yee forgive anie thing I forgive also for if I forgave anie thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ. For as in the name and by the power of our Lord Iesus such a one was delivered to Satan so God having given unto him repentance to recover himselfe out of the snare of the Divell in the same name and in the same power was hee to be restored againe the ministers of reconciliation standing in Christs stead and Christ himselfe being in the mids of them that are thus gathered together in his name to binde or loose in heaven whatsoever they according to his commission shall binde or loose on earth And here it is to be noted that Anastasius by some called Nicaenus by others Sinaita and Antiochenus who is so eager against them which say that Confession made unto men profiteth nothing at all confesseth yet that the minister in hearing the confession and instructing and correcting the sinner doth but give furtherance onely thereby unto his repentance but that the pardoning of the sinne is the proper worke of God For man saith he cooperateth with man unto repentance and ministreth and buildeth and instructeth and reproveth in things belonging unto salvation according to the Apostle and the Prophet but God blotteth out the sinnes of those that have confessed saying I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities for mine owne sake and thy sinnes and will not remember them There followeth now another part of the ministery of reconciliation consisting in the due administration of the Sacraments which being the proper seales of the promises of the Gospell as the Censures are of the threats must therefore necessarily also have reference to the remission of sinnes And so we see the ancient Fathers doe hold that the commission Ioh. 20.23 Whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted unto them c. is executed by the ministers of Christ aswell in the conferring of Baptisme as in the reconciling of Penitents yet so in both these and in all the sacraments likewise of both the Testaments that the ministerie onely is to be accounted mans but the power Gods For as S. Augustin well observeth it is one thing to baptize by way of ministerie another thing to baptize by vvay of power the power of baptizing the Lord retayneth to himselfe the ministerie hee hath given to his servants the power of the Lords Baptisme was to passe from the Lord to no man but the ministery was the power was to be transferred from the Lord unto none of his ministers the ministery was both unto the good and unto the bad And the reason which hee assigneth hereof is verie good that the hope of the baptized might be in him by whom they did acknowledge themselves to have beene baptized The Lord therefore would not have a servant to put his hope in a servant And therefore those Schoolemen argued not much amisse that gathered this conclusion thence It is a matter of equall power to baptize inwardly and to absolve from mortall sinne But it vvas not fit that God should communicate the power of baptizing inwardly unto any lest our hope should be reposed in man Therefore by the same reason it was not fit that hee should communicate the power of absolving from actuall sinne unto any So Bernard or whosoever was the author of the booke intituled Scala Paradisi The office of baptizing the Lord granted unto many but the power and authoritie of remitting sinnes in baptisme he retayned unto himselfe alone whence Iohn by vvay of singularitie and differencing said of him He it is which baptizeth with the holy Ghost And the Baptist indeed doth make a singular difference betwixt the conferrer of the externall and the internall baptisme in saying I baptize with water but it is hee which baptizeth with the holy Ghost While Iohn did his service God did give who fayleth not in giving and now when all others doe their service the service is mans but the gift is Gods saith Optatus and Arnaldus Bonaevallensis the author of the twelve treatises de Cardinalibus operibus Christi falsely ascribed to S. Cyprian touching the Sacraments in generall Forgivenesse of sinnes whether it be given by Baptisme or by other sacraments is properly of the holy Ghost and the priviledge of effecting this remayneth to him alone But the word of reconciliation is it wherein the Apostle doth especially place that ministerie of reconciliation which the Lord hath committed to his Ambassadors here upon earth This is that key of knowledge which doth both open the conscience to the confession of sinne and include therein the grace of the healthfull mysterie unto eternitie as Maximus Taurinensis speaketh of it This is that powerfull meanes which God hath sanctified for the washing away of the pollution of our soules Now ye are cleane saith our Saviour to his Apostles through the word which I have spoken unto you And whereas everie transgressor is holden with the cords of his owne sinnes the Apostles according to the commission given unto them by their Master that whatsoever they should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven did loose those cords by the word of God and the testimonies of the Scriptures and exhortation unto vertues as saith S. Hierome Thus likewise doth S. Ambrose note that sinnes are remitted by the word of God whereof the Levite was an interpreter and a kinde of an executer in that respect concludeth that the Levite was a minister of this remission As the Iewish Scribes therefore by taking away the key of knowledge did shut up the kingdom of heaven against men so every Scribe which is instructed unto the kingdome of heaven by opening unto his hearers the doore of faith doth as it were unlock that kingdome unto them being the instrument of God herein to open mens eyes and to turne them from darkenesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ. And here are we to understand that the ministers of Christ by applying the word of God unto the consciences of men both in publick and in private doe discharge that part of their function which concerneth forgivenesse of sinnes partly operatively partly declaratively Operatively inasmuch as God is pleased to use their preaching of the Gospell as a meanes of conferring his spirit upon the sonnes of men of begetting them in Christ and of working faith and repentance in them whereby the remission of sinnes is obtayned Thus Iohn preaching the Baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes and teaching the people that they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus is said to turne manie of the children of Israel to the
and love unto our most deare friend Lastly Pope Innocent the third or the second rather being inquired of by the Bishop of Cremona concerning the state of a certaine Priest that dyed without Baptisme resolveth him out of S. Augustine and S. Ambrose that because he continued in the faith of the holy mother the Church and the confession of the name of Christ he was assoyled from originall sinne and had attayned the joy of the heavenly country Upon which ground at last he maketh this conclusion Ceasing therefore all questions hold the sentences of the learned Fathers and command continuall prayers and sacrifices to bee offered unto God in thy Church for the foresaid Priest Now having thus declared unto what kinde of persons the Commemorations ordained by the ancient Church did extend the next thing that commeth to consideration is what we are to conceive of the primarie intention of those prayers that were appointed to be made therein And here we are to understand that first prayers of Praise and Thankesgiving were presented unto God for the blessed estate that the partie deceased was now entred upon whereunto were afterwards added prayers of Deprecation and Petition that God would be pleased to forgive him his sinnes to keep him from Hell and to place him in the kingdome of Heaven which kinde of intercessions howsoever at first they were well meant as we shall heare yet in processe of time they proved an occasion of confirming men in diverse errors especially when they beganne once to be applyed not onely to the good but to evill livers also unto whom by the first institution they never were intended The terme of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thankesgiving prayer I borrow from