yee forgive anie thing I forgive also for if I forgave anie thing to whom I forgave it for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ. For as in the name and by the power of our Lord Iesus such a one was delivered to Satan so God having given unto him repentance to recover himselfe out of the snare of the Divell in the same name and in the same power was hee to be restored againe the ministers of reconciliation standing in Christs stead and Christ himselfe being in the mids of them that are thus gathered together in his name to binde or loose in heaven whatsoever they according to his commission shall binde or loose on earth And here it is to be noted that Anastasius by some called Nicaenus by others Sinaita and Antiochenus who is so eager against them which say that Confession made unto men profiteth nothing at all confesseth yet that the minister in hearing the confession and instructing and correcting the sinner doth but give furtherance onely thereby unto his repentance but that the pardoning of the sinne is the proper worke of God For man saith he cooperateth with man unto repentance and ministreth and buildeth and instructeth and reproveth in things belonging unto salvation according to the Apostle and the Prophet but God blotteth out the sinnes of those that have confessed saying I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities for mine owne sake and thy sinnes and will not remember them There followeth now another part of the ministery of reconciliation consisting in the due administration of the Sacraments which being the proper seales of the promises of the Gospell as the Censures are of the threats must therefore necessarily also have reference to the remission of sinnes And so we see the ancient Fathers doe hold that the commission Ioh. 20.23 Whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted unto them c. is executed by the ministers of Christ aswell in the conferring of Baptisme as in the reconciling of Penitents yet so in both these and in all the sacraments likewise of both the Testaments that the ministerie onely is to be accounted mans but the power Gods For as S. Augustin well observeth it is one thing to baptize by way of ministerie another thing to baptize by vvay of power the power of baptizing the Lord retayneth to himselfe the ministerie hee hath given to his servants the power of the Lords Baptisme was to passe from the Lord to no man but the ministery was the power was to be transferred from the Lord unto none of his ministers the ministery was both unto the good and unto the bad And the reason which hee assigneth hereof is verie good that the hope of the baptized might be in him by whom they did acknowledge themselves to have beene baptized The Lord therefore would not have a servant to put his hope in a servant And therefore those Schoolemen argued not much amisse that gathered this conclusion thence It is a matter of equall power to baptize inwardly and to absolve from mortall sinne But it vvas not fit that God should communicate the power of baptizing inwardly unto any lest our hope should be reposed in man Therefore by the same reason it was not fit that hee should communicate the power of absolving from actuall sinne unto any So Bernard or whosoever was the author of the booke intituled Scala Paradisi The office of baptizing the Lord granted unto many but the power and authoritie of remitting sinnes in baptisme he retayned unto himselfe alone whence Iohn by vvay of singularitie and differencing said of him He it is which baptizeth with the holy Ghost And the Baptist indeed doth make a singular difference betwixt the conferrer of the externall and the internall baptisme in saying I baptize with water but it is hee which baptizeth with the holy Ghost While Iohn did his service God did give who fayleth not in giving and now when all others doe their service the service is mans but the gift is Gods saith Optatus and Arnaldus Bonaevallensis the author of the twelve treatises de Cardinalibus operibus Christi falsely ascribed to S. Cyprian touching the Sacraments in generall Forgivenesse of sinnes whether it be given by Baptisme or by other sacraments is properly of the holy Ghost and the priviledge of effecting this remayneth to him alone But the word of reconciliation is it wherein the Apostle doth especially place that ministerie of reconciliation which the Lord hath committed to his Ambassadors here upon earth This is that key of knowledge which doth both open the conscience to the confession of sinne and include therein the grace of the healthfull mysterie unto eternitie as Maximus Taurinensis speaketh of it This is that powerfull meanes which God hath sanctified for the washing away of the pollution of our soules Now ye are cleane saith our Saviour to his Apostles through the word which I have spoken unto you And whereas everie transgressor is holden with the cords of his owne sinnes the Apostles according to the commission given unto them by their Master that whatsoever they should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven did loose those cords by the word of God and the testimonies of the Scriptures and exhortation unto vertues as saith S. Hierome Thus likewise doth S. Ambrose note that sinnes are remitted by the word of God whereof the Levite was an interpreter and a kinde of an executer in that respect concludeth that the Levite was a minister of this remission As the Iewish Scribes therefore by taking away the key of knowledge did shut up the kingdom of heaven against men so every Scribe which is instructed unto the kingdome of heaven by opening unto his hearers the doore of faith doth as it were unlock that kingdome unto them being the instrument of God herein to open mens eyes and to turne them from darkenesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ. And here are we to understand that the ministers of Christ by applying the word of God unto the consciences of men both in publick and in private doe discharge that part of their function which concerneth forgivenesse of sinnes partly operatively partly declaratively Operatively inasmuch as God is pleased to use their preaching of the Gospell as a meanes of conferring his spirit upon the sonnes of men of begetting them in Christ and of working faith and repentance in them whereby the remission of sinnes is obtayned Thus Iohn preaching the Baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes and teaching the people that they should beleeve on him which should come after him that is on Christ Iesus is said to turne manie of the children of Israel to the
scholies upon the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy wisheth us to marke that even before his time that doubt was questioned Among the questions wherein Dulcitius desired to be resolved by S. Augustin we finde this to be one Whether the offering that is made for the dead did avayle their soules any thing and that MANY did say to this that if herein any good were to be done after death how much rather should the soule it selfe obtaine ease for it selfe by it owne confessing of her sinnes there than that for the ease thereof an oblation should be procured by other men The like also is noted by Cyrill or rather Iohn Bishop of Ierusalem that he knew MANY who said thus What profite doth the soule get that goeth out of this world eyther with sinnes or not with sinnes if you make mention of it in prayer and by Anastasius Sinaita or Nicaenus Some doe doubt saying that the dead are not profited by the oblations that are made for them and long after them by Petrus Cluniacensis in his treatise against the followers of Peter Bruse in France That the good deeds of the living may profit the dead both these hereticks doe deny and some Catholicks also do seeme to doubt Nay in the West not the profite onely but the lawfulnesse also of these doings for the dead was called in question as partly may be collected by Boniface archbishop of Mentz his consulting with Pope Gregory about 730. yeares after the birth of our Saviour Whether it were lawfull to offer oblations for the dead which hee should have no reason to doe if no question had beene made thereof among the Germans and is plainly delivered by Hugo Etherianus about 1170. yeares after Christ in these words I know that many are deformed with vaine opinions thinking that the dead are not to be prayed for because that neither Christ nor the Apostles that succeeded him have intimated these things in the Scriptures But they are ignorant that there be many things and those exceeding necessary frequented by the holy Church the tradition whereof is not had in the Scriptures and yet they pertaine neverthelesse to the worship of God and obtaine great strength Whereby it may appeare that this practise wanted not opposition even then when in the Papacie it was advanced unto his greatest height And now is it high time that I should passe from this article unto the next following OF LIMBVS PATRVM And CHRISTS DESCENT INTO HELL HEre doth our Challenger undertake to prove against us not only that there is Limbus Patrum but that our Saviour also descended into Hell to deliver the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament because before his Passion none ever entred into Heaven That there was such a thing as Limbus Patrum I have heard it said but what it is now the Doctors varie yet agree all in this that Limbus it may well be but Limbus Patrum sure it is not Whether it were distinct from that place in which the infants that depart out of this life without baptisme are now beleeved to be received the Divines doe doubt neyther is there any thing to be rashly pronounced of so doubtfull a matter saith Maldonat the Iesuite The Dominican Friars that wrote against the Grecians at Constantinople in the yeare 1252 resolve that into this Limbus the holy Fathers before the comming of Christ did descend but now the children that depart vvithout baptisme are detained there so that in their iudgement that which was the Limbus of Fathers is now become the Limbus of Children The more common opinion is that these be two distinct places and that the one is appointed for unbaptized infants but the other now remayneth voide and so shall remaine that it may beare witnesse aswell of the justice as of the mercie of God If you demand how it came to be thus voyd emptied of the old inhabitants the answer is here given that our Saviour descended into Hell purposely â—o deliver from hence the ancient Fathers of the Old Testament But Hell is one thing I ween saith Tertullian and Abrahams bâ—some where the Fathers of the old Testament rested another neyther is it to be beleeved