countrey if upon imposed crimes by an appellant the defendant shall yeeld or be overcome in battell b Vâ—imo supplicio punietur cum poena gravi vel graviori secundum criminis qualitatem cum exhaeredatione haeredum suorum omnium bonorum amissione He shall be put to death with a grievous or more grievous pain according to the qualitie of the crime with the disinheriting of his heirs and losse of all his goods Furthermore though he were slain yet the formality of the Common-law proceeding adjudgeth him to capitall punishment that thereby his posterity may suffer the grievous concomitancy of his deserved infamy saith that most learned M. Selden my most courteous and loving friend in his Duello or Single Combat pag. 30. 5. But let us come from the sword where things are cut out with more rigour if not crucltie unto matters Ecclesiasticall and so more civil and peaceable Did not S. Peter stand in stead of all the Apostles when Christ said to him Joh. 21.15 16. Feed my lambes Feed my sheep And again Feed my sheep vers 17. Likewise when Christ said to him Matth. 16.19 I will give unto thee the keyes of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt binde on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And when this promise to Peter was promised to the rest of the Apostles also Matth. 18.18 and when both these promises were fulfilled and accomplished as they were after Christs resurrection and not before and authoritie given and by a solemne ceremony exhibited by Christ not onely to S. Peter but to all and every of the Apostles saying Joh. 20.21 c. As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sinnes ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sinnes ye retain they are retained Did not the Apostles represent the whole body of the Ministery unlesse you will fable that in the Apostles dayes they had more need of remission of sinnes then we have now or that Christ loveth not his Church now nor affordeth the like means of pardon and reconciliation as he did in those times But by the same deceitfulnesse of cavillation you may say as well that when Christ brake bread and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my body and gave the cup to them saying Drink ye all of it none but they might eat or drink the Supper of the Lord. But it is undeniable that when Christ said to his twelve Apostles Luk. 22.19 This is my body which is given for you Do this in remembrance of me he spake it to them as representours of the whole Priesthood onely who onely have power to consecrate the body and bloud of our Lord. Indeed Hierome saith c Quid facit Episcopus exceptâ Ordinatione quod Presbyter non facitâ— Epist 85. ad Euag. What doth a Bishop except Ordination which a Priest doth not as if the Apostles represented the Bishops in that point onley and the Centuriatours acknowledge that the first Bishops after the Apostles were made Bishops by the Apostles and they say no more then is confirmed 1. Timothy 5.22 and Titus 1.5 Act. 20.28 But other Fathers extend the comparison between the Apostles and Bishops to other matters appropriating to the Bishops above the Presbyters the power of Confirmation and divers other things All which though we grant yet no man will deny but for preaching baptizing and especially for consecrating of the Eucharist and Sacerdotall Absolution or Ministeriall Remission of sinnes the Apostles represented not the people in any wise nor the Bishops onely but the universall body of Christs Ministers And do not among us the Right Reverend Arch-bishops and Bishops and the Clergy assembled in the Convocation represent the whole Church of England are not they our Nationall Councel do not their Articles of Religion binde in conscience all and every one of the Church of England as much if not more then Civill laws Nor is there the like humane authority on earth for the setling of our consciences in matters of Scripture or Scriptures controverted or to be controverted as the externall publick breathing voice of a true Oecumenical Councel of the Patriarchs Bishops and choice Divines of the Christian world The essentiall universall Church of Christ is and we must beleeve it is the house of God the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth 1. Tim. 3.15 It never erred it cannot erre its iudgement is infallible The Spirit leadeth this Church into all truth Joh. 16.13 Of the Church of God consisting of the faithfull in any one age or time I dare say it never did erre damnably or persisted in smaller errours obstinately but alwayes some truly maintained things necessary to salvation and unto this fluctuant militant part of the Church Christ hath promised to be with it to the end of the world Matt. 28.20 The whole visible Church at no time can fall into heresie but some seek after the truth and embrace it and professe it Subject it is to nesciency of some things and perhaps to some kinde of ignorance but it cannot erre in things necessary nor in lesse matters schismatically with obdurate pertinacy Of the representative Church of Christ in Councels this may be said truly and safely viz. Of the first six Generall Oecumenicall Councels not one de facto erred in any definition of matters of faith Of other lawfull general Councels that may hereafter be called