Three Pillars and Arch-patriarchs of the Popish Synagogues, Treatise 1 · Book 3 · Part 15
Hesk.The fifteenth Chapter prouing all our sacraments generally to be more excellent then the sacraments of Moses.
Fulk.First baptisme in respect of The noble presence of God the Father, the Sonne, and the holy Ghost, must bring with it some more noble gift, then a bare signe or token. See howe this impudent beast would make Popish fooles beleeue, that we teach baptisme to be nothing else, but a bare signe or token. We thinke and speake of it, as honourably as the scripture teacheth vsus. Let the forme of baptisme vsed in the Church of England testifie, whether we make it nothing but a bare signe or token. Let our catechismies of al sorts beare witnesse of the same. But nothing will stop a slanderous mouth. Yet to aunswere the title of that Chapter, S. Augustine is cited, contra Faust. lib. 19. cap. 13. Prima sacramēta &c. The first sacraments, which were obserued & celebrated by the lawe, were the foreshewing of Christ, that was to come, which when he had fulfilled by his cōming, they were taken away, & therfore they were taken away, bicause they were fulfilled. For he came not to breake the law, but to fulfill it. And other are instituted greater in power, better in profite, easier to be done, fewer in number.
Maister Heskins asketh wherein bee they greater in power, but in this that the sacramenets of the olde lawe had no power but to signifie onelyonly, oures not onelyonly to signifie, but also to giuegive that they signifie? And I will aske him, seeing he maketh the sacraments instruments of Gods grace, by what instrument did they receiue the grace of God, if they receiued it not by the sacraments? But Augustine, as I hauehave often shewed before, is farre from M. Heskins iudgement, wherefore in this place against the Manichees, which denyed the olde testament, he sheweth the abrogation of those rites, not bicause they were euill, but bicause their time was expired, and they fulfilled in Christ: who hath instituted newe sacraments, more effectuall and more profitable, bicause according to the doctrine whereof they be seales, they doe more liuely strengthen the faith of the receiuers, in respect of the mysterie of redemption already accomplished, then those olde sacraments did, which obscurely and darkely preached vntounto the receiuers yt redemption, which was not accomplished in acte, yet was as effectuall in power, for their saluation. And that this is Augustines minde, it appeareth plainely in that which followeth immediately in the same booke, 14. Chapter. Veruntamen si antiqui iusti, qui sacramentis illis intelligebant venturam pręnunciari reuelationem fidei: ex qua, licèt adhuc operta & abscondita munera pietatis tamen intellecta, etiam ipsi viuebant quia in hac vita nemo esse potest iustus, nisi qui ex fide viuit. Neuerthelesse, if those auncient righteous men, which by those sacraments vnderstood the reuelation of faith that was to come to be foreshewed, by which, although the giftes of godlinesse were yet couered and hid, were notwithstanding vnderstoode, euen they also did liue: bicause in this life no man can be righteous, but he that liueth by faith.
And afterward in the same Chapter. Tunc ergo & occulta erat fides: Nam eadem credebant, eadémque sperabant omnes iusti & sancti etiam temporum illorum, & promissiua erant illa omnia sacramenta, omnis que vitus ille sacrorum, nunc autem reuelata est fides, in quam conclusus erat populus quando sub lege custodi…batur, & quod fidelibus promittitur in indicio, iam completum est in example, per …, qui legem & Prophetas non venit soluere, fed adimplere. Then therefore saith was hid, for all the iust and holy men euen of those times beleeued the same thinges, and hoped for the same things, and all the sacraments and holy ceremonies of those times conteined promises, but nowe that faith is reuealed, into which the people was inclosed while they were kept vnderunder the lawe, & that which is promised to the faithfull in iudgement, is already accomplished in the example, by him which came not to breake the lawe and the Prophetes, but to fulfill them. And following the same matter in the 16. Cap. Interim aduersus calumniosam imperitiam Fausti demonstrare suffecerit, quanto errore delirent, qui putent signis sacramentis que mutatis, etiam res ipsas esse diuersas, quas ritus Propheticus pręnuncianis promissas, & quas ritus Euangelicus annunciauit impletas: aut qui censent cum res eaedem sins, non eas alijs sacramentis annunciari debuisse completas, quaem his quibus adhuc complendae praenunciabaentur. Si enim soni verborum, quibus loquimur pro tempore commutantur, eadémque res aliter enunciatur facienda, ali…er facta, sicus ista ipsa duo verba quae dixi, Facienda & Facta, nec paribus morarum interuallis, nec ijsdem vel totidem literis sillabisue sonu… runt: quid mirum si alijs mysteriorum signaculis Passio & Resurrectio Christi futura promissa est, alijs iam facta annunciatur? quandoquidem ipsa verba futurum & factum, passurus & passus, resurrecturus & resurrexit, nec tendi aequaliter, nec similiter fon…re potuerunt. In the meane time against the slaunderous vnskilfulnesse of Faustus, it shall suffice to shewe, in howe great errour they doate, which thinke, that the signes and sacraments being chaunged, the thinges them selues bee diuers, which the Propheticall ceremonie foreshewed to be promised, and which the ceremonie of the Gospel hath declared to be fulfilled, or which thinke, that seeing the thinges be the same, they should not hauehave bene declared to be fulfilled alredy by other sacraments, then those by which they were foreshewed as yet to be fulfilled in time to come. For