yet is daily offered for the life of the vvorld Contra quem saith he satis argumentatur Rabanus in Epistolâ ad Egilonem Abbatem Ratrannus quidam libro composito ad Karolum regem dicentes aliam esse Against whom both Rabanus in his Epistle to Abbot Egilo and one Ratrannus in a booke which he made to King Charles argue largely saying that it is another kind of flesh Whereby what Rabanus his opinion was of this point in his Epistle to Abbot Egilo or Egilus consequently what that was which the Monkes of Weingart could not indure in his Penitentiall I trust is plaine enough I omit other corruptions of antiquitie in this same question which I have touched elsewhere only that of Bertram I may not passe over wherein the dishonesty of these men in handling the writings of the ancient is laid open even by the confession of their owne mouthes Thus the case standeth That Ratrannus who joined with Rabanus in refuting the error of the carnall presence at the first bringing in thereof by Paschasius Ratbertus is he who commonly is knowen by the name of Bertramus The booke which he wrote of this argument to Carolus Calvus the Emperour was forbidden to be read by order from the Roman Inquisition confirmed afterwards by the Councell of Trent The Divines of Doway perceiving that the forbidding of the booke did not keepe men from reading it but gave them rather occasion to seeke more earnestly after it thought it better policy that Bertram should be permitted to goe abroad but handled in such sort as other ancient writers that made against them were wont to be Seeing therefore say they we beare with very many errors in other of the old Catholike vvriters and extenuate them excuse them by inventing some device oftentimes deny them and fayne some commodious sense for them when they are objected in disputations or conflicts with our adversaries wee doe not see why Bertram may not deserve the same equitie and diligent reviseall Least the heretickes cry out that we burne and forbid such antiquity as maketh for them Marke this dealing well The world must be borne in hand that all the Fathers make for the Church of Rome against us in all our controversies When we bring forth expresse testimonies of the Fathers to the contrary what must then be done A good face must be put upō the matter one device or other must be invented to elude the testimonies objected and still it must be denied that the Fathers make against the doctrine of the Papists Bertram for example writeth thus The things which differ one from another are not the same The body of Christ which was dead and rose again and being made immortall now dyeth not death no more having dominion over it is everlasting and now not subject to suffering But this which is celebrated in the Church is temporall not everlasting it is corruptible not free from corruption What device must they finde out here They must say this is meant of the accidents or formes of the Sacrament which are corruptible or of the use of the Sacrament which continueth only in this present world But how will this shift serve the turne when as the whole drift of the discourse tendeth to prove that that which is received by the mouth of the faithfull in the Sacrament is not that very bodie of Christ which dyed upon the Crosse and rose againe from death Non malé aut inconsulté omittantur igitur omnia haec It were not amisse therefore say our Popish Censurers nor unadvisedly done that all these things should be left out If this be your maner of dealing with antiquity let all men judge whether it be not high time for us to listen unto the advice of Vincentius Lirinensis and not be so forward to commit the triall of our controversies to the writings of the Fathers who have had the ill hap to fall into such hucksters handling Yet that you may see how confident we are in the goodnesse of our cause we will not now stand upon our right nor refuse to enter with you into this field but give you leave for this time both to be the Challenger and the appointer of your owne weapons Let us then heare your challenge wherin you would so faine be answered I would faine know say you how can your Religion be true which disalloweth of many chiefe articles which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did generally hold to be true For they of your side that have read the Fathers of that unspotted Church can well testifie and if any deny it it shall be presently shewen that the Doctors Pastors and Fathers of that Church doe allow of Traditions c. And againe Now would I faine know whether of both have the true Religion they that hold all these abovesaid points with the primitive Church or they that do most vehemently contradict and gainsay them they that doe not disagree with that holy Church in any point of Religion or they that agree with it but in very few and disagree in almost all And the third time too for fayling Now would I willingly see what reasonable answer may be made to this For the Protestants graunt that the Church of Rome for 400 or 500 yeares held the true Religion of Christ yet do they exclaime against the abovesaid articles which the same Church did maintaine and uphold as may be shewen by the expresse testimonies of the Fathers of the same Church and shall be largely layd downe if any learned Protestant will deny it If Albertus Pighius had now beene alive as great a Scholer as he was he might have learned that he never knew before Who did ever yet saith he by the Church of Rome understand the Vniversall Church That doth this man say I who styleth all the ancient Doctors and Martyrs of the Church Vniversall with the name of the Saints and Fathers of the primitive Church of Rome But it seemeth a small matter unto him for the magnifying of that Church to confound Vrbem Orbem unlesse he mingle also Heaven and Earth together by giving the title of that unspotted Church which is the speciall priviledge of the Church triumphant in heaven unto the Church of Rome here militant upon earth S. Augustine surely would not have himselfe otherwise understood whensoever hee speaketh of the unspotted Church and therefore to prevent all mistaking hee thus expoundeth himselfe in his Retractations Wheresoever in these bookes I have made mention of the Church not having spot or wrinkle it is not so to be taken as if she were so now but that she is prepared to bee so when she shall appeare glorious For now by reason of certaine ignorances and infirmities of her members the whole Church hath cause to say every day Forgive us our trespasses Now as long as the Church is subject to these ignorances and infirmities it cannot
