of the holy Scripture Or will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinions by malice and corrupt intentions Why your selves cannot deny but that they lived most holy and vertuous lives free from all malitious corrupting or perverting of Gods holy word and by their holy lives are now made worthy to raigne with God in his glory Insomuch as their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspition of ignorant errour and their innocent sanctity freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption But by his leave hee is a little too hastie Hee were best to bethink himselfe more advisedly of that which he hath undertaken to performe and to remember the saying of the King of Israel unto Benhadad Let not him that girdeth on his harnesse boast himselfe as he that putteth it off Hee hath taken upon him to prove that our Religon cannot be true because it disalloweth of many chiefe articles which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did generally hold to be true For performance hereof it wil not be sufficient for him to shew that some of these Fathers maintained some of these opinions he must prove if hee will be as good as his word and deale any thing to the purpose that they held them generally and held them too not as opinions but tanquam de fide as appertayning to the substance of faith and religion For as Vincentius Lirinensis well observeth the auncient consent of the holy Fathers is with great care to be sought and followed by us not in every petty question belonging to the Law of God but only or at least principally in the Rule of faith But all the points propounded by our Challenger be not chiefe articles and therefore if in some of them the Fathers have held some opinions that will not beare waight in the ballance of the Sanctuary as some conceits they had herein which the Papists themselves must confesse to be erroneous their defects in that kinde doe abate nothing of that reverend estimation which we have them in for their great paines taken in the defence of the true Catholick Religion and the serious studie of the holy Scripture Neither doe I thinke that he who thus commendeth them for the pillers of Christianitie and the champions of Christs Church will therefore hold himselfe tyed to stand unto every thing that they have said sure he will not if he follow the steppes of the great ones of his owne Societie For what doth hee thinke of Iustin Martyr Irenaeus and Epiphanius Doth he not account them among those pillers and champions hee speaketh of Yet saith Cardinall Bellarmine I doe not see how we may defend their opinion from error When others object that they have two or three hundred testimonies of the Doctors to prove that the Virgin Mary was conceived in sinne Salmeron the Iesuite steps forth and answereth them first out of the doctrine of Augustine and Thomas that the argument drawne from authoritie is weake then out of the word of God Exod. 23. In judicio plurimorum non acquiesces sententiae ut á vero devies In judgement thou shalt not be ledde with the sentence of the most to decline from the truth And lastly telleth them that when the Donatists gloried in the multitude of authors S. Augustin did answer them that it was a signe their cause was destitute of the strength of truth which was onely supported by the authority of many who were subject to error And when his Adversaries presse him not onely with the multitude but also with the antiquitie of the Doctors alledged unto which more honour alwayes hath beene given then unto novelties he answereth that indeed every age hath alwayes attributed much unto antiquity and every old man as the Poët saith is a commender of the time past but this saith he vvee averre that the yonger the Doctors are the more sharpe-sighted they be And therefore for his part he yeeldeth rather to the judgement of the yonger Doctors of Paris among whom none is held worthy of the title of a Master in Divinitie who hath not first bound himselfe with a religious oath to defend and maintaine the priviledge of the B. Virgin Only he forgot to tell how they which take that oath might dispense with another oath which the Pope requireth them to take that they will never understand and interprete the holy Scripture but according to the uniforme consent of the Fathers Pererius in his disputations upon the Epistle to the Romans confesseth that the Greeke Fathers and not a few of the Latine Doctors too have delivered in their writings that the cause of the predestination of men unto everlasting life is the foreknowledge which God had from eternitie either of the good workes which they were to doe by cooperating with his grace or of the faith wherby they were to beleeve the word of God to obey his calling And yet he for his part notwithstanding thinketh that this is contrary to the holy Scripture but especially to the doctrine of S. Paul If our Questionist had beene by him hee would have pluckt his fellow by the sleeve and taken him up in this maner Will you say that these Fathers maintained this opinion contrary to the word of God Why you know that they were the pillers of Christianity the Champions of Christ his Church and of the true Catholick religion which they most learnedly defended against diverse heresies and