may doe and another thing to disallow them out of hatred of idolatrie and superstition To stab the Kings picture or any way deface it out of hatred or contempt of his person is disloyaltie yet to take a piece of counterfeit coyne prohibited by law though bearing the Kings image and pricke it full of holes or naile it to a post is no argument of disloyaltie but contrarie an act of Loyaltie and obedience also to the Kings lawes Lastly hee chargeth the Knight with Sacriledge and prophanation of holy things saying You and such as you have had your shares in pulling downe of images and silver shrines this last hundred yeares are more like to be drawne with the love of gaine to the pulling downe of Images then wee that lose all for maintaining and setting them up for what wee and our Ancestors have parted with from our selves and out of our owne purses for the honour of God and his Saints you or men of your religion pull back from God and his Saints to bestow upon your backs and bellies and upon your Ministers their wives and brattes I would cast this dunge backe againe on your Nunnes bellies and Popes face and tell you of the brats of the one buried in the earth and drowned in moates to cover the shame of the parents and give you a bill of the expence of the other upon their mistresses farre surmounting the charge of all the Ministers wives in England but I choose rather to purge the Knight from all foule aspersion herein who is so farre from having any hand in pulling downe your silver shrines and images and making sale of them that he was not then borne when by command of King Edward the sixt those Monuments of idolatrie were knocked downe and defaced which yet was accounted a worke so acceptable to God Vit. Ed. 6. by Sir Iohn H. that the selfe same day that the images were broken downe in London God gave us a notable victorie in Scotland but the truth is the Knight chargeth the Iesuit home with the example of Demetrius and his followers maintaining images because they were maintained by them For who seeth not in all popish countries how when all other Artificers shut up their shoppes to wit on Sundayes and holy dayes the Priests open theirs setting out as it were their golden puppets on the stalls whereof they make no small advantage and therefore to all his railing rhetorick with which he concludes this section I hold sit to returne no other answer then the French provethe The Asse brayeth never so hideously as when hee is over-hard girt Thus having held up my buckler for the Knight and warded off the Iesuits blowes now I fall on whetting and sharpening the Knights sword wherewith he woundeth the Idolatrous superstition of the Roman Church the edge whereof the Iesuit endevoureth to dull by the twentie exceptions above mentioned which now I will scan in order To the first It is true that wee have beene oft told by Papists that we ought to make a difference betweene Image-worship and Idoll-worship but it is as true that this is a distinction without difference which hath beene a hundred times refuted by all those who have entred into lists with Papists about the question in hand and did not the Iesuit arme his forehead with the metall of his images he would blush to say that the texts alledged by the Knight make against idols Vulg. lat ex edit R. Stephani non facietis vobis idolum sculptile nec titulos erigetis nec insignem lapidem ponetis in terrâ vestrâ ut adoretis eum Lorinus in Act. 7. v. 29. sculptilis imago distinctiùs ac enixiùs prohibita est quoniam cultus idolorum versa batur potissimùm insoulptâ imagine vel statua quae soliditate partium atque crassitie mag is exhibet personam quae adoranda proponitur quà m si haec in superficie duntaxat coloribus exprimatur Tertul. cont Marcio l. 4. c. 22. nec enim imagines eorum nec staiuas populus habuisset lege prohibente Vasquez disp 5. in 3. p. Thō disp 94. c. 2. substantia praecepti fuit usum quemlibet imaginum auferre and not at all against images for the first text Levit. 26.1 word for word according to the originall and agreeably to the vulgar Latine is thus to bee rendred Yee shall make you no idols nor graven images neither reare you up a standing image neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land to bow downe to it The second text Exod. 20.4 is thus to be translated Thoushalt not make thy selfe any thing carved or graven in Hebrew Pesel derived from pasal signifying to carve or engrave in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the vulgar Latine unto which all Papists are sworne sculptile To which Commandement Tertullian alluding saith Peter knew Moses and Elias by the spirit when they appeared with Christ in the Mount not by any picture or image which hee had seene of them for the people of the Iewes had no such the law prohibiting it And Vasqnez the Iesuit convinced by the evidence of the text confesseth that God in the second Commandement forbiddeth not only to worship an