shall leape as calves of the heard And Iob 20. 15 16. The riches which he shall gather unjustly shall be vomited out of his belly the Angel of death draweth him Hee shall be mulcted with the wrath of Dragons the tongue of the Serpent shall kill him where the Vulgar Latin readeth The riches which he hath devoured he shall vomit out and God shall draw them forth out of his belly He shall suck the head of Aspes and the Vipers tongue shall kill him The same course is likewise observed by Sedulius in his citations But Gildas the Briton in some Bookes as Deuteronomy Esay and Ieremy for example useth to follow the Vulgar Latin translated out of the Hebrew in others as the bookes of Chronicles Iob Proverbs Ezekiel and the small Prophets the elder Latin translated out of the Greeke as also long after him his country man Nennius in reckoning the yeares of the age of the world followeth the LXX and Asser alledgeth the text Genes 4. 7. If thou offer aright and dost not divide aright thou sinnest according to the Greek reading whereas the Vulgar Latin hath it If thou doe well shalt thou not receive againe but if thou doest ill shall not thy sinne forthwith be present at the doore Of the Psalter there are extant foure Latin translations out of the Greeke namely the old Italian the Romane the Gallican and that of Millayne and one out of the Hebrew composed by St. Hierome which though it bee now excluded out of the body of the Bible and the Gallican admitted in the roome thereof yet in some Manuscript Copies it still retaineth his ancient place three whereof I have seene my selfe in Cambridge the one in Trinitie the other in Benet and the third in Iesus Colledge Librarie where this translation out of the Hebrew and not the Vulgar out of the Greek is inserted into the context of the Bible In the citations of Gildas and the Confession of Saint Patrick I observe that the Roman Psalter is followed rather than the Gallican in the quotations of Sedulius on the other side the Gallican rather than the Roman Claudius speaking of a text in the 118 th or as he accounteth it the 117 th Psalme saith that where the LXX Interpreters did translate it O Lord save me it was written in the Hebrew Anna Adonai Osanna which our Interpreter Hierom saith he more diligently explaining translated thus I beseech thee O Lord save I beseech thee Before this translation of S. Hierome I have seene an Epigram prefixed by Ricemarch the Briton who by Caradoc of Lhancarpan is commended for the godliest wisest and greatest Clerke that had been in Wales many yeares before his time his father Sulgen Bishop of S. Davids only excepted who had brought him up and a great number of learned disciples He having in this Epigramme said of those who translated the Psalter out of Greeke that they did darken the Hebrew rayes with thir Latin clowde addeth of S. Hierome that being replenished with the Hebrew fountaine hee did more cleerely and briefly discover the truth as drawing it out of the first vessell immediately and not taking it at the second hand To this purpose thus expresseth he himselfe Ebraeis nablam custodit littera signis Pro captu quam quisque suo sermone Latino Edidit innumeros Linguâ variante libellos Ebraeumque jubar suffuscat nube Latina Nam tepefacta ferum dant tertia labrasaporem Sed sacer Hieronymus Ebraeo fonte repletus Lucidiùs nudat verum breviusque ministrat Namque secunda creat nam tertia vascula vitat Now for those bookes annexed to the Old Testament which S. Hierom calleth Apocryphall others Ecclesiasticall true it is that in our Irish and Brittish writers some of them are alledged as parcels of Scripture and propheticall writings those especially that commonly bare the name of Salomon But so also is the fourth booke of Esdras cited by Gildas in the name of blessed Esdras the Prophet which yet our Romanists will not admit to be Canonicall neither doe our writers mention any of the rest with more titles of respect than wee finde given unto them by others of the ancient Fathers who yet in expresse termes doe exclude them out of the number of those bookes which properly are to be esteemed Canonicall So that from hence no sufficient proofe can bee taken that our ancestours did herein depart from the tradition of the Elder Church delivered by S. Hierome in his Prologues and explained by Brito a Briton it seemeth by nation as well as by appellation in his commentaries upon the same which being heretofore joyned with the Ordinarie Glosse upon the Bible have of late proved so distastefull unto our Popish Divines that in their new editions printed at Lyons anno 1590. and at Venice afterward they have quite crossed them out of their books Yet Marianus Scotus who was borne in Ireland in the MXXVIII yeare of our Lord was somewhat more carefull to maintaine the ancient bounds of the Canon set by his forefathers For he in his Chronicle following Eusebius and S. Hierom at the reigne of Artaxerxes Longimanus writeth thus Hitherto the divine Scripture of the Hebrewes containeth the order of Times But those things that after this were done among the Iewes are represented out of the booke of the Maccabees and the writings of Iosephus and Aphricanus But before him more plainly the author of the book de mirabilibus Scripturae who is accounted to have lived