about faith manners may be proued What doth follow but that some vnwritten verities and traditions are found which haue equall authoritie with diuine Scripture Is not this argument in good forme Are not the premisses thereof certaine which euen our enemies doe grant May traditions be termed sleeuelesse for which your owne Taylors or Doctours make such glorious winges that therby they fly vp to the throne of diuine Truth 20. But I will not bestow on your suggesting Minister a sleeueles garment but rather grant him a Coate with foure sleeues for his Metaphore by which he maketh the Church Scriptures daughter many Churches as S. Irenaeus writeth (b) l. 3. c. 4. in his time had neuer read any word of Scripture yet did they flourish by keeping the Tradition of Christian doctrine in their hartes Was the Scripture the Mother of these Churches I see not which way you will draw their pedigree from the Scripture except in your next writings you make Scripture Grandmother who hath bin yet scarse 3. yeares a Mother The Church of the old Testament was some thousand yeares (c) 2000 yeares from Adam vnto Moyses before Scripture the Church of the New did flourish many yeares before any Ghospell was written who euer saw or heard a daughter borne before the mother A Sonne before the mother I haue heard of yet he as Man according to which Nature he was her Sonne was not before her So that the Church Child of Scripture a daughter before the Mother is the Pallas of your braine which some Vulcans sharp hatchet hath holpen you to be deliuered of And thus much of your no lesse ridiculous then impious iestes against the authority of the Church 21. After your light skirmish with Scoffes followeth a graue battery of the Churches custome to pray for soules in Purgatory with the Canō of Scriptures (d) Lett. a pag. 80. vsque ad 93. by which you will proue her doctrine in this point to be a Satanicall figment disgracefull vnto the great mercy of God euacuating the Crosse of Christ The places by you alleadged are many but either so triuiall and knowen togeather with the Catholikes answeres or else so ridiculously applied wrung wrested to your purpose that their very sound is able to breake a learned mans head and make him scratch where it doth not itch for want of an answere To giue some few examples What say you (e) pag. 86 shall not Hel gates preuaile against vs and shall Purgatoryes muddy wall hedg vs in Hath the soule of Christ gon downe into the nethermost Hell yet made no passage through the suburbes of Hell Hath he bound the strong Man that he should not harme vs and will he now torment vs himselfe or set we know not whō to do it Thus you Who will not wonder that Purgatoryes wals fall not to the ground with the storme of these your windy interogations shall I make the Logicall Analysis of your Rhetoricall Arguments They be three Ethymens I think The first the gates of hell shall not prauaile against the Church ergo there is no Purgatory The second the soule of Christ went down to the nethermost Hell ergo no Purgatory can be found The third Christ bound the strong Man and took his fortresse ergo Purgatory must vanish away 22. I think Aristotle would be grauelled in these argumēts to find the Mediū to ioyne your extremes togeather For what force hath Christs binding the strong Man that he may not harme his children to proue that God may not chastize them for their sins either by himselfe or another in this world or in the next as he pleaseth when they haue don amisse and committed lesser offences that deserue his lighter displeasure When you say that Hell gates shall not preuaile against vs it is hard to ghesse who those your vsses are Perhaps you meane the Elect Predestinate among whom you number your selfe Let it be so Can you deny but many of your Predestinate and Elect are for robbing and stealing and other such crimes locked vp in London Goales what shall not Hell-gate preuayle against them and shall the wall of a prison mue them vp hath the soule of Christ gon downe into the nethermost Hell and made no passage through New-gates Limbo where sometimes your elect are kept Hath he bound the strong man that he should not harme and shall now a hangman put thē to death You perceaue I hope the vanity of your inferences 23. Let vs heare you preach againe and build a ladder for your elect to passe without Purgatory into Heauen They that dy in the faith say you (f) p. 100 haue peace towardes