by Scriptures Fathers and Reason Out of the Scriptures he produceth three sorts of testimonies the first of these Which testifie that the law is not onely possible but also easie as first Mat. 11. 30. For my yoke is easie and my burden light Secondly 1 Ioh. 5. 3. And his Commandements are not grievous To the former I answere that by the yoke and burden of Christ wee are not to understand the yoke of the law exacting perfect obedience to bee performed by us unto justification or for default thereof subjecting us to the curse for this was the chiefe yoke of bondage which neither we nor our fathers were able to beare Act. 15. 10. From which our Saviour hath made us free but by the yoke and burden of Christ we are to understand his Law and Doctrine evangelicall which may bee reduced to two Heads the Law and Doctrine of faith the Law and Doctrine of obedience and that twofold the obedience of his precepts which is called our new obedience and Obedientia crucis which is the taking up and bearing our crosse The law of faith respâ—…cteth our justification the Doctrine of our new obedience respecteth our sanctification the obedience of the Crosse is Christian patience or Tolerantia crucis And these yokes or burdens Christ is it seemeth would have men comming unto him to take upon them by learning of him which argueth that by them Christs Doctrine or Discipline is meant that they might bee eased from those yokes under which they labour and those burdens under which they are wearied And these are of two sorts the guilt of sinne which is a most heavie yoke or burden under which the guilty conscience laboureth and the corruption of sin wherewith men being overladen are wearyed From the former men are freed in their justification by the law of faith which is easie and light Christ having taken our burden upon him For even as the Israelites in the wildernesse when they were bitten by the fiery serpents had no greater burden or taske laid upon them than to lift up their eyes towards the Brasen Serpent and were cured Even so wee when wee are stung by the old Serpent and labour under the guilt of sinne and desire to bee eased or cured thereof this charge our Saviour layeth upon us to lift up the eye of faith to him that was figured by the brasen Serpent and wee shall finde rest unto our soules From the second men are freed in their sanctification by Christs Law or doctrine of obedience both active and passive The active is our new obedience whereof as of sanctification there are two parts mortification whereby we dye to sinne and our vivification wherby we live to God both which the Doctrine of Christ doth teach Tit. 2. 11 12. The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all teaching us that we should renounce all ungodlinesse and wordly lusts there is mortification and that wee should live soberly and justly and holily in this present world there is our vivification So Ephes. 4. 20 21 24. Those that have learned Christ have been taught to be put off the old man and to put on the new § V. This yoake also is easie to the faithfull and this burden light First because the faithfull being freed from the terrour and coaction of the Law are enabled to obey God with willing minds as not being under the Law but under grace Secondly because as the Lord promised in the Covenant of grace which is the doctrine of the Gospell to give grace to the heires of promise wherby they are enabled to serve him with upright hearts and with willing and constant minds so doth he assist them with his grace making them both able and willing to worship him in holinesse and righteousnesse Thirdly because the new obedience required of us doth not consist in the perfect performance which the Lord doth not expect from such weakenesse as is in the best of us but in the sincere and upright desire purpose and endeavour to walke in obedience according to the measure of grace received Fourthly because our unperfect obedience is accepted of God in Christ and the wants thereof pardoned by the intercession of Christ who with the odours of his own sacrifice perfumeth the incense of our prayers and of other duties making them acceptable unto God And this was figured by that ceremony of the golden plate as I have shewed heretofore which the high priest who was a type of Christ was to weare in the foresront of the Miter with this inscription Holinesse of the Lord that is of the Messias who is IEHOVAH our righteousnesse to the end that Christ figured by the high priest might beare the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israell should hallow in all their holy gifts and it was alwaies to bee upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. Fifthly because if through humane frailty the flesh prevailing against the Spirit the faithfull doe at any time offend as in many things we all doe we have an Advocate with the Father Christ Iesus the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sinnes 1 Ioh. 2. 2. He sitting at the right hand of his Father maketh intercession for us Rom. 8. 34. Heb. 9. 24. § VI. Against the fourth reason Bellarmine taketh exception For whereas some of our Divines have taught as he saith that therefore it is called an easie yoake and light burden because of the remission of such offences as the faithfull commit he pusheth at them with this Dilemma That this remission or not imputation either taketh away the obligation of the Law so that the faithfull â—…hough they doe offend doe inâ—…urre no guilt or else doth not take away this obligation but that the faithfull contract the guilt which afterward is remitted If the former then saith hee it ceasseth to be a Law For it is no Law which doth not binde If the latter then it is a hard yâ—…ake and a heavy burden which cannot be borne To the former I answere that remission is of guilt contracted and therefore it is absurdly surmised that there should be remission where was no guilt To the latter that according to the Law of faith the guilt contracted is remitted to the faithfull returning unto God confessing their sinne and craving pardon in the name and mediation of Christ. Which proveth the Law of workes to bee an hard yoake and heavie burden but the Law of faith to be easie and light For by the Law of workes the guilt is contracted and by the Law of faith it is remitted § VII But the obedience of the Crosse also serveth to free us from the Corruption of sinne For hee that hath suffered in the flesh ceasseth from sinne And therefore David pronounced the man blessed whom the Lord chasteneth and teacheth out of his Law For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae nocent docâ—…nt Wee learne
maketh in the question of justification betweene grace and workes as that if wee bee justified by the one wee cannot be justified by the other but they might as well stand together as the first justification of the Papists which is habituall consisting in the habits of grace infused with the second which is actuall consisting in works or rather the one would infer the other because we cannot be justified by the one I speak of adulti without the other for if wee bee justified by inherent righteousnesse that righteousnesse must be totall and perfect and therfore both habituall and actuall and both must concur unto justification for neither without the other is perfect Object Yea but the Apostle when hee saith that faith doth justifie without workes hee speaketh of the first juâ—…ification unto which works doe not concurre and when hee opposeth grace to workes hee meaneth the works of the Law done before faith without grace by the power of nature Answ. This is all that the Papists have to excuse themselves that they doe not openly contradict the Apostle who so often and so peremptorily concludeth that wee are justified by grace and not by workes by faith without the workes of the Law But it is evident that by the workes of the Law is meant all that obedience and righteousnesse that is prescribed in the Law which is the perfect rule of all inherent righteousnesse And therefore when the workes of the Law are rejected all inherent righteousnesse is excluded from justification It is also manifest that the holy Ghost speaketh generally of all men whether in the state of nature or in the state of grace and of all workes whether going before or following after faith insomuch that the workes which wee have done in righteousnesse Tit 3. 5. are excluded yea the workes of faithfull Abraham are denied to have justified him before God And therefore those who have both faith and works are justified by faith without workes But these objectiots I shall fully satisfie in their due place § X. Sixthly whereas the Papists say that justifying grace is the same with charity I argue thus Charity is the fulfilling of the Law in our owne persons But wee are not justified by our fulfilling of the Law in our owne persons Gal. 2. 16. 3. 10 11. Therefore we are not justified by our charity and consequently not by grace inherent § XI Seventhly that the Apostle by grace in the articles of justification and salvation understood the gracious favour of God in Christ and not inherent grace appeareth both by his assention Rom. 5. 20. that where sinne abounded Gods grace did much more abound and by his question Rom. 6. 1. shall wee continue in sinne that grace may abound for it were a strange conceit that where sinne aboundeth inherent righteousnesse should abound so much the more And to these we may adde those places which speake of going to the throne of grace that we may obtaine mercie and find grace Heb. 4. 16. of the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Iesus Christ for by grace we are saved Eph. 2. 7. 8. of the grace of God and the gift of grace distinguished one from the other Rom. 5. 15. of those that beleeve by the grace of God Act. 18. 27. of commending men to the grace of God Act. 14. 26. 15. 40. of the word of his grace Act. 14. 3. 20. 32. of the Gospell of his grace Act. 20. 24. of the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ who being rich became poore for us 2 Cor. 8. 9. of our predestination to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1. 5 6. of the election of grace Rom. 11. 5. of the appearing of the grace of God which bringeth salvation Tit. 2. 11. of Christ his tasting of death for us by the grace of God Heb. 2. 9. of the reward not imputed of grace to him that worketh Rom. 4. 4. of turning the grace of God into wantonnesse Iud. 4. c. § XII Lastly so cleare is this truth which wee deliver according to the scriptures concerning justifying grace that Albertus Pighius a famous divine among the Papists doth confesse that what the Schoolemen teach concerning justifying grace that it is a quality in our soules infused of God and there remaining after the manner of an habit and that it is the same in substance with the habit of charity c. are meere devises of men having no warrant in the Scriptures Thomas Aquinas also writing on Tit. 2. 11. it is to bee knowne saith he that grace signifieth mercie and mercie alwayes was in God yet in respect of men in times past it lay hid but when Christ the Sonne of God appeared grace appeared and it may be said that in the Nativity of Christ grace appeared two wayes the former because by the greatest grace of God he was given unto us and upon this grace in the second place followed the instruction of mankind wherupon he saith teachingus c. Whereunto we may adde that those few places which Bellarmine alleageth for inherent grace are by some of their owne writers understood of the gracious favour of God as we shall shew in the particulars which now we are to examine CHAP. III. Bellarmines allegation for grace inherent out of Rom. 3. 24. proved to make against himselfe § I. BVt before I propound them I am to advertise the Reader that we do not deny that there are divers graces of sanctification and those also necessary to salvation as faith hope charity the feare of God c. inherent in the soules of the faithfull as divine qualities residing there per modum habitus So that Bellarmine in his booke de gratia lib. arbitr might well have spared his labour whereby he endeavoreth to prove such grace or graces to bee inherent in the soule which never any of us denyed But wee deny that gratia gratum faciens or justifying grace is inherent in us This therefore Bellarmine laboureth to prove lib. 2. de justif cap. 3. unto which in the other place hee doth referre us alleaging Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Iesus c. Answ. It cannot bee denyed but that the popish cause in this particular is very desperate when for the defence thereof they are able to alleage one onely place where grace is mentioned and that such a one as is a most pregnant testimony to prove free justification by faith onely without respect of any righteousnesse or grace inherent in us § II. And this is proved first by the context or coherence of these words with those which goe before For thus the Apostle reasoneth Those that bee in themselves sinners and by their sinne obnoxious to the judgement of God are not justified by righteousnesse inherent all which is prescribed in the Law but of necessity must be justified by a righteousnesse
