mortal sins whether they be committed in mind heart will and cogitations only or in word and work with all the necessary circumstances and differences of the same 16. That this sacramental Confession as they call it must be made secretly to the Priest 17. That every Christian ought once in a year to present himself when he is come to years of discretion to the Priest and to make his confession to him viz. in time of Lent 18. This order and custom of Confession they hold to be a divine Ordinance no humane Tradition 19. That every one is to confess to his own Parish Priest 20 By this means Confessors will fearch into the secrets of the Marriage-bed Benedict Câ—nf s Toâ—et de Instituâ— Sacâ—rd Navaâ— Sanchez Burchaâ—d and enquire of things which ought not to be named under colour of examining the Consciences they play with libidinous interrogations and teach all kinds of vices you shall find there a thousand sorts of charms philters vices against Nature and meretricious tricks under colour of awaking benummed Consciences and bringing them to Confession Who so will understand some of that impure Science let him read the Book of Benedicts Confessions Cardinal Tolet of the Institution of Priests Navarrus Sanchez the Roman Penitential and the Decree of Burchard Bishop of Wormes By the same Confessions Priests discover the secrets of Kings know their weaknesses and learn their intentions of which they inform the Pope 21. By the same Confessions the Popes have usurped a power over the Temporals of Kings and over their persons imposing satisfactory Penances upon them after Confession and not granting them absolution but upon conditions burdensome to their Crowns and ignominious to their persons I pass by the sordid trick of taking twelve pence for a Confession It seems they hold it unreasonable that a man should forgive sins for nothing 22. Du Moulin One of the great abuses in this point is that the Papists put Confession among meritorious Works as if a Murtherer deserved recompences for freely confessing his crime By that reckoning it will prove an useful and a salutary course to commit a multitude of sins to get multitudes of merits by confessing them 23. It is also a rule of these Doctors that a sinner may confess part of his sins to one Confessor and part to another and so have from each of them a demi-absolution 24. They assert that it is not a sufficient satisfaction to believe that Christ hath abundantly satisfied for us neither yet is it enough to amend and correct our lives but God must also be satisfied for our sins by the punishment and chastisement of our selves as by affliction laid upon us by God or penance enjoined by God or by Praier Fasting Alms-deeds which we do take up for our selves 25. That satisfactory Works are not only profitable to the sufferers themselves but also for other their fellow-members in Christ and one may bear the burden and discharge the debt of another 26. Not only amendment and ceasing to sin or Repentance in heart before God is always enough to obtain full reconcilement but there must be outward penalty correction and chastisement besides 27. That Praier Fasting Alms are those satisfactory Works whereby we do satisfie God for the temporal punishment due to sin and besides these there are other Works which we are not bound unto as whipping beating of the body and the like 28. Three ways they say God is satisfied 1. By bearing patiently the punishment that God layeth upon us 2. By assuming voluntarily the laborious and painful works of penance 3. In willing undergoing the Sentence of the Priest in his penal injunctions 29. The satisfactory and meritorious Works of the Saints which do abound being communicable and applicable to the faithful that want are the very ground of the Indulgences and Pardons of the Church and the very treasure thereof and to be dispensed according to every mans need by the Pastors of the Church Here many blasphemies and untruths are couched together 1. That a mans penalties may be greater than his sins and so his abounding may supply another mans want 2. That the Church Governours may dispense the merits of one to another They say the contrary themselves that the abounding passions of the Saints are applicable to others by the sufferers intention Rhem. 1. Colos 2.2 Then not by the Churches dispensation 3. It is a great blasphemy that one may be holpen by anothers merits and it doth derogate from the truth of Christ whose only merits are the treasure of the Church And what a presumption is this that they dare to match the sufferings of Christ and of the Saints together 30. That by the censure of the Church imposed upon offenders they do not only satisfie the Church but God also and so consequently the Indulgence of the Church doth set them free from the guilt of the punishment of sin both before God and Men. Of the divers Kinds of Indulgences and the Profit of them BEllarmine rehearseth five kinds of Indulgences and justifieth them all 1. That there is an Indulgence of