he shall giue it us through Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XLIX Whence it proceeds that humane wisdome will not attribute all things to God And in what manner they ought to bee attributed to him FOR three Causes I understand it men being deceived by the judgement of humane wisdome will not confesse that every thing comes from God The first is that they might not deprive themselues of the merits of their own good works understanding that they should depriue themselues of them when every thing should be attributed to God in as much as in their good works the goodnesse of God would be that which was to bee considered and not that of men The second Cause I understand is because men judging of Gods works with the selfesame judgement with which they judge their own proper works they hold that for evill in God which they would hold for evill in evill men And it seeming to them an evill and absurd thing to attribute any evill thing to God who is soveraignly good and is goodnesse it selfe they resolue that they will not attribute every thing to God The third Cause as I understand is because they think that if men believed that God did all things they would become dissolute in their lives licentious vitious and insolent and remisse in succouring helping and favouring their neighbours every man saying of himselfe if I liue ill it is because it pleaseth God that I should liue so and he himselfe when it so seems good to him will make me to liue well and saying of their neighbour if such a one be needy tribulated and afflicted it is because it so pleaseth God and when it shall please God that he should not be so he will draw him out of necessity and out of tribulation and out of affliction and therefore it is not necessary that I should meddle therâ—…with To these three Causes or reasons of humane wisdome I understand that a man may fully answer in this manner To the first that if men knew themselues they would know in themselues rebellion iniquity and sin and in their works selfe-loue and selfe-interest and so they would not pretend to obtain merit through their own works and not pretending it the first cause of impiety would be taken away in which they doe easily fall that are in the eyes of the world just and holy for they properly are those that seek Meritin their works From this inconveniency they are free who knowing the being and the nature of man renounce their own merits cleaving only to the justice of God executed in Christ. To the second Cause and reason it may bee answered that if so be it seem to men an absurd evill thing that God should harden the heart of Pharaoh making him to sin in not suffering the people of God to depart that God should command Shimei that he should sin by cursing David and that God should make them to sin to whom the Scripture saith he gaue the spirit of errour and that he should ordain that Judas should sin by selling Christ and that God should blinde them of whom S. Paul Rom. 1 speaks that they should fall into silthy and abominable sins And if like wise it seem an absurd evill thing to men that which God doth to many men in the world it is not because the things are in themselues absurd and evill but because they are works of the holy spirit and men judging with humane wisdome with which they cannot understand the divine secret that is in them come to judge falsely of them being herein towards God as rash men are towards their Princes judging evill of them when for the good goverment for the common profit they doe something which turnes to the dammage of some particular not considering nor peircing the intent which the Prince hath in such like things For if they did consider and understand they would judge well of those things and of the Princes that doe them I would say in the selfesame manner rash men because they understand not the intent which God hath in his works they judge them evill and then pretending piety they will not attribute them to God and if they did know and understand the intent that God hath in those things which they judge evill they would hold and judge them for good and so they would not come to deprive God of his particular providence in every thing And certainly if these men did consider that God hardning the heart of Pharaoh that he should sin not letting Gods people goe did pretend to illustrate his glory and to make manifest his power in favouring his people they would accompt the hardnesse of Pharaohs heart amongst the works of Gods mercy for as much as that which the people of God desired was thereby effected and this selfesame judgement they would make of the curses of Shimei and of Iudas his sâ—…lling Christ and of the sins of them of whom Saint Paul speaks in the first of the Romans and they would make the selfesame judgement in all the works of men not doubting to attribute them all unto God searching out the secret judgement that is in them even as pious persons search them out to whom it oft-times happens that they hold something of their own or others for an errour because they know not the intent that God hath in it And afterwards by time knowing the intent that God had in it they hold it for a very certain thing And to the selfe same persons it oftentimes befals that they hold a thing for well done which afterwards by tract of time they knew was ill done This sometimes happens to them when they stand not very attent to consider the judgements of God and sometimes because it doth not alwaies please God that they should understand that which he pretends in his works as peradventure it did not please him that Moses and Aaron should understand that which he pretended in the hardnesse of Pharaohs heart to the intent they should not cease to be very instant that he would let the people of God to goe out Whereupon it seems that mans piety consisteth in applying his minde to understand that which God pretends in his workes especially in those which seem absurd and evill and to venerate and approue those which hee doth not understand holding them all for holy just and good To the third cause and reason which men finde not to confesse that God doth all things it may be effectually by our own proper experience answered that those men who belieue hold for certain that God doth all things for this selfe same cause that they abide in this certainty are pious and iust and being pious and iust are in themselues most temperate and most modest and are towards their neighbours most mercifull most diligent and most liberall in as much as piety and iustice doe as well mortifie in them the appetites of sensuality that might make them vitious and insolent as
