look upon Christ our Mediatour who is the End or chief aim of the Law Rom. 10. 4. for it was given with a Design to drive us to him Gal. 3. 24. and is a Yoak which we nor our Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 10. and in Contemplation of that Righteousness he performed in our Nature for us by vertue of the Covenant of Grace deal with us and our Works so as the Imperfections which we acknowledge and bewail in them shall never come in sight Well-fare those men if they can for the Condignity of their Services It is enough for us under the sense of the Skars and Blemishes in our too often lame Obedience to look up to the Hills from whence cometh our Help and to shelter our selves under his Feathers who hath Healing in his Wings We will now hear what the old Fathers of the New I mean the Primitive Church will say to this business But let us take along with us the Advice of Vincentius Lirinensis who highly commends this way of confuting Errors yet with this Caveat Neither all ways nor all kinds are to be impugned after this manner but such only as are new and lately sprung whilst by the straitness of time they be hindred from falsifying the Rules of the ancient Faith and before their poyson spreading farther they attempt to corrupt the Writings of the Elders c. Which I mention not because I am diffident of their Testimony but to give you an hint that the Policy of Rome has been notorious in Curtaling Expunging Depraving the Fathers yea and foysting in new Matter to many of their Works Note again in what sence the word Merit often indeed occurring in their Writings before ever that Acception the Jesuits now have it in was dream'd of was used by them It Ordinarily imports no more when they say Merita than if they had said Opera and to merit no more than simply to attain unto or procure without any Relation at all to the Dignity either of the Person or the Work Thus St. Augustin saith Paul for his Persecutions and Blasphemies Merited to be made a vessel of Election and Cyprian Misericordiam merui I obtained Mercy So Gregory Paul when he went about to extinguish the name of our Redeemer upon Earth Merited to hear his Words from Heaven and lest you have a Conceit that he means of Paul's Works fore-seen See the same manner of Rhetorick concerning Adam's Sin O happy Sin that Merited to have such and so great a Redeemer meaning that gave the occasion of his Coming And now I am to acquaint you with a Secret has been hid from your Eyes by the Cunningness of those you build your Belief upon St. Chrysostome Cyprian Augustin and the rest will I think in my Conscience prove as arrant Hereticks as we For the first peremptorily affirms against Vasquez That no man can shew such a Conversation of life as may be worthy of the Kingdom but this Kingdom is wholly the Gift of God and in another place Although we did die a Thousand Deaths and perform all Vertuous Actions yet we should come far short of rendring any thing worthy of those honours which are conferr'd on us by God Take one more of his That one destitute of Works should be justified by Faith might perhaps seem well to be but that one adorned with Vertues and good Works should yet not be Justified by them but only by Faith is admirable Who would have thought good old Chrysostom had so much dissented from the reverend Society at Rhemes who teach us another Lesson That good Works are Meritorious and the very cause of Salvation so far as God should be unjust if he rendred not Heaven for them Take the next Testimony out of Gregory in the Original because there 's one word whose just force and Emphasis as it stands here our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in Judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus Injustos Non ergo in fletibus non in actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione confidamus When the day of Judgment or our Death shall come saith Hierom all hands shall fail because no work shall be found worthy of the Justice of God That is a known place of Augustin He viz. Christ is Sin as we are Justice not our own but God's not in our selves but in him as he is Sin not in himself but in us And remarkable that of Athanasius Impossibile est puritatem innocentiam in humana Natura exhiberi nisi Deus credatur in Carne fuisse qui Justitiam omni ex parte liberam in mundum introduxit Cujus quia participes sumus vivemus salvabimur Illud enim Non est justus in terra c. in Commune ad omnes pertinet Unde ex Coelo descendit qui immaculatam Justitiam ex se daturus erat No less this of Gregory Nyssenus in his Oration upon Beati qui esuriunt Justitiam It seems to me saith that Father That our Lord by mentioning Justice doth propose to the appetite of his hearers his own self who is made unto us Wisdom from God Justice Sanctification c. That Proverb Bernardus non videt omnia may perhaps be true yet in this Omne tulit punctum he has hit the right Nail on the Head and rivetted it in so strongly as not even the Teeth of Time shall be able to pull it out We find in him these words fit to be writ in Letters of Gold I will make mention of thy Righteousness only