Peter tearme it immortall How doth S. Iohn affirme it abideth If the spirit which is given to cherish and prescrue the seed of life may be given and taken away how is it the earnest of our inheritance vntill redemption how doth it continue with vs for ever If therefore the man which is once iust by faith shall liue by faith and liue for ever it followeth that he which once doth beleeue the foundation must needes beleeue the foundation for ever If hee beleeue it for ever how can he ever directly deny it Faith holdeth the direct affirmation the direct negation so long as faith continueth is excluded But you will say that as hee that is to day holy may to morrow forsake his holinesse and become impure as a friend may change his mind and bee made an enimie as hope may wither so faith may die in the heart of man the spirit may be quenched grace may be extinguished they which beleeue may be quite turned away from the truth The cause is cleere long experience hath made this manifest it needs no proof I grant we are apt prone and ready to forsake God but is God ready to forsake vs Our minds are changeable is his so likewise Whom God hath iustified hath not Christ assured that it is his Fathers will to giue them a kingdome Notwithstanding it shall not bee otherwise given them then if they continue grounded and stablished in the faith and bee not moved away from the hope of the Gospell if they abide in loue and holinesse Our Saviour therefore when he spake of the sheepe effectually called and truly gathered into his fold I giue vnto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hands in promising to saue them he promised no doubt to preserue them in that without which there can be no salvation as also from that whereby it is irrecoverably lost Every errour in things appertaining vnto God is repugnant vnto faith every fearefull cogitation vnto hope vnto loue every stragling inordinate desire vnto holines every blemish wherewith either the inward thoughts of our minds or the outward actions of our liues are stained But heresy such as that of Ebion Cerinthus others against whom the Apostles were forced to bēd thēselus both by word and also by writing that repining discouragement of heart which tempteth God whereof we haue Israell in the desert for a patterne coldnesse such as that in the Angels of Ephesus fowle sins knowne to bee expresly against the first or second Table of the Law such as Noah Manasses David Salomon and Peter committed these are each in their kind so opposit to the former vertues that they leaue no place for salvation without an actuall repentance But infidelitie extreame despaire hatred of God all goodnesse obduration in sin cannot stād where there is but the least sparke of faith hope loue sanctity even as cold in the lowest degree cannot be where heate in the highest degree is found Wherevpon I conclude that although in the first kinde no man liveth which sinneth not and in the second as perfect as any do liue may sin yet sith the Man which is borne of God hath a promise that in him the seede of God shall abide which seed is a sure preservatiue against the sinnes that are of the third sure greater and clearer assuraunce we cannot haue of any thing then of this that frō such sins God shal preserue the righteous as the apple of his eie for ever Directly to denie the foundation of faith is plaine infidelitie where faith is entred there infidelitie is for ever excluded therefore by him which hath once sincerely beleeved in Christ the foundation of Christian faith can never be directly denied Did not Peter did not Marcellinus did not others both directlie deny Christ after that they had beleeved and againe beleeue after they had denied No doubt as they confesse in words whose condemnation is neverthelesse their not beleeving for example we haue Iudas so likewise they may beleeue in heart whose condemnation with out repentance is their not confessing Although there fore Peter and the rest for whose faith Christ hath praied that it might not faile did not by deniall sin the sin of infidelitie which is an inward abnegation of Christ but if they had done this their faith had cleerely failed yet because they sinned notoriously grievously committing that which they knew to bee expresly forbidden by the law which saith Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serue necessarie it was that he which purposed to saue their souls should as he did touch their hearts with true vnfeined repeutance that his mercy might restore them againe to life whom sin had made the children of death condemnation Touching this point therefore I hope I may safely set downe that if the iustified erre as he may and never come to vnderstand his errour God doth saue him through generall repentance but if he fall into heresie he calleth him at one time or other by actuall repentance but from infidelitie which is an inward direct denial of the foundation he preserveth him by speciall providence for ever Whereby wee may easilie know what to thinke of those Galatians whose heartes were so possest with the loue of the truth that if it had bin possible they would haue pluckt out their eies to bestow vpon their teachers It is true that they were greatly changed both in perswasion and affection so that the Galatians when S. Paul wrote vnto them were not now the Galatians which they had been in former time for that through errour they wandered although they were his sheepe I do not deny but that I shoulde deny that they were his sheepe if I shoulde graunt that through error they perished It was