bee that pure righteousnesse when transgression and some default cannot bee shut out from it But it seemeth to vs that the iust and righteous dealing of men may be vpright and honest when it yeeldeth not so farre vnto sinne as to suffer it to raigne in the bodie c. Againe The Lord is hee that iudgeth me Idem de verbo Originis for I cannot auoide his righteous sentence yea and if I were iust yet would I not lift vp my head because that all my righteous actions are as a stained cloth seeing that before God no man can be iustified no not one CHAP. XVIII That the Law was giuen man to conuince him of sinne and to cause him to looke for his saluation in that grace which is by faith in Christ according both to the Scriptures and the fathers FOr what vse then will some say doth the Law of God serue vs The end of the law according to the holy Scriptures if we cannot fulfill the same Verily that by it thou maist know the difference that is betwixt the righteousnesse of God and that pretended righteousnesse of thine owne and that thou maist knowe that thou art not able to doe it As certainely also that thou maiest bee conuinced in thy pride condemned in thy righteousnesse and bound and beholden to his mercies And all the Pedagogie thereof Deut. 9. all the discipline and instruction contained in the same if thou consider it is no other thing Moyses saith Say not in thine heart O Israell This is because of my righteousnesse that God hath brought me into this land it is not by reason of the vprightnesse of thy heart for thou art a stif-necked people c. And then how much lesse into the true land Into the heauenly Chanaan The whole seruice of the Lawe consisteth altogether in washings altogether in bloud and in killing which aunswere fitly to our vncleannesse sinnes crimes accidents and happes yea to our verie ignorances to our faults known and vnknowne vnto vs and they were renued Euening and Morning and were continued perpetually and therefore also both an ordinarie and continuall charge and accusation of our whole liues and of all that which is within vs Psalme or that commeth out of vs. Whereupon Dauid saith If thou markest our iniquities O Lord who shall abide it who shall indure thy stroke And whereas he speaketh of his righteous workes he saith Thou art the Lord my goodnesse reacheth not vnto thee The Prophets likewise doe neuer speake vnto vs but of a circumcised heart of a new heart of a hart of flesh in stead of our vncircumcised and stonie harts to the end that wee may know where the disease holdeth vs euen in our most noble part and that it lyeth not in vs to reforme the same that it hath need to be quite framed anew by the operation of the Creator himself by his holy spirit and in the fountaine or spring head are all the waters issuing from thence condemned in the tree all the fruites thereof In the originall of motion all our motions and in the workman all the workes which he hath wrought Whereupon S. Paul also the true interpreter of the Law leadeth vs continually from workes vnto faith and from the Law to grace The Law saith hee giueth knowledge of sinne Rom. 3. the Law maketh it to abound the Law worketh wrath the Law is the ministerie of death by the workes of the Law no man is iustified for no man can fulfill it And yet in the meane time Cursed are they that abide not in all the words of the same And what shall we doe then But saith he the iust shall liue by faith he shall be iustified by faith without the workes of the Law iustified freely by the grace of God by the redemption made in Iesus Christ Rom. 4 That grace which superaboundeth whereas sinne hath abounded That faith which applieth vnto vs this grace which is imputed vnto vs for righteousnesse in as much as we belieue in him that hath raised Christ from the dead slaine for our sinnes and raised for our iustification Rom. 11.5 c. And If it bee of grace saith the Apostle then it is no more by workes otherwise grace were no more grace otherwise workes were no more workes And yet in the meane time faith the gift of God Faith the gift of God and grace that is to say the remission of sinnes the gift also of God and the hand to receiue the bountifull kindnesse and free liberalitie of our God in Christ this free mercy also the gift of God Faith Ephes 2.8 Rom. 5. for you are saued saith the Apostle by grace through faith and that not of your selues it is of God Grace the remission of sinnes in like manner For saith hee also if by the offence of one many die much more the grace of God and the gift by grace c. hath abounded on many Rom. 6. Againe The wages of sinne is death Our aduersaries would say and the wages of good workes is eternall life Nay saith our Apostle But the the gift of God that is to say Rom. 5 the gift of righteousnesse the aboundance of grace is eternall life by Iesus Christ And this gift notwithstanding is called an inheritance the inheritance of Children and not the wages of seruants And yet an inheritance which wee although adopted for children doe loose and forfait euerie day as much as in vs lyeth by our sinnes if God euerie houre in the obedience of his Sonne did not restore it vnto vs againe and that of his free gift Ioh. 1. Rom. 8. For saith Saint Iohn He hath vouchsafed vs the honour to be made the children of God And If saith Saint Paul you bee Sonnes you are also heires yea fellow heires with Christ Such is the paines that the Apostle taketh to weede and destroy out of vs this roote of Pharisaisme of pretended merite sometimes making vs heires sometimes Donatories or rather heires Donatories in as much as it is giuen vnto vs to be children which naturally we were not But what child is hee that can be indured or thought worthie to be maintained if hee say that he deserueth and meriteth at his fathers hands and that of his father of whome hee holdeth and inioyeth but this mortall life and that rather but as the instrument then the author thereof Some in like maner asked the auncient fathers The end and scope of the law according to the olde writers wherefore serueth the law of God if we cannot performe it And behold now what was their answere Saint Ambrose The Law worketh and causeth wrath Adam fell to offend by disobedience and to commit a fault by insolencie But in as much as pride was the cause of the fall and the prerogatiue of innocencie the cause of his pride there was iust cause giuen for the making of a Law which might make him subiect vnto God
For without the Lawe sinne was not knowne whereas now there is no man that can excuse himselfe by ignorance Ambros l. 9. Ep. 71. wherefore it is made First for to take away excuse Secondly to humble euerie man before God by the sight and knowledge of his sinne Sinne did superabound through the Law and began to be offensiue vnto me for to know it as being a thing which by infirmitie I could not auoide for it causeth a man throughly to know that from which no man can keepe himselfe and which cannot but hurt him The Law then is turned vpside downe except that euen by the verie increase of sinne it become profitable vnto me by the meanes of my hauing beene humbled c. In the end transgression increased by the Law and in like manner pride was abated being the originall of transgression and this turned me to profit for as pride deuised and found out transgression euen so transgression hath wrought and brought foorth grace c. Againe Sinne hath shut out the naturall Law yea and almost quite abolished it and therefore this Law succeeded to conuince vs by written testimonies to shut our mouthes and to humble the whole world before God To humble it for as much as by the Law wee are all cast and conuict persons and for that by the workes of the Law there is no man iustified that is to say that by the Law sinne is knowne but the offence is not pardoned It might haue seemed then that the Lawe had brought dammage and hurt with it in that it hath made vs all sinners but the Lord comming hath with vs giuen sentence against the sinne which wee could not auoide and hath cancelled our bill of debt by his bloud c. Ep. 73. The Law therefore saith hee is a Schoolemaster that leadeth vs vnto our Master which master is Christ Saint Augustine The letter of the Law which teacheth that wee ought not to sinne August de spirit liter if the quickning spirit doe not accompanie the same doth kill vs For it hath done more for vs to bring vs to the knowledge of sinne then to the auoiding of the same for euerie way wee stand in need of an absolute righteousnesse when as yet the case so standeth as that there is no man without sinne him onely excepted which is not onely man but God by his nature c. Thus saith hee the righteousnesse of God is manifested but not without the Law for by the Law hee hath shewed vnto man his infirmitie to the end that returning by faith and hauing recourse vnto his mercie he might be healed c. Againe The vnrighteous haue a lawfull vse of the Law as of a Schoolemaster for it is vnto them beeing vnrighteous a iust terrour the iust doe vse it also and yet are not iustified by it but by the Law of faith The Law of workes is in Iudaisme the Lawe of faith in Christianitie c. By the Law of workes God saith Doe this that I commaund you by the Law of faith we say to God Giue and inable vs to doe that which thou commaundest For that which the Law commaundeth is to make vs vnderstand what the Law doth Idem de verb. Apost Ser. 13. What is it then saith he in an other place lawfully and rightly to vse the Law It is to learne what our sicknesse and disease is by the Law The law is a Schoolemaster a guide and gouernour of children the Tutor dooth not giue directions and instructions to the child how to come to him but to his Schoolemaster but to his Master that is to say to Christ In an other place Who is that saith he that can accomplish the Law Idem l. 9. retract so much as in one point besides him who is the author of all the commaundements of God that is to say Christ For likewise in these commaundements we are to pray thus Forgiue vs c. Which the Church is to continue vnto the end of the world But saith he all the commaundements are said to bee fulfilled when that which is not fulfilled is pardoned Thou saiest Idem de perfect Iustit Wherefore then should hee haue commaunded that which could not be fulfilled Nay rather saith he what could he doe more for the good of man then to commaund him to walke vpright to the end that when hee should be brought to confesse and acknowledge that he could not hee might haue recourse vnto the remedie And this is it which hee toucheth in briefe Idem in Iohn c. 3. by way of recapitulation in an other place Seeing that they could not fulfill the Law by their owne power and strength being become guiltie of the Law they haue craued the helpe of the deliuerer To bee conuicted of the Law Reatus legis wrought spite and maliciousnesse in the proude and this spite in the proude brought forth confession in the humble so that now the sicke and diseased doe confesse themselues sicke and diseased Let the Phisition come saie they and heale our diseased and sicke people nowe the Physition is our Lord c. The Demi-pelagians and amongst other of them the Monke Cassianus put foorth this question to Prosper that great Diuine of Fraunce And what is then the vse of the law Prosper Aquit in sentent 42. 44. In Epigram 43. in Psal 118. Verily saith hee that we might seeke for grace euen that grace by the which the Law is fulfilled The law saith he which could not bee fulfilled and that not through it owne default but through ours and our fault was necessarily discouered by the Law that so it might be cured by grace Otherwise the Law doth rather increase sinne then diminish or cut it off in as much as to concupiscence it addeth disobedience And in an other place in one word Chrysost in Ep. ad Rom. hom 5. 17. Idem in 1. Tim. hom 2. Transmittit ernard in Cantic Serm. 50. Jndex peccati lex est c. Saint Chrysostome saith The Law would iustifie man but it cannot for neuer did any man fulfill it and no man can be iustified thereby but in accomplishing of the same a thing which is not possible for any man What doth it then It straineth it selfe it doth his dutie to send vs to him that is able to doe it and the same is Iesus Christ saith he if thou belieue in him And this is the same also that Saint Barnard hath so excellently said God in commaunding vs impossible things hath not properly made men sinners but hath made them humble For in receiuing the commaundement and espying the default we will crie to heauen and God will haue pittie on vs and then also in that day we shall know that it is not by the workes that we shal haue done that we shall be saued but by his mightie power c. Now these which haue so well instructed vs in the office and ministration
as there can nothing come out of vs that can make God fauourable and mercifull vnto vs. In whose passion iniquitie was remitted and righteousnesse restored all in a day and that not onely vnto iustification but euen to the meriting that is to say to be reputed worthie of the companie of God by them And this is to be vnderstoode so farre forth as we belieue and as his obedience is sufficient for all belieuers vnto eternall life the same being perfectly washed into the remission which is in his bloud But and if you aske to what end then serueth the Law seeing that it doth not iustifie Haimo aunswereth Not to take away sinnes but to shew and point out the same Hincmarus It is because of transgressions and for the hardnesse of the people Adelbertus To teach vs our concupiscence and to learne vs to knowe and vnderstand what is due vnto vs for our sinnes to the end that thereupon wee may seeke for grace Theophilact To conuince vs of sinne and to bring vs to Christ. Anselme To shewe in what Chaines and bandes of sinne such were held as presumed of their power to accomplish and make perfect their righteousnesse by works that so they might perceiue the poyson though thereby they could not take it away and to the increasing and augmenting of sinne not to the cleansing or wiping of it away Radulph in Leuit. l. 20. c. 1. Gysilb in alter But what doe wee not accomplish it then Radulphus saieth What man is he vpon the face of the earth that is able verily not one And Gisilbert So neither hath it brought any thing vnto perfection it hath laid open the woundes but it hath not cured them Theophyliad Rom. c. 3. Anselm in 7 ad Rom. Haimo in Psal 118. in c. 6 ad Rom. passim Otherwise saith Theophilact We had not had neede of Christ And Anselme What is the law but a letter for them that knowe to reade it and cannot accomplish or fulfill it And therefore it hath onely led vs as by the hand vnto grace But againe concerning this grace who hath mooued the Lord to doe so much for vs Verily saith Haimo The onelie goodnesse which is in him and therefore let no man presume of his merits but of the onelie clemencie of our Sauiour who saith the Apostle hath saued vs freelie that is to say without anie precedent merits who saueth vs saith hee by his preuenting grace and iustifieth vs by his subsequent grace Eternall life is giuen to none as a thing of due but by free mercie Remig in psa 19.21 32 70. c. And S. Remigius Adam made the olde people but our Lorde Christ the newe in asmuch as he hath freely iustified the same without anie precedent merits For wee haue made our selues sinners but his onely mercie hath made vs righteous yea saith hee it hath made of vs that were wicked and vngodly godly ones of seruants free men of condemned ones such as are to be receyued into the kingdome of heauen Theophyl in Ep. ad Tit. c. 3 Anselm in c. 5. ad Ephes And Theophilact Hee hath saued vs euerlastinglie not by the workes of righteousnesse which we haue done but by the operation of his onelie clemencie c. And Anselme This hath come to passe through the great and vnspeakeable loue of God that the onely begotten sonne hath deliuered himselfe ouer vnto death the maisler for the seruant Cur Deus homo c. 2. the Creator for the creature that hee hath said vnto man Take my onelie sonne and giue him for thee that the sonne hath said Take me and redeeme thy selfe c. And all the same treatise handleth no other thing And againe howe doe wee receiue this grace Haimo in c. 9. ad Rom in c. 3 ad Galat. super Euang. in Oct. Pasch Remig. in Psa 10. in 18. in 19. Haimo saith Of faith and by faith wee are iustified heires through faith and not through the lawe by grace and not by merit to the ende that the promise made vnto the seede of Abraham may abide and continue firme c. Remigius All my faith is in Christ I belieue my selfe in him onely to be iustified saued This is my mountaine This is my refuge c. The heauens sing of the glorie of God And what manner of glorie verily saith he for that we are not saued by our workes but by his mercie And this is the great glorie of God that all hauing sinned and all hauing need of this glorie namely to be freely iustified euen in the mercie exhibited by the Sonne Gisilb in alt c. 1. 13. c. Gisilbertus Faith went before the law and without the law hath iustified the faithfull Our father Abraham pleased God by faith rather then by circumcision Many haue perished notwithstanding circumcision and many before that it was haue beene iustified by faith alone Christ is the inheritance of the faithfull whome they receiue by faith Theophyl in Abac. c 2. c. Theophylact The righteous man worketh by faith vnto life whether it bee that which is to come or be it righteousnes it selfe Faith iustifieth in as much as it vnlooseth sinnes The law would iustifie men but it hath not the power faith therefore hath done it which iustifieth Idem ad Rom. c 9 Idem in c. 3. ad Gal. Haimo in c. 1. 3. 4. ad Rom. and not workes yea saith he Faith iustifieth onely and not workes The law curseth vs but faith blesseth vs c. But to be iustified is it not to be made righteous And then with what manner of righteousnes Verily saith Haimo with the righteousnes of Christ by the which he maketh the faithfull righteous in bestowing the same vpon them and therefore it is called the righteousnes of God And the same is applied vnto vs by the gift of God that is to say by the redemption which is in Christ and not by the workes of the Law c. Whereby it commeth to passe Idem in Psal 83. Gisibert in alterc c. 8. saith he that to shew mercy is not onely to pardon and forgiue the sinnes but also to gine righteousnes Gisilbertus saith This righteousnes of God is not the same with that by which he is righteous but that wherewith he clotheth the righteous when hee freely iustifieth the wicked And it is to this righteousnesse that the Law and the Prophets beare witnesse The Lawe for in that it commaundeth and threateneth but iustifieth not anye man it sheweth sufficientlye that man is not iustified but by the gifte of GOD by the quickeninge Spirite The Prophetes in asmuch as the comminge of Christ hath fullfilled that which they haue foretolde Anselm in 1. Cor. 11. And Anselme The righteousnesse of God is by fayth by the which wee beleeue in Christ And it is called the faith of Christ after the same manner that righteousnesse is called the
put betweene vnfruitfull and damnable For being once proued vnfruitfull is it not by and by damnable Seeing that euerie tree that bringeth not foorth fruit is good for nothing but to bee cast into the fire Thou therefore O withered and vnfruitfull stocke that thou art worthie of eternall fire what wilt thou aunswere in that daie when an accompt shall bee taken of thee euen in the twinkling of an eye of all that time which thou shalt haue spent What will bee the distresse that will then come vpon thee When sinne shall accuse thee and righteousnesse astonish thee the gulfe of Hell vnder thee the heauenly Iudge in heauie wrath and indignation ouer thee within thee a conscience that boyleth thee and without the world which setteth thee on fire And seeing that the righteous man is scarcely saued the sinner when he is come vpon and taken at vnawares what hole or corner will hee seeke out to shroude himselfe in When it shall bee impossible for him to hide himselfe and intollerable to appeare and stand foorth in sight Whence shall I borrow counsaile and where shal I find saluation and deliuerance Except it bee from the bosome of that Angell of the great Councell Euen from my Iesus who is saluation it selfe And yet also that Judge vnder whose hands I tremble and shake Recouer thy selfe and take better hold O sinner whosoeuer thou art despaire not hope in him whome thou fearest flie vnto him from whome thou didst flie and runne away Say vnto him O Christ for the loue of thy name deale and doe with me according to thy name looke downe vpon me miserable caitife calling vpon thee Bee thou vnto me a Iesus for thy name sake If thou receiue me into the large and spatious bosome of thy mercie there shall not remaine any more straightnesse or anguish through my miserie for me And although I confesse that my conscience hath merited condemnation and that my repentaunce cannot suffice vnto satisfaction yet am I certaine that thy mercie is aboue all whatsoeuer manner of offences c. The age also following might seeme rather to haue amended then impaired the premisses Lombard l. 3. dist 27. at the least if the time be considered in the things then written Lombard propoundeth a question Wherefore the perfection contained in the Lawe should bee commaunded and giuen in charge to man seeing that in this life no man can attaine thereunto And aunswereth Because that no man runneth right if hee know not whether he must runne and how should wee know that Ruper in Ioh. c. 1. l. 2. Hildeb Ep. 43. Rupert in Abac l. 1. c. 1. Idem in Ioh. c. 11. if it were not shewed foorth vnto vs in these commaundements Rupertus saith To shewe thee thy sinne but not to take it away And Hildebert Bishop of Manie To the end it might bee a caueat for the time to come and not a cure for any trespasse alreadie past That is saith he a preparatiue to the receiuing of grace Seeing then the righteousnesse of the Lawe cannot bee found in vs and that we are not to appeare before the eternall God without righteousnesse what other shall wee haue Verily saith Rupertus the righteousnesse of faith which lieth in the promise of the comming of Christ wherein Abraham belieued and it was imputed vnto him for righteousnesse Who saith hee iustifieth vs and teacheth vs that we are iustified by faith and not by the workes of the Lawe And Honorius of Auston It is in Christ that all men before and vnder the Law Hono. in spec Eccles Serâ— de natiuit Dom. Rupert l. 11. c. 13. in Ioh. l. 1. in Leuit. c. 17. in Psal 17. Idem in Ioh. l. 7. c 7. Hyldebert Ep. 3. as also vnder grace haue beene saued And in him that is to say in his bloud in which onely lieth the remission of sinnes For saith Rupertus If Christ had not washed his welbeloued from their sinnes in his bloud neither Peter nor any one of the rest had had any part with him but in his bloud is washed away from vs not onely originall sinne but also all our actuall sinnes in such sort as that his passion and resurrection is the summe of our saluation and the ground worke of our faith Againe We are washed sanctified and iustified in the name of Christ and by the spirit of God And Hildebert applieth it verie confidently vnto himselfe I am not troubled or disquieted within my selfe about the matter of my redemption J haue beene once redeemed by the bloud of Christ I haue no cause to busie my selfe in studying how it may bee brought to passe againe this bloud is my ransome this bloud is my price it should proue and appeare an vnseemely thing that I should goe about to redeeme my selfe with a price Yea me whose price and ransome is incomparable and vnprizeable euen Christ. And this Christ giuen vnto vs Honor. in Psa 5. 6. Idem in Dial. de predest libero arbit Praemium Rupert in Io. l. 2. c. 1. l. 1. c. 1. for a ransome for our sinnes by the meere and free mercie of God For saith Honorius The faithfull O Lord are thy mercie They are saued not by their merits but by thy grace and the kingdome of heauen giuen vnto them according to thy grace and not according to their merits for what can be mans merits or deserts but the reward of euill And for what merit can be expect or looke for recompence at Gods hand And Rupertus The grace of the holy Ghost is the true and onely remission of sinnes Wee haue receiued grace for grace the grace of eternall saluation for the grace of present faith vnto the which faith wee are freely called by the preaching of his word without any precedent merits and iustified by the free remission of sinnes Grace freely giuen is freely bestowed vpon vs by the onely grace of Christ euen to vs all which are reconciled vnto God by him By the same grace alone are we directed vnto the heauenly life which we cannot possibly purchase or attaine vnto by any merits of workes I am not more righteous then any other such like man Idem in Ioh. l. 5. c. 5. saue onely through the free mercie of him who calleth and iustifieth whome he will c. And this grace is receiued of vs by faith yea by faith onely Rupertus Those that are deepely sunke downe into the pit of death in as much as they are runne backward and turned farre aside from the liuing God c. shall yet escape the daunger of eternall death due and deserued either for originall or actuall sinnes yea they shall be brought vnto the fort of saluation in confessing that one little word of faith Againe Idem in Ioh l. 7. c. 7. Idem l. 10 c 19 in Apocalyp In Christ there is neither Circumcision nor vncircumcision faith onely is requisite faith is the chiefe and principall iustification it
