of the holy Scripture Or will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinions by malice and corrupt intentions Why your selves cannot deny but that they lived most holy and vertuous lives free from all malitious corrupting or perverting of Gods holy word and by their holy lives are now made worthy to raigne with God in his glory Insomuch as their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspition of ignorant errour and their innocent sanctity freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption But by his leave hee is a little too hastie Hee were best to bethink himselfe more advisedly of that which he hath undertaken to performe and to remember the saying of the King of Israel unto Benhadad Let not him that girdeth on his harnesse boast himselfe as he that putteth it off Hee hath taken upon him to prove that our Religon cannot be true because it disalloweth of many chiefe articles which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did generally hold to be true For performance hereof it wil not be sufficient for him to shew that some of these Fathers maintained some of these opinions he must prove if hee will be as good as his word and deale any thing to the purpose that they held them generally and held them too not as opinions but tanquam de fide as appertayning to the substance of faith and religion For as Vincentius Lirinensis well observeth the auncient consent of the holy Fathers is with great care to be sought and followed by us not in every petty question belonging to the Law of God but only or at least principally in the Rule of faith But all the points propounded by our Challenger be not chiefe articles and therefore if in some of them the Fathers have held some opinions that will not beare waight in the ballance of the Sanctuary as some conceits they had herein which the Papists themselves must confesse to be erroneous their defects in that kinde doe abate nothing of that reverend estimation which we have them in for their great paines taken in the defence of the true Catholick Religion and the serious studie of the holy Scripture Neither doe I thinke that he who thus commendeth them for the pillers of Christianitie and the champions of Christs Church will therefore hold himselfe tyed to stand unto every thing that they have said sure he will not if he follow the steppes of the great ones of his owne Societie For what doth hee thinke of Iustin Martyr Irenaeus and Epiphanius Doth he not account them among those pillers and champions hee speaketh of Yet saith Cardinall Bellarmine I doe not see how we may defend their opinion from error When others object that they have two or three hundred testimonies of the Doctors to prove that the Virgin Mary was conceived in sinne Salmeron the Iesuite steps forth and answereth them first out of the doctrine of Augustine and Thomas that the argument drawne from authoritie is weake then out of the word of God Exod. 23. In judicio plurimorum non acquiesces sententiae ut á vero devies In judgement thou shalt not be ledde with the sentence of the most to decline from the truth And lastly telleth them that when the Donatists gloried in the multitude of authors S. Augustin did answer them that it was a signe their cause was destitute of the strength of truth which was onely supported by the authority of many who were subject to error And when his Adversaries presse him not onely with the multitude but also with the antiquitie of the Doctors alledged unto which more honour alwayes hath beene given then unto novelties he answereth that indeed every age hath alwayes attributed much unto antiquity and every old man as the Poët saith is a commender of the time past but this saith he vvee averre that the yonger the Doctors are the more sharpe-sighted they be And therefore for his part he yeeldeth rather to the judgement of the yonger Doctors of Paris among whom none is held worthy of the title of a Master in Divinitie who hath not first bound himselfe with a religious oath to defend and maintaine the priviledge of the B. Virgin Only he forgot to tell how they which take that oath might dispense with another oath which the Pope requireth them to take that they will never understand and interprete the holy Scripture but according to the uniforme consent of the Fathers Pererius in his disputations upon the Epistle to the Romans confesseth that the Greeke Fathers and not a few of the Latine Doctors too have delivered in their writings that the cause of the predestination of men unto everlasting life is the foreknowledge which God had from eternitie either of the good workes which they were to doe by cooperating with his grace or of the faith wherby they were to beleeve the word of God to obey his calling And yet he for his part notwithstanding thinketh that this is contrary to the holy Scripture but especially to the doctrine of S. Paul If our Questionist had beene by him hee would have pluckt his fellow by the sleeve and taken him up in this maner Will you say that these Fathers maintained this opinion contrary to the word of God Why you know that they were the pillers of Christianity the Champions of Christ his Church and of the true Catholick religion which they most learnedly defended against diverse heresies and therefore spent all their time in a most serious studie of the holy Scripture He would also perhaps further challenge him as he doth us Will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinion by malice corrupt intentions For sure hee might have asked this wise question of any of his owne fellowes as well as of us who doe allow and esteeme so much of these blessed Doctors and Martyrs of the ancient Church as he himselfe in the end of his Challenge doth acknowledge which verily we should have little reason to doe if wee did imagine that they brought in opinions which they knew to be repugnant to the Scriptures for any malice or corrupt intentions Indeed men they were compassed with the common infirmities of our nature and therefore subject unto error but godly men and therefore free from all malicious error Howsoever then we yeeld unto you that their innocent sanctitie freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption yet you must pardon us if wee make question whether their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspicion of error which may arise either of affection or want of due consideration or such ignorance as the very best are subject unto in this life For it is not admirable learning that is sufficient to crosse out that suspicion but such an immediate guidance of the holy Ghost as the Prophets and Apostles were
torments which by Arator is thus more amply expressed in verse pavidis resplenduit umbris Pallida regna petens propriâ quem luce corruscum Non potuit fuscare chaeos fugere dolores Infernus tunc esse timet nullumque coërcens In se poena redit nova tortor ad otia languet Tartara moesta gemunt quia vincula cuncta quiescunt Mors ibi quid faceret quò vitae portitor ibat S. Augustine doth thus deliver his opinion touching this matter That Christs soule came unto those places wherein sinners are punished that hee might loose them from torments whom by his hidden justice he judged fit to be loosed is not without cause beleeved Neyther did our Saviour being dead for us scorne to visite those parts that hee might loose from thence such as hee could not bee ignorant according to his divine and secret justice were not to bee loosed But whether hee loosed all that hee found in those paines or some whom hee thought worthy of that benefit I yet enquire For that he was in hell and bestowed this benefit upon some that did lye in the paines thereof I doe not doubt Thus did S. Augustine write unto Euodias who inquired of him whether our Saviour loosed all from thence and emptied Hell which was in those dayes a great question and gave occasion to that speech of Gregory Nazianzen If hee descend into Hell goe thou downe with him namely in contemplation and meditation learne the mysteries of Christs doings there what the dispensation and what the reason was of his double descent to wit from heaven unto earth from earth unto hell whether at his appearing he simply saved all or there also such only as did beleeve What ClemeÌ„s Alexandrinus his opinion was herein every one knoweth that our Lord descended for no other cause into Hell but to preach the Gospell and that such as lived a good life before the time of the Gospell whether Iewes or Grecians although they were in hell and in durance yet hearing the voyce of our Lord eyther from himselfe immediatly or by the working of his Apostles were presently converted and did beleeve in a word that in Hell things were so ordred that eveÌ„ there all the soules having heard this preaching might eyther shew their repentance or acknowledge their punishment to be just because they did not beleeve Hereupon when Celsus the Philosopher made this objection concerning our Saviour Surely you will not say of him that when hee could not perswade those that were heere hee went unto Hell to perswade those that were there Origen the scholler of Clemens sticketh not to returne unto him this answere Whether he will or no wee say this that both being in the bodie hee did perswade not a few but so many that for the multitude of those that were perswaded by him he was layd in wayt for and after his soule was separated from his body hee had conference with soules separated from their bodies converting of them unto himselfe such as would or such as he discerned to bee more fit for reasons best knowne unto himselfe The like effect of Christs preaching in Hell is delivered by Anastasius Sinaita Iobius or Iovius Damascen Oecumenius Michael Glycas and his transcriber Theodorus Metochites Procopius saith that hee preached to the spirits that were in Hell restrayned in the prison house releasing them all from the bonds of necessity wherein he followeth S. Cyrill of Alexandria writing upon the same place that Christ went to preach to the spirits in Hell and appeared to them that were detayned in the prison house and freed them all fâ—om bonds and necessitie and paine and punishment The same S. Cyrill in his Paschall homilies affirmeth more directly that our Saviour entring into the lowermost dennes of Hell and preaching to the spirits that were there emptied that unsatiable denne of death spoyled Hell of spirits and having thus spoyled all Hell left the Divell there solitarie and alone For when Christ descended into Hell sayth Andronicus not onely the soules of the Saints were delivered from thence but all those that before did serve in the error of the Divell and the worship of idols being enriched with the knowledge of God obtayned salvation for which also they gave thankes praysing God Whereupon the author of one of the sermons upon the Ascension fathered upon S. Chrysostom bringeth in the Divell complayning that the sonne of Mary having taken away from him all those that were with him from the verie beginning had left him desolate whereas the true Chrysostom doth at large confute this fond opinion censuring the maintayners thereof as the bringers in of old wives conceytes and Iewish fables Yea Philastrius S. Augustin out of him doth brand such for hereticks whose testimonie also is urged by S. Gregory against George and Theodore two of the clergie of Constantinople who held in his time as many others did before and after them that our omnipotent Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ descending into Hell did save all those vvho there confessed him to be God and did deliver them from the paines that were due unto them and when Clement our countryman about 150. years after did renue that old error in Germanie that the sonne of God descending into Hell delivered from thence all such as that infernall prison did detayne beleevers and unbeleevers praysers of God and worshippers of idols the Romane Synod held by Pope Zacharie condemned him and his followers for it But to leave Clemens Scotus and to returne unto Clemens Alexandrinus at whom Philastrius may seeme to have aymed specially it is confessed by our Adversaries that he fell into this error partly being deceived with the superficiall consideration of the wordes of S. Petâ—r touching Christs preaching to the spirits in prison 1. Pet. 3.19 partly being deluded with the authority of Hermes the supposed scholler of S. Paul by whose dreames he was perswaded to beleeve that not onely Christ himselfe but his Apostles also did descend into Hell to preach there unto the dead to baptize them But touching the wordes of S. Peter is the maine doubt whether they are to bee referred unto Christs preaching by the ministerie of Noë unto the world of the ungodly or unto his owne immediate preaching to the spirits in Hell after his death upon the Crosse. For seeing it was the spirit of Christ which spake in the Prophets as S. Peter sheweth in this same Epistle and among them was Noë a preacher of righteousnesse as hee declareth in the next even as in S. Paul Christ is sayd to have come and preached to the Ephesians namely by his spirit in the mouth of his Apostles so likewise in S. Peter may he be sayd to have gone and preached to the old world by
462.463 edit Colon. An. 1589. in the Romane Sacerdotall part 1. tract 5. cap. 13. fol. 116. edit Venet. An. 1585. in the booke intituled Sacra institutio Baptizandi juxta ritum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae ex decreto Concilij Tridentini restituta c. printed at Paris in the yeere 1575. and in a like booke intituled Ordo Baptizandi cum Modo visitandi printed at Venice the same yeere out of which the Spanish Inquisitors as well in their New as in their Old Expurgatory Index the one set out by Cardinall Quiroga in the yeere 1584. the other by the Cardinall of Sandoval and Roxas in the yeere 1612. command these interrogatories to be blotted out Dost thou beleeve to come to glory not by thine owne merits but by the vertue and merit of the passion of our Lord Iesus Christ and Dost thou beleeve that our Lord Iesus Christ did die for our salvation and that none can be saved by his owne merits or by any other meanes but by the merit of his passion Whereby we may observe how late it is since our Romanists in this maine and most substantiall point which is the very foundation of all our comfort have most shamefully departed from the faith of their fore-fathers In other copies of this same Instruction which are followed by Cassander Vlenbergius and Cardinall Hosius himselfe the last question propounded to the sicke man is this Dost thou beleeve that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ Whereunto when he hath made answer affirmatively he is presently directed to make use thereof in this manner Goe too therefore as long as thy soule remaineth in thee place thy whole confidence in this death only have confidence in no other thing commit thy selfe wholly to this death with this alone cover thy selfe wholly intermingle thy selfe wholly in this death fasten thy selfe wholly wrap thy whole selfe in this death And if the Lord God will judge thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt mee and thy judgement no otherwise doe I contend with thee And if he say unto thee that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of the Lord Iesus Christ betwixt thee and my sinnes If he say unto thee that thou hast deserved damnation say Lord I set the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and my bad merits and I offer his merit in stead of the merit which I ought to have but yet have not If he say that he is angrie with thee say Lord I interpose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and thine anger Adde hereunto the following sentences of the Doctors of these latter ages We cannot suffer or bring in any thing worthy of the reward that shall be saith Oecumenius So Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bathe No trouble can be endured in this vitall death which is able equally to answer the joyes of heaven and Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury more fully before him If a man should serve God a thousand yeeres and that most fervently he should not deserve of condignitie to be halfe a day in the Kingdome of heaven Radulphus Ardens expounding those words of the Parable Matth. 