vnderstanding onely or to any one faculty of the soule though hee place it principally in the will in regard of those natiue and inseporable qualities of true sauing saith namely confidence and affiance in Gods promises So that I wonder how this Doctrine of that good Cardinall hath escaped the flames of their Purgatory Index But his owne life paid for it when he with his fellow Cardinall Fregosus being suspected too much to fauour the Doctrine of Luther were both quickly taken out of the way non sine veneni suspicione not without suspicion of poyson But those Diuines that liued in more ancient ages contented themselues with the most simple but most eâ—phaticall tearmes of the Scripture not troubling their heads with quirks and questions of this nature whether faith were in the vnderstanding or in the will c but with the Scripture they include altogether in the heart the seate and confluence of all the powers of the soule Bernard saith that first the sâ—â—ncere roote of holy faith is planted in the ground of mans heart and when faith is fully growne vp it becomes as a great tree hauing in it sundry sorts of apples wherewith the soule being full of God is refreshed St. August takes no more care but to place faith in the soule Vnder whence comes death in the soule because faith is not there whence in the body because the soule is not there therefore the soule of the soule is faith Againe Fides quae credit in Deum vita anima existit per hanc iustus viuit Faith which beleeueth in God is the life of the soule and by it the iust man liueth And speaking of the vnderstanding hee saith Intellectus merces est sides c. The vnderstanding is the reward of faith doe not then seeke to vnderstand that thou maist beleeue but beleeue that thou maist vnderstand And againe Intellectui fides viam aperit infidelitas claudit faith opens the way to the vnderstanding but infidelity shuts it And speaking of the will he saith Fides excitat ad exercitium voluntatem Faith stirreth vp the will to excercise And in a word Fides sic est in anima vt radix bona quae pluuiam in fructum ducit Faith is so in the 〈◊〉 as a good roote which peoduceth the raine into fruit I might adde many others but this may suffice Babylonius But Sir whereas you seeme to oppugne the Councell of Trent doth it not also acknowledge faith to be the roote of all other graces Doe the Church of Rome right I 〈◊〉 you Orthodoxus God forbid else The prouerbe is Giue the Diuel his due Indeede the Trent Councell confesseth that faith is the beginning of mans saluation the foundation and roote of all iustification But vnder this painted Sepulcher she buries the bones of true sauing faith which she hath slaine there to ly rotting as the Iewes did with Gods Prophets whom their Fathers had slaine and vpon the foundation they erect the Monument and Trophe of their Pageantfaith For vndertaking to glâ—sse vpon the Apostles wordes A man is iustified by faith and gratis freely she saith These wordes are to be vnderstood in that sense which the perpetuall consent of the Catholicke Church hath holden and expressed to wit that we are said therefore to be iustified by faith because it is the beginning of mans saluation the foundation and root of all iustification So that they attribute iustification to faith not simply for it selfe but relatiuely as it hath reference to the fruits whereof they say faith is the roote namely their inherent righteousnesse But the truth is this restrained yea constrained sense of theirs is most absurd and senslesse as hauing neither foundation nor roote of reason to support and maintaine it All is but wordes They neither meane nor will nor can maintaine it For how is faith a beginning of grace if grace be no necessary consequent of their faith For they confesse they may haue faith and want grace which is the Diuels case Or how is faith the roote of grace and iustification sith it is impossible for this roote to produce any fruite at all For how can a dead roote bring forth any liue-fruite And they confesse their faith to be a dead and dry roote of it selfe vntill the sap of charity be powred into it to actuate and quicken this otherwise dead roote So that by Babylons Doctrine the fruite must giue life to the roote not the roote to the fruite And yet forsooth faith must be the roote of iustification the foundation of mans saluation Surely the Prouerbe may here well be verified Dignum patella operculum like roote like iustification both dead like foundation like building both sandy yea meere aery and imaginary Babylonius But is not faith dead and vnformed vntill it be inliued and formed by charity Doth not St. Iames say that as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without workes is dead also Therefore the good workes of charity giue life vnto faith as the soule to the body Orthodoxus Doth charity giue life to faith How is then faith the roote your owne reason may teach you the contrary as wee haue showed But to that place of Saint Iames it is too commonly abused For marke first hee saith not As the body without the soule is dead but as the body without the spirit is dead The spirit is the breath by which the body is knowne to liue So that the body receiueth life from the soule but sheweth it by the spirit which it breatheth The spirit then