is the fountaine and welspring of iustification And in an other place Magniloqui dicuntur c. Such saith he are rightly called the greatest brauers who put their trust in themselues as being righteous and thereupon presume of the workes of the Law As on the contrarie those are called and are truely poore which know themselues sinners and perceiue that they can no way be iustified but by the faith of Christ. And therefore saith he it is requisite that this conceitednesse of thinking to be saued by workes should be laid downe Idem in Soph. l. 2. c. 3. Idem l. 2. in Genes c. 3. Idem in Esa c. 8. Without faith it is impossible to please God it is in like manner impossible but by faith Abraham Isaac and Iacob c. were not saued any otherwise For righteousnesse is Ex fide in fidem of faith and vnto faith Of faith that is of him who hath promised who hath sworne Vnto faith that is of him who hath belieued in him that promised and giuen credite to him that swore c. But as for such as are not true Israelites they haue no such faith for in seeking and searching after their owne righteousnesse they could not stoope vnto or vndergoe this of faith but haue toyled themselues by seeking the same from workes to workes as if Abraham had beene iustified by workes when as the Scripture testifieth of him Idem de Victor verb. Dei l. 4. c. 21. that he belieued and it was imputed vnto him for righteousnesse c. Verie excellently therefore is it said From faith to faith for in that the Sonne of God is come c. this proceedeth of the faith fulnesse of God of whome it is written God is faithfull c. Namely herein that Dauid and others moe haue not pearced him through with their sinnes and that he accomplisheth by his exceeding great faithfulnesse what hee had promised of his exceeding great grace And this righteousnesse tendeth in fidem vnto an other faith because it is not possible that any man should be iustified before him by his workes but by faith Idem in reg l. 2. c. 39. According to that which is said If thou obserue and marke mine iniquities O Lord c. And to be briefe he oftentimes vttereth these words The onely faith of Iesus Christ is able to iustifie c. Lombard likewise Loâ—bard l. 3 d. 19. 25. We are iustified by the death of Christ that is to say cleansed from our sinnes by faith in his death Beholding him by faith after the manner of the brazen Serpent we are deliuered from the bands of sinne and the Diuell in so much as that he is not to demaunde or looke for any thing at our hands Without faith in this Mediatour no man hath beene saued either before or since no man was euer deliuered from that condemnation that came by Adam otherwise then by faith Idem l. 3. d. 26. Rupert in Ioh. c. 1. Impraegnatam mentem Lombard l. 3. d. 23 Honor. in Specul Eccles Richard in Apocal. l. 1. c. And this faith saith he is of God according to that which Saint Augustine saith The mercie of God shall preuent me the mercie of God shall follow me c. That is saith Rupertus Because that to belieue is to haue conceiued the seed of the word of God with loue in his heart as also to haue his mind and spirit conceiued and laden with the same And Lombard To loue God is by belieuing in him to cleaue vnto him and to be incorporated into him by such faith the wicked is iustified inso much as that from thence forward faith worketh in him by loue for there are no good workes but those which are done by the loue of God and this loue is the worke of faith Honorius He is most happie in deede that belieueth rightly and that together with this beliefe liueth well but faith is the foundation and the loue of God and our neighbours is grounded vpon the same And Richard Of faith proceedeth charitie and of charitie doe good workes spring and growe And what is all this but the same which we affirme daily that faith cannot stand without charitie any more then fire can without heate That the life of faith euen as that of trees is knowne because it bringeth forth fruit In a word that wee are iustified by faith onely And yet such a faith as is neuer alone but which containeth in it a certaine heate which is naturall vnto it alwayes acting somewhat neuer idle continually bringing foorth as a fountaine of water the effects of loue which it beareth towards God and the good works it performeth vnto neighbours But Saint Bernard whome we haue so oft heretofore cited goeth further then all the rest For there was in his time a certaine man named Petrus Abailardus a verie Pelagian who durst say That whereas Christ had abased and humbled himselfe euen vnto the death c. that it had not beene but to haue left vs a patterne of liuing well and that our saluation consisteth not in his death and passion but in the growth and proceeding of our good conuersation Whereupon he is not content to giue him to vnderstand that this his assertion is the same which the Apostle calleth the making of the Crosse of Christ of none effect but taketh his occasion and proceedeth further and hauing taken the beasome once into his hand he sweepeth not onely this filth out of the Church that caused him to take it into his hand but withall he applieth himselfe all vnder one to sweepe away whatsoeuer the Iew Gentile Philosopher or superstitious Monke had brought and shuffled thereinto with their vncleane feete or else was negligently looked vnto or tolerated by the sorenamed it hauing fallen out then as it doth oftentimes vnto vs now who are not moued or stirred vp to remoue put away the thing that is euill be it neuer so great And therefore reprouing the waies that S. Augustine did walke in hee dealeth vpon the true iustification in the bloud of Christ by faith more exactly then all the rest Our master saith he knew well that the Law did require more then was in our power Bernard in Serm. 50. super Cant. Idem Serm de verb orig Idem Serm 38 super Cantic Idem Serm. 11 in Annunciat Mariae Idem de milit templ c. 11. Idem Ep. 99. Idem Serm 22 super Can. fusissime but notwithstanding he would giue it vnto vs that we might be admonished of our insufficiencie and that such and so great saith he as that we are neuer able to render vnto God that which we owe him in such sort as that if we should teare and pull our skinnes from off our backes yet are we neuer able to satisfie for our sinnes But wee haue recourse vnto the voice of the bloud of Christ which hath cried farre lowder then the bloud of Abell which proclaimeth in
thing to stand for pardon and forgiuenesse and an other to come to glorie one thing to bee sent to prison not to come out thence till the vitermost farthing be paid and an other thing to receiue incontinently the reward of faith and vertue one thing to be corrected and purged a long time by fire for sinnes with the induring of great torments and an other to haue all his sinnes purged by one onely passion and suffering c. Which words at the first blush might seeme to make mightily for thē but let vs reade the whole Epistle there he speaketh of such satisfactions as are made in the Church during this life but not a word of any that should be made after the same It was said vnto him If you offer the peace of the Church vnto penitents there will not be any moe confessors there will not be any moe Martyrs for this was the glorie of our fathers But saith hee there will contin ually remaine a great difference betwixt the one and the other Lapsi saith he such as are fallen stand to aske pardon they are as it were in prison vntill such time as they haue exactly satisfied the Church they are as it were refined by fire through the long griefe which they indure by their penance in a word they suffer much before they obtaine the peace of the Church and in this peace peace with God and that which followeth On the contrarie the Martyrs and confessors abiding in peace with God doe not passe through all these sorrowes and griefes they passe speedily into glorie they receiue the reward of their constancie all their sinnes are swallowed vp in their suffering of death c. He addeth likewise that they haue this aduātage in the iudgement of God that they appeare and present themselues in the same assured of the crowne wheras others are in suspence as those that expect and depend vpon the sentence of the iudge And yet they obiect Prayers for the dead you cannot say but that the Church hath belieued Purgatorie seeing it hath praied for the dead Neither doe we denie but that this custome is auncient enough but on the contrarie we say how that the Church neuer praied for the dead vnder the old Testament not Ioseph for Iacob who was notwithstanding verie carefull for the embalming and burying of him 2 Kings 18. nor Dauid for Absalom whose death so much grudged and mooued his tender and fatherly affections nor for the child which he begot of Bersabe but on the contrarie after that hee knew him dead he gaue ouer his fasting and praier And as for Machabeus if any man obiect him vnto vs we answere that hee was the first and the last in that action The Church then before and vnder the Law neere hand for the space of foure thousand yeares knew not any Purgatorie And further wee affirme that our Lord hath not left any thing any word or mention of the same vnto his Apostles but on the contrarie that he hath left the dead to burie the dead Act. 9. 9. S. Paul saith vnto vs Bee not carefull and pensiue for them which are a sleepe Amongst so many arguments to prooue the resurrection that is not once touched amongst them 1. Thes 4. which yet would haue made for the purpose Likewise we see them wash the bodies of the dead and burie them carefully and to comfort one an other in the midst of their mourning in the hope of the resurrection but as for praying for them they say nothing of it Wherefore the Church of Christ from the beginning hath not knowne Purgatorie How came they then into the Church Verily euen through the conduite that brought in Purgatorie the inuention of men and the imitation of the Gentiles who being but slenderly and superficially instructed of the state of the soule after death rent and launced themselues ouer the dead made feasts vppon their graues as though thereby they would haue recouered them and brought them againe to life and sacrificed to the infernall Gods for their shadowes and likenesses this humane affection and carnall loue haunted them so as that it wrought prayers out of them yea euen to the time of death and after also But these courses of afflicting themselues in such extreame manner were forbidden the people of God as being better instructed and taught in the holy word of God and these humane affections also bounded within the limits of his Law And this is the cause that kept them from falling away so lightly to the imitation of the Gentiles From the Gentiles this opinion was slily and smoothly conueighed into the Apocripha books of one Clement Abdias Babilonius Hermas and such like and as it was no straunge thing to those who were drawne from their Paganisme so was it nothing vnplausible to them to retaine the same the Pastors admitting it for indifferent and nothing looking to the consequence and that which might fall out in the end did let it alone by sufferance Whereas if they had seene how farre Sathan hath vndermined thereby the merite of Christ the foundation of saluation they would vndoubtedly haue resisted and gaine-saied the same according to the necessitie of the cause and kept themselues to the rule of the Apostle repeated by S. Augustine who saith Gala. 1. If any man whatsoeuer vpon any thing concerning conuersation or manners doe vtter and offer vnto vs for certaine and necessarie doctrine or for an Article of faith August contr Petil. Tertull. de Coron milit li 2. ad vxor Arnob. l. 2. the thing which goeth beyond the Scriptures of the Law and the Gospell let him be accursed In Tertullian first of all we haue Oblationes pro defunctis and in like manner Oblationem pro sponsa from the same roote this is about two hundred and fiftie yeares after our Lord. The Paganes had accustomed to offer when they were dead as also when their kinsfolkes or friends departed and left them now the Christians seeing the same and being ashamed to bee behind in humanitie and naturall affection doe in like manner offer but so as that they appoint their oblations to bee imployed to better vses as to the feeding of the poore following the counsaile mentioned in Tobiah Set thy bread vpon the Graue c. The Pagans had their yearely birth feasts the Christians celebrated the day of their true second birth or regeneration of the Martyrdome confession and death of their brethren in Christ And Beatus Rhenanus noteth verie well in this place Index expurg p. 82. From hence sprung the originall of the yearely remembrances and feasts Where the Fathers of Trent haue caused Antiquitie to be put in place of the originall Likewise Tertullian saith that this is a doctrine neither grounded in the Scriptures nor yet vpon any Apostolicall tradition but onely growne vp by custome Si legem saith he expostules Scripturarum nulla legis tibi traditio pretendetur
infinite number of imaginations they are crossed or into our zeale which if it be according to knowledge yet is it delayed with coldnesse and beeing more feruent then commonly it is without knowledge into our brotherly loue which is more for a shew then in deed and more for that regard wee haue of men rather then for the awe of God into our faith which is either little or else wauering farre lesse then a graine of Mustard seede farre off from remoouing of mountaines Finally into our whole life which being examined according to the summe of the Law of the perfect loue of God and our neighbour will not afford vs so much as one action answerable thereunto but rather such as are contrarie thereunto and that euerie day yea euerie houre And what shall wee find in our wordes nay rather in our thoughts all which are knowne vnto God and must vndergoe the rigour of his iudgement Now we haue heard the old Fathers How far concupiscence worketh in the regenerate according to the old Fathers Tertul. de praescript aduers haeres Probatus aliquis August de fid Orthod c. 49. Idem ad Inno Pap. Ep. 95 vppon the concupiscence that remaineth in the regenerate but it may be that we may thinke that in some it breaketh not out into actuall sinne which they call sinne But let vs heare what they say Tertullian saith Is it such a maruaile that an approued man should come to fall What say you to Saul whome hatred ouerthrew Nay Dauid a man according to Gods owne heart by murther and Adulterie Salomon indued with wisedome from God drawne by women to Idolatrie because it was reserued to the onely Sonne of God to abide without sinne Saint Augustine There is neither Saint nor righteous man that is without sinne and notwithstanding they cease not to bee Saints and righteous because they haue their affections still set vpon holinesse And therefore the Saints are truely declared to be sinners c. Againe O death where is thy victorie where is thy sting The sting of death is sinne And there haue beene some men who haue thought that there might bee some men liuing in this life without sinne though not from their birth yet at the least from the time of their conuersion from sinne vnto righteousnesse and so they would vnderstand that which is said That Zacharâ—e and Elizabeth walked in all the wayes of the Lord Sine querela vnrebukeable But they should haue considered that Zacharie was a Priest and that the Priestes were bound by the Lawe of God to offer sacrifice chiefely for their owne sinnes And secondly are we not all conuinced of sinne in that we are all commaunded to say Forgiue vs our sinnes c. For saith he in an other place It must content vs that there is not so much as any one man found in the Church how excellent righteous or well profited so euer he be that dare say that hee hath not any need to praie and say this prayer Forgiue vs our sinnes c. For this should bee as much as to say that he had no sinne and so by that meanes deceiue himselfe not hauing any truth in him although that hee liued Sine querela without giuing of iust cause to anie to complaine of him Againe Yea seeing all the Saints Ep. 9. if they should be asked together if they had any sinne would aunswere If we should say that wee haue no sinne the truth is not in vs c. But saith he Idem de perfect Iustit in Enchirid. c. 33. Idem Serm. de temp Dominic 4. post Oct. Epiphan Idem in Ep. 54 ad Maced Idem dc Martyr Hieronym aduerf Pelag. Although the Apostle doe openly confesse that both he and all the Saints are tied to this necessitie of sinne yet hee boldly affirmeth that none of them are subiect to condemnation when hee saith There is then no condemnation vnto them that are in Christ c. You will say But behold the one hundred fortie foure thousand in the Apocalips which neuer defiled themselues with women they are vnreproueable there hath not any lie beene found in their mouthes c. And knowest thou wherefore Verily because they haue confessed their sinnes for that they became their owne accusers c. Otherwise the truth had not beene in them and where truth had not beene lying had beene c. And this he said speaking of the Martyrs Saint Ierome The Phylosophers the chiefe begetters and patrons of heretickes defiled the puritie of the Church by a peruerse doctrine raised by their being ignorant how that it was spoken of the frailtie of man Dust and ashes whereof art thou proud Seeing also that the Apostle saith I see an other Law in my members Againe I doe not the good that I would but the euill that I would not that I doe if hee doe that which he would not how can this stand which is said That man if he wil may be without sinne And how can he be that which hee will seeing that the Apostle affirmeth that hee cannot accomplish that which he desireth When as therefore J shall thinke my selfe to haue attained the end of vertues Idem ad Rustic then I am but in the beginning for their is no other perfection in men but to knowe themselues imperfect In an other place There dwelleth no good in our flesh the spirit willeth one thing the flesh is constrained to do an other There is not any man cleane from sin though his life haue bene but a day long The very stars are not pure in Gods sight And if there be sin in the firmament how much more in earth If in theÌ„ that haue no bodily temptatioÌ„ how much more in vs compassed about with this fraile flesh who crie with the Apostle Miserable man that I am who shall deliuer me from this mortall bodie c. Idem ad Pelag Ep. 9. ad Saluian But Saint Paul saith We which are perfect accompt that c. Then there is some perfection in this world Nay rather saith he to the end that thou maiest see that the perfect perfection of the gifts of God is not here he addeth straight after Not because that I haue alreadie receiued or that I am perfect Then he was perfect through the hope that he had of the glorification to come imperfect through the burden of corruption and mortalitie perfect through his wayting for the reward imperfect through his fainting and being wearied in the fight perfect in that he knew that God was able to performe whatsoeuer he hath promised vnto his imperfect in that God had not as yet performed to his all that which he hath promised them In a word imperfect thinking vpon that which he wanted vnto perfection perfect in that he is not ashamed to confesse his imperfection and that he might come thither he traueleth thitherward like a good traueller Prosper Aquit in Psal 105. 142. c. Prosper
be held or reputed for righteous But saith he Iustification is obtained by faith In tantum iustus in quantum saluus In as much as thou art saued in as much as thou art righteous but by faith thou obtainest saluation c. Againe The law saith thou shalt not couet faith saith heale cure my soule Grace saith Behold thou art made whole c. More plainly Righteousnes is by faith by the which we belieue that we are iustified that is to say made righteous by the grace of God by Iesus Christ in such sort as that we are found in him not hauing the righteousnesse which is of the law Idem in Serm. 237. de Temp. Idem in Psal 123. Idem in Ioh. tract 50. 53. but that which is by the faith of Christ And againe If the righteousnes of God be a worke in that we belieue in Christ name the worke To belieue therfore in Christ is called faith c. And by it saith he the iust man liueth Now it is hardly seene that hee liueth ill that belieueth well Againe How saith he shall I possesse and inioy Jesus Christ being absent How shall I put vp my hand into heauen there to take hold on him where hee sitteth Reach thither thy faith and thou hast holde of him The faith of Christ is to belieue in him which iust ifieth the wicked to belieue in him the mediatour to belieue in him the Sauiour Such as are desirous to establish their owne righteousnesse cannot belieue Idem de patient c. 21. Psal 104. And therefore saith hee in another place All the old righteous men euen those which were before the incarnation of Christ were iustified in this faith of Christ in that true righteousnesse which Christ is to vs in that they belieued that that should be fulfilled and done which we belieue to be fulfilled and finished c. And neither before nor since this incarnation was there euer any man found reconciled to God but by this faith c. Cyrill saith Faith bringeth saluation grace iustifieth and the worke of God that is Cyril in Ioh. l. 3. c. 31. in Thesaur l. 12. c. 1. Idem in dial de Trinit l. 5. Idem in Ioh. c. 14. Hieronym in Psal 31. faith in Christ c. Againe We are iustified by faith not by workes nor yet by merites Againe Faith maketh vs familiar with the Father and by the Sonne it setteth and establisheth our abode neere vnto him and wee are saued by faith and not otherwise according to that which is said The Lord is my light and my saluation c. Saint Ierome Vnto that part of the syllogisme here propounded If righteousnes bee by the law then Christ died gratis that is to say for nothing or in vaine for our Assumption we must take that which followeth and which cannot be denied That Christ died not in vaine c. And thereupon conclude Righteousnes therefore is not by the law But rather saith hee in another place Our righteousnesse consisteth herein Ad Galat. 12. in as much as that that which is hidden is not seene and that which is not seene is not imputed and that which is not imputed shall not bee punished c. And this is the exposition of the Psalme Blessed are they whose sinnes are remitted c. Saint Basill What is our righteousnes Listen and giue eare Basil serm de Bapt. c. 2. hom 29. in Moral regul 1. c. 2. 5. regul breu Inter 10.13 Idem hom de humil animi Idem in ep 7. Chrysost de fide in Psal 50 Idem in Mat. hom 33. Blessed are they whose sinnes are remitted Againe Man must acknowledge that he is destitute of true righteousnes and that he is iustified by faith alone in Christ For O man saith he afterward boast not thy selfe in thy righteousnes All that thou art to boast thy selfe of is in God without him thou hast nothing to boast thy selfe of but rather thou hast cause to kill and mortifie whatsoeuer is of thy selfe that so thou maiest seeke the life that is to come in Christ whereof we do alreadie inioy the first fruits liuing altogether by grace and of the gift of God Chrysostome No man euer attained life without faith and faith alone saued the thiefe And what brought God to the sauing of this thiefe verily remission of sinnes And what brought the thiefe on his owne behalfe The faith of his Confession which by the greatnes and height thereof reached euen to heauen c. Againe He that said in S. Mathew I haue kept all these thinges made no question of that which he was to belieue nor how but what he was to doe that be might inherite euerlasting life because that the faith of the Iewes that is to say of that time was in their workes But saith he in another place Idem hom de fide Neuer was there any man iustified by workes It is in this as it is in a lampe whose oile doth not giue the light but feede it so likewise faith is not begotten of workes but is nourished thereby faith must go before works I can point you out a faithfull man without workes the thiefe but life eternall was neuer bestowed of any destitute of faith Workes would not bee able to saue faith must breake forth and shine before workes workes must be content to follow and come after as handmaides Idem ad Galat hom 3. In ep ad Rom. hom 5. 17. In an other place J liue in faith that is to say I liue by the faith that I haue in Christ if lesus be dead it is verie manifest that the Law cannot iustifie On the contrarie saith he to the Romans So soone as a man belieueth so soone is he iustified Epiphanius in Anchorato in a few words Christ was made righteousnesse vnto me Epiphan in Anchorato in as much as he hath loosed the bands of sinne and sanctification in as much as hee hath deliuered me that is from the seruitude and thraldome of the same and redemption because that by his bloud I haue remission c. In the Realme of France about the yeare 500. this matter was debated and as it commeth to passe that the light and truth breaketh out by the holding of argument in matters of controuersie so it was that no man in these contentions did cleare and make plaine this matter better then Prosper The Law hath shewed vs our disease Prosper ad Capitul Gall. c 7 in lib. de ingrat and grace in Iesus Christ is laid open and brought to light for the healing of the same Is this grace in such sort necessarie as that no man can otherwise be saued how holy or excellent so euer he be Verily saith Prosper answering to the head points of the Frenchmen Bee it knowne vnto you that neither before nor since the Lawe was euer any iustified but by this grace but by this same faith in
