we may ground our consciences in things that are to be beleeved And this wee say not as if wee feared that these men were able to produce better proofes out of the writings of the Fathers for the part of the Pope then we can do for the Catholick cause when we come to joine in the particulars they shall finde it otherwise but partly to bring the matter unto a shorter triall partly to give the word of God his due and to declare what that rocke is upon which alone we build our faith even the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets from which no sleight that they can devise shall ever draw us The same course did S. Augustine take with the Pelagians against whom he wanted not the authority of the Fathers of the Church Which if I vvould collect saith he and use their testimonies it would be too long a worke and I might peradventure seeme to haue lesse confidence then I ought in the Canonicall authorities from which we ought not to be withdrawen Yet was the Pelagian Heresie then but newly budded which is the time wherein the pressing of the Fathers testimonies is thought to be best in season With how much better warrant may we follow this president having to deale with such as have had time and leisure enough to falsifie the Fathers writings and to teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans The method of confuting heresies by the consent of holy Fathers is by none commended more then by Vincentius Lirinensis who is carefull notwithstanding herein to give us this caveat But neither alwayes nor all kindes of heresies are to be impugned after this manner but such only as are new and lately sprung namely when they doe first arise while by the straitnesse of the time it selfe they be hindred from falsifying the rules of the ancient faith and before the time that their poyson spreading farther they attempt to corrupt the writings of the ancient But farre-spred and inveterate heresies are not to bee dealt vvithall this way for as much as by long continuance of time a long occasion hath lyen open unto them to steale away the truth The heresies with which wee have to deale have spred so farre and continued so long that the defenders of them are bold to make Vniversality and Duration the speciall markes of their Church they had opportunity enough of time and place to put in ure all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse neither will they have it to say that in coyning and clipping and washing the monuments of Antiquitie they have beene wanting to themselves Before the Councell of Nice as hath beene observed by one who sometime was Pope himselfe little respect to speake of was had to the Church of Rome If this may be thought to prejudice the dignity of that Church which would be held to have sate as Queene among the Nations from the very beginning of Christianity you shall have a craftie merchant Isidorus Mercator I trow they call him that will helpe the matter by counterfeiting Decretall Epistles in the name of the primitive Bishops of Rome and bringing in thirty of them in a row as so many Knights of the Poste to beare witnesse of that great authority which the Church of Rome enjoyed before the Nicene Fathers were assembled If the Nicene Fathers have not amplified the bounds of her jurisdiction in so large a maner as shee desired shee hath had her well-willers that have supplied the Councels negligence in that behalfe and made Canons for the purpose in the name of the good Fathers that never dreamed of such a businesse If the power of judging all others will not content the Pope unlesse he himselfe may be exempted from being judged by any other another Councell as ancient at least as that of Nice shall be suborned wherein it shall be concluded by the consent of 284 imaginarie Bishops that No man may judge the first seat and for fayling in an elder Councell then that consisting of 300 buckram Bishops of the very selfe same making the like note shall be sung quoniam prima sedes non judicabitur à quoquam The first seat must not be judged by any man Lastly if the Pope do not thinke that the fulnesse of spirituall power is sufficient for his greatnesse unlesse hee may be also Lord paramount in temporalibus hee hath his followers ready at hand to frame a faire donation in the name of Constantine the Emperour whereby his Holinesse shall be estated not only in the Citie of Rome but also in the seigniory of the whole West It would require a Volume to rehearse the names of those severall Tractates which have beene basely bred in the former dayes of darknesse and fathered upon the ancient Doctors of the Church who if they were now alive would be deposed that they were never privie to their begetting Neither hath this corrupting humour stayed it selfe in forging of whole Councels and intire Treatises of the ancient writers but hath like a canker fretted away diverse of their sound parts and so altered their complexions that they appear not to be the same men they were To instance in the great question of Transubstantiation