that the bosome of Abraham being the habitation of a secret kinde of rest was any part of Hell saith S. Augustin To say then that our Saviour descended into Hell to deliver the ancient Fathers of the old Testament out of Limbus Patrum would by this construction prove as strange a tale as if it had beene reported that Caesar made a voyage into Brittaine to set his friends at libertie in Greece Yea but before Christs Passion none ever entred into Heaven saith our Challenger The proposition that Cardinall Bellarmine taketh upon him to prove where he handleth this controversie is that the soules of the godly were not in Heaven before the Asâ—ension of Christ. Our Iesuite it seemeth considered here with himselfe that Christ had promised unto the penitent theefe upon the crosse that not before his ascension only but also before his resurrection even that day he should be with him in Paradise that is to say in the kingdome of heaven as the Cardinaâ—l himselfe doth prove both by the authoritie of S. Paul making Paradise and the third heaven to be the selfe same thing and by the testimony of the ancient expositors of the place This belike stuck somewhat in our Iesuites stomack who being loath to interpret this of his Limbus Patrum as others of that side had done and to maintaine that Paradise in stead of the third Heaven should signifie the third or the fourth Hell thought it best to shift the matter handsomely away by taking upon him to defend that not before Christs ascension least that of the Thiefe should crosse him but before his passion none ever entred into Heaven But if none before our Saviours Passion did ever enter into Heaven whither shall we say that Elias did enter The Scripture assureth us that he went up into heaven 2. Kings 2.11 of this Mattathias put his sonnes in mind upon his death-bedd that Elias being zealous and fervent for the law was taken up into heaven Elias and Moses both before the passion of Christ are described to be in glory Lazarus is carried by the Angells into a place of comfort and not of imprisonment in a word all the Fathers accounted themselves to be strangers and pilgrims in this earth seeking for a better countrey that is an heavenly as well as we doe and therefore having ended their pilgrimage they arrived at the country they sought for as well as wee They beleeved to be saved through the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ as well as we they lived by that faith as well as we they dyed in Christ as well as we they received remission of sinnes imputation of
purpose also S. Ambrose maketh this observation upon the historie of the woman taken in adulterie Ioh. 8.9 that Iesus being about to pardon sin remayned alone For it is not the ambassador saith hee nor the messenger but the Lord himselfe that hath saved his people He remaineth alone because it cannot be common to anie man with Christ to forgive sinnes This is the office of Christ alone who taketh away the sinne of the world Yea S. Chrysostom himselfe who of all the Fathers giveth most in this point unto Gods ambassadors and messengers is yet carefull withall to preserve Gods priviledge entire by often interposing such sentences as these None can forgive sinnes but God alone To forgive sinnes belongeth to no other To forgive sinnes is possible to God onely God alone doth this which also hee worketh in the washing of the new birth Wherein that the work of cleansing the soule is wholly Gods and the minister hath no hand at all in effecting anie part of it Optatus proveth at large in his fifth booke against the Donatistes shewing that none can wash the filth and sports of the minde but hee who is the framer of the same minde and convincing the hereticks as by manie other testimonies of holy Scriptur◠so by that of Esai 1.18 which he presseth in this maner It belongeth unto God to cleanse and not unto man he hath promised by the Prophet Esai that hee himselfe would wash when he saith If your sinnes were as scarlet I will make them as white as snow I will make them white he said he did not say I will cause them to be made white If God hath promised this why will you give that which is neyther lawfull for you to promise nor to give nor to have Behold in Esai God hath promised that he himselfe will make white such as are defiled with sinnes not by man Having thus therefore reserved unto God his prerogative royall in cleansing of the soule we give unto his under-officers their due when we account of them as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God not as Lords that have power to dispose of spiritual graces as they please but as servants that are tyed to follow their Masters prescriptions therin in following therof do but bring their external ministerie for which it self also they are beholding to Gods mercie goodnes God conferring the inward blessing of his spirit thereupon when where he will Who then is Paul saith S. Paul himselfe and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom yee beleeved even as the Lord gave to every man Therfore saith Optatus in all the servants there is no dominion but a ministerie Cui creditur ipse dat quod creditur non per quem creditur It is hee who is beleeved that giveth the thing which is beleeved not he by whom we doe beleeve Whereas our Saviour then saith unto his Apostles Ioh. 20. Receive the holy Ghost Whose sinnes you forgive shall be forgiven S. Ambrose S. Augustine S. Chrysostome and S. Cyrill make this observation thereupon that this is not their work properly but the worke of the holy Ghost who remitteth by them and therein performeth the worke of the true God For indeed saith S. Cyrill it belongeth to the true God alone to be able to loose men from their sinns for who else can free the transgressors of the law from sin but he who is the author of law it selfe The Lord saith S. Augustine was to give unto men the holy Ghost and he would have it to be understood that by the holy Ghost himselfe sinnes should be forgiven to the faithfull and not that by the merits of men sins should be forgiven For what art thou ô man but a sick-man that hast need to be healed Wilt thou be a physician to me Seek the physician together with mee So S. Ambrose Behold that by the holy Ghost sinnes are forgiven But men to the remission of sinnes bring their ministery they exercise not the authoritie of any power S. Chrysostom though he make this to be the exercise of a great power which also hee elsewhere amplifieth after his manner exceeding hyperbolically yet in the maine matter accordeth fully with S. Ambrose that it lyeth in God alone to bestowe the things wherein the Priests service is employed And what speake I of Priests saith he Neyther Angell nor Archangell can doe ought in those things which are given by God but the Father and the Sonne and the holy Ghost doe dispense all The Priest lendeth his tongue and putteth too his hand His part only is to open his mouth but it is God that worketh all And the reasons whereby both he and Theophylact after him doe prove that the Priests of the law had no power to forgive sinnes are of as great force to take the same power from the ministers of the Gospell first because it is Gods part onely to forgive sinnes secondly because the Priests were servants yea servants of sinne and therefore had no power to forgive sinnes unto others but the Sonne is the Lord of the house who was manifested to take away our sinnes and in him is no sinne saith S. Iohn upon which saying of his S. Augustin giveth this good note It is he in whom there is no sinne that came to take away sinne For if there had beene sinne in him too it must have beene taken away from him he could not take it away himselfe To forgive sinnes therefore being thus proper to God onely and to his Christ his ministers must not be held to have this power communicated unto them but in an improper sense namely because God forgiveth by them and hath appointed them both to apply those meanes by which he useth to forgive sinnes and to give notice unto repentant sinners of that forgivenesse For who can forgive sinnes but God alone yet doth he forgive by them also unto whom hee hath given power to forgive saith S. Ambrose and his followers And though it be the proper worke of God to remit sins saith Ferus yet are the Apostles and their successors said to remit also not simply but because they apply those meanes whereby God doth remit sinnes Which means are the Word of God and the Sacraments Whereunto also wee may adde the relaxation of the Censures of the Church and Prayer for in thes◠foure the whole exercise of this ministerie of reconciliation as the Apostle calleth it doth mainly consist of each whereof it is needefull that wee should speake somewhat more particularly That Prayer is a meanes ordayned by God for procuring remission of sinnes is plaine by that of S. Iames. The prayer of faith shall save the sicke and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sinnes they shall be forgiven him Confesse
Lord their God and the disobedient to the wisedome of the just by giving knowledge of salvation to Gods people unto the remission of their sins Not because he had properly anie power given him to turne mens hearts and to worke faith and repentance for forgivenesse of sinnes when and where he thought good but because he was trusted with the ministerie of the word of Gods grace which is able to convert and quicken mens soules and to give them an inheritance among all them which are sanctified by the powerfull application of which word he who converteth the sinner from the errour of his way is said to save a soule from death and to hide a multitude of sinnes For howsoever in true proprietie the covering of sinnes the saving from death and turning of men from their iniquities is a priviledge peculiar to the Lord our God unto whom alone it appertayneth to reconcile the world to himselfe by not imputing their sinnes unto them yet inasmuch as he hath committed unto his ambassadors the word of reconciliation they in performing that worke of their ministerie may be as rightly said to be imployed in reconciling men unto God and procuring remission of their sinnes as they are said to deliver a man from going downe into the pit when they declare unto him his righteousnesse and to save their hearers when they preach unto them the Gospel by which they are saved For as the word it selfe which they speake is said to be their word which yet is in truth the word of God so the worke which is effectually wrought by that word in them that beleeve is said to be their worke though in truth it be the proper worke of God And as they that beleeve by their word are said to be their Epistle 