the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy who in the description of the funerall observances used of old in the Church informeth us first that the friends of the dead accounted him to be as he was blessed because that according to his wish he had obtained a victorious end and thereupon sent forth Hymnes of thankesgiving to the authour of that victory desiring withall that they themselves might come unto the like end and then that the Bishop likewise offered up a prayer of thankesgiving unto God when the dead was afterward brought unto him to receive as it were at his hands a sacred coronation Thus at the funerall of Fabiola the praysing of God by singing of Psalmes and resounding of Alleluia is specially mentioned by S. Hierom and the generall practise and intention of the Church therein is expressed and earnestly urged by S. Chrysostom in this maner Do not we prayse God and give thankes unto him for that he hath now crowned him that is departed for that he hath freed him from his labours for that quitting him from feare he keepeth him with himselfe Are not the Hymnes for this end Is not the singing of Psalmes for this purpose All these be tokens of rejoycing Whereupon hee thus presseth them that used immoderate mourning for their dead Thou sayest Returne O my soule unto thy rest for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee and dost thou weepe Is not this a stage-play is it not meere simulation For if thou dost indeed beleeve the things that thou sayest thou lamentest idely but if thou playest and dissemblest and thinkest these things to be fables why doest thou then sing why doest thou suffer those things that are done Wherefore doest thou not drive away them that sing and in the end hee concludeth somewhat prophetically that he very much feared lest by this meanes some grievous disease should creepe in upon the Church Whether the doctrine now maintayned in the Church of Rome that the children of God presently after their departure out of this life are cast into a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone be not a spice of this disease and whether their practise in chanting of Psalmes appointed for the expression of joy thankfulnesse over them whom they esteeme to be tormeâ—ted in so lamentable a fashion be not a part of that scene and pageant at which S. Chrysostom doth so take on I leave it unto others to judge That his feare was not altogether vaine the event it selfe doth shew For howsoever in his dayes the fire of the Romish Purgatorie was not as yet kindled yet were there certain sticks then a gathering which ministred fuell afterwards unto that flame Good S. Augustin who lived three and twentie years after S. Chrysostoms death declared himselfe to be of this minde that the oblations and almes usually offered in the Church for all the dead that received baptisme were thankesgivings for such as were very good propitiations for such as were not very bad but as for such as were very evill although they were no helpes of the dead yet were they some kinde of consolations of the living And although this were but a private exposition of the Churches meaning in her prayers and oblations for the dead and the opinion of a Doctor too that did not hold Purgatorie to be anie article of his Creed yet did the Romanists in times following greedily take hold of this and make it the maine foundation upon which they laid the hay and stubble of their devised Purgatorie A private exposition I call this not onely because it is not to be found in the writings of the former Fathers but also because it suteth not well with the generall practise of the Church which it intendeth to interpret It may indeed fit in some sort that part of the Church-service wherein there was made a severall commemoration first of the Patriarches Prophets Apostles and Martyrs after one maner and then of the other dead after another which together with the conceit that an injury was offered to a Martyr by praying for him was it that first occasioned S. Augustin to thinke of the former distinction But in the supplications for the spirits of the dead which the Church under a generall commemoration was accustomed to make for all that weâ—e deceased in the Christian and Catholicke communion to imagine that one and the same act of praying should be a petition for some and for others a thankesgiving only is somwhat too harsh an interpretation especially where we finde it propounded by way of petition and the intention thereof directly expressed as in the Greek Liturgie attributed to S. Iames the brother of our Lord Be mindfull O Lord God of the spirits and of all flesh of such as vve have remembred and such as we have not remembred being of right beleefe from Abel the just untill this present day Do thou cause them to rest in the land of the living in thy kingdome in the delight of Paradise in the bosoms of AbrahaÌ„ and Isaac Iacob our holy fathers whence griefe sorrow sighing are fledd where the light of thy countenance doth visit them and shine for ever and in the Offices compiled
merits as they shal be judged to be worthy some into the place which is called Hell others into Abrahams bosome and through diverse eyther places or mansions and in his Commentaries upon Leviticus hee addeth further Neyther have the Apostles themselves as yet received their joy but even they doe expect that I also may be made partaker of their joy For the Saincts departing from hence doe not presently obtaine the full rewards of their labours but they expect us likewise howsoever staying howsoever slacking Then touching the purging of men after the Resurrection he thus delivereth his minde in his Commentaries upon Luke I thinke that even after our resurrection from the dead we shall have need of a sacrament to wash and purge us for none can rise without pollutions and upon Ieremy If any one be saved in the second resurrection he is that sinner vvhich needeth the baptisme of fire which is purged with burning that whatsoever he hath of wood hay and stubble the fire may consume it Neither doth Lactantius shew himselfe to varie much from him in eyther of those points for thus he writeth When God shall judge the righteous he will examine them by fire Then they whose sinnes shall prevaile eyther in weight or number shall be touched with the fire and burned but they whom perfect righteousnesse and the ripenesse of vertue hath throughly seasoned shall not feele that fire for from thence have they something in them that will repell put back the force of the flame so great is the force of innocency that that fire shall flye back from it without doing anie harme vvhich hath received this power from God that it may burne the wicked and do service to the righteous Yet notwithstanding let no man thinke that the soules are presently judged after death All of them are detayned in one common custodie untill the time come wherein the great Iudge doth make tryall of their doings In like maner doth S. Hilary write of the one part All the faithfull when they are gone out of the bodie shall be reserved by the Lords custodie for that entry into the heavenly kingdome being in the meane time placed in the bosome of Abraham whither the wicked are hindred from comming by the gulfe interposed betwixt them untill the time of entring into the kingdome of heaven doe come and thus of the other Being to render an account of every idle word shall we desire the day of judgement wherein that unwearied fire must be passed by us in which those grievous punishments for expiating the soule from sinnes must be endured for to such as have beene baptized with the holy Ghost it remaineth that they should be consummated with the fire of judgement In S. Ambrose also there are some passages to bee found which seeme to make directly for either of these points as these for the former The soule is loosed from the body and yet after the end of this life it is held as yet in suspence with the uncertainty of the future judgement so that there is no end where there is thought to be an end We reade in the books of Esdras that when the day of judgement shall come the earth shall restore the bodies of the deceased and the dust shall restore the reliques of the dead which doe rest in the graves and the habitacles shall restore the