Lord their God and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just by giving knowledge of salvation to Gods people unto the remission of their sins Not because he had properly anie power given him to turne mens hearts and to worke faith and repentance for forgivenesse of sinnes when and where he thought good but because he was trusted with the ministerie of the word of Gods grace which is able to convert and quicken mens soules and to give them an inheritance among all them which are sanctified by the powerfull application of which word he who converteth the sinner from the errour of his way is said to save a soule from death and to hide a multitude of sinnes For howsoever in true proprietie the covering of sinnes the saving from death and turning of men from their iniquities is a priviledge peculiar to the Lord our God unto whom alone it appertayneth to reconcile the world to himselfe by not imputing their sinnes unto them yet inasmuch as he hath committed unto his ambassadors the word of reconciliation they in performing that worke of their ministerie may be as rightly said to be imployed in reconciling men unto God and procuring remission of their sinnes as they are said to deliver a man from going downe into the pit when they declare unto him his righteousnesse and to save their hearers when they preach unto them the Gospel by which they are saved For as the word it selfe which they speake is said to be their word which yet is in truth the word of God so the worke which is effectually wrought by that word in them that beleeve is said to be their worke though in truth it be the proper worke of God And as they that beleeve by their word are said to be their Epistle 2. Cor. 3.2 that is to say the Epistle of Christ ministred by them as it is expounded in the verse following in like maner forgivenesse of sinnes and those other great graces that appertaine to the beleevers may be said to be their worke that is to say the worke of Christ ministred by them For in verie deed as Optatus speaketh in the matter of Baptisme not the minister but the faith of the beleever and the Trinitie doe bring these things unto every man And where the preaching of the Gospel doth prove the power of God unto salvation onely the weakenesse of the externall ministerie must be ascribed to men but the excellency of the power must ever be acknowledged to be of God and not of them neyther he that planteth being here any thing neyther he that watereth but God that giveth the increase For howsoever in respect of the former such as take paines in the Lords husbandry may be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle termeth them labourers together with God though that little peece of service it selfe also bee not performed by their owne strength but according to the grace of God which is given unto them yet that which followeth of giving the increase God effecteth not by them but by himselfe This saith S. Augustin exceedeth the lowlinesse of man this exceedeth the sublimitie of Angels neither appertayneth unto anie but unto the husbandman the Trinity Now as the Spirit of God doth not onely woâ—ke diversities of graces in us distributing to every man severally as he will but also maketh us to know the things that are freely given to us of God so the ministers of the New Testament being made able ministers of the same spirit are not onely ordayned to be Gods instruments to worke faith and repentance in men for the obtayning of remission of sinnes but also to declare Gods pleasure unto such as beleeve and repent and in his name to certifie them and give assurance to their consciences that their sinnes are forgiven they having received this ministerie of the Lord Iesus to testifie the Gospell of the grace of God and so by their function being appointed to be witnesses rather then conferrers of that grace For it is here with them in the loosing part as it is in the binding part of their ministerie where they are brought in like unto those seuen Angels in the book of the Revelation which powre out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth having vengeance ready against all disobedience and a charge from God to cast men out of his sigâ—t not because they are properly the avengers for that title God challengeth unto himselfe or that vengeance did anie way appertaine unto them for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord but because they were the denouncers not the inflicters of this vengeance So though it be the Lord that speaketh concerning a nation to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy or on the other side to build and to plant it yet he in whose mouth God put those words of his is said to be set by him over the nations and over the kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe to build and to plant as if he himselfe were a doer of those great matters who was onely ordeyned to be a Prophet unto the nations to speake the things unto them which God had commanded him Thus likewise in the thirteenth of Leviticus where the Lawes are set downe that concerne the leprosie which was a type of the pollution of sinne wee meet often with these speeches The Priest shall cleanse him and The Priest shall pollute him and in the 44. verse The Priest with pollution shall pollute him not saith S. Hierome that he is the author of the pollution but that he declareth him to be polluted who before did seeme unto many to have beene cleane Whereupon the Master of the Sentences following herein S. Hierome and being afterwards therein followed himselfe by manie others observeth that in remitting or retayning sinnes the Priests of the Gospell have that right and office which the legall Priests had of old under the Law in curing of the lepers These therefore saith hee forgive sinnes or retaine them whiles they shew and declare that they are forgiven or retayned by God For the Priests put the name of the Lord upon the children of Israel but it was he himselfe that blessed them as it is read in Numbers The place that he hath referrence unto is in the sixth chapter of that booke where the Priests are commanded to blesse the people by saying unto them The Lord blesse thee c. and then it followeth in the last verse of that chapter So they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel and I will blesse them Neyther doe we grant hereupon as the Adversarie falsely chargeth us that a lay-man yea or a woman or a childe or any infidell or the Divell the Father of all
answer Surely this we may say and thinke that God alone doth forgive and retayne sinnes and yet hath given power of binding and loosing unto the Church but He bindeth and looseth one way and the Church another For he only by himselfe forgiveth sinne who both cleanseth the soule from inward blot and looseth it from the debt of everlasting death But this hath he not granted unto Priests to whom notwithstanding he hath given the power of binding and loosing that is to say of declaring men to be bound or loosed Wherupon the Lord did first by himselfe restore health unto the leper and then sent him unto the Priests by whose judgement he might be declared to be cleansed so also he offered Lazarus to his disciples to be loosed having first quickned him In like maner Hugo Cardinalis sheweth that it is onely God that forgiveth sinnes and that the Priest cannot binde or loose the sinner with or from the bond of the fault and the punishment due thereunto but onely declare him to be bound or loosed as the Leviticall Priest did not make nor cleanse the leper but onely declared him to be infected or cleane And a great number of the Schoolemen afterward shewed themselves to be of the same judgement that to pardon the fault and the eternall punishment due unto the same was the proper worke of God that the Priests absolution hath no reall operation that way but presupposeth the partie to be first justified and absolved by God Of this minde were Guilielmus Altissiodorensis Alexander of Hales Bonaventure Ockam Thomas de Argentinâ Michael de Bononiâ Gabriel Biel Henricus de Huecta Iohannes Major and others To lay downe all their words at large would be too tedious In generall Hadrian the sixth one of their owne Popes acknowledgeth that the most apprâ—ved Divines were of this minde that the keyes of the Priesthood doe not extend themselves to the remission of the fault and Major affirmeth that this is the common Tenet of the Doctors So likewise is it avouched by Gabriel Biel that the old Doctors commonly follow the opinion of the Master of the Sentences that Priests do forgive or retaine sinnes while they iudge and declare that they are forgiven by God or retained But all this notwithstanding Suarez is bold to tell us that this opinion of the Master is false and now at this time erroneous It was not held so the other day when Ferus preached at Mentz that man did not properly remit sinne but did declare and certifie that it was remitted by God so that the Absolution received from man is nothing else then if he should say Behold my sonne I certifie thee that thy sinnes are forgiven thee I pronounce unto thee that thou hast God favourable unto thee and vvhatsoever Christ in Baptisme and in his Gospell hath promised unto us he doth now declare and promise unto thee by me Of this shalt thou have me to be a witnesse goe in peace and in quiet of conscience But jam hoc tempore the case is altered these things must be purged out of Ferus as erroneous the opinion of the old Doctors must give place to the sentence of the new Fathers of Trent And so we are come at length to the end of this long question in the handling whereof I have spent more time th◠〈◊〉 aniâ— of thâ— râ—st by reason our Priests doe make this facultie of pardoning mens sinnes to be one of the most principall parts of their occupation and the particular discoverie thereof is not ordinarily by the writers of our side so much insisted upon The performance therefore of my promise of brevitie is to be expected in the briefer treating upon those articles that remaine the fift whereof we are now to take into our consideration which is OF PVRGATORIE FOr extinguishing the imaginarie flames of Popish Purgatory wee need not goe farre to fetch water seeing the whole current of Gods word runneth mainly upon this that the blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne that all Gods children dye in Christ and that such as dye in him doe rest from their labours that as they be absent from the Lord while they are in the bodie so when they be absent from the bodie they are present with the Lord and in a word that they come not into judgement but passe from death unto life And if wee need the assistance of the ancient Fathers in this businesse behold they be here readie with full buckets in their hands Tertullian to begin withall counteth it iniurious unto Christ to hold that such as be called from hence by him are in a state that should be pittied whereas they have obtayned their desire of being with Christ according to that of the Apostle Philip. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Chrest What pitie was it that the poore soules in Purgatorie should finde no 〈◊〉 in those dayes to informe men better of their ruefull condition nor no Secretarie to draw up such another supplication for them as this which of late years Sir Thomas Moore presented in their name To all good Christen people In most piteous wise continually calleth and cryeth upon your devoute charitie and most tender pitie for helpe comfort and reliefe your late acquaintance kindred spouses companions playfellowes and friends and now your humble and unacquainted and halfe forgotten suppliants poore prisoners of God the sely soules in Purgatorie here abiding and enduring the grievous paynes and hote clensing fire c. If S. Cyprian had understood but halfe thus much doubtlesse he would have strucken out the best part of that famous treatise which hee wrote of Mortalitie to comfort men against death in the time of a great plague especially such passages as these are which by no meanes can be reconciled with Purgatorie It is for him to feare death that is not willing to goe unto Christ it is for him to bee unwilling to goe unto Christ who doth not beleeve that hee beginneth to raigne with Christ. For it is written that the just doth live by faith If thou be just and livest by faith if thou dost truly beleeve in God why being to be with Christ and being secure of the Lords promise doest not thou embrace the message whereby thou art called unto Christ and rejoycest that thou shalt be ridd of the Divell Simeon said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seene thy salvation proving thereby and witnessing that the servants of God then have peace then injoy free and quiet rest when being drawen from these stormes of the world vvee arrive at the haven of our everlasting habitation and securitie vvhen this death being ended wee enter into immortalitie The righteous are called to a refreshing the unrighteous are haled to torment safety is quickly
stand in full force against the other so that here wee need not actum agere and make a new worke of overthrowing that which hath beene sufficiently beaten down alreadie But on the other side the admittall of Purgatorie doth not necessarily inferre Prayer for the dead nay if we shall suppose with our Adversaries that Purgatorie is the prison from whence none shall come out untill they have payde the utmost farthing their owne paying and not other mens praying must be the thing they are to trust unto if ever they looke to be delivered out of that jayle Our Romanists indeed doe commonly take it for granted that Purgatory and prayer for the dead be so closely lincked together that the one doth necessarily follow the other but in so doing they reckon without their hoste and greatly mistake the matter For howsoever they may deale with their owne devises as they please and lincke their Prayers with their Purgatorie as closely as they list yet shall they never be able to shew that the commemoration and prayers for the dead used by the ancient Church had anie relation unto their Purgatorie and therefore whatsoever they were Popish prayers we are sure they were not I easily foresee that the full opening of the judgement of the Fathers in this point will hardly stand with that brevitie which I intended to use in treating of these latter questions the particulars be so manie that necessarily doe incurre into the handling of this argument But I suppose the Reader will be content rather to dispense with that promise whereby I did abbridge my selfe of the libertie which otherwise I might freely have taken than be sent away unsatisfied in a matter wherein the Adversarie beareth himselfe confident beyond measure that the whole streame of antiquity runneth clearly upon his side That the truth then of things may the better appeare we are here prudently to distinguish the originall institution of the Church from the private opinions of particular Doctors which waded further herein then the generall intendment of the Church did give them warrant and diligently to consider that the memorialls oblations and prayers made for the dead at the beginning had reference to such as rested from their labours and not unto anie soules which were thought to be tormented in that Vtopian Purgatorie whereof there was no newes stirring in those dayes This may be gathered first by the practise of the ancient Christians laide down by the author of the Commentaries upon Iob which are wrongly ascribed unto Origen in this maner Wee observe the memorialls of the Saints and devoutly keepe the remembrance of our parents or friends which dye in the faith as well rejoycing for their refreshing as requesting also for our selves a godly consummation in the faith Thus therefore doe we celebrate the death not the day of the birth because they which dye shall live for ever and we celebrate it calling together religious persons with the Priests the faithfull with the Clergie inviting moreover the needy and the poore feeding the orphanes and widowes that our festivity may be for a memoriall of rest to the soules departed whose remembrance we celebrate and to us may become a sweet savour in the sight of the eternall God Secondly by that which S. Cyprian writeth of Laurentinus and Ignatius whom he acknowledgeth to have received of the Lord palmes and crownes for their famous martyrdome and yet presently addeth Wee offer sacrifices alwayes for them when we celebrate the passions and dayes of the martyrs with an anniversarie commemoration Thirdly by that which we reade in the author of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy set out under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite For where the partie deceased is described by him to have departed out of this life replenished with divine joy as now not fearing any change to worse being come unto the end of all his labours and to have been both privately acknowledged by his friends and publickly pronounced by the ministers of the Church to be a happy man and to be verily admitted into the societie of the Saincts that have beene from the beginning of the world yet doth he declare that the Bishop made prayer for him upon what ground we shall afterward heare that God would forgive him all the sinnes that he had committed through humane infirmitie and bring him into the light and the land of the living into the bosomes of Abraham Isaac and Iacob into the place from whence paine and sorrow and sighing flyeth Fourthly by the funerall ordinances of the Church related by S. Chrysostome which were appointed to admonish the living that the parties deceased were in a state of joy and not of griefe For tell me saith he what doe the bright lampes meane doe wee not accompany them therewith as champions What meane the Hymnes Consider what thou dost sing at that time Returne my soule unto thy rest for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and againe I will feare no evill because thou art with me and againe Thou art my refuge from the affliction that compasseth me Consider what these Psalmes meane Fiftly by the formes of the prayers that are found in the ancient Liturgies as in that of the Churches of Syria attributed unto S. Basil Be mindefull O Lord of them which are dead and are departed out of this life and of the orthodoxe Bishops which from Peter and Iames the Apostles untill this day have clearely professed the right word of Faith and namely of Ignatius Dionysius Iulius and the rest of the Saincts of worthy memory Be mindfull O Lord of them also which have stood unto blood for Religion and by righteousnesse and holinesse have fedd thy holy Flock and in the Liturgie fathered upon the Apostles We offer unto thee for all the Saints vvhich have pleased thee from the beginning of the world Patriarches Prophets Iust men Apostles Martyrs Confessors Bishops Priests Deacons c. and in the Liturgies of the Churches of Aegypt which carry the title of S. Basil Gregory Nazianzen and Cyrill of Alexandria Bee mindfull O Lord of thy Saints vouchsafe to remember all thy Saints which have pleased thee from the beginning our holy Fathers the Patriarches Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Preachers Evangelists and all the soules of the just which have dyed in the faith and especially the holy glorious the evermore Virgin Mary the mother of God and S. Iohn the forerunner the Baptist and Martyr S. Stephen the first Deacon and Martyr S. Marke the Apostle Evangelist and Martyr c. and in the Liturgie of the Church of Constantinople ascribed to S. Chrysostom We offer unto thee this reasonable service for those who are at rest in the faith our Forefathers Fathers Patriarches Prophets and Apostles Preachers Evangelists Martyrs Confessors religious persons and every spirit perfected in the faith but especially for our most holy immaculate most blessed Lady the mother of God and
torments which by Arator is thus more amply expressed in verse pavidis resplenduit umbris Pallida regna petens propriâ quem luce corruscum Non potuit fuscare chaeos fugere dolores Infernus tunc esse timet nullumque coërcens In se poena redit nova tortor ad otia languet Tartara moesta gemunt quia vincula cuncta quiescunt Mors ibi quid faceret quò vitae portitor ibat S. Augustine doth thus deliver his opinion touching this matter That Christs soule came unto those places wherein sinners are punished that hee might loose them from torments whom by his hidden justice he judged fit to be loosed is not without cause beleeved Neyther did our Saviour being dead for us scorne to visite those parts that hee might loose from thence such as hee could not bee ignorant according to his divine and secret justice were not to bee loosed But whether hee loosed all that hee found in those paines or some whom hee thought worthy of that benefit I yet enquire For that he was in hell and bestowed this benefit upon some that did lye in the paines thereof I doe not doubt Thus did S. Augustine write unto Euodias who inquired of him whether our Saviour loosed all from thence and emptied Hell which was in those dayes a great question and gave occasion to that speech of Gregory Nazianzen If hee descend into Hell goe thou downe with him namely in contemplation and meditation learne the mysteries of Christs doings there what the dispensation and what the reason was of his double descent to wit from heaven unto earth from earth unto hell whether at his appearing he simply saved all or there also such only as did beleeve What ClemeÌ„s Alexandrinus his opinion was herein every one knoweth that our Lord descended for no other cause into Hell but to preach the Gospell and that such as lived a good life before the time of the Gospell whether Iewes or Grecians although they were in hell and in durance yet hearing the voyce of our Lord eyther from himselfe immediatly or by the working of his Apostles were presently converted and did beleeve in a word that in Hell things were so ordred that eveÌ„ there all the soules having heard this preaching might eyther shew their repentance or acknowledge their punishment to be just because they did not beleeve Hereupon when Celsus the Philosopher made this objection concerning our Saviour Surely you will not say of him that when hee could not perswade those that were heere hee went unto Hell to perswade those that were there Origen the scholler of Clemens sticketh not to returne unto him this answere Whether he will or no wee say this that both being in the bodie hee did perswade not a few but so many that for the multitude of those that were perswaded by him he was layd in wayt for and after his soule was separated from his body hee had conference with soules separated from their bodies converting of them unto himselfe such as would or such as he discerned to bee more fit for reasons best knowne unto himselfe The like effect of Christs preaching in Hell is delivered by Anastasius Sinaita Iobius or Iovius Damascen Oecumenius Michael Glycas and his transcriber Theodorus Metochites Procopius saith that hee preached to the spirits that were in Hell restrayned in the prison house releasing them all from the bonds of necessity wherein he followeth S. Cyrill of Alexandria writing upon the same place that Christ went to preach to the spirits in Hell and appeared to them that were detayned in the prison house and freed them all fâ—om bonds and necessitie and paine and punishment The same S. Cyrill in his Paschall homilies affirmeth more directly that our Saviour entring into the lowermost dennes of Hell and preaching to the spirits that were there emptied that unsatiable denne of death spoyled Hell of spirits and having thus spoyled all Hell left the Divell there solitarie and alone For when Christ descended into Hell sayth Andronicus not onely the soules of the Saints were delivered from thence but all those that before did serve in the error of the Divell and the worship of idols being enriched with the knowledge of God obtayned salvation for which also they gave thankes praysing God Whereupon the author of one of the sermons upon the Ascension fathered upon S. Chrysostom bringeth in the Divell complayning that the sonne of Mary having taken away from him all those that were with him from the verie beginning had left him desolate whereas the true Chrysostom doth at large confute this fond opinion censuring the maintayners thereof as the bringers in of old wives conceytes and Iewish fables Yea Philastrius S. Augustin out of him doth brand such for hereticks whose testimonie also is urged by S. Gregory against George and Theodore two of the clergie of Constantinople who held in his time as many others did before and after them that our omnipotent Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ descending into Hell did save all those vvho there confessed him to be God and did deliver them from the paines that were due unto them and when Clement our countryman about 150. years after did renue that old error in Germanie that the sonne of God descending into Hell delivered from thence all such as that infernall prison did detayne beleevers and unbeleevers praysers of God and worshippers of idols the Romane Synod held by Pope Zacharie condemned him and his followers for it But to leave Clemens Scotus and to returne unto Clemens Alexandrinus at whom Philastrius may seeme to have aymed specially it is confessed by our Adversaries that he fell into this error partly being deceived with the superficiall consideration of the wordes of S. Petâ—r touching Christs preaching to the spirits in prison 1. Pet. 3.19 partly being deluded with the authority of Hermes the supposed scholler of S. Paul by whose dreames he was perswaded to beleeve that not onely Christ himselfe but his Apostles also did descend into Hell to preach there unto the dead to baptize them But touching the wordes of S. Peter is the maine doubt whether they are to bee referred unto Christs preaching by the ministerie of Noë unto the world of the ungodly or unto his owne immediate preaching to the spirits in Hell after his death upon the Crosse. For seeing it was the spirit of Christ which spake in the Prophets as S. Peter sheweth in this same Epistle and among them was Noë a preacher of righteousnesse as hee declareth in the next even as in S. Paul Christ is sayd to have come and preached to the Ephesians namely by his spirit in the mouth of his Apostles so likewise in S. Peter may he be sayd to have gone and preached to the old world by
