confesse before the Lorde that it is nothing in comparison of his mercy towards vs nor our duety towards him But yet blessed be his holy name that it is sufficient to iustifie our profession against the Papistes if not to stoppe their malicious mouthes yet to condemne their cancred conscience of obstinate lying against the manifest light of truth And whereas M. Allen will haue vs told that the blood of Christ maketh mens workes meritorious we will not let to tell him that the church of Christ abhorreth that blasphemy whereby Christes blood is made not the only nor the principall but an accessary and helping cause of remission of sinnes eternall saluation and will not doubt to tell him all such hypocrites as he is that neither see feele tast nor know the mystery of Christes redemption or any thing that ishueth vnto vs thereof which mingle merites of men by what colour or conueiance of wordes what so euer with the infinite and onely cause of our saluation the meere mercy of god And whereas he biddeth vs come into his Church we say to all them that are curable among them as the spirite of God hath taught vs come out of her my people come out of her lest ye be partakers of her plages and torments But nowe at the last he returneth to his matter of mercy affirming that after mens departure the representation of almes by such as receiued it shall moue God exceedingly to mercy O vaine imagination for which he hath neither Scripture nor doctor for neither the example of Peter and the saying of Cyprian helpeth him one iote because there is not the like comparison betwene man and God nor betwene deliuerance from hel which is certayne purgatory which is the controuersie 2 If thou yet chaunce to be negligent in the working of thine owne saluation when thou art in strength and helth when ouer much carefulnesse of worldly welth hindereth the remembraunce of thy duety towardes God for all that helpe thy selfe at the least in thy latter ende for though it had bene much better before yet it is not euill nowe I speake not for priestes aduauntage God is my iudge I am not of that roome my selfe and will not condemne my soule for other But I speake for pity of the deceiued people for compassion of the soules that lacke the reliefe of so soueraigne a remedy for mine owne helpe and those that I so dearly loue against the day of our accompt I speake it because I beleue it and I beleue it because I finde it practised of those men and in those dayes when true christianitie was yet feruent in Christes bloude when the faith was vndefiled and when workes and faith ranne together in the rase of mans life ioyntly without contention Then floorished this doctrine and thou shalt haue further tast of their vsage for mine owne discharge we can not occupy our penne better S. Chrysostome thus instructed his flocke in this case Si adhuc in hac vita constitutus omnia quibus animae tuae prodesse poteras bene dispensare neglexisti vel ad calcem vitae tuae tuis mandasti vt tua tibi ipsi submittendo erogent bonisque operibus te adiuuent eleemosinis dico oblationibus etiam hac ratione saluatorem conciliaueris scribe in tabulis cum filijs cognatisque tuis haeredem nomina dominum Nulli autem viuentium propterea occasionem damus ne faciat eleemosinas differendo vsque ad mortem If thou in thine owne time was ouer negligent in disposing thy goods for the proffit of thy soule and yet at the very ende doest at the last charge thy frendes or executors that they will employ thy proper goods for the reliefe of thy selfe and so helpe thee with good workes that is to saye with almes and oblation euen that way there is great hope thou maiest procure Gods fauour write in thy will that our Lorde may be named a fellowe heire with thy children and kinnesfolkes Neuerthelesse let no man take occasion hereby to be slacke in his life time or to differe his almes charitie till deathes approching This was the preaching of that doctours dayes this proceeded out of his golden mouth and this sounded out of euery pulpit And surely if you knew his life and qualities you woulde not take him to be the priestes proctor of whose dignity as he wrote much so where he founde any vicious he punished sore But he was a true proctor of our soules Chrysostome was no crauer perdye nor Christ neither though they warne vs to make frâ—ndes by Mammon for our owne saluation They aske not much they thrust out no inheretours it was but a mite that wanne the poore widowe that prayse a cuppe of cold water where more abilitie wanteth shall winne heauen at th end This then is the benefite of almes giuen in the time of mans life or otherwise by his appointment of his owne goodes after his departure both which procure mercie as well by the deede it selfe as by the prayers of those to whome that charity apperteined 2 This matter standeth vpon chaunce medly for if thou chaunce sayth he to be negligent c. and more rightly then he termeth the buriall of Geneua it may be called a matter of mumchaunce for he beginneth with a chaunce but he hath neuer a title of scripture nor any sufficient authority of a doctor to proue that almes bequeathed in a mans testament helpeth him out of purgatory And yet as though he had some greate speake to make he protesteth that he speaketh not for priestes aduantage because he is not of that roome him selfe c. but hereby you maye see what he counteth almes cheefely that which is geuen vnto priestes or else what needeth he to make any such protestation But he speaketh it because he beleueth it he would fayne counter fect his speach like the Apostle but an ape will be an ape although he be clothed in purple For the grounde of his belefe is not as the Apostles was the worde of God Rom. 10. but the practise of men which though they were neuer so good yet they were such as might deceiue and be deceiued But to the matter the florish of this doctrine was so great in those times which he commeÌ„deth to be so happy that he can not finde one man that speaketh of it but he is fayne to cite out of Damascene that which Chrysostome shoulde saye Which wordes proue no more but that almes is better geuen at the last then not at all of deliuerance from purgatory neuer a worde There is one word oblationibus which perhaps M. Allen would draw to masses for he translateth it oblation in the singular number which in the Latine is the plurall numbre His fetch is easy to finde the Masse though it be sayed neuer so often yet is it called of them but one oblation But I inferre vppon his owne conscience Chrysostomes
dayes they thinke they haue a good argument against the Catholikes Therefore they woulde father transubstantiation vpon this Councell the adoration of the Sacrament vpon that Pope indulgencies vpon that byshop c. For they be as saulcie with Gods Church Councells chiefe gouernors as we be with the Iacke strawes of Geneua And yet when they haue traualed to their heartes ake they can finde no one thing first inuented by any of them whome they falsely name to be the authors thereof But well seeing it is so stronge an argument of heresie to haue the ofspring of a later author with plaine prouisò of Gods Church for his markinge let vs adde so much strength to our cause to haue the father of the contrary falshood knowen and noted of the antiquity by his name 3 If you haue not a better vnderstander then you are a rule giuer your rule is false for though you hedge it in with many conditiōs yet you leaue out the chiefest which is that the opinion it self be cōtrary to the truth first preached by the Apostles or else it is no heresie though it may be truely fathered vpon any man priuate or publike sooner or later And here I muse why you put in the condition of a priuate man belike if the Pope inuent a new doctrine because he is a publike person that can not erre it must not be taken for heresie In your second rule except you vnderstand that the opinion of him which is withstāded be new and of his owne inuention the withstanding thereof no not by good men maketh it not false They that defended that heretikes should not be rebaptised were withstoode by Cyprian and all the Bishops of Africa who were notwithstanding their error in the vnitie of the Church yet were they not heretikes nor their opinion heresie because it was not of their inuention but of the word of god And wheras you affirme that we can not find any of those thinges inuented by them by whome we say they were inuented though we trauail vntill our hartes ake I aunswere though you seeke vntill your head ake lye vntill you haue worne your tongue to the stumpes you shall neither finde those things in the word of God nor to haue any other authors thē the writers of your owne sect haue named to be the fathers of most of them And that you charge vs with like saucines towards your Prelates that you vse toward the Iacke strawes of Geneua if you had not thereby confessed your selfe to be a saucy Iacke you might haue giuen vs occasiō to think no lesse of you For although perhaps you count the chief teachers of that Church for Iacke strawes yet the worlde can testifie that there is more grauitie and modesty in the lightest persons of all that Church then hath appeared of many Popes and Cardinalls of your Church of Rome 4 Epiphanius that notable man in his booke that he wrote for the confutation of all the heresies that were before his time and in other of his workes too nameth an obscure fellowe one Aërius to be the first author of this heresie that prayers and sacrifice profiteth not the departed in Christ. But what maner a fellowe he was and how lickely to be the founder of such a schoole thou shalt perceiue best by the writers wordes When Aërius coulde not obteine the byshopricke of Eustathius deposed after that he was once perfectly well skilled in Arius doctrine he inuented new sectes of his owne affirming that there shoulde be no offering for the departed and of him loe the scholars were called Aërians Let not the simple whome I woulde helpe in this cause be deceiued by the liknes of these two names Arius and Aërius for this later was the author of their secte and was a follower of the first called Arius in his doctrine beside And of the same sect and sectmaister S. Augustine thus sayeth following Epiphanius The Aërians were so named by one Aërius who taking snoffe that he coulde not get a byshopricke fell into the heresie of Arius first and then added therevnto other heresies of his owne makinge saying that we shoulde not offer sacrifice for the deade nor obserûe the solemne appointed fastes of the Church but that euery man should abstaine when he liste And there both he and Epiphanius doe recken moe of his holy opinions which I omit For it is enough for our purpose and to confunde all the heretikes of our dayes that this opinion was noted as it spronge vp in the primitiue Church for heresie and the authors not onely condemned as heretikes in that point but in many other thinges beside For I neuer reade of nor yet knewe any heretike but if he once mistrusted the catholike Church the Deuill was hable to perswade with him as well in a numbre of matters as in one And that is the cause that any man seduced falleth from one falshood to an other till he wholy be drowned in the waues of tempesteous doctrine And when he commeth once at the bottom then God knoweth he setteth light by the matter contemneth it and is often past recouery as it is sayde Peccator cum in profundum venerit contemnit Euen so did this Aërius first through ambitious pride fall to the Arians sect but because he counted it nothing glorious to be a scholar he woulde be a maister and that of a misheuous matter and a matter repugnāt to the sense of all Christes Church which before his preaching generally as after receiued and faithfully vsed prayers and oblation for the deade Of which consent of the vniuersall worlde and the heretikes follye in withstanding the same the sayde Epiphanius sayeth thus I will report his wordes in Latine because they sounde very well though him selfe wrote not in that language Assumpsit ecclesia in toto mundo assensus est factus antequà m esset Aërius qui ab ipso appellantur Aëriani quis autem magis de his nouit hic ne seductus homo qui etiam superest nunc an qui ante nos testes fuerunt c. Thus in english The Church hath receiued this trueth through the wide worlde it was sattled in all mens mindes before Aërius was borne or any of his secte that be nowe called Aërians And who I pray you is most like to knowe the trueth of these thinges this false wretche yet liuinge at this daye or else the faithfull witnesses that were before our time Beholde here you worshipfull maister ▪ you may suerly take greate cause of comforte in his liuely worde mary Sir he might haue bene an Archbishoppe in our dayes for he loued neither fasting nor praying He was fayne to be an heretike for anger because he coulde not be made a bishoppe then who now if he were in this happy age when the light is more plentifully powred vpon the people might haue bene promoted at Caluins decease to the ouerlooking of Geneua But his opinion was
and the whole congregation yea and speciall regard of the oblations of the poore And in the perticular rehearsing of diuerse kind of persons and the forme of the sacrifice named according to euery perticular state it is so farre of that the deade shall be reckned that such thinges are enioyned euery of these perticular persons to doe as it is playne that none but the liuing could offer or haue sacrifice offered for thē What law was appoynted touching lamenting for the deade you may reade Leuit. 21. how the Priest was forbidden to lament for any but speciall persons also Nu. 19. diuerse ordinances concerning the deade yet neuer any sacrifice or prayer for the deade When Nadab and Abihu were slayne their father and brethren were forbidden to mourne for them the people were permitted By all which it appeareth not only that no sacrifice for the deade was offered but that they were so separated from the liuing that the Priestes might haue nothing to do with any of them but in speciall cases And as for your common shift of the common body of the liuing and the deade helpeth you nothing for although all the faithfull make one body in Christ yet there is one state of them that worke an other of them that are iudged according to their works to put no diuersitie betwene them is not to make a communion but a confusion But of all other it is a clerkely cōclusion that you send M. Grindall to looke vpon the example of your masse whith is a sacrifice both for the quicke the deade and thereof will proue that the olde lawe had but one sacrifice for the liue and the deade In deede there you were to good for him if the practise of the popish church be a good president for Moyses to follow in his law we will reason no longer But the fact of Iudas Machabaeus putteth all out of doubt Surely then the fact of euery man that transgressed the lawe shall be sufficient to proue what the lawe was and not the booke of the lawe For else how coulde he haue conceiued any sacrifice which he neuer hearde of How did Dauid conceiue the cariage of the arke in a newe cart which he neuer heard of except it were of the Philistians that sent home the arke in a cart And euen so it is like that Iudas Machabaeus if he deuised not that sacrifice of his owne head yet tooke it by imitation of the Gentiles whose studies and practises your owne author confesseth were more frequented in those dayes among the Iewes then the preaching or keeping of the law Finally to all the other howe 's and whyes I aunswere with one word he had no warrant of his fact in the law of god Neither doth S. Augustine sufficiently answere the heretike that would proue by that fact that men dying in deadly sinne might be saued by sacrifice For though they were not vncircumcised for whom Iudas sent an offering yet they dyed in deadly sinne and such sinne as for which they were iustly slayne as your owne author confesseth for the idolatrous iewells that they had euery one in their bosomes Concerning the authoritie of that booke and how it was taken by Augustine I haue aunswered enough before 4 But here will I nowe make an ende desiring thee gentle reader with such indifferency to weighe the doing and dealing of both parties as the importaunce of the cause the loue of truth the necessary care of thine owne saluation and thy duety towardes God and his Church requireth There is none of all those pointes which the vnfaithfull contention of our miserable age hath made doubtefull in which thou mayest better beholde howe vpright the wayes of trueth and vertue be and howe pernicious double and deceitfull the dealing of heresie is The one is vpholden by the euidēt testimony of holy scripture the other mainteineth her traine by bolde deniall of scriptures the one seeketh with humility the meaning at their mouthes whome God hath vndoubtedly blessed with the gifte of vnderstanding and interpretation the other by singular pride foundeth her vnfaithfulnesse vpon the phantasies of light and lewde persons that are pufte too and fro with euery blaste of doctrine The one resteth vpon the practise of all nations the vsage of all ages and the holy workes both of God and man the other holdeth wholy by contempte of our elders flatery of the present dayes and vnhappy waste of all workes of vertue religion and deuotion the one followeth the gouernours and appointed pastours of our soules whose names be blessed in heauen and earth the other ioyneth to such as for other horrible heresies wicked life are condemned both a liue and deade of the vertuous and can not for shame be named of their owne scholars The one hath the warraunt of Gods whole Church the other standeth on curse and excommunication by the grauest authority that euer was vnder God in earth To be shorte trueth is the Churches dearlinge heresie must haue her maintenaunce abrode This one holy Catholike and Apostolike Church is it wherevnto we owe all duety and obedience both by Gods commaundement and by the bonde of our first faith and profession There is no force of argument no probability of reason no subtelty of witte no deepe compasse of wordely wisedome no eloquence of man nor Angell nor any other motion that can be wrought in the world that shoulde make a man doubte of any article approued by her authority And if thou yet feare to geue ouer thy whole sense and thine owne selfe to so carefull a mother in whome thou wast begotten in thy better birth compare our Church with theirs compare her authority and theirs her maiesty and theirs 4 In Gods name let the readers waye indifferently the doinges and dealinges on both partes the cause the trueth their saluation the Church and the glory of God aboue all thinges And as they see this pointe handeled so let them iudge of the reste The trueth is vpholden by euident testimony of scripture the error by custome practise and iudgement of men The trueth seeketh vnderstanding of the scriptures of the spirite of God in the scriptures error at the mouthes of mortall men The trueth resteth vpon the onely authority of God error vpon the maintenaunce of carnall deuises The trueth is founded vpon the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles the other vpon Gentiles and heretikes Trueth is embraced of the pure and primitiue Church of Christ error is continued from a corrupt state of the Church of Christ vnto a plaine departing awaye into the church of Antichrist To be short trueth is tryed by the worde of God heresie by the inuention of men The holy Catholicke and Apostolicke Church is that which humbly obeyeth the word of God and the Synagoge of Satan is that which arrogantly challengeth authoritie aboue the worde The true Church shall neuer decaye but alwaye reigne with Christ the false Synagoge shall daily more and more decaye
TVVO TREATISES WRITTEN AGAINST THE PAPISTES THE ONE BEING AN answere of the Christian Protestant to the proud challenge of a Popish Catholicke THE OTHER A CONFVTATION OF THE POPISH CHVRCHES doctrine touching Purgatory prayers for the dead by William Fulke Doctor in diuinitie Imprinted at London by Thomas Vautrollie◠dwelling in the Blacke friers 1577. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER WILLIAM FVLKE WISHETH GRACE AND PEACE from God the father and from our Lord Iesus Christ. THE great bragges that vvere made by diuers Papistes of this treatise of Purgatory that it vvas vnansvverable vvere so vntollerable that certeine of my godly friendes vvere moued thereby to sende the booke to me desiring me to shape an aunsvvere vnto it But vvhen I had readde it ouer and founde therein in deed much nevv rayling yet nothing else but the olde fonde kinde of reasoning I vvas altogether vnvvilling to deale vvith it both because there hath bene so much already vvritten of that argument and for that I thought that our contrymen vvere novv as vvel by reading of that vvhich hath ben vvritten before as also by continuall preaching against that absurde doctrine sufficiently dissvvaded from that blaspemous heresie of Purgatory But vvhē this excuse or any other that I could bring vvoulde not satisfie there ernest desier vvho importunatly still vrged me to take the matter in hand that I had once againe perused the treatise I began to thinke othervvise of the vvhole case then I did before I considered that many there vvere vvhich perhaps had not seene and many also that vvoulde not reade such bookes as haue bene vvritten in times past of this question that some also vvere so simple that they could not discerne this nevv disguised defence of the Catholike churches doctrine from the olde drousie dreame of popish Purgatory VVherefore if any one of these or any other that shall voutsalfe to reade this ansvvere might therby either be confirmed in trueth or reclaymed from error I began to thinke it vvere sufficient cause for me to take the paines and the paines so taken to be vvel bestovved Againe vvhen I remembred the spightfull rayling and the most disdainefull arrogance of Allen him selfe together vvith the presumptuous boasting and vaine confidence that some of his friends haue in his vvriting I cōfesse it kindled that smal zeale of godlines that is in me both to meinteine the common hope of Christians against the insolent assaultes of so malicious and proud an aduersary and also to discouer the infirmitie feeblenesse of that fortres vvhich these vvillfully blinde Papistes do vaunt to be inuincible In vvhich doinge I haue vsed great breuitie not onely by a naturall inclination vvherby I loue to be short in any thing that I vvright but also because my friendes vrged me to dispatch it vvith so great expedition And yet in this shortnesse I trust I haue not omitted any thing that hath any shadovv of reason or shevv of matter in it but that I haue sufficiently discharged it as the diligent and attentiue reader I hope vvill confesse no lesse Hovv be it neither my hast in finishing nor my friendes diligence in soliciting vvas so great but the slacknesse and vntovvardnesse of some Printers vvas much more For vvhere as it vvas ended authorized almost tvvo yeares a goe yet it hath stayed hetherto vntill a godly and learned brother vvho vvas once purposed to haue aunsvvered the same him selfe and colde full vvell and substantially haue acquited him selfe there in if other busines had not hindred him moued of godly zeale hath novv at the last vndertaken the printing thereof and brought it to this passe as you see I hearde of late also of a third man vvhich had learnedly begon the aunsvvering of this booke hovv so euer he vvas letted from accomplishing the same But hovv so euer Satan hath hether to hindred the setting abroade of this aunsvvere yet God hath novv at the length brought it forth I doubte not but to his glorie and the confusion of Satan in his membres the Papistes I haue thought good also to ioygne vnto this vvorke an other short treatise that hath lyen by me these eight or nine yeares vvritten at the request of a godly and learned friende of mine in aunsvvere to a proude challenge of the Papist against the Protestāt vvhich though at the first many yeares after I determined not to publish supposing the same challenge to haue ben priuate or in fevv mens handes yet novv of late that I haue seen it in diuerse godly Gentlemens handes to vvhome it hath bene deliuered by Papistes be like to peruert them and of vvhome also I haue bene desired to ansvvere it am further credibly informed that the same is in printe esteemed of many ignorant Papistes to be so vnaunsvverable that although it be protested by Gētlemen of great vvorshippe and credit that they haue seene the aunsvvere thereof in vvriting yet they vvill not beleue that any man dare set his penne to the paper once to attempt the matter I haue thought beste to putte it in printe as it vvas vvritten at the first Nothing doubting by Gods helpe but I shal be able to stande to that defence if the challenger vvill proceede to meinteine his challenge any longer That I haue copled it vvith the aunsvvere vnto M. Allens booke is because I doe greatly suspect that he vvas the authour thereof for the similitude of the stiles and of the stomakes in both at the least I trust I doe him no vvronge to suppose him to be so stout a champion And thus I committe the Christian reader to the direction of Gods spirite vvho voutsalfe to lead thee into all truth for Christes sake Amen The faultes of this impression are thus to be amended The first figure signifieth the page the second the line In the aunswere of a true Christian c. Pag. 3. line 35. Lithuania reade Lithūanda 5.3 vvriting r. vvritinges 10.10 the scripture reade the booke of scripture 13.17 then reade thou and line 19. you reade thou 15. line the laste Tiberius reade Liberius 19.4 you reade the. and line 10. Ca. line 58. reade Carolines 8. and line 19. Mercamas r. Marranias 20.9 fauour reade honor 23.26 the prince reade the printers 24.1 put out and. 25.9 not for his r. for his 29.10 vnitie of minde r. vnitie of faith minde 30.3 in the places aboue rehearsed in diuerse places of his epistles a◠lib. 3. epist. 14. and 15.16 c. 41.30 Rhenes r. Rhemes 49.5 the the r. that the. the 12. r. the Catho c. 52.13 in Brytish reade in the Brytish 63.14 about the articles r. about the chiefest articles 64.20 put out that hilde and the 24. here rea sore 67.21 vvhich can not rea vvhich you can not 68.4 in a name reade in a manner 69.4 prorsus opinemur r. prorsus non opinemur and 34. vniuersally r. vniuersalitie and 36. vvhich you do r. vvhich you do not 70.17 proponēda
