appeare what good authorities they are to proue the doctrine of the Church This booke de castitate he wrote to diswade a friend of his whose wife was dead that he should not marry agayne condemning second mariage for adultery as Montanus his maister did and laboureth to proue that he could not pray for his departed wiues soule nor offer the yearely oblation if he married an other To the same purpose he reasoneth in his booke de Monogamia where the wordes alleged by M Allen be so corrupted in all the coppyes that Beatus Rhenamus confesseth that no sense could be made of them and these wordes are the coniecturall correction of Beatus Rhenamus But let them be vndoubtedly the wordes of Tertullian as they seeme to be Here more manifestly then before he brocheth his heresie of condemning second mariages for in that the wife prayeth for her husbands soule and offereth c he would proue that she is still married to him and that she committeth adultery if she take an other directly contrary to the word of god Rom. 7. 1. Cor. 7. yet see either the ignorance or the malice of this Allen that allegeth those words of this writer by which he condemneth them that allow second mariage as denyers of the resurrection agaynst vs that deny prayers for the deade to be lawfull by the word of god And vseth the same reason and wordes to proue prayers for the dead to be allowable that Tertullian vseth to proue second mariages to be damnable For that accompt which Tertullian sayth men and women are bound vnto one to an other he meaneth of the promise of mariage once made betwene them which M. Allen like a wise yong man expoundeth prayers oblations for their soules The words of Tertullian following immediatly where M. Allen leaueth them are these Si autem in illo aeuo neque nubent neque nubentur sed erunt aequales Angelis non ideò non tenebimur coniugibus defunctis quia non erit restitutio coniugij At quin eò magis tenebimur quia in meliorem statum destinamur resurrecturi in spirituale consortium agnituri tam nosmet ipsos quam nostros c. But if in that time they shall neither marry nor be married but shall be equall to the Angells we shall not therfore not be bouÌ„d to our wiues departed because there shall not be a restitution of mariage But so much the more we shall be bounde because we are appoynted to a better state as they that shall ryse agayne into a spirituall fellowship and shall know agayne as well our selues as those that pertayne vnto vs Wherefore M. Allen once againe I must tell you that we woulde be sorrie to be so neere the deniall of the resurrection by denying prayers for the deade as you are towarde the heresy of the Montanistes in vsing such reasons to defend praying and offering for the deade as Tertullian a Montaniste vsed to mainteine his heresy but I shall haue further occasion to retorne to Tertullian when I shall proue that the opinion of purgatory came first frâ—â— heretikes 4 But as neere as we be Christes time by Tertullians helpe we will approch yet neerer to the very Apostles age and looke out some recorde of that time for oblations and distributions with memorialls for the departed And the further from you of the new sect we go the more plaine destruction of your doctrine and more manifest proofe of our olde deuotion shall we fiende to your open shame and the comfort of Catholikes S. Clement therefore the Romane one conuersaunt with the Apostles and instructed by them in his faith a familiar of S. Paule and promoted by S. Peter a true pastor and a holy martyr thus reporteth of the Apostles ordinaunce in our matter Peragatur dies mortuorum in Psalmis in lectionibus atque orationibus propter eum qui tertia die resurrexit Item nonus in commemorationem superstitum atque defunctorum Etiam quadragesimus secuÌ„dum veterem formam Moysen enim hoc modo luxit populus nec non anniuersarium pro memoria ipsius detúrque de illius facultatibus pauperibus in commemorationem ipsius Thus in english VVe will that the third day be obserued for the departed in psalmes lessons and prayers for his sake that rose the third day And so the ix day for the vniting together in one memorie the departed with the liuing In like maner the fourtith day must be kept according to the ordre vsed of olde for so did the people obserue the bewayling of Moyses And with all these the xij monthes minde beside VVhere for the memory of his departure lâ—t somwhat be distributed amongest the poore people How say you now my maisters is this Popish or Apostolike doctrine was it inuented for priestes couetousnesse or obserued as Christes ordinaunce made we much of late of the litle we founde before or of late lost for lacke of deuotion that which we had so long before Mercifull God who woulde thinke this geare were so auncient so litle set by VVho would thinke the aduersaries were so impudent and yet so much regarded VVhat hearte thinke you they reade the auncient writers with all Or with what conscience can they passe by so plaine practise of all the Christian worlde Or with what face can they name either scripture or doctor How dare they looke backe at any one steppe of antiquitie all which be nothing els but a testimony of their wickednesse and as you woulde say a pointing with finger at their horrible spoile of olde doctrine and deuotion VVhat if one of their owne scholars seeing this light in our matter shoulde aske of his maister a lasse sir what if this be true that is proued so olde and you chaunce to lie that are so late where are we your scholars then It is not aunswered if you confort him with faire wordes and tell him you follow the scripture For he will charge you againe straight that these men had scripture vnderstood scripture alleaged scripture both of the newe Testament and the olde and referred their vsage some to Moyses Aaron other some to the fathers in the lawe of nature and all to the Apostles of christ VVhere are you then no more but this perdy we vnderstand scripture perchaunce better then they we haue the holy Ghost perchaunce and so had not the fathers perchaunce that is no scripture perchaunce this and this is not that doctors worke because it makes against vs I thinke he that woulde beleue your chauncing that may haue such assuraunce of the trueth on the other side he is worthy to be deceiued 4 Not content with Tertullians testimony you will clime higher euen to Clemens the Apostles owne scholer but you shal be brought downe with shame enough I will not here repeate the mise dounge with the rotten breade in the boxe and such baggage as I haue discouered before of this carterly Clement but because you are so
whome the papistes counte no parte of their church but schismatikes conuerted the Moscouites first of all vnto the profession of the name of Christ which yet continue in their religion being neither the true faith nor yet popish religion As for the popish church as it is certeine that it hath peruerted and corrupted all partes of the Latine or Westerne Church with Idolatry and false religion so it shal be harde for the papistes to proue that it hath conuerted any Nation from Gentility to the popish religion except some partes of Germanie and them by force of armes rather than by preaching and reaching as appeareth by the conuersion of Liuonia Anno Domini 1200. of Prussia Anno Domini 1254. and of Lithuania Anno Domini 1386. wherefore I conclude that seeing I haue shewed that our Church holding the true doctrine of the Apostles is that which conuerted all nations to true religion and that the popish church hath not conuerted any people to true religion nor all people to the profession of the name of Christ this chalenger whosoeuer he be do the recant The second article conteyneth 4. demandes 1 I aske of him what Church it was which hath induced the Christian people through the whole worlde to geue most humble credit in all points to the holy bookes of the Byble I Aunswere it was the Church of Christ and not the Popish church which hath commended the bookes of holy Scripture to be beleued of all true Christians where soeuer they be although it be the office of the holy Ghost to open the hartes of men and to forme them that they may beleue the scripture to be true like as it is the office of the scripture or worde of God to trie and examine whether it be the spirite of God that perswadeth vs to beleue any thing so the spirite beareth witnesse to the worde and the worde to the spirite As for the popish church it coulde not induce the Christian people to geue credit to the scripture in all pointes because she is contrarie to the scripture in many pointes and euen in the cheefest pointes of Christian Religion namely in pointes concerning the glorie of God and the saluation of mankinde geuing the glory of God to dead men and dumbe Images and denying the mercy of God pourchased by the onely sacrifice of Christes death to be the onely cause of mans saluation Finally seeing it is manifest by the aunswere to the first article that the popish church did not conuerte all nations to the profession of the Christian faith it is euident thereby that the popish church did not induce all them that are called Christians to geue credit to the bookes of the holy Bible as this chalenger woulde haue it to be thought 2 VVhat Church hath had the discerning seuering of them from other writinges of all sortes THe Church of Christ hath not an absolute authority to allow or refuse bookes of the scripture but a iudgment to discerne true writinge from counterfaicts the word of God of infallible verity from the writing of men which might erre this iudgement she hath not of her selfe but of the holy Ghost as for the popish Church it can not be said to haue this iudgemēt of discerning the scripture of God from other writings not only because she is so blind that she can not discerne betwene the Canonical bookes of the scripture from the Apocrypha writings as appereth by receauing the bookes of the Machabees Ecclesiasticus c. to be of equall authoritie with the bookes of the Law Psalmes c. but also because she is so presumptuous as to compel men to beleue that Customes and traditions writinges of doctors decrees of Popes and Councells are equall with the authoritie of God his worde yea are of force to alter and change the lawe of God and the institution of Christ set forth vnto vs in the scripture And although she boast that she receaueth all the bookes of scripture yet this proueth no more that she is the Church of Christ than was the churches of the Arrians Donatistes Nouatians Euthychans other heretikes which receiued the Bible as well as the Popish church 3 VVhat Church hath had the custodie of them and most safely hath preserued them for the necessary vse of God his people and from the corruption of aduersaries as well of Iewes as heretikes of all sortes THe prouidence of God hath alwayes preserued the Scripture both from the violence of tyrants from the falshoode of heretikes and hath neuer suffred the true Church to be destitute of the necessarie vse thereof But the popish church hath not kept the scripture for the necessary vse of the people which hath so kept it in an vnknowen tongue that the people coulde haue no vse much lesse the necessary vse thereof wherefore if this be a note of the Catholike Church to kepe the worde of God for the necessarie vse of God his people it is plaine that the popish church is not the Catholike Church which hath kept the scripture so that God his people coulde haue no vse thereof And if the only custodie of the scripture from corruption of heretikes be a sure note of the Church why is not the Greeke Church the Catholike Church which vnto this day hath kept the scripture as safely as the popish church why are not other Estern Churches of Asia which neuer acknowledged the Pope or popish religion true Churches which likewise haue preserued the scripture as we haue seen of late that the newe Testament is printed in the Syrian tongue at themperours charges for the encrease of Christian faith among them And finally why are not the Iewes the Catholike Church which haue kept the old Testament in Hebrue more faithfully than euer the Papistes And because they boast of safe preseruing of the scriptures all men that are learned in the tongues can testifie in how corrupt a Latin translation they haue kept the scriptures both of the olde and of the new Testament 4 And let the Protestant declare to me that their Congregation hath had from time to time or euer had right herein or any other Church sauing the Catholike Church and I recant OVr Congregation which is the body of Christ hath euer had both right and possession of the inestimable treasure of the word of Christ her heade as appeareth by this that our Church and Congregation beleueth nothing but that she learneth in it acknowledgeth that all thinges profitable to saluation are sufficiently conteined in it and finally in all thinges submitteth her selfe to the iudgemēt of it But the popish church which beleueth many thinges contrarie to the scripture teacheth many thinges beside the scripture necessary to saluation and refuseth to haue her faith doctrine and ceremonies to be iudged by the scripture neither hath neither euer had any right to the scripture though she haue neuer so many bookes of them in possession Wherefore these thinges considered this chalenger
church affirmeth Luther to be an heretike seeing we know that Luther did not obstinately and malitiously erre in any article of faith concerning the substance of religion we doe not beleue her and specially because she is a partiall witnesse against him whome God vsed to discouer so much of her wickednesse to her great hindrance there is no credit to be geuen vnto her when she goeth about to deface him by sclaunderous names and false accusations Thus I haue shewed these thinges that you require both by good reason and also by scripture Therefore if I may beleue you you recant The fourth article conteyneth 3. demandes 1 I demand what Church hath mightely gonne through borne downe and fully vanquished all heresies in times past aswell against the blessed Trinitie as other Articles of our religion I Aunswere the true Catholike Church hath alwayes resisted all false opinions contrary to the worde of God as her duty was and fought against them with the sworde of the spirite which is the worde of God and by the aide of God obteyned the victorie and triumphed ouer them So did Paule ouercome the Iewes Act. 18. So did the fathers of the primitiue Church from time to time confute heresies by the scriptures and declare in their writinges that by them they are to be confuted for examples sake of a great number I will alleage a few Hylarius writing of the blessed Trinitie against heretikes Lib. 4. sayeth Cessent itaque propriae hominum opiniones neque se vltrà Diuinam constitutionem humanae iudicia extendant Sequamur ergo aduersus irreligiosas impias de Deo institutiones ipsas illas diuinoruÌ„m dictorum authoritates vnumquodque eorum ipso de quo quaeritur auctore tractabimus Wherefore let opinions propre to men geue place and let not mens iudgements stretche them selues further than God his constitution Therefore against these vnreligious and vngodly opinions of God let vs follow the very authority of God his sayings and handle euery one of them by the aide of him about whome the question is Thus Hylarius woulde haue heresies against the Trinitie to be confuted not by mens iudgement but by God his word Basilius magnus very often testifieth that he woulde haue all good thinges proued by the scripture and all euill thinges confuted by the same In his moralles Dist. 26. Euery worde or deede must be confirmed by the testimonie of holy Scripture for the perswasion of good men and the confusion of wicked men And in his treatise of Faith we know that we must now and alwayes auoide euery voice or opinion that is differing from the doctrine of our Lorde And in his short definitions to the first interrogation whether it be lawefull or profitable for a man to permit vnto him selfe to do or say any thinge which he thinketh to be good without the testimonie of the holy Scripture he aunswereth forasmuch as our Sauiour Christ sayeth that the holy Ghost shall not speake of him selfe what madnes is it that any man shoulde presume to beleue any thing without the authoritie of God his worde By these and many other places it is manifest that Basilius woulde haue heresies and false opinions confuted by the holy Scriptures Chrysostome vpon Luke cap. 16. sayeth that the ignorance of the scriptures hath bred heresies and brought in corrupt life yea it hath turned all things vpsidown by which it appeareth by what meanes he would haue heresies kept away namely by knowledge of the scriptures It were to long to reherse all the places of S. Augustine by which his minde appeareth that he would haue the Church sought onely in the scriptures and heretikes confuted onely by the scriptures to whose onely authoritie in many places he professeth that he him selfe will be bounde as Epist. 19. ad Hieronymum Epist. 48. Vincentio Epist. 111. Fortunatiano Epist. 112. to Paulina contra Faustum lib. 11. cap. 5. Contra Cresconium Grammaticum lib. 2. cap. 31. 32. de Baptismo contra Donatistas lib. 2. cap. 2. De meritis remissione peccatorum contra Pelagianos lib. 3. cap. 7. De naturae gratia cap. 61. De gratia Christi contra Pelagium cap. 43. De nuptijs concupiscentia lib. 2. c. 29. In these places S. Augustine preferreth the authority of the Canonicall scripture before all writinges of Catholike Doctors of Byshops of Councells before all customes and traditions But that he would haue the true Church sought onely in the scriptures it is manifest by these places first in his 48. Epistle to Vincentius Nos autem ideo certi sumus neminem se a communione omnium gentium iustè separare potuisse quia non quis quam nostrum in iustitia sua sed in scripturis Diuines quaerit Ecclesiam speaking of the Donatistes he sayeth We are suer that no man could iustly separate him selfe from the communion of all Nations because none of vs seeketh the Church in his owne righteousnesse but in the holy Scriptures So if the Papistes woulde not presume of their owne righteousnesse but seeke the Church of Christ in the scriptures they would not separate them selues from the communion of Christes Church now by God his grace inlarged farther than the Popish church Also in his booke De vnitate Ecclesiae cap. 2. he hath these wordes Inter nos autem Donatistas quaestio est vbi sit Ecclesa Quid ergo facturi sumus in verbis nostris â—am quaesituri an in verbis capitis sui Domini nostri Iesu Christiâ— puto quod in illius potius verbis eam quaerere debemus qui veritas est optimè nouit corpus suum The question is betwene vs and the Donatistes where the Church shoulde be what shall we doe then shall we seeke her in our owne wordes or in the wordes of her heade our Lorde Iesus Christ I thinke we ought rather to seeke her in his words which is the Truth and best knoweth his owne body So the question is at this daye betwen the Papistes and vs where the church is let vs seeke in God his worde there we shall easily finde her To the same intent he speaketh in the third fiueth and sixtenth Chapters of the same treatise Furthermore that he woulde haue heretikes confuted onely by the scriptures he sheweth likewise in many places of his workes for writing against Maximinus the Arian lib. 3. cap. 14. a place commonly and often cited he sayeth but nowe neither must I preiudicially bring forthe the Councell of Nice nor then the Councell of Arimine for neither am I bounden to the authoritie of the one nor you of the other but let matter with matter cause with cause reason with reason contend by authoritie of the scriptures not proper to any but indâ—fferent witnesses to both partes If Augustine would not oppresse the Arrians by the authoritie of the Nicene Councell which was the first and the best generall Councell that euer was but only by the scriptures how much lesse woulde he
to the places of punishment in the next life let them with purgatory rase vp the fathers resting place so plainely set forth by scripture beleued of the whole Church and alwayes taught by the holy fathers Yea let them that will haue no place for sinners finde with blasphemie hell like torments for Gods owne Sonne with the damned spirites My hearte surely will scarse serue me to report it and yet cursed Caluine was not afearde to write it and with arrogant vauntes against the blessed fathers to auouch the same That miserable forsaken man sawe that the onely graunt of the olde fathers punishment by the lacke of euerlasting ioye might of force driue him to acknowledge that God sometimes exerciseth his iustice vpon those which he loueth in the next life and so consequently that Purgatory paynes might be inferred therevppon therefore he fell headelong to this horrible blasphemye that Christ went not to loose any from the paynes of the next life but to be punished in hell with the deadely damned him selfe for to amend the lacke of his passion vppon the Crosse. O our cursed tyme O corrupt conditions this beast writeth thus agaynst our blessed Sauiours death and against the sufficiency of the abundant price of our redemption and yet he liueth in mans memory yea his bookes be greedely redd redde Nay by such as would be counted the chiefe of the cleargy and beare Byshops names they are commaunded to be redde and the very booke wherein this all other detestable doctrine is vttered especially by their authority commended to the simple Curats study that they might there learne closely in deuilish bookes such wicked heresies as the preachers them selues dare not yet in the light of the world vtter nor maintaine But other be not so farre fallen therefore they must of reason confesse that God by iust correction hath before Christes comming visited in the next world many hundred yeares togither the sinnes of those whome he dearly loued Although not onely in all that time the soules of the holy Patriarches felt the lacke of the aboundant fruition of the Maiesty but also for sinne they both then in rest and now in vnspeakeable felicity want till this day the encrease of ioy and blesse that by the receauing of their bodyes yet lying in dust they are vndoubtedly sure of Therfore it is ouer much presumption to limit the maiesty of God in the gouernment of his owne creatures to the borders of our short life and almost it toucheth his very prouidence with iniury to say that he letteth him scape without punishment for his sinnes that repented not till the houre of death as for whom he hath no scourge in the next life as he had here if death had not preuented his purpose These childish cogitations can not stand with the righteousnes of his will that for the first sinne committed doth not onely punish many euerlastingly of the forsaken sorte but also for the same punisheth both his best beloued in earth and for a time abateth the felicity of the blessed Sainctes in heauen But I will not stray after these men My matter is so fruitefull that I may not roue And though the sectes of these dayes haue so infected euery braunch of our christian faith that a man can not well ouerpasse them what so euer he taketh in hand yet I will not medle with them no further then shall concerne the quicke of our cause and the necessary light of our matter 5 Now this lusty gallaunt as though he had fully repayred and fortified the olde ruinous and battered towers of limbus patrum with canuas paynted walls he standeth vpon his bulwarke of browne paper and cryeth defiaunce to all his enemies and especially he vttereth his spite agaynst Caluine as a notorious enemy of his cause quarel Whom because he is to young to encounter withall by any witt learning reason or truth he spitteth out against him most impudent sclaunders raylings and lyes in which faculty he hath striued so much to shew him selfe eloquent that not satisfying him selfe with the voyce of a man he hath borrowed the tongue of the Deuill him selfe or at the least wise for feare he should not lye throughly geuen ouer his shamelesse tongue to be wagged by the father of lyes For what man with any shewe of humane reason would accuse Caluine to deny the sufficiency of the redemptiō of Christ to affirme that Christ went downe into hell after his death to be punished there with the damned him selfe for to amend the lacke of his passion vpon the crosse whose doctrine God him selfe the Angells and all the world doth knowe and testifie to be directly contrary to these sclaunders For who euer more constantly affirmed or more substantially proued the sufficiency of our redemption by Christes death what asse so vnlearned if he can but conster Caluins latine in his catechisme institutions or any part of his workes where he entreateth of that article of Christes descense in to hell may not plainly see that he vtterly denieth his descending into hell after his life affirming the same to be vnderstood of the wrath of God which he sustayned for our sinnes before his death at that time especially when he that was God complained that he was forsaken of God which mystery if M. Allen vnderstand not it is no maruell seeing he abridgeth so much the benefite of Christes redemption as all papistes doe alwayes and he specially in this his defence of purgatory and yet he is not ashamed to say of Caluine this beaste writeth against our blessed Sauiours death If I did not moderate somwhat my corrupt affections I could requite him the like reproches but this much I must needes say Is Caluine a beast for speaking the truth to the glory of Christes redemption Allen an honest man for sclaundering him to the defacing of Gods honour But because he would not be thought to haue spued oute all his poison against Caluine he goulpeth vp an other bowlefull of rayling and sclaundering against our Bishoppes who haue not onely suffered but also commended Caluins bookes to be reade and studied of the simple curates affirming that they doe priuily set forth by books that which they dare not openly preach If euery man that can be a witnesse that M. Allen lyeth in this matter should pull one heare from his heade or bearde they would leaue him neuer an heare of an honest man behinde them But that he maie returne to his gentle aduersaries with whome is lesse daungerous dealing there be some he sayth that graunt the punishment of the fathers after their death of whose liberall concession he doubteth not but to patch vp his Purgatory In which practise he is not vnlike a fonde fellowe of whome I haue hearde men iest in Cambridge who when he was non plus as they terme it in disputation and all his argument spent that he had prouided Now sayth he will I dispute of your concesses
the literall exposition vpon the Genesis And yet after all searche that man can make this must be the conclusion with the author of those bookes Quomodo intelligenda sit illa flamma inferni ille sinus Abrahae illa lingua diuitis illa sitis tormenti illa stilla refrigerij vix fortasse a mansuetè quaerentibus à contentiose autem certantibus nunquam inuenitur melius est dubitare de occultis quam litigare de incertis I am sure sayth S. Augustine the Riche man was in wonderfull feruent paine and the Lazare in the rest of a pleasaunt abiding but how or of what nature that Hell flame and fire is to be taken or Abraham his bosom or the glottens tongue or the intollerable thurst in that torment or the drop to quenche his heat All these doubtes can scarsely be dissolued and satisfied to the contentation of him that with humility maketh serche thereof But to contentious and curious ianglers they shall neuer be knowen Therefore better it is to be in doubt of these secrets then to stand in contentious reasoning of thinges vncertaine So must we thinke also of Purgatory that the paine thereof of what condicion so euer it be or where so euer the ordinaūce of God hath placed it is wonderfull horrible And by force of operation representeth the nature of our fire and both by scriptures and doctors is most termed by the name of fire as Hell torment is It worketh so vpon the soule of man as the other did vpon the riche mans soule and all other that be already in Hell before the receyuing of their bodies into the same misery at the generall day of Iudgement And the sensible griefe may be as great of certaine as in the other place of euerlasting damnation as Cyrillus in vita Hieronymi doth declare CAP. XIII 1 THis is a very needelesse discourse vnlesse it were to make vp a browen doosen of chapters to enquire of the nature or condition of purgatory fire c. and then to be able to determine nothing of it If we shall geue credit to those visions reuelations and apparitions which M. Allen defended so pithily in the last Chapter before there is no man knoweth his owne house better thē we may know euery corner of purgatory the place the length the bredth the depth the fire the water the burning the scalding the broyling the frying the whipping the hanging c. At the least wise if M. Allen would haue taken so much foolish paynes as to haue translated out of that worshipfull author which he citeth that which he hath written of the qualitie and condition of the paynes of purgatory he migh◠haue enlarged this chapter by two or three leaues That beastly asse and shamelesse counterfector that calleth him selfe Cyrillus in the deuills name Bishop of Ierusalem writing to such an Augustine as he was a Cyrill of the miracles of S. Ieronym maketh a large discourse of the paynes of hell and purgatory as he learned of Eusebius and of 3. deade men whom Ieronym caused to be restored to life after he had shewed them the paynes of purgatory and hell and this to confute the errour of them that denyed purgatory I would maruell surely whether impudency in him that inuented that fable and set it out vnder the name of Cyrillus were greater then in M. Allen that allegeth his name authoritie as antique authentical sauing that that counterfecter played the foole in the night but Allen bringeth him forth in the brode daye light 2 But this is the greate misery and the difference that such as be in the iudgement of Hell paines haue no hope of mercy no passage from their infinite woe no ende of torment no release of paine no expectation of saluation no comforte by Christ but endlesse desperation hatered of vertue wearinesse of their creation sorowe of their owne being and persons and which is most vntollerable perpetual blasphemy grisely cursing of Gods holy name The other being vnder their mercifull fathers chastisement in purgatory suffer great paine but in quiet peace of conscience in assured expectation and warraunt of their saluation in loue of Gods iustice and iudgement euen towardes them selues in the vnity of the spirite of God bearing testimony of them that they be the children of the houshoulde in perpetuall experience of mercy and grace in daily hope of release in perfect loue with out all sinne or daunger of sinning in gladde conceiuing the benefit of their redemption for the remission of their offenses past and in worship and confession of Gods holy name then and after for euer more And this is the company of the inferiour partes which boweth their knee and reuerenceth the name of Iesus as the Apostle saith when the other which be in the deepe hell the Prophet bearing witnesse can not prayse nor confesse his blessed name which they both detest blaspheme to their vnspeakable paine There hath euer bene sence the death of the first vertuous man till this houre and so shall be till the day of latter iudgement a company of elect and chosen people that do honour God in the loughers partes as till Christes descending to Hell the fathers resting place in generall and some that suffered for sinne further paine beside And after continually as before the place of Purgatory to endure for the punishment of certaine till the latter day when all the elect shall reigne without griefe or peine with Christ for euer more And although the place of this torment and the nature therof be not certainely determined nor knowen to any but such as God of his wisedome list reuele it vnto yet it is with great probability and likelihood thought of such learned men as deserue singular credit that it is in the lower roumes as sinus Abrahae may appeare by scripture to haue bene and separated from hell as it was because all places of punishmēt after this life be called of holy writers conformably to scripture Inferna But with curious searche of these thinges as we be not charged so to beleue that iustice is there done vpon sinners by much sorow and torment of their soules by the authority of Gods worde and Church we are of necessity induced The care and consideration whereof if it take deepe impression in our mindes I am sure it shall worke exceding greate chaunge in our whole life and maners 2 Here we are taught what the difference is betwene the paynes of hell and purgatory This difference is not in quality nor quantity but in respect of continuance and of the persons The one is eternall the other temporall they that are in one are desperate and impatient the other in hope and patience without sinne or daunger of sinning Surely if those tales were true that are told of them that are in purgatory there appeared in some but smal patience One that was promised by an Angell that he should tarry but 3. dayes
against his wicked doctrine euen as he shoulde be and as these wranglers in the like case must be The place well marked shal serue our turne when so euer we heare them so impudently reiect scriptures because they impugne their heresies which els shoulde be as good scriptures as any booke of the Bible if they either woulde make with them or by any crafty colouring not plainely make against them Thus he sayth Nec ideo liber Sapientiae qui tanta numerositate annorum legi meruit in ecclesia Christi pati debet iniuriam quoniam resistit eis qui pro meritis hominum falluntur rursus omnibus hic liber tractatoribus anteponendus quoniam sibi cum anteposuerunt etiam temporibus Apostolorum proximi egregij tractatores qui eum testem adhibentes nihil se adhibere nisi diuinum testimonium crediderūt in English thus It is no reason that the booke of VVisdom which so many worlde 's together hath bene worthy the reading in the Church of Christ shoulde nowe receiue such wrong at our handes because it plainely resisteth these fellowes that exalt mans merites aboue Gods grace And againe this booke is of more authority then all the expositours in the worlde for the noble writers hard by the Apostles time did much preferre this booke before them selues who alleaging the testimony of that scripture doubted not but they vsed thereby the witnesse of Gods holy word Euen so must we tell our maisters that it were plaine wrong to discredit the history of the Machabees which hath bene in our Bible euer sith Christes time for holy Scripture because it hath an euident testimonie against their false belefe concerning the state of the soules departed which booke is not onely better to be beleued then all Caluins false gloses but of more authority then all holy expositors Out of which booke both S. Augustine others many haue vsed proofe of their matters as of the testimonie of Sacred and holy scripture 2 I will not gaine saye but who so denyeth the authority of the holy Scriptures thereby bewrayeth him selfe to be an heretike as all Papistes doe which I will proue afterwarde But he that admitteth for scripture that which is not proceded from the spirite of God and thereby will auouch for trueth that which is contrary to the vndoubted worde of God is no lesse heretike then he for it is all one sinne to adde to the worde of God and to take from it But M. Allen pretending to proue the booke of Machabees canonicall by authority of the Church when he can not by consent that it hath with the scriptures of God beginneth with the authority of Hieronym in prol Mach. But what he meaneth thereby or what place he noteth I know not But this I knowe that in his Preface vpon the booke of kinges he doth not onely omit it in rehersall of the canonicall bookes but also accompteth it plainely among the Apocryphall Next he alleageth the canons of the Apostles Wise canons I promise you as truely made by the Apostles as the double canons that lie on the tower hyll of London In which are rehersed 3. bookes of Machabees two Epistles of Clemens for canonicall scripture but the Apocalypse of S. Iohn hath no place at all by which it may appeare what Apostles they were that made that canckred canon Then followeth the prouinciall Councell of Carthage the third which nameth the 2. bookes of the Machabees amonge the canonicall scriptures euen as it doth the 5. bookes of Salomon whereas the Church alloweth but 3. namely the Prouerbes the preacher and the Canticles and although you shoulde numbre to these the booke of Wisdome yet can you make but 4. in all that we know of Againe in what sence they did call those bookes canonicall appereth by Augustine that was one of that Councell namely that they maye be reade so it be with iudgement Contra 2. Gaudentij epistolam lib. 2. cap. 23. Et hanc quidem scripturam quae appellatur Machabaeorum non habent Iudaei sicut legem Prophetas Psalmos quibus dominus testimonium perhibet tanquam testibus suis dicens oportet impleri omnia quae scripta sunt in lege prophetis in psalmis de me Sed recepta est ab ecclesia non inutiliter si sobriè legatur audiatur And this scripture of the Machabees the Iewes compte not as the lawe and the prophetes and the Psalmes to whome our Lorde geueth testimony as to his witnesses saying it behoued that all thinges should be fulfilled that were written of me in the lawe and in the Prophetes and in the Psalmes But it is receiued of the Church not vnprofitably if it be soberly reade and harde Here you see that Augustine howsoeuer he alloweth those bookes yet he alloweth them not in full authority with the lawe Prophetes and Psalmes nor with out condition of sobriety in the reader or hearer But Hieronym sayth plainely the Church receiueth them not as canonicall scriptures in his preface vpon the booke of Prouerbes Sicut ergo Iudith Tobiae Machabaeorum libros legit quidem ecclesia sed eos inter canonicas scripturas non recipit Sic haec duo volumina legat ad aedificationem plaebis non ad authoritatem ecclesiasticorum dogmatum confirmandam Therefore euen as the Church readeth in deede the bookes of Iudith Tobias and Machabees but yet receiueth them not among the canonicall scriptures so maye she reade these 2. bookes videlicet Ecclesiasticus and the booke of Wisdome falsely intitled to Salomon for the edification of the people but not to confirme the authority of ecclesiasticall opinions Thus if Augustine doe simply allowe these bookes you haue Hieronym that doth simply refuse them If Augustine saye the Church receiueth them for canonicall Hieronym sayth the Church receiueth them not for canonicall As for Damascene except you woulde stryue with numbre of witnesses I know not why you alleage him being one to whose iudgement as but a late writer in comparison you know we ascribe small credit I might produce against him Athanasius or at leste wise one of elder time then Damascene vnder the name of Athanasius but that I haue alleaged already is sufficient to represse that vaine and vnskilfull insultation that you vse in so many wastfull wordes against vs for refusing the authority of him that abridged Iason the Cyrenians bookes for canonicall scriptures 3 But our aduersary learned not this practise of Pelagius onely for it is an older sore and a common sicknesse to all deuisers of deuilish doctrine as the skillfull in the Churchies affaires may acknowledge For some there were that otherwise coulde not vpholde heresy but by the vtter deniall of all the olde Testament as Carpocrates Ceuerus Manicheus But Marcion and Cerdon reiect all together sauyng Lukes Gospel Now Cerinthus and Ebion make counte of none of all the Euangelicall histories but the Gospell of Matthewe Cerinthus againe and Seuerus
