whome the papistes counte no parte of their church but schismatikes conuerted the Moscouites first of all vnto the profession of the name of Christ which yet continue in their religion being neither the true faith nor yet popish religion As for the popish church as it is certeine that it hath peruerted and corrupted all partes of the Latine or Westerne Church with Idolatry and false religion so it shal be harde for the papistes to proue that it hath conuerted any Nation from Gentility to the popish religion except some partes of Germanie and them by force of armes rather than by preaching and reaching as appeareth by the conuersion of Liuonia Anno Domini 1200. of Prussia Anno Domini 1254. and of Lithuania Anno Domini 1386. wherefore I conclude that seeing I haue shewed that our Church holding the true doctrine of the Apostles is that which conuerted all nations to true religion and that the popish church hath not conuerted any people to true religion nor all people to the profession of the name of Christ this chalenger whosoeuer he be do the recant The second article conteyneth 4. demandes 1 I aske of him what Church it was which hath induced the Christian people through the whole worlde to geue most humble credit in all points to the holy bookes of the Byble I Aunswere it was the Church of Christ and not the Popish church which hath commended the bookes of holy Scripture to be beleued of all true Christians where soeuer they be although it be the office of the holy Ghost to open the hartes of men and to forme them that they may beleue the scripture to be true like as it is the office of the scripture or worde of God to trie and examine whether it be the spirite of God that perswadeth vs to beleue any thing so the spirite beareth witnesse to the worde and the worde to the spirite As for the popish church it coulde not induce the Christian people to geue credit to the scripture in all pointes because she is contrarie to the scripture in many pointes and euen in the cheefest pointes of Christian Religion namely in pointes concerning the glorie of God and the saluation of mankinde geuing the glory of God to dead men and dumbe Images and denying the mercy of God pourchased by the onely sacrifice of Christes death to be the onely cause of mans saluation Finally seeing it is manifest by the aunswere to the first article that the popish church did not conuerte all nations to the profession of the Christian faith it is euident thereby that the popish church did not induce all them that are called Christians to geue credit to the bookes of the holy Bible as this chalenger woulde haue it to be thought 2 VVhat Church hath had the discerning seuering of them from other writinges of all sortes THe Church of Christ hath not an absolute authority to allow or refuse bookes of the scripture but a iudgment to discerne true writinge from counterfaicts the word of God of infallible verity from the writing of men which might erre this iudgement she hath not of her selfe but of the holy Ghost as for the popish Church it can not be said to haue this iudgemēt of discerning the scripture of God from other writings not only because she is so blind that she can not discerne betwene the Canonical bookes of the scripture from the Apocrypha writings as appereth by receauing the bookes of the Machabees Ecclesiasticus c. to be of equall authoritie with the bookes of the Law Psalmes c. but also because she is so presumptuous as to compel men to beleue that Customes and traditions writinges of doctors decrees of Popes and Councells are equall with the authoritie of God his worde yea are of force to alter and change the lawe of God and the institution of Christ set forth vnto vs in the scripture And although she boast that she receaueth all the bookes of scripture yet this proueth no more that she is the Church of Christ than was the churches of the Arrians Donatistes Nouatians Euthychans other heretikes which receiued the Bible as well as the Popish church 3 VVhat Church hath had the custodie of them and most safely hath preserued them for the necessary vse of God his people and from the corruption of aduersaries as well of Iewes as heretikes of all sortes THe prouidence of God hath alwayes preserued the Scripture both from the violence of tyrants from the falshoode of heretikes and hath neuer suffred the true Church to be destitute of the necessarie vse thereof But the popish church hath not kept the scripture for the necessary vse of the people which hath so kept it in an vnknowen tongue that the people coulde haue no vse much lesse the necessary vse thereof wherefore if this be a note of the Catholike Church to kepe the worde of God for the necessarie vse of God his people it is plaine that the popish church is not the Catholike Church which hath kept the scripture so that God his people coulde haue no vse thereof And if the only custodie of the scripture from corruption of heretikes be a sure note of the Church why is not the Greeke Church the Catholike Church which vnto this day hath kept the scripture as safely as the popish church why are not other Estern Churches of Asia which neuer acknowledged the Pope or popish religion true Churches which likewise haue preserued the scripture as we haue seen of late that the newe Testament is printed in the Syrian tongue at themperours charges for the encrease of Christian faith among them And finally why are not the Iewes the Catholike Church which haue kept the old Testament in Hebrue more faithfully than euer the Papistes And because they boast of safe preseruing of the scriptures all men that are learned in the tongues can testifie in how corrupt a Latin translation they haue kept the scriptures both of the olde and of the new Testament 4 And let the Protestant declare to me that their Congregation hath had from time to time or euer had right herein or any other Church sauing the Catholike Church and I recant OVr Congregation which is the body of Christ hath euer had both right and possession of the inestimable treasure of the word of Christ her heade as appeareth by this that our Church and Congregation beleueth nothing but that she learneth in it acknowledgeth that all thinges profitable to saluation are sufficiently conteined in it and finally in all thinges submitteth her selfe to the iudgemēt of it But the popish church which beleueth many thinges contrarie to the scripture teacheth many thinges beside the scripture necessary to saluation and refuseth to haue her faith doctrine and ceremonies to be iudged by the scripture neither hath neither euer had any right to the scripture though she haue neuer so many bookes of them in possession Wherefore these thinges considered this chalenger
ceremonies as Sarum Yorke Bangor c. in England she hath not vnitie in faith for it is not yet determined of one of the greatest articles of Popish faith whether the Pope be aboue the church she hath no holy functions of God his spirite but prophane vsages of mens inuentions she hath no true miracles but the power of Antichrist in lying signes and wonders She hath nothing lesse then the true sense of God his worde which submitteth the same to her owne corrupt and changeable iudgement She is not bewtified with estates commended in Scripture as Apostles Euangelists Prophets Pastors and Teachers but with Popes Cardinalls Monkes Chanons Fryers c. In steede of virgines she hath filthy strumpets her Nunnes or else such foolish virgines as bring no oyle in their lampes she hath no Martyrs but obstinate traytors as Becket Fisher More c. she hath no confessors of trueth though she haue ten thousand mainteyners of falshood and lyes Wherfore if these be the notes of the Catholike Church the Church of Rome can in no wise be that same 3 Proue vnto me that this is not the true Church or that we be not bound to obey this Church and no other in all controuersies and doubtes raysed either by the difficultie of the Scripture or by the vayne contention pride of heresie and I recant I Haue proued euen immediatly before that not one of those notes which you count to be markes of the true Church is proper to your Church And therefore it is not the truth neither ought it to be obeyed in any thing And as for doubtes that arise by difficultie of Scripture or contention of heresie must be resolued and determined as it is abundantly declared before onely by the Scriptures for the hard places of the Scripture must be opened by easie places and heretikes must be confuted by the Scriptures for there is neuer heresie but there is as great doubt of the Church as of the matter in question onely the Scripture is the stay of a Christian mans conscience which I woulde wish that you would truely embrace and recant The 27. article conteyneth 5. demandes 1 Moreouer let any man proue vnto me that the true onely Church of God may at any time be voyd of God his spirite THe true and onely Church of Christ can neuer be voyd of God his spirite and yet she may erre from the truth and be deceiued in some thinges euen as there is no true Christian man that is voyd of God his spirite for he that hath not the spirite of Christ is none of his Rom. 8. yet may euery true Christian erre and be deceaued in some things according to the saying of the Scripture euery man is a lyar Wherefore the whole Church militant consisting of men which are all lyars may erre all togither as euery part thereof although neither the whole Church nor any true member thereof be voyd of God his spirite 2 Or falsely interprete any sentence of holy Scripture THis gentle offer must needes be taken I will proue vnto you that the church of Rome hath falsely interpreted diuers sentences of scripture and therefore by that which she hath done it cannot be doubted but that she may do it S. Augustine was in this error that he thought Infantes must receiue the sacrament of the body and bloude of Christ vnder paine of damnation and was deceiued by false interpretation of this scripture Except ye eate the fleshe of the Sonne of man and drinke his bloude c. Ioan. 6. This error and false interpretation he affirmeth to be common to all the Westerne church to Pope Innocent him selfe Contra duas epist. Pelag. ad Bonifacium lib. 2. cap. 4. cōtra Iulianum lib. 1. cap. 2. Furthermore the second Councell of Nice how many textes of scripture doth it falsely interprete which it were to tedious to repete yet for examples sake I will reherse some of them God made man to his owne image Gen. 1. therefore we must haue images in the church No man lighteth a candle and setteth it vnder a bushell Math. 5. therefore images must be set vpon the altars As we haue heard so we haue seene in the City of our God Psal. 48. that is God must not be knowen by onely hearing of his worde but also by sight of images If these be not true interpretations I reporte me to you Beside these I will bring you a sentence of holy Scripture not onely falsely interpreted in sence but also falsified in wordes and concerning not a small matter but euen one of the cheefe articles of our Faith. It is written in the 10. chapter of the Gospell after S. Iohn the 29. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Father which gaue thē vnto me speaking of his sheep is greater than all This sentence hath the Councell of Laterane holden vnder Pope Innocent the 3. where were present 70. Metropolitanes 400. Bishops 12. Abbates and 800. Priors commentualles in all 1300. Prelats falsified in wordes after this maner Pater quod dedit mihi maius est omnibus that is That which the Father hath geuen me is greater than all This sentence they alleage to proue that God the Father begetting his Sonne from euerlasting gaue his owne substance vnto him the wordes be in the 2. Canon Pater enim ab aeterno filium generando suam substantiam ei dedit iuxta quod ipse testatur Pater quod dedit mihi maius est omnibus At dici non potest quod partem suae substantiae illi dederit partem retinuerit ipse sibi cum substantia Patris indiuisibilis sit c. that is to say For the Father begetting his sonne from euerlasting gaue him his owne substance according as he himselfe witnesseth that which the Father gaue me is greater than all But it can not be said that he gaue him part of his substance and kept parte vnto him selfe when as the substance of the Father is indiuisible c. Goe your wayes now and perswade vs that your church can not interprete any sentence of the scripture falsely when the Laterane Councell which is your represented church hath thus both falsefied and falsely interpreted this scripture Perswade men that they may safely leane to the interpretation of your church when among a thousand and three hundred Prelates gathered canonically in a Councell not one was founde that coulde espie such grosse abusing of the worde of God but let it passe in a Canon vnder the name of the whole Councell Perswade men that in all controuersies condemning of errors they must be ruled by the determination of your Church When the Fathers of the Laterane Councell can not confute the error of Ioachim Abbot concerning the Diuinitie of Christ but by falsefying and false interpreting of scripture These few examples of an infinite numbre I haue set forth because they are sufficient both to satisfie your chalenge and to perswade the simple that the
and tranquilitie we haue through Gods singular goodnes vnder the happy gouernment of our Soueraigne Lady enioyed these many yeares looke to those Churches of God in Fraunce and the lowe countryes of Germany which within these twenty yeares haue bene for the most part planted growne vp flourished altogither vnder the heauy crosse and most sharp persecution what carnall pleasure hath allured them what worldly voluptuousnes hath and doth still intise them in so great multitudes to embrace this doctrine whereof if they tast neuer so smal they see present daunger of death or losse of all their goods with banishment Surely this is the Lords doing and it is marueilous in our eyes But to conclude this man if he can not haue loue and praise for his valiant enterprise yet by patient bearing of hatred and reproch he maketh full account of satisfaction for his sinnes O miserable conscience of the Papistes which haue no peace with god through faith in his infinite mercy but seeke to satisfie the streightnes of his eternall iustice by such beggerly shiftes as these which also he is so vncertaine whether they wil serue his turne that he feareth lest he lose al his labour if he happen to lose the streight line of the Churches truth which in these darke daies a man may quickly lose What say you M. Allen is it so hard a matter to keepe the streight line of the Churches truth in these darke dayes Why Where is the citie builded vpon an hill that can not be hidden Where is that visible and knowne Church which can not erre If that which was wont to be the only rule of truth among Papists faile you try an other rule of the Protestants and as Augustine exhorteth you search the word of God in the holy Scriptures and then vndoubtedly you shall finde the truth and the Church also that is the piller of truth though the dayes be neuer so darke or your eyes neuer so dymme if with like humilitie you would submit your self to the iudgment therof as you pretend to doe to the ministers and pastors of your faith and religion The Lorde if it be his will open your eyes that you may see the truth and geue you grace when you see it that you striue not against it to your owne destruction THE PREFACE VVHEREIN BE NOTED TWO SORTES OF HEretikes th one pretending vertue thother openly professing vice And that our time is more troubled by this second sort With a briefe note of the Authors principall intent in this Treatise 1 ALthough heresie and all willfull blindnesse of mannes minde be vndoubtedly a iust plage of God for sinne and therefore is commonly ioyned with euill life both in the people and preachers thereof as the historie of all ages and sondry examples of the Scriptures may plainely proue yet by the gyle and crafty conueiaunce of our common enimie the deuil falsehod is often so cloked in shadow and shape of trueth and the maisters thereof make such show of vertue and godly life that you would thinke it had no affinitie with vice nor origine of mannes misbehauiour at all So did he couer the wicked heresies of Manicheus Marcion Tatianus and the like with a fained flourish of continency and chastity so did he ouercast thenimie of Gods grace Pelagius with thapparance of all grauity constancy and humility and so hath he alwayes where craft was requisite to his intent made shew of a simple sheepe in the cruell carkase of a wily woulfe This good condition S. Paule noted in him in these wordes Ipse enim Satanas â—ransfigurat se in Angelum lucis For Satanas his owne person shapeth him selfe into an Angell of light And that his scholars play the like part our master Christ of singular loue gaue his flocke this wachword for a speciall prouiso Attendite à falsis prophetis qui veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ouium intrinsecùs autem sunt lupi rapaces Take heede of false prophetes that come in sheepes vesture but within be rauening wolues He sawe that seeth all things that the outward face of fained holinesse might easily cary away the simple he detected the serpentes subteltie that none might iustly pleade ignorance in a case so common and withall for thenstruction of the faithfull he gaue falsehoode and her fortherers this marke for euer that conuey they neuer so cleane or close yet their vnseemely workes should euer detect their fained faith But all this notwithstanding if we deeply weye the whole course of thinges we shal finde that this counterfaiting of vertue and show of pietie is not the perpetuall intent of the deuils deuise but rather a needefull shift in forthering his practise there onely where faith and vertue be not vtterly extinguished then the full ende of any one of all his endeuoures For this may we assuredly finde to be the scope pricke of al his cursed trauel to set sinne and her followers in such freedome that they neade not as often els for their protection the cloke of vertue nor habite of honestie but that they may boldly encounter with the good and godly and in open ostentation of their mischiefe ouer runne all trueth and religion VVherefore as he often cloketh subtell heresies in honest life and vertues weede so when he by likelihoodes conceyueth hope of better successe and forther aduentures he theÌ„ openeth a common schoole of sinne and wickednesse where mischiefe may with out colour or crafte be boldely mainteined This open schoole of iniquity and doctrine of sinne he once busely erected in the gentilitie by the infamous philosopher Epicurus and his adherents teaching to the singular offense of honestie pleasure and voluptuousnesse to be thonely ende of all our life and endeuours The which pleasaunt sect though it euer sence hath had some promotours yet the very shade of fained vertue and worldely wisedome of those dayes with ease bare downe that enterprise This broade practise was yet further attempted euen in Christes church first by Eunomius who doubted not in the face of the world to auouch that none could perish were his workes neuer so wicked that would be of his faith And then by Iouinianus who taught the contempt of Christian fastes matched mariage with holy maidenhood and afterward to the great wonder of all the Church perswaded certaine religious women in Rome to forsake their first faith mary to their damnation For which plaine supporting of vndoubted wickednesse S. Hierome calleth them often Christian Epicures boulsterers of sinne doctors of â—ust and lecherie Neuerthelesse the force of Gods grace which was great in the spring of our religion the sinne of the worlde not yet ripe for such open show of liceÌ„tious life speedely repressed that wicked attempt For as S. Augustine declareth it was so cleare a falshoode that it neuer grew to deceiue any one of all the Cleargy But not long after with much morâ— aduantage
without any further satisfaction he is to be receiued againe as appereth most manifestly in the receiuing of that Corinthian which was excommunicated of whose vnfeined repentaunce when the Apostle had intelligence he writeth againe to the Corinthians of him saying It is sufficient for that same man that he was rebuked of many but now you ought to forgeue him and comforte him that he should not be swallowed vp with ouer much heuines 2. Cor. 2. And as for the practise of the olde and puerer Church by enioyning of workes of repentaunce was that they might not be deceiued by conterfect repentaunce in stead of true and earnest reformation not to satisfie the wrath of God against sinners which is not satisfied but by the bloude of Christ but to satisfie and assure the Church as much as man might iudge of the vnfeined and hartie repentaunce of the offendour For how so euer the olde writers vse the worde of satisfaction somethinge vnproprely yet their cleare affirmation of the onely satisfaction of Christes death declareth what they vnderstoode when they vsed that terme in an other sense But this is not to be omitted that M. Allen confesseth the Papistes to haue left the olde vsage of the Church which was first to set satisfactiō and then to absolue and now of late to haue taken vp a contrary custome that is first to absolue then to enioyne penaunce This practise therefore lacketh antiquitie one of the chiefe pillers of Popery But this he sayeth is for great causes but what causes he doth not expresse it is sufficient that the Church can not erre though they doe that which is contrary to the vsage of the auncient Church without grounde of Scripture and against the commaundement of Christ. How harde Cyprian was to absolue them that were excommunicate before they had shewed great fruites of repentaunce and how carefull that the Church should not be deceiued by them that vpō counterfected penaūce required absolution appereth by many of his epistles in his Sermon De lapsis But because we shall haue a more proper place to speake of satisfaction in the next Chapter we will now follow M. Allen in this matter of excōmunicatiō 2 This punishment was euer by cutting of from the Christian societie and often ioyned with torment of body or sicknesse And sometimes with death As in the excommunication of Ananias and Zaphiras VVhich Christes vicar S. Peter to the great terrour euen of the faithfull grauely pronounced on them for retaining backe certaine Church goods which by promesse they had before dedicated vnto God the Apostles distributiō This kinde of punishment of sinnes was euer counted so terrible that we finde it called of the olde fathers damnation as one that most resembles the paines of the worlde to come of all other And if man coulde see with corporall eyes the miserie of the party so condemned in Gods church his hearte woulde brast and it woulde moue terrour of further damnation euen to the stubborne contemners of the Churches authoritie The which censure of Gods priestes though it was sometimes to the euerlasting woe of such offenders as neglected the benefite of that present paine yet commonly it was but chastisement and louing correction of our deare mother for their deliuerie from greater griefe in the life to come 2 He sayth that excōmunication was oftentimes ioyned with torment of bodie and sickenesse and sometimes with death Of torment and sickenesse he bringeth no proofe but of death in Ananias and Saphira But where findeth he that they were excommunicated I finde that they were punished with death for their hypocrisie and dissimulation but there is no worde nor halfe worde of their excommunication and whereas you saye it was for reteining backe of certaine Church goods S. Peter sayth it was for lying and tempting the holy Ghost And those Church goods were not for vaine ostentation of golden copes chalices or such like superstitious vanities but for the necessarie reliefe of the poore Againe I know in what sense you call S. Peter Christes vicar well if the Pope be in the same office Peter was why doth he not likewise punish those whome he taketh to be Church robbers if he lacke the power as I am sure he lacketh not the will then hath he not the authoritie Peter had And if Peter did this as Christes vicar then is not he Christes vicar that can not doe as Peter did 3 And for this cause as the example of all ages past may sufficiently proue were certeine times and ordinary termes of penaunce apointed for iust satisfaction for euery offense and by the holy Canons so limited that no sinne wittingly might be reserued to Gods heauy reuenge in the ende of our short dayes It were to long to reporte the rules and prescription of penaunce out of Nice Councell or Ancyre or out of S. Cyprian for their punishmēt that fell to Idolatry in the time of Decius and Diocletianus or out of Ambrose the notable excommunication of Theodosius the Emperour By all which and the like in the histories of the Ecclesiasticall affaires he that can not see what paine is due vnto sinne euen after the remission thereof I holde him both ignorant and malicious blinde 3 That certeine times and ordinary termes were appointed in which they that grieuousely offended shoulde shew their repentaunce the same was not for satisfaction for their sinnes but for certaine demonstration of their repētaunce which thing appereth euen by the same canons of the Councels which you alledge For when godly discipline beganne to decaie whereof Cyprian complaineth often in his epistles men that notoriously offended would sometime by thretning and terrors sometime by refusing the censure of that church by whome they were condemned sometime by flattering the constant Martyrs and so deceiuing them that they would become suters for them at whose request the Church many times was intreated would seeke to thrust them selues againe into the communion of the faithfull before they had shewed sufficient tokens of sorrow for so greuous faltes of which enormyties Cyprian much complaineth as one that was much trobled with thē as Lib. 1. Epist. 3. Lib. 3. Epist. 15. For remedy of which enormities and for auoiding of all subtill practises to restore discipline to the auncient seuerity decrees were made by the aunciēt Councels in which certaine times of triall were appointed for offenders to approue their repentaunce with regarde of the heynousnesse of their crymes but yet with such moderation that they might be receiued before the time appointed if they shewed sufficient fruites of repentaunce as appereth most plainely in the 11. Canon of the Nicone Councell where it is said Ab omnibus vero illud praecipuè obseruetur vt animus corum fructus poenitentiae attendatur c. Let this be chiefely considered of all that are excommunicated that there minde and fruictes of repentaunce be considered for they that with all feare continuall teares
doth recant The third article conteyneth 5. demandes 1 Shew me why our common knowen Church did not as well corrupt the text of the Testament as the true religion conteyned in the same THere may be diuers good reasons shewed why your Church commonly knowen to be the church of Antichrist did not as well corrupt the text of the Testament as the true religion conteined therein First because she coulde not the copies thereof being so many by the prouidence of God dispersed throughout the worlde Secondly because she thought it not so needefull hauing other meanes to worke her deuilish deuise For although she coulde not corrupt the scripture yet it made the lesse matter because she founde meanes to diminish and controll the authority therof by aduancing decrees of men Popes and Councells to be equall or of greater authoritie than the scripture Thirdly because she woulde be lesse in feare to be reproued by the scripture she prouided that the knowledge thereof shoulde be hidden from the vnlearned people by a strange tongue and from the learned by the tedious mazes of questions deuised by her Canonistes and Sententiaries Fourthly because she submitted all interpretation of the scripture to her owne iudgement and therefore woulde not be controlled by the iudgement thereof but woulde alwayes expound it as it liked her best As appeareth by Ockam and Duns who though they confesse that transubstantiation seemeth to them contrary to the scripture and reason yet they beleued it because of the authoritie of the church and for none other cause These are the reasons why the Romish church did not as well corrupt the text of the Testamēt as the true Religion And yet how corrupt that Latine translation is which they woulde needes thrust vpō vs is sufficiently knowen to all learned men euen in such texts as are the most coulerable places for the defence of Popish doctrine I will geue one example for all They alleage the text 1. Cor. 10. Qui stat videat ne cadat He that standeth let him take heede he fall not against the certainetie of faith whereas the Greeke hath not he that standeth but he that thinketh he standeth let him take heede he fall not Thus the popish church cannot altogether excuse her selfe from corrupting of the text of the Testament whether it was of fraude or of ignorance or of negligence the Lorde knoweth 2 Shew me why she kept not so safely and faithfully the true sense of God his word as she preserued the word it selfe BEcause it was against her owne estimation and profit which are the chiefe endes for which popish Prelates mainteyne popish religion Take away the Popes prerogatiue which is contrary to the sense of God his word downe goe Cardinalls Legates Prothonotaries downe goeth all the Court of Rome take away workes of supererogation which are contrary to the Scripture downe goe Abbeys Priories and Chantries Take away the sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory which are contrary to the word of God downe goeth the estimation and gaynes of all the popish clergie And this is the cause why the popish church kept not so safely and faithfully the true sense of God his word as she preserued the word it selfe although she preserued not the word it self in such safetie as becommed the Church of Christ. 3 Shew me why we should beleue the Papistes as you terme them for the word it self and rather you Protestants thā them for the meaning of the word WE doe not chalenge credit to our selues in any poynt so presumptuously as the Papistes that men must beleue it because we affirme it But because we proue it to be true by the worde of god And therefore for the meaning of the word you should beleue vs rather than them because our groundes proues are better then theirs or else we require not to be beleued better than they 4 Shew me why you beleued our Church telling you this to be God his booke will not credit her auouching this to be the true and vndoubted sense of the same booke IF we had no better ground to perswade vs of the authoritie of God his booke than the testimony of your Church you may be sure we would not beleue it But because we haue most stedfast assurance of God his spirite for the authority of that booke with the testimony of the true Church in all ages If you say it is God his booke we beleue you not because you say so but because we know it to be true But if you bring out a false sense we beleue you not because we know it to be false are able to proue by the word of God that it is contrary to the meaning of the holy Ghost To be plaine with you we geue as much credit to your Church as to the deuill When the deuill sayth it is written He shall giue his angells charge ouer thee and with their handes they shall hold thee vp that thou dash not thy foote against a stone We beleue that this is the worde of god But when he auoucheth this to be the meaning of it that we may cast downe our selues from a Church steeple without daunger we doe not beleue him because we know this sense is contrary to an other Scripture which sayth Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. So when you say these wordes are the Scripture of God This is my body We beleue it because we knowe it to be true But when you say this is the meaning of these wordes This bread is turned into my naturall bodye we beleue you not because it is contrary to all places of Scripture which proue the trueth of Christ his humanitie or naturall body Thus I shewe you why we beleue you if you say the Scripture is God his word namely because we know it to be true why we beleue you not saying this is the meaning of it that is because we knowe by the word of God that it is false 5 Last of all Shew me why you beleued the olde known church affirming this to be the word of God and will not beleue her affirming Luther to be an heretike shew me good reason or Scripture for these thinges and I recant IF you meane by the olde Church the primitiue Church whose testimony of the word of God we allow beleue I deny that the primitiue Church did affirme Luther to be an heretike or the doctrine that he taught which we hold to be heresie but I am able to proue that the primitiue Church from which you haue receiued the Scripture affirmeth your doctrine to be heresie your Church the Church of Antichrist But if by the old knowne Church you meane the Church of old knowne to be the Church of Antichrist which is the popish church we beleue the deuill if he speake the trueth and we beleue not an Angell comming from heauen if he bring any other Gospel than S. Paule deliuered to the Galathians Therefore when your
church affirmeth Luther to be an heretike seeing we know that Luther did not obstinately and malitiously erre in any article of faith concerning the substance of religion we doe not beleue her and specially because she is a partiall witnesse against him whome God vsed to discouer so much of her wickednesse to her great hindrance there is no credit to be geuen vnto her when she goeth about to deface him by sclaunderous names and false accusations Thus I haue shewed these thinges that you require both by good reason and also by scripture Therefore if I may beleue you you recant The fourth article conteyneth 3. demandes 1 I demand what Church hath mightely gonne through borne downe and fully vanquished all heresies in times past aswell against the blessed Trinitie as other Articles of our religion I Aunswere the true Catholike Church hath alwayes resisted all false opinions contrary to the worde of God as her duty was and fought against them with the sworde of the spirite which is the worde of God and by the aide of God obteyned the victorie and triumphed ouer them So did Paule ouercome the Iewes Act. 18. So did the fathers of the primitiue Church from time to time confute heresies by the scriptures and declare in their writinges that by them they are to be confuted for examples sake of a great number I will alleage a few Hylarius writing of the blessed Trinitie against heretikes Lib. 4. sayeth Cessent itaque propriae hominum opiniones neque se vltrà Diuinam constitutionem humanae iudicia extendant Sequamur ergo aduersus irreligiosas impias de Deo institutiones ipsas illas diuinoruÌ„m dictorum authoritates vnumquodque eorum ipso de quo quaeritur auctore tractabimus Wherefore let opinions propre to men geue place and let not mens iudgements stretche them selues further than God his constitution Therefore against these vnreligious and vngodly opinions of God let vs follow the very authority of God his sayings and handle euery one of them by the aide of him about whome the question is Thus Hylarius woulde haue heresies against the Trinitie to be confuted not by mens iudgement but by God his word Basilius magnus very often testifieth that he woulde haue all good thinges proued by the scripture and all euill thinges confuted by the same In his moralles Dist. 26. Euery worde or deede must be confirmed by the testimonie of holy Scripture for the perswasion of good men and the confusion of wicked men And in his treatise of Faith we know that we must now and alwayes auoide euery voice or opinion that is differing from the doctrine of our Lorde And in his short definitions to the first interrogation whether it be lawefull or profitable for a man to permit vnto him selfe to do or say any thinge which he thinketh to be good without the testimonie of the holy Scripture he aunswereth forasmuch as our Sauiour Christ sayeth that the holy Ghost shall not speake of him selfe what madnes is it that any man shoulde presume to beleue any thing without the authoritie of God his worde By these and many other places it is manifest that Basilius woulde haue heresies and false opinions confuted by the holy Scriptures Chrysostome vpon Luke cap. 16. sayeth that the ignorance of the scriptures hath bred heresies and brought in corrupt life yea it hath turned all things vpsidown by which it appeareth by what meanes he would haue heresies kept away namely by knowledge of the scriptures It were to long to reherse all the places of S. Augustine by which his minde appeareth that he would haue the Church sought onely in the scriptures and heretikes confuted onely by the scriptures to whose onely authoritie in many places he professeth that he him selfe will be bounde as Epist. 19. ad Hieronymum Epist. 48. Vincentio Epist. 111. Fortunatiano Epist. 112. to Paulina contra Faustum lib. 11. cap. 5. Contra Cresconium Grammaticum lib. 2. cap. 31. 32. de Baptismo contra Donatistas lib. 2. cap. 2. De meritis remissione peccatorum contra Pelagianos lib. 3. cap. 7. De naturae gratia cap. 61. De gratia Christi contra Pelagium cap. 43. De nuptijs concupiscentia lib. 2. c. 29. In these places S. Augustine preferreth the authority of the Canonicall scripture before all writinges of Catholike Doctors of Byshops of Councells before all customes and traditions But that he would haue the true Church sought onely in the scriptures it is manifest by these places first in his 48. Epistle to Vincentius Nos autem ideo certi sumus neminem se a communione omnium gentium iustè separare potuisse quia non quis quam nostrum in iustitia sua sed in scripturis Diuines quaerit Ecclesiam speaking of the Donatistes he sayeth We are suer that no man could iustly separate him selfe from the communion of all Nations because none of vs seeketh the Church in his owne righteousnesse but in the holy Scriptures So if the Papistes woulde not presume of their owne righteousnesse but seeke the Church of Christ in the scriptures they would not separate them selues from the communion of Christes Church now by God his grace inlarged farther than the Popish church Also in his booke De vnitate Ecclesiae cap. 2. he hath these wordes Inter nos autem Donatistas quaestio est vbi sit Ecclesa Quid ergo facturi sumus in verbis nostris â—am quaesituri an in verbis capitis sui Domini nostri Iesu Christiâ— puto quod in illius potius verbis eam quaerere debemus qui veritas est optimè nouit corpus suum The question is betwene vs and the Donatistes where the Church shoulde be what shall we doe then shall we seeke her in our owne wordes or in the wordes of her heade our Lorde Iesus Christ I thinke we ought rather to seeke her in his words which is the Truth and best knoweth his owne body So the question is at this daye betwen the Papistes and vs where the church is let vs seeke in God his worde there we shall easily finde her To the same intent he speaketh in the third fiueth and sixtenth Chapters of the same treatise Furthermore that he woulde haue heretikes confuted onely by the scriptures he sheweth likewise in many places of his workes for writing against Maximinus the Arian lib. 3. cap. 14. a place commonly and often cited he sayeth but nowe neither must I preiudicially bring forthe the Councell of Nice nor then the Councell of Arimine for neither am I bounden to the authoritie of the one nor you of the other but let matter with matter cause with cause reason with reason contend by authoritie of the scriptures not proper to any but indâ—fferent witnesses to both partes If Augustine would not oppresse the Arrians by the authoritie of the Nicene Councell which was the first and the best generall Councell that euer was but only by the scriptures how much lesse woulde he
charge them with other authorities that the Papistes alleage beside the authoritie of holy scriptures And in his booke De Vniâ—ate Ecclesiae against the Donatistes the 16. chapter Sed vtril ipsi Ecclesiam teneant non nisi diuinarum scripturarum Canonicis libris oftendant quia nec nos c. But whether they holde the church or no let them shew none other wise but by the canonicall bookes of holy Scripture for we our selues doe not say that men ought to beleue vs that we are in the Church because we holde that Church which Optatus of Mileuitum or Ambrose of Millayn or innumerable other Byshops of our communion haue commended to vs or because it is set forth by the Councels of our felowe byshops or because so many myracles of hearing requests or healinges are don in the holy places which our fellowship doth frequent in the whole worlde so that the bodies of Martyrs which were hidden so many yeares which thinge if they will aske they may heare of many were reuealed vnto Ambrose and that at the same bodies one that had bene many yeares blinde very well knowen in the citie of Millayn receyued his eyes and eye sight either because this man dreamed or that man was rauished in the spirite and hearde a voice that he should not ioyne himselfe to Donatus or that he shoulde departe from the faction of Donatuâ— for when soeuer such thinges are don in the Catholike Church they are to be allowed because they are don in the Catholike church â–ª but the church it selfe is not therfore proued to be Catholike because these thinges are done in it By this Augustine declareth first that heretikes must be confuted onely by the scriptures and secondly that neither Councells succession of byshops vniuersality miracles visions dreames nor reuelations are the notes to trie the Catholike church but onely the scriptures Moreouer in his booke De Pastoribus cap. 14. Quaerit infirmus Ecclesiam c. A weake person seeketh the Church he wandreth and seeketh the church â–ª what sayest you The church is of Donatus side Enquire for the shepheards voice Reade me this out of some Prophet reade me this out of some Psalme rehearse me it out of the lawe rehearse it out of the Gospell rehearse it out of the Apostle out of them do I rehearse the Church dispersed ouer all the worlde And a litle after Tu accusas non Euangelium c. Thou accusest not the Gospell thou accusest not the Prophet not the Apostle of whome this voyce speaketh to me I beleue him other I beleue not But thou wilt bring forth decrees I will also bring forth decrees shoulde I beleue thine beleue thou mine likewise I beleue not thine neither do thou beleue mine then let mens writings be layd away and let Gods worde sounde betwen vs bring me one place of scripture for Donatus side c. These places maye sufficiently declare by what meanes this doctor thought the Church shoulde ouerthrowe heresies namely by the worde of God onely which thing also Leo the first byshop of Rome in his Epist. 10. ad Fabianum contra Eutychen plainely confesseth saying Sed in hanc insipientiam cadunt qui cum ad cognoscendam veritatem c. But those men fal into this foly which when they are hindred by any doubt to knowe the trueth haue not recourse to the voyces of the Prophets not to the writings of the Apostles not to the authoritie of the Gospell but to them selues And therefore they become maisters of error because they haue not bene schollers of trueth Of the same iudgement was the whole Councell of Constantinople the sixt as appeare Actione 18. Si igitur omnes simpliciter c. Therefore if all men from the beginning woulde haue simply and without subtiltie taken vpon them the preaching of the Gospell and haue bene content with the constitutions of the Apostles suerly matters shoulde haue bene well and in good case neither shoulde painefull contention haue bene exercised against the authors of heresies nor against the fauorers of priests Here the Councell confesseth that the heretikes and schismatikes grow so fast because they were not beaten downe by preaching of the Gospell and authority of the scriptures Thus I haue declared by example and authority of these Fathers that the true Church of Christ hath conuicted all heretikes onely by the scripture 2 And what Church it was that hath alwayes stande still and stedfast whilest all other Congregations as well of Arrians as Anabaptistes Aerians Nouatians Vigilantians Iouinians and the rest haue decaied THe true Church of Christ hath alwayes stoode stedfast and vnseparable from Christ her heade when all heretikes haue bene and shal be confounded But the true Church hath not alwaies florished in wordly peace and tranquilitie for vntill the tyme of Constantine the great which was Anno Dom. 339. the Church had small rest from cruell persecution in most places and soone after againe vnder the Emperors Constantius Constans and Valens it was greatly infected with the heresie of Arius what time also Tiberius Bishop of Rome was infected with the same heresie After that when Iulianus the Apostata was Emperor the temples of Idolls were opened and gentilitie againe restored so that the Church suffered great detriment To be short when the barbarous Goathes Vandales Alanes and other Idolatrous or heretical nations destroyed the Empire the Church of God suffered a great Ecclipse But when Mahomet in the East Antichrist the Pope in the West seduced the world with most detestable heresie then was fulfilled that which was reuealed to S. Iohn in the 12. of the Apocalyps the woman clothed with the Sonne which you your self confesse to be the Church was so persecuted by the Dragon that she fled into the wildernes there to remaine a long season Where she hath not decayed but ben always preserued vntil God should reueale Antichrist and bring her againe into open light which his holy name be praysed is now brought to passe in our dayes to our inestimable comfort and his euerlasting glory 3 And if it can be proued that either the Protestants Church or any other Church but ours hath mightely ouerthrowne these foresayd sectes and other of all sortes I recant IT hath bene already proued sufficiently that the true Catholike Church which is ledde onely by the worde of God as a most infallible rule hath ouerthrowne heresies of all sortes But the popish church which refuseth the only weapon by which heresies are cut downe to be sufficient for that purpose neuer was nor shall be strong enough to encounter with heretikes therefore she practiseth to vanquish those whom she counteth for heretikes not by authoritie of the Scriptures but by fire and sworde and cruell warre as appeareth by her dealing with the Waldenses Albigenses Bohemians and in our dayes with the true Christians But where her power of fire and sword could not preuayle there hath she not ouerthrowne such as she condemneth for
