and vve must pray to the Word of God his onely begotten and the first bornè of all creatures and we must intreat him that he as high Priest would present our prayer when it is come to him unto his God and our God unto his Father and the father of them that frame their life according to the word of God And whereas Celsus had further sayd that we must offer first fruits unto Angels and prayers as long as we live that we may finde them propitious unto us answere is returned by Origen in the name of the Christians that they held it rather fit to offer first fruits unto him which sayd Let the earth bring forth grasse the herbe yeelding seed and the fruite tree yeelding fruite after his kinde And to whom wee give the first fruites saith he to him also doe wee send our prayers having a great high Priest that is entred into the Heavens Iesus the Sonne of God and we hold fast this confession whiles we live having God favourable unto us and his onely begotten Sonne Iesus being manifested amongst us But if we have a desire unto a multitude whom we would willingly have to be favourable unto us we learne that thousand thousands stand by him and millions of millions minister unto him who beholding them that imitate their pietie towards God as if they were their kinsfolkes and friends helpe forward their salvation who call upon God and pray sincerely appearing also and thinking that they ought to doe service to them and as it were upon one watchword to set forth for the â—enefit and salvation of them that pray to God unto whom they themselves also pray For they are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation Thus farre Origen in his eight booke against Celsus to which for a conclusion we wil adde that place of the fift booke All prayers and supplications and intercessions and thankesgivings are to be sent up unto God the Lord of all by the high Priest who is above all Angels being the living Word and God For to call upon Angels we not comprehending the knowledge of them which is above the reach of man is not agreeable to reason And if by supposition it were granted that the knowledge of them which is wonderfull and secret might be comprehended this very knowledge declaring their nature unto us and the charge over which every one of them is set would not permit us to presume to pray unto any other but unto God the Lord over all who is aboundantly sufficient for all by our Saviour the Sonne of God Tertullian and Cyprian in the bookes which they purposely wrote concerning Prayer deliver no other doctrine but teach us to regulate all our prayers according unto that perfect patterne prescribed by our great Master wherein we are required to direct our petitions unto Our Father which is in heaven Matth. 6.9 Luk. 11.2 These things saith Tertullian in his Apologie for the Christians of his time I may not pray for from any other but from him of whom I know I shall obtayne them because both it is he who is alone able to give and I am he unto whom it appertayneth to obtayne that which is requested being 〈◊〉 servant who observe him alone who for his religion am killed who offer unto him a rich and great sacrifice which he himselfe hath commanded Prayer proceeding from a chaste body from an innocent soule from a holy spirit where he accounteth Prayer to be the chiefe sacrifice wherewith God is worshipped agreeably to that which Clemens Alexandrinus wrote at the same time We doe not without cause honour God by prayer and with righteousnesse send up this best and holyest sacrifice The direction given by Ignatius unto Virgins in this case is short and sweete Yee Virgins have Christ alone before your eyes and his Father in your prayers being inlightened by the Spirit for explication whereof that may be taken which we reade in the exposition of the Faith attributed unto S. Gregory of Neocaesarea Whosoever rightly prayeth unto God prayeth by the Sonne and whosoever commeth as he ought to doe commeth by Christ and to the Sonne he can not come without the holy Ghost Neyther is it to be passed over that one of the speciall arguments whereby the writers of this time do prove our Saviour Christ to bee truely God is taken from our praying unto him and his accepting of our petitions If Christ be onely man saith Novatianus how is he present being called upon every where seeing this is not the nature of man but of God that he can be present at every place If Christ be onely man why is a man called upon in our prayers as a mediatour seeing the invocation of a man is judged of no force to yeeld salvation If Christ be onely man why is there hope reposed in him seeing hope in man 〈◊〉 sayd to be cursed So is it noted by Origen that S. Paul in the beginning of the former epistle to the Corinthians where he saith With all that in every place call upon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1. Corinth 1.2 doth thereby pronounce Iesus Christ whose Name is called upon to be God And if to call upon the Name of the Lord saith he and to adore God bee one and the selfe same thing as Christ is called upon so is he to be adored and as we do offer to God the Father first of all prayers 1. Tim. 2.1 so must we also to the Lord Iesus Christ and â—s wee doe offer supplications to the Father so doe we offer supplications also to the Sonne and as wee doe offer thankesgivings to God so doe we offer thankesgivings to our Saviour In like maner Athanasius disputing against the Arrians by that prayer which the Apostle maketh 1. Thessal 3.11 God himselfe and our Father and our Lord Iesus Christ direct our way unto you doth prove the unitie of the Father and the Sonne For no man saith he would pray to receive any thing from the Father and the Angels or from any of the other creatures neyther would any man say God and the Angell give thee this And whereas it might be objected that Iacob in the blessing that he gave unto Ephraim and Manasseh Genes 48.15 16. did use this forme of prayer The God which fed me from my youth unto this day The Angel which delivered me from all evills blesse those children which Cardinall Bellarmine placeth in the forefront of the forces he bringeth forth to establish the Invocation of Saints Athanasius answereth that he did not couple one of the created and naturall Angels with God that did create them nor omitting God that fed him did desire a blessing for his nephews from an Angel but saying Which delivered me from all evills hee did shew that it was not any of the created Angels but
of Monasticall discipline in the East S. Antony I meane who taught his Schollers that the Scriptures were sufficient for doctrine and S. Basil who unto the question Whether it were expedient that novices should presently learne those things that are in the Scripture returneth this answere It is fit and necessarie that every one should learne out of the holy Scripture that which is for his use both for his full settlement in godlinesse and that hee may not be accustomed unto humane traditions Marke here the difference betwixt the Monkes of Saint Basil and Pope Hildebrands breeding The Novices of the former were trayned in the Scriptures to the end they might not be accustomed unto humane traditions those of the latter to the cleane contrarie intent were kept back from the studie of the Scriptures that they might be accustomed unto humane traditions For this by the foresaid author is expressely noted of those Hildebrandine Monkes that they permitted not yong men in their Monasteries to studie this saving knowledge to the end that their rude wit might be nourished with the huskes of divels which are the customes of humane traditions that being accustomed to such filth they might not taste how sweet the Lord was And even thus in the times following from Monkes to Friars and from them to secular Priests and Prelates as it were by tradition from hand to hand the like ungodly policie was continued of keeping the common people from the knowledge of the Scriptures as for other reasons so likewise that by this meanes they might be drawne to humane traditions Which was not onely observed by Erasmus before ever Luther stirred against the Pope but openly in a maner confessed afterwards by a bitter adversarie of his Petrus Sutor a Carthusian Monke who among other inconveniences for which he would have the people debarred from reading the Scripture alledgeth this also for one Whereas manie things are openly taught to be observed which are not to be expressely had in the holy Scriptures will not the simple people observing these things quickly murmure and complaine that so great burdens should be imposed upon them whereby the libertie of the Gospell is so greatly impaired Will not they also easily be drawne away from the observation of the ordinances of the Church when they shall observe that they are not contained in the Law of Christ Having thus therefore discovered unto these Deuterotae for so S. Hierome useth to style such Tradition-mongers both their grandfathers and their more immediat progenitors I passe now forward unto the second point OF THE REAL PRESENCE HOw farre the real presence of the bodie of Christ in the Sacrament is allowed or disallowed by us I have at large declared in an other place The summe is this That in the receiving of the blessed Sacrament we are to distinguish betweene the outward and the inward action of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouth wee receive really the visible elements of Bread and Wine in the inward wee doe by faith really receive the bodie and bloud of our Lord that is to say wee are truely and indeed made partakers of Christ crucified to the spirituall strengthning of our inward man They of the adverse part have made such a confusion of these things that for the first they do utterly denie that after the words of consecration there remaineth anie Bread or Wine at all to be received and for the second do affirme that the bodie and bloud of Christ is in such a maner present under the outward shewes of bread and wine that whosoever receiveth the one be he good or bad beleever or unbeleever doth therewith really receive the other We are therfore here put to prove that Bread is bread and Wine is wine a matter one would thinke that easily might be determined by common sense That which you see saith S. Augustine is the Bread and the Cup which your very eyes doe declare unto you But because we have to deale with men that will needs herein be senselesse wee will for this time referre them to Tertullians discourse of the five senses wishing they may be restored to the use of their five witts againe and ponder the testimonies of our Saviour Christ in the sixt of Iohn and in the words of the Institution which they oppose against all sense but in the end shall finde to be as opposit to this phantasticall conceit of theirs as anie thing can be Touching our Saviours speech of the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his bloud in the sixth of Iohn these five things specially may be observed First that the question betwixt our Adversaries us being not Whether Christs bodie be turned into bread but whether bread be turned into Christs bodie the words in S. Iohn if they be pressed literally serve more strongly to prove the former then the latter Secondly that this Sermon was uttered by our Saviour above a yeare before the celebration of his last Supper wherein the Sacrament of his bodie and bloud was instituted at which time none of his hearers could possibly have understood him to have spoken of the externall eating of him in the Sacrament Thirdly that by the eating of the flesh of Christ and the drinking of his bloud there is not here meant an externall eating or drinking with the mouth and throate of the bodie as the Iewes then and the Romanists farre more grossely then they have since imagined but an internall and a spirituall effected by a lively faith and the quickning spirit of Christ in the soule of the beleever For there is a spirituall mouth of the inner man as S. Basil noteth wherewith hee is nourished that is made partaker of the Word of life which is the bread that commeth downe from heaven Fourthly that this spirituall feeding upon the bodie and blood of Christ is not to be found in the Sacrament onely but also out of the Sacrament Fiftly that the eating of the flesh and the drinking of the bâ—ood here mentioned is of such excellent vertue that the receiver is thereby made to remaine in Christ and Christ in him and by that meanes certainly freed from dâ—ath and assured of everlasting life Which seeing it cannot be verified of the eating of the Sacrament whereof both the godly the wicked are partakers it proveth not onely that our Saviour did not here speake of the Sacramentall eating but further also that the thing which is delivered in the externall part of the Sacrament cannot be conceived to be really but sacramentally onely the flesh and blood of Christ. The first of these may be plainly seene in the Text where our Saviour doth not onely say I am the bread of life vers 48. and I am the living bread that came downe from heaven vers 51. but addeth also in the 55. verse For my flesh is meate indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed Which words being the
