had not the prophane licentiousnesse of hereticall curiositie by inventing I know not what new opinion spotted and discredited all his former labours whereby his doctrine was accounted not so much an edification as an ecclesiasticall tentation CHAP. VII HEre some man perhaps requireth to know what heresies these men above named taught that is Nestorius Appollinaris Photinus This pertaineth not to the matter whereof we now intreat for it is not our purpose to dispute against each mans particuler error but only by a few examples plainly and clearly to prove that to be most true which Moyses saith that if at any time any ecclesiasticall doctour yea and a Prophet for interpreting the misteries of the prophetical visions goeth about to bring in any new opinion into the Church that the providence of God doth permit it for our proofe and triall But because it will be profitable I will by a little digression briefely set down what the forenamed hereticks Photinus Apollinaris and Nestorius taught This then is the heresie of Photinus he affirmeth that God is as the Jewes beleeve singular and solitary denying the fulnesse of the Trinitie not beleving that there is any person of the word of God or of the holy ghost he affirmeth also that Christ was only man who had his begining of the virgin MARY teaching verie earnestly that we ought to worship only the person of God the father and to honour Christ only for man This then was Photinus opinion now Apollinaris vaunteth much as though he beleved the unitie of Trinitie with full sound faith but yet blasphemeth he manifestly against our Lords incarnation For he saith that our Saviour either had not mans soul at all or at least such a one as was neither indued with mind or reason furthermore he affirmeth that Christs body was not taken of the flesh of the holy virgin MARY but descended from heaven into the wombe of the Virgin holding yet doubtfully inconstantly some time that it was coeternall to the word of God some time that it was made of the divinitie of the word for he would not admit two maner of substances in Christ the one divine the other humane the one of his Father the other of his Mother but did think that the verie nature of the word was divided into two parts as though the one remained in God and the other was turned into flesh that wheras the truth saith that Christ is one consisting of two substances he contrary to the truth affirmeth of the one divinitie of Christ to be two substances and these be the assertions of Apollinaris But Nestorius sicke of a contrarie disease whilest he faineth a distinction of two substances in Christ suddenly bringeth in two persons and with monstrous wickednes will needs have two sonnes of God two Christs one that was God and another that was man one begotten of the Father another begotten of his Mother And therefore he saieth that the holy Virgin MARY is not to be called the mother of God but the mother of Christ because that Christ which was borne of her was not God but man And if any man think that in his books he saith there was one Christ and that he preached one person of Christ I must needs confesse that he lacketh not ground to say so for that he did either of craftie pollicie the rather to deceave that by some good things he might the more easely perswade that which is evill as the Apostle saith By the good thing he hath wrought me death R. 7. Wherfore either craftely as I said in certaine places of his writings he vaunteth to beleeve one person in Christ or else surely he did hold that after our Ladies deliverie two persons became in such sort one Christ that yet in the time of our Ladies conception or deliverie and for some time after there were two Christs and that Christ was born first like unto another man and only was man and not yet joyned in unitie with the person of God the word and that afterward the person of the word descended down assuming and joyning him self to that man in unitie of person and although he now remaine in glorie assumpted for some time yet there seemeth to have been no difference betwixt him and other men Thus then Nestorius Apollinaris Phatinus like mad doggs barked against the Catholick Church Photinus not confessing the Trinity Apollinaris maintaining the nature of the Word convertible and not confessing two substances in Christ denying also either the whol soul of Christ or at least that it was indued with mind and reason beleeving for his pleasure what he liked of the second person in Trinitie Nestorius by defending either alwayes or for some time two Christs But the Catholick Church beleeving aright both of God and of our Saviour neither blasphemeth against the misterie of the Trinitie nor against the incarnation of Christ for it worshipeth one Divinitie in Trinitie reverenceth the equalitie of the Trinitie in one and the same majestie confessing one Christ not two and the self same both God and man beleeving in him one person yet acknowledging two substances but yet beleeving one person two substances because the word of God is not mutable that it can be turned into flesh one person least professing two sonnes it may seeme to worship a quaternitie and not to adore the Trinitie CHAP. VIII BUt it is worth the labour to declare this matter more plainly more substantially more distinctly In God is one substance and three persons in Christ be two substances but one person In the Trinitie there is another and another but not another and another thing In our Saviour is not another and another but another another thing How is there in the Trinitie another and another but not another