depravation and that they shall be restored in mans Reparation REading S. Paul I finde hee toucheth many secrets worthy of much consideration And amongst others I esteemed it for most worthy that which hee toucheth of the Restauration of the creatures in the glorious resurrection of the sonnes of God into the consideration of which secret I haue ofttimes entred and it hath befallen me that by how much the more I would haue understood it so much the lesse haue I understood it My spirit came to this understanding that as man in his dèpravation marred all the creatures so in the reparation of man all the creatures shall be repaired That the first Adam subjecting all men unto misery and unto death marred all the creatures and that the second Adam Iesus Christ our Lord conducting men unto felicity and to eternall life shall repaire all creatures But as I did not understand in what sort all the creatures were marred in mans depravation I did not neither understand in what sort they shall be repaired in mans reparation In which thing that secret which S. Paul meanes doth consist which secret it seems Isaia had formerly understood chap. 65. where God promised to create new Heavens and a new earth And the selfe same secret it seems S. Peter understood in the last chap. of his 2. Epistle And the selfesame seems to bee understood in the Revelation chap. 21. Then I understand that God having â—…reated man in a state of immortality and soveraigne happinesse he created all things with such order and with such temper that they did all of them accord to make man immortall and most happy Farther I understand that man subjecting himselfe to misery by eating the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good evill and committing himselfe to death in having been disobedient to God eating the fruit of the tree against the commandement of God and it was necessary that all the creatures should leave their being and their temper with which they were created to make man immortall and most happy and take another being and another temper whereby they should all accord to make man miserable and mortall From hence I understand proceed the evill influences of the Heavens and the poysonfull and unhealthfull things which the earth brings forth all which augment mans misery And from this that all creatures took upon them to make man miserable and mortall I understand that S. Paul saith that all of them doe anxiously desire to be free Vnderstanding this I come to understand that men being to be immortall and most happy in the Resurrection of the just all the creatures shall return to recover that being that temper and that order with which they were created to make men in their reparation immortall and most happy as in their depravation they did pervert their being their temper and their order to make them miserable and mortall In this generality of creatures I doe not understand the good Angels to be comprised for not being marred they haue no necessity of being repaired nor the evill Angels for not having been marred with man to make man miserable and mortall they shall not bee restored with man to make him immortall and most happy In this consideration more then in any other of these which I haue hitherto considered me thinks I see the most high obligation which not only all men in particular but all the creatures in generall haue to Christ. For as much as through Christs obedience men shall return to that being of immortality and felicity which they lost by Adams disobedience And by the selfesame the creatures shall return to recover their being and their most perfect temper which they lost through the disobedience of Adam And so this remaines imprinted in my minde that Adam disobeying God depraved all men and condemned them unto death and marred all the creatâ—…res and subjected them aâ—… S. Paul saith to vanity And that Christ obeying God repaired all men and gaue unto them immortality and restored all the creatures and put them into their firme and stable being I speak of this that shall be in the Resurrection of the just as though it were already for as much as to Godward it is already after Christ raised up And by how much I the more remember this so much the more doe I abhor all manner of inobedience to God and so much the more doe embrace my â—…elf with all manner of obedience to God And I feele that in as much as I goe applying my selfe to this so much the image of Adam goes abating in me the image of Christ goes on reforming and likewise that of God to whom be glory everlasting Amen CONSID. LXXXVIII What the cause may be that God commanded man that he should not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill OFâ—…times I haue deliberated to understand why God when he set man in earthly Paradise commanded him that He should not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill not being satisfied with that which commonly is understood that God commanded this to the