purpose also S. Ambrose maketh this observation upon the historie of the woman taken in adulterie Ioh. 8.9 that Iesus being about to pardon sin remayned alone For it is not the ambassador saith hee nor the messenger but the Lord himselfe that hath saved his people He remaineth alone because it cannot be common to anie man with Christ to forgive sinnes This is the office of Christ alone who taketh away the sinne of the world Yea S. Chrysostom himselfe who of all the Fathers giveth most in this point unto Gods ambassadors and messengers is yet carefull withall to preserve Gods priviledge entire by often interposing such sentences as these None can forgive sinnes but God alone To forgive sinnes belongeth to no other To forgive sinnes is possible to God onely God alone doth this which also hee worketh in the washing of the new birth Wherein that the work of cleansing the soule is wholly Gods and the minister hath no hand at all in effecting anie part of it Optatus proveth at large in his fifth booke against the Donatistes shewing that none can wash the filth and sports of the minde but hee who is the framer of the same minde and convincing the hereticks as by manie other testimonies of holy Scriptur◠so by that of Esai 1.18 which he presseth in this maner It belongeth unto God to cleanse and not unto man he hath promised by the Prophet Esai that hee himselfe would wash when he saith If your sinnes were as scarlet I will make them as white as snow I will make them white he said he did not say I will cause them to be made white If God hath promised this why will you give that which is neyther lawfull for you to promise nor to give nor to have Behold in Esai God hath promised that he himselfe will make white such as are defiled with sinnes not by man Having thus therefore reserved unto God his prerogative royall in cleansing of the soule we give unto his under-officers their due when we account of them as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God not as Lords that have power to dispose of spiritual graces as they please but as servants that are tyed to follow their Masters prescriptions therin in following therof do but bring their external ministerie for which it self also they are beholding to Gods mercie goodnes God conferring the inward blessing of his spirit thereupon when where he will Who then is Paul saith S. Paul himselfe and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom yee beleeved even as the Lord gave to every man Therfore saith Optatus in all the servants there is no dominion but a ministerie Cui creditur ipse dat quod creditur non per quem creditur It is hee who is beleeved that giveth the thing which is beleeved not he by whom we doe beleeve Whereas our Saviour then saith unto his Apostles Ioh. 20. Receive the holy Ghost Whose sinnes you forgive shall be forgiven S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Chrysostome and S. Cyrill make this observation thereupon that this is not their work properly but the worke of the holy Ghost who remitteth by them and therein performeth the worke of the true God For indeed saith S. Cyrill it belongeth to the true God alone to be able to loose men from their sinns for who else can free the transgressors of the law from sin but he who is the author of law it selfe The Lord saith S. Augustine was to give unto men the holy Ghost and he would have it to be understood that by the holy Ghost himselfe sinnes should be forgiven to the faithfull and not that by the merits of men sins should be forgiven For what art thou ô man but a sick-man that hast need to be healed Wilt thou be a physician to me Seek the physician together with mee So S. Ambrose Behold that by the holy Ghost sinnes are forgiven But men to the remission of sinnes bring their ministery they exercise not the authoritie of any power S. Chrysostom though he make this to be the exercise of a great power which also hee elsewhere amplifieth after his manner exceeding hyperbolically yet in the maine matter accordeth fully with S. Ambrose that it lyeth in God alone to bestowe the things wherein the Priests service is employed And what speake I of Priests saith he Neyther Angell nor Archangell can doe ought in those things which are given by God but the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost doe dispense all The Priest lendeth his tongue and putteth too his hand His part only is to open his mouth but it is God that worketh all And the reasons whereby both he and Theophylact after him doe prove that the Priests of the law had no power to forgive sinnes are of as great force to take the same power from the ministers of the Gospell first because it is Gods part onely to forgive sinnes secondly because the Priests were servants yea servants of sinne and therefore had no power to forgive sinnes unto others but the Sonne is the Lord of the house who was manifested to take away our sinnes and in him is no sinne saith S. Iohn upon which saying of his S. Augustin giveth this good note It is he in whom there is no sinne that came to take away sinne For if there had beene sinne in him too it must have beene taken away from him he could not take it away himselfe To forgive sinnes therefore being thus proper to God onely and to his Christ his ministers must not be held to have this power communicated unto them but in an improper sense namely because God forgiveth by them and hath appointed them both to apply those meanes by which he useth to forgive sinnes and to give notice unto repentant sinners of that forgivenesse For who can forgive sinnes but God alone yet doth he forgive by them also unto whom hee hath given power to forgive saith S. Ambrose and his followers And though it be the proper worke of God to remit sins saith Ferus yet are the Apostles and their successors said to remit also not simply but because they apply those meanes whereby God doth remit sinnes Which means are the Word of God and the Sacraments Whereunto also wee may adde the relaxation of the Censures of the Church and Prayer for in thes◠foure the whole exercise of this ministerie of reconciliation as the Apostle calleth it doth mainly consist of each whereof it is needefull that wee should speake somewhat more particularly That Prayer is a meanes ordayned by God for procuring remission of sinnes is plaine by that of S. Iames. The prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him Confesse
thinke will take the paynes to get him a new heart and a new spirit and undertake the toylsome worke of crucifying the flesh with the lustes thereof if without all this adoe the Priests absolution can make that other imperfect or rather equivocall contrition arising from a carnall and servile feare to be sufficient for the blotting out of all his sinnes Or are wee not rather to thinke that this sacramentall penance of the Papists is a device invented by the enemie to hoodwinke poore soules and to divert them from seeking that true repentance which is onely able to stand them in stead and that such as take upon them to helpe lame dogges over the stile after this maner by substituting quid pro quo attrition in stead of contrition servile feare in stead of filiall love carnall sorrow in stead of godly repentance are physicians of no value nay such as minister poyson unto men under colour of providing a soveraigne medicine for them Hee therefore that will have care of his soules health must consider that much resteth here in the good choyce of a skilfull physician but much more in the paines that must be taken by the patient himselfe For that every one who beareth the name of a Priest is not fit to bee trusted with a matter of this moment their owne Decrees may give them faire warning where this admonition is twise laid down out of the author that wrote of true and false repentance Hee who will confesse his sinnes that he may finde grace let him seeke for a Priest that knoweth how to binde and loose least while he is negligent concerning himselfe he be neglected by him vvho mercifully admonisheth and desireth him that both fall not into the pit which the foole would not avoid And when the skilfullest Priest that is hath done his best S. Cyprian will tell them that to him that repenteth to him that worketh to him that prayeth the Lord of his mercie can grant a pardon hee can make good that which for such men eyther the Martyrs shall request or the Priest shall doe If we inquire who they were that first assumed unto themselves this exorbitant power of forgiving sins we are like to finde them in the Tents of the ancient hereticks and schismaticks who promised unto others libertie when they themselves were the servants of corruption How manie saith S. Hierom which have neyther bread nor apparell when they themselves are hungry and naked and neyther have spirituall meates nor preserve the coate of Christ intire yet promise unto others food and rayment and being full of wounds themselves bragge that they be physicians and doe not observe that of Moses Exod. 4.13 