And before him Thomas Waldensis the great Champion of Pope Martine against the miscalled Hereticks of his owne name professes him the sounder Diuine and truer Catholique which simply denies any such Merit and ascribes all to the meere grace of God and the will of the giuer What should I need to darken the ayre with a cloud of witnesses their Gregorie Ariminensis their Brugensis Marsilius Pighius Eckius Ferus Stella Faber Stapulensis Let their famous Preacher Royard shut vp all Quid â—gitur is qui Merita praetendit c. Whosoeuer he be that pretends his Merits what doth hee else but deserue Hell by his Workes Let Bellarmines Tutissimum est c. ground it selfe vpon Saint Bernards experimentall resolution Periculosa habita est Perilous is their dwelling place who trust in their owne Merits perillous because ruinous All these and many more teach this not as their owne doctrine but as the Churches Either they and the Church whose voyce they are are Hereticks with vs or we orthodoxe with them and they and wee with the Ancients The noueltie of this Romane Doctrine is accompanied with Errour Against Scripture against Reason SECT II. Against Scripture THat God doth graciously accept and munificently recompence our good workes euen with incomprehensible glory we doubt not we denie not but this either out of the riches of his mercy or the iustice of his promise but that we can earne this at his hands out of the intrinsecal worthines of our acts is a challenge too high for flesh and bloud yea for the Angels of Heauen How direct is our Sauiours instance of the seruant comne out of the field and commanded by his Master to attendance Doth hee thanke that seruant because hee did the things that were commanded him I trow not so likewise yee When yee shall haue done all things which are commanded you say we are vnprofitable seruants Vnprofitable perhaps you will say in respect of meriting thankes not vnprofitable in respect of meriting wages For to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt True therefore herein our case differeth from seruants that wee may not looke for Gods reward as of debt but as of Grace By grace are yee saued through faith neither is it our earning but Gods gift Both it cannot be For if by grace then it is no more of workes euen of the most renued otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of workes then it is no more grace otherwise worke should bee no more worke Now not by workes of righteousnesse which we haue done at our best but according to his mercie he saueth vs Were our saluation of workes then should eternall life be our wages but now The wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. SECT III. Against Reason IN very reason where all is of meere dutie there can bee no merit for how can wee deserue reward by doing that which if we did not we should offend It is enough for him that is obliged to his taske that his worke is well taken Now all that wee can possibly doe and more is most iustly due vnto God by the bond of our Creation of our Redemption by the charge of his royall Law and that sweet Law of his Gospell Nay alas wee are farre from beeing able to compasse so much as our dutie In many things we sinne all It is enough that in our glory we cannot sinne though their Faber Stapulensis would not yeeld so much and taxeth Thomas for saying so with the same presumption that Origen held the very good Angels might offend Then is our grace consummate Till then our best abilities are full of imperfection â—herefore the conceit of merit is not more arrogant then absurd We cannot merit of him whom we gratifie not We cannot gratifie â— man with his owne All our good â—s Gods alreadie his gift his proprietie What haue wee that we haue not receiued Not our Talent only but the improouement also is his meere bountie There can be therefore no place for Merit In all iust Merit there must needs be a due proportion betwixt the act and the recompence It is of fauour if the gift exceed the worth of the seruice Now what proportion can bee betwixt a finite weake imperfect obedience such is ours at the best and an infinite full and most perfect glory The bold Schooles dare say that the naturall and entitatiue value of the workes of Christ himselfe was finite though the moralâ— value was infinite What then shall bee said of our workes which are like our selues meere imperfection We are not so proud that we should scorne with Ruard Tapperus to expect Heauen as a poore man doth an Almes rather according to Saint Austens charge Non sit capâ—â—turgidum c. Let not the heaâ— bee proud that it may receiue a Crowne We doe with all humilitie and selfe-deiection looke vp to the bountifull hands of that God who crowneth vs in mercie and compassion This Doctrine then of Merit being both new and erroneous hath iustly merited our reproofe and detestation and we are vniustly censured for our censure thereof CHAP. VII The newnesse of the Doctrine of Transsubstantiation THe point of Transsubstantion is iustly ranked amongst our highest differences Vpon this quarâ—ll in the very last age how many â—ules were sent vp to Heauen in â—he midst of their flames as if the Sacrament of the Altar had beene sufficient ground of these bloudie Sacrifices The definition of the Tridentine Councell is herein