for even that is mine too to wit thou art made unto me Justice I need not fear but it will serve us both It is not a short Cloak that will not cover two c. We will here take lieve of these Stars of the first Magnitude and come to those of later Note in the Church's Constellation that lived after the light of this Doctrine had been clouded and set themselves to enquire how it came so and to deliver their opinions more distinctly and apposite to the present Question than the ancient Doctors could do who had finished their Course before the Corruption was discoverable or the Controversie started But take in as we pass another Instance or two out of the last named Doctor It 's necessary first of all to Believe That we cannot have remission of sins but by the Mercy or Condonation of God 2. Then That we cannot at all have any whit of good works unless he give it Lastly That by no good works we can merit Life Eternal Nisi gratis deâ—ur illa In another place thuâ— If we must speak properly of that which we call Merits they are certain Seminaries of Hope Incitements of Love Signs of secret Predestination the way to the Kingdom not the Cause of Reigning Dangerous is the way and dwelling of those that trust in
their Merits dangerous because ruinous Thomas Waldensis our Compatriot and the others Contemporary professes his utter dislike of that saying That a man may by Merits be worthy of Heaven or this Grace or that Glory however loe here their rise certain Schoolmen had invented the Terms of Condignity and Congruity I do repute him adds he the more faithful Catholick and more sound Christian more consonant to the holy Scripture who doth simply deny such Merit and confesseth That no man Merits Heaven but by the Grace of God or will of the Giver As all the former Saints and whole Church until the late Schoolmen have written Here 's even enough to end withal yet wee 'l have one Instance more of our Truth but Romes falshood and departure from the Faith of her fore-fathers We will bring it thus Our Libraries were ordinarily stored with certain old Instructions and Consolations to be used to departing sick Persons out of which the Spanish Inquisitors thought fit to expunge these dangerous Interrogations Dost thou believe to come to Glory not by thine own Merits but by the Vertue and Merit of the Passion of our Lord Dost thou believe that our Lord Jesus Christ did die for our Salvation and that none can be saved by his own Merits or by any other Means but by the Merit of his Passion Uincentius his Rule now appears prudent when we have to deal with a sort of men that care not how they deal with old Records and endeavour all they can to make the Tongue of An. tiquity to have a Tangue of their Novelties and can frame new Decrees fathering them on old Councils as both hath and may be proved I shall shut up all with the result of two Assemblies and the astipulations of two Eminent Persons The Canons of Colen in a set meeting establish the Imputed Righteousness of Christ as the formal Cause of Justification We are Justified say they two ways The one and first of which is that absolute Righteousness of Christ not as it is clearly without us in him but as when it is whilst apprehended by Faith Imputed to us for Righteousness this very same so imputed is the chief and great Cause of our Justification This was much considering the time they lived in but better explained in that Colloquy of Ratisbon whose words are Though he who is Justified does receive inherent Justice yet a faithful Soul rests not upon that but only upon the Justice of Christ given to us without which there can clearly be no Justice at all I mention these being soon after the Reformation begun not as entirely Reformed but as such unto whom in this great point the light of Truth even to a good Degree could not be hid The next is a remarkable passage concerning Ernestus Arch-Bishop of Magdeburge witnessed by his own Chaplain Clement Schaw who was present at his Death about five years before Luther A Friar Minor offered him Consolation thus Take good heart most worthy Prince We do Communicate to your Excellence all the good works not only of our selves but of our whole Order and therefore doubt not but receiving them you shall appear before the Tribunal of God blessed and righteous He replied I do not desire your Works to any thing The Works of my Lord Christ must wholly do it On these I relie And Bellarmine himself who spent so much Time and Sweat in oppugning Imputed and propugning Inherent Grace under the Notion of Condign Merit was at last brought to say Propter incertitudinem c. For the uncertainty of our Works it is the safest to put all our Confidence in the sole Mercy and Bounty of God and relie upon Christ. Which totally unravels again the thinn wrought Covering he had before with other Jesuits patch'd up Thus have we followed this pure stream of living water through the Meanders of many Ages of several Constitutions even to the confines of our own Wherein if you look at the present outward face of things we may almost say the Enemy has got the upper hand Yet praise be to God We are not