came to that Synod from other places desire to be excused from assenting to the displacing of those Apocryphall Books For in that place as we see by Athanasius they prescribe For though they be not Canonicall saies he yet they are Ejusdem veteris Instrumenti libri Books that belong to the Old Testament that is at least to the elucidation and cleering of many places in the Old Testament And that the Ancient Fathers thought these Books worthy of their particular consideration must necessarily be more then evident to him that reads S. Chrysostomes Homilie or Leo his Sermon upon this very part of that Book of the Maccab to which the Apostle refers in this Text that is to that which the seven Brethren there suffered for a better Resurrection And if we take in the testimony of the Reformation divers great and learned men have interpreted these Books by their particular Commentaries Osyander hath done so and done it with a protestation that divers great Divines intreated him to do it Conrad Pellicanus hath done so too Who lest these Books should seeme to be undervalued in the name of Apocryphall saies that it is fitter to call them Libros Ecclesiasticos rather Ecclesiasticall then Apocryphall Books And of the first of these two books of the Maccab he saies freely Reverà Divini Spiritus instigatione No doubt but the holy Ghost moved some holy man to write this Book because saies he by it many places of they Prophets are the better understood and without that Booke which is a great addition of dignitie Ecclesiastica eruditio perfecta non fuisset The Church had not been so well enabled to give perfect instruction in the Ecclesiasticall Story Therefore he cals it Piissimum Catholicae Ecclesiae institutum A most holy Institution of the Catholike Church that those Books were read in the Church And if that Custome had been every where continued Non tot errores increvissent So many errors had not growne in the Reformed Church saies that Author And to descend to practise at this day we see that in many Churches of the Reformation their Preachers never forbeare to preach upon Texts taken out of the Apocryphall Books We discerne cleerely and as earnestly we detest the mischievous purposes of our Adversaries in magnifying these Apocryphall Books It is not principally that they would have these Books as good as Scriptures but because they would have Scriptures no better then these Books That so when it should appeare that these Books were weake books and the Scriptures no better then they their owne Traditions might be as good as either But as their impiety is inexcusable that thus over-value them so is their singularity too that depresse these books too farre of which the Apostle himselfe makes this use not to establish Articles of Faith but to establish the Hebrews in the Articles of Faith by examples deduced from this Booke The example then to which the Apostle leads them is that Story of a Mother and her seven Sons which in one day suffered death by exquisite torments rather then break that Law of their God which the King prest them to break though but a Ceremoniall Law Now as Leo saies in his Sermon upon their day for the Christian Church kept a day in memory of the Martyredome of these seven Maccabees though they were but Jewes Gravant audita nisi suscipiantur imitanda It is a paine to heare the good that others have done except we have some desire to imitate them in doing the like The Panegyricke said well Onerosum est succederebono Principi That King that comes after a good Predecessour hath a shrewd burthen upon him because all the World can compare him with the last King and all the world will looke that he should be as good a King as his immediate Predecessour whom they all remember was So Gravant audita It will trouble you to heare what these Maccabees which S. Paul speaks of suffered for the Law of their God but you are weary of it and would be glad we would give over talking of them except you have a desire to imitate them And if you have that you are glad to heare more and more of them and from this Apostle here you may For he makes two uses of their example First that though they were tortured they would not accept a deliverance And then that they put on that resolution That they might obtaine a better Resurrection What they suffered hath exercised all our Grammarians and all our Philologers and all our Antiquaries that have enquired into the Racks and Tortures of those times We translate it roundly They were tortured And S. Pauls word implies a torture of that kind that their bodies were extended and rackt as upon a drumme and then beaten with staves What the torture intended in that word was we know not But in the Story it selfe to which he refers in the Maccab you have all these divers tortures Cutting out of tongues and cutting off of hands and feete and macerating in hot Cauldrons and pulling off the skin of their heads with their haire And yet they would not accept a deliverance Ver. 24. Was it offered them Expresly it was The King promises and sweares to one of them that he would make him Rich and Happie and his Friend and trust him with his affaires if he would apply himselfe to his desires and yet he would not accept this deliverance This is that which S. August saies Sunt qui patienter moriuntur There may be many found that dye without any distemper without any impatience that suffer patiently enough But then Sunt qui patienter vivunt delectabiliter moriuntur There are others whose life exercises all their patience so that it is a paine to them though they indure it patiently to live But they could dye not only patiently but cheerefully They are not onely content if they must but glad if they may dye when they may dye so as that thereby They may obtaine a better Resurrection And this was the case of these Martyrs whom the Apostle here proposes to the imitation of the Hebrews They put all upon that issue A better Resurrection So the second Brother saies to the King Ver. 9. Thou like a Fury takest us out of this life but the King of the World shall raise us up who have dyed for his Law unto everlasting life Here lay his hope That that which dyed that which could dye his body should be raised againe So the third Brother proceeded Ver. 11. He held out his hands and said These I had from Heaven and for his Laws I despise them and from him I hope to receive them again There was his hope a restitution of the same hands in the Resurrection And so the fourth Brother Ver. 14. It is good being put to death by men to looke for hope from God Hope of what To be raised up againe by him There was his hope And he
distempers both theirs that think That there are other things to be beleeved then are in the Scriptures and theirs that think That there are some things in the Scriptures which are not to bee beleeved For when our Saviour sayes Si quo minus If it were not so I would have told you he intends both this proposition I have told you all that is necessary to be beleeved and this also All that I have told you is necessary to bee beleeved so as I have told it you So that this excludes both that imaginary insufficiency of the Scriptures which some have ventured to averre for God shall never call Christian to account for any thing not notified in the Scriptures And it excludes also those imaginary Dolos bonos and fraudes pias which some have adventured to averre too That God should use holy Illusions holy deceits holy frauds and circumventions in his Scriptures and not intend in them that which he pretends by them This is his Rule Si quo minus If it were not so I would have told you If I have not told you so it is not so and if I have it is so as I have told you And in these two branches we shall determine the first part The Rule of Doctrines the Scripture The second part which is the particular Doctrine which Christ administers to his Disciples here will also derive and cleave it selfe into two branches For first wee shall inquire whether this proposition in our Text In my Fathers house are many Mansions give any ground or assistance or countenance to that pious opinion of a disparity and difference of degrees of Glory in the Saints in heaven And then if we finde the words of this Text to conduce nothing to that Doctrine wee shall consider the right use of the true and naturall the native and genuine the direct and literall and uncontrovertible sense of the words because in them Christ doth not say that in his Fathers house there are Divers Mansions divers for seat or lights or fashion or furniture but onely that there are Many and in that notion the Plurality the Multipliciry lies the Consolation First then 1 Part. for the first branch of our first part The generall Rule of Doctrines our Saviour Christ in these words involves an argument That hee hath told them all that was necessary Hee hath because the Scripture hath for all the Scriptures which were written before Christ and after Christ were written by one and the same Spirit his Spirit It might then make a good Probleme why they of the Romane Church not affording to the Scriptures that dignity which belongs to them are yet so vehement and make so hard shift to bring the books of other Authors into the ranke and nature and dignity of being Scriptures What matter is it whether their Maccabees or their Tobies be Scripture or no what get their Maccabees or their Tobies by being Scripture if the Scripture be not full enough or not plaine enough to bring me to salvation But since their intention and purpose their aime and their end is to under-value the Scriptures that thereby they may over-value their owne Traditions their way to that end may bee to put the name of Scriptures upon books of a lower value that so the unworthinesse of those additionall books may cast a diminution upon the Canonicall books themselves when they are made all one as in some forraigne States we have seene that when the Prince had a purpose to erect some new Order of Honour he would disgrace the old Orders by conferring and bestowing them upon unworthy and incapable persons But why doe we charge the Roman Church with this undervaluing of the Scriptures when as they pretend and that cannot well be denied them That they ascribe to all the books of Scripture this dignity That all that is in them is true It is true they doe so But this may be true of other Authors also and yet those Authors remaine prophane and secular Authors All may be true that Livy sayes and all that our Chronicles say may be true and yet our Chronicles nor Livy become Gospell for so much they themselves will confesse and acknowledge that all that our Church sayes is true that our Church affirmes no error and yet our Church must be a hereticall Church if any Church at all for all that Indeed it is but a faint but an illusory evidence or witnesse that pretends to cleare a point if though it speake nothing but truth yet it does not speake all the truth The Scriptures are our evidence for life or death Iohn 5.39 Search the Scriptures sayes Christ for in them ye thinke ye have eternall life Where ye thinke so is not ye thinke so but mistake the matter but ye thinke so is ye thinke so upon a well-grounded and rectified faith and assurance Now if this evidence the Scripture shall acquit me in one Article in my beliefe in God for I doe finde in the Scripture as much as they require of me to beleeve of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And then this evidence the Scripture shall condemne me in another Article The Catholique Church for I doe not finde so much in the Scripture as they require me to beleeve of their Catholique Church If the Scripture be sufficient to save me in one and not in the rest this is not onely a defective but an illusory evidence which though it speake truth yet does not speake all the truth Fratres sumus quare litigamus sayes S. Augustine Wee are all Brethren by one Father one Almighty God and one Mother one Catholique Church and then why do we goe to Law together At least why doe we not bring our Suits to an end Non intestatus mortuus est Pater sayes he Our Father is dead for Deut. 32.30 Is not he your Father that bought you is Moses question he that bought us with himselfe his blood his life is not dead intestate but hath left his Will and Testament and why should not that Testament decide the cause Silent Advocati Suspensus est populus Legant verba testamenti This that Father notes to be the end in other causes why not in this That the Counsell give over pleading That the people give over murmuring That the Judge cals for the words of the Will by that governs and according to that establishes his Judgement I would at last contentious men would leave wrangling and people to whom those things belonged not leave blowing of coales and that the words of the Will might try the cause since he that made the Will hath made it thus cleare Si quo minus If it were not thus I would have told you If there were more to be added then this or more clearnesse to bee added to this I would have told you In the fift of Matthew Christ puts a great many cases what others had told them Mat. 5. but he tels them that is not
