us that are true Christians we know that there shall be a Resurrection of the Flesh and that the Saints shall spend a thousand years in Jerusalem which shall be rebuilt enriched and enlarged as the Prophets assure us Ezechiel Isaiah and others And to this purpose he citeth that which is written Isaiah Chap. 65. and besides that other Passage in the Revelation where it is said That those which had believed in Christ should live and reign with him a thousand years in Jerusalem and that after this there should be a General and Final Resurrection and Judgment In which words you see plainly that he holds with the Chiliasts that the Saints shall reign a thousand years in Jerusalem before the Resurrection be perfectly accomplished Which is an Opinion that is at this day condemned as Erroneous by the whole Western Church both on the one side and on the other He seems in another place to have held that the Essence of God was finite and was not present in all places where he endeavours to prove against a Jew that it was not the Father who rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom because that he could not then have been at that time in Heaven That which he hath delivered concerning the Angels is altogether as senseless though not so dangerous namely That God having in the beginning committed unto them the Care and Providence over men and all sublunary things they had broken this Order by suffering themselves to be overcome by the Love of Women by companying with whom had been also born Children which are those we now call Demons or Devils I know not neither whether he will be able easily to bring any one over to that other Opinion of his where he says that All the Souls of the Saints and of the Prophets had fallen under the power of Evil Spirits which were such as were the Spirits of Python and that this was the reason why our Saviour Christ being now ready to give up the Ghost recommended his Spirit to God I pray you tell me out of what part of Gods Word he learnt this Doctrine which he delivers in his second Apologie where he says That all those who lived according to the Rule of Reason were Christians notwithstanding that they might have been accounted as Atheists such as among the Greeks were Socrates Heraclitus and the like and among the Barbarians Abraham and Azarias repeating the same Doctrine within a few Lines afterward and saying that All those who lived or do now live according to the Rule of Reason are Christians and are in an assured quiet condition Irenaeus Bishop of Lyon who lived very near his time was also of the same Opinion with Justin touching the state of the Soul after it is once departed out of the Body till the hour of Judgment For towards the conclusion of that Excellent Book of his which he wrote against Heresies after that he hath told us that our Saviour Christ had descended into Hell and had been in the place where the Dead were which place he opposed to the Light of this World he further addeth That it is evident that the Souls of the Disciples of our Saviour for the love of whom he did all these things shall go also into a certain Invisible place which is prâ—vided for them by God there to expect the Resurrection and shall afterwards resume their Bodies and be raised up again in all Perfection that is to say Corporally in the same manner as our Saviour was raised up again and so shall they come into the presence of God And this Opinion he opposeth against that of the Valentinians and Gnosticks which he had before produced in the beginning of that Chapter of his who held That the Souls of Men immediately after they were departed out of the Body were carried up above the Heavens and the Creator of the World and went to that Mother or that Father which these Hereticks had fancied to themselves Which Opinion of theirs is in like manner rejected by Justin Martyr in the Passage a little before alledged out of his Book against Tryphon Whence it plainly appears that we may not trouble our selves to produce any other Proofs that Justin and Irenaeus were both of the same Belief touching the State of the Soul after Death But to return to Irenaeus in his Second Book against Hereticks he maintains very sâ—iffely That our Saviour Christ was above Forty years of age when he suffered death for us bringing in in defence of this Opinion of his which so manifestly contradicteth the Evangelical Histories certain Probabilities onely as namely That our Saviour passed through all Ages as heing come into the World to sanctifie and save People of all Ages urging also those words of the Jews to our Saviour Thou art not yet fifty years old and hast thou seen Abraham In the Conclusion of all saying That S. John had delivered it by Tradition to the Priests of Asia That Christ was somewhat Ancient when he began to preach being then about the age of Forty or Fifty years This Fancy of his appeased so ridioulous to Cardinal Baronius as that notwithstanding the Faith of all the Copies of this Father and the Contexture which appears evidently to be his together with the Vein and Marks of his Fancy and Stile he hath yet had the confidence to say That this whole Passage had been soisted into the Text of Irenaeus either by some ignorant or some malicious Person and that it could not be Irenaeus his own But it seemeth that he had no great reason for this his suspicion as the Jesuite Petavius hath clearly made it appear in his Notes upon Epiphaniuâ— However you may hence perceive that Baronius thinks that very Possible which we have endeavoured to prove in the Former Part of this Treatise namely That there may Possibly have been very many and great Alterations and Corruptions in the Books of the Writers of the First Ages by many Passages and Clauses having been either inserted into them or else maliclously rased out of them The same Irenaeus holds and endeavours to prove in the same Book That the Souls of Men after death retain the Character that is to say the Figure of the Bodies to which they were formerly united and that they represent the shape of the said Bodies so as to make Men take them for the same I shall here pass by that which he saith in the 49 Chapter of the same Book namely That our Saviour Christ did not at all know when the Day of Judgment should be neither according to the one nor according to the other of his Natures although these words of his look as if they would very hardly be reconciled to any good fense Neither shall I yet take notice of what both he and Justin Martyr have in divers places so rashly delivered touching the strength of Humane Nature in the Business of
was watred with Tigris and Euphrates there had been neither River nor Willow nor any Aquatick Tree The same Author also demandeth as if it had been a most indissoluble Question if taken in the Literal sense who the Daughter of Babylon is and why she is called Miserable which is so easie a Question as that any Child almost might very easily resolve it without torturing the Text with Allegories So likewise in his exposition of the 146 Psalm he understandeth by the Clouds wherewith God is said to cover the Heavens the Writings of the Prophets and by the Rain which he prepareth for the Earth the Evangelical Doctrine by the Mountains which bring forth Grass the Prophets and Apostles by the Beasts he understands Men and by the young Ravens the Gentiles assuring us withal that it would not be onely Erroneous but rather very Irreligious to take these words in the Literal sense May not this be called rather Sporting with than Expounding of the Scriptures So likewise in another place speaking of the Fowls of the Air which our Saviour said neither reaped nor gathered into Barns he understands by these the Devils and by the Lilies of the Field which spin not the Angels I should much abuse the Readers patience if I should here set down the strange Discourses he hath upon the Story of the two Possessed with Devils who were healed by our Saviour in the Country of the Gergesens and upon the Leap which the Devils made the neighbouring Herd of Swine take into the Sea and of the Swine-herds running away into the City and of the Citizens coming forth and intreating our Saviour to depart out of their Coasts or if I should but give you the whole entire Exposition which he hath made of these words Vers 29. Chap. 10. of St. Matthew Are not two Sparrows sold for a Farthing c. where by the two Sparrows he understandeth Sinners whose Souls and Bodies having been made to flye upward and to mount on high sell themselves to sin for meer Trifles and things of no value by this means becoming both as one the Soul by sin thickning as it were into a Body and such other like wild Fancies the reading whereof would astonish a man of any judgment rather than edifie him Neither is St. Ambrose any whit more serious where expounding those words of our Saviour Matth. 