teach the will doth euer follow the last iudgement and conclusion of the practicke reason and that which the minde by the aduise of reason iudgeth and determineth to be acted that must the will endeauour to act As if the minde resolue that our chiefest happines consisteth in the plentifull possession and fruition of all earthly profits and pleasures then will the will and affections be wholly set vpon earthly things but if it resolue that our highest happinesse and our chiefest good consisteth in our communion with God and in the cleere manifestation of his loue in Christ then will our hearts be lifted vp to God and fixed on Christ and settled vpon heauen and heauenly things For as Saint Austine saith free-will is a seruant to sinne or to grace An euill minde maketh an euill will a minde indued with grace communicateth grace to the will For doth folly set all things Mala mens malus animus out of frame and doth not wisedome frame and order all things aright Doth darknesse cause men to stumble and fall Iohn 11. 9. Heb. 3. 12. and doth not light keepe men vpright and preserue them from falling Doth infidelity withdraw mens hearts from God and corrupt their wils and affections and doth not faith ioyne men neerely vnto God and sanctifie their wils and affections with all manner of diuine and heauenly graces Wherefore as all carnall Gospellers and loose Libertines so our Romane Catholikes are greatly deceiued in that they thinke that a sauing and iustifying faith may stand with raigning sinnes for then should the selfe-same persons at the selfe-same time be the children of God in respect of their mindes sanctified with the knowledge of the truth and with sauing faith and the children of the Deuill in their wils being polluted with dominering sins but where sauing faith getteth the sure and safe possession of the minde it not only expelleth infidelity out of the castle of the vnderstanding but also casteth out all sinne and iniquity out of the forts of the will and affections that they shall no longer rule and raigne there For sauing faith doth regenerate vs and make vs the sons of God Gal. 3. 26. as the Apostle affirmeth and so reneweth vs to his image in holinesse and crue righteousnesse and therefore will not suffer vs to giue place to wilfull and raigning sinnes and presumptuous transgressions Whosoeuer saith Saint Iohn is borne 1 Iohn 3. 9. of God sinneth not for his seed remaineth in him neither can he sinne because he is borne of God that is whosoeuer is borne of God committeth no such sinnes whereby the Word of God is choaked and extinguished in him because it is an immortall seed which liueth and indureth for euer where it is 1 Pet. 1. 23. once rooted and settled neither can hee sinne because hee is borne of God That is sinne which is the worke of the Deuill cannot so farre forth preuaile as to annihilate his regeneration which is the worke of God because God is stronger then the Deuill and will maintaine his owne proper worke in his owne children against the malice and mischiefe of Satan For let the Deuill set his chiefest instruments on worke to draw Gods children from their faith and obedience to God yet they shall not finally preuaile against them So Saint Iohn Little children ye are of God and haue ouercome them for 1 Iohn 4. 4. greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world For albeit they be little and weake in themselues yet they are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and are enabled thereby to stand against all the assaults of the Deuill Ephes 6. 10. And verily he that truly beholdeth and duly considereth what this great dignity is to be translated out of the bondage of Satan into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God he cannot with purpose of heart serue sinne any longer and enthrall himselfe againe vnto the tyranny of Satan but he will resigne himselfe wholly ouer to God How can we saith the Aposte Rom. 6. 2. that are dead to sinne liue any longer therein When Ioseph that of a poore slaue being made chiefe ruler ouer all Gen. 39. 9. Fixum etenins quicu ique geret noâ— hunc â—go nolle crediderim Christo cum mâ—ricate mori Coster that great estate which his master was possessed withall was tempted by his lewd mistrisse to defile his masters bed How can I said he doe this wickednesse and sinne against God How much more then will all such as are indued with true Christian faith resolue and say when they duly consider their great dignity in that of the bondslaues of Satan they are made the sonnes of God and inheritours of the kingdome of heauen How can we giue ouer our selues to wilfull and presumptuous sinnes to the great dishonour of our louing and most gracious God who hath aduanced vs to so great dignity and honor Vndoubtedly they cannot but thus resolue with themselues their sure beleefe of so great a fauour throughly settled in their hearts will not suffer them to giue themselues ouer to the seruice of sinne but will