fall to challenge not only the infallibility but which were more dangerous the Authority of their Judge If it be thought better to leave scope to Opinions opposition it self profitably serving to the boulting out of the Truth If Unity in all things be as it seems despaired of by this your Gellius himself why are we not content with Vnity in things necessary to Salvation expresly set down in Holy Scripture And anciently thought to suffice reserving Infallibility as an honour proper to God speaking there Why should it not be thought to suffice that every Man having imbraced that necessary Truth which is the Rule of our Faith thereby try the Spirits whether they be of God or no. If he meet with any that hath not that Doctrine receive him not to House nor salute him If consenting to that but otherwise infirm or erring yet charitably bear with him This for every private Man As for the publick order and peace of the Church God hath given Pastors and Teachers that we should not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine and amongst them appointed Bishops to command that Men teach no other or foreign Doctrine which was the end of Timothy his leaving at Ephesus 1 Tim. 1.3 Then the Apostles themselves by their example have commended to the Church the wholesome use of Synods to determine of such controversies as cannot by the former means be composed but still by the Holy Scriptures the Law or Rule as you say well by which all these Iudges must proceed Which if they do not then may they be deceived themselves and deceive others as experience hath shewed yet never be able to extinguish the truth To come to Antiquity There is not any one thing belonging to Christian Religion if we consider well of more importance than how the purity of the whole may be maintained The Ancients that write of the rest of Christian Doctrine is it not a miracle had they known any such infallible Judge in whose Oracle the security of all with the perpetual tranquillity of the Church is contained they should say nothing of him There was never any Age wherein there have not been Heresies and Sects to which of them was it ever objected that they had no infallible Judge How soon would they have sought to amend that defect if it had been a currant Doctrine in those times that the true Church cannot be without such an Officer The Fathers that dealt with them why did they not lay aside all disputing and appeal them only to this Barr Unless perhaps that were the lett which Cardinal Bellarmine tells the Venetians hindred S. Paul from appealing to S. Peter Lest they should have made their Adversaries to laugh at them for their labour Well howsoever the Cardinal hath found out a merry reason for S. Paul's appealing to Caesars Judgment not Peter's lest he should expose himself to the laughter of Pagans what shall we say when the Fathers write professedly to instruct Catholick Men of the forepleadings and advantages to be used against Hereticks even without descending to tryal by Scriptures or of some certain general and ordinary way to discern the Truth of the Catholick Faith from the prophane novelties of Heresies Had they known of this infallible Judge should we not have heard of him in this so proper a place and as it were in a cause belonging to his own Court Nay doth not the writing it self of such Books shew that this matter was wholly unknown to Antiquity For had the Church been in possession of so easie and sure a course to discover and discard heresies they should not have needded to task themselves to find out any other But the truth is infallibility is and ever hath been accounted proper to Christs judgment And as hath been said all necessary Truth to Salvation he hath delivered us in his Word That Word himself tells us shall judge at the last day Yea in all true decisions of Faith that word even now judgeth Christ judgeth the Apostle sits Iudge Christ speaks in the Apostle Thus Antiquity Neither are they moved a whit with that Objection That the Scriptures are often the matter of Controversies For in that case the remedy was easie which S. Augustine shews to have recourse to the plain places and manifest such as should need no interpreter for such there be by which the other may be cleared The same may be said if sometimes it be questioned Which be Scriptures which not I think it was never heard of in the Church that there was an external infallible Judge who could determine that question Arguments may be brought from the consent or dissent with other Scriptures from the attestation of Antiquity and inherent signs of Divine Authority or humane infirmity but if the Auditor or Adversary yield not to these such parts of necessity must needs be laid aside If all Scripture be denied which is as it were exceptio in judicem ante litis contestationem Faith hath no place only reason remains To which I think it will scarce seem reasonable if you should say Though all Men are lyers yet this Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in conscience to obey and yield thy understanding in all his Determinations for he cannot err No not if all Men in the World should say it Unless you first set down there is a God and stablish the authority of the Books of Holy Scripture as his voice and thence shew if you can the warrant of this priviledge Where you affirm The Scriptures to be the Law and the Rule but alone of themselves cannot be Iudges If you mean without being produced applied and heard you say truth Yet Nicodemus spake not amiss when he demanded Doth our Law judge any Man unless it hear him first he meant the same which S. Paul when he said of the High Priest thou sittest to judge me according to the Law and so do we when we say the same Neither do we send you to Angels or God himself immediately but speaking by his Spirit in the Scriptures and as I have right now said alledged and by discourse applyed to the matters in question As for Princes since it pleased you to make an excursion to them if we should make them infallible Judges or give them Authority to decree in Religion as they list as Gardiner did to King Henry the Eight it might well be condemned for monstrous as it was by Calvin As for the purpose Licere Regi interdicere populo usum calicis in Coena Quare Potestas n. summa est penes Regem quoth Gardiner This was to make the King as absolute a Tyrant in the Church as the Pope claimed to be But that Princes which obey the truth have commandment from God to command good things and forbid evil not only in matters pertaining to humane society but also the Religion of God This is no new strange Doctrine but Calvins and
English Translators had failed He thought the use of the Scriptures was the only way to let the knowledge of Religion in among the Irish as it had first let the Reformation into the other parts of Europe And he used to tell a passage of a Sermon that he heard Fulgentio preach at Venice with which he was much pleased It was on these Words of Christ Have ye not read and so he took occasion to tell the Auditory That if Christ were now to ask this Question Have ye not read all the Answer they could make to it was No for they were not suffered to do it Upon which he taxed with great zeal the restraint put on the use of the Scriptures by the See of Rome This was not unlike what the same person delivered in another Sermon preaching upon Pilate's Question What is Truth he told them that at last after many searches he had found it out and held out a New Testament and said There it was in his Hand but then he put it in his Pocket and said coldly But the Book is prohibited which was so suited to the Italian genius that it took mightily with the Auditory The Bishop had observed that in the Primitive times as soon Nations how barbarous soever they were began to receive the Christian Religion they had the Scriptures translated into their vulgar Tongues And that all people were exhorted to study them therefore he not only undertook and began this Work but followed it with so much industry that in a very few years he finished the Translation and resolved to set about the printing of it for the bargain was made with one that engaged to perform it And as he had been at the great trouble of examining the Translation so he resolved to run the venture of the Impression and took that expence upon himself It is scarce to be imagined what could have obstructed so great and so good a Work The Priests of the Church of Rome had reason to oppose the printing of a Book that has been always so fatal to them but it was a deep fetch to possess reformed Divines with a jealousie of this work and with hard thoughts concerning it Yet that was done but by a very well disguised method For it was said that the Translator was a weak and contemptible Man and that it would expose such a work as this was to the scorn of the Nation when it was known who was the Author of it And this was infused both into the Earl of Strafford and into the Archbishop of Canterbury And a bold young Man pretended a lapse of the Benefice that the Bishop had given to the Translator and so obtained a Broad Seal for it though it was in the Bishop's Gift This was an abuse too common at that time for licentious Clerks to pretend either that an Incumbent was dead or that he had no good right to his Benefice or that he had forfeited it and upon that to procure a Grant of it from the King and then to turn the Incumbent out of Possession and to vex him with a Suit till they forced him to compound for his peace So upon this occasion it was pretended that the Translator had forfeited his Living and one Baily that had informed against him came down with a Grant of it under the great Seal and violently thrust him out of it The Bishop was much touched with this and cited Baily to appear before him He had given him a Vicarage and had taken an Oath of him never to hold another so he objected