17. 20. If you have Faith as a grain of Mustard seed ye shall say to this Mountain Remove hence to yonder place c. By this Mountain saith St. Ambrose is meant the Devil It would be too tedious a business to set down here at length all that might be collected of this nature out of him he that hath any mind to see more Examples of this kind may read but his Homilies upon the 118. Psalm which Piece of his will indeed be otherwise very well worth any mans reading as being a very excellent one and full of Eloquence and sound Doctrine But yet perhaps a man would find it a troublesom business to make any handsom defence for him where he makes bold sometimes to use the Sacred words of the Scriptures in his own sportful Fancies as where he applies to Valentinian and Gratian that which is spoken of Christ and the Church in the Canticles O that thou wert as my Brother that sucked the breasts of my Mother When I should find thee without I would kiss thee c. I would lead thee and bring thee into my Mothers house c. I would cause thee to drink of Spiced Wine and of the juyce of my Pomegranates His left hand should be under my head and his right hand should embrace me In this place saith he is meanâ— the Emperour Gratian of Râ—nowned Memory who teâ—â—eth his Brother that he is furnished with the fruits of divers Vertues And to the same purpose doth he make Application of divers other Passages of this Sacred Canticle and with so great Licence as to say the truth no Poet ever lashed out with more liberty and freedom than he hath done in that Book of his I shall here purposely pass by what I might produce of this nature out of Gregory Nazianzen St. Augustine and almost all the rest of the Fathers for this that we have already brought is enough and indeed more than we needed for our present purpose Let the Reader therefore now judge whether or no the Fathers by this their manner of Writing have not clearly enough witnessed against themselves that their Intention when they wrote these their Books never was either to bound and determine our Faith or to decide our differences touching the same I must needs confess that they were Persons who were endued with very large Gifts of the Spirit and with a most lively and clear Understanding for the diving into the Truth But yet those that have the greatest â—hare of these Gifts have it yet to very little purpose if so be they imploy it not all and every part of it to the utmost of their power when the business they are to treat of is of so great both difficulty and importance and such as to the deciding and discussing whereof we can never bring either more attention or diligence than is needful Now that the Fathers have not observed this Course in their Writings appeareth clearly enough by what hath been formerly said Their Books therefore are not to be received by us either as Definitive Sentences or Final Judgments upon our present Controversies I confess that these small trivial Errors ought not to take off any thing of the Opinion we have of the Greatness and Gallantry of their Parts I believe they might very easily have avoided the falling into them if they would but have taken the pains to have looked a little better about them And I â—m of Opinion that they fell into them meerly by inadvertency only which may also sometimes happen even to the greatest Masters that are in any Sciences whatsover I shall as willingly also yield to you if you desire it that they have sometimes done these things purposely letting fall here and there throughout their Writings such little slips from their Pen sportingly and by way of Recreation or else out of a design of exercising our Wits But certainly whatsoever the Reason were seeing that they had no mind to use any more either care or diligence in the composing of their Books we may very well and indeed we ought to conclude from hence that they had never any Intention that these Books of theirs should be our Judges These Innocent Faults these Mistakes these Oversights these Forgetfulnesses and these Sportings of theirs do sufficiently declare for their part that we are to make our Addresses to some others and that they have not so sadly delivered their Opinions as if they had sate on the Seat of Judgment but rather have spoken as in their Chamber venting their own private Opinions only and not as our
not the same thing have hapned to them in the one that hath so manifestly befallen them in the other It is not very probable as we have said before that they so much as ever thought of our Differences and it is much more improbable that ever they had any intention of being our Judges in the Decision of them as we have before proved But now put the Case that they were acquainted with the Business and that they did intend to clear our Doubts and to give us their Positive Determination touching the same in their Books who shall assure us that they have had better success here than they had in so many other things wherein we have before heard them give their Verdict so utterly against all Justice and Reason He that hath erred touching the Point of the Resurrection is it not possible that he should be in an Errour touching the State of the Soul after this Life He that could be ignorant what the Nature of Christ's Body was must he Necessarily have a Right Judgment touching the Eucharist I do not see what solid Reason of this Difference can possibly be given It cannot proceed but from one of these two Causes neither of which have yet any place here For it happens sometimes that he who is deceived in one Particular hath yet better fortune in another by reason perhaps of his taking more heed to and using more Attention in the Consideration of the Later than he did in the Former or else by reason that one of the Points is easier to be understood than the other For in this Case though his Attention be as great in the one as in the other yet notwithstanding he may perhaps be able to understand the easie one but shall not be able to master the hard one But now neither of these Reasons can be alledged here For why should the Ancients have used less Care and Attention in the Examination of those Points wherein they have erred Or why should they have used more in those Points which are at this day controverted amongst us Are not those Ancient Points of Religion of as great Importance as these Latter Is there less danger in being ignorant touching the Nature of God than touching the Authority of the Pope or touching the State of the Faithful in the Resurrection than touching the Punishment of Souls in Purgatory the Real Qualities of the Body of Christ than the Nature of the Eucharist the Cup of His Passion than the Cup of His Communion Is it more Necessary to Salvation to know Him Sacrificed upon the Altar than Really Suffering upon the Cross Who sees not that these Matters are of equal Importance or if there be any Difference betwixt them that those Points wherein the Fathers have erred are in some sort more Important than those which we now dispute about We shall therefore conclude That if they had had both the one and the other before their eyes they would questionless have used as much Diligence at least and Attention in the Study of the one as of the other and consequently in all probability would have been either as successful or else have erred as much in the one as in the other Neither may it be here objected That those Points wherein they have failed are of more difficulty than those other wherein these Men will needs have them to have been Certainly in the Right for whosoever shall but consider them more narrowly he will find that they are equally both easie and