forty days which is a release of the penance which was to be done forty days 2. There is an Indulgence of the third or fourth part of their sins that is of the punishment due for so much of their sins 3. An Indulgence plenary was for the whole punishment and sometime Indulgences are granted for ten or twenty thousand years Tâ—en so many blasphemies and other sins as are by some committed every moment deserve many thousand years penance which notwithstanding by the sharpness of Purgatory-pain may be satisfied for in three or four hundred years 4. Indulgences are granted to some in their life-time to some in the point of death 5. Some are temporary for a time as limited to daies and years same are perpetual which are tied to places Churches Altars or to things moveable as to Rosaries Holy-grains c. 1. They hold that Indulgences are profitable to all whosoever not only to notorious and publick offenders but even to those that are tending to perfection 2. That the power of granting Indulgences doth rest only in the Pope as the Successor of Peter to whom Christ said Whatsoever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Matth. 16.19 2. That plenary Indulgences can only be granted by the Pope neither by Cardinals whose Indulgences exceed not an hundred daies neither by Bishops or Metropolitans who can grant Indulgences but for one year in the Dedication of Churches and for forty daies at other times nor yet by General Councils 3. Bishops receive this power to give Indulgences not immediately from God but from the Pope from whom also they receive their Jurisdiction and this is an argument thereof because the Pope may make void Indulgences granted by Bishops but so-can he not Orders or Sacraments ministred by them 4. That Parish-Pastors have no power to give Indulgences but by Commission from the Pope
or their Bishop because they are the Princes of the people of God to whom it belongeth to distribute the common Goods of the Church 5. That the power of Order is not necessary to give Indulgences but the power of Jurisdiction only and therefore the Pope or Bishop may grant Indulgences though they be not in Orders 6. Neither is this power of Indulgences lost by any deadly sin Of the Disposition required to be in them that receive Indulgences 1. THe Papists say that Indulgences Dâ— Willet Controv. may be granted to a sinner and for such works as are done while he is in the state of sin as if a sinful man do contribute toward the recovering of Jerusalem 2. Yet a man cannot perceive the fruit of such Indulgences unless he be in the state of Grace 3. If the good work enjoyned to be done be accompanied or joyned with venial sin it hindereth the fruit of Indulgence 4. That he that will receive benefit by these Indulgences must confess and be truly penitent 5. He cannot enjoy the Indulgence that doth not perform all the works that are enjoyned 6. That Indulgences may be profitable to those that will not though they can satisfie for themselves but do rest in the satisfaction of others How the Papists hold that Indulgences are profitable for the dead 1. THat the Praiers of the living and other works by way of impetration profit the dead ergo the same works being also satisfactory do also benefit them by way of satisfaction 2. That the faithful departed make one Body and one Church with the faithful living therefore say they the satisfactions of the living may be applied to the dead 3. As to the manner how Indulgences are applied to the dead some of them affirm that the Pope may judicially absolve the Souls in Purgatory and that they do belong unto his Jâ—â—â—â—diction and so he may extend 〈◊〉 indulgences to them as unto the living Some say that Indulgenâ—â—◠〈◊〉 profitable to the dead after 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ner of the suffrage of the Câ—â—â—â—â— as the Praiers of it do 〈◊〉 by way of merit impetration satisfaction so Indulgences are granted to the dead as they are satisfactory and so after the manner of a suffrage as it is satisfactory Some of them think that Indulgences do profit the dead of condignity and worthiness 4. They hold that Bishops and other inferiour Prelates cannot apply Indulgences to the dead but only the Pope 5. That Indulgences directly belong to the living indirectly to the dead no otherwise than as the living do perform the works enjoyned for the dead 6. That Indulgences do not profit the dead in common otherwise than as they rejoice one for anothers good but only those Souls are delivered thereby to whom they are particularly intended 7. That the Pope may release unto a man living the pain of Purgatory which otherwise he were subject unto But when the Papists have cast up their accounts they shall find that neither Purgatory nor Pardons will serve their turn their summa totalis will be Christ crucified As for Indulgences and Popes Pardons the antient Councils were never of Council with them the old Fathers never favoured nor so much as savoured them Their Errours concerning Fasting