places The same S. Paul writing to the Corinthians sayth As we haue 1. Cor. 15. v. 49. borne the image of the earthly let vs also beare the image of the heauenly but the Image of earthly Adam we haue truly borne by the deadly impression of internall and hatefull sinne Cent. 3. c. 4. Column 48. therefore we must truly beare the figure of Christ by the beautifull stampe of internall and acceptable grace as Origen cyted by the Centurists doth plainely insinuate and the Apostle likewise confirmeth in his Epistle to the Ephesians Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man which according to God is created in Iustice and holynes of Ephes 4. v. 24. truth behold we haue not the new man imputed vnto vs but we put him on vs formed and created not in signe and sanctification but in iustice and holynes of truth and that according to God Besides it is sayd We are buryed with him by ad Rom. 6. Baptisme to the end that as Christ did rise from death so we may walke in newnes of life Vpon which wordes S. Augustine auerreth Aug. in Enchir. cap. 52. That as in Christ there was a true resurrection so in vs there is a true iustification Whosoeuer then detracteth from the truth of our infused iustice detracteth from the verity of Christs resurrection and whosoeuer impayreth the perfection of this darkneth also the glory of that S. Chrysostome commenting vpon that passage of S. Paul aboue cyted You are washed you are sanctifyed you are â— ad Cor. 6. v. 11. iustifyed sayth He sheweth that you are not only made cleane but holy and iust Illuminated and made perfect sayth S. Clement of Alexandria Of old made new of humane diuine sayth S. Gregory Nazianzen Which are most euident testimonyes Clem. l. 1. Pedago cap. 6. Nazian ora in san bap for my purpose yet to leaue no place of tergiuersation to wrangling Sophisters I will further corroborate this chiefe and fundamentall article with other most cleare and irrefragable arguments 8. That grace and renouation is perfect entire and not the effect but the true cause of our iustification by the VVhitak l. 8. aduers Dutaeum very consent of our Aduersaryes which absolueth vs from sinne endueth vs with purity and holynes in the eyes of our Creatour engrafteth vs into Christ vniteth vs vnto God and giueth vs life in him maketh vs his adopted children entitleth vs to the right and purchaseth the inheritance of our eternall kingdome All this is wrought not by any other precedent cause but by that inherent Rom. â— v. 4. iustice or infused charity which God deriueth into our soules therefore that maketh vs truly righteous and iust before the Tribunall of his highnes First it cleanseth vs Ibid. v. 7. from our sins as S. Paul to the Romans defineth saying We are buryed togeather with Christ by Baptisme into death Rom. 8. v. 2. Tertul. l. de resur carn c. 46. Basil de spir san c. 15. Aug. l. 1. de nupt concup c. 22. Lib. de lib. arbit c. 14. 15. 16. de sprit liter 8. 17. What death but the death of sinne of which it immediatly followeth he that is dead is iustifyed from sinne to wit is released and absolued from sinne by the newnes of life wherin he resembleth the resurrection of Christ Againe The law of the spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath deliuered me from the law of sinne where Tertullian insteed of deliuered vseth the word manu misit hath set free like a bound man enfranchized and set at liberty by the benignity of his Maister S. Basil explicating the former place sayth The spirit infuseth liuely and reuiuing force recouering our soules from the death of sinne into a new life And S. Augustine the later writeth thus The law of the spirit of life in Christ hath dissolued the guilt of concupiscence procuring remission of all sinnes who doth also often testify that the law of the spirit of life is the grace of the new Testament written in our harts Secondly it doth not only expell the mists of sinne but garnisheth also our soules with the lustre of vertue as I haue already conuinced in my first encounter against M. Abbot which cannot be interpreted Ephes 1. v. 4. of signes of beauty grateful to men who pierce not into the closet of our soule nor behould the light and brightnes therof mentioned aboue Therefore it must Ioan. 15. 1. Cor. c. 12. v 26. needs be expounded of the purity splendour and holynes it displayeth before the face of God according to that of S. Paul He chosevs that we should be holy and immaculate in his sight in charity that is by meanes of his habituall charity harboured in our brests 9. Thirdly this inward renouation doth truely incorporate vs in the mysticall body of our Lord Sauiour Coloss 3. v. 13. Gal. 3. v. 17 Rom. 8. v. 11. Aug. de spir lit c. 29. Rom. 13. v. 13. 14. it engrafteth vs like liuely branches into him our true vine it maketh vs the body of Christ and members of member Doinge on sayth S. Paul to the Collossians the new man him that is renewed vnto knowledge according to the image of him that created him To the Galathians as many of you as are baptized in Christ haue put on Christ. And how haue yee put him on but as the same Apostle testifyeth By his spirit dwelling in you Wherof S. Augustine sayth By the spirit of Christ incorporated made a member of Christ euery one may inwardly affoarding increase accoÌ„plish works of iustice Besids that very word to put on Christ often vsed in holy Write doe on the armour of light doe yee on our Lord Iesus Christ according to the Hebrew * Indui haebraicâ— laâ—aâ— Isa 61. Chrys in 1. c. ad Gal. in c. 3. ad Rom. Cyril l. 9. in Genes Hieron ad Pamach Rom. 6. v. 10. 1. Cor. 6. v. 17. Ioan. 14. v. 23. 1 Cor. 3. v. 16. 17. 1. ep Ioan. c. 3 v. 24. 1. Ioan. 4. v. 16. 1. Ioan. 4. v. 17. Rom. 6. v. 11. Augu. de verbis Apostol ser 18. 28. l. de ciuit Dei c. 24. phrase and allusion to the long gownes of the Iewes signifyeth great plenty and aboundance of grace sanctity and iustice with which they that put on Christ are inwardly clad as it were with a rich and gorgeous robe which doth not only couer the nakednes but wholy adorneth the temple of our soules with heauenly rayes of incomparable vertues Therefore Isay calleth it The vestment of saluation the garment of iustice or coate of ioy as the 70. Interpreters or vestment Iesus as other translate it wherof read S. Chrysostome S. Cyrill S. Hierome 10. Fourthly by this inhabiting grace a true vnion is made a league is contracted betweene God and vs We liue to him Are one spirit with him
man iustifyed by Fayth The second act of comfortable assurance doth not as he sayth actiuely iustify but finding the thing done certifyeth and assureth vs of it the first doth but impetrate obtaine and procure it by way of request no act can he assigne betweene the first and the second therefore no act of fayth can he assigne whereby he may be formally iustifyed On the other fide I thinke the Protestants petition which humbly intreateth for acception and fauour must needes proceed from fayth For how shall they humbly ad Rom. â—â— v. 14. intreate How shall they inâ—ocate in whome they haue not beleeued Beleeue then they do before they intreate and yet they are not iust therefore Fayth alone doth not iustify but only by way of impetration by stirring vp our affections and exciting our will to craue and desire it which with S. Augustine and the whole schoole of Catholike August ep 105. de praedest Sanctor c. 7. Deuines we willingly imbrace And to which M. Feild must at length retire for rest and safeguard or els well canuased he is driuen to the wall which way soeuer he turneth 10. The fifth argument which I meane to prosecute is of the regeneration of young baptized Infants who Feild in his 3. booke â— 44. fol. 179. cannot be iustifyed by an act of special fayth because they can haue none as M. Field accordeth with vs but by the habituall qualityes or inherent habits of Fayth Hope and Charity therefore all others are iustifyed by the like because the same spirit of adoption the same title of diuin Augu. l. 1. cont 2. ep Pelag. â— 7. c 21. l. 1. deÌ„ pecc meri c. â—â— ep 157. Marc vlt. v. 16. Act. Apost c. 8. v. 37. filiation the same new birth and regeneration in Christ the same seed of life the same formall cause of iustification is in euery one of these faythful in euery child of God in euery state whatsoeuer as S. Augustine teacheth 11. Likewise when the Adulâ—i or such as arriue to the vse of reason are baptized fayth is required as a necessary disposition for them worthily to receaue the grace of Baptisme therefore our Sauiour sayd He that beleeueth and is baptized shal be saued And S. Philip to the Eunuch desirous to be christned answered If thou beleeue withall thy hart thou mayst But the Fayth which Christ the fayth which Philip exacted before Baptisme was no doubt true perfect fayth that fayth which togeather with the SacrameÌ„t was sufficient to saluation and yet that fayth alone did not iustify or if it did it remitted them their sinnes it regenerated and implanted them in Christ acheiued before all those heanenly effects for which that holy Sacrament was ordayned in vaine then was it instituted in vaine was it after applyed No say you it is after applyed as a signe or seale of regeneration as the outward pledge of adoption Rogers art 27. VVhitak l. 1. aduers Duraeum fol. 675. Calu. l. 4. instit c. 24. §. 3. Calu. ibid. as an addition to confirme and ratify the promise of God to establish vs in the fayth thereof But this pledge seale and addition is not requisite in the behalfe of God for his truth sayth Caluin is by it selfe sound and certaine though and cannot from any other where receaue better confirmation them from it selfe Neither is it needfull for the ignorance as he fancieth and dulnesse of Protestants for their speciall affiance being as they bragge certaine knowne and infallible iustifying fayth giueth them more assurance of the remission of their sinnes and promises of God applyed vnto them then any outward signes or additions whatsoeuer Againe the performance 2. Pet. 1. v. 10. of good workes to which S. Peter exhorteth the word of God heard or read is more apt and efficacious to excite and stir vp our Fayth to confirme vs therin then the dumbe elements of water bread and wine which you only vse Besides the Scriptures and Fathers attribute vnto Baptisme not only the force of a signe or seale to Tit. 3. v. 5. Ioan. 3. Ephes 5. 1. Cor. 6. Ambr. l. â— de Sacraâ— c. 4. Leo. serm â— de natiuiitat Clement Alex. l. 1. paeda c. 6. Basil l. c. de spirit sant cap. 15. Hier. l. 3. cont Pelag Hilar. in psal 65. Tertul. l. de Bapt. c. 1. Dion c. 3. Eccles Hiera p. 1. Nazian in sanctum lauacrum Aug. in psal 73. l. 19. in Faust c. 13. Iren. l. 4. cont baer c. â—0 Chrys bo 17. in Gen. Orig. bom 3. in Gen. Epiphan baer 30. Basil l. de spir sanct c. 14. Euseb Caesar l. 1 demon Euan. c. 10 â— bistor c. 1. Emisbom in Sabb. post 1. Domin Quadr. Ambr. â—p 72. ad Iren. in cap. 4. ad Rom. August ep 19. ad Hier. tract 41. in Ioan. q. 25. in â— Numer ratify grace but the true efficacy of an instrumentall cause to iustify and cleanse our soules from the filth of sinne therefore sound and entiere fayth which goeth before as a preparation necessary doth not worke the effect but the Sacrament which is after ministred Whereupon it is tearmed not the pledge or token but the lauer of regeneration by which we are borne a new are cleansed are washed from sinne So S. Ambrose also sayth of the baptized By this fountaine he hath passed from thinges earthly to heauenly from sinne to life from fault to grace from defilement to sanctification S. Leo The power of the most high which made that Mary brought forth a Sauiour doth make that the water regenerateth the beleeuer S. Clemens Alexandrinus tearmeth Baptisme the grace perfection illumination and lauer by which we are washed and wipe away sinnes S. Basil S. Hierom S. Hilary and Tertullian haue the like 12. S. Denis S. Gregory Nazianzen and other also of the Greeke Fathers call Baptisme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illuminationem illumination because in Baptisme man is illuminated and enlightned with the fayth of Christ he receaueth the fellowship or society of the first and increated light and the beginning or head spring of all diuine and celestiall illustrations as the same S. Denis affirmeth S. Augustine assigneth this difference betweene the Sacraments of the old and the new Law that they promised a Sauiour these affoard saluation that these are greater in vertue for profit and vtility better They according to S. Irenâ—us S. Chrysostome Origen Epiphanius Eusebius Caesariensis and Emissenus S. Ambrose and S. Augustine were signes and shaddowes only euen Circumcision in the opinion of some their chiefest ceremony which betokned the verity of our Sacraments yielding and exhibiting Grace And S. Basil sayth that the Baptisme of Basil hom 1. de Bapt. Christ giueth the Holy Ghost which the Baptisme of Iohn did not giue 13. Which it hath pleased also our mighty Soueraigne K. Iames in his answere to Card. Peron fol. 32. in Latin fol. 20. in
haue giuen him to will and to runne if contemning his vocation he had not become reprobate Iudas was 〈…〉 reprobate Origen notwithstanding Orig. l. 8. in ep ad Rom. Chrysost hom 16. in cap. 9. ad Rom. Chrysost hom 4 de laâ—d Paul ad fin Concil Arâ—usican â—ap 25. writeth of him that it was in his power if he wold to haue equalled in sanctitie S. Peter and S. Iohn Pharao was a reprobate of whome S. Chrysostome auerreth that God did what lay in him to saue him who if he were not saued the whole fault was his owne He also teacheth that euery one if he endeauour may arriue to the holines and perfection of S. Paul To which effect it is defined by the Arausican Councell that all the baptized Christ ayding and cooperating with them are able if they will labour faithfully and ought to fullfil the things that appeartaine to saluatioÌ„ 5. In like mannerâ— that the Predestinate may forfeit their saluation loose their grace and be damned we need not seeke any other proof then the testimonies of holy Writ For S. Paul an elect witnesseth of his owne person I chastise my body and bring it into seruitude least perhapes when I haue preached to others my selfe become a reprobate 1. Cor. 9. 27. Sap. 4. 11. Eccles c. 31. 10. Apocalyps 3. 11. 2. Pet. 1. 10. VVhitak cont 2. q. 6. cap. 3. Fulk in c. 6. ad Roman sect 2. 5. Of another it is testified he was taken away least malice might change his vnderstanding and fiction begiule his soule therfore he might haue bin altered and deceiued if he had not bin preuented by God Of a third it is said He could haue transgressed and transgressed not haue done euill and did not 〈◊〉 Iohn in the Apocalyps exhorteth the predestinate to perscuere coÌ„stant least they be frustrated of their hope Behold I come quickly hold that thou hast that no man receaue thy crowne And S. Peter Wherfore my brethren rather endeauour that by ' good works you may make sure your vocation and election But these thinges haue bin sufficiently proued heertofore in the 24. and 25. controuersies 6. The eight heresy falsly supposeth that Predestination according to the whole chaine and lincke of euery effect which followeth theron is altogether of God in so much as neither our iustification saluation nor any execution of his will in this kind dependeth of the sacraments of the Church or of our good Works as their instrumentall or meritorious causes but of Gods election as Whitaker auerreth of his promises and Christs merits And Fulke Neither Baptisme nor any works of Christian religion cause iustification but Baptisme is a seale good workes fruites therof Again the Elect work willingly to their saluation c. but they do not therby deserue their saluation for saluation dependeth vpon their election Howbeit the holy ghost in his sacred Word directly teacheth that by Baptisme and other Sacraments we are truly a Marc. vlt. v. 16. saued b Tit. 3. 5. regenerate c Ioa. 3. 5. new borne d Tit. 3. 7. iustified e 1. Corin. 10. 17. incorporated to Christ f Ioan. 6. 56. made one with him he with vs. That by g Act. 8. 18. theÌ„we receaue the holy Ghost h Act. 2. 38. obteine remission of our sinnes i 2. ad Tim. 1. 6. inhereÌ„t grace k Ioan. 3. 5. entrance to the kingdome of heauen l Tit. 3. 7. Aug. in ps 7â— are made heires of euerlasting life Therfore they are true causes of our iustice and instruments of our saluation To which Saint Augustine subscribeth setting downe the differeÌ„ce betwixt the sacrameÌ„ts of the old law and of the new in these words Some sacraments there are that giue saluation others that promise a Sauiour The Sacraments of the new Testament giue saluation the sacraments of the old Testament Gregor l. 6. c. 3. in prim Regum promised a Sauiour And S. Gregory Outwardly we receaue the sacraments that we may be inwardly replenished with the grace of the holy ghost 7. Likewise the execution of Gods predestination is often furthered and effected by the prayers of Saints or other holy men vpon earth as S. Augustine testifieth If Stephen had not prayed the Church had not enioyed Paul Besids Perchance there are some heere predestinate to be graunted by our prayers Moreouer he exhorteth vs to correct all sorts of Aug. ser 1. de sanct Aug. de bon perf 2. Timoth. 2. 10. 1. Timoth. 4. v. vlt. 2. Pet. 1. 10. 1. Corinth 9. Ther shold be noe iudgenunt at all sayth S. Augustin if men sinned by the will of God Aug. tom 7. ad artic sibi falso impositos artic 10. sinners because correction is a meane that the predestinate may obteine their designed glory The same is also taught by S. Gregory Prosper and others and is grounded on these words of Scripture I susteine all things for the elect that they also may obteine the saluation which is in Christ Iesus with heauenly glory For this doing thou shalt saue thy selfe others By good works make sure your vocation and election So runne that you may comprehend Therfore by running we do comprehend by running we winne the goale of eternall felicity Or if we do not if saluation dependeth of gods election and not of our good endeauous damnation dependeth in like sort of his reprobation and not of our misdeeds the doome pronounced by God against the accursed in the latter day is not for their sinnes as the causes of their perdition but the true cause therof is the will of God his eternalll will which in Protestants conceit vndeseruedly reiecteth and abandoneth them Let the Scriptures theÌ„ be false the generall iudgment peruerse the bookes of conscience brought foorth in vaine their euidences reiected the sentence of our iudge reuersed and called back by you as not deliuering the right cause of mans eternall torments in brief let heauen and earth faile and your phrensies only take place 8. The ninth heresy which springeth from that bastard Fulk in ca. 3. ad Rom. sect 4. root of making God the authour of mans destructioÌ„ setteth abroach the contrary wills which M. Fulke assigneth to God to wit his reuealed and secret will For either he supposeth they are two distinct wills allowing that sacrilegious disunion and diuorcement of affection in our true soueraigne God which Tullie disalloweth as the roote Tull. l. 2. de nat Deorum of dissention euen in his false and heathenish Gods and as he distinguisheth his will so he must deuide the vnity of his nature he must needs confesse one God abhorring sinnes the other approuing them with the viperous Manichees Or doth he meane there is but one wil which as reuealed detesteth sinne as secret and hidden liketh well of it then let him tel me how he liketh or decreeth those thinges with his secret purpose which he hath openly forbidden by
all kind of sinne another guilty of mortall the third only spotted with some veniall fault The first whither goeth he To Heauen immediatly The second whither goeth lie To Hell no doubt The third whither goeth he Not to Hell because he is departed in the grace and fauour of God Not to heauen immediatly Apoc. 21. v. vlt. because Nothing defiled can enter that kingdome Therfore to some purging place where his soule may be cleansed froÌ„ the staines of infection 22. No such place is necessary sayth M. Field for Field in appen 1. p. fo 65. 66. by the dolours of death at the moment of dissolution all impurity of sinne is purged forth But how can this be so Death is the punishment of Originall and not any remedy against actuall sinne It is the state and condition of our corruptible nature inflicted on the Reprobate as well as on the Elect. And so neither by it selfe nor by the ordinance of God hath force and vertue to scoure out of our souls all the rust of sinne a prerogatiue denyed by you to the holy Sacraments of God And such a prerogatiue as is proper indeed to the excellency of Martyrdome and not common to the departure of euery faythful sinner whose panges are often more short and farre lesse painefull then the grieuous dolours of the cleane and vnspotted 23. Besides to procure this abolishment of sinne Field ibid. fol. 60. M. Field requireth Charity and sorrow in such perfection as may worke our perfect reconciliation to God And may not thousands or some at least with the spot of veniall or remainder of mortall crime be taken out of this world either in their sleep or vnawares before they arriue to that depth of sorrow It being so hard a thing in perfect health much harder in the agony of death impossible in tyme of sleep to attaine vnto it Or if you pretend the prouidence of God to be so carefull of his elect as they cannot be surprised vpon a sudden to what effect I pray are those exhortations of Christ so often repeated in Scripture Matt. 24. Matt. 25. That we pray and be watchfull least death preuent vs before we are aware To what effect the Parable of the foolish Virgins the Parable of Death stealing vpon vs like a thiefe To what effect are the labours and works of Pennance many zealous followers of Christ vndertake to expiate the faults of their former life when euery faythfull belieuer let him be neuer so slouthfull in this behalfe shal be sure in the last houre to haue grace inough to redeeme the debt and cancell the obligation of his sinnes This is a doctrine I graunt sutable to Protestant professioÌ„ it tendeth to the restraint of vertue it tendeth to all vitious and Epicurean liberty it ministreth occasion of slouth to Christian people and maketh God tooto indulgent to their idle sluggishnes But they that make him authour of the horrible iniquityes of the Reprobate what meruaile though they would haue him a fauourer of the smal imperfections and negligences of his Elect And rather then they will iniury as they fondly surmise the bloud of Christ they iniuriously blaspheme and truly wrong heerin the Iustice of God 24. To be briefe Caluin and Plessy Mornay affirme The hereditary naughtines and corruption of Originall sinne drowneth Calu. lib. 2. Iâ—st cap. 1. §. 8. 9. l. 3. inst cap. 15. §. â— Plessy l. 3. de Eucbar cap. 2â— as it were with a deluge the whole nature of man so that no part remayneth free from this filthy contagion Secondly they auouch No worke proceedeth from man be he neuer so perfect but is defiled with the staines of sinne Graunt these assertions true which commonly all Protestants defend how can there be either charity or sorrow in such perfection as is able to purge out all impurity of sinne When the most perfect Charity it selfe is impure and stayned how shall these staynes be taken forth By some other act of charity or worke of repentance But this worke also issuing from the inward rottenes of mans corrupted nature shall still be putrifyed with Originall infection 25. For this cause D. Field is so vnconstant in resoluing Field in append 1. part p. 66. p. 65. ibid. in appeâ— 1. par p. 4. p. â—4 65. how or when the whole vncleanes of sinne is washed from the soule as he wauereth and reeleth vp and downe not knowing where to take hold One while he sayth It is purged out by Charity and sorrow of sinning otherwhile by the dolours of death then by the very separation of soule and body wrought by death but when he dareth not auouch and therefore stammeringly vttereth It is in or immediatly vpon the dissolution of soule and body in the first entraÌ„ce of the soule into the state of the other world What giddines is heere If by the dolours of death al sinnefullnes be expelled how in the moment of dissolution If in that moment how immediatly vpon it How in the first entrance into the next life Or if in that entrance how doth Charity then worke or sorrow procure it Read his wordes Field in append 1. part p. 4. 26. The vtter deletion and full remission of their sinnes the perfect purging out of sinne being in or immediatly vpon the dissolution in the last instant of this life and first of the next and not while the body and soule remaine conioyned Pitty it is great pitty to see vnto what distresse a man of wit and learning may be driuen by the weaknesse of his cause For heere M. Field in these few wordes maketh either two instances immediatly togeather the last of this life and first of the next and so composeth diuisible tymes of indiuisible moments against the principles of Philosophy or he supposeth the instant in which sinne is remitted to be intrinsecall to this life and extrinsecall to the next and so crosseth himselfe in his owne speach affirming this full remission of sinne both to be and not to be while the body and soule remaine conioyned Or he taketh the instant of Purgation to be extrinsecall to this life and intrinsecall to the next And contrary to the whole stream of Sectaryes he alloweth with vs a remission or Purgation of sinne and Purgatory-place after this life at least for a moment For that which is done must be done in some place or els it is not done at all To which of these inconueniences he will yield I know not to one he is constrained And if I may gesse at the meaning of his variable and vnconstant speaches seeing he will not haue the perfect purging out of sinne c. while the body and soule remaine conioyned he alloweth it after the dissolution and so admitteth a remission and purgation of sinne in the next life which his fellowes renounce he himselfe would seeme to impugne 27. But when I pray is this perfect purging out of of sinne
