see what this holy Apostle of christ Iesus thought touching this poynt of mans meriting And I pray you marke how firmely the learned Fathers of the church cleaue vnto the same doctrine My first place out of Paule was that wee are saued not by c. And Saint Ierom one whom your church highly reuerenceth writeth in this manner Hier lib 1 ad Pelag Then are wee iust when wee confesse our selues to be sinners And our iustice consisteth not of our owne merit but of Gods mercy Heere this holy father in the matter of iustification reiecteth with S. Paule all our owne merit and referreth the same wholly to Gods mercy My second place out of the Apostle was that the Wages of sinne is death but the guift of GOD is eternall life through c. Origene one of the most auncient Fathers of the church in exposition of these very words of Paule saith thus Origen in ep ad Ro ca 4 lib 4 The apostle saith that the wages of sin is death but he added not said likewise the wages of iustice is eternall life but he sayeth eternall life is the gratious guift of God to teach vs that wages which is like to debt and reward is a recompence of pun shment and death and to assigne eternall life to grace onely Thus you heare this reuerent father expoundeth Paule that our wickednes iustly meriteth condemnation but that the ballaunce wanteth waight the other way and that our best deedes merite not saluation which is assigned to grace only and if only to grace then are all our workes absolutely excluded in that busines My last place out of paule was The sufferings c. Answerable to this sayeth Saint Barnard on this manner Now concerning eternal life we know the sufferings of this life are not worthy of the glory to come Barn in Anunt Mariae Serm. 1 no not if one man should suffer all heere this deuout and religious father remoueth all doubt touching the former doctrine by a forcible supposition on this manner Admit that the afflictions and persecutions of Paule of Peter of Iames and all the Apostles that the paine and torments of the Primitiue Church and of those fiue and twenty Byshops which successiuely were martyred for the name of Iesus And that all the tortures and sufferings of all the Saints of God in allages from the death of Abell to the last drop of blood that euer shal be shed vpon the earth for the testimony of the Lords truth were laide vppon one man to beare and that it were possible for him onely to vnder go the paines torments and tortures that they all indured yet were the glorye of eternall life to rich a guerdon for those his sufferinges hee coulde not merite heauen thereby for the infinite iustice of God must haue a greater satisfaction This was the holy fathers censure hereupon No not saith he if one man should suffer all Now let me reason with you by an inuincible and familiar argument if the suffrings of Paule or of anye of these holy martyres whose continuall persecutions and torments were insteed of many deaths vnto them Nay if all their paines tortures and deaths ioyned together would not make vp a desert answearable to the meed of euerlasting glory It must needes followe that your deeds and sufferings which cary no neerer a proportion with the other then your span doth with the spatiousnes of the whole earth can merit no such matter and shall neuer for any desert they are of come home so rewarded No no you must not look for such an inrichment after such a reckoning but rather saye with the same Saint Barnard Serm 1 anunt Mar whom your selues confes to be one of the sweetest queresters in the Lords quier What are all our merits to so great glory The gardens of all the Fathers of the Church are thicke set with these flowers they all of them teach if true vnderstood the selfe same doctrine Thus you heare then what the Scriptures and Fathers haue deliuere touching our iustification how they referre the same wholy to the mercy and grace of God in the righteousnesse of Christ Iesus and shake off our owne merits as hauing no hand in that worke nor worthinesse in that degree to be trusted vnto But fearing least you are made beleeue that the Scriptures as we read them are false and the Fathers as we vse to alledge them but wrested as what will not falshood affirme to discountenance the trueth or error be ashamed to say for her owne shelter I will yet attempt another meane which I assure my selfe will cool and am in good hope vtterly extinguishe that your conceit of merritting and it shal be by making knowne vnto you the wonderfull inconuenience you incurre and the dangerous premunire that your soule runs into by holding your workes in such estimation There are two principall vertues whereby our grations God vouchsafeth to manifest himself to the know ledge of his seruants vpon the earth and wherin it pleaseth his diuine omnipotency to be delighted and they are his mercy and his Iustice There are likewise 2. principall offices which our mercifull Sauiour daigned to vndertake for our sakes whereby the fauour of God which our old notorious