to him both his violent and unjust intrusion into another man's right and his Perjury Baily to cover himself from the last procured a Dispensation from the Prerogative Court notwithstanding his Oath to hold more Benefices The Bishop lookt on this as one of the worst and most scandalous parts of Popery to dissolve the most sacred of all Bonds and it grieved his Soul to see so vile a thing acted in the name of Archbishop Vsher though it was done by his Surrogates So without any regard to this he served this obstinate Clerk with several Canonical admonitions but finding him still hardned in his wickedness he deprived him of the Benefice he had given him and also excommunicat'd him and gave orders that the Sentence should be published through the whole Deanry upon which Baily's Clerk appealed to the Prerogative Court and the Bishop was cited to answer for what he had done He went and appeared before them but declined their Authority and would not answer to them He thought it below the Office and Dignity of a Bishop to give an account of a spiritual Censure that he had inflicted on one of his Clergy before two Laymen that pretended to be the Primate's Surrogates and he put his Declinator in 24 Articles all written with his own Hand which will be found at the end of this Narrative he excepted to the incompetency of the Court both because the Primate was not there in person and because they that sate there had given clear Evidences of their partiality which he had offered to prove to the Primate himself He said the appeal from his Sentence lay only to the Provincial Synod or to the Archbishop's Consistory and since the ground of Bailys Appeal was the dispensation that they had given him from his Oath they could not be the competent Judges of that for they were Parties And the Appeal from abusive faculties lay only to a Court of Delegates by the express words of the Law And by many Indications it appeared that they had prejudged the matter in Baily's favours and had expressed great resentments against the Bishop and notwithstanding the dignity of his Office they had made him wait among the croud an hour and an half and had given directions in the management of the Cause as Parties against him they had also manifestly abused their power in granting Dispensations contrary to the Laws of God and now they presumed to interpose in the just and legal Jurisdiction that a Bishop exercised over his Clergy both by the Laws of God and by the Kings Authority Upon these grounds he excepted to their Authority he was served with several Citations to answer and appeared upon every one of them but notwithstanding the highest contempts they put upon him he shewed no indecent passion but kept his ground still In conclusion he was declared Contumax and the perjured Intruder was absolved from the Sentence and confirmed in the possession of his ill-acquired Benefice It may be easily imagined how much these Proceedings were censured by all fair and equitable Men The constancy the firmness and the courage that the Bishop expressed being as much commended as the injustice and violence of his Enemies was cryed out upon The strangest part of this transaction was that which the Primate acted who though he loved the Bishop beyond all the rest of the Order and valued him highly for the zealous discharge of
use and Service such Forts and other places of Strength as coming into the possession of others might prove disadvantagious and tend to the utter undoing the Kingdom And we do hereby declare That herein we harbour not the least thought of disloyalty towards his Majesty or purpose any hurt to any of his Highnesses Subjects in their Possession Goods or Liberty only we desire that your Lordships will be pleased to make remonstrance to his Majesty for us of all our Grievances and just Fears that they may be removed and such a course setled by the advice of the Parliament of Ireland whereby the Liberty of our Consciences may be secured unto us and we eased of other Burthens in Civil Government As for the mischiefs and inconveniences that have already happened through the disorder of the common sort of people against the English Inhabitants or any other we with the Noblemen and Gentlemen and such others of the several Counties of this Kingdom are most willing and ready to use our and their best endeavours in causing restitution and satisfaction to be made as in part we have already done An answer hereunto is most humbly desired with such present expedition as may by your Lordships be thought most convenient for avoiding the inconvenience of the barbarousness and uncivility of the Commonalty who have committed many outrages without any order consenting or privity of ours All which we leave to your Lordships most grave Wisdom And we shall humbly pray c. But this came to nothing while these things were in agitation the titular Bishop of Kilmore came to Cavan his name was Swiney he was like his