of the Greek Church I finde the absolution expressed in the third person as attributed wholly to God and not in the first as if it came from the Priest himselfe One ancient forme of Absolution used among the Latins was this Almighty God be mercifull unto thee and forgive thee all thy sinnes past present and to come visible and invisible which thou hast committed before him and his Saints which thou hast confessed or by some negligence or forgetfulnesse or evill vvill hast concealed God deliver thee from all evill here and hereafter preserve and confirme thee alwayes in everie good worke and Christ the sonne of the living God bring thee unto the life which remayneth without end And so among the Grecians whatsoever sinnes the penitent for forgetfulnes or shamefastnesse doth leave unconfessed we pray the mercifull and most pitifull God that those also may be pardoned unto him and we are perswaded that hee shall receive pardon of them from God saith Ieremy the late Patriarch of Constantinople Where by the way you may observe no such necessitie to be here held of confessing everie knowne sinne unto a Priest that if either for shame or for some other respect the penitent doe not make an intire confession but conceale somewhat from the notice of his ghostly father his confession should thereby be made voyde and hee excluded from all hope of forgivenesse which is that engine whereby the Priests of Rome have lift up themselves into that height of domineering and tyrannizing over mens conscience wherewith we see they now hold the poore people in most miserable awe Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure in the forme of absolution used in their time observe that prayer was premised in the optative and absolution adjoyned afterward in the indicative mood whence they gather that the Priests prayer obtayneth grace his absolution presupposeth it that by the former he ascendeth unto God and procureth pardon for the fault by the later he descendeth to the sinner and reconcileth him to the Church for although a man be loosed before God saith the Master of the Sentences yet is he not held loosed in the face of the Church but by the judgement of the Priest And this loosing of men by the judgement of the Priest is by the Fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring of them to the peace of the Church and an admitting of them to the Lords table againe which therefore they usually expresse by the termes of bringing them to the communion reconciling them to or with the communion restoring the communion to them admitting them to fellowship granting them peace c. Neyther doe we finde that they did ever use anie such formall absolution as this I absolve thee from all thy sinnes wherein our Popish Priests notwithstanding doe place the verie forme of their late devised sacrament of Penance nay hold it to be so absolute a forme that according to Thomas Aquinas his new divinitie it would not be sufficient to say Almightie God have mercie upon thee or God grant unto thee absolution and forgivenesse because forsooth the Priest by these vvords doth not signifie that the absolution is done but intreateth that it may be done which how it will accord with the Romane Pontificall where the forme of Absolution is layd downe prayer-wise the Iesuites who follow Thomas may doe well to consider I passe this over that in the dayes not onely of S. Cyprian but of Alcuinus also who lived 800. yeares after Christ the reconciliation of Penitents was not held to be such a proper office of the Priest but that a Deacon in his absence was allowed to performe the same The ordinarie course that was held herein according to the forme of the ancient Canons is thus layde down by the fathers of the third Councell of Toledo that the Priest should first suspend him that repented of his fault from the communion and make him to have often recourse unto imposition of hands among the rest of the penitents then when hee had fulfilled the time of his satisfaction as the consideration of the Priest did approve of it he should restore him to the communion And this was a Constitution of old fathered upon the Apostles that Bishops should separate those vvho said they repented of their sinnes for a time determined according to the proportion of their sinne and afterward receive them being penitent as fathers would do their children To this Penitential excommunication and absolution belongeth that saying eyther of S. Ambrose or S. Augustin for the same discourse is attributed to them both Hee who hath truely performed his repentance and is loosed from that bond wherewith he was tyed and separated from the body of Christ and doth live well after his repentance whensoever after his reconciliation he shall depart this life he goeth to the Lord he goeth to rest he shall not be deprived of the kingdome of God and from the people of the Divell he shall be separated and that which we reade in Anastasius Sinaita Binde him and till thou hast appeased God doe not let him loose that he be not more bound with the wrath of God for if thou bindest him not there remaine bonds for him that cannot be broken Neither doe we enquire whither the wound were often bound but whither the binding hath profited If it have profited although in a short time use it no longer Let the measure of the loosing be the profit of him that is bound and that exhortation which another maketh unto the Pastors of the Church Binde with separation such as have sinned after baptisme and loose them againe when they have repented receiving them as brethren for the saying is true Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven That this authoritie of loosing remaineth still in the Church wee constantly maintaine against the heresie of the Montanists and Novatians who upon this pretence among others that God onely had power to remit sinnes took away the ministeriall power of reconciling such penitents as had committed haynous sinnes denying that the Church had anie warrant to receive them to her communion againe and to the participation of the holy mysteries notwithstanding their repentance were ever so sound Which is directly contrarie to the doctrine delivered by S. Paul both in the generall that if a man be overtaken in a fault they who are spirituall should restore such a one in the spirit of meekenesse and in the particular of the incestuous Corinthian who though hee had beene excommunicated for such a crime as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles yet upon his repentance the Apostle telleth the Church that they ought to forgive him and comfort him lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow Where that speech of his is specially noted and pressed against the hereticks by S. Ambrose To whom
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 correspondent types or figures before they were consecrated but after the consecration saith hee they are called and are and beleeved to be the body and blood of Christ properly where the Popes owne followers who of late published the Acts of the generall Councells at Rome were so farre ashamed of the ignorance of this blind Bayard that they correct his boldnesse with this marginall note The holy gifts are oftentimes found to be called antitypes or figures correspondent after they be consecrated as by Gregory Nazianz. in the funerall Oration upon his sister and in his Apologie by Cyrill of Ierusalem in his fifth Cateches Mystagogic and by others And wee have alreadie heard how the author of the Dialogues against the Marcionites and after him Eusebius and Gelasius expressely call the Sacrament an image of Christs bodie howsoever this peremptorie Clerke denieth that ever anie did so By all which it may easily appeare that not the oppugners but the defenders of Images were the men who first went about herein to alter the language used by their fore-fathers Now as in the daies of Gregory the third this matter was set afoot by Damascen in the East so about a hundred yeares after in the Papacie of Gregory the fourth the same began to be propounded in the West by meanes of one Amalarius who was Bishop not as hee is commonly taken to be of Triers but of Mets first and afterwards of Lyons This man writing doubtfully of this point otherwhiles followeth the doctrine of S. Augustine that Sacraments were oftentimes called