more unlearned and unhappy If I bee not able to discover what feates the Divell wrought in that time of darkenesse wherin men were not so vigilant in marking his conveyances and such as might see somewhat were not so forward in writing bookes of their Observations must the infelicitie of that age wherein there was little learning and lesse writing yea which for want of Writers as Cardinal Baronius acknowledgeth hath been usually named the Obscure age must this I say inforce me to yeeld that the Divell brought in no tares all that while but let slip the opportunitie of so darke a night and slept himselfe for company There are other meanes left unto us whereby we may discerne the Tares brought in by the instruments of Satan from the good seed which was sowen by the Apostles of Christ beside this observation of times and seasons which will often faile vs. Ipsa doctrina eorum saith Tertullian cum Apostolicâ comparata ex diversitate contrarietate suâ pronuntiabit neque Apostoti alicujus auctoris esse neque Apostolici Their very doctrine it selfe being compared with the Apostolick by the diversitie and contrariety thereof will pronounce that it had for author neyther any Apostle nor any man Apostolicall For there cannot be a better prescription against Hereticall novelties then that which our Saviour Christ useth against the Pharisees From the beginning it vvas not so nor a better preservative against the infection of seducers that are crept in unawares then that which is prescribed by the Apostle Iude earnestly to contend for the faith vvhich vvas once delivered unto the Saints Now to the end we might know the certaintie of those things wherein the Saints were at the first instructed God hath provided that the memoriall thereof should be recorded in his owne Booke that it might remaine for the time to come for ever and ever He then who out of that Booke is able to demonstrate that the doctrine or practice now prevailing swarveth from that which was at first established in the Church by the Apostles of Christ doth as strongly prove that a change hath beene made in the middle times as if hee were able to nominate the place where the time when and the person by whom any such corruption was first brought in In the Apostles dayes when a man had examined himselfe hee was admitted unto the Lords Table there to eate of that bread and drinke of that cup as appeareth plainly 1. Cor. 11.28 In the Church of Rome at this day the people are indeed permitted to eate of the bread if bread they may call it but not allowed to drinke of the cup. Must all of us now shut our eyes and sing Sicut erat in principio nunc unlesse we be able to tell by whom and when this first institution was altered By S. Pauls order who would have all things done to edification Christians should pray with understanding and not in an unknowne language as may be seene in the fourteenth chapter of the same Epistle to the Corinthians The case is now so altered that the bringing in of a tongue not understood which hindred the edifying of Babel it selfe and scattered the builders thereof is accounted a good meanes to further the edifying of your Babel and to hold her followers together Is not this then a good ground to resolve a mans judgement that things are not now kept in that order wherin they were set at first by the Apostles although he be not able to point unto the first author of the disorder And as wee may thus discover innovations by having recourse unto the first and best times so may wee doe the like by comparing the state of things present with the middle times of the Church Thus I finde by the constant and approved practice of the auncient Church that all sorts of people men women and children had free libertic to reade the holy Scriptures I finde now the contrary among the Papists and shall I say for all this that they have not removed the bounds which were set by the Fathers because perhaps I cannot name the Pope that ventured to make the first inclosure of these commons of Gods people I heare S. Hierâ—me say Iudith Tobiae Macchabaeorum libros legit quidem Ecclesia sed eos inter Canonicas Scripturas non recipit The Church doth reade indeed the books of Iudith and Toby and the Macchabees but doth not receive them for Canonicall Scripture I see that at this day the Church of Rome receiveth them for such May not I then conclude that betwixt S. Hieromes time and ours there hath beene a change and that the Church of Rome now is not of the same judgement with the Church of God theâ— howsoever I cannot precisely lay downe the time wherein shee first thought her selfe to be wiser herein then her Forefathers But here our Adversary closeth with us and layeth downe a number of points held by them and denied by us which he undertaketh to make good as well by the expresse testimonies of the Fathers of the Primitive Church of Rome as also by good and certaine grounds out of the sacred Scriptures if the Fathers authoritie will not suffice Where if hee would change his order and give the sacred Scriptures the precedency hee should therein do more right to God the author of them who well deserveth to have audience in the first place and withall ease both himselfe and us of a needlesse labour in seeking any further authority to compose our differences For if he can produce as he beareth us in hand he can good and certaine grounds oâ—t of the sacred Scriptures for the points in controversie the matter is at an end he that will not rest satisfied with such evidences as these may if he please travaile further and speed worse Therefore as S. Augustine heretofore provoked the Donatists so provoke I him Auferantur chartae humanae sonent voces divinae ede mihi unam Scripturae vocem pro parte Donati Let humane vvritings be removed let Gods voyce sound bring mee onâ—e voyce of the Scripture for the part of Donatus Produce but one cleere testimony of the sacred Scripture for the Popes part and it shall suffice alledge what authority you list without Scripture and it cannot suffice Wee reverence indeed the ancient Fathers as it is fit we should and hold it our duety to rise up before the hoare head and to honour the person of the aged but still with reservation of the respect we owe to their Father and ours that Ancient of dayes the hayre of vvhose head is like the pure vvooll We may not forget the lesson which our great Master hath taught us Call no man your Father upon the earth for one is your Father which is in heaven Him therefore alone doe wee acknowledge for the Father of our Faith no other Father doe we know upon whose bare credite
scholies upon the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy wisheth us to marke that even before his time that doubt was questioned Among the questions wherein Dulcitius desired to be resolved by S. Augustin we finde this to be one Whether the offering that is made for the dead did avayle their soules any thing and that MANY did say to this that if herein any good were to be done after death how much rather should the soule it selfe obtaine ease for it selfe by it owne confessing of her sinnes there than that for the ease thereof an oblation should be procured by other men The like also is noted by Cyrill or rather Iohn Bishop of Ierusalem that he knew MANY who said thus What profite doth the soule get that goeth out of this world eyther with sinnes or not with sinnes if you make mention of it in prayer and by Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus Some doe doubt saying that the dead are not profited by the oblations that are made for them and long after them by Petrus Cluniacensis in his treatise against the followers of Peter Bruse in France That the good deeds of the living may profit the dead both these hereticks doe deny and some Catholicks also do seeme to doubt Nay in the West not the profite onely but the lawfulnesse also of these doings for the dead was called in question as partly may be collected by Boniface archbishop of Mentz his consulting with Pope Gregory about 730. yeares after the birth of our Saviour Whether it were lawfull to offer oblations for the dead which hee should have no reason to doe if no question had beene made thereof among the Germans and is plainly delivered by Hugo Etherianus about 1170. yeares after Christ in these words I know that many are deformed with vaine opinions thinking that the dead are not to be prayed for because that neither Christ nor the Apostles that succeeded him have intimated these things in the Scriptures But they are ignorant that there be many things and those exceeding necessary frequented by the holy Church the tradition whereof is not had in the Scriptures and yet they pertaine neverthelesse to the worship of God and obtaine great strength Whereby it may appeare that this practise wanted not opposition even then when in the Papacie it was advanced unto his greatest height And now is it high time that I should passe from this article unto the next following OF LIMBVS PATRVM And CHRISTS DESCENT INTO HELL HEre doth our Challenger undertake to prove against us not only that there is Limbus Patrum but that our Saviour also descended into Hell to deliver the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament because before his Passion none ever entred into Heaven That there was such a thing as Limbus Patrum I have heard it said but what it is now the Doctors varie yet agree all in this that Limbus it may well be but Limbus Patrum sure it is not Whether it were distinct from that place in which the infants that depart out of this life without baptisme are now beleeved to be received the Divines doe doubt neyther is there any thing to be rashly pronounced of so doubtfull a matter saith Maldonat the Iesuite The Dominican Friars that wrote against the Grecians at Constantinople in the yeare 1252 resolve that into this Limbus the holy Fathers before the comming of Christ did descend but now the children that depart vvithout baptisme are detained there so that in their iudgement that which was the Limbus of Fathers is now become the Limbus of Children The more common opinion is that these be two distinct places and that the one is appointed for unbaptized infants but the other now remayneth voide and so shall remaine that it may beare witnesse aswell of the justice as of the mercie of God If you demand how it came to be thus voyd emptied of the old inhabitants the answer is here given that our Saviour descended into Hell purposely â—o deliver from hence the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament But Hell is one thing I ween saith Tertullian and Abrahams bâ—some where the Fathers of the old Testament rested another neyther is it to be beleeved that the bosome of Abraham being the habitation of a secret kinde of rest was any part of Hell saith S. Augustin To say then that our Saviour descended into Hell to deliver the ancient Fathers of the old Testament out of Limbus Patrum would by this construction prove as strange a tale as if it had beene reported that Caesar made a voyage into Brittaine to set his friends at libertie in Greece Yea but before Christs Passion none ever entred into Heaven saith our Challenger The proposition that Cardinall Bellarmine taketh upon him to prove where he handleth this controversie is that the soules of the godly were not in Heaven before the Asâ—ension of Christ. Our Iesuite it seemeth considered here with himselfe that Christ had promised unto the penitent theefe upon the crosse that not before his ascension only but also before his resurrection even that day he should be with him in Paradise that is to say in the kingdome of heaven as the Cardinaâ—l himselfe doth prove both by the authoritie of S. Paul making Paradise and the third heaven to be the selfe same thing and by the testimony of the ancient expositors of the place This belike stuck somewhat in our Iesuites stomack who being loath to interpret this of his Limbus Patrum as others of that side had done and to maintaine that Paradise in stead of the third Heaven should signifie the third or the fourth Hell thought it best to shift the matter handsomely away by taking upon him to defend that not before Christs ascension least that of the Thiefe should crosse him but before his passion none ever entred into Heaven But if none before our Saviours Passion did ever enter into Heaven whither shall we say that Elias did enter The Scripture assureth us that he went up into heaven 2. Kings 2.11 of this Mattathias put his sonnes in mind upon his death-bedd that Elias being zealous and fervent for the law was taken up into heaven Elias and Moses both before the passion of Christ are described to be in glory Lazarus is carried by the Angells into a place of comfort and not of imprisonment in a word all the Fathers accounted themselves to be strangers and pilgrims in this earth seeking for a better countrey that is an heavenly as well as we doe and therefore having ended their pilgrimage they arrived at the country they sought for as well as wee They beleeved to be saved through the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ as well as we they lived by that faith as well as we they dyed in Christ as well as we they received remission of sinnes imputation of