end man should acknowledge him for superiour which cause shall not be sufficient to me albeit I refuse it not and as oft as this desire hath come upon mee I haue as often driven it from me holding it for curious as I hold for curious all the desires which go seeking out the wherefore in Gods works And it is befallen me that having been now free from this curiosity reading with other intent the first chapters of Genesis I suppose to haue understood what I desired For the first I understand that God created man in an entire perfect estate in which he had the spirituall light which served him for that for which the naturall light now serves him which was the selfe same that the knowledge of good and evill Farther I understand that in the midst of that earthly Paradise there were two Trees of which the Scripture calls the one the Tree of life and the other the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill In which I understand God had set this naturall vertue that the one of them should make them who eat thereof immortall and that the other should giue the knowledge of good and evill to them that did eat thereof And understanding that as the immortality was supreme felicity so the knowledge of good and evill was extreme misery That which I say of the Tree of life I understand by this that God having given man the curse for his sin the Scripture saith that he said that hee droue him out of the earthly Paradise that he should not eat of the Tree of life and so liue for ever Neither was God content to have driven man out of Paradise but hee set for guardian a Cherubim whereby it seems that this Tree had that naturall vertue to giue immortality That which I say of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill I
should pretend to have them all of him 42 In what sort a pious person ought to governe himselfe in the state of prosperity and in inward adversities 43 How a pious person may assure himselfe to have obtained piety and justification by the spirit and not by humane wisdome 44 In what manner a man shall know what frâ—…it heâ—… hath made in mortification and what is the cause that they who apply themselves to piety are sollicited by affections and appetites with which they were never before sollicited 45 Whenâ—…e the feare of death proceeds in pious persons and that it is a signe of Predestination for a man to content himselfe that there should be another life 46 That they who walke through the Christian path without the inward light of the holy spirit are like unto them that walke in the night without the light of the Sun 47 Foure Countersignes to know them by who pretend piety and the spirit not having either tâ—…e one or the other 48 That he who prayes and workes and understands doth then pray worke and understand as he ought when he is inspired to pray to worke and to understand 49 Whence it proceeds that humane wisdome will not attribute all things to God and in what manner they ought to be attributed to him 50 In what the depravation of man doth consist and in what his reparation doth consist In what Christian perfection doth consist 51 In what manner God makes himselfe to be felt and in what manner God makes himselfe to be seene 52 That a Christian ought to put an end to the affection of ambition which doth consist in growing and also to that which doth consist in conserving 53 In what matter the men of the world attending unto honour are lesse viâ—…ious then attending unto conscience 54 That prayer and consideration are two bookes or interpreters very sure ones to understand holy Scripture and how a man ought to serve himselfe of them 55 Against curiosity and how the holy Scriptures ought to be read without curiosity 56 Which is the most certaine and most secure way to obtaine perfect mortification 56 Whence it comes to passe that by the knowledge and sence of the things of God the flesh is mortified 58 Eight differences between them who pretend and procure to mortify themselves with their proper industry and them who are mortified by the holy spirit 59 That in the motives to pray the spirit doth certify a man that he shall obtaine that which he demands 60 Whence it proceeds that the superstitious are severe and the true Christians are mercifull and pitifull 61 In what manner a pious person governes himselfe in those things that befall him 62 That humane wisdome hath no more Jurisdiction in the judgement of their works who are Sonnes of God then in the judgement of the proper works of God 63 That the holy Scripture is like a candle in a darke place and that the holy spirit is like the Sunne this shewed by seven conformities 64 In what manner Jesus Christ our Lord will bee followed and imitated 65 How that is to be understood which S. Paul saith that Christ reigneth and shall reigne untill the resurrection of the just be made when he doth consigne his kingdome to his Eternall Father 66 In what manner the malignant spirit is more Impetuous then the holy spirit 67 That in the regenerate onely by the holy spirit there being experience of the things of God there is also certification of them 68 That the desire of knowledge is an imperfection in a man contrary to the judgement of humane wisdome 69 That a man ought alwaies to acknowledge himselfe incredulous and defective in faith and that there is so much faith in a man as there is knowledge of God and Christ. 