heretikes namely the Grecians church all other churches of Asia and Aphrica which vnto this day will not acknowledge her doctrine to be Catholike nor her authoritie to be lawefull Wherefore seeing the Popish church neither hath confuted those that are heretikes in deed nor subdued those whom she counteth to be heretikes if you be a good as your worde you recant The fiueth article conteyneth 3. demandes 1 Againe what Church is that which hath exercised by Christes appointement Discipline vpon offendors in all degrees ONely the Church of Christ by Christes appointement hath exercised true discipline vpon offendors Although by meanes of persecution she could not alwayes practise the same as she would 2 And for that purpose hath continually executed lawes and Canons Ecclesiasticall with Excommunication Degradation suspension and such like THe Church of Christ only hath had lawful authority to exercise discipline but as it is said before she hath not continually practised the same because she could not being hindered by persecution and dispersion Concerning excommunication she hath practised it according to the word of God and against such offendors as the scripture iudgeth worthy of that seuere punishment As for degradation and suspension it may be doubted what you meane by them If you vnderstand by degradation that such persons as the Church hath tried vnmeet either for doctrine or manners to execute the office of preaching and ministring the sacraments she hath displaced and reiected from that charge she hath also practised drgradation And if you meane by suspension that when the accusation of a mans doctrine or life was vncerteine that she hath willed him to cease from executing his office vntill his cause were tried either good or euill she hath also vsed suspension but if by degradation and suspension you meane those foolish and wicked ceremonies which the popish church now vseth and so termeth I deny that euer the true Church of Christ had to do with such degradations and suspensions 3 Proue me this geere to procede from Protestants or from any other Church than the Catholike and I recant IT is proued before that true discipline belongeth to the true Church wherof we are a part which Church is sufficiently proued to be the spouse of Christ because she is ruled in all thinges by his onely voice And therefore all congregations of heretikes which departe from the true worde of God though they take vpon them to exercise discipline by excommunication or otherwise it is not to be regarded and lest of all the Popish church where remaineth nothing of discipline and excommunication but the very names for what call you popish discipline is not that it which they vse in Lent whisking men on the heades and women on the handes with white roddes which they them selues call discipline Or is it the seuere punishment that they vse against offendors by excommunication suspension interdighting c. First it is manifest they haue no excommunication by Christes appointment for neither it is executed by the persons appointed by Gods worde nor against such offendors only as God his word appointeth for wheras our Sauiour Christ appointeth the order of that discipline to the Congregation of such as are wise godly and carefull of mens health which first shal labor by fatherly admonition and wholesome exhortation to bring the offendors to repentance whome if they refuse to heare they are to be reputed for hethens and publicanes the Pope contrariwise referreth the same to profane and vnreligious officers which are more desirous to gaine the fees of absolution than by bringing the party to repentance to saue him from excommunication Moreouer whereas by Gods worde excommunication is the last and most greuous punishment that the Church can enioyne against any of whom there is any hope of saluation and therefore ought not to be practised but for haynous offences the Popish church maketh it serue for euery trifling matter yea for pettie debts and all then commeth in interdightings suspensions of places as churches and townes yea whole realmes for one mans faulte what likelinesse hath this vnto the discipline of Christes church set forth in the scriptures and practised by the fathers with what face can you Papistes affirme they haue discipline in their Church whē all penaunces for most horrible offences may be bought out for money and an open market thereof set vp at Rome with the prices rated what men must pay for euery thing that they buye as absolution for him that hath killed his father or mother brother sister or wife Turones 4. Ducat 1. Ca. line 5.8 For an heretike before he haue abiured 36. Turones and 9. ducates For a witche 6. Turones 2. ducates For a priest that is a Sodomite or hath lyen with brute beastes 36. Turones 9. ducates For a nonne that hath bene a common whore both within and without her Abby with dispensation that she may be able to receiue any dignitie in her order yea to be Abbesse 36. Turones 9. ducates And so for all other offences with dispensations inhibitions rehabilities licences relaxations commutations confirmation perinde Valeres Marcamas and the deuill and all for money wherefore except you be to impudent to acknowledge this to be Christian discipline be as good as your promise and recant The sixth article conteyneth 3. demandes 1 Againe from what Church did all the solemne ceremonies and obseruations all festiuall dayes all fastes all distinctions and varieties of seruice by diuersities of seasons and times of the yeare proceede FIrst you must vnderstande that we detest and abhorre all your beggarly ceremonies which you counte holy and solemne obseruations for we know that God is not to be worshipped with such thinges but that the true worshippers must worship him in spirit veritie Iohn 4. And seeing we know God or rather are knowen of him we will not regarde the weake and beggarly elementes because they are destitute of God his worde which onely i◠able to geue them strength and estimation as for your festiuities in the honour of creatures we doe likewise abhorre them ▪ we honour the Sainctes as S. Augustine sayeth for imitation but we do not worship them for Religion De vera Religione cap. 55. Where he also saith Quare honoramus eos charitate non seruitute We honor them with loue and not with seruice And as he doth often affirme that it is Idolatry to builde churches in the honour of Sainctes so is it as great Idolatry to institute festiuall dayes in the fauour of the same Sainctes As for the festiuall dayes that were vsed in the primitiue Church although they might haue bene omitted without any hurt of Christian Religion yet were they not kept in the honour of creatures as they are of the Papistes but only for the memorie of the Martyrs and other Saincts that their good life might be followed Your fastes are also abhominable for they are nothing else but abstinence from meates created of God to be receiued with
thankesgeuing which S. Paule affirmeth to be the doctrine of Diuells 1. Tim. 4. Also your distinctions and varieties of seruice because they consiste most of blasphemous prayers to dead Sainctes and sometimes to damned spirites with foolish lessons responses versicles c. Lewde lies and vncertaine tales which you reade and sing as God his seruice they are all abhominable In vaine do they worship me saith our Sauiour Christ teaching for doctrine the preceptes of men Math. 15. Also it was decreed in the Councell of Laodicea the 59. chapter that nothing should be song or reade in the Church but the Canonicall bookes of holy Scripture wherefore if you demande whence your ceremonies festiuall dayes fastes and varieties of seruice did proceede I aunswere plainely out of the bottomles pit of hell 2 From whence did all thinges yet indifferently for most part obserued and allowed on both sides from whence did they proceede IF you had vttered what thinges you meane that are so indifferently allowed on both sides we might better haue aunswered but seeing you haue not we must coniecture what you meane if you meane any thinge that is allowed without controuersie on both sides it did either proceede from the scripture of God or from the primitiue Church or else it a thing meerely indifferent but if it haue no grounde in holy Scripture nor example of the primitiue Church nor iudged meerely indifferent it not indifferently obserued for the most parte nor yet allowed on both sides 2 And if it can be proued that the Protestants Congregation or any other Church but ours hath instituted and ordered all these or any of these for the comelinesse and honour of God his house I recant I Haue aunswered before that the Protestants Congregation geueth you leaue to bragge that you are the inuentors of all these Idolatrous superstitions false worshipping of God and yet because you offer so liberally to recant if it can be proued that any Church but yours hath instituted and ordered all these thinges you shall heare what can be saide First your great doctor Durande plainely affirmeth that many of your ceremonies and solemnities had not their first institution of your church but were taken of the Iewes or Gentiles And it may easily be proued that many of your ceremonies were instituted of heretikes as your holy water which you say you vse to put men in minde of their baptisme was deriued of the heretikes called Hemerobaptistae which were baptized euery daye Epiphan lib. 1. Tom. 1. cap. 17. Of the Ossenes you tooke the great estimation of water salt oyle breade c. and vse to sweare by them as they did Epiph. contra Ossenes 19. Of the same heretikes you receiued the superstition of reliques for they vsed to take the spittle and other filth from the bodies of Marthys and Marthana which were of the seede of Elxai that is great Sainctes with them and vsed them to cure diseases as Erasmus witnesseth at Canterbury were kept the clowtes that Thomas Becket did occupy to wipe of his sweate and to blow his nose on which were kissed as holy reliques and thought also to be holsom for sicke folkes of the same heretikes you learned to commande the people to pray in an vnknowene tongue as Elxai the great Pope of those heretikes sayde Nemo quaerat interpretationem sed solum in oratione haec dicat Let no man seeke the interpretation but onely saye these wordes in his prayer Which wordes were in a strange tong either the Hebrue or the Arabike Epiphan lib. 1. Tom. 1. haeres 19. Likewise the Marcosians when they baptized vsed to speake certaine Hebrue wordes that the ignorant people might maruell the more at them as you doe in Baptisme Ephata c. Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 3. haer 34. To make the Images of Christ and of the Apostles and to sense them you learned of the heretikes called Gnostici and Carpocratiâ—ae Epip lib. 1. Tom. 2. in the preface Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 2. haer 27. and Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 23. Of the Valentinians you learned to haue in price the signe of the crosse and to abuse the places of scripture for the same superstitious vse as God forbidde that I shoulde reioice but in the crosse of Christ c. Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 1. Epiphan lib. 1. Tom. 2. haeres 31. Of the Heracleonites you learned to annoynte men at the point of death with oyle and balme and to cast water vpon dead men with inuocations Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 3. haeres 36. Of the Cayanes you learned to call vpon Angels Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 3. haeres 38. Of the Marcionistes you learned to giue women leaue to baptize Ep. lib. 1. Tom. Haer. 42. George Bishop of Alexandria inuented beares to carry deade corpses charging all men to vse them for his owne aduantage as doe you Papistes your bearing clothes other toyes for funerall pompes Ep. lib. 3. Tom. 1. Haer. 76. Of the Colliridianes you learned to make images of the virgine Marie worship them her with offering of candells c. as they did of cakes c. Ep. lib. 3. Haer. 79. Of the Messalians or Martirians you learned to shaue your beardes and to let your lockes grow long Ep. lib. 3. Haer. 80. Of the Pharizees you receaued your superstitious masking garments which you call amictus dalmaticus and pallia as witnesseth Epiphanius in his epistle to Acacius and Paulus Last of all what say you to the ceremonies festiuities fastes and solemnities vsed in the Greeke Church and in the other Oriental Churches if they be sufficient to make their church Catholâ—ke why doe you count them heretikes and Schismatikes if they be not sufficient why doe you reason of the instiâ—ution of the like to proue your Church Catholike You see that proued which you desired play the honest man therfore and recant The 7. article conteineth 3. demaundes 1 Further I aske them what Church that is which hath brought forth out of her wombe so many noble personages of Martyrs Confessors Doctors Virgines and holy Sainctes of all sortes all which both they and we doe outwardly professe by the continuance of the Callendare which yet is vsed euery where to be Sainctes in heauen FVrther I aunswere you that all true Sainctes whether they were Patriarches Prophets Apostles EuaÌ„gelistes Martyrs Confessors Doctors Scholars Virgins wiues widowes married or vnmarried are all children of that Church in whose fellowship we reioyce to be and are our deare brethren and sistern begotten in Iesu Christ by the gospell and we all hold of one head Iesus Christ as members of his mysticall body We all beleue to be receaued into that glory that they are by the onely meane that they were that is by the mercie of God in Christ Iesus But as for the continuance of the Callendar we haue litle respect vnto it yea no regard at all to vse it either as a recorde or as a register of those whom we acknowledge to
be Sainctes in heauen Let the Prince make you aunswere for the continuance of such callēders for we haue not to do with them Neuerthelesse because you speake of a Callendar that is vsed euery where you declare that you haue small experience in Callendars for euery cuntry hath them diuers in most dayes except holy dayes and in some cuntry Callendars such dayes are festiuall to those Saincts that haue not their names in Callendars of other cuntries yea it may be doubted whether they haue their names in the booke of life If you sawe a Bohemians Callendar perhaps if you shoulde see Iohn Hus and Ierom of Prage which your church condemned for heretikes and haue as solemne feastes in the Callender as Peter and Paule wherefore we acknowledge those to be Sainctes in deede not whose names are continued in the Callendars of men but are written in the booke of life of the Lambe that was slaine from the beginning of the worlde Apoc. 13. 2 And if it can be proued by any man of the Protestancy that these were either of the Protestants Congregation or beleefe when they were aliue IT is sufficiently proued against you of the Papistrie that all they whome we acknowledge to be Sainctes in heauen are members of the same mysticall bodie of Christ that we are and hold the onely foundation that we hold which is Iesus Christ and although some of them builded straw and stubble vpon the same foundation yet the Lorde hath not imputed it vnto them But wheras the Patriarches Prophetes and Apostles were cheefe lightes and pillers of the church of Christ the daye is yet to come and euer shal be that all you of the Papistrie shal be able to charge vs with one pointe of our faith contrary to the doctrine of the Patriarches Prophetes and Apostles 3 Or canonized and allowed for Sainctes by the Protestantes Church when they were deade or by any other Church then I recant OVr Church doth take all them that shew the fruicts of a liuely faith to be Sainctes while they be aliue as well as after their death and we say with Dauid All my delight is in the Sainctes that are in the earth Psal. 16. and with S. Paule VVe labour to comprehend with all Sainctes what is the length breadth depth and heigth and to know the loue of christ Ephes. 3. Finally the scripture teacheth vs to call all them that are sanctified in the bloude of Christ and called to the felowship of the Gospell holy and Sainctes of God. 1. Cor. 1. Ephes. 1. c. Wherefore your Popish church doth great iniury to the Sainctes of God first because she doth not so accompt them while they liue and secondly because she referreth the canonization of them only to the Pope who not for their holy life maketh them Sainctes but for the holy honger of golde as appeare by Pope Iuly 2. who woulde not canonize king Henry the sixt at the request of king Henry the seuenth vnder an vnreasonable summe of money If that summe of money had bene paide he shoulde haue bene a sainct though he had not deserued not for his vertue And because that summe of money was not paide he might not be canonized although his godlinesse neuer so much deserued Againe of what force your Canonization is to be esteemed we may learne by a fact of Pope Boniface the 8. who condemned digged vp and burned the bodie of Hermannus in Ferraria 30. yeares after his buriall who had bene worshipped for a sainct aboue 20. yeares before as witnesseth Platina and other Gregorie the seuenth canonized Pope Liberius which was an Arrian as S. Hieronym testifieth Moreouer if I shoulde likewise demande of you what Pope canonized Peter Paule and the rest of the Apostles yea most of the Martyrs of the primitiue Church you shall neuer be able to shew me either what Pope did it or that any Pope did it For seeing none may canonize but the Pope in your church and you can not proue that the Pope hath canonized the Apostles and cheefe Martyrs you can not proue that your church hath canonized the Apostles and principall Martyrs But it is manifest that your canonization is taken from the heathen Senate of Rome which chalenged authority to make Gods whome they them selues thought best And if I shoulde rippe vp the most parte of those Sainctes which haue bene canonically canonized by the Pope it were an easie matter to finde them heretikes traitors Necromancers Whoremongers and whores as you may reade in Bales Votaries aboundantly beleuing his reporte no farther than he alleageth his Author where you maye finde it Wherefore it were wisedome for you not to depend vpon the Pope his Canonization but vpon God his approbation and to recante The 8. article conteyneth 3. demandes 1 And because Christ as S Paule sayeth hath established in his Church some Apostles some Prechers some Teachers and Doctors euen vntill his comming againe I aske the Protestant what Church that is which is able to shew proue the continuance and vse of the saide functions euer sence Christes time by plaine accompt of orderly Succession I Aunswere the Papist that Christ hath geuen to his Church some Apostles some Prophetes some Euangelistes some Pastors and Teachers Ephes. 4. and 1. Cor. 12. And we are able to shew proue that we continue in that vnitie of faith and knowledge of the Sonne of God for which ende such offices were ordeyned But whereas you require that we should shew you the continuance of those functions by orderly succession from Christes his time vntill our dayes you declare how small skill you haue in vnderstanding the scriptures for the offices of Apostles Euangelistes and Prophetes were not appoincted to continue alwayes in the Church but for a time vntill the Gospell had taken roote in the worlde Moreouer whereas you requier an orderly succession according to persons or places you are neuer able to proue that any such thing was promised to the Church that we should shew you the performance thereof in our Church Otherwise we doubt not but God hath alway stirred vp some faithfull teachers that haue instructed his Church in the necessarie poinctes of Christian Religion Although the worlde and the church of Antichrist did not alwayes see them 2 And is able to name you by the histories of all ages the notable personnes of all the forsaide states in their gouernment and ministerie AGaine I answere you that you are not able to name me any text of scripture by which you can proue that al these offices must haue perpetual cōtinuance in the church of Christ nor yet that any of them should kepe an ordinarie succession of place or persons But contrariwise seeing it was prophecied that the church should flie into the wildernes that is be driuen out of the sight and knowledge of the wicked and be so narrowly persecuted of the Romish Antichrist for a longe season it were a token our church were not the true
church if we could name such notable persons as you speake of in all ages florishing in their gouernment and ministerie And it is a good argument that the Popish church is not the church of Christe because it was neuer hidden sence it first sprang vp in so much that you can name all the notable persons in all ages in their gouernment and ministerie and especially the succession of Popes you can reherse in order vpon your fingers in which beadroole neuerthelesse you must name many tyrants many traytors one whore many whoremongers many Sodomites many murtherers many poysenors many sorcerers and Necromancers and from Boniface the third all blasphemous heretikes and Antichristes But our church which hath not had so many registers chroniclers and remembrancers hath perhaps fewer but yet honester men to name we can name Peter Paule Mathew Iohn c. Marke Luke Timothe Agabus Epaphras c. Iustinus Irenaeus Cyprianus Athanasius Hylarius Ambrosius Augustinus c. Gyldas Bertramus Marsilius de Padua Ioan. de Ganduno Bruno Andagauensis VVickleue Iohn Hus Hierome of Prage c. With the first namely Apostles Euangelistes and Prophets we consent wholly in all pointes of doctrine with the rest in the cheefe and most substantiall articles of faith alwayes agreeing with any man so farre as he agreeth with the worde of God. 3 And if he can proue vnto me that their Church hath neuer lacked the same appointed officers or that any Church or Congregatiō but ours hath kept that charge thē I recant FOr some of those officers I haue twise aunswered before that they were not ordeined to continue alwaies with the church wherefore they are not to be exacted of vs but such officers as are necessary for the conseruation of God his people in the vnitie of faith and the knowledge of Christ our Church hath neuer lacked although in time of the great defection and Apostasie whereof S. Paule doth prophesie 2. Thess. 2. there were but few as there were but fewe members of Christ his Church notwithstanding that through iniurie of the time the remembraunce of all their names is not come vnto vs And although we could rehearse in order as many successions in our Church as the papistes boast of in theirs yet were that nothing to proue it to be the Church of Christ which must be tried onely by the Scriptures as S. Augustine sayth in his booke de vnitate Ecclesiae against the Donatistes cap. 16. Sed vtrum ipsi Ecclesiam teneant non nisi diuinarum Scripturarum canonicis libris ostendant quia nec nos propterea dicimus nobis credere oportere quod Ecclesia sumus quia ipsam quam tenemus commendauit Mileuitanus Optatus vel Mediolanensis Ambrosius vel alij innumerabiles nostrae communionis Episcopi c. But whether they holde the Church or no let them shew none otherwise but by the canonicall bookes of holy Scripture for we our selues doe not therefore say that men must beleeue vs that we are in the Church because we hold the same Churche which Optatus of Mileuitum hath commended or Ambrose of Millayn or innumerable Bishops of our communion Euen so we require at the Papistes handes that shewe them selues to holde the Church not by succession of Bishops or rehearsing of their names but onely by the Scriptures for although we did rehearse innumerable names of Bishops in orderly succession on our side we would not require men to beleue vs but onely because we proue the doctrine of our Church by the authoritie of the Scriptures But as for the popish church neyther hath nor euer had any of those officers which S. Paule speaketh of for Apostles Euangelistes and Prophets she can chalenge by no reason seing she refuseth to be tried by their doctrine vttered in their writings in steede of pastors teachers she hath wolues dūme dogges or false prophets which either teach not at all or else teach the doctrine of deuills the dreames of men And further I would desire none other place in all the Scripture to ouerthrow the popish Hierarchie which is the greatest glory of their Church then this place of Paule Ephes. 4. he speaketh of Apostles Euangelists Prophets Pastors and teachers But where are Popes Cardinalls popish archbishops Bishops Preestes Deacōs Subdeacons Exorcistes Cantors Acolyts Ostiares Monkes Friars Chanōs Nunnes c. Wherfore I cōclude that all these popish orders are no offices in the Church of christ And especially seeing the Apostle both in this place Eph. 4. and 1. Cor. 12. by these offices proueth the vnitie of minde he acknowledgeth no Pope as one supreme head in earth which might be very profitable as the Papists say to mainteine this vnity for if there had bene any such office appoynted of God S. Paule in no wise woulde haue omitted it especially when it made so notably for the confirmation of his purpose which was vnitie To conclude if it be sufficient or any thing worth to rehearse the names of them that haue orderly succeded in all ages in the bishops sees in an outwarde face of the Church the Greeke Church is able to name as many as the Latine Church and in as orderly succession Wherefore if you be as ready to performe as to promise you recant The nynth article may be deuided into nyne demaundes 1 And for the necessary vse and execution of the foresayd offices they must further be asked what Sacramentes the Protestants ministred for the space of a thousand yeares togither in which they confesse their congregations to haue bene neare or else wholy hidden THey ministred those Sacramentes which Christ did institute namely the Sacrament of baptisme and the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ at such times as the cruell tyrannie of you Papistes did not hinder them to come togither for such purposes 2 VVhat correction they kept and discipline for offenders THey did vse such discipline as was vsed in S. Cyprians time when persecution hindered not the free course of it As he doth often complaine in the places aboue rehearsed They did admonish secretly before witnesses and when persecution stayed them not they did also excommunicate 3 To whome they did preach their Fayth TO such as woulde geue them hearing as VVickleue to the Englishmen Iohn Hus to the Bohemians VValdo to the Frenchmen and so of the rest 4 How did they reproue heresies THey reproued heresies by the worde of God and patient sufferinge of your tyrannie the one you may reade in their workes that are yet extant of VVickleue Bertrame Hus c. The other in histories of your owne writers 5 VVhere did their principall Pastors sit in Iudgement I Might aske you where the Apostles did sit in iudgement and you are neuer able to shew me for I reade as one sayth that they stoode often to be Iudged but I neuer reade that they sat in iudgement vpon others And so I aunswere of the principall Pastors of our Church especially in time of persecution 6
Nouatians Socrates testifieth he could doe not good with them because they enuied his ambition saying that the bishoprike of Rome like as of Alexandria was long before growen beyonde the bondes of priesthood into foreine lordship Lib. 7. cap. 11. By these examples it is plaine that although the mysterie of iniquitie beganne to worke in Victor Cornelius Stephanus Anastasius Innocentius Zozimus Bonifacius and Caelestinus yet it was reproued by some godly men as Irenaeus Polycrates Dionysius Alexandrinus Cyprianus the Councell of Aphrica and Socrates the Historiographer 4 VVhether all nations sodenly and in one yeare were moued to the doctrine of the Papistes no one man of all their true Church neither preaching teaching writing nor attempting any thing against it or making mention of it WHen the scripture telleth vs that the mysterie of iniquitie preparing for the generall defection and reuelation of Antichrist wrought euen in S. Paules time 2. Thess. 2. it is foly to aske whether sodenly and in one yere all Religion was corrupted And yet all nations neuer consented to the doctrine of the Papistes for as it hath bene often saide the Greeke church and other Orientall churches hath neuer receiued the Popish religion in many cheefe pointes and especially in acknowledging the Popes authoritie what preaching teaching and writing hath bene against it is shewed before and shal be more declared hereafter 5 VVhether sodenly all bookes of seruice were altered NO forsoothe but by litle and litle in the Latine Church as for the Greeke Orientall Churches neuer receyued nor vsed your Latine seruice bookes 6 VVhether in a moment the Masse was saide in steede of other Apostolike Communion WHen Durande your owne doctor sheweth what Pope sewed on euery patche that belongeth to your Masse it were foly for vs to say it came in sodenly and impudencie in you to affirme that it came whole from the Apostles which was so long a framing in so many peeces 7 VVhether men beganne sodenly to praye for the soules departed FIrst it is manifest that men had no warraÌ„t out of God his worde to pray for the dead and it can not be proued for 200 yeares after Christ by any credible author that it was vsed in the Church wherefore it is certeine that it was first planted by the deuill as were other abuses And because it hath a pretence of Charitie deceyued simple men the sooner Yet did it not so preuaile in the primitiue Church that they durst define what profit the soules receyued thereby for Chrysostome in his 3. Homelie vpon the first Chapter of the Epist. to the Philippians sayeth Procuremus eis aliquid auxilij modici quidem attamen iuuemus eos Let vs procure them some helpe small helpe truely but yet let vs helpe them Likewise Augustine in the 9. booke and 13. Chapter of his confessions where he prayeth for his father and mother declareth how vncertaine he was of that matter one while he feareth the danger of euery soule that dieth in Adam An other while he beleueth that they neede not his prayer yet he desireth God to accept the same and moue other men to remember them in their prayers Thus it is necessary that they wander which leane vnto mens traditions without the worde of God. 8 Sodenly required the helpe of Sainctes in heauen WHether sodenly or by litle and litle men were brought to such superstition that they required helpe of Sainctes it maketh litle matter seeing it is contrary to the worde of God and the example of the primitiue Church for 200. yeares after christ Yet it is to be thought that it grew vp as other errors by litle and litle And S. Augustine in his booke De cura pro mortuis agenda wearieth him selfe and in the ende can define nothing in certeine how the Sainctes in heauen should heare the prayers of men on earth Such doubtfulnesse they fall into that leaue the word of God and leaue to traditions 9 Sodenly the tongue of common prayers altered FIrst the Greeke church other churches both in Asia Aethiopia neuer receiued the Latine tongue but to this day continue in their vulgare tongue The Westerne Church for the most parte all spake and vnderstoode Latine as the sea coast of Aphrica Italye Fraunce Spayne Britayne as for Germany was lately conuerted to the faith Then seeing they spake Latine and had their common prayer in Latine The tongue of their common prayer was not altered but their speach was altered from the tongue of their common prayer and this was not sodainely for it was more than twelue hundred yeares after Christ before it waâ— taken for a Catholike doctrine that common prayer should be vsed in latine S. Augustine preached in latine all the people vnderstoode him and that they might the better vnderstand him he doth vse such phrases and termes which were not pure latine but commonly vsed of the people as Ossum and Foenerare c. But soone after his time when the Gothes and Vandalles oueranne the Empire the latine tongue which before was not pure among the people began daily to be more corrupted and yet remained after a sort latine vntill the yeare of our Lorde 768. when Charles the great began to râ—igne in France and long after for within the time of his reigne which was 47. yeares a Councell was holden at Turon in France what yeare it is not certeyne but it is probable that in the latter ende of his empire in which it was decreed that euery bishop should haue certeine homilies Et easdem quisque apertè studeat transferre in rusticam Romanam linguam aut Theotiscam quo facilius cuncti possint intelligere quae dicuntur Turon 3. cap. 17. And that euery one studye to translate them plainly into the rusticall Romane tongue or into the Theotisce tongue that all men may more easily vnderstand what is sayd By this Canon it is euident that at this time the people vnderstood the Latine tongue though it were very rude and rustical And where the Canon prescribeth the same homilies to be translated either into the rude latine tongue or into the Theotisce tongue Although this word Theotisca seeme to be corrupted yet it is most certeine that they meant Dutch tongue for as much as Carolus magnus had a great part of Germanie vnder his dominion and the Germanes as neuer throughly subdued by the Romanes neuer throughly receiued the latine tongue Yet it is manifest that they vnderstoode their common prayer in the latine tongue though not perfectly because the Canon sayth Quo facilius c. That all men may more easely vnderstand signifying that they vnderstood the pure latine tongue though hardely and not perfectly About the yeare of our Lorde 813. the knowledge of the latine tongue beganne more and more to weare awaye from amongest the common people which when the bishops perceiued they decreed in the Councell of Magunce cap. 25. that euery Sondaye and holy daye there shoulde be a
or Protestants c. if any man therefore can proue vnto me that men which haue chosen to themselues to declare their diuersitie of faith from the common knowen Catholike church such newe names shoulde be of the Catholike church I recant I Aunswere that they which can not be content with the name of Christians but chose vnto them selues newe names after the calling of their secte maisters as Arrians Pelagians Franciscanes Dominicanes Benedictines Gilbertines Augustinians Scotistes Thomistes Albertistes c. are none of the Catholike church But the true Christians which desier most of all to be so called and compting it a most honorable name without chosing any other name be of the Catholike church although in reproch they be called of you Caluinistes and Lutherans As for the name of Protestants came first of them that made protestatiō against the decree of Spires in Germanie and from that time hath bene attributed to the professors of the Gospell which name they doe not so much delight in as you doe in the name of Papistes Therefore if nothing els do let you but the name ▪ there is no cause why you shoulde not recant The 19. article hath but one demande Againe if these which by the common calling and iudgement of Christian people be named and commonly taken for heretikes haue not in all ages proued them selues in the ende to be heretikes in deede notwithstanding their craking of Gods worde and therefore that the Protestants being so taken and called proue not so in deede I recant THose that by true Christians haue bene called and counted for heretikes haue proued so in deede and therefore the Papistes being called and counted heretikes of true Christians without doubt are heretikes in deede But it hath not bene alwayes true that they which of the people commonly called Christians were called and taken for heretikes proued so in deede For the true Christians of the Arrian people that were called Christian people were called and taken for heretikes and in reproch were called Homousians and Athanasians yet they proued and were in deede true Christians and no heretikes So the true Christians at this day being of the Papistes which after a sorte are named Christians called heretikes and in reproch Protestants and Caluinistes in that their faith agreeth with the worde of God proue them selues in deede to be true Christians no heretikes Therefore you haue bound your selfe to recant The 20. article hath 3. demandes 1 Likewise if any man can proue vnto me that either those be not true Christians which by the consent of nations and by olde prescription of so manye yeares as be sith their conuersion be and euer hath bene called Catholikes YOu your selues will not accompt the Grecians for true Christians and yet by consent of nations and prescription of as many yeares as you can prescribe they be and euer haue bene called Catholikes if you say they are not called by you I aunswere no more are you so called by thē And sence the time that you departed from them as great a portion of the worlde and as many nations haue called them Catholikes as you are able to shewe on your side Therfore either you must compte them true Christians or els you must graunt that they which haue ben long called Catholikes are not alwayes true Christians 2 Or that those can be any true members or children of the Catholike church which do mislike and mistrust so farreforth these holy names as wel of Church as Catholike that they haue turned thē into Congregations and Gospellers and Protestants and such like HE is a foolish sophister that reasoneth from names to things as you doe most vainely and childishly we mislike the names of Church Catholike because we do sometimes vse these names Congregation and Gospellers or Protestantes and therefore be no true members of the Catholike church we neither mislike nor mistrust those names as you sclaunder vs neither doe we boast and trust onely in these names without the thinges them selues as you doe and as your forefathers the wicked Iewes crying the Temple of the Lorde the Temple of the Lorde the Temple of the Lorde when they had nothing lesse than the Temple of the Lord but rather a denne of theues So you crie the Catholike church the Catholike church the Catholike church when you haue nothing in deede but the synagoge of Sathan But because you make so much of these two names Church and Catholike let vs see what great mysteries are conteined in them This worde Church commeth of the Greeke worde Kyriaka in Latine Dominica in English the Lorde his house for so were they wonte in olde time to call their temples or oratories so that this worde church proprely signifieth a materiall temple and can not signifie the fellowship and communion of Christian people but by a figure Therefore if we other whiles vse this worde Congregation which can not denie but it is the English worde of this Greeke name Ecclesia that the Scripture vseth and signifieth without figure the same thing that this word Church doth by a figure you may be ashamed if you were not impudent to finde any fault with vs for so doinge Likewise this worde Catholike commeth of the Greeke worde and signifieth Vniuersall or ouer all which worde the common people doth not vnderstande Therefore we expounde it plainly and saye that the Catholike Church is the Congregation of Christ dispersed ouer all the worlde What reasonable man can reprehende this doinge and not rather your folly which thinke it inoughe if the people can prate like parates Catholike Catholike and vnderstande not what Catholike meaneth Thus as we doe not refuse these wordes Catholike and Church because they are commonly receiued so doe we interprete them by Vniuersall and Congregation because they are not else commonly vnderstanded 3 If therefore any thing can proue our true Church better than the honorable name of Catholike or more condemne them to be out of Christes church thā that not only the Christiā worlde geueth it not to them but they in a name do refuse the same them selues then do I recant HEre you bewraye your selfe euidently and acknowledge that we doe not sclaunder you when we say you boast onely of the Catholike church For you declare plainely that you haue no better argument then the very name of the Catholike Church to proue that you be the Catholike Church if this be the best argument all the rest is litle worth For if the onely name of an honest man is enough to proue an honest man many a knaue may proue him selfe an honest man and if the very name of learning make a learned man many an asse may proue him selfe to be a learned man or if the name of a good Christian proue a man to be a good Christian euery hypocrite may proue him selfe a good Christian. Likewise if you haue no greater argument that can more condemne vs then that we are not called the
obstinately defend the filthy whore of babylon against the cleare light of the Gospell the true spouse of Christ ye shall be damned except you recant The 23. article conteyneth 2. demandes 1 Againe shew me any Church or imagin if you can by good reason a church of Christ in which there is no gathering together for preaching no spirite of prophesying no rodde of correction no order of ministring nor any spirituall functioÌ„ that can be named proue me that there should be a true Church for a thousand yeares together and lacked all these thinges YOu would faine haue a great nombre of Articles and therefore you bring in one matter often times in diuers phrase of words that it might seeme a new matter when it hath bene vttered twise or thrise before as this Article is conteined before in the 5.8 and 9. Articles where you shall finde it more largely aunswered But let vs see what this strange demande requireth we must shew him a church or els imagine by good reason a church of Christ without preaching ministring and discipline for a thousand yeares together Although we will not graunt that it hath so longe continued without these exercises yet because you geue vs leaue to imagine we can imagine that it may as well continue without publike preaching ministring and discipline for a thousand yeares as it did for three hundred yeares before Constantine But you will say there was preaching ministring and correcting though it were not knowen to the tyrantes and persecutors so say I vnto you for that thousand yeres there was gathering together for preaching ministring and correcting though the Pope and his persecuting Prelates coulde not alwayes see it nor come to the knowledge of it for if they had once intelligence of it they smarted for it as is knowen by the stories of the Waldenses Bohemians c. Furthermore continuall exercise of preaching ministring of sacramentes and executing of discipline are notes of a quiet and peaceable Congregation not of a dispersed persecuted and disquieted Church How often doth S. Cyprian coÌ„plaine that the brethren could not be gathered togither for executing of discipline whereby it is certeyne that likewise they coulde not be gathered togither for other exercises Therefore the intermission of these exercises in a persecuted Church doth not proue the same to be no true Church But where so euer there be two or three gathered togither in the name of Christ there is he in the middest of them But whereas you require the spirite of prophesie except you meane the gift of interpreting the Scriptures the Church in the most quiet and flourishing state may want the spirite of shewing things to come as well as the giftes of tongues healing c. 2 And withall that there was an other vntrue Church which for those many dayes onely practised to the saluation of many all these offices and geue me a good reason why this Church that alwayes hath had these thinges should be a false Church and the other that wanted them to be a true Church and I recant WE vtterly denye that beside the true Church there was an vntrue church that practised those offices to the saluation of any man for once againe I tell you you haue neither the preaching of the word nor ministring of Sacraments nor execution of discipline according to the truth of God his institution but either altogither changed or else greatly corrupted And whereas you say that the popish church onely hath practised these offices I aske you againe whether the Greeke Church be a parte of your Church and whether the Papistes in England be a part of your Church The Grecians you will say are not but the English Papistes are Then haue I founde out by your owne iudgement the Church of the Grecians practising these offices being an vntrue church the church of the English Papistes not practising the same yet graunted of you to be a true Church Therfore you are bound to recant The 24. article conteyneth 10. demandes 1 Moreouer let any man shew how that Church can be the piller of truth which durst not for a thousand yeares clayme either preaching of Gods word or ministring of SacrameÌ„ts or shew her selfe against falshood or superstition AS the number of your articles doth draw to an ende so your matter is farre spent and therefore to make vppe your number you must repete one thing twise This demaund is conteined before in the 11. and 12. articles where also it is fully aunswered Notwithstanding seeing it commeth againe it shal be briefly aunswered in this place The Church is not called the piller of truth because it should stand alwayes in the sight of the world for then the defection which S. Paule speaketh of could not haue come neither should the Church flie into the wildernes as was declared to S. Iohn But it is called the piller of truth because that where so euer the Church is either visible or inuisible there is the truth So though the Church were hidde a certeyne time in the wildernes yet there was trueth with the Church You seeme to be a good Arithmetrician for no number soundeth in your mouth but a thousand Neuerthelesse how long so euer it was the piller of truth decayed not And as God gaue his spirite diuers times was bold to chalenge preaching and ministring of the Sacraments yea and so boldly that it cost many of the chalengers their liues As Berengarius Bruno Marsilus de Pandua Ioannes de Gaudano Ioannes VVickleffe VValdo Ioannes Hus Ieronymus de Praga c. Thus it is manifest that the Church hath diuers tymes chalenged her right and withstood falshood 2 Let any man shew that all giftes of the spirite and functions of the holy Ghost haue bene taken from her a thousand yeares togither and onely practised to the peoples vse by an aduouterous Church THere is no man can shew this for it is a false lye that all giftes of the spirite function of the holy Ghost were either taken from the true Church or giuen to the adulterous church And this hath bene shewed more then once or twise before 3 Let it be declared how the gates of hell haue not preuailed or Christes promise and warrant for her not bene voyd frustrate if a bastard Church exercising idolatry as they say hath spoyled the true Church of all holy actions and the whole gouernment and the whole name of Christianitie almost euer since Christes tyme. THe Deuill hath bent all his force and ordinance he hath armed all the power of darkenesse he stirred vp â—yrantes heretikes Popes Saracenes and Turkes to destroye the Church the dragon that olde serpent Satanas the Deuill stoode before the woman to deuoure her childe he persecuted her into the wildernesse he cast out of his mouthe a great riuer to cary her awaie he made warre with the rest of her seede that keepe the commaundementes of god Apoc. 12. but yet in despight of the deuill the