though I will not deny but they may possibly be deceived as they are men and therefore are not free from errability but if such Councels may erre or pronounce amisse cannot coblers yet there is least likelihood of their erring Such Oecumenical Councels have the supremest publick externall definitive judgement in matters of Religion if any oppose them they may not onely silence them but censure them with great censures and reduce them into order Private spirits must sit down and rest in their determinations else do the Councels lose operam oleum What S. Ambrose Epist 32. said of one general Councell d Sequor tractatum Niceni Concilii à quo me 〈◊〉 mors nec gladius 〈◊〉 separare I follow the decision of the Nicene Councel from which neither death nor sword shall be able to separate me I say of all true and generall Councels and of the major part of them who binde the rest without which issue the gathering of Councels yea and of Parliaments also would be ridiculous For though it were a true and just complaint of Andreas Duditius Quinquecclesiensis Episcopus That in the Conventicle of Trent the voices were rather numbred then well weighed yet he doth not he cannot finde fault with that course in a just and lawfull Generall Councel but directeth his complaint against the tyrannicall power of the Pope
mori An impossibility of sinning or dying An unchangeable and immortall life Non posse deserere bonum vel adhaerere malo An impossibility of for saking goodnesse and cleaving to evil and not onely beatitudinem gloriam but coronam gloriae Not onely blessednesse and glory but a crown of glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An immarcescible crown of glory 1. Peter 5.4 Lastly if we go to the numbring of them that were hurt by Adam and the number of those who receive benefit by Christ the greatest number is on Christs side I would be loath to say what the e Apud Sleidan pag. 293. Franciscane preached publickly at the Councel of Trent f Eos qui nullam haberent Christi cognitionem alioqui vitam egissent honestè saluteâ—â— esse consecutos That they who had no knowledge of Christ and yet had lived honestly had obtained salvation Nor will I conclude with others that Aristides Cato yea Julius Cesar himself is saved though according to the fertility of the Italian wits divers of them have found quaint passages and conceits tending that way Nay in these dayes of presumption wherein by all likelihood a thousand surfet and perish in the hope of mercy in comparison of one soul ship-wracked on the rock of despair I am afraid to confirm what Coelius secundus Curio hath writ in his books de Amplitudine regni Christi or Marsilius Andreasius of Mantua de Amplitudine misericordiae Christi before him who maintaineth That farre more are saved by Christ then are condemned For though Christ saith Matth. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat and vers 14. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that finde it and though divers other passages of Scripture by the little flock and few labourers with the like phrases seem to import the paucity of humane souls saved in comparison of the many condemned yet he restraineth all those places to the dayes of Christ when indeed few beleeved in respect of the unbeleevers and the emphasis may accordingly be set upon that word YE Enter YE And perhaps the antithesis is observable Many there be which GO in to the wide gate and broad way but it is not said Few SHALL go in at the narrow gate nor Few SHALL enter in but Few there BE that finde it And it may be expounded Few there be that finde it by themselves or by their own naturall power without patefaction divine But what they cannot finde without a guide they may finde by a guide and many may enter in at Christ the Doore and many may walk in Christ the Way Where sin abounded grace may much more abound As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one may many be made righteous Concerning which places with the precedent verses Rom. 5. we shall treat by and by But I return to their answer That respect was had to the primitive dayes of Christs Church and That we are to consider that when Christ likened the Kingdome of God to a grain of mustard seed which waxed a great tree and to leaven which leavened the whole lump Luke 13.18 c. he spake not without reference to his own dayes in which they were generally perswaded as the Papists are now that many were easily saved in their Church whereupon one wondering at Christs doctrine of the hardly obtaining of heaven and that by few saith Luke 13.23 Lord are there few that be saved And Christ answereth not without respect to those times Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many will seek to enter in and shall not be able because they sought awry and refused the right way offered Yet many might be saved and more in after-times then at that present time more by farre in the Church of Christ growing and increasing then in the Church of the Jews waning and decreasing Yea at this present though a diligent computer shall not finde much fault with me for saying that if the world were divided for places and people into thirty parts Nineteen thereof are Infidels six of the Mahometane Religion and five of the Christian the Romane Church