doth recant The third article conteyneth 5. demandes 1 Shew me why our common knowen Church did not as well corrupt the text of the Testament as the true religion conteyned in the same THere may be diuers good reasons shewed why your Church commonly knowen to be the church of Antichrist did not as well corrupt the text of the Testament as the true religion conteined therein First because she coulde not the copies thereof being so many by the prouidence of God dispersed throughout the worlde Secondly because she thought it not so needefull hauing other meanes to worke her deuilish deuise For although she coulde not corrupt the scripture yet it made the lesse matter because she founde meanes to diminish and controll the authority therof by aduancing decrees of men Popes and Councells to be equall or of greater authoritie than the scripture Thirdly because she woulde be lesse in feare to be reproued by the scripture she prouided that the knowledge thereof shoulde be hidden from the vnlearned people by a strange tongue and from the learned by the tedious mazes of questions deuised by her Canonistes and Sententiaries Fourthly because she submitted all interpretation of the scripture to her owne iudgement and therefore woulde not be controlled by the iudgement thereof but woulde alwayes expound it as it liked her best As appeareth by Ockam and Duns who though they confesse that transubstantiation seemeth to them contrary to the scripture and reason yet they beleued it because of the authoritie of the church and for none other cause These are the reasons why the Romish church did not as well corrupt the text of the Testamēt as the true Religion And yet how corrupt that Latine translation is which they woulde needes thrust vpō vs is sufficiently knowen to all learned men euen in such texts as are the most coulerable places for the defence of Popish doctrine I will geue one example for all They alleage the text 1. Cor. 10. Qui stat videat ne cadat He that standeth let him take heede he fall not against the certainetie of faith whereas the Greeke hath not he that standeth but he that thinketh he standeth let him take heede he fall not Thus the popish church cannot altogether excuse her selfe from corrupting of the text of the Testament whether it was of fraude or of ignorance or of negligence the Lorde knoweth 2 Shew me why she kept not so safely and faithfully the true sense of God his word as she preserued the word it selfe BEcause it was against her owne estimation and profit which are the chiefe endes for which popish Prelates mainteyne popish religion Take away the Popes prerogatiue which is contrary to the sense of God his word downe goe Cardinalls Legates Prothonotaries downe goeth all the Court of Rome take away workes of supererogation which are contrary to the Scripture downe goe Abbeys Priories and Chantries Take away the sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory which are contrary to the word of God downe goeth the estimation and gaynes of all the popish clergie And this is the cause why the popish church kept not so safely and faithfully the true sense of God his word as she preserued the word it selfe although she preserued not the word it self in such safetie as becommed the Church of Christ. 3 Shew me why we should beleue the Papistes as you terme them for the word it self and rather you Protestants thā them for the meaning of the word WE doe not chalenge credit to our selues in any poynt so presumptuously as the Papistes that men must beleue it because we affirme it But because we proue it to be true by the worde of god And therefore for the meaning of the word you should beleue vs rather than them because our groundes proues are better then theirs or else we require not to be beleued better than they 4 Shew me why you beleued our Church telling you this to be God his booke will not credit her auouching this to be the true and vndoubted sense of the same booke IF we had no better ground to perswade vs of the authoritie of God his booke than the testimony of your Church you may be sure we would not beleue it But because we haue most stedfast assurance of God his spirite for the authority of that booke with the testimony of the true Church in all ages If you say it is God his booke we beleue you not because you say so but because we know it to be true But if you bring out a false sense we beleue you not because we know it to be false are able to proue by the word of God that it is contrary to the meaning of the holy Ghost To be plaine with you we geue as much credit to your Church as to the deuill When the deuill sayth it is written He shall giue his angells charge ouer thee and with their handes they shall hold thee vp that thou dash not thy foote against a stone We beleue that this is the worde of god But when he auoucheth this to be the meaning of it that we may cast downe our selues from a Church steeple without daunger we doe not beleue him because we know this sense is contrary to an other Scripture which sayth Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. So when you say these wordes are the Scripture of God This is my body We beleue it because we knowe it to be true But when you say this is the meaning of these wordes This bread is turned into my naturall bodye we beleue you not because it is contrary to all places of Scripture which proue the trueth of Christ his humanitie or naturall body Thus I shewe you why we beleue you if you say the Scripture is God his word namely because we know it to be true why we beleue you not saying this is the meaning of it that is because we knowe by the word of God that it is false 5 Last of all Shew me why you beleued the olde known church affirming this to be the word of God and will not beleue her affirming Luther to be an heretike shew me good reason or Scripture for these thinges and I recant IF you meane by the olde Church the primitiue Church whose testimony of the word of God we allow beleue I deny that the primitiue Church did affirme Luther to be an heretike or the doctrine that he taught which we hold to be heresie but I am able to proue that the primitiue Church from which you haue receiued the Scripture affirmeth your doctrine to be heresie your Church the Church of Antichrist But if by the old knowne Church you meane the Church of old knowne to be the Church of Antichrist which is the popish church we beleue the deuill if he speake the trueth and we beleue not an Angell comming from heauen if he bring any other Gospel than S. Paule deliuered to the Galathians Therefore when your
but he was of our Church and Religion And I reade that king Edward the third both in his Parliament holden Anno Domini 1371. and at other times with diuers other noble men defended his cause in so much that so long as he liued all the popish byshops coulde do him no harme yet did he openly inueigh against the Pope calling him Antichrist and all popish doctrine without any couller or dissimulatioÌ„ both in the vniuersitie of Oxeford where he was reader and also in his sermons abroade as appeareth by his bookes and English homilies which yet are coÌ„mon to be seene with vnlesse he had bene supported and maintained by the kinge and other potentates coulde neuer haue continued so long as he did Further haue you not hearde of Zisca and Procopius two mighty Capitaines which defended the Bohemians from the tyrannie both of the Emperour the Pope and almost all the Princes of Germanie For what cause did Paule the second Anno Domini 1466. condemne George a noble and a worthy Prince king of Bohemia for an heretike and depriued him of his kingdome was it not for defending the Protestantes in his dominion Thus you see that some Princes and Potentates haue not onely offered but haue in deed taken in hand to defend our church which you thought vnable to be shewed wherfore I chalenge your promise you must recante The 11. article is so confuse that it is harde to bring it into any certeine numbre of demandes 1 Againe I requier of the Protestants to declare by good histories or by reasonable likelihoode when the true church as they compt theirs decayed I Answer euen in the Apostles time there arose many heresies which did not a litle trouble the Church but immediatly after the Apostles time while the fathers of the church were earnestly occupied in resisting of horrible heresies by the craft of Satan some errors and abuses crept into the true Church of Christ which at the first because they were small and men occupied in greater matters were either not espied or not regarded as may be knowen by the writinges of Iustinus Martyr and Irenaeus two of the most auncient writers sence the Apostles time Iustinus was in this error that he thought that the Angells lusted after women and therefore were turned into Deuills It seemeth also that the Church in his time was in some error about second mariages and diuorcements Irenaeus affirmeth that our Sauiour Christ liued here 50. yeares which he sayeth was receyued of them that heard it euen of the Apostles mouthes Also both he and Papias which was before him and was the disciple of S. Iohn are charged by S. Ieronym in Catalogo Script Eccl. to haue held this error that Christ should raigne a thousand yeares after the Resurrection here in the flesh whereby it is manifest seeing these auncient fathers and pillers of the Church were thus stayned with errors that the Church in their time could not be free from the same And so it is euident that the true Church decayed immediatly after the Apostles times 2 VVhat yeare the Religion of the Papistes came in and preuayled ALthough many abuses and corruptions were entred into the church of Christ immediatly after the Apostles time which the deuill planted as a preparatiue for his eldest sonne Antichrist Yet we may well say that the religion of the Papistâ—s came in and preuailed that yeare in which the Pope first obteyned his Antichristian exaltation which was in the yeare of our Lord 607. when Boniface the third for a great summe of mony obteyned of Phocas the trayterous murtherer and adulterous Emperour that the Bishop of Rome should be called and counted the head of all the Church Since that time that deuilish heresie hath alwayes increased in error vntill the yeare of our Lord 1414. in which the Councell of Constance decreed to robbe the people of the Sacrament of Christ his blood From this time it hath againe decaied being mightely subdued by the bright beames of the Gospell shining in the world and at the length shall be vtterly destroyed 3 VVhether all their true Church was so soundly sleeping that none could preach against it as it first entred WHen the coÌ„ming of Antichrist was in all power of lying signes and wonders in so much that if it were possible the very elect should be deceiued and a general departing from the faith was foreshewed and the Church to be driuen into the wildernes what maruell were it if none of our Church could preach against it as it first entred yet because you speake of the first entring of popish religion which dependeth chiefly vpon the Popes authoritie you shall heare that when it first began to aduaunce it selfe there wanted not some either to preach or write against it When Victor bishop of Rome about the yeare of our Lord 200. passed the bondes of his authoritie in excommunicating of all the Churches of Asia many bishops withstoode him and especially Irenaeus bishop of Lyons and Policrates of Ephesus as witnesseth Eusebius libro 5. cap. 25. Eccle. S. Cyprian also reproueth Cornelius bishop of Rome for that he was moued by threatning of heretikes to receiue their letters did not send them backe into Africa to their own bishop lib. 1. Ep. 3. Also when Stephanus bishop of Rome was bold to communicate with Basilides and Martialis two Spaniards that were iustly excommunicated and deposed by the bishops of their owne prouince sought to restore them Cyprian and his felow bishops of Aphrica being required to giue their aduise gaue counsell that in no wise they shoulde be receiued not a litle blaming Stephanus that beinge far of and ignorant of their cause he would take vpon him to defend such wicked men lib. 1. Ep. 4. Likewise when the same Stephanus threatned excommunication to Helenus and Firmilianus and almost all the Churches of Asia because they thought that such as were baptized by heretikes shoulde be baptized againe he was misliked by Dionysius of Alexandria and diuers other godly bishops as appeareth by his Epistle wrytten to Xystus Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 5. Cyprian also reproueth him very sharply for the same opinion accusing him of presumption and contumacy Epi. ad Pompeium and in his epistle to Quintinus he sayth plainly that Peter himselfe was not so arrogant nor so presumptuous that he would say he held the primacy that other men should obey him as his inferiors When Anastasius Innocentius Zozimus Caelestinus bishops of Rome all on a row chalenged prerogatiue ouer the bishops in Aphrica by forginge a false Canon of the Nicene Councel they were withstoode by all the bishops of Aphrica who decreed that none vnder paine of excommunicatioÌ„ should appeale to any bishop beyond the sea Concil Aphrican cap. 92. and that the bishop of the chiefe see should not be called prince of priestes or highest priest but onely bishop of the chiefe see Conc. Aph. cap. 6. When Celestinus byshop of Rome dealt hardly with the
prayer what waye of ministring of the sacraments your Church had before Papistry as you call it did preuaile in the worlde IVstinus Martyr in his second Apollogie to the Emperour declareth plainely what order of seruice and ministration of sacramentes our Church had before Papistry preuayled On the daye called Sonday sayth he there is a meeting together of all them that dwell in the Citie or in the countrie and the monumentes of the Apostles or the writinges of the Prophetes are reade vntill it be thought sufficient when the reader hath made an ende he that is our ouerseer or cheefe minister maketh a sermon of admonition and exhortation to follow those good thinges that are reade After this we all stande vp together and make our prayers and as we haue saide before when our prayers are ended there is brought forth bread and wine water and the cheefe minister doth likewise with all his might yelde prayers and thankesgeuing and the people aunswereth Amen Then is made distribution to euery one and receyuing of those thinges for which thankes was geuen and to them that be absent it is sent by the deacons Such as are riche and willing doe geue almes what they will c. By this one authoritie it may be seene though other might be brought what order of seruice and ministration of sacraments our Church vsed before Papistry gat the vpper hande 2 Shew one booke of Communion or what els you list that was in English or lacked prayer for the departed or inuocation of Sainctes in heauen or that wanted oblation or sacrifice or that charged a number to receyue or els that the preest coulde not consecrate nor say Masse himselfe or shew any note in a Communion booke that the people shoulde take the sacrament for plaine breade or that they should geue no honor to it shew this booke or any leafe or line of this booke IT may trouble a wise man to aunswere all the questions that a foole can propounde you requier to see a booke of Communion in English or that lacked c. When it is confessed that the English nation receiued their religion first from Rome at such time as Religion there was verie corrupt what marueill is it if we can not shewe you such a Communion booke as you require but we can easily shew you out of the scripture the the Communion ought to be ministred in the vulgare tongue that prayer for the deade and to the deade ought not to be vsed that the sacrament ought not to be turned into a sacrifice that there ought to be a communiō of many receauers and not a priuate masse that the substance of the bread is not changed that the elementes of the sacrament are not to be honored these I say we can proue out of the worde of God the Catholike writers of the olde Church And though perchaunce it wil be harde to finde a communion booke in English yet haue I founde you a canon of the Laterane Councell that it ought to haue bene translated into English yet are there founde diuers monumentes of Antiquitie as Prayers Psalmes and Homilies c. in the olde English or Saxons tongue in which the reall presence transubstantiation and other poinctes of Popish doctrine are plainly confuted There may be shewed you also Bybles both the olde Testament and New in the English tongue of diuers translations in olde written hande Also great bookes of English homilies inueighing directly against the Pope and all Popish doctrine in olde English written hande with diuers other small treatises and pamphlets of like matters if these woulde do you any good you might haue the sight of them when you please 3 Or any Church or Congregation that euer had any Authenticall seruice but ours and I recant THe Church of the Brytannes before Augustine came in with Romish seruice had they not trow you Authenticall seruice which continued in the faith of Christ euen from the Apostles time The Grecians also Orientall churches haue they not vnto this day their Authenticall seruice which is not yours If you can not deny this you should recant The 13. article hath 2. demaundes 1 Furthermore I requier to know what shoulde be the cause that the Protestants them selues doe receiue all Byshops Priestes Deacons and other officers spirituall of all sortes of our Catholike church and doe admit them as men lawfully and sufficiently ordered both to preach minister sacraments and to exercise spirituall iurisdiction no lesse but rather more than if they were of their owne ordering where we of the Catholike church doe not acknowledge any man of their calling to be any whit more fitte for any spirituall function than other lay men ALthough all godly men wishe more seueritie of discipline to be vsed in receyuing them that come out of heresies to serue in the Church than is commonly practised in England yet you are highlie deceyued if you thinke we esteeme your offices of Bishops priests deacōs any better than the state of lay men but farre worse for we iudge them to be nothing els but Antichristianitie heresie and blasphemie And therefore we receiue none of them to minister in our church except they forsweare your religion And so their admission is not an allowing of your ordering but a new calling vnto the ministerie 2 Therefore vpon this presumption that they doe not onely admit our ministring of sacraments but also the lawfull ordering of the ministers for the same if they can shew me why our church hauing by their owne consent and approuing lawfull priestes and bishops should not be the true church I recant YOu presume to much as I saide before to thinke that we receiue your orderinge to be lawfull or your ministring of sacraments to be pure And if you gather that we admitte your ministration of sacraments because we doe not rebaptize them that were baptized by you we maye likewise gather that you admit our ministration of sacraments because you doe not rebaptize them that are baptized of vs nor marrie againe those that are married in our Church wheras you compt mariage to be a sacrament so that our accepting of your doings doth no more allow your church than your accepting of our doinges doth allow our Church And as touching the sacrament of Baptisme because you reteyne the Institution in baptizing in the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost and in asmuch as the sacraments take not their effect of the minister but of God we receiue it as of other heretikes which likewise reteine the Institution Wherefore there is no cause why you shoulde thinke we allow yours to be the true Church thereby So that there is good cause why you shoulde recant The 14. article hath 5. demandes 1 Also I demande what furniture or commodity in seruing God the Christianity of any age or any part of Christendome had euer by your Congregations THe seruice of God hath small neede of furniture in outwarde thinges for
