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A18357 Six sermons now first published, preached by that learned and worthy divine Edward Chaloner lately deceas'd, Dr in Divinity, sometimes Chaplaine in Ordinary to our soveraigne K. Iames, and to his Maiesty that now is: and late Principall of Alban Hall in Oxford. Printed according to the author's coppies, written with his owne hand Chaloner, Edward, 1590 or 91-1625.; Sherman, Abraham, 1601 or 2-1654. 1629 (1629) STC 4937; ESTC S107649 98,854 158

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current of the greater faction ran the quite contrary way yet they which were of our opinion submitted themselues to the obedience of the Church of Rome which Luther did not So that if any aske where was our Church before Luthers rising I answere it was in Rome and the Romane Iurisdiction perhaps not in the Popes privy chamber yet in his Court amongst his greatest counsellours agents doctours writers prelates Then did Gregorius Ariminensis doubt how any such place as Limbus puerorum might stand with the doctrine of the primitiue Church then did Richardus de Sancto Victore Gerson and Durand deny that distinction of veniall and mortall sinnes then did Scotus Cameracensis and Waldensis refute those merits of congruity and condignity Bernard with others justification by inherent qualities thē did the M. of the Sentences not once mētion transubstantiation Bonaventure doubted of it Cajetan confes'd that though in word most doe affirme it yet in deed many deny it thinking nothing lesse Then did many saith Bacon deny that Purgatory could bee proved by Scriptures Willielmus Altisiodorensis said it was a common opinion of his time that wee neither doe properly pray to Saints nor Saints for vs Then did Mirandula withstand worshipping of images the Sorbonistes the Popes infallibility many his indulgences and pardons and most good men his Iurisdiction in the temporall affaires of princes So that hee which shall seeke reconciliation betweene vs and them because before the Councell of Trent wee jumpt in opinions with many of their men or at lest not greatly swarv'd from them will fight very much without an enemy and forgets that the Papists by the Church which they would vnder paine of damnation binde every man to beleeue vnderstand not the Church which was sixty or an hundred yeares since but the present Church as Bellarmine and their great Doctours doe interpret Secondly wee distinguish of Romane Catholickes whereof as in all religions so in theirs some are more moderate and whether through ignorance of their owne doctrine or through an impartiality of judgement as divers learned men in France or through an accusation of their conscience as most at the time of death especially touching the doctrine of merits doe greatly incline to our tenents others are professed Romanists both in letter and title and swarne not a whit from the determination of the Church The former I leaue in this controversie the demonstration of the probleme shall bee in the latter Thirdly because wee propose the question whether wee and they doe differ not onely in lighter matters but also in those which concerne the foundation of religion lest any should misconceiue our meaning let vs adde a third distinction that a foundation of religion is overthrow'd two wayes either in flat termes when a maine principle of faith is absolutely denyed as the deity and the consubstantiality of the Sonne by Arrius the trinity of the persons by Sabellius and Servetus the resurrection of the body by Hymenaeus and Philetus and the last judgement by S Peters mockers or 2ly by consequent when any opinion is maintained which by just sequell overturneth the truth of that principle which the defendant professeth to hold So the Minaei of whom St Ierome speakes whil'st they vrged circumcision by consequent according to Paules rule rejected Christ so the Pelagians whil'st they defended a full perfection of our righteousnesse in our selues by a consequent overthrew Christs justification Popery comes in the latter ranke it pronounceth the same wordes of the Bible beleeues them it repeates the same Creed Apostolique Nicene and Athanasian and adheres to it but it denyes each article by a consequent because it denyes the true exposition of the article Non enim in verbis sed in sensu fides est saith Bellarmine nec idem symbolum habemus si in explicatione dissidemus Our beliefe stayes not it selfe vpon the words but vpon the sense nor haue wee the same Creed if we differ in the explanation of it The Arrians Novatians Nestorians and almost all heretickes haue ever agreed vpō the same Creed but because they agreed not vpon the meaning of it they therefore consequently may bee said to deny it The state therefore of our position in summe is this That a pure profest Romanist which strictly adheres to the doctrine of the Pope and of the Romane Church since the Councell of Trent doth differ from this reformed Church of ours in such fundamentall pointes that if not directly yet by a consequence wee must needes hold him to deny sundry articles of faith and therefore all hope of reconciliation to be taken away In the proofe of which assertion because I will not stand vpon such differences as perhaps arise betwixt private persons on both sides I will take for the Papists side the Councell of Trent begun in the yeare 1545 celebrated by three Popes Paulus tertius Iulius tertius and Pius quartus received by all succeeding Popes and vnder paine of