from the Controversies now in hand p. 8. III. The Writings which go under the names of the Fathers are not all truly such but are a great part of them Supposititious and Forged either long since or of later times p. 11. IV. Those of the Writings of the Fathers which are Legitimate have been in many places corrupted by Time Ignorance and Fraud both Pious and Malitious both in the Former and Later Ages p. 34. V. The Writings of the Fathers are hard to be understood by reason of the Languages and Idioms they wrote in the Manner of their Writing which is for the most part incumbred with Figures and Rhetorical Flourishes and nice Logical Subtilties and the like and also by reason of the Termes which they for the most part used-in a far different sense from what they now bear p. 69. VI. When we meet with an Opinion clearly delivered in the Writings of any of the Fathers we must not from hence conclude that the said Father held that Opinion seeing that we often find them speaking those things which themselves have not believed whether it be when they report the opinion of some other without naming the persons as they frequently do in their Commentaries or in disputing against an Adversary in which kind of Writing they take liberty to say one thing and believe another or whether it be that they concealed their own private Opinion purposely as they have done in their Homilies meerly in compliance to such a part of their Auditory p. 100. VII Supposing that we are well assured that a Father hath clearly delivered his Opinion in any Point we ought notwithstanding to enquire into the time wherein he wrote that Opinion of his whether it were before or after he arrived to Ripeness of Judgment For we see that they have sometimes retracted in their old age what they had written when they were young p. 117. VIII But suppose that a Father hath constantly held one Opinion it will nevertheless concern us to inquire How he held it and in what degree of Belief whether as Necessary or Probable only and then again in what degree of Necessity or of Probability he placed it Beliefs being not all equally either Necessary or Probable p. 123. IX After all this we are to examine whether or no he deliver this as his own particular Opinion only for this cannot necessarily bind our faith or whether he deliver it as the Opinion of the Church in his time p. 136. X. In the next place it will concern us to enquire whether he deliver it for the Judgment of the Church Vniversal or of some particular Church only those things which have been received by the Major Part having not always notwithstanding been received by some particular parts of the Church p. â—4â— XI And after all this whether you take the Church for the Collective Body of Christians or only for the body of the Clergy or Pastors it is notwithstanding impossible to know what the Belief of the whole Church in any Age hath been for as much as it frequently so falls out that the Opinions of these Men who have appeared to the World have not only not been received but on the contrary have also been Opposed and Contradicted by thâ—se Members of the same Church who have not at all appeared to the World who notwithstanding both for their Learning and Piety deserved perhaps to have had as much or more Esteem and Authority than the other p. 151. The Second Book THE second Reason namely that neither the Testimony nor the Preaching of the Fathers is altogether Infallible is proved by these following Considerations p. 1. II. The Fathers themselves witness against themselves that they are not to be believed Absolutely and upon their own bare word p. 11. III. It appeareth plainly by their Manner of Writing that they never intended that their Writings should be our Judges p. 40. IV. They have erred in divers Points not only Singly but also many of them together p. 60. V. They have very much contradicted one the other and have maintained different Opinions in Matters of great Importance p. 112. VI. Lastly to say the truth neither Party alloweth them for Judges but reject them boldly and without any scruple both the one and the other maintaining divers things which the Fathers were ignorant of and rejecting others which were maintained by them the Protestants in those things where the Fathers have gone either against or besides the Scripture the Church of Rome where they oppose against them the Resolutions of their Popes or of Councils Seeing therefore that both Parties attribute the Supream Authority to some other Judges the Fathers though perhaps their Resolutions should be grounded on Divine Authority could never be able notwithstanding to clear their Differences and to reconcile the two Parties p. 126. So that it followeth from hence that our Controversies are to be decided by some other means than that of their Writings and that we are to observe the same Method in Religion that we do in all other Sciences making use of those things wherein we all agree for the clearing of those wherein we differ comparing exactly the Conclusions of both Parties with their Principles which are to be acknowledged and granted by both sides whether it be in Reason or Divine Revelation And as for the Fathers we ought to read them carefully and heedfully and especially without any prejudication on either side searching their Writings for their Opinions and not for our own arguing Negatively concerning those things which we find not in them rather then Affirmatively that is to say holding all those Articles for suspected which are not found in them it being a thing altogether Improbable that those Worthies of the Church were Ignorant of any of the Necessary and Principal Points of Faith but yet not presently receiving for an Infallible Truth whatsoever is found in them for as much as being but Men though Saints they may sometimes have erred either out of pure Ignorance or else perhaps out of Passion which they have not been always wholly free from as appeareth clearly by those Books of theirs which are left Vs The Testimonies of the Lord Faulkland Lord Digby Doctor Taylor Doctor Rivet concerning this learned Book Reader THE Translation of this Tract hath been oft attempted and oftner deâ—â—â—ed by many Noble Personages of this and other Nations among others by Sir Lucius Cary late Lord Viscount Faulkland who with his dear Friend Mr. Chillingworth made very much use of it in all their Writings against the Romanists But the Papers of that learned Nobleman wherein this Translation was half finisht were long since involved in the common loss Those few which have escaped it and the press make a very honourable mention of this Monsieur whose acquaintance the said Lord was wont to say was worth a Voyage to Paris Pag. 202. of his Reply he hath these words This observation of mine hath been confirmed by consideration of