and another thing Marry because there is another person of the father another of the sonne and another of the holy ghost But yet not another another nature but one the self same How is there in our Saviour another and another thing not another and another because there is another substance of the divinitie and another substance of the humanitie but yet the deitie and the humanitie is not another and another but one and the selfe same Christ one and the same sonne of God and one and the selfe same person of the selfe same Christ and sonne of God As in a man the body is one thing and the soule is another thing but yet the body and the soule are but one and the selfe same man In Peter Paul the soule is one thing the body is another thing and yet the body and the soule are not two Peters nor the soule is not one Paul and the body another Paul but one and the selfe same Peter one and the selfe same Paul subsisting of a double divers nature of the body and the soule So therefore in one and the selfe same Christ there are two substances but one a divine
substance the other humane the one of God the Father the other of the Virgin his Mother the one coeternall and equall to the Father the other substantiall to his Mother yet one and the same Christ in both substances Therefore there is not one Christ God another Christ man not one increated another created not one impassible another passible not one equal to the Father another lesse then the Father not one of the father another of the mother but one and the selfe same Christ God and man the same increated and created the same incommutable and impassible the same changed suffered the same equall and inferiour to the Father the same begotten of his Father before all times the same conceived of his Mother in time perfect God and perfect man in him as God is perfect Divinitie in him as man is perfect humanitie perfect humanitie I say because it had both soule and body yet a true body such as our body is and such as his mothers was and a soule indued with understanding with mind reason There is therefore in Christ the Word the Soul the Flesh but yet all these together is one Christ one son of God our onely Saviour and Redeemer One I say not by any I know not what corruptible confusion of the divinity and humanity together but by a certain perfect and singular unity of person for that conjunction did not change or convert either into other which is the proper errour of the Arians but did rather so unite both in one that as the singularity of one and the same person remayneth alwayes in Christ so likewise the properties of both natures do for ever continue so that neither God ever beginneth to be a body nor now at any time ceaseth to be a body which thing is also more apparent by some humane example for not onely in this world but also in the next every man shall consist of body and soul yet never shall either the body be changed into the soul or the soul ever converted into the body but as every man shall live for ever so for ever of necessity in each man the difference of either substance shall continue So likewise in Christ each property of either substance shall continue for ever saving alwayes and reserving the unity of person And when we often name this word Person and say that the Sonne of God was made man we must take great heed that we seeme not to say that God the Word the second person in Trinitie tooke upon him our actions onely in imitation and and rather in shew and shadow and not as a perfect and very man practised humane conversation as we see used in Theaters and Stages where one man in a little time taketh upon him many parts of which notwithstanding himselfe is none for as often as we counterfeit another mans actions we so exercise his office that yet we be not those men whose actions we take upon us for neither a tragedie player to use prophane examples and such as the Maniches alledge when he playeth the Priest or King is therefore a priest or king for so soon as the tragedie endeth that person also which he played forthwith ceaseth God keep us from this horrible and wicked mockerie Let this madnesse be proper to the Maniches which preaching abroad their owne fantasies affirme God the sonne of God not to have been substantively the person of man but to have fained the same by supposed action and conuersation But the Catholick faith affirmeth that the word of God was so made man that he took upon him our nature the proprieties belonging to the same not deceitfully and in shew but truely and verily and did such things as belong to man as his owne and not as one that imitated other mens actions and was verily that which in life and conversation he did shew himselfe to be as we our selves also in that we speak understand and subsist do not counterfeit our selves to be men but are verily men For neither Paul and John to speak of them especially for example sake were men by imitation but by subsistence neither likewise did Paul counterfeit the Apostle or faine himselfe Paul but was in veritie an Apostle and was Paul by subsistence In like maner God the Word by assuming and having flesh in speaking doing and suffering in flesh yet without any corruption of his nature vouchsafed perfectly to performe this to wit not that he should imitate or counterfeit but exhibit himself a perfect man not that he should seem or be thought a very man but should in veritie so be and subsist Therefore as the soule joyned to the flesh and yet not turned into the flesh doth not imitate a man but is a man and not a man in shew and appearance but in substance so God the Word