I can hardly be perswaded saith Origen that there can be any worke which may require the reward of God by way of debt seeing this very thing it selfe that we can doe or thinke or speake any thing we doe it by his gift and largesse Wages indeed saith Saint Hilary there is none of gift because it is due by worke but God hath given the same free to all men by the justification of faith Whence should I have so great merit seeing mercy is my Crowne saith S. Ambrose and againe Which of us can subsist without the mercy of God What can we doe worthy of the heavenly rewards Which of us doth so rise up in this bodie that he doth elevate his minde in such sort as he may continually adhere unto Christ By what merit of man is it granted that this corruptible flesh should put on incorruption and this mortall should put on immortality By what labours or by what enduring of injuries can we abate our sinnes The sufferings of this time are unworthy for the glory that is to come Therefore the forme of heavenly decrees doth proceed with men not according to our merits but according to Gods mercy S. Basil expounding those words of the Psalmist Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy Psalm 33.18 saith that he doth hope in his mercy who not trusting in his owne good deeds nor looking to be iustified by workes hath the hope of his salvation only in the mercies of God and in his explication of those other words Psalm 116.7 Returne unto thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Everlasting rest saith he is laid up for them that strive lawfully in this life not to be rendred according to the debt of workes but exhibited by the grace of the bountifull God to them that trust in him If we consider our owne merits we must despaire saith S. Hierome and When the day of judgement or death shall come all hands will faile because no worke shall be found worthy of the justice of God Macarius the Aegyptian Eremite in his 15. homily writeth thus Touching the gift which Christians shall inherit this a man may rightly say that if any one from the time wherein Adam was created unto the very end of the world did fight against Satan and undergoe afflictions he should doe no great matter in respect of the glory that he shall inherit for he shall reigne together with Christ world without end His 37. homily is in the Paris edition of the workes of Marcus the Eremite set out as the Prooeme of his booke of Paradise and the spirituall law There Macarius exhorteth us that beleeving in almighty God we should with a simple heart and void of scrupulositie come unto him who bestoweth the communion of the spirit according to faith and not according to the proportion of the workes of faith Where Ioannes Picus the Popish interpreter of Marcus giveth us warning in his margent that this clause is to be understood of a lively faith but concealeth his owne faithlesnesse in corrupting of the text by turning the workes of faith into the workes of nature for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by his Latine translation which is to be seene in Bibliothecâ Patrum as much to say as Non ex proportione operum naturae There is a treatise extant of the said Marcus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching those who thinke to be justified by their workes where he maketh two sorts of men that misse both of them the kingdome of heaven the one such as doe not keepe the commandements and yet imagine that they beleeve aright the other such as keeping the commandements doe expect the kingdome as a wages due â—nto them For the Lord saith he willing to shew that all the commâ—ndements are of dutie to be performed and that the adoption of children is freely given to men by his bloud saith When you have done aâ—l things that are commanded you then say We are unprofitable servants and we have done that which was our dutie to doe Therefore the kingdome of heaven is not the hire of works but the grace of the Lord prepared for his faithfull servants This sentence is repeated in the very selfe same words by Hesychius in his booke of Sentences written to Thalassius The like sayings also hath S. Chrysostome No man sheweth such a conversation of life that he may be worthy of the kingdome but this is wholly of the gift of God Therefore he saith When yee have done all say We are unprofitable servants for what we ought to doe we have done Although we did die a thousand deaths although we did performe all vertuous actions yet should we come short by farre of rendring any thing worthy of those honours which are conferred upon us by God Although we should doe innumerable good deeds it is of Gods pitie and benignitie that we are heard although we should come unto the very top of vertue it is of mercy that we are saved for although we did innumerable workes of mercy yet would it be of the benignitie of grace that for such small and meane matters should be given so great a heaven and a kingdome and such an honour whereunto nothing we doe can have equall correspondence Let the merit of men be excellent let him observe the rights of nature let him be obedient to the commandements of the Lawes let him fulfill his faith keepe justice exercise vertues condemne vice repell sinnes shew himselfe an example for others to imitate if he have performed any thing it is little whatsoever he hath done is small for all merit is short Number Gods benefits if thou canst and then consider what thou dost merit Weigh thine owne deeds with the heavenly benefits ponder thine owne acts with the divine gifts and thou wilt not judge thy selfe worthy of that which thou art if thou understandest what thou dost merit Whereunto we may adde the exhortation made by S. Antony to his Monkes in Aegypt The life of man is most short being measured with the world to come so that all our time is even nothing in comparison of everlasting life And every thing in this world is sold for that which it is worth and one giveth equall in exchange of equall but the promise of everlasting life is bought for a very little matter Wherefore my sonnes let us not wax weary nor thinke that we stay long or performe some great thing for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed on us Neither when we looke upon the world let us thinke that we have forsaken any great matters For all this earth is but a very little thing in comparison of the whole heaven Therefore although we had beene lords of the whole
knocke therefore dearely beloved as much as we can because we cannot as much as we ought the future blisse may be acquired but estimated it cannot be Albeit thou hadst good deeds equall in number to the starres saith Agapetus the Deacon to the Emperour Iustinian yet shalt thou never goe beyond the goodnesse of God For whatsoever any man shall bring unto God he doth but offer unto him his owne things out of his owne store and as one cannot outstrip his own shadow in the Sunne which preventeth him alwaies although he make never so much speed so neither can men by their good doings outstrip the unmatchable bountie of God All the righteousnesse of man saith Gregory is convicted to bee unrighteousnesse if it be strictly judged It needeth therefore prayer after righteousnesse that that which being sifted might faile by the meere pitie of the Iudge might stand for good Let him therefore say Although I had any righteous thing I would not answer but I would make supplication to my Iudge Iob 9.15 as if he should more plainly confesse and say Albeit I did grow up unto the worke of vertue I should be enabled unto life not by merits but by pardon But you will say If this blisse of the Saints be mercie and is not obtained by merits how shall that stand which is written And thou shalt render unto every one according to his workes If it be rendred according to workes how shall it be accounted mercie But it is one thing to render according to workes and another thing to render for the works themselves For when it is said According to works the qualitie it selfe of the worke is understood that whose workes appeare good his reward way be glorious For unto that blessed life wherein wee are to live with God and by God no labour can be equalled no workes compared seeing the Apostle saith The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us By the righteousnesse of works no man shall be saved but only by the righteousnesse of faith saith Bede and therefore no man should beleeve that either his freedome of will or his merits are sufficient to bring him unto blisse but understand that he can be saved by the grace of God only The same Author writing upon those words of David Psalm 24.5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation expoundeth the blessing to be this that for the present time he shall merit or worke well and for the future shall be rewarded well and that not by merits but by grace only To the same purpose Elias Cretensis the interpreter of Gregory Nazianzen writeth thus By mercy we ought to understand that reward which God doth repay unto us For wee as servants doe owe vertue that the best things and such as are gratefull wee should pay and offer unto God as a certaine debt considering that wee haue nothing which we have not received from him and God on the other side as our Lord and Master hath pitie on us and doth bestow rather than repay unto us This therefore is true humilitie saith Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus to doe good workes but to account ones selfe uncleane and unworthy of Gods favour thinking to be saved by his goodnesse alone For whatsoever good things we doe wee answer not God for the very aire alone which we doe breathe And when we have offered unto him all the things that we have he doth not owe us any reward for all things are his and none receiving the things that are his owne is bound to give a reward unto them that bring the same unto him In the booke set out by the authoritie of Charles the Great against Images the Arke of the Covenant is said to signifie our Lord and Saviour in whom alone we have the Covenant of peace with the Father Over which the Propitiatory is said to be placed because aboue the Commandements either of the Law or of the Gospell which are founded in him the mercy of the said Mediator taketh place by which not by the workes of the Law which we have done neither willing nor running but by his having mercy upon us we are saved So Ambrosius Ansbertus expounding that place Rev. 19.7 Let us be glad and rejoyce and give glory to him for the mariage of the Lambe is come and his wife hath made her selfe readie In this saith he doe we give glory to him when we doe confesse that by no precedent merits of our good deeds but by his mercie only we have attained unto so great a dignitie And Rabanus in his Commentaries upon the Lament of Ieremie Lest they should say Our Fathers were accepted for their merit and therefore they obtained such great things at the hand of the Lord he adjoyneth that this was not given to their merits but because it so pleased God whose free gift is whatsoever he bestoweth Haymo writing upon those words Psalm 132.10 For thy servant Davids sake refuse not the face of thine Anointed saith that For thy servant Davids sake is as much to say as For the merit of Christ himselfe and froâ— thence collecteth this doctrine that none ought to presume of his owne merits but expect all his salvation from the merits of Christ. So in another place When we performe our repentance saith he let us know that we can give nothing that is worthy for the aâ—peasing of God but that only in the bloud of that immaculate and singular Lambe we can be saved And againe Eternall life is rendred to none by debt but given by free mercie It is of necessitie that beleevers should be saved only by the faith of Christ saith Smaragdus the Abbot By grace not by merits are we saved of God saith the Author of the Commentaries upon S. Marke falsely attributed to S. Hierome That this doctrine was by Gods great mercie preserved in the Church the next 500. yeares also as well as in those middle times appeareth most evidently by those Instructions and Consolations which were prescribed to be used unto such as were readie to depart out of this life This forme of preparing men for their death was commonly to be had in all Libraries and particularly was found inserted among the Epistles of Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury who was commonly accounted to bee the Author of it The substance thereof may be seene for the copies varie some being shorter and some larger than others in a Tractate written by a Cistercian Monke of the Art of dying well which I have in written hand and have seene also printed in the yeere 1483. and 1504. in the booke called Hortulus animae in Cassanders Appendix to the booke of Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester de fiduciâ misericordiâ Dei edit Colon. An. 1556. Caspar Vlenbergius his Motives caus 14. pag.
we may ground our consciences in things that are to be beleeved And this wee say not as if wee feared that these men were able to produce better proofes out of the writings of the Fathers for the part of the Pope then we can do for the Catholick cause when we come to joine in the particulars they shall finde it otherwise but partly to bring the matter unto a shorter triall partly to give the word of God his due and to declare what that rocke is upon which alone we build our faith even the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets from which no sleight that they can devise shall ever draw us The same course did S. Augustine take with the Pelagians against whom he wanted not the authority of the Fathers of the Church Which if I vvould collect saith he and use their testimonies it would be too long a worke and I might peradventure seeme to haue lesse confidence then I ought in the Canonicall authorities from which we ought not to be withdrawen Yet was the Pelagian Heresie then but newly budded which is the time wherein the pressing of the Fathers testimonies is thought to be best in season With how much better warrant may we follow this president having to deale with such as have had time and leisure enough to falsifie the Fathers writings and to teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans The method of confuting heresies by the consent of holy Fathers is by none commended more then by Vincentius Lirinensis who is carefull notwithstanding herein to give us this caveat But neither alwayes nor all kindes of heresies are to be impugned after this manner but such only as are new and lately sprung namely when they doe first arise while by the straitnesse of the time it selfe they be hindred from falsifying the rules of the ancient faith and before the time that their poyson spreading farther they attempt to corrupt the writings of the ancient But farre-spred and inveterate heresies are not to bee dealt vvithall this way for as much as by long continuance of time a long occasion hath lyen open unto them to steale away the truth The heresies with which wee have to deale have spred so farre and continued so long that the defenders of them are bold to make Vniversality and Duration the speciall markes of their Church they had opportunity enough of time and place to put in ure all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse neither will they have it to say that in coyning and clipping and washing the monuments of Antiquitie they have beene wanting to themselves Before the Councell of Nice as hath beene observed by one who sometime was Pope himselfe little respect to speake of was had to the Church of Rome If this may be thought to prejudice the dignity of that Church which would be held to have sate as Queene among the Nations from the very beginning of Christianity you shall have a craftie merchant Isidorus Mercator I trow they call him that will helpe the matter by counterfeiting Decretall Epistles in the name of the primitive Bishops of Rome and bringing in thirty of them in a row as so many Knights of the Poste to beare witnesse of that great authority which the Church of Rome enjoyed before the Nicene Fathers were assembled If the Nicene Fathers have not amplified the bounds of her jurisdiction in so large a maner as shee desired shee hath had her well-willers that have supplied the Councels negligence in that behalfe and made Canons for the purpose in the name of the good Fathers that never dreamed of such a businesse If the power of judging all others will not content the Pope unlesse he himselfe may be exempted from being judged by any other another Councell as ancient at least as that of Nice shall be suborned wherein it shall be concluded by the consent of 284 imaginarie Bishops that No man may judge the first seat and for fayling in an elder Councell then that consisting of 300 buckram Bishops of the very selfe same making the like note shall be sung quoniam prima sedes non judicabitur à quoquam The first seat must not be judged by any man Lastly if the Pope do not thinke that the fulnesse of spirituall power is sufficient for his greatnesse unlesse hee may be also Lord paramount in temporalibus hee hath his followers ready at hand to frame a faire donation in the name of Constantine the Emperour whereby his Holinesse shall be estated not only in the Citie of Rome but also in the seigniory of the whole West It would require a Volume to rehearse the names of those severall Tractates which have beene basely bred in the former dayes of darknesse and fathered upon the ancient Doctors of the Church who if they were now alive would be deposed that they were never privie to their begetting Neither hath this corrupting humour stayed it selfe in forging of whole Councels and intire Treatises of the ancient writers but hath like a canker fretted away diverse of their sound parts and so altered their complexions that they appear not to be the same men they were To instance in the great question of Transubstantiation we were wont to reade in the books attributed unto S. Ambrose De Sacramentis libr. 4. cap. 4. Si ergo tanta vis est in sermone Domini Iesu ut inciperent esse quae non erant quanto magis operatorius est ut sint quae erant in aliud commutentur If therefore there be so great force in the speech of our Lord Iesus that the things which were not begun to bee namely at the first creation how much more is the same powerfull to make that things may still be that which they were and yet be changed into another thing It is not unknowne how much those words ut sint quae erant have troubled their braines who maintaine that after the words of consecration the elements of bread and wine be not that thing which they were and what devises they have found to make the bread and wine in the Sacrament to be like unto the Beast in the Revelation that was and is not and yet is But that Gordian knot which they with their skill could not so readily untye their masters at Rome Alexander-like have now cut asunder paring cleane away in their Romane Edition which is also followed in that set out at Paris Anno 1603. those words that so much troubled them and letting the rest run smoothly after this maner quanto magis operatorius est ut quae erant in aliud cōmutentur how much more is the speech of our Lord powerfull to make that those things which were should be changed into another thing The author of the imperfect work upon Matthew homil 11. writeth thus Si ergo haec vasa sanctificata ad privatos usus transferre sic periculosum est in quibus non est verum corpus Christi sed
mysterium corporis ejus continetur quanto magis vasa corporis nostri quae sibi Deus ad habitaculum praeparavit non debemus locum dare Diabolo agendi in eis quod vult If therefore it be so dangerous a matter to transferre unto private uses those holy vessels in which the true body of Christ is not but the mysterie of his body is contained how much more for the vessels of our body which God hath prepared for himselfe to dwell in ought not wee to give way unto the Divell to doe in them what he pleaseth Those words in quibus non est verum corpus Christi sed mysterium corporis ejus continetur in which the true body of Christ is not but the mysterie of his body is contained did threaten to cut the very throat of the Papists real presence and therefore in good policie they thought it fit to cut their throat first for doing any further hurt Whereupon in the Editions of this Worke printed at Antwerpe apud Ioannem Steelsium anno 1537 at Paris apud Ioannem Roigny anno 1543 and at Paris again apud Audoenum Parvum anno 1557. not one syllable of them is to be seene though extant in the ancienter editions one whereof is as olde as the yere 1487. And to the same purpose in the 19 Homily in stead of Sacrificium panis vini the sacrifice of bread and vvine which we find in the old impressions these latter editions have chopt in Sacrificium corporis sanguinis Christi the sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ. In the yeare 1608. there were published at Paris certaine workes of Fulbertus Bishop of Chartres pertayning as well to the refuting of the heresies of this time for so saith the inscription as to the cleering of the History of the French Among those things that appertaine to the confutation of the Heresies of this time there is one especially fol. 168. laid downe in these words Nisi manducaveritis inquit carnem filij hominis sanguinem biberitis non habebitis vitam in vobis Facinus vel flagitium videtur jubere Figura ergo est dicet haereticus praecipiens Passioni Domini esse coÌ„municandum tantùm suaviter atque utiliter recondendum in memoria quòd pro nobis caro ejus crucifixa vulnerata sit Vnlesse saith Christ ye eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood yee shall not haue life in you He seemeth to command an outrage or wickednesse It is therefore a figure will the hereticke say requiring us only to communicate with the Lords Passion and sweetly and profitably to lay up in our memory that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us He that put in those words dicet haereticus thought hee had notably met with the heretickes of this time but was not aware that thereby he made S. Augustine an Hereticke for company For the Hereticke that speaketh thus is even S. Augustine himselfe whose very words these are in his third booke de Doctrinâ Christianâ the 16. chapter Which some belike having put the publisher in minde of he was glad to put this among his Errata and to confesse that these two words were not to be found in the Manuscript copie which hee had from Petavius but telleth us not what we are to thinke of him that for the countenancing of the Popish cause ventured so shamefully to abuse S. Augustine In the yeare 1616. a Tome of ancient Writers that never saw the light before was set forth at Ingolstad by Petrus Steuartius where among other Tractates a certaine Penitentiall written by Rabanus that famous Archbishop of Mentz is to be seene In rhe 33. chapter of that booke Rabanus making answer unto an idle question moved by Bishop Heribaldus concerning the Eucharist what should become of it after it was consumed and sent into the draught after the maner of other meats hath these words initio pag. 669. Nam quidam nuper de ipso sacramento corporÃs sanguinis Domini non ritè sentientes dixerunt hoc ipsum corpus sanguinem Domini quod de Mariâ Virgine natum est in quo ipse Dominus passus est in cruce resurrexit de sepulcro* cui errori quantum potuimus ad Egilum Abbatem scribentes de corpore ipso quid veré credendum sit aperuimus For some of late not holding rightly of the Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord have said that the very body and blood of our Lord which was borne of the Virgin Mary and in which our Lord himselfe suffered on the Crosse and rose againe from the grave * Against which error writing unto Abbot Egilus according to our ability we have declared what is truly to be beleeved coÌ„cerning Christs body You see Rabanus tongue is clipt here for telling tales but how this came to passe were worth the learning Steuartius freeth himselfe from the fact telling us in his margent that here there was a blanke in the manuscript copy and we doe easily beleeve him for Possevine the Iesuite hath given us to understand that Manuscript bookes also are to be purged as well as printed But whence was this Manuscript fetcht thinke you Out of the famous Monastery of Weingart saith Steuartius The Monkes of Weingart then belike must answer the matter and they I dare say upon examination will take their oathes that it was no part of their intention to give any furtherance unto the cause of the Protestants hereby If hereunto we adde that Heribaldus and Rabanus both are ranked among heretickes by Thomas Walden for holding the Eucharist to be subject to digestion and voidance like other meates the suspition will be more vehement whereunto yet I will adjoine one evidence more that shall leave the matter past suspition In the Libraries of my worthy friends S r. Rob. Cotton that noble Baronett so renowmed for his great care in collecting preserving all antiquities D r. Ward the learned Mast r of Sidney Colledge in Cambridge I met with an ancient Treatise of the Sacrament beginning thus Sicut ante nos quidam sapiens dixit cujus sententiam probamus licèt nomen ignoremus which is the same with that in the Iesuites Colledge at Lovaine blindely fathered upon Berengarius The author of this Treatise having first twited Heribaldus for propounding Rabanus for resolving this question of the voidance of the Eucharist layeth downe afterward the opinion of Paschasius Ratbertus whose writing is yet extant quòd non alia plané sit caro quae sumitur de altari quà m quae nata est de Mariâ Virgine passa in cruce quae resurrexit de sepulcro quaeqúe pro mundi vitâ adhuc hodie offeratur That the flesh which is received at the altar is no other then that which was borne of the Virgin Mary suffered on the Crosse rose again from the grave and as
