to speak at all, of the weakness of that consequence, (the word hath been taken figuratively, therefore it must never return to a literal sense) which will hold as well, that because Christ is called porta, a gate, therefore when Samson is said to have carried a gate, Samson must be a Christopher, and carry Christ; and because Christ is a vine, and a way, and water, and bread, wheresoever any of these words are, they must be intended of Christ; not to stand upon the argument and inconsequence, I say, this word baptism, hath not that signification, which he would have it have here, in any of those other places of Scripture, which he cites to this purpose.

They are but two, and may quickly be considered; the first is, when Christ asks the ambitious apostles, Are ye able to drink of the cup, that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism, that I shall be baptized with? The second is in St. Luke3, I must be baptized with a baptism, and how am I grieved, till it be ended. In both which places, Christ doth understand by this word baptism, his passion; that is true: and so ordinarily in the Christian church, as the days of the death of the martyrs were called Natalitia martyrum, The birth-days of the martyrs; so martyrdom itself, was called a baptism, Baptisma sanguinis, The baptism of blood; that is also true; but what then? was the passion of Christ himself, such an affliction, as Bellarmine speaks of here, and argues from in this place, that is, an ̄affliction so inflicted upon himself, and undertaken by himself, as that then when he did bear it, he might have forborne it, and refused to bear it? Though nothing were more voluntary than Christ's submitting himself to that decree of dying for man, yet when that decree was passed, to which he had a privity, nothing was more necessary, nor unavoidable to any man, than the death of the cross was to Christ, neither could he, not only not have saved us, but not have been exalted in his human nature himself, if he had not died that death; for all that was wrapped up in the decree, and from that grew out, the propterea exaltatus, and the oportuit pati, that all those things Christ ought to suffer, and therefore, therefore because he did suffer all that, he was exalted. And will Bellarmine say, that the martyrdom of the martyrs in

2 * Matt. xx. 22.

3 Luke xii. 50.

the Primitive church was so voluntarily sustained, as that they might have forsaken the cause of Christ, and refused martyrdom, and yet have been saved, and satisfied the purpose, or the commandment of God upon them?

If from us Bellarmine will not hear it, let him hear a man of his own profession; not only of his own religion, but so narrowly of his own profession, as to have been a public reader of divinity in a great university as well as he; and he says, Sunt aliqui recentiores, qui baptizari interpretantur affligi; There are some, says he, not all, nor the most, and therefore it is not so manifest a place; Sunt aliqui recentiores, There are some of the later men, says he, not of the fathers, or expositors in the Primitive church, and therefore it is not so reverend, and uncontrolable an opinion; but only some few later men there are, says he, that think that baptism in this place is to be understood of affliction. But, says the same doctor, it is an interpretation valde figurata, et rara, wholly relying upon a figure, and a figure very rarely used; so rarely, says he, Ut non ab alio, quam à Christo usurpetur, That never any but Christ, in the Scriptures, called affliction, baptism.

So that it lacks thus much of being a manifest proof for purgatory, as Bellarmine pretends, that it is neither the common sense, but of a few; nor the ancient sense, but of a few later men; nor a sense obvious, and ordinary, and literal, but figurative, and that figure not communicated to others, but only applied by Christ, and appropriated to his passion, which was not a passion so undergone, as that then when he suffered it, he might have refused it, which is necessary for that doctrine, which Bellarmine would evict from it.

But because Bellarmine, in whom, perchance, the spirit of a cardinal hath not overcome the spirit of a Jesuit, will admit no competition, nor diversity of opinion, except it be from one of his own order, we have Justinian, a man refined in that order, a Jesuit as well as he, an Italian, and so hath his natural and national refining as well as he, and one, whose books are dedicated to the pope as well as his, and so hath had an oraculous refining, by an allowance oraculo viva vocis, by the breath of life, the oracle of truth, the pope's approbation, as well as he, and thus much better,

4 Estius.

that Justinian's never were, but Bellarmine's books have been threatened by the inquisition, and Justinian never was, but Bellarmine had been put to his retractations; and he says only this of this place, Aliqui referunt ad corporis vexationes, pro mortuis, some men refer these words to bodily afflictions, sustained by men alive, for the dead; Et hæc sententia multis vehementer probatur, says he, this interpretation hath much delighted, and satisfied many men: Sed potest dici, says he, by their leaves, this may be said, if St. Paul ask, why do men afflict themselves, in the behalf of them that are dead? it may be answered, says he, that if they do so, they are fools in doing so. St. Paul intends certainly, to prove the resurrection by these words; neither, says he, could the resurrection of the body be proved by all St. Paul's argument, if that were admitted to be the right sense of the place; for what were all this to the resurrection of the body, which is St. Paul's scope, and purpose in the place, If men were baptized, that is, (as Bellarmine would have it) if they did suffer voluntarily, and unnecessarily affliction for the dead, that is, to deliver their souls out of purgatory; what would all this conduce to the proof of the resurrection of the body?