sufficiently set out this doctrine My merite saith he is no other thing then the mercie of God I am not poore or spare of merites vntill such time as mercies begin to faile I will sing eternally And what Of mine owne righteous workes Nay O Lord I will call to mind thy righteousnesse alone for euen it also is mine For thou art become and made righteousnesse vnto me from God Should J feare that it will not be sufficient for both Nay this is no short cloake Idem Serm. 67.68 that is not able to couer two Thy righteousnesse is righteousnesse and indureth to all eternities This large and long lasting righteousnesse shall couer both thee and me for euer and in me a multitude of sinnes Idem Ep. 190. contr A bailar c. On the contrarie saith he Whereas merite hath forestalled and setled it selfe grace cannot find so much as a doore or any other place to enter at All that thou attributest to merites belongeth vnto the grace of God c. The children new borne stand not in need of merites for they haue the merites of Christ c. For saith he where as man wanted righteousnesse of his owne Aliunde the righteousnesse of an other was assigned vnto him Man was indebted and man paid the debt the satisfaction of one is imputed vnto all the head hath satisfied for the members Colossians 2. c. And what reason should there bee why our righteousnesse should not come from elswhere then from our selues seeing that our sinne came from elsewhere And should sinne be inherent in the seede of the sinner and righteousnesse separated from the bloud of our Sauiour Nay but as they died in Adam so they shall be quickned in Christ J am defiled of the one by the flesh but I take hold of the other by faith And if thou obiect vnto me the sinfulnesse of my birth and generation I set against it my regeneration my spiritual birth against my carnall birth Idem de Caenaâ—â—cmâ—ni Idem l. degrat liber arâ—it He that hath taken pittie vpon the sinner will not condemne the iust And righteous I may be bold to call my selfe but by the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ And what manner of righteousnesse The end of the Law is Christ in righteousnesse to all them that belieue seeing he is made righteousnesse vnto vs from God the father Now if hee haue beene made righteousnesse vnto me is not it mine The righteousnesse then of man consisteth in the bloud of the redeemer c. So farre forth as That it is impossible saith he that the least sinnes should be washed away otherwise then of Christ and by Christ c. And who is he that iustifieth himselfe but he that presumeth of other merites then his grace Incentura And this also is properly to be said to be he that knoweth not the righteousnesse of God it is hee onely that doth meritortous workes which hath made them vpon whome he may bestow them That which we call merites Via regni sed non causa regnandi is the nurcerie of hope the matches and matter to make charitie shine out the signes of a secret predestination the forerunners of a future felicitie and the way whereby to enter into the kingdome but not the cause of raigning c. In as much verily as the kingdome of heauen is an inheritance but the way to come thither is the feare of God manifested saith the Apostle in good workes which God hath prepared to the end that we should walke in them c. Whereby wee may iudge how farre Saint Barnard his doctrine is off from that of our Aduersaries in this point and yet it is not passing three hundred yeares since he writ when as he acknowledgeth no righteousnesse able to iustifie a sinner but the righteousnesse of Christ imputed to the sinner continually vsing this word of imputation whereat they stumble and whereto they oppose and set themselues so much He acknowledgeth not I say any merit but the merit of Christ nor any satisfaction but that which he made for vs vppon the Crosse And he maketh al this to be ours by faith alone Idem in Psal 91. Serm 9. Idem Serm. 10 15. as appeareth by that which followeth Let him saith hee that will pretend his merit it is good for me to put my hope in God God will saue them saith the Psalmist By what merits Heare what coÌ„meth after Because they haue hoped in him Hereby then consider their righteousnesse euen that which is of faith and not that which is of the Law Faith saith Great good things are prepared for the faithfull Hope These good things are reserued for me Charitie I runne thither ward as fast as I can c. In a word all the merit of man is that he haue his hope fixed in him which hath saued euery man c. Idem in Cantic Serm. 24. Epist 190. Whosoeuer findeth in himselfe remorce and compunction for his sinnes hungreth and thirsteth after righteousnesse Let him belieue in thee O Lord which iustifiest the wicked and he shall haue peace with God Being iustified saith he by faith onely For saith he the end of the Law is Christ vnto righteousnesse saith the Apostle vnto euerie belieuer c. CHAP. XIX That good workes are the gift of God and therefore cannot merit and to what vse or ende they serue according to the holy Scriptures and the fathers WHat then Are our workes vnprositable God forbid Whereunto good workes serue They are vnprofitable to iustifie thee before God and yet no doubt profitable to iustifie that is to say to testifie thy faith before the Church vnprofitable to make thee a Sonne to make thee an heyre but profitable liuely to set forth and truely to point out a Sonne a child of the promise in as much as thou liuest according to God in that thou indeuorest to edifie his elect and chosen For saith the Apostle wee are created in Christ vnto good workes which God hath prepared Eph. 2 2. Cor. 5. 1. Pet 2. to the end that we might walke in them He is dead he is risen againe for vs but it is to that end that wee may liue vnto him that we may die vnto sinne and liue vnto righteousnesse Hee hath deliuered vs from the seruitude of sinne and from the power of darknesse Rom 13. Iam. 2. 1. Timoth. 5. Rom. 8. but to the end that we might serue vnto righteousnesse that we might renounce the workes of darknesse and put on the armour of light Be cause that Faith without workes is dead Because that Who so saith that he knoweth God and doth not his commaundements is a lyer And because that Wee are debters to liue according to the spirit and not according to the flesh And therefore if we haue not loue The loue wee beare to God must not consider thereward but our obedience and dutiful regard Iohn 3.
righteousnesse of God by which we are iustifyed And they are said to be of God and of the Lord because that both the one and the other are the giftes of his bountifull liberalitie Againe And by this faith wee are iustified not by the workes of the Law neither of nature neither yet by the power of free wil for iustification is obtained by faith Idem in c. 10. ad Rom. and thus by the righteousnesse of faith is accomplished the true righteousnesse of the Law yea saith he notwithstanding we be iustified by faith yet it is gratis for euen faith it selfe is a franke and free gift proceeding from aboue c. Againe Idem in c. 5. ad Rom. My impietie saith hee meriteth not this benefit but what is it then which the pietie of my redeemer meriteth Neither yet my vnrighteousnesse maliciousnesse or pride but what is it then that on the contrarie his righteousnesse goodnesse and humilitie cannot effect and bring to passe Yea what is not the punishment of the Crosse able to preuaile in against the kingdom of death Or the Son of God made man for the redemption of man especially seeing that with him and in him al our sinnes are pardoned and forgiuen vs and all his graces giuen vnto vs This faith therefore which iustifieth shall it goe bare naked and vnaccompanied Shall it not carrie with it good workes Yes rather it will appeare and shine out more euidently by workes but not therefore iustifie vs by the workes thereof Haimo saith From faith man commeth to workes Haimo in c. 11 ad Rom. but not from workes to faith faith is conceiued in the heart vttered and confessed by the mouth and garnished by good workes and by this faith liueth the iust and righteous man vnto eternall life but as for that which is without workes it is dead Idem in c. 1. 4. Now if Abraham himselfe had beene able to haue beene iustified without being assisted by the grace of God then the gift of iustification should not haue beene reckoned as a gift but as a thing of dutie and then Christ should haue died in vaine Ausbertus We must first belieue for after that a man belieueth he loueth Ausbert l. 2. c. 2. in Apocaly p. Theophyl in c. 6. ad Ephes An Ielme in c. 1. ad Rom. Ausbert in A-Apocaly p. l. 10 c 22. Radulph l. 1. c. 1. in Leuit. and faith and loue do make vs doe good workes Theophilact Charitie without faith profiteth nothing yea which is more without faith it cannot be Anselme By faith the soule beginneth to liue being before dead by infidelitie And faith by which a man liueth worketh by loue because that faith without works is dead But Ausbertus saith How holie and righteous soeuer a man may be yet he is alwaies in such case as that he may still grow and increase in vertue whereupon the Psalmist saith Lord shouldest thou forget to take pitie vpon me c. And Radulphus Hardly can a man doe anie good worke without the cleauing thereto of some sinne and therefore it is to be feared that so long as we expect and looke for the recompence of perfect deuotion God still exacteth the penaltie of the sinne which wee haue mingled therewith And Anselme Anselm de mensur crucis If a man should serue God a thousand yeares and that with great zeale and feruencie hee should not merit ex condigno to inherite the kingdome of heauen one halfe day For saith he in another place Workes are by grace and not grace by workes Idem in c. 2. ad Galath and therefore no man by anie meanes can be iustified by workes but onely by faith which proceedeth of grace And yet herewithall I am not ignorant that sometimes these selfe same Doctors doe attribute much to workes As when Haimo following Cesarius his trace Haimo super Euang. in oct Pasch setteth downe seuen waies for the obtaining of remission of sins And when Rabanus recommendeth to the same end fasting and almes deedes and yet rather as themselues say To enter into a certaine kind of recompence for their veniall sinnes which notwithstanding is contrarie to their owne Maxims then to merite rather thereby to shew forth some tokens of repentance then to make vp any worke of satisfaction c. Then thus it behoueth namely that their Maxims stand firme and immoueable and that what they say more bee squared and bounded by them and that so much the rather because such Maxims are vttered by them at such times as when they speake not after the conceipt of their owne corrupt and carnall sence but as searchers and seekers out of the true and proper sence and meaning of the word of God And yet notwithstanding all this we are farre off from those kindes of doctrine which came to bee preached in the beginning of this age wherein we liue namely That workes without faith do merite to receiue and haue faith giuen That the works of the faithful do merite deserue eternall life That Christians are able to merite the same not only for themselues but also for others c. And thus we are come to the yeare 1100. But this was the mischiefe that that which was preached ordinarilie to the people by the Priestes whether couetous or ignorant could more preuayle to leade them out of the way then the other which was written by these Doctors who were not but for the learned could worke to reduce and bring them into the way And on the other side that the soile whereinto this euill seede fell was verie apt to receiue and intertaine this abuse namely the naturall pride and presumption of man And yet further we are to note and obserue that which wee haue seene intreating of the inuocation of Saints that in the Catechisme of the sicke or rather such as draw neere their death Anselm in Ep. manuscript drawne out of the Epistles of Anselme they were daily taught to oppose and set against the reprochfull checkes of Sathan and the deadly accusations of their owne consciences nothing but the onely merit of our Lord and against the wrath of God for sinne no other thing then his righteousnesse And for a further proofe by a place out of Anselme a sufficient scantling and taste whereby wee may see what consideration all the holy men of the same age Anselme in medit bad of this matter My life saith he doth astonish me for when I haue well and throughly sifted it I find it either wholly sinne or else nothing but barrennesse But and if there appeare any fruit it is either counterfeit or imperfect or else corrupted and spoyled in such sort as that it cannot possibly please God yea that it cannot possibly but displease him In summe either it is wholly inwrapped in sinne and thereupon damnable or vnfruitfull and thereby contemptible But what cause or neede is there that there should a difference be
downe of him is in the historie of his life Plat. in Telesph That in the Apostles time all thinges were done nakedly plainely and simply in the action of this misterie c. To Telesphorus or according to others to Symmachus liuing a long time after the song of the Angels to bee sung before the holy supper that is to say Gloria in excelsis c. But how many thinges are there in the Masse and those of the most substantiall pointes thereof which haue their seuerall distances and distinctions of the time of their first being and entrance as the same is said at this day And it shall be further noted here by the way that the Sanctus and the Gloria are in the Lithurgies attributed vnto the Apostles and disciples and before by vs confuted as nothing else but the counterfeites of antiquitie To Marke 1. in the end the song of the Creede in that manner that it was drawne agreed vpon in the first Nicene Councell about the yeare three hundred thirtie fiue or according to some to Iulius the first to bee sung by and by after the Gospell by the Cleargie and the people D. l. ◠vasa c. vt Calix de conseer And as for the circumstances Zepherine ordained that the wine should be put in glasse vessels but Vrbanus the first that it should bee put into vessels of mettall Siluester the first that the priestes should not weare any silke nor coloured cloth but onely linnen but not a worde all this while of the pompe of Rome For I pray you what likenesse is there betwixt all that which wee haue here said and that which may be said of that which is vsed at this day whereof all the Authors going before vntill this time how many soeuer haue written in Latine haue not seemed to bee acquainted so much as with the name That the name of the Masse was vnknowne at this time For where as some would make vs belieue that the Masse was written of at this time I do here once again giue you to vnderstand for all that that this is a manifest fraude and tricke of deceipt and that it is found in the Greeke authours translated in these latter ages into Latine onely by the imagination of the translators who were disposed to finde it where it neuer came Ignatius in an epistle to the Church of Smyrna Thus it is founde in Saint Ignatius in Saint Denis in the Tripartite historie c. in such places as where these Authours haue written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say to administer the Supper to say seruice to preach and to call the Church together c. they haue not beene ashamed to translate to doe say sing and celebrate the Masse Dionis lib. 3. Hier. Hist trip lib. 3. cap. 11. lib. 4 cap. 13. lib. 7 cap. 31. lib. 9 cap. 9. c. That the Decretall epistles are ridiculous And from the fountaine of a like good conscience are sprung those glorious Decretall epistles of Zepherinus Calixtus the first Pontianus Sother and such like wherein indeede the same name of Masse is read but to the iust making of those to blush who counterfeited them For who will euer belieue that at such time as there was a Tertullian a Ciprian which did write so eloquently exactly and learnedly of the deepest and waightiest pointes of our faith and that in Afrike where the Latine tongue was not so pure and neat the Bishops of Rome in the midst of the palace of the world should euer busie their heades to make and write lawes of such childish and fond things and that in such childish fond and barbarous manner Persecutiones patienter portandae sunt Praesentē fraternam syllabam exposuimus Modernis temporibus Christianitatem suscepistis Habent potestatem ordinare regulariter and these goodly words Intronizare praetextatus modus charitatiue conuenire I appeale vnto their owne consciences if these be eyther Latine wordes or phrases Is it possible that they should bee hatcht or euer heard of before the ouerrunning made by the Gothes And againe what ancient old writer did euer make mention of these Epistles Eusebius Ierome Damascene or others who neuer forgot any one of the writings and workes of those men which yet were not any whit so earnestly recommended vnto them And who is hee furthermore but and if he bring his eyes with him will say and well perceiue that some craftie forger hath framed these lies for the aduancing of their See and iurisdiction As likewise the most and best learned do hold that they were all made after the time of Syricius that is neere fiue hundred yeares after our Sauiour Christ And then from what spirit can they come but from the father of lies Thus we haue coasted along till we are ariued at the great and famous Councell of Nice where were come together about the yeare 328. from all the partes of Christendome 318. Bishops That the Masse was vnknowne at the time when the Councell of Nice was holden all of them vtterly without any knowledge of the Masse vsed at this day eyther by name or deede for any thing they could gather out of any antiquities yea or out of the Romaine Church it selfe Neither hauing any Canon inuocation of Saints or any such other things as are now become the principall partes of the same and yet the Masse the most formall part of seruice that the Church of Rome hath the Canon the soule and life of the Masse without the which a man cannot possibly seeme to them to bee a Christian and without the which it could not keepe the name it hath yea whereof if there be but the least word left out it becommeth all and altogether vnprofitable and vnperfect But well we haue found the administration of the holy Supper of the Lord celebrated with publique praiers singing of Psalmes of all the people reading of the scriptures and the interpreting of the same blessing of the sacraments according to the Lord his institution and the distributing of the same simply in their whole and sole nature vnto all the people and all this in a knowne tongue which euerie one present vnderstoode and aunswered accordingly from time to time Amen without any superstitious affecting of garments curiositie in vessels or other vaine ceremonies And all this vnder the name of Coetus Dominicus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caena Dominica Epulum Dominicum or Dominicum simply and by it selfe that is to say of the assemblie congregation holy supper or banquet of the Lord. Wherefore let the readers iudge both of the one and the other as namely which of them approcheth and commeth neerest vnto the true antiquitie the Church of Rome or the reformed Church CHAP. IIII. What manner of seruice was vsed in the Church vnto the time of S. Gregorie or thereabout and namely what manner of thing that was that is called the Masse of those that are