a perilous opinion that they held perillous even in them which held it onlie as an error because it overthroweth the foundation by consequent But in them which obstinatelie maine taine it I cannot thinke it lesse then a damnable heresie Wee must therefore put a difference betweene them which erre of ignorāce retaining neverthelesse a mind desirous to be instructed in truth and them which after the truth is laide open persist in the stubborne defence of their blindnesse hereticall defenders frowarde and stiffnecked teachers of circumcision the blessed Apostle cals dogs sillie men who were seduced to think they thought the truth he pitieth hee taketh vp in his armes he lovingly imbraceth he kisseth and with more then fatherlie tendernesse doth so temper qualifie and correct the speech he vseth toward them that a man cannot easilie discerne whether did most abounde the loue which hee bare to their godlie affection or the griefe which the daunger of their opinion bred them Their opinion was dangerous was not theirs also who thought the kingdome of Christ should be earthly was not theirs which
are not of the heresie of the Church of Rome The people following the conduct of their guides and observing as they did exactly that which was prescribed thought they did God good service when indeed they did dishonor him This was their error but the heresie of the church of Rome their dogmatical positions opposite vnto Christian truth what one man amongst ten thousand did ever vnderstand Of them which vnderstand Romane heresies and allow them all are not alike partakers in the action of allowing Some allow them as the first founders and establishers of them which crime toucheth none but their Popes and Councels the people are cleare free from this Of them which maintain popish heresies not as authors but receivers of them from others all mainetaine them not as masters In this are not the people partakers neither but only the predicauts and schoolemen Of them which haue beene partakers in this sinne of teaching Popish heresie there is also a difference for they haue not all beene teachers of all Popish heresies Put a difference saith S. Iude haue compassion vpon some Shall wee lay vp all in one condition Shall we cast them all headlong Shall we plunge them all into that infernall and everlasting flaming lake Them that haue beene partakers of the errors of Babylon together with them which are in the heresie Them which haue beene the authors of heresie with them that by terror and violence haue beene forced to receiue it Them who haue taught it with them whose simplicitie hath by sleights and conveiances of false teachers beene seduced to belieue it Them which haue beene partakers in one with them which haue bin partakers in many Them which in many with them which in all 13 Notwithstanding I graunt that although the condemnation of them bee more tollerable then of these yet from the man that laboureth at the plough to him that sitteth in the Vatican to all partakers in the sinnes of Babylon to our Fathers though they did but erroneously practise that which the guides heretically taught to all without exception plagues were due The pit is ordinarily the end aswel of the guid as of the guided in blindnesse But wo worth the houre wherein we were borne except wee might promise our selues better things things which accompany mans solvatiō even where we knowe that worse and such as accompany condemnation are due Then must we shew some way how possibly they might escape What way is there that sinners can finde to escape the iudgement of God but onely by appealing to the seate of his saving mercy Which mercy with Origen wee doe not extende to divells and damned spirites God hath mercy vpon thousandes but there bee thousands also which he hardeneth Christ hath therefore sette the bounds he hath fixed the limittes of his saving mercy within the compasse of these tearmes God sent not his owne sonne to condēne the world but that the world through him might be saved In the third of S. Iohns Gospel mercy is restrained to beleevers He that beleeveth shall not be condemned he that beleeueth not is condemned already because he heleeued not in the Sonne of God In the 2. of the Revelation mercy is restrained to the penitent For of Iesabell and her sectaries thus he speaketh I gaue her space to repent and she repented not Behold I wil cast her into a bed and them that commit fornication with her into a great affliction except they repent them of their workes I will kill her children with death Our hope therefore of the Fathers is if they were not altogether faithlesse impenitent 14 They are not all faithlesse that are weake in assenting to the truth or stiffe in maintaining things any way opposit to the truth of Christian doctrine But as many as hold the foundatiō which is pretious though they hold it but weakely and as it were with a slender thread although they frame many base and vnsutable things vpon it things that cannot abide the tryall of the fire yet shall they passe the fierie triall and be saved which indeed haue builded themselues vpon the rocke which is the foundation of the Church If then our Fathers did not hold the foundation of faith there is no doubt but they were faithlesse If many of them held it then is therein no impediment but many of thē might be saved Then let vs see what the foundation of faith is and whether we may thinke that thousands of our fathers being in Popish superstitions did notwithstanding hold the foundation 15 If the foundation of faith doe import the generall ground