Now the Saints as well in this world as in the other although they be mediators and intercessors for vs in reconciling vs vnto God through their praiers yet neuerthelesse haue had need of Iesus Christ to be reconciled vnto God themselues through his intercession and in his name they obtaine all whatsoeuer they doe obtaine for vs. But Iesus Christ saith S. Paul of himselfe without the interposition of any man approcheth vnto God to make intercession for vs. This reason hath beeen noted by S. Austin that great Doctor of the Church when he speaketh thus The Christians saith he pray for one another but he for whom no man maketh intercession and who maketh intercession for all men is the onely and true Mediator We then which are Catholikes doe confesse that according to these abouesaid significations Iesus Christ is truly the sole and true Mediator onely Aduocate and Intercessor But wee say also againe and that with all truth against these heretikes that that hindereth not but the Saints liuing or departed may be so also after their manner For truth whereof I will refer my selfe to the holy scripture For in the fifth Chapter of Deuteronomie Moses calleth himselfe a Mediator saying thus I haue been an vmperer and a Mediator betweene God and you that is speaking of the Hebrewes Vnto which words S. Paul making an allusion in the 9. Chapter of the Hebrewes calleth Iesus Christ Mediator of the new Testament to make a difference betweene him and Moses which had been so of the old And S. Gregory Nazianzenus calleth the Martyrs Mediators betweene God and vs and Saint Cyril saith the same of the Apostles and Prophets For more ample confirmation thereof is it not certaine that we haue but one Sauiour of the world which is the same Iesus Christ Verily there is nothing more sure And neuerthelesse the scripture which cannot lie giueth the same title of honour to others though it be not for the same reason without doing wrong or dishonour to Iesus Christ as namely to Othoniel in the third chapter of the booke of Iudges and Nehemiah also in the 9. Chapter of his booke confirmeth the same King Pharaoh likewise as appeareth in the 41. Chapter of the booke of Genesis calleth Ioseph in the Egyptian tongue not onely Sauiour but Sauiour of the world Therefore by these three small reasons it is easie to be vnderstood how the Saints may also be Mediators and Intercessors vnto God for vs. And if they are so wee may and ought to call vpon them in our necessities and humane miseries Neither will follow from thence that we doe reiect the Sonne of God seeing we alwaies giue vnto him the first ranke of being the true and only Mediator according to the fashion aboue said and the Saints in their sort and maner So then it can be no otherwise then exceeding good to call vpon them as euermore they haue done in our Catholike Church which we will shew you by the authoritie of generall Councels and by the holy Fathers and Doctors which haue all approued the inuocation of Saints Let vs come to the Councels First in the Epistle sent to all the Bishops of Europe which is annexed to the Councell of Chalcedonie and solemnized vnder the Emperor Leo you snall there finde these words We put the most holy Father Proterius into the ranke of the Martyrs crauing the mercy of God Secondly in the eleuenth Action of that Councell the holy Fathers being there assembled and treating vpon Flauian the Martyr say all with one consent as followeth Flauian Martyr which liuest after thy death pray for vs. Thirdly in that generall Councell cap. 7. it is thus said The Christian hauing adored one onely God let him pray vnto the Saints that they might vouchsafe to make intercercession for him to the diuine Maiestie Furthermore in the seuenth general Councell the holy Fathers speake in this maner Let vs do all things with a conuenient feare crauing the intercessions of the most pure mother of God of the holy Angels and of the Saints Behold therefore we say the Letanies which are certaine praiers addressing our selues to the Saints first to the most holy Trinitie to the glorious Virgin Mary to the Apostles to the Martyrs to the Confessors and to the Virgins And these aboue said Letanies haue been commanded by many generall Councels as by that of Gerund by the fifth and sixth of Toledo in Spaine by the eleuenth of Brachara in Portugall by the first of Orleans in France and finally by that of Magence in Germany which was solemnized vnder Charles the Great All which Councels being graced with a number of excellent and learned personages commanded for the good and vtilitie of the Christians to say these aboue said Letanies three daies before our Lords ascension and also at other times appointed Which commandement and ordinance is for vs that are Catholikes a cleere euident and a generall testimonie of the inuocation of Saints as a thing which for a long time hath been beleeued receiued approued and practised in the Church of God For as much as these aboue said Councels haue all of them been solemnized almost a thousand yeeres agoe Let vs now shew that the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church haue all of them with one consent taught the same Saint Denis the disciple of S. Paul cap. 7. Eccle. Hierarc saith thus He which requireth the intercession of Saints and will not imitate their holy works is like vnto the man that putteth out his eies and yet would be partaker of the beames of the Sunne The same doctrine S. Irenaeus teacheth in his 5. booke against Haeres cap. 19. treating of the virgin Mary and Eue. S. Athanasius in his most deuote sermon de aâ—nunt of the most glorious Virgin praieth thus vnto her Mary incline thine eare to our praiers and forget not thy people And presently after he saith We cry vnto thee Remember vs most holy Virgin And a little lower he addeth Make intercession for vs our Mistris our Lady our Queene Mother of God Saint Basil in his sermon of the Martyrs saith If any man be in tribulation let him haue his recourse to these Saints He which is in ioy let him call vpon them also the one to be deliuered from his euill the other to bee confirmed in his good And S. Iohn Chrysostome in his 66. Hom. ad Populum The Emperor saith he which is clothed in scarlet commeth for to imbrace the sepulchers and laying aside all pompe standeth vp to intreat the Saints to make intercession for him and hee which marcheth crowned with a diademe praieth vnto a tent-maker and a fisher-man as protectors of the diademe Saint Iohn Damascenus lib. 4. des fide cap. 16. treating of the profit and benefit that commeth vnto vs through the inuocation of Saints saith By the Saints the diuels are chased away the sicke healed the blinde see the leprous cleansed tentations and vexations ouercome and
by them euery good thing commeth from the Father of lights in fauour of those that craue it with a stedfast faith Furthermore S. Ambrose saith in his booke Deviduis that It behoueth vs to inuocate the Angels which are giuen vs for our sauegards and to pray to the Martyrs also whose fauour we pretend through the alliance of the same nature that they make intercession for our sinnes hauing by their owne blood washed off those which themselues might haue These the Martyrs of God are our Prelats and beholders of our liues and actions Let vs not then be afraid to take as Intercessors those which in the midst of their victories knew their owne infirmitie Saint Hierom in his Epitaph to Paula inuocating this holy Lady Paula said Farewell O Paula helpe by thy praiers the later age of thy deuoted seruant thy faith and thy works associat thee with Iesus Christ and being there present thou maiest more easily obtaine thy request And the most learned and most deuout Doctor S. Austin in his Mediations cap. 40. calling vpon the Virgin saith Holy and immaculate Virgin mother of God Mary the mother of our Lord Iesus Christ deigne to make intercession for mee vnto him of whom thou hast been made the holy temple through thy vertues and merits And afterward hauing inuocated all the Saints in order he concludeth I am become so bold to beseech thee that it may please thee to pray for me to the end that I may merit to bee plucked out of Satans throte and from eternall death I let slip many other excellent speeches which this Doctor hath written in his 18. sermon made of Saints I will not here recite S. Leo and S. Gregory which were Popes neither S. Gregory of Tours S. Anfelmus S. Bernard and many moe which teach the same in this matter for the confirmation of our faith of whom the halfe were more then too sufficient to make all Lutherans and Caluinists to blush if they had any bloud in their hearts I will let passe in silence the many miracles done through the inuocation of Saints which the holy Father S. Austin of whom my masters the Ministers so willingly doe helpe themselues but would to God it were to a good end setteth downe before vs in his 22. booke of the Citie of God cap. 8. I cite the booke because they might reade them and to the intent they would cease from calling vs Idolaters seeing we doe it after the example of all these holy and wise Doctors with whom these new Doctors deserue not to be compared In the yeare two hundred and twentie when Doctor Origen prayed vnto the holy Prophet Iob was he an Idolater In the yeare three hundred and sixtie when S. Gregory Nazaanzeâ—us prayed vnto S. Basil in the Oration which he made for him was he an Idolater At that time as S. Basil cryed to the 40. Martyrs when S. Hierome recommended himselfe to the prayers of the holy Lady Paula and likewise S. Austin to those of the Virgin Maries were all these excellent and learned men Idolaters I beleeue no. Why then should these new Reformers or rather deformers of the Church call vs Idolaters seeing we do the same after all these holy Doctors But there is one thing you will tell me which troubleth much these Heretikes that is that they cannot vnderstand nor imagine that the Saints can heare vs affirming it is impossible that a man which is praying vpon the earth can be heard of them into Heauen Behold this is the second point which in the beginning of this Epistle we haue propounded let vs now come to examine it Know then that the Ministers and Preachers among some of their arguments which in them I haue noted and in their writings this of all other they esteeme the most strongest and that which they most set by Their Captaine Caluin in the third booke of his Institutions Chap. 20. sect 24. thinking to alledge some rare and new-found thing against vs setteth downe one thing which is most ridiculous and vnmeete I say not of a Doctour in Diuinitie but euen for a simple Scholar discoursing in this manner Who hath reueiled to vs saith he that they haue eares so long as to reach downe vnto our words and eyes so sharp that they can consider of our necessities By these words he would say that the Saints to vnderstand our prayers ought not only to haue both eyes and eares as they had vpon the earth but besides that they must haue long eares and great eyes which should penetrate downe vnto the earth Wherin this good Doctour shewes that he hath failed as well in Philosophie as in Diuinitie and that he himselfe neuer had either eyes or eares in his soule to know the truth It was pitie that he had not spoke this in some of the ancient Philosophers Schoole how had he bene mocked For what a folly or what an ignorance is it to thinke that Soules being separated from their bodies cannot vnderstand without the instruments of the bodie Men neuer yet found Philosophie which acknowledgeth not euen by naturall light only that the soule being freed from the body knoweth more yea better and much more easily then when it was within the bodie Therefore to account that one should haue long eares to heare the better it is to bring Asses eares into great request And if so be that all Asses could speake as well as that Asse which was the false Prophet Balaams I beleeue they would confesse that the length of their eares makes them neuer a whit the quicker of hearing but would say that such as thinke it so are greater Asses then themselues So then this great Doctor Master Caluin hath abused himselfe in his doctrine And since his time his and Luthers schollers to shew themselues wiser then their Masters haue begun to require of the Catholiques some expresse texts and examples taken out of the holy Bible whereby it might appeare that the Saints which are aboue in Paradise can vnderstand and heare our prayers But he that will answere them well should demaund also of them because they referre the deciding of euery question to the Scripture some certaine places and texts by which the contrarie might appeare to wit that the Saints cannot heare our prayers and were not this enough would they not be confounded and ouerthrowne yes vndoubtedly for they could neuer be able to produce so much as one onely text either out of the old or new Testament let them reade ouer the Bible as oft as they list and this were an excellent way to conuict them by answering them in this maner But to the end they should not thinke that we would vse shifts as they do in this point and in all other occurrences rather then by giuing a good answere we will shew them that the Scripture faileth vs not in this point and that it maketh for vs seeing they will haue it so Note then how this is one expresse text
vnderstanding of man And the like they do euen in this subject whereof we now intreat And therefore because they cannot conceaue how the blessed ones do heare vs they say and preach they cannot heare vs. They must also then deny that God of nothing hath created this world for it is impossible to comprehend how God was able to create of nothing so huge a frame as this whole world is and yet notwithstanding both they and we stedfastly beleeue that God euen of nothing was able to create it though our vnderstandings cannot conceaue a iot of it Let them then also denie the generall resurrection of the dead if one must denie all things which they cannot vnderstand or let them shew me how God is able to restore againe vnto man his owne flesh his owne bones and the rest of the parts of his body and not anothers after it hath bene eaten vp of wormes so many thousand yeares before and yet neither we nor they make doubt thereof though we vnderstand it not The like could I say vnto them of the mysterie of the holy Trinitie and many other things contained in the holy Scripture that albeit they are hard to be beleeued yet they cease not to be true Therefore it were much better for my masters the Ministers to confesse with humilitie their weaknesse with the good father Saint Austine and with him and vs to beleeue that the Saints can heare and assist vs. But what Heresie is too proude and the Heretikes will neuer be ouercome they may be conuinced as Saint Bernard saith but not ouercome because they are too passionate in maintaining their errours One may confound them rather then make them confesse their fault and as the prouerb saith Rather breake then bend Now to the end the Caluinists and Lutherans because we say with our father S. Austine that this is a very hard demaund to be vnderstood should not thinke that wee seeke an escape through the boggs and that the truth maketh not for vs we wil let downe before them the doctrine of that same Doctour S. Austine in his abouesaid booke De cura pro mortuis agenda For S. Austine minding particularly to declare how Abraham knew that the rich glutton had taken his pleasure in his life time and that Lazarus had suffred so much giueth vs three maner of waies whereby the soules departed may know and vnderstand that which is done in this world First by the arriuall of those which depart out of this life and goe from hence vnto them who to wit may aduertise them of the things which happen vpon the earth and especially of that which most of all concernes them The second by the report of the Angels which on a sudden mount vp into heauen and on a sudden againe euen in a trice are about vs. The third by the reuelation of Gods spirit which may beare it selfe towards the blessed departed into heauen euen in like maner as heretofore it bore it selfe towards the Prophets vpon the earth reuealing secret things to them and such as should be done a long time after them as the Scripture witnesseth so that God who seeth and knoweth all things whatsoeuer we do say and thinke may reueale vnto them our prayers S. Gregory lib. 12. Mor. c. 13. giueth vs beside these another sort or manner saying that the Saints beholding the face of God see all that which in any sort and manner appertaineth vnto them and consequently that they also heare our prayers So then by the doctrine of these holy Fathers we may somewhat gather how the blessed Saints heare vs when we call vnto them I wil make one more small argument against all these Heretikes and therewith I will conclude the whole All the holy Fathers and Doctours of the Church haue inuocated and prayed vnto the Saints they heare then our prayers The Antecedent hath bene alreadie prooued when we cited a great number of those which haue called vpon them The Consequence is cleare for seeing that so godly and learned personages prayed vnto them it is a signe and followeth necessarily how they beleeued with the Church that the Saints could well heare our prayers otherwise they would not haue bene so simple as to haue prayed vnto them To say as sometimes the Ministers say against vs that they were men and as men might haue erred that were too absurd to answere vs. For could it be possible that among so great a number of admirable vertuous and wise Doctours all of them should faile and that not one of them should haue thought whether the Saints could heare them or no Could it be possible that the whole Church should be in errour for a thousand and so many yeares and that in so many ages the Church should haue bene ignorant of that which the Lutherans and Caluinists pretend to know since so small a time Could it be possible that all the auncient Fathers and such excellent personages as S. Denis S. Athanasius S. Basil S. Iohn Chrysostome S. Iohn Damascenus S. Ambrose S. Hierome S. Gregorie S. Austin and many other lights of the Church haue presented so many prayers and petitions to those which neither had eares to heare them nor eyes to behold their necessities and so consequentlie haue cast their prayers into the wind into the aire and at randome Shall we beleeue that of them Shall we beleeue that all haue erred and that our Ministers onely say well That all haue benâ— blinde and that our Ministers onely are cleare sighted That all of them haue bene simple Schollers and disciples and our Ministers their Doctours and Controllers No we will neuer beleeue any such thing Wee had rather heare the voice of our auncient godly and wise Doctours then the voice of new and vnlearned which for this cause deserue not the name of Pastours and Shephards but Mercenaires onely suffering their sheepe to be deuoured vp yea themselues through their pernicious doctrine casting them into the throat of that infernall wolfe from whom Sir I pray God through his infinite mercie to preserue you beseeching you to take in good part this which in haste I send you though vnknowne vnto you protesting before God who knoweth the hearts of all men that all this which heere I haue spoken is only for his glory and your soules health Farewell from Leige this fifth of August 1605. AN ANSWERE TO THE ABOVESAID DOCTORS EPISTLE of the Augustins order Vpon the subiect of the inuocation of Saints HAuing of late seene and read your Letter touching that controuersie which is betweene you and vs Whether it is true or how it is possible that the Saints which are aboue in heauen can heare the Prayers that you make unto them from here beneath on earth I held it my dutie to answere thereunto and chiefly to these two points whereof the first is That it can be no otherwise then very good to pray and recommend vs to the Saints the second signifieth How
