good and the confusion of the evill and that it is the propertie of a faithfull man to bee fully perswaded of the truth of those things that are delivered in the holy Scripture and not to dare eyther to reject or to adde any thing thereunto For if whatsoever is not of faith be sinne as the Apostle saith and faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God then vvhatsoever is without the holy Scripture being not of faith must needs be sinne Thus farre S. Basil. In like maner Gregory Nyssene S. Basils brother layeth this for a ground vvhich no man should contradict that in that onely the truth must be acknowledged wherein the seale of the Scripture testimony is to be seene And accordingly in another booke attributed also unto him we finde this conclusion made Forasmuch as this is upholden vvith no testimony of the Scripture as false vve will reject it Thus also S. Hierome disputeth against Helvidius· As vvee denye not those things that are written so vve refuse those things that are not vvritten That God was borne of a Virgin we beleeve because we reade it that Mary did marry after shee was delivered wee beleeve not because wee reade it not In those things saith S. Augustine vvhich are layd downe plainly in the Scriptures all those things are found which appertaine to faith and direction of life And againe Whatsoever ye heare from the holy Scriptures let that savour vvell unto you whatsoever is without them refuse lest you wander in a cloud And in another place All those things which in times past our ancestors have mentioned to be done toward mankind and have delivered unto us all those things also which we see and doe deliver unto our posteritie so farre as they appertaine to the seeking and maintayning of true Religion the holy Scripture hath not passed in silence The holy Scripture saith S. Cyrill of Alexandria is sufficient to make them which are brought up in it wise and most approved and furnished with most sufficient understanding And againe That which the holy Scripture hath not said by what meanes should wee receive and account it among those things that be true Lastly in the writings of Theodoret wee meete with these kinde of speeches By the holy Scripture alone am I perswaded I am not so bold as to affirme any thing which the sacred Scripture passeth in silence It is an idle and a senselesse thing to seeke those things that are passed in silence Wee ought not to seeke those things which are passed in silence but rest in the things that are written By the verdict of these twelve men you may judge what opinion was held in those ancient times of such Traditions as did crosse either the verity or the perfection of the sacred Scripture which are the Traditions we set our selves against If now it be demanded in what Popes dayes the contrarie doctrine was brought in among Christians I answer that if S. Peter were ever Pope in his dayes it was that some seducers first laboured to bring in Will-worship into the Church against whom S. Paul opposing himselfe Coloss. 2. counteth it a sufficient argument to condemne all such inventions that they were the commandements and doctrines of men Shortly after them started up other Hereticks who taught that the truth could not be found out of the Scriptures by those to whom Tradition was unknowen forasmuch as it was not delivered by writing but by word of mouth for which cause S. Paul also should say Wee speake wisedome among them that be perfect The verie same Text doe the Iesuites alledge to prove the dignitie of manie mysteries to be such that they require silence and that it is unmeet they should bee opened in the Scriptures which are read to the whole world and therefore can onely be learned by unwritten Traditions Wherein they consider not how they make so neare an approach unto the confines of some of the ancientest Heretickes that they may well shake hands together For howsoever some of them were so madde as to say that they were wiser then the Apostles themselves and therefore made light account of the doctrine which they delivered unto the Church either by writing or by word of mouth yet all of them broake not forth into that open impietie the same mysterie of iniquitie wrought in some of Antichrists fore-runners then which is discovered in his ministers now They confessed indeed as witnesseth Tertullian that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing and differed not among themselves in their preaching but they say they revealed not all things unto all men some things they delivered openly and to all some things secretly and to a few because that Paul useth this speech unto Timothy O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust And againe That good thing which was committed unto thee keepe Which verie Texts the Iesuites likewise bring in to prove that there are some Traditions which are not contayned in the Scripture In the dayes of S. Hierome also this was wont to be the saying of Hereticks We are the sonnes of the wise men which from the beginning have delivered the doctrine of the Apostles unto us But those things saith that Father which they of themselves finde out and faine to have received as it were by Tradition from the Apostles without the authoritie and testimonies of the Scriptures the sword of God doth smite S. Chrysostome in like maner giveth this for a marke of Antichrist and of all spiritual theeves that they come not in by the doore of the Scriptures For the Scripture saith hee like unto a sure doore doth barre an entrance unto Hereticks safeguarding us in all things that we will and not suffering us to be deceived Whereupon he concludeth that who so useth not the Scriptures but commeth in otherwise that is betaketh himselfe to another and an unlawfull way he is a theefe How this mysterie of iniquitie wrought when Antichrist came unto his full growth and what experiments his followers gave of their theevish entry in this kind was well observed by the author of the book De unitate Ecclesiae thought by some to be Waltram Bishop of Naumburg who speaking of the Monks that for the upholding of Pope Hildebrands faction brought in schismes and heresies into the Church noteth this specially of them that despising the tradition of God they desired other doctrines and brought in maisteries of humane institution Against whom hee alledgeth the authoritie of their owne S. Benedict the father of the Monkes in the West writing thus The Abbot ought to teach or ordaine or command nothing which is without the precept of the Lord but his commandement or instruction should be spred as the leaven of divine righteousnesse in the minds of his Disciples Whereunto also hee might have added the testimonie of the two famous Fathers
Lord their God and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just by giving knowledge of salvation to Gods people unto the remission of their sins Not because he had properly anie power given him to turne mens hearts and to worke faith and repentance for forgivenesse of sinnes when and where he thought good but because he was trusted with the ministerie of the word of Gods grace which is able to convert and quicken mens soules and to give them an inheritance among all them which are sanctified by the powerfull application of which word he who converteth the sinner from the errour of his way is said to save a soule from death and to hide a multitude of sinnes For howsoever in true proprietie the covering of sinnes the saving from death and turning of men from their iniquities is a priviledge peculiar to the Lord our God unto whom alone it appertayneth to reconcile the world to himselfe by not imputing their sinnes unto them yet inasmuch as he hath committed unto his ambassadors the word of reconciliation they in performing that worke of their ministerie may be as rightly said to be imployed in reconciling men unto God and procuring remission of their sinnes as they are said to deliver a man from going downe into the pit when they declare unto him his righteousnesse and to save their hearers when they preach unto them the Gospel by which they are saved For as the word it selfe which they speake is said to be their word which yet is in truth the word of God so the worke which is effectually wrought by that word in them that beleeve is said to be their worke though in truth it be the proper worke of God And as they that beleeve by their word are said to be their Epistle 2. Cor. 3.2 that is to say the Epistle of Christ ministred by them as it is expounded in the verse following in like maner forgivenesse of sinnes and those other great graces that appertaine to the beleevers may be said to be their worke that is to say the worke of Christ ministred by them For in verie deed as Optatus speaketh in the matter of Baptisme not the minister but the faith of the beleever and the Trinitie doe bring these things unto every man And where the preaching of the Gospel doth prove the power of God unto salvation onely the weakenesse of the externall ministerie must be ascribed to men but the excellency of the power must ever be acknowledged to be of God and not of them neyther