20.13 Didst not thou agree with me for a peny Let no man out of these words saith he thinke that God is as it were tied by agreement to pay that which he hath promised For as God is free to promise so is he free to pay especially seeing as well merits as rewards are his grace For God doth crowne nothing else in us but his owne grace who if hee would deale strictly with us no man living should be justified in his sight Whereupon the Apostle who laboured more than all saith I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore this agreement is nothing else but Gods voluntary promise And doe not wonder saith he in another Sermon if I call the merits of the just graces for as the Apostle witnesseth we have nothing which we have not received from God and that freely But because by one grace we come unto another they are called merits but improperly For as Augustine witnesseth God crowneth only his owne grace in us So Rupertus Tuitiensis The greatnesse or the eternitie of the heavenly glorie is not a matter of merit but of grace The same doth Bernardus Morlanensis expresse in these rhythmicall verses of his Vrbs Sion inclyta patria condita littore tuto Te peto te colo te flagro te volo canto saluto Nec meritis peto nam meritis meto morte perire Nec reticens tego quòd meritis ego filius irae Vita quidem mea vita nimis rea mortua vita Quippe reatibus exitialibus obruta trita Spe tamen ambulo praemia postulo speque fideque Illa perennia postulo praemia nocte dieque But Bernard of Claraevalle aboue others delivereth this doctrine most sweetly It is necessary saith hee that first of all thou shouldest beleeve that thou canst not have remission of sinnes but by the mercie of God then that thou canst not at all have any whit of a good worke unlesse he likewise give it thee lastly that by no workes thou canst merit eternall life unlesse that also be freely given unto thee Otherwise if wee will properly name those which wee call our merits they be certaine seminaries of hope incitements of love signes of secret predestination foretokens of future happinesse the way to the kingdome not the cause of reigning Dangerous is the dwelling of them that trust in their merits dangerous because ruinous For this is the whole merit of man if hee put all his trust in him who saveth the whole man Therefore my merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as he is not poore in mercie and if the mercies of the Lord be many my merits also are many With which that passage of the Manuall falsly fathered upon S. Augustine doth accord so justly that the one appeareth to be plainly borrowed from the other All my hope is in the death of my Lord. His death is my merit my refuge my salvation life and resurrection My merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as that Lord of mercies shall not faile and as long as his mercies are much much am I in merits Neither are the testimonies of the Schoolemen wanting in this cause For where God is affirmed to give the kingdome of heaven for good merits or good works some made here a difference betwixt pro bonis meritis and propter bona merita The former they said did note a signe or a way or some occasion and in that sense they admitted the proposition But according to the latter expression they would not receive it because
labouâ—ed in vaine 1. Thessal 2.19 For what is our hope or joy or crowne of rejoycing are not even yee in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his comming 1. Pet. 1. â— Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation readie to be revealed in the last time 1. Corinth 5.5 That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Iâ—sus Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed unto the day of redemption Luk. 21.28 When these things beginne to come to passe then looke up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh 2. Timoth. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righâ—eousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and Luk. 14.14 Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just And that the Church in her Offices for the dead had speciall respect unto this time of the Resurrection appeareth plainly both by the portions of Scripture appointed to be read therein and by diverse particulars in the prayers themselves that manifestly discover this intention For there the ministers as the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy reporteth read those undoubted promises vvhich are recorded in the divine Scriptures of our holy ResurrectioÌ„ and then devoutly sang such of the sacred Psalmes as were of the same subject and argument And so accordingly in the Romane Missall the lessons ordained to be read for that time are taken from 1. Corinth 15. Behold I tell you a mysterie Wee shall all rise againe c. Ioh. 5. The houre commeth wherein all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life c. 1. Thessal 4. Brethren we would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleepe that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope Ioh. 11. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me although he were dead shall live 2. Maccab. 12. Iudas caused a sacrifice to be offered for the sinnes of the dead justly and religiously thinking of the Resurrection Ioh. 6. This is the will of my Father that sent me that every one that seeth the Sonne and beleeveth in him may have life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and lastly Apocal. 14. I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth now saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours for their workes follow them Wherewith the Sequence also doth agree beginning Dies irae dies illa Solvet saeclum in favillâ Teste David cum Sibyllâ and ending Lacrymosa dies illa Quâ resurget ex favillâ Iudicandus homo reus Huic ergo parce Deus Pie Iesu Domine Dona eis requiem Tertullian in his booke de Monogamiâ which hee wrote after hee had beene infected with the heresie of the Montanists speaking of the prayer of a widow for the soule of her deceased husband saith that she requesteth refreshing for him and a portion in the first resurrection Which seemeth to have some tang of the error of the Millenaries whereunto not Tertullian onely with his Prophet Montanus but Nepos also and Lactantius and diverse other Doctors of the Church did fall who misunderstanding the prophecie in the 20. of the Revelation imagined that there should be a first resurrection of the just that should raigne here a thousand yeares upon earth and after that a second resurrection of the wicked at the day of the general judgement Yet in a certaine Gotthicke Missall I meet with two severall exhortations made unto the people to pray after the selfe same forme the one that God would vouchsafe to place in the bosome of Abraham the soules of those that be at rest and admit them unto the part of the first resurrectioÌ„ the other which I find elsewhere also repeated in particular that he would place in rest the spirits of their friends which were gone before them in the Lords peace and rayse them up in the part of the first resurrection Which how it may be excused otherwise then by saying that at the generall resurrection the dead in Christ shall rise fiâ—st and then the wicked shall be raysed after them and by referring the first resurrection unto the resurrection of the just which shall be at that day I cannot well resolve For certaine it is that the first râ—surrection spoken of in the 20. chapter of the Revelation of S. Iohn is the resuâ—rection of the soule from the death of sinne and error in this world as the second is the resurrection of the bodie out of the dust of the earth in the world to come both whiâ—h be distinctly layd down by our Saviour in the fift chapter of the Gospell of S. Iohn the first in the 25. verse The houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live the second in the 28. and 29. Marveile not at this for the houre is comming in which all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation And to this generall resurrection and to the judgement of the last day had the Church relation in her prayers some patternes whereof it will not be amisse to exhibit here in these examples following Although the condition of death brought in upon mankinde doth make our hearts and mindes heavy yet by the gift of thy clemencie we are raised up with the hope of future immortalitie and being mindfull of eternall salvation are not afraid to sustaine the losse of this light For by the benefite of thy grace life is not taken away to the faithful but changed and the soules being freed from the prison of the body abhorre things mortall when they attaine unto things eternall Wherefore we beseech thee that thy servant N. being placed in the tabernacles of the blessed may rejoyce that he hath escaped the straytes of the flesh and in the desire of glorification expect with confidence the day of Iudgement Through Iesus Christ our Lord. whose holy passion we celebrate without doubt for immortall and well resting soules for them especially upon whom thou hast bestowed the grace of the second birth who by the example of the same Iesus Christ our Lord have begunne to be secure of the resurrection For thou vvho hast made the things that were not art able to repaire the things that were and hast given unto us evidences of the resurrection to come not onely by the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but also by the
adhere sâ— at this day in this cause how many O Lord doe now fight with Pelagius for Free-will against thy free grace and against Paul the spirituall Champion of grace For the whole world almost is gone after Pelagius into error Arise therefore O Lord judge thine owne cause and him that defendeth thee defend protect strengthen comfort To whose judgement I also now leave these Vaine defenders or as S. Augustine rightly censureth them deceivers and puffers up and presumptuous extollers of Free-will OF MERITS IN the last place we are told that the Fathers of the unspotted Church of Rome did â—each Thaâ— man for his meritorious workes receiveth through the assistance of Gods grace the blisse of everlasting happinesse But our Challenger I suppose will hardly finde one Father either of the spotted or unspotted Church of Rome that ever spake so babishly herein as he maketh them all to doe That man by the assistance of Gods grace may doe meritorious workes we have read in divers Authors and in divers meanings But after these workes done that a man should receive through the assistance of Gods grace the blisse of everlasting happinesse is such a peece of gibbrish as I doe not remember that before now I have ever met withall even in Babel it selfe For with them that understand what they speake assistance hath reference to the doing of the worke not to the receiving of the reward and simply to say that a man for his meritorious workes taking merit here as the Romanists in this question would have it taken receiveth through Gods grace the blisse of everlasting happinesse is to speake flat contrarieties and to conjoine those things that cannot possibly be coupled together For that conclusion of Bernard is most certaine There is no place for grace to enter where merit hath taken possession because it is grounded upon the Apostles determination Rom. 11.6 If it be of grace it is no more of workes or else were grace no more grace Neither doe we therefore take away the reward because we deny the merit of good workes Wee know that in the keeping of Gods Commandements there is great reward Psal. 19.11 and that unto him who soweth righteousnesse there shall be a sure reward Prov. 11.18 But the question is whence he that soweth in this manner must expect to reape so great and so sure a harvest Whether from Gods justice which he must doe if hee stand as the Iesuites would have him doe upon merit or from his mercie as a recompence freely bestowed out of Gods gracious bountie and not in justice due for the worth of the worke performed Which question we thinke the Prophet Hosea hath sufficiently resolved when he biddeth us sow to our selves in righteousnesse and reape in MERCIE Hose 10.12 Neither doe we hereby any whit detract from the truth of that axiome That God will give every man acccording to his works for still the question remaineth the very same whether God may not judge a man according to his workes when he sitteth upon the throne of grace as well as when he sitteth upon the throne of justice and wee thinke here that the Prophet David hath fully cleared the case in that one sentence Psal. 62.12 With thee O Lord is MERCY for thou rewardest every one according to his worke Originally therefore and in it selfe we hold that this reward proceedeth meerely from Gods free bountie and mercie but accidentally in regard that God hath tied himselfe by his word and promise to conferre such a reward we grant that it now proveth in a sort to be an act of justice even as in forgiving of our sins which in it selfe all men know to be an act of mercie he is said to be faithfull and just 1 Ioh. 1.9 namely in regard of the faithfull performance of his promise For promise we see amongst honest men is counted a due debt but the thing promised being free and on our part altogether undeserved if the promiser did not performe and proved not to be so good as his word he could not properly be said to doe me wrong but rather to wrong himself by impairing his own credit And therfore Aquinas himselfe confesseth that God is not hereby simply made a debter to us but to himselfe in as much as it is requisite that his owne ordinance should be fulfilled Thus was Moses carefull to put the children of Israel in minde touching the Land of Canaan which was a type of our eternall habitation in Heaven that it was a Land of promise and not of merit which God did give them to possesse not for their righteousnesse or for their upright bea rt but that he might performe the word which he sware unto their Fathers Abraham Izhak and Iacob Deut. 9.5 Whereupon the Levites say in their praier unto God Nehem. 9.8 Thou madest a covenant with Abraham to give unto his seed the Land of the Canaanites and hast performed thy word because thou art IUST Now because the Lord had made a like promise of the Crowne of life to them that love him Iam. 1.12 therefore S. Paul doth not sticke in like manner to attribute this also to Gods justice Henceforth saith he 2 Tim. 4.8 is laid up for me the crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing Upon which place Bernard in his booke of Grace and Free-will saith most sweetly That therefore which Paul expecteth is a crowne of righteousnesse but of Gods righteousnesse not his owne For it is just that he should give what he oweth and he oweth what he hath promised and this is the rightâ—â—usnesse of God of which the Apostle presumeth the promise of God But this will not content our Iesuites unlesse wee yeeld unto them that wee doe as properly and truly merit rewards when with the grace of God we doe well as we doe merit punishments when without grace we do evill So saith Maldonat that is to say unlesse we maintaine that the good workes of just persons doe merit eternall life condignely not only by reason of Gods covenant and acceptation but also by reason of the worke it selfe so that in a good worke proceeding from grace there may be a certaine proportion and equalitie unto the reward of eternall life So saith Cardinall Bellarmine For the further opening whereof Vasquez taketh upon him to prove in order these three distinct Propositions First that the good workes of just persons are of themselves without any covenant and acceptation worthy of the reward of eternall life and have an equall value of condignitie to the obtaining of eternall glorie Secondly That no accession of dignitie doth come to the workes of the just by the merits or person of Christ which the same should not have otherwise if they had beene done by the same grace bestowed liberally by God alone without