of Monasticall discipline in the East S. Antony I meane who taught his Schollers that the Scriptures were sufficient for doctrine and S. Basil who unto the question Whether it were expedient that novices should presently learne those things that are in the Scripture returneth this answere It is fit and necessarie that every one should learne out of the holy Scripture that which is for his use both for his full settlement in godlinesse and that hee may not be accustomed unto humane traditions Marke here the difference betwixt the Monkes of Saint Basil and Pope Hildebrands breeding The Novices of the former were trayned in the Scriptures to the end they might not be accustomed unto humane traditions those of the latter to the cleane contrarie intent were kept back from the studie of the Scriptures that they might be accustomed unto humane traditions For this by the foresaid author is expressely noted of those Hildebrandine Monkes that they permitted not yong men in their Monasteries to studie this saving knowledge to the end that their rude wit might be nourished with the huskes of divels which are the customes of humane traditions that being accustomed to such filth they might not taste how sweet the Lord was And even thus in the times following from Monkes to Friars and from them to secular Priests and Prelates as it were by tradition from hand to hand the like ungodly policie was continued of keeping the common people from the knowledge of the Scriptures as for other reasons so likewise that by this meanes they might be drawne to humane traditions Which was not onely observed by Erasmus before ever Luther stirred against the Pope but openly in a maner confessed afterwards by a bitter adversarie of his Petrus Sutor a Carthusian Monke who among other inconveniences for which he would have the people debarred from reading the Scripture alledgeth this also for one Whereas manie things are openly taught to be observed which are not to be expressely had in the holy Scriptures will not the simple people observing these things quickly murmure and complaine that so great burdens should be imposed upon them whereby the libertie of the Gospell is so greatly impaired Will not they also easily be drawne away from the observation of the ordinances of the Church when they shall observe that they are not contained in the Law of Christ Having thus therefore discovered unto these Deuterotae for so S. Hierome useth to style such Tradition-mongers both their grandfathers and their more immediat progenitors I passe now forward unto the second point OF THE REAL PRESENCE HOw farre the real presence of the bodie of Christ in the Sacrament is allowed or disallowed by us I have at large declared in an other place The summe is this That in the receiving of the blessed Sacrament we are to distinguish betweene the outward and the inward action of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouth wee receive really the visible elements of Bread and Wine in the inward wee doe by faith really receive the bodie and bloud of our Lord that is to say wee are truely and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spirituall strengthning of our inward man They of the adverse part have made such a confusion of these things that for the first they do utterly denie that after the words of consecration there remaineth anie Bread or Wine at all to be received and for the second do affirme that the bodie and bloud of Christ is in such a maner present under the outward shewes of bread and wine that whosoever receiveth the one be he good or bad beleever or unbeleever doth therewith really receive the other We are therfore here put to prove that Bread is bread and Wine is wine a matter one would thinke that easily might be determined by common sense That which you see saith S. Augustine is the Bread and the Cup which your very eyes doe declare unto you But because we have to deale with men that will needs herein be senselesse wee will for this time referre them to Tertullians discourse of the five senses wishing they may be restored to the use of their five witts againe and ponder the testimonies of our Saviour Christ in the sixt of Iohn and in the words of the Institution which they oppose against all sense but in the end shall finde to be as opposit to this phantasticall conceit of theirs as anie thing can be Touching our Saviours speech of the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his bloud in the sixth of Iohn these five things specially may be observed First that the question betwixt our Adversaries us being not Whether Christs bodie be turned into bread but whether bread be turned into Christs bodie the words in S. Iohn if they be pressed literally serve more strongly to prove the former then the latter Secondly that this Sermon was uttered by our Saviour above a yeare before the celebration of his last Supper wherein the Sacrament of his bodie and bloud was instituted at which time none of his hearers could possibly have understood him to have spoken of the externall eating of him in the Sacrament Thirdly that by the eating of the flesh of Christ and the drinking of his bloud there is not here meant an externall eating or drinking with the mouth and throate of the bodie as the Iewes then and the Romanists farre more grossely then they have since imagined but an internall and a spirituall effected by a lively faith and the quickning spirit of Christ in the soule of the beleever For there is a spirituall mouth of the inner man as S. Basil noteth wherewith hee is nourished that is made partaker of the Word of life which is the bread that commeth downe from heaven Fourthly that this spirituall feeding upon the bodie and blood of Christ is not to be found in the Sacrament onely but also out of the Sacrament Fiftly that the eating of the flesh and the drinking of the bâ—ood here mentioned is of such excellent vertue that the receiver is thereby made to remaine in Christ and Christ in him and by that meanes certainly freed from dâ—ath and assured of everlasting life Which seeing it cannot be verified of the eating of the Sacrament whereof both the godly the wicked are partakers it proveth not onely that our Saviour did not here speake of the Sacramentall eating but further also that the thing which is delivered in the externall part of the Sacrament cannot be conceived to be really but sacramentally onely the flesh and blood of Christ. The first of these may be plainly seene in the Text where our Saviour doth not onely say I am the bread of life vers 48. and I am the living bread that came downe from heaven vers 51. but addeth also in the 55. verse For my flesh is meate indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed Which words being the
is partaker being alwayes therewith nourished as it were with heavenly bread shall likewise be made partaker of heavenly life Therefore let not that offend you saith he which I have spoken of the eating of my flesh and of the drinking of my blood neither let the superficiall hearing of those things which were said by me of flesh and blood trouble you For these things sensibly heard profite nothing but the spirit is it which quickneth them that are able to heare spiritually Thus farre Eusebius whose words I have layd down the more largely because they are not vulgar There remaineth the fift and last point which is oftentimes repeated by our Saviour in this Sermon as in the 50. verse This is the bread which commeth downe from heaven that a man may eate thereof and not dye and in the 51 If any man eate of this bread hee shall live for ever and in the 54 Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternall life and in the 56 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in mee and I in him and in the 58 This is that bread which came downe from heaven not as your fathers did eate Manna and are dead hee that eateth of this bread shall live for ever Whereupon Origen rightly observeth the difference that is betwixt the eating of the typicall or symbolicall for so he calleth the Sacrament and the true bodie of Christ. Of the former thus he writeth That which is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer doth not of it ownâ— nature sanctifie him that useth it For if that were so it would sanctifie him also which doth eate unworthy of the Lord neither should any one for this eating be weake or sicke or dead For such a thing doth Paul shew when he saith For this cause many are weake and sickly among you and many sleepe Of the latter thus Many things may be spoken of the Word it selfe which was made flesh and true meate which whosoever eateth shall certainly live for ever which no evill person can eate For if it could be that he who continueth evill might eate the Word made flesh seeing hee is the word and the bread of life it should not have beene written Whosoever eateth this bread shall live for ever The like difference doth S. Augustine also upon the same ground make betwixt the eating of Christs bodie sacramentally and really For having affirmed that wicked men may not be said to eate the body of Christ because they are not to be counted among the members of Christ hee afterward addeth Christ himselfe saying He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud remaineth in mee and I in him sheweth what it is not sacramentally but indeed to eate the flesh of Christ and drinke his bloud for this is to remaine in Christ that Christ likewise may remaine in him For hee said this as if he should have said He that remayneth not in me and in whom I do not remaine let not him say or thinke that he eateth my flesh or drinketh my bloud And in another place expounding those words of Christ here alledged hee thereupon inferreth thus This is therefore to eate that meate and drinke that drinke to remaine in Christ and to have Christ remayning in him And by this he that remaineth not in Christ and in whom Christ abideth not without doubt doth neither spiritually eate his flesh nor drinke his bloud although he do carnally and visibly presse with his teeth the Sacrament of the bodie and bloud of Christ and so rather eateth and drinketh the Sacrament of so great a thing for judgement to himselfe because that being uncleane hee did presume to come unto the Sacraments of Christ. Hence it is that we finde so often in him and in other of the Fathers that the bodie and bloud of Christ is communicated only unto those that shall live and not unto those that shall dye for ever He is the bread of life He therefore that eateth life cannot dye For how should he dye whose meat is life how should he fayle who hath a vitall substance saith S. Ambrose And it is a good note of Macarius that as men use to give one kinde of meate to their servants and another to their children so Christ who created all things nourisheth indeed evill and ungratefull persons but the sonnes which he begat of his owne seed and whom he made partakers of his grace in whom the Lord is formed he nourisheth with a peculiar refection and food and meat and drinke beyond other men giving himselfe unto them that have their conversation with his Father as the Lord himselfe saith He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud remayneth in me and I in him and shall not see death Among the sentences collected by Prosper out of S. Augustine this also is one He receiveth the meat of life and drinketh the cup of eternitie who remaineth in Christ and whose inhabiter is Christ. For he that is at discord with Christ doth neither eate his flesh nor drinke his bloud although to the judgement of his presumption he indifferently doth receive everie day the sacrament of so great a thing Which distinction betweene the Sacrament and the thing whereof it is a sacrament and consequently betweene the sacramentall and the reall eating of the bodie of Christ is thus briefely and most excellently expressed by S. Augustine himselfe in his exposition upon the sixt of Iohn The sacrament of this thing is taken from the Lords Table by some unto life by some unto destruction but the thing it selfe whereof it is a sacrament is received by every man unto life and by none unto destruction that is made partaker therof Our conclusion therfore is this The bodie and bloud of Christ is received by all unto life and by none unto condemnation But that substance which is outwardly delivered in the Sacrament is not received by all unto life but by manie unto condemnation Therefore that substance which is outwardly delivered in the Sacrament is not really the bodie and bloud of Christ. The first proposition is plainly proved by the Texts which have been alledged out of the sixth of Iohn The second is manifest both by common experience and by the testimonie of the Apostle 1. Cor. 11. vers 17 27 29. We may therefore well conclude that the sixth of Iohn is so farre from giving anie furtherance to the doctrine of the Romanists in this point that it utterly overthroweth their fond opinion who imagine the bodie and bloud of Christ to be in such a sort present under the visible formes of bread and wine that whosoever receiveth the one must of force also really be made partaker of the other The like are we now to shew in the words of the Institution For the better clearing whereof the Reader may be pleased to consider first that the words are not This shall be my body nor This is
made or shall be changed into my body but This Is my body Secondly that the word THIS can have relation to no other substance but that which was then present when our Saviour spake that word which as wee shall make it plainly appeare was Bread Thirdly that it being proved that the word This doth demonstrate the Bread it must of necessitie follow that Christ affirming that to be his BODY cannot be conceived to have meant it so to be properly but relatively and sacramentally The first of these is by both sides yeelded unto so likewise is the third For this is impossible saith the Glosse upon Gratian that bread should be the bodie of Christ. And it cannot be saith Cardinall Bellarmine that that proposition should be true the former part whereof designeth Bread the latter the Body of Christ for asmuch as Bread and the Lords Body be things most adverse And therefore hee confidently affirmeth that if the words This is my body did make this sense This bread is my body this sentence must either be taken tropically that bread may be the body of Christ significatively or else it is plainly absurd impossible for it cannot be saith he that bread should be the body of Christ. Doctor Kellison also in like maner doeth freely acknowledge that If Christ had said This bread is my body wee must have understood him figuratively and metaphorically So that the whole matter of difference resteth now upon the second point whether our Saviour when hee said This is my body meant anie thing to be his Bodie but that Bread which was before him A matter which easily might be determined in anie indifferent mans judgement by the words immediaâ—ly going before Hee tooke bread and gave thankes and brake and gave it unto them saying This is my bodie which is given for you this do in remembrance of mee Luk. 22.19 For what did hee demonstrate here and said was his Body but that which he gave unto his Disciples What did hee give unto them but what he brake What brake hee but what he tooke and doth not the Text expressely say that he tooke bread Was it not therefore of the Bread he said This is my Body And could Bread possibly bee otherwise understood to have beene his Bodie but as a Sacrament and as hee himselfe with the same breath declared his owne meaning a memoriall thereof If these words be not of themselves cleare enough but have need of further exposition can we looke for a better then that which S. Paul giveth of them 1. Cor. 10.16 The bread which we breake is it not the communion of the bodie of Christ Did not S. Paul therefore so understand Christ as if he had said This bread is my body And if Christ had said so doth not Kellison confesse and right reason evince that hee must have beene understood figuratively considering that it is simply impossible that Bread should really be the Bodie of Christ. If it be said that S. Paul by Bread doth not here understand that which is properly Bread but that which lately was bread but now is become the bodie of Christ we must remember that S. Paul doth not onely say The bread but The bread which vvee breake which breaking being an accident properly belonging to the bread it selfe and not to the bodie of Christ which being in glorie cannot be subject to anie more breaking doth evidently shew that the Apostle by Bread understandeth Bread indeed Neither can the Romanists well denie this unlesse they wil denie themselves and confesse that they did but dreame all this while they have imagined that the change of the bread into the bodie of Christ is made by vertue of the sacramentall words alone which have not their effect untill they have all beene fully uttered For the Pronoune THIS which is the first of these words doth point to somthing w ch was then present But no substance was then present but bread seeing by their owne grounds the bodie of Christ commeth not in untill the last word of that sentence yea and the last syllable of that word be completely pronounced What other substance therefore can they make this to signifie but this bread only In the institution of the other part of the Sacrament the words are yet more plaine Matth. 26. vers 27.28 He took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drinke yee all of it For this is my blood of the new Testament or as S. Paul and S. Luke relate it This cup is the new Testament in my blood That which hee bidd them all drinke of is that which hee said was his blood But our Saviour could meane nothing but the Wine when he said Drinke ye all of it because this sentence was uttered by him before the words of consecration at which time our Adversaries themselves doe confesse that there was nothing in the cup but wine or wine and water at the most It was wine therefore which he said was his blood even the fruite of the Vine as he himselfe termeth it For as in the deliverie of the other cup before the institution of the Sacrament S. Luke who alone maketh mention of that part of the historie telleth us that hee said unto his Disciples I will not drinke of the fruit of the Vine untill the kingdome of God shall come so doth S Matthew and S. Marke likewise testifie that at the deliverie of the Sacramentall cup when he had said This is my blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes hee also added But I say unto you I will not drinke henceforth of this fruit of the Vine untill that day that I drinke it new with you in my Fathers kingdome Now seeing it is contrary both to sense and saith that Wine or the fruite of the Vine should really be the blood of Christ there being that formall difference in the nature of the things that there is an utter impossibilitie that in true proprietie of speech the one should be the other nothing in this world is more plain than when our Saviour said it was his blood he could not meane it to be so substantially but sacramentally And what other interpretation can the Romanists themselves give of those words of the institution in S. Paul This cup is the new Testament in my blood How is the cup or the thing contayned in the cup the new Testament otherwise then as a Sacrament of it Marke how in the like case the Lord himselfe at the institution of the first Sacrament of the old Testament useth the same maner of speech Genes 17.10 This is my Covenant or Testament for the Greeke word in both places is the same and in the words presently following thus expoundeth his owne meaning It shall be a SIGNE of the Covenant betwixt me and you And generally for all Sacraments the rule is thus laid downe by S. Augustine
in his Epistle to Bonifacius If Sacraments did not some maner of vvay resemble the things wherof they are Sacraments they should not be Sacraments at all And for this resemblance they doe of oftentimes also beare the names of the things themselves As therefore the Sacrament of the bodie of Christ is after a certaine maner the bodie of Christ and the sacrament of Christs blood is the blood of Christ so likewise the sacrament of faith is faith By the sacrament of faith hee understandeth Baptisme of which he afterward alledgeth that saying of the Apostle Rom. 6.4 Wee are buried with Christ by baptisme into death and then addeth He saith not We signifie his buriall but hee plainly saith Wee are buried Therefore the sacrament of so great a thing hee would not otherwise call but by the name of the thing it selfe And in his Questions upon Leviticus The thing that signifieth saith he useth to be called by the name of that thing which it signifieth as it is written The seven eares of corne are seven yeares for hee said not they signifie seven yeares and the seven Kine are seven yeares and many such like Hence was that saying The Rocke was Christ. For he said not The Rock did signifie Christ but as if it had beene that very thing which doubtlesse by substance it was not but by signification So also the blood because for a certaine vitall corpulencie which it hath it signifieth the soule after the maner of Sacraments it is called the soule Our argument therefore out of the words of the institution standeth thus If it be true that Christ called Bread his bodie and Wine his blood then must it be true also that the things which bee honoured with those names cannot be really his bodie blood but figuratively and sacramentally But the former is true Therefore also the latter The first proposition hath bene proved by the undoubted principles of right reason and the cleare confession of the adverse part the second by the circumstances of the Text of the Evangelists by the exposition of S. Paul and by the received grounds of the Romanists themselves The conclusion therefore resteth firme and so wee have made it cleare that the wordes of the Institution do not only not uphold but directly also overthow the whole frame of that which the Church of Rome teacheth touching the corporall presence of Christ under the formes of Bread and Wine If I should now lay downe here all the sentences of the Fathers which teach that that which Christ called his Body is Bread in substance and the Body of the Lord in signification and sacramentall relation I should never make an end Iustin Martyr in his second Apologie to Antoninus the Emperour telleth us that the bread and the wine even that sanctified food wherewith our blood and flesh by conversion are nourished is that w ch we are taught to be the flesh and blood of Iesus incarnate Irenaeus in his 4 th book against heresies saith that our Lord taking bread of that condition which is usuall among us confessed it to be his body the cup likewise contayning that creature which is usuall among us his blood And in his fift book he addeth That cup which is a creature he confirmed to be his blood which was shedde wherby he increaseth our blood and that bread which is of the creature to be his body wherby he increaseth our bodies Therefore when the mixed cup and the broken bread doth receive the word of God it is made the Eucharist of the blood and body of Christ whereby the substance of our flesh is increased and doth consist Our Lord saith Clemens Alexandrinus did blesse vvine vvhen hee said Take drinke This is my blood the blood of the Vine Tertullian Christ taking bread and distributing it to his Disciples made it his body saying This is my body that is the figure of my body Origen That meate which is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer as touching the materiall part thereof goeth into the belly and is voyded into the draught but as touching the prayer which is added according to the portion of faith it is made profitable enlightning the minde and making it to behold that which is profitable Neyther is it the matter of bread but the word spoken over it which profiteth him that doth not unworthily eate thereof And these things I speake of the typicall and symbolicall bodie saith Origen In the Dialogues against the Marcionites collected for the most part out of the writings of Maximus who lived in the time of the Emperors Commodus and Severus Origen who is made the chiefe speaker therein is brought in thus disputing against the Heretickes If Christ as these men say were without bodie and blood of what kinde of flesh or of what body or of what kinde of blood did hee give the bread and the cup to be Images of when he commanded his Disciples by them to make a commemoration of him S. Cyprian also noteth that it was Wine even the fruit of the Vine which the Lord said was his blood and that floure alone or water alone cannot bee the bodie of our Lord unlesse both be united and coupled together and kneaded into the lumpe of one bread And againe that the Lord calleth bread his body which is made up by the uniting of many cornes and wine his blood which is pressed out of many clusters of grapes and gathered into one liquor Which I finde also word for word in a maner transcribed in the Commentaries upon the Gospels attributed unto Theophilus Bishop of Antioch Wherby it appeareth that in those elder times the words of the institution were no otherwise conceived then as if Christ had plainly said This bread is my body and This wine is my blood which is the maine thing that wee strive for with our Adversaries and for which the words themselves are plaine enough the substance whereof we finde thus laid downe in the Harmonie of the Gospels gathered as some say by Tatianus as others by Ammonius within the second or the third age after Christ. Having taken the bread then afterward the cup of wine and testified it to be his body and blood hee commanded them to eate and drinke thereof forasmuch as it was the memoriall of his future passion and death To the Fathers of the first three hundred yeares we will now adjoyne the testimonies of those that flourished in the ages following The first whereof shall be Eusebius who saith that our Saviour delivered to his Disciples the symboles of his divine dispensation commanding them to make the Image of his owne body and appointing them to use Bread for the symbole of his Body and that we still celebrate upon the Lords table the memory of his sacrifice by the symboles of his body and blood according to the ordinances of the New Testament Acacius