Anathema or curse enjoyned to be beleeved by all Catholicks For our side I will take the booke of Articles Homelyes and such bookes as to which wee all doe subscribe And that wee may the better proceed in such pointes as may cause a separation from a Church let vs examine those things which the 19th article makes to bee the notes of a Church to wit the pure preaching of the Word and the right administration of the Sacraments Now the controversie betwixt vs the Church of Rome concerning the preaching of the Word are either of the Word it selfe or of the things delivered in the Word Touching the Word wee agree that it is infallible but we differ mainely three manner of wayes first in setting downe what is Scripture and what is not The Councell of Trent in the fourth Session reckons vp all those bookes which we terme Apocrypha to be Canonicall and saith that the Church doth pari pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ suscipere venerari receiue them with the same reverence and affection as it doth the other bookes of the Old or New Testaments Our booke of Articles in the sixth Article saith of these Apocrypha bookes that the Church doth reade them as Hierome saith for example of life and instruction of manners but yet doth not apply them to establish any doctrine So then it doth not receiue them with the same reverence affection as it doth the other Secondly we differ in the interpretation of the Scriptures The Councell of Trent in the same Session forbids any man to interprete the Scripture contra eum sensum quem tenuit aut tenet sancta mater Ecclesia contrary to the sense which the holy mother the Church hath held or doth hold by the Church saith Bellarmine in his 3 booke de verbo Dei and 3 chap. vnderstanding Pontificem cum Concilio the Pope in a Councell in which opinion hee affirmes all Catholickes to concurre Our booke of Articles in the sixteenth art saith that a generall Councell
the daie because it is the cause of it physicke is necessary for the recovery of a mans health because it is the cause of it or else a thing may be said to be necessary by way of an effect or of a condition and so heate is necessary to the fire light to the sunne moystnesse to the water not that heate is the cause of the fire nor light the cause of the sunne nor moystnesse the cause of the water but that the fire and sunne and water are rather the causes of them and they necessary effects of these Vpon this distinction depends the great controversie betweene vs and the Church of Rome concerning good workes We agree on both sides that to do and performe the word of God to do good workes is necessary for every man which expecteth to be justified by Christ the difference consists in this they say that good workes are necessary to justificatiō as being causes of it we say they are necessary to justification only as being effects of it I need not insist much vpon the deciding of the controversie in these barren times of ours wherein there are so few which do good workes I wonder what they aile to busie themselues so much in musing what gaine or merit shall accrue vnto them from them whether it shall bee a merit of congruity or desert whether of the first grace or of the secōd when as their store me-thinks is yet so small that though they sell all they haue and become bankerupt marchants they shall never bee able to purchasse the least pearle which adornes the crowne of glory I know that diverse are of opinion that it is a good pollicie to perswade the common people as the Pope doth that good workes are the meritorious causes of justification so by a consequence of salvation because by this meanes the heat of sin say they will bee repressed in many men will bee the more carefull in the performance of good deeds But were these men either well catechised in their religion or else were any whit skilled in the writings of the adverse party I doubt not but they would soone perceiue that their doctrin of works addes fewell rather to increase the flame of bad desires in one thē any way extinguisheth or diminisheth the vigour of it For besides that they teach that many grosse hainous sins are no sins that they mince many and of mortall make them veniall say that the hope of the reward for their good workes the feare of punishment either in hell or in purgatory for their bad do something moue rouse thē vp to performe good deedes yet judge you beloued whether the easy avoiding of those punishments which they haue devised will not as much giue thē courage to goe on in sin persevere in the way of wickednesse Why marke but a little their doctrine in any sinne there are these two parts the guilt of it the punishmēt the punishmēt they make to be twofold the one eternall which is in hell the other temporall wherewith say they God either afflicts men in this life or else in purgatory whē they are dead Now would you know how easie a matter they make it to be freed from the guilt of sin from hell fire Why Bellarmine will soone resolue you for that tell you that these are taken away by confessing of ones sins to the Priest by receiuing an absolution frō him in his 4th booke de poenit and 1. ch and because contrition is so necessary to make the absolution to be of force hee will tell you that a servile contrition is sufficient for that purpose such an one as ariseth not from a feare of offending God but only from a feare of the punishment which God will inflict vpō thē as we find it in his 2d booke de poenit 17. ch which kinde of contrition and