of the Arrians and being brought vp by them had learned that article to beleue the Catholike church which the Arrians would expound to be them selues if afterward by God his helpe this man vnderstood that the church of the Arrians was not the catholike church as he was taught it was but that Athanasius and a few other that were banished and persecuted were the true Catholike church he was bounde to leaue the Arrians commonly called the church and to ioyne him selfe with the secret banished hidde and persecuted church of Christ. But as for your Popish church in that time of blindenesse and error taught not the people that article nor any other but kept them backe from the knowledge as well of that article as of all other thinges that were necessary to their saluation for you taught them nothing els but to pronounce and that full il fauoredly like popingeys certeine latine wordes which they vnderstoode no more than stockes or stones So that the people had no instruction of you no not of the name of God in many places but that they receiued by vncertaine talke of their parentes as it were from hande to hande for how many thousand parishes are there in Englande that within these 60. yeares woulde declare that they neuer hearde sermon in their life As for that they hearde of their seruice they learned as much of it as of the ringing of their belles which was a sounde without vnderstanding Therefore you may be ashamed to speake of teaching the people their belefe and all thinges necessary for saluation when you haue counted it heresie to learne their creede in English or to reade the scripture in English in which is conteined all thing necessary to be knowen for euerlasting saluation Finally because you requier me to shew you that the Christian people of those dayes were bounde to beleue any other church than that which taught them the article of the church and baptised them I trow I will so shew it you that for both your eares you dare not deny it how saye you The Christian people of the Greeke church which were taught by the Greeke church that article of the church and by the same Greeke church were baptised whether ought they to beleue any other church but the Greeke church If you say no then you acknowledge the Greeke church to be the true church which denieth the Popes authoritie if you saye yea Then you are welcome home you recant The 22. article although it be very confuse yet it conteyneth in effect 3. demandes 1 I aske also whether any man for the space of that 1000. yeres of blindenes could be saued out of that secrete and small Church which they say was the true Church if they aunswer me there might be some saued with our Sacraments and in the Communion or fellowship of the Papistes out of the Protestants Church then there was a way to heauen out of Gods Church if they say that none could be saued by our Sacraments out of their close Church then all men yong and old perished for those yeares without any hope of mercy because they could not vnite them selues and be incorporate to that company and Congregation whereof they neuer neither hearde nor coulde by any meanes surmise Therefore let any man aliue proue vnto me that either any man could out of the true Church be saued NO man aliue that knoweth what the true Church meaneth will say that any man can be saued out of the true Church for he that is not a member of the body of Christ caÌ„ by no meanes receiue any benefit of Christ to his saluation Therefore how long so euer the true Church were hidden whether it were a thousand yeres as you beare men in hand that we should say or two thousand yeares it is not materiall this is certeyne that out of this Church none could be saued and though you count it smal as in deede in respect of the world it is but a small flocke and fewe are elected and fewe finde the streit gate of life Luke 12. Matth. 7. 20. yet is the number of it greater then mans eye commonly can discerne As when Elias thought that he only had bene left alone of the true Church God answered that he had yet reserued 7000. that neuer bowed their knee to Baal 1. Reg. 19. And as Esay declareth when the people shoulde be almost all destroyed yet a remnant should be saued which though it seemed to be small yet it should ouerflow and fill all the world with righteousnes Esa. 10. and though it shal be like a gathering of grapes when vintage is ended or the shaking of an oliue tree when men thinke they haue left noâ—hing vppon it yet there be two or three in the toppe amonge the boughes foure or fiue vnder the leaues in the highest braÌ„ches Esay 17. 24. 2 Or that any other company could be knowne for the true and onely Church but our common Catholike societie THe true Catholike Church was neuer so secrete or hidden but it might be knowne of all those that had eyes to see it whose hartes were lightened with the spirite of God and were enstructed by the worde of God that they might vnderstande the trueth and knowe the spouse of Christ from the common strompet of Antichrist 3 Or that all men were damned for a thousand yeares togither because they coulde not finde nor surmise of any other Church then that which practiseth all holy functions which Christ left for our saluation in the world and I recant WE take not vpon vs to medle with God his iudgments whom he condemneth for what causes further then the word of God teacheth vs namely that as many as haue not beleued in the onely sonne of God are condemned for their vnbeliefe other secret causes we remit to his secrete counsell and knowledge And wheras you say that the popish church practiseth all holy functions that Christ left for the saluation of his Church it is most false for first you doe not preach remission of sinnes in the bloode of Christ onely for either you preach not all or else you preach remission of sinnes in any thing rather then the onely merites of Christ as in mens owne merites workes of supererogation pardons masses beggarly ceremonies as holy water auriculer confession c. Secondly you minister not the Sacraments purely according to Christ his institution but either corrupt and defile them with mans traditioÌ„s as you do Baptisme or else cleane chauÌ„ge the vse of them as in the Lordes Supper which you make a Sacrifice an idoll a Priestes breakfast and defraude the people of the one halfe of the sacrament as though you were wiser then he that instituted it in both kindes Thirdly discipline you haue conuerted into tyranny and couetousnes reteyning nothing but the name of it alone Wherefore seeing you exercise no holy function after Christ his institution but cleane contrary to the same and doe
the cause would driue me vnto I did learne of auncient Irenaeus that such doctrine â—nd mysteries may be safely had and without all feare of errour taught by holy Priestes and Bishops Qui cum episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum sâ—cundum placitum patâ—is accepeâ—unt VVho haue receaued with thâ—ir ordinary succession in their pastorall seat the gracious gift of vnderstanding the truth And these are they sayth he in the same place which may without all daunger to them selues and their hearers expound vnto vs the holy Scriptures Other men doubtles which this miserable age of ours seeth not that measureth all thinges by a fond flourish of learning whereof â—et there was neuer lesse store can not nor must not be so bold though their giftes were many moe study muâ—h longer then mine And to confesse the truth in deede I was somwhat loth such was my foolish feare then to fall in hand with that matter which being well and to the bottom ripped I perceaued of all other causes in the world most to touch the very sore of heresie and therefore might to me procure the hatred of such whose loue otherwise I could be content either to keepe or winne Besides that I saw the contention of the contrary part seking to make some answere to such thinges as might in this cause most greeue their mindes or marre their matter shoulde driue me from that course of study which otherwise in quietnesse I would most gladly keepe to serue truth and defende my cause which once of freedom and good will taken in hand must afterward of duety and necessitie be vpholden Notwithstanding all these thinges good reader which might most iustly hold me back yet now my friendes request the case and condition of this present time and my duety towards my mother the Church may of good reason and must of necessitie chaunge my former intent remoue my priuate study to the benefite of the common cause Therfore being at length by iust occasion wholy minded to serue as well as I could that way I thought good these late months to make a more full declaration of that thing which at my sayde friendes request I had so briefly touched before That as then when he first had it of me it onely serued him for his owne contentation the pleasuring of his singular and secret friendes and the helpe of some simple whome he knew deceyued by ouer light looking on so graue matters so nowe good Christian reader I trust it may helpe in common not onely such as haue been caried a way by the guile of heresie but other that are much subiect to the daungerous flattery of this present time with whome pleasure euer ioyned to the protestantes doctrine often more preuaileth then the preachers persuasion Be bolde to charge any of our aduersaries make he neuer so great accompt of him selfe with the force of trueth heere expresly proued both by argument and authoritie if it holde him not he shall I am sure brast out with impudencie and not lose him selfe by reason iust dealing or honestie And if it be proued to touch with safetie the poison it selfe let no man doubt to vse it for a preseruatiue in this common infection of our time and countrie For it were no reason any man shoulde practise with the poore people priuyly in such thinges as he were not hable to mainteine before their pilloures and preachers openly And for that hatered which I may procure to my selfe by mine owne trauell it shall not much moue me for I shall either be partaker thereof as a common praise in these euill dayes to most good men or els if I be not worthy so much I will learne to beare it as some parte of punishment satisfaction for my sinnes I may not bye frendship with flatterie nor mannes loue with forsaking Gods trueth Of such thinges then I will not make much reckening but my principall care is that in writing or wading in so deepe matters I keepe the streight line of the Churches truth which in the exceding rashnesse of these darke dayes a man may quickely lose And therefore to make sure I humbly submit my selfe to the iudgement of such our maisters in faith and religion as by Gods calling are made the lawefull Pastors of our soules Of whome I had rather learne my selfe then teach other if either they had occasion and opportunitie to speake or I might of reason and duetie in these miserable times holde my peace Farewell gentle Reader and if I pleasure thee by my paines let me for Christes sake be partaker of thy prayers At Antwerp the Second of May. 1565. 3 WHether this occasion of your writing were true or only pretendid it is all one to our purpose But where you commende your freinde for that he learned to beleeue first and sought to vnderstand afterwarde which you take to be the natural order of a Christian schoole if you had shewed where you learned that methode his coÌ„mendation should haue been the greater and your iudgement the weightier For we learne by Saint Paule a contrary order namely first to heare the worde of God preached and expounded and then to beleeue it Rom. 10. For God by the riches of his grace hath abounded towardes vs in all wisedome and vnderstanding and hath opened vnto vs the mysterie of his will according to his good pleasure so that after we hearde the worde of trueth the Gospell of our saluation we haue thereby beleeued and so are sealed with the holy Spirite of promise laboring and praying that those which haue receaued the first grace of knowledge and vnderstanding may daily more and more increase in the same that they may be full filled with knowledge of Gods will in all wisedom spirituall vnderstanding Col. 1. And as for that blinde faith which must be thrust vppon mens consciences to be accepted before they see what grounde it hath we leaue it as meete for sect masters and heretikes and in no wise to be admitted by the Disciples of Christ who calleth all men to heare him and vnderstand him Matt. 15. Mar. 7. But faith say you in most matters must direct reason But I say reason in all matters must be subiect to faith For the naturall man with all his reason neither doth nor can perceaue the things of the spirite of God for the eye hath not seene nor the eare hath hearde neither haue entred into the heart of man the thinges that God hath prepared for them that loue him but God hath reueiled them to vs by his spirite 1. Corinth 2. And this is the thing that deceiueth you Maister Allen which more like a maister of prophane artes then a good student of holy Diuinitie can put no difference betwene carnall reason and spirituall vnderstanding For that knowledge and vnderstanding of Gods holy mysteries conteined in his word whereuppon our faith is grounded we haue not by light of naturall reason but by reuelation and
Gods iustice howe can the same suffering be mitigated by masses pardons merites c. or cleane taken away by a pardon of Iubely à poena culpa Againe howe can the merites of an other abate his punishment which must suffer him selfe to aunswere Gods iustice If the iustice of God be not aunswered by the offering of Christ how is it aunswered when any mans suffering is by any of your meanes mollified or taken away But it sufficeth you that your forefathers more then a thousand yeares agoe called that place of sufferance purgatory But I pray you what is it called in the Scripture either of the olde testament or the newe or in the first and second hundreth yeares after Christ Diuerse errours be older then a thousand yeares but age can neuer make falshoode to be truth and therefore I waye not your proude bragges worth a strawe I am one of the least of Gods ministers and not worthy in respect of my greatest infirmities of the lowest place in his Church yet by his grace and the authoritie of his holy word I shall be able to ouerthrowe both this and all other babylonicall bulwarkes that are cast vp by Sathan and all his instruments For the defence of popish heresie against the tâ—uth of god And neither the myst of mens inuentions which you call the light of apostolike tradition shall be able to darken the truth of the Gospell nor the errours of mortall men which you terme the force of Gods trueth shall beare downe thauthoritie of Gods holy spirite And as for the torment of conscience by inward acknowedlging of the truth openly withstanded it is not like you could so liuely describe it if you had not experience of it in your selfe Our consciences most humble and harty thankes we yeald to the infinite mercy of God are washed white and purged from all blacknes by the precious bloud of Christ which is the propitiation for our sinnes that cleaue vnto him by true liuely faith and open iudgement shall one day shew that all obstinate Papistes which seeke to establish their owne iustice shal be voyde of the iustice of God while they wrastle to come out of purgatory they take the high way to fall headlong into hell God lighten the eyes of them that are blinde of simplicitie and confound all such as sinne of malicious wickednes The excuse of your sharpe speach perhaps might seeme probable if you did not vse intollerable sclaundering and rayling which neither by zeale of trueth nor example of godly fathers can well be shadowed much lesse warranted THAT OFTEN AFTER OVR SINNES BEFOR GIVEN BY THE sacrament of penaunce there remaineth some due of temporall punishment for the satisfying of Gods iustice some recompence of the offences past CAP. I. 1 AS it is most true and the very grounde of all Christian comfort that Christes death hath payed duely and sufficiently for the sinnes of all the world by that aboundant price of redemption payed vppon the Crosse So it is of like credit to all faithfull that no man was euer partaker of this singular benefite but in the knotte and vnitie of his body misticall which is the Church To the members whereof the streames of his holy bloud and beames of his grace for the remission of sinne sanctification be orderly through the blessed Sacraments as condethes of Gods mercy conueyde All which Sacraments though they be instituted and vsed as meanes to deriue Christes benefites and bestow his grace of redemption vppon the worthy receiuers yet like effect or force is not by the meaning of their first author and institutor emploied vpon all receiuers nor giuen to all the Sacraments That may well appeare if we marke the exceding aboundant mercy that is powred vpon al men at their first incorporation and entraunce into the houshold of the faithfull by Baptisme In which Sacrament the merites of our masters death be so fully and largely caried downe for the remission of sinne that were the life before neuer so loden with most horrible offences that in this misery man may commit yet the offender is not onely pardoned of the same but also perfectly acquieted for euer of all paine or punishment other then the common miseries of mankind which his proper offences before committed by any meanes might deserue And no lesse free nowe then the childe after baptisme which onely originall sinne brought thither So sayth S. Ambrose by these wordes Gratia Dei in Baptismate non quaerit gemitum aut planctum aut opus aliquod nisi solum ex corde professionem The grace of God in Baptisme requireth neither sorow nor mourning nor any other worke but onely an hearty profession of thy faith VVhereby he meaneth that after our sinnes be once thus freely wiped away in our first regeneration there is no charge of punishment or penaunce for farther reliefe of the same But now a man that is so freely discharged of all euill life and sinne committed before he came into the family if he fall into relapse defile the temple of God then as Gods mercy alwaies passeth manns malice euen in this case also he hath ordayned meanes to repaire mans fall againe That is by the Sacrament of penaunce which therefore S. Hierome termeth the second table or refuge after shipwracke as a meanes that may bring man to the porte of saluation though lightly not without present dammage and daunger In which blessed Sacrament though Gods grace haue mighty force for mans recouery and worketh aboundantly both remission of sinnes and the discharge of eternall punishment due by iust iudgement to the offender yet Christ him selfe the author of this Sacrament as the rest meant not to communicate such efficacie or force to this as to baptisme for the vtter acquieting of all paine by sinnefull life deserued For as in Baptisme where man is perfectly renewed it was semely to set thoffender at his first entraunce on cleare ground and make him free for all thinges done abrode so it excedingly setteth forth Gods iustice and nothing impareth his mercy to vse as in all common welthes by nature and Gods prescription is practised with grace discipline with iustice clemency with fauour correction and with loue due chastisement of such sinnes as haue by the houshold children bene committed Nowe therefore if after thy free admission to this family of Christ thou doe greeuously offend remission may then be had againe but not commonly without sharpe discipline seeing the father of this our holy houshold punisheth where he loueth and chastiseth euery childe whom he receiueth VVhose iustice in punishment of sinne not onely the wicked but also the good must much feare VVhereof S. Augustine warneth vs thus Deus sayth he nec iusto parcit nec iniusto illum flagellando vt filium istum puniendo vt impium God spareth neither the iust nor vniust chastising th one as his childe punishing the other as a wicked