thankesgeuing which S. Paule affirmeth to be the doctrine of Diuells 1. Tim. 4. Also your distinctions and varieties of seruice because they consiste most of blasphemous prayers to dead Sainctes and sometimes to damned spirites with foolish lessons responses versicles c. Lewde lies and vncertaine tales which you reade and sing as God his seruice they are all abhominable In vaine do they worship me saith our Sauiour Christ teaching for doctrine the preceptes of men Math. 15. Also it was decreed in the Councell of Laodicea the 59. chapter that nothing should be song or reade in the Church but the Canonicall bookes of holy Scripture wherefore if you demande whence your ceremonies festiuall dayes fastes and varieties of seruice did proceede I aunswere plainely out of the bottomles pit of hell 2 From whence did all thinges yet indifferently for most part obserued and allowed on both sides from whence did they proceede IF you had vttered what thinges you meane that are so indifferently allowed on both sides we might better haue aunswered but seeing you haue not we must coniecture what you meane if you meane any thinge that is allowed without controuersie on both sides it did either proceede from the scripture of God or from the primitiue Church or else it a thing meerely indifferent but if it haue no grounde in holy Scripture nor example of the primitiue Church nor iudged meerely indifferent it not indifferently obserued for the most parte nor yet allowed on both sides 2 And if it can be proued that the Protestants Congregation or any other Church but ours hath instituted and ordered all these or any of these for the comelinesse and honour of God his house I recant I Haue aunswered before that the Protestants Congregation geueth you leaue to bragge that you are the inuentors of all these Idolatrous superstitions false worshipping of God and yet because you offer so liberally to recant if it can be proued that any Church but yours hath instituted and ordered all these thinges you shall heare what can be saide First your great doctor Durande plainely affirmeth that many of your ceremonies and solemnities had not their first institution of your church but were taken of the Iewes or Gentiles And it may easily be proued that many of your ceremonies were instituted of heretikes as your holy water which you say you vse to put men in minde of their baptisme was deriued of the heretikes called Hemerobaptistae which were baptized euery daye Epiphan lib. 1. Tom. 1. cap. 17. Of the Ossenes you tooke the great estimation of water salt oyle breade c. and vse to sweare by them as they did Epiph. contra Ossenes 19. Of the same heretikes you receiued the superstition of reliques for they vsed to take the spittle and other filth from the bodies of Marthys and Marthana which were of the seede of Elxai that is great Sainctes with them and vsed them to cure diseases as Erasmus witnesseth at Canterbury were kept the clowtes that Thomas Becket did occupy to wipe of his sweate and to blow his nose on which were kissed as holy reliques and thought also to be holsom for sicke folkes of the same heretikes you learned to commande the people to pray in an vnknowene tongue as Elxai the great Pope of those heretikes sayde Nemo quaerat interpretationem sed solum in oratione haec dicat Let no man seeke the interpretation but onely saye these wordes in his prayer Which wordes were in a strange tong either the Hebrue or the Arabike Epiphan lib. 1. Tom. 1. haeres 19. Likewise the Marcosians when they baptized vsed to speake certaine Hebrue wordes that the ignorant people might maruell the more at them as you doe in Baptisme Ephata c. Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 3. haer 34. To make the Images of Christ and of the Apostles and to sense them you learned of the heretikes called Gnostici and Carpocratiâ—ae Epip lib. 1. Tom. 2. in the preface Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 2. haer 27. and Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 23. Of the Valentinians you learned to haue in price the signe of the crosse and to abuse the places of scripture for the same superstitious vse as God forbidde that I shoulde reioice but in the crosse of Christ c. Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 1. Epiphan lib. 1. Tom. 2. haeres 31. Of the Heracleonites you learned to annoynte men at the point of death with oyle and balme and to cast water vpon dead men with inuocations Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 3. haeres 36. Of the Cayanes you learned to call vpon Angels Epiph. lib. 1. Tom. 3. haeres 38. Of the Marcionistes you learned to giue women leaue to baptize Ep. lib. 1. Tom. Haer. 42. George Bishop of Alexandria inuented beares to carry deade corpses charging all men to vse them for his owne aduantage as doe you Papistes your bearing clothes other toyes for funerall pompes Ep. lib. 3. Tom. 1. Haer. 76. Of the Colliridianes you learned to make images of the virgine Marie worship them her with offering of candells c. as they did of cakes c. Ep. lib. 3. Haer. 79. Of the Messalians or Martirians you learned to shaue your beardes and to let your lockes grow long Ep. lib. 3. Haer. 80. Of the Pharizees you receaued your superstitious masking garments which you call amictus dalmaticus and pallia as witnesseth Epiphanius in his epistle to Acacius and Paulus Last of all what say you to the ceremonies festiuities fastes and solemnities vsed in the Greeke Church and in the other Oriental Churches if they be sufficient to make their church Catholâ—ke why doe you count them heretikes and Schismatikes if they be not sufficient why doe you reason of the instiâ—ution of the like to proue your Church Catholike You see that proued which you desired play the honest man therfore and recant The 7. article conteineth 3. demaundes 1 Further I aske them what Church that is which hath brought forth out of her wombe so many noble personages of Martyrs Confessors Doctors Virgines and holy Sainctes of all sortes all which both they and we doe outwardly professe by the continuance of the Callendare which yet is vsed euery where to be Sainctes in heauen FVrther I aunswere you that all true Sainctes whether they were Patriarches Prophets Apostles EuaÌ„gelistes Martyrs Confessors Doctors Scholars Virgins wiues widowes married or vnmarried are all children of that Church in whose fellowship we reioyce to be and are our deare brethren and sistern begotten in Iesu Christ by the gospell and we all hold of one head Iesus Christ as members of his mysticall body We all beleue to be receaued into that glory that they are by the onely meane that they were that is by the mercie of God in Christ Iesus But as for the continuance of the Callendar we haue litle respect vnto it yea no regard at all to vse it either as a recorde or as a register of those whom we acknowledge to
be Sainctes in heauen Let the Prince make you aunswere for the continuance of such callēders for we haue not to do with them Neuerthelesse because you speake of a Callendar that is vsed euery where you declare that you haue small experience in Callendars for euery cuntry hath them diuers in most dayes except holy dayes and in some cuntry Callendars such dayes are festiuall to those Saincts that haue not their names in Callendars of other cuntries yea it may be doubted whether they haue their names in the booke of life If you sawe a Bohemians Callendar perhaps if you shoulde see Iohn Hus and Ierom of Prage which your church condemned for heretikes and haue as solemne feastes in the Callender as Peter and Paule wherefore we acknowledge those to be Sainctes in deede not whose names are continued in the Callendars of men but are written in the booke of life of the Lambe that was slaine from the beginning of the worlde Apoc. 13. 2 And if it can be proued by any man of the Protestancy that these were either of the Protestants Congregation or beleefe when they were aliue IT is sufficiently proued against you of the Papistrie that all they whome we acknowledge to be Sainctes in heauen are members of the same mysticall bodie of Christ that we are and hold the onely foundation that we hold which is Iesus Christ and although some of them builded straw and stubble vpon the same foundation yet the Lorde hath not imputed it vnto them But wheras the Patriarches Prophetes and Apostles were cheefe lightes and pillers of the church of Christ the daye is yet to come and euer shal be that all you of the Papistrie shal be able to charge vs with one pointe of our faith contrary to the doctrine of the Patriarches Prophetes and Apostles 3 Or canonized and allowed for Sainctes by the Protestantes Church when they were deade or by any other Church then I recant OVr Church doth take all them that shew the fruicts of a liuely faith to be Sainctes while they be aliue as well as after their death and we say with Dauid All my delight is in the Sainctes that are in the earth Psal. 16. and with S. Paule VVe labour to comprehend with all Sainctes what is the length breadth depth and heigth and to know the loue of christ Ephes. 3. Finally the scripture teacheth vs to call all them that are sanctified in the bloude of Christ and called to the felowship of the Gospell holy and Sainctes of God. 1. Cor. 1. Ephes. 1. c. Wherefore your Popish church doth great iniury to the Sainctes of God first because she doth not so accompt them while they liue and secondly because she referreth the canonization of them only to the Pope who not for their holy life maketh them Sainctes but for the holy honger of golde as appeare by Pope Iuly 2. who woulde not canonize king Henry the sixt at the request of king Henry the seuenth vnder an vnreasonable summe of money If that summe of money had bene paide he shoulde haue bene a sainct though he had not deserued not for his vertue And because that summe of money was not paide he might not be canonized although his godlinesse neuer so much deserued Againe of what force your Canonization is to be esteemed we may learne by a fact of Pope Boniface the 8. who condemned digged vp and burned the bodie of Hermannus in Ferraria 30. yeares after his buriall who had bene worshipped for a sainct aboue 20. yeares before as witnesseth Platina and other Gregorie the seuenth canonized Pope Liberius which was an Arrian as S. Hieronym testifieth Moreouer if I shoulde likewise demande of you what Pope canonized Peter Paule and the rest of the Apostles yea most of the Martyrs of the primitiue Church you shall neuer be able to shew me either what Pope did it or that any Pope did it For seeing none may canonize but the Pope in your church and you can not proue that the Pope hath canonized the Apostles and cheefe Martyrs you can not proue that your church hath canonized the Apostles and principall Martyrs But it is manifest that your canonization is taken from the heathen Senate of Rome which chalenged authority to make Gods whome they them selues thought best And if I shoulde rippe vp the most parte of those Sainctes which haue bene canonically canonized by the Pope it were an easie matter to finde them heretikes traitors Necromancers Whoremongers and whores as you may reade in Bales Votaries aboundantly beleuing his reporte no farther than he alleageth his Author where you maye finde it Wherefore it were wisedome for you not to depend vpon the Pope his Canonization but vpon God his approbation and to recante The 8. article conteyneth 3. demandes 1 And because Christ as S Paule sayeth hath established in his Church some Apostles some Prechers some Teachers and Doctors euen vntill his comming againe I aske the Protestant what Church that is which is able to shew proue the continuance and vse of the saide functions euer sence Christes time by plaine accompt of orderly Succession I Aunswere the Papist that Christ hath geuen to his Church some Apostles some Prophetes some Euangelistes some Pastors and Teachers Ephes. 4. and 1. Cor. 12. And we are able to shew proue that we continue in that vnitie of faith and knowledge of the Sonne of God for which ende such offices were ordeyned But whereas you require that we should shew you the continuance of those functions by orderly succession from Christes his time vntill our dayes you declare how small skill you haue in vnderstanding the scriptures for the offices of Apostles Euangelistes and Prophetes were not appoincted to continue alwayes in the Church but for a time vntill the Gospell had taken roote in the worlde Moreouer whereas you requier an orderly succession according to persons or places you are neuer able to proue that any such thing was promised to the Church that we should shew you the performance thereof in our Church Otherwise we doubt not but God hath alway stirred vp some faithfull teachers that haue instructed his Church in the necessarie poinctes of Christian Religion Although the worlde and the church of Antichrist did not alwayes see them 2 And is able to name you by the histories of all ages the notable personnes of all the forsaide states in their gouernment and ministerie AGaine I answere you that you are not able to name me any text of scripture by which you can proue that al these offices must haue perpetual cōtinuance in the church of Christ nor yet that any of them should kepe an ordinarie succession of place or persons But contrariwise seeing it was prophecied that the church should flie into the wildernes that is be driuen out of the sight and knowledge of the wicked and be so narrowly persecuted of the Romish Antichrist for a longe season it were a token our church were not the true
ceremonies as Sarum Yorke Bangor c. in England she hath not vnitie in faith for it is not yet determined of one of the greatest articles of Popish faith whether the Pope be aboue the church she hath no holy functions of God his spirite but prophane vsages of mens inuentions she hath no true miracles but the power of Antichrist in lying signes and wonders She hath nothing lesse then the true sense of God his worde which submitteth the same to her owne corrupt and changeable iudgement She is not bewtified with estates commended in Scripture as Apostles Euangelists Prophets Pastors and Teachers but with Popes Cardinalls Monkes Chanons Fryers c. In steede of virgines she hath filthy strumpets her Nunnes or else such foolish virgines as bring no oyle in their lampes she hath no Martyrs but obstinate traytors as Becket Fisher More c. she hath no confessors of trueth though she haue ten thousand mainteyners of falshood and lyes Wherfore if these be the notes of the Catholike Church the Church of Rome can in no wise be that same 3 Proue vnto me that this is not the true Church or that we be not bound to obey this Church and no other in all controuersies and doubtes raysed either by the difficultie of the Scripture or by the vayne contention pride of heresie and I recant I Haue proued euen immediatly before that not one of those notes which you count to be markes of the true Church is proper to your Church And therefore it is not the truth neither ought it to be obeyed in any thing And as for doubtes that arise by difficultie of Scripture or contention of heresie must be resolued and determined as it is abundantly declared before onely by the Scriptures for the hard places of the Scripture must be opened by easie places and heretikes must be confuted by the Scriptures for there is neuer heresie but there is as great doubt of the Church as of the matter in question onely the Scripture is the stay of a Christian mans conscience which I woulde wish that you would truely embrace and recant The 27. article conteyneth 5. demandes 1 Moreouer let any man proue vnto me that the true onely Church of God may at any time be voyd of God his spirite THe true and onely Church of Christ can neuer be voyd of God his spirite and yet she may erre from the truth and be deceiued in some thinges euen as there is no true Christian man that is voyd of God his spirite for he that hath not the spirite of Christ is none of his Rom. 8. yet may euery true Christian erre and be deceaued in some things according to the saying of the Scripture euery man is a lyar Wherefore the whole Church militant consisting of men which are all lyars may erre all togither as euery part thereof although neither the whole Church nor any true member thereof be voyd of God his spirite 2 Or falsely interprete any sentence of holy Scripture THis gentle offer must needes be taken I will proue vnto you that the church of Rome hath falsely interpreted diuers sentences of scripture and therefore by that which she hath done it cannot be doubted but that she may do it S. Augustine was in this error that he thought Infantes must receiue the sacrament of the body and bloude of Christ vnder paine of damnation and was deceiued by false interpretation of this scripture Except ye eate the fleshe of the Sonne of man and drinke his bloude c. Ioan. 6. This error and false interpretation he affirmeth to be common to all the Westerne church to Pope Innocent him selfe Contra duas epist. Pelag. ad Bonifacium lib. 2. cap. 4. cōtra Iulianum lib. 1. cap. 2. Furthermore the second Councell of Nice how many textes of scripture doth it falsely interprete which it were to tedious to repete yet for examples sake I will reherse some of them God made man to his owne image Gen. 1. therefore we must haue images in the church No man lighteth a candle and setteth it vnder a bushell Math. 5. therefore images must be set vpon the altars As we haue heard so we haue seene in the City of our God Psal. 48. that is God must not be knowen by onely hearing of his worde but also by sight of images If these be not true interpretations I reporte me to you Beside these I will bring you a sentence of holy Scripture not onely falsely interpreted in sence but also falsified in wordes and concerning not a small matter but euen one of the cheefe articles of our Faith. It is written in the 10. chapter of the Gospell after S. Iohn the 29. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Father which gaue thē vnto me speaking of his sheep is greater than all This sentence hath the Councell of Laterane holden vnder Pope Innocent the 3. where were present 70. Metropolitanes 400. Bishops 12. Abbates and 800. Priors commentualles in all 1300. Prelats falsified in wordes after this maner Pater quod dedit mihi maius est omnibus that is That which the Father hath geuen me is greater than all This sentence they alleage to proue that God the Father begetting his Sonne from euerlasting gaue his owne substance vnto him the wordes be in the 2. Canon Pater enim ab aeterno filium generando suam substantiam ei dedit iuxta quod ipse testatur Pater quod dedit mihi maius est omnibus At dici non potest quod partem suae substantiae illi dederit partem retinuerit ipse sibi cum substantia Patris indiuisibilis sit c. that is to say For the Father begetting his sonne from euerlasting gaue him his owne substance according as he himselfe witnesseth that which the Father gaue me is greater than all But it can not be said that he gaue him part of his substance and kept parte vnto him selfe when as the substance of the Father is indiuisible c. Goe your wayes now and perswade vs that your church can not interprete any sentence of the scripture falsely when the Laterane Councell which is your represented church hath thus both falsefied and falsely interpreted this scripture Perswade men that they may safely leane to the interpretation of your church when among a thousand and three hundred Prelates gathered canonically in a Councell not one was founde that coulde espie such grosse abusing of the worde of God but let it passe in a Canon vnder the name of the whole Councell Perswade men that in all controuersies condemning of errors they must be ruled by the determination of your Church When the Fathers of the Laterane Councell can not confute the error of Ioachim Abbot concerning the Diuinitie of Christ but by falsefying and false interpreting of scripture These few examples of an infinite numbre I haue set forth because they are sufficient both to satisfie your chalenge and to perswade the simple that the
like a foxe than a doue 5 Domus Dei. THe true Church in which we are is the house or familie of God which he gouerneth by his stewardes the sincere preachers of his word The popish church is the Synagoge of Satan where the preaching of God his word is despised and the word it selfe made subiect to mens determinations and authorities 6 Columna veritatis SAinct Paule by this title doth admonish Pastors and Preachers how great a burthen and charge they susteyne that the truth of the Gospell can not be continued in the world but by their ministerie in the church of God which is the piller and stay of truth this their duety true preachers considering are diligent in their calling to set forth the Gospell and to preach the truth But the popish church which is not the vpholder and mainteyner but the ouerthrower oppressor of the truth compelling it to giue place to falshood and error can by no equitie chalenge this name to be called the piller and stay of truth but rather of falshood and lyes 7 Ciuitas Dei. OVr Church is the citie of God builded vpon the foundations of the Patriarkes Prophets and Apostles Iesus Christ being the head corner stone ruled by the lawes of God onely reteyning that forme of regiment and common wealth that Christ him selfe hath prescribed The Church of Antichrist is founded vppon seuen hilles Apoc. 17. vpon the traditions dreames phantasies and deuises of men refuseth to be ruled onely by the lawes of God hath cleane altered and changed the forme of regiment prescribed by God set vp an other full of Antichristian pride crueltie and tyrannie Therefore in no wise may be called the citie of God But Babylon the mother of fornication Sodoma and Egypt where our Lord is daily crucified in his members 8 Ciuitas supra montem posita THis saying of our Sauiour Christ in the 5. of Mathew is not properly meant of the Church but of the Apostles their successors the ministers of the Church euen as these sayinges You are the salte of the earth you are the light of the worlde A citie builded vppon an hill can not be hidden neither is a candle lighted to be set vnder a bushell By which wordes he teacheth them aboue all other men to looke diligently to their life and conuersation for as they excell in place and dignitie so the eyes of all men are set vppon them As a citie builded vppon an hill must needes be seene of all them that come neare it so they being placed in so high an office and dignitie shall be noted and marked aboue all other men As a candle is not lighted but to be set on a candlesticke to giue light vnto all them that come into the house euen so a Minister and Preacher of God his word is not ordeyned for any other ende but that he should shine before men in true doctrine and good maners Hereby it appeareth how fondly some Papists would seeme to proue out of this place that the Church must alwayes be visible when the wordes are not applyed to the Church but to the ministers thereof I know some of the doctors expound this place otherwise but the context of the wordes doth plainely confute their error 9 Hortus conclusus AS a gardē or orchard walled in or inclosed with hedges is more estemed of the owner thē great broad fieldes and the trees and flowers that growe therein are preserued and kept more safely then such as are wilde and grow abroad right so the Church of Christ seuered from the rest of the world though it be small in compasse yet is it more estemed of him then all the world beside But the Church of Rome which will not be enclosed with the walls or hedges of God his word but wandreth at large after her owne inuentions can not be called the inclosed garden of Christ. 10 Fons signatus THe true Church of Christ is also compared to a spring or founteine which is shutte in or sealed vppe from the prophane waters of worldly vanities ministring the water of life to all the children of god But as for the popish church which ishueth out of the bottomles lake is a stincking puddle of all false doctrine and heresie whereof the whore beareth a cupp full Apoc. 17. out of which all nations haue dronk Apoc. 18. So farre is it that she should be a well sealed vp by Christ. 11 Sponsa Agni THe description of the Spouse of the Lambe set forth in S. Iohns Reuelation doth in all pointes most aptly agree vnto our holy Church and congregation But the popish church which is not content to be clothed in that white shining silke which is the Iustificatiō of Saincts made white in the blood of the Lambe but with the filthy ragges of mans righteousnes Esay 64. is no Spouse of Christ but the darling of the deuill 12 Mulier amicta Sole NO place in all the scripture doth more plainely set forth the estate of our Church than this 12. of the Apocalyps She is clothed with the sunne of righteousnesse Iesus Christ which is her bewtie She treadeth vnder her feete the Moone of mutabilitie changeablenesse and inconstancie she is crowned with 12. starres which is the doctrine of the 12. Apostles the worde of god She is alwaies fruitefull and persecuted by the deuill and his members but yet by Christ defended protected and prouided for in all daungers and aduersities But the church of Rome is that whore of Babylon clothed in purple and scarlet golde precious stones and perles described Apoc. 17. sitting vpon the beast with seuen heades which are the seuen hilles and is the great cytie that had dominion ouer the kinges of the earth 13 Habitatio fratrum in vnum ALthough this saying be not proper nor peculiar vnto the Church onely but common to euery societie and fellowship of men that continue in godly vnity yet doth it most aptly agree vnto our Church which holdeth one vnity of doctrine faith and religion of christ But the Popish church how so euer it bragge of vnity because their agreement is not in verity can not be that cohabitation of brethren which the Psalmist doth so highely commende 14 Mons Dei mons pinguis THe hill which Dauid so extolleth Psal. 68. is the mount Zyon which though it be small yet it excelleth the high and frutefull hill of Basan because God had chosen it to place his tabernacle therupon euen so the church of Christ though it surmount not ouer kingdomes in worldly dignities and commodities yet to such as Dauid was the litle hill of Zyon is more worth than all the seuen hilles of Rome 15 Sacra anchora IN all the Scripture the Church is not compared to an holy Anchore but in the sixt to the Hebrues Fayth in God his promises is compared vnto a sure stedfast Anchore of our soules vpon which Faith seeing our Church is builded we may truely say that in our
Peace and reconciliation wrought by Christ whereby we knowing that we are iustified by faith haue peace with god Rom. 5. But neither of these Peaces are in the church of Rome for there is dissention in doctrine and their doctrine dissenteth from the truth as for the peace of conscience is altogether vnknowen vnto Papistes euen as the iustification of Faith by which onely it is obteined 31 Domus Refugij THe house of Refuge or defence may also be applied to the Church out of which is no saluation And in whose bosome it becoÌ„meth euery man to rest which shall looke for the refuge and defence of god But God forbidde that any man should seeke for refuge or helpe at your church which must be ouerthrowen with such violence as a great mylstone that is cast into the Sea and shal be founde no more Apoc. 18. 32 Domus Veritatis AS our church is the piller and staie of trueth so is she also the house of Trueth which knoweth nothing but him that is the Trueth it selfe Iesus Christ and his most holy Scripture In which this trueth is signed and testified But your Synagoge is the house of lyes where beside mens doctrines and traditions which are nothing but lyes there be also leaden legendes of lyes Promptuaries of lyes Festiuals of lyes and other infinite bookes of lyes 33 Societas Sanctorum HOw shoulde not our Church be the societie and fellowship of Sainctes which is sanctified and purged by the bloode of Christ which hath receiued the spirite of sanctification by which we crie Abba Father which is guided and gouerned by the most sacred and holy worde of god And how can the Popish church be the fellowship of Sainctes when she refuseth the sanctification of Christ his one oblation and sacrifice as sufficient to make them perfect which scorneth at the spirite of sanctification which can abide any thing rather than to be directed onely by God his holy worde Finally which acknowledgeth no sainctes but such as the most vnholy Pope for money doth canonize and make sainctes Proue vnto me therefore that these excellent and propre callinges can agree to any disordered companie or Congregation or to any vnknowen society of men but onely to the true Church of Christ spred throughout the whole worlde by Christes his promise and by vertue of his spirit continued in truth and grace from falshood sence Christes time and I recant AS many of these excellent names as in the worde of God or the doctors agreeing with the worde of God are propre or perteyning to the true Church of Christ so many haue I proued to be propre and perteyning to our most holy and well ordered CongregatioÌ„ And moreouer that they can in no wise be rightly applied to that most abhominable Idolatrous and disordered Synagoge of Rome which is vtterly departed from the faith geuing heede to spirites of error and doctrines of deuills being so liuely painted forth and euen pointed forth by the scripture to be that Antichristian church whereof the holy Ghost prophesieth that no man except he will wilfully be blinde can be ignorant thereof so that if you be not starke blinde and geuen vp into a reprobate sence when you consider these thinges you will recant Let any man therefore aliue answer directly and plainly without colour or fraude of wordes and vnprofitable digressions to the foresayd or any of the foresayd demandes and I shall willingly leaue the knowne Church playne way of Saluation and wander in the woodes to seeke after them and their congregation IF you had not added this conclusion we might haue conceaued some hope that vpon further instruction in such matters as troubled your conscience you would haue ben contented to be reformed after God his worde and good counsell But now you declare that you are so obstinatly bent that what so euer be proued against you you will not receiue it as truth but yeld vnto it perforce As for me Although I know there are very many which with more learning and eloquence coulde haue aunswered your demandes yet being such as they are I submitte my selfe to the iudgement of all them that be learned and godly minded whether I haue not directly and plainely without colour or fraude of wordes without all digression aunswered the same so that I doubt not but as many as are tractable and stayed vpon these doubtes onely may be fully perswaded by these not very long and yet sufficient Answers THE ENDE 1 A DEFENSE AND DECLARATION OF THE CATHOLIKE Churches doctrine touching Purgatory and prayers for the soules departed By VVILLIAM ALLEN Maister of Arte and student in Diuinitie 1 AN OVERTHROW AND CONFVTATION OF THE POPISH Churches doctrine touching Purgatory and prayers for the deade By W. FVLKE Doctor in Diuinitie 2 Mortuo ne prohibeas gratiam Eccle. 7. Hinder not the departed of grace and fauour 2 Such liberalitie as by any meanes may extende vnto them in burying their bodies honoring there memorie helping there posteritie TO THE READER 3 A Friend of mine very studious of the truth and zelous of Gods house one that learned to beleue first and then sought to vnderstand afterward which I take to be the naturall order of a christian schoole where faith must in most matters direct reason and leade the way to vnderstanding asked of me as of one whome he hartely loued and knew to be studious in such matters by my trade of life vpon what groundes the Churches doctrine and the Christian peoples faith of Purgatory and prayers for the departed stoode I aunswered him then presently as I could and shortly after as his further request was in writing somewhat more at large The which my doing though it was both rude and short yet he so measured it either by loue as it commonly happeth or else by a singular facilitie whereby he misliketh nothing that is meant well that he made it common to many moe then I would my selfe For though I was well contented that the simple people or any other should take profite or pleasure by my paine yet â—onsidering the matter to be full of difficultie and to reaâ—h to Gods iudgements in the world to come I called to my minde the saying of Nebridius who as S. Augustine reporteth of him with whom he was very familiar being much studious and inquisitiue of the secret poâ—ntes of our faith would be excedingly offended to heare a man aske of a matter of importaunce a briefe declaration his saying was that he loued not a short answere to a long question VVhereby I was me thought in a maner admonished that my treatise though it satisfied my friend and displeased not other yet could not written both hastely and briefly serue so long and large a matter I did feare with all to enter in this my lacke of yeares iudgement and knowledge into the search of such secretes as I knâ—w by that light vowe that I made of the matter before the orderly proceeding in
opening of Gods spirite But omitting this matter as touched by the way with two other pages following as containing nothing materiall to be aunswered I will come to the third leafe and second face where you promise an orderly proceeding in the matter you take in hand Which order of yours if you had not professed your selfe to obserue men might haue taken your hochpot to be such as your matter would bring forth that the treaty of Purgatory should be like the troublesome state therof but when you are not content to haue your methode counted to be of the nature of your matter but you will needes make boast of an orderly proceeding in so disordered a cause you must not be offended if your confusion in steade of order be sometime discouered Howbeit the want of order were a small fault if the matter were pregnant and certaine But what assurance shall other men haue of your doctrine when you your selfe affirme and haue learned as you say out of Irenaeus that such doctrine and mysteries may not be safely had at such a mans hand as you are but onely of holy Priestes and Byshops which with the succession of their office haue receiued a sure and certaine gift of truth according to the pleasure of their father It is the duety not onely of a good teacher but euen of a good Christian to say with the Psalmist I haue beleued and therefore I haue spoken If you beleue not these matters why haue you vttered them â–ª â—f you beleue them then be bold to shew vs your grounds out of the word of god For other perswasion then â—uch as is grounded vppon the hearing of Gods worde will neuer of Christians be counted for true beliefe so long as the 10. chapter to the Romanes remaineth in the Canon of the Bible But I knowe your meaning you affect the prayse of humilitie and modestie For wauering and vncertaintie in faith among Papistes is counted modâ—stie but this modesty is soone forgotten and this boldnesse nowe vtterly refused in the next leafe â—ollowing is not onely resumed by your selfe but also enioyned to others Be bolde blush not you might say though you should for shame to charge any of our aduersaâ—â—es c. A sodaine chaunge he that euen now neither can nor must be bolde although he hâ—d many more giftes then he hath and studied much longer then he hath done to expounde the holy Scripture without daunger to him selfe and his hearers because he hath not the certaine gifte of truth with ordinary succession by and by is growne to such a full perswasion of truth expressely proued by argument and authoâ—itie that men must be bold vppon his warrant to charge all his aduersaries either to be helde thereby or else with no honesty to escape his handes A man would maruaile to beholde this speedy alteration if he did not vnderstand the true difference betwene the certaine faith of a Christian and the obstinate blindenesse of an hereticke For when he compareth his opinion with the authority of Gods word where vpon true faith is builded he will not he can not he must not be bolde to vnderstand the scriptures he wanteth that certaine gifte of truth but when he remembreth that he can not deceiue others nor retaine the glory of constancy him selfe by doubtfulnesse and vncertainty then he â—aunteth braggeth of the force of his feeble arguments and vnsufficient auâ—horitie But concerning the place of Irenaeus by him alleged I must admonish the reader that his meaning was not that euery one that succedeth in a Byshoppes seate hath as necessarily annexed to his see that certaine gifte of veritie wherby he may expound the Scripture without error as maister Allen perhaps woulde insinuate But that some in the first age of the Church as they succeded the holy Byshoppes and elders that were ordained by the Apostles in place and office so also it pleased God their father that they shoulde succede in the like gifts and namely in that excellent gifte of interpretation of the Scriptures which was but extraordinarie and for a season For if it had been an ordinarie thing that euery Byshop by succession shoulde receiue that gifte there shoulde neuer haue been any heretike Byshops as there haue been many and againe that prerogatiue which Maister Allen him selfe will affirme to be peculiar to the Byshop of Rome shoulde be made common to euery other blinde Byshop where so eâ—er he sat which were a great absurditie in popery it selfe And as for the gift of the interpretation of scriptures God gâ—ueth it still though not in such full measure nor coÌ„monly without ordinary meanes allowed in the Scripture as reading comparing praying neuer the lesse with as full persuasion in matters concerning Gods honour our saluation by his holy Spirite as euer he did bestowe the same in any age And as for the helpes of learning requisite for the same as knowledge of the tongues and rationall sciences there was neuer greater stoâ—e in the church of Christ son Christ his time ye if we shall iudge by the writings and stories of all ages vnlesse we will be as impudent as maister Allen we must say there was neuer so great store of learning in any age as Gods holy name be praised there is now in these our dayes in menne professing Christian religion with what conscience can maister Allen affirme that there was neuer lesse store of learning then in this age when euen in remembraunce of men that are aliue there was a great deale lesse store then is nowe but in their fathers and grandfathers time there was almost nothing but rudenesse and barbarousnesse euen with the same conscience that soone after he affirmeth that pleasure is euer ioyned to the Protestants doctrine which more preuaileth then the preachers perswasion If you had meant Master Allen that peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding which they tast of that by the Protestants doctrine haue learned that they are iustified by faith Phil. 4. Rom. 5. and to that perpetual ioy in the holy Ghost whereunto we are exhorted by the Apostle Phil. 4. wherein the kingdom of God consisteth Rom. 14. we willingly would haue consented that such pleasure is alwayes ioyned to the Protestants doctrine but seeing it is more like you speake of carnall pleasures I must say thus much to confound your blasphemous tongue and to dashe out your slaunderous writing let the worlde witnesse that heareth our doctrine and God iudge that seeth our hearts whether carnall pleasures be ioyned to our teaching which daily preach with all vehemency and earnestnes vnfained repentaunce mortification deniall of our selues bearing of the crosse hatred of this world amendment of life holines and righteousnes and that vnder paine of euerlasting damnation And whether pleasure more then the godly perswasion of the preachers preuaileth to winne professors of our doctrine if it be not so clearly seene in this Church of England by the meanes of the great peace
