of Justification Those terms Rom. 4. 5 6. of Justifying the Ungodly and of Imputing Righteousness without Works are not so to be taken as if God ever did or ever would save any Person who resolved to continue impious or contemn the practice of good Works but they stand in opposition to all conceit of any Justifying power in good Works and may teach us That no man's holiness can be such in this Life but he will at God's Tribunal stand in need of that Covering which St. Paul fetcheth out of the 32. Psal. and points out to us in ver 7. Ponder too ver 8. and tell me then whether you can conceal from your self the whole Plat-form of the Protestant Doctrine in this point For the not Imputing of Sins and the Imputing of Righteousness without Works make up the Whole of our Belief Secondly a Sinner is not Justified by Faith as it is a Quality which deserves remission of Guilt and the Glory of Heaven nor as it is by God's favourable acceptance taken for the whole and perfect Righteousness of the Law But it justifies only with reference to its Object Christ Faith being that Grace which the Soul makes use of to close in with him receive and imbrace the Promises by it we are ingrafted into that Olive-tree and are made Members of that glorious Head We do not here as some traduce us erect a Justification merely supposititious or state betwixt Christ and the Believer only an imaginary Relation But we hold the Interest we have in him to be of most real and true Participation Forasmuch as having by God's effectual and gratious Ordination taken upon him the Humane Nature so entirely put on he communicates by vertue of the Mystical Union through the Covenant whereto God the Father the Son and Man are Parties really his Satisfaction and Merits to all Believers Joh. 6. 27. Isa. 42. 1. Heb. 5. 4 5. Jer. 31. 31. Thus he who knew no Sin was made Sin for us and we not having any Righteousness in our selves are made the Righteousness of God in him Rom. 3. 26. Who rose again for our Justification as he died for our sins Thus he is the Justifier and thus the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believes Rom. 10. 4. Let but Faith be the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things un-seen whereby we Receive and Imbrace as well as are Perswaded of the Promises Heb. 11. Suffer us but to draw Consolation by laying hold on the Hope set before us Heb. 6. 18. Let it be an Eying of Christ offering his Body shedding his Blood and fulfilling the Law perfectly as the Church of England speaks in the Homilies of Salvation very clearly Let it be a Fiducial Recumbence upon our Saviour in his whole Mediatorial Office which is certainly our Duty as well as Privilege And we desire no more Heb. 12. 1 2. The Free Gift which is said to come upon all men to the Justification of Life is held forth as the immediate Consequence and Effect of that exact and complete Justice which was in our Saviour Christ only and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used imports the very Act of Justifyng or judicially pronouncing Just and not infusion into the Soul of any Habit of Justice We have no obscure Intimation what Righteousness is able to appear before God in all those Places where the Scriptures treating of Man's Justification in his sight points out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness of God affixing it to the very Person of Christ and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were only derived from him into the Regenerate Thirdly We are Justified by Faith in Opposition to the Righteousness of Works by fulfilling the Law in our own persons or else making Satisfaction for what we come short Paul's Disputations are levelled against the Moral Law as well as the Ceremonial for in the point of Justification he waves even that Law Rom. 7. 12 13. which he terms Holy and Just and Good and which to other uses he is careful to establish Here again if we consult the Original where the Righteousness of the Law is said to be fulfilled in us we may by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 4. never applied to that inherent Righteousness which is our Sanctification but to that Righteousness of Christ whereby he satisfied the utmost Demands of the Law be guided through the Labyrinth of Disputes to a right understanding of this Unum Necessarium wherein having expatiated a little more than the Brevity I at first proposed to my self would permit let me now represent to your view these three former heads copied out in Little 1. Faith is not an Empty Speculation but an Operative Grace of God's Spirit 2. The Righteousness wherewith we shall be clothed in the World to come is both Perfect and Inherent The former in Christ the latter in us 3. The Righteousness which is our Sanctification is indeed Inherent but not Perfect And 1. Justificatio apprehensiva called often Justifying Faith is not properly Justification but an apprehension or knowledge of it 2. Justificatio Effectiva termed Causal Justification none but Christ can have a Claim unto 3. Justificatio declarativa is by St. James styled Justifying by Works as it is the manifestation or testimony of true Conversion Thus those Scriptures do sweetly agree which say we are Justified sometimes by Grace sometimes by Faith sometimes by Christ and that once by Works Let us do Evil that Good may come thereof Rom. 6. 1. was the Devil's Rhetorick in the mouths of licentious men to bring an obloquie upon St. Paul's Doctrine of free Grace But doubtless Satan is a more cunning Sophister than to frame an Argument of so much Inconsequence as to say Continue in Sin that inherent Grace may abound Whence I think we may not improbably conclude That nothing else is intended by all the preceding Discourse but the Gracious Act of Almighty God whereby he absolves a believing Sinner at the Tribunal of his Justice Pronouncing him Righteous acquitting and accepting him to Glory only for Christ's sake Thus when he had assigned to sin its proper Effect due Wages and Merit Death coming to speak of Life Eternal we find no such terms in his mouth but he suddenly cuts off the File of his Contexture and calls it Rom. 6. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Free Gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is Justification by Remission of Sins there is Justification by having the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in us there is the Justification of Life or the Receiving that Crown of Life All these are laid up in the Person of Christ for the use of his Church and brought home to every true member by the hand of Faith There is too another Sort of Justification viz. At the Bar of Conscience and in Foro Humano by Works of Righteousness which
Rome who neither know the Truth nor can endure to be taught it If this be the case and I were to chuse a Religion I do seriously think I might close in with any now upon the face of the earth that does not in plain Terms deny the Lord who bought us less timorously than with Rome I am somewhat confident and do hold it for a great Truth which I speak neither timorously nor temerariously That the Arrian Heresie and the Turkish Arms which pull'd all other things where they came down lifted up the Pope by accident and Divine Permission into his Chair For the Eastern Prelates and men of Eminency being under persecutions at home had a safe retreit into the West And therefore made that Patriarch their Asylum In order to which or by way of gratitude for benefits received they often made the frame of their addressive Epistles to consist of complemental Elogies these being no more than what the kindness and hospitality wherewith they had been entertained did seem to deserve were yet due only to the Persons then sitting at the Stern nor farther intended But afterwards cunningly made use of and represented to the Credulous World for the Popes Advantage One Observation more and I have done The Church of Rome or at least her darling Sons the Jesuites will have the Pomise of Christ That the holy Spirit shall lead his People into all Truth to be suspended unto that very Moment wherein their Bishop shall assent to the Results of a Council and the performance to depend on this Contingency amongst a many more whether he will at all confirm them or no Then at last they judge them infallible when the Pope either present or absent signifies his pleasure so to declare them Well! But Liberius as above hinted himself confirmed the Arrian Conclusions of the Council at Sermium And the Pope had his Deputies at Basil and Constance those Decrees were confirmed by the Apostolick Letters of Eugenius Yet I suppose few Romanists will grant these were infallible And I think we may continue our Opinion upon good ground That the Roman Bishop's Vote is but a sandy Foundation to build our Faith upon I shall last of all request you not to refuse your joyning with me in those Words of our and I think too of your Liturgy That Almighty God will Grant All who Confess his holy Name may agree in the Truth of his holy Word and Zion become a quiet Habitation FINIS To the most Reverend the right Reverend Prelates and all the Learned Clergie in this Kingdom THat I have without a word of command presum'd to engage in this war-fare requires I confess a submiss Apologie but since I go upon that general Precept which bids us be ready to give a reason of our faith and it is as importunately demanded now as if never any thing had been done by your worthy Predecessors for the Protestant Cause I will not despair of Pardon There may be need I fear not onely of the Chariots and Horse-men but of the Infantry too amongst whom he desires but to trail a Pike who is Your just Adorer and humble servant Christopher Wyvill FINIS Rom. 11. 