without any further satisfaction he is to be receiued againe as appereth most manifestly in the receiuing of that Corinthian which was excommunicated of whose vnfeined repentaunce when the Apostle had intelligence he writeth againe to the Corinthians of him saying It is sufficient for that same man that he was rebuked of many but now you ought to forgeue him and comforte him that he should not be swallowed vp with ouer much heuines 2. Cor. 2. And as for the practise of the olde and puerer Church by enioyning of workes of repentaunce was that they might not be deceiued by conterfect repentaunce in stead of true and earnest reformation not to satisfie the wrath of God against sinners which is not satisfied but by the bloude of Christ but to satisfie and assure the Church as much as man might iudge of the vnfeined and hartie repentaunce of the offendour For how so euer the olde writers vse the worde of satisfaction somethinge vnproprely yet their cleare affirmation of the onely satisfaction of Christes death declareth what they vnderstoode when they vsed that terme in an other sense But this is not to be omitted that M. Allen confesseth the Papistes to haue left the olde vsage of the Church which was first to set satisfactiō and then to absolue and now of late to haue taken vp a contrary custome that is first to absolue then to enioyne penaunce This practise therefore lacketh antiquitie one of the chiefe pillers of Popery But this he sayeth is for great causes but what causes he doth not expresse it is sufficient that the Church can not erre though they doe that which is contrary to the vsage of the auncient Church without grounde of Scripture and against the commaundement of Christ. How harde Cyprian was to absolue them that were excommunicate before they had shewed great fruites of repentaunce and how carefull that the Church should not be deceiued by them that vpō counterfected penaūce required absolution appereth by many of his epistles in his Sermon De lapsis But because we shall haue a more proper place to speake of satisfaction in the next Chapter we will now follow M. Allen in this matter of excōmunicatiō 2 This punishment was euer by cutting of from the Christian societie and often ioyned with torment of body or sicknesse And sometimes with death As in the excommunication of Ananias and Zaphiras VVhich Christes vicar S. Peter to the great terrour euen of the faithfull grauely pronounced on them for retaining backe certaine Church goods which by promesse they had before dedicated vnto God the Apostles distributiō This kinde of punishment of sinnes was euer counted so terrible that we finde it called of the olde fathers damnation as one that most resembles the paines of the worlde to come of all other And if man coulde see with corporall eyes the miserie of the party so condemned in Gods church his hearte woulde brast and it woulde moue terrour of further damnation euen to the stubborne contemners of the Churches authoritie The which censure of Gods priestes though it was sometimes to the euerlasting woe of such offenders as neglected the benefite of that present paine yet commonly it was but chastisement and louing correction of our deare mother for their deliuerie from greater griefe in the life to come 2 He sayth that excōmunication was oftentimes ioyned with torment of bodie and sickenesse and sometimes with death Of torment and sickenesse he bringeth no proofe but of death in Ananias and Saphira But where findeth he that they were excommunicated I finde that they were punished with death for their hypocrisie and dissimulation but there is no worde nor halfe worde of their excommunication and whereas you saye it was for reteining backe of certaine Church goods S. Peter sayth it was for lying and tempting the holy Ghost And those Church goods were not for vaine ostentation of golden copes chalices or such like superstitious vanities but for the necessarie reliefe of the poore Againe I know in what sense you call S. Peter Christes vicar well if the Pope be in the same office Peter was why doth he not likewise punish those whome he taketh to be Church robbers if he lacke the power as I am sure he lacketh not the will then hath he not the authoritie Peter had And if Peter did this as Christes vicar then is not he Christes vicar that can not doe as Peter did 3 And for this cause as the example of all ages past may sufficiently proue were certeine times and ordinary termes of penaunce apointed for iust satisfaction for euery offense and by the holy Canons so limited that no sinne wittingly might be reserued to Gods heauy reuenge in the ende of our short dayes It were to long to reporte the rules and prescription of penaunce out of Nice Councell or Ancyre or out of S. Cyprian for their punishmēt that fell to Idolatry in the time of Decius and Diocletianus or out of Ambrose the notable excommunication of Theodosius the Emperour By all which and the like in the histories of the Ecclesiasticall affaires he that can not see what paine is due vnto sinne euen after the remission thereof I holde him both ignorant and malicious blinde 3 That certeine times and ordinary termes were appointed in which they that grieuousely offended shoulde shew their repentaunce the same was not for satisfaction for their sinnes but for certaine demonstration of their repētaunce which thing appereth euen by the same canons of the Councels which you alledge For when godly discipline beganne to decaie whereof Cyprian complaineth often in his epistles men that notoriously offended would sometime by thretning and terrors sometime by refusing the censure of that church by whome they were condemned sometime by flattering the constant Martyrs and so deceiuing them that they would become suters for them at whose request the Church many times was intreated would seeke to thrust them selues againe into the communion of the faithfull before they had shewed sufficient tokens of sorrow for so greuous faltes of which enormyties Cyprian much complaineth as one that was much trobled with thē as Lib. 1. Epist. 3. Lib. 3. Epist. 15. For remedy of which enormities and for auoiding of all subtill practises to restore discipline to the auncient seuerity decrees were made by the aunciēt Councels in which certaine times of triall were appointed for offenders to approue their repentaunce with regarde of the heynousnesse of their crymes but yet with such moderation that they might be receiued before the time appointed if they shewed sufficient fruites of repentaunce as appereth most plainely in the 11. Canon of the Nicone Councell where it is said Ab omnibus vero illud praecipuè obseruetur vt animus corum fructus poenitentiae attendatur c. Let this be chiefely considered of all that are excommunicated that there minde and fruictes of repentaunce be considered for they that with all feare continuall teares
loued and shall be saued in the earnest memoriall of which assured paines and for the auoiding thereof he so afflicted him selfe as is before saide His heart was in heuines his soule in sorow his flesh in feare and in his bones there was no rest before the face of his sinnes Thinke you here a protestāt preacher with a mery mouth in Nathans steade could haue driuen him from this course of penaūce dissuaded him from the feare of Purgatory eased him with only faith set him in securitie perfect freedom from his offenses past No no Musica in luctu importuna narratio Mirthe in mourning is euer out of season Flagella doctrina in omni tempore sapiētia But roddes discipline be alwayes wisedom These delicate teachers had neuer roume but where sinne bare great rule And it is no small licklyhood of Gods exceding wrath towardes vs in these daies that such soft phisitiōs please vs in so dāgerous diseases It was not the doctrine of this time that healed Nabuchodonosor but this was his plaster Peccata tua eleemosy nis redime iniquitates tuas misericordijs pauperū Redeme thy sinns by almes thy iniquities by mercy towards the poore It was exceding fasting and many sorowfull sobbes that bare of Gods hande from the Niniuites It was the painefull workes of penaunce that Iohn the Baptist first preached This was Paules rule that if we would punish or iudge our selues then would not God iudge vs In to whose handes it is a heuy case to faule Horrendum est sayth he incidere in manus Dei viuentis For he shall call to accompt and reckoning as S. Bernarde supposeth euen the very actes of the iuste if they be not well and throughly iudged and corrected to his handes The vndoubted knowledge of which strait accompt moued our forefathers to require such earnest afflictions of the people for satisfying for their sinnes 2 Now let vs heare what this bragger bringeth to proue that all godly men haue chastised their bodyes for feare of purgatory First Dauid in the 51. Psalme prayeth God to wash him throughly from his iniquitie c. ergo he was afrayd of purgatory I might iustly refuse to aunswere this argument lest I should deferre any thing vnto it But let Ambrose aunswere by M. Allen him selfe alleged He so protested his harty repentaunce that he left a testimony thereof to all the world to come But because S. Ambrose is alleged rather for the glorie of his name then for the helpe of his authoritie in this place S. Augustine is annexed to supplie that wanted in S. Ambrose But that you maie see what patching this proctor of Purgatory vseth of the doctors sentences he allegeth not Augustine vpon the very wordes of the 51. Psalme which make nothing for his purpose but vpon an other Psalme where the argument is nothing like If Augustine coulde haue founde Purgatory out of Amplius laua me he would haue vttered it there where he expoundeth those wordes whereby it appereth plainely that M. Allens argument standeth vpon his owne inuention and not vpon Augustines authoritie But yet Augustine speaketh of the amending fier in the place by him alledged He doth so in deede but I haue shewed before and more will shew hereafter that as Augustine had no ground of that fier but in the cōmon error of his time so sometimes he affirmeth that it is a matter that may be doubted of sometimes that there is no third place at all And that he hath no grounde of Scripture in that place of the 38. Psalme is euident because Dauid prayeth that God will not punish him in his fury nor in his wrath for when so euer he punisheth in his fury and plagueth in his wrath they must needes perish eternally he prayeth therefore that that sicknes or other affliction which God hath layd vpon him might be a mercifull chastisement of a father and not a iust punishment of a iudge But whereas the vnpure mouth of this Allen is once agayne opened in rayling against the godly preachers of our Church as flatterers of men in daungerous diseases I would he might heare the children of thunder inueying with mighty power of Gods spirite against sinne and wickednes and calling men to true vnfayned repentaunce peraduenture he might be moued to cease his sclaundering for shame of the worlde if he did not forethinke him of his wickednes for feare of god But Nabuchodonizer had a sore corrosiue playster applyed to him that healed him and that was almes mercy toward the poore He might haue alleged many examples and none lesse fitte to shew what paynfull penaunce as he termeth it was enioyned by godly prophets For it was the easiest that could be enioyned to so rich a prince for so great offences to be liberall to the poore Although Dauid in that place cited by him speaketh of no redemption of sinnes as that corrupt false translation which he followeth doth seeme to talke of But Daniel willed Nabuchodoniser to breake of thaccostomed course of his cruelty and tyranny by almes and liberality The Niniuites in deede by fasting and lamenting but most of all by turning from their wicked wayes shewed their harty repentaunce and Iohn Baptist requireth the fruites of repentaunce and what godly preacher doth not so but where did Nathan Daniel Ionas Iohn Baptist speake one word of purgatory or of satisfying the iustice of God for their sinnes by such meanes 3 And here gentle reader geue me leaue though I be the longer to geue thee a litle tast of the old doctors dealinges in the sinners case that thou maist compare our late handeling of these matters with their doinges and so learne to loth these light marchauntes that in so greuous plages deale so tenderly with our sores And yet I intend not so to roue but that the very course of our talke wel noted shal be the necessary inducing of that trueth which we now defende concerning Purgatory Especially if it be considered that in all prescription of penaunce by the antiquity the paine of satisfying was euer limited by the variety of the offense And then that the very cause of all paine enioyned was for the auoyding of Gods iudgemēt in the life to come First auncient Origen writeth thus Beholde our mercifull Lorde ioyning alwaies clemencie with seueritie and weying the iust meane of our punishment in mercifull and rightuous balance He geueth not the offenders ouer for euer therefore consider how long thou hast strayed and continued in sinne so long abase and humble thy selfe before God and so satisfie him in Confession of penaunce For if thou amende the matter and take punishment of thy selfe then God is pitifull will remoue his reuengement from him that by penaunce preuented his iudgement Thus we see this father so to measure the paine and punishment of sinners that he maketh his principall respect the auoyding of the sharpe sentence to come S. Cyprian
After the sinnes of man be pardoned God oftentimes punisheth the offender the church punisheth him and man punisheth him selfe ergo there is some payne due after sinne be remitted Secondly this payne can not alwayes be discharged in this world eyther for lacke of space after the remission as it happeth in repentaunce at the houre of death or else when the party liueth in perpetuall welth without care or cogitation of any satisfaction therefore it must be aunswered in an other place Thirdly the common infirmities and the dayly trespasses which abase and defile the workes euen of the vertuous of their proper condition doe deserue payne for a tyme as the mortall offence deserueth perpetuall Therefore as the mortall sinne being not here pardoned must of iustice haue the reward of euerlasting punishment so it must needes followe that the veniall fault not here forgeuen should haue the reward which of nature it requireth that is to say temporall payne And therefore not onely the wicked but the very iust also must trauell to haue their daily infirmities and frailty of their corrupt natures forgiuen crying without ceasing forgeue vs our debts Quia non iustificabitur in conspectu tuo omnis viuens For no man aliue shal be able to stand before the face of God in his owne iustice or righteousnes and if these light sinnes should neuer be imputed then it were needelesse to cry for mercy or confesse debt as euery man doth be he neuer so passing holy To be briefe this debt of paine for sinne by any way remayning at the departure hence must of iustice be aunswered VVhich can not be without punishmēt in the next life then there must be a place of iudgement for temporall and transitory paynes in the other world The whole discourse made before hath geuen force enough to euery part of the argument the Scriptures doe proue it the practise of the Church confirmeth it all the doctors by our aduersaries graunt agree vpon it If they haue any thing to say here I make them fayre play the ground is open the reasons laide naked before their face remoue them as they can Lette them deale simply if they meane truely and not flourish as they vse vppon a false ground that in flowe of wordes they may couer errour or in rase of their smoth talke ouerrunne truth And that euery man may perceiue that we haue not raised this doctrine vpon reason only or curiositie although the graue authoritie of Gods Church might here in satisfie sober wittes we will now by Gods helpe go nearer the matter and directly make proofe of Purgatory by holy Scriptures reciting such places of the olde and new Testament as shall proue our cause euen in that sense which the learnedst and godlyest fathers of all ages by conference of places or other likelyhood shall fynde and determine to be most true Alleaging none els but such as they haue in the flour of Christian faith noted and peculiarely construed for that purpose which now is in question That the aduersaries of that doctrine may rather striue with the said saincts and doctours then with me that will as they shall well perceiue do nothing but truely reporte their wordes or meaninge Or rather that such as haue erred in that case by giuing ouer light credit to the troblesome teachers of these vnhappy dayes maye when they shall vnderstand the true meaning of the Scriptures the constant doctrine of the Catholike Church the wordes of all auncient writers the determination of so many holy Councels the olde vsage of all nations by humble prayers obteine of God the light of vnderstanding the trueth and the gifte of obedience to his will and worde Or if there be any so sattled in this vnlickely sect that he purposeth not to beleue the graue writers of olde times nor receiue their expositions vpon such places as we shall recite for that preiudice which he hath of this owne witte and vnderstanding yet let him not maruell at my simplicity that had rather geue credit to others then my selfe Or that in this hote time of contention and partaking in religion I do repose my selfe vnder the shadow of so many worthy writers as anone shall giue euidence in my cause CAP. V. 1 TRiumphing before the victorie and that is more before the encontry of hāde strokes for we come to ioyning but now you will now win your spurs or els it shal be a blacke daye with all Protestantes I will be as shorte in mine aunswere as you are in your arguments And that I may put on an armour of proofe to beare of your terrible haileshot your first argumēt hath neither good forme nor matter no more hath your second no more hath your third If you or any for you will prepare your selfe to geue a bitter charge either I or some other shal be redy to shape you an other aunswere But because here is nothing in this briefe ioyning but which hath bene largly discharged before in aunswere to your longe excursions it were nedelesse to make such vaine repetition as you doe especially in your last shorte argument in which space all the substaunce of your large booke might easily haue bene placed only to fil vp a competent length of the fift chapter and with such a tedious inlarging of a superfluous matter as a yong practiser of Rhetoricke would be ashamed to vse in a fayned declamation much worse becomming an auncient master of arte professing to trusse vp his arguments by Logicke to make a perfect perswasion As for the promisse of further proofe both out of the Scriptures and out of the doctors that followeth after this gallant ioyning and lusty challenge shall haue no preiudice of my disabling of the meane to perform it vntill it appeare by playne conference of his arguments and myne aunswers that his words are but winde and his promisse but pratling That Purgatory paines doth not onely serue Gods iustice for the punishement of sinne but also cleanse and qualifie the soule of man defiled for the more seemely entraunce into the holy places vvith conferēce of certaine places of Scripture for that purpose CAP. VI. 1 IF we well cōsider the wonderfull base condition and state of mans nature corrupted by our first fathers disobedience and more and more abased by continuall misery that sinne hath brought into our mortall life we shall finde the worke of Gods wisedome in the excellent repaire of this his creature to be full of mercy and full of maruell But proceding somewhat further and weying not onely his restoring but also the passing great anauncement to the vnspeakable glory of the elect there shall reason and all our cogitations vtterly faint and faile vs. The kingdome prepared is honored with the maiestie of the glorious Trinitie with the humanitie of Christ our Sauiour with the blessed Mary the vessell of his Incarnation with the bewtifull creatures and wholy vndefiled of all the ordres of Angels There can nothing doubtlesse
in other places where he was free from contention with the saide sects he euer in expresse termes grounded the doctrine of Purgatory vpō the Apostles wordes Yea euen in the same answere to the aduersary he was so mindefull of Gods iustice in the world to come and ferd lest he might geue any occasion of the contrary error to deny purgatory that in the same talke with the Origenistes he confesseth there might well be some griefe in the next life also which might likewise purge and deliuer a man from the loue of transitory thinges wherwith the best sorte of men be in this our misery often very sore loden Although in dede he doubted whether any such affection and loue of thinges deare vnto vs in this worlde as of wife kinred acquaintance or such like might remaine in man after his departure hense so there in time to be lessened and in fine vtterly remoued or worne away by some griefe and sorow which in the next life might by the lacke of the said things vexe and molest his minde As we see it commonly fall in this present life where mā by diuerse profitable troubles of this world learneth to set light by thinges which in ordre he might well loue being for all that more merite to forsake them And of this point S. Augustine hath these wordes in one place Tale aliquid fieri etiam post hanc vitam incredibile non est vtrum ita sit quaeri potest some such thing may well be after this life and thereof question may be made By which wordes the heretikes of our time either of ignorance or of malice which be euer yoked together in such men haue borne the simple in hande that this holy doctour doubted of Purgatory A litle holde will serue such wringers because he doubted of it they beleue as they thinke by good authority that with out doubt there is none at all If S. Augustine had but saide belike there is no such meane place in the life following mary sir then they might haue picked more matter of their infidelity yet of that speach determining no certeinty there had bene no great cause why they shoulde haue forsaken the iudgement of Gods Church But now he so doubteth that he findeth more cause to thinke there shoulde be one then that any man might gather vpon his words that there shoulde be none at all No nor he neuer went so farre good reader as to make any doubt of Purgatory paines for punishment of sinnes committed in the worlde For in all the same bookes where he hath the like saing and almost in the very same places he holdeth as a matter of faith and to be beleued of all Christian men that the prayers of the lieuing do release some of their paines in the next life And he constantly as all other Catholikes euer did confesseth that the sinnes or vncleane workes of the liuing not duely by penaunce wiped away in this worlde must be mended after our death although it be very doubtefull in deede whether there be any worldely affections left in mans mind vntaken vp by death and resolution of the body and the soule the care and remembraunce whereof might be afterward by sorrow both purged and punished And this to be his meaning and that he termeth here purgatory the griefe which a man hath in losing that which he loued in this mortall life his owne wordes testifie in euery of those workes in which he keepeth this combate with Origenistes In one place thus Quod sine illicienti amore non habuit sine dolore vrente non perdet ex earum rerum amissione tantum necesse est vt vrat dolor quantum haeserat amor That which by ticklinge loue was kept can not be lost with out burning griefe And looke how fast the loue of such thinges did cleane to mans minde so farre must sorow burne So in the like talke with the saide Origenistes in his booke de fide operibus he followeth the same signification of Purgatory Haec igitur sayth he quoniam affectu dilecta carnali non sine dolore amittuntur qui sic ea habent in eorum amissione passi detrimētum per ignem quendam doloris perueniunt ad salutem these thinges being by carnall affection loued be not lightly lost without griefe and therfore those that thus be affectionate feele losse in parting from them and so come to saluation through the fire of sorow such a sadnesse the yonge man that demaunded of our maister the waye to heauen conceiued straight when motion was onely made of distribution of his goods VVho being otherwise in the state of saluation and to be borne withall because he was a iust man and lacked not the foundation of his faith yet the very losse or leauing of his goods was vnto him if he continued in that affection a wonderfull great torment as S. Augustine here calleth it a kinde of purgatory the which perfect men that esteme all the trashe of this worlde as durte and donge to winne Christ feele not at all whome the doctour supposeth therefore to take no domage in the losse of thinges which they so litle loued Now in euery place where this expositiō is founde as I thinke it is neuer in all his workes lightly but in conference with the Origenistes he alwayes addeth that the like fire of sorow may also correct the affections euen of the departed but yet whether it be so or no he counteth it a question of probable disputation rather then any matter of faith as it is in deede very doubtfull whether any such vnordinate affectiō may remaine vntaken vp after mans departure which by griefe and sorow in the other worlde may be in time wholy consumed And further he neuer doubted For in that famous worke of the Citie of God with in two Chapters of that doubt made of this kind of purgation which we now haue declared he vttereth his faith with Gods Church of that greate torment and iust punishment of sinnefull life not sufficiently purged by penaunce in our time which he calleth the Amending fire and thus he sayth there Tales etiam constat ante iudicij diem per poenas temporales quas eorum spiritus patiuntur purgatos receptis corporibus aeterni ignis supplicijs non tradendos c. It is certaine sayth he Constat which is no worde of doubtefullnesse that such men being purged by the temporall paines which their soules do suffer before the day of iudgement shall not after they haue receiued their bodies againe be committed to the torment of the euerlasting fire This he vttereth in the same place where he doubteth of the other kinde of purgation as he confesseth him selfe to be uncertaine of the whole exposition refusing none at all that were agreable to faith and woulde not helpe the falsehood which he thē refuted In his Enchir where he disputeth against the same error