either godly sorrow or repentance doth worke salvation But the Apostle saith that godly sorrow worketh repentance even such repentance as is a forerunner unto salvation or as the faithfull speake Act. 11. 18. That God had given the Gentiles repentance unto life and therefore such a repentance as was not to bee repented of For the Apostle seemeth to have relation unto his owne words verse 8. that he had repented that hee had made them sorry But when hee understood that their sorrow had brought forth in them repentance he did not repent thereof Repentance therefore which is unto salvation is indeed a necessary and undoubted forerunner of salvation and salvation a certaice consequent of repentance necessary I say because without it a sinner cannot bee saved Luke 13. 3. Undoubted because to whom God hath given grace truely to repent it is an infallible token that such an one shall be saved Acts 11. 18. but a cause of salvation it is not neither can bee unlesse hee meane Causa sine qua non § VII His fifth Testimony 2 Cor. 4. 17. For that our tribulation which presently is momentany and light worketh above measure exceedingly an eternall weight of glory in us What could bee spoken more plainely If patience in tribulation doth worke a weight of eternall glory who can deny but that there is some relation betweene patience and salvation Vnlesse perhaps to worke salvation be not to worke something or that upon the working there followeth no relation Answ. If the Apostle had said that patience in affliction doth worke an eternall weight of glory hee might from thence have had some colour that patience hath a relation of efficiency to salvation and yet but a colour But when the Apostle doth not once mention patience how could hee bee so confident as to aske what could bee spoken more plainely The Apostle speaketh of affliction both light and momentany and saith that it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worketh unto us an eternall weight of glory Here then wee are to consider in what sence affliction which in it selfe is evill and miserable should worke glory and happinesse being light should worke that which is most ponderous being momentany should worke that which is eternall whether as a cause properly and in it owne nature causing or working or as an occasion which besides or rather contrary to it owne nature which is evill is to us sanctified of God to be a meanes and occasion of our so great good And to this purpose let us consult with other places of holy Scripture as Rom. 5. 3 4. and Iam. 1. 12. In the former place the Apostle saith wee rejoyce in afflictions knowing that affliction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worketh patience and so Saint Iames 1. 3. Not that affliction in it selfe worketh patience but rather the contrary as appeareth in men unregenerate whom it maketh to murmure and sometimes to blaspheme God which the Divell by experience well knew when hee moved God to â—…fflict Iob Chap. 1. 11. 2. 5. Doe but touch all that he hath saith he and againe touch his bone and his flesh and hee will curse thee to thy face But afflictions are said to worke patience in the faithfull because the holy Ghost sanctifieth their afflictions to them and excercising them thereby worketh in them patience and what followeth Patience worketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probation that is as I have formerly expounded it maketh him that by affliction is tryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not that patience maketh him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that by patient bearing of affliction hee is found and knowne to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a sound approved and upright Christian. For therefore God sendeth tryals of all sorts that those who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may bee knowne Now when men have beene by patient bearing of afflictions found to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are crowned with eternall life as Saint Iames saith Chap. 1. 12. Blessed is the man who patiently beareth temptation that is affliction for when hee shall bee found to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee shall receive the Crowne of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The meaning therefore of this place is neither that affliction causeth patience nor patience salvation but that when the godly are afflicted the holy Ghost by affliction where with they are exercised worketh patience in them and patience worketh probation because by patience when they are tryed they are knowne to bee sound and approved and probation worketh hope of salvation For when upon try all men are found to bee approved they shall receive the Crowne of life which God hath freely promised to give them And it is to be observed that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated to worke is given not onely to causes but also to occasions And therefore in such places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie it occasioneth as when it it said Rom. 4. 15. the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worketh anger § VIII His sixth Testimony Rom. 8. 13. If by the Spirit yee mortifie the deeds of the flesh you shall live whence hee would prove That the mortification of carnall concâ—…piscence is necessary to salvation as a condition and cause and therefore hath relation to salvation from the conditionall particle If and from the antithesis of the words going before if you live according to the flesh you shall die Answ. The conditionall particle used in conditionall or connexive propositions alwayes pretendeth a necessity of consequence insomuch that the connexion if it bee not necessary is not absolutely true but the necessity of efficiency it implyeth none And as for the necessity of consequence that ariseth not onely from causes but from all other arguments And whereas from the Antithesis hee would prove that as to live according to the flesh causeth death so to mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit causeth life I answere that in both the parts the connexion or consequence is equally that is necessarily true for if it were not necessary it were not absolutely true but it is absolutely true because of the authority of the Scriptures which are infallible which is sufficient to make good the Antithesis But hence it followeth not that the condition of either part should be taken from the same arguments seeing it may bee taken from any other This sufficeth for the Antithesis that if by the Spiriâ—… ye mortifie the deeds of the flesh it is an evident argument that you shall live but if you live according to the flesh it is an evident argument that you shall dye therefore though the condition of the latter part bee the cause of the consequent yet it is not so in the former for sinne is the meritorious cause of damnation but our obedience being a duety and yet but unperfect cannot merit salvation A servant not doing his duety but the contrary is punished A
because with it concurre not onely all other inward graces but also our outward obedience § IX The righteousnesse by which wee are justified is not prescribed in the Law but without the Law is revealed in the Gospell the righteousnesse of God that is to say of Christ who is God apprehended by faith For the Law to justification requireth perfect and perpetuall obedience to bee performed by him in his owne person that should bee justified thereby which fince the fall of Adam hath beene and is by reason of the flesh impossible to all men who are descended from Adam by ordinary generation But the Gospell assureth justification without respect of workes to all that truely beleeve in Christ teaching that wee are justified by faith that is by the righteousnesse of Christ apprehended by faith without the workes of the Law that is without respect of any obedience prescribed in the Law and performed by us But the righteousnesse by which wee are sanctified is prescribed in the Law which is a most perfect rule of all righteousnesse inherent § X. Unto the act of justification our owne righteousnesse and obedience doe not concurre as any cause thereof but follow in the subject that is the party justified as necessary fruits of our redemption and justification Yea in the question of justification wherein is considered what that is by which wee are justified and saved in hope our owne righteousnesse and obedience if it should bee obtruded as the matter of our justification is to be esteemed as dung that we may bee found in Christ not having our owne righteousnesse which is prescribed in the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ. But in the question of sanctification that righteousnesse which is inherent in us and that obedience which is performed by us is all in all as being both that habituall and also actuall righteousnesse and holinesse wherein our sanctification doth consist § XI By our justification wee are entituled to Gods kingdome that is saved in hope by our sanctification we are fitted and prepared for Gods kingdome into which no uncleane thing can enter Iustification therefore is the right of Gods children to their inheritance Sanctification is the cognizance and marke of those that shall bee saved wherefore our Saviour saith that by faith wee have remission of sinnes and inheritance among them that are sanctified § XII The righteousnesse by which we are justified is the meritorious cause of our salvation But the righteousnesse by which we are sanctified is a fruit of our justification but no cause of our salvation unlesse you will call it causam sine quâ non which is no cause for we are neither saved by it nor for it but onely by and for the merits of Christ apprehended by faith But though it bee not the cause by or for which wee are justified or saved yet it is the way wherein wee being once justified are to walke towards our countrey in heaven Ephes. 2. 10. as Bernard well saith via regni non causa regnandi the way which leadeth to the kingdome but not the cause of comming unto it § XIII By our justification wee have our right and title to the kingdome of heaven but according to the duties of sanctification as the evidence shall the sentence of salvation bee pronounced at the last day § XIV We are justified by the grace of God as it signifieth onely his gracious love and favour in Christ. But wee are sanctified by Gods grace not onely as it signifieth the favour of God in himselfe but also as it signifieth the graces or gifts of grace infused into us and inherent in us § XV. In justification and in the parts thereof wee are meerely patients but in the duties of sanctification wee are also agents who being acted by the holy Ghost doe cooperate with him For which cause the holy Ghost in the Scriptures doth never exhort us to justification or the parts thereof viz. remission of sinne and acceptation of the beleever as righteous unto life as being the actions of God but to sanctification and the parts thereof he useth to exhort as to mortification Col. 3. 5. to vivification Ephes. 