20. Mr. Reynolds upon the 110. Psal. Morney Lord du Plessys The saine du Plessys Lib. 2. de Trinitate Lib. sexto Gregory on the 5. Penitent Psal. Vid. the Primate of Ireland's Answer to a Jesuit's Challenge In Sacriloquio quando in singulari numero fundamentum dicitur Nullus alius nisi Christus designatur Greg. lib. 28. in Cap. Josuae 6. Gal. 2. 7. The Jews and such as were Circumcised Vide Bunting his Itinerarie in the Travels of St. Peter Jesuites and their followers * Europe for more than 40. years was almost equally divided in their judgments as well as in cruel hatred one part against the other about the Right of Clement and Urbane 6. to the Infallible Chair The Authors of France painted to the life pag. 16. * For if ordinary Priests could do such things what submissions could be thought enough towards the supreme Bishop as Men were then learning to call him Ep. fol. 885. Fol. 859. A further strange Instance of this I shall hereafter give you Doctor Chalanours Unde Zir. in a The Primate of Ireland lib. citato has their names Chalanours Credo Eccles. pag. 215. Primate of Ireland as before Strongly disputed every way as may be seen in Bellarmine de Concil Eccles Milit. Yet he boldly resolves all by the Determinations of Trent Eugenius was deposed by a General Council and it was declared impossible for those to be saved that held him Pope Yet he continued in by force and from him is the so much vaunted of Succession Baxter's Winding sheet pag. 10. Sundry General Councils obtruded Arianism upon the World and Liberius Bishop of Rome confirmed it Davenant de Judice Normâ Fidei cap. 21. fol. 125. The calling of Councils formerly was the right of the Emperour undeniably now usurped by the Pope That he had no such universal Dominion may strongly be proved out of Sir Roger Twisden's Vindication of the Church of England cap. 2. By the Abbot of Bangor's Reply to Augustin the Monk who demanded their obedience Gelasius the Pope said The Sacrament without the Cup is a grand Sacrilege but half Communion What means the present bussle in France betwixt the Jansenists and Jesuits about Efficacious grace and the next power Bernard of Clareval de Grat. liber Arbitr Theodoret in Sophon cap. 3. Say not this means Natural works only for the contrary is evident Hom. Paschal 4. Annot. upon 2 Tim. 4 8. Upon 1 Cor. 3. 8. * With them it is nothing else but an Ability to perform in our own persons after we have received to believe the Word of God such obedience to the Law as for that we become righteous and deserve by equal Compensation the Kingdom of Heaven Mr. Allen. Justifying Faith is When a man does practically believe the two great Doctrines of Justification and Sanctification Paul the Apostle in the terms of toward God Repentance and Faith toward Christ clearly points out this Office of Faith Acts 20. 21. It 's strange how those that hold a Treasury of Saints Merits can term our Doctrine of Imputation an empty Speculation For Is there a Communion of the Members one with another and not with the Head Bearing by Imputation and no otherwise the Iniquities of us all Finis Legis Christus omni Credenti Bernard ad Innoc. 190. Davenant de Justitia habituali fol. 373. Davenant ut supra cap. 28. How insincerely the the Rhemists do render this place see in Dr. Fulk De Justifie lib. 5. cap. 17. The Arguments are good against all Works Upon Ezech. 18. 20. Progeny of Cathol c. lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 86. Lib. 2. de Monach. cap. 13. Rom. 8. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Bernard de Verb. Esa. Serm. 4. In his Com. Disp. 214. cited by the Primate of Ireland ut
Scandal at them every time I read the Tenth chap. of S. Matthew since I am there told what is through the fault of Gain-sayers an ordinary Consequence of the Truths presence Perfect Unity in Opinion is the Privilege of Minds triumphant above and the Churches of the Apostles themselves were some of Paul some of Cephas c. If you will strain at a Gnat because you hear there are dissentions amongst us and yet swallow such a Camel as this That the Creed of every Christian must be resolved into the present Dictates of the Roman Church and that you ought not to question whether she tread in the good old Paths a shift that some of her Champions are driven to I must confess I am at a stand what to say to you But let us by one particular make a ghess what her posture hath been in the rest The Fathers of the first five Centuries may I think with a safe Confidence be affirmed to have intended nothing by their Merita but such a Title to the Recompence of Reward as is plainly co-incident in its meaning with our expectation of that Crown which God the Righteous Judge hath laid up against the last day for them that have finished their Course and kept the Faith therefore are they well called by some Certain Seminaries of Hope And they were so far from any thought of a Proportionate value or Condignity as they every where speak against it When the high-soaring Schoolmen hatcht that Opinion since fledg'd and much improved by the industrious care of the Jesuits with their adherents how unhandsome it appeared to men of sober minds you may observe from that place of Erasmus given you before two others the next Epistle shall acquaint you with and abundance more cited by the Primate of Ireland and Davenant in the Point We will here lay together the Judgment of Theodoret and Cyril of Alexandria with the late Positions of the Rhemists then judge whether there be such a Consonancy and Identitie betwixt Antiquity and Rome at this day as is pretended The former tells us that the Salvation of men depends upon the sole Mercy of God For we do not obtain it as a Reward and Wages of our Righteousness but it is the Gift of God's goodness The Crowns do excel the Fights the Rewards are not to be compared with the Labours c. And therefore says he the Apostle called those things that are looked for not Wages but Glory Rom. 8. 18. and again not Wages but Grace Rom. 6. 23. Although a man should perform the most absolute Righteousness Things Eternal do not answer Temporal Labours in equal poyse The same is Cyril's mind too for he tells us The Crown doth much surpass the pains which we take Not a paying a price for labour but pouring out the riches of his goodness saith Prosper Well now hear the Rhemists in another Note All good works done by God's grace after the first Justification be truly and properly Meritorious and fully worthy of Everlasting life and thereupon Heaven is the just Stipend Crown or Recompence which God by his Justice oweth to the Persons so working by his Grace c. And in another place they therefore will have us to think that the word Reward which in our English may signifie a voluntary or bountiful Gift is not expressive enough of the Original which they will render better by a very Stipend that the hired Workman or Journey-man covenanteth to have of him whose work he doth and is a thing equally and justly answering to the weight and time of his Travels rather than a free Gift But let them answer St. Paul who calls it so Rom. 6. 