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
answered The difference laid only in the means of applying it and that not only faith but the exercise of all other vertues was that means I have already declared how this is attributed to the instrumentality of Faith it alone being that Grace which is capable of laying hold upon Christ held forth to the Soul in the promises of the Gospel and as it is a quality inherent it does not justifie no more than other Graces Now if all Papists would grant that only the Righteousness of Christ is to be brought before the Tribunal of Gods justice I should without any difficulty yield that all other vertues are inseparable adjuncts to Faith and admit them to the Office of applying as without which Faith has no such power nor indeed can at all subsist though not to the Office of justifying Cloath me but with the Garments of our Elder Brother so that nothing of my own may come in sight I shall be less sollicitous after what manner it be got on The Pelagians for all their Confession that they had their Souls and all the faculties of them their wills and all the abilities thereof from God yet could not free their Opinions touching free-Will from the just imputation of Heresie So the Church of Rome though she draw the fairest colours she can over her Doctrine of inherent Righteousness Merit thereby acknowledging the first rise of that power to be from God yet for as much as she places the formal Cause of Justification in a wrong place whilst that is made a quality within man cannot wipe off the Error of their Tenent which puts them under the Condition of Do this and Live never since the Fall required by God in the full extent thereof the perfect fulfilling and keeping all his Commandments yet this all Papists are obliged unto from any meer man For the Gospel in its Epitome was early preacht to Adam presently after his defection and so ran through the Administration under Moses whose Ordinances Sacrifices and Ceremonies were full of Representations of Christ as Believers are truly said to have imbraced the Promises Heb. 11. 15. to have drank of him 1 Cor. 10. 3 4. in those times and were not under the Covenant of Works But I am almost driven back into the Ocean when it 's time to bring my Bark to shore I will therefore draw in the Sails and strike Anchor only adding this Advertisement They have long since been invited by the Pen of a very modest and temperate Adversary to demonstrate That certain Articles of their Creed which surely are main ones in their esteem for they proclaim every Oppugner of them no less than Heretick were held for Orthodox during the first five hundred years after our Saviour Viz. 1. That there is a Treasury of Saints Merits and superabundant satisfactions to be disposed of by the Pope 2. That private Masses wherein the Priest says Edite bibite ex hoc omnes Eat and drink ye all of this yet eats and drinks only himself have their Authority from the practice of Christ or his Apostles 3. That the Laity are excluded from receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both kinds by Christs Institution 4. That the publique worship of God in the Church may or ought to be celebrated in an unknown Tongue 5. That the Popes Pardons are useful or necessary to release souls out of Purgatory 6. That extream Unction is a Sacrament properly so call'd 7. That we may adore God by an image 8. That the Pope cannot Err in matters of Faith If they have already made this out I pray you inrich me with the knowledge of it if they have not yet gone about it put them upon it and suspend your compliance with them till they have effected it But if they fail as I suspect they must of performing it what excuse can you have if you disclaim not their Communion who have so grosly abused the world with glorious nothings and meer pretences FINIS Part II. Some Rubs laid in the way of those Jehu's who at this time seem to drive-on so furiously which they must necessarily either remove or leap-over before they can arrive at the Supremacy or Infallibility of the Roman Church 1. IF those words Tu es Petrus vested him in an absolute preheminency over the rest Why did the Apostles afterwards ask which of them should be Chief And why did not our Saviour thereupon plainly satisfie them but chose so to determine the Question as to convince them of the vanity in that Enquiry Mark 9. 34 35. But if an infallible Judge in all Controversies were thereby to have been for ever introduced the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God would not have left a Point of so vast concernment to the whole World in all its successive Generations without a clear and evident Precept 2. From that minatory Exhortation Rom. 11. 18 19 20 21. we collect a possibility for it 's indifferently level'd at all Gentile Churches and particularly directed to Rome that no less She than any other may be cut off 3. Where St. Paul Gal. 2. magnifies his Office in reference to his Apostleship over the uncircumcision and seems to confine the jurisdiction of St. Peter within the limits of the Jewish Pale he ought rather without more to do if a succession of infallible truth to be derived from Cephas to the Chair of Rome had been foreknown by him to have directed our Eyes thither Again where Acts 20. 29 30 31 32. he sadly foretels the Church that after his departure grievous Wolves should enter in and amongst them many should arise speaking perverse things He adviseth them not to make in that case their addresses to him that should then happen to be St. Peter's Successour at Rome but commends them to the word of God's Grace to be built up and established by it 4. St. John an Evangelist and the beloved Disciple out-living Peter about thirty years should have ought subjection and obedience to Linus or Cletus if the primacy of Rome had risen out of St. Peter's ashes 5. The Apostles send from Jerusalem to Samaria Peter and John Acts 8. 14. which is not certainly any great sign of St. Peter's jurisdiction over the rest since the very best in a Nation are never sent out be the Embassage never so great or honourable and where those that seemed Pillars are named Cephas has but the second place 6. When that Article which relates to the Catholick Church was made a part of the Creed there was not a Bishop nor a form'd Church nor peradventureso much as any particular Christian at Rome 7. Ere ever Rome durst be so hardy Constantinople in the person of John her Bishop grasped at the Title of Universal which then was lookt at as so prodigious a Claim that for it Gregory the First pronounced whomsoever should aspire towards it Anti-Christian And good reason had he so to do since the third Council of
