in any other place shall wee find any word thereof Thus is this place now emptie if we cannot find any to lodge in it And because it is likely that the Franciscans according to their rule doe not goe into Purgatory single but by two and by two This Limbo lying in the way to Purgatory seemeth a very convenient place to lodge him who being departed hence alone must attend his companion Besides these foure places Bellarmine who lately writ at Rome The flowred meddow and as it were in the Popes bosome with the approbation and commendation of all the Church of Rome but particularly of al our Doctors in the 7. Chap. of his second booke of Purgatory hath found out a fifth place that is to say a bright and cleere meddow all diapred with sweet smelling flowers which hee maketh to be a dependance of Purgatory and as it were a withdrawing chamber wherein those doe take their rest who are most kindly entreated most gently dealt withall and groundeth himself vpon the auctoritie of venerable Beda and Dionise a Charterhouse Monk an auctor of great credit whoe is full fraught with fantasticall revelations he should haue added how these flowers doe spring without sun or raine frō whence that goodly brightnesse could pierce into those deepe partes of the earth Out of this meddow do the souls immediately passe into Paradice but before the comming of Iesus Christ they went thence into Limbo a matter of great compassion that passing out of a bright meddow full of recreation they should come to bee shut vp in a darke prison Such therfore is the building which our Masters haue erected vnder groūd making by an order contrary to nature the lowest chambers to be the hottest digging without any autoritie of the Gospell sundry compartiments vnder the earth like to mouldwarpes blinded with the sunshine of Gods word In this place I would entreat the reader throughout all this mysterie to take note of a certaine kinde of soules which should haue more agilitie experience then their fellowes so many walkes and turnings are they put vnto These are those soules who departing from their bodies vnder the old Testament were first presented before the Iudge and thence sent into Purgatory but escaping thence after a scalding fire entered into a bright meddow ful of recreation Afterwards from this medow they passed into Limbo thence came forth with Iesus Christ then did they follow him 40 daies vpon the earth finally entered into Paradice Let vs therefore finde no farther fault with Plato or his Metempsychosis for his revolutions and passages of soules are nothing so prodigious indeed our Masters doe carry away the bell for invention from all Poets These matters thus dispatched and set out as it were in a table it resteth that wee now examine this Purgatory and the abuses therevpon depending and proue that the word of God is a spring more then sufficient to quench this the Popes so profitable a fire Here may our Reader if it please him note that Purgatory is by our adversaries placed among the Articles of our beleefe so as vnlesse wee beleeue therein Bellarm. de Purgat lib. 2 cap. 12. Haec sunt we cannot bee saved that the importance of the matter may tie him to attention So shall we breake one of the legges of this Colossus one of the principall pillers of Babylon CAP. 2. That the holy scripture is a sufficient iudge for this question as also for all other cōtroversies concerning faith and that therein is no mention of Purgatory or of any Indulgence whereby to release soules out of the torment thereof to a iudge that beareth them so smal favour they many times giue it some gird Thus saith the Auctor of the fire of Helie Pag. 61. Albeit there bee no mention of Purgatory in the Scripture yet cannot Du Moulins conclusion bee but bad in saying there is no Purgatory And here he raketh togither a number of things which saith he are not in the holy Scripture Yea so presumptuous is our Franciscans ignorance as to say that throughout the old Testament there is not one expresse word of the immortalitie of the soule Pag. 16. In this regard it is requisite that before we proceed any farther we trie these Doctors in this case to the quicke and defend the perfection of the holy Scripture Amid the corruptions of the world wee haue yet this honor that we be the advocates of Gods cause and of the worthinesse of his word Which as S. Paul 2. Tim. 3. saith is able to instruct vs and to make vs wise to salvatiō Initio lib. 2. adversus Gentes which also saith Athanasius abundantly suffiseth to instruct vs in all truth Wherein as saith Chrysostome vpon the second Chapter of the 2. to the Thessalonians is cleerly cōtained al that is necessary For was it possible that aforetime the fiue books of Moses were sufficient to instruct the Church to salvation that now the same fiue bookes together with the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles cannot suffice hath God forbiddē to adde or diminish to the bookes of Moses Deut. 4.1 and nowe that both in the old and new Testament we haue much larger instruction shal it be tollerable to adde an vnwritten word Other Canonicall bookes Other articles of faith Jf the Gospell be sufficient to saue vs who shal be so bold as to say that the new Testament doth containe but part of the Gospel To alleadge either the tiranny of custome or the antiquity of a traditiō without the word of God what is it but to alleadge the antiquitie of Error and to arme both Iewes Gentils with the like reasons cōsidering that vntruth is very ancient yea it hath beene even from the beginning also that against the truth no prescription of time may take place To ioine therfore to the holy scriptures an vnwritten word and to make the traditions of the Romish Church equal with the bookes of the olde and new Testamēt is a great disparagemēt to the Maiestie of the holy Scripture It is as much as to do that which expresly is forbiddē in the law of Moses that is to plow with an oxe and an asse to yoake togither things very vnequall to make man equall with God and the lead of the Popes Buls with the pure steele of the spiritual sword of the Gospel True it is that they tearme these Traditions the word of God and traditions of the Apostles but they shewe not when or to whom God did first inspire them They deliver vnto vs the Canon of the Masse for an Apostolical tradition wherein neverthelesse they name some persons that lived three hūdred yeares after the Apostles time Thus the Indulgences the forgiunesse of all sins at the end of every 25. yeares The communion vnder one kinde The fetching of souls out of Purgatory by Popish Indulgences The prohibiting of the lay people from reading of the holy
Scriptures The custome to pray in a tongue vnknown even to him that praieth The feast of God The Elevation and walking of their consecrated cake vp and downe The hallowed Graines and Medals The fraternity of S. Frances Corde loaden with so manie pardons and priviledges and such like trash Can. satis Dist 96. Gloss Clem. cum inter Sacr. Cerem sect 7. cap. 6. sedes Dei sedes Apostolica The last Councell of Lateran sess 9. Divinae Maiestatis tuae conspectus which them selues do confesse were brought in long since the Apostles time shal by this reckoning be holden for the word of God and the Tradions of the Apostles And that with good reason sith the Pope assumeth to himselfe the name of God and his holinesse The divine Maiestie and in infinite places in his Cannons The Spouse of the Church yea as saith Bellarmine de Pontif. Rom. lib. 1-cap 9. etiam Christo secluso eveÌ„ Jesus Christ excluded or set aside Sith that likewise the Pope tearmeth office Apostolat all his furniture Apostolicall as his chamber his letters his chaire his cloake his Pallace And vnlesse God take pitty vpon vs they will shortly call his hose and points Apostolicall Now that in all this the drift of our Masters tendeth only to shunne the holy scriptures which condemne them it appeareth in these words The vnwritten word For what is the vnwritten word but a Chimera in the aire an imperceptible Idea For where can we finde this vnwritten word If we must seeke it as they say at the mouth of the vniversall Church when shal I haue gathered together the vniversall Church to instruct me Or if the people must haue recourse to their Curat how shal they know whether their Curate agreeth with the vniversall Church What side shall we take where the doctors do disagree As do now these three doctors who are growne to censure and in their pulpits to disclaime one of theÌ„ Or if one bee borne in an hereticall Church or betweene two Churches grounded vpon contrary Traditions as betweene the Greeke and the Romain But if wee must seeke this vnwritten word of God in the bookes of ancient doctors then it is written and albeit these bookes be subiect to errour yet the Traditions of the Romish Church as the afore named and Purgatory are not there to be found as hereafter we shall proue Moreover in as much as they would make vs beleeue that the Pope hath such letters of credence that wee must therefore do all that he commandeth and beleeue all that he list to perswade vs albeit this bee not found in the holie scripture yet wheÌ„ the church of Rome hath neede of Reformation in capite membris as it is the ancient coÌ„plaint what meanes is there to proceed considering that he that is to bee reformed is the maker of the lawes soveraigne Iudge in all matters of Religion consequently in his owne cause God forbid that man should bee iudge over the cause of God or that all the Popes inventions for the advaÌ„cing of their Empire should be holden for the word of God and the rule of our faith But let vs here the productioÌ„s of these doctors all those things that they say are not coÌ„tained in the Scripturs Our observaÌ„tin Moncke shall march formost and haue the first place He saith that thorough out all the old Testament there is not one expresse worde concerning the Immortalitie of the soule Admit it were so yet what interest had he to search out the defects of the holy scripture But had he sought wel he might haue found these wordes in the last of Daniell Dan. 12.2 Many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame contempt What can bee spoken more expresly And in the 12. of Ecclesiastes v. 7. And dust returne to the earth as it was and the spirit returne to God that gaue it And in the 23. of Numbers Balaam desireth to die the death of the righteous An evident proofe that he held their death to be blessed But were this frier Minor as well acquainted with the holy Scriptures as he is with the rule of S. Frances he would never haue vttered a speech so impertinent and ful of impietie for the which hee deserveth to change his order and from the Observantine fryerie to be sent to the ignorant friers The auctor of the fire of Helie broaceth it much deeper he demaÌ„deth how by the holy scriptures wee canne proue this proposition That the holy Scripture containeth all that we ought to beleeue But this is not our saying for we may and ought to beleeue many things that are not contained in the holy Scripture In such maner do we beleeue that Romulus with a troope of theeues built Rome Stella Platina The booke of IndulgeÌ„ces printed at Rome wee beleeue the history of Pope Ioâ—e as a history advowed by many auctors both friends and servants to the Popes and of whom there yet remaine manie traces and causes of remembrance wee beleeue that Alexander 3. did set his foot vpon the throat of Fredericke Barberossa Volateran Sabellicus Martianus Polonus vpon the staires of S. Markes Church at Venice where this his so heroical exploit is to this day represented we beleeue those histories that recorde howe the Emperour Henrie the 7. was poysoned in their consecrated cake Their God poisoned with a thousand such like histories both old and newe whereof the scripture never made mentioÌ„ Only we say that the holy scriptures doe containe all documents and instructions necessary to salvation This doe we say with S. Paul who in the 2. to Tim. cap. 3. v. 15. saith It is able to make vs wise to salvation what more can we demand The same Apostle 1. Cor. 4 6. teacheth vs Not to presume aboue that which is written toward the end of the new Testament we find these words I protest vnto every one that heareth the Prophecie of this booke that if any man shal adde vnto these things God shal adde vnto him the plagues that are written in this booke whereto our adversaries can frame no other reply Consilium foro Iulii but that this curse extendeth no farther but to the booke of the Revelation Yet doth the councell of Triuly bridle them in these words The protestation of the Apostle Iohn in the Revelation vnder the title of one booke hath relation to the whole course of both the Testaments saying if any man adde c. Againe he challengeth me to proue by the holy Scriptures these 8 things which vnderhand he supposeth to bee necessary to salvation In the Index Biblicus printed at Anwerp by Plantin 1588. p. 5. 1. The baptisme of young children which neverthelesse is proved by the Iesuits and Doctors of the Vniversitie of Lovaine also by the Catechisme of the Councell of Trent by many passages of the holy Scripture Thus
that baptisme was not necessarie for any but the children of vnbeleevers that out of our Kalenders we haue raised the Virgin Mary the Apostles and in their places haue inserted Luther and Calvin that our Ministers doe preach liberty of conscience without any apprehension of divine iudgemēt that we hold that it sufficeth vs that Iesus Christ suffered for vs and therefore that wee neede not doe any more that at the Funerals of the late Queene of England they sung Masse had their offertory and prayed for her soule that Luther and Calvin in liew of raising the dead to life did put the living to death and that they are our Masters Patriarkes and Apostles c. To bee briefe they set downe even all the slanders that hatred can devise or malice can suggest wherewith they seduce the people and abuse their simplicitie What shall I speak of their vprightnesse in alleaging the Scriptures All the passages that they produce are for the most part either falsified or wrested to a contrary sense or to no purpose With a Magisteriall license they force a number of passages quoined vpon the anvill of Avarice that are not to be found in the originals either Greeke or Hebrew yea and sometimes contrary to the Roman translations Of so much negligence or dulnesse of their reader do they presume assuring themselues that the people shall never perceaue any thing or can so much as cōsult with the Scriptures which vnto them are as sealed letters and suspected bookes albeit in the meane time they are permitted to read the monstrous Legends the Psalters of the Virgin Mary ful fraught with blasphemy and the frivolous and and fabulous bookes of the life of Iesus Christ O yee soules that long for your salvation will you still liue in such grievous bondage What shall we yet be so vaine as to passe the seas to looke vpon the relickes of some Saints and will we not heare Iesus Christ when he offereth himselfe vnto vs in the holy Scriptures Shall we stoop more to curiositie thē to necessitie To the cōtent of our eies then to the salvation of our soules Shall we still be so rashly negligent as in a matter of such importance to credit the first commer Contenting our selues with following in liew of knowing Placing pietie in the knoweledge of nothing thrusting our selues into the presse and shrowding vs amōg the multitude Againe when any man shall say vnto vs that Iesus Christ or any of his Apostles do in such a place or in such a place teach vs Purgatory or the Invocation of saints c. Shall wee be so cruelly cowards to our selues or so vnthankfull to God as not to take so much paines as to look whether the same be truely alleaged And indeed wherefore should these Doctors cite the places but that we might see them For what an absurditie is this to quote the places to the people and then to debarre them from seeing of them To referre them to the places and then to command them not to looke in the booke The people of Beroe practised this examination of the things that S. Paul taught Acts. 17.10 for albeit he preached with farre more auctoritie and certitude thē any man in our age yet did they examine his preaching by the reading of the Prophets farre more obscure then the new Testament Enter therefore in to this examination I say and yet I say vnto you especially if you haue recourse to the originals that you shall enter as it were into a shop where they sell vizards yea where they doe not only sell them but where they make thē so excessiue is their licentious liberty Of all this will wee in this Treatise produce sundry proofes according as occasion shall serue A Treatise whose principall drift is a defence of the only purging of our sinnes which is the bloud of our Saviour Iesus Christ against the fire of Purgatorie An argument that carrieth with it the confutation of the doctrine of the Limboes of Traditions of Prayer for the dead of mans satisfactions and of Popish Indulgences I plead the cause of Iesus Christ I confute the reasons and passages of these Doctors and their burning writings yet touch not their persons neither their furnitures full of Invectiues that concerne not the argument Two things there are neverthelesse which I cannot overpasse their folly in vanting and their false dealing in answering me Fire of Helic p. 4. First they paint forth many triumphs great conquests and an extreame shaking of our Church so many goodly soules such a multitude of notable personages namely forty at Diepe revolted to the Romish Church which now is in travel of them If they come to life they shal come forth These men doe packe them very grosly for enquiring of any such breach in the Church of Diepe I cannot learne of more long time revolted then two the one a maiden who allured by a carnall marriage hath violated her spirituall marriage with Christ the other an English Iesuit 2. Pet. 5.22 who vpon a fained conversion intruded himselfe into our company and is now returned to his vomit Howbeit let vs put the case that the reporte of these conversions were as true as they be forged at pleasure Is it any mervaile that some loue the world turn wing to that part that yeeldeth most quietnesse and worldly promotion Were it not rather a wonder if there were none such Ioh. 6.66 Iesus Christ was forsaken of his disciples how much more wee who haue nothing but by his bounty Men in these daies in matter of Religion do follow the course of the affaires and do fit their beliefe to their worldly commodities The belly hath no eares And as vsually such are deafe as dwell neere the downefall of great waters even so the word of God pierceth not into the eares that are deafned with the bruit of the world and stopped with the currāt of Covetize of voluptuousnesse and of ambition especially at Paris where mē are bought and sold where rewardes are propounded And God graunt that Idolatry possesse none but those whō she hath deerely paid for herein are we to acknowledge the work of God that notwithstanding so many allurements and discommodities yet do the flocke of Iesus Christ grow and encrease yea even since these men made their vaunts that our Church was so sore shakē But we boast not so much neither indeede are these victories ours but our Lorde Iesus Christs In their triumphs they paint mee forth make me a party in the proofs of their sufficiencie The auctor of Helies fire saith that in the disputation against the frier I was twise or thrice at a non plus and so made some of them merry but hee sheweth neither when nor whervpon It might peradventure be when the frier refused to enter into any orderly disputation or to propoūd his reasons in forme saying that he was not permitted so to do either when he said