image for God but also to worship God in any similitude and consequently hee thereby taketh away all use of any image of God Yet were there any mist in the word pesel the words following clearely dispell it nor the likenesse of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth thou shalt not bow downe to them viz. with thy body nor worship them in thy soule Papists doe both and therefore though they could escape the net laid for them in the first words non facies tibi sculptile yet they are caught and strangled in the next For albeit they could prove that their images are no idols prohibited in the word pesel yet certainly they are the similitudes of something that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth The third text alledged by the Knight out of Dent. Custodite solicitè animas vestras ne forte deceptifaciatis vobis sculptam imaginem vel similitudinem masculi vel foeminae 4.15.16 17. is thus rendered in their owne vulgar Latine keepe carefully your soules you saw no similitude in the day in which the Lord spake to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire take heed lest peradventure being deceived you make to your selves any graven image or the likenesse of male or female Neither is the last allegation out of Esay the fortieth lesse prevalent then the former to batter downe all popish images v. 18. to whom will you liken God or what likenesse will you compare unto him in the vulgar Latine quam imaginem ponetis ei and verse the 20. the worke-man melted a graven image and the Goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth
are not written And of S. Chrysostome all things that are needfull are manifestly set downe in holy Scriptures And againe in the holy Scriptures wee have a most exact ballance and rule of all things And of S. Ierome who maketh the Scripture a two edged sword cutting heresies on both sides both in the excesse and in the defect We beleeve saith he because were ade in Scriptures we beleeve not what were ade not And of S. Austine among those things which are openly set downe in Scriptures all such things are to bee found as appertaine to faith and manners And so of S. Cyril all things which Christ spake and did are not written but all are written which the writers of the Gospell thought to bee sufficient for doctrine of faith and manners And of S. Vincentius Lyrinensis the Canon of the Scripture is perfect and over and above sufficient for all things And of the prime of the Schoole-men Gabriel Biel The Scripture alone teacheth us what we ought to beleeve and to hope for what things are to bee done and what to bee shunned and all other things that are necessarie to salvation And of William Pepin Dom. 2. advent sala haec scriptur adocet perfectè planè quid credendum c. The holy Scripture alone teacheth perfectly and plainely what wee ought to beleeve as the articles of our Creed what wee ought to doe as all divine precepts what wee ought to desire as heavenly joyes what we ought to feare as eternall torments And of Scotus In prim sent prol q. 2. sacra scriptura sufficienter continet doctrinam necessariam viatori The holy Scripture sufflciently containes doctrine necessarie for away faring man that is in his travell to heaven Howbeit because Cardinall Bellarmine beareth downe all before him the more to convince this Iesuit and nonplus all Papists I will examine what the Knight alledgeth out of him to our present purpose All thing are written saith he by the Apostles which are necessarie for all men to know If all things which are necessarie for all men to know then all things which are necessarie for all Priests Bishops Cardinals yea and the Pope himselfe to know unlesse the Iesuit will prove them to bee no men Assuredly the Apostles and the Fathers assembled at Nice and Constantinople set not downe a different Creed for the Priest and for the people but one for all Christians Yet I grant that as the measures of the sanctuarie were double to the common so the learning of a Priest ought to bee double at least to that of the common sort a more exact full and exquisite knowledge of all both the principles and conclusions of faith is required in thom then in the other yet nothing is required of them as necessarie to salvation which may not bee drawne out of holy Scriptures in which are contained all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge 2 Tim. 3.16.17 Oecum Chrys in huno locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lit. ad Phil. Hisp reg Nam quod ad Theologiam attinet quae summa Philosophia est his libris omnia nostrae religionis divinitat is mysteria explicantur quod verò attinet ad eam partem quae moralis nominatur hinc quoque omnia ad omnes virtutes praecepta colliguntur quibus quidem duabus partibus omnis nostrae salutis falicitat is ratio continetur Banes in 1. p. Tho. q. 1. art 8. conclus 1. omnia quae non consonant judico eorum gravioribus censuris inurunt idque tanta