Apostle The Law saith he saith sinne not at all and thou needest not at all feare not the graue but hell the prison appointed for the punishment of sinne and fulfill all righteousnesse and thou needest not to doubt of thy comming to heauen where righteousnesse dwelleth and raigneth for euer But the righteousnes performed for vs by Christ obtained by faith saith No more doubt of thine ascension into heauen then of Christs ascension nor of thy deliuerance from hell then of Christs deliuerance seeing whatsoeuer Christ hath done he hath done it for them that are vnited vnto him by a true faith and thereby haue full interest both in his sufferings and in his righteousnesse which he hath endured and performed for them Now then let me demand of any faithfull man what greater assurance he can haue of his ascension into heauen then the ascension of Christ who ascended thither there to prepare a place for all his as he himselfe plainely testifieth Ioh 14. 2. So vpon the like consequence may it also be demaunded what greater assurance can a faithfull man haue for his deliuerance from hell then this that Christ being in hell before the grand executioner of the Lords vengeance for sinne in the prison that was ordayned for those debtors that were no way able to make satisfaction that Christ I say that was made sinne for vs and our surety and a debter in our roome was deliuered from thence what stronger assurance I say can there possibly be to all the faithfull for the cleare discharge of all their debts and the full satisfaction for all their sinnes and their most certaine deliuerance both from the place and also from all the torments of hell Verily that reuerend man Mr. Perkins is of this iudgement as he hath deliuered in the exposition of the Creed that there cannot be any stronger euidence giuen vnto the faithfull to assure them of their deliuerance from hell then this that Iesus the Sonne of the Virgin Mary that went downe into the place of the damned returned after this death from thence to liue in all heauenly happinesse for euer Obiect 1. But saith he I cannot be of that opinion that Christ locally in soule descended into hell seeing the Euangelists who set downe the whole history of his sufferings and actions make no mention of any such thing Solut. I might answere that whereas an history is a relation of things visible and seene therefore as Moses in the history of the creation made no mention of the creation of Angels being a thing not to be seene so the Euangelists in the history of the redemption might make no mention of the locall descending of the soule of Christ into hell and yet both these are most certaine truths But we may rather resolue that both our Sauiour Christ being well witting to the weaknesse of the faith of his dearest seruants would not omit the performance of that action that he knew to be most auaileable to the confirmation thereof nor the Prophets Apostles and Euangelists the relation of the same in their Canonicall writings For doth not the Prophet Dauid making mention of Christs resurrection auouch that his soule was not left in hell the receptacle of soules as well as that his body was not left in the graue being the place appointed for bodies subiect to corruption And doth not the Apostle Saint Peter teaching the same truth alleadge the same place of the Psalmist for the confirmation thereof Psal 16. 10. Act. 2. 27. For albeit it belongeth to the body properly to arise yet that there may be a resurrection of any dead person from death to life the soule departed must also be brought from the place whither it was before conueyed and placed againe in the body or else there can be no resurrection thereof to life Wherefore the Apostle to proue the truth of our Sauiours resurrection sheweth out of the Prophet that as his body was raised out of the place of corruption so his soule was not left in hell but brought backe againe from thence that his resurrection might be wrought thereby For Nephesh properly and principally signifying the soule why should it not be so taken in this place where there Analogum per se positum flat pro famosiori significatione is nothing to restraine it to a signification that is lesse proper And specially seeing the Apostle Saint Peter who well knew the meaning of the Prophet and was to expound him in a plaine manner for all the New Testament is but a plainer explication of the doctrines that were before deliuered more darkly in the Old interpreteth Nephesh not by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is not by person body or dead body but by soule Act. 2. 