70 In what those three guifts of God faith hope and charity doe consist and in what their eminency amongst othâ—…r guifts doth consist and the eminency of charity amongst the thee guifts 71 Upon the most holy prayer of Our Father 72 That man pretending that part of the image of God which did not appertaine unto him lost that part which did appertaine to him 73 That the Vnion betweene God and man is made by love that love growes from knowledge what a kinde of thing knowledge love and Vnion is 74 That it betides to pious persons in spirituall things as it befalls in outward things â—…o him who having beene blinde begins to see 75 How it is understood that God coummunicates unto us his divine treasures by Christ how God reignes by Christ and how Christ is the head of the Church 76 What thing scandall is and in what manner Christian persons ought to governe themselves in the scandall 77 Two contrarities betweene them that live according to the flesh and them that live according to the spirit 78 Two griefes one according to the world and the other according to God and two weakenesses one according to the flesh and the other according to the spirit 79 How perilous the errours be which men doe pretending piety 80 What Gods intent is demanding of mâ—…n that which of themselves alone they cannot give him and why he gives them not at once all that which he will give them 81 Two weaknesses in Christ and his members and Two Powers in him and them 82 In what properly consisteth that Agony which Iesus Christ our Lord felt in his Passion and in his death 83 Five considerations in the resurrection of Christ. 84 That only the incoporation in Christ is that which mortifies 85 Foure manners by which a christian knowes God by meanes of Christ. 86 To know the inward motions when thâ—…y are of the holy when they are of the malignant spirit and when of a mans proper spirit 87 That all the creatures were spoyled in mans depravation and that they shall be restored in mans reparation 88 What the cause may be that God commanded man that he should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evill 89 Six causes for which it seemes necessary that the Sonne of God should live in tâ—…at manner and that forme of life wherein he did live 90 In what the christian perfection the duty and dâ—…corum doe consist 91 That onely the Sonnes of God have certaine satisfaction in every thing 92 In what manner mortification is the proper countersigne by which we know our selves the Sonnes of God 93 That that suffering is most christian and most acceptable to God in which he that suffers findes least of his owne will 94 Three sorts of conscience one by the law naturall the other by the written lawes and the other by the Gospell 95 That men are incapable of the divine generation of the Sonne of God and of the spirituall regeneration of the â—…onnes of God 96 That then a man knowes himselfe a Pilgrim in this world when because God loves him the world persecutes him 97 Whether justification be a fruit of piety and
to giue me an abhorring of corporall things humane and of the world the which albeit I doe not altogether abhorre I am at least come to this that I doe not loue them I doe not procure them I doe not desire them as I was wont And in this manner by experience of mortification he shall confirme himselfe in the Christian truth Fiftly he shall think thus If I knew any other better thing then this or at least that were equall to this with which I might appeare before the iudgement of God I should indeed haue cause to doubt of the truth of this Now I knowing no other thing better nor other thing such as it is I haue no cause to doubt And in this manner he shall certifie himselfe that he is come upon the gaine and not on the losse and that in persevering in this Christian faith he cannot loose but gaine And if it shall come into his fancy to say that he might loose much in case that which the Gospell saith were not true in as much as hee should attribute that to Christ which were not due to him and it not being due to him hee should come to offend the glory and the maiestie of God he shall instantly haue recourse to experience and think thus After that I know my selfe pardoned through Christ and reconciled with God through Christ acknowledging my selfe dead with Christ and raised up with Christ and expecting my glorification with Christ I know and feel and finde in me the beginnings of mortification through the despisall of the world and of my selfe and I feele the beginnings of vivification through the loue and affection to God to the glory of God and to the will of God And these principles are good And it being true that from an evill cause never comes a good effect it is true also that the cause is good whence this effect is growne And therefore it is most certain and true that which the Gospell publisheth and affirmeth That God having put on Christ all our sins and having chastised them all in Christ he hath pardoned us all and hath reconciled us with himselfe by Christ which pardon and reconciliation all they which believe enioy Here the Christian person shall stay himselfe who willing to embrace himselfe with the iustice of Christ shall be disturbed with the perswasions which shall sollicite him to doubt and shutting the dore to them which may come shall recommend himselfe to God saying with Hezechias Lord I suffer violence answer for me Isaia 38. And let him be sure that God will help him fulfilling with him that which he promised by David where hee saith I am with him in trouble I will deliver him and bring him to Honour CONSID. CIV That Baptisme through the Faith of the Gospell is efficacious even in Children who dye before they come to the age to be able to approue their being Baptized TAking occasion from that which S. Peter saith That the Ark wherein Noah saved himselfe in the floud was a figure of our Christian Baptisme I haue considered that as Noah giving credit to the word of God did believe that the floud would come and did believe that himselfe and his should be saved in the Ark not by vertue of the Ark which could not naturally work this effect but by the will of God who used this Ark for an instrument of safety to him and his so we