4.23,24 to both Ezek. 18.31 § XVI The acts of faith are of two sorts some tending to justification some to sanctification The former are immediate which are called actus eliciti which it bringeth forth of it selfe without the mediation of any other grace that is to beleeve in Christ by beleeving to receive him and by receiving him to justifie the beleever and therefore faith doth justifie alone The other mediate which it bringeth forth by the meanes of other graces which are called actus imporati and are the fruits of faith working by love and other graces tending to sanctification Thus faith by love worketh obedience and therefore it dtoh not sanctifie alone § XVII Of justification the Apostle treateth in the five first chapters of the Epistle to the Romanes of sanctification in the sixth and seventh § XVIII Our Saviour Christ the blessed Angels Adam in his integrity were sanctified but not justified properly For justification onely is of sinners and consisteth partly in remission of sinnes § XIX Of this difference betweene justification and sanctification the Papists will by no meanes take notice though it bee manifold and manifest But will needs understand justification to be that which wee according to the Scriptures call sanctification And this is the very ground both of their malitious calumniations against us and also of their owne damnable errours concerning justification For as if we also did confound justification and sanctification they charge us as if wee taught that wee are sanctified by faith alone that wee are formally made just or sanctified by a righteousnesse which is without us c. But if wee did hold that justification were to bee confounded with sanctification we would acknowledge that the most things which the Papists affirme concerning justification are true because they are true of sanctification As namely that wee are not sanctified by faith alone that we are sanctified by a righteousnesse inherent in us and performed by us that it is partly habituall consisting in the habits of grace as faith hope charity c. and partly actuall which is our new obedience consisting in good workes which are the fruits and effects of our faith and charity and other inward graces That of sanctification there are degrees and that by exercise and practice of the duties of holinesse and righteousnesse our sanctification is encreased c. § XX. What then Is the difference betweene us and the Papists in this great controvefie onely in words Nothing lesse For as their confounding of justification and sanctification is the ground of their calumniations against us so of their owne errours For confounding justification and sanctification first they confound the Law and the
Gal. 1. 1. Heb. 7. 21. to the Sonne Ioh. 1. 3. Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 6 c. to the holy Ghost Rom. 5. 5. 1 Cor. 12. 8 9. And to omit other examples which are innumerable to the attributes of God which are the prime motive causes of all his actions as by the will of God 1 Cor. 1. 1. Eph. 1. 1. Col. 1. 1. Rom. 5. 32. 2 Cor. 8. 5. by the grace of Iesus Christ wee shall bee saved Act. 15. 11. who beleeved by Grace Act. 18. 27. called by his grace Galath 1. 15. by the tender mercies of our God Luk. 1. 78. Thirdly to Bellarmine in this place denying the preposition per to be rightly applied to the efficient cause I oppose Bellarmine in the twelfth chapter of the same booke affirming that the particle per doth signifie the cause efficient as Pro. 8. per me Reges regnant c. His third argument The good will of God cannot bee in vaine but alwayes performeth and worketh that good which hee willeth to any For whatsoever he willeth that he doth Psal. 115. 3 c. Answ. All this is true in respect of his will decreeing any thing which is absolute and is called voluntas beneplaciti but not in respect of his will prescribing or requiring any thing which is conditionall and is called voluntas signi of which will the Apostle speaketh in the place cited by Bellarmine 1 Th. 4. 3. This is the wil of God even your sanctification Otherwise by Bellarmines argument all men should bee holy because as hee saith God would have them truely just and holy Therfore saith he if justifying grace be the favour and goodwill of God and God doth not favour nor wish well in vaine but maketh us holy and blamelesse such as he would have us to bee then it followeth that to be justified by grace is not onely to bee reputed just and not to bee so but to be truly just holy and blamelesse Answ. This argument doth not prove the particular point for which it is brought namely that by grace is meant grace inherent and not the gracious favour of God But if it were ought worth it would serve to prove the maine question that although grace did signifie the favour of God when it is said that wee are justified by his grace yet this place would prove that wee are also made just by grace inherent For whom the Lord favoureth and wisheth well unto his benevolence is not in vaine to him but to whom hee willeth good hee worketh it making them truely just and holy whom by his grace hee justifieth For hee hath elected us that wee might bee holy Eph. 1. 4. and this is his will our â—…anctification All this wee freely confesse that whom God justifieth he maketh just first by imputation and truly and perfectly as hee justifieth secondly by infusion as hee sanctifieth But the Papists must at length learne to distinguish betwixt justification and sanctification For as wee have said before wee are justified by grace as it signifieth the gracious favour of God onely but wee are sanctified not onely by his gracious favour as the efficient but also by his graces infused and inherent in us as the matter § V. His fourth argument consisteth of sixe slender proofes put together which are scarce worth the answering That justifying grace â—…aith hee is not onely the favour of God but a gift inherent in the soule it may bee understood by the divers attributes and names thereof As first that it is called a gift a gift which wee receive a gift given by Christ a gift given by measure Secondly that it is compared to essence Thirdly that it is compared to light To the first I answere that the gracious love and favour of God is said in the scriptures to bee given that is vouchsafed unto us even the grace whereby wee were elected and predestinated to the adoption of children according to the good pleasure of his will by which wee are called justified and saved 2 Tim. 1. 9. God hath saved and called us with an holy calling not according to our workes but according to his owne purpose and grace which grace was given us in Christ Iesus before secular times having thereby graciously accepted us in his beloved Eph. 1. 6. Behold saith Saint Iohn how great love the Father hath given us that wee should be called the children of God 1 Ioh. 3. 1. For to so many as received Christ hee gave power to bee the sonnes of God even to them that beleeve in his name Ioh. 1. 12. § VI. Yea but it is such a gift as wee doe receive Very like for giving and receiving are relatives and therefore what God giveth us we doe receive namely as hee giveth it but hee doth not give all things by infusion and therefore hereof it doth not follow that what we receive in inherent but that onely which hee giveth by way of infusion Now hee hath vouchsafed us his grace whereby hee elected redeemed adopted justified us not by infusion but by acceptation in Christ which grace wee receive by the hand of faith and whom hee hath graciously accepted in his beloved they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made partakers of that grace which notwithstanding is in God and not in them But let us consider his proofe Rom. 5. 11. receiving the abundance of grace and of the gift os righteousnesse Answ. By grace here is meant gracious favor neither doth the Apostle here say the gift of grace but the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnesse For where these two are joyned together grace and gift grace signifieth gracious favour the gift of grace the fruit and effect of that favour being some benefit bestowed whether reall or relative The former is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace of God the latter is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is prooved out of the 15. verse where is mention both of the grace of God and of the gift by grace and that which is here called the abundance of grace and vers 15. the abounding grace is elsewhere called the superabundant riches of his grace Ephes. 2. 7. that is of his gracious favour which in the same Chapter to the Romans vers 20. is said to have superabounded where sinne did abound which without great absurdity cannot bee understood of grace inherent Neither is the gift of grace or of righteousnesse here mentioned inherent but this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which came upon us to justification is opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilt which came upon all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto condemnation that is to say the merit of Christs obedience opposed to the guilt of Adams fall as the whole context doth prove But as wee were made sinners by Adams fall the guilt thereof being imputed unto us so we are made righteous by Christs obedience the merit thereof being imputed unto us §
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good works but that wherby he loveth us § V. Now let us come to the words which follow which as Cornelius à Lapide confesseth Valde favent doe very much favour our exposition wherein the Apostle sheweth how this love of God whereon our hope c. is grounded is both manifested and assured unto us It is manifested by this verse 6. that when wee were of no strength yea dead in our sinnes the Son of God dyed for us for so saith the Apostle Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in mercie for his great love wherewith he loved us even when wee were dead in our sinnes hath quickened us together with Christ by whose grace wee are saved which wonderfully setteth forth the love of God towards us for scarcely as it is vers 7. for a righteous man will one dye And greater love no man hath than this that a man lay downe his life for his friend Ioh. 15. 13. But God saith the Apostle vers 8. commendeth his love towards us even that love mentioned verse 5. in that whiles wee were yet sinners and by our sinnes his enemies Christ dyed for us It is assured by an argument from the lesse to the greater For if when we were sinners we were redeemed and justified by the bloud of Christ much more being justified wee shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne much more being reconciled wee shall bee saved by his life I conclude therefore that notwithstanding the testimony of Augustine which as himselfe confesseth deserveth no credit further than it is warranted by the authority of Gods word or sound reason by the love of God in this place is meant Gods love towards us I come to his two other arguments § VI. The former which is a very weake one is by paralleling that place with Rom. 8. 15. For saith hee the same Apostle speaking of the same spirit given unto us saith You have received the Spirit of adoption of sonnes by which we cry Abba Father Now saith hee wee cry Abba Father by that charity whereby we love God not by that whereby he loveth us Which reason if it bee reduced into a syllogisme will not conclude his assertion but the erroneous opinion of Lombard the master of sentences which Bellarmine himselfe elsewhere confuteth namely that the charity whereby wee love God is the holy Ghost That whereby wee cry in our hearts Abba Father is the holy Ghost By that charity wherewith wee love God we cry in our hearts Abba Father Therefore that Charity wherewith wee love God is the holy Ghost This conclusion Bellarmine knoweth to bee false Therefore either the proposition is false or the assumption for it is impossible that a false conclusion should bee inferred from true premisses in a formall syllogisme as this is But the proposition is the Apostles both Rom. 8. 15. and Gal. 4. 6. therefore the assumption is false Neither is charity that fruit of the holy Ghost whereby the Spirit of adoption causeth us to cry Abba Father but faith For although by charity wee may bee declared or knowne to bee the sonnes of God yet wee become the sonnes of God not by charity but by faith Ioh. 1. 12. Gal. 3. 26. And consequently not by charity but by faith wrought in us by the Spirit of adoption testifying with our Spirits that wee are the sonnes of God the said spirit maketh us to cry in our hearts Abba Father § VII His second proofe is out of Rom. 8. 10. where it is said that by justifying grace we doe live The body indeed is dead by reason of sinne Spiritus autem vivit propter justificationem as the vulgar Latine readeth but the Spirit liveth because of justification But wee cannot well be said to live by the externall favour of God seeing nothing is more inward than life Answ. In this argument nothing is sound for first it proveth not the point for which it is brought viz. that by the love of God Rom. 5. 