soules which were committed to them and the most high shall be revealed upon the seat of judgement Also that scripture nameth those habitacles of the soules Promptuaries or secret receptacles and meeting with the complaint of man that the just which have gone before may seeme to be defrauded untill the day of judgement which is a very long time of the reward due unto them saith wonderfully that the day of judgement is like unto a crowne wherein as there is no slackenesse of the last so is there no swiftnesse of the first For the day of crowning is expected by all that vvithin that day both they who are overcome may be ashamed and they who doe overcome may obtaine the palme of victory Therefore while the fulnesse of time is expected the soules expect their due reward Paine is provided for some of them for some glory and yet in the meane time neither are those without trouble nor these without fruite and these for the latter With fire shall the sonnes of Levi be purged with fire Ezechiel with fire Daniel But these although they shall be tryed with fire yet shall say We have passed through fire and water Others shall remaine in the fire And if the Lord shall save his servants we shall be saved by faith yet saved as it were by fire Although we shall not be burned up yet shall we be burned After the end of the vvorld when the Angells shall be sent to separate the good and the bad this baptisme shall be when iniquitie shal be burnt up by the furnace of fire that in the kingdome of God the righteous may shine as the Sunne in the kingdome of their Father And if any one be as Peter or as Iohn he is baptized with this fire Seeing therefore he that is purged here hath need to be purged again there let him purge us there also when the Lord may say Enter into my rest that every one of us being burned with that flaming sword not burned up when he is entred into that pleasure of Paradise may give thankes unto his Lord saying Thou hast brought us into a place of refreshment Hereunto wee may adjoine that observation of Suarez the Iesuite They who thinke that the soules of men are not judged at their death nor do receive reward or punishment but are reserved in hidden receptacles untill the generall judgement doe consequently say that as men do not receive their last reward or punishment so neyther are they also purged untill the generall Resurrection and Iudgement do come from vvhence they might say vvith reasonable good consequence that men are to be purged with the fire of Conflagration and with as good consequence also may we further adde that prayers were not to be made for the deliverie of the soules of the dead from any purgatorie paines supposed to be suffered by them betwixt the time of their death and their resurrection which be the only praiers which are now in question In the Resurrection when our workes like unto clusters of grapes shall be cast into the probatory fire as it were into the wine-presse every mans husbandry shall be made manifest saith Gregorius Cerameus sometime archbishop of Tauromenium in Sicilia and No man as yet is entred eyther into the torments of Hell or into the kingdome of Heaven untill the time of the resurrection of the bodies saith Anastasius Sinaita upon whom Gretser bestoweth this marginall annotation that this is the Error of certain of the ancient of latter Greece And we
finde it to be held indeed both by some of the ancient as namely in Caius who lived at Rome when Zephyrinus was Bishop there and is accounted to be the author of the treatise falsely fathered upon Iosephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a large fragment whereof hath beene lately published by Hoeschelius in his notes upon Photius his Bibliotheke and by the latter Grecians in whose name Marcus Eugenicus archbishop of Ephesus doth make this protestation against such of his countrymen as yeelded to the definition of the Florentine Councell We say that neither the Saincts do receive the kingdome prepared for them and those secret good things neyther the sinners doe as yet fall into Hell but that eyther of them doe remaine in expectation of their proper lott and that this appertayneth unto the time that is to come after the Resurrection and the Iudgement But these men with the Latines would have these to receive presently after death the things they have deserved but unto those of the middle sort that is to such as dye in penance they assigne a purgatory fire which they faine to be distinct from that of Hell that thereby say they being purged in their soules after death they likewise may be received into the kingdome of heaven together vvith the righteous That barbarous impostor as Molanus rightly styleth him who counterfeyted a letter as written by S. Cyrill Bishop of Ierusalem unto S. Augustin touching the miracles of S. Hierome taketh upon him to lay down the precise time of the first arising of this sect among the Grecians in this maner After the death of most glorious Hierome a certaine heresie or sect arose amongst the Grecians and came to the Latines also which went about with their wicked reasons to prove that the soules of the blessed untill the day of the generall Iudgment wherein they were to be joyned againe unto their bodies are deprived of the sight and knowledge of God in which the whole blessednesse of the Saincts doth consist and that the soules of the damned in like maner untill that day are tormented with no paines Whose reason was this that as the soule did merit or sinne with the body so with the bodie was it to receive rewards or paines Those wicked sectaries also did maintaine that there was no place of Purgatory wherein the soules vvhich had not done full penance for their sinnes in this world might be purged Which pestilent sect getting head so great sorrow fell upon us that we were even weary of our life Then he telleth a wise tale how S. Hierome being at that time with God for the confutation of this new-sprong heresie raysed up three men from the dead after that hee had first ledd their soules into Paradise Purgatory and Hell to the end they might make known unto all men the things that were done there but had not the witt to consider that S. Cyrill himselfe had need to be raysed up to make the fourth man among them for how otherwise should he who dyed thirtie yeares before S. Hierome as is knowne to every one that knoweth the history of those times have heard and written the newes which those three good fellowes that were raised by S. Hierome after his death did relate concerning Heaven Hell and Purgatory Yet is it nothing so strange to me I confesse that such idle dreames as these should be devised in the times of darknesse to delude the world withall as that now in the broad day light Binsfeldius and Suarez and other Romish merchants should adventure to bring forth such rotten stuffe as this with hope to gaine anie credite of antiquitie thereby unto the new erected staple of Popish Purgatory The Dominican Friars in a certaine treatise written by them at Constantinople in the yeare 1252. assigne somewhat a lower beginning unto this error of the Grecians affirming that they followed therein a certain inventer of this heresie named Andrew Archbishop sometime of Caesarea in Cappadocia who said that the soules did wayt for their bodies that together with them with which they had committed good or evill they might likewise receave the recompense of their deeds But that which Andrew saith herein he saith not out of his own head and therefore is wrongfully charged to be the first inventer of it but out of the judgement of many godly fathers that went before him It hath been said saith he by many of the Saincts that all vertuous men after this life do receive places fit for them whence they may certainly make conjecture of the glory that shall befall unto them Where Peltanus bestoweth such another marginall note upon him as Gretser his fellow-Iesuite did upon Anastasius This opinion is now expressely condemned and rejected by the Church And yet doth Alphonsus de Castro aknowledge that the Patrons thereof vvere famous men renowned as well for holinesse as for knowledge but telleth us withall that no man ought to marvaile that such great men should fall into so pestilent an error because as the Apostle S. Iames saith he