what hath been so temperately learnedly and judiciously written by Monsieur Daille our Protestan-Perron And what the same Lord in a Treatise which will shortly be publisht saith concerning the Popish Perron viz. Him I can scarce ever laudare in one sense that is quote but I must laudare in the other that is praise who hath helpt the Church to all the advantages which wit learning industry judgment and eloquence could add unto her is as true of this our Protestant I shall add but one Lords Testimony more viz. the Lord George Digbies in his late Letters concerning Religion in these words p. 27 28. The reasons prevalent with me whereon an inquiring and judicious person should be obliged to rely and acquiesce are so amply and so learnedly set down by Monsieur Daillé in his Employ des Peâ—â—s that I think little which is material or weighty can be said on this subject that his rare and piercing observation hath not anticipated Were it needful to wander to Foreigners for Testimonies I could tell you how highly this Author is esteemed by the Learned and Famous Doctor Andr. Rivet upon whole importunity his Book des Images and other Tracts have been translated but writing to Englishmen I will only name the judicious Doctor Jer. Taylor Libert of Proph. Sect. 8. n. 4. in these words I shall chuse such a topick as makes no invasion upon the great reputation of the Fathers which I desire should be preserved sacred as it ought For other things let who please read Mr. Daillé du vrai usage des Peres Et siquis eueulo locus inter Oscines I must ingenuously profess that it was the reading of this rational Book which first convinced me that my study in the French Language was not ill employed which hath also enabled me to commend this to the World as faithfully translated by a judicious hand And that if there were no other use of the Fathers there is very much while Testem quem quis adducit pro se tenetur accipere contra se is a rule in reason as well as Civil Law and that the works of Cord. Perron for whose monstrous understanding they are the words of Viscount Faulkland p. 59. Bellarmine and Bironius might with most advantage to their party and no disgrace to them have been employed in seeking citations being built upon the principle That whatever the Fathers witness to be tradition and the doctrine of the Church must be received of all for such and so relied on And this principle being here throughly examined You have here as sufficient a constitation of Perrons Book against K. J. and by consequence of the Marquess of Worcesters against K. C. and Dr. Vanes and other Epitonizers of the Cardinal as you have of Mr. Cressys in the Preface to the Lord Faulkland by the learned I. P. Chr. Coll. Aug. 1. 1651. T. S. THE PREFACE ALl the Difference in Religion which is at this day betwixt the Church of Rome and the Protestants lies in some certain Points which the Church of Rome maintaineth as important and necessary Articles of the Christian Faith Whereas the Protestants on the contrary neither believe nor will receive them for such For as for those things which the Protestants believe for their part and which they conceive to be the Fundamentals of Religion they are so evidently and undeniably such as that even their Adversaries themselves do also allow of and receive them as well as they for as much as they are both clearly delivered in the Scriptures and expresly set down by the Ancient Councils and Fathers and are indeed unanimously received by the greatest part of Christians in all Ages and Parts of the World Such for example are these Maxims following Namely That there is a God who is Supreme over all and who created the Heavens and the Earth That having created Man after his own Image this Man revolting from his Obedience is faln together with his whole Posterity into most extreme and eternal misery and become infected with Sin as with a mortal Leprosie and is therefore obnoxious to the Wrath of God and liable to his Curse That the Merciful Creator pitying Mans Estate graciously sent his Son Jesus Christ into the World That his Son is God Eternal with him and that having taken Flesh upon himself in the Womb of the Virgin Mary and become Man He hath done and suffered in this Flesh all things necessary for our Salvation having by this means sufficiently expiated for our Sins by his Blood and that having finished all this he is ascended again into Heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father from whence He shall one day come to judge all Mankind rendering to every one according to their Works That to enable us to communicate of his Salvation by His Merits He sendeth us down His Holy Spirit proceeding both from the Father and the Son and who is also one and the same God with Them in such sort as that these Three Persons are notwithstanding but One GOD who is Blessed for ever That this Spirit enlightens our Vnderstanding and begets Faith in us whereby we are justified That after all this the LORD sent his Apostles to Preach this Doctrine of Salvation throughout the whole World That These have planted Churches and placed in each of them Pastors and Teachers whom we are to hear with all reverence and to receive from them Baptism the Sacrament of our Regeneration and the Holy Eucharist or Lords Supper which is the Sacrament of our Communion with Jesus Christ That we are likewise all of us bound to love GOD and our Neighbour very fervently observing diligently that Holy Doctrine which is laid down unto us in the Books of the New Testament which have been inspired by His Spirit of Truth as also those other of the Old there being nothing either in the one or in the other but what is most true These Articles and some other few the like which there perhaps may be are the substance of the Protestants whole Belief and if all other Christians would but content themselves with these there would never be any Schism in the Church But now their Adversaries add to these many other Points which they press and command Men to believe as necessary ones and such as without believing of which there is no possible hope of Salvation As for example That the Pope of Rome is the Head and Supreme Monarch of the whole Christian Church throughout the World That He or at least the Church which he acknowledgeth a true one cannot possibly erre in matter of Faith That the Sacrament of the Eucharist is to be adored as being really Jesus Christ and not a piece of Bread That the Mass is a Sacrifice that really expiates the Sins of the Faithful That Christians may and ought to have in their Churches the Images of God and of Saints to which they are to use Religious Worship bowing down before them That it is
