Deus praecipit multo magis potest implere praeceptum G. Very good so say the worst of our Fanatics that they are perfect and without sin yet I confess you do not fansie your people to fansie so that privilege is granted only to some choice ones and that long after they are dead and therein you act with much discretion as Stapleton faith Contr. 3. Quaest 11. Summa cum ratione introductum fuit ut Canonizatio per solum summum Pontificem fiat For some must be more than just that the Pope may have works of Supererogation to hoord up and the people must be kept from that Perfection that he may have Chap-men to buy those sacred Wares But God's Amanuenses who had none of them to sell teach quite otherwise 1 Kings 8.46 Ps 130.3 Eccl. 7.20 that There is no man that sinneth not that If God should mark iniquities not any man could stand that There is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not In all these there is not so much as one Frier excepted So the dearest Apostle of our Blessed Saviour tells us If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us God requires the utmost of our love 1 Joh. 1.8 whatever we do out of love is due and sure what we do upon other Motives is not meritorious in that sense as you take it Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Matt. 22.37 with all thy soul and with all thy mind And our Blessed Lord and Redeemer hath taught all Christians even the most perfect to say in their daily Offices Luk. 11.4 Forgive us our sins P. You know how the Fox that had no tail would persuade others to cut off theirs I am sure we are told Beyrling prompt mor p 337 that you live most unchristian lives and that ye have an irreconcileable quarrel against all Good Works Therefore ye would fain persuade us that no body can attain to Perfection here and that Good Works are not meritorious But for all you can say We will believe that they are and that not only of temporal blessings but of life eternal it self and of the highest degree of glory by their own dignity Probavimus bona opera justorum vere proprie esse merita merita non cujuscunq Bellar de Justif l. 5. c. 1. Ibid. c 20. praemii sed ipsius vitae aeternae Nos existimamus vitam aeternam tum quoad primum gradum tum quoad caeteros reddi bonis meritis filiorum Dei G. We little regard those foul aspersions you cast upon us the first and best Christians were made as vile by the Heathen as possibly you can make us neither have we any quarrel against good Works We make them absolutely necessary to salvation and we teach according to Scripture that God will reward them with eternal life but to say that they do really and properly merit it ex condigno without respect to Christ and the Promise We dare not be so presumptuous especially because of these Scriptures The wages of sin is death Ro. 6.23 and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It should have been according to your Doctrin And the wages of works is eternal life Ps 43.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified How much less rewarded with the highest degree of eternal glory Lu. 17.10 When ye have done all those things that are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants We have done what was our duty to do But I forget that you can do more than all that is commanded you and belike 't is that overplus that makes the Merits of Condignity S. Paul saith 1 Cor. 6.19 20. 1 Cor. 47. Ro. â— 18 That we are not our own because we have been bought with a price And in another place What hast thou that thou didst not receive And lastly that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Let any man weigh these Scriptures and see whether they favour more your absolute Merits than our Doctrin of denying our own righteousness for to rely on Gods merciful Promises in Christ for a reward to our syncere though imperfect Services and good Works P. Well if we had no Merits of our own yet we are not left destitute Oh the happiness of those that live in the lap of the Church that good Mother will let them want for nothing if a child of hers is not furnisht with meritoriousness but hath rather many sins to answer for as it is the case of a great many yet he shall not be left without help She will make over to him the satisfactions of others who have suffered more than their sins required Bellar. de Indulg l. 1. c. 2. In bonis actibus hominum justorum duplex valor sive pretium assignari potest meriti videlicet satisfactionis Opus bonum qua parte meritorium est non potest alii applicari potest tamen qua satisfactorium Extat in Ecclesia thesaurus satisfactionum Christi superfluentium ad quem pertinent etiam passiones Beatae Mariae Virginis emnium aliorum Sanctorum qui plus passi sunt quam eorum peccata requirerent Satisfactiones Christo Sanciis supervacaneae applicari possunt aliis qui rei sunt luendae poenae temporalis Ibid. c. 3. Ecclesiae pastoribus anctoritas divinitus concessa est thesaurum satisfactionum dispensandi ac per hane indulgentias concedendi Praelati Ecclesiae dispensare possunt Christi passionem tum per Sacramenta tum per Indulgentias passiones vero Sanctorum nonnisi per Indulgentias G. Pray give me leave to English it to my thinking the Doctrin is pleasant you shall see how well I relish it that is to say That the good Works of just men have a twofold value one side of them is meritorious and the other satisfactory this last may be given to others but the first may not and that in the Church there is a treasure of the superfluous satisfactions of Christ of the Blessed Virgin and all other Saints who suffered more than in justice they ought Which treasure is disposed of by the Pastors of the Church according to that authority as God hath given them to those who are guilty of temporal pains and that with a great deal of Art and Industry for the Passion of Christ is given by the Sacraments and Indulgences but the Passions of the Saints by Indulgences only I protest you are witty folks to devise such pretty things as these no wonder if you will not be tied to the written Word when you are so good at inventing Honest Novator were I minded only to point out all the Impertinences included in this Doctrin it would confute itself or at least appear
