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
most forcible of all the rest those wherewith the simpler sort are coÌ„monly most deluded might carry some shew of proofe that Christs flesh blood should be turned into bread wine but have no maner of colour to prove that bread and wine are turned into the flesh and blood of Christ. The truth of the second appeareth by the fourâ—h verse in which we finde that this fell out not long before the Passeover and consequently a yeare at least before that last Passeover wherein our Saviour instituted the Sacrament of his Supper Wee willingly indeed do acknowledge that that which is inwardly presented in the Lords Supper and spiritually received by the soule of the faithfull is that verie thing which is treated of in the sixth of Iohn but wee denie that it was our Saviours intention in this place to speake of that which is externally delivered in the Sacrament and orally received by the Communicant And for our warrant herein wee need looke no further then to that earnest asseveration of our Saviour in the 53. verse Verily verily I say unto you Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood ye have no life in you Wherin there is not onely an obligation laid upon them for doing of this which in no likelyhood could be intended of the externall eating of the Sacrament that was not as yet in being but also an absolute necessitie imposed non praecepti solùm ratione sed etiaÌ„ medij Now to hold that all they are excluded from life which have not had the meanes to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is as untrue as it is uncharitable And therefore manie of the Papists themselves as Biel Cusanus Cajelan Tapper Hessels Iansenius and others confesse that our Saviour in the sixth of Iohn did not properly treat of the Sacrament The third of the points proposed may be collected out of the first part of Christs speech in the 35. and 36. verses I am the bread of life hee that commeth to mee shall never hunger and he that beleeveth on me shall never thirst But I said unto you that yee also have seene me and beleeve not But especially out of the last from the 61. verse forward When Iesus knew in himselfe that his Disciples murmured at it hee said unto them Doeth this offend you What then if you should see the Sonne of man ascend up where hee was before It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speake unto you are spirit and life But there are some of you that beleeve not Which words Athanasius or whosoever was the author of the Tractate upon that place Quicunque dixerit verbum in filium homiâ—is noteth our Saviour to have used that his hearers might learne that those things which hee spake were not carnall but spirituall For how many could his bodie have sufficed for meat that it should be made the food of the whole world But therefore it was that he made mention of the Sonne of mans ascension into heaven that he might draw them from this corporall conceit and that hereafter they might learne that the flesh which he spake of was celestiall meat from above and spirituall nourishment to be given by him For the words which I have spoken unto you saith he are spirit and life So likewise Tertullian Although he saith that the flesh profiteth nothing the meaning of the speech must be directed according to the intent of the matter in hand For because they thought it to be a hard and an intolerable speech as if he had determined that his flesh should be truly eaten by them that hee might dispose the state of salvation by the spirit hee premised It is the spirit that quÃckneth and so subjoyned The flesh profiteth nothing namely to quicken c. And because the Word was made flesh it therefore was to be desired for causing of life and to be devoured by hearing and to be chewed by understanding and to be digested by faith For a little before he had also affirmed that his flesh was heavenly bread urging still by the Allegory of necessary food the remembrance of the fathers who preferred the bread and the flesh of the Egyptians before Gods calling Adde hereunto the sentence of Origen There is in the New Testament also a letter which killeth him that doth not spiritually conceive the things that be spoken For if according to the letter you do follow this same which is said Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood this letter killeth And those sayings which everie where occurre in S. Augustines Tractates upon Iohn How shall I send up my hand unto heaven to take hold on Christ sitting there Send thy faith and thou hast hold of him Why preparest thou thy teeth and thy belly Beleâ—ve and thou hast eaten For this is to eate the living bread to beleeve in him He that beleeveth in him eateth He is invisibly fedd because he is invisibly regenerated He is inwardly a bâ—be inwardly renewed where he is renewed there is he nourished The fourth proposition doth necessarily follow upon the third For if the eating and drinking here spoken of be not an externall eating and drinking but an inward participation of Christ by the communion of his quickning spirit it is evident that this blessing is to be found in the soule not onely in the use of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but at other times also It is no wayes to be doubted by anie one saith S. Augustine that every one of the faithfull is made partaker of the body and bloud of our Lord when he is made a member of Christ in Baptisme and that hee is not estranged from the communion of that bread and cup although before he eate that bread and drinke that cup hee depart out of this world being setled in the unitie of the body of Christ. For he is not deprived of the participation and the benefite of that Sacrament when hee hath found that which this Sacrament doth signifie And hereupon wee see that diverse of the Fathers doe apply the sixth of Iohn to the hearing of the Word also as Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Eusebius Caesareensis and others We are said to drinke the blood of Christ saith Origen not onely by way of the Sacraments but also when we receive his word wherein consisteth life even as hee himselfe saith· The words which I have spoken are spirit and life Vpon which words of Christ Eusebius paraphraseth after this maner Doe not thinke that I speake of that flesh wherewith I am compassed as if you must eate of that neither imagine that I command you to drinke my sensible and bodily blood but understand well that the vvords which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life So that those very words and speeches of his are his flesh and blood whereof who
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
who succeeded him in his Bishopricke saith that the bread and wine sanctifieth them that feed upon that matter acknowledging thereby that the materiall part of those outward elements do still remaine In the Church saith Macarius is offered bread wine the type of his flesh and blood and they which are partakers of the visible bread doe spiritually eate the flesh of the Lord. Christ saith S. Hierome did not offer water but wine for the type of his blood S. Augustine bringeth in our Saviour thus speaking of this matter You shall not eate this bodie which you see nor drinke that blood which they shall shed that will crucifie mee I have commended a certaine Sacrament unto you that being spiritually understood vvill quicken you The same Father in another place writeth that Christ admitted Iudas to that banquet wherein he commended and delivered unto his Disciples the figure of his body and blood but as he elsewhere addeth they did eate that bread which was the Lord himselfe hee the bread of the Lord against the Lord. Lastly the Lord saith he did not doubt to say This is my body when he gave the signe of his body So the Author of the Homily upon the 22. Psalme among the workes of Chrysostome This table hee hath prepared for his servants and hand-maydes in their sight that he might every day for a similitude of the body and blood of Christ shew unto us in a sacrament bread and wine after the order of Melchisedec And S. Chrysostome himselfe in his Epistle written to Caesarius against the heresie of Apolinarius As before the bread be sanctified we call it bread but when Gods grace hath sanctified it by the meanes of the Priest it is delivered from the name of bread and is reputed worthy the name of the Lords body although the nature of the bread remain still in it and it is not called two bodies but one body of Gods sonne so likewise here the divine nature residing in the body of Christ these two make one sonne and one person In the selfe same maner also doe Theodoret Gelasius and Ephraemius proceed against the Eutychian heretickes Theodoret for his part layeth downe these grounds That our Saviour in the deliverie of the mysteries called bread his body and that which was mixt in the cupp his blood That hee changed the names and gave to the body the name of the symbol or signe and to the symbol the name of the body That hee honoured the visible symboles with the name of his bodie and blood not changing the nature but adding grace to nature And that this most holy food is a symbol type of those things whose names it beareth to wit of the body and blood of Christ. Gelasius writeth thus The sacraments which we receive of the body and blood of Christ are a divine thing by meanes whereof wee are made partakers of the divine nature and yet the substance or nature of bread and wine doth not cease to be And indeed the image and the similitude of the bodie and blood of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries It appeareth therefore evidently enough unto us that wee are to hold the same opinion of the Lord Christ himselfe which we professe celebrate and are in his Image that as those Sacraments by the operation of the holy Spirit passe into this that is into the divine substance and yet remaine in the propriety of their owne nature so that principall mysterie it selfe whose force and vertue they truely represent should be conceived to be namely to consist of two natures divine and humane the one not abolishing the truth of the other Lastly Ephraemius the Patriarch of Antioch having spoken of the distinction of these two natures in Christ and said that no man having understanding could say that there was the same nature of that which could be handled and of that which could not be handled of that which was visible and of that which was invisible addeth And even thus the body of Christ which is received by the faithfull the Sacrament he meaneth doth neither depart from his sensible substance and yet remayneth undivided from intelligible grace and Baptisme being wholly made spirituall and remayning one doth both retaine the propertie of his sensible substance of water I meane and yet looseth not that which it is made Thus have wee produced evidences of all sorts for confirmation of the doctrine by us professed touching the blessed Sacrament which cannot but give sufficient satisfaction to all that with anie indifferencie will take the matter into their consideration But the men with whom wee have to deale are so farre fallen out with the truth that neither sense nor reason neither authoritie of Scriptures or of Fathers can perswade them to be friends againe with it unlesse we shew unto them in what Popes dayes the contrarie falshood was first devised If nothing else will give them content we must put them in minde that about the time wherein Soter was Bishop of Rome there lived a cousening companion called Marcus whose qualities are thus set out by an ancient Christian who was famous in those dayes though now his name be unknowne unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where first hee chargeth him to have beene an Idolmakeâ— then hee objecteth unto him his skill in Astrologie and Magicke by meanes whereof and by the assistance of Satan hee laboured with a shewe of miracles to winne credite unto his false doctrines amongst his seduced disciples and lastly hee concludeth that his father the Divel had imployed him as a forerunner of his antithean craft or his antichristian deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse if you will have it in the Apostles language For he was indeed the Divels forerunner both for the idolatries and sorceries which afterward were brought into the East and for those Romish fornications and inchantments wherewith the whole West was corrupted by that man of sinne whose comming was foretold to be after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders And that we may keep our selves within the compasse of that particular which now wee have in hand wee finde in Irenaeus that this Arch-heretick made speciall use of his juggling feates to breed a perswasion in the mindes of those whom hee had perverted that in the cup of his pretended Eucharist he really delivered them blood to drinke For fayning himselfe to consecrate the cups filled with wine and extending the words of Invocation to a great length he made them to appeare of a purple and redd colour to the end it might be thought that the Grace which is above all things did distill the blood thereof into that cup by his Invoâ—ation And