them but onely to terme vice by the name of vertue And then we must be examined by what right we chaunge the names of thinges that can not alter their natures Stay a while your examination M. Allen this is no orderly proceding Good order would require that you shoulde first proue vs gilty of the crimes and then to take away our excuses Howebeit I blame you not if you leaue of the proofe of those thinges which would sooner reproue your selues then conuict your aduersaries And yet that you may see howe cleare a conscience we haue in these crimes obiected I will not refuse to answere your interrogatories although by no lawfull and orderly proceding I can be compelled thereto In primis who authorised you to call that extirpation of superstition which our fathers called sacriledge To this I answere I care not what your fathers called or counted sacriledge But God our heauenly father commaunded vs to breake burne and destroy all your idols and to deface al the monuments of them Deut. 12. And all the godly Patriarkes and fathers both before Christes comming and since haue geuen vs example of obedience vnto this commaundement and the obseruation thereof they haue termed the extirpation of superstition and idolatry Or that blinde deuotion which our holy Elders named true religion we learned of our Sauiour Christ and his Apostles to condemne that for blinde deuotion which is not grounded vpon certaine knowledge of Gods word you worship you know not what saith Christ to the Samaritane Iohn 4. S. Paule chargeth the obstinate Iewes with zeale without knowledge Rom. 10. How can they for sinne and shame honour that with the name of holy mariage that S. Ambrose termeth aduoultry S. Augustine worse then aduoultery and they with al the residue of doctours horrible incest The holy Ghost hath taught vs to call mariage honorable in all men and the bed vndefiled whatsoeuer any man hath sayd to the contrary And yet diuers godly men of the auncient fathers as Hieronym and Epiphanius allow mariage in them that can not conteine although they haue vowed virginitie euen as the spirite of God also hath spoken by S. Paule Because it is better to marry then to burne Epipha lib. 2. Haere 61. Hieron Epi. ad Demetriaden And now that I haue aunswered your questions I must be bolde to demaunde the same of you what authoritie you haue to chaunge the names of thinges when you can not alter their nature Who taught you to call that religion which holy Scripture calleth Idolatry or that true deuotion which God calleth vaine worshipping where learned you to call a gluttonous feast of fish a religious fasting or a sumptuous banket of wine spices fruites and deintie conseites a streight and holy abstinence with what face or conscience can you call that ouerflowing lust of your popish vnmaried Cleargie a pure and vndefiled chastitie Finally where learned you but of the Deuill him selfe to commaund abstinence from meates and mariage for religions sake to some men at all times and to all men at some times If for these and an hundred such you can shew no better warrant then the termes of your fathers the practise of your elders or the authoritie of mortall men the curse of God pronounced by Esay against them that call euill good or good euill must needes be turned ouer vnto you But to goe on with this orderly proceding whereby we are first accused and then by and by condemned without euer being conuicted or once put to the triall Next of all lest men should maruell howe so manifest impietie could so mightely preuaile they are told that it is onely present pleasure and similitude of maners that ioyneth so many vnto vs And for proofe hereof men must call to remembraunce the first entrance of this misery how these preachers haue had certaine persons in admiration for their owne aduantage We refuse not the triall but let men on Gods name call to remembraunce howe our doctrine beganne to be restored in these last dayes I pray you what priuate aduantage could they by any likelyhood be supposed to seeke which incurred manifest daunger of their liues by the least suspition of their profession or what persons could they haue in admiration when all Princes great personages were their greatest persecutors but they wanne them by flattery and sewed them cushians vnder their elbowes and laid pillowes vnder their heades This is in deede a sore accusation but where is the proofe Forsoth to such as made no store of good workes they cast onely faith vnder their elbowe to leane vppon O impudent blasphemer which of vs euer taught that such a faith as is not liuely fruitefull of good workes did euer profite any man but to the increase of his damnation To such as were burdened with promise of chastity they made a cushen for their ease To such as had rashly vowed that which they could not possibly performe not we but S. Paule sayth if they can not containe let them marry for it is better to marry then to burne S. Ieronym otherwise an vnmeasurable aduancer of virginitie dispraiser of mariage Ep. ad Dem. speaketh of virgins that professed chastity and liued vnpurely c. apertè dicendum est vt aut nubant si se non possunt continere aut contineant si nolunt nubere It must be plainly sayd vnto them that either they should marry if they can not containe or els containe if they will not marry Epiphanius lib. 2. haer 61. calleth mariage for such men not a cushen for their ease but an holsome medicine against their disease and the wound of burning and that sayth he was the doctrine of the Church in his time To such as cast an eye vpon Church goods they borowed a pillow of Iudas why was not this solde and giuen to the poore If euer any man hearde this text alleged by any preacher for such purpose let that man be counted such one as M. Allen termeth him if no man were heard euer to speake after that maner let M. Allen be taken for a man of such truth as he sheweth him selfe to be But it is a small thing to breake the bondes of modestie in a fewe poyntes if a man striue not to passe impudencie it selfe in shamelesse lying Commit what you list omit what you list your preachers shall prayse it in their wordes and practise it in their workes Sauing that vaine glorious affecters of painted eloquence be sometime so carefull of their wordes that they forget their matter I would haue thought that the father of lies him selfe the continuall accuser of Gods Sainctes would haue feared for euer losse of his credite to haue vttered so vnseemely a sclaunder of vs But I suppose that this disciple of his more regarding how finely then howe truely he inueyeth against his aduersaries had such pleasure in allusion of these termes commit and omit praise and practise words and workes that he respected
homo thus I english it It was necessary that our Lorde comming to the lost sheepe making a recapitulation of his appoynted ordinaunce and vew of his owne handeworke should also saue the same man which was formed after his owne image and likenesse I meane Adam then fulfilling the time of that condemnation which was for his disobedience appoynted and so the man ledde into captiuity was released of the bondes of his condemnation Eusebius Emissenus yet more expresly helpeth our cause as followeth Confestim igitur aeterna nox inferorum Christo descendente resplenduit siluit stridor ille lugentium Cathenarum disrupta ceciderunt vincula damnatorum Out of hand at Christes comming into hell that eternall darkenesse shined bright the gnashing of the mourners ceased and the brosten bandes of condemned persons fell from them Here loe many one by the iudgement of this holy writer were loused from much misery by Christes descending downe VVhere to our purpose we must especially be aduertised that all the iust in those inferiour parts were not in like felicity with our father Abraham or other of such perfect holinesse although he also suffered the common lacke in long looking for translation to ioy for some there were of meaner vertue yet in the fauour of God which suffered personall paine for purging recompense of their sinnes committed in this life of whome this Author semeth to meane And as S. Augustine supposeth the scripture must needes import such a like thing vndoubtedly teaching that Christ was not onely in the place of rest where Abraham and other in his harbour were but also in places of tormeÌ„t which could not touch his holy person Quem Deus suscitauit solutis doloâ—ibus inferni VVhome God raised vp againe after he had loosed hell paines Thus saith this holy Author Quia euidentia testimonia infernum commemorant dolores nulla causa occurrit cur illò credatur venisse Saluator nisi vt ab eius doloribus saluos faceret sed vtrum omnes quos in eis inuenit an quosdam quos illo beneficio dignos iudicauit adhuc requiro fuisse tamen eum apud inferos in eorum doloribus constitutis hoc beneficium praestitisse non dubito Bycause saith he euident testimonies make mention both of Hell and paines I see not why we shoulde beleue that our Sauiour came thether but to discharge some of the paines thereof mary whether he loosed all or summe whome he thought worthy of that benefite that woulde I learne For I am out of doubt he was in hell and bestowed that gracious benefite vpon some that were in paines Thus farre spake Augustine Let no man here take occasioÌ„ to thinke that this father ment of any release of the damned in the inferious hell for that errour he euer detested writeth earnestly against Origine for the same Then it must needs be that he spake of some which were in paine and torment and yet worthy to receiue mercy so he termeth their estate both here and in the xij Booke of the literall exposition on the Genesis where he hath the same wordes with more large proofe of the conclusion which neither agreeth with the state of Abrahams rest nor yet with the forsaken soules And the name of hell is now commonly taken for any one of the inferiour partes where God practiseth iudgemeÌ„t for sinne euerlastingly or temporally though as Augustine saith it caÌ„ not be found in plaine scripture that Abrahams happy resting place should be termed Hell or InfernuÌ„ But I neede not seeke further in the depe mistery of Christes affaires in the inferiour partes For as I am not ashamed to be ignorauÌ„t vpoÌ„ whom he bestowed the grace of deliuery so with Augustine or rather with Gods Church I dare beleue that he loosed somme vpon whome he exercised iudgement before And further may boldely auouche that as there were certaine at his comming downe not vnworthy after long paines tolerated to be released in his presens so there be yet some which by mercy and meanes of Gods Church be released daily Not of that sorte which died out of Gods fauour Quibus clausa est ianua misericordiae omnis spes interclusa salutis Vpon whome the doore of mercy and the hope of helthe be closed and shut vp for euer but of the iust departed in faith and pietie and yet not fully purged of all corruption of iniquitie 4 This man hath hitherto raked in purgatory nowe he will steppe a foote further into hell and all to finde a case where sinnes remitted are punished after this life and then he will returne againe into purgatory For this purpose we must consider with him that Adam and all the iust of those dayes were punished for their sinnes forgiuen not onely in this life but many hundreth yeares after their departure For whose deliuery the Catholike Church he sayth holdeth our creed teacheth that Christ descended into hell First marke how he agreeth with him selfe after how he cauilleth with the holy Scripture of god Here he sayth that Abraham and all the iust were punished in hell afterward in the next leafe he saith that all the iust in those inferiour partes were not in like felicity with our father Abraham or other of such perfect holinesse and in the next leafe after that he affirmeth out of Augustine that Abrahams happy resting place can not be found in Scripture to be termed hell But that the fathers of the olde lawe before Christ were not in hell although they were not nor yet are in perfect blessednesse God prouiding a better thing for vs that they without vs shoulde not be made perfect Heb. 11. It is to be proued with manifest argumentes and authorityes out of holy Scriptures For seeing they all beleeued in Christ they had euerlasting lyfe and entred not into condemnation but passed from death to lyfe Ioan 5. And to what ende was Christ called the lambe that was slayne from the beginning of the worlde but that the benefite of his passion extendeth vnto the godly of all ages alike Esay speaking of thè righteous that are departed out of this life sayth that there is peace and that they shall rest in their beddes Esay 57. like as he affirmeth that Tophoth which is Gehinnom or hell is prepared of olde for the wicked Es. 30. So that felicity and rest was the portion of the godly fathers of the olde time after their death and hell was prepared but for the wicked and vngodly The same doth our Sauiour Christ teach in the history of Lazarus and the rich man Luke 16. where the soule of Lazarus was caried by Angels not downe to hell but vp into Abrahams bosome from which hell is manifestly deuided when it is sayd that the rich man being in hell in torments lifted vp his eyes and saw Lazarus a farre of which wordes doe plainly confute that drousy dreame of the Papistes concerning limbus
After the sinnes of man be pardoned God oftentimes punisheth the offender the church punisheth him and man punisheth him selfe ergo there is some payne due after sinne be remitted Secondly this payne can not alwayes be discharged in this world eyther for lacke of space after the remission as it happeth in repentaunce at the houre of death or else when the party liueth in perpetuall welth without care or cogitation of any satisfaction therefore it must be aunswered in an other place Thirdly the common infirmities and the dayly trespasses which abase and defile the workes euen of the vertuous of their proper condition doe deserue payne for a tyme as the mortall offence deserueth perpetuall Therefore as the mortall sinne being not here pardoned must of iustice haue the reward of euerlasting punishment so it must needes followe that the veniall fault not here forgeuen should haue the reward which of nature it requireth that is to say temporall payne And therefore not onely the wicked but the very iust also must trauell to haue their daily infirmities and frailty of their corrupt natures forgiuen crying without ceasing forgeue vs our debts Quia non iustificabitur in conspectu tuo omnis viuens For no man aliue shal be able to stand before the face of God in his owne iustice or righteousnes and if these light sinnes should neuer be imputed then it were needelesse to cry for mercy or confesse debt as euery man doth be he neuer so passing holy To be briefe this debt of paine for sinne by any way remayning at the departure hence must of iustice be aunswered VVhich can not be without punishmēt in the next life then there must be a place of iudgement for temporall and transitory paynes in the other world The whole discourse made before hath geuen force enough to euery part of the argument the Scriptures doe proue it the practise of the Church confirmeth it all the doctors by our aduersaries graunt agree vpon it If they haue any thing to say here I make them fayre play the ground is open the reasons laide naked before their face remoue them as they can Lette them deale simply if they meane truely and not flourish as they vse vppon a false ground that in flowe of wordes they may couer errour or in rase of their smoth talke ouerrunne truth And that euery man may perceiue that we haue not raised this doctrine vpon reason only or curiositie although the graue authoritie of Gods Church might here in satisfie sober wittes we will now by Gods helpe go nearer the matter and directly make proofe of Purgatory by holy Scriptures reciting such places of the olde and new Testament as shall proue our cause euen in that sense which the learnedst and godlyest fathers of all ages by conference of places or other likelyhood shall fynde and determine to be most true Alleaging none els but such as they haue in the flour of Christian faith noted and peculiarely construed for that purpose which now is in question That the aduersaries of that doctrine may rather striue with the said saincts and doctours then with me that will as they shall well perceiue do nothing but truely reporte their wordes or meaninge Or rather that such as haue erred in that case by giuing ouer light credit to the troblesome teachers of these vnhappy dayes maye when they shall vnderstand the true meaning of the Scriptures the constant doctrine of the Catholike Church the wordes of all auncient writers the determination of so many holy Councels the olde vsage of all nations by humble prayers obteine of God the light of vnderstanding the trueth and the gifte of obedience to his will and worde Or if there be any so sattled in this vnlickely sect that he purposeth not to beleue the graue writers of olde times nor receiue their expositions vpon such places as we shall recite for that preiudice which he hath of this owne witte and vnderstanding yet let him not maruell at my simplicity that had rather geue credit to others then my selfe Or that in this hote time of contention and partaking in religion I do repose my selfe vnder the shadow of so many worthy writers as anone shall giue euidence in my cause CAP. V. 1 TRiumphing before the victorie and that is more before the encontry of hāde strokes for we come to ioyning but now you will now win your spurs or els it shal be a blacke daye with all Protestantes I will be as shorte in mine aunswere as you are in your arguments And that I may put on an armour of proofe to beare of your terrible haileshot your first argumēt hath neither good forme nor matter no more hath your second no more hath your third If you or any for you will prepare your selfe to geue a bitter charge either I or some other shal be redy to shape you an other aunswere But because here is nothing in this briefe ioyning but which hath bene largly discharged before in aunswere to your longe excursions it were nedelesse to make such vaine repetition as you doe especially in your last shorte argument in which space all the substaunce of your large booke might easily haue bene placed only to fil vp a competent length of the fift chapter and with such a tedious inlarging of a superfluous matter as a yong practiser of Rhetoricke would be ashamed to vse in a fayned declamation much worse becomming an auncient master of arte professing to trusse vp his arguments by Logicke to make a perfect perswasion As for the promisse of further proofe both out of the Scriptures and out of the doctors that followeth after this gallant ioyning and lusty challenge shall haue no preiudice of my disabling of the meane to perform it vntill it appeare by playne conference of his arguments and myne aunswers that his words are but winde and his promisse but pratling That Purgatory paines doth not onely serue Gods iustice for the punishement of sinne but also cleanse and qualifie the soule of man defiled for the more seemely entraunce into the holy places vvith conferēce of certaine places of Scripture for that purpose CAP. VI. 1 IF we well cōsider the wonderfull base condition and state of mans nature corrupted by our first fathers disobedience and more and more abased by continuall misery that sinne hath brought into our mortall life we shall finde the worke of Gods wisedome in the excellent repaire of this his creature to be full of mercy and full of maruell But proceding somewhat further and weying not onely his restoring but also the passing great anauncement to the vnspeakable glory of the elect there shall reason and all our cogitations vtterly faint and faile vs. The kingdome prepared is honored with the maiestie of the glorious Trinitie with the humanitie of Christ our Sauiour with the blessed Mary the vessell of his Incarnation with the bewtifull creatures and wholy vndefiled of all the ordres of Angels There can nothing doubtlesse
present it selfe before the seate of Gods glory nor stand in his sight that hath any blemish of sinne any spotte of corruption any remnaunt of infirmity There may no creature matche with those perfect pure natures of spirituall substance in the happy seruice of the holy Trinity that is not holy as they be pure as they be and wholy sanctified as they be Nothing can ioyne with them in freedome of that heauenly city in the ioyfull estate of that triumphant common welth that is not purified to the point and by the worke of Gods owne hande fully fined and perfected This is the new City of Hierusalem which the holy Apostle sawe by vision Nec in eam intrabit aliquid coinquinatum Nothing shall entre therein that is defiled It is the Church without spotte and wrinkle it is the temple of God it is the seate of the Lambe and the lande of the lyuing Nowe our kinde notwithstanding our pitifull fall and singular frailetie with exceding corruption and vnaptenesse both of body and soule hath yet by Christ Iesus our Redeemer the assurance of this vnestimable benefit and the fellowship of perpetual fruition with the Angels To whome as we must be made equall in roume and glory so we must in perfect cleannes be fully matched with them For it were not agreable to Gods ordinary iustice who in this earthly sanctuary expressely forbiddeth the oblations of the vncleane that he shoulde in the celestiall soueraigne holy acknowledge any nature that were not pure and vndefiled or make mans condicion not abettered equall to the dignity of Angels that neuer were reproued whereby vniustice might appeare in God or confusion in the heauens common wealth where onely all ordre is obserued And though mans recouery after his fall be wroght by Christ. and the perfect purgation of sinnes by the bloude of him that only was with out sinne yet it was not conuenient that the might of that mercy shoulde worke in this freedome of our willes with out all peine of the party or trauell of the offenders VVhereof mān streight vpon his miserable downe fall as S. Ambrose excellently well noteth had warning by the fiery sworde holden at the entraunce of paradise therby putting him in remembraunce that the returne to blesse so sone lost shoulde be through fiere and sword hardely achieued againe Therfore if any man thinke the onely forgiuenesse of our sinnes past sufficient either for the recouery of our first degree or the atteining of further dignity in the glory of the Sainctes he seeth not at all what a deepe stroke sinne hath set in mans soule what filth and feeblenesse it hath wroght in the body what rule and dominion it beareth in this our mortality what care all perfect men haue had not only in the healing of the deepe wounde but also in purging the reliques and fall abbating the abundant matter thereof And yet when mā hath with all his might wrastled with the poure of sinne being in this estate he can not be able to recouer the worthinesse of his creation much lesse the passing honour and ende of his redemption Let him washe and water his coutch with teares let him weaken his body with fasting and humble his hearte with sorow Happely the fiery sworde shall not hinder his passage after his departure yet till the separation of the body and the soule full freedome from sinne or perfect purgation thereof excepting the priuilege of certaine can not be fully obteined VVherein yet mercy at the ende hath the chiefe stroke by which the soule that was the principall vessell of sinne and no lesse abased then the body shall out of hande in the perfectest sort obteine the purity of Angels and fellowship with them for euer CAP. VI. 1 ONce againe I pray you note this orderly proceding looke when he maketh such a liberall promisse as in the chapter going before the performance shal not follow by and by after but by interlacing of other matter it shall be first out of minde and then he may better keepe his credit when he goeth about to performe it Yere while he would in all the hast make direct proofe by holy Scripture of the doctrine of purgatory but now as though purgatory were already proued he will shewe for what vse it serueth namely to clense and qualifie the soule of man that it may be meete to enter into the holy places And for this purpose he sheweth at large which might haue bene vttered in briefe that the corruption of mans sinnefull nature is so great and the perfection of dignitie whereunto we are called so high as man except he be throughly purged is no meete person to be partaker therof But lest he should be thought here to forget the perfect restitution by Christ he confesseth the perfect purgation of our sinnes to be wrought by his blood yet he sayth it is not meete that the might of that mercy should worke in this freedom of our will without all paine or trauell of the offenders This is to geue with one hand and to pull away with the other hand But that this enemy of the crosse of Christ shall not thus passe away with his reseruations and exceptions that which he graunteth we will take at the hand of God and not of this vnpure blasphemer who by his holy spirite teacheth vs that the blood of Christ doth purge vs from all our sinnes being washed by him we are throughly cleane Iohn 13. So that although our sinnes were as redd as scarlet they are made as white as snowe Esay 1. Then being throughly purged washed clensed as white as snow we are made capable of the heauenly inheritaunce and the fruition of eternall glory And if any man had rather beleue an Angell before M. Allen an elder of the heauenly consistory sooner then a yong palting proctor of purgatory Let him heare what is sayd to S. Iohn in his reuelation 7. cap. whereby is declared by what priuilege al the faithfull departed appeare in innocency before the throne of god These are they sayth the Angel that came out of that great affliction and haue washed their stoles and made them white in the bloud of the lambe therefore they are in the presence of the throne of God and serue him day and night c. Mark here that they which came out of this great affliction were not purged thereby after M. Allens fantasy but that they washed and made white their garments in the bloud of the lambe by whose righteousnes they being clothed may appeare in innocēcy before the throne of god As for that which is cited out of Ambrose of the fiery sword is ment of the sorrow of repentaunce and with no equity can be racked to the paynes of purgatory 2 I maruell not now to see the Prophet seeke not only for the remission of his greuous sinnes but to be better cleansed to haue them wholy blotted out to be made as
vs entre into the search of the meaning of these two textes with such plainnes sincerity that I dare say the aduersaries them selues shall not mislike our dealing VVe will follow all likelihoodes by comparing the scriptures together and admit with all the counsell and iudgement of such our elders as by their confession shall be taken for holy learned and wise First the prophet and Apostle both make mention of purging of purifying sinne corruption of mans impure or defiled workes they both agree this cleansing or trying out of the filthy drosse gathered by corruption of sinne to be done by fier they both throughly follow the similitude of the fornace and goldesmith in fining his metalles and trying out the drosse and base matter from the perfect finesse of more worthy substaunce they both plainely vtter their meaninges of such as shall afterwarde be saued though it be with losse geuing vs to vnderstande that the parties so purged shall be after their triall worthy to offer a pure sacrifice in holynesse righteousnes They both note this purgatiō to be wrought by the hand of God. All these must needes be confessed euen of the cōtrary teachers which things together cōteine more probability for the proofe of our purpose then they can for any other sense finde But now touching the text neerer and finding that this worke of mans amending shall be wrought in the next life then it must nedes so induce this sense that no meaning may well be admitted which euidently setteth not forth the trueth of Purgatory And that this worke is not properly taken for any such trouble or vexation that may fall to man in this life but for a very torment prepared for the next worlde first the quality of the iudgement meanes in the executiō of that sentence of God which is named to be done by fier seemeth rather to import that then any other vexation the punishment of the worlde following alwayes lightely so termed Then man is in this purging onely a sufferer which belongeth namely to the next worlde But especially that this sentence shal be executed in the day of our Lord which properly signifieth either the day of our death or the sentence of God which streight followeth vpon death or the last and generall iudgement All the time of mans life wherein he followeth his freedome is called Dies Hominis the day of man because as man in this life for the most parte serueth his owne will so he often neglecteth Gods but at his death there beginneth Dies Domini VVhere God executeth his ordinaunce and will vpon man This triall then of mans misdeedes impure workes must either be at his death or after his departure by one of the two iudgements But if we note diligently the circumstances of the saide letter it shall appeare vnto vs that this purgation was not ment to be onely at mans death both because it shall be done by fire which as is saide commonly noteth the torment of the next life and then S. Paule expressely warneth vs to take heede what we builde in respect of the difference that may fall to such as builde fine workes and other that erect vpon the foundation impure or mixte matter of corruption but the paines of death being common to the best as well as to the worst or indifferent and no lesse greuous in it selfe to one then the other can not be imported by the fire which shall bring losse to the one sort and not paine the other Besides all this that day which the Prophet speaketh of shall be notorious in the sight of the worlde and very terrible to many And Saint Paule plainely affirmeth that in this iudgement there shall be made an open shewe of such workes as were hidde before from man and not discerned by the iudgement of this worlde which the priuate death of one man can not do And lightely the Apostle warning man of the sentence of God in the next life admonisheth him that our deedes must be laide open before the iudgement seate of God so here Dies domini declarabit quia in igne reuelabitur the day of our Lord will open the matter because it shall be shewed in fire Last of all the Prophet nameth the time of this sharp triall Diē aduētus domini which is a proper calling of one of the iudgements either that which shall be generall at the last day or els that which euery man must first abide straight after his departure when he shall be called to the peculiar reckening for his owne actes In either of which iudgements this purging and amending fire shall be founde For as in that generall wast of the whole world by the fire of conflagration which is called ignis praecedens faciem iudicis because it awaiteth to fulfill Christes ordinance in the day of his second comming as in that fier the whole man both body and soule may suffer losse extreme paine for his punishment or purgation and yet by that same fire be saued euen so out of doubt at this particulare iudgement straight vpon euery mans death the soule of the departed if it be not before free must suffer paines and Purgation by the like vehement torment working onely vpon the soule as the other shall do on the whole man And the Prophets wordes now alleged do meane principally of the purgation that shall be made of the faithfuls corrupted workes by the fier of conflagration in the second comming of Christ though his wordes well proue the other also as S. Paule too meaneth by them both 3 Now I trow commeth the confirmation of purgatory out of the holy Scriptures or else it wyll neuer come when two textes are alleged at once But although M. Allen hath rather craftily confounded then faithfully compared these two textes together for all his protestation of plaine dealing yet will I seuerally consider them and shew both by the plaine circumstances of the places them selues and also by the iudgement of the auncient doctors that neither of them both appertaineth any whit to purgatory First Malachy prophecieth plainly of the first comming of Christ and of his fore runner Iohn Baptist as the wordes going before without all controuersy doe declare Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seeke shall spedely come to his temple euen the messenger of the couenaunt whom ye desire beholde he shall come sayth the Lord of hostes but who may abide the day of his comming c. witnesse of this is no lesse then euen our Sauiour Christ him selfe Luke the 7. alleging this saying of the Prophet for the comming of Iohn the Baptist. These wordes also where it is sayd that the Lord shall come into his temple doe sufficiently declare that he describeth the office of Christ in reforming the corrupt state of the Church at his first comming and not in iudging the quicke and the dead
to wit that euen the same selfe men which shall be purged must afterwarde offer to God the sacrifice of iustice that being once thus amended of their vnrighteousnesse in which their offeringes could not be acceptable vnto God may afterwarde in pure and perfect iustice offer them selues as a most pleasaunt hoste and oblation vnto our lord But this question of purgatory paines I will differ to a further treaty hereafter All this hath S. Augustine VVhereby we may both acknowledge his minde and the Prophets meaning which according to the grace geuen vnto him in the expounding of Scriptures he hath sought out by conference of that place with other the like out of Esay by weying discretly the whole circumstance of the letter finally by comparing of the other meaning which to some might haue bene reckened apte and mete for that place In all which doing he was as farre from rashe iudgement as our newe doctors be from good aduisement But because he referreth vs to the further discussing of the same matter afterward in the named worke it shal be to our purpose not a litle to haue this dictors full minde constant iudgement therein In the xxj booke after much matter vttered and very deepe discussing of the cause he maketh this grouÌ„ded Conclusion Temporales poenas alij in hac vita tantum alij post mortem alij nunc nuÌ„c veruntameÌ„ ante illud saeuerissimuÌ„ nouissimúmque iudiciuÌ„ patiuntur Non autem omnes veniuÌ„t in sempiternas poenas quae post illud iudiciuÌ„ his sunt futurae qui post mortem sustinent temporales nam quibusdam quod in isto noÌ„ remittitur remitti in futuro saeculo id est ne futuri saeculi aeterno supplicio puniaÌ„tur iam supra diximus Temporall paines that is to say punishment which shall haue an end some men suffer in this life some other after their death other some both now then But all this before the day of iudgement that is the greatest and last of all other iudgements not all that be teÌ„porally punished after their departure come into paines perpetuall which shall be after the generall daye for we haue already declared that there be certaine which haue remission in an other worlde that is to say a pardon that they be not punished euerlastingly that had not forgeuenesse in this By these wordes we may be assured that as in the next life there be paines endelesse and perpetuall for the wicked so in the same worlde after our ende here there must needes be some transitory punishment and correction for such of the meane sorte as shall afterwarde be saued And againe he speaketh as I take it of the fier of Conflagration that shall in the latter day purge some that be meane and wast other that be wicked and sende them from that present punishment to further eternall damnation I will recite his owne wordes that ye may perceiue the perpetuall constancy of this excellent mans minde in this matter It shall also be a testimonie sufficient for the vnderstanding of S. Pauls wordes nowe before alleaged Si aedificauerit super fundamentum ligna foenum stipulam id est mores saeculares fundamento fidei suae super aedificauerit tameÌ„ si in fundamento sit Christus primum locuÌ„ ipse habeat in corde ei nihil omnino anteponatur porteÌ„tur tales Veniet caminus inceÌ„det ligna foenuÌ„ stipulam ipse inquit saluus erit sic tamen quasi per ignem Hoc aget caminos alios in sinistram â—eparabit alios in dexteram quodammodo eliquabit If any man erect vpon the foundatioÌ„ woodde hay or straw that is to say worldely affections vpon the groundewarke of his sayth if yet Christ be in the foundation and beare the greatest stroke in his harte so that nothing be preferred before him such may well be borne withall for the fiery fornace shall come burne the wood hay and stooble shall be saued as the Apostle saith though it be for all that through the fier that fornace then shall parte some to the lift hande and try forth other if a man may so tearme it to the right hande 2 The first place is geuen vnto Augustine because he is in a maner confessed to be a patrone of some of our opinions though he be not of all This doctor in his 20 booke de ciuitate dei is saide to expound the texte of Melachy as M. Allen hath doen of the paines of purgatory But reade the place with indifferent iudgement who so can and will and he shall plainely perceiue that Augustine speaketh not of M. Allens purgatory which is said to be immediatly after mens death but of certaine purging paines which he supposeth some shall suffer at the last daye of Gods generall iudgement and yet he is so vncertaine of that exposition that he doubteth whether this purging whereof the Prophet speaketh may not be vnderstoode of that seperation which shal be of the godly from the wicked in that daye Howbeit 21. booke cap. 13. of the same worke he concludeth very cleerely that some suffer temporall paines after this life This maye not be denyed but how vnconstant Augustine was in his error appereth by this that sometime he doubteth whether there be any such matter other whiles he seemeth plainely to deny all other receptacles of the soules departed beside heauen and hell For both in his Enchiridion ad Laurentium cap. 69. de octo Dulcitij in quaestionibus quaest 1. he sayeth that as it is not incredible that such a matter may be after this life so it may be doubted whether it be so or no. Likewise in his booke de fide operibus cap. 16. he hath these wordes speaking of that texte to S. Paule 1. Corinthians 3. Siue ergo in hac vita tantum homines ista patiuntur siue etiam post hanc vitam talia iudicia subsequantur non abhoâ—ret quantum arbitror a ratione veritatis iste intellectus huius sententiae Whether men suffer these things in this life only or whether such iudgements follow after this life also the vnderstanding of this sentence abhorreth not as I thinke from the waye of trueth Againe in Hypognost contra Pelagianos lib. 5. he acknowledgeth the kingdom of heauen for to receiue the godly and hell fire for the punishment of the wicked but a third place sayth he we are altogither ignoraunt of neither doe we finde it in the holy Scriptures He writeth against the Pelagians that imagined a third place for the rest of infants that were not baptised but the same reason serueth as well against the popish purgatory because we finde it not in the holy Scriptures to the like effect he writeth de verbis Apostoli sermone 14. where he acknowledgeth the right hand and the left hand of God that is the kingdom of heauen and the paynes of hell the midle place he vtterly denyeth wherein infantes may
purged of the smaller spottes which sticke by him In the same sense doth Theodoretus both expounde the wordes of the Apostle and vtter his iudgement of Purgatory also and almost the rest of all the Latine or Greeke writers which my purposed breuitie with plentifull proofe otherwise forceth me to leaue to the studious reader 3 Next ensueth the authoritie of Ieronym or Bede or perhaps neither of them both but yet of some olde writer which holdeth that from light sinnes men may be absolued after their death by paynes prayers almes or masses This was a writer for M. Allens tooth but neither of antiquitie nor credit sufficient to cary away this cause The iudgement of Oecumenius and Theodoretus though they were writers about that time when corruption of doctrine had greatly preuailed yet are they not cleare for popish purgatory which the greeke Church although they pray for the dead yet would neuer agree to acknowledge 4 One place more I will onely adde out of Remigius because he learnedly may knit vp the place by ioyning both the Prophet and Apostles wordes together vpon which we haue stand so longe Thus that good author writeth Ipse enim quasi ignis conflans peccators exurens Ignis enim in conspectu eius ardebit in circuitu eius tempestas valida Hoc igne consumūtur lignum foenum stipula Nec solum erit quasi ignis sed etiam quasi herba fullonum qua vestes nimium sordibus infectae lauantur Porro his qui grauiter peccauerunt erit ignis conflans exurens illis vero qui leuia peccata commiserunt erit herba fullonum Hinc per Isaiam dicitur si abluerit dominus c. Qui enim habent sordes leuium peccatorum spiritu iudicij purgantur qui vero sanguinem habent hoc est grauioribus peccatis infecti sunt spiritu ardoris exurentur purgabuntur Et sedebit conflans emundans argentum colabit eos quasi aurum argentum hoc est intellectum colloquium vt quicquid mixtum est stanno vel plumbo camino domini exuratur quod purum aurum est argentum remaneat Et purgabit filios Leui In filijs Leui omnem sacerdotalem ordinē intelligimus a quibus iudicium incipiet quia scriptum est tempus est vt iudicium incipiat a domo dei alibi à sanctuario meo incipite Si autem sacerdos flammis purgandus est colandus quid de caeteris dicendum est quos nullum commendat priuilegium sanctitatis These golden wordes haue this sense He shall come as the goldesmithes fire burning sinners For in his sight a flame shall rise and a mighty tempest rounde about him by which fire our woodde hay and stooble shall be wasted and worne away VVith that he shall be like the clensers herbe whereby garments very much stained be purged To all those that haue greuously offended he wil be a burning and melting fire but to the light sinners he shall be as the washers herbe VVhich difference the prophet Esay noteth thus If our Lorde wipe away the filthe of the daughters of Syon and bloude from the middest of Israel in the spirite of iudgement and fire For such as haue onely the spottes of veniall sinnes they may be amended by the spirite of iudgement but men of bloude to witte the more greuous offenders must be tried by fire And he shall sit casting and purifying siluer and shall purge men as golde and siluer be purified that is to say our thoughtes understanding and wordes from impurity and vncleannesse as from pewter and leade by Gods fornace shall exactly be purged and nothing shall be left but as pure as golde and fine siluer And he shal purge the sonnes of Leui that is the ordre of priesthood where this heuy iudgement shall first begin For so it is writtē Time is now that iudgemēt begin at the house of God and againe Begin at my sanctuary If the priest must be purged and fined what shall we deme of other whome priuilege of holy ordre doth not commende or helpe thus farre goeth the author in conference of diuerse scriptures VVho with the rest of al the holy fathers that compassed their senses within the vnity of Christes Church hath founde by euident testimony of sundry scriptures the paines of purgatory which the busy heades of our time by vaine bragging of scriptures in singular arrogancy of their owne wittes can neuer finde 4 Last of all here is vaunt made of the testimony of Remigius as though he were a new author and perhaps M. Allen in his notes founde him so but it is nothing else but the saying of Ieronym almost word for word vppon 3. Malach 3. which before we haue shewed sufficiently to be mēt of the iudgement that Christ should exercise by his doctrine at his first comming and nothing at all pertayning to purgatory And therefore these golden words as you cal them M. Allen haue a leaden exposition when they be drawne from the preaching of the Gospell to the mayntenance of purgatory A further declaration of this pointe for the better vnderstanding of the doctours vvordes VVherein it is opened hovv purgatory is ordeined for mortal sinnes hovv for smaller offences vvho are like to feele that griefe vvho not at all CAP. IX 1 ANd I thinke they now haue small aduantage by the exception of Origens testimony by occasion whereof such light is founde for our cause that we now by goodly authority haue both founde the placies alleaged plainely to proue purgatory and also what sinnes it namely purgeth and what men after their death may be amended thereby That not onely the bare trueth but some necessary circumstances to the studious of the trueth haue bene here by iust occasion opened and all errour wholy remoued Except this point may somewhat stay the reader that heareth in some places the paines of Purgatory to be both a punishment for greuous sinnes and a purgation of lighter trespasses with all and yet that it now may appeare the contrary by the minde of some learned authors who expressely make that paine as a remedy onely for veniall sinnes and not to apperteine at all to the capitall and deadely crimes that man often times doth commit Therefore to be as plaine as may be necessary for the vnlearned or any other that is godly curious in things much tending to the quiet rest of mans conscience it is to be noted that this ordinary iustice of God in the life following for the purgation of the elect can not discharge any man of mortall sinne which was not pardoned before in the Church militant vppon earth And therefore what crime so euer deserueth damnation and was not in mans life remitted it can not by purgatory paines be released in the next because it deserueth death euerlasting and staieth the offender from the kingdome of heauen for euer no peine temporall in this