by the names of the things themselves and so the Sacrament of Christs bodie was secundùm quendam modum after a certaine maner the bodie of Christ otherwhiles maketh it a part of his beleefe that the simple nature of the bread and wine mixed is turned into a reasonable nature to wit of the body and blood of Christ. But what should become of this bodie after the eating therof was a matter that went beyond his little witt and therefore said he when the bodie of Christ is taken with a good intention it is not for me to dispute whether it be invisibly taken up into heaven or kept in our body untill the day of our buriall or exhaled into the ayre or whether it go out of the body with the blood at the opening of a veyne or be sent out by the mouth our Lord saying that every thing which entreth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is sent forth into the draught For this and another like foolerie de triformi tripartito corpore Christi of the three parts or kindes of Christs body which seeme to be those ineptiae de tripartito Christi corpore that Paschasius in the end of his Epistle intreateth Frudegardus not to follow he was censured in a Synod held at Carisiacum wherein it was declared by the Bishops of France that the bread and wine are spiritually made the body of Christ which being a meat of the mind and not of the belly is not corrupted but remayneth unto everlasting life These dotages of Amalarius did not only give occasion to that question propounded by Heribaldus to Rabanus wherof we have spoken heretofore but also to that other of far greater consequence Whether that which was externally delivered received in the sacrament were the verie same body which was borne of the Virgin Mary suffered upon the Crâ—sse rose again from the Grave Paschasius Radbertus a Deacon of those times but somewhat of a better and more modest temper then the Greek Deacon shewed himselfe to be of held that it was the veâ—ie same and to that purpose wrote his book to Placidus of the Body Blood of our Lord wherein saith a Iesuite he was the first that did so explicate the true sense of the Cà tholick Church his owne Romane he meaneth that he opened the way to those manie others who wrote afterwards of the same argument Rabanus on the other side in a writing directed to Abbot Egilo maintayned the contrarie doctrine as hath before beene noted Then one Frudegardus reading the third book of S. Augustin de doctrinâ Christianâ and finding there that the eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of Christ was a figurative maner of speech began somewhat to doubt of the truth of that which formerly he had read in that foresaid Treatise of Paschasius which moved Paschasius to write againe of the same argument as of a question wherein he confesseth many were then doubtfull But neither by his first nor by his second writing was hee able to take these doubts out of mens mindes and therefore Carolus Calvus the Emperour being desirous to compose these differences and to have unitie setled among his subjects required Ratrannus a learned man of that time who lived in the Monasterie of Corbey whereof Paschasius was Abbat to deliver his judgement touching these points Whether the body and blood of Christ which in the Church is received by the mouth of the faithfull be celebrated in a mysterie or in the truth and whether it be the same body which was born of Mary which did suffer was dead and buried which rising againe and ascending into heaven sitteth at the right hand of the Father Whereunto he returneth this answer that the bread and the wine are the body and blood of Christ figuratively that for the substance of the creatures that which they were before consecration the same are they also afterward that they are called the Lords bodie and the Lords blood because they take the name of that thing of which they are a sacrament that there is a great difference betwixt the mysterie of the blood and body of Christ which is taken now by the faithfull in the Church and that which was borne of the Virgin Mary which suffered which was buried which rose again which sitteth at the right hand of the Father All which hee proveth at large both by testimonies of the holy Scriptures and by the sayings of the ancient Fathers Wherupon Turrian the Iesuite is driven for pure need to shift off the matter with this silly interrogation To cite Bertram so Ratrannus is more usually named what is it else but to say that the heresie of Calvin is not new As if these things were alledged by us for anie other end then to shew that this way which they call heresie is not new but hath been troden in long since by such as in their times were accounted good and Catholick teachers in the Church That since they have been esteemed otherwise is an argument of the alteration of the times and of the conversion of the state of things which is the matter that now we are inquiring of and which our Adversaries in an evill houre to them doe so earnestly presse us to discover The Emperour Charles unto whom this
so they call it peradventure hath no intention to receive it or is not rightly disposed or putteth some blocke in the way Therefore the Minister saith hee signifieth nothing else by those words but that hee as much as in him lyeth conferreth the sacrament of reconciliation or absolution which in a man rightly disposed hath vertue to forgive all his sinnes Now that Contrition is at all times necessarily required for obtayning remission of sinnes and iustification is a matter determined by the Fathers of Trent But marke yet the mysterie They equivocate with us in the terme of Contrition and make a distinction thereof into perfect and imperfect The former of these is Contrition properly the latter they call Attrition which howsoever in it selfe it be not true Contrition yet when the Priest with his power of forgiving sinnes interposeth himselfe in the businesse they tell us that attrition by vertue of the keyes is made contrition that is to say that a sorrow arising from a servile feare of punishment and such a fruitlesse repentance as the reprobate may carry with them to hell by vertue of the Priests absolution is made so fruitfull that it shall serve the turne for obteyning forgivenesse of sinnes as if it had beene that godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of By which spirituall coosenage many poore soules are most miserably deluded while they perswade themselves that upon the receipt of the Priests acquittance upon this carnall sorrow of theirs all skores are cleered untill that day and then beginning upon a new reckoning they sinne and confesse confesse and sinne afresh and tread this round so long till they put off all thought of saving repentance and so the blinde following the blinde both at last fall into the pit Evill and wicked carnall naturall and divellish men saith S. Augustin imagine those things to be given unto them by their seducers which are onely the gifts of God whether sacraments or any other spirituall workes concerning their present salvation But such as are thus seduced may doe well to listen a little to this grave admonition of S. Cyprian Let no man deceive let no man beguile himselfe it is the Lord alone that can shew mercy He alone can grant pardon to the sinnes committed against him who did himselfe beare our sinnes who suffered griefe for us whom God did deliver for our sinnes Man cannot be greater then God neyther can the servant by his indulgence remit or