cause them fully to resolue to continue and perseuere in constant and continuall obedience vnto God And in this respect the estate of all such as are reconciled vnto God by Christ albeit it be subiect to many infirmities is farre more happy then Adams was in his absolute and perfect purity For as Saint Austine saith the first liberty was a Aug. de corrept grat cap. 2. possibility not to sinne but ours is much greater being such as that we cannot possibly sinne that is giue our selues ouer to be bondslaues to raigning sinnes For to Adam was giuen grace to persist in grace if he would but to vs it is giuen that we be made willing and that by our will we conquer our concupiscence to him was giuen ability if he himselfe would haue vsed it but to vs is giuen not only to be able but also to be willing to vse our ability For the will of the Saints is so forcibly mooued by the Spirit of God that therefore they are able because they will and therefore they will because it is God that worketh in them that they be willing For if in so great infirmity wherein perfect vertue was requisite for the suppressing of pride they were left to their owne will that by the helpe of God they might persist if they would themselues and that God himselfe did not worke in them the very will that they would among so many and so great tentations the will by reason of her weaknesse would soone relent and giue ouer A remedy therefore was prouided for the infirmity of mans will that it should be so mooued by diuine grace that it should neuer decline or separate it selfe from the same and therefore albeit it were weake yet it should neuer vtterly faile Now that Saint Austine did
victorious against Antichrist and all his impious Heresies For where Truth is clearely demonstrated and rightly apprehended it cannot otherwise be but that it 1 Esd 3 12. will mightily preuaile Our most wise and learned Solomon hath already by his penne begun this regall and Princely worke and hath iustified by cleare and demonstratiue arguments that the supreme authority to command aswell in Ecclesiasticall as in ciuill causes resteth in the ciuill Magistrate in his own Dominions and Countries and hath sent his Booke to all Christian Princes the which no doubt shall preuail at that time when he that hath the hearts of all Kings in his own hand shall know it to be most fit And why should it not then highly please especially the Ecclesiastick Peeres of his Kingdomes to follow so worthy supereminent an example in causing all Theologicall doctrines in this our renowned Church to be confirmed by cleare and demonstratiue arguments iustificable by all the rules of sound reason and the sophismes opposed against them reduced to the elenches as in part they haue bin already by that famous late publike Professor in Cambridge Doctor Whitaker And if worthy ensamples of famous men of their own ranke be not to be neglected herein haue they not to be their Precedents the singular Patrons of the Christian Faith that liued in the Primitiue Church that penned their learned Apologies and deliuered them vp into the hands euen of the Heathenish persecuting Emperours And albeit that reprobate Iulian did say of these Apologies I haue read them vnderstood them and despised them yet the learned Bishops were not dismaide therewith but gaue him this answere thou hast read thē Zozom l. 5. c 18. perhaps but thou hast not vnderstood them for if thou hast vnderstood them thou wouldst not haue despised them And verily whereas the vpholders of the Kingdome of Antichrist come with strong delusion and with all deceiuablenes of vnrighteousnesse why should not all such as are set in the defence of the Gospell of Christ striue earnestly as the Apostle St Iude exhorteth for the maintenance Iude 4. of the Faith which was once giuen to the Saints yea why should they not striue for truth euen vnto death and defend Iustice for life seeing if they doe so they shall Eccl 4. 28. haue God to fight for them against their enemies Meroz hath a double curse for omitting this duty and Iael hath a double blessing for performing the same pronounced by an Angell of God from Heauen Curse yee Meroz Iud. ◠22. said the Angell of the Lord curse the inhabitants thereof because they came not out to helpe the Lord to helpe the Lord against the mighty Iael the wife of Heber the Kenite shal be blessed aboue other women dwelling in tents for she put her hand to the naile her right hand to the workemans hammer with the hammer smote she Sisera yea she smote off his head after that she had woūded and pierced his temples So let the words of the wise which are like goads and Eccl. 12. 