setteth down howe they were discerned it setteth not downe A simple aunswer is easiest and truest as I take it God who made the apparition to Peter and Iohn gaue vnto Peter and Iohn the knowledge to discerne who they were that appeared whether he will giue them the like knowledge in the life to come because the scripture is silent I dare not definitiuely say or argue to or fro Farther it is reasoned Adam in his innocencie straight way notwithstanding he were asleepe when Eué was taken out of his side yet he knew who Eué was semblably when this corruption shall put on incorruption when sinnefulnes shal chāge for innocency like to or else more perfitte then Adams in Paradise when our knowledge in part shall be made perfit and our charity intended to an higher degree and extēded to more in number then we may if know the things that we knewe not before much more know the things and recognize the persons we knew once I will not dispute against this opinion much for peraduenture it may be true Farther it is reasoned that if the damned spirite of the richman in hell notwithstanding the great distance chaos betwixt could discerne Lazarus Abrahā in heauē that the soules of the iust and perfit mē shal much more see with a clearer eye the society of all but especially certaine in the cytie of the Saincts I will not answer this to be parabolical that euery part of a parable doth not euer proue euery matter that it may be fitted vnto For it may be that this very part thus vrged is not of a thing altogether impossible But that which I shall shortly remember by occasion of the question moued is most true and much to be considered First it is true that death is a passage into a better life to all that beleue a doore entrance into heauen a redy meanes to be with Christ and not where Christ is onely for Christ according to his Godhead is excluded no place but with Christ and in Paradise are they who die a corporall death but yet liue vnto Christ And then this being throughly considered it doth lenifie such natural passions as are incidēt to the sonnes of Adā it maketh the bitter cup to haue a sweete tast it breedeth a desire to be dissolued and a longing to be at our long and last home For the things here are nothing to the thinges there yet are we hardly induced to leaue them and herein they serue loue vs most and we them But let vs consider when we die we depart from the world and therefore from worldly affections also we should depart and betake our selues wholly to a better habitation and vtterly to haue nothing to do with the things that are done vnder the sunne after the dispositiō of our house and temporalities as Esaie exhorted the king A wet eye and an affectionate minde doth neither discerne aright nor iudge vprightly in this case and when we should be rauished with the loue of his face to whom we go we looke backward whether we shall see the faces of our old frinds any more In the resurrection they neither marry nor are maried mariage is the neerest coniunction amongest men But then the respects of mā wife shal be swalowed vp as it were a candle put out at the rising of the Sunne Therefore the affections toward father and mother children and kinred of consanguinitie and blood of affinitie or amity which are lesse shal also cease then For they will either hinder somewhat or doe much hurte in the quietnes of our passage I reade of one Rotholdus of whome Sigibert doth write a man of name and a Duke when he shoulde be baptised he would knowe whether there were moe in heauen or in hell and what acquaintance he had in either place was not this a great folly In the second booke of Samuel Dauid maketh offer to an old aged man Barzelai 2. Sam. 19. that elswhen had shewed him kindnes that now God had blessed Dauid and had brought him to the kingdome he woulde requite the old man and offered him that he should goe with him be in his court at Ierusalem But Barzelay on the other side maketh a contrarie request vnto Dauid that he may returne to Gilead and dy in his own countrie and be buried in the graues of his auncestors and as for anie pleasure that he could take in the kings palace he said he was ouerspent and worne his sense of tasting was gone so of hearing the voyce of the singers and the court musicke did not affect the old man In the storie we see a contentation in the aged man and also a loue to his country whereby he preferred Gilead before Ierusalem I do not altogeather discommend euery point in his affection But by application if I may speake there are ouer many Barzelaies now a dayes both in their liues and in their deathes They are so long time accustomed to the worse that they disdaine the better they cannot tast the truth they will not heare the musicke of the charmer charme he neuer so cunningly They began in superstition they haue long continued in error and they will needes be buried in the idolatrie of their forefathers and they will go whether they thinke they haue most acquaintance But true religion goeth neither by the most nor by those that seeme to be most neere a man commonly In our life the worde is our direction the spirit our guide In our death we must as we resigne our bodyly substance vnto godly vses and our bodies for a time into the bosome of the earth so without more adoe without forecasting of doubts or scruples of curious fancifull or affectionat questioning must we wholy yeeld vp our soules vnto God our father a safe keeper of them vnto the gloriouse resurrectiō in Christ Iesu to whom with the holy spirite three persons and one euerliuing God be euerlasting praise Amen