who succeeded him in his Bishopricke saith that the bread and wine sanctifieth them that feed upon that matter acknowledging thereby that the materiall part of those outward elements do still remaine In the Church saith Macarius is offered bread wine the type of his flesh and blood and they which are partakers of the visible bread doe spiritually eate the flesh of the Lord. Christ saith S. Hierome did not offer water but wine for the type of his blood S. Augustine bringeth in our Saviour thus speaking of this matter You shall not eate this bodie which you see nor drinke that blood which they shall shed that will crucifie mee I have commended a certaine Sacrament unto you that being spiritually understood vvill quicken you The same Father in another place writeth that Christ admitted Iudas to that banquet wherein he commended and delivered unto his Disciples the figure of his body and blood but as he elsewhere addeth they did eate that bread which was the Lord himselfe hee the bread of the Lord against the Lord. Lastly the Lord saith he did not doubt to say This is my body when he gave the signe of his body So the Author of the Homily upon the 22. Psalme among the workes of Chrysostome This table hee hath prepared for his servants and hand-maydes in their sight that he might every day for a similitude of the body and blood of Christ shew unto us in a sacrament bread and wine after the order of Melchisedec And S. Chrysostome himselfe in his Epistle written to Caesarius against the heresie of Apolinarius As before the bread be sanctified we call it bread but when Gods grace hath sanctified it by the meanes of the Priest it is delivered from the name of bread and is reputed worthy the name of the Lords body although the nature of the bread remain still in it and it is not called two bodies but one body of Gods sonne so likewise here the divine nature residing in the body of Christ these two make one sonne and one person In the selfe same maner also doe Theodoret Gelasius and Ephraemius proceed against the Eutychian heretickes Theodoret for his part layeth downe these grounds That our Saviour in the deliverie of the mysteries called bread his body and that which was mixt in the cupp his blood That hee changed the names and gave to the body the name of the symbol or signe and to the symbol the name of the body That hee honoured the visible symboles with the name of his bodie and blood not changing the nature but adding grace to nature And that this most holy food is a symbol type of those things whose names it beareth to wit of the body and blood of Christ. Gelasius writeth thus The sacraments which we receive of the body and blood of Christ are a divine thing by meanes whereof wee are made partakers of the divine nature and yet the substance or nature of bread and wine doth not cease to be And indeed the image and the similitude of the bodie and blood of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries It appeareth therefore evidently enough unto us that wee are to hold the same opinion of the Lord Christ himselfe which we professe celebrate and are in his Image that as those Sacraments by the operation of the holy Spirit passe into this that is into the divine substance and yet remaine in the propriety of their owne nature so that principall mysterie it selfe whose force and vertue they truely represent should be conceived to be namely to consist of two natures divine and humane the one not abolishing the truth of the other Lastly Ephraemius the Patriarch of Antioch having spoken of the distinction of these two natures in Christ and said that no man having understanding could say that there was the same nature of that which could be handled and of that which could not be handled of that which was visible and of that which was invisible addeth And even thus the body of Christ which is received by the faithfull the Sacrament he meaneth doth neither depart from his sensible substance and yet remayneth undivided from intelligible grace and Baptisme being wholly made spirituall and remayning one doth both retaine the propertie of his sensible substance of water I meane and yet looseth not that which it is made Thus have wee produced evidences of all sorts for confirmation of the doctrine by us professed touching the blessed Sacrament which cannot but give sufficient satisfaction to all that with anie indifferencie will take the matter into their consideration But the men with whom wee have to deale are so farre fallen out with the truth that neither sense nor reason neither authoritie of Scriptures or of Fathers can perswade them to be friends againe with it unlesse we shew unto them in what Popes dayes the contrarie falshood was first devised If nothing else will give them content we must put them in minde that about the time wherein Soter was Bishop of Rome there lived a cousening companion called Marcus whose qualities are thus set out by an ancient Christian who was famous in those dayes though now his name be unknowne unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where first hee chargeth him to have beene an Idolmakeâ— then hee objecteth unto him his skill in Astrologie and Magicke by meanes whereof and by the assistance of Satan hee laboured with a shewe of miracles to winne credite unto his false doctrines amongst his seduced disciples and lastly hee concludeth that his father the Divel had imployed him as a forerunner of his antithean craft or his antichristian deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse if you will have it in the Apostles language For he was indeed the Divels forerunner both for the idolatries and sorceries which afterward were brought into the East and for those Romish fornications and inchantments wherewith the whole West was corrupted by that man of sinne whose comming was foretold to be after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders And that we may keep our selves within the compasse of that particular which now wee have in hand wee finde in Irenaeus that this Arch-heretick made speciall use of his juggling feates to breed a perswasion in the mindes of those whom hee had perverted that in the cup of his pretended Eucharist he really delivered them blood to drinke For fayning himselfe to consecrate the cups filled with wine and extending the words of Invocation to a great length he made them to appeare of a purple and redd colour to the end it might be thought that the Grace which is above all things did distill the blood thereof into that cup by his Invoâ—ation And
sentence of Diphilus the old Comicall Poet. In Hades we resolve there are two pathes the one whereof is the way of the righteous the other of the wicked But as in this generall they agreed together both among themselves and with the truth so touching the particular situation of this Hádes and the speciall places whereunto these two sorts of soules were disposed and the state of things there a number of ridiculous fictions and fond conceits are to be found among them wherein they dissented as much from one another as they did from the truth it selfe So we see for example that the best soules are placed by some of them in the companie of their Gods in heaven by others in the Galaxias or milky circle by others beyond the Ocean and by others under the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet one Hádes notwithstanding was coÌ„monly thought to have received them all Plato relateth this as a sentence delivered by them who were the first ordayners of the Grecian Mysteries Whosoever goeth to Hádes not initiated and not cleansed shal lye in the mire but he that commeth thither purged and initiated shall dwell with the Gods So Zoroaster the great father of the Magi in the East is said to have used this entrance into his discourse touching the things of the other world These things wrote Zoroaster the sonne of Armenius by race a Pamphylian having beene dead in the warre which I learned of the Gods being in Hades as Clemens Alexandrinus relateth in the fifth booke of his Stromata where he also noteth that this Zoroaster is that Er the sonne of Armenius a Pamphylian of whom Plato writeth in the tenth booke of his Common-wealth that being slain in the warre he revived the twelfth day after and was sent backe as a messenger to report unto men here the things which he had heard and seene in the other world one part of whose relation was this that he saw certaine gulfes beneath in the earth and above in the heaven opposite one to the other and that the just were commanded by the Iudges that sate betwixt those gulfs to go to the right hand up toward Heaven but the wicked to the left hand and downeward which testimonie Eusebius bringeth in among many others to shew the consent that is betwixt Plato and the Hebrewes in matters that concerne the state of the world to come Next to Zoroaster commeth Pythagoras whose golden verses are concluded with this distich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When thou shalt leave the body and come unto a free heaven thou shalt be an immortall God incorruptible and not subject to mortalitie any more So Epicharmus the scholler of Pythagoras If thou be godly in minde thou shalt suffer no evill when thou art dead thy spirit shall remaine above in heaven and Pindarus The soules of the ungodly flie under the heaven or under the earth in cruell torments under the unavoydable yoakes of evills but the soules of the godly dwelling in heaven doe prayse that great blessed one with songs and hymnes Ciâ—ero in his Tusculan questions alledgeth the testimony of Ennius approving the common fame that Romulus did lead his life in heaven with the Gods and in the sixth booke of his Common-wealth he bringeth in Scipio teaching that unto all them which preserve assist and enlarge their countrey there is a certaine place appointed in heavâ—n where they shall live blessed world without end Such a life saith he is the way to heaven and into the