He loueth vs maketh his aboad with vs as in his holy temple In this we know that he abydeth in vs by his spirit which he hath giuen vs. He that abydeth in charity abydeth in God and God in him where he speaketh not of weake or impure but of complete and perfect charity For it followeth in the next verse In this is charity perfected with vs that we may haue confidence in the day of iudgment Besides Thinke you also that you are dead truly to sinne but aliue to God in Christ Iesus our Lord. Therefore S. Augustine often calleth the Holy Ghost dwelling in vs or his charity diffused into our harts the Life of our soule by which we truely liue to God 11. Fiftly it aduanceth vs to the dignity of Gods children You haue receaued the spirit of adoption of sonnes wherin we cry Abba Father Againe See what manner of Charity the Rom. S. v. 15. â— Ioan. c. 3. v. 1. Father hath giuen vs that we should be named and be the sonnes of God To which end S. Iohn Damascen declareth how God infuseth into our soules certaine diuine and supernaturall qualityes wherby we receaue a diuine and supernaturall kind of being are partakers of the diuine nature preferred to be Gods and children of the highest Neither is there any former Ioan. Damas l. 4. de fide c. 4. Rom. 8. v. 9. Ephes 1. v. 14. Rom. 8. v. 17. Tit. 3 v. 5. 6. 7. cause of our vnion with God whereof this spirit of adoption may be tearmed an effect for S. Paul sayth If any man haue not the spirit of Christ the same is not this by any thing whatsoeuer going before Hence we deduce the sixth prerogatiue of this inward renouation that is our clayme to the kingdome of heauen therefore it is tearmed pignus haereditatis the pledge of our inheritance because the sanctity grace which the holy Ghost worketh in vs affoardeth a certaine hope and morall assurance of our future glory as the Apostle by way of gradation excellently argueth in this manner If sonnes heires also heires truely of God and coheirs of Christ. Likewise God according to his mercy hath saued vs by the lauer of regeneration and renouation of the Holy Ghost whome he hath powred vpon vs abundantly by Iesus Christ our Sauiour that being iustifyed by his grace we may be heyres according to hope of life euerlasting 12. Peruse these wordes O yee Sectaryes ponder the sense and meaning of them and stoop at length to the voice of truth so often sounded forth by this great Apople and trympet of heauen for he sayth 1. That we are Ahundâ— Grecè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieron saued by this benefit of renouation but nothing can be the formall cause of our saluation but true and perfect iustice Therefore we are made by the grace of Baptisme perfectly iust 2. Not outwardly by imputation but inwardly by the holy Ghost powred vpon vs. 3. And that not sparingly by peece-meale but abundantly richely or bountifully as the Greeke largly or copiously as S. Hierome readeth 4. And to no other effect then that iustifyed by his inward grace we may be heires in hope of life euerlasting And S. Iohn concludeth that without this renouation No man can enter the Kingdome of heauen signifying thereby that it is Ioan. 3. â— 5. not the effect or signe without which we might enter but the true cause of our entrance not weake and halting but true and entiere iustice because it is true iustice sayth S. Augustine to which eternall life is due 13. The last priuiledge ariseth from the former that Augu. ep 205. paulo ante medium ui debetur vita aeternaver a iustitia est Rom. 8. v. 20. 11. Aug. l. de spir lit cap. 29. it purchaseth also the resurrection of our bodyes and crowne of our eternall felicity If Christ be in you the body indeed is dead because of sinne but the spirit liueth because of iustification And he that rayseth vp Iesus Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortall bodyes because of his spirit dwelling in you Note this causall addition because of the spirit dwelling in you which S. Augustine aduisedly obserueth and accounteth our Resurrection in flesh to immortality meritum spiritus a deseruing of the spirit which goeth before it in iustification as in a meete conuenient and congruous resurrection So that two wayes it doth properly merit the glory of immortality both for that it is giuen before hand as a pledge earnest Ioan. 4. v. 14. Cyril in â—um loc Theoph. ibid. or right thereunto supposing the benignity and promise of God as also because it doth produce good workes which do condignely deserue and augment the same therefore called by S. Iolm according to S. Cyrils and Theophilacts interpretation a fountaine of water spriging vp to life euerlasting that is a celestiall fountaine of purifying grace copious in it selfe and ouer flowing with the riuers VVhitaker in his answere to 8. â—â—ason of M. Campâ—on and in his â— booke against Iâ—â—raus Abbos in â—is defence â— 4. sect 3. of sundry vertues which wafte vs to the haueÌ„ of eternal rest But if all this be not sufficient to iustify vs before God what is required to atchieue that happines heere vpon earth if the diuine grace and supernaturall quality which worketh in vs all the forenamed effects be not gratefull and pleasing in the eyes of our Soueraigne What I pray you is acceptable vnto him Marry sayth Whitaker and M. Abbot that which is so perfect as satisfyeth the law of God I see your windings first you answered that the grace which inhabiteth in vs is defiled Then that it is not perfect not iustifying grace at least not such as iustifyeth vs in the sight of God Now not such as satisfyeth fullfilleth the law Well you trauerse much ground but to little purpose for S. Paul S. Augustine and diuers others manifestly teach that by this grace of Christ by the sweetnes of hiâ— loue we fullfill the law of God which by feare and terror we neuer could do whose testimonyes I shall alleadge in the Controuersy of keeping the Commandments intreating my Reader to peruse them there whilst I pursue my victory and follow the chased enemy retyring now for succour to the castle of holy Scripture where Whitaker VVhitak in his answere to 8. reason of M. Camp fol. 224. 2. ad Cor. 5. vers â—1 Calu. l. 3. instit c. â—◠§. 230. seeketh to fortify himselfe with that saying of S. Paul Christ was made sinne for vs that we might be made the righteousnes of God in him Heerupon he inferreth that seeing Christ was not truly really made sin for vs but by imputatioÌ„ so we are no otherwise made righteousnes in him which argument Caluin also most eagerly presseth reserueth as his vnconquerable or last refuge in the Rereward of his obiections yet it is preseÌ„tly at
we attribute lesse power of imputation to their merits then to the merits of Christ when we vtterly deny the imputation of theirs and absolutly graunt the imputation of his yet that it sufficeth not to make vs truely iust But concerning Saints we only hould that their merits may by way of impetration obtaine for vs increase of grace We teach that the surplusage of their satisfactions may by holy indulgences be applyed vnto vs but that their merits should be thus applyed we neuer teach Christ only say we hath merited for himselfe and vs his obedience his humility his iustice hath beene only the efficient and meritorious cause of our Iustice and not the merit of any Saint or Angell whosoeuer 20. Therefore that which M. Abbot reciteth out of Abbot loc citato Matth. Paris in Hen. 3. Matthew of Paris of the Cistercian Friers who communicated vnto other the participation of their good workes is only vnderstood of their penall and satisfactory works which by reason of the neere coniunction and mutuall intercourse that is betweene the members of Christs mysticall body are not only profitablle to the doers but appliable also to the benefit of any their fellow-mem-bers after which sort we graunt that the PassioÌ„s of Christ are far more forcibly applyed vnto vs and the sufferings of Saints as dedicated and consecrated by the dignity of Coloss 1. v. 24. 2. Cor. â— v. 6. Cypr. ep 13. 14. 15. VVhitak l. 8. aduers Duraum â—ag 60. Abbot in hâ—s 〈◊〉 cap. 4. Perkins in his reforms Cath. c. 4. his pretious bloud So S. Paul reioyced in his tribulations one while for the Colossians another while for the Corinthians And the Martyrs of the primitiue Church often communicated vnto others the fruit of their bands chains and afflictions for although one cannot as I say properly merit for his friend yet he may beare the burden and discharge the debt which he oweth Hence our Aduersaryes picke a new occasion of quarrell for say they as one may be truly freed from his debt released out of prison by the payment which another disburseth for him so we may be truly made iust by the iustice of Christ by which he intierly pleased and fully satisfyed the law of God But the difference and disparity is cleare for to discharge the foresayd debt is an extrinsecall actioÌ„ which may be performed by another and accepted of by the creditor as the payment of the debter but to be made iust is an intrinsecal thing which requireth an intrinsecal forme and cannot be truly wrought by any outward denomination Secondly as the payment which is made for a captiue is not his releasement out of prison or the liberty to which he is restored but the procurement and cause thereof so the ransome which Christ gaue for our redemption the Iustice which he purchased to himselfe in our behalfe is not the liberty of Iustice or freedom from fault which he imparteth to vs but the true cause which meriteth and procureth those effectes by inward grace infused into our soules Auant therfore you accursed Sectaryes auant you enemyes of Christ and cruell robbers of men who rob and despoyle them of the chiefestiewell of their soule Auant you pleaders for contagious sinne And thou O faythfull Christian washed with the bloud and enamelled with the beauty of thy celestiall spouse admire the brightnes of thy inward iustice admire the splendour of thy wedding garmeÌ„t triumph with the glory of that heauenly weed thy stole of ioy thy mantle of honour thy dowry of blisse pleadge of immortality yet triumph with humility for feare of loosing it triumph with gratefullnes praysing the giuer of so faire a liuery And with the cooperation of his grace who hath clad thee with it labour to keep it from all staine and infection labour to preserue it heere vnblemishhed and present it after white immaculate before the throne of mercy THE EIGHTEENTH CONTROVERSY IN WHICH It is proued that Fayth Hope Feare Loue Sorrow c. precede as dispositions to Iustification in such as are arriued to the vse of Reason against D. Fulke and Maister Abbot CHAP. I. HAVING inuincibly demoÌ„strated that our Iustification is not imputatiue but inherent adorning and dwelling in vs three other questions heereupoÌ„ Fulke in c. 2. Iacobi sect 9. Abbot in his defence c. 1. sect 5. cap. 4. sect 1. sect 20. fol. 467 arise First how we may be disposed and prepared to attaine this heauenly grace pretious gemme of oursoules Secondly in what vertue it principally consisteth whether in Fayth orin Charity Thirdly by what meanes it may be afterwards nourished and increased Of all these in their due place Now concerning the first Fulke peremptorily denyeth all dispositions and preparations of mans hart by prayer or other meanes to procure his first iustification And M. Abbot in his defence of Perkins most bitterly inueigheth against them as the reliques of Pelagianisme and stifly contendeth that man before Iustice can no more intreate aske or dispose himselfe to grace no not by the ayde of God then a dead man only helped can prepare himselfe to his resurrection Notwithstanding we constantly teach that sinners endued with the vse of reason do vse the help of sundry vertues as preparations or manuductions to guide and bring them to the fauour of God as the holy Scripturs manifestly teach Be prepared O Israel Amos 4. v. 12. 1. Reg. 7. v. 3. Prouer. 16. v. 1. to meet thy God And Prepare your harts to our Lord. It pertayueth to man to prepare his hart Which holy and behoofull preparations commonly proceed in this manner He who by the inspiration of God beleeueth in him and considereth the seuerity of his iustice depth of his iudgments riches of his mercy goodnes benignity patience c. and remembreth withall the multitude and enormity of his sinnes first conceaueth a Feare of his most terrible dreadfull punishments Feare stirreth vp hope of mercy pardon and forgiuenes Hope enkindleth loue of so good and bountifull a Lord Loue breaketh into sorrow and repentance of former defaults Sorrow accompanyed with the precedent vertues and full purpose of amendement inclineth the hart of our heauenly Father to cleanse Hebr. 11. v. 6. Habac. 2. v. 4. Ecclesiast 1. v. 28. Prouer. â—4 v. 27. Prouerb 1. v. 7. Rom. 8. v. 24. Psal 36. v. 40 and remit all our iniquityes And that these vertues doe not follow as sequels but go before as preparations necessary to iustification we proue by the same arguments by which they conuince the precedency or necessity of fayth for as fayth is required because it is written Without fayth it is impossible to please God And The iust man liueth by fayth c. so feare of God is likewise necessary because of that it also sayd The feare of our Lord expelleth sinne And he that is without feare cannot be iustifyed Againe The feare of our Lord is the
ad Vitalem and proposed vnto vs. We besides that outward grace and fauour of preaching belieue also an internall grace which inwardly moueth and worketh with vs. For if a way faring man should fall a sleep in a dangerous wood where he were ready to be deuoured and should be so benuÌ„med of his senses or infeebled with trauaile that he could not moue without help it were not inough for another to awake and warne him of the danger to shew him the way by which he may escape vnles he affoard him also his helping hand vnles he succour stay and ayde him to depart so it is not sufficient to heare the word of God thundred in our eares to heare the truth deliuered the examples of Christ of his Saints and followers set before our eyes vnles God himselfe vouchsafe to enlighten our vnderstanding inflame our will touch and open the Act. 1â— vers 14. stringes of our harts as he opened the hart of Lydia to attend â—o those thinges which were sayd by Paul vnles he inwardly inspire moue and cooperate with vs to imbrace the sayth which is outwardly propounded 9. In this therefore and all the former positions of Grace we dissent from the Pelagians as M. Abbot might haue seene in the selfe same places he quoted out of S. Augustine if that passion which ministred to his pen those Aug. l. â— 2. de grat Chri. peccat orig odious comparisons betweene them and vs had not dimmed his sight from discouering these manifold differences of truth from heresy He might moreouer haue read in the foresayd S. Augustine that al beit Pelagius by those ambiguous acceptions of the word Grace deluded many Bishops in the Councell of Palestine yet he neuer could how beit he endeauoured much deceaue or beguile the Roman Church that impregnable rocke against which no heresy can euer preuaile But M. Abbot vbi supra c. 1. fol. 105. 106. 107. Abbot contendeth and struggleth to proue that the RomaÌ„ Church the an cient Fathers and S. Augustine himselfe coÌ„demned Pelagius because he confessed not the habituall quality and guift of renewing grace to be necessary to euery pious and Godly deed although he acknowledged Idem folio 110. the worke of preparation to proceed from the preuenting grace and help which we and the holy Councell of Trent admit yea sayth he this grace of ours the very Heathens Aristotle and Tully allowed saying Neuer any man Arist. de mundo Cicero de natura De orum 1. q. Tuscula proued great and excellent without some diuine instinct I answer he struggleth I confesse and struggleth eagerly to heap vp falshoods and hatefull criminations not to all eadge any grounded proofes or substantiall testimonyes either against vs or that Oecumenicall and venerable Councel For albeit the Heathens acknowledged the diuine concourse or speciall influence of the supreme cause to all heroicall acts yet they still bounded and restrained it within the confines and limites of nature they neuer dreamed of any supernaturall grace of any motion or illumination bestowed vpon vs through the merits of Christ or any speciall succour or inspiration of God ordayned to the remission of sinnes iustification of our soules in this life or to our future glory and felicity in the next For although those heauenly impulses which God gaue to the Pagans were often addressed to that end as S. Augustine affirmeth of the strang mutation made in Polemo by the Aug. ep 230. Araus 2. Can. 5. 7. 15. Aug. ep 105. perswasion of Zenocrates Yet they were not acquainted heerewith they ingulfed in the lake of superstitious infidelity neuer acknowledged the extraordinary benefite of those supernaturall fauours of which we only speake Secondly how falsly we are accused to agree with the Pelagians and how mayne an opposition there is in sundry points betweene vs and them I haue already declared Thirdly that the Roman Church and Ancient Fathers censured Pelagius among the rancke of Heretikes not for his denyall of habituall but chiefly of actual grace Augu. ep 105. 107 l. degra lib. arbi c. 17. l. 1. de praedest Sanctor c. 19. l. 2. de pece merit remis c. 18. in Enchirid c. 32 de nat grat c. 32. l. 1. ad Simpl. q. â— which preuenteth and cooperateth with the consent of our will independent of the merits thereof is so euidently expressed and so often repeated not only in the second Arausican Councell but also by the Pelagians chiefe Antagonist our greatest champion S. Augustine himselfe as M. Abbots paper might haue blushed for him when he wrote the contrary For it is not inough to confesse an habitual or inhabitant grace which S. Augustine calleth the grace of remission of sinnes but we must also sayth he acknowledge a grace precedent which must dispose and prepare vs to obtaine remission styled by him Preuenting and ayding or concomitant grace the one wrought in vs without vs that is without our free consent the other in vs with vs to wit with our free consent 10. But the dust which stopped M. Abbots eyes from behoulding a truth testifyed in so many places was the cause of his mistaking of some of S. Augustines wordes calling Abbot ibid. f. 105. the grace for which he contended with Pelagius the grace whereby we are Christians and the children of God whereby we are iustifyed c. And yet he only graceth with those tearmes the former motioÌ„s or illuminations of the holy Ghost because they moue induce and disspose vs to be iust good and the children of the highest Gab. Vasq 1. 2. disp 18â— c. 1. or because they make increase in the perfection of Iustice already attayned as Gabriel Vasquez solidly interpreteth him And S. Augustine himselfe plainely insinuateth in his epistle to Sixtus a little after the middest saying No man is Aug. ep 105. deliuered and iustifyed from the euills of his transgression or preâ—aâ—ication but by the grace of Iesus Christ our Lord not only by remission of sinnes but first by inspiration of fayth it selfe and feare of God Now in what sort can we by inspired feare by inspired fayth be iustifyed in what sort can we be deliuered from our offences before our offences be forgiuen before remission of sinnes but only by them as by dispositions preparations or certaine merites of congruity to obtaine remission therefore S. Augustine taketh grace by which we are iustifyed for that which moueth or disposeth to iustification in which sense he affirmeth about the beginning of the same Epistle That fayth by some kind of merits August ibid. obtayneth remission and yet that remission is not of merit because fayth is a free guift of God and not proceeding from our selues as the Pelagians boasted of their beliefe S. Augustine also in many other his Treatises cyted aboue speaketh so expresly of preparing preuenting and ayding grace before the infusion of habituall as his wordes can beare no other
was an hungred and you gaue me to drinke c. Get you away froÌ„ me you cursed c. I was an hungred and you gaue me not to eate I was a thirst and you gaue me not to drinke For this cause the Apostle Matth. 25. v. 34. v. 41. 1. Cor. 4. v. 17. Tertult l. de râ—sur carnis c. 40 in Scorp cap. 13. Aug. ep 105. Chrysost hom 3. de Lazaro auerreth the sufferances of his life to win or cause faluation Our Tribulation which presently is momentary and light worketh aboue measure exceedingly an eternall weight of glory in vs where for worketh our Protestants corruptly translated heretofore prepareth albeit they haue since corrected it because it is in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is potently or forcibly worketh In liew whereof Tertullian readeth perficiet in nobis shall perfect and accoÌ„plish in vs an eternall weight of glory yet not physically as the efficient but morally as the meritorious cause which winneth and purchaseth the laurell of be atitude as sinnes procure the bane of endles misery Whereupon S. Augustine Euen as death is rendred for astipend to the merit of sinne so is euerlasting life as a stipend to the merit of iustice And S. Chrysostome By good workes we deserue heauen as by euill hell THE SECOND CHAPTER IN WHICH The same is strengthned by other reasons authorities and the Obiections satisfied THE third Argument to support the merit of workes is drawne from those places of Scripture which testify the singular valew prerogatiue of Almes-deeds Tob. 1â— v. 9. and Eccles 3. v. 33. Prou. 25. v. 27. Pro. 16. v. 6. Dan. 4. v. 24. that it deliuereth from death purgeth sinnes maketh vs find merit and life euerlasting Giue almes and behold all things are cleane vnto you By mercy and faith sinnes are purged By mercy and truth iniquity is redeemed Redeeme thou thy sinnes with almes and thy iniquities with the mercies of the poore which place by the Protestants former and by their later translation set forth by commaundement of his Maiesty is thus adulterated Breake of thy sinnes by righteousnes For although the Hebrew or rather Chaldeack word Peruk of Perak the roote signifieth sometime to breake in pieces to deuide to rend in sunder and also to redeeme yet neuer properly to breake off or cease to do couering by righteousnes as our sectaries wrest it not extinguishing by almes deeds as the Verbe inforceth the remaynes of sinne But albeit the Chaldeake word had beene ambiguous as in no indifferent mans iudgement it is in that place yet the Latine word Redime redeeme at least the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath no other natiue signification then ransome or redeeme thy sinnes should haue taken all doubt and ambiguity away had those Protestant translations syncerely followed the originall fountaines as they pretend 2. The fourth and last reason is insinuated in holy writ in these very textes which commend some vertuous and heroicall actes as better in themselues more gratefull vnto God then others although both the faith be equall inhabitant grace by which they are wrought 1. Cor. 7. v. 38. â—bidem v. 39. 40. Matt. 19â— v. â—1 For so S. Paul sayth He that ioyneth his virgin in matrimony doth well and he that ioyneth not doth better Likewise speaking of the widdow Let her marry to whom she will only in our Lord but more blessed shall she be if she so remaine In like manner to distribute all our goodes to the poore and follow Christ is of it selfe more perfect then to enioy the riches of the world and bestow them in his seruice Yf thou wilâ— be perfect go and sell the thinges that thou hast and giue IoaÌ„ 15. v. 13 to the poore c. To sacrifice our liues in testimony of our faith is more precious in the eies of God then to releeue the poore with a cup of cold water Greater loue then this no man hath that a man yield his life for his friends In so much as there is some valew some worthines in the act of Martyrdome which is not in almesdeeds some dignity in voluntary pouerty which is not in rich liberality some excellency of merit in virginity beyond the degree or holines of wedlocke wherein least our aduersaries should wrangle that they are more excellent and worthy only as they are signes of greater faith both our Sauiour and the Apostle speake absolutely without any condition of greater or lesser prerogatiue of faith Therefore the thinges considered in themselues are better more grâ—tefull and meritorious all other circumstances being equally weighed For as conditionall assertions cannot be absolutely In conc Mediolan Ambros Epist 81. Ambr. ibid. ep 8 c. Aug serm 143. de teÌ„p Diuersa specits claritatis quia diuersa suÌ„t merita charitatis Centur. 5. c. 4. col 518. Aug. l. 3. de peccat meritis Contur c. 4 4. col 301. Amb. l. 2. ad Marcel Cent. 3. 4. col 86. Orig l. 10. ep ad Rom. Cent. 4. c. 4. Col. 192. Cbrom in concion de Beat. Cent. 4. c. 10 col 1250. Ierom aduer Iou. Cent. 3. c. 4. col 86. Tertul l. de Ieiunio Cent. 2. c. 4 col 64. vnderstood no more can absolute and irrestreyned be expounded conditionally vnles we peruert the ten our of Gods sacred lawes and shake the whole fabrike of diuine oracles in peeces Whereupon very religiously S. Ambrose Bassian and other Bishops without any condition of more feruent faith absolutely auouch Mariage is good by which the posterity of Irumane succession is propagated but Virginity is better whereby the inheritance is gotten of our celestiall Kingdome and the succession is found out of heauenly merits Also the same S. Ambrose with Bassian and the rest a little before It is a wild and rusticall howling to awaite or looke for no fauour of virginity no prefermeÌ„t of chastity to be willing promiscuously to confound all thinges to abrogate the degrees of diuers merits and bring in a certeine pouerty of celestiall remunerations S. Augustine You see that clarity is promised to the bodies of Saintes and a various lustre of clarity for the various merits of charity But of him S. Ambrose Origen Chromatius S. Hierome Tertullian and S. Ignatius the Apostles Scholler I alleadge no other then the words of the Centuristes It is apparant say they that Augustine was of this mind that Virgins deuoted to sanctimony haue more merit with God then the faithfull married folkes For because Iouinian thought the contrary that they haue no more merite this he reprehended in him Ambrose to insolently pronounceth of the merit of virgins Origen maketh virginity a worke of perfection Chromatius extolleth voluntary Pouerty and sayth that by the merite thereof the riches of the heauenly Kingdome are obteyned Hierome de striuing too much for Virginity is somewhat vniust or aduerse to marriage Tertullian attributeth merit to Fasting It appeareth out of the Epistles of