27. Obiect 2. But it is auouched that Christs soule was presently vpon his death carried vp into heauen and therefore could not descend into hell because Christ saith to the penitent theife To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luc. 23. 43. Solut. I answere that our Creed teacheth vs that Christ dyed and then when he was dead and his soule was departed out of his Body what became of them both viz. that his Body was buried and that his soule descended into hell And now must this plaine Article be inuerted both in words and in sense and we willed to belieue that at that very time he ascended into heauen when our Creed saith that he descended into hell But some will say doth not our Sauiour say to the thiefe To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise With me therefore with my soule How followeth that The inference rather should be this With me therefore with my Diuine Nature Seeing the principall Denominatio sequitur principalem partem part giueth the name and not the lesse principall And especially whereas concerning the humane nature of Christ he himselfe after this time wherein these words were spoken testifyeth saying I haue not as yet ascended to my Father Ioh. 20. 17. Moreouer how should our blessed Sauiour haue so fitly parallel'd his type Ionah who was both in body and soule in the belly of the Whale if he had not beene after the same manner as well in soule as in body in the belly of hell and in the bowels of the earth Matth. 12. 40. Obiect 3. Now if it be further obiected that our Sauiour needed not in soule to descend into hell seeing all things belonging to mans saluation were finished by him when he hanged on the Crosse Solut. the answere is that when our blessed Sauiour spake these words all things are finished all his very sufferings were not then ended For he was not then dead nor buried nor had continued three dayes and three nights in the bowels of the earth in the state of a dead man Besides the circumstance of the place doth plainly conuince that
our blessed Sauiours meaning in these words was that all things were foretold by the Prophets that should be done vnto the Messiah before his death were done vnto him and so finished excepting this one They gaue me gall to eate and when I was thirsty they gaue me vineger to drinke and therefore that this Prophesie might also be fulfilled he said I thirst Whereupon when they had giuen him vineger mingled with gall and hee had tasted thereof he said All things are finished that is all things that were to be done to the Messiah before his death euen all these things saith our blessed Sauiour are done now to me And verily it is most euident and plaine that the principall drift and scope of the Euangelists is to demonstrate and to make euident that all things that were foretold by all the Prophets concerning the true Messiah were fulfilled in our most blessed Sauiour Iesus Christ Ioh. 20. 31. and therefore that he was the true Messiah QVEST. XXI Fasting or any outward thing doth not sanctifie any but onely the inward graces of the Spâ—rit and all such things as do enter into the heart of man That which goeth into the mouth defileth not the man but Arguments drawne from the subiect Matth. 15. 11. that which commeth out of the mouth defileth the man For whatsoeuer goeth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught but those things that come out of the mouth proceed from the heart and they defile a man For out of the heart proceed euill thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witnessing slanders and the like and these are the things that defile a man Hence we thus reason that as meates doe not defile a man because they enter not into the soule but sinnes that enter in and dwell there and there contriue all their euill designes so meates nor any other such outward thing doth sanctifie the heart because they enter not in there but onely the diuine graces of Gods Spirit and the spirituall meanes appointed by God for the effecting of these holy and heauenly graces QVEST. XXII There is no such place appointed to the faithfull after this life as Purgatory is saiâ— to be The faithfull are pilgrimes here in this world and haue 2 Cor 5. 6. heauen for their home and countrey whether they come when their pilgrimage here in this world with their liues commeth to an end they passe not then from hence to Purgatory but to Heauen as it may appeare by the history of Lazarus and Luke 16. 22 23 43. of the penitent thiefe And of the comfortable assurance hereof are all the faithfull partakers as the Apostle testifieth speaking in the name of them all and saying Wee know that if our 2 Cor. 5 1. earthly house of this Tabernacle be destroyed we haue a building Heb. 11. 