a holy Nation Which words God commandeth Moses and his Prophets continually to repeate vnto the children of Israel So our Lord Iesus Christ also making large promises to his Apostles and in their names to all Christians to abide with them through the communication of the wholesome gifts of his holy spirit euen to the end of the world putteth them oftentimes in minde of this condition If yee loue me if yee keepe my words if yee abide in me if my words abide in you if yee shall keepe my commandements my Father will loue you ye shall be my friends and my Father and I will come vnto you for to make our abiding with you in the Gospell according to S. Iohn chap. 14. vers 14. All these conditionall promises signifie vnto vs euidently that those which are acknowledged for the members of the visible Church may fall either into some fault against the second table as it chanced to Dauid who committed adulterie with Bathsheba the wife of Vriah and sent him to the campe with letters of commaund to Ioab to expose him to the enemies that he might be slaine 2. Sam. 11 or in some error against the first table as happened vnto Aaron the high Priest who formed a golden Calfe for the Israelites to worship Exod. 32. 4. and after that to many Iudges and Kings as to Gedeon Iudg. chap. 8. vers 27. and to Salomon 1. King 11 or into some reuolt from the Christian faith or into some other abuse as appeareth by the fall of S. Peter who trusting too much to himselfe denied his Master thrice and after his repentance and confirmation into his Apostleship was reproued by the Apostle S. Paul in the citie of Antioch because that in constraining the Gentiles to become Ierish as the Apostle speaketh thereof in the second chapter and 14. verse he went not with a right foote to the truth of the Gospell And if those which are in the visible Church cannot fall why doth the Apostle then reproue the Galathians first chapter 6. verse that in forsaking him which had called them by grace that is to say Christ they had transported themselues to another Gospell And in the third chapter and third verse that hauing begun in the spirit they would make an end by the flesh Wherefore hauing pourtraied before the eyes of the Corinthians sundrie faults and transgressions which the Israelites had committed against the Lord in the wildernesse hee addeth that these haue been examples for them to the end to admonish them to stand vpon their gards and that he which thinketh he standeth take heede lest he fall Surely if the Apostolicall Church could not haue failed the Apostle S. Paul had had no reason to haue feared so much lest the Corinthians which he called the members of God and sanctified in Christs Iesus and Saints by calling should be corrupted in their thoughts turning themselues aside from the simplicitie that is in Christ as the Serpent beguiled Eue through his subtiltie 2. Cor. 11. 3. Secondly I answere that you presuppose that which we neuer will grant you to wit that the Clergie and generall Councell which represents the Church cannot erre and that whatsoeuer at any time hath been determined and decreed by the Councels is certaine and ought to be receiued without contradiction To begin then with the Councell of the 4. hundred Prophets of King Ahab I require of you if the assemblie of these Doctors of lies who flattered the said King and counselled him all with with one consent to make warre against the Syrians haue not erred The Historiographer sheweth vs that all of them were possessed with the spirit of error and that onely Michaiah resisted them couragiously and although he was cōdemned smitten and cast into prison that the King notwithstanding would experiment it and that euen with the perill of his life hee was deceiued by the lying spirit of his foure hundred Prophets You Catholikes will also graunt me that the Councell of the chiefe Priests the Scribes and the Elders of the people assembled in the hall of the high Priest called Caiphas erred greatly when they held a Councell and consulted together how they might take Iesus by subtiltie and kill him according as the Euangelist S. Matthew teciteth it in the 26. chapter of his Gospell the third and fourth verses If you suppose that the successors of S. Peter and the other Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ haue receiued the priuiledge that they could not erre you abuse your selues For the Apostle S. Paul aduertiseth all Christians in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians of an Apostasie and generall reuolt which should come to passe in the Church of the New Testament and declareth to them that this mysterie of iniquitie began to worke in his time and should be reuealed by the comming of the sonne of perdition which exalteth himselfe against God euen to be set as God in the Temple of God bearing himselfe as if he were God Now as this seducement of sinne glided by little and little into the Primitiue Church through the craft and malice of Satan so hath it by many degrees discouered it selfe more and more and one day hath added error to another because in the beginning there was no heede taken to the Councels and assemblies of the ancient Bishops who haue not alwaies followed the true paterne of the wholesome words which 〈◊〉 receiued from the Apostles and from their purer predecessors but giuing eare to the lying and ambitious spirits of their companions which pleased them in their inuentions are gone astray from the truth Euen so the Fathers assembled in the Councels of Neocesarea and Laodicea haue there cōcluded that by the doctrine of the Apostle S. Paul it was permitted to the Christians to take in mariage a second wife but according to reason and the rule of truth it is a kinde of whoredome and for this cause they forbad the Priests not to bee present at the feast of any second wedlocke and enioyned those which were married to their second match to doe penance for the same Whereupon you must needes grant me one of these two things either that the Apostle S. Paul hath erred in that he hath not onely permitted a second marriage in the first Epistle to the Corinthians chap. 7. verses 27. 28. where hee shewes to him that is loosed from a wife that he sinneth not in marrying himselfe againe but giueth counsell also to the widowes in his first Epistle to Timoth. chap. 5. vers 19. saying I will therefore that the younger women marrie and beare children and gouerne the house c. Or that the Bishops of the aforesaid Councels haue erred in that they held the couenant of second wedlocke for an vnlawfull thing and fornication forbidden by God in the seuenth commandement of his law I presuppose that you will grant me rather that there was no error in the instruction of
through infidelitie and Moses through ingratitude not glorifying God who gaue him water out of the rock And in his 45. Sermon vpon S. Matthew he maketh mention of the Virgin Maries ambition which moued her to importune our Lord Iesus Christ to doe miracles And vpon this sentence of the 14. Psalme and third verse There is none that doth good no not one he citeth again for confirmation hereof the vices and imperfections of the Virgin Mary and of all the Disciples of our Lord Iesus Christ saying that when Christ was crucified there was none that did good all his Disciples fled away Iohn starke naked Peter denied him and the sâ—ord of doubt or diâ—fidence pierced the soule of the Virgin Mary Among other arguments which your Doctors vse to verifie that which you haue proposed in the beginning of your Epistle to wit y â— the Church hath taught approued the inuocation of Saints for the space of 1605. yeeres behold one of the principall saith namely that the Gentiles into which number Iulian the Apostate ranked himselfe called the Christians Idolaters aswell for the veneration of Saints as for that of Angels But to refute your proposition and to discouer the falsehood thereof I will here cite that answere which S Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria gaue expressely to Iulian the Apostate vpon that false accusation and reproch It is not so as thou thinkest replied S. Cyril to Iulian the Emperour that we deifie a man and that we should not giue the honor of adoration to him which by nature is God but we say rather that the Word proceeded from the Father by whom all things haue bin created and who ordained to saue mankinde hath taken flesh and hath bin made man He is not worshipped as thou saist and wouldest beleeue in that he is man for why should we say so but acknowledging that this man which appeared to vs is the Word of God we goe vnto him in as much as he is also God and who came from God the immutable Father As for the Martyrs we reckon them not as Gods neither haue we accustomed note this word to worship them we only praise them and honour them with great honours because valiantly they haue fought for the truth and in that they â—eld the puritie of their faith euen to despise their owne liues Besides thy Plato saith of such as haue liued well and died honorably that they are made Demons that is to say Gods and that after their death they ought to be serued and their sepulchres worshipped But as for vs we say not that the holy Martyrs are made Gods but haue accustomed to honour them as much as may be yeelding them euery where in recompence of their noble vertues a memorie that neuer perisheth Neither shall you euer proue that we worship men or should attribute to them the glory of God He sheweth the like in his bookes of the Trinitie and in his Commentaries vpon the Gospell of S. Iohn We come not vnto God saith he in his first booke of the holy Trinitie otherwise then by Christ. And in his third booke Our faith iustifieth and maketh vs familiar with God and aduanceth vs neere vnto him This faith is not simply in the man but in the nature of God and in as much as the Word was in the flesh And in his Treatise of true faith Our faith and hope is in God when Christ then said beleeue in me doth he not manifestly shew that he is God And if in the Spirit of the Sonne we haue confidence in calling vpon the Father how is not Christ then god also after that the Word was made flesh Which he more amplie and cleerely expoundeth in his discourse vpon the exhortation which Christ made to his Disciples before his departure out of this world to pray vnto the Father in his name oftentimes promising to them that they should obtaine whatsoeuer they demanded of his Father in his name He addeth In my name saith S. Cyril to shew that he is the Mediatour and that the Father communicateth his blessings to vs through the Son by whom wee haue accesse to the Father in the Spirit as it is written Therefore hee calleth himselfe the gate and the way because saith he no man commeth vnto the Father but by me For in as much as he is the Son God he giueth vs his blessings with the Father Which S. Paul minding to shew vs said Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Iesus Christ But in so much that he is Mediatour High-priest and Aduocate he presenteth our prayers to God for he alone giueth vs libertie and boldnesse vnto the Father We must then pray in the Sauiours name if wee will be heard of the Father None can be made holy or sanctified by the rule of liuing well but through the helpe and intercession of Christ nor ioyned also to the Father but through his mediation He permitteth vs in no wise to aske any thing from his Father but in his name only and promiseth that his Father will readily grant it vs. And in his fourth booke vpon the Prophet Esay All prayers are directed by Christ for by him we make our demaunds to God his Father and by him we make our prayers confessing also that God is in him And in another place To whom behoueth it better to grant vnto the Saints their desires and to giue them that which they require then to him which only is naturally and verely God The Saints who haue bin sanctified through the communication of God which sanctifieth them may well preserue this gift if so be they keepe his commandements but they cannot sanctifie others For no man sanctified through the communication of the holy Ghost hath the power to communicate this grace to others There is none but the only fountaine of holinesse which of it selfe can giue this holinesse to all The Saints then who haue receiued this gift through grace and through communication cannot distribute it to others at their pleasure but the Sonne who is the fountaine of holinesse sanctifieth his Disciples saying Receiue yee the holy Ghost All which are arguments worthie to be noted whereby Saint Cyril rebuketh the folly of such as forsake the well-spring of liuing waters to search broken cesternes which will containe no water S. Ambrose doth no lesse vpon this subiect in his sermons and discourses For in his Commentaries vpon the Epistle to the Romanes hee mocketh those greatly who in stead of praying personally to God and should not speake to him but in the name of his wel beloued Sonne doe betake themselues to the Saints deported as to his faithfull vassals and familiar friends to approch vnto his diuine Maiestie and to obtaine his grace through their intreatie and intercession He compareth them to the Heathen and Idolaters of whom the Apostle S. Paul speaketh in his first chapter of that said Epistle counting
I am afraid that an Angel should be angry if I serue him not in stead of my God but he will be offended when aâ— thou wouldest serue him for he is good and loueth God And as the Diuels waxe angrie when they are not serued so Angels grow angry when they are serued by way of religion in stead of God And in his Meditations vpon the 96. Psalme Let vs behold saith he the holy men which were like to the Angels when thou hast found out a holy man which is the seruant of God and if thou wouldest worship or serue him for God hee will hinder thee from it because hee will not be to thee in stead of God but with thee vnder God Euen so did Paul and Barnabas for it tearing their cloathes told them Men and brethren what doe you we are men subiect to passion as ye are Consider then these examples which shew that godly men hinder such as would serue them by way of religion for Gods and had rather that one only God be serued one only God worshipped and that to him alone oblation be made And so all Saints and Angels seeke not but the glory of this only God whom they loue They haue no other study then to inflame vs and to draw by force all those that they loue to his seruice to his contemplation and to the inuocation of his holy name The Angels declare this alone God and not themselues For for that cause are they called Angels that is to say messengers of God because they are his souldiers they seeke nothing but the glory of their Captaine if they seeke after their owne glory they are as tyrants condemned and such the diuels haue been who haue filled the Temples of the Heathen and haue seduced them to set vp Images for them and to offer them sacrifices And therefore he reproueth the follie and rashnesse of such who seeking to returne vnto God and were not of themselues able had attempted this way to come vnto God through the mediation of Angels and Saints departed of whom he saith in his tenth booke of his Confessions chapter 42. that they were deceiued through the craft of Satan and through the iust iudgement of God were fallen into the desire of curious visions At which he taking an occasion describeth to vs in that same place and many others the personall vnion of two natures to wit diuine and humane which is to be found but only in our Redeemer Iesus Christ and prooueth besides that without this vnion Iesus Christ himselfe could not haue been capable to accomplish the office of a Mediatour betweene God and men It behoueth saith he that the true Mediatour betweene God and men had something like vnto God and something like vnto man Lest that being in the 〈◊〉 and in the other like vnto men he should haue bin too farre from God and in the one and in the other like vnto God he should haue been too farre from men and so could haue been no Mediatour This true Mediatour saith hee which God hath showne to the humble through his secret mercie hath appeared betweene mortall sinners and the immortall iust one being mortell with men and that forasmuch as the reward of iustice is life and peace iust with God that through a iustice ioyned with God he might abolish the death of sinners which he would haue in common with them Behold therefore saith he addressing himselfe