But howsoever this wee are sure of that the Canonists afterward held no absolute necessitie of obedience to be required therein as unto a Sacramentall institution ordayned by Christ for obtayning remission of sinnes but a Canonicall obedience onely as unto an usefull constitution of the Church And therefore where Gratian in his first distinction de Poenitentiâ had in the 34. chapter and the three next following propounded the allegations which made for them who held that men might obtaine pardon for their sinnes without anie orall confession of them and then proceeded to the authorities which might seeme to make for the contrarie opinion Iohannes Semeca at the beginning of that part upon those words of Gratian Alij é contrario tesâ—antur putteth too this Glosse From this place untill the section His auctoritatib he alledgeth for the other part that sinne is not forgiven unto such as are of yeares without confession of the mouth which yet is false saith he But this free dealing of his did so displease Friar Manrique who by the command of Pius Quintus set out a censure upon the Glosses of the Canon law that hee gave direction these words which yet is false should be cleane blotted out which direction of his notwithstanding the Romane Correctors under Gregory the XIII did not follow but letting the words still stand give them a check only with this marginall annotation Nay it is most true that without confession in desire at least the sinne is not forgiven In like maner where the same Semeca holdeth it to be the better opinion that Confession was ordayned by a certaine tradition of the universall Church rather then by the authoritie of the new or old Testament and inferreth thereupon that it is necessarie among the Latins but not among the Greekes because that tradition did not spread to them Friar Manrique commandeth all that passage to be blotted out but the Romane Correctors clap this note upon the margent for an antidote Nay confession was ordayned by our Lord and by Gods Law is necessary to all that fall into mortall sinne after Baptisme as well Greekes as Latins and for this they quote onely the 14. Session of the Councell of Trent where that opinion is accursed in us which was held two or three hundred yeares ago by the men of their owne religion among whom Michael of Bononia who was Prior general of the order of the Carmelites in the dayes of Pope Vrban the sixth doth conclude strongly out of their owne received grounds that confession is not necessary for the obtayning of the pardon of our sinne and Panormitan the great Canonist professeth that the opinion of Semeca doth much please him which referreth the originall of Confession to a generall tradition of the Church because saith he there is not anie cleare authority which sheweth that God or Christ did clearely ordayne that Confession should be made unto a Priest Yea all the Canonists following their first Interpreter say that Confession was brought in onely by the law of the Church and not by anie divine precept if we will beleeve Maldonat who addeth notwithstanding that this opinion is eyther alreadie sufficiently declared by the Church to be heresie or that the Church should doe well if it did declare it to be heresie And we finde indeed that in the yeare of our Lord 1479. which was 34. yeares after the death of Panormitan by a speciall commission directed from Pope Sixtus the fourth unto Alfonsus Carillus Archbishop of Toledo one Petrus Oxomensis professor of Divinitie in the Vniversitie of Salamanca was driven to abjure this conclusion which hee had before delivered as agreeable to the common opinion of the Doctors that confession of sinnes in particular vvas grounded upon some statute of the universall Church and not upon divine right and when learned men for all this would not take warning but would needs be medling againe with that which the Popish Clergie could not indure should be touched as Iohannes de Selva among others in the end of his treatise de Iurejurando Erasmus in diverse of his workes and Beatus Rhenanus in his argument upon Tertullians booke de Poenitentiâ the fathers of Trent within 72. yeares after that conspired together to stop all mens mouthes with an anathema that should denie sacramentall confession to be of divine institution or to be necessarie unto salvation And so we are come to an end of that point OF THE PRIESTS POVVER TO FORGIVE SINNES FRom Confession we are now to proceed unto Absolution which it were pitie this man should receive before he made confession of the open wrong he hath here done in charging us to denie that Priests have power to forgive sinnes whereas the verie formall words which our Church requireth to be used in the ordination of a Minister are these Whose sinnes thou doest forgive they are forgiven and vvhose sinnes thou doest retaine they are retained And therefore if this be all the matter the Fathers and we shal agree well enough howsoever this make-bate would faine put friends together by the eares where there is no occasion at all of quarrell For wee acknowledge most willingly that the principall part of the Priests ministerie is exercised in the matter of forgivenesse of sinnes the question only is of the maner how this part of their function is executed by them and of the bounds and limits thereof which the Pope and his Clergie for their owne advantage have inlarged beyond all measure of truth and reason That wee may therefore give unto the Priest the things that are the Priests and to God the things that are Gods not coÌ„municate unto any creature the power that properly belongeth to the Creator who will not give his glory unto another we must in the first place lay this downe for a sure ground that to forgive sinnes properly directly and absolutely is a priviledge onely appertayning unto the most High I saith he of himselfe even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine owne sake and will not remember thy sinnes Esai 43.25 Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquitie saith the Prophet Micah 7.18 which in effect is the same with that of the Scribes Mark 2.7 and Luk. 5.21 Who can forgive sinnes but God alone And therefore when David saith unto God Thou forgavest the iniquitie of my sinne Psalm 32.5 Gregory surnamed the great the first Bishop of Rome of that name thought this to be a sound paraphrase of his words Thou vvho alone sparest who alone forgivest sinnes For who can forgive sinnes but God alone Hee did not imagine that he had committed anie great error in subscribing thus simply unto that sentence of the Scribes and little dreamed that anie petie Doctors afterwards would arise in Rome or Rhemes who would tell us a faire tale that the faithlesse Iewes thought as Hereticks now adayes that to forgive
sinnes was so proper to God that it could not be communicated unto man and that true beleevers referre this to the increase of Gods honour which miscreant Iewes and Hereticks doe accompt blasphemie against God and injurious to his Majestie whereas in truth the faithlesnesse of the Iewes consisted in the application of this sentence unto our Saviour Christ whom they did not acknowledge to be God as the senslesness of these Romanists in denying of the axiom it selfe But the world is come unto a good passe when we must be accounted hereticks now adayes and consorted with miscreant Iewes for holding the selfe same thing that the Fathers of the ancient Church delivered as a most certain truth whensoever they had anie occasion to treate of this part of the historie of the Gospel Old Irenaeus telleth us that our Saviour in this place forgiving sinnes did both cure the man and manifestly discover who he was For if none saith hee can forgive sinnes but God alone and our Lord did forgive them and cured men it is manifest that he was the Word of God made the Sonne of man and that as man hee is touched with compassion of us as God he hath mercy on us and forgiveth us our debts which we doe owe unto God our maker Tertullian saith that when the Iewes beholding onely his humanitie and not being yet certaine of his Deitie did deservedly reason that a man could not forgive sinnes but God alone he by answering of them that the Sonne of man had authoritie to forgive sinnes would by this remission of sinnes have them call to minde that he was that onely sonne of man prophesied of in Daniel who received power of judging and thereby also of forgiving sinnes Dan. 7.13 14. S. Hilary commenting upon the ninth of Matthew writeth thus It moveth the Scribes that sinne should be forgiven by a man For they beheld a man onely in Iesus Christ and that to be forgiven by him which the law could not release For it is faith onely that justifieth Afterward the Lord looketh into their murmuring and saith that it is an easie thing for the Sonne of man upon earth to forgive sinnes For it is true none can forgive sinnes but God alone therefore hee who remitteth is God because none remitteth but God God remayning in man performed this cure upon man S. Hierom thus We reade that God saith in the Prophet I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities Consequently therefore the Scribes because they thought him to be a man and did not understand the words of God accuse him of blasphemy But the Lord seeing their thoughts sheweth himselfe to be God who is able to know the secrets of the heart and holding his peace after a sort speaketh By the same majestie and power vvherewith I behold your thoughts I am able also to forgive sinnes unto men or as Euthymius expresseth it in his commentaries upon the same place In truth none can forgive sinnes but one who beholdeth the thoughts of men S. Chrysostome likewise in his Sermons upon the same sheweth that Christ here declared himselfe to be God equall unto the Father and that if he had not beene equall unto the Father he would have said Why doe you attribute unto me an unfitting opinion I am farre from that power To the same effect also writeth Christianus Druthmarus Paschasius Ratbertus and Walafridus Strabus in the ordinarie Glosse upon the same place of S. Matthew Victor Antiochenus upon the second of Mark Theophylact and Bede upon the second of Mark and the fifth of Luke S. Ambrose upon the fifth of Luke who in another place also bringeth this sentence of the Scribes as a ground to prove the deitie of the holy Ghost withall forasmuch as none forgiveth sinnes but one God because it is written Who can forgive sins but God alone as S. Cyril doth to prove the deitie of the Sonne For this onely saith he did the malice of the Iewes say truely that none can forgive sinnes but God alone who is the Lord of the law and thence he frameth this argument If he alone who is the Lord of all doth free us from our sins and this agreeeth to no other and Christ bestoweth this with a power befitting God how should he not be God The same argument also is used by Novatianus and Athanasius to the selfe same purpose For if when it agreeth unto none but unto God to know the secrets of the heart Christ doth behold the secrets of the heart if when it agreeth unto none but unto God to forgive sinnes the same Christ doth forgive sinnes then deservedly is Christ to be accounted God saith Novatianus So Athanasius demandeth of the Arrians if the Sonne were a creature how was he able to forgive sinnes it being written in the Prophets that this is the work of God For who is a God like unto thee that taketh away sinnes and passeth over iniquities But the sonne saith hee said unto whom he would Thy sinnes are forgiven thee when the Iewes murmuring also he demonstrated this forgivenesse in deed saying to the man that was sicke of the palsie Arise take up thy bedd and goe unto thine house And therefore Bede rightly inferreth that the Arrians doe erre here much more madly then the Iewes vvho when they dare not denie being convicted by the words of the Gospell that Iesus is both the Christ and hath power to forgive sinnes yet feare not for all that to denie him to be God and concludeth himselfe most soundly that if he be God according to the Psalmist who removeth our iniquities from us as farr as the East is from the West and the sonne of man hath power upon earth to forgive sinnes therefore the same is both God and the sonne of man that the man Christ by the power of his divinitie might forgive sinnes and the same Christ God by the frailtie of his humanitie might dye for sinners Whereunto wee will adde another sweete passage of his borrowed from some ancienter author No man taketh away sinnes which the Law although holy and just and good could not take away but he in whom there is no sinne Now hee taketh them away both by pardoning those that are done and by assisting us that they may not be done by bringing us to the life where they cannot at all be done Peter Lombard alledgeth this as the saying of S. Augustine the former sentence only being thus changed None taketh away sinnes but Christ alone vvho is the Lamb that taketh away the sinnes of the world agreeable to that which in the same place he citeth out of S. Ambrose He alone forgiveth sinnes who alone dyed for our sinnes and to that of Clemens Alexandrinus He alone can remit sinnes who is appointed our Master by the father of all who alone is able to discerne disobedience from obedience to which
purpose also S. Ambrose maketh this observation upon the historie of the woman taken in adulterie Ioh. 8.9 that Iesus being about to pardon sin remayned alone For it is not the ambassador saith hee nor the messenger but the Lord himselfe that hath saved his people He remaineth alone because it cannot be common to anie man with Christ to forgive sinnes This is the office of Christ alone who taketh away the sinne of the world Yea S. Chrysostom himselfe who of all the Fathers giveth most in this point unto Gods ambassadors and messengers is yet carefull withall to preserve Gods priviledge entire by often interposing such sentences as these None can forgive sinnes but God alone To forgive sinnes belongeth to no other To forgive sinnes is possible to God onely God alone doth this which also hee worketh in the washing of the new birth Wherein that the work of cleansing the soule is wholly Gods and the minister hath no hand at all in effecting anie part of it Optatus proveth at large in his fifth booke against the Donatistes shewing that none can wash the filth and sports of the minde but hee who is the framer of the same minde and convincing the hereticks as by manie other testimonies of holy Scriptur◠so by that of Esai 1.18 which he presseth in this maner It belongeth unto God to cleanse and not unto man he hath promised by the Prophet Esai that hee himselfe would wash when he saith If your sinnes were as scarlet I will make them as white as snow I will make them white he said he did not say I will cause them to be made white If God hath promised this why will you give that which is neyther lawfull for you to promise nor to give nor to have Behold in Esai God hath promised that he himselfe will make white such as are defiled with sinnes not by man Having thus therefore reserved unto God his prerogative royall in cleansing of the soule we give unto his under-officers their due when we account of them as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God not as Lords that have power to dispose of spiritual graces as they please but as servants that are tyed to follow their Masters prescriptions therin in following therof do but bring their external ministerie for which it self also they are beholding to Gods mercie goodnes God conferring the inward blessing of his spirit thereupon when where he will Who then is Paul saith S. Paul himselfe and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom yee beleeved even as the Lord gave to every man Therfore saith Optatus in all the servants there is no dominion but a ministerie Cui creditur ipse dat quod creditur non per quem creditur It is hee who is beleeved that giveth the thing which is beleeved not he by whom we doe beleeve Whereas our Saviour then saith unto his Apostles Ioh. 20. Receive the holy Ghost Whose sinnes you forgive shall be forgiven S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Chrysostome and S. Cyrill make this observation thereupon that this is not their work properly but the worke of the holy Ghost who remitteth by them and therein performeth the worke of the true God For indeed saith S. Cyrill it belongeth to the true God alone to be able to loose men from their sinns for who else can free the transgressors of the law from sin but he who is the author of law it selfe The Lord saith S. Augustine was to give unto men the holy Ghost and he would have it to be understood that by the holy Ghost himselfe sinnes should be forgiven to the faithfull and not that by the merits of men sins should be forgiven For what art thou ô man but a sick-man that hast need to be healed Wilt thou be a physician to me Seek the physician together with mee So S. Ambrose Behold that by the holy Ghost sinnes are forgiven But men to the remission of sinnes bring their ministery they exercise not the authoritie of any power S. Chrysostom though he make this to be the exercise of a great power which also hee elsewhere amplifieth after his manner exceeding hyperbolically yet in the maine matter accordeth fully with S. Ambrose that it lyeth in God alone to bestowe the things wherein the Priests service is employed And what speake I of Priests saith he Neyther Angell nor Archangell can doe ought in those things which are given by God but the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost doe dispense all The Priest lendeth his tongue and putteth too his hand His part only is to open his mouth but it is God that worketh all And the reasons whereby both he and Theophylact after him doe prove that the Priests of the law had no power to forgive sinnes are of as great force to take the same power from the ministers of the Gospell first because it is Gods part onely to forgive sinnes secondly because the Priests were servants yea servants of sinne and therefore had no power to forgive sinnes unto others but the Sonne is the Lord of the house who was manifested to take away our sinnes and in him is no sinne saith S. Iohn upon which saying of his S. Augustin giveth this good note It is he in whom there is no sinne that came to take away sinne For if there had beene sinne in him too it must have beene taken away from him he could not take it away himselfe To forgive sinnes therefore being thus proper to God onely and to his Christ his ministers must not be held to have this power communicated unto them but in an improper sense namely because God forgiveth by them and hath appointed them both to apply those meanes by which he useth to forgive sinnes and to give notice unto repentant sinners of that forgivenesse For who can forgive sinnes but God alone yet doth he forgive by them also unto whom hee hath given power to forgive saith S. Ambrose and his followers And though it be the proper worke of God to remit sins saith Ferus yet are the Apostles and their successors said to remit also not simply but because they apply those meanes whereby God doth remit sinnes Which means are the Word of God and the Sacraments Whereunto also wee may adde the relaxation of the Censures of the Church and Prayer for in thes◠foure the whole exercise of this ministerie of reconciliation as the Apostle calleth it doth mainly consist of each whereof it is needefull that wee should speake somewhat more particularly That Prayer is a meanes ordayned by God for procuring remission of sinnes is plaine by that of S. Iames. The prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him Confesse