that offendeth not in word is a perfect man Another particular opinion which wee must sever from the generall intention of the Church in her oblations and prayers for the dead is that which is noted by Theophylact upon the speech of our Saviour Luk. 12.5 in which he wisheth us to observe that hee did not say Feare him who after hee hath killed casteth into hell but hath power to cast into hell For the sinners which dye saith he are not alwayes cast into hell but it remaineth in the power of God to pardon them also And this I say for the oblations and doales which are made for the dead which do not a little avayle even them that dye in grievous sinnes He doth not therefore generally after he hath killed cast into hell but hath power to cast Wherfore let us not cease by almes and intercession to appease him who hath power to cast but doth not alwayes use this power but is able to pardon also Thus farre Theophylact whom our Adversaries doe blindely bring in for the countenancing of their use of praying and offering for the dead not considering that the prayers and oblations which he would uphold doe reach even unto such as dye in grievous sinnes which the Romanists acknowledge to receive no reliefe at all by anie thing that they can doe and are intended for the keeping of soules from being cast into Hell and not for fetching them out when they have been cast into Purgatorie a place that never came within the compasse of Theophylacts beleefe His testimonie will fit a great deale better the prayer of S. Dunstan who as the tale goeth having understood that the soule of King Edwin was to be carried into Hell never gave over praying untill hee had gotten him ridd of that danger and transferred unto the coast of penitent soules where hee well deserved doubtlesse to
of the godly where is the inheritance of the mercifull where is the blisse of the undefiled where is the joy and consolation of such as love the truth Thither will I goe where is light and life where is glory jocundnesse where is joy and exultation whence griefe and heavinesse and groning flie away where they forgett the former tribulations that they sustayned in their body upon the earth Thither will I goe where there is a laying aside of tribulations where there this a recompense of labors where is the bosome of Abraham where the proprietie of Isaac where the familiarity of Israel where be the soules of the Saints vvhere the quire of Angels where the voyces of Archangels where the illumination of the holy Ghost where the kingdome of Christ where the endlesse glory and blessed sight of the eternall God the father What difference I pray you now is there betwixt this Limbus Patrum and Heaven it selfe Of Abrahams bosome Gregory Nyssen writeth after this maner As by a certaine abuse of speech we call a baye of the sea an arme or bosome so it seemeth to me that the word doth signifie the exhibitioÌ„ of those unmeasurable good things by the name of a bosome into which good bosome or baye all men that sayle by a vertuous course through this present life when they loose from hence put in their soules as it were into a haven free from danger of waves and tempests and in another place If one hearing of a bosome as it were a certaine large baye of the sea should conceive the fulnesse of good things to be meant thereby where the Patriarch is named and that Lazarus is therein he should not thinke amisse True it is indeed that diverse of the Doctors who make Abrahams bosome to be a place of glorie do yet distinguish it from Heaven but it is to be considered withall that they hold the same opinion indifferently of the place whereunto the soules of all godly men are received aswell under the state of the New as of the Old Testament For they did not hold as our Romanistes doe now that Christ by his descension emptyed Limbus removed the bosome of Abraham from Hell into Heaven their Limbus is now as full of Fathers as ever it was and is the common receptacle wherein they suppose all good soules to remaine untill the generall resurrection before which time they admit neyther the Fathers nor us unto the possession of the kingdome of Heaven For Abraham saith Gregory Nyssen and the other Patriarches although they had a desire to see those good things and never left seeking that heavenly countrey as the Apostle saith yet are they notwithstanding that even yet in expectancie of this favour God having provided some better thing for us according to the saying of S. Paul that they without us should not be made perfect So Tertullian It appeareth to every wise man that hath ever heard of the Elysian fields that there is some locall determination which is called Abâ—ahams bosome to receive the soules of his sonnes even of the Gentiles he being the Father of many nations that were to bee accounted of Abrahams family and of the same faith wherewith Abraham beleeved God under no yoke of the law nor in tâ—e signe of Circumcision That region tâ—erefore doe I call the bosome of Abraham although not heavenly yet higher than hell which shall give rest in the meane season to the soules of the righteous untill the consummation of thinâ—s doe finish the resurrection of all with the fulnesse of reward And we have heard S. Hilary say before that all the faithfull when they are gone out of the body shall be reserved by the Lords custody for that entrie into the heavenly kingdome being in the meane time placed in the bosome of Abraham whither the wicked are hindred from comming by the gulfe interposed betwixt them untill the time of entring into the kingdome of heaven doe come and againe The rich and the poore man in the Gospell do serve us for witnesses one of whom the Angels did place in the seates of the Blessed and in Abrahams bosome the other the region of punishment did presently receive For the day of judgement is the everlasting retribution eyther of blisse or paine but the time of death hath every one under his lawes while eyther Abraham or punishment reserveth every one unto judgement The difference betwixt the Doctors in their iudgement concerning the bosome of Abraham and the resting of the ancient Fathers therein wee finde noted in part in those expositions upon the Gospell which goe under the name of Theophilus Bishop of Antioch and Eucherius Bishop of Lyons In that the rich man say they did in Hell behold Abraham this by some is thought to be the reason because all the Saints before the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ are said to have descended into Hell although into a place of refreshment Others thinke that the place wherein Abraham was did lye apart from those places of Hell situated in places above for which the Lord should say of that rich man that lifting up his eyes when he was in torments he saw Abraham a far off The former of these opinions is delivered by some of the Doctors doubtfully by others more resolutely Primasius setteth it downe with S. Augustins qualification It sâ—emâ—th that without absurditie it may be beleeved The author of the imperfect worke upon Matthew saith that peradventure the just did ascend into heaveâ— before the comming of Christ yet that he doth thinke â—hat no soule before Christ did ascend into heaven since Adam sinned and the heavens were shut against him but all were detayned in Hell and as I doe thinke saith the Greeke expositor of Zacharies Hymne likewise even our fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob and the whole queere of the holy Prophets and just men did enjoy the comming of Christ. Of which comming to visite the Fathers in Hell S. Hierome Ruffinus Venantius Fortunatus Gregory Iulianus Toletanus and Eusebius Emissenus as he is commonly called interpret that question propounded by the Baptist unto our Saviour Art thou he that should come or looke we for another which exposition is by S. Chrysostome iustly reiected as utterly impertinent and ridiculous Anastasius Sinaita affirmeth very boldly that all the soules aswell of the just as the unjust were under the hand of the Divell untill Christ descending into Hell said unto those that vvere in bonds Come forth and to those that were indurance Be at libertie For he did not only saith he in another place dissolve the corruption of the bodies in the grave but also delivered the captive soules out of Hell vvherein they were by tyrannie detained and peradventure not by tyrannie neyther but for many debts which being payed he that descended for their deliverie brought backe with him a great