beyond the wont cleare and expresse If any man shall say that in the Sacrament of the sacred Eucharist there remaynes still the substance of Bread and Wine together with the Body and Bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ and shall denie that maruellous and singular conuersion of the whole substance of Bread into the Bodie and the whole substance of Wine into Bloud the Species semblances or shewes only of Bread and Wine remaining which said Conuersion the Catholike Church doth most fitly call Transsubstantiation let him be accursed Thus they Now let vs inquire how old this piece of faith is In synaxi sero c. It was late ere the Church defined Transsubstantiation saith Erasmus For of so long it was saith hee held sufficient to beleeue that the true Bodie of Christ was there whether vnder the consecrated Bread or howsoeuer And how late was this Scotus shall tell vs Ante Concilium Lateranense Before the Councell of Lateran Transsubstantiation was no point of faith as Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe confesses his opinion with a â—minime probandum And this Councell was in the yeere of our Lord one thousand two hundred and fifteene Let who list beleeue that this subtile Doctour had neuer heard of the Roman Councell vnder Gregory the seuenth which was in the yeere one thousand seuentie
through him onely we haue accesse by one Spirit vnto the Father and he hath inuited vs to himselfe Come to me all yee that labour and are heauie laden SECT III. Against reason HOw absurd therefore is it in reason when the King of heauen cals vs to him to run with our petitions to the Guard or Pages of the Court Had we to doe with a finite Prince whose eares must be his best informers or whose will to help vs were iustly questionable wee might haue reason to present our suits by second hands But since it is an Omnipresent and Omniscious God with whom wee deale from whom the Saints and Angels receiue all their light and loue to his Church how extreme folly is it to sue to those Courtiers of Heauen and not to come immediately to the Throne of Grace That one Mediatour is able and willing also to saue them to the vtmost that come vnto God by him seeing he euer liueth to make intercession for them Besides how vncertaine must our deuotions needes bee when we can haue no possible assurance of their audience for who can know that a Saint heares him That God euer heares vs wee are as sure as wee are vnsure to be heard of Saints Nay we are sure wee cannot bee all heard of them For what finite nature can diuide it selfe betwixt ten thousand Suppliants at one instant in seuerall regions of the world much lesse impart it selfe whole to each Either therefore wee must turne the Saints into so many Deities or wee must yeeld that some of our prayers are vnheard And whatsoeuer is not of faith is sinne As for that heauenly glasse of Saint Gregories wherein the Saints see vs and our suits confuted long since by Hugo de Sancto Victore it is as pleasing a fiction as if we imagined therefore to see all the corners of the earth because we see that Sun which sees them And the same eyes that see in God the particular necessities of his Saints below see in the same God such infinite grace and mercie for their releefe as may saue the labour of their reflecting vpon that diuine miroir in their speciall intercessions This doctrine therefore and practice of the Romish inuocation of Saints both as new and erroneous against Scripture and reason wee haue iustly reiected and are thereupon eiected as vniustly CHAP. XV. The newnesse of seuen Sacraments THe late Councell of Florence indeed insinuates this number of seuen Sacraments as Suarez contends But the later Councell of Trent determines it Si quis dixerit aut plura c. If any man shall say that there are either more or fewer Sacraments then seuen viz. Baptisme Confirmation c or that any of these is not truly and properly a Sacrament Let him be Anathema It is not more plaine that in Scripture there is no mention of Sacraments then that in the Fathers there is no mention of seuen Cardinall Bellarmines euasion that the Scripture and Fathers wrote no Catechisme is poore and ridiculous No more did the Councels of Florence and Trent and yet there the number is reckoned and defined So as the word Sacrament may be taken for any holy significant rite there may bee as well seuentie as seuen So strictly as it may be and is taken by vs there can no more bee seuen then seuentie This determination of the number is so late that Cassander is forced to confesse Nec temerè c. You shall not easily find any man before Peter Lombard which hath set downe any certaine and definite number of Sacraments And this obseruation is so iust that vpon the challenges of our writers no one author hath bin produced by the Roman Doctours for the disproofe of it elder then Hugo and the said Master of Sentences But numbers are ceremonies Both Luther and Philip Melancthon professe they stand not much vpon them It is the number numbred which is the thing it selfe mis-related into that sacred Order that we sticke at There we find that none but Christ can make a Sacrament for none but he who can giue grace can ordaine a signe and seale of Grace Now it is euident enough that these adscititious Sacraments were neuer