to God the Father I haue in good earnest my strong hope in him which sitteth at thy right hand and beleeue that thou wilt heale all my griefes through him who maketh intercession for vs vnto thee without that I should despaire c. Likewise in his 28 epistle which he wrote to S. Ierome I know saith he there is not so much as one only soule in all mankinde for the deliuerance of which the Mediatour between God and men which is the man Christ Iesus was not necessary And in his second booke of the visitation of the sicke hee faith There is no saluation but in one only Iesus Christ there is no other name giuen vnto men vnder heauen by which man can be saued Let vs then familiarly turne our faces towards our Mediatour who knoweth how to haue compassion of our infirmities I speake more ioyfully and more assuredly to my Iesus then to any of the holy celestial spirits because God hath vouchsafed to be made that which I am He hath taken the seede of Abraham and not the Angels to be our High-priest mercifull and faithfull in the things toward God to the end to make a reconciliation for our sinnes Now as S. Austin preached this doctrine to the Hipponians for the space of fortie yeeres to wit from the yeere of our Lord Iesus Christ about 391 vnto the yeere 430 so would he confirme it by his writings which I haue alleaged and by many formes of praier which he made to God only which here I cannot cite except I should bring in some of his whole bookes which is in no wise necessarie seeing that by those peeces and parcels which I haue alreadie produced out of them euery man may perceiue what was the doctrine of S. Augustine concerning this matter Which was approued by the Councels in which he was present and namely by the third Councell of Carthage wherein was ordained to all Christians by an expresse article that they euermore should addresse their prayers to God the Father and to vse no prayers composed by any for his owne vse if first they had not conferred them with some one of their best instructed brethren I will anâ—ex hereunto that which S. Austin himself testifieth in the first booke of the manners of the Catholike Church How the true Christians and Catholikes haue followed this rule in his time to stop the mouthes of the Manicheans and Doctors of the Heathen which vpbraided them that the Christians did call vpon the Saints Cull me not out saith he from the professors of the Christian name such as know not neither doe follow the vertue of their profession search not out against me the troupes of the ignorant which are superstitious euen in the true religion and so much giuen to their likings that they haue forgotten what they promised vnto God I know there are many which adore the sepulchres c. And it is no maruell among so many people Leaue off in time then I pray you from detracting the Catholike Church in blaming the fashions of such as it selfe doth condemne and daily seeke to correct them as vnto ward children And in his answere to the false accusations of a certaine Philosopher called Maximus To answere thee briefly saith he because thou mightest pretend no ignorance and that it should not draw thee into a scandalizing sâ—criledge know this that the Christian Catholikes of whom euen in your town there is a Church established doe not serue religiously any of the dead nor worship in stead of
himselfe yet they obstinately maintaine the contrarie and that oft times against the feeling of their owne consciences withholding the truth in vnrighteousnesse and shutting their eyes and eares against this admonition of the Apostle S. Paul in his second Epistle to the Corinthians chap. 13. vers 8. That wee cannot doe any thing against the truth but for the truth Which Truth although that in these latter daies it is represented vnto vs more cleerer then euer it was yet notwithstanding of many it is vnknowne and abandoned which follow on apace the foolish deuotion of their blind leaders and who to please and obey them rather then our Soueraigne Doctor and Master Iesus Christ will not vouchsafe to take so much paines as to informe themselues of this truth by reading of the holy Scripture but like better to depend wholly vpon the Traditions of their Teachers despising through their voluntarie ignorance the exhortatioÌ„ which the Apostle S Iohn giueth vnto al Christians in his first epistle 4. vers 1. Dearely beloued beleeue not euery spirit but trie the spirits whether they are of God for many false Prophets are gone out into the world Now the more furiously the Truth is assaulted by Satan and his slaues so much the more couragiously ought it to be maintained and defended by the zealous louers of pure religion but especially by the Ministers and Pastors of the holy Gospel who according to that rule which the Apostle S. Paul prescribeth them in his Epistle to Titus 1. 9 ought to employ themselues diligently to exhort with wholesome doctrine those which are willing to bee instructed and to improoue the gainsaiers I then being called by God into the labour of his holy Ministerie haue employed my self amidst you according to that talent which it hath pleased him to bestow vpon me for the space of sixteene yeeres on these two parts of my vocation and hauing respect to the multitude and sufficiencie of my predecessors who haue taken penne in hand to instruct the ignorant and to refute false Teachers by their writings I haue contented my selfe hitherto to follow their traces in my publique Sermons and priuate Conferences with such as were desirous to profit with me in knowledge of the fundamentall points of our Christian faith according to the occasions which were presented But of late hauing seene an Epistle written by a certaine Doctor of the Augustins Order touching the inuocation of Saints sent vnto one of my Auditours to seduce thereby the sheepe which our Soueraigne Shepheard Iesus Christ hath recommended to me I held it my dutie to returne it backe againe to Leige with my answere to satisfie the desire of one of his disciples by whoÌ„ the said Doctor hauing receiued my answere promised him that shortly after he would write back vnto me againe and that effectually But seeing there are almost two yeeres past since he held my refutation and that in all y â— time he could not make some small Treatise to fulfill and accomplish his promise his silence maketh me to thinke that he hauing considered well examined and weighed the arguments of my replie hath repented himself for his foolish boasting and that if his conscience be not â—eared he feeleth himselfe alreadie checked by the truth that shineth in my Refutation which in the meane time I haue amplified and now published with his Epistle following the counsell of some excellent learned personages with hope that I shall see it bring foorth some fruite if not in the abouesaid Doctor or in some of his obstinate scholars yet at least in such as are teachable and especially in you my most deare and worthie brethren of whom I haue conceiued this hope that whereas heretofore ye haue willingly heard me to entreat of this subiect aswell in my Sermons as in my familiar discourses with you so ye will now take no lesse delight in hearing me to discourse of it in this small booke which here I present you as appertaining vnto you by a double right For first of all being consecrated to your seruice from the beginning of my ministerie the proprietie of euery instruction which through Gods grace I propound vnto men is wholly yours Besides seeing that the intention of my dispute is to shew the difference between a true and a false adoration and to perswade euery man by all possible meanes to stand fast in the true and to reiect the false to whom could I better appropriate it then to you to whom aboue all things I am bound to teach the first point and fruit of our faith which is to worship God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ in spirit and truth and to call vpon none but him in our necessities Whereunto as I seeke to giue you some helpe by this present Treatise so doe I giue thankes to the Lord for that alreadie ye are so well grounded and instructed in this principle of true religion assuring my self that he which hath sowne this good seed in your soules wil make it abundantly to grow vp and to fructifie in such a sort that thereby his name shall be glorified your neighbour edified and your hearts fortified against all manner of tentations Finally if I perceiue that this small Treatise which I publish vnder your names be acceptable and pleasing vnto you your courtesie will serue as a spurre to pricke me more cheerfully forward in my commenced Career and one day hereafter to entreat more at large vpon this subiect through the grace of our blessed God and heauenly Father to whom I recommend you beseeching him with all my heart that it will please him most deare and worthy Brethren to maintaine you euen to the end in the profession of his truth and to replenish you with his temporall and eternall blessings for the aduancement of his glorie and the saluation of your soules From my Studie this 4. of August 1607. Your no lesse affectionated then seruiceable Pastor and brother in the Lord Iohn Polyander A small Table of the principall points contained in this Treatise FIrst Papists themselues acknowledge and confesse that the inuocatioÌ„ of Saints cannot be proued by Scripture pag. 18 Praying to Saints cannot be prooued by Scripture but absolutely disproued 19 We must call vpon God only not the Saints 19. 20. 21. 22 Christ is our only Mediatour the Saints are no Mediatours pag. 22. 23 Christ is our only Mediatour aswell of intercession as redemption 23 Saints are no Mediatours of redemption 25 Papists reiect Christ placing the Saints in his place 26 Papists exalt the Virgin Mary into the place of Christ. pag. 29. 30. 31 Papists place the Virgin Mary aboue Christ. 32. 33 The Papists place Franciscus Dominicus in Christs roome 34. 35. 36 Priests and Prophets may erre 38 The Church may erre 38. 39 Councels haue erred 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45 Variance and contradiction among the ancient Councels 46 The holy Scripture is the touchstone of doctrine 47 The Fathers haue
erred 49. 50 The Fathers inuocated the name of God only 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59 The Fathers prayed not to the Saints 61. 62. 63. 64 The Fathers called vpon God alone 65. 66. 67. 68. c. The Fathers condēned the worshippers of angels 57. 58. 59. 60 The ancient Fathers condemned the Adorers of Marie 61. 62. 63. 64 The ancient Doctors condemned the worshippers of creatures 52. 53. 54. c. 59. c. Bookes of the Fathers falsely fathered on them 81. 82. 83 An answere to his testimonie taken out of the writings of Irenaeus 85 An answere vpon his testimonie taken from Athanasius and Basil. 85. 86 An answere to his testimonie of Damascenus 88 Answere to his allegation of Hierome 88. 89 90 An answere to his allegation out of Anselmus and Bernard 91. 92 A particular answere vpon S. Bernards testimonie 94. 95 An answere vpon his citations out of Origen 96. 97 Books peruerted and altered by the Iesuites 98. 99. 100. 101 We ought to follow that forme of prayer which Christ hath taught vs. 102 False Prophets haue done miracles 103. 104 Sorcerers haue done miracles 105 The Saints departed cannot heare our prayers 105 The inuocation of Saints hath no ground nor foundation in the holy Scripture 107. 108 Touching his example of Abraham 111. 112. 113 What is to be vnderstood by Abrahams bosome 112. 113 There are but two waies 112 Of Lazarus and the rich Glutton 111. 112. 113. 14. 15 The departed doe not busie nor trouble themselues with our affaires 119. 120 The Saints deceased cannot heare vs. 122 AN EPISTLE WRITTEN BY A CERTAINE DOCTOR OF THE AVGVSTINS ORDER WITHIN THE CITIE OF LEIGE AND sent to a Leigois Merchant at DORT AFter my most humble salutations this present may serue according to my small power for to make cleere vnto you some certaine doubt which I vnderstood you haue to wit Whether it is true or how it is possible that the Saints which are aboue in heauen can heare our Prayers which we make to them here beneath on earth For the better cleering then of your demand wee will here handle two points as briefly as wee can beseeching you at your leisure you will be pleased to reade them ouer attentiuely The first will shew that it can be no otherwise then very good to pray and recommend vs to the Saints The second will declare the maner how they may heare our praiers and supplications For the first you must know that this hath alwaies been the doctrine of the Catholike Church to say and teach that this was a thing more then reasonable yea and most profitable for man to inuocate the Saints which the Church hath taught for the space of 1605 yeeres euen vnto this day But you must know this also that certaine heretikes which are sprung vp within this fortie or fiftie yeeres haue meant to teach and preach the cleane contrarir to wit the Lutherans and Caluinists who within a few yeeres seeking to ouerthrow so ancient a doctrine say that we must not pray vnto the Saints but vnto God onely Now let vs see whether these nouell Doctors haue been cleerer sighted wiser or better replenished with the spirit of God then all the Ancients The reason and most ordinary argument which they bring against this doctrine is this It is say they to doe wrong and iniurie vnto God to addresse our selues to any other then to him Loe this is that great peece of Canon wherewith they thunder against the walles of the towne and citie of God which is his Church For proofe whereof they alleage Saint Paul in his first Epistle to Timotheus the second Chapter and fifth verse saying that he calleth Iesus Christ our one and onely Mediator our Intercessor and our Bishop Let vs cite the words of the Apostle For There is saith he one God and one Mediator betweene God and man which is the man Christ Iesus These words of Saint Paul will say that there is one soueraigne Mediator which is Iesus Christ in that he is man but that hindereth not but there may bee moe which are subordinate and not soueraigne though that Iesus Christ be truly our onely Mediator sole Aduocate and only Redeemer My masters the Ministers and Preachers will reply and answer vs But how can these things agree together that Iesus Christ should be the onely Mediator and sole Intercessor for vs and yet neuerthelesse wee should haue some others namely the Saints If he be alone how hath he so many companions To answere this obiection we euermore confessse that Iesus Christ is our true Mediator and Intercessor vnto God for vs but we say also on the other side that the Saints may be likewise Mediators and Intercessors for vs. And if you aske me againe If the Saints may also be called Mediators and be so indeed how is it then that wee call Iesus Christ the onely Mediator I answere thereunto that it is for certaine causes and reasons which my masters the Ministers are either ignorant of or malitiouslie hide and conceale them from the people They are three in number The first cause why our Lord Iesus Christ is called the onely Mediator though the Saints be likewise after their manner is because he alone hath trod vpon the grapes in the wine presse and with the price of his bloud hath paid our ransome and hath reconciled vs vnto God his eternall father not only in praying as the Saints may doe but also in paying that which wee did owe which the Saints haue not done nor cannot doe for he alone hath redeemed vs. And for this cause we call him the only Mediator that is of ransome and of redemption And this is that which the Apostle Saint Paul would haue said in the place alleaged For after he had said that we haue one Mediator betweene God and man which is the man Christ he explaning himselfe presently addeth these words Qui dedit redemptionem semetipsum pro omnibus that is to say Who gaue himselfe a ransome for all men The second cause wherefore our Lord Iesus Christ is called the only Mediator is because he is not onely such by reason of the office whereby he mediats for vs and reconcileth vs to God but also by reason of his nature for he is in the midst betweene God and man being both God and man together which the Saints are not And for this cause he is called the only Intercessor like as the good and holy Fathers haue in times past taught vs to wit S. Austin in his 9. booke of the Citie of God and 17. Chapter S. Cyril in his 12. book S. Fulgence in hi◠2. booke ad Petrum chap. 2. and S. Theodoret vpon that very place of S. Paul with many others Thirdly Iesus Christ is called the only Mediator because that he is Mediator for all men in such a sort that he hath no need of any other Mediator either for himselfe or for other men