pardon that which by haynous trespasse is committed against the Lord lest to him that is fallen this yet be added as a further crime if hee be ignorant of that which is said Cursed is the man that putteth his trust in man Whereupon S. Augustin sticketh not to say that good ministers doe consider that they are but ministers they would not be held for Iudges they abhorre that any trust should be put in them and that the power of remitting and retayning sinnes is committed unto the Church to be dispensed therein not according to the arbitrement of man but according to the arbitrement of God Whereas our adversaries lay the foundation of their Babel upon another ground that Christ hath appointed Priests to be Iudges upon earth with such power that none falling into sinne after Baptisme may be reconciled without their sentence and hath put the authoritie of binding and loosing of forgiving and retayning the sinnes of men in their arbitrement Whether the Ministers of the Gospell may be accounted Iudges in some sort we wil not much contend for we dislike neyther that saying of S. Hierome that having the keyes of the kingdome of heaven they judge after a sort before the day of judgement nor that other of S. Gregory that the Apostles such as succeed them in the governement of the Church obtaine a principalitie of judgement from above that they may in Gods stead retayne the sinnes of some and release the sinnes of others All the question is in what sort they doe judge and whether the validitie of their judgement doe depend upon the truth of the conversion of the penitent wherein if our Romanists would stand to the iudgement of S. Hierome or S. Gregory one of whom they make a Cardinall and the other a Pope of their owne Church the controversie betwixt us would quickly be at an end For S. Hierome expounding that speech of our Saviour touching the keyes of the kingdome of heaven in the sixteenth of S. Matthew The Bishops and Priests saith he not understanding this place assume to themselves somewhat of the Pharisees arrogancie as imagining that they may either condemne the innocent or absolve the guiltie vvhereas it is not the sentence of the Priests but the life of the parties that is inquired of vvith God In the booke of Leviticus vvee reade of the Lepers vvhere they are commanded to shew themselves to the Priests and if they shall have the leprosie that then they shall be made uncleane by the Priest not that the Priests should make them leprous and uncleane but that they should take notice who was a leper and who was not and should discerne who was cleane and who uncleane Therefore as there the Priest doth make the leper cleane or uncleane so here the Bishop or Priest doth binde or loose not binde the innocent or loose the guiltie but when according to his office hee heareth the variety of sinnes hee knoweth who is to be bound and who to be loosed Thus farre S. Hierome S. Gregory likewise in the very same place from whence the Romanists fetch that former sentence doth thus declare in what maner that principalitie of iudgement which he spake of should be exercised being therin also followed step by step by the Fathers of the Councell of Aquisgran The causes ought to bee weighed and then the power of binding and loosing exercised It is to be seene what the fault is and what the repentance is that hath followed after the fault that such as almightie God doth visite with the grace of compunction those the sentence of the Pastor may absolve For the absolution of the Prelate is then true when it followeth the arbitrement of the eternall Iudge And this doe they illustrate by that which we reade in the Gospell of the raysing of Lazarus Ioh. 11.44 that Christ did first of all give life to him that was dead by himselfe and then commanded others to loose him and let him goe Behold say they the disciples doe loose him being now alive whom their Master had raysed up being dead For if the disciples had loosed Lazarus being dead they should have discovered a stinche more then a vertue By which consideration vvee may see that by our Pastorall authoritie vvee ought to loose those vvhom vvee know that our Authour and Lord hath revived vvith his quickning grace The same application also doe wee finde made not onely
the writings of S. Cyrill Gennadius Olympiodorus and oâ—hers S. Cyrill from those last words of our Saviour upon the Crosse Father into thy hands I commend my spirit delivereth this as the certaine ground and foundation of our hope Wee ought to beleeve that the soules of the Saints when they are departed out of their bodies are commended unto Gods goodnesse as unto the hands of a most deare Father and doe not remaine in the earth as some of the unbeleevers have imagined untill they have had the honour of buriall neyther are carried as the soules of the wicked be unto a place of unmeasurable torment that is unto Hell but rather flye to the hands of the Father this way being first prepared for us by Christ. For hee delivered up his soule into the hands of his Father that from it and by it a beginning being made we might have certaine hope of this thing firmely beleeving that after death we shall be in the hands of God and shall live a farre better life for ever with Christ. for therefore Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Gennadius in a booke wherein hee purposely taketh upon him to reckon up the particular points of doctrine received by the Church in his time when he commeth to treat of the state of soules separated from the body maketh no mention at all of Purgatorie but layeth down this for one of his positions After the ascension of our Lord into heaven the soules of all the Saints are with Christ and departing out of the bodie goe unto Christ expecting the resurrection of their bodie that together with it they may be changed unto perfect and perpetuall blessednesse as the soules of the sinners also being placed in Hell under feare expect the resurrection of their body that with it they may be thrust unto everlasting paine In like maner Olympiodorus expounding that place of Ecclesiastes If the tree fall toward the South or toward the North in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be maketh this inference thereupon In whatsoever place therefore either lightsome or darke that is either in the foule station of sinnes or in the honest of vertues a man is taken when he dyeth in that degree and order he remaineth for ever For either hee resteth in the light of eternall felicitie with the just and with Christ our Lord or is tormented in darkenesse with the wicked and with the Divell the prince of this world The first whom we finde directly to have held that for certaine light faults there is a purgatory fire provided before the day of judgement was Gregory the first about the end of the sixth age after the birth of our Saviour Christ. It was his imagination that the end of the world was then at hand and that as when the night beginneth to be ended and the day to spring before the rising of the Sunne the darkenesse is in some sort mingled together with the light untill the remaines of the departing night be turned into the light of the following day so the end of this world was then intermingled with the beginning of the world to come and the very darkenes of the remaines thereof made transparent by a certaine mixture of spirituall things And this he assigneth for the reason why in those last times so many things were made cleare touching the