sorrow for ones sinnes if it be sufficient I make no question but that the divell himselfe might bee absolved from his sinnes for besides that hee trembles which argues that hee is possest with such a feare as this Saint Iames tells vs moreover that he beleeues which I think is more then many Papists do who content thēselues with an implicit faith as they terme it and a blind zeale but because when the guilt and the punishment of hell fire is taken away they teach that God leaues a temporall punishment to bee vndergone by them either in this life or after this life in purgatory you shall see that the meanes to avoid that will bee as casie as the former For to omit more going about then needes if they would take a speedy way it is but purchasing an Indulgence of the Pope they may haue plenam pleniorem plenissimam as they terme them for halfe their sins or for one third or fourth part or if the Pope please for all as wee may well see in Bellarm his 1. booke de Indulgent chap. 9. Who would not bee a Papist if he were desirous to liue as he listed When besides the Indulgences for a certaine number of Ave-Maryes repeated at some altars which the Pope appoints he may haue a pardon for more yeares then the world is like to continue But to leaue them a while to themselues it shall be enough at this time to shew you that howsoever we holde not good workes to be the causes of salvation nor yet that we are to merite Heauen by them as they doe yet that wee make them absolutely necessary for those which are the heires of salvation and so withall that our doctrine rightly considered doth more necessarily require them of vs then the Papists doe For first wee holde them to bee necessary in respect of God that his Commandement may bee obeyed that his will may be done that wee shew our selues obedient children vnto him that wee bee thankefull for our redemption by CHRIST that wee may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Secondly we hold them to bee necessary in regard of our neighbours that they may bee helped that they may be wonne by our example and that by doing good the mouthes of our adversaries may be stopped Thirdly we hold good workes necessary for our selues and that notably in these respects First that wee may haue some assurance of our faith and of our salvation for when wee cannot discerne our faith whether it bee a true and liuely one or no but onely by the workes which it bringeth foorth as the tree is not knowne but by his fruite it greatly concernes all those which would over-come all temptations at their death to make good proofe of their faith in their life which is the thing pointed at by the Apostle S. Peter in his 2. Ep. and 1. Chap where he saith giue diligence to make your calling and election sure And herein the Schooles afford vs a good distinction and tell vs that aliud est fiduciam ponere in operibus aliud fiduciam
sayth Beza that to propose as these Gentiles did the 〈…〉 GOD for one's scope and not to bee grounded on sound and sure foundations a good meaning is nothing availeable to excuse one before GOD. To a good intention it is not enough say Divines that the end bee good vnlesse other two properties bee present Goodnesse in the worke and Lawfullnesse in the meanes Saul had a good end when hee sought to slay the Gibeonites the text tell 's vs it was in his zeale to the Children of Israell and Iudah neverthelesse it brought a famine vpon the land and cost the liues of his seuen sonnes because the worke was bloudy 2. Sam. 21. The Scribes and the Pharisees no doubt had a good end in their laborious worship of God but our Saviour tells them that in vaine did they worship him because they taught for doctrines the commandements of men Matt. 15.8 If the end be sufficient to excuse an action then Paul sinned not in that he persecuted the Church of God hee should not haue said Accepi misericordiam I found mercy but rather Mercedem accepi I receiued a reward for he did it with zeale ignorantly 1. Tim. 1. If sins as our adversaries would haue them may become veniall from the end then we are vnjustly angry with the murtherers of the Apostles for they were not only ignorant that it was a sinne but thought also moreover that they did God good service Ioh. 16.2 How is it then that this answere flies with such plausible passage in the world that when ignorance and superstition raigne together neither the ignorant is so carefull to learne nor the learned to teach nor the taught to remember onely because if the worst come to the worst God will be merciful in that things are done as we say with a good meaning Alas beloued it had beene happy for the Gentiles if any such plea could haue serv'd their turnes compare but their Hecatombs with the Papists wafers their Colossus's and golden statues with these mens woodden or stonie poppets their cuttings with others whippings and you will say that in the end they equalled in many other things out-stripped Popery yet this begg'd not their pardons the Apostle tells vs that the wrath of God was revealed from heauen against them because though God they glorified yet they say led in the maine matter non vt Deum glorificarunt they glorified him not as God It is not therefore we see the glorious title of a profession not the antiquity not the duration not the conspiration of a multitude in doctrine or a religious purpose which is warrant sufficient for a Church to be true so long as they first proue not their worship to bee free from idolatrie their ceremonies from