free gift giuen by grace bestowed of mercy in regard of the benefite of reconciliation or first iustice most freely and mercifully communicated vnto vs yet being iustified encouraged to worke and promised to be accordingly rewarded it Aug. tra 3. in euang Ioan. 〈◊〉 debituÌ„ flagitatiam debitum exigit is then not only a gifte but a true price recompense or payment due vnto vs by diuine conuenant or bargaine In which sort S. Augustine often interpreteth the former savings and teacheth that euerlaging blisse is a reward to iustice a grace fauour vnto man that is a grace to man endewed only with his naturall qualities a reward to him renewed iustified and diligently labouring with Gods assistance a grace to the infidell a debt to the faithfull a grace to Saul a blasphemer a debt to him a beleeuer as the same S. Augustine in another place largely declareth adioyning these words Hearken how Paul asketh a debt or aâ— due who first receaued grace not due c. There remaineth to me a crowne of iustice now he craueth a debt now he exacteth a debt So heauen is our inheritance as we are the adopted children of God and coheires of Christ our Crowne as we fight and conquere the assaults of the diuell our hire wages and day-peny also as we are workers and collabourers with Christ in the vineyard of his Father For albeit terrene and worldly patrimonies are by succession without labour or desert often deuolued to vnworthy inheritours to vngracious childreÌ„ sometime rashly without iudgment euen against the will of their parentes yet our Basil he â—â— iâ— Hexametr Tua aliqua ex partâ— est gratia quare merito ingrediâ—ris coronatus pronounciere nihil indignus qui mercedem insumptae operae deo repignoraÌ„t â—ecipias heauenly inheritance is neuer graunted infantes only excepted but to such as deserue it to such dutifull and obedient children as by their labours merits and vertuous demeanour are made worthy of that celestial Kingdome 6. All which is cleerely testified and profoundly taught by that graue learned and auncient doctour of the greeke Church S. Basil the great Grace sayth he is thine after some sort by which thou shalt deseruedly enter crowned For if thy creatour had giuen thee all before hand by what fauour should the gates of the heauenly kingdome be opened vnto thee meriting nothing But now something he hath bestowed some thing he hath left to be accomplished that when thou hast in thy self brought it to perfection thou mayest be pronounced no whit vnworthy to receaue the reward of thy imployed labour God redeeming his pledge As many wordes so many euidences doth he bring to witnesse for vs for grace is not so free a gift but that it is some way ours To wit by our working and cooperation with it 2. We are nothing vnworthy but we deseruedly enter crowned into our most happy inheritance 3. God giueth not all but leaueth some thing for vs to be done holpen by his grace 4. When we haue persued that in our selues we receaue the reward not of Gods promise not of Christs merits noâ— of our saith only but of our imployed labour and paynes 5. The reward of glory is not a meere donatiue but a iust redemption by with God redeemeth his formerly pledged and engaged grace Nothing can be spoken more excellently nothing writteÌ„ more vnanswerablely for our aduersaries conuiction if conuicted they would yeald ad Rom. 8. v. 18. M. Abbot c. 5. sect 9. fol. 6â—7 668. Aug. l dâ— gra lib. arbit c. 7. 7. But M. Abbot ashamed to yield obiecteth againe out of S. Paul The afflictions of this time are not worthy of the glory to come that shal be reuealed vpon vs. Then he alleadgeth the like sayinges of many Fathers to proue that our tribulations merit not the glory of heauen I answere they haue not any merite in themselues according to their naturall valew worthy of the guerdon prepared for vs After which manner S. Augustine S. Basil S. Gregory S. Bernard and the rest exclude the recompense of our merites S. Augustine expresly sayth God crowneth not thy merits but as his giftes Howbeit the Apostle discourseth of our tribulations as they are sprinckled with grace and proceed from the iustified yet doth not say as Protestantes corruptly translate they are not worthy of the glory but are not condigne to the glory to come that shal be reuealed in vs that is they haue no condigne equality because our passions are momentary our felicity eternall these small tolerable and measured forth according to our weaknes that infinitely great immense and heaped vp beyond all measure and so of no account in comparison of it as a moment is nothing paralelled with eternity yet if they had not some true proportion of merite the Apostle would not say as he plainly doth that our tribulation which presently is momentay and light worketh aboue measure exceedingly an eternall weight of glory in vs. The short and temporall 2. ad Corin. 4. v. â—7 pleasures which the reprobate take in sinning are not comparable to the euerlasting tormentes they endure in hell yet they truly merit deserue their damnation The very heroicall and most excellent actions of our Sauiour Christ his bitter passions were not equall to the preheminence of glory he receaueth in heauen and yet no Protestant will deny them to haue beene of infinite merit both to himselfe and vs because of the dignity of his person Therefore notwithstanding our afflictions neyther in length of time nor extremity of paine be answerable to the excessiue ioyes reserued for vs yet they be truly meritorious of themselues by reason of the worthy streames of grace and diuine dignity of supernaturall life from whence they flow For this cause it is true which M. Abbot diligently obserueth out of the Fathers That God vouchsafeth to giue vs aboue our merites Aboue them Abbot in his defence c. 5. sect 13. fol. 683. Abbot in the same place fol. 669. FulgeÌ„ ad Mon. l. â— Bern. in aununt sect 1. Bernard l. de gra lib. arbit propefineÌ„ Fulgen. in prol lib. ad Mon. Redde quod promifisti quia fecimus quod iussisti Aug. ser 16. de ver Apost Aug. l. â— Confess c. 9. in fine we graunt in magnificence of payment yet according to them also in some proportion of reward as the Emperour liberally dispenseth by the rules of distributiue iustice the spoyles taken in warre vnto his souldiours answerable to the exployts of euery man yet aboue the rate of their desertes But he insisteth further partly out of S. Fulgentius and partly out of S. Bernard That Gods reward doth so incomparably exceed all the merite and worke of man aâ— that eternall life is not due thereunto by right neyther should God do any wrong if he did not giue it Which is easily solued that it is not due vnto vs by absolute right independant of all precedent mercy and
S. Luke confirmed by S. Paul And yet our Sacramentaries reiecting the agrement approbation of them al endeauour to interpret it by far more hard hidden passages Others do not only misconster but vtterly deny most apparent places vndeniable testimonyes For is there any thing more often inculcated or more largly amplifyed by the Prophets then the glory of the Messias and benefites we were to receaue by the comming of Christ Is there any thing more euidently expressed by the EuaÌ„gelists then his genealogy his natiuity his humane pedegree from the line of Dauid Yet Faustus the Manichee had his eyes darkned as S. Augustine testifyeth with presumptuous arrogancy that he sayd Searching the Scrippures Aug. lib. 16. con Paust cap. 2. 14. lib. 12. c. 2. lib. 2. cap. 2. I find there no Prophesyes of Christ The Prophets fortel nothing of him the Ghospell mentioneth not his temporall birth or procreation from man Howbeit sayth S. Augustine he euery where auoucheth himselfe the sonne of man But as Faustus was thus blinded and would not see a mistery so cleare what if Protestants be blinded in an article of Faith no lesse cleare and perspicuous We found not in Scripture the predictions of Christ neither do they discerne the Aug. ep 165. ad Donat Church of Christ as plainely described as Christ himself For in the Scriptures sayth S. Augustine we learne Christ in the Scriptures we learne the Church And then How doe we belieue we haue receaued out of the diuin writings Christ manifest Aug. epist 48 ad vinâ—eÌ„t Rogat â— vnles we haae also receaued from thence the Church manifest Truly we haue receaued it so manifest as all Nations see it all nations flocke vnto it all reuerence and obey it by the direction of Scripture only they see it not who would be ignoraÌ„t of nothing by their search of Scripture They see not I say the Catholike vniuersall Church visibly dispersed thoughout all the world lineally descended from the Apostles infallibly assisted by the spirit of God c. often recommended in holy Write vnto vs. 16. Secondly I might alleadge the copiousnes of Gods sacred word how some one 〈…〉 is often tymes so fruitfully impregned that as it is deliuered by the diuine Math. 7. v. 18. Interpreters of many true litterall senses so it is brought forth by priuate expositors with the vntimely birth of sundry heresyes Let that sole text of S. Matthew serue for an example A good â—ee cannot yeild euill fruits c. For by this a Hier. l. 2. aduers Iouin Iouinian vnderpropped his fornamed fancy That a good and iust man could not produce the fruits of sinne The Pelagians b Aug. l. 2. de nup. concup cap. 26. from thence concluded That the good sacred tree of Marriage that the pure and faithfull married couple cannot â—ngender euill Children infected with the contagiou of originall sin Others c Aug. l. 1. de grat Christ c. 18 of that crew by the force of the same wordes and those that follow Nor an euill tree yeild good fruits peruersly inferred That the good tree of Free-will might of it selfe without Gods grace procreate the fruits of goods works as the euill tree blossometh the fruits of euill Others d Aug. l. 3. cont lit Petil. capâ—â— 44. either Pelagians or Donatists picked from thence That a good Priest could not minister wrongfully the Sacrament of Baptisme nor an euill Priest rightly Out of the same clause e Hier. â—â— coÌ„ment ad hunc loc Aug. in disp 2. cont Fortunat the Manichees strained their impious dotage That some men were good by nature could not be euill some euill by nature and could not be good From whence also the Caluinists gathered two pernicious heresyes The * See both these obiections proposed answered in the 21. 27. Controuersy one That man being an euill tree hath no freewill to be conuerted to God ayded by his grace nor to cooperate thereunto before he be iustifyed The other That as the fruits do only declare the goodnes of the tree and do not make it good or bad so the vertuous and pious workes of the iust are meere signes and remonstrances but no true causes of their inherent iustice If this short heauenly saying through the rashnes of willfulmen hath bred so many false constructiours alâ— which notwithstanding were bolstened with other the like misapplyed passages how can Protestants presume to ayme aright at the marke of Truth in all questions controuerâ—ed by this vncertaine rule of expounding Scripture by Scripture alone 17. Thirdly I might produce the diuersity not only of the literall but of the literall and figuratiue speaches and demand of our Aduersaryes how the Collatours should discerne the one from the other when the words should be literally when figuratiuely vnderstood Origen was more skillfull in tongues more diligent in reading more wise in obseruing the course and connexion Basil hom 3. in Hex stâ—â— in Gonesim of Scripture then euer any Protestantâ— and yet S. Basil noteth him of grosse ouersight in imagining figures and Allegoryes in the first of Genesis in lieu of the letter â—estorius on the contrary side was dazelled with the letter instead of the figure in that speach of S. Iohn Dissolue Ioan. 2. v. 19. yee this Temple and after three dayes I will rayse it againe Whereby he contended that the Sonne of God only dwelled in Christ as in his Temple Marcions stroue for Rom. 5. v. 20. Ioan. 1. v. 14. Philip. 2. v. 7. Haeb. 4. v. 15. Rom. 8. v. 3. Matth. 3. v. â—â— the pure letter where S. Paul writeth The law hath entred that sinne may abound Munichaeus dreamed of a figure where S. Iohn sayd The word is made flesh that is as he proued by conference of sundry places in the habit likenes and similitude of flesh The Iacobits were illuded with the grossnes of the letter when they baptized or rather seared with burning yrons their sect-mates in their foreheads because it is written in the 3. of S. Matthew He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire Eutychius the Patriarcke of Constantinople was beguiled with the inanity of a figure when impugning the corporall resurrection of our flesh he expounded of a subtile spirituall and ethereall body that which S. Paul spake of a true naturall 18. And the matter is the harder not to be mistaken heerein because some tyme in the selfe same sentence one and the selfe same word ought here properly there metaphorically be expounded as learned Maldonate wisely obserueth Mald. in eum loc Matth. 8. v. 22. Ioan. 3. v. 13. in that saying of Christ Let the dead bury their dead or not to depart from the chiefest articles of fayth of which I haue hitherto spokeÌ„ The like is shewed in S. Iohn No man hath ascended into heauen but he that descended from heauen the Sonne of man who is
of colours but only white the most true natiue colour so our Reformers admit all manner of Doctrine and in this present all sorts of Confession but that which is most important and beneficiall for their soules 1. They allow the Confession of sinnes to God in generall 2. The Confession of some sinnes in particuler to a learned Minister to receaue comfort and direction from him 3. The Confession of certaine enormo us crimes publikely made in the sight of the congregation for their satisfaction and terrour of others 4. The Confession of priuate iniuries to the party offended to be reconciled to him But the Confession of all particuler faults to a lawfull Priest to receaue pardon and absolution they vtterly disauow Wherein to proceed more perspicuously they chiefly deny three principall points First the power in Priests to absolue from sinnes Secondly the necessity of sinners to confesse Thirdly the necessity of numbring euery particuler offence All which notwithstanding I will clearly deduce out of that soueraigne Commission Christ gaue to his Apostles when breathing vpon them he sayd 2. Receaue yee the holy Ghost whose sinnes yee forgiue they Iohn 20. v. 23. are forgiuen and whose sinnes yee retaine they are retayned For by this passage it is euident that authority is giuen to the Priests of Gods Church not only to preach the Ghospell and denounce retention to the impenitent remission to the Sparkes P. 323. Fulke in c. 20. Ioan. sect 4. 5 Math 28 Mar. 16. Ioan. 20. penitent belieuer as D. Sparkes D. Fulke with their adherents perfidiously wrest the words but absolute power is granted vnto them as the Vicars and Vicegerents of Christ truly to remit and pardon sinnes 1. Because commission to preach was giuen before in S. Matthew S. Marke 2. That was extended to all Teach all nations this is restrayned to some alone who submit their faults to the keyes and censure of the Church Whose sinnes yee remit c. 3. Forgiuenes of sinnes in heauen is not alwayes annexed to the Preachers exhortation it is to the absolution of the Priest if no obstacle hinder it in the party absolued 4. The Preachers voyce declareth on earth what God hath already persormed in heauen but heere quite contrary God ratifieth in heauen what the Priest by his mynisteriall power pronounceth vpon earth The Iudgment Hila. Can 26. in Mat. Chrâ— hom 5. de verbis Isa Vidi Dominum or sentence on earth sayth S. Hilary goeth before that which is giuen in heauen Heauen sayth S. Chrysostome borroweth principall authority of iudging from the Earth So as it cannot be the meere vocation to preach but some other extraordinary and singular Iurisdiction which our Sauiour here bequeathed to his Apostles 3. A Iurisdiction signified before by the power of keys which are chiefly giuen to magistrates and rulers of Cittyes not to betoken thinges already locked or vnlockt but to open and shut as occasion requireth A Iurisdiction for the due exercise whereof the Sacrament so a Aug. l. 2. cont Parm. c. 13. Greg. l. 4. Com. in l. ReguÌ„ c. 5. Calu. l. 4. Instit c. 19. S. Augustine and others tearme it of Ordination was instituted b Chrys hom 85. in Ioan. Greg. Niss ora de lap Isa 44. v. 12. Cyr. lib. 12. c. 56. in 10. Atha ser in illaverba Profecti in pagum Hier ep ad Hedibi Bafil quaest breuib inter 288. Leo ep 91 ad Thâ—oâ— Pacian ep 1. ad Sym. pro. Ambr. de poenic l. x. c. 2. 7. Chris l. 3. de Sacer. Spirituall grace infused the Holy Ghost purposely imparted and imparted after a speciall manner of insufflation or breathing on them to denote that the breath of his Priests pronouncing the words of absolution should disperse and dissolue the mists of sinne according to that of the Prophet Esay I haue disolued like a cloud thy sins This ceremony then was vsed to declare the effect of extinguishing sinne the Holy Ghost was giuen to manifest the cause by whom it is abolished For as S. Cyril sayth It is neyther absurd nor yet inconuenient that they forgiue sinnes who haue the Holy Ghost For when they pardon or retaine sinns the Holy Ghost pardoneth or retayneth sinnes by them and that they doe two wayes by Baptisme first afterwards by Penance 4. Lastly that this rare prerogatiue graunted to Priests was not only by the mystery of the word to declare but by the authority of the keyes to forgiue sinnes many other of the Fathers directly teach S. Athanasius tearming it Power giuen by our Sauiour to Paiests to loose sinnes S. Hierome S. Basil S. Leo Pacianus haue the like S. Ambrose expresly proueth this authority in Priests of remitting sins against the Nouatians cuen ouer them to whom they denyed the ministery of absolution albeit they graunted the benefit of preaching S. Chrysostome extolling the dignity of Priests aboue Kings and Angels amplifyeth the same after his fashion with this goulden streame of wordes They that inhabite the earth and conuerse thereon to them comission is giuen to dispense those thinges that are in heauen To them that power is giuen which Almighty God would not communicate either to Angell or Archangell For to â—hem it is not sayd whatsoeuer yee shall bind in earth shal be bound in heauen c. Earthly Princes indeed haue also authority to bind but the bodyes only but that * Sacerdotum vinculum ipsam eâ—i im animam contingit atque ad caelos vsque peruadit c. binding of Priests which I treate of toucheth the very soule it selfe and reacheth euen to the Heauens In so much as whatsoeuer the Priestes performe beneath the very same Almighty God doth aboue and the sentence * SeruoruÌ„ sententiam Dominus confirmat of the seruant our Lord doth confirme And what is this truly elso but that the power of heauenly things is graunted by God vnto them Whose sinnes soeuer sayth he yee shall retaine they are retained What power I beseech you can be greater then this The Father gaue all power to the Sonne but I see the same power deliuered altogeather by the Sonne vnto them Wherefore as Christ had a speciall power of pardoning sinnes distinct from his power of preaching so had the Apostles to whome he gaue al power committed vnto him as S. Chrysostome auoucheth and our Sauiour himselfe witnesseth when before he imparted this authority he mentioneth his owne commission Ioan. 20. v. 22. saying As my Father sent me I also send you 5. The power of Priests to remit sinnes being thus established it remaineth I declare how Confession to a Priest the second point which our Aduersaryes deny is heerein implyed M. Fulke sayth Neither doth it follow of M. Fulke in c. 20. Io. sect 5. any necessity that men are bound to submit themselues to the Iudgment of Priests if they haue authority to forgiue sinnes But S. Augustine more ancient more holy more
S. Iohn in the desert with habit with meate with voyce with deeds cryed Yield fruits worthy of Penance S. Paul saith If we did iudge our selues we should not be iudged which S. Chrysostome and Venerable Bede expound of seuere iudiciall affliction of our selues that we may not be punished of God Finally Christ himselfe began his preaching with this precept Doe Penance for the Kingdome of heauen is at hand 7. Diuers euasions M. Fulke and the rest of his faction heer seeke They answere that the penaltyes inflicted by Fulke in c. 2. â— Cor. sect 2. in c. 3. Matth. sect 4. c. Caluin l. 3. Inst ca. 4. the ancient Canons by the Apostles or by the hand of God were 1. For the publike discipline of the Church 2. For the exercise of vertue 3. As the fruits of true repentance 4. As cautions to beware of future sinnes Tet no way to saâ—isfy the Iustice of God for precedent faults But the Scripture flatly declareth the affliction I mentioned to haue beene imposed for offences past The Prophet Nathan sayd to K. Dauid Because thou hast made thy enemyes blaspheme the name of our Lord for 2. Reg. 12. v. 14. Exod. 32. v. 34. Hier. epist 12. ad Gaud. this word the Son that is borne to thee shal dye And God himself sayd I in the day of reuenge will visit this their sinne Therfore he meant to punish their offence which notwithstanding was pardoned if we belieue S. Hierome 8. Likewise many innocent babes after the spot of Originall infection is cleansed by Baptisme are daily afflicted with the panges of sicknes with the agony of death not for the exercise of vertue nor for Penitentiall correction or future amendment of which they are vncapable but for the reuenge and chastisement of our first Fathers sinne Neither can we say that the death of King Dauids child was principally sent vnto him as a fruitefull caution or token of sorrow because he with teares with fasting with lying on the ground sought to shun it as much as he could which so vertuous a Prince would neuer haue done if it had beene any profitable caution or fruit of repentance much lesse could it be any Penitentiall correction for the publike satisfaction and discipline of the Church because he was so vnwilling to haue it Psa â— v. 7. Psa 34. v. 1â— Psal 101. ver 10. 3. Reg. 21. ver 27. Ionae 3. v. â— 7. 8. Hiero. in his comm vpon the 3. of Ionas Ionae 3. v. 9. 10. Vid. Fran Riberum in cap. 3. Ionae in cap. 1. Naâ—um Aug. hom 5. ex 50. homilijâ—â— 5 Non sufficit moresin melius c. nisi etiam de his quae facta sunt fatisâ—ias Deo c. Aug. in Enâ—hyr ad Laurent â— 70. Cyp. ser de Lapfis Cyp. tract de oper Eleâ—mosyn Châ—ys hom 41. ad Popul Antio Lact. l. 5. diâ— iâ—sti ca. 13. Orig. ho. 3. in l. ludic Amb. l. 2. de Poenitâ—n cap. 5. come to passe vsing so many meanes to pacify God another way neither is it likely that the Church would haue inflicted such a punishment vpon him the teares likewise he shed in so great aboundance as he washed with them euery night his Couch the humbling of his soule in fasting the minglâ—ng of his bread with ashes the wearing of sackcloth and meruailous humility which King Achab shewed the afflictions and voluntary fastings which the Niniuites their King their children their cattell endured were neither vsed for example to others or for amendment of their liues heereafter or for any other cause to asswage the wrath of God recompence the wrong their sinnes had done already pardoned by the secret Contrition sorrow of their harts as togeather with the interpretation of S. Hierome vpon this place the very wordes of the Niniuites Gods answere vnto them do both make manifest The Niniuiâ—es intention was to satisfy God saying Who knoweth whether God will turue and pardon and returne from the fury of his indignation The Prophet replyeth in his person And God saw their works not the repentance only of their inward harts but the Pennance and Satisfaction of their outward workes and Herepented him of the euill he spake against them Howbeit they after slyding back into their former wickednes the subuersion of their Citty ensued which the Prophet foretold 9. Besides the authorityes of the Fathers are also pregnant that the punishments of which they speake were not only inflicted for exercise of present vertue or preuenting of future euills but also to satisfy God and redeeme offences past as nothing can be more euidently recorded S. Augustine pronounceth It is not inough to chang our manners to the better and decline from euills vnles God be also satisfyed for those things which be past by the griâ—â— of Pennance by the mourning of humility by the sacâ—ifice of a contrite hart almesdees cooperating thereunâ—o And in another place By almesdeeds for offences past God is to be made propitious and fauourable S. Cyprian God is to be implored our Lord is to be pacifyed with our Satisfaction Againe By good-workes God ought to be satisfyed by merits of mercy sinnes should be purged S. Chrysostome Let vs take reueng of our selues so we shall appease our Iudge Lactantius It is lawfull to satisfy God Origen As much tyme as thou hast spent in sinning so long humble thy selfe to God and satisfy him in Confession of Pennance S. Ambrose He that doth Pennance should not only wash away his offence with teares but with perfecter workes ought to couer and hide former faults that sinne may not be imputed vnto him â—asil interro 12. in eg breuioribus Psal 100. 10. S. Basil sheweth the reason heereof saying Albeit God in his only begotten Sonne as much as lyeth in him hath granted remission of sinnes to all yet because mercy and iudgement are ioyned togeather by the holy Prophet and he witnesseth God to be both mercifull and iust it is necessary that those thinges which are spoken of Pennance by the Prophets and Apostles be performed by vs that the iudgments of Gods iustice may appeare and his mercy Greg. Na zian orat insancta luâ—ina be consumated to the condonation of sinners For as S. Gregory Nazianzen sayth It is a like euill remission without chastisment and chastisement without pardon because the one letteth go the raines too far the other restraineth them too much Wherefore that God may carry ouer vs an euen hand that his clemency may be mingled with some seuerity his iustice and mercy may meete togeather although he alwayes of mercy pardoneth the iniquity of repentant sinners yet he often bindeth them ouer to some temporall chastisement to satisfy thereby the rigour of his iustice as in the partiall iudgment of our professed enemyes all antiquity heerein Caluin l. 3. Inst c. 4. §. 8. Calu. 4 c. 12. §. 8. Kemnitius 2. par exam p. 181.