23. and it were their best in their next Edition of their Expurgatory Indexes to wipe out such pestilent places of former Writers as will not suffer them to hugg their Diana in quietness Thus you may discern in part how unsafe it will be to take up Religion upon trust without laying the several poynts thereof to the Square of Gods word a course which the Commendation fixed upon the Bereans may incourage all men unto and which I do God willing intend to make the Subject of some future Letters LETTER II. ALthough it be an old received Truth That Discords in Religion are the most bitter and for the most part prosecuted with most violence I shall desire to contract rather than widen the Differences betwixt us and leaving the Out-works which fortifie our Cause in other points we hold in Opposition to the Roman Church to stand a while upon their own Guard set my self at present to the defence of that which is most oppugned by Papists against which the Jesuites have raised their fiercest Batteries I mean our Doctrine of Justification Our answers are so Consonant in the first Quaere that one would think we were almost agreed and Dispute at an end for this Maxim is as I conceive imbraced on both sides We are saved by Grace But alas they have framed such strange Comments and affixed so perverse a Definition to the nature of their Grace as will and must needs keep us at a grand and perpetual distance Forasmuch as I have observed most of the Objections brought in against us to arise merely from a mis-understanding of that Faith to which only we dare trust our Justification I will in the first Place sub-joyn it's Nature and Office in three Propositions First the Faith we desire to establish is not a bare Opinion is not a mere Notion but it is a Grace a purifying a cleansing reforming Grace of God's Spirit And though the Principal and main Act of Faith be an Accepting Receiving and Resting upon Christ alone for Justification by vertue of the Covenant Yet they who are Effectually called and Regenerate have a new heart Created in them and are farther Really and Personally sanctified the Dominion of the whole Body of Sin destroyed the several Lusts thereof by degrees mortified and they more and more strengthned in all saving Graces to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Nor do we say that good Works done by such an one are of their own Nature sins as we are slanderously reported to do No so far as they are good they are the Product of God's own Spirit and he approves them But because of a mixture of Imperfections adhering to the best of men in this Life and their Works We think they are no better than the Reeds of Egypt which if a man lean on them with hopes of Justice from them will break and wound his sides We are Justified by Faith alone without Works Not that Works are separated from Faith or can be But only excluded from the Act of Justifying A Dead Faith cannot Justifie a Living Faith cannot be Idle The Concurrence of Works is Certain their Agreement Amiable in the Life of one Justified Yet their Contrariety irreconcileable in the procurement
their Merits dangerous because ruinous Thomas Waldensis our Compatriot and the others Contemporary professes his utter dislike of that saying That a man may by Merits be worthy of Heaven or this Grace or that Glory however loe here their rise certain Schoolmen had invented the Terms of Condignity and Congruity I do repute him adds he the more faithful Catholick and more sound Christian more consonant to the holy Scripture who doth simply deny such Merit and confesseth That no man Merits Heaven but by the Grace of God or will of the Giver As all the former Saints and whole Church until the late Schoolmen have written Here 's even enough to end withal yet wee 'l have one Instance more of our Truth but Romes falshood and departure from the Faith of her fore-fathers We will bring it thus Our Libraries were ordinarily stored with certain old Instructions and Consolations to be used to departing sick Persons out of which the Spanish Inquisitors thought fit to expunge these dangerous Interrogations Dost thou believe to come to Glory not by thine own Merits but by the Vertue and Merit of the Passion of our Lord Dost thou believe that our Lord Jesus Christ did die for our Salvation and that none can be saved by his own Merits or by any other Means but by the Merit of his Passion Uincentius his Rule now appears prudent when we have to deal with a sort of men that care not how they deal with old Records and endeavour all they can to make the Tongue of An. tiquity to have a Tangue of their Novelties and can frame new Decrees fathering them on old Councils as both hath and may be proved I shall shut up all with the result of two Assemblies and the astipulations of two Eminent Persons The Canons of Colen in a set meeting establish the Imputed Righteousness of Christ as the formal Cause of Justification We are Justified say they two ways The one and first of which is that absolute Righteousness of Christ not as it is clearly without us in him but as when it is whilst apprehended by Faith Imputed to us for Righteousness this very same so imputed is the chief and great Cause of our Justification This was much considering the time they lived in but better explained in that Colloquy of Ratisbon whose words are Though he who is Justified does receive inherent Justice yet a faithful Soul rests not upon that but only upon the Justice of Christ given to us without which there can clearly be no Justice at all I mention these being soon after the Reformation begun not as entirely Reformed but as such unto whom in this great point the light of Truth even to a good Degree could not be hid The next is a remarkable passage concerning Ernestus Arch-Bishop of Magdeburge witnessed by his own Chaplain Clement Schaw who was present at his Death about five years before Luther A Friar Minor offered him Consolation thus Take good heart most worthy Prince We do Communicate to your Excellence all the good works not only of our selves but of our whole Order and therefore doubt not but receiving them you shall appear before the Tribunal of God blessed and righteous He replied I do not desire your Works to any thing The Works of my Lord Christ must wholly do it On these I relie And Bellarmine himself who spent so much Time and Sweat in oppugning Imputed and propugning Inherent Grace under the Notion of Condign Merit was at last brought to say Propter incertitudinem c. For the uncertainty of our Works it is the safest to put all our Confidence in the sole Mercy and Bounty of God and relie upon Christ. Which totally unravels again the thinn wrought Covering he had before with other Jesuits patch'd up Thus have we followed this pure stream of living water through the Meanders of many Ages of several Constitutions even to the confines of our own Wherein if you look at the present outward face of things we may almost say the Enemy has got the upper hand Yet praise be to God We are not without many Eminent and Faithful Labourers in his Harvest who I hope will leave it upon Record that the Truth is not left without Witnesses And thus too if you take it as we say at the right End I have given you a Testimony that I am c. LETTER III. ARising from depending on and subservient to the Doctrine of Meritorious inherent Justice are all those Opinions of Free-will Satisfactions here and in Purgatory Prayer and Sacrifices for the Dead Indulgences and Vendable Pardons from the Extreme grossness whereof when he saw those goodly Advantages made the Wager in a Game at Dice Luther first took occasion to discountenance them We think they are but as super-structures reared with untempered Mortar which we are sure will all as Wood Hay Stubble perish and be consumed by that Fire the Spirit of Burning mentioned Isa. 4. 4. Matth. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 3. 13. And therefore waving them the next Point wherein I shall endeavour if it may so please God to rectifie your Judgment is that much Controverted business of the Sacraments Which are visible Signs of invisible Grace given and conferred unto us Instituted by Christ himself and ordained to be a means to Receive and a Seal to Confirm the same Let us review this Definition and draw from it some Observations in the words of a Learned Author Many things do here occurr which require a deep and serious Consideration by those who desire throughly to understand the Nature and Essential parts of Sacraments For first there must be a Conferrence of Grace of which the Sacraments are termed Seals yet this Conferrence of Grace is not causatively but instrumentally not Physically but Metaphysically in them Therefore those are not properly Sacraments which relate to any thing but matters of Religion By this Argument is Matrimony excluded from the List as not being in it self considered a Religious Work neither is any Grace at all conferred or exhibited thereby So that though Marriage doth Legitimate many one may say it self is but a Bastard Sacrament 2. Next these Signs of Grace ought to be subject to the Senses For so it seemed good to God by sensible and external things to lead by the hand as it were us who for the most part live by sense towards Intelligible Internal and Spiritual matters They must farther be visible and subject to the Eyes Hence Absolution and Ordination cannot fall within the number of Sacraments not having any visible Element or Material Sign Thirdly They are said to be ordained and instituted by Christ Signs they are by the Institution of him and not of their own nature He only who created the Elements can by his word make of them Sacraments nor is it from the choice of Men that the Signs become Sacraments but by the Ordinance of
