shall be no more a thirst but it shall be in him a well of water that springeth vp to eternall life It is good listining therefore to Esays proclamation in this respect to euerie one that thirsteth come yee to the waters yea yee that haue no siluer come buie and eate I say buy wine and milke without siluer and without money 55.1 For doubtlesse they that hereby will learne to come vnto him by faith for the foode of their soules and so giue ouer laying out their siluer or labouring for that which will not proue bread to satisfie them which al they doe which are at neuer so much paines and cost by any other meanes to satisfie their hungrie and thirsty soules they as they are further taught there though they be vtterly vnable of them selues to giue any recompence vnto him for the same yet in him they shall finde both meate and drinke sufficient not onely to refresh their soules but euen to delight them with fatnesse When people therefore for all this will not trust onely to this all sufficient sauiour of their soules but besides him deuise vnto themselues other persons and thinges in that respect to be trusted vnto what doe they else but giue GOD occasion to complaine of them as Ieremie he did of the Iewes and therefore to say O yee heauens be astonied at this be afraide and vtterlie confounded saith the Lorde For my people haue committed two euils they haue forsaken the fountaine of liuing waters to dig them pits euen broken pittes that can holde no water Iere 2.12.13 And yet as plaine as these thinges bee the Church of Rome hath doth and will still most grossly and openly commit these 2. great euils whatsoeuer either God or man can say to the contrarie as we shall see most plainly ere I haue done howsoeuer let them doe thus as longe as they list let vs onely seek and trust vnto the fountaine of liuing waters Christ Iesus our Lorde and sauiour Howe be it the better and the more Thē more particular ly that by him we haue full remissiō of our sinnes to occasion vs soe to doe indeede as wee ought from pointe to pointe and in all respectes let vs see more particularly howe this office of our sauiour is set sorth in the Gospell vnto vs. For it contenteth not it selfe with this summarilye telling vs that hee is the full and perfecte sauiour of the worlde but because hee that is such an one indeede muste first then purchase for vs full remission of our sinne for which otherwise all Gods curses and iudgmentes both in this life and in that which is to come must come vpon vs and also he must prouide for vs we neuer hauing nor euer beeing able to haue any such of our owne a perfect righteousnes answerable euen to Gods most perfect rule of righteousnesse whereby we may be made righteous before him and haue iust and right title to the kingdome of heauen into which being as it is the throne of the most pure God no impure and vncleane thing or person can or may enter Yea because to the full compassing of this for vs and to the making vs indeed partakers and possessors hereof which is our Sauiours office to doe it is necessarie that he shoulde then be a king to conquer our enimies and to gouerne and keep vs a prophet to teach and guide vs by his worde and a priest to redeeme vs and to make continuall intercession for vs the gospell most notably doth in all these respects describe Christ vnto vs to be such an one as the sauiour of the worlde should bee and as we haue neede of But first let vs heare what it saith touching the two former and after we will come to the view also of the other Touching the first of which that is full remission of our sinnes as it was promised at the first by God to Adam and Eue. Gen 3.15 That he shoulde tread downe the serpents heade and after was more plainly reueiled to Daniel that when Messiah the prince shoulde come he shoulde confirme the couenant and not onely cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease but also finish the wickednesse of his people seale vp their sinnes and reconcile their iniquitie 9.27 and 24. and therefore by Isaiah plainlie foretolde that he shoulde be so wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities that the chastisment of our peace shoulde be vpon him and that by his stripes we shoulde be healed 53.5 so in the newe testament we reade that an Angell from heauen tolde Ioseph most plainlie shortlie after his conception That his name shoulde be called Ihesus because he shoulde saue his people from their sinnes Mat 1.21 And therfore ere yet he was borne olde father Zacharie by the inspiration of the holy ghost prophesied that his sonne Iohn shoulde goe before his face to prepare his waies and to giuē knowledge vnto his people of their saluation by the remission of their sinnes Luke 1.16.77 which after Iohn faithfully performed saying of him in the presence of a great multitude he being then there also Beholde the Lambe of God which taketh away the sins of the world Io. 1.16 His apostles also most plainlie bear witnes to his point according to their commission Luke 24.47 For we read Act 10.45 that Peter most confidently in presence of a great companie said and testified that to him all the prophets witnes that through his name al that beleeue in him shoulde haue remission of their sinnes And therefore in his first epistle Cap. 2 24. he applieth so that before aleadged testimony of Esay to this purpose that he saith in his owne body vpon the tree he so bare our sinnes that we being deliuered there from hauing by his stripes our selues