that the theft was scourged Suetonius Iulius in segmento 73. Plautus in Aphitruone aut satisfaciat mihi aut adiuret in super nolle esse dicta quae in me in sontem protulit but not the thiefe That excogitatum Commentum signified a Commentary That the pardons of foure and fifty thousand yeares are good and receaueable That satisfacere signifieth not to acknowledg his fault to the partie offended or to testifie that he was sorry for it or when he saying vnto me that God should be vniust if there were no purgatorie I answered that then God should be vniust to such as should liue in the day of iudgmeÌ„t also to the Carmelites that dy vpoÌ„ the friday who as themselues report haue a priviledge that they shal remain in purgatory no longer but vntill the next saterday But who would thinke that vntruth could so farre exceed Verily I am one of the least amonge the servants of God yet would I be sorrie that my yeares or want of capacitie should any way preiudice the equity of my cause but the word of God is mighty even in the mouthes of babes Besides should I trouble my selfe with answering an vnlearned man vnseene in the Greeke and Hebrew as appeared when we were to haue recourse to the Originals in both those laÌ„guages wher vpon the Iesuits of Turnon tooke vpoÌ„ them to stuffe his booke with passages collected out of prophane auctors and the Rabbins into whoÌ„ hee never thrust his snowt which Iesuits neverthelesse were many times mistaken in diverse things The manner of these Doctors in answering as in place convenient shall appeare But how should they make faithful report of things spoken who make no coÌ„science to falsifie my writing See therefore how they entreat me They produce not my wordes they reverse the order of my speeches The frier beginneth with the last page of my booke here there they mangle snatch at my discourse one beginneth at one end an other in the middest If I speak any thing that biteth they can quietly passe it over with silence They obiect the matter that I answer but my answers they suppresse He that seeketh the truth ought to produce the very wordes of his adversary he should trace him step by step without counterfeiting curtalling or disseÌ„bling but these men by a certaine doctoral disposition do skippe as at their masse over whole leaues they conceale the most forcible and the sooner to lead the reader that followeth vs out of our tracke they shuffle the course of my reasons and bring the head forth last Then having thus sented my discourse they proclaime before the pallace their fiery burning magnificall and ridiculous titles Some coulor they might haue had for their flight had my first booke been either tedious or ful of wordes The chardges of the Impression with the readers impatiencie might haue serued them in steede of figge leaues to cover their shame but my writing contained few pages the Arguments lay close for I studied to lay the bones bare that the sinewes might bee the better seene Their vnfaithfull dealing doth proceed yet farther for they forge other obiections then mine and of mine do they take away the edge by propounding them in other manner then I did Thus do they skirmish and sport them in answering of themselues much like vnto the Bulles in the amphitheater to whoÌ„ they cast men made of straw vpoÌ„ whoÌ„ being provoked they dischardged their rage As if they should say vnto me you are too rough The Church of Rome must be more gently entreated Take away your forcible argumeÌ„ts for these reasons lie to hard vpon vs so wil we commune with you Thus and thus must you obiect that so wee may answere with some coulor but they forgat to giue this warning before I doe therefore protest that these writings of these Doctors doe not coÌ„cerne me for that I never spake manie things that they impute to me they haue either fearefully dissembled or malitiously corrupted my best obiections Neither can I thinke my selfe sufficiently satisfied vntill I see my own writing perfect in the writings of my adversaries and their answer set down article to article reason to reason without cutting of or altering my wordes or disordering the order of my discourse Reverend Doctors I beseech you in curtesie None of these Doctors haue yet answered therfore the victory yet resteth with the Aâ—uctor yea I adiure you by the relicks of your coÌ„sciences to entreat me with more equirie take this booke which againe I offer vnto you encreased amplified and corroborated with reasons and some passages of Scriptures and answer it in such wise as that my reasons may not be mangled nor thrust out of order but that all men may see your answers at the foot of my obiections If your desire to bring the truth to light faileth you not no more then your leasures meanes books and support albeit all these faile vs wee shall soone perceaue which of vs hath the word of God to warrant and from the encounter of our reasons truly and vprightly reported wil proceed the sparks of the truth The Lord God vouchsafe to direct our pennes and dispose our hearts to propound such matters as may bee profitable to the salvation of his people proper to the glory of God and comfortable to the truth of his word THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOKE 1. A description of the foure chambers or stages which the Church of Rome placeth vnder the earth Namely of Hell of the Limboe of Children of the Limboe of the fathers and of Purgatory Also of the meanes to get out of Purgatory 2. That in this controversie as in all other that concerne faith the holy Scripture ought to bee iudge also that the same speaketh not of Purgatory nether of any temporall torment after this life nether of any Indulgences wherewith to fetch soules out of this torment 3. That the holy Scripture overthroweth Purgatory and that there is no other purgation of our sinnes but the blood and death of Iesus Christ and consequently that papall Indulgences are vnprofitable to the deceased 4. Against mans satisfactions in general 5. Against Popish Indulgences and the extraction of soules out of Purgatory 6. A confutation of such passages of the holy Scripture as these Doctors haue alleaged 7. What the Doctors of the foure first ages after Iesus Christ did hold and beleeue concerning this matter and that they never beleeued any Purgatory Also of prayer for the dead of Indulgences and of the satisfactions of the primitiue Church A CONFVTATION OF PVRGATORY CAP. I. A description of the foure Chambers or stages which the Church of Rome placeth vnder the earth and particularly of the place called Purgatory THE Doctors of the Church of Rome doe hold that vnder the earth there bee 4. severall places which are so many prisons wherein the foules are either broyled or shutt vp The lowest place The auctor of
this Doctor opposeth himselfe against a corporation of Romish Doctors an Vniversity and the Councell of Trent 2. The not reiterating of baptisme against the Anabaptists which is the same with the baptisme of young children for the Anabaptists doe rebaptise those whom we haue baptised as holding baptisme in infancie to bee no baptisme 3. Rom. 8.9.11 Ioh. 14 26. 16.14 The proceeding of the holy Ghost which is proved by the places where he is called the spirit of God and the spirit of Christ and the comforter whom the father sendeth in the name of the sonne which taketh of the sonne c. 4. The consubstantialitie of the father and of the sonne Which is proued in this That the sonne is God Ioh. 1.1 Even our great God Tit. 2 13. consequently one God with the father for there is but one God 1. Cor. 8.6 and being one selfe God they are by consequence one selfe substance Wee haue also S. Iohn in his first Epistle cap. 5. who saith thus There be three that bear record in heauen the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one 5. He would haue said Anti-dicomarianites or Heluidians The perpetuall virginitie of the Virgin Mary against the Anti marianites but this is no point necessary to salvation The seemelinesse rather then any necessitie induceth vs to beleeue it 6. The translation of the Sabaoth to the Sonday An article not necessary to salvation Apoc 1 I was ravished in spirit vpon a sonday yet doe we see by the Revel 1.10 and by the 1. Cor. 16.1 and by the Act. 20.7 that this Institution was made in the time of the Apostles 7. The celebration of the feast of Easter against the Quarto Decimanis Which also is of no greater importance to salvation witnesse the censure and reprimendum sent by Ireneus to Victor Bishop of Rome who skirmished fiercly in that quarrell This Epistle of Ireneus is extant in the Ecclesiasticall historie of Eusebius lib. 5. cap 23.8 That there are but three persons in the Trinitie a matter which neither the holy Scripture nor any maÌ„ that ever had any one drop of common sense did ever studie to perswade for in a dualitie there can be but two in a Trinitie three 9. Lastly he bringeth in The washing of the Apostle's feet which saith hee wee cannot proue to be no sacrament therevpon hee great lights De Maiorit obed tit 33. Can. Solita quanta inter solem lunam tanta inter Pontif. Reges differentia Arist Phis li. 4. cap. 4. the greater is the Pope and the lesser is the Emperor and kings as saith Pope Innocent the 3. These our Masters I say so full of their subtilties and invention in their explications which according to the doctrine of Aâ—axagor as doe draw all things out of al things could they not aswell proue these eight points by the scripture as we with all our doltishnesse haue fouÌ„d them out without any difficultie But the truth is that it was no want of inveÌ„tioÌ„ in them but lack of good meaning And these defects in the Scriptures doe they seek out the rather that we might not thinke much that in the Scriptures there is no speech of painting of the Trinitie of worshipping of Images of fetching soules out of Purgatory by Popish Indulgences of their Pastors abstinence from marriage of thâ—◠〈◊〉 â—ctions of meats to be brief 〈◊〉 their traditions In these consiâ—â—â—â—ns it staÌ„deth them vpon to abâ—â—â— authoriâ—â— of the Scriptures 〈◊〉 accus◠〈◊〉 of imperfection Yet is it their surâ—â— course to prohibit the people from reâ—ding of them and from learning any thing but at their mouthes who haue most interest in the suppressing of theÌ„ and doe reape most commodity of the peoples ignorance I could therefore wish that the auctors of these torrents fires and furnaises would lay their haÌ„â—â— to their consciences if they caÌ„ find any and vpon their doctorall faith tell vs whether this vnwritten words these letters of credence be not a means prepared by the Pope thereby to forgâ—â— new articles for his commodity A secret corner wherein to coine false mony and to clip the word of God Theâ—â— consciences must say yes they are oveâ— wise to be ignorant thereof but worldly reasons carry them away in somâ— hope of gaine in some feare and in some worldly devises doe speake lowder and haue greater voice in the Chapter house then conscience In as much therefore as the word â—f God contained in the old and newe â—estament is the only and sufficieÌ„t rule â—f our faith and that Purgatory if wee â—eleeue our adversaries is to bee beleeâ—ed as an article of our faith that vnâ—er paine of damnation it is strange â—hat God in the old Testament having â—rdained sacrifices expiations for al â—orts of sinnes and pollutions even to â—he Leprosie to the bloody flixe â—nd to the touching of any dead â—ody c. did never ordaine any expiâ—tion sacrifice satisfaction or prayâ—r for the soules that were in Purgatorie The ancient Patriarkes good â—ervants of God Abraham Isaac Iacob â—oseph Moses Aaron Iosua Samuell or David never desired after their deathes â—o be prayed for neither did themselues pray for any that was dead that God would vouchsafe to bring them out of Purgatory True it is that they bewaiâ—ed their dead but among al their mournings weepings fastings and lamentations wee find no path to purgatory neither any one prayer to fetch the soules of the deceased out of Purgatory and indeed such lamentations and fastings were made even for the wicked such as died in Gods displeasure As for Saul to whom it was said by the Pithonesse not many houres before his death that God was against him who also died soone after his consultation with the witch David likewise bewailed Absalon who died in rebellion and treason against his owne father yet for such saith the Church of Rome wee must not pray How grievous were the teares vpon the death of Iacob and Moses who as holy and rare lights of the Church could never bee confined into Purgatory The high Priest of the Law never granted Indulgences neither made any intercession to abridge this so scalding a punishment neither did they that died make any foundations of services Pag. 16.18 or sacrifices to redeem their soules out of this fire Here doth our frier seeke a starting hole but the clefâ— is to straight for him to creep through He complaineth that In liew of seeking the true light in the law of Grace that is to say the Gospell we looke for it in the darke and obscure law of Moses To speak plainly he refuseth the old Testament as an incompetent Iudge for the darkenesse thereof But to this obiection wee doe answer that indeed the prophecies of things to come and the ceremonies of the old Testament are not so cleere easie as the Gospel yet are Gods Commandements therein laid down in
plain and open tearmes Wee therefore demand what commandement of God he can find throughout the old Testamēt wherein it is commanded to pray for the dead or to offer any sacrifice for them either among them to distribute the superabundant merits and satisfactions of holy men deceased as Abraham or Moses to helpe them out of Purgatory Here our adversaries are at a stand and bite the bit for were there any cōmandement that might bear wreasting to that sence they that can so cunningly rack the Scriptures to their purposes would no doubt haue produced it Here doth our Frier frie in his greace would faine shift it of with blasphemies as they that are beset with fires would gladly leap out at the windows He doth no longer accuse the olde Testament of obscuritie but of omission and impection How many things saith he hath God left vnmentioned in the olde Testament Pag. 16. to the end to take from the people all occasion of Idolatry and yet are necessarie to saluation As invocation of the Trinitie Pag. 18. the immortalitie of the soule c Againe he saith vnder the law prayers for the dead were not so frequēt publike least they should giue the Iewes occasiō with the Gentils to thinke that they ought to sacrifice to the infernall powers Secondly that in regard that before the redemption of man kind the estate of the deceased was not so well knowne as after that our Saviour Iesus Christ descended into hell And thirdly because they had not so good means to relieue the dead as they had after that the merits of the death and passion of our Lord were committed into the hands of the Church to apply them So many wordes so many monsters and blasphemies First in that hee denieth that in the old Testament there is any mention of the Immortality of the soule wee haue before heard the depositions of Daniell Salomon and the Prophet Balaam prophecying Let vs hereto adioine the taking vp of Enoch and Elias into heaven proofes of their immortality The wordes of Iacob on his death bed Lord I haue waited for thy salvation Gen. 49.18 Iob. 18.26 The hope of Iob who assured himselfe that after his skinne should be consumed he should yet see God in his flesh The words of God himselfe who saith I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac Mat. 22.32 and the God of Iacob God is not God of the dead saith Jesus Christ but of the liuing The only name of Religion importeth the Immortality of the soule which being taken away what is Religion but an intollerable yoake a scrupelous feare a superfluous labour If in this life only saith S. Paul we haue hope in Christ wee are of all men the most miserable 1. Cor. 17.19 what was the old Testament but the Religiō of Gods people It doth therefore presuppose and as it were in the forehead beare written this title The Immortality of the soule As for Invocation of the Trinity it is commanded in the old Testament for there we are commaunded to call vpon God and he that calleth vpon God calleth vpon the Trinitie But what shall we say to the discretion of our Moncke who maketh God marveilous provident