his soueraigne and singular workes of creation and gouernment in the creatures also there are some vertues which are communicated vnto them by God in the Image there is neither the one nor the other Polyd. Virgil. l. 6. c. 13. for it can neither see heare nor vnderstand c. Polydor Virgill doth likewise take offence against these superstitions and concludeth in these wordes Wee are fallen into such a vaine of follie and doting rage towardes our Images as that the duties and seruices of pietie Caietan in Pentatcu Exod. c. 20. which wee seem to performe in that behalfe are nothing but verie impieties themselues The Cardinall Caietanus is taken vppe and checked for comprising and lapping vppe together both the Idoll and the Image in a like defence notwithstanding that he make a distinction inter Dolatum Similitudinem in respect of the wordes and Paulus Burgensis likewise one of the most learned Hebricians which had beene amongst them and in whome notwithstanding our aduersaries do place and put their chiefest hope of defence Paulus Ricius sayeth franklie and freelie after hee had weighed all the reasons and aunsweres to the same which were brought to that ende and purpose If wee must abstaine from thinges sacrificed to Idols because of the infirme and weake in faith how much more then whatsoeuer Thomas can say from this pestilent worshipping'of Images c These are the wilde vine growing vp and ouerspreading the natural vine of Christ these are the Darnell in his field The Iewes haue brought in the works of the law the Gentiles Images c. which I would to God that they had neuer come in our Temples then we should haue learned to haue lift vp our hearts to heauen in stead of bowing and casting them down to fixe them vpon Images In a word Ludouicus Viues writing vpoÌ„ S. Augustine saith That he cannot see any difference betwixt certain Christians addicted to the honouring of Images and the Pagans worshipping their Idols And Erasmus concludeth That it is more safe and sure to take them away then to expect or waite vntill there be some rule good directions for the moderating of the same Cassand in Consult deuised and established But Cassander after that hee hath alleadged Biel saith Who shall be able to do it who shall be able to bring backe the people from this their entred course of superstition especiallie seeing that such as teach them are themselues the authors of these superstitions Michael Episc Mersburg in Cathechismo are those that nourish and cherish them in their harts to the end they may sucke out some profite from them But our Fathers of the Councell of Trent imagined that they had well looked into the curing of all the mischiefes threatned against them by all these so euident testimonies when they ordained in their Index expurgatorius that these places of Polydor Viues Erasmus Cassander and others should be raced and left out in the first impression insuing But the very defenders of these abuses coÌ„mitted in this our time haue bin in some sort ashamed of their doctrine as Martinus Peresius Ambrosius Catharinus Nicolaus Saunderus intreating of this matter holding against Thomas Scotus BonaueÌ„tura That the Images cannot be worshipped after the same maner that the persons may whom they do represent And Alphonsus of Castres their resuter of heresies proceedeth yet further That wee must not at all worship or doe any reuerence vnto Images but rather before the Images for feare of being condemned for Heretikes our selues And Bellarmine willing to set them at one commeth so farre as to saye Bellar. de Ima l. 2. First That we must honour but not adore or worship them by praying vnto theÌ„ Secondly That no man may teach especiallie in any sermons that they ought to be worshipped with Latria no not the Image of Christ himselfe but rather the contrarie Where is now the second Nicene Councell affirming That there is but one kind of Worshippe one I say for the originall and for the image framed after the same c Thirdlie That images cannot properlie and of themselues be worshipped as the patternes themselues whereby they are made and that neither Latria nor Huperdulia nor yet Dulia or any other adoration or seruice is properlie due vnto them but I know not what after the proportion of those whereof they are Images What will now become of Thomas his ordering of the controuersie betwixt Scotus and Bonauentura c And finallie That there is no other honour dew vnto them then such as is vouchsafed and giuen to the bookes and vessels of the Church as to the cups and their couerings c. And what is now become of these kneelings inuocations and cleare euident worshippings For who did euer worship the Masse books the holy linnens or cups c But how much more brief and shorter course had it bin to haue held themselues to the pure vndefiled word of God to the obseruatioÌ„s of the ancient church theÌ„ to incumber the people with so manie superstitions ignorances and impieties as that no man is able to free them againe no not with all the distinctions limitations fine deuises or shifts that can be imagined And how much better had it been to haue followed the counsell of Gratianus in his Decree and that vpon far better ground Gratian D. 63. C. Qâ—ia Sancta seeing that all Images in the Church of Rome are of mans ordinance whereas the brasen Serpent in Israel was of Gods ordinance And notwithstanding hee saith Ezechias destroyed the brasen Serpent which Moses had set vp in the desart by the expresse commaundement of God because the people moued by the miracles which they saw betooke themselues to the worshipping of it whereupon saith he we see the greatnes of the authoritie of the church as that if our fathers predecessors haue done any thing in their time blameles without falt that the same afterward do turn into superstition or error that theÌ„ in such case the succeeding persons are to destroy and vndoe the same without delay that with great authority In the ende they make God a party with them It is he say they who hath taught it vs for wherfore did he commaud Moses to erect a brasen Serpent in the desert and to make Cherubins ouer the Arke As if God had bound himself by the commandements that he hath giuen vs and left vs free As if Abraham had aunswered God I will not sacrifice my Son for thou hast said Thou shalt not kill But wee haue authority to beare vs out for the caruing and worshipping of Images let them shew vs a contrary commandement forbidding vs to make any To this blasphemous obiection by which they make God the author of their abhomination they shal be aunswered by Tertullian for me Tertullian being beaten with this argument by the Idolaters of his time Tertul. de Idolo for euen
further of force then in the Greek churches it is not to be taken for any answere Euseb in vita Constan ora 4 For we know that if the iurisdiction of Rome haue bound the whole empire that then in like manner this constitution made by Iustinian and his drift in the contriuing and ordaining of his ecclesiasticall lawes is knowne by these wordes C. de Iudic. l. propemod C. de Epise Cleric I. generaliter Carol. l. 1. c. 70. 173. l. 6. Orig. contr Celsum l. 8. Thom. in 1. Cor. 14. Lyranus ibid. Ioh. Belet in summa de dium Offi. Cardin. Caieta in 1. Cor. 14 Which we vnderstand take to be of force not in the old new Rome onely but vniuersally without any prescription of place throughout the whole world Charles the great for the same purpose ordained that the people should know and vnderstand that which they demand of God that which is said in the Masse and not the priest alone Thus we haue sufficiently proued that which Origen saith in one word That all the people of his time did praise and call vpon God in their owne proper language Whereupon Thomas and Lyranus do both of them say vpon the 1. Cor. 14. That that without all doubt was the custome of the Primitiue Church and by that meanes more zealous and deuout And Iohn Belet saith further But what shall we do now a daies sith there are so few that vnderstand any thing whether you meane the hearers or the readers But that wee should rather hold our peace then sing In a word our aduersaries euen the most wilfull obstinate amongst them are constrained here to submit themselues The Cardinall Caietan who saith That it is more for edification to do seruice in a language vnderstood of the people and of the Cleargie then in Latine Sixtus Senens lib. 6. â—nnot 263. and is reproued by Ambrose of Compsa a citie of the Hirpines and censured by Sixtus Senensis Harding likewise who acknowledgeth that that was necessarie in the time of the rawnes of the Primitiue Church which being confessed let him shew a reason why it should be lesse necessarie in ours and let him lay his hand vpon his conscience and answere if the darknesse of that Church were not more precious and of greater value then all that which we call light and their rawnes and vnlettered condition better then our learning But what will this matter come to Innocent 3. Extrauag de offi iud ordin if we conclude shut it vp with a sentence against the Pope that vttered by a Pope For thus saith Innocent the third In as much as in diuers places in one cittie or diocesse there are people which holding the same faith vse diuers tongues we most straitly charge and command the Bishops of the same that they be prouided of capable and sufficient persons who according to the diuersitie of ceremonies and tongues may celebrate and say them scruice and administer vnto them the Sacraments Concil Latera c. 9. And the same is ordained in the Councell of Laterane Chap. 9. Our aduersaries say that the same extendeth no further then to the two languages of Greeke Latine which thing we desire to be proued Yea rather let vs say and boldly affirme to the contrarie that this was decreed vpon the requests of diuers nations that had taken Constantinople as namely Germans Frenchmen Italians Englishmen c. whereunto they reply and answere how that at least it was neuer yet kept or obserued And I can tell them that Leo the tenth did permit vnto the Chaldeans and Syrians their seruice in their vulgar tongue that at Rome But for a second answer who knoweth not that the best Canons are neglected euen in the Church of Rome And further therewithall take this how that this decree was about the yeare 1200. It is then the next question to know how so great a change and alteration should happen In which point let vs note that it is but in the Latine Church A tongue not vnderstood in the Romane Church onely and by what meanes for in all other places seruice is vnderstood of the people a prerogatiue purchased obtained partly of ignorance partly of malice which is fallen vpon them more then vpon any others But yet further how and by what meanes in the Latine Church certainly in part by the alteration and changing of tongs and in part by changing of seruices for that Pope Gregory did vndertake the change alteratioÌ„ that is in the Latine church which the Popes his successors caused to be receiued as we haue alreadie said by the authoritie of princes aboue all the rest by the worke of Pipin Charlemaine the Popes and they the one of them lending their hand to the other the one by the authoritie of the spirituall Monarchie and the other by the authoritie of the temporall And to the end that all might depend and relie vppon Rome they caused their seruice to bee receiued in all the Westerne prouinces and that not onely after the Romaine order but also in the Romaine tongue The abettors and furtherers whereof were Remigius Archb. of Roan brother to Pipin amongst the French men Boniface an English man Archbishop of Mentz in Germanie and Augustine the Monke an Italian Archbishop of Canterburie in England And afterward as the nations of the infidels were sudbued by the Christian Princes the Latine seruice was established amongst theÌ„ after the maner of the Romish Church as in Sueueland Denmarke Saxonie Bauaria c The tongues also in as much as the Northerne nations did ouerflow the whole Westerne Empire for a long time did likewise there take roote and settle their abode whereupon insued so great and grosse a corrupting of tongues and especially of the Romish which was for the most part admitted and receiued in those places in so much as that by little and little it came to passe that the common people did not any more vnderstand it so farre differing from it selfe in processe of time became the tongue which had beene ordinarie and common that is to say the Romaine tongue from that which sometime it had beene when they did vse both to speake and write in it Which thing is easily found out and perceiued to haue happened in Italie Spaine and Fraunce where the tongues vsed at this day were but dialects or manners of speech somewhat differing at the first and then afterwards all of them Or the Latine tong somwhat corupted corruptions of the Latine tongue The seruice therefore continuing still in Latine and the vulgar language altering and chaunging the seruice which at the first was easie to be vnderstood of the people became rude and barbarous vnto them that is such as they vnderstood not the prelates hauing no care to draw them backe againe to the first institution whether lulled asleepe through carelesse securitie or willingly admitting the
meanes whereby they might excell and go beyond the laitie therewithall the well inclined being still oppressed kept downe by the authoritie of the Pope Euen iust after the same manner as it would haue fallen out in other cases with vs in Fraunce in as much as the case so stood in the beginning as that matters of sute and law were pleaded in Latine and all manner of writings made in Latine howbeit that the common people by reason of the change that happened did not vnderstand it but that our kings as those which did more carefully watch ouer the goodes of the people then the Romish Bishops did ouer their soules haue beene very prouident wisely to foresee and by their ordinances to prouide for the same CHAP. VI. That in the Primitiue Church and a long time after the holy scriptures were read amongst the people in all tongues THe liturgie then or diuine seruice That the scriptures were translated into all languages euen from the first times was retained in the Church in the vulgar and common tongue for a long space following the precept of Saint Paule Let euery thing be done to edification in the Church And as for the Maxime of the Church of Rome which is to hold the people in ignorance that so they may not come to the knowledge of their faluation it did not take place but of late and that for no other end but to bind their consciences and knowledge to go no further neither yet to come short of the conscience skill of their curates that so they may pray vpon their simplicitie either by leading them into vaine superstition or into seruile subiection The holy scriptures of the old Testament say they were written in Hebrew and those of the new Testament in Greeke and not in any other tongue Let it bee so and good cause why seeing the Hebrew tongue was the language of Israel to whome the law was properly and peculiarly giuen and the Greeke likewise very common knowne vnto all the East parts where Christianitie did first spring and spread abroad But what prerogatiue do they shew vs why they should so aduance and cleaue vnto the Latine Let them answere them that the Gospell was notwithstanding preached by word of mouth in all tongues and to that end was the gift of tongues sent vnto the Church which was no sooner ceased but that the scriptures both of the old and new Testament were found as a supply of the same translated into diuers tongues as Hebrew Syrian Arabicke and Scythian as the ecclesiasticall historie doth witnesse vnto vs that this diligent indeuour continued and endured by the industrie of good pastors in such measure and sort as that the knowledge of Christ gained and got ground in the world Thus we see that Saint Ierome translated the holy scriptures into the Dalmaticke tongue Hieronym in ep ad Sophron. Gregor Patriarch Alexand. in vita Chrysost Sixtus Senens in l. 4. in lit l. k. Postellus in ep ad Ambr. Theseum Chrysostome into the Armenian Vlphilas Bishop of the Gothes into Gothicke Methodius into the Sclauonian and their translations are founde as yet both extant and in vse And that the same zeale was followed and imitated in the end in all Churches so that wee haue as yet the Gospels in the Ethiopian tongue the Psalter in the Egyptian as also in the Indian tongue but imprinted in Syriacke Characters the fiue bookes of Moyses in the Persian tongue the Psalter all the new Testament in the Gothish or old Frizeland speech all the Bible from the time of Ethelstanus king of England that is nine hundred yeares in the Brittish tongue c. And therefore Chrysostome sayth The Syrians Egyptians Indians Persians Ethiopians and innumerable other nations haue the heauenly doctrine translated into their naturall tongues and by this meanes haue left off their barbarousnes to play the philosophers in good earnest Theodoret Theodor. de corrig Graecor affect The Hebrew bookes are not onely translated into Greeke but also into Latine Egiptian Persian Indian Armenian Scythian Saromatian and in a word into all tongues which the nations vse as yet vnto this day All these good Pastors zealously and feruently affecting the wholesome instruction of their flockes and all these famous Churches had not yet studied or busied their braines about the title of the Crosse to conclude from thence that the scriptures could not bee read but in three tongues because in deed they had no desire or will by any such shift so to worke their purpose as that the poore people might not learne the way wherby they might be saued that so they might hold their consciences in homage vnto them Whether it be daungerous or no for the cōmon people to reade them But whatsoeuer any man may seeme to bee able to say to the contrarie say they it is and alwaies hath beene daungerous for the people to haue and reade the holy scripture in their common and naturall tongue And to whom then was it that our Lord said Search the scriptures And wherefore had all Christian Churches so translated them But now therefore let them heare euen they which make such vauntes of the auncient writers into what daunger those auncients did bring mens consciences by the reading of the holy scripture and into what daunger if a man will belieue them herein they brought the whole Church Irenaeus without all doubt did not conceiue any such daunger to bee therein Iren. l. 4. c. 12. 31. when hee said of the heretikes the Valentinians That their not knowing of the scriptures had brought them to this heresie He found preseruatiues therein and our aduersaries are afraid to meete with poison And as little paines did he take to draw backe the faithfull from the reading of them because of obscuritie for he saith The scriptures are open and cleare without ambiguitie or doubtfulnesse Origen in Esa hom 2. in Exod hom 9. they may bee alike heard of all Origen in like manner who tooke so great paines to translate and publish them in all tongues saith Woulde God wee all belieued and did that which is written Search the scriptures they are shutte and sealed to the negligent but they are founde to bee open and vnlockt to them that seeke and knocke at the dore By them hee would haue his parishioners his people that were still to be instructed and catechised and his disciples to trie and examine his doctrine for hee saith Origen in Iosuam hom 20. Idem in Leuit. hom 9. When I teach you that which I thinke then examine and iudge you whether it bee right and true or no. For wee desire sayeth hee in another place that you shoulde not onely heare the wordes of God in the Church but therewithall that you shoulde exercise your selues in them in your houses and meditate in his law day and night Idem in Ios hom 20. Yea and to the end that they
is the cause also that S. Ambrose would haue men to be throughlie intentiue Ambros 1. Cor. 83. Chrysost in 2. Cor. hom 8. To the end sayeth hee that this oblation which is of many may be celebrated together And Chrysostome seteth it downe vnto vs for a general rule That in the mysteries that is in this sacrament the Pastor differeth not from the Parishioner c. In like manner the forme and ceremonie of ordaining and instituting of Ministers in the Apostolike Church is most cleare and euident The maner of the laying on of hands vsed of the olde Church The Church prayed God that it would please him to be present by his holie spirit at the election to blesse it And to the end that they might be the more feruent in praier they vsed to fast before after which those which were elect by the Church receiued the imposition of hands in the beginning by the Apostles and afterward by the Pastors Bishops but neuer without a perfect knowledge and triall of their doctrine and life It is also to bee obserued that whereas our Lord breathed vppon his Apostles saying vnto them Receiue the holie Ghost the Primitiue Church notwithstanding did not practise the same because such signes haue no other power then that which God hath giuen vnto them and therefore must not presumptuously be conceiued to haue anie such except there appeare the expresse institution and ordinance of the Lord for the warrant of the same In the election of the Bb. Fabian Eusâ—b l. 6. c. 29 wee see the simplicitie that was in the olde Church The Church came together aswell the Elders and Deacons as the other people manie were propounded as thought worthy to vndertake the charge in the end Fabian by the common consent and voice of the whole Church is named Bb. and sometimes wee see the common people make the election and after to present the elected to the Presbyterie that is to the ecclesiasticall assemblie and other sometimes wee see the Presbyterie to propound them vnto the people for to approue them if there bee no man that can say anie thing against them onelie it was alwaies vsed that before they were ordained and installed in their Ministerie there was a generall agreement and consent of the people and ecclesiasticall order that is of the whole Church as concerning the soundnes of his doctrine and vnspottednes of his life which was to bee chosen Bishoppe or Elder And this wee coulde proue through all ages successiuelie if so be it were anie controuersie amongst vs. For the present the questioÌ„ is first of the charge of the Minister of the church whether Bishop or Priest for the first were intituled by the Ancientes with the name of Ministers the old Episcopall bookes doe yet make mention thereof secondlie of the ceremonie which was obserued in the ordaining of the same And seeing that these two pointes doe one of them cleare and make plaine the other wee purpose to insist and stand vppon them The charge of such a one I say was to preach the Gospell and administer the Sacramentes not to say Masses not to sacrifice the bodie of Christ for the liuing and for the dead The forme of giuing of orders in the ancient time Theodoret l. 4 c. 23. Concil Carth. 4. c. 1. 2. Epiphan l. 1. tom 2. Sozom. l. 4. c. 24. Iust Nouel 123 de eccles diuer The auncient forme and manner also say wee had not any ceremonie that did shew anie thing eyther of Priestes or sacrifices And this wee must proue by taking the search and view of the auncient recordes of antiquitie Theodoret teacheth vs in the election of one that was to succeede Meletius the Great that it was the custome in ordaining of a Bb. that all the Bbs. of the Prouince should be present therat at the least three or fowre Where hee was examined of his doctrine and sometimes called to make confession of his faith and in his life so farre foorth as that hee was to aunswere therein to whatsoeuer hee could bee accused of or charged withall whereuppon wee haue a most expresse lawe made by Iustinian the Emperour Afterwarde it was agreede that the Metropolitane or in his absence the most auncient Bishoppe should lay his hand vppon him and blesse him and all the others likewise laide to their handes in signe of consent And to the end that he might bee aduertised and put in minde of his dutie by an eye signe two Bishoppes helde the holie Gospels ouer his head to the end hee might know that his calling tyed him to the preaching of the Gospel And this ceremonie was ordinarily done before the holie Table where the Sacraments were wont to bee administred Nazian in leudem Basil In some places likewise it was obserued that the Bishoppe passed through all the degrees of the Church before that hee came to that place and roome S. Denys describing this ceremonie sayeth The Bishoppe is kneeling before the Altar hee hath the bookes giuen of God helde ouer his head and the hand of the Bishoppe that is his who layeth his handes vppon him and is blessed of him by most holie praiers the consecrating Bishoppe doth set vpon him the signe of the Crosse c. but of the Masse or any sacrifice or yet any other ceremonie hee speaketh not at all August l. 3. cont Crescon c. 21. 22. Sozom. c. 19. l. 8. Chrysost 2. Cor. 8. hom 18 Volaterr l. 22. Herman Gigas Concil Aquisgran c. 9. The same forme and manner was practised in the person of Cresconius Maximilianus Theophilus Alexandrinus c. and these alwaies with publike praiers and fasting going before And from thence the Romaine Church retaineth as yet the fastes of the fowre times because that Pope Gelasius did ordaine that Orders should be giuen onelie fowre times a yeare vpon a Saturday the dayes going before being spent in examining their liues and manners The ages following added therto the staffe and the ring saying The staffe as a shepheardes crooke to reforme and call the stragling into the way as also to vpholde the infirme and weake and the ring in signe of the honour due vnto Bishoppes and for to seale their secrets withall But the truth is that this was after that they were become Lordes of great Lordshippes that the Popes and Emperours would receiue fealty and homage from them inuesting them with these ensignes and badges as Knightes and Squiers are wont to bee noted out by the speare the sword and shield c. But what get wee hereby but that the Bb. both in his election and examination as also in the whole forme and maner obserued in his ordination was charged onelie to teach the word of God well and faithfullie and to administer his holy sacraments purelie and sincerely to correct his people by his prescribed form of discipline and his church with such a gouernment as is truly ChristiaÌ„ And look what