that for feare or worldly respectes denied their faith and offered to idols who afterward the storme of tyrannie somewhat being caulmed confessed their faulte and did penaunce for the same by S. Cyprian other good byshops prescriptioÌ„ that then ruled the Church of those dayes By whom after due satisfaction made they were admitted to the communion of the Christian company receite of the holy Sacraments againe But all pastours not of like mercy of seuerity in the case some were suspended from the vse of the Sacraments longer and othersome by more clemency with speede pardoned againe Now S. Cyprian though he were very seuere in such a cause as in all his workes it doth well appeare yet he was blamed by Antonianus others that he dealte ouer mekely with such as denied their faith in so speedy admission of them to the peace of Gods church as they then termed that reconciliation alleaging that if such wordely wind wauerers might be admitted so soone after the open deniall of their faith then there woulde none stedfastly stande to death by confession of their belefe and their maisters name any more the refusers being in as good case as they if pardon might so soone be procured But S. Cyprians aunswere is this that their admission can not withdrawe any mans zele from martyrdom or confession of Christes name seeing their reconciliation doth not set them on so cleare bord as martyrs be VVho being tried by their bloud shal straight receiue the crowne of glory VVhen the others standing but vpon pardon of their sinnes and not discharged of due paines for the same must into prison notwithstanding till they haue paide their vttermost duety and by longe amending by fire at the last come to that reward which the martyrs atteined by sufferance at the first And thus I thinke this holy Martyr meaneth His wordes surely be singular and being well vnderstande they conteine as much matter for our purpose as can be possibly in so litle roume besides the exposition of the texte wherein we yet do stande But I will adde more that all may be saâ—fe on euery side 3 The place of Cyprian hath more couller but yet not so cleere for purgatory as M. Allen would seem to make it For first it is plaine by the wordes both going before and following after that he speaketh of adulterers that are pardoned in the Church of whome some bishoppes that were Cyprian his predecessours had so harde a iudgement that they did vtterly seclude them from reconciliation and allowed them no place of repentaunce but Cyprian was not of that vnreasonable seueritie for his Church did receiue them although they compted them not equall with martyrs or continent persons For it is one thing to be admitted by pardon as adulterers are but yet with some note of ignominie an other to come to glory as martyrs and continent persones doe It is one thing by denying of reconciliation to adulterers in this life to driue them to that prison from whence they shall not come till they haue payed the vttermost farthing an other thing to compt them vnreconciled like them that immediatly receiue the reward of there faith and vertue It is one thing for a man after he hath bene longe time vexed with sorowe for his sinnes to be reformed as one that hath bene long purged in the fire an other thing by suffering persecution to haue purged all his sinnes Finally it is one thing to hange vpon the sentence of God in the daye of iudgement as they seeme to do which being penitent for their heynous sinnes yet are not absolued from them by the Church An other thing to be assured of their crowne which haue striued lawfully And this I take to be the simple meaning of Cyprians words agreeing with the circumstaunce of the place But if they were otherwise ment by him surely they can not but with carte ropes be drawene to the Popes purgatory For those that stande by pardon he excludeth from glory and those that are reformed by sorrow and purged by fire he suspendeth vntill the last daye and then maketh them vncertaine of the sentence also which can not stande with the Papistes opinion of purgatory no more then that which he writeth in his treatise against Demetrianus towarde the ende Quando isthinc excessum suerit nullus iam locus poenitentiae est nullus satisfactionis effectus Hic vita aut amittitur aut tenetur c. When men are gone hence there is no place of repentaunce no effect of satisfaction while we are here life is either lost or helde And exhorting Demetrianus him selfe to repentaunce which had bene a wicked man and a persecutor of the Christians he sayth to him Tu sub ipso licet exitu vitae temporalis occasu pro dilictis roges Deum qui vnus verus est confessionem fidem agnitionis eius implores venia confitenti datur credenti indulgentia salutaris de diuina pietate conceditur ad immortalitatem sub ipsa morte transitur If thou although it but a litle before the ende and decay of this temporall life shall pray to God for thy sinnes which is the onely true God If thou desire confession and faith of his knowledge pardon is giuen to him that confesseth and holsome forgeuenes of the goodnes of God is graunted to him that beleueth and euen from the howre of death he passeth into immortalitie By this appeareth what Cyprian his iudgement was of purgatory and the effect of satisfaction after this life 4 Eusebius Emissenus an author of great antiquity and much credit in the Church of God helpeth our cause by this notable discourse following Hi vero qui temporalibus poenis digna gesserunt ad quos sermo dei dirigitur quod non exient inde donec reddant nouissimum quadraÌ„tem per fluuium igneum de quo propheticus sermo commemorat fluuius rapidus currebat ante cum per vada feruentibus globis horrenda transibunt Quanta fuerit peccati materia tanta erit pertranseundi mora quantum accreuerit culpa tantum sibi ex homine vindicabit flaÌ„mae rationabilis disciplina quaÌ„tum stulta iniquitas gessit tantum sapiens poena deseuiet Et quia sermo diuinus quodammodo aeneae ollae animam comparans Pone ollam super prunas vacuam donec incalescat aes eius illic periuria irae malitiae cupiditates quae puritatem nobilis naturae infecerant exudabunt illic stannum vel plumbum diuersarum passionum quae aurum diuinae imaginis adulterauerant consumentur Quae omnia hic ab anima separati per eleemosynas lachrymas compendij transactione poteraÌ„t Ecce sic exigere habet ab homine rationem qui seipsum pro homine dedit confixus clauis legem mortis fixit Thus it is in our tongue As for all such vnto whome for their offenses our Lordes word is especially directed that they shall not come
for the soules resurrectionis spes solidatur the hope of resurrection is established And therefore Dionysius the auncient in his misticall prayer and saâ—râ—fice for the departed declareth that there was a minister that did solemnely recite certaine places out of scripture for to confirme the hope of resurrection So that this practise of the faithfull hath not onely bene euer accompted a plaine trueth but it hath bene a grounde and a principle to confirme the article of resurrection and immortality of the soule And therefore the facte of Iudas is with such commendation mentioned in the scripture For in those dayes the heresie of the Saduces denying the resurrection and the life to come as Iosephus writeth began to take greate holde amongest the Iewes about byshop Ionathas his time in which tiue of diuersity that true beleuer thought to make plaine protestation of his faith by his notable facte And now I must needes be bolde to tell these enemies of our communion that in acknowledging them selues to haue nothing to do with the soules departed they are at the next doore by to denie the immortalitie and to terme them deade soules as Vigilantius did VVhome Gods Church very conformably to Christes calling and fittly for the protesting the common faith nameth Dormientes in signo pacis Those that sleepe in the signe of peace and the named Scripture for the same cause calleth them men a sleepe in pietie VVell if their denial of prayers for the deceased grow so farre as the vtter impugning of Christian hope for the life euerlasting and so with purgatory take away hell and heauen togither as the Sadduces did which God of his might turne from them but if they doe because there is such affinitie betwixt both their teachings and this of theirs may seeme alwayes to haue bene ioyned to that extreme falshoode of the others then shall Gods Church still protest the faith of her children by prayers and practise for the deade both by the example of the fathers in Christes Church vnder the Gospell and by the fact of worthy Iudas in the lawe before CAP. III. 1 WE haue all this while called for authoritie of the scripture now we shall haue scripture I trowe or else M. Allen shall misse of his purpose Sacrifice almes prayers commended by scripture to be meanes to helpe the soules in purgatory And the scripture is written 2. Machab. 12. Prothesauro carbones we haue founde coles in the steed of treasure Is this all the scripture we are like to haue this hath bene aunswered of olde to be no holy nor canonicall scripture and that by many reasons First because it conteineth matter contrary to the vndoubted worde of god I omit this matter in coÌ„trouersy in the 14. chap. the author of the booke commendeth one Razis for killing him selfe which is contrary to the word of god Wherefore M. Allen by authoritie of this booke the example of a good man Razis may as well conclude that it is lawfull for men to kill them selues as by the example of Iudas that men may offer sacrifice for the dead Secondly the author of this booke declareth that he abridgeth the fiue bookes of Iason the Cyrenian into this one which is a manifest argument that he was not the instrument of the holy Ghost For the holy Ghost maketh no abridgements of others mens writings Againe the purpose of the author proueth that he was not directed by Gods spirite for he confesseth that he tooke this matter in hande that men might haue pleasure in it which could not away with the tedious long stories of Iason But the spirite of God serueth not such vayne delight of men Moreouer he sheweth what labour and sweate it was to him to make this abridgement and to be short he maketh a very prophane preface ambitiously commending his trauell and shewing the difference betwene a story at large and an abridgment all which thinges sauour nothing of that spirite by which the holy Scriptures of God were written which as S. Peter sheweth came not by priuate mens will and ordinance but the holy men of God spake as they were inspired by the holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. where as all this preface sheweth nothing but a priuate motion an humane purpose And yet the man is to be commended for this that he doth not boast of any more reuelation then he had but in the end of this booke coÌ„fesseth his infirmity desireth pardoÌ„ which is as farre from the maiesty of gods spirit as it is agreeable to the weakenes of our deceiuable nature which are apt to deceiue and be deceiued If I haue wel done sayth he and as the story required it is the thing I desired but if I haue spoken slenderly and barely it is that I could For as it is hurtfull to drinke wine alone and then agayne water and as wine tempered with water is pleasant and delighteth the tast so the setting out of the matter delighteth the eares of them that readeth the story c. Who is so voyd of the spirite of God that can not see plainly that this man had neither the purpose to write that which shoulde instruct much lesse that should bind the consciences of men neither the gift so to write as in writing he could not erre But now to come to the text it selfe first the greeke copy in this place is so mangled and corrupted that no good sense can be gathered of the wordes by which it appeareth that the deuils limbes haue bene â—umbling with this booke as they haue bene with the olde doctors in places where mention is of prayer for the deade Secondly seeing this facte of Iudas hath no commaundement in the law in which not so much as one pinne of the tabernacle was omitted lest any thing might be left to the will of man to deuise in the worship of God it is so farre of that it is to be drawne into example that we may be bold to condemne it for sinne disobedience you shall not doe sayth the Lord what seemeth good in your owne eyes but that which I commaund you that onely shall you doe without adding any thinge to it or taking away any thing from it But M. Allen thinketh he hath a sure post to leane vnto because Iudas Machabaeus did by this fast testifie his hope of the resurrection as Iasons abridger sayth and also that prayers for the deade may be an argument to proue the faith that men haue of the resurrection It is not vnlike that this reason preuayled much with the auncient fathers as appeareth by their writings for commonly it hath the best colour of any reason that they bring to allow prayers for the dead But if it be weighed with good iudgement it is of no force to proue that prayers for the dead are lawful For as truth may be proued alwayes with true principles so often tymes it may be concluded out of false affirmations As for example
or daunger or to shew their sorrow for prophanation of Gods glory And any of these are more reasonable causes then the superstitious surmise of Beda with his curious conceit of the six ages of the worlde where other make seuen and eight ages 3 And that charitable reliefe of the poore by open almes and doles was also practised for the welth of the departed in the obittes of olde time the scripture it selfe in the fourth chapter of Tobie maketh mention by report of that godly commaundemeÌ„t that the good olde father gaue is sonne herein Panem tuum cum esurientibus comede de vestimeÌ„â—is tuis nudos tege Panem tuum vinum tuum super sepulturam iusti constitue noli ex eo manducare bibere cum peccatoribus Eate thy breade with the hongry and needy and couer with thy clothes the naked Set thy breade and wine vpon the sepulture of the vertuous make not the sinnefull partaker therof which wordes of exhortation can haue no other sense but that as before in the same place he gaue his sonne in charge to bestow vppon all men according to his hability for that there was hope to all charitable almes giuers of Gods mercy so now he warneth him to feede the poore and breake his breade to such especially as should come to the iustes and funeralls of the departed He would neuer haue put him in minde to haue releeued the poore at burialls but for some commodity that might arise to the party deceased for otheâ—wise his charity might haue proffeted the needy at other times as well as vpon mens departure Some tooke foolish occasioÌ„ by this place to set store of meate vpon the graue it selfe where their father or freinde was buried as though the dead had bene desirous of corporall foode The which superstitious error S. Augustine earnestly improueth Other some made great feastes at the daye of their freindes death But the texte is plaine it was the needy and good people that were at those soleÌ„ne exequies or other wise by their prayers might be profitably present in the dayes of memories holden for them which practise was not prescribed as a newe thing to the yong Tobie but it was moued and praised vnto him as a holy vsage of other burialls in those dayes and alwayes before Bona est oratio cum ieiunio elecmosina Prayer is profitable sayth the holy Raphel when it is ioyned with fasting and almes and therefore as the fathers in their prayers for the dead fasted as we haue proued so nowe I doubt not but almes shall crie for mercy at Gods hande for the soule departed vpon whose sepulture these thinges be charitably wroght 3 What else if we had not doles at burialls proued by the example of the Patriarkes all were marred Therefore Tobias must saye for doles But first we haue shewed already by authoritie of Hieronym which is proofe sufficient against the Papist that the Church receiueth not this booke of Tobias for canonicall scripture And secondly if we shoulde receiue it yet here is nothing that helpeth M. Allens cause but his owne simple surmise He sayth in dede the wordes can haue no other sence yet all that he sayeth is not gospell but what if the truer texte of Tobias hath other wordes First in the Greeke there is no mention at all of wine as is in the Latine nor of setting breade and wine vpon the graue of the vertuous but the sence is this As before he exhorted his sonne to feede the hongry with his owne breade and to cloth the naked with his owne garments so nowe he willeth him to spare the breade out of his owne mouth to bury the righteous as he him selfe had done chap. 1. which is a cleere interpretation of this but to geue nothing at all to the vngodly or to be liberall to the rightuous euen to their death and to see them buried honestly As for the iustes and funeralls M. Allen dreameth that the poore came vnto to receiue penny dole or soule breade appeareth in the first and second Chapters how solemne they were when poore Tobie was fayne to steale the bodyes and bury them priuily by night yet vpon that corrupt Latine texte as it should seeme wherevpon M. Allen buildeth they vsed in Affrica to make sumptuous and dronken feastes vpon the graues of men in the places of buriall which they thought not onely to perteine to the honor of the martyrs but also to be some comforte to the soules of the deade This olde superstition Augustine reproueth epist. 64. Aurelio But it is pretily renewed in the funerall feastes of the Papistes as also the selling of oblations for the deade which he in the same place condemneth 4 VVe haue a notable example in the Actes of the Apostles of the force of almes with prayers which wroght life and procured mercy eueÌ„ in the next world For the benefit of faithfull workes and holy prayers will not be limited by the termes of this worlde it will haue course doune so farre as the fellowship of this Christian societie reacheth the deuill and all his abettours can not stoppe the rase thereof The onely shew of certaine cotes with the requeste of the pore widowes that wore them made to Peter the Apostle turned Tabitha to life againe after her departure those garments geuen by her when she was a lieue by the careful trauel of her almes folkes procured reliefe in the worlde to come They warmed the backes of widowes in earth sayth Emissenus and the geuer had comforth of them being gone from the earth It is good we shoulde all learne here that haue receiued benefite of any man in this liefe with loue and carefullnesse not onely in this present worlde but most of all when our frend is departed to represent vnto God before his altare and holy ministers with sorowfull weeping hearty prayer the memory of such thinges as we haue receiued by way of almes or loue at his hand It shall be a soueraigne remedy for his infirmities and the approuedst way to procure Gods mercy that can be The elders of the Iewes making earnest supplication to our Sauiour for the Centurions seruaunt lying in extremitie vsed the memorie of that gentilmans charitable actes in their church as the rediest waye to obteine grace and fauour at his handes They cried out together dignus est vt hoc illi praestes diligit enim gentem nostram synagogam ipse aedificauit nobis Lorde be gratious vnto him he is worthy that benefite for he loueth our nation and hath him selfe founded a Synagoge And S Cyprian sayth notably that good workes make a more effectuall intercession then good wordes he speaketh of the same Tabitha as followeth Circumsteterunt Petrum viduae flentes rogantes pallia tunicas omnia illa quae prius sumpserant indumenta monstrantes nec pro defuncta suis vocibus sed ipsius operibus
testifieth that the Gospell was preached in this lande in the reigne of Tyberius the Emperour proue vnto vs that Paule or Simon or Thaddeus or Ioseph or who so euer first preached the Gospell in this Ilande tought prayers or sacrifices for the deade Proue it I saye and the daye is yours for euer if you proue it not as neither you nor the deuill for you is able to doe it the worlde may see your swelling bragges to be nothing but blowen bladders or bubles in which there is nothing but ayre as your wordes are nothing but winde yet are you not ashamed to name Gildas who as about the first conuersiō of the Britaynes to the faith he hath no worde of any such matters so where he complayneth of there ruyne and decaye he accuseth the priests of his time for sieldome sacrificing but of sacrificing for the deade he speaketh not although the error of praying for the deade were receiued in other places and whether this countrye were free from it I am not able to saye nor you to proue that it was infected with it And therefore hauing nothing to shew for six hundreth yeare◠almost in which this lande was neuer voyde of Christians you come in at last with the peruersion of the Saxons by Augustine that prowde cruell and vnlearned monke of whose pryde and cruelty our stories doe testifie at large his ignorance and vnskilfulnesse is bewrayed by him selfe in his writinges to Pope Gregory I force litle what miracles he wrought to cōfirme his errors neither doe I waye worth a flye that longe tale you tell out of Beda of him that had his cheines fallen o◠in Masse time That credulous and superstitious age had many such fayned miracles 500 such tales are toulde in vitas patrum serm discipuli legenda aurea the festiuall c. But make you no more accompt of Beda his graue authority then of those fayned fables suerly I make this accompt of Beda that if he had reported the matter of his owne knowledge I woulde haue credited the facte done and yet tending to the maintenaunce of false doctrine I would neuer the sooner haue bene moued from the trueth of Gods worde But when he reported it onely of heare saye and that not of the parties them selues that might haue bene witnesses but of them that hearde this one man tell it by him selfe it caryeth small credit with it I beleue that such a tale was tolde to Beda but what if they added some what to it that tolde him and what if he that tolde them lyed if Beda had not bene ouer light of credit him selfe he shoulde not haue put it in writing before he had perfect intelligence not only of the party him selfe but also of that Londiner and gentleman and those that kept him in prison But how so euer the matter weare true or false it is no proofe nor preiudice against the trueth of God vttered in the holy scriptures Let Augustine speake for vs in his booke ae vnitate ecclesiae against the Donatistes which boasted of miracles as the Papistes doe but Augustine will not allow them for sufficient proues with out the authoritie of the scriptures non dicat verum est quia ego hoc dico aut quia hoc dixit ille collega meus aut illi collegae mei aut illi episcopi vel clerici vel laici nostri aut ideo verum est quia illa illa ▪ mirabilia fecit Donatus vel Potius vel quilibet alius aut quia homines ad memorias mortuorum nostrorum orant exaudiuntur aut quia illa illa ibi contingunt aut quia ille frater noster aut illa soror nostra tale visum vigilans vidit vel tale visum dormiens somniauit c. Sed vtrum ipsi ecclesiam teneant non nisi diuinarum scripturarum canonicis libris oftendant c Let him not saye it is therefore true because I say it or such a one my companion sayed it or those my companions or those our byshoppes or clerkes or laye men or it is therefore true because Donatus or Pontius or any other did these or those miracles or because men praye at our dead mens memories and are harde or because these or these thinges doe happen there or because this our brother or that our sister sawe such a vision waking or dreamed such a vision sleeping c. but whether they holde the Church or no let them shewe none otherwise but by the canonicall bookes of the holy Scriptures This place M. Allen if it might take place with you might serue to cut of all controuersies not onely of purgatory but of the Church it selfe and what so euer is in question betwene vs But you are wise enough you will neuer venture your cause vppon that triall 2 VVe must here stay a litle and ponder in our mindes how our forefathers and people of our owne lande were taught in this article when they were first deliuered out of Sathans bondage and conuerted to the fellowship of Christes Church and let vs nothing doubt but that which our owne Apostles both by worde and worke by miracle and by martyrdome first proued vnto vs is the very true and unfallible faith of our Christianitie For if that were not true which at our first conuersion was preached vnto vs then we receiued not the faith but falsehoode at their handes then the histories doe make a lowde lye in testifying we were turned to the Christian faith both at that time and by such men then it were no conuersion from heathen Idolatrie to the worship of Christ but it were a chaunge from one superstition to an other and this latter so much worse then the other because vnder the name of Christ there were practise perpetuall of execrable sacrilege in instituting of a sacrifice to the defasing of our redemption in adoring bare breade as the hoste of our saluation in offering it vp to God for the sinnes both of the quicke and deade in practise of vnprofitable prayers for the soules deceased with the like false worship of God in all pointes Then their preaching was highly to Gods dishonour pernicious to the people and damnable to them selues Then haue all that euer ranne the rase of that faith and doctrine till this daye which they taught perished with them then are they founde false witnesses whome we haue accompted as our vndoubted true and lawfull pastors then God hath purposely deceiued vs with fayned miracles full many with numbers of vaine visions then all our labour is lost till this day The holynesse of so many good princies and priestes is praised in vaine the bloude of Martyrs shed in vaine the exercise of all sacraments in vaine and because all deuotion consisted in our fathers dayes in the earnest zele of so false a religion as they thinke this to be then the more deuotion the farther from Christ the lesse religion more neere to saluation then happy was he