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 correspondent types or figures before they were consecrated but after the consecration saith hee they are called and are and beleeved to be the body and blood of Christ properly where the Popes owne followers who of late published the Acts of the generall Councells at Rome were so farre ashamed of the ignorance of this blind Bayard that they correct his boldnesse with this marginall note The holy gifts are oftentimes found to be called antitypes or figures correspondent after they be consecrated as by Gregory Nazianz. in the funerall Oration upon his sister and in his Apologie by Cyrill of Ierusalem in his fifth Cateches Mystagogic and by others And wee have alreadie heard how the author of the Dialogues against the Marcionites and after him Eusebius and Gelasius expressely call the Sacrament an image of Christs bodie howsoever this peremptorie Clerke denieth that ever anie did so By all which it may easily appeare that not the oppugners but the defenders of Images were the men who first went about herein to alter the language used by their fore-fathers Now as in the daies of Gregory the third this matter was set afoot by Damascen in the East so about a hundred yeares after in the Papacie of Gregory the fourth the same began to be propounded in the West by meanes of one Amalarius who was Bishop not as hee is commonly taken to be of Triers but of Mets first and afterwards of Lyons This man writing doubtfully of this point otherwhiles followeth the doctrine of S. Augustine that Sacraments were oftentimes called by the names of the things themselves and so the Sacrament of Christs bodie was secundùm quendam modum after a certaine maner the bodie of Christ otherwhiles maketh it a part of his beleefe that the simple nature of the bread and wine mixed is turned into a reasonable nature to wit of the body and blood of Christ. But what should become of this bodie after the eating therof was a matter that went beyond his little witt and therefore said he when the bodie of Christ is taken with a good intention it is not for me to dispute whether it be invisibly taken up into heaven or kept in our body untill the day of our buriall or exhaled into the ayre or whether it go out of the body with the blood at the opening of a veyne or be sent out by the mouth our Lord saying that every thing which entreth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is sent forth into the draught For this and another like foolerie de triformi tripartito corpore Christi of the three parts or kindes of Christs body which seeme to be those ineptiae de tripartito Christi corpore that Paschasius in the end of his Epistle intreateth Frudegardus not to follow he was censured in a Synod held at Carisiacum wherein it was declared by the Bishops of France that the bread and wine are spiritually made the body of Christ which being a meat of the mind and not of the belly is not corrupted but remayneth unto everlasting life These dotages of Amalarius did not only give occasion to that question propounded by Heribaldus to Rabanus wherof we have spoken heretofore but also to that other of far greater consequence Whether that which was externally delivered received in the sacrament were the verie same body which was borne of the Virgin Mary suffered upon the Crâ—sse rose again from the Grave Paschasius Radbertus a Deacon of those times but somewhat of a better and more modest temper then the Greek Deacon shewed himselfe to be of held that it was the veâ—ie same and to that purpose wrote his book to Placidus of the Body Blood of our Lord wherein saith a Iesuite he was the first that did so explicate the true sense of the Cà tholick Church his owne Romane he meaneth that he opened the way to those manie others who wrote afterwards of the same argument Rabanus on the other side in a writing directed to Abbot Egilo maintayned the contrarie doctrine as hath before beene noted Then one Frudegardus reading the third book of S. Augustin de doctrinâ Christianâ and finding there that the eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of Christ was a figurative maner of speech began somewhat to doubt of the truth of that which formerly he had read in that foresaid Treatise of Paschasius which moved Paschasius to write againe of the same argument as of a question wherein he confesseth many were then doubtfull But neither by his first nor by his second writing was hee able to take these doubts out of mens mindes and therefore Carolus Calvus the Emperour being desirous to compose these differences and to have unitie setled among his subjects required Ratrannus a learned man of that time who lived in the Monasterie of Corbey whereof Paschasius was Abbat to deliver his judgement touching these points Whether the body and blood of Christ which in the Church is received by the mouth of the faithfull be celebrated in a mysterie or in the truth and whether it be the same body which was born of Mary which did suffer was dead and buried which rising againe and ascending into heaven sitteth at the right hand of the Father Whereunto he returneth this answer that the bread and the wine are the body and blood of Christ figuratively that for the substance of the creatures that which they were before consecration the same are they also afterward that they are called the Lords bodie and the Lords blood because they take the name of that thing of which they are a sacrament that there is a great difference betwixt the mysterie of the blood and body of Christ which is taken now by the faithfull in the Church and that which was borne of the Virgin Mary which suffered which was buried which rose again which sitteth at the right hand of the Father All which hee proveth at large both by testimonies of the holy Scriptures and by the sayings of the ancient Fathers Wherupon Turrian the Iesuite is driven for pure need to shift off the matter with this silly interrogation To cite Bertram so Ratrannus is more usually named what is it else but to say that the heresie of Calvin is not new As if these things were alledged by us for anie other end then to shew that this way which they call heresie is not new but hath been troden in long since by such as in their times were accounted good and Catholick teachers in the Church That since they have been esteemed otherwise is an argument of the alteration of the times and of the conversion of the state of things which is the matter that now we are inquiring of and which our Adversaries in an evill houre to them doe so earnestly presse us to discover The Emperour Charles unto whom this
answer of Ratrannus was directed had then in his Court a famous countrey-man of ours called Iohannes Scotus who wrote a booke of the same argument and to the same effect that the other had done This man for his extraordinarie learning was in England where hee lived in great account with King Alfred surnamed Iohn the wise and had verie lately a roome in the Martyrologe of the Church of Rome though now he be ejected thence Wee finde him indeed censured by the Church of Lyons and others in that time for certaine opinions which he delivered touching Gods foreknowledge and predestination before the beginning of the world Mans freewill and the concurrence thereof with Grace in this present world and the maner of the punishment of reprobate Men Angels in the world to come but we finde not anie where that his book of the Sacrament was condemned before the dayes of x Lanfranc who was the first that leavened that Church of England afterward with this corrupt doctrine of the carnall presence Till then this question of the reall presence continued still in debate and it was as free for anie man to follow the doctrine of Ratrannus or Iohannes Scotus therein as that of Paschasius Radbertus which since the time of Satans loosing obtayned the upper hand Men have often searched and doe yet often search how bread that is gathered of corne and through fires heate baked may be turned to Christs bodie or how wine that is pressed out of manie grapes is turned through one blessing to the Lords blood saith Aelfrick Abbat of Malmesburie in his Saxon Homily written about 650. yeares agoe His resolution is not onely the same with that of Ratrannus but also in manie places directly translated out of him as may appeare by these passages following compared with his Latin layd downe in the margent The bread and the wine which by the Priests ministery is hallowed shew one thing without to mens senses and another thing they call within to beleeving mindes Without they be seene bread wine both in figure and in taste and they be truely after their hallowing Christs body and his blood by spirituall mysterie So the holy font water that is called the well-spring of life is like in shape to other waters and is subject to corruption but the holy Ghosts might commeth to the corruptible water through the Priests blessing and it may after wash the body and soule from all sinne by spirituall vertue Behold now we see two things in this one creature in true nature that water is corruptible moisture and in spirituall mysterie hath healing vertue So also if we behold that holy housel after bodily sense then see wee that it is a creature corruptible and mutable If we acknowledge therein spirituall vertue then understand we that life is therein and that it giveth immortalitie to them that eate it with beleefe Much is betwixt the bodie Christ suffered in and the body that is hallowed to housel The body truely that Christ suffered in was borne of the flesh of Mary with blood and with bone with skin and with sinewes in humane limbs with a reasonable soule living and his spirituall body which we call the housel is gathered of many cornes without blood and bone without lim without soule and therefore nothing is to be understood therein bodily but spiriâ—ually Whatsoever is in that housel which giveth substance of life that is spirituall vertue and invisible doing Certainly Christs body which suffered death and rose from death shall never dye henceforth but is eternall and unpassible That housel is temporall not eternall corruptible dealed into sundry parts chewed betweene teeth and sent into the belly This mysterie is a pledge and a figure Christs bodie is truth it selfe This pledge wee doe keepe mystically untill that we be come to the truth it selfe and then is this pledge ended Christ hallowed bread and wine to housel before his suffering and said This is my body my blood Yet he had not then suffered but so notwithstanding hee turned through invisible vertue the bread to his owne body and that wine to his blood as he before did in the wildernesse before that he was borne to men when he turned that heavenly meate to his flesh and the flowing water from that stone to his owne blood Moses and Aaron and manie other of that people which pleased God did eate that heavenly bread and they died not the everlasting death though they dyed the common They saw that the heavenly meate was visible and corruptible and they spiritually understood by that visible thing and spiritually received it This Homily was appointed publikely to be read to the people in England on Easter day before they did receive the communion The like matter also was delivered to the Clergie by the Bishops at their Synods out of two other writings of the same Aelfrick in the one wherof directed to Wulfsine Bishop of Shyrburne we reade thus That housel is Christs bodie not bodily but spiritually Not the body which he suffered in but the bodie of which he spake when he blessed bread and wine to housel the night before his suffering and said by the blessed bread This is my body and againe by the holy wine This is my blood which is shed for many in forgivenesse of sinnes In the other written to Wulfstane Archbishop of Yorke thus The Lord which hallowed housel before his suffering and saith that the bread was his owne bodie and that the wine vvas truely his blood halloweth daily by the hands of the Priest bread to his body and wine to his blood in spirituall mysterie as wee reade in bookes And yet notwithstanding that lively bread is not bodily so nor the selfe same body that Christ suffered in nor that holy vvine is the Saviours blood which was shed for us in bodily thing but in spirituall understanding Both be truely that bread his body and that wine also his blood as was the heavenly bread which vve call Manna that fedde fortie yeares Gods people and the cleare water which did then runne from the stone in the vvildernesse vvas truely his blood as Paul wrote in one of his Epistles Thus was Priest and people taught to beleeve in the Church of England toward the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh age after the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ. And therefore it is not to be wondered that when Berengarius shortly after stood to maintaine this doctrine manie both by word and writing disputed for him and not onely the English but also all the French almost the Italians as Matthew of Westminster reporteth were so readie to entertaine that which hee delivered Who though they were so borne downe by the power of the Pope who now was growne to his height that they durst not make open profession of that which they beleeved yet manie continued even