we are to do after the Pattern but cannot do up to the measure shewed in the Mount not for these nor yet without these can we have Entrance into the desired Rest. According to which we draw forth this Abridgment of our Belief and Practice In Sanctification we renounce all Our Sins In Justification we renounce all Our Graces In stead of this most holy Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. and for the Profession whereof Rome was spoken of throughout the World she has now introduced such a Doctrine of Works foreseen of Free-will of Works having Merits of several Sizes before and after Conversion of Works of Penance and Satisfaction of suffering to the last Mite in Purgatory of Indulgences Pardons and the like of Opus operatum or the very Doing the work in holy Duties as gets their Entertainment in the World by their Consistency with the Pope's Ends of Gain and Power and by their obviousness and sutableness to the proud Nature of Man 1. Bellarmine and the Rhemists go far when they tell us That the good Works of just Persons do merit Eternal Life Condignly not onely by reason of God's Covenant or Acceptation but also by reason of the Work it self 2. Maldonat a little more roughly affirms That we do as properly and truly Merit Rewards when with the Grace of God we do well as Punishments when we do ill So the Progeny of Catholicks and Hereticks a Book full of cunning mistakes and slander gives us these as their Tenents That good Works do truly merit and deserve Grace in this World and Glory in the next That a Man may perfectly fulfil and keep all God's Commandments Which surely stands need of Bellarmine to help it out who hath this fine Phansie If says he I sin not when I love God no otherwise than in the first Degree of Love then I am not in strictness bound to love him more than so therefore if I do adde one farther degree of Love I love God more than I am bound to and perform an Act of Supererogation But we will think having so good a Warrant for it Math. 5. 17 18. and 22. 37 38. that we are obliged to Love the Lord our God with all our might The Terms of the Gospel do not at all alter or mollifie the Demands of the Law only it shews how they are fulfilled by Christ who having the Law transferred from us in our own persons unto his most sacred Person as Mediator performed for so it behoved him to do all Righteousness Matth. 3. became the End of the Law for Righteousness Rom. 10. and makes his true Members just by his obedience Bernard tells us the Law even under the Gospel requires no less than Obedience Rectam according to Rule all that is prescribed and only what is prescribed Puram free from blemish in manner and measure Firmam steady for continuance without intermission A Yoak that neither we nor our Fathers are able to bear And August in Epist. 29. ad Heron. Charitas in aliis major in aliis minor in aliis nulla plenissima verò quae jam non potest augeri quamdiu hîc homo vivit in nemine est quamdiu autem augeri potest profectò illud quod minus est quà m debet ex vitio est The full Mystery of their Iniquity is held forth at large by the Audacious Vasquez pretending fully to know the minds of the Trent Fathers Thus That Good Works of Just Persons are of themselves without any Covenant or Acceptation worthy of the reward of Life Eternal and they have an equal value of Condignity to the obtaining of Everlasting Glory That no accession of Dignity doth come to the Works of the Just by the Merits or Person of Christ which the same Works should not have otherwise if they had been done by the same Grace bestowed liberally by God alone without Christ That God's promise is annexed indeed to the Works of Just men yet it belongeth not to the Reason or Cause why they become Meritorious but cometh rather to the Works themselves which are already so That after Grace infused our Works are so perfectly Meritorious of Life that it cannot be denied them Therefore going on in Terms wherewith I am almost afraid to black my Paper says he In vain do we require a Continued Imputation of Christ's Merits or Justice after the receipt of inherent Grace Agreeable hereto is what he tells us farther They never request of God by the Merits of Christ that the reward of Eternal Life may be given to their worthy and meritorious Works but that by Christ Grace may be given them whereby they may be inabled worthily to merit that Reward That besides that Imputation of Christ's Merits for the obteining of Grace it 's not needful for atteining of Life in Heaven and from that time forward they do not expect any any other Imputation than what at first they did receive viz. Grace to keep the Commandments and thereby become just We will leave this man to his own Inventions when we have viewed him a while fallen foul upon both the Ancient and Modern Doctors because they run not with him to the same Excess in this business I cannot but wonder saith he at those ancient School-men whom I have named that thought so meanly of our inherent Justice as that they were afraid to ascribe thereto such a true Existency of Justice as must of its own Nature needs be pleasing to God But goes he on I do much more admire the later Divines who after the famous definition of the Council of Trent afford to the Just so diminutive an inherent Righteousness as hath not of it self power to wipe off the stains of sin unless they be eased or lightned by the favour and condonation of God They both adds he if they be well weighed do destroy the true Essence of inherent Justice which the Council so much set it self to hold forth and maintain This Confession or rather Complaint of the Jesuite might save us a labour of culling out the Testimonies of such Learned men as even through the Umbrage of Popery had Glimpses of so pure a Truth since he grants That if our Works before or without the Promise Covenant or Acceptation of God were not worthy and after such promise became worthy it would thence follow That to this Dignification arising from the Promise the Application and Imputation of Christ's Merits must of necessity intervene A thing it seems he is afraid to discover We are thus far of Vasquez his mind rather than of those other Romanists That the Promise of God does not affix any Condignity to the Works of the Regenerate by changing their Quality so as to render them in themselves Meritorious but whereas he will have them not need such Indulgence we know they need much more and the Tenour of God's Promise to be this That he will
the Word of Truth but some believe others do contradict Therefore these have a will to believe the others have not Who is ignorant of this who would deny it But seeing the Will is to some prepared by the Lord to others not We are to discern what doth proceed from his Mercie and what from his judgement That which Israel did seek saith the Apostle he obtained not but the Election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded Behold Mercy and Judgement Mercie in the Election which hath obtained Righteousness of God but judgement upon the rest that were blinded because they would not did not believe Mercy therefore and Judgement were executed even upon the wills themselves Thus far he But because a verse may take him that has not patience for a long discourse hear Prosper astipulating this Truth That God powerfully leads Man in the first Act of Conversion Non hoc Consilio tantùm hortatúque benigno Suadens atque docens quasi norman legis haberet Gratia sed mutans intus mentem atque reformans Vásque novum ex fracto fingens virtute Creandi Till I considered upon what foundation the Doctrine of Perseverance was built and with how many Cautions it is strongly impaled I was as forward as any to cry out There was by it an open gap made for men to leap out at and beyond the bounds of that fear and trembling with which we are exhorted to work out our Salvation But when I found that there were many Cases wherein a Christian must needs lye down in darkness sorrow and despair too notwithstanding all the sparks of Comfort which can any way arise from the Collision of his own thoughts with his greatest measure of Charity and Obedience or from any support offered from a weaker arm than that of the Almighty And especially when I find so many places in the Word of Truth to countenance it I am almost induced to make a Question whether he that questions the Truth of this Tenent did ever truly know what it means Those that may seem to make against it are either directed to whole Churches which in the future succession of Professors may fall away or do speak of common Illuminations or outward works of Righteousness To say that one may at this instant be truly a member of Christ and dying now received into Glory yet living but a while longer may drop off from that Incorporation and perish for ever hath surely in it something of Derogation from him whose Gifts and Callings are said to be without repentance Rom. 11. 