we were wont to reade in the books attributed unto S. Ambrose De Sacramentis libr. 4. cap. 4. Si ergo tanta vis est in sermone Domini Iesu ut inciperent esse quae non erant quanto magis operatorius est ut sint quae erant in aliud commutentur If therefore there be so great force in the speech of our Lord Iesus that the things which were not begun to bee namely at the first creation how much more is the same powerfull to make that things may still be that which they were and yet be changed into another thing It is not unknowne how much those words ut sint quae erant have troubled their braines who maintaine that after the words of consecration the elements of bread and wine be not that thing which they were and what devises they have found to make the bread and wine in the Sacrament to be like unto the Beast in the Revelation that was and is not and yet is But that Gordian knot which they with their skill could not so readily untye their masters at Rome Alexander-like have now cut asunder paring cleane away in their Romane Edition which is also followed in that set out at Paris Anno 1603. those words that so much troubled them and letting the rest run smoothly after this maner quanto magis operatorius est ut quae erant in aliud cōmutentur how much more is the speech of our Lord powerfull to make that those things which were should be changed into another thing The author of the imperfect work upon Matthew homil 11. writeth thus Si ergo haec vasa sanctificata ad privatos usus transferre sic periculosum est in quibus non est verum corpus Christi sed
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
care to figure by colours the bodily visages of the Saints in tables because we have no need of such things but by virtue to imitate their conversation but the fact of Epiphanius rending the vayle that hung in the Church of Anablatha is much more memorable which he himselfe in his epistle to Iohn Bishop of Ierusalem translated by S. Hierome out of Greeke into Latin doth thus recount I found there a vayle hanging at the doore of the Church dyed and painted and having the image as it were of Christ or some Saint for I doe not well remember whose image it was When therefore I saw this that contrarie to the authoritie of the Scriptures the image of a man was hanged up in the Church of Christ I cut it and gave counsell to the keepers of the place that they should rather wrappe and burie some poore dead man in it and afterwards he intreateth the Bishop of Ierusalem under whose government this Church was to give charge hereafter that such vayles as these which are repugnant to our religion should not be hanged up in the Church of Christ. Which agreeth verie well with the sentence attributed to the same Father in the Councell of Constantinople Have this in minde beloved sonnes not to bring Images into the Church nor into the Coemiteries of the Saints no not into an ordinarie house but alwayes carie about the remembrance of God in your hearts For it is not lawfull for a Christian man to be caried in suspense by his eyes and the wandrings of his minde and with his discourse against the heresie of the Collyridians which made an Idol of the Virgin Mary as in the former question hath more largely beene declared to which he opposeth himselfe in this maner How is not this course Idolatrous and a Divelish practise For the Divell stealing alwayes into the minde of men under pretence of righteousnesse deifying the mortall nature in the eyes of men by varietie of artes framed Images like unto men And they truely who are worshipped are dead but their Images that never yet were alive for they cannot be sayd to be dead that never were alive they bring in to be worshipped by a minde going awhoring from the one and onely God as a common harlot stirred with a wicked desire of promiscuous mixture and rejecting the sobrietie of the lawfull marriage of one man If it be inquired who they were that first brought in this use of Images into the Church it may well be answered that they were partly lewd Heretickes partly simple Christians newly converted from Paganisme the customes whereof they had not as yet so fully unlearned Of the former kinde the Gnostique heretickes were the principall who had Images some painted in colours others framed of gold and silver and other matter which they sayd were the representations of Christ made under Pontius Pilate when he was conversant here among men Whence Carpocrates and Marcellina his disciple who brought this Idolatrous heresie first to Rome in the dayes of Pope Anicetus having privily made Images of Iesus and Paul and Homer and Pythagoras did cense them and worship them as Epiphanius and Augustine doe report To the latter that observation of Eusebius may be referred concerning the Image of Christ thought to be erected by the woman that was cured of the bloudy issue It is no marvell saith he that those of the Heathen who of old were cured by our Saviour should doe such things seeing we have seene the Images of his Apostles Paul and