VVE are so far from condemning of Fasting which is so often recommended in Scripture and joyned with Praier that as Praier sanctifieth the Fast so the Fast may add heat unto Praier and bring down the insolency of the Flesh Sobriety preserveth Chastity bridleth Lust and is a help to Watchfulness Our complaint of the Roman Church about Fasting is 1. That she hath changed Fasting into a distinction of Meats They place their Fasts not in Sobriety or Temperance in Meat and Drink neither in a total abstaining from all Meat and Drink for a certain time which was used of the Antients but in abstinence from Flesh and white Meats 2. They put Fasting among Merits and Satisfactions of an exercise of Humility making an occasion of Pride 3. The Pope hath taken this occasion to raise his Empire to set a Rule to the Markets to the Kitchins to the Bellies reserving to himself the authority to dispence having to that effect multiplied fasting-Fasting-days to that number that they are more than one quarter of the year taking upon him to give Laws to the universal Church whereas in old time Bishops gave Orders every one in his Diocess without any dependance upon the Prelat of Rome as Doctor Du Moulin noteth 4. That of sins against Gods Law as Fornication Stealing and Lying the least Priests can give the Absolution but eating a bit of Flesh in the holy Week is a sin for which a man is sent to the Bishop or to the Penitentiary And they account that man to commit a more heinous crime who should taste Flesh upon the days forbidden than he that should be taken in Adultery or other wickedness And in Italy and Spain men are in greater danger for tasting Flesh upon the days inhibited than for committing capital crimes 5. In the Roman Church he that hath eaten his belly full of Fish is accounted to have fasted but he that for want of other meat hath eaten a little Flesh is thought to have violated the Fast 6. They lay a strait Yoke upon mens shoulders charging them under pain of damnation to keep their Fasting-days making it deadly sin yea Heresie to transgress them as one Lawrence Staple was persecuted anno 1531 because in Lent having no Fish he did eat Butter and Cheese 7. There are many Mockeries in their Popish Lent-fast 1. They permit most delicate Fishes to be eaten which are more dainty than any Veal or Mutton such as are Pikes Trouts Salmonds Gudgeons Lampreys Oysters c. These use to be Dainties many times in the more costly Banquets of rich men perhaps of Noble Personages The use of these and the drinking of choice Wines are a fit means forsooth to tame the Flesh 2. And that these Hypocrites may seem to fast till evening they sing their Even-song at Dinner-time that afterward they may freely banquet and take their repast as if God did not know the hour of the day but by their Service and Singing 3. In the evening they make a Collation so they call it with divers delicate Sawees Confections Spices Almonds and Wine and in the mean time they bear the World in hand that they fast notably 8. In the Roman Church one man fasteth for another as if a Judg ought to release a Fellon because his Brother hath not dined as a learned man noteth 9. That the Penances of Fasting imposed on a sinner are redeemed with Money and that corporal pains are changed into pecuniary 10. That this opens a wide Gate unto Traffique so far that the Book called the Taxation of the Apostolical Chancery puts a certain price to the Letters of such Dispensations in these Words That a Lay-man may not be obliged to fast upon the days to which he is
corruptions about Relicks viz. a superstitious confidence in the worship of true Relicks and a sacrilegious forging of false Relicks triumphant Wood they speak not to God which is not Wood Or if men speak to any thing in honour of God they must always understand that which is spoken to it Richard the first King of England redeemed from the Turks in Palestine a Chest full of holy Reliques which they had gotten at the taking of Jerusalem so great as four men could scarce carry any away And though saith my Author some know no more than Esops Cock how to prize these Pearls let them learn the true value of them from the Roman Jewellers First they must carefully distinguish between publick and private Reliques In private ones some forgery may be suspected lest quid be put for quo which made Saint Augustine put in that wary Parenthesis Si tamen Martyrum if so be they be the Reliques of Martyrs But as for publick ones approved by the Pope and kept in Churches such no doubt as these of King Richards were Oh let no Christian be such an infidel saith my Author as to stagger at the truth thereof If any object that the Head of the same Saint is shewed at several places the whole answer is by a Synechdoche that a part is put for the whole As for the common exception against the Cross that so many several pieces thereof are shewn which put together would break the back of Simon of Cyrene to bear them it is answered saith he Distrahitur non diminuitur and