most ridiculous I would fain know who told Bellarmin Poena aeterna commutatur in temporalem quando remittitur culpa That when the guilt is forgiven the eternal pain is changed into a temporal I know this was necessary to build upon the Doctrin of Indulgences and Purgatory but the Scripture that hath no such Doctrins makes no such distinctions at all Gal. 3.10 but saith in general Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them No commutation of the eternal into a temporal pain he that transgresseth deserves the curse of the law Ibid. v 1â— But Christ hath redeemed us from that curse Wherefore there remains no more satisfactory pains to the penitent sinner God may indeed visit him still with Chastisements and temporal Judgments but who told you that it must be to make him satisfie for his sins and if it were who gave the Pope power to sell the sinner an Indulgence and so take off that punishment as he pretends to do S. Paul saith that the wages of sin is death Ro. 6.23 but he saith in another place that Christ died for us and that by that means Rom. 5.8 there remains no more wrath to those that are in Christ But admit there had been part of the punishment due to sin to be suffered here and part hereafter and that so a twofold satisfaction had been required yet to say that Christ could not satisfie for the temporal pain would be impious to say that he would not is to speak without book or rather against it Joh. 1.29 for S. John saith Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world He doth not say that he leaves part of them to be taken away by the satisfactions of Saints S. Paul also 2 Tim. 2.6 that he gave himself a ransom for all and S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.24 Rom. 8.1 that his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree and lastly that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ In all these the satisfaction of Christ is general and there is not one place in Scripture that restrains it to one part of the punishment But to do you right you do not absolutely deny that Christ hath also yielded a satisfaction for the temporal pain only you will not have him to give it gratis the Pope must sell it and you will not have it to be sufficient of itself but your own and the Saints must be added to it Whereas it is written Act. 1.12 That there is no salvation in any other and that he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa 53.4 5. that he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities and that God laid on him the iniquity of us all Nothing like that is said of any man but of them all it is written That every one shall bear his own burthen Gal. 6.5 and that we shall appear before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive according to what he hath done not according to what S. Francis hath suffered for him But pray tell us some more of the care of your Church for her necessitous Children P. Why if by their carelesness or poverty they have not bought as many Pardons and Indulgences as would satisfie for the remaining temporal pains which the merits and bloud of Christ did not take away there is provided for them a place of Torments called Purgatory where they are to suffer until they have given full satisfaction or some of their friends have procur'd them a Release by Masses or Indulgences or some other way and after that they are received into heaven Those pains of Purgatory are most intolerable and far greater than any upon earth this Reason and Revelations and the Fathers have assur'd us of Bellar. de Purg. l. â— c. 14. Poenas purgatorii esse atrocissimas cum illis nullas poenas hujus vitae comparandas docent patres probant revelationes ratio And if any one denies Purgatory thinking that God hath so pardoned him by Christ as that there remains no temporal pains whereby he must satisfie the divine justice either in this world or in Purgatory Bellarmin and the Council of Trent condemn him to burn for ever in Hell Constanter asserimus dogma esse fidei Purgatorium Ibid. l. 1. c. 15. adeo ut qui non credit illud ad idem nunquam sit perventurus sed in gehenna sempiterno incendio cruciandus Concil Trid. S. 6. Can. 30. Si quis dixerit culpam ita remitti reatum aeternae poenae deleri ut nullus remaneat reatus poenae temporalis exsolvendae vel in hoc seculo vel in futuro Purgatorio antequam ad regna coelorum aditus patere possit Anathema sit G. Well done Holy Fathers curse them stoutly those Heretics that would put out that sacred fire which warms you and makes your Pot boil Now the cheat is complete I see your Church-men are resolv'd to have money by hook or by crook If people have wit enough as not to be persuaded to buy Indulgences while they live at least 't is hop'd that when they are dying when their Reason is weak and their fears strong that they shall be willing to part with those goods they can keep no longer to purchase a total exemption from or at least a quicker passage through those dreadful Flames which they are told will torment them God knows how long And if that should fail their surviving friends it may chance will have some pity upon their souls and buy for them all those assistances the Church can afford to help them out of their miseries and so dead or alive thâ—y are like to pay for that care your Church takes for their well-being But I wonder that your Clergy who have power by their Masses and Indulgences to deliver Souls out of Purgatory as fast as they please should be so hard-hearted as to let them lie there except they or their friends have paid for their deliverance And I wonder as much at your Peoples folly that they don't make a sufficient provision of Indulgences while they live for to carry their Souls straightway to Heaven being they could get more than enough by saying some Prayers or visiting certain Shrines and Churches which have an extraordinary faculty that way But what if the Scripture saith That the Souls of the Faithful when they depart out of this life do not go into a place of Torments must we needs be damn'd if we believe it before the Pope In the Revelations Rev. 14.13 Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works follow them their own works follow them not the satisfactory works or passions of the Fryers and they rest from their labours and therefore are not in a place of Torments Certainly St. John had