2. Cor. 3.2 that is to say the Epistle of Christ ministred by them as it is expounded in the verse following in like maner forgivenesse of sinnes and those other great graces that appertaine to the beleevers may be said to be their worke that is to say the worke of Christ ministred by them For in verie deed as Optatus speaketh in the matter of Baptisme not the minister but the faith of the beleever and the Trinitie doe bring these things unto every man And where the preaching of the Gospel doth prove the power of God unto salvation onely the weakenesse of the externall ministerie must be ascribed to men but the excellency of the power must ever be acknowledged to be of God and not of them neyther he that planteth being here any thing neyther he that watereth but God that giveth the increase For howsoever in respect of the former such as take paines in the Lords husbandry may be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle termeth them labourers together with God though that little peece of service it selfe also bee not performed by their owne strength but according to the grace of God which is given unto them yet that which followeth of giving the increase God effecteth not by them but by himselfe This saith S. Augustin exceedeth the lowlinesse of man this exceedeth the sublimitie of Angels neither appertayneth unto anie but unto the husbandman the Trinity Now as the Spirit of God doth not onely woâ—ke diversities of graces in us distributing to every man severally as he will but also maketh us to know the things that are freely given to us of God so the ministers of the New Testament being made able ministers of the same spirit are not onely ordayned to be Gods instruments to worke faith and repentance in men for the obtayning of remission of sinnes but also to declare Gods pleasure unto such as beleeve and repent and in his name to certifie them and give assurance to their consciences that their sinnes are forgiven they having received this ministerie of the Lord Iesus to testifie the Gospell of the grace of God and so by their function being appointed to be witnesses rather then conferrers of that grace For it is here with them in the loosing part as it is in the binding part of their ministerie where they are brought in like unto those seuen Angels in the book of the Revelation which powre out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth having vengeance ready against all disobedience and a charge from God to cast men out of his sigâ—t not because they are properly the avengers for that title God challengeth unto himselfe or that vengeance did anie way appertaine unto them for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord but because they were the denouncers not the inflicters of this vengeance So though it be the Lord that speaketh concerning a nation to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy or on the other side to build and to plant it yet he in whose mouth God put those words of his is said to be set by him over the nations and over the kingdomes to roote out and to pull downe and to destroy and to throw downe to build and to plant as if he himselfe were a doer of those great matters who was onely ordeyned to be a Prophet unto the nations to speake the things unto them which God had commanded him Thus likewise in the thirteenth of Leviticus where the Lawes are set downe that concerne the leprosie which was a type of the pollution of sinne wee meet often with these speeches The Priest shall cleanse him and The Priest shall pollute him and in the 44. verse The Priest with pollution shall pollute him not saith S. Hierome that he is the author of the pollution but that he declareth him to be polluted who before did seeme unto many to have beene cleane Whereupon the Master of the Sentences following herein S. Hierome and being afterwards therein followed himselfe by manie others observeth that in remitting or retayning sinnes the Priests of the Gospell have that right and office which the legall Priests had of old under the Law in curing of the lepers These therefore saith hee forgive sinnes or retaine them whiles they shew and declare that they are forgiven or retayned by God For the Priests put the name of the Lord upon the children of Israel but it was he himselfe that blessed them as it is read in Numbers The place that he hath referrence unto is in the sixth chapter of that booke where the Priests are commanded to blesse the people by saying unto them The Lord blesse thee c. and then it followeth in the last verse of that chapter So they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel and I will blesse them Neyther doe we grant hereupon as the Adversarie falsely chargeth us that a lay-man yea or a woman or a childe or any infidell or the Divell the Father of all
so looke to obtayne mercy But thou art ashamed to say that thou hast sinned Confesse thy faults then daily in thy prayer For do I say Confesse them to thy fellow-servant who may reproach thee therewith Confesse them to God who healeth them For although thou confesse them not at all God is not ignorant of them Wherefore then tell me art thou ashamed blushest to confesse thy sinnes For doest thou discover them to a man that he may reproach thee Doest thou confesse them to thy fellow servant that he may bring thee upon the stage To him who is thy Lord who hath care of thee who is kinde who is thy physitian thou shewest thy wound I constraine thee not saith he to go into the middest of the theater and to make many witnesses of the matter Confesse thy sin to me alone in privat that I may heale thy sore and free thee from griefe And this is not only wonderfull that he forgiveth us our sinnes but that he neither discovereth them nor maketh them open and manifest nor constraineth us to come forth in publike and disclose our misdemeanours but commandeth us to give an account thereof unto him alone and unto him to make confession of them Neyther doth S. Chrysostome here walke alone That saying of S. Augustine is to the same effect What have I to doe with men that they should heare my confessions as though they should heale all my diseases and that â—ollection of S. Hilary upon the two last verses of the 52 Psalme that David there teacheth us to confesse to no other but unto the Lord vvho hath made the Olive fruitfull with the mercy of hope or the hope of mercie for ever and ever and that advise of Pinuphius the Aegyptian Abbat which I finde also inserted amongst the Canons collected for the use of the Church of England in the time of the Saxons under the title De poenitentiâ soli Deo coÌ„fitendâ Who is it that cannot humbly say I made my sinne knowne unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid that by this confession he may confidently adjoyne that which followeth And thou forgavest the impiety of my heart But if shamefastnesse doe so draw thee backe that thou blushest to reveale them before men cease not by continuall supplication to confesse them unto him from whom they cannot be hid and to say I know mine iniquitie and my sinne is against me alwayes To thee onely have I sinned and done evill before thee whose custome is both to cure without the publishing of any shame and to forgive sinnes without upbraiding S. Augustine Cassiodor and Gregory make a further observation upon that place of the 32 Psalme I said I will confesse my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sinne that God upon the onely promise and purpose of making this confession did forgive the sinne Marke saith Gregory how great the swiftnesse is of this vitall Indulgence how great the commendation is of Gods mercy that pardon should accompany the verie desire of him that is about to confesse before that repentance doe come to afflict him and remission should come to the heart before that confession did break forth by the voice So S. Basil upon those other words of the Psalmist I have roared by reason of the disquietnesse of my heart Psalm 38.8 maketh this paraphrase I do not confesse with my lips that I may manifest my selfe unto many but inwardly in my very heart shutting mine eyes to thee alone who seest the things that are in secret doe I shew my groanes roaring within my selfe For the groanes of my heart sufficed for a confession and the lamentations sent to thee my God from the depth of my soule And as S. Basil maketh the groanes of the heart to be a sufficient confession so doth S. Ambrose the teares of the penitent Teares saith he doe wash the sinne which the voyce is ashamed to confesse Weeping doth provide both for pardon and for shamefastnesse teares doe speake our fault without horror teares doe confesse our crime without offence of our shamefastnesse from whence he that glosseth upon Gratian who hath inserted these words of S. Ambrose into his collection of the Decrees doth inferre that if for shame a man will not confesse teares alone doe blot out his sinne Maximus Taurinensis followeth S. Ambrose herein almost verbatim The teare saith he washeth the sinne which the voyce is ashamed to confesse Teares therefore doe equally provide both for our shamefastnesse and for our health they neyther blush in asking and they obtaine in requesting Lastly Prosper speaking of sinnes committed by such as are in the ministery writeth thus They shall more easily appease God who being not convicted by humane judgement doe of their owne accord acknowledge their offence who eyther do discover it by their owne confessions or others not knowing what they are in secret doe themselves give sentence of voluntarie excommunication upon themselves and being separated not in minde but in office from the Altar to which they did minister doe lament their life as dead assuring themselves that God being reconciled unto them by the fruits of effectuall repentance they shall not onely receive what they have lost but also being made citizens of that citie which is above they shall come to everlasting joyes By this it appeareth that the ancient Fathers did not thinke that the remission of sinnes was so tyed unto externall confession that a man might not looke for salvation from God if hee concealed his faults from Man but that inward contrition and confession made to God alone was sufficient in this case Otherwise neyther they nor wee do debarre men from opening their grievances unto the Physicians of their soules eyther for their better information in the true state of their disease or for the quieting of their troubled consciences or for receiving further direction from them out of Gods word both for the recoverie of their present sicknesse and for the prevention of the like danger in time to come If I shall sinne although it be in anie small offence and my thought doe consume me and accuse me saying Why hast thou sinned what shall I doe said a brother once to Abbat Arsenius The old man answered Whatsoever houre a man shall fall into a fault and shall say from his heart Lord God I have sinned grant mee pardon that consumption of thought or heavinesse shall cease forthwith And it was as good a remedie as could be prescribed for a greene wound to take it in hand presently to present it to the view of our heavenly Physician to prevent Satan by taking his office as it were out of his hand and accusing our selves first that we may be justified But when it is not taken in time but suffered to fester and ranckle the cure will not now prove to be so easie it being found