like the Loaves in the Gospel it is miraculously multiplied in the dividing If all these fail Baronius hath a Rasor that shaveth all scruple clear away Baron annal Eâ—cl in an 1226. For saith he Quicquid sit fides purgat facinuâ— So that he that worshippeth the false Reliques of a true Saint God takes his good intention in good part though he adore the hand of Esau for the hand of Jacob. But enough of these fooleries Now as for those true Reliques or Remembrances of the Saints they are not those which the Papists do so magnifie and superstitiously reverence not their old shooes not pieces of bones and the like but their holy instructions and examples which should be had in remembrance for our furtherance in the way of Godliness after their death And as for the Bones of Saints and such kind of Reliques of them I shall conclude with the words of King James If I had any such saith he that I were assured were members of their Bodies I would honourably bury them and not give them the reward of condemned mens members Premonit p. 9. which are ordained to be deprived of burial but for worshipping them or Images I must account it Idolatry Of the Vigils and night-watches annexed to festival-dayes THe Papists were wont upon Saints Eeves to give themselves to fasting and watching But their night-vigils or watches they do not now so strictly observe because of the great abuses which did grow thereupon yet they have not altogether left them for they have their nocturns or mid night mattens and their prime hours in the Morning It is true the Christians in time of persecution had their antelucanos hymnos their early Songs and Hymns before day-light they met together to worship God before the Sun arose because they could not assemble together in safety in the day-time But that is no reason why the Church now should use Vigils or Nocturns seeing we now have free exercise of religion in the day-time saith Dr. Willet no more than St. Pauls example is to be urged that prayed by the Rivers side with the people and there preached unto them because in idolatrous Cities they could have no places of meeting that therefore we now ought to do the like having Churches and Oratories to assemble in How well they kept their Vigils may appear by that Decree of Innocentius Decret Greg. lib. 3. tit 41. ca. 9. we speak it with grief that certain not only inferiour Priests but Prelats spend the time in eating and drinking till midnight c. Of their Wax-Candles and Tapers THey have another superstitious custom to set up Wax-Candles and Taper-light before Images and upon the Altar to carry them about in procession and even at mid-day and high-noon And Bellarmine would authorize this custom by the continual burning of the Lamps day and night as he saith in the Tabernacle among the Jews But the Lamps among the Jews who abounded in Types and Ceremonies were lighted in the evening and so burned all night for those that kept the Watch in the Temple 2 Chron. 13.1 and in the morning again they were put out 1 Sam. 3.3 And St. Hierome upon those words Before the Lamp of God went out thus writeth Intelligi oportet antequam lux diurna fieret it must be understood before it was day when the Lamp was put out Tertullian speaks against this use of Gentilism in burning Candles by day Let them set up Lights daily which have no Light saith he the testimony or sign of Darkness well agreeth unto them This then having been taken up by the Heathen is worse to be liked of than if it had been a Jewish Ceremony for it is a less fault to play the Jews than the Heathen The ancient Eliberine Synod in Spain misliking the superstitious use of Candle-light by day decreed thus It seemeth good unto us that Candles should not be lighted in Church-yards by day Pope Zosymus ordained Beacons Reliques of Rome that the Paschal Taper should be hallowed on Easter even and set up in every Parish Church and also that a fire should be made in every Church on that day and hallowed Again that the Paschal should be lighted with the flame of that fire and all other Candles in the Church Of their Holy Water POpe Alexander the first they say ordained Water mingled with Salt to be hallowed and afterwards to be sprinkled upon the people to put away their sins and to make them pure and holy He also commanded that it should be kept in Churches and in Houses to chase away Devils and wicked Spirits not only out of houses where men dwell but also out of the hearts of the faithful as though Faith and the Devil could dwell together in one heart The words of Pope Alexanders Canon are these we bless the Water mingled with Salt for this purpose that all that be sprinkled therewith may be made holy and pure which thing we command all Priests likewise to do For saith he if the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkled made holy and cleansed the people from venial sins much more Water sprinkled with Salt and hallowed with holy Prayers doth sanctifie make holy and cleanse the people from venial sins And if the Salt being sprinkled by Elizeus the barrenness of the Water was healed how much more Salt being hallowed by Godly Prayers takes away the barrenness of such as appertain to man