here about the yeare DCLVII In the bookes of the Maccabees howsoever some wonderfull things bee found which might conveniently bee inserted into this ranke yet wâ—ll wee not weary our selves with any care thereof because wee only purposed to touch in some measure a short historicall exposition of the wonderfull things contained in the divine canon as also in the apocryphall additions of Daniel hee telleth us that what is reported touching the lake or denne and the carrying of Abackuk in the fable of Bel and the Dragon is not therefore placed in this ranke because these things have not the authority of divine Scripture And so much concerning the holy Scriptures CHAP. II. Of Predestination Grace Free-will Faith Workes Iustification and Sanctification THe Doctrine which our learned men observed out of the Scriptures the writings of the most approved Fathers was this that God by his immoveable counsaile as Gallus speaketh in his Sermon preached at Constance ordained some of his creatures to praise hâ—m and to live blessedly from him and in him by him namely by his eternall predestination his free calling and his grace which was due to none that hee hath mercie with great goodnesse and hardneth without any iniquitie so as neyther he that is delivered can glory of his own merits nor he that is condemned complain but of his own merits for asmuch as grace onely maketh the distinction betwixt the
A DISCOURSE OF THE RELIGION Anciently professed by the IRISH and BRITTISH By IAMES VSSHER Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of IRELAND LONDON Printed by R. Y. for the Partners of the Irish Stocke 1631. ⧠TO MY VERY MVCH HONOVRED Friend Sir Christopher Sibthorp Knight one of his Majesties Iustices of his Court of chiefe place in IRELAND WORTHY SIR I Confesse I somewhat incline to bee of your minde that if unto the authorities drawn out of Scriptures and Fathers which are common to us with others a true discoverie were added of that Religion which anciently was professed in this Kingdome it might prove a speciall motive to induce my poore country-men to consider a little better of the old and true way from whence they have hitherto been mis-ledd Yet on the one side that saying in the Gospel runneth much in my minde If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neyther will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead and on the other that heavie iudgement mentioned by the Apostle because they received not the love of the truth that they might bee saved God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeve lyes The woefull experience whereof wee may see daily before our eyes in this poore nation where such as are slow of heart to beleeve the saving truth of God delivered by the Prophets and Apostles doe with all greedinesse imbrace and with a most strange kinde of credulitie entertaine those lying Legends wherewith their Monkes and Friars in these latter daies have polluted the religion and lives of our ancient Saints I doe not deny but that in this Countrey as well as in others corruptions did creep in by little and little before the Divell was let loose to procure that seduction which prevailed so generally in these last times but as farre as I can collect by such records of the former ages as have come unto my hands eyther manuscript or printed the religion professed by the ancient Bishops Priests Monks and other Christians in this land was for substance the very same with that which now by publike authoritie is maintained therein against the forraine doctrin brought in thither in later times by the Bishop of Romes followers I speake of the more substantiall points of doctrine that are in controversie betwixt the Church of Rome and us at this day by which only we must iudge whether of both sides hath departed from the religion of our Ancestors not of matters of inferiour note much lesse of ceremonies and such other things as appertaine to the discipline rather than to the doctrine of the Church And whereas it is knowne unto the learned that the name of Scoti in those elder times whereof we treate was common to the inhabitants of the greater and the lesser Scotland for so heretofore they have beene distinguished that is to say of Ireland and the famous colonie deduced from thence into Albania I will not follow the example of those that have of late laboured to make dissension betwixt the daughter and the mother but account of them both as of the same people Tros Rutulusve fuat nullo discrimine habebo The religion doubtlesse received by both was the selfe same and differed little or nothing from that which was maintained by their neighbours the Britons as by comparing the evidences that remaine both of the one nation and of the other in the ensuing discourse more fully shall appeare The chiefe Heads treated of in this discourse are these I. OF the holy Scriptures pag. 1. II. Of Predestination Grace Free-will Workes Iustification and Sanctification pag. 11. III. Of Purgatory and Prayer for the dead pag. 21. IIII. Of the Worship of God the publike forme of Liturgie the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Lords Supper pag. 30. V. Of Chrisme Sacramentall Confession Penance Absolution Marriage Divorces and single life in the Clergie pag. 45. VI. Of the discipline