is an effect and signe not a cause of the life of the body So charity and the workes therof are a fruite and effect breathing from sauing faith testifying that it is a liuing faith not causing it so to be for that were to turne the tree vpside downe as if the roote which is faith should receiue life sap and groweth from the branches And it is plaine by the whole analogy and tenure of the chapter that the Apostle speakes of good workes as they are demonstratiue signes and fruits of a liuing faith not as causes of it Againe he putteth a distinct difference betweene the true sauing faith which alwaies shewes it selfe to liue by the fruits of it for it is that faith euer working by loue and betweene a false counterfeit faith such as is dead and knowne to bee so by the not breathing out of good workes So that the true sauing iustifying faith is that which worketh by loue So the Apostle saith But how by loue as by the efficient mouing cause of the working of it or rather as the instrumentall cause moued by the hand of faith Loue is faiths instrument whereby it worketh Yea it is an inseparable quality of sauing faith whereby faith workes as the heat is the inseperable quality of the fire whereby the fire worketh This is the Doctrine also of the ancient Fathers They so make faith the roote as
from the reproach of Puritanisme the very name being enough to cause Truth to be taken for Heresie sincerity for hypocrisy a peaceable Conformitant for a seditious Schismaticke a loyall subiect for a traitor an honest man for a varlet Thus by iustice shall Your Maiesties throne be established Thus may fearefull consequents bee preuented if the causes be timely remoued I reade but of two maine things which wrought Ierusalems wracke the one Idolatry causing often desolations and miseries vpon that Church and state the other Heresy in reiecting of Christ and his righteousnesse seeking iustification by workes This later alone euen without the other for in Christs time and after not an Idol or Image was found in Iudea caused that fatall and finall irreparable ruine once for all Parallel to these two are Pontifician Idolatry and Arminian Heresy the summe whereof is to abolish the true and to establish a new Religion For the first it is grosse enough to bewray it selfe and to deserue to bee cast out least such lading not onely cause but conspire with the storme to drowne the ship it is carried in For the second because it is somewhat more refined and hath learned to goe vailed vnder the Maske of the Church of England the more dangerous both for seducement and sedition as a poyson the more subtile the more mortall be your Maiestie pleased to take aduertisment of the more proper markes of an Arminian An Arminian is in his personall qualities just like his Religion First he is no lesse ambitious of head-ship ouer men then his Religion is of copartnership at least with God in His glory Secondly as his Religion flatters him so he men very officious in soothlesse soothings the Spaniels that finde his ambition game Thirdly as his religion is contrary so hee cannot away with Reformed Churches and their learnedest and foundest writers as Caluin specially beyond the Seas Fourthly as he hates to be reformed so one peece of his Sermon must be an inuectiue against a reformed Christian his Puritan Fifthly sith his Religion complies so well with Popery he will therefore euer preferre the Church of Rome before any yea all Reformed Churches Sixthly though he loue to be a droane yet brings he a kinde of honey to Preferments hiue And he is now so fleshed with confidence that as euery where abroad hee will more frankly at Court make the theames of his Sermons to be Uniuersall grace equally offered to all to receiue if they will when a man hath receiued grace he may fall away totally yea finally from that grace of God and iustification Hee teacheth also that man can haue no other certainty of saluation but coniecturall that God hath predestinated none to glory but those whom hee foresaw would both by their Freewill receiue grace and would or could of themselues perseuere to the end that in the maine and fundamentall points of religion the Doctrine of the Church of England agreeth with the Councell of Trent These and the like bee the Doctrines of the Appeale which how true this insuing Plea will plainly shew Pardon my plaine zeale gratious Prince The Romaines despised not the noyse of their geese whereby their Capitol was preserued from the Gaules Let mee be accounted one of them for telling truth so our dangers may thereby bee preuented Yea those geese were highly rewarded I desire no other but that I may bee a common sharer in those blessings which shall attend both Church and State if but those Plaintifs bee righted whose satisfaction shall bee Your Maiesties honour the setling of Your Crowne the comfort of Your best friends the confusion of Your greatest foes the retaining of Gods fauour vpon Your Maiesties Person for grace peace and prosperity here for glory and immortality hereafter for all which I shall be as I am euer bound Your Maiesties most humble Orator though vnworthy seruant HENRY BVRTON The Preface to the Reader CHristian Reader I present thee here with a Plea to an Appeale That Appeale I meane styled An Appeale to Cesar. Which