in the Church for the reconciliation of Penitents retained still the former usage as by the relation of Socrates and Sozomen more fully may appeare And therefore when within some XXI yeares after the time wherein they finished their histories and about LXX after that the publication of secret offences began to be abolished by Nectarius certaine in Italy did so doe their penance that they caused a writing to be publickly read containing a profession of their severall sinnes Leo who at that time was Bishop of Rome gave order that by all meanes that course should be broken off forasmuch as it was sufficient that the guilt of mens consciences should be declared in secret confession to the Priests alone For although saith he the fulnesse of faith may seeme to be laudable vvhich for the feare of God doth not feare to blush before men yet because all mens sinnes are not of that kinde that they may not feare to publish such of them as require repentance let so inconvenient a custome be removed lest many be driven away from the remedies of repentance vvhile eyther they are ashamed or afraid to disclose their deedes unto their enemies whereby they may be drawne within the perill of the lawes For that confession is sufficient which is offered first unto God and then unto the Priest who commeth as an intercessor for the sinnes of the penitent For then at length more may be provoked to repentance if that the conscience of him who confesseth be not published to the eares of the people By this place of Leo we may easily understand how upon the removeall of publick Confession of secret faults together with the private made unto the Penitentiarie which was adjoyned as a preparative thereunto Auricular confession began to be substituted in the roome thereof to the end that by this meanes more might be drawne on to this exercise of repentance the impediments of shame and feare which accompanied the former practise being taken out of the way for indeed the shame of this publick Penance was such that in the time of Tertullian when this discipline was thought most needefull for the Church it was strongly presumed that many did eyther shunne this worke as a publication of themselves or deferred it from day to day being more mindefull as hee saith of their shame than of their salvation Nay S. Ambrose observed that some who for feare of the punishment in the other world being conscious to themselves of their sinnes did here desire their penance vvere yet for shame of their publick supplication drawne back after they had received it Therfore the conjecture of Rhenanus is not to be contemned that from this publick confession the private tooke his originall which by Stapleton in his Fortresse part 2. chap. 4. is positively delivered in this maner Afterward this open and sharpe penance vvas brought to the private and particular confession now used principally for the lewdnesse of the common lay Christians which in this open confession began at length to mocke and insult at their brethrens simplicity and devotion although it may seeme by that which is written by Origen that the seeds of this lewdnesse began to sprout long before howsoever Tertullian imagined that no member of the Church would be so ungracious as to commit such folly The publick confession therefore of secret sinnes being thus abolished by Nectarius first for the scandall that came thereby unto others and by the rest of the Catholick Bishops after him for the reproach and danger whereunto the penitents by this meanes were layd open private Confession was so brought in to supply the defect thereof that it was accounted no more sacramentall nor esteemed at least generally to be of more necessitie for the obtayning of remission of sinnes then that other So that whatsoever order afterward was taken herein may well be judged to have had the nature of a temporall law which according to the definition of S. Augustine although it be just yet in time may be justly also changed Nay we finde that Laurence Bishop of Novaria in his homily de Poenitentiâ doth resolutely determine that for obtayning remission of sinnes a man needeth not to resort unto anie Priest but that his owne internall repentance is sufficient for that matter God saith hee after Baptisme hath appoynted thy remedy within thy selfe hee hath put remission in thine owne power that thou needest not seeke a Priest when thy necessity requireth but thou thy selfe now as a skilfull and plaine master mayest amend thine error within thy selfe wash away thy sin by repentance He hath given unto thee saith another somewhat to the same purpose the power of binding and loosing Thou hast bound thy selfe with the chayn of the love of wealth loose thy selfe with the injunction of the love of povertie Thou hast bound thy selfe with the furious desire of pleasures loose thy selfe with temperance Thou hast bound thy selfe with the misbeleefe of Eunomius loose thy selfe with the religious embracing of the right faith And that wee may see how variable mens judgements were touching the matter of Confession in the ages following Bede would have us confesse our daily light sinnes one unto another but open the uncleanenesse of the greater leprosie to the Priest Alcuinus not long after him would have us confesse all the sinnes that we can remember Others were of another minde For some as it appeareth by the writings of the same Alcuinus and of Haymo would not confesse their sinnes to the Priest but said it was sufficient for them that they did confesse their sinnes to God alone provided alwayes that they ceased from those sinnes for the time to come Others confessed their sinnes unto the Priests but not fully as may be seene in the Councell of Cauailon held in the dayes of Charles the great where though the Fathers thinke that this had need to be amended yet they freely acknowledge that it remained still a question whether men should only confesse to God or to the Priests also and they themselves put this difference betwixt both those confessions that the one did properly serve for the cure the other for direction in what sort the repentance and so the cure should be performed Their words are these Some say that they ought to confesse their sinnes onely unto God and some thinke that they are to be confessed unto the Priests both of which not without great fruit is practised within the holy Church namely thus that wee both confesse our sinnes unto God who is the forgiver of sinnes saying with David I acknowledged my sinne unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confesse against my selfe my transgressions vnto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sinne and according to the institution of the Apostle confesse our sinnes one unto another and pray one for another that we may be healed
sinnes was so proper to God that it could not be communicated unto man and that true beleevers referre this to the increase of Gods honour which miscreant Iewes and Hereticks doe accompt blasphemie against God and injurious to his Majestie whereas in truth the faithlesnesse of the Iewes consisted in the application of this sentence unto our Saviour Christ whom they did not acknowledge to be God as the senslesness of these Romanists in denying of the axiom it selfe But the world is come unto a good passe when we must be accounted hereticks now adayes and consorted with miscreant Iewes for holding the selfe same thing that the Fathers of the ancient Church delivered as a most certain truth whensoever they had anie occasion to treate of this part of the historie of the Gospel Old Irenaeus telleth us that our Saviour in this place forgiving sinnes did both cure the man and manifestly discover who he was For if none saith hee can forgive sinnes but God alone and our Lord did forgive them and cured men it is manifest that he was the Word of God made the Sonne of man and that as man hee is touched with compassion of us as God he hath mercy on us and forgiveth us our debts which we doe owe unto God our maker Tertullian saith that when the Iewes beholding onely his humanitie and not being yet certaine of his Deitie did deservedly reason that a man could not forgive sinnes but God alone he by answering of them that the Sonne of man had authoritie to forgive sinnes would by this remission of sinnes have them call to minde that he was that onely sonne of man prophesied of in Daniel who received power of judging and thereby also of forgiving sinnes Dan. 7.13 14. S. Hilary commenting upon the ninth of Matthew writeth thus It moveth the Scribes that sinne should be forgiven by a man For they beheld a man onely in Iesus Christ and that to be forgiven by him which the law could not release For it is faith onely that justifieth Afterward the Lord looketh into their murmuring and saith that it is an easie thing for the Sonne of man upon earth to forgive sinnes For it is true none can forgive sinnes but God alone therefore hee who remitteth is God because none remitteth but God God remayning in man performed this cure upon man S. Hierom thus We reade that God saith in the Prophet I am he that blotteth out thine iniquities Consequently therefore the Scribes because they thought him to be a man and did not understand the words of God accuse him of blasphemy But the Lord seeing their thoughts sheweth himselfe to be God who is able to know the secrets of the heart and holding his peace after a sort speaketh By the same majestie and power vvherewith I behold your thoughts I am able also to forgive sinnes unto men or as Euthymius expresseth it in his commentaries upon the same place In truth none can forgive sinnes but one who beholdeth the thoughts of men S. Chrysostome likewise in his Sermons upon the same sheweth that Christ here declared himselfe to be God equall unto the Father and that if he had not beene equall unto the Father he would have said Why doe you attribute unto me