healed we should liue in righteousnes And Iohn he is as plaine saying If any man sin we haue an aduocate with the father Iesus Christ the iust he is the reconciliation of our sins and not for our sins onely but for the sinnes of the whole world 1. Epist Cap 1.12 And what can be more plaine and pregnant to this end then that sweet saying of saint Paule this is a true saying worthie of al men to be receiued that Iesus Christ came into the world to saue sinners whereof in great humility and feeling of his sins he acknowledgeth himselfe cheese 1. Timo 1.15 yea to shew vs that he tooke this remission of sinnes that he lookt for through Christ to be ful and perfect not onely to discharge vs of all the eternall punishmentes due vnto vs for our sinnes in the worlde to come but also of the whole curse of the law within the compasse wherof are all kinde of temporary punishments in this life as we may see Deu 27. 28 as he saith ther is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus Rom. 1.8 so Galathians the third the 13. also he writeth that he became accursed for vs
their conceptes of purgatory and the releefe of soules there by a number of things which they seeke to make men beleeue will serue well to that end of the ouerplus merits and satisfactions of others to be communicated to such as lacke either through the common force of the communion of saintes or by the speciall intention of the doer and sufferrer of them or of the ordinarie disposer thereof at his pleasure which they hold to be the pope and of their mediation and intercession of saints and Angels for their deuout worshippers and callers vpon are as it were so manie strong cables to holde men backe either altogether or in great parte from longing and thirsting at all after Christ Lastlie their doctrine hath been and is such to blunt the edge and force of the law which God hath left as I haue shewed righthe vnderstood to driue men herunto that in verie deed they haue left it as it is and must bee vnderstood by their gloses and additions and detractions about the same without any force at all in effect to this purpose For first at their pleasure they leaue out the second commaundemente and to make yet vp the number of 10. they deuide the last into two secondly though Dauid neuer so much magnifie the perfection thereof as we haue heard Psal 19.7 yet it shall be so imperfect with them as that there are 5. commandements more which they call the commaun lements of the church beside infinite other traditions for the obseruing whereof often times they make the commandements of God of noe effect as the pharises did for theirs which must needs be obserued say they or else a man cannot lead such a holy christian life as he should thirdly they are so confident resolute that it is possible for man to keepe the lawe of God that they haue cursed al that hold the contrarie they teach a man may doe that more also and that God were a very tirant if man coulde not keep fulfil his law Yea herm they haue gon so far as that not onely they hold that a man may in euery point so exactly keep it that he can neither be charged with trāsgressiō of any commādment therin contayned nor yet in iustice be debarred from the wages rewarde of saluation which by perfect keeping thereof he hath merited and deserued Which whiles they teach and doe first they make some negligent and carelesse in studying and meditating of the lawe to the purpose aforesaid seeing by them they are occasioned to thinke that man may adde therevnto and take from thence at his pleasure and so by this means the law stands these in no steed to this end and secondly by their last kind of doctrine hereof whereas both the nature of the law it selfe and all the circumstances vsed by God in the first promulgation thereof plainly shew that by Gods ordinance it was and is appointed to make man to tremble and quake at the sight of his manifold greate sins imperfections therby made known vnto him that so therby he might take occasion the sooner and the more earnestlie to seeke to be made righteous by Christ and to haue that vnrighteousness of his owne pardoned couered they haue quite trāsformed altered the vse therof as though it were giuē of God of purpose strongly to lead man to a strong conceit of his own ablenes to keep fulfil the same so consequently therby to an opiniō that either Christ is not very much to be thirsted for at al or else that one may very quickly haue done with him Their rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 borrowed from Plutarch that is lawes must be made according to mans ability to keepe them will not beare out and iustifie this their opinion of mans ablenesse nowe to keepe the lawe For it is sufficient for clearing of God of all blame herein as I haue shewed before that man as he created him at the first was able to keepe this lawe which now both plaine and plentifull experience and the expresse scripture it selfe saith it is impossible for him to doe through the weaknesse of the flesh Rom. 8.3 For what reason is there seeing man is fallen from his abilitie by his owne follie eyther that God therefore shoulde fall or alter in his rule of righteousnesse or that he may not challenge that at his handes that in respect of his creation and otherwise he owes him though he know well inough before hand that he is not able to pay him one of a thousand Especially seeing man may make this most notable and profitable vse thereof euen therby to take occasion to see from what