is such as I confesse sauing for the Titles wherein I find the Sacred name of Cesar I had filed my feete rather then my hands with it if after my long frustrate expectation of seeing it burned I had not to my great wonderment seene the contrary namely that it found so many friends and favorites Besides sundry things therein which at first might haue passed onely for errours as falling from some distemper of hastie passion being now stoutly and stiffly in cold blood defended they grow to be flat heresies and so no further to be tollerated as S. Augustine speaketh For my owne part when I perused the booke my spirit was not a little stirred in me to see Gods glory defaced our Salvation vndermined our Church scandalized and popish Arminianisme triumphing even vpon the open Theater Faine would I haue beene dealing with it but both the consciousnes of my many both naturall disabilities and personall infirmities as also the hope I had of so many my worthy and able elder brethren who I trusted would and still hope will vindicate at least their deare Mothers credit the Church of England held me backe Notwithstanding at last though the least of all I gaue the on-set nec tardum opperiens nec praecedentibus instans as well knowing that Hosanna is accepted of Christ as well from the mouthes of little children as of others Yea and sometimes if those should hold their peace the very stones would cry And where as not only my personall imperfections but my naturall corruptions also stood vp to disswade me from such a Taske yet even from them also did I draw motiues vnto it First because I thought my example of shewing willingnesse to my weaknesse might provoke the more able to be the more willing to supply my wants Secondly out of the sense and conscience of my many corruptions that Law in my members leading me miserable captiue to the law of sinne having such abundant experience of that superabundant grace of God which hath mightily borne me vp even against the streame of rebellious nature so that when my foote slipped his mercy held me vp I have learned hereby how deepely I am bound to expresse my thankfulnes to God in setting forth to the vttermost of my power the praise of the glory of his Grace sufficient for me against those thornes in my flesh against those buffering messengers of Satan threatning to overthrow me if the Lords never fayling grace had not made me to stand Yea how many stormes of temptations hath my brittle barke indured yet blessed be God it is not wracked Those Reliques of rebellious Canaanites dwelling in me as thornes in my side and pricks in myne eyes by Gods grace humble me onely overcome me not So that God having put in my hand such a tryed weapon of infallible experience of his saving grace I should be very ingratefull to let it lie rusting in the sheath and not to use
on the contrary Gods knowing or foreknowledge of his is to elect them This is the foundation of God which stands sure and hath this seale The Lord knoweth them that are his I could be more copious to illustrate this but this may suffice to satisfie those that be not quarrellous Babylonius But Sir howsoeuer you may conclude that Gods Election is absolute without any respectiue foreknowledge of any good or grace in vs in accepting grace offered yet the same cannot so well be sayd of reprebation that God should reprobate any but with a respect and foreknowledge of their disobedience and infidelitie For else God should bee vniust to cast away and condemne any without iust cause in themselues Orthodoxus Sir there is the same reason of reprobation that is of Election for both were out of the corrupt mafle wherein all men were equally condemned whereof some God called and chose out to life the rest hee left as hee found them guiltie of eternall death and vpon whom the sentence of death had now passed seazed Gen. 2. 17 So that for God to leaue some whom he would wallowing in their blood it is an act of his justice as to free others an act of his mercie Which Saint Augustine very pregnantly exemplifieth by a Creditor in whose power it is to acquit some of his Debtors and to exact of the rest to the vttermost as we noted afore This is setforth also in the types of the elect and reprobate Iacob and Esau who being yet in the wombe before they had done good or euill that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of workes but of him that calleth It was said to her the elder shall serue the yonger As it is written Iacob haue I loued but Esau haue I hated Yet both Iacob and Esau were equally culpable in the wombe of originall sinne and so were children of death as all were in the wombe of our first Parents but the election comes and that makes a separation and puts a difference mercifully louing one and justly hating another and that before they had actually done good or euill that the purpose of God might stand according to election not of workes but of him that calleth So that the disproportion alledged by the Appealer was not betweene the elect and reprobate before the act of election but the election caused the disproportion not through any foreknowledge or foresight of any good or euill actually to bee done of either as the Appealer would inferre but Gods meere mercie on the one side and his justice on the other caused the