Provide another vvhom thou mayest send that other commandement Ecclesiastic 7.6 Doe not seeke to be made a Iudge lest peradventure thou be not able to take away iniquitie It is Iesus alone who healeth all sicknesses and infirmities of vvhom it is written Psalm 147.4 He healeth the contrite in heart and bindeth up their soares Thus farre S. Hierom. The Rhemists in their marginall note upon Luke 7.49 tell us that as the Pharisees did alwayes carp Christ for remission of sinnes in earth so the Hereticks reprehend his Church that remitteth sinnes by his authoritie But S. Augustin treating upon the selfe same place might have taught them that hereby the bewrayed themselves to be the off spring of Hereticks rather then children of the Church For whereas our Saviour there had said unto the penitent woman Thy sinnes are forgiven and they that sate at meate with him began to say within themselves Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also S. Augustin first compareth their knowledge and the knowledge of the woman thus together Shee knew that hee could forgive sinnes but they knew that a man could not forgive sinnes And wee are to beleeve that all that is both they which sat at table and the woman which came to our Lords feet they all knew that a man could not forgive sinnes Seeing all therefore knew this shee who beleeved that hee could forgive sinnes understood him to be more then a man and a little after That doe you know well that doe you hold well saith that learned Father Hold that a man cannot forgive sinnes Shee who beleeved that her sinnes were forgiven her by Christ beleeved that Christ was not only man but God also Then doth hee proceede to compare the knowledge of the Iewes then with the opinion of the Heretickes in his dayes Herein saith he the Pharisee was better then these men for when he did thinke that Christ was a man he did not beleeve that sinnes could be forgiven by a man It appeared therefore that the Iewes had better understanding then the Hereticks The Iewes said Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also Dare a man challenge this to himselfe What saith the Heretick on the other side I do forgive I doe cleanse I doe sanctifie Let Christ answer him not I O man when I was thought by the Iewes to bee a man I ascribed the forgivenesse of sinnes to faith Not I but Christ doth answer thee O Heretick Thou when thou art but a man sayest Come woman I doe make the safe I when I was thought to be but a man said Goe woman thy faith hath made thee safe The Hereticks at whom S. Augustin here aymeth were the Donatists whom Optatus also before him did thus roundly take up for the same presumption Vnderstand at length that you are servants and not Lords And if the Church be a vineyard and men be appointed to be dressers of it why doe you rush into the dominion of the housholder Why doe you challenge unto your selves that which is Gods Give leave unto God to performe the things that belong unto himselfe For that gift cannot be given by man which is divine If you think so you labour to frustrate the words of the Prophets the promises of God by which it is proved that God washeth away sinne and not man It is noted likewise by Theodoret of the Audian hereticks that they bragged they did forgive sinnes The maner of Confession which he saith was used among them was not much unlike that which Alvarus Pelagius acknowledgeth to have beene the usuall practise of them that made greatest profession of religion and learning in his time For scarce at all saith hee or very seldome doth any of them confesse otherwise then in generall termes scarce doe they ever specifie any grievous sinne What they say one day that they say another as if every day they did offend alike The maner of Absolution was the same with that which Theodoricus de Niem noteth to have beene practised by the pardoners sent abroad by Pope Boniface the ninth who released all sinnes to them that confessed without any penance or repentance affirming that they had for their warrant in so doing all that power which Christ gave unto
sinnes was so proper to God that it could not be communicated unto man and that true beleevers referre this to the increase of Gods honour which miscreant Iewes and Hereticks doe accompt blasphemie against God and injurious to his Majestie whereas in truth the faithlesnesse of the Iewes consisted in the application of this sentence unto our Saviour Christ whom they did not acknowledge to be God as the senslesness of these Romanists in denying of the axiom it selfe But the world is come unto a good passe when we must be accounted hereticks now adayes and consorted with miscreant Iewes for holding the selfe same thing that the Fathers of the ancient Church delivered as a most certain truth whensoever they had anie occasion to treate of this part of the historie of the Gospel Old Irenaeus telleth us that our Saviour in this place forgiving sinnes did both cure the man and manifestly discover who he was For if none saith hee can forgive sinnes but God alone and our Lord did forgive them and cured men it is manifest that he was the Word of God made the Sonne of man and that as man hee is touched with compassion of us as God he hath mercy on us and forgiveth us our debts which we doe owe unto God our maker Tertullian saith that when the Iewes beholding onely his humanitie and not being yet certaine of his Deitie did deservedly reason that a man could not forgive sinnes but God alone he by answering of them that the Sonne of man had authoritie to forgive sinnes would by this remission of sinnes have them call to minde that he was that onely sonne of man prophesied of in Daniel who received power of judging and thereby also of forgiving sinnes Dan. 7.13 14. S. Hilary commenting upon the ninth of Matthew writeth thus It moveth the Scribes that sinne should be forgiven by a man For they beheld a man onely in Iesus Christ and that to be forgiven by him which the law could not release For it is faith onely that justifieth Afterward the Lord looketh into their murmuring and saith that it is an easie thing for the Sonne of man upon earth to forgive sinnes For it is true none can forgive sinnes but God alone therefore hee who remitteth is God because none remitteth but God God remayning in man performed this cure upon man S. Hierom thus We reade that God saith in the Prophet I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities Consequently therefore the Scribes because they thought him to be a man and did not understand the words of God accuse him of blasphemy But the Lord seeing their thoughts sheweth himselfe to be God who is able to know the secrets of the heart and holding his peace after a sort speaketh By the same majestie and power vvherewith I behold your thoughts I am able also to forgive sinnes unto men or as Euthymius expresseth it in his commentaries upon the same place In truth none can forgive sinnes but one who beholdeth the thoughts of men S. Chrysostome likewise in his Sermons upon the same sheweth that Christ here declared himselfe to be God equall unto the Father and that if he had not beene equall unto the Father he would have said Why doe you attribute unto me an unfitting opinion I am farre from that power To the same effect also writeth Christianus Druthmarus Paschasius Ratbertus and Walafridus Strabus in the ordinarie Glosse upon the same place of S. Matthew Victor Antiochenus upon the second of Mark Theophylact and Bede upon the second of Mark and the fifth of Luke S. Ambrose upon the fifth of Luke who in another place also bringeth this sentence of the Scribes as a ground to prove the deitie of the holy Ghost withall forasmuch as none forgiveth sinnes but one God because it is written Who can forgive sins but God alone as S. Cyril doth to prove the deitie of the Sonne For this onely saith he did the malice of the Iewes say truely that none can forgive sinnes but God alone who is the Lord of the law and thence he frameth this argument If he alone who is the Lord of all doth free us from our sins and this agreeeth to no other and Christ bestoweth this with a power befitting God how should he not be God The same argument also is used by Novatianus and Athanasius to the selfe same purpose For if when it agreeth unto none but unto God to know the secrets of the heart Christ doth behold the secrets of the heart if when it agreeth unto none but unto God to forgive sinnes the same Christ doth forgive sinnes then deservedly is Christ to be accounted God saith Novatianus So Athanasius demandeth of the Arrians if the Sonne were a creature how was he able to forgive sinnes it being written in the Prophets that this is the work of God For who is a God like unto thee that taketh away sinnes and passeth over iniquities But the sonne saith hee said unto whom he would Thy sinnes are forgiven thee when the Iewes murmuring also he demonstrated this forgivenesse in deed saying to the man that was sicke of the palsie Arise take up thy bedd and goe