facilitate ut meritò irrideantur The Apostle saith not only they are able to make wise unto salvation indefinitely but that the man of God that is the minister of God may be wise not only wise unto salvation but furnished to every good worke that is as S. Chrysostome and Oecumenius expound it fully accurately and exactly instructed And for ever to seale the Iesuits mouth thus much Gregorie the thirteenth Pope of Rome in his letters to Philip King of Spaine freely confesseth thus expatiating in the praises of holy Writ as for Theologie which is the prime Philosophie or metaphysick in these bookes speaking of the Bible all the my steries of our religion and divine knowledge are unfolded and as for that part which is tearmed morall from hence all precepts to all vertues are gathered and on these two parts depend all the course or meanes of our salvation and happinesse 3. To the third What Dominicus Banes wrote of certaine Divines in his time that were so free in their censures of other men that they became a laughing stook to all men of judgement may bee truly applyed to the Bishops assembled at Trent who are so free in casting their thunder-bolts of anathemaes against all that differ from them in judgement that the learned and judicious account divers of their Canons no better then Pot-guns As arrowes that are shot bolt upright fall downe upon their heads that shoot them unlesse they carfully looke to it so causelesse curses fall alwayes upon the cursers themselves and hurt none else This made the Knight so much sleight the bruta fulmina of your Trent Councell Yea but saith the Iesuit It is a heavie thing to have the curse of a mother Apo. 17.5 and such a mother which doth not curse without cause The Church of Rome I grant is a mother but mater fornicationum as shee is tearmed the mother of fornications and abominations of the earth but shee is none of our mother Ierusalem or to speake more properly the catholike christian Church is our mother the Roman Church must speake us very faire if wee owne her for a sister even this sheweth her to bee no Mother that shee is ever cursing us the true Mother would by no meanes suffer her child to bee divided This cruell Stepdame not only suffereth those whom shee would have taken for her children to be cut in sunder but her selfe as much as in her lieth by her curses divideth them from God and all the members of Christs mysticall body yet wee spare to apply the words of the Psalmist unto her shee loved not blessing and therefore it shall bee farre from her Ps 109.17.18 shee delighteth in cursing and therefore shall it enter like oyle into her bowels and like water into her bones Howsoever wee are not scared with the bugbeare the Iesuit goeth about to fright us withall Maledictio matris eradicat fundamenta the curse of a Mother doth roote out the foundation For first the booke out of which he citeth this text is not Canonicall Next we denie that the text any way concerneth us who are blessed and not cursed by our Mother the true Catholike Church as for the Roman Church shee can in no sence bee tearmed our mother For we had Christian Religion in this Island before there was any Church at Rome at all as I have else-where proved at large Lastly the text the Iesuit
alledgeth is falsly translated Ecclesiasticus 3.11 he should have rendred the Greeke thus A Mother in dishonour or defamed is a reproach to her children such a Mother wee grant the Church to be a reproach to all her children To the fourth The number of Sacraments we prove two manner of wayes first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first by demonstrating our two secondly by refuting the five they adde there unto Howsoever the Iesuit here as also Baylie the antagonist of Rivet insult upon us as if it were unpossible to prove the precisenumber of two Sacraments and no more because neither the name nor the number of Sacraments is any where set downe in terminis in Scripture yet they shall find that wee faile not in proofes of this point but they in their answers For to reserve the refutation of their five to the next Paragraph we demonstrate our two by arguments drawne first from the name secondly from the definition of Sacraments thirdly from the example of Christ fourthly from the end of the Sacraments fiftly from the testimonies of the ancient Doctours of the Church 1. From the name Sacramentum is derived from the verbe sacrare to consecrate and signifieth a holy thing a holy Rite whereby wee are consecrated unto God Now it is evident that by Baptisme wee give our names to Christ wee take our militare sacramentum to fight under his banner and that thereby wee are sanctified and consecrated to his service the like wee may observe in the Lords Supper wherein wee offer our bodies and soules as a holy and lively sacrifice unto God we are incorporated into Christs body and made one bread and one body because wee partake of one bread the bread which we