propter did note an efficient cause And yet for the salving of that also the Cardinal of Cambraye Petrus de Alliaco delivereth us this distinction This word Propter is sometimes taken by way of consequence and then it noteth the order of the following of one thing upon another as when it is said The reward is given for the merit For nothing else is signified thereby but that the reward is given after the merit and not but after the merit Sometimes againe it is taken causally And forasmuch as a cause also is accounted that upon the being whereof another thing doth follow a thing may be said to be a cause two manner of waies One way properly when upon the presence of the being of the one by the vertue thereof and out of the nature of the thing there followeth the being of the other and thus is fire the cause of heat Another way improperly when upon the presence of the being of the one there foâ—loweth the being of the other yet not by the vertue thereof nor out of the nature of the thing but only out of the will of another and so a meritorious â—ot is said to be a cause in respect of the reward as caussa sine quâ non also is said to be a cause though it be none properly Among those famous Clearkes that lived in the familie of Richard Angervill Bishop of Durham in the daies of Edward the third Thomas Bradwardin who was afterward Archbishop of Canterbury Richard Fitzraufe afterward Archbishop of Armagh and Robert Holeot the Dominican were of speciall note The first of these in his Defense of the cause of God against the Pelagians of his time disputeth this point at large shewing that Merit is not the cause of everlasting reward and that when the Scriptures and Doctors doe affirme that God will reward the good for their good merits or workes Propter did not signifie the cause properly but improperly either the cause of knowing it or the order or the disposition of the subject thereunto Richard of Armagh whom my countrymen commonly doe call S. Richard of Dundalke because he was there borne and buried intimateth this to be his minde that the reward is here rendred not for the condignitie of the worke but for the promise and so for the justice of the rewarder as heretofore we have heard out of Bernard Holcot though in words he maintaine the merit of condignitie yet he confesseth with the Master of the Sentences that God is hereby made our debtor ex naturâ sui promissi non ex naturâ nostri commissi out of the nature of his owne promise not out of the nature of our doing and that our workes have this value in them not naturally as if there were so great goodnesse in the nature or substance of the merit that everlasting life should be due unto it but legally in regard of Gods ordinance and appointment even as a little peece of copper of it owne nature or naturall value is not worth so much as a loafe of bread but by the institution of the Prince is worth so much And in this manner we may say saith he that our workes are worthy of life everlasting by grace and not by the substance of the act For God hath ordained that he that worketh well in grace should have life everlasting and therefore by the law and grace of Christ our Prince we merit condignely everlasting life Whereby we may see how rightly it hath beene observed by Vasquez that divers of those whom he accounteth Catholickes doe differ from us only in words but agree in deed Of which number he nameth Willielmus Parisiensis Scotus Ockam Gregorius Ariminensis Gabriel Biel with his Supplement the Chanons of Culleyn in their Antididagma and Enchiridion Ioh. Bunderius Alphonsus de Castro and Andreas Vega who was present at the handling of these matters in the last Tridentine Councell All these and sundry others beside them hold that the dignitie of the good workes done by Gods children doth not proceed from the value of the workes themselves but only from the gratious promise and acceptation of God Yea Gregorius Ariminensis that most able and carefull defender of S. Augustine as Vega stileth him concludeth peremptorily that no act of man though issuing from never so great charitie meriteth of condignitie from God either eternall life or yet any other reward whether eternall or temporall The same conclusion is by Durand the most resolate Doctor as Gerson tearmeth him thus confirmed That which is conferred rather out of the liberalitie of the giver than out of the due of the worke doth not fall within the compasse of the merit of condignitie strictly and properly taken But whatsoever we receive of God whether it be grace or whether it be glory whether temporall or spirituall good whatsoever good worke we have before done for it yet we receive the same rather and more principally out of Gods liberalitie than out of the due of the worke Therefore nothing at all falleth within the compasse of the merit of condignitie so taken And the cause hereof is saith he because both that which we are and that which we have whether they be good acts or good habits or the use of them is wholly in us by Gods liberalitie freely giving and preserving the same Now because none is bound by his owne free gift to give more but the receiver rather is more bound to him that giveth therefore by the good habits and by the good acts or uses which God hath given us God is not bound to us by any debt of justice to give any thing more so as if he did not give it he should be unjust but we are rather bound to God And to thinke or say the contrary is rashnesse or blasphemie Of the same judgement with Durand was Iacobus de Everbaco as Marsilius witnesseth who delivereth his owne opinion touching this matter in these three conclusions I. If we consider our workes in themselves or as they proceed also from cooperating grace they are not such workes as deserve eternall life of condignitie for proofe whereof hee bringeth in many reasons and that of Durands for one If for the workes wrought by grace and free-will although never so great eternall life should be due unto any by condignitie then God should doe him injurie if he did not give eternall life unto him and so God by those great good things which he had given should be constrained in way of justice to adde more great thereunto which reason doth not comprehend II. Such workes as these may be said to merit eternall life of condignitie by divine acceptation originally proceeding from the merit of the passion of Christ. III. Workes done by grace doe merit eternall life by way of congruitie in respect of Gods liberall disposition who hath
so purposed to reward them Afterwards he proveth out of the Apostle Rom. 6.23 that eternall life is given out of Gods grace not out of our righteousnesse and that God in thus rewarding us doth neither exercise commutative justice because in our good workes we give nothing unto God for which by way of commutation the reward should be due unto us nor yet distributive because no man by working well in regard of himselfe and in regard of the state wherein he is doth merit any thing of condignitie but is bound to God rather by a greater obligation because he hath received greater good things from him And thereupon at last concludeth that God is just in rewarding because by his just disposition he hath ordained by the grace of acceptation to crowne the lesser merit with the greater reward not by the justice of debt but by the grace and disposition of the divine good pleasure But the sentence of the Chancellour and the Theologicall facultie of Paris in the yeere 1354. against one Guido an Austin Fryar that then defended the merit of condignitie is not to be overpassed For by their order this forme of recantation was prescribed unto him I said against a Bachelour of the order of the Fryars Preachers in conference with him that a man doth merit everlasting life of condignitie that is to say that in case it were not given there should injurie be done unto him I wrote likewise that God should doe him iniurie and approved it This I revoke as FALSE HERETICALL and BLASPHEMOVS Yet now the times are so changed and men in them that our new Divines of Rhemes stick not to tell us that it is most cleare to all not blinded in pride and contention that good workes be meritorious and the very cause of salvation so far that God should be unjust if he rendred not heaven for the same where to the judgement of the indifferent Reader I referre it whether side in this case is more likely to have beene blinded in pride we who abase our selves before Gods footstoole and utterly disclaime all our owne merits or they who have so high a conceit of them that they dare in this presumptuous manner to challenge God of injustice if he should judge them to deserve a lesse reward than Heaven it selfe and whether that sentence of our Saviour Christ be not fulfilled in them as well as in the proud and blinde Pharisees their predecessors For judgement I am come into this world that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blinde And so leaving these blinde leaders of the blinde who say they see by that meanes making their sinne to remaine and say they are rich and increased with goods not knowing that they are wretched and miserable and poore and blinde and naked I proceed and out of the fifteenth Century or Hundred of yeeres after Christ produce other two witnesses of this truth The one is Paulus Burgensis who expounding those words of David Psalm 36.5 Thy mercy O Lord is in heaven or reacheth unto the heavens writeth thus No man according to the common law can merit by condignitie the glory of heaven whence the Apostle saith in the 8. to the Romans that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us and so it is manifest that in heaven most of all the mercy of God shineth forth in the blessed The other is Thomas Walden who living in England the same time that the other did in Spaine professeth plainly his dislike of that saying that a man by his merits is worthy of the kingdome of heaven or this grace or that glory howsoever certaine Schoolemen that they might so speake had invented the tearmes of Condignitie and Congruitie But I repute him saith he the sounder Divine the more faithfull Catholicke and more consonant with the holy Scriptures who doth simply denie such merit and with the qualification of the Apostle and of the Scriptures confesseth that simply no man meriteth the kingdome of heaven but by the grace of God or will of the giver as all the former Saints untill the late Schoolemen and the universall Church hath written Out of which words of his you may further observe both the time when and the persons by whom this innovation was made in these latter daies of the Church namely that the late Schoolemen were they that corrupted the ancient doctrine of the Church and to that end devised their new termes of the merit of congruitie and condignitie I say in these latter daies because if we looke unto higher times Walden himselfe in that same place doth affirme that it was a branch of the Pelagian heresie to hold that according to the measure of meritorious workes God will reward a man so meriting Neither indeed can this proud generation of Merit-mongers be derived from a more proper stocke than from the old either Pelagians or Catharists For as these doe now adaies maintaine that they doe worke by their owne free-will and thereby deserve their salvation so was this wont to be a part of Pelagius his song No man shall take away from me the power of free-will lest if God be my helper in my workes the reward be not due to me but to him that did worke in me And to glory of their merits was a speciall property noted in the Catharists or ancient Puritans who standing thus upon their owne puritie doe thereby declare as Cassiodorus noteth that they have no portion with the holy Church which professeth that her sinnes are many Nay while these men call themselves Puritans saith Epiphanius by this very ground they prove themselves to be impure for whosoever pronounceth himselfe to be pure doth therein absolutely condemne himselfe to be impure For as S. Hierome in this case disputeth against the Pelagians and so against the Puritan and Pelagian Romanists then are we righteous when we confesse our selves to be sinners and our righteousnesse consisteth not in our owne merits but in Gods mercy with whose resolution against them we will now conclude this point against their new off-spring that the righteous are saved not by their owne merit but by Gods clemencie And thus have I gone over all the particular articles propounded by our Challenger and performed therein more a great deale than he required at my hands That which he desired in the name of his felloâ—es was that we would alleage but any one Text of Scripture which condemneth any of the above written points He hath now presented unto him not texts of Scripture only but testimonies of the Fathers also justifying our dissâ—nt from them not in one but in all those points wherein he was so confident that they of our side that had read the Fathers could well testifie that all antiquitie did in judgement concurre with
for you for the obtaining of which double blessing both of grace and of glory together with all outward prosperitie and happinesse in this life you shall never want the instant praiers of Your Majesties most faithfull subject and humble servant IA. MIDENSIS TO THE READER IT is now about six yeeres as I gather by the reckoning laid downe in the 25 th page of this booke since this following Challenge was brought unto me from a Iesuite and received that generall Answer which now serveth to make up the first chapter only of this present worke The particular points which were by him but barely named I meddled not withall at that time conceiving it to be his part as in the 34 th page is touched who sustained the person of the Assailant to bring forth his armes and give the first onset and mine as the Defendant to repell his encounter afterwards Only I then collected certaine materials out of the Scriptures and writings of the Fathers which I meant to make use of for a second conflict whensoever this Challenger should be pleased to descend to the handling of the particular articles by him proposed the truth of euery of which he had taken upon him to prove by the expresse testimonies of the Fathers of the primitiue Church as also by good and certaine grounds out of the sacred Scriptures if the Fathers authoritie would not suffice Thus this matter lay dead for diuers yeeres together and so would still have done but that some of high place in both Kingdomes having beene pleased to thinke farre better of that little which I had done than the thing deserved advised me to goe forward and to deliver the iudgement of Antiquitie touching those particular points in controversie wherein the Challenger was so confident that the whole current of the Doctors Pastors and Fathers of the Primitiue Church did mainly run on his side Hereupon I gathered my scattered notes together and as the multitude of my imployments would give mee leave now entred into the handling of one point and then of another treating of each either more briefly or more largely as the opportunitie of my present leisure would give me leave And so at last after many interruptions I have made up in such manner as thou seest a kinde of a Doctrinall History of those seuerall points which the Iesuite culled out as speciall instances of the consonancie of the doctrine now maintained in the Church of Rome with the perpetuall and constant iudgement of all Antiquitie The doctrine that here I take upon me to defend what different opinions soever I relate of others is that which by publike authoritie is professed in the Church of England and comprised in the booke of Articles agreed upon in the Synod held at LONDON in the yeere 1562. concerning which I dare be bold to challenge our Challenger and all his complices that they shall never be able to prove that there is either any one article of Religion disallowed therein which the Saints and Fathers of the Primitive Church did generally hold to be true I use the words of my challenging Iesuit or any one point of doctrine allowed which by those Saints and Fathers was generally held to be untrue As for the testimonies of the Authors which I alleage I have beene carefull to set downe in the margent their owne words in their owne language such places of the Greeke Doctors only excepted whereof the originall text could not be had as well for the better satisfaction of the Readers who either cannot come by that variety of bookes whereof use is here made or will not take the paines to enter into a curious search of every particular allegation as for the preventing of those trifling quarrels that are commonly made against translations for if it fall out that word be not everie where precisely rendred by word as who would tie himselfe to such a pedanticall observation none but an idle caviller can obiect that this was done with any purpose to corrupt the