blessed Virgin is superior to God and God himselfe is subject unto her in respect of the manhood which he assumed from her that howsoever she be subject unto God inasmuch as she is a creature yet is she said to be superior and preferred before him inasmuch as she is his mother Then men were put in minde that by sinning after Baptisme they seemed to contemne and despise the passion of Christ and so that no sinner doth deserve that Christ should any more make intercession for him to the Father without whose intercession none can be delivered eyther from the eternall punishment or the temporall nor from the fault which he hath voluntarily committed And therefore that it was necessary that Christ should constitute his welbeloved Mother a Mediatrix betwixt us and him and so in this our pilgrimage there is no other refuge left unto us in our tribulations and adversities but to have recourse unto the Virgin Mary our mediatrix that she would appease the wrath of her Sonne That as He is ascended into heaven to appeare in the sight of God for men Hebr. 9.24 so Shee ought to ascend thither to appeare in the sight of her Sonne for sinners that so mankinde might have alwayes before the face of God a Helpe like unto Christ for the procuring of his salvation That this Empresse is of so great authoritie in the palace of Heaven that it is lawfull to appeale unto her from any grievance all other intermediall Saints omitted for howsoever according to the Civill law the due meane must be observed in Appeales yet in her the style of the Canon law is observed wherein the Pope is appealed unto any intermediall whatsoever omitted That she is a Chancellour in the Court of heaven and giveth letters of mercy onely in this present life but for the soules that depart from hence unto some letters of pure graâ—e unto others of simple justice and unto some mixt of justice and grace For some say they were much devoted unto her and unto them shee giveth letters of pure grace whereby shee commandeth glory to be given them without any paine of Purgatorie Others were miserable sinners and not devoted to her and unto them she giveth letters of simple justice whereby shee commandeth that condigne punishment be taken of them Others were lukewarme and remisse in devotion and unto them she giveth letters of justice and grace together whereby shee commandeth that both favour be done unto them and yet some paine of Purgatorie bee inflicted upon them for their negligence and sluggishnesse And these things they say are signified in Queene Esther who wrote letters that the Iewes should be saved and the enemies should be killed and to the poore small giftes should be given Yea further also where King Assuerus did profer unto the said Esther even the halfe of his Kingdome Esth 5.3 thereby they say was signified that God bestowed halfe of his kingdome upon the blessed Virgin that having Iustice and Mercie as the chiefest goods of his Kingdome he retayned Iustice unto himselfe and granted mercie unto her therefore that if a man do finde himselfe aggrieved in the court of Gods justice he may appeale to the court of mercie of his mother shee being that throne of grace whereof the Apostle speaketh Hebr. 4.16 Let us goe boldly unto the throne of grace that we may receive mercie and finde grace to helpe in time of neede They tell us that it is for the ornament of an earthly kingdome that it should have both a King a Queene and therefore when any King hath not a wife his subjects often doe request him to take one Hereupon they say that the eternall King and omnipotent Emperor minding to adorne the kingdome of heaven above did frame this blessed Virgin to the end he might make her the Ladie and Empresse of his kingdome and empyre that the prophecie of David might be verified saying unto her in the Psalme Vpon thy right hand did stand the Queene in clothing of gold That she is an Empresse because she is the spouse of the eternall Emperor of whoÌ„ it is said Ioh. 3.29 He that hath the bride is the bridegrome and that when God did deliver unto her the empyre of the world and all the things contayned therein he sayd unto her that which wee reade in the first of the Aeneids His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono Imperium sine sine dedi That shee is the Empresse also of heaven and earth because she did beare the heavenly Emperour and therefore that shee can aske of him what she will and obtaine it that this was figured in the historie of the Kings where the mother of Salomon said unto him I desire one petition of thee doe not confounde my face for then should hee confound her face if he did denie that which she requested and that if in respect of her maternall jurisdicton she hath command of her Sonne vvho was subject unto her as vve reade Luke 2.51 then much more hath she command over all the creatures that are subject to her Sonne That this mightie God did as farre as he might make his Mother partner of his divine majestie and power giving unto her of old the soveraignetie both of celestiall things and mortall ordering at her pleasure as the patronage of men did require the earth the seas heaven and nature at her liking and by her bestowing upon mortall men his divine treasures and heavenly gifts So as all might understand that whatsoever doth flowe into the earth from that eternall and glorious fountayne of good things doth flowe by MARIE That she is constituted over every creature and whosoever boweth his knee unto Iesus doth fall downe also and supplicate unto his mother so that the glory of the Sonne may be judged not so much to be common with the Mother as to be the verie same That so great is her glorie that she exceedeth the nature of Angels and Men joyned together as farre in glorie as the circumference of the firmament exceedeth his center in magnitude when shee understandeth her selfe in her Sonne to be as his other selfe clothed with the Deitie That she being the mother of God doth assume unto her selfe oâ— the omnipotencie of her Sonne upon which she leaneth as much as shee pleaseth and that shee doth come before the golden altar of humane reconciliation not intreating onely but commanding a Mistresse not a mayde They tell us that the blessed Virgin her selfe appeared once unto Thomas Becket used this speech unto him Rejoyce and be glad and bee joyfull with mee because my glorie doth excell the dignitie and joy of all the Saints all the blessed spirits I alone have greater glorie than all the Angels and Saints together Rejoyce because that as the Sunne doth inlighten the day and the world so my brightnesse doth
inlighten the whole celestiall world Rejoyce because the whole hoaste of heaven obeyeth me reverenceth and honoureth me Rejoyce because my Sonne is alwayes obedient unto me and my will and all my prayers he alwaies heareth or as others doe relate it The will of the blessed Trinitie and mine is one and the same and whatsoever doth please me the whole Trinitie with unspeakeable favour doth give consent unto Rejoyce because God doth alwayes at my pleasure reward my servitors in this world and in the world to come Rejoyce because I fit next to the holy Trinitie and am cloathed with my bodie glorified Rejoyce because I am certaine and sure that these my joyes shall alwayes stand and never be finished or â—ayle And whosoever by rejoycing with these spirituall joyes shall woâ—ship me in this world at the time of the depâ—rture of his soule out of the bodie he shall obtaine my presence and I will deliver his soule from the malignant enemies and present it in the sight of my Sonne that it may possesse joyes with me They tell us that manie many whoores for example that would not sinne on Saturday for the reverence of the Virgin whatsoever they did on the Lords day seeme to have the blessed Virgin in greater veneration than Christ her sonne moved thereunto out of simplicitie more than out of knowledge Yet that the Sonne of God doth beare with the simplicitie of these men and women because he is not ignorant that the honour of the mother doth redound to the childe Prov. 17.6 They argue further that if a Cardinall have this priviledge that if he put his cap upon the head of one that is ledd unto justice he is freed therby then by an argument drawn from the stronger the cloake of the blessed Virgin is able to deliver us froÌ„ all evil her mercy being so large that if she should see any man who did devoutly make her Crowne that is to say repeate the Rosarie or Chaplet of prayers made for her worship to be drawn unto punishmeÌ„t in the midst of a thousand Divels she would presently rescue him not permit that any one should have an evil end who did study revereÌ„tly to make her Crown They add moreover that for every of these Crownes a man shal obtaine 273758. dayes of Indulgence and that Pope Sixtus the fourth granted an indulgence of twelve thousand years for every time that a man in the state of grace should repeat this short orizon or salutation of the Virgin which by manie is inserted into her Crowne Hayle most holy Mary the mother of God the Queene of heaven the gate of Paradise the Ladie of the world Thou art a singular and pure virgin thou didst conceive Christ without sinne thou didst beare the creator and saviour of the world in whom I doe not doubt Deliver me from all evill and pray for my sinnes Amen In the Crowne composed by Bonaventure this is one of the orizons that is prescribed to be sayd O. Empresse and our most kinde Ladie by the authoritie of a mother command thy most beloved Sonne our Lord Iesus Christ that he would vouchsafe to lift up our mindes from the love of earthly things unto heavenly desires which is sutable unto that versicle which wee reade in the 35. Psalme of his Ladies Psalter Incline the countenance of God upon us compell him to have mercie upon sinners the harshenesse whereof our Romanists have a little qualified in some of their editions reading thus Incline the countenance of thy Sonne upon us compell him by thy praiers to have mercie upon us sinners The psalmes of this Psalter doe all of them begin as Davids doe but with this maine difference that where the Prophet in the one aymeth at the advancement of the honour of our Lord the Fryar in the other applieth all to the magnifying of the power and goodnesse of our Lady So in the first Psalme Blessed is the man quoth Bonaventure that loveth thy name O Virgin Marie thy grace shall comfort his soule in the others following Lady how are they multiplied that trouble me with thy tempest shalt thou persecute and scatter them Ladie suffer me not to be rebuked in the furie of God nor to bee judged in his wrath My Ladie in thee have I put my trust deliver me from mine enemies O Ladie In our Ladie put I my trust for the sweetenesse of the mercie of her name How long wilt thou forget me O Ladie and not deliver me in the day of tribulation Preserve me O Ladie for in thee have I put my trust and imparte unto me the droppes of thy grace I will love thee O Ladie of heaven and earth and I will call upon thy name among the nations The heavens declare thy glorie and the fragrance of thine oyntments is spread among the nations Heare us Ladie in the day of trouble and turne thy mercifull face unto our prayers Vnto thee O Lady have I lifted up my soule in the judgement of God by thy prayers I shall not be ashamed Iudge me Lady for I have departed from mine innocencie but because I will trust in thee I shall not be weakned In thee O Ladie have I put my trust let me never be confounded in thy favour receive me Blessed are they whose hearts doe love thee ô virgin Marie their sinnes by thee shall mercifully be washed away Lady judge those that hurt me and rise up against them and plead my cause Waiting have I waited for thy grace and thou hast done unto me according to the multitude of the mercie of thy name Lady thou art our refuge in all our necessities and the powerfull strength treading downe the enemie Have mercie upon me O Ladie who art called the mother of mercie and according to the bowels of thy mercies cleanse me from all mine iniquities Save me Ladie by thy name and deliver me from mine unrighteousnesse Have mercie upon me O Ladie have mercie upon me because my heart is prepared to search out thy will and in the shadow of thy wings will I rest Let Marie arise and let her enemies be scattered let them all be troaden downe under her feete In thee O Lady have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion deliver me in thy mercie and cause mee to escape Give the King thy judgement O God and thy mercie to the Queene his mother Lady the gentiles are come into the inheritance of God whom thou by thy merits hast confederated unto Christ. Thy mercies O Lady will I sing for ever God is the Lord of revenges but thou the mother of mercie dost bowe him to take pitie O come let us sing unto our Ladie let us make a joyfull noise to Mary our Queene that brings salvation O sing unto our Lady a new song for shee