superstitions their faith and doctrine not tainted with false conceivings of the deitie but as they glorifie God in word so really vt Deum glorificant they glorifie him as God What is man if he be spoiled of reason and senses and motions so what is God if hee bee supposed without his attributes the Gentiles glorified him not as god because as you heard they rob'd him of his simplicity immensity power and providence and what doe the Papists when they impaire his wisedome grace and glorie They match traditions with the written word therein injurious to the wisedome of God they mingle mans merits with the merits of Christ therein injurious to the grace of God they communicate divine worship to stocks and stones therein injurious to the glory of God Thus haue you briefely seene what the Apostle vnderstood in that they glorified not God of God what he addes that they were not thankefull is but a part if not the same in substance with the former for they glorified him not as God because they stript him besides other attributes of his workes of creation and providence and they were not thankefull because they acknowledged not these things to bee his doings and handie worke I will not therefore stand long vpon it it requiring rather the comment of a gratefull convert then of a curious interpreter Onely let mee say that if ingratitude be so highly condemned in the sonnes of nature it is much more to bee pittied in the children of grace God might say to all that he gaue them a soule to bee commander of their bodies thinking that it being placed by him would performe the ordinary respect of the worke to be at his command and at the sinke-ports of the body would admit no enemie which should impeach the quiet of his government hee might alleadge farther that he made them after his owne image hoping that as Simile simili gaudet their joy and contentation should be to walke with him like Enoch and not to goe like cursed Caine from his presence but never did such arguments enter into the heart of any oratour or rhetorician to stirre the coales of gratitude and thankefulnesse as are conversant and familiar with the least of Gods elect If you pervse the acts and monuments of our redemption that he of rich did become poore this is more then of a monarch to become a beggar it was in the abstract of riches to become pouerty but that hee so loved the vvorld that hee gaue his onely begotten Sonne to die and be subject to death even the death of the crosse for vs vvhen vve vvere yet his enemies here eloquence may cast in her mite and like the poore widow be liberall of what shee hath but admiration and stupor must supply what the tongue of men and Angels cannot vtter There is therefore no ingratitude like the ingratitude of men to God it is a contempt of him whose benefits they cannot want it is saith Gregory suis contra Deū donis pugnare to oppugne God with his own gifts thus are they vnthankefull which acknowledge not Gods grace and protection they which deny themselues to be sinners or bragge of merits they to whom God hath given the meanes of knowing him as he did to these Gentiles and they abuse it by not hearkning vnto it and living accordingly I pray God it may not be imputed to vs that in this respect wee are not thankefull lest wee participate of the punishments of these Gentiles in becomming vaine in our imaginations and having our foolish hearts darkened and obscured O that we could be taught by presidents and were not so blockish as not to learne vntill our owne experience bee our master We know how heretofore the Easterne Churches contended for the Empire of learning knowledge with the whole world where are now those famous schooles of Alexandria where those seven renowned Churches of letter Asia where those Colledges of Monkes dispers'd through Egypt and Syria where their Basill's Nazianzens Chrysostomes Nyssens Cyrils was not the vngratefull world thought vnworthy of these benefits and therefore were those lights extinguished those candlesticks removed and in their place nothing but darkenesse and confusion Greece it selfe sometimes the flow and
of mysticall disputes where they taught Now how vaine were the imaginations of these Doctours who as Antipheron Orietes in Aristotle thought that every where hee saw his owne shape and picture going before him so did these in all partes of Scripture where they walked perswade themselues that they saw the image of their owne conceits and what gaue occasion to this vainenesse in them was it not that they forsooke the pathes and ancient formes of teaching which their Samuels and Eliah's and Elisha's had in their schooles of the Prophets children left vnto them and their Rabbies being train'd vp as it appeares by Philo in the phylosophy of Pythagoras Plato which was much symbolicall and aenigmaticall would shew whose disciples they were in the pulpit and attire Sarah in the garments and weedes of Hagar the bond-woman I doe not here deny the vse of Phylosophy in divine matters it is a footestoole to the pulpit and as Laban when hee gaue Rachel vnto Iacob hee gaue also Bilhah to bee her maide so in this latter age of the world when it pleased God to restore the light of his word so plentifully vnto vs hee gratiously hath adorn'd it with the service and attendance of phylosophy and humane learning but yet we must remember that phylosophy is but the hand-maid she must not prescribe lawes and rules to her mistresse When some sought to examine the truth of the word by the dictates of philosophers