unto thine house And therefore Bede rightly inferreth that the Arrians doe erre here much more madly then the Iewes vvho when they dare not denie being convicted by the words of the Gospell that Iesus is both the Christ and hath power to forgive sinnes yet feare not for all that to denie him to be God and concludeth himselfe most soundly that if he be God according to the Psalmist who removeth our iniquities from us as farr as the East is from the West and the sonne of man hath power upon earth to forgive sinnes therefore the same is both God and the sonne of man that the man Christ by the power of his divinitie might forgive sinnes and the same Christ God by the frailtie of his humanitie might dye for sinners Whereunto wee will adde another sweete passage of his borrowed from some ancienter author No man taketh away sinnes which the Law although holy and just and good could not take away but he in whom there is no sinne Now hee taketh them away both by pardoning those that are done and by assisting us that they may not be done by bringing us to the life where they cannot at all be done Peter Lombard alledgeth this as the saying of S. Augustine the former sentence only being thus changed None taketh away sinnes but Christ alone vvho is the Lamb that taketh away the sinnes of the world agreeable to that which in the same place he citeth out of S. Ambrose He alone forgiveth sinnes who alone dyed for our sinnes and to that of Clemens Alexandrinus He alone can remit sinnes who is appointed our Master by the father of all who alone is able to discerne disobedience from obedience to which
Lord their God and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just by giving knowledge of salvation to Gods people unto the remission of their sins Not because he had properly anie power given him to turne mens hearts and to worke faith and repentance for forgivenesse of sinnes when and where he thought good but because he was trusted with the ministerie of the word of Gods grace which is able to convert and quicken mens soules and to give them an inheritance among all them which are sanctified by the powerfull application of which word he who converteth the sinner from the errour of his way is said to save a soule from death and to hide a multitude of sinnes For howsoever in true proprietie the covering of sinnes the saving from death and turning of men from their iniquities is a priviledge peculiar to the Lord our God unto whom alone it appertayneth to reconcile the world to himselfe by not imputing their sinnes unto them yet inasmuch as he hath committed unto his ambassadors the word of reconciliation they in performing that worke of their ministerie may be as rightly said to be imployed in reconciling men unto God and procuring remission of their sinnes as they are said to deliver a man from going downe into the pit when they declare unto him his righteousnesse and to save their hearers when they preach unto them the Gospel by which they are saved For as the word it selfe which they speake is said to be their word which yet is in truth the word of God so the worke which is effectually wrought by that word in them that beleeve is said to be their worke though in truth it be the proper worke of God And as they that beleeve by their word are said to be their Epistle 2. Cor. 3.2 that is to say the Epistle of Christ ministred by them as it is expounded in the verse following in like maner forgivenesse of sinnes and those other great graces that appertaine to the beleevers may be said to be their worke that is to say the worke of Christ ministred by them For in verie deed as Optatus speaketh in the matter of Baptisme not the minister but the faith of the beleever and the Trinitie doe bring these things unto every man And where the preaching of the Gospel doth prove the power of God unto salvation onely the weakenesse of the externall ministerie must be ascribed to men but the excellency of the power must ever be acknowledged to be of God and not of them neyther he that planteth being here any thing neyther he that watereth but God that giveth the increase For howsoever in respect of the former such as take paines in the Lords husbandry may be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle termeth them labourers together with God though that little peece of service it selfe also bee not performed by their owne strength but according to the grace of God which is given unto them yet that which followeth of giving the increase God effecteth not by them but by himselfe This saith S. Augustin exceedeth the lowlinesse of man this exceedeth the sublimitie of Angels neither appertayneth unto anie but unto the husbandman the Trinity Now as the Spirit of God doth not onely woâ—ke diversities of graces in us distributing to every man severally as he will but also maketh us to know the things that are freely given to us of God so the ministers of the New Testament being made able ministers of the same spirit are not onely ordayned to be Gods instruments to worke faith and repentance in men for the obtayning of remission of sinnes but also to declare Gods pleasure unto such as beleeve and repent and in his name to certifie them and give assurance to their consciences that their sinnes are forgiven they having received this ministerie of the Lord Iesus to testifie the Gospell of the grace of God and so by their function being appointed to be witnesses rather then conferrers of that grace For it is here with them in the loosing part as it is in the binding part of their ministerie where they are brought in like unto those seuen Angels in the book of the Revelation which powre out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth having vengeance ready against all disobedience and a charge from God to cast men out of his sigâ—t not because they are properly the avengers for that title God challengeth unto himselfe or that vengeance did anie way appertaine unto them for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord but because they were the denouncers not the inflicters of this vengeance So though it be the Lord that speaketh concerning a nation to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy or on the other side to build and to plant it yet he in whose mouth God put those words of his is said to be set by him over the nations and over the kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe to build and to plant as if he himselfe were a doer of those great matters who was onely ordeyned to be a Prophet unto the nations to speake the things unto them which God had commanded him Thus likewise in the thirteenth of Leviticus where the Lawes are set downe that concerne the leprosie which was a type of the pollution of sinne wee meet often with these speeches The Priest shall cleanse him and The Priest shall pollute him and in the 44. verse The Priest with pollution shall pollute him not saith S. Hierome that he is the author of the pollution but that he declareth him to be polluted who before did seeme unto many to have beene cleane Whereupon the Master of the Sentences following herein S. Hierome and being afterwards therein followed himselfe by manie others observeth that in remitting or retayning sinnes the Priests of the Gospell have that right and office which the legall Priests had of old under the Law in curing of the lepers These therefore saith hee forgive sinnes or retaine them whiles they shew and declare that they are forgiven or retayned by God For the Priests put the name of the Lord upon the children of Israel but it was he himselfe that blessed them as it is read in Numbers The place that he hath referrence unto is in the sixth chapter of that booke where the Priests are commanded to blesse the people by saying unto them The Lord blesse thee c. and then it followeth in the last verse of that chapter So they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel and I will blesse them Neyther doe we grant hereupon as the Adversarie falsely chargeth us that a lay-man yea or a woman or a childe or any infidell or the Divell the Father of all