10. giuen of God that is not an house made with hands but eternall in heauen And verily our most blessed Sauiour at his departure out of this world ascended vp into heauen there to prepare a place for all the faithfull For he did not this for the Apostles Ioh. 14. 2. onely as he prayed not for them alone but also for all such as should beleeue in him through their word Where he further Ioh. 17. 20. testifieth that his will was that they all should be with him euen where he himselfe is and that they might see his glory which cannot be meant but of the place of glory QVEST. XXIII Our blessed Sauiour is not corporally present in the Eucharist but in Heauen When some of our Sauiours owne Disciples were offended at those words of his Except ye eat the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his bloud yee haue no life in you thinking that he had spoken of a grosse and carnall eating of his flesh with their bodily mouthes Iesus said vnto them Doth this offend you what then if yee should see the Sonne of man ascend vp where Ioh. 6. 62. he was before By which words he gaue them to vnderstand that his carrying of his body at his Ascension into Heauen would teach them if they were Eagles with the mouthes of faith to mount vp thither and there to feed vpon him with the Luke 17. 37. mouthes of their mindes and not to dreame of a grosse and carnall feeding vpon his flesh with their bodily mouthes So reasoneth Saint Austin when ye shall see the Sonne of man Aug. in Ioh. tract 27. ascending were he was before then verily ye shall perceiue that he giueth not his body to be eaten after that manner as yee conceiue Then verily ye shall vnderstand that the grace of Christ is not consumed by chewing it in the mouth So likewise Athâ—n in illud quicu quâ— dixerit vâ—rbum c. Athanasius saith that Christ for this end warned them of his ascension into Heauen that he might draw them from thinking vpon his Body and that they might thereby learne that the flesh which he spake of was a caelestiall meat from aboue and a spirituall nourishment to be giuen by him The words which I speake vnto you are spirit and life the which saith he is as much as if he had said This Body which is in your sight and is to be deliuered to death for the world shall be giuen you for meat that it may be spiritually distributed to euery one of you and be an assurance and a preseruatiue to raise you vp to eternall life QVEST. XXIIII The Citie of Rome is the mysticall Babylon and the pretended titulary Romane Church is the most certaine seate of the great Antichrist of these last times The Apostle Saint Iohn describing in her colours that Babylon Apoc. 17. 18. which was to be the certaine seat of the great Antichrist of these last times auoucheth in plaine words that it is the very Citie that in his time raigned ouer the Kings of the earth the which was the Citie of Rome The truth whereof is so euident that our Rhemists themselues in their notes vpon that Chapter doe subscribe thereunto but they thinke to helpe the matter by excepting that Rome was Babylon vnder the gouernment of the persecuting Emperours but that exception will not serue their turne for by the plaine censure of Saint Iohn Rome must be the Royall Seat of the great Antichrist of these last times Wherefore they except in the second place that albeit the great Antichrist of these last times shall sit at Rome yet he may sit there in the Princes throne and not in the Priests chaire But Chrysostome precisely affirmeth that Antichrist shall Chrysost in 2. Ep ad Thess cap. 2. take vpon him the Empire both of God and men and therefore shall sit in the Priests chaire as well as in the Princes throne And so it was signified by his two bornes like to the Lambes Apoc. 13. 11. and so it is claimed by themselues by their
God that maketh him to will or to worke for then God should not be the first mouer and the first cause of all things but therefore he willeth Rom. 9. 19. because he willeth And yet farre be it from any Religious heart to thinke that the most wise God willeth any thing without good and sufficient reason or that he speaketh any thing idlely or in vaine The Word of the Lord is the Fountaine Eccles 1. 5. of Wisedome and therefore openeth all Divine truthes by their right and proper reasons And all the workes of God are done in number weight and measure he hath giuen to euery severall creature according to it's kinde it 's seuerall nature with properties qualities fitted thereunto And he hath ordained euery thing to cōsist of such such causes faculties powers as were best agreeing to such such things most powerfull to enable them to produce such and such effects for the producing whereof they were ordained by God The which causes and effects powers and faculties qualities and properties when they are found out then there is a right knowledge of the things themselues Now what are causes and effects powers qualities and the like but reasons and arguments whereby all things are made open and manifest and so are rightly apprehended and knowne Looke we into the sacred Scriptures and we may see therein how the Lord doth lay open vnto his people the mysteries of godlinesse yea euen that great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh being the principall subiect of those divine bookes by assigning his efficient cause God the Father Matth. 