know not when Such for example is that sacrilege of yours whereby you withhold from the people the use of the Cuppe in the Lords Supper as also your doctrine of Indulgences and Purgatorie which they reject and you defend For touching the first Gregorius de Valentia one of your principall Champions confesseth that the use of receiving the Sacrament in one kinde began first in some Churches and grew to be a generall custome in the Latin Church not much before the Councell of Constance in which at last to wit 200 yeres ago this custome was made a law But if you put the question to him as you doe to us What Bishop of Rome did first bring in this custome he giveth you this answer that it began to be used not by the decree of any Bishop but by the very use of the Churches and the consent of the faithfull If you further question with him quando primum vigere coepit ea consuetudo in aliquibus Ecclesijs When first did that custome get footing in some Churches he returneth you for answer Minimé constat it is more then he can tell The like doth Fisher Bishop of Rochester Cardinall Caietan give us to understand of Indulgences that no certaintie can be had what their originall was or by whom they were first brought in Fisher also further addeth concerning Purgatorie that in the ancient Fathers there is either none at all or very rare mention of it that by the Grecians it is not beleeved even to this day that the Latins also not all at once but by little and little received it and that Purgatorie being so lately knowen it is not to be mervailed that in the first times of the Church there was no use of Indulgences seeing these had their beginning after that men for a while had been affrighted with the torments of Purgatorie Out of which confession of the adverse part you may observe 1. What little reason these men have to require us to set down the precise time wherin all their profane novelties were first brought in seeing that this is more then they themselves are able to doe 2. That some of them may come in pedetentim as Fisher acknowledgeth Purgatory did by little and little and by very slow steps which are not so easie to be discerned as fooles be borne in hand they are 3. That it is a fond imagination to suppose that all such changes must be made by some Bishop or any one certaine author whereas it is confessed that some may come in by the tacite consent of manie and grow after into a generall custome the beginning whereof is past mans memorie And as some superstitious usages may draw their originall from the undiscreet devotion of the multitude so some also may be derived from want of devotion in the people and some alterations likewise must be attributed to the verie change of time it selfe Of the one we cannot give a fitter instance then in your private Masse wherein the Priest receiveth the Sacrament alone which Harding fetdheth from no other ground then lacke of devotion of the peoples part When you therefore can tell us in what Popes dayes the people fell from their devotion wee may chance tell you in what Popes dayes your private Masse began An experiment of the other wee may see in the use of the Latin Service in the Churches of Italy France and Spaine For if wee be questioned When that use first beganne there and further demanded Whether the language formerly used in their Liturgie was changed upon a suddaine our answer must be That Latin Service was used in those countries from the beginning but that the Latin tongue at that time was commonly understood of all which afterward by little and little degenerated into those vulgar languages which now are used When you therefore shall be pleased to certifie us in what Popes dayes the Latin tongue was changed into the Italian French and Spanish which we pray you doe for our learning wee will then give you to understand that from that time forward the language not of the Service but of the people was altered Nec enim lingua vulgaris populo subtracta est sed populus ab eà recessit saith Erasmus The vulgar tongue vvas not taken away from the people but the people departed from it If this which I have said will not satisfie you I would wish you call unto your remembrance the answer which Arnobius sometimes gave to a foolish question propounded by the enimies of the Christian faith Nec si nequivero causas vobis exponere cur aliquid fiat illo vel hoc modo continuo sequitur ut infecta fiant quae facta sunt And consider whether I may not returne the like answer unto you If I be not able to declare unto you by what Bishop of Rome and in what Popes daies the simplicitie of the ancient faith was first corrupted it will not presently follow that vvhat vvas done must needs by undone Or rather if you please call to mind the Parable in the Gospel where the kingdome of heaven is likened unto a man vvhich sowed good seede in his field but vvhile men slept his enemy came and sowed Tares among the Wheat and went his vvay These that slept tooke no notice when or by whom the Tares were scattered among the Wheat neither at the first rising did they discerne betwixt the one and the other though they were awake But vvhen the blade vvas sprung up and brought forth fruit then appeared the Tares and then they put the question unto their Master Sir didst not thou sow good seed in thy field from whence then hath it tares Their Master indeed telleth them it was the enemies doing but you could tell them otherwise and come upon them thus You yourselves graunt that the seed which was first sowen in this field was good seed and such as was put there by your Master himselfe If this which you call Tares be no good graine and hath sprung from some other seed then that which was sowen here at first I would faine knowe that mans name who was the sower of it and likewise the time in which it was sowen Now you being not able to shew either the one or the other it must needes be that your eyes here deceive you or if these be tares they are of no enemies but of your Masters owne sowing To let passe the slumbrings of former times wee could tell you of an age wherein men not only slept but also snorted it was if you know it not the tenth from Christ the next neighbour to that wherein Hell broke loose That Vnhappie age as Genebrard and other of your owne Writers terme it exhausted both of men of account for vvit and learning and of vvorthy Princes and Bishops In which there were no famous Writers nor Councells then which if wee will credite Bellarmine there was never age
calumniators and lyars or a Parrat likewise if hee be taught the words may aswel absolve as the Priest as if the speech were all the thing that here were to be considered and not the power where we are taught that the kingdome of God is not in word but in power Indeed if the Priests by their office brought nothing with them but the ministerie of the bare letter a Parrat peradventure might be taught to sound that letter as well as they but we beleeve that God hath made them able ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the spirit and that the Gospell ministred by them commeth unto us not in word onely but also in power and in the holy Ghost and in much assurance For God hath added a speciall beautie to the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace that howsoever others may bring glad tydings of good things to the penitent sinner as truely as they doe yet neyther can they doe it with the same authoritie neyther is it to be expected that they should doe it with such power such assurance and such full satisfaction to the afflicted conscience The speech of everie Christian we know should be employed to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers and a private brother in his place may deliver found doctrine reprehend vice exhort to righteousnesse verie commendably yet hath the Lord notwithstanding all this for the necessarie use of his Church appointed publicke officers to doe the same things and hath given unto them a peculiar power for edification wherein they may boast above others and in the due execution whereof God is pleased to make them instruments of ministring a more plentifull measure of grace unto their hearers then may be ordinarily looked for from others These men are appointed to bee of Gods high commission and therefore they may speake and exhort and rebuke with all authoritie· they are Gods Angels and Ambassadors for Christ and therefore in delivering their message are to be received as an Angel of God yea as Christ Iesus that looke how the Prophet Esay was comforted when the Angel said unto him Thine iniquitie is taken away and thy sinne purged and the poore woman in the Gospell when Iesus said unto her Thy sinnes are forgiven the like consolation doth the distressed sinner receive from the mouth of the Minister when hee hath compared the truth of Gods word faithfully delivered by him with the worke of Gods grace in his owne heart according to that of Elihu If there be an Angel or a messenger with him an Interpreter one of a thousand to declare unto man his righteousnesse then will God have mercy upon him and say Deliver him from going downe to the pit I have received a reconciliation For as it is the office of this messenger and interpreter to pray us in Christs stead that we would be reconciled to God so when wee have listened unto this motion and submitted our selves to the Gospell of peace it is a part of his office likewise to declare unto us in Christs stead that we are reconciled to God and in him Christ himselfe must bee acknowledged to speake who to us ward by this meanes is not weake but is mightie in us But our new Masters will not content themselves with such a ministeriall power of forgiving sinnes as hath beene spoken of unlesse we yeeld that they have authoritie so to doe properly directly and absolutely that is unlesse wee acknowledge that their high Priest sitteth in the Temple of God as God and all his creatures as so manie demi-gods under him For we must say if we will be drunke with the drunken that in this high Priest there is the fulnesse of all graces because hee alone giveth a full indulgence of all sinnes that this may agree unto him which we say of the chiefe prince our Lord that of his fulnesse all we have received Nay wee must acknowledge that the meanest in the whole armie of Priests that followeth this king of pride hath such fulnesse of power derived unto him for the opening and shutting of heaven before men that forgivenesse is denyed to them whom the Priest will not forgive and his Absolution on the other side is a sacramentall act which conferreth grace by the worke wrought that is as they expound it actively and immediately and instrumentally effecteth the grace of justification in such as receive it that as the winde doth extinguish the fire and dispell the clowdes so doth the Priests absolution scatter sinnes and make them to vanish away the sinner being thereby immediately acquitted before God howsoever that sound conversion of heart be wanting in him which otherwise would be requisite for a conditionall Absolution upon such termes as these If thou doest beleeve and repent as thou oughtest to doe is in these mens judgement to no purpose and can give no securitie to the penitent seeing it dependeth upon an uncertaine condition Have wee not then just cause to say unto them as Optatus did unto the Donatistes Nolite vobis Majestatis dominium vendicare Intrude not upon the royall prerogative of our Lord and Master No man may challenge this absolute power of the keyes but he that hath the key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth hee to whom the Father hath given power over all flesh yea all power in heaven and in earth even the eternall Sonne of God who hath in his hands the keyes of death and is able to quicken whom he will The Ministers of the Gospell may not meddle with the matter of soveraignetie and thinke that they have power to proclaime warre or conclude peace betwixt God and man according to their owne discretion they must remember that they are Ambassadors for Christ and therefore in this treatie are to proceed according to the instructions which they have received from their soveraigne which if they doe transgresse they goe beyond their commission therein they doe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their authoritie for so much is plainly voyde The Bishop saith S. Gregory and the Fathers in the Councell of Aquisgran following him in loosing and binding those that are under his charge doth follow oftentimes the motions of his owne will and not the merit of the causes Whence it commeth to passe that he depriveth himselfe of this power of binding and loosing who doth exercise the same according to his owne will and not according to the manners of them which be subject unto him that is to say he maketh himselfe worthy to be deprived of that power which he hath thus abused as the Master of the Sentences and Semeca in his Glosse upon Gratian would have S. Gregories meaning to be expounded and pro tanto as hath
granted to the faithfull and punishment to the unfaithfull Wee are not to put on black mourning garments here when our friends there have put on white This is not a going out but a passage and this temporall journey being finished a going over to eternitie Let us therefore embrace the day that bringeth every one to his owne house which having taken us away from hence and loosed us from the snares of this world returneth us to Paradise and to the kingdome of heaven The same holy Father in his Apologie which hee wrote for Christians unto Demetrian the proconsul of Africk affirmeth in like maner that the end of this temporall life being accomplished we are divided into the habitations of everlasting eyther death or immortalitie When we are once departed from hence there is now no farther place for repentance neyther any effect of satisfaction here life is eyther lost or obtayned But if thou saith he even at the very end and setting of thy temporall life dost pray for thy sinnes and call upon the onely true God with confession and faith pardon is given to thee confessing and saving forgivenesse is granted by the divine piety to thee beleeving and at thy very death thou hast a passage unto immortalitie This grace doth Christ impart this gift of his mercy doth he bestow by subduing death with the triumph of his crosse by redeeming the beleever with the price of his blood by reconciling man unto God the Father by quickening him that is mortall with heavenly regeneration Where Salomon sayeth Ecclesiast 12.5 that man goeth to his everlasting house and the mourners goe about in the street S. Gregory of Neocaesarea maketh this paraphrase upon those words The good man shall goe rejoycing unto his everlasting house but the wicked shall fill all with lamentations Therefore did the Fathers teach that men should rejoyce at their death and the ancient Christians framed their practise accordingly not celebrating the day of their nativitie which they accounted to be the entry of sorrowes and temptations but celebrating the day of death as being the putting away of all sorrowes and the escaping of all temptations And so being filled with a divine rejoycing they came to the extremitie of death as vnto the end of their holy combates where they did more clearely behold the way that ledd unto their immortalitie as being now made neerer and did therefore prayse the gifts of God and were replenished with divine joy as now not fearing any change to worse but knowing well that the good things which they possessed shall be firmely and