difficult or if there be any difference betwixt them in this Particular those which they have erred in were the easier of the two to have been known For I would fain have any Man tell me what he thinks in his Conscience whether it be not as easie to judge by Reason and by the Scripture whether or no the Saints shall dwell upon the Earth after the Resurrection as it is to determine whether after they are departed this Life they shall go into Purgatory or not Is it a harder matter to know whether the Angels are capable of Carnal Love than it is to judge whether the Pope as he is Pope be Infallible or not And if it be answered here That the Church having already determined these Latter Points and having not declared it self at all touching the other hath taken away all the Difficulty of the one but hath left the other in their former Doubtful State this is to presuppose that which is the main Question or rather it is manifestly False the Church in the First Ages having not that we know of passed any Publick and Authentick Judgment touching the Points now in controversie as we have before already proved Forasmuch therefore as these Holy Men if at least they had any thought at all of these our Quarrels had an equally Clear Insight in these things both according to all Reason and all Probability they would have also come unto them with an equal both Attention and Affection And I believe that there is no Man but sees that if they might erre in the Decision of the one it is altogether as Possible that they might be mistaken also in their Judgment upon the other Now those Books of theirs which are left us proclaim aloud and openly enough as we have seen by those few Testimonies which we have but just now produced out of them that they have erred and sometimes also very grievously touching those First Questions it remaineth therefore that we say That their Judgment is not any whit more Infallible in our present Controversies I could be content that you had demonstrated to any Protestant by clear and undeniable Reasons that S. Hilary in those Passages which are produced out of him for the same purpose hath Positively taught the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist and I could be well contented that he should grant you the same which yet perhaps he will never do However after all he hath this still to put you in mind of namely that this is the self-same S. Hilary who in the same Book maintains That the Body of Christ felt no Pain at all upon the Cross And if he were in an Error in this Particular why must he Necessarily be in the Right in the other The Question touching the Body of Christ is of as great Importance as that of the Eucharist and it is besides much more Clearly decided in the Scriptures where there is nothing in the Earth that obligeth in the least degree to fancy any such thing of the Body of Christ as S. Hilary hath done but where on the contrary there seems to be some kind of Ground for the Opinion which he is pretended to have had touching the Eucharist Forasmuch therefore will the Protestant say as that in a thing which is of equal Importance and of much less Difficulty he hath manifestly erred who can assure me that in this Point here which is both less Necessary and more Difficult he may not also
certain words of His only to render Him odious objecting against Him that He saith That the Carnal Form of Jesus Christ was changed into the nature of the Deity whereas all that he saith is That it was changed by the Deity dwelling in iâ— Whence it appears how much credit we are to give to these Men when they alledge here and there divers strange and unheard of pieces and on the contrary scornfully reject whatever their Adversaries bring as for example they did a remarkable Passage alledged by them out of Epiphanius which Passage they refused as supposititious Because said they if Epiphanius had been of the same judgment with the Iconoclasts he would then in his Panarium have reckoned the Reverencing of Images among the other Heresies And may not a man by the same reason as well conclude that Epiphanius was a favourer of the Iconoclasts for otherwise he would have reckoned their opinion among the rest of the Heresies by him reckoned up I shal not here say any thing of their refusing so boldly and confidently those Passages alledged out of The odotui Ancyranus and others Since that time you shall find nothing more ordinary in the Books both of the Greeks and the Latins than the like reproaches that they mutually cast upon each other of having corrupted the Pieces and Evidences wherein their cause was the most concerned As for example at the Council of Florence Mark Bishop of Ephesus disputing concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost had nothing to answer to two passages that were alledged against him the one out of that piece of Epiphanius which is entituled Ancoratus the other out of S. Basils Writings against Eunomius but that That piece of Epiphanius had been long since corrupted and so likewise of that other passage out of S. Basil that Some one or other who favoured the opinion of the Latinâ—s had accommodated that place to their sence withall protesting that in all Constantinople there was but four Copies only of the said Book that had that passage alledged by the Latins but that there was in the said City above a thousand other copies wherein those words were not to be found at all Then had the Latins nothing to return upon them more readily than that it had been the ordinary practice not of the West but of the East to corrupt Books and for proof hereof they presently cite a passage out of S. Cyrill which we have formerly set down where notwithstanding he speaks not any thing save only of the Hereticks that is to say of the Nestorians who were said to have falsified the Epistle of Athanasius to Epictetus but not a word there of all the Eastern men much less of the whole Greek Church The Greeks then charged back upon the Latines the story of Pope Zozimus mentioned in the preceeding Chapter And thus did they bandy stifly one against the other each of them as may be easily perceived having much more appearance of reason and of truth in their accusation of their Adversary than in excusing or defending themselves I shall here give you also another the like answer made by one Gregorius a Greek Monk a strong maintainer of the Vnion made at Florence to a passage cited by Mark Bishop of Ephesus out of a certain Book of John Damascene affirming that The Father only is the Cause to wit in the Trinity These words saith this Monk are not found in any of the ancient Copies which is an evident argument that it had been afterwards foisted in by the Greeks to bring over this Doctor to their opinion Petavinâ— hath in like manner lately quitted his hands of an objection taken out of the 68. Canon of the Apostles against the Fasting on Saturdays which is observed in the Roman Church pretending that the Greeks have falsified this Canon But whosoever desires to see how full of uncertainty the Writings of this later Antiquity are let him but read the VIII Council which is pretended by the Western Church to be a general Council and but compare the Latine and the Greek Copies together withal taking especial notice of the Preface of Anastasius Bibliothecarius who after he hath very sharply reproved the Ambition of the Greeks and accused the Canons which they produce of the Third General Council as Forged and supposititious to make short work with them he says in plain terms that the Greeks have corrupted all the Councils except the First What then have we now left us to build upon seeing that this Corruption hath prevailed even as far as on the Councils which are the very heart of the Ancient Monuments of the Church Neither yet hath the Nicene Creed which hath been approved and made sacred in so many General Councils been able to escape these Alterations For not to speak any thing of these Expressions which are of little importance De Coelis from Heaven secundum Scripturas according to the Scriptures Deum de Deo God of God which Cardinal Julian affirmed at the Council of Florence were to be found in some Creeds and in some others were not it is now the space of some Ages past since the Eastern