3. 17. and his Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary the daughter of David the King Luk. 1. 31. His materiall causes his Divine and humane Natures Matth. 1. 23. His formall cause the vniting of his humane nature by personall vnion vnto his divine Ioh. 1. 14. his finall cause the working out of mans redemption Gal. ◠4. His effects our reconciliation to God Ephe. 2. 18. with our deliuerance out of the bondage of sinne and Satan and our translation into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God Ioh. 8. 36. His attributes according to his Divine nature infinite wisedome holinesse righteousnesse and the like Col. 2. 3. and according to his humane nature such a measure of all divine and heauenly graces as are farre aboue the perfections of any other creatures Ioh 1. 19. The time when he was borne euen when the Scepter was taken away from Iudah and all regall authority was in the hands of strangers Luc. 2. 1. The place where he was borne Bethlehem Matth. 2. 5. The place whither he fled into banishment Aegypt Matth. 2. 13. The place where he was brought vp Naezareth Matth. 2. 23. The places where he liued preached wrought his miracles and dyed Galile Samaria Iury and Ierusalem Luc. 13. 24. The place where his body was laid after his death a Sepulcher that was in a Garden wherein neuer any body was laid before Ioh. 14. 42. The place whither he ascended after his resurrection and where he sitteth at the right hand of God and from whence he shall come to iudge both quicke and dead the highest Heauens Act. 2. 32. Diuers things from him all creatures in their defects and imperfections Ioh. 1. 23. Things like vnto him all creatures in their good properties and gifts Gen. 1. 26. especially typicall persons as Melchisedecke Heb. 6. 2. Isaack Gen. 17. 16. Sampson Iud. 16. 30. Ionah Matth. 12. 40. and all the high Priests Heb. 9 9. Typicall things the brasen Serpent Ioh. 3. 14. The mercy seat Hebr. 4. 16. Especially the Sacraments both of the Old and New Testaments 1 Cor 10. 4. His description Heb. 1. 2. His distribution by his Propheticall Priestly and Kingly offices set down in the greater part of that Epistle the interpretation of hi◠Name Iesus a Sauiour Matth. 1. 21. Of his Name Christ annointed Cant 1. 2. Of his Name Emmanuel God with vs Matth. 1. 23. His Conjugates a Sauiour bringing saluation to all that are saued Act. 4. 14. His testimonies of God the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost 1 Ioh. 5. 7. Of the Angels Luk 2. 11. Of all the Prophets Act. 10. 4e And of his greatest enemies euen the Diuels themselues Matth. 8. 23. The principall parts of the Word of God are the Law and 2 Cor. 4. 2. Gospel both of which are grounded vpon the evidence of reason and truth Law saith Cicero is the higest reason The Cic. l. 1. de leg which if it be true of the wise Lawes made by wise men much more is it true of the most wise and righteous Lawes made by Deut. 4. 8. the most wise and righteous God And verily it is the reason of the Law that is the life of the Law and bindeth the conscience to yeeld obedience For if the Law be contrary to reason it bindeth such as are subiect thereunto onely to endure the penalty thereof and not to performe the thing therein commanded For as Tertullian saith if a Law will not be tryed Tert. in Apol. Quod ad omnes attinet ab oinnibus debet approbari it is iustly suspected and if it being not tryed and approued yet is forced vpon any it is wicked seeing no Law doth owe to it selfe the iustifying of the equity thereof but to them of whom it doth require obedience And therefore wise and moderate Princes doe vse to call together a generall assembly of all the States and Commons of their Kingdomes that vpon iust causes and reasons duely weighed and examined both hurtfull Lawes may he taken away and holsome Statutes enacted for the generall good of their Kingdomes and Countries The which Statutes when they are published are many times set forth barely without their reasons least happily they might grow into too great a Volume But it is not so with the Lawes of God especially with those of the first Table for