wherevpon we rest when wee doe belieue the writings of the Evangelists and the Apostles are the foundation of the Christian faith Credimus quia legimus saith S. Ierom o that the Church of Rome did as soundly interpret these fundamentall writings wherevpon we build our faith as shee doth willingly hold and imbrace them 16 But if the name of foundation do note the principall thing which is believed then is that the foundation of our faith which S. Paul hath to Timothy God minifested in the flesh iustified in the spirit c. that of Nathaniel Thou art the sonne of the living God thou art the king of Israel that of the inhabitants of Samaria This is Christ the Saviour of the world he that directly denieth this doth vtterly rase the very foundation of our faith I haue proved heretofore that although the Church of Rome hath played the harlot worse then ever did Israel yet are they not as now the Synagogue of the Iewes which plainely deny Christ Iesus quite and cleane excluded from the new covenant But as Samaria compared with Hierusalem is tearmed Aholath a Church or Tabernacle of her owne contrariwise Ierusalem Aholibath the resting place of the Lord so whatsoever we tearme the Church of Rome when we compare her with reformed Churches still we put a difference as then betweene Babylon and Samaria so now betweene Rome and the heathenish assemblies which opinion I must and will recall I must graunt will that the Church of Rome together with all her children is cleane excluded There is no difference in the world betweene our fathers Saracens Turks Paynims if they did directly deny Christ crucified for the salvation of the world 17 But how many millions of them were known so to haue ended their mortall liues that the drawing of their breath hath ceased with the vttering of this faith Christ my Saviour my redeemer Iesus Answere is made that this they might vnfainedly confesse and yet be farre enough from salvation For behold saith the Apostle I Paul say vnto you that if you bee circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Christ in the worke of mans salvation is alone the Galathians were cast away by ioining Circumcision and the other rites of the law with Christ the Church of Rome doth teach her children to ioine other things likewise with him
vnsowred with this and so be * saved Fourthly if they all held this heresie many there were that helde it no doubt but only in a generall forme of words which a favourable interpretation might expound in a sense differing farre enough from the poysoned conceipt of heresie As for example did they holde that wee cannot bee saved with Christ without good works We our selues do I thinke al say as much with this construction salvation being taken as in that sentence Corde creditur ad iustitiam ore fit confessio ad salutem except infants and men cut off vpon the point of their conversion of the rest none shall see God but such as seeke peace and holines though not a cause of their salvation yet as a way which they must walke which will be saved Did they that hold without works that we are not iustified take iustification so as it may also imply sanctificatiō And S. Iames doth say as much For except there be an ambiguitie in the same tearme S. Paul and S. Iames do contradict each the other which can not be Now there is no ambiguity in the name either of faith or of workes being meant by them both in one and the same sense Finding therefore that iustification is spoken of by S. Paul without implying sanctification when he proveth that a man is iustified by faith without workes finding likewise that iustificatiō doth some time imply sanctification also with it I suppose nothing to be more sound then so to interpret S. Iames speaking not in that sense but in this 21 Wee haue already shewed that there bee two kindes of Christian righteousnes the one without vs which we haue by imputation th' other in vs which cōsisteth of faith hope and charitie and other Christian vertues And S. Iames doth proue that Abraham had not only the one because the thing beleeved was imputed vnto him for righteousnes but also the other because he offered vp his son God giveth vs both the one iustice and the other the one by accepting vs for righteous in Christ th' other by working christian righteousnes in vs. The proper and most immediate efficient cause in vs of this later is the spirit of adoptiō we haue received into our hearts That whereof it consisteth where of it is really and formally made are those infused vertues proper and particular vnto Saints which the spirit in the very moment when first it is given of of God bringeth with it the effects whereof are such actions as the Apostle doth call the fruits of works the operations of the spirit The difference of the which operations from the root whereof they spring maketh it needfull to put two kinds likewise of sanctifying righteousnes Habituall and Actuall Habituall that holinesse wherewith our soules are inwardly indued the same instant when first we begin to be the temples of the Holy Ghost Actuall that holynesse which afterwards beautifieth all the parts and actions of our life the holynes for the which Enoch Iob Zacharie Elizabeth other Saints are in the Scriptures so highly commended If here it be demanded which of these we do first receiue I answere that the spirit the vertues of the spirit the habituall iustice which is ingrafted the externall iustice of Iesus Christ which is imputed these wee receiue all at one and the same time whensoever we haue any of these we haue all they goe together Yet sith no