5. is meant our love of God Neither is it said Rom. 8. 10. that wee live by justifying grace for neither is justifying grace mentioned but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice neither is it said that we live by it though it bee true that by justifying faith we live but that the Spirit is life propter justificationem for or by reason of righteousnesse And further it is well said that our Spirit liveth the spirituall and eternall life by the gracious favour of God which is out of us in him by which wee are saved as also for and by reason of the righteousnesse and merits of Christ which also are out of us in him Neither doth it follow that because life is inward that therefore it propter quod for which or by reason whereof wee doe live should also be inward § VIII But to let passe his impertinent allegation of this place and to explaine the true meaning thereof which is to set downe in this verse and that which followeth two priviledges of those in whom Christ dwelleth by his Spirit the one in respect of the soule vers 10. that howsoever by reason of sinne the body is dead that is mortall or subject to death yet the soule is life that is designed unto life by reason of righteousnesse The other in respect of the body vers 11. that if Christ dwell in us by his Spirit then hee which raised up Christ from the dead shall also by the same Spirit quicken that is raise up unto life eternall our mortall bodies Now as our bodie is dead that is subject to death by reason of Adams sinne in whom as the roote all sinned so our soule is life or intituled to life by reason of Christs righteousnesse in whom as our head wee satisfied the justice of God The sinne of the first Adam and the righteousnesse of the second being both communicated unto us by imputation And this is all that Bellarmine hath alleaged to prove that justifying grace is inherent all which is as good as nothing CAP. VI. The use of the word Grace in the writings of the Fathers § I. HAving shewed how the word grace is used in the Scriptures something is to be added concerning the use thereof in the writings of the Fathers whose authority the Papists are wont to object against us Howbeit as in the Scriptures so also in the Fathers there are two principall significations of the word Grace the one proper signifying the gracious favour of God in Christ by which they acknowledge us to be elected called justified and saved The other metonymicall signifying the gift of grace and namely the grace of regeneration or sanctification which in the Scriptures is called the Spirit opposed to the flesh and the new Man or new creature which is renewed and as it were recreated according to the Image of
God in true holinesse and righteousnesse Of this grace of sanctification there is more frequent mention in the Fathers who wrote against the Pelagians than of the other Because the Pelagians acknowledging the grace of God in forgiving sinnes which is indeed the justifying and saving grace they had not the like occasion to insist upon the declaration and proofe thereof as they had of the other which the Pelagians denyed § II. Of whose errors in this point there were foure degrees For first they acknowledge no other inward grace of God but bonum naturae the possibility of nature and the power of free-will which because it is freely given of God without any precedent merits of ours they acknowledged to bee Gods grace In the second place they acknowledged the grace that is the gracious favour of God in forgiving sinnes but the inward vertue avoid sinnes and to walke in obedience they ascribed to the power of nature Thirdly for our direction and instruction how and what sinnes to avoid and how and what duties to performe they acknowledged Gods grace in teaching and instructing us by his word and by his law Fourthly they acknowledged after a sort the helpe of grace for the more easie performance of their duties but they denied the necessity thereof because without grace they being directed by the word were able of themselves though not so easily to fulfill the Law § III. These three latter degrees are condemned by so many decrees of the Councell of Milevis among which this is one denouncing Anathema against such as shall say that the grace of God whereby wee are justified through our Lord Iesus Christ doth availe onely to remission of sinnes which are already committed and not for a helpe that we may not commit them unto which rightly understood we doe subscribe acknowledging that by the same grace of God by which we were elected redeemed called reconciled adopted justified wee are also sanctified For wee professe that our blessed Saviour was given unto us of God not onely to bee our justification and redemption but also to be our Sanctification And we doe acknowledge that in the Covenant of grace the Lord hath not onely promised remission of sinnes to those that beleeve in Christ but hee hath also sworne that he will give us being redeemed and having remission of sinne to worship him in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the daies of our life And therefore we do also willingly subscribe to those sentences of Augustine which Gratian hath transcribed into the third part of his decree No man taketh away sinnes but Christ alone who is the Lambe of God taking away the sinnes of the world Now he taketh them away both by forgiving those that are already committed among which originall sinne is contained and also by helping that they bee not committed and by bringing us unto life where they cannot bee committed at all And againe the grace which by our Lord Iesus Christ is given is neither the knowledge of the divine Law neither nature nor remission of sinnes alone but it felfe also causeth that the Law be fulfilled that nature be freed that sinne raigne not And this I presume is as much as can truely bee alleaged out of the Fathers For seeing they doe hold as wee shall hereafter shew justification by faith onely it cannot bee imagined that they held justification properly understood by inherent graces unlesse wee can imagine that they thought there is no inherent grace but faith onely § IV. But howsoever the Fathers may be excused who opposing the errors of the Pelagians which oppugned the sanctifying grace did much insist upon the declaration the proofe and the amplification thereof oftner speaking of this gift of grace which was oppugned than of the gracious favour of God in forgiving of sinnes which the Pelagians did confesse yet the backsliding posterity cannot bee excused and that in three respects For first they leave out altogether the proper signification of grace which is most frequent in the holy Scriptures as if there were no other grace to bee acknowledged but that which is inherent Secondly they take away that grace of remission which the Pelagians did confesse and in the roome thereof they have brought in an utter deletion or abolition of sinne caused by the infusion of grace Thirdly that grace which they would seeme so much to magnifie is not much better acknowledged by them than it was by the Pelagians For first they doe not acknowledge it to be a quickning and reviving grace to them that are dead but an healing grace to the sicke and a helping grace to the weake And by how much they extoll the power of nature and lessen the foulenesse of originall sinne so much they extenuat the benefit of grace and are as well as the Pelagians worthily termed the enemies of Gods grace Secondly there seemeth to be little or no difference betweene the Pelagians bonum Naturae which they acknowledged to bee Gods grace and that sufficient grace which the Papists hold to be common to all Thirdly neither is there any great difference betweene them in respect of that grace whereby men are called For the Pelagians acknowledged the great grace of God in revealing his will unto us and in directing us what to doe and what to beleeve and withall confessed that God doth worke in us to will by revealing his will to us And what doe the Papists acknowldge more but that God having called us by his word and moved us to turne unto him it is in the power of our free-will either to accept Gods effectuall grace or to refuse it But this belongeth to another controversie A TREATISE OF IV STIFICATION THE FOVRTH BOOKE Of the Matter of Justification CAP. I. The state of the question concerning the matter of justification it being the principall point in controversie § I. THE third Capitall errour of the Papists in the question of justification is concerning that righteousnesse whereby we are justified where for prevention of Popish calumniations I must desire the Reader to remember three things First that the controversie is not concerning our Sanctification but concerning our Iustification For wee confesse that our habituall sanctification consisteth in our righteousnesse inherent and actuall in our new obedience Secondly that the question is not of our justification before men but before God For we acknowledge that we are justified that is declared and knowne to be just not onely by profession of the faith but also by good workes as Saint Iames teacheth Thirdly that wee doe not deny that there is a righteousnesse in the faithfull as Bellarmine falsly chargeth us For we professe that there is no faithfull or justified man in whom there is not inherent righteousnesse more or lesse according to the measure of grace received And further we professe that this righteousnesse which we have from God and is inherent in us is graciously both
onely Twelfthly In his fortie five sermon which by some is attributed to Maximus who lived after him forty yeares to the penetent thiefe it sufficeth ad innocentiam Domino credidisse to make him innocent that he beleeved in the Lord. Thirteenthly Another testimony of Ambrose recorded by Gratian that the grace of God in baptisme requireth neither mourning nor any worke sed solam fidem omnia gratis condonat but faith alone and forgiveth all freely XI Hierome or what other Writer no lesse ancient was the Authour of the commentaries on Paul's Epistles in very many places teacheth justification by faith alone Bellarminâ—… saith that Pelagius was the Authour of those Commentaries But this appeareth to be false by those places which S. Augustine citeth out of the commentaries of Pelagius in his three first chapters of his third booke De peccatorum meritis remissione I deny not but that divers sentences are found in those Commentaries rankely savouring of the Pelegian heresie as well as in the writings of other ancient Fathers either because before the Pelagian herâ—…sie was spred they wrote more caresly of those points or rather because the Pelagian hereticks did corrupt their writings which Possevin himselfe suspecteth might have happened to this author These Commentaries doe seeme to have been in great account in the Church above 1100 yeares agoe in that Sedâ—…lius in his Collectanea and sometimes by name as 1 Cor. 7. 37. And Primasius in his Commentaries on the Epistles were not ashamed to borrow store of annotations out of these Commentaries as in other points so in this which I have in hand as may appeare by collation of those which I shall cite out of them The Author of the ordinary glosse who lived eight hundred yeers ago every where citeth them under the name of Hierome For my part I suspect that Bâ—…llarmine and other Papists doe not so much distaste this Writer for comming too neere the Pelagians as for his too much departing from themselves I meane especially in this question of justification freely by the grace of God through faith alone in Christ to which purpose there are more frequent and more pregnant testimonies in these Commentaries than in any other work of the like quantity of any ancient writer whatsoever and although these Commentaries have beene interpolated by the Pelagian hereticks yet those testimonies which I shall alleage for Iustification by faith alone the Papists themselves will free from suspicion of Pelagianisme Thus therefore he writeth First in Ro. 1. 16. on those words Iudaeo c. sive quod justum fuerit ut quomodo Abraham credens ex Gentib per solam primum fidem salvatus est ita caeteri credentes salvarentur Sedulius hath the same but leaveth out the word primum Secondly In Rom. 4. 3 Tam magna fuit fides Abrahae ut pristinaâ—…i peccata donarentur sola pro omni justitia doceretur accepta Thirdly in Rom. 4. 