pranke had estranged is regaind vnto vs and thorough the blessed means whereof we are not onely become gratious with him in this world but haue assurance of his sight and the happye fruition of eternall felicity in the worlde to come and those are his redeemershippe and mediatorshippe and I pray you what will you thinke of your Religion if the same nay if one branch thereof among twenty as rotten as it selfe if this onely point of attributing merit to your workes in the act of your iustification doeth impaire and manifestly obscure the dignitie of these excellent proprieties of God his mercie and his Iustice and withall disparage and apparantly detract from the Worthynesse of Christ his merite in that his redeemershippe and mediatourshippe if your religion I say be guilty of such heinous treason against the diuine Maiesty will you not then iudge it your securest course to abandon her daungerous fellowship and embrace insteed therof for your comfort true christianity of whome you shall be sure to learne nothing but true faith and true obedience to your heauenly Soueraigne In discouery hereof it is behoouefull for you to conceiue that as the essence of God is infinite and perfect so these proprieties of God his mercy and Iustice because they are essentiall in him must likewise of necessity be perfect and infinite which being graunted doeth not euery opinion that shall intimate defect or insufficiency therein impaire as I saide and manifestly obscure the dignity thereof you cannot denie but it doth neither shall you euer be able substantially to cleere your doctrine of merites from this high and perillous imputation For looke how much you attribute to your owne merits in the purchase of saluation So
their birth immediately vpon the Apostles death but some of them sprang vp two hundred some three hundred some fiue hundred years after some sooner some later and were not al til within this very age euen the memory of men now liuing by your selus consented vnto nor absolutely by your owne vsurped authority concluded vpon Hence may you easily gather your religion being neither sufficiently waranted by authority of Gods word nor generally approued by the ancient fathers of the church how woorthily or vnworthily you stile the same with such confidence the old and catholicke religion I cannot go on with particular examination of euery part of your profession your patience and my leisure being I fear proportionable wil not permit me but do beg your attētion to the consideration of one principal point of doctrine generally taught by your greatest clarks as generally beleeued euen to the simplest amongst you whose stomackes indeed are the best digesters of such misdiet because at the hands of ignorance errour euer findeth her securest entertainment I formerlye in discourse of our Religion affirmed that our whole dependance for our saluation was vpon the free mercy of God through christ Iesus And the righteousnesse of christ without any worke or merit of our owne applyed truely by faith was before God our only iustification contrary to this doctrin you are taught and do beleeue that you shall be saued by your workes or at least that your workes must concur and stand vp with faith in the act of your iustification before God Now to make you see and acknowledge the absurdity and preiudice of this opinion first you shall heare what the Apostle himselfe inspired with the holy spirit and the fathers of the church hauing the same diuine scholmaister though instructed in farre different measure haue thought and deliuered touching the same and then som principal inconueniences that necessarily follow that doctrine pregnant and aparant enough I hope vtterly to deterre you from euer lending a listening eare againe thereunto Titus 3 5 Paule that writ more touching the manner of our iustification then all the rest of the Apostles to make his Scholler Titus and others by him to abandon all hope of being saued by their works telleth him plainely We are saued not by workes of righteousnesse which we haue done but acording to his mercy he saued vs Heere he excludeth workes though they be works of righteousnes though they be our best works and ascribeth all the matter of our saluation meerely to the mercy of God through Iesus christ I am sure there is no worke that you or the holiest of your church whatsoeuer can do that is a better worke more meritorious a worke of purer righteousnesse then the workes of Paule were No they hold in no comparison with his for his workes as yours doe not sprang from a liuely faith which made them so good as they were notwithstanding you see he vtterly renounceth them all how good soeuer and dare you in any sort rest vpon yours in this important matter of iustification The said Apostle laboring to win the Romaines to the same faith readeth them this lecture to the same effect Ro. 6 23 The wages of sinne is death but the guift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our sauiour Heere you are plainly