without any conversion of himself uniting himself to man was made man not by confusion not by mutation but by subsisting Let that exposition therefore of a fained counterfeit person utterly be rejected in which alwayes one thing is in shew another in deed inw eh he that doth ought is never the same person whom he representeth for God forbid that we should believe that God the Word took upon him the person of man after such a deceitfull manner but rather in this sort That his substance remaining incommutable in it self and yet taking upon him the nature of perfect man was himself flesh was himself a man was himself the person of a man not deceitfully but truly not in imitation but in truth and substance not finally after that sort which with action should desist but after that manner which perfectly in substance should persist This unity therefore of person in Christ was not framed and finished after the Virgins delivery but in her very womb For we must diligently take heed that we confesse Christ not onely one but also to have been alwayes one because it is an intolerable blasphemy to grant him now to be one and yet contend that once he was not one but two that is one after the time of his Baptisme but two in the time of his Nativitie which great sacriledge we cannot otherwise avoid but by confessing that man was united to God in unity of person not in his Ascention not in his Resurrection not in his Baptisme but in his mothers womb and immaculate conception by reason of which Unity of Person both the Proprieties of God are indifferently and promiscually attributed to man and the proprieties of man ascribed to God hence cometh that which is written in the Scripture That the Son of man descended from Heaven and the Lord of Majesty was Crucified upon earth Joan. 6. hence also it proceedeth that we say that when our Lords flesh was made when our Lords body was framed that the very Word of God was made the very wisdome of God was replenished with created knowledge as in the foresight of God His hands and feet are
said to be digged Psalm 21. From this unity of Person I say it proceedeth by reason of like mystery that when the flesh of the Word of God was born of his pure and immaculate mother we do most Catholickly believe that God himself the Word was born of the Virgin and most impiously the contrary is maintained Which being so God forbid that any one should go about to deprive the holy Virgin Mary of the priviledges of Gods favour as her especiall glory For she is by the singular grace of our Lord and God her son to be confessed most truly and most blessedly to have been the mother of God but yet not in such sort as impious hereticks imagine and suspect who affirm that she is to be reputed in name onely and appellation the mother of God as she forsooth which brought forth that man which afterward became God as we say such a woman is the mother of a Priest or Bishop not because she brought him that then was either Priest or Bishop but by generating that man which afterward was made a Priest or Bishop not in that manner I say the blessed Virgin is to be called the mother of God but rather because as hath been said that most holy mystery was finished in her sacred womb wherein by reason of a singular and one onely unity of person as the Word in flesh is flesh so man in God is God CHAP. IX BUt now what hath already been said touching the foresaid heresies or concerning the Catholick faith let us in few words and compendiously for memory sake repeat them over again that thereby with more facility they may be understood and with greater certainty retained Accursed therefore be Photinus not admitting the fulnesse of the Trinity and affirming our Saviour Christ to have been onely man Accursed be Appollinaris maintaining in Christ corruption of changed divinity and bereaving him of the propriety of perfect humanity Accursed be Nestorius denying God to have been born of a Virgin teaching two Christs and so abandoning the faith of the Trinity bringing in a quaternity But blessed be the Catholick Church which adoreth one God in perfect Trinity and likewise worshipeth equality of Trinity in one Divinity so that neither singularity of substance confoundeth propriety of Persons nor distinction of Trinity separateth unity of Deity Blessed I say be the Church which believeth in Christ two true and perfect substances but one onely person so that neither distinction of natures doth divide the unity of person nor unity of person doth confound the difference of substances Blessed I say be the Church which to the end she may confesse Christ alwayes to be and to have been one acknowledgeth man united to God not after our Ladies delivery but even then in his mothers womb Blessed I say be the Church which understandeth God made man not by any conversion of nature but by reason and means of person and that not a fained and transitory person but substantially subsisting and permanent Blessed I say be the Church which teacheth that this unity of person hath so great force that by reason thereof by a mystery strange and ineffable she ascribeth unto man the proprieties of God and attributeth to God the proprieties of man For by reason of this unity of person she confesseth that man as he was God descended from Heaven and God as he was man was made upon earth suffered and was Crucified Blessed therefore is that venerable happy and sacred confession and comparable to those supernall praises of the Angels who do glorifie one onely Lord God yet with a triple Hagiologie For this is the principall reason why the Church teacheth the unity