without many Eminent and Faithful Labourers in his Harvest who I hope will leave it upon Record that the Truth is not left without Witnesses And thus too if you take it as we say at the right End I have given you a Testimony that I am c. LETTER III. ARising from depending on and subservient to the Doctrine of Meritorious inherent Justice are all those Opinions of Free-will Satisfactions here and in Purgatory Prayer and Sacrifices for the Dead Indulgences and Vendable Pardons from the Extreme grossness whereof when he saw those goodly Advantages made the Wager in a Game at Dice Luther first took occasion to discountenance them We think they are but as super-structures reared with untempered Mortar which we are sure will all as Wood Hay Stubble perish and be consumed by that Fire the Spirit of Burning mentioned Isa. 4. 4. Matth. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 3. 13. And therefore waving them the next Point wherein I shall endeavour if it may so please God to rectifie your Judgment is that much Controverted business of the Sacraments Which are visible Signs of invisible Grace given and conferred unto us Instituted by Christ himself and ordained to be a means to Receive and a Seal to Confirm the same Let us review this Definition and draw from it some Observations in the words of a Learned Author Many things do here occurr which require a deep and serious Consideration by those who desire throughly to understand the Nature and Essential parts of Sacraments For first there must be a Conferrence of Grace of which the Sacraments are termed Seals yet this Conferrence of Grace is not causatively but instrumentally not Physically but Metaphysically in them Therefore those are not properly Sacraments which relate to any thing but matters of Religion By this Argument is Matrimony excluded from the List as not being in it self considered a Religious Work neither is any Grace at all conferred or exhibited thereby So that though Marriage doth Legitimate many one may say it self is but a Bastard Sacrament 2. Next these Signs of Grace ought to be subject to the Senses For so it seemed good to God by sensible and external things to lead by the hand as it were us who for the most part live by sense towards Intelligible Internal and Spiritual matters They must farther be visible and subject to the Eyes Hence Absolution and Ordination cannot fall within the number of Sacraments not having any visible Element or Material Sign Thirdly They are said to be ordained and instituted by Christ Signs they are by the Institution of him and not of their own nature He only who created the Elements can by his word make of them Sacraments nor is it from the choice of Men that the Signs become Sacraments but by the Ordinance of
otherwise than as it seemed good unto him Adam who laid not as we under Original guilt and stain might blame his wifes perswasion she the deceit of Satan but his deviation could no way reflect upon God for it was not by nor through the Divine Decre but only according to it And though it cannot be denied but God did permit the Fall because he foreknew and if it had stood with his determinate Counsel could have prevented it yet the Delinquency of that common Root of mankind in whom we all have sinned was a voluntary free and uncompelled Action He came out from under the hand of his Creator upright and undefiled but he sought unto himself vain Inventions He tasted sowr grapes and our teeth are set on edge and it 's now true what Augustin I think it was affirmed long ago Man sins necessarily yet freely Thus far even as far as to and beyond the beginning of Time we are to look back if we must have a Reason for the Almighty's Dispensations to the Children of Men and there we shall presently find I use the words of the last named Father quoted by Mr. Yates in his Model of Divinity pag. 257 258. That we all are as it were one mass or heap of Sin liable to Divine wrath which whether God exact or remit there is no Iniquity with him Of the Twins Esau and Jacob the one is taken and the other left their ends are different their deserts alike Let none argue God of Injustice if he render to one his merited punishments and do bestow upon the other immerited favour That there is an Election no body will I think gain-say that that Election is not grounded upon foreseen Faith or Obedience I shall I hope before I end this Letter demonstrate and that it is the exceeding greatness of God's own mighty power Ephes. 1. 