the diseases of the body famine sicknes and death it selfe 5. And although Original sinne be now the cause of all these euils yet it doth not properly consist in them all but in the priuation of that prime grace by which the soule of Adam was enriched adorned and conuerted vnto God For as Originall righteousnes included these three prerogatiues or triple rectitude to speake in S. Thomas language first the vnion of the mind with soueraigne goodnes secondly the subiection of the inferiour powers of the soule to reason thirdly the like subordination of all the members of the body to the soule yet it did truely and principally reside in the former and contayned S. Thom. 1. p. q 95. â—â—t 1. the later two as accessaryes or dependants thereof So Originall sinne which is only knowne by his contrary habit is truly formally nothing els then the voluntary priuation of the same Originall iustice which ought to be in vs as it maketh the soule deformed blemished Feild in his 3. booke c. 26. and auerted from God Wherefore seing this want and priuation is taken away by Baptisme and the whole grace as it cloathed beautifyed and adorned the soule entierly restored the whole guilt of sinne is forgiuen the formall cause or true essence of Originall iustice recouered againe by the passion of Christ and the other deordinations the remaynder of concupiscence are only the effects or punishments of the precedent fault and not any true and proper fault For if man had beene created in the state of pure nature as the Philosophers thought he was and many Deuines against M. Feild teach he might be because it inuolueth no contradiction neither in respect of the creature nor Creatour Then I say he should haue beene pestered with the same inordinate concupiscence and rebellion of the inferiour parts as now he is but then it had been a meere infirmity langour or fayntnes of nature growing out of the matter whereof man is compounded and not any wound or punishment also of sinne as in our case it is The reason appeareth for as man in the state of pure nature must haue been coÌ„pacted of two diuers and repugnant natures of soule body flesh and spirit and consequently of a corporall and reasonable of asensuall and spirituall appetite which could not chuse but maintaine a perpetuall warre of contrary and repugnant desires it being naturall to euery thing according to Philosophy to couet that which is conuenient and sutable to it selfe so the sense euen then would hunt after sensible pleasant delight-some obiects and the spirit would seeke for spirituall the spirit would often checke restrayne and bridle the pursuit of Aug. de pec merit remis l. 2. cap 4 de nuptijs concup l. 1. c. 27. l. 13. de Triâ— c. 10. contra Iul. Pelag. l. â— 1. retract c. 15. sense and sense would likewise hinder weaken and repine at the heroicall workes and endeauours of the spirit Thus the winds of diuers opposite passions the fluds of contrary inclinations would naturally striue and resist one the other yet as in that case this contrariety had beene no sinne but a sequele a disease a feeblenes of nature so now the same abiding in the regenerate from whome the dregs of all impurity are cleansed it is only according to S. Augustine left as an exercise of vertue to wrastle against or as a punishment of sinne and not as any true or proper sinne Which by two irrefragable arguments I conuince in this manner Ezech. 36. v. 25. Mich. 7. v. 19. â—01 lasâ— v. 12. Ioan. 1. v. 29. Psal 50 v. 6. Whatsoeuer filth or vncleanes our soules contracted by the sinne of Adam is wholy washed away in Baptisme by the grace of Christ But the filth or guilt of concupiscence descended from Adam therefore it is clean abolished by the vertue of Christ The Maior or first proposition is euery where testifyed in holy Writ by the Prophets and Apostles who often witnes that there shal be left no sinne in vs after we are once new borne in Christ for he shall cleanse vs from all our iniquityes he shall drowne our sinnes in the bottome of the sea he shall discoast them from vs as far as he East is distant from the West he taketh away sinnes blotteth them out wipeth them away dissolueth them like a clowd he shall forgiue the iniquity to the house of Iacob and this is all the fruit that the sinne thereof be taken away But none Isa 44. v. 22. Isa 27. v. 9. Ad Rom. 8. v. 1. Hier. in Com. in hunc locuÌ„ Ad Rom. 5. v. 19. of these Prophesyes not one of these assertions were true if the guilt of concupiscence still lurked in the soule of the regenerate It were not true which S. Paul teacheth There is no damnation to them that are in Christ Iesus to wit Nihil damnatione dignum nothing worthy damnation as S. Hierome commenteth vpon that place if any damnable sinne remayned in them Not true which the same Apostle auoucheth As by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners so also by the obedience of one many shall be made iust if we be not as truely iustifyed and purged from the drosse of sinne Psal 50. v. 9. Ad Ephes 1. v. 4. ad Collos 1. v. 22. ad Ephes 4. v. 22. 24. ad Colos 3. v. 9. ad Rom. 6. ad Ephes 5. 2. ad Corinth 6. Chrys ho. 40. in 15. 1. Cor. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the merits of Christ as by the fall of Adam we were infected therewith 7. Secondly King Dauid speaking of the purity of the soule cleansed by grace sayd Thou shalt wash me and I shall be made more white then snow S. Paul writeth that the iustifyed are holy and immaculate that they cast off the old man and put on the new that they liue in Christ are light in our Lord temples of the liuing God Therefore free from the darknes free from the impurity death and idolatry of sinne for what participation hath iustice with iniquity what society is there betweene light and darknes what part hath Christ with Beliall what agreement hath the temple of God with Idolls Only God sayth S. Chrysostome can deliuer from sinne which in this lauer of regeneration he effecteth he toucheth the soule it selfe with grace and plucketh from thence the rooted sinne he who by the fauour of the King is pardoned his cryme hath his soule still defiled whome Baptisme washeth not so but he hath his mind more pure then the beames of the Sunne and such as it was when it was first created Which testimony of his so euidently discouereth the spot of Originall guilt to be quite abolished as the Magdeburgian Protestants censuring this place doubt not to say Chrysostome speaketh of the efficacy of Baptisme very dangerously And yet he speaketh no otherwise then the word of God and generall voyce of
and replenished with grace through the merits of Christ haue notwithstanding their former sins truly abiding in them or no Your answere is That sinne in it selfe and in it owne nature continueth such that setting aside the pardon it were sufficient still to make him guilty Is not this to flye from the question to destroy the supposall to forsake the helpe and defence of your clyents For example I conuince a Sectary of grosse ignorance open repugnance and contradiction in his writinges if some Atturney after excuse him thus that set aside his ignorance set aside his maleparte and flat contradictions no such foolish or repugnant saying hath beene diuulged by him should not he deserue a good fee at his handes The same doe you deserue who speaking of the regenerate pardoned of their sinnes doe proue them sinnefull setting aside their pardon Howbeit these wordes that follow may challenge the fire rather then a fee. The pardon acquiteth Abbot in the place aboue cyted the man but yet it cannot alter the nature of the sinne it setteth a barre against the effect but take away the barre and the cause is as strong as it was before So he As ill as Proclus worse then the Messalians Proclus held that sinnes by Baptisme were not cleansed but couered the Messalians taught they Abbot ibidem were shaued clipped and pared of M. Abbot auoucheth them not pared but barred curbed hindred only like a violent stream whose current is stopped not water dimished Proclus added take away the couer and the sinnes appeare M. Abbot affirmeth take away the barre and the cause is as strong as it was before Wherefore if they for that blasphemous doctrine were iustly censured amongst the rancke of Heretiks shall not he receaue the same doome who is returned guilty of the same if not more deeper heeresy Beare with me M. Abbot I write not this to touch your person whome for your good parts I honour loue but only to refell these errours which zeale of truth and desire Abbot c. 2. sect 1. fol. 171. of your safety moueth me to hate And so with your good leaue who are also willing that truth should preuayle I go on The pardon say you acquitteth the man but it cannot alter the nature of the sinne No doth it not alter the nature of sinne when it taketh it away blotteth it out and extinguisheth it quite as I haue shewed aboue Doth it cancell in man the guilt of sinne and not alter in him the nature of it For we speake not heere of the destruction or alteration of sinne seuered and abstracted from the subiect in which it inhereth because in that sort sinne is not altered neither in this nor after this life not altered as I may say in the Saints of heauen the murder and adultry K. Dauid committed the vsury of S. Matthew the theft and other faults S. Augustine bewayleth in his bookes of Confessions are truely thefts vsuryes murders and adulteryes if we conceaue them apart in the nature of sins yet when God of his mercy pardoned and forgaue them he did not only alter the nature but expelled the bane of the for named offences 16. Againe how ouerthwartly doe you write the pardon acquiteth the man and setteth a barre against the effect for Abbot in his defence cap. 2. sect 1. if it set only a barre it acquiteth him not if it acquite him the barre is needles to no purpose at all And who did euer heare sinnes banished from the soule taught to be stopped or barred from raigning therein The Phisitian who hindreth or abateth the furious increase of his patients disease cannot be auouched to free him from it or if he free him if he acquite him they wrong his art and abuse his patient who should contend that a stop onely is layd a barre applyed against his sicknes which once remoued the rage therof will be as great as euer The like wrong do you to our heauenly Phisitian the like iniury Abbot in his defence c. 2. and abuse to vs his patients when not without contradicting your selfe you peremptorily vtter that he hath set but a barre against the diseases of our soule acquited by Field in his 3. booke of the Church c. â—6 Abbot in his defence â— c. 2. pag. 176. Perkins in his Refor Catho p 37. his pardon or rather cured by the salue of his heauenly grace 17. The last euasion our Reformers vse to auoyd the vnanswerable proofes aboue alleadged is That Originall sinne by Baptisine looseth his dominion looseth his command is abated and the strength therof broken because it rageth it preuaileth not as it did hauing receaued a deadly wound and being resisted condemned by vs. Faire wordes but let me scan the sense and meaning of them let me know whether this sin bereft of his raigne and dominion abated by this mortall wound doth loose thereby either the whole or any part of the deformity with which it blemisheth your soules not the whole for then the whole fault were cancelled as the Scriptures and Fathers define against you not any part for it is indiuisible it cannot be seuered into parts or if it could why should one part be vtterly extinguished and not the other God is magnificent and liberall in his guifts he neuer bestoweth vpon vs any mangled or broken fauours The author of the booke of true fayned pennance attributed to S. Austine sayth It is the crime of infidelity Author de falsa vera poen apud Ang. c. 6. to expect from God halfe or imperfect saluatioÌ„ How then can he be so imperfect as brokenly by peece-meale to pardon one the same default partly in this partly in the life to come S. Thomas our Angelicall Doctor teacheth it impossible in them that are pestered with many grieuous offeÌ„ces to haue any one forgiueÌ„ without the rest And can one part of a deadly crime which hath no parts S. Thom. 3. par q. 86. art 3. be washed away according to your new Theology the other remaining But if neither the whole nor any part of the foule impurity be abolished then I may draw to an end and leaue my Aduersaryes branded with this note of reproach that they haue been dipped as they say in the water and bathed in the bloud of the Sonne of God yet no staine of vncleanes no wart of deformity no wrinckle of sinne hath that most soueraigne and celestiall lauer taken from their soules an infinite price hath beene offered and no true redemption procured no true saluation or perfect deliuerance from the bondage of Sathan And therefore as S. Augustine vpon a quite contrary occasion scornefully pursued the ancient Pelagians so Aug. l. 3. contra Iâ—l c. 3. I may now prosecute them with these his wordes Trudg â—n trudge on and of your followers say as you are wont In the Sacrament of our Sauiour they are baptized but not saued ransomed but not deliuered
We contrary wise teach that actual concupiscence much lesse habituall is no sin at all vnles the allowance and approbation of our will concurre thereunto which S. Iames auoucheth in his Catholike Epistle Euery one is tempted of his owne concupiscence abstracted and allured afterward concupiscence when it hath conceaued bringeth forth sinne Iac. 1. v. 14. 15. Lo heere the act of concupiscence first tempting to sinne before it be formally sinne therefore of it selfe it is no sinne neither are the suddayne motions and suggestions therof culpable except we some way yield vnto them which our thrice learned and euer worthy admired S. Augustine of set purpose inculcateth in diuers places in his Aug. l. 5. cont Iul. c. 5. fift booke against Iulian and cyting that very text of S. Iames he sayth Truly in these wordes the brood is distinguished from that which breedeth or bringeth forth for concupiscence is that which breedeth the brood is sinne but concupiscence begetteth not vnles is conceaue it conceaueth not vnles it induce that is gayneth the assent of the willer to perpetuall euill When therefore it is striuen against this commeth to passe that it may not conceaue Augu. de ciuit Dei l. 1. c. 25. Idem ep 200. ad Asel Iâ—em l 2. de Gen cont Maâ—i c. 4. Cyril l. 4. c. 5â— Chrys ho. 13. in ep ad Rom. Basil l. de virg l. const Monast c. 2. Ambr. l. de Sacram. regen Hier. ep ad Ocea or trauell with sinne In his booke of the Citty of God That rebellion of concupiscence which dwelleth in our dying members c. how much lesse is it without fault in the body of him that consenteth not if it be without fault in the body of him that sleepeth In his epistles If we consent not to those disordered motions we need not say to our Father which is in heauen forgiue vs our trespasses In his second booke of Genesis against the Manichees Sometyme reason doth stoutly resist and bridle concupiscence euen stirred vp which when it is performed we fall not into sinne but with some wrastling are crowned With S. Augustine accord S. Cyrill S. Chrysostome S. Basil S. Ambrose S. Hierome and all the ornaments both of the Greeke and Latin Church as Caluin the Proto-sectary of this our vnfortunate age fully witnesseth writing of Concupiscence in these wordes Neither is it needfull to labour much in searching what old writers haue thought heerein for as much as only Augustine may be sufficient for it who hath faythfully and with great diligence gathered all their iudgments therefore let the Readers gather out of him such certainty as they shall desire to learne of the opinion of antiquity And then immediatly setting downe what S. Augustine taught of this matter and wherein he dissented from him There may seeme sayth he to be this difference betweene him and vs that he when he graunteth that the faythfull so long as they dwell in a mortall body are so holden bound with lusts Calu. l. 3. instit c. 3. §. 10. that they cannot but lust yet dareth not call that disease sinne but being content to expresse it by the name of weaknes he teacheth that then only it becommeth sinne when either worke or consent is added to corruption or apprehension that is when will yieldeth to the first desire but we account the very same for sinne that man is tickled with any desire at all against the law of God I need no more The opinion and iudgment of all antiquity touching concupiscence by Caluins confession is to be taken out of Augustine Augustine auoucheth it no sinne without the consent of the will as himselfe also confesseth Augustine therefore and all antiquity agree with vs in this point against himselfe and his confederates by Caluins owne confession 3. But I will not only beare downe my aduersaryes by Caluins testimony and authority of Ancient Fathers Concupiscence without consent proued by reason to be no sin I will wage also reasons with them I aske what sinne the instigation of coÌ„cupiscence is if it vnwillingly inuade vs or be checked and restrained by vs Originall or Actuall Not Originall because that equally infecteth all this is more violent more exorbitaÌ„t in some theÌ„ others according to the various coÌ„plexion disposition of the persoÌ„s that is of one essence and nature in euery sinner this of diuers one of wrath another of lust the third of reueng c. that neither is nor can be any act but a defect or priuatioÌ„ only this is a personall act in him that coueteth therfore it is not Original sinne distilled from another Nor Actuall Aug. l. 3 de lib. arb c. 18. for we cannot sinne actually against our will No man as S. Augustine teacheth is sayd to sinne in that which he cannot auoyd Therfore the vnuoluntary motions which maugre our will often assault vs cannot be truly sins Our opponents reply it is sufficient they were once voluntary in their origen that is in Adam But it is false that Adam euer voluntarily consented to the personal motions of coÌ„cupiscence which arise in vs neither was our will coÌ„prehended in him as head of his posterity in any other thing then in keeping or casting of the armour of original iustice from himselfe and vs therin only his will was our assent his perseuerance our crown his reuolt our fall his transgressioÌ„ our sin in other acts or desirs of ours which are not of their owne nature faulty though free his voluntary disobedience cannot make them faulty And although I should graunt that they willingly proceed from him as the voluntary cause of all our euills yet that is not inough to make vs now guilty of the outrage committed to say we once sinned in the cause wheron it depended for you may be faulty in the cause and yet incurre no sin when the effect falleth out For example the Maister commandeth his seruant or solliciteth his friend to murder his enemy without doubt he grieuously offendeth when he giueth that charge or vseth such wicked perswasions yet if after he hartily repent before it be atchieued and do his vttermost to recall and hinder the effect although the Lesâ—â—â—â— l. 2. de iure iust c. 13. â—ub 3. Molits de Restit tract 2. disp 73â— censure of excommunication and irregularity sometyme may yet the guilt of sinne neuer can be incurred when the slaughter is committed contrary to his mind the reason is because he hauing recouered the grace and fauour of God by his sorrow and repentance cannot be depriued of it against his will If this be true in the effectes once caused by our owne counsayle or aduise how true is it in the motions caused in vs by the consent of another And if actuall coÌ„cupiscence may be without sinne much more habituall which is nothing so ill as that for the euill habits of mortall and deadly sinne may comply with grace the euill acts can neuer
no man is punished by any either spirituall or temporall Lawes for his euill habit or bad inclination to rob kill blaspheme c. for his actuall robbing or killing he is 4. Many morally good as Socrates the Philosopher and truly vertuous also may be prone to wickednes and deserue the more prayse by ouercomming of it but no actuall wickednes can purchase any prayse or continuing with vs minister occasion of greater victory Therefore Naughty habits or inclinations are not punished by any law but only euill acts if the act of concupiscence may be acquitted from fault à fortiori the habit which doth only facilitate and inclyne to the act Moreouer habituall concupiscence groweth from the roote of Nature it is as M. Abbot testifyeth the remainder of Originall corruption But I haue already demonstrated that the whole culpable infection of Nature is cleane extinguished by regeneration therefore the pronesse to euill which remayneth is not properly sinne For man by Baptisme is iustifyed from sinne buryed with Christ Abbot in his defence cap. 2. into death of sinne He is borne againe in him of water and the Holy Ghost He doth cast off the old man and put on the new He hath the stampe of Adam the body of sinne destroyed and the character of Christ the spirit of God imprinted in his hart He Ad Rom. 6. v. 4. Ioan. 3. v. 5. Ad colos 3. v. 9. Ad Ephes 4. v. 22. 24. ad 1. Cor. 1â— v. 49. hath his earthly image defaced and a heauenly restored conformable to that of S. Paul As we haue borne the image of the earthly let vs beare also the image of the heauenly But what is the old man What is the stampe image or likenes of Adam but the vgly shape and deformity of sinne that then is wholy defaced and blotted out quite by our incorporation with Christ 5. On the contrary side many thinges are obiected by Whitaker and M. Abbot against this doctrine they vrge that some leauings of sinne sticke to the regenerate because VVhitak l. 8. aduer Duraeum Abbot c. 2. p. 172 233. 234. 235 c. Augu. dâ— pec merit remis lib. 2. 2. Cor. 7. v. 1. Psal 50. after Baptisme they are still counsayled to purify their soules more and more to wrastle with the remnants of the flesh to mortify their members which are vpon the earth to renew the inward man from day to day wherupon S. Augustine argueth He that is renewed from day to day is not yet all renewed and in how much he is not renewed in so much he dwelleth in oldnes still And in another place Who is there in this life so cleane as that he is not more and more to be cleansed and made cleane For this cause S. Paul exhorteth the faythfull Let vs cleanse our selues from all filthines of the flesh King Dauid after his sin was pardoned prayed notwithstanding Create in me a cleane hart renew in me a right spirit wash me and I shal be whiter then the snow Which prayerthe regenerate make all the dayes of their life therfore they are neuer throughly purged heere vpon earth So they 6. I answere the iust are exhorted to cleanse and sweep their soules in manner aforesayd First from the dust of veniall sinnes which dayly soyleth and cleaueth vnto them euen after they be by Baptisme engrafted into Christ Secondly they are counsailed to rid themselues also as much as they can from the vntoward motions crooked inclinations of concupiscence checking and restraining them so with the curbe of mortification as they seldome or neuer hinder or disturbe the race of vertue This is not to take out the staynes of sinne but to cure the woundes repaire the fayntnes heale the infirmityes which sinne hath left behind is it to refresh the weaknes Leo ser 1. 2. de ieiunio decimi mensis of nature whilest that which decayed sayth S. Leo in our first Adam is restored in our second Which is not done I grant by the sauer of regeneration but by the continuall victory and conquest of our selues by rooting out the weedes of all immoderate desires as S. Augustine most notably Augu. l. 14. de Trinit c. 17. discourseth expounding both himselfe and all the former Texts of our Aduersaryes This renouation is not made in one and the same moment of conuersion as that renouation is made in one moment by remission of all sinnes in Baptisme For not one sinne how little or how great soeuer abideth which is not remitted But as it is one thing to want feuers another to recouer of the infirmity which is caused by feuers and as it is one thing to draw the festered weapon out of the body another with second curing to heale the wound inflicted thereby So the first remedy is to remoue the cause of Linguor which is made by the full pardon of all sinnes â— Basil in cap. 1. Isa the second is to cure the feeblenes it selfe which is done by little and little going forward in the renouation of this image of God c. Of which thing the Apostle most plainely spake saying Although our maÌ„â—hich is without be corrupt yet that which is within is renewed from day to day To which purpose S. Basil writeth The washing of Baptisme sufficeth not to bring a man to the whitenesse of snow but there needeth also great labour and diligence c. and as to make a perfect and abiding colour often dipping and much paine is required euen so in the soule corrupted with the â—ilth of sinne Which Methodius related by Epiphanius and Abbot loc citat pag. 137. 138. Epiphanius S. Hilary with the rest of the Fathers and Schoolemen obiected against vs by M. Abbot Feild and Whitaker only meane when they affirme the carryon of sinne to remayne not to be quite taken away but holden in and quieted by Baptisme when they vsurpe this saying regnum amittit in terris perit in caelo Sinne looseth his kingdome on earth it perisheth and is destroyed in heaueÌ„ Thus I say they somtymes speake in regard of the remaynder of sundry defects woundes and infirmityes as S. Augustine calleth them in regard of the euill habits customs and rebellious passions which comming from sinne carry 1. Cor. 15. v. 53. the name thereof and are not wholy extirpated by grace neither can they all be vntill this corruptible body doe on incorruption and this mortall be clad with immortality 7. Our Aduersaryes againe oppose that the maladyes of Nature the obliquity of the will and prauity Abbot ibidem pag. 9. 3. of concupiscence we mention is not only languishing defectiue but truly and properly sinnefull not in name alone but also in deed which they labour to proue two Feild in his â— booke c. 26. Aug. l. 5. contra Iul. seuerall wayes by reason and by authority First by reason because concupiscence is a declining from perfect subiection to our