also giving credit to the Gospell of God believe that Christ shal come to iudge the quick and the dead and we believe that all our sinnes being chastised in Christ we and ours shall bee saved in that iudgement being Baptised not by vertue of the water which cannot naturally work this effect but by the will of God who useth the water for the meanes of our salvation God could well have saved Noah in the floud without the Ark and it seems hee took the Ark for the means to condescend unto the frailty of Noah who more easily believed that he should be saved in the Ark then he would have believed that he should haue been saved without the Ark. Albeit he did not trust in the Ark but in the word of God who promised to saue him in the Ark and so not the Ark but Faith was that which saved Noah with which he made the Ark and put himselfe in it In the selfe same manner God could well saue us in day of judgement without the water of Baptisme and it seemes he takes the water for the meanes to condescend unto our frailty which causeth that wee doe more easily believe to be saved by Baptisme then we should belieue to be saved without it albeit wee haue not confidence in the water but in the word of the Gospell of God which promiseth to saue us by Baptisme And so we shall be saved in the universall judgement not because we are Baptised but through the Faith with which we are Baptised Where I understand two things The one that to all of us who are Christians it appertaines to secure our selves in the iudgement of God with the remembrance that wee were baptised as Noah secured himselfe in the Floud with the remembrance of the Ark the Ark being to him that which Baptisme is to us The other that wee who are baptised being children are to assure our selves that we are then really and indeed baptised when the yeares of discretion being come and feeling by the will of God the voice of the Gospell we reioyce to be baptised in such sort that if so bee we were not baptised we would then be baptised That betiding tous which might haue befallen a man who had bin put into the Ark of Noah whilst he was asleep who being awaked and finding himselfe in the Ark would haue thanked Noah that had put him in the Ark affirming that if he had not been entered therein and could haue entered therein he would without all doubt haue entred therein In such sort that as that man being entered into the Ark not by his own proper faith but by the Faith of Noah should haue saved himselfe in the Ark by his own proper faith esteeming it good that hee had entered into the Ark So we who in out infancies were baptised having entred into Baptisme not through our own proper Faith but by the Faith of them who put us therein shall be saved in Baptisme by our own proper faith approving and holding it for good to be Baptised Another thing also may be said that as the Beasts which Noah put into the Ark entred in by the faith of Noah were saved in the Floud by the faith of Noah they having neither knowledge of good nor evill to enter into the Ark nor to approve their entring in but being put into it So the children of the first Christians who enter into Baptisme by the faith of their Parents and come not to the age to be able to approue or reprove that which their Fathers haue done they
of the Ceremonies and Superstitions that arise frō it as also they who attend to cause others to obserue them are severe and rigorous against them that doe not obserue thē From hence I understand the cause whence the severity and rigour in the Hebrewes did proceed And hereby I doe not marvell if they that in being superstitious and ceremonious are like unto the Hebrewes are also severe against the vices and defects of men And that which I more esteem is that hereby I understand why God in the time of the law was severe and rigorous shewing more severity and rigorousnesse unto men then piety and mercy although he did shew them both the one and the other And I esteem it much more that hereby I understand that because after that God sent his onely begotten son Iesus Christ our Lord into the world men stand not subiect to the Law but under the Gospell which is estranged from severity and rigour it comes to passe that they who belong unto the Gospell being the people of God are not severe nor rigorous against the vices and defects of men but are rather pittifull and mercifull And also it comes from hence that God shews more pitty and mercy then severity and rigour In such manner that the affection of severity and rigour in a man is a signe of selfe-loue and of a minde subject to the law to superstitions ceremonies as were the minds of the Hebrews And a pittifull and mercifull affection is a signe of mortification and of a minde freed from the Law by the Gospell such are those of true Christians members of Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXI In what manner a pious person governes himselfe in those things that befall him EVery Pious person in those things that come unto him in this present life as I understand governes himself in this manner The accidents being of that quality that his own will concurres not in them if they be adverse and contrary as the losse of honour or of estate or the death of some person deare unto him he comforts himselfe saying so it hath pleased God And if they be prosperous and favourable as the increase of outward and inward goods he doth not pride himselfe considering this is the work of God and not mine The things being of that quality that his own proper will concurres in them if they be of evill such as are his proper defects and sins he embraceth himselfe with Christ saying If in me there be defects and sins there is in Christ satisfaction and justification And if they be of good and of favour in outward works or in inward sentiments