everlastingly enjoyed by them The author of the Questions and Answeres attributed to Iustin Martyr writeth thus of this matter After the departure of the soule out of the body there is presently made a distinction betwixt the just and the unjust For they are brought by the Angels to places fit for them the soules of the righteous to Paradise vvhere they have the commerce and sight of Angels and Archangels c. the soules of the unjust to the places in hell That is not death saith Athanasius that befalleth the righteous but a translation for they are translated out of this world into everlasting rest and as a man would goe out of a prison so doe the Saints goe out of this troublesome life unto those good things that are prepared for them S. Hilary out of that which is related in the Gospell of the rich man and Lazarus observeth that as soone as this life is ended everie one without delay is sent over either to Abrahams bosome or to the place of torment and in that state reserved untill the day of judgement S. Ambrose in his booke of the good of Death teacheth us that death is a certaine haven to them who being tossed in the great Sea of this life desire a rode of safe quietnesse that it maketh not a mans state worse but such as in findeth in every one such it reserveth unto the future judgement and refresheth with rest that thereby a passage is made from corruption to incorruption from mortalitie to immortalitie from trouble to tranquillity Therefore he saith that where fooles doe feare death as the chiefe of evills wise men do desire it as a rest after labours and an end of their evills and upon these grounds exhorteth us that when that day commeth wee should goe without feare to Iesus our redeemer without feare to the Councell of the Patriarches without feare to Abraham our father that without feare wee should addresse our selves unto that assembly of Saints and congregation of the righteous forasmuch as we shall goe to our fathers we shall goe to those schoolemasters of our faith that albeit our workes fayle us yet faith may succour us and our title of inheritance defend us Macarius writing of the double state of those that depart out of this life affirmeth that when the soule goeth out of the bodie if it be guiltie of sinne the Divell carrieth it away with him unto his place but when the holy servants of God remove out of their bodie the quyers of Angells receive their soules unto their owne side unto the pure world and so bring them unto the Lord. and in another place moving the question concerning such as depart out of this world sustayning two persons in their soule to wit of sinne and of grace whither they shall go that are thus held by two parts hee maketh answere that thither they shall goe where they have their minde and affection setled For the Lord saith hee beholding thy minde that thou fightest and lovest him with thy whole soule separateth death from thy soule in one houre for this is not hard for him to doe and taketh thee into his owne bosome and unto light For he plucketh thee away in the minute of an houre from the mouth of darkenesse and presently translateth thee into his owne kingdome For God can easily doe all these things in the minute of an houre this provided only that thou bearest love unto him then which what can be more direct against the dreame of Popish Purgatorie This present world is the time of repentance the other of retribution this of working that of rewarding this of patient suffering that of receiving comfort saith S. Basil. Gregory Nazianzen in his funerall orations hath manie sayings to the same purpose being so farre from thinking of anie Purgatorie paynes prepared for men in the other world that hee plainely denieth that after the night of this present life there is any purging to be expected and therefore hee telleth us that it is better to be corrected and purged now than to be sent unto the torment there where the time of punishing is and not of purging S. Hierome comforteth Paula for the death of her daughter Blaesilla in this mater Let the dead be lamented but such a
labouâ—ed in vaine 1. Thessal 2.19 For what is our hope or joy or crowne of rejoycing are not even yee in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his comming 1. Pet. 1. â— Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation readie to be revealed in the last time 1. Corinth 5.5 That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Iâ—sus Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed unto the day of redemption Luk. 21.28 When these things beginne to come to passe then looke up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh 2. Timoth. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righâ—eousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and Luk. 14.14 Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just And that the Church in her Offices for the dead had speciall respect unto this time of the Resurrection appeareth plainly both by the portions of Scripture appointed to be read therein and by diverse particulars in the prayers themselves that manifestly discover this intention For there the ministers as the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy reporteth read those undoubted promises vvhich are recorded in the divine Scriptures of our holy ResurrectioÌ„ and then devoutly sang such of the sacred Psalmes as were of the same subject and argument And so accordingly in the Romane Missall the lessons ordained to be read for that time are taken from 1. Corinth 15. Behold I tell you a mysterie Wee shall all rise againe c. Ioh. 5. The houre commeth wherein all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life c. 1. Thessal 4. Brethren we would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleepe that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope Ioh. 11. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me although he were dead shall live 2. Maccab. 12. Iudas caused a sacrifice to be offered for the sinnes of the dead justly and religiously thinking of the Resurrection Ioh. 6. This is the will of my Father that sent me that every one that seeth the Sonne and beleeveth in him may have life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and lastly Apocal. 14. I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth now saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours for their workes follow them Wherewith the Sequence also doth agree beginning Dies irae dies illa Solvet saeclum in favillâ Teste David cum Sibyllâ and ending Lacrymosa dies illa Quâ resurget ex favillâ Iudicandus homo reus Huic ergo parce Deus Pie Iesu Domine Dona eis requiem Tertullian in his booke de Monogamiâ which hee wrote after hee had beene infected with the heresie of the Montanists speaking of the prayer of a widow for the soule of her deceased husband saith that she requesteth refreshing for him and a portion in the first resurrection Which seemeth to have some tang of the error of the Millenaries whereunto not Tertullian onely with his Prophet Montanus but Nepos also and Lactantius and diverse other Doctors of the Church did fall who misunderstanding the prophecie in the 20. of the Revelation imagined that there should be a first resurrection of the just that should raigne here a thousand yeares upon earth and after that a second resurrection of the wicked at the day of the general judgement Yet in a certaine Gotthicke Missall I meet with two severall exhortations made unto the people to pray after the selfe same forme the one that God would vouchsafe to place in the bosome of Abraham the soules of those that be at rest and admit them unto the part of the first resurrectioÌ„ the other which I find elsewhere also repeated in particular that he would place in rest the spirits of their friends which were gone before them in the Lords peace and rayse them up in the part of the first resurrection Which how it may be excused otherwise then by saying that at the generall resurrection the dead in Christ shall rise fiâ—st and then the wicked shall be raysed after them and by referring the first resurrection unto the resurrection of the just which shall be at that day I cannot well resolve For certaine it is that the first râ—surrection spoken of in the 20. chapter of the Revelation of S. Iohn is the resuâ—rection of the soule from the death of sinne and error in this world as the second is the resurrection of the bodie out of the dust of the earth in the world to come both whiâ—h be distinctly layd down by our Saviour in the fift chapter of the Gospell of S. Iohn the first in the 25. verse The houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live the second in the 28. and 29. Marveile not at this for the houre is comming in which all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation And to this generall resurrection and to the judgement of the last day had the Church relation in her prayers some patternes whereof it will not be amisse to exhibit here in these examples following Although the condition of death brought in upon mankinde doth make our hearts and mindes heavy yet by the gift of thy clemencie we are raised up with the hope of future immortalitie and being mindfull of eternall salvation are not afraid to sustaine the losse of this light For by the benefite of thy grace life is not taken away to the faithful but changed and the soules being freed from the prison of the body abhorre things mortall when they attaine unto things eternall Wherefore we beseech thee that thy servant N. being placed in the tabernacles of the blessed may rejoyce that he hath escaped the straytes of the flesh and in the desire of glorification expect with confidence the day of Iudgement Through Iesus Christ our Lord. whose holy passion we celebrate without doubt for immortall and well resting soules for them especially upon whom thou hast bestowed the grace of the second birth who by the example of the same Iesus Christ our Lord have begunne to be secure of the resurrection For thou vvho hast made the things that were not art able to repaire the things that were and hast given unto us evidences of the resurrection to come not onely by the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but also by the
particular error which seemeth to have gotten head in his time as being most plausible to the multitude and very pleasing unto the looser sort of Christians therein he did well but that thereupon he condemned the generall practise of the Church which had no dependance upon that erroneous conceipt therein he did like unto himselfe headily and perversely For the Church in her Commemorations and prayers for the dead had no relation at all unto those that had ledd their lives lewdly and dissolutely as appeareth plainly both by the author of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy and by diverse other evidences before alledged but unto those that did end their lives in such a godly maner as gave pregnant hope unto the living that their soules were at rest with God and to such as these alone did it wish the accomplishment of that which remained of their redemption to wit their publick justification and solemne acquitall at the last day and their perfect consummation of blisse both in body and soule in the kingdome of heaven for ever after not that the event of these things was conceived to be anie wayes doubtfull for wee have beene told that things may be prayed for the event whereof is knowne to be most certaine but because the commemoration thereof was thought to serve for speciall use not onely in regard of the manifestation of the affection of the living toward the dead he that prayed as Dionysius noteth desiring other mens gifts as if they were his owne graces but also in respect of the consolation and instruction which the living might receive thereby as Epiphanius in his answer to Aërius doth more particularly declare The obiection of Aërius was this The Commemorations and prayers used in the Church bring no profit to the dead therefore as an unprofitable thing they are to be reiected To this doth Epiphanius thus frame his answer As for the reciting of the names of those that are deceased what can be better then this what more commodious and more admirable that such as are present do beleeve that they who are departed do live and are not extinguished but are still being and living with the Lord and that this most pious preaching might be declared that they who pray for their brethren have hope of them as being in a peregrination Which is as much in effect as if he had denied Aërius his consequence and answered him that although the dead were not profited by this action yet it did not therefore follow that it should be condemned as altogether unprofitable because it had a singular use otherwise namely to testifie the faith and the hope of the living concerning the dead the faith in declaring them to be alive for so doth Dionysius also expound the Churches intention in her publick nomination of the dead and as Divinitie teacheth not mortified but translated from death unto a most divine life the hope in that they signified hereby that they accounted their brethren to have departed from them no otherwise than as if they had beene in a journey with expectation to meet them afterward and by this meanes made a difference betwixt themselves and others which had no hope Then doth Epiphanius proceed further in answering the same objection after this maner The prayer also which is made for them doth profite although it do not cut off all their sinnes yet forasmuch as whilest we are in the world we oftentimes slip both unwillingly and with our will it serveth to signifie that which is more perfect For we make a memoriall both for the just and for sinners for sinners intreating the mercy of God for the just both the Fathers and Patriarches the Prophets and Apostles and Euangelists and Martyrs and Confessors Bishâ—ps also