labouâ—ed in vaine 1. Thessal 2.19 For what is our hope or joy or crowne of rejoycing are not even yee in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his comming 1. Pet. 1. â— Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation readie to be revealed in the last time 1. Corinth 5.5 That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Iâ—sus Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed unto the day of redemption Luk. 21.28 When these things beginne to come to passe then looke up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh 2. Timoth. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righâ—eousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and Luk. 14.14 Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just And that the Church in her Offices for the dead had speciall respect unto this time of the Resurrection appeareth plainly both by the portions of Scripture appointed to be read therein and by diverse particulars in the prayers themselves that manifestly discover this intention For there the ministers as the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy reporteth read those undoubted promises vvhich are recorded in the divine Scriptures of our holy ResurrectioÌ„ and then devoutly sang such of the sacred Psalmes as were of the same subject and argument And so accordingly in the Romane Missall the lessons ordained to be read for that time are taken from 1. Corinth 15. Behold I tell you a mysterie Wee shall all rise againe c. Ioh. 5. The houre commeth wherein all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life c. 1. Thessal 4. Brethren we would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleepe that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope Ioh. 11. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me although he were dead shall live 2. Maccab. 12. Iudas caused a sacrifice to be offered for the sinnes of the dead justly and religiously thinking of the Resurrection Ioh. 6. This is the will of my Father that sent me that every one that seeth the Sonne and beleeveth in him may have life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and lastly Apocal. 14. I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth now saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours for their workes follow them Wherewith the Sequence also doth agree beginning Dies irae dies illa Solvet saeclum in favillâ Teste David cum Sibyllâ and ending Lacrymosa dies illa Quâ resurget ex favillâ Iudicandus homo reus Huic ergo parce Deus Pie Iesu Domine Dona eis requiem Tertullian in his booke de Monogamiâ which hee wrote after hee had beene infected with the heresie of the Montanists speaking of the prayer of a widow for the soule of her deceased husband saith that she requesteth refreshing for him and a portion in the first resurrection Which seemeth to have some tang of the error of the Millenaries whereunto not Tertullian onely with his Prophet Montanus but Nepos also and Lactantius and diverse other Doctors of the Church did fall who misunderstanding the prophecie in the 20. of the Revelation imagined that there should be a first resurrection of the just that should raigne here a thousand yeares upon earth and after that a second resurrection of the wicked at the day of the general judgement Yet in a certaine Gotthicke Missall I meet with two severall exhortations made unto the people to pray after the selfe same forme the one that God would vouchsafe to place in the bosome of Abraham the soules of those that be at rest and admit them unto the part of the first resurrectioÌ„ the other which I find elsewhere also repeated in particular that he would place in rest the spirits of their friends which were gone before them in the Lords peace and rayse them up in the part of the first resurrection Which how it may be excused otherwise then by saying that at the generall resurrection the dead in Christ shall rise fiâ—st and then the wicked shall be raysed after them and by referring the first resurrection unto the resurrection of the just which shall be at that day I cannot well resolve For certaine it is that the first râ—surrection spoken of in the 20. chapter of the Revelation of S. Iohn is the resuâ—rection of the soule from the death of sinne and error in this world as the second is the resurrection of the bodie out of the dust of the earth in the world to come both whiâ—h be distinctly layd down by our Saviour in the fift chapter of the Gospell of S. Iohn the first in the 25. verse The houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live the second in the 28. and 29. Marveile not at this for the houre is comming in which all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation And to this generall resurrection and to the judgement of the last day had the Church relation in her prayers some patternes whereof it will not be amisse to exhibit here in these examples following Although the condition of death brought in upon mankinde doth make our hearts and mindes heavy yet by the gift of thy clemencie we are raised up with the hope of future immortalitie and being mindfull of eternall salvation are not afraid to sustaine the losse of this light For by the benefite of thy grace life is not taken away to the faithful but changed and the soules being freed from the prison of the body abhorre things mortall when they attaine unto things eternall Wherefore we beseech thee that thy servant N. being placed in the tabernacles of the blessed may rejoyce that he hath escaped the straytes of the flesh and in the desire of glorification expect with confidence the day of Iudgement Through Iesus Christ our Lord. whose holy passion we celebrate without doubt for immortall and well resting soules for them especially upon whom thou hast bestowed the grace of the second birth who by the example of the same Iesus Christ our Lord have begunne to be secure of the resurrection For thou vvho hast made the things that were not art able to repaire the things that were and hast given unto us evidences of the resurrection to come not onely by the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but also by the
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
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
your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed for the fervent prayer of a righteous man avayleth much The later of which sentences hath reference to the prayers of everie good Christian whereunto we finde a gracious promise annexed according to that of S. Iohn If anie man see his brother sinne a sinne which is not unto death he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sinne not unto death But the former as the verse immediatly going before doth manifestly prove pertayneth to the prayers made by the ministers of the Church who have a speciall charge to be the Lords remembrancers for the good of his people And therefore as S. Augustin out the later proveth that one brother by this meanes may cleanse another from the contagion of sinne so doth S. Chrysostom out of the former that Priests doe performe this not by teaching onely and admonishing but by assisting us also with their prayers and the faithfull prayers both of the one and of the other are by S. Augustin made the especiall meanes whereby the power of the keyes is exercised in the remitting of sinnes who thereupon exhorteth offendors to shew their repentance publickly in the Church that the Church might pray for them and impart the benefite of absolution unto them In the life of S Basil fathered upon Amphilochius of the credite whereof we have before spoken a certaine gentlewoman is brought in comming unto S. Basil for obtayning remission of her sinnes who is said there to have demanded this question of her Hast thou heard ô vvoman that none can forgive sinnes but God alone and shee to have returned him this answer I have heard it Father and therefore have I moved thee to make intercession unto our most mercifull God for mee Which agreeth well with that which Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure doe maintaine that the power of the keyes extend to the remission of faults by way of intercession onely and deprecation not by imparting anie immediate absolution And as in our private forgiving and praying one for another S. Augustin well noteth that it is our part God giving us the grace to use the ministerie of charitie and humilitie but it is his to heare us and to cleanse us from all pollution of sinnes for Christ and in Christ that what we forgive unto others that is to say what wee loose upon earth may be loosed also in heaven so doth S. Ambrose shew that the case also standeth with the ministers of the Gospell in the execution of that commission given unto them for the remitting of sinnes Ioh. 20.23 They make request saith he the Godhead bestoweth the gift for the service is done by man but the bountie is from the power above The reason which hee rendreth thereof is because in their ministerie it is the holy Ghost that forgiveth the sinne and it is God onely that can give the holy Ghost For this is not an humane worke saith he in another place neyther is the holy Ghost given by man but being called upon by the Priest is bestowed by God wherein the gift is Gods the ministery is the Priests For if the Apostle Paul did judge that hee could not conferre the hâ—ly Ghost by his authoritie but beleeved himselfe to be so farre unable for this office that hee wished wee might be filled with the spirit from God who is so great as dare arrogate unto himselfe the bestowing of this gift Therefore the Apostle did intimate his desire by prayer hee challenged no right by anie authoritie hee wished to obtaine it he presumed not to command it Thus farre S. Ambrose of whom Paulinus writeth that whensoever anie penitents came unto him the crimes which they confessed unto him hee spake of to none but to God alone unto whom he made intercession leaving a good example to the Priests of succeeding ages that they be rather intercessors for them unto God than accusers unto men The same also and in the selfe same words doth Ionas write of Eustachius the scholler of Columbanus our famous countrey-man Hitherto appertaineth that sentence cyted by Thomas Waldensis out of S. Hieroms exposition upon the Psalmes that voyce of God cutteth off daily in everie one of us the flame of lust by confession and the grace of the holy Ghost that is to say by the prayer of the Priest maketh it to cease in us and that which before hath been alledged out of Leo of the confession offered first to God and then to the Priest vvho commeth as an intreater for the sinnes of the penitent which hee more fully expresseth in another epistle affirming it to be very profitable and necessarie that the guilt of sinnes or sinners be loosed by the supplication of the Priest before the last day See S. Gregory in his morall exposition upon 1. Sam. 2.25 Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus in his answer to the 141. question of Gretsers edition and Nicolaus Cabasilas in the 29. chapter of his exposition of the Liturgie where he directly affirmeth that remission of sinnes is given to the penitents by the prayer of the Priests And therefore by the Order used of old in the Church of Rome the Priest before hee began his worke was required to use this prayer O Lord God almightie be mercifull unto me a sinner that I may worthily give thankes unto thee who hast made mee an unworthy one for thy mercies sake a minister of the Priestly office and hast appointed me a poore and humble mediator to pray and make intercession unto our Lord Iesus Christ for sinners that returne unto repentance And therefore O Lord the ruler who wouldest have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth who doest not desire the death of a sinner but that he may be reconciled and live receive my prayer which I poure forth before the face of thy mercie for thy servants and handmaydes who have fledd to repentance and to thy mercy Yea in the dayes of Thomas Aquinas there arose a learned man among the Papists themselves who found fault with that indicative forme of absolution then used by the Priest I absolve thee from all thy sinnes and would have it delivered by way of deprecation alledging that this was not onely the opinion of Gulielmus Altisiodorensis Gulielmus Parisiensis and Hugo Cardinalis but also that thirtie yeares were scarce passed since all did use this forme onely Absolutionem remissionem tribuat tibi omnipotens Deus Almightie God give unto thee absolution and forgivenesse What Thomas doth answer hereunto may be seene in his little treatise of the forme of absolution which upon this occasion he wrote unto the Generall of his order This onely will I adde that aswell in the ancient Ritualls and in the new Pontificall of the Church of Rome as in the present practise
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
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