for it in Scripture had I not found that he hath really erred and that very grosly whence I infer that therefore his Infallibility and supreme Authority are Chimeras mere devices of his own brain the which I am in no wise bound to obey being they pervert and oppose the plainest truths in the New Testament As that Christ is now in heaven by his bodily presence and not on the Altars as it is in the Creed he is ascended into heaven from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead and in Acts 3.20 Whom the heavens must contain until the restitution of all things That we are forgiven and cleansed by the death and merits of Christ not by Purgatory and Indulgences 1 Job 1.7 And the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sins ibid. 2.2 He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world That the offering of himself on the Cross hath fully satisfied for sin and that his sacrifice needs not be renewed daily and be offered corporally in the Mass for the sins of the living and the dead as you teach and do Heb. 9.26 But now once in the end of the world he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself c. In those things that are evidently against the Word of God we are resolv'd to follow Scripture rather than the head of your Church and we 'll rather for ever break with him than to suffer him to put out our eyes that so he may guide us at his own pleasure P. Yea those be the fruits of translating the Bible and performing Divine Service in the vulgar Tongues every one of you can find fault with the Doctrins and Constitutions of the Church and talk Scripture from morning to night we see among your selves what Disorders it hath caused If your Clergy had been wise enough to have still retein'd the Latin Tongue in all their Ministrations the people could have dislik'd and censur'd nothing 't was sufficient for them to have light enough to follow their guides more submission and obedience with less knowledge had done better Bellar. de Verbo Dei l. 2. c. 15. That hath been the wisdom of our Church to keep the Scripture and the publick prayers of our Church out of the peoples reach by forbidding them to be read in any vulgar tongue Catholica Ecclesia prohibet ne in publico communi usu Ecclesiae Scripturae legantur vel canentur vulgaribus linguis ut in Concilio Tridentino SS 22. Can. 9. Sed contenti sumus tribus illis linguis quas Dominus titulo crucis suae honoravit G. Because some men stumble and fall at noon-day must the Sun be charged with a fault that proceeds from their heedlesness and would it become one to say that therefore 't is safer to grope in the dark because then people tread more warily Or must therefore mens eyes be put out because then they shall be willing to be led and to follow their guides S. Peter saith that the unstable and unlearned in his time wrested some difficult things written by Saint Paul and other Scriptures to their own destruction Yet he doth not say therefore let not the common people read them but rather dedicates his Epistle to all those that were partakers of the Christian Faith and exhorts them to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ibid. v. 18. S. Paul reckons Idolatry Heresies and Schisms among the fruits of the flesh Gal. 5.20 but doth not any where impute them to the reading of Holy Scripture and it hath been observ'd that the perversness of men of great Learning hath been the cause of Heresies and not the mistakes or ignorance of ordinary people in reading the Bible However we have a whole Chapter in the New Testament against the speaking in an unknown tongue as you do in all your Churches 1 Cor. 15.11 If I know not the meaning of the voice I shall be unto him that speaketh a Barbarian and he that speaketh shall be a Barbarian unto me that 's the relation betwixt your Priests and your people they are Barbarians one to another the whole Chapter is to that purpose and would be too long to be transcrib'd But if Scripture had been silent in this one would think that common Reason would have kept men from a practice so absurd and ridiculous that a man should present a petition and know not what he asks and be taught his duty by words he doth not understand is a strange and incredible thing which Reason alone confutes most strongly And yet for all this I do hugely commend the wisdom of your Church in this particular for that hath maintain'd the Popes Religion and Credit for some hundreds of years the understanding of Mass and Scripture hath already prov'd fatal to his authority and should once the rest of his flock be able to compare both together 't is to be fear'd he that hath rewarded many of his friends with the gift of titular Bishopricks might come to be himself a titular Bishop P. I see you value an universal Council as little as you do Bellarmin alone and have as many things to object against it I wonder how you dare in any wise oppose the authority of such an Assembly and think your Judgment is to be prefer'd to theirs G. And I wonder how you can call the Council of Trent universal when there was none in it of the Clergy of the Reformed Churches which are almost as large and populous here in the West as those of the Roman Religion But especially because none of the Christians of Aethiopia nor of those that are subject to the Patriarchs of Antioch and Constantinople whose Jurisdiction is of a far larger extent than that of the Bishop of Rome were present at it Pray did you never hear that a great Company of Arrians met once together and confirmed their Errors and cursed all those that would not embrace it and call'd themselves an Universal Council just so did that Company of Papists that met at Trent But had they been twice as many more you should not wonder how I dare oppose them but rather consider whether what I say be rational or no and whether what you call my private judgment be not rather the express words of Scripture But pray proceed and tell me what your Church thinks of Images and Saints for we are told that you worship them P. Yes Bellar. de San. beat l. 1. c. 19. and that very devoutly and to our great advantage by making religious Invocations to them whether they be men or angels Sancti sive angeli sive homines pie atque utiliter invocantur G. Now I wonder too how you dare do that for I find that when Cornelius would have worshipped S. Peter the holy Apostle took him up saying Acts 10.26 that he himself was a man also And that when S. John