your Master hath dealt thus mercifully with you all that to you all all he sends a message Sciant omnes Let all the house of Israel know this Needs the house of Israel know any thing Needs there any learning in persons of Honour We know this characterizes this distinguishes some whole Nations In one Nation it is almost a scorn for a gentleman to be learned in another almost every gentleman is conveniently and in some measure learned But I enlarge not my self I pretend not to comprehend Nationall vertues or Nationall vices For this knowledge which is proclaimed here which is the knowledge that the true Messias is come and that there is no other to bee expected is such a knowledge as that even the house of Israel it self is without a Foundation if it be without this knowledge Is there any house that needs no reparations Is there a house of Israel let it be the Library the depositary of the Oracles of God a true Church that hath the true word of the true God let it be the house fed with Manna that hath the true administration of the true Sacraments of Christ Jesus is there any such house that needs not a farther knowledge that there are alwaies thieves about that house that would rob us of that Word and of those Sacraments The Holy Ghost is a Dove and the Dove couples paires is not alone Take heed of singular of schismatical opinions what is more singular more schismaticall then when all Religion is confined in one mans breast The Dove is animal sociale a sociable creature and not singular and the Holy Ghost is that And Christ is a Sheep animal gregale they flock together Embrace thou those truths which the whole flock of Christ Jesus the whole Christian Church hath from the beginning acknowledged to be truths and truths necessary to salvation for for other Traditionall and Conditionall and Occasionall and Collaterall and Circumstantiall points for Almanack Divinity that changes with the season with the time and Meridionall Divinity calculated to the heighth of such a place and Lunary Divinity that ebbes and flowes and State Divinity that obeyes affections of persons Domus Israel the true Church of God had need of a continuall succession of light a contiuall assistance of the Spirit of God and of her own industry to know those things that belong to her peace And therefore let no Church no man think that he hath done enough or knowes enough If the Devill thought so too we might the better think so but since we see that he is in continuall practise against us let us be in a continuall diligence and watchfulnesse to countermine him We are domus Israel the house of Israel and it is a great measure of knowledge that God hath afforded us but if every Pastor look into his Parish and every Master into his own Family and see what is practising there sciat domus Israel let all our Israel know that there is more knowledge and more wisdome necessary Be every man farre from calumniating his Superiours for that mercy which is used towards them that are fallen but be every man as far from remitting or slackning his diligence for the preserving of them that are not fallen The wisest must know more though you be domus Israel the house of Israel already Crucifixistis and then Etsi Crucifixistis though you have crucified the Lord Jesus you may know it sciant omnes let all know it S. Paul saies once If they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of life but he never saies if they have crucified the Lord of life 1 Cor. 2.8 they are excluded from knowledge I meane no more but that the mercy of God in manifesting and applying himself to us is above all our sins No man knowes enough what measure of tentations soever he have now he may have tentations through which this knowledge and this grace will not carry him and therefore he must proceed from grace to grace So no man hath sinned so deeply but that God offers himself to him yet Sciant omnes the wisest man hath ever something to learn he must not presume the sinfullest man hath God ever ready to teach him he must not despaire Now the universality of this mercy Sciant hath God enlarged and extended very farre in that he proposes it even to our knowledge Sciant let all know it It is not only credant let all beleeve it for the infusing of faith is not in our power but God hath put it in our power to satisfie their reason and to chafe that waxe to which he himself vouchsafes to set to the great seale of faith And that S. Hierome takes to be most properly his Commission Tentemus animas quae deficiunt a fide natur alibus rationibus adjuvare Let us indevour to assist them who are weak in faith with the strength of reason And truly it is very well worthy of a serious consideration that whereas all the Articles of our Creed are objects of faith so as that we are bound to receive them de fide as matters of faith yet God hath left that out of which all these Articles are to be deduced and proved that is the Scripture to humane arguments It is not an Article of the Creed to beleeve these and these Books to be or not to be Canonicall Scripture but our arguments for the Scripture are humane arguments proportioned to the reason of a naturall man God does not seale in water in the fluid and transitory imaginations and opinions of men we never set the seale of faith to them But in Waxe in the rectified reason of man that reason that is ductile and flexible and pliant to the impressions that are naturally proportioned unto it God sets to his seale of faith They are not continuall but they are contiguous they flow not from one another but they touch one another they are not both of a peece but they enwrap one another Faith and Reason Faith it self by the Prophet Esay is called knowledge Esay 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many sayes God of Christ that is by that knowledge that men shall have of him So Zechary expresses it at the Circumcision of Iohn Baptist That hee was to give knowledge of salvation Luke 1.77 for the remission of sins As therefore it is not enough for us in our profession to tell you Qui non crediderit damnabitur Except you beleeve all this you shall be damned without we execute that Commission before Ite praedicate go and preach work upon their affections satisfie their reason so it is not enough for you to rest in an imaginary faith and easinesse in beleeving except you know also what and why and how you come to that beliefe Implicite beleevers ignorant beleevers the adversary may swallow but the understanding beleever he must chaw and pick bones before he come to assimilate him
a considerable thing and hath in part the nature of materials for God to worke upon That Instruction which is the subject of the whole Psalem is that saving Doctrine That there is no blessednesse but in the remission of sinnes That David establishes for his foundation in the first verse and would say nothing till he had said that But then though this remission of sinnes which onely constitutes Blessednesse proceed meerely from the goodnesse of God yet that goodnesse of God as it excites primarily so it works still upon that act of man penitent confession Notum feci I acknowledged my sinne and Dixi confitebor I prepared my selfe to confesse my sinne ver 5. and thou forgavest all This then S. Hierome delivers to be the Instruction of the Psalme Hominem Hieron non propriis meritis sed Dei gratia posse salvari si confiteatur admissa That man of himselfe is irrecoverable But yet there is a way opened to salvation in Christ Jesus But this way is onely open to them who enter by Confession And though S. Hierome and S. Augustin differ often in the exposition of the Psalmes yet here they speake almost the same words The Instruction of this Psalme is Intelligentia qua intelligitur non meritis operum August sed gratia Dei hominem liberari confitentem sua peccata That no man is saved by his owne merits That any man may bee saved by the mercy of God in the merits of Christ That no man attaines this mercy but by confession of his sinnes And that that rule In ore duorum aut trium may have the largest fulnesse adde wee a third witnesse Intellectus est Gregor This is the Instruction that David promises Nemo ante fidem Let no man presume of merits before faith But in all this they all three agree Every man must know that hee may bee saved And that by his owne merits hee cannot And lastly that the merits of Christ are applied to no man that doth nothing for himselfe Quid est Intellectus August saith he againe What is this understanding It is saith he no more but this Vt non jactes opera ante fidem Never to take confidence in works otherwise then as they are rooted in faith For as hee enlarges this Meditation if thou shouldst see a man pull at an Oare till his eye-strings and sinews and muscles broke and thou shouldst aske him whither he rowed If thou shouldst see a man runne himselfe out of breath and shouldst aske him whither hee ranne If thou shouldst see him dig till his backe broke and shouldst aske him what he sought And any of these should answer thee they could not tell wouldst not thou thinke them mad So are all Disciplines all Mortifications all whippings all starvings all works of Piety and of Charity madnesse if they have any other root then faith any other title or dignity then effects and fruits of a preceding reconciliation to God Multi pagani saith he Idem There are many Infidels that refuse to bee made Christians because they are so good already Sibi sufficiunt de sua bona vita They are the worse for being so good and they thinke they need no faith but are rich enough in their morall honesty And there are Christians that are the worse for thinking and beleeving that it is enough to Beleeve It is not faith to beleeve in grosse that I shall be saved but I must beleeve that I shall be saved by him that died for me If I consider that I cannot chuse but love