beene said actually voideth himselfe of this power this unrighteous judgement of his given upon earth being no wayes ratified but absolutely disanulled in the court of heaven For hee who by his office is appointed to be a minister of the word of truth hath no power given him to do any thing against the truth but for the truth neyther is it to be imagined that the sentence of man who is subject to deceive and be deceived should anie wayes prejudice the sentence of God whose judgement wee know to be alwayes according to the truth Therefore doth Pacianus in the end of his first epistle to Sympronianus the Novatian shew that at that time absolution was not so easily given unto penitents as now a dayes it is but vvith great pondering of the matter and with great deliberation after manie sighes and shedding of teares after the prayers of the whole Church pardon was so not denyed unto trâ—e repentance that Christ being to judge no man should prejudge him and a little before speaking of the Bishop by whose ministerie this was done He shall give an account saith he if hee have done anie thing amisse or if he have judged corruptly and wickedly Neyther is there anie prejudice done unto God whereby he might not undoe the workes of this evill builder but in the meane time if that administration of his be godly he continueth a helper of the workes of God Wherein he doth but tread in the steps of S. Cyprian who at the first rising of the Novatian heresie wrote in the same maner unto Antonianus Wee doe not prejudice the Lord that is to judge but that hee if he finde the repentance of the sinner to be full and just he may then ratifie that which shall be here ordayned by us but if any one doe deceive us with the semblance of repentance God who is not mocked and who beholdeth the heart of man may judge of those things which we did not well discerne and the Lord may amend the sentence of the servants Hereupon S. Hierome expounding those words Daniel 4.24 It may be God will pardon thy sinnes reproveth those men of great rashnesse that are so peremptorie and absolute in their absolutions When blessed Daniel saith he who knew things to come doth doubt of the sentence of God they do a rash deed that boldly promise pardon unto sinners S. Basil also resolveth us that the power of forgiving is not given absolutely but upon the obedience of the penitent and his consent with him that hath the care of his soule For it is in loosing as it is in binding Thou hast begun to esteeme thy brother as a publican saith S. Augustin thou bindest him upon earth But looke that thou bindest him justly For unjust bonds justice doth breake So when the Priest saith I absolve thee Maldonat confesseth that hee meaneth no more thereby but As much as in me lyeth I absolve thee and Suarez acknowledgeth that it implicity includeth this condition Vnlesse the receiver put some impediment for which hee alledgeth the authority of Hugo de S. Victore lib. 2. de Sacramentis pa. 14. s. 8. affirming that this forme doth rather signifie the power and vertue then the event of the absolution And therefore doth the Master of the Sentences rightly observe that God doth not evermore follow the judgement of the Church which sometimes judgeth by surreption and ignorance whereas God doth alwayes judge according to the truth So the Priests sometime declare men to be loosed or bound who are not so before God with the penaltie of satisfaction or excommunication they sometime binde such as are unworthy or loose them they admit them that be unworthy to the Sacraments and put backe them that be worthy to be admitted That saying therefore of Christ must be understood to be verified in them saith he whose merits doe require that they should be loosed or bound For then is the sentence of the Priest approved and confirmed by the judgement of God and the whole court of heaven when it doth proceed with that discretion that the merits of them who be dealt withall doe not contradict the same Whomsoever therefore they do loose or binde using the key of discretion according to the parties merits they are loosed or bound in heaven that is to say with God because the sentence of the Priest proceeding in this maner is approved and confirmed by divine judgement Thus farre the Master of the Sentences who is followed herein by the rest of the Schoolemen who generally agree that the power of binding and loosing committed to the Ministers of the Church is not absolute but must be limited with Clave non errante as being then onely of force when matters are carried with right iudgement and no error is committed in the use of the keyes Our Saviour therefore must stil have the priviledge reserved unto him of being the absolute Lord over his owne house it is sufficient for his officers that they bee esteemed as Moses was faithfull in all his house as servants The place wherein they serve is a Stewards place and the Apostle telleth them that it is required in Stewards that the man be found faithfull They may not therefore carrie themselves in their office as the unjust steward did and presume to strike out their Masters debt without his direction and contrarie to his liking Now we know that our Lord hath given no authoritie unto his stewards to grant an acquittance unto anie of his debtors that bring not unfayned faith and repentance with them Neyther Angell nor Archangell can neyther yet the Lord himselfe who alone can say I am with you when we have sinned doth release us unlesse vvee bring repentance with us saith S. Ambrose and Eligius Bishop of Noyon in his Sermon unto the Penitents Before all things it is necessary you should know that howsoever you desire to receive the imposition of our hands yet you cannot obtaine the absolution of your sinnes before the divine piety shall vouchsafe to absolve you by the grace of compunction To thinke therefore that it lyeth in the power of anie Priest truely to absolve a man from his sinnes without implying the condition of his beleeving and repenting as he ought to doe is both presumption and madnesse in the highest degree Neyther dareth Cardinall Bellarmine who censureth this conditionall absolution in us for idle and superfluous when he hath considered better of the matter assume unto himselfe or communicate unto his brethren the power of giving an absolute one For he is driven to confesse with other of his fellowes that when the Priest saith I absolve thee he doth not affirme that he doth absolve absolutely as not being ignorant that it may many wayes come to passe that he doth not absolve although he pronounce those words namely if hee who seemeth to receive this Sacrament for
thinke will take the paynes to get him a new heart and a new spirit and undertake the toylsome worke of crucifying the flesh with the lustes thereof if without all this adoe the Priests absolution can make that other imperfect or rather equivocall contrition arising from a carnall and servile feare to be sufficient for the blotting out of all his sinnes Or are wee not rather to thinke that this sacramentall penance of the Papists is a device invented by the enemie to hoodwinke poore soules and to divert them from seeking that true repentance which is onely able to stand them in stead and that such as take upon them to helpe lame dogges over the stile after this maner by substituting quid pro quo attrition in stead of contrition servile feare in stead of filiall love carnall sorrow in stead of godly repentance are physicians of no value nay such as minister poyson unto men under colour of providing a soveraigne medicine for them Hee therefore that will have care of his soules health must consider that much resteth here in the good choyce of a skilfull physician but much more in the paines that must be taken by the patient himselfe For that every one who beareth the name of a Priest is not fit to bee trusted with a matter of this moment their owne Decrees may give them faire warning where this admonition is twise laid down out of the author that wrote of true and false repentance Hee who will confesse his sinnes that he may finde grace let him seeke for a Priest that knoweth how to binde and loose least while he is negligent concerning himselfe he be neglected by him vvho mercifully admonisheth and desireth him that both fall not into the pit which the foole would not avoid And when the skilfullest Priest that is hath done his best S. Cyprian will tell them that to him that repenteth to him that worketh to him that prayeth the Lord of his mercie can grant a pardon hee can make good that which for such men eyther the Martyrs shall request or the Priest shall doe If we inquire who they were that first assumed unto themselves this exorbitant power of forgiving sins we are like to finde them in the Tents of the ancient hereticks and schismaticks who promised unto others libertie when they themselves were the servants of corruption How manie saith S. Hierom which have neyther bread nor apparell when they themselves are hungry and naked and neyther have spirituall meates nor preserve the coate of Christ intire yet promise unto others food and rayment and being full of wounds themselves bragge that they be physicians and doe not observe that of Moses Exod. 4.13 Provide another vvhom thou mayest send that other commandement Ecclesiastic 7.6 Doe not seeke to be made a Iudge lest peradventure thou be not able to take away iniquitie It is Iesus alone who healeth all sicknesses and infirmities of vvhom it is written Psalm 147.4 He healeth the contrite in heart and bindeth up their soares Thus farre S. Hierom. The Rhemists in their marginall note upon Luke 7.49 tell us that as the Pharisees did alwayes carp Christ for remission of sinnes in earth so the Hereticks reprehend his Church that remitteth sinnes by his authoritie But S. Augustin treating upon the selfe same place might have taught them that hereby the bewrayed themselves to be the off spring of Hereticks rather then children of the Church For whereas our Saviour there had said unto the penitent woman Thy sinnes are forgiven and they that sate at meate with him began to say within themselves Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also S. Augustin first compareth their knowledge and the knowledge of the woman thus together Shee knew that hee could forgive sinnes but they knew that a man could not forgive sinnes And wee are to beleeve that all that is both they which sat at table and the woman which came to our Lords feet they all knew that a man could not forgive sinnes Seeing all therefore knew this shee who beleeved that hee could forgive sinnes understood him to be more then a man and a little after That doe you know well that doe you hold well saith that learned Father Hold that a man cannot forgive sinnes Shee who beleeved that her sinnes were forgiven her by Christ beleeved that Christ was not only man but God also Then doth hee proceede to compare the knowledge of the Iewes then with the opinion of the Heretickes in his dayes Herein saith he the Pharisee was better then these men for when he did thinke that Christ was a man he did not beleeve that sinnes could be forgiven by a man It appeared therefore that the Iewes had better understanding then the Hereticks The Iewes said Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also Dare a man challenge this to himselfe What saith the Heretick on the other side I do forgive I doe cleanse I doe sanctifie Let Christ answer him not I O man when I was thought by the Iewes to bee a man I ascribed the forgivenesse of sinnes to faith Not I but Christ doth answer thee O Heretick Thou when thou art but a man sayest Come woman I doe make the safe I when I was thought to be but a man said Goe woman thy faith hath made thee safe The Hereticks at whom S. Augustin here aymeth were the Donatists whom Optatus also before him did thus roundly take up for the same presumption Vnderstand at length that you are servants and not Lords And if the Church be a vineyard and men be appointed to be dressers of it why doe you rush into the dominion of the housholder Why doe you challenge unto your selves that which is Gods Give leave unto God to performe the things that belong unto himselfe For that gift cannot be given by man which is divine If you think so you labour to frustrate the words of the Prophets the promises of God by which it is proved that God washeth away sinne and not man It is noted likewise by Theodoret of the Audian hereticks that they bragged they did forgive sinnes The maner of Confession which he saith was used among them was not much unlike that which Alvarus Pelagius acknowledgeth to have beene the usuall practise of them that made greatest profession of religion and learning in his time For scarce at all saith hee or very seldome doth any of them confesse otherwise then in generall termes scarce doe they ever specifie any grievous sinne What they say one day that they say another as if every day they did offend alike The maner of Absolution was the same with that which Theodoricus de Niem noteth to have beene practised by the pardoners sent abroad by Pope Boniface the ninth who released all sinnes to them that confessed without any penance or repentance affirming that they had for their warrant in so doing all that power which Christ gave unto
particular error which seemeth to have gotten head in his time as being most plausible to the multitude and very pleasing unto the looser sort of Christians therein he did well but that thereupon he condemned the generall practise of the Church which had no dependance upon that erroneous conceipt therein he did like unto himselfe headily and perversely For the Church in her Commemorations and prayers for the dead had no relation at all unto those that had ledd their lives lewdly and dissolutely as appeareth plainly both by the author of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy and by diverse other evidences before alledged but unto those that did end their lives in such a godly maner as gave pregnant hope unto the living that their soules were at rest with God and to such as these alone did it wish the accomplishment of that which remained of their redemption to wit their publick justification and solemne acquitall at the last day and their perfect consummation of blisse both in body and soule in the kingdome of heaven for ever after not that the event of these things was conceived to be anie wayes doubtfull for wee have beene told that things may be prayed for the event whereof is knowne to be most certaine but because the commemoration thereof was thought to serve for speciall use not onely in regard of the manifestation of the affection of the living toward the dead he that prayed as Dionysius noteth desiring other mens gifts as if they were his owne graces but also in respect of the consolation and instruction which the living might receive thereby as Epiphanius in his answer to Aërius doth more particularly declare The obiection of Aërius was this The Commemorations and prayers used in the Church bring no profit to the dead therefore as an unprofitable thing they are to be reiected To this doth Epiphanius thus frame his answer As for the reciting of the names of those that are deceased what can be better then this what more commodious and more admirable that such as are present do beleeve that they who are departed do live and are not extinguished but are still being and living with the Lord and that this most pious preaching might be declared that they who pray for their brethren have hope of them as being in a peregrination Which is as much in effect as if he had denied Aërius his consequence and answered him that although the dead were not profited by this action yet it did not therefore follow that it should be condemned as altogether unprofitable because it had a singular use otherwise namely to testifie the faith and the hope of the living concerning the dead the faith in declaring them to be alive for so doth Dionysius also expound the Churches intention in her publick nomination of the dead and as Divinitie teacheth not mortified but translated from death unto a most divine life the hope in that they signified hereby that they accounted their brethren to have departed from them no otherwise than as if they had beene in a journey with expectation to meet them afterward and by this meanes made a difference betwixt themselves and others which had no hope Then doth Epiphanius proceed further in answering the same objection after this maner The prayer also which is made for them doth profite although it do not cut off all their sinnes yet forasmuch as whilest we are in the world we oftentimes slip both unwillingly and with our will it serveth to signifie that which is more perfect For we make a memoriall both for the just and for sinners for sinners intreating the mercy of God for the just both the Fathers and Patriarches the Prophets and Apostles and Euangelists and Martyrs and Confessors Bishâ—ps also and Anchorites and the whole order that vve may sever our Lord Iesus Christ from the ranke of all other men by the honour that we doe unto him and that we may yeeld worship unto him Which as farre as I apprehend him is no more then if he had thus replyed unto Aërius Although the prayer that is made for the dead doe not cut off all their sinnes which is the onely thing that thou goest about to prove yet doth it profite notwithstanding for another purpose namely to signifie the supereminent perfection of our Saviour Christ above the rest of the sonnes of men who are subiect to manifold slipps and falls as long as they live in this world For aswell the righteous with their involuntarie slipps as sinners with their voluntarie falls doe come within the compasse of these Commemorations wherein prayers are made both for sinners that repent and for righteous persons that have no such need of repentance For sinners that being by their repentance recovered out of the snare of the Divell they may finde mercy of the Lord at the last day and bee freed from the fire prepared for the Divell and his angells For the righteous that they may be recompensed in the resurrection of the iust and received into the kingdome prepared for them from the foundation of the world Which kinde of prayer being made for the best men that ever lived even the Patriarches Prophets Apostles Euangelists and Martyrs themselves Christ onely excepted sheweth that the profite which the Church intended should be reaped therefrom was not the taking away of the sinnes of the parties that were prayed for but the honouring of their Lord above them it being hereby declared that our Lord is not to be compared unto any man though a man live in righteousnesse a thousand times and more for how should that be possible considering that the one is God the other man as the praying to the one and for the other doth discover and the one is in heaven the other in earth by reason of the remaines of the body yet resting in the earth untill the day of the Resurrection unto which all these prayers had speciall reference This do I conceive to be the right meaning of Epiphanius his answer as suting best both with the generall intention of the Church which he taketh upon him to vindicate from the misconstruction of Aërius with the application therof unto his obiection with the known doctrine of Epiphanius delivered by him elsewhere in these terms After death there is no helpe to be gotten eyther by godlinesse or by repentance For Lazarus doth not goe there unto the rich man nor the rich man unto Lazarus neyther doth Abraham send any of his spoyles that the poore may be afterward made rich thereby neyther doth the rich man obtaine that which he asketh although hee intreat mercifull Abraham â—ith instant supplication For the Garners are sealed up and the time is fulfilled and the combat is finished and the lists are voyded and the Garlands are given and such as have fought are at rest and such as have not obtained are gone forth and such as have not fought cannot now be present in time
scholies upon the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy wisheth us to marke that even before his time that doubt was questioned Among the questions wherein Dulcitius desired to be resolved by S. Augustin we finde this to be one Whether the offering that is made for the dead did avayle their soules any thing and that MANY did say to this that if herein any good were to be done after death how much rather should the soule it selfe obtaine ease for it selfe by it owne confessing of her sinnes there than that for the ease thereof an oblation should be procured by other men The like also is noted by Cyrill or rather Iohn Bishop of Ierusalem that he knew MANY who said thus What profite doth the soule get that goeth out of this world eyther with sinnes or not with sinnes if you make mention of it in prayer and by Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus Some doe doubt saying that the dead are not profited by the oblations that are made for them and long after them by Petrus Cluniacensis in his treatise against the followers of Peter Bruse in France That the good deeds of the living may profit the dead both these hereticks doe deny and some Catholicks also do seeme to doubt Nay in the West not the profite onely but the lawfulnesse also of these doings for the dead was called in question as partly may be collected by Boniface archbishop of Mentz his consulting with Pope Gregory about 730. yeares after the birth of our Saviour Whether it were lawfull to offer oblations for the dead which hee should have no reason to doe if no question had beene made thereof among the Germans and is plainly delivered by Hugo Etherianus about 1170. yeares after Christ in these words I know that many are deformed with vaine opinions thinking that the dead are not to be prayed for because that neither Christ nor the Apostles that succeeded him have intimated these things in the Scriptures But they are ignorant that there be many things and those exceeding necessary frequented by the holy Church the tradition whereof is not had in the Scriptures and yet they pertaine neverthelesse to the worship of God and obtaine great strength Whereby it may appeare that this practise wanted not opposition even then when in the Papacie it was advanced unto his greatest height And now is it high time that I should passe from this article unto the next following OF LIMBVS PATRVM And CHRISTS DESCENT INTO HELL HEre doth our Challenger undertake to prove against us not only that there is Limbus Patrum but that our Saviour also descended into Hell to deliver the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament because before his Passion none ever entred into Heaven That there was such a thing as Limbus Patrum I have heard it said but what it is now the Doctors varie yet agree all in this that Limbus it may well be but Limbus Patrum sure it is not Whether it were distinct from that place in which the infants that depart out of this life without baptisme are now beleeved to be received the Divines doe doubt neyther is there any thing to be rashly pronounced of so doubtfull a matter saith Maldonat the Iesuite The Dominican Friars that wrote against the Grecians at Constantinople in the yeare 1252 resolve that into this Limbus the holy Fathers before the comming of Christ did descend but now the children that depart vvithout baptisme are detained there so that in their iudgement that which was the Limbus of Fathers is now become the Limbus of Children The more common opinion is that these be two distinct places and that the one is appointed for unbaptized infants but the other now remayneth voide and so shall remaine that it may beare witnesse aswell of the justice as of the mercie of God If you demand how it came to be thus voyd emptied of the old inhabitants the answer is here given that our Saviour descended into Hell purposely â—o deliver from hence the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament But Hell is one thing I ween saith Tertullian and Abrahams bâ—some where the Fathers of the old Testament rested another neyther is it to be beleeved that the bosome of Abraham being the habitation of a secret kinde of rest was any part of Hell saith S. Augustin To say then that our Saviour descended into Hell to deliver the ancient Fathers of the old Testament out of Limbus Patrum would by this construction prove as strange a tale as if it had beene reported that Caesar made a voyage into Brittaine to set his friends at libertie in Greece Yea but before Christs Passion none ever entred into Heaven saith our Challenger The proposition that Cardinall Bellarmine taketh upon him to prove where he handleth this controversie is that the soules of the godly were not in Heaven before the Asâ—ension of Christ. Our Iesuite it seemeth considered here with himselfe that Christ had promised unto the penitent theefe upon the crosse that not before his ascension only but also before his resurrection even that day he should be with him in Paradise that is to say in the kingdome of heaven as the Cardinaâ—l himselfe doth prove both by the authoritie of S. Paul making Paradise and the third heaven to be the selfe same thing and by the testimony of the ancient expositors of the place This belike stuck somewhat in our Iesuites stomack who being loath to interpret this of his Limbus Patrum as others of that side had done and to maintaine that Paradise in stead of the third Heaven should signifie the third or the fourth Hell thought it best to shift the matter handsomely away by taking upon him to defend that not before Christs ascension least that of the Thiefe should crosse him but before his passion none ever entred into Heaven But if none before our Saviours Passion did ever enter into Heaven whither shall we say that Elias did enter The Scripture assureth us that he went up into heaven 2. Kings 2.11 of this Mattathias put his sonnes in mind upon his death-bedd that Elias being zealous and fervent for the law was taken up into heaven Elias and Moses both before the passion of Christ are described to be in glory Lazarus is carried by the Angells into a place of comfort and not of imprisonment in a word all the Fathers accounted themselves to be strangers and pilgrims in this earth seeking for a better countrey that is an heavenly as well as we doe and therefore having ended their pilgrimage they arrived at the country they sought for as well as wee They beleeved to be saved through the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ as well as we they lived by that faith as well as we they dyed in Christ as well as we they received remission of sinnes imputation of