he doth not grow proud because in such matters he sees the goodnesse of God and not his own proper goodnesse And I understand that the content which such a person finds in those things which he doth well is much like to the content which a person may feel when a person makes a good letter because another that writes well leads his hand by his I would say that as such a person contents himselfe seeing a letter made with his hand although not with his industry attributing the industry to him that guided his hand and attributing to himselfe the errours that are in the letter knowing that the other would haue made a better with his own hand so the spirituall person doth content himselfe of the consideration of the works which God doth in him and by him attributing them to God and attributing to himselfe the errors that are in his works knowing that they would be much better if God had done them without him That this is true they shall understand by proper experience who haue a rellish of the things of the holy spirit which are obtained by Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXII That humane wisdome hath no more iurisdiction in the judgement of their workes who are the sonnes of God then in the iudgement of the proper works of God IN the selfe same manner and for the selfe same cause which S. Paul understood that they who are governed by the spirit of God are the sonnes of God I understand that they who are the sonnes of God are governed by the spirit of God And I understand that as humane wisdome is uncapable of the knowledge of God so likewise it is uncapable of the knowledge of them who are the sonnes of God And even as humane wisdome penetrateth not to understand the admirable ccunsell that is in the works of God neither doth it also penetrate to understand the divine counsell that is in the works of them who are the sonnes of God Both those and these being done by the spirit of God Farther I understand that humane wisdome when it sets it selfe to judge the works of them that are the sons of God condemning and taxing them through cause of that selfe same temerity which appeares when it sets it selfe to judge the works of God condemning them and calumniating them I would say that that rashnesse of men is not lesse which follow the iudgement of humane wisdome when they sett themselves to iudge evill of Moses for the Hebrews whom he slew when they worshipped the Calfe and when they sett themselves to judge evill of Abraham because he commanded his wife Sarah that she should lye saying that she was his sister and not his wife And because S. Paul cursed Ananias standing at iudgement in his presence And because hee excused his cursing saying he did not know him And when in like manner they set themselves to iudge certain things like unto these which the sonnes of God doe being governed by the spirit of God which according to the iudgement of humane wisdome are absurd and reproveable and according to the iudgement of God are holy and good I say that this is no lesse rashnesse then that with which they sett themselves to iudge evill of God because he favours many lewd men with temporall good depriving many good and because hee doth other things which humane wisdome calumniates and condemnes and for which humane Laws doe rigorously chastise those men that doe them In as much as humane wisdome hath no more iurisdiction in the iudgement of the works of pious men then in the iudgement of the works of God they being done by God himselfe and the other by those who being the Sonnes of God are governed by the spirit of God and therefore are free and exempt frō all humane law as God himselfe is free and exempt I would say that men should not haue had more reason to haue chastised Abraham if he had killed his soone Isaac then to condemne God because he slaies many men by suddain death But this goverment of the spirit of God is not known nor vnderstood but of them who are partakers of the spirit of God itselfe as it is known by experience and as it is said by S. Paul the great Preacher of the Gospell of God and of Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. LXIII
bound to give unto God They think of the Christian businesse that it is a living under the goverment of the holy spirit in holinesse and iustice And they think of the Gospell that it is a Proclamation that compriseth these two things Remission of sinnes and Iustification by Christ And the regiment and goverment of the holy spirit Of which two things they enioy who believing in Christ accept the Gospell From all this discourse I gather that they who understand Justification to be a fruit of Piety follow Plato and Aristotle And that they who understand Piety to be a fruit of iustification Iustification being a fruit of Faith follow S. Paul and S. Peter It is also gathered that this name Piety understood in the manner in which it is here understood it cannot be attributed to God because he owes no man any thing Nay on the contrary every one owes to him And that which he doth with us is not for piety is not for debt nor for obligation but for compassion for mercy and for liberality being in every thing towards us compassionate mercifull and liberall Which ought principally to be known in this that he put all our sinnes on his pretious son Iesus Christ our Lord to put on us the iustice of the selfesame Iesus Christ our Lord. CONSID. XCVIII How that is to be understood that the holy Scripture saith attributing condemnation sometimes to infidelity and sometimes to evill works and salvation sometimes to Faith sometimes to good works AMongst those things in holy Scripture which give molestation to Christian persons who having faith feel within themselves the fruit of Faith that is Iustification and the fruit of justification that is the