God they are now bestowed according to their founders intent For they that serue the aultar of God must needes pull downe the aultars of idolls And if any portions that were taken from the world be gone to the worldely agayne I meane the Abbies and their landes it is the iust plague of God vpon them that vnder hypocrisie of forsaking the world liued not like men of the world but like deuills of hell And whereas you aske agayne if any man would take from his owne wife children to bestow vppon Priestes wiues and children I haue aunswered before that the chiefe collegiat Churches in England were first inhabited of married Priestes which taught sounder doctrine and liued a more chast life then the Epicureous Monkes that succeeded them I might aske of you M. Allen if they meant not to mainteyne Priestes wiues their children whether they ment rather to mainteyne Priestes whores their bastardes Byshops brothells and their minions Sodom and Gomor of Monkes Fryers it was neither Cutberd VVilliam nor VVilfryde wether they were holy or superstitious but the prouidence of God that appointed such portion as the Church now enioyeth if the same by any meanes should be taken from them yet God hath appointed that they which preach the Gospell shall liue of the Gospell We are not so carefull of worldly liuelihood as you knowing your owne disease imagine that we should be that we would come into your filthy Synagoge to winne Cardinalls hatts or Archbishops palls some of vs if they had sought worldly promotion by abusing their learning wittes to the maintenaūce of your horrible heresies needed not to haue come frō you to seke preferment among the Protestants which you know is neither so great nor so easy to come by as among the Papists 8 But let them on thinke on these matters them selues I will turne againe to my purpose although I can not goe farre from my matter so longe as I am in the beholdinge of that faith which our first preachers brought vnto vs at our first conuersion or in any steppe of the antiquitie which we well perceiue to be the fructe only of that doctrine which we haue declared and an euident testimony of so vndoubted a trueth I thinke there is no way so certaine for the contentation of a mans selfe in this time of doubting and diuersitie in doctrine as in all matters to haue an eye towards the faith which we receiued when we were first conuerted And for that point I woulde wishe that S. Bedes history were familiar vnto all men that hath vnderstanding of the Latine tongue and to all other if it were possible for there shall they plainely see the first beginning the increase the continuance the practise the workes proceding out of the catholike faith feare not that is the trueth for that was the first and that was grounded by Gods worde and openly confirmed by miracle And that point must be considered not onely for our owne countrie but for all others that be or hath bene Christianed For into the selfe same faith were they first ingraffed also as by the peculiar practising of euery good man towardes his freinde and louer I haue already declared and nowe for the generall vsage of Gods Church the reader shall at large perceiue that nothing may wante to our cause whereby any trueth or light may be had 8 The conclusion of your chapter is a recourse to the beginning you thinke it is the suerest way to looke to that faith in all poyntes which this land first receiued If men should follow your counsell as in some things they should follow your faith which you now teach so in many poynts namely in that which you coūt the chiefe the reall presence of the naturall body of Christ they should go as farre from that you teach nowe as you would haue them come neare some things that were receiued thē And wheras you wish that Bedes history for that purpose were made familiar and some of you in deede haue taken paynes to translate it into English they that list not to be deceiued but to see into what faith all nations were conuerted that were turned by the Apostles they were better to consider the word of God and the history of the actes of the Apostles which if you durst abyde the tryall thereof you would exhort men to reade it at least wise that vnderstand Latine And if you were as zealous to sette forth the glory of God as you are earnest to mainteyne your owne traditions one or other of you which haue so longe founde faulte with our translations of the scripture woulde haue taken paines to translate them truely your selues as well as to translate Bedes booke or else to write such bables as you doe M. Allen and all the packe of you but all in vayn◠to shadowe the same whose right shoulde easely discusse all clowdes of darke doctrine and the more it is impugned the more bright shall it shewe and the more it is compared with darkenesse the more glorious it shall appeare That in euery ordre or vsage of celebration of the blessed sacrament and Sacrifice through out the Christian vvorlde since Christes time there hath bene a solemne supplication for the soules departed CAP. XI 1 THerefore let vs see howe the Church our mother of her piety vseth generall supplication in all seruice and solemne administration of the blessed sacramēt euen for those whose freindes haue forgotten them whose paines and trauell worldely men remembre not whose obscure condicion of life or pouerty woulde not suffer them to procure prayers by their knowen deedes of charity or almes Those men I say that doe lacke singular patronage of their freindes those hath she remembred in the rites of celebration vsed in all countries and in euery age sithens the Apostles dayes VVhich ordres of diuine seruice as they haue bene diuers in forme of wordes so they perfectly and wholy agreed in the substance of the sacrifice in praying and offering for the deade and supplication to sainctes as thou shalt straight wayes by their vsed ordre of wordes perceiue And as we goe forwarde herein euer let vs beare this rule in minde Quòd legem credendi lex statuit supplicandi in that sense speaketh S. Augustine often against heretikes the ordre of the Churches prayer is euer a plaine prescriptiō for all the faithfull what to beleue And the motherly affection that the Church beareth towardes all her children departed the saide doctor thus expresseth Non sunt praetermittendae supplicationes pro spiritibus mortuorum quas faciēdas pro omnibus in Christiana Catholica societate defunctis etiam tacitis nominibus quorumcūque sub generali cōmemoratione suscepit ecclesia vt quibus ad ista desunt parentes aut filij aut quicunque cognati vel amici ab vna eis exhibeantur pia matro cōmuni That is to say in our tongue Prayer must not be omitted for the
benedicta agni videlicet immaculati qui tollis peccatum mundi potare de fonte pietatis tuae qui per lanceam militis de latere emanauit crucifixi Christi domini nostri vt consolati exultent in laude gloria tua sancta This in English we besech the most holy father for the soules of all faithfull departed that this high and greate sacrament of piety may be vnto them helth and salfty for euer ioye release and perpetuall refreshing O my Lorde God geue them this daye greate and perfect comfort of thee which art the bread that came downe from heauen and geuest life to the worlde Let them take ioye of thy holy and blessed flesh that is to saye of the lambe that taketh awaye the sinnes of the worlde Geue them to drinke of the springe of thy piety which by the pricke of the souldiers speare did aboundantly ishue out of the side of our Sauiour Christ and Lorde crucified that they being so comforted may reioyse in thy laude and glory euerlastingly To be brieefe all the Christian worlde agreeing as Isiodorus saith vpon one waye for the celebration of diuine mysteries maketh intercession for the faithfull departed that by the blessed sacrifice they maye obteine pardon and remission of their sinnes 7 It is a world to see that you haue nothing in a manner but forged euidence to proue the antiquitie of prayer for the deade in publicke seruice of the Church Who is so ignoraunt in antiquitie but he that will needes be obstinate that knoweth not those preparatories to that masse to be none of S. Ambrose his doings Otherwise it were not harde to proue that by the name of sacrifice he meaneth thankes geuing for the sacrifice of Christ as the maner of that vnpropre speach was to terme the holy sacrament which is but the seale of our saluation and not the matter thereof it selfe To be briefe what so euer Isidorus sayth if all the worlde agreed that intercession and sacrifice should be offered for the deade seeing it disagreeth from the worde of God and the practise of the primitiue Church so long as it followed the rule of Gods worde it is no whit to be regarded 8 For I assure the good reader that all realmes which nowe by Gods grace are in true faith and their Christianitie continuing or else before haue bene and now by schisme doe forsake the same that all those nations as they receiued one faith so in substance they haue euer agreed vniformely in order of seruice which they receiued at their first conuersion from the way of gentilitie by the good prouision of such as wrought vnder God in their happy turne to the Christian faith and religion The same men that brought in the faith of Iesus with all brought in this way of worshipping Christ in the same faith take away then this order of worship and solemne supplication which they planted thou must needes ouerthrowe the faith which they taught also This I say was euer found in the celebration of the fearefull mysterie of Christes body and blood besides the oblation of that holy host for the quicke and dead both namely for certaine and generally for all departed in Christ a solemne prayer and supplicatiō VVhich no doubt Christ instituted at his last supper which the holy Ghost afterward secretly suggested to the Apostles which they againe faithfully deliuered to the nations conuerted by their preaching and to diuerse of their owne disciples by whom the same was deriued downe to our dayes taught in all nations and carefully practised of all people VVhereof we haue worthy witnesses for all countries almost For so the godly doctors Tertullian Cyprian Augustine both taught and worshipped in Africke the same doth Hierom and Damascene in Syria Origen and Athanasius in Egypte Denyse the auncient and Bernarde in Fraunce Chrysostome in Thrase Basill and his brethern in Cappadocia Ambrose and Gregory the greate in Italy Augustine our apostle and Bede in our countrie of England with the rest of all nations baptized whome I named before and might doe yet a number what shoulde I say a numbre all that euer were counted Catholikes since the beginning were of the same sense in that cause And to name the residue where these do not serue it were lost labour For whome they can not moue I can not tell what maye perswade him in any matter Or if he dare not bestow his credit on these mens doinges whome maye he salfely trust If the communion and faithfull fellowship of so many godly and gracious men so vniformely consenting both in the teaching and practising of this matter can not sattell and quiet a mans conscience who can appeace his disquieted vnsteadfast minde and cogitation If in the construing of Gods word and scriptures so many of such graue iudgement of so approued wisedome of so passing learning of such earnest studie in tryall of the trueth of so vertuous a life of so heauenly a gifte and grace in the expounding of Gods worde maye not be salfely followed in this our search whome shoulde we follow or to whome shoulde the simple addicte them selues in so greate a turmoyle of learned men one sorte craking so fast of scripture and the other sorte when the matter commes to triall alleaging so many with so auncient and graue testimony for the true meaning of the same to which I saye is it wisedome to geue consent and credit if not to such as faithfully both followe and recite the scripture with the agreement of the worlde for the true sense thereof S. Augustine writing against Parmenianus the Donatiste much woundereth in that cleere light of trueth and the Churches doctrine the heretikes coulde be blinde or not see the euidence of that which all the worlde but them selues sawe And in many places he reckeneth the most horrible punishment in the worlde to be the cecity and blindenesse which God striketh the stubborne mans hearte with all in forsaking the fellowship of the Churches children But he that considereth the processe of our cause maye a thousand times more maruaill and feare Gods heuy iudgement in the blinding of the disobedient mens heartes and senses for sinne If they them selues were of their consciences examined what els they would wishe for the triall of any doubt I am sure they coulde name no one point nor any meanes in the worlde which our cause woulde not suffer and admitte For by what waye so euer any trueth in Gods Church was seuerally in the auncient times auouched against the aduersary heretike I am sure we haue the same with the aduauntage And for this last point of prayers in the Masses of all nations it is so euident that no man can gaine saye it and so generally practised that the vsage of praying coulde in no matter euer so cleerely set out the certaintie of our belefe as in this 8 If you will take M. Allens assurance in so weighty a matter that vseth so commonly to
true worship to banish together our fathers faith CAP. XII 1 IN this chapter where he vomiteth out nothing but rayling and lying he doth rather bewraye his owne infirmitie then touch the strength of our cause For being trobled with a sore laxe of the tongue which I take to be a like disease in the mouth that it is in the wombe he gusheth out nothing but bragging and faceing scolding and sclaundering tauntinge and trifling And therefore I will but breefely confute his vanity and turne him to his matches to contend in that kind of quarreling The chiefe argument he sayeth that the Church in times past and Augustine the Churches champion vsed against the Pelagians was to shewe that their heresie was contrary to the publicke prayers of the Church what shoulde I vse many wordes I appeale to the iudgement of all Papistes that haue not loste all vse of naturall reason and indifferent iudgement which either haue reade or will take paines to reade so many workes as Augustine did write against the Pelagians whether of an hundreth arguments that he vseth this insultation be not one of the feeblest which tooke no holde of the Pelagians by force of trueth that is in it but by their owne concession and graunt of that prayer to be godly and them to be of the Church that so prayed But now the controuersie is not onely of the substance of doctrine but of the Church it selfe also And therefore when Augustine had to doe with the Donatistes that challenged the Church vnto them selues he setteth all other tryalles aside and prouoketh onely to the scriptures Therefore M. Allen if you wil teach your schollers to kepe vs at the baye as heretikes you must not teach them to barke and baule nothing but the Church the Church like tinckers curres but you must instructe them to open conningly out of the scriptures how our doctrine is cōtrary to the trueth and yours agreable to the same I do not blame you if you would faine haue that argument of the Church without tryall which is the Church to take place for it woulde ease you and your fellowes of much paine it woulde serue you both for a sworde and a buckler all other bookes arguments and reasons might be layed a side and keepe silence The Church sayth it and we are the Church therefore it is true The scriptures them selues are altogether needelesse where this argument may stand for payment This is so plaine a proofe that the aduersaries shall not be able to saye baffe vnto it In deede they were but sory whelpes that could not say baffe to the bleating of such a calfe as you are which thinke that such a foolish cauill can carry credit with them that haue any cromme of brayne in their heads The Church prayeth so therefore it is true Nay Syr you pray and practise to controle the word of God therefore you are not the Church of god Proue that you doe not so or else prate as long as you wil. And thinke not to dorre vs with Cyprians name where as if you had his iudgement we might be bold to say as the same Augustine hath giuen vs example Nos nullam Cypriano facimus iniuriam cum eius quaslibet literas à canonica diuinarum scripturarum auctoritate distinguimus Neque enim sine causa tam salubri vigilantia canon Ecclesiasticus constitutus est ad quem certi Prophetarum Apostolorum libri pertinent quos omninò iudicare non audeamus secundum quos de caeteris literis vel fidelium vel infidelium liberè vindicemus Contra Cresconium Gram. lib. 2. cap. 31. We doe Cyprian none iniurie at all when we put difference betwene any of his writinges from the canonicall authoritie of the holy Scriptures For not without a cause with so holesome diligence is the ecclesiasticall canon appoynted vnto which certeyne bookes of the Prophets and Apostles doe perteyne which we dare not iudge at all according to which we may freely iudge of all other writings either of faithfull men or infidells And againe in the 32. chapter Ego huius epistolae auctoritate non teneor quia literas Cypriani non vt Canonicas habeo sed eas ex canonicis considero quod in eis diuinarum scripturarum auctoritati congruit cum laude eius accipio quod autem non congruit cum pace eius respuo I am not bound to the authoritie of this epistle because I count the letters of Cyprian not as canonicall scriptures but I consider them by the canonicall scriptures and what so euer I finde in them agreeable to the authoritie of holy Scriptures I take it with his prayse that which agreeeth not I reiect it with his leaue Iudge here gentle reader whether Augustine would or should with any indifferency bind either men to the absolute admitting of Cyprians authoritie wherwith he would not be holden him self and know Allen for a Iangler on Augustines wordes against the meaning of Augustine or any reasonable man. 2 I would learne by what Churches example they haue lefte out of their newe fangled phantasticall seruice the offering and praying for the departed One of them was so impudent to say in an open booke that the Lyturgies of the fathers made all against the Catholikes for the proofe of their false assertions VVherein sir I pray you tell me I woulde call you by your name if I knew who you were there you were ashamed of your owne name therefore ye shall lacke the glory of your assertion But who so euer you be I pray you what affinitie betwixt their office of celebration and yours doe you finde they offer the holy hoste they worship it they shewe it they pray vnto it which of all these doe you they blesse it with the signe of the holy crosse they practise the action vpon an altar how well follow you these they pray for the deade they make inuocation solemnely to sainctes they ioyne with all catholike Churches in the worlde where is your cause here amended or ours not plainely proued If their seruice like you so wel or at least better thē S. Gregories Masse you might with more honestie haue chosed for any one of them then haue forged a newe one of your owne which in deede is directly repugnant to all other rites in the Christian world VVhich you may well terme the seruice of contradiction and damnation as one that neither communicateth with the sainctes in heauen with the soules in purgatory nor with the faithfull a liue And being ashamed of the Latine Church you chalenge an other origine of faith out of the Easte parte as though your matter were well amended if you might shake of that faith and worship which our countrie in her conuersion first receiued and in which till this daye she hath happely lyued and make the heade of our holy tradition vncertaine by referring vs vnto an vnknowen origine 2 He would know by what churches example we haue
