Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A67237
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The pretensions of the triple crown examined in thrice three familiar letters ... / written some years ago by Sir Christopher Wyvill ...
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Wyvill, Christopher, Sir, 1614-1672?
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1672
(1672)
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Wing W3787; ESTC R34104
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91,353
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203
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Scandal at them every time I read the Tenth chap. of S. Matthew since I am there told what is through the fault of Gain-sayers an ordinary Consequence of the Truths presence Perfect Unity in Opinion is the Privilege of Minds triumphant above and the Churches of the Apostles themselves were some of Paul some of Cephas c. If you will strain at a Gnat because you hear there are dissentions amongst us and yet swallow such a Camel as this That the Creed of every Christian must be resolved into the present Dictates of the Roman Church and that you ought not to question whether she tread in the good old Paths a shift that some of her Champions are driven to I must confess I am at a stand what to say to you But let us by one particular make a ghess what her posture hath been in the rest The Fathers of the first five Centuries may I think with a safe Confidence be affirmed to have intended nothing by their Merita but such a Title to the Recompence of Reward as is plainly co-incident in its meaning with our expectation of that Crown which God the Righteous Judge hath laid up against the last day for them that have finished their Course and kept the Faith therefore are they well called by some Certain Seminaries of Hope And they were so far from any thought of a Proportionate value or Condignity as they every where speak against it When the high-soaring Schoolmen hatcht that Opinion since fledg'd and much improved by the industrious care of the Jesuits with their adherents how unhandsome it appeared to men of sober minds you may observe from that place of Erasmus given you before two others the next Epistle shall acquaint you with and abundance more cited by the Primate of Ireland and Davenant in the Point We will here lay together the Judgment of Theodoret and Cyril of Alexandria with the late Positions of the Rhemists then judge whether there be such a Consonancy and Identitie betwixt Antiquity and Rome at this day as is pretended The former tells us that the Salvation of men depends upon the sole Mercy of God For we do not obtain it as a Reward and Wages of our Righteousness but it is the Gift of God's goodness The Crowns do excel the Fights the Rewards are not to be compared with the Labours c. And therefore says he the Apostle called those things that are looked for not Wages but Glory Rom. 8. 18. and again not Wages but Grace Rom. 6. 23. Although a man should perform the most absolute Righteousness Things Eternal do not answer Temporal Labours in equal poyse The same is Cyril's mind too for he tells us The Crown doth much surpass the pains which we take Not a paying a price for labour but pouring out the riches of his goodness saith Prosper Well now hear the Rhemists in another Note All good works done by God's grace after the first Justification be truly and properly Meritorious and fully worthy of Everlasting life and thereupon Heaven is the just Stipend Crown or Recompence which God by his Justice oweth to the Persons so working by his Grace c. And in another place they therefore will have us to think that the word Reward which in our English may signifie a voluntary or bountiful Gift is not expressive enough of the Original which they will render better by a very Stipend that the hired Workman or Journey-man covenanteth to have of him whose work he doth and is a thing equally and justly answering to the weight and time of his Travels rather than a free Gift But let them answer St. Paul who calls it so Rom. 6. 23. and it were their best in their next Edition of their Expurgatory Indexes to wipe out such pestilent places of former Writers as will not suffer them to hugg their Diana in quietness Thus you may discern in part how unsafe it will be to take up Religion upon trust without laying the several poynts thereof to the Square of Gods word a course which the Commendation fixed upon the Bereans may incourage all men unto and which I do God willing intend to make the Subject of some future Letters LETTER II. ALthough it be an old received Truth That Discords in Religion are the most bitter and for the most part prosecuted with most violence I shall desire to contract rather than widen the Differences betwixt us and leaving the Out-works which fortifie our Cause in other points we hold in Opposition to the Roman Church to stand a while upon their own Guard set my self at present to the defence of that which is most oppugned by Papists against which the Jesuites have raised their fiercest Batteries I mean our Doctrine of Justification Our answers are so Consonant in the first Quaere that one would think we were almost agreed and Dispute at an end for this Maxim is as I conceive imbraced on both sides We are saved by Grace But alas they have framed such strange Comments and affixed so perverse a Definition to the nature of their Grace as will and must needs keep us at a grand and perpetual distance Forasmuch as I have observed most of the Objections brought in against us to arise merely from a mis-understanding of that Faith to which only we dare trust our Justification I will in the first Place sub-joyn it's Nature and Office in three Propositions First the Faith we desire to establish is not a bare Opinion is not a mere Notion but it is a Grace a purifying a cleansing reforming Grace of God's Spirit And though the Principal and main Act of Faith be an Accepting Receiving and Resting upon Christ alone for Justification by vertue of the Covenant Yet they who are Effectually called and Regenerate have a new heart Created in them and are farther Really and Personally sanctified the Dominion of the whole Body of Sin destroyed the several Lusts thereof by degrees mortified and they more and more strengthned in all saving Graces to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Nor do we say that good Works done by such an one are of their own Nature sins as we are slanderously reported to do No so far as they are good they are the Product of God's own Spirit and he approves them But because of a mixture of Imperfections adhering to the best of men in this Life and their Works We think they are no better than the Reeds of Egypt which if a man lean on them with hopes of Justice from them will break and wound his sides We are Justified by Faith alone without Works Not that Works are separated from Faith or can be But only excluded from the Act of Justifying A Dead Faith cannot Justifie a Living Faith cannot be Idle The Concurrence of Works is Certain their Agreement Amiable in the Life of one Justified Yet their Contrariety irreconcileable in the procurement