for as euery heretike chalengeth vnto him selfe the trueth of opinions so also doth he chalenge the possession of the church so that the church is alwayes in as great question as the doctrine And then is it to be sought out and tried onely by the scriptures as we haue declared at large in the aunswere to the 4. Article 2. demande Secondly whereas you demande whether she coulde be so hidde or close that no man coulde finde her because I haue aunswered to this demande fower or fiue times already I will now aunswere in one worde Although she was bidden and close from the worlde yet was she knowen to them that were her children 2 Or so harteles that she coulde succour no man nor instruct any man in his doubt of conscience or distresse of Faith proue me that there maye be such a decay of Gods spirite trueth and Church and I recant THe Church hath neuer bene afraide to do her office towardes her children and true members in teaching â—xhorting comforting confirming c. neither hath the spirite of God failed to leade her into all trueth and Christ hath bene with her euer more and shal be to the worldes end But that the spirite of God truth and the Church of Christ shoulde departe from the greatest numbre of the worlde is proued by S. Paule 2. Thess. 2. and by the Reuelation of S. Iohn Apoc. 12. Therfore if the spirite of trueth did leade you you shoulde recant The 26. article conteyneth in effect but 3. demandes 1 Shew me againe whether any man of yeares may be saued except he beleue the Catholike Church THere is no man of what age or yeares soeuer he be that can be saued except he be a member of the Catholike church But how necessary it is to beleue the Catholike church it is very doubtfull as you demande and as the conclusion of this article seemeth to require If you meane that it is necessary to beleue the Catholike church that is to say that God hath an holy vniuersall Congregation I graunt it is necessary to beleue But I vtterly deny that the Romish church is that holy Catholike church But if you meane as it seemeth and as the rest of the Papistes doe interprete that article I beleue the Catholike church that is I beleue what soeuer the church doth allow to be true I deny that it is necessary to saluation that a Christian man should so beleue the Catholike church both because the church may erre also because something may be commonly receiued of the church which is not materiall to saluation And that this is a false interpretation of this article of our Creede I beleue the Catholike church that is I beleue what so euer she doth set forth or maintaine to be true appeareth manifestly by the wordes them selues For who euer was so ignorant in the Latine tongue to thinke that Credere Ecclesiam and Credere Ecclesiae were all one in signification In deede if the wordes were Credo Ecclesiae Catholicae in the datiue case this interpretation might take place but when it is in the accusatiue case Credo Ecclesiam Catholicam A boy that woulde conster it otherwise than thus I beleue that there is a Catholike church were worthy to haue a doosen stripes for his labour Moreouer this common distinction of Credere in Deum that is to put our trust in god Credere Deum that is to beleue that there is a God and Credere Deo that is to geue credit to God that he speaketh the trueth plainely ouerthroweth this foolish and false interpretation For we say not Credo in Ecclesiam that is I put my whole trust in the Church for that were blasphemie against God in whome only we must beleue neither do we say Credo Ecclesiae that is I geue credit to the Church as though she shoulde alwaies speake the trueth But we saye and confesse against all heretikes and scismatikes Credo Ecclesiam c. that is I beleue that there is one Holy Catholike and Apostolike church whereof I am a member c. Finally when the articles following are spoken in one context and phrase it can not be chosen but that they must haue one kinde of interpretation Communionem Sanctorum Remissionem peccatorum Carnis resurrectionem that is I beleue the Communion of Sainctes the forgeuenesse of sinnes the Resurrection of the body c. whereof the interpretation must needes be this I beleue that there is a Communion of Sainctes that there is forgiuenesse of sinnes c. Euen so I beleue that there is a Catholike Church which is an article of our crede necessary to be beleued of euery Christian man but to beleue all and euery thing that the Catholike church by commoÌ„ consent doth maintaine is no article of our Faith and therefore not necessary to saluation 2 And that is it which hath in the face of all the worlde practised preachâ—ng the conuersion of nations to the obedience of the Gospell that hath alwaies had the ministring of sacraments the hearing of matters in controuersie power Iudiciarie in Ecclesiasticall causes the orderly succession of Byshops vniformitie in solemne ceremonies vnity in faith that hath in her selfe all holy functions of the spirite as working of miracles remission of sinnes the true sence and interpretation of Gods word that is bewtified by the diuersitie of states commended by Christ in the Gospell as with Virgines with Martyrs with Confessors and the rest BEcause these colewortes haue bene sodden twise or thryse already they are not worthy to be shewed in seuerall dishes but euen as they are here mingled all togither in an hochpotte Of these notes that you make proper to the Catholike Church as it hath bene declared before some are not alwaies necessary in the catholike church As open preaching in the face of the world open ministring of Sacraments and execution of discipline these are not to be required in a persecuted Church Some were proper for a time and then ceased as working of miracles and diuers other functions of the spirite Some are neuer necessary in the Church as succession of Bishops vniformitie in ceremonies c. But of all these notes there is not one that is proper to the Church of Rome for she hath not alwaies practised open preaching and neuer preached the worde of truth she hath conuerted but few nations to her Religion from Gentilitie and them rather by warre than by preaching she neuer had sence she first arose the ministring of sacraments according to Christ his institutioÌ„ she hath hard matters in controuersie not for furtherance of Iustice but for loue of money Her iudiciarie power may be dispensed withall for money She hath had no orderly succession of Bishops except an hore be an orderly Bishop of the Church of Rome And except so many schismes as they write of be orderly successions she hath not vniformitie in all ceremonies for diuerse nations and diuerse Churches in these nations haue diuers
church of Rome may falsely interprete the scripture which you woulde beare them in hande were impossible 3 Or induce any error among the people THe true and onely church of God is so guided by God his spirite and directâ—d by his worde that she can not induce any damnable error to continue Yet as it is declared before she hath no such priuilege graunted but that she may be deceiued in some thinges for her knowledge is vnperfect and her prophecying is vnperfect 1. Cor. 13. And it is true that S. Augustine sayeth euen the whole church is taught to saye Forgeue vs our trespasses And if generall Councells be the church represented as you Papistes doe teache S. Augustine plainely affirmeth that they may erre De Baptismo contra Donatistas lib. 2. cap. 2. Quis autem nesciat sanctam scripturam Canonicam tam veteris quam noui Testamenti c. And who knoweth not that the holy Canonicall scripture as well of the olde as of the newe Testament is conteined within her certeine boundes and that it is so preferred before all later writinges of byshops that of it no man may in any wise doubt or dispute whether it be true or whether it be right what so euer is knowen to be written therin and that the writings of bishops which haue bene written or are now in writinge maye be reprehended if they haue gonne astraie any thing from the trueth both by the saying that is perhaps more wise of any man that is more skilfull in that matter and by the more graue authoritie and wisedom of other better learned bishops and also by Councells and that euen those Councells which are gathered in euery region or prouince ought to geue place without all doubt to the authoritie of the generall Councells which are gathered out of all the Christian worlde and that euen the very generall Councells may often be amended the former by the later when as by any triall of thinges that is opened which before was shut and that is knowen which before was hidden without any swelling of wicked pride without any stubbernesse of arrogance without any contention of peuishe enuie with holy Humility with Catholike peace with Christian charity Thus farre S. Augustine which cleerely affirmeth that generall Councells may often erre which maye often be amended but that the authority of God his worde is to be preferred before the writinges of all Doctors and Decrees of all Councells and that it onely can not erre The Councell of Carthage the 3. ca. 23. determined that all prayers at the altar shoulde be directed onely to the Father and not to the Sonne or the holy Ghost whether this be an error to define that it is vnlawfull to pray to God the Sonne and God the holy Ghost let euery man iudge But you will except that this was a prouinciall Synode and not a generall Councell But I aunswere you it hath the authoritie of a generall Councell because it was confirmed in the sixt generall Councell holden at Constantinople in Trullo And as for the Popish church that it maye erre what neede we better proofe than the prayer which it maketh after the ending of euery generall Councell Precamur scilicet vt ignorantiae parcas errori indulgeas that is we praye truely that thou wouldest spare our ignorance pardoÌ„ our error And againe Et quia conscientia remordente tabescimus ne aut ignorantia nos traxerit in errorom aut praeceps forsitan voluntas impulerit a Iustitia declinare ob hoc te poscimus te rogamus vt si quid offensionis in hac Concilij celebritate attraximus condonare remissibile facere digneris that is And because we are greued with remorce of conscience lest either ignorance haue drawen vs into error or perhaps rash will hath driuen vs to decline from Iustice therefore we praye thee we beseech thee that if we haue drawen vnto vs any offence in the celebration of this Councell thou wouldest vouche safe to pardon and to make it remissible c. If it be impossible for the generall Councell to erre what neede they pray to God to pardon their error and when their owne conscience condemneth them and compelleth them to confesse and that before God that they may erre what impudence is it in any man to contend that they can not erre Furthermore the second Councell of Nice determined that Angels and soules of men had bodies were visible and circumscriptible and therefore might be painted and this it affirmeth to be the iudgement of the Catholike church Con. Nice 2. Actione 5. If this be not to induce an error to make men beleue that Angells and spirites haue bodies visible and circumscriptible there was neuer anye error sence the worlde beganne Finally when they say the Pope can not erre they acknowledge that such generall Councells as condemned Popes for heretikes did erre as the sixt generall Councell of Constantinople in Trullo which condemned and accursed Pope Honorius for an heretike Actione 13. Euen as Pope Leo the 2. did also as appeareth in his epistle to the Emperour Constantine Also the Councell of Constance did erre which condemned Pope Iohn the 23. for denying the immortality of the soule and the resurrection of the body Session 11. which Councell Pope Iohn him selfe affirmed to be most holy and that it coulde not erre Session 12. And the Councell of Basile did erre which deposed Pope Eugenius the 4. Session 34. the same Councell being confirmed by Pope Nicolas the 5. Session 43. If you say these two last Councells did not erre in condemning and deposing these Popes Then the great generall and OEcumenicall Councell of Ferraria and Florence did erre in disallowing the determination of these Councells Thus it is manifest that the Romish church which they them selues confesse to be represented in a generall Councell may erre which hath so often erred And if it may erre and be deceiued it selfe what man is he that neede to doubt Whether it maye induce any error among the people 4 Or approue any vnprofitable or hurtefull vsage among Christians IF the church had not approued many vnprofitable and hurtefull vsages among the people in S. Augustines time what neede had he to complaine that many of God his coÌ„maundemeÌ„ts were litle regarded mans presumptions so highely esteemed Sed hoc nimis doleo c. But herewithall I am to much greued that many thinges which in God his booke are most holsomly commanded are lesse regarded and all thinges are so full of so many presumptions that he is more greuousely reproued which in his vtas hath touched the earth with his bare foote that he that hath buried his minde in dronkennesse Therefore if it be an vnprofitable and hurtefull vsage to preferre mans traditions before God his commaundementes the Church in S. Augustines time approued an vnprofitable and hurtefull vsage Furthermore if the Church can not approue an vnprofitable or hurtefull vsage wherefore are so many ceremonies as
Marsilius of Padua preached in France when VValdo preached at Lyons and there about In England when VVickliffe taught in Bohemia when Iohn Hus and Ieronyme of Prage did florishe 2 Or that it might be called holy which neuer had Baptisme or other sacramentes to sanctifie any of her followers withall IT had the spirite of God to sanctifie the true members of it and it had sacramentes to testifie the same Also did not the Bohemians baptise Were not pauperes de Lugduno baptised c. But if you count their Baptisme no Baptisme why did you not rebaptize in Queene Maries time all those that were baptized by our Church in King Edwards time 3 Or that it should be one which as soone as it grew vp in the world was diuided into so many sundry sectes NOne of vs will graunt you that our Church began first to grow when it was last brought to light and knowledge of the world for it hath continued euen since christ But if there arose or were renewed many heresies with it that is no new matter but an olde practise of the deuill For as soone as the Church of Christ beganne to grow vp after his ascension euen in the Apostles time there were many sectes and heresies As the Iewes that mainteyned the lawe they that denyed the Resurrection among the Corinthians Hymenaeus and Philetus Simon Magus Cerinthus Ebion Marcion Basilides Valentinus Carpocrates c. So that there were many more heresies at the first preaching of the Gospell in and immediatly after the Apostles time then at the last restoring of the publike preaching therof vnto the worlde in our dayes And yet the Apostolike Church was one Church and so is ours at this day one and the same 4 Or that it might be called Apostolike which could neuer coūt by orderly succssion from any Apostle or Apostolike man. YOu are neuer able to answere the arguments that are brought to proue that Peter was neuer Bishoppe at Rome And then where is all your braggs of Apostolike sea and succession c. But be it that Peter was there except you proue succession of doctrine and faith as wel as succession of men your successiō is not worth a straw And our Church which holdeth all the doctrine of the Apostles and none other but the doctrine of the Apostles shall be truely called and founde the Apostolike Church when your with all her succession of Antichristes whore whoremongers heretikes Sodomites blasphemers coniurers c. shabe Apostaticall rather than Apostolicall 5 Or the secret base contemptible defaced and disordered Congregation was euer of that maiestie that it might require the obedience of all Nations HOw base and contemptible soeuer it be in the eyes of the wicked despisers of it yet did it not only require but also subdue all nations to the obedience of the Faith so many as were euer subdued in the dayes of the first Christian Emperors and before And sence when it was most defaced by the tyrannie of Antichrist it was of such maiestie that it both required and obteined the obedience of the realme of Bohemia and in processe of time hath obteined the obedience of almost all the nations of Europe If the churche of Rome reteine the like maiestie why doth it not now requier the like obedience of all nations both Christians and Turkes you will saye It requireth but it can not obteine Euen so I aunswere of our Church it hath alwayes bene worthy to requier but it hath not pleased God that it shoulde alwaies obteine 6 Or that it was euer able to gather generall Councels THe foure best generall Councells were gathered by our Church and the Emperors that were defenders of the same and not by the byshops of Rome Neither were they Presidentes in them as it is manifest that other men were Authors of the Canons or distinctions As of the Nicene Alexander Bishop of Constantinople of the Constantinopolitane Nectarius byshop of the Ephesine Cyrillus byshop of Alexandria of the Chalcedonense Anatolius of Constantinople c. and in other generall Councells where the bishop of Rome was president I aunswere as Iohn Patriarche of Antioche did in the Councell of Basile his presidence was Honoraria ad beneplacitum Concilij eis data non authoritatiua nisi ex concessione aut permissione habente vim concessionis aut ex tolerantia that is For honor sake graunted to them so long as it shoulde please the Councell and not of authority but either by graunt or permission being of the force of a graunt or els of sufferance And I conclude as he doth the Pope was neuer President either of honor or of authority but by the graunt or permission of the Councell And how is the Popish church able to gather general Councells at this daye who will come at her calling Except a few Spaniardes and a ioly company of buckram bishops of Italie generall Councells of all the worlde can neuer be gathered but either whē there is a Monarchie or els which is not to be looked for that all the Princes of the worlde will consent together 7 Or exercise Discipline BEcause this demande hath bene aunswered so often before I will saye the lesse nowe The free course of discipline in time of persecution may be hindred As it was in S. Cyprians time when the members of the Church be dispersed but the power of discipline hath alwayes remained and when occasion serued bene executed As the Bohemians excommunicated the Adamites and the ciuill Magistrates punished them by the sworde 8 Or that these names proper by scripture and Doctors of the true Church coulde be euer chalenged by any right to their saide Congregation AS many of these names as are proper to the Church by scripture or Doctors agreeing with scripture haue bene alwayes iustly chalenged of right to perteine to our Church and Congregation I meane these 1 Corpus Christi OVr Church doth rightly chalenge to be the body of Christ which acknowledgeth Christ to be her only head Sauiour Redeemer Priest King Intercessor c. The Popishe church can not chalenge this name because she doth not acknowledge Christ to be theese only and wholly 2 Sponsa Christi THe spouse of Christ heareth the voice of Christ and is ruled thereby so doth our Church therefore she is spouse of christ But the Romish church goeth a whoringe after her owne inuentions committeth grosse idolatry and will in no wise be ruled only by the voice of Christ there she is not the spouse of Christ. 3 Vencidilecta Christo. HOwe tenderly Christ loueth his Church the true members thereof which haue receiued the first frutes of his spirit do better vnderstand in hart thā can be expressed with words howe he abhorreth the whore of Babylon the Romishe Synagoge the Scripture doth plentifully declare 4 Columba speciosa OVr Church expressing the simplicitie of a fayer doue may iustly chalenge this name But the Babylonicall Strompet your church in crafte and subtilitie is more
like a foxe than a doue 5 Domus Dei. THe true Church in which we are is the house or familie of God which he gouerneth by his stewardes the sincere preachers of his word The popish church is the Synagoge of Satan where the preaching of God his word is despised and the word it selfe made subiect to mens determinations and authorities 6 Columna veritatis SAinct Paule by this title doth admonish Pastors and Preachers how great a burthen and charge they susteyne that the truth of the Gospell can not be continued in the world but by their ministerie in the church of God which is the piller and stay of truth this their duety true preachers considering are diligent in their calling to set forth the Gospell and to preach the truth But the popish church which is not the vpholder and mainteyner but the ouerthrower oppressor of the truth compelling it to giue place to falshood and error can by no equitie chalenge this name to be called the piller and stay of truth but rather of falshood and lyes 7 Ciuitas Dei. OVr Church is the citie of God builded vpon the foundations of the Patriarkes Prophets and Apostles Iesus Christ being the head corner stone ruled by the lawes of God onely reteyning that forme of regiment and common wealth that Christ him selfe hath prescribed The Church of Antichrist is founded vppon seuen hilles Apoc. 17. vpon the traditions dreames phantasies and deuises of men refuseth to be ruled onely by the lawes of God hath cleane altered and changed the forme of regiment prescribed by God set vp an other full of Antichristian pride crueltie and tyrannie Therefore in no wise may be called the citie of God But Babylon the mother of fornication Sodoma and Egypt where our Lord is daily crucified in his members 8 Ciuitas supra montem posita THis saying of our Sauiour Christ in the 5. of Mathew is not properly meant of the Church but of the Apostles their successors the ministers of the Church euen as these sayinges You are the salte of the earth you are the light of the worlde A citie builded vppon an hill can not be hidden neither is a candle lighted to be set vnder a bushell By which wordes he teacheth them aboue all other men to looke diligently to their life and conuersation for as they excell in place and dignitie so the eyes of all men are set vppon them As a citie builded vppon an hill must needes be seene of all them that come neare it so they being placed in so high an office and dignitie shall be noted and marked aboue all other men As a candle is not lighted but to be set on a candlesticke to giue light vnto all them that come into the house euen so a Minister and Preacher of God his word is not ordeyned for any other ende but that he should shine before men in true doctrine and good maners Hereby it appeareth how fondly some Papists would seeme to proue out of this place that the Church must alwayes be visible when the wordes are not applyed to the Church but to the ministers thereof I know some of the doctors expound this place otherwise but the context of the wordes doth plainely confute their error 9 Hortus conclusus AS a gardē or orchard walled in or inclosed with hedges is more estemed of the owner thē great broad fieldes and the trees and flowers that growe therein are preserued and kept more safely then such as are wilde and grow abroad right so the Church of Christ seuered from the rest of the world though it be small in compasse yet is it more estemed of him then all the world beside But the Church of Rome which will not be enclosed with the walls or hedges of God his word but wandreth at large after her owne inuentions can not be called the inclosed garden of Christ. 10 Fons signatus THe true Church of Christ is also compared to a spring or founteine which is shutte in or sealed vppe from the prophane waters of worldly vanities ministring the water of life to all the children of god But as for the popish church which ishueth out of the bottomles lake is a stincking puddle of all false doctrine and heresie whereof the whore beareth a cupp full Apoc. 17. out of which all nations haue dronk Apoc. 18. So farre is it that she should be a well sealed vp by Christ. 11 Sponsa Agni THe description of the Spouse of the Lambe set forth in S. Iohns Reuelation doth in all pointes most aptly agree vnto our holy Church and congregation But the popish church which is not content to be clothed in that white shining silke which is the Iustificatiō of Saincts made white in the blood of the Lambe but with the filthy ragges of mans righteousnes Esay 64. is no Spouse of Christ but the darling of the deuill 12 Mulier amicta Sole NO place in all the scripture doth more plainely set forth the estate of our Church than this 12. of the Apocalyps She is clothed with the sunne of righteousnesse Iesus Christ which is her bewtie She treadeth vnder her feete the Moone of mutabilitie changeablenesse and inconstancie she is crowned with 12. starres which is the doctrine of the 12. Apostles the worde of god She is alwaies fruitefull and persecuted by the deuill and his members but yet by Christ defended protected and prouided for in all daungers and aduersities But the church of Rome is that whore of Babylon clothed in purple and scarlet golde precious stones and perles described Apoc. 17. sitting vpon the beast with seuen heades which are the seuen hilles and is the great cytie that had dominion ouer the kinges of the earth 13 Habitatio fratrum in vnum ALthough this saying be not proper nor peculiar vnto the Church onely but common to euery societie and fellowship of men that continue in godly vnity yet doth it most aptly agree vnto our Church which holdeth one vnity of doctrine faith and religion of christ But the Popish church how so euer it bragge of vnity because their agreement is not in verity can not be that cohabitation of brethren which the Psalmist doth so highely commende 14 Mons Dei mons pinguis THe hill which Dauid so extolleth Psal. 68. is the mount Zyon which though it be small yet it excelleth the high and frutefull hill of Basan because God had chosen it to place his tabernacle therupon euen so the church of Christ though it surmount not ouer kingdomes in worldly dignities and commodities yet to such as Dauid was the litle hill of Zyon is more worth than all the seuen hilles of Rome 15 Sacra anchora IN all the Scripture the Church is not compared to an holy Anchore but in the sixt to the Hebrues Fayth in God his promises is compared vnto a sure stedfast Anchore of our soules vpon which Faith seeing our Church is builded we may truely say that in our
Church only is this sure anchore which the popish church doth so much despise that she counted it heresie for vs to flie vnto Fayth tanquam ad sacram anchoram that is As to our only sure refuge 16 Vinea Domini THe Vineyard of the Lorde is of his owne plantinge dressed tilled by such husbandmen as he hath placed in it which will yeelde him frute in time conuenient This agreeth aptly vnto our Church which alloweth no plant but such as is planted by our heauenly Father This Vineyarde caÌ„ not the popish church be compted which plucketh vppe the vines planted by God and in the steede of them setteth thornes and thistles after the deuises of men 17 Terra viuentium THe land of the lyuing in scripture signifieth this present life as I trusted to see the goodnesse of the Lorde in the lande of the lyuing that is Although I was neare death yet I beleued that God woulde preserue me in this life Psal. 27. And vnto Doeg he sayeth Psal. 52. God shall destroy thy roote out of the lande of the lyuing that is Out of this life Also Ezechias in his psalme Esay 38. I shall not see the Lorde euen the Lorde in the lande of the lyuing that is I shall no more praise God in his temple here in this life And when you shall bring forth a place of scripture where it is proprely applied vnto the church it shal be an easie matter to proue that we onely are the liuely members of Christ which abide in his body receuing all benefites of life from him which is our heade And easie it wil be to proue that you are the lande of the deade men which are strangers from the life of God Ephes. 4. which are aliue in this worlde and not deade vnto Christ. 18 Regina in vestitu de aurato circundata varietatibus ALthough this saying alleaged out of the 45. Psalme be figuratiuely ment of the church as it is literaly spoken of Pharaos doughter whom Solomon maried yet being alleaged not after the trueth of the Hebrue but after the error of the olde translation I will not interprete it contrarie to my conscience as S. Ieronym â—ayeth according to that corrupt version but according to the trueth of the text which is The Queene in a garment of golde of Ophir As for compassing with varieties it is not in the text By this figure the spirituall magnificence of the church of Christ gathered of the Gentiles is set forth vnto vs and therefore let not the Papistes dreame that material golde is the ornament of Christ his spouse but as it is before sayed of the whore of Babylon 19 Ecclesia magna 20 Populus grauis DAuid in the 35. Psalme promiseth that he will geue thankes vnto God after his deliuerance in a great companie and solemne assemblie of people such as was wont to come together at the holy meetings in the Sanctuarie This is the true and the simple meaning of this text And it were to violent an interpretation to inforce it to be a prophesie of the church of Christ although it be true that the church is a great congregation and a mighty people yet remembring therewith that in comparizon of all the worlde it is as Christ him selfe calleth it A litle Flocke 21 Archa Noe. IN the Arch of Noe as S. Peter testifieth 1. Pet. 3. but a fewe namely 8. soules were saued in the water euen as many as were obedient vnto the voice of God the whole worlde beside were drowned Wherefore how fewe soeuer we be As the Papistes say we are not many so long as we obey the voice of God we doubt not but we shal be saued in the Arch. And the Papistes with all their vniuersality and multitude despising the lawe of God shall perishe with the wicked worlde 22 Tabernaculum altissimi THe old Tabernaecle was a figure of the true Church and we know that none shall dwell therein but such as be described in the Psal. 15. Therefore let the Papistes bragge as long as they list of the Tabernacle of the highest yet shall they not dwell there neither shall they rest in his holy hill because they be not indued with such vertues springing of true and a liuely faith As in that Psalme be set forth 23 Ager area Dei. THe church is the feelde and flower of God in his feelde he soweth none but good seede the chaffe shal be purged from his flower The Papistes are some of these tares whome the enuious man hath sowed while men were a sleepe and the chaffe which after it be purged from the corne together with the tares shal be burned in the vnquencheable fire 24 Mater fidelium IErusalem that is from aboue is free which is the mother of vs all which embrace Iesus Christ as our onely Redemer from the bondage and curse of the lawe As for that steppe mother of Rome which bringeth men into captiuitie through ceremonies and traditions of men Begetteth vnto bondage as Agar did and is become the mother not of the faithfull but of abhominable fornication Apocalip 17. 25 Nutrix Christianorum THe church of Christ is the Nurse of ChristiaÌ„s which bringeth them vp and feedeth them first with milke and afterwarde with stronger meates according as they are able to receue it 1. Cor. 3. Heb. 6. But Rome which feedeth her babes with poyson of mans traditions in steede of the milke of God his word will rather see them famish than they shoulde taste of God his worde maye well be a nurse of Antichristians but neuer did good vnto Christians 26 Ecclesia orthodoxa TRue opinions are confirmed out of the worde of trueth wherefore our church which holdeth no doctrine but such as is tried by the worde of truth most truly may be called the true beleuing church Contrarywise the Popish church which so manifestly dissenteth from the worde of trueth that she dare not be iudged thereby but most blasphemously submitteth the same to her corrupt and false iudgement maye iustly be called a false beleeuing church 27 Vna Sancta Catholica 28 Apostolica THis hath bene often proued before And namely in the first second third and fourth demandes of this last Article 29 Vxor de latere Christi sicut Eua de latere Adam AS S. Augustine sayeth The church of Christ is taken out of his side as Eue was out of Adams side which so long as she obeyeth the voice of her â—usbande is not deceiued by the serpeÌ„t But if she be absent from him that she be not instructed by him she is deceiued by heretikes Augusti De Genes contra Manichaeos libro 2. cap. 24. 26. by which place of Augustine it is proued that the Church may erre if she be not ruled by the worde of God. 30 Domus Pacis THe church may be called the house of Peace because there is in it Peace and agreement in the cheefest Articles of the Faith or because in it is taught vs the
Peace and reconciliation wrought by Christ whereby we knowing that we are iustified by faith haue peace with god Rom. 5. But neither of these Peaces are in the church of Rome for there is dissention in doctrine and their doctrine dissenteth from the truth as for the peace of conscience is altogether vnknowen vnto Papistes euen as the iustification of Faith by which onely it is obteined 31 Domus Refugij THe house of Refuge or defence may also be applied to the Church out of which is no saluation And in whose bosome it becoÌ„meth euery man to rest which shall looke for the refuge and defence of god But God forbidde that any man should seeke for refuge or helpe at your church which must be ouerthrowen with such violence as a great mylstone that is cast into the Sea and shal be founde no more Apoc. 18. 32 Domus Veritatis AS our church is the piller and staie of trueth so is she also the house of Trueth which knoweth nothing but him that is the Trueth it selfe Iesus Christ and his most holy Scripture In which this trueth is signed and testified But your Synagoge is the house of lyes where beside mens doctrines and traditions which are nothing but lyes there be also leaden legendes of lyes Promptuaries of lyes Festiuals of lyes and other infinite bookes of lyes 33 Societas Sanctorum HOw shoulde not our Church be the societie and fellowship of Sainctes which is sanctified and purged by the bloode of Christ which hath receiued the spirite of sanctification by which we crie Abba Father which is guided and gouerned by the most sacred and holy worde of god And how can the Popish church be the fellowship of Sainctes when she refuseth the sanctification of Christ his one oblation and sacrifice as sufficient to make them perfect which scorneth at the spirite of sanctification which can abide any thing rather than to be directed onely by God his holy worde Finally which acknowledgeth no sainctes but such as the most vnholy Pope for money doth canonize and make sainctes Proue vnto me therefore that these excellent and propre callinges can agree to any disordered companie or Congregation or to any vnknowen society of men but onely to the true Church of Christ spred throughout the whole worlde by Christes his promise and by vertue of his spirit continued in truth and grace from falshood sence Christes time and I recant AS many of these excellent names as in the worde of God or the doctors agreeing with the worde of God are propre or perteyning to the true Church of Christ so many haue I proued to be propre and perteyning to our most holy and well ordered CongregatioÌ„ And moreouer that they can in no wise be rightly applied to that most abhominable Idolatrous and disordered Synagoge of Rome which is vtterly departed from the faith geuing heede to spirites of error and doctrines of deuills being so liuely painted forth and euen pointed forth by the scripture to be that Antichristian church whereof the holy Ghost prophesieth that no man except he will wilfully be blinde can be ignorant thereof so that if you be not starke blinde and geuen vp into a reprobate sence when you consider these thinges you will recant Let any man therefore aliue answer directly and plainly without colour or fraude of wordes and vnprofitable digressions to the foresayd or any of the foresayd demandes and I shall willingly leaue the knowne Church playne way of Saluation and wander in the woodes to seeke after them and their congregation IF you had not added this conclusion we might haue conceaued some hope that vpon further instruction in such matters as troubled your conscience you would haue ben contented to be reformed after God his worde and good counsell But now you declare that you are so obstinatly bent that what so euer be proued against you you will not receiue it as truth but yeld vnto it perforce As for me Although I know there are very many which with more learning and eloquence coulde haue aunswered your demandes yet being such as they are I submitte my selfe to the iudgement of all them that be learned and godly minded whether I haue not directly and plainely without colour or fraude of wordes without all digression aunswered the same so that I doubt not but as many as are tractable and stayed vpon these doubtes onely may be fully perswaded by these not very long and yet sufficient Answers THE ENDE 1 A DEFENSE AND DECLARATION OF THE CATHOLIKE Churches doctrine touching Purgatory and prayers for the soules departed By VVILLIAM ALLEN Maister of Arte and student in Diuinitie 1 AN OVERTHROW AND CONFVTATION OF THE POPISH Churches doctrine touching Purgatory and prayers for the deade By W. FVLKE Doctor in Diuinitie 2 Mortuo ne prohibeas gratiam Eccle. 7. Hinder not the departed of grace and fauour 2 Such liberalitie as by any meanes may extende vnto them in burying their bodies honoring there memorie helping there posteritie TO THE READER 3 A Friend of mine very studious of the truth and zelous of Gods house one that learned to beleue first and then sought to vnderstand afterward which I take to be the naturall order of a christian schoole where faith must in most matters direct reason and leade the way to vnderstanding asked of me as of one whome he hartely loued and knew to be studious in such matters by my trade of life vpon what groundes the Churches doctrine and the Christian peoples faith of Purgatory and prayers for the departed stoode I aunswered him then presently as I could and shortly after as his further request was in writing somewhat more at large The which my doing though it was both rude and short yet he so measured it either by loue as it commonly happeth or else by a singular facilitie whereby he misliketh nothing that is meant well that he made it common to many moe then I would my selfe For though I was well contented that the simple people or any other should take profite or pleasure by my paine yet â—onsidering the matter to be full of difficultie and to reaâ—h to Gods iudgements in the world to come I called to my minde the saying of Nebridius who as S. Augustine reporteth of him with whom he was very familiar being much studious and inquisitiue of the secret poâ—ntes of our faith would be excedingly offended to heare a man aske of a matter of importaunce a briefe declaration his saying was that he loued not a short answere to a long question VVhereby I was me thought in a maner admonished that my treatise though it satisfied my friend and displeased not other yet could not written both hastely and briefly serue so long and large a matter I did feare with all to enter in this my lacke of yeares iudgement and knowledge into the search of such secretes as I knâ—w by that light vowe that I made of the matter before the orderly proceeding in
opening of Gods spirite But omitting this matter as touched by the way with two other pages following as containing nothing materiall to be aunswered I will come to the third leafe and second face where you promise an orderly proceeding in the matter you take in hand Which order of yours if you had not professed your selfe to obserue men might haue taken your hochpot to be such as your matter would bring forth that the treaty of Purgatory should be like the troublesome state therof but when you are not content to haue your methode counted to be of the nature of your matter but you will needes make boast of an orderly proceeding in so disordered a cause you must not be offended if your confusion in steade of order be sometime discouered Howbeit the want of order were a small fault if the matter were pregnant and certaine But what assurance shall other men haue of your doctrine when you your selfe affirme and haue learned as you say out of Irenaeus that such doctrine and mysteries may not be safely had at such a mans hand as you are but onely of holy Priestes and Byshops which with the succession of their office haue receiued a sure and certaine gift of truth according to the pleasure of their father It is the duety not onely of a good teacher but euen of a good Christian to say with the Psalmist I haue beleued and therefore I haue spoken If you beleue not these matters why haue you vttered them â–ª â—f you beleue them then be bold to shew vs your grounds out of the word of god For other perswasion then â—uch as is grounded vppon the hearing of Gods worde will neuer of Christians be counted for true beliefe so long as the 10. chapter to the Romanes remaineth in the Canon of the Bible But I knowe your meaning you affect the prayse of humilitie and modestie For wauering and vncertaintie in faith among Papistes is counted modâ—stie but this modesty is soone forgotten and this boldnesse nowe vtterly refused in the next leafe â—ollowing is not onely resumed by your selfe but also enioyned to others Be bolde blush not you might say though you should for shame to charge any of our aduersaâ—â—es c. A sodaine chaunge he that euen now neither can nor must be bolde although he hâ—d many more giftes then he hath and studied much longer then he hath done to expounde the holy Scripture without daunger to him selfe and his hearers because he hath not the certaine gifte of truth with ordinary succession by and by is growne to such a full perswasion of truth expressely proued by argument and authoâ—itie that men must be bold vppon his warrant to charge all his aduersaries either to be helde thereby or else with no honesty to escape his handes A man would maruaile to beholde this speedy alteration if he did not vnderstand the true difference betwene the certaine faith of a Christian and the obstinate blindenesse of an hereticke For when he compareth his opinion with the authority of Gods word where vpon true faith is builded he will not he can not he must not be bolde to vnderstand the scriptures he wanteth that certaine gifte of truth but when he remembreth that he can not deceiue others nor retaine the glory of constancy him selfe by doubtfulnesse and vncertainty then he â—aunteth braggeth of the force of his feeble arguments and vnsufficient auâ—horitie But concerning the place of Irenaeus by him alleged I must admonish the reader that his meaning was not that euery one that succedeth in a Byshoppes seate hath as necessarily annexed to his see that certaine gifte of veritie wherby he may expound the Scripture without error as maister Allen perhaps woulde insinuate But that some in the first age of the Church as they succeded the holy Byshoppes and elders that were ordained by the Apostles in place and office so also it pleased God their father that they shoulde succede in the like gifts and namely in that excellent gifte of interpretation of the Scriptures which was but extraordinarie and for a season For if it had been an ordinarie thing that euery Byshop by succession shoulde receiue that gifte there shoulde neuer haue been any heretike Byshops as there haue been many and againe that prerogatiue which Maister Allen him selfe will affirme to be peculiar to the Byshop of Rome shoulde be made common to euery other blinde Byshop where so eâ—er he sat which were a great absurditie in popery it selfe And as for the gift of the interpretation of scriptures God gâ—ueth it still though not in such full measure nor coÌ„monly without ordinary meanes allowed in the Scripture as reading comparing praying neuer the lesse with as full persuasion in matters concerning Gods honour our saluation by his holy Spirite as euer he did bestowe the same in any age And as for the helpes of learning requisite for the same as knowledge of the tongues and rationall sciences there was neuer greater stoâ—e in the church of Christ son Christ his time ye if we shall iudge by the writings and stories of all ages vnlesse we will be as impudent as maister Allen we must say there was neuer so great store of learning in any age as Gods holy name be praised there is now in these our dayes in menne professing Christian religion with what conscience can maister Allen affirme that there was neuer lesse store of learning then in this age when euen in remembraunce of men that are aliue there was a great deale lesse store then is nowe but in their fathers and grandfathers time there was almost nothing but rudenesse and barbarousnesse euen with the same conscience that soone after he affirmeth that pleasure is euer ioyned to the Protestants doctrine which more preuaileth then the preachers perswasion If you had meant Master Allen that peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding which they tast of that by the Protestants doctrine haue learned that they are iustified by faith Phil. 4. Rom. 5. and to that perpetual ioy in the holy Ghost whereunto we are exhorted by the Apostle Phil. 4. wherein the kingdom of God consisteth Rom. 14. we willingly would haue consented that such pleasure is alwayes ioyned to the Protestants doctrine but seeing it is more like you speake of carnall pleasures I must say thus much to confound your blasphemous tongue and to dashe out your slaunderous writing let the worlde witnesse that heareth our doctrine and God iudge that seeth our hearts whether carnall pleasures be ioyned to our teaching which daily preach with all vehemency and earnestnes vnfained repentaunce mortification deniall of our selues bearing of the crosse hatred of this world amendment of life holines and righteousnes and that vnder paine of euerlasting damnation And whether pleasure more then the godly perswasion of the preachers preuaileth to winne professors of our doctrine if it be not so clearly seene in this Church of England by the meanes of the great peace