fit time and he who granted unto him that his flesh should not see corruption will grant also unto us that our flesh shall not see corruption but that in fit time it shall bee freed from corruption Neyther is it any whit strange unto them that are conversant in the writings of the ancient Doctors to heare that our Saviour by his buriall descended into Hell spoyled Hell and brought away both his owne body and the bodies of the Saints from Hell Wee finde the question moved by Gregory Nyssen in his sermon upon the Resurrection of Christ how our Lord did dispose himselfe at the same time three maner of wayes both in the heart of the earth Matth. 12.40 and in Paradise with the thiefe Luk. 23.43 and in the hands of his Father Luk. 23.46 For neither will any man say quoth he that Paradise is in the places under the earth or the places under the earth in Paradise that at the same time he might be in both or that those infernall places are called the hand of the Father Now for the last of these hee saith the case is plaine that being in Paradise he must needs be in his Fathers hands also but the greatest doubt hee maketh to be how he should at the same time be both in Hades and in Paradise for with him the heart of the earth the places under the earth and Hades or Hell are in this question one and the same thing And his finall resolution is that in this Hell Christ remained with his dead body when with his soule hee brought the thiefe into the possession of Paradise For by his body saith he wherein he sustayned not the corruption that followeth upon death hee destroyed him that had the power of death but by his soule he ledd the thiefe into the entrance of Paradise And these two did worke at the selfe same time the Godhead accomplishing the good by them both namely by the incorruption of the body the dissolution of death and by the placing of the soule in his proper seat the bringing backe of men unto Paradise againe The like sentence doe wee meet withall in the same Fathers epistle unto Eustathia Ambrosia and Basilissa His body he caused by dispensation to be separated from his soule but the indivisible deitie being once knit with that subject was neyther dis-joyned from the body nor the soule but was with the soule in Paradise making way by the thiefe for an entrance unto mankinde thither and with the body in the heart of the earth destroying him that had the power of death Wherewith wee may compare that place which we meet withall in the workes of S. Gregory Bishop of Neocaesarea wherein our Saviour is brought in speaking after this maner I must descend into the very bottome of Hell for the dead that are detay-there I must by the three dayes death of my flesh overthrow the power of long continuing death I must light the lamp of my BODY unto them vvhich sit in darkenesse and in the shadow of death and that of S. Chrysostom who is accounted also to be the author of that other sermon attributed unto S. Gregory How vvere the brasen gates broken and the iron barres burst By his BODY For then appeared first a body immortall and dissolving the tyrannie of death it selfe whereby was shewed that the force of death was taken away not that the sinnes of those who dyed before his comming were dissolved and that which we reade in another place of his workes He spoyled Hell descending into Hell hee made it bitter when it tasted of his flesh Which Esay understanding before hand cryed out saying Hell was made bitter meeting thee below so the Septuagint render the words Esai 14.19 It was made bitter for it was destroyed It was made bitter for it was mocked It received a BODY and light upon God it received Earth and met with Heaven it received that vvhich it saw and fell from that which it did not see Thus Caesarius expounding the parable Luk. 13.21 wherein the kingdome of God is likened unto leaven vvhich a woman tooke and hid in three pecks of floure till all was leavened saith that the three pecks of floure are first the whole nature of mankind then death and lastly Hell wherein the divine BODY being hidden by BURIALL did leaven all unto resurrection and life Whereupon he bringeth in our Saviour in another place speaking thus I will therefore be buried for their sakes that be in Hell I will therefore as it were a stone strike the gates thereof bringing forth the prisoners in strength as my servant David hath said So S. Basil asketh How we do accomplish the descent into Hell and answereth that we doe it in imitating the BURIALL of Christ in Baptisme For the bodies of those that be baptized are as it were buried in the water saith he S. Hilary maketh mention of Christs flesh quickened out of Hell by himselfe and Arator in like maner Infernum Dominus cùm destructurus adiret Detulit inde suam spoliato funere carnem When the Lord went to Hell to destroy it He brought from THENCE his owne flesh spâ—yling the grave Philo Carpathius addeth that in his grave he spoyled Hell Whereupon the Emperour Leo in his oration upon the buriall of our Saviour wisheth us to honour it by adorning our selves with vertues and not by putting him in the grave againe For it behoved saith he that this should be once done to the end that Hell might be spoyled and it was done And the Grecians retaine the commemoration hereof in their Liturgies unto this day as their Octoëchon Anastasimon and Pentecostarion do testifie wherein such hymnes and prayers as these are frequent Thou didst receive death in thy flesh working thereby immortalitie for us O Saviour and didst dwell in the grave that thou mightest free us from Hell raysing us up together with thy selfe When thou vvast put in the tombe as a mortall man the keepers of Hell gates shooke for feare for having overthrowne the strength of Death thou diddest exhibite incorruption to all the dead by thy Resurrection Although thou didst descend into the grave as a mortall man ô giver of life yet didst thou dissolve the strength of hell ô Christ raysing up the dead together with thy selfe whom it had also swallowed and didst exhibit the resurrection as God unto all that in faith and desire doe magnifie thee Thou who by thy three-dayes buriall didst spoyle Death and by thy life-bringing resurrectioÌ„ didst raise up corrupted man ô Christ our God as a lover of mankinde to thee be glory Thou who by thy three-dayes buriall didst spoyle Hell and by thy resurrection didst save man have mercy upon me By thy three-dayes buriall the enemy was spoyled the dead loosed from the bands of Hell death deaded the palaces of hell voyded Therefore in hymnes doe we
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
earth and did forsake the whole earth that would be nothing worthy to be compared with the kingdome of heaven For as if one would neglect one peece of brasse that he might gaine a hundred peeces of gold so he who is lord of the whole earth and forsaketh it should but forgoe a little and receive a hundred fold Such an other exhortation doth S. Augustine also make unto his hearers When thou dost consider saith he what thou art to receive all the things that thou sufferest will be vile unto thee neither wilt thou esteeme them worthy for which thou shouldst receive it Thou wilt wonder that so much is given for so small a labour For indeed brethren for everlasting rest everlasting labour should be undergone being to receive everlasting felicitie thou oughtest to sustaine everlasting sufferings But if thou shouldst sustaine everlasting labour when shouldst thou come to everlasting felicitie So it commeth to passe that thy tribulation must of necessitie be temporall that it being finished thou maist come to infinite felicitie But yet brethren there might have beene long tribulation for eternall felicitie that for example because our felicitie shall have no end our misery and our labour and our tribulations should be of long continuance For admit they should continue a thousand yeere weigh a thousand yeeres with eternitie Why dost thou weigh that which is finite be it never so great with that which is infinite Ten thousand yeeres ten hundred thousand if we should say and a