11. like nailes fastned by the masters of the assemblies which are giuen by one Pastour bee as it were driuen into the heads of all spirituall Siseraes that all Heresie and Idolatry may be pierced and wounded and in the end vtterly destroyed And so now also let all thine enemies perish O Lotd and let all that loue thee and thy Truth be as the Sun when he riseth in his might And let all true Christian hearted Englishmen continually pray that the Sunne of righteousnesse would neuer goe down vnder the Horizon of this our Church of great Brittaine but that he would alwayes shine ouer it by the bright beames of his glorious Gospell and blesse it with the heauenly influence of his holy Spirit holding still the starres thereof in his right hand and preseruing the Candle of his Word in the Candlesticke thereof vnto the world's end Thine in the Lord IOHN TERRY THE QVAESTIONS THAT are handled in the first part of this Treatise 1 The Gospell is the onely proper and immediate cause of true faith and loue and of all other spirituall graces and not miracles nor temporall blessings or corrections nor the holy liues and comfortable deaths of the dearest seruants of God nor the authority of the Magistrate nor the wisdome of the Law of God therefore much lesse the reason of the naturall man 2 The Word and Sacraments doe not profit vnlesse the sense and vse of either be rightly conceiued and vnderstood 3 The meanes whereby wee are to come to the right vnderstanding of the word of God is the light of true reason For the opening of the truth whereof these positions following are explained 1 All quaestions humane and diuine are to be determined by the rules of right reason 2 The testimony of no author humane or diuine is further to bee approued then as it agreeth with the grounds of true reason 3 The holy Scriptures doe teach and demonstrate the greatest mysteries of godlinesse by arguments and reasons 4 The Law and the Gospell are founded vpon most forcible reasons yea the permission of the fall of Adam by transgressing the Law of God being the occasion of mans recouery which is openened in the Gospell is grounded vpon most forcible reasons 5 The Professors of euery Religion alleage reasons for the iustifying of their seuerall devotions 6 The soundnes and substance and as it were the very quintessence of all diuine reason is most plentifully to be found in the canonicall Scriptures 7 No truth in Philosophy is contrary to any truth in Diuinity 8 Testimonies may be taken out of Philosoyhy to giue witnesse vnto truths in Diuinity and reasons may be produced out of the booke of Nature to open and cleare the doctrines of the booke of Grace 9 Where there is no reason apprehended that may perswade to Faith there ordinarily is no Faith 10 Where there is a clearer apprehension of the reasons that perswade to Faith there is the more setled assent and the stronger Faith 11 The doctrines of Faith and Godlines are often repeated and the reasons and motions that perswade thereunto are inculcated and vrged again again in the Bookes of the Old and New Testament that we may thereby vnderstand that the clearer fuller apprehension of them doe beget a clearer and fuller Faith 12 Wee may by supernaturall reason ascend aboue the reach of naturall reason 13 That Faith is not the best and strongest that hath the lesse number of reasons and the lesse perspicuous arguments to stay it vp but rather that which hath the greater number and the more perspicuous 4 Sauing Faith is diuine wisdome or a certaine knowledge and a setled assent adhaerence to all diuine verities necessary to saluation especially to the Couenant of grace as to the meanes of the highest happines and the chiefest good 5 A sauing Faith is alwaies accompanied with all other sanctifying
but also that he hath supererogated thereby for the good of other Nay by murthering of Princes ouerthrowing of states euen against their oathes alleagiance they may not onely merit heauen but deserue happily if it so please the Pope the dignity thereof a Canonized Saint But to erect so great a building as is the assurance of our iustification and saluation vpon so weake and rotten foundations is in truth presumptuous and intollerable folly and madnesse For if we would respect I say not the workes of righteousnesse wrought wholly or in part by our owne free-will but the principall fruits of the Spirit of God and the best duties that the faithfull are enabled to performe thereby are not these Gods speciall gifts making vs indebted vnto God and therefore deseruing nothing much lesse iustification and saluation at Gods hands but if we would consider them as pledges and pawnes of Gods loue procured for vs by Christ Iesus and as the first fruites of that heauenly inheritance which he himselfe hath purchased for vs how can we but rest assured to be brought in the time appointed by the Lord to the possession of that whereof we haue so certaine an earnest and so sure a pledge In pasting ouer temporall Land from man to man we esteeme much of good securitie which highly commendeth euen an hard bargaine A sound title and a good conueyance from such and such persons to such and such other maketh the security to be sufficient The goodliest possession that can be passed ouer to any of the sonnes of men is the glorious manner of