which Christ sweareth shall be made vnto the vttermost farthing For he that refuseth reconciliation or repentance in this life must not looke for a pardon after this life Therefore if M. Allen will needes vnderstand this pryson for purgatory I will be so bold vppon Christes oth and earnest asseueration to affirme that he which is so imprisoned shall neither looke for mercy nor satisfaction by other mens payment but by his owne suffering But let vs see how he proueth that this place is to be vnderstood of purgatory First by likelihood that he should not haue sayd he shall not escape vntill he hath payd the vttermost farthing but rather cast him into the darke dungeon of euerlasting damnation M. Allen either can not or will not see that Christ here continueth an allegory of a temporall iudgement as Matt. 18. where he hath the same Donec as the same in like sense is often vsed else where Secondly the name of imprisonment will not well admitt he sayth any other meaning but of a temporall torment as though hell is not called a prison 1. Peter 3. And Apoc. 20. which is a place of euerlasting torments Therefore here is no shew of matter but bigge wordes onely 2 And these notes well and diligently considered may geue greate light to the alleaged wordes otherwise somewhat obscure and therewith proue our matter too They be not of my scanning onely as for some parte thou shalt perceiue by these wordes of Rupert an excellent good author Aduersarius eorum qui erant eiusmodi sermo fuit euangelij omnis praedicator euangelicae veritatis potestatem habens non consentientem sibi tradere iudici non solum iudici verum etiam malo ministro quemadmodum vnus eorum tradidâ—t hominem satanae The aduersary of such men was the worde of the Gospell and ech preacher of the trueth who had poure to deliuer him that would not agree vnto him to the iudge yea further then that he had authority to commit him to an euill minister as one of them gaue vp a man to Satan Here we see what that aduersary is to whome we must consent in this life and withall we haue an example in this iudgement of Gods ministers how man may be committed in the next life to a tormenter that may vexe him then at Gods prescription as he doth now at the charge onely of his minister then in fauour and mercy of the iudge as it is now in loue and charity of the vicegerent then for the atteining of heauens blesse as it is nowe for the saluation of the person punished For the executioÌ„ of Gods sentence may be either by a good spirite or our aduersary Angell or by his will and worde onely to whome all creatures serue and obey In this sense Paulinus who was S. Augustines peare writeth that the holy Ghost and Gods worde be mans aduersaries in earth to whome if we applie our selues obediently in this world our sorowe can not be long in the next life But these be his owne wordes Neque septem dies luctus noster excedat si consentiamus in huius vitae via aduersario nostro id est spiritui ac vei bo dei quod nobis peccaÌ„tibus aduersatur c. Our griefe can not be much longer then seuen dayes he meaneth it shall be a temporall paine and not very long if we consent in the way of this life to our aduersary that is to witte the spirite and worde of god For they be our aduersaries when we sinne because the holy Ghost chargeth the world with sinne and the worde of God if we obey not will be our accuser and promotour vp vnto the Iudge who will haue an accompt of his talent to the vttermost farthinge Thus farre spake this Author and in like sense many moe whome I neede not nowe name Because there is such store of testimonies that not onely in some part make for the opening of this scripture but altogether for Purgatory And one or two of them I will briefly recite because I determined with my selfe and bounde my selfe for my discharge and the readers more safe warraunt to bring no texte of scripture for the proofe of my purpose except I might finde some holy writers of the antiquity that vsed the same directly in that sense that if any maÌ„ would repreheÌ„d my meaning yet he should not be so bold with such as I caÌ„ name proue to be my authors therin 2 In this part are two testimonies alleged one of Rupertus an other of Paulinus of which Rupertus affirmeth his exposition of the aduersary but touching purgatory he sayth nothing Paulinus interpreteth the aduersary somewhat otherwise but he speaketh of them that doe agree with him in the way of this life whose sorrow he sayth shal not exceede seuen dayes but what sorrow they shall abide that contemne this agrement he sayth nothing but generally of the accompt of the vttermost farthing I maruell whether M. Allen was awake when he alleged these two testimonies for purgatory or whether he thought that all men should be asleep that should reade them 3 But whome may I more safely alleage for the contentatioÌ„ of sober wittes and repressing the aduersaries boldenesse then the blessed martyr S. Cyprian VVho in the forth booke of his Epistles for the declaration that euery one which here is pardoned of his sinnes shall not straight be exalted to the glory of sainctes and martyrs after their death vseth very fitly as he doth all other placies of scripture the forsaide text by these wordes Aliud est ad veniam stare aliud ad gloriam peruenire aliud missum in carcerem non exire donec soluat nouissimum quadrantem aliud statim fidei virtutis accipere mercedem aliud pro peccato longo dolore cruciari purgari diu igne aliud peccata omnia passione purgari aliud denique pendere in die iudicij ad sententiam domini aliud statim a domino coronari In English it is an other thing to stande at a pardon then out of hande to atteine to glory it is an other maner of matter to be coÌ„mitted to prison thense not to depart till the last farthing be discharged to receiue out of hand the rewarde of faith and vertue It is one thing by greate sorow to be tormented for our sinnes and by long fire amended purged of the same and an other to haue sufficiently purged them by martyrdom in fine it is not all one to hange on Gods sentence in the day of iudgement and out of hande to be crowned of our Lorde These wordes as you see expressely proue our matter open the meaning of the scripture whereon we nowe stoode and do clearely set forth the ordre of Gods iustice in the next life And they shall content the reader better if he marke vpon what occasion this blessed man spake these wordes There were many in the persecutioÌ„ of that time
out till they haue payed the vttermost farthing Those must passe the fiery floode by horrible fordes of skawlding waues VVhereof the Prophet maketh mention thus And a firy streame ranne before his face The space of passage shall be measured by the matter of sinne according to the encrease of our offensies the discreite discipline of that flame shall reuenge againe and looke how farre in wickednesse our foly did reach so farre this punishment shall wisely waste And like as Gods worde compareth mans soule to a brasen potte saying Set the potte empty ouer the coles till the brasse thereof of waxe hote So there thou shalt see periury angre malice vnfructefull desires sweate out which did infect the purity of mans noble nature there the pewter and leade of diverse passions which did abase the pure golde of Gods image shall be consumed away All which thinges might in our life time haue easely bene wiped away by almes and teares Such a strait accompt loe will he kepe with man that for mans sake gaue him selfe to death and being throust through with nailes hath fastened the dominion of death also So farre hath Emissenus spoken and his wordes be so weighty that they haue bene counted worthy rehersall in solemne Sermâ—ns and Homilies of the Antiquity to stirre vp their hearers to the necessary awe of Gods iudgements with much prouocation of vertuous life S. Augustine hath the selfe same discourse almost no word thereof chaunged VVith this addition Ideo fratres charissimi conuertamus nos ad meliora dum in nostra potestate sunt remedia Therfore deare brethern let vs turne and amende by time whilest the remedies be yet in our owne dealinge And in an other place thus he toucheth the scripture alleaged Apparebit Deus Deorum in Syon sed quando post peregrinationem finita via si tamen post finitam viam non iudici tradamur vt iudex mittat in carcerem The God of Gods in Syon shall appeare but when mary after our pilgramage be past and the iourney ended Excepte it sâ— fall out that after our iourney here we be deliuered vp to the iudge so the iudge send vs to prison To this place also S. Bernarde doth sâ—eetely but yet fearefully allude in this exhortation Volat sayth he irreuocabile verbum dum creditis vos cauere poenam istam minimam incurritis multo ampliorem Illud enim scitote quia post hanc vitam in locis purgabilibus centupliciter quae fuerunt hic neglecta reddentur vsque ad nouissimum quadrantem Our worde not possible to be called backe flyeth farre and whilest you seeke to auoyde a litle griefe here you incurre much greater For assure your selfe of this that after this life in places of purgation all negligencies past must be repaide a hundreth foulde home againe till the discharge of the last farthinge 4 As for this authority of Eusebius which hath serued for a patch to peece vp so many homilies of so many diuerse men as a Cuckowes song vttered in diuerse places semeth neither to haue Eusebius nor Augustine nor any other good author to be the father of it but euen some cowled cuckowe that hath left this egge in so many birdes nestes to be hatched vnder their winges and to be counted for one of their chickens but that your voyce doth soone bewray it And here a man may note a great peece of cunning in them that had the writing out of bookes about those times when errours began to take strength that not onely whole workes were falsly intitled to diuers good authours but also patches inserted to their owne workes And if any thing by them were once spoken that sounded to the confirmation of those errors that was thrust into diuers places of their writings lest it should scarse be espied in one And hereof it commeth that such sayings in Augustine Chrysostome and other as seeme to allow prayer for the dead be so often repeated in their writings and especially in homilies that were taken of their mouthes by Scribes and Notaries But who so euer was the father of this sentence as he speaketh friendely for the paynes of purgatory so he sheweth him self an vtter enemy to the release of the same So doth that Augustine which addeth his exhortation to these wordes by him repeated But the other Augustine which writeth vpon the 103. Psalme sayth that God shall appeare to them onely which are not cast into prison when they be departed out of this life therfore I muse wherefore those wordes are here brought in For Augustine as I will shew afterward vnderstandeth that prison for hell and eternal tormeÌ„ts Bernard although he be too yong to depose in this cause yet he speaketh not so much to auouch the paynes of purgatory as to deny the remedy or remission of them wherefore his testimony helpeth not purgatory so much one way as it hindreth the Papistes gayne an other way 5 Here now let our aduersaries in this bright shining trueth blinde them selues let them boldely bost of their accustomed impudency that the Catholickes haue no scriptures nor apparence of scriptures or if they stande with vs for the meaning let them shape with all their conueyaunce any one shifte to aunswere these doctors words Or if the vniforme consent of so many of the best learning and greatest wisedom in the whole Church may haue no roome with them let them shew whereupon their owne credits be growne so great that without reason likelihood or authority men must needes beleue them It is a straunge case that what soeuer they auouch it must be Gods word what meaning so euer they make for maintenance of their wicked foly it must be termed the true sense of Scripture And the truth it selfe shewing all force in the conference of diuers places of holy writte in weight of reason in the workes and writings of all antiquitie shall be so lightly regarded I would to God the people pitifully deceiued by such vayne flying talke could beholde the vpright wayes of truth or could learne by the playne dealing of our side to require some grounded proofe of these newe doctors deuises They may well perceiue if they haue any necessary care of those weighty matters touching our saluation so neare that the Catholike neuer aduentureth to bring any Scripture for his purpose but he will be sure for his warrant to haue the same so expounded by the auncient fathers of our faith lest by his rashnesse he deceiue other and father some falshood vpon the holy writers of Gods will which were horrible sacrilege But on the other side if a man might pose M. Caluin or Flaccius or such other of that light family what doctor or Scripture they followed in the exposition of S. Iames his place for the anoynting with holy oyle when they were not ashamed to giue this sense of that Scripture that it were good to call the elders of the people that had
breaketh her faith of Baptisme shal be damned for mariage is not worth a rush For S. Paule sayth not she shal be damned for mariage but because she hath reiected the first faith that is such wanton young houswifes procede so farre that at length they forsake widowhood christianity and all But if M. Allen were posed where he findeth this worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture vsed for a vowe or promise made to God perhaps he would aunswere he is no Graecian then let him pose D. Hardinge or some other with the same question and with all let them shew how the first faith can be expounded for the last vowe that a body hath made if he haue made more then one For the Papists holde that these women made one vowe in baptisme an other of there widowhood What so euer M. Iewell hath affirmed against the Papistes he hath so substantially and learnedly defended that he neede not to haue any other man to aunswere for him Therefore if it were not to choke M. Allen in his owne coller I woulde trauaile no farther in this question The Church you say can not erre and that company is the Church which hath the Pope for their head if therefore it can be proued that the Pope and all they that take his part haue erred it is sufficiently shewed that the Church may erre S. Augustine was in this error as you will not deny that the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ was to be ministred vnto infants but of the same opinion he affirmeth that Innocentius Bishop of Rome and all the Church in his tyme was therefore the Pope and all the Church did erre reade Augustine contra Iulianum lib. 1. cap. 2. where he sayth of Innocentius Qui denique paruulos definiuit nisi manducauerint carnem filij hominis vitam prorsus habere non posse which hath defined that infantes except they eate the flesh of the sonne of man can haue no life at all in them And by eating the flesh of the sonne of mā he meaneth eating the Sacramēt of his flesh and bloud as it is euident to them that wil bestow the reading of Augustines discourse in that place An aunsvvere to certayne obiections of the aduersaries moued vpon the diuersitie of meanings vvhich they see geuen in the fathers vvritings of the Scriptures before alleaged for purgatory and that this doctrine of the Church standeth not against the sufficiencie of Christes passion CAP. XI 1 BVt nowe the other side seeketh for some shiftes and draweth backe in this extremity thus That the places of the olde and new Testament now rather alleaged for my purpose and the proofe of purgatory though they be thus expounded of the doctours yet they may haue some other meaninge and sometimes be construed otherwise by the fathers them selues To which I aunswere and freely confesse that they so may haue in deede but the aduersary must take this with all that the pillars of Christes Church woulde neuer haue geuen this sense amongest other or rather before all other meaninges that probability or conferēce of scriptures did driue them vnto had it conteined a plaine faulsehood as the heretike supposeth it doth Yea had not the doctrine of Purgatory bene a knowne trueth in all ages it should neuer by the graue iudgemēt of so many wise men haue atteyned any colour of scripture For though many meaninges be founde of most harde places in all the Bible yet there is no sense geuen by any approued doctour that in it selfe is false And thinke you diuerse textes of the holy Scripture coulde haue caryed a false perswasion of Purgatory downe from the Apostles dayes to our time for true doctrine Marke well and you shall perceiue that the Church of Christ hath euer geuen roome to the diuersitie of mens wittes the diuision of graces and sondry giftes in exposition of most places of the whole testament with this prouiso alwayes that no man of singularity should father any falsehood or vntrueth vpon any texte but otherwise that euery man might abounde in his meaning Mary falsehood she neuer suffered one moment to take holde or bearing of any scripture vnreprehended Ecclesia multa tolerat sayth S. Augustine tamen quae sunt contra fidem vel bonam vitam non probat nectacet nec facit the Church beareth many thinges yet such thinges as be hourtfull to faith or good life she neuer approueth nor doth them her selfe nor holdeth her peace when she seeth them done by others Thereof we haue a goodly example in our owne matter So long as any conuenient meaning might be found out by the holy writers of that place alleaged out of S. Paule for such as shoulde be saued through fire she liked and allowed the same Some proued that the elect must be saued by long sufferance some said the tribulation of this life and world must trie mens faith workes some saide the greefe of minde in loosing that which they ouer much loued was the burning fire of mans affections some woulde haue the greuous vexation of departure out of this life to be a purgatory paines some construed the texte of the fire of conflagration that shall purge the workes of many in the latter day finally they all agreed that the temporall torment of the worlde to come is litterally noted and especially meant by the fire which the Apostle speaketh of All these so litle do disagree amongest them selues that not onely by diuerse men but of one man they might well all be geuen And being all in them selfe very true the holy Church so liketh and alloweth them eche one that yet by the common iudgement of all learned men that meaning for Purgatory paines she approueth as the most agreeable sense to the texte and whole circumstance of the letter But as soone as Origen went about to proue by the same scripture that all wicked men shoulde at length be saued after due purgation by fire then this pillar of trueth seeing an open falsehood gathered by the scripture of Gods worde coulde susteine no longer She set vp against this errour her pastors the graue fathers of our faith who ceased not as occasion serued to geue men warning of the deceite intended not onely still mainteining the doctrine of Purgatory but also expressely condemning all the reprehenders thereof as hereafter it shall be better declared and so misliking no sense that in it selfe was true the meaning of Purgatory yet hath bene of all the learned counted so certaine that in geuing any other likely exposition that was euer added with all as most consonant to the will and wordes of the writers So doth Theodoretus so doth S. Augustine and so in a maner did they all And as the saide holy doctour saith with whose wordes I am much delited by cause he of all other maketh trueth stand most plainely vpon it selfe One texte of scripture may well haue so many vnderstandings as may
flambes of purgatory But as I haue noted before that you haue hetherto kept this order for the most parte to plante one thinge in one chapter and then to pull it vp by the rootes in the next so you haue not forgotten your selfe in the diuision of your bookes But that the latter shoulde be a sufficient confutation of the former or else the former a manifest excluding of the latter For if the iustice of God doth so necessarily require a punishment for sinnes remitted that the same coulde not be satisfied no not by that only sacrifice which the sonne of God offered once for all on the aulter of the crosse it is a colde comforte that a carefull conscience can receiue that the same shoulde be done by his merites or your Masses which was not done by the bloude of Christ Yet now you will talke how the fiery sword maye be turned away surely if the fiery and shaking sworde that was set to exclude man from Paradise was not taken away by the death of Christ when he opened Paradise yea the kingdome of heauen whereof Paradise was but a sacrament vnto all beleuers I meruaill how either the penitent these had passage into Paradise or what engins you Papistes haue to turne it awaye which he had not The wordes of Damascene if they were not applied as you saye they are to purgatory paines and remedies of the same were true of Gods iustice and his mercy but as his age is to young so his authoritie is to light to controll the trueth of the worde of God or the practise of the first purest Church which knew no purgatory nor prayers for the deade But if our sinnes forgeuen were neuer so greuous c. what mad man woulde euer write thus Euen such a one as might be allowed to speake thus if blacke were neuer so blacke before it were cleane taken away and perfect white placed in the steede yet when white is white it is white But M. Allen wil not allowe that the coullor of our sinnes is cleane taken away and a contrary coullor of righteousnesse set vppon vs but that sinnes forgeuen be but halfe forgeuen the gilte taken awaye the punishment due for the gilte still remayning And this one halfe of forgeuenesse is but graunted in wordes and denied in deede For if the gilte of our sinnes be cleane taken away from vs and layed vpon the person of Christ and the righteousnesse of Christ is communicated vnto vs what is there lefte in vs that God of his goodnesse can hate or of his iustice can punish So it is but for a fashion that the papistes graunt any parte of our sinnes forgeuen when they will haue vs make satisfaction for them our selues But where as M. Allen is out of measure prodigall in promising releiffe and release of purgatory paines to them whose sinnes were neuer so greuous their vicious life wasted in idle wealth the space of penaunce and opportunity of working neglected in time preuented by sodaine death c rehersing so many meanes of mitigation as sometime the bloude of Christ the residew of his merites the crye of the mother Church the memory of the Masse the merites of all Sainctes the prayers of the faithfull and workes of the charitable All this notwithstanding take heede you poore Papistes that you geue no credit to these flattering wordes For it is the opinion of all the olde writers that doe allowe any of these thinges to profit men after their death and concluded by the Maister of the Sentence and aduouched by Allen him selfe afterwarde chapt 7. that no man can receiue benefit after his departure by any worke or will of the liuing but he that in his life deserued the same neither shal any thing worke vpon him more or lesse but according to his owne deseruing in this life Trust not therefore in these sophisticall vanities which are contrary one to an other but imbrace the vniforme vndoubted doctrine of Gods word which teacheth repentaunce faith iustification and saluation not with curious questions to troble your braynes but with perfect conclusions to quyet your conscience not suffering you to sleepe in securitie vpon hope of helpe after your death but charging you to shew the force of mortification and fruictes of fayth while you are aliue Not puffing vp your phantasie with pride of your owne merites but teaching you to ascribe all prayse to Gods glorious grace and infinite mercy 2 The cruell aduersary of man kinde as before he wrought his worst against Purgatory so here he busely pricketh forwarde the schoole of Protestantes to improue to their owne vtter damnation and the notable hinderaunce of our louing bretherns saluation all such meanes as God by scripture or other testimony of his worde hath reueled to be profitable for the abating of paine or the release of the apointed punishment in that place of temporall torment to come Against which deceiuers I meane by Gods helpe in this ordre to trauell 2 The cruell aduersary of mankinde and enuyor of Gods glory inuented Purgatory to deface the merites of Christes death and to blemish the onely meanes of mans eternall life which when he coulde not with any seemely coullor establish by the authority of the holy Scriptures the onely testimony of his worde and will reueiled and confirmed by his holy Spirite he hath inuented fayned fables and deuilish illusions to deceiue the mindes of them whome he had enclined vnto superstition and not bene ashamed to match them in credit and estimation with the very worde of God it selfe As appereth by this scribe of Sathan which nameth the scriptures for a simple shew but by and by addeth other testimonies of Gods worde beside the scriptures inspired by God whereby he maketh equiualent those false reuelations raised vp from Hell with the inspiratiō of the holy Ghost which hath brought the truth from heauen But now commeth in the order of this deuillyshe horror 3 First I will proue that sinnes may be pardoned or the debt and bonde thereof released in the next worlde 3 You shall neuer proue by authoritie of Gods word that sinnes not repented in this life shal be pardoned after this life where there is no repentaunce profitable nor yet any debt payed but by them that paye it eternally in perpetuall torments 4 Then I shall shewe what meanes the holy Scripture approueth or the example thereof awarraunteth to be proffitable for the soules departed 4 When you can proue either by doctrine or example agreable to doctrine of the canonicall Scriptures that any thing profiteth the soules departed that be not in happy state we will beleue it 5 I will open what the principall pillars and in a maner the flowre of all the faithfull sorte in sundry agies and almost in all Christian contryes haue lefte in writinge for this pointe 5 You are not able to bring one authenticall writer that within one 100 yeares and more after Christ hath allowed prayer for
in them is learned so hath she perpetuall confirmation in the same and nothing contrary vnto her But heresie as she is inuented in mans head so she seeketh confirmation in the reason and authoritie of man which because they haue not full credit with them that professe religion without the authoritie of Gods word at length whē it is fully shaped in the shop of mans brayne then it is brought to the Scripture to see if it can finde any colour by any phrase of wordes wrested from the meaning or by any vayne collection that hath no force of necessary conclusion being content to haue but onely a colde claime vnto the authoritie of Scripture although it haue the whole scope and purpose of the holy Ghost yea often times also manifest wordes against it which difference as it may be found in all heresies so in none more notably then in this errour of purgatory Consider what textes of holy Scripture are alleged for it and you shall see they can not bring one out of which any necessary argument may be framed to proue their cause or which hath not by learned interpretors of the olde time bene otherwise expounded then of their cause As in the text here alleged out of S. Matt. cap. 12. who so euer shall speake blasphemy against the holy ghost it shall not be forgiuen him neither in this world nor in the world to come If the sense were not plaine of it selfe that he which so sinneth shall not obtayne forgeuenes in this life nor be absolued in the last iudgement yet the other Euangelistes doe plainly expound the meaning S. Luke sayth simply he shal not be forgiuen S. Marke saith he hath no remission for euer but is guilty of euerlasting iudgement Neuertheles behold what a wrangling M. Allen maketh about the interpretation of these wordes But I will offer him fayre play he is an auncient maister of art since he writ this booke he hath added tenne yeares to his study of diuinitie in which space he might haue bene a doctour of the same faculty let him with all the diuinitie that euer he studied or with all the artes that euer he professed make a true syllogisme in forme and matter out of this authority to proue that God forgiueth sinnes after this life which are not remitted in this life and I will confesse the doctrine of purgatory with him which otherwise I would not doe to winne all the patrimony of S. Peter that the Pope claymeth in Italy but vntill such tyme as we may obtayne a good argument let vs consider such as we haue He signifieth sayth M. Allen that a man in some case might perhaps not speede of a pardon in this life yet may obtayne it in the next when the matter goeth by perhaps it is good to beware of after claps why M. Allen what sinnes are those of which a man may perhaps not speede of a pardon in this life and yet obtayne it after this life If they be truely repented in this life we haue a warrant of Gods owne mouth without your perhaps that in the same hower they shall be remitted Ezech. 18. 33. But if they be not repented where is your warrant that euer they shall be remitted But I aske againe what sinnes are those that perhapps maye misse of a pardon in this life and obteine it after this life by all likelyhood they must be some great sinnes that perhapps may not speede of a pardon here and yet finde it afterwarde There is no man would thinke otherwise by these wordes nor by the wordes of Christ if he vnderstood them so that some sinnes might be forgeuen after this life but whē all commeth to all The Maister of the Sentence and Gregory before him and M. Allen him selfe woulde alowe no sinnes to be forgeuen after this life but very small and light offences How be it it is plaine that these wordes neither in the worlde to come are added by waye of amplification for it is the purpose of our Sauiour Christ to set forth to the vttermost the heynousnesse of blasphemy against the holy Ghost so that if he had ment that any sinnes might be remitted after this life that were not pardoned after this life he shoulde haue ment the greater and not the lesser for lesse sinnes be soner pardoned and the pardon of greater more hardely obteined But marke the equitie of M. Allen the horrible blasphemer for all the vehemency of Christes wordes by M. Allens iudgement is but in a manner discharged of hope of remission as though he were not simply and altogether excluded And the light offender is turned ouer to purgatory for his remission yet M. Allen will stand vpon the forme phrase of words not knowing that this worlde is taken for all the time that is vnto the ende thereof and the worlde to come not for the state or time of them that are departed vnto the iudgemēt but for the time of eternitye after the ende of this worlde or els the wordes of Christ in Matthew should not be equiualent with the wordes in Marke he shal be guilty of euerlasting iudgement or condemnation which the olde interpretor calleth eternall offence The like forme or phrase of words is vsed by S. Paule to the Ephesians cap. 1. that Christ is exalted aboue euery name that is named not onely in this worlde but also in the worlde to come by which wordes he meaneth the supreme and euerlasting kingdome of Christ which extendeth vnto all eternitie But if a contentious person like to the Valentiniane heretikes or such like woulde inuent monstruous names as those heretikes did and proue by this place that there are names named in the worlde to come that are not named in this worlde shoulde he not haue as good grounde out of this place as the Papistes haue of the other 2 But because we haue to do with fickle marchauntes that will not sticke to brast boldely the bandes of euident scriptures as anone you shalt see and therefore will as I thinke litle be moued with reasonable and playne gathering out of the scriptures nor much esteeme this likelihood as ouer small a proofe in so greate a doubte therefore I will shew my warraunt for this construction that thereby the studious reader may see whome the aduersaries do so rashly contemne herein and whome we haue as authors in this meaning of Christes wordes now recited that neither they may be beleued with out reason and proofe nor we miscredited after so good authority of the auncient writers as neither they for shame nor we of conscience can deny S. Gregory whose authority I may boldely vse against them because they mislike not his iudgement when it may appeare to make for them as in deede it neuer doth he doubted nothing to gather of this our Sauiours speach that sinnes might be forgeuen in the next worlde And thus he writeth for that point De quibusdam leuibus culpis esse
vnkindnesse saith this doctor and lo our lacke of compassion But because all this forgetfullnesse commeth by the wicked suggestion of these late deuilish opinions which mainteine that the prayers of the liuing or their workes do not extende to the deade in Christ therefore for the destruction of this vnkind heresie and planting in our heartes with the trueth the feeling of our housholde fellowes sores I shall proue that in all times as well of nature as the lawe and Gospell the faithfull men haue euer ioyned in all their prayers and acceptable workes the soules departed as vnto whome by right of their communion and fellowship in faith the reliefe of Gods grace and Christes merits do appertayne Therefore this once declared let vs except them from no painefull worke of the liuing nor charitable deede nor good prayer nor sacrifice nor teares no nor from the inward dolour nor loue of mans heart Learne to know what it is to be in a common body and thou shalt streight perceiue that the least motion of thy mind stirred by Gods grace shall be caried to the reliefe of that part which thou pitied and most intended 3 Here but that you haue a pleasure to spue out your pestilent poyson against that noble light of Gods Church M. Caluine is nothing that neede any such exclamation which you make with open mouth as though Caluine denyed the communion of Saincts which he doth most constantly affirme euen in the same place out of which you haue rent those words that you so bite and teare with your venimous teeth lib. 3. cap. 20. sect 24. where he speaketh against inuocation of Sainctes who being in rest with God he sayth are not to be drawne by the prayers vnto earthly cares of our necessities which eyther they know not or they can not helpe For that office of charitie which the godly doe exercise in this life by praying one for an other is grounded vpon the commaundement of God and vpon his promise which two thinges are the chiefe to be considered in prayer But all these reasons concerne not the dead whom whē the Lord hath remoued from our company he hath left vs no intermedling with them nor them with vs so farre as we can conceiue by any coniectures These be Caluins wordes by which he meaneth that although the affection of charitie remaine in the deade yet it is not shewed by looking to our earthly necessities which they know are subiect to the prouidence of god Moreouer they haue not that we know by the Scripture any commaundement or promise to cause them to pray for vs neither haue we any to pray to them And this is that intermedling which Caluine denyeth to be betwene the deade the liuing namely such as is betwene them that are liuing among them selues As for the exhortation of him that wrote to his brother in the desert what so euer he was or how long so euer it be since he wrote because it hath not authoritie in the word of God I weigh it as the words of a man whose credite in diuine matters is nothing without the word of God. VVhat the Church of God hath euer principally practised for the soules departed by the vvarraūt of holy Scripture vvith the defense of the Machabees holy history against the heretikes of our time CAP. III. 1 BVt amongest so many meanes of helpe these haue bene euer counted most soueraigne Sacrifice prayers almes and by example of scripture most commended Though fasting added vnto any of them hath singular strength in this case and euer was ioyned in all earnest sute made to God for our selues or other VVe can not better begin to shew the practise hereof then at that scripture which sufficiently commendeth at once all three written in the second booke of Machabees in these wordes Iudas hortabatur populum cōseruare se sine peccato sub oculis videntes quae facta sunt pro peccatis eorum qui postrati sunt Et facta collatione duodecim millia drachmas argenti misit Ierosolymam offerri pro peccatis mortuorum sacrificium bene religiose de resurrectione cogitans nisi enim eos qui ceciderant resurrecturos speraret superfluum videretur vanum orare pro mortuis quia considerabat quod hi qui cum pietate dormitionem acceperant optimam haberent repositam gratiam Sancta ergo salubris est cogitatio pro defunctis exorare vt a peccatis soluantur The valiaunt man Iudas exhorted the people to kepe them selues from sinne hauing before their eyes what was fallen for the offensies of them that were slaine And a common gathering being made he sent xij thousand peces of siluer to Ierusalem to offer for the sinnes of those that were departed a Sacrifice being well and religiously minded concerning the resurrection for except he had suerly trusted that such as were slaine shoulde arise againe it might haue bene counted vaine and superfluous to praye for the deade But because he did well consider that such as in piety receiued their sleepe had grace and fauour laide vp for them therefore it is a holy and proffitable meaning to praye for the deade that they may be assoyled of their sinnes So farre the Author of the historie speaketh setting forth most euidently the notable piety of Iudas in exhorting them to releue the departed the like liberall almes of the people the prayers there in the campe and the sacrifice at Ierusalem celebrated for the same purpose In all which doing the scripture much prayseth that worthy zele of Iudas as a thing both profitable to the departed towardes the remission of their offensies and no lesse agreeing to that his especiall hope of the resurrection to come counting it a foly to pray for them of whose resurrection we are not assured VVherby I can not tell whether a man may well gether that such as deny the fellowship of the liue with the deade or condemne prayers made for them steadfastly beleue not the resurrection And in deede if we note well we shall finde that the prayers for the deade haue bene euer taken both as an argument to proue and as a protestation of the faithfull to shewe their minde and faith concerning the resurrection So did Epiphanius that holy father make confession of the Churches faith for the resurrection and immortality of the soule by the praying for the departed and ioyning them to the partaking of the workes of the liue Hi qui decesserunt viuunt sayth he non sunt nulli sed sunt viuunt apud Deum spes est orantibus pro fratribus velut qui in peregrinatione sint Those which be deceased do yet liue and are not by their departure hense fallen to be nothing but they haue their being and yet do lyue before God and there is great hope to their orators or beadsmen praying for them as for such that be in their pilgramage So sayth Damascen that by supplication