God they that haue peace towards God are iustified by Christ they that are iustified by Christ are free from the Law and being free from the Law quis accusabit who shall lay any thing to their charge Thus you dispute Where I could lay both folly and falshood to your charge but seing your Protestāt faith freeth you from the Law both of Reason consciēce quis accusabit who dareth accuse you though you write neither wise nor true word I could cast your Elect into Hell from the first step of your ladder For they that dy in the faith haue not peace towards God except their faith be ioyned with good workes S. Iohn (g) Apoc. 14. giuing the reason why the Saintes rest after life saith Opera enim illorum sequuntur illos which you English for their works follow them euen at the heeles But your Protestant faith is so light footed or light headed rather to belieue you shal be saued your charity so heauy heeled to do the good works by which men must be saued that an eternity of torments may passe before your workes ouertake your faith 24. I might also fling them downe from the highest step of all where you say they are free from the Law if you vnderstand it in Luthers sense (h) Tom. 1. Ep. Lat. ep 3◠ad Philippū that though they commit whoredomes or murthers a thousand tymes aday they need not care the bloud of Christ freeth them from the lawe doth not this doctrine togeather with the Authour deserue to be flung into the lowest Hell But if you vnderstand freedome from the law in the Catholick sense that the spirit of Christ maketh that yoke easie and the burden light that in the spirit of loue we may keep the law with great ease as S. Iohn saith (i) 1. Ioan. 5. his commandemcnts are not hard I dare say your Protestants faith hath litle of that spirit that dilateth the heart to runne the way of Gods precepts (k) Psalm 118. that it will neuer be able to get vp this ladder And let thē be indeed iust let them be Saints that keepe the law you obiect that against them that doth cleerely proue a Purgatorie for them in the next life Yea say you but they haue some drosse to
a mild Reply before I cast off your snarling reproaches with disdainfull silence Heerin I follow the example of the Cumaean Virgin that was guide to Aenaeas in his foresaid iourney Cui Vates horrere videns iam colla colubris She seeing that Hellish Mastiue to bristle his snakes and ready to inuade her charge to diuert his angre cast before him Melle saporatam medicatis frugibus offam A soppe seasoned with hony and medicinable herbes which sweet morsell did so appease his furie that hauing fawned on her without more adoe he layed downe his sleepy limbes to rest in his vast kennell But hauing cast your barking Cerberus into a sleepe in my first Chapter the rest of my Letter I spend in the spoyle of your Hell I meane in the confutation of the Letter full of blasphemies which some yeares since yow wrote against Purgatorie I haue reduced my discourse to foure heades wherewith I encounter the foure enemyes a Christian verity may haue and which in your Letter band against this point of Catholicke Doctrine to vvit Diuels vvho by lying Philosophers vvho by reason Hereticks vvho by Scripture Atheists vvho by iesting seeke to ouerthrovv the Truth I discouer the Falshood both of your Letter and Counter-snarle concerning the Canonicall authoritie of the bookes of Machabees vvhere the practise of praying for soules in Purgatorie is praysed I lay open the vanitie of your Logick by which you cauill at our Catholike deduction of Purgatorie from Christ his vvordes in the 12. of S. Matthew I shew the vveakenes of your Scripturall assault to defeate the perpetuall tradition of the Church standing in defence of this Doctrine By the light of miracles wherewith GOD doth and still in all ages did illustrate his Church I dissolue the smoky mysts of the Atheisticall scoffs vvhich vampe from your pen. And seeing in your Counter-snarle you will needs pluck a crow with me about the first planting of Christianity amongst the English Saxons therewith I conclude my Letter shewing that we were from Paganisme conuerted to the Catholick beliefe of Purgatorie yea that S. Gregory whome your Mynisters vse to charge to haue bene the greatest Patron of this doctrine was the chiefest Author vnder GOD of this our happy purgation from heathenish superstition So that this my Letter describing fiue Victories of Purgatorie ouer your Falshood Philosophy Heresy