man is iustified except he beleeue and no man beleeueth except he haue faith and no man except he haue received the spirit of adoption hath faith for asmuch as they doe necessarily inferre iustification and iustification doth of necessity presuppose them we must needs hold that imputed righteousnes in dignitie being the chiefest is notwithstanding in order the last of all these but actuall righteousnesse which is the righteousnes of good workes succeedeth all followeth after al both in order and time Which being attentiuely marked sheweth plainely how the faith of true beleevers cannot bee divorced from hope and loue how faith is a part of sanctification and yet vnto iustification necessarie howe faith is perfected by good workes and no worke of ours without faith finally how our fathers might hold that we are iustified by faith alone and yet hold truely that without works we are not iustified Did they think that men doe merit rewards in heaven by the workes they performe on earth The ancient vse meriting for obtaining and in that sense they of Wittenberg haue it in their confession We teach that good workes commaunded of God are necessarily to be done and by the free kindnes of God they merit their certaine rewards Therefore speaking as our fathers did and we taking their speech in a sound meaning as we may take our fathers and might for asmuch as their meaning is doubtfull and charity doth alwaies interprete doubtfull things favourably what should iuduce vs to thinke that rather the dammage of the worst construction did light vpon them all thē that the blessing of the better was granted vnto thousands Fiftly if in the worst construction that may bee made they had generally al imbraced it living might not many of them dying vtterly renounce it Howsoever men when they sit at ease do vainely tickle their hearts with the wanton conceipt of I knowe not what proportionable correspondence betweene their merits their rewards which in the trance of their high speculations they dreame that God hath measured weighed laid vp as it were in bundles for them notwithstanding we see by dayly experience in a number even of them that when the houre of death approcheth when they secretly heare themselues summoned forthwith to appeare and stand at the barre of that Iudge whose brightnesse causeth the eies of the Angels themselues to dazle all these idle imaginations doe then begin to hide their faces to name merits is then to lay their soules vpon the racke the memorie of their own deeds is lothsome vnto them they forsake all things wherein they haue put any trust or confidence no staffe to leane vpon no ease no rest no comfort then but only in Iesus Christ. 22 Wherefore if this proposition were true To hold in such wise as the Church of Rome doth that we cannot be saved by Christ alone without workes is directly to denie the foundation of faith I say that if this proposition were true nevertheles so many waies I haue shewed where by we may hope that thousandes of our fathers which lived in popish superstition might be saved But what if it be true what if neither that of the Galatians concerning circumcision nor this of the church of Rome by works be any direct denial of the foūdatiō as it is affirmed that both are I neede not wade so farre as to discusse this controversie the matter which first was brought into question being so cleere as I hope it is Howbeit because I desire that the truth even in that also should receiue
by consequent or indirectly which hold any one assertion whatsoever wherevpon the direct denial thereof may be necessarily concluded What is the question betweene the Gentiles and vs but this whether salvation bee by Christ What betweene the Iewes and vs but this Whether by this Iesus whom wee call Christ yea or no This to be the maine point wherevpon Christianity standeth it is cleere by that one sentence of Festus concerning Paules accusers They brought no crime of such things as I supposed but had certain questions against him of their superstition and of one Iesus which was dead whome Paul affirmed to be aliue Where we see that Iesus dead and raised for the salvation of the world is by Iewes denied despised by a Gentile by a Christian Apostle maintained The Fathers therefore in the Primitiue Church when they wrote Tertullian the booke which hee calleth Apologeticus Minucius Foelix the booke which he intitleth Octavius Arnobius the seavē bookes against the Gentiles Chrysostome his Orations against the Iewes Eusebius his tenne bookes of Evangelicall demonstration they stand in defence of Christianity against them by whom the foundation thereof was directly denyed But the writings of the Fathers against Novatians Pelagians and other heretikes of the like note refell positions whereby the foundation of Christian faith was overthrowne by consequent onely In the former sort of writings the foundation is proved in the later it is alleaged as a proofe which to men that had beene knowne directly to deny must needes haue seem'd a very beggerly kind of disputing All Infidels therefore deny the foundation of faith directly by consequent many a Christian man yea whole Christian Churches haue denied it and doe deny it at this present day Christian Churches the foundation of Christianity Not directly for then they cease to be Christian Churches but by a consequent in respect whereof we condemne them as erroneous although for holding the foundation we doe and must hold them Christian. 