him too And if I love him I shall doe his will Ama operaberis Idem whomsoever thou lovest thou wilt doe what thou canst to please him Da mihi vacantem amorem I would bee glad to see an idle love that that man that loved any thing in this world should not labour to compasse that that he loved But purga amorem saith hee I doe not forbid thee loving it is a noble affection but purge and purifie thy love Aquam fluentem in cloacam converte in hortum Turne that water which hath served thy stables and sewers before into thy gardens Turne those teares which thou hast spent upon thy love or thy losses upon thy sinnes and the displeasure of thy God and Quales impetus habebas ad mundum habebis ad Creatorem mundi Those passions which transported thee upon the creature will establish thee upon the Creator The Instruction then of the whole Psalme is peace with God in the merits of Christ declared in a holy life which being the summe of all our Christian profession is farre beyond this Vnderstanding in our Text They have no understanding but yet upon this Understanding God raises that great building and therefore wee take this faculty The Vnderstanding into a more particular consideration Here is the danger He that at ripe yeares hath no understanding hath no grace A little understanding may have much grace but he that hath none of the former can have none of this God therefore brings us to the consideration not of the greatest but of the first thing not of his superedifications but of his foundations our understanding our reason For though Animalis homo The naturall man perceiveth not the things that be of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 yet let him bee what man he will Naturall or Supernaturall hee must bee a man that must probare spiritum prove and discerne the spirit let him have as much more as you will it is requisite hee have so much reason and understanding as to perceive the maine points of Religion not that he must necessarily have a naturall explicite reason for every Article of faith but it were fit he had reason to prove that those Articles need not reason to prove them If I beleeve upon the Authority of my Teacher or of the Church or of the Scripture very expedient it were to have reason to prove to my selfe that these Authorities are certaine and irrefragable And therefore Caeteris animalibus se ignorare natura est homini vitium If a Horse or a Mule understand not it selfe it is never the worse Horse nor Mule for it is borne with that ignorance But if man having opportunities both in respect of his parts and calling to be better instructed either by a negligent and lazy and implicite relying upon the opinion of others doe but lay himselfe downe as a leafe upon the water to be carried along with the tide or by a wilfull drowsinesse and security in his sins have given over the debatement the discussing the understanding of the maine of his beliefe and of his life if either he keepe not his understanding awake or over-watch it if he doe nothing with it or employ it too busily too fervently too eagerly upon the world I would it were true of them Facti sicut you are like the Horse and the Mule but Vtinam essetis I would
hath suffered more then himselfe needed That is a poore treasure which they boast of in the Romane Church that they have in their Exchequer all the works of supererogation of the Martyrs in the Primitive Church that suffered so much more then was necessary for their owne salvation and those superabundant crosses and merits they can apply to me If the treasure of the blood of Christ Jesus be not sufficient Lord what addition can I find to match them to piece out them And if it be sufficient of it selfe what addition need I seek Other mens crosses are not mine other mens merits cannot save me Nor is any crosse mine owne which is not mine by a good title If I be not Possessor bonae fidei If I came not well by that crosse 1 Cor. 4.7 And Quid habeo quod non accepi is a question that reaches even to my crosses what have I that I have not received not a crosse And from whose hands can I receive any good thing but from the hands of God So that that onely is my crosse which the hand of God hath laid upon me Alas that crosse of present bodily weaknesse which the former wantonnesses of my youth have brought upon me is not my crosse That crosse of poverty which the wastfulnesse of youth hath brought upon me is not my crosse for these weaknesse upon wantonnesse want upon wastfulnesse are Natures crosses not Gods and they would fall naturally though there were which is an impossible supposition no God Except God therefore take these crosses in the way as they fall into his hands and sanctifie them so and then lay them upon me they are not my crosses but if God doe this they are And then this crosse thus prepared I must take up Tollat Forraine crosses other mens merits are not mine spontaneous and voluntary crosses Tollat contracted by mine owne sins are not mine neither are devious and remote and unnecessary crosses my crosses Since I am bound to take up my crosse there must be a crosse that is mine to take up that is a crosse prepared for me by God and laid in my way which is tentations or tribulations in my calling and I must not go out of my way to seeke a crosse for so it is not mine nor laid for my taking up I am not bound to hunt after a persecution nor to stand it and not flye nor to affront a plague and not remove nor to open my selfe to an injury and not defend I am not bound to starve my selfe by inordinate fasting nor to teare my flesh by inhumane whippings and flagellations I am bound to take up my Crosse and that is onely mine which the hand of God hath laid for me that is in the way of my Calling tentations and tribulations incident to that If it be mine that is laid for me by the hand of God and taken up by me that is Sequatur me voluntarily embraced then Sequatur sayes Christ I am bound to follow him with that crosse that is to carry my crosse to his crosse And if at any time I faint under this crosse in the way let this comfort me that even Christ himselfe was eased by Simon of Cyrene in the carrying of his Crosse and in all such cases Mat. 27.32 I must flye to the assistance of the prayers of the Church and of good men that God since it is his burden will make it lighter since it is his yoake easier and since it is his Crosse more supportable and give me the issue with the tentation When all is done with this crosse thus laid for me and taken up by me I must follow Christ Christ to his end his end is his Crosse that is I must bring my crosse to his lay downe my crosse at the foote of his Confesse that there is no dignity no merit in mine but as it receives an impression a sanctification from his For if I could dye a thousand times for Christ this were nothing if Christ had not dyed for me before And this is truly to follow Christ both in the way and to the end as well in doctrinall things as in practicall And this is all that lay upon these two Peter and Andrew Follow me Remaines yet to be considered what they shall get by this which is our last Consideration They shall be fishers and what shall they catch men They shall be fishers of men Piscatores hominum And then for that the world must be their Sea and their net must be the Gospel And here in so vast a sea and with so small a net there was no great appearance of much gaine And in this function whatsoever they should catch they should catch little for themselves The Apostleship as it was the fruitfullest so it was the barrennest vocation They were to catch all the world there is their fecundity but the Apostles were to have no Successors as Apostles there is their barrennesse The Apostleship was not intended for a function to raise houses and families The function ended in their persons after the first there were no more Apostles And therefore it is an usurpation an imposture an illusion it is a forgery when the Bishop of Rome will proceed by Apostolicall authority and with Apostolicall dignity and Apostolicall jurisdiction If he be S. Peters Successor in the Bishopricke of Rome he may proceed with Episcopall authority in his Dioces If he be for though we doe not deny that S. Peter was at Rome and Bishop of Rome though we receive it with an historicall faith induced by the consent of Ancient writers yet when they will constitute matter of faith out of matter of fact and because S. Peter was de facto Bishop of Rome therefore we must beleeve as an Article of faith such an infallibility in that Church as that no Successor of S. Peters can ever erre when they stretch it to matter of faith then for matter of faith we require Scriptures and then we are confident and justly confident that though historically we do beleeve it yet out of Scriptures which is a necessary proofe in Articles of faith they can never prove that S. Peter was Bishop of Rome or ever at Rome So then if the present Bishop of Rome be S. Peters Successor as Bishop of Rome he hath Episcopall jurisdiction there but he is not S. Peters Successor in his Apostleship and onely that Apostleship was a jurisdiction over all the world But the Apostleship was an extraordinary office instituted by Christ for a certaine time and to certaine purposes and not to continue in ordinary use As also the office of the Prophet was in the Old Testament an extraordinary Office and was not transferred then nor does not remaine now in the ordinary office of the Minister And therefore they argue impertinently and collect and infer sometimes seditiously that say The Prophet proceeded thus and thus therefore the Minister may and must proceed so too The Prophets
which is a Crowne of gold without any intimation of any such lesser crownes growing out of themselves This then is their new Alchymy that whereas old Alchymists pretend to make gold of courser Metals these will make it of Nothing Out of a supposititious word which is not in the Text they have hammered and beat out these Aureolas these lesser crownes And these Aureolaes they ascribe onely to three sorts of persons to Virgins to Martyrs to Doctors Are then all the other Saints without Crowns They must make shift with that beame which they have from the Crowne of Christ for for these additionall crownes proceeding from themselves they have none And yet say they there are Saints which have some additions growing out of themselves though not Aureolas little crownes and those they call Fructus peculiar fruits growing out of themselves And for these fruits they distraine upon that place of Matthew where Christ saith Matt. 13.6 That some brought forth fruit a hundred fold some sixty and some thirty And the greater measure they ascribe to Virgins the sixty to Widowes and the thirty to Maried persons but onely such maried persons as have lived continently in mariage So then to make this Riddle of theirs as plaine as the matter will admit They place salvation it selfe Blessednesse it selfe if a man will be content with that in that union with God which is common to all the Saints But then they conceive certaine Dotes as they call them certaine dispositions in this life by which some have made themselves fitter to be united to God in a nearer distance then an ordinary Saint And these Dotes these endowments and dispositions here produce those Aureolas and those Fructus those lesser crownes and those measures of fruits which are a particular Joy not that they are united to God for so every Saint is but that they had those Dotes those