of Christ lest otherwise she should exceed the mystery of the Trinity And let this suffice touching this matter spoken by way of digression hereafter if it please God I will intreat and declare these points more copiously Now to return to our former purpose CHAP. X WE have said in the premises that in the Church of God the errour of the master is a great tentation to the people and the more learned he were that erred so much the greater was the tentation Which we shewed first by the authority of holy Scripture afterward by the examples ecclesiasticall of those men which for some time were reputed and accounted sound in faith yet at last fell either into some other mans error or els coined a new heresie of their own This surely is a great matter profitable to be learned â—â—d necessary to be remembred which once again we must inculcate and make plain by great store of examples that all Catholicks may know that with the Church they ought to receive Doctours and not with Doctours to forsake the faith of the Church But I suppose that although I could bring forth many to shew this kind of tentation yet there is almost none which can be compared to the tentation of Origen in whom were very many gifts â—o rare so singular so strange that in the beginning any would have thought that his opinions might have been believed of all men For if life procureth authority he was a man of great industry of great chastity patience and labour if family or learning who more noble being of that house which was honourable for Martyrdome himself afterward for Christ deprived not of father onely but also spoiled of all his patrimony and so much he profited in the mysteries of holy poverty that as it is reported for the confession of Christs name he often indured much affliction Neither was he only adorned with these gifts all which afterward served for tentation but was indued also with a force of wit so profound so quick so elegant that he far excelled almost all other whatsoever A man of such wonderfull learning and erudition that there were few things in Divinity in humane Philosophy haply nothing which he had not perfectly attained who having gotten the treasures of the Greek tongue laboured also about the Hebrew And for his eloquence what should I speak of it whose talk was so pleasant so delectable so sweet that in mine opinion not words but hony flwed from his mouth What things were so hard to beleeve which with force of argument he made not plaine what so difficult to bring to passe which he made not to seem easie But perchance he maintained his assertions by arguments only Nay without question there was never any Doctour which used more examples of sacred scripture But yet happelie he wrote not much No man living more yea so much that in mine opinion all his works are so far from being read over that they can not possiblie all be found who not to lack anie furtherance to learning lived also untill he was passing old But yet perchance unfortunate in his scholers What man ever more happie having trained up and been master to infinite Doctours to Priests without number to Confessours and Martyrs Now who is able to prosecute with words in what admiration
champion is it brought to light because our understanding having Verity for its object is naturally inclined unto it as to its proper perfection and where the more it shines with greater delight it is embraced but then Verity appears most when it is most sharply impugned because in the very discussion and conflict of disputation it manifests it self Seeing therefore that Christian Doctrine having been so vehemently impugned by so many Philosophers and Tyrants hath alwayes remained invincible and victorious which the infinite volumns of Christians testifie it is consequent that its truth proceeded from Almighty God otherwise in so many conflicts it had not so long remain'd unconquer'd CHAP. IX Christian Faith proved true out of their use of Prayer and Contemplation AS Faith and the reading holy Scriptures Auscultation and Meditation is the principall cause of a Christian life so Prayer is its principall nourishment where it hath its growth and perfection for by long experience we have found in our Religion that all those who profit in our Religion and have arrived to the highest degrees of sanctity have attained it by frequent and continuall Prayer and we have observed that they have taken such gust and complacence in it that they have despised all other humane delights as vile abject and unworthy of them Nor doth this happen onely to the most eminent and learned sort of those which flourish in sanctity but it is commonly found in the simple and ignorant as well men as women and even in all those who have learned to leade a Christian life By this effect therefore we may prove the Verity of out Faith Almighty God being a pure Act the first Verity and an infinite Light the nearer a man makes his approach unto him the more abundartly doth he partake this Purity Verity and Light But man doth not make his approach unto Almighty God by corporall paces but by the purity of life elevation of mind and contemplation of Verity Seeing therefore that there can be no life more candid and more sincere then that of Christians and that then the mind of man is most pure when it is wrapt up in a soaring and extaticall contemplation of the Divine perfections it follows that man is most possessed of this Verity and Light as he is in the very act of prayer and contemplation and seeing that we find by experience that Christians as they encrease in the fervour of Devotion and frequency of Prayer