5. Convertentem impium per solam fidem justificat Dâ—…us And upon those words which are there sound in the Latine edition secundum propositum gratiae Dei Fourthly Qui proposuit gratis per solam fidem peccata dimittere Fifthly In Rom. 4. 11. Vt omnes qui ex Gentibus credunt filii sint Abrahae dum illis sola fides ad justitiam reputatur Sixthly In Rom. 5. 1. Ostendit quod fides faciat filios Abrahae qui ex sola prima fide justificatus est Seventhly In Rom. 8. 28. secundum propositum secundum quod proposuit sola fide salvare quos praesciverat credituros Eighthly In Rom. 10. 3. Ignorantes quòd Deus ex sola fide justificat justos se ex legis operibus quam non custodiunt esse putantes noluerunt se remissioni subjicere peccatorum ne peccatores fuisse viderentur Et in Roman 10. 5. Ninthly Moses distinxit in Levitico inter utramque justitiam fidei scillicet atque factorum quòd altera operibus altera sola fidei credulitate accedente fiat Tenthly In Rom. 10. 10. Ergo si fides sufficit ad justitiam confessio ad salutem inter Iudaeum Gentilem credentes nulla discretio est 11. In 2 Cor. 5. 19. Non reputans illis delicta ipsorum hoc est per solam fidem cognoscens read ignoscens or as Primasius indulgens 12. In Gal. 1. 12. Neque a me confinxi neque ab ullo homine accepi quòd Gentes sola fide salvarentur 13. In Gal. 2. 14. Non ex operibus legis sed sola fide sicut Gentes vitam in Christo invenisse te nosti 14. In Gal. 2. 17. Si enim Gentes fides sola non salvat nec nos quia ex operibus nâ—…mo justificatur 15. In Gal. 2. 20. In fide viva filii Dei in sola fide quia nihil debeâ—… legi antiquae 16. In Gal. 3. 6. Abraham credidit Deo reputatum est illi adjustitiam ita vobis ad justitiam sola sufficit Fides unto justice Faith only sufficeth 17. In Gal. 3. 11. In legeâ—… nemo justificatur quia nemo illam serval Let the Papists note that point of Pelagianisme ideo dictum est quòd sola fide justificandi essent 18. In Gal. 3. 14. Vt sola fide Gentes benedicerentur in Christo sicut prâ—…missum fuerat Abrahae 19. In Gal. 3. 26. Aequaliter Iudaei Gentes per solam fidem filii Dei estis quia credidistis Christâ—… 20. In Eph. 2. 8. Gratia estis salvati per fidem non meritis prioris vitae sed sola fide 21. In Eph. 2. 15. Per solam fidem justificans 22. In Phil. 3. 9. Non habens meam justitiam hoc est meo labore quae sitam sed illam quae ex fide c. sed illam quae à Deo propriè sola fide collata est Christianis XII Chrysostome In Rom. 1. 17. thou obtainest righteousnesse not by sweat and labour but receivest it by gift from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bringing one thing onely from within viz. to beleeve nothing therefore in us doth concurre to the act of justification but onely faith Secondly In Rom. 3. 27. What is the Law of faith to save by grace here he sheweth the power of God that he hath not onely saved but also justified and brought into glorying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that not requiring workes but seeking faith onely Thirdly In Rom. 4. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not possible to be saved otherwise than by faith Fourthly In Rom. 8. 24. This one gift have wee brought to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beleeve him promising things to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by this onely way we are saved Fifthly In Gal. 3. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith sufficed Abraham to righteousnesse Sixthly In Gal. 3. 8. They the justitiaries said he that adhereth to faith alone is accursed but Paul sheweth
respect of the almes which it doth receive And yet I doe not conceive that therefore the hand and the almes be relatives But we confesse that justifying faith is not without his object yet that object by apprehenâ—…ing wherof it 〈◊〉 justifie relâ—…tively is not righteousnesse inherent as here Bellarmine against his owne conscience doth suggest but the righteousnesse of Christ by which wee are justified betweene which and faith there is such a relation that as justifying faith is called the faith of Christ or faith in Christ faith in his bloud so the righteousnesse of Christ by which wee are justified is called the righteousnesse of faith And further I confesse that whosoever is justified by righteousnesse imputed is also in some measure just by righteousnesse inherent though he be not justified before God thereby But whereas he saith that wee will easily admit this argument that where faith is there is also inherent justice and consequently that justifying faith cannot be severed from other virtues because wee teach that by every sinne faith is lost I doe much marvell at his impudency for though he and his consorts doe wickedly teach that by every act of infidelity faith is lost yet wee are so farre from granting that faith is lost by every sinne that we confidently hold that true justifying faith is never totally or finally lost by any sinne whatsoever that is incident to the faithfull and regenerate man Some indeed have taught that by hainous offences which doe vastare conscientiam waste the conscience faith is lost yet that is farre from saying it is lost by every sinne Secondly againe saith he if faith doth justifie relatively then it cannot be in a mans minde but justice also must be there and without love there is no justice Answ. Without love there is no justice inherent but that is not it to which faith when it justifieth hath relation but that which faith having justified us bringeth forth in us as a consequent of justification Thirdly moreover saith he if faith severed from all other virtues doe justifie alone then it may also justifie being accompanied with those vices which are contrary to those virtues But this cannot be imagined that a man should be justified and yet remaine a wicked man Answ. If by vices he understand certaine vicious dispositions which though they doe not reigne in the faithfull yet remaine in them as their infirmities I confesse that justifying faith may and doth stand with such But if he meane the contrary habits of sinne which reigne in the hearts of the wicked and impenitent sinners I professe that justifying faith cannot stand with such For where these doe reigne the man is wholly unregenerate and where regeneration is not there faith which by regeneration is wrought cannot be It is therefore against the nature and being of a true justifying faith to harbour in a soule unregenerate § IV. To this argument he saith we answere that they assume that which is impossible viz. that faith may be alone which I beleeve not to have beene the answere of any of our Doctors for a man arguing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may suppose that which is impossible and yet the argument be of no lesse force But our assertion that faith cannot be alone which before I have made good in the second Chapter of this booke and defended against Bellarmines objections Chap. 3. hee laboureth here to take away by three reasons first by cavilling with Luther and Calvin First Luther saith that faith justifieth both before and without Charity I rejoyne it justifieth before because in order of nature it goeth before without because though Charity be present with it yet it justifieth without it even as the eye though the eare be with it yet seeth without it Secondly Calvin saith that the seed of faith remaineth in the greatest falles of the faithfull and therefore without Charity I rejoyne Calvin saith no more than S. Iohn doth that the seed of God doth alwaies remaine in those that are borne of God which seed of God is as well the seed of Charity as of Faith and both the one and the other remaine in the greatest fals of Gods children as wee see in Peter in whom though he fell most grievously in denying and sorswearing his Lord yet the seeds yea the habits of faith and love did remaine as I have proved elsewhere Secondly saith he because our argument assumeth not that faith may be alone but that if faith did justifie alone it would doe so though it were alonâ—… this reason doth not confute our assertion that faith cannot be alone but taketh away that answere which he falsely I thinke assigneth to us But this consequence of his I have denied and disproved His third reason which is but the second to disprove our assertions if it bee true saith he that true faith is never alone then it is because faith begetteth those other graces even as a good Tree bringeth forth good fruit And if this were so then faith should goe before love and other graces if not in time yet in nature But faith cannot be conceived to be in nature before justification or justice infused or those graces wherein justification consisteth because these are relatives as they say God justifying and faith receiving justification for relatives are simulnatura c. Answ. The relatives that we meane are Christs righteousnesse imputed of God and faith apprehending or receiving it which though they bee simul natura in respect of the one to the other yet both of them are before the other graces in order of nature But if justifying faith be before charity and there be no righteousnesse without charity then saith he the same man may be just and not just at the same time Answ. It followeth not For though in order of nature faith be before love 1 Tim. 1. 5. yet in time they goe together Neither is that such an absurdity as he imagineth that the same man at the same time should be a sinner in himselfe and righteous in Christ a sinner according to the Law because he hath broken it but righteous according to the Gâ—…spell because in Christ he hath fulfilled the Law Christ being the end of the Law to every one that beleeveth Insomuch that every one that beleeveth in Christ is reputed as if he had fulfilled the Law Lastly because saith he it is false which they hold that faith cannot be severed from Charity and other virtues and this he taketh upon him to prove in the next Chapter unto which I have fully answered in the second question concerning the nature of faith CHAP. XIV Bellarmines third principall argument from the removall of those causes which may be given why faith doth justifie alone § I. HHis third principall argument is taken from the removall of those causes he meaneth reasons which may be given why faith alone doth justifie All which as he saith may be reduced
to three heads The first is the authority of Gods word For if the Scriptures any where expresly say that faith alone doth justifie it must he beleeved though no other cause could be rendred The second is the will of God justifying namely because it hath pleased God to grant justification upon the onely condition of faith The third is the nature of faith it selfe because it is the properâ—…y of faith alone to apprehend justification and to apply it unto us and to make it ours Besides these I have rendred other causes the chiefe and principall whereof is this because we are justified not by any righteousnesse inherent in our selves but onely by the righteousnesse of Christ which being out of us in him is imputed onely to them that beleeve and is received onely by faith § II. But these three causes or reasons which he mentioneth will not easily be remov'd the first the authority of the Scriptures this being the maine doctrine of the Gospell Yea but saith Bellarmine it is no where said in expresse termes that faith alone doth justifie when we saith he have expresse termes that a man is justified by workes and not by faith onely Iam. 2. 