Church accused the Western of having added Filioque and the Son in the Article touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost the Western Men as senselesly charging back upon them again that they have cut it off Which is an Alteration though it seem but trivial in appearance that is of great importance both to the one side and to the other for the decision of that great Controversie which hath hitherto caused a separation betwixt them namely Whether or no the Holy Ghost proceed from the Son as well as from the Father Which is an evident Argument that either the one or the other of them hath out of a desire to do service to their own Side laid false hands upon this Sacred Piece Now whatever hath been attempted in this kind by the Ancients may well pass for Innocence if compar'd but with what these Later Times have dared to do their Passion being of late years so much heated that laying all Reason and Honesty aside they have most miserably and shamelesly corrupted all sorts of Books and of Authors Of those Men that go so desperately to work we cannot certainly speak of their baseness as it deserveth and in my judgment Laurentius Bochellus in his Preface to the Decreta Ecclesiae Gallicanae had all the reason in the world to detest these Men as People of a most wretched and malicious spirit who have most miserably gelded and mangled so infinite a number of Authors both Sacred and Prophane Ancient and Modern their ordinary custom being to spare no Person no not Kings nor even S. Lewis himself out of whose Pragmatica Sanctio as they call it they have blotted out some certain Articles principally those which concerned the State of France out of the Bibliotheca Patrum the Constitutiones Regiae and the
at this very day that we may not trouble our selves to look so high we see by experience that there is scarcely that Parish to be found how small soever it be where there are not particular Persons that maintain in many Points of Religion different Opinions from those of their Minister But if we take a whole Diocess together and pass by all those who trouble themselves not at all with the difference of Opinions in Religion whether it be by reason of their want of years or their weakness of Judgment or their malice and take notice only of the rest dividing them according to the difference of their Opinions I am verily perswaded that that part which shall agree in all Points with the Bishop of that Diocess will many times be found to be the least Let a Bishop preach or write what he will touching the Points which are now in Controversie he will very hardly represent unto you the Judgment of half the People of his Diocess Now we must conceive that the temper of the World of old was no other than what it is at this present day and therefore also for this very reason the liberty of embracing what Opinions a man pleased was much greater then than it is now forasmuch as the Church of Rome did not exercise its Power then throughout Christendom so Absolutely as it doth now adays neither did the Pastors or the Princes use that severity and rigour which is now every where practised in our days for the repressing this diversity of Opinions We must therefore necessarily believe that the Opinions of the Faithful were in those days altogether as different if not much more than they are now Whence it will also follow That even the Doctors themselves who lived in those Times could not know all the different Opinions of Men much less could they represent them unto us in their Writings But we shall not stand any longet upon a thing that no Man can deny us but shall rather proceed to the consideration of that which every one no doubt will be ready here to reply upon us touching this Particular namely That it is not necessary that we should know the Opinions in Points of Religion of all particular Persons which are almost infinite in number and for the most part very â—ill grounded and uncertain but that it is sufficient if we know what the Belief hath been of the Pastors and those that have been set over the Church that is to say of the Church taken in the latter sense But yet I confess I do not see that this Rule is so absolutely right as that we ought to walk by it For if we are to take the Church for the Rule and Foundation of our Faith as the Authors of this Reply pretend we ought to do the People in my Judgment ought not then to be here excluded and passed by as a thing of no consideration I confess the Opinions of particular Persons are very different one from the other and the knowledge of some of them is very mean and sometimes also is none at all But yet possibly this Reason may chance to exclude even a good part of the Clergy also from the Authority which they lay claim to in this Particular being it cannot be denied but that both Ignorance and Malice have oftentimes as great a share here proportionably as they have among the very People it self Who sees not that if we must have regard to the Capacity of Men there are sometimes found even among the plain ordinary sort of Christians in a Church those that are more considerable both for their Learning and Piety than the Pastors themselves One of those Fathers of whom we now discourse hath informed us That many times the Clergy have erred the Bishop hath wavered in his Opinion the Rich Men have adhered in their Judgment to the Earthly Princes of this World mean-while the People alone preserved the Faith entire Seeing therefore that it may sometimes happen and that it hath also many times hapned that the Clergy have held Erroneous Opinions while the People onely held the True it is very evident in my judgment that the Opinion of the People in these cases ought not wholly to be neglected And truly S. Cyprian telleth us in divers places That the Church in his time had the People in very great esteem no Business of any importance being then transacted without communicating the same to the People as may be seen by any one in the Epistles of this Father insomuch that The greatest part of the People also were present at the Council of Carthage where the Question touching the Baptism of Hereticks was debated whereof we have already spoken somewhat a little before But because this Point is still controverted I shall let it alone for this time Let us therefore grant since our Adversaries will needs have it so that it is sufficient in this case to know what the Belief was of the Church taken in the later and stricter sense that is to say of the Clergy for even this way it is evident enough that it is a very hard if not an impossible thing truly to discover what it hath been in each several Age. For there is no less diversity of Opinion among the Clergy than there is among the People and many times too there is much more the being conversant in Books ordinarily reducing things into nicer subtilties and giving occasion of raising divers Opinions upon the same Who is he that will undertake to give us an Account what the Opinion is of all the Clergy of one City onely I do not say of a Kingdom or of all Christendom touching all the Articles of Religion Who would be able to perform this if he should undertake it Never was there more exact care taken for the Conservation of Uniformity in Judgment among Christians than is now at this day when there is use made not only of the Censures and Thunderbolts of the Church but even of the Fire and the Sword of the Secular Powers also And yet notwithstanding all this how many Ecclesiastical Persons are there to be found even in those very places where these rigorous Courses are observed with the greatest strictness even at Rome it self and as it were in the Popes own Bosom who differ very much in Judgment touching Points of Religion both from their Equals and from their Superiours In France where by the Blessing of God the Liberty of Conscience is much greater than in other places it would be a wonder if where Four Clergy Men of the more Learned and Politer sort were met together Two of them should not upon some Point or other of the Faith differ in judgment from the Main Body of their Church And here I am to intreat all those who follow Cassander in great numbers adoring the Monuments of the Fathers and who take whatsoever they find in him for the General Sense of the Ancient Christians but to