name for he often wallowed in his own Vomit He had a Brother whom the Bishop had converted and had entertained him in his House till he found out a way of subsistence for him He pretended that he came only to protect the Bishop so he desired to be admitted to lodge in his House and assured him that he would preserve him But the Bishop hearing of this writ the following Letter in Latin to him which will be found at the end of this Book and is indeed a stile fit for one of the most eloquent of the Roman Authors Here I shall give a Translation of it in English Reverend Brother I Am sensible of your civility in offering to protect me by your presence in the midst of this tumult and upon the like occasion I would not be wanting to do the like charitable office to you but there are many things that hinder me from making use of the favour you now offer me My House is strait and there is a great number of miserable people of all Ranks Ages and of both Sexes that have fled hither as to a Sanctuary besides that some of them are sick among whom my own Son is one But that which is beyond all the rest is the difference of our way of worship I do not say of our Religion for I have ever thought and have published it in my Writings that we have one common Christian Religion Vnder our present miseries we comfort our selves with the reading of the Holy Scriptures with daily Prayers which we offer up to God in our vulgar Tongue and with the singing of Psalms and since we find so little truth among Men we rely on the truth of God and on his assistance These things would offend your company if not your self nor could others be hindered who would pretend that they came to see you if you were among us and under that colour those murtherers would break in upon us who after they have robbed us of all that belongs to us would in conclusion think they did God good service by our slaughter For my own part I am resolved to trust to the Divine Protection To a Christian and a Bishop that is now almost seventy no death for the cause of Christ can be bitter on the contrary nothing is more desireable And though I ask nothing for my self alone yet if you will require the people under an Anathema not to do any other acts of violence to those whom they have so oft beaten spoiled and stript it will be both acceptable to God honourable to your self and happy to the people if they obey you But if not consider that God will remember all that is now done To whom Reverend Brother I do heartily commend you Yours in Christ Will. Kilmore November 2. 1641. Endorsed thus To my Reverend and Loving Brother D. Swiney This Letter commends it self so much that I need say nothing but wish my Reader to see where he can find such another writ on such an occasion with so much Spirit as well as Piety and Discretion It was the last he ever writ and was indeed a conclusion well becoming such a Pen. It had at that time some effect for the Bishop gave him no further disturbance till about five Weeks after this so that from the 23. of October which was the dismal day in which the Rebellion broke out till the 18. of December following he together with all that were within his Walls enjoyed such quiet that if it was not in all Points a miracle it was not far from one and it seemed to be an accomplishment of those Words A thousand shall fall on thy side and ten thousand at thy right-Hand but it shall not come nigh thee there shall no evil befal thee for he shall give his Angels charge over thee But to the former Letter I shall add the last Paper of Spiritual advice and direction that ever the Bishop writ which he did at the desire of one Mrs Dillan that was a zealous and devout Protestant but had been fatally deluded in her widowhood by Mr. Dillan Son to the Earl of Roscommon taking him to be a Protestant and had married him but enjoyed her self very little after that for though he used no violence to her or her Children by her former Husband in the point of Religion yet he bred up his Children by her in his own Superstition and he was now engaged in the Rebellion So that she had at this time a vast addition to her former sorrows upon her and therefore desired that the Bishop whose Neighbour and constant Hearer she had been would send her such Instructions in this sad calamity as might both direct and support her Upon which he writ the following Paper YOU desire as I am informed dear Sister in Christ Jesus that I would send you some short Memorial to put you in mind how to carry your self in this sorrowful time I will do it willingly the more because with one and the same labour I shall both satisfie you and recollect my own thoughts also to the like performance of mine own duty and bethinking my self how I might best accomplish it there came to my mind that short Rule of our Life which the Apostle mentions in his Epistle to Titus and whereof you have been a diligent hearer in the School