raised up upon which place Origen writeth thus In this place and in many others likewise the graves of the dead are to be understood according to the more certaine meaning of the Scripture not such onely as wee see are builded for the receiving of mens bodies eyther cut out in stones or digged downe in the earth but every place wherein a mans bodie lyeth eyther entire or in any part albeit it fell out that one body should be dispersed through many places it being no absurditie at all that all those places in which any part of the body lyeth should bee called the sepulchres of that bodie For if wee do not thus understand the dead to bee raysed by the power of God out of their graves they which are not committed to buriall nor layd in graves but have ended their life either in shipwrackes or in some desart places so as they could not be committed to buriall should not seeme to bee recokoned among them who are said should bee raysed up out of their graves which would bee a very great absurditie Thus Origen Now you shall heare if you please what our Romish Doctors doe deliver touching this point There be two opinions saith Pererius upon Genes 37.35 concerning this question The one of the Hebrewes and of many of the Christians in this our age but especially of the Heretickes affirming that the word Sheol signifieth nothing else in the Scripture but the pit or the grave and from thence reasoning falsly that our Lord did not descend into Hell The other opinion is of undoubted and certaine truth that the Hebrew word Sheol and the Latin Infernus answering to it both in this place of Scripture and elsewhere oftentimes doth signifie not the pit or the grave but the place of Hell and the places under the earth wherein the soules are after death Wheresoever Hiâ—rome saith Augustinus Steuchus upon the same place and the Sâ—ptuagint have translated Hell it is in the Hebrewe Sheol that is the pit or the grave For it doth not signifie that place wherein Antiquitie hath thought that the soules of the wicked are received The Hebrew word properly signifieth the grave saith Iansenius upon Proverb 15.12 the Grave properly and Hell onely metaphorically saith Arias Montanus in his answere unto Leo á Castro and in the old Testament the name of Hell doth alwayes almost import the Grave saith Alphonsus Mendoza The Iesuite Pineda commendeth one Cyprian a Cistercian monke as a man famous for learning and pietie yet holdeth him worthie to be censured for affirming that Sheol or Hell is in all the old Testament taken for the Grave Another croaking monke Crocquet they call him crieth out on the other side that we shall never be able to prove by the producing of as much as one place of Scripture that Sheol doth signifie the Grave Cardinall Bellarmine is a little and but a verie little more modest heerein The Hebrewe Sheol hee saith is ordinarily taken for the place of soules under the earth and eyther rarely or never for the grave but the Greeke word Hades alwayes signifieth Hell never the grave But Stapleton will stand to it stoutly that neyther Hades nor Sheol is in the Scriptures ever taken for the grave but alwayes for Hell The word Infernus Hades Sheol saith hee is never taken for the grave The grave is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrewe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore all the Paraphrastes of the Hebrewes also doe expound that word Sheol by the word Gehenna as Genebrard doth shew at large in his third Booke of the Trinity Where yet hee might have learned some more moderation from Genebrard himselfe unto whom hee referreth us who thus layeth downe his judgement of the matter in the place by him alledged As they be in an error who contend that Sheol doth never designe the grave so have they a shamelesse forehead who denie that it doth any where signifie the region of the damned or Gehenna It is an error therefore in Stapleton by his owne authors confession to maintayne that Sheol is never taken for the grave and in so doing hee doth but bewray his old wrangling disposition But least any other should take the shamelesse forehead from him hee faceth it downe that all the paraphrastes of the Hebrewes do interpret Sheol by the word Gehenna Whereas it is well knowne that the two Paraphrastes that are of greatest antiquitie and credit with the Hebrewes Onkelos the interpreter of Moses and Ionathan ben Vzziel of the Prophets never translate it so Beside that of Onkelos wee have two other Chaldee Paraphrases which expound the harder places of Moses the one called the Targum of Ierusalem the other attributed unto Ionathan in neyther of of these can wee finde that Sheol is expounded by Gehenna but in the latter of them we see it twise expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of the grave In the Arabicke interpretations of Moses where the translator out of the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-gehim Hell there the translator out of the Hebrew putteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-tharai which signifieth earth or clay Iacobus Tawosius in his Persian translation of the Pentateuch for Sheol doth alwaies put Gor that is the grave The Chaldee Paraphrase upon the Proverbs keepeth still the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deflected a little from the Hebrew the Paraphrast upon Iob useth that word thrise but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie the grave in steed thereof five severall times In Ecclesiastes the word commeth but once there the Chaldee Paraphrast rendreth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of the grave R. Ioseph Coecus doth the like in his paraphrase upon Psalm 31.17 and 89.48 In Psalm 141.7 he rendreth it by the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grave but in the 15. and 16. verses of the 49. Psalme by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gehenna And only there and in Cantic 8.6 is Sheol in the Chaldee paraphrases expounded by Gehenna whereby if we shall understand the place not of dead bodies as in that place of the Psalme the Paraphrast maketh expresse mention of the bodies waxing old or consuming in Gehenna but of tormented soules as the Rabbines more commonly doe take it yet doe our Romanists get little advantage thereby who would faine have the Sheól into which our Saviour went be conceived to have beene a place of rest and not of torment the bosome of Abraham and not Gehenna the seat of the damned As for the Greek word Hádes it is used by Hippocrates to expresse the first matter of things from which they have their beginning and into which afterwards being dissolved they make their ending For having said that in nature nothing properly may be held to be newly made or to perish he addeth this
Cardinall himselfe bringeth in Num. 23.10 31.35 Gen. 37.21 and Num. 19.13 to prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie eyther the whole man or his verie bodie and must not the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek Bible useth in all those places of necessitie also be expounded after the same maner Take for example that last place which is most pertinent to the purpose Numb 19.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the vulgar Latin rendreth Omnis qui tetigerit humanae animae morticinum and compare it with the 11. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee that toucheth any soule of a dead man that is as the vulgar Latin rightly expoundeth the meaning of it Qui tetigerit cadaver hominis He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be uncleane seven dayes and wee shall need no other proofe that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put for the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may signifie the dead body of a man even as the Latin Anima also doth in that place of the heathen Poët animamque sepulchro Condimus We buried his soule in the grave The argument therefore drawne from the nature of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth no way hinder that in Act 2.27 Thou wilt not leave my soule should be interpreted eyther Thou wilt not leave me as in the 31. verse following where the Greek text saith that his soule was not left the old Latin hath He was not left or Thou wilt not leave my body as the Interpreters writing upon that place Genes 46.26 All the soules that came with Iacob into Egypt which came out of his loynes do generally expound it eyther by a Synecdoche whereby the one part of the man is put for the whole person as we may see in the commentaries upon Genesis attributed to Eucherius lib. 3. cap. 31. Alcuinus in Genes interrog 269. Anselmus Laudunensis in the interlineary Glosse Lyranus and others or by a Metonymie whereby that which is contayned is put for that which doth containe it for illustration whereof S. Augustine very aptly bringeth in this example As we give the name of a Church unto the materiall building wherein the people are contayned unto whom the name of the Church doth properly appertaine by the name of the Church that is of of the people vvhich are contained signifying the place which doth contayne them so because the soules are contayned in the bodies by the soules here named the bodies of the sonnes of Iacob may be understood For so may that also be taken where the Law saith that he is defiled who shall goe in to a dead soule Levit. 21.11 that is to the carkase of a dead man that by the name of a dead soule the dead body may be understood which did containe the soule even as vvhen the people are absent vvhich be the Church yet the place neverthelesse is still tearmed the Church Yea but the word Hades saith Bellarmine as vvee have shewed doth alwayes signifie Hell and never the Grave But the boâ—y of Christ was not in Hell therefore his soule was there If he had said that the word Hades did either rarely or never signifie the Grave although he had not therein spoken truely yet it might have argued a little more modestie in him and that he had taken some care also that his latter conceits should hold some better correspondencie with his former For he mâ—ght have remembred how in the place unto which hee doth referre us he had said that the LXXII Seniors did every where in their translation put Hades in stead of Sheol which as he theâ—e hath told us is ordinarily taken for the place of soules under the earth and eyther rarely or never for the grave But wee have shewed not only out of those Dictionaries unto which the Cardinall doth referre us having forgotten first to looke into them himselfe but by allegation of diverse particular instances likewise unto none of which he hath made any answere that Hades in the translation of tâ—e LXXII Seniors is not rarely but verie usuâ—lly taken for the place of dead bodies So for the use of the word Infernus in the Latin translation Lyranus noteth that it is taken in the Scripture not for the place of the damned only but also for the pit wherein dead â—ens carkases were layd And among the Iesuites Gaspar Sanctius yeeldeth for the generall that Infernus or Hell is frequently in the Scripture taken for buriall and in particular Emmanuel Sà confesseth it to be so taken in Gen. 42.38 1. Sam. 2.6 Iob. 7.9 and 21.13 Psalm 29.4 and 87.4 and 93.17 and 113.17 and 114.3 and 140.7 according to the Greek division Prov. 1.12 and 23.14 Ecclesiast 9.10 Cantic 8.6 Ecclesiastic 51.7 Esai 28.15 and 38.10 Baruch 2.17 Dan. 3.88 in the Hymne of the three children and 2. Maccab. 6.23 in all which places Hádes being used in the Greek and Inferi or Infernus in the Latin it is acknowledged by the Iesuite that the Grave is meant which by Bede also is termed Infernus exterior the exterior Hell So Alcuinus moving the question how that speech of Iacob should be understood Genes 37.35 I will goe downe to my sonne mourning into Hell maketh answer that these be the words of a troubled and grieving man amplifying his evills even from hence Or else saith hee by the name of Hell he signified the Grave as if he should have said I remaine in sorrow untill the earth doe receive me as the grave hath done him So Primasius expounding the place Hebr. 13.20 God the father saith hee brought his sonne from the dead that is to say from Hell or from the Grave according to that which the Psalmiste had foretolde Thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption And Maximus Taurinensis saith that Mary Magdalene received a reproofe because after the resurrection she sought our Lord in the grave and not remembring his words whereby hee had said that the third day he would returne from hell shee thought him still to be detayned by the lawes of hell And therefore saith he while shee did seeke the Lord in the grave among the rest of the dead shee is reprehended and it is said umto her Why seekest thou him that liveth among the dead that is to say Why seekest thou him among them that are in the infernall parts who is now knowne to have returned unto the supernall For he that seeketh for him eyther in the infernall places or in the graves to him it is sayd Why seekest thou him that liveth among the dead and to the same purpose he applieth those other wordes of our Saviour unto Mary Touch me not for I am not yet ascended unto my Father as if hee had sayd Why dost thou desire to touch me who while thou seekest me among the graves dost not as yet beleeve that I am ascended
honour and magnifie thee ô giver of life Thou wast put in the tombe being voluntarily made dead and didst emptie all the palaces of hell ô immortall King raysing up the dead with thy ResurrectioÌ„ Thou who spoyledst hell by thy buriall be mindfull of me Hitherto also belongeth that of Prudentius in his Apotheosis tumuloque inferna refringens Regna resurgentes secum jubet ire sepultos Coelum habitat terris intervenit abdita rumpit Tartara vera fides Deus est qui totus ubique est where in saying that our Saviour by his grave did break up the infernall kingdomes and commanded those that were buried to rise up with him he hath reference unto that part of the history of the Gospell wherein it is recorded that The graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy citie and appeared unto many Matth. 27.52 53. upon which place S. Hilary writeth thus Inlightning the darkenesse of death and shining in the obscure places of Hell by the resurrection of the Saints that were seene at the present he tooke away the spoyles of death it selfe To the same effect writeth S. Ambrose also Neither did his sepulchre want a miracle For when he was anoynted by Ioseph and buried in his tombe by a new kinde of worke he that was dead himselfe did open the sepulchres of the dead His body indeed did lye in the grave but he himselfe being free among the dead did give libertie unto them that were placed in Hell dissolving the law of death For his flesh was in the tombe but his power did worke from heaven which may be a sufficient commentary upon that sentence which we reade in the Exposition of the Creed attributed unto S. Chrysostom He descended into Hell that there also he might not want a miracle For many bodies of the Saints arose with Christ. namely HELL rendring up the BODIES of the Saints alive againe as eyther the same or another author that goeth under the like name of Chrysostom doth elsewhere directly affirme which is a further confirmation of that which we have heard delivered by Ruffinus touching the exposition of the article of the Descent into Hell that the substance thereof seemeth to be the same with that of the Buriall for what other Hell can we imagin it to be but the Grave that thus receiveth and giveth up the bodies of men departed this life And hitherto also may bee referâ—ed that famous saying of Christs descending alone ascending with a multitude which we meet withall in foure severall places of antiquitie First in the hâ—ads of the sermon of Thaddaeus as they are reported by Eusebius out of the Syriack records of the citie of Edessa He was crucified and descended into Hades or Hell and brake the rampiere never broken before since the beginning and rose againe and raysed up with him those dead that had slept from the beginning and descended alone but ascended to his Father with a great multitude Secondly in the epistle of Ignatius unto the Trallians He was truly and not in opinion crucified and died those that were in heaven and in earth and under the earth beholding him those in heaven as the incorporeall natures those in earth to wit the Iewes and the Romanes and such men as were present at that time when the Lord was crucified those under the earth as the multitude that rose up together with the Lord for many bodies saith he of the Saints which slept arose the graves being opened And hee descended into Hades or Hell alone but returned with a multitude and brake the rampiere that had stood from the beginning and overthrew the partition thereof Thirdly in the disputation of Macarius Bishop of Ierusalem in the first generall Councell of Nice After death wee were carried into Hades or Hell Christ tooke upon him this also and descended voluntarily into it he was not detayned as wee but descended onely For hee was not subjected unto death but was the Lord of death And descending alone he returned with a multitude For he was that spirituall graine of wheat falling for us into the earth and dying in the flesh who by the power of his godhead raysed up the temple of his body according to the Scriptures which brought forth for fruite the Resurrection of all mankinde Fourthly in the Catechises of Cyrill Bishop of Ierusalem whose wordes are these I beleeve that Christ was raysed from the dead For of this I have many witnesses both out of the divine scriptures from the witnesse and operation even unto this day of him that rose againe of him I say that descended into Hades or Hell alone but asceÌ„ded with many For he did descend unto death many bodies of the Saints that slept were raised by him which resurrection he seemeth afterward to make common unto all the Saints that dyed before our Saviour All the righteous men saith he were delivered whom death had devoured For it became the proclaymed King to be the deliverer of those good proclaymers of him Then did every one of the righteous say O death where is thy victory ô Hell where is thy sting for the conqueror hath delivered us wherewith we may compare that saying of S. Chrysostom If it were a great matter that Lazarus being foure dayes dead should come forth much more that all they who were dead of old should appeare together alive which was a signe of the future resurrection For many bodies of the Saints which slept arose saith the text and these articles of the Confession of the Armenians According to his body which was dead he descended into the grave but according to his divinitie which did live he over came Hell in the meane time The third day he rose againe but withall raysâ—d up the soules or persons of the faithfull together with him and gave hope thereby that our bodies also should rise againe like unto him at his second comming Of those who arose with our Saviour from the Grave or as anciently they used to speake from Hell two there be whom the Fathers nominate in particular Adam and Iob. Of Iob S. Ambrose writeth in this maner Having heard what God had spoken in him and having understood by the holy Ghost that the Sonne of God was not onely to come into the earth but that he was also to descend into Hell to that he might rayse up the dead which was then done for a testimony of the present and an example of the future he turned himselfe unto the Lord and said O that thou wouldest keepe me in Hell that thou vvouldest hide me untill thy wrath be past and that thou wouldest appoint me a time in which thou wouldest remember me Iob. 14.13 in which wordes he affirmeth that Iob did prophecie that he should be raysed up at the passion of
away speaketh he these things as if he were tâ— goe down into hell by dying For of Hell there is a great question and what the Scripture delivereth thereof in all the places where it hath occasion to make mention of it is to be observed Hitherto S. Augustin who had reference to this great question when he said as hath beene before alledged Of Hell neyther have I had any experience as yet nor you and peradventure there shal be another way and by Hell it shall not be For these things are uncertaine Neyther is there greater question among the Doctors of the Church concerning the Hell of the Fathers of the Old Testament then there is of the Hell of the faithfull now in the time of the New neyther are there greater differences betwixt them touching the Hell into which our Saviour went whether it were under the earth or above whether a darkesome place or a lightsome whether a prison or a paradise then there are of the mansions wherein the soules of the blessed do now continue S. Hierome interpreting those words of King Ezechias Esai 38.10 I shall goe to the gates of Hell saith that this is meant eyther of the common law of nature or else of those gates from which that he was delivered the Psalmist singeth Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death that I may shew forth all thy prayses in the gates of the daughter of Sion Psalm 9.13 14. Now as some of the Fathers doe expound our Saviours going to Hell of his descending into Gehenna so others expound it of his going to Hell according to the common law of nature the common law of nature I say which extendeth it selfe indifferently unto all the dead whether they belong to the state of the New Testament or of the Old For as Christs soule was in all points made like unto ours sinne onely excepted while it was joyned with his body here in the land of the living so when he had humbled himselfe unto the death it became him in all things to be made like unto his brethren even in that state of dissolution And so indeed the soule of Iesus had experience of both For it was in the place of humaine soules and being out of the flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable soule therefore and of the same substance with the soules of men even as his flesh is of the same substance with the flesh of men proceeding from Mary saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his exposition of that text of the Psalme Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell Where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell you see he understandeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humaine soules which is the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or world of spirits and by the disposing of Christs soule there after the maner of other soules concludeth it to be of the same nature with other mens soules So S Hilary in his exposition of the 138. Psalme This is the law of humaine necessitie saith he that the bodies being buried the soules should goe to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man and a little after he repeateth it that de supernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit he descended from the supernall to the infernall parts by the law of death and upon the 53. Psalme more fully To fulfill the nature of man he subjected himselfe to death that is to a departure as it were of the soule and body and pierced into the infernall seates which was a thing that seemed to be duâ— unto man So Leo in one of his Sermons upon our Lords passion Hee did undergoe the lawes of Hell by dying but did dissolve them by rising againe and so did cut off the perpetuitie of death that of eternall hee might make it temporall So Irenaeus having said that our Lord conversed three dayes where the dead were addeth that therein he observed the law of the dead that hee might be made the first begotten from the dead staying untill the third day in the lower parts of the earth and afterward rising in his flesh Then he draweth from thence this generall conclusion Seeing our Lord went in the midst of the shadow of death vvhere the soules of the dead were then afterward rose againe corporally and after his resurrection was assumed it is manifest that the soules of his disciples also for whose sake the Lord wrought these things shall goe to an invisible place appointed unto them by God and there shall abide untill the resurrection wayting for the resurrection and afterwards receaving their bodies and rising againe perfectly that is to say corporally even as our Lord did rise againe they shall so come unto the presence of God For there is no disciple above his master but every one shall be perfect if he be as his master The like collection doth Tertullian make in his booke of the Soule If Christ being God because he was also man dying according to the Scriptures and being buried according to the same did heere also satisfie the law by performing the course of an humane death in Hell neyther did ascend into the higher parts of the heavens before he descended into the lower parts of the earth that he might there make the Patriarches and Prophets partakers of himselfe thou hast both to beleeve that there is a region of Hell under the earth and to push them with the elbowe who proudly enough doe not thinke the soules of the faithfull to be fit for Hell servants above their Lord and disciples above their Master scorning perhaps to take the comfort of expecting the resurrection in Abrahams bosome And in the same booke speaking of the soule What is that saith he which is translated unto the infernall parts or Hell after the separation of the body which is detayned there which is reserved unto the day of judgement unto which Christ by dying did descend to the soules of the Patriarches I thinke Where he maketh the Hell unto which our Saviour did descend to be the common receptacle not of the soules of the Patriarches alone but also of the soules that are now still separated from their bodies as being the place quò universa humanitas trahitur as he speaketh elsewhere in that booke unto which all mankinde is drawne So Novatianus after him affirmeth that the very places which lye under the earth be not voyde of distinguished and ordered powers For that is the place saith he whither the soules both of the godly and ungodly are led receiving the fore-judgements of their future dâ—ome Lactantius saith that our Saviour rose againe ab inferis from Hell but so he saith also that the dead Saints shall be raised up ab inferis at the time of the Resurrection S. Cyrill of Alexandria saith that the Iewes killed Christ and cast him into the deepe