of the Greek Church I finde the absolution expressed in the third person as attributed wholly to God and not in the first as if it came from the Priest himselfe One ancient forme of Absolution used among the Latins was this Almighty God be mercifull unto thee and forgive thee all thy sinnes past present and to come visible and invisible which thou hast committed before him and his Saints which thou hast confessed or by some negligence or forgetfulnesse or evill vvill hast concealed God deliver thee from all evill here and hereafter preserve and confirme thee alwayes in everie good worke and Christ the sonne of the living God bring thee unto the life which remayneth without end And so among the Grecians whatsoever sinnes the penitent for forgetfulnes or shamefastnesse doth leave unconfessed we pray the mercifull and most pitifull God that those also may be pardoned unto him and we are perswaded that hee shall receive pardon of them from God saith Ieremy the late Patriarch of Constantinople Where by the way you may observe no such necessitie to be here held of confessing everie knowne sinne unto a Priest that if either for shame or for some other respect the penitent doe not make an intire confession but conceale somewhat from the notice of his ghostly father his confession should thereby be made voyde and hee excluded from all hope of forgivenesse which is that engine whereby the Priests of Rome have lift up themselves into that height of domineering and tyrannizing over mens conscience wherewith we see they now hold the poore people in most miserable awe Alexander of Hales and Bonaventure in the forme of absolution used in their time observe that prayer was premised in the optative and absolution adjoyned afterward in the indicative mood whence they gather that the Priests prayer obtayneth grace his absolution presupposeth it that by the former he ascendeth unto God and procureth pardon for the fault by the later he descendeth to the sinner and reconcileth him to the Church for although a man be loosed before God saith the Master of the Sentences yet is he not held loosed in the face of the Church but by the judgement of the Priest And this loosing of men by the judgement of the Priest is by the Fathers generally accounted nothing else but a restoring of them to the peace of the Church and an admitting of them to the Lords table againe which therefore they usually expresse by the termes of bringing them to the communion reconciling them to or with the communion restoring the communion to them admitting them to fellowship granting them peace c. Neyther doe we finde that they did ever use anie such formall absolution as this I absolve thee from all thy sinnes wherein our Popish Priests notwithstanding doe place the verie forme of their late devised sacrament of Penance nay hold it to be so absolute a forme that according to Thomas Aquinas his new divinitie it would not be sufficient to say Almightie God have mercie upon thee or God grant unto thee absolution and forgivenesse because forsooth the Priest by these vvords doth not signifie that the absolution is done but intreateth that it may be done which how it will accord with the Romane Pontificall where the forme of Absolution is layd downe prayer-wise the Iesuites who follow Thomas may doe well to consider I passe this over that in the dayes not onely of S. Cyprian but of Alcuinus also who lived 800. yeares after Christ the reconciliation of Penitents was not held to be such a proper office of the Priest but that a Deacon in his absence was allowed to performe the same The ordinarie course that was held herein according to the forme of the ancient Canons is thus layde down by the fathers of the third Councell of Toledo that the Priest should first suspend him that repented of his fault from the communion and make him to have often recourse unto imposition of hands among the rest of the penitents then when hee had fulfilled the time of his satisfaction as the consideration of the Priest did approve of it he should restore him to the communion And this was a Constitution of old fathered upon the Apostles that Bishops should separate those vvho said they repented of their sinnes for a time determined according to the proportion of their sinne and afterward receive them being penitent as fathers would do their children To this Penitential excommunication and absolution belongeth that saying eyther of S. Ambrose or S. Augustin for the same discourse is attributed to them both Hee who hath truely performed his repentance and is loosed from that bond wherewith he was tyed and separated from the body of Christ and doth live well after his repentance whensoever after his reconciliation he shall depart this life he goeth to the Lord he goeth to rest he shall not be deprived of the kingdome of God and from the people of the Divell he shall be separated and that which we reade in Anastasius Sinaita Binde him and till thou hast appeased God doe not let him loose that he be not more bound with the wrath of God for if thou bindest him not there remaine bonds for him that cannot be broken Neither doe we enquire whither the wound were often bound but whither the binding hath profited If it have profited although in a short time use it no longer Let the measure of the loosing be the profit of him that is bound and that exhortation which another maketh unto the Pastors of the Church Binde with separation such as have sinned after baptisme and loose them againe when they have repented receiving them as brethren for the saying is true Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven That this authoritie of loosing remaineth still in the Church wee constantly maintaine against the heresie of the Montanists and Novatians who upon this pretence among others that God onely had power to remit sinnes took away the ministeriall power of reconciling such penitents as had committed haynous sinnes denying that the Church had anie warrant to receive them to her communion againe and to the participation of the holy mysteries notwithstanding their repentance were ever so sound Which is directly contrarie to the doctrine delivered by S. Paul both in the generall that if a man be overtaken in a fault they who are spirituall should restore such a one in the spirit of meekenesse and in the particular of the incestuous Corinthian who though hee had beene excommunicated for such a crime as was not so much as named amongst the Gentiles yet upon his repentance the Apostle telleth the Church that they ought to forgive him and comfort him lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow Where that speech of his is specially noted and pressed against the hereticks by S. Ambrose To whom
yee forgive anie thing I forgive also for if I forgave anie thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ. For as in the name and by the power of our Lord Iesus such a one was delivered to Satan so God having given unto him repentance to recover himselfe out of the snare of the Divell in the same name and in the same power was hee to be restored againe the ministers of reconciliation standing in Christs stead and Christ himselfe being in the mids of them that are thus gathered together in his name to binde or loose in heaven whatsoever they according to his commission shall binde or loose on earth And here it is to be noted that Anastasius by some called Nicaenus by others Sinaita and Antiochenus who is so eager against them which say that Confession made unto men profiteth nothing at all confesseth yet that the minister in hearing the confession and instructing and correcting the sinner doth but give furtherance onely thereby unto his repentance but that the pardoning of the sinne is the proper worke of God For man saith he cooperateth with man unto repentance and ministreth and buildeth and instructeth and reproveth in things belonging unto salvation according to the Apostle and the Prophet but God blotteth out the sinnes of those that have confessed saying I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities for mine owne sake and thy sinnes and will not remember them There followeth now another part of the ministery of reconciliation consisting in the due administration of the Sacraments which being the proper seales of the promises of the Gospell as the Censures are of the threats must therefore necessarily also have reference to the remission of sinnes And so we see the ancient Fathers doe hold that the commission Ioh. 20.23 Whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted unto them c. is executed by the ministers of Christ aswell in the conferring of Baptisme as in the reconciling of Penitents yet so in both these and in all the sacraments likewise of both the Testaments that the ministerie onely is to be accounted mans but the power Gods For as S. Augustin well observeth it is one thing to baptize by way of ministerie another thing to baptize by vvay of power the power of baptizing the Lord retayneth to himselfe the ministerie hee hath given to his servants the power of the Lords Baptisme was to passe from the Lord to no man but the ministery was the power was to be transferred from the Lord unto none of his ministers the ministery was both unto the good and unto the bad And the reason which hee assigneth hereof is verie good that the hope of the baptized might be in him by whom they did acknowledge themselves to have beene baptized The Lord therefore would not have a servant to put his hope in a servant And therefore those Schoolemen argued not much amisse that gathered this conclusion thence It is a matter of equall power to baptize inwardly and to absolve from mortall sinne But it vvas not fit that God should communicate the power of baptizing inwardly unto any lest our hope should be reposed in man Therefore by the same reason it was not fit that hee should communicate the power of absolving from actuall