man did offend against the Apostle who accompteth it amongst the vertues of a Bishop that he be the husband of one wife onely And all the world saith he is full not of priestes nor of inferior persons but of Bishops so that the number would become greater then that which was found in the Councell of Rimini c. Tertullian himselfe Pertull de Monogam although he were a Montanist alleadging these places of Timothie and Titus is of iudgement that Bishops and Priestes should be maried onely he standeth vpon the disalowing of second mariages for which hee is reproued by Saint Ierome in the place aboue named But this point should not bee to our purpose In the meane time we are not to belieue as some would go about to wrangle out the matter against vs by this place of Saint Ierome disagreeing with himselfe whiles he was caried away with the streame of contention that we should nourish this opinion that the Bishop had beene maried but that he may not bee so derogating and detracting the credite due to other places wherein he handleth the question that of purpose and void of all passionate affections Let vs say then for it followeth by like reason from the coherence and scope of the text that the Apostle doth likewise vnderstand that the Bb. hath beene vigilant sober of good report giuen to hospitalitie apt to teach c. but that he may not be so any more But the holy Ghost hath preuented such wrangling and false assertions who saith In the present time Let the Priest be established Tit. 1. 1. Timoth. 3. let him be the husband of one onely wife let the Deacons also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the husbandes of one onely wife c. And Saint Paule doth describe afterward vnto vs what manner of women the wiues of Bishops Priestes and Deacons should bee And thus you may see whither a blind passion had almost led vs against the cleare and euident light Chrysost in ep ad Tit. hom 2. In ep ad Heb. hom 7. Chrysostome therefore saith better There are some that affirme that S. Paule his purpose is to speake of one that hath beene maried but that he may not bee so any more But saith hee although hee shall bee so still yet he may demeane carrie himselfe honestly therein Vse saith he mariage soberly and thou shalt be the chiefe in the kingdome of heauen Ambros D. 26. C. Qui sine Likewise Saint Ambrose saith Who so otherwise blamelesse is the husband of one onely wife is beld by the law to bee capable of the office of the Priesthoode Saint Augustine August in quest ex vtroque testam Hug. Card. in 1. Tim. 3. Caiet in 1. Timoth. 3. ad Tit. 1. The Apostle saith that hee which hath a wife may and ought to bee made Sacerdos a priest a Minister a Bishop Cardinall Hugo saith At that time it was lawfull for Priestes to haue wiues And Cardinall Caietan after him This estate and condition must bee vnderstood negatiuely that is to say Non plurium vxorum virum not a husband of many wiues But Pope Calixtus the second about the yeare 1100. did turne make it into an other maner of sence The husband of one onely wife that is consecrate and put apart for one onely Church for one onely Bishoprick that to be taken so as that he was not to haue any moe then one or that he was not greedily or proudly to labour to be translated and remoued from one to another And in S. Ierome his time this Allegorie was begotten and borne and by some preferred and better liked then that which was according to the letter and Carterius his aduersaries themselues saith he did finde that interpretation to be violently forced and very harsh To whome hee answereth thereupon Restore them to the scripture his simple sence and meaning that so we may not reason against you from the constitutions and conclusions of your owne lawes that is to say that wee may not oppose allegorie against allegorie and iudgement against iudgement but may hold and keepe our selues simplie to the wordes of the Apostle Otherwise what will become of S. Paule his argument If he know not to gouerne his owne children how shall hee be able to direct and guide the Church of God As also when the Apostle shall tel vs of widowes that choise must be made of such as haue beene the wiues of one onely husband shal we vnderstand it of Bishopricks or Diocesses that haue had but one only Bishop But to draw to an end what should hinder the Apostle that be could not more plainly say It behoueth that the Bb. to the end he may be without blame abide vnmaried or at the least be a widdower c. But shame maketh them mingle these absurdities with a blasphemie as that during the weaknes of the church these mariages were permitted but prohibited and forbidden when it came to bee strong And what will they say to Chrysostome who saith plainely That S. Paul gaue this law to Timothie not for himselfe onely but for all them which were to come Or rather vnto Egesippus who endeth the flower and virginitie of the Church at the death of the Apostles Euseb l. 3. c. 32 And presently after there followed saith he an infinite number of impurities and corruptions They labour further to proue the matter in controuersie against S. Paul by himself 1. Cor. 7.5 for say they he telleth vs in another place That they must abstaine from women to attend vpon fasting and praier And what shall they doe then who are to pray euery day let them with conscience carefully reade this place they shall see that which Chrysostome obserueth in the same that he speaketh not there of an ordinary praier but of an extraordinarie made with rare singular attending thereunto by fasting And therefore he saith Defraude not one another except it bee by mutuall consent and that for a time Againe And come together againe to the end that Sathan doe not tempt you because of your incontinencie And Chrysostome saith expresly If he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the maried which lie together could not pray how should that which he commandeth all Christians in another place agree therewith Pray without ceasing wherefore hee speaketh of an extraordinarie prayer saith he which requireth an exact attention not that the societie betwixt the married doth conuay or carrie about it any impuritie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rather businesse and affaires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereupon also Saint Ambrose saith Ambr. in ep 1. Cor. 7. We must pray without ceasing but this is spoken Vt orationi insistatur by courses and distances of time saith hee to strengthen and increase meditation And Theodoret For to sanctifie the fast And likewise hee saith in another place That the Apostle hath deemed him worthy of a bishopricke that liueth and dwelleth
Arnob. l. 8. Arnobius sayeth Where doe these Priestes more willinglie commit their whoâ—â—â—omes and fornications then in their owne Temples then in the midst of their Altars where doe they contriue their bawderie where doe they bethinke themselues of their adulteries but there Assuredly whoredom is ofter lodged in the little Chambers of the Keepers then in the very brothel-houses And the same is to bee saide of this pretended continencie Nicholas the Deacon vpon an ambitious superstition renounced and cast off his wife hee had no sooner done it but we may learne by Epiphanius into what vncleannes he fell The Heretikes called Gnostici would likewise haue their Leuites to leade this single life and the same Epiphanius reporteth that presentlie thereuppon buggerie set in foote and tooke place Iren Epiph. But Syricius his decree is no sooner made and indeede how can it be otherwise there being such a mightie multitude of men to exercise their mischieuous villanies and loosenes of life Saluian l. 5. de prouident more then ordinary but we heare Saluian Bishoppe of Marseillis crying Yee who forsake honest Marriage at the least abstaine and keepe your selues from villainous wickednes if not for altogether sayeth hee for it might bee too hard yet at the least from that which is abhominable and monstrous S. Gregorie saith S. Vlrich vpon the report of 6000. childrens heads found in his fishpond being all confounded fell a crying being driuen thereunto by the remorse of conscience striking his heart and saide I haue sinned it is better to marrie then to burne Saint Vlrich Bishoppe of Ausbourg who vexed and tormented himselfe thereat saith This people which say that the chast marriages of Clearkes are abhominable vnto them are not afraide of whoredomes adulteries incestes buggeries and other vitiouse practises yea to speake in a word of nothing of all that which the scriptures call the abhominations of the Chananites In England we haue seene how farre this cursed law preuailed and what griefe and trouble it put Anselme the Archbishoppe vnto himselfe being the brocher and procurer of the same As also in Germanie where Auentine reporteth that vnder the shadowe of sanctimonie and holines All sortes of incestes were committed without the sparing of anie degree Bernard in Serm. de conuers ad Clericos c. 29. And what can bee saide more then S. Bernarde hath saide who tormented and vexed yea who killed himselfe with crying it is shamefull to speake and yet more shamefull to coÌ„ceale That the deuill hath strewed the ashes of Sodome vpon the very body of the church for so he calleth the clergie That the number is maruellous great but which is more exceeding shameles not caring to couer and conceale themselues That they haue consented to forsake the lawfull remedie Marriage to take their swinge and libertie to the committing of all manner of villanie couering it vnder the vaile of continencie But how much better sayeth hee had it beene for them to marrie then to burne To bee briefe Mantuan sayeth notwithstanding that he was a gray Fryer Sanstus ager scurris venerabilis ara Cinaedis Seruit honorandae diuum Ganymedibus aedes And to the end that the vice as reason requireth may the more plainly appeare let vs repaire to the mother of fornications There wee shall see the Cardinals carrying the curtisans aboute with them in their Coaches and the Pope taking ordinary tribute and yearelie summes of mony of them and to keepe a stewes I loath and abhorte to speake of the worst himselfe There we shall find Aretines not in painted shapes but in their liuely persons Iohn de Casa Archb. of Beneuento Deane of the Apostolike Chamber and the Popes Nuncio Ioh. a Casa excus venet apud Tâ—â—anuÌ„ Nauum writing the praises of buggery in Italian verse and causing the same to be imprinted at Venice But I could hartily wish that this law were left indifferent or that it were not at all seeing that it hath a contremaund and that from the great and mightie God who knoweth better both our infirmities and the remedies thereof then wee our selues But if that which is said in the Decree ought euer to take place That a Positiue law giuen and ordamed for edification should be abolished and repealed when it turneth to the desiruetion of any then let vs willinglie looke down into our consciences it cannot possibly be denied but that it ought to be put in practise in this point for it cannot be excused seeing the law was no sooner published but the vice villanie did also manifest it selfe and breake out into open sight and not onely make it selfe to be seen but to be complained on of euerie man yea to be written against of euery man Let vs cease to speake of the braules and broiles of many ages about the publishing of this Decree calling onlie to mind how that in the time of Calixtus the 2. yea euen wheÌ„ he was in his full authority raigning and ruling euerie where there were many great personages which ceased not to summon the Pope by their writings and as it were to set affixes vpon his gates shewing the deedes and workes that it brought forth that so all maner of excuse might be cut off that otherwise might haue been made for him vnto the posteritie following Thomas of Aquin Thom. in suÌ„mâ— quae incipit Commiserationes Domini c. 165. Anno 1270. Durand de modo celebr conc Anno 1320. Anno 1430. Reformationis articuli Sigismundi editi Argentinae Anno 1520. Aene. Svlu in Act. Basil l. 2. Quamplurimos aduiseth the ecclesiasticall person to make his infirmitie known vnto his Confessor if he cannot containe subdue the lust of the flesh afterward to marie secretlie without the priuitie of the Bb. Durand disputeth the case by manie reasons That a generall Councell should be held for the restoring of the Priestes vnto their former liberty of marrying Marsilius of Padua in his book called Defensorpacis at the same time That it might without breach of pietie be permitted vnto them Danta and Petrarcha in like manner To the matching of marriage with virginitie but the latter of them more sharpelie as one that had beene solicited to haue prostituted his sister to Pope Benedict Against the time of the Councell of Basill Sigismunde the Emperour caused certaine articles concerning thinges to bee reformed to bee made ready of which this was one The Decree of Calixtus the second hath wrought more mischiefe in the church then good it were better therefore and more for the soules health to permit Priestes their honest marriages after the example of the Easterne church c. Aeneas Syluius which was after Pope Pius the seconde sayeth It may be it would proue ill done if many Priestes were married for so it would come to passe that many of them might saue their soules in a married Priesthoode which in an vumaried are condemned And hee reporteth that it was alleadged
in the Councell of Basill Wherefore doe our Doctors vse all this disputation whether a married man chosen to bee Pope bee not bound to giue vnto his wife all due beneuolence but that because a married man may bee receyued and taken into that place For was there neuer anie Popes married Aen. Syl. in Ep. 307. was not Saint Peter himselfe And in his Epistle vnto Iohn Freund who asked his counsell vppon the same he saith It had beene more meete and conuenient that thou haddest thought vpon this matter before thy taking of Orders but seeing thou hast proceeded so far know now that it is better for thee to marrie then to burne But as for the present seeing the Pope will not giue thee anie dispensation being setled and throughlie resolued to continue the strict and seuere course which hee hath begunne thou must stay till some other doe inioye the Apostolike See whome thou maiest finde more tractable and easie to bee wonne Ad Panorm O Cum olim de Cleric coning The authoritie of Panormus first an Abbot and afterwarde an Archbishoppe was great in the Councell of Basill which propounded a question If the Church could not make a statute that the Clearkes might bee married And hee aunswered that it could and his reasons are Because abstinencie is not anie branch of Gods lawe neither yet anie parte of the substance of Orders and that otherwise the Grecians should sin Yea saieth hee I am perswaded that in respect of the saluation of soules it ought to bee made and so much the rather because that wee see that there hath followed vppon it a cleane contrarie effect to that which was pretended for now they let not the greatest parte to pollute themselues with vnlawfull copulation whereas their lying with their owne wiues according to the Councell of Nice is chastitie And would it might please God sayeth hee that there might be a course taken with all those positiue lawes that are so multiplied as that there are not many liuing whome they haue not caused to corrupt their waies And many other Canonistes were of the same iudgement after Panormus Stephan Aufrer Francisâ—n decisionib saying that this Decree serued for no other thing but to intrappe weake soules in the snares of sinne and that they had good hope that the Church would discharge the Cleargie thereof for their saluation And thereuppon it went as it were in a Prouerbe mentioned by Platina and Sabellicus which attribute it vnto Pius the second Marriage was suppressed and put down for certaine reasons it must be restored vpon more waightie and necessarie considerations Polydor. l 6. Index Expurg pag. 2 c 3. Erasm de laud. matrim Idem in 1. Timoth. 3. Index Expurg p. 249. 255. Item 210.211.227 Mantuan l. 1. Fastor de Hilatio Stan. Orich de lege Syricii ad Iul. 3. Oricho Episc Russiens de Celibatu Polydore Virgil after he hath alleadged some reasons and authorities concludeth that it should be restored The Councell of Trent ordained that that should bee raced out and so in like manner of Munster Erasmus also in his booke of marriage did giue aduise that it might not onely bee allowed vnto Priestes but vnto Monkes also for to matrie For sayeth hee let them extoll their single and vnmarried life as much as they please there is no life more holie then a married life chastlie obserued Againe he noteth that this single condition of life was not so much as knowne by his name in the most auncient Fathers But the foresaide Councell hath decreede that this whole treatise and all other places wherein hee speaketh of the same should bee defaced and left out And we neede not to doubt but that they will doe the same by those verses of Mantuan in the life of S. Hillarie Bishoppe of Potiers who was married To bee shorte Stanislaus Orichonius a Bishoppe of Russia put vppe a petition to Pope Iulius the thirde in the yeare 1551. to the ende that it might bee permitted him to bee married shewing vnto him the iniuriousnes of Syricius his law as being contrarie to the whole law of God alleadging vnto him further that Pope Paule the second had condemned it secretlie amongst his friendes hardlie disgesting it that a daughter of his which by Gods law hee knew to bee lawfullie giuen vnto him should bee accounted for a bastarde and that in such sort as that hee was resolued to haue reuoked it if death had not preuented him and reproching him with the children of Paule the thirde worthy sayeth hee of a loyall marriage and not sparing to tell him of his owne dissolute loosenes And Lindanus who elsewhere defendeth the most grosse abuses in Poperie doth yeeld in this point and concludeth with Paphnutius And in the Councell of Trent the greatest parte of the Embassadors for the princes doe require the libertie of marriage as likewise the Emperour Ferdinand by his articles how entirelie affected soeuer he stoode vnto the Church of Rome alleadging the pollutions and vncleannes that alreadie insued thereuppon and the great inconueniences that were yet to come and doe we not iustlie then maruaile at shamelesnes it selfe as also at the mother of fornications why Turrian l. 2. de Dogmatic Character notwithstanding all these warning peales she still persisteth so busilie to bestirre herselfe for the hatching of whoredoms For the Councell of Trent doth pronounce them accursed which say that those of the Cleargie may lawfullie be married and likewise executeth the same with like rigor euen to this day in euerie place where their power and authoritie may extend And as for the Iesuites they are not ashamed since then to teach that continencie is of the essence of the Priesthoode and that the Pope may aswell murder or robbe a man without sinning as dispense with a Priest in the matter of marriage and not sinne thereby condemning all the westerne and Easterne Churches in all ages In the East Church this doctrine was likewise assailed Of the East Church and wee haue heretofore seene how farre Epiphanius his opinion went but it neuer came so farre as to bee made a law but rather gaue an occasion of a law to the contrarie Doubtlesse these two Churches before the diuision of the Empire or rather before the distraction renting away of that of the West remaining as yet vndeuided by the faction of the Popes it could hardlie bee that the euill which had infected the one should not likewise fasten it selfe vpon the other And therefore we reade Iustinian in auth de â—â—nttissima cor 9. col 6. 9. that Iustinian ordained made a law about the yeare 530. that there should not be any Clearkes made which had had concubines or bastardes but either such as had neuer beene maried or els such as had beene and were not or such as yet were with a lawfull wife And hitherto hee was in a good way and went not besides the word of God And
euer since the foundation of the worlde Now if it bee of this antiquitie then it will bee found mentioned spoken of and that in plaine tearmes in the olde church and the remedie also of this fire cannot but bee reuealed by God and practised amongst his people And so much the more in that the mercifulnes of God in Iesus Christ lesse shining in the first times and ages of the worlde the onelie satisfaction for our sinnes being couered vnder the vailes of the law made by all likelyhoode the remedy of Purgatory to be the more haunted and practised vnder the olde Testament as being at that time most needfull and necessarie Heere our aduersaries make vs this answere whence commeth it then that in all the writinges of Moses and the Prophetes there is nothing spoken of it that amongst so manie threatninges which are made against the transgressors of the law this should not bee so much as once touched That amongst so manie sacrifices ordained for voluntarie and willinglie committed sinnes as also for sinnes committed vnwillingly and of ignorance as likewise that in the middest of so manie expiatorie and purging sacrifices for all manner of pollutions whether they came of sicknes infirmitie sinne or of the defiling comming by touching of the dead c. there should not bee found anie thing appointed for sinnes after death not anie sacrifice not anie offering And yet notwithstanding they died euery daye and how deepelie engaged in sinne There is likewise nothing founde to bee practised in the Church in the behalfe of the dead whereuppon a man hath not any ground either from literall or figuratiue interpretation to proue this Purgatorie The Patriarkes did burie their wiues and children they were carefull of buying sepulchres of mourning and of conueying of their bones from one place to an other Where was their pietie if it may bee tearmed pietie to pray for the deade Dauid wept for Ionathan his verie true and trustie friende and Salomon for Dauid his predecessor and Father If these did practise no such thing what may wee coniecture thereof more But and if they did practise such a thing then whereby shall it become apparant vnto vs by anie one worde And that notwithstanding that Dauid haue made so manie prayers vppon so many occasions and those both of ioye and also of mourning and so manie kinges of Israell and Iuda haue beene honourably buried as also so manie Prophetes left vnto vs behinde them their open protestations against impieties and vngodlines and in the commendation of pietie and godlines euerie one in his time none of them recōmending this deuotion vnto vs for pietie or accusing of impietie those that haue omitted and neglected it yea no one of them authorising the same either by precept or example And it auaileth not to say That there was not in the Church of the Iewes any sacrifice for the deade because that according to the doctrine of the Church of Rome Paradice was not opened to the Fathers vnto the death of our Lord. For woulde not this haue beene a refreshment and comforte vnto them to haue beene translated from Purgatorie into the limbes from a place of dolour and paine and that such as they describe it to bee into a place of rest And againe what apparance is there that they shoulde haue remained there without remedie for the space of some three or foure thousande yeares what inequalitie had there beene in such punishment in respect of that which is inflicted at this daye when as they come forth now from day to daye whether it bee through the absolute authoritie of the Pope by his Indulgences or by the diligence of their kinsfolkes not neglecting to contribute and bestowe these suffrages vppon them In conclusion if there bee anie such thing it is as old as the creation and that more clearelie appearing vnder the olde Testament then vnder the newe and if it bee vnder the olde then it ought to haue had sacrifices for the deade and that a great deale more requisite at that time then vnder the new but and if the lawe had no such sacrifices neither then was there as it followeth by consequent anie Purgatorie neither indeede is there at this daye Now therefore let vs see if the olde Testament say anie thing of it yea if it speake of it in plaine tearmes as the importance of the thing doth require if I say in such sorte as it is saide to agree and stand with the iustice and mercie of God the instruction of the Church and the rest and consolation of poore distressed soules Now it is most certaine That Purgatorie cannot bee found in the olde Testamēt Deutr. 30. Psal 34. 116 Esay 57. that the olde Testament traceth out vnto vs onelie two waies Blessing or cursing Saluation or Condemnation the death of the Saintes as precious before the Lorde or the death of the wicked condemned of him as also the verie remembrance of them And theruppon it is that without leauing any thing coniecturall vnto vs betwixt those two the Prophete sayeth The iust man dyeth and departeth hence in peace lying himselfe down to rest in his bed In peace that is to saye to speake after the manner of the Hebrewes in all prosperitie verie farre from the pretended horrible paines of Purgatorie But yet let vs heare them speake to see what they can alleadge and let vs withall beare it continuallie in minde that our aduersaries doe make it an Article of their faith and so by consequent the lawe of the auncient Fathers ought here to take place as that of Saint Ierome That vpon obscure doubtfull darke and allegoricall places of the Scripture wee ought not to grounde anie pointe of doctrine That of Saint Augustine That in the controuersie of religion darke and figuratiue places must bee set aside and those onelie helde which are cleare of themselues And that of the Schoolemen likewise That allegoricall Diuinitie doth not proue c. It is saide in Leuiticus 12. Leuiticus 12. wee will take the places in order Shee shall not touch anie holie thing neither enter into the sanctuarie vntill that the daies of her purgation be accomplished Luke 2. Hee speaketh of her that is deliuered of her first borne according to the lawe practised likewise by the holy virgin as wee reade in Saint Luke and the literall sence is so cleare as that wee neede not seeke anie allegorie therein The Glose saieth Shee shall not come within the Court of the sanctuarie And in like manner Cardinall Hugo Hugo Cardinall in Leuit. c. 12. What is there now in this place that will afforde vs a Purgatory or that the sanctuarie is Paradice whereinto none can enter till after they bee deliuered out of Purgatorie If this bee saide generallie of all what shall become of the exception concerning Martyrs who doe not passe the same and if the allegorie bee good in the wordes Sanctuarie and Purgation how will they