meaning of the Author whose words he seeth laid downe before his eies to the end he may the better judge of the translation and rectifie it where there is cause Againe because it is a thing very materiall in the historicall handling of controversies both to understand the Times wherein the severall Authors lived and likewise what bookes be truly or falsly ascribed to each of them for some direction of the Reader in the first I have annexed at the end of this booke a Chronologicall Catalogue of the Authors cited therein wherein such as have no number of yeeres affixed unto them are thereby signified to be Incerti temporis their age being not found by me upon this sudden search to be noted by any and for the second I have seldome neglected in the worke it selfe whensoever a doubtfull or supposititious writing was alleaged to give some intimation whereby it might be discerned that it was not esteemed to be the booke of that Author unto whom it was intituled The exact discussion as well of the Authors Times as of the Censures of their workes I refer to my Theological Bibliotheque if God hereafter shall lend me life and leasure to make up that worke for the use of those that meane to give themselves to that Noble study of the doctrine and rites of the ancient Church In the meane time I commit this booke to thy favourable censure and thy selfe to Gods gracious direction earnestly advising thee that whatsoever other studies thou intermittest the carefull and conscionable reading of Gods booke may never be neglected by thee for whatsoever becommeth of our disputes touching other antiquities or novelties thou maiest stand assured that thou shalt there finde so much by Gods blessing as shall be able to make thee wise unto salvation and to build thee up and to give thee an inheritance among all them that are sanctified Which next under Gods glory is the utmost thing I know that thou aimest at and for the attaining whereunto I heartily wish that the word of Christ may dwell in thee richly in all wisedome THE CONTENTS of the BOOKE CHAP. I. A Generall answer to the Iesuites Challenge pag. 1. CHAP. II. Of Traditions pag. 35. CHAP. III. Of the Real presence pag. 44. CHAP. IIII. Of Confession pag. 81. CHAP. V. Of the Priests power to forgive sinnes pag. 109. CHAP. VI. Of Purgatorie pag. 163. CHAP. VII Of Praier for the dead pag. 182. CHAP. VIII Of Limbus Patrum and Christs descent into Hell pag. 252. CHAP. IX Of Praier to Saints pag. 377. CHAP. X. Of Images pag. 447. CHAP. XI Of Free-will pag. 464. CHAP. XII Of Merits pag. 492. THE IESVITES CHALLENGE How shall I answer to a Papist demaunding this Question YOur Doctors and Masters graunt that the Church of Rome for 400 or 500 years after Christ did hold the true Religion First then would I faine knowe what Bishop of Rome did first alter that Religion which you commend
good and the confusion of the evill and that it is the propertie of a faithfull man to bee fully perswaded of the truth of those things that are delivered in the holy Scripture and not to dare eyther to reject or to adde any thing thereunto For if whatsoever is not of faith be sinne as the Apostle saith and faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God then vvhatsoever is without the holy Scripture being not of faith must needs be sinne Thus farre S. Basil. In like maner Gregory Nyssene S. Basils brother layeth this for a ground vvhich no man should contradict that in that onely the truth must be acknowledged wherein the seale of the Scripture testimony is to be seene And accordingly in another booke attributed also unto him we finde this conclusion made Forasmuch as this is upholden vvith no testimony of the Scripture as false vve will reject it Thus also S. Hierome disputeth against Helvidius· As vvee denye not those things that are written so vve refuse those things that are not vvritten That God was borne of a Virgin we beleeve because we reade it that Mary did marry after shee was delivered wee beleeve not because wee reade it not In those things saith S. Augustine vvhich are layd downe plainly in the Scriptures all those things are found which appertaine to faith and direction of life And againe Whatsoever ye heare from the holy Scriptures let that savour vvell unto you whatsoever is without them refuse lest you wander in a cloud And in another place All those things which in times past our ancestors have mentioned to be done toward mankind and have delivered unto us all those things also which we see and doe deliver unto our posteritie so farre as they appertaine to the seeking and maintayning of true Religion the holy Scripture hath not passed in silence The holy Scripture saith S. Cyrill of Alexandria is sufficient to make them which are brought up in it wise and most approved and furnished with most sufficient understanding And againe That which the holy Scripture hath not said by what meanes should wee receive and account it among those things that be true Lastly in the writings of Theodoret wee meete with these kinde of speeches By the holy Scripture alone am I perswaded I am not so bold as to affirme any thing which the sacred Scripture passeth in silence It is an idle and a senselesse thing to seeke those things that are passed in silence Wee ought not to seeke those things which are passed in silence but rest in the things that are written By the verdict of these twelve men you may judge what opinion was held in those ancient times of such Traditions as did crosse either the verity or the perfection of the sacred Scripture which are the Traditions we set our selves against If now it be demanded in what Popes dayes the contrarie doctrine was brought in among Christians I answer that if S. Peter were ever Pope in his dayes it was that some seducers first laboured to bring in Will-worship into the Church against whom S. Paul opposing himselfe Coloss. 2. counteth it a sufficient argument to condemne all such inventions that they were the commandements and doctrines of men Shortly after them started up other Hereticks who taught that the truth could not be found out of the Scriptures by those to whom Tradition was unknowen forasmuch as it was not delivered by writing but by word of mouth for which cause S. Paul also should say Wee speake wisedome among them that be perfect The verie same Text doe the Iesuites alledge to prove the dignitie of manie mysteries to be such that they require silence and that it is unmeet they should bee opened in the Scriptures which are read to the whole world and therefore can onely be learned by unwritten Traditions Wherein they consider not how they make so neare an approach unto the confines of some of the ancientest Heretickes that they may well shake hands together For howsoever some of them were so madde as to say that they were wiser then the Apostles themselves and therefore made light account of the doctrine which they delivered unto the Church either by writing or by word of mouth yet all of them broake not forth into that open impietie the same mysterie of iniquitie wrought in some of Antichrists fore-runners then which is discovered in his ministers now They confessed indeed as witnesseth Tertullian that the Apostles were ignorant of nothing and differed not among themselves in their preaching but they say they revealed not all things unto all men some things they delivered openly and to all some things secretly and to a few because that Paul useth this speech unto Timothy O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy trust And againe That good thing which was committed unto thee keepe Which verie Texts the Iesuites likewise bring in to prove that there are some Traditions which are not contayned in the Scripture In the dayes of S. Hierome also this was wont to be the saying of Hereticks We are the sonnes of the wise men which from the beginning have delivered the doctrine of the Apostles unto us But those things saith that Father which they of themselves finde out and faine to have received as it were by Tradition from the Apostles without the authoritie and testimonies of the Scriptures the sword of God doth smite S. Chrysostome in like maner giveth this for a marke of Antichrist and of all spiritual theeves that they come not in by the doore of the Scriptures For the Scripture saith hee like unto a sure doore doth barre an entrance unto Hereticks safeguarding us in all things that we will and not suffering us to be deceived Whereupon he concludeth that who so useth not the Scriptures but commeth in otherwise that is betaketh himselfe to another and an unlawfull way he is a theefe How this mysterie of iniquitie wrought when Antichrist came unto his full growth and what experiments his followers gave of their theevish entry in this kind was well observed by the author of the book De unitate Ecclesiae thought by some to be Waltram Bishop of Naumburg who speaking of the Monks that for the upholding of Pope Hildebrands faction brought in schismes and heresies into the Church noteth this specially of them that despising the tradition of God they desired other doctrines and brought in maisteries of humane institution Against whom hee alledgeth the authoritie of their owne S. Benedict the father of the Monkes in the West writing thus The Abbot ought to teach or ordaine or command nothing which is without the precept of the Lord but his commandement or instruction should be spred as the leaven of divine righteousnesse in the minds of his Disciples Whereunto also hee might have added the testimonie of the two famous Fathers
the writings of S. Cyrill Gennadius Olympiodorus and oâ—hers S. Cyrill from those last words of our Saviour upon the Crosse Father into thy hands I commend my spirit delivereth this as the certaine ground and foundation of our hope Wee ought to beleeve that the soules of the Saints when they are departed out of their bodies are commended unto Gods goodnesse as unto the hands of a most deare Father and doe not remaine in the earth as some of the unbeleevers have imagined untill they have had the honour of buriall neyther are carried as the soules of the wicked be unto a place of unmeasurable torment that is unto Hell but rather flye to the hands of the Father this way being first prepared for us by Christ. For hee delivered up his soule into the hands of his Father that from it and by it a beginning being made we might have certaine hope of this thing firmely beleeving that after death we shall be in the hands of God and shall live a farre better life for ever with Christ. for therefore Paul desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Gennadius in a booke wherein hee purposely taketh upon him to reckon up the particular points of doctrine received by the Church in his time when he commeth to treat of the state of soules separated from the body maketh no mention at all of Purgatorie but layeth down this for one of his positions After the ascension of our Lord into heaven the soules of all the Saints are with Christ and departing out of the bodie goe unto Christ expecting the resurrection of their bodie that together with it they may be changed unto perfect and perpetuall blessednesse as the soules of the sinners also being placed in Hell under feare expect the resurrection of their body that with it they may be thrust unto everlasting paine In like maner Olympiodorus expounding that place of Ecclesiastes If the tree fall toward the South or toward the North in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be maketh this inference thereupon In whatsoever place therefore either lightsome or darke that is either in the foule station of sinnes or in the honest of vertues a man is taken when he dyeth in that degree and order he remaineth for ever For either hee resteth in the light of eternall felicitie with the just and with Christ our Lord or is tormented in darkenesse with the wicked and with the Divell the prince of this world The first whom we finde directly to have held that for certaine light faults there is a purgatory fire provided before the day of judgement was Gregory the first about the end of the sixth age after the birth of our Saviour Christ. It was his imagination that the end of the world was then at hand and that as when the night beginneth to be ended and the day to spring before the rising of the Sunne the darkenesse is in some sort mingled together with the light untill the remaines of the departing night be turned into the light of the following day so the end of this world was then intermingled with the beginning of the world to come and the very darkenes of the remaines thereof made transparent by a certaine mixture of spirituall things And this he assigneth for the reason why in those last times so many things were made cleare touching the soules which before lay hid so that by open revelations and apparitions the world to come might seeme to bring in and open it selfe unto them But as we see that he was plainly deceived in the one of his conceits so have we just cause to call into question the veritie of the other the Scripture especially having informed us that a people for enquiry of matters should not have recourse to the dead but to their God to the Law and to the Testimony it being not Gods manner to send men from the dead to instruct the living but to remit them unto Moses and the Prophets that they may heare them And the reason is well worth the observation which the author of the Questions to Antiochus rendreth why God would not permit the soule of any of those that departed from hence to returne backe unto us againe and to declare the state of things in Hell unto us least much errour might arise from thence unto us in this life For many of the Divels saith hee might transforme themselves into the shapes of those men that were deceased and say that they vvere risen from the dead and so might spred many false matters doctrines of the things there unto our seduction and destruction Neither is it to be passed over that in those apparitions and revelations related by Gregory there is no mention made of any common lodge in Hell appointed for purging of the dead which is that which the Church of Rome now striveth for but of certaine soules only that for their punishment were confined to bathes and other such places here upon earth which our Romanists may beleeve if they list but must seeke for the Purgatorie they looke for somewhere else And yet may they save themselves that labour if they will be advised by the Bishops assembled in the Councell of Aquisgran 240. yeares after these visions were published by Gregory who will resolve them out of the word of God how sinnes are punished in the world to come The sinnes of men say they are punished three maner of wayes two in this life and the third in the life to come Of those two the Apostle saith If we would judge our selves we should not be judged of the Lord. This is the punishment wherewith by the inspiration of God every sinner by repenting for his offences taketh revenge upon himselfe But where the Apostle consequently adjoyneth When we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with this world this is the punishment which almightie God doth mercifully inflict upon a sinner according to that saying Whom God loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth everie sonne that hee receiveth But the third is very fearefull and terrible which by the most just judgement of God shall be executed not in this world but in that which is to come vvhen the just Iudge shall say Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Divell and his angells Adde hereunto the saying of the author of the booke De vanitate saeculi wrongly ascribed to S. Augustine Know that when the soule is separated from the body presently it is eyther placed in Paradise for his good merites or cast headlong into the bottom of hell for his sinnes and that in the dayes of Otto Frisingensis himselfe who wrote in the year of our Lord MCXLVI the doctrine of Purgatory was esteemed onely a private assertion held by some and not an article of faith generally received by the whole Church for why should hee