therefore spent all their time in a most serious studie of the holy Scripture He would also perhaps further challenge him as he doth us Will you say that although they knew the Scriptures to repugne yet they brought in the aforesaid opinion by malice corrupt intentions For sure hee might have asked this wise question of any of his owne fellowes as well as of us who doe allow and esteeme so much of these blessed Doctors and Martyrs of the ancient Church as he himselfe in the end of his Challenge doth acknowledge which verily we should have little reason to doe if wee did imagine that they brought in opinions which they knew to be repugnant to the Scriptures for any malice or corrupt intentions Indeed men they were compassed with the common infirmities of our nature and therefore subject unto error but godly men and therefore free from all malicious error Howsoever then we yeeld unto you that their innocent sanctitie freeth us from all mistrust of malitious corruption yet you must pardon us if wee make question whether their admirable learning may sufficiently crosse out all suspicion of error which may arise either of affection or want of due consideration or such ignorance as the very best are subject unto in this life For it is not admirable learning that is sufficient to crosse out that suspicion but such an immediate guidance of the holy Ghost as the Prophets and Apostles were
by terrors outwardly it shewed it selfe to the judgement thereof whereby every man according to the motion of his will if he did seeke might finde if he did aske might receive if he did knocke might enter in And thus saith Pelagius doth God worke in us to will that which is good to will that which is holy whilest finding us given to earthly lusts and like bruit beasts affecting only present things he inflameth us with the greatnesse of the glory to come and with promise of rewards whilest by the revelation of his wisdome he raiseth up our stupified will to the desire of God whilest he perswadeth us to all that good is To this instructing and perswading grace doth Pelagius attribute the exciting of the Will but the converting of it unto God which followeth afterward hee ascribeth wholly to the freedome of the will it selfe He that runneth unto God saith he and desireth to be ruled by God hanging his will upon Gods wil he who by adhering unto him continually is made according to the Apostle one spirit with him doth not this but out of the freedome of his will Which freedome who so useth aright doth so commit himselfe wholly to God and mortifieth all his owne will that he may say with the Apostle I live now yet not I but Christ liveth in me and doth put his heart into Gods hand that God may incline it whither it shall please him Here have you the full platforme laid downe of Pelagius his doctrine touching the conversion of a sinner First he supposeth a possibilitie in nature whereby a man may will and doe good secondly a corruption in act whereby a man doth will and doe the contrary thirdly an exciting grace from God whereby the minde is inlightned and the will perswaded upon consideration of the promises and threats propounded to forsake that lewd course of life and to will and doe the things that are good and holy fourthly an act of the free-will thus prepared by Gods exciting grace whereby a man without any further helpe from God doth voluntarily yeeld unto these good motions and so runneth unto God desireth to be ruled by him hangeth his will upon Gods will and by adhering unto him is made one spirit with him fifthly an assisting grace whereby God guideth the will thus converted and inclineth the heart whither it pleaseth him We see three kindes of Grace here commended unto us by Pelagius the first a naturall grace as he fondly tearmed it bringing with it a bare possibilitie only to will and doe good which he said was not given according to merits because he held it to be given at the very beginning of mans being before which he could not possibly merit any thing the second an exâ—iting or perswading grace imparted unto such as were given to earthly lusts and like bruit beasts affected only present things who being in that case were far from meriting any good thing at Gods hands and in that regard he affirmed that this grace likewise was given without any respect to precedent merits the third an assisting grace by which God doth guide and incline the heart of the converted sinner to the doing of all good and this he maintained to be given as a reward to that act of the free-will whereby it yeelded to the perswasions of the former exciting grace and so did actually convert it selfe to God Now this is the presumption which S. Augustine condemneth so much in these men that they durst say We worke to merit that God may worke with us that they would first give to God that it might be recompensed to them againe namely they first give somewhat out of their free-will that grace might be rendred to them againe for a reward that they were of opinion that our merit consisted in this that we were with God and that his grace was given according to this merit that he should also be with us that our merit should be in this that we doe seeke him and according to this merit his grace was given that we should finde him For