but how The 〈◊〉 â—ooke away the Curse saith beâ—â—ost sweetly Faith brought in Righteousnesse and Righteousnesse drew on the Grace of the Spirit Saint Ambrose tels vs that our carnall infirmitie blemisheth our workes but that the vprightnesse of our faith couers ours errours and obtaines our pardon And professeth that hee will glory not for that he is righteous but for that hee is redeemed not for that he is void of sinnes but for that his sinnes are forgiuen him Saint Ierome tels vs then wee are iust when we confesse our selues sinners and that our righteousnesse stands not in any merit of ours but in the meere mercie of God and that the acknowledgement of our imperfection is the imperfect perfection of the Iust Saint Gregorie tels vs that our Iust Aduocate shall defend vs righteous in his iudgement because we know and accuse our selues vnrighteous and that our confidence must not be in our acts but in our Aduocate But the sweete and passionate speeches of Saint Austen and Saint Bernard would fill a Booke alone neither can any reformed Diuine either more disparage our inherent Righteousnesse or more magnifie and challenge the imputed It shall suffice vs to giue a taste of both We haue all therefore Brethren receiued of his fulnesse Of the fulnesse of his mercie of the abundance of his goodnesse haue we receiued What Remission of sinnes that we might be iustified by faith And what more Grace for Grace that is for this Grace wherein we liue by faith we shall receiue another saith that diuinest of the Fathers And soone after All that are from sinfull Adam are sinners all that are iustified by Christ are iust not in themselues but in him for in themselues if ye aske after them they are Adam in him they are Christs And elsewhere Reioyce in the Lord and bee glad O yee righteous O wicked O proud men that reioyce in your selues now beleeuing in him who iustifieth the wicked your faith is imputed to you for righteousnesse Reioyce in the Lord Why Because now yee are iust and whence are yee iust Not by your owne Merits but by his Grace Whence are yee iust because yee are iustified Who shall lay any thing to the â—harge of Gods Elect It sufficeth â—â—ee for all righteousnesse that I haue that God propitious to mee against whom only I haue sinned All that he hath decreed not to impute vnto mee is as if it had not beene Not to sinne is Gods Iustice mans iustice is Gods indulgence saith Deuout Bernard How pregnant is that famous profession of his And if the mercies of the Lord be from euerlasting and to euerlasting I will also sing the mercies of the Lord euerlastingly What shall I sing of my owne righteousnesse No Lord I will remember thy righteousnesse alone for that is mine too Thou art made vnto me of God righteousnesse should I feare that it will not serue vs both It is no short Cloake that it should not couer twaine Thy righteousnesse is a righteousnesse for euer and what is longer then eternitie Behold thy large and euerlasting mercie will largely couer both thee and mee at once In mee it couers a multitude of sinnes in thee Lord what can it couer but the treasures of pittie the riches of bountie Thus he What should I need to draw downe this Truth through the times of Anselme Lombard Bonauenture Gerson The Manuell of Christian Reâ—igion set forth in the Prouinciall Councell of Coleyne shall serue for â—ll Bellarmine himselfe grants them â—erein ours and they are worth â—ur entertayning That Booke is â—ommended by Cassander as marâ—ellously approued by all the learâ—ed Diuines of Italy and France â—s that which notably sets forth the â—umme of the iudgement of the Ancients concerning this and oâ—her points of Christian Religion â— Nos dicimus c. Wee say that a â—an doth then receiue the gift of â—ustification by faith when being â—â—rrified and humbled by repenâ—â—nce hee is againe raysed vp by â—â—ith beleeuing that his sinnes are â—â—rgiuen him for the Merits of Christ who hath promised remission of sinnes to those that beleeue in him and when he feeles in himselfe new desires so as detesting euill and resisting the infirmitie of his flesh he is inwardly inkindled to an indeauour of good although this desire of his be not yet perfect Thus they in the voyce of all Antiquitie and the-then-present Church Only the late Councell of Trent hath created this opinion of Iustification a point of faith SECT II. The errour hereof against Scripture YEt if age were all the quarrelâ— it were but light For thougâ— newnesse in diuine Truths is a iuâ— cause of suspition yet wee doe noâ— so shut the hand of our munificeâ— God that he cannot bestow vpon â—is Church new illuminations in â—ome parcels of formerly-hidden â—erities It is the charge both of â—heir Canus and Caietan that no â—an should detest a new sense of Scripture for this that it differs â—rom