for the soules resurrectionis spes solidatur the hope of resurrection is established And therefore Dionysius the auncient in his misticall prayer and saâ—râ—fice for the departed declareth that there was a minister that did solemnely recite certaine places out of scripture for to confirme the hope of resurrection So that this practise of the faithfull hath not onely bene euer accompted a plaine trueth but it hath bene a grounde and a principle to confirme the article of resurrection and immortality of the soule And therefore the facte of Iudas is with such commendation mentioned in the scripture For in those dayes the heresie of the Saduces denying the resurrection and the life to come as Iosephus writeth began to take greate holde amongest the Iewes about byshop Ionathas his time in which tiue of diuersity that true beleuer thought to make plaine protestation of his faith by his notable facte And now I must needes be bolde to tell these enemies of our communion that in acknowledging them selues to haue nothing to do with the soules departed they are at the next doore by to denie the immortalitie and to terme them deade soules as Vigilantius did VVhome Gods Church very conformably to Christes calling and fittly for the protesting the common faith nameth Dormientes in signo pacis Those that sleepe in the signe of peace and the named Scripture for the same cause calleth them men a sleepe in pietie VVell if their denial of prayers for the deceased grow so farre as the vtter impugning of Christian hope for the life euerlasting and so with purgatory take away hell and heauen togither as the Sadduces did which God of his might turne from them but if they doe because there is such affinitie betwixt both their teachings and this of theirs may seeme alwayes to haue bene ioyned to that extreme falshoode of the others then shall Gods Church still protest the faith of her children by prayers and practise for the deade both by the example of the fathers in Christes Church vnder the Gospell and by the fact of worthy Iudas in the lawe before CAP. III. 1 WE haue all this while called for authoritie of the scripture now we shall haue scripture I trowe or else M. Allen shall misse of his purpose Sacrifice almes prayers commended by scripture to be meanes to helpe the soules in purgatory And the scripture is written 2. Machab. 12. Prothesauro carbones we haue founde coles in the steed of treasure Is this all the scripture we are like to haue this hath bene aunswered of olde to be no holy nor canonicall scripture and that by many reasons First because it conteineth matter contrary to the vndoubted worde of god I omit this matter in coÌ„trouersy in the 14. chap. the author of the booke commendeth one Razis for killing him selfe which is contrary to the word of god Wherefore M. Allen by authoritie of this booke the example of a good man Razis may as well conclude that it is lawfull for men to kill them selues as by the example of Iudas that men may offer sacrifice for the dead Secondly the author of this booke declareth that he abridgeth the fiue bookes of Iason the Cyrenian into this one which is a manifest argument that he was not the instrument of the holy Ghost For the holy Ghost maketh no abridgements of others mens writings Againe the purpose of the author proueth that he was not directed by Gods spirite for he confesseth that he tooke this matter in hande that men might haue pleasure in it which could not away with the tedious long stories of Iason But the spirite of God serueth not such vayne delight of men Moreouer he sheweth what labour and sweate it was to him to make this abridgement and to be short he maketh a very prophane preface ambitiously commending his trauell and shewing the difference betwene a story at large and an abridgment all which thinges sauour nothing of that spirite by which the holy Scriptures of God were written which as S. Peter sheweth came not by priuate mens will and ordinance but the holy men of God spake as they were inspired by the holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. where as all this preface sheweth nothing but a priuate motion an humane purpose And yet the man is to be commended for this that he doth not boast of any more reuelation then he had but in the end of this booke coÌ„fesseth his infirmity desireth pardoÌ„ which is as farre from the maiesty of gods spirit as it is agreeable to the weakenes of our deceiuable nature which are apt to deceiue and be deceiued If I haue wel done sayth he and as the story required it is the thing I desired but if I haue spoken slenderly and barely it is that I could For as it is hurtfull to drinke wine alone and then agayne water and as wine tempered with water is pleasant and delighteth the tast so the setting out of the matter delighteth the eares of them that readeth the story c. Who is so voyd of the spirite of God that can not see plainly that this man had neither the purpose to write that which shoulde instruct much lesse that should bind the consciences of men neither the gift so to write as in writing he could not erre But now to come to the text it selfe first the greeke copy in this place is so mangled and corrupted that no good sense can be gathered of the wordes by which it appeareth that the deuils limbes haue bene â—umbling with this booke as they haue bene with the olde doctors in places where mention is of prayer for the deade Secondly seeing this facte of Iudas hath no commaundement in the law in which not so much as one pinne of the tabernacle was omitted lest any thing might be left to the will of man to deuise in the worship of God it is so farre of that it is to be drawne into example that we may be bold to condemne it for sinne disobedience you shall not doe sayth the Lord what seemeth good in your owne eyes but that which I commaund you that onely shall you doe without adding any thinge to it or taking away any thing from it But M. Allen thinketh he hath a sure post to leane vnto because Iudas Machabaeus did by this fast testifie his hope of the resurrection as Iasons abridger sayth and also that prayers for the deade may be an argument to proue the faith that men haue of the resurrection It is not vnlike that this reason preuayled much with the auncient fathers as appeareth by their writings for commonly it hath the best colour of any reason that they bring to allow prayers for the dead But if it be weighed with good iudgement it is of no force to proue that prayers for the dead are lawful For as truth may be proued alwayes with true principles so often tymes it may be concluded out of false affirmations As for example
Idolatrie proueth that there is a God but Idolatry is not therefore the true worship of god Of the heresie of the Pharisies that helde Pythagoras opinion of the passing of one soule into diuers bodies may be concluded the immortalitie of the soule but this doth not iustifie that errour of the Pharisies by the heresy of Origines which taught that all men should be saued at length not onely the immortalitie of the soule and the resurrection but also the infinite mercy of God may be concluded which all are true articles yet was not the heresie of Origine true for all this vnlesse M. Allen hath forgotten that olde sophisme which children can solute who so euer sayth you are an asse sayth you are a lyuing creature but he that sayth you are a liuing creature sayth true therefore who so euer sayth you are an asse sayth true And such for all the worlde is M. Allens reason who so confesseth prayers for the deade confesseth that the deade doe liue and shall rise againe but he that confesseth that the dead doe liue and shall rise againe doth not erre therefore he that confesseth prayers for the deade doth not erre 2 But now their aunswere must be here that this booke by which I haue vrged them so farre shall be no scripture And this is the ishue of heresie lo. These men that lightly writh wreast Gods worde from all true meaning to the maintenaunce of their matter being further charged by euidence of the wordes when other conuenient shifte can not be founde they are driuen to refuse vtterly the sacred canonicall scripture of God for notwithstanding their perpetuall bragges of scripture yet there can no scripture holde them but they will either finde a fonde shifte to loose it or els a shamefull stoutnes vtterly to brast and breake it They first seeke by suttelty to vnfasten the bonde of Gods trueth which is euery waye so enwrapped with the testimonies of holy Scripture then as they can not worke by wiles they boldely brast the bandes in sonder Thus when for misconstruing of this plane assertion of the booke of Machabees they can conuey no fit meaning they are driuen to harde shiftes and vnsemely to deny the whole booke to be scripture and therefore in matters of question of no authority In which pointe the authoritie of the Iewes moueth them more in denying the bookes to be in the canon of Gods scripture then the decree of the holy Church for the approuing of the same to be scripture But S. Hierome though he confesse the Iewes not to allowe them yet is bolde to recken them amongest the bookes of the holy Histories not measuring their authority by the canon of the Hebrues but by the rule of Christian councells The Canons of the Apostles will chalenge them from the Iewes and heretikes to be scripture still Innocentius the first in his rehersall of diuine bookes numbreth these of the histories of the Machabees also the Councell of Carthage the third authorisheth them S. Augustine in his bookes De doctrina Christiana numbring all canonicall scriptures with the reste reciteth these also Of which bookes in the xviij of the Citie of God he thus further testifieth Ab hoc tempore apud Iudaeos restituto templo non reges sed principes fuerunt vsque ad Aristobulum quorum supputatio temporum non in scripturis sanctis quae Canonicae appellantur sed in alijs inuenitur in quibus sunt MachabaeoruÌ„ libri quos non Iudaei sed Ecclesia pro canonicis habet From this time he meaneth after the history of Esdras there was no kinges but chiefe gouernours after the restitutioÌ„ repaire of the temple till Aristobulus time of all which time there is no Chronikle nor couÌ„te in the scriptures which be Canonicall but in other that be extant we finde that supplied as in the bookes of Machabees which bookes although the Iewes do not yet the Church of God counteth for canonicall scripture But what shoulde we stande in this point the whole Church of God and euery part or prouince thereof euery learned doctour and vertuous Christian man hath receiued and allowed them for scripture the which constant and perpetuall iudgement of the Church of Christ if any man refuse let him be esteemed an Ethnike Or because he defendeth the Iewes authority against the determination of Christes Churâ—h let him be at this time accompted for a iewe And yet I thinke he ouer shooteth them herein for they confesse the history to be true although not holy Scripture neither haue they found any such errour of doctrine therein conteined as he doth And as for the auncient Christian writers and famous doctours they alleage euen that place to proue the lawefull prayer for Christian soules departed whereby these fellowes take occasion to saie it is no scripture at all As godly Damascenus in these wordes Scitis enim quid dicat scriptura quomodo Iudas ille Machabaeus in Syon Ciuitate regis magni vt cognouit populum sibi subiectum à Palestinis hostibus occisum scrutatione facta inuenta idola in sinibus corum statim pro vnoquoque eorum ad dominum qui ad misericordiam facilis paratus est munera propitiatoria obtulit sane ob summam religionem fraternamque charitatem in hoc facinore vt in omnibus alijs a diuinissima scriptura magnificus admirabilis habebatur You know sayth he what the scripture reporteth how that worthy Iudas Machabeus of Syon the City of the great kinge after he vnderstood certeine of his subiectes to haue bene slaine of the Palestines his enemies and search being made had founde in their lappes idols straight wayes offered to God who is much inclined to mercy for euery of his souldiars so slaine propitiatory oblations â–ª who suerly for that act as proceding of wonderfull religion and brotherly loue and in all other affaires is of the holy writte esteemed mighty and meruelous Longe before this writer did S. Augustine vse the same booke and text of Machabees to proue the prayers sacrifice for the departed in peace In the booke of Machabees sayth he we reade that sacrifice was offered for the deade But if it were in none of the olde scriptures reade at all yet the authority of the vniuersall Church which for this point is plaine were of no small force whereby it is prouided that in the prayers which be made at the altare by the priest to our Lorde God the commemoration of the deade shall haue their place Thus by these auncient authors both the bookes be approued the text it selfe for which our aduersaries vnworthely denied the booke alleaged for the same purpose and the doctrine so sure that if no scripture coulde be founde it would beare out it selfe against all falsehood But this doctor handleth Pelagius the heretique denying the booke of VVisdome to be scripture because there was a sentence out of the fourth Chapter thereof brought
woulde haue robbed the Church of the actes of the Apostles A sect called Alogiani do refuse the Gospell of S. Iohn with the Apocalypse Martine illiricus Caluine and their companions that no man being but an heretique shoulde euer out pricke them will shoulder with the proudest and lifte out of our Bibles the bookes of Machabees with S. Iames Epistle and more when more nede requireth The which Epistle as also the Epistles of Iohn and Iudas were once doubted of not as conteining any matter wherof the trueth was vncertaine but as bookes not knowen to be of like force as canonicall scripture in the impugning of heresies or confirming articles of belefe as all workes be till Gods Church haue published their authority and declared all thinges in them conteined to be of the same credit that the spirite of God is and of Gospell like trueth And by that authority of the Church what booke so euer be allowed though it was not so taken before yet now we must needes accept it sicut vere est verbum Dei as the very word of god And so be these canonicall Epistles and bookes of Machabees as before is declared Here nowe euery man may learne that it is a very daungerous matter to geue lesse credit to any of these bookes or wauer in any point of faith written in them for such fellowes iudgements that nowe amongest them haue lefte vs neither olde nor newe Testament Such stubborne boldenesse had these willfull men in mainteinaunce of mischeuous doctrine VVhose open impudencie was counted handsome conueiaunce of their scholers and adherents which were very many notwithstanding the Catholike Christian men in all ages both meruailed and lamented their blindnesse And yet doubtlesse it is not much to be wondered at to see that man flatly forsake the scripture of God who is not abashed to refuse and condemne that sense and vnderstanding of the Scripture which the whole Church with all her learned men haue euer allowed and counted most holy VVell by the strength of this piller we haue chalenged and saued hitherto for all the barking of bandogges the Scripture of God with the knowne meaning thereof And so I trust we shall doe still from the new aduersaries by the assured promise of thassistance of Gods holy spirite which shall leade vs not onely to the true canonicall Scriptures with the sense of the same but also guide vs in all truth necessary for our saluation Let euery man therefore here take heede how he doubteth of the knowne and certayne sense that the Church of Christ by decree of councell or consent of doctors applyeth to any Scripture least by mistrusting the sayd sense he goe forward vnaduisedly from open deniall of the common to found a priuate meaning of his owne in the stubborne defense whereof when he shall against the truth malipertly stand he goeth vnluckely forward at the end blasphemously reiecteth the blessed word sacred Scripture of God as we haue proued the auncient enemies of truth to haue done and as in these new sect maisters we may to our great dolour see Yet loe euen these are they that in all ages as Vincentius sayth flye in their talke and teaching ouer the law the prophets the Psalmes the Gospell That cry out of pottes pulpits nothing but Gods word the booke of the Lorde the testament of Iesus Christ Paule scripture as it may be supposed and as in th ende it is proued to driue out of doores Paule Scripture Testament and Christ too and not to bring into the peoples heades or heartes the feare and loue of God the holsom precepts of Paules heauenly preaching nor the true meaning of any Scripture VVho being vrged will rather credit a minstrells ballat then the Machabeis or best booke in the Bible But now you may see that whiles these men thought to saue their credits by miscrediting the Scripture they haue wrought so wisely that they haue lost their owne credits both in this poynt and in all other for euer And as they hoped by deniall of Scripture to cloke their errour they haue wonne to them selues the property of an heretike by open shew of their owne folly 3 And euen as vaine friuolous is this discourse that followeth to shew what bookes of scripture were in olde time refused by what heretikes But you thinke to match vs with them for denying the Machabees where vnto you adde the Epistle of S. Iames. If Martine and Illyricus haue some times doubted of that Epistle they are not the first that doubted of it Eusebius sayth plainely it is a counterfect Epistle lib. 2. cap. 23. And yet he was not accompted an heretike I saye not this to excuse them that doubt of it for I am perswaded they are more curious then wise in so doing but whereas you ioine Caluine with them it is because you can not leaue to lye with out shame while you are an instrument to defend diuelish errors with out shewe of trueth For Caluine receiueth it defendeth it expoundeth it and in all his writings allegeth it as canonical scripture Therefore if he were as ill as you compt him yet it were shame to lye on the deuill But we shall not nede to â—ake among the olde heresies to finde what bookes of holy Scripture you Papistes refuse when it is an easy matter to take your owne confessions and bolde assertions by which it is manifest that you doe not as those heretikes which you name reiect some one or two bookes but the whole authority of all the canonicall scriptures For when you affiâ—me that no booke of holy Scripture is canonicall but so farre forth as your Church will allow it who seeth not that you doe abrogate all maiestie and authoritie from the word of God submitting it to the iudgements of men Moreouer when you will not admit any sence of the scripture but such as your Church wil allow although the same be contrary to the plaine wordes thereof what authority doe you leaue to the worde of God which you make to be but a dead lettre vntil you geue it such a sence as it pleaseth you Finally where you make decrees of men either priuate or common customes traditions vnwritten verities in which is no certainety at all not onely equiualent but also oftentimes superior to the auctority of holy scriptures what certainety credit or estimation doe you leaue to the scriptures of God aboue other writinges nay all other writinges are in better case then the scriptures are with you For other writings may be compted the workes of their authors with out your censure the holy Scripture may not be compted the worde of God except you list so to allow it which may as well refuse that which is Gods worde in deede as you receiue and obtrude that which is not the worde of God at all Other writings haue such sence as the authors haue expressed them selues in their workes and maye be gathered by their wordes The
holy Scripture may not haue any allowed sence approued to be the meaning of God the author thereof by consideration of the wordes nor conference of one place with an other but it must nedes haue such sence as your Church will fayne vnto it Finally other writinges are of credit according to the authoritie of the writers The holy Scriptures with you haue not credit according to the authoritie of God the author of them but according to your determination that maye conferre or perferre vnto them what you list whereby it is manifest that you Antichristian Papistes receiue onely the names of the canonicall scriptures and the metaphysicall wordes abstract from all sence but the authoritie meaning and credit you vtterly deny to be in them submitting them altogether to your owne selues and your most corrupt peruerse iudgement The rest of your tedious rayling vnto the ende of the chapter I know not why I should aunswere further except it were to waste incke and paper For the stocke of your fructlesse tree being digged vp by the rootes the proude toppes and braue braunches therof must nedes fal downe and wither away with it That the funeralls of the Patriarches both in the lavve of nature and Moises and Christ had practise in them for the reliefe of the soules departed CAP. IIII. 1 NOw therefore I haue great hope to trust so much of all studious readers for that loue which they beare vnto truth that they will geue creditte to the manifest wordes of Scripture which so plainly doe set forth not onely the benefite that ariseth to the departed by prayers but also witnesse that there was practise at Ierusalem by oblation and sacrifice for the same purpose by order of their law For otherwise would that good knight so highly commended neuer haue presumed to bring in any superstitious new vsage contrary to the rule of that Church neither would the Priestes at Ierusalem haue offered for the dead without contradiction vnder the gouernment of so good a bishop neither would the Author of she booke vpon so light a beginning haue praysed the fact or otherwise made mention of it then as of a new deuise of the same man VVhom I doubt not therefore rather to haue followed the continuall custome of the Church then to haue inuented any newe vnknowne order of his owne VVhich may well appeare at this day by the ceremonies and sacrifices of the olde lawe yet superstitiously obserued emongest the dispersed Iewes where emongest other rites of their lawe they offer and make solemne supplication for the soules departed as Antonius Margarita a Iewe that forsooke his profession and became Christian witnesseth in a booke that he made of the faith of the Iewes VVhere he reporteth out of their sacrifice this prayer Deus animarum fidelium recordetur in paradisum cum Abraham Isaac Iacob alijsque integerrimis sanctis collocet that is Lord remember the faithfull soules and place them in paradise with Abraham Isaac and Iacob and other thy perfect Sainctes and holy men And for that purpose they haue a memoriall booke as he sayth out of which the names of the departed are yerely recited But we much neede not this report herein for that may well appeare to haue bene vsed long before Iudas Machabaeus his dayes For what other thing doth that long mourning fasting charitable releuing of the poore and other common afflictions which men tooke vpon them at the obites of their friendes and fathers as well in the law of nature as afterward continually in Moises time what else can they meane but perpetual practise for the rest of their soules Looke how religiously Abraham celebrated the rites of his wiues funerall which the Scripture calleth Officium funeris the office of the Buriall which he fulfilled by weeping and lamentation made ouer the corps Neither can I thinke that the office and iust funeralls stoode in mourning or sorowyng without praying or other remedies of reliefe towardes the departed seeing especially that office of mourning by solemne dirigies as we nowe tearme them had place time and ordre by rule appointed to be executed yea and were not ended by many dayes together nor at one time nother As it appeareth that Ioseph and his brethern executed their fathers funeralls first fourty dayes in Aegypte and then in their owne country celebrabant exequias saith the text seuen dayes together So the children of Israel celebrated Moyses obsequies with thirty dayes solemne mourning in the downes of Moab Not by that weeping which procedeth of priuate affection towardes a mans friende for that can not be limited nor yet prescribed by rule as all these solemne dirigies were But questionlesse this office conteined for the reliefe of the deceased almes prayer fastes and teares all which may well be termed mourning songes or weeping ouer the dead for that time most cōuenient Of which the wise man geueth this precept Super mortuū plora VVeepe ouer the departed And that thou maiest well perceiue these publike rites of solemne dirigies to perteine properly to the due helpe of those for whome they be exercised S. Ambrose doubteth not to affirme that of those burialls in the lawe of nature the necessary obseruation of our Christian dayes monthes and yeares mindes kepte for the deade had their beginning saying thus in his funerall sermon made the fourtith daye solemnely kept for the memory of the noble Emperour Theodosius Eius Principis proxime conclamauimus obitum nunc quadragesimum celebramus assistente sacris altaribus Honorio principe quia sicut sanctus Ioseph patri suo Iacob quadraginta diebus humationis officia detulit ita hic Theodosio patri iusta persoluit quia alij tertium trigesimum alij septimum quadragesimum obseruare consueuerūt quid doceat lectio consideremus defuncto inquit Iacob praecepit Ioseph pueris sepultoribus vt sepelirēt eum repleti sunt ei quadraginta dies Haec ergo sequenda solemnitas quam prescribit lectio Bonus itaque Ioseph qui formam pio muneri dedit c. VVe kept of late the day of this noble kinges buriall And now againe we celebrate his fourtith dayes mind the prince Honorius his sonne assisting vs before the holy altares for as holy Ioseph bestowed vpon his fathers funeral fourty dayes dutie euen so doth this prince procure his fathers obsequies And because some obserue the thirde day and the thirtith other kepe customably the vij and the fourtith let vs looke vpon the text which readeth thus Iacob being departed Ioseph commaundeth the prouisours of the sepulture to bury him and so they did and made vp full fourty dayes in that obite this solemnity then must we fellowe prescribed by the scripture Good was this Ioseph that first gaue vs the forme and fashion of so holy a function By these wordes we see the antiquity of our Christian dirigies and diuersitie of dayes as yet it is vsed in
mounthes or twelue mounthes mindes to haue ishued downe from S. Ambrose time to ours from the lawe of nature by the Patriarches prescription to his dayes not by mourning and mumchaunse as the buriall of Geneuas booke appointeth but at the holy altares these obites were kepte as with deuoute prayers and sacrifice VVhereof in better place I shall speake more anone He alludeth there also to our dilexi and other Psalmes which we yet singe in Gods Church ouer the departed CAP. IIII. 1 WHen you haue perforce as you phantysie made a breatch in that strong walle that enuironed the canonicall scriptures and made a great seperation between them and all other writing by thrusting in the abridgmēt of Iasons storie among them now as though you had taken the citye you make spoile and hauoke with out all order or honesty of all that liketh you within the compasse of holy writ and with out Nowe burialls mournings almes fasting festing building times and seasons all are youres But he that longeth to haue his splene or his gaule moued let him reade these discourses following if he list to laugh at foolish arguments let him come hether if he wil be angry with frowarde applications of the scripture here can he not wante occasion And first he hopeth that all they that loue the trueth will fauor his cause when they heare out of the scriptures that sacrifice for the deade was offered at Ierusalem by order of the lawe By order of the lawe M. Allen shew me one iote or title of the lawe to approue sacrifice for the deade Et eris mihi magnus Apollo Phyllida solus habebis and I will worshippe your wordes as an oracle and confesse that you onely haue the trueth I know your aunswere you haue no writing but you haue good reasons for so good a knight so many priestes so good a bishop such an author woulde neuer haue allowed it if it had not bene according to the lawe of god Touching your authour we haue saide enough already As for the good knight Iudas was not so suer of falling but Dauid a better knight then he transgressed the lawe of God to carry the arke vpon a new chariotte which shoulde haue bene borne vpon mens shoulders 1. Chron. 13. wherein not onely Dauid but so many Priestes and Leuites so good a bishop and the whole generall councell of Israell did erre Here was neither Zadocke nor Abiather nor Abinadab nor Gad nor Nathan or any other that made contradiction vntill God him selfe shewed his displeasure by killing of Vzza But because M. Allen thinketh the bishop being so good a man woulde neuer haue consented to it if it had bene euill I woulde aske of him who was bishop or high priest then that he was so good a bishop and so worthy of his commendation Suerly if he were a good man he was much to blame to suffer any such thing to be done in the temple of God which was not appointed by the lawe of god But if he were a wicked and an vngodly man by M. Allens owne reason it is not vnlike but that he woulde for the gaine of 2000 drachmes of siluer suffer such a superstitious newe vsage contrary to the lawe Now because M. Allen sayeth he was so good a bishop let him chose which it was of these 3. that satte on the seate of the high priest all the time that Iudas had any dignity amonge the people namely Iason Menclaus and Alcinus let him take the beste of them although it appeareth by the story that Menaelaus the worst of them all three was Byshop in that tyme and he shall see that no man euer except he were willfully disposed to lye would bestow such commendation vppon him as M. Allen doth to call him so good a Bishop and to defend the gouernment of so good a Bishop from suffering any superstitious vsage contrary to the law when they were all three open transgressors forsakers of the law And what the Priestes of that time were let his owne author declare 2. Mach. 4. The priestes were now no more diligēt about the seruice of the aultar but despised the temple and regarded not the sacrifices but made hast to be partakers of the wicked expenses at the play after the casting of the stone These were those reuerend Priestes of those dayes not vnlike your hedge Priestes of popery And although Iudas did afterward make a peece of reformation after the horrible prophaning of the temple and the lawes through cruell persecution yet these Priestes were not therby sodenly chaunged into godly men carefull for the sinceritie of Gods law but were redy like the reformed popish Priestes that we haue seene in our tyme to doe what so euer the Prince hath commaunded to be as ready againe to doe the contrary at an other Princes commaundement In such a time vnder so wicked a Priest no maruell if such corruption did enter Moreouer the fact of Iudas fauoureth not the popish purgatory where none but veniall and light sinnes are expiable but those that were slayne for whom the same offering was made dyed in deadly sinne as appeareth by the story they had vnder their coates Iewels consecrated to Idolls which was so heynous an offence that Iudas feared that they should haue bene all vtterly destroyed for their fault and therefore it might seeme that he caused the sacrifice to be offered not so much to pacifie God for them that were killed as to purge them selues of that pollution and prophanation sauing that the author of the booke expoundeth that fact otherwise And whereas M. Allen sayth that prayer for the dead is yet vsed of the Iewes They that haue as good cause to know their custome as he affirmeth contrary He citeth Antonius Margarita turned from a Iewe to a Papiste which auoucheth the same The rabbins in their writings when they speake of any that is dead they onely blesse his memory and in the booke of their common praiers and ceremonies printed in the hebrew tongue there is no such forme of prayer to be found for the deade But if any of them as they doe in many ceremonies papizare haue learned the superstition of the Papistes it is not this alone that they haue contrary to the word of god But lette vs come to the matter of this chapter M. Allen asketh what other thing doth all the mourning fasting and other ceremonies of burying meane but a practise for the rest of their soules I aunswere with distinction because his question is with confusion partly they meane that those which did such thinges lamēted for the departure of so excellent men partly they ment to shew their hope of their resurrection mourning fasting were to expresse their sorrow the other ceremonies were to declare that mens bodies should rise againe As for almes I find not that it was vsed at burialls But what meane you M. Allen if you be not out of your wittes to imagine prayer for the
dead to be practised at those burialls when in so many burialls as are rehearsed in the Scriptures with all ceremonies vsed about them neuer is there one word nay not one sillable to proue prayer for their soules And yet as a man with a marble face you are not ashamed to affirme that rites offices diriges obites trentalls c. were practised by them for the reliefe of the soules in purgatory It may be that much of your paultry by fond imitation was taken of such doings to counterfet the examples of the Patriarkes but once againe I say there is no mention in al the Scripture of prayer for â—he dead at any burial Wherfore the authoritie of Ambrose helpeth you litle who although he commendeth Honorius for solemnising the funeralls of Theodosius by the space of 40. dayes after the example of Ioseph yet he sayth not that prayer for the deade was taken by the example of Ioseph But see M. Allen if you can see any thing whether blind affection carieth you that you can not vnderstand the playne latine of Ambrose or else will not translate it a right Ambrose speaketh not of his fortieth dayes minde but of the solemnitie of his funerall kept 40. dayes togither as in the embalming of Iacobs body was by Ioseph But to say the truth how simple a reason this was to take example of for the time of solemnitie of funeralls it is playne by that place which Ambrose allegeth where it is sayd that 40. dayes were bestowed by the Phisitions or Apothecaries in embalming the body of Iacob to keepe it long from putrefaction And how slenderly he reproueth them that kept 7. dayes funeralls where if his reason were good by example of Iosephs Poticaries to keepe 40. dayes theirs were better by example of Ioseph him selfe to keepe 7. dayes These be the groundes of such superstitions as crept into the Church first by emulation of the Paganes and after seeking for colourable confirmation in the examples of the Patriarkes For auoyding of all which inconueniences that haue risen and may rise by ceremonies practised at burialls the Church of Geneua very wisely godly vseth no more ceremonies in burying their deade then are conuenient for the reuerent laying vp of the corps which is ordayned to ryse agayne with glory Whose still buriall is better then your yelling and howling and their mumming if you will needes so terme it more commendable then you masking 2 But in the second booke of the Kinges â–ª the example of the holy King Dauid is a playne proofe that they fasted also for the deceased Apprehendens Dauid vestimenta sua scidit omnesque viri qui cum eo erant planxerunt ieiunauerunt vsque ad vesperam super Saul Ionathan filium eius super populum super domum Israel eo quod corruissent gladio And Dauid taking holde of his garmentes tore them and so did the men with him and they howled wept and fasted vpon Saul and Ionathas his sonne with the residue of Gods people that there were slaine Now what other thing did Dauid here and his people but that which Iudas Machabeus did afterwarde for the like death of his souldiars I trowe there was no fasting to be found ouer any maner a person lyue or dead for thy selue or other in the whole course of scripture but it was to obteine mercy at Gods hande towardes the partie for whome thou didest it So did this same holy Prophet weepe fast lye on the grounde and change apparell for his childe which he begat of Vrias wife when he lay at the point of death stricken by Gods hande for the punishment of his fathers faulte The which he did as he protesteth him selfe to turne the angry sentence of God if it might be and recouer the childe againe But as soone as the childe was gone he brake of his longe fast geuing his frendes to weete that he tormented not him selfe so of onely naturall compassion towardes the childe or inordinate lous as they thought but to obteine his purpose by such bitter teares and fasting at Gods handes for the childs recouery Fasting then ouer any man and such solemne mourning is nothing els but an effectuall asking of mercy for whome so euer it be done As more plainely it is yet declared in the buriall of Saul and Ionathas before said celebrated by the Galadites and Saules souldiars VVhere as the scripture sayth after they had buried their bodies and bones they fasted vij dayes Et ieiunauerunt septem diebus For no other cause but thereby effectually to aske pardon of their offensies There can I am sure be no reasonable occasion of their fasting alleaged of no man but that which the honorable Bede testifieth for vs in these wordes Recte ad literam pro mortuis vt ad requiem peruenire valeant septem diebus ieiunatur quia post sex huius mundi aetates in quibus in carne laboramus septima est in illo saeculo aetas requictionis animarum carne exutarum in qua beatae tempus illud glorificum quando resurgere mereantur expectant Duely and according to the letter they fasted sayth he for the departed seuen dayes together to obteine rest for them because after the six ages of the worlde in which we trauell in flesh the seuenth age is looked for in that worlde when the soules be loosed from their bodies when the blessed and happy sort shall continually be in expectation of the glorious time by receiuing their bodies in the resurrection againe 2 As we haue had prayer for the dead so now we shal haue fasting for the deade In deede the wordes sounde more like such a matter then any thing that can be sayed of prayer for the deade But the sence is euident they fasted not for them to redeme their soules but they fasted to declare their sorrow because they were slaine with the sworde as it followeth in plaine wordes And yet to make the matter more plaine in the same Chapter followeth a large forme of lameÌ„tation made by Dauid for them where if euer he had vsed prayer for the deade he woulde haue vsed it if not for his father in lawe Saule yet at leste for his dearly beloued and sworne brother Ionathas But no such thing came in his minde as M. Allen foolishly fantysieth of him But M. Allen sayth this matter is more plainly proued by the Galaadites that fasted seuen dayes after the buriall of Saule and Ionathas and he is suer there can no reasonable cause be alleaged of their fasting but onely to aske pardon for their sinnes I take this to be a more resonable cause that they fasted and humbled them selues before God because they did see the wrath of God against the whole people in the calamitie of the king his sonne whose contumelious haÌ„dling by the vncircumcised stretched to the dishonor of god And this was coÌ„mon among the Israelites in any great calamitie