Atheisme Idolatry may be tearmed Purgatories Triumph ouer your hell Thus much concerning the matter and substance of my answere Ne respondeas stulto iuxta stultitiam suā Responde stulto iuxta stultitiā suam Prou. 26. v. 4. As for the manner I haue sought to ioyne two Counsells of the holy Ghost vvhich seeme contrary togeather in my Letter To answere and not to answere a foole according to his folly to make my discourse serious as the subiect therof doth require yet lend now and then a few lynes vnto the discouery of your trifles I haue follovved Pithagoras his aduise not to stabbe the fire Ignem ne fodito which from the bramble-bush of your distempered thoughts flashed yet haue I done my best to quench it not with the cold vvater of a dull denyall nor with the oyle of sinners which might increase your flame by soothing you in your errour but with that liquor you are sayd to loue vvell vvith wyne and sugar vvhich togeather with the secret influence of Loue wanteth not vertue to draw out the corruption that maketh your sores angry I haue made you a Purgatorie sallet into vvhich I haue put 5. medecinable herbes The Authoritie of the auncient Church and Fathers before Christ The word of Christ himselfe insinuating the same The Custome of the Church The warrant of Myracles The first Christianitie of our Countrey Fiue potent reasons to mooue you to imbrace the Catholike doctrine in this point and others or at least to purge some part of your prophane humors against it Into this sallet I haue povvred the oyle of charitable exhortations though sometimes I must confesse the vinager of sharper reprehension goeth mingled therwith yet not in such store as may make the same iustly displeasing to your tast The iudicious Reader that may perchance looke into this Letter vvill not wonder that your rude hammering vvith heauy reproaches on the rock of Truth togeather vvith the gentle sound of a solid Answere hath also fetched out some liuely sparkes of iust disdayne Such sparkes did fly sometymes euen from that marble Pillar as you tearme him Saint Augustine as doth appeare in his vvritings though prouoked with iniurious speaches he did as he saith endeauour as much as might be to curbe the motions of anger Fraenatis atque coercitis vanae indignationis aculeis auditori lectorique consulens non ago vt efficiar homini conuitiando superior sed errorem conuincendo salubrior l. 3. contr lit Petil. c. 1. and seeke to ouercome his aduersaries not by strong returne of iniurious reproaches to disgrace their persons but by cleare demonstration of the victorious Truth the beliefe wherof might bring them vnto eternall life This is my drift and hauing so worthy a patterne and president before my eyes I will beginne THE FIRST CHAPTER YOVR WEAKE ACCVSATIONS OF my Treatise which you traduce as respectlesse and vnlearned with iests at some phrases doctrines and histories therof ALTHOVGH your skill in Physike make you write that (a) Letter to M. T. H. pag. 10. much fasting causeth a vertigo or giddines of the braine yet could I haue wished that you had read fasting those few lines of my Treatise which cōcerne your selfe perhaps that which now you mistake as vttered to your reproach would haue seemed spoken rather in your Honour For you might haue perceaued that in my short Censure you so much repine at I did deuide the three degrees of comparision betwixt your three most cōmendable qualities Valour Learning Wit I gaue the positiue to your Valour which I did suppose was famous though not being acquainted with your particuler exploites I could not inlarge my selfe in your military praises The comparatiue I did assigne to your Pen which is better knowne vnto me and seeming to deserue precedence I termed more famous praising your curious stile which though ouer light for a graue Deuine I was willing to winke thereat thinking such a gaudy attire might beseme a courtly Writer To your Wit I did reserue the superlatiue degree whose high pitch with an allusion to your name I did expresse vnder the metaphor of a soaring Byrd Neither did my dull capacity then mark how nigh a kin to a Buzzard the soaring Byrd was I did allude vnto My conceipt which you acknowledg to be simple did without any fraud sincerly ayme at your praise If I did prefer your Wit and Learning before your Valour you haue no iust cause of offence for I praised in you those things most which are most proper to men giuing you Excellency before some men in those qualities