wantonnesse in all their ordre of life for they are so dronken and drowned in heresie that they haue no sense of common reason VVhat a do had the magistrates to make these wylde men go in priestelike apparell to kepe their Rotchettes to obserue some steppe of antiquitie in their maners How they were driuen to tempre their lustes in prouision for some ordrely choise of their wiues that seeing them haue no respecte on what women they light that by Iustices of peace yet they might be bestowed if not well yet with their lesse dishonestie vpon persons not openly infamous Such fellowes are more fit to be gouerned then to beare rule ouer other in whome without constraint you shall neither finde comelynesse in maners ordre in life nor constancy in religion God of his mercye geue them some light to see their owne misery and spirite of humilitie to subiect them selues in time to Gods Church that is so carefull ouer them though to their owne great harme they so deadly hate her They can showe no cause in the world why they neede in any one pointe of all those which at this daye be in controuersie betwxit them and their owne mother rather to credit their owne phantasies then her graue authoritye which onely without farther questioning with obedieÌ„t children maketh more then all argument or eloquence of man in the earth 7 If the ciuill Magistrates haue thought good in some outward ceremony or vsage to beare with the infirmitie of the weaker sort of your side in hope to winne them it is a small matter for you that are the obstinate of that secte to triumphe vpon when all your blasphemous doctrine is abolished and nothing left but a fewe ragges of your robes to looke vpon And as for the iniunction for Priestes mariage was either to stoppe your slaunderous mouthes when godly ministers wiues should haue testimoy of their honestie by men of such credit or else to bridle the lust of your owne tounebulls the popish Priestes which when licence of whordom is denied them and liberty to marry permitted them would make no better choyse perhaps of their wiues then they did before of their women We can shew no cause in the world you say why we neede in any one poynt of controuersie depart from your Church yes M. Allen this one cause shal serue for all because your church is departed from the truth of Gods word and dare not abide the tryall thereof but will sitte like a proud dame in a chayre controll the Scriptures the ordinance of Christ and the commaundements of God him selfe But how so euer you boast of her fast sitting she shall downe she shall downe euen to the bottome of hell 8 And for such as maye for their simplicitie be soone deceiued by following other mens errors with whome the names of doctors or the onely bare bragge of scriptures are as good as the allegation of places Let them aske of their teachers howe they can shifte them selfe when they see the practise of Gods Church generally so plaine for all Catholike assertions as for the article of praying for the deade amongest many other the like is nowe before proued Call vpon them and aske them in earnest because it lyeth vpon thy saluation whether thou must giue any credit to the perpetuall agreement and consent of all auncient doctors If they saye yea desire them to aunswere first to all these places so euidently confirming our purpose that they can not abide any cloude or couer of mans sutteltye for their shifting to any forged sense If they can not yet let them alleage some place of any auncient writer them selues which do expressely denye purgatory or prayers for the deade as we for the confirming therof haue done in plaine termes with out crafte or colour many If they be not able to do so much yet go further with them aske them whether they haue any expresse wordes in scripture that denie prayers to be profitable for the deade not by a fonde gesse of their owne heades corrupt consciences or preiudicate mindes expounded to that purpose but I say by expresse words or at least which is liberty enough expounded for that meaning by any one man of all the antiquitie If they can alleage thee but one worde of scripture construed of any one I say in all ages to confirme their vnderstanding to be currant and not framed for their phantasie to serue the necessity of their cause be bolde to followe them I woulde not put them to the paines to make discourse throughout all ages churches times and doctors as we haue done but onely let them to kepe their credit and scholars and to saue their honesties bring but one or two of all that euer wrote in the compasse of Gods Church and thou maiest with lesse daunger and better reason follow their doctrine But there is no one such place I assure the good reader neither in scripture doctor nor councell nor countrie nor age sith the worlde beganne I will go so farre in this point where there was euer steppe of any true worship of God there was prayer founde for the dead also They can not shew me any forme of ministration in the Christian world that was approued which hath it not expressely if it be knowen that it was in deede the seruice of any auncient Church not corrupted by them selues The same I dare be bolde to auouch for the lawe of nature and Moyses because it is proued already All their bragging of the example of the primitiue Church the masses of other countries of the doctors of the scriptures of the councells is but an vntollerable delusion and abuse of the simplicity of such as be not skillfull in the authors whome they name For when the matter comes to an ishue when they be harde holden either in this or in any other matter theÌ„ the doctors whom they chalenged before the simple for their partakers were but men then they might erre then they haue learned onely to credit the holy Scriptures then there is nothing but Gods worde and booke with them which els full faine would haue the doctors consent out of whom it were but a meane place which they would not alleage for their purpose if it might be founde Then if deniall of all the doctors iudgements serue not their turne In accusationem ipsarum scâ—ipturarum conuertuntur they will not sticke boldely to condemne the holy Scriptures with all 8 Now the youngers must pose their maisters as M. Allen a passing good Logician doth teach them yea and that is more he will teach vs what to aunswere also but sauing his wisedome he must geue vs leaue to aunswere for our selues First if we be asked howe we can shifte our selues against the generall practise of Gods Church for all popish assertions and namely this of praying for the deade we aunswere that we deny the practise to be generall because we finde it not in the holy
arme our selues against the like aduersaires of trueth with his minde in such other points of weight as in his dayes were not doubted of which yet might fall in question by the contentious wittes of many that can not quiet them selues in the holsome doctrine of Christes Church Amongest other things what this holy mans minde was concerning the vtility vsage of prayers and sacrifice for the deade and who were the institutors thereof thou shall now heare I will recite but a parte of his heauenly talke though the whole make wholy for our purpose Although sayth this holy doctour he that Christianly is hense in faith departed be hanged in the ayer and his body vnburied yet after thy prayers made to God sticke not to light lampe and taper at his sepulchre for these thinges be not onely acceptable to God but are rewarded For the oyle and waxe be to him as an holocaust or a sacrifice to be consumed by fire but that vnbloudy hoste is a propitiation and remission to the partie It may seeme by his wordes that when by occasion of punishment or otherwise any person was vnburied yet there was made some hearse or monumēt where his freinds lighted tapers as they doe at this daye and procured the holy Masse which Athanasius calleth the Vnbloudy hoste or sacrifice to be celebrated in his behalfe for so I take that when he sayth that a man being hong in the ayer may haue tapers and Masse at his sepulchre though some seeke an other meaninge which may well stande too and it skilleth not for our purpose for so much is plaine that in Athanasius his dayes the sacrifice was called and counted propitiatory euen for the deade But nowe a litle afterwarde in the same oration he instruteth vs for the first authors and institutors of this vsage in the vnbloudy sacrifice and in the burialls of Christian men All these holy thinges sayth he the Apostles of Christ those heauenly preachers and scholars of our Lorde the first orderers of our sacrifice charged to be obserued in the memories and anniuersaires of the departed c. he calleth the Apostles Curatores Sacrificiorum as you woulde saye men appointed to take ordre for all thinges perteyning to the solemne ministerie of the greate and high misterie As in the Psalme the spirituall gouernours are named Ordinatores testamenti Dei super sacrificia The prouisours of Gods testament touching the sacrifices The residue of his holy wordes thou may finde in Damascens oration of the departed where he recyteth both the Gregories of the Greeke church S. Denyse and S. Chrysostom too which writers doe rather serue my turne nowe then the Latines because they may put vs out of doubt for the vsage of the Greeke and other Churches which afterwarde by schisme fell together from the true worshippe of God into diuers errors That we may knowe those same countries vnder the gouernment of these excellent blessed men to haue obserued the same things which to their owne eternall miserie and decaye of their Church and countries they afterwarde contemned For their dissension and diuision both in this point others of no lesse importaunce hath procured Gods vengeaunce so much that nowe they haue almost no Church at all as we may haue right good cause to feare what will become of vs that followe their steppes in such pointes as in them haue duely deserued Gods greuous plaques 4 When you name Athanasius and thinke we shoulde be so sore afrayd of his name you haue good reason for you allege nothing else of him but his name I haue often tolde you Damascens report eyther for his corrupt iudgement or his cracked credit is nothing regarded of vs And euen the authoritie of Athanasius without the worde of God is the authoritie of god And as Augustine sayth of Cyprian we count not all his writing for canonicall Scriptures but we iudge them by the canonicall Scriptures The creede commonly called Athanasius creede although it be very godly and agreeable to the holy Scriptures yet by the iudgement of the best learned was complyed by some later writer then Athanasius As for the plague of the Greeke Church which M. Allen iudgeth to haue fallen vpon them for their departing from the Church of Rome he iudgeth both falsely and vnreasonably For what schisme was the Church of Africa first plaged by the Vandales that were Arians and afterward vtterly subuerted by the Saracens I doubt not but iustly for their sinnes but not for leauing the Romish Church 5 Amongest other for that Chrysostoms authority is exceding graue I will let you see his opinion for the institution of these beneficiall relieuinges of the departeds paine These be his wordes Let vs sieke out all meanes whereby we may best helpe our brethern departed let vs for their sakes bestowe the most present remedie that is to saye almes and oblation for thereby to them ensueth great commoditie gaine and profit for it was not rashly nor without greate cause prouided and to Gods Church by his disciples full of wisedome deliuered and decried that in the dreadfull misteries there shoulde be especiall prayers made by the priest for all those that sleepe in faith For it is a singular benefit to them These were Chrysostoms wordes whereby not onely the trueth of the cause and first authors of the practise be opened but that there is wounderfull benefite to the parties for whome prayers be so made in the holy sacrifice The which thing our forefathers well knewe when they were so earnest after their departure to haue a memory at the holy altar Now adayes heresie hath cankered euen the very deuotion of Catholikes who although they thinke it to be true that Gods Church teacheth herein yet the zele of procuring these meanes is nothing so great as the importaunce of the cause requireth But if they note well those carefull admonitions of all these blessed fathers they shall perceiue that euery time that Christes holy bloude is represented vnto God in the Masse for the departed they feele a present benefite and release of their paines they doe reioyse sayth holy Athanasius when the vnbloudy hoste is offered for them The old fathers to put a difference betwixt the sacrificing of Christes owne body vpon the crosse and the same vpon the altar in the Church doe lightly terme this way of offering the vnbloudy sacrifice and the thinge offered which is Christes owne blessed body they call likewise the host vnbloudy And Chrysostome neuer putting any doubt of the first authors of offering for the deade proueth that it is exceding beneficiall to the deceased because the Apostles full of Gods spirite and wisedome woulde else neuer with such care haue commaunded this holy action to be done for them A lasse a lasse fo◠our deare freindes departed that they must lacke this comforte But wo euerlasting to them that are the cause of so much miserie 5 Chrysostome can no more proue that
prayer for the dead came from the Apostles then Tertullian could proue that oblation for the deade came from them To detest fasting on Sunday and to pray kneeling with diuerse like superstitions Tertullian referreth to the Apostles as well as prayer for the deade deny one and doubt of all the rest And whereas M. Allen vpon contemplation of Chrysostome wordes falleth into a hidden agony cryeth alasse alasse if he would consider what the same man writeth vpon the Epistle to the Philip. Hom. 3. he would not make so great mone the losse is not so great Procuremus eis aliquid auxilij modici quideÌ„ attamen iuuemus eos Let vs procure them some helpe in deede but small helpe yet let vs helpe them Loe M. Allen your owne doctor confesseth it is but smal help that can be procured by prayers almes or remembraunce of them at the celebration of the holy misteries You will say that soone after he sayth the Apostles that instituted such memory knewe that much commodity came to the deade Then see how soone he forgetteth him selfe when he followeth not the rule of holy Scripture Againe howe like you M. Allen that he alloweth not prayers nor the said memory to helpe them that were Catechumeni which were learning their catechisme and dyed before they were baptised S. Ambrose you say cap. 9. of this booke did pray and offer for Gratianus which was but Catechumenus and dyed before he was baptised Againe how agreeth this with your catholike doctrine which you boast is so well ordered to your handes that Chrysostome denyeth them prayers and alloweth them almes for their helpe Catechumenos verò neque isto solatio dignamur sed omni huiusmodi destituti sunt auxilio vno quodam dempto quo nam illo pauperibus illorum nomine dare licet vnde illis non nihil refrigerij accedet As for them that be Catechumeni we count them not worthy of so much as this comfort but they be destitute of all such aide except one What one is that we may giue some thinge for their sake to the poore whereof some refreshing shall come vnto them 6 But heare I pray you what notable wordes S. Damascen hath for the vtilitie and institution of these thinges The holy Apostles and disciples sayth he of our Sauiour Christ haue decried that in the dread soueraigne vndefiled and liuely Sacraments â—o he calleth the Masse there shoulde be kept a memoriall of those that haue taken their sleepe in faith the which ordinaunce vntill this day without gainsaying or controwling the Apostolike and Catholicke Church of God from one cost of the wide world to an other hath obserued and shall religiously keepe till the world haue an ende For doubtlesse these thinges that the Christian religion which is without error free from falshood hath so many ages and worldes continued vnuiolably not without vrgent cause those thinges I say are not vaine but profitable to man acceptable to God and very necessarye for our saluation Thus farre spake the doctor setting forth not onely his owne minde but the faith of a numbre of the peeres of Gods Church wherein to proue this doctrine to be catholike he fitly followeth the same way which Vincentius Lyrinensis gaue vs once for a rule to trye trueth by Prouing that it hath antiquitie as a thinge that came and hath continued euen from the beginning of the Christian religion declaring that it hath the consent of all nations because it is and hath bene practised through out all the costes and corners of the wyde worlde and last that it hath the approbation of the wisest and holyestmen that euer were in the Church of christ And more then all this that it shall so continue till the ende though it be for a time in some peculiar nations omitted because it is receiued into a parte of that worship of God which in the Church can not perishe 6 As for Damascene I know not wherefore his authoritie serueth but to fill vppe the number for neither is his credit nor his antiquitie comparable with the former we refuse not the rule of Vincentius Lyrinensis concerning antiquity so you can proue that it hath God to be the author the Prophets and Apostles As for witnesse vnder this antiquitie that which had an erroneous beginning shall haue a shamefull ending 7 And this prescription of trueth our aduersaires can not auoyde but with such vnseemely dealing as I trust they them selues now be ashamed of as all other reasonable men are For now let them come with brasen facies and blasphemous tounges and say that prayers for the deade be vnprofitable that the rites of the buriall be superstitious that to say the Masse and sacrifice to be propitiatory for the soules departed is iniurious to Christes death that the doctors praised the errours of the ignorant people of their dayes that they all erred and were deceiued that the Church of Christ hath bene ledde in darke ignorance till these our dayes let them bestowe these vaine presumptious wordes where they maye take place for nowe all wise men doe perceiue that all these haue their holy institution by Christ and his Apostles practised vniuersally in the primitiue Church embrased of all godly people and approued to be wholy consonant to Gods worde by the pillors of Christes Church who so consonantly agree together in this point as well for the practise and proofe as for the beginning therof that to dissent from them and trust in these reedes of our dayes were meere madnesse that are pufte to and fro with euery blast of doctrine that care not what they say so that they say not as other their forefathers sayed that had rather then they woulde geue ouer a singular opinion of their owne imagination refuse and denie the authoritie of so many notable wise auncient godly and well learned fathers whome we haue named Although we haue left out many of no worse iudgement plainely auouching these thinges to come into Christes Church and worship by the ordinaunce of his holy Apostles All which thinges if our aduersaries haue reade then they are in a most miserable and heuy taking that doe withstand an open knowen trueth and as I feare against their owne consciences too Or if they haue not reade these plaine assertions of all learned men sith Christes time then they are most impudent that so vainely bragge in a matter whereof they are not skillfull But I trust God will open their eyes and breake their prowde hartes to the obedience of his holy Church 7 Nay M. Allen your prescription is not yet proued that this geare came from Christ and the Apostles The oldest witnesse that you haue alledged fathered manifest fables vpon the institution of Christ the Apostles as you your selfe can not deny if you haue any conscience at all and therefore not sufficient to be credited for that you allege him Wherefore you may bestow where you list these swelling bragges