they haue sundry reasons adioyned to them as lights to make manifest the aequity of them and as Orators to perswade obedience thereunto And verily there was great reason why it should be so seeing by the fall of Adam the true knowledge of them is greatly defaced in all his posterity Whereas the Lawes of the second Table which concerne our duty towards our neighbour are for the most part barely deliuered because they are knowne by their owne light and that to the most barbarous people that liue on the face of the whole earth As it may appeare by the History of the West-Indinas who are reported presently to haue approued and embraced the aequity of those Lawes when they were at the first proposed vnto them And yet behold how behoouefull it is euen for the faithfull themselues to haue many reasons set downe before their eyes for the procuring of ready obedience to be yeelded euen vnto these commandements in that the Spirit of God hath caused the Prophets and
was impossible Secondly he proveth it by the testimony of those that saw and handled his wounds that were made in his body both before and after his death Thirdly he proueth it by the effect of Christs sufferings and death which was a full satisfaction for sinne and an abolishing of death and therefore an introduction of a Resurrection For â—…dent that holy Scripture giuen by diuine inspiration is able by such sufficient arguments and reasons in all the mysteries of piety and godlinesse to teach truth and to convince errour 2 Tim. 3. 15. that the man of God may be made thereby wise to saluation by faith in Christ that is that the sincere and sound Christian the true seruant of God may obtaine a wise faith and so may be saued Yea that a professor of any Religion should voluntarily confesse that the points of his profession cannot be iustified by reason but must be taken for truthes without such proofes as be without exception argueth a foolish and a blinde sophister rather then a wise and a sound discourser for to require and begge that things most controversed and wholly doubted of should be allowed of by the adversary and taken Petitio principij for vndoubted truthes is no better then to vse a grosse sophisticall fallacy It is reported prophane Gallen thus to haue censured our great Prophet Moses This man saith many things but proueth nothing As the Atheists of these our last and worst times haue beene bold to auouch that our Christian Faith is voide of all wisedome and reason For so they auouch that Ratio suadet fides fallet credere quam fidere prudens mallet But the truth is that there is more sound waighty reason in the very three first Chapters of the first booke of Moses then in all Gallen's large volumnes as there is more true wisedome and reason in the doctrines of the Christian Faith set downe in the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles then all the Atheists yea then all the very wisest men in the whole world are able to apprehend So that we may most truely auouch of our Christian Faith Ratio suadet fides compellet fidere quam vivere prudens vellet Sound reason doth perswade but true Faith will compell To such as hold faith fast lost life for it is well As it is euident in many thousand Martyres who by the most powerfull and prevailing reasons of the Gospell being setled in the Faith willingly endured the losse of their temporall goods and liues in defence of their holy and Christian profession Wherefore to conclude this quaestion seeing whatsoeuer things were written afore-time were written for our learning Rom. 15. 4. Deut. 29. 29. and are reuealed for vs and for our children for euer all wise hearted Christians may hence learne not onely to search out the bare and naked Doctrines of faith and godlinesse but also the reasons whereon they are grounded For they must not be still babes feeding vpon milke and standing in need to be Heb. 5. 12. taught the principles of the Catechisme but they must desire to be able to receiue meate meete for men and to digest strong foode They must not be still as Lambes wading in Ezek 47. 5. Psa 119. 129. the shallow places of the Riuer of the water of Life but they must be as Elephants endeauouring to diue into the deepest profundities thereof that so they may be rauished with the wonders of Gods Law For we may see an end of all perfection but the Lords Commandements are exceeding large For albeit we happily may so fully apprehend the learned discourses that be made by humane Authors that we may write nil ultra there is nothing in them that we haue not found out yet when we haue laboured to the vttermost of our power and that all the dayes of our liues to finde out the right sense of euery sentence of holy Scripture we may sit downe in the ende and write plus ultra that is that there is a farre deeper Ps 119. 