19. whereby any man is brought from being dead in Trespasses and Sins to become alive unto God The Wisdom of the Church of England in her 17. Article layeth down the Doctrine of Predestination thus far very clearly and doth not so much as name that other part which the Disputes of Men call Reprobation leaving us to conceive that the one is the meer just negation or denial of the special Grace and immerited favour which is mercifully bestowed on the other Faith is the Effect of Election but Infidelity not so of Reprobation for there is no efficient but deficient cause of Unbelief God's eternal Purpose his Foreknowledge his Election are Acts of his all at a time and before all time The first news that comes to us of these things is in his Effectual Calling here and here only it will become us to prove and examine Election Is an Action of the Father Means In the Son according to the Dispensation of Means By the holy Ghost for the Consummation of Means To Faith the Instrument of applying those Means Upon Man the Object of his Mercy through Means By the same Decree and from the same Eternity hath God ordained all the means to every End respectively and those Means to lead unto that End So that none can further assure themselves of the End than they are careful to use the Means He that takes his aim by the Means need not fear to fail of the End but he that by a preposterous haste to see the End looks and leaps over the means can expect nothing but a fearful and destructive end In Reprobation the reverend Davenant choseth rather to term it Non-election none of the sacred and undivided Trinity are interessed farther than that God contracts his hand and suffers man to remain overwhelmed under the ruine he hath brought upon himself Election communicates good things to the Creature immediately Reprobation only forbears to confer those good things upon some men yet brings not upon them the evil of punishment but in contemplation of intervening Sin Man as fallen is the proper Object of Predestination and the fall of Man is an annexed Condition which God looks at both in the Elect whom he snatcheth by his free mercy as brands out of the fire and in the Reprobate whom he leaves under a Conviction as great as their Crimes or Sufferings Of this we draw a Resemblance not from an Horse already lamed by his owner and then beaten for not going sound as our Adversaries the more to facilitate to themselves an imaginary victory will have it but from a Man holding a Greyhound in a Slip and suffering him to pursue an Hare the man sure did not plant in the Dog his rapacity or thirstiness after the blood of that Animal neither did he endue him with the faculty of running only he did not with-hold him Thus say we was it the voluntary Transgression of Adam arising from his own free choice for he was created Upright and left by God capable of continuing so which introduced upon the whole World his successors since in him we all have sinned such an Enmity as God was no way bound to restrain and out of this perdid and lost heap none we think can come but such as the Father is pleased to draw according to the good pleasure of his Will When we come to Heaven we shall know even as we are known and perhaps see into the Bottom of this Abyss in the mean time we must rest content with our partial knowledge yet acknowledge this for truth Ignota possit esse non injusta causa Our Saviour Christ's Satisfaction takes in the common Lump of Humane Nature making it capable of redintegration with God and a fit subject for mercy a thing denied to the fallen Angels whose Nature he assumed not and without which none of Humane race no more than they had been within possibility of Salvation His Intercession that other part of his Priestly Office makes particular application of that benefit and brings it home to those the Father hath given him even to as many as the Lord our God shall effectually Call These know they are to give him the Glory of his Works in them and for them whilest those that are left to their own devices know too they justly suffer for those wickednesses they have adhered to and perpetrated of their own accord and with full bent of Will so as they must needs say Ex me perditio mea Hosea 13. 9. Let those whom this will not satisfie ponder what is written for their learning and to stop their mouths Rom. 9. 20. We willingly grant we are so much dissatisfied with their Doctrine of Justification which they place in inherent righteousness that we think we do well when we oppose it in the first Seeds thereof the opinion of Free-will Is it not enough to say that when God hath in the first Act of Conversion made the Will free indeed by quickning enabling rectifying reforming it then it acts and operates according to its true proper and original Principles in
be led away by the prevalencie of certain stupendious works done by such as were nevertheless great Impostors Revel 13. 13 14 15. We read again of some that were casters out of Devils yet followed not Christ Mark 9. 38 39. And if we should follow them into Doctrines which are without the concurrence of his Word whether this be the case or no betwixt Rome and us may be decided elsewhere we might easily go astray St. Augustine tell us cap 8. de Civit. Dei He that yet requires wonders in order to his believing is himself a great wonder And this leads us on to enquire after Historical discoveries 2. Whence it will not be hard to learn what the Church in times ancient enough held as to this question It was evidently the opinion of old that the ordinarie working of Miracles ceased when the Apostles deceased That they were of use to allure Heathens and Unbelievers then but not to be expected or singly relyed on for the determination of a controverted Point where Christianty has already been setled That they have been done by some persons in justification of their Tenents when Truth was not on that side That they may indeed soberly be eyed as a concurrent Testimony where it pleases God they happen for establishment of a Truth contained in the Scriptures but not for the Introduction of any belief or practice without or against it As to the former of these Gregory commonly called the Great Bishop of Rome about an 600 hath affirmed That as watering to young Plants is necessary but not to rooted Oakes so Miracles to the infant Church but not when grown up Hom. in Evang. 