26 We see what it is to hold the foundation what directly and what by consequent to deny it The next thing which followeth is whether they whome God hath chosen to obtaine the glory of our Lord Iesus Christ may once effectually called and through faith iustified truely afterwards fall so farre as directly to deny the foundation which their hearts haue before imbraced with ioy and comfort in the holy Ghost for such is the faith which indeed doth iustifie Devilles knowe the same things which wee beleeue and the mindes of the most vngodly may bee fully perswaded of the truth which knowledge in th' one and in the'other is sometimes termed faith but equivocally being indeed no such faith as that whereby a Christian man is iustified It is the spirit of adoption which worketh faith in vs in them not the things which wee beleeue are by vs apprehended not only as true but also as good and that to vs as good they are not by them apprehended as true they are Wherevpon followeth the third difference the Christian man the more hee increaseth in faith the more his ioy and comfort aboundeth but they the more sure they are of the truth the more they quake and tremble at it This begetteth an other effect where the harts of th' one sort haue a different disposition from the other Non ignoro plerosque conscientia meritorum nihil se esse per mortem magis optare quà m credere Malunt enim extingui penitus quā ad supplicia reparari I am not ignorant saith Minutius that there bee many who being conscious what they are to looke for do rather wish that they might then thinke that they shall cease when they cease to liue because they hold it better that death should consume them vnto nothing then God receiue them into punishment So it is in other articles of faith whereof wicked men thinke no doubt many times they are too true on the the contrary side to the other there is no griefe or torment greater then to feele their perswasion weake in things whereof when they are perswaded they reape such comfort and ioy of spirit such is the faith whereby we are iustified such I mean in respect of the qualitie For touching the principall obiect of faith longer then it holdeth the foundation whereof wee haue spoken it neither iustifieth nor is but ceaseth to bee faith when it ceaseth to beleeue that Iesus Christ is the onlie Saviour of the world The cause of life spirituall in vs is Christ not carnally or corporally inhabiting but dwelling in the soule of man as a thing which whē the minde apprehendeth it is said to inhabite or possesse the minde The minde conceiveth Christ by hearing the doctrin of Christianitie as the light of nature doth the minde to apprehend those truths which are merelie rationall so that saving truth which is farre aboue the reach of humane reason cannot otherwise then by the spirit of the Almightie be conceived All these are implyed wheresoever anie of them is mentioned as the cause of the spirituall life Wherefore if we haue read that The spirit is our life or the word our life or Christ our life we are in everie of these to vnderstād that our life is Christ by the hearing of the gospell apprehended as a Saviour and assented vnto through the power of the holy Ghost The first intellectuall conceipt and comprehension of Christ so imbraced S. Peter calleth the seed whereof we be new borne our first imbracing of Christ is our first reviving from the state of death and condemnation He that hath the sonne hath life saith S. Iohn and he that hath not the sonne of God hath not life If therefore he which once hath the sonne may cease to haue the sonne though it be for a moment he ceaseth for that moment to haue life But the life of them which haue the sonne of God is everlasting in the world to come But because as Christ being raised frō the dead dieth no more death hath no more power over him so the iustified man being alied to God in Iesus Christ our Lord doth as necessarily from that time forward alwaies liue as Christ by whom he hath life liveth alwaies I might if I had not other where largely done it already shew by many and sundry manifest and cleere proofes how the motions and operations of life are sometimes so indiscernable and so secret that they seeme stone dead who notwithstanding are still aliue vnto God in Christ. For as long as that abideth in in vs which animateth quickneth and giveth life so lōg we liue and we knowe that the cause of our faith abideth in vs for ever If Christ the fountaine of life may flit and leaue the habitation where once hee dwelleth what shall become of his promise I am with you to the worlds end If the seed of God which cōtaineth Christ may be first conceived and then cast out how doth S.
Satan as the blessed divine speaketh For although this be proofe sufficient that they doe not directly deny the foundation of faith yet if there were no other leaven in the whole lumpe of their doctrine but this this were sufficient to proue that their doctrine is not agreeable vnto the foundati-of Christiā faith The Pelagians being over great friends vnto nature made themselues enimies vnto grace for all their confessing that men haue their soules and all the faculties thereof their wils and all the abilitie of their wils from God And is not the Church of Rome still an adversarie vnto Christs merits because of her acknowledging that we haue received the power of meriting by the blood of Christ St Thomas More setteth downe the oddes betweene vs and he Church of Rome in the matter of works thus Like as wee graunt them that no good worke of man is rewardable in heaven of his owne nature but through the meere goodnesse of God that list to set so high a price vpon so