dispositions to take that particular way of being united to God The way of Virginity the way of Martydome and the way of Preaching for by this they become Sancti Majores as they call them Saints in favor Saints in office and fitter to receive our petitions and mediate between God and us then those whom they call Mediocres and Inferiores Saints of a middle forme or of an inferiour ranke Yet these are so farre provided for by them too that wee must pray also to these Inferiour Saints either because I may have had a more particular interest in this life in that Saint then in a greater and so the readinesse and the assiduity of that Saint may recompence his want of power Or else Ad tollendum fastidium lest a great Saint should grow weary of me if I trouble him every day and for every trifle in heaven And some other such reasons it pleases them to assigne why though some Saints have more power with God then others yet we are bound to pray to all And thus they play with Divinity as though after they had troubled all States with politicall Divinity with their Bulls and Breves of Rebus sic stantibus That as long as things stood thus this should be Catholique Doctrine and otherwise when otherwise And in this politicall Divinity Machiavel is their Pope And after they had perplexed understandings with Philosophicall Divinity in the Schoole and in that Divinity Aristotle is their Pope They thought themselves in courtesie or conscience bound to recreate the world with Poeticall Divinity with such a Heaven and such a Hell as would stand in their Verses and in this Divinity Virgill is their Pope And so as Melancthon said when he furthered the Edition of the Alcoran that hee would have it printed Vt videamus quale poema sit That the world might see what a piece of Poetry the Alcoran was So I have stopped upon this point that you might see what a piece of Poetry they have made of this Problematicall point of Divinity The disparity and degrees of Glory in the Saints in Heaven Be this then thus settled Non liquet ex Scripturis In the matter The difference of degrees of Glory we will not differ In the manner we would not differ so as to induce a Schisme if they would handle such points Problematically and no farther But when upon matter of fact they will induce matter of faith when they will extend Problematicall Divinity to Dogmaticall when they will argue and conclude thus It may be thus therefore it must be thus A man may be saved though he beleeve this therefore he cannot be saved except hee beleeve this when in this point in hand out of our acknowledgement of these degrees of Glory in the Saints they will establish the Doctrine of Merits and of Invocation of Saints then wee must necessarily call them to the Rule of all Doctrines the Scriptures When they tell us Historically and upon a Historicall Obligation and for a Historicall certitude that Peter was at Rome and that hee was Bishop of Rome we are not so froward as to deny them that But when upon his Historicall and personall being at Rome they will build that mother Article of an universall Supremacy over all the Church then we must necessarily call them to the Rule to the Scriptures and to require them to prove both his being there and his being Bishop there by the Scriptures and either of these would trouble them As it would trouble them in our present case to assigne evident places of Scripture for these degrees of Glory in the Saints of Heaven For though we be far from denying the Consentaneum est That it is reasonable it should be and likely it is so and farre from denying the Piè creditur That it may advance Devotion and exalt Industry to beleeve that it is so Though we acknowledge a possibility a probability a very similitude a very truth and thus farre a necessary truth that our endevours may flagge and slacken except we doe embrace that helpe that there are degrees of Glory in Heaven yet if wee shall presse for places of Scriptures so evident as must constitute an Article of faith there are perchance none to be found to which very learned and very reverend Expositors have not given convenient Interpretations without inducing any such necessity At least Minus ex hee Taxtu however other places of Scripture may seeme to contribute more this proposition of our text In my Fathers house are many mansions though it have beene applyed to the proofe of that hath no inclination no inclinablenesse that way For in this text our Saviour applies himselfe to his Disciples in that wherein they needed comfort That Christ would go away That they might not goe too That Peter had got a Non-obstante He might and they might not and Christ gives them that comfort that all might In my Fathers house are many mansions 1 Tim. 3.16 When the Apostle presents a great part of our Christian Religion together so as that he cals
him for his ease that is compound with him easily and continue him in his estate and errors but Cape nobis Take him for us so detect him as he may thereby be reduced to Christ and his Church Neither onely this counsel of Christ to his Church but that commandment of God in Levit. Exod. 23.3 Lev. 19.15 is also applyable to this Non misereber is pauperis in judicio Thou shalt not countenance a poore man in his cause Thou shalt not pity a poore man in judgement Though a new opinion may seeme a poore opinion able to doe little harme though it may seem a pious and profitable opinion and of good use yet in judicio if it stand in judgement and pretend to be an article of faith and of that holy obligation matter necessary to salvation Non misereberis Thou shalt not spare thou shalt not countenance this opinion upon any collaterall respect but bring it to the onely tryall of Doctrines the Scriptures In the beginning of the Reformation in Germany there arose a sect whom they called Intermists and Adiaphorists who upon a good pretence were like to have done a great deale of mischiefe They said Since all the hope of a Reformation that we can promise our selves must come from a generall Councell and of such a Councel we can have no hope but by the Pope it were impertinent and dis-conducing to our owne ends to vexe or exasperate the Pope in this Interim till the Councel be setled and so the Reformation put into a way and in the Interim for this short time till the Councel these Adiaphora the indifferent things in which mild word they involved all the abuses and all the grievances that were complained of may be well enough continued But if they had continued so long they had continued yet If they had spared their little foxes then they had destroyed their vines If they had pitied the poore in judgement the cause had been judged against them If they had reprieved those abuses for a time they had got a pardon for ever And therefore blessed were they in taking those children and dashing them against the stones In taking those new-born opinions and bringing them to the true touch-stone of all Doctrines An ab initio whether they had been from the beginning or could consist with the Scriptures Neither doth this counsel of Christs Take us these little foxes nor this commandment of God Thou shalt not pity the poor in judgment determine it self in the Church or in the publique only but extends it self rather contracts it self to every particular soul and conscience Capite vulpeculas Take your litle foxes watch your first inclinatiōs to sins for if you give them suck at first if you feed them with the milke and hony of the mercy of God it shall not be in your power to weane them when you would but they will draw you from one to another extreme from a former presumption to a future desperation in Gods mercy So also Non misereberis Thou shalt not pity the poore in judgement now that thou callest thy selfe to judgement and thy conscience to an examination thou shalt not pity any sin because it pretends to be a poore sin either poore so that it cannot much endanger thee not much encumber thee or poore so as that it threatens thee with poverty with penury with disability to support thy state or maintaine thy family if thou entertaine it not Many times I have seene a suitor that comes in forma pauperis more trouble a Court and more importune a Judge then greater causes or greater persons And so may such sins as come in forma pauperis either way That they plead poverty That they can doe little harme or threaten poverty if they be not entertained Those sins are the most dangerous sins which pretend reason why they should be entertained for sinnes which are done meerely out of infirmity or out of the surprisall of a tentation are in comparison of others done as sins in our sleep but in sins upon deliberation upon counsell upon pretence of reason we doe see the wisdome of God but we set our wisdome above his we do see the law of God but we insert and interline non obstantes of our own into Gods Law If therefore thou wilt corruptly and vitiously and sinfully love another out of pity because they love thee so If thou wilt assist a poore man in a cause out of pretence of pity with thy countenance and the power of thy place that that poore man may have something and thou the rest that is recovered in his right If thou wilt embrace any particular sin out of pity lest thy Wife and Children should be left unprovided If thou have not taken these little foxes that is resisted these tentations at the beginning yet Nunc in judicio now that they appeare in judgement in examination of thy conscience Non misereberis Thou shalt not pity them but as Moses speakes of false Prophets Deut. 13. and by a faire accommodation of all bewitching sins with pleasure or profit If a Dreamer of Dreames have given thee a signe and that signe be come to passe If a sin have told thee it would make thee rich and it have made thee rich yet if this Dreamer draw thee to another God If this profit draw thee to an Idolatrous that is to an habituall love of that sin for Tot habemus recentes Deos quot vitiae sayes S. Hierom Hieron Every man hath so many Idols in him as he hath habituall sins yet Though this dreamer as God proceeds there be thy brother or thy son or thy friend which is as thine owne soule How neare how deare how necessary soever this sin be unto thee Non misereberis sayes Moses Thine eye shall not pity that Dreamer thou shalt not keepe him secret but thine owne hand shall be upon him to kill him And so of this pleasurable or profitable sin Non misereberis Thou shalt not hide it but poure it out in Confession Non misereberis Thou shalt not pardon it no nor reprieve it but destroy it for the practise presently Non misereberis Thou shalt not turne out the Mother and retaine the Daughter not leave the sin and retaine that which was sinfully got but devest all roote and body and fruits by confession to God by contrition in thy selfe by restitution to men damnified Elfe that will fall upon thee and thy soule which fell upon the Church That because they did not take their little foxes they endangered the whole vine Because they did pity the poore in judgement that is as S. Augustine sayes they were loath to wrastle with the people or force them from dangerous customes they came from that supine negligence in tolerating prayer for the Dead to establish a doctrinall point of Purgatory and for both prayer for the Dead and Purgatory they detort this text Else that is if no Purgatory why then are these men