he that planteth being here any thing neyther he that watereth but God that giveth the increase For howsoever in respect of the former such as take paines in the Lords husbandry may be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle termeth them labourers together with God though that little peece of service it selfe also bee not performed by their owne strength but according to the grace of God which is given unto them yet that which followeth of giving the increase God effecteth not by them but by himselfe This saith S. Augustin exceedeth the lowlinesse of man this exceedeth the sublimitie of Angels neither appertayneth unto anie but unto the husbandman the Trinity Now as the Spirit of God doth not onely woâ—ke diversities of graces in us distributing to every man severally as he will but also maketh us to know the things that are freely given to us of God so the ministers of the New Testament being made able ministers of the same spirit are not onely ordayned to be Gods instruments to worke faith and repentance in men for the obtayning of remission of sinnes but also to declare Gods pleasure unto such as beleeve and repent and in his name to certifie them and give assurance to their consciences that their sinnes are forgiven they having received this ministerie of the Lord Iesus to testifie the Gospell of the grace of God and so by their function being appointed to be witnesses rather then conferrers of that grace For it is here with them in the loosing part as it is in the binding part of their ministerie where they are brought in like unto those seuen Angels in the book of the Revelation which powre out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth having vengeance ready against all disobedience and a charge from God to cast men out of his sigâ—t not because they are properly the avengers for that title God challengeth unto himselfe or that vengeance did anie way appertaine unto them for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord but because they were the denouncers not the inflicters of this vengeance So though it be the Lord that speaketh concerning a nation to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy or on the other side to build and to plant it yet he in whose mouth God put those words of his is said to be set by him over the nations and over the kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe to build and to plant as if he himselfe were a doer of those great matters who was onely ordeyned to be a Prophet unto the nations to speake the things unto them which God had commanded him Thus likewise in the thirteenth of Leviticus where the Lawes are set downe that concerne the leprosie which was a type of the pollution of sinne wee meet often with these speeches The Priest shall cleanse him and The Priest shall pollute him and in the 44. verse The Priest with pollution shall pollute him not saith S. Hierome that he is the author of the pollution but that he declareth him to be polluted who before did seeme unto many to have beene cleane Whereupon the Master of the Sentences following herein S. Hierome and being afterwards therein followed himselfe by manie others observeth that in remitting or retayning sinnes the Priests of the Gospell have that right and office which the legall Priests had of old under the Law in curing of the lepers These therefore saith hee forgive sinnes or retaine them whiles they shew and declare that they are forgiven or retayned by God For the Priests put the name of the Lord upon the children of Israel but it was he himselfe that blessed them as it is read in Numbers The place that he hath referrence unto is in the sixth chapter of that booke where the Priests are commanded to blesse the people by saying unto them The Lord blesse thee c. and then it followeth in the last verse of that chapter So they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel and I will blesse them Neyther doe we grant hereupon as the Adversarie falsely chargeth us that a lay-man yea or a woman or a childe or any infidell or the Divell the Father of all
of the holy Scripture Or will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinions by malice and corrupt intentions Why your selves cannot deny but that they lived most holy and vertuous lives free from all malitious corrupting or perverting of Gods holy word and by their holy lives are now made worthy to raigne with God in his glory Insomuch as their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspition of ignorant errour and their innocent sanctity freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption But by his leave hee is a little too hastie Hee were best to bethink himselfe more advisedly of that which he hath undertaken to performe and to remember the saying of the King of Israel unto Benhadad Let not him that girdeth on his harnesse boast himselfe as he that putteth it off Hee hath taken upon him to prove that our Religon cannot be true because it disalloweth of many chiefe articles which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did generally hold to be true For performance hereof it wil not be sufficient for him to shew that some of these Fathers maintained some of these opinions he must prove if hee will be as good as his word and deale any thing to the purpose that they held them generally and held them too not as opinions but tanquam de fide as appertayning to the substance of faith and religion For as Vincentius Lirinensis well observeth the auncient consent of the holy Fathers is with great care to be sought and followed by us not in every petty question belonging to the Law of God but only or at least principally in the Rule of faith But all the points propounded by our Challenger be not chiefe articles and therefore if in some of them the Fathers have held some opinions that will not beare waight in the ballance of the Sanctuary as some conceits they had herein which the Papists themselves must confesse to be erroneous their defects in that kinde doe abate nothing of that reverend estimation which we have them in for their great paines taken in the defence of the true Catholick Religion and the serious studie of the holy Scripture Neither doe I thinke that he who thus commendeth them for the pillers of Christianitie and the champions of Christs Church will therefore hold himselfe tyed to stand unto every thing that they have said sure he will not if he follow the steppes of the great ones of his owne Societie For what doth hee thinke of Iustin Martyr Irenaeus and Epiphanius Doth he not account them among those pillers and champions hee speaketh of Yet saith Cardinall Bellarmine I doe not see how we may defend their opinion from error When others object that they have two or three hundred testimonies of the Doctors to prove that the Virgin Mary was conceived in sinne Salmeron the Iesuite steps forth and answereth them first out of the doctrine of Augustine and Thomas that the argument drawne from authoritie is weake then out of the word of God Exod. 23. In judicio plurimorum non acquiesces sententiae ut á vero devies In judgement thou shalt not be ledde with the sentence of the most to decline from the truth And lastly telleth them that when the Donatists gloried in the multitude of authors S. Augustin did answer them that it was a signe their cause was destitute of the strength of truth which was onely supported by the authority of many who were subject to error And when his Adversaries presse him not onely with the multitude but also with the antiquitie of the Doctors alledged unto which more honour alwayes hath beene given then unto novelties he answereth that indeed every age hath alwayes attributed much unto antiquity and every old man as the Poët saith is a commender of the time past but this saith he vvee averre that the yonger the Doctors are the more sharpe-sighted they be And therefore for his part he yeeldeth rather to the judgement of the yonger Doctors of Paris among whom none is held worthy of the title of a Master in Divinitie who hath not first bound himselfe with a religious oath to defend and maintaine the priviledge of the B. Virgin Only he forgot to tell how they which take that oath might dispense with another oath which the Pope requireth them to take that they will never understand and interprete the holy Scripture but according to the uniforme consent of the Fathers Pererius in his disputations upon the Epistle to the Romans confesseth that the Greeke Fathers and not a few of the Latine Doctors too have delivered in their writings that the cause of the predestination of men unto everlasting life is the foreknowledge which God had from eternitie either of the good workes which they were to doe by cooperating with his grace or of the faith wherby they were to beleeve the word of God to obey his calling And yet he for his part notwithstanding thinketh that this is contrary to the holy Scripture but especially to the doctrine of S. Paul If our Questionist had beene by him hee would have pluckt his fellow by the sleeve and taken him up in this maner Will you say that these Fathers maintained