a true Church nor the ground and pillar of truth when she is not built upon the foundation of Peter nor teacheth not the way of the truth and the life nor honoureth not Christ as her King Priest and Prophet nor continueth constantly in the doctrines of the holy Prophets and Apostles and in the which the Gospell of Jesus Christ is neither purely preached nor the Sacraments rightly administred and in the which there is not the true invocation of God nor the true religion that Christ the great Prophet of his Church hath taught us All which Mr. Montague I have as I hope so sufficiently proved in this discourse as I am most confident that there is not any rationall man but will easily perceive and you your selfe Master Montague if you have not resolved to shut your eyes at noone day will now clearely discerne which of the Churches believeth best and which of their faiths and beliefes is most orthodox concerning the Kingly Priestly and Propheticall Office of Christ Jesus and which of them giveth the Lord Jesus most honour either she that neither regardeth what Christ commandeth or forbiddeth or she that in all things heareth his voice and followeth the direction of his Word as it is set downe in the holy Scriptures which I have by Gods assistance proved to containe all things in it necessary to salvation and that wee have no need of humane traditions for the making of it a compleat rule and that this Word is onely the sole rule of our faith and manners and that all Christians to the end of the world are tied unto that to be the rule and square both of their faith and manners and that they ought not to swarve from it upon what termes soever And therefore now Mr. Montague I shall look for the performance of your promise viz. that if I could prove the Church of England to be a true Church and that the Word of God contained all things in it necessary to salvation and that it was the onely rule of our faith unto which all Christians were tied to the end of the world all which I conceive I have fully done that then you would be of our Religion and turne Protestant This was your promise Master Montague before all the Gentlemen and the performance of the which will be to the honour of God and your owne eternall comfort and will ever rejoyce the heart of him that wisheth you all happinesse here and hereafter But Master Montague before I shut up this discourse I shall in way of a corollary desire you to ponder and seriously consider not onely the vanity but the impiety of all those tenents you hold in the Church of Rome more than we have warrant for in the Word of God and that you would deale ingenuously betweene God and your owne conscience in the examination of a few Queries that I shall now before I finish my discourse propound unto you I desire you Master Montague to answer mee truely what you thinke of the condition of such a man as shall believe that Jesus Christ is the onely and sole King and head of his Church and Saviour of his body that infuseth life and spirituall motion into it and all saving graces and that guideth it by his holy Spirit and Word and believeth also that he and he onely is to be obeyed in whatsoever he commandeth or forbiddeth and that we are not in matters of faith and doctrine to follow or heare any voyce or word but what he the King of his Church hath made knowne unto us in his Lawes and heavenly Statutes as they are recorded in the holy Scriptures tell me I pray Master Montague candidly what you think of the condition of such a man living and dying in this faith Can this beliefe any waies prejudice his salvation though he never heareth of the Pope of Rome whom you and the other Romanists proclaime to be head of the Church and to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords whose oracles Lawes and Ordinances you affirme ought to be obeyed in all things as the commands of Christ I say if he never heares of so much as the name of the Pope or of any such creature as he is will not his faith in Jesus Christ alone whom hee believeth to be the onely King and head of the Church and Saviour of all such as trust in him save him eternally If you shall affirme that his thus believing will not save him you overthrow the Christian faith and destroy the true Christian religion which teacheth us thus to believe and assureth us that living and dying in so believing and in this faith we shall be saved Againe Master Montague I demand of you what you thinke of the condition of that Christian that shall peremptorily believe that the Pope of Rome is not the King and head of the Church militant but that hee is the enemy of Jesus Christ one guilty of blasphemy as assuming unto himselfe those glorious attributes and prerogatives that are peculiar to Christ alone the King of Saints and King of Kings and the onely head and sole governour of his Church Can this Master Montague his so believing prejudice his salvation or be any sinne against Almighty God If you shall answer that it may then I shall demand your reason why you conceive that it may be any way prejudiciall to his eternall happinesse for where there is no transgression there is no sinne for sinne is the transgression of the Law and what law I beseech you doth that Christian transgresse that believeth that Christ onely is the King and head of his Church and the Saviour of his body and that these incommunicable prerogatives peculiarly belong unto Christ and that they are not to be given to any