and in what manner they may heare your Prayers and Supplications For to build the first point you lay downe two Articles and principles most false The one That this hath alwaies beene the doctrine of the Christian Church to say and teach that this was a thing more then reasonable and most profitable to man to inuocate the Saints yea that the Church hath taught the same for the space of 1605 year unto this day The other How certaine Heretikes which are sprung vp within this fortie or fiftie yeares haue meant to preach and teach the cleane contrarie to wit those whom you call Lutherans and Caluinists who but a few yeares ago endeuoring to â—uerthrow so auncient a doctrine according to your opinion haue said and say still that we must not call vpon any of the Saints but vpon God onely I say that your first foundation is false because as Eckius one of your principall Doctours plainely confesseth in his booke of the worshipping of Saints that it is impossible for you to alledge one onely text either out of the old or new Testament whereby you can prooue that either Christ his Euangelists or Apostles haue commanded vs to adore the Saints or haue recommended this seruice to vs as very profitable or reasonable Also Petrus à Scoto confesseth that the inuocation of Saints is not taught in the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles but is there insinuated And likewise some of the Iesuits say that it is not manifestly represented in them but obscurely and mystically or by certaine consequences which are pretended and not well grounded And for this cause the Councell of Trent recommending it vnto the Christians makes no mention of the authority of the holy Scripture but of the ancient custome only of the consent of fathers and of the decreâ—s of holy Councels From whence followeth that this commandement of inuocating the Saints hath not bene giuen to the Christians as you write a thousand sixe hundred and fiue yeares ago or thereabouts but hath bene a long time after forged as I will prooue in due place by your Predecessors who haue made no conscience to teach for doctrine of saluation their owne traditions and humaine inuentions Which hauing shewed your second foundatioÌ„ wil tumble downe of it selfe that is how this rule of worshipping God alone hath bene inuented by those whom wrongfully you terme Lutherans and Caluinists for wee acknowledge none for our soueraigne Doctour and Master but our Lord Iesus Christ the only perfect wisedome and essential word of his Father who hath spoken heretofore to our Fathers by the auncient Prophets and since being manifested in our flesh hath spoken himselfe by his sacred mouth to his Disciples and after his Ascension by his Apostles who as faithful Secretaries and dispensators of the secrets of God haue left vs in writing the fundamentall points of pure Religion and touching this point haue taught vs that God only and no other ought to bee called vpon by vs in our necessities And although this is as cleere as the Sun shine in a bright day at noone yet because you are blinde and leaders of the blinde as your predecessors the Scribes and Pharisies were in the time of Iesus Christ wee will alleage against you some certaine proofes for that which is abouesaid to the end they may serue as a cleere light to those which wink not with their eyes that they might not see in seeing but open them with a holy desire to behold this light When God saith in the first Commandement of his law giuen by Moses to our Fathers * Thou shalt haue none* other Gods before me what doth hee signifie by this prohibition but only that we ought not to acknowledge any other God and Sauiour but him nor to attribute to any one that honour which is proper to him that is to call vpon him only in our anguishes according to that expresse command which he giueth vs in Deuteronom Thou shall worship the Lord thy God and serue him And by the Prophet Asaph in the 50 Psalme verses 14. 15. Offer vnto God praise and pay thy vowes vnto the most high and call vpon me in the day of trouble and I will deliuer thee and thou shalt glorifie me And to stirre vs vp the more thereunto he denounceth by the Prophet Esay chap. 42. and 8 verse I am the Lord this is my name and my glorie will I not giue to another neither my praise to grauen Images And in the 45 chap. and 21 verse Haue not I the Lord and there is none other God beside me a iust God and a Sauiour there is none beside me And in the 22 verse Looke vnto me and yee shall be saued all the ends of the earth shall be saued for I am God and there is none other If hereupon you object against me that God commandeth not by these places that wee should only worship him and none other beside him The answere is cleere to wit that this commandement of God was so interpreted by the Prophet Samuel and in the fulnesse of time by our Soueraigne Doctor Iesus Christ himselfe For therefore you may see how the Prophet warneth all the house of Israel in the 7 chapter of his booke and third verse where he saith If ye be come againe vnto the Lord with all your heart put away the strange gods from among you and Ashtoroth and direct your hearts vnto the Lord and serue him only and hee shall deliuer you out of the hand of the Philistims By which you may see that the Prophet Samuel sheweth vnto the children of Israel that the meanes and way to conuert and direct themselues vnto the Lord with all their hearts is to serue him only and to take away from before his eyes the Idols of the Heathen which hee calleth the gods of the strangers Euen so also our Lord Iesus Christ being tempted in the wildernesse by the wicked spirit which had transported him vpon a high mountaine and shewed him all the kingdomes of the world and the glorie of them with promise that he would giue them all vnto him if so be he would fall down and worship him he alleageth against Satan that which is written in the sixt chapter of the book of Moses called Deuteronomie expounding the intention of his father as he which is his Counsellour witnesse the Prophet Isaiah in his ninth chapter and fifth verse he addeth thereto this word only when hee answereth Satan that in that place it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serue as though he would haue said That the seruice which is due vnto God only is to worship him and to prostrate our selues before him And to this end and purpose the sonnes of Korah who composed the 44 Psalme teach vs in the 20 and 21 verses that to call vpon any other besides God is to forget and denie him If say they
we haue forgotten the name of our God and holden vp our hands to a strange god shall not God search this out for hee knoweth the secrets of the heart And when the Apostle S. Paul maketh this demaund in his Epistle to the Romanes How shall they call on him in whom they haue not beleeued he sheweth thereby that as man is forbidden to beleeue in any other but in God only so is he not permitted to pray vnto any other then to the Creator of heauen and earth seeing that inuocation is the companion of faith And therefore King Dauid in his Psalmes addresseth his prayers to none but onely vnto God with a full assurance of faith oftentimes calling him his buckler his shield his retreat his foundation his deliuerer his tower his fortresse his defender and the horne of his saluation According to which the Prophet Asaph in the 73 Psalme and 25 verse signifieth That God only is his refuge in his distresses For saith hee whom haue I in heauen but thee and I haue desired none in the earth with thee Also it is written in the 2. of the Chron. 20. 9. that King Iehoshaphat being afraid of the Moabites and Ammonites which were come to assaile him disposed himselfe to pray vnto the Lord and in the prayer which he made in the temple in the name of his people saith If euill come vpon vs as the sword of iudgement or pestilence or famine we will stand before this house and in thy presence for thy name is in this house and will crie vnto thee in our tribulation and thou wilt heare and helpe But to come now vnto your Argument which scornfully you call The great peece of Canon wherewith wee thunder against the walles of the towne and city of God which is his Church this it is That whosoeuer addresseth himself to any other but to God doth wrong to God For proofe whereof you adde that which wee alleage out of the first Epistle of S. Paul to Timotheus the second chapter and fifth verse That as there is but one God so there is but one Mediatour betweene God and men to wit the man Christ Iesus You shuffle together either through ignorance or malice the Questions that are distinct and seuerally handled by our Diuines The first is Who is it that we ought to call vpon whereunto wee answere God only The second In whose name whereunto we answere In the name of Iesus Christ who is our onely Aduocate and Intercessor For confirmation not of the first as you presuppose but of the second answere wee alleage the abouesaid text out of the first Epistle to Timotheus in the second chapter and fifth verse which I pray you against an other time to note and to take better aduice and consideration vpon our Arguments that you may propound them more sincerely Touching your exception though the Apostle S. Paul teacheth vs in that very text which I haue named that there is but one Mediatour yet you say that That hindreth not but there may be some which are subordinate and not soueraigne It shewes from what a spirit it commeth foorth euen from the spirit of lying and contradiction Of lying because you adde thereto that which is not found nor can bee gathered from that abouesaid text of the Apostle to wit that Iesus Christ is the soueraigne Mediatour onely in regard of others which are inferiour Of contradiction because you your selfe say thus Though that Iesus Christ be truly our only Mediatour sole Aduocate and only Redeemer that that hindreth not but there may be moe which are subordinate and not soueraigne For to be only Mediatour to haue some others besides as subordinate are things contradictorie And if you will that we should admit of such a glosse you must then grant to vs that out of this very text will follow that when the Apostle saith There is but one God he meaneth one soueraigne God and albeit that verely hee is onely God yet notwithstanding there be others subordinate which one can neither speake nor thinke without blasphemie Heereupon you alleage two replies of our Ministers The first How can these things agree together that Christ is our onely Mediatour and sole Intercessor for vs and neuerthelesse there are some others besides him to wit the Saints The second If the Saints may also be called Mediatours and are so indeede how then is it that Iesus Christ is called the only Mediatour To speake properly these two replies are but one now let vs see your answere vpon the latter and the answere which you alleage therein with share reproch that our Ministers are either ignorant of them or maliciously hide and conceale them from the people Now what are they The first is that Iesus Christ is called the only Mediatour because that hee alone hath troâ—de vpon the grapes in the wine-presse and through the price of his blood hath paid our ransome and hath reconciled vs vnto God his eternall father not only in praying but also in paying that which wee did owe which the Saints haue not done nor cannot doe All this is true but that which you adde is false that Iesus Christ is the onely Mediatour that is to say only of Ransome and Redemption and this is that which S. Paul meanes in the place alleaged for after he saith We haue one Mediatour betweene God and men which is the man Christ Iesus in explaining himselfe hee presently addeth these words Quit dedit redemptionem semetipsâ—m pro omnibus that is who gaue himselfe a ransome for all men For although the Apostle maketh no mention in this place but of the first effect of the mediation of our Lord Iesus Christ it followeth not from thence that his intent was to exclude the second which he setteth downe elsewhere expressely and namely in his Epistle to the Romanes and 8. chapter vers 34. where hee ioyneth together those two fruites of the mediation of our Redeemer for when he first demaudeth this Who shall condemne vs and answereth himselfe It is Christ which is dead yea or rather which is risen againe to wit for to deliuer vs from condemnation in those words he setteth downe the first effect and going forward in answering who is also at the right hand of God and maketh request also for vs hee likewise setteth downe the second and giueth vs sufficiently to vnderstand that Iesus Christ is our Mediatour and Aduocate towards God not only in so much as he hath redeemed vs but also in so much that hee maketh intercession vnto God his father for vs and presents to him our supplications And albeit that the Apostle in the abouesaid text to Tim. chap. 2. speaketh nothing of the intercession of Iesus Christ yet neuerthelesse S. Austin hauing respect to that which the Apostle admonisheth vs of in the verses going before that is to make requests vnto God for all men and that in the name
of his sonne Iesus Christ he expounded it as though the Apostle had there made an expresse mention of our Saviours intercession as you may perceiue by those words of his second booke contra Parm. cap. 8. The mutuall prayers saith he of all the members which yet labour vpon the earth ought to ascend vp to the Head which is gone before into Heauen in whom we haue the remission of our sinnes For if S. Paul were a Mediatour the other Apostles would be so also and so there would be many mediatours which would not agree with that which elsewhere he saith That there is one mediatour betweene God and men The second cause why you confesse that Iesus Christ is called the only Mediatour is because he is not only so by reason of that office whereby he mediates for vs and reconceleth vs vnto God but by reason also of his nature for he is in the midst betweene God and man being both God and man together which the Saints are not And for this cause he is called the only Intercessour like as the good and holy Fathers in time past haue taught vs to wit S. Austin in the ninth booke of the Citie of God and 17. chapter S. Cyril in his 12. booke S. Fulgence in his second booke ad Petrum chap. 2. and S. Theodoret vpon that very place of S. Paul with many others We grant you this second reason and besides we say that it maketh wholly for vs. And Tertullian or as some thinke Nouatianus which in those daies was Priest to the Romane Church proposeth vs this reason incommunicable to the Saints in the booke of the Trinitie chap 13. 16. to shew vs that if Christ were only Man as the Saints are he could not be out Mediatour not heare and succour vs vnto God his father through his intercession If saith he Christ were man only how is he present every where being called vpon seeing it is not the nature of man but of God that he can be present in all places And if Christ were man only why is a man inuocated in our prayers for a Mediatour seeing the inuocation of a man is iudged to be forcelesse to performe saluation If Christ also be only man why is confidence put in him seeing that the hope which is placed in man is accursed Wherefore hee which is declared to be made Medtatour betweene God and men is found to haue vnited in himselfe both God and Man The third reason which you alleage that Iesus Christ is called the only Mediatour is because that he is mediatour in such a sort for all men that he hath no neede of any mediatour either for himselfe or for others Now the Saints aswell in this world as in the other though they are Mediatours and Intercessours for vs in reconciling vs to God through their prayer haue neverthelesse needs of Iesus Christ themselues to be reconciled 〈◊〉 God through his intercession and in his name they 〈◊〉 all that which they doe obtaine for vs. But Iesus Christ saith S. Paul without the interposition of any other goeth vnto God of himselfe to make intercession for vs. This reason hath been noted by Saint Austin that great doctour of the Church when he saith thus The Christians pray one for another but be for whom no man maketh intercession and who maketh intercession for all is the true and only Mediatour We also admit of this third reason that Iesus Christ is the only Mediatour because that he hath no need of any other Mediatour either for himselfe or for others But we denie that which you affirme without any proofe out of the holie Scripture to wit that the Saints aswell in this world as in the other are our mediators and Intercessors For albeit the Scripture commandeth the Saints liuing in this world to pray the one for the other yet you can in no wise from thence conclude that they are our mediators and intercessors but that they are our companions and fellow-helpers who to assist vs ioyne their prayers with ours to mooue as much as in them lieth our heauenly father to mercie as being fellow-brethren and members with vs of one selfesame spirituall bodie whereof Christ is the head And this is that which S. Austin vnderstood in saying That all the members pray the one for the other but the head is Mediatour for all Now touching the Saints departed I am astonished that you dare maintaine they are our mediators seeing the holy Scripture expresseth nothing thereof but concontrariwise S. Iohn including himselfe in the rancke of all the other faithfull members dispersed in this world for whom Iesus Christ was made a Propitiation and for whom he maketh intercession to God his father teacheth vs in his first epistle second chapter and first verse that If any man sinne wee haue an Aduocat with the father to wit Iesus Christ the iust And our Lord Iesus Christ calling himselfe The way The truth and the life saith expresly that No man commeth vnto the Father but by him in the Gospell written according to S. Iohn c. 14. and 6. v. Whereunto the Apostle S. Paul conformablie saith that by the faith which wee haue in Christ wee haue boldnesse and entrance to the Father with confidence Ephes. 3. 12. to the end that we may receiue mercie and find grace to helpe in time of neede And that by the bloud of Iesus we may be bold to enter into the holy place by the new and liuing may which he hath prepared for vs through the vaile that is his flesh Heb. 10. 19. 20. In fine that his priesthood is euerlasting Wherefore he is able also perfectly to saue them that come vnto God by him seeing hee euerlineth to make intercession for them Heb. 7. 24. 25. But to come to your conclusion we which are Catholikes say you confesse well that according to those significations abouesaid that Iesus Christ is truely the Sole Mediatour only Aduocate and Intercessour but we also say and that in all truth against these heretikes that that hindereth not but the Saints liuing or departed may be so also in their fashion But now what wil you say if I should shew you by the Formulary of your prayers that according to those significations abouesaid you doe not hold Iesus Christ for your only Mediator and Intercessor Say you not Precibus meritis beate semperque virginis Mariae amnium sanctorum perducat nos dominus ad regna caelorum That is to say By the prayers and merits of the most blessed and alwaies virgin Mary and of all the Saints the Lord bring vs into the kingdome of heauen What is that I pray you but to attribute to the virgin Mary and the rest of all the Saints departed not only that they should pray for vs but also that they haue merited for vs and so consequently that they are our Mediators not onlie of Intercession but also of ransome