breake Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ the Cup of blessing which wee blesse is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ In the rest which our Adversaries tearme Sacraments there cannot bee given the like reason of the name For by them wee neither put on Christ as in Baptisme nor are made members of his mysticall Body as by the Lords Supper 2. From the definition of Sacraments every Sacrament of the New Testament is a seale of the new Covenant Rom. 4.11 Now it is agreed on all parts that he only hath authoritie to seale the charter in whose authoritie it is to grant it But wee find that Christ in the New Testament set only two seales Baptisme the Institution whereof wee have Teach all nations baptizing them Math. 28.19 in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost and the Lords Supper the institution whereof wee have bee tooke bread and brake it saying Luk 22.19 this is my Body doe this in remembrance of mee In these Sacraments wee have all the conditions required first an outward and visible sign in Baptisme water in the Eucharist bread and wine Secondly an Analogie or correspondencie betweene the signe and the thing signified betweene Water which washeth the body and the spirit which washeth the soule betweene bread and wine which nourisheth the body and Christs body and bloud which nourisheth the soule Thirdly a promise of sanctifying and saving grace to all that use the outward rite according to our Lords institution the promise annexed to Baptisme wee find Mar. 16.16 Mtch. 26.28 Hee that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved to the Eucharist wee find this is the bloud of the new Testament which is shed for you Iohn 6.51 and for many for the remission of sinnes and if any one eate of this bread hee shall live for ever When our adversaries shall prove in each of their five supernumerarie sacraments these three conditions wee will subscribe to their whole number of seven till then wee content ourselves with our two 3. From the example of Christ Christ our head consecrated in his owne person all those holy rites which hee instituted for his owne members Mat. 3.15 This Christ himselfe intimateth when being repelled by S. Iohn from his baptisme saying I had need to bee baptized of thee and commest thou to mee He answered Suffer it to bee so now for thus it becommeth us to fulfill all righteousnesse And S. Austine saith therefore Christ would bee baptized Serm. de Epiph baptizari voluit quia voluit facere quod faciendum omnibus imperabat ut bor us magister doctrinam suam non tam verbis insinuaret quam actibus exerceret because hee would doe that which hee commanded all others to doe that as a good master hee might not so much insinuate his Doctrine by words as exhibit it by acts But this our good Master exhibited by acts the doctrine of two Sacraments only whereof hee participated himselfe of Baptisme Math. 3.16 And Iesus when he was baptized went up straight way out of the water of the Eucharift Matth. 26.29 I will not drinke hence-forth of this fruit of the vine untill the day when I drinke it new with you in my Fathers kingdome Which words necessarily imply that before hee uttered them hee had drunke of the cup which hee gave to them saying Drinke yee all of this 4. From the end of the Sacraments We need but two things to instate us in grace remission of our sinnes and ablution no more to maintaine us in our christian life but birth apparell food and physick but all these are sufficiently represented and effectually conveied unto us by two Sacraments For we receive ablution by the one absolution by the other wee are bred by the one wee are fed by the other wee are clothed by the one wee are healed by the other 5. From the testimonies of the ancient Doctours of the Church S. Anstine L. 2. de Symb. ad catechumenos c. 6. percussum est latus ut Evangelium loquitur statim manavit sanguis aqua quae sunt ccclesiae gemina Sacramenta aqua in quâ sponsa est purificata sanguis ex quo invenitur esse dotata I sid l. Origin sunt autam Sacramenta baptismus Chrisma corpus sanguis Christi Rupert de vict verb. l. 12. c. 11. quae quot sunt praecipua salut is nostrae sacramenta Sacrū baptisma sancta corporis ejus sanguinis Eucharistia geminum spiritus sancti datum Pasc l. de coena dom sacramenta Christianae Ecclesiae Catholicae sunt baptismus corpus sanguis Domini Fulbert ep 1. lib. part Tom 3. tertium est noscere in quo duo vitae sacramenta continentur Christs side was strucken as the Gospell speaketh and presently there issued out of it water and bloud which are the two twin Sacraments of the Church water whereby the Spouse is purified and bloud wherewith shee is endowed S. Isidore the Sacraments are Baptisme and Chrisme the body and bloud of Christ Rupertus which and how many are the chiefe Sacraments of our salvation Hee answers two holy