the like practise was assayed by Mahomet the deuills onely dearling by whome numbers of wiues togither often diuorcies and perpetuall change for nouelty was permitted By which doctrine of lust and libertie the floure of Christiandom alas for pity was caried away At which time though our faith Christes church were brought to a small roome and very great straights yet by Gods grace good order and necessary discipline this schoole of lust hath bene reasonably till our dayes kept vnder and the grauitie of Christian maners as the time serued orderly vpholden TO THE PREFACE 1 IF you had not promised and professed an orderly proceding in this cause we woulde neuer haue enquired whether good order would require that an heretike should haue bene first defined before he were diuided And especially in this controuersie where either partie chargeth other with heresie it had been conuenient that the right definition or description of an heretike had bene first set downe that men might thereby haue learned who is iustly to be burdened with that crime For an heretike is he that in the Church obstinatly mainteineth an opinion that is contrary to the doctrine of God coÌ„teined in the holy Scriptures which if any of vs can be proued to doe then let vs not be spared but condemned for heretiks But if iust proofe therof can not be brought against vs but contrarywise we be able to shew manifest euideÌ„ce that our aduersaries doctrine is cleane contrary to the Scriptures of God then let the name of heretikes be applied to them to whome the definition doth agree with further punishment due to calumniators that slaunder other men in that whereof they are guilty them selues Nowe to the matter of this Preface which as the argumeÌ„t declareth consisteth of three partes wherof the first is that there be two sorts of heretiks the one preteÌ„ding vertue the other opeÌ„ly professing vice This part is shewed in three leaues following In the substaÌ„ce of which point I will noâ— differ with you yet something will I note in your handling thereof as occasion moueth me First you affirme that heresie and all willfull blindnesse is vndoubtedly a iust plague of God for sinne I mislike not your affirmation but I maruaile how you can affirme this and be a good Catholike when we cannot say halfe so much but we are charged by you to make God the author of sinne But such is the force of trueth that oftentimes the enimies thereof them selues when they speake without contention cannot auoyed a true confession God therefore as this Papist can not now deny punisheth sinne with sinne not as an euil author but as a rightuous iudge Proceding further you say that Christ hath geuen all heretikes this marke that there vnsemely works should euer detect their fained faith wherein you speake not onely contrary to the trueth but euen to your owne affirmation before For our Sauiour Christ hath apoynted false prophetes to be knowne by their fruites which is there false doctrine contrary to Gods worde cloked with the sheepe skinnes of fained holinesse and vertue which though it be many times discouered yet is it many times so closely conueyed that it clearly escapeth the iudgement of all men Who was euer hable to chardge that damnable heretike Pelagius with any notorious crime or wicked behauiour in his outwarde life and conuersation you your selfe confesse that there appeared in him nothing but grauity constancy and humility If his doctrine had not bene found contrary to the word of God he shoulde neuer haue bene tried to be a faulse prophete by his workes Such are many of his scholers the free will men of our time whose opinion if it were not manifestly repugnant to the authoritie of the holy Scriptures there manners are vnreprouable in the iudgemeÌ„t of mortall men The like may be said of Iouinian who if he were so great an heretike as you make him yet he himselfe as you shew after out of Augustine offended not in that which he perswaded others to doe Your last example of heretiks openly professing vice is of Mahomet by whose licentious doctrine you affirme that your faith Christes Church were brought to a small roome very great streights If this be true thaâ— you affirme that the Catholike Church must be otherwise estemed and by other notes then you are wont to describe it or else your Church by your owne assertion can not be counted Catholike For if Christes Church be brought to a small roome and great streights where is vniuersality Consent of all nations multitude of people c. that you are wont to talke of But by your discipline the schoole of lust hath bene reasonably till our dayes kept vnder the grauitie of Christian maners as the time serued orderly vpholden You doe well to qualifie your asseueration with those termes reasonably orderly and as the time serued For otherwise the whole Christian worlde should be witnesse against you and yet to shew with what reason order or opportunitie the schoole of lust hath bene shut vp before our time or yet is Wher your doctrine most preuaileth let the filthy stewes and brothel houses opened in euery citie yea and at your mother citie of Rome most licentiously of all other not onely by your gouernours permitted but also by your doctors defended let them I say beare sufficient witnesse against you 2 But now once againe in our cursed dayes the great flowe of sinne turning Gods mercy from vs with exceding prouocation of his heauy indignation towards the wicked hath made our aduersary much mâ—re bold and long practise of mischiefe a great deale more skilful The serpent passed all other creatures in subtelty at the beginning but now in cruelty he farre passeth him selfe The downefall that he hath in a fewe yeares rage driuen man vnto by thopen supporting of sinfull liuing it is sure very wofull to remember and an exceding hearts greefe to consider Looke backe at the Christian Epicures whom I now named view the men of like endeuour in al ages compare their attempts to ours their doctrine to ours the whole race of their proceedings to ours And if we match them not in all pointes and passe them in most I except the wicked Mahomet and God graunt I may so doe long though they had out of his holy schoole their often diuorciâ—s and new mariages in their wiues life excepting him therefore if ours passe not in open practise of mischiefe and supportation of sinne all the residue miscredit me for euer This is euident to all men that thinges once counted detestable before God abhorred of the priestes straunge to the Christian people punishable by the lawes of all Princes be now in case to maintaine them selues to geue vertue a checke mate and without all colour to beare downe both right and religion Thus doth sacriledge boldly beare out it selfe and ouerreacheth the promoters of Gods honour so doth incest encounter with lawfull mariage the
homo thus I english it It was necessary that our Lorde comming to the lost sheepe making a recapitulation of his appoynted ordinaunce and vew of his owne handeworke should also saue the same man which was formed after his owne image and likenesse I meane Adam then fulfilling the time of that condemnation which was for his disobedience appoynted and so the man ledde into captiuity was released of the bondes of his condemnation Eusebius Emissenus yet more expresly helpeth our cause as followeth Confestim igitur aeterna nox inferorum Christo descendente resplenduit siluit stridor ille lugentium Cathenarum disrupta ceciderunt vincula damnatorum Out of hand at Christes comming into hell that eternall darkenesse shined bright the gnashing of the mourners ceased and the brosten bandes of condemned persons fell from them Here loe many one by the iudgement of this holy writer were loused from much misery by Christes descending downe VVhere to our purpose we must especially be aduertised that all the iust in those inferiour parts were not in like felicity with our father Abraham or other of such perfect holinesse although he also suffered the common lacke in long looking for translation to ioy for some there were of meaner vertue yet in the fauour of God which suffered personall paine for purging recompense of their sinnes committed in this life of whome this Author semeth to meane And as S. Augustine supposeth the scripture must needes import such a like thing vndoubtedly teaching that Christ was not onely in the place of rest where Abraham and other in his harbour were but also in places of tormeÌ„t which could not touch his holy person Quem Deus suscitauit solutis doloâ—ibus inferni VVhome God raised vp againe after he had loosed hell paines Thus saith this holy Author Quia euidentia testimonia infernum commemorant dolores nulla causa occurrit cur illò credatur venisse Saluator nisi vt ab eius doloribus saluos faceret sed vtrum omnes quos in eis inuenit an quosdam quos illo beneficio dignos iudicauit adhuc requiro fuisse tamen eum apud inferos in eorum doloribus constitutis hoc beneficium praestitisse non dubito Bycause saith he euident testimonies make mention both of Hell and paines I see not why we shoulde beleue that our Sauiour came thether but to discharge some of the paines thereof mary whether he loosed all or summe whome he thought worthy of that benefite that woulde I learne For I am out of doubt he was in hell and bestowed that gracious benefite vpon some that were in paines Thus farre spake Augustine Let no man here take occasioÌ„ to thinke that this father ment of any release of the damned in the inferious hell for that errour he euer detested writeth earnestly against Origine for the same Then it must needs be that he spake of some which were in paine and torment and yet worthy to receiue mercy so he termeth their estate both here and in the xij Booke of the literall exposition on the Genesis where he hath the same wordes with more large proofe of the conclusion which neither agreeth with the state of Abrahams rest nor yet with the forsaken soules And the name of hell is now commonly taken for any one of the inferiour partes where God practiseth iudgemeÌ„t for sinne euerlastingly or temporally though as Augustine saith it caÌ„ not be found in plaine scripture that Abrahams happy resting place should be termed Hell or InfernuÌ„ But I neede not seeke further in the depe mistery of Christes affaires in the inferiour partes For as I am not ashamed to be ignorauÌ„t vpoÌ„ whom he bestowed the grace of deliuery so with Augustine or rather with Gods Church I dare beleue that he loosed somme vpon whome he exercised iudgement before And further may boldely auouche that as there were certaine at his comming downe not vnworthy after long paines tolerated to be released in his presens so there be yet some which by mercy and meanes of Gods Church be released daily Not of that sorte which died out of Gods fauour Quibus clausa est ianua misericordiae omnis spes interclusa salutis Vpon whome the doore of mercy and the hope of helthe be closed and shut vp for euer but of the iust departed in faith and pietie and yet not fully purged of all corruption of iniquitie 4 This man hath hitherto raked in purgatory nowe he will steppe a foote further into hell and all to finde a case where sinnes remitted are punished after this life and then he will returne againe into purgatory For this purpose we must consider with him that Adam and all the iust of those dayes were punished for their sinnes forgiuen not onely in this life but many hundreth yeares after their departure For whose deliuery the Catholike Church he sayth holdeth our creed teacheth that Christ descended into hell First marke how he agreeth with him selfe after how he cauilleth with the holy Scripture of god Here he sayth that Abraham and all the iust were punished in hell afterward in the next leafe he saith that all the iust in those inferiour partes were not in like felicity with our father Abraham or other of such perfect holinesse and in the next leafe after that he affirmeth out of Augustine that Abrahams happy resting place can not be found in Scripture to be termed hell But that the fathers of the olde lawe before Christ were not in hell although they were not nor yet are in perfect blessednesse God prouiding a better thing for vs that they without vs shoulde not be made perfect Heb. 11. It is to be proued with manifest argumentes and authorityes out of holy Scriptures For seeing they all beleeued in Christ they had euerlasting lyfe and entred not into condemnation but passed from death to lyfe Ioan 5. And to what ende was Christ called the lambe that was slayne from the beginning of the worlde but that the benefite of his passion extendeth vnto the godly of all ages alike Esay speaking of thè righteous that are departed out of this life sayth that there is peace and that they shall rest in their beddes Esay 57. like as he affirmeth that Tophoth which is Gehinnom or hell is prepared of olde for the wicked Es. 30. So that felicity and rest was the portion of the godly fathers of the olde time after their death and hell was prepared but for the wicked and vngodly The same doth our Sauiour Christ teach in the history of Lazarus and the rich man Luke 16. where the soule of Lazarus was caried by Angels not downe to hell but vp into Abrahams bosome from which hell is manifestly deuided when it is sayd that the rich man being in hell in torments lifted vp his eyes and saw Lazarus a farre of which wordes doe plainly confute that drousy dreame of the Papistes concerning limbus
After the sinnes of man be pardoned God oftentimes punisheth the offender the church punisheth him and man punisheth him selfe ergo there is some payne due after sinne be remitted Secondly this payne can not alwayes be discharged in this world eyther for lacke of space after the remission as it happeth in repentaunce at the houre of death or else when the party liueth in perpetuall welth without care or cogitation of any satisfaction therefore it must be aunswered in an other place Thirdly the common infirmities and the dayly trespasses which abase and defile the workes euen of the vertuous of their proper condition doe deserue payne for a tyme as the mortall offence deserueth perpetuall Therefore as the mortall sinne being not here pardoned must of iustice haue the reward of euerlasting punishment so it must needes followe that the veniall fault not here forgeuen should haue the reward which of nature it requireth that is to say temporall payne And therefore not onely the wicked but the very iust also must trauell to haue their daily infirmities and frailty of their corrupt natures forgiuen crying without ceasing forgeue vs our debts Quia non iustificabitur in conspectu tuo omnis viuens For no man aliue shal be able to stand before the face of God in his owne iustice or righteousnes and if these light sinnes should neuer be imputed then it were needelesse to cry for mercy or confesse debt as euery man doth be he neuer so passing holy To be briefe this debt of paine for sinne by any way remayning at the departure hence must of iustice be aunswered VVhich can not be without punishmēt in the next life then there must be a place of iudgement for temporall and transitory paynes in the other world The whole discourse made before hath geuen force enough to euery part of the argument the Scriptures doe proue it the practise of the Church confirmeth it all the doctors by our aduersaries graunt agree vpon it If they haue any thing to say here I make them fayre play the ground is open the reasons laide naked before their face remoue them as they can Lette them deale simply if they meane truely and not flourish as they vse vppon a false ground that in flowe of wordes they may couer errour or in rase of their smoth talke ouerrunne truth And that euery man may perceiue that we haue not raised this doctrine vpon reason only or curiositie although the graue authoritie of Gods Church might here in satisfie sober wittes we will now by Gods helpe go nearer the matter and directly make proofe of Purgatory by holy Scriptures reciting such places of the olde and new Testament as shall proue our cause euen in that sense which the learnedst and godlyest fathers of all ages by conference of places or other likelyhood shall fynde and determine to be most true Alleaging none els but such as they haue in the flour of Christian faith noted and peculiarely construed for that purpose which now is in question That the aduersaries of that doctrine may rather striue with the said saincts and doctours then with me that will as they shall well perceiue do nothing but truely reporte their wordes or meaninge Or rather that such as haue erred in that case by giuing ouer light credit to the troblesome teachers of these vnhappy dayes maye when they shall vnderstand the true meaning of the Scriptures the constant doctrine of the Catholike Church the wordes of all auncient writers the determination of so many holy Councels the olde vsage of all nations by humble prayers obteine of God the light of vnderstanding the trueth and the gifte of obedience to his will and worde Or if there be any so sattled in this vnlickely sect that he purposeth not to beleue the graue writers of olde times nor receiue their expositions vpon such places as we shall recite for that preiudice which he hath of this owne witte and vnderstanding yet let him not maruell at my simplicity that had rather geue credit to others then my selfe Or that in this hote time of contention and partaking in religion I do repose my selfe vnder the shadow of so many worthy writers as anone shall giue euidence in my cause CAP. V. 1 TRiumphing before the victorie and that is more before the encontry of hāde strokes for we come to ioyning but now you will now win your spurs or els it shal be a blacke daye with all Protestantes I will be as shorte in mine aunswere as you are in your arguments And that I may put on an armour of proofe to beare of your terrible haileshot your first argumēt hath neither good forme nor matter no more hath your second no more hath your third If you or any for you will prepare your selfe to geue a bitter charge either I or some other shal be redy to shape you an other aunswere But because here is nothing in this briefe ioyning but which hath bene largly discharged before in aunswere to your longe excursions it were nedelesse to make such vaine repetition as you doe especially in your last shorte argument in which space all the substaunce of your large booke might easily haue bene placed only to fil vp a competent length of the fift chapter and with such a tedious inlarging of a superfluous matter as a yong practiser of Rhetoricke would be ashamed to vse in a fayned declamation much worse becomming an auncient master of arte professing to trusse vp his arguments by Logicke to make a perfect perswasion As for the promisse of further proofe both out of the Scriptures and out of the doctors that followeth after this gallant ioyning and lusty challenge shall haue no preiudice of my disabling of the meane to perform it vntill it appeare by playne conference of his arguments and myne aunswers that his words are but winde and his promisse but pratling That Purgatory paines doth not onely serue Gods iustice for the punishement of sinne but also cleanse and qualifie the soule of man defiled for the more seemely entraunce into the holy places vvith conferēce of certaine places of Scripture for that purpose CAP. VI. 1 IF we well cōsider the wonderfull base condition and state of mans nature corrupted by our first fathers disobedience and more and more abased by continuall misery that sinne hath brought into our mortall life we shall finde the worke of Gods wisedome in the excellent repaire of this his creature to be full of mercy and full of maruell But proceding somewhat further and weying not onely his restoring but also the passing great anauncement to the vnspeakable glory of the elect there shall reason and all our cogitations vtterly faint and faile vs. The kingdome prepared is honored with the maiestie of the glorious Trinitie with the humanitie of Christ our Sauiour with the blessed Mary the vessell of his Incarnation with the bewtifull creatures and wholy vndefiled of all the ordres of Angels There can nothing doubtlesse
white as snowe beholding the purity that is requisite for a citizen of the celestiall Hierusalem And I note this the rather of the soule because I see that the body also before it can shake of the stroke and plague of sinne must be driuen by the common course to dust and elementes that being at the ende raised vp againe in the same substance may yet wholy in condicion and quality be so straungely altered that in honour and immortalitie it may euerlastingly ioyne with the soule againe To the newnesse whereof the very elements that before aunswered it in qualities of corruption shal be perfectly by fire reformed and serue in beauty and incorruption eternall If sinne then be so reuenged and throughly tryed out of mans body and all corruption out of these elements for the glory of that new and eternall kingdome shall we doubte of Gods iustice in the perfect reuenge of sinne in the soule or purifying that nature which as it was most corrupted was the very feate of sinne so namely apperteineth to the company of Angels and glory euerlasting It were not otherwise agreable to Gods iustice surely nor conuenient for the glorious estate to come it were neither right nor reason He will then where man neglecteth the day of mercy sharply viset with torment him selfe and both purge and purifie the drosse of our impure natures defiled and stained by sinne with iudgement and rightuousnesse Abluet Dominus sordes filiarum Syon sanguinem Hierusalem lauabit de medio eius in spiritu iudicij spiritu ardoris Our Lorde shall washe out the filthe of the daughters of Syon and will cleanse bloude from the middest of Hierusalem in the spirite of iudgement and the spirite of burning But because we will not stande vpon coniectures in so necessary a point you shall see by what Scriptures the graue and learned fathers haue to my hand confirmed this beleued trueth And first I will recite those places which do set forth both the quality and condition of that punishment which God taketh vpon man for sinne in the other worlde and also did giue iust occasion to our forefathers of the name of Purgatory 2 Consider what wholsome doctrine this student in Diuinitie gathereth out of the Scriptures of god Dauid not content with remission of his sinnes seeketh to be better clensed to haue them wholy blotted out and to be made as white as snowe â–ª but by what meanes M. Allen or at whose handes Dare you say that he prayeth God to clense him better by his owne suffering then he was by Gods mercifull pardon What was figured by the bunch of Isope dypped in the lambes bloud with which he desireth to be sprinckled assuring him selfe that therby he shall be washed whiter then snowe Was it purgatory or the aspertion of the bloud of Christ O horrible blasphemer wilt thou neuer acknowledge the omnisufficiency of the benefite of mans redemption by the sonne of God shal thy vayne gangling and iumbling of thy deuises with Gods decrees obscure the glory of our Lord and Sauiour Christ his passion who hath loued vs and washed vs from our sinnes by his bloud and made vs Kings and Priestes in the sight of God who hath geuen him selfe for his beloued Church that he might sanctifie it and clense it by the washing of water through the word that he might make it vnto him self a glorious church not hauing spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blame What similitude hath this with Allens pratling of purenesse and patching in of purgatory As for the place alleged out of Esay the 4. Because he dare not abide by it him selfe but confesse that it is but a coniecture of his own to draw it to purgatory which in deede is playnly spoken of the reformation of the Church in this life I neede spend no more tyme in aunswering it 3 There be two textes of Scriptures to this purpose so like that many of the doctors for better conference in so weighty a case haue ioyned them together to make their proofe full and so will I do by their example The first is in the thirde chapter of the prophet Malachie in these wordes Ecce venit dicit Dominus exercituum quis poterit cogitare diem aduentus eius Et quis stabit ad videnduÌ„ eum Ipse enim quasi ignis conâ—â—ans quasi herba fullonum sedebit conâ—tans emuÌ„dans argeÌ„tum purgabit filios Leui colabit eos quasi aurum argentum erunt Domino offerentes sacrificia in iustitia Et placebit Domino sacrificium Iuda Hierusalem c. Beholde he commeth sayth the Lorde of Hostes. And who may abide the day of his coÌ„ming VVho can stand endure his sight â–ª For he is like melting and casting fier and as the washers herbe And he shall sit casting and trying out siluer and shall purge the children of Leui clense them as golde or siluer And theÌ„ shal they offer sacrifice in righteousnesse the offerings of Iuda Hierusalem shall be acceptable vnto our Lorde And thus farre spake the prophet The second is this taken out of the first Epistle to the Corinthians Secundum gratiam Dei quae data est mihi vt sapiens architectus fundameÌ„tum posui alius auteÌ„ superaedificat Vnusquisque auteÌ„ videat quomodo superaedificet FundameÌ„tuÌ„ enim aliud nemo potest ponere praeter id quod est posituÌ„ quod est Christus Iesus Si quis auteÌ„ superaedificat super fundameÌ„tum hoc aurum argeÌ„tum lapides preciosos ligna foenuÌ„ stipulam vniuscuiusque opus manifestuÌ„ erit dies enim Domini declarabit quia in igne reuelabitur vniuscuiusque opus quale sit ignis probabit Si cuius opus maÌ„serit quod superaedificauit mercedeÌ„ accipiet si cuius opus arserit detrimentuÌ„ patietur ipse auteÌ„ saluus erit sic tameÌ„ quasi per igneÌ„ Thus in English According to the grace of God geuen vnto me as a discriete builder I haue laid the groundewarke but an other buildeth theron Let euery man be circumspect how he buildeth on it For no fundatión can be laide but Christ Iesus which is already laide If any man builde vpon this groundewarke golde siluer preciouse stones wodde hay or stooble euery mans worke shall be laide open For the day of our Lorde will declare it because it shall appeare in fire And that fire shall trie euery mans worke what it is if any mans worke erected vpon that foundation do abide he shall receiue rewarde but if his worke burne he shall susteine losse or it shall susteine â—osse meaning by the worke it selfe as the texte well serueth also but him selfe shall be saued notwithstanding and that yet as through fire These be S. Pauls wordes Now as men studious of the trueth carefull of our faith and saluation and fully free from contention and partaking let
purged of the smaller spottes which sticke by him In the same sense doth Theodoretus both expounde the wordes of the Apostle and vtter his iudgement of Purgatory also and almost the rest of all the Latine or Greeke writers which my purposed breuitie with plentifull proofe otherwise forceth me to leaue to the studious reader 3 Next ensueth the authoritie of Ieronym or Bede or perhaps neither of them both but yet of some olde writer which holdeth that from light sinnes men may be absolued after their death by paynes prayers almes or masses This was a writer for M. Allens tooth but neither of antiquitie nor credit sufficient to cary away this cause The iudgement of Oecumenius and Theodoretus though they were writers about that time when corruption of doctrine had greatly preuailed yet are they not cleare for popish purgatory which the greeke Church although they pray for the dead yet would neuer agree to acknowledge 4 One place more I will onely adde out of Remigius because he learnedly may knit vp the place by ioyning both the Prophet and Apostles wordes together vpon which we haue stand so longe Thus that good author writeth Ipse enim quasi ignis conflans peccators exurens Ignis enim in conspectu eius ardebit in circuitu eius tempestas valida Hoc igne consumūtur lignum foenum stipula Nec solum erit quasi ignis sed etiam quasi herba fullonum qua vestes nimium sordibus infectae lauantur Porro his qui grauiter peccauerunt erit ignis conflans exurens illis vero qui leuia peccata commiserunt erit herba fullonum Hinc per Isaiam dicitur si abluerit dominus c. Qui enim habent sordes leuium peccatorum spiritu iudicij purgantur qui vero sanguinem habent hoc est grauioribus peccatis infecti sunt spiritu ardoris exurentur purgabuntur Et sedebit conflans emundans argentum colabit eos quasi aurum argentum hoc est intellectum colloquium vt quicquid mixtum est stanno vel plumbo camino domini exuratur quod purum aurum est argentum remaneat Et purgabit filios Leui In filijs Leui omnem sacerdotalem ordinē intelligimus a quibus iudicium incipiet quia scriptum est tempus est vt iudicium incipiat a domo dei alibi à sanctuario meo incipite Si autem sacerdos flammis purgandus est colandus quid de caeteris dicendum est quos nullum commendat priuilegium sanctitatis These golden wordes haue this sense He shall come as the goldesmithes fire burning sinners For in his sight a flame shall rise and a mighty tempest rounde about him by which fire our woodde hay and stooble shall be wasted and worne away VVith that he shall be like the clensers herbe whereby garments very much stained be purged To all those that haue greuously offended he wil be a burning and melting fire but to the light sinners he shall be as the washers herbe VVhich difference the prophet Esay noteth thus If our Lorde wipe away the filthe of the daughters of Syon and bloude from the middest of Israel in the spirite of iudgement and fire For such as haue onely the spottes of veniall sinnes they may be amended by the spirite of iudgement but men of bloude to witte the more greuous offenders must be tried by fire And he shall sit casting and purifying siluer and shall purge men as golde and siluer be purified that is to say our thoughtes understanding and wordes from impurity and vncleannesse as from pewter and leade by Gods fornace shall exactly be purged and nothing shall be left but as pure as golde and fine siluer And he shal purge the sonnes of Leui that is the ordre of priesthood where this heuy iudgement shall first begin For so it is writtē Time is now that iudgemēt begin at the house of God and againe Begin at my sanctuary If the priest must be purged and fined what shall we deme of other whome priuilege of holy ordre doth not commende or helpe thus farre goeth the author in conference of diuerse scriptures VVho with the rest of al the holy fathers that compassed their senses within the vnity of Christes Church hath founde by euident testimony of sundry scriptures the paines of purgatory which the busy heades of our time by vaine bragging of scriptures in singular arrogancy of their owne wittes can neuer finde 4 Last of all here is vaunt made of the testimony of Remigius as though he were a new author and perhaps M. Allen in his notes founde him so but it is nothing else but the saying of Ieronym almost word for word vppon 3. Malach 3. which before we haue shewed sufficiently to be mēt of the iudgement that Christ should exercise by his doctrine at his first comming and nothing at all pertayning to purgatory And therefore these golden words as you cal them M. Allen haue a leaden exposition when they be drawne from the preaching of the Gospell to the mayntenance of purgatory A further declaration of this pointe for the better vnderstanding of the doctours vvordes VVherein it is opened hovv purgatory is ordeined for mortal sinnes hovv for smaller offences vvho are like to feele that griefe vvho not at all CAP. IX 1 ANd I thinke they now haue small aduantage by the exception of Origens testimony by occasion whereof such light is founde for our cause that we now by goodly authority haue both founde the placies alleaged plainely to proue purgatory and also what sinnes it namely purgeth and what men after their death may be amended thereby That not onely the bare trueth but some necessary circumstances to the studious of the trueth haue bene here by iust occasion opened and all errour wholy remoued Except this point may somewhat stay the reader that heareth in some places the paines of Purgatory to be both a punishment for greuous sinnes and a purgation of lighter trespasses with all and yet that it now may appeare the contrary by the minde of some learned authors who expressely make that paine as a remedy onely for veniall sinnes and not to apperteine at all to the capitall and deadely crimes that man often times doth commit Therefore to be as plaine as may be necessary for the vnlearned or any other that is godly curious in things much tending to the quiet rest of mans conscience it is to be noted that this ordinary iustice of God in the life following for the purgation of the elect can not discharge any man of mortall sinne which was not pardoned before in the Church militant vppon earth And therefore what crime so euer deserueth damnation and was not in mans life remitted it can not by purgatory paines be released in the next because it deserueth death euerlasting and staieth the offender from the kingdome of heauen for euer no peine temporall in this
breaketh her faith of Baptisme shal be damned for mariage is not worth a rush For S. Paule sayth not she shal be damned for mariage but because she hath reiected the first faith that is such wanton young houswifes procede so farre that at length they forsake widowhood christianity and all But if M. Allen were posed where he findeth this worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture vsed for a vowe or promise made to God perhaps he would aunswere he is no Graecian then let him pose D. Hardinge or some other with the same question and with all let them shew how the first faith can be expounded for the last vowe that a body hath made if he haue made more then one For the Papists holde that these women made one vowe in baptisme an other of there widowhood What so euer M. Iewell hath affirmed against the Papistes he hath so substantially and learnedly defended that he neede not to haue any other man to aunswere for him Therefore if it were not to choke M. Allen in his owne coller I woulde trauaile no farther in this question The Church you say can not erre and that company is the Church which hath the Pope for their head if therefore it can be proued that the Pope and all they that take his part haue erred it is sufficiently shewed that the Church may erre S. Augustine was in this error as you will not deny that the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ was to be ministred vnto infants but of the same opinion he affirmeth that Innocentius Bishop of Rome and all the Church in his tyme was therefore the Pope and all the Church did erre reade Augustine contra Iulianum lib. 1. cap. 2. where he sayth of Innocentius Qui denique paruulos definiuit nisi manducauerint carnem filij hominis vitam prorsus habere non posse which hath defined that infantes except they eate the flesh of the sonne of man can haue no life at all in them And by eating the flesh of the sonne of mā he meaneth eating the Sacramēt of his flesh and bloud as it is euident to them that wil bestow the reading of Augustines discourse in that place An aunsvvere to certayne obiections of the aduersaries moued vpon the diuersitie of meanings vvhich they see geuen in the fathers vvritings of the Scriptures before alleaged for purgatory and that this doctrine of the Church standeth not against the sufficiencie of Christes passion CAP. XI 1 BVt nowe the other side seeketh for some shiftes and draweth backe in this extremity thus That the places of the olde and new Testament now rather alleaged for my purpose and the proofe of purgatory though they be thus expounded of the doctours yet they may haue some other meaninge and sometimes be construed otherwise by the fathers them selues To which I aunswere and freely confesse that they so may haue in deede but the aduersary must take this with all that the pillars of Christes Church woulde neuer haue geuen this sense amongest other or rather before all other meaninges that probability or conferēce of scriptures did driue them vnto had it conteined a plaine faulsehood as the heretike supposeth it doth Yea had not the doctrine of Purgatory bene a knowne trueth in all ages it should neuer by the graue iudgemēt of so many wise men haue atteyned any colour of scripture For though many meaninges be founde of most harde places in all the Bible yet there is no sense geuen by any approued doctour that in it selfe is false And thinke you diuerse textes of the holy Scripture coulde haue caryed a false perswasion of Purgatory downe from the Apostles dayes to our time for true doctrine Marke well and you shall perceiue that the Church of Christ hath euer geuen roome to the diuersitie of mens wittes the diuision of graces and sondry giftes in exposition of most places of the whole testament with this prouiso alwayes that no man of singularity should father any falsehood or vntrueth vpon any texte but otherwise that euery man might abounde in his meaning Mary falsehood she neuer suffered one moment to take holde or bearing of any scripture vnreprehended Ecclesia multa tolerat sayth S. Augustine tamen quae sunt contra fidem vel bonam vitam non probat nectacet nec facit the Church beareth many thinges yet such thinges as be hourtfull to faith or good life she neuer approueth nor doth them her selfe nor holdeth her peace when she seeth them done by others Thereof we haue a goodly example in our owne matter So long as any conuenient meaning might be found out by the holy writers of that place alleaged out of S. Paule for such as shoulde be saued through fire she liked and allowed the same Some proued that the elect must be saued by long sufferance some said the tribulation of this life and world must trie mens faith workes some saide the greefe of minde in loosing that which they ouer much loued was the burning fire of mans affections some woulde haue the greuous vexation of departure out of this life to be a purgatory paines some construed the texte of the fire of conflagration that shall purge the workes of many in the latter day finally they all agreed that the temporall torment of the worlde to come is litterally noted and especially meant by the fire which the Apostle speaketh of All these so litle do disagree amongest them selues that not onely by diuerse men but of one man they might well all be geuen And being all in them selfe very true the holy Church so liketh and alloweth them eche one that yet by the common iudgement of all learned men that meaning for Purgatory paines she approueth as the most agreeable sense to the texte and whole circumstance of the letter But as soone as Origen went about to proue by the same scripture that all wicked men shoulde at length be saued after due purgation by fire then this pillar of trueth seeing an open falsehood gathered by the scripture of Gods worde coulde susteine no longer She set vp against this errour her pastors the graue fathers of our faith who ceased not as occasion serued to geue men warning of the deceite intended not onely still mainteining the doctrine of Purgatory but also expressely condemning all the reprehenders thereof as hereafter it shall be better declared and so misliking no sense that in it selfe was true the meaning of Purgatory yet hath bene of all the learned counted so certaine that in geuing any other likely exposition that was euer added with all as most consonant to the will and wordes of the writers So doth Theodoretus so doth S. Augustine and so in a maner did they all And as the saide holy doctour saith with whose wordes I am much delited by cause he of all other maketh trueth stand most plainely vpon it selfe One texte of scripture may well haue so many vnderstandings as may
stand with trueth and be not repugnaunt to good life and maners And he hedgeth the diuersity of mens wittes in the exposition of scripture with in the double knot of loue which is towards God and our brother Who so euer sayth he taketh him selfe to vnderstand scripture or any parte thereof and in that meaning edifieth nothing at all the double loue of God and our neighbour he misseth the true meaning thereof But who so euer can finde out such a sense that may be commodious to the increase of charitie although it were not directly intended by the writer yet he is not harmefully deceiued nor founde a lyar therein so sayth he Now as for our matter I am well assured there dare no man though he were destitute of Gods grace yet not for shame of him selfe affirme that the doctrine of purgatory is hourtfull to vertuous life the only miscredit whereof hath vtterly banished all good Christian condicions or iniurious to the faith of Gods Church which is not only agreable but principally intended by the plaine letter of Gods worde and consonant to all other meanings that may be gathered by any such scripture as we haue alleaged there for and to be short receiued of so many fathers so wise and so well learned as we haue named for that purpose as a trueth most reasonable most naturall and most agreable to Gods iustice VVell then the misbeleuers can haue no shifte nor escape by the chalenge of Gods word or doctures or diuersity of sensies here is no holde for errour all I trust be safe and sure on euery side CAP. XI 1 YOu shoulde breake your olde wonte if you did not in this chapter ouerthrow something that you haue builded in that which went next going before He hath labored all this while to proue that purgatory hath grounde in the Scriptures now he cōfesseth franckely that there hath bene no text of scripture by him alleaged to proue it but it may haue an other meaninge and is sometime other wise construed of the fathers them selues I will aske no more to proue that purgatory hath no grounde in the worde of God which is not an ambiguous oracle that may be drawen euery way like a leaden rule hath but one true sence or meaning which is the right meaning of the holy Ghost For although diuerse men may geue diuerse interpretations of some obscure and harde place which all conteine no impiety or falshode yet the spirite of God meaneth but one thing and not what euery mans wit and iudgement will take it to be True it is that so longe as the proportion of faith is kept the Church beareth with them that geue wronge interpretations but the spirite of God which is in his Church alloweth not wronge interpretations for right And where as M. Allen alloweth all the interpretatiōs that the fathers haue made of the text by him alleaged as true so long as they affirmed no error he may by the same reason affirme that contradictories are true as in that saying of him that shall not come out vntill he haue payed the vttermost farthing some haue expounded that he shal be alwayes punished some that he shall not be alwayes punished One sayth he shal neuer be released an other saith he shall be released at length how is it possible that both these interpretations can be true and yet both these interpretations are founde in some writers But his suerest shifte is that the doctrine of purgatory was a knowen trueth in all ages But this is the whole matter in controuersie For how can it be taken for a knowen trueth in all ages which hath none so suer grounde in any text of scripture that cā be wrested for it but the same text may haue an other and that a true interpretation But of the antiquity of that error we shall haue better occasion hereafter to discusse in the second booke where this matter is of purpose intreated of In the meane time we wil take that which is here graunted so liberaly that there is no text of scripture alleaged for purgatory but it may be otherwise truely interpreted and not of purgatory and that the fathers haue so done by M. Allens owne confession 2 Their extreme and onely refuge is that the paine of Christes passion and his sufficient payment for our sinnes standeth not with our satisfaction or penaunce in this life nor with paine or purgatory in the next O Lorde how farre may mans malice reach that not contented to abuse their reason and the word of God in persuasion of errour but are bolde to referre Christes blessed death also to cloke together with falsehood wanton and licentious liuing Many vertuous persons haue bene prouoked by the meditation of our Sauiours sorowes to leaue the stattering welth of this worlde and to charge them selues with perpetuall vexation of body but that any did euer so rest vpon Christes passion that in respect thereof they might passe their dayes in idle welth of lust and liberty that was I trow vnhearde of before this sinnefull sect These fellowes argue thus Christ hath paide the full price of our sinnes ergo we must do no penaunce nor suffer any paine for them But S. Paule thus Christ by paine and passiō is entred into the glory of his kingdome ergo if we looke to be his fellow heires or partakers of his glory we must suffer affliction with him and ioyne with him in paines and passion S. Peter also thus Christ hath suffered leauing you an example that ye should follow his steppes therefore all his blessed life passed in paine must be a perpetuall sturring vp of toleration gladde suffering for his name againe Iohn our maisters messenger prepared the way of Christes death and doctrine by worthy fructes of penaunce and that was the beginning of Christes owne preaching therfore I dare be bolde to say these thinges are not abrogated by the teaching of the Gospel nor voide by Christs passion which onely maketh our workes and merites to be of that value and acceptation that all Catholike men counte them of which els to the satisfying for sinne shoulde be nothing auaileable nor to the atteining of heauen any thing profitable But it is foly to make ouer many wordes in a case so plaine seeing the example of both God and good mens dealing abundantly proueth mans punishment either temporall or eternall to stande well with the excellent value of our Sauiours death For if paine for sinne were iniurious to Christes death then the holy prophet Dauid that liued long in greuous penaunce were iniurious to his Lordes death then the Church were iniurious to her owne spouse his death that chargeth all offenders with penaunce then God him selfe were iniurious to his owne sonnes death that sharply punisheth sinne forgeuen then Christ him selfe were iniurious to his owne death that both by his example and holy preaching did euer commend sharpe penaunce and paine These