he is fallen and to what that so he may giue ouer euer trusting to come to heauen by keeping of the law whereof he is so great a breaker that he may seeke and trust only to come thither by beleeuing the gospell of Iesus Christ To maintaine yet the fansie of mans abilitie and possibilitie to keep the law they haue deuised a number of shiftes all which also tende to the quenching of spirituall hunger and thirst after Christ For to this end some of them haue taught that the precise full and perfect sence of the law is not for vs heere in the way to our country but when we come there and that here we may be saide to haue kept it though in an inferiour and imperfecter sence other some thinke and haue written that man may be saide to be a keeper and fulfiller of the law when for the most part he doth so but others misliking of both these as not pregnant inough to aduance mans abilitie and the facility or easines of the law teach plainly that the iustified man or man in the state of grace findeth the lawe of GOD in his most perfecte sence an easie yooke for him to beare and to vndergoe for that by grace his is enabled perfectly to keepe and fulfill it all in euery pointe euen here And yet in deede these lustie lads for all this for that by experience they finde that saying of Iames. In many things we sinne all Cha. 3.2 verified in them euen when they thinke themselues to be in that state and for that they finde likewise that Sainte Paul in that state in deede yet complaineth of concupiscence which he founde in himselfe by comparing himselfe with the lawe that was is spirituall holye and good and sheweth that most gladly he woulde be rid thereof Romaines 7.7 c. Are faine to helpe out this their position with this that those sinnes whereof Iames speakes and others of men in that case are but veniall sinnes and that the first motions to sinne or concupiscence founde in the regenerate after baptisme are not sinne And the better yet to make this vntempered morter to cleaue though Christe haue toulde vs that an account is to bee giuen for euery idle worde Math. 12.36 Yet these veniall sinnes of theirs amongst which I am sure
they bring idle wordes must be pardonable euen for the littlenes thereof must not be accounted contra legem that is contrary to the law but only praeter legem that is to saye besides the lawe and such as may be washt and doone away by knocking of the breaste by holye water by saying the Lordes prayer by fasting a day by an almes giuing by generall confession of sinnes or by a Bishops blessing yea as one saith though these be done without any inward good motion at all Yea if all these will not serue their great Bellarmine will not yet be put or driuen from this position of the ablenesse of man to keepe the lawe For after he had tried with other of his fellowes what these coulde doe to wipe away the obiections made against the same pressing Paules experience to the contrarie Rom. 7. though it be there neuer so plaine that by the law euen then he found himself a breaker of the lawe and therefore no perfect keeper therof yet for that Paule there to comfort him selfe with all confesseth that in his mind or inward man he delighted in the lawe allowed of that which was good and condemned the contrarie he sayeth that in so saying Paule prooues and shewes that he was for all the lawe in his members which likewise he saith rebelled against the lawe of his minde and led him captiue vnto the lawe of sinne a perfect keeper euen then of the lawe For the lawe saith he is not giuen to the sence or flesh but to the minde and spirit of man wherein Paule kept the lawe though in the other respect he had such cause to complaine And whereas he knewe that such as they counte no veniall but deadly sinnes haue beene found and may be againe euen in the regenerate yet such he will defend may be counted perfect keepers of the lawe when they haue risen againe by repentance and haue had those their sinnes forgiuen in Christ Yea though he be enforced by a place out of Saint Augustines first booke of his retractions Cap. 19. to confesse that there is aduouched by him some imperfection in the best mens keeping of the lawe yet to doe the best that he coulde to couer and cure the wounde that that saying had giuen his cause he would make his reader beleeue that the imperfection that he findes therein is but Carentia perfectionis the want of perfection and not the transgression of any one commaundement which he resembled to the omitting of one letter in writing of much If this be learnedlie to defende a position or the maintenance thereof not onelie to fall into so manie absurdities as these be and then besides to be driuen to vse such a sort of friuolous and fruitles shiftes as these be what position can possible to be foolish and false but that a man of any wit may defende it And who can be so simple and blinde but he must needs perceiue that in all this geare whether they see it or not that Sathan directly by their mouthes and pens laboreth and sweateth most egerly and directly to make men so drunken and full with a conceite of their owne perfection or at least small imperfection that they hunger nor thirst after Christ as they haue cause in deede to doe Who but men bewitched with an opinion that whatsoeuer their Romain prelates alow for currant and found doctrine how contrary so euer it be in deede to scriptures fathers reason and all would euer hold either al or any of these For most plentifully by all these a number