by Alcuinus O Lord holy Father almightie and everlasting God we humbly make request unto thee for the spirits of thy servants and handmaydes vvhich from the beginning of this world thou hast called unto thee that thou wouldest vouchsafe O Lord to give unto them a lightsome place a place of refreshing and ease and that they may passe by the gates of hell and the vvayes of darkenesse and may abide in the mansions of the Saincts and in the holy light which thou didst promise of old unto Abraham and his seed So the Commemoration of the faithfull departed retained as yet in the Romane Missall is begun with this orizon Eternall rest grant unto them O Lord and let everlasting light shine unto them Whereunto we may adde these two prayers to omit a great number more of the like kinde used of old in the same Church Receive O holy Trinitie this oblation vvhich vve offer unto thee for all that are departed in the confession of thy name that thou reaching unto them the right hand of thy helpe they may have the rest of everlasting life and being separated from the punishments of the wicked they may alwayes persevere in the joy of thy praise and This oblation which we humbly offer unto thee for the commemoration of the soules that sleepe in peace we beseech thee O Lord receive graciously and of thy goodnesse grant that both the affection of this pietie may profite us and obtaine for them everlasting blisse Where you may observe that the soules unto which everlasting blisse was wished for were yet acknowledged to rest in peace consequently not to be disquieted with anie Purgatorie torment even as in the Canon of the Masse it selfe the Priest in the Commemoration for the dead praieth thus Remember O Lord thy servants and handmaydes vvhich have gone before us with the ensigne of faith and sleepe in the sleepe of peace To them O Lord and to all that are at rest in Christ we beseech thee that thou wouldest graunt a place of refreshing light and peace Nay the Armenians in their Liturgie intreat God to give eternall peace not only in generall unto all that have gone before us in the faith of Christ but also in particular to the Patriarches Apostles Prophets and Martyrs which maketh directly for the opinion of those against whom Nicolaus Cabasilas doth dispute who held that these Commemorations contayned a supplication for the Sainctes unto God and not a thankesgiving only as also doe those formes of prayer which were used in the Roman Liturgie in the dayes of Pope Innocent the third Let such an oblation profit such or such a Sainct unto glory and especially that for S. Leo which is found in the elder copies of the Gregorian Sacramentarie Grant unto us O Lord that this oblation may profit the soule of thy servant Leo. for which the later bookes have chopt in this prayer Grant unto us O Lord that by the intercession of thy servant Leo this oblation may profit us Concerning which alteration when the archbishop of Lyons propounded such another question unto Pope Innocent as our Challenger at the beginning did unto us vvho it was that did change it or when it was changed or why the Pope returneth him for answer that who did change it or when it was changed he was ignorant of yet he knew upon what occasion it was changed because that where the authoritie of the Holy Scripture doth say that he doth injurie unto a Martyr who prayeth for a Martyr which is a new text of holy Scripture of the Popes owne canonization the same by the like reason is to be held of other Saincts The Glosse upon this Decretall layeth down the reason of this mutation a little more roundly Of old they prayed for him now at this day hee prayeth for us and so vvas the change made And Alphonsus Mendoza telleth us that the old prayer was deservedly disused and this other substituted in the roome thereof Grant unto us we beseech thee O Lord that by the intercession of thy servant Leo this oblation may profit us which prayer indeed was to be found heretofore in modernioribus Sacramentarijs as Pope Innocent speaketh and in the Roman Missalls that were published before the Councell of Trent as namely in that which was printed at Paris an 1529. but in the new reformed Missall wherwith it seemeth Mendoza was not so well acquainted as with his Scholasticall controversies it is put out againe and another prayer for Leo put in that by the celebration of those offices of atonement a blessed retribution might accompanie him Neither is there anie more wrong done unto S. Leo in praying for him after this maner then unto all the rest of his fellowes in that other prayer of the Romane Liturgie We have received O Lord the divine mysteries which as they doe profit thy Saints unto glory so we do beseech thee that they may profit us for our healing and nothing so much as is done unto all the faithfull deceased when in their Masses for the dead they say daily Lord Iesus Christ king of glory deliver the soules of all the faithfull that are departed from the paines of Hell and from the deepe lake deliver them from the mouth of the Lion that Hell do not swallow them up that they fall not into darkenesse So that whatsoever commodious expositions our Adversaries can bring for the justifying of the Romane service the same may wee make use of to shew that the ancient Church might pray for the dead and yet in so doing have no relation at all unto Purgatorie yea and pray for the Martyrs and other Saincts that were in the state of blisse without offering unto them anie injurie thereby For the clearing of the meaning of those prayers which are made for Leo and the other Saincts to the two expositiōs brought in by Pope Innocent Cardinall Bellarmine addeth this for a third that peradventure therin the glory of the body is petitioned for which they shal have in the day of the Resurrectiō For although saith he they shal certainly obtain that glory it be due unto their merits yet it is not absurd to desire aske this for them that by more meanes it may be due unto them Where laying aside those unsavourie termes of debt and merits whereof we shall have occasion to treate in their proper place the answer is otherwise true in part but not full enough to give satisfaction unto that which was objected For the primary intention of the Church indeed in her prayers for the dead had reference unto the day of the Resurrection which also in diverse places we finde to have beene expressely prayed for as in the Aegyptian Liturgie attributed unto S. Cyrill Bishop of Alexandria Raise up their bodies in the day which thou hast appointed according to thy promises which are true
and cannot lye graunt unto them according to thy promises that vvhich eye hath not seene and eare hath not heard and which hath not ascended into the heart of man which thou hast prepared O Lord for them that love thy holy name that thy servants may not remaine in death but may get out from thence although slouthfulnesse and negligence have followed them and in that which is used by the Christians of S. Thomas as they are commonly called in the East Indies Let the holy Ghâ—st give resurrection to your dead at the last day and make them vvorthy of the incorruptible kingdome Such is the prayer of S. Ambrose for Gratian and Valentinian the Emperours I doe beseech thee most high God that thou wouldest rayse up againe those deare yong men with a speedie resurrection that thou mayest recompence this untimely course of this present life vvith a timely resurrection and that in Alcuinus Let their soules sustaine no hurt but when that great day of the resurrection and remuneration shall come vouchsafe to raise them up O Lord together with thy Saincts and thine elect and that in Grimoldus his Sacramentarie Almightie and everlasting God vouchsafe to place the body and the soule and the spirit of thy servant N. in the bosomes of Abraham Isaac and Iacob that vvhen the day of thy acknowledgement shall come thou mayest command them to be raysed up among thy Saincts and thine elect But yet the Cardinalls answer that the glorie of the body may be prayed for which the Saincts shall have at the day of the Resurrection commeth somewhat short of that which the Church used to request in the behalfe of S. Leo. For in that prayer expresse mention is made of his soule and to it is wished that profit may redound by the present oblation And therefore this defect must be supplyed out of his answer unto that other praier which is mâ—de for the soules of the faithfull depaâ—ted that they may be delivered out of the mouth of the Lion and that Hell may not swallow them up To this he saith that the Church doth pray for these soules that they may not be condemned unto the everlasting paines of Hell not as if it were not certain that they should not be condemned unto those paines but because it is Gods pleasure that we should pray even for those things which we are certainly to receive The same answer did Alphonsus de Castro give before him that very often those things are prayed for which are certainely knowne shall come to passe as they are prayed for and that of this there be very manie testimonies and Iohannes Medina that God dâ—lighteth to be prayed unto even for those things which otherwise he purposed to do For God had decreed saith he after the sinne of Adam to take our flesh and he decreed the time wherein he meant to come and yet the prayers of the Saincts that prayed for his Incarnation and for his comming were acceptable unto him God hath also decreed to grant pardon unto every repentant sinner and yet the prayer is gratefull unto him wherein eyther the penitent doth pray for himselfe or another for him that God would be pleased to accept his repentance God hath decreed also and promised not to forsake his Church and to be present with Councells lawfully assembled yet the prayer notwithstanding is gratefull unto God and the hymnes vvhereby his presence and favour and grace is implored both for the Councell the Church And whereas it might be obiected that howsoever the Church may sometimes pray for those things which shee shall certainly receive yet shee doth not pray for those things which shee hath alreadie received and this shee hath received that those soules shall not be damned seeing they have received their sentence and are most secure from damnation the Cardinall replieth that this obiection may easily be avoyded For although those soules saith he have received already their first sentence in the particular judgement and by that sentence are freed from Hell yet doth there yet remaine the generall judgement in which they are to receive the second sentence Wherefore the Church praying that those soules in the last judgement may not fall into darkenesse nor be swallowed up of Hel doth not pray for the thing which the soule hath but which it shall receive Thus these men labouring to shew how the prayers for the dead used in their Church may stand with their conceits of Purgatorie doe thereby informe us how the prayers for the dead used by the ancient Church may stand well enough without the supposall of anie Purgatorie at all For if we may pray for those things which wee are most sure shall come to passe and the Church by the Adversaries owne confession did pray accordingly that the soules of the faithfull might escape the paines of Hell at the generall Iudgement notwithstanding they had certainly beene freed from them alreadie by the sentence of the particular Iudgement by the same reason when the Church in times past besought God to remember all those that slept in the hope of the resurrection of everlasting life which is the forme of prayer used in the Greeke Liturgies and to give unto them rest and to bring them unto the place where the light of his countenance should shine upon them for evermore why should not we thinke that it desired these things should be granted unto them by the last sentence at the day of the Resurrection notwithstanding they were formerly adiudged unto them by the particular sentence at the time of their dissolution For as that which shall befall unto all at the day of judgement is accomplished in every one at the day of his death so on the other side whatsoever befalleth the soule of everie one at the day of his death the same is fully accomplished upon the whole man at the day of the generall iudgement Whereupon wee finde that the Scriptures everie where doe point out that great day unto us as the time wherein mercie and forgivenesse rest and refreshing ioy and gladnesse redemption and salvation rewards and crownes shall be bestowed upon all Gods children as in 2. Timoth. 1.16 18. The Lord give mercie unto the house of Onesiphorus the Lord grant unto him that he may finde mercie of the Lord in that day 1. Cor. 1.8 Who shall also confirme you unto the end that ye may be blamelesse in the day of our Lord Iesus Christ. Act. 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sinnes may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. 2. Thessal 1.6 7. It is a righteous thing with God to recompense unto you which are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shal be revealed from heaven with his mightie Angells Philip. 2.16 That I may rejoyce in the day of Christ that I have not runne in vaine neyther
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