the coelestiall Paradise the true title thereunto is Christ and his righteousnesse the conueyance thereof is the Word and the Sacraments which giue Christ to all that beleeue and the sure and certaine earnest of the same is the first fruits of the Spirit But to our Romish Catholickes the righteousnesse of our blessed Sauiour Iesus Christ performed for vs in his owne person and imputed vnto vs by the Lords most free and vndeserued mercy is a meere nullity and new no iustice and the apprehension thereof by faith is a phantasticall apprehension of that which is not a false faith and an vntrue imputation as our masters of Rhemes haue taught For their Rhem. in c. 3. ad Rom. title to the heauenly Paradise is the merit of that righteousnes which is wrought by themselues and their conueyances are the Popes Indulgences and Pardons and their Priests Absolutions and Masses and the deuotions of the men of their Religious orders But what is their securitie for all this verily nono at all for they are commanded to liue still in feare and doubtfulnesse because they know not how much they faile in the measure and manner of the fulfilling of this righteousnesse and whether or no they shall be enabled to perseuere And verily no maruaile that their security for their heauenly happinesse is so small or none at all seeing their pay for the same is in such light and clipt money yea in such base and counterfeit coyne and their conueyance thereof so feeble and weake The faith of our Romish Catholicks as they themselues teach is such a faith as may be in the deuils and therefore no maruaile but as the deuils beleeue and tremble so they doe beleeue and Iac. 2. 19. tremble also but wheras the pay made for the purchase of the coelestiall Paradise vnto all faithfull Christians is the absolute and perfect rigteousnesse of Christ performed for them and the conueyauce thereof vnto them is the Lords gracious grant thereof set downe in the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles and sealed with the seales of the holy Sacraments both of the Old and New Testament therefore the true faithfull Christian needeth not to feare and to doubt of his saluation seeing he hath so good euidence for the same For seeing Christ hath deliuered them out of the hands of their enemies that they should serue the Lord without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse Luke 1. 74. all the dayes of their liues why should they feare or doubt to enioy the fruit of this deliuerance wrought by such a person and by such meanes Assuredly they doe not as the Apostle testifieth speaking in the name of all the faithfull Yee saith he haue not receiued Rom. 8. 16. the spirit of bondage to feare againe but yee haue receiued the spirit of adoption where by we cry Abba Father the same spirit beareth witnesse with our spirit that we are the Sonnes of God if we be children wee bee also heires of God and heires annexed with Christ This ioyfull and comfortable security of all true and faithfull Christians Saint Cyprian setteth Cypr contra Demetriadem downe after this manner There is saith he with vs strength of hope and stedfastnesse of faith amidst the ruines of a decaying world a couragious minde and a constant vertue and a patience alwayes ioyfull and a soule alwayes secure of God to be our God Thus doth both Scripture and Fathers set forth that comfortable security which GOD by his Spirit hath setled in the hearts of his faithfull seruants The security then which they condemne is that whereby men are made either awlâ—sse of falling into temptations or carelesse of vsing the meanes appointed by God to withstand tentations or bold of their own strength in vsing the meanes and so negligent therby to craue continuall aide and assistance from the Lord for if we fearing to fall into tentations vse carefully the meanes appointed by God to withstand the same and distrusting our owne strength call continually to God for his aide then as the Apostle himselfe commandeth we ought in all things to be secure or without feare being Phil. 4. 6. throughly perswaded of this that the euent of all things shall be happy and that God will turne all to our good Rom. 8. 26. And verily the true Christian faith driueth away distrustfull feare out of the soule of euery true sincere Christian maketh manifest vnto him the soundnes vprightnes of his own heart seeing otherwise it could neuer leade him to true happinesse Yea as the most learned Dr. Fotherby our late most Reuerend and most louing Diocesan Lord Bishop of Sarum lib. 1. Cap. 12. Fol. 1 22. Hath shewed out of diuers of the bookes of the wisest among the Heathen true happinesse hath bin esteemed for a man to haue his soule free froÌ„ terror fearefulnesse nay without this freedome and security it is most certaine that it cannot enioy so much as a shadow of any foelicity or any sound comfort and true contentment seeing true contentment and sound comfort and ioy is founded in a couragious confidence of the heart and in the quiet security and tranquillity of the mind To be full of feare and terrour is a property belonging to a 1 Ioh. 4. 18. slaue yea it is a bâ—senesle and slauishnesâ—e contrary to true confidence and courage Feare saith