peace of conscience when they will examine with them their conceptions their spirituall feelings I hold for very principall this that feeling themselves justifi'd by Faith consequently with peace of conscience cannot understand for what cause Christ speaking of the day of Iudement saith that he will condemne some because they have not done well and will save others because they haue done well Nor for what cause S. Paul saith That God will render to every man according to his works Rom. 2. And S. Peter That God will iudge every one according to his works At which they so much the more marvell in as much as the same Christ saith that he that believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned And the selfesame S. Paul saith that the Faith of the heart iustifieth and the confession of the mouth saveth And the selfesame S. Peter attributes the salvation of the soule to Faith And from their not understanding of this matter it comes to passe that every one of them thinks in this manner If God be to judge me according to my works there is no doubt but he will condemne me for there is not in them any goodnesse nay in those which seem best there is more contamination of selfe-loue interest and proper glory in such sort as if I be to be judged by my work it will goe ill with me Whereupon being desirous to take away this molestation and this scruple of Christian persons and spirituall and to salve the intelligence of the holy Scriptures in such sort as they should not contradict themselves I think thus That in good or evill works God cōsiders not the quantity but the quality which consisteth in the minde of him that doth the works in the thing wherein he implies it That this is true in evill workes needs no proofe and that it is true in good works is evident by that which Christ saith of them that cast their monies into the Treasury of the Temple praysing the minde of him that did the works And it is evident likewise by that which the selfesame Christ saith speaking of the day of judgement where he doth not say that hee will saue them who haue bin charitable simply but they that have been charitable with himselfe that is they who believing shall stand incorporated in him Whence it seems that Christ saith that he will saue them who haue used charity with him and condemne them that haue not used it Now it being cleer that they cannot work with a pious minde but only who are pious and holy nor can know Christ in his members to use charity towards him but they onely who appertain to the selfesame body of Christ it is clearely approved that none can work well work Christianly but those who are the members of Christ those who haue the spirit of Christ and are pious and holy and just and believe in Christ. And this being approved it is likewise approved that it is the selfesame in holy Scripture to say That men shall be saved by their good works and condemned by their evill works and to say That they shall be saved by their Faith and condemned by their Infidelity Whereupon Christian persons are to two things The one That they only work well for holding themselves justified by Christ they doe not pretend to justifie themselves by their own good works and so working they work purely for the loue of God and not for their own proper loue as those men work who not holding themselves justified by Christ pretend to justifie themselves by their own good works and so working for their own proper loue proper interest and not for the love of God they noe not work well for their works doe not please God cannot be called good works The other that God judging them according to their works will not put to their accompt the contamination that he shall know in them having pardoned them originall sin together with all that which they haue from this evill root And because he will put to their accompt the Faith which he shall haue given them and the purity that shall be in their works whether few or many in as much as they shall be the fruit of Faith And so God shall saue them shewing in the outward judgement that he saves them for their good works saving them indeed by the Faith which he shall have given them God shall iustifie the sentence with which he condemnes the impious superstitious and shall save the pious and holy alleaging the outward works of the one and the other the living with holinesse and iustice on the one part and the living with iniustice and impiety on the other part But this shall not be but for men who know not nor see not but in the outward And in the self same sentence they who know and see the inward the root whence this living working on the one part and this living and working on the other grow they being more then men by the Christian regeneration shall know that Faith hath saved them that shall be saved and that infidelity shall haue condemned them that shall be condemned Here may an impious person say to me willing to calumniate holy Scripture and a superstitious willing to canonize his own