this opinion contrary to the word of God Why you know that they were the pillers of Christianity the Champions of Christ his Church and of the true Catholick religion which they most learnedly defended against diverse heresies and therefore spent all their time in a most serious studie of the holy Scripture He would also perhaps further challenge him as he doth us Will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinion by malice corrupt intentions For sure hee might have asked this wise question of any of his owne fellowes as well as of us who doe allow and esteeme so much of these blessed Doctors and Martyrs of the ancient Church as he himselfe in the end of his Challenge doth acknowledge which verily we should have little reason to doe if wee did imagine that they brought in opinions which they knew to be repugnant to the Scriptures for any malice or corrupt intentions Indeed men they were compassed with the common infirmities of our nature and therefore subject unto error but godly men and therefore free from all malicious error Howsoever then we yeeld unto you that their innocent sanctitie freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption yet you must pardon us if wee make question whether their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspicion of error which may arise either of affection or want of due consideration or such ignorance as the very best are subject unto in this life For it is not admirable learning that is sufficient to crosse out that suspicion but such an immediate guidance of the holy Ghost as the Prophets and Apostles were
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 correspondent types or figures before they were consecrated but after the consecration saith hee they are called and are and beleeved to be the body and blood of Christ properly where the Popes owne followers who of late published the Acts of the generall Councells at Rome were so farre ashamed of the ignorance of this blind Bayard that they correct his boldnesse with this marginall note The holy gifts are oftentimes found to be called antitypes or figures correspondent after they be consecrated as by Gregory Nazianz. in the funerall Oration upon his sister and in his Apologie by Cyrill of Ierusalem in his fifth Cateches Mystagogic and by others And wee have alreadie heard how the author of the Dialogues against the Marcionites and after him Eusebius and Gelasius expressely call the Sacrament an image of Christs bodie howsoever this peremptorie Clerke denieth that ever anie did so By all which it may easily appeare that not the oppugners but the defenders of Images were the men who first went about herein to alter the language used by their fore-fathers Now as in the daies of Gregory the third this matter was set afoot by Damascen in the East so about a hundred yeares after in the Papacie of Gregory the fourth the same began to be propounded in the West by meanes of one Amalarius who was Bishop not as hee is commonly taken to be of Triers but of Mets first and afterwards of Lyons This man writing doubtfully of this point otherwhiles followeth the doctrine of S. Augustine that Sacraments were oftentimes called by the names of the things themselves and so the Sacrament of Christs bodie was secundùm quendam modum after a certaine maner the bodie of Christ otherwhiles maketh it a part of his beleefe that the simple nature of the bread and wine mixed is turned into a reasonable nature to wit of the body and blood of Christ. But what should become of this bodie after the eating therof was a matter that went beyond his little witt and therefore said he when the bodie of Christ is taken with a good intention it is not for me to dispute whether it be invisibly taken up into heaven or kept in our body untill the day of our buriall or exhaled into the ayre or whether it go out of the body with the blood at the opening of a veyne or be sent out by the mouth our Lord saying that every thing which entreth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is sent forth into the draught For this and another like foolerie de triformi tripartito corpore Christi of the three parts or kindes of Christs body which seeme to be those ineptiae de tripartito Christi corpore that Paschasius in the end of his Epistle intreateth Frudegardus not to follow he was censured in a Synod held at Carisiacum wherein it was declared by the Bishops of France that the bread and wine are spiritually made the body of Christ which being a meat of the mind and not of the belly is not corrupted but remayneth unto everlasting life These dotages of Amalarius did not only give occasion to that question propounded by Heribaldus to Rabanus wherof we have spoken heretofore but also to that other of far greater consequence Whether that which was externally delivered received in the sacrament were the verie same body which was borne of the Virgin Mary suffered upon the Crâ—sse rose again from the Grave Paschasius Radbertus a Deacon of those times but somewhat of a better and more modest temper then the Greek Deacon shewed himselfe to be of held that it was the veâ—ie same and to that purpose wrote his book to Placidus of the Body Blood of our Lord wherein saith a Iesuite he was the first that did so explicate the true sense of the Cà tholick Church his owne Romane he meaneth that he opened the way to those manie others who wrote afterwards of the same argument Rabanus on the other side in a writing directed to Abbot Egilo maintayned the contrarie doctrine as hath before beene noted Then one Frudegardus reading the third book of S. Augustin de doctrinâ Christianâ and finding there that the eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of Christ was a figurative maner of speech began somewhat to doubt of the truth of that which formerly he had read in that foresaid Treatise of Paschasius which moved Paschasius to write againe of the same argument as of a question wherein he confesseth many were then doubtfull But neither by his first nor by his second writing was hee able to take these doubts out of mens mindes and therefore Carolus Calvus the Emperour being desirous to compose these differences and to have unitie setled among his subjects required Ratrannus a learned man of that time who lived in the Monasterie of Corbey whereof Paschasius was Abbat to deliver his judgement touching these points Whether the body and blood of Christ which in the Church is received by the mouth of the faithfull be celebrated in a mysterie or in the truth and whether it be the same body which was born of Mary which did suffer was dead and buried which rising againe and ascending into heaven sitteth at the right hand of the Father Whereunto he returneth this answer that the bread and the wine are the body and blood of Christ figuratively that for the substance of the creatures that which they were before consecration the same are they also afterward that they are called the Lords bodie and the Lords blood because they take the name of that thing of which they are a sacrament that there is a great difference betwixt the mysterie of the blood and body of Christ which is taken now by the faithfull in the Church and that which was borne of the Virgin Mary which suffered which was buried which rose again which sitteth at the right hand of the Father All which hee proveth at large both by testimonies of the holy Scriptures and by the sayings of the ancient Fathers Wherupon Turrian the Iesuite is driven for pure need to shift off the matter with this silly interrogation To cite Bertram so Ratrannus is more usually named what is it else but to say that the heresie of Calvin is not new As if these things were alledged by us for anie other end then to shew that this way which they call heresie is not new but hath been troden in long since by such as in their times were accounted good and Catholick teachers in the Church That since they have been esteemed otherwise is an argument of the alteration of the times and of the conversion of the state of things which is the matter that now we are inquiring of and which our Adversaries in an evill houre to them doe so earnestly presse us to discover The Emperour Charles unto whom this