of times wee haue shewed them their vanitie and folly in all of these and to this daie they neither haue nor euer will be able to answere vs to the purpose herein And assure thyselfe that herein I haue charged them with nothing but with that which I finde in the best and most famous writers of their side as namely in Andradius Osorious Canisius Vega Fransciscus de victoria the censure of Colen their Rhemish notes of the new testament and in Bellarmine But howsoeuer therfore they may stand ressolute herein yet I hope euen the bare recitall hereof maketh thee Christian reader to see the verie grosse absurditie thereof also If there were noe more to cause thee to see it but this that the rest of all these their doctrines plainelye tendes and is as I haue shewed to driue man either to thinke his soules sicknes through sinne not to be so daungerous and grieuous as it is indeede and therefore as we teach it to bee or for his recouery thereof to trust to other phisick or Phisitions then to the onely phisition of our soules Christ Iesus euen that surelye were and is sufficient For how can that doctrine be any way found or good that naturally bringeth forth or breedeth eyther of these cursed fruites so daingerous to mans saluation or so iniurious to the honour and glorie of Christ Iesus Yet that thou maist not be without thy particular counterpoyson in a readines against euery one of these their poisons to Iustifie our doctrine and to confute theirs touching original sin free will remember that with vs against them it is written touching the former thus The imagination of mans hart is only cuil euen from youth Gen. 6.5 8.21 the naturall man perceiueth not the thinges of the spiritte of God neither can he knowe them 1. Cor. 2.4 Yea that before our conuersion we are said to haue hard and stonie heartes Ezech. 11.19 Rom. 2.5 but also to be darknesse Ephes 5.8 and dead by sinne Ephes 2.5 and that touching the other Paule hath most plainely taught the Saintes at Phillippis that it was God that wrought in them both the will and the worke and that of his owne good pleasure Cap. 2.13 and that Christ himselfe most plainely hath said that no man can come vnto him but whom the father draweth Ioh. 6.44 and that without him we can doe nothing Iohn 15.5 And their next three are sufficiently confuted euen in that we read and we knowe it is most certaine that our Christ is able perfectly to saue al them that come vnto God by him seeing he euer liueth to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 and hath offered himselfe once for all to take away the sinnes of many Cap. 9.28 yea with that one offering hath consecrated for euer them that are sanctified 10.14 especially it beeing also most plainely written as it is that as there is but one God so there is but one mediatour betwixt God and man the man Christ Iesus 1. Tim. 2.5 and that there is no other allowed doore whereby at all to enter into Gods sheepefolde but onely the same Christ Iesus Iohn 10.1.9 c. For these places are most pregnant to cut the throte for euer of all those deuises and may satisfie and will anie that are not wilfullie disposed to wrastle for the aduauncing of the creature and his owne founde deuise though to the darkening and obscuring
also very great grosse sins and that oftentimes haue ouertaken yet doe the better sort of men they themselues holde veniall sins not to be sins simplie but improperlie Wherupon it should follow by their construction that Iames should speake but in this sense in many thinges we sinne all not simplie but improperlie And counting such a number of sins veniall as they do I wonder they are not ashamed yet to bolde that they are not contrary to the law but besiâ—s it For what perfectioÌ„ were there in the rule of righteousnesse prescribed therein if it left such a number of sins vncheckt and incountred That they all should be but at the omitting of a letter in writing of much or as some others haue said but as a few small motes in a faire garment and therfore to be pardoned either for their own littlenes or to be wiped clean away by such trifling means as they to that end say wil serue it is strange that any that haue any knowledge of God or his iustice or of his written word should either so say or thinke For who knowes not that God requires the whole heart soule of man and that al the faculties and powers both of body and soule shoulde whollie serue him and that as hee himselfe is puritie it selfe so his iustice is so infinite pure that it can abide nothing that hath anye imputitie in it And who can read Christes exposition but of these two commaundementes thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery and of that parte of the third thou shalt not forsweare thyself Mat. 5.12 c. but he shall euen therby plainely perceiue that Christ there hath taught vs that a number of those which they count their veniall sinnes are grieuous sins before God directly forbidden in his law and such as if the Lord should but enter into iudgement with vs for we were neuer able to abide it For there to be angry vnaduisedly to say to another â—aca to call one foole to looke on a woman to lust after her to sweare vainely at all by the smallest thing that is are there expresselye forbidden by Christ as contrary to these lawes and as sinners euerie one of them worthy of grieuous and heauy punishmeÌ„t And yet many of these if not all they must needes confesse be such as they count but veniall smnes Let not any man therefore