of our ancient Monkes and abstinence from meats pag. 54. VII Of the Church and various state thereof especially in the dayes of Antichrist of Miracles also and of the Head of the Church pag. 66. VIII Of the Popes spirituall Iurisdiction and how little footing it had gotten at first within these parts pag. 75. IX Of the Controversie which the Britons Picts and Irish maintained against the Church of Rome touching the celebration of Easter pag. 92. X. Of the height that the opposition betwixt the Romane party and that of the Brittish and the Scottish grew unto and the abatement thereof in time and how the Doctors of the Scottish and Irish side have beene ever accounted most eminent men in the Catholike Church notwithstanding their dis-union from the Bishop of Rome pag. 105. XI Of the temporall power which the Popes followers would directly intitle him unto over the Kingdome of Ireland together with the indirect power which hee challengeth in absolving subjects from the obedience which they owe to their temporall Governours pag. 117. OF THE RELIGION PROFESSED BY THE ANCIENT IRISH. CHAP. I. Of the holy Scriptures TWo excellent rules doth St. Paul prescribe unto Christians for their direction in the waies of God the one that they be not unwise but understanding what the will of God is the other that they bee not more wise than behoveth to be wise but be wise unto sobriety and that we might know the limits within which this wisedome and sobriety should bee bounded hee elsewhere declareth that not to bee more wise than is fitting is not to be wise above that which is written Hereupon Sedulius one of the most ancient Writers that remaineth of this Country birth delivereth this for the meaning of the former rule Search the Law in which the will of God is contained and this for the later He would be more wise than is meete who searcheth those things that the Law doth not speake of Unto whom wee will adjoyne Claudius another famous Divine counted one of the founders of the University of Paris who for the illustration of the former affirmeth that men therefore erre because they know not the Scriptures and because they are ignorant of the Scriptures they consequently know not Christ who is the power of God and the wisedome of God and for the clearing of the latter bringeth in that knowne Canon of Saint Hierome This because it hath not authority from the Scriptures is with the same facility contemned wherewith it is avowed Neither was the practice of our Ancestors herein different from their judgement For as Bede touching the latter recordeth of the successors of Colum-kille the great Saint of our Country that they observed onely those workes of piety and chastity which they could learne in the Propheticall Evangelicall and Apostolicall writings so for the former hee specially noteth of one of the principall of them to wit Bishop Aidan that all such as went in his company whether they were of the Clergie or of the Laity were
onely justifieth and in this meaning onely doe we defend that proposition understanding still by faith not a dead carkase thereof for how should the just bee able to live by a dead faith but a true and lively faith which worketh by love For as it is a certaine truth that among all the members of the body the eye is the onely instrument whereby we see and yet it is as true also that the eye being alone and separated from the rest of the members is dead and for that cause doth neither see onely not see at all so these two sayings likewise may stand well enough together that among all the vertues in the foule faith is the onely instrument whereby wee lay hold upon Christ for our justification and yet that faith being alone and disjoyned from the society of other graces is dead in it selfe as St. Iames speaketh and in that respect can neither only justifie nor justifie at all So though Claudius doe teach as wee doe that faith alone saveth us because by the workes of the law no man shall bee justified yet hee addeth withall this caution Not as if the workes of the law should be contemned and without them a simple faith so hee calleth that solitary faith whereof we spake which is a simple faith indeed should bee desired but that the workes themselves should bee adorned with the faith of Christ. For that sentence of the wise man is excellent that the faithfull man doth not live by righteousnesse but the righteous man by faith In like manner Sedulius acknowledgeth with us that God hath purposed by faith onely to forgive our sinnes freely and by faith onely to save the beleevers and that when men have fallen they are to bee renewed onely by the faith of Christ which worketh by love intimating by this last clause that howsoever faith onely be it which justifieth the man yet the worke of love is necessarily required for all that to justifie the faith And this faith saith he when it hath beene iustified sticketh in the soyle of the soule like a roote which hath received a showre that when it hath begunne to be manured by the law of God it may rise up againe into bowes which may beare the fruit of workes Therefore the roote of righteousnesse doth not grow out of works but the fruit of works out of the root of righteousnesse namely out of that root of righteousnesse which God doth accept for righteousnesse