beene said actually voideth himselfe of this power this unrighteous judgement of his given upon earth being no wayes ratified but absolutely disanulled in the court of heaven For hee who by his office is appointed to be a minister of the word of truth hath no power given him to do any thing against the truth but for the truth neyther is it to be imagined that the sentence of man who is subject to deceive and be deceived should anie wayes prejudice the sentence of God whose judgement wee know to be alwayes according to the truth Therefore doth Pacianus in the end of his first epistle to Sympronianus the Novatian shew that at that time absolution was not so easily given unto penitents as now a dayes it is but vvith great pondering of the matter and with great deliberation after manie sighes and shedding of teares after the prayers of the whole Church pardon was so not denyed unto trâ—e repentance that Christ being to judge no man should prejudge him and a little before speaking of the Bishop by whose ministerie this was done He shall give an account saith he if hee have done anie thing amisse or if he have judged corruptly and wickedly Neyther is there anie prejudice done unto God whereby he might not undoe the workes of this evill builder but in the meane time if that administration of his be godly he continueth a helper of the workes of God Wherein he doth but tread in the steps of S. Cyprian who at the first rising of the Novatian heresie wrote in the same maner unto Antonianus Wee doe not prejudice the Lord that is to judge but that hee if he finde the repentance of the sinner to be full and just he may then ratifie that which shall be here ordayned by us but if any one doe deceive us with the semblance of repentance God who is not mocked and who beholdeth the heart of man may judge of those things which we did not well discerne and the Lord may amend the sentence of the servants Hereupon S. Hierome expounding those words Daniel 4.24 It may be God will pardon thy sinnes reproveth those men of great rashnesse that are so peremptorie and absolute in their absolutions When blessed Daniel saith he who knew things to come doth doubt of the sentence of God they do a rash deed that boldly promise pardon unto sinners S. Basil also resolveth us that the power of forgiving is not given absolutely but upon the obedience of the penitent and his consent with him that hath the care of his soule For it is in loosing as it is in binding Thou hast begun to esteeme thy brother as a publican saith S. Augustin thou bindest him upon earth But looke that thou bindest him justly For unjust bonds justice doth breake So when the Priest saith I absolve thee Maldonat confesseth that hee meaneth no more thereby but As much as in me lyeth I absolve thee and Suarez acknowledgeth that it implicity includeth this condition Vnlesse the receiver put some impediment for which hee alledgeth the authority of Hugo de S. Victore lib. 2. de Sacramentis pa. 14. s. 8. affirming that this forme doth rather signifie the power and vertue then the event of the absolution And therefore doth the Master of the Sentences rightly observe that God doth not evermore follow the judgement of the Church which sometimes judgeth by surreption and ignorance whereas God doth alwayes judge according to the truth So the Priests sometime declare men to be loosed or bound who are not so before God with the penaltie of satisfaction or excommunication they sometime binde such as are unworthy or loose them they admit them that be unworthy to the Sacraments and put backe them that be worthy to be admitted That saying therefore of Christ must be understood to be verified in them saith he whose merits doe require that they should be loosed or bound For then is the sentence of the Priest approved and confirmed by the judgement of God and the whole court of heaven when it doth proceed with that discretion that the merits of them who be dealt withall doe not contradict the same Whomsoever therefore they do loose or binde using the key of discretion according to the parties merits they are loosed or bound in heaven that is to say with God because the sentence of the Priest proceeding in this maner is approved and confirmed by divine judgement Thus farre the Master of the Sentences who is followed herein by the rest of the Schoolemen who generally agree that the power of binding and loosing committed to the Ministers of the Church is not absolute but must be limited with Clave non errante as being then onely of force when matters are carried with right iudgement and no error is committed in the use of the keyes Our Saviour therefore must stil have the priviledge reserved unto him of being the absolute Lord over his owne house it is sufficient for his officers that they bee esteemed as Moses was faithfull in all his house as servants The place wherein they serve is a Stewards place and the Apostle telleth them that it is required in Stewards that the man be found faithfull They may not therefore carrie themselves in their office as the unjust steward did and presume to strike out their Masters debt without his direction and contrarie to his liking Now we know that our Lord hath given no authoritie unto his stewards to grant an acquittance unto anie of his debtors that bring not unfayned faith and repentance with them Neyther Angell nor Archangell can neyther yet the Lord himselfe who alone can say I am with you when we have sinned doth release us unlesse vvee bring repentance with us saith S. Ambrose and Eligius Bishop of Noyon in his Sermon unto the Penitents Before all things it is necessary you should know that howsoever you desire to receive the imposition of our hands yet you cannot obtaine the absolution of your sinnes before the divine piety shall vouchsafe to absolve you by the grace of compunction To thinke therefore that it lyeth in the power of anie Priest truely to absolve a man from his sinnes without implying the condition of his beleeving and repenting as he ought to doe is both presumption and madnesse in the highest degree Neyther dareth Cardinall Bellarmine who censureth this conditionall absolution in us for idle and superfluous when he hath considered better of the matter assume unto himselfe or communicate unto his brethren the power of giving an absolute one For he is driven to confesse with other of his fellowes that when the Priest saith I absolve thee he doth not affirme that he doth absolve absolutely as not being ignorant that it may many wayes come to passe that he doth not absolve although he pronounce those words namely if hee who seemeth to receive this Sacrament for
he brought unto those just men that were in the bosome of Abraham when he did descend into Hell I have not yet found Thus farre S. Augustin For the better understanding of this wee are to call unto minde that saying of the Philosophers that they who do not learne rightly to understand words use to be deceived in the things themselves It wil not be amisse therefore to consider somewhat of the name of Hell that the nature of the word being rightly understood wee may the better conceive the truth of the thing that is signified thereby Wee are to know then first of our English word Hell that the originall thereof is by diverse men delivered diversly Some derive it from the Hebrew word Sheol eyther subtracting the first letter or including it in the aspiration For this letter S saith Priscian hath such an affinitie with the aspiration that the Boeotians in some words were wont to write H for S saying Muha for Musa Others bring it from the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a lake others from the English hole as signifying a pit-hole others from hale as noting the place that haleth or draweth men unto it Some say that in the old Saxon or German Hel signifieth deepe whether it bee high or low But the derivation given by Verstegan is the most probable from being helled over that is to say hidden or covered For in the old German tongue from whence our English was extracted Hil signifieth to hide and Hiluh in Otfridus Wissenburgensis is hidden And in this countrey with them that retayne the ancient language which their forefathers brought with them out of England to hell the head is as much as to cover the head and hee that covereth the house with tile or slate is from thence commonly called a hellier So that in the originall propriety of the word our Hell doth exactly answere the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denoteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place which is unseene or removed from the sight of man Wee are in the second place therefore to observe that the tearme of Hell beside the vulgar acception wherein it signifieth that which Luke 16.28 is called the place of torment is in the Ecclesiasticall use of the word extended more largely to expresse the Greeke word Hádes and the Latin Inferi whatsoever is contayned under them Concerning which S. Augustine giveth this note The name of Hell is variously put in Scriptures and in many meanings according as the sense of the things which are entreated of doth require and Master Casaubon who understood the propertie of Greeke and Latin wordes as well as any this other They who thinke that HADES is properly the seate of the damned be no lesse deceaved then they who when they read INFEROS in Latin writers doe interpret it of the same place The lesse cause have wee to wonder that Hell in the Scripture should bee made the place of all the dead in common and not of the wicked onely as in Psalm 89.47 48. Remember how short my time is wherefore hast thou made all men in vaine What man is hee that liveth and shall not see death shall hee deliver his soule from the hand of HELL and Esai 38.18 19. HELL cannot prayse thee death cannot celebrate thee they that goe downe into the pit cannot hope for thy truth The LIVING the LIVING hee shall prayse thee as I doe this day Where the opposition betwixt Hell and the state of life in this world is to be observed