Christ both in regard of that which he himselfe felt suffering hunger and thirst cold and heat with all the other discommodities whereunto our bodies are subject and in his feeling of affliction and anguish for some things which he saw amongst men and in men and in his inward feeling of death as also in regard of that which he shewed in the outward being esteemed a vile base and vulgar person and accordingly used and farther being held for a pernitious and scandalous person and accordingly crucified Now this which I have spoken of touching the History of Christ I shall accomplish at such time and manner as it shall please the Divine Majesty in the mean space loose no time attending every day to make your selfe more like unto God to this intent serving your selfe of reading David and more like unto Christ serving your selfe of reading S. Paul in whom also you shal behold the crosse of Christ albeit not so evidently as in the Evangelists And because it may perhaps seem strange to you that I should make present of S. Paul unto you before the Gospells in as much as the reading of S. Paul is commonly esteemed more difficult then that of the Evangelists which containe the history of Christ I would have you to know that as farre as my understanding can reach there is without all doubt more difficulty in the perfect understanding of the Gospell then that of S. Paul which proceeds as I conceive from certain causes which would be a long work to make repetition of only now I will say that for as much as in S. Paul I read the conceptions and apprehensions of S. Paul and in the Gospell I read many conceptions and apprehensions of Christ I find so much more difficulty in the perfect understanding of the Gospells then in the perfect understanding of S. Paul as I conceive the conceptions apprehensions of Christ were more elevate and more divine then the conceptions and apprehensions of S. Paul not denying but that to speak generally and as much as concernes the stile the Gospells are more intelligible then S. Paul But of this matter I reserve my selfe to speak more at large when it shall please God that I come to translate the Gospells Now concerning the translation I have been desirous to ty my selfe strictly to the letter as much as possibly might be even so as to leave the matter ambiguous in the Castilian language when it would beare where ever I found it ambiguous in the Greek so as the letter might be applied both to the one and to the other sence and this I say for as much as intending the translation of S. Paul I may not pretend to write m◅e own conceits but those of S. Paul It is very true that in some places which seemed necessary unto mee I have added some small words in the text But of these some are understood in the Greek text although they be not expressed and others seem of necessity to be understood And all these as you may observe are marked to the intent you may know them for mine and make use of them as you please in reading or not reading them But of this be advertized that as you should not doe well in disesteeming that which God may give you ability to understand of your selfe in this reading so neither is it good that you should too much trust upon your own judgement despising the judgement of others It is not good that you should despise your own it is amisse that you despise that of others In the Declaration which I haue written upon that which I have translated I have kept my self as neere as was possible for mee to S Pauls minde setting down his conceptions and not mine own And if I haue gone aside in any thing it hath been through ignorance not through malice and therefore with a very good will shall take delight in being corrected and amended in whatsoever I have not hit the mark and most of all in that from whence any scruple how light soever it be may arise to any Christian minde For however you know my principall intention in this writing was to satisfie your desire yet notwithstanding I desire together with your profit to profit likewise all other persons that shall read this writing and not offend the least of them in any thing at all This is my principall profession in as much as I cōceive the son of God made profession of the same here in this present life whom I being a Christian am bound to imitate For the Latine words which I set in the beginning of the Declarations I would not haue you think that they serve that by the Castilian you should understand the Latine for oft-times they confront not the one with the other But only think that they serve to the end that you may the more eafily understand what those Latine words are which answer the Castilian which as I said before are conformable to the Greek Text not to the Latine for S. Paul wrote in Greek not in Latine And incase you have a desire to read S Pauls Text without busying your selfe in my Declaration that you may doe it with greater ease I will advertise you of some things which shall open the way and facilitate the understanding of S. Pauls minde And so I say unto you that by Gospell S. Paul understands the preaching of that good news of the pardō general which is published throughout the world affirming that God hath pardoned all the sins of the men of the world executing for them all the rigour of his instice upon Christ who gave notice to the world of this pardon and in whose name all give notice thereof to the intent that men moved by the authority of Christ who is the sonne of God should give credit to the pardon generall and giving confidence to the word of God should hold themselves for reconciled with God and give over the seeking after otherkinds of reconciliation By which you shall understand that God in this case deales with men as a Prince against whom his subiects having rebelled and by reason of this rebellion fled from his kingdome he grants them a pardon generall and sends his owne sonne to give them notice thereof to the intent that they should give credit to the pardon for the authority of the sonne and so relying on the Princes pardon returne to the kingdome giving over to seek for pardon from the Prince by any other way or meanes Whence it followes that they who believe that Christ is the sonne of God and yet give not credit to the pardon generall which he published and doth publish these doe not hold themselves for reconciled with God but goe seking other reconciliations not relying upon that which Christ published and is on Christs behalfe published they doe the self-same which the vassalls of the Prince would doe who believing that he that publisheth the pardon generall to them were the Princes