without workes The conclusion is that saving faith is alwaies a fruitfull faith and though it never goe alone yet may there be some gift of God which it alone is able to reach unto as Columbanus also implieth in that verse Sola fides fidei dono ditabitur almo The greatest depressers of Gods grace and the advancers of mans abilities were Pelagius and Celestiusâ— the one borne in Brittaine as appeareth by Prosper Aquitanus the other in Scotland or Ireland as M r. Persons doth gather out of those words of S. Hierom in one of the Prefaces of his commentaries not upon Ezechiel as he quoteth it but upon Ieremy He hath his off-spring from the Scottish nation neere to the Britans These hereticks as our Marianus noteth out of Prosper in his Chronicle preached among other of their impieties that for attaining of righteousnesse every one was governed by his owne will and received so much grace as he did merit Whole venemous doctrine was in Brittaine repressed first by Palladius Lupus Germanus and Severus from abroad afterward by David Menevensis and his successors at home agreeably to whose institution Asser. Menâ—vensis doth professe that God is alwaies to bee esteemed both the mover of the will and the bestower of the good that is willed for hee is saith hee the instigatour of all good wills and withall the most bountifull provider that the good things desired may bee had forasmuch as hee would never stirre up any to will well unlesse hee did also liberally supply that which every one doth well and justly desire to obtaine Among our Irish the grounds of sound doctrine in these points were at the beginning well settled by Palladius and Patricius sent hither by Celestinus Bishop of Rome And when the poyson of the Pelagian heresie about two hundred yeares after that beganne to breake out among them the Clergie of Rome in the yeare of our Lord DCXXXIX during the vacancie of the See upon the death of Severinus directed their letters unto them for the preventing of this growing mischiefe Wherein among other things they put them in minde that it is both blasphemy and folly to say that a man is without sinne which none at all can say but that one mediatour betwixt God and man the man Christ Iesus who was conceived and borne without sinne Which is agreeable partly to that of Claudius that it is manifest unto all wise men although it bee contradicted by heretickes that there is none who can live upon earth without the touch of some sinne partly to that of Sedulius that there is none of the elect so great whom the Divell doth not dare to accuse but him alone who did no sinne and who said The Prince of this world commeth now and in mee bee findeth nothing For touching the imperfection of our sanctification in this life these men held the same that wee doe to wit that the Law cannot be fulfilled that there is none that doth good that is to say perfect and entire good that Gods elect shall be perfectly holy and immaculate in the life to come where the Church of Christ shall have no spot nor wrinkle whereas in this present life they are righteous holy and immaculate not wholly but in part only that the righteous shall then be without all kinde of sinne when there shall be no law in their members that shall resist the law of their minde that although sinne doe not now reigne in their mortall body to obey the desires thereof yet sin dwelleth in that mortall body the force of that naturall custome being not yet extinguished which we have gotten by our originall and increased by our actual transgressions And as for the matter of merit Sedulius doth resolve us out of S. Paul that we are Saints by the calling of God not by the merit of our deed that God is able to exceeding abundantly above that we aske or think according to the power that worketh in us not according to our merits that whatsoever men have from God is grace because they have nothing of due and that nothing can bee found worthy or to bee compared with the glorie to come CHAP. III. Of Purgatory and Prayer for the dead THe next Point that offereth it selfe unto our consideration is that of Purgatory Whereof if any man doe doubt Caesarius a Germane Monke of the Cistercian order adviseth him for his resolution
redeemed and the lost who by a cause drawne from their common originall were framed together into one masse of perdition For all mankinde stood condemned in the apostaticall roote of Adam with so just and divine a judgement that although none should be freed from thence no man could rightly blame the justice of God and such as were freed must so have beene freed that by those many which were not freed but left in their most just condemnation it might bee shewed what the whole lumpe had deserved that the due judgement of God should have condemned even those that are justified unlesse mercy had relieved them from that which was due that so all the mouthes of them which would glory of their merits might bee stopped and hee that glorieth might glory in the Lord. They further taught as Saint Augustine did that Man using ill his Free will lost both himselfe and it that as one by living is able to kill himselfe but by killing himselfe is not able to live nor hath power to raise up himselfe when hee hath killed himselfe so when sinne had beene committed by free will sinne being the conquerour free will also was lost for asmuch as of whom a man is overcome of the same is hee also brought in bondage 2 Pet. 2. 