Now as the common condition of the dead is considerable three maner of wayes eyther in respect of the body separated from the soule or of the soule separated from the bodie or of the whole man indefinitely considered in this state of separation so do we finde the word Hádes which by the Latins is rendred Infernus or Inferi and by the English Hell to be applied by the ancient Greek interpreters of the old Testament to the common state and place of the bodie severed from the soule by the heathen Greekes to the common state and place of the soule severed from the bodie and by both of them to the common state of the dead and the place proportionably correspondent to that state of dissolution And so the Doctors of the Church speaking in the same language which they learned both from the sacred and the forraine writers are accordingly found to take the word in these three severall significations Touching the first we are to note that both the Septuagint in the Old Testament and the Apostles in the New doe use the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HADES and answerably thereunto the Latin Interpreters the word Infernus or Inferi and the English the word Hell for that which in the Hebrew text is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SHEÓL on the other side where in the New Testament the word HADES is used there the ancient Syriack translator doth put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shejul in steed thereof Now the Hebrew Sheol and so the Chaldy Syriack and Aethiopian words which draw their originall from thence doth properly denote the interior parts of the earth that lye hidden from our sight namely whatsoever tendeth downeward from the surface of the earth unto the center thereof In which respect we see that the Scripture describeth Sheol to be a deepe place and opposeth the depth thereof unto the heighth of Heaven Iob. 11.8 Psalm 139.8 Amos 9.2 Againe because the bodies that live upon the surface of the earth are corrupted within the bowells thereof the dust returning to the earth as it was therefore is this word commonly put for the state and the place wherein dead bodies do rest and are disposed for corruption And in this respect wee finde that the Scripture doth oppose Sheol not only unto Heaven but also unto this land of the living wherein we now breathe Esai 38.10 11. Ezech. 32.27 the surface of the earth being the place appointed for the habitation of the living the other parts ordayned to be the chambers of death Thus they that are in the graves Ioh. 5.28 are said to sleepe in the dust of the earth Dan. 12.2 The Psalmist in his prophesie of our Saviours humiliation tearmeth it the dust of death Psal. 22.15 which the Chaldee Paraphrast expoundeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of the grave interpreting Sheol after the selfe same maner in Psa. 31.18 89.49 R. Mardochai Nathan in his Hebrew Concordance giveth no other interpretation of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sheol but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the grave R. Abraham Aben-Ezra in his commentary upon those words Genes 37.35 I will goe downe into Sheól unto my sonne mourning writeth thus Here the Translator of the erring persons he meaneth the Vulgar Latin translation used by the Christians erreth in translating Sheól Hell or Gehenna for behold the signification of the word
raised up upon which place Origen writeth thus In this place and in many others likewise the graves of the dead are to be understood according to the more certaine meaning of the Scripture not such onely as wee see are builded for the receiving of mens bodies eyther cut out in stones or digged downe in the earth but every place wherein a mans bodie lyeth eyther entire or in any part albeit it fell out that one body should be dispersed through many places it being no absurditie at all that all those places in which any part of the body lyeth should bee called the sepulchres of that bodie For if wee do not thus understand the dead to bee raysed by the power of God out of their graves they which are not committed to buriall nor layd in graves but have ended their life either in shipwrackes or in some desart places so as they could not be committed to buriall should not seeme to bee recokoned among them who are said should bee raysed up out of their graves which would bee a very great absurditie Thus Origen Now you shall heare if you please what our Romish Doctors doe deliver touching this point There be two opinions saith Pererius upon Genes 37.35 concerning this question The one of the Hebrewes and of many of the Christians in this our age but especially of the Heretickes affirming that the word Sheol signifieth nothing else in the Scripture but the pit or the grave and from thence reasoning falsly that our Lord did not descend into Hell The other opinion is of undoubted and certaine truth that the Hebrew word Sheol and the Latin Infernus answering to it both in this place of Scripture and elsewhere oftentimes doth signifie not the pit or the grave but the place of Hell and the places under the earth wherein the soules are after death Wheresoever Hiâ—rome saith Augustinus Steuchus upon the same place and the Sâ—ptuagint have translated Hell it is in the Hebrewe Sheol that is the pit or the grave For it doth not signifie that place wherein Antiquitie hath thought that the soules of the wicked are received The Hebrew word properly signifieth the grave saith Iansenius upon Proverb 15.12 the Grave properly and Hell onely metaphorically saith Arias Montanus in his answere unto Leo á Castro and in the old Testament the name of Hell doth alwayes almost import the Grave saith Alphonsus Mendoza The Iesuite Pineda commendeth one Cyprian a Cistercian monke as a man famous for learning and pietie yet holdeth him worthie to be censured for affirming that Sheol or Hell is in all the old Testament taken for the Grave Another croaking monke Crocquet they call him crieth out on the other side that we shall never be able to prove by the producing of as much as one place of Scripture that Sheol doth signifie the Grave Cardinall Bellarmine is a little and but a verie little more modest heerein The Hebrewe Sheol hee saith is ordinarily taken for the place of soules under the earth and eyther rarely or never for the grave but the Greeke word Hades alwayes signifieth Hell never the grave But Stapleton will stand to it stoutly that neyther Hades nor Sheol is in the Scriptures ever taken for the grave but alwayes for Hell The word Infernus Hades Sheol saith hee is never taken for the grave The grave is called in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrewe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore all the Paraphrastes of the Hebrewes also doe expound that word Sheol by the word Gehenna as Genebrard doth shew at large in his third Booke of the Trinity Where yet hee might have learned some more moderation from Genebrard himselfe unto whom hee referreth us who thus layeth downe his judgement of the matter in the place by him alledged As they be in an error who contend that Sheol doth never designe the grave so have they a shamelesse forehead who denie that it doth any where signifie the region of the damned or Gehenna It is an error therefore in Stapleton by his owne authors confession to maintayne that Sheol is never taken for the grave and in so doing hee doth but bewray his old wrangling disposition But least any other should take the shamelesse forehead from him hee faceth it downe that all the paraphrastes of the Hebrewes do interpret Sheol by the word Gehenna Whereas it is well knowne that the two Paraphrastes that are of greatest antiquitie and credit with the Hebrewes Onkelos the interpreter of Moses and Ionathan ben Vzziel of the Prophets never translate it so Beside that of Onkelos wee have two other Chaldee Paraphrases which expound the harder places of Moses the one called the Targum of Ierusalem the other attributed unto Ionathan in neyther of of these can wee finde that Sheol is expounded by Gehenna but in the latter of them we see it twise expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of the grave In the Arabicke interpretations of Moses where the translator out of the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-gehim Hell there the translator out of the Hebrew putteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-tharai which signifieth earth or clay Iacobus Tawosius in his Persian translation of the Pentateuch for Sheol doth alwaies put Gor that is the grave The Chaldee Paraphrase upon the Proverbs keepeth still the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deflected a little from the Hebrew the Paraphrast upon Iob useth that word thrise but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie the grave in steed thereof five severall times In Ecclesiastes the word commeth but once there the Chaldee Paraphrast rendreth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the house of the grave R. Ioseph Coecus doth the like in his paraphrase upon Psalm 31.17 and 89.48 In Psalm 141.7 he rendreth it by the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grave but in the 15. and 16. verses of the 49. Psalme by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gehenna And only there and in Cantic 8.6 is Sheol in the Chaldee paraphrases expounded by Gehenna whereby if we shall understand the place not of dead bodies as in that place of the Psalme the Paraphrast maketh expresse mention of the bodies waxing old or consuming in Gehenna but of tormented soules as the Rabbines more commonly doe take it yet doe our Romanists get little advantage thereby who would faine have the Sheól into which our Saviour went be conceived to have beene a place of rest and not of torment the bosome of Abraham and not Gehenna the seat of the damned As for the Greek word Hádes it is used by Hippocrates to expresse the first matter of things from which they have their beginning and into which afterwards being dissolved they make their ending For having said that in nature nothing properly may be held to be newly made or to perish he addeth this