Creatour there is in it disobedience from the dominion of the mind as Feild presseth out of S. Augustine It is a transgression from the rule of reason a defection sayth Abobt from rightetousnes a swaruing from the law of God but whatsoeuer swarueth or declineth from the prescript of his law is sinne Therefore concupiscence is not only a languor wound or fayntnes but the true sin of Nature Our answere is ready It is a sinne either materially or formally formally if it be a free and voluntary transgression materially if it want deliberation or consent of will as in fooles children and mad men it doth But as in them the actuall lusts or desires of concupiscence are materiall disorders or swaruings from the will of the highest but not properly sinnes so neither in the regenerate if as S. Augustine often auoweth they yield not vnto them For which cause we deny that whatsoeuer declyneth from the law of God is sinne euery vniust law euery hereticall interpretation euery booke which Protestants set forth in defence of their errours is a declyning and swaruing from his law and albeit they damnably sinne in disgorging such poyson yet the books themselues are not properly sinnes but so far forth sin is committed as they are any way diuulged imbraced or allowed no more are the sinnefull motions of concupiscence vnles by voluntary consent they be yielded vnto especially such as are seated in the flesh which is not capable of sinne 8. Secondly they presse the authority of the Apostle and testimony of the Fathers as that S. Paul tearmeth Rom. 6. v. â— ad Rom. 7. v. 24. concupiscence sin the body of sinne the body of death S. Augustine iniquity vice a great euill Methodius death and destruction it selfe S. Ambrose the defilement of nature the seed root or seminary of sinne S. Cyprian a domesticall euill Origen sinne which is the cause of death I answere it is named sinne death destruction c. for many reasons which S. Augustine himselfe assigneth First for that it is the effect Aug la. de â—uptijs concup c. 23. of sin as our speach is called our tongue or hand writing our hand because our tongue or hand frameth it The second for which it is so intitled he noteth to be because it inclineth prouoketh and if it ouercome is the cause of sin death defilement c. So cold is sayd to be sluggish and heauy for that it maketh men heauy wyne merry by reason it stirreth vp to mirth And so concupiscence for as much as it continually suggesteth allureth often induceth to all kind of wickednes S. Cyprian besides the S. Cypr. de ratio circumcis S. Bernard de sex triâ—ul precedent names calleth it a raging beast of stincking breath S. Bernard A contagion a pestilent poyson a manifold pestilence the cherishment of all naughtinesse a furnace strongly burning with the affections of ambition auarice enuy willfullnes lewdnes and all vices 9. Thirdly it is tearmed a great euill because it is indeed an vntoward and euill propension a hindrance from good a want of due subiection in the inferiour powers therefore truly called a sicknes or euill quality though not a sinne for harken what the same S. Augustine writeth to Iulian the Pelagian Thou think est that if concupiscence Aug. l. 6. cont Iul. c. 5. prope finem Rom. 7. v. 15. 19. were euill the baptized should want it thou art much deceaued for he wanteth all euil In this sort S. Paul calleth it the euill which he hateth and the euill which I will not that I doe Fourthly it doth beare the name of sinne because it was the materiall part of sinne or that which the formall guilt of our capitall infection materially included after which maÌ„ner it may be improperly sayd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iniquity the name for which Iohn Caluin and his Ghospellers so eagerly striue yet if you take the word iniquity in August tract 41. in Ioan. his proper signification it is wholy cancelled in S. Augustines iudgment saying because all iniquity is blotted out hath no infirmity remayned 10. Lastly it doth sometyme truly vndergo that name because in the irregenerate the auersion from God Aug. l. 5. contra Iul. c. 3. which is the forme and essence of Originall sinne is annexed vnto it This is the meaning of S. Augustine when in his fift booke against Iulian he first calleth it sinne then the cause also and punishment of sinne for so it is properly sinne not in it selfe alone but as it is combined with the aforesayd auersion to make one complete and vitious habite So there is in it disobedience against the dominioÌ„ of the mind because it is in them vnbridled and vntamed VVhitak l. 8. aduers Duraeum fol. 576. lust so it is that sinnefull concupiscence against which the good spirit according to S. Augustine doth striue and couet Howbeit by these words Whitaker taketh occasion to cauill that he speaketh of concupiscence in the regenerate because in them only is the good spirit which warreth against it But he is much deceaued for S. Augustine meaneth not by the good spirit the spirit of righteousnes but the naturall propension to good the right Synderesis or light of Gods countenance which he hath stamped in the hartes of the wicked this often fighteth and biddeth war to that concupiscence which is true sinne by reason of the formall guilt conioyned vnto it notwithstanding if that formall guilt be once forgiuen the materiall part that is concupiscence of it selfe inhabiting in vs against which we wrastle is no more sinne then a dead carcasse bereft of life is a true and proper man 11. One scruple yet may trouble my Reader why Vlpid tit de edilitio edict lege prima Tul. ep Papirio Paeto ep â— in fine S. Augustine should call this concupiscence vicious or a vice for heereon we may vndoubtedly argue that it is likewise sinnefull or a sinne I answere that the word Vitium vice if we sift the natiue signification and property thereof may be taken for any thing that is diseased or defectiue either in nature or art as Vlpianus in the ciuill law vseth the word and Pliny stileth the falling sicknes by the name of Vice Tully likewise giueth the name of vice to whatsoeuer is broken or out of reparation in the roote or walles of a house Thus S. Augustine taketh the word vice for that which is maymed and diseased and not for that which is sinnefull when he speaketh of the woundes of sinne abyding in the regenerate wherein I appeale to no other sentence then his owne which I heere insert as a seale and obligation of his beliefe concerning this matter Iam Aug. l. 2. contra Iul. prope init ne discernis iam ne perspicis c. Dost thou now discerne dost thou now perceane dost thou now behould the remission of all sins to be made in Baptisme and as
out remitted taken away separated from vs. How do they then abide Orabiding not how do they destaine the brightnes of succeeding grace Can the banished darknes ouercome the conquering and preuailing light The oldnes cast off defile the newnesse brought in by Christ The destroyed guilt Ezech. 30. v. 25. Rom 6. v. 6. Act. 3. v. 19. â— Luc. 7. v. 48. Ioan. 1. v 29. Psal 102. v. 12. or death of sinne infect the beauty of restored life Let S. Paul be iudge who speeking of some sanctifyed persons who before had beene fornicatours drunkards idolatours affirmeth These thinges some of you were but you are awashed you are sanctifyed you are iustifyed 3. Now if these faythfull Corinthians were not such as they had beene before if the spots of their fornication drunkenesse idolatry and all other sinnes were cleansed and washed away by the guift of sanctification or true iustification created in theÌ„ how durst you giue the checke 1. Cor. 6. v. â—â— to so great an Apostle and say their sanctification is tainted with the loath some touch of their abyding puddles Salomon auerreth Wisedome will not enter into the malicious soule nor dwell in a body subiect to sinne much lesse will ioyn league and be corrupted with the filthines of sinne Christ Sap. 1 v. 4. cannot accord with Belial nor the Arke of our Lord with the Idoll Dagon no more can sanctifying grace stand togeather 2. Cor. 6. v. 15. with mortall sinne for what participation hath Iustice with iniquity What society is there betweene light and darknesse Marry M. Abbot will contract a society between them at least 1. Reg. 5. in some low degree to which purpose he sayth Doth not Philosophy teach that contraryes are incompatible only in their 2. Cor. 6. v. 14. extremes But hath he quite forgotten or did he not rightly vnderstand of what contraryes that was meant The Philosophers speake of some positiue not of priuatiue coÌ„traryes Abbot in his defence c. 2. f. 171. whereof the one is the habit the other the priuation of these no Logicke or Philosophy euer taught they could reside togeather in the same subiect in any remisse degree as one cannot be both dead and aliue bereft of sight and enioy it also at the same instant such contraryes are infused grace and mortall sinne therefore they cannot comply in any measure the one with the other for a deadly crime howsoeuer it be resisted and curbed of his raigne which is al you pretend to linke it with grace yet so long as it formally dwelleth soiourneth in man it must needes denominate and make him a sinner for euery forme giueth the formal effect to the subiect it informeth If a sinner a slaue to sinne starcke dead to God wholy bereft of his fauour truly hated and abhorred of him throughly vncleane and deseruedly guilty of eternal damnation therefore he cannot possibly at the same tyme by any sparke of grace be aliue to God enioy his fauour be accepted and beloued of him be truely cleane and Medina iâ— 1. 2. q. 113. art 2. Caiet ibid Vasq in 1. 2. disp 10. 4. c. 4. 51 worthy of his kingdome The soule which by sinne is the aduoutresse of the Diuell and thrall of Sathan cannot be also the spouse of Christ and the adopted child of God vnles it be by such vnequall shares as that which is the Diuells by true possession of inherent sinne you will account to be Gods by outward clayme of imputatioÌ„ only and make the Prince of darcknes too strong an armed man to be presently cast forth by the King of heauen 4. The Fathers likewise so much abhorre this diabolicall Luc. 11. v. 21. Phrensy that the Diuell should haue any part in vs who are renewed in Christ or that the tainture of our contagion should staine the sanctification wrought by Chrys ho. 40. in â—5 â— ad Cor. S. Basil in psal 23. August tract 9. in ep Ioan Hier. l. 3. cont Pela Euseb de corp sang Dei Niss l. de perfec homin forma Macar l. de lib. arbit VVhitaker in his answere to Campians 8. reason Fulk in c. 4 ad Ephes sect 2. Abbot in â—is 4. c. sect 10. VVhitaâ— vbi supra Aug. l. 6. 〈◊〉 Iul. â— â— him as they contrarywise teach that our inward renouation euer expelleth the dregs of mortall and sometyms also venial default which I inuincibly proued in the precedent Controuersy and maketh our soules as S. Chrysostome sayth more pure then the beames of the Sunne so amyable to God as he sitteth according to S. Basil in the shining soule making it as it were his throne for which cause S. Augustine calleth that internall sanctification the beauty of our soule S. Hierome The purity of our soule Eusebius Hidden purity Macarius A certaine hidden or mysticall garment of heauenly beauty But Protestants do answere how beautifull soeuer that grace may seeme it only declareth quoth Whitaker the good will clemency of God towards vs it is the effect not the cause of our Iustification This renouation sayth Fulke is only begun in this life and not perfected These beames quoth M. Abbot are too dimme and darke to iustify vs in the sight of God for that righteousnes that iustifying grace they place with Whitaker in the free mercy and fauour of God who reconciled vs to himselfe in Christ that according to them is in God only and not in vs vnles it be by meere imputation but I will manifestly proue first that our inward renouation is perfect and pure from the staine of sinne though not from the defects and infirmityes which haue sprong vp from sinne secondly that grace by which we are iustifyed is inherent in vs and not in Christ thirdly that that inherent grace or inward iustice doth truly instify vs before the face of God 5. The first is testifyed by S. Augustine saying Grace doth now perfectly renew man so far forth as it appertayneth to the dâ—â—â—â—erance wholy from all sinnes not so farre as it belongeth to the freedome from all euills Againe In Christian baptisme perfect newnes and perfect health is attayned from those euills by which we were guilty not from these with which we must yet combate least Ibid. c. 7. Augu. de nat gra c. 42. Augu. de gra Christ l. â— c. 30. De sprit literae cap. 32. Lib. de nat grat cap. 63. we become guilty speaking of charity by which this renouation is made he sayth Charity it selfe is most true most plenteous most perfect iustice The second is also warranted by the same S. Augustine who expresly affirmeth The grace by which we are iustifyed not to be Gods gracious and extrinsecall fauour but his charity diffused into our harts by the Holy Ghost who is giuen vs and this charity not to be that by which he loueth vs but that by which he maketh vs louers of him Likewise by this only charity
the first encounter beaten to the ground 14. For the scope and tenour of the Apostles Analogy doth not consist in the manner but in the cause of Christs being made sinne to the end he might make vs iust albeit in a different sort he made sinne by a meere imputation because it was impossible for him to be truly a sinner we properly and truly iust because it is more Tit. 2. v. 24. Leuit 4. v. 11. 24. Ezec. 44. v. 29. Osee 4. v. 8 honourable and glorious vnto Christ to cleanse to himselfe a people acceptable to enrich and endow vs with the treasures of his inherent iustice then to leaue our filth and ordure ouershaddowed with the mantle of his externall righteousnes Secondly Christ is sayd to be made sinne that is an hoast and sacrifice for the extirpation of sinne So the Hebrew word Chattat peccatum Sinne often signifyeth a victime for sinne as in Leuiticus Ezechiel and Osee peccatum * Hebraicé Chattat Peccatum in the latin it is Pecca ta populi mei comedent they shall eate the sinne of my people that is the hoast or victime for their sinne Therfore as Christ was not by the meanes of another but in his owne person truly and really made a sacrifice for sin so we not only by imputation but truely and really in our selues ought to be the iustice of God in him And the Apostle elegantly sayth that we must be not iust but the iustice of God in Christ to oppose it to sinne signifying withall that it is the effect and likenes of Gods increated iustice by infused and created charity communicated vnto vs as S. Cyril expoundeth it or for that it is giuen vs Cyril l. 22. the saur c 3. August l. de spirit lit c. 18. Chrys Theoph. in bunc loc through the merits of Christ from God according to S. Augustin or lastly to betoken the excellency of the Iustice which leaueth no spot or blemish of sinne but maketh vs as it were wholy Grace wholy Iustice it selfe as S. Chrysostome and Theophilict do insinuate 15. Another argument they take out of the first to the Ephesians He hath gratifyed vs in his beloued Sonne or as they to boulster their heresy corruptly translate he hath made vs Ephes 1. v. 6. 3. acceptable in the beloued As though we were only outwardly accepted by the fauour of his Sonne not in wardly endowed with the participation of his Iustice how beit the In the Bible set forth by his Maiesty Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not only import to accept as gracious but to make gracious and acceptable indeed by communicating vnto vs inherent iustice in ward ornaments by which God maketh our soule as S. Chrysostome sayth pulchram desiderabilem ac dilectam beautifull Chrys in â—um loc desired and beloued of him 16. Thirdly Whitaker and Fulke obiect out of S. Paul to the Corinthians Christ is made vnto vs from God wisedom VVhitaker in his answere to 3. reason of â—â— Campian Fulk in c. 2. ad Cor. sect 2. 3. Cor. 1. v. 30. righteousnes sanctification and redemption Therefore say they our righteousnes is placed in Christ not heaped vp with our vertues But the contrary is gathered out of the same wordes for Christ is there affirmed to be our righteousnes as he is our sanctification and wisedome now he is our sanctification as they themselues agree by inherent sanctity our wisedome likewise by the habit or guift of wisedome infused into vs Therefore our righteousnes or iustice rather by created iustice imparted to our soules I answere againe that Christ is called our iustice diuers and sundry wayes 1. In the way of Communication because the perfectioÌ„s of the head are communicated to the body 2. In way of Richardus Tap. in explica ar de iustif Stapl l. 7. de iustit imputat c. 9. Rom. 8. v. 29. Bernard ep 190. assimilation for that God the Father hath predestinated vs to be made conformable to the Image of his Sonne 3. In way of satisfaction because he hath fully satisfyed for the debt of our sinnes which satisfaction of his is applyed vnto vs and made ours indeed by imputation as S. Bernard testifyeth yet not without true and inherent iustice also in our selues 4. In the way of merit for that he hath merited and purchased for vs true iustice from the handes of God 5. In the way of causality for that he is also togeather with God the efficient cause of our sanctification and iustice These and other causes which Protestants ignorantly Concil Trid sess 6 c. 7. Aug. l. de spirit â—it c. 9. in psal 30. Hier. dial aduers Pâ—lag mingle and confound the holy Councell of Trent doth wisely distinguish and set downe in this manner The sinall cause of our iustification is the glory of God of Christ eternall life the efficient God the ineritorious his beloued Sonne our Lord Iesus Christ c. the instrument all baptisme c. the only formall cause is the iustice of God not that by which he is iust but by which he maketh vs iust by which he cloatheth man as S. Augustine speaketh when he iustifyeth the wicked or as he saith in another place which God imparteth that man may be iust which S. Hierome S. Bernard and sundry reasons manifestly Bernard epist 290. approue as I shall more plentifully discouer in the Chapter ensuing THE SECOND CHAPTER IN WHICH The former doctrine is confirmed by more reasoÌ„s authorityes and other obiections of our Aduersaryes refuted AS the in-bred naughtynes of Originall infection neuer cleanly rinsed or scoured out is the sluse of filthines in Protestants iudgment and roote of al their impious opinions which I named aboue so the heauenly beame of inhabitant grace which garnisheth the soules of Christs faythfull seruants is the head well-spring according to vs of all the good that proceedeth from vs. This iustifyeth vs before the Tribunal of his highnesse this maketh our works pleasing to his Maiesty this aduanceth them to the dignity of merit this purchaseth the crowne of reward this ministreth power and ability to fullfill his Commandments and whatsoeuer els we do acceptable to him and worthy of his kingdome al floweth from the veines of this celestiall fountaine Therfore I labour to fense and strengthen it further with some other impregnable reasons 2. The first prosecuted by Andreas Vega is to this purpose The iustice which Adam had before his fall was not imputatiue but inherent and true Iustice which made him amyable and gratefull in the sight of God as all the Vega l. 7. in Concil Trid. c. 22. Fathers and our aduersaryes with them generally confesse but the same Iustice is restored vnto vs by the merits of Christ which we lost in Adam therefore true Iustice before God is heere communicated to our soules by the benefit Rom. 5. of his passion The minor