company of these who having lived and are now loosed from their body doe inhabite that place which thou seest pâ—inting to the Galaxiaes or milky circle whereof we reade thus also in Manilius An fortes animae dignatque nomina coelo Corporibus resoluta suis terraeque remissa Huc migrant ex orbe suumque habitantia coelum Aethereos vivunt annos mundoque fruuntur With Damascius the philosopher of Damascus this circle is the way of the soules that goe to the Hades in heaven Against whom Iohannes Philoponus doth reason thus from the etymologie of the word If they passe through the Galaxias or milky circle then this should be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hades that is in heaven and how can that be Hades which is so lightsome To which they that maintayned the other opinion would peradventure oppose that other common derivation of the word from the Dorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to please or to delight or that which Plato doth deliver in the name of Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from seeing or knowing all good things For there did Socrates looke to finde such things as appeareth by that speech which Plato in his Dialogue of the Soule maketh him to use the same day that he was to depart out of this life The soule being an invisible thing goeth hence into such another noble and pure and invisible place to Hades in truth unto the good and wise God whither if God will my soule must presently goe which place is alledged by Eusebius to prove that in the things which concerne the immortalitie of the soule Plato doth differ in opinion nothing from Moses The tale also which Socrates there telleth of the pure land seated above in the pure heaven though it have a number of toyes added to it as tales use to have yet the foundation thereof both Eusebius and Origen doe judge to have beene taken from the speeches of the Prophets touching the land of promise and the heavenly Canaan and for the rest Origen referreth us to Platoes interpreters affirming that they who handle his writings more gravely doe expound this tale of his by way of allegory Such another tale doth the same philosoper relate in the Dialogue which he intituleth Gorgias shewing that among men he that leadeth his life righteously and holily shall when he is dead goe unto the Fortunate Ilands and dwell in all happinesse free from evills but he that leadeth it unrighteously and impiously shall goe unto the prison of punishment and just revenge which they call Tartarus which Theodoret bringeth in to prove that Plato did exactly beleeve that there were judgements to passe upon men in Hades For being conversant with the Hebrewes saith he in Aegypt he heard without doubt the oracles of the Prophets and taking some things from thence and mingling other things therewith out of the fables of the Greekes made up his discourses of these things Among which mixtures that which he hath of the Fortunate Ilands is reckoned by Theodoret for one whereof you may reade in Hesiod Pindarus Diodorus Siculus Plutarch and Iosephus also who treating of the diverse sectes that were among the Iewes sheweth that the Essenes borrowed this opinion of the placing of good mens soules in a certaine pleasant habitation beyond
most forcible of all the rest those wherewith the simpler sort are coÌ„monly most deluded might carry some shew of proofe that Christs flesh blood should be turned into bread wine but have no maner of colour to prove that bread and wine are turned into the flesh and blood of Christ. The truth of the second appeareth by the fourâ—h verse in which we finde that this fell out not long before the Passeover and consequently a yeare at least before that last Passeover wherein our Saviour instituted the Sacrament of his Supper Wee willingly indeed do acknowledge that that which is inwardly presented in the Lords Supper and spiritually received by the soule of the faithfull is that verie thing which is treated of in the sixth of Iohn but wee denie that it was our Saviours intention in this place to speake of that which is externally delivered in the Sacrament and orally received by the Communicant And for our warrant herein wee need looke no further then to that earnest asseveration of our Saviour in the 53. verse Verily verily I say unto you Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood ye have no life in you Wherin there is not onely an obligation laid upon them for doing of this which in no likelyhood could be intended of the externall eating of the Sacrament that was not as yet in being but also an absolute necessitie imposed non praecepti solùm ratione sed etiaÌ„ medij Now to hold that all they are excluded from life which have not had the meanes to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is as untrue as it is uncharitable And therefore manie of the Papists themselves as Biel Cusanus Cajelan Tapper Hessels Iansenius and others confesse that our Saviour in the sixth of Iohn did not properly treat of the Sacrament The third of the points proposed may be collected out of the first part of Christs speech in the 35. and 36. verses I am the bread of life hee that commeth to mee shall never hunger and he that beleeveth on me shall never thirst But I said unto you that yee also have seene me and beleeve not But especially out of the last from the 61. verse forward When Iesus knew in himselfe that his Disciples murmured at it hee said unto them Doeth this offend you What then if you should see the Sonne of man ascend up where hee was before It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speake unto you are spirit and life But there are some of you that beleeve not Which words Athanasius or whosoever was the author of the Tractate upon that place Quicunque dixerit verbum in filium homiâ—is noteth our Saviour to have used that his hearers might learne that those things which hee spake were not carnall but spirituall For how many could his bodie have sufficed for meat that it should be made the food of the whole world But therefore it was that he made mention of the Sonne of mans ascension into heaven that he might draw them from this corporall conceit and that hereafter they might learne that the flesh which he spake of was celestiall meat from above and spirituall nourishment to be given by him For the words which I have spoken unto you saith he are spirit and life So likewise Tertullian Although he saith that the flesh profiteth nothing the meaning of the speech must be directed according to the intent of the matter in hand For because they thought it to be a hard and an intolerable speech as if he had determined that his flesh should be truly eaten by them that hee might dispose the state of salvation by the spirit hee premised It is the spirit that quÃckneth and so subjoyned The flesh profiteth nothing namely to quicken c. And because the Word was made flesh it therefore was to be desired for causing of life and to be devoured by hearing and to be chewed by understanding and to be digested by faith For a little before he had also affirmed that his flesh was heavenly bread urging still by the Allegory of necessary food the remembrance of the fathers who preferred the bread and the flesh of the Egyptians before Gods calling Adde hereunto the sentence of Origen There is in the New Testament also a letter which killeth him that doth not spiritually conceive the things that be spoken For if according to the letter you do follow this same which is said Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood this letter killeth And those sayings which everie where occurre in S. Augustines Tractates upon Iohn How shall I send up my hand unto heaven to take hold on Christ sitting there Send thy faith and thou hast hold of him Why preparest thou thy teeth and thy belly Beleâ—ve and thou hast eaten For this is to eate the living bread to beleeve in him He that beleeveth in him eateth He is invisibly fedd because he is invisibly regenerated He is inwardly a bâ—be inwardly renewed where he is renewed there is he nourished The fourth proposition doth necessarily follow upon the third For if the eating and drinking here spoken of be not an externall eating and drinking but an inward participation of Christ by the communion of his quickning spirit it is evident that this blessing is to be found in the soule not onely in the use of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper but at other times also It is no wayes to be doubted by anie one saith S. Augustine that every one of the faithfull is made partaker of the body and bloud of our Lord when he is made a member of Christ in Baptisme and that hee is not estranged from the communion of that bread and cup although before he eate that bread and drinke that cup hee depart out of this world being setled in the unitie of the body of Christ. For he is not deprived of the participation and the benefite of that Sacrament when hee hath found that which this Sacrament doth signifie And hereupon wee see that diverse of the Fathers doe apply the sixth of Iohn to the hearing of the Word also as Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Eusebius Caesareensis and others We are said to drinke the blood of Christ saith Origen not onely by way of the Sacraments but also when we receive his word wherein consisteth life even as hee himselfe saith· The words which I have spoken are spirit and life Vpon which words of Christ Eusebius paraphraseth after this maner Doe not thinke that I speake of that flesh wherewith I am compassed as if you must eate of that neither imagine that I command you to drinke my sensible and bodily blood but understand well that the vvords which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life So that those very words and speeches of his are his flesh and blood whereof who
the writings of S. Cyrill Gennadius Olympiodorus and oâ—hers S. Cyrill from those last words of our Saviour upon the Crosse Father into thy hands I commend my spirit delivereth this as the certaine ground and foundation of our hope Wee ought to beleeve that the soules of the Saints when they are departed out of their bodies are commended unto Gods goodnesse as unto the hands of a most deare Father and doe not remaine in the earth as some of the unbeleevers have imagined untill they have had the honour of buriall neyther are carried as the soules of the wicked be unto a place of unmeasurable torment that is unto Hell but rather flye to the hands of the Father this way being first prepared for us by Christ. For hee delivered up his soule into the hands of his Father that from it and by it a beginning being made we might have certaine hope of this thing firmely beleeving that after death we shall be in the hands of God and shall live a farre better life for ever with Christ. for therefore Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Gennadius in a booke wherein hee purposely taketh upon him to reckon up the particular points of doctrine received by the Church in his time when he commeth to treat of the state of soules separated from the body maketh no mention at all of Purgatorie but layeth down this for one of his positions After the ascension of our Lord into heaven the soules of all the Saints are with Christ and departing out of the bodie goe unto Christ expecting the resurrection of their bodie that together with it they may be changed unto perfect and perpetuall blessednesse as the soules of the sinners also being placed in Hell under feare expect the resurrection of their body that with it they may be thrust unto everlasting