Baptisme and the holy Eucharist of the body and bloud of Christ the double gift of the holy Ghost Paschasius the Catholique Sacraments of the Christian Church are Baptisme and the body and bloud of Christ Fulbertus the way of Christian religion is to beleeve the Trinitie and veritie of the Deitie and to know the cause of his Baptisme and in whom the two Sacraments of our life are contained Of all these arguments brought by Protestants the Iesuit could not be ignorant Yet hee glaunceth only at one of them to wit the second which he would make us beleeve to bee an absurd begging the point in question How can saith he Sacraments bee Seales to give us assurance of his Word when all the assurance we have of a Sacrament is his Word This is idem per idem or a fallacie called petitio Principij As S. Austine spake of the Pharisees Quid aliud eructarent quà m quo pleni erant What other things should these Pharisees belch out then that wherewith they were full wee may in like manner aske what could wee expect for the Iesuit to belch out against the Knight then that which he is full of himselfe sophismes and fallacies That which hee pretends to find in the Knights argument every man may see in his to wit a beggarly fallacie called homonymia For the Word may be taken either largely for the whole Scripture and in that sense wee grant the Sacraments are confirmed by the Word or particularly for the word of promise and the Word in this sense is sealed to us by the Sacrament and this wee prove out of the Apostle against whom I trust the Iesuit dare not argue what Circumcision was to Abraham and the Iewes that Baptisme succeeding in the place thereof is to vs but Circuncision was a Seale to them of the righteousnesse of faith promised to Abraham and his posteritie Rom. 4.11 therefore in like manner Baptisme is a seale unto us of the like promise What Bellarmine urgeth against our definition of a Sacrament to whom the Iesuit sendeth us is refuted at large by Molineus Daneus Rivetus Willet and Chamier to whom in like manner I remand the Iesuit who here desiring as it seemed to bee catechised asketh what promises are sealed by the Sacraments I answer of regeneration and communion with Christ His second quaere is what need more seales then one or if more why not seven as well as two I answer Christ might adde as many Seales as hee pleased but in the new Testament hee hath put but two neither need wee any more the first sealeth unto us our new birth the second our growth in Christ If I should put the like question to the Iesuit concerning the King what need he more Seales then one or if he would have more why not seven as well as two I know how hee would answer that the King might affix as many seales to his patents and other grants as hee pleaseth but quia frustra fit per plur a quod fieri potest per pauciora because two seales are sufficient the Privie seale and the broad seale therefore his Majestie useth no other Which answer of his cuts the wind-pipe of his owne objection His last question is a blind one how may wee see saith he the promises of God in the Sacraments S. Ambrose and S. Austine will tell him by the eye of faith Magis videtur saith S. Ambrose quod non videtur that is more or better seene which is not seene with bodily eyes Sacraments saith S. Austine are visible words because what words represent to the eares that Sacraments represent to their eyes which are anointed with the eye-salve of the spirit In the Word we heare the bloud of Christ clenseth us from our sinnes in the Sacrament of Baptisme we see it after a sort in the washing of our body with water in the Word wee heare Christs bloud was shed for us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist after a sort we see it by the effusion of the Wine out of the flagon into the Chalice and drinking it In the Word wee heare that Christ is the bread of life which nourisheth our soules to eternall life In the Sacrament after a sort wee see it by feeding on the Consecrated elements of Bread and Wine whereby our body is nourished and our temporall life maintained and preserved To the fift In the former Paragraph we handled those Arguments which the Logicians tearme Dicticall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this we are to make good our Elencticall in the former we proved positively two Sacraments in this privatively we are to exclude and casheere all that the Church of Rome hath added to these two which deviseth Sacraments upon so weake grounds and detorteth Scripture in such sort for the maintenance of them that a learned Divine wisheth that as for the remedie of other sinnes so there were a Sacrament instituted as a speciall remedie against audacious inventions in this kind and depravations of holy Scripture to convince them For of an Epiphonema this is a great mysterie Ephes 5.32 they have made a Sacrament the sacrament of Matrimonie of a promise whose sinnes yee remit Iohn 20.23 they are remitted they have made a second Sacrament the sacrament of Penance of an