43. And St. Augustine about two Ages before makes a wonder not only at but of those that pinn'd their faith on wonders That reverend African has taught me to say after him Against the Miracle-mungers he meant the Donatists the Lord hath made me cautious by saying In the last times false Prophets shall arise and shall shew signs and wonders but take heed behold I have told you Tom. 29. Tract 13. in Jo. Mark 13. 22 23 24. The false Prophets there said to do signs and wonders were not to be Ethnicks without Christ but only to obtrude false Christs or a fallacious way to him What need we say more than what we have full and clear authority for 1 Cor. 14. 22. signs are not to them that do believe but to them that believe not That great wonders have been done or at least undeniably urged by some that had not right on their side may visibly be made good from the Testimony of Bede who informs us that the argument from Miracle-working was very rife on both parts in that grand contest about the time of celebrating Easter lib. 2. cap. 15. 16 29. This may serve as to the two first enquiries and so let us pass to the third Disquisition viz. by Reason 3. I would know since sundry other miraculous operations as well as casting out Devils are enumerated in Mark 16. and said to accompany those that were sent why do not our Romish Priests appropriate and take to themselves all the rest as well as that domination over unclean Spirits Let us hear them having never been taught speak with strange Tongues let us see them unhurt touch all sorts of venomous Creatures c. let them shew us that immediately and infallibly they can cure all manner of Diseases For I see not any differences in the Grant in the intentional end or in the time of continuance Again the Promise may seem made to all true Believers not restrain'd to Priests only and it 's more than probable that those Exorcists Mark 9. 38. were not in Orders Why then do they monopolize it and think themselves as sure of it as the Coats on their backs We acknowledge there was in the infant-Churches a sort of Faith sometimes found even amongst miss-believers which was productive of admirable events not of Satan's operation neither This Faith having for its object only that essential Attribute of God his Power and relying thereon by a strenuous Act of Credence particular to that business impetrated frequently then and may peradventure do so yet sometimes wonderful things at his hands though neither the Person nor the Cause stood upon a right foot St. Augustine not denying but the Hereticks of his time might do true Miracles I mean things strange beyond understanding forbore not though to dehort his people from listening to them upon that accompt as may be seen Tract de Unit. Eccles. cap. 9. Tom. 7. Why may not we also though we should see wonders done even such as are mentioned Revel 13. bring them to the Test of Gods Word and require proof from thence that those Doctrines designed for establishment thereby are true 4. But let us in the last place do what we can to see through the darkness of their practice And seriously we can hardly be brought to think that to out the Devil of his hold is the common usual effect of their Sprinklings Fumings Crossings of their Beatings with the Priestly stole repetitions of Latin Words c. since we find not any of all these used by Christ nor instituted to any such end Again we must not nor can forget what palpable collusions and deceipts they have been found to use in almost every place where they met with any body that durst but peep under the veil they at such times do hang before the eyes of the vulgar Let the boy of Bilson as yet I think living a Shooemaker in Northhampton speak And it is not so very long ago about a dozen years since a most gross cheat of this sort was re-acted and fully discover'd at New-Castle upon Tine But whoever shall peruse the twenty fourth Chapter of Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to Cardinal Perron as it 's publisht Anno 1662. cannot certainly but discover what he ought to think and how to demean himself upon such Rancounters What shall we conceive of their giving a solemn Oath to Satan and then questioning him about controverted Points as they did in the case of the Boy of Bilson Oh! he would tear he told them or made signs thereof a dying Protestant but a good that is in their sence a Roman Catholick departing he would be as quiet as a Lamb. Does not this smell rank of design Spectatum admissi A Conjecture how it is come to pass that the Church of Rome hath partly been plundered and partly has cheated her self of so much Primitive Truth THe bitter Contests which had arose and for some Ages continued betwixt the Orthodox and Manacheean Pelagian but especially the Arrian Hereticks had now alienated the minds of men one from another interrupted the correspondences they used formerly to hold and so shaken the Foundations laid by the first Master-Builders when the sudden rise of the Sarazen in the East and the violent rushings of other Barbarians upon the Western Empire had either induced or