and Angels in heauen to the chosen and elect people either in earth or vnder the earth beneth And that this holy consent of good workes and mutuall agreement of prayer to the continuall supplying of eche others lackes doth also apperteine to the soules departed no man that hath any sense of this happy community can denie for being membres of our common body they must needes be partakers of the common vtilitie CAP. II. 1 IF you aske me by what meanes they may be releued whome the bloude of Christ hath not purged from all their sinnes suerly I must aunswere you plainely as I haue learned in the scripture that there is no name geuen vnder heauen by which they maye be helped which are not helped by Christes death Act. 4. But you haue merites of men to helpe the merites of Christ. O blasphemy they that can not be iustified by their owne merites by the vertue of them shall healpe to iustifie other But this is worthy to be noted that they which are in purgatory can not by any motion of minde atteine more mercy then their life past deserued Therefore faith either is not in them or else pâ—ofitteth them nothing for that is a notable motion of the minde Then the merites of other men must profite with out faith or els they profitte them not all But with out fayth it is not possible that they shoulde profit them for as much as with out fayth it is not possible to please God Heb. 13. therefore it is not possible that other mens workes aliue shoulde profit them that are dâ—ad But we haue an other shift sought out to serue them that is the communion of Saintes What manner of communion is that which is with out fayth But because M. Allen bringeth in the communion of saintes I must shew where in the same consisteth The communion of saintes is considered either of the whole body of the church or else of the Church militant here on earth The communion of the whole body is the participation of life and all other offices of life that euery member and the whole body hath of the heade as S. Paule teacheth plainely Ephes. 4. The communion of saintes here on earth as it is a paâ—te of the whole communion so the whole Vertue commeth also from the heade and the members haue but the administration thereof according to the measure and office of euery one So that when we speake of the vniuersall Church we beleue that all the elect of God are one mysticall body that so liueth by Christ that it is not possible for any one member thereof to perish when we speake of the communication of the faythfull heare on earth we meane the dispeÌ„sation of the grace and gifts of God which as euery one hath receiued of God so of charity he is bouÌ„d to imploye the same to the profit of his fellowe members here on earth what place is here to merit for them that are deade when one can not merit for an other that is aliue no not for him selfe but euery man hath his worthynesse of Christ this is the doctrine of the scripture the other participation of merittes is a mere deuise of men hauing no foundation in the worde of God so that M. Allen him selfe can not vouch so much as one text of scripture to warranty where in he can haue any coullor for such communion of merites For that which S. Paule writeth 1. Cor. 12. is manifestly vnderstood of the mutuall offices of loue whereby one member hath compassion with an other by no meanes teacheth either the estate of the deade or the merittes of the liuing Of like credit it is that he so constantly affirmeth that the Saintes in heauen pray for their fellowes beneth and that they belowe pray for the helpe of the Saintes aboue moreouer that Christ our heade by whose bloude the society standeth will haue no worke nor waye of saluation that is not common to the whole body in generall and particularly profitable to supply the neede of any parte thereof Here you see by a plaine distribution that M. Allen will haue other workes and wayes of saluation beside the bloude of christ These things being onely affirmed and not proued by the authority of Scriptures although I might confute at large by the same yet it shall suffice to aunswere with that auncient father That which hath no authority in the Scriptures is as easily denied as it is affirmed But it is a worlde to see what a compasse you fetch to bringe in the Masse for one of the speciall meanes It was wont to be a sacrifice propitiatory both for the quicke and the deade nowe you haue nicer termes for it Now it is the sacrifice of the Church By whome instituted I pray you which by the will of the author if you make God the author where haue you one sillable in the Scripture to declare his will but that which followeth passeth By the likenesse of the exemplar as in deede being in an other manner the very selfe same What is this that I heare doth the Masse aueyle because it is like the exemplar if you meane the sacrifice of Christ his passion to be the examplar the masse is as like it as an apple is like an oyster for all the apish pageantes that be played in it We read in the Scriptures that all the sacrifices of the olde lawe with the tabernacle were made conformable to the exemplar and paterne that was shewed vnto Moses which was Christ Exod. 25. Heb. 8. Act. 7. But that there shoulde be any more shadowes or resemblaunces when the bodye and substance it selfe is come it is contrary to the whole scope of the Epistle to the Hebrues M. Allen hath a shift for that saying it is the very selfe same in an other maner But he is so deepe in diuinity that he forgetteth his first principles of logike For euery boye in Oxford can tell him that those things which be like can not be the same If therefore the Masse be like the sacrifice of Christ then is it not the sacrifice of Christ it selfe Againe the exemplar and the example be proper relatiues therfore if the sacrifice of Christ be the exemplar whereof the Masse is the example the Masse can not be the sacrifice of christ Neither will it helpe that he sayth It is the selfe same in an other maner so long as the same respect remaineth But let him make of his Masse what he can the Church of God instructed by Gods worde receiueth no more sacrifices propitiatory but onely the sacrifice of Christ his death which was offered by no other but by him selfe and that once for all Seeing that by one oblation he hath made perfect for euer those that are sanctified Hebr. 10. 2 And so sayth S. Augustine in these words Neque enim piorum animae mortuorum separantur ab ecclesia quae nunc est regnum Christi alioquin nec ad
vnkindnesse saith this doctor and lo our lacke of compassion But because all this forgetfullnesse commeth by the wicked suggestion of these late deuilish opinions which mainteine that the prayers of the liuing or their workes do not extende to the deade in Christ therefore for the destruction of this vnkind heresie and planting in our heartes with the trueth the feeling of our housholde fellowes sores I shall proue that in all times as well of nature as the lawe and Gospell the faithfull men haue euer ioyned in all their prayers and acceptable workes the soules departed as vnto whome by right of their communion and fellowship in faith the reliefe of Gods grace and Christes merits do appertayne Therefore this once declared let vs except them from no painefull worke of the liuing nor charitable deede nor good prayer nor sacrifice nor teares no nor from the inward dolour nor loue of mans heart Learne to know what it is to be in a common body and thou shalt streight perceiue that the least motion of thy mind stirred by Gods grace shall be caried to the reliefe of that part which thou pitied and most intended 3 Here but that you haue a pleasure to spue out your pestilent poyson against that noble light of Gods Church M. Caluine is nothing that neede any such exclamation which you make with open mouth as though Caluine denyed the communion of Saincts which he doth most constantly affirme euen in the same place out of which you haue rent those words that you so bite and teare with your venimous teeth lib. 3. cap. 20. sect 24. where he speaketh against inuocation of Sainctes who being in rest with God he sayth are not to be drawne by the prayers vnto earthly cares of our necessities which eyther they know not or they can not helpe For that office of charitie which the godly doe exercise in this life by praying one for an other is grounded vpon the commaundement of God and vpon his promise which two thinges are the chiefe to be considered in prayer But all these reasons concerne not the dead whom whē the Lord hath remoued from our company he hath left vs no intermedling with them nor them with vs so farre as we can conceiue by any coniectures These be Caluins wordes by which he meaneth that although the affection of charitie remaine in the deade yet it is not shewed by looking to our earthly necessities which they know are subiect to the prouidence of god Moreouer they haue not that we know by the Scripture any commaundement or promise to cause them to pray for vs neither haue we any to pray to them And this is that intermedling which Caluine denyeth to be betwene the deade the liuing namely such as is betwene them that are liuing among them selues As for the exhortation of him that wrote to his brother in the desert what so euer he was or how long so euer it be since he wrote because it hath not authoritie in the word of God I weigh it as the words of a man whose credite in diuine matters is nothing without the word of God. VVhat the Church of God hath euer principally practised for the soules departed by the vvarraūt of holy Scripture vvith the defense of the Machabees holy history against the heretikes of our time CAP. III. 1 BVt amongest so many meanes of helpe these haue bene euer counted most soueraigne Sacrifice prayers almes and by example of scripture most commended Though fasting added vnto any of them hath singular strength in this case and euer was ioyned in all earnest sute made to God for our selues or other VVe can not better begin to shew the practise hereof then at that scripture which sufficiently commendeth at once all three written in the second booke of Machabees in these wordes Iudas hortabatur populum cōseruare se sine peccato sub oculis videntes quae facta sunt pro peccatis eorum qui postrati sunt Et facta collatione duodecim millia drachmas argenti misit Ierosolymam offerri pro peccatis mortuorum sacrificium bene religiose de resurrectione cogitans nisi enim eos qui ceciderant resurrecturos speraret superfluum videretur vanum orare pro mortuis quia considerabat quod hi qui cum pietate dormitionem acceperant optimam haberent repositam gratiam Sancta ergo salubris est cogitatio pro defunctis exorare vt a peccatis soluantur The valiaunt man Iudas exhorted the people to kepe them selues from sinne hauing before their eyes what was fallen for the offensies of them that were slaine And a common gathering being made he sent xij thousand peces of siluer to Ierusalem to offer for the sinnes of those that were departed a Sacrifice being well and religiously minded concerning the resurrection for except he had suerly trusted that such as were slaine shoulde arise againe it might haue bene counted vaine and superfluous to praye for the deade But because he did well consider that such as in piety receiued their sleepe had grace and fauour laide vp for them therefore it is a holy and proffitable meaning to praye for the deade that they may be assoyled of their sinnes So farre the Author of the historie speaketh setting forth most euidently the notable piety of Iudas in exhorting them to releue the departed the like liberall almes of the people the prayers there in the campe and the sacrifice at Ierusalem celebrated for the same purpose In all which doing the scripture much prayseth that worthy zele of Iudas as a thing both profitable to the departed towardes the remission of their offensies and no lesse agreeing to that his especiall hope of the resurrection to come counting it a foly to pray for them of whose resurrection we are not assured VVherby I can not tell whether a man may well gether that such as deny the fellowship of the liue with the deade or condemne prayers made for them steadfastly beleue not the resurrection And in deede if we note well we shall finde that the prayers for the deade haue bene euer taken both as an argument to proue and as a protestation of the faithfull to shewe their minde and faith concerning the resurrection So did Epiphanius that holy father make confession of the Churches faith for the resurrection and immortality of the soule by the praying for the departed and ioyning them to the partaking of the workes of the liue Hi qui decesserunt viuunt sayth he non sunt nulli sed sunt viuunt apud Deum spes est orantibus pro fratribus velut qui in peregrinatione sint Those which be deceased do yet liue and are not by their departure hense fallen to be nothing but they haue their being and yet do lyue before God and there is great hope to their orators or beadsmen praying for them as for such that be in their pilgramage So sayth Damascen that by supplication
for the soules resurrectionis spes solidatur the hope of resurrection is established And therefore Dionysius the auncient in his misticall prayer and saâ—râ—fice for the departed declareth that there was a minister that did solemnely recite certaine places out of scripture for to confirme the hope of resurrection So that this practise of the faithfull hath not onely bene euer accompted a plaine trueth but it hath bene a grounde and a principle to confirme the article of resurrection and immortality of the soule And therefore the facte of Iudas is with such commendation mentioned in the scripture For in those dayes the heresie of the Saduces denying the resurrection and the life to come as Iosephus writeth began to take greate holde amongest the Iewes about byshop Ionathas his time in which tiue of diuersity that true beleuer thought to make plaine protestation of his faith by his notable facte And now I must needes be bolde to tell these enemies of our communion that in acknowledging them selues to haue nothing to do with the soules departed they are at the next doore by to denie the immortalitie and to terme them deade soules as Vigilantius did VVhome Gods Church very conformably to Christes calling and fittly for the protesting the common faith nameth Dormientes in signo pacis Those that sleepe in the signe of peace and the named Scripture for the same cause calleth them men a sleepe in pietie VVell if their denial of prayers for the deceased grow so farre as the vtter impugning of Christian hope for the life euerlasting and so with purgatory take away hell and heauen togither as the Sadduces did which God of his might turne from them but if they doe because there is such affinitie betwixt both their teachings and this of theirs may seeme alwayes to haue bene ioyned to that extreme falshoode of the others then shall Gods Church still protest the faith of her children by prayers and practise for the deade both by the example of the fathers in Christes Church vnder the Gospell and by the fact of worthy Iudas in the lawe before CAP. III. 1 WE haue all this while called for authoritie of the scripture now we shall haue scripture I trowe or else M. Allen shall misse of his purpose Sacrifice almes prayers commended by scripture to be meanes to helpe the soules in purgatory And the scripture is written 2. Machab. 12. Prothesauro carbones we haue founde coles in the steed of treasure Is this all the scripture we are like to haue this hath bene aunswered of olde to be no holy nor canonicall scripture and that by many reasons First because it conteineth matter contrary to the vndoubted worde of god I omit this matter in coÌ„trouersy in the 14. chap. the author of the booke commendeth one Razis for killing him selfe which is contrary to the word of god Wherefore M. Allen by authoritie of this booke the example of a good man Razis may as well conclude that it is lawfull for men to kill them selues as by the example of Iudas that men may offer sacrifice for the dead Secondly the author of this booke declareth that he abridgeth the fiue bookes of Iason the Cyrenian into this one which is a manifest argument that he was not the instrument of the holy Ghost For the holy Ghost maketh no abridgements of others mens writings Againe the purpose of the author proueth that he was not directed by Gods spirite for he confesseth that he tooke this matter in hande that men might haue pleasure in it which could not away with the tedious long stories of Iason But the spirite of God serueth not such vayne delight of men Moreouer he sheweth what labour and sweate it was to him to make this abridgement and to be short he maketh a very prophane preface ambitiously commending his trauell and shewing the difference betwene a story at large and an abridgment all which thinges sauour nothing of that spirite by which the holy Scriptures of God were written which as S. Peter sheweth came not by priuate mens will and ordinance but the holy men of God spake as they were inspired by the holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. where as all this preface sheweth nothing but a priuate motion an humane purpose And yet the man is to be commended for this that he doth not boast of any more reuelation then he had but in the end of this booke coÌ„fesseth his infirmity desireth pardoÌ„ which is as farre from the maiesty of gods spirit as it is agreeable to the weakenes of our deceiuable nature which are apt to deceiue and be deceiued If I haue wel done sayth he and as the story required it is the thing I desired but if I haue spoken slenderly and barely it is that I could For as it is hurtfull to drinke wine alone and then agayne water and as wine tempered with water is pleasant and delighteth the tast so the setting out of the matter delighteth the eares of them that readeth the story c. Who is so voyd of the spirite of God that can not see plainly that this man had neither the purpose to write that which shoulde instruct much lesse that should bind the consciences of men neither the gift so to write as in writing he could not erre But now to come to the text it selfe first the greeke copy in this place is so mangled and corrupted that no good sense can be gathered of the wordes by which it appeareth that the deuils limbes haue bene â—umbling with this booke as they haue bene with the olde doctors in places where mention is of prayer for the deade Secondly seeing this facte of Iudas hath no commaundement in the law in which not so much as one pinne of the tabernacle was omitted lest any thing might be left to the will of man to deuise in the worship of God it is so farre of that it is to be drawne into example that we may be bold to condemne it for sinne disobedience you shall not doe sayth the Lord what seemeth good in your owne eyes but that which I commaund you that onely shall you doe without adding any thinge to it or taking away any thing from it But M. Allen thinketh he hath a sure post to leane vnto because Iudas Machabaeus did by this fast testifie his hope of the resurrection as Iasons abridger sayth and also that prayers for the deade may be an argument to proue the faith that men haue of the resurrection It is not vnlike that this reason preuayled much with the auncient fathers as appeareth by their writings for commonly it hath the best colour of any reason that they bring to allow prayers for the dead But if it be weighed with good iudgement it is of no force to proue that prayers for the dead are lawful For as truth may be proued alwayes with true principles so often tymes it may be concluded out of false affirmations As for example
Idolatrie proueth that there is a God but Idolatry is not therefore the true worship of god Of the heresie of the Pharisies that helde Pythagoras opinion of the passing of one soule into diuers bodies may be concluded the immortalitie of the soule but this doth not iustifie that errour of the Pharisies by the heresy of Origines which taught that all men should be saued at length not onely the immortalitie of the soule and the resurrection but also the infinite mercy of God may be concluded which all are true articles yet was not the heresie of Origine true for all this vnlesse M. Allen hath forgotten that olde sophisme which children can solute who so euer sayth you are an asse sayth you are a lyuing creature but he that sayth you are a liuing creature sayth true therefore who so euer sayth you are an asse sayth true And such for all the worlde is M. Allens reason who so confesseth prayers for the deade confesseth that the deade doe liue and shall rise againe but he that confesseth that the dead doe liue and shall rise againe doth not erre therefore he that confesseth prayers for the deade doth not erre 2 But now their aunswere must be here that this booke by which I haue vrged them so farre shall be no scripture And this is the ishue of heresie lo. These men that lightly writh wreast Gods worde from all true meaning to the maintenaunce of their matter being further charged by euidence of the wordes when other conuenient shifte can not be founde they are driuen to refuse vtterly the sacred canonicall scripture of God for notwithstanding their perpetuall bragges of scripture yet there can no scripture holde them but they will either finde a fonde shifte to loose it or els a shamefull stoutnes vtterly to brast and breake it They first seeke by suttelty to vnfasten the bonde of Gods trueth which is euery waye so enwrapped with the testimonies of holy Scripture then as they can not worke by wiles they boldely brast the bandes in sonder Thus when for misconstruing of this plane assertion of the booke of Machabees they can conuey no fit meaning they are driuen to harde shiftes and vnsemely to deny the whole booke to be scripture and therefore in matters of question of no authority In which pointe the authoritie of the Iewes moueth them more in denying the bookes to be in the canon of Gods scripture then the decree of the holy Church for the approuing of the same to be scripture But S. Hierome though he confesse the Iewes not to allowe them yet is bolde to recken them amongest the bookes of the holy Histories not measuring their authority by the canon of the Hebrues but by the rule of Christian councells The Canons of the Apostles will chalenge them from the Iewes and heretikes to be scripture still Innocentius the first in his rehersall of diuine bookes numbreth these of the histories of the Machabees also the Councell of Carthage the third authorisheth them S. Augustine in his bookes De doctrina Christiana numbring all canonicall scriptures with the reste reciteth these also Of which bookes in the xviij of the Citie of God he thus further testifieth Ab hoc tempore apud Iudaeos restituto templo non reges sed principes fuerunt vsque ad Aristobulum quorum supputatio temporum non in scripturis sanctis quae Canonicae appellantur sed in alijs inuenitur in quibus sunt MachabaeoruÌ„ libri quos non Iudaei sed Ecclesia pro canonicis habet From this time he meaneth after the history of Esdras there was no kinges but chiefe gouernours after the restitutioÌ„ repaire of the temple till Aristobulus time of all which time there is no Chronikle nor couÌ„te in the scriptures which be Canonicall but in other that be extant we finde that supplied as in the bookes of Machabees which bookes although the Iewes do not yet the Church of God counteth for canonicall scripture But what shoulde we stande in this point the whole Church of God and euery part or prouince thereof euery learned doctour and vertuous Christian man hath receiued and allowed them for scripture the which constant and perpetuall iudgement of the Church of Christ if any man refuse let him be esteemed an Ethnike Or because he defendeth the Iewes authority against the determination of Christes Churâ—h let him be at this time accompted for a iewe And yet I thinke he ouer shooteth them herein for they confesse the history to be true although not holy Scripture neither haue they found any such errour of doctrine therein conteined as he doth And as for the auncient Christian writers and famous doctours they alleage euen that place to proue the lawefull prayer for Christian soules departed whereby these fellowes take occasion to saie it is no scripture at all As godly Damascenus in these wordes Scitis enim quid dicat scriptura quomodo Iudas ille Machabaeus in Syon Ciuitate regis magni vt cognouit populum sibi subiectum à Palestinis hostibus occisum scrutatione facta inuenta idola in sinibus corum statim pro vnoquoque eorum ad dominum qui ad misericordiam facilis paratus est munera propitiatoria obtulit sane ob summam religionem fraternamque charitatem in hoc facinore vt in omnibus alijs a diuinissima scriptura magnificus admirabilis habebatur You know sayth he what the scripture reporteth how that worthy Iudas Machabeus of Syon the City of the great kinge after he vnderstood certeine of his subiectes to haue bene slaine of the Palestines his enemies and search being made had founde in their lappes idols straight wayes offered to God who is much inclined to mercy for euery of his souldiars so slaine propitiatory oblations â–ª who suerly for that act as proceding of wonderfull religion and brotherly loue and in all other affaires is of the holy writte esteemed mighty and meruelous Longe before this writer did S. Augustine vse the same booke and text of Machabees to proue the prayers sacrifice for the departed in peace In the booke of Machabees sayth he we reade that sacrifice was offered for the deade But if it were in none of the olde scriptures reade at all yet the authority of the vniuersall Church which for this point is plaine were of no small force whereby it is prouided that in the prayers which be made at the altare by the priest to our Lorde God the commemoration of the deade shall haue their place Thus by these auncient authors both the bookes be approued the text it selfe for which our aduersaries vnworthely denied the booke alleaged for the same purpose and the doctrine so sure that if no scripture coulde be founde it would beare out it selfe against all falsehood But this doctor handleth Pelagius the heretique denying the booke of VVisdome to be scripture because there was a sentence out of the fourth Chapter thereof brought
against his wicked doctrine euen as he shoulde be and as these wranglers in the like case must be The place well marked shal serue our turne when so euer we heare them so impudently reiect scriptures because they impugne their heresies which els shoulde be as good scriptures as any booke of the Bible if they either woulde make with them or by any crafty colouring not plainely make against them Thus he sayth Nec ideo liber Sapientiae qui tanta numerositate annorum legi meruit in ecclesia Christi pati debet iniuriam quoniam resistit eis qui pro meritis hominum falluntur rursus omnibus hic liber tractatoribus anteponendus quoniam sibi cum anteposuerunt etiam temporibus Apostolorum proximi egregij tractatores qui eum testem adhibentes nihil se adhibere nisi diuinum testimonium crediderūt in English thus It is no reason that the booke of VVisdom which so many worlde 's together hath bene worthy the reading in the Church of Christ shoulde nowe receiue such wrong at our handes because it plainely resisteth these fellowes that exalt mans merites aboue Gods grace And againe this booke is of more authority then all the expositours in the worlde for the noble writers hard by the Apostles time did much preferre this booke before them selues who alleaging the testimony of that scripture doubted not but they vsed thereby the witnesse of Gods holy word Euen so must we tell our maisters that it were plaine wrong to discredit the history of the Machabees which hath bene in our Bible euer sith Christes time for holy Scripture because it hath an euident testimonie against their false belefe concerning the state of the soules departed which booke is not onely better to be beleued then all Caluins false gloses but of more authority then all holy expositors Out of which booke both S. Augustine others many haue vsed proofe of their matters as of the testimonie of Sacred and holy scripture 2 I will not gaine saye but who so denyeth the authority of the holy Scriptures thereby bewrayeth him selfe to be an heretike as all Papistes doe which I will proue afterwarde But he that admitteth for scripture that which is not proceded from the spirite of God and thereby will auouch for trueth that which is contrary to the vndoubted worde of God is no lesse heretike then he for it is all one sinne to adde to the worde of God and to take from it But M. Allen pretending to proue the booke of Machabees canonicall by authority of the Church when he can not by consent that it hath with the scriptures of God beginneth with the authority of Hieronym in prol Mach. But what he meaneth thereby or what place he noteth I know not But this I knowe that in his Preface vpon the booke of kinges he doth not onely omit it in rehersall of the canonicall bookes but also accompteth it plainely among the Apocryphall Next he alleageth the canons of the Apostles Wise canons I promise you as truely made by the Apostles as the double canons that lie on the tower hyll of London In which are rehersed 3. bookes of Machabees two Epistles of Clemens for canonicall scripture but the Apocalypse of S. Iohn hath no place at all by which it may appeare what Apostles they were that made that canckred canon Then followeth the prouinciall Councell of Carthage the third which nameth the 2. bookes of the Machabees amonge the canonicall scriptures euen as it doth the 5. bookes of Salomon whereas the Church alloweth but 3. namely the Prouerbes the preacher and the Canticles and although you shoulde numbre to these the booke of Wisdome yet can you make but 4. in all that we know of Againe in what sence they did call those bookes canonicall appereth by Augustine that was one of that Councell namely that they maye be reade so it be with iudgement Contra 2. Gaudentij epistolam lib. 2. cap. 23. Et hanc quidem scripturam quae appellatur Machabaeorum non habent Iudaei sicut legem Prophetas Psalmos quibus dominus testimonium perhibet tanquam testibus suis dicens oportet impleri omnia quae scripta sunt in lege prophetis in psalmis de me Sed recepta est ab ecclesia non inutiliter si sobriè legatur audiatur And this scripture of the Machabees the Iewes compte not as the lawe and the prophetes and the Psalmes to whome our Lorde geueth testimony as to his witnesses saying it behoued that all thinges should be fulfilled that were written of me in the lawe and in the Prophetes and in the Psalmes But it is receiued of the Church not vnprofitably if it be soberly reade and harde Here you see that Augustine howsoeuer he alloweth those bookes yet he alloweth them not in full authority with the lawe Prophetes and Psalmes nor with out condition of sobriety in the reader or hearer But Hieronym sayth plainely the Church receiueth them not as canonicall scriptures in his preface vpon the booke of Prouerbes Sicut ergo Iudith Tobiae Machabaeorum libros legit quidem ecclesia sed eos inter canonicas scripturas non recipit Sic haec duo volumina legat ad aedificationem plaebis non ad authoritatem ecclesiasticorum dogmatum confirmandam Therefore euen as the Church readeth in deede the bookes of Iudith Tobias and Machabees but yet receiueth them not among the canonicall scriptures so maye she reade these 2. bookes videlicet Ecclesiasticus and the booke of Wisdome falsely intitled to Salomon for the edification of the people but not to confirme the authority of ecclesiasticall opinions Thus if Augustine doe simply allowe these bookes you haue Hieronym that doth simply refuse them If Augustine saye the Church receiueth them for canonicall Hieronym sayth the Church receiueth them not for canonicall As for Damascene except you woulde stryue with numbre of witnesses I know not why you alleage him being one to whose iudgement as but a late writer in comparison you know we ascribe small credit I might produce against him Athanasius or at leste wise one of elder time then Damascene vnder the name of Athanasius but that I haue alleaged already is sufficient to represse that vaine and vnskilfull insultation that you vse in so many wastfull wordes against vs for refusing the authority of him that abridged Iason the Cyrenians bookes for canonicall scriptures 3 But our aduersary learned not this practise of Pelagius onely for it is an older sore and a common sicknesse to all deuisers of deuilish doctrine as the skillfull in the Churchies affaires may acknowledge For some there were that otherwise coulde not vpholde heresy but by the vtter deniall of all the olde Testament as Carpocrates Ceuerus Manicheus But Marcion and Cerdon reiect all together sauyng Lukes Gospel Now Cerinthus and Ebion make counte of none of all the Euangelicall histories but the Gospell of Matthewe Cerinthus againe and Seuerus
woulde haue robbed the Church of the actes of the Apostles A sect called Alogiani do refuse the Gospell of S. Iohn with the Apocalypse Martine illiricus Caluine and their companions that no man being but an heretique shoulde euer out pricke them will shoulder with the proudest and lifte out of our Bibles the bookes of Machabees with S. Iames Epistle and more when more nede requireth The which Epistle as also the Epistles of Iohn and Iudas were once doubted of not as conteining any matter wherof the trueth was vncertaine but as bookes not knowen to be of like force as canonicall scripture in the impugning of heresies or confirming articles of belefe as all workes be till Gods Church haue published their authority and declared all thinges in them conteined to be of the same credit that the spirite of God is and of Gospell like trueth And by that authority of the Church what booke so euer be allowed though it was not so taken before yet now we must needes accept it sicut vere est verbum Dei as the very word of god And so be these canonicall Epistles and bookes of Machabees as before is declared Here nowe euery man may learne that it is a very daungerous matter to geue lesse credit to any of these bookes or wauer in any point of faith written in them for such fellowes iudgements that nowe amongest them haue lefte vs neither olde nor newe Testament Such stubborne boldenesse had these willfull men in mainteinaunce of mischeuous doctrine VVhose open impudencie was counted handsome conueiaunce of their scholers and adherents which were very many notwithstanding the Catholike Christian men in all ages both meruailed and lamented their blindnesse And yet doubtlesse it is not much to be wondered at to see that man flatly forsake the scripture of God who is not abashed to refuse and condemne that sense and vnderstanding of the Scripture which the whole Church with all her learned men haue euer allowed and counted most holy VVell by the strength of this piller we haue chalenged and saued hitherto for all the barking of bandogges the Scripture of God with the knowne meaning thereof And so I trust we shall doe still from the new aduersaries by the assured promise of thassistance of Gods holy spirite which shall leade vs not onely to the true canonicall Scriptures with the sense of the same but also guide vs in all truth necessary for our saluation Let euery man therefore here take heede how he doubteth of the knowne and certayne sense that the Church of Christ by decree of councell or consent of doctors applyeth to any Scripture least by mistrusting the sayd sense he goe forward vnaduisedly from open deniall of the common to found a priuate meaning of his owne in the stubborne defense whereof when he shall against the truth malipertly stand he goeth vnluckely forward at the end blasphemously reiecteth the blessed word sacred Scripture of God as we haue proued the auncient enemies of truth to haue done and as in these new sect maisters we may to our great dolour see Yet loe euen these are they that in all ages as Vincentius sayth flye in their talke and teaching ouer the law the prophets the Psalmes the Gospell That cry out of pottes pulpits nothing but Gods word the booke of the Lorde the testament of Iesus Christ Paule scripture as it may be supposed and as in th ende it is proued to driue out of doores Paule Scripture Testament and Christ too and not to bring into the peoples heades or heartes the feare and loue of God the holsom precepts of Paules heauenly preaching nor the true meaning of any Scripture VVho being vrged will rather credit a minstrells ballat then the Machabeis or best booke in the Bible But now you may see that whiles these men thought to saue their credits by miscrediting the Scripture they haue wrought so wisely that they haue lost their owne credits both in this poynt and in all other for euer And as they hoped by deniall of Scripture to cloke their errour they haue wonne to them selues the property of an heretike by open shew of their owne folly 3 And euen as vaine friuolous is this discourse that followeth to shew what bookes of scripture were in olde time refused by what heretikes But you thinke to match vs with them for denying the Machabees where vnto you adde the Epistle of S. Iames. If Martine and Illyricus haue some times doubted of that Epistle they are not the first that doubted of it Eusebius sayth plainely it is a counterfect Epistle lib. 2. cap. 23. And yet he was not accompted an heretike I saye not this to excuse them that doubt of it for I am perswaded they are more curious then wise in so doing but whereas you ioine Caluine with them it is because you can not leaue to lye with out shame while you are an instrument to defend diuelish errors with out shewe of trueth For Caluine receiueth it defendeth it expoundeth it and in all his writings allegeth it as canonical scripture Therefore if he were as ill as you compt him yet it were shame to lye on the deuill But we shall not nede to â—ake among the olde heresies to finde what bookes of holy Scripture you Papistes refuse when it is an easy matter to take your owne confessions and bolde assertions by which it is manifest that you doe not as those heretikes which you name reiect some one or two bookes but the whole authority of all the canonicall scriptures For when you affiâ—me that no booke of holy Scripture is canonicall but so farre forth as your Church will allow it who seeth not that you doe abrogate all maiestie and authoritie from the word of God submitting it to the iudgements of men Moreouer when you will not admit any sence of the scripture but such as your Church wil allow although the same be contrary to the plaine wordes thereof what authority doe you leaue to the worde of God which you make to be but a dead lettre vntil you geue it such a sence as it pleaseth you Finally where you make decrees of men either priuate or common customes traditions vnwritten verities in which is no certainety at all not onely equiualent but also oftentimes superior to the auctority of holy scriptures what certainety credit or estimation doe you leaue to the scriptures of God aboue other writinges nay all other writinges are in better case then the scriptures are with you For other writings may be compted the workes of their authors with out your censure the holy Scripture may not be compted the worde of God except you list so to allow it which may as well refuse that which is Gods worde in deede as you receiue and obtrude that which is not the worde of God at all Other writings haue such sence as the authors haue expressed them selues in their workes and maye be gathered by their wordes The
holy Scripture may not haue any allowed sence approued to be the meaning of God the author thereof by consideration of the wordes nor conference of one place with an other but it must nedes haue such sence as your Church will fayne vnto it Finally other writinges are of credit according to the authoritie of the writers The holy Scriptures with you haue not credit according to the authoritie of God the author of them but according to your determination that maye conferre or perferre vnto them what you list whereby it is manifest that you Antichristian Papistes receiue onely the names of the canonicall scriptures and the metaphysicall wordes abstract from all sence but the authoritie meaning and credit you vtterly deny to be in them submitting them altogether to your owne selues and your most corrupt peruerse iudgement The rest of your tedious rayling vnto the ende of the chapter I know not why I should aunswere further except it were to waste incke and paper For the stocke of your fructlesse tree being digged vp by the rootes the proude toppes and braue braunches therof must nedes fal downe and wither away with it That the funeralls of the Patriarches both in the lavve of nature and Moises and Christ had practise in them for the reliefe of the soules departed CAP. IIII. 1 NOw therefore I haue great hope to trust so much of all studious readers for that loue which they beare vnto truth that they will geue creditte to the manifest wordes of Scripture which so plainly doe set forth not onely the benefite that ariseth to the departed by prayers but also witnesse that there was practise at Ierusalem by oblation and sacrifice for the same purpose by order of their law For otherwise would that good knight so highly commended neuer haue presumed to bring in any superstitious new vsage contrary to the rule of that Church neither would the Priestes at Ierusalem haue offered for the dead without contradiction vnder the gouernment of so good a bishop neither would the Author of she booke vpon so light a beginning haue praysed the fact or otherwise made mention of it then as of a new deuise of the same man VVhom I doubt not therefore rather to haue followed the continuall custome of the Church then to haue inuented any newe vnknowne order of his owne VVhich may well appeare at this day by the ceremonies and sacrifices of the olde lawe yet superstitiously obserued emongest the dispersed Iewes where emongest other rites of their lawe they offer and make solemne supplication for the soules departed as Antonius Margarita a Iewe that forsooke his profession and became Christian witnesseth in a booke that he made of the faith of the Iewes VVhere he reporteth out of their sacrifice this prayer Deus animarum fidelium recordetur in paradisum cum Abraham Isaac Iacob alijsque integerrimis sanctis collocet that is Lord remember the faithfull soules and place them in paradise with Abraham Isaac and Iacob and other thy perfect Sainctes and holy men And for that purpose they haue a memoriall booke as he sayth out of which the names of the departed are yerely recited But we much neede not this report herein for that may well appeare to haue bene vsed long before Iudas Machabaeus his dayes For what other thing doth that long mourning fasting charitable releuing of the poore and other common afflictions which men tooke vpon them at the obites of their friendes and fathers as well in the law of nature as afterward continually in Moises time what else can they meane but perpetual practise for the rest of their soules Looke how religiously Abraham celebrated the rites of his wiues funerall which the Scripture calleth Officium funeris the office of the Buriall which he fulfilled by weeping and lamentation made ouer the corps Neither can I thinke that the office and iust funeralls stoode in mourning or sorowyng without praying or other remedies of reliefe towardes the departed seeing especially that office of mourning by solemne dirigies as we nowe tearme them had place time and ordre by rule appointed to be executed yea and were not ended by many dayes together nor at one time nother As it appeareth that Ioseph and his brethern executed their fathers funeralls first fourty dayes in Aegypte and then in their owne country celebrabant exequias saith the text seuen dayes together So the children of Israel celebrated Moyses obsequies with thirty dayes solemne mourning in the downes of Moab Not by that weeping which procedeth of priuate affection towardes a mans friende for that can not be limited nor yet prescribed by rule as all these solemne dirigies were But questionlesse this office conteined for the reliefe of the deceased almes prayer fastes and teares all which may well be termed mourning songes or weeping ouer the dead for that time most cōuenient Of which the wise man geueth this precept Super mortuū plora VVeepe ouer the departed And that thou maiest well perceiue these publike rites of solemne dirigies to perteine properly to the due helpe of those for whome they be exercised S. Ambrose doubteth not to affirme that of those burialls in the lawe of nature the necessary obseruation of our Christian dayes monthes and yeares mindes kepte for the deade had their beginning saying thus in his funerall sermon made the fourtith daye solemnely kept for the memory of the noble Emperour Theodosius Eius Principis proxime conclamauimus obitum nunc quadragesimum celebramus assistente sacris altaribus Honorio principe quia sicut sanctus Ioseph patri suo Iacob quadraginta diebus humationis officia detulit ita hic Theodosio patri iusta persoluit quia alij tertium trigesimum alij septimum quadragesimum obseruare consueuerūt quid doceat lectio consideremus defuncto inquit Iacob praecepit Ioseph pueris sepultoribus vt sepelirēt eum repleti sunt ei quadraginta dies Haec ergo sequenda solemnitas quam prescribit lectio Bonus itaque Ioseph qui formam pio muneri dedit c. VVe kept of late the day of this noble kinges buriall And now againe we celebrate his fourtith dayes mind the prince Honorius his sonne assisting vs before the holy altares for as holy Ioseph bestowed vpon his fathers funeral fourty dayes dutie euen so doth this prince procure his fathers obsequies And because some obserue the thirde day and the thirtith other kepe customably the vij and the fourtith let vs looke vpon the text which readeth thus Iacob being departed Ioseph commaundeth the prouisours of the sepulture to bury him and so they did and made vp full fourty dayes in that obite this solemnity then must we fellowe prescribed by the scripture Good was this Ioseph that first gaue vs the forme and fashion of so holy a function By these wordes we see the antiquity of our Christian dirigies and diuersitie of dayes as yet it is vsed in