thousand thousand which have an end cannot be compared with eternitie This then thou hast that God would have thy labour to be not only temporall but short also And therefore doth the same Father every where put us in minde that God is become our debtor not by our deservings but by his owne gratious promise Man saith he is faithfull when he beleeveth God promising God is faithfull when he performeth that which he hath promised unto man Let us hold him a most faithfull debtor because we have him a most mercifull promiser For we have not done him any pleasure or leant any thing to him that we should hold him a debtor seeing we have from himselfe whatsoever we doe offer unto him and it is from him whatsoever good we are We have not given any thing therefore unto him and yet we hold him a debtor Whence a debtor because he is a promiser We say not unto God Lord pay that which thou hast received but pay that which thou hast promised Be thou secure therefore Hold him as a debtor because thou hast beleeved in him as a promiser God is faithfull who hath made himselfe our debtor not by receiving any thing from us but by promising so great things to us For to men hath he promised divinitie to those that are mortall immortalitie to sinners justification to abjects glorification Whatsoever he promised he promised to them that were unworthy that it might not be promised as waâ—es for workes but being grace might according to the name be graciously and freely given because that even this very thing that one doth live justly so farre as a man can live justly is not a matter of mans merit but of the gift of God Therefore in those things which we have alreadie let us praise God as the giver in those things which as yet we have not let us hold him our debtor For hee is become our debtor not by receiving any thing from us but by promising what it pleased him For it is one thing to say to a man Thou art debtor to me because I have given to thee and another thing to say Thou art debtor to mee because thou hast promised me When thou sayest Thou art debtor to me because I have given to thee a benefit hath proceeded from thee though lent not given But when thou sayest Thou art debtor to me because thou hast promised me thou gavest nothing to him and yet requirest of him For the goodnesse of him that hath promised will give it c. The salvation of men depends upon the sole mercy of God saith Theodoret. for we do not obtaine it as the reward and wages of our righteousnes but it is the gift of Gods goodnesse The crownes doe excell the fights the rewards are not to be compared with the labours for the labour is small but great is the gaine that is hoped for And therefore the Apostle Rom. 8.18 called those things that are looked for not wages but glory and Rom. 6.23 not wages but grace For although a man should performe the greatest and most absolute righteousnesse things eternall doe not answer temporall labours in equall poise The same for this point is taught by S. Cyrill of Alexandria that the crowne which we are to receive doth much surpasse the paines which we take for it And the Author of the booke of the calling of the Gentiles attributed unto Prosper observeth out of the Parable Matth. 20.9 that God bestoweth eternall life on those that are called at the end of their daies as well as upon them that had laboured longer not as paying a price to their labour but powring out the riches of his goodnesse upon them whom he had chosen without works that even they also who have sweat with much labour and have received no more than the last might understand that they did receive a gift of grace and not a due wages for their workes This was the doctrine taught in the Church for the first five hundred yeeres after Christ which wee finde maintained also in the next five hundred If the King of heaven should regard my merit saith Ennodius Bishop of Pavîa either I should get little good or great punishments and judging of my selfe rightly whither I could not come by merits I would not tend in desire But thankes be to him who that we may not be extolled doth so cut off our offences that he bringeth our hope unto better things Our glorification saith Fulgentius is not unjustly called Grace not only because God doth bestow his owne gifts upon his owne gifts but also because the grace of Gods reward doth so much there abound as that it exceedeth incomparably and unspeakably all the merit of the will and worke of man though good and given from God For although we did sweat saith he who beareth the name of Eusebius Emissenus or Gallicanus with all the labours of our soule and bodie although we were exercised with all the strength of obedience yet shall not we be able to recompence and offer any thing worthie in merit for the heavenly good things The offices of this present life cannot be compared with the joyes of the life eternall Although our members be wearied with watchings although our faces wax pale with fastings yet the sufferings of this time will not be worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall bee revealed in us Let us
so purposed to reward them Afterwards he proveth out of the Apostle Rom. 6.23 that eternall life is given out of Gods grace not out of our righteousnesse and that God in thus rewarding us doth neither exercise commutative justice because in our good workes we give nothing unto God for which by way of commutation the reward should be due unto us nor yet distributive because no man by working well in regard of himselfe and in regard of the state wherein he is doth merit any thing of condignitie but is bound to God rather by a greater obligation because he hath received greater good things from him And thereupon at last concludeth that God is just in rewarding because by his just disposition he hath ordained by the grace of acceptation to crowne the lesser merit with the greater reward not by the justice of debt but by the grace and disposition of the divine good pleasure But the sentence of the Chancellour and the Theologicall facultie of Paris in the yeere 1354. against one Guido an Austin Fryar that then defended the merit of condignitie is not to be overpassed For by their order this forme of recantation was prescribed unto him I said against a Bachelour of the order of the Fryars Preachers in conference with him that a man doth merit everlasting life of condignitie that is to say that in case it were not given there should injurie be done unto him I wrote likewise that God should doe him iniurie and approved it This I revoke as FALSE HERETICALL and BLASPHEMOVS Yet now the times are so changed and men in them that our new Divines of Rhemes stick not to tell us that it is most cleare to all not blinded in pride and contention that good workes be meritorious and the very cause of salvation so far that God should be unjust if he rendred not heaven for the same where to the judgement of the indifferent Reader I referre it whether side in this case is more likely to have beene blinded in pride we who abase our selves before Gods footstoole and utterly disclaime all our owne merits or they who have so high a conceit of them that they dare in this presumptuous manner to challenge God of injustice if he should judge them to deserve a lesse reward than Heaven it selfe and whether that sentence of our Saviour Christ be not fulfilled in them as well as in the proud and blinde Pharisees their predecessors For judgement I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blinde And so leaving these blinde leaders of the blinde who say they see by that meanes making their sinne to remaine and say they are rich and increased with goods not knowing that they are wretched and miserable and poore and blinde and naked I proceed and out of the fifteenth Century or Hundred of yeeres after Christ produce other two witnesses of this truth The one is Paulus Burgensis who expounding those words of David Psalm 36.5 Thy mercy O Lord is in heaven or reacheth unto the heavens writeth thus No man according to the common law can merit by condignitie the glory of heaven whence the Apostle saith in the 8. to the Romans that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us and so it is manifest that in heaven most of all the mercy of God shineth forth in the blessed The