Peter yea and of Christ himselfe kept painted with colours in tables for that of old they have beene wont by a Heathenish custome thus to honour them whom they counted to be their Benefactors or Saviours But by whomsoever they were first brought in certaine it is that they proved a dangerous snare unto the simple people who quickely went a whooring after them contrarie to the doctrine which the Fathers Doctors of the Church did deliver unto them And therefore S. Augustine writing of the maners of the Catholicke Church against the Manichees directly severeth the case of such men from the common cause and approved practise of the Catholicke Church Doe not collect unto me saith he such professors of the name of Christ as eyther know not or keepe not the force of their profession Doe not bring in the companies of rude men which eyther in the true religiō it selfe are superstitious or so given unto their lusts that they have forgottē what they did promise unto God Then for an instance of the first he alledgeth that he himselfe did know many which were worshippers of graves and Pictures and at last concludeth Now this I advise you that you cease to speake evill of the Catholicke Church by upbrayding it with the maners of those men whom shee her selfe condemneth and seeketh everie day to correct as naughtie children This also gave occasion to Serenus Bishop of Marsiles 200. yeares after to breake downe the Images in his Church when hee found them to be thus abused which fact of his though Pope Gregory disliked because he thought that Images might profitably be retayned as lay-mens bookes yet in this he commended his zeale that he would by no meanes suffer them to be worshipped I certifie you saith he that it came of late to our hearing that your brotherhood seeing certaine worshippers of Images did breake the said Church-images and threw them away And surely we commended you that you had that zeale that nothing made with hands should be worshipped but yet we judge that you should not have broken those images For painting is therefore used in Churches that they which are unlearned may yet by sight read those things upon the walles which they cannot reade in bookes Therefore your brotherhood ought both to preserve the images and to restraine the people from worshipping of them that both the ignorant might have had whence to gather the knowledge of the historie and the people might not sinne in worshipping the picture There would be no end if we should lay downe at large the fierce contentions that afterwards arose in the Church touching this matter of Images the Greeke Emperours Leo Isaurus Constantinus Caballinus Nicephorus Stauratius Leo Armenus Michael Balbus Theophilus and others opposing them in the East and on the other side Gregory the second third Paul the first Stephen the fourth Adrian the first and second Leo the third Nicholas the first other Popes of Rome as stiffely upholding them in the West In a Councell of CCCXXXVIII Bishops helde at Constantinople in the yeare of our Lord 754. they were solemnely condemned in another Councell of CCCL Bishops helde at Nice in the yeare 787. they were advanced againe and the veneration of them as much commended This base decree of the second Nicene Councell touching the adoration of Images although it were not by the hundreth part so grosse as that which was
and that God effecteth this grace in us not by way of counsell and perswasion only but by an inward change and reformation of the minde making up a new vessell of a broken one by a creating vertue Non hoc consilio tantùm hortatuque benigno Suadens atque docens quasi normam legis haberet Gratia sed mutans intus mentem atque reformans Vasque novum ex fracto fingens virtute creandi The Writers of principal esteeme on the other side were Iohannes Cassianus and Faustus Regiensis or Reiensis the former of which was encountred by Prosper in his booke Contra Collatorem the latter by Fulgentius Ioh. Maxentius Facundus Caesarius Iohannes Antiochenus as also by Gelasius and his Romane Synod of LXX Bishops the writings of them both were rejected amongst the bookes Apocryphall And lastly by the joint authoritie both of the See of Rome and of the French Bishops assembled in the second Councell of Orange in the yeare of our Lord DXXIX sentence was giuen against the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians in generall that their opinions touching Grace and Free-will were not agreeable to the rule of the Catholike faith and these conclusions following among sundrie others determined in particular If any doth say that by mans prayer the grace of God may be conferred and that it is not grace it selfe which maketh that God is prayed unto by us he contradicteth the Prophet Esay or the Apostle saying the same thing I was found of them that sought me not and have beene made manifest to them that asked not after me Esai 65.1 Rom. 10.20 If any man defend that God doth expect our will that we may be purged from sinne and doth not confesse that this will of ours