mounthes or twelue mounthes mindes to haue ishued downe from S. Ambrose time to ours from the lawe of nature by the Patriarches prescription to his dayes not by mourning and mumchaunse as the buriall of Geneuas booke appointeth but at the holy altares these obites were kepte as with deuoute prayers and sacrifice VVhereof in better place I shall speake more anone He alludeth there also to our dilexi and other Psalmes which we yet singe in Gods Church ouer the departed CAP. IIII. 1 WHen you haue perforce as you phantysie made a breatch in that strong walle that enuironed the canonicall scriptures and made a great seperation between them and all other writing by thrusting in the abridgmēt of Iasons storie among them now as though you had taken the citye you make spoile and hauoke with out all order or honesty of all that liketh you within the compasse of holy writ and with out Nowe burialls mournings almes fasting festing building times and seasons all are youres But he that longeth to haue his splene or his gaule moued let him reade these discourses following if he list to laugh at foolish arguments let him come hether if he wil be angry with frowarde applications of the scripture here can he not wante occasion And first he hopeth that all they that loue the trueth will fauor his cause when they heare out of the scriptures that sacrifice for the deade was offered at Ierusalem by order of the lawe By order of the lawe M. Allen shew me one iote or title of the lawe to approue sacrifice for the deade Et eris mihi magnus Apollo Phyllida solus habebis and I will worshippe your wordes as an oracle and confesse that you onely haue the trueth I know your aunswere you haue no writing but you haue good reasons for so good a knight so many priestes so good a bishop such an author woulde neuer haue allowed it if it had not bene according to the lawe of god Touching your authour we haue saide enough already As for the good knight Iudas was not so suer of falling but Dauid a better knight then he transgressed the lawe of God to carry the arke vpon a new chariotte which shoulde haue bene borne vpon mens shoulders 1. Chron. 13. wherein not onely Dauid but so many Priestes and Leuites so good a bishop and the whole generall councell of Israell did erre Here was neither Zadocke nor Abiather nor Abinadab nor Gad nor Nathan or any other that made contradiction vntill God him selfe shewed his displeasure by killing of Vzza But because M. Allen thinketh the bishop being so good a man woulde neuer haue consented to it if it had bene euill I woulde aske of him who was bishop or high priest then that he was so good a bishop and so worthy of his commendation Suerly if he were a good man he was much to blame to suffer any such thing to be done in the temple of God which was not appointed by the lawe of god But if he were a wicked and an vngodly man by M. Allens owne reason it is not vnlike but that he woulde for the gaine of 2000 drachmes of siluer suffer such a superstitious newe vsage contrary to the lawe Now because M. Allen sayeth he was so good a bishop let him chose which it was of these 3. that satte on the seate of the high priest all the time that Iudas had any dignity amonge the people namely Iason Menclaus and Alcinus let him take the beste of them although it appeareth by the story that Menaelaus the worst of them all three was Byshop in that tyme and he shall see that no man euer except he were willfully disposed to lye would bestow such commendation vppon him as M. Allen doth to call him so good a Bishop and to defend the gouernment of so good a Bishop from suffering any superstitious vsage contrary to the law when they were all three open transgressors forsakers of the law And what the Priestes of that time were let his owne author declare 2. Mach. 4. The priestes were now no more diligēt about the seruice of the aultar but despised the temple and regarded not the sacrifices but made hast to be partakers of the wicked expenses at the play after the casting of the stone These were those reuerend Priestes of those dayes not vnlike your hedge Priestes of popery And although Iudas did afterward make a peece of reformation after the horrible prophaning of the temple and the lawes through cruell persecution yet these Priestes were not therby sodenly chaunged into godly men carefull for the sinceritie of Gods law but were redy like the reformed popish Priestes that we haue seene in our tyme to doe what so euer the Prince hath commaunded to be as ready againe to doe the contrary at an other Princes commaundement In such a time vnder so wicked a Priest no maruell if such corruption did enter Moreouer the fact of Iudas fauoureth not the popish purgatory where none but veniall and light sinnes are expiable but those that were slayne for whom the same offering was made dyed in deadly sinne as appeareth by the story they had vnder their coates Iewels consecrated to Idolls which was so heynous an offence that Iudas feared that they should haue bene all vtterly destroyed for their fault and therefore it might seeme that he caused the sacrifice to be offered not so much to pacifie God for them that were killed as to purge them selues of that pollution and prophanation sauing that the author of the booke expoundeth that fact otherwise And whereas M. Allen sayth that prayer for the dead is yet vsed of the Iewes They that haue as good cause to know their custome as he affirmeth contrary He citeth Antonius Margarita turned from a Iewe to a Papiste which auoucheth the same The rabbins in their writings when they speake of any that is dead they onely blesse his memory and in the booke of their common praiers and ceremonies printed in the hebrew tongue there is no such forme of prayer to be found for the deade But if any of them as they doe in many ceremonies papizare haue learned the superstition of the Papistes it is not this alone that they haue contrary to the word of god But lette vs come to the matter of this chapter M. Allen asketh what other thing doth all the mourning fasting and other ceremonies of burying meane but a practise for the rest of their soules I aunswere with distinction because his question is with confusion partly they meane that those which did such thinges lamēted for the departure of so excellent men partly they ment to shew their hope of their resurrection mourning fasting were to expresse their sorrow the other ceremonies were to declare that mens bodies should rise againe As for almes I find not that it was vsed at burialls But what meane you M. Allen if you be not out of your wittes to imagine prayer for the
or daunger or to shew their sorrow for prophanation of Gods glory And any of these are more reasonable causes then the superstitious surmise of Beda with his curious conceit of the six ages of the worlde where other make seuen and eight ages 3 And that charitable reliefe of the poore by open almes and doles was also practised for the welth of the departed in the obittes of olde time the scripture it selfe in the fourth chapter of Tobie maketh mention by report of that godly commaundemeÌ„t that the good olde father gaue is sonne herein Panem tuum cum esurientibus comede de vestimeÌ„â—is tuis nudos tege Panem tuum vinum tuum super sepulturam iusti constitue noli ex eo manducare bibere cum peccatoribus Eate thy breade with the hongry and needy and couer with thy clothes the naked Set thy breade and wine vpon the sepulture of the vertuous make not the sinnefull partaker therof which wordes of exhortation can haue no other sense but that as before in the same place he gaue his sonne in charge to bestow vppon all men according to his hability for that there was hope to all charitable almes giuers of Gods mercy so now he warneth him to feede the poore and breake his breade to such especially as should come to the iustes and funeralls of the departed He would neuer haue put him in minde to haue releeued the poore at burialls but for some commodity that might arise to the party deceased for otheâ—wise his charity might haue proffeted the needy at other times as well as vpon mens departure Some tooke foolish occasioÌ„ by this place to set store of meate vpon the graue it selfe where their father or freinde was buried as though the dead had bene desirous of corporall foode The which superstitious error S. Augustine earnestly improueth Other some made great feastes at the daye of their freindes death But the texte is plaine it was the needy and good people that were at those soleÌ„ne exequies or other wise by their prayers might be profitably present in the dayes of memories holden for them which practise was not prescribed as a newe thing to the yong Tobie but it was moued and praised vnto him as a holy vsage of other burialls in those dayes and alwayes before Bona est oratio cum ieiunio elecmosina Prayer is profitable sayth the holy Raphel when it is ioyned with fasting and almes and therefore as the fathers in their prayers for the dead fasted as we haue proued so nowe I doubt not but almes shall crie for mercy at Gods hande for the soule departed vpon whose sepulture these thinges be charitably wroght 3 What else if we had not doles at burialls proued by the example of the Patriarkes all were marred Therefore Tobias must saye for doles But first we haue shewed already by authoritie of Hieronym which is proofe sufficient against the Papist that the Church receiueth not this booke of Tobias for canonicall scripture And secondly if we shoulde receiue it yet here is nothing that helpeth M. Allens cause but his owne simple surmise He sayth in dede the wordes can haue no other sence yet all that he sayeth is not gospell but what if the truer texte of Tobias hath other wordes First in the Greeke there is no mention at all of wine as is in the Latine nor of setting breade and wine vpon the graue of the vertuous but the sence is this As before he exhorted his sonne to feede the hongry with his owne breade and to cloth the naked with his owne garments so nowe he willeth him to spare the breade out of his owne mouth to bury the righteous as he him selfe had done chap. 1. which is a cleere interpretation of this but to geue nothing at all to the vngodly or to be liberall to the rightuous euen to their death and to see them buried honestly As for the iustes and funeralls M. Allen dreameth that the poore came vnto to receiue penny dole or soule breade appeareth in the first and second Chapters how solemne they were when poore Tobie was fayne to steale the bodyes and bury them priuily by night yet vpon that corrupt Latine texte as it should seeme wherevpon M. Allen buildeth they vsed in Affrica to make sumptuous and dronken feastes vpon the graues of men in the places of buriall which they thought not onely to perteine to the honor of the martyrs but also to be some comforte to the soules of the deade This olde superstition Augustine reproueth epist. 64. Aurelio But it is pretily renewed in the funerall feastes of the Papistes as also the selling of oblations for the deade which he in the same place condemneth 4 VVe haue a notable example in the Actes of the Apostles of the force of almes with prayers which wroght life and procured mercy eueÌ„ in the next world For the benefit of faithfull workes and holy prayers will not be limited by the termes of this worlde it will haue course doune so farre as the fellowship of this Christian societie reacheth the deuill and all his abettours can not stoppe the rase thereof The onely shew of certaine cotes with the requeste of the pore widowes that wore them made to Peter the Apostle turned Tabitha to life againe after her departure those garments geuen by her when she was a lieue by the careful trauel of her almes folkes procured reliefe in the worlde to come They warmed the backes of widowes in earth sayth Emissenus and the geuer had comforth of them being gone from the earth It is good we shoulde all learne here that haue receiued benefite of any man in this liefe with loue and carefullnesse not onely in this present worlde but most of all when our frend is departed to represent vnto God before his altare and holy ministers with sorowfull weeping hearty prayer the memory of such thinges as we haue receiued by way of almes or loue at his hand It shall be a soueraigne remedy for his infirmities and the approuedst way to procure Gods mercy that can be The elders of the Iewes making earnest supplication to our Sauiour for the Centurions seruaunt lying in extremitie vsed the memorie of that gentilmans charitable actes in their church as the rediest waye to obteine grace and fauour at his handes They cried out together dignus est vt hoc illi praestes diligit enim gentem nostram synagogam ipse aedificauit nobis Lorde be gratious vnto him he is worthy that benefite for he loueth our nation and hath him selfe founded a Synagoge And S Cyprian sayth notably that good workes make a more effectuall intercession then good wordes he speaketh of the same Tabitha as followeth Circumsteterunt Petrum viduae flentes rogantes pallia tunicas omnia illa quae prius sumpserant indumenta monstrantes nec pro defuncta suis vocibus sed ipsius operibus
they gaue almes But next followeth a worthy authoritie of Clement the Apostles owne scholer and he forsooth in his Epistle to Iames the brother of our Lord commendeth obites prayer and almes for the dead But why doe ye not M. Allen rehearse his owne wordes as they are written in his Epistle belike you are ashamed of his lousie latine and thinke that all wise men would say you are madde if you beleue that Clemens which liued in the Apostles time could write no better stile thē the cobling counterfecter of those epistles For shame away with such a durty doctor as writeth to S. Iames to see there be no mise tordes murium stercora among the fragments of the Lordes portion c. Epist. 2. He was a beastly asse that writ such nasty stuffe and thought to make the world beleue that such a godly and learned father as Clemens was would write so foolishly so barbarously so filthily so malapertly of such bables as were not inuented 600 yeares after to so holy and excellent an Apostle as S. Iames was but the olde prouerbe must alwayes be true Draffe is good enough for swine But to put all out of doubt the example of Iobes sacrifice and almes which were auailable for his children and friendes sheweth that the almes of men aliue profite them that be deade In deede I reade in the booke of Iobes sacrifice and prayer but I reade not of almes giuen to merite for those that were liuing much lesse for those that were deade I doubt not but Iob gaue almes liberally when tyme occasion serued But I say those places are vnfitly of M. Allen alleged to shew the force of almes where no worde of almes is spoken Howebeit he sheweth his reason afterward why he allegeth this example of Iob because Chrysostome applyeth it to the same purpose I deny not but that Chrysostome doth as substantially alleage this example for prayers to profitte the deade as he doth the saying of God that he will protect the cittie for Dauid his seruaunts sake what shall we say Those good men in that declining state of the Church to superstition being destitute of the cleere testimonies of scripture to maintaine these plausible errors are driuen to such simple shiftes to vpholde them as it is great pitty to see It seemed to Chrysostome the best waye to staye the people from immoderate mourning but he might haue vsed a better way if he had comforted them as the Apostle teacheth 1. Thess. 4. 1. Cor. 5. Otherwise when he iudged vprightly and according to the scripture his wordes sounde cleane contrary to the opinion of purgatory and workes of other men to be meritorious for the deade as in the very next Homilie being the 42. 1. Cor. Quapropter oro obsecro vos adeoque ad genua supplex procumbo c. The wordes are long therefore I will rehearse them in English and let M. Allen finde fault with my translation if he can wherefore I praye and besech you yea and I fall downe as an humble suter to your knees while neuer so small a portion of your life remaineth be ruled by my sayinges be ye conuerted be ye amended into better lest like vnto that richman when we are gone hense we pouer forth teares which shall nothing profit there and lament in vaine for whether thou hast a father or a sonne or a freind or any other whome so euer that putteth his trust in the Lorde none of these shall deliuer thee being accused of thine owne workes For such iudgement is exercised there euery man is iudged of his owne deedes neither is any man otherwise saued there And these thinges I warne you of not as he that woulde make you sadde or bring you into desperation but that being fedde with vaine and vnprofitable hopes trusting in this man or that man we shoulde not neglect our owne vertue for if we be slothfull and doe slacke the matter neither any iust man nor Prophet nor Apostle shall helpe vs but if we be diligent hauing helpe enough of our owne workes we shall departe hense with great confidence and enioye those good thinges that are layed vp for them that loue the Lord which that we may all enioye let it be so through the grace and mercy of our Lorde Iesus Christ. Compare these wordes with the former and marke here not onely the sounde of his wordes but the weight of his reasons where as in all other places that he holdeth the contrary the wordes only fauoreth your cause his reasons are either feeble or none at all 4 But that I may serue not onely the turne of trueth but with plainnesse also instruct the vnlearned and with store satisfie the godly greedinesse of some that list see more for the comforte of their conscience I will report one notable place for the declaration of charities force euen towardes the deceased out of Gregory Nissen of the Greeke church and an other out of Athanasius the greate both directly touching the practise of good Tobie in compassion of the deade Thus sayth Gregory Dicitur bene quòd si qui hinc non praemissis bonis migrauerint postea à familiaribus neglecta oblatis reliquijs sarciantur imputari opus perinde ac ab eis factum fuerit est enim haec volūtas benignissimi Domini vt creaturae quae ad salutem petuntur sic petantur distribuantur vt exoretur non solum quando quis pro salute propria est anxius sed quando pro proximo aliquid operatur in english It is very well saide that if any depart this life his goods by alme◠being not sent to God before him and yet afterwarde the matter by his freindes in the offering vp the residue be amended that his freindes fact shall stande and be reputed as his owne worke For so hath God of his mercy ordeined that his creatures by vse whereof life and saluation may be obteined shoulde so be procured and in this ordre disposed that man shoulde not onely obteine his request in the carefull study of his owne saluation but also when he wellworketh for his frende or neighbour Here may we well perceiue that all the wayes of our Lorde be mercy and trueth And that he in a maner releeueth of his owne accorde our miseries both here and in the next life that there may be no damnation to such as be in Christ Iesus for whose sakes he turneth these base creatures of mans seruice in this life to the vse of his pardon and saluation in the life to come he accepteth the good will and trauell of other for the helpe of them which can not relieue them selues And which is the property of a most mercyfull father where he loueth he will raise the hearte of some good intercessor that by patronage and prayers of some lust Iob his fury may cease by his owne procurement But howe this mutuall worke of mercye is currant through the
Gods worde or authorities of scriptures but such as is so pitifully wrested and drawen vnto them as euery man may see the holy Ghost neuer ment any such thinge as they gather of them 3 Holde on vpwarde still and Tertullian will witnesse with thee that in that floure of Christes Church with in lesse then CC. yeares of our maisters death Oblationes fiebant annua die pro defunctis That oblations and sacrifice were yearly made at the xij monthes mindes of most men he meaneth both by the sacrifice of the Church and offeringes of the freindes of the departed as there also Repete apud Deum pro cuius spiritu postules pro qua oblationes annuas reddas Call to thy remembraunce for whose soule thou prayes and in whose behalfe thou makes yearly offeringes He speaketh of a freinde of his that practised thus for his wiues departure And in an other place he well declareth the duety of maried persons one towards an other if God by death separate them in sonder Pro anima eius orat refrigerium interim postulat offert annuis diebus dormitionis eius She prayeth for her husbandes soule and obteineth in the meane space ease and offereth euery yeare at the mind day of his passing hense And he letteth not to affirme that the maried couple that practise not thus do not beleue the resurrection Therefore he concludeth thus Nunquid nihil erimus post mortem secundum aliquem Epicurum non secundum Christum quòd si credimus mortuorum resurrectionem vtique tenebimur cum quibus resurrecturi sumus rationem de altetutro reddituri VVhat say you shall we fall to nothing after our death as the Epicure thinketh and not rise againe as Christ teacheth And if we beleue the resurrection of the deade then doubtlesse we shall be bounde to make accompt one of an other as we shall together rise againe Beware here my maisters once againe I must tell you you are going towardes the deniall of the resurrection so many as condemne the vsage of the Church in praying or offeringe for the deade Tertullian sayth you be Epicures in this point and so you be in all others I say you are past priuy muttering in your heartes that there is no God for you are come to plaine Manducemus bibamus cras enim moriemur Let vs eate and be mery we can not tell how longe we lieue I say you must aunswere for parting the affection of man and wife and the one must be countable at the day of iudgement to an other that they procured not the dueties of the deade by right of Gods holy Church for their soules departed Take heede therefore you are warned 3 Nay ho there M. Allen no higher then Tertullian And when we haue examined the testimonies of Tertullian in order as you haue brought them you shall haue small aduantage out of him yea your friendes shall thinke you had bene better to haue made no mention of him For first I must tell you that these three lines which are all that he hath written sounding that way are found in three bookes which all were written by him when he was an heretike separated from the catholike Church And therefore it may well be that all that he speaketh of prayers and oblations for the deade was onely in the conuenticles of the Montanistes of which sect he was an earnest defender rather then in the catholike Church And this coniecture seemeth the more probable because Cyprian which was afterward a catholike Bishop in the same city where Tertullian sometime had liued maketh no mention of prayers for the dead but onely of sacrifice for the Martyrs which was none other but the sacrifice of thankesgiuing lib. 4. Ep. 5. But admit that the Church of God in that time vsed these superstitious prayers and oblations for the deade let vs consider vpon what ground they were vsed The firsâ— place M. Allen allegeth in this forme Oblationes fiebant annua die pro defunctis But Tertullians wordes in libro de corona militis be these Oblationes pro defunctis pro natalitijs annua die facimus We make oblations for the dead for our birthes on the yearly day By which it is euident that M. Allen did not read these wordâ—s him selfe but receiued them of some other mans collection or sound them in some booke of common places But to the matter Tertullian him selfe shall say for me that the same custome with many other which he there rehearseth hath no ground in the holy Scripture Harum aliarum eiusmodi disciplinarum si leges expostules scripturarum nullam inuenies traditio tibi praetendetur autrix consuetudo confirmatrix fides obseruatrix Of those and such like disciplines if you require the lawes of the Scriptures you shall finde none tradition shall be pretended to you to be the author Custome the confirmer and faith the obseruer It is good to take that which is so franckly giuen and more is Tertullian to be commended that confesseth the ground of his errour not to be taken out of the word of God then they that labour to wreâ—t the Scriptures to find that which Tertullian confesseth is not to be found in them I knowe the Papistes will aunswere that tradition is of as good credit as the Scripture is the word of God vnwritten as well as the Scripture is the word of God written But why then doe they not obserue all other things that Tertullian in the same place affirmeth to be tradition if tradition be the word of God why doe they not giue to them that are newly baptised a temper of milke and hony and from the day of their baptisme forbid dayly washing all the weeke after Why doe they not count it a wicked thinge to fast on the Sunday or to pray and worship God on their knees Why doe they not count it a wicked thinge to fast betwene Easter Whitsontide or to pray on their knees all that time Finally why doe not they crosse them selues in the forehead at euery steppe they set forth at comming in at going out at putting on of garmentes at putting on of shoes at washing at the tables at lighting of candles at beddes at stooles and at all thinges what so euer they doe What aunswere can they here make but that their Church may dispense as well with the word of God vnwritten which they cal tradition as she doth against the word of God conteyned in the holy Scriptures So that alwayes what so euer they prate of antiquitie customs traditions vnwritten verities or the word of God vnwritten the authority of their blasphemous church is aboue them all Now to the second testimony alleged out of Tertullian S. Ieronym shall testifie for vs that this booke as the other that followeth was written against the Church so was also his booke de corona militis when he was out of the Church whereby it may
full of posing M. Protestant as though you were Iohannes ad oppositum I wil pose you M. Allen an other while or any M. Papiste of you all that hath a forheade to mainteine this trumperie for Clemenâ— the auncient Bishoppes writing Alas Syr what if this be proued counterfect that you saye is so olde and you with out peraduenture lye that of late haue founde it so auncient what grounde haue your schollers then Tertullian hath discharged you of authority of the scripture already how will you proue it then to be a tradition of the Apostles your aunswere wil be still Clenens sayth it But alacke Sir whether is it more licke that Eusebius and Hieronym that lyued neerer to the time of S. Clement by twelue hundreth yeares then you shoulde know or here tell of his epistles and other writings better then you But Eusebius and Hieronym neuer hearde of such writinges as were neuer seen in the Church 13. or 14. hundreth yeares after Clemens his death Where shoulde you haue them then but of some counterfecting knawe that coulde not otherwise maintaine his heresie to be old but by falsyfying and counterfecting a newe that which neuer was in the olde writers heades But to shew that your shamelesse Clement daunceth bare and breechelesse with out all honesty I will yet pose you further and bidde you call your wittes together to aunswere me Whether had you rather graunt that so holy a Pope as Clemens was did erre or â—hat he was a false knaw that woulde father an error vppon so holy a mans name and credit your Syr Clemens decreeth that the fortyeth day must be obserued for the departed according to the olde forme because the people did so obserue the bewayling of Moses But if the scripture affirme that the people bewayled Moses but 30. dayes Deut. 34. Then is your Clement a falsyfier of Gods worde and his foolish decree builded vppon his false grounde How saye you now M. Allen is this Apostolike or apostotaticall is this plaine dealing or Popish counterfecting was Clemens in the Apostles age so ignorant of the scripture or was he an ignorant hypocrite that fayned this vnder the name of Clemens Trueth seaketh not to be mainteined which lyes fayth looketh not to be defended by falsehoode The Church of Christ craueth no counterfected authoritie to establish her doctrine Therefore it is neither trueth nor fayth nor the doctrine of the Church of Christ that you mainteine defend and establish by lying falsyfying and counterfecting but error infidelity and heresie he therefore that will forsake the certainetie of Gods worde to builde vpon the traditions of men for leuing the only pathe of trueth hath a iust rewarde to fall into the pitte of error 5 VVell I will close vp this parte of our talke for Tobies almes borde in the obittes of Christian men with S. Augustines graue iudgement who as he is plaine for the benefite of oblations in the memorialls of mens departures in all placies so here in a maner he ordereth the action thereof for abusies that might thereon arise in his epistle to Aurelius The offeringes sayth he obserued for the soules departed whereof there is no question but profet ariseth to them let them not be ouer sumptuous vpon the mindes of the deceased nor soulde away but geuen with out grudge or disdaine to such as be present and woulde be partaker thereof but if mony be offered it may be distributed out of hande to the poore and then shall not those dayes of their freindes memorialles be to their great griefe forsaken or destitute of companie And the ordre with honeste comelinesse shall be kept continually in the Church So S. Clement him selfe teacheth all them that be called to such dayes of prayers for the departed and to be partakers of those oblations or charitable relieues which were by some honest sober refreshing euen in the Church in those dayes obserued whether they be of the laity or of the priestes he geueth them this lesson Qui ad memorias eorum vocamini cum modestia cum dei timore comedite veluti valentes legatione fungi pro mortuis cum sitis presbyteri diaconi Christi sobrij esse debetis priuatim cum alijs vt possitis intemperantes coercere All you that are called to the funeralles of the departed refresh your selues in measure and feare of God that you may be worthy to be as it were in commission of intreatie for the deade and being priestes or deacons of Christ you are bounde to be sobre euen at home but abrode for others example and discipline 5 You had bene as good to haue left out the comparing of Augustines oblations with Tobies almes borde for that custome which most resembled your fantasie of Tobies almes borde Augustine condemneth where he alloweth oblations for them that sleepe to profit some what Sed quoniaÌ„ istae in caemiterijs ebrietates luxuriosa conuiuia non solùm honores martyrum in carnali imperita plebe credi solent sed etiam solatia mortuorum mihi videtur facilius illic dissuadeâ—i posse istam foeditatem ac turpitudinem si de scripturis prohibeatur oblationes pro spiritibus dormientium quas verè aliquid adiuuare credendum est super ipsas memorias non sunt sumptuosae c. But because this dronkennesses and riotous festes vsed in the Church yeardes of the carnall and vnskillfull people are wonte to be beleued not onely to be the honour of the martyrs but also the comforte of the deade my thinke it were more easy that this filthynesse and beastlynesse may be there diswaded if both it be forbidden out of the scriptures and that the oblations for the spirites of the deade which truely we must beleue doth helpe somewhat vpon the memories them selues be not sumptuous c. But if Augustine had knowen the horrible abuses which grew afterwarde by permission of these oblations he woulde as well haue prohibited them out of the scripture as that hethenish banquettinge in the Church yeardes in honor of the martyrs as for comforte of deade mens soules As for Clement that teacheth the preistes and deacones to be sober and moderate in eating where they were bidden to buriall feastes euen here also he sheweth him selfe in his owne colours As though in the dayes of Clemens when the Church was in great persecution they had nothing els to doe but to keepe sumptuous feastes at their burialls where at the priestes and deacons were in daunger of glouttony dronkennesse as they were in the Popish church when Popery was in the pride seldome temperate or sober and lest of all at burialls and monthes mindes c. That the benefite of prayer and almes appertaineth not to such as dye in mortall sinne though in the doubtefull case of mans beeing the Church vseth to praye for all departed in Christes fayth CAP. VII 1 THus farre we now are broght I trust with proofe and euidence enough with
testifieth that the Gospell was preached in this lande in the reigne of Tyberius the Emperour proue vnto vs that Paule or Simon or Thaddeus or Ioseph or who so euer first preached the Gospell in this Ilande tought prayers or sacrifices for the deade Proue it I saye and the daye is yours for euer if you proue it not as neither you nor the deuill for you is able to doe it the worlde may see your swelling bragges to be nothing but blowen bladders or bubles in which there is nothing but ayre as your wordes are nothing but winde yet are you not ashamed to name Gildas who as about the first conuersiō of the Britaynes to the faith he hath no worde of any such matters so where he complayneth of there ruyne and decaye he accuseth the priests of his time for sieldome sacrificing but of sacrificing for the deade he speaketh not although the error of praying for the deade were receiued in other places and whether this countrye were free from it I am not able to saye nor you to proue that it was infected with it And therefore hauing nothing to shew for six hundreth yeare◠almost in which this lande was neuer voyde of Christians you come in at last with the peruersion of the Saxons by Augustine that prowde cruell and vnlearned monke of whose pryde and cruelty our stories doe testifie at large his ignorance and vnskilfulnesse is bewrayed by him selfe in his writinges to Pope Gregory I force litle what miracles he wrought to cōfirme his errors neither doe I waye worth a flye that longe tale you tell out of Beda of him that had his cheines fallen o◠in Masse time That credulous and superstitious age had many such fayned miracles 500 such tales are toulde in vitas patrum serm discipuli legenda aurea the festiuall c. But make you no more accompt of Beda his graue authority then of those fayned fables suerly I make this accompt of Beda that if he had reported the matter of his owne knowledge I woulde haue credited the facte done and yet tending to the maintenaunce of false doctrine I would neuer the sooner haue bene moued from the trueth of Gods worde But when he reported it onely of heare saye and that not of the parties them selues that might haue bene witnesses but of them that hearde this one man tell it by him selfe it caryeth small credit with it I beleue that such a tale was tolde to Beda but what if they added some what to it that tolde him and what if he that tolde them lyed if Beda had not bene ouer light of credit him selfe he shoulde not haue put it in writing before he had perfect intelligence not only of the party him selfe but also of that Londiner and gentleman and those that kept him in prison But how so euer the matter weare true or false it is no proofe nor preiudice against the trueth of God vttered in the holy scriptures Let Augustine speake for vs in his booke ae vnitate ecclesiae against the Donatistes which boasted of miracles as the Papistes doe but Augustine will not allow them for sufficient proues with out the authoritie of the scriptures non dicat verum est quia ego hoc dico aut quia hoc dixit ille collega meus aut illi collegae mei aut illi episcopi vel clerici vel laici nostri aut ideo verum est quia illa illa ▪ mirabilia fecit Donatus vel Potius vel quilibet alius aut quia homines ad memorias mortuorum nostrorum orant exaudiuntur aut quia illa illa ibi contingunt aut quia ille frater noster aut illa soror nostra tale visum vigilans vidit vel tale visum dormiens somniauit c. Sed vtrum ipsi ecclesiam teneant non nisi diuinarum scripturarum canonicis libris oftendant c Let him not saye it is therefore true because I say it or such a one my companion sayed it or those my companions or those our byshoppes or clerkes or laye men or it is therefore true because Donatus or Pontius or any other did these or those miracles or because men praye at our dead mens memories and are harde or because these or these thinges doe happen there or because this our brother or that our sister sawe such a vision waking or dreamed such a vision sleeping c. but whether they holde the Church or no let them shewe none otherwise but by the canonicall bookes of the holy Scriptures This place M. Allen if it might take place with you might serue to cut of all controuersies not onely of purgatory but of the Church it selfe and what so euer is in question betwene vs But you are wise enough you will neuer venture your cause vppon that triall 2 VVe must here stay a litle and ponder in our mindes how our forefathers and people of our owne lande were taught in this article when they were first deliuered out of Sathans bondage and conuerted to the fellowship of Christes Church and let vs nothing doubt but that which our owne Apostles both by worde and worke by miracle and by martyrdome first proued vnto vs is the very true and unfallible faith of our Christianitie For if that were not true which at our first conuersion was preached vnto vs then we receiued not the faith but falsehoode at their handes then the histories doe make a lowde lye in testifying we were turned to the Christian faith both at that time and by such men then it were no conuersion from heathen Idolatrie to the worship of Christ but it were a chaunge from one superstition to an other and this latter so much worse then the other because vnder the name of Christ there were practise perpetuall of execrable sacrilege in instituting of a sacrifice to the defasing of our redemption in adoring bare breade as the hoste of our saluation in offering it vp to God for the sinnes both of the quicke and deade in practise of vnprofitable prayers for the soules deceased with the like false worship of God in all pointes Then their preaching was highly to Gods dishonour pernicious to the people and damnable to them selues Then haue all that euer ranne the rase of that faith and doctrine till this daye which they taught perished with them then are they founde false witnesses whome we haue accompted as our vndoubted true and lawfull pastors then God hath purposely deceiued vs with fayned miracles full many with numbers of vaine visions then all our labour is lost till this day The holynesse of so many good princies and priestes is praised in vaine the bloude of Martyrs shed in vaine the exercise of all sacraments in vaine and because all deuotion consisted in our fathers dayes in the earnest zele of so false a religion as they thinke this to be then the more deuotion the farther from Christ the lesse religion more neere to saluation then happy was he
soules departed which the Church hath customably taken in hande for all men passed in the Christian Catholike society by the way of a generall commemoration their names not particularly expressed that such thinges may be prouided by our common kinde mother to all those which doe lacke parents children kinsfolke or freindes for the due prouision of such necessary dueties By this holy mans wordes we may see the difference betwixt our owne tender naturall mother and the cursed cruell steppe dame The one followeth her children with loue and affection into the next world with full sorowfull sighes many deuout prayers and all holy workes which she vseth to their needefull helpe the other being but an vnnaturall steppemother and all the children of that adoulterous seede hath them no longer in minde then they be in sight whether they sinke or swim she maketh no accompt she hath no blessing of her owne she hindereth the mercy of other CAP. XI 1 THe argumentes of your chapters be like the gates of Lyndum which being but a very litle citie had exceding great gates in so much that Diogenes willed them to shut them vp for feare least their city went out of them Euen so your titles are merueillous large but the matter of your treatise is wonderfull streight In the last chapter we shoulde haue had prayer and sacrifice for the deade with the conuersion of all nations but a lacke we coulde not obteine so much as the same altogether in one poore nation of the Saxons and them as some thinke not so much conuerted from Gentility to Christ as peruerted from pure Christianity to superstition Nowe shall we haue euery order of celebration sence Christes time with solemne supplication for the soules departed but our probation shall not beginne vntill three or fower hundreth yeares after Christes time sauing that for a preamble we shall haue a cople of players come vppon the stage the one to counterfect Clemens the auncient the other to beare the name of Dionysius the Areopagite But such disguised doctors haue bene already to often shifted out of their players garments and shewed to the worlde in their owne apparell that any which hath wit should not be nowe deceiued by them And as concerning the diuerse formes of Liturgies which you saye doe perfectly and wholy agree with your masse as they be corrupt and falsely beare the name of them to whome they be inscribed so notwithstanding being of some antiquity they differ almost as much from your masse as your masse differeth from our forme of celebration of the communion But to follow you at the heeles as farre as you dare goe I will agree with S. Augustins rule that the lawe of beleuing shoulde make a lawe of praying but faith if it be true hath no other grounde but the worde of God therefore prayer if it procede of true faith hath no other rule to frame it by but the worde of god And though Augustine proue against the Pelagians which allowed the prayer of the Church that the Church woulde not so praye except she did so beleue yet it followeth not neither doth he meane to defend that what so euer the visible Church receiueth is true if it be not agreable to the worde of God and therefore all other perswasions set a side he prouoketh onely to the scripture to trye the faith and doctrine of the Church Which rule if he had as diligently followed in examininge the common error of his time of prayer for the deade at that time as he did in beating downe the schisme of the Donatistes or the heresie of the Pelagians he woulde not so blindly haue defended that which by holy Scripture he was not able to mainteine as he doth in that booke de cura pro mortuis agenda and else where And where as you compare our Church to a steppe dame and your Synagoge to a naturall mother we maye more iustly wringe backe that comparison vpon your noses For our Church herein approueth her selfe to be a naturall mother that she neither keepeth backe from her true children that heauenly inheritaunce which their father hath appointed them nor dissembleth the eternall abdication of them that be obstinate and rebellious But your malignant church sheweth her selfe to be a cursed steppe dame both in feeding the wicked with a vaine hope of release of paines after this life and in tormenting the well disposed with a false feare of paines which God hath released to al them that truely turne vnto him So her terror tormenteth the vertous deceiueth the wicked her hope flattereth the vngodly and disquieteth the well affected The Church of God sendeth her childreÌ„ into the euerlasting blessing of their father in heauen the Church of Rome sendeth her bastards out of the blessing of God not into the warme sonne but into whot burning cooles of purgatory to be thence deliuered at leysure as she promiseth but neuer to come out of hell fire as they shall finde 2 But let vs vewe all the orders that we finde extant or vsed through the Christian worlde for the celebration of the blessed Sacrament and sacrifice which nowe commonly in our vulgare speach we call the Masse and see whether as Augustine saide there hath not bene in all ages an especiall supplication of the priest and people for the dead as well as for the lieue First S. Clement the Apostles owne scholar reporteth how they prescribed this solemne prayer in their holy ministery for the departed Pro quiescentibus in Christo fratres nostri rogemus c. Let vs pray sayth the deacon brethern for all thoâ—e that reste in peace that our mercyfull Lorde that hath taken their soules into his hand woulde forgiue them all their offensies whether they were willingly or negligently committed and so hauing compassion vpon them woulde bring them to the lande of the holy ones and happy rest with Abraham Isaac and Iacob and all other that pleased him from the beginning where there is neither sighing sorow nor sadnesse And a litle after in the same holy actioÌ„ the Byshop prayeth him selfe in this forme O Lord looke downe vpon this thy seruaunt whome thou hast receiued into an other life and pitefully pardon him if either willingly or vnweetingly he hath offended Let him be guarded by peaceable Angells and brought to the Patriarches Prophets and Apostles and the rest of all them that haue pleased thee sith the worlde beganne Thus reporteth Clement being one of the Apostles companie and continually present in the celebration of their mysteries 2 S. Hieronyme in his cataloge of Ecclesiasticall writers reherseth all the bookes that either were knowen to be written by Clemens or sayed to be his and were not First a profitable epistle to the Corinthians being like in stile to the Epistle to the Hebrues Also vnder his name wente a second Epistle which was reiected of the auncients like wise the disputatioÌ„ of Peter and Appione written in a large treatise which Eusebius in