the ancient Doctors for God â—ath not say they tyed exposition â—f Scripture to their senses Yea if we may beleeue Salmeâ—on the later Diuines are so much â—ore quick-sighted they like the Dwarfe sitting on the Gyants â—houlder ouer-looke him that is â—arre taller then themselues This â—osition of the Romane Church is â—ot more new then faultie Not â—â— much noueltie as Truth conâ—inceth Heresies as Tertullian We â—ad beene silent if wee had not â—und this point besides the lateâ—esse erroneous Erroneous both â—gainst Scripture and Reason Aâ—â—inst Scripture which euery where â—acheth as on the one side the â—â—perfection of our inherent righteousnesse so on the other our perfect Iustification by the imputed righteousnesse of our Sauiour brought home to vs by faith The former Iob saw from his dung-hill How should a man bee iustified before God If hee will contend with him hee cannot answere one of a thousand Whence it is that wise Salomon askes Who can say My heart is cleane I am pure from sinne And himselfe answers There is not a iust man vpon earth which doth good and sinneth not A truth which besides his experience hee had learned of his Father Dauid who could say Enter not into iudgement with thy seruant though a man after Gods owne heart for in thy sight shalâ— no man liuing bee iustified And iâ— thou Lord shouldst marke iniquities O Lord who shall stand For wee are all as an vncleane thing we saith the Prophet Esay including euen himselfe and all our righteousnesse are as filthy ragges And was it any better with the best Saints vnder the Gospell I see saith the chosen Vessell in my members another law warring against the law of my minde and leading mee captiue to the law of sinne which is in my members So as in many things wee sinne all And if we say that we haue no sinne we doe but deceiue our selues and
furnished vnto all good workes Loe it is so profitable to all these seruices that thereby it perfects a Diuine much more an ordiarie Christian That which is so profitable as to cause perfection is abundantly sufficient and must needs haue full perfection in it selfe That which can perfit the teacher is sufficient for the learner The Scriptures can perfit the man of God both for his calling in the instruction of others and for his owne glorie Thou hast knowne the Scriptures from a childe saith Saint Paul to his Timothy which are able not profitable only to make thee wise vnto saluation through faith which is in Christ Iesus It is the charge therefore of the Apostle not to bee wise aboue that which is written The same with wise Salonons The whole word of God is pure Adde thou not vnto his words lest he reproue thee and thou be found a lier Loe hee saith not Oppose not his words but Adde not to them Euen addition detracts from the maiestie of that Word For the Law of the Lord is perfect conuerting the soule the testimonie of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The statutes of the Lord are right reioycing the heart the Commandement of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes As for those Traditions which they doe thus lift vp to an vniust competition with the written Word our Sauiour hath before hand humbled them into the dust In vaine doe they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men Making this a sufficient cause of abhorring both the persons and the seruices of those Iewes that they thrust humane Traditions into Gods chaire and respected them equally with the institutions of God Cardinall Bellarmine would shift it off with a distinction of Traditions These were such saith hee quas acceperant à recentioribus c. as they had receiued from some later hands whereof some were vaine some others pernicious not such as they receiued from Moses and the Prophets And the Authors of these reiected Traditions hee cites from Epiphanius to be R. Akiba R. Iuda and the Asamoneans from Hierome to bee Sammai Hillel Akiba But this is to cast mists before the eyes of the simple For who sees not that our Sauiours challenge is generall to Traditions thus aduanced not to these or those Traditions And where he speakes of some later hands he had forgotten that our Sauiour vpon the mount tells him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That these faulted Traditions were of old And that he may not cast these vpon his Sammai and Hiliel let him remember that our Sauiour cites this out of Esay though with some more cleernesse of expression who farre ouerlooked the times of those pretended Fathers of mis-traditions That I may not say how much it would trouble him to shew any dogmaticall Traditions that were deriued from Moses and the Prophets in parallel whereof let them be able to deduce any Euangelicall Tradition from the Apostles and we are ready to imbrace it with all obseruance Shortly it is