But that we may have a witness against him, in all his capacities, as we have produced one, as he is a Jesuit, and another equal to him, as he was public professor, so to consider him as a cardinal, (for, as a cardinal, Bellarmine hath changed his opinion in some things that he held, before he was hoodwinked with his hat) to consider him therefore so, we have a witness against him, in the consistory, Cardinal Cajetan, who finds no baptism of tears, nor penance in these words, no application of any affliction sustained voluntarily by the living, in the behalf and contemplation of the dead, but adhering to that, which is truly the purpose of the apostle, to prove the resurrection of the body, he says, In hoc quod merguntur sub aqua, mortuos gerunt, When in baptism, they are, as it were, buried under the water, (as the form of baptizing was then by immersion of the whole body, and not only by aspersion upon the face) they are, says he, buried for dead, presented by the church, as dead in Christ; Et in hoc, quod ad hoc merguntur, ut emergant, agunt mortuorum resurrectionem; in this, that they are therefore buried under water, because they may be

raised above water again, in this they represent the resurrection. of the dead. So in the act of baptism literally, and sacramentally taken, that cardinal hath found an evident argument, and proof of the resurrection. And then, in the next words, he hath found, that that which is done in this action, is done for him, that doth it, and not with relation to any other; In hoc quod se profitentur mortuos mundo, agunt mortuos, In this, that in the act of baptism, they profess themselves to be dead to the world, they are baptized for dead, and in this, says he, that they profess themselves to be dead to the world in baptism, therefore that by that baptism they may rise to a newness of life, Profitentur resurrectionem mortuorum, they profess the resurrection of the dead: and this destroys utterly the purpose of Bellarmine in these words, because the baptism spoken of here, be it a sacramental baptism literally, or a disciplinary baptism, metaphysically, yet is a baptism determined, for the benefit thereof, upon him that is baptized, and not extended to the dead in purgatory.

Since then it is the exposition of a few only, alii dicunt, aliqui dicunt, others have said so, some few have said so, and those few are late men, new men, and of those new men, Jesuits, and readers, and cardinals have differed from that opinion, this Jesuit, and reader, and Cardinal Bellarmine needed not to have made that victorious acclamation, Hic locus, we desire no more than this place, for the evident proof of purgatory. Much less did it become that lesser man, that Minorite friar, Feuardentius, who for name's sake, (it seems, for his name is burning fire) is so overvehement for this place, in defence of purgatory, to pronounce so peremptorily, for this interpretation of this text, Qui huic sententiæ concordat, Catholicus, qui discordat, hæreticus est; he that interprets these words thus, is a Catholic, and he is an heretic that interprets them otherwise. For thus, he leaves out the fathers themselves out of the ark, and makes them heretics; and howsoever they pretend peace amongst themselves, he proclaims, at least discovers a war amongst themselves, for they are of themselves, whom he calls heretics. Indeed, Quis restitit Domino, et pacem habuits? who ever resisted the truth of God's word, and brought in expositions to serve turns, and had peace amongst them

5 Job ix. 4.

selves? When they went about this building of purgatory, they thought not of that counsel, When you build, sit down before, and count the cost, lest men mock you"; they never considered how they were provided of materials, what they had from the prophets, what from the Evangelists, what from the apostles, for the building of this purgatory: they had the disease of our times; if they might build, they thought it a profitable course; if they could raise a purgatory, they were sure they could gain by it; but neither had they leave to build, that is, to erect new articles of faith, neither had they wherewithal; and therefore being destitute of the foundation of all, the Scriptures of God, and having raked together some straws, and sticks, ends of poetry, and philosophy, and some rubbish of the Manichees, they have made such a work under ground, as their predecessors made above ground, in the Tower of Babel, in which they understand not one another, but are in a confusion amongst themselves, Quia restiterunt Domino, and who ever resisted the Lord, and had peace?

Thus far we have proceeded in rescuing these words, from their captivity, from the enemy, that enforced them to testify for purgatory. And, according to my understanding of St. Hierome's rule, who says, that in interpreting of Scriptures, he ever proposed to himself Necessitatem, et perspicuitatem, the necessity being (as I take it) the redeeming of the words from the ill interpretation of heretics, which we have now done; for the perspicuity, and clearness, you shall see first, how the ancients, before they suspected any ill use of them for purgatory, received them, and then how the later men, after they had been misapplied for purgatory, interpret them all which I shall propose with as much clearness as I can, as taking myself bound thereunto, by that other rule of the same father, Qui per me intellecturus est apostolum, nolo ut ad interpretem cognoscendum, alium quærat interpretem, I would not have them, who come hither to understand the apostle from me, be put to seek help from others, to understand me; when I must tell them what St. Paul meant, I would not have them put to ask what I meant; and therefore as far as the matter will bear it, I would speak plainly to every capacity.

Luke xiv. 28.