other is Thomas Walden who living in England the same time that the other did in Spaine professeth plainly his dislike of that saying that a man by his merits is worthy of the kingdome of heaven or this grace or that glory howsoever certaine Schoolemen that they might so speake had invented the tearmes of Condignitie and Congruitie But I repute him saith he the sounder Divine the more faithfull Catholicke and more consonant with the holy Scriptures who doth simply denie such merit and with the qualification of the Apostle and of the Scriptures confesseth that simply no man meriteth the kingdome of heaven but by the grace of God or will of the giver as all the former Saints untill the late Schoolemen and the universall Church hath written Out of which words of his you may further observe both the time when and the persons by whom this innovation was made in these latter daies of the Church namely that the late Schoolemen were they that corrupted the ancient doctrine of the Church and to that end devised their new termes of the merit of congruitie and condignitie I say in these latter daies because if we looke unto higher times Walden himselfe in that same place doth affirme that it was a branch of the Pelagian heresie to hold that according to the measure of meritorious workes God will reward a man so meriting Neither indeed can this proud generation of Merit-mongers be derived from a more proper stocke than from the old either Pelagians or Catharists For as these doe now adaies maintaine that they doe worke by their owne free-will and thereby deserve their salvation so was this wont to be a part of Pelagius his song No man shall take away from me the power of free-will lest if God be my helper in my workes the reward be not due to me but to him that did worke in me And to glory of their merits was a speciall property noted in the Catharists or ancient Puritans who standing thus upon their owne puritie doe thereby declare as Cassiodorus noteth that they have no portion with the holy Church which professeth that her sinnes are many Nay while these men call themselves Puritans saith Epiphanius by this very ground they prove themselves to be impure for whosoever pronounceth himselfe to be pure doth therein absolutely condemne himselfe to be impure For as S. Hierome in this case disputeth against the Pelagians and so against the Puritan and Pelagian Romanists then are we righteous when we confesse our selves to be sinners and our righteousnesse consisteth not in our owne merits but in Gods mercy with whose resolution against them we will now conclude this point against their new off-spring that the righteous are saved not by their owne merit but by Gods clemencie And thus have I gone over all the particular articles propounded by our Challenger and performed therein more a great deale than he required at my hands That which he desired in the name of his felloâ—es was that we would alleage but any one Text of Scripture which condemneth any of the above written points He hath now presented unto him not texts of Scripture only but testimonies of the Fathers also justifying our dissâ—nt from them not in one but in all those points wherein he was so confident that they of our side that had read the Fathers could well testifie that all antiquitie did in judgement concurre with
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
them And therefore it is no marvaile that somewhat not so fitt should be contayned in the foresaid prayers and be tolerated in the Church seeing such prayers were made by private persons not by Councells neyther vvere approved at all by Councells And we easily doe beleeve indeed that their Offices and Legends are fraught not only with untrue and unfit but also with farre worse stuffe neyther is this any newes unto us Agobardus Bishop of Lions complayned about 800. yeares agoe that the Antiphonary used in his Church had many ridiculous and phantasticall things in it and that hee was faine to cut off from thence such things as seemed to be eyther superfluous or light or lying or blasphemous The like complaint was made not long since by Lindanus of the Romane Antiphonaries and Missals wherein not only apocryphall tales saith he out of the Gospell of Nicodemus and other toyes are thrust in but the very secret prayers themselves are defiled with most foule faults But now that wee have the Romane Missall restored according to the decree of the Councell of Trent set out by the command of Pius V. and revised againe by the authoritie of Clemens VIII I doubt much whether our Romanists will allow the Censure which their Medina hath given of the praiers contained therein And therefore if this will not please them he hath another answer in store of which though his country man Mendoza hath given sentence that it is indigna viro Theologo unworthy of any man that beareth the name of a Divine yet such as it is you shall have it Supposing then that the Church hath no intention to pray for anie other of the dead but those that are detayned in Purgatorie this he delivereth for his second resolution The Church knowing that God hath power to punish everlastingly those soules by which when they lived he was mortally offended and that God hath not tyed his power unto the Scriptures and unto the promises that are contayned in the Scripture forasmuch as he is above all things and a◠omnipotent after his promises as if he had promised nothing at all therefore the Church doth humbly pray God that he would not use this his absolute omnipotencie against the soules of the faithfull which are departed in grace therefore shee doth pray that he would vouchsafe to free them from everlasting paines and from revenge and the judgement of condemnation and that he would be pleased to rayse them up againe with his Elect. But leaving our Popish Doctors with their profound speculations of the not limiting of Gods power by the Scriptures and the promises which he hath made unto us therein let us returne to the ancient Fathers and consider the differences that are to be found among them touching the place and condition of soules separated from their bodies for according to the several apprehensions which they had thereof they made different applications and interpretations of the use of praying for the dead whose particular intentions and devotions in that kinde must of necessity therefore be distinguished from the generall intention of the whole Church S. Augustine that I may begin with him who was as the most ingenious so likewise the most ingenuous of all others in acknowledging his ignorance where hee saw cause being to treat of these matters maketh this Preface before hand unto his hearers Of Hell neyther have I had any experience as yet nor you and peradventure it may be that our passage may lye some other way and not prove to be by Hell For these things be uncertain and having occasion to speake of the departure of Nebridius his deare friend Now he liveth saith he in the bosome of Abraham whatsoever the thing be that is signified by that bosome there doth my Nebridius live But elsewhere he directly distinguisheth this bosome from the place of blisse into which the. Saincts shall be received after the last judgement After this short life saith he thou shalt not as yet be where the Saincts shall be unto whom it shall be said Come ye blessed of my Father receive the kingdome which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world Thou shalt not as yet be there who knoweth it not But now thou mayest be there where that proude and barren rich man in the middest of his torments saw a farre off the poore man sometime full of ulcers resting Being placed in that rest thou dost securely expect the day of judgement when thou mayest receive thy body when thou mayest be changed to be equall unto an Angell and for the state of soules betwixt the time of the particular and generall judgement this is his conclusion in generall The time that is interposed betwixt the death of man and the last resurrection contayneth the soules in hidden receptacles as every one is worthy eyther of rest or of trouble according unto that which it did purchase in the flesh when it lived Into these hidden receptacles he thought the soules of Gods children might carry some of their lighter faults