29. Isai. 54. 8. John 15. 16. It 's true if the Spring-head of our Adoption were laid in our Free-will our Assurance could mount no higher than a level proportionable to that but we have this Aqua perennis this Water of Life given us to drink by one who hath annexed thereto a promise Joh. 4. 14. And whoever eateth that Manna which came down from Heaven hath eternal Life and shall be raised up at the last day John 6. 54. Here is both meat and drink prepared and fitted to become the Nutriment of an immortal Soul and in case of accidental wounds or distemper such as wherewith our common Enemy and many inbred Traytors do conspire to infest us the good Samaritan and great Physician able willing and ever at hand near to all such as call upon him can cure our imperfections heal our back-slidings and receive us graciously Why ought we not then to be perswaded that he who hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of his coming Heb. 12. 2. He is the finisher as well as the Author of our Faith and in his power onely it is that we found our confidence of being kept unto Salvation Since we are often call'd upon to examine our selves whether we are in the Faith and may know the things that are freely given us of God I cannot but wonder at those men who hold it either impossible without an extraordinary Revelation or unnecessary to discover whether a man be at any time himself in God's favour or no. Indeed the fulness of perswasion is more commended than commanded It is not absolutely necessary to the very being of a Christian but it is of great importance to his well-being It 's not an absolute Precept but a gracious privilege without it a Christian may dye well but without it he cannot dye so comfortably Neither if he seek it right can he be too covetous of it What if some vain persons by a preposterous haste never staying to take in truly those Principles whereof the Ladder is framed that should help them to ascend will yet pretend to have reach'd the top of this excellent knowledge which is too hard for the most yea scarce atteined by any but after long experiences of the ways of God if such will needs perish in because they are no better than players with these flames Shall for this the Doctrine of the Saints perseverance be thought criminal without which I cannot see how in certain cases and exigencies any Balm can be found that 's likely to heal a wounded Conscience Every one that has been present at the pressing of this Point might hear the Preacher say In seeking after the Grace of Assurance you must not begin where God begins but where God ends you must not begin at the root to find the branch but by the branch and fruit to descry the root you must not at first dash eye Gods Decree in Predestination but through Regeneration take view of and judge your interest The truth is He that will not believe until he reads Gods Decree in Heaven must never look for any assurance of Heaven here nor fruition of it hereafter It 's more possible for the Sun to co-habit with undissolved Ice than for true Faith to lodge in an heart hardned to sin Every right Believer applies Christ to himself and himself to Christ the Promises to himself and himself to the Condition of those Promises If thy hearing of free-free-Justification by Christ Rom. 3. 24. of Gods good pleasure to give thee a Kingdom and of his promise to keep thee by his power through Faith unto Salvation 2 Thess. 2. 13. make thee not to stand in awe and not sin because his Mercy is great thou hast not yet either part or share in any of them But if upon good and infallible grounds thou hast arrived at the blessed knowledge that God in Christ is at peace with thee yet take heed of slipping into sin or growing careless of duty lest he hide the light of his Countenance withdraw from thee the Testimony of his Spirit that main part of thine evidence and leave thee to roar day and night for the very disquietness of thy Soul till thou becomest like a Pelican in the Wilderness or an Owl in the Desert If such a Night of Desertion come if a dark cloud be quite drawn over thy
habits and acts of righteousness which thou seemest to relye upon even thine own conscience will tell thee have been imperfect unconstant partial yea sometimes none at all but thy soul hath frequently been inslaved to contrary vices therefore thou must have something of more integrity a more immaculate and spotless obedience to present me withal and make out thy interest therein too before thy claim be just Now let us see what answer the Protestant Principles will put into our mouths and let the safer the truer the modester carry it Thus then Lord I know thy Law is holy just and good 't is likewise eternal by the righteousness of this Law Justification is to be had even yet as well as in the Covenant of works made with Adam before his fall onely here is the difference It 's now accepted in the hands of a Mediator The Lord our Righteousness who as surety of a better Covenant and as Head of his Body the Church hath fulfill'd the Law in its utmost Demands My faith my obedience my charity are all weak poor inconsiderable things Eternal life and the whole of my salvation from the one end to the other is purely a free gift Though I have had some Graces of thy Spirit in such a measure as have been a comfortable evidence that my heart was set aright to serve thee for without a conformity to thy Son in holiness begun in the life below no flesh may hope with joy to see thy face above yet I dare not I ought not to present these unto thee as the matter of my justification I have through thy mercy been sincere but it is in Christ only that I am compleat We do know That we ought to have in honour the Saints departed and not to think meanly of the Angels those ministring Spirits But we do not acknowledge that we ought to invocate them or direct our prayers or vows unto them much less place confidence in the wearing their Reliques or Pictures to prevent lightning sudden death c. 5. We do know That an high and profound reverence is due to Fathers Councils voice of the Church But we acknowledge not That any particular place or succession of men is exempt from all possibility of Error Nor that Rome keeps her first Principles 6. We do know That men of ungodly unstable contentious dispositions do not look upon the Bible without danger to their own souls and pervert many things therein to their destruction But we acknowledge not That therefore the sincere milk of the Word is to be lock'd up from those that might grow thereby Nor that meat is to be kept from the children because it is sometimes abused to excess and riot by dissolute and licentious men LETTER IX THat Person to me yet unknown whom you did some years since substitute to shape me an answer unto a few Lines I then hastily offered to your view cut his Work into a very uncourtly Mode and takes it for granted that I have not so much understanding as to know they would be understood to place the Condignity of Merit in works done by Grace not by Nature nor so much Learning as to English Opus Operatum For the first I would have both him and you to know that we oppose as to Justifying before God all Works both of Nature and Grace For certainly if we consider the Testimony alledged Rom. 4. by Paul out of Genesis 15. to prove that Abraham was not then Justified by Works it will appear he was long before that Regenerate and had sundry Works of Faith It was a Work of Faith that he followed God's call out of his Countrey Compare Gen. 12. 4. with Heb. 11. 8. Other Works of Piety and Love see recorded Gen. 12. 8. and 13. 8 9. and 14. 