aye-virgin Mary which kinde of oblation for the Saincts sounding somewhat harshly in the eares of the Latines Leo Thuscus in his translation thought best to expresse it to their better liking after this maner We offer unto thee this reasonable service for the faithfully deceased for our fathers and fore-fathers the Patriarches Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all the Saints interceding for them As if the phrase of offering for the Martyrs were not to be found in S. Chrysostoms own workes and more universally for the just both the Fathers and the Patriarches the Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists and Martyrs and Confessors the Bishops and such as ledd a solitarie life and the whole order in the suffrages of the Church rehearsed by Epiphanius yea and in the Western Church it selfe for the spirits of those that are at rest Hilary Athanasius Martin Ambrose Augustin Fulgentius Leander Isidorus c. as may be seene in the Muzarabicall Office used in Spaine Sixthly this may be confirmed out of the funerall orations of S. Ambrose in one whereof touching the Emperour Valentinian and his brother Gratian thus he speaketh Let us beleeve that Valentinian is ascended from the desert that is to say from this dry and unmanured place unto those flowry delights where being conjoyned with his brother hee enjoyeth the pleasure of everlasting life Blessed are you both if my orizons shall prevayle anie thing no day shall overslip you in silence no oration of mine shall passe you over unhonoured no night shall runne by wherein I will not bestow upon you some portion of my prayers With all oblations will I frequent you In another he prayeth thus unto God Give rest unto thy perfect servant Theodosius that rest which thou hast prepared for thy Saints and yet hee had said before of him Theodosius of honourable memory being freed from doubtfull fight doth now enjoy everlasting light and continuall tranquillitie and for the things which he did in this bodie he rejoyceth in the fruits of Gods reward because he loved the Lord his God he hath obtayned the societie of the Saints and afterward also Theodosius remaineth in light and glorieth in the companie of the Saints In a third he prayeth thus for his brother Satyrus Almightie God I now commend unto thee his harmelesse soule to thee doe I make my oblation accept mercifully and gratiously the office of a brother the sacrifice of a Priest although he had directly pronounced of him before that he had entred into the kingdome of heaven because he beleeved the word of God and excelled in manie notable vertues Lastly in one of his Epistles he comforteth Faustinus for the death of his sister after this maner Doe not the carkases of so many halfe-ruined cities and the funeralls of so much land exposed under one view admonish thee that the departure of one woman although a holy and an admirable one should be born with greater consolation especially seeing they are cast down and overthrowen for ever but she being taken from us but for a time doth passe a better life there I therefore thinke that she is not so much to be lamented as to be followed with prayers and am of the minde that she is not to be made sadde with thy teares but rather that her soule should be commended with oblations unto the Lord. Thus farre S. Ambrose Unto whom we may adjoyne Gregory Nazianzen also who in his funerall oration that he made upon his brother Caesarius having acknowledged that he had received those honours that did befit a new created soule which the Spirit had reformed by water for he had beene but lately baptized before his departure out of this life doth notwithstanding pray that the Lord would be pleased to receive him Diverse instances of the like practise in the ages following I have produced in another place to which I will adde some few more to the end that the Reader may from thence observe how long the primitive institution of the Church did hold up head among the tares that grew up with it and in the end did quite choake and extinguish it Our English Saxons had learned of Gregory to pray for reliefe of those soules that were supposed to suffer paine in Purgatorie and yet the introducing of that noveltie was not able to justle out the ancient usage of making prayers and oblations for them which were not doubted to have beene at rest in Gods kingdome And therefore the brethren of the Church of Hexham in the anniversarie commemoration of the obite of Oswald King of Northumberland used to keep their Vigiles for the health of his soule and having spent the night in praysing of God with psalmes to offer for him in the morning the sacrifice of the sacred oblation as Beda writeth who telleth us yet withall that he raigned with God in heaven and by his prayeâ—s procured manie miracles to be wrought on earth So likewise doth the same Bede report that when it was discovered by two severall visions that Hilda the Abbesse of Streansheale or Whitby in Yorkeshire was carried up by the Angels into heaven they which heard thereof presently caused prayers to be said for her soule And Osberne relateth the like of Dunstan that being at Bathe and beholding in such another vision the soule of one that had been his scholer at Glastenbury to be carried up into the palace of heaven he straightway commended the same into the hands of the divine pieâ—ie and intreated the lords of the place where he was to do so likewise Other narrations of the same kind may be found among them that have written of Saincts lives particularly in the Tome published by Mosander pag. 69. touching the decease of Bathildis Queen of France pa. 25. concerning the departure of Godfry Earle of Cappenberg who is said there to have appeared unto a certain Abbess called Gerbergis to have acquainted her that he was now without all delay without all danger of any more severe triall gone unto the palace of the highest King and as the sonne of the immortall King was cloathed with blessed immortalitie the Monk that writ the Legend addeth that shee presently thereupon caused the sacrifice of the Masse to be offered for him which how fabulous soever it may be for the matter of the vision yet doth it strongly prove that within these 500. years for no longer since it is that this is accounted to have bene done the use of offering for the soules of those that were beleeved to be in heaven was still retayned in the Church The letters of Charles the great unto Offa King of Mercia are yet extant wherein hee wisheth that intercessions should be made for Pope Adrian then lately deceased not having any doubt at all saith hee but that his blessed soule is at rest but that we may shew our faithfulnesse
that Infidels and wicked men departed out of this life were no more to be prayed for then the Divell and his angells which were appointed unto everlasting punishment should in his practise be found to be so much different from his judgement The second tale toucheth upon the verie times of the Apostles wherein the Apostolesse Thecla is said to have prayed for Falconilla the daughter of Tryphaena whom S. Paul saluteth Rom. 16.12 a gentile and an Idolatresse altogether profane and a servitour of another God to this effect O God Sonne of the true God grant unto Tryphaena according to thy will that her daughter may live with thee time without end or as Basil Bishop of Seleucia doth expresse it Grant unto thy servant Tryphaena that her desire may be fulfilled concerning her daughter her desire therein being this that her soule may be numbred among the soules of those that have already beleeved in thee and may enjoy the life and pleasure that is in Paradise The third tale he produceth out of Palladius his historicall book written unto Lausus although neither in the Greek set out by Meursius nor in the three severall Latin editions of that historie published before theâ—e bee any such thing to be found touching a dead mans skull that should have uttered this speech unto Macarius the great Aegyptian anchorer When thou dost offer up thy prayers for the dead then doe wee feele some little consâ—lation A brainlesse answer you may well conceive it to be that must be thought to have proceeded from a dry skull lying by the highway side but as brainlâ—sse as it is it hath not a little troubled the quick heads of our Romish Divines and put mâ—ny an odd cratchet into their nimble braines Renatus Laurentius telleth us that without all doubt it was an Angell that did speake in this skull And I say quoth Alphonsus Mendoza that this head which lay in the way was not the head of one that was damned but of a just man remayning in Purgatory for Damascen doth not say in that sermon that iâ— was the head of a Gentile as it may there be seene And true it is indeed he neither saith that it was so neither yet that it was not so but the Grecians generally relate the matter thus that Macarius did heare this from the skull of one that had been a Priest of Idoles which he found lying in the wildernesse that by his prayers such as were with him in punishment received a little ease of their torment whensoever it fell out that he made the same for them and among the Latins Thomas Aquinas and other of the Schoolemen take this for granted because they found in the Lives of the Fathers that the speech which the dead skull used was this I was a Priest of the Gentiles so Iohn the Roman subdeacoâ— translateth it or as Rufinus is supposed to have rendred it I was the chiefe of the Priests of the Idoles which dwelt in this place and thou art abbot Macarius that art filled with the spirit of God At whatsoever houre therefore thou takest pitie of them that are in torments and prayest for them they then feele som consolation Well saith Mendoza then if S. Thomas relating this history out of the Lives of the Fathers doth say that this vvas the head of a Gentile he himselfe is bound to untye this knot And so hee doth resolving the matter thus that the damned get no true ease by the prayers made for them but such a phantasticall kinde of joy only as the Divels are said to have when they have seduced and deceived any man But peradventure saith Cardinall Bellarmine for the upshott the things which are brought touching that skull might better be rejected as false and apocryphall and Stephen Durant more peremptorily The things vvhich are told of Trajan and Falconilla delivered out of hell by the prayers of S Gregory and Thecla and of the dry skull spoken too by Macarius be fayned and commentitious Which last answere though it be the truest of all the rest yet is it not to be doubted for all that but that the generall credite which these fables obtained together with the countenance which the opinion of the Origenists did receive from Didymus Euagrius Gregory Nyssen if he be not corrupted and other Doctors inclined the minds of men verie much to apply the common use of praying for the dead unto this wrong end of hoping to relieve the damned thereby S. Augustine doth shew that in his time not onely some but exceeding many also did out of an humane affection take compassion of the eternall paines of the damned and would not beleeve that they should never have an end And notwithstanding this error was publickly condemned afterwards in the Origenists by the fifth generall Councell held at Constantinople yet by idle and voluptuous persons was it still greedily embraced as Climacus complaineth and even now also saith S. Gregory there be some who therefore neglect to put an end unto their sinnes because they imagine that the judgements which are to come upon them shall sometimes have an end Yea of late dayes this opinion was maintayned by the Porretanians as Thomas calleth them and some of the Canonists the one following therein Gilbert Porreta Bishop of Poictiers in his booke of Theological Questions the other Iohn Semeca in his Glosse upon Gratian that by the prayers and suffrages of the living the paines of some of the damned were continually diminished in such maner as infinite proportionable parts may be taken from a line without ever comming unto an end of the division which was in effect to take from them at the last all paine of sense or sense of paine For as Thomas observeth it rightly and Durand after him in the division of a Line at last we must come unto that which is not sensible considering that a sensible bodie cannot be divided infinitely and so it would folloâ— that after many suffrages that paine remayning should not be sensible and consequently should be no paine at all Neither is it to be forgotten that the invention of All Soules day of which you may reade if you please Polydore Vergil in his sixth booke of the Inventers of things and the ninth chapter that solemne day I say wherein our Romanists most devoutly perform all their superstitious observances for the dead was occasioned at the first by the apprehension of this same erroneous conceit that the soules of the damned might not onely be eased but fully also delivered by the almes prayers of the living The whole narration of the businesse is thus laid down by Sigebertus Gemblacensis in his Chronicâ—e at the yeare of our Lord 998. This time saith he a certaine religious man returning from Ierusalem being intertained for a while in Sicile by the courtesie of a certaine anchoret learned from him among
carkasses are heaped together promiscuously in one certaine pit so when the Heathen write that all the soules of the dead goe to Hades their meaning is not that they are all shut up together in one and the selfe same roome but in generall onely they understand thereby the translation of them into the other world the extreame parts whereof the Poëts place as farre asunder as wee doe Heaven and Hell And this opinion of theirs S. Ambrose doth well like off wishing that they had not mingled other superfluous and unprofitable conceits therewith that soules departed from their bodies did goe to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to a place which is not seene which place saith he wee in Latin call Infernus So likewise saith S. Chrysostom The Grecians and Barbarians and Poëts and Philosophers and all mankinde doe herein consent with us although not all alike and say that there be certaine seats of judgement in Hádes so manifest and so confessed a thing is this and againe The Grecians were foolish in many things yet did they not resist the truth of this doctrine If therefore thou vvilt follow them they have granted that there is a certaine life after this accounts and seats of judgement in Hádes and punishments and honors and sentences judgements And if thou shalt aske the Iewes or heretickes or any man he will reverence the truth of this doctrine although they differ in other things yet in this doe they all agree and say that there are accounts to be made there of the things that be done here Only amoÌ„g the Iwes the Sadducees w ch say that there is no resurrection neyther Angel nor Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away the punishments and honours that are in Hádes as is noted by Iosephus For which wicked doctrine they were condemned by the other sectes of the Iewes who generally acknowledged that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Olam hanneshamoth for so doe they in their language untill this day call that which Iosephus in Greeke tearmeth Hades that is to say the world of spirits into which they held that the soules were translated presently after death and there received their seuerall judgements The same thing doth Theodoret suppose to be signified by that phrase of being gathered to ones people which is so usuall in the word of God For it being said of Iacob before he was buried that he gave up the ghost and was gathered unto his people Genes 49.33 Theodoret observeth that Moses by these words did closely intimate the hope of the resurrection For if men saith he had beene wholy extinguished and did not passe unto another life he would not have sayd Hee was gathered to his people So likewise where it is distinctly noted of Abraham Genes 25.8 9. first that hee gave up the ghost and died then that hee was gathered to his people and lastly that his sonnes buried him Cardinall Cajetan and the Iesuite Lorinus interpret the first de compositi totius dissolutione of the dissolution of the parts of the whole-man consisting of body and soule the second of the state of the soule separated from the body and the third of the disposing of the body parted from the soule Thus the Scriptures speech of being gathered to our people should be answerable in meaning to the phrase used by the heathen of descending into Hell or going to Hades which as Synesius noteth out of Homer was by them opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a