are more and more confirmed in their Faith and inflamed with the love of Christ and profit in virtue we must confesse that the Faith Verity and Light of Christian Religion is Divine Our understanding affecting Verity as its proper perfection and abhorring Falsity as its greatest enemy man is in nothing so disposed for the entertaining of Verity and rejecting of contraries as in the very act of Prayer and Contemplation by which he doth most stedfastly and ardently embrace the documents of Faith which therefore cannot be erroneous Moreover all Christians in their Prayers to Almighty God do beseech him to grant that for the which they pray by the merits of Christ for in the end of every prayer they most commonly adde some such form Through Jesus Christ our Lord or Through Christ our Lord and yet they obtain admirable and incredible graces from him which if any should not believe yet certainly they must grant that which by daily experience is manifest that they obtain that which they principally seek after the righteousnesse of a virtuous life the quiet and joyfulnesse of mind so as they preferre the pious tears of Devotion farre before any delights and pleasures of the world Now certainly if Christ were not he whom our Faith proclaims him to be they could not in so great a serenity of mind and at so near a distance of so great a light be environed and buried in so great a darknesse nor would Almighty God permit them to be so grosly deceived or at least if they were obstinate in an errour he would not grant their petitions Again every cause disposing its matter for the producing its effect after it hath introduced its last disposition immediately produces it nor would it dispose the matter unlesse it meant to Introduce the form nor any cause of motion would produce it if it intended not some end of the motion produced but a just man unlesse he were invited and drawn on by Almighty God who is the first cause of all things could not elevate his mind unto him by prayer Blisse therefore being the end of prayer and a virtuous life Almighty God would not induce man unto those means of prayer and virtue unlesse he intended to make him finally blessed If therefore Christians makig progresse in virtue and prayers become more grounded and settled in their Faith and Contemplation of Christ their Faith cannot be but from Almighty God by which he leades men unto blisse Every cause grants as I may say unto its effect what it asks the effect asks of its cause it s due and proper perfections which then it is said to exact when it is rightly disposed for then the cause if not otherwise hindred delaies not the execution of the effect infusing that quantity of perfection into it which the degree of disposition doth exact which immediate execution proceeds out of its facility and goodnesse which of its nature is desirous to communicate it self Almighty God therefore being the most sovereign good questionlesse will more then other causes which have not so great goodnesse grant the petitions to this effect especially unto those which are best disposed for the receiving his favours as are Christians chiefly when they are in the act of Prayer and Contemplation but Christians ask nothing more then the light of truth according to that of the Psalmist Ill umina oculos meos nè unquam obdormiam in morte Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death And therefore Almighty God never denies them their request but Christians the more they pray the more they are confirmed in their Faith therefore this our discourse is of greater force Further if Christ were not God to professe himself so would be the most supreme degree of blasphemy and detestation that could be Now if Christians do pray to God the Father through Christ whom they believe to be of the same nature with the Father and the holy Ghost how doth Almighty God permit them in so great an errour arising out of ignorance and simplicity and doth not draw them out of it knowing that they serve him with their whole affection and humbly beg of him the knowledge of truth or if their obstinacy be in fault why doth he leave so great a wickednesse and treason against his Divine Majesty unrevenged or why doth he as we see him favour this errour and impiety whilst bestowing so many and great gifts on them he questionlesse grants them that which they ask at his hands Our soul as I have said doth
of devout tears whence this ineffable jubilee of the Church melodiously rejoycing in her Hymns and Cantitles Truly unlesse this worship were from God and consequently true there would be no where found so many dreams and lyes it being wholly in a manner compacted of Types and mysterious Figures For what ever is contained in the Mysteries Sacraments Temples Altars Mytres Vestments in all the world of Ceremoniall Rites in the modulation of Hymns and in the rest of the spirituall appurtenances would be a meer vanity and labour lost all which neverthelesse are instituted for the worship of Christ If therefore this worship were sustained by the means of falsities men at least the wiser and more perspicacious wits would not out of the meditation of those Sacraments be so wonderfully elevated to the contemplation of Divine objects nor replenished with so great and celestiall delight for the understanding as I have said by falsities becomes more uncertain and dull and at a greater distance from Almighty God wherefore out of the contrary effect we gather that this worship is true and replenished with Divine graces and favours The order also and signification of the things which are performed in the