hast delivered me from prison A debtor was in danger to be hanged the debt is payd for him he is said to be freed from hanging In all these things they were not but because such were their deserts that unlesse they had beene holpen there they would have beene they say rightly that they were freed thence vvhither by those that freed them they vvere not suffered to be brought That Christ destroyed the power of Hell spoyled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them is acknowledged by all Christians Neyther is there anie who will refuse to subscribe unto that which Proclus delivered in his Sermon before Nestorius then Bishop of Constantinople inserted into the Acts of the Councell of Ephesus He was shut up in the grave who stretched out the heavens like a skinne he was reckoned among the dead and spoyled Hell and that which S. Cyrill and the Synod of Alexandria wrote unto the same Nestorius concerning the Confession of their faith approved not only by the third generall Councell held at Ephesus but also by the fourth at Chalcedon and the fifth at Constantinople To the end that by his unspeakable power treading down death in his own as the first and principall flesh he might become the first borne from the dead and the first fruits of those that slept and that he might make a way to mans nature for the turning back againe unto incorruption by the grace of God he tasted death for all men and revived the third day spoyling Hell All I say do agree that Christ spoyled or as they were wont to speake harrowed Hell whether you take Hell for that which keepeth the soule separated from the body or that which separateth soule and body bothe from the blessed presence of him who is our true life the one whereof our Saviour hath conquered by bringing in the Resurrection of the body the other he hath abolished by procuring for us Life everlasting Touching the maner and the meanes whereby Hell was thus spoyled is all the disagreement The maner whether our Lord did deliver his people from Hell by way of prevention in saving them from comming thither or by way of subvention in helping those out whom at the time of his death he found there The meanes whether this were done by his Divinity or his Humanitie or both whether by the vertue of his sufferings death buriall and resurrection or by the reall descending of his soule into the place wherein mens soules were kept imprisoned That hee descended not into the Hell of the damned by the essence of his soule or locally but virtually onely by extending the effect of his power thither is the common doctrine of Thomas Aquinas and the rest of the Schoole Cardinall Bellarmine at first held it to be probable that Christs soule did descend thither not only by his effects but by his reall presence also but afterwards having considered better of the matter he resolved that the opinion of Thomas and the other Schoolemen was to be followed The same is the judgement of Suarez who concerning this whole article of Christs descent into Hell doth thus deliver his minde If by an Article of faith we understand a truth which all the faithfull are bound explicitly to know and beleeve so I doe not thinke it necessarie to reckon this among the Articles of faith Because it is not a matter altogether so necessary for all men and because that for this reason peradventure it is omitted in the Nicene Creed the knowledge of which Creed seemeth to be sufficient for fulfilling the precept of faith Lastly for this cause peradventure Augustin and other of the Fathers expounding the Creed doe not unfold this mysterie unto the people And to speake the truth it is a matter above the reach of the common people to enter into the discussion of the full meaning of this point of the descension into Hell the determination whereof dependeth upon the knowledge of the learned tongues and other sciences that come not within the compasse of their understanding some experiment whereof they may finde in this that whereas in the other questions here handled they might finde themselves able in some reasonable forre to follow me here they leave me I doubt and let me walke without their company It having here likewise beene further manifested what different opinions have beene entertayned by the ancient Doctors of the Church concerning the determinate place wherein our Saviours soule did remaine during the time of the separation of it from his body I leave it to be considered by the learned whether any such controverted matter may fitly be brought in to expound the Rule of faith by which being common both to the great and the small ones in the Church must contayn such verities only as are generally agreed upon by the common consent of all true Christians and if the words of the article of Christs going to Hades or Hell may well beare such a generall meaning as this that he went to the dead and continued in the state of death untill the time of his Resurrection it would be thought upon whether such a truth as this which findeth universall acceptance among all Christians may not safely passe for an article of our Creed and the particular limitation of the place unto which our Saviours soule went whither to the place of blisse or to the place of torment or to both be left as a number of other Theologicall points are unto further disputation In the articles of our faith common agreement must bee required which wee are sure is more likely to be found in the generall than in the particular And this is the onely reason which moved me to enlarge my selfe so much in the declaration of the generall acceptions of the word Hades and the application of them to our Saviours descent spoken of in the Creed wherein if the zeale which I beare to the peace of the Church and the settlement of unitie among brethren hath carried me too farre as it hath made me indeede quite to forget my intended brevity I intreate the Reader to pardon me and ceasing to be further troublesome unto him in the prosecution of this intricate argument I passe to the next question OF PRAYER TO SAINTS THat one question of S. Paul Rom. 10.14 How shall they call upon him in whom they have not beleeved among such as lust not to be contentious will quickly put an end unto this question For if none can be invocated but such as must be beleeved in and none must be beleeved in but God alone everie one may easily discerne what conclusion will follow thereupon Againe all Christians have beene taught that no part of divine worship is to be communicated unto any creature for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve But prayer is such a principall part of
and vve must pray to the Word of God his onely begotten and the first bornè of all creatures and we must intreat him that he as high Priest would present our prayer when it is come to him unto his God and our God unto his Father and the father of them that frame their life according to the word of God And whereas Celsus had further sayd that we must offer first fruits unto Angels and prayers as long as we live that we may finde them propitious unto us answere is returned by Origen in the name of the Christians that they held it rather fit to offer first fruits unto him which sayd Let the earth bring forth grasse the herbe yeelding seed and the fruite tree yeelding fruite after his kinde And to whom wee give the first fruites saith he to him also doe wee send our prayers having a great high Priest that is entred into the Heavens Iesus the Sonne of God and we hold fast this confession whiles we live having God favourable unto us and his onely begotten Sonne Iesus being manifested amongst us But if we have a desire unto a multitude whom we would willingly have to be favourable unto us we learne that thousand thousands stand by him and millions of millions minister unto him who beholding them that imitate their pietie towards God as if they were their kinsfolkes and friends helpe forward their salvation who call upon God and pray sincerely appearing also and thinking that they ought to doe service to them and as it were upon one watchword to set forth for the â—enefit and salvation of them that pray to God unto whom they themselves also pray For they are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation Thus farre Origen in his eight booke against Celsus to which for a conclusion we wil adde that place of the fift booke All prayers and supplications and intercessions and thankesgivings are to be sent up unto God the Lord of all by the high Priest who is above all Angels being the living Word and God For to call upon Angels we not comprehending the knowledge of them which is above the reach of man is not agreeable to reason And if by supposition it were granted that the knowledge of them which is wonderfull and secret might be comprehended this very knowledge declaring their nature unto us and the charge over which every one of them is set would not permit us to presume to pray unto any other but unto God the Lord over all who is aboundantly sufficient for all by our Saviour the Sonne of God Tertullian and Cyprian in the bookes which they purposely wrote concerning Prayer deliver no other doctrine but teach us to regulate all our prayers according unto that perfect patterne prescribed by our great Master wherein we are required to direct our petitions unto Our Father which is in heaven Matth. 6.9 Luk. 11.2 These things saith Tertullian in his Apologie for the Christians of his time I may not pray for from any other but from him of whom I know I shall obtayne them because both it is he who is alone able to give and I am he unto whom it appertayneth to obtayne that which is requested being 〈◊〉 servant who observe him alone who for his religion am killed who offer unto him a rich and great sacrifice which he himselfe hath commanded Prayer proceeding from a chaste body from an innocent soule from a holy spirit where he accounteth Prayer to be the chiefe sacrifice wherewith God is worshipped agreeably to that which Clemens Alexandrinus wrote at the same time We doe not without cause honour God by prayer and with righteousnesse send up this best and holyest sacrifice The direction given by Ignatius unto Virgins in this case is short and sweete Yee Virgins have Christ alone before your eyes and his Father in your prayers being inlightened by the Spirit for explication whereof that may be taken which we reade in the exposition of the Faith attributed unto S. Gregory of Neocaesarea Whosoever rightly prayeth unto God prayeth by the Sonne and whosoever commeth as he ought to doe commeth by Christ and to the Sonne he can not come without the holy Ghost Neyther is it to be passed over that one of the speciall arguments whereby the writers of this time do prove our Saviour Christ to bee truely God is taken from our praying unto him and his accepting of our petitions If Christ be onely man saith Novatianus how is he present being called upon every where seeing this is not the nature of man but of God that he can be present at every place If Christ be onely man why is a man called upon in our prayers as a mediatour seeing the invocation of a man is judged of no force to yeeld salvation If Christ be onely man why is there hope reposed in him seeing hope in man 〈◊〉 sayd to be cursed So is it noted by Origen that S. Paul in the beginning of the former epistle to the Corinthians where he saith With all that in every place call upon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1. Corinth 1.2 doth thereby pronounce Iesus Christ whose Name is called upon to be God And if to call upon the Name of the Lord saith he and to adore God bee one and the selfe same thing as Christ is called upon so is he to be adored and as we do offer to God the Father first of all prayers 1. Tim. 2.1 so must we also to the Lord Iesus Christ and â—s wee doe offer supplications to the Father so doe we offer supplications also to the Sonne and as wee doe offer thankesgivings to God so doe we offer thankesgivings to our Saviour In like maner Athanasius disputing against the Arrians by that prayer which the Apostle maketh 1. Thessal 3.11 God himselfe and our Father and our Lord Iesus Christ direct our way unto you doth prove the unitie of the Father and the Sonne For no man saith he would pray to receive any thing from the Father and the Angels or from any of the other creatures neyther would any man say God and the Angell give thee this And whereas it might be objected that Iacob in the blessing that he gave unto Ephraim and Manasseh Genes 48.15 16. did use this forme of prayer The God which fed me from my youth unto this day The Angel which delivered me from all evills blesse those children which Cardinall Bellarmine placeth in the forefront of the forces he bringeth forth to establish the Invocation of Saints Athanasius answereth that he did not couple one of the created and naturall Angels with God that did create them nor omitting God that fed him did desire a blessing for his nephews from an Angel but saying Which delivered me from all evills hee did shew that it was not any of the created Angels but
third chapter Whatsoever yee do in word or deed doe all in the name of the Lord Iesus giving thankes to God and the Father by him for because they commanded men to worship Angels saith Theodoret he injoyneth the contrary that they should adorne their words and their deeds with the commemoration of our Lord Christ and send up thankesgiving to God and the Father by him saith he and not by the Angels The Synod of Laodicea also following this rule and desiring to heale that old disease made a law that they should not pray unto Angels nor forsake our Lord Iesus Christ. and againe upon the second chapter of the same epistle This vice continued in Phrygia and Pisidia for a long time for which cause also the Synod assembled in Laodicea the chiefe city of Phrygia forbad them by a Law to pray unto Angels And even to this day among them and their borderers there are Oratories of S. Michael to be seene The like hath Oecumenius after him upon the same place This custome continued in Phrygia insomuch that the Councell of Laodicea did by a Law forbid to come unto Angels and to pray unto them from whence it is also that there be many Churches of Michael the chiefe captaine of Gods hoste among them This Canon of the Laodicean Fathers Photius doth note to have beene made against the Angelites or the Angelickes rather for so doâ—h S. Augustin name those heretickes that were inclined to the worship of Angels being from thence called Angelici as Isidorus noteth because they did worship Angels To transcribe here at large the severall testimonies of the Fathers which condemne this worshipping of Angels or any other creature whatsoever would be an endlesse worke Gregory Nyssen in the beginning of his fourth or fifth book rather against Eunomius layeth this downe for an undoubted principle That none of those things which have their being by creation is to be worshipped by men the word of God hath by law ordayned as almost out of all the holy Scripture vve may learne Moses the Tables the Law the Prophets afterward the Gospels the determinations of all the Apostles doe equally forbid the looking unto the creature Then having shewed that the neglect of this was the cause of the bringing in of a multitude of Gods among the Heathen least the same things should happen unto us saith he who are instructed by the Scripture to looke unto the true Deitie we are taught to understand that whatsoever is created is a different thing from the divine nature and that we are to worship and adore that nature only which is uncreated whose character and marke is that it neyther at any time beganne to be nor ever shall cease to be But our Romanists have long since overthrown this principle and so altered Moses and the Tables and the Law that of the 24. mortall sinnes whereby they say the first Commandement is broken they reckon the first to be committed by him Qui colit extra Deum vel Sanctos quodque creatum who worshippeth any created thing beside God and the Saints And whereas Antonius in his Melissa had set downe the foresaid sentence of Nyssen that vve have learned to worship and adore that nature ONELY which is uncreated the Spanish Inquisitors have taken order that a peece of his tongue should be cut off and given commandement that the word ONELY should be blotted out of his writing not considering that this was the principall word upon which the whole sentence of Nyssen mainely did depend and that Nyssen was not the onely man that had taught us this lesson Athanasius before him had used the very same argument against the Arrians to prove that the Sonne of God was of an uncreated nature For Peter the Apostle saith he did forbid Cornelius when he vvould have worshipped him saying Because I my selfe also am a man Act. 10.26 The Angell also did forbid Iohn when he would have worshipped him in the Revelation saying See thou doe it not for I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the Prophets and of them which keepe the sayings of this book worship God Revel 22.9 Wherefore it appertayneth to God only to be worshipped and this doe the Angels themselves know well that although they doe surpasse others in glory yet they are all but creatures and are in the number not of those that are to be adored but of them that adore the Lord. So we have heard S. Ambrose before reprehending those that doe adore their fellow servants And Epiphanius refuting the heresie of the Collyridians concludeth that neyther Elias nor Iohn nor Thecla nor any of the Saints is to be worshipped For that ancient error saith he shall not prevayle over us to forsake the living God and to worship the things that are made by him for they served and worshipped the creature above the Creator and became fooles For if hee will not have the Angels to be worshipped how much more would he not have her that was borne of Anna Let Mary then be had in honour but let the Lord be worshipped Lastly S. Augustin to omit all others in the book which he wrote of true religion delivereth this for one of the maine grounds thereof that the worshipping of men that are dead should be no part of our religion because saith he if they did live piously they are not held to be such as would seeke that kinde of honour but would have him to be worshipped of us by whose enlightening they doe rejoyce that we are made partners of their merit They are to be honoured therefore for imitation not to be adored for religion The same doth he also there say of Angels that we doe honour them with love not with service neyther do we build temples unto them For it is not their desire that they should be so honoured by us because they know that we our selves if wee be good are the temples of the high God and therefore it is rightly written that a man was forbidden by an Angell that he should nor worship him but God alone under whom he was his fellow servant Revel 22.9 But what saith Cardinall Bellarmine now thinke you unto these testimonies of the Fathers I say saith he not knowing indeed what he saith nor wherof he affirmeth that they doe speake against the errours of the Gentiles who of wicked men did make true Gods and did offer sacrifices unto them wherein you may discerne the just hand of God confounding the mans witts that would thus abuse his learning to the upholding of Idolatry For had he been here his owne man and not been strangely overtaken with the spirit of slumber he could no possibly have fayled so fowly as to reckon the Angels the Saints the verie mother of God her self of whom these Fathers do expressely speake in the number of those wicked persons whom the Gentiles did
take for their Gods And here also out of Epiphanius we may further observe who were the masters or the mistresses rather for this was the womens heresie from whom our Romanists did first learne their Hyperdulîa or that transcendent kind of service wherewith they worship the Virgin Mary namely the Collyridians so called from the Collyrides or cakes which at a certaine time of the yeare they used to offer unto the blessed Virgin against whom Epiphanius doth thus oppose himselfe What Scripture hath delivered any thing concerning this Which of the Prophets have permitted a man to be worshipped that I may not say a woman For a choyse vessell she is indeed but yet a woman Let Mary be in honour but let the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost be worshipped let no man worship Mary This mysterie is appointed I doe not say for a woman nor yet for a man neyther but for God the Angels themselves are not capable of such kinde of glorifying Let none eate of this errour touching holy Mary for although the tree be beautifull yet is it not for meate and although Mary be most excellent and holy and to be honoured yet is she not to be worshipped The bodie of Mary was holy indeed but not God the Virgin indeed was a virgin and honourable but not given unto us for adoration but one that did her selfe worship him who was borne of her in the flesh and came from heaven out of the bosome of his Father Thus did this learned Father labour to cut the roots of this Idolatrous heresie when it first began to take hold of the feminine sexe animating all that were of masculine spirits to the extirpatiō therof in this maner Go to then ye servants of God let us put on a manlike mind and beat down the madnes of these women But when this disease afterwards had gotten a farther spredd and had once throughly seized upō men as wel as women it is a most wonderfull thing to consider into what extremitie this frenzie brake out after the time of Sathans loosing especially For then there wanted not such as would interprete that speech of the Angel unto the holy Virgin Haile full of grace the Lord is with thee of the equality of her Empire with her Sonnes as if it had beene said Even as he so thou also dost enjoy the same most excellent dignitie of ruling In the redundance and effusion of grace upon the creatures the Lords power and vvill is so accommodated unto thine that thou mayest seeme to be the first in that both diadem and tribunall The Lord is with thee not so much thou with the Lord as the Lord with thee in that function Then it was taught for good Divinitie that from the time wherein the Virgin mother did conceive in her wombe the Word of God she hath obtained such a kind of jurisdiction so to speake or authoritie in all the temporall procession of the holy Ghost that no creature hath obtained any grace or vertue from God but according to the dispensation of his holy mother that because she is the mother of the sonne of God who doth produce the holy Ghost therefore all the gifts vertues and graces of the holy Ghost are by her hands administred to whom she pleaseth when she pleaseth how she pleaseth and as much as she pleaseth That she hath singularly obtained of God this office from eternitie as her selfe doth testifie Proverb 8.23 I was ordained from everlasting namely a dispenser of celestiall graces and that in this respect Cantic 7.4 it is said of her Thy neck is as a tower of Yvorie because that as by the neck the vitall spirits do descend from the head into the bodie so by the Virgin the vitall graces are transmitted from Christ the head into his mysticall body the fulnesse of grace being in him as in the head from whence the influence cōmeth in her as in the necke through which it is transfused unto us so that take away the patronage of the Virgin you stop as i◠were the sinners breath that he is not able to live any lōger Then men stuck not to teach that unto her all power was given in heaven and in earth So that for heaven when our Saviour ascended thither this might be assigned for one reason among others why he left his mother behinde him least perhaps the court of Heaven might have beene in a doubt whom they should rather go to meet their Lord or their Lady for earth she may rightly apply unto her selfe that in the first of Ezra All the kingdomes of the earth hath the Lord given unto me and we may say unto her againe that in Tobi 14. Thy kingdome endureth for all ages and in the 144. or 145 Psalme Thy kingdome is a kingdome of all ages That howsoever she was the noblest person that was or ever should be in the world and of so great perfection that although she had not beene the mother of God she ought neverthelesse to have beene the Lady of the world yet according to the lawes whereby the world is governed by the right of inheritance she did deserve the principality and kingdome of this world That Christ never made any legacie of this Monarchy because that could not be done without the prejudice of his mother and he knew besides that the mother could make voyde the Testament of the sonne if it were made unto her prejudice And therefore that by all this it appeareth most evidently that Mary the mother of Iesus by right of inheritance hath the regall dominion over all that be under God That as many creatures doe serve the glorious Virgin Mary as serve the Trinitie namely all creatures whatsoever degree they hold among the things created whether they be spirituall as Angels or rationall as men or corporall as the Heavenly bodies or the Elements and all things that are in Heaven and in Earth whether they be the damned or the blessed all which being brought under the governement of God are subject likewise unto the glorious Virgin for asmuch as he who is the sonne of God and of the blessed Virgin being willing as it were to equall in some sort his Mothers soveraigntie unto the soveraignty of his Father even he who was God did serve his mother upon earth Whence Luke 2.51 it is written of the Virgin and glorious Ioseph He was subject unto them that as this proposition is true All things are subject to Gods command even the Virgin her selfe so this againe is true also All things are subject to the command of the Virgin even God himselfe that considering the blessed Virgin is the mother of God and God is her sonne and every sonne is naturally inferior to his mother and subject unto her and the mother hath preeminence and is superior to her sonne it therefore followeth that the