ages did euer acknowledge the Purgatorie of the Church of Rome BVt say they if we should go to it but according to mans reason would not it giue sentence with vs that so many persons as die so quickly haue need of this manner of purging their soules departing impure and vncleane out of this world and so vnfit to be receiued into heauen with that their pollution Wherevnto we answere them that the barre and iudgement seat that is directed by humane reason hath no place in the Church that in that skill of the law which professeth the defence and maintenance of Christianitie it is a shame to speake without testimonie and authoritie out of the word and that a great deale more then to speake in the ciuill law without law But how much more shame is it then when a man vndertaketh to speake for Christianitie and holdeth a course contrarie to the scriptures And this we haue learned from the ancient writers Tertullian Let vs reuerence the fulnesse of the scriptures if we will not vndergoe the woe ordained for such as adde vnto them Basill This is to fall away from the faith either to cast away and cut off any parte of that which is written or to adde any thing that is not Chrysostome The thoughtes of the hearers halt when they haue a doctrine deliuered them without any scripture S. Augustine Let vs see if this be taught in the law or prophets or in the Gospell or Epistles Gerson in like manner Let vs suspect all manner of reuelations if they bee not confirmed by the law and the Prophetes But these ancient fathers here alleadged haue also belieued Purgatorie Let vs admit that it is so as it is not in deed yet we answere as we haue done before that we do not allow of the old fathers as lawgiuers in the Church For there is but one law maker saith the Apostle euen Iesus Christ and themselues tooke it as an iniurie offred vnto them to be so reputed only they accompted of themselues as expounders of the law ordained by our Lord and of the scriptures which he hath left vs. And this is the greatest honour that can be giuen them in the Church and in this respect and consideration we honour their bookes we weigh and ponder their expositions where they are found to differ one from another we endeuour our selues to make our choice of the best euen those which come neerest vnto the analogie and proportion of faith If wee doe otherwise if wee admit of them as authours of doctrines and not interpretors wee shall be in danger to bee as we said Anabaptistes with Saint Cyprian Montanistes with Tertullian Chiliastes with Ireneus c. In stead that wee are to abide and continue Christians with Christ whose voice the sheepe heare who alone hath the woraes of eternall life Now we haue heretofore cited all the Doctors to the interpreting of the places produced and alleadged by our aduersaries for purgatorie who could not see it there where they did find it who for the most part haue in the said places found the contrarie and yet we will proceed on further as namely to shew that the auncient fathers haue affirmed such Maximes as wherewith the Romish Purgatorie cannot stand As that when they haue at any time spoken of it they doe it not affirmatiuely but doubtfully and not as of an article of religion but as of a fantasie or opinion that may bee propounded and receiued for arbitrarie that for the most parte what they haue saide cannot agree with that which wee are in controuersie about at this day And finally that if they had belieued it for a necessarie article they had collected and gathered from thence as from a principle of faith such corollaries consequences as wee see at this day which neuer came to light till a long time after one long after another and that by the succession of many ages And to the end that this may more clearely be seene let vs call to mind at our entrance into the same what purgatorie it is whereof we speake as namely of a certaine third place whither the soules of the faithfull dead in the faith of Christ go at the time of their departure out of this life there to bee tormented with fire before they bee receiued into the place of blisse yea and that so long as vntill by the praiers and suffrages of those that are liuing there be satisfaction made for the temporall punishments due for the same and that all the spottes of vncleannesse bee purged and cleansed away that is for that say they vnto vs by faith in Christ wee haue remission of the fault and sinne onely and not of the eternall punishment due to the same which by the fauour and power of the keies is changed from being eternall and made temporall and for that wee must of necessitie satisfie this temporall punishment either in this life or in the life to come by our selues or by some others c. And now behold the Maxims of the ancient fathers contrarie to Purgatorie The propositions held by the old writers contrarie to purgatory Basil reg bren inter 10. 13. Ambr. in Luc. l. 10. c. 22. The first that God by Iesus Christ doth wholly and altogether deface and blot out both the sinne and the punishment S. Basill Thesoule wallowing in the mire of sinne how can it approach or come neere vnto God verily by constantly and stedfastly belieuing that the purging and cleansing of his sinnes is accomplished by the blood of Iesus Christ in the multitude of the mercies of God according to that which he himselfe hath spoken If your sinnes were as red as skarlet they shall be made as white as the wooll Saint Ambrose We embrace and take hold on Christ that so hee may say vnto vs be not afraide of the sinnes of this worlde neither of the floodes of afflictions which vexe and besiege the bodie J am the remission of sinnes c. Saint Augustine August de verb. Dom. ser 37. 31. Idem de Trini l. 4 c. 2. Christ in taking vpon him the punishment and not the fault hath blotted out and vtterly defaced both the fault and punishment due to the same Againe Wee liue not in this world without sinne but wee shall go out of this world without sinne Againe What shall wee pray for in this life verily that wee may finde remission and forgiuenesse in the worlde to come What profiteth this pardon and forgiuenesse it wipeth not away the staine He that acknowledgeth a wrinkle laboureth to smooth and make it plaine And where then are our wrinkles stretched out and smoothed c. verily vpon the crosse of Christ for vpon this crosse hee hath shed his blood and this is that whereby the Church is cleansed from all spottes and wrinkles as a thing verie cleane and bright c. Againe There is but one purging of the vniust the blood of that iust
whole as that it may seeme to be nothing else then his words translated For he maketh and that by the report of Eusebius himselfe in his booke of the soule three degrees of men some that haue liued well and vertuously whom they conceiued to haue their abode in the Elisian fields as accompting them for most pure places and heauenly habitations Those whom he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past hope of amendment whome hee placeth in Tartaro in hell from whence they can neuer come out and those which haue committed sinnes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are curable and veniall whome hee casteth into burning flouds there to accomplish and make perfect their repentance to the ende they may bee purged therein and after their purgation receiue absolution And in deed he vseth these wordes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to purge and absolue Yet notwithstanding note that Eusebius who compareth the opinions of Philosophers with the doctrines of Christians doth not make any mention therein but onely of two conditions of men after death namely of the saued or of the damned A plaine and cleare testimony that the Church in his time did acknowledge no other but these two Virgill describeth it at large in the sixt booke of his Aeneidos Aliis sub gurgite vasto Infectum eluitur scelus aut exuritur igni Virgil. l. 6. Aencid Where he may seeme to haue expressed the two verbes before mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Donec longa dies perfecto temporis orbe Concretam exemit labem c. Wherefore S. Augustine needed not to be abashed when he said August de ciuit Dei l. 21. c. 13. 17. That Purgatorie was one of Platoes doctrines As also That the dead may be relieued by the suffrages sacrifices of the liuing in so much as that the souls which are destitute therof are stil delaied caused in lingring manner to lie languishing in torments Homer Odyss 12. Virg. l. 6. Aenei Alcor Azo 10. as wee reade of the soule of Elpenor in Homer and of Palinurus in Virgill c. In like manner the Iesuits do not let to confesse that purgatory is sound there And we do further giue them to vnderstand that it is all whole to be had in the Turks Alcoran if that of the Paganes doe not content them The Iewes as we haue seene learned the same of the pagans vpon their falling away from their maner of worship religion and yet not so as that it preuailed with them to get a place in their Church for in the time of our Lord there appeared no markes or notes of any such thing but rather the contrary Paul Fagius in Deut. c. 14. Anton Margarita de superstitionibus Iudaic. The bookes of remembrance which they vse at this day wherin they name three times a yere those which are dead in the yeare praying to God that he would place them in his paradice with Abraham Isaac and Iacob c. are come since thē And this is made most apparant by their order for the extreame and deadly sicke was demanded if he did not perseuere to hold fast belieue the 13. Articles of their faith amongst the which the eleuenth is of the glorie to come and of eternall death the twelfth of their faith and beliefe in the Messias for want whereof they say the law is vnprofitable the thirteenth of the viuification or resurrection of the deade of Purgatorie not a worde neither yet of the Suffrages by which they should bee freed out of the same There happeneth one to die whereupon wee come to see all their ceremonies euen to the least Their neerest kinsfolkes doe rent their garmentes they eate not for that day in the house but without they eate not any flesh neyther drinke any wine except it bee vpon their Sabbath They neither wash nor annoint themselues for the space of seuen daies They lie vpon the ground and refraine the companie of their wiues They follow the bodie bare-footed They light a lampe for the space of seuen whole nightes setting it on the house floure perswaded thereto through a sottish and fantasticall conceipt that the soule commeth during the same time for to seeke the bodie c. And this is all that humane superstition had till then inuented the most part thereof being contrarie to the pure worde of the eternall God forbidding them in expresse wordes not to torment themselues for their dead And as for their praier if you obserue the tearmes thereof it will appeare to come neerer the nature of a wish then of a prayer Let his soule rest let his sleepe bee in peace let the gates of paradice bee opened vnto him by the Comforter that is to come c. And what is there in all this that is common with Purgatorie And in deed their Capitula patrum doe not make mention of any moe then two places But amongst Christians the first seedes of this doctrine are contained in the bookes declared to be Apocripha by the Primitiue Church and so by consequent the doctrine also is Apocrypha because it hath no other foundation besides them A certaine man named Hermas in his visions asketh an old woman if after the casting of certain stones there remaine any more pennance to bee done she answered that they could not come to a certaine tower but that they should be put into a lower roome where they are tormented vntill they haue accomplished the daies of their sinnes A booke of the Actes of Saint Andrew prayeth vnto God for an old Pandor and saith vnto him Iren. l. 5. We obtaine much mercie of him for the dead and why should we faile for this man which is aliue But the doctrine of the Church is to bee read in Ireneus The priestes saith he the disciples of the Apostles say that those which are translated from hence are conueighed into paradice which is prepared for iust men and such as haue the spirit whither Saint Paule was rauished and where he heard wordes that cannot bee vttered and that they abide and continue there vnto the end of the world Index expurgator p. 71. Iust Martyr in resp ad quaest Orthod q. 7. And therefore vpon good ground doth Erasmus shew that he spake as one that knew not purgatory And this obseruation the fathers of Trent haue caused to be raced And Iustin Martyr also After saith he the departure of this bodie there is presently made a seperation of the iust and vniust for they are caried into places worthy of them that is to say the soules of the iust into Paradice where they inioy the company of Angels Archangels as also the sight of our Sauiour Iesus Christ but those of the vniust and wicked into the infernall places c. They will alleadge against vs Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen Clem. Alex. l. 6 The one whereof laboureth to proue by the supposed Apocryphes of S. Peter S. Paule
which are with God haue not any foundation in the Scriptures Whereby for certaine we get as much aduantage at the least Ioh. 4. against our aduersaries as the Iewes against the Samaritans That we worship that which we know euen God who hath vouchsafed to manifest himselfe vnto vs in his word They worship that which they know not namely the Saints for the inuocating of whome there is not any thing deliuered or declared vnto vs in the same But they will deriue and fetch it from certaine places The consutation of certain places wrongfully applied as consequently following vpon the same and these are now to be examined of vs. For say they those which liue here pray vnto God one for an other and doe vse the praiers one of an other vnto God wherefore should such as liue in heauen aboue lesse performe the same for such as are liuing heere below and those below make lesse vse of such as are abiding on high The oddes and difference betwixt the one and the other doe furnish vs with store of answeres And first we haue an expresse commaundement to pray one for an other here below and a promise accompanying the commaundement and so consequently a blessing when these our praiers are made in faith Which falleth out contrarie in the matters of pietie and seruice of God exercised without any foundation in his word for so it falleth out to bee an vncertaine worke and therefore without faith and therefore also sinne and by consequent displeasing vnto God Secondly we belieue that the Saints in heauen are inflamed with charitie towards the Church neither do doubt of their hartie desire of the good of the same as vnto the bodie for the glorie of God and to euerie particular as they are members of the same for their saluation And to proceed thus farre is not beyond the bonds of pietie so that a man learne to stay himself there But we denie that they either see our necessities or heare our sutes and complaints affirming that this should make them like vnto God the onely searcher of hearts and our aduersaries themselues dare not say it They answere that they see our thoughts not as they are in our spirits but in God And we answere them that this is a deuised fantasie without any foundation and that the created spirit doth not pearce or enter into the spirit not created but on the contrarie that if it were otherwise that then the Angels should know all things in God as wel the things to come as those that are present seeing that with him euerie thing is present Now there are many things vnknowne vnto them for the mysterie of our saluation was hid from them before and now at this day they are still ignorant when the day of iudgement shall bee Luk. 15. c. But they say that the Angels reioyce in heauen at the conuersion of sinners c. And therefore they are able to know it and wee doe not denie it But by meanes that it is their office and dutie to bee imployed and set on worke of God for to serue the faithfull whereupon the Apostle calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebr. 1. Pâ—al 34. Psal 91. Act. 13. ministring spirits to whome God committeth saith the Psalmist the care of his seruants He maketh them to pitch their tents round about them c. But there is no such thing said of the Saints no not of Dauid himselfe who after he had serued in his generation by the wil of God was laid vp with his fathers And againe that praier which is of such importance vnto Christians must not bee grounded vpon the subtile deuises of mans braine but vpon the soliditie and soundnes of the word of God For certainly God can reueale what it pleaseth him either vnto the liuing or vnto the dead But wee are not to make a common rule of his miracles neither any commaundement of his reuelations vnknowne vnto vs from his power saith Tertullian the Diuine dooth neuer reason to his will but rather from his will vnto his power and that by a more forcible reason seeing the holy Scripture doth teach vs the contrarie 2. King 22.20 God saith vnto Iosias I goe about to gather thee vnto thy forefathers and thine eyes shall not see the euils which I will bring vpon this place The people of Israell saith also in Esay Thou art our father Esay 63.16 August de cura pro mortuis gerenda c. 13. notwithstanding that Abraham know vs not c. And from these two places Saint Augustine gathereth that the Saints know nothing of all the matters that happen vnto men in these words The dead and deceased doe not meddle with the affaires of those that are liuing neither to know nor yet to helpe or further them They are in rest and as for the troubles and turmoyles of them that are liuing they doe not disquiet them God promiseth to Iosias that he should die before to the end that his eyes might not see the euils the spirits then of the deceased are in aplace where they see not what is done in this life c. Adde thereunto that the greater part of the other fathers as we haue seene before haue taught that the Saints at their departure out of this life doe not inioy the sight of God but are in a place of rest expecting and waiting for the resurrection that so they may receiue the fulnesse of their glorie Now those which held this opinion could not approoue the reason which our Aduersaries alleadge for the inuocation of Saints that is that their soules and spirits doe see euerie thing in God nor by consequent this inuocation if so bee it doe depend and follow thereupon Saint Paul saith Rom. 8.26 Hee that soundeth the heart dooth know the affection of the spirit Salomon vppon the subiect and matter of prayer how in our afflictions wee must haue recourse vnto God 1. King 8. For saith hee thou alone knowest the hearts of all the Sonnes of men This reason should haue no force if these two generall propositions were not true together That man is not to praie to anie but him that knoweth all things And that God is hee alone which knoweth all things But where the word of God faileth them they forge humane reasons A confutation of their human reasons and those a great deale more vnmeete to bee admitted in Diuinitie as that which intreateth of God then those of the Ciuill Law to bee admitted in Physicke or on the contrarie because also that that in hauing an infinite subiect which is not knowne otherwise then as it pleaseth him to vouchsafe to reueale himselfe is infinitely and beyond all proportion exceeding all others In the Courts of great Princes say they there is not any man that goeth directly to the King hee hath need to make waie for the same by the fauour and mediation of some great Lord who is imployed neere