they that followed Pelagius refining herein a little the doctrine of their Master and delivering it in somewhat a more plausible manner declared that the merits which they held to goe before grace and to procure grace were asking seeking and knocking and that grace was given not according to the merit of our good workes which they did acknowledge to be an effect and not a cause of this grace but of our good will only because said they the good will of man praying went before and the will of man beleeving went before that that according to these merits the grace of God hearing might follow after And all this they did under colour of maintaining free-will against the Manichees for which they urged much that testimony of the Prophet Esa. 1.19 20. If yee be willing and hearken unto me yee shall eat the good things of the land but if yee refuse and will not hearken unto me the sword shall consume them But what doth this profit them saith S. Augustine seeing they doe not so much defend free-will against the Manichees as extoll it against the Catholickes For so would they have that understood which is said If yee be willing and hearken unto me as if in that very precedent will there should be the meriting of the subsequent grace and so grace should be now no grace which is no gratuitie when it is rendred as due But if they would so understand that which is said If yee be willing that they would also confesse that he doth prepare that good will of whom it is written The will is prepared by the Lord they should use this testimonie like Catholickes and not only vanquish the old heresie of the Manichees but also crush the new of the Pelagians Beside the professed Pelagians who directly did denie Originall sinne there arose others in the Church in S. Augustines daies that were tainted not a little with their errors in this point of Grace and Free-will as namely one Vitalis in Carthage and the Semi-pelagians as they are commonly called in France For the first held that God did worke in us to will by his Scriptures either read or heard by us but that to consent unto them or not consent is so in our power that if we will it may be done if we will not we may make the operation of God to be of no force in us For God doth worke said he as much as in him is that we may will when his word is made knowne unto us but if we will not yeeld unto it we make that his operation shall have no profit in us Against him S. Augustine disputeth largely in his 107. Epistle where he maketh â—his to be the state of the question betwixt them Whether Grace doth goe before or follow after the Will of man that is to say as he further explaineth it Whether it be
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
torments which by Arator is thus more amply expressed in verse pavidis resplenduit umbris Pallida regna petens propriâ quem luce corruscum Non potuit fuscare chaeos fugere dolores Infernus tunc esse timet nullumque coërcens In se poena redit nova tortor ad otia languet Tartara moesta gemunt quia vincula cuncta quiescunt Mors ibi quid faceret quò vitae portitor ibat S. Augustine doth thus deliver his opinion touching this matter That Christs soule came unto those places wherein sinners are punished that hee might loose them from torments whom by his hidden justice he judged fit to be loosed is not without cause beleeved Neyther did our Saviour being dead for us scorne to visite those parts that hee might loose from thence such as hee could not bee ignorant according to his divine and secret justice were not to bee loosed But whether hee loosed all that hee found in those paines or some whom hee thought worthy of that benefit I yet enquire For that he was in hell and bestowed this benefit upon some that did lye in the paines thereof I doe not doubt Thus did S. Augustine write unto Euodias who inquired of him whether our Saviour loosed all from thence and emptied Hell which was in those dayes a great question and gave occasion to that speech of Gregory Nazianzen If hee descend into Hell goe thou downe with him namely in contemplation and meditation learne the mysteries of Christs doings there what the dispensation and what the reason was of his double descent to wit from heaven unto earth from earth unto hell whether at his appearing he simply saved all or there also such only as did beleeve What ClemeÌ„s Alexandrinus his opinion was herein every one knoweth that our Lord descended for no other cause into Hell but to preach the Gospell and that such as lived a good life before the time of the Gospell whether Iewes or Grecians although they were in hell and in durance yet hearing the voyce of our Lord eyther from himselfe immediatly or by the working of his Apostles were presently converted and did beleeve in a word that in Hell things were so ordred that eveÌ„ there all the soules having heard this preaching might eyther shew their repentance or acknowledge their punishment to be just because they did not beleeve Hereupon when Celsus the Philosopher made this objection concerning our Saviour Surely you will not say of him that when hee could not perswade those that were heere hee went unto Hell to perswade those that were there Origen the scholler of Clemens sticketh not to returne unto him this answere Whether he will