Passage of S. Basil alledged by themselves triumphed as if they had got the day baffling and affronting the Greeks in a very disdainful manner and giving them very harsh Language also used notwithstanding such an odd kind of Logick to perswade the receiving of the Exposition which they gave as that even at this day in the last Edition of S. Basil's Works Printed at Paris and Revised by Fronto Ducaeus the Latin Translation follows in this Particular not their Exposition but that of the Greek Schismaticks And some of the Protestants having also had the same success in some particular Points controverted betwixt themselves it lies open to every Mans observation how much obscurity there is found in the Passages cited by both Sides If Tertullian was of the Opinion of the Church of Rome in the Point concerning the Eucharist what could he have uttered more dark and obscure than this Passage is of his in his Fourth Book against Marcion Christ having taken Bread and distributed it to his Disciples made it his Body in saying This is my Body that is to say The Figure of my Body If S. Augustine held Transubstantiation what can the meaning be of these words of his The Lord stuck not to say This is my Body when he delivered onely the Sign of his Body If these Passages and an infinite number of the like do really and truly mean that which Cardinal Perron pretends they do then was there never any thing of obscurity either in the Riddles of the Theban Sphinx or in the Oracles of the Sibyls If you look on the other side you shall meet with some other Passages in the Fathers which seem to speak point-blank against the Protestants as for example where they say expresly That the Bread changeth its nature and That by the Almighty Power of God it becomes the Flesh of the Word and the like And so in all the Controversies betwixt them they produce such Passages as these both on the one side and on the other some whereof seem to be irreconcileable to the Sense of the Church of Rome and some other to the Sense of their Adversaries If Cardinal Perron and those other subsime Wits of both Parties can have the confidence to affirm that they find no difficulty at all in these Particulars we must needs think that either they speak this but out of a Bravado setting a good face upon a bad matter or else that both the Wits and Eye-sight of all the rest of the World are marvelous dull and feeble in finding nothing but Darkness there where these Men see nothing but Light But yet for all this if there be not obscurity in these Writings of the Fathers and that very much too how comes it to pass that even these very Men find themselves ever and anon so tormented to find out the meaning of them How comes it to pass that they are fain to use so many words and make tryal of so many tricks and devices for the clearing of them Whence proceeds it that so often for fear of not being able to satisfie their Readers they are forced to cry down either the Authors or the Pieces out of which their Adversaries produce their Testimonies What strange Sentences and Passages of Authors are those that require more time and trouble in the clearing Them than in deciding the Controversie it self and which multiply Differences rather than determine them oftentimes serving as a Covert and retreating-place to both Parties The sense and meaning of these words is debated This is my Body For the explaining of them there is brought this Passage out of Tertullian and that other out of S. Augustine Now I would have any Man speak in his conscience what he thinks whether or not these words are not as clear or clearer than those Passages which they alledge out of these Fathers as they are explained by the different Parties I desire Reader no other judge than thy self whosoever thou art only provided that thou wilt but vouchsafe to read and examine that which is now said upon these places and withal consider the strange Turnings and Windings-about that they make us take to bring us to the right sense and meaning of them In a word if the most able Men that are did not find themselves extreamly puzled and perplexed in distinguishing the Legitimate Writings of the Fathers from the Spurious it is not likely that the Censors of the Low-Countries who are all choice pickt Men should be forced to shew us so ill an Example of finding a way to help our selves when the Authority of the Ancients is strongly pressed against us by our Adversaries as they do in excusing the expressions of the Fathers sometimes by some handsomlâ— contrived invention and imputting some convenient probable sense upon them That which hath been said I am confident is sufficient to convince any reasonable Man of the Truth of this Assertion of ours namely that it is a very hard matter to understand the sense and opinions of the Fathers by their Books But that we may leave no doubt behind us let us briefly consider some few of the principal Causes of this Difficulty Certainly the Fathers having been Wise Men all of them both spoke and wrote to be understood insomuch that having both the will and the ability to do it it seemeth very strange that they should not be able to attain to the end they aimed at But we must here call to mind what we have said before namely that these Controversies of ours being not in their time yet sprung up they had no occasion neither was it any of their design either to speak or write any thing of them For these Sages stirred up as few doubts in matters of Religion as they could Besides that their times furnished them with sufficient matter of Disputes in Points which were then in agitation without so much as thinking of Ours now on foot And they have very clearly delivered their sense in all those Controversiâ—s which they have handled Even Tertullian himself who is the most obscure amongst them all hath notwithstanding delivered himself so clearly in the debates betwixt him and Marcion and others that there is no place left for a Man to doubt what his opinions were in the points debated of I am therefore fully perswaded that if they had lived in these times or that the present Controversies had been agitated in their times they would have delivered their judgment upon them very plainly and expresly But seeing they have not touched upon them but only by the By and as they câ—me accidentally into their way rather than upon any set purpose we are not to think it strange if we find them not to have spoken out and given their sense clearly as to these Debates of ours For as any Man may easily observe in the ordinary course of things those things that happen without design are never clear and full but ambiguous and doubtful and oftentimes