liften vnto these men thus seeking to extenuate the vilenes and heauines of any sin how small soeuer but rather let euery one learne of Christ to account the smalest sin that he falleth into in thought word or countenaunce damnable inough of it own nature if God lay it to the charge of the committer thereof That concupiscence or the first motions to sinne arising in our minde are not sinne may I woulde thinke appeare sufficiently to be false in that Paule so complaineth thereof as he doth and woulde so saine be rid of it as we reade Romans 7.7.17.24 and that expresly it is forbid in the last commaundementâ— thou shalt not lust after or desior any thinge that is thy neighbours Which to be so by this it is enident that by Christes owne oxposition as we haue heard lust confented vnto but secretly in thought is condemned and forbid in the former commandementes For there is no probabilitie that the Lorde of purpose setting downe the summe of his law so breeflie as he doth in these 10 commaundementes of his and distinguishing it into 10. expresly as he doth Deut 4.10 that either he would forbid one thing often or confounde one commaundement and the matter thereof with an oother which of necessitie must be granted yet to be so vnlesse for the distinction of this last commandement from the former we say that therein bare and naked vnlawfullust or concupiscence though not consented vnto is expresly condemned and in the other the same yealded and consented vnto And thus it seemeth Paule tooke it and vnderstood it in sayinge he had not knowne lust meaning that it is sinne but that the law saith thou shalt not lust Romains 7.7 and there vpon doubtlesse he is driuen to acknowledge as he doth there the lawe to be spirituall and himselfe vnable to answere in his flesh the perfection thereof And God requiring as I said before and as we are taught by the summe an abridgement of the law often repeated in the scriptures that we shoulde loue him with our whole heart and our neighbour as our selfe howe can our heartes be wholie his when there are but these first filthie motions to sinne neuer so little a while flying vp and downe there Wherefore if sinne be as Iohn hath defined it the transgression of the law 3.4 and hereby the verie life of the lawe and the substance thereof be broken as doubtlesse it is howe can it be but that bare lust and the first euill motions to sinne though by and by resisted are sinne and that simplie and properlie Nowe as for the last fillie shiftes of Bellermine to say that the law was not giuen to the sence but to the minde and therfore that Paule obeying the lawe in his mind was no breaker thereof though he found that in his members which led him to the contrarie what is it else but to say so we serue God in our minde it makes no matter howe we behaue our selues in our bodies or flesh as though the same God that created the soule created not the bodie also and therefore required not as well that the one parte of man as the other though first he would haue the soule shoulde serue him Who therefore of any wisedom or learning would haue thought that such a beggerly and fond answere as this would haue serued to haue clean dasht answered such an inuincible argument as he takes vpon him to answere herewith And as for his other 2. they are verie ridiculous For what is it to proue that the keeping of the lawe is possible to the regenerate to say that if thay fall into any mortall sinne repenting therof and hauing the same forgiuen then they are counted still as keepers therof For this is not by their meritte and perfect keeping of the law but by the grace of the gospel which offereth pardon to these that repent though they haue trasgressed the lawe And as forthe last which as his answere to Augustines place 1. retract Cap. 19. that thereby indeed is confessed a want of perfection in mans keeping of the lawe and not a transgression of any commandement how can it stand seeing as it is cleare in deed in Augustine and he himselfe is therefore enforced to confesse it that his answere is there that the perfection required by the lawe cannot be found in man in this life otherwise then whiles all thinges therein commaunded are accounted as doone when whatsoeuer is not done is pardoned And as in deed in other poore lahours of mine already in print I haue shewed the ancient fathers are most
to deliuer vs from the curse of the law And if the forgiuenes of our sinnes that we looke for at Gods hand stretch not thus far how could they be said to be made as white as snowe or woole Isay 1.18 when they are forgiuen or how could it be said of God when he forgiues thē that he would remember them no more as it is 31.34 Heb. 10.17 Yea that then he castes them al into the bottom of the sea as he promiseth he wil Math 7.19 And yet as necessarie comfortable and certaine as you see this doctrine to be the papists can not find in their harts to let vs goe away with it thus wholie and freely For first they directly hold that sins falne into after baptisme haue a number of fountaines of water to wash them in and meanes to purge the owners thereof besides Christ Iesus and his merits Their sacrament of pennance which they holde to consiste of contrition confession and satisfaction and the priestes absolution thereupon in this case must serue vs as a second planke after shipwracke to fly vnto and to escape the danger of the tempestuous seas of Gods wrath by and if this will not serue then Masses satisfactorie workes done