an unfitting opinion I am farre from that power To the same effect also writeth Christianus Druthmarus Paschasius Ratbertus and Walafridus Strabus in the ordinarie Glosse upon the same place of S. Matthew Victor Antiochenus upon the second of Mark Theophylact and Bede upon the second of Mark and the fifth of Luke S. Ambrose upon the fifth of Luke who in another place also bringeth this sentence of the Scribes as a ground to prove the deitie of the holy Ghost withall forasmuch as none forgiveth sinnes but one God because it is written Who can forgive sins but God alone as S. Cyril doth to prove the deitie of the Sonne For this onely saith he did the malice of the Iewes say truely that none can forgive sinnes but God alone who is the Lord of the law and thence he frameth this argument If he alone who is the Lord of all doth free us from our sins and this agreeeth to no other and Christ bestoweth this with a power befitting God how should he not be God The same argument also is used by Novatianus and Athanasius to the selfe same purpose For if when it agreeth unto none but unto God to know the secrets of the heart Christ doth behold the secrets of the heart if when it agreeth unto none but unto God to forgive sinnes the same Christ doth forgive sinnes then deservedly is Christ to be accounted God saith Novatianus So Athanasius demandeth of the Arrians if the Sonne were a creature how was he able to forgive sinnes it being written in the Prophets that this is the work of God For who is a God like unto thee that taketh away sinnes and passeth over iniquities But the sonne saith hee said unto whom he would Thy sinnes are forgiven thee when the Iewes murmuring also he demonstrated this forgivenesse in deed saying to the man that was sicke of the palsie Arise take up thy bedd and goe unto thine house And therefore Bede rightly inferreth that the Arrians doe erre here much more madly then the Iewes vvho when they dare not denie being convicted by the words of the Gospell that Iesus is both the Christ and hath power to forgive sinnes yet feare not for all that to denie him to be God and concludeth himselfe most soundly that if he be God according to the Psalmist who removeth our iniquities from us as farr as the East is from the West and the sonne of man hath power upon earth to forgive sinnes therefore the same is both God and the sonne of man that the man Christ by the power of his divinitie might forgive sinnes and the same Christ God by the frailtie of his humanitie might dye for sinners Whereunto wee will adde another sweete passage of his borrowed from some ancienter author No man taketh away sinnes which the Law although holy and just and good could not take away but he in whom there is no sinne Now hee taketh them away both by pardoning those that are done and by assisting us that they may not be done by bringing us to the life where they cannot at all be done Peter Lombard alledgeth this as the saying of S. Augustine the former sentence only being thus changed None taketh away sinnes but Christ alone vvho is the Lamb that taketh away the sinnes of the world agreeable to that which in the same place he citeth out of S. Ambrose He alone forgiveth sinnes who alone dyed for our sinnes and to that of Clemens Alexandrinus He alone can remit sinnes who is appointed our Master by the father of all who alone is able to discerne disobedience from obedience to which
so they call it peradventure hath no intention to receive it or is not rightly disposed or putteth some blocke in the way Therefore the Minister saith hee signifieth nothing else by those words but that hee as much as in him lyeth conferreth the sacrament of reconciliation or absolution which in a man rightly disposed hath vertue to forgive all his sinnes Now that Contrition is at all times necessarily required for obtayning remission of sinnes and iustification is a matter determined by the Fathers of Trent But marke yet the mysterie They equivocate with us in the terme of Contrition and make a distinction thereof into perfect and imperfect The former of these is Contrition properly the latter they call Attrition which howsoever in it selfe it be not true Contrition yet when the Priest with his power of forgiving sinnes interposeth himselfe in the businesse they tell us that attrition by vertue of the keyes is made contrition that is to say that a sorrow arising from a servile feare of punishment and such a fruitlesse repentance as the reprobate may carry with them to hell by vertue of the Priests absolution is made so fruitfull that it shall serve the turne for obteyning forgivenesse of sinnes as if it had beene that godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of By which spirituall coosenage many poore soules are most miserably deluded while they perswade themselves that upon the receipt of the Priests acquittance upon this carnall sorrow of theirs all skores are cleered untill that day and then beginning upon a new reckoning they sinne and confesse confesse and sinne afresh and tread this round so long till they put off all thought of saving repentance and so the blinde following the blinde both at last fall into the pit Evill and wicked carnall naturall and divellish men saith S. Augustin imagine those things to be given unto them by their seducers which are onely the gifts of God whether sacraments or any other spirituall workes concerning their present salvation But such as are thus seduced may doe well to listen a little to this grave admonition of S. Cyprian Let no man deceive let no man beguile himselfe it is the Lord alone that can shew mercy He alone can grant pardon to the sinnes committed against him who did himselfe beare our sinnes who suffered griefe for us whom God did deliver for our sinnes Man cannot be greater then God neyther can the servant by his indulgence remit or pardon that which by haynous trespasse is committed against the Lord lest to him that is fallen this yet be added as a further crime if hee be ignorant of that which is said Cursed is the man that putteth his trust in man Whereupon S. Augustin sticketh not to say that good ministers doe consider that they are but ministers they would not be held for Iudges they abhorre that any trust should be put in them and that the power of remitting and retayning sinnes is committed unto the Church to be dispensed therein not according to the arbitrement of man but according to the arbitrement of God Whereas our adversaries lay the foundation of their Babel upon another ground that Christ hath appointed Priests to be Iudges upon earth with such power that none falling into sinne after Baptisme may be reconciled without their sentence and hath put the authoritie of binding and loosing of forgiving and retayning the sinnes of men in their arbitrement Whether the Ministers of the Gospell may be accounted Iudges in some sort we wil not much contend for we dislike neyther that saying of S. Hierome that having the keyes of the kingdome of heaven they judge after a sort before the day of judgement nor that other of S. Gregory that the Apostles such as succeed them in the governement of the Church obtaine a principalitie of judgement from above that they may in Gods stead retayne the sinnes of some and release the sinnes of others All the question is in what sort they doe judge and whether the validitie of their judgement doe depend upon the truth of the conversion of the penitent wherein if our Romanists would stand to the iudgement of S. Hierome or S. Gregory one of whom they make a Cardinall and the other a Pope of their owne Church the controversie betwixt us would quickly be at an end For S. Hierome expounding that speech of our Saviour touching the keyes of the kingdome of heaven in the sixteenth of S. Matthew The Bishops and Priests saith he not understanding this place assume to themselves somewhat of the Pharisees arrogancie as imagining that they may either condemne the innocent or absolve the guiltie vvhereas it is not the sentence of the Priests but the life of the parties that is inquired of vvith God In the booke of Leviticus vvee reade of the Lepers vvhere they are commanded to shew themselves to the Priests and if they shall have the leprosie that then they shall be made uncleane by the Priest not that the Priests should make them leprous and uncleane but that they should take notice who was a leper and who was not and should discerne who was cleane and who uncleane Therefore as there the Priest doth make the leper cleane or uncleane so here the Bishop or Priest doth binde or loose not binde the innocent or loose the guiltie but when according to his office hee heareth the variety of sinnes hee knoweth who is to be bound and who to be loosed Thus farre S. Hierome S. Gregory likewise in the very same place from whence the Romanists fetch that former sentence doth thus declare in what maner that principalitie of iudgement which he spake of should be exercised being therin also followed step by step by the Fathers of the Councell of Aquisgran The causes ought to bee weighed and then the power of binding and loosing exercised It is to be seene what the fault is and what the repentance is that hath followed after the fault that such as almightie God doth visite with the grace of compunction those the sentence of the Pastor may absolve For the absolution of the Prelate is then true when it followeth the arbitrement of the eternall Iudge And this doe they illustrate by that which we reade in the Gospell of the raysing of Lazarus Ioh. 11.44 that Christ did first of all give life to him that was dead by himselfe and then commanded others to loose him and let him goe Behold say they the disciples doe loose him being now alive whom their Master had raysed up being dead For if the disciples had loosed Lazarus being dead they should have discovered a stinche more then a vertue By which consideration vvee may see that by our Pastorall authoritie vvee ought to loose those vvhom vvee know that our Authour and Lord hath revived vvith his quickning grace The same application also doe wee finde made not onely