mortall man and that it is a sinne in any to assume these titles or for any to give them to the Pope Master Montague let me tell you that except you will overthrow the faith of the Gospell you can never make either the ignorance or the contempt of your Romish doctrine concerning the Popes Supremacy any sinne but that a man may live and die in the detestation of it and be eternally saved if by a stedfast and lively faith and full perswasion hee cleaveth unto Christ Jesus the onely head and King of his Church and believes by his alone power to be delivered out of the hands of all his bodily and spirituall enemies Againe Master Montague I desire you to answer me ingenuously what you thinke of the condition of such a man as shall believe that Christ Jesus is the onely and sole Prophet of his Church and that he hath fully revealed the whole will and counsell of his Father concerning the redemption of man-kind and that all things necessary to salvation are fully and compleatly set downe in his holy Word by his command in the writings of the old and new Testament and that the sacred Scriptures are a perfect rule of themselves for
force of which argument you had thought by a glosse and flourish to have evaded but all the cunning of man cannot doe it as in its due place will appeare But after you had once got your head into this fort and refuge you uttered many things very erroneous equalizing your traditions yea preferring them before the written Word accusing the Scripture of imperfection and denying them that due honour which is to be the rule of our faith and manners and the square by which we must order our lives affirming further more that they were accidentally written and not on purpose to be the rule of our doctrine and manners and that for the making of the Scripture a compleat and absolute rule the unwritten word received and entertained in all ages by tradition ought to be added to it which when the Church of England did not observe and admit of it did not believe as Christ ordained and as it ought to believe for the speculative and practicall parts of Divinity for to believe in Christ effectually and sufficiently to salvation as you said was not enough to believe both the natures of Jesus Christ and all his Offices but it consisted in this that we conforme our selves to a beliefe speculative and to a religion that is practicall for the Church was determined in these two points that is to say without the Church of England would imbrace and entertaine your traditions and believe your unwritten verities as they are commonly termed it could not be a true Church Hereupon I then undertooke to maintaine and prove first that the written Word in it selfe without any unwritten verities or traditions contained all things necessary to salvation Secondly that all Christians were tied to make that and that only the rule of their faith and manners which you said if I could prove you would be a Protestant and after some debate of these businesses and that Sir John Gotherick had said unto you magnifying your unwritten verities that if you could make it appeare that you had as good warrant for your traditions as we could shew for the Scriptures that then he would receive and imbrace them to whom you replyed that you could prove them by better authority than he could prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God But I perceiving at that time that you grew something weary and seeing withall for want of a moderator that things began something disorderly to be handled I told you that I would by writing reduce all those things that were then agitated and bring them into good order and set downe such other arguments as should sufficiently prove the Church of England to be a true Church and send you them all in writing which you not onely liked well of but earnestly also desired me so to doe and I promised likewise in the same writing evidently to prove that the Scriptures of the old and new Testament without any traditions contained all things in them necessary to salvation and that they are the onely rule and square which we are tied unto for the ordering of our faith lives and manners which is now my taske that in the following discourse I have taken upon me and I doubt not by Gods assistance but to make good and maintaine what I have undertaken But before I come to that that all men may see the Church of England faileth in nothing necessary to salvation either in respect of theory or practice although I have formerly proved it yet I thought fit briefly againe to runne over and to declare what she teaches for her beliefe speculative and her religion practicall that I may make use of some of your expressions and wherein she differs from the Church of Rome that the Church of Englands tenent being set downe on the one side and the errours and idolatry of the Church of Rome on the other all men may learne to love and imbrace the Church of England and to abhorre and abandon the Church of Rome that mother of abomination and that you Mr. Montague that have formerly undutifully deserted and forsaken her may with the Prodigall returne and yeild unto her your mother Christian and wonted duty and obedience Which I am confident will be more to your true comfort and honour than ever any thing done by you in all your life And now to begin I affirm for beliefe speculative and religion practicall it is orthodoxly and and clearely taught in the Church of England in all points and