haue all the scriptures and the iudgement of the whole worlde vppon them you haue sayd enough M. Allen to winne the whet stone if it were as bigge as any mountaine in the worlde 2 And for these which they here or else where alleage I aske them sincerely and desire them to tell me faithfully what doctor or wise learned man of the whole antiquity euer expounded these textes recited or any one of them or any other which you bring in else when against Purgatory or practise for the deade If they did not how can you for sinne and shame dissent from the whole Church of Christ vpon so light groundes Or how dare you be so bolde that seeke in euery controuersie expresse scripture to alleage these places which wise men nor I thinke your selues take for any such purpose Or how may you for shame reiecte the euident worde of God by vs truely reported for the triall of our matter your selues hauing almost nothing that can be wrasted to your sense 2 Before the heresie of Purgatory was planted in the world how could the olde doctors interprete these places by name against that which they neuer heard named yet haue they so interpreted some of them that their interpretation can not stand with purgatory or prayer for the dead as I will shew in their particular aunsweres When we require expresse Scripture for euery controuersie we doe not require that euery thing should be named in Scripture but necessarily concluded out of the true meaning of the Scriptures and purpose of the holy Ghost in them As for the euident word of God which you report for tryall of your matter is yet to shew and shall be for euer You shame not to boast of that to be your triall which you dare as well eate a fagot as abide the iudgement of iâ— in any lawful conference or disputation your great bellwethers and Bishops declared before the whole world in the conference of Westminster what they durst abide when they came to handestrokes It is a gay matter for such a chattering pye as you are to make a fond florish a farre of in wordes of common wrangling to please your patrones and exhibitioners it is an other thing to stand to the proofe in deede 3 If you stande to the triall of our alleaged testimonies you will be much abashed I know For how can you imagine that the place recited out of Ecclesiastes shoulde further your intent any thinge at all Seeing that euen then when the wiseman spake those wordes the soule of man straight after her departure and the fall of the body continued not where it first fell for the iuste had a place of abidinge and rest in the inferiour partes which was called of Ezechias the gate of hell In the Gospell Sinus Abrahae the bosom of Abraham and nowe Lymbus Patrum in which they all abode till they were deliuered by the bloude and trauell of our Sauiour Iesus VVith whome they after were translated to the eternall ioyes of heauen VVhich thinge if it be true as it can not but be true and certaine which the whole course of scripture the article of our faith in Christes descension into hell and all the auncient fathers doe constantly setforth what blindnes be they in then that bring this place against Purgatory which as it is a stay of certaine for a time from heauen so the other before Christ was the staye of all And therefore it is plaine that this fallinge of the tree meanith nothinge lesse then that euery man shoulde straight vpon his departure be conueide either to hell or heauen Or if any wedded to Caluines blasphemous and vnfaithfull paradoxes doe with Purgatory deny the fathers place of abode before the comming of Christ and impugne the beleefe of Gods Church so much that he withstande the article of our Creede for Christes descending into hell to turne the cause of his going into hell to some other purpose then the loosing of their captiuity that there were in expectation of his ioyefull apparance yet I would demaunde so much of Caluins successor or scholar seeing he will of this figuratiue speach of the trees falling gather so grounded and generall a rule that with out delay euery man must to heauen or hell straight after his death there to remaine in perpetuall state of his fall in the next life either good or badde I woulde aske of him I saye what he thinketh by all those that were by the Prophets Apostles or Christ him selfe raysed vp againe from death to life VVho receiuing by death that fall by their accompt must needes abide where they first fell and so not in case to be reuoked by this their false conclusien they diminish the power of the spirite in working their raising againe Or else they must impute deceite to the holy men and our maister Christ which abhorreth me to speake for that they raysed them not being perfectly deade but in some deadly traunce or apparance of death But because the soule of Lazarus was nowe foure dayes out of his bodye before Christ wroght vpon him it is sure and most certaine that it had some place of abyding after the separation from the fleshe I can not thinke that his soule was in heauen nor it is not like that our Sauiour would so much abase the happy condicion of him whome he loued so well as to reduce him to the vncertaine state of this life I will define in this my ignorance nothing touching the secrets of Gods wisedome herin But very like it is that the parties raysed from their fall and death were not in the ioyes of heaueÌ„ As before Christes death I am sure they were not but I speake of Tabitha also or other reuoked by the Apostles handes that then after Christes passion might full well dying in perfect state of life goe straight to heauen of such I say it is very reasonable that they were not in the ioyes of the elect For else Tabitha shoulde not haue had such a benefite by her almes as the fathers doe witnesse she had And they vse her for an example of the benefite which maye rise to one after departure by charitable workes done in this life It had ben a small pleasure to haue plucked her from heauen to this mortalitie againe and misery of our common life and I trowe no man maye auouche wâ—th salfety of his belefe that she or any other raysed againe miraâ—ulously was reuoked from the desperate estate of the damned soules then she must necessarily be called from some meane condicion of her present abode and perhaps from paine too to this former state of life againe But as in this secret of God no man without iuste reprehension maye deeply wade so it maye reasonably be gathered that the fall of the tree before meÌ„tioned can not induce with any probability the necessity of the soules abiding in all respects where it first light Mary we freely graunt with
the deade you followe your customable course of lying and sclaundering And yet we maye saye it is a greate preiudice against your purgatory and prayer which you make so necessary and about which no small parte of your religion is occupyed that it is not so much as once named in the scriptures But we saye and truely saye that neither the name nor the thinge it selfe is taught or can be proued by the scriptures so of all other heresies All trueth maye be proued by scripture either in plaine wordes or by necessary conclusion which is all one And therefore the Arians or Anabaptistes haue no more helpe of this argument then you Papistes As for the perpetuall virginitie of the mother of Christ as we can thinke it is true so because the scripture hath not reueled it neither perteineth it vnto vs we make no question of it what scriptures you haue alleaged and howe falsely you slaunder vs for denying the canonicall scripture is set forth at large allready 3 But yet one of these ouerthrowers frameth as he supposeth his negatiue argument to the more sure shake of our faith herein after this sorte In the olde lawe all sacrificies and expiations both appointed and reckoned euen for the smallest offensies that man coulde commit yet there was neuer no sacrifice for the purgation of the dead◠How Lorde like Maister Grindall made his Argument here VVhere he shoulde plainely haue inferred the contrarie after this sorte There was no sinne so small vnpardoned but there was some sacrifice of release or expiation thereof in the olde lawe ergo if any man were bounde with sinne were it neuer so small whether he were aliue or deade there was some appointed purgation therefore For there is no consequence nor any apparance of right deductiō to inferre vpon the naming or rehearsall of all sinnes the peculiar mentioning or plaine rehersall of such persons as maye be burdened with those sinnes There were sacrificies then in the olde lawe for wemen as well as men for the Princies no lesse then for the poore for the priest for the people for the deade as well as for the liue And where there was no difference nor respect of persons in that point there was no peculiar mention to be made for the distinction of states The peculiar rehersall therefore was onely made for the diuersity of offensies and not alwayes for the difference of persons And nowe the departed in faith being but distincted by state of life and not by bonde of sinne from those that be aliue must needes in the case of like sinne for the vnitie which he is in haue the like remedie as the lieue hath for the same sinne And therefore to helpe your ignorance some thing thus you must learne that there was no peculiar sacrifice for the deade as though they were not of the common body with the liuing but they had the same sacrifice done for them that the liuing in this worlde in the like case of sinne or punishment for offensies had Doe you not see Gods Church Maister Grindall sacrifice for the deade but not for them by a peculiar meanes of offeringe but the very selfe same oblation she euer vseth for her Children departed that she practiseth for her faithfull flocke a liue And in all other practises there is a perfect communitie of all benefites betwixt the deceased and their brethern remayning yet in this worlde And therefore when you seeke for sacrifice in the olde lawe looke not for any distincte waye of handeling their offensies which is not common with the lyuing But consider what there was practised for the release of the smaller trespassies and that was vsed for both the liue and dead without distinction Marke what sacrifice was for the abating of any paine due for great offensies and the same shall be well vnderstande to be with out difference practised for the liue and deade together That therby we may by good reason conclude seeing sacrifice was then offered for purgation of euery light offense that it was done for all states of persons that were either in this life or after their death to be perfectely clensed from the same Although the facte of Iudas Machabeus be a plaine proofe that there was a common knowen ordre of sacrifice for else howe coulde he haue conceyued any such sacrifice neuer hearde of before howe coulde he limite the value of procurement therof by a certaine summe for euery soule deceased howe coulde he gather in pretence of a thinge neuer vsed before the peoples almes with out their murmure or motion therein VVhy woulde he haue sent mony to Hierusalem to procure that which had no example in the lawe or vse in the Church was he so ignorant that he knew not their ordre herein or so vnwise to haue sent his mony for nothing S. Augustine aunswering an heretike that by the authoritie of the facte of Iudas woulde haue proued that by sacrifice men might be saued though they died vnbaptized or in deadly sinne sayth vnto him that he is not hable to proue that Iudas or any other in the lawe offered for his freinde or any man else being vncircumcised no more then the Church nowe practiseth for any man not baptised VVhereby he plainely confesseth that the lawe had a sacrifice for the deade which being vrged by that heretike he might haue denied with good helpe of his cause and aunswere to the aduersary but that the contrary case was so cleare not onely by that booke which he tooke for Canonicall scripture as before is proued but also by the full consent of all the Church of God which both by plaine practise and most graue ordinaunce had from Christes time set forth and approued the vndoubted trueth thereof 3 To passe ouer your saucines and scurrilitie being as agreeable to your profession and leuitie as vnmeete for his grauitie and dignitie whom you name the argument is of more force then you haue wit to vnderstand But to beate it smaller that it may enter into your head or at least wise that they which haue any brayne in their heades may conceiue the strength of it I will vse your owne figure and mode All lawfull sacrifices were prescribed by the lawe sacrifice for the deade was not prescribed by the law therfore it was no lawfull sacrifice you aunswere that the rehersal of sinnes proueth not the peculiar persons that may be burdened with those sinnes And with this foolish distinction you thinke you haue broken out of prison But you that so like a proud foole take vpon you to help his ignorance bewray your owne intollerable arrogancie and more then beastly blindnes For if you had redde the law whereof you make your selfe such a Rabbine Leuit. 4. 5.12 15. you should haue seene the peculiar mentioning and playne rehersing of all such persons for whome sacrifice was to be offered both men and women the Princes and the priuate persons the Priest
and good workes shew their coÌ„uersion not only by wordes but in deed and in trueth c. With them the Byshop maie deale more gently whereas those that thinke it is sufficient onely to enter into the Church are charged in any wise to keepe the ordinary time c. Wherefore he that gathereth that paines are due to sinnes after remission of them by example of them that remitted no sinnes but after sufficient paines suffered for them or amendes made for them I holde him not onely malitious blinde but beastly vnreasonable 4 And if any man yet doubt why or to what end the Church of Christ thus greuousely tormenteth her owne children by so many meanes of heuy correction whome she might by good authoritie freely release of their sinnes let him assuredly know that she coulde not so satisfie Gods iustice alwayes by whome she holdeth her authoritie to edifie and not to destroye to bynd as well as to loose Although such dolour for offensies committed and so earnest zele may she sometimes finde in the offender that her chiefe and principall pastors may by their soueraigne authoritie wholy discharge him of all paines to come But els in the commoÌ„ case of Christian men this penaunce is for no other cause enioyned but to saue them from the more greuous torment in the worlde following In the which sense S. Augustine both speaketh him selfe and proueth his meaning by the Apostles wordes as followeth Propterea de quibusdam temporalibus poenis quae in hac vita peccantibus irrogantur eis quorum peccata delentur ne reseruentur in finem ait Apostolus si enim nosmetipsos iudicaremus a domino noÌ„ iudicaremur Cum iudicamur autem a domino corripimur ne cum hoc mundo dâ—mnemur Therefore sayth he it is of certaine temporall afflictions which be laid vpon their neckes that being sinners haue their trespasses pardoned lest they be called to an accompt for them at the latter ende that the Apostle meaneth by when he sayth If we woulde iudge our selues we shoulde not then be iudged of our lord And when we be iudged of our Lord then are we chastened that we be not damned with the worlde This onely carefull kindnesse of our mother therefore that neuer remitted sinne that was notorious in any age but after sharp punishment or earnest charge with some proportionall penaunce for the same doth not onely geue vs a louing warning to beware and preuent that heuie correction of the worlde to come which S. Paule calleth the iudgement of God because it is a sentence of iustice but also in her owne practise here in earth of mercy in pardoning of iustice in punishment she geueth vs a very cleare example of both the same to be vndoubtedly looked for at the handes of God him selfe by whome in the kingdome of the Church these both in his behalfe be profitably practised For if there were no respect of the dredfull day in the ende of our life nor any paine further due for sinnes remitted in the next world then were it cruell arrogancy in the ministers to charge men with penaunce needlesse to the offender and foly to the sufferer But God forbid any shoulde be so malipert or misbeleuing as to miscredit the doinges and doctrine of the Catholike Church which by the authoritie she hath to binde sinnes and the protection of the holy Ghost hath vsed this rodde of correction to the profit of so many and hurte of none euer sence our maisters death and departure 4 Marke here gentle reader what an absolute power of remissioÌ„ of sinns this Papist doth ascribe to the Church that she might he sayth by good authority freely release men of their sinnes with out satisfying of Gods iustice but that she will not except in some case where she findeth such dolour and zeale in the offender that her chiefe and principall Pastors may by there soueraine authoritie wholy discharge him of all paines to come Marke here the soueraigne authoritie of the Pope not subiect no not to the iustice of god For els how should the Popes pardons stand or Christes merites be excluded if the Pope had not power to doe by his soueraigne authority that Christ coulde not doe by his bitter passion to discharge penitent sinners of all paines to come you see therefore that the Popish church is not as a wife subiect to Christ her spouse to exercise on earth the authoritie of Christ in heauen according to his will but a presumptuous harlot to claime soueraigne authoritie in earth wherevnto he is bounde which is in heauen For otherwise though the olde fathers that were most earnest in maintaining the Churches authoritie as Cyprian Sermo de lapsis speaking against theÌ„ which thought it was sufficient if they were receiued by the ordinary authoritie of the Church although they were not truely penitent writeth thus Nemo se fallat nemo decipiat Solus dominus misereri potest veniam peccatis quae in ipsum commissa sunt solus potest ille largiri qui peccata nostra portauit qui pro nobis doluit quem Deus tradidit pro peccatis nostris Homo Deo esse non potest maior nec remittere aut donare indulgentia sua seruus potest quod in dominum delicto grauiore commissum est ne adhuc lapso hoc accedat ad crimen si nesciat esse praedictum Maledictus homo qui spem habet in homine Dominus orandus est dominus nostra satisfactione placandus est qui negantem negare se dixit Let no man sayth he deceiue him selfe let no man begile him selfe It is onely the Lorde that can shew mercy Onely he can graunt pardon to offenses that are coÌ„mitted against him who hath borne our sinnes Who hath suffered sorrow for vs whome God hath geuen for our sinnes A man can not be greater then God neither can the seruaunt by his indulgence remit or forgeue that which by so great offence is committed against the Lorde lest this offence also be added to him that is fallen away if he know not that it is fore shewed Cursed is that man that putteth his trust in man The Lorde must be intreated the Lorde must be pacified with our satisfaction which sayth he doth deny that man that denieth him In these wordes Cyprian not onely plainely denieth that absolute soueraigne authoritie of men which M. Allen affirmeth but also declareth what he meaneth by satisfactioÌ„ of god Namely that those which counterfected repentaunce and though by some outwarde obseruations to satisfie the Church might know they had to doe with God who was not pleased but with inwarde and harty conuersion whose knowledge they must satisfie with true repentaunce in deede as they seeke to satisfie iudgement of the Church by externall signes and tokens thereof But to returne to the common case of Christian men for the Popes cases be out of the common case of christen men M. Allen sayth penaunce and by penaunce he
still meaneth punishment is for no other cause enioined but to saue them from more greeuous torment in the world following In deede true repentaunce deliuereth men from eternall torments but what is this to purgatory euen as much as the saying of Augustine by him alleged where he sayth that God punisheth in this life with temporall paynes those whose sins are pardoned lest they should be reserued in finem that is for euer which is to be chastised by the Lord lest we should be damned with the world of which matter enough hath bene sayd already To conclude this chapter because the wordes following contayne nothing but a vayne repetition of that which he hath often sayd before the censure of excommunication with the power of binding and loosing remayneth still inuiolable to the Church nowe the opinion of purgatory is ouerthrowne as it did before the doctrine of purgatory euer came into the world That the manyfolde vvorkes and fructes of penaunce vvhich all godly men haue charged them selues vvith all for their ovvne sinnes remitted vvere in respect of Purgatory paines and for the auoiding of Gods iudgement temporall as vvell as eternall in the next life CAP. IIII. 1 THere be of the Epicures of our time that seeing the vsuall practise of penaunce not onely by the Churches prescription but also by mans owne voluntary acceptation openly to tende towardes the trueth and proofe of Purgatory haue boldely improued not withstanding the expresse counsell of the Apostle where he willeth vs to iudge our selues all chastisement of our bodies as vnnaturall torments to the iniury of our owne person and the excellencie of our nature CAP. IIII. 1 THat a detestable error may be defended with a shamelesse lye he beginneth this chapter with a deuilish sclaunder He reporteth that Melancthon but sheweth no place where lest his impudent lye might be euidently reproued doth boldely improue all chastisement of our bodies as vnnaturall torments to the iniury of our person and the excellencye of our natuâ—e and in a maner he is as bold with S. Paule whose expresse counsayle he sayth is that men should chastise their bodyes where he willeth to iudge them selues As though it were all one for men to iudge them selues and to chastise their bodies In deede else where S. Paule coÌ„maundeth and by his example commendeth christian chastisement of mens bodyes by abstinence and fasting and that not for feare of purgatory but for daunger of eternal damnation This doe I sayth he for the Gospells sake that I may be made partaker of it and agayne I chastise my body and bring it in subiection lest while I preach to others I my selfe should become a castaway 1. Cor. 9. So that all godly men did not chastise their bodyes in respect of the auoyding of the temporall paynes of purgatory as M. Allen affirmeth in the title of this chapter but contrariwise all godly men that followed S. Paules doctrine and example had also the same respect that he had But to returne to Melancthon it may be that in some place of his writinges he improueth the immoderate exercise of bodily chastisement by which some haue killed them selues some made them selues leapers some made them selues vnable to execute the office of ecclesiasticall administration whereunto they were called by god But in these cases he hath S. Paule for his warraunt who forbiddeth Timothe the drinking of water and willeth him to vse a litle wine because of his stomacke and his often infirmities assuring him that such bodily exercise profiteth but a litle 1. Tim. 4. 5. But that Melancthon improueth all godly chastisement of mens bodies and for godly purposes it will neuer be proued vntill M. Allen haue brought purgatory with all men in as great credit as euer it was with any man. 2 Against these corruptors of Christian condicions vertuous life though the examples of all faithful worshippers of God sence the worlde beganne do clearely stande yet the notable history of the Prophet Dauids repaire after his heuy faule because it hath an especiall warrant of his pardon a plaine processe in penaunce a goodly platte of due handeling the sores of our sinns after they be remitted and conteineth a manifest feare of Purgatory shall best serue our turne This Prophet then though he was assured of his pardon and afterwarde as I saide before by Gods owne hande punished yet crieth out with abundant teares Amplius laua me ab iniquitate mea a peccatis meis munda me More and more washe me from my iniquitie and of my sinnes purge me cleane Dauid offended sayth S. Ambrose as kinges commonly do but he did penaunce he wept he groned as kinges lightly do not he confessed his fault he asked mercy and throwing him selfe vpon the harde grounde bewailed his misery fasted praide and so protested his sorow that he left the testimony of his confessioÌ„ to all the world to come VVhat moued this blessed man by Gods owne mouth pardoned of his sinnes so to torment him selfe That happy awe and deepe feare of Gods iudgement in the next world which the cursed security of this sweete poisoned doctrine of our dayes hath now taken awaye euen that necessary feare of the thinges that might faule vnto him in the next life caussed this holy prince and prophet so to vexe and molest him selfe It was hell it was Purgatory that this penitent did beholde either of which he knew his sinnes did well deserue S. Augustine shall beare me witnesse in wordes worthy of all memory Yea the Prophets owne wordes vttered in a bitter prayer and a Psalme full of sorow shall beare me witnesse thus sayth S. Augustine Haec iste grauiora formidans excepta vita ista in cuius malis plangit gemit rogat dicit Domine ne in surore tuo arguas me neque in ira tua corripias me Non sum inter illos quibus dicturus es ite in ignem aeternum qui praeparatus est diabolo angelis eius Neque in ira tua emendes me vt in hac vita me purges ralem me reddas cui emendatorio igne opus noÌ„ sit This man besides the miseries of this life in which he was when he thus houleth wepeth further maketh sute and sayth O Lorde rebuke me not in thy furie let me not be one of them to whome thou shalt saye awaye from me in to fier perpetuall which is prouided for the Deuill and his aungels Neither yet correct me in thy wrath but so purge me in my life time and wholy frame me that at length I may haue no neede of the AmeÌ„ding fier So farre speaketh this doctor By whome we may learne that Dauid after sharpe punishment taken first at Gods hande and then in the middest of many miseries of this mortall life did yet before hande beholde the horrible iudgements in the next worlde the one for the damned soules and spirites the other for the amendement of such as God