of the Scripture 18. That the certain Interpretation of the Scripture is not to be gathered out of the Scripture 19. They make seven Principles of the Christian Doctrine which are all grounded in the Authority of the See and Pope of Rome Their Errours concerning God and Christ 1. SOme hold that the Son and Spirit are not God of them selves 2. Ex Chamieâ— They deny the infallible certainty of Divine Providence 3. * Of this see the Writings between Doctor Hammond and Mr. Jeanes They deny that the Soul of Christ did increase in Wisdom 4. They deny that the Soul of Christ did suffer torments for mankind any otherwise than by way of sympathy with his Body 5. They deny him to be the only Head of the Church 6. They say that he is Mediator only according to his humane Nature 7. Tho. part 3. quaest 83. That the Blood of Christ is not necessary to wash away Sins but that they may be done away by holy Water knocking the Breast and other ridiculous means 8. They seem to give unto Christ a santastical Body that neither consisteth of dimensions nor occupieth a place which when he was born did not open the Womb of his Mother and when he arose did penetrate the Stone of the Sepulchre and when he instituted his Supper lay hid under the species of Bread and Wine 9 They deny Christ to be the only Mediator of Intercession but joyn with him Angels and Saints 10. They deny Christ to be the only Prophet whose voice only must be heard spiritual King and Priest of the New Testament But they make the Pope the chief Prophet and Pastor King and Monarch and Priest whence it followeth that the Pope is not only opposed to Christ as his Adversary but as his Rival 11. That the unchangeable Priesthood of Christ the Eternal Priest is made Eternal by the Succession of other sacrificing Priests which they make 12. That Christ who is God over all blessed for ever did merit for himself though he was both Viator Comprehensor in Termino extra Terminum and in the days of his flesh did possess all desired happiness and saw God face to face while he lived here 13 The Jesuits say that Jesus Christ might have sinned might have been subject to vices might have fallen into errour and folly 14. That Christs Merits are not the only meritorious cause of Salvation 15. Fevard p. 430. That the Fear and Agony of Christ proceeded not from any feeling of Gods wrath or indignation but he only shewed the affection of humane sense fearing Death 16. They are so bold as to appoint the place where Christ shall appear in the day of Judgment namely in the East 17. That the Son of Man shall appear with the sign of the Cross born before him Then shall the sign of the Son of Man appear in Heaven Matth. 24.30 that is say they the Sign of the Cross 18. They deny that God alone is to be worshipped and do communicate Divine Worship to certain Creatures 19 That God necessarily gives Grace to him that doth his best 20. Some Jesuits assert that we satisfie the Love we owe to God by loving him three or four times in our life And others that we may pass over our whole life without any thought of loving him and yet be saved after all this 21. That God might give Grace and Glory to men because of the honest actions of natural Vertues though they had not of themselves any relation to Grace or Glory which are of a supernatural order That is to say that God could save men by actions purely natural and so that man could deliver himself from sin and misery without having need of Jesus Christ and that by consequence his active and passive obedience were superfluous and exacted from him without any necessity Their Errours concerning Man 1. Ecc. Chamier THat every thing against the Law is not sin 2. That Concupiscence and the first motions thereof be no sins nor have the nature of sin 3. That all Sins are not in their own nature mortal Menric Sâ—m Mâ—â—â— lib. 4. cap. 20. that Sin is called mortal because it brings Death upon the Soul that is say they it depriveth it of Gods Grace That some Sins are in their own nature venial and do not deserve eternal punishment 4. That by every mortal sin Grace is lost 5. The Divinity of the Jesuits maintains Aversions against our Neighbour it allows us to wish and do him hurt and even to kill him though it be for temporal concerns and also when we are assured that by killing him we damn him 6. They cherish Pride and Vain-glory in all sorts of persons even in the most holy actions and according to their Divinity it is almost impossible to sin mortally by Pride or Vain-glory. 