Credulity to down with them and to suspend our whole Belief upon the most imperious dictates of their supposed infallible Church But we have not so learned Christ. And as to my part after a long and diligent search whereto never any could be more ingaged than my self I despair of ever finding any more sure or near way to Heaven Than by renouncing in Sanctification all my Sins 1 John 8. 3. Justification all my Graces Dan. 9. 18. Than by having unfeigned Repentance towards God Acts 20. 21. Faith towards Christ Isaiah 64. 6. Matth. 5. 17 18. Matth. 22. 36 37. Luke 10. 27 28. Rom. 3. 31. We find that Law which had it not been weak through the flesh should have given Life both declared and established Expounded too we find it by Bernard de verb. Es. Serm. 4. who reminds us That it requires even yet Obedientiam rectam according to the Rule all that is only what is prescribed puram free from all blemish in manner and measure firmam steady and without any intermission Chrysostome upon 2 Cor. 5. holds out as requisite to our Justification a Righteousness wherein there must not be either Spot or Stain The Law thus applied and understood is still before God's Tribunal the Matter of our Justification and there to be pleaded but where to be found If we confine our search to within our selves and fall seriously to ponder our best Works either of Nature or by Grace we shall find it a Yoak which we no more than our Fathers were are not able to bear Hath God any where discovered that he has drawn off something from its expectation in order to its giving us Justice in his sight upon more facile Terms I think not If then a fulfilled Law and that the same was first given must be presented to God for our Justification that we may appear faultless before the presence of his Glory Jude ver 24. Where may we seek it and not lose our labour Let them that have a mind look amongst the Rubbish of their Performances whilst we with a thankfully-humble boldness do contemplate What it is Dan. 9. 24. Jer. 23. 6. Rom. 10. 4. Isai. 45. 25. 46. 13. Where Col. 1. 19. Joh. 1. 16. Rom. 5. 17. Col. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 5. 11. How had Joh. 3. 14 15. Rom. 3. 22. Gal. 3. 24. Phil. 3. 9. Let us now call in some Evidence and enquire whether the Protestant Cause be so altogether unbefriended by Antiquity as some of our Adversaries are desirous the World should believe And 1. what we meet with in Athanasius We find Tom. 2. That the fulfilling of the Law wrought by the first fruits Christ is imputed to the whole Lump 2. Gregory upon Ezek. Hom. 8. I will give it you in the Original because there is one Word the just force and importance whereof our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus injustos Non in Fletibus non in Actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione considamus 3. Chrysostom upon 1 Cor. 1. 30. It is not said he made us Wise Just and Holy but he is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Justification c. Upon Rom. 10. There is no cause thou shouldest fear as a Transgressor of the Law if thou believest in Christ because thou hast fulfilled it and received a far greater Righteousness 4. Basil. de Humil. Hom. 51. This is perfect and full rejoycing in God when a man boasts not of his righteousness but knows himself void of true Sanctity yet justified by Faith 5. Gregory Nyssen on those words of our Saviour Beati qui esuriant justitiam It seems to me saith he that our Lord by mentioning Justice doth propose to the appetite of his hearers his own self who is made unto us wisdom from God Justice c. 6. Another from Chrysostom upon Rom. 4. That one destitute of Works should be Justified by Faith might perhaps seem well to be But that one adorned with vertues and good works should yet be justified not by them but by Faith only is admirable 7. Bernard who every where gives us clear glimpses of this light lets it shine broad out in his 61. Sermon on Canticles where he calls us under shelter of that Long Large Eternal Righteousness of Christ professing He will make mention of that only And why must not Jacob attain the blessing without the garments of his Elder Brother but to impart to us the knowledge that we must have ingress into Heaven no otherwise than under the Tegument of Christ's Merits I may well says he again Ep. 190. call my self Just but 't is by his Christ's Justice and what 's that even Christ the end of the Law for Righteousness to all Believers It is not a short Cloak adds he further that cannot cover two 8. Besides Augustin's Non nobis and his Sicut found and usually observed in his Peruse his 45th Sermon de Temp. and you will find by him that it 's the fulness of Vertue which the Law means when it says Thou shalt not Covet then adds he after this manner It cannot be fulfilled 9. But Sedulius on Rom. 10. shews how it may saying Perfectionem Legis habet qui credit in Christo. 10. Both Irenaeus and Augustine do most clearly design that particular Act and Office of Faith which respects our Saviour whilest they expound John 3. 14. 11. Ambrose de vita beata lib. 2. cap. 2. upon these words Odoratus est odorem vestimentorum Peradventure he saith it 's meant that we are not justified by Works but by Faith because the weakness of our Flesh is an impediment to our Works but the Excellency of Faith doth cover the errors of them 12. As we begun so we will end though it were easie to bring a whole Cloud of reverend Authors to attest this thing with Athanasius de incarnatione Verbi It's impossible that Purity and Innocence can be exhibited in humane Nature unless it be believed that God was in the Flesh who brought into the World a Justice free from all sin Because we are made partakers Hujus render it how you will of him or of this we shall live and be saved For illud non est justus in terra adds he belongs equally to us all and for that reason he descended from Heaven who was to impart Righteousness ex se out of himself These proofs are not cited in order of time as they were writ but in course as they seemed best to make out what I have said before in this Point 13. Ambrose upon Rom. 10. He that believes on Christ hath attained the perfection of the Law For seeing of old none were to be justified by the Law because none fulfilled it otherwise than by hoping in Christ promised Faith is introduced to believe the Law fulfilled That all things else laid aside Faith might satisfie both for the