sinne unto any So Bernard or whosoever was the author of the booke intituled Scala Paradisi The office of baptizing the Lord granted unto many but the power and authoritie of remitting sinnes in baptisme he retayned unto himselfe alone whence Iohn by vvay of singularitie and differencing said of him He it is which baptizeth with the holy Ghost And the Baptist indeed doth make a singular difference betwixt the conferrer of the externall and the internall baptisme in saying I baptize with water but it is hee which baptizeth with the holy Ghost While Iohn did his service God did give who fayleth not in giving and now when all others doe their service the service is mans but the gift is Gods saith Optatus and Arnaldus Bonaevallensis the author of the twelve treatises de Cardinalibus operibus Christi falsely ascribed to S. Cyprian touching the Sacraments in generall Forgivenesse of sinnes whether it be given by Baptisme or by other sacraments is properly of the holy Ghost and the priviledge of effecting this remayneth to him alone But the word of reconciliation is it wherein the Apostle doth especially place that ministerie of reconciliation which the Lord hath committed to his Ambassadors here upon earth This is that key of knowledge which doth both open the conscience to the confession of sinne and include therein the grace of the healthfull mysterie unto eternitie as Maximus Taurinensis speaketh of it This is that powerfull meanes which God hath sanctified for the washing away of the pollution of our soules Now ye are cleane saith our Saviour to his Apostles through the word which I have spoken unto you And whereas everie transgressor is holden with the cords of his owne sinnes the Apostles according to the commission given unto them by their Master that whatsoever they should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven did loose those cords by the word of God and the testimonies of the Scriptures and exhortation unto vertues as saith S. Hierome Thus likewise doth S. Ambrose note that sinnes are remitted by the word of God whereof the Levite was an interpreter and a kinde of an executer in that respect concludeth that the Levite was a minister of this remission As the Iewish Scribes therefore by taking away the key of knowledge did shut up the kingdom of heaven against men so every Scribe which is instructed unto the kingdome of heaven by opening unto his hearers the doore of faith doth as it were unlock that kingdome unto them being the instrument of God herein to open mens eyes and to turne them from darkenesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ. And here are we to understand that the ministers of Christ by applying the word of God unto the consciences of men both in publick and in private doe discharge that part of their function which concerneth forgivenesse of sinnes partly operatively partly declaratively Operatively inasmuch as God is pleased to use their preaching of the Gospell as a meanes of conferring his spirit upon the sonnes of men of begetting them in Christ and of working faith and repentance in them whereby the remission of sinnes is obtayned Thus Iohn preaching the Baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes and teaching the people that they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus is said to turne manie of the children of Israel to the
Peter of binding and loosing upon earth just as Theodoret reporteth the Audians were wont to doe who presently after confession graunted remission not prescribing a time for repentance as the lawes of the Church did require but giving pardon by authoritie The lawes of the Church prescribed a certaine time unto Penitents wherein they should give proofe of the soundnesse of their repentance and gave order that afterwards they should be forgiven and comforted lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch heavinesse So that first their penance was injoyned unto them and thereby they were held to be bound after performance whereof they received their absolution by which they were loosed againe But the Audian hereticks without anie such triall taken of their repentance did of their owne heads give them absolution presently upon their confession as the Popish Priests use to doe now a dayes Onely the Audians had one ridiculous ceremonie more then the Papists that having placed the Canonicall bookes of Scripture upon one side and certaine Apocryphall writings on the other they caused their followers to passe betwixt them and in their passing to make confession of their sinnes as the Papists another idle practise more then they that after they have given absolution they injoyne penance to the partie absolved that is to say as they of old would have interpreted it they first loose him and presently after binde him which howsoever they hold to be done in respect of the temporall punishment remayning due after the remission of the fault yet it appeareth plainly that the penitentiall workes required in the ancient Church had reference to the fault it selfe and that no absolution was to be expected from the Minister for the one before all reckonings were ended for the other Onely where the danger of death was imminent the case admitted some exception reconciâ—iation being not denied indeed unto them that desired it at such a time yet so granted that it was left verie doubtfull whether it would stand the parties in anie great stead or no. If any one being in the last extremitie of his sicknesse saith S. Augustin is willing to receive penance and â—oth receive it and is presently reconciled and departeth hence I confesse unto you wee doe not denie him that which hee asketh but wee doe not presume that he goeth well from hence I doe not presume I deceive you not I doe not presume Hee who putteth off his penance to the last and is reconciled whether hee goeth secure from hence I am not secure Penance I can give him securitie I cannot give him Doe I say hee shall be damned I say not so But doe I say also he shall be freed No. What doest thou then say unto mee I know not I presume not I promise not I know not Wilt thou free thy selfe of the doubt wilt thou escape that which is uncertaine Doe thy penance while thou art in health The penance which is asked for by the infirme man is infirme The penance which is asked for onely by him that is a dying I feare lest it also dye But with the matter of penance we have not here to deale those formal absolutions and pardons of course immediately granted upon the hearing of mens confessions is that which wee charge the Romish Priests to have learned from the Audian hereticks Some require penance to this end that they might presently have the communion restored unto them these men desire not so much to loose themselves as to binde the Priest saith S. Ambrose If this be true that the Priest doth binde himselfe by his hastie and unadvised loosing of others the case is like to go hard with our Popish Priests who ordinarily in bestowing their absolutions use to make more hast then good speed Wherein with how little judgement they proceed who thus take upon them the place of Iudges in mens consciences may sufficiently appeare by this that whereas the maine ground whereupon they would build the necessitie of Auricular confession and the particular enumeration of all knowne sinnes is pretended to be this that the ghostly Father having taken notice of the cause may judge righteous judgement and discerne who should be bound and who should be loosed the matter yet is so carried in this court of theirs that everie man commonly goeth away with his absolution and all sorts of people usually receive one and the selfe same iudgement If thou seperate the pretious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth saith the Lord. Whose mouth then may we hold them to be who seldome put anie difference betweene these and make it their ordinarie practise to pronounce the same sentence of absolution aswell upon the one as upon the other If we would know how late it was before this trade of pardoning mens sinnes after this maner was established in the Church of Rome wee cannot discover this better then by tracing out the doctrine publickly taught in that Church touching this matter from the time of Satans loosing untill his binding againe by the restoring of the puritie of the Gospell in our dayes And here Radulphus Ardens doth in the first place offer himselfe who toward the beginning of that time preached this for sound divinitie The power of releasing sinnes belongeth to God alone But the ministery which improperly also is called a power hee hath granted unto his substitutes who after their maner doe binde and absolve that is to say doe declare that men are bound or absolved For God doth first inwardly absolve the sinner by compunction and then the Priest outwardly by giving the sentence doth declare that he is absolved Which is well signified by that of Lazarus who first in the grave was raysed up by the Lord and afterward by the ministery of the disciples was loosed from the bands wherewith he was tyed Then follow both the Anselmes ours of Canterbury and the other of Laon in France who in their expositions upon the ninth of S. Matthew cleerely teach that none but God alone can forgive sinnes Ivo Bishop of Chartres writeth that by inward contrition the inward judge is satisfied and therefore without delay forgivenesse of the sinne is granted by him unto whom the inward conversion is manifest but the Church because it knoweth not the hidden things of the heart doth not loose him that is bound although he be raysed up untill hee be brought out of the tombe that is to say purged by publick satisfaction and if presently upon the inward conversion God be pleased to forgive the sinne the absolution of the Priest which followeth cannot in anie sort properly be accounted a remission of that sinne but a further manifestation onely of the remission formerly granted by God himselfe The Master of the Sentences after him having propounded the diverse opinions of the Doctors touching this point demandeth at last In this so great varietie what is to be held and returneth for