counteruaile eternal life and of too shallow and short a measure in respect of infinite blessednesse yea though it were the merite of the holy Virgine and that conceiued or not conceiued be it as you will in originall sinne For if shee were conceiued in originall sinne shee is freely redeemed as well as any other and regenerate and borne againe of meere grace as well as any other But and if shee were not which yet the holy Scripture denieth that was also of the worke and operation of the same grace and furthermore the greater shee is the deepelier is shee bound vnto God and the further off from merite as also from hauing any occasion to be proud beeing on the contrarie so much the more to carrie her selfe in a greater measure of dutifulnesse and humilitie in respect of so rich and aboundant mercies bestowed vpon her so freely and vndeseruedly by the high and mightie God According to that which is said Vnto whome much is giuen and committed Luk 12.24 of him shall so much the more bee required againe c. CHAP. XVII That the Regenerate man cannot merite eternall life either for himselfe or for anie other LEt vs come to the condition of the regenerate man to the state of grace Proofes out of the holy Scripture as it is called and let vs see if any one standing in that state before God can merite of him by his workes either his owne saluation or an other mans The Scripture speaketh verie highly of mans Regeneration it setteth him before vs as a man new moulded and cast by the effectuall power and working of the holy Ghost in all and euerie one of his parts and members Now what better way to comprehend and conceiue the fall and ruine then by the reedified repaired parts Coloss 1.3 Acts. 15. Ephe. 1. Coloss 2.13 Gala. 5. Rom. 6. Coloss 7. Rom. 8.14 For the spirit of Christ deliuereth vs from the power of darknesse being dead as we were in sinne he quickneth and maketh vs aliue he purgeth our hearts by faith he inlightneth the eyes of our vnderstanding by the knowledge of God He destroyeth the bodie of sinne He mortifieth yea crucifieth the old man with all the diseases concupiscences and affections of the flesh He maketh vs the children of God and as we are such to crie Abba that is to say father But dooth it follow of all this that after Regeneration we are either cleane from all sinne or that we can attaine vnto it in this world Such as doe flatter themselues in making their sinne small should therewithall thinke that a small thing should repaire and make vp the breach But what then will they say when as of necessitie for the sauing of this miserable flesh the word must be made flesh When for the deliuering of vs from the seruitude of sinne hee must needes become sinne himselfe who had neuer knowne any sinne Or will they thinke that the flesh bee it neuer so wholly and throughly regenerate will bee able to doe all things Or would they flie vp with their owne wings to heauen without Iacobs Ladder the helpe of the Lord or his merite More readie as yet by their pride to loose the benefit of Regeneration then our Father was to loose the excellent gifts he had by his Creation at the suggestion of the woman But let vs heare how the Scripture speaketh J am saith S. Paul crucified with Christ I liue Gala. 2.16 no more I but Christ in me and the life that I liue now in the flesh I liue by the faith of the Sonne of God who hath loued me and who hath giuen himselfe for me What could he haue spoken of more excellencie And where is that regenerate man that can vtter any thing more boldly then hee hath done this And yet therewithall heare him comming from the setting foorth of the praises of the grace receiued by God to the consideration of his owne infirmitie I see saith hee an other Law in my members Rom. 7. fighting against the Law of my vnderstanding and making me captiue to the law of sinne which is in my members c. That is to say I feele concupiscence the bud of the flesh c. And this Lawe this concupiscence if thou be in doubt doe not thinke that it is good For I know saith he that in me that is to say in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing To will well is readie with me but J doe not find the meanes to performe or doe it Nay this concupiscence is euil for he addeth thee hereunto The euill is readie with me and fast sticking vnto me I doe the euil that I would not euen the euill that I hate that is to say which I condemne in my mind and such euill as is repugnant vnto the Law of God which cannot be called any thing but sinne according to that which S. Iohn saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All whatsoeuer is against the Lawe is sinne euen to the obeying of my flesh and not the Law of my God which J consent vnto and agree to be good but vnto the Law of sinne which I condemne and dislike of in my spirit And againe This sinne is sinne in such a manner and degree as that it forceth me to confesse that it is sinne in deed For if the Law had not said Thou shalt not lust I had not knowne sinne but now I knowe it And it hath such a deepe roote in me as that I am constrained to crie Miserable man that J am who shall deliuer me from the bodie of this death Yea and it hath fruit also which it beareth and bringeth forth in me Sinne dwelleth in me euen the sinne which begetteth death which hath no other wages but death which also in stead of being brought vnder by the Law of God is lifted vp by the nature thereof and armed to rebell against it taking occasion from the same to multiplie and increase Rom. 8. Gala. 5. Coloss 3. Ephe. 4. It is prouoked and enraged like a maligne Vlcer against the salue Thus speaketh S. Paul of this sinne and not as it is in the Infidels but as it is in the regenerate and those not of the weakest sort of the regenerate but as it was in himselfe concluding generally and euerie where that he hath need to spoyle destroy kill and crucifie the same and that yet notwithstanding all this doe what he can 2. Cor. 4.10 it will not all be vanquisht and subdued at one blow For Howbeit saith he that our outward man be decaied and cast downe yet our inward is renued euerie day And yet notwithstanding not in any such measure of perfection as that any man can vaunt or boast himselfe to haue wholy put on the one and put off the other in this world For In this world wee shall neuer grow vp together and become perfect men Ephe. 4 13. according to the measure of the perfect stature of Christ
of the Law The law leadeth to faith and the iustice of God to his grace cannot possibly faile by consequent to explaine and lay open vnto vs the benefite of grace leading vs from Moyses to Christ from workes to faith and from death wherein wee stand naturally euen from the time of our conception and whereinto also euen after the time of our regeneration we runne and cast our selues continually by our faults and offences vnto our life and righteousnesse which is hid in Christ We cannot liue by the Law for we cannot fulfill it wherefore we must haue recourse vnto his grace His grace that is to say the mercie of God freely exhibited in Iesus Christ who hath fulfilled the Law by his obedience and which hath borne our transgressions vppon the Crosse but for such as to whome God hath giuen by the same grace to feele the sentence of condemnation due in themselues and assuredly to belieue their saluation in him And this is the cause why these two points are ordinarily conioyned and coupled together both in the Scriptures and holy Fathers euen grace and faith opposed to the Law and workes namely that grace that is to say that gift which God hath bestowed vppon vs by the righteousnesse of his onely begotten Sonne yea of his Sonne and all that which hee possesseth for the abolishing of our sinnes that faith that is to say that abilitie and power which hee giueth vs by his holy spirite to receiue in humilitie and yet with all assurednesse and certaintie that incomparable good thing which hee bestoweth vpon vs here below as a pledge and earnest pennie of those which hee will consequently giue vs to possesse with him in the highest heauens Origen expounding these words of the Apostle Orig. in Ep. ad Rom. l 3. c. 3. Where is thy glorying it is shut out c. He saith saith he that the iustification which is of faith onely doth suffice although that the belieuer haue not wrought any worke And for an example wee haue the theefe for whose onely faith Jesus said vnto him This day thou shalt be with me in Paradice c. And so likewise the woman in the Gospell Luke the seuenth The Pharisie said Jf he were a Prophet he would know what shee is but for her faith onely Iesus said vnto her Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee c. And for this cause the Apostle doth not boast himselfe of his owne righteousnesse chastitie wisedome c. But of the Crosse of Christ in the Lawe of faith which is in Iesus Christ c. Saint Ambrose saith Ambros de Virgin l. 3. Christ hath not redeemed thee with siluer nor gold haue thy siluer readie thou art not arrested euerie day though thou be in debt He hath paid his bloud for thee thou art indebted vnto him this bloud for we lay pawned in the hands of a wicked Creditor We haue beene the cause of the bill of our owne blame and guiltinesse by our sinnes Idem de fide l. 3. c. 3. wee owe for the punishment of the same our bloud the Lord Iesus is come hee hath paid his bloud for vs c. Againe Our redemption is by the bloud of Christ our forgiuenesse and pardon by his power and our life by his grace Idem de bono mort c. 2. Ep. 72.73 Againe Eternall life that is the forgiuenesse of sinnes and the Lord Iesus is come to fasten our sufferings to his Crosse to forgiue vs our sinnes to nayle to the crosse our obligation and to wash all the world in his blood Otherwise Idem de Iacob beat vita l. 1. c. 5. Psalme 118. saith he wherefore should the Prophet haue said Haue mercie on mee if he had trusted vnto his owne righteousness if there be any thing but mercie which deliuereth from sin But hee that hath need of mercie is a sinner and therefore what soeuer good commeth to vs let vs impute it to the righteousnesse of Christ It is the mercie of the Lord that remission of sinnes is freely and liberally giuen vnto vs Let no man glorie or boast himselfe that he hath a chast hart c. Againe Idem de fide l. 3. c. 3. My wisedome that is to saie the crosse of Christ My redemption the death of Christ Again By the disobedience of one man many are made sinners by the obedience of one man many are made righteous Againe God hath taken vpon him our flesh to abolish the curse of our sinfull flesh Idem de fuga saecul c. 7. Iudicato he was made a curse for vs to the end that the blessing might swallow vppe the curse integritie sinne grace the sentence of death and life death it selfe for he likewise hath vndergone death to fulfill the sentence of death and to satisfie the iudge for the curse lying vppon sinfull flesh Faith receiueth and taketh hold of grace Idem de paenit l. 2. Ex Syngrapha Idem in ep ad Rom. c. 3. 4 euen to the death c. And here behold the poole of grace the fountaine of life freely set open who shall put vs into the poole who shall draw for vs out of that fountaine verily verily no other helping hand saith the Apostle but faith yea Onely faith saith Saint Ambrose Let vs hope and looke for saith he the pardoning of sinnes by faith and not as by debt or merite faith will obtaine it for vs as by vertue of couenant vnder writing that is to say of the promises of God by the which he hath bound himselfe vnto vs Praesumptio propior est arroganti quà m roganti c. Presumption that is that ouer high couceipt we haue of our workes is more incident to such as arrogate and challenge for their owne eternall life by their desertes then to such as acknowledging themselues to haue no parte therein as of themselues doe humblie craue the same by praier c. Againe They are iustified freely because they are iustified without doing or working for the same and because they giue not any thing in exchange for the same they are iustified by faith alone by the gift of God c. The wicked man impius is iustified before God by faith alone c. For Idem devocat Gen. l. 2. c. 8. He that dare saith he preach that the grace of God is giuen according to mens merites preacheth against the catholike faith c. Let no man therefore glorie in his workes for no man shall be iustified by them He that is iust he hath it of gift Tertullian calleth it Donatiuum for hee is iustified by being washed It is faith that deliuereth vs by the blood of Christ Idem ep 71. Blessed is he whose sinnes are remitted and hath his pardon granted c. Againe By the sinne of one all haue deserued to bee condemned sinning alike for in the righteousnesse of one all shall be iustified credentes that belieue If hee
had taught as our aduersaries doe should hee not haue put downe in stead of his Antithesis or contrarie assertion which he bringeth in In meriting alike Idem ad Rom. c. 8. by working that which is good as he himselfe doth c. Here it were requisite that we should bring in the whole and intire speeches of S. Augustine but we will content our selues with his ordinarie maximes Death could not be ouercom but by death Christ hath taken vpon him to die that his vniust vnderserued death might ouercome ours that was iust and deserued August serm 10◠de temp Idem serm 141 de Temp. and to the end that he might deliuer the guilty iustly being himselfe slaine for them vniustly Christ in bearing the punishment being guiltles hath paid the punishment and satisfied the offence His resurrection hath paide or broken the bandes of our double death and hath in like manner framed and procured our twofold resurrections c. Our righteousnesse notwithstanding that it were true yet is it such in this life as that it consisteth rather in the forgiuenes of sinnes then in the perfection of vertues Idem serm 18. de Temp. Idem de ciuit Dei l. 19. c. 27. l. 2. c. 29. Idem de verb. Domim serm 61. Idem de verb. Apost serm 6. Idem in psal 30. Idem in psal 70. Our sanctuarie and cittie of refuge our enfranchisement is the remission and forgiuenes of our sinnes c. If our righteousnes be not in Christ then it is no righteousnes at all Our righteousnes is he which goeth vnto the father whereas notwithstanding we are not seperated from him in as much as he is one with vs euen with his bodie which is the Church Our righteousnes is the righteousnes of God not our owne which we haue in him and not in our selues The law cannot be accomplished by thee it hath beene accomplished by Christ c. And therefore saith the Psalmist Deliuer me in thy righteousnesse for if thou shouldest looke vpon behold mine thou wouldest condemne me Now this is that iustice of God which is made ours when it is giuen vnto vs. Againe I know no righteousnesse in my selfe I do not call to mind any other then thy righteousnesse deliuer me by thine and not by mine owne for if I haue no better to saue me by then mine owne I shall be numbred amongst them of whome it is written That the not knowing the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10.3 but seeking to establish their owne did not submit themselues vnto that righteousnesse which is of God that is to say to the righteousnesse which is of faith exhibited by grace Which saith he raiseth vp those that are cast downe August contr aduers legis Idem de Trinitate l. 13. whereas the law casteth downe them that are raised vp bestoweth good things vpon man where as the Law doth nothing but commaunde goodnesse that is in as much as it doth iustifie vs by the bloud of Christ And what is it saith he to be iustified in the bloud of Christ The father being angrie seeth his Sonne dead for vs Idem de grat Christ l. 1. c. 48 and so becommeth appeased toward vs. Whereupon we shall be saued not in our selues but in God not by our selues but by Jesus Christ And not in our owne righteousnesse but in his For the Apostle S. Paul saith verie wel that he is vnreproueable according to the righteousnesse which is of the Law but this righteousnesse he accompteth as dung and losse in respect of the righteousnesse which we hope for Idem in Psal 31. in Psal 138. and which we ought to thirst after c. Because saith he in another place that the one causeth vs to loose the other For Si vis alienus esse à gratia saith he if thou wilt haue no part in grace then boast thy selfe of thy merites All wholly is imputed to the grace of Christ and not to our merites Blessed are they not in whome there is no sinne found but vnto whome their sinnes are forgiuen Idem in Psal 142. Idem in Psal 142. c. In an other place Heare me in thy righteousnesse not in mine owne if he should say Heare me in my righteousnesse he should call it his merit Yea but he calleth it in some places his righteousnesse But when he speaketh of his owne he vnderstandeth giuen as when we say Giue vs our bread c. But hee speaketh in a more reformed manner when he saith Idem Serm. 49 de Temp. Idem in Psal 142. In thy righteousnes Again Thou shalt quicken me in thy righteousnes not in mine owne not because that I haue merited that thou shouldest so doe but because that thou hast pittie vpon me They whose sinnes are couered for they are couered they are abolished and blotted out If God haue couered our sinnes Voluit auertere he would turne aside and not see them and if hee would not see Noluit animaduertere hee would not take acknowledgement thereof neither yet saith he by consequent punish them Idem tract 3. in Iohn Noluit agnoscere maluit ignoscere he would not appoint any punishment for them he had rather forgiue them For what other thing can it be to see them but to punish them c. The body of Christ that is to say the Church is not iustified in it selfe but by grace And all the members thereof euen all those that are iustified by Christ are iust and that not in themselues but in him This grace exhibited and powred abroad in Christ this righteousnesse of Christ which must go in paiment for ours Idem de spir lit c. 8. how shal we come by it By the merit of our works or by the meanes of faith Verily saith he by faith By faith saith the Apostle euery man is iustified but hee addeth The righteousnesse of God is manifest He saith not the righteousnesse of man or of his owne will but the righteousnesse of God and yet hee meaneth not that essentiall righteousnesse of which God is called righteous but that wherwith he clotheth couereth man when he iustifieth the wicked The righteousnesse of God notwithstanding by the faith of Christ that is to say Idem Ep. 106. by the faith by which we belieue in Christ Againe The law according to which the Apostle a most constant Preacher of grace saith that no man shall be iustified doth not consist onely in circumcision or other the Sacraments of the same which hath figuratiue promises but also in the workes thereunto belonging and which who so performeth liueth iustly that is in the Law of the ten Commaundements c. This is far off from that which our Aduersaries answere That the Apostle in that his whole discourse doth meane nothing but the ceremoniall law And the doers of the law shal not be iustified that is to say shal not be made righteous shal not
Christ And he repeateth and goeth ouer the same in many places Idem in sentent 315. in lib. de ingrat And this grace how are we made partakers of it May we attaine it by nature Nay saith he as they which would be iustified by the Law are fallen from grace to whome the Apostle saith If the righteousnesse of the Law then Christ died in vaine so say we vnto them that call nature the grace which the faith of Christ receiueth if righteousnesse bee by nature then Christ is dead in vaine For Christ came to fulfill the Law which man could not fulfill as also to saue and restore nature lost and spoyled in it selfe according to that which is written That he is come to seeke vp that which was wandred and lost and to saue that which was spoyled And in the verie same tearmes speaketh the second Councell of Orange How then And what is the meanes to come by it Let vs confesse saith hee to the Frenchmen Concil Arans 2 Canon 21. Prosper ad Capit. Gall. oâ—uect 8. in â—â—de ingrat Idem deivocat gent. l. 1. c 24. Idem de vocat Gent l. 18. Idem in Ep. ad Demetriad that no man can runne vnto this grace but by grace All that my father giueth me commeth vnto me and they come vnto him by faith Per ipsam nisi curratur non itur ad ipsum c. Vnto God saith he in an other place no man can goe but he that hath his guide and direction from God send downe the light and truth and they shall lead me into thy holy mountaine and into thy holy Tabernacle Yea without any manner of precedent merits or yet without all other precedent cause saue onely the good pleasure saue onely the good wil of God In as much saith hee as the cause in vs for which we receiue and obtaine grace is this good will in which and with which is hidden the reason of our election our merites beginning with this grace which we haue receiued without merites Otherwise it should not be said if man bee not regenerate and borne againe of water and of the spirit hee cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen But well if man be not iust c. And this therefore saith hee in an other place is the mercie of God that maketh vs seeke for his mercie and which draweth vs as it were by maine force vnto this mercie That is because that he calleth vs first and giueth vs to heare and to belieue him he loueth vs first and giueth vs to loue him by the infusing of his spirit into vs c. And this he handleth at large in whole bookes Now this particular grace which fitteth and prepareth vs for the vniuersall Idem de vita contempl c. 21 to the fountaine of grace is called faith Faith saith he the foundation of righteousnesse before which there is not any good workes but from and of which all that are good doe come which purgeth vs from all sinnes illuminateth our vnderstanding reconcileth vs to God associateth and coupleth vs to all them that are partakers of the same nature breatheth into vs the hope of the reward that is to come increaseth in vs holy vertues and confirmeth vs in the possession of the same And the same the meere gift of God contrarie to that which Vincentius obiected That faith to belieue proceeded of man but that though man did thus come by faith that yet it must bee God that should adde thereto his spirit Idem ad obiect Vincent ad Dubium 1.2 â— Idem in Ep ad Euâ—in Otherwise saith he grace should be no more grace if it were preuented by any thing in respect whereof it should be giuen For saith he vnto Rusinus Man did not deale righteously whereupon righteousnesse was added and giuen vnto him and in that hee did not walke with God his course and wayes were strengthned and for that hee did not loue God his loue and charitie was inflamed Nay saith he but he was without faith and by consequent wicked and therefore and thereupon it was giuen him to receiue the spirit of faith and so by it was made righteous he was blind and dead and therefore had it giuen vnto him to receiue both life axd sight Idem in sentent 374. l. de ingrat And therefore he saith in an other place it is not said Euerie man that heareth my voice is of the truth but on the contrarie Euerie man which is of the truth heareth my voice because that man is not of the truth because he heareth the voice but rather he heareth the voice because he is of the truth because he hath receiued this gift of him which is the truth And what other thing is this gift but to belieue in Christ by the grace of Christ by the gift of Christ himselfe Inspirata sides And therefore they are in as great an errour which attribute the infidelitie of the wicked vnto God as they which would haue any other to bee the author of the faith and righteousnesse of good men but God himselfe For he that hath once lost that which he had receiued cannot resume and take againe the same after that he hath lost it but he must seeke to recouer the possession of it againe from whence he first had it hauing now suffered it to be lost To be briefe he saith to be able to haue faith Idem in sent 316. and to be able to haue charitie that is to say to bee capable of these graces is of or in the nature of men but to haue faith or to haue charitie commeth from that grace which is giuen to none but to the faithfull That is God giueth and dealeth freely where it seemeth good vnto him But notwithstanding the Aduersarie obiected vnto him I see S. Paul who praiseth the faith of the Romaines Corinthians Ephesians and Philippians and wherefore should he praise it in them if it bee the gift of God if it be not their owne and of themselues Nay saith hee to the end that thou maiest not imagine that it is an argument that it was not giuen them Idem aduers Collat. c 36. because it is praised in them read somewhat further how hee praiseth God for the grace which was giuen them in Christ how in all things they are made rich in him how hee hath giuen vnto them faith which worketh by loue how he hopeth and trusteth that hee which hath begun the good worke in them will finish the same from the first day vnto the day of Christ And therefore conclude the rather saith hee to them of Genua That faith whether young and newly begun Idem ad except Genuens Idem de vocat l. 1 c. 23. Concil Arans 2. c. 5. or old and growne perfect are both the gift of God That the beginning of faith vnto the consummation and full accomplishment of the perseuerance of the same is of him