and the Reformed Churches making but one part of the five so that the Greek Churches may more brag of their Catholicisme then the Romane and the scabbed petite flock and schismaticall parlour-full yea scarce hand-full of Separatists of Amsterdam may cease to claim themselves to be the onely Church by their paucity which the least number of the never-agreeing and subdivided Brethren may appropriate to themselves excluding by that argument all the Churches of the world besides yea even their own fellow-schismaticks yet this I will be bold to say that many places of the Prophets in the old Testament and many in the New did and do fore-signifie that great abundance of men women and children of all nations of all places shall be saved by Christ that there shall be as it were Mundus hominum electorum A world of elect men a great multitude of men which no man could number Rev. 7.9 Unto which number of humane souls if we annex those thousand thousands of Angels and ten thousand times ten thousand Daniel 7.10 even that innumerable host also we may confidently averre what Elishah said of the blessed Angels in an other case 2. Kings 6.16 They which be with us are more then they that be with our enemies or more then our enemies More in number enjoy eternall life by Christ then are condemned to eternall death by Adam For though Christ be not a Mediatour of redemption unto the Angels yet was he a Mediatour of confirmation in grace and whatsoever blessings they did or do or shall enjoy they had it for and by the merit of Christ foreseen For he is the head of the Church and they be but members and all the vertue or happinesse in the body or in any part of it is derived from the head All things visible and invisible thrones dominions principalities powers were created by him and for him Coloss 1.16 In him all fulnesse dwelleth vers 19. From him the whole body is fitly joyned together Ephes 4.16 In him all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple Ephes 2.21 And of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace John 1.16 And not we alone but the good Angels also were predestinated created confirmed and glorified by his means as Suarez well concludeth in his Commentaries on the third part of Aquine his Summe Tom. 1. pag. 656. g Dico Christum meruisse Angelu gratiam gloriam quae illis data fuerat propter merita Christi praevisa I say saith he that Christ merited for the Angels grace and glory which was given them for the merits of Christ foreseen So Aquinas Cajetan Albertus
unlesse he kept still a Jewish heart within him which certainly he did if Balthasar Bambach saith truly of him t Praecipua mysteria reticuit nibil arcani revelavit He concealed the chief mysteries and revealed nothing of their secrets Seventhly that many Hebrew Radixes do signifie not onely things wonderfully disparat and incompatible the one with the other as Sheol signifieth the grave in some places and hell in other places which caused some to deny Christs descent in his humane soul into hell but even things clean contrary This instance as the former shall be in a word generally known Job 2.9 his wife saith unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Curse God others render it Blesse God None hitherto hath infallibly expounded it Yet my Laick can swallow camels strain at gnats that is buildeth upon the Translation made by the Ministers though the ground hath been slippery and full of ice but will forsooth be judge of the meaning when he understandeth not the words as if one unskilfull in the Dutch language should say when he heard a German speak I know his meaning by his gaping or by the sound of his words or by the gargarism of his throat-speech Though the Apostle saith 1. Thessal 5.21 Prove all things hold fast that which is good yet he speaketh of the spirits of private men or misperswasions of the false Apostles who presumed very much and knew very little These are to be tried But concerning the decrees of the Church the same Apostle doth not say Prove them examine them trie them judge them but Acts 16.4 Paul and other Ministers as they went through the cities delivered them the decrees for to keep or observe that were ordained of the Apostles and Elders which were at Jerusalem And so or by this means of keeping or observation were the Churches established in the faith c. verse 5. But saith the frantick Libertine I am a man spirituall But he that is spirituall judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man 1. Corinth 2.15 I answer S. Paul speaketh of the Apostles who had the Spirit of God vers 12. and spake in words which the holy Ghost taught vers 13. and who might well neglect the judgement of men 1. Corinth 3.3 Prove thou thy Apostleship by such undeniable miracles and testimonies as they did and thou shalt judge and not be judged But that every idiot should claim the priviledge of an Apostle is lewd divinity or rather insufferable pride The Angel in the Church of Thyatira is censured Revel 2.20 because he suffered that woman Jezebel which called her self a Prophetesse to teach and seduce Gods servants If the profoundest Divines on earth unexperienced in worldly courses should teach the skilfullest tradesmen their trades or manufactures and meddle in their crafts as they