and redemption Doe you not teach in your Catechisme made by the authoritie of the Councell of Trent That men ought to inuocat the Saints inasmuch as God through their merit and grace doth vs good Approue you not that which Barnardine de Busto writeth in his Marial of the virgin Mary That first of all she is Mediatrix of our saluation 2. Mediatrix of our coniunction and vnion 3. Mediatrix of our iustification 4. Mediatrix of our reconciliation 5. Mediatrix of our intercession and 6. Mediatrix of our communication Sing ye not O pia puerpera nostra pians scelera iure matris impera Redemptori that is O godly Child-bearer thou which purgest vs from our sins command our Redeemer by the authoritie of a mother Allow you not also the sentence of Lombard who saith in the 4 booke of his Sentences Dist 45. That the Saints make intercession for vs both by their merits in that they supply the defect of ours and by their affection in that they ioyne themselues to our prayers and therefore saith hee â—e pray vnto them that they might make intercession for vs to wit that their merits may be allowed vs and that they might wish our good because that they wishing it Godwils it also See now how your owne words and those of your Doctors conuince you of contradiction and manifest falsehood As for the other part of your Conclusion it is weakly grounded and euen by your owne reasons is easie to bee ouerthrowne that is seeing with vs you confesse that Iesus Christ only hath redeemed vs through the merit of his death and passion and that hee is only true God and true man that he alone hath no neede of any other Mediatour either for himselfe or for others you cannot maintaine against vs with truth that the Saints liuing or dead are in any fashion our Mediatours and Intercessors yet you seeke neuerthelesse to proue it by some texts out of the Bible For truth whereof say you I referre my selfe to the holy Scripture for in the fifth Chapter of Deâ—terenomie Moses calleth himselfe a Mediatour saying I haue been an Vmperer and a Mediatour between God and you speaking to the Hebrewes Vnto which words S. Paul making an allusion in the 9. Chapter and 15. verse to the Hebrewes calleth Iesus Christ the Mediator of the new Testament to put a difference between him and Moses which had been of the old Howbeit this example of Moses will not serue your turne as a proofe but to the first part of your Affirmation to wit that the liuing are Mediatours and Aduocates for others I tell you moreouer that in this lense Moses neuer calleth himselfe a Mediatour betweene God and men but as himself hath well interpreted it hee bore messages betweene both the parties that is between God and the children of Israel For in the Hebrew tongue you shall there finde these very words of Moses saying At that time I stood betweene the Lord and you to declare vnto you the word of the Lord. If you replie hereupon that Moses is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Mediatour in the Epistle to the Galathians the third chapter and nineteenth verse I answer that sometimes this Greek word signifieth an Interpretour which goes and comes to and fro betweene two parties and that in this signification it is said by the Apostle to the Galathians that the Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediatour to wit Moses who twice went vp to the mountaine and came downe againe with the two Tables of the law of God to reade and expound them to the Israelites In which sense wee grant you that hee the high Priests and the ancient Prophets who haue interpreted the will of God and haue offered vp vnto him in the name of our Fathers may be called Mediatours and the Apostles also but not in that sense in which heretofore we haue declared that the Apostle S. Paul calleth Iesus Christ the onely Mediatour in the first epistle to Timothie the second chapter and fifth verse where the Apostle taketh this word of Mediatour for a Reconciler as himselfe expoundeth it saying That hee gaue himselfe a ransome for vs in which sense this title beseemeth none properly but Iesus Christ onely neither can it be attributed without blasphemie to the members of his Church But let vs examine a little your proofe that followeth Is it not true you demand me that wee haue but one Sauiour of the world which is Iesus Christ Wherunto you answere that there is nothing more true And neuerthelesse the scripture which cannot lie giueth the same title of honor to others without doing wrong or dishonor to Iesus Christ as to Othoniel in the third chapter of the booke of Iudges and ninth verse And Nehemiah in the ninth chapter of his booke confirmeth the same King Pharaoh also as appeareth in the 41. chapter of Genesis calleth Ioseph in the Egyptian tongue not onely Sauiour but Sauiour of the world From whence with a long circumlocution of words you conclude that by these three small reasons it is easie to be vnderstood how the Saints may also be mediators and intercessors vnto God for vâ— and if they are so then wee may and ought to call vpon 〈…〉 our humaine necessities and that it will not follow from thenceâ— that you should reiect the sonne of God for as much as you alwaies giue to him the first rancke of being the true and onâ—ly mediator according to the fashion as you haue said and the Saints is their sort anâ—â—manâ—r So then it will be exceeding well done to inuocate them as they alwaies haue done in your catholike church It goes well with you when you your selfe tearme your reasons small and confesse beside that the holy scripture giueth this title of honor to others then to our Lord Iesus Christ though it be neuerthelesse for some other reason And indeed those which you haue named in the old Testament are called sauiours or deliuerors yet was it in regard that God had ordained them as instruments of deliuerance for his people and for types and figures of the Sauiour which was to come But the holy scripture in no maner calleth the deceased Saints mediators neither doth it teach vs that they are established by God for instruments of mediation betweene God and vs so that this argument of yours drawne from the name of sauiour makes nothing for your cause As touching your Anticipation and excuse that although you pray vnto the Saints yet neuerthelesse you doe not reiect the sonne of God because you alwaies giue vnto him the first ranke of being the true and onely mediator according to that fashion which formerly you haue spoken of it is easie to answere and proue the contrarie by the maner custome of youâ— catholike church wherupon you ground your superstitions So it is then that in the houres Rosarie appointed for the virgin Mary
is thy request it shall be giuen thee euen to the halfe of the kingdome This Empresse saith he figured the Empresse of heauen to whom God hath giuen the halfe of his kingdom for God hauing his iustice and his mercy hath reserueah is iustice to exercise it in this world and hath left mercis to his Mother Therefore if any one feele himselfe grieued as the Court of Gods iustice let him appeale to the Court of the mercie of his Mother c. Whereunto is also conformable that which Anthonine the Archbishop writeth in his summe par 3. tit 12. chap. 8. par 4. tit 15. chap. 14. 44. That as it is impossible that they from whom the Virgin Mary â—â—rneth the eyes of her mercie should be saued so is it necessarie that those vpon whom she turneth them praying for them should be iustified and glorified because Christ is not onely an Aduocate but also a Iudge who will examine all things in rigour and will leaue nothing vnpunished So the good God hath prouided vs such an Aduocatesse in whom there is nothing but benignitie and gentlenesse Hereupon abusing impudentlie the exhortation of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hâ—brewes in the 4. chapter and 16 verse he admonisheth vs to goe boldly vnto the throne of God which is saith he the Virgin Mary in whom he hath placed it let vs goe concludeth he vnto her with assurance as the Apostle saith to the Hebrewes to the end we may obtaine mercie and finde grace in time of need Whereunto to bring the ignorant he likewise is not ashamed to tell this fable that the blessed Seraphins and angels would haue withheld the Virgin Mary as she ascended vp into heauen to haue enioyed her company and to haue placed her in the highest degree of their order as she which surpassed and excelled them both in glorie and in the flame of charitie But what said she to them I take pleasure in your order and congratulate you most affectionately for your diuine fâ—râ—encie But the Scripture must be accomplished saying It is not good that man should be alone let vs make him a helpe like to himselfe so then it is not good that my Sonne should be alone but that I must assist him seeing I am his mother and haue been giuen him for an aide in redemption through compassion in glorification through intercession for mankinde to the intent that if God should threaten to drowne the earth and to punish the sinnes of man by the flood of his scourges I may appeare before him as the Rain-bow that hee may call to minde his coueâ—â—t and may reconcile himselfe with them and not destroy the world You speake not so audaciously of the other Saints departed howbeit Viues the Spaniard confesseth plainly in his discourse on S. Austins 8. book of the City of God that he cannot perceiue that there is any difference betweene the opinion you hold of your Saints and that which the Pagans held of their goods considering you doe vnto them the same honours as vnto God himselfe and to his Sonne Iesus Christ. And indeed your Master of Sentences and his disciples makes no bones to call the Saints the Mediatours of our saluation to teach how they through their works of supererogation haue purchased so great credit in heauen that they haue not onely merited eternall glorie and happinesse for themselues but by those workes also may succour those which yet walke in this vale of miserie and to helpe their necessities The praeyers of the Saints saith Bonauenture in the 4. booke of his Sentences dist 45. qu. 2 may obtaine us many good things as the Master to wit of Scholasticall sentences saith by their affection and through their former merits by which readily and promptly they hauâ— serued God On the other side Our dutie is saith Alexander of Ales in his fourth sentence and 92 question to pray vnto the Saints for three reasons Because of our necessitie the glorie of the Saints and the reuerence to God I say because of the want and defect of our owne merits to the end that when we haue not sufficient and enough of our owne the merits of others may helpe and defend vs. I would willingly come foorth of that bottomlesse pit of your execrable blatphemies but my conscience will not suffer me to dissemble those great praises which you attribute vnto S. Francis who was condemned of impietie by Pope Iohn the 22. and to S. Dominiâ—â—s as it were in despite of God and of his Sonne Iesus Christ neuerthelesse because I will not be too redious I will not here cite all that is found written of them in the bookes allowed by your Church onely I will draw foorth some drafts and principall points whereof the first is that it is written in the book of Conformities How the Virgin Marie and the rest of the Saints in heauen goe in procession euerâ—e one in their order but as for Saint Francis he is harboured in Christs side and commeth forth through his wound is Ensigâ—e bearer to conduct them with the banner of his Crosse in his hand And in the Prose of S. Francis that hee is The figuratiue Sauiour the way the life and a singular one crucified who hauing receiued in a vision the same wounds as Christ had according to the Diuels attestation which heerein is your Doctor purgeth you from your sins Wherefore in good 〈◊〉 he may say that which is sung in the Gospell vpon his feast day All things are giuen to me of my father for as much as through his merites hee hath been made the sonne of God and hath receiued a billet from heauen wherein was written This man is the grace of God So that now through the merits of his works which are so holy that if an Angell had done them they could not haue bin more admirable He is the modell of all perfectioÌ„ in whom we may ioyntly see all the vertues of the Saints aswell of the old as of the new Testament for hee hath obserued the Gospell to a letter and hath accomplished all the commandements of God In such sort that according to the prophecie of Ieremie in the 50 Chap. vers 20. Men shall seeke for his sinne but they shall not finde it And of him the Psalmist hath spoken Thou hast crowned him with glorie and honor and hast set him euer all the workes of thine hands For according to your beliefe he is in the glorie of the Father as it is written Phil. 2. he is deified and in the glorie of God But which is more he maketh one selfesame spirit with God he sitteth aboue in heauen as Aduocate of all the Church militant he is most neerely knit vnto God and beareth rule ouer euery creature By one Masse he hath appeased God towards all the world And to alleage your own words Christus â—rauit Franciscus exorauit that is to say Christ hath prayed Francis hath obtained Let vs now
the Apostle S. Paul which was diuinely inspired into him but in the Bishops assembled in the Councels aboue said In confidence whereof I will come vnto the Councell of Nice which imposed three yeeres penance vpon the Christians who hauing abandoned their Armes afterward returned to the warres againe which rigour is condemned by S. Iohn Baptist who did not commaund souldiers to forsake their Armes but exhorteth them to content themselues with their payes and to demaund nothing beside that which was ordained for them The Fathers assembled in the Arelatan Councell haue prohibited the admitting of a married man into the vocation of the holy Ministerie by an article cleane contrarie to the 〈◊〉 the Apostle S. Paul who saith in the first Epistle to Tim. chap. 3. that a Bishop must be the husband of one wife The second Councell of Nice allowed the adoration and seruice of Images a fault which you will not correct to obey the second commandement of the Lord who saith in Exodus chapter 20. verses 4. 5. Thou shalt make thee no grauen Images neither any similitude of things that are in heauen aboue neither that are in the earth beneath nor that are in the waters vnder the earth thou shalt not bow downe to them neither serue them In the Lateran Councell which was held vnder Pope Innocentius the third it was decreed that men should beleeue that the bread and wine was changed into the substance of the bodie and blood of Iesus Christ by the vertue of these fiue words Hoc est enim corpus meum Which is a false opinion and easie to be ouerthrowne by many places of holy scripture and especially by the 11. chapter of Saint Pauls first Epistle to the Corinth where after he had recited the institution of the Lords Supper and treated of the consecration of the bread and wine by these very words of our Lord Iesus Christ This is my body c. he retaineth those same words of bread and wine For he saith as often as ye shall eate this bread and drinke this cup ye shew the Lords death till he come Againe Whosoeuer shall eate this bread finally let a man therefore examine himselfe and so let him eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. By which manner of speech he teacheth vs that there is no transubstantiation in the holy Supper but that the bread remaineth bread and the wine keepeth it owne naturall propertie They also which were present in the Councell of Toledo haue they not iudged that he which in stead of being espoused to any honest woman kept a concubine ought neuerthelesse not to bee cast out of the communion of the Lords Supper Doth not this sentence ouerthrow the institution of holy Matrimonie which by the Apostle S. Paul is called an vndefiled bed and honourable among all men Heb. 13. 4. Doth it not also fauour whoremongers which possesse the vessels of their bodie in dishonour and are condemned by God as well in the seuenth Commandement of his law as by many holie remonstrances of the Prophets and Apostles Moreouer the 72 Canon of the 6. generall Councel approued by Pope Adrian doth it not say that men ought to breake the promises of Mariage which the Catholikes haue made with heretikes and to hold them for nought as though they neuer had been made Is not this too too dangerous a Canon forged by the spirit of disloyaltie and dissension For the spirit of truth which guided the penne of the Apostle S. Paul doth it not signifie to vs in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the 7. chapter and 15. verse that God hath called the married in peace and that to entertaine and keep it If any brother haue a wife that beleeueth not if she be content to dwell with him he ought not to forsake her and if any woman hath an husband that beleeueth not if hee be content to dwell with her she ought not to forsake him neither Whereunto the Apostle addeth this reason as most worthy of consideration namely the vnbeleeuing husband is sanctified by the wife and the vnbeleeuing wife is sanctified by the husband and that through this coniunction their children are holy which else would be vncleane The Councell of Wormes abusing that admonition of the Apostle S. Paul in the 1. Epistle to the Cor. chap. 11. 28 where he saith Let a man therefore examine himselfe and so let him eate of this bread and drinke of this cup thought it a matter of no moment to admit theeues and other scandalous persons vnto the Lords holy table vpon the trial and testimonie of their owne consciences These are the Councels very words It oftentimes happeneth that the Monkes in their Cloisters doe commit some crime of theft behold wee therefore iudge that these brethren being accused of such a fact ought to cleere themselues thereof and ordaine to this effect that the Abbat or some one among them of their brethren celebrate the Masse and that all trying and prouing themselues doe participate the same And in another Canon If any one hath charged the Bishop or Priest with some mischieuous deed he ought to celebrate the Masse and to shew thereby that he knowes himselfe innocent and guiltlesse of that crime which is laid vnto his charge This canon hath not only been approued but also put in practise by Pope Gregory the seuenth named before his popedome Hildebrand who being aduertised by letters that he was accused of sorcerie and simonicall heresie answered that to satisfie euery man according to that good canon of the Councell of Wormes and to take away that scandalous report of him out of y e Catholike Church he would receiue the body of our Lord in token of his innocencie True it is that afterward as Bellarmine writeth the Bishops thought good to abolish that pernicious canon whereby their predecessors had prostituted the communion of the bodie and blood of our Lord Iesus Christ to all sorts of leaud persons to be vnworthily trampled vnder their feete and prophaned But Bellarmine notwithstanding is driuen to confesse so much that it was receiued and allowed for some time in your Church To come now vnto the errors of some other Councels The Councels of Carthage and of Florence haue inrolled for canonicall bookes and as diuinely inspired to serue all men in the points of religion for a rule and as a law for their discourses the bookes of Tobit Iudith Wisedome Ecclesiasticus and the Maccabees which neuerthelesse according to Cardinall Caietans owne confession are accounted by S. Ierome among the Apocrypha and not receiueable for to ground vpon them any article of faith and to the end the Reader may not be troubled in that the abouesaid Councels and the Popes Innocentius and Gelasius haue reckoned these bookes among the Canonicall the said Cardinall giueth him this counsell in his obseruations vpon the tenth chapter of Ester to reduce them to the rule and correction of