our nature vpon him became the mediator between God and man so also now still in heauen he is remayning an intercessour for vs to the father in our needes and necessities whatsoeuer And this his continuall intercession for vs amongest other things doth manifestly declare that which a good Christians conscience doth oft tell him of euery night whē he goeth to bed euery morning when he riseth and euery houre when he thinketh on his so many duties that he oweth to the Lord that questionlesse he hath not such a righteousnes in him as euery sinneful Papist prateth of but in deede in account before God hath no more true goodnes then proud men can haue and howe much that can be let the hūble iudge But towching perfection or imperfectiō of righteousnes more distinctly it shal be saide in that which followeth Of the regenerate mans imperfection yet remaining and of an impossibilitie of the exact keeping of the law Ovr Sauiour preferreth common strumpets Mat. 25.31 Luc. 15.3 prophane Publicanes and grosse sinners before proud Pharisaicall boasters Yea the very Pelagiā in shew is better thē the hauty Pharisey though also somuch the worse because in words he is more modest confessing his vnworthines yet in harte beleeuing the contrarie and recknoning of a naturall perfection and of a fautlesse integritie But who taught him to make a diuorse betwixt his tung his harte if his hart be pure why dissemble his lips if his lips speak truth why doth his hart dissent The Lord resisteth the proude in hart and the lying lipps he will destroy Psal 12.3 This fine tricke of hypocrisie the Papist hath borowed of the Pelagian For they be of great familiaritie and neare kinne and therfore may be bold one with an other Aske any Papist one or other whether he thinke himselfe righteous or no he wil say no and deny it with open protestatiō Aske him what he thinketh of an other he wil answer if a man will contend endeuour thereunto the Lawe is not so harde but it may be done and fulfilled VVorkes of supererogation Rhem. not 1. Cor. 9.16 nay he will go farther and defend a greater perfection to be in Friers Monkes Iesuits c. then God either of his wisedom could or of his iustice would commaund in his law But aske the Prophets Esaie Daniel and Dauid Psal 31.6 Daniel 9.7 Esa 64.6 what their iudgement is and these because they are of an other spirite will make a diuerse aunswer that there is not a Sainte but doth pray to be pardoned shame and confusion belongeth to all the verie righteousnes of man is as a stayned cloth Vnto these last wordes out of the Prophet Esaie Lib. 6. cap. 22. Maister Stapleton agnizeth that Now adayes the writers of his owne side haue aunswered admodum varie very variously But is it possible I had thoght Papists could not haue iarred or varied on iot one from an other for so they can falsly brag I graunt the spirit of an interpreter may be examined iudged by others 1. Cor. 14.32 For men are men and being diuerse because all haue not all truth in such measure and knowledge of euery circumstance they may write diuerslly But what is the cause of this their so great varietie in a matter not hard Verely Bert. de pro pri verb. lib. 18. cap. 68. no meruaile if you run sidelong and a slant like a hare down an hill or to and fro some one way some an other and not furth out right and directly all when you come near a text that maketh after you and in pursuit can not but ouertake and quite ouerthrow your errors To omit all others because you omitte them to how take you M. Stapleton the Prophets meaning to be Marry that their former righteousnes in the corrupt times vnder Achaz Manas was stayned with their latter vnrighteousnes thē aboūding not that the wordes concerne the workes of the Iewes that were good then or may be applyed to the righteousnes of Christians now and that the Prophet speaking as of himselfe among others withall doth but after the maner of Preachers reprehēding the peoples vices seeme to include them selues with the rest howbeit they be free from such popular enormities So you say maister Stapleton and a mā would thinke to the purpose altogeather if he see no more then you doe or no farther then you are disposed to shew him The Prophet doth not preache but pray in this place and he giueth furth the confession of the whole Churche as may clearly appeare by these wordes Esai 64. vers 8.9 c. O Lorde we are all thy people c. It is true that they had not onely