from which we dissented much more I held as you may perceive that neither amongst our selves nor from our predecessors we disagree in any truth necessary to salvation He makes me to say our dissentions are about Moon-shine and de umbrâ asini de lanâ caprinâ and trifles and matters of no consequence To return to you good Mr. Waddesworth let Men avouch as confidently as they will touching their own Positions Est de Fide Nihil certius apud Catholicos and of their contraries cry out They are Hereticks renew ancient Heresies race the Foundation deny the Articles of the Creed Gods Omnipotency c. all because themselves by Discourse can as they think fasten such things upon them A sober Christian must not give heed to all that is said in this kind These things must be examined with right judgment and ever with much charity and patience remembring that our selves know in part and prophesie in part In a Word this should not have so much disquieted you Nor yet that which you add That every one pretends Scripture Best of all saith S. Chrysostome For if we should say we believe humane reasons thou mightest with good reason be troubled but when as we receive the Scriptures and they be simple and true it will be an easie thing for thee to judge c. And to what purpose indeed serves the faculty of Reason perfected and polished with learning wherefore the supernatural light of Faith wherefore the gift of God in us Ministers conferred by the imposition of Hands but to try which side handles the Word of God deceitfully which sincerely But here again Each side arrogates the Holy Ghost in his favour What then If we our selves have the anointing we shall be able as we are bidden to try the Spirits whether they be of God or no For we will not believe them because they say they have the Spirit or cannot be deceived but because their Doctrine is consonant to the Principles of Heavenly Truth which by the Writings inspired by himself the Holy Ghost hath graven in our Hearts Which Writings are well acknowledged by you to be the Law and Rule according whereunto in judgment of Religion we must proceed CHAP. III. Of the want of an Humane External Infallible Iudge and Interpreter AS to that you say did above all trouble you the want of a certain humane external infallible Iudge to interpret Scripture and define Questions of Faith without error What if you found not an external humane Judge if you had an internal divine one And having an infallible Rule by which your humane Judge should proceed why should you trust another Mans applying it rather than your own in a matter concerning your own salvation But if God have left us no such external Judge if Antiquity knew none if Religion need none it was no just motive to leave us that you could find none amongst all those Sects which you mention and how much less if you have not a whit amended your self where you are which we shall consider by and by I say then first That to make this your motive of any moment it must be shewed that God hath appointed such a Judge in his Church Let that appear out of some passage of Holy Scripture For your conceit or desire that such a Judge there should be to whom you might in Conscience obey and yield your self because he could not err doth not prove it You would know the truth only by the Authority and sole pronouncing of the Judges Mouth A short and easie way which to most Men is plausible because it spares the pains of Study and Discourse To such especially as either out of weakness dare not trust their own Judgment or account it shall have the merit of humility to be led by their Teachers But what now if God will have you call no Man your Father upon Earth If he will send you to his Word and after you have received the Faith by the Churches Testimony out of the easie and plain places thereof bid you Search the Scriptures to find the Truth in the remnant and pick it out by your own industry The rich Man being in Hell-Torments in whose Words I doubt not but our Saviour doth impersonate and represent the conceits of many Men living in this World presumes that if one were sent from the Dead his Kinsmen would hearken to him but he is remitted to Moses and the Prophets The Iews as I perceived by Speech with some of them at Venice make it one of their Motives that our Lord Jesus is not the Christ. He should not say they have come in such a fashion to leave his own Nation in doubt and suspence and scandalize so many thousands but so as all Men might know him to be what he was Miserable Men that will give Laws to God Of which fault be you aware also good Mr. Waddesworth and be content to take not to prescribe the means by which you will be brought unto the knowledge of the Truth To use what he hath given not to conjecture and divine what he must give But God fails not his Church in such means as be necessary Let us therefore consider the necessity of this Judge Where I beseech you consider for I am sure you cannot but know it that all things