light of men And the light shined in the darknesse and the darknesse comprehended it not Hitherto saith he 〈◊〉 finde no prayer nor cause nor place of 〈◊〉 But because 〈◊〉 immediatly after he saith And the Word was made flesh and dâ—â—lt among vs thou hast a Godhead to which thou addressest thy prayer and a humanitie which prayeth for thee This was spoken by the Apostle euen since the resurrection of our Lord which sitteth at the right hand of God and soliciteth for vs because he hath vouchsafed to be our Mediatour And what is hee but a Mediatour betweene God and men not betweene the Father and men but betweene God and men What is that God The Father the Son and the holy Ghost What are men Sinners contemners of God and mortall Betweene this same Trinitie and the infirmitie and iniquitie of men was made a Mediatour a man not vniust but neuerthelesse weake to the end that in as much as 〈…〉 hee might ioyne vs to God in that that he was weake he might draw neere to thee and therefore to the intent hee might be a mediatour betweene God and men the Word was made flesh that is to say the Word was made man And vpon this sentence our Lord Iesus Christ saith I am the way the truthâ— and the life I am saith the Lord the truth and the life wilt thou 〈◊〉 I am the way wilt thou not be deceiued I am the truth wilt thou not die I am the life This thy Sauiour saith Thou hast no where to goe but only to me thou hast none to goe by but by me Goe by Christ man and thou shalt come vnto Godâ— If thou goest to him thou must goe by him seeke not any way by which thou maist come vnto him but by him he was made the way by which thou art to come I say not to thee seek the way he which is the way is come vnto thee Rise thou â—p and walke Walke with manners and not with feete Whosoeuer runneth out of this way and not by him the more hee runneth the more bee straâ—eth because he withdraweth himselfe the further out of the way Moreouer vpon the 94. Psalme If thou seekest saith he thy Mediatour to leade â—hee vnto God he is in heauens there prayeth for thee euen as he dâ—ed for thee in earth being entred into the sanctuary of heauen he only can present the prayers of the people which haue no neere accesse vnto God The same author noteth the words of the Apostle S. Iohn 1. Epistle chap. 2. vers 1. If any man sin we haue an aduocate with the Father Iesus Christ the iust Where this Apostle taketh heed of making himselfe a companion with our aduocate Iesus Christ Surely saith he he was a iust and a great man who dranke out of the Lords bosome the secrets of his mysteries Being notwithstanding such a man he hath not said ye haue an aduocate with the Father but If any man hath sinned we haue an aduocate Neither did he say ye haue nor did he not say ye haue me nor likewise ye haue Christ but he propoundeth Christ and not himselfe and said we haue and not ye haue He chose rather to ranke himselfe in the number of sinners to the end that Christ might be his aduocate then to place himselfe an aduocate in stead of Christ to be accounted among the damnable proud ones BrethreÌ„ saith he we haue an aduocate with the Father Iesus Christ the iust he is the propitiation for our sinnes who so holdeth that committeth no heresie nor hath made any schisme or partie For from whence are diuisions come from hence that men say wee are iust we sanctifie the vncleane we iustifie the wicked we pray we obtaine But what said Iohn If any man sinne we haue an aduocate with the Father Iesus Christ the iust Againe in his disputation against Parmenian lib. 2. cap. 2. If the Apostle S. Iohn had said He is the propitiation for your sinner it should haue seemed that hee would haue separated himselfe from sinners as if he had had no need of that propitiation which by the Mediatour is made who sitteth at the right hand of the Father and maketh request for vs. Which if hee had said hee had said it not only proudly but falsely Also if hee had said I haue written to you that yee might not sinne and if any man sinne ye haue me for a Mediatour with the Father and I obtaine the remission of your sins as Parmenian who in some place hath made the Bishop mediatour betweene the people and God what good and faithfull Christians could haue borne it who would haue respected him as the Apostle of Christ and not rather as Antichrist For Christian men saith he recommend one another vnto God through their mutuall prayers but hee which prayeth for all men and for whom none prayeth is the true and only Mediatour And for that his figure was represented to vs in the person of the High-priest of the old Testament it is not found that any should pray for the Priest Likewise S. Paul recommendeth himselfe to the prayers of the faithfull as one of the members of Christ neither doth he make himselfe any mediatour betweene God and the people but hee requireth that all the members of the body of Christ pray for him because that the prayâ—rs which the members make that yet are labouring on the earth mount vp to the Head which is gone before into heauen in whom is the propitiation for our sinnes Moreouer speaking of the Martyrs and other Saints departed in his Treatise of true Religion he expressely faith that the seruice of the dead ought not to be reckoned among Christians for religion and that wee ought to honour them by way of imitation and not to adore them by way of religion His words are Honorandi sunt propter imitationem non adorandi propter religionem And likewise of the Angels We honor them saith he through charitie and not through seruice And to the intent we might not think that we doe wrong to the Saints departed and Angels or should offend them in addressing or prayers only to God he proueth by certaine places of holy Scripture that neither the Angels nor the Saints deceased at any time heretofore or now would be worshipped of vs but that they rather call vs backe to our Creator desiring that wee should worship with them the same and one only God through whose contemplation they are blessed Heare â—aith Saint Austin on the 96. Psalme the Angel of the Lord and the instructor of the Apostle S. Iohn who fell down before him to haue worshipped him at it is written in the 19. chapter and 10. verse of the Reuelation This Angel which sought not but the glorie of his Lord said to him Arise what doest thou worship God I am thy fellow seruant and one of thy brethren What then my brethren let no man say
the Deitie any thing which by God hath been made and created but the only God who hath made and created all things From whence appeareth that the inuocation of Saints bore not any sway in those daies nor any degree or title of diuine seruice in the Christian Church in the time of Saint Austine and his predecessors True it is hee complaineth that in his daies the Church began to lose her virginitie and that they obscured not those most wholesome things which in the diuine books are commanded but that there were instituted some other ceremonies beyond the custome He confesseth also that the Church being setled among much chaffe and tares did beare with many things which themselues durst not reproue nor condemne to auoid the scandals of some persons whereof some were holie and others seditious But howbeit on the other side hee declareth that neither hee nor the Church hath allowed the things which were against the faith and a godly life There is a difference saith he in his 119 epistle to Ianuarius betweene the things that we teach and the things which we suffer betweene the things that wee are commanded to teach and between the things that we are commanded to amend and constrained to support them till we haue reformed them And yet notwithstanding ye would make vs beleeue that S. Austin S. Ierome S. Ambrose S. Chrysostome S. Basil S. Athanasius S. Origen S. Irenaeus and Denys the disciple of S. Paul haue not only approued the superstition of those which worshipped the departed Saints but that euen themselues haue recommended it to the people aswell by their prayers addressed to the Virgin Mary and some other Saints as by the recitall of their vertues and merits Whereunto first of all I answere that many sentences haue been falsified and many annexed to the writings of the Fathers against their intention Which was easie to bee done because in their time the Art of Printing was not found out but copies only in written hand Secondly where as many books haue bin falsely published vnder the names of the Apostles which had been receiued if the Apostle S. Iohn who suruiued the others according to the testimony of S. Tertullian and Ierome had not foreseene it so many Treatises haue been deceitfully attributed to their successors as by their complaints appeareth To begin then with the writings of S. Clement Bishop of Rome S. Ierome in his Apologie against Ruffinus saith of him that hee made some bookes intituled Recognitions among which although there was a doctrine truly Apostolicall exposed in many texts vnder the person of the Apostle S. Peter yet they had mixed among them the doctrine of the Heretike Eumonius So that it seemed in sundrie places of them there is none but he that speaketh Eusebius also saith in his third booke and 35. chapter that it cannot bee cleerely knowne that the second Epistle and the Commentaries which are attributed to him be his because the ancient Fathers made no vse of this Epistle and that these Commentaries kept in no wise neither the stile nor the forme of the pure doctrine of the Apostles and containe in them the communication betweene Peter and Appion of which the ancients make no mention S. Epiphanius addeth that the Ebonians did vse certaine bookes intituled The Peregrinations of S. Peter written by S. Clement stuffed with falsehood and that S. Clement himselfe controlled theÌ„ by his owne epistles written to the Enoclycians Eusebius speaking of the booke intituled the Pastor in his third booke and third chapter saith That it is Apocrypha and that they were deceiued who thought that that Hermes which the Apostle S. Paul greeteth in his 16. chapter of the Epistle to the Romanes was the author thereof So likewise Erasmus of Roterdam saith that many bookes badly patched together haue bin annexed to S. Cyprians bookes to wit the Treatise of the Reuelation of S. Iohn Baptists head which is full of fables and superstitions that reciteth sundrie things happened a long while after S. Cyprians time The treatise of Sina and Sion against the Iewes which in no wise representeth neither the knowledge nor zeale of S. Cyprian They haue also mingled among S. Austins bookes the booke intituled The true and false penance which containeth that fine fable how S. Andrew seeing that the people would haue taken him away from the crosse whereunto they had bound him began to make this prayer to God Lord it is time that thou laiest my bodie in the graue suffer them not to take me downe aliue from this crosse It is time that my bodie should be interred c. In like manner Lewes Viues Valentine one of your best Catholikes complaineth in his annotations vpon the bookes of the Citie of God that many sentences are annexed to them which are not S. Austins They haue put into the books of S. Ierome the Commentaries of some of the Epistles of the New Testament which as S. Austin testifieth was composed by a Monke and a hereâ—ike called Pelagus Robert Bellarmine also maintaineth in his disputations that the booke written to Orosus and attributed to be Saint Austins is not his And many other bookes base and illegitimate and which euen your selues confesse to haue been falsely fathered on our Fathers and in no wise receiueable But to answere more particularly to your allegations You deceiue your selues in that you thinke your S. Denys Areopagite was the disciple of the Apostle S. Paul For in the booke of Celestial Hierarchies which you attribute to him he speaketh of his predecessors Clement and Ignatius which liued and suffered martyrdome vnder Traian the third persecutor of the Christians after Nero and the 14. Emperor which began to raigne about the yeere of Christ 100 and the thirtieth yeere after the decease of the Apostle S. Paul according to the calculation of your Bishop Treculphus This booke we haue also in suspition because wee finde in it no marke of the true disciple of the Apostle S. Paul neither in his language nor in his doctrine For there is no mention made therein for the abolishing of the ancient ceremonies of which the Apostle S. Paul very often disputeth in his Epistles neither doth hee say in any place thereof that that which he wrote he did it by his masters authoritie Therein hee doth but sport himselfe with deliberate discourses to teach the doctrine of the holy Gospell by obscure subtilties vaine speculations and very intricate He there treateth of Popes Prelats Priests Monks and of many other Orders which in the Apostles time were not in the Church nor a long while after Likewise to shew that he did dissent from the Apostles he applaudeth therein the Order of Monkes as the highest and most excellent of all others Causes wherefore Laurence Valla one of your chiefest Doctors flouts at such as thought this S. Denys to be the disciple of S. Paul and the author of this booke As Erasmus of Roterdam noteth in
a diadeâ—â— prayeth to a Text-maker and a Fisherman These words you attribute to S. Chrysostome Neuerthelesse sundrie of your Writers haue attributed them vnto S. Austine and some others to a certaine man called Theodore Daphnopath in such sort that you are not of one accord with your fellowes nor of one and the same opinion touching the author of these words from which you cannot conclude that S. Chrysostome was of that minde to recommend to the people the inuocation of Saints as a seruice approued by God For he speaketh not in this discourse of that which ought to bee done according to the rule and instruction of the holy Scriptures but of what was done by the people through their indiscreet zeale after the imitation of the Grecians which yeerely made an assemblie about the graues of those which were slaine in the battell of Marathon to celebrate their Feasts and to recount their praises as S. Cyril noteth in his sixth booke against Iulian the Apostate And albeit that S. Chrysostome did beare with this custome of the vulgar people as many other corruptions and abuses of the like nature which he could not remedie without hurting the weake notwithstanding hee oftentimes made his complaints thereof See saith he in his 12. Homily on the first to the Corinthians how the iudgements of the common people are corrupted vnprofitable and ridiculous partly by foolish men and partly by children that doe suck The Martyrs saith he in his 45. Homily vpon S. Matthew take no delight to be honoured with money for which the poore â—rie out for to wit because you employ it not for their nourishment rather And in his 48. sermon vpon S. Iohns Gospell When thou hearest that the Lord is risen naked from death cease I pray thee from the foolish expence of funerals For to what end is it good seeing it bringeth but lesse to such as doe is and no profit to the dead but rather dammage Finally he is extreamely grieued at the superstitious ceremonies which they made about sepulchres tearming them in his 〈◊〉 Homily vpon the first to the Corinthians foolish deuotions and diabolicall obseruations Now followeth the sentence of a certain Monke called Iohn Damâ—soenus who for his writings began to florish in Damâ—sâ—us the principall citie of Syria about the yeere of Christ 730. Among other bookes which are attributed to him wee haue foure touching the tradition of the Christian faith which haue been translated out of Greeke into French by a certaine Philosopher named Iacobus Faber Stapulensis You affirme that in the 16 chapter of his last booke concerning the Christian faith he saith That through the Saints the diuels are chased away the sicke are healed the blinde see the leprous are clensed tentations and vexations are vanquished and that euery good thing commeth by them in fauour of those which craue them with a stedfast faith Although that superstition is chiefly come forth of the heads of the Monks yet there is great likelihood that this sentence was juggled in amongst his writings For though he liued in those daies when superstition had her full sway and vigour yet notwithstanding the Grecians were not so soone corrupted as the Latins And Emericus one of your writers who liued a long while after him reproueth the Grecians for this opinion that men ought not to inuocate the saints nor the Virgin Mary likewise but one only Mediatour which is Christ and that to offer gifts to them was to present sacrifices to the