and such as have beene overthrowne in the lists are cast out and all things are clearely finished after that we are once departed from hence We are to consider then that the prayers and oblations for reiecting whereof Aërius was reproved were not such as are used in the Church of Rome at this day but such as were used by the ancient Church at that time and therefore as we in condemning of the one have nothing to doe with Aërius or his cause so the Romanists who dislike the other as much as ever Aërius did must be content to let us alone and take the charge of Aërianisme home unto themselves Popish prayers and oblations for the dead we know do wholly depend upon the beleefe of Purgatorie if those of the ancient Church did so too how commeth it to passe that Epiphanius doth not directly answer Aërius as a Papist would doe now that they brought singular profite to the dead by delivering their tormented soules out of the flames of Purgatorie but forgetting as much as once to make mention of Purgatorie the sole foundation of these suffrages for the dead in our Adversaries iudgement doth trouble himselfe and his cause with bringing in such farr fett reasons as these that they who performed this dutie did intend to signifie thereby that their brethren departed were not perished but remained still alive with the Lord and to put a difference betwixt the high perfection of our Saviour Christ and the generall frailtie of the best of all his servants Take away Popish Purgatorie on the other side which in the dayes of Aërius and Epiphanius needed not to be taken away because it was not as yet hatched and all the reasons produced by Epiphanius will not withhold our Romanists from absolutely subscribing to the opinion of Aërius this being a case with them resolved that if Purgatory be not admitted after death prayer for the dead must be unprofitable But though Thomas Aquinas and his abettors determine so we must not therefore thinke that Epiphanius was of the same minde who lived in a time wherein prayers were usually made for them that never were dreamed to have beene in Purgatorie and yeeldeth those reasons of that usage which overthrow the former consequence of Thomas everie whit as much as the supposition of Aërius For Aërius and Thomas both agree in this that prayer for the dead would be altogether unprofitable if the dead themselves received no speciall benefite thereby This doth Epiphanius defending the ancient use of these prayers in the Church shew to be untrue by producing other profites that redounded from thence unto the living partly by the publick signification of their faith hope charitie toward the deceased partly by the honour that they did unto the Lord Iesus in exempting him from the common condition of the rest of mankinde And to make it appeare that these things were mainly intended by the Church in her Memorialls for the dead and not the cutting off of the sinnes which they carried with them out of this life or the releasing of them out of anie torment he alledgeth as wee have heard that not onely the meaner sort of Christians but also the best of them without exception even the Prophets and Apostles Martyrs themselves were comprehended therein from whence by our Adversaries good leave we wil make bold to frame this syllogisme They who reject that kind of praying and offering for the dead which was practised by the Church in the daies of Aërius are in that point flatt Aërians But the Romanists doe reject that kinde of praying and offering for the dead which was practised by the Church in the dayes of Aërius Therefore the Romanists are in this point flatt Aërians The assumption or second part of this argument for the first we thinke no body will denie is thus proved They who are of the judgement that prayers and oblations should not be made for such as are beleeved to be in blisse doe reiect that kinde of praying and offering for the dead which was practised by the ancient Church But the Romanists are of this iudgement Therefore they reiect that kinde of praying and offering for the dead which was practised by the ancient Church The truth of the first of these propositions doth appear by the testimonie of Epiphanius compared with those manie other evidences whereby we have formerly proved that it was the custome of the ancient Church to make prayers and oblations for them of whose resting in peace and blisse there was no doubt at all conceived The veritie of the second is manifested by the confession of the Romanists themselves who reckon this for one of their Catholicke verities that suffrages should not be offered for the dead that raigne with Christ. and therefore that ancient forme of praying for the Apostles Martyrs and the rest of the Saincts is by disuse deservedly abolished saith Alphonsus Mendoza Nay to offer sacrifices and prayers to God for those that are in blisse is plainly absurd and impious in the iudgement of the Iesuite Azorius who was not aware that thereby hee did outstrippe Aërius in condemning the practise of the ancient Church as farre as the censuring it only to be unprofitable for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what shall the dead be profited thereby was the furthest that Aërius durst to goe commeth short of reiecting it as absurd and impious And therefore our Adversaries may doe well to purge themselves first from the blott of Aërianisme which sticketh so fast unto them before they be so readie to cast the aspersion thereof upon others In the meane time the Reader who desireth to be rightly informed in the iudgement of Antiquitie touching this point is to remember that these two questions must necessarily be distinguished in this inquiry Whether prayers and oblations were to be made for the dead and Whether the dead did receive any peculiar profite thereby In the latter of these he shall finde great difference among the Doctors in the former verie little or none at all For howsoever all did not agree about the state of the soules saith Cassander an indifferent Papist vvhich might receive profite by these things yet all did judge this dutie as a testimonie of their love toward the dead and a profession of their faith touching the soules immortalitie and the future resurrection to be acceptable unto God and profitable to the Church Therefore for condemning the generall practise of the Church herein which aymed at those good ends before expressed Aëâ—ius was condemned but for denying that the dead received profite thereby eyther for the pardon of the sinnes which before were unremitted or for the cutting off or mitigation of anie torments that they did endure in the other world the Church did never condemne him For that was no new thing invented by him diverse worthy men before and after him declared themselves to be of the same minde and were never for all that charged with the
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
of the godly where is the inheritance of the mercifull where is the blisse of the undefiled where is the joy and consolation of such as love the truth Thither will I goe where is light and life where is glory jocundnesse where is joy and exultation whence griefe and heavinesse and groning flie away where they forgett the former tribulations that they sustayned in their body upon the earth Thither will I goe where there is a laying aside of tribulations where there this a recompense of labors where is the bosome of Abraham where the proprietie of Isaac where the familiarity of Israel where be the soules of the Saints vvhere the quire of Angels where the voyces of Archangels where the illumination of the holy Ghost where the kingdome of Christ where the endlesse glory and blessed sight of the eternall God the father What difference I pray you now is there betwixt this Limbus Patrum and Heaven it selfe Of Abrahams bosome Gregory Nyssen writeth after this maner As by a certaine abuse of speech we call a baye of the sea an arme or bosome so it seemeth to me that the word doth signifie the exhibitioÌ„ of those unmeasurable good things by the name of a bosome into which good bosome or baye all men that sayle by a vertuous course through this present life when they loose from hence put in their soules as it were into a haven free from danger of waves and tempests and in another place If one hearing of a bosome as it were a certaine large baye of the sea should conceive the fulnesse of good things to be meant thereby where the Patriarch is named and that Lazarus is therein he should not thinke amisse True it is indeed that diverse of the Doctors who make Abrahams bosome to be a place of glorie do yet distinguish it from Heaven but it is to be considered withall that they hold the same opinion indifferently of the place whereunto the soules of all godly men are received aswell under the state of the New as of the Old Testament For they did not hold as our Romanistes doe now that Christ by his descension emptyed Limbus removed the bosome of Abraham from Hell into Heaven their Limbus is now as full of Fathers as ever it was and is the common receptacle wherein they suppose all good soules to remaine untill the generall resurrection before which time they admit neyther the Fathers nor us unto the possession of the kingdome of Heaven For Abraham saith Gregory Nyssen and the other Patriarches although they had a desire to see those good things and never left seeking that heavenly countrey as the Apostle saith yet are they notwithstanding that even yet in expectancie of this favour God having provided some better thing for us according to the saying of S. Paul that they without us should not be made perfect So Tertullian It appeareth to every wise man that hath ever heard of the Elysian fields that there is some locall determination which is called Abâ—ahams bosome to receive the soules of his sonnes even of the Gentiles he being the Father of many nations that were to bee accounted of Abrahams family and of the same faith wherewith Abraham beleeved God under no yoke of the law nor in tâ—e signe of Circumcision That region tâ—erefore doe I call the bosome of Abraham although not heavenly yet higher than hell which shall give rest in the meane season to the soules of the righteous untill the consummation of thinâ—s doe finish the resurrection of all with the fulnesse of reward And we have heard S. Hilary say before that all the faithfull when they are gone out of the body shall be reserved by the Lords custody for that entrie into the heavenly kingdome being in the meane time placed in the bosome of Abraham whither the wicked are hindred from comming by the gulfe interposed betwixt them untill the time of entring into the kingdome of heaven doe come and againe The rich and the poore man in the Gospell do serve us for witnesses one of whom the Angels did place in the seates of the Blessed and in Abrahams bosome the other the region of punishment did presently receive For the day of judgement is the everlasting retribution eyther of blisse or paine but the time of death hath every one under his lawes while eyther Abraham or punishment reserveth every one unto judgement The difference betwixt the Doctors in their iudgement concerning the bosome of Abraham and the resting of the ancient Fathers therein wee finde noted in part in those expositions upon the Gospell which goe under the name of Theophilus Bishop of Antioch and Eucherius Bishop of Lyons In that the rich man say they did in Hell behold Abraham this by some is thought to be the reason because all the Saints before the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ are said to have descended into Hell although into a place of refreshment Others thinke that the place wherein Abraham was did lye apart from those places of Hell situated in places above for which the Lord should say of that rich man that lifting up his eyes when he was in torments he saw Abraham a far off The former of these opinions is delivered by some of the Doctors doubtfully by others more resolutely Primasius setteth it downe with S. Augustins qualification It sâ—emâ—th that without absurditie it may be beleeved The author of the imperfect worke upon Matthew saith that peradventure the just did ascend into heaveâ— before the comming of Christ yet that he doth thinke â—hat no soule before Christ did ascend into heaven since Adam sinned and the heavens were shut against him but all were detayned in Hell and as I doe thinke saith the Greeke expositor of Zacharies Hymne likewise even our fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob and the whole queere of the holy Prophets and just men did enjoy the comming of Christ. Of which comming to visite the Fathers in Hell S. Hierome Ruffinus Venantius Fortunatus Gregory Iulianus Toletanus and Eusebius Emissenus as he is commonly called interpret that question propounded by the Baptist unto our Saviour Art thou he that should come or looke we for another which exposition is by S. Chrysostome iustly reiected as utterly impertinent and ridiculous Anastasius Sinaita affirmeth very boldly that all the soules aswell of the just as the unjust were under the hand of the Divell untill Christ descending into Hell said unto those that vvere in bonds Come forth and to those that were indurance Be at libertie For he did not only saith he in another place dissolve the corruption of the bodies in the grave but also delivered the captive soules out of Hell vvherein they were by tyrannie detained and peradventure not by tyrannie neyther but for many debts which being payed he that descended for their deliverie brought backe with him a great