at Cardes then of Scriptures But this Chapter I make noe doubt will discouer your ridiculous vanity and make you feele the lumpish weight of your heauy-heeled pride that your Logike wherof you bragg extreamly wil be made a laughing stock euen to children 3. And first you cannot deny but this our inference and exposition of the foresayd place is taught by fyue or sixe ancient and holy doctours which that (d) p. 4. 5. 6. Treatise citeth will your wisdome tearme them Nodies S. Bernard the mirrour of learning and Sanctity in his age Venerable Bede the principall ornament of our Nation S. Isidore the most eminent and ancient Doctour and ouerthrower of Arianisme in Spaine Shall these learned Fathers be put in the nuÌ„ber of Nodies Shall one find such a doating Iustice of Peace againe in a CouÌ„trey as will cast such Doctours into stockes or shut them vp as you doe in Bedlam Take heed as Diogenes warned a wanton youth least casting your reproches against heauen De quibê°dam leuibus culpis esse ante iudicium purgatorius ignis credendus est pro eo quod Veritas dicit Si quis c. In qua senteÌ„tia datur intelligi quasdam culpas in hoc saeculo quasdam in futuro posse laxari you strike not your owne Father If you be an English Christian you caÌ„not deny S. Gregorie to be your Father by whose care meanes and industrie the English Nation was conuerted vnto Christ as in the sixth Chapter of this booke shal be proued 4. Heare what he saith (*) l. 4. Dial. c. 39. VVe must belieue that for some light faultes there is a Purgatorie-fyre before the daye of Iudgment because the Truth doth say If any shall vtter blasphemie against the holy Ghost it shal not be forgiuen neither in this world nor in the world to come In which saying we are giuen to vnderstand that some synnes may be forgiuen in this world and some in the next For what is denyed of one it is cleere that consequently it is graunted of the other Thus didst thou write Blessed Saint a thousaÌ„d yeares agoe euen wheÌ„ thy hart was fullest of coÌ„fort for the CoÌ„uersioÌ„ of our Country It would not a little haue alayd thy ioy hadst thou foreseene that heresie in this vnhappie age should bring back againe that barbarous and blasphemous language which thou didst banish by the Preachers thou sentest vs. Perchance thou didst then little thinke that one of that Nation which in the bowells of thy charitie thou didst aboue all other cherish to bring them forth the children of God should presume and be permitted to terme thy Expositions of Scriptures though not thine alone but common to thee with other Fathers Nodies especially contayning that faith which by the ouerthrow of Paganisme thou didst plant in this land But Syr Edward what thinke you of that Father whome you named a Marble Piller a glorious Saint the euer-admired Augustine to whome owing more then half your self if you lay on his exposition the former reproach of Noddie you may iustly be thought more then half out of your self 5. Thus S. Augustine writeth vpon our place of Scripture Neque enim de quibusdam veraciter diceretur quòd non eis remittetur neque in futuro nisi essent quibus etsi noÌ„ in isto tameÌ„ remittetur in futuro Aug. l. 21. de Ciuit. c. 24. It could not be truly said of some men that their synnes should not be forgiuen in this world nor in the world to come vnlesse there should be some men who though they are not pardoned in this world yet they should be pardoned in the world to come So he I confesse that this Father is more bound vnto you then the rest for you seeke (e) Lett. p. 46 47. to exempt him which you do not so much as attempt in their behalf from the companie of Nodies with a writt vnder Viues hand that the aforecited wordes are not in any our knowne coppies to be founde adding that not to do vs wrong yow will not suppresse that Viues goeth a stepp further saying Perhaps other impressions haue them So that say you the Interpretation of S. Augustine as also that Fathers Iudgmen concerning Purgatory hangeth on a weake thred vpon forsan Perhaps which is as good as a new-nothing to hang vpon your sleeue Thus you heere is old and new packing vp of truthes and vntruthes togeather which I will discouer and make apparent that some old Gamester and new Ghospeller hath taught you his iugling tryckes 6. First Viues (f) Commentar in illude In antiquis libris Brugensi Coloniensi doth not say that the foresaid wordes are wanting in