paine In like maner Olympiodorus expounding that place of Ecclesiastes If the tree fall toward the South or toward the North in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be maketh this inference thereupon In whatsoever place therefore either lightsome or darke that is either in the foule station of sinnes or in the honest of vertues a man is taken when he dyeth in that degree and order he remaineth for ever For either hee resteth in the light of eternall felicitie with the just and with Christ our Lord or is tormented in darkenesse with the wicked and with the Divell the prince of this world The first whom we finde directly to have held that for certaine light faults there is a purgatory fire provided before the day of judgement was Gregory the first about the end of the sixth age after the birth of our Saviour Christ. It was his imagination that the end of the world was then at hand and that as when the night beginneth to be ended and the day to spring before the rising of the Sunne the darkenesse is in some sort mingled together with the light untill the remaines of the departing night be turned into the light of the following day so the end of this world was then intermingled with the beginning of the world to come and the very darkenes of the remaines thereof made transparent by a certaine mixture of spirituall things And this he assigneth for the reason why in those last times so many things were made cleare touching the soules which before lay hid so that by open revelations and apparitions the world to come might seeme to bring in and open it selfe unto them But as we see that he was plainly deceived in the one of his conceits so have we just cause to call into question the veritie of the other the Scripture especially having informed us that a people for enquiry of matters should not have recourse to the dead but to their God to the Law and to the Testimony it being not Gods manner to send men from the dead to instruct the living but to remit them unto Moses and the Prophets that they may heare them And the reason is well worth the observation which the author of the Questions to Antiochus rendreth why God would not permit the soule of any of those that departed from hence to returne backe unto us againe and to declare the state of things in Hell unto us least much errour might arise from thence unto us in this life For many of the Divels saith hee might transforme themselves into the shapes of those men that were deceased and say that they vvere risen from the dead and so might spred many false matters doctrines of the things there unto our seduction and destruction Neither is it to be passed over that in those apparitions and revelations related by Gregory there is no mention made of any common lodge in Hell appointed for purging of the dead which is that which the Church of Rome now striveth for but of certaine soules only that for their punishment were confined to bathes and other such places here upon earth which our Romanists may beleeve if they list but must seeke for the Purgatorie they looke for somewhere else And yet may they save themselves that labour if they will be advised by the Bishops assembled in the Councell of Aquisgran 240. yeares after these visions were published by Gregory who will resolve them out of the word of God how sinnes are punished in the world to come The sinnes of men say they are punished three maner of wayes two in this life and the third in the life to come Of those two the Apostle saith If we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. This is the punishment wherewith by the inspiration of God every sinner by repenting for his offences taketh revenge upon himselfe But where the Apostle consequently adjoyneth When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with this world this is the punishment which almightie God doth mercifully inflict upon a sinner according to that saying Whom God loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth everie sonne that hee receiveth But the third is very fearefull and terrible which by the most just judgement of God shall be executed not in this world but in that which is to come vvhen the just Iudge shall say Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Divell and his angells Adde hereunto the saying of the author of the booke De vanitate saeculi wrongly ascribed to S. Augustine Know that when the soule is separated from the body presently it is eyther placed in Paradise for his good merites or cast headlong into the bottom of hell for his sinnes and that in the dayes of Otto Frisingensis himselfe who wrote in the year of our Lord MCXLVI the doctrine of Purgatory was esteemed onely a private assertion held by some and not an article of faith generally received by the whole Church for why should hee
and cannot lye graunt unto them according to thy promises that vvhich eye hath not seene and eare hath not heard and which hath not ascended into the heart of man which thou hast prepared O Lord for them that love thy holy name that thy servants may not remaine in death but may get out from thence although slouthfulnesse and negligence have followed them and in that which is used by the Christians of S. Thomas as they are commonly called in the East Indies Let the holy Ghâ—st give resurrection to your dead at the last day and make them vvorthy of the incorruptible kingdome Such is the prayer of S. Ambrose for Gratian and Valentinian the Emperours I doe beseech thee most high God that thou wouldest rayse up againe those deare yong men with a speedie resurrection that thou mayest recompence this untimely course of this present life vvith a timely resurrection and that in Alcuinus Let their soules sustaine no hurt but when that great day of the resurrection and remuneration shall come vouchsafe to raise them up O Lord together with thy Saincts and thine elect and that in Grimoldus his Sacramentarie Almightie and everlasting God vouchsafe to place the body and the soule and the spirit of thy servant N. in the bosomes of Abraham Isaac and Iacob that vvhen the day of thy acknowledgement shall come thou mayest command them to be raysed up among thy Saincts and thine elect But yet the Cardinalls answer that the glorie of the body may be prayed for which the Saincts shall have at the day of the Resurrection commeth somewhat short of that which the Church used to request in the behalfe of S. Leo. For in that prayer expresse mention is made of his soule and to it is wished that profit may redound by the present oblation And therefore this defect must be supplyed out of his answer unto that other praier which is mâ—de for the soules of the faithfull depaâ—ted that they may be delivered out of the mouth of the Lion and that Hell may not swallow them up To this he saith that the Church doth pray for these soules that they may not be condemned unto the everlasting paines of Hell not as if it were not certain that they should not be condemned unto those paines but because it is Gods pleasure that we should pray even for those things which we are certainly to receive The same answer did Alphonsus de Castro give before him that very often those things are prayed for which are certainely knowne shall come to passe as they are prayed for and that of this there be very manie testimonies and Iohannes Medina that God dâ—lighteth to be prayed unto even for those things which otherwise he purposed to do For God had decreed saith he after the sinne of Adam to take our flesh and he decreed the time wherein he meant to come and yet the prayers of the Saincts that prayed for his Incarnation and for his comming were acceptable unto him God hath also decreed to grant pardon unto every repentant sinner and yet the prayer is gratefull unto him wherein eyther the penitent doth pray for himselfe or another for him that God would be pleased to accept his repentance God hath decreed also and promised not to forsake his Church and to be present with Councells lawfully assembled yet the prayer notwithstanding is gratefull unto God and the hymnes vvhereby his presence and favour and grace is implored both for the Councell the Church And whereas it might be obiected that howsoever the Church may sometimes pray for those things which shee shall certainly receive yet shee doth not pray for those things which shee hath alreadie received and this shee hath received that those soules shall not be damned seeing they have received their sentence and are most secure from damnation the Cardinall replieth that this obiection may easily be avoyded For although those soules saith he have received already their first sentence in the particular judgement and by that sentence are freed from Hell yet doth there yet remaine the generall judgement in which they are to receive the second sentence Wherefore the Church praying that those soules in the last judgement may not fall into darkenesse nor be swallowed up of Hel doth not pray for the thing which the soule hath but which it shall receive Thus these men labouring to shew how the prayers for the dead used in their Church may stand with their conceits of Purgatorie doe thereby informe us how the prayers for the dead used by the ancient Church may stand well enough without the supposall of anie Purgatorie at all For if we may pray for those things which wee are most sure shall come to passe and the Church by the Adversaries owne confession did pray accordingly that the soules of the faithfull might escape the paines of Hell at the generall Iudgement notwithstanding they had certainly beene freed from them alreadie by the sentence of the particular Iudgement by the same reason when the Church in times past besought God to remember all those that slept in the hope of the resurrection of everlasting life which is the forme of prayer used in the Greeke Liturgies and to give unto them rest and to bring them unto the place where the light of his countenance should shine upon them for evermore why should not we thinke that it desired these things should be granted unto them by the last sentence at the day of the Resurrection notwithstanding they were formerly adiudged unto them by the particular sentence at the time of their dissolution For as that which shall befall unto all at the day of judgement is accomplished in every one at the day of his death so on the other side whatsoever befalleth the soule of everie one at the day of his death the same is fully accomplished upon the whole man at the day of the generall iudgement Whereupon wee finde that the Scriptures everie where doe point out that great day unto us as the time wherein mercie and forgivenesse rest and refreshing ioy and gladnesse redemption and salvation rewards and crownes shall be bestowed upon all Gods children as in 2. Timoth. 1.16 18. The Lord give mercie unto the house of Onesiphorus the Lord grant unto him that he may finde mercie of the Lord in that day 1. Cor. 1.8 Who shall also confirme you unto the end that ye may be blamelesse in the day of our Lord Iesus Christ. Act. 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sinnes may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. 2. Thessal 1.6 7. It is a righteous thing with God to recompense unto you which are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shal be revealed from heaven with his mightie Angells Philip. 2.16 That I may rejoyce in the day of Christ that I have not runne in vaine neyther