disproportion And euen that place quoted by the Appealer out of Ezechiell makes altogether against himselfe though otherwise rightly alledged for if wee were in our blood if cast out if loathed if dead and yet if in this contemptible condition God saide vnto vs liue yea when wee were in our blood it is twice repeated ver 6. he faide vnto vs liue where is then that praescience of any good in vs moouing God to pull vs out of this miserable estate I am sure no mention of it is in Ezechiel no not in the whole Booke of God but the contrary as we haue proved no nor yet doth his pretended Goddesse indeede his nothing in the world the Church of England any where teach the same so nakedly yet shamlesly peremptory is this assertion of the Appealer hauing none to father his opinion vpon but Pelagius and his Disciples So weake and windy are his aspersions which he casteth vpon Caluin or vpon those whom hee calls Puritans for maintaining nothing but what the Scriptures plainely teach against his groundlesse and gracelesse opinion so that he fighteth against God and his truth against Gods glory and his grace against his Church yea the Church of England also Babylonius But Sir if the act of Election and Reprobation be without any respectiue foreknowledge in God of any actuall good or euill in man then what place is left for freewill or how can God bee just in punnishing the rebellious seeing he hath reiected them and denied them grace Orthodoxus Of freewill I suppose occasion will be giuen anon to speake of it by it selfe For the rebellious reprobate as he is justly reiected for his sinne in Adam so he is neuer but justly condemned and punished for all his actuall sinnes springing from that cursed roote Nor doth his reiection necessitate him to rebell the more against Cod his rebellion is from his owne peruerse will Nor is God bound to giue him grace But against all contentious quarrellers at the Doctrine of God wee cannot shape nor are we bound to giue a better answer melius enim non invenimus saith St. August many times against such cauellers for we finde not a better then that of the Apostle vpon the very same occasion Thou wile say then why doth he yet complaine for who hath resisted his will Nay but o man who art thou that replyest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power ouer the clay of the same lumpe to make one vessel vnto honour and another to dishonour c. The comparison is very pregnant God is the Potter wee the lumpe of filthy and foule clay cast out as the clay in the streetes yet if the Potter will may hee not take some of the clay and make of it vessels of honour and make of the rest foule and filthy as he finds it to dishonour seeing it was in his power to put the whole lumpe and that justly to baser vses But as the Apostle saith God makes some vessels of his mercy to make knowne the riches of his glory leauing the rest to be vessels of wrath sitted for destruction to make knowne his iustice and power In a word if Gods election be an act of meere mercy then it excludes all respect to any good that hee could foresee to be in vs for as the Apostle saith There is at this present a remuant according to the election of grace And if by grace then it is no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be of workes then it is no more grace otherwise worke is no more worke What then Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded I will conclude with Saint Aug. Non solùm c. Therefore by the preaching of Pradestination the Elect is not onely not hindered from this worke to wit of sanctification but also is furthered thereunto that when he glorieth he may glory in the Lord. The Pelagians could say Siâ—â—â— c. If yee will not haue the obedience to which you incite and inflame vs to freeze in our hearts doe not preach vnto vs that grace of God which we confesse God is the giuer of and which you exhort vs vnto But Saint Aug. meetes with
they would seeme to giue most to God Therefore if this bee that which the Appealer sticks not to approue in the Councell of Trent I will bee bold to say as Saint Ierome did to the Pelagians * It is the Churches victory that you vtter your mindes plainely Sententias vestras prodidisse superasse est to discouer your opinions is to discomfit them And for him to say that God prouided a Mediator for all such whom he foresaw would receiue him to wit by the freedome of their will were a meere absurdity if man haue not an absolute freedome to grace And by the Appealers approbation of the Councell of Trent in the point of freewill he must confesse that man in his Naturalls hath at least some free-will to grace Which will agree well with that he said before touching Gods foresight of those would lay hold on grace otherwise it implies a flat contradiction For if there be no freewill in a naturall man towards grace then what willingnesse did God foresee in men to receiue his Son vnlesse that which himselfe did purpose wholly to worke in them Although not Gods owne worke which hee purposed to worke in man by giuing him faith grace was that which foreseene moued him to elect and praedestinate to saluation for then the meanes should in Gods first intention to saue mankinde haue taken place of the end it selfe which in the priority of order is the first in intention