of all other places there is scarce one to which Bellarmine himselfe doth not by way of objection against himselfe give some better sense and interpretation then that which himselfe sticks to and such a sense as when the matter of Purgatory is not in question his fellowes often times in their writings and himselfe sometimes in his writings doth accept and adhere to I offer it for a note of good use and in the observing whereof I have used a constant diligence in reading the Roman Writers That those Writers which write by way of Exposition and Commentaries upon the Scriptures and are not engaged in the professed handling of Controversies doe very often content themselves with the true sense of those places which they handle and hunt after no curious nor forced nor forraine nor unnaturall senses But if the same Authors come to handle Controversies they depart from that singlenesse of heart and that holy ingenuity and stray aside or soare up into other senses of the same places I looke no farther for a reason of this then this That almost all the Controversies between Rome and the rest of the Christian world are matters of profit to them and rayse money and advance their Revenue So that as they are but Expositors they may have leave to be good Divines and then and in that capacity they may give the true sense of that Scripture But as they are Controverters they must be good Subjects good Statesmen good Exchequer men and then and in that capacity they must give such senses as may establish and advance their profit As an Expositor he may interpret this place of the Resurrection as it should be but as a Controverter he must interpret it of Purgatory for so it must be when profit is their end And as our Alchymists can finde their whole art and worke of Alchymy not onely in Virgil and Ovid but in Moses and Solomon so these men can finde such a transmutation into gold such a foundation of profit in extorting a sense for Purgatory or other profitable Doctrines out of any Scripture So Bellarmine does upon this place and upon this place principally he relyes De purg l. 1. c. 6. in this he triumphs when he sayes Hic locus apertè convincit quod volumus Here needs no wresting no disguising here Purgatory is clearly and manifestly discovered Now certainly if we take the words as they are and as the Holy Ghost hath left them to us we finde no such manifestation of this Doctrine no such cleare light no such bonfire no such beacon no beame at all no spark of any such fire of Purgatory That because S. Paul sayes That no man would be baptized Pro mortuis for Dead or for the Dead except he did assure himselfe of a Resurrection that this should be Aperta convictio an evident Conviction of Purgatory is if it be not a new Divinity certainly a new Logique But it is not the word but the sense that they ground their assurance upon Now the sense which should ground an assurance in Doctrinall things should be the literall sense And yet here in so important a matter of faith as Purgatory it must not be a literall a proper a naturall and genuine sense but figurative and metaphoricall for in this place Baptisme must not signifie literally the Sacrament of Baptisme but it must signifie in a figurative sense a Baptisme of teares And then that figure must be a pregnant figure a figure with childe of another figure for as this Baptisme must signifie teares so these teares must signifie all that they use to expresse by the name of Penance and discipline and mortification Weeping and fasting and almes and whipping all must be comprehended in these teares And then as there was a mother figure and a daughter figure so there is a grand-child too for here is a Prosopopoeia an imagining a raysing up of a person that is not That all this must be done by some man alive with relation and in the behalfe of a dead person that these afflictions which he takes upon himselfe in this world may accrew in the benefit thereof to a man in another world Now if any of this Evidence be defective if it be not evident that this is a figurative speech but that the literall sense is very proper to the place if it be not evident that this figure of Baptisme is meant for teares and other penances If it be not evident that this penance is more then that man needed to have undergone for his own salvation but that God became indebted to him for that penance so sustained and if it be not evident that this penance and supererogation may be applied and communicated to a dead man it is a little too forwardly and too couragiously pronounced Hic locus apertè convincit quod volu mus We desire no more then this place for the proofe of Purgatory Yet he pursues his triumph Vera genuina interpretatio sayes he As though he might waive the benefit of making it a figurative sense and have his ends by maintaining it to be the literall sense This is sayes he the true and naturall sense of the place But it will be hard for him to perswade us either that this is the literall sense of the place or that this place needs any other then a literall sense Since he will not allow us a figurative sense in that great mystery in the Sacrament in the Hoc est Corpus meum but binde us punctually in the letter without any figure not onely in the thing for in the thing in the matter we require no figure we beleeve the body of Christ to be in the Sacrament as literally as really as they doe but even in the words and phrase of speech He should not looke that we should allow him a figurative sense in that place which must be Apertissimus locus his most evident place for the proofe of so great an article of faith as Purgatory is with them We have a Rule by which that sense will be suspicious to us which is Not to admit figurative senses in interpretation of Scriptures where the literall sense may well stand And he himselfe hath a Rule if he remember the Councell of Trent by which that sense cannot be admitted by himselfe which is That they must interpret Scriptures according to the unanime consent of the Fathers and he knowes in his conscience that he hath not done so as we shall remember him anone Not to founder by standing long in this puddle he makes no other argument that Baptisme must here be understood of afflictions voluntarily sustained but that that word Baptisme is twice used and accepted so in the Scriptures by Christ himselfe It is taken so there therefore it must be taken so here But not to speake at all of the weaknesse of that Consequence the word hath been taken figuratively therefore it must never returne to a literall sense which will hold
by Aspersion upon the face they are sayes he buried for dead presented by the Church as dead in Christ Et in hoc quòd ad hoc merguntur ut emergant agunt mortuorum resurrectionem In this that they are therefore buried under water because they may bee raised above water againe in this they represent the resurrection of the dead So in the act of Baptisme literally and Sacramentally taken that Cardinall hath found an evident argument and proofe of the Resurrection And then in the next words he hath found that that which is done in this action is done for him that doth it and not with relation to any other In hoc quòd se profitentur mortuos mundo agunt mortuos In this that in the act of Baptisme they professe themselves to bee dead to the world they are baptized for dead And in this sayes hee that they professe themselves to bee dead to the world in Baptisme therefore that by that Baptisme they may rise to a newnesse of life Profitentur resurrectionem mortuorum They professe the Resurrection of the dead And this destroys utterly the purpose of Bellarmine in these words because the Baptisme spoken of here be it a Sacramentall Baptisme literally or a Disciplinary Baptisme metaphysically yet is a Baptisme determined for the benefit thereof upon him that is baptized and not extended to the dead in Purgatory Since then it is the Exposition of a few onely Alii dicunt Aliqui dicunt Others have said so Some few have said so and those few are late men new men and of those new men Jesuits and Readers and Cardinalls have differed from that opinion this Jesuit and Reader and Cardinall Bellarmine needed not to have made that victorious acclamation Hic locus we desire no more then this place for the evident proofe of Purgatory Much lesse did it become that lesser man that Minorite Frier Feuardentius who for names sake it seemes for his name is Burning fire is so over-vehement for this place in defence of Purgatory to pronounce so peremptorily for this interpretation of this Text Qui huic sententiae concordat Catholicus qui discordat Haereticus est He that interprets these words thus is a Catholique and he is an Heretike that interprets them otherwise For thus hee leaves out the Fathers themselves out of the Arke and makes them Heretiques And howsoever they pretend peace amongst themselves he proclaimes at least discovers a warre amongst themselves for they are of themselves whom he calls Heretiques Iob 9.4 Indeed Quis restitit Domino pacem habuit who ever resisted the truth of Gods word and brought in Expositions to serve turns and had peace amongst themselves When they went about this building of Purgatory they thought not of that counsell Luk. 14.28 When you build sit downe before and count the cost lest men mock you They never considered how they were provided of Materialls what they had from the Prophets what from the Euangelists what from the Apostles for the building of this Purgatory They had the disease of our times If they might build they thought it a profitable course If they could raise a Purgatory they were sure they should gaine by it but neither had they leave to build that is to erect new Articles of faith neither had they wherewithall And therefore being destitute of the foundation of all the Scriptures of God and having raked together some strawes and sticks ends of Poetry and Philosophy and some rubbish of the Manichees they have made such a worke under ground as their Predecessors made above ground in the Towre of Babell in which they understand not one another but are in a confusion amongst themselves Quia restiterunt Domino And who ever resisted the Lord and had peace Thus farre we have proceeded in rescuing these words Patres from their captivity from the enemy that enforced them to testifie for Purgatory And according to my understanding of S. Hieromes rule who sayes That in interpreting of Scriptures hee ever proposed to himselfe Necessitatem perspicuitatem The necessity being as I take it the redeeming of the words from the ill interpretation of Heretiques which wee have now done For the perspicuity and cleernesse you shall see first how the Ancients before they suspected any ill use of them for Purgatory received them and then how the later men after they had been mis-applied for Purgatory interpret them All which I shall propose with as much cleernesse as I can as taking my selfe bound thereunto by that other rule of the same Father Qui per me intellecturus est Apostolum nolo ut ad Interpretem cognoscendum alium quaerat Interpretem I would not have them who come hither to understand the Apostle from me be put to seek help from others to understand me when I must tell them what S. Paul meant I would not have them put to aske what I meant and therefore as farre as the matter will beare it I would speake plainly to every capacity First then Tertul. for Tertullian he seemes to understand this Baptisme for the dead De vicario baptismate of Baptisme by an Atturney by a Proxy which should not be such a God-father as should be a witnesse or surety for mee when I am baptized alive but such a God-father as should be baptized for me when I am dead For that perverse and hereticall custome was then come into practise that out of a false opinion though grounded or coloured with a zeale of reverence to the Sacrament that Baptisme was so absolutely necessary as that none could possibly be saved that were not actually baptized When any man died without Baptisme his friends used to baptize another in his name The dead body was laid under the bed and another man that was laid in the bed to represent him answered to all those questions which the Priest should aske concerning Baptisme in the behalfe of him that lay under the bed as the Sureties doe now in the Church for a childe that perchance understands no more then that dead man did and then that person in the bed was baptized for him who lay under the bed Now Tertullian thinks that the Apostle argues out of that custome and disputes thus If there were no Resurrection why doe you thus provide for them that are dead by baptizing others for them To what purpose doe ye this if they for whom you doe it have no Resurrection But besides that it is not much probable that S. Paul would take an Hereticall action and practise for the ground of his Argument to prove so great a mystery of our faith as the Resurrection is and besides that it doth not appeare that this Hereticall practise which is attributed to the Marcionits was entred into the Church in S. Pauls time and therefore he could not take knowledge of it Besides all this all this if it were granted did nothing at all conduce to S. Pauls ends who had undertaken the