soules which before lay hid so that by open revelations and apparitions the world to come might seeme to bring in and open it selfe unto them But as we see that he was plainly deceived in the one of his conceits so have we just cause to call into question the veritie of the other the Scripture especially having informed us that a people for enquiry of matters should not have recourse to the dead but to their God to the Law and to the Testimony it being not Gods manner to send men from the dead to instruct the living but to remit them unto Moses and the Prophets that they may heare them And the reason is well worth the observation which the author of the Questions to Antiochus rendreth why God would not permit the soule of any of those that departed from hence to returne backe unto us againe and to declare the state of things in Hell unto us least much errour might arise from thence unto us in this life For many of the Divels saith hee might transforme themselves into the shapes of those men that were deceased and say that they vvere risen from the dead and so might spred many false matters doctrines of the things there unto our seduction and destruction Neither is it to be passed over that in those apparitions and revelations related by Gregory there is no mention made of any common lodge in Hell appointed for purging of the dead which is that which the Church of Rome now striveth for but of certaine soules only that for their punishment were confined to bathes and other such places here upon earth which our Romanists may beleeve if they list but must seeke for the Purgatorie they looke for somewhere else And yet may they save themselves that labour if they will be advised by the Bishops assembled in the Councell of Aquisgran 240. yeares after these visions were published by Gregory who will resolve them out of the word of God how sinnes are punished in the world to come The sinnes of men say they are punished three maner of wayes two in this life and the third in the life to come Of those two the Apostle saith If we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. This is the punishment wherewith by the inspiration of God every sinner by repenting for his offences taketh revenge upon himselfe But where the Apostle consequently adjoyneth When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with this world this is the punishment which almightie God doth mercifully inflict upon a sinner according to that saying Whom God loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth everie sonne that hee receiveth But the third is very fearefull and terrible which by the most just judgement of God shall be executed not in this world but in that which is to come vvhen the just Iudge shall say Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Divell and his angells Adde hereunto the saying of the author of the booke De vanitate saeculi wrongly ascribed to S. Augustine Know that when the soule is separated from the body presently it is eyther placed in Paradise for his good merites or cast headlong into the bottom of hell for his sinnes and that in the dayes of Otto Frisingensis himselfe who wrote in the year of our Lord MCXLVI the doctrine of Purgatory was esteemed onely a private assertion held by some and not an article of faith generally received by the whole Church for why should hee
and darke dungeon of death that is into Hades adding afterward that Hades may rightly be esteemed to be the house and mansion of such as are deprived of life Nicephorus Gregoras in his funerall Oration upon Theodorus Metochites putteth in this for one strayne of his lamentation Who hath brought downe that heavenly man unto the bottome of Hades and Andrew archbishop of Crete touching the descent both of Christ and all Christians after him even unto the darke and comfortlesse Hades writeth in this maner If hee who was the Lord and master of all and the light of them that are in darknesse and the life of all men would taste death and undergoe the descent into Hell that he might be made like unto us in all things sinne excepted and for three dayes went thorough the sad obscure and darke region of Hell what strange thing is it that wee who are sinners and dead in trespasses according to the great Apostle who are subject to generation and corruption should meete with death and goe with our soule into the darke chambers of Hell where we cannot see light nor behold the life of mortall men For are wee above our Master or better then the Saints who underwent these things of ours after the like maner that we must doe Iuvencus intimateth that our Saviour giving up the ghost sent his soule unto heaven in those verses of his Tunc clamor Domini magno conamine missus Aethereis animam comitem commiscuit auris Eusebius Emesenus collecteth so much from the last words which our Lord uttered at the same time Father into thine hands I commend my spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His spirit was above and his body remayned upon the crosse for us In the Greeke exposition of the Canticles collected out of Eusebius Philo Carpathius and others that sentence in the beginning of the sixt chapter My beloved is gone down into his garden is interpreted of Christs going to the soules of the Saints in Hádes which in the Latin collections that beare the name of Philo Carpathius is thus more largely expressed By this descending of the Bridegrome we may understand the descending of our Lord Iesus Christ into Hell as I suppose for that which followeth proveth this when he sayeth To the beds of spices For those ancient holy men are not unfiâ—ly signified by the beds of spices such as were Noë Abraham Isaac Iacob Moses Iob David Samuel Elisaeus Daniel and very many others before the Law in the Law who all of them like unto beds of spices gave a most sweete smell of the odours and fruits of holy righteousnesse For then as a triumpher did he enter into PARADISE when he pierced into Hell God himselfe is present with us for a witnesse in this matter when he answered most graciously to the Thiefe upon the Crosse commending himselfe unto him most religiously To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Lastly touching this Paradise the various opinions of the ancient are thus layd downe by Olympiodorus to seeke no farther It is a thing worthy of enquirie in what place under the Sunne the righteous are placed which have left this life Certaine it is that in Paradise forasmuch as Christ said unto the Thiefe This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And it is to be knowne that the literall Tradition teacheth Paradise to be in earth But some have said that Paradise also is in Hell that is in a place under the earth unto which opinion of theirs they apply that of the Gospell where the rich man saw Lazarus being yet himselfe sunke downe in a lower place when Lazarus was in a place more eminent where Abraham was But howsoever the matter goeth this without doubt is manifest aswell out of Ecclesiastes as out of all the sacred Scripture that the godly shall be in prosperity and peace and the ungodly in punishments and torments And others are of the minde that Paradise is in the Heavens c. Hitherto Olympiodorus That Christs soule went into Paradise Doctor Bishop saith being well understood is true For his soule in hell had the joyes of Paradise but to make that an exposition of Christs descending into hell is to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it Yet this