in him Or if that work doth not hinder the free grace of iustification in Protestants conceit because it is the gift of God because it doth not iustify according to them as it is an actioÌ„ proceeding froÌ„ man but as it taketh hold and applyeth vnto them the iustice of Christ Why should our preparatiue workes any way preiudicate the freedome of that fauour as long as we acknowledg theÌ„ also the meer guift of the highest and not to dispose vs to the life of grace as they are achieued by our owne forces alone or flow from the drye and barren soyle of Nature but as they are made fertile by the water of the holy Ghost as they are eleuated and inspired by his viuificall motion For if the Beggar which is Cardinall Tolets example who of his owne accord Toleâ— in c. 3. ad Rom. stretcheth out his hand to receaue the offered almes doth not hinder the francke and liberall bestowing of the money much lesse should the cooperation of our freewill which not of our selues not of our owne endeauours but moued and strengthned by God yieldeth to his motions any way withstand his liberall donation and free guift of Iustice 17. In the last wing wherein the only hope of their victory remayneth such sentences of Scripture are ranged as flatly debarre the concurrence of workes from all kind of Iustice to wit By grace you are saued through fayth and that not of your selues for it is the guift of God not of workes that no man glory We account a man to be iustifyed by fayth without the Ephes 2. v. 8. Rom. 3. v. 28. Rom. 11. v. 6. Rom. 4. v. 2. workes of the law If by grace not now of workes otherwise grace now is not grace If Abraham were iustifyed by workes he hath glory but not with God with many others to the same purpose I answere that the Apostle excludeth indeed from the grace of iustification either first or second all workes which proceed from the vigour or strength of nature on which the Pelagians so much relyed Then he excludeth the good vse and exercise of freewil done without Christ to which the Semipelagians ascribed the dowry of grace Thirdly he excludeth the moral vertues performed by the Act. 15. v. 1. Aug. l 5. cont 2. ep Pelag. c. 7. in prâ—f ps 3â— ep 107. tract 50 de verb. Domini secundum Euang. Matth. Hier. l. â— com in c. 3. ad Gal. Prosper cont collat c. 22. Cent. 3. c. 4. Col. 80. ciâ—ant Orig. l. 8. in epist ad Rom. light of reason precepts of naturall Philosophy wherin the Gentils boasted and placed their happines Lastly he excludeth all works achieued by the sole notice of the Law both cerimoniall and morall in which the Iewes trusted so farre as they deemed themselues thereby only assured of Gods fauour and some of them vrged the necessity of circumcision the obseruation of their ceremonyes euen to Gentils conuerted vnto Christ of whome they auouched Vnles you be eireumcised you cannot be saued 18. Against these the Apostle so often inculcateth that neither circumcision prepuce nor any worke either of Iew or Gentill done by themselues or by the knowledge of the law without the grace of the Spirit inwardly mouing is able to saue them but he neuer excludeth the Sacraments of Baptisme or Pennance nor the works proceeding from the help of supernaturall grace to be dispositions to attaine the first true causes of increase in the second iustification whereof read S. Augustine S. Hierome and Prosper who interprete the Apostls meaning in the selfe same manner as I haue heere declared which interpretation the Century-writers haue also espyed and reproued in Origen engrossing these wordes in the Catalogue as they account them of his errours It is to be vnderstood that the workes which S. Paul reiecteth and so often reprehendeth are not the iustices which are commanded in the Law but those thinges in which they boast and glory who obserue the law according to the flesh or rites of sacrifices or obseruation of Sabaoths and new Monnes these and the like are the Concil Trid. sesl 6. Can. 1. Fulk in c. 2. Iacob sect 9. Fulk ibid. Vasq in 1. 2. disp 210. cap. 9. VVhitak l. 1. aduerf Duraeum VVhitak in his answere to M. CampiaÌ„ 8. reason â—ulke in c. 2. Iac. sect 9. Abbot in his defence c. 4. Ambr. in c. 3. 4. ad Rom. Chrys in c. 3. ad Gal. hom 7. in c. 3. ad Rom. Basil serm de humiâ—it Aug. l. 1. cont 2. ep Pelag. c. 21. l. 83. q. 76. Hesich in Leuit. l. 4. cap. 14. Hilar. cap. in Matth. August tract 49. in Ioan. workes by which he auoucheth no man may be saued Hitherto Origen quoted by the Magdeburgians To which purpose the Councell of Trent hath very diuinely decreed If any shall teach man may be iustifyed before God by his works which either by humane nature or by the doctrine of the Law are accomplished without the diuine grace of Iesus Christ let him be accursed According to this authentical exposition S. Paul and S. Iames are clearely discharged from that irreconciliable contradiction M. Fulke imagineth betweene them in our opinion for either S. Paul speaketh of the first iustification and S. Iames of the second which is not as he mistaketh another kind of iustification but the augmentation of the former or they both treate of the first and second also as Gabriel Vasquez thinketh most probable and the one excludeth workes wrought without the inward motion of grace from iustification the other acknowledgeth such workes to cooperate thereunto as proceed from grace which is no contradiction but the true and vndoubted position of our Catholike fayth 19. Although all the sentences of the Fathers which are stumbling blockes in our Reformers way be satisfyed in the same manner as these Texts of Scripture yet to ease the studious Reader from further trauaile I will particulerly set downe how the chiefest of them are to be vnderstood whome our Reformers oppose against vs concerning this point S. Ambrose S. Chrysostome S. Basil S. Augustine Hesichius and S. Hilary when they affirme vs iustifyed by fayth alone without any workes they mean without any workes eyther of our owne or of Moyses law done without grace Or they are to be interpreted of Fayth which is liuely indewed with Charity and accompanyed with other vertues So S. Augustine in his treatises vpon S. Iohn when he sayth Fayth is the soule of our soule Prosper S. Bernard and S. Augustine againe in the seauenth Chapter of his booke of predestination of Saints Prosp de voca gent. l. â— c. 8 9. Bernar ser 22 in cant Aug. de praedest Sanctor c. cap. 7. Leo serm de Epiphaâ— alibi Orig. in c. 3. ad Rom. Chrysost hom de fide lege nâ—turae Vasq in â— 2. disp 210. c. 9. are to be interpreted of fayth alone inchoatiuely S. Leo
auerreth That the only Catholike fayth quickneth sanctifyeth giueth life excluding not any workes but the false beliefe of Heretikes Origen vpon the third Chapter to the Romans and S. Chrysostome in his booke of Fayth and the law of Nature attribute Iustification to fayth alone without the outward accomplishment of any externall worke or without the precedent obseruation of the law whether it be externall or internall according to Vasquez both exemplifying in the theese vpon the Crosse so that among all the Fathers whom they obiect no one giueth sentence on their side 20. Finally besides these authorityes and the former common obiections one the Aduersarie yet reserueth as his sole Achilles and properly belonging to this place that our pious and godly workes are outward tokens only and manifestations as whitaker calleth them of inward righteousnes but not the causes which augment or make vs more iust for as the tree is not made good by the VVhitak in his answer to the 8. reason of M. Campian fol. 254. fruites it beareth but only declared and knowne to be such no more can a iust man become more iust by the fruits of good workes which he produceth but only be discouered and knowne to be iust because as the fruits presuppose the goodnes of the tree from whence they spring and do not make it good so good workes prerequire iustice in the worker and cannot concurre to constitute Matth. 71 v. 17. Maldon in c. 7. Matt. him iust Whereupon Christ compareth the iust man with a good tree which bringeth forth good fruits and cannot produce euill the wicked to an euill tree which shooteth forth euill and cannot bring good I answere with Maldonate first by retorting the argument vpon my Aduersaryes If by good works we cannot be made but only knowne to be good it followeth by necessary consequence that by euill works we cannot become euill but only declared and signifyed to be such So Adam being once a good tree planted by God either could not degenerate and bring forth the euill fruits of sinne as he did or by sinning was not made euill or worse then before by iniustly transgressing the Commandment of God became A differeÌ„ce betweene naturall and morall causes necessary to be noted not indeed vniust but was only marked figured with the notes of iniustice which cannot be affirmed without plaine impiety Secondly I answere that there is a great difference between naturall and morall causes as euery Nouice in our Schooles can instruct you Naturall causes by their good or euill effects are neither made good or euill better or worse as the fire waxeth not more hoat by the heate it casteth nor the stocke of the vine in it selfe more fruitful by the outward braÌ„ches it spreadeth abroad but these only demonstrate the fruitfullnes of the vine or heate of the fire Morall causes do not only worke well or badly because they are good or euill but by vvorking vvell or euilly they grovv good or euill become better or vvorse As vvee do not only liue temperatly because vve are teÌ„perate but by many acts of temperance become Arist l. 2. de mori c. 1. Ibid. c. 2. VVhitak l. 1. 8. aduers Duraeum August l. de fide oper c. 14. in psal 31. S. Thom. in Gal. 3. lect 4. Ambr. in cap. 8. ad Rom. Beda in c. â— ep lac temperate by the like dayly go forward increase in temperance For sayth Aristotle As by building builders by singing to the harpe men arriue to be cunning harpers or musitians so by doing good things men become iust by temperate things temperate by valiant exployts valiant Likewise by accustoming our selues to contemne and endure things fearefull and to be dreaded fortes efficimur we grow stout couragious Therfore although the tree which is a naturall cause of budding fruits receaueth not from them any sparke of life or increase of goodnes yet the iust man who is a morall cause in acheiuing good workes is more quickned in spirituall life and perfected in iustice by achieuing of them 21. Then they vrge out of S. Augustine That good workes go not before the iustifyed but follow him that is iust Out of S. Thomas Workes are not the cause that any one is iust before God but rather the executions and manifestations of Iustice. The like out of S. Ambrose Venerable Bede others I answere they are manifestations and remonstrances of the first iustice of the first infusion of grace as S. Thomas expoundeth himselfe and so they follow and are not the cause S. Thom. in c. 2. ad Gal. that any one is iust in that kind yet this withstandeth not but that they perfect and increase the infused iustice as true meritorious and morall causes thereof which is all that we require all that the Oecumenicall holy Councell of Trent hath enacted touching the Iustice of our works quickned with the seed or watered with the due of Gods celestiall grace The end of the fourth Booke THE FIFTH BOOKE THE XXII CONTROVERSY DISPROVETH The Protestants certainty of Saluation against D. Whitaker and D. Abbot CHAP. I. SO deep and vnsearchable are the iudgements of God so close and inscrutable the inuolutions of mans hart his foldes so secret so many his retraytes his search so weake in matters of spirit so hidden and vnknown the operations of grace the feares the doubts the anxiety so innumerable which the best belieuing Protestants and Ministers themselues feele in their consciences as I am wonderfully astonished at this arrogant speach that they should be all infallibly assured and vndoubtedly certaine of their saluation and my astonishment is the greater when I read the sentence of God and Eâ—â—â—â—â— 9. v. 1. 2. verdict of the holy Ghost passe against them in these tearmes vncontrollable There are iust men and wise and their workes are in the hand of God and yet man knoweth not whether he be worthy of loue or hatred but all things are reserued vncertain Prou. c. 20 v. 9. for the tyme to come And who can say my hart is cleane I am pure from sinne Where Salomon doth not affirme as Venerable Bede noteth vpon that place That a man cannot be but that he cannot certainly say or know himselfe to be pure from Beds in eum locum Eccles 5. v. VVhitak l. 8. aduers Duraeum Abbot in his defence c. 4. f. 330. 331. c. Calu. l. 3. instit c. 2. §. 38. sinne Likewise Of sinne forgiuen be not without feare or as whitaker readeth out of the Greeke Of expiation or pardon be not secure To the first of these three testimonyes M. Abbot replyeth with Caluin his Maister That by outward things by thinges that are before our face a man knoweth not whether he be beloued or hated of God howbeit he may otherwise infallibly know it But this answere cannot be shaped to the latter clause of that sentence All thinges are
in his 5. conclusion fol. 656. still and stand in doubt of saluation wherwith M. Reynoldes slaundereth vs. For the probability or morall certainty which we acknowledge ought not to trouble the peace of our Consciences nor anxiously distract much lesse torment the quietnes of our mindes It is a probability intermixed with feare and nourished with such comfortable VVhitak l. 8. aduer Duraeum and stedfast hope with such filial loue as banisheth all combersome anxiety all wauering doubtfullnes all seruile base and troublesome solicitude That which Whitaker so eagerly presseth against Duraeus Try your owneselues if you be in the fayth proue your selues know you 2. Cor. 13. vers 5. Cornelius Cornelij à Lapide in eum locuÌ„ not that Christ Iesus is in you vnles perhaps you be reprobates is interpreted as Cornelius declareth out of Theophilact of Christs aboad not in euery particuler person by iustifying grace but in the Church of the Corinthians by power miracles conuersions and other externall gifts wrought by S. Paul and to the tryall of this his presence he exhorteth them by the remembrance and consideration of the workes acheiued among them and not to try their iustifying fayth vnles it be by some probable tokens 9. The obiections of the second kind which ascribe Ioan. 3. v. 36. â— Ioan. 5. v. 13. Rom. 10. v. 9. Rom. 9. v. 33. Ioan. 3. v. 15. 16. Ioan. 6. v. 35. the certainty of saluation to fayth are these He that beleeueth in the Sonne hath life euerlasting They that beleeue in the name of the Sonne of God are to know that they haue eternall life confesse with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and beleeue in thy hart that God raysed him from the dead thou shalt be safe He that beleeueth in Christ shall neuer be confounded nor perish but haue euerlasting life He that beleeueth in me shall neuer thirst He that eateth this bread shall liue for euer To which I answere that these generall promises which assure life and saluation to the beleeuer are vnderstood conditionally if he beleeue as he ought with a true fayth working by charity and he is sayd to haue euerlasting life because by Cyril in Ioan. 3. fayth he hath entred the gate and way which leadeth thereunto or hath receaued the seed thereof the pledge right and title vnto it by the spirit of adoption or diuine filiation imparted vnto him He is promised also to be saued conditionally if he perseuere in that state to the end after which many other vniuersall sentences of Scripture Ioel. 2. v. 3â— Rom. 10. v. 13. Prou. 1. v. 28. Matth. 7. vers 8. Iac. 4. v. 3. are to be expounded It is written Whosoeuer shall inuocate the name of our Lord shall be saued and contrarywise Then shall they inuocate me and I will not heare them Christ sayth Whosoeuer doth aske shall receaue Contrarywise you aske and receaue not the reason he subioyneth because you aske amisse that you may consume it in your concupiscences Therefore these generall sentences whosoeuer inuocateth or beleeueth shall be saued are to be construed also with this promise If he inuocate and beleeue with true fayth sincere affection and purity of life as it behooueth him to do 10. Secondly whereas many causes concurre to the Hebr. 5. v. 9. Rom. 8. v. 24. Eccles 1. v. 27. Tob. 12. v. â— workes of Iustification or saluation the holy Scripture sometyme attributeth it to one sometyme to another To obedience He was made to all that obey him cause of eternall saluation To Hope By hope we are saued To Feare The feare of our Lord expelleth sinne To Almesdeeds Almes-deeds deliuereth from death because ech of them if nothing els be wanting is sufficient to saue vs and so fayth acheiueth our saluation if we be not defectiue in other things required thereunto or rather because it is the first supernaturall habit origen or roote of life which springeth and bringeth forth the liuely motions of all other vertues and for this cause our iustification is more often assigned to fayth then to any other vertue neuertheles if it fayle dye or be lost as in the next Controuersy I shall proue it may be it procureth not the health of our soules to which it was ordeyned 11. The last troupe of their misapplyed sentences which retyre vnder the standard of Gods care and protection Ioan. 10. v. 27. 28. VVhitak l. 8. aduers Duraeum Abbot c 3. Ioan. 17. v. â—0 21. Matt. 24. v. 24. Rom. 8. v. 30. 1. Cor. 1. v. 8. for security of saluation are My sheep heare my voice c. and they shall not periâ—h for euer no man shall plucke them out of my hands Christ prayed for the faythfull that they might be all one with him and no doubt obtayned it affirmeth it impossible for the elect to be induced into errour Whom he hath predestinated he hath called and whome he hath called he hath iustifyed and glorifyed He confirmeth and strengthneth them vnto the end I answere heere is a new throng of witnesses but no euidence brought in our Protestants behalfe For they are all veryfied of the elect in generall that they shall not perish but be preserued and glorifyed in the end into their harts he striketh his feare with them he maketh his euerlasting couenant but heer is no word or syllable that this or that man in particuler is one of them he may be in the number of such as are outwardly Matt. 20. v. 16. Aug. ser 16. de verb. Apostol called For many are called but few elect He may be also inwardly iustifyed for a tyme which yet S. Augustine auoweth to be vnknown to him but that he is one of the happy band of those who are called according to the purpose and eternall election of God is an inscrutable mystery fit and expedient sayth the same S. Augustine to be Aug. tom 7. de corr gra c. 13. hidden in this place where elation and pride is so much to be decaded c. That all euen those who runne may feare whilest it is concealed who shall ariue to the goale 12. In like manner to answere the authorityes of the Fathers foure obseruations are carefully to be noted Nazian in orat conso in grand Ambros serm 5. Bernar. ser â— de annuÌ„ August tract 22. in Ioan. First that they auouch vs certaine of Gods grace as S. Gregory Nazianzen doth Certaine of saluation S. Ambrose Of remission of saluation S. Bernard Of finall perseuerance S. Augustine to wit conditionally if we keep the commandements if we striue manfully against vice euen to the end c. Secondly they speake sometyme of the certainty of hope and confidence not of the certainty of fayth or of the certainty only of humane fayth by probable coniectures not of diuine and supernaturall Thus S. Hierome S. Augustine S. Leo and S. Gregory in the places heere quoted Thirdly they say that we are infallibly
Law in euery action he goeth about as he hath alwayes sufficient ayde and help from God if he earnestly craue it and craue it he may if he answere his motions Leo ser 16. de Passione to auoyd the infection of any new crime whensoeuer the danger thereof occurreth Whereupon S. Leo sayth God doth iustly vrge vs with his Precept who preuenteth vs with his grace to eschew the enormity of euery fault Thirdly such is the benignity and goodnes of God in seeking 1. ad Cor. 1. v. 3. to mollify the obstinate will of rebellious sinners that albeit not at euery moment nor for any desert of theirs yet in due tyme and place through the merits of Iesus Christ euery one who is held in the prison of vice hath meanes sufficient not only to resist any new offence but also to deliuer himselfe from that wretched thraldome and state of sinne The Father of mercyes and God of all comfort and consolation often vouchsafing to call inuite and being alwayes ready to help him forth 27. Cease therefore O vngratfull man cease to excuse thy selfe that thou art vnwillingly subiect to the tyranny Aug. l. 1. ad Bonifa cap. 3. of sinne Cease to lay the blame of thy misdeeds to blamelesse Necessity Charge not Adams fall as the only cause of thy voluntary faults but confesse with great and humble S. Augustine that euery one who offendeth God all who are bound in the chaines of iniquity By their own will are detayned in sinne by their owne will are tumbled headlong from sinne to sinne THE XXV CONTROVERSY SHEWETH The cooperation of Free-will to our conuersion and to workes of Piety against D. Whitaker D. Fulke and M. White CHAP. I. ALBEIT the perfect decision of this Controuersy now in hand may easily be gathered out of the former Chapter where I treated of mans Liberty not only to Ciuill and Morall actions in the state of corruption but also of his absolute freedome from Necessity in what state soeuer yet least I should be thoght to huddle vp many thinges togeather and lappe them in obscurity after the fashion of our darke and obscure Reformers I purposly handle this difficulty a part that is Whether man clogged and loaden with sinne hath any freedome of will before he be iustifyed to lift vp his hart and giue assent to Gods heauenly motions when he of his boun tiful mercy vouchsafeth to call and stirre him vp All Protestants defend the Negatiue all Catholikes the Affirmatiue part 2. M. Whitaker teacheth that man wants Free-will to Whitak l. 1. contra Dur. p. 78. Fulke in c. 3. Apoc. sect 4. In c. 6. 2. Cor. sect 2. In cap. 9. Rom. sect 4. VVhite in the way to the true Church §. 40. fol. 283 the dutyes of Fayth because till the Sonne hath made him free he must needes be a seruant to sinne And M. Fulke more plainely It lyeth not sayth he in the freedome of mans will to giue consent to Gods calling It lyeth not in mans Free-will to follow the motion of God Man hath no Free-will vntill it be freed Mans will worketh nothing in our conuersion vntill it be conuerted And M. White semblably Our will quoth he when Grace first enters is meerely passiue c. As my paper whereon I am writing receaueth the inke passiuely and bringeth nothing of it to the writing c. Whence it followeth that in those whome God effectually will renew their will can make no resistance as my paper cannot reiect my writing Thus they 3. We on the other side acknowledge indeed that mans will is much weakned his vnderstanding dimmed and all the powers of his soule and body made faint and feeble by the infirmity of sinne incurred by his first Parents reuolt In so much as neither the Gentills by the force of Nature according to the decree of the holy Councell of Trent nor the Iewes by the letter of Moyses Law could arise ou◠Conc. Trid. sect 6. can ◠2. of that sinnefull state c. except God the Father when the happy fulnesse of tyme was come had sent his only Sonne to redeeme both Iewes and Gentils and make vs all his adopted children We grant moreouer that the freedom of mans will cannot preuaile without the speciall concurrence and help of God to any Diuine or Supernaturall work nor to the due performāce of Morall duty nor to the true loue of God with all our hart nor to the vanquishing of any one temptation nor to perseuere long without falling into sinne nor so much as dispose our selues or vse any meanes to win Gods fauour We sav with S. Berna d The endeauours of Freewill are both Ber◠l. de grat liter arbit voyd and frustrate vnles they be ayded and none at all vules they be stirred vp by him Notwithstanding we hold that as by his assistance we may accomplish many Morall good workes and ouercome any offence whatsoeuer so when he in the aboundance of his sweetest blessings calleth vpon vs and affordeth his helping hand we may likewise by the faculty of our Free-will truly consent and actiuely cooperate to our Conuersion Iuc c. 10 4. And therefore the condition of man is resembled in this case to him that descended from Ierusalem to Iericho and fell amongst theeues who robbed him of his temporall riches and maymed him in his corporall members so man by sinne is despoyled of his Supernaturall gifts wounded in his naturall powers and therin left not starke dead nor wholy aliue but halfe dead and halfe a liue aliue Maldon in c. 10. Luc. ver 30. fol. 222. Ioa. c. 11. in body dead in soule Aliue as Maldonate well noteth out of the ancient Fathers because he had remorse of Conscience and liberty of Free-will dead because he lay buried in the sepulcher of sinne out of which he could not rise vnlesse it pleased our Sauiour Christ to call and say Lazarus come forth Vnlesse he by the Oyle of his mercy and Wine of his precious bloud healed the wounded refreshed the languishing not restored the perished powers of our soule all naturall faculties remayning after sinne Thom. 1. 2. quest 85. Dionys c. 4. de diuinominib Concilium 〈…〉 c. 1. Tridentinum ses 6. cap. 1. whole and vncorrupted as the Deuines proue out of S. Dionyse So that Free-will was not vtterly lost as M. Fulke aboue contended but lesse able to worke not enthralled but maymed not altogether bound but vehemently inclined to the corruption of vice It was as the sacred Arausican and Tridentine Councells define Non extinctum sed attenuatum Not extinguished but weakned and diminished yet being moued and strengthened by our Lord it is full able to accept or reiect his offered grace Wherein we haue the voice of God on our side not darkely deliuered in any particuler place but often and many waies perspicuously vttered by the Prophets Apostles and by the heauenly mouth of his beloued Sonne 5.