so many Eminent and Wise Men hath approved and confirmed this Mistake of theirs not perceiving it at all what can we or indeed what ought we to expect from any other hands whose soever they be as touching the Points now controverted betwixt us in comparison of which a Man may very well say that all the Difficulty that this Matter now spoken of yieldeth is nothing at all wherein notwithstanding this whole Council mistook it self Where shall we find a M that after this their Failing can have the courage to adventure upon so Difficult and so Intricate an undertaking Who can promise himself success there where so Great a Council hath failed The very hope of effecting so weighty a Matter can hardly be excused from the guilt of High Prâ—sumption For first of all the Fathers tell us very seldom in what Degree either of Necessity or Probability they held their Opinions and even when they do tell us their Expressions being such as we have observed of them we ought not presently to conclude any thing from them without first examining them throughly For many tâ—mes when they would recommend unto us such things as they accounted profitable for us they would speak of them as if they had been Necessary and so again to take off our Belief of and to divert our affections from such things as they conceived either to be simply false or otherwise unprofitable for us they represented them as the most detestable and pernicious things that could be Whosoever fasteth upon the Lords day or upon any Saturday except that one Saturday he meaneth Easter-Eve he is a murtherer of Christ said S. Ignatius Who would not think hearing these so Tragical Expressions of his that certainly he was speaking of the very Foundation of the whole Christian Religion And yet the Business he there speaks of was only the Observation of a certain part of a Positive Law and which yet as most are of opinion was at that time received but by a part onely of the Church the belief and observation whereof was so far from being reckoned among those things that were Necessary that it was scarcely placed in the first Degree of Probability and is now at length utterly abolished too This manner of Discoursing is very frequently used by Tertullian S. Ambrose and especially by S. Hierome who are all so eager for the Side which they take to that you would think in reading them that all those whom they commend were very Angels and all those other whom they speak against arrant Devils that whatsoever they maintain are the very Foundations and Ground-work of the Christian Religion and whatsoever they refute is meer Atheism and the highest Impiety that may be Certainly S. Hierome writing to a certain Roman Matron named Furia who was a Widow and disswading her from marrying again discourseth of this Matter in the very same manner as he would have done in disswading her from the committing of Murther And here are we to call to mind again the divers Reasons of the obscurity of the Fathers and particularly that of their Rhetorick all which have place in this Particular rather than in any other So that there seemeth to be but one onely Certain way left us to discover in what degree they placed the Propositions of Christian Doctrine namely their Creeds and Expositions of their Faith whether they were General or Particular ones and the Determinations of their Councils and Ecclesiastical Assemblies For we may very well believe that they held as necessary all such Points as they made profession of in such a manner Anathematizing all such as should deny the same And by this Rule we may indeed assure our selves that they held as Necessary the greatest part of all those Points wherein we at this day agree among our selves And some of these we have formerly set down in our Preface for they are most of them either delivered expresly in their Creeds or else positively determined in their Councils and the Contradictors of them there expresly condemned But yet this Rule will scarcely be of any use at all to us in the Decilion of our present Controversies For some of them appear not at all neither in that Rule of Faith so often mentioned by Tertullian nor in the Nicen Creed nor in that of Coâ—stantiâ—ople nor in the Determinations of the Council of Ephesus nor yet in those of Chalcedon The first of these Councils Anathematized Arius the second Macedonius the third Nestorius and the fourth Eutyches and yet nevertheless are the several Tenets of these very Men at this day received and maintained by one Side or other Nay which is more the aforesaid Articles do not at all appear neither in the two following Councils namely the second Council of Constantinople which condemned certain Writings of Theodorus Theodoretus and Ibas as we have touched before nor yet in the III Council of Constantinople which Anathematized the Monothelites and was held about the year of our Lord DCLXXXI And yet have these Six first Councils if you will believe the Fathers of the VII established and confirmed all those things which had been taught in the Catholick Church down from the Primitive Times whether by Writing or by Vnwritten Tradition So that it will hence follow that these Points which appear not here in the said Six first Councils at all were not delivered from the beginning neither in Writing nor otherwise Only about the Eighth Century and so for a good while afterward we find mention of one of those Points now controverted among us namely that touching Images which was diversly and contrarily determined in the Councils of Constantinople of Nicaea and of Francfort the Second of these Councils enjoyning the Vse and Adoration of Images whereas the First had utterly forbid it and the last of these Councils taking off and correcting as it were the Excesses of the other Two What can you say to this that neither in the Writings of Particular Men which yet are usually more copious and fuller than the Determinations of Councils are there is so much as any mention made of the said Points Epiphanius in the Conclusion of his Treatise of Heresies gives us two Discourses in the one whereof he setteth down the Order Customs and Discipline of the Church in his time wherein I must needs say that there are very many things which much differ from the Customs that are at this day observed by us both of the one side and of the other In the other is contained an Exposition of the Faith of the Church set down at large which he calleth The Pillar of the Truth the Hope and Assurance of Immortality And yet of all those Controversies which are at this day debated amongst us you shall there meet with onely one which is touching the Local Descent of our Saviour Christ into Hell which yet is an Article of very small importance as every one knows In the Acts of the Sixth Council