stained but changed their righteousnes into vnrighteousnes the place of iustice into a lodge of murtherers their wine into water their goulde into drosse c. Yet in the Prophetes prayer there was more then this For the Lorde being prouoked to iust wrath by vniust dealinges as he will punish their grosser faultes so will he not pardon the imperfections of their best vertues except they be content in humilitie to prostrate themselues confesse their own vnworthines not onely when they openly sinne but also when they seeme to do well to serue him most Iob. 9.28 So Iob a iust man yet feareth nothing more thē his works Esay knoweth with how true wordes he conceiueth his prayer Let not M. Stapleton reply herein also that Esay includeth himselfe generally in tearmes and not in truth For a man cannot abide a false rich begger specially if he knew him to be rich and yet heare him to protest his pouerty crauing reliefe nedeth none But howsoeuer man may be deceaued or perswaded with the hypocrisie fained teares of importunate dissemblers certainly God will not be mocked As we beleeue so must we pray so did Esay whose praier is therfore written that it might be a pattern to all posterity to beleeue pray confesse in like maner Neither doth the exāples of Noe Iob Zac. the like disproue that which we auouch that the righteousnes of the best being exactly tried at the touchstone of the Lawe shal be found drossie impure and euen as a defiled garment which is not cleansed but with that sope which purgeth all And woe worth them who euer that seek to admixe their own sweat with the blood of Christ Noah was a iust man No◠that is was iustified in expectation of the Messias to come and very iust was he in comparison of the iniquities of the old worlde vnto whom he was a preacher of righteousnes and godly life Genes 6.8 but the Arke that he made was a tipe of his saluation to be sought for in Christ for whose sake he founde grace fauour in the eyes of God Likewise Iobs confidence was not in him selfe Iob. but in that he certainely knew that his redeemer liued in whome
satisfied and therefore when God speaketh somtimes they look to the right hande somtimes on the lefte sometimes before and sometimes behind somtimes into thēselues when they shold onelie and stedfastlie direct theyr hope and faith to God alone that will not faile Psal 78 Can God prepare a table in the wildernesse Can he giue them bread Or is he able to prouide flesh for his people For his people being in nomber so manie thousandes bread and flesh in the wildernesse a place so barren and voide of plentie These and the like promises either temporall or eternall are vnlikely in the eyes of flesh that are dull of sight And no maruell For might we perceaue neare at hand the way and the meanes then were there no triall of Faith nor exercise of hope For faith and hope are of thinges that are not seene But when the matter passeth our reache and we iudge it not possible then is God glorified if we beleeue And to this end concerning your exāples are vsed the wordes Siforte if happely by Daniell to Nabuchadnezzer Peter to Simon Magus in their exhortations to equitie almes deedes prayers or in the like cases not that anie should beleeue and beleeuing remaine doubtfull of the remission of their sinnes but that forecasting the difficulty of such a great chāge to be made in their cōuersion they should be rauished with a longing desire thereafter and be enflamed the more and so if it were possible beleeue and in beleeuing then no more to doubt VVhen this will not serue 1. Cor. 4.4 you bring foorth the example of Paule whome you saie doubted and durst not iudge himselfe VVee shall consider the circumstances of your allegation and of the text it selfe There were amongst the Corinthians that by odious and friuolouse comparisons facciouslie held some with some some with others as if Christ were deuided in the ministration of his seruauntes and of Paule a preciouse vessel of chiefe choise they estemed lesse then either his office required or was expedient for their saluation VVhom Paule in effect schooleth on this wise for mine own part as I am not altogether carelesse so yet I passe not greatly to be iudged of you Nay I iudge not my self much lesse should you And albeit I know nothing by my selfe concerning my ministerie for therof was the question yet am I not therin in this he saith not in any thing else but in this I am not iustified He that iudgeth is the Lorde Therefore iudge not you and that before the time of iudgemēt Now I aske wherin and why Paule would not iudge him selfe He speketh of his function and therein to claime that which some of them gaue to some that deserued happilie litle or lesse then he in such sort in so high a degree he told them flat albeit he were better then the best and not guilty to him selfe of default in this behalfe yet he would not iudge nor iustifie him selfe VVhy for iudgement belongeth to an other person and to an other time and not to be vsurped either of thē