the gift of God It is not of him that runneth but of Fulke vbi supra Vvhitaker loco citato 1. Cor. 2. v. 14. ad Phil. 2. God who hath mercy on vs. He maketh vs willing to imbrace it he as M. Whitaker argueth out of S. Paul teacheth vs to vnderstand the things of God by him the will and deed is wrought in vs but not without the concurrence of our Free-will especially it being a vitall act which cannot be produced but by a liuely and vitall faculty Also I confesse that without God we can do nothing We can not speake we cannot moue we cannot liue yet with Act. 17. ver 28. his generall concourse we speake we moue and liue In ipso viuimus mouemur sumus So without the speciall helpe of Gods grace we can neither performe nor as much as thinke any worke of piety with it we can and doe atchieue many vertuous deeds His Grace destroyeth not but perfiteth awaketh cherisheth and reuiueth the liberty of our will For which cause S. Augustine saith Aug. tom 3. de spir litt c. 30. Aug. tom 7. de pecca mer remis l. 2. c. 18. Doe we euacuate Free-will by Grace God forbid But we rather establish it Likewise We ought not to so defend Grace that we may seeme to take away Free-will as the Manichies and our Protestants doe nor so maintaine Free-will that we be iudged through proud impiety vngratfull to Gods Grace as the Pelagians were but we ought to ioyne both togeather giue the preheminence in euery action to Gods Grace 28. After this sort we read the same actions which in way of our conuersion are ascribed vnto God to be attributed also vnto man To God King Dauid praied Psal 50. 12. Ezech. 18. 31. 1. Cor. 12. v. 6 Phil. 2. 12. Psal 84. 5. Eccies 17. 22. Psal 118. 59. Psal 118. 38. Psal 118. 112. White § 40. disgres 42. fol. 282. 1. Cor. 4. 7. Create a cleane hart in me ô God and renew a right spirit in my bowels To man Ezechiel said Make to your selnes a new hart and a new spirit Of God S. Paul writeth All in things he doth worke of Man with seare and trembling worke your saluation To God the Royall Prophet crieth out Conuert vs ô God our Sauiour To man King Salomon saith Returne vnto our Lord forsake thy sinnes And of himself King Dauid writeth I haue conuerted and turned my steppes to thy Commandements To God he prayeth Incline ô Lord my hart vnto thy lawes And of himselfe he witnesseth I haue inclined my hart to keepe thy Lawes 29. But if this be true saith M. White when the Apostle demandeth who hath seperated thee what hast thou which thou hast not receiued I may answere I haue seperated my selfe by doing that which was in my selfe to doe No Syr we can not make any such reply because we being fast asleepe in the lethargie of sin it is God only who first stirreth awaketh reuiueth vs it is he who after cooperateth and concurreth with vs it is he who supporteth and strengthneth vs he finally who accomplisheth and putteth in executional our blessed desyres Therefore from him we receiue and to him as the originall fountaine we ascribe whatsoeuer good there is in vs. In so much as there is no worke ordained to the attaining of euerlasting life to which we affirme not the grace of God many wayes necessary 30. First it is necessary for God to moue inspire and apply our thoughts to the good intended which the Deuines Psal 58. 11. Rom. 8. 16. Psal 69. v. 1. ad Rom. 8. 26. Ibid. 28 call his exciting or preuenting Grace whereof King Dauid spake Misericordia eius praeâ—eniet me His mercy shall goe before me And S. Paul It is not of the willer nor of the runner but of God that sheweth mercy Secondly it is necessary that God assist and helpe vs voluntarily imbracing his holy inspirations this is called his aiding or concomitant Grace whereby he accompanieth and cooperateth with vs when we yeald to his calling the free assent of our will This King Dauid implored saying Incline vnto my ayde ô God â— Lord make hast to helpe me Of this S. Paul speaketh The spirit helpeth our infirmity Agayne To them that loue God all thinges cooperate vnto good And this together with the former is souÌ„dly proued and fitly explained by S. Iohn in the Apocalips I stand at the doore and knocke If any man shall heare my voyce and open the gate I will enter into him c. To stand knocke at the doore of our harts is the office of Gods preuenting exciting or illuminating Grace to open the dore is both the worke of man worke of God Mans it is in giuing his free consent and concurring to the opening of his heart Gods in that he supporteth worketh and helpeth him also to open Apoca. 3. 20. the same by his cooperating Grace 31. To these many adde a third Grace distinct from the former which they call a Subsequent or following Grace mentioned by King Dauid His mercy also will follow me by S. Psal 22. 26. August in Enchi c. 32. Fulgâ—n l. 1. ad Monimâ—m c. 9. Conc. Trid. ses 6. 26. Augustine Fulgentius and by the generall Councell of Trent The diuine vertue or influence of grace deriued froÌ„ Christ our head goeth before accompanieth and followeth all our good workes The prerogatiue of this last Grace is to affoard oportunity of executing the good we intended before which is a greate benefit by reason that thereby our desyres are longer continued more inflamed perfitted and increased These three Graces are necessary for euery one be he iust be he sinner to the due accomplishment of pious vertuous and supernaturall workes The first God is said to worke In vs without vs that is without our free and deliberate consent The second In vs with vs because he cooperateth worketh with vs freely consenting to his heauenly motions The third In vs by vs to wit putting by vs as his free-working instruments our holy purposes in execution 32. Thus then I may conclude against M. Fulke and all our Protestants with the same words which S. Augustine vpon vide Aug. l. de gra l. arb c. 16. â— 17. Vasquiâ— in 1. 1. Disput 185. c. 6. Aug. l. de gra l. arb c. 9. Aug. de natu gra c. 33. the like occasions vsed against the Manichies Not because the Apostle saith It is God that worketh in you both to will and performe must we thinke he taketh away Free-will For if it were so then would not he a little before haue willed them to worke their owne saluation with feare and trembling For when they be commanded to worke their Free-will is called vpon but with trembling and feare is added least by attributing their well-doing to themselues they might be proud of their good deedes as
with him it doth so inded yet imperfectly rawly in part only Answere directly for shame Is that raw imperfect duety such as it fulfilleth the law so far forth as it obligeth vnder sinne or no What say you Are you mute dare you not speake TheÌ„ iudgemeÌ„t passeth against you that eyther it fulfilleth not the obligation sinne is inuolued in the duety and that so deeply as the dutifull action is of it owne nature according to you a true deuiation breach of the Commandment or it satisfieth the whole baÌ„d of the law and so it is coÌ„taminated with no touch of sinne in respect of that obligatioÌ„ It is a pure good vndefiled action it is the full accomplishment of whatsoeuer the law in that kind exacted the only sentence we expect from your mouth Againe though sinne be not implyed in the duty yet the duety in their phantasticall iudgment is stayned with the sinne but euery action which is stayned with sinne is necessarily sinneful Basil serm 2 de Bapâ—â— 7. 8. Chrys or the author vpon the imperfect work of 8. Matthew S Thom. 1. 2. q. 18. art 4 ad â— q 19. art 7. ad 3. whence soeuer the sinne proceedeth as S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Thomas with all the Schoole-men conformably teach For as that which is endewed with whitenes must needs be white from what cause soeuer the whitenes coÌ„meth whether from the naturall propriety and conditioÌ„ of the thing as in a Swan or from the outward act and industry of man as in a white-limed wall So if the duety we performe be polluted with sinne our dutye is sinfull from whence soeuer the sinne ariseth whether from the inward hart or outward obiect casuall necessity or accidentall condition of man 8. I may weary my selfe in skirmishing so long with such feeble aduersaries and wounding them thus in so many places Therefore I retire inflicting for a farewell this last and deadly stroake in true Syllogisticall Dionys de diuin nom c. 4. par 4. Greg. Niss hom 2. in Cant. orat cated c. 5. Basil bom 9. â—oan Damas l. 2. de fiâ—e c. 4. Aug. l. 2. de lib arbr c. vlt. l. 12 de ciuit â— 1 3. 7. Fuig de fide ad Peter c. 21. Auselm o. per. de praese praed c. â— manner Euery action euery duety which is deficient and bereaued eyther of due conuersion to God conformity to reason or of such moral rectitude as by precept binding vnder mortall sinne ought to be in it is a mortall crime and true preuarication of the Law But euery action euery duty we acheiue is according to Protestants deficient and bereaued of that conuersion rectitude or conformity as by precept binding vnder mortall sinne ought to be in it Therefore euery action euery duty we accomplish is according to them a deadly cryme a true bâ—each and preuarication of the law The Maior proposition is the ruled definition of sinne agreed vpon by the best Deuines who either affi me it to be a priuation of good with S. Dionysius Areopagita S. Gregory Nissen S. Basil and S. Iohn Damascene oâ—an alienation an auersion from the law of God with S. Augustine Fulgen us or a want absence and defect of rectitude with S. Anselme or a desertion a straying from vertue with S. Basil againe Nicetus or lastly a deflection a deuiation from the square of Basil in coÌ„stit Mon. Nicet in orat 40. Nazian q. insanct Baptism â— Thom â— 2. q. 71. art 1. â— â— con Gent. c. 7. reason or supreme rule of all actions with S. Thomas and the whole troupe of his followers 9. The Minor that our duety is deficient bereaued of the good fayling of that rectitude or perfection of vertue which ought to be in it is auowed by our Aduersaryes when they contend that it is not answerable and correspondent to the whole taske or amercement the Law exacteth vnder the fine of sinne or forfeiture of disobedience therefore the forementioned conclusion rightly inferred from these two premises is vndeniable And wheras some thinke to get away with their loose reply that although the dutyes they performe be in themselues breaches of the law yet those breaches are pardoned Another obiection vnansweâ—ed not imputed to the elect these men by seeking to get out lap themselues faster in their owne inextricabe neâ—s for no sinne is to be attempted no breach of the law can be lawfully incurred that God may after pardon forgiue the fault that he may not impute the transgression of his law Murder is pardoned Adultery is not imputed in their conceit to the beleeuing Protestant may they therefore be committed because they shal be forgiuen O malicious presumption O presumptuous malice For beare then yee Sectaryes forbeare your duetyes to God your alleagiance to your Prince forbeare your raw and imperfect obseruations of al diuine and human laws or els reuoke your calumnyes abiure your heresies that all vertuous deeds are bespotted with the staynes of vice THE SECOND CHAPTER IN WHICH The same is warranted by the Fathers the obiections answered the vnuoluntary motions of Concupiscence discharged of sinne FOVRE notable thinges are deliuered by the Doctors of the Church to shew the falsity of the former calumniation First they auouch our good Hier. l. â— aduers Pelag Augu. de spir lit c. vlti Greg. l. 2. moral c. 8. works to be free from the spots of defilement S. Hierome S. Augustine S. Gregory and S. Bernard in the places heere quoted in the margent SecoÌ„dly they affirme them to iustfy vs before God by true increase and augmentation of inherent iustice to which purpose I haue alleadged many in the controuersy of iustification by workes Thirdly they inculcate that some heroicall Bern. l. de praecep dispens acts are so pure and acceptable to God as they purge clense vs from al dregs from all remaynes of former defaults yea they are so worthy and meritorious as they do not only purchase an increase of grace in this life but a great crowne of glory in the next as Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Origen and S. Cyprian affirme of the dignity of Martyrdom whose sentences are set downe in the question of merit Fourthly they teach that not only the workes of some holy men but that they also themselues Hier. l â—3 cont Pela August de pec mer. remis l. 2 c. 6. Ambr. de na gra c. 3. In eodem l. c. 67. Orig. l. 1. in Iob. Cent. 3. c. 4. col 78. Lact. l. 6. cap. 25. Cent. 4. c. 4. col 192. In eodem l. c 25. Theod. q 19. in Gen Cent. 5 c. 10. col 1008. Hier. l. 4. comm in Ezech. Cent. 4. â— 10. col 1249. may befor a tyme innocent and cleane from all impurity We teach that a man may if he will not sinne c. S. Hierome A man may if he will be without
ep 29. iudged be found vniust and scant For vniust it is meted with the iustice which is wholy infinit scant in comparison of that Likewise when he sayth That our iustice is right but not pure c. for how can it be pure iustice where fault as yet cannot be wanting he denyeth it to be pure he sayth fault cannot be wanting because it is most commonly conioyned with veniall defaults which although they hinder not the true nature and perfection of iustice yet they darken the luster and brightnes thereof and are lyable to the seuerity of Gods heauy punishment Whereupon S. Augustine Wo be to the laudable life of a man if it be examined without mercy To the other passage of this renowned Doctour where he affirmeth most perfect charity which cannot be increased is to be found in no man in this life we grant it to be true This clause which followeth And as long as it may be increased that which is lesse then it tought to be is of vice of which vice it proceedeth that there is no man who doth good and doth not sinne is to be vnderstood not of formall vice or faulty sinne but of that which is an infirmity weaknes and defect of nature from whence it groweth that there is no man who doth alwayes good and neuer sinneth at least venially sometyme Thus S. Augustine interpreteth August ibid. himselfe a litle before saying Who therefore is without some vice that is without some fomite or as it were root of sinne After which manner I haue shewed aboue in the second Chapter of Concupiscence that not only he but Vlpianus Aug. in l. de perfect iusti◠c. 15. Pliny and Cicero vse the name vitium vice for any defect either in nature or act In the same sense S. Augustine taketh the word peccatum in his booke of the perfection of iustice where he hath these wordes It is a sinne when eyther that Charity is not which ought to be or lesse then it ought to be Otherwise August de spir lit c. vlt. he would haue crossed and contradicted what he auouched before in his booke de spiritu litera That if our loue of God in this life be not so great as is due to his full and perfect knowledg it is not culpae deputandum to be imputed to any fault By sinne then in the former place S. Augustine meaneth a defect only or falling from the brimme of perfection yet no culpable sin So also many prophane writers vse the Plautus in Baceb Si vnam peccauisses syllabam Tull. 2. Tusc Quod in eo ipso peccet cuius profitetur scientiam 1. Ioan. 1. v. 8. Iac. 3. v. 3. August tract 1. epist Ioan. l. de nat gra a. c. 36 38. word peccare to sin for erring and doing amisse in any act or faculty as Plautus sayth If thou hadst fayled in one sillable and Tully If a Grammarian shall speake rudely or he that would be counted a Musitiā sing out of tune he is the more to be blamed quod in eo ipso peccet that he erreth or cōmitteth a banger in the thing it selfe whereof he professeth the skill To Origen to S. Hierome and to the rest of S. Augustine and S. Bernard which Protestants obiect I neede not frame any particuler reply The three last generall answers to the Texts of Scripture sweep all the dust away which they deceiptfully gather out of these or any other of the Fathers writings 4. Lastly it is obiected If we shall say that we haue no sinne we seduce our selues and the truth is not in vs. Likewise In many things we offend all I answere both these places are vnderstood of veniall sinnes as S. Augustine expoundeth them which often creep into the purest actions we do and from which we are seldome or neuer wholy free yet they distayne not the purity of our vertuous actions they are not intermingled with the morall bonity therof but extrinsecally accompany it abating the cleare beames of our soule without defyling the pure action whose adherents they are an assertion manifest amongst Deuines August ep 29. 50. l. de virg cap. 48. 49. l. 4. cont 2. ep Pelag. c. 10. Bonau 3. distinct 3. part dub 1. which Protestants conceauing not run into diuers and those pernicious absurdityes Secondly S. Iohn is interpreted also by S. Augustine of the fomite of sinne which euery man hath how perfect soeuer he be yet he doth not meane that that fomite is properly sinne but materially or the effect or cause of sinne which interpretation of S. Iohns words S. Bonauenture imbraceth and addeth a third exposition that S. Iohn doth not teach no man to be at any tyme without sinne but that no man can say to wit assuredly affirme without reuelatiō that he hath no sinne wherein Lyranus and Hugo Cardinalis agree with him but Caietam vnderstandeth S. Iohn of no sinne neyther actually committed nor originally contracted heertofore This no man the Virgin Mary only excepted as hath beene els where declared can auouch without seduction of his hart without he make God a lyar who sent his beloued Sonne into the world to cleanse vs from our sinnes 5. I proceed therefore to the third Caluinian dotage that all first motions or prouocations to euill are truly sinnes albeit we vanquish them which I haue heere refuted in the Controuersy and second Chapter of Originall sinne and somewhat touched in the Controuersy of Free-wil where I haue shewed that S. Augustine accounteth it a meere madnes and such a barbarical phrensy Seneca l. de mor. Aug. tom 7. l. de na gra ◠67. that man assaulted with temptations should sinne against his will as he sayth the very Poets sheepheards learned and vnlearned yea al the world doth witnes it to be false Seneca a heathen could write Away with all excuse no man sinneth against his will And It deserueth no prayse not to do which do thou caust not But S. Augustine agayne shal decide this matter with a sentence able to seale vp the mouths of Protestant Ministers and quyet the harts of all faythful Christians Whatsoeuer cause quoth he there be of the will impelling it to offend if it cannot be resisted it is yielded vnto Idem tom 4. in expos quarun propos prop. 17. Tom. 7. cont Pela l. 2. circa finem Chry. cited by S. Iohn Damas q. 2. phrall c. 27. Eccles 5. v. 2. c. 18. v. 30. without sin but if it may let it not be yielded vnto there shal be no sinnne committed What doth it perchance deceaue a man vnawars Let him therefore be wary that he may not be deceaued or is the deceit so great as it cannot be auoyded If it be so the sinnes therefore are none for who doth sinne in that which can by no meanes be escaped Likewise not in the euill desire it selfe but in our consent do we sinne Moreouer In as
in their power by Gods helpe to Basil Orat in illud Attende tibi Chrys ho. 8 de poenio Aug. tom 7. denat grat c. 6â— Hier. ep ad Damas de expos Symboli keep them Therefore to quit the soueraigne goodnes from this merciles cruelty the Fathers vniformely define That it is a wicked thing to teach the Precepts of the spirit cannot be obserued S. Basil Accuse not God he hath not commanded things impossible S. Chrysostome We stedfastly beleeue God to be iust good not able to command things impossible hence we are admonished what we ought to do in things easy what to aske in things hard and difficile S. Augustine S. Hierome accurseth their blasphemy who teach any impossible things to be imposed by God vnto man Which argument hath beene handled heertofore in the CoÌ„trouersy of Free will where the Aduersaryes cauils theretunto are reiected The like impiety it were in God to cooperate with vs in such speciall manner to affoard his heauenly grace his supernaturall ayde to the keeping of his Commandments if we transgresse and sinne in keeping of them For as our August de pec mer. remis l. 2. c. 5. great Doctour S. Augustine teacheth To commit sin we are not ayded of God but to do good things or wholly fullfill the precept of iustice we cannot vnles we be ayded by God Marke heere that by the ayde of God we may not in part but wholy fullfill the precept and that in fullfilling it we do not sinne because thereunto we could not be holpen by God To which my aduersaries cannot shape their worne-out and thrid-bare reply That our obseruation our loue of God Abb cap. 4. sect 44. for example is no sinne but a good deed by acceptation For as I haue often answered God cannot accept that for good which is in it selfe naught and sinnefull but it is good in the Abbot ibid. sol 579. originall of grace from whence it proceedeth Explane your selfe a little better whether you meane it is perfectly or imperfectly good Graunt perfectly and you go on our side yield only imperfectly and you stand at the stay you were before perhaps you imagine that it springeth perfect from the fountaine of grace and after receaueth a blemish from the weaknes of flesh You imagine amisse for the same indiuiduall morall act which once is enriched with the dowry of perfection caÌ„not be after impouerished with any basenes of vice Or is it partly good as it is wrought by grace and partly euill as it runneth through the conduct of depraued nature No such matter the thing contradicteth it selfe as hath beene often signifyed neither is nature the conduct or pipe but true cause of the act in which there is not any part good assignable to grace distinct from that which is ascribed to man but the entiere action perfect or lesse perfect is wholy assigned to mans freewill wholy thereunto ayded by grace as the characters which the scholler frameth by the Maisters guiding of his hand are not seuerally drawne fayrely by one and rudely by the other but the same fayre or deformed rude or well fashioned are wholy from both Which forceth M. Abbot from that incongruous shift We Abbot cap. 4. sect 44. fol. 579. by our corruption do disgrace that which proceedeth holy and pure from God In like manner he is ferretted out of his other berry-hole That the action is good in the will and endeauour of Abbot ibid. the person by whom it is done For the will is weake the endeauour mean the person cloathed with human corruption who if he may will and endeauour that which is good then some good may proceed from a fleshly man perfect and entiere free from all spot and blemish or els the will and intendment is no better then the worke and VVhitak in his answere to the 8. reason of M. Camp VVhitah l. 8. aduers Duraum Abbot cap. 4. sect 44. fol. 578 this assignement of goodnes which you make to the will is a meere shew or treachery to cloake the badnes of your cause 2. Lastly you say although you place it not in order last that the duty we obserue is in substance good Well I am contented with this but see you recant not for heere I haue that the substance at least of louing God the substance of euery obseruation of the law which we achieue is perfect and entiere able to satisfy the will of God able to make vs acceptable vnto him Yes say they If he fauourably looke vpon it and impute not the fault but if he Abbot c. 4. sect 47. fol. 596. should strictly narrowly deale with vs he should haue iust cause of reiecting vs in the doing thereof Forbeare these ifs ands and come to the point Is the substance of the action done entierely good in it selfe or no abstracting from the fauour or dislike of God whose indulgence or seuerity VVhitak in his answere to the 8. reason of M. CampiaÌ„ being extrinsecall doth not make the substance of the worke better or worse It is not so good as it may endure the try all of the precise and perfect rule of righteousnes truth This is not the question but whether it may stand with satisfaction of his law It cannot stand with it in such full complete and absolute manner as that nothing at all may be added thereunto Neither is that the thing demanded who euer dealt with such slippery companions Must I still put you to the torture to draw out the truth My question is whether the substance of the act satisfyeth the obligation of the law Let vs heere what you say to this They answere as heertofore It is short of that which the law requireth it cannot be such VVhitak in his answere to the 8. reason of M. Câ—mplan and lib. 8. aduer DuraeuÌ„ Abbot cap. 4. fol. 60â— as it ought to be as long as the flesh lusteth against the spirit there can be no such entiere good in vs. Alwayes a man doth lesse then he ought to do I thought you would flinch from your word but I pursue you also flying The act then of louing God is substantially short of that the law requireth substantially lesse then it ought to be and not only lesse of that which ought to be by perswasion or counsaile but by precept binding to more vnder payne of morall sinne therefore the substance of this lesser act is not morally good but mortally defectuous substantially faulty a deadly sinne and true transgression of the law to which God cooperating must needs cooperate in particuler manner to the accomplishment of sinne Protestants are bound to surcease from louing praying or endeauouring to performe those mortall crimes and bound to performe them because God commandeth them as I further demonstrate by this dilemma Either God commandeth the complete perfect fullfilling of his law which Protestants teach no man in this
reason of the hatefull obiect he discouereth in them he doth so punish and abandon them as men are wont to do the thinges which they hate Thus that infinite goodnes that sea of loue hateth and reprobateth such as he foreseeth by the determination of their will Fulgen. l. 1. ad Monim iustly to deserue it otherwise he cannot possibly exercise any hatred or decree of damnation against them according to this of S. Fulgentius It is well known that the wrath Aug. l. 3. in Iulian. c. 18. of God cannot be auouched but where mans iniquity is beleeued to haue gone before And the like of S Augustine God is good God is iust he may deliuer some without good deserts because he is good he can damne no man without evill deserts because he is iust The reason is because to deliuer his elect is an act of mercy which presupposeth hath for her proper obiect Misery wherin al mankind was enwrapped by original sinne but to condemne or depute to punishment is an act of iustice which must needs argue a fault in him Fulk in c. 13 Matth. sect 2. that is punished because as S. Augustine saith God is not A reuenger before man be a sinner Therfore we conclude that he may predestinate vs independently of our merits but he cannot reprobate any without the preuision of their demerits 11. The third heresy is that God purposely intendeth Fulk in̄ ca. 6. Math. sect 5. in c. 1. ad Rom. sect 10. in cap. 11. ad Rom. sect 5. not only the eternall damnation of the wretched but their very obduration blindnes final irrepentance and other enormous crimes by which they are plunged into that hopelesse calamity God hardeneth quoth Fulke the wicked not as an euill author but as a righteous iudge not by bare permission or suffering but by with-drawing and with-holding his grace and deliuering them into their ownelust or into the deceipt of Sathan In which deliuery he graunteth an action of God as his wordes both heere and elswhere import not only to the meteriall entity wherunto we also confesse Gods generall concourse but to that formall obduration or precise formality of contempt and hardnes to which we only allow his sufferance or bare permission or els why doth he alwayes exclude this permission of ours or seeke to excuse God that he concurreth as a righteous iudge vnles he meant that God actually concurreth as a righteous iudge to the same specificall degree of willful resistance or malicious purpose of abiding in sinne to which man cooperateth as an euill actor els to what end deuiseth he that distinction that sinne is against Gods reuealed will not against his secret will vnles he speake of formall sinne for the materiall entity is not against his reuealed will but only the formall obduration or culpable blindnes therfore he supposeth that God sendeth the spirit of errour and giueth the wicked ouer to a reprobate sense by speciall concourse to the very malice it selfe of their sinfull obstinacy 12. It is also a principle of M. Fulkes that God appoynteth before hand not only the end but also the meanes by which men come to that end but the meanes of damnation Fulk in cap. 27. Act. sect 3. are finall impenitencie and other foregoing sinnes therfore they in his diuelish opinion are preordeined by God To which effect writeth of certaine Iewes who refused to imbrace the fayth of Christ forthat they neither would nor could be willing to beleeue because they were reprobate Fulk in cap. Ioan. sect 〈◊〉 making reprobation and consequently Almightie God the cause of their infidelitie willfull peruersitie aboad in sinne For whosoeuer captiueth others without their default in such a bewitching thraldome as they necessarily sinne and cannot auoide the bondage of sinne must needes be the author and cause of their sinnes but thus doth God with the reprobate he according to Fulke before any desert foreseene of theirs before he seeth the propension inclination or any concurrence at al of their will ordeineth them to destruction by his immutable counsell which cannot be repealed then supposing that vnchangeable will and ordinance irreuersible they haue not left them any power to repent or grace to belieue but they are vnauoidably chayned to the fetters of Prosper in respons ad obiec 11. vice vnauoidably carried from vice to vice therfore God O most execrable Conclusion which necessarily followeth out of these our Sectaries premisses God I say though I feare to say it is the cause and only cause of Note that it is al cne Whether God inforce or necessitate men to sinne in repect of making him author of sinne all their incestes murders other abhominable vices 13. Against which I only oppose that excellent answere of S. Prosper If to the deuill it should be obiected that he were the author he the prouoker to such villaines he might I ween acquit himselfe in some sort of that calumnie and euince their owne will to be worker of those mischiefs For though he were delighted with the furie of the delinquents yet would he proue that he * inforced them not to sinne With what follie then or with what madnes is that referred to the appoyntment of God which cannot be wholy ascribed to the deuill Who in the detestable acts of offenders is to be thought the egger on of allurenients not the causer of their wills Therfore God predestinated none of those businesses to be done nor the soule that wil liue wickedly and beastly did he prepare or prouide so to liue Thus S. Prosper you see how dissonant from M. Fulke yet Fulke was not the first broker of these atheismes for looke what he writeth in this kind he coppied Caluin l. 3. instit c. 23. sect 4. 8. out of the originall of Caluins Institutions where Caluin sayth It is not meete c. to assigne the preparing to destruction to any other thing then to the secret counsell of God The whole band of the wicked cannot comeyne nor endeauour nor do any mischiefe but so far as God permitteth but so far as he commandeth Then discoursing of Gods concurrence vnto Calu. l. 8. instit c. 17. §. 11. sinne he hath these words I speake not heere of Gods vniuersal mouing wherby as all creatures are susteyned so from thence they take their effectuall power of doing any thing I speake only of that especiall doing which appeareth in euery speciall act In another place If the blindnes and mades of Achab be the iudgement of God then the deuise of bare sufferance is in vaine A litle after Calu. l. 2. Instit c. 4. 2. Calu. l. 1. Inst c. 18. §. 1. auouching That God blindeth the eyes of men striketh them with giddines maketh them drunke with the spirit of drowsines casteth them into madnes hardneth their hartes he immediatly addeth These things also many doe referr to sufferance as if forsaking the reprobate he suffred