cleere that our Sauiour neuer meant to compare one Tradition with another as approuing some reiecting others but with indignation complaines that Traditions were obtruded to Gods people in a corriualitie with the written word which is the verie point now questioned SECT III. Traditions against reason EVen the verie light of reason showes vs that as there is a God so that he is a most wise most iust God needs therefore must it follow that if this most iust and wise God will giue a Word whereby to reueale himselfe and his wil to mankinde it must bee a perfect Word for as his wisdome knowes what is fit for his creature to know of himselfe so his iustice will require nothing of the creature but what hee hath enabled him to know and doe Now then since hee requires vs to know him to obey him it must needs follow that hee hath left vs so exquisite a rule of this knowledge and obedience as cannot admit of any defect or any supplement This rule can bee no other then his written Word therefore written that it might be preserued entire for this purpose to the last date of time As for orall Traditions what certaintie can there be in them What foundation of truth can be layd vpon the breath of man How doe wee see the reports varie of those things which our eyes haue seene done How doe they multiply in their passage and either grow or dye vpon hazards Lastly we thinke him not an honest man whose tongue goes against his owne hand How hainous an imputation then doe they cast vpon the God of truth which plead Traditions deriued from him contrarie to his written Word Such apparently are the worship of Images the mutilation of the Sacrament Purgatorie Indulgences and the rest which haue passed our agitation Since therefore the authoritie of Romish Traditions is besides noueltie erroneous against Scripture and reason we haue iustly abandoned it and are thereupon vniustly condemned As for those other dangerous and important innouations concerning Scriptures their Canon inlarged their faultie version made authenticall their fountaines pretended to be corrupted their mis-pleaded obscuritie their restraint from the Laitie we haue already largely displaid them in another place CHAP. XVII The newnesse of the vniuersall Head-ship of the Bishop of Rome THose transcendent Titles of Head-ship and Vniuersalitie which are challenged to the Bishop and Sea of Rome are knowne to bee the vpstart brood of noted ambition Simple and holy Antiquitie was too modest either to require or tolerate them Who knowes not the profession of that holy Martyr in the Councell of Carthage Neque enim c. There is none of vs that makes himselfe a Bishop of Bishops or by a tyrannous feare compels his Vnderlings to a necessitie of obedience But perhaps at Rome it was otherwise Heare then with what zeale their owne Pope Gregorie the Great inueighs against the arrogance of Iohn Bishop of Constantinople for giuing way to this proud stile His Epistles are extant in all hands so cleare and conuictiue as no art of Sophistrie can elude them wherein hee calls this title affected by the said Iohn and Cyriacus after him a new name a wicked profane insolent name the generall plague of the Church a corruption of the Faith against Canons against the Apostle Peter against God himselfe as if he could neuer haue branded it enough And least any man should cauill that this stile is only cryed downe in the Bishops of Constantinople which yet might bee iustly claymed by the Bishops of Rome Gregorie himselfe meetes with this thought and answers beforehand Nunquam pium virum c. that neuer any godly man neuer any of his Predecessors vsed those Titles and more then so that whosoeuer shall vse this proud stile hee is the very fore-runner of Antichrist If in a fore-sight of this vsurpation Gregorie should haue beene hired to haue spoken
Repaired not made new There is not one stone of a new foundation laide by vs Yea the old wals stand still Onely the ouer-casting of those ancient stones which the vntempered morter of new inuentions displeaseth vs. Plainely set aside the corruptions and the Church is the same And what are these corruptions but vnsound adiections to the ancient structure of Religion These we cannot but oppose and are therefore vniustly and imperiously eiected Hence it is that ours is by the opposite stiled an Ablatiue or negatiue Religion for so much as wee ioyne with all true Christians in all affirmatiue positions of ancient faith onely standing vpon the deniall of some late and vndue additaments to the Christian beleefe Or if those additions bee reckoned for ruines It is a sure rule which Durandus giues concerning materiall Churches applyable to the spirituall that if the Wall be decayed not at once but successiuely it is iudged still the same Church and vpon reparation not to bee reconsecrated but