Rome who neither know the Truth nor can endure to be taught it If this be the case and I were to chuse a Religion I do seriously think I might close in with any now upon the face of the earth that does not in plain Terms deny the Lord who bought us less timorously than with Rome I am somewhat confident and do hold it for a great Truth which I speak neither timorously nor temerariously That the Arrian Heresie and the Turkish Arms which pull'd all other things where they came down lifted up the Pope by accident and Divine Permission into his Chair For the Eastern Prelates and men of Eminency being under persecutions at home had a safe retreit into the West And therefore made that Patriarch their Asylum In order to which or by way of gratitude for benefits received they often made the frame of their addressive Epistles to consist of complemental Elogies these being no more than what the kindness and hospitality wherewith they had been entertained did seem to deserve were yet due only to the Persons then sitting at the Stern nor farther intended But afterwards cunningly made use of and represented to the Credulous World for the Popes Advantage One Observation more and I have done The Church of Rome or at least her darling Sons the Jesuites will have the Pomise of Christ That the holy Spirit shall lead his People into all Truth to be suspended unto that very Moment wherein their Bishop shall assent to the Results of a Council and the performance to depend on this Contingency amongst a many more whether he will at all confirm them or no Then at last they judge them infallible when the Pope either present or absent signifies his pleasure so to declare them Well! But Liberius as above hinted himself confirmed the Arrian Conclusions of the Council at Sermium And the Pope had his Deputies at Basil and Constance those Decrees were confirmed by the Apostolick Letters of Eugenius Yet I suppose few Romanists will grant these were infallible And I think we may continue our Opinion upon good ground That the Roman Bishop's Vote is but a sandy Foundation to build our Faith upon I shall last of all request you not to refuse your joyning with me in those Words of our and I think too of your Liturgy That Almighty God will Grant All who Confess his holy Name may agree in the Truth of his holy Word and Zion become a quiet Habitation FINIS To the most Reverend the right Reverend Prelates and all the Learned Clergie in this Kingdom THat I have without a word of command presum'd to engage in this war-fare requires I confess a submiss Apologie but since I go upon that general Precept which bids us be ready to give a reason of our faith and it is as importunately demanded now as if never any thing had been done by your worthy Predecessors for the Protestant Cause I will not despair of Pardon There may be need I fear not onely of the Chariots and Horse-men but of the Infantry too amongst whom he desires but to trail a Pike who is Your just Adorer and humble servant Christopher Wyvill FINIS Rom. 11. 20. Mr. Reynolds upon the 110. Psal. Morney Lord du Plessys The saine du Plessys Lib. 2. de Trinitate Lib. sexto Gregory on the 5. Penitent Psal. Vid. the Primate of Ireland's Answer to a Jesuit's Challenge In Sacriloquio quando in singulari numero fundamentum dicitur Nullus alius nisi Christus designatur Greg. lib. 28. in Cap. Josuae 6. Gal. 2. 7. The Jews and such as were Circumcised Vide Bunting his Itinerarie in the Travels of St. Peter Jesuites and their followers * Europe for more than 40. years was almost equally divided in their judgments as well as in cruel hatred one part against the other about the Right of Clement and Urbane 6. to the Infallible Chair The Authors of France painted to the life pag. 16. * For if ordinary Priests could do such things what submissions could be thought enough towards the supreme Bishop as Men were then learning to call him Ep. fol. 885. Fol. 859. A further strange Instance of this I shall hereafter give you Doctor Chalanours Unde Zir. in a The Primate of Ireland lib. citato has their names Chalanours Credo Eccles. pag. 215. Primate of Ireland as before Strongly disputed every way as may be seen in Bellarmine de Concil Eccles Milit. Yet he boldly resolves all by the Determinations of Trent Eugenius was deposed by a General Council and it was declared impossible for those to be saved that held him Pope Yet he continued in by force and from him is the so much vaunted of Succession Baxter's Winding sheet pag. 10. Sundry General Councils obtruded Arianism upon the World and