torments which by Arator is thus more amply expressed in verse pavidis resplenduit umbris Pallida regna petens propriâ quem luce corruscum Non potuit fuscare chaeos fugere dolores Infernus tunc esse timet nullumque coërcens In se poena redit nova tortor ad otia languet Tartara moesta gemunt quia vincula cuncta quiescunt Mors ibi quid faceret quò vitae portitor ibat S. Augustine doth thus deliver his opinion touching this matter That Christs soule came unto those places wherein sinners are punished that hee might loose them from torments whom by his hidden justice he judged fit to be loosed is not without cause beleeved Neyther did our Saviour being dead for us scorne to visite those parts that hee might loose from thence such as hee could not bee ignorant according to his divine and secret justice were not to bee loosed But whether hee loosed all that hee found in those paines or some whom hee thought worthy of that benefit I yet enquire For that he was in hell and bestowed this benefit upon some that did lye in the paines thereof I doe not doubt Thus did S. Augustine write unto Euodias who inquired of him whether our Saviour loosed all from thence and emptied Hell which was in those dayes a great question and gave occasion to that speech of Gregory Nazianzen If hee descend into Hell goe thou downe with him namely in contemplation and meditation learne the mysteries of Christs doings there what the dispensation and what the reason was of his double descent to wit from heaven unto earth from earth unto hell whether at his appearing he simply saved all or there also such only as did beleeve What ClemeÌ„s Alexandrinus his opinion was herein every one knoweth that our Lord descended for no other cause into Hell but to preach the Gospell and that such as lived a good life before the time of the Gospell whether Iewes or Grecians although they were in hell and in durance yet hearing the voyce of our Lord eyther from himselfe immediatly or by the working of his Apostles were presently converted and did beleeve in a word that in Hell things were so ordred that eveÌ„ there all the soules having heard this preaching might eyther shew their repentance or acknowledge their punishment to be just because they did not beleeve Hereupon when Celsus the Philosopher made this objection concerning our Saviour Surely you will not say of him that when hee could not perswade those that were heere hee went unto Hell to perswade those that were there Origen the scholler of Clemens sticketh not to returne unto him this answere Whether he will or no wee say this that both being in the bodie hee did perswade not a few but so many that for the multitude of those that were perswaded by him he was layd in wayt for and after his soule was separated from his body hee had conference with soules separated from their bodies converting of them unto himselfe such as would or such as he discerned to bee more fit for reasons best knowne unto himselfe The like effect of Christs preaching in Hell is delivered by Anastasius Sinaita Iobius or Iovius Damascen Oecumenius Michael Glycas and his transcriber Theodorus Metochites Procopius saith that hee preached to the spirits that were in Hell restrayned in the prison house releasing them all from the bonds of necessity wherein he followeth S. Cyrill of Alexandria writing upon the same place that Christ went to preach to the spirits in Hell and appeared to them that were detayned in the prison house and freed them all fâ—om bonds and necessitie and paine and punishment The same S. Cyrill in his Paschall homilies affirmeth more directly that our Saviour entring into the lowermost dennes of Hell and preaching to the spirits that were there emptied that unsatiable denne of death spoyled Hell of spirits and having thus spoyled all Hell left the Divell there solitarie and alone For when Christ descended into Hell sayth Andronicus not onely the soules of the Saints were delivered from thence but all those that before did serve in the error of the Divell and the worship of idols being enriched with the knowledge of God obtayned salvation for which also they gave thankes praysing God Whereupon the author of one of the sermons upon the Ascension fathered upon S. Chrysostom bringeth in the Divell complayning that the sonne of Mary having taken away from him all those that were with him from the verie beginning had left him desolate whereas the true Chrysostom doth at large confute this fond opinion censuring the maintayners thereof as the bringers in of old wives conceytes and Iewish fables Yea Philastrius S. Augustin out of him doth brand such for hereticks whose testimonie also is urged by S. Gregory against George and Theodore two of the clergie of Constantinople who held in his time as many others did before and after them that our omnipotent Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ descending into Hell did save all those vvho there confessed him to be God and did deliver them from the paines that were due unto them and when Clement our countryman about 150. years after did renue that old error in Germanie that the sonne of God descending into Hell delivered from thence all such as that infernall prison did detayne beleevers and unbeleevers praysers of God and worshippers of idols the Romane Synod held by Pope Zacharie condemned him and his followers for it But to leave Clemens Scotus and to returne unto Clemens Alexandrinus at whom Philastrius may seeme to have aymed specially it is confessed by our Adversaries that he fell into this error partly being deceived with the superficiall consideration of the wordes of S. Petâ—r touching Christs preaching to the spirits in prison 1. Pet. 3.19 partly being deluded with the authority of Hermes the supposed scholler of S. Paul by whose dreames he was perswaded to beleeve that not onely Christ himselfe but his Apostles also did descend into Hell to preach there unto the dead to baptize them But touching the wordes of S. Peter is the maine doubt whether they are to bee referred unto Christs preaching by the ministerie of Noë unto the world of the ungodly or unto his owne immediate preaching to the spirits in Hell after his death upon the Crosse. For seeing it was the spirit of Christ which spake in the Prophets as S. Peter sheweth in this same Epistle and among them was Noë a preacher of righteousnesse as hee declareth in the next even as in S. Paul Christ is sayd to have come and preached to the Ephesians namely by his spirit in the mouth of his Apostles so likewise in S. Peter may he be sayd to have gone and preached to the old world by
carkasses are heaped together promiscuously in one certaine pit so when the Heathen write that all the soules of the dead goe to Hades their meaning is not that they are all shut up together in one and the selfe same roome but in generall onely they understand thereby the translation of them into the other world the extreame parts whereof the Poëts place as farre asunder as wee doe Heaven and Hell And this opinion of theirs S. Ambrose doth well like off wishing that they had not mingled other superfluous and unprofitable conceits therewith that soules departed from their bodies did goe to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to a place which is not seene which place saith he wee in Latin call Infernus So likewise saith S. Chrysostom The Grecians and Barbarians and Poëts and Philosophers and all mankinde doe herein consent with us although not all alike and say that there be certaine seats of judgement in Hádes so manifest and so confessed a thing is this and againe The Grecians were foolish in many things yet did they not resist the truth of this doctrine If therefore thou vvilt follow them they have granted that there is a certaine life after this accounts and seats of judgement in Hádes and punishments and honors and sentences judgements And if thou shalt aske the Iewes or heretickes or any man he will reverence the truth of this doctrine although they differ in other things yet in this doe they all agree and say that there are accounts to be made there of the things that be done here Only amoÌ„g the Iwes the Sadducees w ch say that there is no resurrection neyther Angel nor Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away the punishments and honours that are in Hádes as is noted by Iosephus For which wicked doctrine they were condemned by the other sectes of the Iewes who generally acknowledged that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Olam hanneshamoth for so doe they in their language untill this day call that which Iosephus in Greeke tearmeth Hades that is to say the world of spirits into which they held that the soules were translated presently after death and there received their seuerall judgements The same thing doth Theodoret suppose to be signified by that phrase of being gathered to ones people which is so usuall in the word of God For it being said of Iacob before he was buried that he gave up the ghost and was gathered unto his people Genes 49.33 Theodoret observeth that Moses by these words did closely intimate the hope of the resurrection For if men saith he had beene wholy extinguished and did not passe unto another life he would not have sayd Hee was gathered to his people So likewise where it is distinctly noted of Abraham Genes 25.8 9. first that hee gave up the ghost and died then that hee was gathered to his people and lastly that his sonnes buried him Cardinall Cajetan and the Iesuite Lorinus interpret the first de compositi totius dissolutione of the dissolution of the parts of the whole-man consisting of body and soule the second of the state of the soule separated from the body and the third of the disposing of the body parted from the soule Thus the Scriptures speech of being gathered to our people should be answerable in meaning to the phrase used by the heathen of descending into Hell or going to Hades which as Synesius noteth out of Homer was by them opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a most absolute extinguishment as well of the soule as of the body And forasmuch as by that tearme the immortalitie of the soule was commonly signified therefore doth Plato in his Phaedo disputing of that argument make this the state of his question Whether the soules of men deceased be in Hades or no and our Eccâ—esiasticall writers also doe from thence sometimes fetch a difference betwixt Death and Hades You shall finde saith Theophylact that there is some difference betwixt Hades and Death namely that Hades contayneth the soules but Death the bodies For the soules are immoâ—tall The same we reade in Nicetas Serronius his exposition of Gregory Nazianzens second Paschall oration Andreas Caesareensis doth thus expresse the difference Death is the separation of the soule and the body But Hades is a place to us invisible or vnseene and unknowne which receiveth our soules when they departe from hence The ordinary Glosse following S. Hierome upon the thirteenth of Hosea thus Death is that whereby the soule is separated from the body Hell is that place wherein the soules are included eyther for comfort or for paine The soule goeth to Hádes saith Nicetas Choniates in the Prooeme of his Historie but the bodie returneth againe into those things of which it was composed Caius or whoe ever else was the author of that auncient fragment which wee formerly signified to have been falsely fathered upon Iosephus holdeth that in Hades the soules both of the righteous and unrighteous are contayned but that the righteous are led to the right hand by the Angels that awayte them there and brought unto a lightsome region wherein the righteous men that have beene from the beginning doe dwell and this wee call Abrahams bâ—some saith he whereas the wicked are drawen toward the left hand by the punishing Angels not going willingly but drawen as prisoners by violence Where you may observe how he frameth his description of Hades according to that modell wherewith the Poets had before possessed mens mindes Dextera quae Ditis magni sub moenia tendit Hâc iter Elysium nobis at laeva malorum Exercet poenas ad impia tartara mittit The right hand path goth underneath the walls of Pluto deepe That way we must if paths to Paradise we thinke to keepe The left hand leads to paine and men to Tartarus doth send For as Wee doe allot unto good men a resting place in Paradise so the Greekes doe assigne unto their Heroës the Fortunate Ilandes and the Elysian fields saith Tzetzes And as the Scripture borroweth the terme of Tartarus from the Heathen so is it thought by Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen that the Heathen tooke the ground of their Elysian fields from the Scriptures Paradise To heape up many testimonies out of the Heathen authors to prove that in their understanding all soules went to Hades and received there eyther punishment or reward according to the life that they led in this world would be but a needlesse worke seeing none that hath reade any thing in their writings can be ignorant therof If any man desire to informe himselfe herein he may repayre to Plutarches consolatory discourse written to Apollonius where he shall finde the testimonies of Pindarus and many others alledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching the state of the godly in Hades Their common opinion is sufficiently expressed in that