onely reconciled Well therefore may those mouthes stop themselues which loudly call for the names of the Professors of our faith in all successions of times till Luther look't forth into the World Had wee gone about to broach any new positiue Truths vnseene vnheard of former times well and iustly might they challenge vs for a deduction of this line of doctrine from a pedigree of Predecessours Now that we only disclayme their superfluous and nouell opinions and practices which haue beene by degrees thrust vpon the Church of God retayning inuiolably all former Articles of Christian faith how idle is this plea how worthy of hissing out Who sees not now that all we need to doe is but to show that all those points which wee cry downe in the Romane Church are such as carrie in them a manifest brand of newnesse and absurditie This proofe will cleerely iustifie our refusall Let them see how they shall once before the awfull Tribunall of our last Iudge iustifie their vncharitablenesse who cease not vpon this our refusall to eiect condemne vs. The Church of Rome is sicke Ingenuous Cassander confesseth so nec inficior c. I deny not saith he that the Romane Church is not a little changed from her ancient beautie and brightnesse and that shee is deformed with many diseases and vicious distempers Bernard tels vs how it must bee dieted profitable though vnpleasing medicines must bee poured into the mouth of it Luther and his associates did this office as Erasmus acknowledgeth Lutherus porrexit Luther saith hee gaue the World a potion violent and bitter what euer it were I wish it may breed some good health in the bodie of Christian people so miserably foule with all kinds of euils Neuer did Luther meane to take away the life of that Church but the sicknesse Wherein as Socrates answered to his Iudges surely he deserued recompence in steed of rage For as Saint Ambrose worthily Dulcior est sweeter is a religious chastisement then a smoothing remission This that was meant to the Churches health proues the Physitians disease so did the bitternesse of our wholsome draughts offend that we are beaten out of doores Neither did wee runne from that Church but are driuen away as our late Soueraigne professeth by Casaubons hand Wee know that of Cyrill is a true word Those which seuer themselues from the Church and communion are the enemies of God and friends of Deuils and that which Dionysius said to Nouatus Any thing must rather be borne then that we should rend the Church of God Farre far was it from our thoughts to teare the seamelesse coate or with this precious Oyle of Truth to breake the Churches head We found iust faults else let vs bee guiltie of this disturbance If now choler vniustly exasperated with an wholsome reprehension haue broken forth into a furious persecution of the gainesayers the sinne is not ours If we haue defended our innocence with blowes the sinne is not ours Let vs neuer prosper in our good cause if all the water of Tyber can wash off the bloud of many thousand Christian soules that hath beene shed in this quarrell from the hands of the Romish Prelacie Surely as it was obserued of olde that none of the Tribe of Leui were the professed followers of our Sauiour so it is too easie to obserue that of late times this Tribe hath exercised the bitterest enmitie vpon the followers of Christ Suppose wee had offended in the vndiscreet managing of a iust reproofe it is a true rule of Erasmus that generous spirits would bee reclaymed by teaching not by compulsion and as Alipius wisely to his Augustine Heed must bee taken least whiles wee labour to redresse a doubtfull complaint wee make greater wounds then we find Oh how happy had it beene for Gods Church if this care had found any place in the hearts of her Gouernours who regarding more the entire preseruation of their own honour then Truth and Peace Were all in the harsh language of warre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 smite kill burne persecute Had they beene but halfe so charitable to their moderne reprouers as they professe they are to the fore-going how had the Church flourished in an vnterrupted vnitie In the old Catholike Writers say they wee beare with many errours wee extenuate and excuse them wee find shifts to put them off and deuise some commodious senses for them Guiltinesse which is the ground of this fauour workes the quite contrarie courses against vs Alas how are our Writings racked and wrested to enuious senses how misconstrued how peruerted and made to speake odiously on purpose to worke distaste to enlarge quarrell to draw on the deepest censures Woe is mee this cruell vncharitablenesse is it that hath brought this miserable calamitie vpon distracted Christendome Surely as the ashes of the burning Mountaine Vesuuius being dispersed farre and wide bred