and Anchorites and the whole order that vve may sever our Lord Iesus Christ from the ranke of all other men by the honour that we doe unto him and that we may yeeld worship unto him Which as farre as I apprehend him is no more then if he had thus replyed unto Aërius Although the prayer that is made for the dead doe not cut off all their sinnes which is the onely thing that thou goest about to prove yet doth it profite notwithstanding for another purpose namely to signifie the supereminent perfection of our Saviour Christ above the rest of the sonnes of men who are subiect to manifold slipps and falls as long as they live in this world For aswell the righteous with their involuntarie slipps as sinners with their voluntarie falls doe come within the compasse of these Commemorations wherein prayers are made both for sinners that repent and for righteous persons that have no such need of repentance For sinners that being by their repentance recovered out of the snare of the Divell they may finde mercy of the Lord at the last day and bee freed from the fire prepared for the Divell and his angells For the righteous that they may be recompensed in the resurrection of the iust and received into the kingdome prepared for them from the foundation of the world Which kinde of prayer being made for the best men that ever lived even the Patriarches Prophets Apostles Euangelists and Martyrs themselves Christ onely excepted sheweth that the profite which the Church intended should be reaped therefrom was not the taking away of the sinnes of the parties that were prayed for but the honouring of their Lord above them it being hereby declared that our Lord is not to be compared unto any man though a man live in righteousnesse a thousand times and more for how should that be possible considering that the one is God the other man as the praying to the one and for the other doth discover and the one is in heaven the other in earth by reason of the remaines of the body yet resting in the earth untill the day of the Resurrection unto which all these prayers had speciall reference This do I conceive to be the right meaning of Epiphanius his answer as suting best both with the generall intention of the Church which he taketh upon him to vindicate from the misconstruction of Aërius with the application therof unto his obiection with the known doctrine of Epiphanius delivered by him elsewhere in these terms After death there is no helpe to be gotten eyther by godlinesse or by repentance For Lazarus doth not goe there unto the rich man nor the rich man unto Lazarus neyther doth Abraham send any of his spoyles that the poore may be afterward made rich thereby neyther doth the rich man obtaine that which he asketh although hee intreat mercifull Abraham â—ith instant supplication For the Garners are sealed up and the time is fulfilled and the combat is finished and the lists are voyded and the Garlands are given and such as have fought are at rest and such as have not obtained are gone forth and such as have not fought cannot now be present in time
Angel should not be taken in the good part I know not whether any good man can endure to heare and therefore how we may beleeve that it is in Hell I doe not see Where it may further also be observed that S. Augustin doth here assigne no other place to this godly poore man then he doth unto the soules of all the faithfull that have departed since the comming of our Saviour Christ the question with him being alike of them both whether the place of their rest be designed by the name of Hell or Paradise Therefore he saith I confesse I have not yet found that it is called Hell where the soules of just men doe rest and againe How much more after this life may that bosome of Abraham be called Paradise where now there is no temptation where there is so great rest after all the griefes of this life For neyther is there wanting there a proper kinde of light and of it owne kinde aâ—d doubtlesse great which that rich man out of the torments and darknesse of Hell even from so remote a place where a great gulfe was placed in the midst did so behold that he might there take notice of the poore man whom sometime he had despised and elsewhere expounding that place in the 16. of S. Luke The bosome of Abraham saith he is the rest of the blessed poore whose is the kingdome of heaven in which after this life they are received Bede in his Commentaries upon the same place and Strabus in the ordinary Glosse doe directly follow S. Augustin in this exposition and the Greeke interpreter of S Luke who wrongly beareth the name of Titus Bostrensis and Chrysosâ—om for proofe thereof produceth the testimonie of Diâ—nysius Areopagita affirming that by the bosome of Abraham Isaac and Iacob those most divine and blessed seates are designed wâ—ich doe receive within them all just men after their most happy consummation The words that he hath relation unto be these in the 7. chapter of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy The bosomes of the blessed Paâ—riarches and of all the rest of the Saincts are as I thinke the most divine and blessed resting places which doe receiâ—e all such as are like unto God into that never-fading and most blessed perfection that is therein Hitherto appertaine those passages in S. Ambrose Come into the bosome of Iacob that as poore Lazarus did in the bosome of Abraham so thou also mayst rest in the tranquillitie of the patriarch Iacob For the bosome of the Patriarches is a certaine retyring place of everlasting rest We shall goe where holy Abraham openeth his bosome to receive the poore as he did receive Lazarus in which bosome they doe rest who in this world have endured grievous and sharpe things Into Paradise is a ascent into Hell a descent Let them descend saith he quick into Hell And therefore poore Lazarus was by the Angels lifted up into Abrahams bosome Behold that poore man abounding with all good things whom the blessed rest of the holy Patriarch did compasse about Lazarus lying in Abrahams bosome enjoyed everlasting life S. Chrysostom or whosoever else was the author of that homily touching the Rich man and Lazarus upon those wordes of the text that the rich man lifting up his eyes beheld Lazarus in Abrahams bosome moveth this question Why Lazarus did not see the rich man as well as the rich man is said to see Lazarus and giveth this answer thereunto because he that is in the light doth not see him that standeth in the darke but hee that is in the darke beholdeth him that is in the light taking it for granted that Abrahams bosome was a place of light and not of darkenesse He that wrote the Homily upon that sentence of the Psalme What man is he that would have life and desireth to see good dayes who is commonly also though not rightly accounted to be Chrysostom goeth further and saith that the rich man lifted up his eyes unto Heaven out of the place of torments and cryed unto father Abraham yea he expressely affirmeth there that the blessed poore man did go unto Heaven and the rich man covered with purple did remaine in Hell which agreeth well with that undoubted saying of S. Chrysostome himselfe Lazarus who vvas worthy of Heaven and the kingdome that is there being full of sores was exposed to the tongues of doggs and strove with perpetuall hunger and with that which he writeth elsewhere that after famine and soares and lying in the porch he enjoyed that refreshing which is impossible to be expressed by speech even unspeakable good things Whereunto may be added that collection of his out of the words of our Saviour Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit downe with Abraham and Isaak and Iacob in the kingdome of heaven Matth. 8.11 that this kingdome is designed here by a new terme of the bosome of Abraham and the consummation of all good called by the name of the bosomes of the Patriarches S. Basil in his sermon of Fasting placeth Lazarus in Paradise Dost not thou see Lazarus saith he how he entred by fasting into Paradise and the ancient compiler of the Latin sermon translated from thence frameth his exhortation accordingly Let us therefore use this way whereby we may returne unto Paradise Thither is Lazarus gone before us Asterius Bishop of Amasea placeth him in a sweet and joyous state Cyrill Bishop of Alexandria in unexpected delights Salvianus in blisse and everlasting wealth The poore man saith he bought blisse with beggerie the rich man punishment with wealth The poore man when he had just nothing bought everlasting riches with penury Gregory Nazianzen saith he was enriched with refreshment in the bosomes of Abraham that are so much to be desired Prudentius in his poeticall vaine describeth him to be there hedged about with floures as being in the garden of Paradise even in the same paradise wherein pure soules do now rest since the ascension of Christ. for thus he writeth Sed dum resolubile corpus Revocas Deus atque reformas Quânam regione jubebis Animam requiescere puram Gremio senis abdita sancti Recubabit ubi est Eleazar Quem floribus undique septum Dives procul adspicit ardens Sequimur tua dicta Redemptor Quibus atrâ é morte triumphans Tua per vestigia mandas Socium crucis ire latronem So where Iob sayeth Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thither the Greeke scholies expound it thus Thither namely unto God unto that blessed end and rest which the author of the Commentaries upon Iob ascribed to Origen expresseth thus at large Thither will I goe saith he where are the tabernacles of the righteous where the glories of the Saints are where is the rest of the faithfull where is the consolation
torments which by Arator is thus more amply expressed in verse pavidis resplenduit umbris Pallida regna petens propriâ quem luce corruscum Non potuit fuscare chaeos fugere dolores Infernus tunc esse timet nullumque coërcens In se poena redit nova tortor ad otia languet Tartara moesta gemunt quia vincula cuncta quiescunt Mors ibi quid faceret quò vitae portitor ibat S. Augustine doth thus deliver his opinion touching this matter That Christs soule came unto those places wherein sinners are punished that hee might loose them from torments whom by his hidden justice he judged fit to be loosed is not without cause beleeved Neyther did our Saviour being dead for us scorne to visite those parts that hee might loose from thence such as hee could not bee ignorant according to his divine and secret justice were not to bee loosed But whether hee loosed all that hee found in those paines or some whom hee thought worthy of that benefit I yet enquire For that he was in hell and bestowed this benefit upon some that did lye in the paines thereof I doe not doubt Thus did S. Augustine write unto Euodias who inquired of him whether our Saviour loosed all from thence and emptied Hell which was in those dayes a great question and gave occasion to that speech of Gregory Nazianzen If hee descend into Hell goe thou downe with him namely in contemplation and meditation learne the mysteries of Christs doings there what the dispensation and what the reason was of his double descent to wit from heaven unto earth from earth unto hell whether at his appearing he simply saved all or there also such only as did beleeve What ClemeÌ„s Alexandrinus his opinion was herein every one knoweth that our Lord descended for no other cause into Hell but to preach the Gospell and that such as lived a good life before the time of the Gospell whether Iewes or Grecians although they were in hell and in durance yet hearing the voyce of our Lord eyther from himselfe immediatly or by the working of his Apostles were presently converted and did beleeve in a word that in Hell things were so ordred that eveÌ„ there all the soules having heard this preaching might eyther shew their repentance or acknowledge their punishment to be just because they did not beleeve Hereupon when Celsus the Philosopher made this objection concerning our Saviour Surely you will not say of him that when hee could not perswade those that were heere hee went unto Hell to perswade those that were there Origen the scholler of Clemens sticketh not to returne unto him this answere Whether he will or no wee say this that both being in the bodie hee did perswade not a few but so many that for the multitude of those that were perswaded by him he was layd in wayt for and after his soule was separated from his body hee had conference with soules separated from their bodies converting of them unto himselfe such as would or such as he discerned to bee more fit for reasons best knowne unto himselfe The like effect of Christs preaching in Hell is delivered by Anastasius Sinaita Iobius or Iovius Damascen Oecumenius Michael Glycas and his transcriber Theodorus Metochites Procopius saith that hee preached to the spirits that were in Hell restrayned in the prison house releasing them all from the bonds of necessity wherein he followeth S. Cyrill of Alexandria writing upon the same place that Christ went to preach to the spirits in Hell and appeared to them that were detayned in the prison house and freed them all fâ—om bonds and necessitie and paine and punishment The same S. Cyrill in his Paschall homilies affirmeth more directly that our Saviour entring into the lowermost dennes of Hell and preaching to the spirits that were there emptied that unsatiable denne of death spoyled Hell of spirits and having thus spoyled all Hell left the Divell there solitarie and alone For when Christ descended into Hell sayth Andronicus not onely the soules of the Saints were delivered from thence but all those that before did serve in the error of the Divell and the worship of idols being enriched with the knowledge of God obtayned salvation for which also they gave thankes praysing God Whereupon the author of one of the sermons upon the Ascension fathered upon S. Chrysostom bringeth in the Divell complayning that the sonne of Mary having