A defense of the sincere and true translations of the holie Scriptures into the English tong against the manifolde cauils, friuolous quarels, and impudent slaunders of Gregorie Martin, one of the readers of popish diuinitie in the trayterous Seminarie of Rhemes. By William Fvlke D. in Diuinitie, and M. of Pembroke haule in Cambridge. Wherevnto is added a briefe confutation of all such quarrels & cauils, as haue bene of late vttered by diuerse papistes in their English pamphlets, against the writings of the saide William Fvlke.

MART. 9. So wee say in our Creede, that our sauiour Christ him selfe descended into hel, according to his soule: So S. Hierom speaking of the state of the old Testament, saith: Si Abraham, Isaac, Iacob in inferno, quis in caelorum re∣gno, that is, If Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob were in hell, who was in the kingdome of heauen? And againe, Ante Christum, Abraham apud inferos: post Christum, latro in Paradiso, that is, before the comming of Christ, Abra∣ham was in hell: after his comming, the theefe was in Paradise. And least a man might obiect, that Lazarus being in Abrahams bosome, saw the riche glott••n a farre of in hel, and therefore bothe Abraham and Lazarus seeme to haue bene in heauen: the saide holy doctour resolueth it, that Abraham and Lazarus also were in hell, but in a place of great rest and refre∣shing, and therefore verie farre off from the miserable wretched glutton that lay in tormentes.

FVLK. 9. We say in our Creede, that Christ de∣scended into hell, which being an article of our faith, must haue relation to suche benefite, as we receiue by his descending, namely, that thereby we are deliuered from the paines of hell. But that he should descend into Limbus patrum, to fetche out the fathers, which before you sayd were in prison, nowe you say in rest, we neither say it in our Creede, neither doth it pertaine vnto vs. But Hierome is cited as a fauourer of your opinion, who, I confesse in some parte held as you doe, but not altogi∣ther. For thus he writeth in Epitaph. Nepos. After he hath giuen thanks to Christ for our redemption by his death.

Quid ante miserius homine, qui aeternae mortis terrore prostra∣tus viuendi sensum ad hoc tantum acceperat vt periret, &c. What was more miserable than man before, which be∣ing cast downe with terrour of eternall death, receiued sense of liuing for this ende only, that he might perishe. For death raigned from Adam vnto Moises, yea vpon those which haue not sinned after the similitude of the transgression of Adam. If Abraham, Isaak, and Iacob in hell, who in the kingdome of heauen? If thy friendes

were vnder the punishment. If Adam and they which sin∣ned not, were held guiltie by other mens sinnes, what is to be thought of them which said in their harte there is no God &c. And if Lazarus be seene in the bosome of Abraham and in a place of rest, what like hath hell and the kingdome of Heauen? Before Christe Abraham in hell, after Christ the theese in Paradise. In these wordes Hierome after his Rhetoricall manner,

amplifying the benefite of our redemption by Christ, doth rather touch this errour, than plainely expresse it. For first hee ma∣keth all men miserable before Christe, and cast downe with terror of eternall death, which is true, if yee consi∣der them without Christ, in which state are all men since Christe, but of all men that liued before the time of Christes death, and yet embraced their redemption by him, it is not true. As also that there are some which haue not sinned. But that al this is to be vnderstood, spe∣cially of the death of their bodies, and allegorically of their soules, he addeth immediately,

Et id••••rco in resurre∣ctione eius multa dor••••ntium corpora, &c. And therefore at his resurrection, many bodies of them that slept arose, & were seene in the heauenly Ierusalem. See you not how he turneth all into an Allegorie,

to set foorth the vertue of Christes redemption? who brought all his elect by his death, from hell, and the power of darkenesse, into the kingdome of heauen. Furthermore you bidde vs see Augustine in Ps 85. v 13. Where in the beginning he professeth his ignoraunce in discussing the question of the nethermost hell. First supposing this world in which we liue, to be Infernum superius, and the place whether the dead goe Infernum inferius, from which God hath deliue∣red vs, sending thether his sonne, who to this Infernum or lower place came by his birth, to that by his death: he addeth an other opinion.

Fortassis enim apud ipsos inferos est aliqua pars inferior &c. Peraduenture euen in hell it selfe there is some parte lower, in which the vngodly, which haue much sinned are deliuered. For whether

Abraham had bene now in certaine places in hell we can not sufficiently define. And afterward whē he hath spokē of the diuerse places of Lazarus, and the rich glutton, he concludeth as vncertainly as he began. Ergo inter ista for∣tasse duo inferna, quorum in vno, &c. Therefore peraduen∣ture betweene these two hels, in one of which the soules of the righteous rested, the soules of the wicked are tor∣mented,

one attending prayeth in the person of Christ, &c. Here you may see, what an article of beliefe this was with S. Augustine, when he hath nothing to define, but onely bringeth his coniecturall opinions and peraduen∣tures. Also how he taketh Infernum for any lower place, in so much that he calleth this worlde, Infernum. Where∣fore much more may Infernum signifie the graue, and be so sometimes translated.

Notes

• Epitaph. Nepot. ca. 3.
• Luc. 16.
• See S. August. in Psal. 85. v. 13.
• Nascendo.
• Moriendo.