Original Douay–Rheims Annotations2 Peter 1

By good works.

^[1] Here we see, that God's eternal predestination and election consisteth with good works: yea that the certainty and effect thereof is procured by man's free will and good works, and that our well doing is a mean for us to attain to the effect of God's predestination, that is, to life everlasting. and therefore it is a desperate folly and a great sign of reprobate persons, to say, If I be predestinate, do what I will, I shall be saved. Nay, the Apostle saith, If thou hope to be one of the predestinate (for know it thou canst not) do well, that thou mayst be the more assured to attain to that thou hopest: or, make it sure by good works. The Protestants in such cases not much liking these words, by good works ^[2], though the Latin have it universally, and some Greek copies also, as Beza confesseth, leave them out in their translations, by their wonted policy.

• 1 Good works must concur with God's predestination to the effect thereof.
• 2 διὰ τῶν καλῶν ἔργων.

After my decease also.

^[1] These words though they may be easily altered by construction into diverse senses not untrue, yet the correspondence of the parts of the sentence going before and following, give most plain this meaning, that, as during his life he would not omit to put them in memory of the things he taught them, so after his death (which he knew should be shortly) he would not fail to endeavour that they might be mindful of the same. Signifying that his care over them should not cease by death, & that by his intercession before God after his departure, he would do the same thing for them, that he did before in his life by teaching and preaching. This is the sense that the ^[2] Greek scholies speak of, and this is most proper to the text, and consonant to the old use of this Apostle and other Apostolic Saints and fathers of the primitive Church.

• 1 The heretics (according to their custom) exclude this sense altogether by their false translation.
• 2 Oecum. in hunc loc. Gagn.

^[1] S. Clement in his Epistle to S. James our Lord's brother, witnesseth, that S. Peter encouraging him to take after his decease the charge of the Apostolic Roman See, promised that after his departure he would not cease to pray for him & his flock, thereby to ease him of his Pastoral burden. To. 1. Concil. ep. 1. S. Clem. in initio. And S. Leo the Great, one of his successors in the said See, often attributeth the good administration and government thereof to S. Peter's prayers and assistance: namely in these goodly words Ser. 3 in annivers. die assumpt. ad Pontif. We are much bound (saith he) to give thanks to our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, that hath given so great power to him whom he made the Prince of the whole Church: that if in our time also any thing be done well & be rightly ordered by us, it is to be imputed to his works and his government, to whom it was said, And thou being converted, confirm thy brethren ^[2]: and to whom our Lord after his resurrection said thrice, Feed my sheep ^[3]. Which now also without doubt the godly Pastor doth execute, confirming us with his exhortations, and not ceasing to pray for us, that we be overcome with no tentation. &c.

• 1 S. Peter's Pastoral care & protection of the Church after his death.
• 2 Luc. 22.
• 3 Io. 21.

^[1]

• 1 The Saints in heaven pray for the living.

Yea it was a common thing in the primitive Church among the ancient Christians, and always since among the faithful, to make covenant in their life time, that whether of them went to heaven before the other, he should pray for his friend and fellow yet alive. See the Ecclesiastical history of the holy virgin and Martyr Potamiæna, promising at the house of her Martyrdom, that after her death she would procure mercy of God to Basilides one of the soldiers that led her to execution, and so she did. Euseb. li. 6. c. 4. Also S. Cyprian ep. 57 in fine. Let us. (saith he) pray mutually one for another, and whether of us two shall by God's clemency be first called for, let his love continue, and his prayer not cease for his brethren and sisters in the world. So said this holy Martyr at that time when Christians were so far from Calvinism (which abhorreth the prayers of Saints & praying to them) that to be sure, they bargained before-hand to have the Martyrs & other Saints to pray for them. The same S. Cyprian also in his book De disciplina & habitu virginum, in fine, after a godly exhortation made to the holy Virgins or Nuns in his time, speaketh thus unto them: Tantum tunc mementote nostri, cum incipiet in vobis virginitas honorari. that is, Only then have us in remembrance, when your virginity shall begin to be honoured: that is, after their departure. Where he insinuateth the use of the Catholic Church in keeping the festival days and other duties toward the holy Virgins in heaven ^[2]. S. Hierom also in the same manner speaketh to Heliodorus, saying, that when he is once in heaven, then he will pray for him that exhorted and incited him to the blessed state of the Monastical life. Ep. 1. c. 2.

^◦

And so doth he speak to the virtuous matron Paula after her death, desiring her to pray for him in his old age, affirming that she shall the more easily obtain, the nearer she is now joined to Christ in heaven. in Epitaph. Paulæ in fine. It were too long to report, how S. Augustine desireth to be holpen by S. Cyprian's prayers (then, and long before a Saint in heaven) to the understanding of the truth concerning the peace and regiment of the Church. li. 5 de Bapt. cont. Donatistas c. 17. And in another place the same holy Doctor allegeth the said S. Cyprian saying, that great numbers of our parents, brethren, children, friends, and other, expect us in great solicitude and carefulness of our salvation, being sure of their own. li. 1. de prædest, Sanctorum c. 14. S. Gregory Nazianzen in his orations of the praise of S. Cyprian in fine, and of S. Basil also in fine, declareth how they pray for the people. Which two Saints he there invocateth, as all the ancient fathers did, both generally all Saints, and (as occasion served) particularly their special Patrons. Among the rest see how holy Ephrem ( in orat. de laud. S. Deiparæ ) prayed to our B. Lady with the same terms of Advocate, Hope, Reconciliatrix, that the faithful yet use, and the Protestants cannot abide. S. Basil ho. de 40. Martyribus in fine. S. Athanasius Ser. in Evang. de S. Deipara in fine. S. Hilarie in Psal. 124. S. Chrysostom ho. 66 ad po. Antiochenum in fine. Theodorete de curat. Græcorum affectuum li. 8 in fine. Finally all the fathers are full of these things: who better knew the meaning of the Scripture and the sense of the Holy Ghost, than these new interpreters do.

• 2 Feasts of holy Virgins.
• ◦ Invocation of Saints.

Private.

^◦ The Scriptures cannot be rightly expounded of every private spirit or phantasy of the vulgar reader: but by the same spirit wherewith they were written, which is resident in the Church.

• ◦ Private phantastical interpretations.