ridiculous exposition he affirmeth to be received of most Protestants Which is even as true as that which he avoucheth in the same place that this article of the descent into Hell is to be found in the old Roman Creed expounded by Ruffinus where Ruffinus as we have heard expounding that article delivereth the flat contrarie that it is not found added in the Creed of the Church of Rome It is true indeed that more than most Protestants do interprete the words of Christ uttered unto the Thiefe upon the Crosse Luk. 23.43 of the going of his soule into Paradise where our Saviour meaning simply and plainly that hee would be that day in Heaven M. Bishop would have him so to be understood as if he had meant that that day he would be in Hell And must it be now held more ridiculous in Protestants to take Hell for Paradise then in M. Bishop to take Paradise for Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the wordes of the Apostles Creed in the Greeke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Symbol of Athanasius Some learned Protestants do observe that in these words there is no determinate mention made eyther of ascending or descending either of Heaven or Hell taking Hell according to the vulgar acception but of the generall only under which these contraries are indifferently comprehended and that the words literally interpreted import no more but this HEE WENT UNTO THE OTHER WORLD Which is not to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it as M. Bishop fancieth who may quickly make himselfe ridiculous in taking upon him thus to censure the interpretations of our learned linguistes unlesse his owne skill in the languages were greater then as yet he hath given proofe of Master Broughton with whose authoritie hee elsewhere presseth us as of a man esteemed to be singularly seene in the Hebrew and Greeke tongue hath beene but too forward in maintayning that exposition which by D. Bishop is accounted so ridiculous In one place touching the terme Hell as it doth answer the Hebrew Sheol and the Greeke Hádes he writeth thus He that thinketh it ever used for Tartaro or Gehenna otherwise then the terme Death may by Synecdoche import so hath not skill in Ebrew or that Greeke vvhich breathing and live Graecia spake if God hath lent me any judgement that way In another place he alledgeth out of Portus his Dictionary that the Macedonians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven And one of his acquaintance beyond the Sea reporteth that he should deliver that in many most ancient Manuscript copies the Lords prayer is found with this
the WORD of God that is to say the Sonne whom he coupled with the Father and prayed unto and for further confirmation hereof he alledgeth among other things that neyther Iacob nor David did pray unto any other but God himselfe for their deliverance The place wherein we first finde the spirits of the deceased to be called unto rather then called upon is that in the beginning of the former of the Invectives which Gregory Nazianzen wrote against the Emperour Iulian about the CCCLXIV year of our Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heare ô thou soule of great Constantius if thou hast any understanding of these things and as many soules of the Kings before him as loved Christ. where the Greek Scholiast upon that parenthesis putteth this note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He speaketh according to the maner of Isocrates meaning If thou hast any power to heare the things that are here and therein he sayeth rightly for Isocrates useth the same forme of speech boâ—h in his Euagoras and in his Aegineticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they which be dead have any sense of the things that are done here The like limitation is used by the same Nazianzen toward the end of the funerall oration which he made upon his sister Gorgonia where he speaketh thus unto her If thou hast any care of the things done by us and holy soules receive this honour from God that they have any feeling of such things as these receive this Oration of ours in stead of many and before many funerall obsequies So doubtfull the beginnings were of that which our Challenger is pleased to reckon among the chiefe articles not of his owne religion onely but also of the Saints and Fathers of the primitive Church who if his word may be taken for the matter did generally hold the same touching this point that the Church of Rome doth now But if he had eyther himselfe read the writings of those Saints and Fathers with whose mindes he beareth us in hand he is so well acquainted or but taken so much information in this case as the bookes of his owne new Masters were able to afford him he would not so peremptorily have avouched that prayer to Saints was generally embraced by the Doctors of the primitive Church as one of the chiefe articles of their Religion His owne Bellarmine he might remember in handling this very question of the Invocation of Saints had wished him to note that because the Saints which died before the comming of Christ did not enter into heaven neyther did see God nor could ordinarily take knowledge of the prayers of such as should petition unto them therefore it was not the use in the old Testament to say Saint Abraham pray for me c. For at that time saith Suarez we reade no where that any man did directly pray unto the Saints departed that they should helpe him or pray for him for this maner of praying is proper to the law of Grace wherein the Saints beholding God are able also to see in him the prayers that are powred out unto them So doth Salmeron also teach that therefore it was not the maner in the old Testament to resort unto the Saints as intercessors because they were not as yet blessed and glorified as now they be and therefore so great an honour as this is was not due unto them And in vaine saith Pighius should their suffrages have beene implored as being not yet joyned with God in glory but untill the reconciliation and the opening of the kingdome by the blood of Christ the redeemer wayting as yet in a certaine place appointed by God and therefore not understanding the prayers and desires of the living which the blessed doe behold and heare not by the efficacie of any proper reason reaching from them unto us but in the glasse of the divine Word which it was not as yet granted unto them to behold But after the price of our redemption was payd the Saints now raigning with Christ in heavenly glory do heare our prayers and desires forasmuch as they behold them all most clearely in the Word as in a certaine glasse Now that diverse of the chiefe Doctors of the Church were of opinion that the Saints in the New Testament are in the same place state that the Saints of the Old Testament were in and that before the day of the last judgement they are not admitted into Heaven and the cleare sâ—ght of God wherein this metaphysicall speculation of the Saints seeing of our praiers is founded hath beene before declared out of their owne writings where that speech of S. Augustin Nondum ibi eris quis nescit Thou shalt not as yet be there who knoweth it not sheweth that the opinion was somewhat generall and apprehended generally too as more then an opinion By the Romanists own grounds then the more generally this point was held by the ancient Fathers and the more resolvedly the lesse generally of force and the more doubtfully must the Popish doctrine of praying to Saints have beene intertayned