enumeration of the Governours and Ministers of the Church Ephes 4.11 And hee gave some Apostles some Prophets some Pastours some Evangelists some teachers a third Sacrament the sacrament of Order of a relation what the Apostles did Acts 8.17 In laying hands on them who received the gift of tongues a fourth Sacrament the sacrament of Confirmation Of a Miracle in restoring the sick to their former health by anoynting them with oyle in the name of the Lord a fift Sacrament the sacrament of Extreame Vnction A child cannot be bishopped a single partie contracted a Priest or Deacon ordained a penitent reconciled a dying man dismissed in peace without a sacrament the sacrament of Extreame Vnction If they take Sacrament in a large sense for every divine Mysterie holy Ordinance or sacred Rite they may find as well seventeene as seven Sacraments in the Scriptures if they they take the Word in the strict sense for such a sacred Rite as is instituted in the New Testament by Christ with a visible signe or element representing and applying unto us some invisible sanctifying and saving grace I wish the Iesuit might but practise one of their Sacraments that is doe penance so long till hee found in Scripture that and the other foure Sacraments which they have added to the two Instituted by Christ To begin with them in order and give Order the first place wee acknowledge the ordination of Priests and Deacons by Bishops to be de jure divino and we beleeve where they are done according to Christs Institution that grace is ordinarily given to the party ordained but not sacramentall grace not gratia gratum faciens but gratia gratis data a ghostly power
vpon S. Iohn that out of the side of Christ the Sacraments of the Churchissued he would seeme to answer something First he quarrelleth at the quotation saying I doe not thinke you will find in Chemnitius your good friend S. Ambrose and Bede cited Whereunto I answer that though the Knights good friend Chemnitius cite not Ambrose and Bede yet the Iesuits good friend Card. De Sacram. in gen l. 2. c. 27. Amb. l. 10. in Luc. Bed c. 19. Ioh. intelligunt per sanguinem qui è latere effluxit redemption is pretium per aquam baptismum Bellarmine citeth them both his words are Ambrose in his tenth booke upon S. Luke and Bede in his comment upon the 19. of S. Iohn understand by blood which issued out of our Saviours side the price of our redemption by water Baptisme Next the Iesuit endeavoureth to untwist this triple cord by saying that these three Fathers speake of Sacraments issuing out of Christs side but no way restraine the number to two Whereunto I reply that though the word Sacramenta for the number may bee as well said of seven as two Sacraments yet where S. Austine alludeth to the same text of Scripture and falleth upon the same conceite he restraineth the number to two saying there issued out of Christs side water and blood quae sunt Ecclesiae gemina Sacramenta Now I would faine know of the Iesuit where ever hee read gemina to signifie seven or more then two Were the Dioscuri which are commonly knowne by the name of gemini seven or two only to wit Castor and Pollax As for S. Ambrose and Bede though they say not totidem verbis that the two Sacraments of the Church issued out of Christs side as S. Austine doth yet they can bee understood of no more then two Sacraments for there were but two things which issued out of our Saviours side to wit water and blood whereby they understand Baptisme and the Lords Supper Had there issued out of our Saviours side together with water and blood Chrisme or balsamum or had a rib beene taken from thence the Iesuit might have some colour to draw more Sacraments out of it but now sith the Text saith there issued onely two things water and blood and the Fathers say the Sacraments of the Church are thereby meant it is most apparant that by Sacramenta they meant those two only which they there name in expresse words Baptisme and the price of our redemption that is Christs blood in the Eucharist To the seventh The authoritie of S. Ambrose is as a thorne in the Iesuits eye for it cannot but bee a great prejudice to their cause that so learned a Bishop as S. Ambrose writing six bookes professedly of the Sacraments omitteth the Romish five and spendeth his whole discourse upon our two If the Church in his time beleeved or administred seven Sacraments hee could no way be excused of supine negligence for making no mention at all of the greater part of them it were all one as if a man professing to treate of the elements or the parts of the world which are foure or of the Pleiades or the Septentriones or the Planets which are seven should handle but two of that number Bellarmine therefore and after him Flood pluck hard at this thorne but cannot get it out saying that S. Ambrose his intent was to instruct the Catechumeni only as the title of one of the books sheweth For first S. Ambrose hath no booke of that title