecclesiae where hee goeth about to stop the mouth of flattery giuing too much to the Cleargy and vile Detraction taking too much from it and bringeth in flattery speaking in this sort to them of the Cleargy especially the Pope O how great how great is the height of thy Ecclesiasticall power O sacred Cleargy how is secular power nothing if it be compared vnto thine Seeing as all power both in Heauen Earth was giuen to CHRIST so CHRIST left it all to Peter and his successors so that Constantine gaue nothing to Pope Sylvester that was not his before but restored to him that which had bin vnjustly with-holden and there is no power temporall or Ecclesiastical imperial or regall but frō the Pope in whose thigh CHRIST did write King of Kings and Lord of Lords of whose power to dispute it is sacrilegious to whom no man may say why doe you so though he ouer-turne teare in sunder and ouer-throw all states possessions and dominions temporall and Ecclesiasticall let Mee be reputed a lyar saith hee if these things bee not found written by them that are wise in their owne eyes and if they bee not found to haue beene beleeued by some Popes He addeth notum est illud satyrici Nihil est quod credere de se Non possit cum laudatur diis aequa potestas That is according to that knowne saying of the Satyricall Poet what should not hee perswade himselfe of himselfe that is magnified as equall to God in power For that of the Comicall Poet is true of the flatterer that he maketh fooles to be starke madde These are the sayings of Gerson which I haue laid downe at large that the Reader may judge whether I haue depraued the intention of Gerson or not and whether Higgons had any cause to traduce Mee in such sort as he doth It seemeth the poore fellow was hired to say something against Mee or else he would neuer haue adventured to vent such fooleries yet the last accusation against Mee is not to be passed ouer Gerson saith the Popes will be adored as God and I feare not to adde that the English Reader may vnderstand Mee that they will be adored and worshipped as God out of these premises he maketh an excellent conclusion comparing Gerson to Dauid that commaunded Ioab to saue the life of Absalom and Luther to Ioab that had no pitty on trayterous Absalom in that the one would haue the Pope well dealt withall though he disliked his faults and the other sought to tread him vnder his feete But let the Reader know that as Gerson so Luther was willing to giue all due honour to the Pope contenting himselfe with that which of right pertaineth to him but if hee dishonour God wrong the Church suffocate and kill her children and heretically refuse to be subiect to the Church and Councell if he challenge infallibility of iudgement from which no man may appeale Gerson will tread him vnder feete and reiect him as an Hereticke as well as Luther The Fourth Part. §. 1. IN the fourth part of this Chapter Master Higgons vndertaketh to proue that I haue abused the name and authority of Grosthead to iustifie the Lutheran reformation which he performeth full wisely in this sort Grosthead was iudged a Catholicke and a good man by some Cardinals in Rome therefore hee could not desire that reformation of things amisse that now is wrought If the consequence of this Argument be denyed hee knoweth not how to proue it but willeth his reader to demaund of Mee whether these Cardinals which iudged Grosthead to bee a Catholicke and of the same Religion with them-selues were not reall members of the Antichristian Synagogue proud Romanists factious Papists c. which question is soone answered For I haue distinguished as he knoweth right well the Church in which the Pope tyrannized and the faction of Papists that flattered him and applied themselues to sette forward his proud and vniust claimes till they lifted him vp into the throne and seate of Antichrist the members of the Church and of the faction and though both these liued for a time in the same outward Communion as did the right beleeuers and they that denied the resurrection of the dead amongst the Corinthians yet did they