God and the Sacraments with our bodily senses but with the powers of our soules nor to trauaile farre and neare on pilgrimage to see or kisse holy reliques but to see and touch holy things with the inward faculties of our mindes which are the proper subiects of Sanctification Nothing can be in any respect profitable vnlesse it be applyed in that manner and to those vses whereunto it is profitable but the word of God is giuen vnto vs for this vse that it should open vnto vs the minde and will of God and as Aug. in quâ—st veteris noui Testamenti Saint Austin saith the visible Sacraments were ordayned for such as were enuironed with flesh that by the steps thereof they might ascend froÌ„ such things as are seene to such things as are vnderstood Wherefore the word of God hanged about our neckes or deliuered in wordes not vnderstood cannot 1 Cor. 14. 6. profit but is deliuered in vaine And so teacheth the Apostle And now my Brethren if I come vnto you speaking with tongues not vnderstood what shall I profite you Verely the word not vnderstood is an Oister whose shell is not opened and as a candle which is not lighted and as a Matth. 13. 19. lampe without oile and as seed sowne by the high way side In like manner the outward elements in the holy Sacraments being not applied to those vses whereunto they were ordained by the institution of Christ are but bare signes and emptie figures they are not instruments of spirituall grace but let the word come to the element and lay open the right vse of it then it becommeth a Sacrament and a feale of the righteousnesse Rom. 4. 11. that commeth by faith For as he is not a Iew that is one outward so neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Rom. 2. 28. flesh but he is a Iew that is one within and the Circumcision of the heart in the spirit not in the letter is the true Circumcision whose praise is not of men but of God Sanctified meanes ordained by God to sanctifie the soule must bee apprehended Hag. 2. 13. by the powers of the soule Seeing holy things as saith the Prophet touched onely with our bodily senses doe nothing at all further the sanctitie of our spirits And heereof it was that our Sauiour himselfe forbade Mary to touch him with her bodily hands for that she esteemed Iohn 20. 17. too highly thereof But saith he goe to my brethren and say vnto them I ascend vnto my Father and your Father to my God and your God That is apprehend ye with the hands of your faith that by my meanes God is become your louing Father and gracious God and then ye haue apprehended me with a right hand So not by going a long iourney on pilgrimage we draw nigh vnto God but by praier proceeding Act. 10. 4. Precibus non gressibus itur ad Dâ—im Bern. Ep. 319. from an humble and faithfull minde For we clime vp to God by praiers and not by staires And therefore all that will shew themselues truly religious must as Bernard teacheth trauell on pilgrimage not towards the earthly but the heauenly Ierusalem and that not with their feet but with their affections QVEST. IX The manner of receiuing Christ in the Eucharist is not carnall but spirituall The faithfull that liued before the Incarnation of Christ as the Apostle saith sed vpon the same heauenly Manna and 1 Cor. 10. 3. bread of life as we now doe but they did not eate the flesh of Christ with their bodily mouthes neither then doe the faithfull so now And verily whereas by the ministery of the word and baptisme in our new birth and inchoation of our sanctification we receiue not Christ after a bodily manner but after a spirituall and yet are thereby regenerated and quickened to an holy life Why then is not the growth and increase of our sanctification by the ministery of the same word and Eucharist wrought and accomplished after the same manner Verily Saint Austine so thought and therefore said that Aug. in Iohn tract 26. man is inuisibly fed because he is inuisibly regenerated Hee is saith he inwardly a babe and inwardly renewed and in what part he is newly borne in that part he is also fed therefore exhorteth the faithful not to prepare their iawes but their hearts Yea saith he why preparest thou thy teeth and thy Aug. de verb. Dom secundum Luc Ser. 33. Aug. in Ioh. tract 25. De consecrat dist 2. belly Beleeue and thou hast eaten Nay it is not lawfull if their owne glosse say the truth to presle the body of Christ with our teeth and if we entertaine any such grosse conceit we erre more dangerously then euer Berengarius did And verily it was the common opinion of the ancient Fathers that Christ was not a bodily but a ghostly food So Chrysostome This food feedeth not the body but the soule Chrysost in Iob. hom 4. yea it is the proper nourishment of the soule And therefore saith