he alone for the salvation of all men as it is expresly said for this word in our Text they hath no limitation I came I alone that they all they might be the better Some of the ancient Fathers delivering the mercies of God so Illis omnibus as the articles of our Church enjoyne them to bee delivered that is generally as they are delivered in the Scriptures have delivered them so over-generally that they have seemed loth to thinke the devill himselfe excluded from all benefit of Christs comming Some of the later Authors in the Roman Church who as pious as they pretend to be towards the Fathers are apter to discover the nakednesse of the Fathers then we are have noted in Iustin Martyr and in Epiphanius and in Clement of Alexandria and in Oecumenius and Oecumenius is no single Father but Pater patratus a manifold Father a complicated father a Father that collected Fathers and even in S. Ierome himselfe and S. Ambrose too some inclinations towards that opinion that the devill retaining still his faculty of free will is therefore capable of repentance and so of benefit by this comming of Christ And those Authors of the Roman Church that modifie the matter and excuse the Fathers herein excuse them no other way but this that though that opinion and doctrine of those Fathers bee not true in it selfe yet it was never condemned by any Councell nor by any ancient Father So very far did very many goe in enlarging the mercies of God in Christ to all But waiving this over-large extention and profusion thereof and directing it upon a more possible and a more credible object that is Man S. Cyril of Alexandria speaking of the possibility of the salvation of all men saies by way of objection to himselfe Omnes non credunt How can all be saved since all doe not beleeve but saies he Because actually they do not beleeve is it therefore impossible they should beleeve And for actuall beleefe saies he though all doe not yet so many doe utfacilè qui pereant superent that by Gods goodnesse more are saved then lost saies that Father of tender and large bowels Moses S. Cyril And howsoever he may seeme too tender and too large herein yet it is a good peece of counsaile which that Rabbi whom I named before gives Ne redarguas ca falsitatis de quorum contrariis nulla est demonstratio Be not aptto call any opinion false or hereticall or damnable the contrary whereof cannot be evidently proved And for this particular the generall possibility of salvation all agree that the merit of Christ Jesus is sufficient for all Whether this all-sufficiency grow ex intrinseca ratione formali out of the very nature of the merit the dignity of the person being considered or grow ex pacto acceptatione out of the acceptation of the Father and the contract betweene him and the Son for that let the Thomists and the Scotists in the Roman Church wrangle All agree that there is enough done for all And would God receive enough for all and then exclude some of himselfe without any relation any consideration of sinne God forbid Man is called by divers names names of lownesse enough in the Scriptures But by the name of Enosh Enosh that signifies meere misery Man is never called in the Scriptures till after the fall of Adam Onely sinne after and not any ill purpose in God before made man miserable The manner of expressing the mercy of God in the frame and course of Scriptures expresses evermore the largenesse of that mercy Very often in the Scriptures you shall finde the person suddenly changed and when God shall have said in the beginning of a sentence I will shew mercy unto them them as though he spoke of others presently in the same sentence he will say my loving kindnesse will I not draw from thee not from thee not from them not from any that so whensoever thou hearest of Gods mercy proposed to them to others thou mightest beleeve that mercy to bee meant to thee and whensoever they others heare that mercy proposed to thee they might beleeve it to be meant to them And so much may to good purpose be observed out of some other parts of this Chapter in another translation In the third verse it is said His sheepe heare his voice In the Arabique tranflation it is Oves audit His sheepe in the plurall does heare in the singular God is a plurall God and offers himselfe to all collectively God is a singular God and offers himselfe to every man distributively So also is it said there Nominibus suo He cals his sheepe by their names It is names in the plurall and theirs in the singular whatsoever God proposes to any he intends to all In which contemplation S. Augustine breaks out into that holy exclamation O bone omnipotens qui sic cur as unumquemque nostrûm tanquam solum cures sic omnes tamquam singulos O good and mighty God who art as loving to every man as to all mankind and meanest as well to all mankind as to any man Be pleased to make your use of this note for the better imprinting of this largenesse of Gods mercy Moses desires of God Exod. 33.13 V. 18. V. 19. that he would shew him Vias suas His waies his proceedings his dealings with men that which he calls after Gloriam suam His glory how he glorifies himselfe upon man God promises him in the next verse that he will shew him Omne bonum All his goodnesse Exod. 346. God hath no way towards man but goodnesse God glorifies himselfe in nothing upon man but in his owne goodnesse And therefore when God comes to the performance of this promise in the next Chapter he showes him his way and his glory and his goodnesse in shewing him that he is a mercifull God a gracious God a long-suffering God a God that forgives sins and iniquities and as the Hebrew Doctors note there are thirteen attributes thirteen denotations of God specified in that place and of all those thirteen there is but one that tasts of judgement That he will punish the sins of Fathers upon Children All the other twelve are meerly wholly mercy such a proportion hath his mercy above his justice such a proportion as that there is no cause in him if all men be not partakers of it Shall we say sayes S. Cyril Melius agriculturam non exerceri si quae nocent tolli non possunt It were better there were no tillage then that weeds should grow Melius non creasse better that God had made no men then that so many should be damned God made none to be damned And therefore though some would expunge out of our Litany that Rogation that Petition That thou wouldst have mercy upon all men as though it were contrary to Gods purpose to have mercy upon all men yet S. Augustine enlarges his charity too far Libera nos Domine
mala sunt in ordine That even disorders are done in order that even our sins some way or other fall within the providence of God But that is not the order nor judgement which the holy Ghost is sent to manifest to the world The holy Ghost works best upon them which search least into Gods secret judgements and proceedings But the order and judgement we speak of is an order a judgement-seate established by which every man howsoever oppressed with the burden of sin may in the application of the promises of the Gospel by the Ordinance of preaching and in the seales thereof in the participation of the Sacraments be assured that he hath received his Absolution his Remission his Pardon and is restored to the innocency of his Baptisme nay to the integrity which Adam had before the fall nay to the righteousnesse of Christ Jesus himselfe In the creation God took red earth and then breathed a soule into it When Christ came to a second creation to make a Church he took earth men red earth men made partakers of his blood for Ecclesiam quaesivit acquisivit Bernard Hee desired a Church and he purchased a Church but by a blessed way of Simony Adde medium acquisitionis Sanguine acquisivit Acts 20.28 He purchased a Church with his own blood And when he had made this body in calling his Apostles then he breathed the soule into them his Spirit and that made up all Quod insufflavit Dominus Apostolis dixit August Accipite Spiritum sanctum Ecclesiae potestas collata est Then when Christ breathed that Spirit into them he constituted the Church And this power of Remission of sins is that order and that judgement which Christ himselfe calls by the name of the most orderly frame in this or the next world A Kingdome Dispono vobis regnum Luk. 22.29 I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me Now Faciunt favos vespa faciunt Ecclesias Marcionitae As Waspes make combs Tertul. but empty ones so do Heretiques Churches but frivolous ones ineffectuall ones And as we told you before That errors and disorders are as well in wayes as inends so may we deprive our selves of the benefit of this judgement The Church as well in circumstances as in substances as well in opposing discipline as doctrine The holy Ghost reprovcâ—thee convinces thee of judgement that is offers thee the knowledge that such a Church there is A Jordan to wash thine originall leprosie in Baptisme A City upon a mountaine to enlighten thee in the works of darknesse a continuall application of all that Christ Jesus said and did and suffered to thee Let no soule say she can have all this at Gods hands immediatly and never trouble the Church That she can passe her pardon between God and her without all these formalities by a secret repentance It is true beloved a true repentance is never frustrate But yet if thou wilt think thy selfe a little Church a Church to thy selfe because thou hast heard it said That thou art a little world a world in thy selfe that figurative that metaphoricall representation shall not save thee Though thou beest a world to thy self yet if thou have no more corn nor oyle nor milk then growes in thy self or flowes from thy self thou wilt starve Though thou be a Church in thy fancy if thou have no more seales of grace no more absolution of sin Grego then thou canst give thy self thou wilt perish Per solam Ecclesiam sacrificium libenter