those things which euery one that hath saluted the Schooles doth know The vnion of the natures of God and man in Christ sayth Cardinall Caietan is to be considered vel quantum ad relationem quam significat vel quantū ad coniunctionem in personâ ad quam consequitur quoniam plus differunt haec duo quam caelum terra Vnio enim pro relatione est ens reale creatum Vnio antem pro coniunctione naturae humanae in personâ diuina cum consistat in vnitate que est inter naturam humanam personam filij Dei est in genere seu ordine Substantia non est aliquid Creatum sed Creator quod ex eo constat quòd Vnum non addit supra Ens naturam aliquam vnumquodque per illudmet per quod est Ens est Vnum c. Bc per hoc natura humana in Christo quia per esse substantiale subsistentia filii Dei est iuncta naturae divinae oportet quod illud unum esse in quo indivisae sunt natura diuina humana in Christo sit esse unum substantiale divinum verè sic est quia esse subsistentiae filii Dei in quo non distinguuntur ambae naturae Substantia est Deus est quia verbum Dei est Vnà eâdem quippe Subsistentiâ subsistit filius Dei in natura Divina in natura humana consequenter natura divina et humana in Christo sunt indivisae in illa subsistentiautrique communi quamvis inter se valdè distinguantur The summe of that he saith is this for I will not stand exactly to English his wordes that the vnion betweene the nature of God and Man in CHRIST in respect of that being of actuall existence and subsistence wherein they are conioyned which is the same and common to them both to wit the subsistence of the Sonne of God communicated to the nature of man prevented that it should not haue any created or finite subsistence of it owne is no finite or created thing but infinite and diuine but in respect of the attaining of the same in time and the relation of dependance the humane nature hath vpon the Eternall Word it is finite and therefore whereas there are two kindes of grace in Christ the one of vnion the other habituall the latter is absolutely a finite and created thing but the former in respect of the thing giuen which is the personall subsistence of the Son of God bestowed vpō the nature of man is infinite though the passiue mutatiō of the nature of man lifted vp to the personal being of the Son of God the relation of dependance it hath on it be finite in the number of created things From that which hath beene said it may be concluded vnavoydably that the humanity of Christ in respect of personall vnion and in that being of actuall existence or subsistence which it hath which is infinite and diuine is euery-where as God himselfe is euery-where But saith Higgons there is an vnion Hypostatical betweene the soule body all the parts of it yet is not the foot or hand euery where where the soule is which is whole intire in euery part because it is not in the head The poore fellow I see hath yet learned but a little Diuinity and that maketh him thus to talke at randome For howsoeuer the comparison of the soule and body be brought to expresse the personall vnion in Christ yet it is very defectiue as Bellarmine himselfe confesseth First because the body and soule are imperfit natures Secondly because they concurre to make one nature Thirdly because neither of them draweth the other into the subsistence it hath but both depend on a third subsistence which is that of the whole but in the mysterie of the Incarnation the Eternall Word subsisting perfitly in it selfe draweth vnto it the nature of man so that the humanity of Christ hauing the same actuall existence that the Eternall Word hath must needes bee in respect of the same being whore-soeuer the Word is But there is no necessitie that each part of the body should be where-soeuer the soule is which is intirely in the whole body and intirely in euery part because the body and the parts of it haue neither the same being of essence nor existence that the soule hath But saith Higgons the properties of the diuine nature are by vertue of the personal vnion attributed to the persō in concreto not to the humane nature in abstracto so that though the Man Christ may be said to be euery-where yet the humanity cannot For answere to this obiection wee must note that the communication of properties is of two sorts the first is the attributing of the properties of either nature to the person from which nature soeuer it be denominated The second is the reall communication of the properties of the Deity to the nature of man not formally and in it selfe but in supposito in the person of the Sonne of GOD bestowed on it in which sense Bellarmine confesseth that the glory of GOD and all power both in Heauen and in earth are giuen to the humane nature of CHRIST Non in ipsa sed in supposito id est per gratiam unionis And so the Diuines of Germany doe say the humanity of CHRIST is euery-where in the being of subsistence cōmunicated to it the Man CHRIST properly and formally By this which hath beene said the intelligent reader I doubt not will easily perceiue the folly of silly Higgons who being ignorant of the very principles and rudiments of Christian Doctrine traduceth that as a pseudo-theologicall determination and heresie which is the resolued determination of all the principall Schoole-men and best Diuines that euer treated distinctly of the personall vnion of the two natures in Christ. Yet as if all were cleare for him and against Mee encouraged by his good successe in this particular hee proceedeth to the matter of the Sacrament perswading