hast delivered me from prison A debtor was in danger to be hanged the debt is payd for him he is said to be freed from hanging In all these things they were not but because such were their deserts that unlesse they had beene holpen there they would have beene they say rightly that they were freed thence vvhither by those that freed them they vvere not suffered to be brought That Christ destroyed the power of Hell spoyled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them is acknowledged by all Christians Neyther is there anie who will refuse to subscribe unto that which Proclus delivered in his Sermon before Nestorius then Bishop of Constantinople inserted into the Acts of the Councell of Ephesus He was shut up in the grave who stretched out the heavens like a skinne he was reckoned among the dead and spoyled Hell and that which S. Cyrill and the Synod of Alexandria wrote unto the same Nestorius concerning the Confession of their faith approved not only by the third generall Councell held at Ephesus but also by the fourth at Chalcedon and the fifth at Constantinople To the end that by his unspeakable power treading down death in his own as the first and principall flesh he might become the first borne from the dead and the first fruits of those that slept and that he might make a way to mans nature for the turning back againe unto incorruption by the grace of God he tasted death for all men and revived the third day spoyling Hell All I say do agree that Christ spoyled or as they were wont to speake harrowed Hell whether you take Hell for that which keepeth the soule separated from the body or that which separateth soule and body bothe from the blessed presence of him who is our true life the one whereof our Saviour hath conquered by bringing in the Resurrection of the body the other he hath abolished by procuring for us Life everlasting Touching the maner and the meanes whereby Hell was thus spoyled is all the disagreement The maner whether our Lord did deliver his people from Hell by way of prevention in saving them from comming thither or by way of subvention in helping those out whom at the time of his death he found there The meanes whether this were done by his Divinity or his Humanitie or both whether by the vertue of his sufferings death buriall and resurrection or by the reall descending of his soule into the place wherein mens soules were kept imprisoned That hee descended not into the Hell of the damned by the essence of his soule or locally but virtually onely by extending the effect of his power thither is the common doctrine of Thomas Aquinas and the rest of the Schoole Cardinall Bellarmine at first held it to be probable that Christs soule did descend thither not only by his effects but by his reall presence also but afterwards having considered better of the matter he resolved that the opinion of Thomas and the other Schoolemen was to be followed The same is the judgement of Suarez who concerning this whole article of Christs descent into Hell doth thus deliver his minde If by an Article of faith we understand a truth which all the faithfull are bound explicitly to know and beleeve so I doe not thinke it necessarie to reckon this among the Articles of faith Because it is not a matter altogether so necessary for all men and because that for this reason peradventure it is omitted in the Nicene Creed the knowledge of which Creed seemeth to be sufficient for fulfilling the precept of faith Lastly for this cause peradventure Augustin and other of the Fathers expounding the Creed doe not unfold this mysterie unto the people And to speake the truth it is a matter above the reach of the common people to enter into the discussion of the full meaning of this point of the descension into Hell the determination whereof dependeth upon the knowledge of the learned tongues and other sciences that come not within the compasse of their understanding some experiment whereof they may finde in this that whereas in the other questions here handled they might finde themselves able in some reasonable forre to follow me here they leave me I doubt and let me walke without their company It having here likewise beene further manifested what different opinions have beene entertayned by the ancient Doctors of the Church concerning the determinate place wherein our Saviours soule did remaine during the time of the separation of it from his body I leave it to be considered by the learned whether any such controverted matter may fitly be brought in to expound the Rule of faith by which being common both to the great and the small ones in the Church must contayn such verities only as are generally agreed upon by the common consent of all true Christians and if the words of the article of Christs going to Hades or Hell may well beare such a generall meaning as this that he went to the dead and continued in the state of death untill the time of his Resurrection it would be thought upon whether such a truth as this which findeth universall acceptance among all Christians may not safely passe for an article of our Creed and the particular limitation of the place unto which our Saviours soule went whither to the place of blisse or to the place of torment or to both be left as a number of other Theologicall points are unto further disputation In the articles of our faith common agreement must bee required which wee are sure is more likely to be found in the generall than in the particular And this is the onely reason which moved me to enlarge my selfe so much in the declaration of the generall acceptions of the word Hades and the application of them to our Saviours descent spoken of in the Creed wherein if the zeale which I beare to the peace of the Church and the settlement of unitie among brethren hath carried me too farre as it hath made me indeede quite to forget my intended brevity I intreate the Reader to pardon me and ceasing to be further troublesome unto him in the prosecution of this intricate argument I passe to the next question OF PRAYER TO SAINTS THat one question of S. Paul Rom. 10.14 How shall they call upon him in whom they have not beleeved among such as lust not to be contentious will quickly put an end unto this question For if none can be invocated but such as must be beleeved in and none must be beleeved in but God alone everie one may easily discerne what conclusion will follow thereupon Againe all Christians have beene taught that no part of divine worship is to be communicated unto any creature for it is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve But prayer is such a principall part of
of men which withhold the truth in unrighteousnesse The miserable shiftes and silly evasions whereby they labour to obscure the light of this truth have beene detected by others to the full and touched also in some part by my selfe in an other place where I have shewed out of Deuteronom 4.15 16. and Rom. 1.23 that the adoring of the verie true God himselfe in or by an Image commeth within the compasse of that Idolatrie which the word of God condemneth And to this truth doe the Fathers of the ancient Church give plentifull testimonie in what great account soever our Challenger would have us thinke that the use of Images was with them Indeed in so great account was the use of Images among them that in the ancientest and best times Christians would by no meanes permit them to be brought into their Churches nay some of them would not so much as admit the art it selfe of making them so jealous were they of the danger and carefull of the prevention of the deceite whereby the simple might anie way be drawne on to the adoring of them We are plainely forbidden saith Clemens Alexandrinus to exercise that deceitfull art For the Prophet saith Thou shalt not make the likenesse of anie thing eyther in the heaven or in the earth beneath Moses commandeth men to make no Image that should represent God by art For in truth an Image is a dead matter formed by the hand of an artificer But we have no sensible Image made of any sensible matter but