thinke will take the paynes to get him a new heart and a new spirit and undertake the toylsome worke of crucifying the flesh with the lustes thereof if without all this adoe the Priests absolution can make that other imperfect or rather equivocall contrition arising from a carnall and servile feare to be sufficient for the blotting out of all his sinnes Or are wee not rather to thinke that this sacramentall penance of the Papists is a device invented by the enemie to hoodwinke poore soules and to divert them from seeking that true repentance which is onely able to stand them in stead and that such as take upon them to helpe lame dogges over the stile after this maner by substituting quid pro quo attrition in stead of contrition servile feare in stead of filiall love carnall sorrow in stead of godly repentance are physicians of no value nay such as minister poyson unto men under colour of providing a soveraigne medicine for them Hee therefore that will have care of his soules health must consider that much resteth here in the good choyce of a skilfull physician but much more in the paines that must be taken by the patient himselfe For that every one who beareth the name of a Priest is not fit to bee trusted with a matter of this moment their owne Decrees may give them faire warning where this admonition is twise laid down out of the author that wrote of true and false repentance Hee who will confesse his sinnes that he may finde grace let him seeke for a Priest that knoweth how to binde and loose least while he is negligent concerning himselfe he be neglected by him vvho mercifully admonisheth and desireth him that both fall not into the pit which the foole would not avoid And when the skilfullest Priest that is hath done his best S. Cyprian will tell them that to him that repenteth to him that worketh to him that prayeth the Lord of his mercie can grant a pardon hee can make good that which for such men eyther the Martyrs shall request or the Priest shall doe If we inquire who they were that first assumed unto themselves this exorbitant power of forgiving sins we are like to finde them in the Tents of the ancient hereticks and schismaticks who promised unto others libertie when they themselves were the servants of corruption How manie saith S. Hierom which have neyther bread nor apparell when they themselves are hungry and naked and neyther have spirituall meates nor preserve the coate of Christ intire yet promise unto others food and rayment and being full of wounds themselves bragge that they be physicians and doe not observe that of Moses Exod. 4.13 Provide another vvhom thou mayest send that other commandement Ecclesiastic 7.6 Doe not seeke to be made a Iudge lest peradventure thou be not able to take away iniquitie It is Iesus alone who healeth all sicknesses and infirmities of vvhom it is written Psalm 147.4 He healeth the contrite in heart and bindeth up their soares Thus farre S. Hierom. The Rhemists in their marginall note upon Luke 7.49 tell us that as the Pharisees did alwayes carp Christ for remission of sinnes in earth so the Hereticks reprehend his Church that remitteth sinnes by his authoritie But S. Augustin treating upon the selfe same place might have taught them that hereby the bewrayed themselves to be the off spring of Hereticks rather then children of the Church For whereas our Saviour there had said unto the penitent woman Thy sinnes are forgiven and they that sate at meate with him began to say within themselves Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also S. Augustin first compareth their knowledge and the knowledge of the woman thus together Shee knew that hee could forgive sinnes but they knew that a man could not forgive sinnes And wee are to beleeve that all that is both they which sat at table and the woman which came to our Lords feet they all knew that a man could not forgive sinnes Seeing all therefore knew this shee who beleeved that hee could forgive sinnes understood him to be more then a man and a little after That doe you know well that doe you hold well saith that learned Father Hold that a man cannot forgive sinnes Shee who beleeved that her sinnes were forgiven her by Christ beleeved that Christ was not only man but God also Then doth hee proceede to compare the knowledge of the Iewes then with the opinion of the Heretickes in his dayes Herein saith he the Pharisee was better then these men for when he did thinke that Christ was a man he did not beleeve that sinnes could be forgiven by a man It appeared therefore that the Iewes had better understanding then the Hereticks The Iewes said Who is this that forgiveth sinnes also Dare a man challenge this to himselfe What saith the Heretick on the other side I do forgive I doe cleanse I doe sanctifie Let Christ answer him not I O man when I was thought by the Iewes to bee a man I ascribed the forgivenesse of sinnes to faith Not I but Christ doth answer thee O Heretick Thou when thou art but a man sayest Come woman I doe make the safe I when I was thought to be but a man said Goe woman thy faith hath made thee safe The Hereticks at whom S. Augustin here aymeth were the Donatists whom Optatus also before him did thus roundly take up for the same presumption Vnderstand at length that you are servants and not Lords And if the Church be a vineyard and men be appointed to be dressers of it why doe you rush into the dominion of the housholder Why doe you challenge unto your selves that which is Gods Give leave unto God to performe the things that belong unto himselfe For that gift cannot be given by man which is divine If you think so you labour to frustrate the words of the Prophets the promises of God by which it is proved that God washeth away sinne and not man It is noted likewise by Theodoret of the Audian hereticks that they bragged they did forgive sinnes The maner of Confession which he saith was used among them was not much unlike that which Alvarus Pelagius acknowledgeth to have beene the usuall practise of them that made greatest profession of religion and learning in his time For scarce at all saith hee or very seldome doth any of them confesse otherwise then in generall termes scarce doe they ever specifie any grievous sinne What they say one day that they say another as if every day they did offend alike The maner of Absolution was the same with that which Theodoricus de Niem noteth to have beene practised by the pardoners sent abroad by Pope Boniface the ninth who released all sinnes to them that confessed without any penance or repentance affirming that they had for their warrant in so doing all that power which Christ gave unto
Peter of binding and loosing upon earth just as Theodoret reporteth the Audians were wont to doe who presently after confession graunted remission not prescribing a time for repentance as the lawes of the Church did require but giving pardon by authoritie The lawes of the Church prescribed a certaine time unto Penitents wherein they should give proofe of the soundnesse of their repentance and gave order that afterwards they should be forgiven and comforted lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch heavinesse So that first their penance was injoyned unto them and thereby they were held to be bound after performance whereof they received their absolution by which they were loosed againe But the Audian hereticks without anie such triall taken of their repentance did of their owne heads give them absolution presently upon their confession as the Popish Priests use to doe now a dayes Onely the Audians had one ridiculous ceremonie more then the Papists that having placed the Canonicall bookes of Scripture upon one side and certaine Apocryphall writings on the other they caused their followers to passe betwixt them and in their passing to make confession of their sinnes as the Papists another idle practise more then they that after they have given absolution they injoyne penance to the partie absolved that is to say as they of old would have interpreted it they first loose him and presently after binde him which howsoever they hold to be done in respect of the temporall punishment remayning due after the remission of the fault yet it appeareth plainly that the penitentiall workes required in the ancient Church had reference to the fault it selfe and that no absolution was to be expected from the Minister for the one before all reckonings were ended for the other Onely where the danger of death was imminent the case admitted some exception reconciâ—iation being not denied indeed unto them that desired it at such a time yet so granted that it was left verie doubtfull whether it would stand the parties in anie great stead or no. If any one being in the last extremitie of his sicknesse saith S. Augustin is willing to receive penance and â—oth receive it and is presently reconciled and departeth hence I confesse unto you wee doe not denie him that which hee asketh but wee doe not presume that he goeth well from hence I doe not presume I deceive you not I doe not presume Hee who putteth off his penance to the last and is reconciled whether hee goeth secure from hence I am not secure Penance I can give him securitie I cannot give him Doe I say hee shall be damned I say not so But doe I say also he shall be freed No. What doest thou then say unto mee I know not I presume not I promise not I know not Wilt thou free thy selfe of the doubt wilt thou escape that which is uncertaine Doe thy penance while thou art in health The penance which is asked for by the infirme man is infirme The penance which is asked for onely by him that is a dying I feare lest it also dye But with the matter of penance we have not here to deale those formal absolutions and pardons of course immediately granted upon the hearing of mens confessions is that which wee charge the Romish Priests to have learned from the Audian hereticks Some require penance to this end that they might presently have the communion restored unto them these men desire not so much to loose themselves as to binde the Priest saith S. Ambrose If this be true that the Priest doth binde himselfe by his hastie and unadvised loosing of others the case is like to go hard with our Popish Priests who ordinarily in bestowing their absolutions use to make more hast then good speed Wherein with how little judgement they proceed who thus take upon them the place of Iudges in mens consciences may sufficiently appeare by this that whereas the maine ground whereupon they would build the necessitie of Auricular confession and the particular enumeration of all knowne sinnes is pretended to be this that the ghostly Father having taken notice of the cause may judge righteous judgement and discerne who should be bound and who should be loosed the matter yet is so carried in this court of theirs that everie man commonly goeth away with his absolution and all sorts of people usually receive one and the selfe same iudgement If thou seperate the pretious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth saith the Lord. Whose mouth then may we hold them to be who seldome put anie difference betweene these and make it their ordinarie practise to pronounce the same sentence of absolution