in that he would not speake of the Immortalitie of the soule so to take from the Jewes all occasion of Idolatry alas poore man God cureth not one evill by an other much lesse a smaller evill by a greater Idolatry by Atheisme or superstition by Irreligion the mother of all excesse As if it should be forbidden to speak of God either good or evill for feare of blaspheming him or as if a man should cut of his head for saving the wearing of a cap. What discretion to loose the principall for saving of the dependant To sell the horse for saving of the hay God provideth not against evils in such manner as the Popes who will saie they prevent heresies by prohibiting the vse of Gods word the diminishing of Ecclesiasticall profits by prohibiting marriage of the Cleargie Dist 18 Can Sirac vxor filii per quos Ecclesiast solet periclitari substantia contrarie to the doctrine of S. Paul 1. Tim. 3.2 howbeit if God followed this precept of discretion in the old Testament why did he alter his mind in the new where with too much simplicity if we beleue this Moncke he doth in every place inculcate Eternall life Are men since the daies of Jesus Christ lesse bent to Idolatry Nay which is more The opinion of the death of the soule Idolatry do for the most part follow each other between them there is a fraternity The heathen that had little or no hope of eternal life were Idolaters did not Pope Iohn 24. celebrating his Masse kneele to the bread yet did he beleeue that the souls of men died as the souls of beasts for which small sin togither with 54. others Consil Const Sess 11. the Councell of Constance in their eleventh session condemned him That which ensueth is ferial smelleth of the friery He yeeldeth an other reason why in the old Testament prayers and sacrifices for the deade were so vnfrequented It was saith he because before the redemption of mankinde ehe estate of the dead was not so well knowne as after that Christ descended into Hell He doth therefore presuppose that Jesus Christ when he came from hell brought assured news as if that Jesus Christ before his death knew not the state of the dead as well as after his resurrection or els that either he would not or could not instruct his disciples of the estate of the dead as wel before his death as after But now I pray you what be the news that Jesus Christ brought vndoubtedly even the same that the golden legend and the booke of the life and death of Jesus Christ do report how he came to hel gates and the good thiefe Dinas carying a Crosse before him how hee made the gates to be opened how hee beat and hampered the Divels how he entertained the fathers whom he foūd in this Limbo with goodly discourses a thousande such Iolly gallant histories after the imitation of the Romanes all which the Evangelists had forgotten for either of these or of any other news that ever Jesus Christ brought out of Limbo out of Purgatory or out of Hell we finde not one sillable in all the newe Testament The souldier raised again of whom S. Gregory Dialogue 4. cap. 36. doth make mention and one Nicholas mentioned in the legend of S. Patricke who by a Caue that he found in Ireland entred into Purgatory at their returne related his things as they had seen below more exactly As that they had seen mē fryed in frying pans others fluttering about the chimnies like small flames a bridge of yce of two fingers broad vnder the which ran a torrent of fire and over this bridge must they passe that were to enter into Paradice Thus grew
vnto them Therefore in the Revelation is he called The Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world This merite was then with God and ful of efficacy before the comming of Iesus Christ in the flesh Let vs then by this rule examine our Doctors principle Before the comming of Iesus Christ in the flesh the merit of Iesus Christ was with God not in the hands of the Church Then saith this Doctor the dead had the lesse helpe but since the Pope and his Prelats had these merits in their hands the dead haue beene much better relieved the merits therfore of Iesus Christ are in better hands and more liberall Is it because God is not so well affected to the dead as the Pope Or because the Pope is more liberal of anothers goods then the true owner O spirit of Satan O dulnesse of man O patience of God! And shall not God revenge such abominable prophanation of his glory Or such evident corruption of his worde Let vs lament confesse that our sins haue deserued a greater blindnesse Yet in the meane time we must not forget that our adversaries doe commit the merits of Jesus Christ into the Popes hand that he may apply them both to the quicke and to the dead that they say that since he was treasurer the dead haue beene much better relieved it must needes followe that not only the dead before the cōming of Iesus Christ were but slenderly relieued but also the living so with like reason may wee say that the praiers for the living vnder the old Testament were nothing so frequent and publicke as they haue beene since the merits of Iesus Christ fell into the handes of the Church to apply them but this the frier dare not advow Thus is falsehood detected and laid open and the spirit of blasphemy put to confusion Now in all this discourse the Friers drift tendeth to yeeld some probable reason why the prayers and sacrifices for the dead are not so frequent in the old Testament wherein he practiseth two frauds First in saying they were not frequent he vnderhand leaues it to be presupposed that they were vsed somtimes which is false For therof we find neither example nor commandement in all the olde Testament Secondly in seeking to excuse the want in the old Testament he giueth occasion to the ignorant to thinke that the same were very frequent in the new which also is false For in the new Testament we heare no more newes thereof then in the old Only there is one place that instructeth vs how the faithfull should beare themselues towardes the dead wherein there is not any speech of suffrages Purgatory or Indulgences The place is in the Thessalonians 1.4.13 in these words I would not brethren haue you ignorant as concerning them that are asleepe That you sorrow not even as others that haue no hope for if we beleeue that Iesus is dead and is risen againe even so thē which sleepe in Iesus will God bring with him Herein is nothing that commeth any thing neere the trafficke and trade of these daies The whole sum of this Chapter is this that the holy Scripture is sufficient to instruct vs to salvation that it ought to decide these controversies that the sacrifices suffrages for the dead with the fetching of soules out of Purgatory by Buls and Indulgences are neither by God instituted or commanded and that even by the confessions of our adversaries who in al their burning books cannot produce any commandement of God touching the same but to shroud themselues doe produce other points which they pretend to be omitted in the holy Scriptures Being deprived of these weapons which are their surest they shelter themselues vnder others and wanting the Commandements of God they haue recourse to examples allegories coniectures even as men that catch vp stones when they haue no swords Wee will shewe you as it were at high noone that their examples are false their allegories frivolous their coniectures vaine their consequences violent and strained against the haire This is it which in the fourth Chapter wee will proue But now let vs quēch their Purgatory with the waters of Gods word for that once extinguished their Indulgences Masses for the dead must needes fall and decay CAP. 3. That the holy Scripture subverteth Purgatory and that there is no satisfaction or washing away of sinnes but only the blood of Iesus Christ and consequently that the Popes Indulgences are of no vse to the dead IN the 18. Vers 21.22 of the Prophet Ezechiel God saith thus If the wicked will returne from all the sinnes that hee hath committed keep all my statutes and doe that which is lawfull and right he shall surely liue not dy◠I will not remember all his iniquities Call yee it not to remember any more whē yee put the sinner to feele his punishment in a burning fire of so long continuance and to keepe him in a prison from the which as our adversaries say he shall not be delivered vntill hee hath paid the vttermost penny The Frier could by no meanes avoid this place but by corrupting of the text For insteed of these words returne from all his sinnes he saith doe pennance and by this pennance he vnderstandeth to scourge himselfe to fast to run on pilgrimage to giue to the Church c. But if hee could haue read the Hebrew he should haue found Iashuv hee shall returne or turne aside As indeed amendment of life is the true and necessary pennance which is a returning to God commended vnto vs by S. Iohn Baptist saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repent you or Amend you and St. Iohn Revel 2. speaking to the Church of Ephesus which had lost her first charitie commandeth her to repent and to doe her first workes But in our daies that pennance which thē was a vertue is now become a ceremony and from a spirituall changing is now become a bodily exercise Superstition hath now brought religion to the fingers ends to counterfeitings to gestures to scourgings to fastings to pilgrimages to pecuniary satisfactions to weare a haire-shirt to a friers coule to a walking vp and downe with a wallet c. Here hence grew the condemnation of Luther in the end of the Councel of Lateran Bul. Exurge Domine Optima paenitentia nova vita because among other the heresies to him imputed he said that of all pennances Amendment of life was the best Esa 58.5.6 and yet it is the word of God saying to his people Rent your hearts and not your clothes Also that the true fast consisted in losing the bands of wickednes and breaking his bread to the hungry Frō this fountaine proceedeth the vse to weare some words of the Gospel about mens neckes when they should keepe the substance of them in their heartes to weare a crosse on the brest or in the hat when they should take vp the crosse of Christ and reioice in his
sufferingt Thus our Monke by doing of iustice and iudgement which signifieth to deale vprightly and to giue to every man his owne vnderstandeth it to chastise a mans selfe shewing himselfe a Novice in the phrase of the old Testament where this word Iudgement signifieth equitie and vpright dealing As in Deut. 32 4. Daniel 4.37 The Auctor of the fire of Helie answereth otherwise for they seldome concurre in their answers he will haue these words I will no more remember to signifie Pag. 6. I will not punish as an enimie that is to say with eternall punishment By his account the keeping of a man many thousands of yeares in a fire for his sinne signifieth not to remember his sinne How often did David pray to God to remember his sinnes and wickednesse of his enimies yet not so that he desired that God should punish them with eternall punishment After all this the frier maketh a digression wherein hee chargeth vs with sundry slanders but all besides the matter 2 Gods Angell Revelat. 14.13 saith thus Blessed are the dead that hereafter dy in the Lord yea truly the spirit saith that they rest from their labours their works follow them Surely if they rest from their labours they goe not into a burning fire This speech concerneth not the Martyres only as our adversaries doe faine for throughout that whole chapter there is not any word of the Martyres but of all such as keepe the commandements of God faith of Iesus as it is said one line before But if the Martyres only doe die in the Lord in whom doe the rest of the faithfull die Bellarmine saith they die in part in the Lord and in part not in the Lord Bellarm. de Purgat lib. 6. cap. 1. hee was ashamed to say in part in the Lord and in part in the divell 3 Esay cap. 57. v. 1. 2. saith The righteous perisheth and is taken away from the evill then he addeth Hee shall enter in peace or peace shall come they shall rest in their beds every one that hath walked before him Why did he not except those that goe to Purgatory or what peace or rest is there in a burning fire And this is the point wherein the Frier is brought into such a straight that his only recourse is to his ordinary boldnesse Pag. 19. and laboureth to make this passage a meanes to establish his Purgatory Hee affirmeth it to bee a prayer of Esay for the dead and to make it the more probable in liew of these words Peace shall come he saith let peace come also for They doe rest he saith let them rest contrary to the truth of the original Hebrew which hath Iavo that is to say shal come and Ianuchu they shall rest Yet let vs thus farre yeeld all this to his ignorance in the Hebrew tongue but herein doth he shew his bad meaning even in this that hee affirmeth it to bee a prayer of Esay sith by the words ensuing it appeareth that they bee the wordes of God who saith Yee witches children come hither yee seed of the adulterer and of the whore drawe neere Whome haue yee mocked c. and againe Can I be content with all these things and thou hast discovered thy selfe behind mee Throughout all this Chapter God opposeth the blessed estate of the righteous against the curse prepared for the wicked 4 S. Paule to the Corinthians saith 2. Cor. 5.1 If our earthly habitation be destroied we haue an eternall building in heaven But why did he not adde but that shall bee after you are purged with fire 5 The Apostle in the 9. to the Hebrewes saith It is ordained that all men shall once die after that the iudgement He forgat Purgatory that should haue gon betweene For throughout the holy Scripture we find not any other iudgment spoken of after death but the last and vniversall iudgement 6 In the 20. Matt. the laborers doe all receaue their promised wages towards the end of the day that is to say in the end of their liues and when their works is done but Purgatory can bee no part of this labour as the auctor of the fire of Helie would haue it to be for in that place they speake only of labouring in the Lords vinyard which is his church which hath no communitie with any torment in fire Againe Purgatory caÌ„not be the last houre of the day because they make it continue much longer then all the life Besides that even in this last houre some labourers are called and hired but in Purgatory no man is called to the service of God 7 In the holy Scriptures we haue many examples of men receaved into Paradice immediatly after their decease but no example of any soule sent into Purgatory Luk. 2.26 Simeon had a promise that he should not see death before hee had seene the Messias S. Paul 2. Tim. 4. saith that after he had fought the good fight there remained no more but to receaue the crowne of glory And S Luk cap. 1â— saith that the Angels carried the soule of Lazarus into Abrahams bosome where hee was comforted whiles the â—ich man was tormented but of any passage to Purgatory either to or fro we heare no newes 8 Iesus Christ said to the good theif This day thou shalt be with me in Paradice This thiefe was surely a great sinner satisfied civill iustice either for theft or murder But where had hee made satisfaction to God for all his sinnes committed all the daies of his life Hee that was converted to God in the very article of his death But God requireth no satisfactory paines of such as doe repent but for them hee doth accept of the obedience and death of Iesus Christ who hath sufficiently satisfied aswell for our sinnes as for the punishment due to our sinnes The auctor of the fire of Helie with the rest will needes haue this priviledge to bee granted to this thiefe in regard of the greatnesse of his faith of his hope of his charitie of his zeale c. wherein they doe the more accuse themselues 2. By exalting the faith of the thiefe they do at vnawares confesse that in case we haue a stedfast faith in Iesus Christ we shall not come in Purgatory 3. Herein also they do coÌ„fesse that it standeth with the iustice of God freely and without imposing any satisfactory paines to pardon alwaies provided that the sinner haue a stedfast faith and hope in Iesus Christ 4. How could this thiefe at Gods hand merite this privilege by his faith and hope considering that God endued him with this faith For what kind of merit is this to receaue the gifts and graces of God with a stedfast faith which faith also God gaue him who giueth not only the benefits but also the means to receaue them And the same doe I say also of other vertues which were the gifts and effects of the spirit of God in him For it is God