Gods worde or authorities of scriptures but such as is so pitifully wrested and drawen vnto them as euery man may see the holy Ghost neuer ment any such thinge as they gather of them 3 Holde on vpwarde still and Tertullian will witnesse with thee that in that floure of Christes Church with in lesse then CC. yeares of our maisters death Oblationes fiebant annua die pro defunctis That oblations and sacrifice were yearly made at the xij monthes mindes of most men he meaneth both by the sacrifice of the Church and offeringes of the freindes of the departed as there also Repete apud Deum pro cuius spiritu postules pro qua oblationes annuas reddas Call to thy remembraunce for whose soule thou prayes and in whose behalfe thou makes yearly offeringes He speaketh of a freinde of his that practised thus for his wiues departure And in an other place he well declareth the duety of maried persons one towards an other if God by death separate them in sonder Pro anima eius orat refrigerium interim postulat offert annuis diebus dormitionis eius She prayeth for her husbandes soule and obteineth in the meane space ease and offereth euery yeare at the mind day of his passing hense And he letteth not to affirme that the maried couple that practise not thus do not beleue the resurrection Therefore he concludeth thus Nunquid nihil erimus post mortem secundum aliquem Epicurum non secundum Christum quòd si credimus mortuorum resurrectionem vtique tenebimur cum quibus resurrecturi sumus rationem de altetutro reddituri VVhat say you shall we fall to nothing after our death as the Epicure thinketh and not rise againe as Christ teacheth And if we beleue the resurrection of the deade then doubtlesse we shall be bounde to make accompt one of an other as we shall together rise againe Beware here my maisters once againe I must tell you you are going towardes the deniall of the resurrection so many as condemne the vsage of the Church in praying or offeringe for the deade Tertullian sayth you be Epicures in this point and so you be in all others I say you are past priuy muttering in your heartes that there is no God for you are come to plaine Manducemus bibamus cras enim moriemur Let vs eate and be mery we can not tell how longe we lieue I say you must aunswere for parting the affection of man and wife and the one must be countable at the day of iudgement to an other that they procured not the dueties of the deade by right of Gods holy Church for their soules departed Take heede therefore you are warned 3 Nay ho there M. Allen no higher then Tertullian And when we haue examined the testimonies of Tertullian in order as you haue brought them you shall haue small aduantage out of him yea your friendes shall thinke you had bene better to haue made no mention of him For first I must tell you that these three lines which are all that he hath written sounding that way are found in three bookes which all were written by him when he was an heretike separated from the catholike Church And therefore it may well be that all that he speaketh of prayers and oblations for the deade was onely in the conuenticles of the Montanistes of which sect he was an earnest defender rather then in the catholike Church And this coniecture seemeth the more probable because Cyprian which was afterward a catholike Bishop in the same city where Tertullian sometime had liued maketh no mention of prayers for the dead but onely of sacrifice for the Martyrs which was none other but the sacrifice of thankesgiuing lib. 4. Ep. 5. But admit that the Church of God in that time vsed these superstitious prayers and oblations for the deade let vs consider vpon what ground they were vsed The firsâ— place M. Allen allegeth in this forme Oblationes fiebant annua die pro defunctis But Tertullians wordes in libro de corona militis be these Oblationes pro defunctis pro natalitijs annua die facimus We make oblations for the dead for our birthes on the yearly day By which it is euident that M. Allen did not read these wordâ—s him selfe but receiued them of some other mans collection or sound them in some booke of common places But to the matter Tertullian him selfe shall say for me that the same custome with many other which he there rehearseth hath no ground in the holy Scripture Harum aliarum eiusmodi disciplinarum si leges expostules scripturarum nullam inuenies traditio tibi praetendetur autrix consuetudo confirmatrix fides obseruatrix Of those and such like disciplines if you require the lawes of the Scriptures you shall finde none tradition shall be pretended to you to be the author Custome the confirmer and faith the obseruer It is good to take that which is so franckly giuen and more is Tertullian to be commended that confesseth the ground of his errour not to be taken out of the word of God then they that labour to wreâ—t the Scriptures to find that which Tertullian confesseth is not to be found in them I knowe the Papistes will aunswere that tradition is of as good credit as the Scripture is the word of God vnwritten as well as the Scripture is the word of God written But why then doe they not obserue all other things that Tertullian in the same place affirmeth to be tradition if tradition be the word of God why doe they not giue to them that are newly baptised a temper of milke and hony and from the day of their baptisme forbid dayly washing all the weeke after Why doe they not count it a wicked thinge to fast on the Sunday or to pray and worship God on their knees Why doe they not count it a wicked thinge to fast betwene Easter Whitsontide or to pray on their knees all that time Finally why doe not they crosse them selues in the forehead at euery steppe they set forth at comming in at going out at putting on of garmentes at putting on of shoes at washing at the tables at lighting of candles at beddes at stooles and at all thinges what so euer they doe What aunswere can they here make but that their Church may dispense as well with the word of God vnwritten which they cal tradition as she doth against the word of God conteyned in the holy Scriptures So that alwayes what so euer they prate of antiquitie customs traditions vnwritten verities or the word of God vnwritten the authority of their blasphemous church is aboue them all Now to the second testimony alleged out of Tertullian S. Ieronym shall testifie for vs that this booke as the other that followeth was written against the Church so was also his booke de corona militis when he was out of the Church whereby it may
reasonable cleere light for the good simple peoples instruction and with full safety from all the force our aduersaries can make against vs The Patriarches example the wordes of scripture the practise of the Church the naturall society betwixt the partes of Christes misticall body in this worlde and his members in the next and all our fathers faith haue wonne so much that almes and offeringes in sundry memorialls and diuers obseruations of mindes and obittes be singular and soueraigne to procure Gods mercy for the pardon of the soules deceased And nowe lest any man take occasion of Gods mercy which he seeth to be so ready that it may be wone by other mens workes to liue in contempt of vertuous exercise and to passe the time of his owne life in carelesse negligence presuming to purchesse fauour at Gods hande so mercyfull by other mens merites with out his owne deede or deserte let that man be aduertised quòd non habet partem in sermone isto that he shall in that case haue no benefite by our talke the mercy which we speake of perteineth not vnto him such idle drone beyes can take no fructe of other mens labours neither quicke nor deade For that membre which in this body was so vnprofitable to him self it is no right nor reason he should haue any gaynes by other mens trauell Therefore all these liberall promisies of fauour and grace to be procured by the workes of the liue towardes the departed reach neither to the vnfaithfull out of this house nor to the impenitent who was but an vnprofitable burden of the house These thinges sayth Clement we meane of the godly for if thou gaue all the welth of the world to the poore for the wicked sake thou couldest not profite them a heare For he that dyed in Gods displeasure can not looke for more mercy then he deserued Therefore S. Iohn the Apostle seemeth to abbridge our prayers and the obteining of our petitions by borderinge them as with in certaines bondes after this sort VVe know that God doth here vs what so euer we require we be sure he will accomplish our requestes which we make vnto him Therefore he that knoweth his brother to sinne being not a sinne to death let him pray and life shall be geuen to him that sinneth not to death there is a sinne to death for such I do not will any man to praie This place of the Apostle seemeth to declare the wonderfull force that the prayers of the faithfull haue in procuring grace and remission for others so that they be â—rethern and passe hense with out the bonde of mortall sinne And the letter well weyed shall make exceding much to proue the prayers for departed in piety as it in a maner forbiddeth all intercession for such as be knowen to passe in continuance of mortall sinne There is no crime so greuous that man may commit in the course of this life but the Church vseth prayers customably therefore and for her reuerence is often hearde Therefore it may well be thought that the party must be deceased of whome such diuersity of desertes doth arise for all that be a liue with out exception if they be brethern of our familie must be prayde for And so longe as they be in this worlde and may repent their sinne is not so vnto death but life by prayers may be and is commonly at Gods hande obâ—eined Then it may well be deduced that the Aposâ—le meaneth to incourage the faithfull to pray for such their brethren departed as dyed without bonde of deadly sinne to their sight in a maner warning them that for such their prayers shall be acceptably hearde But for others continuing in sinne to death he willeth not them to praye nor can assure them they shall be hearde So doth Dionysius a man not very auncient but of a full spirite and good grace expounde this text VVhether he meaneth sayth this father by finall impenitence or by any mortall sinne continued vnto death it is sure plaine a man must not praye for him that dieth in it Then if we be admonished not to pray for one sorte of departed the case is cleare that we may and are bounde and shall be hearde for the other sorte that sinneth not vnto death CAP. VII 1 HItherto but that you loue to tell your chickens before they be hatched you neede not greatly to boast of your winnings But now you will shewe that prayer and almes helpeth not them that dye in mortall sinne and that beside your Clement with whose cloutes you cloy your booke you woulde fayne proue out of the Epistle of S. Iohn cap. 5. For that which S. Iohn speaketh of the prayers that Christian men make for their brethren aliue whom they see to sinne but not vnto death you would take if you could for prayers to be made for them that are deade but passed not hence in deadly sin â–ª that which he sayth of prayers not to be made for them that sinne not vnto death you weene he ment of them that are known to passe hence in continuance of sinne But you that dare not presume to make any interpretation without authoritie of the olde Martyrs when all commeth to all haue none to father your new exposition vppon but Denys the charterhouse Monke a yesterdayes bird But seeing you are not onely voyd of all auncient authoritie but also haue all the olde writers against you that euer interpreted or alleged this place let vs see what is your reason Forsooth the letter well weighed maketh much for you by the way it may be noted that you call the word of God the letter in that sense that S. Paule sayth the letter killeth but I omitte that grosse contumely against the holy Scriptures where S. Paule sayth the letter killeth he meaneth not that the holy Scriptures killeth in which is contemed life but that the law which onely commaundeth and giueth no power to fulfill it pronounceth sentence of death to them that breake it But to follow your reason There is no crime so greeuous that man may commit in this life but the Church prayeth for it is often heard therfore it may be thought that the party must be deceased of whom such diuersitie of deserts doth arise I deny your antecedent For the church of Christ prayeth not for them that sinne against the holy Ghost our Sauiour Christ affirmeth that he which sinneth against the holy Ghost shall neuer be forgiuen who so euer pray for him and of such sayth S. Iohn that there is a sinne vnto death for which we ought not to pray Samuell was not heard when he prayed for Saule 1. Sam. 16. Ieremy is oftentimes forbidden to pray for the obstinate Iewes Iere. 7.11 14. And the Lord testifieth that if Noach Daniell and Iob prayed for the wicked they should not be heard Ezec. 14. Therefore there be sinnes for which the Church ought not to pray and though she
by it But Christ you say hath instituted this sacrifice to be offered vp for the remembraunce of his death the clensing of our sinnes Shew one word M. Allen out of the Scripture of any sacrifice instituted by Christ at his last supper or else you are a most horrible and blasphemous lyer The holy Ghost sayth we are sanctified by his will thorough the offering of the body of Christ once made for al and where remission of sinnes is there is left no sacrifice for sinne Heb. 10. But you are not content to ioyne your sacrifice of the masse as an appendix vnto the onely once offered and no more offerable sacrifice of Christ his death except you proceede and vtterly deny all the force and benefite of the oblation of his bitter passion For you say that Christ in his last supper not onely gaue to his Apostles but also offered to God his father that body which was after betrayed and that blood which was shed after also for remission of sinnes being that sacrifice which should succede the bloody offerings of the olde testament what place haue you here left for the passion of Christ O intolerable blasphemy Christ offered vp but one sacrifice and that you affirme to be before his death Christ offered but once and that you affirme to be at his supper By that one sacrifice which Christ did once offer he redemed vs from all our sinnes and that you affirme to haue bene offered in the sacrament Doe you not now plainly exclude the death and passion of Christ and all the merites thereof who can abide to heare you afterward when you say that the sacrifice of the masse is an application of the benefits of Christ his death vnto vs when now you affirme that it is the continuance of that sacrifice which Christ offered and instituted before his death who neuer offered but one sacrifice and that but once O Lord these blasphemers are more worthy to be beaten downe with thunderbolts then their blasphemies so directly contrary to the holy Scriptures haue neede to be confuted with wordes 2 Now this is that blessed sacrifice which S. Augustine with feare and reuerence termeth in a thousand places of his workes the sacrifice of the Altar the sacrifice of our Mediatour the sacrifice of our price the sacrifice of the body and bloud of Christ the holsome and profitable sacrifice the sacrifice of Melchisedech the new sacrifice S. Chrysostom the reuerent sacrifice the honorable Mysteries the Fearefull sacrifice Athanasius the propitiatory sacrifice the vnbloody Host. S. Cyprian the sacrifice of the Church the perpetuall sacrifice the meate offering the medecine for our infirmities Irenaeus the pure sacrifice the new sacrifice of the new testament Clement againe the vnbloudy sacrifice the rationable sacrifice and so doth the holy Counsell of Ephesus call it Dionysius the sacrifice most excellent of all sacrificies and the hoste of hostes The Latines altogether afterward named it the holy Masse so did S. Augustine call it Ambrose Hierome Epiph. scholastic with all the posteritie both in Latin and other barbarous languagies Besides many other excellent high and peculiar callinges which can agree to no other common worship of God internall nor external but onely to this most worthy and honorable sacrifice which by the vertue that it hath receiued by the first examplar therof and by the might and mercy of the Lambe of God which vnder the couer of breade and wine is there the appointed hoste and oblation is profitable both to the quicke and the deade And therefore is hath ben vsed euer sith the Apostles age by Christes owne prescription and theirs commaunded to be religiously obserued and of all faythfull people honoured as the principall protestation of our religion as the grounde of all true worship as the badge of Christian peace as the bonde of holy society betwixt the heade and the membres as the loue knot betwixt Christ and his spouse as the vniting of the liue with the dead the holy sainctes with vs poore sinners Angells with men heuenly thinges with earthly and the Creator of all with his owne creatures beneth as the plentifull condeth to deriue the grace of Christes death and merites of his passiō to the continuall conforth of our soules as the onely practise of his eternall priesthood according to the ordre of Melchisedech as the only effectuall memoriall and comfortable memory of the sheeding of his blessed bloude and sufferance of so deare and painefull death for our redemption VVhat altar so euer be erected against this altar it is nothing els but a waste of Gods worship a canker of religion a token of dissension a separation of the holy society of the Christian communion a larome towardes schisme a departure from Christ an open badge of heresy a saulsy shouldering with Christes Church and ordinaunce an open robbry of his honour and priesthood a plaine stoppe of the passage of his giftes and grace in his louing house the onely waye to paganisme and eternall obliuion of his death and passion 2 Now we shall heare how many of the olde writers call it a sacrifice but he neede not take all that paynes for we confesse that the celebration of the Lordes supper is commonly but vnproperly called of them a sacrifice Howbeit they ment nothing lesse then to set vp a blasphemous aultar and new sacrifice and priesthoode against our Sauiour Christ the onely priest aultar and sacrifice of our redemption as Augustine calleth him but onely there meaning was that it was a remembraunce and memoriall of that onely sacrifice with thankes giuing for the same Augustine de fide ad Petrum Diaconum cap. 19. shewing the difference of the sacrifices of the olde lawe the onely sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of breade and wine which the Church offered sayth In illis enim carnalibus victimis figuratio fuit carnis Christi quā pro peccatis nostris ipse sine peccato fuerat oblaturus sanguinis quē erat effusurus in remissionem peccatorum In isto autem sacrificio gratiarum actio atque commemoratio est carnis Christi quam pro nobis obtulit sanguinis quem pro nobis idem Deus effudit For in these carnall sacrifices there was a figuring of the flesh of Christ which he being with out sinne shoulde offer for our sinnes and of his bloude which he shoulde shedde for remission of our sinnes But in this sacrifice there is thankes geuing and commemoration of the flesh of Christ which he offered for vs and his bloude which the same God shedde for vs In his 23. epistle to Bonifacius he sheweth that sacraments take the names of those thinges whereof they are sacraments by a certeine similitude and liknesse that they haue vnto the thinges them selues whereof they are sacraments And so the sacrament of Christes sacrifice is called a sacrifice as after a certeine manner the sacrament of Christes
in that honorable action prayeth and Christ him selfe is both the sacrifice and the priest both the asker and the geuer of pardon when the maiesty of God the blessed trinitie is passingly pleaced by the merites of Christes death so liuely set out in these honorable but vnspeakable misteries what maye we not here procure for the soule of the Churchies childe what shall be denied to so humble askers in the presence of Gods owne sonne and begging mercy for his deathes sake And so doth S. Chrysostome assure the faithfull in these golden wordes Non frustra ab apostolis sancitum est vt in celebratione venerandorum mysteriorum memoria fiat eorum qui hinc discesserunt nouerunt quippe illis multum hinc emolumeÌ„ti fieri multum vtilitatis stante siquidem vniuerso populo manus in coelos extendente coetu item sacerdotali verendoque proposito sacrificio quomodo deum non placaremus pro istis orantes It was not for nought that the Apostles decreed and ordeined that in the celebration of the honorable mysteries there shoulde be an especiall memoriall of the departed for they right wâ—ll knewe greate commodity and benefite to arise there vpon For the whole multitude holding vp their handes towardes heauen together with the company and quiere of priests and the dreadfull sacrifice set forth before all men how is it possible but we shoulde appeace Gods wrath praying for them looke ye what this mans iudgement was and see from whense he had it euen of the holy Apostles â–ª I warraunt you and no worse nor later founders But of that pointe for the full deriuing of our Christian vsage from the first fathers of our faith more conuenient place shall be geuen herafter Nowe I will serue the cause and the readers desire first with certaine peculiar examples of most learned and godly fathers worthy of all credit in the godly prouision for certeine of their dearest friendes by sacrifice and prayer both made by them selues procured by others That we may haue here not onely whome to beleeue teaching the trueth but whome to followe practising the same with deuotion which they preached with constancie before 5 Not altogether out of hope yet to find some foolish merchantes that will paye dearly for vnprofitable wares you comforte your selfe after your complainte exhorting men to procure the holy sacrifice for their freindes and fellowes why M. Allen if there be either such necessity or such profit of that sacrifice wherefore doe not your priests with out procurement offer it vp to the vttermost aduauntage that maye be had by it But you must haue procurers yea you must haue good paye maisters or els the olde prouerbe must be true No peny no pater noster As touching the place of Chrysostome I haue shewed already by his owne interpretation that although he allow prayers for the dead vsed in time of the celebration which he calleth sacrifice yet he alloweth no sacrifice in deede but onely a thankes geuing in remembraunce of the sacrifice of Christ. But where he sayeth it was decreed by the Apostles that in the celebration of the holy misteries a remembraunce should be made of them that are departed he must pardon vs of crediting because he can not shewe it out of the actes and writinges of the Apostles And we will be bolde to charge him with his owne saying Hom. De Adam Heua Satis sufficere credimus quicquid secundum predictas regulas Apostolica scripta nos docuerunt vt prorsus non opinemur Catholicum quod apparuerit prefixis sententijs contrarium we thinke it sufficeth enough what so euer the writinges of the Apostles haue taught vs according to the fore sayed rules in so much that we compt it not at all Catholike what so euer shall appeare contrary to the rules appointed And againe In Genes Hom. 58. Vides in quantam absurditatem incidunt qui diuinae scripturae canonem sequi nolunt sed suis cogitationibus permittunt omnia Thou seest into how greate absurdity they fall which will not follow the canon of holy Scripture but permitt all thinges to their owne cogitations but if we be further vrged we will alledge that which he sayth In Euan. Ioan. Hom. 58. Qui sacra non vtitur Scriptura sed ascendit aliunde id est non concessa via fur est He that vseth not the holy Scripture but clymeth an other way that is by a way not allowed is a theefe We may be as bold with Chrysostome as he sayd he would be with Paule him selfe in 2. ad Tim. ho. 2. Plus aliquid dica ne Paulo quidem obedire oportet si quid dixerit proprium si quid humanum sed Apostolo Christum in se loquentem circumferenti I will say somewhat more we must not be ruled by Paule him selfe if he speake any thing that is his owne and any thing that is humane but we must obey the Apostle wheÌ„ he carieth Christ speaking in him Wherfore seeing it is certayne by testimony of Iustinus Martyr that there was no mention of the deade in the celebration of the Lords supper for more then an hundreth yeares after Christ we must not beleue Chrysostome without Scripture affirming that it was ordeyned so by the Apostles That the practise of any pointe in religion maketh the most open shevve of the fathers faith And that all holy men haue in plaine vvordes and most godly prayers vttered their beliefe in our matter CAP. IX 1 ANd I take the open practise of any point to be a more pithy protestation of a mans faith then by wordes can be made Therefore if a man were doubtfull either of the trueth of any article or of the meaning of some doctors wordes looke the same mans practise and it shall put him out of doubt thereof straight wayes as for an example seeme some wordes of S. Augustine to make for the sacramentaries heresie that Christ is in the honorable sacrament but by figure or Theodoretus or any other auncient fathers declaration are their wordes doubtfull to the reader leaue the wordes then if thou sincerely seeke for trueth with out contention seeke out if thou can some practise of those same men and that Church where they liued for the same point But what waye of worke in this matter consisting in doctrine may assure vs of their belefe of whose wordes we doubted before Mary sir this looke how they behaued them selues in the receiuing of it in the ministering of it in the carefull keping of it whether they did adore it with godly honour whether they solemnely shewed it to the people to be worshipped whether they praide by solemne and formall wordes vnto it whether they taught their children to call it God and Christ yea so farre that Augustine affirmeth that the children in his dayes till they were after instructed thought that God appeared in the shape of breade as all these yongers seeing the honour reuerence of their elders
true worship to banish together our fathers faith CAP. XII 1 IN this chapter where he vomiteth out nothing but rayling and lying he doth rather bewraye his owne infirmitie then touch the strength of our cause For being trobled with a sore laxe of the tongue which I take to be a like disease in the mouth that it is in the wombe he gusheth out nothing but bragging and faceing scolding and sclaundering tauntinge and trifling And therefore I will but breefely confute his vanity and turne him to his matches to contend in that kind of quarreling The chiefe argument he sayeth that the Church in times past and Augustine the Churches champion vsed against the Pelagians was to shewe that their heresie was contrary to the publicke prayers of the Church what shoulde I vse many wordes I appeale to the iudgement of all Papistes that haue not loste all vse of naturall reason and indifferent iudgement which either haue reade or will take paines to reade so many workes as Augustine did write against the Pelagians whether of an hundreth arguments that he vseth this insultation be not one of the feeblest which tooke no holde of the Pelagians by force of trueth that is in it but by their owne concession and graunt of that prayer to be godly and them to be of the Church that so prayed But now the controuersie is not onely of the substance of doctrine but of the Church it selfe also And therefore when Augustine had to doe with the Donatistes that challenged the Church vnto them selues he setteth all other tryalles aside and prouoketh onely to the scriptures Therefore M. Allen if you wil teach your schollers to kepe vs at the baye as heretikes you must not teach them to barke and baule nothing but the Church the Church like tinckers curres but you must instructe them to open conningly out of the scriptures how our doctrine is cōtrary to the trueth and yours agreable to the same I do not blame you if you would faine haue that argument of the Church without tryall which is the Church to take place for it woulde ease you and your fellowes of much paine it woulde serue you both for a sworde and a buckler all other bookes arguments and reasons might be layed a side and keepe silence The Church sayth it and we are the Church therefore it is true The scriptures them selues are altogether needelesse where this argument may stand for payment This is so plaine a proofe that the aduersaries shall not be able to saye baffe vnto it In deede they were but sory whelpes that could not say baffe to the bleating of such a calfe as you are which thinke that such a foolish cauill can carry credit with them that haue any cromme of brayne in their heads The Church prayeth so therefore it is true Nay Syr you pray and practise to controle the word of God therefore you are not the Church of god Proue that you doe not so or else prate as long as you wil. And thinke not to dorre vs with Cyprians name where as if you had his iudgement we might be bold to say as the same Augustine hath giuen vs example Nos nullam Cypriano facimus iniuriam cum eius quaslibet literas à canonica diuinarum scripturarum auctoritate distinguimus Neque enim sine causa tam salubri vigilantia canon Ecclesiasticus constitutus est ad quem certi Prophetarum Apostolorum libri pertinent quos omninò iudicare non audeamus secundum quos de caeteris literis vel fidelium vel infidelium liberè vindicemus Contra Cresconium Gram. lib. 2. cap. 31. We doe Cyprian none iniurie at all when we put difference betwene any of his writinges from the canonicall authoritie of the holy Scriptures For not without a cause with so holesome diligence is the ecclesiasticall canon appoynted vnto which certeyne bookes of the Prophets and Apostles doe perteyne which we dare not iudge at all according to which we may freely iudge of all other writings either of faithfull men or infidells And againe in the 32. chapter Ego huius epistolae auctoritate non teneor quia literas Cypriani non vt Canonicas habeo sed eas ex canonicis considero quod in eis diuinarum scripturarum auctoritati congruit cum laude eius accipio quod autem non congruit cum pace eius respuo I am not bound to the authoritie of this epistle because I count the letters of Cyprian not as canonicall scriptures but I consider them by the canonicall scriptures and what so euer I finde in them agreeable to the authoritie of holy Scriptures I take it with his prayse that which agreeeth not I reiect it with his leaue Iudge here gentle reader whether Augustine would or should with any indifferency bind either men to the absolute admitting of Cyprians authoritie wherwith he would not be holden him self and know Allen for a Iangler on Augustines wordes against the meaning of Augustine or any reasonable man. 2 I would learne by what Churches example they haue lefte out of their newe fangled phantasticall seruice the offering and praying for the departed One of them was so impudent to say in an open booke that the Lyturgies of the fathers made all against the Catholikes for the proofe of their false assertions VVherein sir I pray you tell me I woulde call you by your name if I knew who you were there you were ashamed of your owne name therefore ye shall lacke the glory of your assertion But who so euer you be I pray you what affinitie betwixt their office of celebration and yours doe you finde they offer the holy hoste they worship it they shewe it they pray vnto it which of all these doe you they blesse it with the signe of the holy crosse they practise the action vpon an altar how well follow you these they pray for the deade they make inuocation solemnely to sainctes they ioyne with all catholike Churches in the worlde where is your cause here amended or ours not plainely proued If their seruice like you so wel or at least better thē S. Gregories Masse you might with more honestie haue chosed for any one of them then haue forged a newe one of your owne which in deede is directly repugnant to all other rites in the Christian world VVhich you may well terme the seruice of contradiction and damnation as one that neither communicateth with the sainctes in heauen with the soules in purgatory nor with the faithfull a liue And being ashamed of the Latine Church you chalenge an other origine of faith out of the Easte parte as though your matter were well amended if you might shake of that faith and worship which our countrie in her conuersion first receiued and in which till this daye she hath happely lyued and make the heade of our holy tradition vncertaine by referring vs vnto an vnknowen origine 2 He would know by what churches example we haue
Scriptures nor in the most auncient writers that lyued with in an hundreth yeares and more after the time of christ And to the particuler practise of the later times we aunswere that it is not sufficient to controll the auncient doctrine and primer practise If we be required to shew some place of any auncient writer which denyeth purgatory or prayers for the deade we haue already shewed that Augustine some time doth doubt whether there be purgatory some time affirmeth there is no meane or thirde place but heauen for the elect and hell for the reprobate likewise for praying or satisfying for the deade we haue alleaged Cyprian and others your owne common law out of Hieronym sayth that the prayers of the liuing profit not the deade 13. quaest 2. In praesenti saeculo c. In this present worlde we knowe that one of vs may be helped of an other either by prayers or by counsells but when we shoulde come before the iudgement seate of Christ neither Iob nor Daniel nor Noe can intreate for any man but euery man must beare his owne burthen Yea Gelasius the Pope sayth that no man can be absolued of the Pope after his death 24. q. 2. C. legatur Wherefore serue the Popes pardons then To that which is required of the expresse word of God forbidding prayers for the deade we aunswere that all places of scripture that forbidde prayers without fayth forbidde prayer for the deade for faith is not euery mans vaine perswasion but an assurance out of the worde of God which because we can not haue in praying for the dead therefore we are forbidden to praye for them If it be against the hope of Christians to morne for the deade much more it is against the fayth and hope of Christians to praye for them For by our prayer we suppose them to be in misery whome the worde of God doth testifie to be in happines to be at rest to be with Christ Iohn 17. Apoc. 14. And as for a place so expounded by an auncient writer I will seeke no farther then the place of Hieronym euen now alleaged out of your owne canon lawe vppon 2. Cor. 5. referring the reader to many other places alleaged in this aunswere as out of Cyprian Origene and others by which the intollerable lying bragging and rayling of this miscreant shal be better confuted then by any contradiction of wordes And where as he sayeth we chalenge the olde doctors before the simple for our partakers whether they be simple or wise before whom we speake as we speake not alwayes before the simple onely but often times and commonly before as wise and well learned men as M. Allen we neuer make any such challenge of them as the Papistes doe which offer to stand to their iudgement in all thinges and yet in most thinges yea in the cheefest pointes of religion that be so in deede or be so compted of them they are contrary to the doctors and olde councells for which cause and not for confirmation of trueth we alleage the authoritie of men for we haue learned as Augustine sayth to geue this honor only to the canonicall scriptures that we must beleue them with out controuersie and all other writings we receiue so farre as they agree with the scriptures and not other wise wherefore we doe not onely saye that the doctors haue erred like men but we haue proued it so that the Papistes them selues can not saye naye for shame But to that he sayth we doe boldely condemne the holy Scriptures that it out of all measure impudent and sclaunderous And that which he citeth out of Irenaeus belike as he had it of some foolish priest that fedde him with notes of doctors or as he is impudent enough to peruerte the fathers meaning him selfe so if he had alleged the whole sentence he might well haue taken him selfe and the rest of his fellowes by the noses for heretikes by the iudgemeÌ„t of Irenaeus whose wordes be these Cum enim ex scripturis arguantur in accusationem conuertuntur ipsarum scripturarum quasi non rectè habâ—ant neque sit ex authoritate quia variè sunt dictae quia non possit inueniri veritas ab his qui nesciant traditionem non enim per literas traditam illam sed per viuam vocem When they be confuted by the scriptures they are turned into the accusation of the scriptures them selues as though they were not well nor of sufficient authority both because the trueth can not be founde of them which knowe not the tradition for that was not deliuered by writing but by worde of mouth How saye you M Allen who is an heretike by Irenaeus iudgement who accuseth the scriptures as though they were not of sufficient authority who sayth the scriptures are like a nose of waxe who saye the trueth can not be founde in scriptures without tradition of vnwritten verities In good sooth M. Allen you haue the worst grace of any that euer I knew in alleaging the sentences of the doctors for you alleage fewe or none but either in whole or in parte they make against you 9 But if you thinke that I feane of them you shall see what shamefull shiftes the maisters and captaines of the contrary assertion haue deuised for the defense of them selues I dare say if the studious be but any whit indiffereÌ„t he will leaue their sâ—hoole for euer The chiefe Captaine of all these contentious heades like an vnshamefast childe affiâ—meth that the doctors praysed and followed the common errors of the ignorant people in almes and prayers for the departed Brentius aunswereth that Tertullian making mention of yearly oblations for the deceased tooke his error of the hethen vsage of the gentility And Augustine he saith affirmed purgatory prayers and almes for them for the affiance that he had in mens merites towardes the remission of sinnes Melancthon as though he were no man that might orre him selfe sayth the doctors were men and discented amongest them selues As for the vsage of any celebration in the worlde what roume can it haue with these champians when Câ—luin confesseth in plaine termes that the celebration of the Sacrament hath bene contaminated euen in a maner sith the Apostles time and first planting of our religion and to reduce it to the puritie againe the man frames a newe one of his owne so farre from superstition that it hath no steppe of religion or true worship of god But well the worde of God is yet safe with them there a man may holde them No surely they are as â—alsie with the very scripture it selfe when so euer it maketh against them Brentius before named is not ashamed to saye that he pardoneth the author of the Machabeis of his error and ignorance And that thou may see the perfect image of a prowde heretike Caluin sayth thus as for the booke of the Machabeis I will not vouâ—hsalfe to make aunswere to it Mercifull God what faithfull
hearte or eare coulde abide these blasphemous tonguesâ— who of vntolerable arrogancy doe so deface the examples and doctrine not onely of the pillours of the whole Christian Church whome they impudently for lacke of a more reasonable aunswere condemne not onely of simple ignoraunce and errour in this point with the residue of the whole faithfull people which surely is ouer much to say of such learned and godly men as they were but also of wilfull errour and superstition in bearing and maintenaunce of the common ignoration and ethnicke perswation of the worlde in their dayes and following the heathen vsage of the gentilitie And yet not content therewith these lying maisters of their meere mercy be content to offer a pardon to the author of that booke for his errour which booke the whole catholike Church of God through out Christiandome taketh for canonicall scripture VVhich arrogancy and passing boldnesse although I perswade my selfe no vertuous man will in them allowe sith they nowe being put to their shiftes vtterly doe condemne those fathers whose names with great oftentation they often to the simple repeate to make them suppose they be not with out scripture or doctors for the proofe of their willfull heresies yet euen the very aâ—nswere it selfe which they imagine here in to disgrace the doctors and delude the ignoraunt is contrary to it selfe in sundry points For they one while affirme that S. Augustine and others allowed that errour which the people by their superstitious deuotion had before their time brought in to the prayers of the Church and an other while that Iudas Machabaeus did institute it who was before these authors diuars hundreths of yeares and somewhile that they borowed it of the gentilitie all which pointes be repugnant eche to other For neither coulde that beginne in our Christian doctours dayes which was vsed before Christes birthe neither neede they to borowe it of the heathen which was in estimation and praysed amongest the Iewes 9 We neede no shiftes M. Allen for the authoritie of the doctors whome we neuer allow for canonicall Scriptures and therefore we may boldly say as Augustine sayth of Cyprian what so euer we find in them agreable to the Scriptures we receaue it with their prayse and what so euer is disagreeable to the Scriptures we refuse with their leaue Now by what meanes they fell into this errour that maintained prayer and almes for the dead I shal haue better occasion to shew in the aunswere to the 14. chapter although it be not greatly material to know how they came into errour when it is sufficiently proued that they did erre As for the abridgement of Iason the Cyrenians story which M. Allen maketh such a precious iewell I haue aunswered inough before that the author him selfe desiring pardon of his readers hath testified sufficiently that he was no scribe of the holy Ghost as also by many other vnauoydable reasons with the consent of the Catholike Church which it were superfluous here to repete Finally whereas you say that our aunswere is contrary to it selfe you seeke a knot in a rush For all may be true First the deuill suggested superstitious deuotion into the Gentiles by peruerse emulation of whom Iudas might be deceiued and his fact giue occasion to the ignorant people of errour and their ignorance first winked at because it had a shew of pietie confirmed by custome might at length be allowed of Augustine and others who neuer weighed the matter by Scriptures but by the commoÌ„ practise And this I thinke is the right degree of prayers for the deade and purgatory That the praying for the dead vvas appointed to be had in the holy sacrifice by the Apostles commaundement and prescription And that our doctors by the maiesty of their name beare dovvne our light aduersaries CAP. XIII 1 BVt that this falshood may better appeare in these men we will by good testimony trye out when and by whom the oblation and sacrifice with other ordinarie reliefes of the departed were so vniformely vsed through the Christian worlde as like wise it shall be profitable to consider who were the first authors of the contrary opinions And that the holy Ghost by the Apostles owne preaching and prescription was the first author of this solemne supplicatioÌ„ in masses of all vsages for the departed I might first proue by this generall rule of S. Augustine Quod vniuersa tenet ecclesia nec concilijs institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi authoritate apostolica traditum rectissime credimus that which the whole Church obserueth and hath alwayes so bene kepte being not instituted by any Councell it can not otherwise be had but by the Apostles authoritie and tradition And so by the like saying of Leo the greate Dubitandum non est quicquid in ecclesia in consuetudinem est deuotionis retentum de traditione apostolica de S. Spiritus prodire doctrina It can not be doubted but that what so euer is in the Church by generall custome of deuotion kept and mainteined it came out of the Apostles traditioÌ„ and doctrine of the holy Ghost But I will seeke with them by certaine demonstration and plaine ordre of reason that it must needes so be Praying for the deade was inuented by no man sith the Apostles dayes there can no one be named by the aduersary before whome I can not name an other that praide for the dead Let him say where he list this man or that man was the first that euer praide for the deade in Christes Church if I can not shewe an other before him so named to haue praide also we will take him for the first author and then he fully stoppeth our course that we can not bring this obseruation so high as the Apostles dayes But if the aduersary can apoint me out no time nor person that began this vsage before which I am not able to proue it was practised then they can not let vs but we must needs driue it vpwarde to the Apostles and Christes owne institution CAP. XIII 1 IF prayer for the deade was appoynted by the Apostles commaundement why is there neuer a worde thereof in their writinges there is warrant â—or lesser matters then this is made of why is this and all other popish trash counted their tradition which can not be warranted by their writing If I were disposed to pose you this question would make you clawe your poll an hundred times before you could imagine any couloâ—able aunswere for right aunswere you shall neuer be able to make But I take not vpon me to pose but to aunswere first your authoritie of Augustine serueth not your turne for prayers for the deade haue not bene alwayes obserued namely in the Apostles times nor long after The saying of Leo the great may be backed with the writing of Leo the great Epi. 10. Sed in hanc insipientiam cadunt qui cum ad cognoscendum veritatem aliquo impediuntur