of Christs institution So was not confirmation as our Alexander of Hales and Holcot so was not Matrimony as Durand So was not Extreme Vnction as Hugo Lombard Bonauenture Halensis Altisiodore by the confession of their Suarez These were ancient rites but they are new Sacraments All of them haue their allowed and profitable vse in Gods Church though not in so high a nature Except that of Extreme Vnction which as it is an apish mis-imitation of that extraordinarie course which the Apostolike times vsed in their cures of the sicke so it is grossely mis-applyed to other purposes then were intended in the first institution Then it was Vngebant sanabant the oyle miraculously conferring bodily recouerie but now Non nisi in mortis articulo adhibetur it is not vsed but vpon the verie point of death as Caietan and Cassander confesse and all experience manifests and by Felix the fourth drawne to a necessitie of addresse to eternall life SECT II. Seuen Sacraments beside Scripture NOt to scan particulars which all yeeld ample exceptions but to wind them all vp in one bottome Whosoeuer shall looke into the Scripture shall finde it apparent that as in the time of mans innocence there were but two Sacraments the tree of life and the tree of knowledge So before and vnder the Law how euer they had infinite rites yet in the proper sense they had but two Sacraments the same in effect with those vnder the Gospel The one the Sacrament of Initiation which was their Circumcision Paralleld by that Baptisme which succeeded it The other the Sacrament of our holy Confirmation that spirituall meat and drinke which was their Paschall Lambe and Manna and water from the rocke prefiguring the true Lambe of God and bread of life and bloud of our redemption The great Apostle of the Gentiles that well knew the Analogie hath compared both Moreouer brethren I would not haue you ignorant how that all our fathers were vnder the cloud and all passed thorow the sea And all were baptized in the cloud and in the sea And all did eat the same spirituall meat and all did drinke the same spirituall drinke for they dranke of that spirituall Rocke that followed them and that Rocke was Christ What is this in any iust construction but that the same two Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper which wee celebrate vnder the Gospell were the verie same with those which were celebrated by Gods ancient people vnder the Law They two and no more Hoc facite Doe this is our warrant for the one and Ite baptizate c. and Go teach and baptize for the other There is deepe silence in the rest SECT III. Against reason IN reason it must bee
that wee must take this vpon the bare word of Conradus Vrspergensis Secondly that this Indulgence of his is no other but a relaxation of Canonicall penance For hee addes which Bellarmine purposely concealeth ijs qui de capitalibus c. to those that should doe penance for capitall sinnes hee released fortie dayes penance So as this instance helpes nothing neither are the rest which hee hath raked together within the compasse of a few preceding yeeres of any other alloy Neither hath that Cardinall offered to cite one Father for the proofe of this practice the birth whereof was many hundred yeeres after their expiration but cunningly shifts it off with a cleanly excuse Neque mirum c. Neither may it seem strange if wee haue not many ancient Authors that make mention of these things in the Church which are preserued only by vse not by writing So he He sayes Not many authors hee showes not one And if many matters of rite haue been traduced to the Church without notice of pen or presse yet let it be showne what one doctrine or practice of such importance as this is pretended to bee hath escaped the report and maintenance of some Ecclesiasticke Writer or other and we shall willingly yeeld it in this Till then wee shall take this but for a meere colour and resolue that our honest Roffensis deales plainly with vs who tells vs Quam diu nulla fuerat de Purgatorio cura c. So long as there was no care of Purgatorie no man sought after Indulgences for vpon that depends all the opinion of pardons If you take away Purgatorie wherefore should wee need pardons Since therefore Purgatorie was so lately knowne and receiued of the whole Church who can maruell concerning Indulgences that there was no vse of them in the beginning of the Church Indulgences then began after men had trembled somewhile at the torments of a Purgatorie Thus their Martyr not partially for vs but ingenuously out of the power of truth professes the noueltie of two great Articles of the Roman Creed Purgatorie and Indulgences Indeed both these now hang on one string Although there was a kinde of Purgatorie dreamed of before their pardons came into play That deuice peept out fearefully from Origen and pull'd in the head againe as in Saint Austens time doubting to show it Tale aliquod c. That there is some such thing saith hee after this life it is not vtterly incredible and may be made a question And elsewhere I reproue it not for it may perhaps be true And yet againe as retracting what hee had yeelded resolues Let no man deceiue himselfe my brethren there are but two places and a third there is none Before whom Saint Cyprian is peremptorie Quando istinc excessum fuerit