to give me leave to set down here the whole Passage at length As for these kind of Books saith he speaking of those Books which we Write not with Authority of Commanding but only out of a Design of exercising our selves to benefit others we are so to read them as not being bound necessarily to believe them but as having a liberty left us of judging of what we read Yet notwithstanding that we may not quite shut out these Books and deprive posterity of the most profitable labour of exercising their Language and Stile in the handling and treating of hard Questions we make a Distinction betwixt these Books of Later Writers and the Excellency of the Canonical Authority of the Old and New Testament which having been confirmed in the Apostles time hath since by the Bishops who succeeded them and the Churches which have been propagated throughout the World been placed as it were upon a high Throne there to be reverenced and adored by every Faithful and Godly Vnderstanding And if we chance here to meet with any thing that troubleth us and seemeth Absurd we must not say that the Author of the Book was ignorant of the truth but rather that either our Copy is false or the Interpreter is mistaken in the sense of the place or else that we understand not him aright And as for the Writings of those other Authors who have come after Them the number whereof is almost infinite though coming very far short of this most sacred Excellency of the Canonical Scriptures a man may sometimes find in them the very same truth though it shall not be of equal Authority And therefore if by chance we here meet with such things as seem contrary to the Truth by reason perhaps of our not understanding them only we have our Liberty either in reading or hearing the same to approve of what we like and to reject that which we conceive not to be so right So that except all such passages be made good either by some certain reason or else by the Canonical Authority of the Scriptures and that it be made appear that the thing asserted either really it or else at least that it might have been he that shall reject or not assent to the same ought not in any wise to be reprehended And thus far have we S. Augustine testifying on our side as well here as in many other places which would be too long to be inserted here that those opinions which we find delivered by the Fathers in their Writings are grounded not upon their bare Authority but upon their Reasons and that they bind not our belief otherwise than so far forth as they are consonant either to the Scripture or to Reason and that they ought to be examined by the one and the other as proceeding from persons that are not infallible but possibly may have erred So that it appears from hence that the course which is at this day observed in the World is not of sufficiency enough for the discovery and demonstration of the truth For we are now in doubt suppose what the sense and meaning is of such a piece of Scripture Here shall you presently have the judgment of a Father brought upon the said place quite contrary to the Rule S. Augustine giveth us who would have us examine the Fathers by the Scriptures and not the Scriptures by the Fathers Certainly according to the judgment of this Father the Protestant though a Passage as clear and express as any of the Canons of the Council of Trent should be brought against him out of any of the Fathers ought not to be blamed if he should answer that he cannot by any means assent unto it unless the truth of it be first proved unto him either by some certain Reason or else by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures and that then and not till then he shall be ready to assent unto it So that according to this Account we are to alledge not the Names but the Reasons of Books to take notice not of the Quality of their Authors but of the Solidity of their Proofs to consider what it is they give us and not the face or hand of him that gives it us and in a word to reduce the dispute from Persons to Things And S. Jerome also seemeth to commend unto us this manner of Proceeding where in the Preface to his second Commentary upon Hosea he hath these words Then saith he that is after the Authors of Books are once departed this life we judge of their worth and parts only not considering at all the Dignity of their Name and the Reader hath regard only to what he reads and not to the Author whose it is So that whether he were a Bishop or a Lay-man a General and a Lord or a common Souldier and a Servant whether he lie in Purple and in Silk or in the vilest and coursest rags he shall be judged not according to his degree of honour but according to the merit and worth of his Works Now he here speaks either of matter of Right or of Fact and his meaning is that either we ought to take this course in our Judgments or else it is a plain Affirmation that it is the practice of the World so to do If his words are to be taken in the first sense he then clearly takes away all Authority from the bare Names of Writers and so would have us to consider the Quality only and weight of their Writings that is to say their Reasons and the force of the Arguments they use If he be to be understood in the second sense he seemeth not to speak truth it being evident that the ordinary course of the world is to be more taken with the titles and names of Books than with the things therein contained But supposing however that this was S. Hieroms meaning we may notwithstanding very safely believe that he approveth of the said course for as much as having this occasion of speaking of it he doth not at all reprehend it If therefore thou hast any mind to stand to his judgment lay me aside the Names of Augustine and of Hierome of Chrysostome and of Cyril and forget for this once the Rochet of the first and the Chair of the second together with the Patriarchal Robe of the two last and observe what they say and not what they were the ground and reason of their opinions and not the dignity of their persons But that which makes me very much wonder is that some of those who have been the most conversant in Antiquity should trouble themselves in stuffing up their Books with declamatory expressions in praise of the Authors they produce not forbearing to recount to you so much as the Nobleness of their Extraction the choiceness of their Education the gallantry of their Parts the eminency of their See and the greatness of their State This manner of writing may perhaps suit well enough with
Vincentius should have cleared by this excellent course of his some Point or other which had been controverted he must have thanked the Fire the Water the Moths or the Worms for having spared those Authors which he made use of and for having consumed all those other that wrote in favour of the Adverse Party for otherwise he should have been an Heretick And if we should decide our Differences in Matters of Faith after this manner we should do in a manner as he did who gave Judgment upon the Suits of Law that came before him by the Chances he threw with Three Dice Do but imagine now what an endless labour it would be for a Man either to go and heap up together and run over all the Authors that ever have written one with another or else to distinguish them into their several Ages they wrote in and to examine them by Companies And do but imagine again what satisfaction a Man should be able to get from hence and where we should be in case we should find as it is possible it may sometimes so fall out as we shall shew hereafter that the Sense and Judgment of this Greatest Part should prove to be either contrary to or perhaps besides the Sense and Meaning either of the Scriptures or of the Church And again how senseless a thing were it to make the Suffrages of Equal Authority of Persons that are so Unequal themselves either in respect of their Merit Learning Holy Life and Soundness of Faith and that a Rheticius whom S. Hierome censured so hardly a little before should be reckoned Equal with S. Augustine or a Philastrius be as good a Man as S. Hierome There is perhaps among the Fathers such a One whose Judgment is of more weight than a Hundred others and yet forsooth will this Man have us to make