by mans owne selfe and others extraine vnction and lastly the enduring of the paines of purgatory and the mediation of Saints and Angels all laid together shal help them quite to be discharged from those sinnes and the punishments yet by them to be suffered for them from which they durst not for all this euidence that I haue brought looke fully to be deliuered by the precious blood of Christ Iesus And yet they cannot be ignorant that as in the institution of the sacrament of his body and blood he calde the cup the newe testament in his blood which shoulde be shed for the remission of sinnes Mat. 26.28 that so when it was shed to that end and therefore he euen readie to die that to shewe that by that death of his all meritorious suffering satisfying for sinne had an end he said consummatum est that is it is finished Io 19.30 And that therfore in the epistle to the Hebrwes the absolute sufficiencie of the sacrifice offered by Christ to purchasse vs full and perfect redemption and saluation by the remission of our sinnes once for all by his owne person is so aduouched as though the holie Ghost therein of purpose directed the writer to preuent and to confute all these deuises who may not see The stone that they woulde seeme especially to stumble at and whereby to fall into these conceites is that which we reade 2. Sam. 12. that notwithstanding vpon Danids repentance he tolde him that God had forgiuen him his sinne and put it away verse 13. yet he not onelie denounceth a iudgment against him vpon occasion of that his sinne but also it after followeth and is shewed howe it was in deed executed vpon him For here vpon when other shiftes faile them to countenance their antichristian ecclipsing and defacing the full and stee remission of sinnes ye of all our sinnes originall and actuall before baptisme and after that any way are remissible they imagine yet they may hold thisfast that howsoeuer by and in him we may haue remission of the sins them selues and release of the eternall punishmentes due therefore that yet there may and doeth remaine some temporary to be abid or satisfied for by our selues or other of our good friendes either here in this life or in purgatory in the life to come But alas who seeth not that the ground which they haue from hence is to weake and sandy to build such a huge heape of satisfactory workes and sufferings vpon as here vpon to rob Christ and to aduatire and enrich them selues they woulde faine builde For though this and the like dealing of GOD with his seruantes proue that God may and doth for iust causes known vnto himselfe take occasion by their sinnes to chastise them and to correct them for the same though he haue before forgiuen them their sinnes and neuer meane that they shall therefore be condemned yet neither this nor all the like examples euer can proue that by the enduring of or satisfying for these any way or by any bodie Gods meaning euer was that they shoulde perfect the worke of the remission of their sinnes For doubtlesse his sonne hauing vndertaken the purchasing of this for vs at his handes and there lacking in him neither skill nor power nor affection to go through with the worke which he had taken in hand without doing of him to manifest and open wrong in robbing of him in taking from him that which is his due we must fully be persuaded that for our sinnes he hath so fully satisfied his heauenly father that he will thinke we doe him greate iniurie and much staine his iustice if by any other doing or suffering we shoulde offer him any other price or paiment againe therefore Such punishments therefore either threatned by God or afflicted vpon his children after in Christ their sinnes are forgiuen them they are his fatherly chastisments to teach them the better to see the vilenesse and grieuousnesse of sinne and serue both them and other as Gods sanctified meanes to warne them to take more heed of sinne thereafter and to mortifie them therevnto but in no sort must wee be so foolish as with these kinde of men to imagine that they must either be endured or otherwise bought out by our owne satisfactions or of others to make perfect or to consummate the full remission of our sinnes By these deuises they set their priests and prelats a loft in the consciences of men as though they could absolue them and discharge them from that from which all the blood shed of Christ Iesus though neuer so well beleeued in hath not yet quitte them and so by their deuise of purgatorie and their manner of releeuing of soules there by their pardons masses and dirges c and by doing of these and by their absolution extraine vnction and their taking vpon them to offer Christ againe to his father for them as though his owne offering of him selfe coulde not serue the turne they haue wonderfully enriched themselues What other reasons soeuer they may pretend hereof if these were not the reasons indeede that set them and helde them in this way they had long agoe or would quicly be glad with vs to preach and to beleeue ful remission of all sinnes both in respect of the guiltinesse and punishment also by and thorow the onely sufferings and satisfaction done by Christ For what reason in the worlde can cause them but once to thinke that Christ hath borne the burthen of our sins but so in his owne bodie vpon the tree that he should when he had done returne the same againe vpon vs in some forte to beare and to suffer for Or if they woulde needes holde this to be thus howe can they tell howe much