himselfe hee shall be able to find such and so many essentiall differences therein as neither I nor any man else shall euer be able to reconcile whereas notwithstanding if he had beene so much conuersant in the workes of Zanchius as hee pretendeth hee might haue found in him a most godly and learned discourse touching this point wherein all that hee or any of his companions can say is answered already and the Diuines of Germany and those other in shew opposite in such sort reconciled that our Aduersaries if any thing would satisfie them might lay their handes on their mouthes and be silent In this discourse first hee sheweth that there is no question touching the preparation of them that desire to bee worthy partakers of this heauenly banquet neither concerning the vse of this blessed Sacrament Secondly that it is agreed that the very body and blood of Christ are to be receiued by such as desire to be
Caluine doth expressely condemne these reseruations which I confessed before but no way goeth about to make good the consequence which I denied to wit that therefore hee thought the sanctified elements so reserued not to bee Sacramentally the Body of Christ. For that which hee hath that Caluine Bucer Melanchthon and almost all Protestants holde the Eucharist to bee no permanent thing but to bee the Sacrament onely when it is receiued hath no more force of proofe then the rest of his frivolous discourses seeing it is most evident that the Protestants named by him haue no such meaning that the sanctified elements in the Holy Eucharist are no Sacrament but precisely in the very receiuing of them for then they should bee no Sacrament in the hand of the Minister and on the Holy Table but onely in the hand or mouth of the communicant but that they are no Sacrament but in reference to the vse to which they were appointed by Almightie God as I haue shewed at large in the place against which this Treatiser quarrelleth §. 5. LEt vs therefore proceed to see what hee hath more to say In my Fourth booke writing of the things required for the attaining of the right vnderstanding of the Scripture I say some things are required as making vs capable of such vnderstanding and other as meanes whereby we attaine vnto it Amongst the things required as making vs capable of the right vnderstanding of Scripture I reckon the illumination of the vnderstanding and a minde free from the thought of other things depending on God as the Fountaine of illumination desirous to finde out the Truth with resolution to embrace it although contrary to the conceipts of naturall men The meanes whereby we attaine to the right vnderstanding of Holy Scripture I make to be of two sorts some disposing and preparing onely as often reading meditating and praying some guiding vs in the search it selfe and these I make to bee fiâ—…e Whereof the first is the knowledge of the rule of faith and the practise of the Saints according to the same The second a due consideration what will follow vpon our interpretation agreeing with or contrary to the things receiued amongst Christians In which consideration the conference of other places of Scripture is necessary The third the consideration of the circumstances of the places interpreted the occasion of the words the things going before and following after The fourth the knowledge of all those histories arts and sciences which may helpe vs. The fifth the knowledge of the originall tongues and the phrases and idiotismes of the same In all these passages as I thinke there is nothing that the Diuell himselfe dareth gaine-say yet as if I had vttered some strange paradoxes and things neuer heard of before the Treatiser sayth my doctrine is commonly singular in so much that hee professeth hee thinketh hee may very well in some sort liken the platforme or order and Faith of a Church sette downe in my bookes of that argument to Sir Thomas Moores Vtopia and that there neither is nor euer was any such Church in the world as I describe and therevpon maketh shew as if hee would confute euery word that I haue in the place cited by him Verily I thinke it will not bee safe for mee to write or say that there is a GOD that GOD made heauen and earth or that hee sent his sonne into the world for he impugneth thinges as cleare as any of these as that an illumination of the mind is necessary to the vnderstanding of the Scripture inspired of God the thinges contained in it seeing the naturall man perceiueth not the thinges of GOD which are spiritually discerned whereas yet wee shall finde that hee canne say nothing against the necessity of such diuine illumination for the vnderstanding of the Scripture but hee might say as much against the necessity of the light of naturall reason for the vnderstanding of things naturally discernable For hee might