such an Image as is to be conceived with the understanding So his scholler Origen writing against Celsus the philosopher Who having his right wits saith he will not laugh at him who after such great philosophicall discourses of God or Gods doth looke on Images and eyther presenteth his prayer to them or by the sight thereof offereth it to him who is conceived thereby unto whom he imagineth that he ought to ascend from that which is seene and is but a signe or symbol of him And whereas Celsus had brought in that speech of Heraclîtus They pray unto these Images as if a man should enter into conference with his house and demanded Whether any man unlesse he were a verie childe did thinke these things to be Gods and not monuments and images of the Gods Origen replyeth that it is not a thing possible that one should know God and pray to Images and that Christians did not esteeme these to be divine Images who used not to describe any figure of God who was invisible and without all bodily shape nor could endure to worship God with anie such kinde of service as this was In like maner when the Gentiles demanded of the ancient Christians why they had no knowne Images Minutius Felix returneth them for answere againe What Image shall I make to God when man himselfe if thou rightly judge is Gods Image These holy Images saith Lactantius which vaine men serve want all sense because they are earth Now who is there that understandeth not that it is unfit for an upright creature to be bowed downe that he may worship the earth which for this cause is put under our feete that it may be troden upon not worshiped by us Wherefore there is no doubt that there is no religion wheresoever there is an Image For seeing Religion consisteth of divine things and nothing divine is to be found but in heavenly things Images therefore are voyde of religion because nothing that is heavenly can be in that thing which is made of earth When Adrian the Emperour had commanded that temples should be made in all cities without Images it was presently conceived that he did prepare those temples for Christ as Aelius Lampridius noteth in the life of Alexander Severus which is an evident argument that it was not the use of Christians in those dayes to have anie Images in their Churches And for keeping of Pictures out of the Church the Canon of the Eliberine or Illiberitane Councell helde in Spaine about the time of Constantine the great is most plaine It is our minde that pictures ought not to be in the Church lest that which is worshipped or adored should be painted on walles which hath so troubled the mindes of our latter Romanistes that Melchior Canus sticketh not to charge the Councell not onely with imprudencie but also with impiety for making such a law as this The Gentiles saith S. Ambrose worship woode because they thinke it to be the image of God but the image of the invisible God is not in that which is seene but in that which is not seene God would not have himselfe worshipped in stones saith the same Father in another place and The Church knoweth no vain ideaes and diverse figures of Images but knoweth the true substance of the Trinitie So S. Hierome We worship one Image which is the image of the invisible and omnipotent God and S. Augustine In the first commandement any similitude of God in the figments of men is forbidden to be worshipped not because God hath not an image but because no image of him ought to be worshipped but that which is the same thing that he is Coloss. 1.15 Hebr. 1.3 nor yet that for him but with him As for the representing of God in the similitude of a man he resolveth that it is utterly unlawfull to erect any such image to God in a Christian Church and touching the danger of Images in generall and the practise of the Church in this matter thus he writteth The Gentiles worship that which they themselves have made of Gold and silver But even vve also have diverse instruments and vessels of the same matter or metall for the use of celebrating the sacraments which being consecrated by this very ministerie are called holy in honour of him who for our salvation is served thereby And these instruments and vessels also what are they else but the worke of mens hands Yet have these any mouth and will not speake have they eyes and will not see Doe we supplicate unto these because by these wee supplicate unto God That is the greatest cause of this madd impietie that the forme like unto one living which maketh it to be supplicated unto doth more prevaile in the affections of miserable men than that it is manifest it doth not live at all that it ought to be contemned by him who is indeed living For Images prevayle more to bowe downe the unhappy soule in that they have a mouth they have eyes they have eares they have nosthrillés they have hands they have feete than to correct it that they will not speake they will not see they will not heare they will not smell they will not handle they will not walke Thus farre S. Augustine The speech of Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium to this purpose is memorable We have no
therefore given us because we will or by it God doth worke even this also that we doe will The worthy Doctor maintaineth that Grace goeth before and worketh the will unto good which he strongly proveth both by the word of God and by the continuall practise of the Church in her prayers and thanksgivings for the conversion of unbeleevers For if thou dost confesse saith he that we are to pray for them surely thou dost pray that they may consent to the doctrine of God with their will freed from the power of darknesse And thus it will come to passe that neither men shall be made to be beleevers but by their free-will and yet shall be made beleevers by his grace who hath freed their will from the power of darknesse Thus both Gods grace is not denied but is shewed to be true without any humane merits going before it and free-will is so defended that it is made solide with humilitie and not throwne downe headlong by being lifted up that he that rejoyceth may not rejoyce in man either any other or yet himselfe but in the Lord. and againe How doth God expect the wills of men that they should prevent him to whom he might give grace when we doe give him thanks not undeservedly in the behalfe of them whom not beleeving and persecuting his doctrine with an ungodly will he hath prevented with his mercy and with a most omnipotent facilitie converted them unto himselfe and made them willing of unwilling Why doe we give him thanks for this if he himselfe did not this Questionlesse we doe not pray to God but faine that we doe pray if we beleeve that not he but our selves be the doers of that which we pray for Questionlesse we doe not give thanks to God but faine that we give thanks if we doe not thinke that he doth the thing for which we give him thanks If deceitfull lips be found in any other speeches of men at leastwise let them not be found in prayers Farre be it from us that what we doe beseech God to doe with our mouthes and voices we should denie that he doth it in our hearts and which is more grievous to the deceiving of others also not conceale the same in our disputations and whilest we will needs defend free-will before men we should leese the helpe of prayer with God and not have true giving of thanks whilest we doe not acknowledge true grace If we will truly defende free-will let us not oppugne that by which it is made free For who so oppugneth grace whereby our will is made free to decline from evill and to doe good he will have his will to be still captive Thus doth S. Augustine deale with Vitalis to whom he saith I doe not beleeve indeed that thou art a Pelagian hereticke but so I would have thee to be that no part of that error may passe unto thee or be left in thee The doctrine of the Semi-pelagians in France is related by Prosper Aquitanicus and Hilarius Arelatensis in their severall epistles written to S. Augustine of this argument They doe agree saith Hilarius that all men were lost in Adam and that from thence no man by his proper will can be freed but this they say is agreeable to the truth or answerable to the preaching of the word that when the meanes of obtaining salvation is declared to such as are cast downe and would never rise againe by their owne strength they by that merit whereby they doe will and beleeve that they can be healed from their disease may obtaine both the increase of that faith and the effecting of their whole health And that grace is not denied when such a will as this is said to goe before it which seeketh only a Physitian but is not of it selfe otherwise able to doe any thing For as touching that place As he hath distributed to every one the measure of faith and other like testimonies they would have them make for this that he should be holpen that hath begun to will but not that this also should be given unto him that he might will Prosper in his Pöems doth thus deliver it Gratia quâ Christi populus sumus hoc cohibetur Limite vobiscum formam hanc asseribitis illi Ut cunctos vocet illa quidem invitetque nec ullum Praeteriens studeat