confound it selfe But what need so many by waies when they might cut it cleane of franckly say that God doth not acquit vs freely As indeed the Frier in many places saith as much in his 99 page in these words God pardoneth the sinne howbeit for the satisfaction of his iustice he appointeth the chastisement The â—ing pardoneth a gentleman for some murâ—er committed yet coÌ„demneth him in great â—ines Sith then the pardon wherby the capitall paine is converted into pecuniâ—ry and so is no full pardon but a diminution of pain it manifestly appeareth that our adversaries doe hold that the pardon which God graunteth vs is no full or free pardon Hereto come their words That God doth freely remit the fault but not the pain the eternal pain but not the temporal for he that freely forgiveth his debtour the one part of his debt but not all cannot be said freely to giue or acquite the whole debt Neither can the pardon be said to be ful when there is a necessity imposed vpon the debtor to pay or suffer punishment for the sinne be it in the whole or in a part 11 Herein also appeareth the folly of their distinctioÌ„ between the fault and the paine The Frier saith Pag. 75. that the sin bringeth with it two things A faulâ— and a paine Had this good man beene perfect in his natural language the absurdity of his principle had been apparant for the word Culpa or fault in his language signifieth sinne witnesse the Priests words wheÌ„ in his Masse lie beateth his brest and saith Mea culpa it is my sin also Iacobs wordes to Laban for what sinne of mine Gen. 13.36 What fault haue I committed And the like throughout all the holy scripture Now let the reader iudgâ— whether the fryer had dined when hee writ or no when he saith that sin bringeth with it the fault that is to say sin The examination of the distinction between pain and fault Vpon this worthy distinction betweene the paine and the fault is Purgatory grounded and this pinne once pluckt out the whole frame falleth out of ioint They say then that God doth indeed acquit vs of all the fault but not of al the paine A saying not only vniust but even incompatible 1 The vniustnesse hereof is evideÌ„t for no man is iustly punished but for his fault and the fault taken away the offender is no longer guilty and being no longer guilty he cannot iustly bee punished These Doctors therefore do blemish dry vp the righteousnesse of God 2 The Incompatibility hereof is likewise manifest In that they say God doth forgiue vs all our offences yet punisheth them in a burning fire both to pardon and yet to punish one selfe offence are matters incompatible And when we forgiue our neighbour all his offences against vs we vse not to say I forgiue thee the fault yet wil I punish thee or I acquit thee of thy debt yet shalt thou pay me But as saith Tertullian in his fifth booke of baptisme Exemp to reatu eximitur poena 3 Againe sith our sinnes be debtes to the Iustice of God as Iesus Christ witnesseth where he teacheth vs to say Forgiue vs our debts of which debts the payment was paine satisfaction shal we not sin even against common sense if we affirme that God forgiveth al the debt but not all the payment Thus doâ— our Masters shadow vs forth Chimeraes and monsters in the aire 4 Let vs proceed How is it possible that by the death of Iesus Christ we should be purged quit and delivered from all our trespasses but not from the punishment due to our trespasses Considering that he did not otherwise beare our sins and offences but by bearing the paine due to them if he did beare the paine did he not beare it to the end to discharge vs from it Si tulit abstulit He hath borne our infirmities carryed our sorrowes saith Esay 53.4 To what end Even to discharge vs from them And this is it that S. Austin saith in his 37 sermon vpon the words of the Lord. Iesus Christ taking vpon him the punishment but not the sinne hath abolished both the sinne and the punishment 5 Throughout all this discourse this is to be noted that all our speech concerneth such paines as are paimeÌ„ts redemptions and satisfactions to the iustice of God for these our Doctours do tearme Purgatory a paymeÌ„t satisfaction to the Iustice of God These be the punishments which we say to be in compatible with a full pardon There is an other kinde of punishment which is tearmed castigatory and this is inflicted for amendment of the sinner and hath great affinity with the full pardon for God doth chastise his children even after he hath pardoned them Such chastisements are not payments and satisfactions to content the Iustice of God but fatherly corrections to bring the sinner to amendment They are not executions of his iustice but testimonies of his fatherly loue care not wouÌ„ds but salues and these can in no wise concurre with the tormenrs of Purgatory wherein it is said that the soules are already iust and can amend no more As therefore we vse to strike a man fallen into an Apoplexy not to get any satisfactioÌ„ at his hands but to awaken him so God smiteth his children when they sleep in their sinnes to make them feel their negligence He that otherwise interpreteth the afflictions that God sendeth and taketh them not for corrections health some to his soule but for satisfactions necessary to the iustice of God he maketh his afflictions bitter dippeth their edges in gall taking from them the spirituall consolations glory and ioy that supporteth the children of God in this combat Necessitie is a miserable consolation It hardneth the sore but healeth it not It raiseth the courage against the paine but asswageth it not For what mitigation is it to the afflicted to tell him that his sore is past cure and that of necessitie hee must satisfie the iustice of God Or how could S. Paule haue so boasted of his tribulations had hee beleeued they had beene payments which God did exact of him for his sinnes This doctrine being so healthfull so full of consolation and so evidently laid downe in the holy Scripture namely that God chastiseth vs for our amendment yet this frier Minor with a desperate presumptioÌ„ dareth avouch it to be a reason forged in our owne braine without the word of God without autoritie Pag. 78. and without reason Herevpon therefore let vs heare the word of God herein The Apostle to the Hebrews cap. 12. saith God chastneth vs for our profit to the end we may be partakers of his holinesse Againe Discipline bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse to those that are exercised therein How often doth God say that he chastneth those whom he loveth Apoc. 3.19 Heb. 12.6 Iob 5.17 Prov. 3.11 David in the 119. Psalme confesseth that before he was
which we can satisfie the divine Iustice our Lord hath not otherwise satisfied but in applyed to vs his merites by the which our satisfactions doe supply that temporall paine but he giveth vs power to satisfie and to giue a man power to beare the deserued punishment and to make the satisfaction to be of force implyeth not to satisfie or to be punished for him But the Friers memory faileth him much more his respect to the word of God in that he endevoureth to frame vs new articles of faith yea which is more even in that that is of greatest importance and is as it were the soule and principall part of Religion without any auctority of the holy scriptures saying that Iesus Christ did not otherwise satisfie for temporal punishment that is Purgatory but by applying to vs his merits whereby wee do satisfie Thus much for the agreement of Purgatory and mans satisfactions with the merits of Iesus Christ from which argument before I depart I cannot forbeare but must of necessity propounde one excellent note that Cardinal Bellarmine setteth downe in his booke De poenitentia where he laboureth to shewe that the sinnes committed before baptisme are redeemed by the blood of Iesus Christ without our satisfactions Bellarm. de poenitent lib 4. cap. 10. but the sinnes after baptisme are redeemed by our owne satisfactions He saith that S. Iohn the Evangelist instructing a yong man who after baptisme had committed many Ryots he exhorted him to fasting and to praier as saith Eusebius And herevpon the Cardinall setteth downe this note Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 17 Iohannes non id precepit quod luther anisolent vt Christi sanguine peccata sua purgata esse certò crederet sed preces Ieiunia indixit that is S. Iohn commanded him not that which the Lutherans doe vse to command that is that hee should certainely beleeue that his sinnes were purged by the blood of Iesus Christ but he enioyned him to fasting and praier In this regard then are wee called Lutherans and Heretickes Thus also shall the Apostle himselfe be foūd a Lutheran and worthy the Inquisitiō because he saith 1. Ioh. 1.7 The blood of Iesus Christ purgeth vs from all sinnes for he writ to the faithful and to the baptized and to those whom hee calleth his children These our Masters matters thus discovered and themselues convict of prophaning the merits of Iesus Christ to be revēged they vse this recrimination The Frier saith that We doe so assure the soules in this blood Pag. 91. A slander that the only remembrance of baptisme once received is a remedy against all sinne without need of any other matter A slander forged in the shop of the father of Lyes as is also the same which the fire of Helie chargeth vs withall namely that It is enough that Iesus Christ suffered 62. A slander and so for our parts we need do nothing and herevpon they heap vp many passages proofes for the necessity of pennance and good works but all in vaine considering wee beleeue nothing of that they accuse vs of but do affirme that the only way to life is to obey the commandements of God It is necessary that we heare his word and obey him that we repent vs of our sinnes and convert vnto God That we subdue the flesh and quench the heate of the concupiscence therof that we suffer with Iesus Christ and for Iesus Christ to the end we may be glorified with Iesus Christ For albeit our paines and good workes bee no sufficient price to purchase salvation yet are they necessary for the attaining thereto In that we extoll the excellencie of the satisfaction of Iesus Christ we doe it not to make vs negligent in good workes but to invite and stirre vs vp to loue God and to acknowledge his graces God is not good to vs to the end we should be wicked to him His benefits are to vs as bonds Iesus Christ is vnto vs not only matter to hope well but also a rule to liue well If he haue bought vs it is to the end we should be his and how his by seruing the divell The pascall Lambe must be all eaten for Iesus Christ cannot bee divided wee cannot participate in the fruit of his death if we be not made conformable to his resurrection by newnesse of life neither can we enioy his promises vnlesse wee keepe his commandements And there fore saith David Psal 130. There is forgiuenesse with thee that thou maist be feared There by shewing vs that the mercy of God towards vs must be by vs accompanied with his feare According to this Franciscans doctrin David should haue said There is no full forgiuenesse with thee that thou maist be feared He thē that of Gods mercy shall make an exemption from wel doing or shal put of his amendmēt from day today thinking that it is not yet time to become an honest man wil find himselfe deceaved for repentance is a guift of God which hee giueth not to scorners And ordinarily such as seek to reserue to God the last part of their daies and as it were the lees and dreggs of their liues are surprised by death before they attaine thereto as being a matter iust and equall that they should haue no portion in God who did so vnequally divide with him In the meane time to heare these men dispute of the necessitie of good workes you would thinke them to bee saints or pettie Gods and our Church to be a harbour to all wickednesse and a schoole of excesse as if sinne were a matter lawfull among vs. Indeed to our great griefe we confesse that wee haue but over many bad examples among vs. We could earnestly wish that as the high Priest disrobed himselfe at the entring into the holy place so that every of vs could put of his olde sinnes and rellicks of wickednesse at the entry into the Church of God but the perversitie of this age together with the contagion and haunt that wee hold with such as be yet out of the Church doe corrupt the manners of many yet dare I say thus much that among vs you shall find more examples of charitie of sobrietie and of diligent reading the word of God then among our adversaries that the pillars of the Church of Rome are more polluted then the pauement of ours that our spend thrifts are more tollerable then the sobrietie of those that reproue vs that our vices are evē vertues in regard of the riotous excesse of the Roman Prelats The murderers of Kings were not of our flocke Vices and sinnes against nature haue no place among vs. Trading and Pride haue in the Court of Rome put of the habit of vices and are now accompted for honest carriage activitie and ordinary occupation ietting vp and downe in the cloake of of discretion and wisedome Bern. ser 33 super Cant. Ministri Christi sunt serviunt Antichristo Inde is que
veniall and pardonable in one is mortall in another The parts therefore of this distinction doe iustle and encroch each vpon other besides I will say thus much more that it is rashnesse in our adversaries to define that there bee but seuen mortall sinnes that all other sinnes be pardonable for it is the office of the iudge not of the offender to determine what paine each sinne deserueth for in the sight of God we be all guiltie 20 Purgatory likewise bringeth with it many inconveniences for in that it teacheth that the fasts offerings and almes deeds of the living doe serue to bring soules out of Purgatory the same maketh many to bee more negligent to relie vpon their friends that surviue Daily examples we haue many of people that buy Masses hire men to pray for their soules whiles in the meane time they take license to practise all excesse dissolution and rapine All Doctor Du Valles answer stil resteth in recriminations Pag. 75. The auctor of the fire of Helie denieth that Iesus Christ hath fully satisfied He saith that we are they that make men carelesse in that we teach that Iesus Christ hath fully satisfied and that on our behalfe there is nothing to satisfie Hereto I haue before fully answered and at large Yea I doe protest that we hold no such beliefe Hee farther saith that the prayers made for such as are in Purgatory make not men more carelesse then the same which in this world one maketh for another whereto we say that it is true that the prayers of the living one for another make the sinner to be more negligent when these prayers are taken for payments redemptions and satisfactions Herevpon the Auctor of the fire of Helie to shaddow his purposes in liew of speaking of fasts offerings speaketh only of prayers which peradventure he would haue beene ashamed to reckon among the redemptions and payments for other mens offences sins 21 By this gate also came in the trafficke and the exchange was opened in the Church The rich do build obits and anniversaries for their soules for them are the privat Masses song the poore must be content with the generall praiers wherein the rich also haue their shares Al the Churches shal ring with peales praiers and diriges after the decease of a man that hath been extraordinary liberall and bountifull to the Clergie but for one that hath giuē nothing ye shal never heare so much as one Masse neither will the orders of begging Friers presse to a poore mans house By these means haue the church of Rome heaped togither so much goods that one only hospital entituled of the Spirit in Rome may in rents dispende foure thousande crownes a day His holynes keies are of gold a mettall that openeth both heavē Purgatory for this good prelate and his factors followers are better studyed in the golden number then in the dominicall letter which is the holy scripture Should a poore beggerly soule participate in those graces which his holinesse hath reserved for the greatest Lords It were a goodly sight to see some porter or pointmaker or some such base fellow sollicite in the Court of Rome for to purchase buls of delivery of the soule of some poore kinsman of his out of Purgatory and indeed the booke of rates in the Popes chancery hath sundry clauses of this nature Sed hoc tātum pro qualificatis Printed at Paris by Toussain Denis in S. Iames street at at the sign of the Crosse 1520. with priviledge of the court istae gratiae non conceduntur pauperibus By this reckoning Jesus Christ was deceived when he said Blessed are the poore considering that the rich haue such goodly priviledges by thē do so soon enter into Paradice This traficke also doth appeare in this that the Church of Rōedoth hold that children dying soone after Baptisme do go straight into Paradice which notwithstanding the Priests do not forbeare to take money for their Masses for such children also in that the Cleargie pay least for the souls of their friends there by acknowleging the slightnes of their marchandize Page 76. The Doctor Du Vall confesseth there is abuse so daintyly doth he speake of so horrible and publike abhomination The Frier knowing that this traficke the more it is stirred the more it stincketh saith nothing at all of it 23 The same errour maketh God more favourable to those that shal liue in the day of Iudgment then to others for they shall not come in Purgatorie at all to the Carmelite Friers then to the Franciscans for they pretend a priviledge to abide there but vnto the next saterday after their deathes to those that haue meanes and friendes to procure them Masses then to others For why should a poore man giue sixe pence to be named in the memento of the Masse if hee did not hope of some good that he should haue lost if he had not beene therein named Yet had hee not bin named if he had given nothing for with thē No peny no paternoster Let vs also cōsider that by this doctrin such as die immediately after they haue ended their Iubile go straight to Paradice and are exempt from Purgatory but that man peradventute not so vitious neither oppressed with so many sinnes yet dieth before the yeare of Iubile goeth into Purgatory and is deprived of so great a benefite likewise that he that is wel horsed and dwelleth not far from the place where these pardons are to be had doth much more easily obtaine pardon for his sinnes then he who dwelling three hundred leagues of hath never a horse The same abuse also tyeth the mercy of God to one certain place as that al sinnes are remitted at the Frāciscans but not at the Carmelites or Iacobins Yea so far doth some pardon stretch that hee that in the Covent of the Franciscans shall say the praiers in the bull ordained obtaineth plenary pardon for al his sinnes but though he say ten times more praiers in an other couvent yea and that with much greater devotiō yet shal he al this notwithstanding obtaine thereby no remission of sinnes For like a foole he went to seeke remission of his sinnes in places that the Pope had not appointed Herevpon the auctor of the fire of Helie taketh vs at the first rebound and saith You say not well for mercy hath regard to the offence and eternall punishmēt but iustice hath regard only to the temporall Wel spoken of this doctor What hath not Gods iustice regard likewise to eternall paine Page 71. And doth he not also shew his mercy in remitting the temporall The same doctor doth also wōder that in all these things I can finde any inconveniencie And willeth vs here vpon in profound silence to adore the impenetrable Iudgements of the Lord. But I doe more marvaile that with me he doth not marvaile that at our hāds he should require adoration with silence where