a grieuous Pestilence in the Regions round about so the ashes that flie from these vnkindly flames of discord haue bred a wofull infection and death of soules through the whole Christian World CHAP. IIII. The Church of Rome guiltie of this Schisme IT is confessed by the President of the Tridentine Councell that the deprauation of discipline and manners of the Romane Church was the chiefe cause and originall of these dissensions Let vs cast our eyes vpon the doctrine and wee shall no lesse find the guilt of this fearefull Schisme to fall heauily vpon the same heads For first to lay a sure ground Nothing can be more plaine then that the Romane is a particular Church as the Fathers of Basil well distinguish it not the vniuersall though we take in the Churches of her subordination or correspondence This truth we might make good by authoritie if our very senses did not saue vs the labour Secondly No particular Church to say nothing of the vniuersall since the Apostolike times can haue
he eates and drinkes the Sacrament of so great a thing vnto his owne iudgement because hee presumed to come vncleane vnto those Sacraments of Christ which none can take worthily but the cleane Thus he Neither is this his single testimonie but such as hee openly professeth the common voyce of all his Predecessours And a little after vpon those words The flesh profiteth nothing hee addeth The flesh profiteth nothing if yee vnderstand the flesh so to bee eaten as other meate as that flesh which is bought in the Shambles This is the ordinary language of Antiquitie whereof wee may truely say as the Disciples did of Christ Behold now thou speakest plainly and speakest no Parable At last ignorance and misunderstanding brought forth this Monster of opinion which superstition nursed vp but fearefully and obscurely and not without much scope of contrary iudgements till after Pope Nicholas had made way for it in his proceedings against Barengarius by so grosse an expression as the Glosse is faine to put a caueat vpon Anno 1060. the Laterane Councell authorized it for a matter of faith Anno 1215. Thus young is Transsubstantiation Let Scripture and Reason show how erroneous Transsubstantiation SECT II. Against Scripture WEre it not that men doe wilfully hoodwinke themselues with their own preiudice the Scripture is plaine enough For the mouth that said of bread This is my Bodie said also of the same bodie My flesh is meate indeed long before there can be any plea of Transsubstantiation And I am the bread that came downe from Heauen so was he Manna to the Iewes as he is bread to vs And Saint Paul sayes of his Corinths Yee are the body of Christ yet not meaning any transmutation of substance And in those words wherein this powerfull conuersion is placed hee sayes only This is not this is transsubstantiate and if whiles he sayes This is hee should haue meant a Transsubstantiation then it must needs follow that his Bodie was transsubstantiate before hee spake for This is implyes it alreadie done He addes This is my Bodie His true naturall humane Bodie was there with them tooke the Bread brake it gaue it eat it if the Bread were now the Bodie of Christ either hee must haue two bodies there or else the same bodie is by the same bodie taken broken eaten and is the while neither taken nor broken nor eaten Yet hee addes which is giuen for you This was the bodie which was giuen for them betrayed crucified humbled to the death not the glorious bodie of Christ which should bee capeable of ten thousand placcs at once both in Heauen and Earth inuisible incircumscriptible Lastly he addes Doe this in remembrance of mee Remembrance implyes an absence neither can wee more bee said to remember that which is in our present sense then to see that which is absent Besides that the great Doctour of the Gentiles tels vs that after consecration it is bread which is broken and eaten neither is it lesse then fiue times so called after the pretended change Shortly Christ as man was in all things like to vs except sinne and our humane bodie shall be once like to his glorious bodie The glorie which is put vpon it shall not strip it of the true essence of a bodie and if it retaine the true nature of a bodie it cannot be at the same instant both aboue the Heauens and below on Earth in a thousand distant places He is locally aboue For the heauens must receiue him till the times of the restitution of all things He is not at once in many distant places of the earth for the Angell euen after his Resurrection sayes He is not here for he is risen SECT III. Transsubstantiation against Reason NEuer did or can reason triumph so much ouer any prodigious Paradoxe as it doth ouer this In so much as the Patrones of it are faine to disclaime the sophistry of reason and to stand vpon the suffrages of faith and the