away speaketh he these things as if he were tâ— goe down into hell by dying For of Hell there is a great question and what the Scripture delivereth thereof in all the places where it hath occasion to make mention of it is to be observed Hitherto S. Augustin who had reference to this great question when he said as hath beene before alledged Of Hell neyther have I had any experience as yet nor you and peradventure there shal be another way and by Hell it shall not be For these things are uncertaine Neyther is there greater question among the Doctors of the Church concerning the Hell of the Fathers of the Old Testament then there is of the Hell of the faithfull now in the time of the New neyther are there greater differences betwixt them touching the Hell into which our Saviour went whether it were under the earth or above whether a darkesome place or a lightsome whether a prison or a paradise then there are of the mansions wherein the soules of the blessed do now continue S. Hierome interpreting those words of King Ezechias Esai 38.10 I shall goe to the gates of Hell saith that this is meant eyther of the common law of nature or else of those gates from which that he was delivered the Psalmist singeth Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death that I may shew forth all thy prayses in the gates of the daughter of Sion Psalm 9.13 14. Now as some of the Fathers doe expound our Saviours going to Hell of his descending into Gehenna so others expound it of his going to Hell according to the common law of nature the common law of nature I say which extendeth it selfe indifferently unto all the dead whether they belong to the state of the New Testament or of the Old For as Christs soule was in all points made like unto ours sinne onely excepted while it was joyned with his body here in the land of the living so when he had humbled himselfe unto the death it became him in all things to be made like unto his brethren even in that state of dissolution And so indeed the soule of Iesus had experience of both For it was in the place of humaine soules and being out of the flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable soule therefore and of the same substance with the soules of men even as his flesh is of the same substance with the flesh of men proceeding from Mary saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his exposition of that text of the Psalme Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell Where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell you see he understandeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humaine soules which is the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or world of spirits and by the disposing of Christs soule there after the maner of other soules concludeth it to be of the same nature with other mens soules So S Hilary in his exposition of the 138. Psalme This is the law of humaine necessitie saith he that the bodies being buried the soules should goe to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man and a little after he repeateth it that de supernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit he descended from the supernall to the infernall parts by the law of death and upon the 53. Psalme more fully To fulfill the nature of man he subjected himselfe to death that is to a departure as it were of the soule and body and pierced into the infernall seates which was a thing that seemed to be duâ— unto man So Leo in one of his Sermons upon our Lords passion Hee did undergoe the lawes of Hell by dying but did dissolve them by rising againe and so did cut off the perpetuitie of death that of eternall hee might make it temporall So Irenaeus having said that our Lord conversed three dayes where the dead were addeth that therein he observed the law of the dead that hee might be made the first begotten from the dead staying untill the third day in the lower parts of the earth and afterward rising in his flesh Then he draweth from thence this generall conclusion Seeing our Lord went in the midst of the shadow of death vvhere the soules of the dead were then afterward rose againe corporally and after his resurrection was assumed it is manifest that the soules of his disciples also for whose sake the Lord wrought these things shall goe to an invisible place appointed unto them by God and there shall abide untill the resurrection wayting for the resurrection and afterwards receaving their bodies and rising againe perfectly that is to say corporally even as our Lord did rise againe they shall so come unto the presence of God For there is no disciple above his master but every one shall be perfect if he be as his master The like collection doth Tertullian make in his booke of the Soule If Christ being God because he was also man dying according to the Scriptures and being buried according to the same did heere also satisfie the law by performing the course of an humane death in Hell neyther did ascend into the higher parts of the heavens before he descended into the lower parts of the earth that he might there make the Patriarches and Prophets partakers of himselfe thou hast both to beleeve that there is a region of Hell under the earth and to push them with the elbowe who proudly enough doe not thinke the soules of the faithfull to be fit for Hell servants above their Lord and disciples above their Master scorning perhaps to take the comfort of expecting the resurrection in Abrahams bosome And in the same booke speaking of the soule What is that saith he which is translated unto the infernall parts or Hell after the separation of the body which is detayned there which is reserved unto the day of judgement unto which Christ by dying did descend to the soules of the Patriarches I thinke Where he maketh the Hell unto which our Saviour did descend to be the common receptacle not of the soules of the Patriarches alone but also of the soules that are now still separated from their bodies as being the place quò universa humanitas trahitur as he speaketh elsewhere in that booke unto which all mankinde is drawne So Novatianus after him affirmeth that the very places which lye under the earth be not voyde of distinguished and ordered powers For that is the place saith he whither the soules both of the godly and ungodly are led receiving the fore-judgements of their future dâ—ome Lactantius saith that our Saviour rose againe ab inferis from Hell but so he saith also that the dead Saints shall be raised up ab inferis at the time of the Resurrection S. Cyrill of Alexandria saith that the Iewes killed Christ and cast him into the deepe
and darke dungeon of death that is into Hades adding afterward that Hades may rightly be esteemed to be the house and mansion of such as are deprived of life Nicephorus Gregoras in his funerall Oration upon Theodorus Metochites putteth in this for one strayne of his lamentation Who hath brought downe that heavenly man unto the bottome of Hades and Andrew archbishop of Crete touching the descent both of Christ and all Christians after him even unto the darke and comfortlesse Hades writeth in this maner If hee who was the Lord and master of all and the light of them that are in darknesse and the life of all men would taste death and undergoe the descent into Hell that he might be made like unto us in all things sinne excepted and for three dayes went thorough the sad obscure and darke region of Hell what strange thing is it that wee who are sinners and dead in trespasses according to the great Apostle who are subject to generation and corruption should meete with death and goe with our soule into the darke chambers of Hell where we cannot see light nor behold the life of mortall men For are wee above our Master or better then the Saints who underwent these things of ours after the like maner that we must doe Iuvencus intimateth that our Saviour giving up the ghost sent his soule unto heaven in those verses of his Tunc clamor Domini magno conamine missus Aethereis animam comitem commiscuit auris Eusebius Emesenus collecteth so much from the last words which our Lord uttered at the same time Father into thine hands I commend my spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His spirit was above and his body remayned upon the crosse for us In the Greeke exposition of the Canticles collected out of Eusebius Philo Carpathius and others that sentence in the beginning of the sixt chapter My beloved is gone down into his garden is interpreted of Christs going to the soules of the Saints in Hádes which in the Latin collections that beare the name of Philo Carpathius is thus more largely expressed By this descending of the Bridegrome we may understand the descending of our Lord Iesus Christ into Hell as I suppose for that which followeth proveth this when he sayeth To the beds of spices For those ancient holy men are not unfiâ—ly signified by the beds of spices such as were Noë Abraham Isaac Iacob Moses Iob David Samuel Elisaeus Daniel and very many others before the Law in the Law who all of them like unto beds of spices gave a most sweete smell of the odours and fruits of holy righteousnesse For then as a triumpher did he enter into PARADISE when he pierced into Hell God himselfe is present with us for a witnesse in this matter when he answered most graciously to the Thiefe upon the Crosse commending himselfe unto him most religiously To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Lastly touching this Paradise the various opinions of the ancient are thus layd downe by Olympiodorus to seeke no farther It is a thing worthy of enquirie in what place under the Sunne the righteous are placed which have left this life Certaine it is that in Paradise forasmuch as Christ said unto the Thiefe This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And it is to be knowne that the literall Tradition teacheth Paradise to be in earth But some have said that Paradise also is