or of him by the way of deciding definitiuely like a iudge But God whose waies are not mans waies and who seeth farther into man then man into him selfe in that day shall lighten things that were hid in darknesse make the councels of hearts manifest And then shall euery man haue praise of God which last words of praise to be had then ar no trembling words of a doutfull minde but a ioyfull good remembrance full of comfort of an infallible expectation And all this vpon occasion against them 2. Cor. 10.12 that woulde needes in contempt of Sainct Paul set the garland vpon their heades that were least worthie to weare it if all were knowne as one day it shall appeare Lib. 9. cap. 6 But Maister Stapleton and before him the censure of Collon Andradius Hosius and others our new notes nowe Rhem. notes 1. Cor. 44. vrge this S. Paule would not iudge nor iustifie him selfe and who is comparable to Paule ergo there is no iudgement now no certainty of consciēce in this world But stay know vpon a particular in one kind you may not infer wel no not a generall in the same kinde much lesse comprehend those things that are of another sort For not out of a generality of one sort may you inferre a particuler in an other kind Wherfore of the vncertainty of all mens facts God examining them in the day of triall you may not conclude the vnstablenesse of faith which is of another propertie and founded not in workes but on God himselfe which can not fail If I wold iustifie my selfe saith holy Iob mine own mouth shall condemne me Iob. If I were perfit he shall iudge me wicked In consideration of works worthinesse of deedes Iob renounceth all and standeth in feare therein to com to the touchstone Malac. 3.6 For there can be no certainty built vpon the sand of them But in consideratiō of hope in God he will trust in him though he kill him and concerning the life to come he staggereth not at all but is most assured I knowe my Redeemer liueth So Paule when he had treated of saluation Iob. how it depended vppon God shutteth vp the whole matter with full assurance of a thorough perswasion that neither death which is a bitter hearb to many nor life which most men much loue nor celestiall spirites nor the greatest powers of heauen nor height Rom. 8 nor depth nor things present nor thinges to come nor any creature shal be of ability to seuer him from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus the Lorde For in him is the roote of all blisse and the sure bonde and certaine seale of this assurance The wordes of Scripture herein are so plain so vehement so resolute that they can be neuer aunswered without infinite shifting Let the reader turne to the viij chapter of the Epistle to the Romaines and consider what goeth before and what cometh after 38. ver with begineth with certus sum I am sure as their owne translations are And withall to the places where ar mencioned the obsignation the crie the pledge the earnest penie of the spirit in the faithfull c. and then let him on Gods name iudge of all that hath bene or shall be brought either of the aduersaries or else of vs. First of all the chapter of Trent doth nothing but rage and storme at the matter Conc. Trid. as the maner of it is euer in so much that as a man may knowe a Lion by his pawe or a bird by her fethers so is that councell discerned by nothing more then by banning and cursing Controu Ratisb lib. 2 Pigghius better bethinketh him selfe calleth his wittes about him or rather calleth a coūsell of all his fancies and at length deuiseth foure aunswers and neuer a one against that we teach 1 Either S.
and the like are but miserable comforts in the day of death or iudgment One sanctified soule then will be more worth then innumerable sinners O Lorde sanctifie them and vs with a liuely vnderstanding of thy trueth Thy word is the truth teach vs O Lorde good wayes therin that we may know do thy will I will record a storie Dauid being certified of Saules death among his lamentations he breaketh foorth on this wise 2. Sam. 1 O tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streetes of Ascalō lest the daughters of the Philistines reioyce lest the children of the vncircumcised triumph Gath and Askalō were of the chiefe cities of the vncircumcised Dauid wisheth that Saules death might be concealed from them that it might not be told to the enemies of Saul and of God With like affection it is to be desired that ether there wer no Sauls at al or that they might die either obscurely or liue otherwise then to the slaunder of the profession they seeme to be of but in truth are not They that haue dwelt or dwell in Gath Askalon in Louain Doway Rōe or Rhemes the enemies of vs of our Land and of our God wil be glad to hear that he which is reckoned a iustified man by faith were yet a prophane person like Esau in the race of his life The streame of sinne is strong and carieth the world with it but he that thinketh he standeth let him take heede he fall not If a piller fall the house is in daunger if a