aske as now hee doth touching this illumination how a man knoweth hee hath reason or the vse of reason and is not mad or drunke seeing such men as are soe distempered thinke they haue the vse of reason as well as any other and one kinde of answere will serue for both these doubtes For as men know they haue reason by the discerning of such things as are not discernable by the senses or sensitiue faculties which are organicall soe faithfull and beleeuing men that haue their mindes enlightned knowe they haue receiued such a new illumination in that they discerne thinges which before by the dimme sight of nature they could not and as men that are sober and in their right wittes doe certainely know they are soe though such as are madde or drunke thinke they are when they are not and soe deceiue themselues Soe men that haue true illumination of grace may certainely knowe they haue it though some franticke and braine-sicke men thinke they haue it when they haue it not The weaknesse of this assault it seemeth the Treatiser did perceiue and therefore hee assayleth vs another way and vndertaketh to proue that it is not necessary a man should be spirituall before hee vnderstandeth the Scriptures because then it would be consequent that our faith could not be builded vpon Scriptures as we thinke it is But I doubt hee will haue as bad successe as before For as there must bee a naturall light of reason shining in men before any thing naturally discernable canne euidently appeare vnto them to bee that it is and yet the perswasion men haue touching the beeing of such things buildeth it selfe vppon such euidence soe likewise there must be a light of grace shining in the vnderstanding of men before they can vnderstand the Scripture and yet the perswasion they haue of the trueth of diuine thinges may and doth build it selfe vppon the Scriptures vnderstood through such light Wherefore let vs see what hee hath yet more to say Whereas besides an illumination I require in him that will vnderstand the Scriptures a minde free from the thought of other things depending vpon God as the fountaine of illumination and desirous of trueth with resolution to embrace it though contrary to the conceipt of naturall men besides his former exception already answered he addeth these words I dislike these wordes desirous of truth with resolution to embrace it The like wherevnto I protest I neuer read nor heard to come from any man For is it possible there should any such man be found that should dislike it in vs that wee require in him that will vnderstand the Scripture a minde desirous of trueth with resolution to embrace it Surely it is for we haue met with such an one but he hath taken order by concealing his name that noe man shall make him blush by looking on him This doubtlesse is one of the sons of Belial that haue cast off the yoake that neither feare God nor reuerence men But what
sort was diuided vpon a meere mistaking and that Athanasius by making either part rightly to vnderstand the other procured a reconciliation Neither neede this to seeme strange for oftentimes controversies are multiplied and by ill handling made intricate that in trueth indeede are no controversies and might easily bee cleared if there were a due proceeding in the discussing of the same So that the Treatiser had no reason to say that an indifferent reader will hardly excuse me frō error in this behalfe Wherefore let vs goe forward and see what other proofes hee bringeth to proue that my assertiō cannot be true First whereas I say there is no difference touching the Sacramēt the vbiquitary presence the like between the Lutherans Sacramētaries as he maketh me to speak he saith I may easily be cōvinced of vntruth because Caluin avoucheth that by the vbiquitary presence Marcion an anciēt heretick is raised vp out of hell a thousand bookes are written about the same point shewing how great dissentions there haue beene in the world touching the same But this proofe is easily disproued for though it bee true that Caluine hath that to imagine that the body of Christ hath no finite dimensions but such as are extended as farre as heauen earth and that it is euery where by actuall position or locall extension is to make it a fantasticall body and to raise vppe the old hereticke Marcion out of hell yet to thinke that Christs body is personally euery where in respect of the conjunction and vnion it hath with God by reason whereof it is no where seuered from God who is euery where neither Calvine nor any other Oxthodoxall Diuine euer condemned So that the Diuines of Germany condemning that kinde of vbiquitary presence that Caluine doth and Caluine allowing that other whereof they speake they must of necessity agree together notwithstanding any thing the Treatiser can say to the