to begin with the speculative part Whatsoever I say is required of us to be knowne concerning God is perspicuously taught in the Church of England both in respect of the divine essence and nature of God as also of the persons in the blessed Trinity as likewise of their names and workes and of all their glorious attributes As that there is but one onely true God distinguished into the Father Sonne and holy Ghost the al-sufficient Jehovah Creator and governour of all things which onely living God the Church of England with an unanimous consent doth honour serve and worship in spirit and truth as he himselfe commands John 4. vers 24. and as he hath in all ages been worshipped by all the family of the faithfull that call upon his name in sincerity since the glorious ascension of Christ into Heaven and teaches the people so to worship him The Church of England doth fully likewise instruct the people in what a happy and blessed condition man was created being made after Gods owne Image and likenesse Genes 1. v. 27. and into what misery he afterwards plunged himselfe and all his posterity by reason of his transgression disobedience and infidelity in listning unto the suggestion of the diâ—â—ll as it is at large described in Genes chap. 3. And as it doth daily acquaint them with the nature of sinne the danger of it and the evill consequences that insue upon it as all manner of miseries here and eternall damnation hereafter if by timely repentance they breake not off the course of them which duty they daily exhort them unto In like manner it teacheth the people that next to the eternall love of God who in Christ Jesus made choice of them before the foundation of the world Ephes 1. v. 3 4 5. that they owe the whole worke of their redemption unto Jesus Christ alone who taking humane nature upon him was made sinne for us that knew no sinne that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. vers 21. So that if we consider the whole summe of our salvation and all the parts of it they are contained and comprehended in Christ to whom alone all the honour glory and praise of all our blessednesse both present and future is to be ascribed and not any parcell of it to be attributed to any creature in Heaven or earth So that if any desires to be saved and to be eternally blessed the Church of England instructs them there is no other meanes to
body and the induring of the dolours pangs and sorrowes of the second death in respect of his soule the first of which doth consist in his perfect fulfilling of the law for us The truth of which doth evidently appeare For after the fall of our first parents all man-kind stood bound in a double debt we had violated and broken the law and therefore were all tyed and bound first to make satisfaction for that Secondly as we are creatures we were still bound to keepe and fulfill the whole Law even to the rigour of it and to doe whatsoever that commanded of the which double debt when we were not able to pay the least portion being now become bankrupts of that primordiall and originall righteousnesse and wholly corrupted we must necessarily have recourse and flie to our surety and mediator who hath discharged both those debts for us The first he payd for us being dead in our sinnes and trespasses when he was made a curse for us and so redeemed us from the curse and malediction of the law though not from the obedience of it Gal. 3. ver 13. Rom. 3. ver 24 25. and in 2 Cor. 5. ver 21. The last he performed by his perfect obedience to the whole law so that in Jesus Christ we fulfill the law The second thing to be here considered for the better understanding of this businesse of so great concernment is seeing that the obedience of Jesus Christ is the matter of our justification and that is without us and none of ours how that comes to be made ours which being once declared the truth then will be perspicuous That the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ therefore may be made ours it must first be given to us of God Secondly we must receive and imbrace this righteousnesse Now God gives us this righteousnesse when he gives Christ unto us for with Christ this righteousnesse is bestowed upon us and it is then made ours when God out of his infinite mercy accounts it and judgeth it ours and it is made ours onely by imputation as it is evident and manifest by these reasons First as Christ was made sinne for us so we are made the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. ver 21. and in 1 Cor. 1. v. 30. Now Christ was made sinne for us onely by imputation therefore the inherent righteousnesse of Jesus Christ is made ours onely by imputation Secondly as the disobedience of Adam was made ours so the obedience of Christ the second Adam is made ours as it is largely discoursed by the Apostle Rom. 5. ver 17.18 but the offence and disobedience of Adam was made ours by imputation therefore after the same manner Christs obedience is made ours Secondly that Christs obedience may be made ours we must receive it and apply it to our selves and put it on which is onely done by faith the hand of the soule for the receiving of those things which are given us of God Whereby the way Mr. Montague I desire you to take notice that a sinner is not justified for the dignity of faith but as it is an instrument by which the obedience of Christ is applied to the soule And now I come to the third thing viz. What works and deeds are excluded from justification And for answer I affirme all the works of the ceremoniall and morall law and all the workes of nature and grace which is thus proved Rom. 3. ver 20. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sinne Here all deeds of the law both ceremoniall and morall are excluded from justification and that by an excellent and unanswerable argument of the Apostle That which discovers the knowledge of sinne and accuses us for it that cannot justifie us before God And for farther proofe of it in the 28 verse the place I first cited is plain Therfore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works or deeds of the law And Gal. 2. ver 15 16. We who are Jewes by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles knowing that a man is not justified by the workes of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the workes of the law for by the workes of the law shall no flesh be justified Here by the workes of the law we cannot understand the workes that men doe in the state of nature and corruption and before regeneration seeing the Apostle writes unto the Church of the Galatians that had received the Gospell of Jesus Christ and were believers the Apostle also includes him himselfe amongst them saying We also c. and in the 21. verse I doe not saith he frustrate the grace of God for if righteousnesse came by the Law then Christ is dead in vaine So that if men can be justified by the Law it followeth that they have no need of salvation by Jesus Christ but they have need of Jesus Christ therefore all the workes of the Law are excluded from justification even in the regenerate But for more full proof chap. 3. ver 10. For as many as are under the workes of the Law are under the curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to doe them Deut. 27.26 Here by the Law is understood the whole Law of God for it comprehends all that is written in the booke of the Law as in expresse words the Apostle shewes but principally the morall Law as is evident by that passage cited by the Apostle out of the Law so that it is cleere and apparent that all those that pretend or presume to be justified by the workes of the Law are under this fearefull malediction and curse and in the 11. verse by an invincible reason he confirmeth the former truth in these words But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by faith Hab. 2. Rom. 1. The argument of the Apostle is this That by which we have life justifies us before God but by faith we have life ergo by faith alone we are justified before God And in the 12. verse And the Law saith the Apostle is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Here it doth appeare there are two waies of attaining eternall life or two waies of justification the one by the exact accomplishing keeping and fulfilling of the whole Law which no mortall man hath yet ever done Christ excepted the other by faith imbracing the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Who was delivered for our offences and raised up for our justification Rom. 4. ver 25. and in the 13. verse Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us c. and in chap. 5. ver 4.
the Apostle declares two things concerning himselfe The first his good conscience The second that he was not thereby justified By which all the workes of grace are excluded from justification Yea it is most evident that a man must be justified before he can doe any good workes or any thing pleasing unto God so that those workes that follow justification can no way effect it or be the cause of it And as all workes are excluded so all vertues faith onely excepted for as he that receives a gift puts forth his hand onely but after he has received it not onely his hand but his tongue and his feet and his other members which conferred nothing in the receiving testifie their thankfulnesse After the same manner we receive the matter of justification by faith onely the hand of the soule not by hope or charity But after Christ is received and imbraced these graces likewise manifest themselves with all the rest which spring from faith the fountaine that sanctifies cleanses and purifies the heart sprinkling it with the blood of Jesus Christ from which fountaine arise all the streams of all other saving graces that appear in our lives And this Mr. Montague is the saving doctrine of justification which when the Church of England so firmely holdeth forth declares and preaches it believeth in Jesus Christ as it ought to believe and is built upon the foundation of Peter when it excludes all merits and workes from justification and lookes for salvation in Christ by faith alone for which its believing it hath very good reason for if the children of Israel did not by their owne righteousnesse merit the Land of Canaan which is by God himselfe there excluded Deut. 9. which was but the type how much lesse can any man by his merits merit Heaven it selfe which is the thing typified But that I may neither leave you Mr. Montague nor any Romanist any ground of cavill I shall by your patience say something here severally and by it self to a poore objection that is often made by the Papists against our doctrine of free justification by faith alone who often contest that in the whole Scripture it is no where said that man is justified by faith alone that particle alone say they is no where inserted in the holy Scripture but is onely put in by us But for answer I desire you to take notice that