arme our selues against the like aduersaires of trueth with his minde in such other points of weight as in his dayes were not doubted of which yet might fall in question by the contentious wittes of many that can not quiet them selues in the holsome doctrine of Christes Church Amongest other things what this holy mans minde was concerning the vtility vsage of prayers and sacrifice for the deade and who were the institutors thereof thou shall now heare I will recite but a parte of his heauenly talke though the whole make wholy for our purpose Although sayth this holy doctour he that Christianly is hense in faith departed be hanged in the ayer and his body vnburied yet after thy prayers made to God sticke not to light lampe and taper at his sepulchre for these thinges be not onely acceptable to God but are rewarded For the oyle and waxe be to him as an holocaust or a sacrifice to be consumed by fire but that vnbloudy hoste is a propitiation and remission to the partie It may seeme by his wordes that when by occasion of punishment or otherwise any person was vnburied yet there was made some hearse or monumēt where his freinds lighted tapers as they doe at this daye and procured the holy Masse which Athanasius calleth the Vnbloudy hoste or sacrifice to be celebrated in his behalfe for so I take that when he sayth that a man being hong in the ayer may haue tapers and Masse at his sepulchre though some seeke an other meaninge which may well stande too and it skilleth not for our purpose for so much is plaine that in Athanasius his dayes the sacrifice was called and counted propitiatory euen for the deade But nowe a litle afterwarde in the same oration he instruteth vs for the first authors and institutors of this vsage in the vnbloudy sacrifice and in the burialls of Christian men All these holy thinges sayth he the Apostles of Christ those heauenly preachers and scholars of our Lorde the first orderers of our sacrifice charged to be obserued in the memories and anniuersaires of the departed c. he calleth the Apostles Curatores Sacrificiorum as you woulde saye men appointed to take ordre for all thinges perteyning to the solemne ministerie of the greate and high misterie As in the Psalme the spirituall gouernours are named Ordinatores testamenti Dei super sacrificia The prouisours of Gods testament touching the sacrifices The residue of his holy wordes thou may finde in Damascens oration of the departed where he recyteth both the Gregories of the Greeke church S. Denyse and S. Chrysostom too which writers doe rather serue my turne nowe then the Latines because they may put vs out of doubt for the vsage of the Greeke and other Churches which afterwarde by schisme fell together from the true worshippe of God into diuers errors That we may knowe those same countries vnder the gouernment of these excellent blessed men to haue obserued the same things which to their owne eternall miserie and decaye of their Church and countries they afterwarde contemned For their dissension and diuision both in this point others of no lesse importaunce hath procured Gods vengeaunce so much that nowe they haue almost no Church at all as we may haue right good cause to feare what will become of vs that followe their steppes in such pointes as in them haue duely deserued Gods greuous plaques 4 When you name Athanasius and thinke we shoulde be so sore afrayd of his name you haue good reason for you allege nothing else of him but his name I haue often tolde you Damascens report eyther for his corrupt iudgement or his cracked credit is nothing regarded of vs And euen the authoritie of Athanasius without the worde of God is the authoritie of god And as Augustine sayth of Cyprian we count not all his writing for canonicall Scriptures but we iudge them by the canonicall Scriptures The creede commonly called Athanasius creede although it be very godly and agreeable to the holy Scriptures yet by the iudgement of the best learned was complyed by some later writer then Athanasius As for the plague of the Greeke Church which M. Allen iudgeth to haue fallen vpon them for their departing from the Church of Rome he iudgeth both falsely and vnreasonably For what schisme was the Church of Africa first plaged by the Vandales that were Arians and afterward vtterly subuerted by the Saracens I doubt not but iustly for their sinnes but not for leauing the Romish Church 5 Amongest other for that Chrysostoms authority is exceding graue I will let you see his opinion for the institution of these beneficiall relieuinges of the departeds paine These be his wordes Let vs sieke out all meanes whereby we may best helpe our brethern departed let vs for their sakes bestowe the most present remedie that is to saye almes and oblation for thereby to them ensueth great commoditie gaine and profit for it was not rashly nor without greate cause prouided and to Gods Church by his disciples full of wisedome deliuered and decried that in the dreadfull misteries there shoulde be especiall prayers made by the priest for all those that sleepe in faith For it is a singular benefit to them These were Chrysostoms wordes whereby not onely the trueth of the cause and first authors of the practise be opened but that there is wounderfull benefite to the parties for whome prayers be so made in the holy sacrifice The which thing our forefathers well knewe when they were so earnest after their departure to haue a memory at the holy altar Now adayes heresie hath cankered euen the very deuotion of Catholikes who although they thinke it to be true that Gods Church teacheth herein yet the zele of procuring these meanes is nothing so great as the importaunce of the cause requireth But if they note well those carefull admonitions of all these blessed fathers they shall perceiue that euery time that Christes holy bloude is represented vnto God in the Masse for the departed they feele a present benefite and release of their paines they doe reioyse sayth holy Athanasius when the vnbloudy hoste is offered for them The old fathers to put a difference betwixt the sacrificing of Christes owne body vpon the crosse and the same vpon the altar in the Church doe lightly terme this way of offering the vnbloudy sacrifice and the thinge offered which is Christes owne blessed body they call likewise the host vnbloudy And Chrysostome neuer putting any doubt of the first authors of offering for the deade proueth that it is exceding beneficiall to the deceased because the Apostles full of Gods spirite and wisedome woulde else neuer with such care haue commaunded this holy action to be done for them A lasse a lasse fo◠our deare freindes departed that they must lacke this comforte But wo euerlasting to them that are the cause of so much miserie 5 Chrysostome can no more proue that
and knowe of their owne conscience that they be directly against them yet dare not openly charge them with falshood as they doe vs their scholars but rather as I sayd seeke some sentence out of them to helpe their owne cause then with their plaine condemnation of falshood to refuse their authoritie S. Augustine busyed much with the Pelagians and charged by them in disputation that he defended the Manicheis doctrine concerning originall sinne for his defense and warraunt proueth vnto them that S. Ambrose taught the same doctrine that he did and yet they durst not be so bolde to call him a Manichie Dic huic Ambrosio si audes quae mihi tam petulanter obiectas Thou heretike sayeth he say the same by S. Ambrose if thou dare for shame which thou so sausely and wantonly obiectes to me Looke I pray you Ambrose was but newe deade when his onely name did feare the heretike wheÌ„ other aliue of as good learning was contemned of him and by wordes of reproche charged with the Manicheis secte who was a wicked man of horrible sectes not long before those dayes Pelagius out of doubte thought no better of Ambrose and Cyprian deade then he did of Augustine and Innocentius a liue because their doctrine was all one but yet the men departed were of more authority in Gods Church then the liuing of whose continuance to the ende men were vncertaine before the proofe thereof and their wordes being deade might easely be wrasted to some shew of their purpose when the authority of the liuing coulde not admit any such false dealinge them selues bearing witnesse of the meaning of their own words VVell then our doctors of Gods Church being all of holy estimation and blessed memory doe so dase the eyes euen of their owne aduersaries that being of the very same doctrine that we who by Gods grace be membres of the Catholike Church be of yet they are past the malice of those which like not their doing and doctrine For the heretikes well knowing them to be the authors or at the least especiall mainteiners of this our assertion of the valew of prayers and the holy sacrifice for the departed yet they dare not but clokedly reprehende them when they flowe against the poore Catholikes nowe aliue with wordes of infinite blasphemie and sclaunderous reproche Therefore I nowe will call vppon them with S. Augustines wordes Come on all the packe of you who so euer is the prowdest Protestant vpon the earth call if he dare S. Denyse S. Clement Athanas. Chrysostom Ambrose Gregory Bede we are not ashamed of their names as you be of your Maisters Call these Papistes for praying for their freindes call them Idolaters call them superstitious call them enimies of Christes passion say they be iniurious to his death by prouiding a newe sacrifice for sinne tell them they inuented Anniuersaries monthes mindes and yearly offeringes for their owne gayne call them masse mungers call them blinde gydes No you dare not for your eares you dare not disprayse our heauenly gydes you dare not once name your owne 9 M. Allen staâ—â—our wisedome there is no man will graunt you that the doctors of Gods Church Augustine Ambrose Chrysostom Basill c. are al togither yours because they haue allowed some one or two thinges that you doe and haue condemned the whole substance and principall groundes of your religion Nay rather count vpon the Popes to be the pillers of your Church doctors of your learning and fathers of your faith that haue bene within these seuen or eight hundreth yeares and see whether we might not with more honesty bragge of Iouinian and Vigilantius then you in your conscience can glory in a whole huÌ„dreth of them almost And whereas you bable of Augustine and the Pelagians if you were posed to answere vppon your conscience doe you defend Gods eternall predestination with Augustine rather then free will with Pelagius the only grace of God to be the whole cause of mans saluation as Augustine doth or the merites of workes as the Pelagians doe And whereas you allege that saying of Augustine dic huic Ambrosio c. to proue that Ambrose may not be gaine sayde what so euer he writ you shall heare what Augustine him selfe sayth of the same Ambrose when he was pressed with his authority by the Pelagians as though he defended freewill in his booke de gratia Christi contra Pelagium cap. 43. Beatus inquit Ambrosius Episcopus in cuius praecipuè libris Romana elucet fides qui scriptorum inter Latinos flos quidem enituit cuius fidem purissimum in Scripturis sensum ne inimicus quidem ausus est reprehendere Ecce qualibus quantis praedicat laudibus quamlibet sanctum doctum nequaquam tamen authoritati Scripturae canonicae comparandum Blessed Ambrose sayth the Pelagian that Bishop in whose bookes specially the Romane faith doth shine which glistered as a certeyne flower among the Latine writers whose fayth and most pure sense in the Scriptures no not his enemy durst reprehend c. Behold sayth Augustine with what howe great prayses he extolleth him which though he be neuer so holy and well learned yet is he not to be compared with the authoritie of the canonicall Scriptures Loe here the authoritie of Ambrose or any man And by the way note here the hereticall bragge of the Romane faith Finally where you stand forth like a peeuish quarrell picker to dare vs with S. Augustines wordes we may well say vnto you as to such a busy body good fellow thou makest more a doe then thou needest here is no man disposed to striue with Clemens Dionysius Athanasius Chrysostome nor Augustine if they haue spoken any thing that helpeth the matter bring it forth where due triall may be had in the meane time bragge of them as much as thou wilt thou shalt neuer be able to proue that of 20. errors which thou defendest they did hold one If they haue spoken otherwise then truth in any matter they must be told of it as well as other men But thou must not thinke that for one error common with them thou must hold an 100. coÌ„trary to them Thou doest them wrong to make them thy partakers as thou shalt well know when the triall commeth therefore quiet thy selfe and talke of thyne owne mates as for those men thou hast litle to doe with them nor they with thee but for sclaundering of them to be altogither on thy side 10 Such force hath the trueth and such feare there is in falshood and yet these doctors must needes be in a thousand times worse case then we be if the doctrine of purgatory and prayers be not true VVe may be saued or at least reasonably excused by following they in leading vs in falshood can haue no excuse of their impietie But howe glad may all we Catholikes be in our heartes that haue the full consent of all them in the proofe of our beleue out of
whose workes the aduersaries woulde be glad of one likely sentence And whose life and doctrine are so glorious in Gods Church that their owne aduersaries raling at vs aliue yet dare not but with great feare once blemish their names departed Though sometimes it brastithe out in some one of them to their owne miscredit So beutifull is the light of trueth And on the other side howe miserable is their carefull case that followe and defende that doctrine the authors whereof they dare neither acknowledge nor name whome all good men with open mouth boldely doe reprehend and their owne scholars dare not defende Such a glorious maiesty this doctrine of theires beareth that pricketh vp with pryde those that be alyue and blotteth out of honest memorie her doctors that be deade 10 Nay M. Allen though those doctors build some hay or stuble vpon the onely foundation Christ their case is ten thousand times better then yours which build nothing but dirt and donge tempered with hay and stuble vpon no foundation at all except it be the sande and seeke by all meanes to digge vp the onely true foundation of our fayth Iesus Christ making him nothing better then a common person except his bare name and woe may be to such Catholikes as can finde nothing but hay and stuble where such store of precious matter is and the most precious corner stone the foundation of all excellency And happy be those which not regarding the streames of waters that runne through the vaynes of earth but seeking to the onely fountayne of heauenly truth conteyned in the holy scriptures haue certeyne comfort of saluation while they are aliue and sure possession of felicitie with Christ as soone as they are dead yea which dye not at all because they beleue in Christ which is life nor enter into iudgement but passe from death of this body which is temporall vnto life of body and soule which is eternall The first Author of that secte vvhich denieth prayers for the departed is noted his good condicions and cause of his error be opened vvhat kinde of men haue bene most bent in all ages to that secte And that this heresy is euer ioyned as a fit companion to other horrible sectes CAP. XIIII 1 BVt yet because they haue diffamed our practise in praying and offering for the deade by referring it to a later origine then the Apostolike authority and tradition seeing we haue fathered our vsage vpon such as the aduersaries dare not blame we will helpe them to seeke out the fathers of their faithles perswasion lest by the feare and bashfullnesse of their owne scholars they be vnkindly forgotten Mary to finde out these obscure loyterers it will be somewhat painefull because as theeues doe they kepe by wayes and lightly treade not in honest mens pathes For the finding out of recordes for the testimony of our trueth we kepte the day light the high waye of Gods Church All the knowen notable personages in the holy Citye of God offered them selues both to witnesse and proue with vs VVe droue this trueth from our dayes through the middest of that holy communitie which S. Augustine calleth the Citye of God and our aduersaries will not saye otherwise but they were the liuely membres of that happy and heauenly fellowship VVe brought the practise of it to the holy Apostles by plaine accompte we went with the trueth of our cause to the lawe of Moyses from thense by like light to the lawe of nature But nowe for the other sorte we must leaue the cytie of God and the fellowship of these noble personages of doctors Apostles Prophets and Patriarches and seeke on the lifte hande in the other citye which is of Augustine named the citye or common welth as a man might call it of the deuill in which body all practise of mischiefe and origin of error ishuing from that vnhappy heade to the corrupt and deadly limmes thereof is to be founde VVe shall heare of the aduersary perswasion then in the company of Anabaptistes of Arrians of Saduceis of Epicures where so euer the weedes of the common enemies corrupte seede groweth there shall we find amongest breares and brembles this choking weede with all For as the true preachers the Apostles of Christ Iesu did sowe in the beginning of the Christian church which was the springe of the worde of lyfe and trueth amongest other heauenly seedes of true doctrine that profitable practise for the reliefe of such as were hense departed in the sleepe of peace with the decent ordre which euer fithens the Catholicke Church hath obediently followed euen so Inimicus homo superseminauit zizania the common enemy came afterwarde and ouersewe darnell and cockle either for the vtter choking or else for the especiall let of that good seede which the Maister of this fielde by his houshold seruauntes had plentifully sowen before This common aduersarie as our maister him selfe expoundeth it is the Deuill who as he in all other thinges beneficiall to mankinde is a great staye so Christian mens commoditie in this point he notably hindereth by his wicked suggestions and deuilish deuise whereby he prouoketh many vnder the shewe of Gods word or bare name therof for that is the lambes cote which this wyely wolfe boroweth to maske in to be vnkind vnnaturall and with out all godly affection towards their departed frendes The which contrary corrupt seede of false doctrine we right well know came of the sayd aduersary because it was long after ouersowen learning further of Tertullian Id verum esse quodcunque primum id adulterinum quod posterius That to be true that was first taught and that to be false and forged which came latter CAP. XIIII 1 WHen the Apostolike writing can not be shewed it is but the poynt of an heretike to boast of Apostolike tradition So did the Valentinians although their heresie were newe when they were confuted by the Scriptures shrowed them selues vnder the name of traditions as we haue shewed before out of Irenaeus lib. 3. ca. 2. And therfore it is but vayne bragging that you promise to seeke out any other fathers of our perswasion then the Apostles of Christ by whose holy writings we neuer refuse to be iudged what if any heretike haue affirmed some thing that is true is truth worse in an heretikes mouth The deuills them selues confessed christ Their confession was true their testimony was refused So if any heretike haue confessed the truth we may receiue the truth and yet reiect his testimony For truth hath testimony of God his word and whether it be affirmed or denyed by the deuill it is all one The high way that you prate of is a bye way for the Scripture is the onely high way to the truth with the guidance of Gods spirite And yet that way which you haue taken hath so many hills and holes woods and thickets that you haue rather flyen ouer it in a dreame and imagination
not nowe that they renounce all that helpe of Councells Doctors which with vauntes they clamed before whiles they impudently make a diuision or contrarietie betwixt them and the holy scripture And we take it at their hand as an open acknowledging of their lacke there where they pretended greatest store The which thinge if they likewise would confesse openly in pulpit and in plaine words as they meane nothing lesse when they shew the people that they were but men that they might erre that they followed the custome of the common people in their time that they are not to be receiued but where they agree with scripture that them selues must try whether they be consonant to the word of God or no if they would I say without such cloked wordes bouldly pronounce as Luther their maister did that they cared not for a hundreth Augustines or Hieroms that they esteemed not the consent of all nations that they would be tryed by the iudgement of no coūcell that they would purposely runne contrary to the Councells decree in all causes that they would take that for thonely truth which is conteined in the holy Scriptures and that for Scripture which them selues thought good and last of all that for the true meaning which agreed best to the vpholding of error and heresie then would the people leaue these lewde masters on the plaine field which now they keepe with them one while by the praises of the doctors and antiquitie and somewhiles by thabasing of them againe and deceitfull referring all to the onely Scriptures to which they say credit may safely be giuen where the doctors without daunger can not be further followed then as they be not found to disagree with Gods word So that the cause seemeth now to be driuen to this ishue in the eyes of thignorant whether men should rather beleue the Scipture or the doctors the word of God that can not be false or the fathers that were but men and therfore might erre deceiue and be deceiued 3 But that you loue to spende many wordes about a thinge of naught you might haue spoken as much in three wordes as you haue done in three leaues But that I maye breefely cut of your lauesh lippe labor whereas you vse in deede as greate impudencie as you charge vs withall in wordes first you would make our chalenge contrary to it self as though one while we boast of the doctors and then being driuen from them we flie to the Scriptures They that dayly heare our preaching with any diligence peruse our writing can beare vs witnes that you doe falsely shamefully belie vs For we stand for authoritie onely to the iudgement of the holy Scriptures and whatsoeuer we say of fathers councells or the most auncient primitiue Church it is either for testimony of our truth or for conuiction of your lying For it is you M. Allen the Papists that boast of all antiquitie all fathers all doctors all councells all Churches to be all togither on your side among whom as we will not deny but you haue some Patrones of some of your errors so will we affirme that you haue more enemies in the greatest of your heresies And therefore this ishue is rightly ioyned and without any Ieofayle vpon this point that the Scripture is to be credited rather then the doctors the word of God rather then the writings of men 4 But this is not the state of our controuersie nor of any question betwixt the Catholikes and them And that they knowe full well though they craftely cloke it with chaunge of wordes for we acknowledge most gladly that if any Doctor Prophet Apostle or Angell if it were possible preach vnto vs any thing against the word and truth of Gods Scripture that he is accursed of God and to be reiected of men But here is the stand and the point of all our doubtes in generall note it well Maister Protestaunt whether the auncient fathers some of them being in Christes time diuers of them scholars to his Apostles many within one hundreth or two of yeares afterward most of them more thē a thousand yeares since I speake of such as we haue named in our cause all wonderfully learned as well in the knowledge of the secretes of Gods mysteries as the tongues all mercifully endued with great giftes and graces all exceeding studious in the Scriptures all hauing the same testament and written worde of God that we now haue all vsing meruelous diligence in the conference of diuers places for the true meaning and vnderstanding of the same all hauing feruent zeale in teaching the Christian people all at times appoynted resorting togither from diuers partes of the world to some one general search in which by humble conference togither and prayer they doubted not to obteyne the spirite of truth as it was by our Maister promised the question is now then I say whether those holy men thus holpen by nature diligence time and grace be not more like to vnderstand the Scripture then these men which either lacke all these helpes or most of them Secondly it followeth thereupon whether we should rather giue credit to them affirming purgatory and prayers for the deade to be not onely consonant but plainely proued by the Scriptures or else to our new aduersaries auouching these thinges to be against the Scripture VVhereby you see we must not nowe reason whether we ought to beleue the doctors or the Scriptures better but whether for the true sense we must not beleue the olde fathers better then these newe fooles 4 In wordes you graunt our ishue because you knowe that all the cuntry of christians would otherwise go against you but in deede you deny it For the ishue which you would ioyne vpon is both captious and doubtfull Captious because it disioyneth those thinges which are not to be separated namely the Scripture and the true meaning thereof Doubtfull because it standeth vpon a likelyhoode and not vpon a certeinty For thus you ioyne whether the olde doctors be more like to vnderstand the Scriptures then the Protestants I haue aunswered before we wil make no comparison with them Neither will we challenge the likelyhood to vs neither will we leaue it to them for whether so euer we doe we shall be neuer the more certeine of the truth But this will we set downe as a most certeine principle that no man can vnderstand the Scriptures but by the same spirite by which they were written What then shall we arrogate the spirite as proper to vs and deny it to them God forbid They had their measure of Gods spirite we humbly thanke his maiestie so haue we How then is the spirite of God contrary to it selfe because they and we agree not in all thinges God forbid Cyprian and Cornelius were both endued with Gods spirite and both Martyres yet they agreed not both in one interpretation nor iudgement of the scripture what then there remaineth but this second
principle as certaine as the first That the spirite of God hath a meaning in the scriptures which is not to be sought out of the scriptures in the opinions of deceiuable men but onely in the scriptures where is nothing but the spirite of trueth These 2. commaundements serch the scriptures and trie the spirites teach how to attaine to certainety of trueth For the scriptures are not vnderstood but by the spirite and the spirites are not tryed but by the scriptures Therefore that the spirite maye declare his owne meaning one place of scripture must be expounded by an other All other ordinary meanes and healpes of wit learning knowledge of tongues diligeÌ„ce in hearing reading and praying are subordinate and seruing to this search and tryall And who so obserueth this serch and tryall most precisely shall come to the knowledge of the trueth most certainely And who so euer is negligent in this search and tryall though he haue otherwise neuer so many and excellent graces and giftes may easely be deceiued yea euen when he thinketh he followeth the authority of the scriptures I coulde alleage for confirmation of this truth the testimony of diuers of the auncient fathers which if they had alwayes followed that which some times they so highly commended they should not so lightly haue passed ouer some thinges and other thinges so slenderly haue mainteined But my thinkes the testimony of the Pope shoulde be a per se with all Papistes The Pope him selfe in his canon lawe for Cayphas some times doth prophecy hath allowed this to be the onely waye to expound the scriptures Affirming that no where else but euen out of the scriptures themselues the true sense of the scriptures is to be taken Ascribed to Clemens dist 37. cap. Relatum Lex Dei cum legitur non secundum propriam ingenij virtutem vel intelligentiam legatur vel doceatur Sunt enim multa verba in scripturis diuinis quae possunt trahi ad eum sensum quem sibi vnus quisque sparte praesumpserit sed non oportet non enim sensum extrinsecus alienuÌ„ extraneum debetis quaerere vt quoquo modo ipsum ex sâ—ripturarum authoritate confirmetis sed ex ipsis scripturis sensum capere veritatis oportet When the lawe of God is reade let it not be reade or tought after the force or vnderstanding of a mans owne witte For their be many wordes in the holy scriptures which maye be drawen to such sence as euery man of his owne heade shal presume to make but you may not doe so For you ought not to seeke forth without any forayne or strange sence that you may confirme it by any meanes by authority of the scriptures but you must take the sence of trueth out of the scriptures them selues And thus much for the true vnderstanding of the scriptures and now to your false superstition First I deny that any of the auncient fathers in Christ his time or scholers to his Apostles or within one or two hundreth yeares after Christ except one that had it of Montanus the heretike as he had more thinges beside in any one worde mainteined your cause for purgatory or prayers for the deade Secondly of them that mainteined prayers for the deade the most confessed they had it not out of the scriptures but of tradition of the Apostles and custome of the Church therefore they are not to be compared vnto vs in better vnderstaÌ„ding of the scriptures for that point which they denyed to be receiued of the scriptures Thirdly those of the auncient fathers that agreed with you in any parte of your assertion for none within foure hundreth yeares was wholy of your error notwithstanding many excellent giftes that they had yet mainteined other errors beside that and about that discented one from an other and sometime the same man from him selfe and that is worst of all from manifest trueth of the holy Scriptures Therefore neither is their erroneous interpretation in this matter to be receiued nor M. Allens wise iudgement of vs to be regarded An aunsvvere to such arguments as the heretikes doe frame of the holy scriptures not vvell vnderstanded against the practise of Gods Church in praying for the deade or the doctrine of Purgatory CAP. XVI 1 THerefore to stoppe their waye at euery turne and because they talke so fast of scripture full fayne woulde I heare what scriptures they haue that make either expressely agaynst purgatory and prayers for the deade or else by any one learned man in all the worlde was euer expounded for any such sense And loe now good reader what scriptures they alleage that can abâ—de nothing but scripture First out of Ecclesiastes The tree whether it fall to the south or the north it lyeth euer where it lighteth Then they alleage out of S. Matthews Gospell that there be two wayes one to bring to heauen and the other leading straight to hell And then out of the second to the Corinthians they bring in howe we must all stande before the iudgement seat of Christ there to receiue eche of vs according to our workes and life and that by other mens labour our state can not be ameÌ„ded Againe they allege this sentence of the Apocalypse Beati mortui c. blessed be the deade that dye in our Lorde for after that the spirite sayeth that they shall reste from trauells All which textes and the like of that sorte make no more against purgatory then they doe against hell or heauen excepte that as Anaxagoras the philosopher saide all thinges were in euery thinge so these diuines can finde euery texte of scripture to make for what purpose they liste and yet if the Catholikes alleage a numbre of scriptures and them with the minde and iudgement of the whole worlde that doubteth not but they proue that for which they be recited yet they set light by them and impudently with clamors beare men in hande that they haue no scriptures at all VVhich thinges as they smell of much arrogancie in all men so in these folke that so malâ—pertly controwle others where them selues haue no scripture at all it is vntolerable CAP. XVI 1 THis chapter is but pro forma tantum to make a shew of a confutation where neither the tenth parte of our arguments are rehearsed nor those that are named with any couller of reason and lest of all with authority of scriptures are confuted First he will allow vs but 4. textes of scripture because he will not take paines to wrest any more And those make nothing for vs except all thinges be in euery thinge as Anaxagoras said It should seeme M. Allen that you your selfe dreamed so with Anaxagoras else would you not finde purgatory in euery one of them which we saye is in none of them but rather excluded by them all But who can prescribe the deuill a measure in lying when he is disposed to lye we haue no scriptures at all the Catholikes
haue all the scriptures and the iudgement of the whole worlde vppon them you haue sayd enough M. Allen to winne the whet stone if it were as bigge as any mountaine in the worlde 2 And for these which they here or else where alleage I aske them sincerely and desire them to tell me faithfully what doctor or wise learned man of the whole antiquity euer expounded these textes recited or any one of them or any other which you bring in else when against Purgatory or practise for the deade If they did not how can you for sinne and shame dissent from the whole Church of Christ vpon so light groundes Or how dare you be so bolde that seeke in euery controuersie expresse scripture to alleage these places which wise men nor I thinke your selues take for any such purpose Or how may you for shame reiecte the euident worde of God by vs truely reported for the triall of our matter your selues hauing almost nothing that can be wrasted to your sense 2 Before the heresie of Purgatory was planted in the world how could the olde doctors interprete these places by name against that which they neuer heard named yet haue they so interpreted some of them that their interpretation can not stand with purgatory or prayer for the dead as I will shew in their particular aunsweres When we require expresse Scripture for euery controuersie we doe not require that euery thing should be named in Scripture but necessarily concluded out of the true meaning of the Scriptures and purpose of the holy Ghost in them As for the euident word of God which you report for tryall of your matter is yet to shew and shall be for euer You shame not to boast of that to be your triall which you dare as well eate a fagot as abide the iudgement of iâ— in any lawful conference or disputation your great bellwethers and Bishops declared before the whole world in the conference of Westminster what they durst abide when they came to handestrokes It is a gay matter for such a chattering pye as you are to make a fond florish a farre of in wordes of common wrangling to please your patrones and exhibitioners it is an other thing to stand to the proofe in deede 3 If you stande to the triall of our alleaged testimonies you will be much abashed I know For how can you imagine that the place recited out of Ecclesiastes shoulde further your intent any thinge at all Seeing that euen then when the wiseman spake those wordes the soule of man straight after her departure and the fall of the body continued not where it first fell for the iuste had a place of abidinge and rest in the inferiour partes which was called of Ezechias the gate of hell In the Gospell Sinus Abrahae the bosom of Abraham and nowe Lymbus Patrum in which they all abode till they were deliuered by the bloude and trauell of our Sauiour Iesus VVith whome they after were translated to the eternall ioyes of heauen VVhich thinge if it be true as it can not but be true and certaine which the whole course of scripture the article of our faith in Christes descension into hell and all the auncient fathers doe constantly setforth what blindnes be they in then that bring this place against Purgatory which as it is a stay of certaine for a time from heauen so the other before Christ was the staye of all And therefore it is plaine that this fallinge of the tree meanith nothinge lesse then that euery man shoulde straight vpon his departure be conueide either to hell or heauen Or if any wedded to Caluines blasphemous and vnfaithfull paradoxes doe with Purgatory deny the fathers place of abode before the comming of Christ and impugne the beleefe of Gods Church so much that he withstande the article of our Creede for Christes descending into hell to turne the cause of his going into hell to some other purpose then the loosing of their captiuity that there were in expectation of his ioyefull apparance yet I would demaunde so much of Caluins successor or scholar seeing he will of this figuratiue speach of the trees falling gather so grounded and generall a rule that with out delay euery man must to heauen or hell straight after his death there to remaine in perpetuall state of his fall in the next life either good or badde I woulde aske of him I saye what he thinketh by all those that were by the Prophets Apostles or Christ him selfe raysed vp againe from death to life VVho receiuing by death that fall by their accompt must needes abide where they first fell and so not in case to be reuoked by this their false conclusien they diminish the power of the spirite in working their raising againe Or else they must impute deceite to the holy men and our maister Christ which abhorreth me to speake for that they raysed them not being perfectly deade but in some deadly traunce or apparance of death But because the soule of Lazarus was nowe foure dayes out of his bodye before Christ wroght vpon him it is sure and most certaine that it had some place of abyding after the separation from the fleshe I can not thinke that his soule was in heauen nor it is not like that our Sauiour would so much abase the happy condicion of him whome he loued so well as to reduce him to the vncertaine state of this life I will define in this my ignorance nothing touching the secrets of Gods wisedome herin But very like it is that the parties raysed from their fall and death were not in the ioyes of heaueÌ„ As before Christes death I am sure they were not but I speake of Tabitha also or other reuoked by the Apostles handes that then after Christes passion might full well dying in perfect state of life goe straight to heauen of such I say it is very reasonable that they were not in the ioyes of the elect For else Tabitha shoulde not haue had such a benefite by her almes as the fathers doe witnesse she had And they vse her for an example of the benefite which maye rise to one after departure by charitable workes done in this life It had ben a small pleasure to haue plucked her from heauen to this mortalitie againe and misery of our common life and I trowe no man maye auouche wâ—th salfety of his belefe that she or any other raysed againe miraâ—ulously was reuoked from the desperate estate of the damned soules then she must necessarily be called from some meane condicion of her present abode and perhaps from paine too to this former state of life againe But as in this secret of God no man without iuste reprehension maye deeply wade so it maye reasonably be gathered that the fall of the tree before meÌ„tioned can not induce with any probability the necessity of the soules abiding in all respects where it first light Mary we freely graunt with