which amount in all in the Old Testament to the number of twenty two only without making any mention at all of those other Books which Cardinal Perron calls Posthumous namely Ecclesiasticus the Book of Wisdom the Maccabâ—es Judith and Tobit All the Canons of this Council were afterwards inserted into the Code of the Church Universal where you have this very Canon also Num. 163. that is as much as to say they were received as Rules of the Catholick Church Who would believe now but that this Declaration of the Canon of the Scriptures was at that time received by all Christian Churches And yet notwithstanding you have the Churches of Africk meeting together in the Synod at Carthage about the year of our Lord 397. and ordaining quite contrary to the former Resolution of Laodicea that among those Books which were allowed to be read in Churches the Maccabees Judith Tobit Ecclesiasticus and the Book of Wisdom which two last they also reckon among the Books written by Solomon should be taken into the number Who knoweth not the difference that there was in the first Ages of Christianity betwixt the Eastern and the Western Churches touching the Fasting upon Saturdays the Church of Rome maintaining it is lawful and all the rest of the World accounting it unlawful Whence it was that we had that so bold Canon passed in the Council at Constantinople in Trullo in these words Vnderstanding that in the City of Rome in the time of the Holy Fast of Lent they fast on Saturdays contrary to the Custom and Tradition of the Church it seemeth good to this Holy Council that in the Roman Church they inviolably also observe that Canon which saith that whosoever shall be found to fast either upon the Lords day or upon the Saturday excepting only that one Saturday if he be a Clergie-man he shall be deposed but if be be of the Laity he shall be excommunicated Who knoweth not after how many several ways the Fast of Lent was Anciently observed in divers Churches an account whereof is given you by Irenaeus in that Pious Epistle of his which he wrote to Victor part whereof Eusebius setteth down in his Ecclesiastical History Who doth not also know that the opinions and expressions of the Greek Church touching Free-will and Predestination are extremely different from what the Church believed and taught in S. Augustines time and so downward And as concerning the Discipline of the Church do but hear Anastasius Bibliothecarius upon the VI Canon of the VII General Council which enjoyneth all Metropolitans to hold Provincial Synods once a year Neither let it at all trouble thee saith he that we have not this Decree seeing that there are some others found among the Canons whose Authority nevertheless we not admit of For some of them are in force and are observed in the Greek Church and others again in certain other Provinces only As for example the XVI and XVII Canons of the Council of Laodicea are observed only among the Greeks and the VI and the VIII Canons of the Council of Africk are received by none but the Africans only I could here produce divers other Examples but these may suffice to shew that the Opinions and Customs which have been received in one Part of the Church have not always been entertained in all the rest Whence it evidently follows that all that is acknowledged as the opinion or observation of the Church ought not therefore presently to pass for an Universal Law The Protestant alledgeth for the justifying his Canon of the Scriptures the Council of Laodicea before mentioned Thou answerest him perhaps that this indeed was the opinion of the Churches but it was only of some particular Churches I shall not here enter into an Examination whether this Answer be well grounded or not it is sufficient for me that I can safely then conclude from hence that according to this account before you can make use of any Opinion or Testimony out of any of the Fathers it is necessary that you first make it appear not only that it was the Opinion of the Church at that time but you must further also clearly demonstrate unto us what Churches opinion it was whether of the Church Universal or else of some Particular Church only It is objected against the Protestants that Epiphanius testifieth that the Church admitted not into the higher Orders of the Ministry any save those that were Virgins or professed Continency Now to make good this Allegation it is necessary that it be first proved that the Church he there speaks of was the Church Universal For will the Protestant reply upon you as Laodicea hath had as it seems a particular Opinion touching the Canon of the Scriptures possibly also Cyprus may in like manner have had its particular Resolutions touching the Ordination of the Clergy The like may be said of the greatest part of those other Observations and Opinions of the Ancient Church Now how difficult a business it will be to clear these Matters which are so full of perplexity and to distinguish of Antiquity at this so great a distance of time severing that which was Publick from what was Particular and that which was Provincial from what was National and what was National from that which was Vniversal any Man may be able to give some kind of guess but none can throughly understand save he that hath made trial of it Do but fancy to your selves a City that hath lain ruinated a thousand years no part whereof remains save onely the Ruines of Houses lying all along here and there confusedly all the rest being covered all over with Thorns and Bushes Imagine then that you have met with one that will undertake to shew you precisely where the Publick Buildings of the City stood and where the Private which were the Stones that belonged to the one and which belonged to the other and in a word who in these confused Heaps where the Whole lies all together will notwithstanding separate ye the one from the other The very same Task in a manner doth he undertake who ever shall go about truly and precisely to distinguish the Opinions of the Ancient Church This Antiquity is now of Eleven or Twelve hundred years standing and the Ruines of it are now onely left us in the Books of the Writers of that Time which also have met with none of the best entertainment in their Passage through the several Ages down to our time as we have shewed before How then dare we entertain the least hope that amidst this so great Confusion we should be able yet to distinguish the Pieces and to tell which of them honoured the Publick Temple and which went to the furnishing of Private Chappels onely especially considering that the Private ones have each of them ambitiously endeavoured to make their own pass for Publick For where is the Province or the City or the Doctor that hath not boastingly cried up