aswell upon the one as upon the other If we would know how late it was before this trade of pardoning mens sinnes after this maner was established in the Church of Rome wee cannot discover this better then by tracing out the doctrine publickly taught in that Church touching this matter from the time of Satans loosing untill his binding againe by the restoring of the puritie of the Gospell in our dayes And here Radulphus Ardens doth in the first place offer himselfe who toward the beginning of that time preached this for sound divinitie The power of releasing sinnes belongeth to God alone But the ministery which improperly also is called a power hee hath granted unto his substitutes who after their maner doe binde and absolve that is to say doe declare that men are bound or absolved For God doth first inwardly absolve the sinner by compunction and then the Priest outwardly by giving the sentence doth declare that he is absolved Which is well signified by that of Lazarus who first in the grave was raysed up by the Lord and afterward by the ministery of the disciples was loosed from the bands wherewith he was tyed Then follow both the Anselmes ours of Canterbury and the other of Laon in France who in their expositions upon the ninth of S. Matthew cleerely teach that none but God alone can forgive sinnes Ivo Bishop of Chartres writeth that by inward contrition the inward judge is satisfied and therefore without delay forgivenesse of the sinne is granted by him unto whom the inward conversion is manifest but the Church because it knoweth not the hidden things of the heart doth not loose him that is bound although he be raysed up untill hee be brought out of the tombe that is to say purged by publick satisfaction and if presently upon the inward conversion God be pleased to forgive the sinne the absolution of the Priest which followeth cannot in anie sort properly be accounted a remission of that sinne but a further manifestation onely of the remission formerly granted by God himselfe The Master of the Sentences after him having propounded the diverse opinions of the Doctors touching this point demandeth at last In this so great varietie what is to be held and returneth for
labouâ—ed in vaine 1. Thessal 2.19 For what is our hope or joy or crowne of rejoycing are not even yee in the presence of our Lord Iesus Christ at his comming 1. Pet. 1. â— Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation readie to be revealed in the last time 1. Corinth 5.5 That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Iâ—sus Ephes. 4.30 Grieve not the holy spirit of God whereby yee are sealed unto the day of redemption Luk. 21.28 When these things beginne to come to passe then looke up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh 2. Timoth. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righâ—eousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day and Luk. 14.14 Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just And that the Church in her Offices for the dead had speciall respect unto this time of the Resurrection appeareth plainly both by the portions of Scripture appointed to be read therein and by diverse particulars in the prayers themselves that manifestly discover this intention For there the ministers as the writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy reporteth read those undoubted promises vvhich are recorded in the divine Scriptures of our holy ResurrectioÌ„ and then devoutly sang such of the sacred Psalmes as were of the same subject and argument And so accordingly in the Romane Missall the lessons ordained to be read for that time are taken from 1. Corinth 15. Behold I tell you a mysterie Wee shall all rise againe c. Ioh. 5. The houre commeth wherein all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life c. 1. Thessal 4. Brethren we would not have you ignorant concerning them that sleepe that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope Ioh. 11. I am the resurrection and the life he that beleeveth in me although he were dead shall live 2. Maccab. 12. Iudas caused a sacrifice to be offered for the sinnes of the dead justly and religiously thinking of the Resurrection Ioh. 6. This is the will of my Father that sent me that every one that seeth the Sonne and beleeveth in him may have life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life everlasting and I will raise him up at the last day and lastly Apocal. 14. I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth now saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours for their workes follow them Wherewith the Sequence also doth agree beginning Dies irae dies illa Solvet saeclum in favillâ Teste David cum Sibyllâ and ending Lacrymosa dies illa Quâ resurget ex favillâ Iudicandus homo reus Huic ergo parce Deus Pie Iesu Domine Dona eis requiem Tertullian in his booke de Monogamiâ which hee wrote after hee had beene infected with the heresie of the Montanists speaking of the prayer of a widow for the soule of her deceased husband saith that she requesteth refreshing for him and a portion in the first resurrection Which seemeth to have some tang of the error of the Millenaries whereunto not Tertullian onely with his Prophet Montanus but Nepos also and Lactantius and diverse other Doctors of the Church did fall who misunderstanding the prophecie in the 20. of the Revelation imagined that there should be a first resurrection of the just that should raigne here a thousand yeares upon earth and after that a second resurrection of the wicked at the day of the general judgement Yet in a certaine Gotthicke Missall I meet with two severall exhortations made unto the people to pray after the selfe same forme the one that God would vouchsafe to place in the bosome of Abraham the soules of those that be at rest and admit them unto the part of the first resurrectioÌ„ the other which I find elsewhere also repeated in particular that he would place in rest the spirits of their friends which were gone before them in the Lords peace and rayse them up in the part of the first resurrection Which how it may be excused otherwise then by saying that at the generall resurrection the dead in Christ shall rise fiâ—st and then the wicked shall be raysed after them and by referring the first resurrection unto the resurrection of the just which shall be at that day I cannot well resolve For certaine it is that the first râ—surrection spoken of in the 20. chapter of the Revelation of S. Iohn is the resuâ—rection of the soule from the death of sinne and error in this world as the second is the resurrection of the bodie out of the dust of the earth in the world to come both whiâ—h be distinctly layd down by our Saviour in the fift chapter of the Gospell of S. Iohn the first in the 25. verse The houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live the second in the 28. and 29. Marveile not at this for the houre is comming in which all that are in the graves shall heare his voyce and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation And to this generall resurrection and to the judgement of the last day had the Church relation in her prayers some patternes whereof it will not be amisse to exhibit here in these examples following Although the condition of death brought in upon mankinde doth make our hearts and mindes heavy yet by the gift of thy clemencie we are raised up with the hope of future immortalitie and being mindfull of eternall salvation are not afraid to sustaine the losse of this light For by the benefite of thy grace life is not taken away to the faithful but changed and the soules being freed from the prison of the body abhorre things mortall when they attaine unto things eternall Wherefore we beseech thee that thy servant N. being placed in the tabernacles of the blessed may rejoyce that he hath escaped the straytes of the flesh and in the desire of glorification expect with confidence the day of Iudgement Through Iesus Christ our Lord. whose holy passion we celebrate without doubt for immortall and well resting soules for them especially upon whom thou hast bestowed the grace of the second birth who by the example of the same Iesus Christ our Lord have begunne to be secure of the resurrection For thou vvho hast made the things that were not art able to repaire the things that were and hast given unto us evidences of the resurrection to come not onely by the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but also by the
by vertue of the first creation Against which S. Augustine thus opposeth himselfe Why is there so much presumed of the possibilitie of nature It is wounded it is maimed it is vexed it is lost It hath need of a true confession not of a false defence And Prosper speaking of the state of mans free-will after Adams fall hinc arbitrium per devia lapsum Claudicat caecis conatibus inque ligatis Motus inest non error abest manet ergo voluntas Semper amans aliquid quò se ferat labyrintho Fallitur ambages dubiarum ingressa viarum Vana cupit vanis tumet timet omnimodaque Mobilitate ruens in vulnera vulnere surgit Secondly by grace he understood the grace of doctrine and instruction whereby the minde was informed in the truth out of the word of God Which by Prosper is thus objected to his followers aliud non est vobiscum gratia quà m lex Quamque Propheta monens quà m doctrina ministri Unto whom S. Augustine therefore saith well Let them reade and understand let them behold and confesse that not by the law and doctrine sounding outwardly but by an inward and hidden by a wonderfull and unspeakable power God doth worke in the hearts of men not only true revelations but good wills also And thereupon the African Fathers in the Councell of Carthage enacted this Canon Whosoever shall say that the grace of God by Iesus Christ our Lord doth for this cause only helpe us not to sinne because by it the understanding of the commandements is revealed and opened unto us that we may know what we ought to affect what to shunne that by it there is not wrought in us that we may also love and be inabled to doe that which we know should be done let him be anathema Thirdly under this grace he comprehended not only the externall revelation by the word but also the internall by the illumination of Gods Spirit Whereupon he thus riseth up against his adversarie We confesse that this grace is not as thou thinkest in the Law only but in the helpe of God also For God doth helpe us by his doctrine and revelation whilest he openeth the eyes of our hearts whilest he sheweth us things to come that we be not holden with things present whilest he discovereth the snares of the Devill whilest he