19. that unto a man thus brought in bondage and sold there is no liberty left to doe well unlesse he redeeme him whose saying is this If the Sonne make you free yee shall bee free indeede Iohn 8. 36. that the minde of men from their very youth is set upon evill there being not a man which sinneth not that a man hath nothing from himselfe but sinne that God is the author of all good things that is to say both of good nature and of good will which unlesse God doe worke in him man cannot doe because this good will is prepared by the Lord in man that by the gift of God hee may doe that which of himselfe he could not doe by his owne free-will that the good will of man goeth before many gifts of God but not all and of those which it doth not goe before it selfe is one For both of these is read in the holy Scriptures His mercy shall goe before mee and His mercie shall follow mee it preventeth him that is unwilling that hee may will and it followeth him that is willing that he will not in vaine and that therefore we are admonished to aske that wee may receive to the end that what we doe will may be effected by him by whom it was effected that we did so will They taught also that the Law was not given that it might take away sinne but that it might shut up all under sinne to the end that men being by this means humbled might understand that their salvation was not in their owne hand but in the hand of a Mediatour that by the Law commeth neither the remission nor the removall but the knowledge of sinnes that it taketh not away diseases but discovereth them forgiveth not sinnes but condemneth them that the Lord God did impose it not upon those that served righteousnesse but sinne namely by giving a just law to unjust men to manifest their sins and not to take them away forasmuch as nothing taketh away sins but the grace of faith which worketh by love That our sinnes are freely forgiven us without the merit of our workes that through grace we are saved by faith and not by works and that therfore we are to rejoyce not in our owne righteousnesse or learning but in the faith of the Crosse by which all our sinnes are forgiven us That grace is abject and vaine if it alone doe not suffice us and that we esteem basely of Christ when we thinke that he is not sufficient for us to salvation That God hath so ordered it that he will be gracious to mankind if they do beleeve that they shall be freed by the bloud of Christ. that as the soule is the life of the body so faith is the life of the soule and that wee live by faith onely as owing nothing to the Law that hee who beleeveth in Christ hath the perfection of the Law For whereas none might be justified by the Law because none did fulfill the Law but onely hee which did trust in the promise of Christ faith was appointed which should be accepted for the perfection of the Law that in all things which were omitted faith might satisfie for the whole Law That this righteousnesse therefore is not ours nor in us but in Christ in whom were are considered as members in the head That faith procuring the remission of sinnes by grace maketh all beleevers the children of Abraham and that it was just that as Abraham was justified by faith onely so also the rest that followed his faith should bee saved after the same manner That through adoption we are made the sons of God by beleeving in the Sonne of God and that this is a testimony of our adoption that we have the spirit by which we pray and cry Abba Father forasmuch as none can receive so great a pledge as this but such as bee sonnes onely That Moses himselfe made a distinction betwixt both the justices to wit of faith and of deedes that the one did by workes justifie him that came the other by beleeving onely that the Patriarches and the Prophets were not justified by the workes of the Law but by faith that the custome of sinne hath so prevailed that none now can fulfill the Law as the Apostle Peter saith Acts 15. 10. Which neither our fathers nor wee have beene able to beare But if there were any righteous men which did escape the curse it was not by the workes of the Law but for their faiths sake that they were saved Thus did Sedulius and Claudius two of our most famous Divines deliver the doctrine of free will and grace faith and workes the Law and the Gospel Iustification and Adoption no lesse agreeably to the faith which is at this day professed in the reformed Churches that to that which they themselves received from the more ancient Doctors whom they did follow therein Neither doe wee in our judgement one whit differ from them when they teach that faith alone is not sufficient to life For when it is said that Faith alone justifieth this word alone may bee conceived to have relation either to the former part of the sentence which in the Schooles they terme the Subject or to the latter which they call the Predicate Being referred to the former the meaning will be that such a faith as is alone that is to say not accompanied with other vertues doth justifie and in this sense wee utterly disclaime the assertion But being referred to the latter it maketh this sense that faith is it which alone or