viz. An instruction to them who are to bee catechized or are beginners in Christianitie The title of that booke is De ijs qui initiantur of those who are initiated or entred into holy mysteries Secondly this is not the title of any of the six bookes de sacramentis alledged by the Knight but of another tractate Thirdly admit that S. Ambrose as S. Austine and Cyrill wrote to the Catechumeni and intended a Catechisme yet they were to name all the Sacraments unto them as all Divines usually doe in their Catechismes because the Sacraments are alwayes handled among the grounds and principles of Christian religion And though the Catechumeni are not presently admitted unto all yet they are to learne what they are that they may bee the better prepared in due time to receive them Fourthly it is evidently untrue which the Iesuit saith that S. Ambrose writeth not to the beleevers of that age but only to some beginners The very front of his booke proves the Iesuit to bee frontlesse For S. Ambrose his first words are I will begin to speake of the Sacraments which wee have received c. In Christiano enim viro prima est fides for the first thing in a Christian man is faith And as hee writeth to all beleevers not beginners only so hee speaketh also of the chiefe Sacraments of the New Testament and not of those only which the catechumeni received as is apparant out of the fourth chapter of the first booke De sacramentis Wherein hee proveth according to the title of that Chapter Quôd sacramenta Christia norum diviniora sint priora quà m Indaeorum That the Sacraments of the Chrìstians are more ancient and more divine then those of the Iewes and hee instanceth especially in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Lastly the Iesuit in this answer apparantly contradicteth himselfe first saying that S. Ambrose intent in that Worke was only to instruct the catechumeni in those things that were to be done in the time of Baptisme p. 210. and within a few lines after he saith Bud. deasse Veritas nonnunquam invitis erumpit as fallens inter mendacia ab audientibus demuns agnoscitur cum interim loquentes adbuc se habere in potestate putent that he writeth of the Sacraments whereby they were so initiated which are three Baptisme Confirmation and the Eucharist So true is Budaeus his observation That lyes dash one with the other and truth breakes out of the mouth of the lyar ere hee is aware Who ever heard of the Eucharist to bee administred in the time of Baptisme or that the Eucharist was administred at all to the punies or catechumeni whilest they were such certainly if the catecumeni or younger beginners to whom hee saith S. Ambrose wrote were capable of the doctrine of the Eucharist containing in it the highest mysteries of Christianitie they were much more capable of Penance Matrimonie and Extreame Unction which are easie to bee understood by any novice in Christian religion To the eight That it may appeare what was the judgement of S. Austine in this maine point of difference betweene the Reformed and the Roman Church I will weigh what is brought on both sides first what the Iesuit alledgeth for seven and then what the Knight for two S. Austine having written divers Catechisticall treatises in which hee had occasion to name and handle the Sacraments yet no where defineth the number of them to bee seven
Bishop of Rochester Gregorie the great and venerable Bede let the Iesuit therefore looke to the Consequent The Church of Rome commandeth every one upon paine of hell-fire to beleeve a temporarie purging fire after this life First upon what ground Scripture or unanimous consent of Fathers or Tradition of the Catholike Church no such thing But upon apparitions of dead men and testimonie of Spirits whether good Spirits or evill they cannot tell Next wee demand what soules and how long doe they contine there To this they must answer likewise Ignoramus Soto thinketh that none continueth in this purgation ten yeares If this be true saith Bellarmine No soule needs to stay in purging one houre Thirdly the soules that are supposed to be there till their sinnes are purged where with are they purged With fire onely so saith Sir Thomas Moore and proves it out of Zacharie 9.11 Thou hast delivered the prisoners out of the place where there is no water or with water and fire so saith Gregorie in his Dialogues lib. 4. Some are purged by fire and some by bathes and Fisher Bishop of Rochester proves it out of those words of the Psalmist Wee have passed thorow fire and water Fourthly admit they are purged by fire whether is this fire materiall or metaphoricall Ignoramus Wee know not saith Bellarmine lib. 2. de Purg. cap. 6. Lastly is there any mittigation of this paine in Purgatorie or no They cannot tell this neither For venerable Bede hist Ang. lib. 5. tels us of the apparition of a Ghost reporting that There was an infernall place where soules suffered no paine where they had a brooke