necessary to salvation are evidently set down in Holy Scripture This both the Scriptures themselves do teach and the Fathers avouch namely S. Augustine and S. Chrysostome and others I forbear to set down their Words or further to confirm this Lemma which I proved at large against another Adversary and shall at all times make good if it be questioned Besides these Points there are a great many other though not of such necessity yet evidently laid down also in the same Scriptures by occasion of them Many by just Discourse may be cleared from these and the former If any thing yet remain in suspence and unknown yea or if you will erred in so it be not wilfully and obstinately yet shall it be ever without peril of damnation to him that receiveth what the Holy Ghost hath plainly delivered What necessity then of your imaginary Judge Yes for Unity is a goodly thing not only in matters necessary but universally in all Controversies must not be endless But how comes it to pass then that your Judge whosoever he be doth not all this while decide the Question touching the conception of the Blessed Virgin that is between the Dominicans and Franciscans nor that between the Dominicans and Iesuites touching Grace and Free-will and all other the Points that are controverted in the Schools to spare contention and time a precious Commodity among wise Men and give this honour to Divinity alone that in it all doubts should be reduced to certainties Or if it seem no wisdom to be hasty in deciding such Questions wherein Witty and Learned Men are ingaged lest in stead of changing their Opinions they should
or Soul and Faith of the Receiver Sometimes they will bear down the unexpert Souldier their Reader that he sees the Fathers fight for them as Pighius and Bellarmine come in often with their Vides in the end and application of a Testimony Whereby it comes to pass that the Scholar if he be of a plyable disposition or loth to be counted dim-sighted yields himself to his Teacher and sees in the Fathers that which they never dreamed of But surely Sir had you given that honour to the Holy Scriptures which of the Jews was given to them and our Lord Jesus Christ allows it in them and then employed as much travel in the searching and looking into them as you profess to have done in the perusing the Councils and Fathers perhaps God had opened your Eyes as those of Elisha his Servant to have seen that there are more on our side than against us Horses indeed and Chariots of Fire able to put to flight and scatter never so great Armies of humane Authorities and Opinions But this place of the Scriptures hath no place amongst all your Motives As touching that which you say of the Centurists often censuring and rejecting the plain Testimonies of the Antients It is true that in the title De Doctrina they note apart The singular and incommodious Opinions the Stubble and Errors of the Doctors Wherein to tell you my fancy If they commit any fault it is That they are too rigid and strict referring into this Catalogue every improper and excessive Speech which being severed from the rest of the discourse may often seem absurd As it may also seem strange that our Saviour should teach a Man to hate his Father and Mother or pull out his Eyes or give him his Cloak that hath bereaved him of his Coat Whereas these and the like have in the place where they stand admirable force and grace being taken with an equal and commodious Interpretation But it is as clear as the Noon day that sundry such errors and singular Opinions there be in the Fathers as cannot be justified They speak not alwayes to your own Minds not only prima facie and in sound of Words but being never so well examined and salved Witness Sixtus Senensis in the fifth and sixth Books of his Bibliotheca Witness Pamelius Medina though blamed for confessing so much by Bellarmine yea witness Bellarmine himself Wherefore if the bare Authority of the Fathers must bind us undergo the same Law ye give if as your Belgick Index confesseth you bear in them with many errors extenuate them excuse them by devising some shift often deny them and give them a commodious sense when they are opposed in Disputations give the liberty ye take Or if as we think these be base courses and unbeseeming the ingenuity of true Christian minds acknowledge this honour as proper to the Scriptures to be without controversie received examine by the true Touchstone of Divine Authority all humane Writings how holy soever their Authors have been Try all things as the Apostle commands hold fast that which is good Your instance in Danaeus his Commentaries super D. Aug. Enchiridon ad Laurentium was not all the best chosen For neither doth S. Augustine in that Book treating professedly of Purgatory avouch it plainly or yet obscurely Nor doth Danaeus reject his Opinion with those Words Hic est naevus Augustini or the like The Heads of S. Augustines Discourse are these I. That whereas some