communem adferre salutem Omnibus totum peccato absolvere mundum Sed proprio quemque arbitrio parere vocanti Iudicioque suo motâ se extendere mente Ad lucem oblatam quae se non subtrahat ulli Sed cupidos recti iuvet illustretque volentes Hinc adjutoris Domini bonitate magistrâ Crescere virtutum studia ut quod quisque petendum Mandatis didicit jugi sectetur amore Esse autem edoctis istam communiter aequam Libertatem animis ut cursum explere beatum Persistendo queant finem effectumque petitum Dante Deo ingenijs qui nunquam desit honestis Sed quia non idem est cunctis vigor variarum Illecebris rerum trahitur dispersa voluntas Sponte aliquos vitijs succumbere qui potuissent A lapsu re vocare pedem stabilesque manere Against these opinions S. Augustine wrote his two bookes of the Predestination of the Saints and of the gift of Perseverance in the former whereof he hath this memorable passage among divers others Many heare the word of truth but some doe beleeve others doe contradict Therefore these have a will to beleeve the others have not Who is ignorant of this who would denie it But seeing the will is to some prepared by the Lord to others not we are to discerne what doth proceed from his mercy and what from his iudgement That which Israël did seeke saith the Apostle he obtained not but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded Rom. 11.7 Behold mercy and judgement mercy in the election which hath obtained the righteousnesse of God but judgement upon the rest that were blinded and yet the one because they would did beleeve the others because they would not did not beleeve Mercy therefore and judgement were executed even upon the wills themselves Against the same opinions divers treatises were published by Prosper also who chargeth these men with nourishing the poyson of the Pelagian pravitie by their positions inasmuch as 1. the beginning of salvation is naughtily placed in man by them 2. the will of man is impiously preferred before the will of God as if therefore one should be holpen because he did will and did not therefore will because he was holpen 3. a man originally evill is naughtily beleeved to begin his receiving of good not from the highest good but from himselfe 4. it is thought that God may otherwise be pleased than out of that which he himselfe hath bestowed But he maintaineth constantly that both the beginning and ending of a mans conversion is wholly to be ascribed unto grace
his Commentaries upon Moses adviseth his Reader not to loath the new sense of the holy Scripture for this that it dissenteth from the ancient Doctors but to search more exactly the text and context of the Scripture and if he find it agree to praise God that hath not tyed the exposition of the Scriptures to the senses of the ancient Doctors But leaving comparisons which you know are odious the envie whereof notwithstanding your owne Doctors and Masters you see helpe us to beare off and teach us how to decline I now come to the examination of the particular points by you propounded It should indeed be your part by right to be the Assailant who first did make the Challenge and I who sustaine the person of the Defendant might here wel stay accepting only your challenge expecting your encounter Yet do not I meane at this time to answer your Bill of Challenge as Bills are usually answered in the Chancerie with saving all advantages to the Defendant I am content in this also to abbridge my selfe of the libertie w ch I might lawfully take make a further demōstration of my forwardnes in undertaking the maintenāce of so good a cause by giving the first onset my selfe OF TRADITIONS TO begin therefore with Traditions which is your forlorne Hope that in the first place we are to set upon this must I needes tell you before we begin that you much mistake the matter if you thinke that Traditions of all sorts promiscuously are struck at by our Religion We willingly acknowledge that the word of God which by some of the Apostles was set downe in writing was both by themselves and others of their fellow-labourers delivered by word of mouth and that the Church in succeeding ages was bound not only to preserve those sacred writings committed to her trust but also to deliver unto her children vivâ voce the forme of wholsome words contayned therein Traditions therefore of this nature come not within the compasse of our controversie the question being betwixt us de ipsâ doctrinâ traditâ not de tradendi modo touching the substance of the doctrine delivered not of the maner of delivering it Againe it must be remembred that here wee speake of doctrine delivered as the word of God that is of points of religion revealed unto the Prophets and Apostles for the perpetuall information of Gods people not of rites and ceremonies and other ordinances which are left to the disposition of the Church and consequently be not of divine but of positive and humane right Traditions therefore of this kinde likewise are not properly brought within the circuit of this question But that Traditions of men should be obtruded unto us for articles of Religion and admitted for parts of Gods worship or that any Traditions should be accepted for parcels of Gods word beside the holy Scriptures and such doctrines as are either expressely therein contayned or by sound inference may be deduced from thence I thinke wee have reason to gainsay As long as for the first wee have this direct sentence from God himselfe Matth. 15. In vaine doe they worship me teaching for doctrines the Commandements of men And for the second the expresse warrant of the Apostle 2. Tim. 3. testifying of the holy Scriptures not onely that they are able to make us wise unto salvation which they should not be able to doe if they did not containe all things necessary to salvation but also that by them the man of God that is the minister of Gods word unto whom it appertaineth to declare all the counsell of God may be perfectly instructed to every good worke which could not be if the Scriptures did not containe all the counsell of God which was fit for him to learne or if there were any other word of God which he were bound to teach that should not be contained within the limits of the Booke of God Now whether herein we disagree from the doctrine generally received by the Fathers we referre our selves to their owne sayings For Rituall Traditions unwritten and for doctrinall Traditions written indeed but preserved also by the continual preaching of the Pastors of the Church successively wee find no man a more earnest advocate then Tertullian Yet hee having to deale with Hermogenes the hereticke in a question concerning the faith whether all things at the beginning were made of nothing presseth him in this manner with the argument ab authoritate negativé for avoyding whereof the Papists are driven to flie for succour to their unwritten verities Whether all things vvere made of any subject matter I have as yet read no where Let those of Hermogenes his shop shew that it is written If it be not written let them feare that Woe which is allotted to such as adde or take away In the two Testaments saith Origen every word that appertayneth to God may be required and discussed and all knowledge of things out of them may be understood But if any thing doe remaine which the holy Scripture doth not determine no other third Scripture ought to be received for to authorize any knowledge but that which remaineth we must commit to the fire that is we must reserve it to God For in this present world God would not have us to know all things Hippolytus the Martyr in his Homily against the Heresie of Noëtus There is one God whom wee doe not otherwise acknowledge brethren but out of the holy Scriptures For as he that would professe the wisedome of this world cannot otherwise attaine hereunto unlesse hee reade the doctrine of the Philosophers so whosoever of us will exercise pietie toward God cannot learne this elsewhere but out of the holy Scriptures Whatsoever therefore the holy Scriptures doe preach that let us know and whatsoever they teach that let us understand Athanasius in his Oration against the Gentiles toward the beginning The holy Scriptures given by inspiration of God are of themselves sufficient to the discoverie of truth S. Ambrose The things which vve finde not in the Scriptures how can vve use them And againe I reade that he is the first I reade that hee is not the second they who say he is the second let them shew it by reading It is well saith S. Hilary that thou art content vvith those things vvhich be written And in another place he commendeth Constantius the Emperour for desiring the faith to be ordered onely according to those things that be vvritten S. Basil Beleeve those things vvhich are written the things which are not written seeke not It is a manifest falling from the faith and an argument of arrogancy either to reject any point of those things that are written or to bring in any of those things that are not written He teacheth further that every word and action ought to be confirmed by the testimony of the holy Scripture for confirmation of the faith of the