in Hell that is in a place under the earth unto which opinion of theirs they apply that of the Gospell where the rich man saw Lazarus being yet himselfe sunke downe in a lower place when Lazarus was in a place more eminent where Abraham was But howsoever the matter goeth this without doubt is manifest aswell out of Ecclesiastes as out of all the sacred Scripture that the godly shall be in prosperity and peace and the ungodly in punishments and torments And others are of the minde that Paradise is in the Heavens c. Hitherto Olympiodorus That Christs soule went into Paradise Doctor Bishop saith being well understood is true For his soule in hell had the joyes of Paradise but to make that an exposition of Christs descending into hell is to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it Yet this ridiculous exposition he affirmeth to be received of most Protestants Which is even as true as that which he avoucheth in the same place that this article of the descent into Hell is to be found in the old Roman Creed expounded by Ruffinus where Ruffinus as we have heard expounding that article delivereth the flat contrarie that it is not found added in the Creed of the Church of Rome It is true indeed that more than most Protestants do interprete the words of Christ uttered unto the Thiefe upon the Crosse Luk. 23.43 of the going of his soule into Paradise where our Saviour meaning simply and plainly that hee would be that day in Heaven M. Bishop would have him so to be understood as if he had meant that that day he would be in Hell And must it be now held more ridiculous in Protestants to take Hell for Paradise then in M. Bishop to take Paradise for Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the wordes of the Apostles Creed in the Greeke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Symbol of Athanasius Some learned Protestants do observe that in these words there is no determinate mention made eyther of ascending or descending either of Heaven or Hell taking Hell according to the vulgar acception but of the generall only under which these contraries are indifferently comprehended and that the words literally interpreted import no more but this HEE WENT UNTO THE OTHER WORLD Which is not to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it as M. Bishop fancieth who may quickly make himselfe ridiculous in taking upon him thus to censure the interpretations of our learned linguistes unlesse his owne skill in the languages were greater then as yet he hath given proofe of Master Broughton with whose authoritie hee elsewhere presseth us as of a man esteemed to be singularly seene in the Hebrew and Greeke tongue hath beene but too forward in maintayning that exposition which by D. Bishop is accounted so ridiculous In one place touching the terme Hell as it doth answer the Hebrew Sheol and the Greeke Hádes he writeth thus He that thinketh it ever used for Tartaro or Gehenna otherwise then the terme Death may by Synecdoche import so hath not skill in Ebrew or that Greeke vvhich breathing and live Graecia spake if God hath lent me any judgement that way In another place he alledgeth out of Portus his Dictionary that the Macedonians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven And one of his acquaintance beyond the Sea reporteth that he should deliver that in many most ancient Manuscript copies the Lords prayer is found with this
this service that it is usually put for the whole and the publick place of Gods worship hath from hence given it the denomination of the house of prayer Furthermore hee that heareth our prayers must be able to search the secrets of our hearts and discerne the inward disposition of our soules For the pouring out of good words and the offering up of externall sighes and teares are but the carkase only of a true prayer the life thereof consisteth in the pouring out of the very soule it selfe and the sending up of those secret groanes of the spirit which cannot be uttered But he that searcheth the hearts and onely he knoweth vvhat is the minde of the spirit he heareth in heaven his dwelling place and giveth to every man according to his wayes whose heart he knoweth for he even he ONELY knoweth the hearts of all the children of men as Salomon teacheth us in the praier which he made at the dedication of the Temple wherunto we may add that golden sentence of his father David for a conclusion O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come If it be further here obâ—ected by us that we finde neyther precept nor example of any of the Fathers of the old Testament whereby this kinde of pâ—aying to the soules of the Saints departed may be warranted Cardinall Bellarmine will give us a reason for it for therefore saith he the spirits of the Patriarches and the Prophets before the comming of Christ were neyther so worshipped nor invocated as we doe now worship and invocate the Apostles and Martyrs because that they were detayned as yet shut up in the prisons of Hell But if this reason of his be grounded upon a false foundation as we have alreadie shewed it to be and the contrary supposition be most true that the spirits of the Patriarchs and Prophets were not thus shut up in the prisons of Hell then have we foure thousand yeares prescription left unto us to oppose against this innovation We go further yet and urge against them that in the New Testament it selfe we can descry no footsteps of this new kinde of Invocation more then we did in the Scriptures of the old Testament For this Salmeron doth tell us that the Scriptures vvhich were made and published in the primitive Church ought to found and explaine Christ who by the tacite suggestion of the Spirit did bring the Saints with him and that it would have beene a hard matter to enjoyne this to the Iewes and to the Gentiles an occasion would be given thereby to thinke that many Gods were put upon them in steed of the multitude of the Gods whom they had forsaken So this new worship you see fetcheth his originall neyther from the Scriptures of the Old nor of the New Testament but from I know not what tacite suggestion which smelt so strongly of Idolatry that at first it was not safe to acquaint eyther the Iewes or the Gentiles therewith But if any such sweet tradition as this were at first delivered unto the Church by Christ and his Apostles we demand further how it should come to passe that for the space of 360. yeares together after the birth of our Saviour we can finde mention no where of any such thing For howsoever our Challenger giveth it out that prayer to Saints was of great account amongst the Fathers of the primitive Church for the first 400. years after Christ yet for nine parts of that time I dare be bold to say that he is not able to produce as much as one true testimonie out of any Father whereby it may appeare that any account at all was made of it and for the tithe too he shall finde perhaps before we have done that he is not like to carry it away so cleerly as he weeneth Whether those blessed spirits pray for us is not the question here but whether we are to pray unto them That God onely is to be prayed unto is the doctrine that was once delivered unto the Saints for which we so earnestly contend the Saints praying for us doth no way crosse this for to whom should the Saints pray but to the King of Saints their being prayed unto is the onely stumbling block that lyeth in this way And therefore in those first times the former of these was admitted by some as a matter of probabilitie but the latter no way yeelded unto as being derogatorie to the priviledge of the Deitie Origen may be a witnesse of both who touching the former writeth in this sort I doe thinke thus that all those fathers who are departed this life before us doe fight with us and assist us with their prayers for so have I heard one of the elder Masters saying and in another place Moreover if the Saints that have left the body and be with Christ doe any thing and labour for us in like maner as the Angels do vvho are imployed in the ministery of our salvation let this also remaine among the hidden things of God and the mysteries that are not to be committed unto writing But because he thought that the Angels and Saints prayed for us did he therefore hold it needfull that we should direct our prayers unto them Heare I pray you his owne answer in his eighth booke against Celsus the philosopher We must endevour to please God alone who is above all things and labour to have him propitious unto us procuring his good will with godlinesse and all kinde of vertue And if Celsus will yet have us to procure the good will of any others after him that is God over all let him consider that as when the body is moved the motion of the shadow thereof doth follow it so in like maner having God favourable unto us who is over all it followeth that we shall have all his friends both Angels and soules and spirits loving unto us For they have a fellow-feeling with them that are thought worthy to finde favour from God Neyther are they only favourable unto such as be thus worthy but they worke with them also that are willing to doe service unto him who is God over all are friendly to them and pray with them and intreate with them So as wee may be bold to say that when men which with resolution propose unto them selves the best things doe pray unto God many thousands of the sacred powers pray together vvith them UNSPOKEN to Celsus had said of the Angels that they belong to God and in that respect we are to put our trust in them and make oblations to them according to the lawes and pray unto them that they may be favourable to us To this Origen answereth in this maner Away with Celsus his counsell saying that we must pray to Angels and let us not so much as afford any little audience to it For we must pray to him alone who is God over all
the WORD of God that is to say the Sonne whom he coupled with the Father and prayed unto and for further confirmation hereof he alledgeth among other things that neyther Iacob nor David did pray unto any other but God himselfe for their deliverance The place wherein we first finde the spirits of the deceased to be called unto rather then called upon is that in the beginning of the former of the Invectives which Gregory Nazianzen wrote against the Emperour Iulian about the CCCLXIV year of our Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heare ô thou soule of great Constantius if thou hast any understanding of these things and as many soules of the Kings before him as loved Christ. where the Greek Scholiast upon that parenthesis putteth this note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He speaketh according to the maner of Isocrates meaning If thou hast any power to heare the things that are here and therein he sayeth rightly for Isocrates useth the same forme of speech boâ—h in his Euagoras and in his Aegineticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they which be dead have any sense of the things that are done here The like limitation is used by the same Nazianzen toward the end of the funerall oration which he made upon his sister Gorgonia where he speaketh thus unto her If thou hast any care of the things done by us and holy soules receive this honour from God that they have any feeling of such things as these receive this Oration of ours in stead of many and before many funerall obsequies So doubtfull the beginnings were of that which our Challenger is pleased to reckon among the chiefe articles not of his owne religion onely but also of the Saints and Fathers of the primitive Church who