company of captives and thus was Hell spoyled and Adam delivered from his griefes Which is agreeable to that which we reade in the works of Athanasius that the soule of Adam was detayned in the condemnation of death and cryed continually unto the Lord such as had pleased God and were justified in the law of nature being detayned together with Adam and lamenting and crying out with him and that the Divell beholding himselfe spoyled did bemoane himselfe and beholding those that sometime were weeping under him now singing in the Lord did rent himselfe Others are more favourable to the soules of the Fathers though they place them in Hell for they hold them to have beene there in a state of blisse and not of miserie Thus the author of the Latin homily concerning the Rich man and Lazarus which is commonly fathered upon Chrysostom notwithstanding he affirmeth that Abraham was in Hell and that before the comming of Christ none ever entred into Paradise yet doth he acknowledge in the meane time that Lazarus did remaine there in a kinde of Paradise For the bosome of Abraham saith he vvas the poore mans Paradise and againe Some man may say unto me Is there a Paradise in Hell I say this that the bosome of Abraham is the truth of Paradise Yea and I confesse it to be a most holy Paradise So Tertullian in the fourth booke of his Verses against Marcion placeth Abrahams bosome under the earth but in an open and lightsome seate farre removed from the fire and from the darknesse of Hell sub corpore terrae In parte ignotâ quidam locus exstat apertus Luce sua fretus Abrahae sinus iste vocatur Altior á tenebris longé semotus ab igne Sub terrâ tamen Yea he maketh it to be one house with that which is eternall in the heaven distinguisht onely from it as the outer and the inner Temple or the Sanctum and the Sanctum Sanctorum were in the time of the Law by the Vayle that hung between which vayle being rent at the passion of Christ he saith these two were made one everlasting house Tempore divisa spatio ratione ligata Vna domus quamvis velo partita videtur Atque adeò passo Domino velamine rupto Coelestes patuere plagae coelataque sancta Atque duplex quondam facta est domus una perennis Yet elsewhere hee maketh up the partition againe maintaining very stiffly that the gates of Heaven remaine still shut against all men untill the end of the world come and the day of the last judgement Only Paradise he leaveth open for Martyrs as that other author of the latin Homily seemeth also to doe but the soules of the rest of the faithfull he sequestâ—eth into Hell there to remaine in Abrahams bosome untill the time of the generall resurrection And to this part of Hell doth he imagine Christ to have descended not with purpose to fetch the soules of the Fathers from thence which is the only errand that our Romanistes conceive he had thither but ut illic Patriarchas Prophetas compotes sui faceret that he might there make the Patriarches and Prophets partakers of his presence S. Hierome saith that our Lord Iesus Christ descended into the furnace of Hell wherein the soules both of sinners and of just men were held shut that without any burning or hurt unto himselfe he might free from the bonds of death those that were held shut up in that place and that hee called upon the name of the Lord out of the lowermost lake when by the power of his divinitie hee descended into Hell and having destroyed the barres of Tartarus or the dungeon of Hell bringing from thence such of his as he found there ascended conquerour up againe He saith further that Hell is the place of punishments and tortures in which the rich man that was cloathed in puâ—ple is seeâ—e unto which also the Lord did descend that he might let forth those that were bound out of prison Lastly tâ—e Sonne of God saith he following Origen as it seemeth too unaduisedly here descended into the lowermost parts of the earth and ascended above all heavens that he might not only fulfill the law and the prophets but certaine other hidden dispensations also which hee alone doth know with the Father For wee cannot understand how the bloud of Christ did profite both the Angels and those that were in Hell and yet that it did profite them wee cannot be ignorant Thus farre S. Hierome touching Christs descent into the lowermost Hell which Thomas and the other Schoolemen will not admitt that hee ever came unto Yet this must they of force grant if they will stand to the authority of the Fathers It remayned saith Fulgentius for the full effecting of our redemption that man assumed by God without sinne should thither descend whither man separated from God should have fallen by the desert of sinne that is unto Hell where the soule of the sinner was wont to be tormented and to the Grave where the flesh of the sinner was accustomed to bee corrupted yet so that neyther the flesh of Christ should be corrupted in the Grave nor his soule be tormented with the paines of Hell Because the soule free from sinne was not to be subjected to such punishment neither ought corruption to tainte the flesh without sinne And this hee saith was done for this end that by the flesh of the just dying temporally everlasting life might be given to our flesh and by the soule of the just descending into Hell the paines of hell might be loosed It is the saying of S. Ambrose that Christ being voyd of sinne when hee did descend into the lowermost parts of Tartarus breaking the barres gates of Hell called backe unto life out of the jawes of the Divell the soules that were bound with sinne having destroyed the dominion of death and of Eusebius Emissenus or Gallicanus or who ever was the author of the sixt Paschall homily attributed to him that the sonne of man laying aside his body pierced the lowest hidden seates of Tartarus but where he was thought to have beene detained among the dead there binding death did hee loose the bonds of the dead Presently therefore saith Caesarius in his third Paschall homily w ch is the same with the first of those that goe under the name of the former Eusebius the everlasting night of Hell at Christs descending shined bright the gnashing of the mourners ceased the burthens of the chaines were loosed the bursted bands of the damned fell from them The tormentors astonished in minde were amazed the whole jmpious shoppe trembled together when they beheld Christ suddainly in their dwellings So Arnoldus Bonaevallensis in his booke de Cardinalibus operibus Christi commonly attributed to S. Cyprian noteth that at that time there was a cessation from infernall
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
our Lord as in the end of this booke saith he he doth testifie meaning the apocryphall Appendix which is annexed to the end of the Greeke edition of Iob wherein we reade thus It is written that he should rise againe with those whom the Lord was to raise which although it be accounted to have proceeded from the Septuagint yet the thing it selfe sheweth that it was added by some that lived after the comming of our Saviour Christ. Touching Adam S. Augustine affirmeth that the whole Church almost did consent that Christ loosed him in Hell which we are to beleeve saith he that shee did not vainely beleeve whencesoever this tradition came although no expresse authoritie of the Canonicall Scriptures be produced for it The onely place which he could thinke off that seemed to look this way was that in the beginning of the tenth Chapter of the booke of Wisedome Shee kept him who was the first formed father of the world when hee was created alone and brought him out of his sinne which would be much more pertinent to the purpose if that were added which presently followeth in the Latin text I meane in the old edition for the new corrected ones have left it out Et eduxit illum de limo terrae and brought him out of the claye of the earth which being placed after the bringing of him out of his sinne may seeme to have reference unto some deliverance like that of Davids Psalm 40 2. He brought me up out of the horrible pit out of the mirye claye rather then unto his first creation out of the dust of the earth So limus terrae may here answere well unto the Arabians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-tharai which properly signifying moyst earth or slime or claye is by the Arabick interpreter of Moses used to expresse the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Hell or Grave And as this place in the booke of Wisedome may be thus applied unto the raysing of Adams body out of the earâ—h whâ—rein hee lay buried so may that other tradition also which was so currant in the Church be referred unto the selfe same thing even to the bringing of Adam out of the Hell of the Grave The verie Liturgies of the Church doe lead us unto this interpretation of the tradition of the Church beside the testimony of the Fathers which discover unto us the first ground and foundation of this tradition In the Liturgie of the Church of Alexandria ascribed to S. Marke our Saviour Christ is thus called upon O most great King and coëternall to the Father who by thy might didst spoyle Hell and tread downe death and binde the strong one and raise Adam out of the grave by thy divine power and the bright splendour of thine unspeakeable Godhead In the Liturgie of the Church of Constantinople translated into Latin by Leo Thusâ—us the like speech is used of him He did voluntarily undergoe the Crosse for us by which he raysed up the first formed man and saved our soules from death And in the Octoëchon Anastasimon and Pentecostarion of the Grecians at this day such sayings as these are very usuall Thou didst undergoe buriall and rise in glory and rayse up Adam together with thee by thy almighty hand Rising out of thy tombe thou didst rayse up the dead and break the poâ—er of death and rayse up Adam Having slept in the flesh as a mortall man ô King and Lord the third day thou didst arise againe raysing Adam from corruption and abolishing death Iesus the deliverer who raysed up Adam of his compassion c. Therefore doth Theodorus Prodromus begin his Tetrastich upon our Saviors Resurrection with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rise up thou first formed old man rise up from thy grave S. Ambrose pointeth to the ground of the tradition when he intimateth that Christ suffered in Golgotha where Adams sepulchre was that by his Crosse he might rayse him that was dead that where in Adam the death of all men lay therein Christ might be the resurrection of all Which he receaved as he did many other things besides from Origen who writeth thus of the matter There came unto me some such tradition as this that the body of Adam the first man mas buried there where Christ was crucified that as in Adam all doe die so in Christ all might be made alive that in the place which is called the place of Calvarie that is the place of the head the head of mankinde might finde resurrection with all the rest of the people by the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour who suffered there and rose againe For it was unfit that when many which were borne of him did receive forgivenesse of their sinnes and obtayne the benefit of Resurrection he who was the father of all men should not much more obtaine the like grace Athanasius or who ever else was author of the Discourse upon the Passion of our Lord which beareth his name referreth this tradition of Adams buriall place unto the report of the Doctors of the Hebrewes from whom belike hee thought that Origen had received it and addeth withall that it was very fit that where it was said to Adam Earth thou art and to earth thou shalt returne our Saviour finding him there should say unto him again Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Epiphanius goeth a little furthet and findeth out a mysterie in the water and bloud that fell from the Crosse upon the relicks of our first father lying buried under it applying thereunto both that in the Gospell of the arising of many of the Saints Matth. 27.52 and that other place in S. Paule Arise thou that sleepest c. Ephes. 5.14 which strange speculation with what great applause it was received by the multitude at the first delivery of it and for how little reason he that list may reade in the fourth book of S. Hieroms coÌ„mentaries upon the 27. of S. Matthew in his third upon the fifth to the Ephesians for upon this first point of Christs descent into the Hell of the grave and the bringing of Adam and his children with him from thence we have dwelt too long already In the second place therefore we are now to consider that as Hádes and Inferi which we call Hell are applied by rhe Interpreters of the holy Scripture to denote the place of bodies separated from their soules so with forraine authors in whose language as being that wherewith the common people was acquainted the Church also did use to speake the same tearmes do signifie ordinarily the common lodge of soules separated from their bodies whether the particular place assigned unto each of them be conceived to be an habitation of blisse or of miserie For as when the Grave is said to be the common receptacle of dead bodies it is not meant thereby that all dead