contrary but because I haue largely handled this matter touching the vbiquitary presence and the Sacrament in my fifth Booke of the Church and in my answere to Higgons I will no longer infist vpon it but referre the Reader to the former places Secondly whereas I affirme that none of the differences betweene Melancthon and Illyricus except about certaine ceremonies were reall hee sayth whosoeuer readeth the actes of the Synode holden by the Lutherans at Altenberge and the writings of the Flaccians against the Synergists and Adiaphorists shall finde dissentions touching greater matters For the cleering of this objection it must bee obserued that the supposed differences betweene those whom the Treatiser calleth Flaccians and the other whom he nameth Synergists were touching the co-operation of the wil of man with the grace of God in her first conuersion vnto GOD and the necessity of good workes to saluation Concerning the former of these two poynts it was euer agreed on between both these sorts of men that after the first conuersion there is a co-operation of the will of man altered renewed by the worke of Gods Spirit with grace in all ensuing actions of piety and vertue and in this sence both of them as defending a Synergy or co-operation of mans wil with Gods grace might rightly bee named Synergists 2ly It was likewise agreed on by both sorts that man by the fall of Adam and in the state of sinne is not onely wounded in the powers of his soule in respect of things naturall externall and politicall so that hee cannot performe any action so well in any of these kindes of thinges as before hee could but that hee is vtterly spoyled of all power strength and ability to doe any spirituall and supernaturall actions of true vertue and piety and is not onely halfe dead but wholly dead hauing no more power of himselfe to doe any thing that is good then a dead man hath to performe the workes of life Thirdly it was agreed on that there is not left in men corrupted by Adams fall the least sparke of morall or spirituall good desire or inclination which being blowed vpon and stirred may concurre with Gods grace for the bringing forth of any good worke So that neither of them were Synergists in this sense though Illyricus Museus and other supposed that Victorinus and some other did thinke so Fourthly it was with like vnanimous consent agreed on that there remaineth still in man after the fal a desire of good and of that good wherein there is no defect of good no mixture of euill no mutability nor feare of being lost though such be the infelicity of sinfull man that hauing his vnderstanding darkned and his will peruersly inclined he seeketh and supposeth he may finde this good where it is not to be found So that when God commeth to conuert and turne a sinfull man to himselfe he needeth not newly to put a desire of good into him for that is naturally found in him but by inlightning the vnderstanding that it may discerne and see what true good is and where it is to bee found and by turning the will from desiring that as good which is not or not in such degree as is supposed he maketh him a good and happie man that was euill and miserable before Neither doth he create a will in man but changeth the will he findeth in him that it may affect that which it did not and so createth a new will and heart in him that is frameth him to the desire of that from which hee was most averse before There is then no spirituall nor morall good in man when he is to bee conuerted vnto God no knowledge of true and spirituall good nor no desire of the same which being stirred vp may concurre with the grace of God and therefore no synergy or co-operation of any such good knowledge or desire of good with the grace of God in our first conuersion but that confused knowledge of good and naturall inclination to desire it that is found in man before his conuersion when good desires are to be raised in him concurreth with the grace of God directing the vnderstanding to seeke that good where it is to bee found and turning bending and bowing the heart to the loue and liking of it For that man desireth that which seemeth good vnto him he hath of nature that he desireth that which seemeth and is not hee hath from the corruption of nature and it argueth sinfull defect and that hee desireth the true good and rightly it is of grace directing the vnderstanding and turning the will from affecting that which before peruersly it did desire to seeke that which it should and in such sort as it should And so in that hee doth desire and pursue that which he thinketh to be good out of the naturall inclination of his will but that which indeede is and he should thinke to be good out of the motions of the spirit there is a kinde of Synergy or co-operation of the naturall powers of man