by them And if our Challenger desire to be informed of this doubt that was among the ancient Divines touching the estate of the Saints now in the time of the New Testament by the report of the Doctors of his owne religion rather than by our allegations let him heare from Franciscus Pegna what they have found herein It was a matter in controversie saith he of old whether the soules of the Saints before the day of judgement did see God and enjoy the divine vision seeing many worthy men and famous both for leaâ—ning and holinesse did seeme to hold that they doe not see nor enjoy it before the day of judgement untill receiving their bodies together with them they should enjoy divine blessednesse For Irenaeus Iustin Martyr Tertullian Clemens Romanus Origen Ambrose Chrysostom Augustin Lactantius Victorinus Prudentius Theodoret Aretas Oecumenius Theophylact and Euthymius are said to have beene of this opinion as Castrus and Medina and Sotus dorelate To whom we may adjoyne one more of no lesse credit among our Romanists then any of the others even Thomas Stapleton himselfe who taketh it for granted that these so many famous ancient Fathers Tertullian Irenaeus Origen Chrysostom Theodoret Oecumenius Theophylact Ambrose Clâ—mens Romanus sss and Bernard did not assent unto this sentence which now saith he in the Councell of Florence was at length after much disputing defined as a doctrine of faith that the soules of the righteous enjoy the sight of God before the day of judgement but did deliver the contrary sentence thereunto We would intreat our Challenger then to spell these things and put them together and afterward to tell us whether such a conclusion as this may not be deduced from thence Such as held that the Saints were not yet admitmitted to the sight of God could not well hold that men should pray
in respect we pray unto God that the merits of the Saints may helpe us according to that Adjuvent nos eorum merita c. where if any poyson doe remayne hidden under the name of merits of which we are to consider in his proper place the Breviarie of the Praemonstratersian Order ministreth unto us this antidote against it Adjuvent nos eorum merita Quos propria impediunt scelera Excuset eorum intercessio Quos propria accusat actio At tu qui eis tribuisti Coelestis palmam triumphi Nobis veniam non deneges peccati Can their merits helpe us whom their owne sinnes hinder Can their intercession excuse us whose owne action doth accuse themselves But thou who hast bestowed upon them the palme of the heavenly triumph deny not unto us the pardon of our sinne And this many serve to make a. Fourth difference betwixt the Popish prayers and the Interpellations used in the ancient time for by the doctrine and practise of the Church of Rome the Saints in heaven are not only made joint petitioners with us as the Saints are upon earth but also our Atturneyes and Advocates who carry the suit for us not by the pleading of Christs merits alone but by bringing in their owne merits likewise upon the consideration of the dignitie or condignitie whereof it is beleeved that God yeeldeth to the motions they make unto him in our behalfe Wee pray unto the Saints saith the Master of the Sentences that they may intercede for us that is to say that their merits may helpe us and that they may will our good for they willing it God doth will it and so it will be effected We ought to intreat the Apostles and all the Saints saith Hugo Pratensis in all our necessities because they are our advocates and the meanes betwixt us and God by whom God hath ordayned to bestow all things upon us Because it is a thing fitting saith Scotus that he that is in blisse should be a coadjutor of God in procuring the salvation of the elect according to such maner as this may agree unto him and to this it is requisite that our prayers which are offered unto him should specially be revealed unto him because they leane specially upon the merits of him as of a mediator bringing us to the salvation which is sought for therefore it is probable that God doth specially reveale unto him that is in blisse such of our prayers as are offered unto him or unto God in his name But this is an open derogation to the high prerogative of our Saviours meritorious Intercession and a manifest incroachment upon the great office of Mediation which the most religious and learned among those Fathers who desired to be recommended unto the prayers of the Saints were so carefull to preserve entire unto him For what is so proper to Christ saith S. Ambrose as to stand by God the Father for an advocate of the people He is the Priest saith S. Augustin who being now entred within the vayle ALONE there of them that have beene partakers of flesh doth make intercession for us In figure of which thing in that first people and in that first Temple the Priest onely did enter into the Holy of holyes and all the people stood without And therefore where S. Iohn saieth These things write I unto you that yee sinne not and if any man sinne vvee have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous 1. Iohn 2.1 S. Augustin in his exposition upon that place maketh this observation thereupon that S. Iohn being so great a man as he was did not say YEE have nor Yee have MEE nor YEE have Christ himselfe but did both put in Christ not himselfe and also sayd WEE have not YEE have because he had rather put himselfe in the number of sinners that he might have Christ to be his advocate than put himselfe for an advocate in steed of Christ and be found among the proud that should be damned and from thence draweth this conclusion against Parmenian the Donatist If he had sayd thus I have written this unto you that you sinne not and if any man sinne you have me a mediator with the Father I make intercession for your sinnes as Parmenian in one place doth make the Bishop a mediator betwixt the people and God what good and faithfull Christian would endure him who would looke upon him as the Apostle of Christ and not as Antichrist rather The doctrine therefore and practise of the Church of Rome in this point by this learned Fathers judgement must needes be held to bee ungodly and Antichristian Fiftly the recommendation of mens selves unto the prayers of the Saints deceased which was at first admitted in the ancient Church did no way impeach â—he confidence and boldnesse which we have gotten in Christ to make our immediate approach unto the throne of grace which by the Invocation of Saints now taught in the Church of Rome is very much impayred For to induce men to the practise of this the great Majestie of God and the severity of his Iustice is propounded unto poore sinners on the one hand and the consideration of their owne basenesse and unworthinesse on the other whereupon it is inferred that aswell for the manifesting of their reverence to Gods Majestie as the testifying of their submissenesse and Humilitie they should seeke to God by the mediation of his Saints like as men doe seeke to the King by the mediation of his servants which motives can have no more force to encourage men to the Invocation of Saints then they have to discourage them from the immediate Invocation of God and his Christ. So among the causes alledged by Alexander of Hales why we ought to pray unto the Saints one is in respect of our want in contemplating that we who are not able to behold the highest light in it selfe may contemplate it in his Saints another in respect of our want in loving because we miserable men miserable men indeed that doe so or some of us at least are more affected sometimes unto some Saint than unto our Lord himselfe and therefore God having compassion on our misery is pleased that we should pray unto his Saints and a third in respect of the reverence of God that a sinner who hath offended God because he dareth not to come unto him in his owne person may have recourse unto the Saints by imploring their patronage The like we read in Gabriel Biel handling the same argument This is a singular consolation saith he to sinners who have oftentimes more minde to the interpellation of the Saints then of the Iudge whose defect of holinesse also other mens goodnesse is able to supply and it maketh for the reverence of God that a sinner who hath offended God as it were not daring for the drosse of his sinne to appeare in his proper person before the most high and dreadfull