and darke dungeon of death that is into Hades adding afterward that Hades may rightly be esteemed to be the house and mansion of such as are deprived of life Nicephorus Gregoras in his funerall Oration upon Theodorus Metochites putteth in this for one strayne of his lamentation Who hath brought downe that heavenly man unto the bottome of Hades and Andrew archbishop of Crete touching the descent both of Christ and all Christians after him even unto the darke and comfortlesse Hades writeth in this maner If hee who was the Lord and master of all and the light of them that are in darknesse and the life of all men would taste death and undergoe the descent into Hell that he might be made like unto us in all things sinne excepted and for three dayes went thorough the sad obscure and darke region of Hell what strange thing is it that wee who are sinners and dead in trespasses according to the great Apostle who are subject to generation and corruption should meete with death and goe with our soule into the darke chambers of Hell where we cannot see light nor behold the life of mortall men For are wee above our Master or better then the Saints who underwent these things of ours after the like maner that we must doe Iuvencus intimateth that our Saviour giving up the ghost sent his soule unto heaven in those verses of his Tunc clamor Domini magno conamine missus Aethereis animam comitem commiscuit auris Eusebius Emesenus collecteth so much from the last words which our Lord uttered at the same time Father into thine hands I commend my spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His spirit was above and his body remayned upon the crosse for us In the Greeke exposition of the Canticles collected out of Eusebius Philo Carpathius and others that sentence in the beginning of the sixt chapter My beloved is gone down into his garden is interpreted of Christs going to the soules of the Saints in Hádes which in the Latin collections that beare the name of Philo Carpathius is thus more largely expressed By this descending of the Bridegrome we may understand the descending of our Lord Iesus Christ into Hell as I suppose for that which followeth proveth this when he sayeth To the beds of spices For those ancient holy men are not unfiâ—ly signified by the beds of spices such as were Noë Abraham Isaac Iacob Moses Iob David Samuel Elisaeus Daniel and very many others before the Law in the Law who all of them like unto beds of spices gave a most sweete smell of the odours and fruits of holy righteousnesse For then as a triumpher did he enter into PARADISE when he pierced into Hell God himselfe is present with us for a witnesse in this matter when he answered most graciously to the Thiefe upon the Crosse commending himselfe unto him most religiously To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Lastly touching this Paradise the various opinions of the ancient are thus layd downe by Olympiodorus to seeke no farther It is a thing worthy of enquirie in what place under the Sunne the righteous are placed which have left this life Certaine it is that in Paradise forasmuch as Christ said unto the Thiefe This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And it is to be knowne that the literall Tradition teacheth Paradise to be in earth But some have said that Paradise also is in Hell that is in a place under the earth unto which opinion of theirs they apply that of the Gospell where the rich man saw Lazarus being yet himselfe sunke downe in a lower place when Lazarus was in a place more eminent where Abraham was But howsoever the matter goeth this without doubt is manifest aswell out of Ecclesiastes as out of all the sacred Scripture that the godly shall be in prosperity and peace and the ungodly in punishments and torments And others are of the minde that Paradise is in the Heavens c. Hitherto Olympiodorus That Christs soule went into Paradise Doctor Bishop saith being well understood is true For his soule in hell had the joyes of Paradise but to make that an exposition of Christs descending into hell is to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it Yet this ridiculous exposition he affirmeth to be received of most Protestants Which is even as true as that which he avoucheth in the same place that this article of the descent into Hell is to be found in the old Roman Creed expounded by Ruffinus where Ruffinus as we have heard expounding that article delivereth the flat contrarie that it is not found added in the Creed of the Church of Rome It is true indeed that more than most Protestants do interprete the words of Christ uttered unto the Thiefe upon the Crosse Luk. 23.43 of the going of his soule into Paradise where our Saviour meaning simply and plainly that hee would be that day in Heaven M. Bishop would have him so to be understood as if he had meant that that day he would be in Hell And must it be now held more ridiculous in Protestants to take Hell for Paradise then in M. Bishop to take Paradise for Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the wordes of the Apostles Creed in the Greeke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Symbol of Athanasius Some learned Protestants do observe that in these words there is no determinate mention made eyther of ascending or descending either of Heaven or Hell taking Hell according to the vulgar acception but of the generall only under which these contraries are indifferently comprehended and that the words literally interpreted import no more but this HEE WENT UNTO THE OTHER WORLD Which is not to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it as M. Bishop fancieth who may quickly make himselfe ridiculous in taking upon him thus to censure the interpretations of our learned linguistes unlesse his owne skill in the languages were greater then as yet he hath given proofe of Master Broughton with whose authoritie hee elsewhere presseth us as of a man esteemed to be singularly seene in the Hebrew and Greeke tongue hath beene but too forward in maintayning that exposition which by D. Bishop is accounted so ridiculous In one place touching the terme Hell as it doth answer the Hebrew Sheol and the Greeke Hádes he writeth thus He that thinketh it ever used for Tartaro or Gehenna otherwise then the terme Death may by Synecdoche import so hath not skill in Ebrew or that Greeke vvhich breathing and live Graecia spake if God hath lent me any judgement that way In another place he alledgeth out of Portus his Dictionary that the Macedonians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven And one of his acquaintance beyond the Sea reporteth that he should deliver that in many most ancient Manuscript copies the Lords prayer is found with this
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
worship them with the service of Invocation is another as may be seen in the case of our brethren upon earth who may not refuse the former without the violation of charitie nor accept the latter at our hands without an open breach of pietie Now that the Fathers judged no otherwise of Prayer then as hath beene said this may be one good argument that when they define it they doe it with expresse reference to God and no other as may be seen in those five severall definitions thereof which Bellarmine himselfe repeateth out of them the first whereof is that of Basil Prayer is a request of some good thing which is made by pious men unto GOD. The second of Gregory Nyssen Prayer is a conversing or a conference with GOD. The third of the same Father Prayer is a request of good things which is offered with supplication unto GOD. The fourth of Iohn Chrysostom Prayer is a colloquy or discourse with GOD. The fifth of Iohn Damascen Prayer is an ascension of the minde unto GOD or a request of things that are fit from GOD. Therefore where the names of the Martyrs were solemnly rehearsed in the publick Liturgie of the Church S. Augustin interpreteth it to be done for an honourable remembrance of them but utterly denieth that the Church therein had anie intention to invocate them So for other particular prayers Thou alone art to be invocated O Lord saith S. Ambrose in his funerall oration upon Theodosius the Emperour thou art to be requested to supply the misse of him in his sonnes and To whom else should I cry besides thee saith S. Augustin and it is Gods pleasure Esse nihil prorsus se praeter ubique rogandum that nothing beside himselfe should every where be prayed unto saith Dracontius in his book of the Creation revised by Eugenius Bishop of Toledo at the command of Chindasuindus King of Spaine Hereupon S. Chrysostom upon those words of the Apostle 1. Corinth 1.2 With all that call upon the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ giveth this exposition Not of this man and that man but upon the name of the Lord. and he elsewhere telleth us that it was the DIVELS doing to draw men unto the calling upon Angels as envying them the honour of their immediate accesse and admittance unto Gods owne presence For this cause saith he did the Divel bring in this of the Angels envying us this honour These be the enchantments of Divels Though he be an Angel though an Archangel though they be Cherubims endure it not For neyther will these Powers themselves admit it but reject it when they see their Lord dishonoured I have honoured thee saith he and have sayd Call upon me and doest thou dishonour him And therefore did the Fathers in the Councell of Laodicea directly conclude that this Invocation of Angels was a secret kinde of Idolatry by the practise whereof the communion both of Christ and of his Church was forsaken For Christians say they ought not to forsake the Church of God and depart aside and invocate Angels make meetings which are things forbidden If any man therefore be found to give himselfe to this privy Idolatry let him be accursed Because hee hath forsaken our Lord Iesus Christ the Sonne of God and betaken himselfe to Idolatry Pope Adrian in the Epitome of the Canons which he delivered to Charles the great at Rome in the year of our Lord DCCLXXIII doth thus abbridge this decree ut anathema sit quicunque relictâ Ecclesiâ Angelos colere vel congregationes facere praesumpserit that whosoever leaving the Church did presume to worship Angels or to make meetings should be accursed Where Henricus Canisius who was the first publisher of this Abbridgement in the 6. tome of his Ancient reading fearing belike that the curse not only of the Fathers of Laodicea but which was more dreadfull of Pope Adrian also might light upon him and his companions who acknowledge themselves to be of the number of those that woâ—ship Angels giveth us warning in his margent that in steed of angelos here peradventure should be read angulos that is to say corners in steed of angels which although it be a noâ—e that evill beseemeth a man who would be thought to be conversant in ancient reading and such a one especially as professeth himselfe to be a chiefe professor of the Canons yet in that he leaveth the text untouched and contenteth himselfe with a peradventure too in his marginall annotation he is more to be excused then his fellowes before him Carranza Sagittarius and Ioverius who setting forth the Canons of the Councells without all peradventure corrupted the text it selfe removing the angels out of their place and hiding them in corners Notwithstanding this also may be alledged in some part of their excuse too that they were not the first authors of this corruption of the Canon that blame must light eyther upon Isidorous Mercator the craftie merchant with whose dealings I acquainted you before or upon Iames Merlin the Popish Doctor who first caused his Collection of Decrees to be printed But Friar Crabb deserveth no excuse at all who having store of good copies to direct him did not onely content himselfe with the retayning of angulos in the text of Isidorus as he found it printed before him but pluckt out angelos and chopt in angulos into the old translation of Dionysius Exiguus also which affoorded no roome for any such corners as these For howsoever in that version or perversion rather of the Canon which is extant in the text of Isidorus it might stand with some reason to reade Non oportet Christianos derelictâ ecclesia abire ad angulos idolatriae abominandae congregationes facere It is not lawfull for Christians forsaking the Church to go and make assemblies of abominable idolatry in corners yet in the old translation of Dionysius where the Canon was rightly rendred Quòd non oporteat ecclesiam Dei relinquere abire atque angelos nominare congregationes facere it was contrary to all sense to thrust this reading upon us It is now lawfull for Christians to forsake the Church of God and goe and nominate or invocate CORNERS a wise speech no doubt and make meetings But veritas non quaerit angulos the truth will admit none of these corners For the Greek veritie aswell in all the editions of the Canons that have come forth by themselves as in the Collections of Harmenopulus Zonaras and Balsamon likewise expressely readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in that tongue hath no affinitie at all with corners and the ancient Collectors of the Canons among the Latins Cresconius and Dionysius and Fulgentius Ferrandus have Angelos and Theodoret in his exposition of the epistle to the Colossians doth twice make mention and declare the meaning of this Canon once upon those words of the Apostle in the