granted to the faithfull and punishment to the unfaithfull Wee are not to put on black mourning garments here when our friends there have put on white This is not a going out but a passage and this temporall journey being finished a going over to eternitie Let us therefore embrace the day that bringeth every one to his owne house which having taken us away from hence and loosed us from the snares of this world returneth us to Paradise and to the kingdome of heaven The same holy Father in his Apologie which hee wrote for Christians unto Demetrian the proconsul of Africk affirmeth in like maner that the end of this temporall life being accomplished we are divided into the habitations of everlasting eyther death or immortalitie When we are once departed from hence there is now no farther place for repentance neyther any effect of satisfaction here life is eyther lost or obtayned But if thou saith he even at the very end and setting of thy temporall life dost pray for thy sinnes and call upon the onely true God with confession and faith pardon is given to thee confessing and saving forgivenesse is granted by the divine piety to thee beleeving and at thy very death thou hast a passage unto immortalitie This grace doth Christ impart this gift of his mercy doth he bestow by subduing death with the triumph of his crosse by redeeming the beleever with the price of his blood by reconciling man unto God the Father by quickening him that is mortall with heavenly regeneration Where Salomon sayeth Ecclesiast 12.5 that man goeth to his everlasting house and the mourners goe about in the street S. Gregory of Neocaesarea maketh this paraphrase upon those words The good man shall goe rejoycing unto his everlasting house but the wicked shall fill all with lamentations Therefore did the Fathers teach that men should rejoyce at their death and the ancient Christians framed their practise accordingly not celebrating the day of their nativitie which they accounted to be the entry of sorrowes and temptations but celebrating the day of death as being the putting away of all sorrowes and the escaping of all temptations And so being filled with a divine rejoycing they came to the extremitie of death as vnto the end of their holy combates where they did more clearely behold the way that ledd unto their immortalitie as being now made neerer and did therefore prayse the gifts of God and were replenished with divine joy as now not fearing any change to worse but knowing well that the good things which they possessed shall be firmely and everlastingly enjoyed by them The author of the Questions and Answeres attributed to Iustin Martyr writeth thus of this matter After the departure of the soule out of the body there is presently made a distinction betwixt the just and the unjust For they are brought by the Angels to places fit for them the soules of the righteous to Paradise vvhere they have the commerce and sight of Angels and Archangels c. the soules of the unjust to the places in hell That is not death saith Athanasius that befalleth the righteous but a translation for they are translated out of this world into everlasting rest and as a man would goe out of a prison so doe the Saints goe out of this troublesome life unto those good things that are prepared for them S. Hilary out of that which is related in the Gospell of the rich man and Lazarus observeth that as soone as this life is ended everie one without delay is sent over either to Abrahams bosome or to the place of torment and in that state reserved untill the day of judgement S. Ambrose in his booke of the good of Death teacheth us that death is a certaine haven to them who being tossed in the great Sea of this life desire a rode of safe quietnesse that it maketh not a mans state worse but such as in findeth in every one such it reserveth unto the future judgement and refresheth with rest that thereby a passage is made from corruption to incorruption from mortalitie to immortalitie from trouble to tranquillity Therefore he saith that where fooles doe feare death as the chiefe of evills wise men do desire it as a rest after labours and an end of their evills and upon these grounds exhorteth us that when that day commeth wee should goe without feare to Iesus our redeemer without feare to the Councell of the Patriarches without feare to Abraham our father that without feare wee should addresse our selves unto that assembly of Saints and congregation of the righteous forasmuch as we shall goe to our fathers we shall goe to those schoolemasters of our faith that albeit our workes fayle us yet faith may succour us and our title of inheritance defend us Macarius writing of the double state of those that depart out of this life affirmeth that when the soule goeth out of the bodie if it be guiltie of sinne the Divell carrieth it away with him unto his place but when the holy servants of God remove out of their bodie the quyers of Angells receive their soules unto their owne side unto the pure world and so bring them unto the Lord. and in another place moving the question concerning such as depart out of this world sustayning two persons in their soule to wit of sinne and of grace whither they shall go that are thus held by two parts hee maketh answere that thither they shall goe where they have their minde and affection setled For the Lord saith hee beholding thy minde that thou fightest and lovest him with thy whole soule separateth death from thy soule in one houre for this is not hard for him to doe and taketh thee into his owne bosome and unto light For he plucketh thee away in the minute of an houre from the mouth of darkenesse and presently translateth thee into his owne kingdome For God can easily doe all these things in the minute of an houre this provided only that thou bearest love unto him then which what can be more direct against the dreame of Popish Purgatorie This present world is the time of repentance the other of retribution this of working that of rewarding this of patient suffering that of receiving comfort saith S. Basil. Gregory Nazianzen in his funerall orations hath manie sayings to the same purpose being so farre from thinking of anie Purgatorie paynes prepared for men in the other world that hee plainely denieth that after the night of this present life there is any purging to be expected and therefore hee telleth us that it is better to be corrected and purged now than to be sent unto the torment there where the time of punishing is and not of purging S. Hierome comforteth Paula for the death of her daughter Blaesilla in this mater Let the dead be lamented but such a