or no wee say this that both being in the bodie hee did perswade not a few but so many that for the multitude of those that were perswaded by him he was layd in wayt for and after his soule was separated from his body hee had conference with soules separated from their bodies converting of them unto himselfe such as would or such as he discerned to bee more fit for reasons best knowne unto himselfe The like effect of Christs preaching in Hell is delivered by Anastasius Sinaita Iobius or Iovius Damascen Oecumenius Michael Glycas and his transcriber Theodorus Metochites Procopius saith that hee preached to the spirits that were in Hell restrayned in the prison house releasing them all from the bonds of necessity wherein he followeth S. Cyrill of Alexandria writing upon the same place that Christ went to preach to the spirits in Hell and appeared to them that were detayned in the prison house and freed them all fâ—om bonds and necessitie and paine and punishment The same S. Cyrill in his Paschall homilies affirmeth more directly that our Saviour entring into the lowermost dennes of Hell and preaching to the spirits that were there emptied that unsatiable denne of death spoyled Hell of spirits and having thus spoyled all Hell left the Divell there solitarie and alone For when Christ descended into Hell sayth Andronicus not onely the soules of the Saints were delivered from thence but all those that before did serve in the error of the Divell and the worship of idols being enriched with the knowledge of God obtayned salvation for which also they gave thankes praysing God Whereupon the author of one of the sermons upon the Ascension fathered upon S. Chrysostom bringeth in the Divell complayning that the sonne of Mary having taken away from him all those that were with him from the verie beginning had left him desolate whereas the true Chrysostom doth at large confute this fond opinion censuring the maintayners thereof as the bringers in of old wives conceytes and Iewish fables Yea Philastrius S. Augustin out of him doth brand such for hereticks whose testimonie also is urged by S. Gregory against George and Theodore two of the clergie of Constantinople who held in his time as many others did before and after them that our omnipotent Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ descending into Hell did save all those vvho there confessed him to be God and did deliver them from the paines that were due unto them and when Clement our countryman about 150. years after did renue that old error in Germanie that the sonne of God descending into Hell delivered from thence all such as that infernall prison did detayne beleevers and unbeleevers praysers of God and worshippers of idols the Romane Synod held by Pope Zacharie condemned him and his followers for it But to leave Clemens Scotus and to returne unto Clemens Alexandrinus at whom Philastrius may seeme to have aymed specially it is confessed by our Adversaries that he fell into this error partly being deceived with the superficiall consideration of the wordes of S. Petâ—r touching Christs preaching to the spirits in prison 1. Pet. 3.19 partly being deluded with the authority of Hermes the supposed scholler of S. Paul by whose dreames he was perswaded to beleeve that not onely Christ himselfe but his Apostles also did descend into Hell to preach there unto the dead to baptize them But touching the wordes of S. Peter is the maine doubt whether they are to bee referred unto Christs preaching by the ministerie of Noë unto the world of the ungodly or unto his owne immediate preaching to the spirits in Hell after his death upon the Crosse. For seeing it was the spirit of Christ which spake in the Prophets as S. Peter sheweth in this same Epistle and among them was Noë a preacher of righteousnesse as hee declareth in the next even as in S. Paul Christ is sayd to have come and preached to the Ephesians namely by his spirit in the mouth of his Apostles so likewise in S. Peter may he be sayd to have gone and preached to the old world by
propter did note an efficient cause And yet for the salving of that also the Cardinal of Cambraye Petrus de Alliaco delivereth us this distinction This word Propter is sometimes taken by way of consequence and then it noteth the order of the following of one thing upon another as when it is said The reward is given for the merit For nothing else is signified thereby but that the reward is given after the merit and not but after the merit Sometimes againe it is taken causally And forasmuch as a cause also is accounted that upon the being whereof another thing doth follow a thing may be said to be a cause two manner of waies One way properly when upon the presence of the being of the one by the vertue thereof and out of the nature of the thing there followeth the being of the other and thus is fire the cause of heat Another way improperly when upon the presence of the being of the one there foâ—loweth the being of the other yet not by the vertue thereof nor out of the nature of the thing but only out of the will of another and so a meritorious â—ot is said to be a cause in respect of the reward as caussa sine quâ non also is said to be a cause though it be none properly Among those famous Clearkes that lived in