told what are the causes of going to hell and comming to heauen The desert of man the cause of damnation but the mercy of God the cause of saluation our sinne doth incur the one for the reward of sinne is death but our best deserts merit not the other for eternal life is meerly the guift of God through Iesus Christ had Paule that learned Apostle in this point approued the doctrine of your church thus questionlesse or to this effect he would haue concluded the reward of sinne is death and the reward of good workes is eternall life but you see hee quite ouerthroweth that opinion leauing vs of our selues to deserue the one but ascribing the other to Gods free guifte in Christ beyond our desert But if neither of these places haue power to remoue you from your former opinion giue me leaue to produce one saying more out of the same authour which I assure my selfe so you ponder it rightly will pierce euen the quickest vayne of your heart if the same as I hope in my sauiour it is not be not vtterly benummed the sufferings saith he of this life are not worthy of the glory to come I conceiue that the workes whereby you hope to merit at Gods hands are the workes of doing and workes of suffering the former more easie and lesse deseruing the latter lesse easie and therefore as you are taught the more meritorious but Paule that knew what it was both to do suffer better then those by whom you are perswaded to place such hie affiance in your workes preacheth vnto you heere another kind of doctrine namely that euen the sufferings of this life your afflictions your deeds of best desert are not worthy of the glory to come And you may be assured that no man that euer fought vnder the banner of Christ Iesus suffered more for his sake or deserued heauen better for his sufferings then he that teacheth you this lesson For he testifieth of himselfe that the sufferings of Christ did abound in him That in labours he was more aboundant then other in ripes aboue measure Co. 11 23 in pryson more plenteously on death oft that of the Iewes fiue tymes he receiued forty stripes saue one that he was thrice beaten with rods once stoned thrice suffered shripwracke that he was night and day in the deepe Sea In iournying often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils of his owne nation in perils among the gentiles in perils in the citty in perils in the wildernesse in perils in the Sea in perils amongst false breathren In wearinesse and painefulnesse in watching often In hunger and thirst in fasting often In cold and in nakednesse and beside the thinges that were outward he was combred daiely and had the eare of all the Churches Phi 1 13 And that his bandes in Christ were famous throughout all the iudgement hall and in all other places These are Paules owne wordes of himselfe and his sufferings Now if euer there were such merit in our works sure heere it was if euer the desert of sinfull man could iustly haue challenged such a reward as euerlasting life doubtlesse Paule for these his sufferinges would haue put in with the formost Howbeit you see when he speakes of the glory to come and the proper cause of our attayning vnto eternall saluation he then disclaimeth from al his works from these his sufferings and all and cherefully runs to another refuge euen the righteousnesse of his sauiour christ Iesus wherein there is true merit indeede and wherewith hee knovveth the iustice of God is worthily satisfied and our eternall peace onely procured thus you
answerable proportion betwixt this and the rest Or if it fayle it is in this degree because many of the other pointes haue not that colour of maintenance out of the scriptures as this pointe of merites is vpheld by For I confesse there were sundry places which vpon the first shew and not well examined did seeme a supportation for this opinion but there are diuerse other pointes of your religion which haue not so much as any literall shew of countenance by the word of God but are inforced to flye from the same to crouch vnder the protection of Traditions Decretals and beg their defence from the warrant of such humaine authority so that in this regard the doctrine of most of the other points of your religion seemeth to be lesse iustifiable howsoeuer yet full as vnsound and as litle deseruing to be trusted vnto as this of the merit of your works in the act of your iustification but I promised if I had not I am compelled to insist vpon no other particular and I hope it were needlesse for I doubt not but that which I haue saide touching this one point only hath made you in some sort to distast the rest and wrought in you at least a sensible feeling of your soules insirmity NOw it remaineth that after that poore skill I haue I prescribe you some whole some course 5. Sect. whereby this your dangerous maladye may be cured For he may be a cunning but cannot be a kinde Physitian that hauing discoursed vnto his patient though but in part the nature of her disease and layed open vnto her insome measure