accipit Deus Thou maist be a Sacrifice in thy chamber but God receives a Sacrifice more cheerefully at Church Sola quae pro errantibus fiducialiter intercedit Only the Church hath the nature of a surety Howsoever God may take thine own word at home yet he accepts the Church in thy behalfe as better security Joyne therefore ever with the Communion of Saints August Et cum membrum sis ejus corporis quod loquitur omnibus linguis crede te omnibus linguis loqui Whilst thou art a member of that Congregation that speaks to God with a thousand tongues beleeve that thou speakest to God with all those tongues And though thou know thine own prayers unworthy to come up to God because thou liftest up to him an eye which is but now withdrawne from a licentious glancing and hands which are guilty yet of unrepented uncleannesses a tongue that hath but lately blasphemed God a heart which even now breaks the walls of this house of God and steps home or runs abroad upon the memory or upon the new plotting of pleasurable or profitable purposes though this make thee thinke thine own prayers uneffectuall yet beleeve that some honester man then thy selfe stands by thee and that when he prayes with thee he prayes for thee and that if there be one righteous man in the Congregation thou art made the more acceptable to God by his prayers and make that benefit of this reproofe this conviction of the holy Ghost That he convinces thee De judicio assures thee of an orderly Church established for thy reliefe and that the application of thy self to this judgement The Church shall enable thee to stand upright in that other judgement the last judgement which is also enwrapped in the signification of this word of our Text Iudgement and is the conclusion for this day As God begun all with judgement Iudicium finale Sap. 11. for he made all things in measure number and waight as he proceeded with judgement in erecting a judiciall seat for our direction and correction the Church so he shall end all with judgement The finall and generall judgement at the Resurrection which he that beleeves not beleeves nothing not God for Heb. 11.6 He that commeth to God that makes any step towards him must beleeve Deum remuner atorem God and God in that notion as he is a Rewarder Therefore there is judgement But was this work left for the Holy Ghost Did not the naturall man that knew no Holy Ghost know this Truly all their fabulous Divinity all their Mythology their Minos and their Rhadamanthus tasted of such a notion as a judgement And yet the first planters of the Christian Religion found it hardest to fixe this roote of all other articles That Christ should come againe to judgement Miserable and froward men They would beleeve it in their fables and would not beleeve it in the Scriptures They would beleeve it in the nine Muses and would not beleeve it in the twelve Apostles They would beleeve it by Apollo and they would not beleeve it by the Holy Ghost They would be saved Poetically and fantastically and would not reasonably and spiritually By Copies and not by Originals by counterfeit things at first deduced by their Authors out of our Scriptures Tertul. and yet not by the word of God himself Which Tertullian apprehends and reprehends in his time when he
years after the Donation of the Emperour Constantine by which the Bishops of Rome pretend all that to be theirs surely they could not finde this Patent this Record this Donation of Constantine then when Boniface begd this Temple in Rome this Pantheon of the Emperour And this Temple formerly the Temple of all their gods that Bishop consecrated to the honour of all the Martyrs of all the Saints of that kinde But after him another Bishop of the same sea enlarged the consecration and accompanied it with this festivall which we celebrate to day in honour of the Trinity and Angels and Apostles and Martyrs and Confessors and Saints and all the elect children of God So that it is truly a festivall grounded upon that Article of the Creed The Communion of Saints and unites in our devout contemplation The Head of the Church God himselfe and those two noble constitutive parts thereof The Triumphant and the Militant And accordingly hath the Church applied this part of Scripture to be read for the Epistle of this day to shew that All-Saints day hath relation to all Saints both living and dead for those servants of God which are here in this text sealed in their foreheads are such without all question as receive that Seale here here in the militant Church And therefore as these words so this festivall in their intendiment that applied these words to this festivall is also of Saints upon Earth This day being then the day of the Communion of Saints and this Scripture being received for the Epistle of this universall day that exposition will best befit it which makes it most universall And therefore with very good authority such as the expositions of this booke of the Revelation can receive of which booke no man will undertake to the Church that he hath found the certaine and the literall sense as yet nor is sure to do it Irenaeus till the prophecies of this booke be accomplished for prophetiae ingenium ut in obscuro delitescat donec impleatur It is the nature of prophecy to be secret till it be fulfilled Dan. 12.4 And therefore Daniel was bid to shut up the words and to seale the booke even to the time of the end that is to the end of the prophecy with good authority I say we take that number of the servants of God which are said to be sealed in the fourth verse of this Chapter which is one hundred forty foure thousand and that multitude which none could number of all Nations which are mentioned in the ninth verse to be intended of one and the same company both these expressions denote the same persons In the fourth verse of the fourteenth Chapter this number of one hundred forty foure thousand is applied to Virgins but is intended of all Gods Saints for every holy soule is a virgin And then this name of Israel which is mentioned in the fourth verse of this Chapter That there were so many sealed of the house of Israel is often in Scriptures applied to spirituall Israelites to Beleevers for every faithfull soule is an Israelite so that this number of one hundred forty foure thousand Virgins and one hundred forty foure thousand Israelites which is not a certaine number but a number expressing a numberlesse multitude this number and that numberlesse multitude spoken of after of all Nations which none could number is all one and both making up the great and glorious body of all Saints import and present thus much in generall That howsoever God inflict great and heavy calamities in this world to the shaking of the best morall and Christianly constancies and consciences yet all his Saints being eternally knowne by him shall be sealed by him that is so assured of his assistance by a good using of those helps which he shall afford them in the Christian Church intended in this sealing on the forehead that those afflictions shall never separate them from him nor frustrate his determination nor disappoint his gracious purpose upon them all them this multitude which no man could number To come then to the words themselves Divisio we see the safety and protection of the Saints of God and his children in the person and proceeding of our Protector in that it is in the hands of an Angel I saw another Angel And an Angel of that place that came from the East The East that is the fountaine of all light and glory I saw another Angel come from the East And as the Word doth naturally signifie and is so rendred in this last Translation Ascending from the East that is growing and encreasing in strength After that we shall consider our assurance in the commission and power of this Angel He had the seaele of the living God And then in the execution of this Commission In which we shall see first who our enemies were They were also Angels This Angel cryed to other Angels able to do much by nature because Angels Then we shall see their number they were foure Angels made stronger by joyning This Angel cryed to those foure Angels And besides their malignant nature and united concord two shrewd disadvantages mischievous and many They had a power a particular an extraordinary power given them at that time to do hurt foure Angels to whom power was given to hurt And to do generall universall hurt power to hurt the Earth and the Sea After all this we shall see this Protector against these enemies and their Commission execute his first by declaring and publishing it He cryed with a loud voyce And then lastly what his Commission was It was to stay those foure Angels for all their Commission from hurting the Earth and the Sea and the Trees But yet this is not for ever It is but till the servants of God were sealed in the forehead that is till God had afforded them such helpes as that by a good use of them they might subsist which if they did not for all their sealing in the forehead this Angel will deliver them over to the other foure destroying Angels Of which sealing that is conferring of Grace and helps against those spirituall enemies there is a pregnant intimation that it is done by the benefit of the Church in the power of the Church which is no singular person in that upon the sudden the person and the number is varied in our text and this Angel which when he is said to ascend from the East and to cry with a loud voyce is still a singular Angel one Angel yet when he comes to the act of sealing in the forehead to the dispensing of Sacraments and sacramentall assistances he does that as a plurall person he represents more the whole Church and therefore sayes here Stay hurt nothing Till we we have sealed the servants of our our God in their foreheads And by all these steps must we passe through this garden of flowers this orchard of fruits this abundant Text. First then Man being compassed with