thought that such as are baptized and hold the Faith of Christ though they live and dye never so wickedly shall be saved and punished with a long but not eternal fire he thinks them to be deceived out of a certain humane pity for this Opinion is flatly contrary to other Scriptures II. He interprets the place of S. Paul touching the trying of every Mans Work by fire of the fire of tribulation through which as well he that builds Gold and Silver that is minds the things of God as he that builds Hay and Stubble that is too much minds the things of this life must pass III. He saith that it is not incredible that some such thing is done after this life also and whether it be so or not may be enquired of IV. But whether it be found or no that some faithful people according as they have more or less loved these perishing things are later or sooner saved yet not such as of whom it is said that they shall not possess the Kingdom of God unless repenting as they ought they obtain forgiveness as for the purpose be fruitful in Almes which yet will not serve to purchase a licence to commit sin V. That the daily and lighter sins without which we are never in this life are blotted out by the Lords Prayer And so the greater also if a Man leave them and forgive others his Enemies which is a worthy kind of alms But the best of all is a sinners amending of his life Lo how plainly S. Augustine avoucheth Purgatory of which he doubts whether any such thing can be found or no Expounds that Scripture that seems most strong for it all otherwise and so as it cannot agree thereunto If it be found is sure it will not serve for greater sins And for lesser defects yea the greatest shews another a surer Remedy which in truth makes Purgatory superfluous In this Doctrine Danaeus is so far from controuling S. Augustine that he applauds him and saith That declaring his own Opinion of Purgatory he pronounceth plainly that the whole defining of this matter is uncertain doubtful and rash which since that Augustine wrote being now an old Man certainly it cannot be doubted but that he did altogether reject Purgatory Yea and he shews this fire it self to be unprofitable Thus Danaeus there But the censure that was in your mind I believe is that upon another passage of S. Augustine in the same Book where he treats whether the Souls of the Dead are eased by the Piety of their Friends that are living And thus he determines it That when the Sacrifices either of the Altar or of whatsoever Alms are offered for all such as are deceased after Baptism for such as are very good folk they are Thanksgivings for such as are not very evil they are Propitiations For those that are very evil though they be no helps to the Dead yet they are Consolations such as they be to the Living And to such as they are profitable unto it is either that they may have full remission or that their very damnation may be more tolerable Upon this Chapter thus saith Danaeus Hoc totum caput continet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustini and after he adds Itaque hic foenum stipulam aedificat vir pius magnus But you ye say had rather follow S. Augustine 's Opinion than his Censure Perhaps as one saith rather erre with Plato than hold the truth with others If that be your resolution what should we
use any more Words Believe then if you please that the Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice in the Lords Supper or the Oblations of the faithful are to be made for all that decease after Baptism in the attempting of whatsoever sin they dye yea suppose in final impenitence of any deadly crime That such as be damned may thereby have their damnation made more tolerable Believe that without any impropriety of Speech the same form of Words may be a thanksgiving for one and an appeasing of Gods wrath for another Believe also if you can beieve what you will that S. Tecla delivered the Soul of Falconilla out of Hell and S. Gregory the Soul of Trajan and that as may seem saying Mass for him sith he was forbidden thenceforth to offer any Host for any wicked Man Believe that Macarius continually praying for the Dead and very desirous to know whether his Prayers did them any good had answer by miracle from the Scull of a dead Man an Idolater that by chance was tumbled in the way O Macarius when thou offerest Prayers for the Dead we feel some ease for the time Believe that on Easter even all the damned Spirits in Hell keep Holy day and are free from their torments S. Augustine such is his modesty will give you leave to believe this as well as Purgatory if you please as he is not unwilling to give as large scope to other Mens Opinions as may be so they reverse not the plain and certain grounds of Holy Scripture In all these you may if you please follow Authors also as S. Damascene Paladius Prudentius Sigebert and others But give the same liberty to others that ye take Compel no Man to follow your Opinion if he had