24. Answ. To the place in the Epistle of Iames I shall answere fully in his due place Onely here I say thus much That Saint Iameâ—… speaketh not of the justification of a sinner before God by which he is made or constituted just of which our question is but of that whereby a just man already justified before God may be approved declared and knowne both to himselfe and others to be just And that the Apostle Iames speaketh not either of workes as causes but as signes of justification or of the habit of true faith but of the profession of faith or faith professed onely and concludeth that a man is justified that is knowne and approved to be just not onely by the profession of the true faith but by workes also a godly conversation being as it were the life and soule of the profession and without which it is dead But though in expresse tearmes it be not said in so many words and Syllables that faith doth justifie alone yet this doctrine is by most necessary consequence deduced from the Scriptures And what may by necessary consequence be deducted out of the Scriptures that is contained in the scriptures as all confesse Wherunto may be added that the Fathers so conceived of the doctrine of the scriptures who with one consent as you have heard have taught according to the scriptures that by faith we are justified alone And the Papists must remember that by oath they are bound to expound the scriptures according to the coÌ„sent of the fathers § III. Now that this doctrine is contained in the Scriptures I have plentifully proved before and something here shall bee added There are but two righteousnesses onely mentioned in the Scriptures by which wee can bee justified either that which is prescribed in the Law which is a righteousnesse inherent in our selves and performed by our selves or that which is taught in the Gospell which is the righteousnesse of Christ inherent in him and performed for us The former is the righteousnesse of the Law or of workes the latter is the righteousnesse of faith A third righteousnesse by which wee should bee justified cannot be named And betweene these two there is such an opposition made in the Scriptures that if wee bee justified by the one we cannot by the other If therefore the Scriptures teach that wee are justified by faith and not by workes it is all one as if they said that wee are justified by faith alone If it bee all one to say by faith and not by the workes of the Law or by faith alone then saith Bellarmine I demand whether all workes and every Law be excluded or not For if all workes be excluded then faith it selfe which Ioh. 6. 29. is the worke of God and if every Law then the Law of faith and consequently faith it selfe and so to be iustified by faith shal be nothing else but to be justified without faith Answ. it is plaine that by the Law is meant the Law of workes and by the workes of the Law all that obedience which is prescribed in the Law Now in the Law which is the perfect rule of righteousnesse all inherent righteousnesse is prescribed Then saith Bellarmine faith it selfe and the act of faith is excluded from the act of justification I answere first in this question the Apostle opposeth faith to workes and therefore faith is not included under workes Secondly faith as it is either an habit or an act and so part of inherent righteousnesse doth not justifie but as hath beene said relatively in respect of the object which being received by faith doth justifie as it was the brâ—…sen serpent apprehended by the eye which did heale and not the eye properly § IV. Againe the Scriptures teach that we are justified gratis gratiâ per sanguinem Christi per fidem Gratis that is freely without respect of any good workes done by us no not by the workes of righteousnesse which wee have done Tit. 3. 5. but by his meere grace and favour when we had deserved the contrary through the bloud and alone satisfaction of Christ received onely by faith To the word gratis Bellarmine answereth that it excludeth our owne merits which indeed can be none but not the free gifts of God as love and penitencie and the like for then faith also should be excluded That followeth not for when wee are justified by faith onely we are justified gratis gratis saith the Apostle freely by his grace through the merits of Christ by faith bringing onely faith to justification as the Fathers have taught and that not to bee any essentiall cause of our justification but onely to be the instrument and hand to receive Christ who is our righteousnes and therfore it is the condition required on our part in the covenant of grace The rest as love and hope and repentance c. being not the conditions of the covenant but the things by covenant promised to them that beleeve Vpon the condition of faith which is also the free gift of God the Lord promiseth remission of sins and justification and to those who are redeemed and justified by faith he doth by oath promise the graces of sanctification So that faith only on our part is required to the act of justification besides which we bring nothing else thereunto but love and the rest of the graces as Augustine saith of workes non precedunt justificandum sequuntur justificatum and therefore wee are justified by faith alone § V. And by this the second head is also proved namely that it is the good pleasure of God to grant justification upon the condition of faith alone If ye looke into all the promises of the Gospell ye shall find that they interpose only the
For what will it profit a man saith St. Iames if hee shall say that hee hath faith and hath not workes will that faith save him For as the body without the Spirit is dead so that faith which is in profession onely and is without workes is dead § XVII But this reason of his hee doth illustrate by two unlike similitudes For saith hee even as fire because by its heat alone it heateth if from the fire were taken away all other qualityes which are by accident joyned with heat it would still without doubt heat And as a father because by the onely relation of paternity hee hath reference to his sonne if from him who is a father all other attributes were removed as knowledgen â—…bility power health beauty and in stead os them there should succeed ignorance basenesse weaknes sicknes deformity and among all these attributes paternity should remaine yet still that father should have relation to his sonne Even so because a Christian apprehendeth salvation by faith alone and unto it is referred by our adversaryes surely it followeth that faith remayning hee may be saved although hee have no good workes and have many ill Answ. In the former similitude hee compareth a Christian man to fire faith to heat and other graces and good workes to such other qualityes as in fire by accident concurre with heat In which similitude nothing is like For neither doth a Christian man justifie or save others by faith as fire by his heat doth heat other things neither is hee justified or saved by his faith as it is a quality inherent but as it is the hand to receive Christâ—… neither are other graces or duetyes of sanctification which wee call good workes to be compared with I know not what accidentall qualityes concurring with heat but to those unseparable qualityes of fire viz light and drynes For even in the fire that is inflamed there doe concurre necessarily with heat drynesse and light neither were it a true fire without them and yet the act of heating is to be ascribed to the heat of the fire properly and not to the light or drynesse of the element so in a true Christian that is justified there doth concurre necessarily with faith both other sanctifying graces answerable to the drynesse of the fire and also the light of a Christian conversation without which hee is not to be held a true Christian or truely justified and yet the act of justifying or saving is not to be ascribed either to other graces or to good workes but onely to faith receiving Christ or rather to Christ onely received by faith In the other similitude he compareth the reference which faith hath to salvation unto that relation with is betweene father and sonne But faith and salvation are no such relatives Neither are the graces of the sanctification or good workes to be compared to those accidentall adjuncts attributed to a father which may come and goe as being not necessary to the being of a father but rather to those properties of the humane nature as reason will understanding wit c. For although a man cannot become a father without these yet his being a father is not not to be ascribed to these § XVIII And whereas hee would seeme to take away the answeare of his adversaties who alleage that his supposition is impossible both because in his first booke he had proved that saith may truely and indeed be severed from charity and good workes and also because at least in conceit it may be severed from them which he saith is sufficient for the confirmation of an hypotheticall prâ—…position neither can his adversaries deny it who teach thah faith and workes have that relation which is betweene the cause and the effect Hereunto I reply First that I have formerly not onely answered his arguments which hee produced to this purpose but also proved by unanswereable arguments that true justifying faith cannot be severed from charity and good workes Secondly as I said even nowe his supposition implyeth a contradiction and therefore is impossible Impossible I say that workes being supposed to bee present necessitate presentiae should in the same speech be truely supposed to be absent Thirdly If Bellarmine can conceive that true justifying and saving faith may be without charity and good workes then hee may also conceive that that faith may save which is severed from charity and destitute of good workes His assumption I grant for wee teach according to the Scriptures that that faith which is alone severed from charity and good works doth justify or save neither alone nor at all and doe ascribe lesse to such a faith than the Papists themselves doe But his conclusion is faulty as contayning more than can be inferred upon the premisses that good workes are necessary not onely in regard of presence but also of some Efficiencie which was not so much as mentioned in the antecedent of the proposition which the conclusion should gainsay and say no more Thus much of the necessity of good workes CHAP. VI. Of the verity of the justice of works and of the possibilitie of fulfilling the Law § I. NOw Bellarmine will discourse of the truth of the justice of workes or of actuall righteousnesse And in this dispute he spendeth eigth Chapters But to what end for I feare hee wandreth still Hee had in the first booke propounded five principall arguments to prove that faith doth not justifie alone The Fifth and last was that good workes also doe justifie and therefore not faith alone This assertion hee laboureth to prove by divers arguments The first from the necessity of good workes which I have answeared The second from the verity of the justice of workes namely that the good workes of the faithfull and regenerate are truely good which wee doe not deny wee say indeed that the seeming good workes of men unregenerate are not truely good because an evill tree cannot bring forth good fruit But the good workes of the regenerate being the workes of grace and the fruits of the Spirit wee acknowledge to be truely good But will it hereupon followe that therfore they are or may be justified by workes Nothing lesse Hee must prove that the workes of the regenerate are not onely truely good but also purely and perfectly good and not onely that but that they are also perpetually and universally good For if they faile in any one particular as in many things we saith Iames the just offend all they cannot be justified by their obedience For hee that offendeâ—…h in one is guilty of the breach of the whole Law and is so farre from being justified by his obedience that by the sentence of the Law hee is accursed because he hath not continued in all the things which are written in the booke of the Law to doe them unlesse therfore he can prove that not onely some but all the workes of the faithfull are not onely truely but