Credulity to down with them and to suspend our whole Belief upon the most imperious dictates of their supposed infallible Church But we have not so learned Christ. And as to my part after a long and diligent search whereto never any could be more ingaged than my self I despair of ever finding any more sure or near way to Heaven Than by renouncing in Sanctification all my Sins 1 John 8. 3. Justification all my Graces Dan. 9. 18. Than by having unfeigned Repentance towards God Acts 20. 21. Faith towards Christ Isaiah 64. 6. Matth. 5. 17 18. Matth. 22. 36 37. Luke 10. 27 28. Rom. 3. 31. We find that Law which had it not been weak through the flesh should have given Life both declared and established Expounded too we find it by Bernard de verb. Es. Serm. 4. who reminds us That it requires even yet Obedientiam rectam according to the Rule all that is only what is prescribed puram free from all blemish in manner and measure firmam steady and without any intermission Chrysostome upon 2 Cor. 5. holds out as requisite to our Justification a Righteousness wherein there must not be either Spot or Stain The Law thus applied and understood is still before God's Tribunal the Matter of our Justification and there to be pleaded but where to be found If we confine our search to within our selves and fall seriously to ponder our best Works either of Nature or by Grace we shall find it a Yoak which we no more than our Fathers were are not able to bear Hath God any where discovered that he has drawn off something from its expectation in order to its giving us Justice in his sight upon more facile Terms I think not If then a fulfilled Law and that the same was first given must be presented to God for our Justification that we may appear faultless before the presence of his Glory Jude ver 24. Where may we seek it and not lose our labour Let them that have a mind look amongst the Rubbish of their Performances whilst we with a thankfully-humble boldness do contemplate What it is Dan. 9. 24. Jer. 23. 6. Rom. 10. 4. Isai. 45. 25. 46. 13. Where Col. 1. 19. Joh. 1. 16. Rom. 5. 17. Col. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 5. 11. How had Joh. 3. 14 15. Rom. 3. 22. Gal. 3. 24. Phil. 3. 9. Let us now call in some Evidence and enquire whether the Protestant Cause be so altogether unbefriended by Antiquity as some of our Adversaries are desirous the World should believe And 1. what we meet with in Athanasius We find Tom. 2. That the fulfilling of the Law wrought by the first fruits Christ is imputed to the whole Lump 2. Gregory upon Ezek. Hom. 8. I will give it you in the Original because there is one Word the just force and importance whereof our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus injustos Non in Fletibus non in Actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione considamus 3. Chrysostom upon 1 Cor. 1. 30. It is not said he made us Wise Just and Holy but he is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Justification c. Upon Rom. 10. There is no cause thou shouldest fear as a Transgressor of the Law if thou believest in Christ because thou hast fulfilled it and received a far greater Righteousness 4. Basil. de Humil. Hom. 51. This is perfect and full rejoycing in God when a man boasts not of his righteousness but knows himself void of true Sanctity yet justified by Faith 5. Gregory Nyssen on those words of our Saviour Beati qui esuriant justitiam It seems to me saith he 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 c. 6. Another from Chrysostom upon Rom. 4. 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 be justified not by them but by Faith only is admirable 7. Bernard who every where gives us clear glimpses of this light lets it shine broad out in his 61. Sermon on Canticles where he calls us under shelter of that Long Large Eternal Righteousness of Christ professing He will make mention of that only And why must not Jacob attain the blessing without the garments of his Elder Brother but to impart to us the knowledge that we must have ingress into Heaven no otherwise than under the Tegument of Christ's Merits I may well says he again Ep. 190. call my self Just but 't is by his Christ's Justice and what 's that even Christ the end of the Law for Righteousness to all Believers It is not a short Cloak adds he further that cannot cover two 8. Besides Augustin's Non nobis and his Sicut found and usually observed in his Peruse his 45th Sermon de Temp. and you will find by him that it 's the fulness of Vertue which the Law means when it says Thou shalt not Covet then adds he after this manner It cannot be fulfilled 9. But Sedulius on Rom. 10. shews how it may saying Perfectionem Legis habet qui credit in Christo. 10. Both Irenaeus and Augustine do most clearly design that particular Act and Office of Faith which respects our Saviour whilest they expound John 3. 14. 11. Ambrose de vita beata lib. 2. cap. 2. upon these words Odoratus est odorem vestimentorum Peradventure he saith it 's meant that we are not justified by Works but by Faith because the weakness of our Flesh is an impediment to our Works but the Excellency of Faith doth cover the errors of them 12. As we begun so we will end though it were easie to bring a whole Cloud of reverend Authors to attest this thing with Athanasius de incarnatione Verbi It's impossible that Purity and Innocence can be exhibited in humane Nature unless it be believed that God was in the Flesh who brought into the World a Justice free from all sin Because we are made partakers Hujus render it how you will of him or of this we shall live and be saved For illud non est justus in terra adds he belongs equally to us all and for that reason he descended from Heaven who was to impart Righteousness ex se out of himself These proofs are not cited in order of time as they were writ but in course as they seemed best to make out what I have said before in this Point 13. Ambrose upon Rom. 10. He that believes on Christ hath attained the perfection of the Law For seeing of old none were to be justified by the Law because none fulfilled it otherwise than by hoping in Christ promised Faith is introduced to believe the Law fulfilled That all things else laid aside Faith might satisfie both for the