principle least our people shoulde overlabour them selues to defend it for as wel it maketh against Purgatory It were better say they that the soules should do but in Purgatorie they suffer they are miserably roasted certaine hundreds of yeares Admit that to roast were to do yet were it better to doe in heaven and so to haue the action of Angels As for the Contribution that we shal bring to the attaining of salvation the holy scripture prescribeth vs other meanes to attaine thereto It willeth vs to beleeue in Iesus Christ to carry his Crosse leaving al worldly cogitations to tend to the aime of supernatural vocation and to make perfect our salvation with trembling and with feare Thus is there a meanes to labour for our salvation yet such as our labour shal not be accounted a payment or satisfaction neither our soules be roasted in a fire Now albeit I haue spokē and inculcated these things the more expresly to cut of sclanders and that I haue said do yet say that the faithful ought to cōtribute and to bring whatsoever their care labor toward the work of their salvation yet is bad dealing so turned into nature with our frier minor that he dare sclander impute to me a cōtrary speech to that which indeede I spake That for our parts we ought to cōtribute nothing Slander and that the holy scripture teacheth vs to go to Iesus Christ c. And withall he exclaimeth saying Why do you thus abuse the people A prodigious shāelesnes Thus is the cause of Jesus Christ handled as some oration over a box of triakle or a game at gobelets The auctor of the fire of Helie doth likewise wrest my words He maketh as he were abashed saith he because wee saie that the soules in Purgatory doe satisfie by their paines because they doe not but only they suffer But I never spake it 25 Vpon this fire already quenched we poore as a surplussage this aspersion taken out of a booke indeed Apocriphal yet such a one as our adversaries do hold for Canonical Thus speaketh the booke of Wisdome cap. 3. v. 1. of the soules of the faithful The soules of the righteous are in the hands of God no torment shall touch them then shall they not go into Purgatory He addeth At their departure they enter into peace then not into a fire CAP. 4. Against mans satisfactions in generall PVrgatory thus razed which is the forest and most scortching satisfaction let vs go forward and search it even to the roote reversing in generall all the satisfactory paines that our adversaries do impose vpon the sinner And now that we are cōe to the word satisfie you are to vnderstand that there are two sorts of satisfying Expositiō of the word Satisfie the one for debt the other for offence Debt wee satisfy by paying offence by confessing the fault and craving pardon this in true speech is to make satisfactiō Now in this questiō we deale with the means how to satisfie God for our offences which is not by paying or redemption but by humbling of our selues with amendment and asking forgiuenesse As therefore we doe admit this kind of satisfaction which signifieth the confessing of our faults and humiliation before God so on the other side we reiect such satisfactions as are holden for redemptions and payments to Gods iustice Pag 80. The Monke beareth himselfe after his ordinary manner in a ridiculous insolent ignorance These be his wordes In this place I coniure the reader without passion to consider the grossnesse of the minister for hauing brought him into such tearmes that he could not vnsay himselfe he bethought him of the most notable cavill in the world namely that where the ancients doe vse this word Satisfie they vse it in this signification to haue faulted as who would say Nolim factum A slander yea hee hath presumed to set this downe in writing these last words he addeth that himself might giue vent to the slaunder for Throughout my writing is there any mention that Satisfie should signifie to haue done amisse But I say that to Satisfie signifieth to confesse to haue don amisse and to aske forgiuenesse Now let vs see whether his coniuratiōs without holy water be not frivolous and how hee discovereth my grossenesse What Calepine saith he did ever deliver such an interpretation Hee vnderhand confesseth that he is well seene in Calepine but we need no Calepine in words that little boies are skilfull enough in Suetonius in Iulius Caesar cap. 73. Valeriū Catullum à quo sibi vesiculis de Mamurra perpetua stigmata imposita non dissimulaverat satisfacientem eadem die admisit cenae And in Tiberius cap. 27. Consularem satisfacientem sibi ac per genua orare conantem ita suffugit vt caderet supinus And in Claudius cap. 38. Ostiensibus graviter correptis cuque cum invidia vt in ordinem se coactum scriberet repente tantū non satisfacientis modo veniam dedit And read Torrentius vpon the first passage where he saith Solebant qui verbis aliquem laeserant Ni◠in te scripsi Bithinice credere non vis iurare iube Malo satisfacere iurare nolle se ea dicta esse atque ita satisfacere This is the sense of the worde in Martial lib. 12. Epigram 79. In Plautus Amphitruo Alemena iniuried by her husband saith thus Aut satisfaciat mihi atque adiuret insuper se nolle esse dicta quae in me insontem protulit Tertullian in his booke de poenitentia saith Satisfactio confessione disponitur Confession And that which hee calleth satisfaction in the same booke he calleth Exomologesis Gehennam exomologesis extinguit But peradventure our Monke wil thinke these latin auctors to bee tainted with heresie or to be incompetent iudges of smal skil in his latin tōgue which now we must learne out of Scot Holcot Bricot or the rule of S. Frances where it is elegantly said Fratres possunt vestimenta repeciare de saccis alijs pecijs cum benedictione Dei It is now therfore meere simplicity in our younger schollers to offer to speake latin in the presence of the Franciscans for that which is said in the tēth chapter of the same rule That friers vnlearned must not care to learne is spokē for that time when ignorance was meritory But because these witnesses be but of smal auctority let vs here Bellarmine in his fourth booke De poenitentia cap. 16. vpō these words of S. Ambrose Ambros Nomine satisfactionis excusationem siue defensionem apertissime designavit lachrimas Petri lego satisfactionem non lego saith that S. Ambrose by this word satisfaction meaneth excuse or defēce no paymēt or redemption then as our frier woulde haue it who to mainetaine his speech produceth such passages of the Scripture as make against him wherein to satisfie signifieth not to pay or redeem He saith that Pilat meaning to satisfie the Iewes delivred
Barrabas S. Paul defending himselfe before his Iudge Felix saith that he will satisfie for himselfe in Greeke it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I defend my self Yet in al this haue we no speech of paiment or redemption What is now become of our Coniurations and the demonstrations of my grossenesse Learn brother Minor and thanke me Now let vs wrastle with these humane satisfactions taken for redemptions payments to the Iustice of God for the payments due to our sins hereto serveth al that hath beene spoken against the satisfaction of Purgatory for the sufficiency of the only satisfaction of Iesus Christ now let vs thereto adioine the reasons 2 By the holy scripture we learne that Salvation is a gift yea a free gift Rom. 6.23 Luk. 12.32 Ephes 2.8 Pag. 102. we do not then buy it neither doe wee pay any price for it in part or in whole Du Val answereth not The frier saith that the two first passages are false and that there is not such a worde let vs therefore looke vpon the passages at large In the 6. to the Rom. v. 23. S Paule saith the gift of God is eternal life through Iesus Christ In the 12. of S. Luke v. 32. Iesus Christ saith Feare not litle flock for it is your fathers pleasure to giue you the kingdome Am I a falsifier or hee a slanderer You see it is his hope was that the reader woulde never haue searched out the places for their prohibition that none shall read the holy scripture emboldeneth him in this liberty yet doth it not serue his turne for having so falsely accused me of falshood in the next line himselfe committeth a notable falshood corrupting this excellent passage of S. Paul to the Ephes cap. 2. For by grace are yee saved through faith and that not of your selues It is the gift of God Then NOT BY WORKES least any man should boast him selfe But this Frier to breake the force of this passage and to entāgle it maketh the Apostle to speak thus The salvation wrought by our Lord proceeded of the only grace of God of his mercy and loue He perverteth the sense and taketh away the words of most importance that it is not by workes that wee are saved but by the gift of God Where is truth and plaine dealing become Where is conscience O God how lōg shal thy advesaries tread thy holy word vnder foot 3 Against this so wholsome doctrine which appeaseth our cōsciences and giueth to God the glory of our redemption our adversaries doe obiect the Counsell that Daniell gaue to Nabuchadnezar Redeeme thy sinnes by alms 1. But this redemption was not toward God but toward men whome hee had robbed and was therefore to recompence them by liberalitie 2. Againe here the question concerneth satisfactory paines in which ranck Almes hath no place albeit it is a worke commanded to all and an exercise pleasing to the faithfull Never will any man exercise charitie as he ought so long as hee thinke it a punishment or satisfactorie paine Is that helpe where one member helpeth another as the hand doth the foot a paine We all are members of one selfe bodie saith Saint Paul 3. Which is more our adversaries will haue our satisfactions to serue to redeeme from the iustice of God not the sinnes but the punishment for the sinnes Now here it is Redeeme thy sinnes Here therefore haue we need of a glosse after the Romish manner that Sinne here signifieth the punishment of sinne as who should call Theft the whip Murder the gallows For everie absurdity is good with these men provided that yee beleeue a Purgatory 4. The principall point is this that this king Nabuchadnezar beeing a heathen needed no satisfactions which they say serue but to redeem tēporal paines and that after baptisme or after Circūcision but this king was never circumcised being out of the Church needed not these meanes to avoide eternal paine The frier produceth yet other passages as in the Proverbs cap. 5. v. 29. Almes purgeth sinne but this place is false the whol verse left out of the Hebrew yea even the Romane translatiō it hath no speech of Almes 2. To what purpose speake we of purgation where the question is of redemption 3. Finally we confesse that amendment of life purgeth sinne so farre forth as by this meanes the sinner becommeth cleane as cleanlynes purgeth the body succeeding after foulnesse as they say in the schooles non efficienter but formaliter But where the question concerneth such a purging of sinnes as by vertue thereof we shall appeare cleane and innocent in the day of iudgement there the holy Scripture saith that The blood of Iesus Christ purgeth vs from all our sins 1. Ioh. 1.7 Hee also citeth the 16. of the Proverbs Almes redeemeth iniquitie whereto I haue already answered vpon the place of Daniel besides the passage is falsely set downe for according to the Hebrew it is thus There shal bee propitiation for iniquitie by gratuitie and truth Yea even in the Romane translation there is no speech of almes That which hee addeth out of the 12. of Toby That almes maketh vs to finde eternall life is not in the greeke originals neither is it to the purpose for we do confesse that almes and all other good workes are the way to salvation and consequently to make vs finde salvation but here our questiō concerneth the price of our redemption from the paine due to our sinnes which also may bee an answer to that which he hath alleaged out of the 4 of Tobie Almes deliuereth from death and suffereth vs not to come into darkenesse For so it is in the greeke Surely no man doth deny but that good works be the way to salvation and in applying our selues to them we withdraw our selues from perdition Let vs goe on and sith the old serpēt though cut asunder knitteth himselfe againe let vs not cease mangling of him with the word of God and sword of the Gospell 4 God commanding vs to pray that he would forgiue our offences as wee forgiue them that haue offended vs doth thereby shewe that wee must looke for like forgiuenesse from him as we doe giue to our neighbours that is without revenging or exacting satisfactory paines 5 But what if I should proue to these advocats of mans satisfactions that man by satisfactory paines cannot satisfie God for paines due to the least sinne For if slandering of our neighbor or calling of our brother fool be in the Church of Rome veniall sinnes yet S. Paul saith in the first to the Corinthians the 6. that backbiters shall not inherit the kingdome of God Iesus Christ saith that hee that calleth his brother fool is punishable in hel fire when shal we haue satisfied for the paine due to such a sinne which many times evē the best doe incurre Or when shal we haue endured paines satisfactory for hel fire or for a sinne that deserveth deprivation
haue gathered of their owne confessions that the penance or repentance practised in the Church of Rome is not the stone that Jesus Christ and S. Iohn Baptist did preach for they indeed when sinners came to them imposed no satisfactory paines Note likewise that the same which when Iesus Christ preached it was a vertue is nowe become a Ceremony and from a changing of the soule is come to be an Exercise of the body and now set down for the redemption of our soules as before we heard in Bellarmine that men are Redeemers of themselues Neither may we omit that this their sacrament of penance serveth but for the sins committed after Baptisme whereof it followeth that if an old Pagan should convert to the faith he should be received without penance or repentance 13 There is yet more For as it were Ridiculous to sowe a piece of friese vpon a satten garment so is it a matter that can hardly agree to ioine our satisfactions our fasts our scourgings a haire cloath a corde a friers coule a roasting of soules with the passion of the only son of God to make vp the total of the redemptiō of our souls and of satisfaction vnto God 14 In this matter our adversaries do still retire to their withered and olde beaten principle that is that God after he hath pardoned the sin requireth satisfaction to his iustice by the punishment of the sinne We haue already shewed that to forgiue a sinne and thē to exact satisfactorie punishment for the same are things incompatible That God never required any such satisfaction of the theefe neither Iesus Christ of the woman taken in adultery neither S. Paule of the Incestuous person after he had forgiven him That Iesus Christ hath satisfied for all the paines due to our sinnes That the iustice of God accepteth of no payment but such as shal be most exact and to the proofe of his righteousnes But there is no satisfaction sufficient to vndergoe that examen but only the satisfaction of the son of God by Ieremy called The eternall our righteousnesse And therefore that our travailes and afflictions are profitable to exercise proue amend and humble vs but not to redeeme vs or to satisfie to Gods Iustice which is already fullie satisfied by Iesus Christ and which requireth not two paymentes for one debt 15 Yea which is more themselues do acknowledge that in baptisme God forgiveth both the fault and the punishment and requireth not of the sinner any satisfactory paine Bellar. de paenit l. 4. c. 10. It is not therfore repugnant to the iustice of God to forgiue without our satisfactions 16 But in as much as this is one of the greatest abuses in popery That God by Baptisme doth pardon both the fault the punishment of sinnes committed before Baptisme yet that wee must satisfie and pay the Iustice of God for the sins committed after Baptisme It is necessary we should a little crush out this impostume 1. Conc. Trid. Sess 24. c. 8. First who authorized them in matter of remission of sins and redemptiō to invent new articles of faith with out warrant of the holy scriptures If a heathē murderer or incestuous parson shoulde hypocritically cause himselfe to be baptized shall this baptisme blot out all his former sinnes or shal his hypocrisie prooue fruitfull before God Tertul. de paenit cap. 6. Tertullian indeed in his booke de Poenitentia saith that it cannot be yet doth Spaine furnish vs of many examples thereof where the Mahumetan Marannes do cause themselues dissemblingly to be baptized 2. Againe let vs represent to our selues a heathen man a murderer a sacrilegious person c. One who sinneth not of ignorance or of feare but of meere malice and at the last in his old age repenteth frameth himselfe to Christianity and receiveth baptisme which as our adversaries do say is of such vertue that God doth simply and without satisfaction forgiue him all his sins committed before his baptisme but for the sins that he shall afterward commit albeit smal and of in firmity yet God requireth that he beare the punishment as well here as in Purgatory Doth it stande with the iustice of God simply and without satisfaction to pardon the greater sinnes committed of malice at one time and at another time to impose fiery torments for much lesser offences committed ignorantly or of infirmitie Moreover when by baptisme we haue put on Christ as saith S. Paule Galat. 3.27 haue wee put him on only for that time or for all the daies of our life Or is the benefite of Christs death of lesse effect after baptisme then in baptisme 4. Wherein I pray you consisteth the vertue of baptisme but in this that thereby wee are made partakers in the merits of the death of Iesus Christ being by baptisme buried with him in his death Also if in the holy supper Rom. 6. and in the gospell apprehēded by faith we be also partakers why should we not feel the like effects 5. I would aske againe what the reason is that sith in their Masses is applied as they say the benefit of Iesus Christ why their Masse should bee of lesse efficacy then baptisme or wherefore it cannot exempt a sinner from satisfactory punishment Also for what cause they so highly extolling the excellency of their Masse do in this point so clip her wings and trusse her vp so short Yea and why they stand in neede of so many Masses to fetch one soule out of Purgatoty cōsidering that if their Masses doe apply to that soule the benefit of Iesus Christ they cannot apply it otherwise then it is namely hauing an infinit power and consequently able to deliuer that soule at the first dash But the mischiefe is that if this should bee performed by one Masse only then should the profits of the Clergie bee mightily diminished Now albeit all these things be as cleere as the day yet are we in small hope that those men can take any relish in them that are fed maintained by the abasement of the benefit of the death of Iesus Christ For the documents of Gods word can never pierce into the vnderstanding vntill the true zeale of God be first entred into the heart Avarice Idlenesse and Incredulitie do harden the minds exasperate the stomacks and as rude barbarous vngratefull porters hinder the entry and from our mindes stop vp all the waies to the doctrine of the gospell The fruits of the Sacrament of pennance Now if there be any thing that vpholdeth the tyranny that fostereth the vices or that nourisheth the idlenesse of the Clergie it is this newe sacrament of pennance which is as it were the Palladium of Babylon First by their auricular confessiō a member of this sacrament they search into the secrets of houses and make themselues terrible to those whoe after they haue revealed to them their filthines faults cannot behold them without feare and shame By this they