When wee are once departed hence there is now no more place of repentance no effect of satisfaction Here is life either lost or kept And Gregorie Nazianzens verse sounds to the same sense And Saint Ambrose can say of his Theodosius that being freed from this earthly warfare Fruitur nunc luce perpetua c. hee now enioyes euerlasting light during tranquillitie and triumphs in the troopes of the Saints But what striue wee in this Wee may well take the word of their Martyr our Roffensis for both And true Erasmus for the ground of this defence Mirum in modum c. They doe maruellously affect the fire of Purgatorie because it is most profitable for their Kitchins SECT II. Indulgences and Purgatorie against Scripture THese two then are so late comne strangers that they cannot challenge any notice taken of them by Scripture Neither were their names euer heard of in the language of Canaan yet the Wisedome of that all-seeing Spirit hath not left vs without preuentions of future errours in blowing vp the very grounds of these humane deuises The first and mayne ground of both is the remainders of some temporall punishments to be paid after the guilt and eternall punishment remitted The driblets of veniall sinnes to bee reckond for when the mortall are defraied Heare what God saith I euen I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne sake and will not remember thy sinnes Loe can the Letter bee read that is blotted out Can there be a back-reckoning for that which shal not be remembred I haue done away thy Transgressions as a Cloud What sinnes can bee lesse then transgressions What can bee more cleerely dispersed then a Cloud Wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Who can tell where the spot was when the skin is rinced If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull to forgiue our sinnes and to cleanse vs from all vnrighteousnesse Loe he cleanseth vs from the guilt and forgiues the punishment What are our sinnes but debts What is the infliction of punishment but an exaction of payment What is our remission but a striking off that score And when the score is strucke off what remaynes to pay Remitte debita Forgiue our debts is our daily Prayer Our Sauiour tels the Paralitick Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee In the same words implying the remouing of his disease the sinne bee gone the punishment cannot stay behind We may smart by way of chastisement after the freest remission not by way of reuenges for our amendment not for Gods satisfaction The second ground is a middle condition betwixt the state of eternall life and death of no lesse torment for the time then Hell it selfe whose flames may burne off the rust of our remayning sinnes the issues where-from are in the power of the great Pastor of the Church How did this escape the notice of our Sauiour Verify verily I say vnto you hee that heareth my Word and beleeueth in him that sent mee hath euerlasting life and comes not into iudgement as the Vulgar it selfe turnes it but is passed from death vnto life Behold a present possession and immediate passage no iudgement interuening no torment How was this hid from the great Doctor of the Gentiles who putting himselfe into the common case of the beleeuing Corinthians professes Wee know that if once our earthly house of this Tabernacle bee dissolued wee haue a building of God not made with hands eternall in the Heauens The dissolution of the one is the possession of the other here is no interposition of time of estate The wise man of old could say The soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them Vpon their very going from vs they are in peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Iohn heard from the heauenly voyce From their very dying in the Lord is their blessednesse SECT III. Indulgences against Reason IT is absurd in reason to thinke that God should forgiue our Talents and arrest vs for the odde farthings Neither is it lesse absurd to thinke that any liuing soule can haue superfluities of
the faithfull except Martyrs in some blinde receptacles whether in the Center of the earth or elsewhere where they might in candida expectare diem Iudicij as Tertullian hath it foure seuerall times And Stapleton himselfe sticks not to name diuers of them thus fouly mistaken Others of the Fathers haue let fall speeches directly bent against this Inuocation Non opus est patronis c. There is no need of any Aduocates to God saith Saint Chrysostome and most plainly elsewhere Homines si quando c. If wee haue any suit to men saith he wee must fee the porters and treat with iesters and parasites and goe many times a long way about In God there is no such matter he is exorable without any of our Mediatours without mony without cost he grants our petitions It is enough to cry for thee with thine heart alone to powre out thy teares and presently thou hast won him to mercie Thus hee And those of the Ancients that seeme to speake for it lay grounds that ouerthrow it Howsoeuer it be all holy Antiquitie would haue both blushed and spit at those formes of Inuocation which the late Clients of Rome haue broached to the world If perhaps they spake to the Saints tanquam deprecatores vel potius comprecatores as Spalatensis yeelds mouing them to bee competitioners with vs