Liberius Bishop of Rome confirmed it Davenant de Judice Normâ Fidei cap. 21. fol. 125. The calling of Councils formerly was the right of the Emperour undeniably now usurped by the Pope That he had no such universal Dominion may strongly be proved out of Sir Roger Twisden's Vindication of the Church of England cap. 2. By the Abbot of Bangor's Reply to Augustin the Monk who demanded their obedience Gelasius the Pope said The Sacrament without the Cup is a grand Sacrilege but half Communion What means the present bussle in France betwixt the Jansenists and Jesuits about Efficacious grace and the next power Bernard of Clareval de Grat. liber Arbitr Theodoret in Sophon cap. 3. Say not this means Natural works only for the contrary is evident Hom. Paschal 4. Annot. upon 2 Tim. 4 8. Upon 1 Cor. 3. 8. * With them it is nothing else but an Ability to perform in our own persons after we have received to believe the Word of God such obedience to the Law as for that we become righteous and deserve by equal Compensation the Kingdom of Heaven Mr. Allen. Justifying Faith is When a man does practically believe the two great Doctrines of Justification and Sanctification Paul the Apostle in the terms of toward God Repentance and Faith toward Christ clearly points out this Office of Faith Acts 20. 21. It 's strange how those that hold a Treasury of Saints Merits can term our Doctrine of Imputation an empty Speculation For Is there a Communion of the Members one with another and not with the Head Bearing by Imputation and no otherwise the Iniquities of us all Finis Legis Christus omni Credenti Bernard ad Innoc. 190. Davenant de Justitia habituali fol. 373. Davenant ut supra cap. 28. How insincerely the the Rhemists do render this place see in Dr. Fulk De Justifie lib. 5. cap. 17. The Arguments are good against all Works Upon Ezech. 18. 20. Progeny of Cathol c. lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 86. Lib. 2. de Monach. cap. 13. Rom. 8. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Bernard de Verb. Esa. Serm. 4. In his Com. Disp. 214. cited by the Primate of Ireland ut
suprà and by Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali Paul declares his whole Justification both in his first Conversion and in the time of his writing and at the Resurrection to be wholly absolved in Faith Phil. 3. 9. Disp. 222. cap. 3. If the Works of Righteousness which we have done must be our Justification though Grace received from above be conceived to enable us thereto yet are we under the Covenant of Do this wholly purely constantly and live Which if any man say he deceives himself 1 Jo. 1. 8 9 10. Bernard de Verbo Esa. Serm. 4. Disp. 204. cap. 2. The Phariseo himself by thanking God that he was not as other men may seem to acknowledge his works to have been from Grace infused yet we know how he was dismist Cap. 3. Primate of Ireland's Answer to the Jesuite In Tim. 1. 13. It is not said He has made us wise just and holy but He is made unto us Wisdom c. which is as if he had said He hath given himself unto us So Chrysost. on 1 Cor. 1. 30. Homil. 2. on Colof De Compunct Tom. 6. In Rom. 4. Hom. 8. * Viz. Abraham Annotat on Heb. 6. In Isa. lib. 17. Enchirid. cap. 41. Math. 5. 6. and 1 Cor. 1. 30. Expounded by Gregor Nyssen Serm. 61. in Cantic Quoted by the incomparable Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali cap. 28. fol. 369. Why must Jacob stand before his Father in the Garments of his elder Brother before he could have the blessing but to typifie the necessity of our being covered with Christ's righteousness who is the first born of his Father Serm. 1. de Annunciatione Tom. 3. de Sacra cap. 7. Primate of Ireland ut suprá Johannes Piâ—us the Bishop Interpreter of Mareus the Eremite rendring Not by the Proportion of works of Nature where the Original is Not by the Proportion of works of Faith is a gross falsifier Primate of Ireland pag. 502. Simpson of the Church Cent. 5. So Zosimus pretended a Decree of the Council of Nice which could never be found Davenant de Justit habituali cap. 29. Noted by Bellarmine himself lib. â—2 de Justifie cap. 1 2. pag. 124. Idem ut suprá Dr. Twisse his Resolutions of Conscience c. De Meritis bonorum operum Leofwin a Noble man gave two Towns in Essex to the Church of Ely to Expiate and make Satisfaction for the Murther of his own Mother Cambden fol. 440. The large English Impression So Alfrida the Relict of King Edgar built a Nunnery near Ambursbury haveing murthered Edward Cambden ut suprá fol. 254. The. Trent Faith is That Sacraments cause Grace not by the Devotion of him that worketh nor of him that receives the work but by virtue of the work it self Hist. of that Council fol. 230. Matrimony Absolution and Ordination Confirmation and Extreme Unction no Sacraments Primate of Ireland's answer to the Jesuit And since we find our Saviour himself Joh. 6. 63. affirming that the flesh profiteth nothing I shall not at all fear to say We ought to be satisfied with a spiritual Manducation Idem ibidem Qui discordat à Christo nec Carnem ejus manducat nec Sanguinem bibit c. Prosper ex Aug. Sent. 341. Tract 26. This must needs be a figurative speech why then not the other Epist. 