at libertie because some friend of his hath scourged himselfe or fasted for him 3. Whether the pardons that the Pope giueth without enioining any penance be of any force as also those which he giueth with conditiō to work some wickednesse as in the yeares 1587 and 1588. when hee gaue seven yeares of pardon to every one that would ioine with the holy Vnion that is to say that would rebell against their king yet he a Roman Catholike 4. Againe In as much as these superabundant satisfactions of Saints are gathered together into the Popes treasurie because God will haue nothing lost how haue the superabundant satisfactions of such holy men as died vnder the old Testamēt as Moses Abraham c. beene husbanded be those also in the Popes treasury But where were they laid vp before the Pope had them Did they lie lurking in some corner two or three thousand yeares vntill the Pope gathered them together and found meanes to employ thē It were not amisse also to enquire the reason why the world in the yeare of Iubile maketh such hast to Rome cōsidering that at Rome they may at all times obtaine millions of yeares of Indulgences and full remission of sinnes and some six hundred thousand yeares of plenary pardon Aboue all we would gladly know when a man that needeth ten thousand yeares of pardon doth purchase enough for fiftie thousand yeares what becommeth of the fortie thousand yeares that remaineth Cayer saith that they returne into the treasurie for the good of others but because his companions doe despise disgrace him wee would willingly bee taught by some substantiall Doctor the rather for that at Rome and in one selfe place a man may obtaine besides the plenary pardon certaine thousands of yeares of surplussage To what end may that surplussage serue wil the Pope therewith pardon sins giue Indulgences by provision CAP. 6. That all the passages of holy Scripture by our adversaries quoted for prayer for the dead and for Purgatory are either false or vnprofitable IN all the Premises wee may see that our enimies fight but faintly that they are armed but with strawes against the force of the truth how much lesse shall they be able to do any thing when they shall be quite stripped and that little armour that is left them be cleane taken away This is it which in this Chapter wee will with Gods helpe performe My adversaries therfore whose desire of gaine induceth them to practise Pyrotechny doe heape together stubble good store that is to say simple proofs to kindle this fire of Purgatory Of these proofes some concerne prayer for the dead and some Purgatory some taken out of the old some out of the new Testament we will then without dissimulation propound them all and for my part I will deale with thē with as much equitie and sinceritie as they haue dealt with me with fraud vniustice which consisteth in suppressing my best obiections and corrupting the rest Passages produced by these three Doctors to proue prayer for the dead All that my adversaries doe alleage concerning prayer for the dead is groūded vpon a false principle namely that who so prayeth for a dead body presupposeth that there is a Purgatory but in the last Chapter wee will shew that the prayers for the dead which some of the ancients did vse were even against Purgatorie Here might we dispense for answering hereto the rather for that albeit they should obtaine their desires yet had they gained nothing toward the establishment of their Purgatory Howbeit we will doe them thus much more then right that nowe receaving their principle we wil lay open the falshood and impertinencie of their proofes therevpon 1. Cayers passages p. 24. A falshood Cayer shall haue the credit to march foremost as the most skilfull His words are these It is said Numbers 16. v. 47. 48. that Aaron reconciled the people both the quick and the dead A passage false and by him invented for as well in the Hebrew as in the translations even in the Roman it is thus Aaron standing vpright betweene the dead and the living besought God for the people and the plague ceased 2. In the third book of Kings cap. 8. v. 38. There is a manner of prayer for the dead saith Cayer in these words Every prayer and supplication made by any man for the wound of his heart in the Church it shall be acceptable to God Also in the 33. verse it is said If the people fall before their enimies in praying to God they shal be heard Were not this passage falsified yet shew me one word in it that importeth praying for the dead 3. Againe he saith that in the 57. of Esay the Prophet complaineth that they did not pray for the dead This also is false neither is there any such speech throughout all the Chapter Looke also what wee haue already said in the third Chapter and third Argument 4. He goeth on and saith that in the third Chapter of Baruch it is set downe in expresse words Heare o Lord God the prayer of the dead Israelits and of their children that haue sinned before thee And soone after Remember not the iniquitie of our Fathers First the booke is Apocriphall secondly In these wordes of Israell are comprised all the people of Israell who in those daies through the extremitie of their captivitie misery were as if they lived not as it appeareth in the eleventh verse where it is said Israell is counted with them that go downe to the graue Tearming those dead after the ordinary phrase of the Scripture that are oppressed with affliction and as it were within two inches of death As David in the 88. Psalme albeit aliue counteth himselfe among the dead and those that goe downe to the pit so also in the 18. Psalme v. 5. 6. and in the 116. Psalme v. 3. hee saith that he is environed and surprised with the snares of death and with the bonds of the sepulcher Also in the 18. Psalme v. 19. the faithfull doe desire of God that he would restore them to life as if they had beene dead and already brought to the graue Thirdly to what purpose doth hee come in with a prayer of the dead considering that our question cōcerneth only the prayer of the living for the dead Fourthly as concerning these words Remember not the iniquitie of our fathers hee prayeth that the threats of the lawe which denounce that God will visit the iniquitie of the Fathers vpon the children be not executed vpon them hee therefore prayeth that the sinnes of the fathers be no cause to prolong their captivitie as plainely appeareth in the eight verse Cayer produceth yet another passage out of the second of the Machabes but that you shal find among the passages of the other two 5. The Frier having discharged all his anger vpon M. Calvin and charged that good man with infinit slanders wresting the Interpretion of sundry his
passages and falsifying others even so far forth as to make him say that the soules departed out of the bodies doe not enioy the beatitude before the resurrection albeit that Calvin hath beaten down this error in a treatise which he wrot expresly vpon that argument Calvini Psichopannichia he lastly in his 17. page beginneth his proofes by the holy Scripture 6. His words are these The holy Scripture which teacheth vs all that is necessary to saluation doth withall forbid vs any thing that may be contrary thereto now let any man shewe me so much as one place that forbiddeth to pray for the dead The fire of Helie saith the same Pag. 8. 62. only he denieth that the Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation and therefore giueth examples The baptisme of children The consubstantialitie of the father with the sonne The Trinitie of persons c. To all the which wee haue already answered in the second Chapter It were good these doctors could agree among themselues In the meane time in answer to the Fryer Isay It is a mishapen argument and two of the propositions are false The first Propositiō is this The holy Scripture commanding that which is necessary to saluation doth also forbid all that is cōtrary thereto Which we deny because here the question is of an expresse prohibition For the Frier requireth that we should shew him such a one but it is well knowe that God when hee hath commanded any thing doth not alwaies in expresse words adde the prohibition of the contrary he wil be prayed vnto but where doth he forbid that we should not pray to him It suffiseth that this prohibition follow the commandement albeit it be not expressed The second prohibition is also false That prayer for the dead is not forbidden For any addition to the commandement of God is forbidden Deut. 4.2 prayer for the dead is an additiō to the commandement of God it is therefore forbidden because it is not commanded Againe Prayer that is not of faith cannot be acceptable to God Iames 1.6 Hebrewes 11.6 Prayer for the dead is made without faith for faith cōmeth of the word of God and is grounded therevpon but throughout all the worde of God prayer for the dead is not spoken of It cannot then bee acceptable vnto God Which is more by the same argumēt we may proue al things we may say that all that is in Amadis or in the chronicle of S. Frances is true because wee find not that it is there contradicted And let this be spoken in answer to Doctor Du Val who groundeth his Purgatory vpon this that Iesus Christ did not condemne prayer for the dead which saith hee was put in practise among the Iewes yet Iesus Christ never reproued thē for it True it is that the Iewes had their abuses which are not condemned in the Gospell Ioseph in that place saith that the Esseans in the course of their life observed Pithagoras rule As the sect of the Esseans witnesse Pliny lib. 5. cap. 17. and Iosephus Antiquitatum lib 18. cap. 2. And their opinion was and yet is That the Messias should be a great Prince that should conquer the nations and subdue them to the Iewes Iosephus also in his 12. booke and 2. Chapter of the warres of the Iewes saith that the Pharises taught the passage of the soules out of one body into another yet did not Iesus Christ reproue them for the same As concerning the opinion of praying for the dead if any of the Iewes were tainted therewith yet was it not vniversall doctrine receaved among them Eccl. 49.10 besides that it hath no affinity with Purgatory For even to this day such Iewes as pray for the dead knowe not what Purgatory is and their ordinary prayer is that the memory of the dead may be blessed 7. These Doctors hauing thus produced their reasons without Sctipture do now alleage Scripture without reason Thus saith the Frier S. Iames in his fifth Chapter saith Pray one for another that yee may be saued Pag. 17. Here S. Iames tyeth not this to the liuing only Hee also alleageth S. Augustine in his 20. book of the City of God who saith that the soules of the dead are not seperated from the Church He farther demandeth whoe told vs whether our Lord teaching vs to say forgiue vs our trespasses c. limited this prayer for the living or for the dead This also is of the like nature and full of subteltie Pag. 40. Iesus Christ saith hee taught vs to pray for the dead when hee Instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist Where he said Drinke yee all of this for this is my bloode of the new Testament which shall be shed for MANY S. Luke saith for YOV In saying for you for many he meaneth both present absent and to come therefore it is not for you to limit the will of Iesus Christ only to the living To answere all this requireth much patience though smal dexterity for we are driven to reduce these men as litle children to the ABC of reason 1. First this passage of S. Iames is falsified for S. Iames speaketh of the cure of the body not of the salvation of the soule as appeareth by the verse next before Prayer in faith shall saue the sicke and the Lorde shall raise him vp againe And to the like end also was this vnctiō namely to cure the diseased Thus the Apostle healed many diseased by anointing them Marke 16. 13. Tertullian in his 2. booke Scepula c. 4. speaketh of one Proculus who cured the Emperour Severus by annointing him with oile 2. I would aske the subtle doctors to whom S. Iames writ whether to the living or to the dead or to both Surely he writ to the living for they vse to carry no letters into Purgatory then they whom he commanded to pray were living 3. What kinde of proofe call you this S. Iames excludeth not the dead neither doth he forbid to pray for them we must therefore pray for them Surely if this reason were of force we must also pray for the Angels for the Saints yea for the damned for S. Iames doth not forbid to pray for anie of the 〈◊〉 4. The same answere may serue for that which they say That the dead bee of the Church and one bodie with vs for who denyeth it Must we alleadge S. Augustine for that which we may learne in the word of God Apoc. 6 12 Heb 12.23 Ephes 3.17 But doeth it follow that wee must pray to God for all that be of the Church why thē doth not the Romish Church pray for the Saints and Martyrs 5. The mēbers of one selfe body must helpe each other when any one of them standeth in need of help But here we maintaine this is the somme of our difference that the faithful deceased need not our succours The Frier then presupposeth as granted that which is the main question The passage
Afterward the sixt vniversall Councell approueth and confirmeth all the contents of the Councell of Laodicea Hereto agreeth the Councell of Carthage wherein S. Augustine was preseÌ„t True it is that the Latine copies miserably falsified by our adversaries doe place these bookes among the Canonicall At Paris by Conrad Neobarius 1540. but in the Greek copies printed by themselues they are not once mentioned As for the ancieÌ„t Doctors Prologus Galeatus when shall we haue produced their depositions herevpon S. Hierome in his Prologue vpon the Bible Machab. lib. inter Scripturas Canonicas Ecclesia non recipit hath expresly handled this matter There hee admitteth no other bookes of the olde Testament to be Canonicall but such as be in the Hebrew Bible in number two and twentie himselfe in the preface vpon the bookes of Salomon speaking of Ecclesiasticus and the wisdome of Salomon saith thus As the Church indeed readeth the bookes of Iudith of Toby and of the Machabes but not among the Canonicall Scriptures even so also shee readeth these two volumes for the edification of the people but not to confirme the doctrine of the Church S. Hillary vpon the prologue to the Psalmes agreeth with S. Hierome and saith that in the old Testament there bee as many bookes as there be letters in the Hebrew Alphabet that is two and twentie Athanasius in his booke entituled Synopsis S. Scripturae nameth all the bookes of the olde Testament vnto two and twentie and saith That the rest of the bookes of the olde Testament are not Canonicall neither read to any but to the Catechumeni Manethon â—ishop of Sardis giueth vs a catologue of the bookes of the old Testament in the fourth booke of Eusebius cap. 25. Where in the Macchabees are not named Eusebius in his thirde booke and tenth Chapter speaking of the bookes of the old Testament saith We haue no infinite number of discordant bookes but only two and twenty And farther he saith that whatsoever is written since the time of Artaxerxes is not worthy like credit as the former and of this sort are the Macchabees Epiphanius in his booke of measures saith as much nameth all the bookes of the old Testament but speaketh not of the Macchabees Among the works of S. Ciprian we finde a treatise of the exposition of the Creed which seemeth rather to bee of Ruffinus Therein the autor nameth all the bookes both of the old and new testament then saith These are the books which the fathers haue encloased in the CaÌ„non and Rule from whence wee are to take the proofes of our faith yet are wee to vnderstand that there be other bookes not Canonicall but Ecclesiasticall among which are the bookes of Tobie Iudith the Macchabees c. What woulde wee haue more Among al the Bishops of Rome even Gregory the great in his morals vp on Iob. lib. 19. cap. 29. purposing to alleadge the Macchabees concerning the act of Eleazar excuseth himself in these words Qua in re non inordinatè agimus si ex libris noÌ„ Canonicis c. Bell. lib. 1. de verbo Dei cap. 10. Wherein we speake not from the purpose albeit wee produce testimonies