7. Their Doctrine gives all sorts of liberty to the Senses and justifies in a manner all sorts of Pleasure which it can taste 8. That Discourses even of filthy things though they proceed from curiosity and levity do not go beyond a venial sin and that to speak of filthy things for the pleasure that is taken in those Discourses without having a design to pass on to dishonest actions is but a venial sin 9. Escohar Filliut 〈◊〉 Lessius Layman Zanch 〈◊〉 The Jesuits authorize all sorts of ways to get Wealth and dispense with restitution of what is procured by the most unjust and infamous ways They teach that Christians may take Usury of the Turk Cornel a laipde in Deut. 23.19 10. They teach that if a man be drunk or doing any thing with a formal design to provide for his health all the the evils that happen in consequence thereof are to be esteemed as coming by accident that it is no sin to eat and drink ones fill without necessity for pleasure only provided that it do not prejudice ones health 11. The Jesuits allow of Magick and Witchcraft and say that they are not superstitious who heal the sick by Charms composed of Psalms and other Prayers and who by stroking and Prayers heal them of incurable Diseases 12. The Jesuits teach-several ways of mocking God men without punishment Jesuits Morals and without sin in promising that which they never intend to do and not doing that which they have promised although they are obliged thereunto by Vow and by Oath They have found out an expedient to deceive the world to take a salfe Oath even before a Judg without perjury 13. Equivocation and mental reservation Mason of 〈…〉 that mystery of iniquity and Quintessence of impudence is maintained at this day both in Press and Pulpit by the Popish Doctors though it be far from Christian simplicity and the Doctrine of God which requireth that men speak the truth from the heart 14. According to these Jesuits there is scarcely any habitual sin and that custom of sinning may make a man uncapable of sinning 15. That
Ignorance excuseth sins committed without knowing them and even those which are committed afterwards and that there are properly no sins of ignorance according to the Jesuits 16. The Papists teach that the whole Law of God may in this life be fulfilled by the Regenerate and and that some do keep it perfectly 17. That we may fulfil the Commandements of God and of the Church not only without intention but with an intent contrary and altogether criminal 18. The Jesuits enhaunse and debase as they please the Goods of this world which are the usual object or matter of sin and so nourish vice and dispense with the Law of God 19. They have found out a kind of necessity which dispenseth with the Law of God that necessity makes that lawful which is not lawful by the Law 20. That though God as a Sovereign and absolute Lord might make him suffer an eternal pain who did disobey him in a slight matter yet he could not do it as a Judg because in this quality he is obliged to proportion the punishment to the fault which is not greater than the matter of the disobedience 21. Bellar. de Justif l. 4. c. 10. Greg. Valen Tom. 1. They teach that it is not only possible for men to keep the Law of God in this life but to do more than is prescribed or commanded and that these works do make men perfect and that men of their abundance may allot unto others such works of supererogation 22. That good works are not only necessary to Salvation necessitate praesentiae because they must necessarily be present and we cannot be without thems but necessitate efficientiae they are necessary as efficient causes together with Faith of our Salvation 23. Vid. Cepaâ—in vit Gonzagaeâ— l. 3. c. 2. That a just man in his good works doth not sin but that their works are truly just without any spot or blemish of sin 24. Andrad Orth. Expl. l. 6. They hold that eternal life is bestowed for the merit of Works that Christ did merit for His not only Pardon of all faults and Grace to do all good Works but also that their Works should be meritorious of life everlasting Bayus merit operum l 3. c. 9. They make two kinds of merit meritum de congruo merit of congruity such are the preparative Works before Justification as were the Prayers and Alms-deeds of Cornelius Act. 10. which though they be not simply meritorious ex debito Justitiae by the due debt of Justice yet say they of Congruity they deserve at Gods hands because he doth gratiously accept them The other kind they call meritum de condigno merit of Condignity when the reward is justly due by debt 25. That there is a first and second Justification 26. That the Virgin Mary was without sin that she was conceived and born without original sin and lived and died without actual sin 27. Bernardini de Busti Mariale Par. 3 Serm. 3 That the Virgin Mary during the time of Christs Passion and from his Ascension into Heaven was the sole Queen Mistress and Instructer of his Church on Earth That he assumed her into Heaven Soul and Body Baronius Spondanus Fabrit Destruct Vitior fourteen years after his own Ascension as Baronius Spondanus and others testifie though they contradict each other therein both in the manner time circumstances and reality of her assumption of which there is little or no mention in any old Ecclesiastical Historians or Fathers of the Church 28. Bernard