16 20. Yet none of these but after them all Gen. 15. Faith was imputed to him for Righteousness and he obtained the Promise that is saw Christ afar off and had his share in him not by Working but Believing And if Works merely Natural had been in Question why comes in the Example of Abraham rather than of Abimelech Socrates or the like That St. James meant not to reach beyond Justification in Foro Humano by that which he attributes to Works is evident from what he subjoyns ver 18. Shew me thy Faith by thy Works He denies a saving power only to such a Faith as is not Operative and to such a one neither do we ascribe any thing at all The two Apostles both instancing in him to confirm their seeming contrary assertions makes it evident they are to be referred to the several Tribunals of God and of Conscience But if he will give me lieve to mind him that the Franciscans in the Council of Trent were of opinion that Works done before Faith were truly meritorious in the sight of God and how Sir Kenelme Digby doubts not to say The old Philosophers without Christ for so we all know they were if any of them followed the Dictates of right Reason no Grace is there mentioned might attain Heaven it may abate his anger at the Expression I there used I have set my self to School again that I might improve my knowledge in the Romane as well as the Latine Tongue and have learnt from those Doctors at Trent That there are some actions which cause Grace not by the devotion of him that worketh or of him that does receive the work but by virtue of the work it self And That Prayers in absolution are only laudable not necessarily added to I absolve thee So making the Efficacie to flow ab Opere Operato Thus I conceive is to be understood what I have more than once read in their Books That to the merit of Prayer it suffices that the words be repeated but if a man have a particular request to put up it 's necessary the heart and affections accompany them in that desire I think now there 's no great difficulty in construing Opus operatum nor was I much out of the way when I applied it to their practice in their Sacraments I do not conclude that all those who delight to be styled Roman Catholicks making light of the latter appellation if not ushered in by the former are guilty of all this high Treason against God's Truth nor of Misprision of that Treason neither for I am confident very few of the Laity amongst them are privy to such bold Positions as are maintained by Vasquez with the now predominant Faction of the Jesuits and their adherents yet it were well they would consider whereunto their implicite credulity would lead them I once had from the mouth of a Romanist whose memory has all the reason in the world to be ever dear to me an expression wherewith I was much taken as neighbouring very near unto Truth and far from the malignity of some I have before cited When I insisted upon the Righteousness of Christ as our justification it was
Credulity to down with them and to suspend our whole Belief upon the most imperious dictates of their supposed infallible Church But we have not so learned Christ. And as to my part after a long and diligent search whereto never any could be more ingaged than my self I despair of ever finding any more sure or near way to Heaven Than by renouncing in Sanctification all my Sins 1 John 8. 3. Justification all my Graces Dan. 9. 18. Than by having unfeigned Repentance towards God Acts 20. 21. Faith towards Christ Isaiah 64. 6. Matth. 5. 17 18. Matth. 22. 36 37. Luke 10. 27 28. Rom. 3. 31. We find that Law which had it not been weak through the flesh should have given Life both declared and established Expounded too we find it by Bernard de verb. Es. Serm. 4. who reminds us That it requires even yet Obedientiam rectam according to the Rule all that is only what is prescribed puram free from all blemish in manner and measure firmam steady and without any intermission Chrysostome upon 2 Cor. 5. holds out as requisite to our Justification a Righteousness wherein there must not be either Spot or Stain The Law thus applied and understood is still before God's Tribunal the Matter of our Justification and there to be pleaded but where to be found If we confine our search to within our selves and fall seriously to ponder our best Works either of Nature or by Grace we shall find it a Yoak which we no more than our Fathers were are not able to bear Hath God any where discovered that he has drawn off something from its expectation in order to its giving us Justice in his sight upon more facile Terms I think not If then a fulfilled Law and that the same was first given must be presented to God for our Justification that we may appear faultless before the presence of his Glory Jude ver 24. Where may we seek it and not lose our labour Let them that have a mind look amongst the Rubbish of their Performances whilst we with a thankfully-humble boldness do contemplate What it is Dan. 9. 24. Jer. 23. 6. Rom. 10. 4. Isai. 45. 25. 46. 13. Where Col. 1. 19. Joh. 1. 16. Rom. 5. 17. Col. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 5. 11. How had Joh. 3. 14 15. Rom. 3. 22. Gal. 3. 24. Phil. 3. 9. Let us now call in some Evidence and enquire whether the Protestant Cause be so altogether unbefriended by Antiquity as some of our Adversaries are desirous the World should believe And 1. what we meet with in Athanasius We find Tom. 2. That the fulfilling of the Law wrought by the first fruits Christ is imputed to the whole Lump 2. Gregory upon Ezek. Hom. 8. I will give it you in the Original because there is one Word the just force and importance whereof our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus injustos Non in Fletibus non in Actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione considamus 3. Chrysostom upon 1 Cor. 1. 30. It is not said he made us Wise Just and Holy but he is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Justification c. Upon Rom. 10. There is no cause thou shouldest fear as a Transgressor of the Law if thou believest in Christ because thou hast fulfilled it and received a far greater Righteousness 4. Basil. de Humil. Hom. 51. This is perfect and full rejoycing in God when a man boasts not of his righteousness but knows himself void of true Sanctity yet justified by Faith 5. Gregory Nyssen on those words of our Saviour Beati qui esuriant justitiam It seems to me saith he that our Lord by mentioning Justice doth propose to the appetite of his hearers his own self who is made unto us wisdom from God Justice c. 6. Another from Chrysostom upon Rom. 4. That one destitute of Works should be Justified by Faith might perhaps seem well to be But that one adorned with vertues and good works should yet be justified not by them but by Faith only is admirable 7. Bernard who every where gives us clear glimpses of this light lets it shine broad out in his 61. Sermon on Canticles where he calls us under shelter of that Long Large Eternal Righteousness of Christ professing He will make mention of that only And why must not Jacob attain the blessing without the garments of his Elder Brother but to impart to us the knowledge that we must have ingress into Heaven no otherwise than under the Tegument of Christ's Merits I may well says he again Ep. 190. call my self Just but 't is by his Christ's Justice and what 's that even Christ the end of the Law for Righteousness to all Believers It is not a short Cloak adds he further that cannot cover two 8. Besides Augustin's Non nobis and his Sicut found and usually observed in his Peruse his 45th Sermon de Temp. and you will find by him that it 's the fulness of Vertue which the Law means when it says Thou shalt not Covet then adds he after this manner It cannot be fulfilled 9. But Sedulius on Rom. 10. shews how it may saying Perfectionem Legis habet qui credit in Christo. 10. Both Irenaeus and Augustine do most clearly design that particular Act and Office of Faith which respects our Saviour whilest they expound John 3. 14. 11. Ambrose de vita beata lib. 2. cap. 2. upon these words Odoratus est odorem vestimentorum Peradventure he saith it 's meant that we are not justified by Works but by Faith because the weakness of our Flesh is an impediment to our Works but the Excellency of Faith doth cover the errors of them 12. As we begun so we will end though it were easie to bring a whole Cloud of reverend Authors to attest this thing with Athanasius de incarnatione Verbi It's impossible that Purity and Innocence can be exhibited in humane Nature unless it be believed that God was in the Flesh who brought into the World a Justice free from all sin Because we are made partakers Hujus render it how you will of him or of this we shall live and be saved For illud non est justus in terra adds he belongs equally to us all and for that reason he descended from Heaven who was to impart Righteousness ex se out of himself These proofs are not cited in order of time as they were writ but in course as they seemed best to make out what I have said before in this Point 13. Ambrose upon Rom. 10. He that believes on Christ hath attained the perfection of the Law For seeing of old none were to be justified by the Law because none fulfilled it otherwise than by hoping in Christ promised Faith is introduced to believe the Law fulfilled That all things else laid aside Faith might satisfie both for the