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
inlighten the whole celestiall world Rejoyce because the whole hoaste of heaven obeyeth me reverenceth and honoureth me Rejoyce because my Sonne is alwayes obedient unto me and my will and all my prayers he alwaies heareth or as others doe relate it The will of the blessed Trinitie and mine is one and the same and whatsoever doth please me the whole Trinitie with unspeakeable favour doth give consent unto Rejoyce because God doth alwayes at my pleasure reward my servitors in this world and in the world to come Rejoyce because I fit next to the holy Trinitie and am cloathed with my bodie glorified Rejoyce because I am certaine and sure that these my joyes shall alwayes stand and never be finished or â—ayle And whosoever by rejoycing with these spirituall joyes shall woâ—ship me in this world at the time of the depâ—rture of his soule out of the bodie he shall obtaine my presence and I will deliver his soule from the malignant enemies and present it in the sight of my Sonne that it may possesse joyes with me They tell us that manie many whoores for example that would not sinne on Saturday for the reverence of the Virgin whatsoever they did on the Lords day seeme to have the blessed Virgin in greater veneration than Christ her sonne moved thereunto out of simplicitie more than out of knowledge Yet that the Sonne of God doth beare with the simplicitie of these men and women because he is not ignorant that the honour of the mother doth redound to the childe Prov. 17.6 They argue further that if a Cardinall have this priviledge that if he put his cap upon the head of one that is ledd unto justice he is freed therby then by an argument drawn from the stronger the cloake of the blessed Virgin is able to deliver us froÌ„ all evil her mercy being so large that if she should see any man who did devoutly make her Crowne that is to say repeate the Rosarie or Chaplet of prayers made for her worship to be drawn unto punishmeÌ„t in the midst of a thousand Divels she would presently rescue him not permit that any one should have an evil end who did study revereÌ„tly to make her Crown They add moreover that for every of these Crownes a man shal obtaine 273758. dayes of Indulgence and that Pope Sixtus the fourth granted an indulgence of twelve thousand years for every time that a man in the state of grace should repeat this short orizon or salutation of the Virgin which by manie is inserted into her Crowne Hayle most holy Mary the mother of God the Queene of heaven the gate of Paradise the Ladie of the world Thou art a singular and pure virgin thou didst conceive Christ without sinne thou didst beare the creator and saviour of the world in whom I doe not doubt Deliver me from all evill and pray for my sinnes Amen In the Crowne composed by Bonaventure this is one of the orizons that is prescribed to be sayd O. Empresse and our most kinde Ladie by the authoritie of a mother command thy most beloved Sonne our Lord Iesus Christ that he would vouchsafe to lift up our mindes from the love of earthly things unto heavenly desires which is sutable unto that versicle which wee reade in the 35. Psalme of his Ladies Psalter Incline the countenance of God upon us compell him to have mercie upon sinners the harshenesse whereof our Romanists have a little qualified in some of their editions reading thus Incline the countenance of thy Sonne upon us compell him by thy praiers to have mercie upon us sinners The psalmes of this Psalter doe all of them begin as Davids doe but with this maine difference that where the Prophet in the one aymeth at the advancement of the honour of our Lord the Fryar in the other applieth all to the magnifying of the power and goodnesse of our Lady So in the first Psalme Blessed is the man quoth Bonaventure that loveth thy name O Virgin Marie thy grace shall comfort his soule in the others following Lady how are they multiplied that trouble me with thy tempest shalt thou persecute and scatter them Ladie suffer me not to be rebuked in the furie of God nor to bee judged in his wrath My Ladie in thee have I put my trust deliver me from mine enemies O Ladie In our Ladie put I my trust for the sweetenesse of the mercie of her name How long wilt thou forget me O Ladie and not deliver me in the day of tribulation Preserve me O Ladie for in thee have I put my trust and imparte unto me the droppes of thy grace I will love thee O Ladie of heaven and earth and I will call upon thy name among the nations The heavens declare thy glorie and the fragrance of thine oyntments is spread among the nations Heare us Ladie in the day of trouble and turne thy mercifull face unto our prayers Vnto thee O Lady have I lifted up my soule in the judgement of God by thy prayers I shall not be ashamed Iudge me Lady for I have departed from mine innocencie but because I will trust in thee I shall not be weakned In thee O Ladie have I put my trust let me never be confounded in thy favour receive me Blessed are they whose hearts doe love thee ô virgin Marie their sinnes by thee shall mercifully be washed away Lady judge those that hurt me and rise up against them and plead my cause Waiting have I waited for thy grace and thou hast done unto me according to the multitude of the mercie of thy name Lady thou art our refuge in all our necessities and the powerfull strength treading downe the enemie Have mercie upon me O Ladie who art called the mother of mercie and according to the bowels of thy mercies cleanse me from all mine iniquities Save me Ladie by thy name and deliver me from mine unrighteousnesse Have mercie upon me O Ladie have mercie upon me because my heart is prepared to search out thy will and in the shadow of thy wings will I rest Let Marie arise and let her enemies be scattered let them all be troaden downe under her feete In thee O Lady have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion deliver me in thy mercie and cause mee to escape Give the King thy judgement O God and thy mercie to the Queene his mother Lady the gentiles are come into the inheritance of God whom thou by thy merits hast confederated unto Christ. Thy mercies O Lady will I sing for ever God is the Lord of revenges but thou the mother of mercie dost bowe him to take pitie O come let us sing unto our Ladie let us make a joyfull noise to Mary our Queene that brings salvation O sing unto our Lady a new song for shee
hath done marveilous things O give thankes unto the Lord for he is good give thankes unto his mother for her mercie endureth for ever Lady despise not my prayse and vouchsafe to accept this Psalter vvhich is dedicated unto thee The Lord sayd unto our Lady sit thou my mother at my right hand They that trust in thee O mother of God shall not feare from the face of the enemie Except our Lady build the house of our heart the building thereof will not continue Blessed are all they who feare our Ladie and blessed are all they who know to doe thy will and thy good pleasure Out of the deepe have I cried unto thee O Ladie Ladie heare my voice Ladie remember David and all that call upon thy name O give thankes unto the Lord because he is good because by his most sweete mother the virgin Mary is his mercie given Blessed be thou O Ladie which teachest thy servants to warre and strengthenest them against the enemie and so the last Psalme is begun with Prayse our Ladie in her Saints prayse her in her vertues and miracles and ended accordingly with Omnis spiritus laudet Dominam nostram Let everie spirit or everie thing that hath breath prayse our Ladie To this we may adioyne the Psalter of the salutations of the Virgin framed by Iohn Peckham archbishop of Canterburie which is not yet printed His preface he beginneth thus Mente concipio laudes perscribere Sanctae Virginis quae nos à carcere Solvit per filium genus in genere Miri vivificans effectus opere and endeth with a prayer to the blessed Virgin that shee would release the sinnes of all those for whom hee prayed and cause both his owne name and theirs to be written in the booke of life Nec non omnibus relaxes crimina Pro quibus supplicans fundo precamina Nostrumque pariter horum nomina Conscribi facias in vitae paginâ Then followeth his first Psalme wherein he prayeth that she would make us to meditate often Gods Law and afterwards to be made blessed in the glorie of Gods kingdome Ave Virgo virginum parens absque pari Sine viri semine digna foecundari Fac nos legem Domini crebró meditari Et in regni gloriâ beatificari His other 149. Psalmes which are fraught with the same kinde of stuffe I passe over But Bernardinus de Senis his boldnesse may not be forgotten who thinketh that God will give him leave to maintaine that the Virgin Marie did more unto him or at least as much as he himselfe did unto all mankinde and that wee may say for our comfort forsooth that in respect of the blessed Virgin whom God himselfe did make notwithstanding God after a sort is more bound unto us than wee are unto him With which absurd and wretched speculation Bernardinus de Busti after him was so well pleased that hee dareth to revive againe this most odious comparison and propose it a fresh in this saucy maner But O most gratefull Virgin didst not thou something to God Didst not thou make him any recompence Truely if it be Lawfull to speake it thou in some respect didst greater things to God than God himselfe did to thee and to all mankinde I will therefore speake that which thou out of thy humilitie hast past in silence For thou onely didst sing He that is mightie hath done to me great things but I doe sing and say that thou hast done greater things to him that is mightie Neyther is that vision much better which the same author reciteth as shewed to S. Francis or as others would have it to his companion Fryar Lion touching the two ladders that reached from earth unto heaven the one redd upon which Christ leaned from whence many fell backward could not ascend the other white upon which the holy Virgin leaned the helpe whereof such as used were by her received with a cheerefull countenance and so with facilitie ascended into heaven Neyther yet that sentence which came first from Anselme and was after him used by Ludolphus Saxo the Carthusian and Chrysostomus à Visitatione the Cistercian Monke that more present reliefe is sometimes found by commemorating the name of Mary then by calling upon the name of our Lord Iesus her onely Sonne which one of our Iesuites is so farre from being ashamed to defend that he dareth to extend it further to the mediation of other Saints also telling us very peremptorily that as our Lord Iesus worketh greater miracles by his Saints then by himself Iohn 14.12 so often he sheweth the force of their intercession more then of his owne All which I doe lay downe thus largely not because I take any delight in rehearsing those things which deserve rather to be buried in everlasting oblivion but first that the world may take notice what kinde of monster is nourished in the Papacie under that strange name of Hyperdulia the bare discoverie whereof I am perswaded will prevaile as much with a minde that is touched with anie zeale of Gods honour as all other arguments and authorities whatsoever secondly that such unstable soules as looke backe unto Sodome and have a lust to returne unto Egypt againe may be advised to looke a little into this sinke and consider with themselves whether the steame that ariseth from thence be not so noysome that it is not to be indured by one that hath any sense left in him of pierie and thirdly that such as be established in the present truth may be thankefull to God for this great mercie vouchsafed unto them and mak◠this still one part of their prayers From all Romish Dulîa and Hyperdulîa good Lord deliver us OF IMAGES WIth prayer to Saints our Challenger joyneth the use of holy Images which what it hath beene and still is in the Church of Rome seeing hee hath not beene pleased to declare unto us in particular I hope he will give us leave to learne from others It is the doctrine then of the Romane Church that the Images of Christ and the Saints should with pious Religion be worshipped by Christians saith Zacharias Boverius the Spanish fryar in his late Consultation directed to our most noble Prince Charles the Hope of the Church of England and the future felicitie of the World as even this Balaam himself doth style him The representations of God and of Christ and of Angels and of Saints are not onely painted that they may be shewed as the Cherubims were of old in the Temple but that they may be adored as the frequent use of the Church doth testifie saith Cardinall Cajetan So Thomas Arundell archbishop of Canterbury in his Provinciall Councell helde at Oxford in the yeare 1408. established this Constitution following * From henceforth let it be taught commonly and preached by all that the Crosse and the Image of the Crucifixe and
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
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