so charitable Admonition we should still believe all they say without examining any thing I take it for a Favour saith S. Ambrose when any one that readeth my Writings giveth me an account of what Doubts he there meeteth withal First of all because I may be deceived in those very things which I know And besides many things escape us and some things sound otherwise to some than perhaps they do to me I shall further here desire the Reader to take notice how careful the Ancients were in advising those who lived in their own time to take a strict Examination of their Words As for example where Origen adviseth That his Auditors should prove whatsoever he delivered and that they should be attentive and receive the Grace of the Spirit from whom proceedeth the discerning of Spirits that so as good Bankers they might diligently observe when their Pastor deceiveth them and when he preacheth unto them that which is Pious and True Cyrill likewise in his Fourth Catechesis hath these Words Believe me not saith he in whatsoever I shall simply deliver unless thou find the things which I shall speak demonstrated out of the Holy Scriptures For the Conservation and Establishment of our Faith is not grounded upon the Eloquence of Language but rather upon the Proofs that are brought out of the Divine Scriptures If therefore they would not have those who heard them speak vivâ voce to believe them in any thing unless they had demonstrated the Truth of it out of the Scriptures how much less would they have us now receive without this Demonstration those Opinions which we meet with in their Books which are not onely mute but corrupted also and altered so much and so many several ways as we have formerly shewed Certainly when I see these Holy men on one side crying out unto us that they are Men subject to Errours and that therefore we ought to consider and examine what they deliver and not take it all for Oracle and then on the other side set before my eyes these Worthy Maxims of the Ages following to wit That their Doctrine is the Law of the Church Vniversal and That we are bound to follow it not only according to the sense but according to the Bare Words also and that we are bound to hold all that they have written even to the lest tittle This representation I say makes me call to mind the History of Paul and Barnabas to whom the Lycaonians would needs render Divine Honour notwithstanding all the resistance these Holy men were able to make who could not forbear to rend their garments through the Indignation they were filled with to see that service paid to themselves which was due to the Divine Majesty alone running in amongst them and crying out aloud Sirs why do ye these things We also are Men of like passions with you For seeing that there is none but God whose word is certainly and necessarily True and seeing that on the other side the Word whereon we ground and build our Faith ought to be such who seeth not that it is all one as to invest Man with the Glory which is due to God alone and to place him in a manner in his Seat if we make His Word the Rule and Foundation of our Faith and the Judge of our Differences concerning It I am therefore stedfastly of this Opinion that if these Holy men could now behold from their blessed Mansions where they now live in bliss on high with their Lord and Saviour what things are acted here below they would be very much offended with this False Honour which men confer upon them much against their Wills and would take it as a very great injury offer'd them seeing that they cannot receive this Honour but to the Prejudice and Diminution of the Glory of their Redeemer whom they love a thousand times more than Themselves Or if from out their Sepulchres where the Reliques of their Mortality are now laid up they could but make us hear their sacred voice they would I am very confident most sharply reprove us for this Abuse and would cry out in the words of S. Paul Sirs why do ye these things We also were Men of like Passions with you But yet what need is there either of ransacking their Sepulchers and disturbing their Sacred Ashes or of calling down their Spirits from Heaven seeing that their voice resoundeth loud enough and is heard so plainly in these very Books of theirs which we so imprudently place in that seat which is only due to the Word of God We have heard what the Judgment was of S. Augustine and of S. Hierome the two most eminent Persons in the Western Church touching this Particular let us not then be all afraid having such examples to follow to speak freely our Opinions But now before we go any further I conceive it will be necessary that we answer an Objection that may be brought against us which is that Athanasius S. Cyrill and S. Augustine himself also often times cite the Fathers Besides what some have observed that the Fathers seldom entered into these Lists but when they were provoked by their Adversaries I add further that when we maintain that the Authority of the Fathers is not a sufficient Medium to prove an Article of Faith by we do not thereby presently forbid either the reading or the citing of them The Fathers often quote the Writings of the Learned Heathens the Oracles of the Sibylls and Passages out of the Apocryphal Books Did they therefore think that theâ—e Books were of sufficient Authority to ground an Article of Faith upon God forbid we should entertain so ill an Opinion of them Their Faith was grounded upon the Word of God But yet to evidence the Truth more fully they searched into Humane Records and by this Inquiry made it appear that the Light of the Truth revealed unto Them had in some degree shot its beams also even into the Schools of Men how Close and Shady soever they had been But if they should have produced no other but Humane Authority they would never have been able to have brought over any one person to the Faith But after they had received by Divine Revelation the Matter of our Faith it was very wisely done of them in the next place to prove not the Truth but the Clearness of It by these little Sparks which shot forth their light in the Spirits of Men. And for some the like Reason did S. Augustine Athanasius Cyrill and many other of them make use of Allegations out of the Fathers For after that each of these had grounded upon the Authority of Divine Revelation the Necessity and Efficacy of Grace the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and the Union of the Two Natures in Christ they then fell to producing of several Passages out of those Learned Men who had lived before Them to let men see that this Truth was so clear in