suprà and by Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali Paul declares his whole Justification both in his first Conversion and in the time of his writing and at the Resurrection to be wholly absolved in Faith Phil. 3. 9. Disp. 222. cap. 3. If the Works of Righteousness which we have done must be our Justification though Grace received from above be conceived to enable us thereto yet are we under the Covenant of Do this wholly purely constantly and live Which if any man say he deceives himself 1 Jo. 1. 8 9 10. Bernard de Verbo Esa. Serm. 4. Disp. 204. cap. 2. The Phariseo himself by thanking God that he was not as other men may seem to acknowledge his works to have been from Grace infused yet we know how he was dismist Cap. 3. Primate of Ireland's Answer to the Jesuite In Tim. 1. 13. It is not said He has made us wise just and holy but He is made unto us Wisdom c. which is as if he had said He hath given himself unto us So Chrysost. on 1 Cor. 1. 30. Homil. 2. on Colof De Compunct Tom. 6. In Rom. 4. Hom. 8. * Viz. Abraham Annotat on Heb. 6. In Isa. lib. 17. Enchirid. cap. 41. Math. 5. 6. and 1 Cor. 1. 30. Expounded by Gregor Nyssen Serm. 61. in Cantic Quoted by the incomparable Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali cap. 28. fol. 369. Why must Jacob stand before his Father in the Garments of his elder Brother before he could have the blessing but to typifie the necessity of our being covered with Christ's righteousness who is the first born of his Father Serm. 1. de Annunciatione Tom. 3. de Sacra cap. 7. Primate of Ireland ut suprá Johannes Piâ—us the Bishop Interpreter of Mareus the Eremite rendring Not by the Proportion of works of Nature where the Original is Not by the Proportion of works of Faith is a gross falsifier Primate of Ireland pag. 502. Simpson of the Church Cent. 5. So Zosimus pretended a Decree of the Council of Nice which could never be found Davenant de Justit habituali cap. 29. Noted by Bellarmine himself lib. â—2 de Justifie cap. 1 2. pag. 124. Idem ut suprá Dr. Twisse his Resolutions of Conscience c. De Meritis bonorum operum Leofwin a Noble man gave two Towns in Essex to the Church of Ely to Expiate and make Satisfaction for the Murther of his own Mother Cambden fol. 440. The large English Impression So Alfrida the Relict of King Edgar built a Nunnery near Ambursbury haveing murthered Edward Cambden ut suprá fol. 254. The. Trent Faith is That Sacraments cause Grace not by the Devotion of him that worketh nor of him that receives the work but by virtue of the work it self Hist. of that Council fol. 230. Matrimony Absolution and Ordination Confirmation and Extreme Unction no Sacraments Primate of Ireland's answer to the Jesuit And since we find our Saviour himself Joh. 6. 63. affirming that the flesh profiteth nothing I shall not at all fear to say We ought to be satisfied with a spiritual Manducation Idem ibidem Qui discordat à Christo nec Carnem ejus manducat nec Sanguinem bibit c. Prosper ex Aug. Sent. 341. Tract 26. This must needs be a figurative speech why then not the other Epist. 23. Quaest. 37. in Levit Upon Matth. 15. Primate of Ireland pag. 67 68 69 70 In the time of Innocent 3. who made Otho Emperour and put by Frederick left to his Care by Henry his Father Simpson's Hist. fol. 371. Fol. 44. c. Davenant in Col. â—â— naturâ amore nobis conjunctior Tome 3. câ—nra Hâ—lvidium Origen bids us not to doubt but when we commit our selves to him who is God over all through Jesus Christ and desire of him the help and protection of those ministring Spirits that do his pleasure they shall all be propitious unto us In Col. 2. 18. Recorded by Famianus Strada de Bello Belgico Strada de Bello Belgico Letter 1. Psalt Bonavent Edict Paris 1596. Tom 5. in Rom. 1. See many more and very pregnant proofs in the Primate of Ireland p. 377. c. In Josue Hom. 16. Idem ibidem pag. 239. St. Hierom assures that the power of Miracles may be permitted to them that profess not the truth of the Gospel In Epist. ad Galat. Tom. 9. Tertullian in Praescriptionibus cap. 24. Du Moulin in his accomplishment of the Prophecies De cura pro mortuis cap. 10. De Lazaro conc pag. 235 236. Primate of Ireland pag. 396. How common is the conceipt now that departed souls do appear Basil. Seleuc. de miraculis Theclae cap. 10. Idem cap. 21. Idem cap. 24. all quoted by the Primate of Ireland in his Answer to the Jesuit pag. 397. Chapt. 9. pag. 337. Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge pag. 504. Loc. Theol. lib. 5. cap. 4. prope finem Epist. ad Johan de Hierusalym Tom. 1. Oper. Hieronym Epist 60. He had sure been instructed out of such Catechisms who refused to shoot at Buts on May day because it was he said a dear holy day and yet I found him the next Lords day with others at Slide-Groat Upon Tho. in his 3d. part quoted by the Primate pag. 499. De Bello Belgico lib. 5. Allen's Antidote pag. 13. Lib. 4. Cap. 26. Lib. 6. cap 24. In his Prefaces before the Kings and Proverbs De Civitate Dei In his Scholastical Hist. c. Epist. to the Reader Chrysost. upon 2 Cor. Homil. 13. Sin is not a Being but rather a defect of what should Be and hath for its efficient Cause nothing but a deficient Will Preston of Converting Grace pag. 15. If our Saviour knew that Sodom and Gomorrah had they enjoyed the same means as Chorazin and Bethsaida would have repented what can be said but their Final impenitencie was according to God's Will The Fall of Adam was not praeter Voluntatem Dei that were to make a lame Providence nor contra that were to make a weak Omnipotence but it was juxta and that leaves all the Attributes of God wrapt up by his Wisdom in their full power Augustin John 5. 21. That is the Will of the Creature failing in Obedience Mr. Case in a Sermon on Rom. 8. 28. And this is it which frees our Doctrine from all danger of working in men a secure or careless Presumption as it is no less ignorantly than maliciously aspersed by some since our evidence doth so much consist in the sincerity tho not in the perfection of Obedience Election may at length come to be known and thence assurance but Reprobation never Mr. Sheffeild Primate of Ireland in an Epistle publisht by Dr. Bernard Mr. Birkbeck in his Protestants Evidence Man is not active but passive in regeneration In repentance man is the doer complies with God in it and turns himself Ephes. 2. 1. Phil. 2. 13. That power of God which subjects a man to Christ comes not by moral perswasion only or violent impulses but is tempered to the disposition of the Will Lib. de gratia libero arbitr cap. 27. Mr. Gurnal's Christian in Compleat Armour part 2. pag. 526 527. 530. De Praedest Sanctorum Cyrus who was Christus Domini and therein but a shadow of Christus Dominus in this manner published his Proclamation Who is amongst you of all his people the Lord his God be with him let him go up Ezra 1. 3. Now they alone did follow this Call whose Spirits God had raised to go up But could those that stay'd still behind plead any thing but their love of slavery and idleness why they also went not up Vers. 5. This instance is by the Primate of Ireland brought in and applyed to our purpose in a Letter published by Doctor Bernard Jer. 32. 40. Rom. 8. 15 16. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Gal. 4. 6. Ephes. 1. 14. 1 John 2. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 5. 1 Joh. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 15. Jude vers 1. A late Treatise published by Mr. Calamy Doctor Sibbs at Grays Inn Chappel Vasquez Disput. Sasbout upon the place confesseth it 's meant of Abraham's second Justification that is of his Works done in Faith See Selater pag. 29. Or the Eyes and Judgments of others History of that Council fol. 197. In his Observations upon Religio Medici History of that Council fol. 237. Fol. 349. Faith does not consist in a belief that we do believe but in an affiance bottomed upon such Trials as Scripture holds out Progeny of Catholicks and Hereticks lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 80. For we will expect from them proofs both full and legitimate beyond those usually brought Ambrose on Rom. 1.