Diuels Let vs now come to the booke de Viduis composed by S. Ambrose When Peters mother in law saith he had a feuer Andrew and Peter prayed vnto the Lord for her And thou widow hast so many neere friends which pray for thee to wit the Apostles and Martyrs if thou commest to them in vnitie of deuotion It behoueth then to pray vnto them c. For they can pray for our sinnes sith they haue washed away their owne with their owne blood Without searching any further Sixtus Senensis one of your writers confesseth that S. Ierome and some others of the Fathers haue suffered themselues to be transported in such a sort through the heate and vehemencie of their Orations that sometimes they made Hyperboles that is to say and speake more cleerely they surpassed the bonds of truth Erasmus of Roterdam in his preface vpon this booke intituled de Viduis saith that in this fertill matter so pleasing to the eares of the vulgar people he hath let loose the bridle of his tongue and painted his discourse with the colours of Rhetorike in such a â—ort that the ignorant people could not well iudge thereof but the learned only In fine that he thought he laboured to set foorth his language by some artificiall drafts to make a shew florish of the ornaments of his eloquence Howsoeuer if hee were the author of this booke hee hath wandred out of the way and hath not well remembred his owne lesson That Christâ—s our mouth by which we speake to the Father our eye by which we behold the Father our right hand whereby wee offer to the Father and that without this Mediatour there is no comming vnto God neither for vs nor any of the Saints You alleage also for the establishing of your superstition Saint Ieroms letter dedicated to Paula to whom yee appropriate that title which ordinarily your companions doe attribute to the Virgin Mary that is calling her holy Lady But if we examine this epistle of S. Ieroms he speaketh to Paula who was absent and in heauen as if she had been present and that by a figure and certaine manner of speech called in Shooles Apostrophe whereby he not only prayeth vnto Paula to supplicate God for Blesilla but for himselfe also in his extreame age Likewise he saluteth Paula and saith vale to her that is farewell or God keep thee in good health If then you will take these words to the very letter to conclude from thence that hee hath called vpon Paula with a full assurance that she heard him and could perswade the diuine Maiestie to heare her request you must likewise grant me that he discoursed with her mouth to mouth and that in praying to God to preserue her in health he beleeued that she and all the Saints in Paradise desire that after their departure we should recommend them to God in our prayers But as ye will deny me the last point so I deny you the first and that for these three reasons The first is that in the Epitaph he made for his friend Nepotian departed this world he calleth him blessed because hee neither heard nor saw the miseries of this world nor the barbarian rage against the Christians Whereunto hee addeth that those words were as one would say dumbe and pronounced in vaine because thâ—â— Nepotian heard him not and that he with the other Christians in his time was assured that Nepotian was in heauen with Iesus Christ
Bernard who was Abbat of the Cloister of Claitual liued in Burgundie one of the principall Prouinces of France and was there in greater reputation then al the other Monkes of his Order His bookes doe plainly witnesse that hee was more inclined to the inuocation of our only God and celestiall Father then to the adoration of Saints and that he beleeued that no man could haue sure accesse vnto his throne of grace but by the merit of the death of our only Sauiour Iesus Christ. Your Fathers haue brought in and receiued his bookes in their Church without any contradiction and euen vnto this present you haue them in your Cloisters and handle them daily And yet for all this you loue rather to affirme against your owne consciences that S. Bernard constantly maintained the inuocation of Saints then roundly to confesse that he spake thereof with some scruple of conscience and very doubtfully as appeareth by his writings In the repetition of the prayers which our Fathers haue addressed to the departed Saints you nominate that prayer of Origens and aske me whether Origen that Doctor praying to the Prophet Iob about the yeere of Christ 220 Was an Idolater But sith that Origen was before S. Ieromes time S. Chrysostomes S. Cyprians S. Austins S. Iohn Damascenus and many other Doctors of the Primitiue Church according to S. Ieromes testimonie who saith that in the yeere of Christ 203 Origen was then of the age of seuenteene yeeres it is maruell why you haue not done him that honour to place him in his ranke and to cite his prayers aswell as others Moreouer it is a wonder that you doe this wrong to Origen to attribute this prayer to him O S. Iob pray for vs miserable wretches that the mercie of God may deliuer vs. True it is that Origen had many strange and dangerous opinions in such sort that S. Ierome saith of him that hee commended his spirit but not his faith that he set greatly by his translations but not by his doctrines and expositions which hee tearmeth venomous and farre from the sense of holy Scriptures and doing them violence but howbeit as wee haue alreadie proued by his disputations against Celsus the Philosopher that he spake well of the inuocation of Gods name and maintained that religious adoration appertaineth onely to God and the presentation of out prayers to our only Mediatour and Intercessor Iesus Christ. If Celsus reproched Origen that he and the other Christians worshipped our Lord Iesus Christ and from thence sought to conclude that the Christians worshipped after the fashion of the Gentiles some other then God would not he Celsus also haue replied that hee and his followers called vpon the Prophet Iob and that they beleeued they offended not God in seruing religiously his seruant would hee not likewife in good earnest haue flouted at this distinction of Origens that the Christians worshipped no other but God in calling on the name of Iesus Christ forasmuch as Christ was not a simple man as the Prophets other departed Saints were nor likewise a simple creature as the Angels but forasmuch as hee was also one God with the Father and Lord of all things And what likelihood is there that hee besought Iob to pray for him when he himselfe prescribed this rule to all Christians to offer their prayers only to God through his only Sonne and protesteth in his eighth booke against Celsus to haue followed it with the other Christians His rule is That wee must adore the only soueraigne God and present our prayers to the only Sonne of God who is his Word and the first borne of all creatures that as a high priest he might offer them vp to his God and to our God to his Father and according to his word the father of all liuing The practise agreeable to this rule is expressed in these words We worship as much as we can through supplications and seruices one only God and his only Sonne his word and his image offering our prayers to God the Lord of all things by his only Sonne to whom first we doe addresse them beseeching him that being propitiatour far our sinnes he would vouchsafe as high priest to offer vnto God our prayers sacrifices and intercessions and therefore our faith lieth in God through his Son who hath confirmed it in vs. It is not credible then that Origen hath inuocated Iob not the other departed Saints not the Virgin Mary likewise sith that hee himselfe in his sermons comprehendeth them all together in the number of sinners which are not entred into heauen through their owne merits but by the only faith in Iesus Christ. Shall we thinke saith he in his 27. Sermon and 2. tome that all the Apostles were offended in our Lord and that his mother was exempted If she hath suffered no scandall in the passion of the Lord then Iesus died not for her sinnes But if all haue sinned and haue all need of the glorie of God to be iustified and redeemed through his grace surely Mary was offended in that very houre And this is it which Simeon prophecied saying And thy soule also which knowest thou hast conceiued without a man and who hast heard by Gabriel that the holy Ghost should come vpon thee and the power of the most High should ouershadow thee euen thine shall a sword pearce thorow and thou shalt bee smitten with the blade of doubtfulnesse and thy thoughts shall distract thee when thou shalt see him to be crucified and put to death whom thou hast heard called the Son of God and knewest to be begotten without the seede of man But what will you say if I should shew you that your owne men haue not held these Commentaries vpon Iob nor Origens Lamentations wherein hee praieth the Saints to prostrate themselues for him to the mercies of God for authenticall bookes For as Pope Gelasius hath reiected the booke of Lamentations attributed to Origen and iudged to be Apocrypha so Sixtus Senensis sheweth in his fourth booke that the Treatise vpon Iob and some such like books were not composed by him but by some other author which certaine of our Fathers suspected of heresie For in his second booke he compareth these three diuine persons to wit the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost to three hornes of the Diuell and tearmeth the doctrine of the holie Trinitie a sect and a heresie of three Gods All men of reason and discretion taking heede to the falsehood of these allegations will they not haue in abomination your audaciousnesse and impudencie to proue the anciencie of the adoration of Saints by witnesses of no credit and by depraued bookes cast off a long while agoe by your predecessors Moreouer as the Arrians Montanists and sundrie other heretikes haue mixed their poyson among the sound doctrine contained in the bookes of the ancient Fathers and like as diuers superstitious persons haue annexed to the wholesome
then that you affirme that the holy Scripture teacheth vs that the departed Saints heare our prayers and wee contrariwise denie it then it is not in vs to confirme our negation but in you to ratifie your negation which is vnpossible for you notwithstanding you are so imprudent or rather so impudent as to say that wee may reade ouer the Bible as oft as we list yet we shall neuer produce thereout one only text contrary to your opinion If your conscience be not seared it hath alreadie conuicted you of falsehood by the reading of those two places which alreadie I haue quoted out of the 9. chapter and 16. verse of Eccle. and Esay 63. vers 16. where the holy Ghost guiding the pen of these two men of God teacheth vs that they which are departed this life haue no portion in our businesses which are done vnder the Sunne but that they are ignorant thereof Let vs now come to your demonstration that the Scripture faileth you not in this point for to awaken our spirits you first command vs to note this expresse text of Scripture that the Angels in heauen vnderstand our prayers seeing they are the reporters of then to the diuine Maiestie as appeareth by the same scripture Secondly it is an expresse text of scripture that the Saints shall be in heauen as the Angels according to the saying of the Sonne of God in the Gospell Whereunto you adde your conclusion that the Saints heare our prayers sith the Angels vnto whom they are likened heare them If some one should propound this your argument borrowed from Bellarmine to Scholars which haue heard the rules of Logick they would quickly smell out your deceit and would replie that you doe not aptlie appropriate it to the Saints departed because to conclude from thence according to the right forme and rule of Logicians that the Saints departed vnderstand our prayers you must first haue proued that Iesus Christ saith in the 20. chapter of S. Luke that the departed Saints are Angels and not as you make them like vnto Angels They would likewise reiect your reason and confirmation which you annex vnto this sentence that the Angels vnderstand our prayers because they are the reporters of them to the diuine Maiestie as appeareth by the holy Scripture Mark you not here a fine proofe to say it appeareth by the Scripture that the Angels report our prayers to God without quoting so much as one testimonie From hence it comes that hauing taken your principall peeces from Bellarmine you durst not alleage that place of holy Scripture which is in the 12. chapter and 15. verse of Toby where the Angel Raphael saith That hee is one of those seuen holy Angels which presents before the Maiestie of God the prayers of the Saints If it be in regard that you make conscience to confirme your proposition out of a booke which is Apocrypha I commend you and in that I preferre you before your Master Or if it be because you haue not read nor remembred well that text which he alleageth in his book of the blessednesse of the Saints I pardon you for it Touching the rest it seemes at the first sight that you make some stop at falsifying the 36. verse of the 20 chapter of S. Luke and of following therein the example of Bellarmine Richeome who in stead of saying as Christ did in answering the Sadduces that the Saints shall be to wit in the resurrection of the flesh like the Angels they turne this text as if Christ had said that they are like to the Angels But in the repetition of your argument trussed to your conclusion you shew your selfe to be of the same humour as your School-masters aboue said are seeing you change the future tense into the present to maintaine with them that the Saints are like to the Angels and that against the intention of our Soueraigne Lord and Master Iesus Christ who disputing against the Sadduces which denied the resurrection of the bodie and had propounded this question to him worthie to be laughed at touching a woman which had had seuen husbands whose wife she should be in the resurrection sheweth them vpon this occasion that the faithfull shall then be glorified euen in regard of their bodies which shall not bee mortall nor corruptible no more but as the spirits of the Angels are and consequently shall not be enclined to mariage for the maintaining of their race and posteritie but shall be like to the Angels which doe not marrie Now foreseeing through the agilitie of your spirit what we might replie on that aboue said place you thinke that you heare vs alreadie answere that this similitude of the Angels and Saints whereof our Lord speaketh in the Gospell consisteth only in their felicitie and blessednesse and not in their nature and office that is to say as it hath pleased you to expound it that the Angels and the Saints shall be in heauen equall and like each other because both of them shall be blessed enioying one selfesame glorie and felicitie Now as you can finde nothing therein to chaw vpon you grant vs this answere and make it to serue your turne as a fowler with his net to take and ensnare vs. For behold the argument which you ground vpon our answere is that seeing the felicitie and state of future life hindreth not the Angels from hearing the prayers of the mortall why is it not possible that the Saints being in the same felicitie with the Angels and like vnto them may not heare likewise our prayers aswell as they This text of scripture them sheweth that the Saints heare our prayers We denie the consequence of this argument If the felicitie of the Angels hindreth them not from hearing our prayers that it followeth from thence that the felicitie of the departed Saints hindreth not them also from the vnderstanding of our Supplications the reason is because the Angels notwithstanding their present felicitie haue receiued from God this charge to watch ouer vs and our safetie as it is written in the 34. Psalme For which cause the Apostle S. Paul calleth them administring spirits sent for their sakes that are to receiue the inheritance of saluation which the Scripture speaketh in no place of the Saints departed You repeate afterward your affirmation that the Saints deceased heare vs see vs and are not ignorant of that which is done vpon the earth For confirmation whereof you propound vs the example of Abraham who being dead and in Limbo knew many things which happened among the people of the children of Israel as one may perceiue by the 16. chapter of S. Luke For first of all he knew that the people had the bookes of Moses and the Prophets the ancientest whereof was Moses which had been written more then foure hundred yeares after the death of Abraham Secondly he knew the life which the rich Glutton led vpon the earth and what miserie