to be purged is wrought in us by the infusion and operation of the holy Ghost he resisteth the holy Ghost saying by Salomon The will is prepared by the Lord Prov. 8.35 according to the LXX and the Apostle preaching wholesomely It is God which worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 If any man say that to us without grace beleeving willing desiring endevouring labouring watching studying asking seeking knocking mercie is conferred by God and doth not confesse that it is wrought in us by the infusion and inspiration of the holy Ghost that we may beleeve will or doe all these things as we ought and doth make the helpe of grace to follow after mans either humilitie or obedience neither doth yeeld that it is the gift of grace it selfe that we are obedient and humble he resisteth the Apostle saying What hast thou that thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4.7 and By the grace of God I am that I am 1 Cor. 15.10 It is of Gods gift both when we doe thinke aright and when we hold our feet from falshood and unrighteousnesse For as oft as we doe good things God worketh in us and with us that we may worke There are many good things done in man which man doth not But man doth no good things which God doth not make man to doe This also doe we wholesomely professe and beleeve that in every good worke we doe not beginne and are holpen afterwards by the mercie of God but hee first of all no good merits of ours going before inspireth into us both faith and the love of him that we may both faithfully seeke the Sacrament of Baptisme and after Baptisme with his helpe we way fulfill the things that are pleasing unto him Touching which last Canon we may note First for the reading that in the Tomes of the Councels set out by Binius it is most notoriously corrupted For where the Councell hath Nullis praecedentibus bonis meritis No good merits going before there wee reade Multis praecedentibus bonis meritis Many good merits going before Secondly for the meaning that the Fathers understand grace to be given according to merits when any thing is done by our owne strength in respect whereof grace is given although it be no merit of condignitie as both Bellarmine him selfe doth acknowledge in the explication of the determination of the Palaestine Synod against Pelagius and in the case of the Semi-Pelagians as it is delivered by Cassianus is most evident For the grace of God saith he doth alwaies so cooperate to the good part with our Free-will and in all things helpe protect and defend it that sometime it either requireth or expecteth from it some endevours of a good will that it may not seeme to conferre its gifts upon one that is altogether sleeping and given to sluggish idlenesse seeking occasions after a sort whereby the dulnesse of humane slothfulnesse being shaken off the bargenesse of its bountie may not seeme to be unreasonable while it imparteth the same under the colour of a kinde of desire and labour Yet so notwithstanding that grace may alwaies continue to be gratious and free while to such kinde of small and little endevours with an inestimable largesse it giveth so great glory of immortalitie so great gifts of everlasting blisse Let humane frailtie therefore endevour as much as it will it cannot be equall to the retribution that is to come neither by the labours thereof doth it so diminish Gods grace that it doth not alwaies continue to be given freely Where you may observe from what fountaine the Schoole-men did derive their doctrine of workes preparatorie meriting grace by way of congruitie though not of condignitie For Cassianus whom Prosper chargeth notwithstâ—nding all this qualifying of the matter to be a maintainer in very deed of that damned point of Pelagianisme that the grace of God was given according to our merits Cassianus I say was a man that bare great sway in our Monasteries where his writings were accounted as the Monkes generall Rules and untill the other day Faustus him selfe who of all others most cunningly opposed the doctrine of S. Augustine touching grace and free-will was accepted in the Popish Schooles for a reverend Doctor and a Catholike Bishop Yea the workes of Pelagius himselfe were had in such account that some of them as his Epistle ad Demetriadem for example and his Exposition upon S. Pauls Epistles which are fraught with his hereticall opinionâ— haue passed from hand to hand as if they had beene written by S. Hierome and as such have beene alledged against us by some of our Adversaries in this very question of Free-will The lesse is it to be wondered that three hundred yeares agoe in the mid-night of Popery the profound Doctor Thomas Bradwardin then Chancellor of London and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury should beginne his Disputations Of the cause of God against Pelagius with this lamentable complaint Behold I speake it with griefe of heart touched inwardly as in old time against one Prophet of God there were found eight hundred and fiftie Prophets of Baal unto whom an innumerable company of people did