the familie of Richard Angervill Bishop of Durham in the daies of Edward the third Thomas Bradwardin who was afterward Archbishop of Canterbury Richard Fitzraufe afterward Archbishop of Armagh and Robert Holeot the Dominican were of speciall note The first of these in his Defense of the cause of God against the Pelagians of his time disputeth this point at large shewing that Merit is not the cause of everlasting reward and that when the Scriptures and Doctors doe affirme that God will reward the good for their good merits or workes Propter did not signifie the cause properly but improperly either the cause of knowing it or the order or the disposition of the subject thereunto Richard of Armagh whom my countrymen commonly doe call S. Richard of Dundalke because he was there borne and buried intimateth this to be his minde that the reward is here rendred not for the condignitie of the worke but for the promise and so for the justice of the rewarder as heretofore we have heard out of Bernard Holcot though in words he maintaine the merit of condignitie yet he confesseth with the Master of the Sentences that God is hereby made our debtor ex naturâ sui promissi non ex naturâ nostri commissi out of the nature of his owne promise not out of the nature of our doing and that our workes have this value in them not naturally as if there were so great goodnesse in the nature or substance of the merit that everlasting life should be due unto it but legally in regard of Gods ordinance and appointment even as a little peece of copper of it owne nature or naturall value is not worth so much as a loafe of bread but by the institution of the Prince is worth so much And in this manner we may say saith he that our workes are worthy of life everlasting by grace and not by the substance of the act For God hath ordained that he that worketh well in grace should have life everlasting and therefore by the law and grace of Christ our Prince we merit condignely everlasting life Whereby we may see how rightly it hath beene observed by Vasquez that divers of those whom he accounteth Catholickes doe differ from us only in words but agree in deed Of which number he nameth Willielmus Parisiensis Scotus Ockam Gregorius Ariminensis Gabriel Biel with his Supplement the Chanons of Culleyn in their Antididagma and Enchiridion Ioh. Bunderius Alphonsus de Castro and Andreas Vega who was present at the handling of these matters in the last Tridentine Councell All these and sundry others beside them hold that the dignitie of the good workes done by Gods children doth not proceed from the value of the workes themselves but only from the gratious promise and acceptation of God Yea Gregorius Ariminensis that most able and carefull defender of S. Augustine as Vega stileth him concludeth peremptorily that no act of man though issuing from never so great charitie meriteth of condignitie from God either eternall life or yet any other reward whether eternall or temporall The same conclusion is by Durand the most resolate Doctor as Gerson tearmeth him thus confirmed That which is conferred rather out of the liberalitie of the giver than out of the due of the worke doth not fall within the compasse of the merit of condignitie strictly and properly taken But whatsoever we receive of God whether it be grace or whether it be glory whether temporall or spirituall good whatsoever good worke we have before done for it yet we receive the same rather and more principally out of Gods liberalitie than out of the due of the worke Therefore nothing at all falleth within the compasse of the merit of condignitie so taken And the cause hereof is saith he because both that which we are and that which we have whether they be good acts or good habits or the use of them is wholly in us by Gods liberalitie freely giving and preserving the same Now because none is bound by his owne free gift to give more but the receiver rather is more bound to him that giveth therefore by the good habits and by the good acts or uses which God hath given us God is not bound to us by any debt of justice to give any thing more so as if he did not give it he should be unjust but we are rather bound to God And to thinke or say the contrary is rashnesse or blasphemie Of the same judgement with Durand was Iacobus de Everbaco as Marsilius witnesseth who delivereth his owne opinion touching this matter in these three conclusions I. If we consider our workes in themselves or as they proceed also from cooperating grace they are not such workes as deserve eternall life of condignitie for proofe whereof hee bringeth in many reasons and that of Durands for one If for the workes wrought by grace and free-will although never so great eternall life should be due unto any by condignitie then God should doe him injurie if he did not give eternall life unto him and so God by those great good things which he had given should be constrained in way of justice to adde more great thereunto which reason doth not comprehend II. Such workes as these may be said to merit eternall life of condignitie by divine acceptation originally proceeding from the merit of the passion of Christ. III. Workes done by grace doe merit eternall life by way of congruitie in respect of Gods liberall disposition who hath