labouâ—ed in vaine 1. Thessal 2.19 For what is our hope or joy or crowne of rejoycing are not even yee in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his comming 1. Pet. 1. â— Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation readie to be revealed in the last time 1. Corinth 5.5 That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Iâ—sus Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed unto the day of redemption Luk. 21.28 When these things beginne to come to passe then looke up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh 2. Timoth. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righâ—eousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and Luk. 14.14 Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just And that the Church in her Offices for the dead had speciall respect unto this time of the Resurrection appeareth plainly both by the portions of Scripture appointed to be read therein and by diverse particulars in the prayers themselves that manifestly discover this intention For there the ministers as the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy reporteth read those undoubted promises vvhich are recorded in the divine Scriptures of our holy ResurrectioÌ„ and then devoutly sang such of the sacred Psalmes as were of the same subject and argument And so accordingly in the Romane Missall the lessons ordained to be read for that time are taken from 1. Corinth 15. Behold I tell you a mysterie Wee shall all rise againe c. Ioh. 5. The houre commeth wherein all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life c. 1. Thessal 4. Brethren we would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleepe that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope Ioh. 11. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me although he were dead shall live 2. Maccab. 12. Iudas caused a sacrifice to be offered for the sinnes of the dead justly and religiously thinking of the Resurrection Ioh. 6. This is the will of my Father that sent me that every one that seeth the Sonne and beleeveth in him may have life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and lastly Apocal. 14. I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth now saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours for their workes follow them Wherewith the Sequence also doth agree beginning Dies irae dies illa Solvet saeclum in favillâ Teste David cum Sibyllâ and ending Lacrymosa dies illa Quâ resurget ex favillâ Iudicandus homo reus Huic ergo parce Deus Pie Iesu Domine Dona eis requiem Tertullian in his booke de Monogamiâ which hee wrote after hee had beene infected with the heresie of the Montanists speaking of the prayer of a widow for the soule of her deceased husband saith that she requesteth refreshing for him and a portion in the first resurrection Which seemeth to have some tang of the error of the Millenaries whereunto not Tertullian onely with his Prophet Montanus but Nepos also and Lactantius and diverse other Doctors of the Church did fall who misunderstanding the prophecie in the 20. of the Revelation imagined that there should be a first resurrection of the just that should raigne here a thousand yeares upon earth and after that a second resurrection of the wicked at the day of the general judgement Yet in a certaine Gotthicke Missall I meet with two severall exhortations made unto the people to pray after the selfe same forme the one that God would vouchsafe to place in the bosome of Abraham the soules of those that be at rest and admit them unto the part of the first resurrectioÌ„ the other which I find elsewhere also repeated in particular that he would place in rest the spirits of their friends which were gone before them in the Lords peace and rayse them up in the part of the first resurrection Which how it may be excused otherwise then by saying that at the generall resurrection the dead in Christ shall rise fiâ—st and then the wicked shall be raysed after them and by referring the first resurrection unto the resurrection of the just which shall be at that day I cannot well resolve For certaine it is that the first râ—surrection spoken of in the 20. chapter of the Revelation of S. Iohn is the resuâ—rection of the soule from the death of sinne and error in this world as the second is the resurrection of the bodie out of the dust of the earth in the world to come both whiâ—h be distinctly layd down by our Saviour in the fift chapter of the Gospell of S. Iohn the first in the 25. verse The houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live the second in the 28. and 29. Marveile not at this for the houre is comming in which all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation And to this generall resurrection and to the judgement of the last day had the Church relation in her prayers some patternes whereof it will not be amisse to exhibit here in these examples following Although the condition of death brought in upon mankinde doth make our hearts and mindes heavy yet by the gift of thy clemencie we are raised up with the hope of future immortalitie and being mindfull of eternall salvation are not afraid to sustaine the losse of this light For by the benefite of thy grace life is not taken away to the faithful but changed and the soules being freed from the prison of the body abhorre things mortall when they attaine unto things eternall Wherefore we beseech thee that thy servant N. being placed in the tabernacles of the blessed may rejoyce that he hath escaped the straytes of the flesh and in the desire of glorification expect with confidence the day of Iudgement Through Iesus Christ our Lord. whose holy passion we celebrate without doubt for immortall and well resting soules for them especially upon whom thou hast bestowed the grace of the second birth who by the example of the same Iesus Christ our Lord have begunne to be secure of the resurrection For thou vvho hast made the things that were not art able to repaire the things that were and hast given unto us evidences of the resurrection to come not onely by the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but also by the
scholies upon the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy wisheth us to marke that even before his time that doubt was questioned Among the questions wherein Dulcitius desired to be resolved by S. Augustin we finde this to be one Whether the offering that is made for the dead did avayle their soules any thing and that MANY did say to this that if herein any good were to be done after death how much rather should the soule it selfe obtaine ease for it selfe by it owne confessing of her sinnes there than that for the ease thereof an oblation should be procured by other men The like also is noted by Cyrill or rather Iohn Bishop of Ierusalem that he knew MANY who said thus What profite doth the soule get that goeth out of this world eyther with sinnes or not with sinnes if you make mention of it in prayer and by Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus Some doe doubt saying that the dead are not profited by the oblations that are made for them and long after them by Petrus Cluniacensis in his treatise against the followers of Peter Bruse in France That the good deeds of the living may profit the dead both these hereticks doe deny and some Catholicks also do seeme to doubt Nay in the West not the profite onely but the lawfulnesse also of these doings for the dead was called in question as partly may be collected by Boniface archbishop of Mentz his consulting with Pope Gregory about 730. yeares after the birth of our Saviour Whether it were lawfull to offer oblations for the dead which hee should have no reason to doe if no question had beene made thereof among the Germans and is plainly delivered by Hugo Etherianus about 1170. yeares after Christ in these words I know that many are deformed with vaine opinions thinking that the dead are not to be prayed for because that neither Christ nor the Apostles that succeeded him have intimated these things in the Scriptures But they are ignorant that there be many things and those exceeding necessary frequented by the holy Church the tradition whereof is not had in the Scriptures and yet they pertaine neverthelesse to the worship of God and obtaine great strength Whereby it may appeare that this practise wanted not opposition even then when in the Papacie it was advanced unto his greatest height And now is it high time that I should passe from this article unto the next following OF LIMBVS PATRVM And CHRISTS DESCENT INTO HELL HEre doth our Challenger undertake to prove against us not only that there is Limbus Patrum but that our Saviour also descended into Hell to deliver the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament because before his Passion none ever entred into Heaven That there was such a thing as Limbus Patrum I have heard it said but what it is now the Doctors varie yet agree all in this that Limbus it may well be but Limbus Patrum sure it is not Whether it were distinct from that place in which the infants that depart out of this life without baptisme are now beleeved to be received the Divines doe doubt neyther is there any thing to be rashly pronounced of so doubtfull a matter saith Maldonat the Iesuite The Dominican Friars that wrote against the Grecians at Constantinople in the yeare 1252 resolve that into this Limbus the holy Fathers before the comming of Christ did descend but now the children that depart vvithout baptisme are detained there so that in their iudgement that which was the Limbus of Fathers is now become the Limbus of Children The more common opinion is that these be two distinct places and that the one is appointed for unbaptized infants but the other now remayneth voide and so shall remaine that it may beare witnesse aswell of the justice as of the mercie of God If you demand how it came to be thus voyd emptied of the old inhabitants the answer is here given that our Saviour descended into Hell purposely â—o deliver from hence the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament But Hell is one thing I ween saith Tertullian and Abrahams bâ—some where the Fathers of the old Testament