taken away from him all those that were with him from the verie beginning had left him desolate whereas the true Chrysostom doth at large confute this fond opinion censuring the maintayners thereof as the bringers in of old wives conceytes and Iewish fables Yea Philastrius S. Augustin out of him doth brand such for hereticks whose testimonie also is urged by S. Gregory against George and Theodore two of the clergie of Constantinople who held in his time as many others did before and after them that our omnipotent Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ descending into Hell did save all those vvho there confessed him to be God and did deliver them from the paines that were due unto them and when Clement our countryman about 150. years after did renue that old error in Germanie that the sonne of God descending into Hell delivered from thence all such as that infernall prison did detayne beleevers and unbeleevers praysers of God and worshippers of idols the Romane Synod held by Pope Zacharie condemned him and his followers for it But to leave Clemens Scotus and to returne unto Clemens Alexandrinus at whom Philastrius may seeme to have aymed specially it is confessed by our Adversaries that he fell into this error partly being deceived with the superficiall consideration of the wordes of S. Petâ—r touching Christs preaching to the spirits in prison 1. Pet. 3.19 partly being deluded with the authority of Hermes the supposed scholler of S. Paul by whose dreames he was perswaded to beleeve that not onely Christ himselfe but his Apostles also did descend into Hell to preach there unto the dead to baptize them But touching the wordes of S. Peter is the maine doubt whether they are to bee referred unto Christs preaching by the ministerie of Noë unto the world of the ungodly or unto his owne immediate preaching to the spirits in Hell after his death upon the Crosse. For seeing it was the spirit of Christ which spake in the Prophets as S. Peter sheweth in this same Epistle and among them was Noë a preacher of righteousnesse as hee declareth in the next even as in S. Paul Christ is sayd to have come and preached to the Ephesians namely by his spirit in the mouth of his Apostles so likewise in S. Peter may he be sayd to have gone and preached to the old world by
sentence of Diphilus the old Comicall Poet. In Hades we resolve there are two pathes the one whereof is the way of the righteous the other of the wicked But as in this generall they agreed together both among themselves and with the truth so touching the particular situation of this Hádes and the speciall places whereunto these two sorts of soules were disposed and the state of things there a number of ridiculous fictions and fond conceits are to be found among them wherein they dissented as much from one another as they did from the truth it selfe So we see for example that the best soules are placed by some of them in the companie of their Gods in heaven by others in the Galaxias or milky circle by others beyond the Ocean and by others under the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet one Hádes notwithstanding was coÌ„monly thought to have received them all Plato relateth this as a sentence delivered by them who were the first ordayners of the Grecian Mysteries Whosoever goeth to Hádes not initiated and not cleansed shal lye in the mire but he that commeth thither purged and initiated shall dwell with the Gods So Zoroaster the great father of the Magi in the East is said to have used this entrance into his discourse touching the things of the other world These things wrote Zoroaster the sonne of Armenius by race a Pamphylian having beene dead in the warre which I learned of the Gods being in Hades as Clemens Alexandrinus relateth in the fifth booke of his Stromata where he also noteth that this Zoroaster is that Er the sonne of Armenius a Pamphylian of whom Plato writeth in the tenth booke of his Common-wealth that being slain in the warre he revived the twelfth day after and was sent backe as a messenger to report unto men here the things which he had heard and seene in the other world one part of whose relation was this that he saw certaine gulfes beneath in the earth and above in the heaven opposite one to the other and that the just were commanded by the Iudges that sate betwixt those gulfs to go to the right hand up toward Heaven but the wicked to the left hand and downeward which testimonie Eusebius bringeth in among many others to shew the consent that is betwixt Plato and the Hebrewes in matters that concerne the state of the world to come Next to Zoroaster commeth Pythagoras whose golden verses are concluded with this distich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When thou shalt leave the body and come unto a free heaven thou shalt be an immortall God incorruptible and not subject to mortalitie any more So Epicharmus the scholler of Pythagoras If thou be godly in minde thou shalt suffer no evill when thou art dead thy spirit shall remaine above in heaven and Pindarus The soules of the ungodly flie under the heaven or under the earth in cruell torments under the unavoydable yoakes of evills but the soules of the godly dwelling in heaven doe prayse that great blessed one with songs and hymnes Ciâ—ero in his Tusculan questions alledgeth the testimony of Ennius approving the common fame that Romulus did lead his life in heaven with the Gods and in the sixth booke of his Common-wealth he bringeth in Scipio teaching that unto all them which preserve assist and enlarge their countrey there is a certaine place appointed in heavâ—n where they shall live blessed world without end Such a life saith he is the way to heaven and into the company of these who having lived and are now loosed from their body doe inhabite that place which thou seest pâ—inting to the Galaxiaes or milky circle whereof we reade thus also in Manilius An fortes animae dignatque nomina coelo Corporibus resoluta suis terraeque remissa Huc migrant ex orbe suumque habitantia coelum Aethereos vivunt annos mundoque fruuntur With Damascius the philosopher of Damascus this circle is the way of the soules that goe to the Hades in heaven Against whom Iohannes Philoponus doth reason thus from the etymologie of the word If they passe through the Galaxias or milky circle then this should be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hades that is in heaven and how can that be Hades which is so lightsome To which they that maintayned the other opinion would peradventure oppose that other common derivation of the word from the Dorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to please or to delight or that which Plato doth deliver in the name of Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from seeing or knowing all good things For there did Socrates looke to finde such things as appeareth by that speech which Plato in his Dialogue of the Soule maketh him to use the same day that he was to depart out of this life The soule being an invisible thing goeth hence into such another noble and pure and invisible place to Hades in truth unto the good and wise God whither if God will my soule must presently goe which place is alledged by Eusebius to prove that in the things which concerne the immortalitie of the soule Plato doth differ in opinion nothing from Moses The tale also which Socrates there telleth of the pure land seated above in the pure heaven though it have a number of toyes added to it as tales use to have yet the foundation thereof both Eusebius and Origen doe judge to have beene taken from the speeches of the Prophets touching the land of promise and the heavenly Canaan and for the rest Origen referreth us to Platoes interpreters affirming that they who handle his writings more gravely doe expound this tale of his by way of allegory Such another tale doth the same philosoper relate in the Dialogue which he intituleth Gorgias shewing that among men he that leadeth his life righteously and holily shall when he is dead goe unto the Fortunate Ilands and dwell in all happinesse free from evills but he that leadeth it unrighteously and impiously shall goe unto the prison of punishment and just revenge which they call Tartarus which Theodoret bringeth in to prove that Plato did exactly beleeve that there were judgements to passe upon men in Hades For being conversant with the Hebrewes saith he in Aegypt he heard without doubt the oracles of the Prophets and taking some things from thence and mingling other things therewith out of the fables of the Greekes made up his discourses of these things Among which mixtures that which he hath of the Fortunate Ilands is reckoned by Theodoret for one whereof you may reade in Hesiod Pindarus Diodorus Siculus Plutarch and Iosephus also who treating of the diverse sectes that were among the Iewes sheweth that the Essenes borrowed this opinion of the placing of good mens soules in a certaine pleasant habitation beyond
and darke dungeon of death that is into Hades adding afterward that Hades may rightly be esteemed to be the house and mansion of such as are deprived of life Nicephorus Gregoras in his funerall Oration upon Theodorus Metochites putteth in this for one strayne of his lamentation Who hath brought downe that heavenly man unto the bottome of Hades and Andrew archbishop of Crete touching the descent both of Christ and all Christians after him even unto the darke and comfortlesse Hades writeth in this maner If hee who was the Lord and master of all and the light of them that are in darknesse and the life of all men would taste death and undergoe the descent into Hell that he might be made like unto us in all things sinne excepted and for three dayes went thorough the sad obscure and darke region of Hell what strange thing is it that wee who are sinners and dead in trespasses according to the great Apostle who are subject to generation and corruption should meete with death and goe with our soule into the darke chambers of Hell where we cannot see light nor behold the life of mortall men For are wee above our Master or better then the Saints who underwent these things of ours after the like maner that we must doe Iuvencus intimateth that our Saviour giving up the ghost sent his soule unto heaven in those verses of his Tunc clamor Domini magno conamine missus Aethereis animam comitem commiscuit auris Eusebius Emesenus collecteth so much from the last words which our Lord uttered at the same time Father into thine hands I commend my spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His spirit was above and his body remayned upon the crosse for us In the Greeke exposition of the Canticles collected out of Eusebius Philo Carpathius and others that sentence in the beginning of the sixt chapter My beloved is gone down into his garden is interpreted of Christs going to the soules of the Saints in Hádes which in the Latin collections that beare the name of Philo Carpathius is thus more largely expressed By this descending of the Bridegrome we may understand the descending of our Lord Iesus Christ into Hell as I suppose for that which followeth proveth this when he sayeth To the beds of spices For those ancient holy men are not unfiâ—ly signified by the beds of spices such as were Noë Abraham Isaac Iacob Moses Iob David Samuel Elisaeus Daniel and very many others before the Law in the Law who all of them like unto beds of spices gave a most sweete smell of the odours and fruits of holy righteousnesse For then as a triumpher did he enter into PARADISE when he pierced into Hell God himselfe is present with us for a witnesse in this matter when he answered most graciously to the Thiefe upon the Crosse commending himselfe unto him most religiously To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Lastly touching this Paradise the various opinions of the ancient are thus layd downe by Olympiodorus to seeke no farther It is a thing worthy of enquirie in what place under the Sunne the righteous are placed which have left this life Certaine it is that in Paradise forasmuch as Christ said unto the Thiefe This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And it is to be knowne that the literall Tradition teacheth Paradise to be in earth But some have said that Paradise also is in Hell that is in a place under the earth unto which opinion of theirs they apply that of the Gospell where the rich man saw Lazarus being yet himselfe sunke downe in a lower place when Lazarus was in a place more eminent where Abraham was But howsoever the matter goeth this without doubt is manifest aswell out of Ecclesiastes as out of all the sacred Scripture that the godly shall be in prosperity and peace and the ungodly in punishments and torments And others are of the minde that Paradise is in the Heavens c. Hitherto Olympiodorus That Christs soule went into Paradise Doctor Bishop saith being well understood is true For his soule in hell had the joyes of Paradise but to make that an exposition of Christs descending into hell is to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it Yet this ridiculous exposition he affirmeth to be received of most Protestants Which is even as true as that which he avoucheth in the same place that this article of the descent into Hell is to be found in the old Roman Creed expounded by Ruffinus where Ruffinus as we have heard expounding that article delivereth the flat contrarie that it is not found added in the Creed of the Church of Rome It is true indeed that more than most Protestants do interprete the words of Christ uttered unto the Thiefe upon the Crosse Luk. 23.43 of the going of his soule into Paradise where our Saviour meaning simply and plainly that hee would be that day in Heaven M. Bishop would have him so to be understood as if he had meant that that day he would be in Hell And must it be now held more ridiculous in Protestants to take Hell for Paradise then in M. Bishop to take Paradise for Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the wordes of the Apostles Creed in the Greeke and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Symbol of Athanasius Some learned Protestants do observe that in these words there is no determinate mention made eyther of ascending or descending either of Heaven or Hell taking Hell according to the vulgar acception but of the generall only under which these contraries are indifferently comprehended and that the words literally interpreted import no more but this HEE WENT UNTO THE OTHER WORLD Which is not to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it as M. Bishop fancieth who may quickly make himselfe ridiculous in taking upon him thus to censure the interpretations of our learned linguistes unlesse his owne skill in the languages were greater then as yet he hath given proofe of Master Broughton with whose authoritie hee elsewhere presseth us as of a man esteemed to be singularly seene in the Hebrew and Greeke tongue hath beene but too forward in maintayning that exposition which by D. Bishop is accounted so ridiculous In one place touching the terme Hell as it doth answer the Hebrew Sheol and the Greeke Hádes he writeth thus He that thinketh it ever used for Tartaro or Gehenna otherwise then the terme Death may by Synecdoche import so hath not skill in Ebrew or that Greeke vvhich breathing and live Graecia spake if God hath lent me any judgement that way In another place he alledgeth out of Portus his Dictionary that the Macedonians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven And one of his acquaintance beyond the Sea reporteth that he should deliver that in many most ancient Manuscript copies the Lords prayer is found with this