he when we come to the Eucharist we whet not our teeth to bite but we breake the sanctified Bread with a sound faith So Saint Ambrose de ijs qui initiantur mysterijs cap. 9. And how can it be otherwise For seeing our coniunction with Christ is not carnall but spirituall our feeding vpon him cannot be carnall but spirituall Our coniunction with Christ saith Saint Cyprian doth not mingle persons nor vnite substances Cypr. de cana viz. After a bodily manner but it doth combine affections and conioyne wils with the affection saith Saint Bernard Christ is touched and not with the hand with the Bernard in Cant. serm 26. desire and not with the eye with faith and not with the senses So Saint Ambrose We touch not Christ by our bodily hands Ambros l. 10. in 24. Luc. de hora dominicae resurrectionis but by faith and therefore neither vpon the earth nor in the earth nor after the flesh ought we to seeke Christ if we will finde him And this very lesson hee learned of the Apostle For henceforth saith he know we Christ no more after the 2 Cor. 5. 16. flesh but if any man be in Christ let him be a new creature For by the qualities of the new creature planted in our hearts whereof faith is the principall we are ioyned vnto Christ and not after a bodily manner QVEST. X. Iustification and Saluation is wrought onely by Christ and not by any other whosoeuer Sacraments were ordayned to this end that by visible Arguments drawne from the finall cause signes apt to resemble inuisible graces a plaine and euident testimony might be giuen by the one vnto the other As in the Lords Supper by Bread and Wine being the aptest creatures to nourish vs in this temporall life this doctrine is cleared and confirmed vnto vs that iustification and life
seeing they haue turned the Bread into the Body of Christ and are able to offer him vp in their Masse as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of quicke and dead the which thing cannot be but much auaileable to themselues which are sure to be well payed for their paynes QVEST. XVII Concupiscence is sinne euen in the Regenerate themselues Why is the liuing man sorrowfull Man suffereth for his sinne So the Apostle By sinne death entred into the world and Lam. 3. 37. Rom. 5. 12. therefore all sickenesse and other miseries that lead thereunto Vnto the which seeing euen sanctified Infants which haue receiued the Sacrament of regeneration and are free from all actuall sinne are subiect therefore concupiscence in sanctified infants is sinne vnlesse we will lay to the charge of the most righteous Iudge of the whole world that he punisheth such persons that are without all fault Yea whereas infants giue no consent to their naturall corruptions and yet are punished for them therefore concupiscence is sinne albeit consent is not giuen to it See S. Aug. Serm. de Temp. 45. QVEST. XVIII Faith repentance and loue with all holy workes proceeding from them doe not deserue any thing at all at Gods hands but make the faithfull endebted to God for the same If Abraham saith the Apostle were iustified by workes hee Rom. 4. 2. hath wherein to reioyce but not before God For gifts and benefits doe not make the doner any whit endebted to the receiuer but they deserue at the hands of the receiuer and make him endebted vnto the doner But faith repentance and loue Phil. 1. 29. and all holy workes proceeding from them are the free gifts and blessings of God wrought in them by the operation of 1 Cor. 12. 11. the holy Ghost and therefore are called the fruits of the Gal. 5. 22. Spirit Wherefore hereby the faithfull deserue nothing at Gods hand but are made the more indebted to God So reasoneth Saint Bernard None by good workes can deserue eternall life Bern. Ser. 1. de 〈◊〉 at Gods hands seeing all the afflictions of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall be reuealed albeit one person could indure them all The merits of men are not such as vnto the which eternall life is by iustice due and that God should doe wrong to them if he did not reward them there with For that I may not let passe that all merits are Gods gifts and that man is thereby rather made a debter to God then God to man what are all merits being compared to so great glory And therefore Dauid cryed out Enter not into iudgement with thy seruant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man liuing be iustified QVEST. XIX The workes of God reuealed in the Scriptures doe manifestly declare them to be the word of God especially the worke of regeneration wrought by the Diuine and powerfull doctrines thereof in the hearts of all such as faithfully and sincerely embrace the same and therefore they are not to be receiued as such onely vpon the testimony of the Church Knowne vnto God are all his workes from the beginning Act. 15. 18. 1 Cor. 2. 