most absolute extinguishment as well of the soule as of the body And forasmuch as by that tearme the immortalitie of the soule was commonly signified therefore doth Plato in his Phaedo disputing of that argument make this the state of his question Whether the soules of men deceased be in Hades or no and our Eccâ—esiasticall writers also doe from thence sometimes fetch a difference betwixt Death and Hades You shall finde saith Theophylact that there is some difference betwixt Hades and Death namely that Hades contayneth the soules but Death the bodies For the soules are immoâ—tall The same we reade in Nicetas Serronius his exposition of Gregory Nazianzens second Paschall oration Andreas Caesareensis doth thus expresse the difference Death is the separation of the soule and the body But Hades is a place to us invisible or vnseene and unknowne which receiveth our soules when they departe from hence The ordinary Glosse following S. Hierome upon the thirteenth of Hosea thus Death is that whereby the soule is separated from the body Hell is that place wherein the soules are included eyther for comfort or for paine The soule goeth to Hádes saith Nicetas Choniates in the Prooeme of his Historie but the bodie returneth againe into those things of which it was composed Caius or whoe ever else was the author of that auncient fragment which wee formerly signified to have been falsely fathered upon Iosephus holdeth that in Hades the soules both of the righteous and unrighteous are contayned but that the righteous are led to the right hand by the Angels that awayte them there and brought unto a lightsome region wherein the righteous men that have beene from the beginning doe dwell and this wee call Abrahams bâ—some saith he whereas the wicked are drawen toward the left hand by the punishing Angels not going willingly but drawen as prisoners by violence Where you may observe how he frameth his description of Hades according to that modell wherewith the Poets had before possessed mens mindes Dextera quae Ditis magni sub moenia tendit Hâc iter Elysium nobis at laeva malorum Exercet poenas ad impia tartara mittit The right hand path goth underneath the walls of Pluto deepe That way we must if paths to Paradise we thinke to keepe The left hand leads to paine and men to Tartarus doth send For as Wee doe allot unto good men a resting place in Paradise so the Greekes doe assigne unto their Heroës the Fortunate Ilandes and the Elysian fields saith Tzetzes And as the Scripture borroweth the terme of Tartarus from the Heathen so is it thought by Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen that the Heathen tooke the ground of their Elysian fields from the Scriptures Paradise To heape up many testimonies out of the Heathen authors to prove that in their understanding all soules went to Hades and received there eyther punishment or reward according to the life that they led in this world would be but a needlesse worke seeing none that hath reade any thing in their writings can be ignorant therof If any man desire to informe himselfe herein he may repayre to Plutarches consolatory discourse written to Apollonius where he shall finde the testimonies of Pindarus and many others alledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching the state of the godly in Hades Their common opinion is sufficiently expressed in that
from no other ground but the vulgar opinion that the southerne hemisphere of the earth was not inhabited by living men as our northâ—rne is insomuch that some of the heathen atheists finding the contrary to be true by the discourse of right reason endevoured to perswade themselves from thence that there was no such place as Hades at all Lucretius for the greater part saith Servius and others fully teach thaâ— the kingdomes of Hell cannot as much as have a being For what place can we say they have when under the earth our Antipodes are sayd to be and that they should be in the midst of the earth neyther will the solidity permit nor the center of the earth which earth if it be in the middle of the world the profundity thereof can not be so great that it may have those Inferos within it in which is Tartarus whereof we reade Bis patet in praeceps tantum tenditque sub umbras Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum But Chrstiian men being better instructed out of the word of God were taught to answere otherwise If thou dost aske me saith S. Chrysostom of the situation and place of Gehenna I will answere and say that it is seated somewhere out of this world and that it is not to be inquired in what place it is situated but by what meanes rather it may be avoyded In the Dialogue betwixt Gregory Nyssen and that admirable woman Macrina S. Basils sister touching the Soule and the Resurrection this point is stood upon at large the question being first proposed by Gregory in this maner Where is that name of Hádes somuch spoken of which is so much treated of in our common conversation so much in the writings both of the heathen and our owne into which all men thinke that the soules are translated from hence as into a certaine receptacle For you will not say that the elements arâ— this Hades whereunto Macrina thus replyeth It appeareth that thou didst not give much heed to my speech for when I spake of the translation of the soule from that which is seen unto that which is invisible I thought I had left nothing behinde to be inquired of Hadâ—s Neyther doth that name wherein soules are said to be seeme to me to signifie any other thing eyther in profane writers or in the holy scripture save onely a removing unto that which is invisible and unseene Thereupon it being further demanded how then doe some thinke that a certaine subterraneall place should be so called and that the soules doe lodge therein for answere thereunto it is said that there is no maner of difference betwixt the lower hemisphere of the earth and that wherein we live that as long as the principall doctrine of the immortalitie of the soule is yeelded unto no controversie should be moved touching the place therof that locall position is proper to bodies and the soule being incorporeall hath no need to be detained in certaine places then the place objected from Philip. 2.10 of those under the earth that should bow at the name of Iesus being largely skanned this in the end is laid downe for the conclusion These things being thus no man can constraine us by the name of things under the earth to understand any subterraneall place forasmuch as the ayre doâ—h so equally compasse the earth round about that there is no part thereof found naked from the covering of the ayre Both these opinions are thus propounded by Theophylact and by Hugò Etherianus after him What is Hades or Hell Some say that it is a darke place under the earth Others say that it is the translation of the soule from that which is visible unto that which is unseene and invisible For while the soule is in the body it is seene by the proper operations thereof but being translated out of the body it is invisible and this did they say was Hádes So where the author of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy defineth death to be a separation of the united parts and the bringing to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto that which is invisible to us his scholiast Maximus noteth thereupon that this invisible thing some doe affirme to be Hádes that is to say an unseene and invisible departure of the soule unto places not to be seene by the sense of man Hitherto also may be referred the place cited before out of Origen in his fourth book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by S. Hierome is thus delivered They who dye in this world by the separation of the flesh and the soule according to the difference of their workes obtaine diverse places in Hell Where by Hádes Inferi or Hell he meaneth indefinitely the other world in which how the soules of the godly were disposed hee thus declareth in another place The soule leaveth the darkenesse of this world and the blindnesse of this bodily nature and is translated unto another world which is eyther the bosome of Abraham as it is shewed in Lazarus or Paradise as in the thiefe that beleeved upon the crosse or yet if God know that there be any other places or other mansions by which the soule that beleeveth in God passing and comming unto that river which maketh glad the citie of God may receive within it the lott of the inheritance promised unto the Fathers For touching the determinate state of the faithfull soules departed this life the ancient Doctors as we have shewed were not so thoroughly resolved Now all the question betwixt us and the Romanistes is whether the faithfull be received into their everlasting tabernacles presently upon their removeall out of the body or after they have beene first purified to the point as Allen speaketh in the furnace of Purgatorie but in the time of the Fathers as S. Augustin noteth the great question was vvhether the receiving of them into those everlasting tabernacles were performed presently after this life or in the end of the world at the resurrection of the dead and the last retribution of judgement And so concerning Hell the question was as great among them whether all good and bad went thither or no whereof the same S. Augustin is a witnesse also who upon that speech of Iacob Gen. 37.35 I will goe downe to my sonne mourning into Hell writeth thus It useth to be a great question in what maner Hell should be understood vvhether evill men onely or good men also when they are dead doe use to goe downe thither And if evill men only doe how doth he say that he would goe downe unto his sonne mourning for he did not beleeve that he was in the paines of Hell Or be these the words of a troubled grieving man amplifying his evils froÌ„ hence and upon that other speech of his Genes 42.38 You shal bring down mine old age with sorrow unto Hell Whether therefore unto Hell because with sorrow Or although sorrow were
Hierome pronounce against those who not beleeving in Christ did yet thinke themselves to be valiant and wise temperate or just that they might know that no man doth live without Christ without whom all vertue is accounted vice And Prosper against Cassianus a Patron of the free-will of the Semipelagians It appeareth saith he most manifestly that there dwelleth no vertue in the minds of the ungodly but that all their workes be uncleane and polluted who have wisdome not spirituall but animall not heavenly but earthly not Christian but Diabolicall not from the Father of light but from the Prince of darknesse while by those very things which they should not have had but by Gods giving they are made subject to him who did first fall from God Neither ought we therefore to imagine that the beginnings of vertues be in the treasures of nature because many commendable things are found in the mindes of ungodly men which doe proceed indeed from nature but because they haue departed from him that made nature can not be accounted vertues For that which is illuminated with the true light is light and that which wanteth that light is night because the wisdome of this world is foolishnesse with God And so that is vice which is thought to be vertue as that is foolishnesse which is thought to be wisdome Hitherto also pertaineth that sentence produced by him out of S. Augustines workes The whole life of unbeleevers is sinne and there is nothing good without the chiefest good For where there is wanting the acknowledgement of the eternall and unchangeable truth there is false vertue even in the best manners Which he elegantly expresseth in verse as well in his 81. Epigramme as in his Poëme against the Pelagians wherein of naturall wisdome he writeth thus Et licèt eximias studeat pollere per artes Ingeniumque bonum generosis moribus ornet Coeca tamen finem ad mortis per deuia currit Nec vitae aeternae veros acquirere fructus De falsâ virtute potest unamque decoris Occidui speciem mortali perdit in aevo Omne etenim probitatis opus nisi semine verae Exoritur fidei peccatum est inque reatum Vertitur sterilis cumulat sibi gloria poenam The Author of the booke De Vocatione Gentium by some wrongly attributed to S. Ambrose to Prosper by others delivereth the same doctrine in these words Although there have beene some who by their naturall understanding have endevoured to resist vices yet have they only barrenly adorned this temporall life but not profited at all unto true vertues and everlasting blisse For without the worship of the true God even that which seemeth to be vertue is sinne neither can any man please God without God And he that doth not please God whom doth hee please but himselfe and the Devill By whom when man was spoiled he was deprived not of his will but of the sanitie of his will Therefore if God doe not worke in us we can be partakers of no vertue For without this good there is nothing good without this light there is nothing lightsome without this wisdome there is nothing sound without this righteousnesse there is nothing right So Fulgentius in his booke of the Incarnation and Grace of Christ. If unto some who did know God and yet did not glorifie him as God that knowledge did profit nothing unto salvation how could they be just with God which doe so keepe some goodnesse in their manners and workes that yet they referre it not unto the end of Christian faith and charitie In whom there may be indeed some good things that appertaine to the equitie of humane societie but because they are not done by the love of God profit they cannot And Maxentius in the Confessioâ— of his Faith We beleeve that naturall Free-will hath abilitie to nothing else but to discerne and desire carnall or secular things only which not with God but with mâ—n peradventure may seeme glorious but for the things that pertaine to everlasting life that it can neither thinke nor will nor desire nor effect but by the infusion and inward operation of the Holy Ghost and Cassiodorus in his exposition of the Psalmes On the evill part indeed there is an execrable freedome of the will that the sinner may forsake his Creator and convert himselfe to wicked vices but on the good part by Adams sinning we have lost free-will unto which otherwise than by the grace of Christ we cannot returne according to the saying of the Apostle It is God which worketh in you both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Philip. 2.13 The first presumptuous advancer of free-will contrary to the doctrine anciently received in the Church is by Vicentius Lirinensis noted to be Pelagius the hereticke For who ever saith he before that profane Pelagius presumed the vertue of free-will to be so great that he did not thinke the grace of God to be necessarie for the helping of it in good things at every act For maintaining of which ungodly opinion both he and his disciple Celestius were condemned by the censure of the CCXLIII Bishops assembled in the great Councell of Carthage anno Dom. 418. untill they should acknowledge by a most open confession that by the grace of God through Iesus Christ our Lord we are holpen not onely to know but also to doe righteousnesse at every act so that without it we can have thinke say doe nothing that belongeth to true and holy piety Wherewith Pelagius being pressed stucke not to make this profession Anathema to him who either thinketh or saith that the grace of God whereby Christ came into this world to save sinners is not necessarie not onely at every houre or every moment but also at every act of ours and they who goe about to take away this are worthy to suffer everlasting punishment Foure bookes also did he publish in defence of Free-will to which he thus referreth his adversaries for further satisfaction in this matter Let them reade the late worke which we were forced to set out the other day for Free-will and they shall perceive how uniustly they goe about to defame us with the deniall of Grace who thorowout the whole context almost of that worke doe perfectly and entirely confesse both Free-will and Grace Yet for all this he did but equivocate in the name of Grace under an ambiguous generalitie hiding what he thought but by the tearme of Grace breaking the envie and declining the offence which might be taken at his doctrine as S. Augustine well observeth For by Grace he did not understand as the Church did in this question the infusion of a new qualitie of holinesse into the soule whereby it was regenerated and the will of evill made good but first the possibilitie of nature that is to say the naturall freedome of will which every one hath received from God