if his word may be taken for the matter did generally hold the same touching this point that the Church of Rome doth now But if he had eyther himselfe read the writings of those Saints and Fathers with whose mindes he beareth us in hand he is so well acquainted or but taken so much information in this case as the bookes of his owne new Masters were able to afford him he would not so peremptorily have avouched that prayer to Saints was generally embraced by the Doctors of the primitive Church as one of the chiefe articles of their Religion His owne Bellarmine he might remember in handling this very question of the Invocation of Saints had wished him to note that because the Saints which died before the comming of Christ did not enter into heaven neyther did see God nor could ordinarily take knowledge of the prayers of such as should petition unto them therefore it was not the use in the old Testament to say Saint Abraham pray for me c. For at that time saith Suarez we reade no where that any man did directly pray unto the Saints departed that they should helpe him or pray for him for this maner of praying is proper to the law of Grace wherein the Saints beholding God are able also to see in him the prayers that are powred out unto them So doth Salmeron also teach that therefore it was not the maner in the old Testament to resort unto the Saints as intercessors because they were not as yet blessed and glorified as now they be and therefore so great an honour as this is was not due unto them And in vaine saith Pighius should their suffrages have beene implored as being not yet joyned with God in glory but untill the reconciliation and the opening of the kingdome by the blood of Christ the redeemer wayting as yet in a certaine place appointed by God and therefore not understanding the prayers and desires of the living which the blessed doe behold and heare not by the efficacie of any proper reason reaching from them unto us but in the glasse of the divine Word which it was not as yet granted unto them to behold But after the price of our redemption was payd the Saints now raigning with Christ in heavenly glory do heare our prayers and desires forasmuch as they behold them all most clearely in the Word as in a certaine glasse Now that diverse of the chiefe Doctors of the Church were of opinion that the Saints in the New Testament are in the same place state that the Saints of the Old Testament were in and that before the day of the last judgement they are not admitted into Heaven and the cleare sâ—ght of God wherein this metaphysicall speculation of the Saints seeing of our praiers is founded hath beene before declared out of their owne writings where that speech of S. Augustin Nondum ibi eris quis nescit Thou shalt not as yet be there who knoweth it not sheweth that the opinion was somewhat generall and apprehended generally too as more then an opinion By the Romanists own grounds then the more generally this point was held by the ancient Fathers and the more resolvedly the lesse generally of force and the more doubtfully must the Popish doctrine of praying to Saints have beene intertayned by them And if our Challenger desire to be informed of this doubt that was among the ancient Divines touching the estate of the Saints now in the time of the New Testament by the report of the Doctors of his owne religion rather than by our allegations let him heare from Franciscus Pegna what they have found herein It was a matter in controversie saith he of old whether the soules of the Saints before the day of judgement did see God and enjoy the divine vision seeing many worthy men and famous both for leaâ—ning and holinesse did seeme to hold that they doe not see nor enjoy it before the day of judgement untill receiving their bodies together with them they should enjoy divine blessednesse For Irenaeus Iustin Martyr Tertullian Clemens Romanus Origen Ambrose Chrysostom Augustin Lactantius Victorinus Prudentius Theodoret Aretas Oecumenius Theophylact and Euthymius are said to have beene of this opinion as Castrus and Medina and Sotus dorelate To whom we may adjoyne one more of no lesse credit among our Romanists then any of the others even Thomas Stapleton himselfe who taketh it for granted that these so many famous ancient Fathers Tertullian Irenaeus Origen Chrysostom Theodoret Oecumenius Theophylact Ambrose Clâ—mens Romanus sss and Bernard did not assent unto this sentence which now saith he in the Councell of Florence was at length after much disputing defined as a doctrine of faith that the soules of the righteous enjoy the sight of God before the day of judgement but did deliver the contrary sentence thereunto We would intreat our Challenger then to spell these things and put them together and afterward to tell us whether such a conclusion as this may not be deduced from thence Such as held that the Saints were not yet admitmitted to the sight of God could not well hold that men should pray
dead man in his sleepe he thinketh that he doth see his soule but when he dreameth in like maner of one that is alive he maketh no doubt that it is neyther his soule nor his body but a similitude of the man that did appeare unto him as if not the soulâ—s but the similitudes of dead men not knowing it might not also after the same sort appeare So he telleth of one Eulogius a rhetorician in Carthage who lighting upon a certaine obscure place in Ciceroes Rhetorickes which he was the next day to reade unto his schollers was so troubled therwith that at night he could scarce sleepe In which night saith S. Augustin I expounded unto him while he was in a dreame that which he did not understand nay not I but my image I not knowing and so farre beyond the sea eyther doing or dreaming some other thing and nothing at all caring for his cares The like he doth also note to happen unto those that are in raptures and extasies For unto these also doe appeare images as well of the living as of the dead but after they have been restored unto their senses as many of the dead as they say that they have seen with them they are truely beleeved to have beene neyther doe they marke who heare these things that the images of some living men that were absent and ignorant of these things were in like maner seene by them And for the confession of the Divels in parties possessed he bringeth in a memorable instance of that which fell out in Millaine at the place of the memoriall of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius where the Divels did not only make mention of the Martyrs that were dead but also of Ambrose the Bishop then living and besought him that he would spare them he being otherwise employed and being utterly ignorant of the thing when it was a doing But as S. Augustin doth put us in minde in that discourse that men are sometimes ledd into great errors by deceitfull dreames or visions and that it is just that they should suffer such things so S. Chrysostom giveth a good admonition that little heed should be taken of the Divels sayings What is it then saith he that the Divels doe say I am the soule of such a Monke Surely for this I beleeve it not because the Divels say it for they deceive their hearers And therefore Paul Act. 16.18 silenced them although they spake truth least taking occasion from thence they might mingle false things againe with those truthes and get crediâ— to themselves and touching dreames and apparitions of the dead he addeth further If at this time the dreames that appeare oftentimes in the shapes of them that have departed this life have deceived and corrupted many much more if this were once setled in mens mindes that many of those that are departed did returne againe unto us that wicked Divel would plot a thousand guiles and bring in much deceit into our life And for this cause God hath shut up the doores and doth not suffer any of the deceased to returne back and tell the things that are there least he taking occasion from thence should bring in all his own devices It was the complaint of Synesius in his time that there were many both private men and Priests too who fayned certaine dreames which they called Revelations· and in ancient writings we meet with sundry visions which if they be truely related may more justly be suspected to have been illusions of deceitfull spirits than true apparitions of blessed eyther Soules or Angels He that will advisedly reade over Basilius Seleuciensis his narration of the miracles of S. Thecla for example must eyther reject the worke as strangely corrupted or easily be drawne to yeeld unto that which I have said For who can digest such relations and observations as these that they who watch the night that goeth before her festivitie doe at that time yearely see her driving a fiery chariot in the ayre and removing from Seleucia unto Dalisandus as a place which she did principally affect in regard of the commoditie and pleasantnesse of the situation that both shee and other of the Saints deceased do rejoyce much in solitary places and doe ordinarily dwell in them that after her death she should affect Oratory and Pâ—ëtry and be continually delighted with such as did more accurately set forth her prayses even as Homer bringeth in Apollo tickled at the heart with hearing the songs that were made unto him in the campe of the Greciaâ—s of which he produceth two speciall instances the one of Alypius the Grammarian unto whom being forsaken of the physicians Thecla he saith did appeare in the night and demanded of him what he ayled and what he would He to shew his art and to win the Virgins favour with the aptnesse of the verse returneth for an answer unto her that verse wherewith Homer maketh Achilles to answer his mother Thetis in the first of the Iliads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou knowest why should I tell it thee that knowest all Whereat the Martyr smiling and being delighted partly with the man partly with the verse and wondring that he had answered so aptly conveyed a certaine round stone unto him with the touch whereof he was presently set on foot from his long and perillous sicknesse For â—he other instance the writer reporteth that which happened unto himselfe For the Martyâ— saith he is such a lover of learning and taketh such a delight in these oratorious pâ—ayses that I will tell somewhat of those things that were done to my selfe and for my selfe vvhich the Martyr who did it doth know to have beene done and that I lye not Then he telleth how having preparâ—d an oration for her anniversarie festivitie the day before it should be pronounced he was taken with such an extreame paine in his eare that the auditorie was like to be quite disappointed but that the Martyr the same night appeared unto him and shaking him by the eare tooke all the paine away He addeth further that the same Martyr used often to appeare unto him in his studie at other times but once more specially while he was in hand with writing this selfe same book For having begunne to be weary of the labour the Martyr saith he seemed to sit by close in my sight where I used to be at my booke and to take the quaternion out of my hand in which I transcribed these things out of my table-booke Yea and she seemed unto me to read it and to rejoyce and to smile and to shew unto me by her looke that she was pleased with the things that were written and that it behoved me to finish this worke and not to leave it unperfect These things doe I here repeat not with any intention to disgrace antiquitie whereof I professe my selfe to be as great an admirer as any but to discover the first