all our knowne Copies which Carde you deale as his but only in some ancient Manuscripts of Bruges and Cullen and in the latter Edition at Friburge besides which many other knowne Copies and Editions are to be found Secondly he saith that in all copies these wordes are extant Pro quibusdam defunctis c. For some deceased the Prayer either of the Church or other particular pious Christians is heard but for such as being borne anew in Christ Neque in exemplaribus Eriburgi excusis their life in their body was neither soe bad as they were vnworthy nor yet altogeather soe perfect that they had noe need of such mercy These wordes doe cleerly containe our Catholike doctrine of Purgatorie which wordes Viues doth acknowledg to be S. Augustines without any forsan How then doe you say that the iudgmeÌ„t of this Father concerning Purgatorie hangeth on a weake thred in Viues iudgment 7. Thirdly Viues doth indeed say that the former exposition of S. Matthewes wordes by me cited is wanting in some Copies but he addeth Tamen stylus non abhorret ab Augustiniano the stile dissenteth not from S. Augustines stile This is somwhat more then a meere Perhaps yea the sole sauour of soe graue a Fathers stile might haue stopped your pen from reproaching the doctrine therof especially with so foule a censure as Nody had not the same bene a Snarler Finally saith Viues Either in other copies of S. Augustine the former wordes are found or taken from some other worke of this Father they were here inserted Behould Viues doth graunt this exposition to be certainely S. Augustines without any perhaps though he doubt whether he did repeate the same in this place And that S. Augustine in other places giueth indeed our exposition of the wordes he is a meere stranger in his writings that will deny l. 21. c. 13. For in this very booke de Ciuitate Dei not aboue ten Chapters before this thus he writteth Temporall punishments saith he some suffer in this life only some in the next some both now there yet before the last most rigorous day of doome All that after death suffer temporall payne doe not fall into eternall punishment which after Iudgment is for some For to some what is not forgiuen in
chiefest Bishops or Patriarks of the East were either Authours or their fautors This was the cause that often the Orthodoxall Bishops of Greece in defence of truth were forced to fly for succour to the Romaine as did Athanasius and Paulus the one Patriarke of Alexandria the other of Constantinople and others (h) Sozom. l. 1. c. 7. To end which dissentions by his Authority Supreme vnder God vpon Earth ouer the flock of Christ he hid procure that Councells might be called in Greece the discipline of the Church requiring that Councells meete examine the cause and punish offenders where the fault was committed Soe that the cause why those Councells were kept in Greece not in Rome was the Purity of the one neuer falling into Heresie and the infelicity of the other neuer to be without inuentours of such monsters 15. This sinceritie likewise of Doctrine as Ruffinus noteth (i) Ruffin in expositione Symboli is the cause that the Church of Rome did neuer add any word or syllable to the Creed but kept the same entyre without addition which saith he happened not in other Churches because other Churches hauing had heresies sprong vp within their owne bowells did add some wordes to the Creed to crosse and meet with such errours which the Romane neuer did nor had need to doe seeing no heresie had neuer beginning in it Thus Ruffinus wherefore seing the Roman Church caused those Councells to be held in Greece confirmed the same afterwards and their Creeds to be receaued through the whole Church who cā deny but we had those foundations of Faith more principally from the Roman then any other Church the Principall Sea from whence saith (k) l. 4. ep 8. S. Cyprian Priestly dignitie one great Pillar and Foundation of Christianity did flow Vnto which Tertullian (l) Praescr c. 31. Irenaeus (m) l. 3. c. 3. Optatus (n) l. 2. cōt Parmen Epiphanius (o) Haeres 27. S. Augustine (p) Epist 165. being vrged by Heretikes did fly as vnto the head deriving Scriptures Creeds and all other Ecclesiasticall traditions from them Wherefore I must thinke that many sick and sory feathers were in that Ministers head that caused you to call them rather Grecian then Roman Plumes though so light a word as Plumes applyed to so graue matters as Scriptures Creeds and