them to be blinded by Sathan but that solution is too fonde Lastly he concludeth Now I haue shewed plainly inough that God is the author of all those things Calu. in the same place §. 2 Calu. l. 1. Inst c. 18. §. 3. which these iudges would haue to happen only by his idle sufferance You read his words you discouer no doubt the rancour of his hart who disgorgeth such hatred against his creators goodnes which he laboureth to excuse in the same fashion as Fulke is wont that God doth all this as a righteous iudge iustly punishing the wicked with their vngracious blindnes 14. But the Iustice of his person the puritie of his intention as I haue already proued can no way acquit him if his fact be wholy the same with the euill actors Greg. Nyssen l. 7. philos c. 1. For it is not lawfull sayth S. Gregoric Nissen to ascribe vnto God actions dishonest and vniust because the iniquitie and faultines of sinne must needes attend those sinfull actions which the impeccable Piety according to our aduersaries purposeth commandeth and freely executeth not by any generall but by a particular and speciall influence not by bare permission but by actuall concurrence to the very naughty deeds and workes of miscreants Therfore Castalio another principal protestant singularly praysed by Humfred de rat interpret l. 1. pag. 26. Castal in l. aduer Calu. de praedest Doctor Humfrey so much detesteth those diabolical phrēsies of Fulke and Caluin as he affirmeth them to frame the Idoll of a false God directly opposite to our true and soueraigne God Peruse his words The false God to wit Caluins Idoll is slow to merc prone to anger who hath created the greatest part of men to destruction and hath predestinated them not only to damnation but also to the cause of damnation therfore he hath decreed from all eternity and he will haue it so and bringeth to passe that they necessarily sinne So that neyther theftes nor murders nor adulteries are committed but by his constraint and impulsion For he suggesteth vnto men euill and dishonest affections not only by permission sed efficaciter but effectually that is by forcing such affections vpon them and doth harden them in such sort that when they doe euill they do rather the worke of God then their owne he maketh God a lyar So that now not the deuill but the God of Caluin is the father of lyes howbeyt that God which the holy Scriptures describe is altogether contrarie to this God of Caluin c. And a little after For the true God came to destroy the worke of that Caluinian God these two Gods as they are by nature repugnant one to the other so they beget and bring forth children of contrarie dispositions that is to say the vide literas Senat. Bern ad minist c. 1555. God of Caluin children without mercy proud c. Hitherto Castalio a famous Sacramentarie For this cause the Protestant Magistrates of Berna strictly prohibited the preaching of that Caluinian and dānable doctrine throughout their Territories and forbad their people by penal statutes to read any such of his books as conteyned that matter 15. Besides Caluin doth not only attribute vnto God the lewd actions of the wicked but the very deformitie of their faults the malice of their hartes pernicious proiect of their intentions For to these we only assigne the Permission of God yet he acknowledgeth him author of al those things which we say fall out meerly by his sufferance Therfore in them he hath his hand as deeply as the very actors themselues Yea he accounteth the bare sufferance of God in these cases vaine and idle But who vnlesse he were more mischieuous then Sathan would euer hold it a vanity Aug. l. 12. de ciuit dei c. 7. Aug. ep 105. tract 53 in Ioan. Idem l. de pred grat l. de gra llb. arb c. 23 and idlenes not to concurre to sinne For sinne hath no efficient but a deficient cause as S. Augustine well noteth neither is it any action but a defection Then the same renowned Doctor expressly teacheth that God doth not hardē by imparting malice but by not affoarding mercy And so God blindeth so he hardneth by forsaking not by ayding God quoth he is said to indurate him whome he will not mollify to deceiue whome he suffereth to be seduced to blind whome he will not illuminate to repell whome he will not call When you heare I the Lord deceiued that Prophet and whome he will he hardeneth consider his deserts whome he suffred so to be hardened and seduced Aug. ep 89. q. 2. Chrysost in cap. 1. ad Roman Damascen l. 4. c. 20. de fid ortho dox And interpreting that place Lead vs not into temptation Suffer vs not sayeth he by for saking to be lead into temptation S. Chrysostome he deliuered into a reprobate sense is nothing els but he permitted S. Iohn Damascene It is the manner of holy scripture to cal the permissiō of God his act Behold the solutiō which Caluin stileth so idle and fond a deuise Not only the fathers the scriptures themselues doe free almighty God and attribute vnto man his obstinacy and blindnes as Let no man say when he is tempted that he is tempted of God for God is not a tempter of euils and he tempteth no man Gentiles haue giuen Iac. l. 1. 13. Epes 4. v. 19. Ro. 2. v. 4. vp themselues to wantonnes The benignitie of God bringeth thee to pennance but according to thy hardnes and impenitent hart thou heapest to thy selfe wrath God exhorteth vs not to obdurate our harts This day if yee shall heare the voice of our Lord harden not your hartes Why do you harden your hartes as Aegypt and Psal 49. ◠1. Reg. 6 6. Pharao hardened their hart But of this more hereafter in the answer to our aduersaries cheife obiections 16. The fourth heresy lapped in the wrincles of the Caluin l. 2. institut c. 3 sect 10. two last before mentioned is that God hath not a will to saue all neither doth he giue to euery man sufficient grace for his saluation An heresy plainly repugnant to these places of Scripture God will all men to be saued and come to the knowledge of truth Our Lord is not willing that any perish but that al returne to pennance to which end he vseth these generall 1. ad Timoth 2. 4. 2. Pet. 3. 9. Ezechiel 33. Prouerb 1. 22. 23. Matt. 11. 2. 8. Cassian collat 13. c. 7. Chrysost hom 1. al Ephesios Aug. l. 1. de Gen. cont Manich. c. 3. in psal 45. Cyprian l. 3. ep 8. ad Fidum Prosper l. 2. de vocat gent. c. 16. exhortations to all sinners Conuert conuert yee from your most euil wayes and why will yee dye O house of Israel O children how longe do you loue infamy c. turne yee at my correption
Come yee to me all that labour c. that is al that are burdened with any kind of sinne as Cassianus excellently interpreteth it which apparently sheweth that God hath a true antecedent primacy and conditionall will wherby he desireth the saluation of all both men and Angells giueth them also grace to which if they cooperate as they should he is ready to procure their future happines and haue an effectuall will to saue them God sayth S. Chrysostome doth much desire and couet the saluation of vs of those men also whome for sinne he damneth S. Augustine All men if they will may beleeue may turne from the loue of visible and temporall things and keepe the commandements because that light to wit the grace of God illuminateth euery man that cometh into this world Likewise he prouideth aqually for all God saith S. Cyprian as he accepteth no person so no age for asmuch as to the attaining of heauenly grace he yeldeth himselfe with euen-ballanced equality a like to all And S. Prosper Gods helpe by innumerable meanes eyther hidden or manifest is affoarded vnto all and that many refuse it it is attributed to their owne fault 17. The fifth heresie not distinctly vttered but perniciously inuolued in the precedent is that which derogateth from the vniuersality of Christs death and passion For as God in Protestants opinion will not haue all men saued so Christ according 〈◊〉 them dyed not for all but only for his elect We by the warrant of holy scripture constantly teach that how be it euery one doth not truly and effectually participate the benefit of Christs death yet that he offred a sufficient ransone for the full redemption of mankind by which he pacified the wrath of his eternall Father and obteyned whatsoeuer helps were necessary in his behalfe for the remission of their sinnes and perfect reconciliation vnto him Therfore the Apostle calleth him the Sauiour of al men especially of the faithfull Of all men disbursing a price sufficient to defray the whole debt of sinne especially of the faithfull because they 1. Tim. 4. 10. are effectually also ransomed and saued therby Likewise There is one God one also mediatour of God and men Man Christ Iesus who gaue himselfe a redemption for al. Moreouer Christ died 1. Tim. 2. 5. for all And lastly he is the propitiation for our sinnes and not for ours only but also for the whole worlds S. Irenaeus Our Lord hath restored vs into freindship by his incarnation being made the 2. Cor. 5. 15. 1. Ioan 2. 2. Iron lib. 5. c. 17. Ambros ser 8. in Psal 118. mediatour of God and men propitiating truly his Father for all Which S. Ambrose most perspicuously auerreth The earth is full of the mercy of our Lord because to all men is giuen remission of sinnes Vpon all the Sunne is commaunded to rise and this Sunne indeed ariseth dayly vpon all but that mysticall Sunne of Iustice arose vnto all came for all suffered for all and rose agayne for al and if any man beleeue not in Christ be defraudeth himselfe of the generall benefit as if a man shutting the window exclude the beames of the Sunne the Sunne did not therfore not rise vnto all because he defrauded himselfe of the heate therof but as much as pertayneth to the Sunne he keepeth his prerogatiue it is the imprudent mans fault Aug. tract 92. in Ioâ—â— to debarr himselfe the comfort of the common light S. Augustine Christ shed his blood for the remission of all mens sinnes and so died for the saluation of all S. Prosper We haue laboured to proue that Prosper l. 2. de vocat gent. c. vlt. the grace of God is at hand or ready for all with equall prouidence truly and generall goodnes but by diuers meanes and vnequall measure because eyther hiddenly or manifestly he is as the Apostle sayth the Sauiour of all men and cheifly of the faithfull c. For affirming that he is the Sauiour of all men he hath approued the goodnes of God to be generall ouer all sortes of men but adding â— ad Tim. especially of the faithfull he sheweth that there is some part of mankind which by merit of faith inspired by God is by speciall benefits promoted to high and eternall saluation THE SECOND CHAPTER IN WHICH Some other Heresies are comprehended and our Sectaries cheife obiections fully answered THE Sixt Heresy cleerly auouched by Fulk in ca. 9. ad Rom. sect 2. in cap. Ioan. sect 3. in 9. ad Rom. sect 7. in cap. 27. Act. sect 3. in cap. 12 Ioan sect 3. Aug. lib. 1. de lib. arâ— c. 1. Idem lib. 6. contra Fortunat Manich disput 1. Idem lib. ver relig c. 14. M. Fulke is the deniall of free will in the Reprobate saying The reprobate haue their will free but from coaction to sinne it is thrall and slaue bound to sinne and not free Pharao had his will free from constraint but yet slaue to sinne Whence it followeth that the ProtestaÌ„ts God is not only tyrannical in punishing without default and vniust in causing the impenitency of the faithfull as hath bin shewed before but so wicked also as he only perpetrateth sinne not the sinners themselues Not they because we sinne not as S. Augustine teacheth but by freewil Likewise He that is forced by necessity to do any thing doth not sinne And then Man consented by his will to the persuasion of the peruerse Angell For if he had done it by necessity he had not bin guilty of sinne but the reprobate are bouud by necessity to the thraldome of sinne therfore they commit no sinne at all Secondly no man is faulty by doing that which is not in his power to shunne or decline For who saith the same S. Augustine offendeth Aug. lib. 3. de lib. arb cap. 18. in that which can by no meanes be auoided but the reprobate according to you cannot auoide the slauery of sinne nor any way decline alter or resist the decree of Gods reprobation so absolutely enacted by him as it dependeth no more of mans will then the forme which the potter giueth to the clay dependeth vpon the will of the clay which it hath not Therfore they are vnblameably carried by the necessity of sinne and consequently do not sinne but your sinfull God is the sole worker of sinne who only concurreth freely to sinne as the potter is the sole cause that the vessel is framed crooked or straight For when two causes cooperate to the same effect one necessary another free a mad man for example with a man in his right wits sinne is neuer attributed to the cause which necessarily but only to that which freely worketh not to the mad and crazed but to the sound and perfect man 2. So in this present because the reprobate necessarily offend and God only moueth persuadeth freely and actiuely contriueth both the euill intention and self deformity of sinne to him alone and
his law Caluin l. â— inst c. 8. § â— A demaund which so straggered Caluin as he replieth We conceaue not how God in diuers manner willeth and willeth not one selfe thinge I beleeue indeed he could not conceaue it nor can any wit conceaue that which is vncoÌ„ceauable viz. that the same immutable and simple will should striue with it selfe or faigne to forbid which it consaileth and decreeth For concerning the will of God reuealed in his word which is as you define manifestly against sinne either there is a true will in him correspondent thereunto and so he inwardly hateth which he outwardly prohibiteth or els he faigneth dissembleth or at least equiuocateth with vs in his reuealed will Equiuocation I thinke you allow not in God who so passionately censure it in his oppressed seruants dissimulation ought much lesse to be ascribed vnto him whose truth is alwaies constant and fidelity inuiolable But howsoeuer you make sinne discordant from the reuealed will as long as you affirme it agreable to the determination and secret will of God which is his inward immutable and substantiall will you cause sinne it selfe to be no sinne which implieth contradiction and that Protestantes may lawfully without offence perpetrate thefts murders adulteries and all kind of sinnes For the will of God is the inerrable square and supreme rule of all actions Therfore whosoeuer leuelleth his thoughts and deedes according to his will cannot stray or decline into fault or errour But euery protestant by committing sinne conformeth himselfe to the determination and secret will of God no Protestant then S. Thomas 1. 2. q. 19. art 9. 10. Durand l. 1. distinct 48. q. 2. swarueth from his duty or offendeth his Maiesty by incurring theftes murders adulteries or any other sinnes Yf they answere that sinne is against his reuealed will and therefore they offend although it be not against his secret wil That answere fitteth not their purpose For Gods true secret and substantiall will intimated vnto them is the right patterne by which all actions must be drawne Wherefore if sinne be fashioned and squared to that it must needes be streight regular or according to rule and consequently no sinne no offence to God For this cause Abraham sinned not in offering to sacrifice his sonne nor Gen. 22. Exod. 11. Osee 1. the people of Israel spoyling the Aegyptians nor Osee the Prophet taking a wife of fornications and begetting children of fornications nay they all pleased God herein because they directed their actions according to the leuell of his secret and hidden will made knowne vnto them in those particuler cases although they did against his generall reuealed will in forbidding murder thefts and fornication Wherfore if Protestants by sinning follow the direction of Gods determinatioÌ„ if they do nothing against his secret will they cannot be guilty of fault albeit they transgresse his reuealed wil which is only an outward token or signe of his will 9. Neuerthelesse I proue that sinne accordeth also with his will reuealed vnto Protestants For they pretend to know that the secret will of God determineth and purposeth sinne that it is not against sinne But how Fulke in the place aboue cited do they know this will to be such It is secret they cannot pierce vnto it by themselues God must disclose it he must reueale vnto it by them That reuelation whatsoeuer it be by which he manifesteth this mystery is his reuealed will which being the faithfull messenger proposer and interpreter of his secret sinne is not against it Therefore in them it is neither against his secret nor reuealed will Nor by that Atheisticall Sophisme any sinne but a regular and laudable action Contrariwise when God dissuadeth prohibiteth and condemneth sinne either he doth it in earnest or in iest If in earnest he secretly disliketh that which he forbiddeth and so sinne is also repugnant to his secret will repugnant to his determination and hidden counsailes if in iest his dissuasions are but mockeries his threats buggs to terrify babes his iudgements not to be feared Then trudge on in your sinful courses imbrace the liberty of your Epicurean ghospell wallow freely in the mudd of Vice ioyne hand with Atheists there is no God to punish your iniquities 10. The aduersary by this tyme surfetteth with the glott of his blasphemous heresies let vs now view the daynty morsells which gorged him so full They were Rom. 9. 18. Rom. 1. 26. Exod. 7. 8. 9. Ioa. 12. 40. Prouerb 16. 4. Rom 9. 17. Ephes 3. 11. these heauenly viands of holy Scriptures venomed with the corruption of some Marcion or Manichean sause viz. That God hath mercy on whome he will and whome he will he doth indurate God hath deliuered them into passions of ignominy our Lord hath hardened the hart of Pharao he hath blinded their eyes and indurated their hart that they may not see He made al things for himselfe euen the wicked man vnto the euill day To this purpose haue I raised thee that in thee I may shew my power He worketh all things according to the counsaile of his will I answere Those former things God is said to do first by sufferance and permission because foreseeing the euent of their malice Vasques in 1 part to 1 disâ—ut 55 cap. 10. Exod. 8. 15. he hindreth it not but leaueth them to their owne vnnaturall desires Secondly by subtraction of Grace which somtime he iustly taketh from them vpon their desert Thirdly by working miracles preaching the truth or achieuing some other good by which they take occasion to grudge murmur rage and peruersly withstand his holy will wherupon it is writteÌ„ of Pharao that Ibid p. 32. ca. 9. v. 7. 35. he indurated his owne hart himselfe And in the same chapter vers 32. where the latin readeth Pharao's hart was hardened the Hebrew saith Pharao hardened his hart this tyme also so in the 9. chapter vers 7 the Hebrew readeth Pharaos hart hardened it self Again vers 35. he hardened his owne hart he his seruants Of others S. Paul saith they haue giuen vp themselues to impudicity which because they actually effected the like as Caluin misinferreth cannot therby be concluded of God For that which with verity of faith according to S. Augustins rule may not be ascribed Aug. de doct Chri l 3. cap 10. Aug. l. 13. de trin ca. 12. Tertul. l. aduer Her mog Fulgen l. 1. ad Monim â— 13. EpiphaÌ„ haeres 66. Rupert in c. 9. Exod. Chrysost hom 16. in c. 9. ad Ro. Tulit multa cum lenitate volens ipsum ad paenitenâ—iam adducere c. qui fi seruatus minimâ— fuit rei totius culpa ab illius animo accidit Rupertus in eum locuÌ„ Exod. vnto him ought to be expounded some other way Therfore he himselfe interpreteth the foresaid sentences by way of permission saying The manner by which man is deliuered vp into the power of the Diuell ought not so
When soeuer such proportion is kept in recompensing the labours we achieue as to greater labours greater crownes to lesser lesser rewards are alloted Thē the crownes and rewards are giuen in respect of the workes done not as signes and conditions but truly according to the merit of our labours as causes of the rewardes But this proportion is obserued by our Soueraigne Iudge in remunerating the good deedes of the Iust which flow from his grace Therefore he rewardeth them not as signes but as causes of our heauenly blisse according to the worthines of their merit The maior is cleere for what other then the dignity of the worke doth God regard in ballancing the measure of them The worthines of Christs merits imputed by faith that is not our owne labour not the thinges we do in our body for which we must receaue eyther good or euill as the Apostle writeth that doth not dignify one aboue another but equally as hath beene sayd is referred to al. The promise which God maketh vnto vs If God had his eye leuelled at that alone it were as much broken in a little as in a greater as faythfully kept in recōpensing a small as in a weighty matter Therein he looketh not to the greatnes of our endeauours but to the fidelity of his owne word in fulfilling whereof the equality of recompensation the proportion of workes the repayment of seruice the reward of labours cannot be as the Scriptures so often insinuate the principall markes aymed at by God Further our vertues are rewarded as worthy of their hire but the promise of God begetteth not any worthines or dignity in our workes more then of themselues belong vnto them For as our Schoolemen teach He that shall Gab. Vasq in 1. 2. tom 2. disp 214 cap. 5. others ibid. in q. 114. D. Tho. promise a Lordship or Dukedome in behalfe of some meane seruice or peece of money of small value doth not thereby enhaunce the price of the coyne or estimate of his obsequious seruice but the estate which is giuen in lieu of that plighted faith although it require the performance of the seruice or payment of the money as conditions necessary to oblige him that promised yet it doth as much exceed the rate of the one and desert of the other as if no promise had beene no couenaunt made at all Moreouer the Deuines proue that if God should threaten to punish with eternall paine an officious lye or other light offence that sinne should not mount thereby to the heynousnes of a mortall crime nor be worthy of more punishment then of his owne nature it deserueth wherefore if the commination and threatning of greater torments then sinnes of themselues require doth not augment the guiltines of their default or change a small sinne into the enormity of a greater neither can the promise of aboundant remuneration increase the dignity of our workes to which it is promised nor the remuneration it selfe be called a reward weighed forth as S. Gregory Greg. Na. orat in san Bap. extrema Nazianzen affirmeth in the iust and euen ballance of God nor equally imparted according to our labours as the Holy Ghost often pronounceth but a free gift liberally giuen through the gratefulnes and fidelity of the giuer vnles besides the promise some worthines or value in our works be acknowledged to which an agreable reward be correspondently assigned 6. The Minor that God obserueth due proportion in 2. ad Cor. 9. v. 6. Clem. Alex. l. 4. strom Matth. 10. v. 4. recompensing our seruice more or lesse conformably to the diligence or slacknes thereof is also manifest by the sundry textes already quoted That euery one shall receaue accordinge to his owne labour And by this of Saint Paul He that soweth sparingly sparingly also shall reape and he that soweth in blessinges of blessinges also shall reape Which Clemens Alexandrinus also gathereth out of these wordes of S. Matthew He that receaueth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receaue the reward of a Prophet and he that receaueth a iust man in the name of a iust man shall receaue the rewards of a iust man both receaue rewards yet not both the same but seuerall and vnequall according to the seuerall sanctity of their persons and inequality of their merits whome they receaue Hence the conclusion of my Syllogisme without checke or controle is ineuitably inferred That seeing Almighty God portioneth forth a greater or lesser share of glory answerable to the greatnes or slendernes of our workes as the hire wages or reward of them he truly remunerateth our pious endeauours not as sequells of faith not as meere gifts of grace but as precedent causes or condigne desertes of eternall life Which when our aduersaries gainsay they make our soueraigne God an accept our of persons and not a iust and vpright iudge quit contrary to these texts of holy writ 2. ad Timoth. 4. v. 8. ad Rom. 2. v. 11. 1. Pet. 1. v. 17. Act. 10. v. 34. For acception of persons is a vice directly opposite to distributiue iustice as when a Iudge bestoweth a reward where there is no precedent merit or when he giueth a more large reward then the dignity of the merit in any sort deserueth But God truly recompenseth the labours of his seruants and recompenseth them with due proportion of greater and lesser reward therefore he either presupposeth in thē the diuersity of merits or he violateth Aug. ep 46. ad Valent the lawes of distributiue iustice In so much as S. Augustin◠might well say If there be no merits how shall God iudge the world For take away them and take away Iustice take away iudgement take away that article of our Creed that Christ shall come to iudge the quicke and the dead 7. Another Argument or Enthymeme I frame in this sort The sinnes and euill workes of the reprobate are not eternally punished eyther because they are signes of their infidelity or by reason of Gods commination and threates which he promulgateth of punishing them with euerlasting torments But for that they be of themselues the true cause of damnation merit Gods wrath be iniurious and offensiue to his infinite goodnes Therefore the vertuous actes and good deedes of the elect which flow from the streames of heauenly grace are not only recompensed as fruites of faith or in regard of Gods promise made to reward them but because they be true and proper causes thereof because they be pleasing and acceptable in his sight and do deseruedly purchase and merit his fauour The consequence is inferred out of the words of Christ who attributeth after the same manner and with the same causall propositions the crowne of heauen to the pious workes of the iust as he doth the punishment of hell to the hard and vnmercifull hartes of sinners saying Come yee blessed of my Father possesse yee the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I