if the sound of wordes which we vse in speaking, are changed according to the time, & the same thing is pronounced otherwise when it shal be done, & otherwise when it is done, as these two very wordes which I spake it shalbe done, and it is done, hauehave not founded wt like distance of spaces, nor with the same or equal number of letters and sillables: what maruell is it if the passiō & resurrection of Christ was promised to come by other signes of mysteries, and is declared to be accomplished by other? Seeing the very words, that shalbe and that is done, he shal suffer and he hath suffered, he shall rise againe & he is risen againe, could neither be equally extended nor sound alike. Thou seest now by these places, in what respect he calleth our sacraments greater in vertue then the old sacraments: not that another thing is giuen in them, but ye same after a more cleare maner of reuelation. And consequently thou seest, how Christe is present in our sacramentes. But M. Hesk. wil confute vsus by the definition of a sacrament, which he saith by cōmon consent of learned men, to be this. A sacrament is a signe of an holie thing in such manner as it may beare the image, and be the cause. If we do admit this definition, being rightly vnderstood, what gaineth he thereby? Forsooth, that the sacrament is an instrumental cause by which God giueth grace. Wel, grant this, what then? Marie Then it is not a bare signe. Gods curse light on him, that teacheth Gods sacraments to be bare signes. And then sacraments giuegive grace. Nay M. Heskins holde you where you were before, God giueth grace by thē, but not Opere operato, of the worke wrought, which is all the question, but to the elect freely, for grace is called so, because it is freely giuen. After much quarelling about this definitiō, which is neither so cleare nor so perfect as yt which Aug. giueth. A sacrament is a visible signe of an inuisible grace. He cōmeth to a large text of August. In prol. Ps. 73. Opportune non, &c. It came to passe fitly, not by our, but by Gods disspensatiō, that we heard euen now out of the gospel, that the law was giuen by Moses, but grace & truth by Iesus Christ. For if we discern the two testamēts, the promises are not the same, yet most of the precepts are the same. Thou shalt not kil, Thou shalt not cōmit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Honor thy &c. Thou shalt beare no, &c. Thou shalt not co…et thy neighbors goods, thou shalt not couet thy neighbors wife is cōmanded to vsus, and who doth not obserue these things, goeth out of the way, & is not worthie at all to obteine the holie hill of God, of which it is said: Who shal dwel in thy tabernacle, or who shal rest in thy holie hil? He that is innocent of hands, & of a cleane hart. These things we say most deare brethrē, that you may al learn out of the new Testament, not to cleane to earthly things, but to obteine heauenly thinges. The precepts therefore beeing discussed, are found to be all the same, or else scarse any in the Gospel, which hauehave ben said of the prophets. The precepts are the same, the sacraments are not the same, the premises are not the same. Let vsus see wherfore the praecepts are the same: because that according to them we ought to serue God. The sacramentes are not the same, because they be other sacraments giuing saluation, other promising the sauiour. The sacramentes of the new Testament, do giuegive saluation: the sacramēts of the old Testament promised the sauiour. Therefore now that thou holdest the thinges promised, what seekest thou things promising the sauiour, now hauing him? I say, holdest the things promised not that we hauehave already receiued eternall life, but because Christe is already come, which was foreshewed by the prophets. The sacraments are changed, they are made easier fewer, holsomer. Notwithstanding the vain exclamation of M. Hesk. vponupon this place, (except we wil make S. August. contrarie to him selfe in ye places before alledged) we may plainly see, how he expoundeth himself in the latter end of this long passage, whereof the greatest part might altogether hauehave ben spared. Namely yt there is no difference in ye substance of our sacramēts frō theirs, but ye Christ is already come. And our sacraments do not giuegive saluation, as though we had eternal life deliuered by them in possession, but because Christ ye authour of eternal life, yt in the other was promised, is now come. Not yt grace in them was only promised, & not giuen for them. M. Hesk. own definition of a sacrament should be false, wherin he wil not allow any thing yt is superfluous, & much lesse vntrue. But M.H. is not content with this interpretation, saying yt S. Augustine compareth ye sacraments of the olde lawe to childrens trifles in ye same place: Numquid quiniam puero, &c. Because there are giuen to a childe certein childish playing trifles, by which the childish minde is called away, are they not therefore plucked out of his hands, when he waxeth a great one? No more therfore God, because he hath plucked away those things as childrens trifles, out of the handes of his sonnes by the new Testament, that he might giuegive thē something more proprofitable they beeing now waxed greater, is to be thought not to hauehave giuen those former things. Gentle Reader, I wish thee to turne ouer to this place in S. Augustine, and except thou be too much blinded in affection toward M. Hesk. thou wilt confesse that he hath aduouched a manifest vntruth, when yu shalt see that Augustine vttereth not these words of the sacraments of the olde Testament, but of the promises of earthly benefites, made vntounto the Fathers of those times. I can say no more, conferre and iudge.