from the merit of Christ. This assumption may thus bee demonstrated That which a man hath already he needeth not to merit For to merit is to obtaine by desert that right which a man hath not yet Nullus meretâ—…r saith Thomas quod â—…am habet and againe meritum non est nisi ejus quod nondâ—…m habetur Therefore the faithfull if they have already right to Gods kingdome they need not merit it or if they must merit then have they not as yet that right by Christ but must purchase it by their owne deserts which is greatly to derogate from the merits of Christ. But the faithfull before they produce any good works have right to Gods kingdome Nâ—…m hoc ipsâ—… saith Bellarmine quòd incipiâ—… esse filiâ—… Dei 〈◊〉 jus habere ad hareditatem falicitatis â—…ternae Rom. 8. 17. Gâ—…l 4. 7. 〈◊〉 â—…utem esse filii Dei â—…ntequam incipiâ—…mus benè operari Igitur jus habemuâ—… ad aternam bareditatem per gratiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benè operari For in that very respect that wee bâ—…ginne to bee the sonnes of God wee beginne to have right to the inheritance of the eternà ll feliciâ—…y Rom. 8. Gâ—…l 4. Now wee beginne to bee the sonnes of God before wee beginne to bring forth good workes Merâ—…it igitur Christus saith hee Christ therefore merited the inheritance it selfe whiles he merited the grace of adoption and againe unto him who is the Sonne of God by grace the inheritance is due by the right of adoption before all workes In which place Bellarmine teacheth another point of doctrine whereby is excluded the merit of good workes Ex eo quod aliquis saith hee est filius Dei per gratiam meretur ex condigno haereditatem vitae aeternae sine alio pacto sed merito personae non merito operis By this that any man is the sonne of God by grace hee doth merit condignely the inheritance of everlasting life without any other covenant for if sonnes then heires but hee doth merit it by the merit of his person not by the merit of his worke what needeth then the childe of God bring forth good workes with purpose to merit heaven by them seeing before hee produceth any good workes hee hath right unto the kingdome of heaven by the merit of his person in that hee is the Sonne of God Why forsoooth as it is an inheritance hee meriteth it by the merit of his person but as it is a mercenary reward or stipend or wages hee must earne it by the merit of his workes which is absurd for if it bee a free gift intended in our election without any relation to our desert a free inheritance purchased for us by Christ and freely promised to all that beleeve and free reward of our obedience which is therefore by Augustine and others called Gratia because it is freely given it cannot without absurdity be made the mercenary reward or wages of hired servants Thirdly to attribute that honour to every member of the body which is peculiar to Christ alone the Head is to derogate from the honour of Christ our Head But to merit eternall life is an honour peculiar to Christ alone our Head For eternall life in heaven being of infinite worth as being the eternall fruition of God who is infinite cannot be condignely merited but by that which is of infinite value and price Such are the merits of Christ and of him alone such neither ours nor any meere creatures are or can be For the infinite merit of eternall life dependeth on the infinitenesse of the person who meriteth it such an one is Christ such are none of his members Therefore to Christ alone it belongeth to merit heaven for his members and not to his members who are not to merit but by faith to apprehend the merit of their Head Fourthly that which taketh from Christ the glory of being the onely meritorious cause of salvation doth greaâ—…ly detract from the al-sufficiency of Christs merits The Popish doctrine concerning the merit of workes taketh from Christ the glory of being the onely meritorious cause of our salvation Therefore it doth greatly derogate from the al-sufficient merit of Christ. Fifthly they who ascribe the condigne merit of heaven to their owne good workes and to salve the matter doe faine that Christ hath merited for their good workes that they may condignely merit heaven doe indeed robbe Christ of the honour of meriting for us eternall life and doe arrogate it unto themselves Thus doe the Papists who ascribe the condigne merit of heaven to their owne works and to bleare the eyes of the simple they faine that Christ merited for our workes that they might be meritorious of eternall life for neither by the Scriptures nor Fathers nor any sound reason doe they so much as goe about to prove this fiction this novelty Christ did not save us to make us our owne Saviours but in his owne person and as the Apostle speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by himselfe he performed the worke of our redemption and the merit of our salvation Object 1. But you will say did Christ merit for us that we should be idle I answere wee are the Workemanship of God created unto good workes which God hath preordained that we should walke in them not to merit by them but to glorifie God by them to testifie our thankefulnesse and to make our calling and elâ—…ction sure and for many other reasons which I delivered when I proved the necessity of good workes Object 2. It is not fit that Christs merits should bee applyed to men without workes Answ. The merits of Christ are applyed to us that is wee are justified by them without workes as the Apostle teacheth howbeit in them that are justified good workes doe follow but not as causes of justification or as merits of salvation Object 3. But it is necessary we should be like unto Christ. Answ. Wee must bee like to him in the graces of sanctification which we receive from his fulnesse even grace for grace Rom. 8. 29. 1 Ioâ—…n 3. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 16. But wee cannot bee like unto him in office of Mediation or in the power of meriting which is proper to the Head § III. This argument that the doctrine of merits is derogatory to the al-sufficient merits of our onely Saviour is worthy to bee insisted upon and defended against all exceptions and cavils of the Papists which indeed are many but may be reduced to these three heads for either they serve to shew that their doctrine doth not derogate from Christs merits or that their doctrine setteth forth the glory of Christs merit no lesse than ours or that wee by denying their doctrine doe extenuate such is their impudency the merit of Christ. To the first purpose Bellarmine hath foure evasions The first that The merits of just men are not opposite to the merits of Christ but spring from them And what commendation soever our
purpose to give us wherewith to merit then would he have infused most perfect righteousnesse into us which should not have beene stained with any sinfulnesse neither should need remission or indulgence But we are so farre from having this power to merit heaven that the best of us had need to pray with David as being not more just than he Enter not into judgement with thy servants O Lord c. for if thou shouldest marke what is amisse who should stand and with the Apostles as being not more holy than they forgive us our trespasses c. our chiefe righteousnesse in this life consisting as Augustine truely saith in remission of sinnes rather than in perfection of virtues Now whiles we are sinners in our selves as all are wee cannot merit any thing but punishment at the hands of God and whiles wee deserve hell how can we possibly merit heaven § X. These were the arguments which Bellarmine tooke upon him to answere but could not satisfie Now wee are to adde some others Our third reason therefore is this If we cannot merit so much as temporall blessings at the hands of God then much lesse eternall But wee cannot merit so much as temporall blessings at Gods hands and therfore much lesse eternall 1. The assumption I prove thus first by the confession of Iacob Gen. 32. 10. that he was lesse than the least of Gods mercies Of David concerning mankinde in generall Psal. 8. 4. and concerning himselfe in particular 2 Sam. 7. 18. Secondly if by all our labours and endevours wee are not able to merit of God so mâ—…ch as a piece of bread but must beg it at Gods hands then can wee not merit eternall life of him But the former is true for therefore our Saviour hath taught us to make this daily praier that God would give us day by day our daily bread To this purpose Saint Hierome saith well that a man could not suffer any thing worthy the heavenly glory though it were such as this present life is But Chrysâ—…stome goeth further if we should dye ten thousand times c. as he was before Anastasius for what good things soever we doe we are not answerable to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the aire alone which we breathe Basill Those which are esteemed retributions are granted to men onely for the Lords bounty sake for all the righteousnesse of mortall men doe not match the gifts already vouchfafed much lesse those which are to come which exceed our thought But most agreeable to our doctrine is that assertion of Gregâ—…rius Ariminensis quòd â—…dum aeâ—…erna vita c. that no act of man though proceeding from never so great charity doth condignely merit with God not onely eternall life but not so much as any other reward whether eternall or temporall § XI Our fourth reason That which we attaine unto by right of adoption as our inheritance purchased by Christ and prepared for us from the beginning of the world without any respect to our merits that we doe not obtaine by our merits Vnto eternall life we doe attaine by right of adoption as our inheritance purchased by Christ and prepared for us from the beginning of the world and that without any respect of our merits Therefore we doe not attaine to eternall life by our merits The assumption is manifest for therefore in many places of Scripture the Kingdome of heaven is called our inheritance Act. 20. 32. 26. 18. Gal. 3. 18. Ephes. 1. 14. 18. 5. 5. Col. 3. 24. and that an eternall and incorruptible inheritance Heb. 9. 15. 1 Pet. 1. 4. And of this kingdome the faithfull are heires Iam. â—… 5. For therefore are we adopted the sons of God that we may be heires heires of God and fellow heires of Christ Rom. 8. 17. Gal. 4. 7. and to the same end are we justified by his grace that we might according to hope bee made heires of eternall life Tit. 3. 7. Bellarmine himselfe hath taught as we have heard that we are entituled to the Kingdome of heaven jure adoptionis And in that we begin to be the sons of God wee begin â—…o have right to the inheritance of the eternall â—…elicity now we begin to be the sonnes of God before wee begin to bring forth good workes And hereby appeareth the truth of the proposition for we have our right of adoption not by merit but by the free grace of God who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Iesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved And this inheritance was prepared for us from the beginning of the world Mat. 25 34. If it be objected that as it is called an inheritance so also a reward and reward presupposeth merit for so the Councill of Trent teacheth that eternall life is to be propounded to the godly both as grace that is a free gift promised by Christ and as a reward duely to be rendred to their merits according to Gods promise I answere that eternall life is no such reward as presupposeth merit for it is a free reward freely promised freely given Neither can those things stand together which the Councill of Trent hath conjoyned that eternall life should both bee gratia a free gift graciously promised and freely bestowed and also a due wages to be rendred to desert neither if it be the reward of inheritance as it is called Col. 3. 24. which is freely bestowed on the sonnes of God it cannot be a mercenary wages which is due to hired servants § XII Our fifth reason If good workes doâ—… merit eternall life then are they causes of it for merits be the causes of that which is merited But good workes are not the cause of eternall life therefore they doe not merit it The assumption I prove first from that received testimony of Bernard that good workes are via regni non causa regnandi Quid autem hac conclusione firmius saith Cassander who also saith that Thomas Bradwardin and divers other Schoolemen deny good workes to bee the cause of the eternall reward and that some who call them causes doe meane Causam sine qua non which properly is no cause Secondly true causes of salvation may bee trusted in for the obtaining of salvation Our good workes are not to be trusted in for the obtaining of salvation Therefore they are not true causes thereof The proposition is Bellarmines Licet confidere in omni vera causa The assumption also in effect is his For if it be most safe as he truly saith by reason of the uncertainty of our owne righteousnesse which none of them can be certaine of without speciall revelation and danger of vaine glory not to trust in our owne merits but to repose â—…ur whole affiance in the only mercy and