enlightneth us with the manifold and unspeakable gift of his heavenly grace He that saith these things doth he seeme unto thee to denie grace or doth he confesse both the free-will of man and the grace of God too And yet in all this as S. Augustine rightly noteth he doth but confesse that grace whereby God doth shew and reveale what we ought to doe not that whereby he doth grant and helpe that we may doe And therefore in other places of his writings he plainly affirmeth that our very prayers are to be used for nothing but this that the doctrine may be opened unto us by divine revelation not that the minde of man may be holpen that he may also accomplish by love and action that which he hath learned should be done Fourthly to these he further added the grace of remission of sins For the Pelagians said that mans nature which was made with free-will might be sufficient to enable us that we might not sinne and that we might fulfill righteousnesse and that this is the grace of God that we were so made that we might doe this by our will and that he hath given us the helpe of his law and commandements and that he doth pardon the sinnes past to those that are converted unto him that in these things only the grace of God was to be acknowledged and not in the helpe given unto all our singular actions And so they said that that grace of God which is given by the faith of Iesus Christ which is neither law nor nature is effectuall only to his that sinnes past may be remitted not that sinnes to come may be avoided or when they make resistance may be vanquished Whereupon S. Augustine thus encountreth Iulian the Pelagian hereticke Thou according to your custome which descendeth from your error dost not acknowledge grace but in the remission of sinnes that now from henceforth a man himselfe by his free-will may make himselfe righteous But so saith not the Church which all cryeth that which it hath learned from a good master Lead us not into temptation Lastly this was the common doctrine of the Pelagians and accounted to be one of the principall blasphemies of that sect that they held the grace of God to be given according to mens merits Which was so abhorring from the Catholicke doctrine and opposite to the grace of Christ that when it was objected to Pelagius in the Diospolitan Synod held in Palaestina by the Bishops of the East he durst not avow it but was forced to accurse it lest otherwise he should have beene accursed himselfe But that he deceitfully cursed it the books wriâ—ten by him afterwards doe shew wherein he defendeth nothing else but that the grace of God is given according to our merits which Prosper treading in S. Augustines steps doth thus expresse Objectum est aliud ipsum dixisse magistrum Quòd meritis hominum tribuatur gratia Christi Quantum quisque Dei donis se fecerit aptum Sed nimis adversum hoc fidei nimiumque repugnans Esse videns dixit se non ita credere illos Damnari dignos quorum mens ista teneret Quo cernis cum Iudicibus damnantibus ista Consensisse reum nec quenquam haec posse tueri Quae tamen ipse suis rursum excoluisse libellis Detegitur reprobum in sensum fallendo reversus And in this also did the Pelagians betake themselves unto their old coverts of the grace of nature the grace of mercy in forgiving of sinnes the grace of instruction and revelation and such other shifts For when it is demanded of them saith S. Augustine what grace Pelagius did thinke was given without any precedent merits when he anathematized those who say that the grace of God is given according to our merits they answer that the grace which is without any precedent merits is the humane nature it selfe wherein we are created forasmuch as before we were we could not deserve any thing that we might be Then afterward perceiving what an idle thing it was to confound grace and nature thus together they said that the only grace which was not according to our merits was that whereby a man had his sinnes forgiven him for they did not thinke that a sinner could rightly be said to merit any thing save Gods displeasure But that at which they all aymed in generall was this that Grace was only a kinde of Mistresse to Free-will and that by exhortations by the law by doctrine by the creatures by contemplation by miracles and
462.463 edit Colon. An. 1589. in the Romane Sacerdotall part 1. tract 5. cap. 13. fol. 116. edit Venet. An. 1585. in the booke intituled Sacra institutio Baptizandi juxta ritum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae ex decreto Concilij Tridentini restituta c. printed at Paris in the yeere 1575. and in a like booke intituled Ordo Baptizandi cum Modo visitandi printed at Venice the same yeere out of which the Spanish Inquisitors as well in their New as in their Old Expurgatory Index the one set out by Cardinall Quiroga in the yeere 1584. the other by the Cardinall of Sandoval and Roxas in the yeere 1612. command these interrogatories to be blotted out Dost thou beleeve to come to glory not by thine owne merits but by the vertue and merit of the passion of our Lord Iesus Christ and Dost thou beleeve that our Lord Iesus Christ did die for our salvation and that none can be saved by his owne merits or by any other meanes but by the merit of his passion Whereby we may observe how late it is since our Romanists in this maine and most substantiall point which is the very foundation of all our comfort have most shamefully departed from the faith of their fore-fathers In other copies of this same Instruction which are followed by Cassander Vlenbergius and Cardinall Hosius himselfe the last question propounded to the sicke man is this Dost thou beleeve that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ Whereunto when he hath made answer affirmatively he is presently directed to make use thereof in this manner Goe too therefore as long as thy soule remaineth in thee place thy whole confidence in this death only have confidence in no other thing commit thy selfe wholly to this death with this alone cover thy selfe wholly intermingle thy selfe wholly in this death fasten thy selfe wholly wrap thy whole selfe in this death And if the Lord God will judge thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt mee and thy judgement no otherwise doe I contend with thee And if he say unto thee that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of the Lord Iesus Christ betwixt thee and my sinnes If he say unto thee that thou hast deserved damnation say Lord I set the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and my bad merits and I offer his merit in stead of the merit which I ought to have but yet have not If he say that he is angrie with thee say Lord I interpose the death of our Lord Iesus Christ betwixt me and thine anger Adde hereunto the following sentences of the Doctors of these latter ages We cannot suffer or bring in any thing worthy of the reward that shall be saith Oecumenius So Petrus Blesensis Archdeacon of Bathe No trouble can be endured in this vitall death which is able equally to answer the joyes of heaven and Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury more fully before him If a man should serve God a thousand yeeres and that most fervently he should not deserve of condignitie to be halfe a day in the Kingdome of heaven Radulphus Ardens expounding those words of the Parable Matth. 20.13 Didst not thou agree with me for a peny Let no man out of these words saith he thinke that God is as it were tied by agreement to pay that which he hath promised For as God is free to promise so is he free to pay especially seeing as well merits as rewards are his grace For God doth crowne nothing else in us but his owne grace who if hee would deale strictly with us no man living should be justified in his sight Whereupon the Apostle who laboured more than all saith I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore this agreement is nothing else but Gods voluntary promise And doe not wonder saith he in another Sermon if I call the merits of the just graces for as the Apostle witnesseth we have nothing which we have not received from God and that freely But because by one grace we come unto another they are called merits but improperly For as Augustine witnesseth God crowneth only his owne grace in us So Rupertus Tuitiensis The greatnesse or the eternitie of the heavenly glorie is not a matter of merit but of grace The same doth Bernardus Morlanensis expresse in these rhythmicall verses of his Vrbs Sion inclyta patria condita littore tuto Te peto te colo te flagro te volo canto saluto Nec meritis peto nam meritis meto morte perire Nec reticens tego quòd meritis ego filius irae Vita quidem mea vita nimis rea mortua vita Quippe reatibus exitialibus obruta trita Spe tamen ambulo praemia postulo speque fideque Illa perennia postulo praemia nocte dieque But Bernard of Claraevalle aboue others delivereth this doctrine most sweetly It is necessary saith hee that first of all thou shouldest beleeve that thou canst not have remission of sinnes but by the mercie of God then that thou canst not at all have any whit of a good worke unlesse he likewise give it thee lastly that by no workes thou canst merit eternall life unlesse that also be freely given unto thee Otherwise if wee will properly name those which wee call our merits they be certaine seminaries of hope incitements of love signes of secret predestination foretokens of future happinesse the way to the kingdome not the cause of reigning Dangerous is the dwelling of them that trust in their merits dangerous because ruinous For this is the whole merit of man if hee put all his trust in him who saveth the whole man Therefore my merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as he is not poore in mercie and if the mercies of the Lord be many my merits also are many With which that passage of the Manuall falsly fathered upon S. Augustine doth accord so justly that the one appeareth to be plainly borrowed from the other All my hope is in the death of my Lord. His death is my merit my refuge my salvation life and resurrection My merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poore in merit so long as that Lord of mercies shall not faile and as long as his mercies are much much am I in merits Neither are the testimonies of the Schoolemen wanting in this cause For where God is affirmed to give the kingdome of heaven for good merits or good works some made here a difference betwixt pro bonis meritis and propter bona merita The former they said did note a signe or a way or some occasion and in that sense they admitted the proposition But according to the latter expression they would not receive it because