out of the bookes not Canonicall but written for the edification of the Church he wrot sixe hundred yeares after Jesus Christ Even Bellarmine doth confesse that Origen Athanasius Nazianzen Epiphanius Hierome received not the Macchabees among the Canonical Our adversaries make a buckler of S. Augustine set him in counterpoize against all antiquity in this point contemning all the auctority of the fathers and their own Popes And yet herein they doe him wrong for this good father never straied from the vniversall consent of the Church in his time August ad Gaudent li. 2. cap. 23. Vnto Gaudentium who vsed the auctority of the example of Razias that killed himselfe and is meÌ„tioned in the second of the Macchabees he answereth thus The Iewes hold not this booke in like degree as the law the Prophets and the Psalmes to whom Iesus Christ yeeldeth testimony as to those that heare witnesse of him but this booke is received by the Church not vnprofitably if it be read discreetly especially in regarde of the sufferings of certaine Martyrs Read the whole page and yee shal see that S. Augustines intent was to beate downe the obiection of Gaudentius who armed himselfe with the auctority of this booke also to proue that Iesus Christ deferred no auctority to any other but to the law to the Prophets and to the Psalmes Yet do our adversaries produce some passages out of S. Augustin to the contrary but manifestly falsified In his eighteenth booke of the cittie of God cap. 36. he saith thus QuoruÌ„ supputatio temporum non in Scrip sanctu quae Canonica appellant ur sed in aliis invenitur in quibê° sunt Machab libri quos non Iudaei sed Ecclesia pro Canonicis habet The supputation of this time from the new building of the temple is not found in the holy scriptures which are called Canonicall but in other bookes which are the Macchabees could hee more expresly raze the Macchabees out of the Canonical scriptures but at the ende hereof let vs see a taile most botcherly clapt on by some MoÌ„k Which booke not the Iewes but the Church holdeth for Canonicall O grosse Impostor After he hath saide that the Macchabees are not holy scripture nor Canonicall would he say that the Church receiveth them for Canonicall The frier saith that sundry fathers haue vsed these books and do cite passages out of them To what purpose is this Whosoever alleadgeth a book doth he therfore hold it to be Canonicall But we stand now vpoÌ„ much stronger tearms For this passage well wayed will bee found contrary to Purgatory He saith that Iudas offering sacrifice for sinne thought vpon the resurrection yea hee saith that otherwise it had beene a folly to pray for the dead whereby it appeareth that the auctor never imagined that Iudas praied to bring these soules out of Purgatory but that he praid that the sinne by theÌ„ committed might not hinder them from rising to glory and salvation for any man that is demanded wherefore he prayeth for the dead if he answer that it is for the resurrection he manifestly sheweth that he beleeveth no Purgatory Otherwise hee would not haue omitted that which is most vrgent but would haue craved to be released out of such long and horrible torments Aske all these our Masters wherefore they pray for the dead I am sure none of them will say for the resurrection Pag. 11. The Frier foreseeing a storme of passages of the fathers conspiring to overthrow the auctority of this book shrim king betimes and as it were forsaking the place saith That at the least it cannot not be denyed but that this is a historie which assureth vs that Iudas made praiers and sacrifices for his brethreÌ„ deceased there is
so to omit Pope Iohan. Pag. 35. of being tainted with this heresie wherein he sheweth himselfe a sclanderer in print for how is it possible we should holde that opinion sith we condemne it in others As for Iohn the 22. alias 23. the case is to plaine to be dissembled William Ockam in his worke of 53. daies and Adrian in the question of confirmation doe accuse him to haue held that the souls should not see God before the resurrection Gerson in his sermon of the passeover witnesseth the same and saith that the Divines of Paris with the assistance of Philip the long king of France forced him to vnsay it Neither doth it any whit helpe the Monke to search whether the time quoted by Calvin be free from error for it importeth not whether Gerson lived in the time of the said Iohn or after so long as the matter is true as Bellarmine from whom the Monke borrowed this Arithmeticall disputation doth confesse in his fourth booke De Pontifice Rom. in these words In the behalfe of Adrian I answer that this Iohn did indeed beleeue that the soules shall not see God vntill after the resurrection Iohannem hunc revera sensisse animas non visuras Deum nisi post resurrectione The autorities of the Fathers that he doth afterward alleage are false and hereafter shall be spoken of 18 They do yet adde one passage more out of the 12 of Matthew v. 32. The fire of Helie Whosoeuer shall speak against the holy Ghost it shall not be forgiuen him in this world nor in the world to come This would not Iesus Christ haue spoken say our masters if there were not some sinnes that shall not be forgiven in this world but shall in the world to come and this world to come is Purgatory wherein their memory faileth them for they say that Purgatory was already in the time of Iesus Christ then could not Iesus Christ call it in the world to come But if our mens reply be true that Purgatory is the world to come in regard of every particular living person to whome this punishment is yet to come there shall be by that reason a thousand millions of worlds to come all differing in beginning and in continuance This at the least doth remaine that with Iesus Christ who spake Purgatory could not be the world to come 2. Againe Iesus Christ speaketh of a world wherein sinnes are forgiuen but they say that in Purgatory sinnes are punished and that the pardon for all manner of sinnes is already granted in the life through Iesus Christ only In Purgatory they bear the punishment of the sinnes alreadie pardoned Thus doe they runne themselues on the Pikes as also they answer nothing to the matter And as for the Frier his answers are ridiculous haue no correspondence with that which I haue said The autor of the fire of Helie doth shew by the example of David Achab that the sinner obtaineth mercy by the punishment but hee deceaueth himselfe for it is true as concerning such paines of this life as tend to the amendment of the sinner but not of Purgatory where there is no amendment neither could this haue bin better confuted then by cyting S. Augustine who saith Hie vre hic seca vt in aeternū parcas For he saith Hic not in purgatorio 3. Thirdly what is this world to cōe then Let vs learne it not of these people which transforme all things into matches to kindle their Purgatory but of Iesus Christ himselfe and his word Iesus Christ Luke 20.35 telleth vs that this other world beginneth by the resurrection They saith he that shall bee coūted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection of the dead Neither must we think it strange that it is said that in that day sinnes shall be forgiuen 2. Tim. 1.18 1. Sith S. Paule desireth that God would shewe mercy to the house of one Sephorus in that day which is as much as to pardon the sinnes 2. S. Peter also Act. 3.19.20 saith that in that day our sinnes shal be blotted out Amend your liues that your sinnes may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and that hee shall haue sent Iesus Christ who was before preached vnto you 3. Rom. 8.23 Luk. 21.28 For as the holy Scripture calleth that day the day of our redemption and adoption because that then it shall bee fully revealed and consummate so the same day vpon the same reasons may be called the day of remission of our sinnes And some sinnes there be which albeit by the iudgement of the Church they may be pardoned in this life yet they shall not bee pardoned in the last day such is the sinne against the holy Ghost To all this our adversaries are as dumbe as a fish and endeavor by a great heap of the Fathers to proue that sinnes are also forgiuen in the world to come but to what purpose sith we doe grant it Shall this people be suffered to pervert our words turne our speech contrary to that which wee beleeue They beat the aire and lose their blows and our Monke sclandereth mee saying that I call the fathers our adversaries Sclander but where did I so 19 The passage wherevpon they doe most insist is taken out of the first to the Corinth cap. 3. where S. Paule saith Other foundation can no man laie thē that which is laid which is Iesus Christ If any man build vpon this foundation gold siluer precious stones timber hay stubble every mans worke shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans worke of what sort it is If the worke of any that hath built therevpō doe abide he shall receaue waies If any mās worke burne he shall lose but hee shall bee safe himselfe howbeit as by fire For fire say my men is Purgatory wherein the workes are tried by fire for it is said If any mans worke burne and againe Hee shall be saued but as it were by fire Al this is full of impossibilities and absurdities 1. First an article of faith must not bee grounded vpon allegories saith S. Hierom on Mat. lib. 2. Nunque Parobolae du bia aenigmatum intelligentia potest ad autoritatem dogmatum proficere so saith Tertullian also But albeit S. Paul who by revelation receaved the sence of the Scriptures did sometime vse the Allegorie as in the fourth to the Galathians it followeth not that it is to be permitted to every newe commer much lesse to men that plead for their owne profit Besides the selfe same thing that S. Paule teacheth by Allegories is elsewhere proued by evident demonstrations Ierem. 30. Heb. 12.9 But these men produce no manifest passage where it is said that after this life there is a place wherein the soules of such as haue not satisfied to the full
Romans he speaketh thus of the last iudgement We shall all appeare before the iudgement seat of Christ for it is written I liue saith the Lord let everie knee bow before me and every tongue giue praise vnto God In this place S. Paule taketh to appeare before the iudgement seat of God for bowing the knee before God The wicked therefore the divels shall bow the knee because they shall appeare and be forced to acknowledge the iustice of God In this regard doth Iustine the Martyr in his dialogue against Triphon say that the Infernall spirits are subiect to Iesus Christ bowing their knees at the bare pronountiation of the Crosse 8. As for the praises spoken of in the fifth of the Revelation they are the praises of all creaturs of whom even of the inanimate as of the heauens the earth the sonne c. The Scripture in aboue a hundred places saith that they praise the eternall Psal 19. Psal 140. Psal 145. especially in the Psalme 148. where this is repeated some twentie times Neither need we goe any further then this passage namely of the Revelation to proue it For he saith I heard EVERT CREATVRE which is in heauen thē the sunne the starres the Angels c. he also saith All that is on the earth vnder the earth and in the sea yea even all things that are comprised in them c. It appeareth then that he speaketh of all creatures and this is it that made our adversaries to omit these words yea all things that are comprised in them with a notable falsehood according to their custome thereby to abate the edge of Gods word and to take from him that which pierceth the very vntruth I should wrong the autor of the fire of Helie if I should suppresse one inventiō which he doth very gallantly produce to shewe that the divels doe not bowe to Iesus Christ If saith he Du Moulin himselfe will not put of his hat when wee speake of the name of Iesus how can the divels be forced to doe it The divels then by this Doctors saying doe wear hats but they will not put them of when we speake of Iesus Is it because they are somewhat surly and prowd or for that they feare the aire Note also that by this argument taken from the more to the lesse hee doeth vs this honour that hee holdeth vs lesse wicked then the divels and yet wee flee not for his holy water But in the end I say this doctor is deceived in one point and deceiveth in an other hee is deceived in that he thinketh that by the name of Iesus Saint Paule in this place meant the word IESVS cōsidering that the scripture by the name of God ordinarily vnderstandeth his auctority his glory his strength his power c. and so say we Our helpe be in the name of God also hallowed bee thy name and I come against thee in the name of the Eternall 2. Sam. 17.45 In this sense we honour the name of Iesus but our adversaries honor the syllables and thereof commeth the feast Masse of the name of Iesus for as concerning his parson there is a feast apart But in this that he falsely accuseth vs he deceiveth For if a man hearing the name of Iesus putteth of his hat we like it well so as it be done without superstition But marke what it is They vse many salutations to the name of Iesus whiles in the mean time his parson is wronged and his benefite abused and they finde out other redeemers and an other purging for our sins he is entreated as he was by those that buffeted him saying vnto him All haile Thus is Religion corrupted which at this day hold her handes in rule and giveth godlinesse her pasport Hereof it cōmeth that the service of the Church of Rome namely the Masse consisteth in gestures in a set number of bowings in frisking from one end of the alter to the other in Allegoricall habites historied at pleasure whiles the people looking on learneth nothing and is entertained with gestures when they should be instructed by the intelligible worde Thence commeth also the gallāt Interpretations of Pope Innocent the 3. of Durands Rationals and others which say that the Priest turneth his backe to the people because God said to Moses Thou shalt see my backe parts That the miss all is laid vpon a Quisheon because it is written Mat. 11. My yoake is easie my burdē light That he that serveth the Priest at Masse moveth and steppeth vp and downe as the Priest doth because Iesus Christ said Where I am there shal my servant be also That the Gospel booke is laid vpon a deske in forme of an Eagle because it was written in the 18. Psalme Hee flyeth vpon the wings of the winde That the deakon goeth in at one side of the pulpet commeth out at the other because it is written Mat. 2. They were warned from heauē to returne an other way And he that serveth a Bishoppe at his Masse kisseth his shoulder looking a scance on his face because it is written 1. Cor. 13. Wee see now in part Thus is the whole battery of our adversary dismounted which was not charged but with stubble and hay against the truth and here would I shut vp this chapter did not the falshoods of the fire of Helie detaine mee yet a while so extreamely licentious is he in falsifying Many of his falshoods haue we already produced yet here followe some more In the pages 40 41. to proue the Limbo of the fathers he alleadgeth the Apostle in the 11. to the Hebrews Having beene tryed by the testimony of faith This word salaried is of his own invention they received not the promises that they without vs should not be made perfect and salaried In the 43. page he saith that God by the leaues of the figge tree closed vp Ezechias sore and for that citeth the 4. of Kings 26. and Esay 38. In page 44. to defende Purgatory in bathes in yee in rivers c. hee alleadgeth Iob. 24. in these words The wicked that are in hel from a heate of fire do passe to a coldnesse as snow Al this is false and by him devised In the same place where S. Peter Act. 2.24 saith that God raised vp Iesus Christ hauing loosed the sorrows of death he saith the sorrowes of Hell In page 56. to proue that the Pope may graunt Indulgences for the dead he maketh S. Paule 1. Cor. 5. say The stewardship of Indulgences vvas by Iesus Christ left to the Church whereof there is not a word in the whole chapter In page 66. be corrupteth this excellent passage of Esay 57. Whosoever vvalketh before God goeth in peace he maketh him say Whosoever vvalketh before God vvalketh in peace In pages 69 70. he maketh S. Paule say to the Colossians 1.24 I fulfill in my flesh that which wanteth in the passion of the Lorde for his body which is the