who succeeded him in his Bishopricke saith that the bread and wine sanctifieth them that feed upon that matter acknowledging thereby that the materiall part of those outward elements do still remaine In the Church saith Macarius is offered bread wine the type of his flesh and blood and they which are partakers of the visible bread doe spiritually eate the flesh of the Lord. Christ saith S. Hierome did not offer water but wine for the type of his blood S. Augustine bringeth in our Saviour thus speaking of this matter You shall not eate this bodie which you see nor drinke that blood which they shall shed that will crucifie mee I have commended a certaine Sacrament unto you that being spiritually understood vvill quicken you The same Father in another place writeth that Christ admitted Iudas to that banquet wherein he commended and delivered unto his Disciples the figure of his body and blood but as he elsewhere addeth they did eate that bread which was the Lord himselfe hee the bread of the Lord against the Lord. Lastly the Lord saith he did not doubt to say This is my body when he gave the signe of his body So the Author of the Homily upon the 22. Psalme among the workes of Chrysostome This table hee hath prepared for his servants and hand-maydes in their sight that he might every day for a similitude of the body and blood of Christ shew unto us in a sacrament bread and wine after the order of Melchisedec And S. Chrysostome himselfe in his Epistle written to Caesarius against the heresie of Apolinarius As before the bread be sanctified we call it bread but when Gods grace hath sanctified it by the meanes of the Priest it is delivered from the name of bread and is reputed worthy the name of the Lords body although the nature of the bread remain still in it and it is not called two bodies but one body of Gods sonne so likewise here the divine nature residing in the body of Christ these two make one sonne and one person In the selfe same maner also doe Theodoret Gelasius and Ephraemius proceed against the Eutychian heretickes Theodoret for his part layeth downe these grounds That our Saviour in the deliverie of the mysteries called bread his body and that which was mixt in the cupp his blood That hee changed the names and gave to the body the name of the symbol or signe and to the symbol the name of the body That hee honoured the visible symboles with the name of his bodie and blood not changing the nature but adding grace to nature And that this most holy food is a symbol type of those things whose names it beareth to wit of the body and blood of Christ. Gelasius writeth thus The sacraments which we receive of the body and blood of Christ are a divine thing by meanes whereof wee are made partakers of the divine nature and yet the substance or nature of bread and wine doth not cease to be And indeed the image and the similitude of the bodie and blood of Christ are celebrated in the action of the mysteries It appeareth therefore evidently enough unto us that wee are to hold the same opinion of the Lord Christ himselfe which we professe celebrate and are in his Image that as those Sacraments by the operation of the holy Spirit passe into this that is into the divine substance and yet remaine in the propriety of their owne nature so that principall mysterie it selfe whose force and vertue they truely represent should be conceived to be namely to consist of two natures divine and humane the one not abolishing the truth of the other Lastly Ephraemius the Patriarch of Antioch having spoken of the distinction of these two natures in Christ and said that no man having understanding could say that there was the same nature of that which could be handled and of that which could not be handled of that which was visible and of that which was invisible addeth And even thus the body of Christ which is received by the faithfull the Sacrament he meaneth doth neither depart from his sensible substance and yet remayneth undivided from intelligible grace and Baptisme being wholly made spirituall and remayning one doth both retaine the propertie of his sensible substance of water I meane and yet looseth not that which it is made Thus have wee produced evidences of all sorts for confirmation of the doctrine by us professed touching the blessed Sacrament which cannot but give sufficient satisfaction to all that with anie indifferencie will take the matter into their consideration But the men with whom wee have to deale are so farre fallen out with the truth that neither sense nor reason neither authoritie of Scriptures or of Fathers can perswade them to be friends againe with it unlesse we shew unto them in what Popes dayes the contrarie falshood was first devised If nothing else will give them content we must put them in minde that about the time wherein Soter was Bishop of Rome there lived a cousening companion called Marcus whose qualities are thus set out by an ancient Christian who was famous in those dayes though now his name