rested another neyther is it to be beleeved that the bosome of Abraham being the habitation of a secret kinde of rest was any part of Hell saith S. Augustin To say then that our Saviour descended into Hell to deliver the ancient Fathers of the old Testament out of Limbus Patrum would by this construction prove as strange a tale as if it had beene reported that Caesar made a voyage into Brittaine to set his friends at libertie in Greece Yea but before Christs Passion none ever entred into Heaven saith our Challenger The proposition that Cardinall Bellarmine taketh upon him to prove where he handleth this controversie is that the soules of the godly were not in Heaven before the Asâ—ension of Christ. Our Iesuite it seemeth considered here with himselfe that Christ had promised unto the penitent theefe upon the crosse that not before his ascension only but also before his resurrection even that day he should be with him in Paradise that is to say in the kingdome of heaven as the Cardinaâ—l himselfe doth prove both by the authoritie of S. Paul making Paradise and the third heaven to be the selfe same thing and by the testimony of the ancient expositors of the place This belike stuck somewhat in our Iesuites stomack who being loath to interpret this of his Limbus Patrum as others of that side had done and to maintaine that Paradise in stead of the third Heaven should signifie the third or the fourth Hell thought it best to shift the matter handsomely away by taking upon him to defend that not before Christs ascension least that of the Thiefe should crosse him but before his passion none ever entred into Heaven But if none before our Saviours Passion did ever enter into Heaven whither shall we say that Elias did enter The Scripture assureth us that he went up into heaven 2. Kings 2.11 of this Mattathias put his sonnes in mind upon his death-bedd that Elias being zealous and fervent for the law was taken up into heaven Elias and Moses both before the passion of Christ are described to be in glory Lazarus is carried by the Angells into a place of comfort and not of imprisonment in a word all the Fathers accounted themselves to be strangers and pilgrims in this earth seeking for a better countrey that is an heavenly as well as we doe and therefore having ended their pilgrimage they arrived at the country they sought for as well as wee They beleeved to be saved through the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ as well as we they lived by that faith as well as we they dyed in Christ as well as we they received remission of sinnes imputation of
462.463 edit Colon. An. 1589. in the Romane Sacerdotall part 1. tract 5. cap. 13. fol. 116. edit Venet. An. 1585. in the booke intituled Sacra institutio Baptizandi juxta ritum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae ex decreto Concilij Tridentini restituta c. printed at Paris in the yeere 1575. and in a like booke intituled Ordo Baptizandi cum Modo visitandi printed at Venice the same yeere out of which the Spanish Inquisitors as well in their New as in their Old Expurgatory Index the one set out by Cardinall Quiroga in the yeere 1584. the other by the Cardinall of Sandoval and Roxas in the yeere 1612. command these interrogatories to be blotted out Dost thou beleeve to come to glory not by thine owne merits but by the vertue and merit of the passion of our Lord Iesus Christ and Dost thou beleeve that our Lord Iesus Christ did die for our salvation and that none can be saved by his owne merits or by any other meanes but by the merit of his passion Whereby we may observe how late it is since our Romanists in this maine and most substantiall point which is the very foundation of all our comfort have most shamefully departed from the faith of their fore-fathers In other copies of this same Instruction which are followed by Cassander Vlenbergius and Cardinall Hosius himselfe the last question propounded to the sicke man is this Dost thou beleeve that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ Whereunto when he hath made answer affirmatively he is presently directed to make use thereof in this manner Goe too therefore as long as thy soule remaineth in thee place thy whole confidence in this death only have confidence in no other thing commit thy selfe wholly to this death with this alone cover thy selfe wholly intermingle thy selfe wholly in this death fasten thy selfe wholly wrap thy whole selfe in this death And if the Lord God will judge thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt mee and thy judgement no otherwise doe I contend with thee And if he say unto thee that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of the Lord Iesus Christ betwixt thee and my sinnes If he say unto thee that thou hast deserved damnation say Lord I set the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and my bad merits and I offer his merit in stead of the merit which I ought to have but yet have not If he say that he is angrie with thee say Lord I interpose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and thine anger Adde hereunto the following sentences of the Doctors of these latter ages We cannot suffer or bring in any thing worthy of the reward that shall be saith Oecumenius So Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bathe No trouble can be endured in this vitall death which is able equally to answer the joyes of heaven and Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury more fully before him If a man should serve God a thousand yeeres and that most fervently he should not deserve of condignitie to be halfe a day in the Kingdome of heaven Radulphus Ardens expounding those words of the Parable Matth. 20.13 Didst not thou agree with me for a peny Let no man out of these words saith he thinke that God is as it were tied by agreement to pay that which he hath promised For as God is free to promise so is he free to pay especially seeing as well merits as rewards are his grace For God doth crowne nothing else in us but his owne grace who if hee would deale strictly with us no man living should be justified in his sight Whereupon the Apostle who laboured more than all saith I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore this agreement is nothing else but Gods voluntary promise And doe not wonder saith he in another Sermon if I call the merits of the just graces for as the Apostle witnesseth we have nothing which we have not received from God and that freely But because by one grace we come unto another they are called merits but improperly For as Augustine witnesseth God crowneth only his owne grace in us So Rupertus Tuitiensis The greatnesse or the eternitie of the heavenly glorie is not a matter of merit but of grace The same doth Bernardus Morlanensis expresse in these rhythmicall verses of his Vrbs Sion inclyta patria condita littore tuto Te peto te colo te flagro te volo canto saluto Nec meritis peto nam meritis meto morte perire Nec reticens tego quòd meritis ego filius irae Vita quidem mea vita nimis rea mortua vita Quippe reatibus exitialibus obruta trita Spe tamen ambulo praemia postulo speque fideque Illa perennia postulo praemia nocte dieque But Bernard of Claraevalle aboue others delivereth this doctrine most sweetly It is necessary saith hee that first of all thou shouldest beleeve that thou canst not have remission of sinnes but by the mercie of God then that thou canst not at all have any whit of a good worke unlesse he likewise give it thee lastly that by no workes thou canst merit eternall life unlesse that also be freely given unto thee Otherwise if wee will properly name those which wee call our merits they be certaine seminaries of hope incitements of love signes of secret predestination foretokens of future happinesse the way to the kingdome not the cause of reigning Dangerous is the dwelling of them that trust in their merits dangerous because ruinous For this is the whole merit of man if hee put all his trust in him who saveth the whole man Therefore my merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as he is not poore in mercie and if the mercies of the Lord be many my merits also are many With which that passage of the Manuall falsly fathered upon S. Augustine doth accord so justly that the one appeareth to be plainly borrowed from the other All my hope is in the death of my Lord. His death is my merit my refuge my salvation life and resurrection My merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as that Lord of mercies shall not faile and as long as his mercies are much much am I in merits Neither are the testimonies of the Schoolemen wanting in this cause For where God is affirmed to give the kingdome of heaven for good merits or good works some made here a difference betwixt pro bonis meritis and propter bona merita The former they said did note a signe or a way or some occasion and in that sense they admitted the proposition But according to the latter expression they would not receive it because