and vve must pray to the Word of God his onely begotten and the first bornè of all creatures and we must intreat him that he as high Priest would present our prayer when it is come to him unto his God and our God unto his Father and the father of them that frame their life according to the word of God And whereas Celsus had further sayd that we must offer first fruits unto Angels and prayers as long as we live that we may finde them propitious unto us answere is returned by Origen in the name of the Christians that they held it rather fit to offer first fruits unto him which sayd Let the earth bring forth grasse the herbe yeelding seed and the fruite tree yeelding fruite after his kinde And to whom wee give the first fruites saith he to him also doe wee send our prayers having a great high Priest that is entred into the Heavens Iesus the Sonne of God and we hold fast this confession whiles we live having God favourable unto us and his onely begotten Sonne Iesus being manifested amongst us But if we have a desire unto a multitude whom we would willingly have to be favourable unto us we learne that thousand thousands stand by him and millions of millions minister unto him who beholding them that imitate their pietie towards God as if they were their kinsfolkes and friends helpe forward their salvation who call upon God and pray sincerely appearing also and thinking that they ought to doe service to them and as it were upon one watchword to set forth for the â—enefit and salvation of them that pray to God unto whom they themselves also pray For they are all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heires of salvation Thus farre Origen in his eight booke against Celsus to which for a conclusion we wil adde that place of the fift booke All prayers and supplications and intercessions and thankesgivings are to be sent up unto God the Lord of all by the high Priest who is above all Angels being the living Word and God For to call upon Angels we not comprehending the knowledge of them which is above the reach of man is not agreeable to reason And if by supposition it were granted that the knowledge of them which is wonderfull and secret might be comprehended this very knowledge declaring their nature unto us and the charge over which every one of them is set would not permit us to presume to pray unto any other but unto God the Lord over all who is aboundantly sufficient for all by our Saviour the Sonne of God Tertullian and Cyprian in the bookes which they purposely wrote concerning Prayer deliver no other doctrine but teach us to regulate all our prayers according unto that perfect patterne prescribed by our great Master wherein we are required to direct our petitions unto Our Father which is in heaven Matth. 6.9 Luk. 11.2 These things saith Tertullian in his Apologie for the Christians of his time I may not pray for from any other but from him of whom I know I shall obtayne them because both it is he who is alone able to give and I am he unto whom it appertayneth to obtayne that which is requested being 〈◊〉 servant who observe him alone who for his religion am killed who offer unto him a rich and great sacrifice which he himselfe hath commanded Prayer proceeding from a chaste body from an innocent soule from a holy spirit where he accounteth Prayer to be the chiefe sacrifice wherewith God is worshipped agreeably to that which Clemens Alexandrinus wrote at the same time We doe not without cause honour God by prayer and with righteousnesse send up this best and holyest sacrifice The direction given by Ignatius unto Virgins in this case is short and sweete Yee Virgins have Christ alone before your eyes and his Father in your prayers being inlightened by the Spirit for explication whereof that may be taken which we reade in the exposition of the Faith attributed unto S. Gregory of Neocaesarea Whosoever rightly prayeth unto God prayeth by the Sonne and whosoever commeth as he ought to doe commeth by Christ and to the Sonne he can not come without the holy Ghost Neyther is it to be passed over that one of the speciall arguments whereby the writers of this time do prove our Saviour Christ to bee truely God is taken from our praying unto him and his accepting of our petitions If Christ be onely man saith Novatianus how is he present being called upon every where seeing this is not the nature of man but of God that he can be present at every place If Christ be onely man why is a man called upon in our prayers as a mediatour seeing the invocation of a man is judged of no force to yeeld salvation If Christ be onely man why is there hope reposed in him seeing hope in man 〈◊〉 sayd to be cursed So is it noted by Origen that S. Paul in the beginning of the former epistle to the Corinthians where he saith With all that in every place call upon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1. Corinth 1.2 doth thereby pronounce Iesus Christ whose Name is called upon to be God And if to call upon the Name of the Lord saith he and to adore God bee one and the selfe same thing as Christ is called upon so is he to be adored and as we do offer to God the Father first of all prayers 1. Tim. 2.1 so must we also to the Lord Iesus Christ and â—s wee doe offer supplications to the Father so doe we offer supplications also to the Sonne and as wee doe offer thankesgivings to God so doe we offer thankesgivings to our Saviour In like maner Athanasius disputing against the Arrians by that prayer which the Apostle maketh 1. Thessal 3.11 God himselfe and our Father and our Lord Iesus Christ direct our way unto you doth prove the unitie of the Father and the Sonne For no man saith he would pray to receive any thing from the Father and the Angels or from any of the other creatures neyther would any man say God and the Angell give thee this And whereas it might be objected that Iacob in the blessing that he gave unto Ephraim and Manasseh Genes 48.15 16. did use this forme of prayer The God which fed me from my youth unto this day The Angel which delivered me from all evills blesse those children which Cardinall Bellarmine placeth in the forefront of the forces he bringeth forth to establish the Invocation of Saints Athanasius answereth that he did not couple one of the created and naturall Angels with God that did create them nor omitting God that fed him did desire a blessing for his nephews from an Angel but saying Which delivered me from all evills hee did shew that it was not any of the created Angels but
the WORD of God that is to say the Sonne whom he coupled with the Father and prayed unto and for further confirmation hereof he alledgeth among other things that neyther Iacob nor David did pray unto any other but God himselfe for their deliverance The place wherein we first finde the spirits of the deceased to be called unto rather then called upon is that in the beginning of the former of the Invectives which Gregory Nazianzen wrote against the Emperour Iulian about the CCCLXIV year of our Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heare ô thou soule of great Constantius if thou hast any understanding of these things and as many soules of the Kings before him as loved Christ. where the Greek Scholiast upon that parenthesis putteth this note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He speaketh according to the maner of Isocrates meaning If thou hast any power to heare the things that are here and therein he sayeth rightly for Isocrates useth the same forme of speech boâ—h in his Euagoras and in his Aegineticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they which be dead have any sense of the things that are done here The like limitation is used by the same Nazianzen toward the end of the funerall oration which he made upon his sister Gorgonia where he speaketh thus unto her If thou hast any care of the things done by us and holy soules receive this honour from God that they have any feeling of such things as these receive this Oration of ours in stead of many and before many funerall obsequies So doubtfull the beginnings were of that which our Challenger is pleased to reckon among the chiefe articles not of his owne religion onely but also of the Saints and Fathers of the primitive Church who if his word may be taken for the matter did generally hold the same touching this point that the Church of Rome doth now But if he had eyther himselfe read the writings of those Saints and Fathers with whose mindes he beareth us in hand he is so well acquainted or but taken so much information in this case as the bookes of his owne new Masters were able to afford him he would not so peremptorily have avouched that prayer to Saints was generally embraced by the Doctors of the primitive Church as one of the chiefe articles of their Religion His owne Bellarmine he might remember in handling this very question of the Invocation of Saints had wished him to note that because the Saints which died before the comming of Christ did not enter into heaven neyther did see God nor could ordinarily take knowledge of the prayers of such as should petition unto them therefore it was not the use in the old Testament to say Saint Abraham pray for me c. For at that time saith Suarez we reade no where that any man did directly pray unto the Saints departed that they should helpe him or pray for him for this maner of praying is proper to the law of Grace wherein the Saints beholding God are able also to see in him the prayers that are powred out unto them So doth Salmeron also teach that therefore it was not the maner in the old Testament to resort unto the Saints as intercessors because they were not as yet blessed and glorified as now they be and therefore so great an honour as this is was not due unto them And in vaine saith Pighius should their suffrages have beene implored as being not yet joyned with God in glory but untill the reconciliation and the opening of the kingdome by the blood of Christ the redeemer wayting as yet in a certaine place appointed by God and therefore not understanding the prayers and desires of the living which the blessed doe behold and heare not by the efficacie of any proper reason reaching from them unto us but in the glasse of the divine Word which it was not as yet granted unto them to behold But after the price of our redemption was payd the Saints now raigning with Christ in heavenly glory do heare our prayers and desires forasmuch as they behold them all most clearely in the Word as in a certaine glasse Now that diverse of the chiefe Doctors of the Church were of opinion that the Saints in the New Testament are in the same place state that the Saints of the Old Testament were in and that before the day of the last judgement they are not admitted into Heaven and the cleare sâ—ght of God wherein this metaphysicall speculation of the Saints seeing of our praiers is founded hath beene before declared out of their owne writings where that speech of S. Augustin Nondum ibi eris quis nescit Thou shalt not as yet be there who knoweth it not sheweth that the opinion was somewhat generall and apprehended generally too as more then an opinion By the Romanists own grounds then the more generally this point was held by the ancient Fathers and the more resolvedly the lesse generally of force and the more doubtfully must the Popish doctrine of praying to Saints have beene intertayned by them And if our Challenger desire to be informed of this doubt that was among the ancient Divines touching the estate of the Saints now in the time of the New Testament by the report of the Doctors of his owne religion rather than by our allegations let him heare from Franciscus Pegna what they have found herein It was a matter in controversie saith he of old whether the soules of the Saints before the day of judgement did see God and enjoy the divine vision seeing many worthy men and famous both for leaâ—ning and holinesse did seeme to hold that they doe not see nor enjoy it before the day of judgement untill receiving their bodies together with them they should enjoy divine blessednesse For Irenaeus Iustin Martyr Tertullian Clemens Romanus Origen Ambrose Chrysostom Augustin Lactantius Victorinus Prudentius Theodoret Aretas Oecumenius Theophylact and Euthymius are said to have beene of this opinion as Castrus and Medina and Sotus dorelate To whom we may adjoyne one more of no lesse credit among our Romanists then any of the others even Thomas Stapleton himselfe who taketh it for granted that these so many famous ancient Fathers Tertullian Irenaeus Origen Chrysostom Theodoret Oecumenius Theophylact Ambrose Clâ—mens Romanus sss and Bernard did not assent unto this sentence which now saith he in the Councell of Florence was at length after much disputing defined as a doctrine of faith that the soules of the righteous enjoy the sight of God before the day of judgement but did deliver the contrary sentence thereunto We would intreat our Challenger then to spell these things and put them together and afterward to tell us whether such a conclusion as this may not be deduced from thence Such as held that the Saints were not yet admitmitted to the sight of God could not well hold that men should pray