Serm. de Assumpt beatae Mariae Mich. Lochi main Serm. 6. Suraez Tom. 2. Disp 54. Sect. 6. They assert that Christ hath assumed her Soul and Body into Heaven and placed her therein far above all Orders of Saints or Angels even at his own right hand in the very Throne of the Trinity and they vow obedience to her 29. They assert that Mary vowed Virginity before the Angel Gabriel came to her with his Message They also say that the Church was in her alone when Christ died 30. That there is a place Rhem Annot. in Matt. 12. Sect. 6. commonly called Purgatory into which some of the Redeemed go after this Life as in a Prison-house where the Souls which were not fully purged in this life are there purged and cleansed by fire before they can be received into Heaven Vid John Verons Hunting of Purgatory 31. They have devised and imagined in their wandring conceit four infernal and subterrestrial places Hell Purgatory Limbus Infantium where Children remain dying without Baptism and Limbus Patrum where they say the Fathers were before Christs coming These places they distinguish three ways 1. By the situation Hell is lowest Purgatory is next Limbus Infantium in the third place Limbus Patrum uppermost 2. They differ say they in measure of punishment some of them have poenam damni poenam sensus a double punishment both of loss in that they are excluded Heaven and of pain also as Hell and Purgatory The other two Limbi are but dungeons of darkness only where they suffer no other smart or pain but are only absent from God 3. They differ in time and continuance say they Hell and the Dungeon of Children shall remain for ever but Purgatory and the Dungeon of the Fathers are temporal The one that is Limbus Patrum is many years ago dissolved and Purgatory also shall cease say they at the coming of Christ This then is their opinion that the Patriarchs and Prophets before Christs coming were not in Heaven but were kept in an infernal place of darkness yet without pain and were delivered by Christs descending into Hell 32. Bellarm. l 4. de Pontif. c. 13. That the Pope is Christs Deputy Vice-gerent and Vicar-General upon earth to whom and to whose Successors we should all give place and yield obedience 33. That the Pope cannot err Here see their shifting distinctions The Pope may err in Manners say they not in Faith alone by himself not in a Council in his Chamber not in his Consistory by way of Conference not of Conclusion in a private Letter not in a Decretal Epistle in his Palace not in the Pulpit which last is truest for he never cometh there But he that erreth in Judgment must of necessity err in his Determinations Many of the Popes have erred greatly Pope Marcellinus was an Idolater and offered Sacrifice to Jupiter and was forced by the Council of Sessa to recant it where there were three hundred Bishops assembled Liberius fell into Arrianism as Athanasius testifieth The like did Pope Foelix as Saint Hierom writeth Vide Willet Controv. 4. Pope Honorius was a Monothelite holding Christ had but one Will and so but one Nature for the which he was condemned in three General Councils Innocent the first made both Baptism and the Eucharist necessary for the Salvation of Infants the latter of these was condemned by the Council of Trent Pope Stephen the sixth abolished all the
Acts of Foronosus his Predecessor John the ninth disannulled all the Acts of Stephen and Sergius the third all the Acts that Formosus had done and so that which John had done and approved the Acts of Stephen some of these must err In the 1408. in the Council of Pisa consisting of 1000 Divines and Lawyers two Popes were deposed at once viz. Gregory the eleventh and Benedict the thirteenth the Tenour of whose Deprivation calleth them Schismaticks Hereticks departed from the Faith scandalizing the whole Church unworthy the Papacy cut off from the Church And whereas Benedict continued Pope still for all this a second Council holden at Constance deposed him again commanding all men to esteem him as an Heretick and Schismatick John Gerson testifieth of Pope John the two and twentieth that he held that the Souls of just men separated from their Bodies do not see God nor rejoyce with him till the day of Judgment This was a publick Errour of his for he taught it publickly and commanded it to be held by all men But for this Errour of his he was condemned before the French King by the Divines of the University of Paris and made to recant it with Sound of Trumpet And Alphonsus a Castro saith that he saw a Decretal Epistle of Pope Celestine wherein he publickly erred in matter of Marriage Pope Pius the fourth decreed that it should be lawful for him to allow degrees of Marriage forbidden in Leviticus and to forbid what God allowed Eastern Bishops and antient Fathers have sharply reproved the Bishop of Rome as namely Polycrates the Bishop of Ephesus and as Irenaeus the Bishop of Lions did Victor for his rash proceeding against the Eastern Churches Antient Councils have withstood the Pope as that