11. of the world and to none other besides himselfe and therefore he onely is able to reueale them Wherefore seeing the works of the creation redemption and Sanctification which are the most gracious and glorious workes of God are plainely reuealed in the bookes of the Holy Scriptures therefore the doctrines of the holy bookes are faithfully to be embraced as vndoubtedly proceeding from diuine reuelation And verily who could so distinctly and particularly set downe the manner of the creation of man and of all the rest of the creatures but he that hauing the fulnesse of being in himselfe could giue such a manner and measure of being to them all as should manifest his great power wisedome and goodnesse towards man for whose sake principally the world was made And who could lay open the fall of man from his estate of holinesse and happinesse wherein he was created and the manner thereof but he onely from whose obedience albeit man could depart yet he could not depart from his presence nor so much as dazle his sharpe and cleare eyes albeit he could cleane put out his owne but who could open a meanes of mans recouery from this his miserable and wretched estate whereinto he is fallen by his owne folly but he that was onely able to worke his recouery It is euident that sinne being an offence committed against the infinite Maiesty of the most glorious Deity requireth a satisfaction no lesse then infinite Now who could so much as imagine that God being so grieuously prouoked and so highly offended with man should send his owne Sonne to become man that in mans nature he might suffer death for mans deliuery from death and condemnation For doubtlesse one will scarce die for a righteous man for a good Rom. 5. 7. man it may be that one dare dye that then such a person who when he was in the forme of God thought it no robbery to be equall with God should die for such persons as were not onely neither righteous nor good but aboue measure vnrighteous and euill and that he should die such a death as proceeded from the intollerable wrath of so highly incensed a God against most execrable and cursed sinnes Who hath beleeued our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord reuealed Isay 53. 1. Surely the Gospell wherein this worke is reuealed is Diuine and supernaturall exceeding all humane and naturall apprehension and could not be reuealed but by him that could worke beyond the power of nature The which thing doth more euidently appeare hereby in that wheresoeuer it is plainely reuealed and sincerely imbraced it doth deliuer all such from the most grieuous bondage of sinne and Satan and doth most effectually bring them backe againe vnto God For as Lactantius saith Let humane wisedome stretch it selfe to the vttermost yet it can but cause men to couer their sinnes it cannot enable them to cast them out whereas the Gospell which is the Law of the Spirit of Life not onely freed Saint Paul from the Law of sinne and death but also conuerted Rom. 8. 2. the world and that in short time from infidelity to faith from sinne to righteousnesse from Satan to God albeit it was most mightily resisted not onely with all the wisedome and learning but also with all the power and authority of all the wisest and greatest men of the world and therefore it cannot be denyed but that it is the most mighty and powerfull word of the most mighty and powerfull God The heauens declare themselues to be the workes of God in that they cause the earth which is so bare and barren at Winter to be cloathed in Summer with all manner of hearbes flowers and graine and to abound with all variety of fruit and doth not the doctrine
and when they had done neither good nor euill that the purpose of God might remaine according to election not by workes but by him that calleth it was said vnto her The Elder shall serue the younger as it is written I haue loued Iacob and hated Esau Whereby it is euident that our election doth not depend vpon fore seene Eph. 1. 4. workes but vpon the free mercy of Christ QVEST. XXXV A true sauing faith is not seated in that soule where Infidelity raigneth or any other sinne A true sauing faith being an infused habite a principall Arguments drawen from such things as are contrary grace and a singular fruit of Gods most holy Spirit doth neuer sort her selfe but with her princely Peeres shee neuer ioyneth hands with Infidelity or any other her associates which are the corrupt fruits of the impure flesh For What fellowship 2 Cor. 6. 14. hath righteousnesse with vnrighteousnesse What communion hath light with darkenesse What concord hath Christ with Beliall What part hath a Beleeuer with an Infidell So much more may we say what part hath faith with Infidelity or with any other raigning sinne For these are not onely so vnequall but also so contrary each to other that they cannot be mated and matched together Yee cannot saith our Sauiour Christ serue God and Matth. 6. 24. 1 Cor. 10. 21. Mammon Yee cannot saith the Apostle be pertakers of the Table of the Lord and of the table of Diuels The true sauing faith is not an idle fancy but worketh by loue It is not fruitlesse Gal. 5. 