96. profundity therein then the short Cables of our weake wits are any way able to reach to the bottome thereof Yea if it were possible that we had gained so much knowledge as the Apostle had which was rapt vp into the third heauen Phil. 3. 8. yet if we will follow him we must labour still to know Christ and the vertue of his resurrection and the fellowship of his afflictions that thereby we may be more and more conformable vnto his death For vnto the fulnesse thereof we haue not as yet attained neither are we already perfect And therefore we must after a sort forget that which is past and endeauour our selues to that which is before follow hard towards the marke that at the last euen in the last end of our liues wee may apprehend that for whose sake we our selues were apprehended of Christ Iesus And thus haue we deliuered the means whereby Faith is begotten and confirmed now we are to proceed to the definition and description thereof CHAP. IIII. Saving Faith is Diuine wisedome or a certaine knowledge and a setled assent and adhaerence to all Diuine verities necessary to saluation and especially to the covenant of grace as to the meanes of our highest happinesse and our chiefest good FAith saith the Apostle is the full assurance of our vnderstanding Col. 2. 2. and knowledge in the mysterie of God euen the Father and of Christ which bringeth with it all spirituall riches and therefore causeth the faithfull to esteeme of it as of the meanes of their highest happinesse and chiefest good And againe Faith is such an excellent knowledge of Christ Iesus our Lord that maketh the faithfull to esteeme all other things as dung in respect thereof which giueth them such an assurance of their iustification glorification through Christ Phil. 3. 8. that the high price thereof is the marke that they aime at in all their indeauours This pretious Faith as Saint Peter calleth it hath two 2 Pet. 1. 1. singular effects issuing out of the same which are sanctification began in this life and an assurance of a full glorification in the life to come The which because they are the certaine signes and markes of a true faith therefore the Apostle in diuers places doth describe it by the same True Faith saith the Apostle is a gift proper to Gods Elect consisting in such Tit. 1. 1. a knowledge of the truth which is according to godlinesse And that we may know by what diuine truth in particular faith breedeth godlinesse the Apostle hath set it downe elsewhere saying We all behold as in a mirrour the glory of the 2 Cor. 3. 18. Lord with open face and are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. We all saith he that are indued with the eye of faith behold in Christ the mirrour and miracle of the Lords matchlesse
nay neither can he dye any Rom. 6. 9. more therefore he cannot be offered any more as an expiatory sacrifice for sinne Wherefore in that the Masse-Priests doe still presumptuously vndertake to offer vp Christ as an expiatory sacrifice for sinne what doe they therein but as much as in them lyeth murder and slay Christ againe and shed his pretious bloud and greatly derogate from the dignity of that sacrifice that he himselfe did offer at his death QVEST. XXX Christs flesh is not eaten with our bodily mouthes The pretended eating of Christs flesh with our bodily mouthes by the members of the Romish Synagogue is impious and wicked against Piety Religion and nature it selfe causing our Christian faith to be scorned and abhorred of the Heathen and therefore it was neuer intended much lesse commanded and commended by our Lord himselfe Our Sacrament saith Cyrill doth not command the eating of a man Cyr. ad obiect Theodor. drawing the minds of the faithfull to grosse conceits after an irreligious manner for as concerning these words of our Sauiour Christ Except ye eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his bloud yee haue no life in you Saint Austin affirmeth Aug de doct Christ l. 3. c. 16. that seeing there seemeth therein an impiety to be commanded therefore they are not to be vnderstood literally but mystically and spiritually And verily the grosse mistaking of these words by the Church of Rome hath caused some of the heathen to condemne Christians of more barbarous impiety and inhumanity then was vsed in the impious and inhumane Anthropophagi for that they did eate but the flesh of ordinary men whereas the other pretend that they eat the very flesh of their God QVEST. XXXI Enoch and Elias cannot come in their owne persons to resist Antichrist and to be slaine of him Enoch and Elias cannot be slaine of Antichrist seeing their bodies be glorified and therefore immortall and not subiect vnto death And if they should assume other bodies then were they not the same persons because they had not the same essentiall parts Moreouer if a soule may assume diuers bodies with which of them shall she be vnited at the day of the generall resurrection QVEST. XXXII It is a property onely belonging to God to forgiue sinne When Iesus said to the sicke of the palsie Sonne thy sinnes Mar. 2. 