of the exposition of the fathers Hieronym in his commentary vpon this place expoundeth the Northe and the Southe not for the states of grace or wrath but for the places of rewarde or punishment of them that die Si dignos Austro fructus attulit in plaga iacebit Australi Nec est aliquid lignum quod aut ad Aquilonem non sit aut ad Austrum If it haue brought forth fructes worthy of the South it shal lye in the Southe coste Neither is there any tree but it falleth either to the North or to the South As for your babling of the Saduces secte and doubting of the resurrection bidde your Popes and Cardinalls take heede of it Pope Iohn the 23. was condemned for it in the Councell of Constance Epicureisme and Saduceisme is more common at Rome then Christianitye 4 Nowe for the other texte recited out of S. Matthewes Gospell of the double waye the one to perdicion and the other to saluation there is almost none so simple but he seeth that it maketh no more for your purpose then the other For there as our aduersary can not but knowe though to deceiue he liste dissemble mention is made and the meaning is only of these two wayes in this worlde and life in one of which being full of ease and libertie the wicked walketh towardes hell or damnation In the which waye the riche man and vnmercifull tooke his time of whome Abraham said that he had receiued good in his dayes In the other being both straite and harde the small numbre of the chosen take their iourney towardes heauen And yet if you thinke good you maye ioyne the place of temporall punishment for sinne in the worlde to come to the straite and painefull passage of the elect though perhaps all they entre not thereby And so shall you finde this place not onely nothing to further their cause but somewhat to helpe ours 4 If there be but two wayes in this life there are but two abiding places after this life If there be more then two after this life then there be more wayes then two in this life Controll our Sauiour Christes partition as vnperfect if you list You will saye that needeth not for purgatory after this life is that straight gate or a pece of it what els It is not enough for our English Anaxagoras to exclude our opinion out of these places but he must finde purgatory in them also This is plaine to make quidlibet ex quolibet But the commaundement of Christ marreth the market of this interpretation vnlesse you thinke when Christ willeth vs to striue to goe in by the straight gate that he biddeth vs striue to goe into purgatory 5 And so for the other taken out of the fift to the Corinth S. Augustine shall aunswere you and beare me witnesse it maketh nothing for you his wordes be these in his Encheridion This practise that Gods Church vseth in the commendations of the deade is nothing repugnant to the sentence of the Apostle where he saith that we all shall stande before the iudgement seate of Christ that euery one may receiue according to his desertes in the body either good or euill for this in his life and before death he deserued that these workes after his death might be profitable vnto him for in deede they be not profitable for all men and why so but because of the difference and diuersitie of mens liues whilest they were in this flesh c. And this same sentence the Doctor often repeteth almost in the same forme of wordes in diuers places both to correct their ignorance that mighe take a way prayers for the deade because they finde the sentence of Gods iudgement to be executed on man according to the deseruing of this liefe and no lesse to geue monition to the carelesse that they omitte not to doe well in this life vppon hope or presumption of other mens workes after their decease which as they be exceding beneficiall to many so they helpe none such as in their owne life woulde not helpe them selues The like declaration of this pointe hath S. Denyse in the 7. chapter of his Ecclesiasticall soueraignty which I omitte lest in this point by S. Augustine sufficiently auouched I weerye the reader without cause 5 And S. Ieronym with your owne canon law shall aunswere you that prayers preuayle not after this life 13. q. 2. In praesenti In this present world we know that we may be helped one of an other either by prayer or by councel but when we shall come before the iudgement seate of Christ neither Iob nor Daniel nor Noe can intreate for any man but euery man must beare his owne burden 6 The last obiection of the Angells wordes in the Apocalypse aâ—firming the state of all those that dye in our Lorde to be happy to be past trauell and in reste and peace they be properly spoken there of holy men that sheede their bloude in the times of persecution for Christes sake to geue them assured comforte after a litle toleration and patience in the rage of Antichrist of blessed and eternall reste and so the circumstance of the letter plainely geueth and so doeth S. Augustine expounde it And for such holy Martyrs it is needlesse to pray as to pray vnto them is most profitable Albeit the wordes are true and maye be well verified of all that passe hense in the happy state of grace being past the cares of this troblesome worlde and which is the greatest trauell of all other vtterly dispatched of the toile that sinners take in their wayes of wickednesse with freedome from sinne and all feare of sinne and damnation for euermore So that this reste from labour is no more but a happy ioye of conscience with securitie of saluation and peace in Christ iesu For which cause in the holy Canon of the Masse it is saide Christianos dormire in somno pacis in Christo quiescere That Christian folkes doe sleepe in the sleepe of peace and rest in Christ though for all that in the same place we aske Requiem refrigerium reste and refreshing for them And this holy peace from all toyle of the worlde and worme of tormented conscience the electe children of God in their fathers correction being assured of his eternall loue doe blessedly enioye But the wicked be in contrary case of whome it is saide non est pax impijs there is no rest or quietnesse to the wicked no not in their dayes of ioye much lesse in their infinite miserie of their euerlasting torments in the worlde to come Of whose vnhappy state the Prophet warneth vs thus againe Impij quasi mare feruens quod quiescere non potest The wicked be right like vnto the tumblinge and tossinge sea that neuer resteth The place of S. Iohn then being namely spoken of holy Martyrs that straight with out all paine after this life passe to heauen may yet very
conteyned the argument is most inuincible that concludeth negatiuely thus All true doctrine is taught in the Scripture purgatory is not taught in the Scripture therefore purgatory is no true doctrine And this conclusion M. Allen him selfe made of mans authoritie cap. 13. purgatory and prayers for the dead were not preached against at their first entry ergo they are true But of all mens authoritie it is false wheras he sayth we are ouerthrowers destroyers we confesse we are so of all false doctrine and heresie For the word of God is appoynted not only to teach truth but also to ouerthrow error not onely to build faith but to destroy falshood But it is a proper cōceit wherin he pleaseth him self as other of his sect do to tel vs that all our faith standeth vpon negatiues I could frame the Papists as holsome a creede all vpō affirmatiues if they wil receiue it This is more then boyish babling All trueth is to be affirmed all falshood to be denyed Therefore it is not to be loked what is affirmatiue and what negatiue but what is true or false that is affirmed or denyed But to runne through the articles of that creede which he hath framed for vs we truely beleue that man after his fall hath not free will no not aptnes of will to thinke any thing that is good 2. Cor. 3. we beleue truely that a man is not iustified by workes but by faith onely Rom. 3. And yet we beleue that good workes are necessary to be in euery man that is iustified Iac. 2. we beleue that the Church is not alwayes knowne to the wicked vpon earth neither the vniuersall Church seene at all of men because it is in heauen Gal. 4. we beleue that the catholicke Church hath no chiefe gouerner vppon earth but Christ vnto whom all power is giuen in heauen earth Matth. 28. we beleue there are but 2. Sacraments of the new testament baptisme and the Lordes supper instituted by Christ 1. Cor. 10. we beleue that they geue not grace of the worke wrought but after the faith of the receiuer and according to the election of God. 1. Cor. 10. Baptisme is necessary for all Christians to receiue that are not by necessitie excluded from it 1. Pet. 3. Christ is present at his Supper but not after a grosse and caparnaiticall maner but as he was present in Manna to the fathers 1. Cor. 10. There is no sacrifice propitiatory for our sinnes but onely the sacrifice of Christes death once offered for all Heb. 10. There is no priesthood to offer sacrifice propitiatory but only the priesthood of Christ according to the order of Melchizedech Heb. 7. The spirituall priesthood is common to all Christian men and women 1. Pet. 1. we haue an altar of which it is not lawfull for them to eate which serue the tabernacle and other beside we haue none Heb. 13. we call not vpon Sainctes because we beleue not in them for how shoulde we call vpon them in whome we beleue not Rom. 10. There is no prayer for the deade nor purgatory after this life because they that liue vnto Christ dye vnto him and being dissolued are with him Ioan. 17. Christ descended into hell to redeeme vs out of hell by suffering the wrath of God for our sinnes Heb. 5. There is no Lymbus for the fathers were at rest with God where they are now whether we call the place Abrahams bosome or paradise or heauen Luke 16. and 23. 2. Cor. 12. The rest which you adde maye be the beginning of the Popish creede which you maye as you list continue negatiuely or affirmatiuely after this maner God a lone knoweth not the heartes of all men God onely is not to be worshipped and serued for Sainctes haue both the one and the other God onely is not true for the Pope can not erre Christ is not our onely mediator and aduocate for Marie and the Sainctes are also Christes death is not a sufficient redemption for vs for we must satisfie for our selues Christes death hath not taken away both our sinnes and the punishment of them but the Popes padon maye Christ is not onely our high priest according to the order of Melchizedech for euery hedge priest is of the same order Christ hath not made them that are sanctified perfect by a sacrifice once offered for all For y greatest part is lefte to the masse Our sinnes are not freely forgeuen vs by Christ for we must satisfie for them A man is not iustified by fayth without the workes of the lawe for euery man must merite for him selfe The scriptures are not sufficient to teach vs all trueth but we must haue vnwritten verities The worde of God is not of soueraine authoritie for the decrees of the Pope and generall councells be equall with it This is the Papistes creede both in the affirmatiue and in the negatiue But in that you exhort the Papistes to reade Caluins institution and there to see whether he teacheth any truth therein I woulde to God that all Papistes in Englande woulde followe your counsell pray vnfaynedly that God would open there eyes that they may see his trueth if it be taught in that booke 2 This negatiue faith hath no grounde nor confidence of thinges to be hoped for nor any certaintie of such thinges as doe not yet appeare but it is an euident ouerthrowe of all our hope and a very canker of the expectation of thinges to come This faith therefore of these pluckers downe must needes vse a conuenient instrument to destroye and not to builde to plucke vp and not to plante to improue and not to make proofe But what way is that mary by way of negatiue proofe they confirme their negatiue and no faith Purgatory say they nor prayers for the deade be not so much as once named in all the scripture ergo there is neither of them to be beleued VVhich forme of argument serued the Arians against the consubstātiall vnitie of God the father his sonne our Sauiour It helped the Anabaptistes against the baptisme of infantes it was profitable to Heluidius against the perpetuall virginitie of Gods mother and it helpeth all pluckers downe but it neuer serueth a buylder The vanity whereof is so well knowen that I will not stande to talke thereof namely seeing it hath no place in our cause for which we haue brought diuers scriptures all construed by most learned fathers for that sense and some so euident that they droue our aduersaries to the open deniall of the holy canonicall scripture 2 What grounde or confidence of thinges not seene and yet hoped for our fayth hath it is not for infidells to iudge no more then for blinde men to iudge of collours And as for our negatiue argument it is stronger then your affirmatiue error can abide there of groweth the spight But when as you saye we frame our argument of the name of purgatory onely or prayers for
penaunce there remaineth some due of temporall punishement for the satisfying of Gods iustice and some recompense of the oftensies past 31. chapter 2 The double and doubtfull shiftes of our aduersaries pressed by this conclusion are remoued and it is proued against one sorte that these foresaide skourgies vvere in deede punishments for sinnes remitted And against the other secte that this transitory paine hath often endured in the next life 43. chapter 3 That the practise of Christes Church in the courte of binding and loosing mans sinnes doth liuely set forth the ordre of Gods iustice in the next life and proue Purgatory 65. chapter 4 That the many folde vvorkes fructes of penaunce vvhich all godly meÌ„ haue charged theÌ„ selues vvith all for their ovvn sinnes remitted vvere in respect of Purgatory paines for the auoyding of Gods iudgemeÌ„t teÌ„poral as vvell as eternal in the next life 74. chapter 5 A briefe ioyning in reason and argument vppon the proued groundes vvith the aduersaries for the declaration and proofe of Purgatory 89. chapter 6 That Purgatory paines doth not only serue Gods iustice for the punishement of sinne but also cleanse qualify the soule of man defiled for the more seemely entrauÌ„ce into the holy placies vvith confereÌ„ce of certaine textes of scripturs for that purpose 92. chapter 7 That there is a particular iudgemeÌ„t and priuate accompt to be made at euery mans departure of his seuerall actes and deedes vvith certaine of the fathers mindes touching the textes of scriptures alleaged before 103. chapter 8 Origen is alleaged for our cause vpon vvhose error in a matter somvvhat apperteining to our purpose S. Augustins iudgement is more largely sought and there vvith it is declared by testimony of diuers holy authors vvhat sinnes be chiefly purged in that temporall fire 114. chapter 9 A further declaration of this point for the better vnderstanding of the doctors vvordes VVherein it is opened hovv Purgatory is ordeined for mortall sinnes and hovv for smaller offenses vvho are like to feele that greefe and vvho not at all 125. chapter 10 A place alleaged for Purgatory out of S. Matthevv vvith certeine of the auncient fathers iudgements vpon the same 132. chapter 11 An aunsvvere to certaine obiections of the aduersaries moued vpon the diuersity of meaninges vvhich they see geuen in the fathers vvritinges of the scriptures before alleaged for Purgatory and that this doctrine of the Church standeth not against the sufficiency of Christes Passion 148. chapter 12 An euident and most certaine demonstration of the trueth of Purgatory and the greeuousnesse thereof vttered by the prayers and vvordes of the holy doctors and by some extraordinary vvorkes of God beside 156. chapter 13 Of the nature and condicion of Purgatory fire the difference of their state that be in it from the damned in hell vvith the conclusion of this Booke 169. THE ARGVMENTES OF THE Chapters of the seconde booke THe preface of this booke vvherein the matter of the treatise the order of the authors proceding be briefly opened 180 chapter 1 That there be certeyne sinnes vvhich may be forgiuen in the next life and that the deserued punishment for the same may be eased or vtterly released before the extreme sentence be to the vtmost executed pag. 187. chapter 2 That the faythfull soules in purgatory being novve past the state of deseruing and not in case to helpe them selues may yet receiue benefite by the vvorkes of the liuing to vvhom they be perfectly knitte as felloâ— members of one body 197. chapter 3 VVhat the Church of God hath euer principally practised for the soules departed by the vvarrant of holy Scripture vvith the defence of the Machabees holy hystory against the heretikes of our tyme. 205. chapter 4 That the funeralls of the Patriarches both in the lavv of nature and Moyses and Christ had practise in them for the reliefe of the soules departed 220. chapter 5 Man may be relieued after his departure eyther by the almes vvhich he gaue in his life tyme or by that vvhich is prouided by his testament to be giuen after his death or else by that almes vvhich other men doe bestovv for his soules sake of their ovvne goods 238. chapter 6 Of certeyne offerings or publike almes presented to God for the deceased in the time of the holy sacrifice at mens burialls other customable dayes of their memories and of the sundry mindes kept in the primitiue Church for the departed 266. chapter 7 That the benefite of praier almes apperteyneth not to such as dye in mortal sin though in the doubtfull case of mans being the Church vseth to pray for all departed in Christes faith 271. chapter 8 VVhat that holy sacrifice is vvhich vvas euer counted so beneficiall to the liue and deade The punishment of our sinnes by the heâ—uy losse thereof The great hatred vvhich the deuill and all his side hath euer borne tovvardes Christes eternall priesthood and the sacrifice of the Church And that by the sayd sacrifice of the Masse the soules departed are especially relieued 288. chapter 9 That the practise of any poynt in religion maketh the most opeÌ„ shevv of the fathers faith And that all holy men haue in plain vvordes and most godly prayers vttered their beliefe in our matter 304. chapter 10 That vve all nations receiued this vsage of praying sacrificing for the departed at our first conuersion to Christes faith And that this article vvas not onely confirmed by miracle amongest the rest but seuerally by signes and vvonders approued by it selfe And that the Church is grovvne to such bevvty by the frute of this faith 328. chapter 11 That in euery order or vsage of celebration of the blessed Sacrament and Sacrifice throughout the Christian vvorlde since Christes time there hath ben a solemne supplicatioÌ„ for the soules departed 347. chapter 12 The heretikes of our tyme and cuntry be yet further vrged vvith the practise of prayers for the deceased their contrary coÌ„munion is compared vvith the olde vsage of celebration â—hey are ashamed of the first originall of their Christian faith they are vveary of their ovvne seruice they are kept in order by the vvisdome of the ciuill Magistrates and are forced to refuse all the doctors 364. chapter 13 That the praying for the deade vvas appoynted to be had in the holy sacrifice by the Apostles commaundement and prescription And that our doctors by the maiestie of their name beare dovvne our light aduersaries 386. chapter 14 The first author of that sect vvhich denyeth prayers for the departed is noted his good conditions and cause of his error be opened vvhat kind of men haue bene most bent in all ages to that sect And that this heresie is euer ioyned as a fitte compagnion to other horrible sectes 407. chapter 15 Their falshood is condemned and the Catholike truth approued by the authority of holy Councells Their pride in contemning the Catholikes humility in obedient receiuing the same And a sleight vvhereby the heretikes deceiue the people is detected 424. chapter 16 An aunsvvere to such arguments as the heretikes doe frame of the holy scriptures not vvell vnderstanded against the practise of Gods Church in praying for the deade or the doctrine of Purgatory 436. chapter 17 An aunsvvere to their negatiue argument vvith the Conclusion of the booke 448. FINIS
charge them with other authorities that the Papistes alleage beside the authoritie of holy scriptures And in his booke De Vniâ—ate Ecclesiae against the Donatistes the 16. chapter Sed vtril ipsi Ecclesiam teneant non nisi diuinarum scripturarum Canonicis libris oftendant quia nec nos c. But whether they holde the church or no let them shew none other wise but by the canonicall bookes of holy Scripture for we our selues doe not say that men ought to beleue vs that we are in the Church because we holde that Church which Optatus of Mileuitum or Ambrose of Millayn or innumerable other Byshops of our communion haue commended to vs or because it is set forth by the Councels of our felowe byshops or because so many myracles of hearing requests or healinges are don in the holy places which our fellowship doth frequent in the whole worlde so that the bodies of Martyrs which were hidden so many yeares which thinge if they will aske they may heare of many were reuealed vnto Ambrose and that at the same bodies one that had bene many yeares blinde very well knowen in the citie of Millayn receyued his eyes and eye sight either because this man dreamed or that man was rauished in the spirite and hearde a voice that he should not ioyne himselfe to Donatus or that he shoulde departe from the faction of Donatuâ— for when soeuer such thinges are don in the Catholike Church they are to be allowed because they are don in the Catholike church â–ª but the church it selfe is not therfore proued to be Catholike because these thinges are done in it By this Augustine declareth first that heretikes must be confuted onely by the scriptures and secondly that neither Councells succession of byshops vniuersality miracles visions dreames nor reuelations are the notes to trie the Catholike church but onely the scriptures Moreouer in his booke De Pastoribus cap. 14. Quaerit infirmus Ecclesiam c. A weake person seeketh the Church he wandreth and seeketh the church â–ª what sayest you The church is of Donatus side Enquire for the shepheards voice Reade me this out of some Prophet reade me this out of some Psalme rehearse me it out of the lawe rehearse it out of the Gospell rehearse it out of the Apostle out of them do I rehearse the Church dispersed ouer all the worlde And a litle after Tu accusas non Euangelium c. Thou accusest not the Gospell thou accusest not the Prophet not the Apostle of whome this voyce speaketh to me I beleue him other I beleue not But thou wilt bring forth decrees I will also bring forth decrees shoulde I beleue thine beleue thou mine likewise I beleue not thine neither do thou beleue mine then let mens writings be layd away and let Gods worde sounde betwen vs bring me one place of scripture for Donatus side c. These places maye sufficiently declare by what meanes this doctor thought the Church shoulde ouerthrowe heresies namely by the worde of God onely which thing also Leo the first byshop of Rome in his Epist. 10. ad Fabianum contra Eutychen plainely confesseth saying Sed in hanc insipientiam cadunt qui cum ad cognoscendam veritatem c. But those men fal into this foly which when they are hindred by any doubt to knowe the trueth haue not recourse to the voyces of the Prophets not to the writings of the Apostles not to the authoritie of the Gospell but to them selues And therefore they become maisters of error because they haue not bene schollers of trueth Of the same iudgement was the whole Councell of Constantinople the sixt as appeare Actione 18. Si igitur omnes simpliciter c. Therefore if all men from the beginning woulde haue simply and without subtiltie taken vpon them the preaching of the Gospell and haue bene content with the constitutions of the Apostles suerly matters shoulde haue bene well and in good case neither shoulde painefull contention haue bene exercised against the authors of heresies nor against the fauorers of priests Here the Councell confesseth that the heretikes and schismatikes grow so fast because they were not beaten downe by preaching of the Gospell and authority of the scriptures Thus I haue declared by example and authority of these Fathers that the true Church of Christ hath conuicted all heretikes onely by the scripture 2 And what Church it was that hath alwayes stande still and stedfast whilest all other Congregations as well of Arrians as Anabaptistes Aerians Nouatians Vigilantians Iouinians and the rest haue decaied THe true Church of Christ hath alwayes stoode stedfast and vnseparable from Christ her heade when all heretikes haue bene and shal be confounded But the true Church hath not alwaies florished in wordly peace and tranquilitie for vntill the tyme of Constantine the great which was Anno Dom. 339. the Church had small rest from cruell persecution in most places and soone after againe vnder the Emperors Constantius Constans and Valens it was greatly infected with the heresie of Arius what time also Tiberius Bishop of Rome was infected with the same heresie After that when Iulianus the Apostata was Emperor the temples of Idolls were opened and gentilitie againe restored so that the Church suffered great detriment To be short when the barbarous Goathes Vandales Alanes and other Idolatrous or heretical nations destroyed the Empire the Church of God suffered a great Ecclipse But when Mahomet in the East Antichrist the Pope in the West seduced the world with most detestable heresie then was fulfilled that which was reuealed to S. Iohn in the 12. of the Apocalyps the woman clothed with the Sonne which you your self confesse to be the Church was so persecuted by the Dragon that she fled into the wildernes there to remaine a long season Where she hath not decayed but ben always preserued vntil God should reueale Antichrist and bring her againe into open light which his holy name be praysed is now brought to passe in our dayes to our inestimable comfort and his euerlasting glory 3 And if it can be proued that either the Protestants Church or any other Church but ours hath mightely ouerthrowne these foresayd sectes and other of all sortes I recant IT hath bene already proued sufficiently that the true Catholike Church which is ledde onely by the worde of God as a most infallible rule hath ouerthrowne heresies of all sortes But the popish church which refuseth the only weapon by which heresies are cut downe to be sufficient for that purpose neuer was nor shall be strong enough to encounter with heretikes therefore she practiseth to vanquish those whom she counteth for heretikes not by authoritie of the Scriptures but by fire and sworde and cruell warre as appeareth by her dealing with the Waldenses Albigenses Bohemians and in our dayes with the true Christians But where her power of fire and sword could not preuayle there hath she not ouerthrowne such as she condemneth for
lye in euery tryfling matter you are worthy to be deceiued And that you may see I doe him no wrong see I pray you how shamefully he lyeth in this matter whereof he maketh such impudent assurance He sayth the same men which brought in the fayth brought in the same order of seruice and planted the same supplication wherein they haue vniformly continued c take away the same order and ouerthrow the fayth which they taught But who doth not know that Chrysostom Basill Ambrose Gregory which he nameth to be the first auctors of those orders of seruice formes of supplication which before he commended were not the first that brought in the fayth into Cappadocia Thracia or Italy But the Apostles them selues and that those Churches continued more then 300. yeares with other formes of publike prayers and celebration of the sacraments before these men were borne And where he sayth there was euer found in the celebration of the sacrament beside oblation of the host for the quicke and the deade both particularly and generally a solemne prayer for all departed in Christ You must take it as the rest of his assertions which be euer more generall then their probations But to reproue his vanitie the order of prayers and administration of the holy misteries described by Iustinus Martyr in his second Apologie and of Tertullian also in his Apologetico doe sufficiently declare what was the vsage of the Christians in those purer times And although there be not set forth vnto them what forme of wordes they vsed in their liturgie yet is it expressed for whom and what they prayed Oramus etiam sayth Tertullian pro Imperatoribus pro ministris eorum potestatibus saeculi pro rerum quiete pro mora finis We pray also for the Emperours for their ministers and the powers of this world for the quiet state of thinges for stay of the end Likewise he sheweth to whom they made their prayers and what was the chiefest sacrifice that they did offer Haec ab alio orare non possum quam à quo sciam me coÌ„secuturum quoniam ipse est qui solus praestat ego sum cui impetrare debetur famulus eius qui eum solum obseruo qui ei offero opimam maiorem hostiam quam ipse maÌ„dauit orationem de carne pudica de anima innocente de spiritu sancto profatam These thinges I can not require of any other but of him of whom I know I shall obteyne For it is he alone which graunteth and I am he which should obteyne being his seruaunt which worship him onely which offer vnto him that principall and great sacrifice which he him selfe commaunded namely prayer proceding out of a chast body out of a harmeles soule and from the holy spirite This he speaketh comparing the prayers and sacrifice of the Christians with the prayers and sacrifices of the Gentiles But that I may returne to M. Allen which referreth the institution of prayer and sacrifice for the deade to Christ at his last supper to the secrete suggestion of the holy Ghost to the faithfull deliuery of the Apostles and the constant continuance of all nations Of whom will he be a feard to lye when he fathereth such a blasphemy vpon the Apostles vpon the holy Ghost and vpon Christ him selfe But let vs consider your Sorites Christ you say no doubt did institute it where is the warraunt of this vndouted institution you aunswere secrete suggestion of the holy Ghost howe come we to the knowledge of this secrete suggestion By tradition of the Apostles who is witnesse that this is the tradition of the Apostles Tertullian Cyprian Augustine Ieronym and a great many more But if it be lawfull for me once to pose the Papistes as you do often the Protestants I would learne why the Lord would not haue this doubtlesse institution and as you take it the most necessary vse of the sacrament plainly or at least wise obscurely set foâ—th by Matthew Marke Luke or Paule which all haue set forth the story of the action of Christ the institution of the sacrament and the ende or vse of the same If it were not meete at all to be put in writing why was it disclosed by Tertullian Cyprian Augustine c. If it were meete to be put in writing why were not those chosen Scribes Matthew Marke Luke Paule worthy of all credit rather appoynted for it then Tertullian Cyprian Augustine and such as you name But against this counterfect institution secrete suggestion and fayned tradition S. Paule cryeâ—h with open mouth to the Corinthians 1. Cor. 11. That which I deliuered vnto vnto you I receiued of the Lorde that the Lord Iesus the same night c. In which wordes he declareth without couler or couerture what was the true institution of Christ of what witnesse he receiued it with what fidelitie he deliuered it what the sacrament is and what is the right vse of it to condemne all maner of abuses what so euer may rise either to corrupt this onely true substance and onely right order of ministration or to peruert this onely right vse and proper ende thereof I knowe the Papistes will flie to those wordes of the Apostle the rest I will set in order when I come but that is so manifest to be spoken of matters of externall comlines and not of doctrine of the sacrament as prayers and sacrifices that no man which vnderstandeth what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie can doubt or make any questioÌ„ of it Now touching the credit and worthynesse of these whom he so highly extolleth as I woulde not goe about to diminish it if they were to be compared with vs so when they are opposed against the manifest worde of God and the credit of the holy Apostles the instruments of the holy Ghost there is no cause that we shoulde be caried awaye with them But the controuersie is not as M. Allen sayth of the authoritie of the scriptures in this matter but of the true meaning of them which it is more like that they being such men then we so farre inferior to them should knowe I aunswere they them selues for the most parte confesse that prayer and oblation for the deade is not taken at all out of the scriptures as Tertullian Augustine and other the rest that woulde seeke confirmation in the scriptures as Chrysostome and such like doe so manifestly wrest them to their purpose that the Papistes them selues are ashamed to vse those textes of scripture for their proofes And as for such places as the later Papistes woulde violently draw vnto their error they haue fewe or none of the olde approued writers which though they allow their error yet that so interpret them as the place 1. Cor. 3. and Matth. 5. And what a shamelesse creature is M. Allen to say the controuersie is about the true meaning of the scripture when he him selfe in the next leafe before affirmeth that prayer and
sacrifice for the deade was instituted by Christ at his last Supper which the holy Ghost afterwarde did secretly suggest vnto the Apostles and they as secretly deliuered to the nations For no worde nor halfe worde therof is conteined in their writings which are to vs the only true testimony of their tradition Thus haue these heretikes no grounde of their heresie but shifte from the worde of scripture to secret tradition from tradition to the meaning of scripture from the plaine meaning of scripture to the vnconstant opinions of men from the variable and contrary opinions of men in times past to their owne obstinacy and continuaunce in error in time present yet he woundreth that we are so blinde that we can not see the cleere light of the trueth If Satan transforming him selfe into an angell of light hath so dasled their eyes that they can not see the true light they are iustly plagued because they haue refused the faithfull testimony of Gods worde which only geueth true light vnto the eyes as the Prophet saith and geuen heede to spirites of errors and doctrines of deuils by whom they are blinded in vtter darkenesse though it be with false imagination and dreaminge of light Yet see the confidence of the man he is suer that if we were examined of our conscience what triall of this doubt we woulde wishe there is none we coulde name but his cause might well abide it Why M. Allen we haue testified of our conscience longe agoe that the onely authority of Gods worde written shall satisfie vs as well in this as in all other matters if you were as desirous to satisfie vs as you pretend and as able to performe as you are to promise we should haue hearde before this time some sentence of scripture to maintaine prayer and sacrifice for the deade not standing vppon voluntary collection but either in plaine wordes or necessary conclusion For there is nothing that we are bounde to knowe nothing that we are bounde to doe but either in expresse wordes or in necessary collection which is as good as expresse wordes it is set forth in the holy Scriptures Beside this you shoulde bring a great preiudice against vs if you coulde bringe the consent and practise of the primitiue pure Church for the space of an hundreth yeares after christ But neither of these doe we looke to see we before see with our eyes the certainety of those thinges whereof now we contend in words and writinges The heretikes of our time and country be yet further vrged vvith the practise of prayers for the deceased their contrary communion is compared vvith the olde vsage of Celebration They are ashamed of the first original of their Christian faith they are vveary of their ovvne seruice they are kepte in ordre by the vvisedome of the Ciuile magistrates and are forced flatly to refuse all the doctors CAP. XII 1 THe chiefe argument that the Church of God vsed in olde time against Pelagius the enemy of Gods grace was this that at the holy altar the Priest prayed to God for to conuert heretikes and infidells to the faith and euill liuers wicked conuersation to vertue and honesty the which prayers had bene to no purpose if the grace of God had not borne the principall stroke in the chaunging of mans hearte But being assured of this as a grounde that the prayer of the Priest in the whole Churches name at the altar can not but beare singular strength and trueth it is necessarily concluded that seeing the publike minister so prayeth that we must needes beleue that God hath mans hearte in his hande and may turne it to the belefe of his worde or loue of his will as he liketh and listeth notwithstanding the perfect freedome of mans will which by Gods grace is neuer perished but alwayes perfected And in this assured foundation of the publike prayers S. Augustine who then was the souldier of grace so triumphed against one Vitalis a Pelagian that he ringeth him this peale Exerce contra orationes ecclesiae disputationes tuas quaÌ„do audis sacerdotem dei ad altare exhortantem populum dei orare pro incredulis subsanna pias voces ecclesiae dic te non facere quod hortatur homo in Carthagiensi eruditus ecclesia etiam beatissimi Cypriani librum de oratione dominica condemna Holde on fellow exercise thy contentious talke against the vsuall prayers of Gods Church and wheÌ„ thou hearest the Priest of God at his altar exhort the people to praye for the misbeleuers scoffe at the holy wordes and make him aunswere thou wilt not pray as he biddes thee And being brought vp in the Church of Carthage condemne withall S. Cyprians worke vpon our Lordes prayer wherein he teacheth the same I tary nowe the longer on this point that thou mayest learne to kepe an heretike at the bay and to fasten thy stroke so surely vpon him that which waye so euer he shifte he shall beare thy blowe vpon his necke and shoâ—lders It is not for our cause taken in hand that I now so much trauell for that is longe sith made sure enough for all the deuills in Hell or their followers in earth But I woulde in this one example of praying for the deade geue the studious a tast of all such wayes as the trueth of all other pointes in controuersy may be both surely defended and so plainly proued and vpholden that the aduersary shall not be able to say baffe vnto any one of the least of all the groundes wherevpon Gods trueth standeth Handeling then our good men as S. Augustine did the like say to them boldely that the same Church which exhorteth the people to pray for the misbeleuers doth geue vs example to pray for the soules departed Vitalis and Pelagius were heretikes for withstanding the one they must needes be as very heretikes for refusing the other It was the greatest extremitie that Pelagius coulde be driuen to by force of Augustines argument to mocke at the priests prayer made at Gods altar and that which then was so foule an absurditie for those false teachers can it be borne out of ours with honestie Vitalis the Pelagian had a foule foyle by S. Augustine â—hen he charged him with the contempt of S. Cyprians authoritie Byshop of Carthage being him selfe a â—hield of the same Church And shall they goe away so smouthly nowe a dayes not only with contempe of their owne English patrons and Apostles but with impudent deniall of all the doctors at once that euer were gydes of Gods Church sith Christes faith was taught It was of Augustine counted a singular arrogancy not to praye in that forme as Gods Church and ministers at the altar both praye them selues and exhorte other to pray and shall it be such prayse for our preachers to erect a new seruice to be checke mate with the olde to controele the rites and vsages of solemne supplication in all countries Christianed and with the