therefore given us because we will or by it God doth worke even this also that we doe will The worthy Doctor maintaineth that Grace goeth before and worketh the will unto good which he strongly proveth both by the word of God and by the continuall practise of the Church in her prayers and thanksgivings for the conversion of unbeleevers For if thou dost confesse saith he that we are to pray for them surely thou dost pray that they may consent to the doctrine of God with their will freed from the power of darknesse And thus it will come to passe that neither men shall be made to be beleevers but by their free-will and yet shall be made beleevers by his grace who hath freed their will from the power of darknesse Thus both Gods grace is not denied but is shewed to be true without any humane merits going before it and free-will is so defended that it is made solide with humilitie and not throwne downe headlong by being lifted up that he that rejoyceth may not rejoyce in man either any other or yet himselfe but in the Lord. and againe How doth God expect the wills of men that they should prevent him to whom he might give grace when we doe give him thanks not undeservedly in the behalfe of them whom not beleeving and persecuting his doctrine with an ungodly will he hath prevented with his mercy and with a most omnipotent facilitie converted them unto himselfe and made them willing of unwilling Why doe we give him thanks for this if he himselfe did not this Questionlesse we doe not pray to God but faine that we doe pray if we beleeve that not he but our selves be the doers of that which we pray for Questionlesse we doe not give thanks to God but faine that we give thanks if we doe not thinke that he doth the thing for which we give him thanks If deceitfull lips be found in any other speeches of men at leastwise let them not be found in prayers Farre be it from us that what we doe beseech God to doe with our mouthes and voices we should denie that he doth it in our hearts and which is more grievous to the deceiving of others also not conceale the same in our disputations and whilest we will needs defend free-will before men we should leese the helpe of prayer with God and not have true giving of thanks whilest we doe not acknowledge true grace If we will truly defende free-will let us not oppugne that by which it is made free For who so oppugneth grace whereby our will is made free to decline from evill and to doe good he will have his will to be still captive Thus doth S. Augustine deale with Vitalis to whom he saith I doe not beleeve indeed that thou art a Pelagian hereticke but so I would have thee to be that no part of that error may passe unto thee or be left in thee The doctrine of the Semi-pelagians in France is related by Prosper Aquitanicus and Hilarius Arelatensis in their severall epistles written to S. Augustine of this argument They doe agree saith Hilarius that all men were lost in Adam and that from thence no man by his proper will can be freed but this they say is agreeable to the truth or answerable to the preaching of the word that when the meanes of obtaining salvation is declared to such as are cast downe and would never rise againe by their owne strength they by that merit whereby they doe will and beleeve that they can be healed from their disease may obtaine both the increase of that faith and the effecting of their whole health And that grace is not denied when such a will as this is said to goe before it which seeketh only a Physitian but is not of it selfe otherwise able to doe any thing For as touching that place As he hath distributed to every one the measure of faith and other like testimonies they would have them make for this that he should be holpen that hath begun to will but not that this also should be given unto him that he might will Prosper in his Pöems doth thus deliver it Gratia quâ Christi populus sumus hoc cohibetur Limite vobiscum formam hanc asseribitis illi Ut cunctos vocet illa quidem invitetque nec ullum Praeteriens studeat communem adferre salutem Omnibus totum peccato absolvere mundum Sed proprio quemque arbitrio parere vocanti Iudicioque suo motâ se extendere mente Ad lucem oblatam quae se non subtrahat ulli Sed cupidos recti iuvet illustretque volentes Hinc adjutoris Domini bonitate magistrâ Crescere virtutum studia ut quod quisque petendum Mandatis didicit jugi sectetur amore Esse autem edoctis istam communiter aequam Libertatem animis ut cursum explere beatum Persistendo queant finem effectumque petitum Dante Deo ingenijs qui nunquam desit honestis Sed quia non idem est cunctis vigor variarum Illecebris rerum trahitur dispersa voluntas Sponte aliquos vitijs succumbere qui potuissent A lapsu re vocare pedem stabilesque manere Against these opinions S. Augustine wrote his two bookes of the Predestination of the Saints and of the gift of Perseverance in the former whereof he hath this memorable passage among divers others Many heare the word of truth but some doe beleeve others doe contradict Therefore these have a will to beleeve the others have not Who is ignorant of this who would denie it But seeing the will is to some prepared by the Lord to others not we are to discerne what doth proceed from his mercy and what from his iudgement That which Israël did seeke saith the Apostle he obtained not but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded Rom. 11.7 Behold mercy and judgement mercy in the election which hath obtained the righteousnesse of God but judgement upon the rest that were blinded and yet the one because they would did beleeve the others because they would not did not beleeve Mercy therefore and judgement were executed even upon the wills themselves Against the same opinions divers treatises were published by Prosper also who chargeth these men with nourishing the poyson of the Pelagian pravitie by their positions inasmuch as 1. the beginning of salvation is naughtily placed in man by them 2. the will of man is impiously preferred before the will of God as if therefore one should be holpen because he did will and did not therefore will because he was holpen 3. a man originally evill is naughtily beleeved to begin his receiving of good not from the highest good but from himselfe 4. it is thought that God may otherwise be pleased than out of that which he himselfe hath bestowed But he maintaineth constantly that both the beginning and ending of a mans conversion is wholly to be ascribed unto grace
adhere sâ— at this day in this cause how many O Lord doe now fight with Pelagius for Free-will against thy free grace and against Paul the spirituall Champion of grace For the whole world almost is gone after Pelagius into error Arise therefore O Lord judge thine owne cause and him that defendeth thee defend protect strengthen comfort To whose judgement I also now leave these Vaine defenders or as S. Augustine rightly censureth them deceivers and puffers up and presumptuous extollers of Free-will OF MERITS IN the last place we are told that the Fathers of the unspotted Church of Rome did â—each Thaâ— man for his meritorious workes receiveth through the assistance of Gods grace the blisse of everlasting happinesse But our Challenger I suppose will hardly finde one Father either of the spotted or unspotted Church of Rome that ever spake so babishly herein as he maketh them all to doe That man by the assistance of Gods grace may doe meritorious workes we have read in divers Authors and in divers meanings But after these workes done that a man should receive through the assistance of Gods grace the blisse of everlasting happinesse is such a peece of gibbrish as I doe not remember that before now I have ever met withall even in Babel it selfe For with them that understand what they speake assistance hath reference to the doing of the worke not to the receiving of the reward and simply to say that a man for his meritorious workes taking merit here as the Romanists in this question would have it taken receiveth through Gods grace the blisse of everlasting happinesse is to speake flat contrarieties and to conjoine those things that cannot possibly be coupled together For that conclusion of Bernard is most certaine There is no place for grace to enter where merit hath taken possession because it is grounded upon the Apostles determination Rom. 11.6 If it be of grace it is no more of workes or else were grace no more grace Neither doe we therefore take away the reward because we deny the merit of good workes Wee know that in the keeping of Gods Commandements there is great reward Psal. 19.11 and that unto him who soweth righteousnesse there shall be a sure reward Prov. 11.18 But the question is whence he that soweth in this manner must expect to reape so great and so sure a harvest Whether from Gods justice which he must doe if hee stand as the Iesuites would have him doe upon merit or from his mercie as a recompence freely bestowed out of Gods gracious bountie and not in justice due for the worth of the worke performed Which question we thinke the Prophet Hosea hath sufficiently resolved when he biddeth us sow to our selves in righteousnesse and reape in MERCIE Hose 10.12 Neither doe we hereby any whit detract from the truth of that axiome That God will give every man acccording to his works for still the question remaineth the very same whether God may not judge a man according to his workes when he sitteth upon the throne of grace as well as when he sitteth upon the throne of justice and wee thinke here that the Prophet David hath fully cleared the case in that one sentence Psal. 62.12 With thee O Lord is MERCY for thou rewardest every one according to his worke Originally therefore and in it selfe we hold that this reward proceedeth meerely from Gods free bountie and mercie but accidentally in regard that God hath tied himselfe by his word and promise to conferre such a reward we grant that it now proveth in a sort to be an act of justice even as in forgiving of our sins which in it selfe all men know to be an act of mercie he is said to be faithfull and just 1 Ioh. 1.9 namely in regard of the faithfull performance of his promise For promise we see amongst honest men is counted a due debt but the thing promised being free and on our part altogether undeserved if the promiser did not performe and proved not to be so good as his word he could not properly be said to doe me wrong but rather to wrong himself by impairing his own credit And therfore Aquinas himselfe confesseth that God is not hereby simply made a debter to us but to himselfe in as much as it is requisite that his owne ordinance should be fulfilled Thus was Moses carefull to put the children of Israel in minde touching the Land of Canaan which was a type of our eternall habitation in Heaven that it was a Land of promise and not of merit which God did give them to possesse not for their righteousnesse or for their upright bea rt but that he might performe the word which he sware unto their Fathers Abraham Izhak and Iacob Deut. 9.5 Whereupon the Levites say in their praier unto God Nehem. 9.8 Thou madest a covenant with Abraham to give unto his seed the Land of the Canaanites and hast performed thy word because thou art IUST Now because the Lord had made a like promise of the Crowne of life to them that love him Iam. 1.12 therefore S. Paul doth not sticke in like manner to attribute this also to Gods justice Henceforth saith he 2 Tim. 4.8 is laid up for me the crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing Upon which place Bernard in his booke of Grace and Free-will saith most sweetly That therefore which Paul expecteth is a crowne of righteousnesse but of Gods righteousnesse not his owne For it is just that he should give what he oweth and he oweth what he hath promised and this is the rightâ—â—usnesse of God of which the Apostle presumeth the promise of God But this will not content our Iesuites unlesse wee yeeld unto them that wee doe as properly and truly merit rewards when with the grace of God we doe well as we doe merit punishments when without grace we do evill So saith Maldonat that is to say unlesse we maintaine that the good workes of just persons doe merit eternall life condignely not only by reason of Gods covenant and acceptation but also by reason of the worke it selfe so that in a good worke proceeding from grace there may be a certaine proportion and equalitie unto the reward of eternall life So saith Cardinall Bellarmine For the further opening whereof Vasquez taketh upon him to prove in order these three distinct Propositions First that the good workes of just persons are of themselves without any covenant and acceptation worthy of the reward of eternall life and have an equall value of condignitie to the obtaining of eternall glorie Secondly That no accession of dignitie doth come to the workes of the just by the merits or person of Christ which the same should not have otherwise if they had beene done by the same grace bestowed liberally by God alone without
462.463 edit Colon. An. 1589. in the Romane Sacerdotall part 1. tract 5. cap. 13. fol. 116. edit Venet. An. 1585. in the booke intituled Sacra institutio Baptizandi juxta ritum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae ex decreto Concilij Tridentini restituta c. printed at Paris in the yeere 1575. and in a like booke intituled Ordo Baptizandi cum Modo visitandi printed at Venice the same yeere out of which the Spanish Inquisitors as well in their New as in their Old Expurgatory Index the one set out by Cardinall Quiroga in the yeere 1584. the other by the Cardinall of Sandoval and Roxas in the yeere 1612. command these interrogatories to be blotted out Dost thou beleeve to come to glory not by thine owne merits but by the vertue and merit of the passion of our Lord Iesus Christ and Dost thou beleeve that our Lord Iesus Christ did die for our salvation and that none can be saved by his owne merits or by any other meanes but by the merit of his passion Whereby we may observe how late it is since our Romanists in this maine and most substantiall point which is the very foundation of all our comfort have most shamefully departed from the faith of their fore-fathers In other copies of this same Instruction which are followed by Cassander Vlenbergius and Cardinall Hosius himselfe the last question propounded to the sicke man is this Dost thou beleeve that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ Whereunto when he hath made answer affirmatively he is presently directed to make use thereof in this manner Goe too therefore as long as thy soule remaineth in thee place thy whole confidence in this death only have confidence in no other thing commit thy selfe wholly to this death with this alone cover thy selfe wholly intermingle thy selfe wholly in this death fasten thy selfe wholly wrap thy whole selfe in this death And if the Lord God will judge thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt mee and thy judgement no otherwise doe I contend with thee And if he say unto thee that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of the Lord Iesus Christ betwixt thee and my sinnes If he say unto thee that thou hast deserved damnation say Lord I set the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and my bad merits and I offer his merit in stead of the merit which I ought to have but yet have not If he say that he is angrie with thee say Lord I interpose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and thine anger Adde hereunto the following sentences of the Doctors of these latter ages We cannot suffer or bring in any thing worthy of the reward that shall be saith Oecumenius So Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bathe No trouble can be endured in this vitall death which is able equally to answer the joyes of heaven and Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury more fully before him If a man should serve God a thousand yeeres and that most fervently he should not deserve of condignitie to be halfe a day in the Kingdome of heaven Radulphus Ardens expounding those words of the Parable Matth. 20.13 Didst not thou agree with me for a peny Let no man out of these words saith he thinke that God is as it were tied by agreement to pay that which he hath promised For as God is free to promise so is he free to pay especially seeing as well merits as rewards are his grace For God doth crowne nothing else in us but his owne grace who if hee would deale strictly with us no man living should be justified in his sight Whereupon the Apostle who laboured more than all saith I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore this agreement is nothing else but Gods voluntary promise And doe not wonder saith he in another Sermon if I call the merits of the just graces for as the Apostle witnesseth we have nothing which we have not received from God and that freely But because by one grace we come unto another they are called merits but improperly For as Augustine witnesseth God crowneth only his owne grace in us So Rupertus Tuitiensis The greatnesse or the eternitie of the heavenly glorie is not a matter of merit but of grace The same doth Bernardus Morlanensis expresse in these rhythmicall verses of his Vrbs Sion inclyta patria condita littore tuto Te peto te colo te flagro te volo canto saluto Nec meritis peto nam meritis meto morte perire Nec reticens tego quòd meritis ego filius irae Vita quidem mea vita nimis rea mortua vita Quippe reatibus exitialibus obruta trita Spe tamen ambulo praemia postulo speque fideque Illa perennia postulo praemia nocte dieque But Bernard of Claraevalle aboue others delivereth this doctrine most sweetly It is necessary saith hee that first of all thou shouldest beleeve that thou canst not have remission of sinnes but by the mercie of God then that thou canst not at all have any whit of a good worke unlesse he likewise give it thee lastly that by no workes thou canst merit eternall life unlesse that also be freely given unto thee Otherwise if wee will properly name those which wee call our merits they be certaine seminaries of hope incitements of love signes of secret predestination foretokens of future happinesse the way to the kingdome not the cause of reigning Dangerous is the dwelling of them that trust in their merits dangerous because ruinous For this is the whole merit of man if hee put all his trust in him who saveth the whole man Therefore my merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as he is not poore in mercie and if the mercies of the Lord be many my merits also are many With which that passage of the Manuall falsly fathered upon S. Augustine doth accord so justly that the one appeareth to be plainly borrowed from the other All my hope is in the death of my Lord. His death is my merit my refuge my salvation life and resurrection My merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as that Lord of mercies shall not faile and as long as his mercies are much much am I in merits Neither are the testimonies of the Schoolemen wanting in this cause For where God is affirmed to give the kingdome of heaven for good merits or good works some made here a difference betwixt pro bonis meritis and propter bona merita The former they said did note a signe or a way or some occasion and in that sense they admitted the proposition But according to the latter expression they would not receive it because
yee forgive anie thing I forgive also for if I forgave anie thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ. For as in the name and by the power of our Lord Iesus such a one was delivered to Satan so God having given unto him repentance to recover himselfe out of the snare of the Divell in the same name and in the same power was hee to be restored againe the ministers of reconciliation standing in Christs stead and Christ himselfe being in the mids of them that are thus gathered together in his name to binde or loose in heaven whatsoever they according to his commission shall binde or loose on earth And here it is to be noted that Anastasius by some called Nicaenus by others Sinaita and Antiochenus who is so eager against them which say that Confession made unto men profiteth nothing at all confesseth yet that the minister in hearing the confession and instructing and correcting the sinner doth but give furtherance onely thereby unto his repentance but that the pardoning of the sinne is the proper worke of God For man saith he cooperateth with man unto repentance and ministreth and buildeth and instructeth and reproveth in things belonging unto salvation according to the Apostle and the Prophet but God blotteth out the sinnes of those that have confessed saying I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities for mine owne sake and thy sinnes and will not remember them There followeth now another part of the ministery of reconciliation consisting in the due administration of the Sacraments which being the proper seales of the promises of the Gospell as the Censures are of the threats must therefore necessarily also have reference to the remission of sinnes And so we see the ancient Fathers doe hold that the commission Ioh. 20.23 Whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted unto them c. is executed by the ministers of Christ aswell in the conferring of Baptisme as in the reconciling of Penitents yet so in both these and in all the sacraments likewise of both the Testaments that the ministerie onely is to be accounted mans but the power Gods For as S. Augustin well observeth it is one thing to baptize by way of ministerie another thing to baptize by vvay of power the power of baptizing the Lord retayneth to himselfe the ministerie hee hath given to his servants the power of the Lords Baptisme was to passe from the Lord to no man but the ministery was the power was to be transferred from the Lord unto none of his ministers the ministery was both unto the good and unto the bad And the reason which hee assigneth hereof is verie good that the hope of the baptized might be in him by whom they did acknowledge themselves to have beene baptized The Lord therefore would not have a servant to put his hope in a servant And therefore those Schoolemen argued not much amisse that gathered this conclusion thence It is a matter of equall power to baptize inwardly and to absolve from mortall sinne But it vvas not fit that God should communicate the power of baptizing inwardly unto any lest our hope should be reposed in man Therefore by the same reason it was not fit that hee should communicate the power of absolving from actuall sinne unto any So Bernard or whosoever was the author of the booke intituled Scala Paradisi The office of baptizing the Lord granted unto many but the power and authoritie of remitting sinnes in baptisme he retayned unto himselfe alone whence Iohn by vvay of singularitie and differencing said of him He it is which baptizeth with the holy Ghost And the Baptist indeed doth make a singular difference betwixt the conferrer of the externall and the internall baptisme in saying I baptize with water but it is hee which baptizeth with the holy Ghost While Iohn did his service God did give who fayleth not in giving and now when all others doe their service the service is mans but the gift is Gods saith Optatus and Arnaldus Bonaevallensis the author of the twelve treatises de Cardinalibus operibus Christi falsely ascribed to S. Cyprian touching the Sacraments in generall Forgivenesse of sinnes whether it be given by Baptisme or by other sacraments is properly of the holy Ghost and the priviledge of effecting this remayneth to him alone But the word of reconciliation is it wherein the Apostle doth especially place that ministerie of reconciliation which the Lord hath committed to his Ambassadors here upon earth This is that key of knowledge which doth both open the conscience to the confession of sinne and include therein the grace of the healthfull mysterie unto eternitie as Maximus Taurinensis speaketh of it This is that powerfull meanes which God hath sanctified for the washing away of the pollution of our soules Now ye are cleane saith our Saviour to his Apostles through the word which I have spoken unto you And whereas everie transgressor is holden with the cords of his owne sinnes the Apostles according to the commission given unto them by their Master that whatsoever they should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven did loose those cords by the word of God and the testimonies of the Scriptures and exhortation unto vertues as saith S. Hierome Thus likewise doth S. Ambrose note that sinnes are remitted by the word of God whereof the Levite was an interpreter and a kinde of an executer in that respect concludeth that the Levite was a minister of this remission As the Iewish Scribes therefore by taking away the key of knowledge did shut up the kingdom of heaven against men so every Scribe which is instructed unto the kingdome of heaven by opening unto his hearers the doore of faith doth as it were unlock that kingdome unto them being the instrument of God herein to open mens eyes and to turne them from darkenesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ. And here are we to understand that the ministers of Christ by applying the word of God unto the consciences of men both in publick and in private doe discharge that part of their function which concerneth forgivenesse of sinnes partly operatively partly declaratively Operatively inasmuch as God is pleased to use their preaching of the Gospell as a meanes of conferring his spirit upon the sonnes of men of begetting them in Christ and of working faith and repentance in them whereby the remission of sinnes is obtayned Thus Iohn preaching the Baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes and teaching the people that they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus is said to turne manie of the children of Israel to the