be unknowne unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where first hee chargeth him to have beene an Idolmakeâ— then hee objecteth unto him his skill in Astrologie and Magicke by meanes whereof and by the assistance of Satan hee laboured with a shewe of miracles to winne credite unto his false doctrines amongst his seduced disciples and lastly hee concludeth that his father the Divel had imployed him as a forerunner of his antithean craft or his antichristian deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse if you will have it in the Apostles language For he was indeed the Divels forerunner both for the idolatries and sorceries which afterward were brought into the East and for those Romish fornications and inchantments wherewith the whole West was corrupted by that man of sinne whose comming was foretold to be after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders And that we may keep our selves within the compasse of that particular which now wee have in hand wee finde in Irenaeus that this Arch-heretick made speciall use of his juggling feates to breed a perswasion in the mindes of those whom hee had perverted that in the cup of his pretended Eucharist he really delivered them blood to drinke For fayning himselfe to consecrate the cups filled with wine and extending the words of Invocation to a great length he made them to appeare of a purple and redd colour to the end it might be thought that the Grace which is above all things did distill the blood thereof into that cup by his Invoâ—ation And
and darke dungeon of death that is into Hades adding afterward that Hades may rightly be esteemed to be the house and mansion of such as are deprived of life Nicephorus Gregoras in his funerall Oration upon Theodorus Metochites putteth in this for one strayne of his lamentation Who hath brought downe that heavenly man unto the bottome of Hades and Andrew archbishop of Crete touching the descent both of Christ and all Christians after him even unto the darke and comfortlesse Hades writeth in this maner If hee who was the Lord and master of all and the light of them that are in darknesse and the life of all men would taste death and undergoe the descent into Hell that he might be made like unto us in all things sinne excepted and for three dayes went thorough the sad obscure and darke region of Hell what strange thing is it that wee who are sinners and dead in trespasses according to the great Apostle who are subject to generation and corruption should meete with death and goe with our soule into the darke chambers of Hell where we cannot see light nor behold the life of mortall men For are wee above our Master or better then the Saints who underwent these things of ours after the like maner that we must doe Iuvencus intimateth that our Saviour giving up the ghost sent his soule unto heaven in those verses of his Tunc clamor Domini magno conamine missus Aethereis animam comitem commiscuit auris Eusebius Emesenus collecteth so much from the last words which our Lord uttered at the same time Father into thine hands I commend my spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His spirit was above and his body remayned upon the crosse for us In the Greeke exposition of the Canticles collected out of Eusebius Philo Carpathius and others that sentence in the beginning of the sixt chapter My beloved is gone down into his garden is interpreted of Christs going to the soules of the Saints in Hádes which in the Latin collections that beare the name of Philo Carpathius is thus more largely expressed By this descending of the Bridegrome we may understand the descending of our Lord Iesus Christ into Hell as I suppose for that which followeth proveth this when he sayeth To the beds of spices For those ancient holy men are not unfiâ—ly signified by the beds of spices such as were Noë Abraham Isaac Iacob Moses Iob David Samuel Elisaeus Daniel and very many others before the Law in the Law who all of them like unto beds of spices gave a most sweete smell of the odours and fruits of holy righteousnesse For then as a triumpher did he enter into PARADISE when he pierced into Hell God himselfe is present with us for a witnesse in this matter when he answered most graciously to the Thiefe upon the Crosse commending himselfe unto him most religiously To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Lastly touching this Paradise the various opinions of the ancient are thus layd downe by Olympiodorus to seeke no farther It is a thing worthy of enquirie in what place under the Sunne the righteous are placed which have left this life Certaine it is that in Paradise forasmuch as Christ said unto the Thiefe This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And it is to be knowne that the literall Tradition teacheth Paradise to be in earth But some have said that Paradise also is in Hell that is in a place under the earth unto which opinion of theirs they apply that of the Gospell where the rich man saw Lazarus being yet himselfe