alledged by S. Paul out Habakkuk to the Original telling us that S. Paul had cited it in these words The Just shall live by My Faith whereas it is most evident that he Apostle both in the First Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans as also in the Epistle to the Galatians hath it only thus The Just shall live by Faith and not The Just shall live by My Faith Athanasius in his Synopsis or whoever else was the Author of that Piece reckoning up the several Books of Scriptures evidently takes the Third Book of Esdras which hath been always accounted Apocryphal by the common consent of all Christendom for the First which is received by all both Christians and Jews into the Canon of the Scriptures We might reckon to this number if at least so foolish a Piece deserve to have any place among the Writings of the Fathers that gross mistake which we meet with in an Epistle of Pope Gregory II. who raileth fiercely against Vzziah for breaking the Brazen Serpent calling him for this Act of his The Brother of the Emperour Leo the Iconoclast which as he thought was all one as to reckon him amongst the most mischievous and wretched Princes that ever had been and yet all this while the Scripture tells us that this was the Act not of Vzziah but of the Good King Hezekiah and that he deserved to be rather commended for the same than blamed As for their slips of Memory he had need to have a very happy one himself that should go about to reckon them all up For example S. Ambrose tells us somewhere That the Eagle dying is revived again out of her own Ashes Who sees not that in this place he would have said the Phoenix But however in another place giving us an Account of the Story of the Phoenix as it is commonly delivered he says That this we have learned from the Authority of the Scriptures By a like mistake it was that he affirmed that these words For this very purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee were spoken to Moses to whom notwithstanding the Lord never said any such word but rather to Pharaoh In like manner doth he attribute to the Jews those words in the ninth Chapter of S. John which were indeed spoken by Christ's Disciples who asked him saying Master who did sin this Man or his Parents that he was born blind I impute that other mistake of his to the heat of his Rhetorick where he brings in one of the seven Brethren in the Maccabees who suffered under King Antiochus and makes him in his height of Gallantry alledge the Example of John and of James the Sons of Thunder two of our Saviour Christs Apostles who came not into the World as every one knows till a long time after this It was a slip of memory also in Tertullian where he tells us That the Lord said unto Moses They have not rejected Thee but they have rejected Me which words were indeed spoken to Samuel and not to Moses S Hierome also was overtaken in the like manner when he tells us That none of the Fathers ever understood the word Knew in the Last Verse of the First Chapter of S. Matthew otherwise than of the Conjugal Act not remembring that his own dear Friend Epiphanius takes the word in a quite different sense and will have the meaning of the place to be That Joseph before the Miraculous Birth of our Saviour Christ knew not what Glory and Excellency was to befal the Blessed Virgin knowing nothing else of her before save only that she was the Daughter of Joachim and of Annae and Cousin to Elizabeth who was of the House of David whereas he at that time knew clearly that God had done him that Honour of sending his Angel to him and of chusing his Espoused Wife Mary to be the only Woman on Earth on whom he would confer that so great and wonderful Benefit and Advantage above all others But we intend not here to give you an Inventory of all the Errors of this nature which are to be found in the Writings of the Ancients these Patterns may well enough serve to shew what the whole Pieces are I shall only add here That besides this Carelesness and Security which is so ordinary with them in writing thus confidently whatsoever came in their mind or whatever others had delivered over unto them for Sound and Good without ever examining it throughly they had yet another kind of Custom which seems not to suit so well with the Person of Judges as we will needs have them to be And this is that in their Writings they are sometimes so jolly and sportful coming over us with such rare Allegorical Observations as have scarcely any more Solidity or Body than those Castles of Cards that little Children are wont to make These Cardinal Perron calls Des Gayetez joyeuses Chearful Frolickings I know very well that Allegories are useful and many times also necessary if so be they be but sober clear and well-grounded But I speak not here save only of such as rack the Text and as it were drag it along by the Hair and which make the Sense of the Scripture evaporate in empty Fumes And of these are the Writings of the Fathers full S. Hierome often complains of the strange Liberty that Origen and his Disciples took herein Certainly he himself often flies out in this kind and whosoever hath a mind to fee it may read but his 146 Epistle where he expounds the Parable of the Prodigal Son or let him but turn to the Discourse which he hath made touching the Genealogy of the Prophet Zephaniah and concerning the City of Damascus and also upon the History of Abishag the Shunamite and also upon the Five and twenty Men and the Two Princes spoken of in Ezechiel chap. 11. and upon the Destruction of Tyre of Egypt and of Assyria foretold by the same Prophet as also his subtile Observations upon Numbers and upon King Darius and upon that Command of our Saviour Christ where he bideth us turn the Left Cheek to him that hath smitten us on the Right and many other the like Discourses of his S. Hilary is so much taken with this manner of writing as that his Expositions upon the Scripture are half full of these Allegories and to be sure to make himself the more work he sometimes frames certain Impossibilities and Absurdities which he would make the Scripture seem to be guilty of which yet it is not only that he may have some pretense to have recourse to his Allegories As for example in the 136 Psalm he will needs have the Letter of the Text to be utterly inexplicable where it says That the Jews sate down by the Rivers of Babylon and hanged up their Harps upon the Willows as if in this Country that