take for their Gods And here also out of Epiphanius we may further observe who were the masters or the mistresses rather for this was the womens heresie from whom our Romanists did first learne their Hyperdulîa or that transcendent kind of service wherewith they worship the Virgin Mary namely the Collyridians so called from the Collyrides or cakes which at a certaine time of the yeare they used to offer unto the blessed Virgin against whom Epiphanius doth thus oppose himselfe What Scripture hath delivered any thing concerning this Which of the Prophets have permitted a man to be worshipped that I may not say a woman For a choyse vessell she is indeed but yet a woman Let Mary be in honour but let the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost be worshipped let no man worship Mary This mysterie is appointed I doe not say for a woman nor yet for a man neyther but for God the Angels themselves are not capable of such kinde of glorifying Let none eate of this errour touching holy Mary for although the tree be beautifull yet is it not for meate and although Mary be most excellent and holy and to be honoured yet is she not to be worshipped The bodie of Mary was holy indeed but not God the Virgin indeed was a virgin and honourable but not given unto us for adoration but one that did her selfe worship him who was borne of her in the flesh and came from heaven out of the bosome of his Father Thus did this learned Father labour to cut the roots of this Idolatrous heresie when it first began to take hold of the feminine sexe animating all that were of masculine spirits to the extirpatiō therof in this maner Go to then ye servants of God let us put on a manlike mind and beat down the madnes of these women But when this disease afterwards had gotten a farther spredd and had once throughly seized upō men as wel as women it is a most wonderfull thing to consider into what extremitie this frenzie brake out after the time of Sathans loosing especially For then there wanted not such as would interprete that speech of the Angel unto the holy Virgin Haile full of grace the Lord is with thee of the equality of her Empire with her Sonnes as if it had beene said Even as he so thou also dost enjoy the same most excellent dignitie of ruling In the redundance and effusion of grace upon the creatures the Lords power and vvill is so accommodated unto thine that thou mayest seeme to be the first in that both diadem and tribunall The Lord is with thee not so much thou with the Lord as the Lord with thee in that function Then it was taught for good Divinitie that from the time wherein the Virgin mother did conceive in her wombe the Word of God she hath obtained such a kind of jurisdiction so to speake or authoritie in all the temporall procession of the holy Ghost that no creature hath obtained any grace or vertue from God but according to the dispensation of his holy mother that because she is the mother of the sonne of God who doth produce the holy Ghost therefore all the gifts vertues and graces of the holy Ghost are by her hands administred to whom she pleaseth when she pleaseth how she pleaseth and as much as she pleaseth That she hath singularly obtained of God this office from eternitie as her selfe doth testifie Proverb 8.23 I was ordained from everlasting namely a dispenser of celestiall graces and that in this respect Cantic 7.4 it is said of her Thy neck is as a tower of Yvorie because that as by the neck the vitall spirits do descend from the head into the bodie so by the Virgin the vitall graces are transmitted from Christ the head into his mysticall body the fulnesse of grace being in him as in the head from whence the influence cōmeth in her as in the necke through which it is transfused unto us so that take away the patronage of the Virgin you stop as i◠were the sinners breath that he is not able to live any lōger Then men stuck not to teach that unto her all power was given in heaven and in earth So that for heaven when our Saviour ascended thither this might be assigned for one reason among others why he left his mother behinde him least perhaps the court of Heaven might have beene in a doubt whom they should rather go to meet their Lord or their Lady for earth she may rightly apply unto her selfe that in the first of Ezra All the kingdomes of the earth hath the Lord given unto me and we may say unto her againe that in Tobi 14. Thy kingdome endureth for all ages and in the 144. or 145 Psalme Thy kingdome is a kingdome of all ages That howsoever she was the noblest person that was or ever should be in the world and of so great perfection that although she had not beene the mother of God she ought neverthelesse to have beene the Lady of the world yet according to the lawes whereby the world is governed by the right of inheritance she did deserve the principality and kingdome of this world That Christ never made any legacie of this Monarchy because that could not be done without the prejudice of his mother and he knew besides that the mother could make voyde the Testament of the sonne if it were made unto her prejudice And therefore that by all this it appeareth most evidently that Mary the mother of Iesus by right of inheritance hath the regall dominion over all that be under God That as many creatures doe serve the glorious Virgin Mary as serve the Trinitie namely all creatures whatsoever degree they hold among the things created whether they be spirituall as Angels or rationall as men or corporall as the Heavenly bodies or the Elements and all things that are in Heaven and in Earth whether they be the damned or the blessed all which being brought under the governement of God are subject likewise unto the glorious Virgin for asmuch as he who is the sonne of God and of the blessed Virgin being willing as it were to equall in some sort his Mothers soveraigntie unto the soveraignty of his Father even he who was God did serve his mother upon earth Whence Luke 2.51 it is written of the Virgin and glorious Ioseph He was subject unto them that as this proposition is true All things are subject to Gods command even the Virgin her selfe so this againe is true also All things are subject to the command of the Virgin even God himselfe that considering the blessed Virgin is the mother of God and God is her sonne and every sonne is naturally inferior to his mother and subject unto her and the mother hath preeminence and is superior to her sonne it therefore followeth that the
462.463 edit Colon. An. 1589. in the Romane Sacerdotall part 1. tract 5. cap. 13. fol. 116. edit Venet. An. 1585. in the booke intituled Sacra institutio Baptizandi juxta ritum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae ex decreto Concilij Tridentini restituta c. printed at Paris in the yeere 1575. and in a like booke intituled Ordo Baptizandi cum Modo visitandi printed at Venice the same yeere out of which the Spanish Inquisitors as well in their New as in their Old Expurgatory Index the one set out by Cardinall Quiroga in the yeere 1584. the other by the Cardinall of Sandoval and Roxas in the yeere 1612. command these interrogatories to be blotted out Dost thou beleeve to come to glory not by thine owne merits but by the vertue and merit of the passion of our Lord Iesus Christ and Dost thou beleeve that our Lord Iesus Christ did die for our salvation and that none can be saved by his owne merits or by any other meanes but by the merit of his passion Whereby we may observe how late it is since our Romanists in this maine and most substantiall point which is the very foundation of all our comfort have most shamefully departed from the faith of their fore-fathers In other copies of this same Instruction which are followed by Cassander Vlenbergius and Cardinall Hosius himselfe the last question propounded to the sicke man is this Dost thou beleeve that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ Whereunto when he hath made answer affirmatively he is presently directed to make use thereof in this manner Goe too therefore as long as thy soule remaineth in thee place thy whole confidence in this death only have confidence in no other thing commit thy selfe wholly to this death with this alone cover thy selfe wholly intermingle thy selfe wholly in this death fasten thy selfe wholly wrap thy whole selfe in this death And if the Lord God will judge thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt mee and thy judgement no otherwise doe I contend with thee And if he say unto thee that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of the Lord Iesus Christ betwixt thee and my sinnes If he say unto thee that thou hast deserved damnation say Lord I set the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and my bad merits and I offer his merit in stead of the merit which I ought to have but yet have not If he say that he is angrie with thee say Lord I interpose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and thine anger Adde hereunto the following sentences of the Doctors of these latter ages We cannot suffer or bring in any thing worthy of the reward that shall be saith Oecumenius So Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bathe No trouble can be endured in this vitall death which is able equally to answer the joyes of heaven and Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury more fully before him If a man should serve God a thousand yeeres and that most fervently he should not deserve of condignitie to be halfe a day in the Kingdome of heaven Radulphus Ardens expounding those words of the Parable Matth. 20.13 Didst not thou agree with me for a peny Let no man out of these words saith he thinke that God is as it were tied by agreement to pay that which he hath promised For as God is free to promise so is he free to pay especially seeing as well merits as rewards are his grace For God doth crowne nothing else in us but his owne grace who if hee would deale strictly with us no man living should be justified in his sight Whereupon the Apostle who laboured more than all saith I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore this agreement is nothing else but Gods voluntary promise And doe not wonder saith he in another Sermon if I call the merits of the just graces for as the Apostle witnesseth we have nothing which we have not received from God and that freely But because by one grace we come unto another they are called merits but improperly For as Augustine witnesseth God crowneth only his owne grace in us So Rupertus Tuitiensis The greatnesse or the eternitie of the heavenly glorie is not a matter of merit but of grace The same doth Bernardus Morlanensis expresse in these rhythmicall verses of his Vrbs Sion inclyta patria condita littore tuto Te peto te colo te flagro te volo canto saluto Nec meritis peto nam meritis meto morte perire Nec reticens tego quòd meritis ego filius irae Vita quidem mea vita nimis rea mortua vita Quippe reatibus exitialibus obruta trita Spe tamen ambulo praemia postulo speque fideque Illa perennia postulo praemia nocte dieque But Bernard of Claraevalle aboue others delivereth this doctrine most sweetly It is necessary saith hee that first of all thou shouldest beleeve that thou canst not have remission of sinnes but by the mercie of God then that thou canst not at all have any whit of a good worke unlesse he likewise give it thee lastly that by no workes thou canst merit eternall life unlesse that also be freely given unto thee Otherwise if wee will properly name those which wee call our merits they be certaine seminaries of hope incitements of love signes of secret predestination foretokens of future happinesse the way to the kingdome not the cause of reigning Dangerous is the dwelling of them that trust in their merits dangerous because ruinous For this is the whole merit of man if hee put all his trust in him who saveth the whole man Therefore my merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as he is not poore in mercie and if the mercies of the Lord be many my merits also are many With which that passage of the Manuall falsly fathered upon S. Augustine doth accord so justly that the one appeareth to be plainly borrowed from the other All my hope is in the death of my Lord. His death is my merit my refuge my salvation life and resurrection My merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as that Lord of mercies shall not faile and as long as his mercies are much much am I in merits Neither are the testimonies of the Schoolemen wanting in this cause For where God is affirmed to give the kingdome of heaven for good merits or good works some made here a difference betwixt pro bonis meritis and propter bona merita The former they said did note a signe or a way or some occasion and in that sense they admitted the proposition But according to the latter expression they would not receive it because