sunke downe in a lower place when Lazarus was in a place more eminent where Abraham was But howsoever the matter goeth this without doubt is manifest aswell out of Ecclesiastes as out of all the sacred Scripture that the godly shall be in prosperity and peace and the ungodly in punishments and torments And others are of the minde that Paradise is in the Heavens c. Hitherto Olympiodorus That Christs soule went into Paradise Doctor Bishop saith being well understood is true For his soule in hell had the joyes of Paradise but to make that an exposition of Christs descending into hell is to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it Yet this ridiculous exposition he affirmeth to be received of most Protestants Which is even as true as that which he avoucheth in the same place that this article of the descent into Hell is to be found in the old Roman Creed expounded by Ruffinus where Ruffinus as we have heard expounding that article delivereth the flat contrarie that it is not found added in the Creed of the Church of Rome It is true indeed that more than most Protestants do interprete the words of Christ uttered unto the Thiefe upon the Crosse Luk. 23.43 of the going of his soule into Paradise where our Saviour meaning simply and plainly that hee would be that day in Heaven M. Bishop would have him so to be understood as if he had meant that that day he would be in Hell And must it be now held more ridiculous in Protestants to take Hell for Paradise then in M. Bishop to take Paradise for Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the wordes of the Apostles Creed in the Greeke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Symbol of Athanasius Some learned Protestants do observe that in these words there is no determinate mention made eyther of ascending or descending either of Heaven or Hell taking Hell according to the vulgar acception but of the generall only under which these contraries are indifferently comprehended and that the words literally interpreted import no more but this HEE WENT UNTO THE OTHER WORLD Which is not to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it as M. Bishop fancieth who may quickly make himselfe ridiculous in taking upon him thus to censure the interpretations of our learned linguistes unlesse his owne skill in the languages were greater then as yet he hath given proofe of Master Broughton with whose authoritie hee elsewhere presseth us as of a man esteemed to be singularly seene in the Hebrew and Greeke tongue hath beene but too forward in maintayning that exposition which by D. Bishop is accounted so ridiculous In one place touching the terme Hell as it doth answer the Hebrew Sheol and the Greeke Hádes he writeth thus He that thinketh it ever used for Tartaro or Gehenna otherwise then the terme Death may by Synecdoche import so hath not skill in Ebrew or that Greeke vvhich breathing and live Graecia spake if God hath lent me any judgement that way In another place he alledgeth out of Portus his Dictionary that the Macedonians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven And one of his acquaintance beyond the Sea reporteth that he should deliver that in many most ancient Manuscript copies the Lords prayer is found with this
afterwards invented by the Popish Schoolmen yet was it reiected as repugnant to the doctrine of the Church of God by the Princes and Bishops of England first about the yeare 792. and by Charles the great afterward and the Bishops of Italy France Germany which by his appointment were gathered together in the Councell of Frankford the yeare of our Lord. 794. The foure bookes which by his authoritie were published against that Nicene Synod and the adoration of Images defended therein are yet to be seene as the Resolution also of the Doctors of France assembled at Paris by the command of his sonne Ludovicus Pius in the yeare 824. and the booke of Agobardus Bishop of Lions concerning Pictures and Images written about the same time the argument whereof is thus delivered by Papirius Massonus the setter out of it Detecting most manifestly the errors of the Grecians touching images and pictures he denieth that they ought to be worshipped which opinion all wee Catholickes doe allowe and follow the testimonie of Gregory the great concerning them This passage together with the larger view of the contents of this Treatise following afterwards the Spanish Inquisitors in their Index Expurgatorius commande to be blotted out which wee finde to be accordingly performed by the Divines of Cullen in their late corrupt edition of the great Bibliothecke of the ancient Fathers Gretser professeth that he extreamely vvondereth that this judgement of the booke of Agobardus should proceed from a Catholicke man For Agobardus saith he in that wâ—ole booke doth nothing else but endevour to demonstrate although with a vaine labour that images are not to be worshipped And who be these Grecians whose errors touching images Agobardus doth refell as this Publisher saith Surely these