call them would they not expose themselves to laughter and mocking is not the proverb of the world too true The greatest Clerks are not the wisest men if you take them from their books Are there more depths in trades then in the Word of God Or shall tradesmen and women judge of the depths of Divinity and the learned Divines in their own profession be not beleeved but laught at controlled and censured by the private spirit of unlearned people Are not the spirits of the Prophets subject to the Prophets Very learned men scarce trust to themselves A Physician that is very sick seeks counsel of an other who is whole and dares not trust his own judgement and shall a soul sick of sinne sick of errour sick of scruples be its own helper shall it understand without a guide be cleansed of its leprosie without a Priest Hierome in his Preface to the Cōmentary upon the epistle to the Eph. thus From my youth I never ceased to reade or to ask of learned men what I knew not I never was mine own Master or taught my self and of late I journeyed purposely to Alexandria unto Didymus that he might satisfie me in all the doubts which I had found in the Scripture Now adayes many a one is wiser then his Teachers not by supernall illumination but by infernall presumption And if they have gotten by rote the letter of Scripture and can readily cite tmemata tmematia the chapter and the verse though they have little more judgement then Cardinall Ascanius his parret which would prate the Creed all over they vilifie the opinions of the most learned and their private spirit of seduction will beare them out u Lib. 11. cap. 9. Ruffinus saith thus of Basil and Gregory Nazianzen They were both noblemen both students at Athens both colleagues for thirteen yeares together all profane learning removed studied on the holy Scriptures followed the sense not taken from their own presumption but from the writings and authority of the ancients which ancients it appeared took the rule of right understanding the Scripture from Apostolick succession S. Basil himself saith of himself and others in his Epistle to the Church of Antioch As for us we do not take our faith upon trust from other later men x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor dare we deliver to others the conceits of our own brains lest mens devices should be thought to be articles of Religion but what we have been taught of the holy Fathers that we declare to those that ask of us How often doth the divine S. Augustine confirm his interpretations by the authority of Cyprian Ambrose and other preceding Fathers How often doth he confesse his own ignorance though he was the most accōplished that ever writ since the dayes of the Apostles It was a wise observation of Scaliger That some words and passages in Plato y Plus sapiunt authore are wiser then their authour and many excellent conceits are collected from Homer and Aristotle which they never dreamed of But in the Word of God it is contrary The Spirit was and is infinite that did dictate it the finite capacity of man cannot comprehend it whatsoever good interpretation we finde may well be thought to be the meaning of the Spirit and yet the Spirit may and doth mean many things which the wit of any man could never disclose And the true literal sense is the hardest to finde I confesse I have dwelt too long on this point but it is to vindicate the authority of our Church from the singular fancies of private unskilfull unlearned and censorious men and women and to shew the madnes of those base people-pleasers or publicolae who make or esteem tradesmen and youth and ill-nurtured unlettered idiots yea though their places be eminent the competent judges of controversies whilest they flee from the chairs of the Universities and from the representative Church of our kingdome viz. the most learned Bishops and Convocation-house unto whom they ought to have recourse and in whose judgement they are by way of obedience without opposition to set up their rest For as for private
me qui fecit coelum terram fluctuans converto me ad Christum quia ipsum quaero hîc invenio quomodo sine impietate adoretur terra I am in a doubt I am afraid to adore earth lest he damn me who made both heaven and earth In this hesitancie or pendulousnesse I turn my self to Christ and here I seek and finde how without impietie earth may be worshipped As if no earthly thing should be adored but his bodie onely I would not say or think that any relique or reliques have in themselves or from themselves power to expell devils or to work wonders for a spirituall power as Thyraeus well observeth though it wound himself is not within a thing corporeall and a bodily power cannot drive away devils or work miracles say I. The great works of healing c. which have been done at the tombes of Martyrs reade S. Augustine de civitat Dei 22.8 might in those dayes extraordinarily be done by the Martyrs or by the Angels l Suscipientes personam Martyrum in assumed bodies like to the Martyrs as Augustine phraseth it in lib. de cura pro mortuis gerenda cap. 16. The reliques have no vertue in themselves to effectuate or actuate such miracles yea the very Angels or Martyrs themselves were but the agents instruments and the right hand of the Almighty who onely worketh great wonders by his power independent I would put no trust no confidence in the relique of any Saint or Martyr whosoever or whatsoever for help either of soul or bodie For this also is a wrong offered unto him in whose name our help standeth Our help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth Psal 121.2 And my God shall supply all our need according to his riches in glorie by Christ Jesus Philip. 