5. are forgiuen thee and some of the Scribes sitting there did thus reason in their hearts Why doth this man speake blasphemies who can forgiue sinne but God alone He perceiuing that they thus reasoned in themselues said vnto them Whether is it easier to say to the sicke of the Palsey Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee or to say Arise take vp thy bed and walke Whereby he gaue them to vnderstand that by a word to cure both the sicknesses of the soule and the body was a property belonging to one and the selfe-same power euen to God And therefore that seeing he did make it appeare euen to their outward senses that by his word he did cure the diseases of the body they should haue acknowledged his diuine power whereby he was also able to cure the sinnes of the soule For as Chrysostome and Hillary teach our Sauiour in these Chrysost in Matth. Hom. 30. Hillar in Mat. cap. 9. words did not confute their opinion that God onely can forgiue sinnes but proueth vnto them by his manner of curing of bodily diseases that he himselfe was God and therefore did in no wise blaspheme when he tooke vpon him to pardon sinne Wherefote seeing by this censure of our blessed Sauiour it belongeth to the selfe-same power to cure the sickenesse both of body and soule therefore seeing that neither the Pope by his Indulgences nor his Priests by their Masses can cure the diseases of the bodies much lesse can they cure thereby the sinnes of the soules seeing that also is a greater and an harder Cure QVEST. XXXIII Regeneration is not wrought by the power of our owne free will but by the operation of the Spirit of God As many as receiued him to them he gaue this dignity to bee Arguments drawne from things that be diuers Ioh. 1. 3. the Sonnes of God Euen to them that beleeued in his Name which were borne not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God By the which manifold denyall of the power of mans will to be of any actiuity of it selfe in the worke of regeneration our blessed Sauiour would giue vs to vnderstand that he is too too wilfull that will yet contradict the same And how doth our free-will helpe to bring vs to God seeing as our Sauiour testifieth No man commeth Ioh. 6. 44. vnto him vnlesse he be drawne Now if we must be drawne when we are brought vnto God what forwardnesse and freenesse is there in our selues Surely as Austin saith Christ therefore vttered these words that Aug. in Enchir cap. 32. we should be perswaded that there is no free-will or merit in our selues for who is drawen or forced if he be willing The truth is yet saith he that no man commeth to Christ vnlesse he be willing but he is wrought vpon by a strange manner by him that knoweth how to worke within men euen in their very hearts not that they should beleeue against their will which is impossible but that they being by nature of themselues vnwilling should by his grace and by the operation of his Spirit be made willing For it is Gods grace that doth preuent vs and of vnwilling maketh vs willing and afterward doth assist vs when wee are willing least wee will in vaine Vndoubtedly in the performance of euery good work done by vs we our selues both will and worke but this wee doe not of our selues for it is God that worketh in vs both the will Phil. 2. 13. and the deede and that also of his owne good will For if we take any good worke in hand It is God saith the Apostle that Phil. 1. 6. beginneth the same in vs and it is he also that doth finish the same Wherefore seeing when we are first called to the estate of grace we are vnwilling to yeeld thereunto our will then of it selfe doth not further the worke of the Spirit of God in our Regeneration vntill it be first altered and changed by God QVEST. XXXIV None are elected for their fore-seene workes It is not of him that willeth saith the Apostle nor of him Rom. 9. 16. that runneth viz. that he is elected to eternall life but of God that taketh morcy For so God saith to Moses I will haue mercy on him to whom I will shew mercy and I will haue compassion on him on whom I will shew compassion And this the Apostle further sheweth by the Lords different kind of dealing with Iacob and Esau being borne at the same time and of the same parents For before they were borne