Christ. Thirdly That Gods promise is annexed indeed to the workes of just men yet it belongeth no way to the reason of the merit but commeth rather to the workes which are alreadie not worthy only but also meritorious Unto all which hee addeth afterwards this Corollary Seeing the works of a just man doe condignely merit eternall life as an equall recompence and reward there is no need that any other condigne merit such as is the merit of Christ should come betweene that eternall life might be rendred unto them Yea the merit of every just man hath somewhat peculiar in respect of the just man himselfe which the merit of Christ hath not namely to make the man himselfe just and worthie of eternall life that hee may worthily obtaine the same But the merit of Christ although it be most worthie to obtaine glory of God for us yet it hath not this efficacy and vertue to make us formally just and worthy of eternall life but men by vertue derived from him attaine this effect in themselves And so we never request of God by the merits of Christ that the reward of eternall life may be given to our worthy and meritorious workes but that by Christ grace may be given unto us whereby we may be enabled worthily to merit this reward In a word Our merits saith hee have this force in us that they make us formally worthy of eternall life the merits of Christ doe not make us worthy formally but Christ is worthy in regard of them to impetrate unto us whatsoever he requesteth for us Thus doth Vasquez the Iesuite discover unto us to the full the mysterie of this iniquitie with whom for the better information of the English Reader wee joine our Rhemists who deliver this as their Catholike doctrine that all good workes done by Gods grace after the first justification be truly and properly meritorious and fully worthy of everlasting life and that thereupon heaven is the due and just stipend crowne or recompence which God by his justice oweth to the person so working by his grace For he rendreth or repayeth heaven say they as a just Iudge and not only as a mercifull giver and the crowne which he payeth is not only of mercy or favour or grace but also of justice And againe that mans workes done by Christs grace doe condignely or worthily deserve eternall joy so as works can be none other but the value desert price worth and merit of the same Whereupon they put us in minde that the word Reward which in our English tongue may signifie a voluntarie or bountifull gift doth not here so well expresse the nature of the Latine word Merces or the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are rather the very stipend that the hired work-man or journey-man covenanteth to have of him whose worke he-doth and is a thing equally and justly answering to the time and weight of his travels and workes rather than a free gift This is that doctrine of merits which from our very hearts we detest and abhorre as utterly repugnant to the truth of God and the common sense of all true-hearted Christians The lesson which our Saviour taught his disciples is farre different from this Luk. 17.10 When ye have done all those things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our dutie to doe And if he be unprofitable saith S. Hierome who hath done all what is to be said of him who could not fulfill them So likewise the Romanes themselves might remember that they were taught by S. Paul at the beginning that there is no proportion of condignitie to be found betwixt not the actions only but the passions also of the Saints and the reward that is reserved for us in the world to come For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us saith he Rom. 8.18 and Bernard thereupon Concerning the life eternall we know that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory no not if one man did sustaine them all For the merits of men are not such that for them eternall life should be due of right or God should doe any iniurie if he did not give it For to let passe that all merits are Gods gifts and in that respect a man is for them made a debter to God more than God to man what are all merits in comparison of so great a glory and S. Ambrose long before him All those things which we suffer are too little and unworthy fot the paines whereof there should be rendred unto us so great reward of good things to come as shall be revealed in us when being reformed according to the image of God we shall merit or obtaine to see his glory face to face Where for the better understanding of the meaning of the Fathers in this point we may further observe that merits in their writings doe ordinarily signifie nothing but workes as in the alleaged place of Bernard and to merit simply to procure or to attaine without any relation at all to the dignitie either of the person or the worke as in the last words of Ambrose is plainly to be seene And therefore as Tacitus writes of Agricola that by his vertues he merited that is to say incurred the anger of Caius Caesar so S. Augustine saith that he and his fellowes for their good doings at the hands of the Donatists in stead of thanks merited that is incurred the flames of hatred On the other side the same Father affirmeth that S. Paul for his persecutions and blasphemies merited that is found the grace to be named a vessell of election having reference to that in 1 Timoth. 1.13 Who was before a blasphemer and a persecuter and injurious but I obtained mercy where in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the vulgar Latine translateth Misericordiam consecutus sum S. Cyprian readeth Misericordiam merui I merited mercy Whereunto we may adde that saying which is found also among the workes of S. Augustine that no sinner should despaire of himselfe seeing Paul hath merited pardon and that of Gregory Paul when he went about to extinguish the name of our Redeemer upon earth merited to heare his words from heaven as also that other straine of his concerning the sin of Adam which is sung in the Church of Rome at the blessing of the Taper O happy sinne that merited that is found the favour to have such and so great a Redeemer Howsoever therefore the ancient Doctors may seeme unto those that are not well acquainted with their language to speake of merits as the Romanists doe yet have they nothing common with them but the bare word in the thing it selfe they differ as much from them every way as our Church doth
I can hardly be perswaded saith Origen that there can be any worke which may require the reward of God by way of debt seeing this very thing it selfe that we can doe or thinke or speake any thing we doe it by his gift and largesse Wages indeed saith Saint Hilary there is none of gift because it is due by worke but God hath given the same free to all men by the justification of faith Whence should I have so great merit seeing mercy is my Crowne saith S. Ambrose and againe Which of us can subsist without the mercy of God What can we doe worthy of the heavenly rewards Which of us doth so rise up in this bodie that he doth elevate his minde in such sort as he may continually adhere unto Christ By what merit of man is it granted that this corruptible flesh should put on incorruption and this mortall should put on immortality By what labours or by what enduring of injuries can we abate our sinnes The sufferings of this time are unworthy for the glory that is to come Therefore the forme of heavenly decrees doth proceed with men not according to our merits but according to Gods mercy S. Basil expounding those words of the Psalmist Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that feare him upon them that hope in his mercy Psalm 33.18 saith that he doth hope in his mercy who not trusting in his owne good deeds nor looking to be iustified by workes hath the hope of his salvation only in the mercies of God and in his explication of those other words Psalm 116.7 Returne unto thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Everlasting rest saith he is laid up for them that strive lawfully in this life not to be rendred according to the debt of workes but exhibited by the grace of the bountifull God to them that trust in him If we consider our owne merits we must despaire saith S. Hierome and When the day of judgement or death shall come all hands will faile because no worke shall be found worthy of the justice of God Macarius the Aegyptian Eremite in his 15. homily writeth thus Touching the gift which Christians shall inherit this a man may rightly say that if any one from the time wherein Adam was created unto the very end of the world did fight against Satan and undergoe afflictions he should doe no great matter in respect of the glory that he shall inherit for he shall reigne together with Christ world without end His 37. homily is in the Paris edition of the workes of Marcus the Eremite set out as the Prooeme of his booke of Paradise and the spirituall law There Macarius exhorteth us that beleeving in almighty God we should with a simple heart and void of scrupulositie come unto him who bestoweth the communion of the spirit according to faith and not according to the proportion of the workes of faith Where Ioannes Picus the Popish interpreter of Marcus giveth us warning in his margent that this clause is to be understood of a lively faith but concealeth his owne faithlesnesse in corrupting of the text by turning the workes of faith into the workes of nature for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by his Latine translation which is to be seene in Bibliothecâ Patrum as much to say as Non ex proportione operum naturae There is a treatise extant of the said Marcus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching those who thinke to be justified by their workes where he maketh two sorts of men that misse both of them the kingdome of heaven the one such as doe not keepe the commandements and yet imagine that they beleeve aright the other such as keeping the commandements doe expect the kingdome as a wages due â—nto them For the Lord saith he willing to shew that all the commâ—ndements are of dutie to be performed and that the adoption of children is freely given to men by his bloud saith When you have done aâ—l things that are commanded you then say We are unprofitable servants and we have done that which was our dutie to doe Therefore the kingdome of heaven is not the hire of works but the grace of the Lord prepared for his faithfull servants This sentence is repeated in the very selfe same words by Hesychius in his booke of Sentences written to Thalassius The like sayings also hath S. Chrysostome No man sheweth such a conversation of life that he may be worthy of the kingdome but this is wholly of the gift of God Therefore he saith When yee have done all say We are unprofitable servants for what we ought to doe we have done Although we did die a thousand deaths although we did performe all vertuous actions yet should we come short by farre of rendring any thing worthy of those honours which are conferred upon us by God Although we should doe innumerable good deeds it is of Gods pitie and benignitie that we are heard although we should come unto the very top of vertue it is of mercy that we are saved for although we did innumerable workes of mercy yet would it be of the benignitie of grace that for such small and meane matters should be given so great a heaven and a kingdome and such an honour whereunto nothing we doe can have equall correspondence Let the merit of men be excellent let him observe the rights of nature let him be obedient to the commandements of the Lawes let him fulfill his faith keepe justice exercise vertues condemne vice repell sinnes shew himselfe an example for others to imitate if he have performed any thing it is little whatsoever he hath done is small for all merit is short Number Gods benefits if thou canst and then consider what thou dost merit Weigh thine owne deeds with the heavenly benefits ponder thine owne acts with the divine gifts and thou wilt not judge thy selfe worthy of that which thou art if thou understandest what thou dost merit Whereunto we may adde the exhortation made by S. Antony to his Monkes in Aegypt The life of man is most short being measured with the world to come so that all our time is even nothing in comparison of everlasting life And every thing in this world is sold for that which it is worth and one giveth equall in exchange of equall but the promise of everlasting life is bought for a very little matter Wherefore my sonnes let us not wax weary nor thinke that we stay long or performe some great thing for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed on us Neither when we looke upon the world let us thinke that we have forsaken any great matters For all this earth is but a very little thing in comparison of the whole heaven Therefore although we had beene lords of the whole
earth and did forsake the whole earth that would be nothing worthy to be compared with the kingdome of heaven For as if one would neglect one peece of brasse that he might gaine a hundred peeces of gold so he who is lord of the whole earth and forsaketh it should but forgoe a little and receive a hundred fold Such an other exhortation doth S. Augustine also make unto his hearers When thou dost consider saith he what thou art to receive all the things that thou sufferest will be vile unto thee neither wilt thou esteeme them worthy for which thou shouldst receive it Thou wilt wonder that so much is given for so small a labour For indeed brethren for everlasting rest everlasting labour should be undergone being to receive everlasting felicitie thou oughtest to sustaine everlasting sufferings But if thou shouldst sustaine everlasting labour when shouldst thou come to everlasting felicitie So it commeth to passe that thy tribulation must of necessitie be temporall that it being finished thou maist come to infinite felicitie But yet brethren there might have beene long tribulation for eternall felicitie that for example because our felicitie shall have no end our misery and our labour and our tribulations should be of long continuance For admit they should continue a thousand yeere weigh a thousand yeeres with eternitie Why dost thou weigh that which is finite be it never so great with that which is infinite Ten thousand yeeres ten hundred thousand if we should say and a thousand thousand which have an end cannot be compared with eternitie This then thou hast that God would have thy labour to be not only temporall but short also And therefore doth the same Father every where put us in minde that God is become our debtor not by our deservings but by his owne gratious promise Man saith he is faithfull when he beleeveth God promising God is faithfull when he performeth that which he hath promised unto man Let us hold him a most faithfull debtor because we have him a most mercifull promiser For we have not done him any pleasure or leant any thing to him that we should hold him a debtor seeing we have from himselfe whatsoever we doe offer unto him and it is from him whatsoever good we are We have not given any thing therefore unto him and yet we hold him a debtor Whence a debtor because he is a promiser We say not unto God Lord pay that which thou hast received but pay that which thou hast promised Be thou secure therefore Hold him as a debtor because thou hast beleeved in him as a promiser God is faithfull who hath made himselfe our debtor not by receiving any thing from us but by promising so great things to us For to men hath he promised divinitie to those that are mortall immortalitie to sinners justification to abjects glorification Whatsoever he promised he promised to them that were unworthy that it might not be promised as waâ—es for workes but being grace might according to the name be graciously and freely given because that even this very thing that one doth live justly so farre as a man can live justly is not a matter of mans merit but of the gift of God Therefore in those things which we have alreadie let us praise God as the giver in those things which as yet we have not let us hold him our debtor For hee is become our debtor not by receiving any thing from us but by promising what it pleased him For it is one thing to say to a man Thou art debtor to me because I have given to thee and another thing to say Thou art debtor to mee because thou hast promised me When thou sayest Thou art debtor to me because I have given to thee a benefit hath proceeded from thee though lent not given But when thou sayest Thou art debtor to me because thou hast promised me thou gavest nothing to him and yet requirest of him For the goodnesse of him that hath promised will give it c. The salvation of men depends upon the sole mercy of God saith Theodoret. for we do not obtaine it as the reward and wages of our righteousnes but it is the gift of Gods goodnesse The crownes doe excell the fights the rewards are not to be compared with the labours for the labour is small but great is the gaine that is hoped for And therefore the Apostle Rom. 8.18 called those things that are looked for not wages but glory and Rom. 6.23 not wages but grace For although a man should performe the greatest and most absolute righteousnesse things eternall doe not answer temporall labours in equall poise The same for this point is taught by S. Cyrill of Alexandria that the crowne which we are to receive doth much surpasse the paines which we take for it And the Author of the booke of the calling of the Gentiles attributed unto Prosper observeth out of the Parable Matth. 