even to Infants too as appears by his LIX Epistle where by the suffrages of LXV other Bishops he admitteth Infants to Baptism and the Lords Supper so soon as ever they are born against the Opinion of one Fidus who would not admit of them till the Eighth Day after they were born and also by that story of his that he tells us of a certain young Girl who being not as yet of years to speak by a remarkable Miracle put back the Liquor which had been consecrated for the Blood of our Saviour and was presented unto her by a Deacon to drink in the Church as judging her self unworthy to receive it by reason that not long before she had been carried to the celebration of some certain Pagan Sacrifices Now the Original of this Errour of theirs was the Belief they had that the Eucharist was as necessary to Salvation as Baptism as may easily be collected out of the words of the said Author delivered Lib. 3. Test ad Quirin Where having first laid down this for a Ground to wit That no man can come into the Kingdom of God unless he be baptized and regenerated he produceth for a proof hereof first that Passage out of St. John where it is said that Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God c. and then this other Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you urging the first of these places to prove the necessity of Baptism and the other for that of the Eucharist accounting each of them necessary to Regeneration And hence it is that we find him speaking so often of being born again by virtue of the one and of the other Sacrament in which words he doth not mean Baptism and Confirmation as some will needs perswade us but rather Baptism and the Lords Supper as is evident also by the following words namely that It is to very little purpose to be baptized and to partake of the Holy Eucharist unless a man proceed in good Works c. I shall here pass by some words which he hath sometimes let fall touching the Point of the Baptism of Hereticks by which he seems to make the Efficacy of the Sacrament to depend upon the Integrity and Sanctity of the person who administreth it We should now come in the next place to speak of Origen but since that there have been some since his time who have very much cryed down both him and his Doctrine and others again on the other side who have as stifly defended him we shall forbear to say any thing of him that we may not ingage our selves in so long and tedious a Quarrel we shall only observe from this example of his that neither the Antiquity nor yet the Learning or holy Life of any man necessarily withholdeth him from falling into very strange and gross Errours For Origen was one of the most Ancient among the Fathers having lived about the middle of the Third Century and having been so eminent for those two other excellencies of Innocence and Learning as that his fiercest Adversaries cannot deny but that he had them both in a very high degree Neither ought the Story of his Fall related by Epiphanius to take off any thing from the Reputation of his Vertue for though perhaps it might have been true yet hath it frequently hapned to others of the Faithful to fall into great Temptations also as appears evidently enough by the Example of Saint Peter himself But that I may not dissemble I profess my self much inclined to be of Cardinal Baronius his Opinion who thinks this story to be an arrant Fable maliciously devised by those who envied the Fame of this excellent admirable Wit and that it was soisted into Epiphanius by some such hand or else as I rather believe was taken upon trust by himself and thrust into that Book of his without any further Examination as many other things have been in the relating whereof this Father hath shewed himself a little over-credulous as is also observed by his last Interpreter And yet Origen notwithstanding all those excellent Gifts of his hath not spared to broach very many Opinions which by reason of the absurdness of them have been utterly rejected and certainly very deservedly too by the Church in all the Ages succeeding which is an evident Argument that how ancient learned and holy soever an Author may have been we ought not however presently to believe him and to urge him as infallible since there is no reason in the world to be given why the same thing which hath befallen Origen in so many Points may not in some or other have also befallen any other Author whosoever he be But this I am very well assured of that those very men who have written against Origen have not been so throughly happy in their undertaking but by opposing to the utmost some certain Errour of his have sometimes fallen into as great a one of their own One of them for example Methodius by name as he is cited by Epiphanius maintains that after the Resurrection and Final Judgment we shall dwell for ever upon the Earth leading there a holy blessed and everlasting life exercising our selves in all good things like as the Angels do in Heaven He also as well as the rest maketh the Angels obnoxious to the Love of Women and he will have Gods Providence to extend it self only to Vniversal Causes affirming that He hath committed the Care of Parlicular things to the Angels which Opinions of his if they be throughly examined will be found to be not much less dangerous and contrary to the Scriptures than some of those very Opinions which he reproves in Origen I shall also for the same reason pass by Eusebius Didymus Apollinaris and the like who though they are very Ancient Authors yet there is ordinarily little account made of them by reason of the hard Opinion that the greatest part of the Church had of them As for the two first of these although perhaps their Faith may not have been much freer from stains than the rest they have yet been more favourably dealt withal by Posterity than their brethren whether it were because that the time they lived in being so far distant from the Ages of our Aristarchi and Censors of other men they have so much the less moved their envy and passion or else because that they were willing to spare them by reason of the Great Opinion that the Ordinary sort in the Church had of them Lactantius Firmianus whose Repute was scarcely questioned at all among the Ancients had notwithstanding his Errours too For it is a long time since that St. Hierome observed one very strange one in him in an Epistle that he wrote to Demetrianus where he denies that The Holy Ghost is a Distinct Person in the Godhead subsisting