plea of Miracles We are not they who with the Manichees refuse to beleeue Christ vnlesse hee bring reason Wee are not they who thinke to lade the Sea with an egge-shell to fadome the deepe Mysteries of Religion with the short reach of naturall apprehension Wee know there are wonders in Diuinitie fit for our adoration not fit for our comprehending But withal we know that if some Theologicall truths bee aboue right reason yet neuer any against it for all veritie complyes with it selfe as springing from one and the same Fountaine This opinion therefore wee receiue not not because it transcends our conceit but because we know it crosseth both true Reason and faith It implyes manifest contradiction in that it referres the same thing to it selfe in opposite relations so as it may be at once present and absent ' neere and far off below and aboue It destroyes the truth of Christs humane bodie in that it ascribes quantitie to it without extension without localitie turning the flesh into spirit and bereauing it of all the properties of a true bodie those properties which as Nicetas truly cannot so much as in thought be separated from the essence of the bodie In so much as Cyril can say if the Deitie it selfe were capeable of partition it must bee a bodie and if it were a bodie it must needs bee in a place and haue quantitie and magnitude and thereupon should not auoid circumscription It giues a false bodie to the Sonne of God making that euery day of bread by the power of wordes which was made once of the substance of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost It so separates accidents from their subiects that they not only can subsist without them but can produce the full effects of substances so as bare accidents are capeable of accidents so as of them substances may be either made or nourished It vtterly ouerthrowes which learned Cameron makes the strongest of all reasons the nature of a Sacrament in that it takes away at once the signe and the Analogie betwixt the signe and the thing signified The signe in that it is no more bread but accidents the Analogie in that it makes the signe to be the thing signified Lastly it puts into the hands of euery Priest power to doe euery day a greater Miracle then God did in the Creation of the World for in that the Creatour made the Creature but in this the Creature daily makes the Creatour Since then this opinion is both new and conuinced to bee grossely erroneous by Scripture and reason iustly haue we professed our detestation of it and for that are vniustly eiected CHAP. VIII The newnesse of the Halfe-Communion THe noueltie of the Halfe-Sacrament or dry Communion deliuered to the Laitie is so palpable as that the Patrones of it in the presumptuous Councell of Constance professe no lesse Licet Christus c. Although Christ say they after
in the Councell of Lateran Anno 1215. fully plumed in the Councell of Trent and now lately hath her feathers imped by the moderne Casuists SECT II. Romish Confession not warranted by Scripture SInce our quarrell is nâ—t with confession it selfe which may bee of singular vse and behoofe but with some tyrannous straines in the practice of it which are the violent forcing and perfit fulnesse thereof It shall be sufficient for vs herein to stand vpon our negatiue That there is no Scripture in the whole booke of God wherein either such necessitie or such intirenesse of Confession is commanded A truth so cleare that it is generally confessed by their owne Canonists Did we question the lawfulnesse of Confession we should be iustly accountable for our grounds from the Scriptures of God now that we cry downe only some iniurious circumstances therein well may wee require from the fautors thereof their warrants from God which if they cannot show they are sufficiently conuinced of a presumptuous obtrusion Indeed our Sauiour sayd to his Apostles and their successours Whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted and whose sinnes ye retaine they are retained But did hee say No sinne shall bee remitted but what yee remit Or no sinne shall be remitted by you but what is particularly numbred vnto you Saint Iames bids Confesse your sinnes one to another But would they haue the Priest shrieue himselfe to the penitent as well as the penitent to the Priest This act must bee mutuall not single Many beleeuing Ephesians came and confessed and shewed their deeds Many but not all not Omnes vtriusque sexus they confessed their deeds Some that were notorious not all their sinnes Contrarily rather so did Christ send his Apostles as the father sent him He was both their warrant and their patterne But that gracious Sauiour of ours many a time gaue absolution where was no particular confession of sinnes Only the sight of the Paralyticks faith fetcht from him Sonne be of