howsoever that particle in so many letters be not in expresse terms specified there is in many places of the Scripture that set downe that that is equivalent to it as will by and by appeare And however I say that word alone be not in the Scriptures notwithstanding the Apostle Paul doth clearely confirme our opinion of free justification by faith alone so that no man can doubt of it that hath not resigned his reason and so evidently declares it as if he had in expresse words said by faith alone For faith beholds and lookes upon something without us that is the mercy and favour of God promised in a mediator which are the sure mercies of David and this mercy alone doth justifie us and this mercy doth faith alone apprehend wherefore the name of faith taken by it selfe denoteth as much as faith alone and by it selfe Besides Paul in this businesse and worke of justification joynes nothing with faith and therefore he teacheth that faith alone doth suffice for if it hath nothing joyned and coupled with it in justifying or absolving of us then it is plaine and evident that faith alone doth justifie us For whatsoever could adde or conferre any thing to our justification all that is removed and excluded from faith in our justification For what is it Mr. Montague I pray thinke you that in this cause or businesse should be joyned with faith I presume you will say workes Now then if workes be removed severed and disjoyned from faith and that in expresse words it followes then necessarily that we are justified by faith alone Heare then I pray what Paul saith Rom. 3. vers 28. We therefore conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law And in the same chapter vers 20. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified And vers 24. Being justified freely by grace through the redemption of Jesus Christ And in chap. 4. ver 5 6. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousness even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works And in his epistle to the Gala. cap. the 2.16 knowing that a man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ c. I beseech you Mr. Montague tell me ingenuously what could be spoke or cited more cleerly for the confirming of our opinion and doctrine For if wee be not justified by the workes of the Law and if we be not justified but by the faith of Jesus Christ and if all workes of the Law be so often by the Apostle excluded from justification and twice in expresse tearmes removed from justification in this verse and that with an irrisistible reason added by the Apostle shewing the impossibility of justification by workes saving that by the workes of the Law shall no flesh be iustified I say in all these regards it necessarily followes that we are justified by faith alone And we may adde to all this what the Apostle often speakes that wee are justified freely it is the gift of God which excludes all reason of merit Ephes 2. vers 8 9. for by grace are yee saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of workes lest any man should boast Mr. Montague if all that I have spoke cannot yet satisfy you I hope it will satisfy all rationall men and it doth abundantly confirme me in this truth and also prove that that Church which teacheth the free grace of God and the doctrin of justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ is a true Church and believes as it ought to believe But before I draw to an end and couclude this point I shall at your best leisure desire you to answer this Argument If wee be not justified by the workes of the Law if to him that workes not but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse if by the workes of the Law no flesh shall be justified if Righteousnesse without workes be imputed if freely if by grace if it be the gift of God and to conclude if we be not justified but by the Faith of Jesus Christ Then we are iustified by Faith alone But the antecedent is true therefore the consequent Wherefore then should any man cavill against our Doctrine of free justification by faith alone because the particle alone is not in expresse tearmes set down when there are divers expressions of as full efficacy
meanes of attaining this faith by which they may save their soules is the preaching and hearing of the Word and as this faith is attained to by hearing so it is dayly increased by the same as also by the right use and administration of the holy Sacraments and Prayers to all which duties they stir up the people with all sedulity and godly care And that they may the more deterre them from sinne and all manner of evill they do not onely declare unto them the horror of sinne and the present danger of it as that it is the cause of all miseries and calamities here but that it will also bring endlesse and eternall misery upon them hereafter and that they must all appeare at the last day before a dreadfull Judge there to give an accompt of whatsoever they have done in the body whether good or evill 2 Cor. chap. 5. vers 10. And that they should not deceive themselves for God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reape for hee that soweth unto the flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption but he that soweth unto the spirit shall of the spirit reape life everlasting Gal. 6. v. 7 8. So that if we run through all the Theoricall part of Divinity you shall not finde the Church of England failing or defective in any point of beliefe speculative that is