the daungerous estate she is in shall then presently leaue her to her selfe and regardlesse of her recouery affoord her no further comfort To auoide therefore that imputation which I woulde be loth by you or any else in this or any other experiment should deseruedly be laide vpon me and to obserue the method I prescribed vnto my selfe in the beginning I wil first impart vnto you what the medicine is that necessarily you must take Secondly some part of those infinite and vnspeakeable benefits which you shall receiue in taking it Thirdly the meanes whereby you must take it And lastly what little charge it will stand you in and how cheape the taking of it will bee vnto you But because my allowance of time is spent and your patience I feare to sore pressed I will huddle vp this which is behind rather omit somthing that I could say then be taxed for containing my self within no compasse In a word then this medicine is a true and sincere faith in the righteousnesse of Christ Iesus This fayth if you remember I haue formerly defined and plainly laid down vnto you al the causes and some of the effects thereof It shall suffice in this place onely to tell you that it is A speciall and perfect assurance that we are partakers of the merit of Christes righteousnesse and that by the same righteousnesse onely satisfaction is made vnto God for all our offences and our saluation purchased This is that wholesome receit which I would minister vnto you and this you may be bolde to take for it will bee sure to cure your soule I gage mine owne vpon it not onely of that pestilent Gangrena the merit of workes but of all other imperfections that now doe or shall heereafter threaten the ruine thereof This only might be a sufficient motiue to stir vp your desire to the taking of it But to make you more eager vnderstand more particularly the benefits that you shall reape by the same It will make you that which you so long to be A saued soule in heauen So Saint Paule assureth you Ephe 1 1 Luke 6.20 It will procure you that which you so faine would haue Forgiuenesse of all your sinnes So Saint Luke assureth you It wil procure you that wherunto al the brauery and felicity of the earth is trash and beggery Praise honour and glory at the ioyfull appearing of Christ Iesus 1 Peter 1 Chap 7 And so Saint Peter himselfe whom I know you will beleeue assureth you Through this you shal haue free accesse to the grace of God which will make you eternally happye Through this you shall reioyce in all your tribulations which otherwise would make you vnhappy through this like those doubty souldiors of Christ that haue led you the waie you shall shew your selfe a valiant champion and ouercome the world This will be a Supersedeas vnto you not onely against the eternall death as is already proued but against the temporall death likewise for the beleeuer although he seeme to be dead is aliue as the vnbeleeuer although he seeme to bee aliue is dead God giueth saith one such grace and priuiledge to faith that death which of his owne nature is the priuation of life doth thereby become the entrance into life This is that happy starre which will lead you directly to that house where the king of glory hath his habitation Nay what will you say if the virgin Mary was not more happy for bearing the blessed body of our Sauior then you shall be by possessing this faith whereby as by the instrumental cause you must be saued you thinke this a hard saying as the capernaits thought that of christs yet Saint Augustine inferreth no lesse for these are his wordes Mary was more blessed in receiuing the faith of Christ then she was in conceiuing the flesh of Christ. The last benefit of faith that I will propose vnto you omitting many which I know and acknowledging infinite which I know not is that thereby your works wil becom good works at least accepted for good from the least to the greatest receiue their reward Whereas without the said faith there is no vertue in them they tast no more in gods mouth then the white of an Egge doth in mans they please him not for without faith it is impossible to please him and indeed they are no better then sinnes for as I haue saide whatsoeuer is not of faith is sin I know you think your works are good alredy better by many degrees then mine and me therefore an vnfit schoolma to read a lectur ther of vnto you I refer that vnto him who hath the balance in his hand and humbly throw downe mine such as they are at the footstool of his mercy confessing that many of thē are such as I haue cause to be ashamed of and the best of them not so good as I long they were and hope they will be but to make you look with a single and no such indulgent eie vpon your owne Vnderstand that euery good work must necessarily haue these two ends Faith and the glory of God faith is the end from whence it must proceed The glory of God is the end wherunto it must be directed Now if the work want either of these ends it is not a good worke yours want them both for they