to the throne of grace not properly but improperly as Altisiodore construes it how would they haue digested that blasphemous Psalter of our Ladie imputed to Bonauenture and those stiles of meere Deification which are giuen to her and the diuision of all offices of pietie to mankinde betwixt the mother and the Sonne How had their eares glowed to heare Christus orauit Franciscus exoranit Christ praied Francis preuailed How would they haue brooked that which Ludouicus Viues freely confesses Multi Christiani c· Many Christians worship diuos diuaâ—que the Saints of both sexes no otherwise then God himselfe Or that which Spalatensis professes to haue obserued that the ignorant multitude are carried with more entire religious affection to the blessed Virgin or some other Saint then to Christ their Sauiour These foule superstitions are not more hainous then new and such as wherein we haue iustly abhorred to take part with the practices of them SECT II. Inuocation of Saints against Scripture AS for the better side of this mis-opinion euen thus much colour of Antiquitie were cause enough to suspend our censures according to that wise and moderate resolution of learned Zanchius were it not that the Scriptures are so flatly opposite vnto it as that we may iustly wonder at that wisdome which hath prouided Antidotes for a disease that of many hundred yeares after should haue no being in the World The ground of this Inuocation of Saints is their notice of our earthly condition and speciall Deuotions And behold thou preuaylest euer against man and he passeth thou changest his countenance and sendest him away His sonnes come to honour and hee knowes it not and they are brought low and he perceiueth it not saith Iob. The dead know nothing at all saith wise Salomon Also their loue and their hatred and their enuie is now perished neither haue they any more a portion for euer in any thing that is done vnder the Sunne No portion in any thing therefore not in our miseries not in our allocutions If we haue a portion in them for their loue and Prayers in common for the Church they haue no portion in our particularities whether of want or complaint Abraham our Father is ignorant of vs saith Esay and Israel acknowledges vs not Loe the Father of the faithful aboue knowes not his own children till they come into his bosome and hee that giues them their names is to them as strangers Wherefore should good Iosiah bee gathered to his Fathers as Hulda tels him but that his eyes might not see all the euill which should come vpon Ierusalem Wee cannot haue a better Commenter then Saint Augustine If saith hee the soules of the dead could be present at the affaires of the liuing c. Surely my good Mother would no night forsake me whom whiles she liued shee followed both by Land and Sea Farre be it from mee to thinke that an happier life hath made her cruell c. But certainly that which the holy Psalmist tels vs is true My Father and my Mother haue forsaken me but the Lord tooke me vp If therefore our Parents haue left vs how are they present or doe interesse themselues in our cares or businesses And if our Parents do not who else among the dead know what wee doe or what wee suffer Esay the Prophet saith Thou art our Father for Abraham is ignorant of vs and Israel know vs not If so great Patriarkes were ignorant what became of that people which came from their loynes and which vpon their beliefe was promised to descend from their stocke how shall the dead haue ought to doe either in the knowledge or aide of the affaires or actions of their dearest Suruiuers How doe we say that God prouides mercifully for them who die before the euils come if euen after their death they are sensible of the calamities of humane life c. How is it then that God promised to good King Iosiah for a great blessing that hee should die before hand that he might not see the euils which hee threatned to that place and people Thus that diuine Father With whom agrees Saint Ierome Nec enim possumus c. Neither can we saith hee when this life shall once be dissolued either enioy our owne labours or know what shall bee done in the World afterwards But could the Saints of Heauen know our actions yet our hearts they cannot This is the peculiar skill of their Maker Thou art the searcher of the hearts and reines O righteous God God only knowes abscondita animi the hidden secrets of the soule Now the heart is the seat of our Prayers The lips doe but vent them to the eares of men Moses said nothing when God said Let me alone Moses O therefore thou that hearest the Prayers to thee shall all flesh come Salomons argument is irrefragable Heare thou in Heauen thy dwelling place and doe and giue to euery man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest For thou euen thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men He only should be implored that can heare hee only can heare the Prayer that knowes the heart Yet could they know our secretest desires It is an honour that God challengeth as proper to himselfe to bee inuoked in our Prayers Call vpon me in the day of thy trouble and I will deliuer thee and thou shalt glorifie me There is one God and one Mediator betwixt God and man the man Iesus Christ. One and no more not only of redemption but of intercession also for