our Doubles and our Sons to go for as much as our Crowns and Pistols And lastly What reason in the World is there that although perhaps the Persons themselves were equal in all things we should yet make their Words also of equal force which are oftentimes of very different and unequal Authority some of them having been uttered as it were before the Bar the Books having been produced both Parties heard and the whole Cause througly examined and the other perhaps having been cast forth by their Authors at all adventure as it were either in their Chamber or else in Discourse walking abroad or else perhaps by the By while they were treating of some other Matter But our Friend here to prevent in some sort this later Inconvenience requires that the Word of this Greatest Part which he will allow to be fit to be Authorised must have been uttered by them Clearly Often and Constantly and then and not till then doth he allow them for Certain and Undoubted Truth And now you see he is got into another Hold. For I would very fain be informed how it is possible for us to know whether these Fathers which we thus have called out of their Graves to give us their Judgment touching the Controversies in Religion affirmed those things which we find in their Writings Clearly Often and Constantly or not If in this his pretended Council of Doctors you will not allow the Right of giving their Suffrage to those of whom it may be doubted that they either expressed themselves obscurely or gave in their Testimonies but seldom or have but weakly maintained their own Opinion I pray you tell me whom shall we have left at last to be the Judges in the Decision of our present Controversies As for the Apostles Creed and the Determinations of the Four First General Councils which are assented unto and approved of by all the Protestant Party I confess we may by this way of Trial allow them as Competent Judges in these Matters But as for all the rest it is evident by what hath been delivered in the First Part of this Treatise that we can never admit of them if they are thus to be Qualified and to have all the afore-mentioned Conditions We may therefore very well conclude That the Expedient here proposed by this Author is either Impossible or else not so safe to be put in practice so that I shall rather approve of S. Augustine's Judgment touching the Authority of the Fathers I should not have insisted so long upon the Examination of this Proposal of his had I not seen it to have been in so high Esteem with many Men and indeed with some of the Learned too For in earnest after S. Augustine and S. Hierome have delivered their Judgments it matters not much what this Man shall have believed to the contrary But yet before we finish this Point let us a little examine this Author both by S. Augustine's and by his own Rule before laid down S. Augustine thinks us not bound to believe the Saying of any Author except he can prove the Truth of it unto us either by the Canonical Scriptures or else by some Probable Reason What Text of Scripture or what Reason hath this Man alledged to prove the Truth of what he hath proposed So that whatsoever his Opinion be he must not take it amiss if according to the Advice and Practice of S. Augustine we take leave to dissent from him especially considering we have so many Reasons to reject That which he without any Reason given would have us to receive And thus you see that according to the Judgment of S. Augustine the Saying of this Vincentius Lirinensis although you should reckon him among the most Eminent of the Fathers doth not at all oblige us to give our Assent unto it And yet you will find that his Testimony would be yet of much less force and weight if you but examine the Man by his own Rule For according to him we are not to hearken to the Fathers except they both Lived and Taught Holily and Wisely even unto the hour of their Death Who is there now that will pass his word for him that he himself was one of this number Who shall assure us that he was not either an Heretick himself or at least a Favourer of Hereticks For is it not evident enough that he favoured the Semipelagians who at that time swarmed in France railing against the very Name and Memory of S. Augustine and who were condemned by the whole Church Who may not easily see this by his manner of Discourse in his Commonitorium tending this way where he seems to intimate unto us under hand That Prosper and Hilary had unjustly slandered them and that Pope Celestine who also wrote against them had been misinformed And may not he also be strongly suspected to have been the Author of those Objections made against Prosper which are called Objectiones Vincentianae Vincent's Objections The great Commendations also which are given him by Gennadius very much confirm this suspicion it being clear that this Author was of the same Sect
Judges These Considerations joyned to what hath been said in this particular by some of the chiefest and most eminent among themselves as we have formerly shewed do make it in my Judgment evidently enough appear that their own will and desire is that we should not embrace their Opinions as Oracles or receive them as Definitive Sentences but that we should rather examine them by the Scriptures and by Reason as being the Opinions of Doctors who were indeed very able and excellent Men but yet notwithstanding they were still Men subject to Errour and who had not always the good Fortune to light upon what was true and sound and who peradventure even in this very Case in hand have not always done what they might by reason of their employing either less time or less and diligence than they should have done if at least they had had any serious purpose of doing their utmost endeavour in this Particular CHAP. IV. Reason IV. That the Fathers have erred in divers Points of Religion not only singly but also many of them together I Conceive that that which hath been delivered in the two preceding Chapters is sufficient to make it appear to any moderate man that the Authority of the Fathers is not so Authentick as People commonly imagine it to be Thou therefore whosoever thou art if thou beest but an indifferent and impartial Reader mayest omit the reading of this and the following Chapter both which I am fain to add though much against my will to answer all Objections that may yet be made by perverse and obstinate persons For the prejudice wherewith they are before-hand possessed may hinder them perhaps from seeing the clearness of Reason and from hearing the voice of the Fathers themselves whose words they perhaps will be ready to impute to their modesty rather than they will consent to yield unto them no more honour than they themselves require The stubbornness therefore of these men and not any need that thou hast of my doing so hath constrained me to lay aside some of that Respect that I bear towards Antiquity and hath obliged me to give them a sight of some Errours of the Fathers which are of much more importance than the former if by this means at least I may be able to overcome this their obstinacy For when they shall but see that the Fathers have erred in divers very considerable Points I hope they will at length confess that they had very good Reason gravely to advise us not to believe or take upon Trust any of their Opinions unless we find that they are grounded either upon the Scriptures or else upon some other Truth I confess I enter upon this Inquiry very unwillingly as taking very little pleasure in discovering the Infirmities and Failings of any Men especially of such as are otherwise thought worthy of so great Estimation and Honour but yet there is nothing in the World â—how precious or dear unto us soever it be that we ought not to account as Dung if it be compared with Truth and the Edification of men And I am verily perswaded that even these blessed Saints themselves were they now alive again would give us thanks for the pains we have taken in endeavouring to make men see that they were but men and would account themselves beholding to us for having taken the boldness upon us for the same reason to discover those Imperfections and Failings of theirs which Divine Providence hath suffered them to leave behind them in their Writings to the