though last in execution yea haue taken place also of Gods eternall free loue the prime motion and sole absolute cause that moued him to make his election of those whom he would not who would him But the Councell of Trent and who so take part with it deales coldly and comes farre short in giuing Gods grace the due praise in the worke of mans saluation So that while they aduance mans will too high and too much depresse Gods grace they so part the stakes that they giue the right hand rather to freewill then to grace For what saith the Councell Si quis dixerit c. If any man shall say that mans freewill moued and stirred vp of God doth cooperate nothing by assenting to God stirring vp and calling wherby it may dispose and prepare it selfe to obtaine the grace of iustification c. Let him be accursed In this very Cannon is inuolued a great part of the mysterie of iniquity For note here Romes Legierdemam in iuggling with Gods grace She ascribes to God two things 1. a worke of mouing and stirring vp the will 2. Touching the obiect or end of this worke that the will may by the cooperation of a free selfe assenting dispose prepare it selfe to obtayne the grace of iustification Examine we the words a little Note what a slight and slender worke they here attribute to God it is with them but a moving and stirring vp iust like the confederate Arminians lenis suasio some gentle motion as if the will were but a little dull and lazy and must be spurred or sleepie and drowsie and must be awakened as Elias bad Baals Prophets to cry alowd to awake their sleepie God Yet this moving and shirring vp their Schoole-men and in particular Andrew Vega and Dominick Soto two grand sticklers in that Councel who being the two standard bearers of two strong different factions in that Councel the one of the Dominicians the other of the Franciscans bore a great swinge and sway in it and haue written large Commentaries vpon that sixt the mayne and masterpiece Session of that Councel as also Catharinus of that Councell too and so Bellarmine others of that crew they expresse this Motion I say stirring vp of the will to be vnderstood as an act of the first grace a grace which the subtile Schoolemen haue deuised distinct from their second grace Which Schoole-diuinity and subtile Sophistry is the yery ground worke of all the maine Decrees of the Councel especially of those contained and most cunningly contriued in that sixth session concerning Iustification Well But what may this first grace be Truely no other by their owne Doctrine but such as a man may haue and yet never attaine to iustification and so to salvation yet such a grace they say it is as by moving and stirring vp the will cooperates to giue assent and to dispose and prepare it selfe to receiue iustification to wit an infusion of inherent grace which they call the Second grace and so the will by giving free assent by disposing and preparing it selfe doth merit of Congruity the second grace although the Councel confesseth that the first grace is given freely without any precedent merit in man By which one devise of a poore I wot not what first grace whereby a man is not at all by their owne confession iustified and so will scarce proue worth God haue mercy they would elude and evacuate the Scriptures which so much advance and magnifie the worke of Gods free and effectuall grace in our first conversion and iustification as Rom. 3. 24. Being iustified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Iesus For they turne the cat in the pan and because they cannot deny the expresse Scripture so pregnant and plentifull in setting out the free and vndeserved grace of God in mans salvation but are forced at least in words to confesse it therefore they haue no other shift but to restraine this free gift of Gods effectuall sauing grace to that onely which they call their first grace though no iustifiying grace at all Whereas the Apostle expresly in the forementioned place speaketh of the free gift of saving grace whereby wee are indeed actually iustified But the Trent Councell saith no where that that grace whereby a man is iustified which they call their second grace is freely given No they haue a freewill whose cooperating assent with their first grace produceth a merit of Congruitie to procure that their iustification may not be freely given but merited of Congruity For whereas they say chap. 8. that a man is said therefore to be iustified freely because none of those things which goe before iustification whither faith or workes doe merit the grace it selfe of Iustification for if it be of grace it is no more workes otherwise as the Apostle saith grace is now no more grace as the Councell hypocritically alleadgeth yet wee must vnderstand that the Councell meaneth no other here but to exclude merit of condignity from going before her iustification but not the merit of congruity And thus by her cunning equivocation she both keepeth good quarter with her Schoolmen and satisfieth the contrary opinions of Vega and Soto about the merit of Congruity in justification as ye may see in the History of the Trent Councell yea and thus also the Church of Rome quits scores with the Scriptures which exclude all merit of man from iustification and all by her futile distinction of a first and