with them which being not removed would hinder them from comming into the kingdome of heaven whereinto no polluted thing can enter and from which by the prayers and almes-deeds of the living he held they might be released But of two things he professed himselfe here to be ignorant First What those sinnes were which did so hinder the comming unto the kingdome of God that yet by the care of good friends they might obtaine pardon Secondly Whether those soules did endure anie temporary paines in the Interim betwixt the time of Death and the Resurrection For howsoever in his one and twentieth book of the City of God and the thirteenth and sixteenth chapters for the new patch which they have added to the foure and twentieth chapter is not worthy of regard he affirme that some of them doe suffer certaine purgatorie punishments before the last and dreadfull judgment yet by comparing these places with the five and twentieth chapter of the twentieth booke it will appeare that by those purgatory punishments he understandeth here the furnace of the fire of Conflagration that shall immediatly go before this last judgement and as he otherwhere describeth the effects thereof separate some unto the left hand and melt out others unto the right Neither was this opinion of the reservation of soules in secret places and the purging of them in the fire of Conflagration at the day of iudgement entertained by this famous Doctor alone diverse others there were that had touched upon the same string before him Origen in his fourth book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we have him translated by Ruffinus for in the Extracts selected out of him by S. Basil and S. Gregory wee finde the place somewhat otherwise expressed saith that such as depart out of this world after the common course of death are disposed of according to their deeds and
I can hardly be perswaded saith Origen that there can be any worke which may require the reward of God by way of debt seeing this very thing it selfe that we can doe or thinke or speake any thing we doe it by his gift and largesse Wages indeed saith Saint Hilary there is none of gift because it is due by worke but God hath given the same free to all men by the justification of faith Whence should I have so great merit seeing mercy is my Crowne saith S. Ambrose and againe Which of us can subsist without the mercy of God What can we doe worthy of the heavenly rewards Which of us doth so rise up in this bodie that he doth elevate his minde in such sort as he may continually adhere unto Christ By what merit of man is it granted that this corruptible flesh should put on incorruption and this mortall should put on immortality By what labours or by what enduring of injuries can we abate our sinnes The sufferings of this time are unworthy for the glory that is to come Therefore the forme of heavenly decrees doth proceed with men not according to our merits but according to Gods mercy S. Basil expounding those words of the Psalmist Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy Psalm 33.18 saith that he doth hope in his mercy who not trusting in his owne good deeds nor looking to be iustified by workes hath the hope of his salvation only in the mercies of God and in his explication of those other words Psalm 116.7 Returne unto thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Everlasting rest saith he is laid up for them that strive lawfully in this life not to be rendred according to the debt of workes but exhibited by the grace of the bountifull God to them that trust in him If we consider our owne merits we must despaire saith S. Hierome and When the day of judgement or death shall come all hands will faile because no worke shall be found worthy of the justice of God Macarius the Aegyptian Eremite in his 15. homily writeth thus Touching the gift which Christians shall inherit this a man may rightly say that if any one from the time wherein Adam was created unto the very end of the world did fight against Satan and undergoe afflictions he should doe no great matter in respect of the glory that he shall inherit for he shall reigne together with Christ world without end His 37. homily is in the Paris edition of the workes of Marcus the Eremite set out as the Prooeme of his booke of Paradise and the spirituall law There Macarius exhorteth us that beleeving in almighty God we should with a simple heart and void of scrupulositie come unto him who bestoweth the communion of the spirit according to faith and not according to the proportion of the workes of faith Where Ioannes Picus the Popish interpreter of Marcus giveth us warning in his margent that this clause is to be understood of a lively faith but concealeth his owne faithlesnesse in corrupting of the text by turning the workes of faith into the workes of nature for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by his Latine translation which is to be seene in Bibliothecâ Patrum as much to say as Non ex proportione operum naturae There is a treatise extant of the said Marcus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching those who thinke to be justified by their workes where he maketh two sorts of men that misse both of them the kingdome of heaven the one such as doe not keepe the commandements and yet imagine that they beleeve aright the other such as keeping the commandements doe expect the kingdome as a wages due â—nto them For the Lord saith he willing to shew that all the commâ—ndements are of dutie to be performed and that the adoption of children is freely given to men by his bloud saith When you have done aâ—l things that are commanded you then say We are unprofitable servants and we have done that which was our dutie to doe Therefore the kingdome of heaven is not the hire of works but the grace of the Lord prepared for his faithfull servants This sentence is repeated in the very selfe same words by Hesychius in his booke of Sentences written to Thalassius The like sayings also hath S. Chrysostome No man sheweth such a conversation of life that he may be worthy of the kingdome but this is wholly of the gift of God Therefore he saith When yee have done all say We are unprofitable servants for what we ought to doe we have done Although we did die a thousand deaths although we did performe all vertuous actions yet should we come short by farre of rendring any thing worthy of those honours which are conferred upon us by God Although we should doe innumerable good deeds it is of Gods pitie and benignitie that we are heard although we should come unto the very top of vertue it is of mercy that we are saved for although we did innumerable workes of mercy yet would it be of the benignitie of grace that for such small and meane matters should be given so great a heaven and a kingdome and such an honour whereunto nothing we doe can have equall correspondence Let the merit of men be excellent let him observe the rights of nature let him be obedient to the commandements of the Lawes let him fulfill his faith keepe justice exercise vertues condemne vice repell sinnes shew himselfe an example for others to imitate if he have performed any thing it is little whatsoever he hath done is small for all merit is short Number Gods benefits if thou canst and then consider what thou dost merit Weigh thine owne deeds with the heavenly benefits ponder thine owne acts with the divine gifts and thou wilt not judge thy selfe worthy of that which thou art if thou understandest what thou dost merit Whereunto we may adde the exhortation made by S. Antony to his Monkes in Aegypt The life of man is most short being measured with the world to come so that all our time is even nothing in comparison of everlasting life And every thing in this world is sold for that which it is worth and one giveth equall in exchange of equall but the promise of everlasting life is bought for a very little matter Wherefore my sonnes let us not wax weary nor thinke that we stay long or performe some great thing for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed on us Neither when we looke upon the world let us thinke that we have forsaken any great matters For all this earth is but a very little thing in comparison of the whole heaven Therefore although we had beene lords of the whole