good cheere thy sins be forgiuen thee The noted sinner in Simons house approuing the truth of her repentance by the humble and costly testimonies of her loue without any enumeration of her sinnes heard Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee SECT III. Against reason IN true Diuine Reason this supposed dutie is needlesse dangerous impossible Needlesse in respect of all sinnes not in respect of some for how euer in the cases of a burdened conscience nothing can bee more vsefull more soueraigne yet in all our peace doth not depend vpon our lips Being iustified by faith wee haue peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Dangerous in respect both of exprobration as Saint Chrysostome worthily and of infection for delectabile carnis as a Casuist confesseth Fleshly pleasures the more they are called into particular mention the more they moue the appetire I doe willingly conceale from chaste eyes and eares what effects haue followed this pretended act of deuotion in wanton and vnstayed Confessours Impossible for who can tell how oft he offendeth He is poore in sin that can count his stocke and hee sinnes alwayes that so presumes vpon his innocence as to thinke hee can number his sinnes And if hee say of any sinne as Lot of Zoar is it not a little one as if therefore it may safely escape the reckoning it is a true word of Isaac the Syrian Qui delicta c. Hee that thinkes any of his offences small euen in so thinking falls into greater This doctrine and practice therfore both as new and vnwarrantable full of vsurpation danger impossibilitie is iustly reiected by vs and wee for so doing vniustly eiected SECT IV. The noueltie of Absolution before Satisfaction LEst any thing in the Romane Church should retaine the old forme how absurd is that innouation which they haue made in the the order of their penance and absolution The ancient course as Cassander and Lindanus truly witnesse was that absolution and reconciliation and right to the Communion of the Church was not giuen by imposition of hands vnto the penitent till hee had giuen due satisfaction by performing of such penall acts as were enioyned by the discreet PeniteÌ„tiary yea those works of penance saith he when they were done out of faith and an heart truly sorrowfull and by the motion of the holy Spirit preuenting the minde of man with the helpe of his diuine grace were thought not a little auailable to obtaine remission of the sinne and to pacifie the displeasure of God for sinne Not that they could merit it by any dignitie of theirs but that thereby the minde of man is in a sort fitted to the receit of Gods grace But now immediately vpon the Confession made the hand is layd vpon the penitent and he is receiued to his right of Communion and after his absolution certaine workes of pietie are enioyned him for the chastisement of the flesh and expurgation of the remainders of sinne Thus Cassander In common apprehension this new order can bee no other then preposterous and as our learned Bishop of Carlile like Easter before Lent But for this Ipsi viderint it shall not trouble vs how they nurture their owne childe CHAP. XIV The newnesse of the Romish Inuocation of Saints OF all those errours which we reiect in the Church of Rome there is none that can plead so much show of Antiquitie as this of Inuocation of Saints which yet as it hath beene practised and defended in the latter times should in vaine seeke either example or patronage amongst the Ancient How euer there might be some grounds of this deuotion secretly muttered and at last expressed in Panegyricke formes yet vntill almost fiue hundred yeeres after Christ it was not in any sort admitted into the publique seruice It will be easily graunted that the blessed Virgin is the Prime of all Saints neither could it be other then iniurious that any other of that heauenly societie should haue the precedencie of her Now the first that brought her name into the publike deuotions of the Greeke Church is noted by Nicephorus to be Petrus Gnapheus or Fullo a Presbyter of Bithynia afterwards the Vsurper of the See of Antioch much about 470 yeeres after Christ who though a branded heretick found out foure things saith he verie vsefull and beneficiall to the Catholike Church whereof the last was Vt in omni precatione c. that in euerie prayer the Mother of God should bee named and her diuine name called vpon The phrase is verie remarkable wherein this rising superstition is expressed And as for the Latine Church we heare no newes of this Inuocation in the publique Letanies till Gregories time about some 130. yeeres after the former And in the meane time some Fathers speake of it fearefully and doubtfully How could it bee otherwise when the common opinion of the Ancients euen below Saint Austens age did put vp all the soules of