rather follow Danaeus's Reasons For my self I would sooner with S. Augustine himself whose words touching S. Cyprian Danaeus here borrowed confess this to be naevum candidissimi pectoris coopertum ubere Charitatis than be bound to justifie his conceit touching the commemoration of the Dead in the Lords Supper And as he saith of S. Cyprian so would I add Ego hujus libri Authoritate non teneor quia literas Augustini non ut Canonicas habeo sed eas ex Canonicis considero quod in iis divinarum Scripturarum authoritati congruit cum laude ejus accipio quod non congruit cum pace ejus respuo Which Words I do the rather set down that they may be Luthers justification also against F. Parsons who thinks he hath laid sore to his charge when he cites very solemnly his Epistle ad Equitem Germ. Anno Domini 1521. where he saith He was tyed by the authority of no Father though never so holy if he were not approved by the judgment of Holy Scripture Surely this is not to deny and contemn as he calls it or as you to controll the Fathers to account them subject to humane infirmities which themselves acknowledge But the contrary is to boast against the Truth to seek to forejudge it with their mistakings which needs not so much as require their Testimonies I will forbear to multiply words about that whether the testimonies of Antiquity which favour the Protestants be many or few whether they do indeed so or onely seem prima facie whether they be wrested or to the purpose whether all this may not by juster reason be affirmed of the passages cited by the Romanists out of Antiquity setting aside matters of ceremony and government which your self confess by and by may be divers without impeaching unity in Faith and opinions ever to be subjected to the trial of Scriptures by their own free consent and desire Judge by an instance or two that this matter may not be a meer skirmish of generalities Tertullian in his latter times whether as Saint Hierome writes through the envy and reproach of the Roman Clergy or out of the too much admiring chastity and fasting became a Montanist and wrote a Book de Pudicitia blaming the reconciling of Adulterers and Fornicators In the very entrance almost thereof he hath these words Audio etiam edictum esse propositum quidem peremptorium Pontifex scil Maximus Episcopus Episcoporum dicit Ego moechiae fornicationis delicta poenitentia functis dimitto Pamelius in his note upon this place writes thus Bene habet annotatu dignum quod etiam jam in haerest constitutus adversus Ecclesiam scribens Pontificem Romanum Episcopum Episcoporum nuncupet infra Cap. 13. bonum Pastorem benedictum Papam Cap. 21. Apostolicum Thus Pamelius and presently lanches forth into the Priviledges of the See of Rome and brings a number of testimonies for that forgery of Constantines donation The like note he hath in the life of Tertullian where he makes the Pope thus set forth the former Edict to have been Zephyrinus's quem saith he Pontificem Maximum etiam jam haereticus Episcopum Episcoporum appellat Baronius also makes no small account of this place and saith The title of the Pope is here to be noted And indeed prima facie as you say they have reason But he that shall well examine the whole web of Tertullians discourse shall find that he speaks by a most bitter and scornful Ironie as Elias doth of Baal when he saith he is a God The word scilicet might have taught them thus much Yea the title Pontifex Maximus which in those days and almost two ages after was a Pagan term never attributed to a Christian Bishop first laid down by Gratian the Emperour as Baronius also notes in the year of our Lord 383. because it savoured of Heathenish superstition though it had been as a title of Royalty used by the former Christian Emperours till that time This title I say might have made them perceive Tertullians meaning unless the immoderate desire of exalting the Papacy did so blind their eyes that seeing they saw and yet perceived not In the same character though with more mildness and moderation is the same title for the other part of it used by Saint Cyprian in his Vote in the Council of Carthage Neque n. quisquam nostrum se esse Episcopum Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem Collegas suos adigit Bellarmine saith he speaks here of those Bishops that were in the Council of Carthage and that the Bishop of Rome is not included in that sentence who is indeed Bishop of Bishops What! and doth he tyrannously inforce his Colleagues to obedience also For it is plain that Cyprian joyns these together the one as the presumptuous title the other as the injurious act answering thereto which he calls plain tyranny And as plain it is out of Firmilianus's Epistle which I vouched before that Stephanus Bishop of Rome heard ill for his arrogancy and presuming upon the place of his Bishoprick Peters Chair to sever himself from so many Churches and break the bond of peace now with the Churches of the