Councells doth sauour of the leuity of your phrase 16. This leuity you shew in the prayses you giue to the Church no lesse then in the reproaches Thus you preach Who is he say (q) Lett. p. 67. you that saith not of the true Church with Augustine Non parua Ecclesiae auctoritas well doth her Modesty well doth her fidelitie deserue honorable esteeme she taketh not vpon her to controule the holy Scripture her Mother from whom she drew her first breath she openeth not her mouth till her mother hath deliuered her mynde she commeth not of her owne head with any sleeuelesse arrant Thus you discourse describing the Spouse of Christ and Mother of Christians as a mannerly young Mayd brought vp in Luthers schoole You demaund who is he that doth not say with S. Augustine Great is the authority of the Church And yet you your self are the Man who call that Authority of the Church which S. Augustine in that very sentence reuerenceth as great and venerable idle and sleeuelesse like the Butcher that called for his knife he had in his mouth These are S. Augustines wordes (r) De cura pro mortuis c. 1. We read in the Books of Machabees that Sacrifice was offered for the dead but if this were no where read in the old Scriptures yet ther is no small authoritie of the vniuersall Church which shineth in this custome Behold S. Augustine calleth Doctrines deliuered by the Church without expresse Scripture great shining which you reuile and contemne 17. Thus you contradict the saying of S. Augustine whilst you would seeme to applaud it yet is not this contradiction so witlesse as is your Assertion impious that Doctrines and Decrees of the Church not deliuered in Scriptures are sleeuelesse the perpetuall virginity of the B. Mother after her sacred birth of the Sonne of God you seeme so to beleeue that you would stop your eares against any that should dispute therof (ſ) Lett. p. 39. but where is this written in Scripture what is it but a perpetuall traditiō of Gods Church S. Augustine sayth (t) de Baptism cont Donatist l. 2. c. 7. that it cannot be clearly proued out of Scripture that Heritikes returning to the Church should not be rebaptized yet the Church hath forbidden the same Shall we tearme this prohibition sleeuelesse That these and these bookes be Canonicall and the other Apocriphall where it is taught in Scripture Now he doth not see that Scriptures are the chiefest points of our Faith contayning the fountaine and as it were principles of faith Doe but read your learned Authour Hierome Zanchius who will giue a newer tune then that your Minister piped vnto you That Authour famous in your Cōgregations teacheth (u) Tom. 4. l. 1. de lege Dei that diuers vnwritten traditions concerning doctrine and manners are in the Church which are not only profitable (x) Non solum vtiles Ecclesiae sed ferè necessariae saith he but in a manner necessary which haue their beginning from the holy Ghost which we must reuerence and obey else we contemne the Authority of the Church which is a thing saith he very displeasing vnto God how then doe you preach that the Church neuer openeth her mouth till Mother Scripture haue deliuered her mind 18. I confesse that this your Authour goeth a step backward saying that these vnwriten traditions are not of equall authoritie with the written word (z) Paris authoritatis non sunt cum verbo in sacris literis reuelato but therin he doth cleerely contradict himselfe For the Canon of the Scripture being as he confesseth an vnwritten tradition how can any thing contayned in Scripture be more certaine then some vnwritten traditions are Can any man be more certaine of a truth proued out of Scripture then he is that his proofes are indeed Scripture One may see this doth imply in termes Wherefore great cause had your Doctour Field (a) Of the Church p. 238. to grant that Papists haue good reason to equall their Traditions to the written word if they can proue any such vnwritten verities and his proofe is pregnant because not the writing giueth things their authoritie but the worth and credit of him that deliuereth them though by word and liuely voyce alone 19. Now put these two sayings of your two Doctours togeather and make an argument for traditions let Doctour Field giue the Maior vnwritten verities can they be proued are equall to the written word let Zanchius add the Minor but diuers vnwritten verities and traditions profitable and in a manner necessary for the Church both