Hesichius In such a case saith he as thy last day findeth thee euen such will the last day of this world take thee Such as man dieth in that very day such shall he be iudged in the other And in his 10. Sermon vpon the Apostles words There are two homes the one in eternall fire the other in an eternall kingdome Likewise in his 232. Serm. intituled De Tempore Brethrē saith he let no man deceiue himselfe for there are but two places and no third for any one Whereunto his exposition serueth which in another place he speaketh of in disputing against the Pelagians The Catholique faith saith he by diuine authoritie beleeueth that the first place is the kingdome of heauen the second hell where all apostates and reuolters from the faith in Christ shall feele euerlasting torments As touching a third we are wholly ignorant of and which is more wee finde by the holy scripture that there is none Besides in the 9. booke of his Confessions he maintaineth y ◠one seeth God in Abrahams bosome and thereby he sheweth as a thing most certaine that the soule of Abraham and the faithfull fathers departed this world was in heauen and not in Limbo or Purgatorie where none can behold God but in the alone seate of the blessed according to that sentence of our Sauiour contained in the fifth chapter of S. Matthew and 8. verse Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God On the other side the same Doctor saith of the Fathers of the old Testament that they which beleeued in Christ before hee came in the flesh haue been saued through their faith in Christ Iesus I could here alleage a sentence of S. Gregorie Nazianzen whereby he comforted himselfe at his brothers death saying that he was ascended vp into heauen and rested in the bosome of Abraham and many others to the same effect but because I will not be too tedious I will now examine the second point of your opinion which is that that which Christ teacheth of the rich Glutton and Lazarus is a historie which wee denie because there are sundry circumstances which shew also that it is partly a parable For in that storie we cannot take the things literally which are recited in them neither can it be possible in all that which Christ heretofore did preach of the rich Glutton and poore Lazarus because Christ therein attributeth tongues fingers and eyes to the soules of the departed which hee doth by a manner of speech which is called historicall but is parabolicall by which spirituall things are made cleere by the comparison and similitude of corporall Now although wee shall approue that which wee haue denied to wit that Abraham heard the complaints of the rich man yet cannot you solidly conclude from thence that the departed Saints also doe heare the prayers of such as liue vpon the face of the earth For Bellarmine your Doctor describeth the distance which is between Limbus and Hell in such a sort as if he had bin there himselfe to haue measured the one and the other place where hee saith there is betwixt them a great opening neither more nor lesse then is betweene two places separated only by the aire so that from the one part of this gulfe one may see and heare what is done in the other By this reckoning then the distance is not so great betweene those places as it is betweene heauen and earth seeing that these two places are shut vp on all sides and so farre separated from each other that it is not possible that the Saints which are in heauen and we which are here beneath on earth can heare or see each other Neuerthelesse to giue some colour to your opinion you bring in S. Austin vpon this point speaking in this manner Quid non vident qui videntem omnia vident What saith he doe not the Saints aboue in heauen see in seeing him which seeth all things to wit God But wherefore haue you not marked that place is it not because you dare not openly gainsay those which attribute these words to S. Gregory But howsoeuer if they were his he forgot himselfe in pronouncing these words for albeit that God seeth all things yet it followeth not from thence that the Saints which behold God should see all things likewise If you should propound such an argument in Schooles to Aristotles disciples they would presently confute you by the like argument which an ignorant person might make you of the Sunne and of vs which daily doe behold it to wit sith that the Sunne which is the eye of the world as Philosophers tearme it seeth and discouereth all things which are vnder the cope of heauen that wee likewise in beholding the Sunne should see all things which are vnder the Sunne What man is it that perceiueth not this consequence to be bad And if it were good yet yours would remaine false naughtily grounded because wee denie that which you affirme without any testimonie of holy Scripture that is that God or the Trinitie serue as a mirror to the soules of the departed thereby to behold all things as the Sunne and Moone which are as spectacles to our bodily eyes to perceiue by them the things which are represented to our sight Besides this it is an easie matter to stop your mouth and to shew by the testimonie of Christ and his Apostle in the sixth chapter of the Reuelation that the Angels and the spirits of the departed though they behold the face of God yet they see not nor know the day and houre of the last comming of Christ. Moreouer wee can conuince you thereof euen by your predecessors and can proue by their owne writings how they taught that the soules of the departed see not any thing which is done vpon the earth for you may see what Albertus Bishop of Ratisbone writeth thereof who was Master to Thomas of Aquin in his booke of our Coniunction with God and 8. chapter The departed Saints saith he busie not themselues about the affaires of this world neither care for the estate thereof neither of peace nor warre neither of faire weather or raine nor in summe for any man here below but are wholly deuoted to one God and all of them vnited and employed to apply and accommodate themselues to him Finally from the blessed you descend to the damned and as though you had heard their discourses and sounded their spirits you reason without reason aswell of their knowledge as of their charitie towards God and men suruiuing them for thus you discourse If the damned doe likewise heare those speake which are so farre distant from them as the rich man heard Abraham and shewed himselfe mindfull and carefull for his brethren which yet remaine vpon the earth being afraid left they should come into the same place of torment where he was as you may see in the Gospell by that which he spake vnto Abraham should we
thinke that the Saints and those which are in the kingdome of heauen see not or know not what wee doe vpon the earth Poore Diuine that thou art which vnderstands not yet that which the holy Scripture teacheth vs so cleerly in many places that the zeale and charitie to the glorie of God and the desire of our neighbours saluation are vertues proper in the fourth degree as in schooles they teach it only to the elect and children of God and are neuer found in the damned after this life which are sworne enemies against God and the children of his kingdome If then the reprobate are without charity and are glad to see many companions of their distresses as some of your new Doctors confesse what a stupiditie is it then in you not to consider that Christ as alreadie we haue touched attributeth to the rich Glutton the care of his brethren by a parable or similitude as also the speech of a liuing man vsing his tongue and other members of his bodie which neuerthelesse was separated by buriall from the soule cast downe into hâ—ll I am much more astonied because that Saint Austin whom as it seemeth by your writing you haue read saith expressely of the rich Glutton that albeit he prayed Abraham to send Lazarus vnto his brethren yet hee knew not what his brethren did nor what did then happen to them But to beate you with your owne rod you present vs a proofe that the Saints which are in heauen see vs because they behold God who seeth all things From whence I argue by the contrarie that forasmuch as the damned which are cast into vtter darknesse see not the brightnesse of the face of God therefore they see not a iot nor haue any knowledge of our affaires Afterward you stirre the pot about and fall againe into your beginning holding as an article worthie of beleefe that which you haue not proued nor euer can prooue by holy Scripture to wit that the Saints and all blessed soules departed this life know the things of this world and thereupon you build your argument which is called in Schooles From the lesse to the greater If the departed Saints know all things in this world must they not much more know and heare the prayers which men make vnto them Againe If they can vnderstand and heare the voyce of the dâ—mned is it possible that they should not vnderstand the prayers of such as are desirous to be saued Beside if the damned themselues as appeareth by the storie of the rich Glutton would procure that there happen no euill to their brethren and friends will those which are saued be lesse charitable will they not aduance as much as they can the saluation of their friends and Christian brethren and that so much the more because they see and heare that men doe seeke vnto them for it To speake properly your first argument is no argument but a troublesome repetition of the principij that is to say of the principall question which needeth a proofe of better stuffe then as yet you haue offered to satisfie vs withall The others depend on the former and haue been refuted alreadie I will then goe on with the course of your Treatise and aduertise you that neither hee to whom you haue written your Epistle not they vnto whom he hath communicated it to be read and examined doe giue any beleefe to your false affirmations that the Christians are commanded to inuocate the Saints departed or that they doe heare their prayers Hereupon you propound this question how the Saints can heare vs and you acknowledge that to say the truth this is a hard question to be resolued but neuerthelesse that your doctrine is true To this point you produce that which S. Austin writeth thereof in his Treatise De cura pro mortuis gerenda cap. 16. In truth saith S. Austin this question surpasseth the force of my vnderstanding being vnable to comprehend how and in what manner the Martyrs helpe those which we certainly know to be helped by them I will here briefly repeate that which heretofore I haue shewne to wit how this sentence of S. Austins is contrarie to those which I haue gathered out of his writings into which some since his departure haue maliciously sowne many tares and wicked seed which is the cause that wee hold this passage in suspition And though it were S. Austins yet are we not bound to receiue it seeing it is contrarie to the holy Scripture But to refute you by that very booke which you attribute to S. Austin answereth not he himself to this question whether the Saints departed intermeddle with our affaires that hee is of an opinion they doe not Doth he not reason in the same manner as we haue reasoned afore to shew that his opinion is grounded in the holy Scriptures I will here recite his owne words to the end the moderate reader may iudge of them Let euery man take saith Austin as he will what I shall speake If the soules of the departed were present in the businesses of the liuing and so that we should see them they would speake to vs in dreames to say nothing of others my good mother then would not leaue me one night alone who for to liue with me hath followed me by sea and land But that which is sung in the Psalme is true My father and my mother haue forsaken mee but the Lord hath receiued me If then our fathers haue left vs how can they meddle with our affaires and if our fathers and mothers be not present in them what others of the dead are there which know the things that we doe and that which we suffer The Prophet Esay saith Thou art our father for Abraham is ignorant of vs and Israel hath not knowne vs. If these Patriarchs were ignorant of that which this people did precreated from them how can the dead busie themselues to succour the liuing in their actions and affaires and how could we say it were well with those which are departed this world before the euils which followed their death had happened if after their death they should likewise feele the things which come to passe in the calamities of humane life or else wee should speake these things erroneously and should we hold those to be in rest which are in paine because of their suruiuers which haue no repose in this life What is that then which God promised to holy King Iosiah as a great blessing that he would take him to himselfe by death that hee might not see the euils which hee threatned the people Behold saith the Lord I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be put in thy graue in peace and thine eyes shall not see all the euill which I will bring vpon this place and vpon the inhabitants of the same The spirits then of the deceased are in that place where they see not the things which are done
or which happen in the life of man These are the words of S. Austin which purposely you haue omitted to deceiue the ignorant and to take an occasion from an imperfect allegation of his discourse touching the obscuritie and difficultie of this matter of rising vp furiously against vs and falsely to impose vpō vs by a great medley of vaine words that which we cannot nor will not beleeue with S. Austin to wit that this surpasseth the capacitie of our vnderstanding For as we beleeue the creation of the world the mysterie of the holy Trinity and the resurrection of the flesh though we cānot mete them by the measure of our vnderstanding and that because they are plainly taught vs in the holy Scripture so when you shall prooue vnto vs by expresse tearmes out of the writings of the Prophets that the Saints heare vs and ought to be adored and called vpon by vs that are here beneath on earth then wee will be obedient to your counsell and will subscribe in all humilitie and reuerence to that article But what you would not that men should rebuke you nor likewise should thinke that you seeke an escape through the bogges and besides in stead of bringing in some authenticall testimonie of the Bible you begin againe to alleage to vs three manner of waies whereby S. Austin which might erre and by his retractations roundly confesseth his errors thought that the departed Saints might heare our requests The first is By the arriuall of those which depart this life and goe from hence to them who may aduertise them of the things which happen on earth and especially of that which concernes them most The second By the report of the Angels which sometimes mount vp into heauen and sometimes againe euen in an instant are about vs. The third By the reuelation of Gods spirit which may comport I retaine your fine speeches or beare it selfe with the soules of the blessed in heauen neither more nor lesse then heretofore it did comport it selfe with the Prophets on earth reuealing to them secret things and that which should be done a long while after them as the Scripture testifieth it Whereunto you adde yet a fourth manner of speech inuented by Saint Gregorie which is this That the Saints seeing the face of God see whatsoeuer appertaines to them in any sort and consequently heare also our prayers From whence you conclude that by the doctrine of the Fathers we may conceiue somewhat how the blessed ones heare vs when we call vpon them We now come to refute this fourth meane forged out of mens braines without any ground of holy Scripture First I will only aduertise the reader that it is not likely this sentence to wit that the departed Saints beholding the face of God doe see all things was forged by S. Gregorie seeing in the same chapter that you haue alleaged in your Epistle he saith the contrarie to wit that as they which are liuing know not the estate of soules departed so likewise is vnknowne vnto the dead the manner of life which those leade that remaine after them in the flesh For the life saith he of the spirit is farre different from the life of the flesh and as things corporall and spirituall are differing in nature so are they likewise in knowledge Now it resteth that we should examine those three former waies of the particular knowledge which you attribute to the Saints departed I answere then to the first that nothing is written thereof by the ancient Prophets nor Apostles and therefore wee are not bound to beleeue it Moreouer it often happeneth that the citizens which dwel in one citie know not the affaires of one another how can they then after their departure declare them to the soules of the blessed which they finde in heauen Besides there are many which in praying cast their eyes vp towards heauen whilest none of their neighbours happen to decease who is it then that should doe their message to the Saints departed And notwithstanding if so be there should be at that instant some one ready to die when one prayeth and to carry the newes to heauen what man among you can shew me by diuine scripture that God hath enioyned to him that speciall charge not one Or if you would that one should approue your first manner you necessarily must grant me that there is no Purgatory For if that soules must passe through Purgatory and stay there for some time according to the number of Masses which are caused to be said for their deliuerance how can it be possible for them to aduertise in time the departed Saints of the prayers which were made vnto them so long before Your second and third meanes are of no more certaintie then the others because it is neither written in the old Testament nor in the new that the departed Saints know our necessities by the report of the Angels neither that God indueth y e Saints after their departure with the spirit of prophecie and reuelation as at sometimes hee did to his holy seruants according as the necessitie did require to make them capable of their extraordinarie calling whereunto he had called them Now followeth your last argument which you your selfe calles least of all and that for a good reason For you number vp many of the Fathers which haue inuocated the Saints departed and afterward you close vp your Epistle with flouts against the Ministers of the reformed Churches But whatsoeuer you heape vp against them is 〈◊〉 winde and smoake yea dung in respect of the puritie and excellencie of the word of Iesus Christ and his Apostles which we had rather follow then that of men for we haue no certaine testimonie that their doctrine was diuinely inspired as we haue of the Prophets and Apostles and that these men of God were not led by a humane wil but were moued thereunto by the spirit of our principall Pastor and Bishop Iesus Christ in whose name I admonish you no more to protest so lightly before God his Father that whatsoeuer you haue said tendeth to his honour and the saluation of him to whom you haue sent your Epistle most preiudiciall and contrarie to the glorie of God and the repose of the true members of Iesus Christ vnto whom I pray to giue me his grace constantly to maintaine his pure truth and to accompanie this mine answere with the vertue of his holie Spirit to the end that thereby hee may moue your heart to conceiue your errors and to renounce them for the aduancement of his glorie the acquitting of your conscience and the augmentation of his kingdome FINIS Iames 1. 17. Heb. 11. 6. Psal. 124. 8. Esay 42. 8. 2. Cor. 13. 8. 1. Epist. chap. 4. vers 1. The summe of the demand The answere thereof diuided into two parts Although that Christ be our only mediator yet the Saints are called mediators for three reasons In French Sequestre Other proofes taken from the