of Chalcedon wherein were six hundred and thirty Bishops withstanding Leo in the Question of Supremacy The sixth Council of Carthage of two hundred seventeen Bishops resisted three Popes one after another in that they would do contrary to the Council of Nice These judged that Popes may err Such have been made Popes that any wise man may think might err Some have been unlettered Ideots no Grammarians that could hardly write their Names in Latin some Lay-men as Constantius the second and Bennet the eighth and very Boys for age Bennet the ninth a Child of ten years old John the twelfth a Bastard a mad Lad about eighteen years old and one Woman as Pope Joan of whom Mantuan that elegant Poet writeth thus Hic pendebat adhuc sexum mentita virilem Faemina cui triplici Phrygiam diademate Mitram Extollebat apex c. lib. 3. Here did as yet in shew a Man a Woman sit Whose Head a costly Crown did fit Some Popes have been Blasphemers Dishonorers of Parents Sorcerers Adulterers Covetous breakers of Promises Pope Alexander the sixth upon Festival days gave himself to hear Plautus his Comedies and to be present at other Pâ—ays Pope Paul the third poisoned his Mother and his Nephew that the whole Inheritance of the Farnesians might come unto him 34. That Saint Peter was Prince of the Apostles and had a Primacy of power and authority above all the Apostles They assert that Saint Peter was Head of the Church that Saint Peter was the only Vicar of Christ here on earth Their Errours concerning the Sacraments in general 1. Rhem. Act. 22. Sect. 1. THat much is to be attributed to the bare outward Work that the Sacraments do confer Grace ex opere operato 2. That the Sacraments are not Seals of the Promises or Covenant of God nor instituted to confirm the Promise 3. That Circumcision was a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith only to Abraham 4. Vide Bp. Downham Catal. That Grace is contained in the Sacraments as in a vessel nay that the Sacraments are Physical instrumental causes of Grace and that they do work holiness by the power put into them by God as the heat of the fire is the cause of the burning of the Wood. 5. Bellarm. cap. 27. That there is necessarily required the intention of the Administrator to the truth of the Sacrament at least of doing what the Church doth 6. Vide Rhem. Aâ—mot in 2 Cor. 1 That in the Sacraments of Baptism Confirmation and Order there is imprinted in the Soul by God a character or certain spiritual and indelible sign or mark so that they cannot be reiterated In the other Sacraments viz. according to the Popish account there is only an ornament or dress imprinted instead of a mark or character 7. That the Observation of the Ceremonies which they use in the Administration of Sacraments though invented by themselves through will-worship is meritorious and part of Divine Worship 8. They add five Sacraments to the other two instituted by Christ Concil Trid. Sâ—ss 7. Can. 1. viz. Confirmation Penance Orders Extreme Unction And say they if any of these are not truly and properly Sacraments Rhem. Annot. Apoc 1. Sect. 3. or that they are not of Christs Institution let him be anathema or accursed Their Arguments are 1. The number of seven is mystical prophetical perfect The Prophet commanded Naaman to wash himself seven times The Altar must be cleansed seven days Exod. 29.37 So in the Apocalypse seven Churches seven Angels seven Stars seven Candlesticks seven Thunders c. And why not also seven Sacraments saith Bellarmine 2. Man hath seven Wounds to be healed ergo there ought to be seven Sacraments as Remedies against the same Baptism say they is a remedy against Original sin Penance against Actual sin Bellarm. l. 2. c. 26. Extreme Unction against the Reliques of sin Confirmation against infirmity of Faith the Eucharist against Malice Orders against Ignorance Their Errours concerning Baptism 1. Bellarm. lib. 1. de Baptism THey define Baptism to be a Sacrament of Regeneration by Water in the Word that is not which signifieth and sealeth unto us our Regeneration and assureth us of Remission of sins but actually justifieth and regenerateth us 2. Bellar. de Baptismâ— lib. 1. c. 3. They affirm that this form of Baptism to baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is not fully concluded out of Scripture but delivered by Tradition for say they the Command of Christ to baptize in the name of the Trinity may be understood thus to baptize them into the Faith of the Trinity or by the authority of the Trinity 3. They affirm that Baptism is simply necessary to Salvation by Gods appointment Concil Trid. Sâ—ss 7. can 7. so that all which die unbaptized unless the want of Baptism be recompensed either by Martyrdom or Penance must needs perish and be deprived of eternal Life 4. They grant power to baptize Bellarm. c. 7. not only to any rank of men but even to Women in case of necessity they grant this also to Lay men and Pagans in like case 5. They affirm that the Baptism of Infants is grounded upon Tradition and