4.19 9. What would I then do or how would I behave my self toward a true unquestioned choice relique I would which is the positive part by me promised with Chrysostom Hom. 5. in Job tom 1. honourably esteem of it kisse it and reverently both touch it and behold it and think of it and charily lay it up I would shew it to others not mercenarily but with joyfull and comfortable remembrance of him whose relique it was I would esteem of it above silver gold or precious stones I would make it my remembrancer of things past as a motive stirring me up to the imitation of that Saints vertues and actions which is their best relique I would use it as a bridle to curb evil in me and as a spur to goodnesse If any instrument of Satan should debase it and say that it is vilissimus pulvis I would scorn his scorn and esteem it as a most especiall instrument of the most High and would say to the caviller or rather to his master Lucifer the Father of lies and detraction m Saepe hoc vilissimo tortus es pulvere Even this which thou callest most vile dust hath often tormented thee as S. Hierom said of old Lastly till of it self it decayed and by its imperfection or rottennesse called for interment I would not bury it but commend it to be kept even in Churches and other holy places except idolatrie were committed with it or people in their profane religion adored it And then would I also burie it 10. Much more might be said but I must take manum de tabula or make a quick end and returning to Pineda say That if Ananias Azarias and Misael have no relique now remaining which Lorinus reports from report if they did arise or intend to arise with Christ they having a farre longer journey from the place of their captivitie to the sepulchre of Christ then Jacob had to the land of Goshen would or should have had as great a care as Jacob of translating their bones if Jacob translated his in hope to arise with Christ as Pineda intimateth O Gracious God who art to be loved by me for thine own self onely Grant I beseech thee that no worldly thought may nestle and breed in me nor that I may fasten any respect on any creature which may be derogatorie to the devotion due to thee my Creatour for Jesus Christ his sake in whom onely thou art well pleased Amen CHAP. XIII 1. Pineda saith Jonas arose then and Noah His reasons very shallow 2. Daniel arose saith Pineda from Nicetas If Daniel arose he arose but with one leg the other leg is yet shewed at Vercellis 3. Job arose now saith Pineda His proof lame Jobs Epitaph poeticall His sepulchrall pyramis made of imagination 4. Job shall arise at the generall judgement Pineda wrincheth the Scripture 5. The end of Jobs book according to some Greek copies a double exposition of the words 6. Jobs bodie supposed to be translated to Constantinople 7. Bartholomaeus Sibylla saith S. Hierom is expresse that the holy mother of our Lord and John the Evangelist are bodily ascended The like cited from Aquinas And Holcot saith That the glorious virgins bodie was not to be incinerated Her supposed day of Assumption most honoured among the Papists and yet there is monstrous disagreeing among them who favour her Assumption The last instances concern not our question 8. Pineda presumed too farre upon uncertainties Lorinus dareth not name any particularly that were raised It cannot be known certainly NOw also arose Jonah saith Pineda That Jonas was a lively type of Christs resurrection appeareth Matth. 27.40 But if every lively type of Christ arose then Samson Samuel Joshuah Gedeon Melchizedech Aaron Solomon then hundreds of others arose whom Pineda mentioneth not a Tandem resurrexit Noah At last Noah arose saith Pineda Why AT LAST since he was living before other and great in Gods favour who was saved and delivered from the common destruction of all mortall men This last reason as well holdeth That every one that was in the Ark arose also For they were delivered as well as Noah from the inundation of waters and especially Sem who was an holy man and was great in Gods favour 2. And Daniel arose who was brought out of the lions den saith Pineda and he proves it by Nicetas But neither he nor Nicetas proves it by any reason He might as well argue that Jeremie arose with Christ Because he being cast into the dungeon where he sunk in the mire was afterwards drawn out of the dungeon Jerem. 38.6 and 13. And if Daniel arose he arose but with one leg for b Crus Danielis asservatur Vercellis c. A leg of Daniel is kept at Vercellis a citie of Liguria saith Lorinus on Act. 2.29 Daniel died in Babylon saith Sixtus Senensis concerning him Of reliques he makes no mention nor of his rising again with Christ but alledgeth the last of Daniel the last verse Which words may prove that he arose not with Christ or if he did that he died again For the Spirit saith to him Go thou thy way till the end be for thou