required and necessary for salvation when it teacheth every thing that Christ himselfe requires at mens hands that they should know to make them blessed Now all the knowledge that makes men blessed and that Christ injoynes them is the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ and self-deniall This is life eternall saith Christ Iohn 17. to know thee to be the only true God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ And Mat. 16. If any will be my Disciple let him deny himselfe and come after mee Now I say when the Church of England teacheth the people the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ and the knowledge of themselves it teacheth all things for beliefe speculative for all speculative Divinity is contained in these two poynts And this shall suffice to have spoke of the Theoricall part of Divinity wherein the Church of England doth her duty And now Mr. Montague I will as briefly as I can declare and prove that the Church of England fayleth nothing in teaching all things for Religion practicall for in that shee teacheth us our whole duty both towards God and towards our Neighbour what we should doe and what wee should not do in the whole course of our lives for the pleasing of God and avoyding of sin and misery she doth her duty also in the practicall part of Divinity perfectly and fully For as all speculative Divinity consists as I sayd before in the knowledge of God and of our selves so all practicall Religion consists in the performance of our duty towards God in giving him his due honour and such a worship and service as he requires of us in his Word and that is spirituall as wee see John 4. vers 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth And in performing all offices of love and charity to our Neighbour and carrying our selves unblamably in this present World Jam. 1. vers 27. Pure Religion and undefiled saith S. Iames before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and the Widow in their affliction and to keepe themselves unspotted from the World and in observing and fulfilling that royall Law chap. 2. vers 8. in loving our Neighbour as our selves In these two points consists all practicall Religion which is nothing else but a framing of our whole lives according to the Law of God considering that we are not at our owne disposing nor at our owne liberty but consecrated and dedicated unto God and therefore wee must deny our selves and forsake our owne reason and resigne our selves up to be guided and governed by the Word and Spirit of the Lord in all things belonging unto his worship And that wee ought not to seeke after those things that are our owne but those things that are according to the Will of God and tend to the advancement of his glory and Kingdom and in this does our practicall Religion concerning God consist and our love and duty towards our Neighbour is contained in these two things in being kindly affectioned one towards another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another Rom. 12. v. 10. In doing nothing through strife and vaine-glory but in lowlinesse of mind each esteeming others better than themselves Phil. 2. vers 3. And then in imploying our selves to the uttermost of our abilities with all sincerity and truth of affection and unfained love to procure their good and emolument in all things And under these two heads the love of God and of our Neighbour is comprised all the practicall Divinity or Religion the Word of God makes knowne unto men and requires at our hand Which when the Church of England doth dayly publish unto the people and teacheth all things concerning them fully it is aboundantly evident to any unpartiall man that she teachteh all things both for Theory and practice necessary for salvation and for the proving of her selfe to to be a true Church the ground and pillar of truth and to be built upon the foundation of Peter And as this conclusion doth necessarily issue upon the premises for the proofe of the truth of the Church of England so on the contrary this likewise will of necessity follow that that Church that neither teacheth those things that belong unto the beliefe speculative nor to the Religion practicall cannot be a true Church And I am confident Mr. Montague that you your selfe upon deliberation will not deny it And then also any man may inferre that the Church of Rome cannot be a true Church nor the ground and pillar of Truth when shee neither teacheth the people the true knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ nor the knowledge of themselves nor makes knowne unto them the spirituall way of worshipping him which he requires nor teacheth them their love and duty towards God and towards their Neighbour which God commands but with far greater reason they may conclude that the Church of Rome is not a true Church if they consider also that the Church of Rome not onely neglecteth her duty in not teaching the people the true knowledge of God and of themselves but also in that shee taketh away the Key of knowledge from them snatching the Word of God out of their hands and hindering the pure preaching of both Law and Gospel by which men might be saved and setting up an idolatricall worship and bringing in a new service of their owne devising and in that also that the Church of Rome doth not teach the people love towards their Neighbours the true servants of God but hatred and animates them to persecute them with fire and faggot