running through it Neither is it improbable saith Bellarmine l. 2. de Purg. cap. 7. that there should be such an honorable prison which is a most milde and temperate Purgatorie Yea but saith the Iesuit Saint Austin is a firme man for Purgatorie and hee will prove it out of that booke of Enchiridion and place quoted by the Knight Resolutely spoken but so falsly Encharid ad Laurent c 69. Tale aliquid etiam post hanc vitam fieri incredibile non est et utrum ita sit quaeri potest et ut inveniri aut latere possit nonnullos fideles per ignem quendam purgaiorium salvari non tamen tales de quibus dictū est regnum Dei non posside bant that in this very booke chapter 69 Saint Austine speaking of a purging fire and commenting upon the words of Saint Paul Hee shall be saved as it were by fire addeth immediately It is not unlikely that some such thing may be after this life but whether it be so or no it may be argued and whether it can be found or not found that some Beleevers are saved by a purging fire yet it is certaine that none of them shall be saved of whom the Apostle saith they shall not inherit the Kingdome of God And in the same booke chapter 109. he resolves that All soules from the day of their death to their resurrection abide in expectation what shall become of them and are reserved in secret receptacles accordingly as they deserve either torment or ease These hidden Cells or Receptacles wheresoever they are scituated in St. Austins judgment C. 109. Tempus quod inter hominis mortem ultimam resurrectionem interpositum est animus abditis receptaculis continet sicut unaqueque digna est vel requiae vel arumnâ certaine it is they are not in the Popish Purgatory for St. Austine placeth in these secret Mansions all soules indifferently good or bad whereas the Popish Purgatory is restrained only to those of a middle condition being neither exceeding good nor exceeding bad Againe in St. Austines hidden repositories some soules have ease and some paine as each deserveth but in the Romish Purgatory all soules are in little-ease being tormented in a flame little differing from Hell fire or rather nothing at all save onely in time the paines are as grievous but not so durable Else where St. Austine is most direct against Purgatory and wholly for us as namely de peceat meritis de remissione l. 1. c. 28. There is no middle or third place saith he but he must needs be with the Devill who is not with Christ And Hypog l. 5. The first place the faith of Catholikes by divine authority beleeveth to be the Kingdome of Heaven the second to be Hell tertium locum penitùs ignoramus the third place we are alltogether ignorant of and in his booke de vanit seculi cap. 1. Know that when the soule is seperated from the body statim presently it is either placed in Paradise for his good worke or cast headlong into the bottome of hell for his sinnes Neither can the Iesuit evade by saying that there are two onely places where the soules remaine finally and eternally to wit Heaven and Hell but yet that there is a third place where the bodies fry in purging for a time for St. Austine speakes of all soules in generall both good and bad and saith that statim that is presently upon death they are receaved into Heaven or throwne into Hell and therefore stay no time in a Third place What then say we to the passage in which the Iesuit so triumpheth Enchirid. ad Laurenc c. 110. Neither is it to be denied that the soules of the dead are relieved by the piety of their friends living when the Sacrifice of our Mediatour is offered for them and Almes given in the Church We answer that where St. Austine is not constant to himselfe we are not bound to stand to his authority and therefore we appeale from Saint Austine missing his way in this place to the same Austine Nullum auxilium misericordiae potest preberi a justis defunctorum animabus etiamsi justi praebere velint quia est immutabilis divina sententia Qualis quisque moritur talis a Deo judicatur nec potest mutari corrigi vel minus dimia sententia hitting his way elsewhere namely l. 2. Quest Evan. c. 38. There can be no helpe of mercy afforded by just men to the soules of the deceased although the righteous would never so faine have it so because the sentence of God is immutable and Ep. 80. ad Hesich such as a man is when he dieth for such he is judged of God neither can the sentence of God be changed corrected or diminished As for Mr. Anthony Alcots confession that Saint Austines opinion was for purgatorie it maketh not for the Iesuit but against him for he saith it was his opinion not his resolved judgment and his opinion at one place and at one time which after he retracted and resolved the cleane contrary as Mr. Alcots there in part sheweth and Danaeus most fully in his Comment upon St. Austine his Enchiridian ad Laurentium To the tenth If all Papists did agree in this that all Images were to be worshipped but not as Gods yet are they at odds in other