their Rule Audivistis ab antiquis says he you have heard heard by them of old but now I tel you otherwise So Audivimus ab antiquis we have heard and heard by them of old That the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is so absolutely necessary as that Children were bound to receive it presently after Baptisme and that no man could be saved without it more then without Baptisme Maldon in Iohn 6.35 This we have heard and heard by them of old for we have heard S. Augustin to have said so and the practise of the Church for some hundreds of yeares to have said so So Audivimus ab antiquis We have heard and heard by them of old That the Saints of God departed out of this life after their resurrection and before their ascension into heaven shall enjoy all worldly prosperity and happinesse upon the earth for a thousand yeares This we have heard and heard by them of old for we have heard Tertullian say so and Ireneus and Lactantius and so many more as would make the balance more then even So also Audivimus ab antiquis We have heard and heard by them of old That in how good state soever they dye yet the souls of the departed do not see the face of God nor enjoy his presence till the day of Judgement This we have heard and from so many of them of old as that the voyce of that part is louder then of the other And amongst those reverend and blessed Fathers which straied into these errors some were hearers and Disciples of the Apostles themselves as Papias was a Disciple of S. Iohn and yet Papias was a Millenarian and expected his thousand yeares prosperity upon the earth after the Resurrection some of them were Disciples of the Apostles and some of them were better men then the Apostles for they were Bishops of Rome Clement was so and yet Clement was one of them who denied the fruition of the sight of God by the Saints till the Judgement And yet our Adversaries will enjoy their liberty to depart from all this which they have heard and heard from them of old in the mouths of these Fathers And where the Fathers are divided in two streames where all the Fathers few scarce any excepted till S. Augustine Histâ—â— Vossiâ— l. 7. Thes 8. so 538. c. Bemus ca. 26. Petetius Ro. 8. disp 22. placed the cause of our Election in Gods foresight and fore-knowledge of our faith and obedience and as generally after S. Augustin they placed it in the right Center that is onely in the free goodnesse and pleasure of God in Christ halfe the Roman Church goes one way and halfe the other for we may be bold to call the Jesuits halfe that Church And in that point the Jesuits depart from that which they had heard and heard of old from the Primitive Fathers and adhere to the later And their very heavy and very bitter adversaries the Dominicans apply themselves to that which they have heard of old to the first opinion In that point in the Roman Church they have Fathers on both sides but in a point where they have no Father where all the Fathers are unanimely and diametrally against them in the point of the Conception of the most blessed Virgin Canus Etsi omnes Sancti uno ore asseverent sayes a wise Author of theirs Though all the Ancient Fathers with one intire consent affirme that she was conceived in Originall sin Etsi nullus Author contravenerit sayes he Though no one ancient Author ever denyed it yet sayes he Infirmum est ex omnium patrum consensu argumentum Though our opinion have no ground in Scriptures that sayes he I confesse Though it bee no Apostolicall Tradition that sayes he I confesse yet it is but a weake argument sayes he that is concluded out of all the Fathers against it because It was a doctrine manifested to the Church but about five hundred yeares since and now for two hundred yeares hath beene well followed and embraced As the Jesuit Maldonat sayes in such another case whatsoever the ancient Fathers have thought or taught or said or writ that the marriage of Priests after Orders taken and chastity professed was a good marriage Contrarium nunc verum est whatsoever was true then the contrary is true now If then these men who take to themselves this liberty will yet say to me in some other points Si quo minus Surely if you were in the right some of the ancient Fathers would have told you so And then if I assist my selfe by the Fathers they will say Si quo minus If it were not otherwise some generall Councell would have told you so And againe if I support my selfe by a Councell Si quo minus if that Councell were to be followed some Pope would have confirmed that Councell And if I show that to have beene done yet they will say that that Confirmation reaches not to that Session of the Councell or not to that Canon of that Session or not to that period in that Canon or not to that word in that period And then of every Father and Councell and Session and Canon and period and word Ejus interpretatio est sensus Spiritus Sancti His sense and interpretation must be esteemed the Interpretation and the Sense of the Holy Ghost as Bellarmine hath concluded us why will they not allow me a juster liberty then that which they take That when they stop my prayers in their way to God and bid me turne upon Saints when they stop my faith in the way to Christ and bid me turne upon mine owne or others merits when they stop my hopes of Heaven upon my death-bed and bid me turne upon Purgatory That when as yet it is in debatement and disputation whether man can performe the Law of God or no they will multiply their Laws above the proportion of Moses Tables And when we have Primogenitum Ecclesiae The eldest son by the Primitive Church The Creed of the Apostles they will super-induce another son by another venter by a step-mother by their sick and crazy Church and as the way of step-mothers is will then make the portion of the later larger then the elders make their Trent-Creed larger then the Apostles That in such a case they will not allow me neither in my studies in the way nor upon my death-bed at mine end to hearken unto this voyce of my Saviour Si quo minus If it were not so I would have told you this is not onely to preclude the liberty but to exclude the duty of a Christian But the mystery of their Iniquity is easily revealed their Arcana Imperii the secrets of their State easily discovered All this is not because they absolutely oppose the Scriptures or stiffly deny them to be the most certain and constant rule that can be presented for whatsoever they pretend for their own Church or
years after Christ But as Tertullian shews us an early birth of it so he tells us enough to shew us that it should not have been long liv'd when he acknowledges that it had no ground in Scripture but was onely a custome popularly and vulgarly taken up But Tertullian speaks of more then Prayer he speaks of oblations and sacrifices for the dead It is true he does so but it is of oblations and sacrifices far from the propitiatory sacrifice of the Masse for Tertullian makes a woman the Priest in his sacrifice Offert uxor sayes he annuis diebus dormitionis mariti The wife offers every yeare upon the day of her husbands death that is every yeare upon that day she gives a dole and almes to the poore as the custome was to doe in memory of dead friends This being then but such a custome and but so induc'd why did none oppose it Aerius Epiphanius Why it was not sufficiently opposed I have intimated some reasons before The affection of those that did it who were though mistaken in the way piously affected in the action And then the harmlesnesse in the thing it self at first And then partly a loathnesse in the Fathers to deter the Gentiles from becomming Christians And partly a cloud and darknesse of the state of the soule after death Yet some did oppose it But some not early enough and some not earnestly enough And some not with much successe because they were not otherwise Integrae famae They were not thought sound in all things and therefore they were beleeved in nothing which was Aerius his case who did oppose it but because Aerius did not come home to all truths he was not hearkned unto in opposing any error Otherwise at that time Epiphanius had a faire occasion offered to have opposed this growing custome and to have rectified the Church in a good measure therein about an hundred years after Tertullian For then Aerius opposed it directly but because he proceeded upon false grounds That since it was come to that That the most vicious man the most enormous sinner might be saved after his death by the prayers and devotions of another man there remained no more for a Christian to doe but to provide such men in his life to doe those offices for him after his death and so he might deliver himselfe from all the disciplines and mortifications and from the anguishes and remorses and vexations of conscience which the Christian Religion induces and requires Epiphanius discerning the advantage that Aerius had given by imputing things not throughly true he places his glory and his triumph onely in overthrowing Aerius his ill grounded arguments and takes the question it selfe and the danger of the Church no farther to heart then so And therefore when Aerius asks Can prayers for the dead be of any use Epiphanius sayes Yes they may be of use to awaken and exercise the piety and charity of the living and never speaks to that which was principally intended whether they could be of any use to the dead So when Aerius asks Is it not absurd to say That all sins may be remitted after death Epiphanius sayes No man in the Church ever said That all sins may be remitted after death and never cleares the maine whether any sin might And yet with all advantages and modifications Epiphanius lodges it at last but upon custome Nec enim praeceptum Patris sed institutum matris habemus sayes he For this which we doe we have no commandment from God our Father but onely an Institution implyed in this Custome from the Church our Mother But then it grew to a farther height from a wild flower in the field Chrysost and a garden flower in private grounds to be more generally planted and to be not onely suffered by many Fathers but cherished and watered by some and not above forty years after Epiphanius to be so far advanced by S. Chrysostome as that he assignes though no Scripture for it yet that which is nearest to Scripture That it was an Apostolicall Constitution And truly if it did clearly appeare to have been so A thing practised and prescribed to the Church by the Apostles the holy Ghost were as well to be beleeved in the Apostles mouthes as in their pens An Apostolicall Tradition that is truly so is good evidence But because those things doe hardly lie in proofe for that which hath been given for a good Rule of Apostolicall Traditions is very defective that is That whatsoever hath been generally in use in the Church of which no Author is known is to be accepted for an Apostolicall Tradition for so that Ablutio pedum The washing of one anothers feet after Christs example was in so generall use that it had almost gained the dignity of being a Sacrament And so was also the giving of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud to children newly baptized and yet these though in so generall use and without any certaine Author are not Apostolicall Traditions Therefore we must apply S. Augustines words to S. Chrysostome Lege ex Lege ex Prophetis ex Psalmis ex Euangelio ex Apostolicis literis credemus Read us any thing out of the Law or Prophets or Psalmes or Gospel or Epistles and we will beleeve it And we must have leave to return S. Augustines words upon S. Augustine himselfe who hath much assisted this custome of praying for the dead Lege ex Lege c. Read it out of the Scriptures and we will beleeve it for S. Augustine does not pretend any other place of Scripture then this of the Maccabees and not disputing now what credit that Book had with S. Augustine certainly it fell not within this enumeration of his The Maccabees are neither Law nor Prophets nor Psalms nor Gospel nor Epistle Beloved it is a wanton thing for any Church in spirituall matters to play with small errors to tolerate or wink at small abuses as though it should be alwayes in her power to extinguish them when she would It is Christs counsell to his Spouse that is the Church Capite vulpes parvulas Take us the little foxes for they destroy the Vine though they seeme but little and able to doe little harme yet they grow bigger and bigger every day and therefore stop errors before they become heresies and erroneous men before they become formall heretiques Capite sayes Christ Take them suffer them not to goe on but then it is Capite nobis Take us those foxes Take them for us The bargaine is betweene Christ and his Church For it is not Capite vobis Take them to your selves and make your selves Judges of such doctrinall matters as appertaine not to your cognizance Nor it is not Cape tibi Take him to thy selfe spy out a Recusant or a man otherwise not conformable and take him for thy labour beg him and spoile him and for his Religion leave him as you found him Neither is it Cape sibi Take