poore a thing and that this price God setteth through Christs passion and for that also they bee his owne workes with vs for good workes to God-ward worketh no man without God worke in him and as we grant thē also that no man may be proud of his works for his imperfect working and for that in all that man may doe he can doe God no good but is a servant improfitable doth but his bare dutie as we I say graunt vnto them these things so this one thing or twaine do they grant vs againe that men are bound to worke good workes if they haue time and power and that who so worketh in true faith mōst shall be most rewarded but then set they thereto that all his rewards shall be given him for his faith alone nothing for his workes at all because his faith is the thing they say that forceth him to work well I see by this of St Thomas More how easie it is for men of the greatest capacitie to mistake things written or spoken as well on the one side as on the other Their doctrine as hee thought maketh the worke of man rewardable in the world to come through the goodnesse of God whom it pleaseth to set so high a price vpon so poore a thing and ours that a man doth receiue that eternall and high reward not for his workes but for his faiths sake by which he worketh whereas in truth our doctrine is no other then that we haue learned at the feet of Christ namely that God doth iustifie the beleeving man yet not for the worthinesse of his beleife but for the worthines of him which is beleeved God rewardeth abundantly every one which worketh yet not for any meritorious dignity which is or can be in the worke but through his meere mercy by whose commandement hee worketh Contrariwise their doctrine is that as pure water of it selfe hath no savour but if it passe throug a sweet pipe it taketh a pleasant smell of the pipe through which it passeth so although before grace received our works do neither satisfie nor merit yet after they do both the one and the other Every vertuous action hath then power in such to satisfie that if we our selues commit no mortall sinne no hainous crime wherevpon to spend this treasure of satisfaction in our owne behalfe it turneth to the benefit of other mens release on whō it shall please the steward of the house of God to bestow it so that we may satisfie for ourselues others but merit only for our selues In meriting our actions doe worke with two hands with one they get their morning stipend the increase of grace with the other their evening hire the everlasting crowne of glorie Indeed they teach that our good workes doe not these things as they come from vs but as they come from grace in vs which grace in vs is another thing in their divinitie then is the meere goodnesse of Gods mercy towards vs in Christ Iesus 34 I fit were not a strong deluding spirit which hath possession of their harts were it possible but that they should see how plainely they do herein gaine-saie the very ground of Apostolique faith Is this that salvation by grace whereof so plentifull mention is made in the scriptures of God Was this their meaning which first taught the worlde to looke for salvation onely by Christ By grace the Apostle saith and by grace in such sort as a gift a thing that commeth not of our selues not of our workes lest anie man should boast say I haue wrought out my own salvatiō By grace they cōfesse but by grace in such sort that as many as weare the diademe of blisse they wear nothing but what they haue wonne The Apostle as if he had foreseene how the church of Rome would abuse the world in time by ambiguous termes to declare in what sense the name of grace must be taken when we make it the cause of our salvation saith He saved vs according to his mercie which mercie although it exclude not the washing of our new birth the renuing of our harts by the holy Ghost the meanes the vertues the duties which God requireth of their hands which shall be saved yet is it so repugnant vnto merits that to say wee are saved for the worthines of anie thing which is ours is to denie wee are saved by grace Grace bestoweth freely and therefore iustlie requireth the glorie of that which is bestowed We denie the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ we abuse disanull and annihilate the benefit of his bitter passion if we rest in these proud imaginations that life is deservedly ours that we merit it and that we are worthy of it 35 How be it considering how many vertuous iust men how many Saints how many Martyres how manie of the ancient fathers of the church haue had their sundry perilous opinions and amongst sundrie of their opinions this that they hoped to make good some part of amends for their sins by the voluntarie punishments which they laid vpon themselues because by a consequent it may follow herevpon that they were iniurious vnto Christ shall we therefore make such dead lie epitaphes and set them vpon their graues They denied the foundation of faith directly they are damned there is no salvation for them S. Austin saith of himselfe Errare possum haereticus essemolo And except we put a difference betweene them that erre and them that obstinatlie perfist in error how is it possible that ever any man should hope to be saved Surely in this case I haue no respect of any person aliue or dead Giue me a man of what state or condition soever yea a Cardinall or a Pope whom in the extreame point of his life affliction hath made to know himselfe whose hart God hath touched with true sorrow for all his sinnes and filled with loue towards the Gospell of Christ whose eies are opened to