6. and dead but fruitfull and liuing and producing the operations of a spirituall life For if all things obey humane wisedome Iam. 2. 22. if a wise man frame to himselfe his owne estate if hee domineer ouer the influences of the starres if he ouer-rule his owne vnruly affections and ouer-master his owne masterlesse lusts then surely as powerfull and actiue is the true Christian faith which rightly may be called and is indeed an heauenly wisedome Now a sauing faith or heauenly wisedome is pure Iac. 3. 17. peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruit and therefore is not seated in that soule where Infidelity raigneth or any other sinnes which pollute the soule wherein they are seated and filleth it with all euill fruit QVEST. XXXVI Iustification and Saluation are not of workes neither can they be deserued by them Grace and merit fauour and desert are so contrary each to Rom. 4. 4. 11. 6. Eph. 2. 8. Audigratis tace de meritis Primas in Ep. ad Rom. cap. 3. Bern. in Cant. Ser. 17. Aug. in praefatione in Ps 31. other that whereas Iustification and Saluation proceed from free Grace and Fauour therefore the Apostle in diuers places inferreth that they cannot proceed from the merits of our owne workes So Primasius when thou hearest grace named make no mention at all of merits For as Bernard saith there is no meanes for grace to enter where merit hath taken the possession And therefore as Saint Austin admonisheth if thou wilt needs be estranged from grace then boast thou of thy merits And this inference they had learned of the Apostle who telleth the Galathians that as many as would ioyne the workes of the Law to the grace of Christ in the matter of Iustification They were abolished from Christ and fallen from Gal. 5. 4. grace Yea if we had not sinned but continued in our innocency and had kept all the Commandements of God whereunto God had bound himselfe by his promise to render the reward of eternall life yet in confidence of the merit of our workes we could not haue said rightly vnto the Lord Pay that thou Aug. in Ps 83. Aug. de verb. Apost Ser. 15. owest but performe that which thou hast promised For as the same Father saith God hath not made himselfe a debtor to vs by receiuing any thing froÌ„ vs but by promising vs that which best pleased himselfe But now since our best actions are so stayned by some sinister respect or other in the doing of them that as Gregory saith euen an holy man doth see his Greg. in Ioh. l. 9. c. 1. very vertuous workes to be vicious if they come to be scanned by a iust Iudge then they are so farre off from deseruing of any reward at Gods hands much lesse of Iustification and Saluation that rather in strict Iustice they merit condemnation For so Saint Austin is bold to pronounce of them Woe Aug. confess lib. 9. cap. 13. worth the commendable life of man if thou Iudge it without mercy In what a wofull case then are all proud Papists which will not be iustified and saued but by the merit of their owne workes seeing thereby they be abolished from Christ and are fallen from grace and from the fruit and benefit of both QVEST. XXXVII The naturall man hath no free will to that which is religiously good By nature we are all spiritually dead in trespasses and sinnes Arguments drawne from that which is opposite priuatiuely Ephes 2. 1. And therefore as a man that is bodily dead is able to performe no action that belongeth to a naturall life so cannot we performe any action that belongeth to a spirituall and supernaturall life vntill we be quickned and raised vp againe by the Spirit of Christ We are now all by nature depriued of all Rom. 5. 6. spirituall power and strength We are not sufficient of our selues to thinke any good thing as of our selues Much lesse to will or 2 Cor. 3. 5. to worke any such thing We are saith one Prophet foolish Ier. 4. 22. children and haue no vnderstanding we are wise to doe euill but to doe will we haue no knowledge We are now all by nature the Gal. 4. 25. children of the bond woman and not of the free The time was when in Adam we had all freedome of will to make choice either of good or euill but since that in him we made choice of that which was euill we are so hardned therein and in such Rom. 6. 20. bondage and slauery to our corrupt lusts that we haue no inclination at all or free motion vnto righteousnesse For as Aug. de correp grat c. 13. Austin saith our will as it is now by nature free and not made free by grace is free from righteousnesse only in bondage to sin For liberty without race as the same Father teacheth Aug. Ep. 89. is not liberty but contumacy that is a wilfull obstinacy in that onely which is euill QVEST. XXXVIII No religious worship or seruice is to be giuen to any Angell or Saint Let not saith Saint Austin the worship of the dead be Arguments drawen from such things as depend vpâ—n relation Aug. de Vera Reâ—ig c 55 Aug contra Faust Manich. lib. 23. c. 21. Synod MoguÌ„t c. 46. vnto vs a matter of Religion For