answered The difference laid only in the means of applying it and that not only faith but the exercise of all other vertues was that means I have already declared how this is attributed to the instrumentality of Faith it alone being that Grace which is capable of laying hold upon Christ held forth to the Soul in the promises of the Gospel and as it is a quality inherent it does not justifie no more than other Graces Now if all Papists would grant that only the Righteousness of Christ is to be brought before the Tribunal of Gods justice I should without any difficulty yield that all other vertues are inseparable adjuncts to Faith and admit them to the Office of applying as without which Faith has no such power nor indeed can at all subsist though not to the Office of justifying Cloath me but with the Garments of our Elder Brother so that nothing of my own may come in sight I shall be less sollicitous after what manner it be got on The Pelagians for all their Confession that they had their Souls and all the faculties of them their wills and all the abilities thereof from God yet could not free their Opinions touching free-Will from the just imputation of Heresie So the Church of Rome though she draw the fairest colours she can over her Doctrine of inherent Righteousness Merit thereby acknowledging the first rise of that power to be from God yet for as much as she places the formal Cause of Justification in a wrong place whilst that is made a quality within man cannot wipe off the Error of their Tenent which puts them under the Condition of Do this and Live never since the Fall required by God in the full extent thereof the perfect fulfilling and keeping all his Commandments yet this all Papists are obliged unto from any meer man For the Gospel in its Epitome was early preacht to Adam presently after his defection and so ran through the Administration under Moses whose Ordinances Sacrifices and Ceremonies were full of Representations of Christ as Believers are truly said to have imbraced the Promises Heb. 11. 15. to have drank of him 1 Cor. 10. 3 4. in those times and were not under the Covenant of Works But I am almost driven back into the Ocean when it 's time to bring my Bark to shore I will therefore draw in the Sails and strike Anchor only adding this Advertisement They have long since been invited by the Pen of a very modest and temperate Adversary to demonstrate That certain Articles of their Creed which surely are main ones in their esteem for they proclaim every Oppugner of them no less than Heretick were held for Orthodox during the first five hundred years after our Saviour Viz. 1. That there is a Treasury of Saints Merits and superabundant satisfactions to be disposed of by the Pope 2. That private Masses wherein the Priest says Edite bibite ex hoc omnes Eat and drink ye all of this yet eats and drinks only himself have their Authority from the practice of Christ or his Apostles 3. That the Laity are excluded from receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both kinds by Christs Institution 4. That the publique worship of God in the Church may or ought to be celebrated in an unknown Tongue 5. That the Popes Pardons are useful or necessary to release souls out of Purgatory 6. That extream Unction is a Sacrament properly so call'd 7. That we may adore God by an image 8. That the Pope cannot Err in matters of Faith If they have already made this out I pray you inrich me with the knowledge of it if they have not yet gone about it put them upon it and suspend your compliance with them till they have effected it But if they fail as I suspect they must of performing it what excuse can you have if you disclaim not their Communion who have so grosly abused the world with glorious nothings and meer pretences FINIS Part II. Some Rubs laid in the way of those Jehu's who at this time seem to drive-on so furiously which they must necessarily either remove or leap-over before they can arrive at the Supremacy or Infallibility of the Roman Church 1. IF those words Tu es Petrus vested him in an absolute preheminency over the rest Why did the Apostles afterwards ask which of them should be Chief And why did not our Saviour thereupon plainly satisfie them but chose so to determine the Question as to convince them of the vanity in that Enquiry Mark 9. 34 35. But if an infallible Judge in all Controversies were thereby to have been for ever introduced the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God would not have left a Point of so vast concernment to the whole World in all its successive Generations without a clear and evident Precept 2. From that minatory Exhortation Rom. 11. 18 19 20 21. we collect a possibility for it 's indifferently level'd at all Gentile Churches and particularly directed to Rome that no less She than any other may be cut off 3. Where St. Paul Gal. 2. magnifies his Office in reference to his Apostleship over the uncircumcision and seems to confine the jurisdiction of St. Peter within the limits of the Jewish Pale he ought rather without more to do if a succession of infallible truth to be derived from Cephas to the Chair of Rome had been foreknown by him to have directed our Eyes thither Again where Acts 20. 29 30 31 32. he sadly foretels the Church that after his departure grievous Wolves should enter in and amongst them many should arise speaking perverse things He adviseth them not to make in that case their addresses to him that should then happen to be St. Peter's Successour at Rome but commends them to the word of God's Grace to be built up and established by it 4. St. John an Evangelist and the beloved Disciple out-living Peter about thirty years should have ought subjection and obedience to Linus or Cletus if the primacy of Rome had risen out of St. Peter's ashes 5. The Apostles send from Jerusalem to Samaria Peter and John Acts 8. 14. which is not certainly any great sign of St. Peter's jurisdiction over the rest since the very best in a Nation are never sent out be the Embassage never so great or honourable and where those that seemed Pillars are named Cephas has but the second place 6. When that Article which relates to the Catholick Church was made a part of the Creed there was not a Bishop nor a form'd Church nor peradventureso much as any particular Christian at Rome 7. Ere ever Rome durst be so hardy Constantinople in the person of John her Bishop grasped at the Title of Universal which then was lookt at as so prodigious a Claim that for it Gregory the First pronounced whomsoever should aspire towards it Anti-Christian And good reason had he so to do since the third Council of