he call those workes which are mingled with sinnes good merits for that implyeth a contradiction but hee saith they doe not suffice to merit or obtaine the reward of blessednesse and therefore indeed denyeth the workes of righteousnesse to merit eternall life § II. The second is Basil Maneâ—… sempiternâ—… requies illos qui in hac vitalegitimè certaverunt non ob eorum merita factorum sed de munificentissimi Dei gratia in quem sperârunt which is a pregnant testimony But Bellarm taking advantage at the Printers fault in the old Edition of Basil leaving out the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which since hath bin supplyed answereththat Chemnitius did not rightly translate the words of Basil for in the Greeke neither the words Non ob eorum merita are found nor the word Gratiâ—… The words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is propounded an eveâ—…lasting â—…est to them who lawfully strive in this life not rendred according to the debt or due of works but according to the grace of the most bountifull God in whom they have trusted where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it were not expressed is of necessity to be understood and the rather because he seemeth by allusion to invert the words of the Apostle Rom. 4 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For with Bellarmine in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to repeate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had said according to the duety or debt of the most bountifull God or great giver it is absurd gift and debt being contrary And also by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debt or duâ—…ty to understand as hee doth measure which becommeth the bounty of God that is much greater than is due to the workes is no lesse absurd For neither doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 siignifie measure neither is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repeated in the latter clause which signifieth rendred but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is exhibited which Bellarmine leaveth out Neither doth hee say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Bellarmine absurdly understandeth him to speake for there is no debt or duety of God Neither would it hinder our cause if the word rendred were repeated in the latter clause for what is promised is to bee rendred But in plaine termes Basil saith that eternall rest to them that live well is not rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the merit of their workes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the grace of the munifiâ—…nt God exhibited But his second Evasion is more grosse that Basil speaketh of the reward as rendred not according to the merit of workes which men have done by their owne strength but such as are done by grace Repl Basil plainely speaketh of those who fought a good fight in this life and have trusted in God and saith that the eternall rest is laid up for them and that it is rendied not according to the merit of works but given according to the gâ—…ace of God the great Giver Neither doth he speake of naturall or gâ—…acelesse men of whom he never dreamed that the eternall rest is pâ—…epared for them but of godly men such as David was whose woâ—…ds Returne unto thy rest O my soule were the occasion of this speech Besides if the rewâ—…rd bee rendred as Bellarmine saith Supra condignum how is it merited â—…x condignâ—… Or if it be merâ—…ted ex condigno how is it supra condignum § III. The third is Saint Augustines out of whom hâ—… reciteth onely three places as â—…ited by us the firlâ—… 〈◊〉 sunt 〈◊〉 Dei sunt The sinnes are thine the merits are Gods Supplicium tibi debetur cum praemium vâ—…nerit â—…ua dona corâ—…abit non meriâ—…a 〈◊〉 Punishment is due to thee And when the reward shall come hee will crowne his owne gifts not thy merits 2. Pro nihilo salvos facies illos nihil invenies unde salves multum invenis vnde damnes thou wilt save them for nothing thou findest nothing for which to save and thou findest much for which to condemne 3. Maluit dicere gratia Dei vita â—…terna ut intelligeremus non pro meritis nostr is Deum nos ad aeternam vitam sed pro sua miseratione perducere he chose rather to say that life eternall is the grace of God that wee might understand that not for our merits but for his owne mercie hee doth bring us unto eternall life Which are most plaine and pregnant testimonies Bellarmine answereth in grosse wheresoever Augustine condemneth merits he speaketh of such merits as be in us from our selves that is to say without the grace of God And to this purpose he quoteth August Epist. 105. ad Sixtum in two places and his Book de gratia lib. arbitr c. 6. 7. 8. Reply Augustine by merits understandeth good workes which hee considereth either as going before grace wrought by the strength of our owne free will which against the Pelagians he denyeth tâ—… merit either grace or glory or he speaketh of them as proceeding from grace which he acknowledgeth to be rewarded with eternall life But these though he call them merits because they are to be rewarded yet every where he saith that the reward is given to them not as to our merits deserving it but as to the free gifts of God And therfore that the reward it selfe is called gratia both because it is freely given and because those workes to which it is given are wholly to bee ascribed to Gods grace and consequently that the Lord when he rewardeth our workes with eternall life doth not reward them as our merits but as his owne gifts Than which what can be spoken more effectually against the merits of condignity For if our good works be not our owne as from our selves how can â—…hey merit of him whose gifts they are If they were our owne and from our selves and were also perfect as they are not then perhaps it might be said that when God rewardeth them he rewardeth our merits but not being from our selves but meerely by his gift when he rewardeth them hee doth not reward our merits but crowne his owne gifts It is plaine therfore that whereas August considereth good works two wayes either as our merits or as Gods gifts he both constantly denyeth eternall life to be rendred unto them as to our merits and also affirmeth that it is given to them freely as to the free gifts of God And this is proved out of those very places which Bellarmine alleageth in the first place he saith Cùm Deuâ—… coronat merita nostra nihil aliud coronat quam muner a sâ—…a When God doth crowne our merits so hee calleth good works he crowneth nothing else but his owne gifts and in another place Ergo coronat te quia dona sua coronat non merita tâ—…a and againe in the same epistle he saith that howsowever eternall life is rendred to our good workes which hee therefore
one to the other that which is given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4. 4. for debitum non est gratuitum If eternall life bee gratia gratis data si gratis datur then is not due by desert And if the good worke also be grace how can it deserve a reward and so great a reward from him that gave it For Bellarmine hath taught us in the beginning of this seventeenth Chapter that if the worke bee much lesse than the promised reward it should not be a merit of condignity in respect of the worke If saith hee the Master of the vineyard should promise to a labourer for his dayes worke not the day-peny but an hundred crownes and yet the heavenly reward given to a good worke doth incomparably surpasse the unequall proportion that is betweene an hundred crownes and a daies worke § VI. In his second argument he trifleth egregiously He saith there is a proportion betweene the fountaine and the river running from it Grace is the fountaine Ioh. 4. 14. and eternall life is the river which maketh glad the City of God Psal. 46. 5. where according to the Latine it is thus read Fluminis impetus laetificat Civitateâ—… Dei which Bellarmine himselfe expoundeth thus Fluminis impetus laetificat Civiâ—…taem Dei i. Non timebit populus Dei quando turbabitur terra ergo c. Literally the place is understood of the Brooke Kidron and of the city of Ierusalem But if it must bee allegorized then as by the fountaine grace is to be understood according to that of Ioh. 4. 14. so by the river should be understood perseverance and increase of grace running to eternall life as the sea wherein the course of all rivers endeth And therefore such as is the proportion of the fountaine to the sea such is of grace or of a gracious worke to eternall life This was his first analogy the second is no lesse ridiculous Moreover saith he there is a proportion betweene the ascent and descent of water for it doth ascend as high as it doth descend and therefore the grace of the Spirit which descended from heaven will ascend as high No doubt if it be conveyed in a close conduit pipe § VII His third Reason Eternall life is the day-peny of those that labour in the vineyard Matth. 20. But the day-peny is the just hire of the dayes labour So is eternall life The day-peny which was given to those that wrought but one houre doth signifie eternall life which is thereby proved not to bee an hire rendred as due to equall labour but as a free reward bestowed by the bounty of the Lord who â—… may doe with his owne what he pleaseth For if it were the just wages for the whole dayes labour then he that wrought but one houre should have had but one twelfe part of the wages His fourth Reason Seed in vertue physicall is equall to that thing wherof it is the seed and containeth it Grace is the seed and eternall life that whereof it is the seed therefore iâ—… vertue morall Grace is equall to glory Answ. This argument is grounded upon a similitude of grace and seed which are not like in those things for which this comparison is brought For neither is seede the meritorious cause of that whereof it is the seed as hee supposeth grace to bee nor grace the seminall cause of eternall life for seed is the materiale principium But grace meaning grace inherent is neither the materiale principium nor the meritorious cause nor any other cause of salvation unles it be 〈◊〉 sine qua non which is no cause Yea but gracâ—… saith he is called the seed of GOD 1 Ioh. 3. 9. Answ. The seede of God properly is Gods word sowne in our hearts as the seede of our new and spiriâ—…uall life in this world This seede conceived by the power of the Spirit is the grace of regeneration as the materiale principium of our spirituall life meant in that place of S. Iohn which alwaies abideth in the childe of God who being once borne of God is never unborne againe The fruits in respect whereof it is called seed are the fruits of a godly life For the seed of Gods Word being sowne in our hearts and there conceived and taking root fructifieth and bringeth forth increase in some thirty in some sixty in some aâ—… hundred fold The grace of regeneration therefore is called seed in respect of the fruit of good works which it bringeth forth in this life And further the doing of good workes is compared to sowing of seede which hath relation to the great harvest as also the committing of the dead bodies of the faithfull to the earth For even as he that casteth his seed into the ground doth it in hope of increase at the next harvest or as hee that committeth the dead body to the earth as seede doth it in hope of increase at the great harvest so hee which soweth in righteousnesse to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reape everlasting life And as the seed cast into the ground is not cast away but is recompenced with increase at the harvest And as the body though sowne in corruption doth not perish but riseth in incorruption at the great harvest so he that soweth the seed of good workes though hee may seeme to cast them upon the waters as Salomon speaketh hee shall not lose thereby but hee shall bee rewarded an hundred-fold and at the great harvest hee shall inherit everlasting life But as the increase in harvest is not to bee asscribed to the merit of the sower but to the blessing of God and as the raising of the dead body to incorruption at the last day is not to bee attributed to the merit of committing it as seed to the earth but to the merit and power of CHRIST in whom wee are made alive againe so the reaping of everlasting life at the great harvest is not to bee asscribed to our merit but to the merit of Christ who hath purchased it for us and to the undeserved mercie of God who crowneth his owne graces in us So if wee sowe to our selves in righteousnesse wee shall reape in mercie as the Prophet speaketh § IX His fifth argument concludeth nothing to the purpose Eternall life saith hee is a certaine supernaturall action in respect of the Object and of the principles bâ—…th efficient and formall But merit which consisteth in love is also a supernaturall action in respect of the Object and of the principles both efficient and formall therefore they have aproportion betweene themselves and the one leadeth to the other as the right way to the end Answ. I grant that the grace of sanctification is the right way to glorification but no meritorious cause thereof That there is a proportion of likenesse in the respects mentioned but no proportion of equality And