true worship to banish together our fathers faith CAP. XII 1 IN this chapter where he vomiteth out nothing but rayling and lying he doth rather bewraye his owne infirmitie then touch the strength of our cause For being trobled with a sore laxe of the tongue which I take to be a like disease in the mouth that it is in the wombe he gusheth out nothing but bragging and faceing scolding and sclaundering tauntinge and trifling And therefore I will but breefely confute his vanity and turne him to his matches to contend in that kind of quarreling The chiefe argument he sayeth that the Church in times past and Augustine the Churches champion vsed against the Pelagians was to shewe that their heresie was contrary to the publicke prayers of the Church what shoulde I vse many wordes I appeale to the iudgement of all Papistes that haue not loste all vse of naturall reason and indifferent iudgement which either haue reade or will take paines to reade so many workes as Augustine did write against the Pelagians whether of an hundreth arguments that he vseth this insultation be not one of the feeblest which tooke no holde of the Pelagians by force of trueth that is in it but by their owne concession and graunt of that prayer to be godly and them to be of the Church that so prayed But now the controuersie is not onely of the substance of doctrine but of the Church it selfe also And therefore when Augustine had to doe with the Donatistes that challenged the Church vnto them selues he setteth all other tryalles aside and prouoketh onely to the scriptures Therefore M. Allen if you wil teach your schollers to kepe vs at the baye as heretikes you must not teach them to barke and baule nothing but the Church the Church like tinckers curres but you must instructe them to open conningly out of the scriptures how our doctrine is cōtrary to the trueth and yours agreable to the same I do not blame you if you would faine haue that argument of the Church without tryall which is the Church to take place for it woulde ease you and your fellowes of much paine it woulde serue you both for a sworde and a buckler all other bookes arguments and reasons might be layed a side and keepe silence The Church sayth it and we are the Church therefore it is true The scriptures them selues are altogether needelesse where this argument may stand for payment This is so plaine a proofe that the aduersaries shall not be able to saye baffe vnto it In deede they were but sory whelpes that could not say baffe to the bleating of such a calfe as you are which thinke that such a foolish cauill can carry credit with them that haue any cromme of brayne in their heads The Church prayeth so therefore it is true Nay Syr you pray and practise to controle the word of God therefore you are not the Church of god Proue that you doe not so or else prate as long as you wil. And thinke not to dorre vs with Cyprians name where as if you had his iudgement we might be bold to say as the same Augustine hath giuen vs example Nos nullam Cypriano facimus iniuriam cum eius quaslibet literas à canonica diuinarum scripturarum auctoritate distinguimus Neque enim sine causa tam salubri vigilantia canon Ecclesiasticus constitutus est ad quem certi Prophetarum Apostolorum libri pertinent quos omninò iudicare non audeamus secundum quos de caeteris literis vel fidelium vel infidelium liberè vindicemus Contra Cresconium Gram. lib. 2. cap. 31. We doe Cyprian none iniurie at all when we put difference betwene any of his writinges from the canonicall authoritie of the holy Scriptures For not without a cause with so holesome diligence is the ecclesiasticall canon appoynted vnto which certeyne bookes of the Prophets and Apostles doe perteyne which we dare not iudge at all according to which we may freely iudge of all other writings either of faithfull men or infidells And againe in the 32. chapter Ego huius epistolae auctoritate non teneor quia literas Cypriani non vt Canonicas habeo sed eas ex canonicis considero quod in eis diuinarum scripturarum auctoritati congruit cum laude eius accipio quod autem non congruit cum pace eius respuo I am not bound to the authoritie of this epistle because I count the letters of Cyprian not as canonicall scriptures but I consider them by the canonicall scriptures and what so euer I finde in them agreeable to the authoritie of holy Scriptures I take it with his prayse that which agreeeth not I reiect it with his leaue Iudge here gentle reader whether Augustine would or should with any indifferency bind either men to the absolute admitting of Cyprians authoritie wherwith he would not be holden him self and know Allen for a Iangler on Augustines wordes against the meaning of Augustine or any reasonable man. 2 I would learne by what Churches example they haue lefte out of their newe fangled phantasticall seruice the offering and praying for the departed One of them was so impudent to say in an open booke that the Lyturgies of the fathers made all against the Catholikes for the proofe of their false assertions VVherein sir I pray you tell me I woulde call you by your name if I knew who you were there you were ashamed of your owne name therefore ye shall lacke the glory of your assertion But who so euer you be I pray you what affinitie betwixt their office of celebration and yours doe you finde they offer the holy hoste they worship it they shewe it they pray vnto it which of all these doe you they blesse it with the signe of the holy crosse they practise the action vpon an altar how well follow you these they pray for the deade they make inuocation solemnely to sainctes they ioyne with all catholike Churches in the worlde where is your cause here amended or ours not plainely proued If their seruice like you so wel or at least better thē S. Gregories Masse you might with more honestie haue chosed for any one of them then haue forged a newe one of your owne which in deede is directly repugnant to all other rites in the Christian world VVhich you may well terme the seruice of contradiction and damnation as one that neither communicateth with the sainctes in heauen with the soules in purgatory nor with the faithfull a liue And being ashamed of the Latine Church you chalenge an other origine of faith out of the Easte parte as though your matter were well amended if you might shake of that faith and worship which our countrie in her conuersion first receiued and in which till this daye she hath happely lyued and make the heade of our holy tradition vncertaine by referring vs vnto an vnknowen origine 2 He would know by what churches example we haue
left out of our seruice which he tormeth like him self prayers and sacrifice for the deade as though he hath not bene often tolde by the example of Gods Church â–ª whereof wâ— haue sure warrant out of Gods word by example of the eldest Church and nearest to the Apostles tymes as we haue shewed out of Iustinus Martyr and Tertullian before he became an heretike And as for him that affirmed the old Liturgies to make against your masse though he be better able to aunswere for him selfe yet haue I shewed also that there are none so full of blasphemy as your masse is And it is easie to be gathered by Epiphanius that the olde forme of liturgie was but to make mention of the deade to haue them in remembraunce And because they vsed to make memory of all sortes of men that were deade in Christ he expoundeth it according to the errour of his time that this memory was a prayer for the sinners for the iust as Patriarkes Prophets c. a signification that they were inferior to christ A simple cause why they should be remembred but this shift he is driuen vnto because he did not coÌ„sider that the memory and oblation which the olde fathers made for all departed in Christ was a sacrifice of thankes giuing and not of prayers for them The same order errour doe all the later liturgies follow making memory prayers for all them that are departed in the faith In the memory of all departed they follow the olde order in praying for all they follow the latter error which had chaunged the sacrifice of thankes giuing into the sacrifice of prayer But herein they declared that they had not yet generally receiued your newe doctrine of purgatory because they prayed not as you doe for them onely that are in purgatory to whom onely you confesse the prayers to be needefull and profitable but for all that are departed in the fayth of Christ from the beginning of the worlde And now Syr I haue shewed wherein they make against you But where as you taunt at the author of that booke because he setteth not his name vnto it you shew your witte bewray your disease You can neither tell what to speak nor yet how to hold your peace In the margent you gesse it was M. Pilkington of Duresme you would faine haue such a man to be your aduersary that though you tooke the foyle yâ—t you might boast that you were so bold as to fight with him But it is an easyer matter for such a desperate dicke to beginning a fraye then to ende it If I may be as bolde to gesse as you I gesse that he which made that lusty chalenge of the Papist against the Protestant promising to recant at the ende of euery article if he colde be aunswered was such a tryed Thraso as M. Allen if you aske me what is the grounde of my gesse to omit the stile somewhat like I will aunswere as one in Plautus doth Credo te esse ab illo nam ita nugas blattis I take it to be euen you you are so full of bracing and facing But who so euer he was was he ashamed of his name because he set not his name vnto it and was the man of Chester ashamed of his name because he setteth it not to his treatise Finally be all those Papistes ashamed of their names which haue written so many petty pamphlettes to be caried abrode in Popish fellowes pocketts O intemperate tonge which can not spare such tauntes as redounde to him selfe and his owne good maisters reproch Your lyes of offering worshipping and praying to the hoste be reproued alredy you say we might with more honesty haue coped for one of those Lyturgies if we liked not Gregories Masse rather then to haue forged a new I aunswere we haue with more honesty reformed our Lyturgie according to the worde of God and example of the oldest Church then Gregory Basill Chrysostome if they were theirs or who so euer were authors of those Liturgies did leaue the auncient Lyturgies that were vsed in the Church before their time because they did not sufficiently expresse their errors and superstition and forge them newe of their owne contrary to the worde of god And where as you prate of the Latine Church and the East parte we neither refuse the Latine Church while it was pure nor receiue the East Church where in it was corrupt but the scripture is a rule vnto vs to iudge all Churches by Although it were easy to proue by that coÌ„trouersie which the Britaynes and the Scottes had against the Saxons about the celebration of Easter that our countrie first receiued their conuersion from the East Church whose ceremonie they did then defend euen as the East Church did longe before against Victor Bishoppe of Rome By which it appeareth that this lande did neuer receiue the doctrine and ceremonies of the Latine Church before the time of the Saxons And whereas you slaunder vs for referringe our faith to an vncertaine and vnknowen Origine the contrary is manifest when we referre it to no iudgement or company of men but to the authoritie of Gods worde and all them that will be subiect therevnto But I tarye to longe in these trifles 3. Euery man in the primitiue Church counted the spring of his faith more pure and a great deale more cleare if he coulde against an heretike declare by good testimony that his belefe did at length by iust counte fall into the Romane Church So doth Irenaeus against the Valentinians so doth Cyprian against the Nouatians so doth Tertullian and Vincentius against all heretikes so doth Augustine and Optatus against the Donatistes so doth Hyerom and all the reste against the Arians All these thought they had a great vauntage if they could by plaine accompt proue against an heretike that their doctrine ishued from the Byshop of Rome Goe whether thou wilt saith Tertulian and thou shalt finde some Apostolike seat to instruct thy conscience thou hast harde by the Philippos or Ephesus or Rome and there loe fetch we the authority of our faith S. Augustine that knewe best how to fetche an heretike ouer the coles vrgeth him euer to reduce his doctrine to some Bishop of Rome when he had him once at that strait then loe he goeth through the whole ranke of holy Byshoppes by name to the nomber of fourty well neare Bring me once an euident declaration that your faith ishued from any one byshop of that Sea and then you may passe throw the longe line of that succession with out bracke or any rupture in the worlde I coulde make accompt sayth Irenaeus of many successions of Apostolike Churches but that were to longe only Rome shall serue that is the greatest the auncientest and best knowen and by the tradition of that Church confundimus omnes eos we vtterly confounde all heretikes It is a straunge thinge that the fathers hauing store of Apostolike
successions did euer chuse out for the warrant of their faith from amongest the reste the Roman Seate And now when there is no apostolike Church left in the whole worlde but it that they will seeke to Churchies whereof there is neither certainty nor succession when by plaine open dealing we may reduce and must needes referre our faith to that which was euer of all other most farre from falshoodde 3 Euery man in the primitiue Church compted the springe of his faith more pure if he coulde deriue it out of the holy Scriptures and shew the continuance thereof in any of the Apostolicke Churches whereof Rome was but one And condemned all heresies of nouelty or later string which coulde not bring the first author of their heresies eyther from any of the Apostles or apostolicke men which cōtinued in the doctrine of the Apostles as Tertullian doth in that booke De praescriptionibus aduersus haereses The like doth Irenaeus And that these men specially named the Church of Rome it was because the Church of Rome at that time as it was founded by the Apostles so it continued in the doctrine of the Apostles And these heretikes for the most parte had bene sometimes of the Church of Rome as Valentinus Marcion Nouatus But none of these fathers as M. Allen woulde haue it appeare was such a sclaue to the Church of Rome that what so euer pleased the Byshoppes of that Sea they were ready to accept For then woulde not Irenaeus so sharpely haue reproued Victor as Eusebius declareth of him Lib. 5. cap. 25. Cyprian woulde not haue taken vp Cornelius and Stephanus as appeareth by his epistles Hieronym woulde not haue bene so bolde to call Rome the purple whore of Babylon Praefat. ad Paulinū in lib. Didym Nor to compare the bishoppe of Eugubium with the bishop of Rome Euagrio nor to make the Church of England equall with the Church of Rome Nec iam altera Romanae vrbis ecclesia altera totius orbis existimanda est Et Gallia Britania Africa Bersis Oriens Indiae omnes barbarae nationes vnum Christum adorant vnam obseruant regulam veritatis Si authoritas quaeritur orbis maior est vrbe Neither must we thinke that there is one Church of the citye of Rome an other of all the worlde beside Both France and Britayne and Africa and Persia and the Easte and India and all barbarous nations worship one Christ keepe one rule of trueth If authoritie be sought the world is greater then one citye c. Loe Syr here is a Church and christianity and a rule of trueth with out the byshoppe of Rome with out the Church of Rome yea and contrary to the church of Rome For to them that alleged the custome of the church of Rome he sayth Quid mihi profers vnius vrbis cōsuetudinem what bring you me the custome of one citye and Augustine him selfe that knwe so well to fetch an heretike ouer the coles I trowe fetched Zosimus Bonifacius and Coelestinus byshoppes of Rome meetly well ouer the coles when he and his fellowes the byshoppes of Africa tooke them with plaine forgerie and falsification of the canons of the councell of Nice Consilio Milebitano Africano As for that which M. Allen compteth so strange is for lacke of skill and right iudgement For the same cause that moued those auncient fathers to appeale to the iudgment of the church of Rome moueth vs now to condemne the church of Rome of heresie wherefore did they reuerence the church of Rome Aske Tertullian he aunswereth because it had by succession reteined euen vntill his dayes that faith which it did first receiue of the Apostles Therefore it was a true Church therefore it was an apostolicke Church which because it doth not nowe neither hath done of many yeares and hath nothing to boast of but the empty names of many good bishops but thrise as many more of cursed Antichristes therefore it is nowe a false church and a company of heretikes departed from the auncient Romaines true and apostolicke faith 4 Bring my faith once to S. Gregory and the very streame shall driue me to S. Peter and Paule maugre all their beardes In which ordre of Byshops finde me one that set forth by decree any practise of contrary doctrine to that which his next predecessor did before him mainteine I will go seeke with the stray a newe mother Church to founde my faith vpon If all be in this succession salfe and sounde what a folly were it to forsake our owne mother and spring of our belefe to seeke other which haue often erred when they stoode and nowe be almost wholy decaide But yet it is wisedome for false teachers with all force to flie from so greate light as maye arise to the trueth by the recognising of that sounde succession and going the iuste contrary way from the olde doctors faith it is not to be thought straunge that they directly seeke to ouerthrowe that bulwarcke which they euer leaned vnto in the stormes of schisme and heresie The shrewes do knowe full well the might of trueth in that Seate and succession to haue beaten downe all their forefathers the heretikes of all agies They feare their fall whose steppes they follow They vtter much malice torment them selfe in euery sermon in vaine that Church feeleth no sore but in sorow of compassion towardes her forsakers she hath bidden greater stormes then this first by tyraunts then by heretikes last and most by the euill life of her owne Bishoppes In all which she yet standeth and euer riseth to honour as she is most impugned Their owne preaching hath singularly opened the might of God in the defense of that Seate of vnity VVhen they first beganne to touche and taunt the Pope in euery sermon in euery playe in booke and balate men that before liuing in faithfull simplicitie much medled not with his matters nor often hearde of his name beganne straight upon their busy ralinge to conceiue by reasonable discretion that there lay some greate grounde of matter and weight of trueth vpon that point which they coulde not digest in so many yeares bauling and barking at his name they saw the Pope euer in their way neuer out of their mouth and they doubted not but that singular hatred grew vpon some great importance and so admonished luckely by the aduersaries they sought the bottom of that perfecte and deepe hatered and found that it was the olde sore of the Arians and disease of the Donatistes and common to all heretikes they perceiued by S. Cyprian that the first attempte of such men was to driue awaye the pastor that they might with out resistance deuour and destroie the flocke And which was the pricke of all their endeuours to take from vs the acknowledging of the great and singular benefite of our conuersion to the faith that in stopping the heade of that condeth and plentifull well of our faith
wantonnesse in all their ordre of life for they are so dronken and drowned in heresie that they haue no sense of common reason VVhat a do had the magistrates to make these wylde men go in priestelike apparell to kepe their Rotchettes to obserue some steppe of antiquitie in their maners How they were driuen to tempre their lustes in prouision for some ordrely choise of their wiues that seeing them haue no respecte on what women they light that by Iustices of peace yet they might be bestowed if not well yet with their lesse dishonestie vpon persons not openly infamous Such fellowes are more fit to be gouerned then to beare rule ouer other in whome without constraint you shall neither finde comelynesse in maners ordre in life nor constancy in religion God of his mercye geue them some light to see their owne misery and spirite of humilitie to subiect them selues in time to Gods Church that is so carefull ouer them though to their owne great harme they so deadly hate her They can showe no cause in the world why they neede in any one pointe of all those which at this daye be in controuersie betwxit them and their owne mother rather to credit their owne phantasies then her graue authoritye which onely without farther questioning with obedieÌ„t children maketh more then all argument or eloquence of man in the earth 7 If the ciuill Magistrates haue thought good in some outward ceremony or vsage to beare with the infirmitie of the weaker sort of your side in hope to winne them it is a small matter for you that are the obstinate of that secte to triumphe vpon when all your blasphemous doctrine is abolished and nothing left but a fewe ragges of your robes to looke vpon And as for the iniunction for Priestes mariage was either to stoppe your slaunderous mouthes when godly ministers wiues should haue testimoy of their honestie by men of such credit or else to bridle the lust of your owne tounebulls the popish Priestes which when licence of whordom is denied them and liberty to marry permitted them would make no better choyse perhaps of their wiues then they did before of their women We can shew no cause in the world you say why we neede in any one poynt of controuersie depart from your Church yes M. Allen this one cause shal serue for all because your church is departed from the truth of Gods word and dare not abide the tryall thereof but will sitte like a proud dame in a chayre controll the Scriptures the ordinance of Christ and the commaundements of God him selfe But how so euer you boast of her fast sitting she shall downe she shall downe euen to the bottome of hell 8 And for such as maye for their simplicitie be soone deceiued by following other mens errors with whome the names of doctors or the onely bare bragge of scriptures are as good as the allegation of places Let them aske of their teachers howe they can shifte them selfe when they see the practise of Gods Church generally so plaine for all Catholike assertions as for the article of praying for the deade amongest many other the like is nowe before proued Call vpon them and aske them in earnest because it lyeth vpon thy saluation whether thou must giue any credit to the perpetuall agreement and consent of all auncient doctors If they saye yea desire them to aunswere first to all these places so euidently confirming our purpose that they can not abide any cloude or couer of mans sutteltye for their shifting to any forged sense If they can not yet let them alleage some place of any auncient writer them selues which do expressely denye purgatory or prayers for the deade as we for the confirming therof haue done in plaine termes with out crafte or colour many If they be not able to do so much yet go further with them aske them whether they haue any expresse wordes in scripture that denie prayers to be profitable for the deade not by a fonde gesse of their owne heades corrupt consciences or preiudicate mindes expounded to that purpose but I say by expresse words or at least which is liberty enough expounded for that meaning by any one man of all the antiquitie If they can alleage thee but one worde of scripture construed of any one I say in all ages to confirme their vnderstanding to be currant and not framed for their phantasie to serue the necessity of their cause be bolde to followe them I woulde not put them to the paines to make discourse throughout all ages churches times and doctors as we haue done but onely let them to kepe their credit and scholars and to saue their honesties bring but one or two of all that euer wrote in the compasse of Gods Church and thou maiest with lesse daunger and better reason follow their doctrine But there is no one such place I assure the good reader neither in scripture doctor nor councell nor countrie nor age sith the worlde beganne I will go so farre in this point where there was euer steppe of any true worship of God there was prayer founde for the dead also They can not shew me any forme of ministration in the Christian world that was approued which hath it not expressely if it be knowen that it was in deede the seruice of any auncient Church not corrupted by them selues The same I dare be bolde to auouch for the lawe of nature and Moyses because it is proued already All their bragging of the example of the primitiue Church the masses of other countries of the doctors of the scriptures of the councells is but an vntollerable delusion and abuse of the simplicity of such as be not skillfull in the authors whome they name For when the matter comes to an ishue when they be harde holden either in this or in any other matter theÌ„ the doctors whom they chalenged before the simple for their partakers were but men then they might erre then they haue learned onely to credit the holy Scriptures then there is nothing but Gods worde and booke with them which els full faine would haue the doctors consent out of whom it were but a meane place which they would not alleage for their purpose if it might be founde Then if deniall of all the doctors iudgements serue not their turne In accusationem ipsarum scâ—ipturarum conuertuntur they will not sticke boldely to condemne the holy Scriptures with all 8 Now the youngers must pose their maisters as M. Allen a passing good Logician doth teach them yea and that is more he will teach vs what to aunswere also but sauing his wisedome he must geue vs leaue to aunswere for our selues First if we be asked howe we can shifte our selues against the generall practise of Gods Church for all popish assertions and namely this of praying for the deade we aunswere that we deny the practise to be generall because we finde it not in the holy
hearte or eare coulde abide these blasphemous tonguesâ— who of vntolerable arrogancy doe so deface the examples and doctrine not onely of the pillours of the whole Christian Church whome they impudently for lacke of a more reasonable aunswere condemne not onely of simple ignoraunce and errour in this point with the residue of the whole faithfull people which surely is ouer much to say of such learned and godly men as they were but also of wilfull errour and superstition in bearing and maintenaunce of the common ignoration and ethnicke perswation of the worlde in their dayes and following the heathen vsage of the gentilitie And yet not content therewith these lying maisters of their meere mercy be content to offer a pardon to the author of that booke for his errour which booke the whole catholike Church of God through out Christiandome taketh for canonicall scripture VVhich arrogancy and passing boldnesse although I perswade my selfe no vertuous man will in them allowe sith they nowe being put to their shiftes vtterly doe condemne those fathers whose names with great oftentation they often to the simple repeate to make them suppose they be not with out scripture or doctors for the proofe of their willfull heresies yet euen the very aâ—nswere it selfe which they imagine here in to disgrace the doctors and delude the ignoraunt is contrary to it selfe in sundry points For they one while affirme that S. Augustine and others allowed that errour which the people by their superstitious deuotion had before their time brought in to the prayers of the Church and an other while that Iudas Machabaeus did institute it who was before these authors diuars hundreths of yeares and somewhile that they borowed it of the gentilitie all which pointes be repugnant eche to other For neither coulde that beginne in our Christian doctours dayes which was vsed before Christes birthe neither neede they to borowe it of the heathen which was in estimation and praysed amongest the Iewes 9 We neede no shiftes M. Allen for the authoritie of the doctors whome we neuer allow for canonicall Scriptures and therefore we may boldly say as Augustine sayth of Cyprian what so euer we find in them agreable to the Scriptures we receaue it with their prayse and what so euer is disagreeable to the Scriptures we refuse with their leaue Now by what meanes they fell into this errour that maintained prayer and almes for the dead I shal haue better occasion to shew in the aunswere to the 14. chapter although it be not greatly material to know how they came into errour when it is sufficiently proued that they did erre As for the abridgement of Iason the Cyrenians story which M. Allen maketh such a precious iewell I haue aunswered inough before that the author him selfe desiring pardon of his readers hath testified sufficiently that he was no scribe of the holy Ghost as also by many other vnauoydable reasons with the consent of the Catholike Church which it were superfluous here to repete Finally whereas you say that our aunswere is contrary to it selfe you seeke a knot in a rush For all may be true First the deuill suggested superstitious deuotion into the Gentiles by peruerse emulation of whom Iudas might be deceiued and his fact giue occasion to the ignorant people of errour and their ignorance first winked at because it had a shew of pietie confirmed by custome might at length be allowed of Augustine and others who neuer weighed the matter by Scriptures but by the commoÌ„ practise And this I thinke is the right degree of prayers for the deade and purgatory That the praying for the dead vvas appointed to be had in the holy sacrifice by the Apostles commaundement and prescription And that our doctors by the maiesty of their name beare dovvne our light aduersaries CAP. XIII 1 BVt that this falshood may better appeare in these men we will by good testimony trye out when and by whom the oblation and sacrifice with other ordinarie reliefes of the departed were so vniformely vsed through the Christian worlde as like wise it shall be profitable to consider who were the first authors of the contrary opinions And that the holy Ghost by the Apostles owne preaching and prescription was the first author of this solemne supplicatioÌ„ in masses of all vsages for the departed I might first proue by this generall rule of S. Augustine Quod vniuersa tenet ecclesia nec concilijs institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi authoritate apostolica traditum rectissime credimus that which the whole Church obserueth and hath alwayes so bene kepte being not instituted by any Councell it can not otherwise be had but by the Apostles authoritie and tradition And so by the like saying of Leo the greate Dubitandum non est quicquid in ecclesia in consuetudinem est deuotionis retentum de traditione apostolica de S. Spiritus prodire doctrina It can not be doubted but that what so euer is in the Church by generall custome of deuotion kept and mainteined it came out of the Apostles traditioÌ„ and doctrine of the holy Ghost But I will seeke with them by certaine demonstration and plaine ordre of reason that it must needes so be Praying for the deade was inuented by no man sith the Apostles dayes there can no one be named by the aduersary before whome I can not name an other that praide for the dead Let him say where he list this man or that man was the first that euer praide for the deade in Christes Church if I can not shewe an other before him so named to haue praide also we will take him for the first author and then he fully stoppeth our course that we can not bring this obseruation so high as the Apostles dayes But if the aduersary can apoint me out no time nor person that began this vsage before which I am not able to proue it was practised then they can not let vs but we must needs driue it vpwarde to the Apostles and Christes owne institution CAP. XIII 1 IF prayer for the deade was appoynted by the Apostles commaundement why is there neuer a worde thereof in their writinges there is warrant â—or lesser matters then this is made of why is this and all other popish trash counted their tradition which can not be warranted by their writing If I were disposed to pose you this question would make you clawe your poll an hundred times before you could imagine any couloâ—able aunswere for right aunswere you shall neuer be able to make But I take not vpon me to pose but to aunswere first your authoritie of Augustine serueth not your turne for prayers for the deade haue not bene alwayes obserued namely in the Apostles times nor long after The saying of Leo the great may be backed with the writing of Leo the great Epi. 10. Sed in hanc insipientiam cadunt qui cum ad cognoscendum veritatem aliquo impediuntur
them your selues by the worde of God if you can And because you bring in a witty example of the common wealth I will aunswere you with the like Must the Magistrate either iustifie a theefes possession or else bring out the author where he had it Nay the theefe must bring out good proofe howe and by whom he came by such goods or else he is worthy to be serued like such a one So shall you not compell vs to tell you where when or how your heresie came in seeing it is sufficient for vs to shew that it came not from God nor by the Apostles nor through their doctrine But you doe well to conclude your reason in a syllogisme for then by the weakenes therof doth appeare your maior and minor be both false or at the least wise vnable to be proued of you For euery falshod hath not bene preached against at the first entry And how are you able to proue that purgatory and praying for the deade hath not bene preached against therfore your conclusion is as true and as certeyne as your premisses 3 But what needes all this a doe by their owne consent we shall driue this doctrine thirtene C. yeares vpward For so neare was Tertullian the Apostles dayes whome they confesse to haue practised that pointe of oblations for the deade And aske him where he had it for surely he inuented it not him selfe and he appointeth vs to his forefathers he nameth the Apostles for the authors and founders thereof as of many other thinges which he there reckeneth beside that were generally receiued and nowe be of heretikes likewise contemned VVe might yet steppe two C. yeare forward and find amongest the Apostles owne hearers the same doctrine both allowed and practised but that they will make exception of Dionysius and Clements workes such shiftes men must finde that will defend falshood Other I will name that be out of their exceptions VVho I thinke as well for their time knowledge and credit as their excellent vertue both can and will better tell the origine of that thinge the authors whereof were more nigh their time then ours If they woulde beleue S. Augustine as they often professe they will the matter might soone be ended but because I feare they stand so much in the corrupt conceite of their owne singularitie that they will be bold to reiect him I shall both lay him to their charges diuers other of greater antiquity that shal in expresse words affirme this vsage to come from the Apostles owne schoole That thereby they may either acknowledge their errors or else by such graue and vncorrupt iudges be condemned of willfull malitious blindnesse Thus S. Augustine writeth By the prayers of the holy Church the profitable sacrifice and almes bestowed for the soules departed out of all doubt the deceased be releued so that thereby almighty God may deale more mercifully with them thē their sinnes required For this practise deliuered vnto vs by our fathers is obserued vniuersally in Christes Church that for such as be departed in the communion of Christes body and bloud when at the sacrifice they be orderly named praiers shoulde be made and the same sacrifice mentioned to be done for them Here by his words thou vnderstands that the profit rising by the prayers or sacrifice to the departed hath no doubt in it They were through the world vsed not in the Church which they say hath bene for nyne C. yeares corrupted by supersticious ignorāce but in that Church which our aduersaires doe confesse maugre their heades to haue bene holy Catholike and Apostolike And it was not then begon but receiued by the prouision of Gods holy spirite of the Apostles whome he calleth the fathers of our faith 3 It is not denied but Tertuillan maketh mention of oblations for the dead but what kind of oblations it is not yet agreed vppon but such they were as were offered for mens birthes for they be ioyned togither Oblationes pro defunctis pro natalitijs annua die facimus we make oblations yearely for the day of mens death and the day of mens birth Now it is not like they offered prayers but thākes giuing for mens birth and euen so for their death For those places out of the other bookes where he speaketh of prayers for mens spirites I will consider afterward But in this booke de corona militis if oblations were prayers which he saith came from the Apostles he vtterly denyeth that they came from the Scriptures Therefore by Tertullians iudgement you doe abuse the Scriptures which woulde wrest them to proue out of them that which he sayth can not be proued by them But think you prayers for the dead came from the Apostles because he sayth so If you aunswere yea then must you likewise thinke that it is a wicked thing to fast on Sonday or to pray on your knees for in the same place he sayth that these opinions came also from the Apostles If you aunswere he sayth vntruely of these so doe we answere of the other Now come backe of your 13. hundreth yeares to seeke your apostolike tradition where you can finde it All is not Gospell that Tertullian hath sayd As for the works of Clemens and Dionysius you know full well they be not currant and therefore I maruell at your modestie that you will not now oppresse vs with them But it is because you haue store enough beside Howbeit if the most auncient fayle you it is not for the later sorte to helpe you If Tertullian had no ground of his saying when he affirmed that oblations for the deade came from the Apostles what ground can Augustine haue which was 200. yeares farther from the Apostles time then he But where you charge vs to confesse that the Church in Augustines time was holy Catholike and Apostolike you must witte if you will that although we may so confesse in respect of the substance of true doctrine which then was taught yet we doe not therby iustifie euery error superstition of that age But as Augustine sayth in his retractations lib. 2. cap. 18. he doth not meane that the Church is pure and perfect in this life with out all spot of blemish for euen the whole Church by reason of certeine ignorance and infirmities of her members hath neede to say euery day Forgiue vs our debtes 4 Athanasius me thinke the aduersary part should quake when I name him who was in his dayes terrible to the wicked odible to heretikes to all vertuous mē an especiall stay in the troblesome times of the Church whose grace was so great that he abbrigeth our whole faith into a briefe psalme called the Creede of Athanasius which is beleued of all Christian men no lesse then the holy Scriptures of the new Testament VVho as he right well knewe howe to defend him selfe against the wicked Arrians by the doctrine of the Catholike Church so he hath left vs in writing howe to
then trauailed through it in deede when you walked through the city of God which Augustine describeth I maruaile you could not see the westerne Babylon Rome to be the city or cōmon wealth of the deuill lib. 16. cap. 17. lib. 18. cap. 21. cap. 22. cap. 27. The mother of all abominations of the earth which either inuented or tempered of others inuention that golden cuppe full of abominations vncleanes of her whordoms with which she made drunken all the Kinges of the earth And therefore that we can not reade out of the word of God we shall heare of Purgatory among the Paganes Carpocratianes Heracleonites and Montanistes of whose heresies and pestilent practises the whore of Babylon hath patcht vp her purgatory and sacrifices for the deade as by and by I shall declare In deede the enuious man the deuil hath sowed these wicked sect masters And that doctrine which is first agreeable to Tertullians rule is vndoubtedly true and that which is later is false But howe shall the first doctrine be knowen but by the word of God wherein all the doctrine of God is taught But by the holy Scriptures which are able to make the man of God perfect and prepared to all good workes And seeing praying and offering for the deade as Tertullian him selfe confesseth is not taught by the Scriptures it is no good worke whereto the man of God should be prepared And for as much as you haue giuē me example of a syllogisme in Baroco in the last chapter I wil frame you the like nowe All good workes are taught by the Scriptures oblatiōs for the deade are not taught by the Scriptures therefore oblations for the deade are no good workes The maior is S. Paule 2. Timot. 3. The minor is Tertullians de corona militis Deny the conclusion if you dare 2 And yet besides that generall and most certaine instruction learned Damascen helpeth vs to the trial of this peculiar case Doubting not to affirme that all such cogitations as doe entre into mans head against the prayers or charitable workes for the departed be the deuills enuious and subtill suggestions for the hinderaunce of our brethern departed from the heauenly ioyes For thus he writeth in a sermon for the same purpose That olde serpent sayeth he whose endeuoure is to corrupt and deface the good and acceptable workes of God to lay snares for the entrapping of mens soules who is much perced through brotherly loue and brasteth in sunder for the enuy that he beareth towardes our faith and finally is madded by our naturall compassion one towardes an other as one that is the vtter renouncer of all good lawes he enspireth to some a fayned and false imagination cleane contrary to the holy constitutions that is to saye that all good and acceptable workes before God shoulde no whit proffet the departed soules If this writers iudgement be good as it is sure most sounde then must all our vnnatural and vnkind preachers haue an especiall inspiration of the deuill him selfe so often as they hinder fauour and grace from the deade For as he reduced our origin to the Apostles so he doubteth not to auouche the contrary perswasion to be euidently moued by the olde serpent of especiall enuie towardes mans saluation And nowe if thou list knowe in whome this subtill suggestion tooke first place and roote after the longe vsage of the other according to the Apostles planting we shall make thee for thy especiall comfort partaker thereof also VVe will not vse the aduersaries as they doe vs charging vs with later preaching or doctrine then the Apostles planted yet can neither tell where nor by whome it beganne But we shal by open euidence call the woolfe by his name Let an heretike but set out foot and once open mouth though he doe no harme at all yet the watcheman of Israell hath him by the backe straight The dogges were neuer so dumme in Gods Church but they woulde barke at the first apparance of any straunge cattell For that the notation of his arising and name was not onely a warning to the present time to take heede to their faith but an admonition to all the posteritie to beware of the like And it was euer counted a refutation of an heresie to the full to reduce it to a latter infamous author by the certaine recorde of the Churches historie The which kinde of reason both amongest the learned hath singular strength and is sensible for the people and of the aduersarie vtterly inuincible Irenaeus vseth it against the heresies of his time as a demonstration of much force VVhat saith he before Valentinus there was none of that his false secte and he came in with his seede after the first preaching of our faith a good while I can tell when he beganne howe he increased how longe he continued Both he and that other Cerdon entered first vnder the gouernment of Hyginius grewe vpwarde vnder Pius and continued till Anicetus time and so making the like accompt of other archeheretikes at length thus he concludeth all these rose vp in their apostacie longe after that the Church was ordered in faith and doctrine In this sense spake Irenaeus 2 Damascene your doctor which knew the depth of Satan so well should first haue reproued that perswasion by Scripture and then it had bene easy to haue found out the policie of the deuill But when we learne by Scripture that your doctrine is contrary to the fayth and hope of Christians it is not hard to iudge that the deuill inuented it vnder colour of charitie to ouerthrow faith and vnder shewe of helpe of mē to dishonour god You spend many words in vayne to proue that the first author of an opinion being found the opinion is found to be an heresy It shal be graūted with all fauour but so that no man shall be counted the first author of an opinion that is able to proue his opinion out of the word of god And withall that who so euer is not able to proue by the word of God any opiniō that he holdeth obstinatly though he haue many authors before him yet is he neuerthelesse an heretike 3 But the rule is common and certaine as any can be in the worlde and I woulde stande vpon the grounde thereof against all false doctrine in the worlde and thus it is Any opinion that may be truely fathered vppon any priuate man that was longe after the trueth was first preached by the Apostles if it be vpon a point of our faith and contentiously mainteined it is an heresie And thus againe who so euer was withstande in his first arising and preaching by such as were in the vnitie of the Church he was a false teacher and his abettours be heretikes And the force of this conclusion is so greate that the heretikes them selues if they can get any likely shew of raysing of any doctrine or practise of Gods Church in these latter