Church shew clearly that it is no humane invention but a divine disposition for there is nothing in this worship irrational nothing vain but every thing hath its order and proper mystery of which I shall not now speak in particular although in the third book I shall touch some as the necessity of the subject will require If any one desires more fully to be satisfied of this Verity let him revolve the explanations of the Fathers where seriously weighing every one in particular he shall never be satiated with admiration to find in these Ceremonies no lesse order and harmony then in the universall work of Nature and shall receive most excellent contentment and dilatation of heart and if he be not of a perverse and obstinate condition and have a mind wholly darkned he shall be forced to confesse that all those things are from God and not invented and instituted by men CHAP. XI The same Verity proved out of the intrinsecall effects of Christian life I Have hitherto proved to the power of my mean ability the Verity of Christian Faith by Arguments drawn out of both the internall and externall causes of a Christian life now therefore I judge it fit to prove the same by descending to the effects of it one of the principall effects and immediately subsequent in that is the peace and quiet of mind the joy and liberty of the soul for besides those examples which we reade and hear of our Authours and Predecessours it is plainly seen in our age that true Christians are not moved by the brushes and storms of persecution but do persevere more immoveable in the Faith and Confession of Christ then before and even glory in their tribulations and sufferings we are to search therefore whence these effects proceed and how it happens that the more they follow Christ in the perfection of their lives they attain unto the greater liberty and serenity of mind Christians themselves affirm this to be the reason of it because say they this blisse of man consisting onely in our knowledge and contemplation of Divine objects it is manifest that the desire and appetite of man cannot be bounded or limited by any ultimate and last end which is not God himself The quiet therefore and peace of mind that Christians possesse cannot proceed from any other thing then that they have prefixt unto themselves that last end which of all others is the true one whence if you should ask all Christians what was their supreme end to which they aim at questionless all would answer that it was Almighty God and therefore esteeming all worldly things as nothing in comparison of God and hoping after their transitory life to obtain and enjoy him they contemne and set at naught whatever the world contains Hence it is that being bereft and despoil'd of their worldly goods they are not contristated when carelesse of their lives they offer themselves to death that they may obtain Almighty God their onely and supreme good and as God is every where by his Essence Presence and Power so is he in them also particularly by love and contemplation as the thing beloved is said to be in the party that loves Now when the thing beloved is present the mind of him that loves is delighted and rejoyceth and therefore Christians who live virtuously are extremely delighted with the presence of Almighty God whom they internally do perceive as present And because God is an infinite Power when they experience his savours slighting all other things they fear nothing and in this manner being armed with great liberty and confidence they are not drawn from their purposes and resolves neither by fair means nor by any terrours whatsoever But a man not being able by his naturall forces by reason of the sensuall impediments and weaknesse of his understanding to arrive unto this serenity and liberty of mind we must necessarily say they confesse that this tranquillity and peace of mind is bestowed upon us as a most supernaturall and divine gift by virtue of which Almighty God and our eternall blisse is daily before our eyes That that is the true cause of peace joy and liberty of mind in the Christians it is plain our soul being one of the same and having all its powers radicated in the essence of it as often as it is wholly imployed in the intense operation of some one power it cannot use the service of another but very remisly for example If one be in an intense contemplation he is not expedite in the use of the other powers of his soul and if one be in great pain he is not at the same time fit for contemplation if therefore Christians were deceived by their Faith as by a vain credulity no virtue of their superiour cause would affist them to confirm so great an errour and so they would be left onely to their naturall perfections nay even those would be much impair'd by so great a deprivation of Verity how therefore could they so inviolably preserve so great a peace joy and liberty of mind amongst so many calamities and oppressions especially so universally retain it as not onely a few but innumerable do For the Philosophers vaunt of one or two at most which they pretend amongst them to have had this peace quiet and joy of mind but we can produce infinite of both sexes which in all parts of the world have possessed the tranquillity and liberty of mind in most excessive tribulations and torments and this onely by invocating praising and glorifying Christ crucified Moreover we have found by the experience of our ancestours and our own that this peace joy and liberty of mind is augmented by the increase of Faith and sanctimony of a Christian life which certainly would not be so unlesse there was