23. Quaest. 37. in Levit Upon Matth. 15. Primate of Ireland pag. 67 68 69 70 In the time of Innocent 3. who made Otho Emperour and put by Frederick left to his Care by Henry his Father Simpson's Hist. fol. 371. Fol. 44. c. Davenant in Col. â—â— naturâ amore nobis conjunctior Tome 3. câ—nra Hâ—lvidium Origen bids us not to doubt but when we commit our selves to him who is God over all through Jesus Christ and desire of him the help and protection of those ministring Spirits that do his pleasure they shall all be propitious unto us In Col. 2. 18. Recorded by Famianus Strada de Bello Belgico Strada de Bello Belgico Letter 1. Psalt Bonavent Edict Paris 1596. Tom 5. in Rom. 1. See many more and very pregnant proofs in the Primate of Ireland p. 377. c. In Josue Hom. 16. Idem ibidem pag. 239. St. Hierom assures that the power of Miracles may be permitted to them that profess not the truth of the Gospel In Epist. ad Galat. Tom. 9. Tertullian in Praescriptionibus cap. 24. Du Moulin in his accomplishment of the Prophecies De cura pro mortuis cap. 10. De Lazaro conc pag. 235 236. Primate of Ireland pag. 396. How common is the conceipt now that departed souls do appear Basil. Seleuc. de miraculis Theclae cap. 10. Idem cap. 21. Idem cap. 24. all quoted by the Primate of Ireland in his Answer to the Jesuit pag. 397. Chapt. 9. pag. 337. Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge pag. 504. Loc. Theol. lib. 5. cap. 4. prope finem Epist. ad Johan de Hierusalym Tom. 1. Oper. Hieronym Epist 60. He had sure been instructed out of such Catechisms who refused to shoot at Buts on May day because it was he said a dear holy day and yet I found him the next Lords day with others at Slide-Groat Upon Tho. in his 3d. part quoted by the Primate pag. 499. De Bello Belgico lib. 5. Allen's Antidote pag. 13. Lib. 4. Cap. 26. Lib. 6. cap 24. In his Prefaces before the Kings and Proverbs De Civitate Dei In his Scholastical Hist. c. Epist. to the Reader Chrysost. upon 2 Cor. Homil. 13. Sin is not a Being but rather a defect of what should Be and hath for its efficient Cause nothing but a deficient Will Preston of Converting Grace pag. 15. If our Saviour knew that Sodom and Gomorrah had they enjoyed the same means as Chorazin and Bethsaida would have repented what can be said but their Final impenitencie was according to God's Will The Fall of Adam was not praeter Voluntatem Dei that were to make a lame Providence nor contra that were to make a weak Omnipotence but it was juxta and that leaves all the Attributes of God wrapt up by his Wisdom in their full power Augustin John 5. 21. That is the Will of the Creature failing in Obedience Mr. Case in a Sermon on Rom. 8. 28. And this is it which frees our Doctrine from all danger of working in men a secure or careless Presumption as it is no less ignorantly than maliciously aspersed by some since our evidence doth so much consist in the sincerity tho not in the perfection of Obedience Election may at length come to be known and thence assurance but Reprobation never Mr. Sheffeild Primate of Ireland in an Epistle publisht by Dr. Bernard Mr. Birkbeck in his Protestants Evidence Man is not active but passive in regeneration In repentance man is the doer complies with God in it and turns himself Ephes. 2. 1. Phil. 2. 13. That power of God which subjects a man to Christ comes not by moral perswasion only or violent impulses but is tempered to the disposition of the Will Lib. de gratia libero arbitr cap. 27. Mr. Gurnal's Christian in Compleat Armour part 2. pag. 526 527. 530. De Praedest Sanctorum Cyrus who was Christus Domini and therein but a shadow of Christus Dominus in this manner published his Proclamation Who is amongst you of all his people the Lord his God be with him let him go up Ezra 1. 3. Now they alone did follow this Call whose Spirits God had raised to go up But could those that stay'd still behind plead any thing but their love of slavery and idleness why they also went not up Vers. 5. This instance is by the Primate of Ireland brought in and applyed to our purpose in a Letter published by Doctor Bernard Jer. 32. 40. Rom. 8. 15 16. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Gal. 4. 6. Ephes. 1. 14. 1 John 2. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 5. 1 Joh. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 15. Jude vers 1. A late Treatise published by Mr. Calamy Doctor Sibbs at Grays Inn Chappel Vasquez Disput. Sasbout upon the place confesseth it 's meant of Abraham's second Justification that is of his Works done in Faith See Selater pag. 29. Or the Eyes and Judgments of others History of that Council fol. 197. In his Observations upon Religio Medici History of that Council fol. 237. Fol. 349. Faith does not consist in a belief that we do believe but in an affiance bottomed upon such Trials as Scripture holds out Progeny of Catholicks and Hereticks lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 80. For we will expect from them proofs both full and legitimate beyond those usually brought Ambrose on Rom. 1.