know that he despiseth being but a mortall fraile man the grauest iudgement that God hath left in earth for the determination of any matter Let him be ashamed that he being but one man taketh vpon him to controule diuers hundreths of the most chosen for vertue for learning for experience in the whole Church of God yea let him if he haue any affection of grace tremble and feare to deface the dealing of that honorable and vniuersall parlament that representeth vnto vs Gods holy whole Church hauing the assured promise of the holy Ghostes assistance for their guiding in all truth Yet I see before hand the aduersaries will not admitte the iudgemâ—â—t of these or any other Councells neither in such men doe I much maruell to finde so litle humility and so much impudency For all heretikes condemned by councells did euer condeÌ„ne as they could the same councells againe So were the first 4. councells which all Christian men with S. Gregory accept as the holy Gospells of God vtterly refused by the parties in them condemned The Arians by great force of worldly Princes and many assembles deuilishly withstoode the Councell of Nice the Macedonians reiected the councell of Constantinople the first the Nestorians nothing estemed the councell of Ephese Eutiches and Dioscorus litle regarded the councell of Chalcedon in which they their followers were condemned of heresie for sundry pointes which now were ouerlong and not for our purpose to rehearse Then by refusing the heauenly sentence of the Churches iudgement they win nothing else but the assured marke of an heretike They declare them selues that as they be in heresie as deepe as the best so they in pride and boldnes be not behind the worst But all Catholikes faithful beleuers as soone as they know the determination of such a number of so well learned fathers gathered in the vnitie of Gods Church and spirite streight way they receiue it and submit them selues as to the iudgement and reuelation of the holy Ghost For so the Christian brethren that were molested by the contentious clamors of certeyne troublesom heades at Antioch being once certified by the letters of that first Christian councel what was decreed and enacted concerning the matters called in question they then regarded no more what the aduersaries thought therein but out of hand Gauisi sunt super consolatione they reioysed in that comfort of their agreement And Ruffinus writeth that when Constantinus the great vnderstoode the determination of the doubtes proposed in the great councell of Nice he receiued it as the oracle of God Defertur ad Constantinum sacerdotalis concilij sententia ille tanquam a Deo prolatam veneratur the decree sayth he of the priestes was shewed to Constantine and he straight with all reuerence accepted it as Gods owne sentence And if our aduersaries coulde learne a litle humilitie they might quickely be dispatched of a great deale of heresie The which as it first beganne with the conceite of singularitie and contempt of other so it procedeth with maliperte boldnesse and endeth in plaine disobedience of the Church of the Councells of the scriptures and Gods owne spirite VVhome without moe wordes I woulde nowe geue ouer vnto God hauing as I trust already geuen them sufficient occasion by the euident proofe of my matter to remembre their misery and heuy condition but that I must remoue out of the simples waye such stoombling stockes as perhaps might somewhat trouble the vnlearned who for lacke of deepe iudgement be moste subiecte to the aduersaries deceites 2 It is true humilitie that all men should submit them selues to the authoritie of Gods worde and it is horrible presumption that any man or multitude of men shoulde take vppon them authoritie to define against the worde of god As the councell of Constance which decreeth in plaine wordes that notwithstanding Christ instituted the sacrament to be receiued in both kindes and that the faithfull in the primatiue Church did so receiue it yet the custome of the church of Rome shall preuaile and whosoeuer sayeth contrary is an heretike c. The councells that are receiued are therefore receiued because they decreed truely and not the trueth receiued because it was decreed in councells Else why is Nicene councel receiued and Arriminense reiected why is Ephesinum primum embraced and Ephesinum secundum detested Finally why is the determination of Nicene councell which is but one beleued against 10. councells holden by the Arrians but that the Nicene councell decreed according to the worde of God and all the rest against it wherfore if any councell decree according to the scriptures as the councell of the Apostles did Actes 15. and the councell of Nice with diuers other we receiue them with all humilitie as the oracles of god But if any councell decree contrary to the authoritie of the scriptures as many did without all presumptioÌ„ or pride we may iustly reiect them 3 And with such thus they lightely practise first by lofty lookes and high chalengies they crake and boste with passing boldnes that the learned men of the worlde the sage fathers of the auncient times all the graue Councells the whole vsage of the primitiue Church with plaine Scripture to be on their parte And as for the contrary teaching that it came in of late with the decay of learning and light of trueth in these barbarous times when superstition and daâ—ke ignorance had wasted the doctrine of the yeares past And in this bragge they stande till some Catholike man encounter with them By whome when they see them selues so driuen from the standinge which they kept with greate glory before that they must be wholy naked and destitute in the face of the worlde of all such helpes as they accompted to haue for the outwarde shew of their deceitfull doctrine then in plaine wordes they confesse their teaching not to hange on the antiquitie not on councells not on Doctors nor on any man but on Gods holy spirite and worde which can not deceiue them And so at the ende the olde vse of the primitiue Church the fathers and the generall Councells arrogantly contemned or rather vnworthely condemned marke well their prety conceites they make then a matche betwene them selues with Gods worde on the one partie and the doctors and fathers with out Gods worde on the other partie Affirming that they be not bounde to beleue them but where they agree with the scriptures of god And then turning their talke to the simple thus they preache vnto them by a captious and foolish demaunde whether they thinke it more reason or conuenient to beleue the scriptures or doctors the determination of the true and liuely worde of God or else the decree of a generall Councell which deceitfull wreasting of the state of our question somewhat troubles the vnlearned which can not perceiue hereby that they betray them selues and deface their owne doinges in so rude a defense For who seeth
principle as certaine as the first That the spirite of God hath a meaning in the scriptures which is not to be sought out of the scriptures in the opinions of deceiuable men but onely in the scriptures where is nothing but the spirite of trueth These 2. commaundements serch the scriptures and trie the spirites teach how to attaine to certainety of trueth For the scriptures are not vnderstood but by the spirite and the spirites are not tryed but by the scriptures Therefore that the spirite maye declare his owne meaning one place of scripture must be expounded by an other All other ordinary meanes and healpes of wit learning knowledge of tongues diligeÌ„ce in hearing reading and praying are subordinate and seruing to this search and tryall And who so obserueth this serch and tryall most precisely shall come to the knowledge of the trueth most certainely And who so euer is negligent in this search and tryall though he haue otherwise neuer so many and excellent graces and giftes may easely be deceiued yea euen when he thinketh he followeth the authority of the scriptures I coulde alleage for confirmation of this truth the testimony of diuers of the auncient fathers which if they had alwayes followed that which some times they so highly commended they should not so lightly haue passed ouer some thinges and other thinges so slenderly haue mainteined But my thinkes the testimony of the Pope shoulde be a per se with all Papistes The Pope him selfe in his canon lawe for Cayphas some times doth prophecy hath allowed this to be the onely waye to expound the scriptures Affirming that no where else but euen out of the scriptures themselues the true sense of the scriptures is to be taken Ascribed to Clemens dist 37. cap. Relatum Lex Dei cum legitur non secundum propriam ingenij virtutem vel intelligentiam legatur vel doceatur Sunt enim multa verba in scripturis diuinis quae possunt trahi ad eum sensum quem sibi vnus quisque sparte praesumpserit sed non oportet non enim sensum extrinsecus alienuÌ„ extraneum debetis quaerere vt quoquo modo ipsum ex sâ—ripturarum authoritate confirmetis sed ex ipsis scripturis sensum capere veritatis oportet When the lawe of God is reade let it not be reade or tought after the force or vnderstanding of a mans owne witte For their be many wordes in the holy scriptures which maye be drawen to such sence as euery man of his owne heade shal presume to make but you may not doe so For you ought not to seeke forth without any forayne or strange sence that you may confirme it by any meanes by authority of the scriptures but you must take the sence of trueth out of the scriptures them selues And thus much for the true vnderstanding of the scriptures and now to your false superstition First I deny that any of the auncient fathers in Christ his time or scholers to his Apostles or within one or two hundreth yeares after Christ except one that had it of Montanus the heretike as he had more thinges beside in any one worde mainteined your cause for purgatory or prayers for the deade Secondly of them that mainteined prayers for the deade the most confessed they had it not out of the scriptures but of tradition of the Apostles and custome of the Church therefore they are not to be compared vnto vs in better vnderstaÌ„ding of the scriptures for that point which they denyed to be receiued of the scriptures Thirdly those of the auncient fathers that agreed with you in any parte of your assertion for none within foure hundreth yeares was wholy of your error notwithstanding many excellent giftes that they had yet mainteined other errors beside that and about that discented one from an other and sometime the same man from him selfe and that is worst of all from manifest trueth of the holy Scriptures Therefore neither is their erroneous interpretation in this matter to be receiued nor M. Allens wise iudgement of vs to be regarded An aunsvvere to such arguments as the heretikes doe frame of the holy scriptures not vvell vnderstanded against the practise of Gods Church in praying for the deade or the doctrine of Purgatory CAP. XVI 1 THerefore to stoppe their waye at euery turne and because they talke so fast of scripture full fayne woulde I heare what scriptures they haue that make either expressely agaynst purgatory and prayers for the deade or else by any one learned man in all the worlde was euer expounded for any such sense And loe now good reader what scriptures they alleage that can abâ—de nothing but scripture First out of Ecclesiastes The tree whether it fall to the south or the north it lyeth euer where it lighteth Then they alleage out of S. Matthews Gospell that there be two wayes one to bring to heauen and the other leading straight to hell And then out of the second to the Corinthians they bring in howe we must all stande before the iudgement seat of Christ there to receiue eche of vs according to our workes and life and that by other mens labour our state can not be ameÌ„ded Againe they allege this sentence of the Apocalypse Beati mortui c. blessed be the deade that dye in our Lorde for after that the spirite sayeth that they shall reste from trauells All which textes and the like of that sorte make no more against purgatory then they doe against hell or heauen excepte that as Anaxagoras the philosopher saide all thinges were in euery thinge so these diuines can finde euery texte of scripture to make for what purpose they liste and yet if the Catholikes alleage a numbre of scriptures and them with the minde and iudgement of the whole worlde that doubteth not but they proue that for which they be recited yet they set light by them and impudently with clamors beare men in hande that they haue no scriptures at all VVhich thinges as they smell of much arrogancie in all men so in these folke that so malâ—pertly controwle others where them selues haue no scripture at all it is vntolerable CAP. XVI 1 THis chapter is but pro forma tantum to make a shew of a confutation where neither the tenth parte of our arguments are rehearsed nor those that are named with any couller of reason and lest of all with authority of scriptures are confuted First he will allow vs but 4. textes of scripture because he will not take paines to wrest any more And those make nothing for vs except all thinges be in euery thinge as Anaxagoras said It should seeme M. Allen that you your selfe dreamed so with Anaxagoras else would you not finde purgatory in euery one of them which we saye is in none of them but rather excluded by them all But who can prescribe the deuill a measure in lying when he is disposed to lye we haue no scriptures at all the Catholikes
haue all the scriptures and the iudgement of the whole worlde vppon them you haue sayd enough M. Allen to winne the whet stone if it were as bigge as any mountaine in the worlde 2 And for these which they here or else where alleage I aske them sincerely and desire them to tell me faithfully what doctor or wise learned man of the whole antiquity euer expounded these textes recited or any one of them or any other which you bring in else when against Purgatory or practise for the deade If they did not how can you for sinne and shame dissent from the whole Church of Christ vpon so light groundes Or how dare you be so bolde that seeke in euery controuersie expresse scripture to alleage these places which wise men nor I thinke your selues take for any such purpose Or how may you for shame reiecte the euident worde of God by vs truely reported for the triall of our matter your selues hauing almost nothing that can be wrasted to your sense 2 Before the heresie of Purgatory was planted in the world how could the olde doctors interprete these places by name against that which they neuer heard named yet haue they so interpreted some of them that their interpretation can not stand with purgatory or prayer for the dead as I will shew in their particular aunsweres When we require expresse Scripture for euery controuersie we doe not require that euery thing should be named in Scripture but necessarily concluded out of the true meaning of the Scriptures and purpose of the holy Ghost in them As for the euident word of God which you report for tryall of your matter is yet to shew and shall be for euer You shame not to boast of that to be your triall which you dare as well eate a fagot as abide the iudgement of iâ— in any lawful conference or disputation your great bellwethers and Bishops declared before the whole world in the conference of Westminster what they durst abide when they came to handestrokes It is a gay matter for such a chattering pye as you are to make a fond florish a farre of in wordes of common wrangling to please your patrones and exhibitioners it is an other thing to stand to the proofe in deede 3 If you stande to the triall of our alleaged testimonies you will be much abashed I know For how can you imagine that the place recited out of Ecclesiastes shoulde further your intent any thinge at all Seeing that euen then when the wiseman spake those wordes the soule of man straight after her departure and the fall of the body continued not where it first fell for the iuste had a place of abidinge and rest in the inferiour partes which was called of Ezechias the gate of hell In the Gospell Sinus Abrahae the bosom of Abraham and nowe Lymbus Patrum in which they all abode till they were deliuered by the bloude and trauell of our Sauiour Iesus VVith whome they after were translated to the eternall ioyes of heauen VVhich thinge if it be true as it can not but be true and certaine which the whole course of scripture the article of our faith in Christes descension into hell and all the auncient fathers doe constantly setforth what blindnes be they in then that bring this place against Purgatory which as it is a stay of certaine for a time from heauen so the other before Christ was the staye of all And therefore it is plaine that this fallinge of the tree meanith nothinge lesse then that euery man shoulde straight vpon his departure be conueide either to hell or heauen Or if any wedded to Caluines blasphemous and vnfaithfull paradoxes doe with Purgatory deny the fathers place of abode before the comming of Christ and impugne the beleefe of Gods Church so much that he withstande the article of our Creede for Christes descending into hell to turne the cause of his going into hell to some other purpose then the loosing of their captiuity that there were in expectation of his ioyefull apparance yet I would demaunde so much of Caluins successor or scholar seeing he will of this figuratiue speach of the trees falling gather so grounded and generall a rule that with out delay euery man must to heauen or hell straight after his death there to remaine in perpetuall state of his fall in the next life either good or badde I woulde aske of him I saye what he thinketh by all those that were by the Prophets Apostles or Christ him selfe raysed vp againe from death to life VVho receiuing by death that fall by their accompt must needes abide where they first fell and so not in case to be reuoked by this their false conclusien they diminish the power of the spirite in working their raising againe Or else they must impute deceite to the holy men and our maister Christ which abhorreth me to speake for that they raysed them not being perfectly deade but in some deadly traunce or apparance of death But because the soule of Lazarus was nowe foure dayes out of his bodye before Christ wroght vpon him it is sure and most certaine that it had some place of abyding after the separation from the fleshe I can not thinke that his soule was in heauen nor it is not like that our Sauiour would so much abase the happy condicion of him whome he loued so well as to reduce him to the vncertaine state of this life I will define in this my ignorance nothing touching the secrets of Gods wisedome herin But very like it is that the parties raysed from their fall and death were not in the ioyes of heaueÌ„ As before Christes death I am sure they were not but I speake of Tabitha also or other reuoked by the Apostles handes that then after Christes passion might full well dying in perfect state of life goe straight to heauen of such I say it is very reasonable that they were not in the ioyes of the elect For else Tabitha shoulde not haue had such a benefite by her almes as the fathers doe witnesse she had And they vse her for an example of the benefite which maye rise to one after departure by charitable workes done in this life It had ben a small pleasure to haue plucked her from heauen to this mortalitie againe and misery of our common life and I trowe no man maye auouche wâ—th salfety of his belefe that she or any other raysed againe miraâ—ulously was reuoked from the desperate estate of the damned soules then she must necessarily be called from some meane condicion of her present abode and perhaps from paine too to this former state of life againe But as in this secret of God no man without iuste reprehension maye deeply wade so it maye reasonably be gathered that the fall of the tree before meÌ„tioned can not induce with any probability the necessity of the soules abiding in all respects where it first light Mary we freely graunt with
and the whole congregation yea and speciall regard of the oblations of the poore And in the perticular rehearsing of diuerse kind of persons and the forme of the sacrifice named according to euery perticular state it is so farre of that the deade shall be reckned that such thinges are enioyned euery of these perticular persons to doe as it is playne that none but the liuing could offer or haue sacrifice offered for thē What law was appoynted touching lamenting for the deade you may reade Leuit. 21. how the Priest was forbidden to lament for any but speciall persons also Nu. 19. diuerse ordinances concerning the deade yet neuer any sacrifice or prayer for the deade When Nadab and Abihu were slayne their father and brethren were forbidden to mourne for them the people were permitted By all which it appeareth not only that no sacrifice for the deade was offered but that they were so separated from the liuing that the Priestes might haue nothing to do with any of them but in speciall cases And as for your common shift of the common body of the liuing and the deade helpeth you nothing for although all the faithfull make one body in Christ yet there is one state of them that worke an other of them that are iudged according to their works to put no diuersitie betwene them is not to make a communion but a confusion But of all other it is a clerkely cōclusion that you send M. Grindall to looke vpon the example of your masse whith is a sacrifice both for the quicke the deade and thereof will proue that the olde lawe had but one sacrifice for the liue and the deade In deede there you were to good for him if the practise of the popish church be a good president for Moyses to follow in his law we will reason no longer But the fact of Iudas Machabaeus putteth all out of doubt Surely then the fact of euery man that transgressed the lawe shall be sufficient to proue what the lawe was and not the booke of the lawe For else how coulde he haue conceiued any sacrifice which he neuer hearde of How did Dauid conceiue the cariage of the arke in a newe cart which he neuer heard of except it were of the Philistians that sent home the arke in a cart And euen so it is like that Iudas Machabaeus if he deuised not that sacrifice of his owne head yet tooke it by imitation of the Gentiles whose studies and practises your owne author confesseth were more frequented in those dayes among the Iewes then the preaching or keeping of the law Finally to all the other howe 's and whyes I aunswere with one word he had no warrant of his fact in the law of god Neither doth S. Augustine sufficiently answere the heretike that would proue by that fact that men dying in deadly sinne might be saued by sacrifice For though they were not vncircumcised for whom Iudas sent an offering yet they dyed in deadly sinne and such sinne as for which they were iustly slayne as your owne author confesseth for the idolatrous iewells that they had euery one in their bosomes Concerning the authoritie of that booke and how it was taken by Augustine I haue aunswered enough before 4 But here will I nowe make an ende desiring thee gentle reader with such indifferency to weighe the doing and dealing of both parties as the importaunce of the cause the loue of truth the necessary care of thine owne saluation and thy duety towardes God and his Church requireth There is none of all those pointes which the vnfaithfull contention of our miserable age hath made doubtefull in which thou mayest better beholde howe vpright the wayes of trueth and vertue be and howe pernicious double and deceitfull the dealing of heresie is The one is vpholden by the euidēt testimony of holy scripture the other mainteineth her traine by bolde deniall of scriptures the one seeketh with humility the meaning at their mouthes whome God hath vndoubtedly blessed with the gifte of vnderstanding and interpretation the other by singular pride foundeth her vnfaithfulnesse vpon the phantasies of light and lewde persons that are pufte too and fro with euery blaste of doctrine The one resteth vpon the practise of all nations the vsage of all ages and the holy workes both of God and man the other holdeth wholy by contempte of our elders flatery of the present dayes and vnhappy waste of all workes of vertue religion and deuotion the one followeth the gouernours and appointed pastours of our soules whose names be blessed in heauen and earth the other ioyneth to such as for other horrible heresies wicked life are condemned both a liue and deade of the vertuous and can not for shame be named of their owne scholars The one hath the warraunt of Gods whole Church the other standeth on curse and excommunication by the grauest authority that euer was vnder God in earth To be shorte trueth is the Churches dearlinge heresie must haue her maintenaunce abrode This one holy Catholike and Apostolike Church is it wherevnto we owe all duety and obedience both by Gods commaundement and by the bonde of our first faith and profession There is no force of argument no probability of reason no subtelty of witte no deepe compasse of wordely wisedome no eloquence of man nor Angell nor any other motion that can be wrought in the world that shoulde make a man doubte of any article approued by her authority And if thou yet feare to geue ouer thy whole sense and thine owne selfe to so carefull a mother in whome thou wast begotten in thy better birth compare our Church with theirs compare her authority and theirs her maiesty and theirs 4 In Gods name let the readers waye indifferently the doinges and dealinges on both partes the cause the trueth their saluation the Church and the glory of God aboue all thinges And as they see this pointe handeled so let them iudge of the reste The trueth is vpholden by euident testimony of scripture the error by custome practise and iudgement of men The trueth seeketh vnderstanding of the scriptures of the spirite of God in the scriptures error at the mouthes of mortall men The trueth resteth vpon the onely authority of God error vpon the maintenaunce of carnall deuises The trueth is founded vpon the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles the other vpon Gentiles and heretikes Trueth is embraced of the pure and primitiue Church of Christ error is continued from a corrupt state of the Church of Christ vnto a plaine departing awaye into the church of Antichrist To be short trueth is tryed by the worde of God heresie by the inuention of men The holy Catholicke and Apostolicke Church is that which humbly obeyeth the word of God and the Synagoge of Satan is that which arrogantly challengeth authoritie aboue the worde The true Church shall neuer decaye but alwaye reigne with Christ the false Synagoge shall daily more and more decaye
lyr De fide operibus Cap. 16. Ench. Cap. 67. 68. Ench. Cap. 69. This clearkly argumeÌ„t our English apologie vrgeth Lib. 21. de Ciuit. 26. Cap. 16. Matth. 19. Cap. 24. lib. 21. Vide quaest 8. ad Dulcitium Cap. 110. Serm. 4. de sanctis De haeres ad quod 43. In Cap. 11. Prouerb Super. 3. Cap. 1. ad Cor. Super. ca. 3. Malach. In 3. cap. Malach. 1. Petri. 4. Cap. 4. I call stannuÌ„ peuter moued by the circumstaÌ„ce of the letter 1. Pet. 4. A mortall sinne not remitted in this life is not discharged by purgatory A deadely sinne remitted is in case of a veniall sinne De vera falsa poeniâ—ent ca. 18. Ench. ca. 71. Naum. 1. 1. Cor. 11. Act. 2. Dan. 4. Serm. 20. in Psal. 118. Psal. 65. Ibidem Vide Rupeâ—tum in 3. cap. Genes In Ser. de S. Nicolao Cap. 5. Lucae 12. 1. Petri. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Litigator seu actor Vide Bern. ser. 85. super Cantic Act. 10. De libero Arb trio lib. 3. cap. 15 Carcer Super. 5. ca. Matth. Lib. 21. de ciuit Dei. cap. 13. Ad Amandum epist 1. Epist. 2. See hovv fully he expresseth both the vvorde and meaning of purgatory He calleth the senteÌ„ce of God in the next life iudgement Markevvel Homil. 3. de Epiphania Dan. 7. Ezech. 24. He alludeth to the place of the secoÌ„d chapter to the Colossians of the obligation of death vvhich vvas against vs. Homil. 16. Tom. 10. In Psal. 103. In vita HuÌ„berti The difference betvvixt the Catholikes dealing the aduersaryes Iacob 5. 1. ad Tim. 5. Obiect Aunsvvere Diuersity of sensies be allovved so that none of them coÌ„teine any falsehood in it selfe The diligeÌ„t vvatch that the Church keepeth ouer the trueth Epist. 110. 12. Confess De doctri Christiana lib. 1. ca. 36. Obiection Aunsvvere Rom. 8. 1. Petri. 2. Matth. 3. Matth. 4. Iudas in epist Ad Gal. 5. Ad Haebr cap. 5. Articulo 1. falso imp The vvorde Satisfaction so abhorred of heretiks is common vvith the old fathers For Christes sake let all Catholikes here attende Ser. 55. in Cantic Naum. 1. Emissaenus de poeniteÌ„tia Niniuit Precat praeparatoria 2. ad mis. In Psal 118. Serm. 20. In Psal. 37. Note here Christian reder vvhether S. Augustine douted of purgatory as the lying vnlearned aduersaries vvould make the simple people beleue De vera falsa poeniten Cap. 18. The paynes of purgatory hath ben reueiled to many holy persons 1 Thes. 5. 2. Cor. 12. Apocal. 20. Ecclesi 4 6. 1. Reg. 28. Matth. 17. Intercourse betvvixt the liue and dead though it be not ordinary yet it is not impossible De cura pro mor. cap. 16 Matth. 12. VVicked men haue euer resisted the holy Ghost Lib. 4. epist. 9. Genes 37. Cap. 24. l. 4. dialogorum Cap. 13. li. 3. Lib. 5. ca. 13. P. Beda 1. Cor. 12. Damascenus voâ—at purgatoriuÌ„ baptisma ignis Lib. 4. Cap. 10. de ortho fid Ad AmanduÌ„ epist. 1. Epist. 1. cap. 4. Ambros. vbi supra Epist. 2. Lib. 20. Libro â— cap. 5. Cyrill The diuersity of the dâ—mneds case and of such as be temporally punished in purgatory Philip. 2. Vide Greg. 4. dialo 20. Isiodo de ordi creat Luke 11. Dan. 4. Lib. 4. Cap. 30. de sap 2. Cor. 7. Ambros. Rupert in 3. cap. Genes In orat pro defunctis A comparison of the mercy and iudgement of God tovvardes the soules in Purgatory that mercy is more Psal. 76. The motioÌ„s of Gods mercy In releasing or mitigation of the paine of Purgatory Psal. 76. Li. 1 de poenit cap. 1. A briefe note of the contentes and principall pointes of this booke Cap. 1â— Cap. 3. Cap. 12. Lib. 4. dialog cap. 19. Onely small offensies be remitted in the next life Serm 66. in Canti Cap. 24. lib. 21. de ciuit Beda in 3. Cap. Marci Sometimes Gods iustice is aunsvvered fully by the paine of the party 1. Cor. 12. August epi. 23. Idem tract 32. in Ioan. The christiaÌ„ communioÌ„ and fellovvship is expressed The soules depaâ—ted in pâ—ety are of our church fellovvship Lib. 20. de ciuit Cap. 9 Quaest. ad Ant. 34. The communion expressed betvvixt the liue and the dead by the naturall agreement betvvixt the vine in the fielde the vvine in the vessel Cal. Instit. Ad frat in herem 44. Gregori in epist. ad Bonifac Cap. 12. Take heede In heresi Aerij In oratione pro de funct Ecclesiast Hierrarch Cap. 7. Antiq. li. 1â— Cap. 8. Hiero con vig. Prayers for the departed agreeth to our faith of the resurrection and immortalitie Heretikes deny scriptures In prol mach Though against a levve or an heretike they coulde not proue any article of faith neither then nor novve by them Cap. 48. Cap. 47. Lib. 2. Cap. Cap. 36. In lib. pro defunct De cura pro mort agenda Augustines ansvvere to Pelagius denying scripture for that it made agaiÌ„st his heresie August de haeresib 24. haeres Tâ—rtul de praescrip Iren. cap. 26 libr. 1. Euseb. eccles histor lib. 4. De haeresi ad quod vult deum 30. haeresi The Churches vse in confirmation or publishing of the canonicall Scripture A necessary vvarning Iudas follovved the order of the church and not prescribed to the Church any nevv sacrifice or ceremony De vniuersa iudeoruÌ„ fide recitatur a Groppero in lib. de Eucharist Genes 23. Genes 50. Deut. 34. Eccles. 22. Super obit Theod. Geneua booke appointeth a still buriall Cap. 1. Fasting for the departed 2. Reg. 12. 1. Reg. 31. Tobiae 4. Ser. de cath sancti Pet. Lir. super huÌ„c locum Tob. 12. Act. 9. Sermo de initio quadrage Lucae 7. Ser. de eleemos Ioh. 11. 1. Thes. ca. 4 Homil. 3. 4. Reg. 19. Homil. 84. in Ca. 20. Ian. As prayers doe protest the resurrectioÌ„ so vnordinate mourning shevveth the lacke of beliefe therin Homil. 32. in Cap. 9. Matth. In his time the priestes vvere desired to pray for mennes soules A great decay of vertue in our time Iucae 11. 16. Dan. 4. Ecc. 3. Tob. 12. Iacob 2. Iacob 1. Serm. de Eleemos O that vvas a happy time Citatur à Dam. Marci 12. Matt. 10. The perfectest kind of almes Tob. 12. Lib. 3. in Iob. In compeÌ„d epistola ad Iacob fratrem domini Iob. 1 2. In 15. cap. 1. Cor. Homil 14. Ex Damasceno pro defunctis Psal. 24. In Athanasius his time candels vvere light in churchies for their sakes that vvere dead sicke or absent Athanas. authoritie onely vvill beare dovvn all heretiks in the vvorlde The name onely of Christianity lefte in many Deuotion much decaide somevvhat before this heresy began Can. 39. Cap. 2. Cap. 95. In vita Iosaphat Super obit Theodos. Iulio interpr De fide resur De Cor. milit In exhort Castitat De monogamia This heresy much ioyneth vvith the Saduces Psal. 13. Cor. 1. ca. 15 Lib. 8. CoÌ„st Cap. 48. The maister
penaunce there remaineth some due of temporall punishement for the satisfying of Gods iustice and some recompense of the oftensies past 31. chapter 2 The double and doubtfull shiftes of our aduersaries pressed by this conclusion are remoued and it is proued against one sorte that these foresaide skourgies vvere in deede punishments for sinnes remitted And against the other secte that this transitory paine hath often endured in the next life 43. chapter 3 That the practise of Christes Church in the courte of binding and loosing mans sinnes doth liuely set forth the ordre of Gods iustice in the next life and proue Purgatory 65. chapter 4 That the many folde vvorkes fructes of penaunce vvhich all godly meÌ„ haue charged theÌ„ selues vvith all for their ovvn sinnes remitted vvere in respect of Purgatory paines for the auoyding of Gods iudgemeÌ„t teÌ„poral as vvell as eternal in the next life 74. chapter 5 A briefe ioyning in reason and argument vppon the proued groundes vvith the aduersaries for the declaration and proofe of Purgatory 89. chapter 6 That Purgatory paines doth not only serue Gods iustice for the punishement of sinne but also cleanse qualify the soule of man defiled for the more seemely entrauÌ„ce into the holy placies vvith confereÌ„ce of certaine textes of scripturs for that purpose 92. chapter 7 That there is a particular iudgemeÌ„t and priuate accompt to be made at euery mans departure of his seuerall actes and deedes vvith certaine of the fathers mindes touching the textes of scriptures alleaged before 103. chapter 8 Origen is alleaged for our cause vpon vvhose error in a matter somvvhat apperteining to our purpose S. Augustins iudgement is more largely sought and there vvith it is declared by testimony of diuers holy authors vvhat sinnes be chiefly purged in that temporall fire 114. chapter 9 A further declaration of this point for the better vnderstanding of the doctors vvordes VVherein it is opened hovv Purgatory is ordeined for mortall sinnes and hovv for smaller offenses vvho are like to feele that greefe and vvho not at all 125. chapter 10 A place alleaged for Purgatory out of S. Matthevv vvith certeine of the auncient fathers iudgements vpon the same 132. chapter 11 An aunsvvere to certaine obiections of the aduersaries moued vpon the diuersity of meaninges vvhich they see geuen in the fathers vvritinges of the scriptures before alleaged for Purgatory and that this doctrine of the Church standeth not against the sufficiency of Christes Passion 148. chapter 12 An euident and most certaine demonstration of the trueth of Purgatory and the greeuousnesse thereof vttered by the prayers and vvordes of the holy doctors and by some extraordinary vvorkes of God beside 156. chapter 13 Of the nature and condicion of Purgatory fire the difference of their state that be in it from the damned in hell vvith the conclusion of this Booke 169. THE ARGVMENTES OF THE Chapters of the seconde booke THe preface of this booke vvherein the matter of the treatise the order of the authors proceding be briefly opened 180 chapter 1 That there be certeyne sinnes vvhich may be forgiuen in the next life and that the deserued punishment for the same may be eased or vtterly released before the extreme sentence be to the vtmost executed pag. 187. chapter 2 That the faythfull soules in purgatory being novve past the state of deseruing and not in case to helpe them selues may yet receiue benefite by the vvorkes of the liuing to vvhom they be perfectly knitte as felloâ— members of one body 197. chapter 3 VVhat the Church of God hath euer principally practised for the soules departed by the vvarrant of holy Scripture vvith the defence of the Machabees holy hystory against the heretikes of our tyme. 205. chapter 4 That the funeralls of the Patriarches both in the lavv of nature and Moyses and Christ had practise in them for the reliefe of the soules departed 220. chapter 5 Man may be relieued after his departure eyther by the almes vvhich he gaue in his life tyme or by that vvhich is prouided by his testament to be giuen after his death or else by that almes vvhich other men doe bestovv for his soules sake of their ovvne goods 238. chapter 6 Of certeyne offerings or publike almes presented to God for the deceased in the time of the holy sacrifice at mens burialls other customable dayes of their memories and of the sundry mindes kept in the primitiue Church for the departed 266. chapter 7 That the benefite of praier almes apperteyneth not to such as dye in mortal sin though in the doubtfull case of mans being the Church vseth to pray for all departed in Christes faith 271. chapter 8 VVhat that holy sacrifice is vvhich vvas euer counted so beneficiall to the liue and deade The punishment of our sinnes by the heâ—uy losse thereof The great hatred vvhich the deuill and all his side hath euer borne tovvardes Christes eternall priesthood and the sacrifice of the Church And that by the sayd sacrifice of the Masse the soules departed are especially relieued 288. chapter 9 That the practise of any poynt in religion maketh the most opeÌ„ shevv of the fathers faith And that all holy men haue in plain vvordes and most godly prayers vttered their beliefe in our matter 304. chapter 10 That vve all nations receiued this vsage of praying sacrificing for the departed at our first conuersion to Christes faith And that this article vvas not onely confirmed by miracle amongest the rest but seuerally by signes and vvonders approued by it selfe And that the Church is grovvne to such bevvty by the frute of this faith 328. chapter 11 That in euery order or vsage of celebration of the blessed Sacrament and Sacrifice throughout the Christian vvorlde since Christes time there hath ben a solemne supplicatioÌ„ for the soules departed 347. chapter 12 The heretikes of our tyme and cuntry be yet further vrged vvith the practise of prayers for the deceased their contrary coÌ„munion is compared vvith the olde vsage of celebration â—hey are ashamed of the first originall of their Christian faith they are vveary of their ovvne seruice they are kept in order by the vvisdome of the ciuill Magistrates and are forced to refuse all the doctors 364. chapter 13 That the praying for the deade vvas appoynted to be had in the holy sacrifice by the Apostles commaundement and prescription And that our doctors by the maiestie of their name beare dovvne our light aduersaries 386. chapter 14 The first author of that sect vvhich denyeth prayers for the departed is noted his good conditions and cause of his error be opened vvhat kind of men haue bene most bent in all ages to that sect And that this heresie is euer ioyned as a fitte compagnion to other horrible sectes 407. chapter 15 Their falshood is condemned and the Catholike truth approued by the authority of holy Councells Their pride in contemning the Catholikes humility in obedient receiuing the same And a sleight vvhereby the heretikes deceiue the people is detected 424. chapter 16 An aunsvvere to such arguments as the heretikes doe frame of the holy scriptures not vvell vnderstanded against the practise of Gods Church in praying for the deade or the doctrine of Purgatory 436. chapter 17 An aunsvvere to their negatiue argument vvith the Conclusion of the booke 448. FINIS
Scriptures nor in the most auncient writers that lyued with in an hundreth yeares and more after the time of christ And to the particuler practise of the later times we aunswere that it is not sufficient to controll the auncient doctrine and primer practise If we be required to shew some place of any auncient writer which denyeth purgatory or prayers for the deade we haue already shewed that Augustine some time doth doubt whether there be purgatory some time affirmeth there is no meane or thirde place but heauen for the elect and hell for the reprobate likewise for praying or satisfying for the deade we haue alleaged Cyprian and others your owne common law out of Hieronym sayth that the prayers of the liuing profit not the deade 13. quaest 2. In praesenti saeculo c. In this present worlde we knowe that one of vs may be helped of an other either by prayers or by counsells but when we shoulde come before the iudgement seate of Christ neither Iob nor Daniel nor Noe can intreate for any man but euery man must beare his owne burthen Yea Gelasius the Pope sayth that no man can be absolued of the Pope after his death 24. q. 2. C. legatur Wherefore serue the Popes pardons then To that which is required of the expresse word of God forbidding prayers for the deade we aunswere that all places of scripture that forbidde prayers without fayth forbidde prayer for the deade for faith is not euery mans vaine perswasion but an assurance out of the worde of God which because we can not haue in praying for the dead therefore we are forbidden to praye for them If it be against the hope of Christians to morne for the deade much more it is against the fayth and hope of Christians to praye for them For by our prayer we suppose them to be in misery whome the worde of God doth testifie to be in happines to be at rest to be with Christ Iohn 17. Apoc. 14. And as for a place so expounded by an auncient writer I will seeke no farther then the place of Hieronym euen now alleaged out of your owne canon lawe vppon 2. Cor. 5. referring the reader to many other places alleaged in this aunswere as out of Cyprian Origene and others by which the intollerable lying bragging and rayling of this miscreant shal be better confuted then by any contradiction of wordes And where as he sayeth we chalenge the olde doctors before the simple for our partakers whether they be simple or wise before whom we speake as we speake not alwayes before the simple onely but often times and commonly before as wise and well learned men as M. Allen we neuer make any such challenge of them as the Papistes doe which offer to stand to their iudgement in all thinges and yet in most thinges yea in the cheefest pointes of religion that be so in deede or be so compted of them they are contrary to the doctors and olde councells for which cause and not for confirmation of trueth we alleage the authoritie of men for we haue learned as Augustine sayth to geue this honor only to the canonicall scriptures that we must beleue them with out controuersie and all other writings we receiue so farre as they agree with the scriptures and not other wise wherefore we doe not onely saye that the doctors haue erred like men but we haue proued it so that the Papistes them selues can not saye naye for shame But to that he sayth we doe boldely condemne the holy Scriptures that it out of all measure impudent and sclaunderous And that which he citeth out of Irenaeus belike as he had it of some foolish priest that fedde him with notes of doctors or as he is impudent enough to peruerte the fathers meaning him selfe so if he had alleged the whole sentence he might well haue taken him selfe and the rest of his fellowes by the noses for heretikes by the iudgemeÌ„t of Irenaeus whose wordes be these Cum enim ex scripturis arguantur in accusationem conuertuntur ipsarum scripturarum quasi non rectè habâ—ant neque sit ex authoritate quia variè sunt dictae quia non possit inueniri veritas ab his qui nesciant traditionem non enim per literas traditam illam sed per viuam vocem When they be confuted by the scriptures they are turned into the accusation of the scriptures them selues as though they were not well nor of sufficient authority both because the trueth can not be founde of them which knowe not the tradition for that was not deliuered by writing but by worde of mouth How saye you M Allen who is an heretike by Irenaeus iudgement who accuseth the scriptures as though they were not of sufficient authority who sayth the scriptures are like a nose of waxe who saye the trueth can not be founde in scriptures without tradition of vnwritten verities In good sooth M. Allen you haue the worst grace of any that euer I knew in alleaging the sentences of the doctors for you alleage fewe or none but either in whole or in parte they make against you 9 But if you thinke that I feane of them you shall see what shamefull shiftes the maisters and captaines of the contrary assertion haue deuised for the defense of them selues I dare say if the studious be but any whit indiffereÌ„t he will leaue their sâ—hoole for euer The chiefe Captaine of all these contentious heades like an vnshamefast childe affiâ—meth that the doctors praysed and followed the common errors of the ignorant people in almes and prayers for the departed Brentius aunswereth that Tertullian making mention of yearly oblations for the deceased tooke his error of the hethen vsage of the gentility And Augustine he saith affirmed purgatory prayers and almes for them for the affiance that he had in mens merites towardes the remission of sinnes Melancthon as though he were no man that might orre him selfe sayth the doctors were men and discented amongest them selues As for the vsage of any celebration in the worlde what roume can it haue with these champians when Câ—luin confesseth in plaine termes that the celebration of the Sacrament hath bene contaminated euen in a maner sith the Apostles time and first planting of our religion and to reduce it to the puritie againe the man frames a newe one of his owne so farre from superstition that it hath no steppe of religion or true worship of god But well the worde of God is yet safe with them there a man may holde them No surely they are as â—alsie with the very scripture it selfe when so euer it maketh against them Brentius before named is not ashamed to saye that he pardoneth the author of the Machabeis of his error and ignorance And that thou may see the perfect image of a prowde heretike Caluin sayth thus as for the booke of the Machabeis I will not vouâ—hsalfe to make aunswere to it Mercifull God what faithfull