earth and did forsake the whole earth that would be nothing worthy to be compared with the kingdome of heaven For as if one would neglect one peece of brasse that he might gaine a hundred peeces of gold so he who is lord of the whole earth and forsaketh it should but forgoe a little and receive a hundred fold Such an other exhortation doth S. Augustine also make unto his hearers When thou dost consider saith he what thou art to receive all the things that thou sufferest will be vile unto thee neither wilt thou esteeme them worthy for which thou shouldst receive it Thou wilt wonder that so much is given for so small a labour For indeed brethren for everlasting rest everlasting labour should be undergone being to receive everlasting felicitie thou oughtest to sustaine everlasting sufferings But if thou shouldst sustaine everlasting labour when shouldst thou come to everlasting felicitie So it commeth to passe that thy tribulation must of necessitie be temporall that it being finished thou maist come to infinite felicitie But yet brethren there might have beene long tribulation for eternall felicitie that for example because our felicitie shall have no end our misery and our labour and our tribulations should be of long continuance For admit they should continue a thousand yeere weigh a thousand yeeres with eternitie Why dost thou weigh that which is finite be it never so great with that which is infinite Ten thousand yeeres ten hundred thousand if we should say and a thousand thousand which have an end cannot be compared with eternitie This then thou hast that God would have thy labour to be not only temporall but short also And therefore doth the same Father every where put us in minde that God is become our debtor not by our deservings but by his owne gratious promise Man saith he is faithfull when he beleeveth God promising God is faithfull when he performeth that which he hath promised unto man Let us hold him a most faithfull debtor because we have him a most mercifull promiser For we have not done him any pleasure or leant any thing to him that we should hold him a debtor seeing we have from himselfe whatsoever we doe offer unto him and it is from him whatsoever good we are We have not given any thing therefore unto him and yet we hold him a debtor Whence a debtor because he is a promiser We say not unto God Lord pay that which thou hast received but pay that which thou hast promised Be thou secure therefore Hold him as a debtor because thou hast beleeved in him as a promiser God is faithfull who hath made himselfe our debtor not by receiving any thing from us but by promising so great things to us For to men hath he promised divinitie to those that are mortall immortalitie to sinners justification to abjects glorification Whatsoever he promised he promised to them that were unworthy that it might not be promised as waâ—es for workes but being grace might according to the name be graciously and freely given because that even this very thing that one doth live justly so farre as a man can live justly is not a matter of mans merit but of the gift of God Therefore in those things which we have alreadie let us praise God as the giver in those things which as yet we have not let us hold him our debtor For hee is become our debtor not by receiving any thing from us but by promising what it pleased him For it is one thing to say to a man Thou art debtor to me because I have given to thee and another thing to say Thou art debtor to mee because thou hast promised me When thou sayest Thou art debtor to me because I have given to thee a benefit hath proceeded from thee though lent not given But when thou sayest Thou art debtor to me because thou hast promised me thou gavest nothing to him and yet requirest of him For the goodnesse of him that hath promised will give it c. The salvation of men depends upon the sole mercy of God saith Theodoret. for we do not obtaine it as the reward and wages of our righteousnes but it is the gift of Gods goodnesse The crownes doe excell the fights the rewards are not to be compared with the labours for the labour is small but great is the gaine that is hoped for And therefore the Apostle Rom. 8.18 called those things that are looked for not wages but glory and Rom. 6.23 not wages but grace For although a man should performe the greatest and most absolute righteousnesse things eternall doe not answer temporall labours in equall poise The same for this point is taught by S. Cyrill of Alexandria that the crowne which we are to receive doth much surpasse the paines which we take for it And the Author of the booke of the calling of the Gentiles attributed unto Prosper observeth out of the Parable Matth. 20.9 that God bestoweth eternall life on those that are called at the end of their daies as well as upon them that had laboured longer not as paying a price to their labour but powring out the riches of his goodnesse upon them whom he had chosen without works that even they also who have sweat with much labour and have received no more than the last might understand that they did receive a gift of grace and not a due wages for their workes This was the doctrine taught in the Church for the first five hundred yeeres after Christ which wee finde maintained also in the next five hundred If the King of heaven should regard my merit saith Ennodius Bishop of Pavîa either I should get little good or great punishments and judging of my selfe rightly whither I could not come by merits I would not tend in desire But thankes be to him who that we may not be extolled doth so cut off our offences that he bringeth our hope unto better things Our glorification saith Fulgentius is not unjustly called Grace not only because God doth bestow his owne gifts upon his owne gifts but also because the grace of Gods reward doth so much there abound as that it exceedeth incomparably and unspeakably all the merit of the will and worke of man though good and given from God For although we did sweat saith he who beareth the name of Eusebius Emissenus or Gallicanus with all the labours of our soule and bodie although we were exercised with all the strength of obedience yet shall not we be able to recompence and offer any thing worthie in merit for the heavenly good things The offices of this present life cannot be compared with the joyes of the life eternall Although our members be wearied with watchings although our faces wax pale with fastings yet the sufferings of this time will not be worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall bee revealed in us Let us