and the speculation of humane reason the Apostle in 2d of the Col. bid's them beware lest any man spoyle them through philosophy and vaine deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ By which saying Tertullian obserues that hee concondemnes all hereticks of which the phylosophers were the Patriarchs for whence did Valentinus faine his formes and trinity in man but from Plato Marcion the coeternity of matter with God but from the Stoicks that God was mortall but from the Epicures that hee was of a fiery substance but from Heraclitus whence arose the impious conceits of the Artemonites but from this as Eusebius in his fifth booke of Ecclesiasticall history confesseth that they more were addicted to Aristotle Theophrastus and Gallen then to the Scriptures Whence grew the errours of Origen but from this as Epiphanius witnesseth that hee triumphed too much in the disciplines of the Philosophers cōtented not himselfe with the simplicity of the Apostles whence sprang the heresie of the Arrians but from this as Ambrose on the 118. Psalme obserues that they examined the divine generation of Christ according to the grounds of Aristotle and the vse of this world Thus by preferring their owne fancies and the sandy foundation of humane wisdome before the sure foundation of the Prophets and Apostles they detain'd the truth in vnjustice and became vaine in their imaginations The Fathers were as Hiperius notes for the most part Platonists and I know not if some of them may not else-where bee sayd to relish of his precepts certainely if in any thing this age of ours may cōtend with theirs or else out-strippe it it is there where in their commentaries in imitation of him they drench the literall sense too much with Allegories as Andradius confesseth S. Hierome a man not too easily brought on to acknowledge the errours of his writings amongst those few things which he doth retract censures nothing so sharpely as the mistake of his youth in this kind thinking it one of the greatest sinnes of his youth that being carried away through an inconsiderate heate in his studies of Scripture hee adventured to interpret Abdias the Prophet Allegorically when as yet hee knew not the historecall meaning I will not deny Allegories Tropologies Anagogies as severall applacations of one sense I will not deny more then one literall sense so that one be subordinate to the other but to make all places as the Papists would haue them liable to as many senses as wit is able to faigne to draw the Pope's temporall sword out of Peter's scabbard or to fish for his vicaredge with Peter's net this I leaue to the limbeckes of the Iesuites and aske if my text fits not right to them that detaining the truth in vnrighteousnesse they became vaine in their imaginations Gerson in his tract of Astrology tell 's vs that it was a custome in the Vniversity of Paris that whosoever was licenciated in the arts should take an oath to determine his Philosophy problemes alwayes agreeable to the Articles of faith and that they would dissolue the reasons of the Philosopher brought to the contrary this was an excellent course to giue liberty to the truth of the Scriptures whilst the dreames of Philosophers kept it not in subjection but hee which shall read the Sorbornes determinations in Theologie would guesse that they had taken another oath to determine their questions in Divinity according to the precepts of Aristotle's Philosophy and to dissolue the authorities of the Apostle's brought to the contrary And may not wee here see my text well verified that these Schoole-men detaining the trueth in vnrighteousnesse first in their exposition of the Scripture by keeping the literall sense from the view of the world and distasting those witnesse the sundry apologies of Caietan who betooke themselues to the literall sense as knowing inwardly that their positions were not sufficiently grounded and that this kind of teaching opened a gappe vnto the world to discry their palpable abuses Secondly in their positions relying first as Daneus shewes vpon Austine afterwards as Popery more strengthened it selfe vpon Aristotle and lastly vpon the Tridentine Councell and vncertaine traditions that these I say should not else-where in their vnprofitable questions and more ridiculous resolutions bee seene as my text saye's to become vaine in their imaginations perhaps their prayer for the dead their pilgrimages vowes and ceremonies may seeme to come from a foolish ignorant zeale and herein though their imaginations cannot scape the lash of vaine yet they may be more pardonable But to teach that colours may subsist without a subject that a man may be at the same time at home in his bed and fighting against the Turkes that one may equivocate and dissemble to a good end that one may do evill that good may come thereof that the rights of lawes and nations do lye vnder the Popes girdle why this Philosophy was never taught by Aristotle or Plato or Cicero but as I guesse when Hermolaus Barbarus questioned the divell for the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee added some further instructions to be delivered the Iesuites touching these matters for the defending their tenents And truly I am perswaded that it is neither the wheele of fortune nor chaine of destiny nor craft of Sathan that hath brought our adversaries to beleeue such shamefull doctrines but it is God in his divine providence which hath permitted them even there where the light of nature is most apparent so to