end only that they might serve as so many Arguments to us of their Humanity If there be any notwithstanding that shall take offence hereat I must intreat them once again to consider that the perversness only of those men with whom I have to deal hath forced me to this Irreverence if at least we are to call it so together with the desire I have to manifest to the World so important a Truth as this is If I would go about to defend my self by Examples I could here make use of that of Cardinal Perron who to justifie the Church of Romes interdicting the reading of the Bible to any of the Laity save only such as should be allowed so to do makes no more ado but falls to laying open to the view of the World not all the Faults for there are no such there but all the False Appearances of Faults that are found in the Bible making a whole Chapter expresly of the same How much more lawfully then may we adventure here to expose to publick view some few of the Failings of the Fathers unto whom we owe infinitely less Respect than unto God only to moderate a little and to allay the heat of that excessive Devotion that most men bear towards their Writings that so the one Party may be perswaded to seek out for some other Weapons than the Authority of these men for the defence of their Opinions and that the other Party may not so easily be induced to give ear to the bare Testimony of Antiquity It was the Saying of a Great Prince long since that the vilest and most shameful Necessities of his Nature were the things that most clearly evinced him that he was a Man and no God as his flattering Courtiers would needs have made him believe he was Seeing therefore it stands us so much upon to know that the Fathers were but Men let us not be afraid to produce here this so clear and so evident Argument of their Humanity Let us boldly enter into their most hidden Secrets and let us see what ever Marks of their Humanity they have left us in their Writings that we may no longer adore and reverence their Authority as if it were wholly Divine Yet I protest here before I begin that I will not make any advantage at all of those many Arguments of their Passion which we meet withal partly in their own Writings and partly in the Histories of their Life I heartily wish rather that all of this kind might be buried in an Eternal Oblivion and that we would account of them as of Persons that were most accomplished for Purity and Innocency of Life as far forth at least as the frail Condition of Humane Nature can bear I shall only touch upon the Errours of their Belief and those things wherein they have failed not in Living but in Writing The most Ancient of them all is Justin Martyr a man so renowned in all Ancient Histories for his great Knowledge both in Religion and Philosophy and also for the Fervency of his Zeal which is so evidently manifesied by his suffering a Glorious Martyrdom for our Saviour Jesus Christ And yet for all this how many odd Opinions do we meet withal in his Books which are either very trivial or else are manifestly false Do but hear how he speaks of the Last Times immediately preceding the Day of Judgment and the end of the World As for me saith he and the rest of
Book of his De Anima He also with Irenaeus shuts up the Souls of Men after they are departed this Life into a certain Subterraneous place where they are to remain till the Day of Judgment the Heavens not being to be opened to any of the Faithful till the end of the World onely he allows the Martyrs their entrance into Paradise which he fancies to be some place beneath the Heavens and here he will have them continue till the Last Day It is thy Blood saith he which is the onely Key of Paradise And this place whither the Souls of the Dead go is to continue close shut up till the end of the World according to him who besides is of a quite contrary Opinion from that of Justin Martyr spoken of before and maintains That all Apparitions of Dead Men are onely meer Illusions and Deceits of the Devil and that this Inclosure of the Souls of Men shall continue till such time as the City of the New Jerusalem which is to be all of Precious Stones shall descend Miraculously from Heaven upon the Earth and shall there continue a Thousand years the Saints so long living in it in very great Glory and that during this space the Resurrection of the Faithful is to be accomplished by degrees some of them rising up sooner and some later according to the difference of their Merits And hence are we to interpret that which he says in another place to wit That small Sins shall be punished in Men by the Lateness of their Resurrection and That when the Thousand years are expired and the Destruction of the World and the Conflagration of the Day of Judgment is past we shall all be changed in a moment into the Nature of Angels I pass by his Invectives against Second Marriages and also his evil Opinion of all Marriage in General these Fancies being a part of the Discipline of Montanus his Paraclete But as for his Opinions touching the Baptism of Hereticks he hath many Fellows among the Fathers who held the same namely That their Baptism signified nothing and therefore they never received any Heretick into the Communion of the Catholick Church but they first rebaptized him Cleansing him saith he both in the one and in the other Man that is to say both in Body and Soul by the Baptism of the Truth accounting an Heretick to be in the same or rather in a worse condition than any Pagan And as for the rest he is so far from pressing Men to the Baptizing of their Children while they are young which yet is the present Custom of these Times that he allows and indeed perswades the Contrary not onely in Children but even in Persons of Riper years counselling them to defer it every Man according to his Condition Disposition and Age. And as his Opinion touching this Particular is not much different from that of the Anabaptists of our Time so doth he not much dissent from them neither in some other For he will not allow no more than they do that a Christian should take upon him or execute any Office of Judicature or That he should condemn or bind or imprison or examine any Man or that he should make War upon any or serve in War under any other saying expresly That our Saviour Christ by disarming S. Peter hath from henceforth taken off every Soldiers Belt Which is as much as to say That the Discipline of Christ alloweth not of the Profession of Soldiery So that I cannot but extremely wonder at the Confidence shall I say or rather the Inadvertency of some who will needs perswade us from a certain Passage of this Author which themselves have very much mistaken that this so Innocent and Peaceable Father maintained That Hereticks are to be punished and to be suppressed by inflicting upon them temporal punishments which rigorous proceeding was as far from his thoughts as Heaven is from Earth I shall add here before I go any further that he held that our Saviour Christ suffered death in the Thirtieth year of his Age which is manifestly contrary to the Gospel And he thought also that the Heavenly Grace and Prophecy ended in St. John Baptist the Fulness of the Spirit being from henceforth transferred unto our Saviour Christ St. Cyprian who was Tertullians very great Admirer calling him absolutely The Master and who never let any day pass over his head without reading something of him hath confidently also maintained some of the aforesaid Opinions as namely among others that of the Nullity of Baptism by Hereticks which he desendeth every where very stiffely having also the most Eminent Men of his time consenting with him in this Point as namely Firmilianus Metropolitan of Cappadocia Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria together with the Councils of Africk Cappadocia Pamphilia and Bithynia notwithstanding all the Anger and the Excommunication also of Stephen Bishop of Rome who for his part held a particular Opinion of his own allowing of the Baptism of all sorts of Hereticks without rebaptizing any of them as it appeareth by the Beginning of the LXXIV Epistle of St. Cyprian whereas the Church about some LXV years after at the Council of Nice declared Null the Baptism of the Samosatenians by permitting as it seems