Grecians are the Fathers of the Nicene Councell who decreed that Images should be adored and worshipped Against whom whosoever disputeth doth mainely dissent from right beleevers To which blinde censure of the Iesuite we may oppose not onely the generall judgement of the ancient Almaines his owne countriemen who within these foure or five hundred yeares did flatly disclayme this Image-worship as by Nicetas Choniates is witnessed but also the testimonie of the Divines and Historians of England France and Germanie touching the Nicene Councell in particular rejecting it as a Pseudo-synode because it concluded that Images should be worshipped which thing say our Chroniclers the Church of God doth utterly detest And yet for all that we have newes lately brought us from Rome that it is most certaine and most assured that the Christian Church even the most Ancient the Whole and the Vniversall Church did with wonderfull consent without any opposition or contradiction worship statues and images Which if the cauterized conscience of a wretched Apostata would give him leave to utter yet the extreame shamelessenesse of the assertion might have withhelde their wisedomes whom he sought to please thereby from giving him leave to publish it But it may be I seeke for shamefastnesse in a place where it is not be founde and therefore leaving them to their Images like to like for they that make them are like unto them and so is every one that trusteth in them I proceede from this point unto that which followeth OF FREE-VVILL THat man hath Free-will is not by us gainesayd though wee dare not give him so large a freedome as the Iesuites presume to doe Freedome of will wee knowe doth as essentially belong unto a man as reason it selfe and he that spoyleth him of that power doth in effect make him a verie beast For this is the difference betwixt reasonable and unreasonable creatures as Damascen rightly noteth The unreasonable are rather ledd by nature then themselves leaders of it and therefore doe they never contradict their naturall appetite but as soone as they affect any thing they rush to the prosecution of it But man being indued with reason doth rather lead nature then is ledd by it and therefore being moved with appetite if he will he hath power to restraine his appetite or to follow it Hereby he is inabled to doe the things which he doth neither by a brute instinct of nature not yeâ— by any compulsion but by advise and deliberation the Minde first taking into consideration the grounds and circumstances of each action freely debating on eyther side what in this case were best to be done or not done and then the Will inclining it selfe to put in execution the last and conclusive judgement of the practicall Vnderstanding This libertie we acknowledge a man may exercise in all actions that are within his power to doe whether they be lawfull unlawfull or indifferent whether done by the strength of nature or of grace for even in doing the workes of grace our free-will suspendeth not her action but being moved and guided by grace doeth that which is fit for her to doe grace not taking away the libertie which commeth by Gods creation but the pravitie of the Will which ariseth from Mans corruption In a word as we condemne Agapius and the rest of that mad sect of the Manichees for bringing in such a kinde of necessitie of sinning whereby men were made to offend against their wils so likewise with Polychronius and other men of understanding we defend that vertue is a voluntarie thing and free from all necessitie and with the author of the bookes De vocatione Gentium attributed unto Prosper we both beleeve and feele by experience that Grace is so powerfull that yet we conceive it no way to be violent But it is one thing to inquire of the nature another to dispute of the strength and abilitie of Free-will We say with Adamantius in the Dialogues collected out of Maximus against the Marcionites that God made Angels and Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee indued them with freedome of Will but not with abilitie to doe all things And now since the fall of Adam wee say further that freedome of Will remayneth still among men but the abilitie which once it had to performe spirituall duties and things pertayning to salvation is quite lost and extinguished For vvho is there of us saith S. Augustine which would say that by the sinne of the first Man Free-will is utterly perished from mankinde Freedome indeed is perished by sinne but that freedome which was in Paradise of having full righteousnesse with immortalitie for vvhich cause Mans nature standeth in neede of Gods grace according to the saying of our Lord If the Sonne shall free you then yee shall be free indeed namely free to live well and righteously For free-will is so farre from having perished in the sinner that by it they sinne all they especially who sinne with delight and for the love of sinne that pleaseth them which liketh them When we denie therefore that a naturall man hath any free-will unto good by