the hearts of the elect the remission of their sinnes Vnto the Lambe saith he without spot or blemish that beareth the sinnes of the world alone righteous and by consequent alone fit and meete to enter into the holy of holies Now if he onely enter thereinto hee entereth all whole without any faile not one of his bones shal be broken The head shal not enter without the rest of his members his faithfull ones Cohaerentes fide conformes moribus which are fastned vnto him by faith and made conformable vnto him in their manners And they shall enter thereinto couered and clothed with his righteousnesse For saith he He hath giuen it them it is imputed vnto them he is made vnto them righteousnesse from God yea sufficient righteousnes And seeing he is made righteousnesse vnto vs it is ours c. And as for all our owne it is nothing but vnrighteousnes Idem in Can. serm 73. Idem Serm. 1 in Natal Dom Idem de â—â—pl miseric Dei Idem de sept miseric Idem Serm. 3. de Aduent Dom. Idem Dominic 1. post oct Epiph. Idem Serm. 1. de Annunt virg Mar. Initiat For there not the most holy that are but they stand in need to pray for their sinnes to the end that they may be saued by mercie Noe Daniel and Iob must repaire vnto this fountaine Pari voto with the same request desire and thirst that all others For euen the sinnes that we daily commit and which we accompt but sleight are such as presently receiue the sentence of condemnation without any delaie And mine owne soule saith hee of it selfe if God had not sustained me I both doe and will confesse was readie and prone to fall into all kind of sinne But saith hee behold and see his grace he hath iustified vs freely to the end that his grace might be the highlier esteemed of vs. And this grace doth not onely pardon and forgiue vs our sinnes but giueth vnto vs his merits For to the obtaining of remission of sins it is necessarie to haue indulgentiam Dei Gods pardon and it is impossible to haue any good worke if he himselfe doe not giue it but yet much more impossible to merit eternall life by any workes if it be not freely giuen c. Wherevpon the Prophet saith Blessed are they to whome the Lord imputeth no sinne c. And therefore saith hee we haue neede of a threefold grace a conuerting grace a grace assisting vs in temptations and a rewarding grace The first doth rough hew vs as being that whereby we are called The second doth set vs forward as by which wee are iustified The third doth perfect vs as by which we are glorified And the first is called the good pleasure of God The second merit but note by the way in what sence and signification he taketh it And the third praemium a gift wages recompence and all three graces Of the first it is said Idem Serm. 5. de Assumpt beat Mar. Wee haue all receiued of his fulnesse of the others grace for grace the gift of eternall life for the merit that is to say for the gift of temporall warfare And this grace of iustification sanctification and glorification is receiued in the Church by faith in Christ For saith he The misled and vnaduised Sinagogue which hath despised the righteousnesse of God for to establish her owne was reiected and cast off but vnto the spouse of Christ vnto the true Church it is said Desponsaut te mihi in fide I haue betrothed thee vnto me in faith iudgement righteousuesse mercie and compassion Neither must thou say that thou hast chosen me for I haue chosen thee and for to moue me to make thee my choice I did not find in thee any merits but it was of my selfe who preuented thee And therefore I haue affianced thee in faith that is to say not in the workes of the Law and in righteousnesse but that which is of faith and not of the Lawe It remaineth then for thee to iudge betwixt me and thy selfe seeing I haue affianced thee not according to thy merit but according to mine owne good will and pleasure Wherefore let it bee farre from thee to obiect vnto me either thy merits or the workes of the law or yet the heat of the day or the scorching heate of the Sunne which thou pretendest to haue indured but rather acknowledge that thou art affianced vnto me both by faith and also by the righteousnesse of faith in mercie and compassion For the true spouse acknowledgeth both the one and the other grace namely the preuenting grace as also that which followeth and commeth after it And what he saith of the Church he saith of the faithfull as he doth of the members that which he saith of the bodie Idem Serm. 67. super Cantic It is sufficient saith he to merit to know that merits are not sufficient And not to presume of merits is to merit and yet not to presume vppon them is to presume after a farre more sure and certaine way for we haue large matter to glorie of euen the ample mercies of the Lord Idem Serm. 68. super Cantic and his truth which indureth for euer That is to say faith in his promises For is there not sure and certaine matter for vs to glorie in when mercie and truth doe meete together for vs c. And al this by faith Belieue saith he that thy sinnes are forgiuen thee by him against whom alone thou hast sinned and who alone is able to deface blot them out and thou doest wel This is the testimonie which the holy Ghost beareth vnto our hearts saying Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee Whereupon the Apostle saith that men are iustified freely by faith Idem Serm. 1. in Annunciat Mariae Idem super Cant. 22. Ep. 77. Yea saith he by faith onely And so Saint Ambrose vnderstandeth him in his booke of the death of Valentinian And with such I am willing either to erre or to bee wise belieuing that man may be saued by faith alone yea without the receiuing of the Sacrament for Valentinian died whiles hee was of the number of the Catechised prouided that hee haue a desire to receiue it And this it may be was the cause saith he that our Sauiour hauing said Who so shall belieue and be baptised shal be saued in that which followeth saith onely He that shall not belieue shall be condemned c. To shew that onely faith is sometimes sufficient vnto saluation that without it nothing auaileth But this faith by which the iust man liueth doth truely liue it selfe for otherwise how should it quicken and make aliue For by this faith saith hee the heart is cleansed And God cannot bee seene Idem l. 5. de confider that is to say knowne but of him that hath a pure and cleane heart Neither is this faith any doubtfull beliefe On the contrarie opinion when it is growne to a
Monkes I N. carefully tendering the good of my soule doe giue and deliuer vnto the Monasterie or Couent of c. such a peece of ground c. And we haue further seene vpon the poore mens boxes in Cathedrall Churches within the time of our owne memorie these verses Hic datur exponi Paradisus venditioni c. Here is power and authoritie giuen to set Paradise on sale c. But yet there are euerie where manifest signes of the degrees of the growth of this abuse to be seene which we accordingly will point out in that which foloweth Alexander Ales. p. 3. q. 28. membr 1 art 5 q. 60. mem 10. art 1. Thom. 1. 2. q. 55. art 3 2.2 quest 184. art 1. Alexander Ales and Thomas Sage verie well That the law is the ministerie of condemnation not that it selfe is euill but for that it sheweth forth that which is euill But Thomas breaketh loose in a certaine place and against all antiquitie saith that the law perswadeth not any impossible thing but draweth vs on vnto perfection in so much saith he as that it seemeth that man is able to fulfil it And yet to accomplish and fulfill it Non optimo modo saith he sed in fimo not after the best maner but at the least in the simplest and weakest maner And he giueth an example for proofe thereof Behold saith he the least and simplest maner of fulfilling the commandement of louing God is this not to loue any thing more then him contrarie to him or inequall maner with him There are other more perfect degrees of louing him but he that can attain vnto them is no transgressor Now to insist in the same example I demaund who is there or euer hath beene in the world that was able to attaine therevnto that hath not set himselfe downe a great way short on this side And whether this be not in plaine and proper tearmes to come to one and the same point with the Pharisie I haue fulfilled and kept all this from my youth c. Alexander Ales. p. 3. q. 1. memb 6. art 2. q. 28. memb 2. art 1. Againe Alexander and Thomas do teach very excellently that the sinne of man in respect of God against whome it is committed is infinite and could not be sustained or vndergone but by the word made flesh that is to say by God himselfe Thereupon then they were to conclude that no man was able to find any means of pardon or righteousnes in himselfe neither yet how to come by them Thom. in Summ de verâ—t mater 28 Idem 3. Sum. q. 68. art 1. Idem in Apoc. c. 1. â—n sam de verit mater 29. q. 7. Idem in Apoc. c. 3. but in the Mediator for what is there more repugnant vnto the pretended merit For indeed they affirme that before the comming of Christ no man had power to be saued but by faith alone in Christ And then not by the accomplishment of the law but rather of meere grace as they say sometimes That remission of sinnes is giuen freely That what we haue by the efficacie of Christes merit is freely bestowed c. But behold again how Philosophie carieth them away from vs after the free-will of Aristotle Fiue things sath Thomas are to be considered in iustification First Dignatio Dei the clemencie and bountifulnesse of God by which he vouchsafeth to rouse and awake the sinner Secondly the consent of free-will disposing him Thirdly the infusion of grace iustifying the soule Fourthly the merit of the iustified profiting in grace Fiftly the nourishment of consolation which refresheth the soule Wherein he maketh the free-will of man a ioynt-worker in the matter of his saluation with the first grace and by that meanes meriting the infusion of iustifying grace and thereby afterwarde the increase of grace Idem in Apocal c. 7. 12. c. euen to say That man ioyntly working with the grace of God by contrition confession satisfaction c. doth wash himselfe and that the diuell is not onely ouercome by the passion of Christ but also by the merits of the righteous c. And after this manner doe Albert Alexander and others speake now and then giuing out their lessons by which they teach what works inable a man to discharge himselfe of his sins at the least such as are veniall Albert. in Luc. 11. As Albert That veniall sinnes are raunsomed by beating vppon the breast Pater-nosters making of signes of the Crosse holie water confession c. deuiding the worke of our saluation betwixt God and vs Grace and Free-will wherevpon such as followed after did knowe verie well to drawe to themselues the better part But let vs a little examine and see the coherence of this with other of Thomas his principles and let vs note in him that which elswhere we haue said of Philosophers namely that oftentimes they grow deafe Thom. aduer Gent. c. 44. l. 1. and cannot heare their owne voyces To be saued saith he or to be damned commeth not of the diuersitie of merits but of the principall intention of the first Agent that is to say of God who saith he of meere grace hath from all eternitie purposed to let some to fall and faile and to succour and assist others to the ende they may not faile or misse to the ende that he may shew in the one the power of his grace and in the other the defect of nature Idem in l. 1. Sent. d. 40. 41.45 no man being able by merits to come from the state of nature to the state of grace but onely by the grace of God which he is not drawne to giue either for anie sight of precedent merites nor yet through foresight of anie manner of merits in vs to come On the contrarie we see in man a merit and desert whereby to harden his heart but for any merit tending to the moouing of mercâ—e wee finde none No not for the grace which is giuen him vnto iustification and then much lesse vnto predestination for hauing chosen from before all eternitie those whom hee pleased what manner of merits could there possibly be to mooue him thereunto Now this is Thomas which speaketh And I demaund how these Maximes which hee groundeth so surely and substantially can agree with the merit of eternall life the beginning whereof is giuen and granted from eternitie and the end whereof is likewise from eternitie ordayned without any regarde or consideration of merits It may be they will say the meanes which come betwixt this eternal decree and the finall execution thereof are of our selues at the least wee merit them in some part by the concurrence and iumping togither of our free-will Nay rather this is against nature that he which hath fore appointed and resolued of the ende of a thing of his meere and free grace before that he caused it to be of nothing should not giue vnto the same thing Idem in
such sort as that they are not apparant or to bee discerned notwithstanding that they be there neither yet any manner of distinction to bee made of them by reason of their incorporation euen so are we all incorporate both amongst our selues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also with Christ for wee are not nourished and fed this man of one bodie and that man of an other but all ioyntly of one and the same These are then the two principall endes of the Sacrament euen the growth and helping forwarde of our vnitie with Christ our head and of our vnitie with the brethren which with vs doe make one body in him which cannot bee accomplished more effectually then by the remembrance of the death of Christ which stirreth vp in vs a loue towards him who hath loued vs so much as to giue himselfe to death for vs euen that death which was due and iustly belonging to sinners c. So that wee not being able either to liue or die for any his emolument or profit for what good can there arise from vs to him we are incited and stirred vp to liue and die for his body which is the Church and not to spare any thing that is in vs no not our owne bloud for the edifying of the same or for the good and saluation of our brethren either begotten of Basil de Baptis in Moral or redeemed by the same bloud And this is the cause why Saint Basill saith What profit is there in these words Take this is my body To the end that drinking and eating we may euermore bee mindfull of him which is dead and risen againe for vs Who so calleth not to mind this remembrance is said to eate vnworthily c. And in another place What is the dutie of such as eate the bread and drinke the Cup of Christ Verily saith he to keep the remembrance of him which is dead and risen againe for vs perpetually c. Seeing saith likewise S. Ambrose Ambros de iis qui myst intiantur c. 3. That the Sacrament serueth not for any vse vnto saluation without the preaching that is to say the remembrance and commemoration of the crosse of Christ. And hitherto it may be that both wee and our aduersaries are of one mind in as much as we both the one and the other say That the bodie and bloud of Christ are in the Supper celebrated according to his institution and are truly and verily drunken and eaten in the same by the faithfull members of Christ in assurance of remission of sinnes and eternall life But the difference and disagreement betwixt vs is Wherein the maine difference lyeth for that wee say that they are receiued in the supper of the Lord with the Sacraments of the bread and wine They vnder the accidents of the whitenes roundnesse c. of the bread and vnder the rednesse and moysture c. of the wine the substance therof being at the verie instant of the vttering of the words by the Priest quite vanished and become nothing that so there may be place made for the bodie and bloud yea conuerted and turned into the bodie and bloud of Christ which they call Transubstantiation Againe that wee say that the bodie and bloud of Christ the nourishment of our soule which is spirituall are communicated with vs by the efficacie and power of the spirit of God and receiued of vs in like manner spiritually and by faith They that they are giuen by the hand of the Priest vnder the accidents of bread and wine and conuerted into flesh bloud by the pronouncing of the words which they call Sacramentall receiued into the mouth and swallowed downe into the stomack corporally and really c. and that not of the faithfull onely but of all both good and bad which receiue them c. So that the question or controuersie betwixt vs is not Whether there be a communicating of the body and bloud of Christ in the holy supper but How And this How is not raised by vs It proceedeth of the curiosity of our aduersaries neither yet by our incredulitie or curiositie but by our aduersaries who in stead of resting themselues in the simplicitie of the old writers haue so curiously pried into the same as that they haue wrapt themselues in an infinite sort of absurdities thereby causing doubts to arise yea and doubting themselues also of If in stead of making it plaine vnto themselues and others of the manner How Verily Saint Cyprian saith That it is an Apostolike thing and appertaining to the sinceritie of the truth to declare how the bread wine are the flesh bloud of our Lord. Saint Augustine likewise feareth not to demaund How the bread is made the bodie of Christ seeing that our Lord in the day of the Ascention caried vp his bodie into heauen But he hath also giuen vs rules by which these kinds of speeches ought to be expounded But this holy scanning and sifting out of the truth is verie farre from the prophane curiositie of our aduersaries they seeke the deciding of the matter in the nature of the Sacraments by comparing of Scripture with Scripture and by the analogie of faith and of the Creed according to the true and vndoubted rules of Diuinitie but these our aduersaries by destroying of the Sacraments the nature of Christ and the Articles of our faith our onely Diuinitie by destroying also the Lawes which God hath set in nature by a false kind of Philosophie So deeply haue they delighted and rooted themselues in an opinion contrarie to faith in the flesh which profiteth nothing contrarie to the word which is spirit and life and in the letter which is dead and killeth contrarie to the spirit which is liuing and quickning They say The literall sence neither can nor ought to be followed alwayes what is there any thing more cleare or plaine This is my bodie this is my bloud But againe is there any thing more plaine The rocke was Christ And of circumcision This is my couenant Againe The Lambe is the Passeouer These bones are the house of Israell Iohn is Elias I am the true Vine I am the bread of life which came downe from heauen c. And if the plainnesse and clearenesse of places should bee tied vnto the words and not to the sence and meaning then what clearer places can there possibly be then these Let vs make man according to our owne image and similitude And the Anthropomorphites haue heereupon concluded that God hath the shape of a man Genes 1. Luke 22 Who so hath not a sword let him sell his Coate and buy one And what then saith Origen Shall the Bishops put their hand to the sword thereupon I and my Father are one And Sabellius hath concluded thereupon that the Father hath suffered in the flesh I am the bread of life August de ciuit Dei l. 21. c. 25. he that shall eate this
the redemption being perpetuall went for the saluation of all that so also the oblation of that redemption should stand perpetuall that is saith the Glose Gloss ibid. the preaching of this onely sacrifice after which there is not any other to come And that this perpetuall sacrifice might liue in our remembrance and might alwaies be present with vs in the grace thereof Asacrifice saith he which must be iudged of by faith and not by the outward appearance or kind by the inward affection not by the outward sight Here now you may behold a manifest opposition of the mystery against the realitie of the remembrance against the presence of the presence of grace against the reall presence of faith against apparance and of affection against sight But notwithstanding say they there is a change And what change verily such a one as hee there describeth and setteth downe for he compareth the change that is made therein first with the creation For as saith he in the twinckling of the Lords eyes there were incontinently subsisting and extant the heauen the sea and the earth although of nothing by the same power also in the sacramentes whereas this vertue commandeth the effect doth incontinently follow Now would they say that by the consecration Christ was created anew And to bring forth nothing is this to chaunge and turne is this to transubstantiate And what can they then inferre but that the same spirite which made the heauen and the earth doth conioyne and vnite them together in the holy supper as we haue diuerse and sundrie times said And secondly with the change which is made in vs by our regeneration in Christ into which saith this Eusebius Non viuendo sed credendo transiliisti we enter not by liuing but by belieuing we are made of the children of perdition the adopted children of God by a hidden and secret purenes continuing and abiding idem atque idem one and the same in substance but otherwise much altered and chaunged by the proceeding and growth of faith Changed saith Bellarmine accidentallie and not substantiallie And therefore the bread the wine in the holy supper in like maner changed said Theodoret in a word Not in their nature but by addition of grace c. And how then shall wee there receiue the bodie of Christ verily in a manner proportionable to this change and correspondent to this obiect When saith he thou commest to the altar to be fed of these spirituall meates looke by faith vpon the bodie and blood of thy Lord touch him there with thy mind and spirit mente continge take him by the hand with thy hart drinke him haustu interioris hominis with the full and large draughtes of thy soule with all thine inward man c. And yet this is the man amongst all the rest by whom they take themselues best vnderpropped Procopius Gazaeus saith also Procop. Gazeus in Genes c. 49. Macar Egypt Anachor The Lord gaue the image figure or tipe of his bodie to his disciples not admitting any more the bloudie sacrifices of the law Macarius an Egyptian more clearely saying That there ought to be offered in the Church bread and wine the resemblances and representations exhibiting the bodie and blood of Christ the fathers of the olde Testament knew it not how that they that should receiue the inuisible bread should also spirituallie eate the flesh of Christ c. Figures then euermore and types and representations of the bodie and bloud which forbid and exclude all manner of realnesse in the kinds as likewise all change in the substances in that they alwaies call them bread and wine c. And thus wee are come to the time of Gregory the first about the yeare of our Lord 600. CHAP. VI. That of a long time also after Gregorie transubstantiation was not knowne And further that all the most famous liturgies receiued of our aduersaries are repugnant thereunto NOw Gregorie 1. Anno 600. Gregor dial 4. c. 58. Et in registro had not as yet beene infected with this errour howbeit he had inwrapped himselfe in many other Who is there saith he of all the faithfull that doubteth that at the houre of the sacrifice at the voice of the minister the heauens are opened or that the heauens are ioyned to the earth c. and we will bee readie to tell it them at all times if they will heare And heauen is not onely ioyned to the earth but God to man and righteousnesse to a sinner c. They say that this is vnder the Accidentes of bread wee in the nature of our soule Which is the more beseeming diuinitie But when S. Gregorie saith When we take the bread whether it be heaued vp or not heaued we are made one bodie with the Lord our Sauiour To what end should he say heaued or not heaued if there be nothing but accidents And is there not any great difference whether we our selues be made the bodie of our Lord or els the bread and wine the Indiuiduum vagum accidents hanging in the aire Idem hom 22. in Euang. But saith he The bloude is sprinkled vpon the two postes when it is not taken of the mouth of the body onely but also with the mouth of the heart That is to say say they when it is taken also in at the mouth of the bodie But we say that this is according to the rule aboue specified which giueth to the signe the name of the thing That is that the sacrament is taken in at the mouth of the bodie the thing by the mouth of the soule and in the faithfull the one with the other Which S. Gregorie layeth open elsewhere in these wordes speaking of the vngodly Howbeit Idem l. 2. expos in l. 1. Reg. c. 1. that they receiue the Sacrament with their mouth yet they are not replenished with the vertue of the Sacrament And therefore say wee they did not take the flesh and bloud For he that receiueth them saith the Lord hath eternall life Beda followeth S. Augustin step by step Bed 1. Cor. 10. and it may be that Bellarmine for the same cause hath left him out He teacheth them that the sacramentes of the old and new testament are the same in substance That in all sacraments the sacrament is one thing and the vertue of the sacrament another and particularly in that of the holy Supper that that which is seene hath a corporall figure but that which is vnderstood a spirituall fruit That the bread is said to be the bodie of Christ after the same manner that we are called his members c. To be short saith he The creature of bread wine Idem in Luc. l. 6. c. 2â— by the vnspeakeable sanctification of the holy Ghost is translated into the Sacrament of his flesh and bloud Into the sacrament saith he not into the thing it selfe that is to say of elements they are made Sacraments they are made