that all other Hereticks whatsoever should be received into the Church without being rebaptized But the Fathers of the * II. General Council went yet further rebaptizing all those no otherwise than they would have done Pagans who came in from the Communion either of the Eunomians Montanists Phrygians or Sabellians or indeed any other Hereticks whatsoever save only the Arrians Macedonians Sabbatians Novatians Quartodecimani and Apollinarians all which they received without Rebaptization as you may see in the Greek Copies of the said Council and the VII Canon which Canon you also have in the Greek Code of the Church Universal Num. CLXX And thus you see that Stephen and Cyprian maintained each of them their own particular Opinion in this point the one of them admitting and the other utterly rejecting the Baptism of all manner of Hereticks whereas the two aforenamed General Councils neither admitted nor rejected save only the Baptism of some certain Hereticks only But St. Cyprian however seems to have dealt herein much more fairly than his Adversary seeing that He patiently endured and was not offended with any of those who were of the contrary Opinion as it appears clearly by the Synod of Carthage and as it is also proved by St. Hierome whereas Stephen according to his own hot cholerick Temper declared publickly against Firmilianus his Opinion and Excommunicated all those that dissented from himself The same blessed Martyr of our Saviour Jesus Christ was carried away with that Errour also of his time touching the Necessity of administring the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to all persons when they were Baptized and
recourse to some other way of Proof if they intend to prevail upon their Adversaries to receive the aforesaid Articles But what will you say now if we make it appear to you that the Church of Rome it self doth not allow that the Fathers have any such Authority I suppose that if we are able to do this there is no Man so perverse as not to confess That this Proceeding of theirs in grounding their Articles of Faith upon the Sayings of the Fathers is not onely very Insufficient but very Inconvenient also For how can it ever be endured that a Man that would perswade you to the Belief of any thing should for that purpose make use of the Testimony of some such Persons as neither you nor himself believe to be Infallibly True and so fit to be trusted Let us now therefore see whether those of the Church of Rome really have themselves so great an Esteem of the Fathers as they would be thought to have by this their Proceeding or not Certainly several of the Learned of that Party have upon divers occasions let us see plain enough that they make no more account of them than the Protestants do For whereas these require That the Authority of the Fathers be grounded upon that of the Scripture and therefore receive nothing that they deliver as Infallibly True unless it be grounded upon the Scripture passing by or rejecting whatsoever they propose either besides or contrary to the Sense of the Scripture the other in like manner will have the Judgment of the Fathers depend upon that of the Church in present being in every Age and approve pass by or condemn all such Opinions of theirs as the Church either approveth passeth by or condemneth So that although they differ in this That the one attributeth the Supremacy to the Scripture and the other to the Present Church of their Age yet notwithstanding they both agree in this That both the one and the other of them equally deprive the Fathers of the same Insomuch that they both of them spend their time unprofitably enough whilst they trouble themselves to plead their Cause before this Inferiour Court where the wrangling and cunning Tricks of the Law have so much place where the Judgments are hard to be got and yet harder to be understood and when all is done are not Supreme but are such as both Parties believe they may lawfully appeal from whereas they might if they pleased let alone these troublesom and useless Beatings about and come at the first before the Supreme Tribunal whether it be that of the Scriptures or of the Church where the Suits are not so long and where the Subtilty of Pleading is of much less use where the Sentences also are more clear and express and which is the Chiefest thing of all such as we cannot appeal from But that we may not be thought to impose this Opinion upon the Church of Rome unjustly let us hear them speak themselves Cardinal Cajetan in his Preface upon the Five Books of Moses spâ—â—king of his own Annotations upon the same saith thus If you chance there to meet with any New Exposition which is agreeable to the Text and not Contrary either to tbe Scriptures or to the Doctrine of the Church although perhaps it differ from that which is given by the whole Current of the Holy Doctors I shall desire the Readers that they would not too hastily reject it but that they would rather censure charitably of it Let them remember to give every man his due there are none but the Authors of the Holy Scriptures alone to whom we attribute such Authority as that we ought to believe whatsoever they have written But as for others saith St. Augustine of how great Sanctity and Learning so ever they may have been I so read them as that I do not believe what they have written because they have written it Let no man therefore reject a new Exposition of any Passage of Scripture under pretence that it is contrary to what the Ancient Doctors gave but let him rather diligently examine the Text and the contexture of the Scripture and if he find that it accordeth well therewith let him praise God who hath not tyed the Exposition of the Scriptures to the sense of the Ancient Doctors but to the whole Scripture it self under the censure of the Catholick Church Melchior Canus Bishop of the Canary Islands having before declared himself according as St. Augustine hath done saying that the Holy Scriptures only are exempt from all error he further adds But there is no man how holy or learned soever he be that is not sometimes deceived that doth not sometimes dote that doth not sometimes slip And then alledging some of those examples which we have before produced he concludes in these words Let us therefore read the Ancient Fathers with all due Reverence yet notwithstanding for as much as they were but Men with Choice and Judgment And a little after he saith That the Fathers sometimes fail and bring forth Monsters besides the ordinary course of Nature And in the same place he saith that To follow the Ancients in all things and to tread every where in their steps as little Cbildren use to do in play is nothing else but to disparage our own Parts and to confess our selves to have neither Judgment nor Skill enough for the searching into the Trutâ— No let us follow them as Guides but not as Masters It is very true saith Ambrosius Catharinus in like manner that the Sayings and Writings of the Fathers have not of themselves any so absolute Authority as that we are bound to assent to them in all things The Jesuits also themselves inform us sufficiently in many places that they do not reckon themselves so tyed to follow the Judgment of the Fathers in all things as people may imagine Petavius in his Annotations upon Epiphanius confesseth freely That the Fathers were men that they had their failings and that we ought not maliciously to search after their Errors that we may lay them open to the world but that we may take the liberty to note them when ever they come in our way to the end that none be deceived by them and that we ought no more to maintain or defend their Errors than we ought to imitate their Vices if at least they had any and again That many things have slipped from them which if they were examined according to the exact Rule of Truth could not be reconciled to any good sense and that Himself hath observed That they are out sufficiently whensoever they speak of such Points of Faith as were not at all called in question in Their time And to say the truth He often rejects both Their Opinions and Their Expositions also and sometimes very Uncivilly too as we have touched before speaking of his Notes upon Epiphanius And in one place the Authority of some of the