Church Whereas it is I fulfill the rest of the afflictions of Iesus Christ Let the reader look vpon the places and he shall finde that almost every where he corrupteth and changeth the wordes of the scripture for of many we deliver but few examples that so we may be the more briefe calâ—ing to minde the commaundement that is in the rule of S. Frances Dominus fecit verbum abbreviatum super terram Rom. 9.28 And therefore we must study for brevity CAP. 7. That the Doctours of the foure first ages knew not Purgatory with the refutation of the passages alleadged by our adversaries Also the beginning and progresse of Purgatory of prayer for the dead of Indulgences and satisfactions c. OVR controversies do not coÌ„sist only in coÌ„trariety of opinions but also in diversity of means to search out the truth Our adversaries wil haue the truth to be iudged by antiquity we wil haue antiquity iudged by truth They seeke to prooue the antiquity of their doctrine by the testimonies of men we proue the truth of ours by divine testimonies taken out of the holy Scriptures The Antiquity that they pretend requireth infinit passages out of divers auctors Tertul. in Marcionem lib. 1. Viva Germana divinitas nec de novitate nec de Vetustate sed de sua veritate censetur the truth that we mainetaine may bee defended by one only passage of the holy Scripture The way that we take is so much the shorter and better assured because reasons in disputations are better then yeares and the auctority of God then the testimony of men And which is more No man can denie but the truth is more ancient then the lie for the lie is but a corruption of the truth whereof it doth ensue that when a man hath proved the trueth of a doctrine he hath also proved the antiquitie thereof But contrarywise antiquity proved a man may neverthelesse doubt of the truth For lying hath beene even from the beginning and is in a manner as ancient as the truth which eveÌ„ since the fall of Adam hath borne the divels contradictions who said No you shall not die And that we may speake but of Christianitie S. Paule 2. Thess 2.7 telleth vs that in his time the entrie of the son of perdition was prepared and the misterie of iniquitie was in working But if we guide our selues only by the time what is there in the Church of Rome whereby shee may oppose against Iudaisme or Paganisme Againe if prescription may haue place in Religion let them tell vs how manie yeares maie suffice to auctorise a doctrine Or how many testimonies of men shal we need to institute an article of faith But wee say that lapse of time giveth no autoritie to the gospell also that the truth is of as great force alone as in companie That for the decision of doubts we are to bring the ballance of reason rather then the calculation of yeares Yea I say that he that teacheth the truth but vnderproppeth it with the testimonies of men in weening to establish it doth overthrowe it Theod hom Eccl. l. 1. c 7 a lie beeing no greater fault then such a defence of the truth For it is as much as if a man shoulde arme himselfe with paper taking vp strawes insteed of weapons shoulde in this furniture expose himselfe to the power and mallice of the Divell The worde of God naked is of more force then so armed Synod Constantinop 6 Act. 1. Propositis in medio sacrosanctis Evangeliis In that regard did the auncient Church in the beginning of their Synodes lay nothing vpon the table but the books of holie scripture but our adversaries haue great interest not to be content with this simplicity for even in the beginning a number of questions should be decided considering that in the Romish Church they confesse that they teach many things wherof they haue neither commaundement nor example in the holy scripture As Invocation of Saints worshipping of Images praying in a laÌ„guage vnknown to him that praieth Priestes vowes and single life Elevation and adoration of the Sacrament c. Therefore do they seeke a farther way about and having wrested the holie scripture out of Lay mens hands they crie out the fathers nothing but the fathers in liew of the soveraigne father which is God whoÌ„ neverthelesse they do at euerie opportunitie hit handsomelie over the thoÌ„bs and when these ancient doctors do coÌ„tradict each other in the explication of the scriptures as manie times they do these our Masters take vpon them to be the moderatours and iudges in their contrary opinions allowing sometime one and reproving somtimes an other and sometimes reiecting all and bringing in some explication more to the Popes availe They will graunt the fathers to be our iudges but with proviso that the Church of Rome shal iudge of the Fathers Let anie man reade the writings of the Iesuits Maldonat Gregorie of Valentia or Bellarmine and he shall see that I say the truth This maÌ„ner of disputation is to theÌ„ more coÌ„modious as giving theÌ„ meanes in their need to find a starting hole for it is an infinite field a bottomlesse sea a thicke darcknesse wherein to shrowde themselues as seeking only how to cavill and delay their plea. For among so manie auctors as might fill a house it is an easie matter to finde somewhat to wrest to a mans owne advantage and never to be perceived because few meÌ„ haue these books of them that haue them few do read them and of those that read them fewest of all doe vnderstand them for the fathers ordinarilie are repugnant among themselues and not only among themselues but everie man in himselfe and do retract confesse his ignorance Yea I dare say there is never an heresie howsoeuer extravagant for the which wee cannot finde some especiall passages in some of the doctors besides these divers ages haue retained the ancient words but altered the doctrine as also the phrase of many of them is obscure subiect to sundrie interpretations besides that many vsuall words haue altered their significations As these Indulgences satisfaction Pope Bishopricke aulter oblation sacrifice merit station sacrament excommunication pennance words extant in many auctors but in an other sense then in these daies and yet it is an easie matter to make theÌ„ passe for such as at this day wee take them and in regarde of the resemblance of the marke to perswade men that they are of the same substance Moreover if any Doctor hath forgotten him selfe or hath vsed any difficult tearmes these wil our adversaries stand vpon and vse them to their most advaÌ„tage therin resembling such beasts as can liue vpon serpents At Paris by Nivel in S. Iames Street at the storcks 1571. Ex sanctiss concilii Trid. Decreto veterum patruÌ„ Codices sunt expurgendi Cum in Catholicis veteribus plurimos feramus erreres extenuâ—mus excusemas excogitato per
saepe negemâ—â— or beetles or Cham who discovered his fathers shame But the greatest inconvenience is that the copies are divers discordant mangled and falsified yea so farre as to haue some tracts of other men suggested and inserted into them wherevpon I remember that I propouÌ„ded to the frier the preface to the last edition of S. Augustine wherin our masters the correctors doe confesse that they haue changed some things and taken forth the errours intruded by the malice of hereticks that is to say al that mislike them and in plaine tearms they say that The bookes of the ancient fathers must bee purged according to the decree of the tridentine Councell and to the same purpose I alleadged the Confession of the doctors of Doway in their Expurgatory Index in the letter The Index is printed at Antw. by Plantin 1571. by autority of K. Phil. the D Alua. B. where speaking of the purging of the book of Bertram they say thus Considering that in all other Catholick autors we beare with many errors which we do extenuat shake of and often times excogitato commento deny by some faigned Invention and do insert into them some commodious sense wee see no reason wherefore Bertram deserveth not the like equity and the same diligent review And this was the place where the Monke said that Excogitatum Commentum signified a Commentary But in this booke page 1. Hee saith that it is an explication devised contrary to the text Thus doth he confesse that it is his occupation to bring in such explications vnlesse hee should shrinke from the vnion of those purgers auctorised by his holinesse Here might I alleadge a great heape of falsifications brought in by these correctors albeit we know not the huÌ„dred part Yet are we greatly to praise God who hath not suffered them to compasse their intents but among the fathers hath yet left vs sufficient weapoÌ„s to fight with the Church of Rome And that is it that in this chapter wee are to produce yet with this protestation that I alleadge not the doctors fathers as meaning vpon their auctorities to hang the truth of my cause but to shew how our adversaries doe abuse them and make them to speake manie things contrary to their owne opinioÌ„s I take them not to bee advocates in my cause but am my selfe their advocate For Iesus Christ Iohn 5.14 telleth vs that he craveth not the testimonies of men neither doth his word neede their witnesse The truth that those good men haue spoken we do beleeue not because they spake it but because wee finde it in the word of God And this is the reason that I reserved this tract to the end least I shoulde mixe divine auctority with humane This is a chapter rather not superfluous then necessarie which we giue not to the necessity of the matter but to the stiffneckednesse of the age wherein the holy scripture is growne into suspition and men opeÌ„ their cares when wee speake of Origen Ambrose Tertullian c. But stop them when we speake of the Prophets or Apostles Bellarm. de verbo Dei lib. 4. cap. 12 The holy Bible say they is a booke for hereticks a sword for all hands a pecce of a rule a forrest of forraging yea saith the autor of the three truths It will make a man become an Atheist Passages of the ancient Doctors against Purgatory Iustin Martyr in his 75 question After the departure of the soule out of the body there is immediatly made a distinction betweene the good and the bad for by the Angels they are brought into the places worthy for them the soules of the good into Paradice where is the haunt and viewe of the Angels the soules of the bad into hell Himselfe in his 60. question saith that men cannot after the soule is departed from the body by any provision care or study get help and succour Cum anima à corpore evellitur statim aut in Paradiso promeritis bonis collocatur aut certè pro peccatis in in ferni tartara praecipitatur S. Augustine in his book of the vanitie of the world tom 9. c. 1. Knowe yee that when the soule parteth from the body shee is for her good workes instantly placed in Paradice or for her sinnes cast headlong into the pit of hell And our masters the Expurgators in their last edition at Paris found themselues so puzled with this saying that they set down in the margent Vbi nunc Purgatorium Where now Purgatory is Himselfe in his first Chapter of his second sermon of Consolation over the dead saith Recedens anima ab Angelis suscipitur collocatur aut in sinu Abrahae c. Tertium penitus ignoramus immo nec necesse esse in Scripturis sanctis venimus The soule at her departure if shee bee faithfull is by the Angels taken and carried into Abrahams bosome if a sinner into the charter of the infernall prison Himselfe in the fifth book of his Hypognostique saith The Catholick faith grounded vpon diuine autority beleeueth the first place which is the kingdome of heaven from whence all that are baptised are excluded also the second which is hell where every Apostata such as are estranged from the faith of Christ shall endure eternall punishments For any third place we knowe none neither doe we finde any such place throughout the holy Scriptures Yea and which is more In this place S. Augustine maintaineth that Children not baptised are excluded out of the kingdome of heaven therevpon gathereth this consequence Sâ—th they are not in Paradice they must of necessitie be in hell and in eternal torment because there is no third place Surely hee would never haue beene so rigorous towards these children had he knowne of any place of punishment more gentle and easie as Limbo or Purgatory The fire of Helie pag. 37. saith that S. Augustine denieth any such place as Pelagius doth paint forth A matter that this Doctor very presumptuously hath invented for hee there doth simply deny and saith that there is no third place at all neither doth hee there speake of any delights as hee would make vs beleeue In his 14. sermon vpon the words of the Apostle hee tearmeth the right hand the kingdome of heaven and the left damnation with the Divell and then addeth There is no middle place where thou maist put the children And soone after Nullum medium locum in Evangelio novimus We find not any middle place in the Gospell In his 18. Sermon he reproueth those who taking liberty to doe evill haue nevertheles some hope Duo enim sunt loci nec tertius est vllus He saith he that is such a man let him chuse where hee will dwell whiles yet bee hath time to change for there are but two habitations the one in the eternall kingdome the other in everlasting fire In his 232. sermon which is against drunkennesse Deere brethren let no man
their Purgatory there vpon haue they spent at the least three quarters of their allegations Now as concerning this praier for the dead the truth is that the Apostles in the celebration of the Lords Supper retained the institution of Iesus Christ and Pope Gregorie hath before testified vnto vs that to that Institution that is set downe in the holy Gospell they added only the Lords praier which argueth an vntruth in Chrysostome who saith that the Commemoration of the dead in the Eucharist is an Apostolicall tradition Soone after Martyrdome encreasing for the better encouragement of the Christians they brought in a custome in the celebration of the sacrament to name the Martyrs with the Prophets and Apostles and in everie Church they had a list or double tables called Diptiches wherin were writ ten the names of all such deceased as were to be mentioned in Commemoration and so far there was no harme The custome encreasing the parents and friends of the deceased beganne to giue almes vpon the day of the Cōmemoration of the deceased The almes togither with the commemorations they called oblations of the dead also sacrifices for the dead as we may see in the sixt epistle of the third book of S. Cyprian speaking of the Martyrs deceased in prison Celebrentur à nobis oblationes et Sacrificia in Commemorationem eorum Let vs celebrate sacrifices and oblations in commemoration of them Likewise in the fifth Epistle of his fourth booke speaking of Laurence Heb. 13.16 Phil 4 18. Celerine and Ignatius Martyrs Sacrificia pro eis offerimus quoties Martyrum passiones dies Aniuersariae Commemoratione celebramus That is to say We doe offer sacrifice for them alwaies and so often as from yeare to yeare we doe celebrate the daies and passions of the Martyrs In summe this is it The almes called in the Scripture sacrifices were offered for the dead that is to say in remembrance of them and in their steed as if the dead gaue them Thus in the eight booke of the Institutions of Clement cap. 18. The Bishop or minister prayeth We doe offer vnto thee for all those that haue pleased thee from the beginning of the world for the Saints Patriarkes Prophets righteous men Apostles Martyrs c. For such doth the Church of Rome hold that wee ought not to pray or to offer That these oblations and sacrifices were almes it appeareth by two Canons Vases Can. qui oblationes can Clerici one of the Councell of Vases the other of the Councell of Agatha Which are in Can. 13. quest 2 The Councell of Vases saith thus Can. Qui oblatione can clerici Such as detaine the oblations of the dead are slack in bringing them to the Churches are to be cut of from the Church as Infidels because they doe depriue the faithfull of the accomplishment of their vowes and the poore of their food and substance That of Agatha condemneth those that detaine the oblations of their deceased parents as murderers of the poore Burchard in his fifth booke alleageth many examples Nowe because part of these offerings were imployed in the Communion of the holy supper S. Cyprian in his sermon of Almes complaineth that the rich offering nothing yet came to take part of the sacrifices offered by the poore Domini cum sine sacrificio venis partem de sacrificio quod pau per obtulit sumis Now that this nomination of the dead in the administratiō of the sacrament tended not to fetch him out of Purgatory it appeareth evē by the same that our adversaries alleage out of Cyprian namely for that hee would not permit any nomination of of a certaine deceased person who had charged a clarke with a tutorship for surely it had beene excessiue inhumanitie to depriue a soule tormented in fire from ordinary reliefe for so slight an offence and where it was rather want of consideration then of piety as also to hold such a one for that sinne to be dāned were a rash and precipitat iudgement It was therefore a deprivation of honour among the living not a prohibition from succouring of the soule of the deceased And yet in all this there is no harme In those daies sprang vp the error of the receptacles of soules and of the fire of the last iudgemēt that should purge even the Virgin Mary and the Apostles began to take footing in the church Hereby mēs minds growing into feare and being perplexed concerning the estate of the dead prayers for the succor of the dead soone after came to bee adioined to the oblations sacrifices and almes And thus errour begat abuse which sprang from the loue of friends yet without any conceit of Purgatory and without any foresight of such abuses as might ensue and did befall in the daies of Gregory Bishop of Rome who lived in the yeare of Iesus Christ six hundred For then learning being smothered by the inundation of the barbarous nations the Gothes the Hunnes the French the Vandales c. And these lights of the primitiue Church extinct whiles there were no more Basils Cyprians or Augustins c. The divell taking his time and making vse of the covetise of the Clergie cosened the world with visions and aparitions of soules returning from Purgatory as we see in Gregories dialogues and Beda his workes who made report of a soul that appeared musled in a cloke of fire of an other that had beene a master of the bathes and being there in Purgatory offered to pull of a mans hose They also tell vs a fable of one Nocholas who getting forth of Purgatory by a hole that is in Ireland reported that hee had seene soules some broiled some fried get-some roasted c. Gregory in the fourth of his dialogues cap. 41. putteth to him selfe this question Quid hoc est quaeso quod in his extremis temporibus tam multa de animabus clarescunt quae ante latuerant And ordinarily these souls in their appearance shewed the cause of their tormēt ether that they had not paid the Church what they ought or had vowed and so entreated the living to satisfie for them or that they had withstood the Bishop of Rome c. Then began these great donations to the Church especially after the stations and Indulgences of Rome were added which are of the topgallant the last supream top of all Babylon Against this progresse of abuse what better remedy then to reduce the people to the spring head which is the holy Scripture And to say as Iesus Christ said to the Saduces Mat. 22. You erre not knowing the scriptures but from the beginning it was not so For throughout the old Testament that is for the full space of foure hundred yeares there was no prayer either for the dead or to fetch any soule out of Purgatory neither in the daies of Iesus Christ or his Apostles nor of a long time after Thus shall we attribute the glory to God to