mightie tree fall it beareth downe manie bowes and sprigges with it O what a shame were it for anie that haue begun in the spirit to ende in the flesh to reioyce in the light and afterward to loue darknes more then light to receiue as it were a portion of faith and then to mispend it The children of the vncircumcised will make great triumphes when they shall heare hereof supposing they haue gayned much when they can finde a man that hath fallen from his God but to the godlie what sorrowe is like to this where such euentes are found Wherefore let euerie man looke to his wayes stand to his watch that he offend not God neither that he giue place to Sathan cause of ioy to the aduersarie or of griefe to the godly that he defile not him selfe driue away the spirit receaue the word in vaine stayne his profession and that he be not like the Asse and Mule that carieth on his backe wheate or breade or wine and yet eateth onelie chaffe and drinketh nothing but water To carie the name of a Christian is little woorth except you feede on the properties of Christianity expresse them in a good life For not to talke of Christ but to liue in Christ is indeede to be a Christian vnto whom it may shold be said as it was vnto Mary thou shalt beare a sonne and thou shalt call his name Iesus For they that heare Goddes word with pure affection Luc. 8.22 and bring foorth the frutes of the spirit they are as it were Christes brethren and as deare as his mother and after a sort his verie mother as in the wōb of whose faith Christ is conceiued and in whose holie life Christ is spiritually born into the world dayly And this is true sanctification allwayes to be perfourmed in vs taught in the word imprinted by the Spirit graūted of God through the merites of Christ in whose name we pray euer to be sanctified more and more continually And euē as Anna praied that God would giue her a man child and she would giue him the Lord againe so wee pray that God will make vs his holy adopted children But the benefit of this holinesse and of this adoption as likewise of our creation when we were not of our iustification when we were naught and of all things else as he giueth them vs so we must giue them him againe render all the praise to him alone the onely giuer of all good giftes who is to be blessed for euer both for all and of all So be it Of Glorification in the life to come and of sobriety in certaine questions that are moued therein WHen sanctification endeth in this life then glorification entreth taketh his beginning for the life to come And then when we shall haue escaped all the ginnes of mortalitie when the times of temptation shall be passed ouer when the streame of this world shall haue quite rūne out his course then this corruption of ours shal be endued with incorruption the olde Phoenix shall be renewed and euen as Moses did put his leprouse hande into his bosome Exod. 4.7 and pulleth it foorth a cleane and a sound hande so this fraile flesh of ours that is sowen in dishonour 1. Cor. 15 and must rotte in the mould of the earth shall yet rise againe in honour with great perfectiō in that gloriouse day Sainct Paul sheweth that there were amongst the Philippians Phil. 3 that walked much amisse in number manie in conditions earthly minded men seruants to their bellie and enemies to the crosse of Christ therfore in fine whose iust end was to haue an heauie doome a deserued damnation But speaking of him selfe and of the godlie he saith our consolation is in heauen from whence we looke for a Sauiour euen the Lord Iesus who shall change our vile bodies that they maie be like his gloriouse bodie according to the working wherebie he is able to subdue all thinges vnto him selfe Wherein these four points are expressely set downe the conuersation of Christians to be heauēlie their expectation to be of Christes appearing in the cloudes the glorification to be euen of our verie bodies and because no man should doubt of the issue thereof after he had set downe the former three in the fourth place mencion is made of the omnipotent power of God Reu. 14.13 Wherefore without all question as the spirit saith in the reuelation Blessed are they that die in the Lorde for they neither frie nor freese as the Papistes suppose in purgatorie but rest from their labours Nowe to die in the Lorde is to die either in his cause quarell for righteousnesse sake or otherwise in his faith and feare and in the course of their calling And to die is to be dissolued Eccl. 12.7 the bodie to the earth from whence it was taken and the soule to be rendred into the hands of God that gaue it Thy dead saith Esay Esay 26 O Lorde shall liue euen as my body shal they rise againe Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust For thy dewe is as the dewe of herbs and the earth shall cast vp her dead Not that all the dead but that the Lords dead shall liue the second life And not who dye in their sinnes and in olde Adam but who die in the Lorde and who liued in Christ and Christ in them and