20.9 that God bestoweth eternall life on those that are called at the end of their daies as well as upon them that had laboured longer not as paying a price to their labour but powring out the riches of his goodnesse upon them whom he had chosen without works that even they also who have sweat with much labour and have received no more than the last might understand that they did receive a gift of grace and not a due wages for their workes This was the doctrine taught in the Church for the first five hundred yeeres after Christ which wee finde maintained also in the next five hundred If the King of heaven should regard my merit saith Ennodius Bishop of Pavîa either I should get little good or great punishments and judging of my selfe rightly whither I could not come by merits I would not tend in desire But thankes be to him who that we may not be extolled doth so cut off our offences that he bringeth our hope unto better things Our glorification saith Fulgentius is not unjustly called Grace not only because God doth bestow his owne gifts upon his owne gifts but also because the grace of Gods reward doth so much there abound as that it exceedeth incomparably and unspeakably all the merit of the will and worke of man though good and given from God For although we did sweat saith he who beareth the name of Eusebius Emissenus or Gallicanus with all the labours of our soule and bodie although we were exercised with all the strength of obedience yet shall not we be able to recompence and offer any thing worthie in merit for the heavenly good things The offices of this present life cannot be compared with the joyes of the life eternall Although our members be wearied with watchings although our faces wax pale with fastings yet the sufferings of this time will not be worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall bee revealed in us Let us
knocke therefore dearely beloved as much as we can because we cannot as much as we ought the future blisse may be acquired but estimated it cannot be Albeit thou hadst good deeds equall in number to the starres saith Agapetus the Deacon to the Emperour Iustinian yet shalt thou never goe beyond the goodnesse of God For whatsoever any man shall bring unto God he doth but offer unto him his owne things out of his owne store and as one cannot outstrip his own shadow in the Sunne which preventeth him alwaies although he make never so much speed so neither can men by their good doings outstrip the unmatchable bountie of God All the righteousnesse of man saith Gregory is convicted to bee unrighteousnesse if it be strictly judged It needeth therefore prayer after righteousnesse that that which being sifted might faile by the meere pitie of the Iudge might stand for good Let him therefore say Although I had any righteous thing I would not answer but I would make supplication to my Iudge Iob 9.15 as if he should more plainly confesse and say Albeit I did grow up unto the worke of vertue I should be enabled unto life not by merits but by pardon But you will say If this blisse of the Saints be mercie and is not obtained by merits how shall that stand which is written And thou shalt render unto every one according to his workes If it be rendred according to workes how shall it be accounted mercie But it is one thing to render according to workes and another thing to render for the works themselves For when it is said According to works the qualitie it selfe of the worke is understood that whose workes appeare good his reward way be glorious For unto that blessed life wherein wee are to live with God and by God no labour can be equalled no workes compared seeing the Apostle saith The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us By the righteousnesse of works no man shall be saved but only by the righteousnesse of faith saith Bede and therefore no man should beleeve that either his freedome of will or his merits are sufficient to bring him unto blisse but understand that he can be saved by the grace of God only The same Author writing upon those words of David Psalm 24.5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord and righteousnesse from the God of his salvation expoundeth the blessing to be this that for the present time he shall merit or worke well and for the future shall be rewarded well and that not by merits but by grace only To the same purpose Elias Cretensis the interpreter of Gregory Nazianzen writeth thus By mercy we ought to understand that reward which God doth repay unto us For wee as servants doe owe vertue that the best things and such as are gratefull wee should pay and offer unto God as a certaine debt considering that wee haue nothing which we have not received from him and God on the other side as our Lord and Master hath pitie on us and doth bestow rather than repay unto us This therefore is true humilitie saith Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus to doe good workes but to account ones selfe uncleane and unworthy of Gods favour thinking to be saved by his goodnesse alone For whatsoever good things we doe wee answer not God for the very aire alone which we doe breathe And when we have offered unto him all the things that we have he doth not owe us any reward for all things are his and none receiving the things that are his owne is bound to give a reward unto them that bring the same unto him In the booke set out by the authoritie of Charles the Great against Images the Arke of the Covenant is said to signifie our Lord and Saviour in whom alone we have the Covenant of peace with the Father Over which the Propitiatory is said to be placed because aboue the Commandements either of the Law or of the Gospell which are founded in him the mercy of the said Mediator taketh place by which not by the workes of the Law which we have done neither willing nor running but by his having mercy upon us we are saved So Ambrosius Ansbertus expounding that place Rev. 19.7 Let us be glad and rejoyce and give glory to him for the mariage of the Lambe is come and his wife hath made her selfe readie In this saith he doe we give glory to him when we doe confesse that by no precedent merits of our good deeds but by his mercie only we have attained unto so great a dignitie And Rabanus in his Commentaries upon the Lament of Ieremie Lest they should say Our Fathers were accepted for their merit and therefore they obtained such great things at the hand of the Lord he adjoyneth that this was not given to their merits but because it so pleased God whose free gift is whatsoever he bestoweth Haymo writing upon those words Psalm 132.10 For thy servant Davids sake refuse not the face of thine Anointed saith that For thy servant Davids sake is as much to say as For the merit of Christ himselfe and froâ— thence collecteth this doctrine that none ought to presume of his owne merits but expect all his salvation from the merits of Christ. So in another place When we performe our repentance saith he let us know that we can give nothing that is worthy for the aâ—peasing of God but that only in the bloud of that immaculate and singular Lambe we can be saved And againe Eternall life is rendred to none by debt but given by free mercie It is of necessitie that beleevers should be saved only by the faith of Christ saith Smaragdus the Abbot By grace not by merits are we saved of God saith the Author of the Commentaries upon S. Marke falsely attributed to S. Hierome That this doctrine was by Gods great mercie preserved in the Church the next 500. yeares also as well as in those middle times appeareth most evidently by those Instructions and Consolations which were prescribed to be used unto such as were readie to depart out of this life This forme of preparing men for their death was commonly to be had in all Libraries and particularly was found inserted among the Epistles of Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury who was commonly accounted to bee the Author of it The substance thereof may be seene for the copies varie some being shorter and some larger than others in a Tractate written by a Cistercian Monke of the Art of dying well which I have in written hand and have seene also printed in the yeere 1483. and 1504. in the booke called Hortulus animae in Cassanders Appendix to the booke of Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester de fiduciâ misericordiâ Dei edit Colon. An. 1556. Caspar Vlenbergius his Motives caus 14. pag.
undergoe that penance which Hugh Bishop of Coventry and Chester on his death-bed imposed upon himselfe even to lye in the dungeon of Purgatory without bayle or mainprise untill the generall jaylâ—-deliverie of the last day Another private conceyte intertained by diverse as well of the elder as of middle times in their devotions for the dead was that an augmentation of glory might thereby be procured for the Saincts and eyther a totall deliverance or a diminution of torment at least wise obtained for the wicked If the Barbarians saith S. Chrysostom do bury with their dead the things that belong unto them it is much more reason that thou shouldest send with the deceased the things that are his not that they may be made ashes as they were but that they may adde greater glory unto him and if hee be departed hence a sinner that they may loose his sinnes but if righteous that an addition may be made to his reward and retribution Yea in the verie latter dayes Iuo Carnotensis writing unto Mawd Queene of England concerning the prayers that were to be made for the King her brother his soule saith that it doth not seeme idle if vve make intercessions for those who alreadie enjoy rest that their rest may be encreased Whereupon Pope Innocent the third doth bring this for one of the answers wherewith he laboureth to salve the prayers which were used in the Church of Rome that such or such an oblation might profite such or such a Sainct unto glory that many repute it no indignitie that the glory of the Saincts should be augmented untill the day of judgement and therefore that in the meane time the Church may wish the increase of their glorification So likewise for the mitigation of the paines of them whose soules were doubted to be in torment this forme of prayer was of old used in the same Church as in Grimoldus his Sacramentary may be seen and retained in the Romane Missall it selfe untill in the late reformation thereof it was removed O almightie and mercifull God incline vve beseech thee thy holy eares unto our poore prayers which we doe humbly poure forth before the sight of thy Majestie for the soule of thy servant N. that forasmuch as we are distrustfull of the qualitie of his life by the abundance of thy pitie we may be comforted and if his soule cannot obtaine full pardon yet at least in the midst of the torments themselves which peradventure it suffereth out of the abundance of thy compassion it may feele refreshment which prayer whither it tended may appeare partly by that which Prudentius writeth of the play-dayes which he supposeth the soules in Hell sometime do obtaine Sunt spiritibus saepè nocentibus Poenarum celebres sub Styge feriae c. Marcent supplicijs Tartara mitibus Exultatque sui carceris otio Vmbrarum populus liber ab ignibus Nec fervent solito flumina sulphure partly by the doubtfull conceits of Gods mercifull dealing with the wicked in the world to come which are found in others but especially by these passages that we meet withall in the Sermons of S. Chrysostom This man hath spent his whole life in vaine neyther hath lived one day to himselfe but to voluptuousnesse to luxury to covetousnesse to sinne to the Divell Tell me therefore shall we not mourne for him shall we not endevour to pull him out of these dangers For there be meanes if we will whereby his punishment may be made light unto him If then we doe make continuall prayers for him if we bestoâ— almes although he be unworthy God will respect us For many have received benefite by the almes that have beene given by others for them and found thereby although not a perfect yet some consolation This therefore is done that although we our selves be not vertuous we may be carefull to get vertuous companions and friends and wife and sonne as looking to reape some fruit even by them also reaping indeed but little yet reaping some fruit notwithstanding Let us not therefore simply â—eepe for the dead but for such as are dead in their sinnes these be worthy of lamentations and bewaylings and teares For what hope is there tell me for men to depart with their sinnes where they cannot put off their sinnes for as long as they were here there was peradventure great expectation that they would be altered that they would be bettered but being gone unto Hell where there is no gayning of any thing by repentance for in hell saith he who shall confesse unto thee how are they not vvorthy of lamentations Let us therefore weepe for such let us succour them to our power let us finde out some help for them little indeed but yet such as may releeve them How and after what maner both praying our selves and intreating others to make prayers for them and giving continually unto the poore for them for this thing bringeth some consolation The like doctrine is delivered by Andrew archbishop of Crete in his Sermon of the life of man and of the dead and by Iohn Damascen or whosoever else was author of the book ascribed unto him concerning them that are departed in the faith where three notable tales are told of the benefite that even Infidells and Idolaters themselves should receive by such prayers as these One touching the soule of the Emperour Trajan delivered from Hell by the prayers of Pope Gregory of the truth whereof least anie man should make question he affirmeth very roundly that no lesse then the whole East and West will witnesse that this is true and uncontroulable And indeed in the East this fable seemeth first to have risen where it obtayned such credite that the Grecians to this day do still use this forme of prayer As thou didst loose Trajan from punishment by the earnest intercession of thy servant Gregory the Dialogue-writer heare us likewise who pray unto thee And therefore to them doth Hugo Etherianus thus appeale for justifying the truth of this narration Do not I pray you say in your hearts that this is false or fayned Inquire if you please of the Grecians the whole Greeke Church surely doth testifie these things He might if he had pleased being an Italian himselfe have inquired neerer home of the Romanes among whom this feate was reported to have beene acted rather then among the Grecians who were strangers to the businesse But the Romans as wee understand by Iohannes Diaconus in the life of S. Gregory found no such matter among their records and when they had notice given them thereof out of the Legends of the Church of England for from thence received they the newes of this and some other such strange acts reported to have beene done by S. Gregory among themselves they were not verie hastie to beleeve it because they could hardly be perswaded that S. Gregory who had taught them